This study aimed to investigate the psychological adjustment of children with learning disabilities (LD) / to examine the group and gender differences of the psychological adjustment between children with LD and diabetes / and to investigate group differences in the way mothers experience having children with LD and diabetes in terms of their adjustment levels. In order to test the above aims, 2 (Gender) x 2 (Diagnosis) ANCOVA&rsquo / s were conducted to evaluate the diagnosis and gender differences on the psychological adjustment levels of children, separately. Significant diagnosis main effects were found for all of the study variables, indicating that children with a learning disability had worse psychological adjustment compared to children with diabetes. Regression analyses were conducted in order to find out the variables associated with the symptoms of depression and anxiety for children with learning disabilities and diabetes groups, separately. Separate regression analyses were run to examine the mediator role of self-esteem between parental rejection and learned helplessness and depression in children with LD. In order to evaluate the diagnosis differences (LD, diabetes) on the psychological adjustment levels of mothers ANCOVA&rsquo / s were conducted. Significant diagnosis main effects were found for all of the study variables regarding mothers, indicating that mothers of children with a learning disability had worse psychological adjustment compared to mothers of children with diabetes. The results were discussed in terms of the treatment needs of children with LD, helping parents and children cope with LD, and the importance of early identification of these children for the prevention of psychosocial problems.

In this study, 248 university students completed questionnaires measuring their perceptions of and responses to their favorite and least desired characters in their favorite TV serial. Firstly, the respondents named their favorite serial character and then rated their favorite character on several attributes (physical attractiveness, positive social behavior, strength and humor) and indicated their level of agreement to the items of the parasocial interaction scale. Secondly, the participants named the character they desired the least in their favorite TV serial, rated that character on several attributes (physical repulsiveness, negative social behavior, weakness) and responded to the items of the negative parasocial interaction scale. Regression analyses predicting the sub-dimensions of parasocial interaction, namely companionship, empathic involvement and interest, and negative parasocial interaction, namely, boredom, anger, disturbance and amazement were performed. Different attributes of the characters were found to be important in predicting different dimensions of parasocial and negative parasocial interaction. The predictors of the sub-dimensions of parasocial interaction were determined. Significant predictors of companionship sub-scale were found as the positive social behavior, humor and strength of the character. In terms of empathic involvement, the perceived attributes of positive social behavior, physical attractiveness, strength and humor were found as significant predictors. For the interest sub-scale, the significant predictors were found as humor, strength and physical attractiveness. The newly-formed scale named as Negative Parasocial Interaction Scale was factor analyzed and interpretable factors were determined. The predictors of these factors were also examined. Significant predictors of boredom sub-scale were found to be the perceived weakness and physical repulsiveness of the character. Negative social behavior of the character was found to be a significant negative predictor of boredom sub-scale. In terms of anger sub-scale, only negative social behavior was found to be a significant predictor. For the disturbance sub-scale, significant predictors were found as negative social behavior, physical repulsiveness and weakness. Finally, the amazement sub-scale was significantly predicted only by the physical repulsiveness of the character. The implications of the findings, the strengths and weaknesses of the study are discussed.

This thesis is an attempt to analyze the discourse of &ldquo / Valley of Wolves&rdquo / , a television serial which gained a significant popularity in recent years. To understand the serial&rsquo / s discourse I have first analyzed the general aspects of the narrative and approached to it as a televisual text. Concerning the political discourse two arguments, both connected to nationalism, is provided. First one concerns the psychology of the serial. Psychological mechanisms that the serial make use of is similar to Adorno&rsquo / s insights concerning fascism which may be formulated as &ldquo / acknowledgement of the weakness, identification with the victor&rdquo / . The serial interpellates weak ordinary citizens who are impotent in front of powerful conspirators, and invites him to identify with the hero who is able to save him from these malicious uncontrollable forces. Nationalism constitutes the kernel of this psychology. Nation is the community of simple-minded ordinary people free of conflict: its inner harmony is disturbed only by external forces through conspiracies. In that respect, the serial depends on the logic of conspiracy and xenophobia. Secondly, the serial overtly advocates &ldquo / deep state&rdquo / , that is the break-down between legality and legitimacy as far as &ldquo / the survival of the state&rdquo / is concerned. It has sympathy for traditional mafia, but it essentially backs up illegal activities on behalf of state. Thereby, irt articulates a nationalist mentality and carries some important features of the Turkish Nationalism.

This thesis evaluates the Keklik Street and its Surrounding Conservation and Development Project with respect to sustainability principle of Cultural Heritage Management. The achievements and deficiencies of the Project will be discussed and a performance measurement of the physical, functional and organizational sustainability will be done. Finally, the thesis will emphasize the contribution of the sustainability principle of the management approach and its instruments to the heritage conservation process.

The aim of this thesis is to see in a descriptive manner, whether there is a difference in the ethical disposition of public and private banking sector managers in T&uuml / rkiye, according to two ethical theories: consequentialism (based on the consequences of the action) and deontologism (based on principles). The study analyzes the preferences of the managers both in the way of thinking and acting to see whether people act consistently with their way of thinking. The degree of validity of consequentialism/deontologism dichotomy and the daptability of these western theories to the Turkish context are also analyzed. Two hypotheses have been formed: private sector managers, young and male managers tend to be more consequentialist whereas public sector managers, elderly and female managers have a tendency toward deontologism. These hypotheses were tested on 58 managers working in the headquarters in Ankara (34 in the public, 24 in the private sector) through vignettes and interviews as data collection methods. As a result of the ANOVA analysis and content analysis performed on the data, private sector managers and male managers seem to be more consequentialist and they are consistent in their way of thinking and acting, but public sector managers, elderly and female managers do not have a tendency toward deontologism. The semistructured interviews showed that the level of awareness of the term ethics was low. Due to radical changes in social values in the last two decades in T&uuml / rkiye, contradictory values co-exist. The suitability of the consequentialist/deontological dichotomy may be questioned for T&uuml / rkiye.

Today, especially after various critical evaluations of mainstream theories of International Relations (IR), it is common place to observe that IR discipline is Eurocentric. Natural outcome of this Eurocentric character of IR discipline has been the privileging of modern identity (and thus, modernity) and the marginalization of different cultures and identities as &quot / others&quot / . This thesis analyzes the relationship between the concepts of modern identity, national interest and difference within the framework of IR theory. The thesis asserts that IR discipline should solve the problem of exclusion of the &quot / other&quot / or suppression of differences since International Relations means first and foremost interaction with the &quot / Other&quot / . In order to solve this contradiction, I argue that IR theory should be deconstructed on the basis of a treatment of differences and heterogeneity. However, criticizing the creation of the &quot / others&quot / necessitates also the critique of modern identity since &quot / heterophobia&quot / is the result of the homogenizing character of European identity. Therefore, a deconstruction of the hegemony of modern identity in IR is the main concern of this thesis. The thesis finally argues that &ldquo / other worlds&rdquo / which leave room for different identities and other &quot / truths&quot / are also possible.

The purpose of the present study is to investigate the relationships among accepting and reminiscing the past, attachment dimensions, and autobiographical memory. University students (N=182) participated to the study (105 women, 77 men). The relationships among attachment anxiety, avoidance, accepting and reminiscing the past, and autobiographical memory were examined within the context of emotionally charged memories and the phenomenological properties of the recalled autobiographical memories, such as the recollection, coherence, and persistence of the reported memories. Results revealed that attachment anxiety significantly predicted the visceral reactions to emotional memories, the vividness and negative valence of the recalled memories, overall the affective aspects of autobiographical memories. Results also indicated that attachment anxiety was a reliable predictor of accepting the past. The interaction between attachment anxiety and avoidance has also a predictive effect on the specifity of memory (specifity of the memory to the person) and vividness, When the patterns of the interaction effect were examined, it was observed that individuals with high attachment anxiety and avoidance (i.e. fearful attachment) reported high scores in specifity, vividness, and cognitive properties of the recalled memories than individuals with low anxiety and high avoidance (i.e., dismissive attachment), suggesting that dismissing individuals repress their memories and fearful hyperactivate them. Attachment avoidance has a significant predictive effect on recollection. Examination of the effect of the accepting the past on the phenomenological properties of autobiographical memory indicated that accepting the past significantly predicted positive and negative valence, perspective, and visceral reactions. Partially supporting the hypotheses, these results suggested that attachment anxiety, but not avoidance has a consistent effect on the affective aspects of autobiographical memory. Findings were discussed on the basis of the literature on both attachment and autobiographical memory.

This thesis aims to analyze Islamic rhetoric of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and its underlying objectives and reasons by examining policies, speeches and declarations of the PLO, Fateh and Yasser Arafat. It is widely accepted that the PLO functiones according to secular rules / perceives Israel, Palestine and the Israeli-Palestinian question on Palestinian nationalist and Third worldist grounds. However in spite of its secular functioning and goals, the PLO since its inception has referred to Islamic rhetoric on natinal struggle of Palestine&rsquo / s liberation. Henceforth it is argued that the PLO has chosen a pragmatist and instrumentalist language in referring to Islamic symbols and discourses. Islamic rhetoric of the PLO has aimed primarily to mobilize the Palestinians for national goals and to legitimize the PLO against rising power of political Islam headed by Hamas. Furthermore the thesis also demonstrates that the PLO&rsquo / s Islamic rhetoric was affected by Palestinian society&rsquo / s shift along Islamic lines and Islamic component of Palestinian nationalism and culture. The PLO seemed to intensify its resort to Islamic rhetoric with every crisis that decreased the PLO&rsquo / s authority and power. It is concluded that content of the PLO&rsquo / s pragmatic Islamic rhetoric was never related with making Islam as normative and legal basis of Palestinian society, rather it was related with mobilization and legitimating.

Analog television systems are rapidly being replaced by digital television systems accross the world. Turkey is not an exception to this development since the government has recently decided to shut-down analog television transmission across the country by 2016. In this context, subject matter of this study is the adoption of digital television in Turkey. And the study&rsquo / s main aim is to understand and explain the economical and political rationale behind the conversion to digital television. In the switch process to digital television, digital television has been presented as a new &ldquo / revolutionary&rdquo / technology which is primarily to enhance the television &ldquo / service&rdquo / for viewers by the champions of the process and the governments. However, this study takes a critical position against this argument and argues that the adoption of digital television is primarily shaped by the commercial stakes of private broadcasting organisations and administrative concerns of governments. In this respect, this thesis argues that even though the digital television has technical superiorities to analog television systems which facilitates the introduction more television channels with higher audio-visual quality, the adoption of digital television does not include any project to improve the quality of television content, the equal access to information in the society and thus citizenship in a democratic society. Quite the contrary, since digital television facilitates and improves pay television implementations, digital television seems to deteriorate the imbalance in the society in accessing the information. It is therefore necessary to put &ldquo / reserve&rdquo / on the expectations from digital television. To articulate this thesis, different national contexts including USA and Britain as leading countries and Turkey in digital television conversion process are dealt with in the study. Firstly, the American and Britain experience of digital television which does not exclude the European context are examined in terms of common developments as well as the pecularities of the countries concerning to switch to digital television. Lastly, in the framework given above, the developments as to the digital television in Turkey are examined in detail. As well as the assessments about recent developments as to the issue, interviews carried out with the representatives of the broadcasting industry and regulatory authorities are also included in the analysis. Hence, this study should be considered as a descriptive research which aims to contribute the academic efforts to develop a conceptual framework to the digital television debate in Turkey.

The aim of the represent research was to investigate the relationship between illusion of control, optimism bias, locus of control, and drivers&rsquo / risk-taking behavior among Turkish drivers. A total of 307 drivers completed the Driver Behavior Questionnaire, the Driver Skills Inventory, the Optimism Bias Scale, the Multidimensional Traffic Locus of Control Scale, and Rotter&rsquo / s Internality Externality Scale. In chapter one, comparison between perceived risk as driver and perceived risk as passenger demonstrated existence of illusion f control among drivers. Drivers&rsquo / risk assignments were different when imagining themselves as drivers and passenger. Illusion of control was found to be related to the total number of accidents, especially involvement in active accidents. This indicates a positive relationship between illusion of control and risk-taking behavior. In the second chapter, optimism bias was found in drivers&rsquo / risk likelihood estimations for accident involvement in the future. Drivers estimated their risk of being involved in four types of accidents as less than an average driver. Optimism bias was related to self-reported violations and strong evaluation of driving and safety skills as strong. Young and novice drivers were more realistic in their risk estimations. In the third chapter, relationship between locus of control and risk-taking was investigated. Only fate scale correlated with violations. Drivers who attribute accident causes to fate were more likely to commit violations. The limitations of the current research and implications for further research were discussed.