D.Phil. / Communities in a society consist of individual members of the communities. Only when the individuals in communities are thriving can the communities contribute to the health of society. This study focuses on the members of macro communities. A macro congregation was used as an example of a macro community. An unhealthy imbalance between individual growth, self-assertion, and a healthy self-esteem, on the one hand, and functioning as part of a larger community, on the other hand is indicative of massification that has a detrimental effect on the wellbeing— spiritually, psychologically, socially and potentially even physically—of the individual. Little or no research has been done about the role of the spiritual disciplines in personal wholeness, specifically as far as members of macro communities are concerned. The following question can therefore be asked: "What can be done to accompany members of a macro community to understand the importance to be self-responsible to implement the disciplines of spirituality?" The purpose of this study is to develop a model for accompaniment of members of macro communities to promote wholeness. A theory generative, qualitative, explorative, descriptive and contextual research design was used to conduct this study. The fieldwork was done by having semistructured interviews with members of macro communities. The results obtained were analysed and categorised. The findings from all data were contextualised and a literature control was carried out. In this way findings were validated. The results obtained from the analysed data reflect the fact that members of macro communities are preoccupied with the mass gathering of the community during the Sunday service. Members of macro communities often associate strongly with the macro community, its leaders, dogma, philosophy and culture, but fail to grow as individuals. Members of macro communities are in desperate need of exercising selfresponsibility for spirituality. A lot can be done to facilitate self-responsibility for spirituality. The central concept of facilitation of self-responsibility for spirituality can be defined as the facilitator creating a safe space in order to assist, intervene, empower and motivate a community member to bring about self-awareness, selfacceptance and the making of a conscious effort in order to bring about selfdiscipline to practice spiritual disciplines and private spirituality in order to grow towards wholeness. A model was developed as framework of reference to facilitate self-responsibility for spirituality. The interrelated divisions were identified for the model of facilitation of self-responsibility for spirituality namely initiation, facilitation and mobilisation. The unique factor about the model of facilitating self-responsibility for spirituality is that members of macro communities are facilitated to live in a way that they will not be victims of massification. The aim is to assist them in living with a new inner functioning. This new inner functioning is available through the self-discipline of practicing the spiritual disciplines. That would bring about the healthy condition of an inner locus of control and a healthy relationship with the macro community, promoting hope, positive beliefs and personal growth. Members of macro communities can exercise self-responsibility for spirituality through self-awareness, self-acceptance and the making of a conscious effort. This thesis therefore proposes a model of facilitating self-responsibility for spirituality on which guidelines can be operationalised. This will assist members of macro communities to exercise self-responsibility for spirituality in order to continue in the lifelong process of growing towards wholeness.

The intent of this thesis is to explore the concept of creativity as it appears in the major works of Karl Marx and to attempt to discern its role in the emancipatory political project that Marx proposes. Contemporary understandings of creativity still rely upon notions of the artist-genius, locating the "true" expression of creative freedom in the work of art. A more recent development is the commodification of creativity as a quality of a good worker, who is now expected to find innovative ways of doing their job more efficiently. Both of these ideas about creativity allow for our creative energies to be diverted towards maintaining the existing relations of capitalist labor, one by putting it out of reach for most, the other by making it part of the tedium of wage labor. This thesis argues that creativity, as a fundamental human capacity, is an essential tool in changing our existing circumstances by instigating radical breaks from the status quo. Therefore, the first step in an emancipatory politics today is redefining creativity.

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Locus of Control (LOC) refers to the generalized expectancy that one controls the events in his/her life (internal orientation) or that events are controlled by other forces, such as luck (external orientation). According to many reviews of the extensive LOC literature, it is beneficial to have an internal rather than an external orientation. For example, desirable characteristics such as personal adjustment, high self-esteem, good job performance and job satisfaction are associated with internal LOC. This study was undertaken to identify and test a model which could be of use in an organizational setting for promoting the belief in internal control. A time management training model was chosen on the assumption that people who learn to manage their time better would feel more in control of their lives. The 67 University of Central Florida students who accepted the free Daytimers (a widely used professional time management system) and completed the pretest and posttest questionnaires served as the sample. The questionnaires in Rotter's LOC scale and a time management skills scale, and were administered at the beginning and end of the Spring semester. The Daytimers were distributed immediately after the pretest. Students who made frequent use of the Daytimers improved their time management skills and became more internal by the end of the semester. There were no corresponding significant changes in either time management skills or LOC for students who used the Daytimers infrequently. These results suggest that time management training can be used to promote the belief in internal control. Future research is recommended to verify the expectations that these changes in LOC will result in better personal adjustment, greater job performance and more job satisfaction.

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Mutual parent-young recognition is vital for offspring survival, particularly in species congregating in dense breeding sites, like pinnipeds (seals, sea lions, and walruses). For effective vocal recognition, the caller must produce individually specific calls with high levels of stereotypy, or individuality. Vocal recognition has been studied extensively and is well-documented in otariid species (fur seals and sea lions), as those mothers frequently leave their pup to forage and must relocate them upon return to the rookery. In many phocid (true seal) species, the mothers typically remain with their pup throughout nursing and therefore may not have as strong of a need for well-developed vocal recognition; recognition remains understudied in these species. This study focuses on vocal recognition and individuality in the northern elephant seal (Mirounga angustirostris), a phocid species with a 28-day nursing period and no intentional separation between mothers and pups. In Chapter 1, I investigated a northern elephant seal pup’s ability to vocally recognize its mother across ontogeny through an auditory playback experiment at the Piedras Blancas northern elephant seal rookery in San Simeon, CA. I found that pups showed a developed ability to recognize their mother’s vocalizations later in the nursing period, at around 23 days old. At this age, they looked towards their mother’s call faster and spent more time investigating the call. Before this age, pups responded infrequently to female vocalizations and showed no differentiated response to their own mother versus an unfamiliar female. After weaning, pups responded to any female’s call. This study is the first to examine phocid pup vocal recognition abilities, and the results suggest that northern elephant seal mothers are primarily responsible for maintaining contact during the nursing period to ensure their pup’s survival. In Chapter 2, I analyzed and described the pup attraction calls made by adult females. Visual and auditory analysis of the spectrograms suggested there may be distinct variants of attraction calls made within and across females. I characterized the calls and confirmed that female elephant seals produce three distinct variants of their attraction call. A linear discriminant analysis correctly classified the calls into their assigned categories 80% of the time. Previous research found that female elephant seals have lower vocal stereotypy than female northern fur seals. Because I demonstrated that female elephant seals produce different variants of attraction calls, I reevaluated their stereotypy while controlling for the attraction call variant. I found that female elephant seals have a higher level of stereotypy when controlling for call variant, with a linear discriminant analysis correctly assigning 50% of the calls to the correct female when controlling for call variant, and correctly assigning 37.5% of the calls when not controlling for call variant. In summary, my results suggest that mother-pup recognition is mutual in northern elephant seals, but indicate that northern elephant seal mothers are primarily responsible for maintaining contact with their pup during dependency, as the pups do not consistently respond to their mothers’ vocalizations until the last week of the nursing period. Adult females produce calls with enough vocal stereotypy to allow for individual recognition, and they make distinct variants of attraction calls, indicating they have a larger vocal repertoire than previously assumed. Future research should further investigate adult female northern elephant seal vocalizations and how they potentially differ across ontogeny and among behavioral contexts.

In this dissertation I retrace the notion of social individuality in early German liberal thought to respond to the ongoing criticism of liberal individuality as being at its foundation anti-social and atomistic. I concentrate on the exposition of this concept in the works of Wilhelm von Humboldt and Friedrich Schleiermacher at the turn of the 18th to 19th century, who I argue presented the clearest defense of individuality understood as interdependent uniqueness. Analyzing their relevant academic writings, speeches, sermons, letters, diary entries as well as political reports, I situate their conceptualization of social individuality within their wider thought, and examine what social institutions and practices as well as political consequences derive from understanding individuality as inherently social.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / John Dewey’s account of human individuality blends various ideas that cut across many of his works. In “Time and Individuality,” Dewey discusses the essence of the individual as “temporal seriality.” In Human Nature and Conduct, he talks about the self as a collection of habits that change throughout one’s life. In A Common Faith, Dewey calls the whole self an ideal. Furthermore, Dewey addresses the issue of one’s individuality being threatened if one falls victim to mechanistic and mindless routines; that is, when routine shrouds one’s daily activities, moral and intellectual growth is stunted. Ensnarement in routine is the mechanization of daily activities that unfold in an uninspired and lethargic manner. Although Dewey discusses how individuality can be threatened, his thoughts on the subject nonetheless turn on the idea that if life is to be meaningful, one must learn to express one’s individuality. For Dewey, the authentic expression of individuality is art. But, how does one express one’s individuality? Are there any tools within Dewey’s philosophy that can be used to ensure the perpetuation of one’s individuality. The impetus for this thesis is to provide an analysis of key texts that are not only relevant to Dewey’s account of human individuality, but that are also relevant to Dewey’s instrumentalism. Through close textual analysis, I will seek to highlight elements in Dewey’s philosophy that can be used to ensure the continuation of one’s individuality. The following question will thus serve as a guide throughout this inquiry: “If human individuality can be threatened and even lost, what are some practical ideas in Dewey’s philosophy that can be used to ensure the perpetuation of one’s individuality?”

Extending far beyond migration to a new home, the cultural, emotional, and mental plight of immigration plagues immigrants and refugees of all ages. Nonetheless, immigrant youth are commonly overlooked in acculturation studies. This mixed methods approach to arts-informed research examined the acculturation strategies adopted by immigrant and refugee youth attending community-based programs. Through the use of participant drawings, the think-aloud technique, and the Acculturation, Habits, and Interests Multicultural Scale for Adolescents (AHIMSA) instrument, this research also examines the ways in which immigrant and refugee participants communicate their cultural paradigms. The findings emerging from this study illustrate that immigrant and refugee youth cope with cultural transitions through varied approaches that integrate expressions of individuality and cultural behaviors. By exploring six key findings, this study contributes to literature examining acculturation in youth populations as it provides an analysis of cultural transition that expands beyond traditional examinations of cultural behaviors, and highlights the importance of expressing individuality, values, and interests, in the acculturation process of immigrant youth. / Ph. D. / Extending far beyond migration to a new home, the cultural, emotional, and mental plight of immigration plagues immigrants and refugees of all ages. Nonetheless, immigrant youth are commonly overlooked in acculturation studies. This mixed methods research study uses participant drawings, the think-aloud approach, and the Acculturation, Habits, and Interests Multicultural Scale for Adolescents (AHIMSA) instrument to examine the acculturation strategies adopted by immigrant and refugee youth attending community-based afterschool programs. The findings of this study suggest that immigrant and refugee youth cope with cultural transitions through varied approaches that integrate expressions of individuality and cultural behaviors. Exploring six key findings, this study contributes to the literature examining acculturation in youth populations as it provides analysis of cultural transitions that expands beyond traditional examinations of cultural behaviors and highlights the importance of expressing individuality, values, and interests.