Behavioural scientists argue that ‘social learning' provides the link between biological phenomena and cultural phenomena because of its role in the ‘cultural transmission' of knowledge among individuals within and across generations. However, leading authors within the social sciences have proposed alternative ways of thinking about social life not founded on the Modern oppositions including nature-culture, biology-culture, body-mind, and individual-society. Similarly, the distinction between a domain of nature and a domain of nurture has also been extensively criticized within biology. Finally, advocates of ‘radical embodied cognitive science' offer an alternative to the representational-computational view of the mind which supports the conventional notion of culture and cultural information. This thesis attempts to integrate developmental systems theory, radical embodied cognitive science, and relational thinking, with the goal to bring the field of social learning closer to these critical theoretical developments. In Chapter 2, I find no justification for the claim that the genome carries information in the sense of specification of biological form. Chapter 3 presents a view of ontogeny as a historical, relational, constructive and contingent process. Chapter 4 uses the notions of environmental information, abilities, affordances, and intentions to make sense of behaviour and learning. In Chapter 5, I argue that the notion of social learning can be understood in terms of relational histories of development rather than in terms of transmission of information. I then report empirical studies investigating behavioural coordination and social learning consistent with this theoretical framework. Chapter 6 presents evidence that dyads in a joint making activity synchronize their attention constrained by their changing situation and that coordination of attention is predictive of implicit and explicit learning. Chapter 7 presents evidence that joint attention does not require gaze following and that attentional coordination is predictive of learning a manual task. Together, these theoretical and empirical studies suggest a new way of thinking about how humans and other animals live and learn socially, one that is consistent with critical theoretical and philosophical developments that are currently neglected in the literature on social learning.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T15:38:46Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 OdaraSF.pdf: 1396799 bytes, checksum: 2e5cb33729ffd1f32ef8505042d653ee (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006-03-20 / Coordena??o de Aperfei?oamento de Pessoal de N?vel Superior / The interest for understanding the relationship of the child with its environment has increased in the whole world during the last few years. Several researchers, using Environmental Psychology as basis, have analyzed the implications of this relation for the child development and the organization of playful spaces. Being a place where children spend a great part of their time and develop many intellectual and social abilities, the school becomes one of the main focus of this research. This study investigated different sectors of the outdoor area of NEI -UFRN, during the recreation time, in which the use of space and the interaction between children were analyzed, through the observation of the child behavior (place-centered and individual-centered mapping). The results had disclosed that the school s outdoor area and its equipments presents a great range of choices possible to the children, however its occupation is not uniform: there are areas very used and others almost without use. Generally, this heterogeneity happens again in relation to the distribution of the interaction states in the sectors, the friendly associative behavior being the most present. The observation of children behaviors favored a better understanding of the use of the spaces, and contributed for discussion about the environment what these users really need for a healthy development, including differences in related to gender, age and daytime. In spite of the studied outdoor areas being vast, pleasant and varied, it needs a better distribution of its equipments and a plan that allows greater children participation in the place organization / O interesse pela compreens?o do relacionamento da crian?a com seu ambiente vem aumentando nos ?ltimos anos, em todo o mundo. Diversos pesquisadores, utilizando a Psicologia Ambiental como base, t?m analisado a import?ncia dessas rela??es para o desenvolvimento infantil e suas implica??es na organiza??o de espa?os l?dicos. Por ser um local onde as crian?as passam grande parte do seu tempo e desenvolvem muitas habilidades intelectuais e sociais, a escola torna-se um dos principais focos dessas pesquisas. Partindo desse pressuposto, investigou-se as diferentes ?reas do p?tio do N?cleo de Educa??o Infantil (NEI), durante o recreio, analisando a utiliza??o do espa?o e os comportamentos de intera??o entre crian?as nesses locais, atrav?s da observa??o do comportamento infantil (mapeamento centrado-no-lugar e centrado-na-pessoa). Os resultados revelaram que a ?rea livre da escola e seus equipamentos permitem grande possibilidade de escolha ?s crian?as, contudo sua ocupa??o n?o ? uniforme, existindo ?reas muito utilizadas e outras quase sem uso. De modo geral, essa heterogeneidade se repete em rela??o ? distribui??o dos estados interacionais pelos setores, sendo o comportamento associativo amig?vel o mais encontrado. A observa??o do comportamento das crian?as n?o s? favoreceu a uma melhor compreens?o da utiliza??o dos espa?os, como tamb?m, contribuiu para a discuss?o sobre os ambientes de que esses usu?rios necessitam para um desenvolvimento saud?vel, at? mesmo no que se refere ? diferen?as em rela??o a g?nero, idade e turnos. Apesar do p?tio estudado, ser grande, agrad?vel e variado, ele necessita de uma melhor distribui??o dos seus equipamentos e de um planejamento que permita maior participa??o das crian?as na organiza??o do lugar

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T15:38:57Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 RachelMG_DISSERT.pdf: 3405388 bytes, checksum: 8e5077fbfe2399f503b09347149f8965 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-03-28 / This dissertation investigates how the neighborhood of Cidade Nova, located in the western side of the of Natal, is perceived by its residents in order to understand its socio-environmental image, intending to contribute both to define strategies of urban intervention and environmental education in the area and to consolidate a methodology that addresses this kind of problem. The completion of field research used a multimethod strategy to study the socio-environmental image of urban areas. It consists of: (a) review of local history from literature research, data recorded by the City Hall, news published on the city's newspapers and interviews with former inhabitants, (b) application of questionnaires to inhabitants including emotions, visual perception, memory and local social activities, (c) development of a drawing of the district, (d) conducting focus groups with inhabitants, using as a starting point the results obtained in the previous activities. In steps "b" and "c" attended 32 neighborhood residents, 16 of them being Community Health Workers and other 16 persons appointed by them. In step "d" 10 individuals took part, divided into two groups. The result of the research showed a picture of residents coincident with the image conveyed by the media in relation to the issues: violence, garbage, public policy/social support and appreciation of the beauties of environmental (dunes and Parque da Cidade park). Although Cidade Nova has been regarded as a dirty, noisy and dangerous place, most of the participants say they enjoy living on the neighborhood. Overall, the results corroborate and gain theoretical explanations, as they are interrelated. The socio-environmental image is expressed for instance in the elements dunes, dump, railroad tracks and Central Avenue that gain symbolic connotation influenced by time and socio-economic context. The insecurity and other negative characteristics assigned by the inhabitants and the media are parallel to the place attachment, since the environmental legibility, the time/familiarity and territoriality offer inhabitants the preference for place of residence, setting up their social identity. / Esta disserta??o investiga a imagem s?cio-ambiental do bairro Cidade Nova, situado na zona Oeste de Natal-RN, tendo como base o modo como ele ? percebido por seus moradores, e pretendendo contribuir tanto para a defini??o de estrat?gias de interven??o urbana e de educa??o ambiental na ?rea, quanto para a consolida??o de um modo de abordagem para esse tipo de problem?tica. A realiza??o da pesquisa de campo recorreu a uma estrat?gia multim?todos e consiste em: (a) levantamento da hist?ria local a partir de estudo bibliogr?fico, dados registrados pela Prefeitura, not?cias veiculadas em jornais da cidade e entrevistas com moradores antigos; (b) aplica??o de question?rios a moradores, incluindo afetos, percep??o visual, mem?ria e atividades sociais no local; (c) elabora??o de desenho do bairro; (d) realiza??o de grupos focais com moradores, usando como ponto de partida os resultados obtidos nas atividades anteriores. Na etapa ―b‖ e ―c‖, participaram 32 moradores do bairro, sendo 16 Agentes Comunit?rios de Sa?de e 16 pessoas indicadas por eles. Na etapa ―d‖ participaram 10 pessoas, divididas em dois grupos. O resultado da pesquisa mostrou que imagem de Cidade Nova elaborada pelos moradores coincide com a imagem veiculada pela m?dia em rela??o aos aspectos: viol?ncia, lixo, pol?ticas p?blicas/apoio social e valoriza??o das belezas ambientais (dunas e Parque da Cidade). Embora tenham considerado o bairro um lugar sujo, barulhento e inseguro, a maioria dos participantes afirmam gostar de morar no local. De forma geral, os resultados obtidos corroboram e ganham explica??es te?ricas, ? medida que se inter-relacionam. A Imagem S?cio-Ambiental ? expressa, por exemplo, nos elementos dunas, lix?o, linha f?rrea e Avenida Central, que ganham conota??o simb?lica influenciada pelo tempo e pelo contexto s?cio-econ?mico. Assim, a inseguran?a e outras caracter?sticas negativas (atribu?das pelo morador e pela m?dia) s?o paralelas ao apego ao lugar, de modo que a legibilidade ambiental, o/a tempo/familiaridade e a territorialidade ajustam ao morador ?quele local de moradia, que afirma preferir com rela??o a outros pontos da cidade, configurando a sua identidade social.

Transitional land uses produced through urbanisation continue to change the landscape and fragment ecological structures including green spaces across Europe (Nilsson et al., 2013). Green spaces offer significant benefits to humans, contributing to wellbeing and life satisfaction (Taylor, 2002). The understanding of how these unique green spaces spaces function and provide benefits to humans, and how landscape change in peri-urban contexts affects their performance, is important. The scope of this research is to contribute to an understanding of landscape fragmentation within some of Europe's polycentric urban regions, their peri-urban green spaces, and the associated impacts upon human quality of life. Two urban regional case studies, Paisley near Glasgow, Scotland, and Vantaa, near Helsinki, Finland were analysed and compared. The results indicate that humans interacting with more physically or ecologically fragmented peri-urban green spaces have higher self-reported life satisfaction levels. Though no statistically significant characteristics were apparent between life satisfaction and fragmented green space characteristics, this research was able to identify those specific structural attributes and physical characteristics of interstitial peri-urban green spaces within a polycentric region in a fragmented state that contribute to the physical, social, and psychological aspects of human wellbeing. The statistically significant eco-spatial characteristics of polycentric peri-urban interstitial green spaces that are reported to impact human wellbeing are the size, proximity, maintenance and management, and the level of greenness within its vegetation composition and setting. Overall, a spatially diverse, fragmented, peri-urban landscape whose green spaces are extensively sized, naturalistically shaped with horizontal vegetation and normal sized edges, most often parks or woodlands or forests which are integrated and physically connected to another green space which is moderately clean and somewhat safe as well as being located close to or adjacent to a heavy-trafficked road provide the most human wellbeing benefits.

Esta pesquisa teve como objetivo investigar os aspectos culturais de uma ecovila: seu cotidiano, suas práticas, as relações que seus membros estabelecem entre si e com a natureza, seus projetos e conflitos. A pesquisa de campo compreendeu observações e entrevistas em uma ecovila específica, desenvolvendo-se com base nos conceitos de olhar, de Simone Weil e Walter Benjamin; da simpatia, de Ecléa Bosi e Henri Bergson e da alternância entre sujeito e objeto, de Paulo de Salles Oliveira. Este trabalho buscou apresentar, também, conceitos como comunidade, de Martin Buber; cultura, de Alfredo Bosi e James Jasper; e resistência, de Ernesto Sabato. Partindo de um olhar crítico sobre a cultura da sociedade de consumo (Richard Sennett), a ecovila foi entendida, então, como criadora de uma cultura alternativa: afirmando-se como resistência a determinadas práticas e valores da cultura dominante e, ao mesmo tempo, propondo novas possibilidades de vida, trabalho, lazer e relacionamentos. Este estudo procurou, ao final, aprofundar a reflexão sobre aquelas dimensões da vida em ecovila que apontam para uma construção cultural de resistência e proposição alternativa, bem como sobre as dimensões que apresentam desafios para a mudança cultural. Oferece questionamentos sobre algumas de suas práticas e assinala possíveis caminhos para a superação dos desafios percebidos / This research aimed at investigating the cultural aspects of an ecovillage: its routine activities, practices, the relationship its members establish among themselves and with nature, their projects and conflicts. The field research included observations and interviews in a specific ecovillage, and was based on the concepts of gaze, from Simone Weil and Walter Benjamin; of sympathy, from Ecléa Bosi and Henri Bergson and of alternation between subject and object, from Paulo de Salles Oliveira. This study also presented concepts like community, from Martin Buber; culture, from Alfredo Bosi and James Jasper; and resistance, from Ernesto Sabato. Starting from a critical analysis of the culture of the consumer society (Richard Sennett), the ecovillage was then understood as a creator of an alternative culture: affirming itself as resistance to certain values and practices of the dominant culture, and, at the same time, proposing new possibilities of life, work, leisure, and relationships. At the end, this study attempted to deepen the reflection about those dimensions of life in ecovillage that point to a cultural construction of resistance and alternative proposition, as well as about the dimensions that present challenges to cultural change. It questions some of their practices and indicates possible ways to overcome the perceived challenges

Title from PDF of title page. / Document formatted into pages; contains 79 pages. / Thesis (M.L.A.)--University of South Florida, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references. / Text (Electronic thesis) in PDF format. / ABSTRACT: This thesis takes a phenomenological approach to the examination of the organizational need for shared office space. Questions are developed in a reflexive narrative that introduces challenges to the assumption that space is a given in organizations. The narrative also uses the process of questioning this basis assumption to develop a new understanding of the role of space in organizations in supporting the development of common language needed for the creation of organizational knowledge. Key ideas from systems theory, autopoiesis, organizational theory, semiotics, and psychology are utilized as resources developing the ideas. / System requirements: World Wide Web browser and PDF reader. / Mode of access: World Wide Web.

The overall focus of this doctoral thesis is the examination of the role of store design-architecture in consumer perceptions of retail brand loyalty. More specifically, it examines how consumers’ perceptions at the store design-architecture level promote brand loyalty and attachment at the overall retail-level. This research, therefore, aims to address the underdeveloped extant knowledge of the role of the store design-architecture in retail branding. This thesis addresses two research questions: 1) is it possible to improve on the specification or measurement of the store environment beyond the novelty, complexity collative constructs proposed in traditional studies of the store environment?; and 2) what effect, if any, do these improved store environment constructs (from answering research question number one) have in explaining the role of store design-architecture in consumer perceptions of retail brand loyalty? In its examination of the role of store-level design-architecture in overall retail-level branding, the theoretical significance of this thesis is based on two activities. First, this thesis proposes a conceptual framework that draws on multiple, diverse literatures from design-architecture, psychology and marketing. The critical review of pertinent literatures from these three sources then enables the second activity: the generation of novel empirical insights based on surveys of consumer perceptions of store-level design-architecture. A research instrument is developed that compares higher and lower levels of design in two stores of Penneys, a discount fashion retailer. The responses of 145 consumers are examined in an Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA). A separate dataset of 403 consumer responses are analysed using Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and Structural Equations Modelling (SEM). Multiple-group invariance testing is also completed on this dataset. The primary theoretical contributions of this thesis to the extant literature are five-fold. First, the principal contribution of this thesis confirms that store aesthetic preference is positively associated with retail brand loyalty. Thus, the second research question is satisfactorily addressed; I explain that there is a mild association between store aesthetic preference and the emotionally valenced retail brand attachment construct in higher-level design contexts. Instead, a store aesthetic preference association is observed with the more behaviourally valenced retail brand loyalty construct in lower-level designs. Consequently, this principal contribution to the extant literature reveals the perceptive dynamic of how consumers processing of store-level design-architecture correspond with their perceptions of retail-level brand loyalty. A host of global-attribute, objective-subjective, and cognitive-emotional perceptive processing at the store and retail levels are observed in the proposed theoretical framework. Second, to confirm the role of store design-architecture in retail brand loyalty, I develop: a new scale for retail brand product; modify scales for store prototype, store novelty, store aesthetic preference, store complexity and retail brand price; and introduce scales for brand attachment and brand loyalty from non-retail contexts into a retail context for the first time. This research, therefore, addresses research question number one by making a notable conceptual and measurement contribution to the specification of the store environment. Third, as a progression from the previous contribution, I use these improved store environments constructs to better specify the store environment, and examine the associations between store prototype, store novelty and store aesthetic preference. I demonstrate that theory such as the preference-for-prototypes literature helps to improve the extant understanding of the associations between store prototype, store novelty and store aesthetic preference. The confirmation of the existence of these associations essentially means that the proposed model is robust, credible and able to account for consumers objective-subjective, global-attribute discriminations of the store-level aesthetic. Fourth, in an effort to explain the relative visual and non-visual contributions to retail brand attachment and retail brand loyalty, I examine associations concerning retail brand product and retail brand price. Retail brand product is confirmed to have stronger associations with retail brand attachment than store aesthetic preference or store prototypicality. Thus, this research extends the extant knowledge of the relative contributions of visual and non-visual constructs to understanding retail brand loyalty. Fifth, this research contributes to the extant understanding of how non-invariance analysis can be employed in Structural Equations Modelling (SEM) to confirm differences between groups. This research examines differences in parameter values to confirm differences in perception of the higher and lower levels of store design-architecture. This type of use of non-invariance analysis is not frequently employed in SEM and I propose that this research instrument can be generalised to other retail contexts also. Finally, this thesis concludes by presenting the limitations of this research. It makes suggestions on potential future research that could be completed, and raises some pertinent implications for practitioners arising from this research.

I detta arbete undersöks attityder, motivation och tankar kring miljövänligt beteende på arbetsplatsen bland anställda inom skola och omsorg i tre Dalslandskommuner. Två av dessa har infört en arbetsprocess som låter de anställda, tillsammans i arbetslaget, sätta sina egna mål för miljövänliga arbetsrutiner på arbetsplatsen. Inspiration till studien kommer från Self-Determination Theory (Ryan & Deci 2000) och Value-belief-norm Theory (Stern 2000). Data samlades in och analyserades med både kvalitativa och kvantitativa metoder. Kvantitativa data från 169 frågeformulär som behandlade motivation och attityder användes främst som bakgrundsdata till fem stycken intervjuer. Resultaten visar att dessa offentliganställda är medvetna av konsekvenserna av sitt agerande. De är beredda att ta ansvar och har god motivation till att arbeta på ett ansvarsfullt sätt ur miljösynpunkt. Intervjuerna visade på en mer komplex situation där respondenterna gav uttryck för fem förutsättningar som främjar eller hindrar miljövänligt beteende. Dessa resultat diskuteras i relation till Theory of Planned Behavior (Ajzen 1991). De främsta hindren mot miljövänligt beteende upptäcktes inom faktorer som styr faktisk förmåga att utföra beteendet (Actual Behavioral Contro), och till viss mån uppfattad förmåga at utföra beteendet (Perceived Behavioral Control), som Ajzen beskriver dem i sin teori. De tydligaste var okunskap om vilka specifika ageranden man skulle företa sig, vilka ageranden som var bättre än andra, ekonomiska begränsningar och budget processer, men framför allt; fysiska faktorer som direkt hämmar beteenden.

There is much support for ecotherapy as a psychological intervention within the current literature. Research has indicated that ecotherapy does have a detectable therapeutic effect, particularly for programmes that run for more than 20 days. Furthermore, a number of studies have provided evidence ofthe effectiveness ofecotherapy in improving self-esteem and psychological health. However, research and evaluation ofecotherapy programmes have been plagued with poor quality studies with serious methodological problems. Many past evaluations ofecotherapy programmes have used anecdotal evidence and outcome-based interpretations. The current study evaluated the effectiveness ofthe N.P.A.T. KwaZulu Natal Midlands Ecotherapy Programme. The study focused on subjects' self-esteem and the manifestation ofpsychological symptoms as outcome measures. The experimental design employed three different experimental groups and a control group. All experimental and control groups were administered a pretest and posttest consisting ofthe Symptoms Checklist-90-Revised and the Culture-Free Self-Esteem Inventory-2. The pretest was administered before the ecotherapy programme. The experimental groups were administered the posttest one month after the ecotherapy programme. The control group were given no intervention, and were administered the posttest one month after the pretest. Pretest and posttest differences were tested for significance using repeated measures analysis ofvariance (ANOVA). No statistically significant difference was found between the experimental and control groups on the pretest and posttest. This suggests that the ecotherapy programme had no detectable effect on the experimental group subjects' self-esteem or the manifestation of psychological symptoms. The implications ofthese results and future considerations were discussed. / Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2003.

No abstract available. / Thesis (M.T.R.P.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2001.