No description available.

No description available.

The 21st century is characterised by a rapid technologically advancing environment, where organisations constantly change to gain and maintain a competitive advantage. The use of call centres in organisations has been in line with this technological advancement. South African organisations have not been an exception as they also have experienced the growth in call centres in the past few decades. Some of the benefits the business gains from the use of call centres include cutting costs and increased profits. However benefits to individuals working in call centres is not that obvious. Call centres have been labelled with such nicknames as electronic Sweatshops as they are characterised by poor working conditions, as individuals have to perform extremely routine tasks under extreme surveillance and harsh performance management systems. Such an environment has implications for the well being of individuals working in them. Previous research has indicated a relationship between organisational climate and employee well being. While this environment is viewed as toxic individuals continuously enter into it and some prosper than other, which brings into question whether the amount of control an individual perceives to have over his/her environment has any effect on their perception of the organisational climate. The main aim here is that work can be redesigned to benefit both the organisation and employees’ needs in the workplace. Therefore the aim of the current study is to investigate the organisational climate apparent in call centres, also looking at the relationship this construct has with Job Satisfaction, Life satisfaction and self esteem for call centre agents. The current research will also look at whether Locus of Control has an effect on this relationship. The findings of this research prove invaluable in its attempt to create awareness of the nature of work activities and quality of work life of call centre agents. The sample consisted of 97 call centre agents working in Johannesburg, South Africa. The results indicate there is a strong positive relationship between organisational climate including its subscales and Job Satisfaction, a weak and positive relationship between organisational climate and its subscale and Life satisfaction, while there was no observed relationship between organisational climate and self esteem. Furthermore the results indicated that Locus of Control does not moderate the relationship between organisational climate and job satisfaction, life satisfaction and self esteem.

The purpose of this investigation focused on determining the effects of a physical conditioning program on physical fitness and health attitudes on inpatient adolescent male substance abusers during and following participation in a six week fitness program. The fitness measures chosen for this study were the 1 1/2 mile run, skinfold, sit-and-reach, and grip strength. The first four of these measures make up the AAHPERD test battery (AAHPERD, 1980). The Health Attribution Test (Lawlis and Lawlis, 1980) was administered to determine health locus of control.

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Although forgiveness has been associated with reduced anxiety in several studies, and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder is an anxiety disorder, the potential association between forgiveness and obsessive-compulsiveness has been generally unexplored. The current study examined the association between three dimensions of forgiveness and obsessive-compulsive (OC) symptoms as mediated by locus of control (LOC) in a college student sample (N = 241). Forgiveness of self (FS) and of others, but not feeling forgiven by God, were associated with overall OC symptoms and with a majority of symptom subscales. LOC was limited in its role as a mediator that was restricted to associations with FS. Furthermore, LOC-Chance was the only dimension found to be a specific mediator, as control attributed internally and to powerful others did not mediate any of the forgiveness-OC associations. These findings are discussed in the context of both past and future research related to forgiveness, obsessive-compulsiveness, and control constructs.

In order to evaluate the cognitive appraisal and meaning-making components of the Transactional Model (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984) and Meaning-making Model (Park & Folkman, 1997) of coping, several specific forms of appraisal and coping strategies were analyzed in the present study. It has been proposed that religiousness and time influence the meaning-making process (Park, 2005); therefore, an interaction of intrinsic religiousness and time were key variables in the study as well. A survey designed to address relationships among locus of control, type of situation, intrinsic religious orientation, specific coping styles, and maladaptive psychological symptoms was administered to 240 students of a regional university. Evidence was found for the importance of primary cognitive appraisal, but no evidence was found for the interaction of intrinsic religious orientation and time on meaning-making coping or psychological symptoms.

Many researchers have used the terms 'temperament' and 'personality' interchangeably when describing parents' behavioral styles. Although individual relationships among parents' temperament and personality, parenting behaviors, other parent characteristics, and young children's outcomes have been documented in the literature, parents' temperament and personality have not been examined collectively in conjunction with parenting and child outcome variables. As part of this study, 214 culturally diverse mothers with young children who ranged in age from 2- to 6-years rated their own temperament and personality, their parenting characteristics, and their young child's functioning (i.e., temperament and emotional and behavioral functioning). When examining mothers' temperament and personality together, factor analyses revealed a three-factor solution (i.e., General Life Approach, Rhythmicity, and Sticktoitiveness) and suggested that temperament and personality generally were separate but related constructs. Hierarchical and mediation regression analyses suggested the importance of examining both temperament and personality in the context of parenting behaviors and the outcomes experienced by young children. Overall, these findings suggested that mothers' temperament and personality play a significant role in parenting young children and optimizing young child outcomes. These findings are particularly helpful for professionals working with families experiencing difficulties dealing with their young child's difficult temperament styles as well as difficult emotional and behavioral functioning.

Då det finns skillnader i skolresultat mellan manliga och kvinnliga elever i den svenska grund- och gymnasieskolan undersöks sättet elever talar, beskriver och resonerar kring matematik då det kan påverka inlärningen. Syftet med detta examensarbete var att undersöka gymnasieelevers attityder kring matematik. Tre fokusområden valdes ut för att studera elevernas diskurs, deras attityd till matematik, kontrollfokus och uppfattningar om hur inlärning av matematik sker. En enkätundersökning i pappersform delades ut till 200 elever på en gymnasieskola i en Svensk stad. Resultaten sorterades enligt könstillhörighet och undersöktes efter eventuella samband. Fynden indikerar att deltagarna, oavsett könstillhörighet, hade en starkt negativ bild av skolmatematiken. Vidare, kvinnliga elever hänvisade sina resultat i skolmatematiken till interna faktorer i större utsträckning än externa. Till skillnad från manliga elever som hade en mer jämn fördelning mellan externa och interna faktorer. Både manliga och kvinnliga elever hade en deterministisk uppfattning kring inlärning av skolmatematik, trots att båda grupper identifierade hårt arbete som en viktig faktor för inlärning av skolmatematik. De manliga eleverna hade en deterministisk syn på skolmatematiken då de kände sig maktlösa om de inte var "födda med det". De kvinnliga eleverna hade en deterministisk syn på skolmatematiken då de var mer självkritiska och, på grund av synen av matematik som en mansdominerad arena, står emot att identifiera sig själva som "smarta". Sammanfattningsvis, det visade sig att de tillfrågade gymnasieeleverna har negativa associationer till skolmatematiken, och könsstereotypa uppfattningar om skolmatematiken påverkar både manliga och kvinnliga elever negativt. / In light of mathematical achievement disparity between male and female elementary students in Swedish high school, student discourse about mathematics is investigated as a possible key factor. The purpose of this investigation was to examine upper secondary high school students’ attitudes towards learning mathematics. Three measurements were chosen in order to investigate student discourse, attitudes towards mathematics, locus of control and perceptions about the acquisition of mathematical knowledge. 200 student responses from the same upper secondary high school in a Swedish City were collected through a printed survey and analyzed in regards to gender. The findings indicate that the participants, regardless of gender, had a strongly negative attitude towards mathematics. Additionally, female students were more prone to attribute their achievements in mathematics to internal factors whereas male students had a more equal distribution of external and internal. Furthermore, both male and female students were more inclined to have a deterministic idea of mathematical knowledge, in spite of both groups identifying hard work as a key factor for success in mathematics. Arguably, the male students had a deterministic view of mathematics because they felt powerless if they were not “born with it”. On the other hand, the female students possibly had a deterministic view because they were more self-critical of their results and, because of existing discourse about mathematics as a male dominated arena, resist identifying as “smart”. Concluding, it was found that mathematics have strongly negative connotations for high school students, and existing stereotypical discourses limit both male and female students’ possibilities for learning.

Klimatångest är ett växande fenomen. Olika faktorer kan antas påverka individers grad av klimatångest. Studien undersökte relationen mellan klimatångest och kön, ålder, locus of control samt grad av neuroticism. Detta skedde utifrån fyra hypoteser och två frågeställningar. Sammanlagt deltog 112 respondenter, varav 74 kvinnor. De besvarade en enkät bestående av Rotters Internal-External scale, Clayton och Karazsias klimatångestskala samt delen i Shafers Big Five Marker scale som avser att mäta grad av neuroticism. Materialet undersöktes med korrelationer samt en regressionsanalys. Resultatet från studien påvisade att graden av klimatångest hos respondenterna generellt var låg, kvinnor har mer klimatångest än män och personer med högre grad av neuroticism har högre grad av klimatångest. Beteendemässigt engagemang i klimatfrågan var en signifikant prediktor för klimatångest. Klimatångest kan således vara gynnsamt i viss mån då det tycks korrelera med adaptiva beteenden som kan reducera klimatpåverkan.