Syftet med studie var att undersöka hur kunskap inom spelgrafik kan påverka en spelares “aesthetic experience”. ”Aesthetic experience” är en term som används för att beskriva den tankeprocess en människa genomgår när hen betraktar ett verk. Detta resulterar i en ”aesthetic judgement” och en ”aesthetic emotion”. Enligt den studie Leder m.fl. har gjort kan kunskap inom modern konst resultera i en positiv ”aesthetic emotion” när observatören betraktar modern konst. Studien undersökte om kunskap om spelgrafik kunde ge ett liknande resultat vid betraktandet av en spelmiljö. Till undersökningen skapades en artefakt i form av en 3D. Informanterna fick säga hur de mådde och vad de tyckte om scenen i början och slutet av undersökningen. Resultatet pekar på att informanterna hade en mer positiv ”aesthetic judgement” efter att ha analyserat scenen, medan deras ”aesthetic emotion” sällan ändrades. I ett framtida arbete skulle modellen kunna anpassas ytterligare till spelgrafik.

Recent reforms in the South African health care and educational system were founded in the ideal that the country would produce independent, critical thinkers. Nurses need to cope with diversity in a more creative way, defining their role in a complex, uncertain, rapidly changing health care environment. Learning facilitators are held accountable for finding adequate learning experiences to prepare nursing students for such practice demands so that newly qualified nurses do meet expectations for entry level clinical judgement ability. Quality clinical judgement is therefore imperative as an identified characteristic of newly qualified professional nurses. There is a scarceness of information on the concept of clinical judgement especially within the South African nursing environment. Relevant information in this regard can assist in clarifying the meaning, which will facilitate a common understanding of the concept within the clinical nursing environment. This in turn can lead to the formulation of a teaching-learning strategy to facilitate clinical judgement in undergraduate nursing students, which would be of benefit in the nursing care environment. The objective of this study was addressed in three phases. The first phase of this research analysed the concept of clinical judgement through various data sources and a review of literature to clarify the meaning and facilitate a common understanding through identification of the characteristics and to develop a connotative (theoretical) definition of the concept. The second phase of the research investigated professional nurses‟ understanding of the meaning of clinical judgement, as well as the factors that influence the development of clinical judgement within the nursing environment. During the third phase a conceptual framework for an enabling teaching-learning environment was constructed from a modern day constructivist approach to facilitate clinical judgement. The section included a description and diagrammatic presentation of the framework. The conceptual framework formed the scientific basis from which a teaching-learning strategy for the creation of an enabling teaching-learning environment to facilitate clinical judgement in undergraduate nursing students within the South African nursing environment was synthesised. A qualitative design was used for the study. During the first phase (manuscript 1) an explorative, descriptive qualitative design was used to discover the complexity and meaning of the phenomenon. Multiple data sources and search engines were consulted for the time frame 1982-2013. An extensive concept analysis resulted in a theoretical definition of the concept „clinical judgement‟, a complex cognitive skill to evaluate patient treatment alternatives within the clinical nursing environment. The second phase (manuscript 2) is qualitative in nature and explored professional nurses‟ understanding of clinical judgement, as well as the factors influencing the development of clinical judgement in undergraduate nursing students. The findings emphasised clinical judgement as skill within the nursing environment. This assisted in the development of teaching-learning strategy for the creation of an enabling teaching-learning environment to facilitate clinical judgement in undergraduate nursing students within the South African Nursing environment as the third phase (manuscript 3). Such an environment should impact positively to promotion of autonomous and accountable nursing care. / PhD (Nursing), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

Recent reforms in the South African health care and educational system were founded in the ideal that the country would produce independent, critical thinkers. Nurses need to cope with diversity in a more creative way, defining their role in a complex, uncertain, rapidly changing health care environment. Learning facilitators are held accountable for finding adequate learning experiences to prepare nursing students for such practice demands so that newly qualified nurses do meet expectations for entry level clinical judgement ability. Quality clinical judgement is therefore imperative as an identified characteristic of newly qualified professional nurses. There is a scarceness of information on the concept of clinical judgement especially within the South African nursing environment. Relevant information in this regard can assist in clarifying the meaning, which will facilitate a common understanding of the concept within the clinical nursing environment. This in turn can lead to the formulation of a teaching-learning strategy to facilitate clinical judgement in undergraduate nursing students, which would be of benefit in the nursing care environment. The objective of this study was addressed in three phases. The first phase of this research analysed the concept of clinical judgement through various data sources and a review of literature to clarify the meaning and facilitate a common understanding through identification of the characteristics and to develop a connotative (theoretical) definition of the concept. The second phase of the research investigated professional nurses‟ understanding of the meaning of clinical judgement, as well as the factors that influence the development of clinical judgement within the nursing environment. During the third phase a conceptual framework for an enabling teaching-learning environment was constructed from a modern day constructivist approach to facilitate clinical judgement. The section included a description and diagrammatic presentation of the framework. The conceptual framework formed the scientific basis from which a teaching-learning strategy for the creation of an enabling teaching-learning environment to facilitate clinical judgement in undergraduate nursing students within the South African nursing environment was synthesised. A qualitative design was used for the study. During the first phase (manuscript 1) an explorative, descriptive qualitative design was used to discover the complexity and meaning of the phenomenon. Multiple data sources and search engines were consulted for the time frame 1982-2013. An extensive concept analysis resulted in a theoretical definition of the concept „clinical judgement‟, a complex cognitive skill to evaluate patient treatment alternatives within the clinical nursing environment. The second phase (manuscript 2) is qualitative in nature and explored professional nurses‟ understanding of clinical judgement, as well as the factors influencing the development of clinical judgement in undergraduate nursing students. The findings emphasised clinical judgement as skill within the nursing environment. This assisted in the development of teaching-learning strategy for the creation of an enabling teaching-learning environment to facilitate clinical judgement in undergraduate nursing students within the South African Nursing environment as the third phase (manuscript 3). Such an environment should impact positively to promotion of autonomous and accountable nursing care. / PhD (Nursing), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

Bakgrund: Kliniskt omdöme kan beskrivas som förmågan att på ett insiktsfullt sätt identifiera och agera på en förändring eller ett behov relaterat till patientens hälsotillstånd. Kliniskt omdöme kommer till sin spets i komplexa situationer som exempelvis när en patient plötsligt försämras. Det har skett en akademisering av sjuksköterskeutbildningen som gett sjuksköterskor en stadigare teoretisk grund men det kliniska omdömet behöver utvecklas efter examen. Syfte: Syftet var att beskriva faktorer som påverkar utvecklingen av nyexaminerade sjuksköterskans (NS) kliniska omdöme. Metod: Metoden som användes var litteraturöversikt, baserad på tio vetenskapliga artiklar varav åtta kvalitativ metod och två mixad metod. Artiklarna hämtades ur databaserna CINAHL Complete och PubMed. Resultat: Faktorer som påverkar utvecklingen av NS kliniska omdöme sammanfattas under tre huvudteman: Förvärvandet av kliniska förmågor, Ansvarsfull kommunikation och Integrerat stöd. NS behöver utveckla förmågan att identifiera relevanta förändringar, tolka dem i relation till en helhetsbild av patienten, prioritera åtgärder samt kommunicera med kollegor. Utvecklande av kliniskt omdöme underlättas i ett positivt arbetsklimat med stöd av erfarna sjuksköterskor (ES). Vårderfarenheter ger teoretiska kunskaper en ny mening, vilket också bidrar till utvecklandet av kliniskt omdöme. Diskussion: Resultatet diskuterades med utgångspunkt i Benners teori för hur sjuksköterskans kliniska omdöme utvecklas från novisens till expertens. NS är inte mogen att hantera komplexa kliniska situationer och organisationen måste utformas för att ge NS det stöd som behövs för att utveckla det kliniska omdömet. Tillgången till ES, reflektion och ett rimligt arbetstempo är viktiga stöttande faktorer, men sällan en självklarhet i vården. / Background: Clinical judgement can be described as the ability to wisely identify and act upon changes in - or needs of a patient’s - health status. Clinical judgement is most applicable to complex situations such as caring for deteriorating patients. As nursing was included in higher education nurses have acquired a more solid theoretical knowledge base, however their clinical judgement needs to be further developed post graduation. Aim: The aim of was to describe factors influencing the development of newly graduated nurse’s (NN) clinical judgment. Method: The method consists of a literature review based upon ten scientific articles, of which eight were qualitative and two followed a mixed method. The articles were retrieved from CINAHL Complete and PubMed databases. Results: Contributing factors to the development of NN clinical judgment were grouped into three main themes: Development of clinical abilities, Responsible communication and Integrated support. NN needs to develop the ability to recognise relevant changes, relate them to a holistic assessment of the patient and to communicate findings. The development of clinical judgment is supported by a positive work climate and by access to experienced nurses. Caring for patients adds a new dimension to theoretical knowledge and contributes to the development of clinical judgment. Discussion: The results were discussed using Benner´s theory of how the clinical judgement of nurses develops from novice to expert. NN is not able to safely handle complex clinical situations without the support of experienced staff. It is also essential for the development of clinical judgment that NN is given a reasonable workload and opportunities for reflection. However, there may often be a lack of these supporting factors in nursing organisations today.

In recent decades, reflective practice has become a key driver and an increasingly influential referent in the professional development of student teachers. Yet, the complex, somewhat elusive boundaries of reflective practice make this phenomenon difficult to define. The purpose of this study was to analyse and synthesise existing literature and research in order to better understand the multi-faceted nature of reflective practice. From an informed platform, a new conceptual framework was designed both to capture and investigate nine dimensions of reflective practice in which student teachers could demonstrate capacity and commitment. Eighty year 4 student teachers, who had undertaken action research projects during their final school experience, and thirteen university lecturers, who had guided the student teachers throughout this enterprise, were participants in this study. Data were gathered through questionnaires and semi-structured interviews that incorporated a series of closed and open-ended responses. Quantitative data were analysed to calculate statistical frequencies, percentages, means and standard deviations; and, qualitative data via analytic induction methods to identify common themes and to extract narratives of experience. Findings showed that a majority (>90%) of student teachers perceived their capacity and commitment to engage in six dimensions of reflective practice [and most (>80%) in eight] had influenced their professional development. These perceptions were not wholly congruent with those of dissertation supervisors with variance between supervisors also evident. Qualitative distinctions, in the use of three types of reflective conversation, were found between male and female student teachers and within each gender group. Several constraints in the development of student teachers’ reflective practice also emerged. Further research is recommended into: what evidence and criteria shape judgments about reflective practice; how school-based staff might effectively support student teachers’ development of reflective practice; and, how the framework designed for this study might be replicated and refined to enhance reflective practice in personal professional development across disciplines.

When it comes to moral political endeavors, the good eventually achieved is never identical to the good initially pursued. This is true if for no other reason than the fact that time passes with every new political moment. We move from goods intended to goods achieved. At the same time such movement is not simply a product of the temporal character of our lives. Occupying a middle ground between accounts of human agency as wholly determined or wholly ambiguous there is a sense in which any exercise of the will is fundamentally indeterminate. Said more simply, we are contingent beings. Thus, while it may be possible to speak conceptually of a determinate or atemporal political good, the possibility of a moral political endeavor – that is, a purposive movement toward some political good – rests upon the inescapably contingent and temporal character of our lives. If political endeavors are never entirely under (or out of) our control and always take shape temporally then it is important to insist that the discrepancy between intended goods and actual goods need not be interpreted negatively. That is to say, the indeterminate character of our moral lives need not be seen as a tragic disruption to what would otherwise be seamless political existence. Rather, the indeterminacy is a deliberate (read: good) feature of created existence in time. This allows for recognition of a structure to political morality. Agents seize the opportunity afforded by contingency to pursue identified political goods with purpose and direction. At the same time moral pursuits are always highly conditioned by contingencies of delimited authority, responsibilities of representation, demands of process, etc. The constantly changing political landscape perpetually requires both reactive and anticipatory adjustments of the political good in sight. If contingency and temporality shape and limit any political pursuit of the good, then a chief task of political theology is to illuminate the theological significance of those features of created existence. Political theology bears the burden of articulating the divine origin and purpose of the structures which make political morality possible. In this way contingency comes into view not as an incidental feature of humanity but as the gift of a good creator making possible faithful creaturely response. Similarly, political goods take shape not merely in time but in a particular time between creation and eschaton. This thesis is a study in the theological significance of indeterminacy and temporality in the pursuit of political goods by way of an analysis of the political writings of 20th century moral theologian Paul Ramsey. His reflections on the unique moral structure of political actions provide the theological and analytical resources to animate such a study. Close attention to his work pursues an understanding of how theological language describes, interprets and accounts for the nature of political morality and the function that such descriptions have in defining and shaping concepts of the political good.

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

Legitimacy is a central concept within organization studies and it is widely accepted that being granted legitimacy is crucial for organizations in today’s society. Legitimacy is known to be based on rationality which during the course of research development has come to include not only technical aspects, but also socially constructed factors affected by stakeholder’s personal values. Moreover, it is known that there are multiple dimensions of legitimacy and that organizations are evaluated based on method of operation, output and goals, and vision. These can be judged differently by stakeholders in the same field, arriving at possibly contradictive legitimacy judgements regarding the same organization. However, we are not familiar with if the context in which an organization operates affects the legitimacy judgement made by its stakeholders. This thesis therefore aimed to study how the context an organization operates in can affect the legitimacy judgement with a comparative case study. The study shows that the operational context in itself can be a factor in the evaluation of the organization. It also indicates that different contexts can cause different and contradictive legitimacy judgements among the stakeholders even though the operational task and output is essentially the same.

The purpose of this dissertation is to examine how the method used to a score situational judgment test (SJT) affects the validity of the SJT both in the presence of other predictors and as a single predictor of task performance. To this end, I compared the summed score approach of scoring SJTs with item response theory and multivariate items response theory. Using two samples and three sets of analyses, I found that the method used to score SJTs influences the validity of the test and that IRT and MIRT show promise for increasing SJT validity. However, no individual scoring method produced the highest amount of validity across all sets of analyses. In line with previous research, SJTs added incremental validity in the presence of GMA and personality and, again, the method used to score the SJT affected the incremental validity. A relative weights analysis was performed for each scoring method across all the sets of analyses showing that, depending on the scoring method, SJT score may account for more criterion variance than either GMA or personality. However, it is likely that the samples were influenced by range restriction present in the incumbent samples.

Financial elder abuse is gaining increasing attention from researchers and policy makers. Such abuse can include theft of money as well as misuse of assets such as property. This research applied judgement analysis methodology to explore professional decision making in the context of such abuse and to identify the nature of the cues used to detect and prevent abuse. Participants included social care, health and banking professionals, who were established as key decision makers. In Phase I, semi-structured interviews (n = 63) were conducted. The critical incident technique was used to identify cue use and decisions taken in the most recent case experienced. Key cues for both social care and health professionals included the nature of the 'financial problem suspected', the older persons 'mental capacity' and the 'identifier of the abuse', this being whether the abuse was directly observed or instead reported by a third party. A separate cue used by health professionals was the individual's 'physical capacity'. Banking professionals did not use physical or mental capacity as cues, but independently considered 'who was in charge of the money'. Decisions made by social care professionals included determining whether safeguarding procedures should be implemented. In Phase II, a factorial survey approach was applied whereby social care, health and banking professionals (n=223) were presented with case scenarios incorporating the cues from Phase I in addition to cues from literature review. Multiple regression analysis and incremental F-tests identified the cues that explained a significant amount of the variance in judgements of certainty of abuse and likelihood of taking action. For example, for social care and health professionals this included the older person's mental capacity, and the nature of the financial problem suspected. The findings could be used to develop a training tool to enable other professionals to improve their strategies for detection and prevention of financial elder abuse.