Thèses sur le sujet « Time perception – Social aspects »

When new development threatens a valued landscape it is not just the physical landscape that is being affected, but the collective memories, meanings and identities that the landscape holds. Planning theory and practice currently offer relatively little guidance as to how to address meaning and value, particularly at a landscape scale. Recent literature from a variety of disciplines has stressed the need to develop holistic models of understanding landscape. Particular emphasis has been laid on the absence of integration of disciplinary approaches, and the need to involve communities in defining what is important and distinctive about their own landscapes. The thesis sets out to develop a conceptual framework to assist in understanding multiple cultural values in landscapes. Although the primary focus of the research is to address the perceived shortcomings in planning theory and practice, its potential relevance to inter-disciplinary work also forms a major component of the research approach. Values in landscapes include those expressed by associated communities and those identified through a variety of disciplinary approaches. Using case studies, the research explores the nature and range of landscape values as expressed by those with special associations with particular landscapes. It also examines the nature of the meanings and values ascribed by disciplines with an interest in landscape, and how various disciplines model landscape so as to convey these values. Analysis of these findings generates a landscape framework consisting of two related models. The Cultural Values Model offers a conceptual structure with which to consider the surface and embedded values of landscapes in terms of forms, practices and relationships. The Dimensional Landscape Model provides a structured way of linking expressed values to the landscape, using dimensional concepts of nodes, networks, spaces, webs and layers. The landscape framework is found to be useful not only for generating a comprehensive picture of key landscape values, but also in offering an integrated approach that has utility both for planners and for other landscape-related disciplines.

Tuberculosis (TB) has become a serious South African health problem because it is the most common opportunistic disease that leads to death in people with HIV/AIDS. Due to the airborne nature of the disease it can easily be spread to anyone including healthy people. A lack of compliance to treatment by TB patients explains why prevalence rates of the disease are high and why there is an emergence of drug resistant strains such as XDR-TB and MDR-TB. Information on existing knowledge, attitudes and perceptions regarding TB can provide a crucial foundation for the development of educational programmes and interventions aimed at reducing the further spread of the disease. This study aimed at understanding the knowledge, attitudes and perceptions towards TB and relating these to the current prevalence of HIV/AIDS. A face-to-face interview survey was conducted among adult Grahamstown East residents (n=1020). The Health Belief Model (Rosenstock et al., 1994) and Bandura’s (1986) Social Cognitive Theory formed the theoretical framework of the data collection and analysis. The data generated from the field work was first descriptively analysed providing frequency tables. Thereafter cross tabulations were calculated for relevant items using independent variables, namely gender, level of education, and experience of dealing with TB. The results of the study show that, in general, knowledge concerning TB was sufficient to provide a foundation for the adoption of healthier behaviours in the female respondents. Few of the respondents reported feeling personally susceptible although the majority of the respondents acknowledged the severity of the disease. The cues to action lacked the influence to persuade people to adopt positive health related behaviours. The perceived benefits of adopting preventative behaviour were not very influential in the adoption of healthier behavioural changes in the respondents. Disease stigma regarding the dual association of TB and HIV/AIDS was the main barrier for the adoption of healthier behavioural attitudes. Perceived self-efficacy in preventative behaviours was generally low in the less educated respondents. Recommendations regarding areas for future research and change interventions are provided.

This thesis is concerned with the perception of time in music with emphasis on tempo, emotion and time perception in music. Three studies were conducted to assess whether listeners were able to make consistent judgements about tempo that varied from piece to piece. Listeners heard short extracts of Scottish music played at a range of tempi and were asked to make a two alternative forced choice of 'too fast' or 'too slow' for each extract. The responses for each study were plotted as proportion too fast responses as a function of tempo for each piece, and cumulative normal curves were fitted to each data set. The point where these curves cross 0.5 is the tempo at which the music sounds right to the listeners, referred to as the optimal tempo. The results from each study show that listeners are capable of making consistent tempo judgements and that the optimal tempo varies across extracts. The results also revealed that rhythm plays a role, but not the only role in making temporal judgements. In the previous studies, it is possible that listeners might be using an average tempo from previously heard extracts to make every subsequent response. We wanted to assess this by presenting a single stimulus per participant and therefore remove any effects of the context on participant's responses. Using this technique we shall show that listeners can make 'too fast' and 'too slow' responses that are independent of previously heard extracts. In addition the data reveal similar results to those found in the first experimental chapter. The 3rd chapter deals with the effect of changes in the tempo of music on the perception of happy and sadness. Listeners heard short extracts of music that varied in tempo and were asked to make a 2AFC of happy or sad for each extract. Separate psychometric functions were obtained for each extract of music, and the points where these crossed 83% and 17% happy were calculated, and treated as happy tempo and sad tempo respectively. The results show that most extracts can be perceived as both happy and sad just by varying the tempo. However, the tempo at which extracts become happy or sad varies widely from extract to extract. We show that the sad and happy tempi are related to the size of the intervals (pitch changes) in the extract. In considering what might be involved in the perception of time in music we wanted to assess what effect small changes to a stimulus would have on perceived duration. We presented 2 auditory stimuli and show that the perceived duration of the test stimulus with a change in pitch increased as the size of the pitch change increased. The results are explained in terms of event strength where strong events cause perceived duration to increase whilst weak events are perceived to be shorter by comparison.

Increasing number of pregnancy applications (apps) are complementing healthcare systems to educate expectants and improve their maternal well-being. Using similar kind of applications for people from multicultural background might have varied impact on their pregnancy experiences. Especially for immigrants, cultural beliefs first set in their home country, might conflict with practices followed in country of residence and information provided in digital resources. This study aimed to compare the perceptions on pregnancy app usage by first-time expectants living in Sweden from native and migrant perspectives. Data was collected using semi-structured interviews through an online platform, Zoom, and explored the users’ opinions on app’ usage. Twelve first-time expectants were recruited through snowball sampling technique using social media group. Data was then analyzed using thematic qualitative analysis. The findings indicate the importance of understanding healthcare practices and social support in country of residence. Participants expressed that they developed a connection with unborn through pregnancy apps. However, app usage raised conflicts between user expectations from knowledge gained by apps and information provided by healthcare system, also exposed potential problems faced by immigrants due to different approaches followed by Swedish healthcare system. Participants using English apps expressed that they are receiving updates according to American healthcare system, while participants using Swedish apps asserted that they are getting relevant information adapted to Swedish society. The study advocates that the apps are not well-suited for migratory background users and provided possible solutions to improve existing pregnancy apps for maximum number of users to benefit.

Diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease is encouraged as a first step towards people planning for their future with the condition. Despite the proposed benefits of diagnosis, it is also widely recognised that Alzheimer’s disease can expose people to stigma. Therefore, this thesis explores the relationship between stigma and future outlook, from the perspective of people affected by early and late-onset Alzheimer’s disease. In order to recognise the physicality of the condition and how psychological and social factors influence experiences, a biopsychosocial perspective is employed throughout. People with Alzheimer’s disease (n=15 people with late-onset, 7 people with early-onset) and their supporters (n=22) completed questionnaires about perceived stigma. This was followed by 14 interviews with a subsample of participants, which explored stigma and future outlook in more depth. Perceived stigma reporting across participants was low in the questionnaires; whereas interviews revealed higher levels of stigma with people discussing mixed, unpredictable reactions from a range of sources. Participants expressed awareness of the unpredictable nature of their futures with the condition. The subsequent lack of control was managed through focusing on ‘one day at a time’ and avoiding looking too far ahead. Across reflections on stigma and future outlook there was a deliberate focus on positive experiences for people affected by early and late-onset Alzheimer’s disease. The similar management of experiences across participants minimised possible age-based differences. These findings are supported by socioemotional selectivity theory, which suggests people are motivated to maintain positive emotional states when facing ‘time-limiting’ conditions irrespective of age. The research suggests people’s experiences of stigma and future outlook interact, with stigma-driven assumptions about the future affecting how people manage their daily lives. The avoidance of looking ahead suggests that policy which encourages future planning should consider its utility and explore ways of helping people to manage both exposure to stigma, and planning for the future, whilst focusing on daily living.

Despite recent attempts to retrieve the body within sociology and the assumption of a now 'embodied' framework, how this should be done remains problematic, contentious and disputed. Current tensions more than partially revolve around the difficulty overcoming the limitations of foundationalist and anti-foundationalist approaches, restricting the development of a truly embodied and empirically driven conceptual framework. Remarkably little theory has entered the body and considered the body in terms of its own inner processes, the result of a persistent ontological queasiness concerning bodily interiority. The exclusion of the interior of the body problematises any integration between not just what bodies mean but also what they can do. As a field of location, I address the question of how both the female body and women's embodied experiences within the field of infertility can be both theorised and explored without succumbing to these limitations. Acknowledging the influence of both feminist and hermeneutic perspectives, and situating my approach within a temporal and biographical framework, I acknowledge both the interior and exterior of the female body. An empirical study of 15 women's experiences of infertility treatment was conducted using life story interviews and researcher-solicited diaries. Analysis focused upon the conditions of meaning-making and understanding, emphasising the biographical and temporally-situated of women's narratives in relation to the female body. By overcoming the difficulties admitting the female body into our analyses, this thesis illuminates the process of embodiment itself in the development of a truly embodied and empirically driven theoretical and conceptual framework in this field.

In the last decades, human action processing has been the research focus of a series of studies aimed at investigating the brain mechanisms underlying this complex process. Converging neurophysiological and functional neuroimaging literature suggested that human actions processing is associated with a large scale network involving areas within the temporal, parietal and frontal cortices. Against the amount of literature available on the localization of these areas, the temporal course of their activations is poorly understood. The purpose of the present project was to explore the temporal dynamics associated with human action perception investigating the neural responses to different aspects of human behavior by means of a series of high-density electrophysiological recording experiments combined with source localization methods. Specifically, the motor (Chapter 1), the semantic (Chapter 2) and the social (Chapter 3) aspects were investigated. Results highlighted a crucial role of the social/affective content, revealing a very early recognition (at 170 ms) operated by the temporal and limbic areas, of this aspect of the human behavior. Starting from 250 ms the processing of the different aspects occurs temporally aligned, involving firstly the mid-superior temporal sulcus (STS) and subsequently the fronto-parietal mirror (hMNS) circuit. Evidence from the source localization analysis suggested also a later involvement of the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), associated with mentalizing process. A deepening of the social content of actions was then performed (Chapter 4). Specifically, the modulation of the neural response to particular social actions, that is the communicative actions, caused by the different role held by the observer was investigated using fMRI. Activations in the brain circuits associated with action perception, namely the STS, the hMNS and the mPFC, were recorded only when participants were the addressees of the communicative actions, clearly indicating the importance of social involvement in processing human actions. All in all, the present results point toward a complex interplay of different brain networks to process in parallel distinct aspects of the human behavior in order to ensure a rapid and effective comprehension of the surrounding social environment. The prominent role of the social aspect in human action perception is also supported by the clear result of the prevalence of the affective/social content on the others.

Social support has a great impact on injured NCAA athletes' complete psychological and physical recovery. When individuals, such as the coach, athletic trainer, teammates, and family, incorporate social support in the recovery process the injured athlete's attitude and belief system is positively influenced. The coach and athletic trainer have been specifically researched and proven to be influential in certain types of social support, but the family has not been significantly studied in the past. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the six different types of social support given by the family in comparison to the social support given by the head coach, athletic trainer, and teammates to the injured NCAA Dl athlete regarding the athlete's satisfaction level of each type of support provided, as well as how each support contributed to the athlete's recovery. An additional purpose is to examine the quality of the six different types of social support given by the family. This study was carried out by a quantitative survey (Modified Form of the Social Support Survey) in which NCAA athletes from a private, Dl institution who met specific criteria were the subjects. The results were analyzed through inferential statistics using multiple one-way ANOV As. The results showed according to the athlete, the family and athletic trainer provided the highest levels of all six types of social support compared to the coach and teammates. The coach was the least influential in the social support network according to the athlete. In conclusion, the family provides an integral role within all types of social support. The family should be included in the rehabilitation process of the athlete for a healthy psychological and physical recovery of the injured NCAA athlete.

An important issue in human cognition concerns face processing. Faces are incontestably one of the most important biological stimuli for humans. They convey crucial social cues, such as age, sex, emotion and identity information, and are the basis of verbal and non-verbal communication. Face processing and recognition have been extensively studied over the past years, through different methodology including neuroimaging and electrophysiology, mostly aimed at testing the extent to which faces can be considered a class of special visual stimuli (e. g. Farah, Wilson, Drain, & Tanaka, 1998; but see also Gauthier, Behrmann, & Tarr, 2004). Despite there is no complete agreement on this debated issue all authors concord on the fact that there are at least two reasons that make faces special: face recognition exhibit functional characteristics not found in the recognition of other visual stimuli and, second, the neural substrate that mediates face recognition is anatomically separated from the those mediating general object recognition (e.g. Farah, Rabinowitz, Quinn, & Liu, 2000). The majority of the literature on face processing was aimed primarily to investigate the ability to discriminate between faces and non-face like objects (e.g. Gauthier, Behrmann, & Tarr, 1999), as well as defining which kind of processing is involved (configural vs. featural processing) (e.g. Maurer, Grand, & Mondloch, 2002) and the ability to perceive the uniqueness of individual faces (e.g. Bruce & Young, 1986), thus focusing primarily on face-identity related aspects of recognition It has been claimed that the recognition of facial identity is based on invariant facial features, such as eyes, nose, mouth and their reciprocal configurational relations. As well as these invariant aspects, faces have another essential component: their changeable aspects, that carry a variety of socially important cues that are essential to social interaction. Indeed, since birth most face viewing occurs in the context of social interactions and faces provide a wealth of information, beyond identity, which facilitate social communication. Indeed, facial features can move, changing their reciprocal relations, generating for example facial expression, lip or eye movement. In fact, while these changeable aspects do not modify the identity of that particular face, they result constitute in different visual stimuli which convey different social signals. The ability to process such social relevant information may represent a more highly developed visual perceptual skill than the recognition of identity. Only recently however, the study of these aspects have started to be investigated. Among the different neuroanatomical - functional models proposed in literature, the Haxby and colleagues’s (2000) take into account both important components, invariant features and changeable aspects of a face. The network includes visual (“core”) regions, which process invariant facial features, as well as limbic and prefrontal (“extended”) regions that process changeable aspects of faces (Haxby, Hoffman, & Gobbini, 2000; Ishai, 2008). Starting from Haxby model, the attention of the present work has been focused on the role of the changeable aspect of a face within social interaction. More specifically, the aim of the current series of studies was to investigate how observer could process, use, interact and react to different social signals (i.e. gaze direction, head orientation, facial expressions). In experiment 1 we explored the perception of different gaze directions and the role of conflicting information in gaze following behaviour was investigated using ERPs. In experiment 2 we examined the effect of the combination between gaze direction and head positions on allocation of attentional resources and thus on the processing of subsequent target using fMRI. In experiment 3 we studied how non-emotional facial expressions could help recognition of identity in a clinical population (i.e. congenital prosopagnosia). It is well known that others’ gaze direction and body position attract our attention (Ricciardelli, Baylis, & Driver, 2000), and it also has been demonstrated the existence of an automatic tendency to follow the gaze of others, leading to joint attention (Ricciardelli, Bricolo, Aglioti, & Chelazzi, 2002). It is known that we can use those signals to modulate our attention, but it is still unclear the nature and the time course of control processes involved in this modulation. In the first part of the present study we investigate this issue on gaze by using different methodologies: electrophysiological method in order to investigate the time course of the gaze following behaviour (the fact that ultimately the observer’s look and attend where another person is looking); and neuroimaging method to explore what neural system is activated when a temporal allocation of resource is required and influenced by seeing actors with different gaze direction and head orientation. In experiment 1 we wanted to trace the time course of the processed involved in a gaze cueing task in which the effect was investigated in an overt paradigm. By combining eye movement and ERP recordings we investigate the involvement of conflict monitoring processes in various contexts and at different times with respect to the distracter’s eyes movement. We used ERP because they provide a measure of the timing of the elaboration of gaze observed and of the consequent planning of a saccadic response. Participants were instructed to saccade towards one of two lateral targets in a Posner like paradigm. Seventy-five milliseconds before, or after the instruction onset, a distracting face gazed towards a target (goal-directed), congruent or incongruent with the instructed direction, or towards an empty spatial location (non-goal-directed). We analyzed the N2 and Error-Related Negativity (ERN) measures, known to be involved in conflict monitoring processes (respectively in pre-response conflict and in error detection). Results interestingly showed that a certain degree of control over the gaze following response is possible, suggesting that tendency to follow the gaze of others is more flexible than previously believed, as it seems to depend not only on an early visuo-motor priming (Crostella, Carducci, & Aglioti, 2009), but also on the circumstances (i.e. context) associated with the seen gaze shift. In experiment 2 we explored activations in face neural system in order to verify whether social cues indicating mutual contact enhanced or reduced attention for subsequent events. More specifically it has been investigated how the processing of gaze direction (averted, directed) and head position (deviated, frontal) diminishes attentional blink (AB) for subsequent visual events. We used fMRI in order to measure the hemodynamic response (change in blood flow) related to neural activity in attentional and face processing systems when the temporal allocation of resource is linked to gaze direction and head position processing. Results showed that when the eyes and the head were oriented in the same direction (i.e., congruent conditions), attract attention and increase the processing of subsequent visual events, than when they were oriented in opposite directions (i.e., incongruent), In fact analysis showed that congruent gaze direction and head orientation increased activity within bilateral temporoparietal junction, an area that is strongly associated with mentalizing and understanding intentions of other’s (Redcay et al., 2010), as well as increased activity in regions of the face perception network, such as Occipital Face Area, Superior Temporal Sulcus and anterior insula (Ishai, 2008), but these responses were drastically diminished during AB. Moreover activity in bilateral Intraparietal Sulcus, a region involved in gaze perception (Calder et al., 2007) and attention (Marois, Chun, & Gore, 2000), decreased during AB in parallel to the decrease in recognition performance, thus when head and gaze were averted. These results show that head and gaze directions seem to be powerful social cues that are able to modulate the AB effect and, more generally, influence the observer's attention in reacting to subsequent visual stimuli. Together with the results from Experiment 1, these findings validate the issue that humans has a neural system to process other’s gaze direction and that this system is complexity linked with attentional networks both to allocate resource and to share the attention with someone else. Another important features connected with social signals in face perception are facial expressions which were investigated in the second part of the present work. The idea that facial identity and facial expressions are processed by separate visual route has well established in face research. The model proposed by Haxby and colleagues (2000) contain a separate route for facial identity but it is unknown if a single system supports the processing of emotional and non-emotional facial expressions whereas non emotional facial expressions are expressions that are not supported by an affective state. A previous study (Comparetti, Ricciardelli, & Daini, 2011) on normal subjects suggests that non-emotional facial expressions could be processed in a specific way dissociable from emotions and from other facial features. In perceiving emotional expressions congenital prosopagnosic individuals (people who are unable to recognize faces and maintain the disability lifelong in absence of any obvious brain damage) are indistinguishable from control but it’s still unknown if they could process non-emotional facial expressions. This hypothesis was tested in Experiment 3 by investigating whether and how CP participants could elaborate facial expressions that not convey an affective state (A. J. O'Toole, Roark, & Abdi, 2002). Using the Face inversion paradigm, as in Comparetti et al. (2011) we tested if non-emotional facial expressions could be processed by system, differentiated from identity recognition system and emotion processing in CP subjects with pathological score at standard face recognition tasks. We carried out a behavioural study in which we compared performance in a recognition task and in a same/different judgement task, using upright and inverted faces. In the experiment were manipulated respectively internal features, emotional and non-emotional facial expressions. Results demonstrated that in these subjects non emotional facial expressions are processed and facilitated the judgment in the upright orientation, while emotions and features manipulation did not. Overall, the present thesis has investigated issues from the current domain of processes associated with face perception and social information essential for adaptive behavior in a complex social environment. It provides further evidence that social signs are important and are processed even if they are not relevant for the task. For example gaze cueing is observed even when the participants are motivated to orient away from gaze direction because the target will be in an uncued location (experiment 1) or even if it is not relevant for the task (experiment 2) and facial expressions are elaborated even if only the identity of the face will be required (experiment 3). More specifically it has been investigated how people react to social signal and could plan their behaviours reacting to the social information given by a face. In fact in Experiment 1 has been demonstrated that other’s gaze is a strong trigger to allocate our attention to an important location in space but more deeply other’s gaze it’s really important when the two actors have something in common (i. e. the same peripheral targets); in fact, under certain conditions, the gaze following behaviour could be controlled and specifically when the context is not shared. Moreover the Experiment 2 has shown how people could allocate temporarily their attention responding to gaze direction and head orientation, and demonstrating that when the different signals are congruent it is possible to reallocate attentional resources to process subsequent event. Finally in Experiment 3 it has been demonstrated that a facial expression that does not convey an universal affective state could be processed by congenital prosopagnosic individuals and these expressions could be used as a cue to arrive to the identity.

Social contact norms are used by managers to establish standards for regulating visitation of wilderness areas so that visitors can attain adequate experiences of solitude. This study expanded on current conceptions of social contact norms to provide a theoretical and empirical basis for understanding how such norms are formed. Using person perception, stereotyping, and socialization theory and the concept of cognitive schemata, a conceptual framework was built to explain how visitors come to judge certain groups as appropriate or inappropriate in a wilderness area. Seven research hypotheses were proposed and tested using a database consisting of responses to a mail questionnaire survey of 800 permit requestors and 95 interviews with visitors at Aravaipa Canyon Wilderness, Arizona. The first hypothesis, that wilderness visitors would regard some types of groups as appropriate and other types of groups as inappropriate in the wilderness area, was supported. Norms for encountering 13 types of groups were estimated from written questions and drawings, and paired picture comparisons allowed ranking of six types of groups. Encounters with lone hikers, small groups, medium-sized groups, birdwatchers, youth groups, school classes, and rangers were considered more appropriate than encounters with hunters, horseback riders, packstock users, and nude bathers. Logit and multinomial logit models were used to test the six remaining hypotheses, which concerned the influences of socialization and other processes on development of social contact norms. To test the hypotheses, norms for encountering six types for groups were predicted from demographic and other variables. The results indicated that norms for encountering small groups were not affected by social class or race; affiliation with a small group during a wilderness visit was associated with a dislike of large groups, membership in a conservation organization had no such association; members of conservation organizations preferred fewer encounters with hunters; membership in a conservation organization also prompted the respondents to dislike encounters with horseback riders; females, older visitors, and people with children disliked encountering nude bathers; and inexperienced and less self-reliant visitors enjoyed encounters with rangers. Theoretical, managerial, and social implications of these results were then discussed.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2006.
Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 118-124). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

In contemporary capitalist economies such as the UK, it is commonly held that an increasing number of people and households experience anxiety over time and symptoms of 'time squeeze'. Existing accounts of the character and causes of this phenomenon are rather one-dimensional and lacking in nuance, however. In part, this is because they typically lack any substantial theoretical engagement with the concept of time itself. Accordingly, this research aims to provide a more complex and contextual account of experiences of working time (both paid and unpaid), and to investigate how and why experiences of time squeeze vary between individuals and social groups. This is achieved by calling upon an enriched understanding of time, and employing an instrumental case study built around a set of 50 semi-structured interviews with employees working in Oxford University's central IT department and four of its constituent colleges. The empirical findings reveal that the (quantitative) extent and (qualitative) nature of participants' temporal anxieties vary with occupation, social class, gender, age and family status, as well as the importance of institutional and local context. Furthermore, they demonstrate that contemporary time squeeze is generated by a variety of causal mechanisms relating to the duration, tempo and timing of both paid employment and unpaid reproductive work, and their intersections with the personal, natural, social, institutional and technological rhythms that variously constitute everyday life.

The term patina refers to a particular quality of decay in material objects, where the decay is both a physical and symbolic property of the object. As a physical property patina is an expression of the passage of time, a visual marker of the object's timeboundedness reflected in signs of ageing and/or use. This thesis considers the implications of a digital patina, including its relevance for an analysis of the relationship between things and time or timeboundedness.

Social support has a great impact on injured NCAA athletes' complete psychological and physical recovery. When individuals, such as the coach, athletic trainer, teammates, and family, incorporate social support in the recovery process the injured athlete's attitude and belief system is positively influenced. The coach and athletic trainer have been specifically researched and proven to be influential in certain types of social support, but the family has not been significantly studied in the past. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the six different types of social support given by the family in comparison to the social support given by the head coach, athletic trainer, and teammates to the injured NCAA Dl athlete regarding the athlete's satisfaction level of each type of support provided, as well as how each support contributed to the athlete's recovery. An additional purpose is to examine the quality of the six different types of social support given by the family. This study was carried out by a quantitative survey (Modified Form of the Social Support Survey) in which NCAA athletes from a private, Dl institution who met specific criteria were the subjects. The results were analyzed through inferential statistics using multiple one-way ANOV As. The results showed according to the athlete, the family and athletic trainer provided the highest levels of all six types of social support compared to the coach and teammates. The coach was the least influential in the social support network according to the athlete. In conclusion, the family provides an integral role within all types of social support. The family should be included in the rehabilitation process of the athlete for a healthy psychological and physical recovery of the injured NCAA athlete.

This thesis presents a multi-sited and multi-scalar ethnography of the processes and practices through which producers attempt to designate food as heritage. Grounded in cultural geography, it adopts a cultural economy approach to addressing concerns within agro-food studies by joining in conversation notions of heritage, place-making and time. By underlining the intrinsic relation between articulations of time and constructions of place, this thesis further maps the alternative geographies of food. It engages with three overarching questions, drawing on research conducted within two heritage-based food initiatives in Mexico and Scotland, both linked to the Slow Food movement. These produce, respectively, a traditional sweet called pinole and 'real' bread. The thesis asks: what objectives are pursued through the heritagisation of food whereby various actors strategically coin foods as heritage? How is time articulated in the discourse of heritage food, and how do heritage food networks and producers understand time as a component of food quality? Finally, what senses of place emerge from the various uses of time as a quality in global, translocal and local heritage food discourses? This thesis explores Slow Food's heritage qualification scheme and the ensuing commodification of heritage food, as well as translocal networks, and practices of 'slow' production. Through empirical engagements it argues that the qualification of heritage foods is multifunctional and that various articulations of time enable small-scale producers to engage with a plethora of socio-economic and political issues. Numerous and at times conflicting constructions of place surface from the discourses woven around these two heritage products and problematise identity formation and narratives of the past linked to producers and communities. This thesis concludes that the constructions of place associated with heritage foods depend not only upon the authority and circumstances of actors articulating a heritage discourse, but also on the scale of the dissemination of that discourse, and on the notions and understandings of time associated with heritage and place.

This research, based on a random sample of undergraduates at the University of Arizona, is an exploration of the relationships between normative conformity, self-perception, and eating behavior. The goal of this study was to examine how norms governing appearance and sex roles contribute to a view of self that may result in serious eating problems. Three dimensions of self were included in the study: body image, control, and orientation to others. Specifically, it was hypothesized that overconformity would contribute to a self-concept defined in terms of negative body image, including a high degree of weight consciousness, strong need to exercise self-constraint, and high degree of orientation to others. In turn, this negative self image is likely to be associated with eating behavior which may be described as "weight obsessed," although not necessarily meeting clinical criteria for eating disorders. One of the major purposes of this research was to examine gender differences in the processes contributing to disturbances in eating behavior. It was hypothesized that definitions of the female and male self would have different outcomes in terms of eating behavior. It was also hypothesized that conformity to norms would be a more salient issue for females than for males. Findings of this research indicate that females experience more disturbed eating than males; that societal standards of appearance do affect eating behavior of both females and males, although this effect is greater for females; and that a self-concept defined in terms of negative body image, high weight consciousness, need for constraint, and feelings of failure/inadequacy contribute to problematic eating among females. These results imply that solutions to the problem of disordered eating must be examined in terms of social causes: specifically, current definitions of femininity, attractiveness, and self-concept.

The present study examined procedural and distributive justice outcomes of discipline in an athletic team setting. A 2 (Consistency of Punishment: consistent vs. conditional) x 2 (Violation Severity: moderate vs. severe) x 2 (Punishment Severity: moderate vs. severe) x 2 (Decision Maker: head coach vs. team captains) factorial design was used. Participants responded to four of the 16 hypothetical scenarios resulting from the design. Participants included 354 fans in attendance at a several university athletic events and students in psychology courses. The results indicated that consistent punishment was perceived as more fair to the punished athlete, teammates, and fans than was conditional punishment. Consistent punishment was perceived as more likely than conditional punishment to deter future misconduct by the punished athlete and teammates. The findings of the importance of consistency to fairness perceptions are consistent with the organizational justice literature and suggest that principles derived in traditional organizations may apply in athletic team settings. However, the current study did not find that severe punishment was more likely than moderately severe punishment to deter future misconduct by the punished athlete and teammates, which was inconsistent with the research literature on punishment. The present research indicated that inconsistencies in applying punishment based on status likely will have a negative effect on fairness perceptions in an athletic setting just as it does in an organizational setting. Intercollegiate athletics are unique in the sense that there are many outside observers, most notably fans, who pay close attention to athlete misconduct and its subsequent outcome. According to the present results, if coaches are interested in fan perceptions of fairness, punishment should be consistently applied according to team rules for all players regardless of their status on the team.

La pression temporelle est souvent considérée comme une caractéristique majeure des sociétés modernes mais, paradoxalement, elle a été assez peu étudiée en situations écologiques et, notamment, dans le cadre de la conduite automobile. Cette dernière est souvent désignée comme une tâche secondaire qui se révèle pourtant centrale dans la réalisation de différentes activités professionnelles. Ce travail de thèse centré sur la pression temporelle au volant est exploratoire et s'appuie sur différentes approches : questionnaires, entretiens, enquêtes de terrain, suivi d'activité, et expérimentations en laboratoire. Nos données corroborent l'idée selon laquelle la pression temporelle a des effets délétères sur le comportement routier. Nous montrons également qu'elle peut être source d'émotions négatives mais, chez certains conducteurs, elle ne dégrade pas voire amplifie les émotions positives, en particulier le plaisir de conduire. Les effets de la pression temporelle sur l'impatience et sur l'empathie sont également abordés. Enfin, nos données montrent aussi que la pression temporelle modifie, au moins en partie, les estimations de vitesses et la perception du temps. Nous concluons de ce travail que la pression temporelle est de nature subjective et qu'elle possède une composante cognitive et une composante émotionnelle.

Individuals attend to a variety of various stimuli on a daily basis and their brains decide what to attend to and what to tune out. How the brain chooses what is most important to pay attention to is decided with threat level, novelty, emotion, and other criteria. The current study looked at responses from 41 participants who identified high or low with University of Kentucky, Western Kentucky University, and/or Christianity. The participants where shown two images, the UK logo and either the WKU logo, an out-ofstate team logo, or a Christian symbol. Directly after the two images were presented, a dot appeared on the screen and the participants tapped a key on the keyboard to indicate on which side of the screen the dot was placed. The hypothesis stated that participants’ mean reaction time for identifying the side of the screen the dot was on when under a logo or a symbol with which the participants highly identify would be faster than the mean reaction time to a dot under logos or symbols with which the participant had low identification. However, results of this study did not show statistically significant differences in the mean reaction times of the participants.

This research investigated the relationships between clothing interest and self-perception among scoliosis patients and their non-handicapped peers. The objectives were (1) to investigate the differences in selected clothing interest factors and self-perception domains between female adolescents with scoliosis and non-handicapped female adolescents and (2) to investigate relationships between clothing interests and self-perception among female adolescents with scoliosis and non-handicapped female adolescents.

Data were obtained from 70 female adolescents of which 35 had scoliosis and 35 were non-handicapped. A clothing inventory, developed by Creekmore in 1963 and revised by Borsari in 1978, titled "Dimensions of Clothing Interest," was used to measure clothing dimensions of interest, conformity, modesty, psychological awareness, and self concept.

A second instrument, the "Self-Perception Profile for Adolescents", developed by Harter in 1988, was used to measure five domains of self-perception which were: social acceptance, athletic competence, romantic appeal, physical attractiveness, and global self-worth.

Master of Science

This doctoral thesis describes a program of research that investigated the social psychological consequences of being a victim of discrimination. A series of four experiments with women, Asians, and Blacks examined how disadvantaged group numbers perceive the discrimination that confronts them. These experiments first established that disadvantaged group members sometimes perceive discrimination but more often, minimize the discrimination that is directed at them personally. Second, the results explain why disadvantaged group members are inclined to minimize their personal experience with discrimination, Experiments 1 and 2 demonstrate that by minimizing discrimination, disadvantaged group members protect their state self-esteem in the social domain, and maintain the perception of control over social and performance outcomes in their lives. Experiment 3 indicates that when there is any ambiguity about having been discriminated against, disadvantaged group members who are low in performance self-esteem but higher in social self-esteem are especially inclined to minimize personal discrimination. Experiment 4 further reveals that disadvantaged group members who are high in performance perceived control and high in social perceived control are particularly prone to minimize discrimination in an achievement context. Thus, disadvantaged group members minimize the discrimination that confronts them because the consequences of doing so, are, on balance, psychologically beneficial. Three of the four psychological processes associated with minimizing personal discrimination are those typically linked with better psychological adjustment: high social self-esteem, high performance perceived control, and high social perceived control.

Studies have shown that pregnant women do understand and value information of their unborn child. However, those providing health promotion services often focus on medical procedures and health education messages, ignoring the cultural, socio-economic and psychological dimensions that impact on women's health. This research aimed to look at a specific component of health promotion, i.e. health promotion messages shared with pregnant women attending Stellenbosch and Klapmuts Community Health Centre Antenatal Health Promotion Programme and their perceptions of how they apply messages in their daily lives.

In this work, the author aims to trace some of the transformative effects of televisual technologies in contemporary post-industrial culture, and to critically assess their impact on the way knowledge is produced, and experience a sense of embodiment and social agency. The relation between humans and tools is questioned, and the hybridity of words such as technoculture and biotechnology is investigated, arguing that the separation of human and technology,and body and tool, at the level of both existence and knowledge is a synthetic distinction. Specifically, the author concentrates on some of the medium specific effects of postclassical visualising technologies, from high-end ensembles such as virtual reality and medical imaging apparatuses, to the mundane apparatus of television and the remote control device. Such ways of seeing, it is argued, collaborate in producing an emergent tele-body, or a telesomatic mode of perception and knowing which exceeds standard epistemologies of vision in both science and the everyday. This work thus aims to develop a theoretical and conceptual framework for understanding the variable effects of postclassical technovision and televisuality upon our modes of embodiment.
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

CONSELHO NACIONAL DE DESENVOLVIMENTO CIENTÍFICO E TECNOLÓGICO
Todo projeto de design que promete mudanças deve, afinal, comunicar-se de uma maneira eficiente com seu público. E todo projeto sustentável deve tornar clara a sua sugestão de transformação da sociedade. Mais que modelar formas e funções, designers criam idéias e propostas, que seus consumidores ou usuários finais percebem ou não. Portanto, esse novo valor simbólico conferido pelo design, aqui neste trabalho chamado de valor sustentável, deve ser visto como uma oportunidade para comunicar uma idéia, uma proposta de mudança social e cultural, que precisa ser percebida, do ponto de vista do consumo. Para verificar como produtos de design sustentável se comunicam com seu público, esta dissertação apresenta uma pesquisa bibliográfica e um trabalho de campo realizado junto a um grupo de trinta consumidores de móveis e objetos decorativos, de três lojas de decoração da cidade do Rio de Janeiro. Uma pesquisa qualitativa, composta de uma entrevista em profundidade, e uma pesquisa quantitativa, utilizando a técnica da análise conjunta, foram aplicadas junto aos consumidores, para avaliar a percepção do valor sustentável em peças decorativas e verificar sua eficiência como agente transformador e facilitador de mudanças.
Every design project that promises changes must, after all, establish an efficient communication with their public. And all sustainable projects should make clear their suggestion of transformation of the society. More than modeling forms and functions, designers create ideas and proposals, which their customers or end users perceive or not. Therefore, this new symbolic value given by design, here in this paper called sustainable value, should be seen as an opportunity to communicate an idea, a proposal of cultural and social change, which needs to be perceived, in terms of consumption. To verify how products of sustainable design communicate with their public, this dissertation presents a bibliographical research and a field research carried out among a group of thirty consumers of furniture and decorative objects, from three decoration stores of the city of Rio de Janeiro. A qualitative research, consisting of an in-depth interview, and a quantitative research, using the conjoint analysis technique, were applied to consumers, to assess the perception of the sustainable value in decorative pieces and verify its effectiveness as a transforming agent and changes facilitator.

AI applications are today implemented in a wide range of settings with the goal of achieving greater efficiency. However, these implementations can not be guaranteed to be free of risks. This study investigated how people perceive these risks and benefits, and whether there were any notable differences to be found between the domains in which they appear, in this case e-commerce/marketing and healthcare. Additionally, the relationship between the perceptions and individual positive and negative attitudes towards AI were examined by utilizing an affect heuristic framework. The findings showed that the two domains did differ from one another, as ratings of both perceived risks and benefits were higher for the healthcare domain compared to the e-commerce/marketing domain. Further, an inverse correlation between ratings of risks and benefits were found within each domain, which is consistent with the affect heuristic framework.

In current study, a mechanism to extract traffic related information such as congestion and incidents from textual data from the internet is proposed. The current source of data is Twitter, however, the same mechanism can be extended to any kind of text available on the internet. As the data being considered is extremely large in size automated models are developed to stream, download, and mine the data in real-time. Furthermore, if any tweet has traffic related information then the models should be able to infer and extract this data. To pursue this task, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Natural Language Processing techniques are used. These models are designed in such a way that they are able to detect the traffic congestion and traffic incidents from the Twitter stream at any location. Currently, the data is collected only for United States. The data is collected for 85 days (50 complete and 35 partial) randomly sampled over the span of five months (September, 2014 to February, 2015) and a total of 120,000 geo-tagged traffic related tweets are extracted, while six million geo-tagged non-traffic related tweets are retrieved. The classification models for detection of traffic congestion and incidents are trained on this dataset. Furthermore, this data is also used for various kinds of spatial and temporal analysis. A mechanism to calculate level of traffic congestion, safety, and traffic perception for cities in U.S. is proposed. Traffic congestion and safety rankings for the various urban areas are obtained and then they are statistically validated with existing widely adopted rankings. Traffic perception depicts the attitude and perception of people towards the traffic. It is also seen that traffic related data when visualized spatially and temporally provides the same pattern as the actual traffic flows for various urban areas. When visualized at the city level, it is clearly visible that the flow of tweets is similar to flow of vehicles and that the traffic related tweets are representative of traffic within the cities. With all the findings in current study, it is shown that significant amount of traffic related information can be extracted from Twitter and other sources on internet. Furthermore, Twitter and these data sources are freely available and are not bound by spatial and temporal limitations. That is, wherever there is a user there is a potential for data.

The growth of computer-mediated communication (CMC) has generated great interest among researchers. Although perspectives vary, the anonymity inherent in textual communication and the reduction of social markers are often described as the characteristics that distinguish CMC from other forms of communication. These arguments have resulted in unprecedented optimism regarding the potential of this technology to eliminate social inequalities and increase access to institutional power. While critics have provided substantial evidence to the contrary, especially in regards to gender inequalities, CMC continues to be promoted and accepted.
Critical responses on the issue of gender have concentrated on behavioral issues. As exemplified by the work of Herring, these issues include, among others, the use of adversarial rhetorical strategies, topical control, representation in electronic communities, and the phenomenon known as "flaming".
Surprisingly, no effort has been made to address the role of gender in the cognitive aspects of CMC or directly question the claims advanced by supporters of this technology in relation to the anonymity of electronic texts. With the exception of Herring's peripheral remarks on this issue and limited work on the problem of gender judgements by Savicki and his colleagues, research is non-existent.
Given the importance of this area for the information professions, this research explores the role of gender in the cognitive processes associated with identification and impression formation. More specifically, this research addresses two concerns. The first is whether CMC users can identify the gender of those they have never met face-to-face by relying exclusively on the detection of gender cues. The second centers on the role of gender in the evaluation of electronic communicators.
Against the perspectives outlined in the feminist critique of technology, this research's theoretical framework is derived from the work of Hymes as well as literature from cognate fields. Thus, Hymes' theoretical model on the concept of communicative competence, which allows competent speakers to pass judgement on the appropriateness of linguistic events, is central to the investigation.
The results provide convincing evidence regarding the implications of gender in the cognitive dimension of CMC. Data from 133 research participants (91 females and 42 males) associated with the study of librarianship or its professional practice suggest that CMC simply recreates existing gender asymmetries. Women are less likely to remain anonymous, more likely to be described stereotypically, and more likely to be evaluated negatively.

I en tidigare etnografisk studie uppmärksammade vi ett barns fråga om tid. ”Hur länge är inte så länge?” och utifrån denna fråga skapade vi syftet till denna studie som blev att ta reda på hur små barn förhåller sig till tid och att undersöka hur pedagogerna bemöter barn med olika tidsbegrepp. Vi har valt att använda oss av följande frågeställningar, Hur beskriver barn sin upplevelse av tid? Hur beskriver pedagogerna sin upplevelse av tid? Hur kan pedagoger få barnen att förstå olika begrepp om tid? Genom att använda oss av kvalitativa intervjuer med barn och vuxna har vi samlat in vår empiri som vi sedan analyserat med hjälp av aktuell forskning och nyckelbegrepp som relativ tid, absolut tid, ordningsföljd samt tid och avstånd. Med dessa begrepp vill vi poängtera att det inte är en fråga om de strikta definierade fysikaliska termerna, utan mer om hur vi upplever och beskriver tid som lekmän. I vårt resultat kom vi fram till att barns platser och vuxnas tidsrytmer har stor betydelse för hur barn förstår tid och rum. William J. Friedman undersöker detta genom att använda sig av tidscyklar för att se om barnen kan förstå hur olika rytmer hänger samman. Utifrån detta har vi förstått att små barn inte har samma tidsuppfattning och förståelse för tid som vuxna har. Med hjälp av konkreta material om tidsbegrepp som är kopplade till vardagshändelser kan pedagogerna hjälpa barnen att förstå tid.
In a previous ethnographic study drew attention to a child's question about time. "How long is not so long?" and on the basis of this question, we created the aim of this study was to find out how young children relate to time and to examine how teachers respond to children with different tidsbegrepp. We have chosen to make use of the following questions, how to describe children's experience of time? How describes the teachers their experience of time? How can educators get the kids to understand different concept of time? Through the use of qualitative interviews with children and adults, we have gathered our empirical evidence, which we then analyzed using current research and key concepts such as relative time, the absolute time, sequence, and time and distance. With these concepts, we would like to point out that it is not a matter of strict defined physical terms, but more on how we experience and describes the time that laymen.

This thesis employs interpretive research via ethnographic fieldwork to explore the complex relationship between the postmodern self and consumption symbolism. In postmodernity, where society becomes more global but simultaneously decentred, pastiche-like and hyperreal, the self is encountering a number of dilemmas propelled by the looming threat of personal meaninglessness. In order to attain a sense of existence, the self appears to seek the meaningfulness of life from and through symbolic consumption. Indeed, postmodernity is primarily a consumer culture where consumption is central to the meaningful practice of our everyday life. The postmodern self makes consumption choices not only from the products' utilities but also from their symbolic meanings, the function of which operates in two directions: outward in constructing the social world, social-symbolism; and inward in constructing our self-identity, self-symbolism. To understand these phenomena, ethnographic fieldwork of four distinctive groups - a group of male femaling transgenders, a group of young nouveaux riches, a group of young extremist Buddhists and a group of young provincial women - are conducted in Bangkok, Thailand. Principally, the research explores how the informants employ everyday consumption symbolically in their self-creation processes. It also examines how the informants appropriate symbolic meanings through and from their lived and mediated experiences, and incorporate these meanings into their symbolic self-projects by means of everyday consumption. Moreover, it observes how the informants negotiate their self-social symbolism through the process of self-others identification within their friendship groups. The interpretations unfold a number of surprising outcomes which provide insight into the informants' self-projects and their consumption experiences. To conceptualise the interpretations, a model - Consumption Symbolism and the Harmonising Self - is proposed.

Doctor of Philosophy
Aim. This study aims to investigate self-understanding in young males with high-functioning autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and to determine whether self-understanding is related to social functioning and theory of mind (ToM). In addition, this study aims to examine the characteristics and abilities of young males with high-functioning autism (HFA) and Asperger’s disorder (AD) to determine whether there are significant differences in selfunderstanding and whether self-understanding is related to social functioning and ToM between these two groups. The results have important implications for social skills interventions for young people with ASD. Method. Forty three young males diagnosed with one of the ASD (25 diagnosed with HFA and 18 diagnosed with AD) were compared with 38 TD males. Participants were assessed using the Autism Diagnostic Interview- Revised (ADI-R), the Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test (KBIT), the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales (VABS), the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test- Third Edition (PPVT-III), Damon and Hart’s Self-understanding Interview, and two false-belief ToM tasks. Results. Children with ASD had difficulties recognising and attributing their own mental states and failed to integrate various aspects of the self. Specifically, the ASD group produced fewer self-statements that reflected agency (the awareness and understanding that one is in control of their actions), social aspects of self (such as personality characteristics and group membership) and psychological aspects of self (such as emotions, thoughts and cognitive processes). Instead, children with ASD produced more concrete physical self-statements (such as body characteristics and material possessions). A significant positive relationship was found between selfunderstanding and social functioning for the ASD group. Within the ASD group, the relationship held for the HFA group only. In terms of ToM, children with ASD were less able to correctly answer the second-order false-belief ToM question compared to the TD group. For the ASD group, there was a significant positive correlation between self-understanding and ToM. Within the ASD group, the relationship held for the HFA group only. Conclusions. The results show young males with high-functioning ASD are less aware of their own and others’ mental states perhaps reflecting a general delay in the development of self-understanding and ToM. Furthermore, a more developed self-understanding may translate to improved social functioning and ToM ability for young males with high-functioning ASD. For young males with HFA, self-understanding and ToM may stem from a common underlying cognitive framework. Consequently, treatments aimed at improving self-understanding may simultaneously improve ToM, or vice versa. For individuals with AD there may be a separate cognitive mechanism responsible for self-understanding and another for ToM. Therefore, different interventions may be required; one to improve self-understanding and another to improve the understanding of others’ minds. Overall, these results may assist in the development of practice parameters for social skills training for those with ASD.

Aim. This study aims to investigate self-understanding in young males with high-functioning autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and to determine whether self-understanding is related to social functioning and theory of mind (ToM). In addition, this study aims to examine the characteristics and abilities of young males with high-functioning autism (HFA) and Asperger’s disorder (AD) to determine whether there are significant differences in selfunderstanding and whether self-understanding is related to social functioning and ToM between these two groups. The results have important implications for social skills interventions for young people with ASD. Method. Forty three young males diagnosed with one of the ASD (25 diagnosed with HFA and 18 diagnosed with AD) were compared with 38 TD males. Participants were assessed using the Autism Diagnostic Interview- Revised (ADI-R), the Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test (KBIT), the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales (VABS), the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test- Third Edition (PPVT-III), Damon and Hart’s Self-understanding Interview, and two false-belief ToM tasks. Results. Children with ASD had difficulties recognising and attributing their own mental states and failed to integrate various aspects of the self. Specifically, the ASD group produced fewer self-statements that reflected agency (the awareness and understanding that one is in control of their actions), social aspects of self (such as personality characteristics and group membership) and psychological aspects of self (such as emotions, thoughts and cognitive processes). Instead, children with ASD produced more concrete physical self-statements (such as body characteristics and material possessions). A significant positive relationship was found between selfunderstanding and social functioning for the ASD group. Within the ASD group, the relationship held for the HFA group only. In terms of ToM, children with ASD were less able to correctly answer the second-order false-belief ToM question compared to the TD group. For the ASD group, there was a significant positive correlation between self-understanding and ToM. Within the ASD group, the relationship held for the HFA group only. Conclusions. The results show young males with high-functioning ASD are less aware of their own and others’ mental states perhaps reflecting a general delay in the development of self-understanding and ToM. Furthermore, a more developed self-understanding may translate to improved social functioning and ToM ability for young males with high-functioning ASD. For young males with HFA, self-understanding and ToM may stem from a common underlying cognitive framework. Consequently, treatments aimed at improving self-understanding may simultaneously improve ToM, or vice versa. For individuals with AD there may be a separate cognitive mechanism responsible for self-understanding and another for ToM. Therefore, different interventions may be required; one to improve self-understanding and another to improve the understanding of others’ minds. Overall, these results may assist in the development of practice parameters for social skills training for those with ASD.

This thesis describes a program of research aimed at examining the social psychological consequences of being a victim of discrimination. An experimental paradigm was developed to determine if, and to what extent, disadvantaged group members perceive the discrimination that confronts them. Women were asked to react to negative feedback after receiving information about the probability that they had been discriminated against. When discrimination was made ambiguous, subjects minimized their personal experience with discrimination and attributed their failure to themselves. A second experiment investigated the role of perceived control as a potential cause of minimization of personal discrimination. The results indicated that disadvantaged group members were reluctant to blame their performance on discrimination because in so doing, they were placing control for their outcomes in the hands of others rather than themselves. The findings are discussed in terms of their implications for the on-going victimization of disadvantaged group members.

It is important to consider the effects of past conflicts on the current perceptions of the people of Cyprus and of the future generations. This thesis contends that the ongoing division of Cyprus along with the many unresolved issues regarding past conflicts have had a profound effect on how the people of Cyprus perceive new information in regard to their future. The inquiry will explore the historical background of Cyprus and the affects of nationalism. The need for enemies, large group identity, divided societies and the need for dialogue will also be examined in relation to perception and new information. In light of the interviews and the lived experiences in Cyprus questions arise in regard to how the Cypriots will move forward to a solution that is agreeable to both Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots. With each person's perception being influenced by the past conflicts, pain and suffering how will they move forward? How has protracted conflict and nationalism influenced the Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot perceptions to new information including a possible solution in Cyprus?

Thesis (M.A. (Clinical Psychology)) --University of Limpopo, 2013
The study is aimed at investigating societal perception towards the hearing impaired and their psychological implications. The study concentrated on how the hearing impaired thought the hearing public perceived them and, also identified the psychological implications of these (perceived) societal perceptions on the hearing impaired. The research design is qualitative in nature, wherein, a convenient and purposive sample of ten hearing-impaired participants was used. Video recorded interviews of open-ended questions and questionnaires were used in combination to gather information. The Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was applied as the method of data analysis. Three super-ordinate themes were identified. These themes primarily indicated that the hearing impaired hold the view that they are negatively perceived by the hearing society. The findings of the study were that negative societal perceptions result in negative self-perceptions and discourage social interactions between the hearing impaired and the hearing communities.

In 2007, juveniles were involved in a minimum of 1,063 murders in the United States (Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2008), and a concern over juvenile homicide offenders remains. While increasingly more macrolevel research on juvenile homicide offending has been accumulated, particularly since the 1980s, research focusing on macrolevel correlates of juvenile homicides is still relatively scarce (MacDonald & Gover, 2005; Ousey & Campbell Augustine, 2001). In the first part of this study, several variables relating to the offender, victim, setting, and precursors to the homicide by race and gender were examined in order to provide details on the context of youth homicides between 1965 and 1995 in Chicago. The Homicides in Chicago, 1965-1995 data set and Census data for 1970, 1980, and 1990 were used in this study. The results indicate that changes in youth homicides over the 31-year time period involved increases in lethal gang altercations, particularly among Latinos, and increases in the use of automatic weapons. Young females had very little impact on homicide rates in Chicago. The second part of the study examined whether measures of social disorganization can aid in the prediction of homicides committed by youths, and a total of ten negative binomial models were run. The results of the analyses in the three time periods indicate that racial/ethnic heterogeneity, educational deprivation, unemployment, and family disruption are significantly and positively related to homicides. Foreign-born population and median household income were found to be significantly and negatively related to homicides. The significant indicators of social disorganization varied in the seven models for the disaggregated groups. Overall, the results reflect support for social disorganization theory. Limitations, suggestion for future research, and policy implications are also addressed.
Ph.D.
Department of Sociology
Sciences
Sociology

World perceptions are culturally determined, manifested in different cultural patterns of behaviour and in relationships between humans and their natural environments. Resource use and management reflect the values and priorities of a specific society. Conflicts may arise when different societies, with divergent attitudes and relationships with the land, are competing for resources. Cultural geographers and moral philosophers have explored ideas pertinent to such conflicts. A native community in Quebec's commercial forest area presents opportunity for an applied ethical inquiry into resource management: addressing the conflicting traditional and contemporary patterns of forest use of native and non-native groups. Yi-Fu Tuan and Paul W. Taylor explore issues of space, respect, and resource use, substantiating the assertion that cross-cultural resource conflict resolution necessitates moral inquiry. Taylor's six point value concept categorization is applied to show the perceptual differences between the groups, thereby affecting an assessment of the ethical roots and dimensions of the conflict.

The integration between Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and the education field has led to the emergence of Learning Management Systems (LMS). Moodle serves as a platform for students to collaborate, access course material and take exams. This thesis investigates Moodle’s testing function using a mixed-method approach. 111 undergraduates responded to a survey relating to Nielsen’s usability attributes learnability, satisfaction and errors. Additionally, five students were interviewed. The qualitative data was thematically analyzed and indicated that students perceived Moodle’s testing function to be simple to use, though inflexible. Also, concerns were raised about the lack of visual hierarchy. Students suggested a more distinguished testing interface, the addition of a scratch-paper function, and automatic saving to prevent being timed out.

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2014.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The most commonly searched for topic on the internet revolve around sexuality. These searches, known as online sexual pursuits, may be influenced by one’s personality traits, such as sexual sensation seeking (Kalichman et al., 1994), which has been associated with various sexual risk behaviours and could increase one’s chances of contracting sexually transmitted diseases and infections. It is therefore vital for researchers to examine the association between sexual sensation seeking and the internet. This study collected data from 336 participants who responded to instruments on an online survey which consisted of a demographic questionnaire, the Sexual Sensation Seeking Scale (Kalichman et al., 1994), the Sexual Compulsivity Scale (Kalichman & Rompa, 1995), the Big Five Inventory (John, Naumann, & Soto, 2008), the Real Me Questionnaire (Amichai-Humburger, Wainapel, & Fox, 2002), Klein’s Sexual Orientation Grid (Klein, 1993), and items associated with sexual risk behaviour (Mashegoane, Moalusi, Ngoepe, & Peltzer, 2002), online deception (Capri & Gorski, 2006; Stieger , Eichinger, & Honeder, 2009), and internet use. Results from multiple regression analyses indicated that extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, sexual compulsivity, sexual risk behaviour, and online self-disclosure were statistically significant (p < .05) predictors of sexual sensation seeking. The study used product-term regression analysis to examine the influence that time spent on the internet has on sexual sensation seeking and its relationship with the statistical predictors thereof. Three distinct third variables were used, namely, hours spent on the internet for work purpose (work hours), hours spent on the internet associated with online sexual pursuits (sexual hours), and hours spent on the internet for personal purposes (personal hours). Through the use of product-term regression analyses I was able to show that work hours as a third variable moderated the relationship between extraversion and sexual sensation seeking; work hours indirectly influenced sexual sensation seeking through sexual compulsivity; and that work hours as a third variable moderated the relationship between online self-disclosure and sexual sensation seeking. Furthermore, sexual hours as a third variable moderated the relationship between sexual compulsivity and sexual sensation seeking. Finally, I have shown that, within the sample, personal hours as a third variable moderated the relationship between sexual compulsivity and sexual sensation seeking; personal hours indirectly influenced sexual sensation seeking through sexual risk behaviour; and personal hours indirectly influenced sexual sensation seeking through online self-disclosure. It thus seems that time spent online influences sexual sensation seeking. It is advised that internet use policies be put in place to establish and maintain a professional culture within the workplace, and to ensure that job performance is consistently met. Internet software packages may be used to identify and report unauthorized online activity, and monitor hours spent online in order to identify individuals who may require treatment with regards to problematic internet use, sexual compulsivity, and inappropriate sexual behaviour in the workplace. Furthermore, the results of this study highlight the internet’s influence on the relationship between sexual compulsivity and sexual sensation seeking, and as such, may be of interest to sex therapists and counsellors in the field of hypersexuality. Finally, corporations, university officials, and youth and sexual health organisations may want to create awareness and provide educational resources with regards to the health risks associated with exploring sexuality via the internet.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Temas wat rondom seksualiteit gefokus is, is die mees algemeenste onderwerp wat op die internet nagevors word. Hierdie internet soeke, naamlik aanlyn seksuele strewe, word deels beïnvloed deur persoonlikheids-eienskappe, soos seksuele sensasiesoeke. Verder, seksuele sensasiesoeke is geassosieer met ‘n wye reeks riskante seksuele gedrag en kan die kanse tot seksueel oordraagbare siektes en infeksies verhoog. Hieruit volg dus die noodsaaklikheid dat navorsers die assosiasie moet ondersoek tussen seksuele sensasiesoeke en die internet. In ‘n aanlyn-opname is data van 336 respondente versamel deur die gebruik van instrumente soos 'n demografiese vraelys, Seksuele Sensasiesoekende Skaal (Kalichman et al., 1994), Seksuele Kompulsiwiteit Skaal (Kalichman & Rompa, 1995), Groot-Vyf Inventaris (John, Naumann, & Soto, 2008), Ware Ek Vraelys (Amichai-Humburger, Wainapel, & Fox, 2002), Klein se Seksuele Oriëntasie Rooster (Klein, 1993), en items wat verband hou met riskante seksuele gedrag (Mashegoane, Moalusi, Ngoepe, & Peltzer, 2002), aanlynmisleiding (Capri & Gorski, 2006; Stieger , Eichinger, & Honeder, 2009), en internetgebruik. Resultate van 'n meervoudige regressie-analise het aangedui dat ekstraversie, pligsgetrouheid, welgevalligheid, neurotisisme, seksuele kompulsiwiteit, riskante seksuele gedrag, en aanlyn self bekendmaking statisties beduidende (p < .05) voorspellers van seksuele sensasiesoeke is. Hierdie studie het produk-term regressie-analise (toets vir interaksie met behulp van meervoudige regressie) gebruik om die derde veranderlik van tyd wat op die internet gespandeer word te analiseer met betrekking tot die verhouding tussen seksuele sensasiesoeke en die statistiese voorspellers van seksuele sensasiesoek. Die derde veranderlike bestaan uit drie verskillende kategorieë naamlik, ure wat aanlyn gespandeer is vir werksdoeleindes (werksure), ure wat op die internet gespandeer is wat verband hou met aanlyn seksuele strewe (seksuele ure), en ure wat aanlyn vir persoonlike doeleindes gespandeer is (persoonlike ure). Resultate dui daarop neer dat werksure die verhouding tussen ekstraversie en seksuele sensasiesoeke gemodereer het, werksure het seksuele sensasiesoeke indirek gebeïnvloed deur seksuele kompulsiwiteit, en dat werksure die verhouding tussen aanlyn selfbekendmaking en seksuele sensasiesoeke gemodereer het. Verder het seksuele ure die verhouding tussen seksuele kompulsiwiteit en seksuele sensasiesoeke gemodereer. Persoonlike ure het die verhouding tussen seksuele kompulsiwiteit en seksuele sensasiesoeke gemodereer, persoonlike ure het seksuele sensasiesoeke indirek gebeïnvloed deur riskante seksuele gedrag, en persoonlike ure het seksuele sensasiesoeke indirek beïnvloed deur aanlyn selfbekendmaking. Dit blyk derhalwe dat die tyd wat op die internet gespandeer word het 'n invloed op seksuele sensasiesoeke. Daar word voorgestel dat beperkende beleidsriglyne binne internetgeledere ingestel word ten einde ‘n professionele kultuur binne die werkplek te verseker. Internet-programme kan gebruik word om ongemagtigde internet-aktiwiteit te identifiseer en aan te meld, aanlyntyd te kontroleer en persone te identifiseer vir moontlike behandeling vir internetverwante probleme, seksuele kompulsiwiteit en ontoepaslike seksuele gedrag binne die werkplek. Voorts fokus hierdie studie op die invloed van die internet met betrekking tot die verhouding tussen seksuele kompulsiwiteit en seksuele sensasiesoeke, en kan van beduidende belang wees vir seksterapeute en beraders wat spesialiseer in die veld van hiperseksualiteit. Ten slotte skep hierdie studie ‘n platform vir organisasies, universiteite, jeug- en seksuele gesondheidsorganisasies om bewustheid en programme te bevorder wat die gesondheids-risiko’s aanspreek wat verband hou met seksuele strewe op die internet.

This work focuses on the type-3 self-driving cars, partially autonomous vehicles which can control themselves for most of the time and may ask the driver to take control of the car in case of specific situations. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the perception of the simulated risk faced by the participants in a low fidelity simulation in relation with their background: the gaming and driving experience. The participants of the study drove in the simulator and answered a questionnaire about both the driving session and the background information. The simulated risk was assessed and compared with the information from the questionnaire. It was evaluated both the performance of each participant represented by the level of risk experienced while driving the simulation and the correct identification of the risk faced. The result data highlighted a positive correlation between the driving performance and the videogame experience.

Transition to motherhood is referred to as change in the new role and relationship during women's developmental stages. Difficult transitions may cause problems in the mother-infant relationship and influence the acceptance of this role. The purpose of this study was to investigate transition to motherhood as it relates to early mother infant interaction, stress and social support of first time Taiwanese mothers, and to determine other maternal characteristics related to transition to motherhood. Purposive sampling was used to recruit 63 first-time postpartum mothers between ages of 18 to 35 who intended to breastfeed their infants. The subjects were recruited from a maternity unit of one medical center in south of Taiwan between year 2004 to year 2005. Four major instruments were used to collect the data: Revised What Being the Parent of a Baby is like Questionnaire, The Nursing Child Assessment Scale, The Perceived Stress Scale and The Interpersonal Support Evaluation List. The first administration of all questionnaires was conducted and the feeding interaction was observed and scored on the postpartum day during hospitalization (Time 1). After observation, immediate feedback regarding their feeding interaction including positive feedback and suggestions were given to all participants by the investigator. The second administration of all questionnaires was conducted at 4 weeks postpartum (Time 2). The last administration of all questionnaires was mailed to participants at 4 months postpartum (Time3). T-test, analysis of variance, Pearson Correlation and stepwise multiple regression were utilized to analyze the data. Findings indicate that first- time mothers with lower perceived stress and longer breastfeeding had an easier transition process to motherhood. During this transition, social support mediates the effect of perceived stress. The data fit the model and explained 42 % of the variance in transition to motherhood. Up to 29 % of variance was explained by perceived stress and of 13 %was explained by the length ofbreastfeeding. The study provides a knowledge base for further research on transition to motherhood and designing advanced educational program for new parents and clinical practice is required. Key words: transition, motherhood, mother-infant interaction, stress, social support.