This paper examines the prevalence of sexual violence in American media with particular focus on attitudes of sexual violence as a contribution to rape culture. Included is a content analysis of the prevalence of sexually violent lyrics in popular rap music, and a literature review of articles and studies on the effects of sexually violent media. The media discussed in the literature review includes films, television, and pornography. The relationship between the presence of sexually violent media and its impact on public opinion on sexual assault and rape proclivity are analyzed. The literature reviewed includes studies on differences in response to sexually violent media based on gender. Also included are explanation and summary of a study utilizing the excitation transfer theory and the social learning theory as they apply to the understanding of the perpetuation of rape myth acceptance based in the viewing of sexually violent media. These studies utilize the rape myth acceptance scale, the acceptance of interpersonal violence scale, and the adversarial sexual beliefs scale, among other scales of measurement to assess rape myth acceptance and rape proclivity. The high prevalence of sexual assault in the United States calls for an analysis of the acceptance of beliefs that perpetuate sexual assault and the media which support and increase the presence of these beliefs.

The overall purpose of this project is to devise improved quality acceptance procedures to examine quality characteristics of utility poles at the factory of the supplier (FAT) and on-site upon receipt by the customer (SAT). To that end, the thesis draws upon available standards, literature, and industry practices regarding wood, fiberglass and steel poles. As far as the design of the research, a single case study of a major power company was chosen. Then, a data collection plan was developed in order to build upon the existing knowledge found in the literature, and upon the data that can be collected from three of the Company’s suppliers, in addition to the Technical Research Institute of Sweden (SP). Documents’ analysis, interviews, observations, and a survey were the tools of that plan. It was found that criteria, inspection and test methods of wood poles are all sufficiently covered in the standards and the literature; for wood is the most commonly used material for utility poles. Next, in coverage of research, are the steel poles; while there is currently no standard that covers fiberglass utility poles. Indeed, quality characteristics, criteria, and acceptance procedures can altogether form parts of a sustainable solution, as long as the quality is managed as a process whether at the Company’s end or at the fabrication sites; that is especially true if there is some form of backward partnership between the Company and its suppliers.

Bakgrund: Amyotrofisk lateralskleros (ALS) är en obotlig sjukdom som drabbar de övre och nedre motorneuronen. Den förväntade livslängden är tre till fem år efter symptomdebut och personen drabbas av succesiva funktionsnedsättningar. Behoven hos personer med ALS förändras hela tiden och därför är det viktigt att omvårdnadsinsatserna anpassas till individen. Syfte: Att belysa personers upplevelser av att leva med amyotrofisk lateralskleros och hur de hanterar sjukdomen. Metod: Allmän litteraturstudie av tio kvalitativa vetenskapliga artiklar. Resultat: Den fysiska förlusten upplevdes skrämmande och det var frustrerande att inte kunna påverka sin situation. Det ledde också till att personerna kände sig som en börda. Det var dock betydelsefullt att trots sjukdomen fortsätta leva ett så vanligt liv som möjligt. Osäkerheten kring framtiden skapade ett behov av att leva i nuet. Resultatet visade även att närstående inverkade positivt på hanteringen av sjukdomen, likaså att acceptera sin situation. Att ha en känsla av kontroll främjade hoppet. Stödet från sjukvården och även att känna sig värdefull ansågs också ha betydelse för hanteringen. Slutsats: Trots att personer med ALS påverkas psykiskt och fysiskt av sjukdom kan de bevara ett vanligt och aktivt vardagsliv genom användning av olika copingstrategier. Klinisk betydelse: Vårdpersonal behöver ha kunskap om hur denna patientgrupp upplever och hanterar sin sjukdom för att kunna förstå, bemöta och vårda dem på rätt sätt. / Background: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is an incurable disease which affects upper and lower motor neurones. Life expectancy is between three to five years after symptom onset and the person is affected by progressive impairments. The needs of people with ALS are constantly changing and therefore it’s important that the nursing care is adapted to each individual. Aim: To illuminate people’s experiences of living with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and how they manage the disease. Method: A literature review of ten qualitative research articles. Result: The physical loss felt scary and it was frustrating not to be able to influence the situation. It also led to the feeling of being a burden. It was important though to be able to continue living as ordinary as possible despite the disease. Insecurity concerning the future led to a need of living in the present. The results showed that relatives had a positive impact on the management of the disease, as well as acceptance of the situation. To have a feeling of control promoted hope. Support from health care and the feeling of being valuable was also considered to be important for the management. Conclusion: Even though people with ALS are affected mentally and physically they are able to preserve an ordinary and active everyday life with the help of different coping strategies. Clinical implications: Health care professionals need to have knowledge of how these patients experience and manage their disease in order to understand, respond and care for them in the right way.

Multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) represents one of the core research streams in the field of operations research (OR). Altough numerous sound MCDM methods for various kind of applications exist, the application of such methods in the practical field is found rarely. The reason for this gap between scientific development and practical acceptance can be found in two distinct points: On the one hand, MCDM methods naturally tend to build on rather complex mathematical foundations. Decision makers (DMs) in practice are mostly experts in their area of expertise but do not necessarily have solid education or experience with high-level mathematical methods. Thus, in order to not alienate DMs in practice, academic research has to translate mathematically challenging models into easy-to-use, self-explaining tools that can effectively support real-life decision scenarios. On the other hand, academic research in MCDM often ends in the proposal of a theoretical model, that may be sound and promising, but never leaves the field of academics due to its theoretical nature. Therefore, the underlying dissertation investigates on the usage of MCDM methods for integration in a decision support system (DSS), implemented as a sofware that is easy to distribute and applicable to decision problems in practice. This study tries to mitigate the lack of MCDM acceptance by analysing MCDM methods according to their applicability, pointing out possible improvements and validating proposed advancements. (author's abstract)

The problem of this study was to determine whether group interaction can bring about change in sociometric status, self-concept, and perceived group characteristics with respect to nursing personnel.

The purpose of this investigation is to compare the changes in the achievement and self-concept of students in CVAE programs which result from the use of group counseling and group-individual counseling.

The purpose of the study was to examine the personnel administration application of teachers' self-concept, self-acceptance, self-ideal and self-concept self-ideal discrepancy scores. More specifically the study was to investigate the possible need for personnel administrators of large school systems to use some sort of psychological tool in their personnel work, and to isolate groups of teachers whose adjustment and value indices differed significantly from the indices of other groups.

The initial session play therapy behaviors of maladjusted and adjusted children were compared to investigate the value of children's play for diagnostic purposes. The frequency and the intensity of 13 categories of play behaviors were considered as factors in discriminating maladjusted children from adjusted children. The 15 children in the maladjusted group had been referred by their parents for counseling but had not been in counseling previously, and their teachers had reported that they had exhibited two or more behaviors indicative of emotional disturbance. The 15 children in the adjusted group were rated by their teachers as exhibiting none of the behaviors Indicating emotional disturbance, and their parents recognized no need for counseling. All subjects were 5 to 9 years of age, and the two groups were matched for age and sex. The Play Behaviors Adjustment Rating Scale (PBARS) was used to rate each child's play behaviors in an initial videotaped 36-minute play therapy session. The frequency and the intensity were rated for thirteen play categories: exploratory, incidental, creative or coping, dramatic or role, relationship building, relationship testing, self-accepting, self-rejecting, acceptance of environment, nonacceptance of environment, positive attitudinal, ambivalent attitudinal, and negative attitudinal. The results of the chi-square analysis indicated that maladjusted children exhibited significantly more self-accepting and nonacceptance of environment behaviors as well as more intense dramatic or role behaviors and acceptance of environment behaviors than did adjusted children. Further investigation showed: (a) maladjusted girls expressed dramatic or role behaviors more often and more intensely than maladjusted boys, (b) maladjusted boys showed more self-accepting and nonacceptance of environment behaviors than maladjusted girls, (c) maladjusted boys exhibited more self-accepting behaviors than adjusted boys, (d) adjusted girls expressed more positive attitudinal behaviors than adjusted boys, and (e) adjusted boys engaged in more exploratory play and were more intense in negative attitudinal play than adjusted girls.

The primary concern in today's educational system is the rate of progress students achieve in the classroom. Research has shown token reinforcement programs to be an effective method of increasing rate of work in the classroom; however, token economies are time consuming and do not meet the needs of all classroom situations. The purpose of this study was to test the effectiveness of the use of free time as a reinforcer in increasing rate of speed in working arithmetic problems and peer acceptance (how well an individual is accepted by his peers). The data indicated that free time as a positive reinforcer did increase the rate of speed in working arithmetic problems correctly; however, it did not affect peer acceptance.

The prevalence of aggression and delinquency increase during adolescence and are associated with psychosocial adjustment difficulties. It is important to identify aspects of the parent-adolescent relationship that may protect adolescents from these externalizing behaviors. The current study examined longitudinal relations between parental monitoring behaviors, child disclosure, and externalizing behaviors. Participants included 326 African American adolescents and their primary maternal caregivers, recruited from urban neighborhoods characterized by high rates of violence and low socioeconomic status. Participants provided data annually (three waves across two-year timeframe) through face-to-face interviews. Results of longitudinal path models showed that child disclosure predicted parental knowledge, and parental knowledge was associated with fewer externalizing outcomes. Higher levels of parental control predicted less child disclosure. Finally, parental acceptance predicted fewer child-reported delinquent behaviors through increased levels of child disclosure. Implications suggest that parent-adolescent communication and parental acceptance are protective factors, associated with decreased externalizing outcomes in African American youth.