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Research into school bullying has focussed in the main on children aged over the age of 8 years. This thesis attempts to redress the balance and describes a large empirical study investigating the nature of school bullying in a sample of 104 schoolchildren from two Reception Classes and two Year One classes in four London primary schools. The children were aged between 4 and 6 years. The roles taken in bullying were assessed using peer, self and teacher nominations. It was found that children did not nominate others for taking all of the Participant Roles identified by Salmivalli, Lagerspetz, Bjorkqvist, Osterman and Kaukiainen (1996), but were able to nominate peers for the roles of Bully, Victim and Defender. When the stability of these roles was examined over intervals of 2 months and 3.5 - 4 months it was found that, although both Bully and Defender status were relatively stable, Victim status was not. Although many children were exposed to victimisation transiently, only for a very few was it a stable experience. Some of the factors found to be related to bullying in older samples were found to support this. Young Victims were not physically weaker than others, they did not exhibit poorer theory of mind skills, neither were they socially rejected by peers or insecurely attached. These factors have been suggested as being potential risk factors for repeated victimisation or consequences of stable victimisation. Young Bullies were found to be physically strong, socially rej ected and more likely to be insecurely attached. These findings are similar to those found in older samples of Bullies. However, young Bullies did not exhibit superior theory of mind as has been found in older groups. The understanding of bullying held by young children and their teachers was also examined. The children held different definitions of bullying than their teachers, and were more likely to consider provoked aggression or a straight fight as bullying than their teachers.

Many people have turned to see someone behind them due to a 'sense' they were being watched. Others have 'inexplicably' felt as though they were the focus of others' attention, despite there being no conventional means via which this could be detected (Sheldrake, 2003). The most popular and enduring of the theoretical explanations for these events is that extrasensory awareness was evolutionarily advantageous, and therefore may have developed during an era in which danger was ever-present with survival depending on such capabilities (Sheldrake, 2005). The term 'extrasensory perception' is often abbreviated to ESP and was adopted by Rhine (1934), a Duke University psychologist who employed it to refer to the claimed reception of information gained via the mind, rather than the recognized physical senses. Such abilities include telepathy, intuition, psychometry, clairvoyance, clairaudience, and their associated trans- temporal operations as retrocognition or precognition. Such phenomena are also often referred to as a 'sixth sense' or 'second sight'. Evidence supporting the existence of extrasensory surveillance detection would have implications beyond purely scientific interest, yet the phenomena remains under-researched and may benefit from a fresh approach. The research conducted as part of the current thesis aimed to examine not only the possible existence of covert surveillance detection - but also which psychosocial and neurological factors may predict this ability. Research concerning an individual‟s ability to detect attention which they could not be aware of via conventional senses has previously been restricted to the psychic staring effect, also known as scopaesthesia - a phenomenon in which people respond via non-conventional means to being the subject of another person‟s gaze (Sheldrake 2003). However, this new investigation furthered the research by incorporating the previously uninvestigated sense of being listened to as well as seen. The existence of these abilities was gauged during a series of experiments and was measured via a) the accuracy of participants‟ self-reports of being watched or listened to, b) psychophysiological reactions determined by electrodermal activity (EDA) which measures the electrical conductance of the participant‟s skin to indicate a response, and c) differences in their behaviour during surveillance. Self-reports (Colwell et al., 2000; Peterson, 1978; Sheldrake, 2000), behavioural differences (Chen, 1937; Cottrell et al., 1968; Dashiell, 1935; Platt et al., 1967; Travis, 1925; Triplett, 1898), and EDA (Colwell et al,. 2000; Peterson, 1978; Sheldrake, 2000; Williams, 1983) have all provided significant evidence of extrasensory detection in previous research, however they had never been combined in a single study; doing so provided the opportunity to cross reference the results, and to directly compare these methodologies. This original and unique fusion of neuroscientific, parapsychological, forensic, anomalistic, and psychosocial factors represented an essential and progressive step in understanding possible covert surveillance detection, and its psychosocial and neurological predictors such as schizotypy and temporal lobe lability - and it produced findings both expected and surprising. Through a series of studies which were adapted and improved upon based on the results of the experiments which preceded them, the researcher was able to uncover not only which methods of covert surveillance detection were the most effective, but also the circumstances under which they were most sensitive. Analysis of the resulting data revealed individuals to be able to self-report surveillance they could not be aware of via conventional senses as the literature would suggest (Sheldrake, 2003), however the importance of addressing participant expectation and the reporting bias associated with this was made clear. A major finding of the research however was the discovery that peoples‟ behaviour could be significantly altered by covert surveillance, as results demonstrated that participants‟ decision-making ability was affected by whether they were being watched and/or listened to during a cognitive task. Perhaps the most surprising element of the collection of experiments though was that through the evolving methodology, it was revealed that the stress involved in being tested may be a necessary element for effective research to be conducted in this area. Indeed, by creating and adding stress to experiments in which it was previously absent, the researcher was able to capture positive results via participants‟ EDA even though this physiological measurement had been shown to be an ineffective measurement of surveillance detection when the participants were relaxed. When similar results were found following a field experiment based on the laboratory research, the researcher developed a theory that stress or threat is an essential element which should be included in future research related to this topic, as well as considered in real-world environments.

Social dominance in early childhood has traditionally been viewed as a social status based on aggression. However, through the lens of resource control theory, social dominance is attained via acquisition of resources (e.g. toys, friendship), which can be achieved via any behavioural means - prosocial or coercive. This research used this theoretical approach as a basis to investigate the associations between resource control strategy use, resource control success and social dominance, along with associated cognitive and affective factors - theory of mind, empathy, emotion comprehension and contextual moral application. Ninety-two children aged between 4 and 5 years old were recruited, along with their class teachers from 3 schools in the south east of England. At three time points across their first year at school, the children were assessed using a battery of verbal, theory of mind, empathy, emotion comprehension and selective moral disengagement assessments, as well as being asked to respond to vignettes in which their avatar was required to acquire a resource from an opponent. At each timepoint, class teachers reported on the children's general behaviour, resource control strategy use, resource control success and social dominance. Results found children's resource control strategy use explained near half the variance in resource control success near the beginning of the school year. However, this reduced by the end of the school year, with affective empathy associated with more frequent coercive and prosocial strategy use. Resource control success predicted social dominance at all timepoints. Social dominance was also directly predicted by both prosocial and coercive strategy use at T1, but only coercive strategy use at T2 and T3. Regardless of social preference, ToM, empathy, emotion comprehension and selective moral disengagement, as well as overall changes in class prosocial and coercive resource control strategy over the year, both social dominance and resource control success at the start of the year predicted themselves at the end of the year. Whilst resource control success was found to be directly predictive of social dominance in the immediate-short term, it did not predict social dominance across the year, suggesting that teacher-ratings of social dominance may be influenced by the social prominence of the child when rating their social dominance. The lack of significant associations between resource control strategy and theory of mind suggest future measures should attempt to capture instances of theory of mind usage within real-world resource contest situations, via direct observation. Overall this work highlights the need for direct observational data to more accurately ascertain the interplay between cognition and strategy selection in early childhood, allowing greater elucidation of the establishment of social dominance in young children's peer groups.

There are large individual differences in face processing ability, with Super-Recognisers (SRs) being exceptionally superior to individuals with average face recognition ability. This thesis describes seven experiments examining SRs' cognitive performance as well as neural/electrical activity in order to explore potential quantitative and qualitative contributions to their face processing superiority. Chapter 4 examined whether SRs rely on holistic and parts-based processing to the same extent as controls, and whether their face recognition superiority can be observed at the face perception stage as well. SRs outperformed controls at face recognition and face matching, inverted face recognition, object recognition and feature matching. SRs also demonstrated normal (Part-Whole Effect), greater (Inversion Effect), or reduced (Composite Face Effect) holistic processing, implying a more effective use of holistic and parts-based processing. Chapter 5 explored whether SRs' face processing superiority transcends to faces they have less experience with (infant faces), and whether this Other Age Effect could be observed on a neural/electrical level. SRs outperformed controls on adult and infant faces despite limited experience with the latter. Furthermore, EEG analysis indicated enhanced P1 (pictorial processing) and P600 (explicit recognition) in SRs during face recognition, suggesting they may benefit from a more effective pictorial processing of faces. Chapter 6 employed the Remember/Know paradigm with EEG recording to explore SRs' recollection and familiarity of faces and objects. SRs' recognition was often accompanied by contextual information, suggesting they remembered more than just the stimuli's identity. Furthermore, SRs' visual recognition was reflected in neural/electrical activity in central and right brain sites, while controls only demonstrated central site activation. Applicability of this thesis' findings, as well as the design's limitations and new potential directions for future research are discussed in the final chapter.

Executive function (EF) and theory of mind (ToM) have been linked to children's social outcomes, including aggression, prosocial behaviour and peer acceptance. However, understanding of these relations is limited by the focus of research on broad behaviour categories and on cool-cognitive EF skills, to the neglect of hot-affective EF, and the lack of longitudinal studies. This research examined the links between EF, ToM and social outcomes across early childhood. 106 children (initially 3- to 6-years-old) were assessed at three time points, approximately 6 months apart, across 12 months. At each time point children completed tasks assessing their cool EF (inhibition, working memory, planning), hot EF (affective decision making, delay of gratification), ToM (first- and second-order false belief understanding) and verbal ability. Teacher reports of children's proactive and reactive, physical and relational aggression, prosocial behaviour and peer acceptance were obtained at each time point and Peer reports were gathered at Time 1. EF, including cool and hot skills, and ToM were more strongly associated with physical, rather than relational, aggression. However, the role of individual EFs varied across subtypes of aggression, supporting a multi-dimensional model of aggression that differentiates between functions and forms. Although initial EF and ToM did not predict change in social outcomes across early childhood, the role of these cognitive skills changed across time points. EF and ToM were more strongly associated with social outcomes towards the beginning of early childhood than towards the end. This may reflect the significant advances in EF and ToM that were evident across early childhood. Cool EF skills were consistently correlated across time points, but hot EF skills were not related at any of the time points, suggesting that separable cool and hot domains of EF may not be apparent in early childhood. The present research emphasised the importance of examining the link between cognition and behaviour within the context of development.

Children aged four to seven years, experience social and cognitive changes and may exhibit a variety of aggressive (Monks, Smith, & Swettenham, 2003), prosocial (Sebanc, 2003) and solitary behaviours (Coplan & Ooi, 2014), which are related to positive and negative outcomes. Research in this area has tended to adopt methods using reports from peers and adults, and hypothetical scenarios presented to children. This thesis is original in showing that young children can also offer unique insights into their own behaviour by providing self-reports and explanations. These insights vary across different forms of behaviour and over the course of a school year. This research also employed an original method. Stick figure animations were developed to collect behaviour reports from children on a three-point scale. Furthermore, a cohort sequential design with 273 participants was used to assess how children’s reported perceptions changed longitudinally over three time points, and cross-sectionally across two year groups. Reports of children’s behaviour were also collected from peers, Class Teachers, and Teaching Assistants. Children’s self-reports of solitary and prosocial behaviour tended to be higher than other reporters’. Self-reports of aggressive behaviour tended to be lower than other reporters. Agreement between self-reports and reports from others mostly increased over time. Children’s self-reports were categorised into one of five clusters at each time point: prosocial / social, solitary, low behavioural levels, excluders, and antisocial / solitary. There were no consistent patterns in cluster and age group, time point, or sex. Children’s behaviour explanations were mostly focused on causes, rather than consequences, Agency was mostly external. Outcome focus was more varied across forms of behaviour. Explanations became more consequential over time and there was some variation in explanations by children’s self-reported ratings. Findings are discussed in relation to literature and research, developmental theories, implications for future research, and work in schools.