The aim of the current study is to examine the potential parenting factors and mediating mechanisms that lead to ego-depletion within the framework of Self-Determination Theory. Previous research has suggested that whereas behaviourally controlling and autonomy-supportive parenting contributes to the development of autonomous motivation, psychologically controlling parenting leads to introjected motivation for self-regulation. Moreover, recent studies have shown that as compared to introjected regulation, autonomous regulation depletes less ego-resource. Thus, it was expected that parental psychological control positively, but behavioural control negatively, affects ego-depletion via controlled regulation style. In the first study, university students (N = 179) completed three groups of measures assessing parenting behaviours, motivation type of self-regulation, and state self-control capacity. The results of SEM analysis partially supported the proposed mediational model. Whereas both maternal and paternal psychological control indirectly predicted self-control capacity corresponding higher levels of ego depletion via controlled regulation, parental behavioural control did not have direct or indirect effect on self-control capacity. In the second study, the same hypotheses were tested experimentally on a group of participants (N = 91) from the first study by exposing them either an upsetting or a funny video condition that requires emotional control. Results revelaled that perceived high levels of maternal psychological control and low levels of paternal behavioural control make individuals more vulnerable to ego-depletion under emotional control. Furthermore, those with high introjected motivation for emotion-control were relatively resistant to ego-depletion. Findings were discussed considering the practice effect of self-control, implications of diverging parenting behaviours and cultural factors.

The main research work in this thesis is to organize the intersubjectivity of Husserl¡¦s theory and to study the two documents of ¡§Ideas II¡¨ and ¡§Cartesian Meditations¡¨ which translate and reorganize the part of intersubjectiveity. The author talks about the ¡§Cartesian Meditations¡¨ first, the late publication, then ¡§Ideas II¡¨ and try to use a reverse method, form transcendental to empiricial, to explore the possibility of intersubjectivity and the trace of the phenomenology in French toward ethics and aesthetics. In addition, author organizes Schutz¡¦s criticism of intersubjectivity of the transcendental theory to contrast with the Husserl¡¦s viewpoint and poses the refutation of Schutz¡¦s criticism in the final part of this thesis. What is the possibility of intersubjectivity? This thesis itself has not been able to provide the concrete opinion. The author poses the "less then contented" as a basis of intersubjectivity, but it only retains in the appendix for the purposes of reference because of its lack of theoretical basis and the persuasiveness.

ABSTRACT Spirituality has been recognized as a positive factor in the lives of older adults, especially as it influences their emotional, mental, and physical well-being. This convenience sample study included 17 older adults residing at a faith based continuing care retirement community in Florida. The sample was represented by Caucasian older adults with an average age of 84 years, highly educated, majority Protestant and mostly female. Spiritual life reviews were conducted using spiritual life maps (Hodge, 2005) and semi-structured interview questions. Erikson's epigenetic stage of ego-integrity was used along with Butler's life review process and Tornstam's gerotranscendence as a conceptual framework for understanding late life development and spirituality in older adults. This mostly qualitative study used a hermeneutic phenomenological approach to analyze the responses to the open-ended interview questions about spirituality across the life-time. Ego-integrity was measured at the beginning and end of the spiritual life review study. Paired t-tests found that participation in the spiritual life review did not influence the ego integrity scores of participants. Specifically, there were no statistically significant difference between the pre ego integrity score (M=82.94, SD= 8.235) and the post ego integrity score (M=84.47, SD= 7.551); t (16) = -.769 p= .453. However, in comparison, the qualitative analysis revealed that the spiritual life review does influence ego-integrity in some participants. Additionally, the spiritual life review confirms gerotranscendence and contributes to information about spiritual development in the lives of older adults. The conclusion offers a discussion about the study's limitations, strengths, implications for future research, and suggestions for clinical practice.

The purpose of this study is to explore the mechanics of guanxi in an organizational setting, focusing on the use of interpersonal relationships within Chinese firms to discover how firms initiate, build and use guanxi networks. Two richly detailed case studies document changes that take place over time in two distinct networks with respect to key actors and their contacts. This research also investigates patterns of social structure that emerge over time in these two distinct cases looking at brokerage relationships, network density, and dyadic redundancy in three waves at six month intervals. The cases are dissimilar in all aspects except absolute size demonstrating the universal use of guanxi across time, geographic location, specific industries, and firm experience. Dynamic network visualization is used to highlight the sequence and rate of activity in each network to identify salient changes. The findings show that firms seek to improve their organizational guanxi by improving existing employees' guanxi quality within the firm and by recruiting new actors from outside the firm. Additionally, firms use organizational guanxi to expand their networks by forming cooperative partnerships with complementary organizations that enhance the attributes or potential of both organizations. And finally, firms initially exploit brokerage in organizational guanxi, then attempt to stabilize the network by fostering new ties to exclusive contacts.

No description available.

Under conditions of high self-regulatory effort, peripheral organ systems have been found to slow, potentially to rearrange energetic priorities in favor of the brain. The present study tested an expansion of this model by exploring the possibility that alcohol metabolism (i.e., liver function) may slow during self-regulation. We also anticipated that high trait self-control would attenuate the effect of condition on metabolism. Twelve males aged 21-25 completed two conditions in counterbalanced order. During each session, the participant received 0.33 ml/kg of absolute alcohol for a target peak blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of 0.03 g%. Participants then performed tasks (self-regulatory tasks in the high self-regulation condition and identical tasks without a self-regulatory component in the low self-regulation condition) and BAC was measured throughout. Although there was no main effect of condition, trait self-regulation moderated the effect of condition on alcohol metabolism such that only those with lower trait self-control had slower alcohol metabolism under high self-regulatory effort. These results provide support for the hypothesis that liver function may indeed be altered by self-regulatory effort. In addition to suggesting the liver as a target organ for psychophysiological research, these data provide further support for slowing of peripheral systems during high self-regulatory demand.

In unserer hierarchisch organisierten Gesellschaft prägen Machtunterschiede das alltägliche Leben. Personen in Machtpositionen haben Kontrolle über andere Personen, verfügen über mehr materielle und immaterielle Ressourcen und erreichen dadurch ihre eigenen Ziele leichter als Personen ohne Machtbefugnisse. Macht bewirkt aber auch Veränderungen innerhalb einer Person. So beeinflusst Macht beispielsweise die Art und Weise, wie wir unser eigenes Verhalten steuern und unsere Ziele angehen. Für die erfolgreichere Umsetzung eigener Ziele durch mächtige Personen werden vor allem kognitive Prozesse verantwortlich gemacht. Motivationale und selbstregulatorische Prozesse scheinen ebenso wichtig für die Erklärung des Phänomens, wurden bisher zur Erklärung aber kaum herangezogen. Das Ziel dieser Arbeit ist es zu klären, ob und wie Macht unsere Fähigkeit beeinflusst, unser eigenes Verhalten zu steuern und uns selbst zu kontrollieren. Dazu werden zwei Formen der Selbstregulation unterschieden (Kuhl, 2000; Ryan & Deci, 2000): selbstintegrierte, autonome und selbstdiskrepante, kontrollierte Regulation. Beide wirken sich unterschiedlich auf funktionale Komponenten von Selbstregulation wie z. B. die Selbstregulationsressourcen aus. In drei Studienreihen wurde gezeigt, dass das Machtausmaß und die Machtform die Art der Selbstregulation und ihre funktionalen Komponenten beeinflussen. In der ersten Studienreihe wurde der Einfluss von Macht auf die Verfügbarkeit und den Verbrauch von Selbstregulationsressourcen auf drei Ebenen untersucht: auf der Verhaltensebene, experientiell und physiologisch. In den ersten beiden Studien zeigte sich, dass Versuchspersonen nach einem Machtpriming länger bei einer Selbstkontrollaufgabe durchhielten und sich vitaler und weniger erschöpft fühlten als nach einem Machtlosigkeitspriming. In der dritten Studie zeigte sich außerdem, dass Versuchspersonen während einer anstrengenden Aufgabe umso weniger physiologischer Ressourcen verbrauchten, umso mächtiger sie sich vor der Bearbeitung fühlten. Mediiert wurde dieser Effekt über eine Zunahme autonomer Selbstregulation. In der zweiten Studienreihe wurde untersucht, wie die Art der Selbstregulation und die Selbstregulationsressourcen von zwei unterschiedlichen Formen der Macht beeinflusst werden: persönliche Macht (der Unabhängigkeit von anderen) und soziale Macht (der Kontrolle über andere). Beide Formen von Macht sind mit dem Gefühl von Kontrolle verbunden und sollten deshalb zu einer autonomeren Selbstregulation und vermehrter Selbstregulationskapazität führen. Aufgrund der stärkeren Fokussierung auf andere sollte soziale Macht außerdem kontrollierte Selbstregulation verstärken und damit Erschöpfung und Stress erhöhen, während der vermehrte Fokus auf die eigenen Interessen im Zusammenhang mit persönlicher Macht beides verringern sollte. Die Ergebnisse beider Studien bestätigten diese Annahmen. In einem dritten Forschungsstrang wurde festgestellt, dass Macht sich auch auf die Effektivität automatischer Selbstregulationsmechanismen auswirkt. Der Affekttransfer von Zielen zu dazugehörenden Aktivitäten bewirkt folgenden Prozess: je mehr positiven Affekt eine Person mit einem Ziel verbindet, umso positiver erlebt sie Aktivitäten, die sie dem Ziel näher bringen. Während dieser Selbstregulations-mechanismus bei Mächtigen reibungslos abläuft, ist er bei Machtlosen blockiert. Dies zeigte sich in allen drei Studien. Weitere Analysen untermauerten wiederum die Rolle der autonomen Selbstregulation als Mediator, denn es zeigte sich, dass Macht die autonome Selbstregulation erhöht und dadurch den Affekttransfer ermöglicht. Insgesamt versetzt Macht Menschen in die Lage, ihr eigenes Verhalten erfolgreicher zu regulieren und zu kontrollieren. Denn Macht erhöht die verfügbaren Selbstregulationsressourcen und beeinflusst die Wirkungsweise eines automatischen Selbstregulationsmechanismus positiv. Diesen Effekten liegt der Einfluss von Macht auf autonome und kontrollierte Selbstregulation zugrunde. Abschließend werden die theoretischen und praktischen Implikationen dieser Befunde diskutiert.

The aim of this study was to develop and evaluate the effect of a prenatal hypnotherapeutic programme on the maintenance and promotion of postpartum psychological well-being of a group of first-time mother. Relevant literature on pregnancy, early motherhood and psychological well-being were explained in order to abstract important facets and perspectives to use as a background for the development and implementation of an intervention programme for the facilitation of psychological well-being of first-time mothers. Theoretical perspectives on, and practical applications of, clinical hypnosis were further analysed and used as foundation for the development of the hypnotherapeutic intervention. A hypnotherapeutic programme was developed, based on existing theoretical knowledge regarding pregnancy, childbirth and early motherhood, as well as clinical hypnosis, with specific emphasis on Ericksonian principles and ego state therapy techniques, enriched from the perspective of psychofortology. The empirical study consisted of a quantitative component and a qualitative component. In the quantitative component, a pretest-posttest-follow-up comparative design was implemented, with random assignment of participants to the experimental and control groups within the limits of practicalities. Both groups, each consisting of 23 women in their first pregnancy, completed the following questionnaires: (i) Perception of Labour and Delivery Scale (PLD), adapted from Padawer et al. (1988). Feelings about the baby and relationship with the baby (FRB), adapted from Wwllett and Parr (1997), Maternal Self- Confidence Scale (MSC), adapted from Ruble et al. (1990) and Maternal Self-Efficacy Scale (MSE) (Teti & Gelfand, 1991), to explore aspects of psychological well-being related to early motherhood; (ii) The Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) ofCox et al. (1987) and the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) (Goldberg & Hillier, 1979), to investigate aspects of psychological well-being as evident by the absence of pathology; and (iii) the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) (Diener et al., 1985), the Affectometer 2 (AFM) (Kammann & Flett, 1983), the Sense of Coherence Scale (SOC) of Antonovsky (1979) and the Generalised Self-efficacy Scale (GSE), developed by Schwarrer, (1993), to measure general psychological well-being. The Stanford Hypnotic Clinical Scale (SHCS) (Morgan & Hilgard, 1978) was used for the experimental group to assess hypnotisabili. The qualitative component consisted of in-depth interviews and an analysis of written responses of mothers in the experimental group. They commented on their experience of the programme and its impact at two weeks and ten weeks postpartum. Results from the empirical study indicated that the experimental group showed significantly more symptoms of depression and symptomatology during the prenatal evaluation than the control group. Since the experimental group was possibly more vulnerable than the control group in a psychological sense, the effect of the intervention programme could not be deduced from a pure comparison of postnatal evaluation scores between the groups. Therefore, it was decided to explore the significance of differences within each of the experimental and control groups, as well as between the experimental and control group, using the mean difference scores between prenatal and postnatal evaluation on each variable. Results indicate that the hypnotherapeutic programme was effective in enhancing most aspects of psychological well-being within the experimental group. This strengthened sense of psychological well-being was evident both in the immediate postpartum period and at ten weeks postpartum. The control group showed a spontaneous increase in psychological well-being later in the postpartum period. The programme thus assisted mothers in the more vulnerable experimental group to experience a stronger sense of psychological well-being sooner after the baby's birth. The experimental and control groups were further compared on the mean differences in prenatal versus postnatal scores on measures of psychological well-being. The results suggest that the hypnotherapeutic intervention contributed to an enhanced sense of psychological well-being in mothers in the experimental group, in comparison to the control group, during the early postpartum period, as measured by variables related to motherhood, absence of pathology and general psychological well-being. At ten weeks postpartum, the differences between the experimental and control group were less obvious. However, a very important finding was that mothers in the experimental group continued to show a significant improvement in psychological well-being as indicated by the absence of pathology. Specifically, there was a continued decrease in depression and general symptoms of pathology. Findings from the quantitative study were supported by remarks by mothers in postpartum and follow-up interviews, as well as their written responses, as part of a qualitative exploration of their experience of the programme and its impact on them. The findings give compelling evidence that a hypnotherapeutic intervention, focusing on the enhancement of strengths and inner resources, could alleviate depression and psychological distress during the perinatal period, as well as prevent the exacerbation of symptoms. Findings from the current study indicate that the developed prenatal hypnotherapeutic programme was effective in enhancing the psychological well-being of mothers experiencing a first pregnancy. Recommendations for clinical practice and further research were made, based on the current research findings. The contribution of the current study lies in the fact that it is the first to explore pregnancy, childbirth and early motherhood from a salutogenidfortigenic perspective, and to utilise hypnosis to facilitate psychological well-being in this context. It contributed to scientific knowledge in the fields of developmental psychology, psychofortology and clinical hypnosis. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Psychology))--Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education, 2003.

The objectives of this study were to investigate the relationship between positive psychological capacities (state ego-resilience and state self-efficacy) and burnout levels of employees (N = 164) in a chemical organisation and to determine whether state ego-resilience and state self-efficacy can be used to predict burnout levels of employees in a chemical organisation. A cross-sectional survey design was used. The Ego-Resiliency Scale (ER89), the State Self Efficacy Scale (SSES) and the Oldenburg Burnout Inventory (OLBI) were administered to measure the constructs. The research method for this article consists of a brief literature review and an empirical study. Confirmatory factor analyses, Cronbach's alpha coefficients and the inter-item correlation coefficients were used to assess the reliability and validity of the measuring instruments. Descriptive statistics were used to describe data, and Pearson's product moment correlation coefficients, and regression analyses were used to examine the relationships between the constructs employed in this research. Results obtained confirmed the internal consistency and one-dimensional factor structures of the state ego-resilience and state self-efficacy measuring instruments. Although the two - dimensional factor structure of the OLBI was confirmed, the two subscales were not consistent with the expected factor structure. Consequently, only the total burnout scale (which presented with adequate internal consistency) was used. A significant statistical and practical correlation was found between state ego-resilience and burnout. State self-efficacy and burnout demonstrated a significant statistical and practical correlation. Regression analyses indicated that both state ego-resilience and state self-efficacy hold predictive value with regard to burnout. Conclusions were made, limitations of the current research were discussed and recommendations for future research were put forward. / Thesis (M.Com. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2008.

This study examined how task and ego involvement affected 12-and-under girls’ motivations to play competitive club volleyball. Participants included 25 girls under the age of 12, as well as 31 parents including those of the 25 girls. Parents and players completed the Achievement Goal Scale for Youth Survey (AGSYS), and open ended questions regarding their intention to continue playing and their motivations for trying out for club volleyball. After conducting a Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test, findings suggested that the parents and the players both identified as task involved individuals, implying that their motivations lie in improving skills relative to the sport instead of becoming the best athlete relative to others on the court. The study results indicated that parents and daughters ego involvement was positively correlated demonstrating that parental motivations were reflected in player motivations confirming the impact of parental involvement in their daughter’s sport decisions. A second segment included a discussion on the girls’ parents and their reasons for allowing their daughter to play in club volleyball as reflected in a task and ego involvement framework. Previously conducted studies have been completed in an attempt to discover parental motivations for allowing their child to try out for a competitive team. Research has examined specific youth motivations. Most prominent results from youth focused research include the opportunity to build social relations and boost self-efficacy regarding playing competitive sports (Allen, 2003). Minimal research has focused on understanding the relationship between parent and child motivations for youth participation in competitive sports. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between parent and youth motivation for trying out for club volleyball using a task and ego involvement framework. The information collected will be on display for youth development practitioners who assist in programs involving youth, parents and competitive sports. The findings assist in establishing research that provides information to competitive youth club managers so they can establish their club based on research based findings from both the parents and players perspectives.