Current theory and research have suggested that adolescent friends share many similarities which range from strong similarities in sociodemographic variables to weaker correlations for personality characteristics. The goal of this study was to advance the base of knowledge related to similarities between friends by exploring relationships between early adolescent ego identity status and friendship strength, quality, and duration. First, the objective measure of Ego Identity Status was used to test the hypothesis that early adolescents in reciprocally identified friendship pairs are more similar in their ego identity status; no such relationship was found. Second, a measure designed to assess friendship qualities/strengths and duration lead to the conclusion that the quality/strength and duration of a friendship was also not associated with identity similarities. In addition, in-depth interviews of a subsample confirmed the findings associated with the full sample paper-pencil measures. Based on these findings, it appears that these early adolescents select friends who are not likely to operate within similar identity statuses.

While Erikson's psychosocial theory continues to dominate theoretical explanations of adolescent identity development. Marcia's ego identity status paradigm has become the primary basis to empirically measure such notions. Though Marcia's paradigm has its roots in psychosocial theory. questions have surfaced regarding the communality of Marcia's and Erikson's notions on identity. Issues of scope. connectedness. definition. terminology. and measurement have marked a potential divergence among the two approaches-views which until recently seemed almost unified. This study addressed the relationship between Erikson's psychosocial theory and Marcia's ego identity status paradigm. By administering identity and psychosocial stage-specific measures to a sample of college-age adolescents. an assessment of the empirical relationship between the two theories has been established. A general pattern was found that the highest levels of psychosocial trust. autonomy. initiative. and industry were reported by the achieved respondents, followed by the foreclosed, moratorium, and diffused respondents, respectively. Discriminant analysis also identified specific psychosocial differences between statuses. The achieved respondents reported higher levels of trust. autonomy, initiative. and industry than moratoriums: significantly higher levels of autonomy and industry than the foreclosed: and significantly higher levels of trust and initiative. and significantly lower levels of guilt when compared to diffused respondents. Moratoriums reported significantly higher levels of emotional autonomy and significantly lower levels of trust and initiative than foreclosed respondents. Moratoriums did report significantly higher initiative and lower guilt than the diffused. Foreclosed respondents reported significantly higher initiative and lower autonomy than diffused persons. These results provide significant-albeit initial----quantitative evidence that Marcia's ego identity status paradigm corresponds both specifically and broadly to Erikson's theory of identity development.

Hintergrund: Das Spielen von Computerspielen ist ein viel diskutiertes Thema. Auf der Suche nach Auswirkungen des Spielens lassen sich einige Studien finden, die Veränderungen im Erleben und Verhalten zeigen [6-8]. Bei der Frage nach der Ursache hierfür, müssen Aspekte wie Persönlichkeit, Hirnphysiologie, neuronale Grundlagen und Genetik untersucht und diskutiert werden. Der bekannte Persönlichkeitsforscher J. Alan Gray beschreibt in seiner Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory (RST) drei verschiedene Hirnsysteme, die das Annäherungs- und Vermeidungsverhalten regulieren. Eines dieser Systeme, das Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS) wird ganz besonders häufig beim Spielen von sogenannten Ego-Shooter Spielen aktiviert. Ziel: Ziel der Untersuchung war es, herauszufinden, ob das Spielen dieser Computerspiele einen Trainingseffekt auf neurophysiologische Grundlagen der Persönlichkeit, genauer des BIS nach Gray, hat. Wenn es einen erlernten Effekt gibt, müsste ein signifikanter Unterschied zwischen den BIS scores der Spieler und Nicht-Spieler erkennbar sein. Sollte es keinen signifikanten Unterschied geben, kann es dennoch sein, dass sich das neuronale Substrat (also die physiologische Grundlage) des BIS durch das Training verändert, auch wenn dies dann nicht zu einem anderem Verhalten führt. Methoden: Es wurden die Ergebnisse von jeweils 17 Ego-Shooter-Spielern und Nicht-Spielern aus dem Fragebogen SPSRQ bezüglich Unterschieden in den Mittelwerten der BIS scores mithilfe eines t-Tests miteinander verglichen. Außerdem wurde von allen Probanden fMRT - Datenmaterial gewonnen und zunächst eine zweifaktorielle ANOVA durchgeführt: die Faktoren waren Spieler (Ja/Nein) und BIS score und gemessen wurde die neuronale Aktivität in Amygdala und Hippocampus im resting state. Um den bekannten Störfaktor Genetik miteinzubeziehen, erfolgte anschließend eine dreifaktorielle ANOVA mit der Kovariate TPH2. Für die Bestimmung dieser Kovariate wurde jedem Probanden ein Röhrchen Blut entnommen und eine Genotypisierung durchgeführt. Ergebnisse: Der Vergleich der BIS scores mittels t-Test liefert keinen signifikanten Unterschied zwischen Spielern und Nicht-Spielern. In der zweifaktoriellen Varianzanalyse zeigen sich signifikante Unterschiede und eine unterschiedliche Richtung der Korrelation. Während die Korrelation von neuronaler Aktivität und BIS score bei den Spielern positiv ist, ist sie bei den Nicht-Spielern negativ. Der Unterschied verliert in der dreifaktoriellen ANOVA mit der Kovariate TPH2 seine Signifikanz. Schlussfolgerung: Die Ergebnisse der Arbeit führen zu der entscheidenden Frage, wie unterschiedliche neuronale Aktivitäten entstehen. Zwei sehr kontroverse Ansätze stehen sich dabei gegenüber: 1. Der Genotyp hat einen Einfluss auf die neuronale Plastizität während der Entwicklung. Die vorliegende Arbeit, wie auch frühere Studien -wie die von Hahn et al. [58] - geben Hinweise darauf, dass der Genotyp diesen Einfluss besitzt. Die Tendenz, die bei der Genotypisierung zu sehen ist, lässt die Spekulation zu, dass Personen mit einem bestimmten Genotyp eher zu Spielern werden, als Personen mit einer anderen Ausprägung. Um diese Frage zu klären, sind Untersuchungen mit einem größeren Stichprobenumfang notwendig. 2. Die Unterschiede sind das Ergebnis eines sogenannten Trainingseffektes, entstehen also durch Einfluss von außen und hängen ab von den jeweiligen Erlebnissen, die im Laufe eines Lebens gemacht werden. Trotz der Ergebnisse, die den starken Einfluss des Genotyps aufzeigen, bleibt eine Restwahrscheinlichkeit für den Trainingseffekt und der Anreiz für weitere Studien mit dieser Fragestellung. / The Neural Bases of Gray's Theory of Personality: A Comparison of Ego-Shooter-Gamers and -Non-Gamers

The two principal elements comprising this thesis are 1) a description of the development of a theory concerning schizophrenic psychosis and 2) an attempt to develop a treatment strategy based on this theory. The theory was developed by Palle Villemoes on the basis of the French psychoanalyst Lacan's work and may be described as an ego-structuring psychotherapy with its foundation in the castration complex. The psychosis is seen as a consequence of the child's inability, for various reasons, to a apt itself to symbolic castration - i e disappointment and frustration over not constantly having its own way, and over being required to subordinate itself to universal principles and authorities. The psychotic person has not subordinated under symbolic is castration but continues to exist in the original symbiotic relation with the imagined pre-oedipal mother, When the pressures of the teenage and early adult years make themselves felt, such an ego-weak person is unable to withstand and deal with them and develops a psychotic relation to her/his surroundings, The- treatment strategy described in this thesis, was developed by the author and colleagues at the treatment centre Norrgården in Härnösand. It is a milieu therapyoriented treatment during which the patient optimally passes through three phases. During the first - narcissistic - phase the aim is that the patient's contact person develop such a relationship with her/him that "idolization" of the contact person occurs. This idolization is achieved by means of interest on the part of the contactperson, and a non-polarized attitude. The contact person shows interest in the patient and in her/his situation, life-story and interests. The non-polarized attitude means that little or no importance is attached to differences, particularly those due to gender and power position. The contact person avoids provoking the patient in areas about which she/he is sensitive. When a balanced, conflict-free relationship with the patient bas been achieved, treatment moves into a so- called working phase. Now the establishing of her/ his own history in the patient takes over from the idolization built up in the course of the close relationship. The patient is to become the subject of her/his own life-story, to achieve which patient and contact person go through the story together. If all goes well the patient passes through the castration complex and is able to find a realistic place for her himself in the story, the culture, and the society that has to be lived in with all its relations towards other people. The patient now begins to view her/himself, with both possibilities and limitations, more and more realistically. She/he also begins to show interest in the future and in plans for a life after treatment. In the final phase, progressively more responsibility for decisions is left to the patient. The aim of this phase of the treatment is to consolidate the narcissism of the patient's own ego. She/he must be released from the symbiotic dyad with the contact person who now leaves it to the patient to make choices and decisions and to be aware of the passage of time. The thesis discusses the development of the theory in a dialectic relation to the practical experiences of treatment work during the earliest years at Norrgården. A central place in the thesis is occupied by 11 case descriptions of the first patients who completed the treatment at Norrgården. / digitalisering@umu

Modern cars can be bought with camera systems that watch the road ahead. They can be used for many purposes, one use is to alert the driver when other cars are in the path of collision. If the warning system is to be reliable, the input data must be correct. One input can be the depth image from a stereo camera system; one reason for the depth image to be wrong is if the vergence angle between the cameras are erroneously calibrated. Even if the calibration is accurate from production there's a risk that the vergence changes due to temperature variations when the car is started. This thesis proposes one solution for short-time live calibration of a stereo camera system; where the speedometer data available on the CAN-bus is used as reference. The motion of the car is estimated using visual odometry, which will be affected by any errors in the calibration. The vergence angle is then altered virtually until the estimated speed is equal to the reference speed. The method is analyzed for noise and tested on real data. It is shown that detection of calibration errors down to 0.01 degrees is possible under certain circumstances using the proposed method.

This essay is a comparative analysis with focus on Jean-Paul Sartre´s existentialism and Ferdinand Alquié´s cartesianism. They both represented the French philosophy of conscience in the early and mid 1900s. Because of that, they had similar ideas concerning the human conscience and freedom of the mind. But how did they come to those conclusions? And in which cases did they differ from one and other?

Sammanfattning Syftet med studien var att studera skillnader i vilka mål bordtennisspelare använder sig av beroende på målinriktning. I studien deltog 103 bordtennisspelare (60 män och 43 kvinnor) tävlandes i division ett till tre. Metoden som användes i studien var en kvantitativ undersökning och bestod av enkäterna Collegiate Goal Setting in Sport Questionnaire (Weinberg, Burton, Yukelson, Weigand, 1993) och Task and Ego Orientation in Sport Questionnaire (Duda & Nicholls, 1992; ref i Duda, 1998). Resultatet i studien visade flera signifikanta skillnader mellan bordtennisspelarna med högre resultatinriktning och bordtennisspelare med en lägre resultatinriktning när det gäller uppfattning om målsättning. Resultatet visade exempelvis att bordtennisspelarna med högre resultatinriktning oftare satte resultatmål och prestationsmål jämfört med bordtennisspelare med en lägre resultatinriktning. Vidare visade resultatet också att bordtennisspelarna med en lägre resultatinriktning anser att det är viktigare med gemenskap för att delta i än bordtennisspelare med en högre resultatinriktning. Resultatet diskuterats i relation till tidigare forskning. / Abstract The purpose of this study was to examine the differences in goal preferences of table tennis players, depending on goal orientation. The participants were 103 (60 male and 43 female) table tennis players competing in division one to three. The method used in the study was a quantitative study consisted of questionnaires Collegiate Goal Setting in Sport Questionnaire CGSSQ (Weinberg, Burton, Yukelson, Weigand, 1993) and Task and Ego Orientation in Sport Questionnaire TEOSQ (Duda & Nicholls, 1992; ref in Duda, 1998). The results showed several significant results between table tennis players with a high ego orientation and table tennis players with a lower ego orientation in goal setting. For example the result showed that table tennis players with a high ego orientation used more often outcome goals and performance goals than table tennis players with a lower ego orientation. The result also showed that a table tennis player with a lower ego orientation means that it is more important with fellowship than tennis players with a high ego orientation. The results have been analyzed and discussed in relation to previous research.

ABSTRACT FIRST YEAR COLLEGE ADJUSTMENT: THE ROLE OF COPING, EGO-RESILIENCY, OPTIMISM AND GENDER Yalim, Desen M. S. Department of Educational Sciences Supervisor: Assist. Prof. Dr. Oya Yerin G&uuml / neri June 2007, 68 pages This study investigated the relationship between ways of coping, ego-resiliency, optimism, gender and adjustment of first year students. Participants of the study were 420 Department of Basic English students (173 female, 247 male) from Middle East Technical University in Ankara. The results of multiple regression analysis for the total sample indicated that all the predictor variables (ways of coping, ego resiliency and optimism) were found to be significant predictors of college adjustment. The study found that participants who reported high resilience, optimism and fatalistic and helplessness/self blaming coping scores had better adjustment to college. In addition, the results of the multiple regression analyses conducted for female and male students showed that whereas ego resiliency, optimism, and seeking social support coping, helplessness/self-blaming coping predicted adjustment of female students / ego resiliency, problem solving coping, seeking social support coping, fatalistic coping and helplessness/self-blaming coping were significant predictors of male students&rsquo / college adjustment.

In this thesis, I defend a non-egologic pure consciousness which is the initial position of Husserl in the Logical Investigations. There is anti transcendental ego argumentations in which I claim that self alienation of the &quot / transcendental ego&quot / , incomplete reduction, the presence of the pre-reflective transcendental ego are the reasons to leave the claim about the existence of the &quot / transcendental ego&quot / . I also claim that the possible solution of the mind-body problem depends on the denial of the &quot / transcendental ego&quot / in the frame of phenomenology. I defend the non-egologic pure consciousness which is not identical and reducible to whatever is material, including brain. Qualia, intentionality, intuition, philosophizing constitution acts of pure consciousness are used to support the claim about immaterial nature of non-egologic pure consciousness.

The present study aimed to integrate situational and dispositional perspectives on the investigation of unethical and dishonest behavior through an experimental and a correlational study. More explicitly, the current study explored the effects of state self-control and social influence on cheating, and investigated the trait self control and conformity as predictors of academic dishonesty. Two preliminary studies were conducted. First, a pilot study with 230 undergraduate students was conducted to assess the reliability of the Turkish versions of the four scales intended to measure the constructs of interest. All four scales were found to have sufficient reliabilities. A second preliminary study was conducted to observe and to ameliorate the effects of two manipulations constructed for the main study, namely the rewriting task (depletory versus neutral) and the norm induction (deciding to cheat, not to cheat or to meet with a friend after the study). The main study was conducted with 87 undergraduate students. Correlational results underlined the importance of low self-control and high susceptibility to social influence as predictors of past behavior of academic dishonesty. Experimental results revealed that first, groups