The aim of this thesis is to analyze the last phrase of democratization process in Georgia that refers to democratic consolidation period, while focusing on the role of civil society organizations. The main focus area will be post-Rose Revolution period hence, the Rose Revolution that occurred in 2003 is considered as an example of democratic transition and as a nature of successful democratization development, the transition period must be followed by the democratic consolidation process. In order to examine the consolidation of democracy in Georgia, the study sheds light on the development of civil society, the aims of activities of civil societal actors and their relations with state, society, international actors and media. This thesis argues that in order to consolidate democracy, the civil society&rsquo / s interaction with state and society must be effectual however, the Georgian civil society organizations are unable to mediate the relations with state and society, especially after the Rose Revolution. As a result of the problematic relations, Georgian democratic consolidation process is failing. This thesis is based on the qualitative data which is collected during a fieldwork in Georgia.

The study aims to investigate the role of parenting behaviors as a mediator, between children&#039 / s witnessing of interparental violence and coping ways of children with interpersonal and academic stressors. For the purpose of assesment, The Conflict Tactic Scale Adapted for Italian Youngsters and The Question Set about Parental Abuse towards Children have been translated into Turkish and their psychometric properties therein were tested on 10-12 year-old children. With the same aged sample group which involved 343 elementary students, the relationship among witnessing interparental violence, perceived parenting behaviors, and coping ways with the interpersonal and academic stressors were tested through mediation analysis. After determination of the mediators, four path anaylses were conducted in order to test the convergence between the mediation models and the data obtained in the study, via Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). Results revealed that perceived emotional warmth, rejection and comparison behaviors of parents have mediator roles between witnessing interparental violence and ways of coping with the interpersonal stressors. Additionally, perceived emotional warmth and rejection from parents also mediated the relationship between witnessing interparental violence and ways of coping with academic stressors. Lastly, the conducted Structural Equation Modeling indicated existence of a good fit between the model and the data. After findings were evaluated, the implications of the results were mentioned and limitations were discussed with an emphasis on recommendations for future research.

In the extant literature, it is possible to find many studies focusing on antecedents of OCB, both cognitive factors and affective factors. However, previous research made limited contribution to the literature, since it did not focus on an integrative model covering both cognitive and affective factors. In this study it was aimed to search an integrative relationship among OCB, cognitive factors and affective factors. Following previous literature, justice perceptions and mood states of employees were taken as cognitive and affective factors respectively. Main purpose of this study is to see the individual influence of justice perceptions and positive mood states on OCB, while also testing a possible mediating role of justice perceptions between positive mood states and OCB. A Turkish public bank was chosen for conducting the survey. After missing value and outlier analysis 210 participants were left. Employees of the bank were asked to rate the items measuring OCB, justice perceptions and mood states. Hierarchical regression analyses were used to test suggested propositions. In line with literature, both aggregate variable of justice perceptions and positive mood states were found to be positively associated with OCB. However, justice perceptions

This thesis aims to investigate the role of domestic technology in daily life. It focuses on the impact of household technologies upon women&rsquo / s lives and attempts to address the questions of how women could create an agency through technology to transform their lives and how a technological appliance could act to empower women. Of all household technologies, Singer sewing machine was chosen owing to its representative nature. Accordingly, the thesis provides a brief history of Singer Company in order to describe the major aspects of both the Singer Company and the sewing machine technology. It is argued that sewing machine technology became a convenient tool for women to transform their lives both economically and socially. The testimonies of the women interviewed for this thesis show that their technological skills were a significant part of their identity. Furthermore, middle-class Turkish women used this technology to meet middle class standards whenever they and their families aspired to.

The dissertation engages in a critical analysis of the involvement of the Brusselsbased European NGOs in European governance. It conducts a survey on the European Commission&rsquo / s relevant initiatives after the 1990s and interrogates the implications of these initiatives on one of the prominent European NGO network, the Social Platform of European NGOs. The common understanding conceives of these organizations as conducive to democratization of EU governance within the scope of participatory democracy. However, I endeavour to argue that the Commission has had an aim to make use of the civil society discourse for its institutional interests, while intentionally and unintentionally shaping (and reshaping) civic action in Europe. Participatory democracy project, which is promoted by the Commission, can be seen as a deliberate venture of shaping civic action and state-society relationships in Europe. With respect to this goal, it has encouraged the Social Platform to act like its interlocutor vis-&agrave / -vis the NGO community organised both at national and European level. Deriving from the Foucaultian concept of governmentality, I inquiry into the effects of this discourse on the Social Platform, which has been particularly created by the Commission to disperse the participatory democracy and good governance discourse in Europe.

Organizational citizenship behaviors are extra-role behaviors that are neither enforced on the basis of formal role obligations nor guarantee compensation such as promotion or salary. Previous researches focused on organizational commitment as an antecedent and a predictor and organizational culture as a predictor of organizational citizenship behavior. However, there has not been any detailed research exploring the relationship between organizational citizenship behavior, organizational commitment, and organizational culture / which is the main purpose of this study. Moreover, this study searched the mediating effect of organizational commitment on the relationship between organizational culture and organizational commitment, organizational commitment as being one of the most prominent and potential mediators of the relationship between job characteristics and organizational citizenship behavior. A sample of 125 academicians from Middle East Technical University (METU), Ankara, was selected and conducted a survey. In accordance with the hypotheses, the results indicated, organizational culture with its several dimensions predicted organizational citizenship behavior and its dimension of civic virtue and sportsmanship. Organizational commitment predicted organizational citizenship behavior, whereas, only affective commitment dimension of organizational commitment predicted organizational citizenship behavior and the dimensions of OCB / altruism, civic virtue, conscientiousness, sportsmanship but not courtesy. The effect of organizational culture on organizational commitment was partially supported. It is supported that organizational culture and only its dimension of mission predicted organizational commitment, and its dimensions of affective and normative commitment. Finally, for the mediating role of organizational commitment, only affective commitment has a mediating role between organizational culture and organizational citizenship behavior.

The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between the stressors of caregiving for a schizophrenic patient and related outcomes. The Caregiver Stress Model was used as the conceptual framework for the current study. The sample of the study was composed of 98 Turkish caregivers of schizophrenic patients who were treated at psychiatry clinics of hospitals in Ankara. Twelve mediation models were tested using marital satisfaction and social support as mediators. The models contained primary stressor (basic needs), secondary stressor (activities of living), and intrapsychic strain (parental efficacy) as independent variables / and depression and general psychological health as dependent variables. The results suggested both social support and marital satisfaction as significant mediators of the relationships of both primary and secondary stressors with the outcome variables / however, social support and marital satisfaction were not significant mediators of the relationships between parental efficacy and outcome variables. The significant implications and limitations of the study were also discussed.

The aim of the study was to test three mediation and a moderation models in order to investigate the mediating role of coping styles and both mediating and moderating roles of perceived social support between dispositional hope-posttraumatic growth/PTSD relationships among postoperative breast cancer patients. Accordingly, it was hypothesized that 1) Problem-focused coping styles (PFC) would mediate the relationship between dispositional hope and posttraumatic growth among postoperative breast cancer patients. 2) Emotion-focused coping style (EFC) would mediate the relationship between dispositional hope and posttraumatic stress disorder among postoperative breast cancer patients. 3) Perceived social support would mediate the relationship between dispositional hope and posttraumatic growth among postoperative breast cancer patients. 4) Perceived social support would moderate the relationships between dispositional hope and posttraumatic growth among postoperative breast cancer patients. The study was conducted with 73 postoperative breast cancer women (mean age = 44.44, SD = 7.43) who were undergoing postoperative chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Participants were from different cities but receiving treatment from Dr. Abdurrahman Yurtaslan Ankara Oncology Education and Research Hospital. Measurements were applied orally to participants. According to results of the study, PFC did not mediate the relationship between dispositional hope and PTG and its subscales. Similarly, the relationship between dispositional hope and PTSD and its subscales was not mediated by EFC. Beside, perceived social support and its sources did not mediate the relationship between dispositional hope and PTG and its subscales. However, perceived social support and perceived social support from friend moderated the relationship between dispositional hope and PTG. Results, limitations, clinical implications of the study and directions for future studies were discussed in the light of the literature.

This thesis focuses on the relationship with the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) and Turkey

Bank performance is one of the vital issues for the healthy functioning of the Turkish economy. This study aims to measure performance levels of the banks in Turkey and to find the factors affecting those levels for the period of 2006-2010. Although the measures evaluating bank performance are ample in amounts we choose two different approaches: Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) measuring bank efficiency and CAMELS analysis. DEA is carried out in different levels: first for top 14 banks in the economy / then separating the banks as the state banks, the domestic private banks and the foreign private banks. Also long term and short term, and public and non-public assets and liabilities distinctions are made in the analyses. The bank performance measures obtained from DEA and CAMELS analysis are compared and the factors affecting the performances of the Turkish banks are analyzed. The results show that high efficiency levels of the state banks decrease when the public assets and liabilities are excluded. The state banks and domestic private banks have high CAMELS&#039 / ratios, while the foreign banks have low ones. Both the bank-specific and macroeconomic factors, like ownership type, publicly trading and ATM net, play important roles in the determination of the efficiency levels of the banks in Turkey.