Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'SPIRITS OF LIFE AND PERCEPTION'
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MERONI, MICHELE. "SPIRITS OF LIFE AND PERCEPTION. GREEK AND ARABIC LEGACIES IN ALBERT THE GREAT'S EARLY THEOLOGY AND NATURAL PHILOSOPHY." Doctoral thesis, Università degli Studi di Milano, 2021. http://hdl.handle.net/2434/856900.
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Among his contemporaries, Albert the Great (1200-1280) stands out for his extensive knowledge of philosophical and medical sources from the Islamic Word. The dissertation investigates the role of Albert's Arabic sources in his doctrine of spirit, a key concept straddling medicine and natural philosophy, in the broader context of his psychophysiology. The main purpose of the research is to provide a study of the reception of sources such as Avicenna (De anima, De animalibus, Canon), Qusta ibn Luqa (De differentia spiritus et animae) and other Arabic authors (Averroes, al-Ghazali and al-Magusi), shedding light on their relevance for Albert's own understanding of spiritus. Prefaced by a methodological introduction and a first chapter devoted to the relationship between philosophy and medicine, the dissertation provides a comparison between Albert's position on the role of spirit in his early theological works with his mature works (Aristotelian paraphrases), focusing especially on the Parva Naturalia. The research revolves around two main areas of interest: life- and perception-related phenomena, highlighting how Albert's understanding of the causal role of spirit changes over the years, thus moving away from his first conception in the early theological works, strongly influenced by his Arabic sources. A typical feature of Albert's psychophysiology of life-related phenomena in the Aristotelian paraphrases is the introduction of the concept of spirit in plants, a unique case among Albert's contemporaries. The second part of the dissertation deals with the role of spirits in sense perception and cognitive activities, with a special focus on dreams, divinatory dreams, and prophecy, where the influence of the Arabic (also, Hebrew) philosophical tradition is crucial.
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Hayes, Jacqueline Ann. "Experiencing the presence of the deceased : symptoms, spirits, or ordinary life?" Thesis, University of Manchester, 2011. https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/experiencing-the-presence-of-the-deceased-symptoms-spirits-or-ordinary-life(7d77ebab-53c8-43b1-99b5-ea79eec72c36).html.
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Experiences of presence are common in bereavement. The bereaved person may see the deceased, hear their familiar voice, or otherwise feel they are close at hand. But although common, they are experiences not without controversy. They have come under a variety of descriptions, from 'hallucinations', lacking in meaning and even essentially meaningless, to 'continuing relationships', of rich personal significance. The current thesis represents the first systematic investigation of the properties and meaning of experiences of presence. Narrative biographic interviews with bereaved informants were analysed using Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis. Analytical focus was on the ways in which participants made such experiences meaningful. As a novel approach, this thesis reports several new findings about these phenomena. Firstly, the experiences happened in a variety of bonds (including spouses, parents, grandparents, children, siblings and others), and in a variety of circumstances of the bereavement (including sudden and expected deaths). In all cases, they were described as richly meaningful experiences and as relying on several sources for this meaning. The personal histories of participants were of particular importance in making sense of experiences of presence. Within this context, the experience acquired sense as a continuation of some aspect of the relationship with the deceased. The experiences also had diverse functions, from soothing to destructive. Sometimes, the experiences helped the bereaved to resolve unfinished business with the deceased; at other times, the help was with a much more ordinary problem. On some occasions the experiences of presence caused the bereaved more problems; they simply pronounced the grief or continued a fraught relationship. Participants showed that they had many cultural resources available to them in making sense of their experiences but they did not use all of them. Many informants used some spiritual and psychological ideas to make sense of their experiences. The thesis concludes that many of the most popular theories for these experiences impoverish them by stripping them of their diversity and important aspects of their meaning. The thesis also makes recommendations for psychotherapy for those who have problems of living as a result of their experiences of presence. The study also has implications for psychological research as none of these findings could have been observed through the use of an experimental methodology.
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Pearce, Callum. "Outside the palace, the night : spirits, landscape and perception among Buddhist laity in Ladakh, Himalayan India." Thesis, University of Aberdeen, 2017. http://digitool.abdn.ac.uk:80/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=234058.
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This thesis deals with the perception and representation of spirits and landscape among Tibetan Buddhist laity in Ladakh, Himalayan India. It contrasts the conventions of Tibetan textual description of places with stories told by Ladakhi Buddhist laity, with a focus on the role played by local spirits and deities. It argues that while textual representations employing the unified and symmetrical imagery of the maṇḍala – a schematic representation of the palace of a divinity – depict the landscape as it might be known to a transcendent observer, stories about places and the spirits associated with them (lhande in Ladakhi) point to an indeterminate, fragmented and culturally unbounded world that has yet to be integrated within any single system of knowledge. This world is pieced together from multiple sources and truth claims, and from the imperfections inherent in ordinary perception; but the inconsistencies and uncertainties involved in this are not usually apparent, and are only made manifest in illness, experiences of disorder and encounters with spirits at night. These persistent uncertainties can be overcome in ritual contexts, in acts of writing or through the invocation of the faculty of divine vision: the palatial image of the maṇḍala is used to counteract the presence of the night outside. This thesis draws attention to the often overlooked role played by the limitations of perception and knowledge in understandings of landscape, and is intended to partly bridge a disciplinary divide by reconstructing the invisible context within which textual representations are created and employed.
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Caldwell, Kerin L. "Discernment as a way of life." Theological Research Exchange Network (TREN), 1997. http://www.tren.com.
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Langford, Alvan Stephen. "Equipping believers with an hermeneutical and theological foundation for exercising spiritual discernment." Theological Research Exchange Network (TREN), 1994. http://www.tren.com.
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Bell, Gordon. "Life-cycle based system optimisation : the identification of more sustainable options for the potable spirits industry." Thesis, University of Surrey, 2000. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.340400.
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De, Vries Brian. "The concept of self in a life-span, life event context." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 1988. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/28663.
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This dissertation advanced a life story model of the self-concept, linking the presently understood past and the anticipated future with the experienced present of the individual story-teller. The central components of this model were identified as the story structure (defined as integrative complexity, an information-processing variable) and story content (defined as the significant life events recalled and anticipated by the participants). The nuclear thesis of this dissertation examined the relationship between these two components in various forms and explored their association with other (individual difference) variables. Participants were 30 males and 30 females drawn in equal numbers from three age groups (young, middle, and later adulthood). These participants completed an extensive questionnaire which entailed a written self-evaluation (which was coded for complexity), the identification and evaluation of significant life events (on scales of event pleasantness, outcome desirability, and event intensity, responsibility, adjustment, and anticipation), and the completion of a series of individual difference measures (life satisfaction, attitudes toward aging, repression-sensitization, and self-esteem). Participants were also interviewed regarding the personal significance of each event, discussions which were coded for integrative complexity and a measure of self in relation to others. The major results indicated that the complexity of self-evaluation (and not chronological age) was associated (curvilinearly) with the number of identified events (with low and high complexity characteristic of fewer events than moderate complexity). A similar pattern emerged between life satisfaction and this measure of complexity, but complexity was not related to any of the other individual difference variables. Unpleasant and undesirable events were discussed in more complex terms than were pleasant, desirable events. There was a similar pattern for high versus low intensity events. However, low responsibility, low adjustment, and low anticipation were associated with greater complexity than were events high on these dimensions. Women identified a greater number of events and discussed them more in terms of connectedness with significant others than did men. These results are presented in the context of the life story and their implications for this model of the self-concept are discussed.Arts, Faculty of
Psychology, Department of
Graduate
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Novaes, Camila Souza. "A influência da Terapia Complementar Espírita sobre a qualidade de vida e a autopercepção de saúde." Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo, 2013. https://tede2.pucsp.br/handle/handle/15304.
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Previous issue date: 2013-11-01This study aims to determine whether the Complementary Spiritist Therapy promotes improvement in quality of life and perceived health of the patient according to their selfreport. Based in Jungian Psychosomatic Model of diseases, this paper uses the method of qualitative and quantitative research, through the application of semi-structured interviews and The Medical Outcomes Study 36-item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36) before and after the participants undergo a spiritual healing treatment. The sample consists of thirtythree participants with various diseases, 34-81 years, of different religions, frequenters of a spiritist center of the city of São Paulo. The interview results showed that for the majority of the sample the treatment was effective because the respondents had a perception of improvement in their health status, reported a decrease in symptoms, acquired some kind of learning and changed their relationship with the disease itself. This way faith proved to be an important element of healing. For a minority of the sample, there has been little improvement in their perception of physical symptoms. However, they obtained psychological and spiritual gains. When comparing the average results of the participants in the first and second application of the SF-36, there was significant improvement in the mental component summary and in the following domains of quality of life: role-physical, bodily pain, general health, vitality, social functioning, role-emotional and mental health. The differences between the outcomes of the first and second application of the SF-36 of physical functioning and the physical component summary were not statistically significant
Este trabalho tem como objetivo verificar se a Terapia Complementar Espírita (TCE) promove melhora na qualidade de vida e na percepção de saúde do paciente segundo seu autorrelato. Fundamentada no Modelo Psicossomático Junguiano de doenças, esta dissertação utiliza o método qualitativo e quantitativo de pesquisa, através da aplicação de entrevistas e do Instrumento Genérico de Avaliação de Qualidade de Vida em Saúde (questionário SF-36) antes e depois dos participantes se submeterem a um tratamento de cura espiritual. A amostra é composta por trinta e três sujeitos com enfermidades diversas, de 34 a 81 anos, de distintas religiões, frequentadores de um centro espírita da cidade de São Paulo. Os resultados das entrevistas indicaram que para a maioria da amostra o tratamento foi eficaz, pois os entrevistados obtiveram uma percepção de melhora no estado de saúde, observaram uma diminuição dos sintomas apresentados, adquiriram algum tipo de aprendizado e modificaram a relação com a própria doença. A fé se mostrou assim um importante elemento de cura. Para uma minoria, houve percepção de pouca melhora nos sintomas físicos. Contudo, obtiveram ganhos de ordem psicológica e espiritual. Ao comparar as médias dos resultados dos participantes obtidos na primeira e na segunda aplicação do questionário, observaram-se resultados de melhora significativa no sumário de componentes mentais e nos seguintes domínios de qualidade de vida: aspectos físicos, dor, aspecto geral de saúde, vitalidade, aspectos sociais, aspectos emocionais, saúde mental. A diferença entre as médias da capacidade funcional e no sumário de componentes físicos não foi estatisticamente significativa
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Aldebot, Stephanie. "Neurocognition, Emotion Perception and Quality of Life in Schizophrenia." Scholarly Repository, 2009. http://scholarlyrepository.miami.edu/oa_theses/228.
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Patients with schizophrenia have extremely high levels of depression and suicide (Carlborg et al., 2008), thus, a better understanding of factors associated with poor quality of life (QoL) for this population is sorely needed. A growing body of research suggests that cognitive functioning in schizophrenia may be a strong predictor of overall QoL (Green et al., 2000), but individual domains of QoL have not been examined. Indirect evidence also suggests that emotion perception may underlie the relationship between neurocognition and QoL, but this hypothesis has also yet to be tested. Using a sample of 92 clinically stable schizophrenia patients, the current study explores the relationship between neurocognition, namely attention and working memory, and the following sub domains of QoL: social, vocational, intrapsychic foundations and environmental engagement. The current study also examines whether emotion perception mediates this relationship. In partial support of hypotheses, patients with more deficits in working memory reported decreased Occupational QoL and, although only marginally significant, decreased Total QoL. There was also a trend for poorer working memory to be associated with poorer Intrapsychic Foundations QoL. Contrary to hypotheses, emotion perception was not found to mediate the relationship between working memory and QoL. Current findings suggest that interventions that specifically target working memory may also improve many other aspects of schizophrenia patients? QoL.
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Babcock, Lindsay. "Reexamining depressive realism using estimates of real life events /." View online, 2009. http://repository.eiu.edu/theses/docs/32211131592059.pdf.
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陳翠詩 and Chui-sze Tracy Chan. "Environmental improvement and perception of quality of life in WesternDistrict." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 2002. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B3126069X.
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Webb, Claire Isabel. "Technologies of perception : searches for life and intelligence beyond Earth." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2020. https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/129021.
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Thesis: Ph. D. in History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology and Society (HASTS), Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Program in Science, Technology and Society, September, 2020Page 229 blank. Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 217-228).
Scientists in the late 1950s in the United States gained technological capabilities to test for signs of extraterrestrial life. While exobiologists developed visual techniques to detect whether sites beyond Earth might harbor microbes, "biosignatures," radio astronomers searched for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) in the form of "technosignatures." This dissertation explores how scientists since the Space Age have constructed experimental assemblages to imagine, relate to, and investigate the alien and exotic microbes -- unknown, indeed, as-yet-imperceptible, objects --
through familiar sensory metaphors of seeing (exobiologists) and listening (SETI scientists). From historical material gathered at various D.C. archives, the American Philosophical Society, and the National Library of Medicine, I show how exobiologists' technologies of vision rendered anew images of the Moon, Mars, Venus, and the Earth from afar and at surface, affording scientists the ability to conceptually anticipate relationships between their world and others. Through a epistemic pratice I call "gaze-scaling," they yoked the concept of "island" to "planet," casting extraterrestrial sites as fragile laboratories of life that beckoned exploration. I next draw from immersive participant observation since 2016 to engage ethnographic sonar on the SETI group Breakthrough Listen based at U.C. Berkeley, California. I analyze how they construct criteria of intelligence through "experiments of anticipation" that are parametrized to hear from a commensurable subject.
I theorize "figures of listening" in both observational protocols and as a preemptive attunement to Other intention, acts that configure an alien who would be not just perceptible, but relatable. If exobiologists envisioned universal standards of biochemistry that would map life's common origins, SETI astronomers have traded on imagined superhuman characteristics of the alien -- more benevolent, wiser, and technologically superior -- to suggest human futures. I outline how the alien has been imagined through three potent analogical figures: as artifacts, animals, and angels. Furnished by feminist epistemologies and queer theories of care around multispecies becomings -- traditions that have persistently challenged ontological stability across species, gender, race, and spacetime --
I theorize those analogies as acts of "reflexive alienation": a mode of worldmaking in which scientists imagine Others imagining them. Future-oriented extraterrestrial objects held in abeyance cultivate Earthly concepts of being..
by Claire Isabel Webb.
Ph. D. in History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology and Society (HASTS)
Ph.D.inHistory,Anthropology,andScience,TechnologyandSociety(HASTS) Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Program in Science, Technology and Society
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Myers, Christopher Aaron. "Life Event Perception: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach to the Antecedents of the Life Stress Response." Doctoral diss., University of Central Florida, 2005. http://digital.library.ucf.edu/cdm/ref/collection/ETD/id/3361.
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It has been often argued that life events have an impact on our physical and psychological well-being. In general, research supports this connection between life events and general health, though some argue that simply experiencing life events has a measurable and predictable impact our health, while others contend that this effect is mediated by the appraisal process. Further, research has identified a number of different factors (hypothetically stratified into pre-existing beliefs, external resources and demands, and behavioral activation and coping strategies) that may influence appraisal and general health. The current study attempts to integrate these findings by testing structural models of the relationship between life events, life stress, and general health while considering the appraisal process and other potential moderators of appraisal and general health. University students (N=204) were tested using 17 assessment measures representing 7 latent constructs of Life Events, Life Stress, Appraisal, General Health, Beliefs, External, and Activation. Results of the measurement models required model respecification to combine Appraisal and Beliefs into one construct and External and Activation into another construct, resulting in a five-factor hypothetical structural model. The resulting empirical structural model is a partially-mediated model that suggests that appraisal and pre-existing beliefs influence the relationship between life events and life stress, and that life events significantly impact measured life stress. The empirical model also indicates that general health is significantly impacted by life stress, as well as behavioral activation and external resources and demands. Practical implications of the findings and recommendations for further research were discussed.Ph.D.
Department of Psychology
Arts and Sciences
Psychology
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Chan, Chui-sze Tracy. "Environmental improvement and perception of quality of life in Western District /." Hong Kong : University of Hong Kong, 2002. http://sunzi.lib.hku.hk/hkuto/record.jsp?B2524811x.
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Sump, Katherine. "Probationers' Quality of Life Based on Their Perception of Sibling Relationship." ScholarWorks, 2016. https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/3074.
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Abstract
The quality of life of probationers remains low when reestablishing life in society.
Research has been conducted on how siblings can provide support to juveniles, yet
minimal research supported how adult sibling relationships have affected probationers'
quality of life. The purpose of this study was to explore the phenomenon of the effect
sibling relationships may have on probationers' quality of life. Attachment theory was
used as a theoretical framework to support the factors relating to sibling relationship
types. This research study used a qualitative interview design in order to explore
probationers' perspective of their sibling relationship type and quality of life. The sample
(N = 6) came from Transcendence Foundation, a facility providing support to
probationers in the South Central Region of Minnesota. A thematic analysis was used to
interpret the perceptions probationers have of their relationship with their sibling and how
it affects their quality of life. Based on the results from past research studies and this
research study, siblings with supportive, warm, and positive relationships reduce the
negative aspects and feelings of probationers. The results of this study could potentially
help probationers increase their quality of life through the development of interventions
involving sibling support. A higher quality of life can create positive social change for
probationers reentering into society by increasing their feelings of self-worth and
reducing recidivism.
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Wan, Ka-pik. "An exploratory study of the elderly people's perception of quality of life." Hong Kong : University of Hong Kong, 1997. http://sunzi.lib.hku.hk/hkuto/record.jsp?B19470988.
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Harrison, Philip Archibald. "The acquisition of phonology in the first year of life." Thesis, University College London (University of London), 1999. http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1349888/.
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Any phonological theory needs to encompass an account of acquisition and any account of acquisition must take its place within a general theory of phonology. This thesis aims to ascribe phonological significance to speech perception in infancy, a move impossible unless phonology is defined, as it is here, from both a psycholinguistic and a formal viewpoint as a dedicated pattern-recognition system. Extant results from infant studies are reviewed and aligned with current phonological theory. In particular, such theory characterises phonology as bi-modular, so the acquisition of individual melodic and prosodic modules and their subsequent orientation with respect to one another must constitute three different developmental tasks. This delivers a relatively simple account of the mapping between psychoacoustics and phonology. Perception and pre-existing theories of segmental complexity are related using an original experiment into the perception of vowel-height contrast in Catalan. If infant perception has phonological import, then disparate phonetic reflexes which are predicted as phonologically identical should show parallels in acquisition. General theory argues that the same abstract melodic objects underlie both laryngeal contrasts in stops and lexical tonal contrasts. Earlier studies show that language-specific attunement to stop contrasts has taken place by the age of six months. New tests are now reported, using children of the same age, which demonstrate that infants acquiring Yorùbá, a language which has a three-way contrast for tone, attend more closely to pitch changes within the minimal domain word than do English controls. Further, they only attend to those pitch changes that possess phonological import within that domain in the steady-state language. In this their perception exactly parallels that displayed by adult speakers. Apparent anomalies in the results of these tests are shown to be closely parallelled by phonological asymmetries in the tonology of Yorùbá.
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CALLUS, EDWARD. "Clinical psychology and adults with congenital heart disease : disease perception, health related quality of life and life experiences." Doctoral thesis, Università degli studi di Bergamo, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10446/86.
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Wan, Ka-pik, and 尹家碧. "An exploratory study of the elderly people's perception of quality of life." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 1997. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B3197837X.
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Ting, Wai-fong. "The perception of adolescent girls in Hong Kong on their life situations." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 1998. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.243709.
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Renteria, Claudia. "HOSPICE PATIENT'S PERCEPTION OF FAMILY SUPPORT." CSUSB ScholarWorks, 2014. https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd/36.
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This qualitative and quantitative study focused on exploring hospice patient’s perceptions of family support. Family support was conceptualized as which family member they expect to receive support from, types of support provided, frequency of support, family communication about medical illness, and type of support that is perceived to be most helpful. Fifteen partcipants between the ages of 70 to 98 were interviewed using purposive sampling. Findings showed that although participants found both physical and emotional support helpful, more than half reported perceiving emotional support as the most helpful. Recommendations for social work practice and research were discussed.
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Lam, Sze-ching Cici. "Hong Kong primary students' perception of satisfaction with their schools." Click to view the E-thesis via HKUTO, 2006. http://sunzi.lib.hku.hk/hkuto/record/B37338304.
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Langenbrunner, Mary R. "Parental Perception of Satisfaction and Dissatisfaction with Parenting." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 1986. https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu-works/3517.
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Dinsmore, John Gerard. "Quality of life and illness perception in Stroke Patients : A 12 Month Study." Thesis, Queen's University Belfast, 2010. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.527913.
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Li, Chi-ho, and 李志浩. "Determinants of quality of life: the perception of the elderly in nursing homes." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 2000. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B31250889.
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Li, Chi-ho. "Determinants of quality of life : the perception of the elderly in nursing homes /." Hong Kong : University of Hong Kong, 2000. http://sunzi.lib.hku.hk/hkuto/record.jsp?B22331554.
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Lejeune, Marc. "Life-span changes in visuo-spatial short term memory." Thesis, University of Stirling, 1997. http://hdl.handle.net/1893/22862.
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Several experiments are presented to evaluate the development of visuo-spatial short term memory from childhood to old age (from five-year-olds to about 70-year-olds). Visuospatial short term memory was assessed through transformational imagery tasks. The first set of experiments (chapters 3, 4 and 5) concerned the development of mental rotation abilities. A review of the literature suggested that young children (specifically so-called preoperational children) and elderly people are poor at rotating a mental image of a visual pattern. However, as some mental rotation abilities have been reported while using Shepard's paradigm, attention was focussed on the role of the first steps necessarily taken while performing a mental rotation task, specifically the maintenance of a visual pattern in STM. The second set of experiments (chapter 6) considered another imagery subsystem, namely "mental scanning". Like mental rotation, it requires the maintenance of a visual pattern in short term memory. Image maintenance ability has been assessed in reference to Kosslyn's (1994) model although Baddeley's (1986) working memory model- specifically, Logie's (1995) revision of the VSSP - has been sometimes considered while interpreting the data. These two different theoretical models suggest the existence of two related but different subsystems for sorting visual and spatial information. Most of the data presented in this thesis suggest that young children and the elderly have some difficulties maintaining spatial characteristics of a visual pattern in short term memory, i.e. the orientation of the stimulus in the mental rotation tasks and the location of targets in the mental scanning tasks. These results tend to provide some developmental evidence for a dissociation between the dorsal and ventral subsystems. It seems that the two subsystems develop at different speeds. The ventral subsystem might be better developed earlier than the dorsal subsystem. Similarly, some data suggest that the same ventral system is not yet affected by ageing when the dorsal subsystem has already begun to deteriorate.
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Lessoway, Kamea. "Perception of quality of life for adults with hearing impairment in Aotearoa / New Zealand." Thesis, University of Canterbury. Department of Communication Disorders, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10092/9599.
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AIMS: This study investigated the perception of generic and disease-specific Health-Related
Quality of Life (HRQoL) for adults living with hearing impairment (HI) in Aotearoa/New
Zealand (NZ). This study aimed to answer three questions: (1) What is the perception of
HRQoL amongst adults with hearing impairment in NZ? (2) How do these perceptions
compare to adults with HI living in other countries for which we have data? (3) What are the
demographic and audiometric variables related to device ownership?
METHOD: HRQoL, demographic, and audiometric information was collected from 126 adults
in NZ. The following demographic information was collected: age, relationship length, hours
worked per week, income, ancestry, sex, level of education, city size, and sexual orientation.
The following audiologic information was also collected: ownership of hearing aids (HA),
ownership of hearing assistance technology (HAT), better-ear pure-tone average (BEPTA),
worse-ear pure-tone average (WEPTA), and signal-to-noise ratio loss (SNR loss). HRQoL
information was collected using the Medical Outcomes Study 36-Item Short-Form Health
Survey (SF-36; Ware & Sherbourne, 1992), and the Hearing Handicap Inventory (HHI) for
both elderly (HHIE) and adults (HHIA; Ventry & Weinstein, 1982; Newman, Weinstein,
Jacobson, & Hug, 1991). Variables discriminating HA and HAT owners from non-owners
were also analysed.
RESULTS: The relationship between demographic variables and HRQoL scores revealed that
only age and income were significant. Audiometric variables had significant relationships
with disease-specific HRQoL scores, as well as HA and HAT ownership. Finally, disease-specific
HRQoL scores and all audiometric variables differentiated HA owners from non-
owners, but demographic variables did not. Generic HRQoL scores and all audiometric
variables differentiated HAT owners from non-owners.
CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that the negative impacts of HI on HRQoL as reported
overseas are also present in NZ, and that not only do audiometric variables including SNR
loss are related to HRQoL, but HRQoL is a significant predictor for HA and HAT ownership.
Further QoL research is warranted amongst the HI population in NZ to identify and
understand any causal relationships present amongst these variables. Furthermore, HRQoL
instruments and a test of speech understanding in noise have been shown to provide
additional meaningful information, and therefore clinicians might consider including them
during consultation.
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Williams, Barry. "Bob Dylan fans and followers : expressions of music, culture, fan-life, perception and interpretation." Thesis, Aston University, 2015. http://publications.aston.ac.uk/33413/.
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Bob Dylan has had not only a far-reaching influence, through his music and art, on the music culture landscape since the 1960s, but he has also had a significant personal impact on millions of his fans and followers around the world. My research focuses on and engages with the strong emotional attachments and investments made by many Dylan fans to Dylan’s music, art and perceived persona, which is often further appropriated again by many of his fans into their own personal ways of thinking, values and feeling, at times, even related to making sense of place, identity and personal life events. My research highlights the distinctive, individual, lived-fan-experience, as described by Dylan fans through their self-reflexive perceptions and narrative descriptions of their own everyday, Dylan-fan-life experiences. Drawing from online Dylan fan narratives, oral-histories, personal interviews and interdisciplinary writings on Dylan, I adopt an ‘insider view’ of Dylan-fan-culture, showing in what ways these fans practise their fandom and how they make sense of, and even relate to the world around them through their appropriations of Dylan’s music, words and art forms. My research and methodological approach is one that focuses attention on the significance of the corporeal and subjective lived-fan-experience, elucidating the emotional and (sometimes) transcendent affects experienced by many fans and followers of Dylan through his music and often-cryptic song lyrics. The research also addresses a relevant and noticeable ‘gap’ in the current academic literature on Dylan fans and fandom. In order to access and understand the everyday life-experiences of the individual fans themselves, their subjective meanings, feelings, values and perspectives, I have employed apposite inter-disciplinary perspectives from sociology, music studies, narrative theory, ethnography and psychosocial studies to exemplify ‘frames’, or ‘perspectives’ of meaning, understanding and context, through which many Dylan fans ‘connect with’ Dylan, as well as with other Dylan fans. I am interested in the fan’s own, distinctive, ‘Dylan-influenced life-world’ and his or her personal practice and appropriations of Dylan fandom, not only as an explicit area of research, but also as a further exploration into the areas of inter-personal, human-lived-experience, meaning-making, and understanding. Methodologically, I have placed and emphasis on my Dylan fan research as a journey and discovery rather than a rigid undertaking of an applied fan theory, with the intention to illuminate the actual, lived-Dylan-fan-experience. My intention here is to open up discussion to the areas of the individual Dylan fan, as well as the related sensibilities of identity, affect, relationship, belonging, meaning, values and knowledge. I depict fandom in terms of what is important to the fans themselves — “illuminating the experiences of others in their own terms” (Jensen, 1992:26), presenting fans “not as problems, theories or data, but as real people trying to make sense of their lives in the late 20th century ... ” (Cavicchi, 1998:10). Through elaborating and giving recognition to the expressions of music and fandom and the lived-experiences of the Dylan fans themselves, which are, for them, the core, ‘real-life’ frameworks and ... positions through which their lived-realities can be spoken... (see McRobbie 1994:189), I am highlighting the subjectively lived-fan-experience of the Dylan fans and followers that have participated in my research. The Dylan fans and their fan narratives, particularly those that portray the everyday fan-life and include the oral- history of the particular fan, are, in my attempt to connect with the personal and core Dylan fan experience, indispensable and vital components of my research on fans and fandom as I believe they not only intimately display a clear and critical account of the ‘real-life’ experience of being a (Dylan) fan, but they also elucidate the emotional and ‘affective intensity’ (Grossberg, 1992:64) that lies at the heart of what it actually means to be a (Dylan) fan. I claim they are authentic descriptions of the lived-fan-experience by the fans themselves. My research examines and documents the role and affect that Dylan’s music plays in the meaning-making and identification processes that occur in the fan’s everyday-life, through the conduit of Dylan and his music; the thesis also focuses on the areas of Dylan fandom which illustrate the more personal and affective connections that are forged and maintained with ‘Bob’ by his dedicated fans and followers, and which, in my view, are particularly significant to the actual fan practices and ways these Dylan fans live out their lived-fan-experience. One research aim here is to gain more insight into the subjective and introspective areas of lived-experience and being such as, emotion, belief, sentiment and perception. Because of the very human context regarding the subject matter and personalised experience of Dylan fans and their fandom, I have felt compelled to underline that there is a necessary need to illuminate, retrieve and include the subjective, emotional, lived-fan-experience of the fans themselves. I have thus searched for and experimented with diverse, open-ended (academic and ‘non-academic’) approaches, methods and ways of writing that could and would fittingly apply, complement and assist in communicating and verbalising the Dylan-fan experiences. This has entailed a concentration and focus on the individual-fan-experience as well as experimenting with methodologies that would connect to the narratives and sensibilities of the Dylan fans who responded to my research enquiries – many of whom are active and participatory in their fandom – and many of these sharing their interests and fandom with the global Dylan fan community via the online networks and web pages dedicated to Dylan and his music. Explicitly, my research explores Bob Dylan fans who are a particular and current sample of a specific (wider and larger) group of music fans expressing their own, unique fan-life experiences through their own (fan) narratives. The Dylan fans in my research are describing, in their own words, the significance and meaning that Bob Dylan and his music have in their everyday lives, and, in narrative form, the fans are recounting the practices and appropriations of their fandom. For many Dylan fans, their fandom has been continuous for many, many years of their particular lifetime. A majority of the Dylan fans who have contributed to my research are also active and participatory ‘online’ fans. My research ‘data’ of the Dylan fan narrative texts, describing their own personal lived-fan-experiences, very much exemplify a plurality of voices – yet also demonstrate an individuality of experiences. One aim of my methodologies and writing is to attempt to disclose the richness and depth of the reflective, Dylan fan narratives (DFNs). My goal is to better understand, comprehend and more fully acknowledge the importance of the emotive and perceptive elements involved in Dylan fans’ fandom. My intentionality in the study of Dylan fans has not been to overly theorise, explain or try to account for the phenomenon of Dylan fandom, but rather to utilise and share the descriptive Dylan fan narratives of their accounts of the lived-Dylan-fan experiences, to gain a better understanding of the Dylan ‘lived-fan-experience’ — i.e., what it means to the Dylan fan to be a Dylan fan, (as well as what is it that the fans do to live out their fandom).
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Herron, James W. "Members' perception of the church's role as an agency of help for family life." Thesis, Virginia Tech, 1989. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/44647.
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Questionnaire responses of 244 active church members regarding the church's role in providing programs and services for family life needs and issues were analyzed. The sample were members of Christian Churches/Churches of Christ, 16 years old and older who attended at least one church service per month. The major predictors of a church member's general attitude concerning the church providing programs/services for family life are age and feelings of general needs of families in America. The younger members tend to be more interested in a wider variety of church sponsored programs/services while older members are less supportive of a broad spectrum of family life programs. The greater the church member's feeling of needs of families in general the more positive their expressed attitude about the church offering programs/services.
There is also a systematic relationship between gender of the church member and their attitude toward the church providing family programs/services. Females tend to hold the stronger feelings, both positive and negative, while males tend to express the more moderate attitudes. A relatively strong positive correlation was found between the church member's awareness of the availability of a specific program or service and their perception of the appropriateness of the church offering the program or service.
Counseling is perceived as a priority for the church to offer, with the exceptions of pregnancy counseling and financial counseling. Programs and services dealing with aging issues and for the elderly tend to be ranked low in priority for the church to offer, as well as programs and services in connection with community services. Systematic relationships between specific programs/services and various demographic measures or church involvement measures are also discussed.Master of Science
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Barnes, Paul H. "'Life as a Coiled Spring': Hazard and Risk Perception in the Queensland Fire Service." Thesis, Griffith University, 1996. http://hdl.handle.net/10072/367665.
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A fire service is an Emergency Response Organisation (ERO) an 'essential' service. Firefighters form part of the institutional safety net provided by government to protect people from harm and restore public safety following an emergency. In this role they are a key segment of both a regional and national emergency management infrastructure. Firefighting is a dangerous occupation. Occupational health and safety statistics for firefighters paint an alarming picture. Recent data on accidents within the Australian firefighting industry show injury rates at a level over twice that of the combined injury rate for all Australian industries. There is evidence of similar trends in injury data among a number of international fire services. The occupation offers the potential for a range of experiences that are in complete contrast to 'normality' of everyday life in that it is associated with emergent danger, uncertainty and unpredictability. Any of these factors may be seen as anathema to a stereotypically 'risk-averse' public. While the range and nature of hazards faced by firefighters is well established, little is known about their perception of the dangers in their work or the influence that these perceptions have on their occupational behaviour. This area of knowledge has been neglected in the occupational health & safety literature. This study aims to redress this absence by examining hazard and risk perception among a group of professional, urban firefighters in the Queensland Fire service (QFS).
This study examines the 'social context' of work as a firefighter and generates understanding of the beliefs that they hold about the dangers of their occupation. By investigating and analysing material derived from the day-to-day experience of their work, the study goes beyond cognitive approaches to risk perception that generally incorporated little appreciation of the 'social settings' in which people experience danger in the real world. In doing this, the study applies methods derived from interpretive sociology and anthropology and combines both quantitative and qualitative techniques. Use of such methods allows a description the 'lifeworld' of three operational ranks of professional, urban firefighters.
Firefighters participating in this study believed that bureaucrats with little or no operational experience had too much influence on day-to-day management decisions that had an indirect yet often direct effect on operational safety. A further issue of concern was a belief that there is an absence of reliable information systems within the QFS. The result of these factors is that operational firefighters felt that they had little or no input into matters that directly affected their operational capacities and their safety. This lead to lower ranking firefighters feeling alienated not only from government officials, but their own senior officers. Working under such conditions contributed to low job satisfaction and morale. Operational firefighters believed that the stress of working in a dysfunctional organisation was more of a concern than the regular contact with the everyday hazards and traumas of their occupation. The firefighters believed that the stresses resulting from this dysfunction were unavoidable and were the only totally predictable factor in their working life. This study identifies the source of this stress as having its greatest influence during the periods of between emergency responses, where strict regimentation and rigid command structures operate. Associated with these organisational concerns were major problems with information flow within the QFS. The regular occupational hazards however, were seen as dangerous and totally unpredictable, but at least familiar. In addition to these findings, the study has also uncovered a number of indications suggesting that emergency response and critical incident stress have a strong combined influence on the incidence of and prevalence of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) among firefighters. The use of light in the alarm signal conditions a hyper-vigilant reaction among firefighters that, when combined with sleep interruptions during nightshifts and exposure to accident trauma, sets a number of physio-chemical changes in motion. With ongoing exposure to trauma and repeated responses to emergency alarms, these changes may become 'conditioned' and be triggered by a range of work-related and non-work-related stimuli. The study demonstrates the importance and usefulness of examining workplace cultures, the social contexts of behaviour and organisational functioning for the study of operational safety in ERO's and fire services in particular. It also establishes the viability of studying risk perception using methodologies derived from sociology and anthropology and provides new insight about human reactions to danger and emergenciesThesis (PhD Doctorate)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Graduate School of Environmental Science and Engineering
Science, Environment, Engineering and Technology
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Rasmussen, Ryan Jay. "Emergency Nurses' Perception of Department Design as an Obstacle to End-of-Life Care." BYU ScholarsArchive, 2011. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/2824.
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Introduction: Of the 119.2 million visits to the emergency department (ED) in 2006, it was estimated that about 249,000 visits resulted in the patient dying or being pronounced dead on arrival. In two national studies of emergency nurses' perceptions of end-of-life (EOL) care, ED design was identified as a large and frequent obstacle to providing EOL care. The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of ED design on EOL care as perceived by emergency nurses.
Methods: A national, geographically dispersed, random sample of 500 members of the Emergency Nurses Association were sent a 25-item questionnaire regarding ED design as it impacts EOL care. Inclusion criteria were nurses who could read English, worked in an emergency department, and had cared for at least one patient at the EOL. Descriptive statistics were calculated for the Likert-type and demographic items. Open-ended questions were analyzed using content analysis.
Results: After two mailings yielding 198 usable responses, nurses did not report ED design to be as large an obstacle to EOL care as previous studies had suggested. Nurses did report the ED design helped EOL care at a greater rate than it obstructed EOL care. Nurses also believed they had little input into unit design or layout changes. The most common request for design change was private places for family members to grieve. Thirteen nurses also responded with an optional drawing of suggested emergency department designs.
Discussion: Overall, nurses reported some dissatisfaction with ED design, but also believed they had little to no input in unit design improvement. Improvements to EOL care might be achieved if ED design suggestions from emergency nurses were considered by committees that oversee remodeling and construction of emergency departments. Further research is needed to determine the impact of ED design on EOL care in the emergency department.
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FREIRE, MARCOS VINICIUS SOARES SERRA. "WORK-LIFE BALANCE: IS THERE A DIFFERENCE IN PERCEPTION BETWEEN WORKERS FROM DIFFERENT SOCIOECONOMIC STRATA?" PONTIFÍCIA UNIVERSIDADE CATÓLICA DO RIO DE JANEIRO, 2017. http://www.maxwell.vrac.puc-rio.br/Busca_etds.php?strSecao=resultado&nrSeq=30721@1.
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PONTIFÍCIA UNIVERSIDADE CATÓLICA DO RIO DE JANEIROJá há algum tempo as organizações estão atentas à questão de work-life balance, tendo criado diversos programas e benefícios para promover um melhor equilíbrio entre vida pessoal e vida profissional dos funcionários, visando uma melhoria da produtividade. O tema também é de interesse do mundo acadêmico que pesquisa os impactos nocivos do desequilíbrio para as organizações e para o bem-estar dos funcionários, bem como suas causas e consequências. Todavia, essas pesquisas são, em sua maioria, voltadas para a elite trabalhadora, os whitecollar, dando pouca atenção aos segmentos profissionais menos qualificados. Esta constatação motivou o presente estudo que teve por objetivo compreender como o tema é percebido por indivíduos de diferentes origens socioeconômicas. Ancorado nos postulados de Bourdieu (2007), de que a percepção dos indivíduos é afetada pela classe ou fração de classe social, partiu-se da pressuposição de que a questão do equilíbrio entre vida pessoal e vida profissional não seria percebida, da mesma forma, por indivíduos de diferentes segmentos profissionais. Através de uma pesquisa qualitativa, trabalhadores de diferentes estratos socioeconômicos foram entrevistados visando um entendimento da percepção de cada um em relação ao equilíbrio entre vida pessoal e vida profissional. Os resultados dessa pesquisa indicaram que o tema é mais bem compreendido por trabalhadores de nível socioeconômico superior, sugerindo que work-life balance é um conceito definido pela elite, os pesquisadores da Academia, membros da elite cultural da sociedade (Bourdieu, 2007), para as elites.
Organisations have been concerned for some time with work-life balance. Several programmes and benefits have been created to promote a better employees work-life balance, aiming to improve the productivity. It is also in the interest of academics to study the impact of the imbalance on organisations and on employees well-being, as wells as its causes and consequences. However, the majority of these studies are focused on upper class workers, who are also known as white-collars, while little attention is paid to the less qualified professionals. This fact has motivated this study, which has the objective to comprehend how work-life balance is perceived by individuals from different socioeconomic strata. Anchored in Bourdieu s (2007) assumptions that individual perceptions are impacted by social class or fraction of class, it is presumed that the work-life balance is perceived differently by individuals from different professional segments. Through qualitative research, workers from different socioeconomic strata were interviewed aiming to understand the perception of each one in relation to work-life balance. The results indicated that work-life balance is better comprehended by workers with higher socioeconomic status, suggesting that this concept was defined by the elite, the academic researchers, members of the intelectual elite of the society (Bourdieu, 2007), for the elite.
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Trousselard, Marion. "Direction gravitaire visuelle : rôle de la perception d'orientation corporelle." Phd thesis, Université Joseph Fourier (Grenoble), 2005. http://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-00011552.
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Ce travail doctoral s'intéresse à la contribution de la perception d'orientation corporelle dans la lecture visuelle de la direction gravitaire en situation d'inclinaison corporelle en roulis (effet Aubert-Müller). Il s'agit plus précisément de vérifier l'hypothèse physiologique d'une explication des effets Aubert par une sous-estimation de la perception d'orientation corporelle. Les deux premières expériences montrent que les informations somesthésiques participent de façon différenciée au jugement de verticalité. Si l'intéroception gastrique contribue directement à la lecture gravitaire, la somesthésie tactile serait impliquée dans la perception de l'orientation corporelle dans le champ gravitaire. Au regard des résultats obtenus dans une deuxième série d'expériences, il n'est pas possible de confirmer l'interprétation physiologique de l'effet Aubert. Il apparaît cependant que les sujets effectueraient des calculs d'angles dans les espace corps/gravité et corps/objet et que des erreurs de perception de ces angles contribueraient aux erreurs de perception de la direction de la direction gravitaire. Une dernière expérience suggère qu'un décalage illusoire de la référence égocentrée dans le sens de l'inclinaison corporelle serait impliquée dans la perception des espaces corps/gravité et corps/objet. Les informations somesthésiques tactiles pourraient contribuer à la déviation de la perception de la référence égocentrée.
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Todman, Jonathan. "Exploring discrepant views of the quality of life of stroke survivors : a means of investigating adjustment to stroke." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/4458.
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Objectives: Reviews have suggested that stroke patients and family members frequently hold different impressions of the patient’s quality of life. Understanding such differences may be particularly useful for clinicians who wish to help clients adjust to the effects of a stroke. The aim of this study was to investigate how the responses of stroke survivors and their family members differ when indicating the stroke survivors’ quality of life, and whether such differences are associated with greater time elapsed since the stroke onset. Design and Method: A related-subject design and a correlational design were utilised in this study. People who had suffered a stroke within five years were compared with nominated members of their family. All participants indicated the perceived quality of life of the stroke survivor using the WHOQOL-BREF. The time elapsed since their stroke was recorded and the participants’ mood was assessed. Results: No significant differences were found between the stroke survivors and the family members’ views of the stroke survivors’ quality of life. However, agreement between these groups was found to be low in the Social domain of the WHOQOLBREF. Greater time since the stroke onset was found to correlate with greater discrepancy between groups in the Social domain, but not in the other domains. Conclusions: The results suggest that families’ adjustment to stroke does not conclude when improvement in function slows. Instead, a stroke continues to affect families years after the initial stroke. These findings may be interpreted within the context of quality of life response shift, where changes in the stroke survivors’ evaluation of their social lives may not be identified by their families. This may reflect a common trajectory following stroke. The methodological limitations of this study and suggestions for future research are discussed.
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Radlak, Bogumila. "Social cognition in multiple sclerosis : effects on social participation and quality of life." Thesis, University of Aberdeen, 2014. http://digitool.abdn.ac.uk:80/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=226789.
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Background: The current studies aimed to explore the effects of different variants of multiple sclerosis (MS) on social cognitive skills such as emotion perception, theory of mind (ToM) and empathy. Various aspects of empathy were measured using newly developed video paradigm that generated reliable and consistent responses in study participants. Further, the relationships between social cognition abilities and cognitive functioning, MS severity, mood and age were explored. The final aim was to establish whether difficulties in social cognition predicted restricted social participation and reduced quality of life in MS. Methods: This research measured multi-domain emotion perception, ToM and empathy using more ecologically valid measures than previous studies in participants with relapsing-remitting MS (n = 30), chronic progressive MS (n = 26) and matched healthy controls (n = 31). Executive functioning was measured using verbal fluency, whereas speed of processing was tested with the Digit Symbol Coding Task. Self-report measures were administered to assess of empathy, social participation, MS severity and mood. Results: Both MS groups presented with impairments in emotion perception and ToM but not in empathy. Cognitive functioning was associated with some measures of emotion perception and ToM. Reduced quality of life was inconsistently predicted by personal distress only and some aspects of emotion perception in individuals with MS. No aspects of social cognition were found to be a significant predictor of restricted social engagement in MS. Conclusion: Both MS samples demonstrated similar emotion perception and ToM impairments and no significant empathy impairment, though those with progressive MS reported poorer social participation. Lower levels of emotion perception and personal distress predicted some aspects of quality of life. Since the pattern of these results proved to be inconsistent, it is important to interpret the findings with caution, and to further explore socio-emotional functioning in MS.
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Kokkoris, Michail, Olga Stavrova, and Tila Pronk. "Finding meaning in self-control: The effect of self-control on the perception of meaning in life." Taylor & Francis Group, 2018. http://epub.wu.ac.at/6743/1/15298868.2018.pdf.
Full textAbstract:
The present research explored whether self-control is associated with
the perception of meaning in life. A week-long daily diary study (Study
1) showed trait self-control (but not daily experiences of self-control
failure) to be positively associated with a general sense of meaning in
life and daily experiences of meaning. This association was robust
against controlling for life satisfaction, positive and negative affect.
Study 2 tested two potential mechanisms underlying the association
between trait self-control and meaning in life: Successful goal progress
and experience of structure in life. While self-control was positively
associated with both, only the experience of structure predictedmeaning:
Self-control was positively related to the perception of one's life as
having a clear sense of structure and order, which in turn predicted a
stronger perception of meaning. Study 3 replicated the mediation
path via the experience of structure and showed it to be stronger for
individuals high (vs. low) in the personal need for structure. The
present findings add to the emerging literature on trait (and state)
self-control and dispositional determinants of meaning in life.
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Cooper, Amy Mixon Shapiro Steven K. "An investigation of coping skills, locus of control, and quality of life in young adults with learning disabilities." Auburn, Ala., 2006. http://repo.lib.auburn.edu/2006%20Fall/Dissertations/COOPER_AMY_40.pdf.
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Walker, Kerry M. M. "The perception and cortical processing of communication sounds." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2008. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:265a7ee7-48d3-43ec-a0c4-3271d1c3b637.
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The neural processes used to extract perceptual features of vocal calls, and subsequently to re-integrate those features to form a coherent auditory object, are poorly understood. In this thesis, extracellular recordings were carried out in order to investigate how the temporal envelope, pitch, timbre and spatial location of communication sounds are represented by neurons in two core and three belt areas of ferret (Mustela putorius furo) auditory cortex. Potential neural underpinnings of auditory perception were tested using neurometric analysis to relate the reliability of neural responses to the performance of ferret and human listeners on psychophysical tasks. I found that human listeners' discrimination of the temporal envelopes of vocalization sounds matched the best neurometrics calculated from the temporal spiking patterns of ferret cortical neurons. Neurometric scores based on the spike rates of cortical neurons accounted for ferrets' discrimination of the pitch of artificial vowels. I show that most auditory cortical neurons are modulated by a number of stimulus features, rather than being tuned to only one feature. Neurons in the core auditory cortical fields often respond uniquely to particular combinations of pitch and timbre features, while those in belt regions respond more linearly to feature combinations. Subtle differences in the sensitivity of neurons to pitch, timbre and azimuthal cues were found across cortical areas and depths. These results suggest that auditory cortical neurons provide widely distributed representations of vocalizations, and a single neuron can often use combinations of spike rate and temporal spiking responses to encode multiple sound features.
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Hanly, Narelle. "Sexual adjustment and self-perception in men following prostate cancer." Thesis, The University of Sydney, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/7246.
Full textAbstract:
Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men in Australia, with high survival rates. As a result, many men are living with the consequences of the disease and its treatment, which can affect urinary, sexual, and bowel function as well as a man's self-image and intimate relationships. Whilst most of the literature describes the frequency of treatment side effects, little is known about how these side-effects impact on the men's intimate relationships and their self-perception. Natural hesitancy to confront sexual issues and a lack of appropriate resources commonly inhibit the appropriate management of post-treatment difficulties which many prostate cancer survivors endure. The aim of this study was to explore experiences of men with prostate cancer; focusing on the impact of the disease and its management on sexuality, body image, self-esteem, personal relationships, overall quality of life and unmet needs. The study used qualitative and quantitative methodology, with 24 men, recruited via the Concord Hospital Prostate Cancer Support group newsletter. Twenty-four men completed standardized measures assessing sexual functioning, sexual self-schema, quality of life, urinary, bowel and hormonal symptoms, psychological wellbeing, and unmet needs. Of those 24 men, 21 participated in face-to-face semi-structured interviews, which were transcribed and subjected to content analysis. The participants scored lower on quality of life issues relating to urinary, sexual and hormonal symptoms, and on perception of their sexual relationship and self-esteem, compared to a prostate normative sample. The majority of men (71%) were not able to have erections, over one third (38%) reported they were not satisfied with their sexual life (38%) with a further 33% reporting being “only a little bit or somewhat” satisfied. Half (50%) the men reported they were satisfied with their relationship in general. Men indicated significant changes in their self-image, with 77% reporting that they no longer felt like a "whole man". Almost half of the participants reported unmet needs related to sexual feelings/relationships (48%), and just over a quarter reported unmet needs related to information about changes in sexual relationships (43%). One third of men (33%) expressed a need for psychological help related to feeling down or depressed. The qualitative analysis of the participants’ interviews revealed the following three themes which contributed to the understanding of the men’s post-treatment psychosexual adjustment: i) Changes in self-identity, ii) Communication and support, and iii) Adjustment process. Within the overall “Change in Self-Identity” theme there were five sub-themes, related to Physical, Self-Perception, Emotional, Existential and Relationship changes. The “Communication and support” theme comprised of six sub-themes: communication and support between men and their Doctor, Partner, Other Health Professionals, Other Men with Prostate Cancer and Support Groups, as well as Information Needs and Recommendations for the Future. Finally, the “Adjustment Process” theme included the sub-themes of Lifestyle Change, Coping Strategies, and Striving for Acceptance & Integration. As a consequence of their treatment for prostate cancer, men in the current study reported side effects of erectile dysfunction, urinary incontinence, urine leakage during arousal or at orgasm, reduced penile size, lack of or reduced ejaculate, change in intensity of orgasm, reduced desire and pain. Physical side effects impacted on men’s identity, their sexual relationship, lifestyle, day-to-day life, overall relationships and their overall quality of life. The study revealed the importance of adequate patient-health professional communication in facilitating post-treatment adjustment. Findings from this study have a number of important implications. Health professionals working in this setting need to ensure patients and partners are provided with appropriate amounts of information in ways that will best ensure their understanding of the issues, especially during the decision-making process. The information about side-effects of prostate cancer treatment needs to be communicated within a broader psycho-sexual context rather than the current focus on urinary or erectile dysfunction. Patients would benefit from access to multidisciplinary sources of care, including prostate nurse-led psycho-educational sessions, psychological care as well as access to support groups. It is anticipated that the obtained findings will inform the development of a psycho-educational intervention/tool to be used as a resource for men/couples during the post-treatment recovery and rehabilitation. It is hoped that provision of such an intervention early in the disease trajectory will lead to improved quality of care and quality of life of men affected by prostate cancer and their partners/families.
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LIANG, LIU CHU, and 柳菊良. "Contemplating nature, life is continuously revealed but faintly.─Art is created by the ego as an initial perception of spirit." Thesis, 2000. http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/23642419640772421786.
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Yang, Keng-Lun, and 楊耕侖. "The Differences of Consumer’s Perception between the Domestic and Imported Spirits Attributes." Thesis, 2005. http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/11888352953842830018.
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碩士國立屏東科技大學
農村規劃系
93
The open market of the domestic alcoholic drink industry has caused the large-scale penetration of the imported spirits to local market. The objectives of this research were to identify the understanding of consumers on the spirits, tested the Product attribute whether there was any difference perception of consumers on the domestic produced or imported spirits, and then further analyzed the advantages and weaknesses of the domestic produced spirits when facing the competition of imported spirits. Beside that, in this study also analyze the market positioning and marketing strategies for the domestic produced spirits. The research methods are included: T-test was to identify the difference perception of the domestic produced and imported spirits. Meanwhile One-Way ANOWA test was to examine the influence of consumers’ characteristic on the satisfaction of domestic produced and imported spirits. Finally, was applied factor analysis as well as cluster analysis to present the advantages and weaknesses of domestic produced spirits subsequently identified the market positioning. The results of the study analysis as shown as follow: 1. Consumers would perceive differently on the spirits according to the nature of production whether the products were locally made or imported. 2. The gender, age, education level, and income will affect the difference level of Product attribute. 3. The competitive advantages of domestic produced spirits were price and convenience of purchasing. Both of the elements were highly correlated with the brand image. 4. The weaknesses of the local produced spirits were product appearance, packaging, brand image and advertisement.
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Chao-Hsueh, Huang, and 黃昭雪. "Daily Life and Creative Perception." Thesis, 2014. http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/67121994705169723181.
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碩士國立高雄師範大學
跨領域藝術研究所
102
“Think, about Life; Wanna Live” rises from my reflection on people’s increasing alienation from the environment of daily life. By rethinking the mixed effect of various technology product embedded in modern life, I come up with some questions about rapidly changing interpersonal relations and lack of sensibility to local surroundings. The desire to pursuit a “better life” is so prevailing that we sometimes become ignorant about other aspects of living and environment, losing our perception towards different ways of interpersonal relations. But is it really worthy? Hence, I turn my attention back to my hometown. Hsiao-Ping at Da-Su District in Kaohsiung is a place where water is crucial and related with many aspects of local life and development. But it seems that nowadays inhabitants feel less linked with water than before. The core of this artistic action resonates with New Genre Public Arts, foregrounding the participation and interactions between local residents, fostering discussion of public issues. I co-work with local school and 11 sixth-graded students whom I invite as main participants to explore local area. Strategy of action lies in joy, while the framework is based on game playing. And both focusing on participant-engaging and dialogue with each other. It is their perceptual experiences and reflective thinking on relationship with environment that matter the most during the process. Besides their interactions with me, it is participants’ detailed observation and feelings that brings sensitiveness daily life arousal. Meanwhile, inspired by the whole process, our perceptions relate not only with physical condition, but also with multiple psychological and social practices. Value(s) of arts will no longer hard to define when we involved ourselves in and learn to observe, act, and create through artistic participation.
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Mulambuzi, Francis Xavier. "Beliefs in ancestral spirits : interpreting contemporary attitudes of the Baganda to the ancestors." Thesis, 1997. http://hdl.handle.net/10413/5948.
Full textAbstract:
Ancestors represent a more enduring reality in the African world-view than deities,
other non-human spirits, or amulets and charms. This thesis argues that many
Baganda have beliefs in ancestors. Much of the knowledge on ancestors in Buganda
is still confined to oral tradition. It can be useful to have some material on the
ancestors in a written form. The time will come when those who know about the
subject will die and much of the information will disappear with them for ever.
Early European writers on Baganda people touched the topic of ancestors only briefly
in their texts, without reaching great depth. The subject is given little space in their
works. Hence, they missed some major and dynamic aspects of the Baganda religion
and beliefs. Another point is that there are many changes that have taken place and
influenced Baganda's beliefs since these writers produced their works. By highlighting
those changes, this thesis tries to give a clear picture of what has transpired between
the period when those early writers wrote and today (1996), as far as such beliefs are
concerned. The early part of the thesis defines the word ancestor and other key
concepts. It gives a general analysis of ancestors in Africa. Then it moves on to
consider ancestors and the ancestral cult in Buganda. The thesis describes the earliest
accounts of the cult of ancestors in the pre-colonial period after which it looks at
ancestral observances. The effects of christianity, Islam, and political independence
on Baganda ancestral beliefs are discussed. The final stage of the study covers my
findings from fieldwork. This includes statements from some of the informants I
interviewed during fieldwork and my own conclusions regarding change and the
contemporary situation.
In this study, I have reflected on the perspectives of recent academic findings in order
to facilitate comprehensive descriptions, analysis, discussion and careful interpretation
of the beliefs under investigation. The ability of the Baganda people to retain their
traditional beliefs along with basic Christian, Muslim and modern beliefs has been
described and discussed.Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1997.
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Chieh, Chen Chao, and 陳朝杰. "A Study of Zhuangzi's Life Perception." Thesis, 2013. http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/42877189722163456140.
Full text
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Xala, Vuyiswa Charity. "Black children's perception of family life." Diss., 1992. http://hdl.handle.net/10500/16503.
Full text
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Grossklaus, Michael. "Free Church pastors in Germany : perceptions of spirit possession and mental illness." Thesis, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10500/22658.
Full textAbstract:
In many cultures and religions of the world the belief in transcendental realities, like God, the Devil and other benevolent and malevolent spirits are widespread. These realities are constructed in different ways, depending upon context. In light of the development Western industrial societies have undergone, it follows that the belief in transcendental realities may have given way to beliefs that are steeped more, in empiricism. However, understanding the belief in transcendental realities seems to be gaining renewed interest in various social science disciplines in light of the fact that claims of experiences of spirit possession are escalating. The implication this understanding has on the treatment a patient receives is likely to depend upon the training of the practitioner consulted. It follows that the experiences of patients who believe they are possessed by a spirit is as equally important to practitioners of psychology as it is to theologians. Psychologists would likely ascribe a spirit possession to a psychological experience; while theologians will attest to the presence of a spiritual illness. This project focussed on Free Church pastors in Germany and their perceptions of spirit possession and mental illness. To explore Free Church pastors understanding of spirit possession and mental illness is critical in light of the overlap of symptoms. Misdiagnosis may result in a client receiving treatment which may not be appropriate. Interviews with Free Church pastors were conducted. The results were analysed and 4 themes were identified.
Based on these interviews conclusions could be drawn which ultimately made it clear that the German free church pastors’ theological training needs to be supplemented in the area of psychology and that the pastors are unable to cope in the area of ‘spirit possession or mental illness’Psychology
D.Litt. et Phil. (Psychology)
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王筱文. "Research housewife subjective perception of life experiences." Thesis, 2014. http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/27988381770610814046.
Full textAbstract:
碩士佛光大學
生命學研究所
102
The very essence of conventional housewives has seen many changes to their counterparts of earlier decades. However, the general populations still see housewives living the superficial stereotype of the old. As a result, the overall impressions of housewives are generally labeled with dishonorable names, and false accusations. In actuality, the agonies and harsh turning points in life endured by these strong-willed women become a track of faith for which they take to further decorate the namesake of housewives. Due to the uniquely different life experiences of the three subjects, the study is urged to conduct interviews to great depth in order to extract the personal stories of these housewives. The research follows the method of structured and unstructured interviews conducted by the researcher. The researcher first begins with a personal experience to share with the subjects. The subjects then have the freedom to decide whether to express on topics naturally generated during the interview as conversation progresses. Finally, another interview is carried out with a pre-conceived outline for the subjects to elaborate on, and then the researcher proceeds to end the interview with questions. Sorted out by the research interviews, which are to become a housewife reasons, the pressure of living species, in response to the plight of the way and the role of housewife and discusses the main social responsibility and so on. Their experience in life, in the face of social stereotypes and on their response, and gradually develop their housewife role on the subject discussed. The mission from genetically related to their children so that their character education very seriously and recognize from their own social responsibility to improve due to a character, the strange phenomenon of society as a socially responsible catalytic their mission, they are by life pipeline accessible to actively promote character education for other children. The results show that respondents profound life experience, almost all have experience in becoming a housewife to pain, they accumulated negative energy from your life turn give birth to a positive forward view, making the life of a turnaround, but also because of their social existence a mission to maintain a harmonious and therefore positive for socially responsible in life.
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Jan, Mei-Lan, and 詹美蘭. "Perception of disease in the life experience." Thesis, 2010. http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/74865488325225388808.
Full textAbstract:
碩士國立陽明大學
臨床暨社區護理研究所
98
Abstract The propose of this study was to investigate the perception of disease in the life experience of adolescents with epilepsy from adolescents viewpoint. Based on the social learning theory (Bandura,1969), the qualitative inquiry research method was used. Each participant was interview with a semi-structured interview guideline. The narrative data was analyzed by using content analysis. Before the study, a pilot study was taking and an adolescent was interviewed to examine the appropriateness of the interview guideline and the interview skills of the researcher. From May 2009 to August 2009, thirteen subjects were purposely chosen from a medical center in Taipei. The criteria for choosing included: the adolescents were diagnosis of generalized convulsive epilepsy and had received AED control over 6 mouth, aged between 13 years to 18 years old, and no mental retardation. The results of the study included two themes:. (1) The impact on self-identity in seizure attached: 1) Ambiguity and loss of control of self-identify while seizure attached, 2) Reform the self-identity while the epilepsy is under control. (2) Wondering and suffering of self in social interaction: 1) fighting for autonomy in family life, 2) maintain self-esteem and self in peer relationship, 3) self-identity impacted from teacher’s attitude. Finally, based on the findings, some suggestions for nursing practice and nursing education and future research were proposed.
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Lee, Hsuan-pei, and 李宣霈. "The Perception of Urban Life under the Messages." Thesis, 2011. http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/2b49u7.
Full textAbstract:
碩士國立臺北藝術大學
美術學系美術創作碩士班
99
Summary This theory is generalized and integrated with the topics of my creations which are from 2006 to 2010. In the statement divided into five chapters, in depth, I probed into the private and personal creating process which related to the concept transformation from the figurative and purely conscious to concrete and complete works. According to this concept, this essay will describe the concept of my works and what deep meanings can be discussed and discovered which are related to my creating process and experience. These ideas are stated in the following passages and chapters. First of all, the main idea of chapter one is my creating motive and my own creating experience. Next, in chapter two, the focus will be on the extended concept of the urban life which affects the inner self. In this part, I will state and describe features and thoughts of the contemporary urban life at first, and then review the modern society where we live and references to my own works through artists’ view points. In chapter three, there are some analyses which are based on the materials and forms of works, which includes the discussion and review of the images about the appropriation and the digital prints concepts in the pieces. After that, according to different series of works in each period, I will make a deep analysis in chapter four. Finally, I will make a conclusion which refers to the thinking and cognition of these theories through the previous description and analysis.