Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Measuring and Regulation'

Master of Science
Department of Psychological Sciences
Clive J. A. Fullagar
Regulatory focus has emerged as an important construct in the organizational sciences. In the past ten years more than 200 papers have been published applying regulatory focus to a wide variety of contexts ranging from marketing and persuasion to feedback and performance appraisal (Johnson et al., 2015). Despite the ubiquity of RFT’s application, only a few studies have targeted the psychometric properties of measures of regulatory focus; and the findings thus far suggest that improvement is needed. Haws (2010) evaluated five measures of regulatory focus and concluded that they differed substantially with respect to their theoretical content, and that most demonstrated unacceptably low internal consistency. Summerville & Roese (2008) drew similar conclusions in their evaluation of the Regulatory Focus Questionnaire (RFQ) and the General Regulatory Focus Measure (GRFM) and added that the two scales might actually be measuring different underlying constructs. Given the inconsistencies and problems associated with existing measures of regulatory focus, the purpose of the current research is to extend the critical evaluation of existing measures of regulatory focus and then to propose the development of a new measure based on rigorous scale development practices like those set forth in Hinkin, (1995) and Crocker & Algina, (1986). A new scale of Regulatory Focus was developed designed to measure all aspects of RFT and to test whether a two-factor or a four-factor SEM model fit the data best. The final scale consisted of 14 items. CFAs were used to test whether a two-factor or a four-factor model of regulatory focus fit the data best. Results suggested that both models fit the data equally well. However, for parsimony reasons and given that one of the latent factors of the four-factor model contained only two items (making any estimates of internal consistency difficult) the two factor model of regulatory focus was retained as the preferred model.

Graduating CS students face well-documented difficulties upon entering the workforce, with reports of a gap between what they learn and what is expected of them in industry. Project management, software testing, and debugging have been repeatedly listed as common "knowledge deficiencies" among newly hired CS graduates. Similar difficulties manifest themselves on a smaller scale in upper-level CS courses, like the Data Structures and Algorithms course at Virginia Tech: students are required to develop large and complex projects over a three to four week lifecycle, and it is common to see close to a quarter of the students drop or fail the course, largely due to the difficult and time-consuming nature of the projects. My research is driven by the hypothesis that regular feedback about the software development process, delivered during development, will help ameliorate these difficulties. Assessment of software currently tends to focus on qualities like correctness, code coverage from test suites, and code style. Little attention or tooling has been developed for the assessment of the software development process. I use empirical software engineering methods like IDE-log analysis, software repository mining, and semi-structured interviews with students to identify effective and ineffective software practices to formulate. Using the results of these analyses, I have worked on assessing students' development in terms of time management, test writing, test quality, and other "self-checking" behaviours like running the program locally or submitting to an oracle of instructor-written test cases. The goal is to use this information to formulate formative feedback about the software development process. In addition to educators, this research is relevant to software engineering researchers and practitioners, since the results from these experiments are based on the work of upper-level students who grapple with issues of design and work-flow that are not far removed from those faced by professionals in industry.
Doctor of Philosophy
Graduating CS students face well-documented difficulties upon entering the workforce, with reports of a gap between what they learn and what is expected of them as professional soft-ware developers. Project management, software testing, and debugging have been repeatedly listed as common "knowledge deficiencies" among newly hired CS graduates. Similar difficulties manifest themselves on a smaller scale in upper-level CS courses, like the DataStructures and Algorithms course at Virginia Tech: students are required to develop large and complex software projects over a three to four week lifecycle, and it is common to see close to a quarter of the students drop or fail the course, largely due to the difficult and time-consuming nature of the projects. The development of these projects necessitates adherence to disciplined software process, i.e., incremental development, testing, and debugging of small pieces of functionality. My research is driven by the hypothesis that regular feedback about the software development process, delivered during development, will help ameliorate these difficulties. However, in educational contexts, assessment of software currently tends to focus on properties of the final product like correctness, quality of automated software tests, and adherence to code style requirements. Little attention or tooling has been developed for the assessment of the software development process. In this dissertation, I quantitatively characterise students' software development habits, using data from numerous sources: us-age logs from students' software development environments, detailed sequences of snapshots showing the project's evolution over time, and interviews with the students themselves. I analyse the relationships between students' development behaviours and their project out-comes, and use the results of these analyses to determine the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of students' software development processes. I have worked on assessing students' development in terms of time management, test writing, test quality, and other "self-checking"behaviours like running their programs locally or submitting them to an online system that uses instructor-written tests to generate a correctness score. The goal is to use this information to assess the quality of one's software development process in a way that is formative instead of summative, i.e., it can be done while students work toward project completion as opposed to after they are finished. For example, if we can identify procrastinating students early in the project timeline, we could intervene as needed and possibly help them to avoid the consequences of bad project management (e.g., unfinished or late project submissions).In addition to educators, this research is relevant to software engineering researchers and practitioners, since the results from these experiments are based on the work of upper-level students who grapple with issues of design and work-flow that are not far removed from those faced by professionals in industry.

In this thesis, a model of producer behavior for a regulated utility that fully takes into account the dynamic nature of the capital accumulation process of the firm is developed and empirically implemented using recent data on Bell Canada. On the basis of this model of producer behavior, loss formulae that approximate the value of foregone output due to imperfect regulation in a dynamic context are derived and estimates of the deadweight loss in the case of Bell are provided. The estimation results indicate the importance of dynamic elements, such as expectations and adjustment costs of investment, in modeling the behavior of Bell. They also suggest that rate of return regulation may have affected the investment decisions of the utility.
Arts, Faculty of
Vancouver School of Economics
Graduate

Few empirical studies exist that compare regulation (R) and fishing crime (VL). The lack of information about R and VL effects stakeholder decision-making. Crime weakens conservation efforts and creates false baseline data. This furthers R and the cycle repeats. The purpose of this correlational study was to determine the statistical association between the number and type of annual commercial blue crab R and VL of the same. The Pearson's R correlation was used to analyze the data because it demonstrated the strength of each relationship. This quantitative study was grounded in enforcement theory. The data was public record and consisted of the number of R and VL issued yearly from the General Assembly of a Mid Atlantic's State Department of Natural Resources (MD-DNR). The intent was to correlate multiple decades, but the earliest available VL data began in 2009. The analysis uncovered divergent patterns. The correlation coefficient of 0.79644 confirmed laws from 2009 correlated positively with 2010 violations. Further analysis revealed a negative correlation for 2010 and 2011 that was indicated by a negative correlation coefficient of -0.3588 and -0.166. The mean average of VL was 12.5%. As restrictions keep increasing, the economic impact on local communities is substantial. This research has the potential to effect positive changes in restrictive harvest practices, record keeping of VL by Natural Resources of this Mid Atlantic State, and harvest reporting practices by crabbers. Sharing the findings with industry stakeholders may stimulate dialogue among stakeholders that answers why one type of regulation was violated more than another, encourage compliance by industry users, and improve conservation efforts to proliferate blue crab. This research contributes to future investigation of often-neglected variables that compromise conservation of blue crab.

Success in early childhood requires fluent cognitive control functioning and the ability to select and execute effective regulatory strategies across many new contexts including academics and social interactions. Cognitive control functioning has been positively linked to a host of important short- and long-term outcomes across many diverse domains. A wealth of research on self-efficacy, self-concept, and implicit theories of cognitive processes demonstrates that individuals’ self-perceptions of ability and cognition substantially influence important behavioral outcomes, namely academic performance. Investigations into the mechanisms underlying these links suggest that self-perceptions of abilities impact academic outcomes by differentially influencing the self-regulated learning behaviors that individuals choose to engage. Despite this knowledge, and evidence suggesting that capturing such self-perceptions from young children is highly plausible, the extent to which young children can reflect and report on their own cognitive control abilities has not been investigated. In this dissertation, I develop and validate an interview scale that aims to probe children’s self-perceptions of their cognitive control abilities using the Berkeley Puppet Interview administration format. Scale analyses of interviews from 125 children aged 4- through 7-years suggest the scale elicits responses that cluster around two correlated, but separable components: Self- and Emotion-Regulation and Attention Modulation. Responses on these two subscales were reliable, showing moderate to strong internal consistency. Subscale scores were strongly correlated with parent reports of similar skills, and self-reports of related constructs, but showed no such relations with behavioral tasks measuring executive functioning abilities. The findings suggest that young children are capable of reflecting and reporting on their own cognitive control skills, and that these skills correspond to parent reports of similar abilities. Further scale refinement and targeted validation efforts are called for; however, these encouraging early results suggest the new scale holds potential to play a key role in uncovering ways in which children’s self-perceptions influence their learning success.

Measuring the progress of the Member States of the European Union in liberalising their electricity markets has received considerable importance since the Electricity Directive 96/92/EC is introduced. In this thesis, first, a model based on the indicators-approach proposed by OXERA is developed to measure the degree of liberalisation in electricity markets. Then, the degree of electricity market liberalisation in the European Union-15, the New Entrants and Candidate Countries is measured in the years 1999, 2000 and 2001. Measurement of electricity market liberalisation in the European Union-15 and the New Entrants and Candidate Countries brings about several important findings. It is seen that there is a progress in the degree of electricity market liberalisation in the European Union-15 between 1999 and 2001. Similarly, the New Entrants and Candidate Countries are, also, found to increase the degree of liberalisation in their national electricity markets between 1999 and 2001 and to converge to the European Union'
s level of electricity market liberalisation. Furthermore, comparison of the state of liberalisation in electricity generation and supply markets in the European Union -15 Member States and the New Entrants and Candidate Countries suggests that their electricity generation market is not as liberalised as their supply market.

Energy security is one of the three pillars of energy policy next to environmental sustainability and economic efficiency. Despite its importance for policy making, there is no agreement about the definition of energy security and the metrics that could be used to measure the efficiency of different policies. As a result of this, it may be that both a political intervention in one direction and an intervention in the opposite direction could be justified on grounds of energy security. In our thesis we review the multitude of definitions of energy security. They can be characterized according to the sources of risk, the scope of the impacts, and the severity filters in the form of the speed, size, sustention, spread, singularity and sureness of impacts. Using a stylized case study for three European countries, we illustrate how the selection of conceptual boundaries along these dimensions determines the outcome. In order to reduce the overlap between security of supply and other policy objectives we propose the definition of energy security as the continuity of energy supplies relative to demand. The choice of the conceptual boundaries along the other dimensions remains a subjective decision that has to be taken by policy makers in a dialogue with society. Based on the definition of energy security as the continuity of supplies relative to demand, we examine how accurately different modelling approaches and metrics capture this concept. We find most of the wide-spread indicators, such as import shares, concentration measures and composite indicators based on expert elicitation are very rough heuristics that can easily be shown to produce inaccurate results. Simple modelling approaches such as analysis based on portfolio theory, or electricity system simulations offer some improvement, but still suffer from structural shortcomings and limitations in the way they model interdependencies. In this thesis we suggest a modelling approach which allows us to capture the interdependencies between natural, technical and human risk sources and quantify their combined impact on the continuity of energy supplies within a fixed infrastructure system. We use a case study of Italy to compare the outputs of our model with alternative metrics and simplified modelling approaches. Finally, we investigate the degree and the cost at which regulatory interventions in the form of so-called capacity mechanisms may increase the continuity of supplies in the electricity market. In contrast to previous research we find that the choice of a capacity mechanism may both be influenced by the extent to which it should be robust towards different regulatory errors as well as by the question whether it is evaluated from the perspective of consumer cost or from a welfare perspective.

Obesity has grown to epidemic proportions, and in lack of efficient life-style and medical treatments, the bariatric surgeries are performed in rising numbers. The most common surgery is the Gastric Bypass (GBP) surgery, with the Biliopancreatic diversion with duodenal switch (DS) as an option for the most extreme cases with a BMI>50 kg/m2. In paper I 20 GBP-patients were examined during the first post-operative year regarding the natriuretic peptide, NT-ProBNP, which is secreted from the cardiac ventricles. Levels of NT-ProBNP quickly increased during the first post-surgery week, and later established itself on a higher level than pre-surgery. In paper II we report of 5 patient-cases after GBP-surgery with severe problems with postprandial hypoglycaemia that were successfully treated with GLP-1-analogs. The effect of treatment could be observed both symptomatically and in some cases using continuous glucose measuring systems (CGMS). In paper III three groups of subjects; 15 post-GBP patients, 15 post-DS, and 15 obese controls were examined for three days using CGMS during everyday life. The post-GBP group had high glucose variability as measured by MAGE and CONGA, whereas the post-DS group had low variability. Both post-operative groups exhibited significant time in hypoglycaemia, about 40 and 80 minutes per day <3.3mmol/l and 20 and 40 minutes < 2.8mmol/l, respectively, longer time for DS-group. Remarkably, only about 20% of these hypoglycaemic episodes were accompanied with symptoms. In Paper IV the hypoglycaemia counter regulatory system was investigated; 12 patients were examined before and after GBP-surgery with a stepped hypoglycaemic hyperinsulinemic clamp. The results show a downregulation of symptoms, counter regulatory hormones (glucagon, cortisol, epinephrine, norepinephrine, growth hormone), incretin hormones (GLP-1 and GIP), and sympathetic nervous response. In conclusion patients post bariatric surgery exhibit a downregulated counter regulatory response to hypoglycaemia, accompanied by frequent asymptomatic hypoglycaemic episodes in everyday life. Patients suffering from severe hypoglycaemic episodes can often be treated successfully with GLP-1-analogues.

This work is oriented on study and evaluation of performance of real operating solar system. There was made analysis of actual technological unit and there was suggested mode of measuring of nodal parameters. There was made interconnection between the head operating unit of the solar system and the web server. And there was prepared software for grafical image of time and temperature dependence and for data transfer to ready web application. It primarily talks about increase of efficiency of real technological unit through regulating of parameter that is using up of accumulated energy.

The first part of the thesis is aimed on creating internal microclimate of the hotel complex by air conditioning systems. The choice of systems is based on theoretical knowledge’s and practical application in abroad. In the second part there is designed solution for hotel apartments and conference hall. The other areas are designed only conceptual. Technical solutions of chosen systems are the main outcome of the thesis. In the third part there are published my experimental measurements from laboratories of Oulu University of Applied Sciences. For the study field of Air Conditioning has been chosen Air Flow Measurement and Test Operation of HVAC unit. For the study field of Renewable Energy has been chosen the Heat Pump and for study field of Refrigeration has been chosen Water Cooling and Chiller Box.

The cell relies on molecular motor proteins for long range transport of vesicles and organelles to maintain the organization required within the cell as it changes over time. Cargos move bidirectionally along microtubules due to the presence of multiple copies of opposite polarity motors. Individual motor properties have been teased out in vitro, but understanding how multiple motors cooperate in vivo has thus far been limited by many obstacles. The goal of this work is to study how multiple similar and dissimilar motors operate together in vivo. Since the function of motors is to generate force to haul cargos, I designed a novel optical trapping system capable of precisely measuring the forces exerted by molecular motors in their native environment, a living cell. Using this system, I find evidence that motors do not fight against each other, supporting the regulation model over the tug-of war model for bidirectional transport. I then study motor regulation in axons in the context of Alzheimer’s disease. I find that GSK-3, a kinase found in abnormal amounts in Alzheimer’s brains, is a negative regulator of transport. I show that GSK-3 regulates motor activity rather than cargo binding. Finally, I also use the optical trap to probe the viscosity of cytosol in vivo and investigate its implications on the cooperation of multiple motors.
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Flexibility in self-regulatory behaviors has proved to be essential for adjusting to stressful life events, and requires individuals to have a diverse repertoire of emotion regulation abilities. However, the most commonly used emotion regulation questionnaires assess frequency of behavior rather than ability, with little evidence linking these measures to observable capacity to enact a behavior. A laboratory paradigm has been developed to assess individual difference in expressive enhancement and suppression ability, but such lab-based measures are impractical or impossible to employ in the field research setting. The aim of the current investigation is to develop and validate a Flexible Expression Regulation Ability Scale (FERAS) that measures a person's ability to enhance and suppress displayed emotion across an array of hypothetical contexts. In Study 1, I investigate the factor structure of the FERAS in addition to convergent and discriminant validity. In Study 2, I compare the FERAS with a composite of traditional frequency-based indices of expressive regulation to predict performance in a previously validated experimental paradigm.

Thesis (PhD (Business Management))--University of Stellenbosch, 2010.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This dissertation is made up of stand-alone essays on the determinants of the investment climate in emerging market economies. Chapter One presents the purpose of this study, the significance of the research to policy makers, researchers and investors and the limitations of the research. Chapter Two investigates empirically whether business regulations, as measured by the „Doing Business‟ indicators, have an impact on investment in 29 emerging market economies in Africa, Asia, Latin America and emerging Europe. The results show that secure property rights and the level of business entry regulation influence the investment climate in these economies. In addition, efficiency of the judicial system, investor protection and the flexibility of employment regulation were found to be insignificant determinants of investment. Chapter Three explores the effect of business regulation on stock market liquidity, using data from a selection of 15 stock markets in Africa. The results from the panel data analysis show that the degree of business regulation does not influence stock liquidity. However, the results confirm that greater protection of minority share-holders' rights, as well as lender and better collateral and bankruptcy laws enhance stock market liquidity. There was anecdotal evidence to suggest that improved judicial efficiency enhances stock market liquidity. The legal origin was found to be significant in explaining the differences in the legal systems of these countries. Countries that have adopted French legal traditions were found to have less active stock markets and less investor and property rights protection compared to countries that have adopted English legal traditions. Chapter Four investigates the effect of the level of business regulation, infrastructure and political environment on investment in 29 African countries. The results provide evidence to show that lower levels of business regulation, less corruption and a stable political environment are important in enhancing investment. The final essay examines the effect of business regulation and geography on investment in a sample of 37 countries in Africa. The results show that more secure property rights and fewer import and export regulations have a significantly positive effect on private investment. In addition, being landlocked and distant from the sea has a negative effect on investment. Furthermore, the findings revealed that property rights protection in landlocked economies is not significantly different from that in coastal economies. In all the studies, the legal origin was found to be significant in explaining cross-country differences in the legal systems of the selected countries. These findings have important implications for policy makers, multi-lateral organisations and investors.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie proefskrif bestaan uit alleenstaande studies oor die beslissende faktore van die beleggingsklimaat in opkomende markekonomieë. In hoofstuk een word die doel van die studie; die belang van die navorsing vir beleidmakers, navorsers en beleggers; en die beperkings van die navorsing aangebied. Hoofstuk twee bevat ‟n empiriese ondersoek om te bepaal of sakeregulasies, soos deur die “Doing Business”-aanwysers gemeet, ‟n uitwerking op belegging in 29 ontluikende markekonomieë in Afrika, Asië, Latyns-Amerika en ontluikende Europa het. Die resultate toon dat veilige eiendomsregte en die vlak van regulasie vir toetrede tot besigheid die beleggingsklimaat in hierdie ekonomieë beïnvloed. Hierbenewens is die doeltreffendheid van die regstelsel, die beskerming van beleggers en die buigsaamheid van indiensnemingsregulasies gevind onbelangrike beslissende faktore vir belegging te wees. In hoofstuk drie word verslag gelewer oor die uitwerking van sakeregulasies op die likiditeit van effektemarkte op grond van data van ‟n keur van 15 effektemarkte in Afrika. Die resultate van die paneeldata-analise toon dat die graad van sakeregulasie nie die likiditeit van effekte beïnvloed nie. Die resultate het egter bevestig dat meer beskerming van die regte van minderheidsaandeelhouers asook verbeterde wetgewing ten opsigte van kredietverskaffing, aanvullende sekuriteit en insolvensie die likiditeit van effektemarkte verhoog. Anekdotiese bewyse is gevind wat aan die hand doen dat verbeterde regsdoeltreffendheid ook die likiditeit van effektemarkte verhoog. Die regsoorsprong is as beduidend gevind ter verklaring van die verskille in die regstelsels van hierdie lande. Lande wat Franse regstradisies aanvaar het, is gevind minder aktiewe effektemarkte en minder beskerming van beleggers en eiendomsregte te hê, vergeleke met lande wat Engelse regstradisies aanvaar het. In hoofstuk vier word die uitwerking van die vlak van sakeregulasie, infrastruktuur en die politieke omgewing op belegging in 29 Afrika-lande bespreek. Die resultate toon bewyse dat laer vlakke van sakeregulasie, minder korrupsie en ‟n stabiele politieke omgewing belangrike faktore is om belegging te bevorder. Die laaste studie ondersoek die uitwerking van sakeregulasies en geografie op belegging in ‟n monster van 37 Afrika-lande. Die resultate toon dat veiliger eiendomsregte en minder invoer- en uitvoerregulasies ‟n beduidende positiewe uitwerking op privaat belegging het. Hierbenewens is daar ‟n negatiewe uitwerking op belegging in lande wat deur land omring is en ver van die see af is. Die bevindings het ook aan die lig gebring dat die beskerming van eiendomsregte in ekonomieë wat deur land omring is, nie aanmerklik verskil van dié in kusekonomieë nie. In al die studies is regsoorsprong as beduidend gevind in die verklaring van verskille in die regstelsels van die gekose lande. Hierdie bevindings het belangrike implikasies vir beleidmakers, multilaterale organisasies en beleggers.

SUMMARY CONSTRUCTING AND VALIDATING A MEASURING INSTRUMENT FOR COPING WITH OCCUPATIONAL STRESS by Melissa du Plessis Supervisor: Prof N. Martins Department: Industrial and Organisational Psychology Degree: Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology Orientation: Occupational stress is still a concern for both individuals and organisations, and academia is no exception. Employees’ ability to cope with occupational stressors depend on the regulatory strategies they adopt in response to the stressor. However, there is no clear consensus on how the coping construct should be measured. Existing literature further outlines various conceptual and methodological concerns regarding the measurement of coping. Van Wyk (2010) advocates that currently, no coping instrument has been developed and very few instruments have been validated in a South African and African context. Research purpose: The primary objective of this research was to construct a valid and reliable instrument for determining which coping strategies academics adopt in response to occupational stress. Research methodology: A combination of steps, suggested by scale development authors, was followed to develop the instrument. The process was broken down into three phases, namely: (1) theoretical investigation, (2) instrument purification, and (3) instrument optimisation. The construction of the questionnaire was based on a sample of 305 university employees who were permanently employed in a higher education institution in the Gauteng Province of South Africa. Main findings: The study resulted in a psychometrically sound 33-item measuring instrument. Nine empirically validated coping strategies emerged, namely (1) social coping, (2) religious coping, (3) cognitive coping, (4) active leisure coping, (5) avoidant coping, (6) social disengagement, (7) vacation time, (8) rumination, and (9) emotional coping. These strategies were further classified as adaptive or maladaptive coping strategies. CFA confirmed the nine-factor model. Empirical support for construct and content validity, internal consistency reliability v and composite reliability was available. The instrument further demonstrated convergent and discriminant validity. Contribution/value-add: The key contribution of this study was the development of a psychometrically sound instrument for determining which coping strategies academics adopt in response to occupational stress. This study further contributed to constructing and empirically testing a model for coping with occupational stress. Lastly, the study provided support for measurement invariance across different demographical groups, and the findings revealed that individuals from different demographical backgrounds differ significantly in the coping strategies they adopt in response to occupational stress.
DIE ONTWIKKELING EN VALIDASIE VAN ’N MEETINSTRUMENT VIR DIE HANTERING VAN BEROEPSTRES deur Melissa du Plessis Promotor: Prof N Martins Departement: Bedryfs- en Organisasiesielkunde Graad: DPhil in Sielkunde Oriëntasie: Beroepstres is steeds ’n bron van kommer vir individue sowel as organisasies, en die akademiese omgewing is geen uitsondering nie. Werknemers se vermoë om beroepstres te hanteer, word bepaal deur die regulatoriese strategieë wat hulle aanneem in reaksie tot die stressor. Daar is egter geen duidelike konsensus oor hoe die hanteringskonstruk gemeet behoort te word nie. Voorts dui bestaande literatuur op verskeie konseptuele en metodologiese probleme met betrekking tot die meet van streshantering. Van Wyk (2010) beweer dat daar tot dusver geen hanteringsinstrument ontwikkel is nie en baie min instrumente is in ’n Suid-Afrikaanse en Afrika-konteks gevalideer. Doel van die navorsing: Die primêre doel van hierdie navorsing was om ’n geldige en betroubare instrument te ontwikkel waarmee daar bepaal kan word watter hanteringstrategieë akademici aanneem om beroepstres te hanteer. Navorsingsmetodologie: Die instrument is ontwikkel deur die kombinasie van verskeie stappe wat deur skrywers oor skaalontwikkeling voorgestel is. Die proses is in die volgende drie fases verdeel: (1) ’n teoretiese ondersoek; (2) die suiwering van die instrument; en (3) die optimalisering van die instrument. Die vraelys is ontwerp met die oog op die steekproef bestaande uit 305 werknemers met permanente aanstellings by ’n hoëronderwysinstelling in die Gauteng provinsie in Suid-Afrika. Hoofbevindinge: Die studie het gelei tot die ontwerp van ’n psigometries betroubare meetinstrument bestaande uit 33 items. Nege empiries gestaafde hanteringstrategieë het na vore gekom: (1) sosiale hantering; (2) religieuse hantering; (3) kognitiewe hantering; (4) aktieweontspanningshantering; (5) vermydende hantering; (6) sosiale ontkoppeling; (7) vakansietyd; (8) ruminering; en (9) emosionele hantering. Hierdie strategieë is verder vii geklassifiseer as adaptiewe of wanadaptiewe hanteringstrategieë. Dié nege-faktormodel is deur BFA bevestig. Empiriese steun vir konstruk- en inhoudsgeldigheid, interne konsekwentheidsbetroubaarheid en saamgestelde betroubaarheid was beskikbaar. Voorts het die instrument ook konvergente en diskriminantgeldigheid gedemonstreer. Bydrae / waardetoevoeging: Die belangrikste bydrae van hierdie studie was die ontwikkeling van ’n psigometries betroubare instrument wat gebruik kan word om te bepaal watter strategieë akademici volg om beroepstres te hanteer. Die studie het ook bygedra tot die ontwerp en empiriese toetsing van ’n model vir die hantering van beroepstres. Ten slotte het die studie metingsinvariansies oor verskillende demografiese groepe heen bevestig en die bevindinge het getoon dat individue uit verskillende demografiese groepe se hanteringstrategieë vir beroepstres merkbaar verskil.
IQOQO LOKUBAKULEKILE UKWAKHA NOKUQINISEKISA ITHULUZI LOKULINGANISA UKUKWAZI UKUMELA UKUKHATHAZEKA NGENXA YEZIMO ZASEMSEBENZINI ngu Melissa du Plessis UMhloli Olulekayo: USolwazi N Martins Umnyango: Izifundo Mayelana Nokusebenza Kwengqondo Nomthelela Walokho Ekuziphatheni Kwabantu Emsebenzini Iziqu: UDokotela Wezifundo Zefilosofi Maqondana Nokusebenza Kwengqondo Nomthelela Walokho Ekuziphatheni Okumaqondana nakho:Ukukhathazeka okumaqondana nezimo zasemsebenzini kusayinto ehlupha abantu ngabodwana nezinkampani, kanti nezazi zezemfundo ephakeme nazo ngeke zashiywa ngaphandle. Ukukwazi kwabasebenzi ukubhekana nezimbangela zokukhathazeka ngenxa yezimo zomsebenzi kuya ngamasu okulawula asetshenziswayo ukubhekana nalokho okudala ukukhathazeka. Nakuba kunjalo, akukho ukuvumelana okucacile ekutheni lokho okwakhiwe kokubhekana nokukhathazeka kungalinganiswa kanjani. Imibhalo ekhona ibeka kabanzi okukhathazayo okwahlukahlukene okuqondene nokuqanjwa nendlela yokwenza maqondana nokulinganiswa kokukwazi ukubhekana nokukhathazeka. UVan Wyk (2010) ulwela ukuthi, njengamanje, akunathuluzi elakhelwe ukuqonda ngokukhathazeka eselike lakhiwa kanti ambalwa amathuluzi aseke aqinisekiswa eNingizimu Afrika nase-Afrika. Injongo yocwaningo:Okuyiyona njongo eqavile yalolu cwaningo ngukwakha ithuluzi elifanele nelikholakalayo ukuveza ukuthi yimaphi amasu okubhekana nezimo asetshenziswa yizazi kwezemfundo ephakeme ezimweni zokukhathazeka ngenxa yomsebenzi. Indlela ezolandelwa ekwenzeni ucwaningo:Ukuze kusungulwe leli thuluzi, kulandelwe inhlanganisela yamagxathu ahlongozwe ngababhala mayelana nokwakhiwa kwezikali. Indlela elandelwayo yahlukaniswa izigaba ezintathu, okuyilezi: (1) ukuhlolwa kwesichasiselo esibonwa ngokucabanga kwengqondo, (2) ukuhlanjululwa kwethuluzi, kanye (3) nokusetshenziswa kwangcono kwethuluzi. Ukuhlanganiswa kohlu lwemibuzo kwakuncike esampuleni lwabasebenzi basenyuvesi abangama-305 ababeqashwe ngokugcwele esikhungweni semfundo ephakeme esifundazweni saseGauteng eNingizimu Afrika. ix Imiphumela yocwaningo eqavile: Lolu cwaningo lwadala ukuba kube khona ithuluzi lokulinganisa elisebenza kahle maqondana nokukala okuphathelene nengqondo okunezinhla ezingama-33. Kwavela amasu ayisishiyagalolunye aqinisekiswe ngokubhekwa, nokuyilawa (1) ukubhekana nesimo ngokokuhlalisana nabantu, (2) ukubhekana nesimo ngokwezenkolo, (3) ukubhekana nesimo ngokokuqonda, (4) ukubhekana nesimo ngokuzibandakanya nezikaqedisizungu, (5) ukubhekana nesimo ngokuzila okuthile, (6) ukungazibandakanyi nezimo ezihlanganisana nabantu, (7) ukungcebeleka, (8) ukuzindla, kanye (9) nokubhekana nesimo ngokuba nomunyu. La masu abuye afakwa ngaphansi kohlu lwamasu okubhekana nesimo alandelekayo nangalandeleki. I-CFA yaziqinisekisa lezi zindlela ezihlukene kasishiyagalolunye. Ukwesekelwa kokubonakele ukuqinisekisa okwakhiwe nokuqukethwe, indlela yokubheka ukuthi ithuluzi elisetshenziswayo likulinganisa ngendlela efanele kangakanani lokho okubhekwayo kanye nokusebenza ngokukholakala ngokuphelele kwamaqoqo asetshenzisiwe. Ithuluzi labuye laveza ukuqinisekiseka kokufanayo nokwahlukayo. Okusebenzile/ okuhambisana nenzuzo: Okuyiyona nto emqoka kakhulu maqondana nalolu cwaningo kwaba ngukusungulwa kwethuluzi lokulinganisa elisebenza kahle maqondana nokulinganisa okuphathelene nengqondo ukubona ukuthi yimaphi amasu okubhekana nezimo asetshenziswa yizazi kwezemfundo ephakeme ezimweni zokukhathazeka ngenxa yomsebenzi. Ucwaningo luphinde lwadlala indima ekwakheni nasekuhloleni ngokubheka okwenzekayo ngethuluzi elingasetshenziselwa ukubhekana nesimo sokukhathazeka emsebenzini. Okokugcina, ucwaningo luhlinzeke ukwesekelwa kokungaguquki kwezilinganiso emaqoqweni ahlukahlukene ngokwezigaba, kanti imiphumela yaveza ukuthi abantu abaqhamuka emaqoqweni ahlukahlukene ngokwezigaba ahluka kakhulu uma kufikwa emaswini abakhetha ukuwasebenzisa maqondana nokukhathazeka ngenxa yezimo zomsebenzi.
Psychology
D. Phil.(Psychology)

Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
In Chapter 1, I describe social competence, task competence and self-protection in an organisational context. In Chapter 2, I review key self theories and relate them to the self-competence construct. In Chapter 3, I review the research on self-competence to show that there is a need for a construct of social competence and self-protection. I discuss the limitations of three self-competence theories: Bandura’s (1977) self-efficacy theory, Williams and Lillibridge’s (1992) self-competence theory and Tafarodi & Swann’s (1995) self-competence/self-liking theory. In Chapter 4, I present my selfcompetence model. I raise the research questions and specify my hypotheses. In Chapter 5, I describe the construction of Social and Task Competence Scale. I present evidence of the reliability and factor structure of the Social and Task Competence Scale. I concluded that scale revisions were needed. In Chapter 6, I present evidence of the reliability, factor structure and predictive validity of the revised Social and Task Competence Scale and Self-Protection Scale. I describe the results of an experiment that investigated the interaction of task setting, social competence, task competence and selfprotection. I concluded that the measures predicted performance. In Chapter 7, I investigate the factor structure and reliability of the revised Social and Task Competence Scale and revised Self-Protection Scale. I provide evidence of the convergent and discriminant validity of these measures with reliable measures of self-competence, selfesteem, self-monitoring, personality and social desirability. In Chapter 8, I investigate the factor structure and reliability of the Social and Task Competence Scale and Self-Protection Scale after final revisions and show that these measures are acceptable for use in scientific research. I present evidence of their convergent validity with a valid andreliable measure of emotional intelligence, and describe experimental results that supported the hypothesised relationships between perceived task difficulty, social competence, task competence and self-protection and task performance. In Chapter 9, I discuss the implications of my research for self-competence theory, self-regulation and self-esteem and the prediction of social and task performance in organisations.

This study examines how conative factors contribute to effective e-learning for corporate and academic learners. Inference of what effective e-learning activities are were traced during a focus group session, a question on a discussion list, validation of information from different sources such as observers, the verifier, the de-brief session, the scribe, the video and audio recordings and correlation with current literature. Effective learning (self-direction and collaboration), techno- and information literacy and an effective learning environment are the strongest predictors of effective e-learning. The combination of intention (motivation) and action (volition) are the two descriptive factors for conation. The study highlights existing models of conative factors and learner motivation as well as the relationships between conative factors with special reference to internal (pulling) and external (pushing) driving forces. In conclusion, the role of the conative domain in e-learning is seen as being the psychological link between the physical learning environment and effective e-learning.
Dissertation (MEd (Computer-Integrated Education))--University of Pretoria, 2007.
Curriculum Studies
unrestricted

This study examines the compliance cost of current and proposed environmental and species regulations on Ontario beef cattle farms. A mathematical programming model was used to simulate regulatory scenarios under the Ontario Nutrient Management Act (2002), the Ontario Clean Water Act (2007) and the Ontario Endangered Species Act (2007). Both the feedlot and cow-calf models are examined using a uniform manure application and optimal nutrient management strategy in each scenario. Under the Nutrient Management Act, feedlot operations using a uniform application strategy face compliance costs of up to 3.09%, but can eliminate compliance costs altogether by switching to an optimal nutrient application strategy. Compliance costs for cow-calf farmers are up to 9.57% under a land reduction scenario and 8.68% with a previously proposed land restriction. The Endangered Species Act scenario causes cow-calf farmers to face compliance costs of up to 6.60% due to restricted use of alfalfa and pasture land.
OMAFRA