Schizotypy denotes psychosis-like experiences, such as perceptual aberration, magical ideation and social anxiety. Altered physiological arousal from social stress is found in people with high schizotypal traits. Two experiments aimed to determine the relationship of schizotypy to physiological arousal from social stress. Experiment 1 tested the hypotheses that heart rate from social stress would be greater in high, than mild-to-moderate, schizotypal traits, and disorganised schizotypy would explain this effect. Experiment 1 tested social stress in 16 participants with high schizotypal traits and 10 participants with mild-to-moderate schizotypal traits. The social stress test consisted of a public speech and an informal discussion. The high schizotypal group had higher heart rate than the mild-to-moderate schizotypal group during the informal discussion, but not during the public speech. Disorganised schizotypy accounted for this group difference. Experiment 2 tested the hypothesis that mild-to-moderate schizotypal traits would have a linear relationship with physiological arousal from social stress. Experiment 2 tested 24 participants with mild-tomoderate schizotypal traits performing the abovementioned social stress test while their heart rate and skin conductance responses were measured. Mild-to-moderate schizotypal traits had a linear relationship with physiological arousal during the discussion with a stranger. Distress in disorganised schizotypy may explain the heightened arousal from close social interaction in high schizotypy than mild-to-moderate schizotypy. Mild-to-moderate schizotypal traits may have a linear relationship with HR during close social interaction because of difficulty with acclimatising to the social interaction.

Climate change impacts such as rainfall variability, rise in ambient temperature, extreme dry spells and excessive wet periods cause low productivity and quality of tea. Ratnapura District in Sri Lanka, having the largest number of tea smallholders, is highly vulnerable to natural disasters and other negative impacts of climate change. This study was conducted to assess the status of climate change using long term meteorological data, to determine the perception of tea smallholders on short term changes in the climate and to assess the level of adaptation of climate-smart technologies by tea smallholders. Four Divisional Secretariat Divisions were selected for the study. Using multistage sampling, a hundred farmers were selected for the social survey. Meteorological data for 42 years was collected from the Department of Agriculture Sri Lanka. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used in the analysis. Results showed that there was a significant (p<.05) increasing trend in daily maximum temperature. A slightly increasing trend in consecutive wet days was also observed. The perception of the majority of smallholders about changes in daytime temperature, number of wet days and rainfall distribution was in line with actual changes. Further, the overall level of adaptation to climate-smart technologies was at a moderate level. Shade management practices were at a higher level while moisture conservation practices were at a lower level. It was pivotal to make people aware of the severity of the impacts of climate change on their livelihoods and introduce climate-smart technologies to manage the consequences of extreme weather events.

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