Grit, the concept consisting of perseverance and passion towards a desired long-term goal, has been spotlighted as a key psychological resource that is predictive of positive life outcomes including academic achievement, professional success and subjective well-being. Despite its popularity within and outside of academia, much more needs to be researched before we can understand its properties and sociological utility. This dissertation explores the potential location of grit within various sociological discourses, including literature on agency, stratification, and perceived meritocracy. In addition, I explore the relationship between social status, subjective agency, the social valuation of grit, and grit cross-culturally to place grit within proper cultural and structural contexts. In Chapter 2, I propose the psychological notion of grit as a potentially useful variable in sociological analysis and explore its potential for contributing to addressing sociological concerns including human agency and stratification. Grit could work as a “behavioral engine” transforming subjective beliefs about agency (e.g., sense of control) to agentic practices that potentially produce better life outcomes. In Chapter 3, using new cross-cultural data collected from South Korea and the United States, I test the current measure of grit, the Grit-S scale, that is developed and predominantly tested in the United States, in two different countries, South Korea and the United States. I find in both countries grit is better understood as the concept consisting of two separate dimensions, perseverance and passion, rather than a global concept. In addition, I find the perseverance facet of grit, but not the passion facet, shows the distinctive utility in explaining subjective well-being beyond subjective agency (i.e., sense of control) in both countries. In Chapter 4, I analyze novel cross-cultural data collected from four nations (France, South Korea, Turkey and the United States) and find an indirect linkage between a person’s socioeconomic status and the level of grit through positive associations with the sense of control. That is, people with a higher socioeconomic status tend to hold stronger beliefs about one’s agency, and those who are strong believers in one’s control over life outcomes, in turn, are more likely to develop grit in these four countries. In Chapter 5, using the same cross-cultural data used in Chapter 3, I investigate the social valuation of grit and whether and how the valuation of grit is associated with individual development of grit in South Korea and the United States. In both countries, grit is valued as a desirable virtue that leads to success in life. However, there is within-society variance: people from lower social statuses tend to value grit as a virtue that leads to success more than those from higher statuses in both country samples. In addition, I find people with a higher sense of control are more likely to value grit as a virtue, and valuing grit is positively associated with the individual development of perseverance in both countries.

Les savoirs traditionnels médicinaux c’est-à-dire l’aspect de la médecine traditionnelle portant sur des connaissances relatives au médicament traditionnel à base de plantes, qui part de la collecte des végétaux jusqu’au produit final, constituent un élément important dans la réalisation de la couverture des besoins de santé publique. En Afrique, les savoirs traditionnels médicinaux contribuent selon l’Organisation mondiale de la santé (OMS) à hauteur de 80% des besoins de santé des populations. Les savoirs traditionnels médicinaux représentent une source d’informations notamment dans la perspective d’une éradication des maladies endémiques du continent africain. L’OMS, et l’Union africaine (UA) voient dans les savoirs traditionnels médicinaux une piste de recherche en vue du développement de nouveaux médicaments à des prix abordables. Leur importance est aussi constatée au niveau de l’industrie du médicament où ils représentent 30% de la recherche dans l’industrie pharmaceutique et l’essentiel des informations dans le secteur des phytomédicaments. Cette appétence pour les savoirs traditionnels médicinaux ainsi que la médiatisation des actes de biopiraterie, ont contribué à renforcer leur valeur (sur les plans scientifique, économique, social et politique) et à justifier la nécessité de les protéger. Cependant, contrairement à la tendance actuelle des pays africains, l’Organisation africaine de la propriété intellectuelle (OAPI), à travers son Accord de Bangui révisé, ne dispose pas de mécanismes de propriété intellectuelle permettant une protection satisfaisante des droits des détenteurs de savoirs traditionnels médicinaux (tradipraticiens, familles, communautés autochtones et locales). Face à ce qui s’apparente à un vide juridique, il convient de s’interroger sur le régime juridique à mettre en place. Autrement dit, quel système sui generis de protection des savoirs traditionnels médicinaux faut-il envisager pour les pays membres de l’OAPI? C’est à cette interrogation que la présente étude se propose d’apporter des éléments de réponses. L’objectif visé sera de démontrer, dans le cadre d’une démarche prospective prenant appui notamment sur les droits de l’homme, le droit international de la propriété intellectuelle, le droit civil, le droit de la biodiversité, et les lois nationales, en particulier, celles de la République du Congo (Brazzaville), qu’il est possible d’établir au sein de l’OAPI un régime juridique cohérent et adapté à même de répondre aux besoins et attentes des différents acteurs intervenant dans l’exploitation de ces créations intellectuelles. / Traditional medical knowledge, which is the aspect of traditional medicine relating to the knowledge of plant-based therapy and which goes from collecting plants to issuing a finished product, is a key component for providing health care coverage for all. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), traditional medical knowledge contributes about 80% of primary health care in Africa. Traditional medical knowledge is perceived as a valuable source of information useful to eradicate African endemic diseases. The WHO and the African Union (AU) consider that traditional medical knowledge is a serious way for researchers to develop new and affordable drugs. Traditional medicinal knowledge is also important for the drug industry where it represents 30% of the researches made in the pharmaceutical sector and constitutes the main source of information in the herbal medicine sector. The drug industry’s increasing interest for traditional medical and the huge media coverage for biopiracy cases strengthened the (scientific, economic, social and politic) value of traditional medicinal knowledge and contribute to justify their protection. However contrary to the current trend in many African countries, it appears that the African Intellectual Property Organization (OAPI) and the Bangui Agreement, does not provide any suitable legal protective mechanism for the intellectual property rights of the holders of traditional medical knowledge (traditional healers, families, indigenous and local communities).In view of the limits and weaknesses of the intellectual property mechanisms to provide an effective protection to traditional medicinal knowledge’s holders, it is quite legitimate to question the legal mechanism or system to implement. In other words, what type of sui generis protection OAPI members can enact to protect traditional medicinal knowledge? This is the question that the present study intends to answer. The aim is to demonstrate from a prospective approach with regards to human rights, international intellectual property law, civil law, biodiversity law, and national laws, in particular the ones of the Republic of Congo (Brazzaville), that it is possible to build a coherent and adapted legal regime.