This diploma thesis is concerned with the problematic of the links between self-presentation on social networks (SNS) and female beauty ideal. The thesis defines the beauty ideal as social construct, because every culture has its own beauty ideal and every period held its own standards on what is considered as beutiful. The thesis is also based on assumption that definitions of beauty are multidimensional and is focused on several beauty ideals. The aim of the thesis is to evaluate ways of self-presentation of women on social networks in the context of ideal of beauty. The research is based on the analysis of profile pictures on social networks and is also based on qualitative method of grounded theory. The final results show that the dominant way of visual self-presentation is represented by selfies. But the research has also shown that in each group there is a minority group of women who present themselves in accordance with the chosen ideal of beauty. Differences are described at the end of the thesis.

Modern medical students are exposed to a variety of anatomical and physiology textbooks and atlases as part of their medical training. Although little has been written on how these students interact with medical illustrations during learning, several scholars allude to the importance of combining visual and textual information in the learning process. Medical illustrators have the ability to proficiently organise visual and textual elements in such a fashion to communicate a certain message. However, medical illustrators should be aware of students’ needs when designing visual material for learning purposes. The gap that this study aimed to address is one often experienced in South Africa, where illustrators know very little about the user, in this case medical students’ use of illustrations as a learning tool. The importance of this study derives from the development of user-centred knowledge to improve the quality of work produced by medical illustrators. The aim of the study was to explore how design elements and principles influence the use, comprehension and preference of medical illustrations as part of the learning experience. Two other aspects selected for this study are the relevance of labelling techniques in medical illustration as well as the quality of the reproduction of images, especially for learning purposes. This study was conducted through exploratory qualitative research in order to develop a deeper understanding of the way medical illustrations are used during learning. Constructivism was selected as the epistemological approach for this study as it focuses on new knowledge constructed by students from previous experiences. Data was collected by means of semi-structured in-depth interviews and open-ended questions. Six second year and six fifth year medical students of the School of Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Pretoria were purposively selected and interviewed. The discussion guide used for interviews consisted of 15 sets of medical illustrations with three or four images per set. Each illustration contained a different application of the same design characteristic, but similar in content or nature of information. The largest part of the interview was an adaptation of the repertory grid method to compare and analyse rich data. Data were transcribed verbatim and organised following the principles of grounded theory. Data sheets were listed, compared and analysed through the application of open and axial coding to determine the relationship between students’ learning styles, and the attributes of the design characteristics selected for this study. This study shows that design elements in medical illustrations influences second- and fifth-year medical students’ comprehension and learning of anatomy when illustrations are used as teaching material. Deeper understanding regarding their learning styles, drawing abilities and preference for drawing styles were gained. Furthermore, second- and fifth-year medical students’ preferences for media, labelling methods, as well as the quality of the reproduction of the illustrations for learning purposes were illustrated. This information is imperative when designing illustrations for learning and teaching purposes. This study accentuates the importance of collaboration with medical illustrators in South Africa and abroad, as well as with physicians and educators. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / gm2014 / Visual Arts / unrestricted

The aim of this thesis was to acquire knowledge about patient participation in everyday life of persons with dementia living in SCUs in nursing homes. Data collection and analysis in studies I-III was carried out according to Grounded Theory. Data was collected by open non- participant observations during 51 hours, and conversations with 8 residents and 17 health care personnel (I), interviews carried out twice with 12 relatives (II) and 11 nursing personnel (III), and by a study specific questionnaire based on the findings from study I-II to 233 relatives (IV). Descriptive and non-parametric statistics were used (IV). Presence of nursing personnel in body, mind and morality was found to be the prerequisite for patient participation (I). This required personnel with high competence in dementia care, commitment to and interest in the resident, and continuity in their work (I, III). Wellbeing and dignity in the resident’s everyday life was found to be the most important goal, not necessarily a high level of patient participation (II-III). The level of participation had to be adjusted to the resident’s ability and wish to take part in decisions in the very moment. However, the level was often primarily adjusted to suit the personnel’s ideas about how to carry out daily care (I, III). Relatives had an important role in the participation process by interacting, and exchanging information, with the personnel. By forming a basis for individualised care in this way, relatives made a difference to the resident’s everyday life and contributed to their wellbeing and dignity (II-IV). The SCU’s context also affected patient participation (I-IV). Patient participation must be given attention by leaders and be prioritised in dementia care. Nursing personnel can enhance patient participation by promoting relatives’ partaking in the participation process, as this has potential for further contributing to quality of care.

D.Litt. et Phil. (Public Management and Governance) / This study focused on the variables that influence change leadership competencies to strategically manage transformation within the South African public sector. One of the key aims was to develop a competency framework for transformational leaders in senior public management positions. The thesis provided a conceptual description and explanation of appropriate and adequate leadership concepts, theories, approaches and phenomena that influence leadership role competencies for change management. It also contributed to a specific level of understanding of appropriate and adequate change concepts, theories and phenomena regarding the problem of change leadership role competencies. Furthermore, the study also investigated strategic leadership concepts, theories and approaches for addressing the problem of strategic leadership role competencies. A modernist qualitative research methodology was followed, where grounded theory was applied as the research strategy. Furthermore, a qualitative coding paradigm was established to develop an integrated model of strategic and transformational leadership competencies in order to manage organisational change. Importantly, the qualitative coding paradigm was developed to enable public sector employers to develop a competency framework that encompass the key leadership skills, behaviours, attributes and knowledge for senior public managers who have to cope effectively with organisational change within a public sector environment. The study contributed to the development of a substantive theory of the organisational change process. Furthermore, on a practical level, it contributed to the disciplinary and methodological fields of Public Management, Public Leadership and Public Governance.

There is a historical trend of decline in available Career and Technical Education (CTE) Teacher Preparation programs and an increase in CTE course and program enrollments in Florida’s secondary school system. This contradiction in CTE teacher supply and demand raises an important question. What is going on? More specifically, what sustains the remaining programs in the face of this decline? The purpose of this qualitative study is to explore sustainability factors from past and present CTE teacher preparation program educators and administrators to gain a better understanding of this issue. The participant selection for this study was identified from four active and one recently phased-out undergraduate CTE teacher preparation programs in five Florida universities. There were ten participants who were interviewed either face-to-face or virtually with a semi-structured protocol. Memo-taking, member checking, and peer review were added to the data. Data analysis, guided by grounded theory and a constant comparative approach, discovered themes which contributed to the development of The CTE Teacher Preparation Program Sustainability Framework. The framework includes two domains: (a) Internal, and (b) External. The Internal Domain, Program Experience, includes: (a) Statewide Exposure; (b) Intracampus Alliance; (c) Innovative Changes; and (d) Program Ownership. The External Domain, Essential Conditions, includes: (a) Program Value; (b) Certification Alignment; and (c) Employment Policies. The implications of this study may extend the life cycle of current CTE teacher preparation programs.

The thesis has been prepared in a paper-based format and includes three papers: Paper 1, a systematic review; Paper 2, an empirical study; and Paper 3, a critical appraisal and reflection on the work. Paper 1 has been prepared for submission to Neuro-Oncology. The paper presents a systematic review of 21 studies concerning the relationships of demographic, clinical and mental health factors on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and psychological functioning in adults with primary malignant brain tumours. The review was conducted in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) principles. Methodological qualities of studies included were appraised using a checklist based on the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (Wells et al, n.d.).Findings were synthesised narratively adhering to published guidelines (Popay et al, 2006). The review identified evidence for factors relating to HRQoL and psychological functioning, offered several considerations for clinical practice, and outlined recommendations for improving the methodological rigour of future research. Paper 2 has been prepared for submission to Psycho-Oncology and presents the findings of a qualitative study of patients’ psychological adjustment to glioblastoma, the most aggressive and most common form of brain tumour in adults. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 participants 3.3-5.1 months post-diagnosis. Data were analysed using a constructivist grounded theory methodology (Charmaz, 2014). Analysis yielded three theoretical categories describing processes of maintaining continuity with the past, reframing the present and changing to accommodate an uncertain future. The implications of these findings on current supportive interventions are discussed. Paper 3 is not intended for publication. It offers a critical appraisal of the individual papers and the research process overall, considering their strengths and limitations. The paper also discusses issues of reflexivity encountered during the empirical study, and considers the implications of this research for the author’s professional development as a clinical psychologist.

Pupils from a low SES differ in their development within the same school context. It is argued that the mechanisms through which education and the school environment as a whole can contribute to the successful development of children from a low SES should be identified and mapped. Therefore a focus on the mechanisms that lead to children with a low SES succeeding, in addition to discussing the reasons for these children not succeeding is proposed. The present research is drawn upon bio-ecological and symbolic interactionist theories of human development in an effort to understand resilience as involving person-context transactions. Specifically, the resilience of adolescents in the school context is studied as a joint function of personal characteristics and social contextual affordances that either promote or thwart the development of person-level, resilient-enhancing characteristics. The study employed inductive as well as deductive methods for knowledge development. Firstly, the concept of “resilience” was defined and operationalized in a Resilience Questionnaire (VVL). This questionnaire was validated on 399 middle-adolescents from five Educational Opportunity Schools in the Netherlands. Secondly, the inductive “Grounded Theory” method was followed with 21 middle-adolescents from three of the five Educational Opportunity Schools. In answer to the main question “How does the school environment contribute to the resilience of middle-adolescent students?”, the school environment can contribute to resilience through facilitating safety and good education. Resilient and Not-Resilient middle-adolescents differ in their dependence on the school environment for their access to these resilience-enhancing circumstances and factors. In relation to the first sub question, “What are resilient middle-adolescents’ perceptions of the contribution of the school environment to their resilience?”, the school environment contributes to the resilience of resilient middle-adolescents by challenging them (e.g with high expectations) and by offering opportunities to create constructive relationships with adults and fellow students in the school environment (e.g through informal conversations and through keeping order in the classroom). In answer to the second and third sub questions, “What are the perceptions of not-resilient middle-adolescents of the contribution of the school environment to their state of resilience?” and “How can the comparison between these two perceptions be explained?”, Not-Resilient middle-adolescents identify and utilise the services and potentially protective factors in the school enviroment less of their own accord than Resilient middle-adolescents do. The school environment can contribute to the resilience of Not-Resilient middle-adolescents by facilitating an overview, insight and positive future expectations in a very direct, controlling manner: An overview over risks for one’s own development and the presence of potential resources to assist one’s own development; insight into his or her own abilities to deal with possible risks; and positive future expectations on the improvement of a situation after a problem or risk has occurred. In summary, the daily situations in the school environment offer enough tools to contribute to the resilience of resilient and not-resilient middle-adolescents. These should, however, be recognised by both the middle-adolescent and the adults in the school environment as opportunities for development, which should subsequently be grasped in order to learn to deal with these challenges constructively. / Thesis (PhD (Learning Supoort, Guidance and Counselling))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Educational Psychology / PhD / unrestricted

The study reported in this thesis aimed to provide an ontology of professional activities in the software industry that require and enable the acquisition of experience and that, in turn, is the basis for tacit knowledge creation. The rationale behind the creation of such an ontology was based on the need to externalise this tacit knowledge and then record such externalisations so that these can be shared and disseminated across organisations through electronic records management. The research problem here is to conciliate highly theoretical principles associated with tacit knowledge and the ill-defined and quasi-colloquial concept of experience into a tool that can be used by more technical and explicit knowledge minded practitioners of electronic records management. The ontology produced and proposed here provides exactly such a bridge, by identifying what aspects of professional and personal experience should be captured and organising these aspects into an explicit classification that can be used to capture the tacit knowledge and codify it into explicit knowledge. Since such ontologies are always closely related to actual contexts of practice, the researcher decided to choose her own national context of China, where she had worked before and had good guarantees of industrial access. This study used a multiple case-study Straussian Grounded Theory inductive approach. Data collection was conducted through semi-structured interviews in order to get direct interaction with practitioners in the field and capture individuals opinions and perceptions, as well as interpret individuals understandings associated with these processes. The interviews were conducted in three different and representative types of company (SMEs, State Owned and Large Private) in an attempt to capture a rich variety of possible contexts in the SW sector in a Chinese context. Data analysis was conducted according to coding the procedures advocated by Grounded Theory, namely: open, axial and selective coding. Data collection and analysis was conducted until the emergent theory reached theoretical saturation. The theory generated identified 218 different codes out of 797 representative quotations. These codes were grouped and organised into a category hierarchy that includes 6 main categories and 31 sub-categories, which are, in turn, represented in the ontology proposed. This emergent theory indicates in a very concise manner that experienced SW development practitioners in China should be able to understand the nature and value of experience in the SW industry, effectively communicate with other stake holders in the SW development process, be able and motivated to actively engage with continuous professional development, be able to share knowledge with peers and the profession at large, effectively work on projects and exhibit a sound professional attitude both internally to their own company and externally to customers, partners and even competitors. This basic theory was then further analysed by applying selective coding. This resulted in a main theory centred on Working in Projects, which was clearly identified as the core activity in the SW Industry reflecting its design and development nature. Directly related with the core category, three other significant categories were identified as enablers: Communication, Knowledge Sharing and Individual Development. Additionally, Understanding the Nature of Experience in the SW Industry and Professional Attitude were identified as drivers for the entire process of reflection, experience acquisition and tacit knowledge construction by the individual practitioners. Finally, as an integral part of any inductive process of research, the final stage in this study was to position the emerged theory in the body of knowledge. This resulted in the understanding that the theory presented in this study bridges two extremely large bodies of literature: employability skills and competencies. Both of these bodies of literature put their emphasis in explicit knowledge concerning skills and competencies that are defined so that they can be measured and assessed. The focus of the theory proposed in this thesis on experience and resulting acquisition of tacit knowledge allows a natural link between the employability skills and competencies in the SW industry that was hitherto lacking in the body of knowledge. The ontology proposed is of interest to academics in the areas of knowledge management, electronic records management and information systems. The same ontology may be of interest to human resources practitioners to select and develop experienced personnel as well as knowledge and information professionals in organisations.

Objective: The primary objective of the thesis is to advance proactive thinking in designing healthcare facilities for safety by constructing theory to bridge gaps between evidence-based design (EBD) and human factors/ergonomics (HF/E). Background: Adverse events are a pervasive issue in healthcare, with causes and prevention measures under increased scrutiny for the past 15 years. The physical environment can be an underlying condition of safety and healthcare (HC) facility design can be seen as a layer of defense in accident causation theory. However, HC facility design is complicated and complex, and the implications of decisions can be felt for decades. While architects excel at problem solving, they are not fully versed in healthcare work tasks, flow, and function, resulting in complex system interactions. Evidence-based design (EBD) is a process that uses research as a foundation for decision-making in HC facility design. While the EBD process acknowledges the importance of system factors, its focus is on understanding specific facility design interventions on outcomes such as safety, efficiency, quality of care, and satisfaction. HF/E focuses on humans interacting with a system with a goal of optimizing human well-being and overall system performance. Although HF/E recognizes the physical environment as a system component, the ergonomic definition of the environment lacks clarity and influences are frequently considered at a microergonomic level. In summary, EBD supports desired outcomes of a system through building design, while HF/E more often supports desired outcomes of the system through work design. Methods: The thesis leverages a grant to create a Safety Risk Assessment (SRA) toolkit for HC facility design using: (1) consensus-based methods to develop built-environment considerations for falls in HC facility design, (2) a mixed methods approach to test the SRA in hypothetical scenarios, (3) a mixed methods approach to test the SRA in real-world scenarios, (4) quantitative and qualitative analysis using an inductive and abductive approach to construct grounded theory to develop a core theme and a theoretical framework for proactively considering safety in HC facility design, (5) an extended systematic literature review to identify additional system considerations of the organization and people, and (6) established thinking to advance new theoretical frameworks to achieve the thesis objectives. Results: Two theoretical frameworks are proposed. The first framework, Safety as Complexity of the Organization, People and Environment (SCOPE) is based on the Dial-F systems model (Hignett 2013). The evolution includes: the definition of the ergonomic environment using building design as the most stable element of the system, identifying built environment interventions to mitigate the risk of falls (SCOPE 1.0); the addition of non-building design interventions of the system such as organizational and people-based conditions (SCOPE 2.0); and the integration of HF/E design principles to reframe thinking about hospital falls (DEEP SCOPE). The second framework evolves from grounded theory constructed through data from SRA testing proposing safe design as a participatory process to anticipate, participate, and integrate solutions. A participatory ergonomics framework (Haines and Wilson 1998) is integrated with a mesoergonomic framework of inquiry (Karsh, Waterson, and Holden 2014, Karsh 2006) to advance a theoretical framework of participatory mesoergonomics using the SRA and SCOPE content as inputs over the course of a HC facility design project to achieve safety. Conclusion: The gap between EBD and HF/E can be bridged using safety (falls) as a proactive consideration during HC facility design using theoretical frameworks. These frameworks address (1) the definition of building design and design considerations in the HF/E context and (2) integration of the EBD process with HF/E methods to understand interactions of the system.

The aim of this research is to explore the contextual characteristics of a particular group of Dutch restaurant owner’s (SSUSCROs) and practitioners, to examine how these contextual characteristics might be used in a professional hospitality education programme. This very small segment of the Dutch restaurant business (0,2-0,5% of the total restaurants) is known for its strong commitment to competitiveness, in delivering quality service and products. No previous research in The Netherlands had embarked on a search for connecting this specific category of practitioners to education. As owners of their restaurants, the SSUSCROs were aware of the potential contribution that participating in this research would make. The research was designed from a constructionist epistemological point of view. This means that the data supplied by the respondents, and the background and vision of the researcher provided an interplay. By using grounded theory methodology, theory is constructed from the empirical data. The main instrument for the primary research was in-depth, interviewing. Six retired and four practising restaurant owners, and a connoisseur of the business were interviewed in one to three hour depth interviews that were digitally recorded. The transcripts of the recorded interviews were analysed, applying the specific constructivist version of grounded theory methodology as described by Charmaz’s (2006). The research generated a grounded theory in the form of a narrative about the SSUSCRO social construct and its central theme ‘Living the business’. The narrative informs future practitioners i.e. students, about how they can prepare for possible future business ventures in the culinary restaurant business. Furthermore, it confronts future practitioners with the notion of particular contextual characteristics and value systems that need to be incorporated in order to successfully engage in and sustain a career in the culinary restaurant sector. Elements of the narrative, connected to Covey’s 7-Habits of Highly Effective People framework for personal leadership. The findings from this research confirmed the importance of providing students in hospitality management education with a approach towards professional development that is grounded in the social construct of a remarkable group of entrepreneurs such as the SSUSCROs. The conclusions suggested that faculty and academic management of hospitality management programmes need to become more knowledgeable about the particular nature of the discipline, and the specific category of practitioners researched here.