Chan, Hoi Sze Gloria. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2013. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 204-241). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstract and appendixes also in Chinese.

Variability is inherent to any living system, and adaptation, or changing one's behavior in response to variability, is an important way to reduce or eliminate possible adverse consequences of change. Adaptation is particularly important to consider in the face of contemporary climate change, as individuals and communities may be able to adapt their behavior in response to weather variability and reduce or possibly eliminate predicted adverse impacts. To gain a more mechanistic understanding of which factors may lead to enhanced adaptive capacity of individuals and communities to future change, this dissertation uses a multi-disciplinary and multi-scale approach to broadly examine which social, economic, biophysical, and perceptional factors are associated with agricultural adaptation to current weather variability. The results from this dissertation generally show how adapting agricultural practices, like changing cropping patterns or increasing irrigation, can reduce the vulnerability of farmers to weather variability. Importantly, however, we show that adaptation is not simply about adopting appropriate technical solutions like sowing weather-appropriate crops or irrigating optimally, it is also about the complex set of economic, social, and perceptional factors that influence farmer decision-making and adaptive capacity. A global literature review highlights important biases and gaps in our current knowledge about climate change adaptation research in the agricultural sector. Based on these findings, we offer recommendations for future research that may result in a more process-based understanding of adaptation, including conducting multi-disciplinary studies that simultaneously consider the social, economic, biophysical, and perceptional factors that are associated with adaptation, and understanding how weather variability and change influence well-being to more accurately identify which individuals, households, or communities are best able to adapt. Using these recommendations, we design a case study that examines how farmers alter their cropping strategies in response to monsoon variability in Gujarat, India. Much of our research is focused on India given that over 50% of the nation practices smallholder agriculture and is particularly sensitive to climate variability and change. Through this work, we find that farmers altered their cropping decisions in response to a delayed monsoon onset, by increasing irrigation, switching crop type, and/or delaying crop sowing, and these strategies, particularly increasing irrigation, were adaptive considering yield and profit in the year of our study. These results highlight the importance of considering farmer behavior and decision-making in models that estimate future weather and climate impacts on agricultural production. While household-level surveys allow one to assess individual-level decision-making, they are difficult to implement over large spatial and temporal scales. Thus we develop a remote sensing algorithm that quantifies cropped area of smallholder farms over large spatial and temporal scales using readily-available MODIS imagery. Given the importance of irrigation as an adaptation strategy, we link these cropped area maps with rainfall and irrigation data at the village scale across all of India to assess the relative impact of different types of irrigation (e.g. groundwater versus canal) on winter cropped area and its sensitivity to rainfall variability. Overall, we find that deep well irrigation is both associated with the greatest amount of winter cropped area, and is also the least sensitive to monsoon and winter rainfall variability. However, the relative benefit of deep well irrigation varies across India, with the largest benefits seen in the regions that are facing the greatest levels of groundwater depletion. This work highlights the critical importance of groundwater for agriculture in India, and suggests that future work should identify ways to use groundwater more efficiently, increase the recharge rate of groundwater, or improve the performance of canal irrigation in order to maintain similar levels of production in the face of climate variability and change over the upcoming decades. While this dissertation focuses on agricultural adaptation to weather variability, the methods and implications derived from this dissertation are applicable more broadly to the study of resilience and adaptive capacity of social-ecological systems to global environmental change. In a rapidly changing global system, using a multi-disciplinary, multi-scale, and coupled systems approach similar to the one employed in this dissertation will help better understand and identify possible ways to enhance the ability of societies to adapt to global environmental change.

This study was designed to determine the effects of play therapy on the adjustment of children identified as socially and psychologically maladjusted. The effects of play therapy on six variables were investigated. Those variables were: social adjustment, personal adjustment, self-concept, school-related self-concept, behavioral maturity as rated by the teacher, and inferred self-concept as rated by the parent. The general nature of the research hypotheses was that play therapy would effect positive change in the children on the six variables. The results of the study led to the conclusion that during a fifteen-week period play therapy effects statistically significant change in social adjustment, but not in personal adjustment, self-concept, or behavior as perceived by others. Implications of the study based on observations of the experimenter were that all changes made during the therapy process were not reflected by the tests which were available. It was recommended that further research on the effects of play therapy place special emphasis on the selection or development of instruments to measure changes made during therapy.

No description available.

The purpose of this project was to explore the coping patterns of people denied public assistance. The primary focus was on resources available and used by those denied to assist them in the situation that led them to apply for public assistance in the first place. A review of the literature revealed that very little is known concerning those denied public assistance. This project is one of the first to study the problem of how those denied manage after denial. The data for this project was gathered by the use of an interview schedule administered in personal interviews with those in the sample. The data was then analyzed using frequency distributions and percentage compositions. When appropriate, chi square statistics were computed. The major finding of this exploratory study is that those denied public assistance have-very few resources available to them to assist them in their coping patterns. Frequently those denied become eligible very soon after initial denial. Very few seek help elsewhere after denial although most of those who do receive helpful assistance. Implications are that more referrals by the intake staff at the public welfare agency would lead to more of those denied receiving helpful assistance elsewhere. Because this project is one of the first to study those denied public assistance, the findings are limited by the fact that there are no previous research findings available for comparison. Another limitation is that only one quarter of the original sample could be contacted. Because of these limitations, more research in the area is indicated. Suggestions are made for future research.

No description available.

The problem investigated in this research, comprising 2 studies, concerned factors influencing successful transition to retirement. Study 1 employed a survey methodology to explore the effects of demographics, involvement in activities, and the use of effective coping strategies/styles on depression-happiness levels.Study 2, emerged from the findings of Study 1. Comprising 84 participants, it used an experimental design, and investigated whether retirees could develop coping strategies to enhance happiness. Participants were matched according to their Depression Happiness Scale scores, and then one from each pair was randomly assigned either to a treatment group or to a control group.Implications from the research are that a coping skills program can be successful in enhancing happiness levels, and it may be beneficial to include happiness indicators in government social policies. Results obtained increased the understanding of factors contributing to a healthy adjustment in the later years of life.

No description available.

Empowerment for those supporting the bereaved lies in understanding the processes by which meaning is constructed out of a loss. My concern is that models currently underpinning understanding and practice in grief recovery provide limited assistance to loss and grief practioners. These theories, based around set stages and tasks with pre-determined objectives, offer stereotypic "after the event" perspectives on the recovery process. This has value as background information, but in the extreme promotes a clinical, de-personalised approach to uderstanding and support. My experiences over more than a decade of working alongside the suicide-bereaved in particular, suggest that a more enlightened pathway lies with people and their stories. Working in an empathic dialogic relationship, with an emphasis on understanding rather than closure, is more appropriate in assisting those treading the very sensitive, very personal, bereavement path. Furthermore, the narrative grounded approach is more in tune with the processes involved; and more likely to lead to productive outcomes in both the short and long term.The presented model argues that bereavement recovery is a re-educative reconstruction process: trialogic, semiotic sign or symbol related; recognising significant personal autonomous control; genetically or organically activated and driven; dynamic and ongoing; and constructed out of the individual's socio-cultural knowledge base. The model further argues that recovery is best constructed in a climate of empathic understanding and genuine non-judgemental acceptance of the bereaved individual's current perceptual world. In expounding and supporting this model, the tradition of pragmatic educational philosophy has been found useful - in particular, relevant apects of the theories of Carl Rogers, John Dewey, Alfred Shutz and Charles Stanford Peirce.I contend that the proposed model may be applied to all forms of profound loss, however the main context for this research is a Bereaved-by-Suicide Support Group.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2007. / The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on December 6, 2007) Vita. Includes bibliographical references.