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In its earliest stages, acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT; Hayes, Strosahl, & Wilson, 1999) with youths appears to be a promising therapeutic approach. Experiential willingness and committed action are two foci of ACT, making their assessment an integral part of therapy. Field tests have found validity problems with the Willingness and Action Measure for Children and Adolescents (WAM-C/A). The current study utilized the Story Version of the Willingness and Action Measure for Children and Adolescents (SWAM-C/A). Results supported the relationship between the SWAM-C/A and measures of experiential avoidance and mindfulness. Factor analysis indicated the presence of several distinct willingness and action factors. These results support the need for continued work on measurement of willingness and action in youth.

The purpose of the present study is fourfold: (1) to investigate the predicted relationships between self-acceptance and acceptance of others, (2) to investigate self-acceptance, acceptance of others, and their interrelationship with acceptance by others, (3) to investigate the patterns of interrelationship between self-acceptance, acceptance of others, actual acceptability to others, and predicted acceptability to others, and (4) to investigate an hypothesized curvilinear relationship between self-acceptance and acceptance of others.

An enterprise is a complex and changing entity, which is managed and maintained by humans. Enterprise architecture has been identified as an organisational strategy designed to assist enterprises with the understanding of complexity and the management of change. Acceptance, implementation and maintenance of enterprise architecture in organisations are complex and time-consuming. Work roles, responsibilities, common vocabulary, and buy-in are some of the cooperative human factors of stakeholders and participants and are believed to have an effect on the process of enterprise architecture acceptance in organisations. This study focused on identifying human factors affecting enterprise architecture acceptance and the question of how knowledge of these human factors can be used to assist organisations in the management of enterprise architecture acceptance. The research addressed two main research objectives: the development of a work-level-related model for enterprise architecture acceptance and a proposed method for assisting organisations with enterprise architecture acceptance. An initial set of human factors affecting enterprise architecture acceptance were identified through an exploratory study in one organisation. A study of existing literature was used to identify other human factors affecting enterprise architecture acceptance and to compile a more comprehensive list of human factors. The resulting comprehensive list of human factors was categorised into six constructed work-level-related human concerns and confirmed in more organisations. A work-level-related model for enterprise architecture acceptance was established based on the work-level-related human concerns and associated human factors. A method for organisational use and management of enterprise architecture acceptance based on the model was proposed. The result of the research is the Work-level acceptance framework for enterprise architecture (WoLAF for EA), which could contribute to understanding and managing the important aspect of human acceptance of enterprise architecture in organisations. / PhD (Information Technology)--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2015

An enterprise is a complex and changing entity, which is managed and maintained by humans. Enterprise architecture has been identified as an organisational strategy designed to assist enterprises with the understanding of complexity and the management of change. Acceptance, implementation and maintenance of enterprise architecture in organisations are complex and time-consuming. Work roles, responsibilities, common vocabulary, and buy-in are some of the cooperative human factors of stakeholders and participants and are believed to have an effect on the process of enterprise architecture acceptance in organisations. This study focused on identifying human factors affecting enterprise architecture acceptance and the question of how knowledge of these human factors can be used to assist organisations in the management of enterprise architecture acceptance. The research addressed two main research objectives: the development of a work-level-related model for enterprise architecture acceptance and a proposed method for assisting organisations with enterprise architecture acceptance. An initial set of human factors affecting enterprise architecture acceptance were identified through an exploratory study in one organisation. A study of existing literature was used to identify other human factors affecting enterprise architecture acceptance and to compile a more comprehensive list of human factors. The resulting comprehensive list of human factors was categorised into six constructed work-level-related human concerns and confirmed in more organisations. A work-level-related model for enterprise architecture acceptance was established based on the work-level-related human concerns and associated human factors. A method for organisational use and management of enterprise architecture acceptance based on the model was proposed. The result of the research is the Work-level acceptance framework for enterprise architecture (WoLAF for EA), which could contribute to understanding and managing the important aspect of human acceptance of enterprise architecture in organisations. / PhD (Information Technology)--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2015

The thesis “Acceptance and use of the Service Oriented Computing paradigm: the IT professionals’ perspective” focuses on the question: what are the critical factors that influence IT professionals’ intentions to accept and use the Service Oriented Computing (SOC) approach to systems development? This work considers IT professionals as the key stakeholders in the SOC acceptance and use process and argues that the acceptance and practical use of SOC depends – at an early acceptance stage – primarily on the individual-level acceptance decisions made by senior IT professionals working for an organisation. Consequently, SOC acceptance and use (in its early stage) is seen as a bottom-up process driven, and to a high degree controlled, by the “early adopters” (Rogers 1995) of this technological paradigm (i.e. involved senior IT professionals). Although SOC is considered the enabling technological approach in many different future areas (e.g. eBusiness, eGovernment, eScience etc.), very little research exists on the process of practical acceptance of this paradigm, in particular focusing on the perspective of the “early stage” key stakeholders of this acceptance process, namely the IT professionals. This thesis consists of four major parts. First, it reviews existing literature on technology acceptance and use and confirms the absence of an established theoretical framework in the domain of individual-level technology acceptance in the IT industry. Second, based on data collected in a series of exploratory interviews with senior IT practitioners, an initial model explaining the acceptance and use of SOC among IT professionals is being proposed. Third, the derived model is revised and reformulated using an eGovernment case study. And forth, based on the refined model, a survey instrument is developed, pilot-tested and administered to senior IT professionals currently using the SOC approach to systems development in their professional work. This thesis makes a contribution to IS research in several ways. While there exists extensive, well-grounded and well-accepted research in the domain of “IT end-user” individual-level technology acceptance, the research on technology acceptance in the IT industry (i.e. technology acceptance by the IT professionals) is very limited, and nearly all studies carried out in this IS research field are concerned with established approaches or technologies. The current study is among the few examining the perspective of “early adopters” or “innovators” (Rogers 1995) instead of investigating the acceptance process of “early majority” or even “late majority”. Moreover, to the author’s knowledge it is the first study examining the process of individual-level SOC acceptance with a particular focus on the perspective of the “early stage” key stakeholders of this acceptance process, namely the IT professionals. One of the additional strengths of the study is the usage of multiple research methodologies – exploratory open-ended interviews, qualitative case study and web-based survey. This research is expected to be very interesting to researchers focusing on technology acceptance in general and on technology acceptance in the IT industry in particular. This research might also be of interest to IT practitioners considering to accept and use the SOC approach in their future applications.

The thesis “Acceptance and use of the Service Oriented Computing paradigm: the IT professionals’ perspective” focuses on the question: what are the critical factors that influence IT professionals’ intentions to accept and use the Service Oriented Computing (SOC) approach to systems development? This work considers IT professionals as the key stakeholders in the SOC acceptance and use process and argues that the acceptance and practical use of SOC depends – at an early acceptance stage – primarily on the individual-level acceptance decisions made by senior IT professionals working for an organisation. Consequently, SOC acceptance and use (in its early stage) is seen as a bottom-up process driven, and to a high degree controlled, by the “early adopters” (Rogers 1995) of this technological paradigm (i.e. involved senior IT professionals). Although SOC is considered the enabling technological approach in many different future areas (e.g. eBusiness, eGovernment, eScience etc.), very little research exists on the process of practical acceptance of this paradigm, in particular focusing on the perspective of the “early stage” key stakeholders of this acceptance process, namely the IT professionals. This thesis consists of four major parts. First, it reviews existing literature on technology acceptance and use and confirms the absence of an established theoretical framework in the domain of individual-level technology acceptance in the IT industry. Second, based on data collected in a series of exploratory interviews with senior IT practitioners, an initial model explaining the acceptance and use of SOC among IT professionals is being proposed. Third, the derived model is revised and reformulated using an eGovernment case study. And forth, based on the refined model, a survey instrument is developed, pilot-tested and administered to senior IT professionals currently using the SOC approach to systems development in their professional work. This thesis makes a contribution to IS research in several ways. While there exists extensive, well-grounded and well-accepted research in the domain of “IT end-user” individual-level technology acceptance, the research on technology acceptance in the IT industry (i.e. technology acceptance by the IT professionals) is very limited, and nearly all studies carried out in this IS research field are concerned with established approaches or technologies. The current study is among the few examining the perspective of “early adopters” or “innovators” (Rogers 1995) instead of investigating the acceptance process of “early majority” or even “late majority”. Moreover, to the author’s knowledge it is the first study examining the process of individual-level SOC acceptance with a particular focus on the perspective of the “early stage” key stakeholders of this acceptance process, namely the IT professionals. One of the additional strengths of the study is the usage of multiple research methodologies – exploratory open-ended interviews, qualitative case study and web-based survey. This research is expected to be very interesting to researchers focusing on technology acceptance in general and on technology acceptance in the IT industry in particular. This research might also be of interest to IT practitioners considering to accept and use the SOC approach in their future applications.

Tinnitus is a highly prevalent health condition creating moderate or severe interference on mood, sleep and daily functioning for a group of those affected. The aims of this thesis were 1) to explore the role of acceptance and psychological flexibility in understanding tinnitus interference both experimentally and with a longitudinal design 2) to evaluate the immediate and long-term outcomes of an acceptance based behaviour therapy (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy; ACT) in the treatment of people with tinnitus and, 3) to investigate the relationship between treatment outcome and processes assumed to be the active ingredients of treatment (acceptance and cognitive defusion). Study I (n=47) was an experiment comparing the impact of acceptance to that of thought suppression or a neutral instruction on the ability to maintain attention on an imagery task. Results indicated that participants could benefit from an acceptance strategy when performing the task. Study II (n=47) was a longitudinal trial studying the mediating role of acceptance on the relationship between tinnitus interference at baseline and tinnitus interference, anxiety, life quality, and depression at a seven-month follow-up. Full mediation was found for life quality and depression, and partial mediation for tinnitus interference. Study IV (n=64) was a randomised controlled trial evaluating the immediate and long-term effects of ACT in comparison to those of Tinnitus Retraining Therapy (TRT) and to a wait list control. Results showed that ACT had large immediate effects on tinnitus interference in comparison to wait list, and medium long-term effects in comparison to TRT. Results were also seen on secondary outcome. Self-reported tinnitus acceptance significantly mediated the immediate outcome of ACT. Study III (n=24) was a process study where the video recorded sessions of ACT from study IV were observed and rated with regard to client behaviour. Results showed that in-session acceptance and defusion behaviours rated early in therapy were predictors of sustained positive treatment effects of ACT. These associations continued to be substantial even when controlling for the prior improvement in outcome. This whereas prior symptom change could not predict process variables rated late in therapy. Participants in all trials were chronic tinnitus patients, mainly from different departments of audiology. These findings implicate that 1) acceptance and psychological flexibility may contribute to the understanding of tinnitus interference 2) ACT can reduce tinnitus interference in a group of normal hearing tinnitus patients and 3) acceptance and cognitive defusion are important processes in ACT, related to outcome. / Tinnitus är ett mycket vanligt hälsoproblem där en grupp av de drabbade upplever påtagliga besvär såsom påverkan på sömn, välbefinnande och funktionsnivå. Denna avhandlings syften var att 1) utforska den roll acceptans och psykologisk flexibilitet har för förståelsen av tinnitusbesvär såväl experimentellt som med en longitudinell design 2) utvärdera de omedelbara och långsiktiga effekterna av en acceptansinriktad beteendeterapi (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy; ACT) vid behandling av personer med tinnitus samt 3) undersöka relationen mellan behandlingsutfall och processer som antas utgöra behandlingens aktiva komponenter (acceptans och kognitiv defusion). Studie I (n=47) var ett experiment där man jämförde förmågan att bibehålla uppmärksamheten på en mental bild vid tre olika betingelser: acceptans, tankesuppression eller en neutral betingelse. Resultaten indikerade att deltagarna som slumpats till acceptans var hjälpta av denna strategi i genomförandet av uppgiften. Studie II (n=47) var en självrapportstudie med longitudinell design där det undersöktes om acceptans fungerade som en mediator i sambandet mellan tinnitusbesvär i baslinjen och livskvalitet, depression, ångest och tinnitusbesvär vid en uppföljning efter sju månader. För variablerna livskvalitet och depression visade resultaten en fullständig mediation och för tinnitusbesvär en partiell mediation. Studie IV (n=64) var en randomiserad kontrollerad prövning av de omedelbara och långsiktiga effekterna av ACT i jämförelse med Tinnitus Retraining Therapy (TRT) och en väntelistekontrollgrupp. Resultaten visade att ACT hade en stor omedelbar effekt på tinnitusbesvär i jämförelse med väntelistan och en medelstor effekt i jämförelse med TRT. Även sekundära utfallsmått visade på effekter. Utfallet i ACT medierades av självrapporterad acceptans av tinnitus. Studie III (n=24) studerade processer i ACT-behandlingen genom observation och skattning av klientbeteenden under de videoinspelade sessionerna. Resultaten visade att klienternas acceptans- och defusionbeteende under sessioner tidigt i terapin predicerade det långsiktiga utfallet i behandlingen. Dessa samband kvarstod även när man kontrollerade för symtomförbättring fram till den skattade sessionen. Detta medan tidigare symtomförbättring inte predicerade klientbeteende senare i behandling. Deltagare i samtliga studier var patienter med kronisk tinnitus, huvudsakligen rekryterade från reguljär hörselvård. Resultaten från dessa studier indikerar att 1) acceptans och psykologisk flexibilitet kan bidra till förståelsen av tinnitusbesvär 2) ACT kan minska tinnitusbesvär hos en grupp normalhörande patienter 3) acceptans och kognitiv defusion är viktiga processer i ACT vilka är relaterade till behandlingutfallet.