Thesis (Ph. D.)--Kent State University, 2007. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed July 15, 2008). Advisor: Christina Haas. Keywords: Web use; Writing studies; Credibility studies; Media studies; Rhetoric. Includes survey instrument. Includes bibliographical references (p. 144-148).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2008. / The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on June 11, 2009) Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Texas at El Paso, 2009. / Title from title screen. Vita. CD-ROM. Includes bibliographical references. Also available online.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Texas at El Paso, 2009. / Title from title screen. Vita. CD-ROM. Includes bibliographical references. Also available online.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Canterbury, 2008. / Typescript (photocopy). "March 2008." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 90-95). Also available via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (doctoral)--Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität zu München, 1958. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. iii-v) and index.

Si bien Parménides no otorga, como Jenófanes, una connotación fuertemente negativa al discurso mítico de la tradición poética, no es menos cierto que asistimos con él a una verdadera transmutación del discurso homérico y hesiódico, fundamentalmente en lo que concierne al problema complejo de la verdad, el engaño y la verosimilitud. La originalidad filosófica de Parménides consistiría no solamente en la elaboración de un logos que encarnaría por primera vez en Occidente la idea de una razón crítica personal”, capaz de juzgar” la refutación enunciada por la autoridad de una maestra de la verdad”, y en el establecimiento de un gnōmē (juicio) susceptible de elegir entre lo más verosímil y lo menos verosímil, sino también en el hecho de entablar, mucho antes que Platón –y a diferencia del Sofista–, una reflexión sobre la verdad y el error que está guiada por la cuestión de las buenas y malas mezclas, las buenas y malas separaciones.---Mythos and logos in Parmenides”. Although Parmenides does not present a strongly negative connotation of the mythical discourse of the poetic tradition, as Xenophanes does, there is no less truth to the fact that we witness with him a true transmutation of the Homeric and Hesiodic discourse, especially regarding the complex problem of truth, deceit and verisimilitude. The philosophical originality of Parmenides lies not only in the elaboration of a logos that would, for the first time in Western Thought, embody the idea of a personal critical reason”, capable of judging” the refutation pronounced by the authority of a Master of Truth”, nor in the institution of a gnōmē (judgement) capable of choosing between things with more or less verisimilitude, but also in the fact of undertaking, long before Plato –and in a different manner than in the Sophist–, a reflection on truth and error that is guided by the question of the good and bad combinations, the good and bad separations.

M.A. (Politics) / This study represents an empirical inquiry into the attitudes of South African Members of Parliament towards the credibility of the South African press. The study was conducted in the field of Political Science, but literature from the field of Communication Science was also used to explain certain aspects of mass media behaviour and political communication. In any governmental system political leaders are the most important people in the decision-making process. In most societies with a high level of technological development the mass media is the primary and most frequently used instrument for disseminating information and influencing public opinion. It can be used very effectively by political leaders to make contact with the electorate. Chapter One deals with the research problem of the study. Political leaders in South Africa are confronted by a specific reality when reading different newspapers. This reality is one created by the criteria of newsworthiness and editorial policy, as well as by the political interests of newspapers. This study attempts to determine to what extent political leaders. experience this reality of newspaper reporting as credible. This question is answered by an analysis of the attitudes of South African MPs toward the credibility of the press. The interaction between the political leader and the press is the most important aspect of the theoretical framework for this study. Different dimensions of this relationship are analysed. Influence is regarded as one of the major concepts in this relationship. In the communication process the relationship of influence between sender and receiver is of major importance. This relationship consists of the following elements: (1) the situation or context in which the communication occurs; (2) communicator or message characteristics; (3) receiver characteristics; (4) effects. To isolate certain of these...

The theories of cognitive dissonance (Festinger, 1957) and self-perception (Bern, 1965) are reviewed in terms of the "insufficient justification" and "observer replication" laboratory paradigms. The controversy generated by their competing explanatory claims was evaluated in three separate contexts: as debate, theory, and metatheory. In a debating context it was concluded that Ben got the better of the controversy by observing the input requirements of his theory and marshalling against his critics evidence generated by their own failure to do likewise. Analytical and epistemological errors committed by the dissonance theory advocates were major factors in this csnclusion. With respect to the more substantive context of theory-testing, it was concluded that Bern failed to establish the plausibility of the cognitive process postulated by the self-perception theory. A unique counter-instance was cited to demonstrate that self-perception is not a wholly viable alternative analysis of cognitive dissonance phenomena. In addition, an examination of Bern's adherence to a functional analysis in conjunction with a simulation methodology raised doubts that such a strategy could deliver the desired information concerning plausibility of the self-perception process. When viewed at the level of metatheory, however, Bern was considered to have had a substantial influence upon the working commitments of a small community of his colleagues. This conclusion was derived from a metaphorical application of Kuhn's (1962) thesis concerning scientific revolutions to events in the recent history of Social Psychology. In this view, the self-perception theory is an historical marker which brings clearly into focus the transition of attitudinal research from a motivational-consistency "paradigm" to an information processing/attributional "paradigm". Three experiments are reported which make use of Bern's credibility cueing procedure to articulate the newer "paradigm". The first experiment provides support for a fundamental hypothesis derived from the self-perception theory. Subjects' recall of a task was systematically influenced by external discriminative stimuli for self-credibility when internal memory cues were relatively weak, but net when such cues were relatively strong. The use of a statistic which takes into account subjects' differential guessing strategies increased confidence in the self-perception interpretation of these results. The second experiment attempted to extend the credibility cueing effect beyond the traditional impersonal cueing situation to one involving interpersonal discriminative stimuli for self-credibility. Although procedural insights rendered the results inconclusive, a serendipitous observation was made. The results suggested a novel hypothesis that different stimulus persons could have differential effects on subjects' self-credibility. A third experiment provided support for this hypothesis. When one live interviewer was manipulated as a discriminative stimulus for self-credibility, subjects' recall of a task was systematically influenced in accord with self-perception predictions. These effects did net occur in the presence of a second live interviewer. Speculation was advanced concerning the psychological basis for differential credibility cueing properties of parties to social interactions with particular reference to the credibility cueing potential of police interrogations. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

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