Examining students' attitudes toward mathematics has become extremely popular. This study examined the attitudes and outcomes of Beginning Algebra students at a central Florida community college. Quantitative methods were used to examine the students' initial composite attitudes toward mathematics. The initial composite attitude was used to examine the relationship between CPT scores and State Competency Exam scores. Further analysis was conducted to examine completers' and non-completers' initial attitudes. The composite change score was determined and quantitative methods were used to examine interactions between class sections, age, gender, and ethnicity. The study began with 217 students and ended with 158. The initial attitude scores were determined for the 217 students who completed the Attitudes Toward Mathematics Inventory (ATMI) in the first week of the fall 2010 semester. The ATMI was administered again in the 12th week of the semester to gather an end-of-semester attitude score. Throughout the semester several students withdrew, and the final sample size was 158 students. A change score was determined using the final sample size and subtracting the beginning attitude scores from the ending attitude scores. The change score was used to examine whether an interaction occurred between class sections, age, gender, and ethnicity. Students' initial composite attitude was revealed to be slightly positive. Students' initial composite scores for the factor of value implied that these students valued mathematics. The factors of self-confidence and enjoyment were slightly positive. Motivation was the most negative response with a below neutral composite attitudinal score. No significance was found between the CPT score and student composite initial attitudinal score, nor was there any significance between the State Competency Exam and composite initial attitudinal score. Completers of the course were found to have a more positive composite attitude score than non-completers. Students' change score indicated that the students' overall attitudes had a positive change over the semester. A statistically significant association was found in change scores in the ATMI factor of value among these age groups. These findings have implications for professors who seek to identify students' attitudes in order to intervene and assist students to become more positive toward mathematics and thus possibly improve students' success in mathematics.

Low-volume, high-intensity interval training has been garnering attention in the exercise physiology literature recently due to its proposed time-efficiency. Also, recent work comparing continuous exercise to high-intensity interval training demonstrated superior ratings of perceived enjoyment following interval training. However, the dual-mode model suggests that exercise above ventilatory threshold (VT) done continuously will result in an almost homogenous decline in affect, which may reduce adherence. Numerous studies confirm the dual-mode model's prediction of reduced affect when exercising above VT, but no research to date has applied the model's predictions to interval training. The purpose of this study was to examine the dual-mode model using interval training. Based on the model, interval exercise above VT should produce a homogenous and significant decline in affect during exercise. Ten participants (mean age = 21.6 ± 2.4 yrs) completed the study. Participants were screened by a physician's assistant on their first visit to ensure they were low-risk and had no symptoms (cardiovascular, pulmonary, metabolic, or orthopedic) that would preclude safe participation in an exercise training program. Participants performed a maximal exercise test during their second visit to the lab. The final four visits were exercise trials 20 minutes in duration: 1) continuous at 20% below VT [Continuous-Moderate], 2) continuous at VT [Continuous-Heavy, 3) 10 x 60-second intervals at VT [Interval-Heavy], 4) 10 x 60-second intervals at 20% above VT [Interval-Severe]. Results indicated that enjoyment and affect was significantly greater during Continuous-Moderate and Interval-Heavy compared with Continuous-Heavy. Interval-Severe approached inducing significantly greater enjoyment and affect compared with Continuous-Heavy, however the study was likely underpowered to achieve significance. The findings of this study suggest that utilizing interval training may help preserve affect, even when performing exercise above VT.

This study compared the effects of a non-traditional and a traditional strength training program for adolescents on measures of health-related fitness and physical activity enjoyment (PACES). Male (n = 7) and female (n = 12) adolescents between the ages of 15 and 18 years registered for a community based program and volunteered to participate in the study component. Participants were assigned to a non-traditional training group (n = 10) utilizing kettlebells or a traditional training group (n = 9) utilizing dumbbells. Health-related fitness and PACES were measured at baseline and post-training, with an additional PACES measure at mid-training. Both training groups significantly improved several health-related fitness measures, with the only significant difference between groups being seen in KB swing squats. PACES significantly decreased from baseline to mid-training, and stayed constant from mid- to post-training, for both training groups. There was no significant difference between training groups on physical activity enjoyment.

This study compared the effects of a non-traditional and a traditional strength training program for adolescents on measures of health-related fitness and physical activity enjoyment (PACES). Male (n = 7) and female (n = 12) adolescents between the ages of 15 and 18 years registered for a community based program and volunteered to participate in the study component. Participants were assigned to a non-traditional training group (n = 10) utilizing kettlebells or a traditional training group (n = 9) utilizing dumbbells. Health-related fitness and PACES were measured at baseline and post-training, with an additional PACES measure at mid-training. Both training groups significantly improved several health-related fitness measures, with the only significant difference between groups being seen in KB swing squats. PACES significantly decreased from baseline to mid-training, and stayed constant from mid- to post-training, for both training groups. There was no significant difference between training groups on physical activity enjoyment.

O trabalho discute a prática psicanalítica com adolescentes na instituição judiciária, partindo da psicologia para depois situar o campo psicanalítico. Percorre as contribuições iniciais da Psicanálise na interface com o Direito e levanta como a Psicanálise pensou a delinquencia. Investiga o trabalho de Aichhorn a partir de uma discussão dos conceitos de Ideal do eu e Supereu em Freud. Acompanhando o livro Wayward Youth de Aichhorn observa que o uso que ele faz do conceito de Ideal do eu, remete a sua face apaziguadora das identificações secundárias, sendo a delinquencia o resultado de uma falha nesse processo. Desse modo o caráter sádico e paradoxal do Supereu que está referido à identificação primária, fica fora da elaboração de Aichhorn. Por fim, ressitua a delinquencia no campo da pulsão de morte, relacionando-a ao conceito de gozo de Lacan. Desde este ponto a delinquencia é pensada como o resultado de um excesso pulsional que nunca é simbolizado e não de uma falha na simbolização. O trabalho traz também a diferenciação entre crimes do Eu, do Isso e do Supereu, relacionando-os ao problema da responsabilidade. Por fim discute a passagem ao ato e o acting-out, tanto teoricamente quanto na discussão de dois casos que são apresentados. No primeiro quando ocorre uma dimensão de apelo ao Outro, e no segundo onde o que se dá é um avesso do apelo, um excesso pulsional absolutamente desligado que leva a um agir trágico.

abstract: This dissertation uncovers the negative aspects of aesthetics by examining when and how enhanced product and payment aesthetics can backfire and lead to unfavorable consumer responses. The first essay examines the downstream effects of nondurable product aesthetics on usage behavior and consumption enjoyment. Across a series of field and lab experiments, I document an inhibiting effect of aesthetics on consumption. I find that highly aesthetic products elicit greater inferences of effort in their creation, and that people have an intrinsic appreciation for such effort. Because the consumption process indirectly destroys the effort originally invested to make the product beautiful, people reduce consumption of such products because usage would involve destroying something they naturally appreciate. Further, I show that in cases where individuals do consume a beautiful product, they exhibit lower consumption enjoyment. These negative post-consumption outcomes are driven in parallel by concerns over having actually destroyed the effort that made the product beautiful as well as the decrements in beauty that become visible when aesthetic products are made less attractive through consumption. The second essay investigates how the aesthetics and design of a payment (e.g., beautiful gift card packaging) can influence the purchase experience. Three field and lab experiments reveal the negative impact of beautified payments on spending and purchase satisfaction, particularly in situations where usage involves compromising its aesthetic appeal. Specifically, when consumers must damage a payment’s appearance before using it (e.g., ripping gift card packaging), they are less likely to use that payment, and experience lower purchase satisfaction when they do, an effect driven by the pain of payment. In doing so, I identify aesthetics as a novel antecedent to the pain of payment that carries important consequences for spending behavior, purchase satisfaction, and the overall customer experience. Implications for theory and practice are discussed. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Business Administration 2018

Made available in DSpace on 2015-05-14T12:39:40Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Arquivototal.pdf: 361794 bytes, checksum: 54739aab496e8ffa1fd32de7a542b415 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-08-31 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / This research has as its theme the link between the violence and the decline of the symbolic order, represented in the Lacanian psychoanalysis by the fall of the significant the Name-of-father and which represents sign of contemporary society. Although the violence is in the history mankind, we believe that its spread justifies a field of investigation. In this paper the violence will not be cataloged (domestic violence, urban violence, etc.) because we understand that by the cataloging of the phenomenon we would difficult the problem of its location, in view of it would be necessary enter in the matter of the existence of a victim, the subject who suffers the act. Thereby, we will discuss the violence as a contemporary symptom, as a signing of the current discontent, result of the prevalence of the drive satisfaction, where the value of sense of the symptom is subdued to its value of enjoyment. According to Lacanian psychoanalysis, in the contemporaneity does not exist more a limit offered by the exception, but what exists is a worldwide which register itself as a opened set, without a limit, beside the female sexuation which leads to the question of the enjoyment treatment when this escapes to the law. We believe that the psychoanalysis can contribute to turn the violence, as a symptom which formalizes the enjoyment, into an analytical symptom to provide to the subjects the possibility of invention of a sinthoma that can reshape the enjoyment and relieve the current discontent of the subjects, even considering that by the outlook of psychoanalysis only the subject can say from what does not go well with them (although it does not exist a knowledge previously constituted about this saying) and turn their symptom into an analysis symptom. / A presente pesquisa tem como tema a articulação entre a violência e o declínio da ordem simbólica, representado na psicanálise lacaniana pela queda do significante do Nome-do- Pai e que constitui signo da sociedade contemporânea. Muito embora a violência esteja presente na história da humanidade, acreditamos que sua proliferação justifique um campo de investigação. Aqui a violência não será catalogada (violência doméstica, violência urbana etc.), porque entendemos que a partir da catalogação do fenômeno dificultaríamos o problema da sua localização, tendo em vista que seria necessário adentrarmos na questão da existência de uma vítima, o sujeito que sofre o ato. Abordamos a violência como um sintoma contemporâneo, como sinalização do mal estar atual fruto do predomínio da satisfação pulsional, onde o valor de sentido do sintoma se encontra subjulgado ao seu valor de gozo. De acordo com a psicanálise lacaniana, na contemporaneidade não se conta mais com um limite oferecido pela exceção, mas sim com um universal que se inscreve como um conjunto aberto, sem um limite, do lado da sexuação feminina, o que conduz à questão do tratamento do gozo quando este escapa à lei. Acreditamos que a psicanálise possa contribuir para transformar a violência, como sintoma que formaliza o gozo, em sintoma analítico a fim de proporcionar aos sujeitos a possibilidade de invenção de um sinthoma que possa dar outra forma ao gozo e aliviar o mal estar atual desses sujeitos, mesmo considerando que da perspectiva da psicanálise somente o sujeito pode dizer do que não vai bem com ele (embora não exista um saber constituído previamente sobre esse dizer) e transformar o seu sintoma em sintoma de análise.

O trabalho discute a prática psicanalítica com adolescentes na instituição judiciária, partindo da psicologia para depois situar o campo psicanalítico. Percorre as contribuições iniciais da Psicanálise na interface com o Direito e levanta como a Psicanálise pensou a delinquencia. Investiga o trabalho de Aichhorn a partir de uma discussão dos conceitos de Ideal do eu e Supereu em Freud. Acompanhando o livro Wayward Youth de Aichhorn observa que o uso que ele faz do conceito de Ideal do eu, remete a sua face apaziguadora das identificações secundárias, sendo a delinquencia o resultado de uma falha nesse processo. Desse modo o caráter sádico e paradoxal do Supereu que está referido à identificação primária, fica fora da elaboração de Aichhorn. Por fim, ressitua a delinquencia no campo da pulsão de morte, relacionando-a ao conceito de gozo de Lacan. Desde este ponto a delinquencia é pensada como o resultado de um excesso pulsional que nunca é simbolizado e não de uma falha na simbolização. O trabalho traz também a diferenciação entre crimes do Eu, do Isso e do Supereu, relacionando-os ao problema da responsabilidade. Por fim discute a passagem ao ato e o acting-out, tanto teoricamente quanto na discussão de dois casos que são apresentados. No primeiro quando ocorre uma dimensão de apelo ao Outro, e no segundo onde o que se dá é um avesso do apelo, um excesso pulsional absolutamente desligado que leva a um agir trágico.

abstract: Fibromyalgia (FM) is a chronic pain condition characterized by debilitating fatigue. This study examined the dynamic relation between interpersonal enjoyment and fatigue in 102 partnered and 74 unpartnered women with FM. Participants provided three daily ratings for 21 days. They rated their fatigue in late morning and at the end of the day. Both partnered and unpartnered participants reported their interpersonal enjoyment in the combined familial, friendship, and work domains (COMBINED domain) in the afternoon. Additionally, partnered participants reported their interpersonal enjoyment in the spousal domain. The study was guided by three hypotheses at the within-person level, based on daily diaries: (1) elevated late morning fatigue would predict diminished afternoon interpersonal enjoyment; (2) diminished interpersonal enjoyment would predict elevated end-of-day fatigue; (3) interpersonal enjoyment would mediate the late morning to end-of-day fatigue relationship. In cross-level models, the study explored whether individual differences (between-person) in late morning fatigue and afternoon interpersonal enjoyment would moderate within-person relations from late morning fatigue to afternoon interpersonal enjoyment, and from afternoon interpersonal enjoyment to end-of-day fatigue. Furthermore, it explored whether the hypothesized relationships at the within-person level would also emerge at the between-person level (between-person mediation models). Multilevel structural equation modeling and multilevel modeling were employed for model testing, separately for partnered and unpartnered participants. Within-person mediation models supported that on high fatigue mornings, afternoon interpersonal enjoyment was dampened in the spousal and combined domains in partnered and unpartnered samples. Moreover, low afternoon interpersonal enjoyment in both the spousal and combined domains predicted elevated end-of-day fatigue. Afternoon interpersonal enjoyment mediated the relationship of late morning to end-of-day fatigue in the combined domain but in not the spousal domain. Cross-level moderation analyses showed that individual differences in afternoon spousal enjoyment moderated the day-to-day relation between afternoon spousal enjoyment and end-of-day fatigue. Finally, the mediational chain was not observed at the between-person level. These findings suggest that preserving interpersonal enjoyment in non-spousal relations limits within-day increases in FM fatigue. They highlight the importance of examining domain-specificity in interpersonal enjoyment when studying fatigue, and suggest that targeting enjoyment in social relations may improve the efficacy of existing treatments. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Psychology 2013

abstract: This study explores the influence of framing and activity type on expectations of learning and enjoyment as well as performance in a paraphrase identification task. In the first experiment, 80 students played one of three activities framed as either a "play" or "learning" task. Students then completed one of three activities; learning only, an educational game, or a play only activity. Results showed that the play frame had an effect on learning expectations prior to completing the activity, but had no effect after completing the activity. Students who completed the educational game scored significantly higher on the posttest learning assessment than those in the play only activity. Pairwise comparisons also indicated that students who completed the educational game performed just as well as the learning only activity when given the posttest learning assessment. Performance in the paraphrase identification task was collected using data logged from student interactions, and it was established that although there was an interaction between performance and activity type, this interaction was due to a significant difference during the second round. These results suggest that framing can influence initial expectations, and educational games can teach a simple writing strategy without distracting from the educational task. A second experiment using 80 students was conducted to determine if a stronger frame would influence expectations and to replicate the effect of activity type on learning and enjoyment. The second study showed no effect of framing on expected or reported enjoyment and learning. The performance results showed a significant interaction between performance and activity type, with the interaction being driven by the first round that students completed. However, the effect of activity type was replicated, suggesting that game features can enhance student enjoyment and are not a detriment to learning simple strategy-based tasks. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.A. Psychology 2013