The purpose of this study was to examine predictors of client-counselor working alliance by understanding the effects of acculturation, perceived multicultural competence in counselors, and cultural value conflicts among South Asian women. The study was based on a nonrandom sample of women ages 18 to 39 years living in the United States who had completed at least three counseling sessions with a mental health professional in the last 5 years. Forty participants completed the online survey. Participants were recruited through personal contacts, social networking Internet websites, businesses, agencies, and places of worship. The majority of participants were highly educated, second-generation women descending from India or Pakistan. The full survey included an eligibility screening questionnaire, demographic questionnaire, the Working Alliance Inventory-Short Revised with an average mean of 4.82, Cross-Cultural Counseling Inventory-Revised with an average mean of 4.17 and reliability of excellent internal consistency reliability at ? = .92, Asian Values Scale-Revised with an average mean score of 2.44, and Cultural Value Conflicts Scale for South Asian Women with a mean score of 3.33. Participants reported experiencing working alliance often within the therapeutic relationship and experienced middle levels of Asian value adherence, falling in the integration level. The results indicated that participants experienced neutral to agreeable cultural value conflicts. Bivariate correlations indicated a statistically significant, moderate relationship between participants’ perceptions of counselors’ multicultural competence and their reports of working alliance in the therapeutic relationship. All other correlations reflected small to moderate effect sizes; however, these correlations were not statistically significant. Similarly, bivariate regression indicated that perceptions of multicultural counselor competence predicted the client-counselor working alliance to a moderate degree. From the results of hierarchical linear regression, acculturation and cultural value conflicts did not predict client-counselor working alliance even after accounting for perceived multicultural competence in counselors. The strongest predictor of client-counselor working alliance was the perceived multicultural competence of counselors. Probable reasons for the results of this study were discussed, limitations were identified, and suggestions for counseling practice were provided. Implications for the profession of counseling were made, and recommendations for future research were provided.

This thesis is focused on the Foucauldian analysis of power in two of David Mamet¡¦s famous ¡§Business Trilogy¡¨ ¡V Glengarry Glen Ross and American Buffalo. Most of Mamet¡¦s critics concentrate on the negative notion of power, i.e., exploitation and repression, while examining relations of power in the business worlds of these two plays. The primary concern of this study is to explore the positivity of exercises of power in human relationships in Glengarry Glen Ross and American Buffalo and then illuminate the fact that Mamet¡¦s figures of businessmen¡¦s false employment of strategy of power thereupon leads them to fail their self-assertions. Foucauldian analytics of power thoroughly manifests the subtlety of operation of power as well as the productive effects of power in Mametian business world. The introduction mentions the distinctiveness of Mamet¡¦s business plays and explains the connection between these two plays of Mamet and Foucauldian analytics of power. Chapter one deals with an overview of Foucault¡¦s conception of power, which provides a theoretical frame for the body of this study. In this chapter, not only the transformation and the skeleton of Foucauldian power are proffered, but the characteristics of juridical-discursive model of power are also introduced. Therefore, in the following two chapters, the reasons of employing Foucauldian analytics of power for this research are displayed in the process of analyzing exercises of power. The second chapter attempts to exam the power relations from a series of actions of betraying in Glengarry Glen Ross. It is shown that Mamet¡¦s businessmen, for the sake of survival, practice betrayals in the light of exercising resistance in relations of power. Chapter three is chiefly concerned with the conflicts and delicate exercises of power among the characters in American Buffalo. The three main characters¡¦ failure of distinguishing business from friendship causes the distortion of human relations in which material advantages are involved. Throughout the examination of power relations in these two plays of power, the last chapter concludes that David Mamet¡¦s aim of writing plays will be achieved if his readers become to be aware of the danger of wrongly adopting strategies of power in human communities.

Awareness techniques have been proposed and studied to aid developer understanding, efficiency, and quality of software produced. Some of these techniques have focused on either direct or indirect conflicts in order to prevent, detect, or resolve these conflicts as they arise from a result of source code changes. While the techniques and tools for direct conflicts have had large success, tools either proposed or studied for indirect conflicts have had common issues of information overload, false positives, scalability, information distribution and many others. To better understand these issues, this dissertation will focus on exploring the world of indirect conflicts through 4 studies. The first two studies presented will focus on motivational circumstances which occur during the software development life cycle and cause indirect conflicts. Developers interactions are studied in order to create a tool which can aid in the workflows around indirect conflicts. The second two studies present a deeper investigation into why most indirect conflict tools fail to attract developer interest through exploring the root causes of indirect conflicts and how tools should be properly built to support developer workflows. / Graduate / 0984

Awareness techniques have been proposed and studied to aid developer understanding, efficiency, and quality of software produced. Some of these techniques have focused on either direct or indirect conflicts in order to prevent, detect, or resolve these conflicts as they arise from a result of source code changes. While the techniques and tools for direct conflicts have had large success, tools either proposed or studied for indirect conflicts have had common issues of information overload, false positives, scalability, information distribution and many others. To better understand these issues, this dissertation will focus on exploring the world of indirect conflicts through 4 studies. The first two studies presented will focus on motivational circumstances which occur during the software development life cycle and cause indirect conflicts. Developers interactions are studied in order to create a tool which can aid in the workflows around indirect conflicts. The second two studies present a deeper investigation into why most indirect conflict tools fail to attract developer interest through exploring the root causes of indirect conflicts and how tools should be properly built to support developer workflows. / Graduate / 0984

This dissertation examines, both theoretically and empirically, the effects of international policies, especially of sanctions, on conflicts. In theoretical analysis, we consider conflicts (both civil and inter-state) related to natural resources and examine how sanctions on natural resource exports affect the intensity of conflicts. However, for the empirical analysis, we consider only the civil conflicts and examine how international sanctions affect the duration of civil conflicts. In chapter 1, we develop a two-period general equilibrium model on the relationship between natural resources and civil conflicts. Contrary to the most of the existing literature, we assume that resource extraction and wage rate are endogenous during the conflict. We find that the effects of current international sanctions on civil conflict depend critically on whether the budget constraints of the warring groups are binding or non-binding, and whether wage rate is exogenous or endogenous. Under both binding and non-binding budgets, the current sanction can be counter-productive. However, a threat of future sanction reduces conflict intensity, when the budget constraint is non-binding. An improvement in agricultural productivity may also limit the conflict. Our results also suggest that the most effective policy for conflict resolution would be bilateral piece-meal reduction in war efforts. Chapter 2 develops a two-period general equilibrium model linking natural resources to inter-state conflict, treating resource extraction and wage rate are endogenous. First, we characterize the war equilibrium and derive a number of properties of it. Second, we examine the effects of different types of trade sanctions imposed by the international community on war efforts of the two countries. We find that a temporary current sanction on both countries, or even on one of the countries, will be counter-productive, and an anticipated future sanction on both countries will unambiguously reduce war intensity. Whether an anticipated future sanction on one of countries will reduce war intensity will depend on the level of resource stock; the effect of a permanent sanction on both countries is ambiguous: war intensities will fall only if the resource stocks of the countries are sufficiently high. Finally, in chapter 3, we examine empirically the effects of international sanctions on the expected duration of civil conflicts. Contrary to the most of the previous findings, we find that sanctions reduce the expected duration of civil conflicts. Our finding is robust for different controls, different parametric models, and with consideration of endogeneity of sanctions. However, not all types of sanction are equally successful in shortening conflicts. Total economic embargoes and arms sanctions are effective, but trade sanctions, aid suspension, and other sanctions do not work. We also find that both multi-lateral and unilateral sanctions (mainly US sanctions) can reduce duration of civil wars.

This mini-dissertation looks at human trafficking in non-international armed conflicts and evaluates whether or not the law of non-international armed conflicts sufficiently prohibits and deals with human trafficking to bring more attention to the common crime in non-international armed conflicts. From the broad view, it seems as though human trafficking is neglected by the law of non-international armed conflicts in non-international armed conflicts. This mini-dissertation therefore looks closer in to the law of non-international armed conflict to identify, explain and evaluate the relevant provisions of the law of non-international armed conflict in order to draw a conclusion on whether or not human trafficking is indeed neglected by the law regulating non-international armed conflicts or not, offer criticism and make suggestions on improving the laws. In order to be in a position to draw a conclusion, offer criticism and make suggestions, the drafting history of the provisions, the textual interpretation, relevant case law and scholarly opinion will be looked at. / Mini Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2021. / Public Law / LLM / Unrestricted

This thesis investigates how and why various Iraqi and Lebanese politicians and laypeople account for the armed conflicts, which they have been living through, and the involved sides of these conflicts. In both of these countries people have been exposed to major international and civil wars. Both nations are also cosmopolitan societies that contain multiple ethnic, racial, and religious groups, which make the issue of identity of great importance. How wars should be examined is a subject of much debate within psychology. On the one hand, the majority of psychological studies of war rest upon the assumption that war is primarily a destructive experience. Thus, the focus has been traditionally on investigating lasting psychopathological effects of war. A Large number of previous studies have reported that a significant segment of people who were exposed to the experience of war developed psychological problems, especially post traumatic stress disorder. On the other hand, a growing number of psychology researchers contend that most people maintain their psychological equilibrium in the face of almost all types of traumatic experiences, including war-related affairs. These researchers have shifted the focus toward examining and explaining this finding. Within this vigorous debate, limited attention has been paid to the question of how and why people account for their experiences as well as the various aspects of war in their own words. Currently, a limited number of studies indicate that people can and do present the same war in significantly different ways, as a means to attain certain ends. Furthermore, a significant body of research suggests that people’s collective identities play an important role in relation to their understandings, descriptions, preferences and behaviours in relation to war. The war rhetoric is also reported as an important issue that can influence the people’s understanding of war, as well as war’s course of events. Hence, through adopting a discursive psychological approach to analysis, this thesis examines several important issues simultaneously. Accounts of the wars and collective identities are approached as communicative resources that are constructed and deployed as a means to accomplish social actions. This thesis examines, specifically, how different Iraqi laypeople and politicians construct the 2003 American and Allies intervention in Iraq, with focus on collective identity. It also examines how various Lebanese construe the events of the 2006 war and the civil strife that occurred during and afterward this war. The data is taken from three sources. The first one is represented by semi-structured interviews conducted in Lebanon in October 2006. The second source is TV interviews conducted and broadcasted live with Iraqi politicians and decision makers in the period from 2003 to 2008 and with Lebanese politicians from 2006 to 2008. The third source is an open-ended question distributed in Basra City, Iraq in May 2005 as part of an extensive questionnaire. This study has several practical and theoretical implications to psychology in general and in particular to the study of armed conflicts. The first contribution is highlighting the importance of analysing laypeople’s rhetorical accounts of wars, as directly involved people can and do present surprisingly different discourses from the outsiders’. I argue that to gain a realistic and applicable understanding of the discourse of war, its function and its potential implications, it is necessary to study the general public’s versions of such experience in addition to the elite’s discourses. The analysis shows that different participants have constructed different action-oriented accounts of the same war. Within these various accounts the participants invoked and incorporated a number of different stimulating notions, such as dignity, nationalism, religion, resilience and victory as part of the rational of the war. These accounts have important practical and discursive functions, such as establishing, warranting, rejecting, and promoting specific views of the war, the involved sides, and the appropriate course of action. Secondly, this study contributes to the theoretical understanding of the role of rhetorical collective identity during armed conflicts. The analysis shows that collective identities attain their meanings and their functions from, by, and through the accounts they are situated within. Thirdly, the findings of this thesis highlight the complex and consequential role of rhetorical accounts in relation to wars and to violence and the relevance of qualitative analysis. I argue that discourse of war can obscure its destructive effects, which in turn can contribute to maintaining people’s psychological equilibrium but, also, prolong the conflict. Thus, exposing the rhetorical strategies that legitimate war and warrant killing other people can be an important step toward making war unconditionally morally unacceptable.

Organizacija - gyvas organizmas, kuris gali augti, klestėti arba nykti, nes čia susiduria skirtingi žmonės, turintys savus interesus, poreikius, norus ir vertybes. Čia yra skatinama konkurencijos atmosfera, tvyroja atleidimo iš darbo galimybė, egzistuoja nuolatinė darbuotojų kova dėl savo pozicijų, todėl organizaciją galima įvardinti, kaip „konfliktų kalvę“ ir visa tai dėl to, kad žmonės yra skirtingi, turintys tam tikras ydas ir tikslus. Konfliktai ne tik kuria neigiamą mikroklimatą, apsunkina vidinę komunikaciją, bet trukdo ir komandiniam darbui, nuo kurio priklauso organizacijos veiklos produktyvumas ir kokybė. Šiuolaikiniame pasaulyje komandinio darbo organizavimas suprantamas kaip efektyvesnės veiklos užtikrinimas, sėkmę lemiantis veiksnys. Organizacija, kuri darbą grindžia komandomis sudaro sąlygas sparčiau vystytis, efektyviau mokosi ir panaudoja išmoktas žinias, taupo laiką, ieško naujovių ir jas įgyvendina. Taip atliekamas darbas leidžia darbuotojams integruoti ir susieti informaciją tokiais būdais, kurių atskiras asmuo nepajėgtų įgyvendinti. Tinkamai surinktos ir efektyviai dirbančios komandos vertė akivaizdi ir neįkainojama. Deja, komandose taip pat kyla konfliktai, kurių priežastys gali būti tiek socialinės (skirtingos vertybės, įsitikinimai, išsilavinimai), tiek darbinės (kylančios dėl gautos užduoties įvykdymo). Akivaizdu, kad konfliktai įtakoja komandinį darbą. Dėl to reikia numatyti, kokia strategija kilus konfliktui yra tinkamiausia. Siekiant, kad... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Organization – is an alive system, which can grow, prosper and vanish, because different people meet in this system, which have their own interests, demands, wishes and valuables. Conflicts are not only the reason of a negative microclimate, conflicts are responsible for the internal communication, conflicts disturb the team work, and the team work is responsible for the organization activity’s productivity and quality. In the modern world the planning of the team work is understood as a factor which warrants the more effective activity and success. The organization which grounds its activity on team work creates conditions to develop more quickly, to learn more effectively, to use knowledge which is learned, to save time, to look for innovations and to implement them. Such manner of activity lets employees to integrate and to link the information by the means, which would be impracticable for the individual employee. The value of properly collected and effectively working team is obvious and invaluable. Unfortunately, conflicts arise in the teams too, and the reasons of these conflicts can be social (different valuables, creeds and education), and working (which appear because of the implementation of given task). It is obvious that conflicts have impact on team work. This is why it is necessary to foresee what strategy will be the most appropriate when the conflict will arise. It is necessary to solve arising conflicts quickly, effectively and correctly, seeking that... [to full text]

Revelations of kickbacks from surgical device manufacturers to surgeons raise the question whether surgeons can continue to collaborate with industry and maintain public trust. Using qualitative and quantitative methodology, this thesis explores surgical patients’ views on financial relationships between surgeons and manufacturers and patients’ recommendations for managing these conflicts of interest. A majority of patients approve of surgeon’s relationships with manufacturers that can benefit patients but disapprove of those that primarily benefit the surgeon and the manufacturer. The majority of patients do not endorse disclosure as a sole method of managing these relationships. The majority of patients trust the surgical profession to self-regulate and favour professional oversight rather than by government to ensure financial relationships between surgeons and manufacturers are appropriate. My data supports my argument that there should be professional oversight of financial relationships between surgeons and manufacturers, which may allow continued collaboration with manufacturers while maintaining public trust.

Revelations of kickbacks from surgical device manufacturers to surgeons raise the question whether surgeons can continue to collaborate with industry and maintain public trust. Using qualitative and quantitative methodology, this thesis explores surgical patients’ views on financial relationships between surgeons and manufacturers and patients’ recommendations for managing these conflicts of interest. A majority of patients approve of surgeon’s relationships with manufacturers that can benefit patients but disapprove of those that primarily benefit the surgeon and the manufacturer. The majority of patients do not endorse disclosure as a sole method of managing these relationships. The majority of patients trust the surgical profession to self-regulate and favour professional oversight rather than by government to ensure financial relationships between surgeons and manufacturers are appropriate. My data supports my argument that there should be professional oversight of financial relationships between surgeons and manufacturers, which may allow continued collaboration with manufacturers while maintaining public trust.