This thesis is concerned with the question how can be the phenomenon of Maidan (Майдан) understood. Maidan here is primarly seen as an event in which people risked their lives. The first chapter deals with eyewitness testimonies of demonstrators in the Ukrainian Revolution of Dignity (Революція Гідності), who were present in the directly life-threatening places (Hrushevsky-st, Institutska-st). In the second chapter Hegel's concept of the certification by death (die Bewährung durch den Tod) is inquired, as present in a lordship and bondage theory (Herrschaft und Knechtschaft) in the Phenomenology of Spirit (Phänomenologie des Geistes). In the third chapter, through the presentation of the author's own speculative theory of the Gates, we will try to prove that life can be deployed in two ways, from a position of humility and a position of pride. Within proving this statement we differentiate Hegelian concept of certification by death using Augustine's notion of pride (superbia). At the end of the inquiry we will try to answer the initial quastion, what Maidan is in light of the act of deployment of life.

Ce travail a pour but de décrire les relations réciproques entre prise de perspective et informations vestibulaires. Une étude chez des patients avec un déficit vestibulaire bilatéral ancien et des sujets contrôles a montré que l’ancrage du soi sur le corps et la simulation implicite de la perspective visuo-spatiale d’autrui étaient similaires chez les deux groupes. Ainsi, une perte vestibulaire ancienne n’entraînerait pas de conflits multisensoriels, connus pour évoquer un sentiment de perspective désincarnée chez des patients avec des déficits vestibulaires aigus. Une étude chez des volontaires sains a combiné des stimulations vestibulaires naturelles sur fauteuil rotatoire à des tâches de prise de perspective dans un environnement virtuel embarqué. Les temps de prise de perspective étaient modulés en fonction de la direction de la rotation. Cette influence n’était pas présente pour la rotation mentale d’objets 3D. La contribution vestibulaire canalaire modulerait donc spécifiquement les rotations mentales du point de vue. Enfin, les modulations cognitives du traitement des informations vestibulaires ont été analysées par l’enregistrement de potentiels évoqués myogéniques vestibulaires sur les muscles sternocléidomastoïdiens et trapèzes. L’amplitude des potentiels évoqués était significativement modulée par l’angle séparant le point de vue du participant et celui d’un avatar distant. Nos travaux théoriques et les résultats de cette série d’expériences démontrent la contribution des informations vestibulaires à la prise de perspective visuo-spatiale. / This thesis aims at describing the reciprocal relations between perspective taking and the vestibular system. A study in patients with bilateral vestibular deficits and controls showed that the anchoring of the self to the body and implicit visuo-spatial perspective taking were similar in both groups. Our negative findings offer insight into the multisensory mechanisms of embodiment: only acute peripheral vestibular disorders and neurological disorders in vestibular brain areas may evoke disembodied experiences. A second study, combined natural vestibular stimulation on a rotatory chair with virtual reality to test how vestibular signals are processed to simulate the view point of a distant avatar. While they were rotated, participants tossed a ball to a virtual character from the view point of a distant avatar. Our results showed that participants were faster when their physical body rotated in the same direction as the mental rotation needed to take the avatar's viewpoint. Altogether, these data indicate that vestibular signals have a direction-specific influence on visuo-spatial perspective taking, but not a general effect on mental imagery. Finally, cognitive modulations of vestibular information processing were analyzed by recording vestibular-evoked myogenic potentials on the sternocleidomastoid and trapeze muscles. The amplitude of evoked potentials was significantly modulated by the angle separating the participant’s viewpoint to that of a distant avatar. To conclude, our theoretical work, together with results from this series of experiments, demonstrate the contribution of vestibular information to visuo-spatial perspective taking.

Les effets d’amorçage comportemental ont fait l’objet de nombreuses recherches. Ces travaux ont révélé que l’activation incidente de concepts pouvait orienter le comportement des individus et que cette influence pouvait avoir lieu en dehors de la conscience. Toutefois, des critiques ont émergé à propos de ce champ de recherche, remettant en question la robustesse de certains types d’effets d’amorçage et la véracité de ces effets. L’identification des processus sous-jacents aux effets d’amorçage comportemental s’est alors imposée comme indispensable afin de mieux comprendre sous quelles conditions ils apparaissent et ainsi pourquoi ils font l’objet de difficultés de réplication. Ce travail de thèse a pour objectif d’apporter une contribution à l’identification des processus sous-jacents aux effets d’amorçage. A travers neuf expériences, nous avons testé d’une part, l’idée selon laquelle des caractéristiques méthodologiques (e.g., la durée d’exposition aux amorces) étaient propices à l’émergence de ces effets, d’autre part le rôle modérateur de certains facteurs (i.e., le concept de soi) dont une partie de la littérature suppose qu’ils sont impliqués dans ces effets. Les résultats montrent que le concept de soi pourrait être un déterminant de l’ampleur et de la direction des effets d’amorçage comportemental, selon l’implication de la conscience de soi ou de l’estime de soi. De plus, le niveau de perception des amorces semble être un candidat privilégié des modérateurs de l’amorçage comportemental. Dans l’ensemble, ces résultats fournissent des éléments afin de poursuivre l’investigation des mécanismes sous-jacents aux effets d’amorçage comportemental. / The prime-to-behavior effects have been widely studied. Research revealed that incidental concept activation could guide subsequent behavior and that this influence could be unconscious. However, some critics have emerged about these effects, questioning the robustness and the veracity of the prime-to-behavior effects. Identifying the underlying processes is essential to better understand under which conditions these effects appear and why some researchers have failed to replicate them. This work aimed at contributing to the identification of underlying mechanisms of these effects. Through nine experiments, we tested at one hand some methodological characteristics supposed to promote the emergence of these effects and, on the other hand some supposed theoretical moderators of the prime-to-behavior effects. Results prove the self-concept could determine the magnitude and the direction of these effects, depending on the self-consciousness or the self-esteem to be involved. Moreover, the level of conscious perception of the primes seems to be a potential moderator of the prime-to-behavior effects. Together, these results provide elements to continue the investigation of the underlying mechanisms of the prime- to-behavior effects.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Change has become a prevalent feature of today’s organizations, resulting in an increased demand for workers who are able to adapt to the dynamic nature of the environment. Recently, many have suggested that traditional models of job performance should be expanded to include an adaptive performance dimension. Research in this relatively new domain has focused on defining adaptive performance and understanding how it may be predicted. This study contributes to these efforts by testing the personality trait of conscientiousness as a predictor of adaptive performance, with both constructs being studied at their domain and facet levels. The incremental validity of conscientiousness over cognitive ability is also examined, and autonomy is investigated as a moderator of the conscientiousness-adaptive performance relationships. A sample of 212 undergraduate students who work at least 20 hours per week participated in the study by completing an online survey and a cognitive ability assessment. Conscientiousness was supported as a good predictor of adaptive performance overall. However, the predictor-outcome results did vary over the domain and facet levels, emphasizing the importance of studying both levels. At the two-facet level of conscientiousness, the achievement motivation facet was shown to have stronger relationships with the adaptive performance dimensions compared to the dependability facet. At the six-facet level of conscientiousness, the three achievement motivation facets and one dependability facet (i.e., dutifulness) were significantly related to all eight performance dimensions, but the other two dependability facets (i.e., orderliness and cautiousness) were not significantly related to all of the adaptive performance dimensions. Conscientiousness did provide significant incremental validity over cognitive ability at the domain level and for almost all of the facet-level relationships, but cognitive ability was not related to adaptive performance or any other study variables. Autonomy was supported as a moderator with 16 significant interactions uncovered at the facet level. However, these significant interactions only involved three (i.e., interpersonal, learning, and cultural) of the eight adaptive performance dimensions. Overall, these results supported the conscientiousness-adaptive performance relationship and contributed new findings to the adaptive performance domain that have implications for employee selection and performance management.

The fact that an understanding of the self determines one's self-esteem and that self-esteem is an important contributor to one's achievements is seemingly undisputed. Self-esteem is not only a product of how others evaluate an individual but also, and most importantly, how an individual evaluates himself or herself. At times people tend to evaluate themselves unrealistically while at other times they evaluate themselves realistically. Unrealistic self-evaluation is mostly a characteristic of adolescence and if this is not managed properly it can have a dire consequence for the adolescent's future. Adolescence is an important but also a difficult stage in the development of an individual. During this stage profound physical, emotional, psychological and cognitive changes occur. It is a period during which decisions about careerpaths and the demands that such decisions will place on the individual are made. It is therefore during this stage that realistic self-evaluation becomes critical. This research study was undertaken in order to determine how the Venda-speaking adolescents evaluate themselves and whether such self-evaluation is realistic or not. The research was motivated by an observation that the school drop-out rate is high and that an increasing number of girl learners fall pregnant before completing Grade 12. It is assumed that these tendencies and behaviours are a product of the learners' self-evaluation. A theoretical background on self-evaluation was then given through a literature review. In the process a link was established between self-evaluation and constructs such as self-concept, self-esteem, self worth, self-identity as well as personality. Different theories used to explain present and expected future behaviour were also discussed. After this review question items were drawn and compiled into questionnaires to be administered to randomly selected learners, teachers and parents. The question items, sixty in number, were categorised into the following dimensions of self-evaluation: * Physical self * Academic self * Social self * Value self * Family self * Psychological self Each dimension was covered by ten question items which were tested for validity and reliability. The research study came up with the following findings: * Parents and teachers agree in their evaluation of adolescents regarding the dimensions mentioned above * Adolescents rate themselves significantly more favourably than teachers and parents evaluate them. * Venda-speaking adolescents evaluate themselves unrealistically. It is hoped that the findings and recommendations of this research will be beneficial to schools, policy-makers and parents. Learning areas such as Life Orientation can be used to help learners evaluate themselves more realistically. Programmes can also be developed to ensure that adolescent self-evaluation is congruent with present behaviour. / Educational Studies / D. Ed (Psychology of Education)

Although it is relatively easy to study and learn about a practice discipline in the safe environment of an academic institution, it is far more complex to make sense of what has been learned when faced with the real world of practice. Practitioners need to think on their feet and have to find new ways of managing complex problems which do not fit directly into the theoretical frameworks learned in a more formal setting. Knowledge of what the various disciplines say is not in itself sufficient, experiential knowledge is necessary. The key to learning in the experiential domain is critical reflective practice and emancipatory learning, which empower practitioners to explicate their implicit theories. If autonomy is the goal of professional education, the key is to help adult learners to distance themselves from their own values and beliefs in order to entertain more abstract modes of perception. The purpose of this inquiry was therefore, to construct a model for facilitation of critical reflective practice, based on thorough analysis of the main concepts (critical thinking and reflection), related viewpoints, models and theories; and the data gathered and analyzed during, the naturalistic inquiry. The inquirer sought to. develop each participant through Socratic & Learning Through Discussion (Dialogical) Technique, Critical Incident Reporting and participation in Critical Reflective Exercises. The constructed model for facilitation of critical reflective practice evolved from empirical observations, intuitive insights of the inquirer and from deductions combining ideas from several fields of inquiry. The model for facilitation of critical reflective practice postulates that practitioners have the inherent potential to change from auto-pilot practice to critical reflective practice. The purpose of the model is the facilitation of heightened awareness of the self, to enable health care professionals to consciously meet community needs and expectations. The desired outcome is transformative intellectuals who will strive to empower others to become critical reflective learners and practitioners. / Health Studies / D.Litt. et Phil. (Nursing Science)

Le propos de cette thèse est de réfléchir sur la notion philosophique de Maine de Biran : l’ "aperception immédiate". L’aperception immédiate, c’est le moment où je m’aperçois de moi, où je saisis immédiatement l’évidence de mon existence. Biran a relié ce moment au mouvement volontaire, le mouvement dont le but est le mouvement lui-même. Quelle est la signification philosophique de cette corrélation ? Dans cette thèse, à l’entremise de Félix Ravaisson et de Kitarô Nishida, nous trouverons que le mouvement volontaire chez Biran est d’abord la réflexion, qui nous fait reconnaître nous-même, et puis il est ultimement considéré comme création, l’acte de s’engager dans le monde réel et historique. / The aim of this thesis is to prove a philosophical notion of Maine de Biran: the “immediate apperception (aperception immédiate)”. The immediate apperception is the moment when I know myself, or when I grab immediately the evidence of my existence. Biran links this moment to voluntary movement, a movement which has its purpose in itself. What is a philosophical signification of this connection? In this thesis, with the study of Félix Ravaisson and of Kitaro Nishida, we will find that the voluntary movement in Biran is, at first, a reflection (réflexion), which lets us know ourselves. We will also find that it should be considered as a creation, an act of taking part in the real and historical world. / 本論文の目的は、メーヌ・ド・ビランにおける概念「直接的覚知 (aperception immédiate)」について考察することにある。直接的覚知とは、私が私に気付く瞬間、あるいは私が直接的に私の存在を確信する瞬間である。ビランはこの瞬間を、意志的運動に見出した。意志的運動とは運動それ自体が目的である運動である。この連結は何を意味しているのか。本論文は、フェリックス・ラヴェッソン、西田幾多郎を経由して、この問いに答える。すなわち、意志的運動とはまず、自分自身を知る反省として考えられる。次いで、それは究極的には創造として考えられるべきであることを明らかにする。創造とは、現実的歴史的世界へ参与する行為である。

Cette thèse, qui relève de la philosophie de l'esprit, consiste en la défense d'une version de la théorie auto-représentationnelle de la conscience. En acceptant d'une part la notion d'état mental possédant un certain contenu qui peut être conscient ou inconscient, et d'autre part l'hypothèse plausible que le contenu de tout état mental consiste en une représentation, alors le problème de la manifestation de la conscience s'appliquant au contenu de CERTAINS états mentaux acquiert intelligibilité dans ce cadre. Il peut être compris comme la recherche d'une structure de représentation qui donne lieu à cette manifestation. Pour certains auteurs (Fred Dretske, Michael Tye et dautres), des conditions particulières dans la représentation directe de l'objet y suffisent, pour d'autres (en particulier David Rosenthal) il y faut une méta-représentation de l'objet sous certaines conditions. Ni l'une ni l'autre de ces structures ne s'avère cependant suffisante pour justifier la démarcation entre états mentaux conscients et inconscients, et pour caractériser la phénoménalité de la conscience. En prenant alors au sérieux l'intuition forte d'auto-référentialité de la conscience (présente déjà chez Aristote - suivant certaines interprétations -, reprise par Brentano, Sartre, et ces dernières années, par Uriah Kriegel et plusieurs autres), on est conduit à proposer, pour les états mentaux conscients, une structure d'auto-représentation (de la représentation) de l'objet qui sous-tend une intentionnalité consciente duale dirigée vers l'objet et en même temps vers elle-même. on résout ainsi les problèmes de la théorie méta-représentationnelle, mais il faut monter que ce schéma est intelligible, que le risque de régression à l'infini dans les capacités repésentationnelles de la conscience n'existe pas, et que de robustes intuitions sont ainsi éclairées, telles que la structuration du champ conscient entre premier plan et arrière-plan, et le lien entre conscience d'arrière plan, ou marginale, et conscience de soi. Ce lien dérive du fait que la conscience marginale, dans la perspective de l'auto-représentation, est la conscience de la conscience d'objet, et se qualifie aussi comme conscience subjective, c'est à dire conscience "pour moi" de l'objet. Et la conscience de soi se construit à partir des épisodes de conscience subjective. L'étude du rapport entre structures de représentation mentale consciente et configurations neuronales spatio-temporelles qui les produisent dans le cerveau est hors du domaine du présent travail, mais la présence nécessaire de ces relations demeure à l'arrière-plan, et affleure dans la réflexion quand cela peut être éclairant. / This work illustrates a version of the self-representational theory of consciousness. If one accepts on the one hand the notion of mental states that have a given content - conscious or unconscious - and on the other hand the plausible hypothesis that the content of all mental states consists in a representation, then the problem of the manifestation of consciousness for (the content of) SOME states becomes intelligible within this frame. This problem can be understood as the research of the representational structure which gives rise to this manifestation. For some authors ( Fred Dretske, Michael Tye, and others) certain particular conditions in the direct representation of the object are sufficient, for others (particularly David Rosenthal) a meta-representation is necessary, under given conditions. However neither of those structures results sufficient to justify the demarcation between conscious and unconscious states and to characterize the phenomenality of consciousness. If one then takes seriously into account the strong intuition of self-referentiality of consciousness (already present in Aristotle - following some interpretations -, taken up again by Brentano, Sartre, and lately by Uriah Kriegel and several others) one is conducted to propose a self-representational structure for conscious mental states which involves a dual conscious intentionality targeting the object and itself at the same time. The problems of the meta-representational theory are thus resolved, but it remains to be shown that this scheme is intelligible, that the risk of infinite regress of the representing capacity of consciousness does not exist, and that strong intuitions are thus acknowledged : such as the distinction in the conscious field between foreground and background, and the link between background, or marginal consciousness, and self consciousness. Within the self-representational view, this link originates from the fact that marginal consciousness is the consciousness of the consciousness of the object, and qualifies itself as subjective consciousness, that is to say, consciousness "for me" of the object. Self consciousness is then constructed from the episodes of subjective consciousness. The relationship between conscious mental representational structures and the spatio-temporal neuronal configurations which produce them in the brain, is outside the domain of the present work, but it is necessarily present in the background, and it is considered when useful for the argument.

The fact that an understanding of the self determines one's self-esteem and that self-esteem is an important contributor to one's achievements is seemingly undisputed. Self-esteem is not only a product of how others evaluate an individual but also, and most importantly, how an individual evaluates himself or herself. At times people tend to evaluate themselves unrealistically while at other times they evaluate themselves realistically. Unrealistic self-evaluation is mostly a characteristic of adolescence and if this is not managed properly it can have a dire consequence for the adolescent's future. Adolescence is an important but also a difficult stage in the development of an individual. During this stage profound physical, emotional, psychological and cognitive changes occur. It is a period during which decisions about careerpaths and the demands that such decisions will place on the individual are made. It is therefore during this stage that realistic self-evaluation becomes critical. This research study was undertaken in order to determine how the Venda-speaking adolescents evaluate themselves and whether such self-evaluation is realistic or not. The research was motivated by an observation that the school drop-out rate is high and that an increasing number of girl learners fall pregnant before completing Grade 12. It is assumed that these tendencies and behaviours are a product of the learners' self-evaluation. A theoretical background on self-evaluation was then given through a literature review. In the process a link was established between self-evaluation and constructs such as self-concept, self-esteem, self worth, self-identity as well as personality. Different theories used to explain present and expected future behaviour were also discussed. After this review question items were drawn and compiled into questionnaires to be administered to randomly selected learners, teachers and parents. The question items, sixty in number, were categorised into the following dimensions of self-evaluation: * Physical self * Academic self * Social self * Value self * Family self * Psychological self Each dimension was covered by ten question items which were tested for validity and reliability. The research study came up with the following findings: * Parents and teachers agree in their evaluation of adolescents regarding the dimensions mentioned above * Adolescents rate themselves significantly more favourably than teachers and parents evaluate them. * Venda-speaking adolescents evaluate themselves unrealistically. It is hoped that the findings and recommendations of this research will be beneficial to schools, policy-makers and parents. Learning areas such as Life Orientation can be used to help learners evaluate themselves more realistically. Programmes can also be developed to ensure that adolescent self-evaluation is congruent with present behaviour. / Educational Studies / D. Ed (Psychology of Education)

Text in English / This study was designed to determine whether a relationship exists between self-reported mindfulness, self-consciousness, adjustment and academic performance in first-year university students. Additionally, the study aimed to assess the predictive quality of mindfulness and self-consciousness towards emotional adjustment (adjustment disorder symptoms, depression and anxiety) and academic performance, and to further determine the contribution of mindfulness and self-consciousness on adjustment to the predictability of academic performance. First-year students (N = 290) at the Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) at the Pretoria West and Ga-Rankuwa campuses completed the selfreported mindfulness measure, Mindfulness Attention and Awareness Scale (MAAS) (Brown & Ryan, 2003), the Self Consciousness Scale- Revised (SCS-R) (Scheier & Carver, 1985), the Beck Depression Scale (BDI) (Beck et al., 1961) the Beck Anxiety Scale (BAI) Beck & Steer,1993) and the adjustment disorder checklist; based on DSM V, (Sadock, Sadock & Ruiz, 2014). Students’ year-end results for the first year of study were used to operationalize academic performance. Results of correlation analyses indicated a significant negative correlation between mindfulness and students’ emotional adjustment (adjustment disorder symptoms, depression and anxiety), a significant positive correlation between selfconsciousness and students’ emotional adjustment (adjustment disorder symptoms, depression and anxiety) as well as a significant negative correlation between adjustment disorder symptoms and academic performance. Multiple linear regression analysis was used to test whether mindfulness and self-consciousness significantly predicted students’ depression, anxiety and adjustment disorder symptoms. The results of the regression analysis indicated the two predictors explained 16% of the variance (F (1, 1773) = 29.66, P< 0.0001) (depression), 14% of the variance (F (1, 985) = 24.14, p < 0.0001) (anxiety) and 14% of variance (F (2, 292) = 23.87, p <0.001) (adjustment disorder symptoms). Furthermore, mediation analysis provided information regarding the impact of mindfulness and selfconsciousness on students’ academic performance. The impact of mindfulness and selfconsciousness on students’ academic performance (students’ marks) was found to be mediated by adjustment disorder symptoms. However, the Sobel test indicated a significant effect (0.03) for mindfulness and an insignificant effect (0.09) for self-consciousness. / Psychology / Ph. D. (Psychology)