This thesis comprises a rigorous and coherent body of work related to the use of the HCR-20 and the START to inform risk assessment and management of secure mental health inpatients. The thesis contributes significant theoretical and applied knowledge by: 1) investigating the extent to which these tools can be generalised beyond restricted validation samples to the full range of individuals in contact with secure services, 2) determining whether they can aid assessment and management of adverse outcomes beyond aggression, and 3) offering practical, empirically-derived advice for clinicians regarding management strategies that may reduce the occurrence of adverse events. This collection of papers has used considerably novel methods, such as rocreg analysis in risk assessment of behavioural outcomes, and high quality, routinely collected data to gain a more realistic representation of what occurs in clinical practice. Further, the papers draw on larger sample sizes than have previously been reported in this area, allowing for more complex statistical analysis. This thesis has helped clarify the contexts in which these instruments perform effectively and therefore has important implications for clinical risk assessment in inpatient settings. Specifically, there is evidence that the HCR-20 and the START may aid assessment and management of aggression for the majority of groups examined, and that both tools have some efficacy for predicting self-harm among female populations. However, the HCR-20 should not be used to inform prediction and management of aggression and self-harm for individuals with developmental and organic disorders and is unlikely to be beneficial at informing risk management strategies targeting self-harm among males; the START should not be used to inform prediction and management of substance abuse, victimisation, or unauthorised leave. Finally, this thesis highlights a number of directions for future research to continue advancement in this area.

No description available.

Some basic but desirable employability skills are antecedents of job performance. The Workplace Skills Survey (WSS) is a 48-item situational judgment test (SJT) used to assess non-technical workplace skills for both entry-level and experienced workers. Unfortunately, the psychometric evidence for use of its scores is far from adequate. The purpose of current study was two-fold: (a) to examine the proposed structure of WSS scores using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and (b) to explore the WSS item functioning and performance using item response theory (IRT). A sample of 1,018 Jamaican unattached youth completed the WSS instrument as part of a longitudinal study on the efficacy of a youth development program in Jamaica. Three CFA models were tested for the construct validity of WSS scores. Parameter estimations of item difficulty, item discrimination, and examinee’s proficiency estimations were obtained with item response theory (IRT) and plotted in item characteristics curves (ICCs) and item information curves (IICs). Results showed that the WSS performed quite well as a whole and provided precise measurement especially for respondents at latent trait levels of -0.5 and +1.5. However, some modifications of some items were recommended. CFA analyses showed supportive evidence of the one-factor construct model, while the six-factor model and higher-order model were not achieved. Several directions for future research are suggested.

The Blue Bulls Rugby Referees’ Society has experienced difficulty identifying the competencies required for individuals to become successful referees at national and international levels. The purpose of this study, therefore, is to identify the generic competencies required by a referee to become successful at the highest level. Competencies therefore, according to this study, are a prerequisite for successful rugby union refereeing. The two main research strategies used are the quantitative and qualitative research methods. In this study quantitative research is predominant, but qualitative research was also used to identify the competencies employed in the questionnaires. Interviews were conducted with the management of the Blue Bulls Rugby Referees’ Society, and with the players to gather input based upon their knowledge. Interviews with approximately ten senior coaches were also conducted to obtain their views. The information gathered from these interviews, together with personal experience and inputs from De Beer (2003: unpublished interview) were utilised to draw up a list of competencies. In this study survey research was used, using the Delphi technique to determine what the Blue Bulls referees’ opinions are about the required competencies of a successful referee, and to ensure that important competencies were not excluded. The Blue Bulls referees’ inputs were incorporated and a final questionnaire compiled. This questionnaire consisted of 36 competencies, which could be rated on a 5 point Likert scale. The total population for the study was 223, with 181 referees and 42 Currie Cup players. A weighted competency index was determined from these responses and the ten most important generic competencies, required to be a successful referee, from these responses are: Objectivity / Impartiality (being able to treat both sides the same) Consistency (consistency in the way rules are applied during a match) Concentration / Focus (ability to stay focused during a match and not allow the mind to fluctuate) Honesty / Integrity (the ability to be honest with players, on and off the field) Commitment (dedication to do the best when preparing for games, know the rules, and always giving the best when refereeing a match) Judgement (ability to evaluate and judge situations during a match correctly) Fitness (fitness in terms of physical ability to keep up with play during a match) Trustworthiness (ability to make the players trust you and know that you will apply the laws consistently and fairly) Decisiveness (ability to reach quick and firm decisions) Composure (to be calm during difficult situations) / Dissertation (MCom(Human Resources Management))--University of Pretoria, 2003. / Human Resource Management / unrestricted

No description available.

The right to inclusive education Abstract The thesis deals with the issue of inclusion in education, especially its legal protection and the assessment of the extent to which the right to inclusive education can be characterized as a fundamental human right. After the introduction, definition of the subject and object of the right to inclusive education (including the international context), description of its legal provision and some circumstances in relation to its implementation in the Czech Republic, the right to inclusive education is evaluated in relation to the constitutional order of the Czech Republic. The international human rights treaties are studied in the following two chapters. Special attention is paid in this context to the issue of the so-called bankruptcy judgement of the Czech Constitutional Court and the rarely concerned question of its temporal scope. In addition to positive law, some decisions of the Constitutional Court and Czech general courts are also taken into account. In relation to international human rights treaties, significant attention is also paid to the decisions of international bodies, in particular the European Court of Human Rights. The case law of the European Court of Human Rights not only provides many arguments in relation to the assessment of the existence of the...

Cette thèse cherche à comprendre comment les mineur.e.s isolé.e.s en situation de migration, arrivé.e.s sans représentant légal sur le territoire français, peuvent bénéficier de la protection de l’enfance. Arrivé.e.s sur la scène de l’évaluation de la minorité et de l’isolement, ces jeunes migrant.e.s sont soumis.e.s à une épreuve de crédibilité narrative, comportementale et physique : ils ou elles doivent dévoiler leurs récits, leurs corps et leurs expressions non verbales en restant à tout prix un « enfant » aux yeux de ceux qui les jugent. Plusieurs questions sont alors posées : comment se construit le jugement de l’âge ? comment se forment les décisions de classement entre les « vrais » et les « faux » mineurs ? comment les acteurs de la protection de l’enfance sont-ils amenés à mobiliser des arguments, critères et justifications qui mènent à des pratiques de « gestion migratoire » ? Pour étudier les pratiques du jugement dans ce contexte d’incertitude qu’est l’évaluation de la minorité et de l’isolement, je propose donc une analyse de la sphère interne institutionnelle. A partir d’une enquête de terrain réalisée entre octobre 2014 et novembre 2016, d’abord dans un lieu d’évaluation de la minorité et de l’isolement géré par l’association France terre d’asile en région parisienne, puis auprès des différents acteurs de la « distribution » de la protection dans différents départements parisiens, et enfin autour de deux campements urbains auto-gérés par des migrant.e.s, cette thèse interroge, en étudiant le « quotidien » de l’institution, la façon dont les mineur.e.s isolé.e.s sont jugé.e.s, étiqueté.e.s et sélectionné.e.s avant d’avoir accès – ou non – à la protection de l’enfance. / This research seeks to understand how unaccompanied migrant children, that have arrived on French territory without a legal guardian can access child protective services. Arrived on the stage of the assessment of age and isolation, these young migrants’ narrative, behavioral and physical credibility is tested. Through their narratives, physical and non-verbal expressions, these children must demonstrate to those who judge them that they are a “child”, at all costs. Consequently, several questions can be asked: How can age be judged? How are the decisions of classification between the "true" and "fake" minors taken? How are child protection actors brought to mobilize arguments, criteria and justifications which lead to practices of "migratory management "? To study the practices of judgment in this context of uncertainty, meaning the assessment of age and isolation, this dissertation offers an analysis of the internal workings of institutions. The field investigation was carried out between October 2014 and November 2016, firstly in a centre of evaluation of age and isolation managed by the association France terre d’asile in Paris region, then with the various actors in charge of “distributing" the protection in various Parisian departments, and finally in two urban camps that are self-managed by migrants. Based on this investigation and through the study of everyday life of the institution, this dissertation questions the way unaccompanied children are judged, labelled and selected before having access - or not - to child protection.

Self-reported health depends on the internal frame of reference and on response styles. One way of studying this dependency is using anchoring vignettes. Response shift effects are assumed to induce a negative correlation between self-reported health and the health assessments attributed to the vignettes. Method: A representative sample of the German adult population (N = 2,409) was selected. Participants were asked to rate their health state and the health states of two rather complex vignettes representing patients with several health complaints on a 0-100 scale. Results: The mean score of self-assessed health was M = 76.20 (SD = 20.6). There was a very small positive correlation between the assessment of the vignettes and the self-assessed health state (r = .12). After controlling for a proxy of objective health, measured in terms of chronic conditions, the relationship remained slightly positive. Chronic conditions were only marginally associated with the assessments of the vignettes (0 conditions: M = 44.8; ≥ 2 conditions: M = 42.2). Conclusions: The lack of the postulated association between self-reported health and vignettes’ ratings means that we cannot derive tools to correct the subjective ratings for differential use of frames of reference.

Revisorer har i uppdrag att granska huruvida företagsledningens antagande om fortsatt drift stämmer eller inte. Bedömningen leder till en anmärkning i revisionsberättelsen vid tvivel om fortsatt drift, alternativt en utebliven anmärkning om tvivel inte uppstår vid granskningen. Svenska revisorer har dock problem att upptäcka de risker som indikerar konkurs. Träffsäkerheten vid anmärkningar och uteblivna anmärkningar är generellt sett låg vilket lämnar ett stort utrymme för förekomsten av s.k. typ I- och typ II-fel. Felbedömningarna och den låga träffsäkerheten medför problem för intressenter, såsom investerare och kreditgivare. Intressenterna varnas då inte om företagets fortlevnadsproblem och får därmed ingen möjlighet att vidta åtgärder för att undkomma negativa ekonomiska konsekvenser. Tidigare empiriska studier visar att revisorers bedömningar influeras av känslor såsom komfort och diskomfort. Studier visar även att erfarenhet och kompetens, struktur och bedömning samt granskningstid inverkar på fortsatt driftbedömningar samt i vilken grad revisorer upplever komfort och diskomfort i bedömningen. Revisorer uppvisar ibland en oproportionerlig tillit till företagsledningarna vilket åskådliggör en partiskhet och oberoendeproblematik i fortsatt driftbedömningarna. Tidigare studier har dock mestadels tillämpat generaliserbara tillvägagångssätt. Hur revisorer själva beskriver fortsatt driftbedömningarna och dess problematik är, så vitt vi vet, oklart. Syftet med denna studie är att beskriva och analysera de tillvägagångssätt och de förklaringar som några svenska auktoriserade revisorer anger ligger till grund för svårigheter i fortsatt driftbedömningar. Studien genomfördes hösten 2020 med en abduktiv forskningsansats och sex semistrukturerade digitala videointervjuer. Vidare användes en tematisk analysmetod för att sammanställa de transkriberade intervjuerna. Trots att de till synes är erfarna och kompetenta anger de tillfrågade revisorerna att fortsatt driftbedömningarna är svåra och medför diskomfort. Revisorerna beskriver att deras syn på och användning av standarden ISA 570 varierar med anledning av bland annat tolkningssvårigheter. De önskar ändå inte mer riktlinjer i standarden med anledning av att utrymmet för den professionella bedömningen då minskar. Revisorerna beskriver att de upplever tidsbrist i granskningen och de anger dokumentationskrav som en tidstjuv. Fortsatt driftbedömningarna influeras även av individuella känslor enligt revisorerna och en upplevd diskomfort måste reduceras genom dialog med kollegor, företagsledningen och interna experter för att övergå i komfort. Revisorerna anser inte att typ I- och typ II-fel är felaktiga bedömningar såsom teorin beskriver och vi kan därmed konstatera att skillnader mellan teori och praktik föreligger. Revisorerna beskriver att typ II-fel beror på plötsliga händelser som i princip är omöjliga att förutspå eftersom bedömningen innefattar framtiden. Argumentet om att framtiden är inte går att förutspå håller däremot inte då investerare ofta åskådliggör att detta faktiskt är möjligt. Revisorernas beskrivningar av fortsatt driftbedömningen genomsyras genomgående av ett företagsfokus framför ett intressentfokus vilket indikerar en oberoendeproblematik. / Auditors are tasked with examining whether the management´s assumption of going concern is correct or not. The assessment leads to a remark in the auditor´s report in case of doubt about going concern, or alternatively a lack of remark if doubt does not arise during the audit. However, Swedish auditors have problems discovering the risk that indicate bankruptcy. The accuracy of remarks in the field of going concern is generally low, which leaves a lot of room for the occurrence of so-called type I and type II errors. The misjudgements and the low accuracy cause problems for stakeholders, such as investors and lenders. Stakeholders are then not warned about the company´s survival problems and thus were not given the opportunity to take measures to escape negative financial consequences. Previous empirical studies show that auditors´ assessments are influenced by emotions such as comfort and discomfort. Studies show that experience and competence, structure and judgement such as audit time influence going concern assessments and the extent to which auditors experience comfort and discomfort in the assessment. Auditors sometimes show a disproportionate trust in the management skills of companies, which illustrates a bias and an independence problem in going concern assessments. Previous studies, however, mostly apply generalizable approaches. How the auditors themselves describe the going concern assessments is, as far as we know, unclear. The purpose of this study is to describe and analyse the approaches and explanations given by some Swedish certified public auditors as a basis for difficulties in going concern assessments. The study was conducted in the autumn of 2020 with an abductive research approach and six semi-structured digital video interviews. Furthermore, a thematic analysis method was used to compile the transcribed interviews. Despite the fact that they seem to be experienced and competent, the auditors consulted state that going concern assessments are difficult and lead to discomfort. The auditors describe that their views on and use of the standard ISA 570 vary due to, among other things, difficulties of interpretation. However, they do not want more guidelines in the standard due to the fact that the scope for the professional judgement then decreases. The auditors describe that they experience a lack of time in the audit and they state documentation requirements as a time thief. Going concern assessments are also influenced by individual feelings according to the auditors and a perceived discomfort must be reduced through dialogue with colleagues, company management and internal experts in order to achieve comfort. The auditors do not consider that type I and type II errors are incorrect assessments as the theory describes and we can thus state that there are differences between theory and practice. The auditors describe that type II errors are due to sudden events that are impossible to predict because the assessment includes the future. The argument that the future is unpredictable can be questioned because investors often illustrate that this actually is possible. The auditors´ descriptions of the going concern assessment are permeated throughout by a company focus rather than a stakeholder focus, which indicates bias and independence issues.

This master´s thesis has the form of a scientific essay. Its purpose is to explore how supervisors, in supervising professionals, balance between creating security and building relationship as opposed to challenging participants by introducing unexpected elements. The purpose is also to investigate whether philosophical theories can constitute impulses and unexpected elements for reflection on the supervisor's balancing act. The essay raises the question whether philosophical theories in the same manner can constitute impulses and unexpected elements in reflection on theories and practice in supervision. Experiences and conversations constitute the empirical material of the study. Certain themes have crystallized on those basis. These themes are discussed in relation to theories in supervision and to philosophical theories. The essay has highlighted the importance of the practical knowledge that supervisors use in the balancing act. The body and its signals and memory seems to play an important role for the interpersonal contact, as well as for the conversation and for the listening. The essay also shows that the supervisor's balancing act means more complexity than the balance between security and challenge. / Denna masteruppsats har formen av en vetenskaplig essä. Dess syfte är att utforska hur handledare i handledning med yrkesverksamma balanserar mellan att skapa trygghet och bygga och behålla relation i motsats till att utmana deltagarna genom att introducera främmande moment. Syftet är även att undersöka om filosofiska teorier kan utgöra impulser och främmande moment för reflektion över handledares balansakt i handledning och i reflektion över teorier och praktik inom handledning. Gestaltningar och samtal utgör undersökningens empiriska material och utifrån dessa har teman utkristalliserats. Dessa teman diskuteras i relation till teorier inom handledning och i relation till filosofiska tänkare. Undersökningen har synliggjort betydelsen av den praktiska kunskap som handledare använder i balansakten, där kroppen och dess signaler spelar en viktig roll för såväl mötet, som samtalet, lyssnandet och den gemensamma reflektionen. Utforskningen visar också att handledares balansakt innehåller fler utmaningar och är mer komplex än balansen mellan trygghet och utmaning.