In order to integrate a mind, body, spirit approach in school settings, yoga programming such as Y.O.G.A. for Youth was introduced to one public and two charter schools in Los Angeles area urban neighborhoods. The study examined the effectiveness of the overall program and its effect on adolescent stress, emotional affect, and resilience. A survey was administered to measure the three dependent variables and informal interviews were conducted to determine the overall effectiveness of the program. The results of the mixed method approach indicated that the overall program was effective in creating a general sense of well-being and statistically significant in alleviating stress (p < .05), increasing positive affect (p < .05), and resilience (p < .001), in the participants (N=30).

This paper proposes that SOUND SYMBOLISM, and more specifically PHONEMIC ICONICITY, plays a role in conveying emotional weight in the context of poetry. Previous research has indicated that the ratio of plosives to nasals in poetry predicts overall perception of emotional affect, with plosives designating activity and pleasantness, and nasals designating inactivity and unpleasantness (Auracher, Albers, Zhai, Gareeva, & Stavniychuk 2010); however, this research has ignored the influence of such potentially mitigating factors as orthography and lexical meaning. The current study involves naive English L1 speakers listening to recordings of selected haiku from Matsuo Basho's Oku No Hosomichi (`Narrow Road to the Deep North') in the original Japanese, and as such, the potential of orthography and lexical meaning to influence perception of emotion is eliminated. After listening to each haiku twice, subjects were asked to rate the appropriateness of eight emotion words that ranged from active and positive to inactive and positive, and from active and negative to inactive and negative, on a five-point Likert scale. Emotion words were chosen on the basis of their respective positions on the Circumplex Model of Affect, in which each emotion is conceptualized in terms of its location along two intersecting axes measuring valence (negative - positive) and arousal (inactive - active) (Russell 1980). The selected words occupied regularly spaced positions along this two-dimensional circular model. Results indicate that plosive to nasal ratio may indeed play a role in the perception of emotion in poetry, particularly in the case of poems with high plosive to nasal ratios, which were perceived as markedly more active and positive than other poems. Wider implications of the discernible patterns of perception of emotional affect based on plosive to nasal ratio include the possibility that phonemic iconicity plays a role in general language processing. As this research involves Japanese L2 phonemic perception by naÃ&hibar;ve English L1 listeners, current L2 phonological perceptual theory is discussed, and taken into account in the analysis of the results. Specific consideration is given to the potential of English L1 speakers to perceive the Japanese rhotic /r/, which does not appear in English, as the plosives /t/ or /d/, and the Japanese affricate /ts/, which commonly appears syllable-initially in Japanese, but is much rarer in this position in English, as /s/ (Nozawa 2008). Future research on English L1 speakers' underlying perceptual categorizations of targeted sounds in Japanese is also proposed.

Cette version de la thèse a été tronquée des éléments de composition originale. Une version plus complète devrait être rendue disponible sous peu pour les membres de la communauté de l’Université de Montréal. / Abstractions musicales : Composer l'expérience à travers la mémoire auditive réfléchit au rôle que joue la mémoire auditive dans le processus de composition. Ma recherche explore les souvenirs auditifs de nature épisodique dans lesquels l'affect émotionnel, la répétition de la mémoire et, par conséquent, la distorsion de la mémoire jouent un rôle important. Cela conduit à une méthodologie d'abstraction, un processus de composition dont le but n'est pas seulement d'explorer le contenu des souvenirs, mais d'examiner les actes mêmes de se souvenir et d'imaginer le son et comment ceux-ci influencent le développement des formes et motifs musicaux. En présentant ma méthodologie d'abstraction, je cherche à extérioriser et à formaliser la relation largement intérieure et subconsciente que de nombreux compositeurs entretiennent avec leur mémoire auditive. Cela élargit délibérément la portée du processus de composition pour inclure et considérer l'influence de l'écoute profonde et de l'analyse perceptuelle d'œuvres préexistantes. La thèse est présentée en deux sections. Elle commence par une section théorique, composée d'un chapitre résumant mes recherches sur la mémoire auditive et l’imagination sonore, suivi d'un chapitre exposant la méthodologie qui en découle. Le reste de la thèse est consacré à l'analyse d’une sélection de huit œuvres composées pendant mon doctorat, chacune d'entre elles explorant une relation avec la mémoire auditive et/ou l'imagination. Les œuvres analysées sont organisées en trois catégories : (1) le dialogue et la narration, (2) l'espace (son excavé), (3) identité, culture et ancêtres. Le but ultime de la thèse est de mettre en lumière des façons dont les compositeurs utilisent la mémoire, l’imagination sonore et l'abstraction pour développer notre matériau musical. / Musical Abstractions: Composing experience through auditory memories reflects on the role that auditory memory plays in the compositional process. My research explores auditory memories of an episodic nature in which emotional affect, rehearsal of memory, and hence memory distortions play an important role. This leads to a methodology of abstraction, a compositional process whose goal is not solely to explore the content of memories, but to examine how the very acts of remembering and imagining sound translate to musical motivic development and form. In presenting my methodology of abstraction, I aim to exteriorize and formalize the mostly subconscious and interior relationship many composers have with their auditory memory. This deliberately broadens the scope of the compositional process to include and consider the influence of deep listening and perceptual analysis of pre-existing works. The thesis is presented in two sections. It begins with a theoretical section, consisting of a chapter summarizing my research into auditory memory and audiation followed by a chapter outlining the resulting methodology. The rest of the thesis is devoted to the analysis of eight selected works composed during my doctorate, each of which explores a relationship with auditory memory and/or imagination. The analyzed works are organized into three categories: (1) in dialogue and narrative, (2) in space (excavated sound), (3) in our identity, culture, and ancestors. The ultimate goal of the thesis is to shed light on some ways composers use memory, audiation, and abstraction to develop our musical material.

The research focused on constructing a psychological well-being profile for flourishing practices for junior leaders by establishing the relationship between junior leaders' dispositional attributes (emotional affect, career orientations, and organisational commitment) and the flourishing attribute (positive psychological functioning). A nonprobability purposive sampling quantitative method was applied to a sample of South African National Defence Force (SANDF) personnel in Gauteng (N = 458) at junior leadership levels to explore the statistical relationship between their dispositional attributes (emotional affect, career orientations, and organisational commitment) and the flourishing attribute (positive psychological functioning) attribute. Multiple regression analyses indicated the dispositional attributes with the exception of emotional affect as significant predictors of the flourishing variable. The structural equation modelling (SEM) indicated a good fit of the data with the correlation-derived measurement model. Moderated hierarchical regression analyses indicated that age, race, gender and years of service as significant moderators of the relationship between the participants‘ dispositional attributes (emotional affect, career orientations and organisational commitment) and flourishing (positive psychological functioning) attribute. Tests for mean differences discovered that participants differed in terms of their age and race. The study made a significant contribution to the bulk of knowledge in the field of Industrial and Organisational Psychology. On a theoretical level, the study deepened the understanding of the individual and cognitive, affective, conative and relations management dimensions of the hypothesised psychological well-being profile. On an empirical level, the study developed an empirically tested psychological well-being profile that informs flourishing practices for individual junior leaders and organisational levels. On a practical level, dispositional and flourishing practices that inform the dimensions of the psychological well-being profile were recommended. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / Ph. D. (Industrial and Organisational Psychology)