This dissertation investigates the management of teams at work. A thorough examination of the literature on small groups, coupled with field research on the implementation of teamwork in the New Zealand operations of a large multinational provides insights about how members of a team think. It is shown that the perception of membership by team members influences their ability to make effective use of resources and make informed decisions, not only within the team, but also with regard to its impact on the organisation. Social identity theory provides a theoretical model for the psychological processes of team membership. The processes of categorisation, self-categorisation and social identification are mapped against the introduction of teamwork over a period of two years to assess whether or not they are relevant. The results from surveys of and interviews with senior staff members support the processes described by social identity theory, where groups can operate as separate cognitive and emotional units as relevant for the management of teams at work. Because of the unique psychological processes, team members at work have to be interacted with (and be given information) differently than individuals in order to behave as a high-performing team. This study develops the implications of social identity theory for the introduction and management of teams at work, leading to high performance for the organisation. Key words: Teamwork, social identity, social cognition

Five experiments were carried out to discover whether there is a subjective enhancement of temporal contours analogous to the Mach band effects in spatial vision. A transient overshoot in the incremental threshold occurred immediately after the crest of rising linear ramps at photopic levels. A psychophysical matching experiment verified that this peaking effect is perceived as a bright pulse and can be considered the temporal equivalent of the bright Mach band. No equivalent of the dark Mach band at the foot of rising linear ramps was found. Rather there was an anticipatory decrease of sensitivity (Crawford effect) at the base of ascending gradients. The magnitude of this effect was directly proportional to the rate of change of the stimulus at photopic levels. Data from descending ramps was less simple to interpret. A small rise in incremental threshold was sometimes observed at the crest of ramps, but this effect was much less pronounced than the peak at the crest of equivalent ascending ramps. Matching procedures located troughs at the foot of descending ramps which correspond to the dark spatial Mach band. This effect was less apparent when incremental threshold techniques were employed. An experiment using exponential rather than linear change in luminance over time gave results in general accord with the above. The Crawford effect was found to follow the Bunsen-Roscoe Law. It was found that the transient undershoot and overshoot effects were related to the rate of change rather than the actual form of the ramp when the rate of change was greater than about 300mL per second. Impulse responses were derived by differentiating step responses. Ascending steps generated a biphasic impulse response and descending steps give a triphasic unit impulse response. This lack of equivalence over conditions is diagnostic of system nonlinearity. Fourier analysis of the impulse responses showed equivalent spectral components and lowpass filter action in each case, indicating change in gain and phasing rather than time constants occur between 'on' and 'off' conditions. The system was shown to be quasilinear within conditions since linear convolution of the impulse responses with appropriate ramps generated functions that were a fair approximation to the psychophysical response to such ramps. The relationship between the impulse response and the spatial equivalent line spread function was discussed and the similarity of the impulse responses to dynamic changes in sensitivity inferred from results of masking experiments pointed out. The results were then considered in relation to a multichannel model for processing spatiotemporal information.

Emotional child abuse is recognised as the unifying construct of child abuse (Brassard & Gelardo, 1987). Defining emotional child abuse (ECA) is an area of debate in the literature and a widely recognised definition has yet to be developed. There is general agreement on the definition of resilience with most making reference to adapting and coping well in the face of adversity. Recent research has questioned the implied unidimensionality of the term. A research study was designed with several aims: to explore how ECA is defined by professionals working in the area of child abuse, and by members of the general public; to develop an understanding of the nature of ECA from adults who self-identified as having experienced ECA; and, to examine the ways in which these adults coped, and dealt with ECA and its effects. Further aims of the research following from these were to develop a definition of ECA, and to identify implications for practice for those working in the area of ECA. Attachment theory (Bowlby, 1969, 1988; Crittenden & Ainsworth, 1989) was the theoretical base for the research. The literature on resilience was reviewed with a particular focus on ECA. Consistent findings in the literature on the cost of resiliency in the area of emotional well-being and functioning were explored and used to critically examine the clinical utility of the term. Two surveys were developed, one for distribution to all the professionals working in the area of child abuse in statutory agencies in Auckland; and one for distribution to a sample of adults living in the greater Auckland area. Comparison of the conceptual and specific categories derived from the definitions of ECA provided by the professional group (N=l8l) and the lay group (N=142) indicated considerable agreement. Differences between the groups on the relative frequency of use of the categories were explained and directions for future research were suggested. Concurrence between the findings of this study and others on developing a definition of ECA supported the existence of ECA as a separate and consistent form of child maltreatment. Adults who saw themselves as having experienced ECA were identified through the general public and professional surveys (N=30). They were individually interviewed using a semi-structured format about the nature of the ECA they had experienced and how they had coped with it as a child, adolescent, and adult. The interviews, and relevant material from the surveys, were analysed using a Grounded Theory approach. The themes that emerged from the material on the nature of ECA were grouped into four areas: the nature of ECA; the effects of ECA; the context of ECA; and, disclosure of ECA. The themes that emerged on how participants coped and dealt with the ECA they had experienced revealed a range of coping strategies and changes in these across the broad developmental stages of childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. An important distinction that emerged was that between coping with the ECA and dealing with it. The cost of coping was a prominent theme and concurred with findings in the literature. The implications for practice and directions for future research generated by these findings are discussed. A theoretical definition developed from the research findings is presented and applied to specific examples from the research.

Family participation in residential interventions for children has been reliably shown to enhance children’s adaptation to the community following discharge. This finding, however, had predominantly been observed in long-term residential programmes in North America. This thesis examines the influence of family involvement on outcome for children in a short-term residential intervention - the Children’s Health Camp, in Auckland, New Zealand. This service offers children and families, who may be experiencing social, emotional, physical and/or behavioural challenges, individualised interventions that often include a five-week residential stay. A ‘high family involvement’ condition, a community-based programme that followed a residential intervention, was compared with a ‘low family involvement’ condition (the traditional residential programme). No statistically significant differences were observed between the groups on parent-report measures of child behaviour and parenting practices, although significant improvements in children’s behaviour (including emotional, social and conduct aspects) for both groups were found. Reasons for the lack of difference between the groups, and the difficulties inherent in conducting outcome research in a residential facility for children are highlighted. Other influences on outcome for children and families, such as residential staff members’ attitudes toward family involvement were also examined. The optimal conditions for successful short-term residential interventions for children are proposed.

The aim of this study was to explore the experience of hearing voices in the general New Zealand adult population. This included mapping the topography of voices and the impact of the experience on participants’ lives, exploring participants’ explanatory models, investigating coping strategies and support structures, and developing a model of the essence of hearing voices. Quantitative and qualitative analyses of questionnaire (n=154) and interview (n=50) data revealed a great diversity of experiences, both within and among participants. Of all topographical variables significantly related to emotional impact (content, form, duration, intrusiveness and control), voice content was the only significant predictor variable, accurately predicting the emotional response of 93.3% of participants. Overall, participants who valued their voice experiences tended to have spiritual beliefs, a more positive emotional reaction and less contact with mental health services. In contrast, participants who experienced mostly unwanted voices tended to have biological and/or psychological understandings of their voice experiences, a more negative emotional reaction to them, and increased contact with mental health services. Participants reported using a vast array of coping strategies, with varying degrees of success. Individualised techniques were reported to be the most effective, followed by setting aside a time to listen to the voices. In terms of help and support, participants called for a model of intervention that accepted their voice experiences as real, took an holistic approach incorporating contextual, cultural and spiritual factors, and worked with voice-hearers, their families and the public to provide information about voice phenomena and normalise the experience. Using a phenomenological approach, a model of the essential structure of hearing voices is proposed, comprising five components: the content of the voices is personally meaningful to the voice-hearer; the voices have a characterised identity; the person has a relationship with their voices; the experience has a significant impact on the voice-hearer’s life; and the experience has a compelling sense of reality. The implications of this research include validating voice-hearers’ perspectives of the experience, informing clinical work with voice-hearers, and informing the development of local and national-level services, such as a New Zealand Hearing Voices Network.

In this thesis the development of the discipline of academic psychology in New Zealand is explored both as a history and as an intellectual framework. The key tasks of this thesis are outlined, and the problems associated with writing a history are discussed. The methodology is explained as consisting of archival research, surveying and face-to-face interviewing. There follows an examination of the intellectual development of psychology, from the time of the Ancient Greeks to the present day, where the analytical focus is the fundamental dichotomy of mind-body and, as a subset, human consciousness. This focus is important to this thesis because the researcher regards consciousness as the major variable in the evolution of psychology. Chapter three deals more specifically with the mind-body issue and consciousness, and provides an intellectual framework within which the historical developments of psychology on these shores can be considered. Chapter four deals with academic psychology in New Zealand, from its earliest times when Otago University was founded, where it was taught as a subset of philosophy, to the point at which psychology gained autonomy as an independent discipline. This exposition includes the creation and development of the University of New Zealand. In this chapter, it is shown that while psychology was first taught at Otago in 1875, it gained its freedom last of all at that university. Other factors highlighted in this chapter include the involvement of the Presbyterian Church in the development of philosophy (hence psychology) at Otago, and the turbulence of those early years there, where no less than eight professors of philosophy came and went, by comparison with only the one at Victoria College. Chapter five begins at the point at which psychology gained its independence from philosophy, which varied in time across the then four university colleges. The first department to break free was at Victoria College (1950) and the last, Otago (1964). The roles of key personalities are explored, where these are supplemented by extracts from personal interviews. The way in which courses and programmes within each department of psychology developed is also examined. In particular, the output of graduate theses (Doctoral and Masterate) are analysed, across the decades of existence of each department, in terms of subdisciplines and gender. Of interest is the finding of a marked gender reversal effect, which occurred around the late 1970s to the early 1980s, in which theses produced by female graduates outstripped those produced by males. This chapter also reports the findings of a survey of New Zealand psychology academics conducted by the researcher, using a mailed-out questionnaire. The findings include a participant profile and views on a variety of variables such as philosophical stance and theoretical orientation. The final chapter includes comparisons across the six university departments of psychology with attempts at explaining some of the key findings, a brief look at the non-university providers of psychology at the degree level, a consideration of some new directions for academic psychology in this country and, finally, a revisiting of the topic of consciousness which ran as a thread through the thesis.

The study explored the relationship between retirement and marital status and objective and subjective measures of social support. A secondary analysis was conducted on a sample of 6,662 men and women aged 55-70 years of age. Results of a series of 2-way ANOVAs revealed greater interaction with friends amongst retired individuals than those who were employed. Marital status was shown to be associated with interaction with family and levels of perceived social support. An interaction between retirement and marital status was also shown to influence levels of perceived social support. The results reveal that retirement and marital status have an individual and interaction effect on various measures of social support and indicate the importance of considering marital status when researching, educating and working with issues regarding retirement and social support.

There are many idiosyncrasies in the emotion of regret that we do not fully comprehend and our traditional reliance on economic theories of human decision-making, which view regret as stemming from illogical and explicit decision-making processes, may be the cause. This thesis explores the development and testing of the Dual Process Theory of Regret (DPTR) which claims that individuals use both implicit ‘orientation’ and explicit ‘justification’ systems of thought to guide their daily decision-making and the differential use of these systems should be reflected in the intensity of regret felt for a poor outcome. To assess its utility in predicting variation in regret intensity the DPTR was tested in conjunction with two popular theories of regret; one focussing on the distinction between actions and inaction, and the other focussing on decision justification. Three thousand adults were randomly selected from the New Zealand electoral roll and invited to participate in a postal survey of short and long-term life regrets. Of this initial sample 653 participants returned questionnaires with usable data, a response rate of approximately 23% which, while a relatively low response rate, was expected given the sensitive topic and provided more than enough respondents for the present analysis. Results showed that the DPTR had greater utility in predicting trends in short and long-term regret intensity than either of the current regret theories. Results also illustrated that changes in justification strength had little effect on regret intensity and that explicit justifications only influenced regret in the long-term. In contrast results supported the conceptualisation of the implicit orientation and showed that it was a key source of influence on regret intensity in both the short and long-term. This research concludes that the DPTR’s focus on both implicit and explicit cognitive systems provides greater insight into the nature of regret than the reliance on explicit cognitive analysis alone. Implicit feelings of right and wrong are a better indicator of eventual regret than our ability to justify our decision. These results help resolve past anomalies in regret research, clarify conflicting trends in regret highlighted in the current media, and have application for understanding criminal recidivism.

There are many idiosyncrasies in the emotion of regret that we do not fully comprehend and our traditional reliance on economic theories of human decision-making, which view regret as stemming from illogical and explicit decision-making processes, may be the cause. This thesis explores the development and testing of the Dual Process Theory of Regret (DPTR) which claims that individuals use both implicit ‘orientation’ and explicit ‘justification’ systems of thought to guide their daily decision-making and the differential use of these systems should be reflected in the intensity of regret felt for a poor outcome. To assess its utility in predicting variation in regret intensity the DPTR was tested in conjunction with two popular theories of regret; one focussing on the distinction between actions and inaction, and the other focussing on decision justification. Three thousand adults were randomly selected from the New Zealand electoral roll and invited to participate in a postal survey of short and long-term life regrets. Of this initial sample 653 participants returned questionnaires with usable data, a response rate of approximately 23% which, while a relatively low response rate, was expected given the sensitive topic and provided more than enough respondents for the present analysis. Results showed that the DPTR had greater utility in predicting trends in short and long-term regret intensity than either of the current regret theories. Results also illustrated that changes in justification strength had little effect on regret intensity and that explicit justifications only influenced regret in the long-term. In contrast results supported the conceptualisation of the implicit orientation and showed that it was a key source of influence on regret intensity in both the short and long-term. This research concludes that the DPTR’s focus on both implicit and explicit cognitive systems provides greater insight into the nature of regret than the reliance on explicit cognitive analysis alone. Implicit feelings of right and wrong are a better indicator of eventual regret than our ability to justify our decision. These results help resolve past anomalies in regret research, clarify conflicting trends in regret highlighted in the current media, and have application for understanding criminal recidivism.

Fairness, forgiveness and grudge-holding are concepts which underlie many aspects of our interpersonal relationships. Fairness is the foundation of our day-to-day communication with others and forgiveness is concerned with a positive strategy used to manage negative emotional experiences of underserved [i.e. undeserved] unfair treatment. Grudge-holding results as an accumulation of negative feelings, which are associated with the original experience of unfairness. Two experimental studies investigated children’s perceptions of, feelings about, and reactions towards the unfair behaviour of a mother and a friend, by individually inviting the children to scenario-based interview sessions, which included three imaginary tasks. The children were asked to judge the fairness of a mother and a best friend’s treatment towards a child protagonist and to report their associated feelings, after listening to a scenario that described an interaction between a child and a mother and an interaction between a child and a friend. They further responded to three scenario-based experimental tasks, regarding their willingness to grant forgiveness, as opposed to expressions of hostility. In the first study, the children’s willingness to forgive, as a result of unfairness, was explored with 82 local primary school children in Palmerston North, New Zealand, whose ages ranged from 8- to 11-years-old, in addition to 50 parents of these participating children. The parents also completed a questionnaire about their approaches to their children’s common misbehaviours. The study found that the children were typically willing to grant forgiveness to a mother, even though she had been unfair. Their forgiveness tendencies were not related to aspects of parental disciplinary behaviour. However, an examination of the children’s verbatim responses through the use of thematic analysis revealed the complex nature of the relationship between parent and child concerning tolerance for mistakes. In the second study, I explored on whether the children’s repeated exposure to unfairness would contribute to their display of grudge-holding against a mother or a best friend in the scenarios and this investigation involved 55 local primary children, whose ages ranged from 8- to 12-years-old, in Wellington, New Zealand. The children participated in individual scenario-based interview sessions, which included three imaginary tasks over the two time periods, one week apart from each other. The children’s levels of grudge-holding was measured by analysing the possible increase in hostility, which the children expressed from Time 1 to Time 2. The study showed that a repeated experience of unfairness had a noticeable effect on the children’s level of hostility towards the person who was unfair and especially towards the best friend. The children’s verbatim comments also suggested some evidence of accumulated negativity in their responses to an unfairness experience. Thus, this study proved to be a suitable paradigm for operationalising grudge-holding in children.