It is far from conclusive what distinguishes the inattentive (ADD) and the combined (ADHD-C) subtype of ADHD on the neuronal level. Theoretical considerations suggest that especially interval timing processes may dissociate these subtypes from each other. Combining high-density EEG recordings with source localization analyses, we examine whether there are ADHD-subtype specific modulations of neurophysiological processes subserving interval timing in matched groups of ADD (n = 16), ADHD-C (n = 16) and controls (n = 16). Patients with ADD and ADHD-C show deficits in interval timing, which was correlated with the degree of inattention in ADD patients. Compared to healthy controls, patients with ADHD-C display a somewhat weaker, yet consistent response preparation process (contingent negative variation, CNV). In patients with ADD, the early CNV is interrupted, indicating an oscillatory disruption of the interval timing process. This is associated with activations in the supplemental motor areas and the middle frontal gyrus. Patients with ADD display adequate feedback learning mechanisms (feedback-related negativity, FRN), which is not the case in patients with ADHD-C. The results suggest that altered pacemaker-accumulation processes in medial frontal structures distinguish the ADD from the ADHD-C subtype. Particularly in patients with ADD phasic interruptions of preparatory neurophysiological processes are evident, making this a possible diagnostic feature.

The present study aimed to systematically examine whether laurinal, orange odor, and a specifically designed “perfume” influence sleep quality. During sleep, healthy participants (n = 139) were presented with odor or no odor through nose clips for fourteen consecutive nights (phase one). We collected physiological parameters together with subjective reports. Later on, longer lasting effects of this manipulation were examined for the following fourteen nights (phase two) without exposition to odors. Additionally, olfactory, cognitive and non-cognitive measures were conducted before phase one, between both phases and after phase two. One-way analyses of variance for repeated measures with nights and condition (1 vs 2) as the within-subject factor and odor condition (0, 1, 2 or 3) together with odor pleasantness rating as between-subject factor, was employed to analyse data. Overall, the present results demonstrated that the odor condition in comparison to control had no consistent effect on sleep in healthy participants which can be possibly explained by exposure to odors via nose clips. However, the analyses indicated that the individual pleasantness of odors enhanced the positive assessment of sleep quality. Altogether, the present results indicate that the subjective perception of an odor’s hedonic value appears to be crucial for sleep quality, not the odors themselves.

In a world with rapidly increasing population that competes for the earth’s limited resources, cooperation is crucial. While research showed that empathizing with another individual in need enhances prosociality, it remains unclear whether correctly inferring the other’s inner, mental states on a more cognitive level (i.e., mentalizing) elicits helping behavior as well. We applied a video-based laboratory task probing empathy and a performance measure of mentalizing in adult volunteers (N = 94) and assessed to which extent they were willing to help the narrators in the videos. We replicate findings that an empathy induction leads to more prosocial decisions. Crucially, we also found that correct mentalizing increases the willingness to help. This evidence helps clarify an inconsistent picture of the relation between mentalizing and prosociality.

Tenerife is experiencing challenges with its drinking water resources because of climate change and overtourism. The prior lone use of groundwater as drinking water source must now be complemented by desalinated saltwater. This has resulted in an increased use of drinking water on plastic bottles, which has led to large amounts of plastic waste on the island. Even with an implemented deposit system for plastic bottles in the capital, a high consumption of plastic bottles for drinking water remains. This study thereby aims to research tourists and locals’ habits and opinions of tap water consumption on Tenerife. The study aims to answer why tourists and locals do not drink the tap water on the island today and what their opinions are towards a reduced use of plastic bottles for drinking water consumption on Tenerife. The study also answers which actions could be taken to change tourists’ and locals’ consumption of drinking water in plastic bottles towards a primary consumption of tap water. A literature study was conducted to explore water consumption and plastic waste on Tenerife. A survey study was performed on 155 respondents of tourists and locals’ habits and opinions considering drinking water and plastic bottle waste. The results showed that most of the respondents avoid tap water with fear of food poisoning or insecurity of how it will affect their long-term health. Most of the respondents are positive towards a reduced use of plastic bottles for drinking water on Tenerife. Both tourists and locals answered that they would drink the tap water if they knew that it was safe and had a good taste. Actions that can be taken for changing the habits of using plastic bottles for drinking water are; informing the locals and tourists on the safety of the tap water and developing the water systems to improve the taste of the tap water. The study indicates the need for actions to increase the assurance in the quality and safety of tap water on Tenerife. This could improve the transition towards a more sustainable consumption of drinking water, help reduce the use of plastic bottles on the island and, is a step in the right direction towards the Sustainable development goals.

While the importance of social affect and cognition is indisputable throughout the adult lifespan, findings of how empathy and prosociality develop and interact across adulthood are mixed and real-life data are scarce. Research using ecological momentary assessment recently demonstrated that adults commonly experience empathy in daily life. Furthermore, experiencing empathy was linked to higher prosocial behavior and subjective well-being. However, to date, it is not clear whether there are adult age differences in daily empathy and daily prosociality and whether age moderates the relationship between empathy and prosociality across adulthood. Here we analyzed experience-sampling data collected from participants across the adult lifespan to study age effects on empathy, prosocial behavior, and well-being under real-life circumstances. Linear and quadratic age effects were found for the experience of empathy, with increased empathy across the three younger age groups (18 to 45 years) and a slight decrease in the oldest group (55 years and older). Neither prosocial behavior nor well-being showed significant age-related differences. We discuss these findings with respect to (partially discrepant) results derived from lab-based and traditional survey studies. We conclude that studies linking in-lab experiments with real-life experience-sampling may be a promising venue for future lifespan studies.

Submitted by Caroline Xavier (caroline.xavier@pucrs.br) on 2017-07-03T13:27:49Z No. of bitstreams: 1 DIS_FELIPE_GOULART_TOMKOWSKI_COMPLETO.pdf: 661319 bytes, checksum: 652d7011baedb676606b1b58f3f86c31 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-07-03T13:27:49Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 DIS_FELIPE_GOULART_TOMKOWSKI_COMPLETO.pdf: 661319 bytes, checksum: 652d7011baedb676606b1b58f3f86c31 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-03-30 / A presente disserta??o tem por objetivo investigar o valor instrumental do comportamento humano para o funcionamento da democracia atrav?s da ideia de raz?o p?blica. A intera??o que existe entre governo e cidad?os ? determinante para que as pol?ticas p?blicas de um pa?s sejam condizentes com as prefer?ncias da popula??o e n?o de grupos de poder. Sendo assim, torna-se importante analisar a ideia subjacente ? democracia de "governo pela discuss?o" ? luz de teorias que nos iluminem tanto no que diz respeito ? ideia de decis?o coletiva justa, quanto, ao real comportamento humano. Para tal, primeiramente ? apresentada a ideia de raz?o p?blica a contraponto, em particular, as vis?es de Rawls e Sen, dando ?nfase para ao conceito de imparcialidade nas decis?es pol?ticas. Em seguida, na terceira se??o, trabalham-se as ideais de racionalidade, razoabilidade, introduzindo-se os conceitos de heur?sticas, vieses, e valores sociais. Assim, constr?i-se uma associa??o para se pensar sobre os resultados de diferentes tipos de comportamento humano para a democracia e como ? poss?vel refletir a partir dele sobre as ideias de objetividade posicional e transcendental. Finalmente, na se??o IV, realiza-se uma investiga??o emp?rica atrav?s da base de sobre a rela??o entre percep??es sobre informa??es e disposi??es pol?ticas e a frequ?ncia de conversa sobre pol?tica com os amigos. Utiliza-se um modelo de regress?o log?stica ordenada, com dados do Latino Bar?metro de 2015 para o Brasil, aliado ao m?todo de componentes principais para capturar dimens?es explicativas relevantes. Os seguintes resultados obtidos contradizem as hip?teses pr?vias: a falta de confian?a no governo e a percep??o de garantias faltantes n?o significativos, o ativismo dissociado a causas espec?ficas reduz, ao passo que, um senso de cidadania ao reverso aumenta as chances de se conversar sobre pol?tica com mais frequ?ncia com amigos. / The present dissertation aims to investigate the instrumental role of human behaviour for democracy through the idea of public reason. The interaction between government and citizens is decisive for a country's public policies to be in line with population preferences rather than power groups. Thus, it becomes important to analyse the idea underlying democracy of "government by discussion" in the light of theories that enlighten us both with regard to the idea of just collective decision and real human behaviour. To this end, we first counterpoint the idea of public reason, in particular, of Rawls and Sen, with an emphasis on the concept of impartiality in political decisions. Then, in the third section, we work on the notions of rationality, reasonableness, introducing the concepts of heuristics, biases, and social values. Thus, an association is constructed for thinking about the results of different types of human behavior for democracy and how the ideas of positional and transcendental objectivity fit this purpose well. Finally, in section IV, we conduct an empirical investigation based on the relationship between perceptions of relevant political information and dispositions and the frequency of political talk with friends. We use a logistic regression model, with data from the 2015 Latin Barometer for Brazil, combined with principal components method to capture relevant explanatory dimensions. The following results contradict previous hypotheses: lack of trust in the government and the perception of absent guarantees are not significant, while activism dissociated of specific causes reduces and a reverse sense of citizenship increases the chances of talking about politics more frequently with friends.

Management was once described as the art of getting things done through the efforts of oneself and other people (Follett, 1941) and is functionalised through acts of planning, organising, leading and controlling tasks and people for pre-defined objectives. These four cardinal pillars of management are translated into various models, tools and techniques of best practice of how to manage. While acknowledging that the substance of the current management models, tools and techniques have for years broadly contributed to how organisations are run, my research sheds more light on the shortcomings underlying some of the assumptions and ways of thinking behind these models and tools. My research findings based on my experience in working for the Department for International Development suggests that management practice and organisational change occur in the context of human power relationships in which people constrain and enable each other on the basis of human attributes such as identities, attitudes, values, perceptions, emotions, fears, expectations, motives and interests. I argue that these human attributes, human power relations and the totality of human emotions arise in the social, and understanding the ways in which these attributes shape local interaction and daily human relating is critical in making sense of the reality of organisational change and management. I suggest that management practice occurs in the context of everyday politics of human relating. It is that type of politics that takes place within families, groups of people, organisations, communities, and indeed throughout all units of society around the distribution of power, wealth, resources, thoughts and ideas. This way of thinking has enormous implications for the way we conceptualise management theory and practice. I am suggesting that managers do not solely determine, nor do employees freely choose their identities, attitudes, values, perceptions, emotions, fears, expectations and motives. These human dimensions arise from social relationships and personal experiences. As such, it is simply not for a manager to decide or force other employees on which of these human attributes to influence their behaviour. I am arguing that the social nature of management practice and role of human agents is inherently complex and cannot, in the scientific sense, be adequately reduced to discrete, systematic, complete and predictive models, tools and techniques without losing some meaning of what we do in management.

This dissertation explores the construction of ordinariness in the accounts of perpetrators of gross human rights violations, who commit their actions in the context of a system. A review of the literature that conceived of perpetrators in this way was undertaken. This was done whilst exploring the social constructionist paradigm, which formed the theoretical backbone to the study. Discourse analysis was the methodology adopted for the two analyses that were undertaken in the thesis. The first was the analysis of the literature review, which was undertaken in order to see how ordinariness was constructed in the literature. The second analysis was that of the transcript of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) Amnesty hearing of the applicant Daniel Petrus Siebert, into the death of Steve Biko. The analyses indicate that there is much similiarity in the ways in which ordinariness is constructed in the local context, and the ways in which it is constructed in the literature. Ordinariness in the context of gross human rights violations is produced through constructions of the perpetrator and the system within which the acts were committed, as passive and active respectively. The construction of the system as the epitome of the evil that is perpetrated enables the humanity or ordinariness of the perpetrator to be kept intact. Ordinariness in the South African context, is based on racist constructions of good whiteness, and bad blackness. Further, in the local political context, the TRC provides the conditions of possibility for the production of ordinariness, and ensures that perpetrators and others who benefited during the apartheid regime, continue to do so, as issues of accountability and responsibility are not adequately addressed. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2000.

Diss. Uppsala : Univ., 2003.

In this thesis, I explore sex differences in adult human social learning, and how these sex differences might be underpinned by differences in risk-taking and confidence. The capacity for high-fidelity social learning is fundamental to the complex culture observed in humans. Examining when we choose to learn socially rather than asocially and the factors that influence these choices is valuable for understanding broader patterns of cultural evolution. In Chapter 1, I give an overview of the literature on sex differences in social learning, particularly how individual differences in risk-taking and confidence impact upon social information use. I introduce stereotype threat as a possible factor affecting women's confidence. I then use the stereotype threat literature as an example of the replication crisis in psychology, and discuss how improved methods of statistical analysis could help to elucidate the ambiguity in this literature. Chapter 2 provides an experimental investigation into when adult humans choose to use social or asocial information to solve a virtual construction task. I found that when the asocial information was made to be risky, women, but not men, preferred to learn socially. In Chapter 3, I present experimental data exploring the links between confidence and conformity. I found that lower confidence led to a greater likelihood of conforming, although I was unable to reliably alter confidence levels experimentally. In Chapter 4, I present a model of the stereotype threat literature by simulating numerous datasets and analysing them using four different statistical methods. I found that using informative priors in a Bayesian framework provided greater certainty about the presence or absence of an effect in a population. Finally, in Chapter 5 I conclude that studying the factors that lead to sex differences in social learning provides researchers with a greater understanding of the dynamics of cultural evolution.