Research suggests that the human attentional system is biased towards emotional events in the environment. This attentional bias is believed to be an adaptive function that can provide survival benefits for the organisms that possess it. Dispositional optimism is a trait defined as a general expectation that good things will happen in the future. This trait has received interest as an adaptive trait that has a multitude of psychological and physical benefits for the individuals who exhibit it. The aim of this study is to examine whether there is a difference in the attentional bias towards happy and angry facial expressions based on level of dispositional optimism using the dot-probe paradigm. Thirty-two psychologically and neurologically healthy females (mean age = 26.5, SD = 5.8) participated in the study. They completed a questionnaire measuring dispositional optimism and performed the dot-probe task in a laboratory setting in the University of Skövde. In the dot- probe task a short exposure (100 ms) of photographs depicting happy, angry and neutral facial expressions was used as emotional cues. A general bias towards happy faces across all participants was detected. Also, a clear trend towards an interaction between DO and AB to emotional faces was found in the group high in DO displaying and AB towards happy facial expressions. This study implies that for the psychologically and neurologically healthy population, a fast operating and automatic AB for positive stimuli exists, moreover, this AB may be modulated by individual differences in DO.

O ensino superior brasileiro se configura, historicamente, como um espaço de formação elitista e excludente, destinado às classes dominantes. No entanto, esse cenário tem se alterado ao longo dos últimos 20 anos, a partir do processo de expansão e diversificação do acesso ao ensino superior, o qual possibilitou o ingresso de grupos antes pouco expressivos, por meio de políticas públicas como o Programa Universidade para Todos – Prouni. Frente a esse contexto de expansão no acesso ao ensino superior do país, essa pesquisa visa compreender como a origem social influencia o acesso, permanência e conclusão do ensino superior, assim como a posterior inserção profissional dos jovens egressos do Prouni, no momento em que essa se configura como uma política pública baseada em critérios de seleção socioeconômicos. A fim de compreender o peso da origem social no processo de formação e ingresso no mercado de trabalho, adotou-se o olhar da sociologia disposicionalista, suportado teórica e metodologicamente em autores como Bernard Lahire, Pierre Bourdieu e Jessé Souza. Para isso, foram realizadas entrevistas em profundidade com cinco egressos do Prouni – oriundos dos cursos de Direito e Administração de duas das melhores instituições de ensino privado do Rio Grande do Sul – as quais foram organizadas e apresentadas no formato de retratos sociológicos (LAHIRE, 2004). A partir da construção dos retratos, foram identificadas as disposições incorporadas ao longo da trajetória de cada um dos jovens, sendo analisadas a partir de suas ocorrências intra e interindividuais. Por meio das disposições compartilhadas, ou interindividuais, foi possível caracterizar os jovens egressos do Prouni como pertencentes a nova classe trabalhadora (SOUZA, 2010). Além disso, as diferenças nas disposições à nível individual permitiram identificar diferentes estratos dentro da nova classe trabalhadora, o que contradiz a ideia de um modo de conduta homogêneo entre aqueles pertencentes a uma mesma classe social. Percebeu-se que a identificação do sistema disposicional incorporado pelos indivíduos e a análise de sua influência ao longo da trajetória individual e coletiva dos egressos do Prouni contribuiu para desvelar o peso e influência da estrutura social sob a ação individual. Tal abordagem contribuiu para ressaltar as desigualdades existentes ao longo do processo de formação e inserção profissional, auxiliando no combate ao discurso meritocrático de responsabilização individual. Por fim, percebe-se no instrumento analítico de identificação das disposições um promissor caminho para aprofundar os estudos acerca da formação e inserção profissional no país e compreender as particularidades dos diferentes grupos de jovens que acessam o ensino superior, levando em conta suas trajetórias, que podem ser mais ou menos limitadas, a partir da origem de classe. / Brazilian higher education is historically an elitist field, destined to the highest social classes. However, this context has changed over the last 20 years, due to the process of expansion and diversification of higher education access. This allowed the entrance of minority groups at university, through public policies such as the University for All Program – in Portuguese called Prouni, which is based in social economic criteria. Based in this context of expansion in the access to higher education in Brazil, this research aims to understand the social origin influence on transition school-to-work process of young graduates from Prouni. In order to understand the social origin influence in higher education studies and transition school-to-work, a sociological dispositional view was adopted in this research, supported by authors such as Bernard Lahire, Pierre Bourdieu and Jessé Souza. In-depth interview were conducted with five graduated students from Prouni, enrolled in Administration and Law courses in two of the best universities of Rio Grande do Sul state. These interviews data were reconstructed and organized into sociological portraits (LAHIRE, 2004). From this material, some incorporated dispositions were identified, being classified based on their individual or collective occurrence. Based on these shared dispositions, was possible to identify this group of young Prouni students as part of the new working Brazilian class (SOUZA, 2010). Besides that, differences in the individual dispositions allowed the identification of distinctive social strata inside this social class, which contradicts the idea of a homogenous mode of conduct shared between members of a same social group. From the incorporated dispositional system analysis, was possible to identify some motivational factors which influence the decisions made by the individuals. Based on that, is possible to combat the meritocratic discourse of individual accountability, which make invisible the weight and influence of the social structure in agent’s life. Finally, the analytical instrument of dispositions identification seems to offer a promising alternative to deepen the transition school-to-work studies in Brazil. The individual analyses can help to understand the particularities in different young people groups that access the higher education, taking into account their trajectories and the divergent aspects they present, related to their social class origin.

The thesis deals with a resistance to a psychological stress at cyclists with disabilities in context of addictive substances use. The theoretical part of the thesis summarizes findings concerning handicapped people cycling, personal characteristics of sportsmen, and also an influence of a sports performance by used substances together with an institutional framework of this issue. In the theoretical part there are described various views of the resistance to the psychological stress with an emphasis on an arousability, dispositional optimism and Sense of Coherence. A score of these three indicators was determined at respondents within an empirical part of the thesis. The aim of the thesis was to define a level of a psychological resistance at cyclists with disabilities and its relation to the addictive substances use. Partial aims of the thesis were focused on respondents´ awareness of effects of addictive substances on the sports performance, particular substances used by respondents, an openness to the addictive substances use to influence the sports performance and views of such a use in the sports environment. Scales of the arousability, Optimism Scale and Sense of Coherence, detecting levels of the arousability, dispositional optimism and Sense of Coherence, were applied in the research investigation. The research sample consisted of men ? cyclists with physical or sense handicaps, participating in cycle racing disciplines in the Czech Republic. Three hypotheses were tested in this investigation. The empirical part of the thesis has led to conclusions concerning a level of the psychological resistance at cyclists with disabilities from aspects of the Sense of Coherence, arousability and dispositional optimism. A frequency of the addictive substances use to influence the sports performance was in accordance with a predetermined hypothesis, the research sample of cyclists with disabilities showed a lower use of addictive substances to influence the sports performance compared to the cyclists without disabilities. Similarly, the openness to the addictive substances use was lower at the research sample.

O ensino superior brasileiro se configura, historicamente, como um espaço de formação elitista e excludente, destinado às classes dominantes. No entanto, esse cenário tem se alterado ao longo dos últimos 20 anos, a partir do processo de expansão e diversificação do acesso ao ensino superior, o qual possibilitou o ingresso de grupos antes pouco expressivos, por meio de políticas públicas como o Programa Universidade para Todos – Prouni. Frente a esse contexto de expansão no acesso ao ensino superior do país, essa pesquisa visa compreender como a origem social influencia o acesso, permanência e conclusão do ensino superior, assim como a posterior inserção profissional dos jovens egressos do Prouni, no momento em que essa se configura como uma política pública baseada em critérios de seleção socioeconômicos. A fim de compreender o peso da origem social no processo de formação e ingresso no mercado de trabalho, adotou-se o olhar da sociologia disposicionalista, suportado teórica e metodologicamente em autores como Bernard Lahire, Pierre Bourdieu e Jessé Souza. Para isso, foram realizadas entrevistas em profundidade com cinco egressos do Prouni – oriundos dos cursos de Direito e Administração de duas das melhores instituições de ensino privado do Rio Grande do Sul – as quais foram organizadas e apresentadas no formato de retratos sociológicos (LAHIRE, 2004). A partir da construção dos retratos, foram identificadas as disposições incorporadas ao longo da trajetória de cada um dos jovens, sendo analisadas a partir de suas ocorrências intra e interindividuais. Por meio das disposições compartilhadas, ou interindividuais, foi possível caracterizar os jovens egressos do Prouni como pertencentes a nova classe trabalhadora (SOUZA, 2010). Além disso, as diferenças nas disposições à nível individual permitiram identificar diferentes estratos dentro da nova classe trabalhadora, o que contradiz a ideia de um modo de conduta homogêneo entre aqueles pertencentes a uma mesma classe social. Percebeu-se que a identificação do sistema disposicional incorporado pelos indivíduos e a análise de sua influência ao longo da trajetória individual e coletiva dos egressos do Prouni contribuiu para desvelar o peso e influência da estrutura social sob a ação individual. Tal abordagem contribuiu para ressaltar as desigualdades existentes ao longo do processo de formação e inserção profissional, auxiliando no combate ao discurso meritocrático de responsabilização individual. Por fim, percebe-se no instrumento analítico de identificação das disposições um promissor caminho para aprofundar os estudos acerca da formação e inserção profissional no país e compreender as particularidades dos diferentes grupos de jovens que acessam o ensino superior, levando em conta suas trajetórias, que podem ser mais ou menos limitadas, a partir da origem de classe. / Brazilian higher education is historically an elitist field, destined to the highest social classes. However, this context has changed over the last 20 years, due to the process of expansion and diversification of higher education access. This allowed the entrance of minority groups at university, through public policies such as the University for All Program – in Portuguese called Prouni, which is based in social economic criteria. Based in this context of expansion in the access to higher education in Brazil, this research aims to understand the social origin influence on transition school-to-work process of young graduates from Prouni. In order to understand the social origin influence in higher education studies and transition school-to-work, a sociological dispositional view was adopted in this research, supported by authors such as Bernard Lahire, Pierre Bourdieu and Jessé Souza. In-depth interview were conducted with five graduated students from Prouni, enrolled in Administration and Law courses in two of the best universities of Rio Grande do Sul state. These interviews data were reconstructed and organized into sociological portraits (LAHIRE, 2004). From this material, some incorporated dispositions were identified, being classified based on their individual or collective occurrence. Based on these shared dispositions, was possible to identify this group of young Prouni students as part of the new working Brazilian class (SOUZA, 2010). Besides that, differences in the individual dispositions allowed the identification of distinctive social strata inside this social class, which contradicts the idea of a homogenous mode of conduct shared between members of a same social group. From the incorporated dispositional system analysis, was possible to identify some motivational factors which influence the decisions made by the individuals. Based on that, is possible to combat the meritocratic discourse of individual accountability, which make invisible the weight and influence of the social structure in agent’s life. Finally, the analytical instrument of dispositions identification seems to offer a promising alternative to deepen the transition school-to-work studies in Brazil. The individual analyses can help to understand the particularities in different young people groups that access the higher education, taking into account their trajectories and the divergent aspects they present, related to their social class origin.

Background and Aim The South African higher education sector has undergone numerous changes over the past years due to external factors such as globalisation, managerialism and neo-liberalism (Ntshoe, Higgs, Higgs&Wolhuter, 2008). Furthermore De Villiers and Steyn (2009) add that state funding of higher education in South Africa has been decreased to such an extent that higher education institutions (HEI’s) have been unable to parallel the increase in the number of students enrolled per year. As mentioned by Mouton (2010) universities in sub-Saharan Africa continue to operate under conditions which are seriously under-resourced, which poses significant challenges for the scholars concerned. The changes in the Higher Education Institutional environment have forced HEI’s to increase their level of output in terms of: enrollments, qualifications awarded, research output and institution size and number of disadvantaged students (De Villiers&Steyn, 2009) in order to remain competitive. The number of changes in performance outputs as well as the growing market for competitive higher education (HE) has greatly impacted the job demands of academics in South Africa. The environment in which academics in South Africa function now demands more of them than in previous years. For example the employment relationship has changed (i.e. teacher-driven to student-driven), altering the type of work that people do, when they work and how much they do (Barkhuizen, Rothmann&Van de Vijver, in press). Accordingly, it appears that the job demands of academics have escalated, whilst the levels of support and other resources have declined. The objective of this study was to investigate whether job demands and resources are significant predictors of dispositional employability of academics in South Africa. Method A cross–sectional research design was followed. The Job Characteristics Scale developed by Barkhuizen and Rothman (2005) and the Dispositional Measure of Employability (Fugate&Kinicki, 2008) were used as measures in this study. A total of 360 questionnaires were sent out to the sample, of which 158 completed questionnaires were received, but only 146 of these responses could be used for data analyses. This represents a 40.55% response rate. Results The results showed that there is a significant relationship between job demands and the change identity of the academics and that job demands do act as a predictor of the dispositional employability of academics in terms of their change identity. No significant relationship between the job resources and the dispositional employability of the academics were found, however all of the dimensions of DE had a positive relationship with job resources. A significant relationship between job demands and the ethnicity, home language, age, the respondent’s job level and the number of hours they work was found. However, no statistically significant differences were found within gender, qualifications, job categories, years in service and the number of years in current positions. According to the results the white ethnic group experiences higher job demands than the black ethic group. Furthermore respondents speaking either Afrikaans or English experience higher job demands then respondents speaking indigenous languages. In relation to this, the age group 50 to 59 experience higher job demands compared to that of the age group 20-29. Associate professors experience higher job demands than junior lecturers. No significant relationship between the academics’ perception of their job resources and their demographic characteristics was found. There are significant differences between the DE of the academics and their ethnicity, home language, job category, years in service and hours of work. No statistically significant differences were found within gender, age, qualifications, job level or years in the current position. The Black ethnic group indicates higher levels of resilience and motivation compared to the other ethnic groups, and indigenous languages have higher levels of resilience compared to the other two language groups. Academics that function as both researchers and lecturers have higher levels of career proactivity compared to the academics that function only as a researcher or lecturer. Respondents that have been in the industry for between zero to 10 years have a higher level of resilience compared to the respondents who have served for longer. The working hours of group four (between 31 to 40 hours) show higher levels of resilience compared to the other groups. / Dissertation (MCom)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Human Resource Management

1 SUMMARY In general this thesis deals with the question whether or to what extent human thinking is rational in terms of the optimality of the way people achieve their goals and in terms of the consistency between people's beliefs and the structure of the world. This question is quite difficult to answer unequivocally because the answer will always depend on the nature of the particular task and the exact way in which we define rationality. Among other things, that's the reason why we can meet two contradictory schools of thought within the so-called Great Rationality Debate, one of which is convinced of the systematic irrationality of human thinking (in the sense of the systematic deviation of human thinking from normative predictions stemming from the principles of rational thinking as they are captured by the statistical theory of probability, formal logic or decision theory), while the other one considers human thought to be more or less rational, and finds the source of its (alleged) failure elsewhere. In the case of the latter, however, the question is how to explain the apparent existence of irrational behavior and interindividual differences in such behavior. One possible answer to this question is illustrated by Griffiths and Tenenbaum's Bayesian model of causal reasoning based on perceived...

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Syftet med föreliggande studie var att undersöka effekten av en Mindfulness-Acceptance-Commitment (MAC) intervention på dispositionell idrottsmindfulness, emotionsreglering och prestation (själv- och tränarskattad) över tid. Data samlades in i nämnda variabler före, under och efter interventionen, som innehöll åtta sessioner. Studiens deltagare var akademifotbollsspelare (n = 32 Målder = 17.06. SD = 0.72) från två olika fotbollslag. Envägs beroende ANOVA visade att MAC hade en statistiskt signifikant effekt på emotionsreglering och subskalorna acceptans och uppmärksamhet i dispositionell idrottsmindfulness. MAC hade ingen statistiskt signifikant effekt på prestation (själv- och tränarskattad) eller subskalan medvetenhet i dispositionell idrottsmindfulness. Uppföljande post-hoc test visade att deltagarna förändrats över tid i emotionsreglering och subskalan acceptans. Resultat visar att MAC har en effekt på vissa prestationsrelaterade utfall hos unga fotbollsspelare. / The aim of the present study was to examine the effect of a Mindfulness-Acceptance-Commitment (MAC) intervention on sport-specific dispositional mindfulness, emotion regulation, and performance (self- and coach-rated) over time. Data were collected on aforementioned variables before, during, and after the intervention, which consisted of eight sessions. The participants in the study were academy football players (n = 32, Mage 17.06, SD = 0.72) from two different football teams. One-way repeated measures ANOVA revealed that MAC had a statistically significant effect on emotion regulation and the subscales acceptance and attention in sport-specific dispositional mindfulness. MAC did not have a statistically significant effect on performance (self- and coach-rated) or the awareness subscale in sport-specific dispositional mindfulness. Follow-up post-hoc tests indicated that participants changed over time in emotion regulation and the acceptance subscale. The results demonstrate that MAC has an impact on certain performance-related outcomes for young football players.

The current state of earth building in Czeh Republic is described in this work. The results are based on a research made in several villages. Reconstruction of traditional countryside building made from unburned earth should be made very sensitive with respect to architectural and technical solution and in accordance with environmental requirements and wishes of investor.