The present study was designed to investigate the hypothesis that female clients who tend to terminate therapy prematurely will have been assigned to a male therapist. The study also tested the hypothesis that female clients who defect from therapy will have reported a history of low self-disclosure to individuals of the same sex as their therapist. Neither hypothesis was supported by the results of this study, but findings suggest a possible bias in the manner by which male and female therapists select their clients for therapy. It also appears that female defectors may be over-identifying with their family of origin or that they may be overly dependent on it as a resource system. This may be the reason for their apparent difficulty in developing a prototype that will accommodate their therapist.

Thesis (MPH.) --University of Limpopo, 2013 / Setting: The study was undertaken in St Rita’s Hospital, a district hospital for healthin Makhuduthamaga Municipality, Sekhukhune District, Limpopo Province. The purpose of the study was to describe client experiences of HIV-positive post-disclosure tosexual partners at St Rita’s Hospital, Limpopo Province. Research design and methodology: A qualitative, descriptive and phenomenological design was used. Purposive sampling was used to select 15 HIV-positive clients to participate in the study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted for data collection until saturation was reached. Data analysis was done using Techs open-coding method. Research findings: The study found that most of the clients were shocked and worried after testing HIV-positive. Participants whose sexual partners were aware that they were sick, indicated their wish to test and to immediately disclose their HIV-positive status. The study identified that some women found it difficult to disclose their HIV-positive status to sexual partners and continued to have unprotected sex in spite of ongoing counselling and support provided at the clinic. Some women participants who disclosed to sexual partners were accepted and some were rejected by sexual partners. Some women who disclosed their HIV-positive status to sexual partners were unable to motivate sexual partners to be counselled together and have mutual disclosure. These participants therefore continued to have unprotected sex with sexual partners and some became pregnant as sexual partners indicated that they tested HIV-negative elsewhere and were not keen to use condoms. Female participants did not indicate the use of female condoms as part of their responsibility to prevent transmission of HIV. Implications, recommendations and conclusions: The barriers which female participants face to disclose their HIV-positive status to sexual partners and not being able to insist on the use condoms may contribute to a high rate of HIV transmission and disease incidence. There should be establishment of consortiums at community level to provide quality support and follow up to vii clients who face challenges or fear to disclose their HIV-positive status to sexual partners. KEYWORDS • Clients’ experiences • Disclosure • Experiences, • Sexual partner • HIV-positive

A firm provides voluntary disclosures to the financial market in order to guide the valuation of its shares by mitigating adverse selection. However, voluntary disclosures could cause detriment to the disclosing firm's prospects, as the firm's competitors in the product market observe the disclosures. Prior analytical research has conflicting positions about the role of product market competition in voluntary disclosure. One view (Verrecchia 1983) is that competitive disadvantage resulting from the existence of proprietary costs discourages firms in high competition industries from providing voluntary disclosures. Another view (Darrough and Stoughton 1990) is that firms provide voluntary disclosures to deter potential rivals from entering the industry. This paper examines the association between voluntary disclosure and product market competition after controlling for firm size, analyst following, firm performance, and access to external financing. It looks at disclosures in press releases, an issue that is relatively unexplored, even though press releases have become one of the most important channels of communication in the United States. A total of 5,587 press releases by 156 U.S. firms in 1998 are studied. Product market competition is measured by the Herfindahl- Hirschman Index. It is found that the firms in high competition industries provide, on average, greater voluntary disclosures than the firms in low competition industries. The results are found to be robust to revisions in the specification of the model and modifications in the sample.

The objectives of this research are, first to develop a greater understanding of open book management, secondly to survey the current national status of open book management, and thirdly to conduct a preliminary examination on how employee attitudes are directly influenced by the open book management intervention. In this study, a questionnaire survey is conducted on 307 middle-level managers. The data is used to analyze the influence of the open book management over organization commitment and job satisfaction; then individual control variables, as well as business literacy training and pay-for-performance of the open book management are included as intervening variables to examine the effect. The study findings include the following five aspects. First, the domestic companies are more conservative in the financial disclosure. Second, the financial disclosure has positive effect on intrinsic job satisfaction and this effect is reinforced if companies implement pay-for-performance programs. Third, unless companies implement pay-for-performance programs, the financial disclosure would have no effect on recognition to the organization and extrinsic job satisfaction. Fourth, financial disclosure has positive effect on centripetal force to the organization but no significant effect after taking the intervening variables into account. It means that the centripetal force to the organization is not influenced regardless of the increased level of financial disclosure or implementation of pay-for-performance programs. Fifth, the hypothesis that the effect of business literacy training will influence the relationship between financial disclosure and employee attitude is not confirmed

Bakgrund och problem: Goodwill är ett komplext begrepp. Problematiken med goodwill kan förklaras genom fyra problemområden: erkännande, mätning och värdering, klassifikation samt presentation och disclusoure. IFRS 3 uppkom 2005 i syfte att minska beloppet för goodwill på företagens balansräkningar, ändå fortsätter goodwill att växa.Syfte: Syftet med studien är att erhålla en ökad förståelse för redovisningen av goodwill genom att analysera förhållandet mellan hur företagen redovisar och hur de borde redovisa goodwill. Genom att upptäcka bristerna som finns och diskutera hur redovisningen av goodwill kan förbättras erhålls en ökad förståelse för ämnet.Avgränsningar: Studien granskar goodwill som uppstår vid företagsförvärv i förhållande till disclosure. Internt upparbetad goodwill och negativ goodwill ingår inte i studien.Metod: Studien baseras på en innehållsanalys av årsredovisningar från börsnoterade företag. Metoden baseras på etisk tolkning utifrån två tillämpningsmetoder, observation av begrepp inom text samt relation mellan text, principer och individer som tillverkar texten. Genom att använda två tillämpningsmetoder fångar studien in variation och förändring. Begreppen observeras utifrån en datainsamlingsreferensram, vilken är baserad på principer, tolkning och redovisningsteknik.Resultat och slutsatser: Studien upptäcker skillnader mellan teori och standard. Studien fann att redovisningen av goodwill är förvirrande på grund av att en särskild standard för goodwill saknas. Dagens standarder godkänner subjektiva värderingar i redovisningen, tillskillnad från teorin som anser att värderingen ska vara objektiv. / Background and problem: Goodwill is a complex concept. The problem with this subject can be explained by four different areas: the recognition, measurement and valuation, classification, presentation and disclusoure. IFRS 3 occurred in 2005 in order to reduce the amount of goodwill on corporate balance sheets, still continues goodwill to grow.Purpose: The purpose of the study is to obtain a better understanding of the accounting of goodwill by analyzing the relationship between how companies account and how they should account goodwill. By discovering the deficiencies that exist and discuss how the accounting of goodwill can be improved a better understanding is obtained.Limitations: The study examines goodwill arising on acquisitions in relation to disclosure. Internally generated goodwill and negative goodwill are excluded.Method: The study is a content analysis of annual reports of listed companies. The method is based on the ethical interpretation based on two application methods, observation of the concepts in the text and the relationship between text and principles, and individuals that produce text. By applying two application methods the study captures variation and change. The concepts were observed based on a framework of data collection, which is based on the principle, interpretation and technique.Results and conclusions: The study discovered that differences existed between theory and standard. It discovered that the recognition of goodwill is confusing because a special standard for goodwill is lacking. Today's standards approves subjective valuations in the accounts, while the theory considers that the valuation should be objective.This essay is written in Swedish.

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This dissertation describes the findings from a qualitative research study aimed at increasing our understanding of the psychology of privacy management. Specifically, I sought to explore people’s beliefs, perceptions, and process for managing privacy in the contexts that they inhabit. I conducted 32 one-on-one interviews with participants ranging in age from 18 to 85 years old. Using grounded theory methodology, I developed a substantive theory of privacy that outlines the way people manage their privacy in our current environment. This grounded theory takes into account people’s individual approach to privacy, the elements they consider when deciding whether or not to reveal aspects of themselves, and the behaviors they engage in to maintain their privacy or protect the privacy of others. Approach to privacy consists of beliefs about privacy, personality characteristics such as openness and self-confidence, and values, which include doing unto others, honesty, and choice (or control). In many cases this approach has never been explicitly considered, but it interacts with who one is speaking with, the topic of discussion, the context, and the perceived risks and benefits, in affecting the privacy decision. Trust is a key factor in deciding whether or not to reveal part of oneself to someone, but certain roles and relationships seem to bypass the privacy decision-making process. A risk-benefit analysis does occur, but it is one of several components that impact privacy decisions and is hampered by the emotional nature of the information that is considered. Some contexts, such as technologically mediated situations, heighten awareness of privacy issues, while others involve information or situations that are seen to override privacy rights. Ultimately, these considerations interact and lead to particular behaviors for maintaining or regaining a desired level of privacy.

This study explored the content of courtroom conversations about children's prior discussions regarding sexual abuse. Sixty felony child abuse trial transcripts including child testimony and reviewing court opinions were collected from the Court of Appeal and from court reporters. Information was obtained from under Section 288 of the California Penal code (sexual abuse of a child under 14 years of age) filed in Los Angeles County from 1997 to 2001. For this study, transcript testimony was transcribed, extracted for the necessary information, coded, assessed for reliability, and analyzed. The findings indicate that conversations about children's prior disclosure conversations, non-disclosure conversations, and conversations with perpetrators are present in nearly all cases of alleged child sexual abuse, although they only represent about 8% of questions asked of children. These courtroom conversations appear to mimic effects found throughout other child testimony research: children are often limited in their responsiveness unless open ended questions are asked and they rarely provide detailed content unless prompted to do so. The findings revealed that overt accusations, references to children's motives for telling or not telling, and conversations with the perpetrator about abuse were infrequently discussed by attorneys when interviewing child witnesses about their alleged sexual abuse during trial testimony. This was surprising as these topics are often discussed in the empirical literature as important factors to consider when assessing children's credibility. In the present study, children were often asked about what they disclosed generally, what was said during abusive acts, and what was (or was not) disclosed during specific prior conversations. Further, our results reflect that children's ultimate credibility assessment, as assessed by the outcome of the trial, related to the presence of non-disclosure questions and not the presence of disclosure questions or conversations between the perpetrator and child; cases without non-disclosure questions consistently resulted in a conviction. This study provided a first step in assessing the content of courtroom conversations about children's prior discussions about sexual abuse. Implications and future directions for research are discussed.

Recent events in the business world have focused attention on the importance of high quality financial reporting. Of particular interest is where the collapse of prominent companies such as Baring Plc. was due to the company's involvement with derivative instruments. In Australia, some derivative instruments are not recognised in the balance sheet. However, the Australian accounting standard AASB 1033 Presentation and Disclosure of Financial Instruments requires extensive disclosures to overcome the lack of guidance with regard to the recognition and measurement. Therefore, AASB 1033 may be regarded as a high quality disclosure standard. This thesis investigates the transparency or information quality of derivative disclosures of Australian firms in the extractive industries using 1998 to 2001 financial reports. The extractive industries play a major role in the Australian economy, where they generated exports worth more than A$30billion in 2000 to 2002 (Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, 2003a and 2003b). Further, firms in the extractive industries extensively use derivative instruments for hedging purposes (Berkman, Bradbury, Hancock and Innes, 1997). The objective of this study is, first, to examine the relationship between the transparency or disclosure quality of derivative information and firm characteristics. Second, this study investigates the value relevance of derivative disclosures in particularly hedge information, net fair value information and risk information. Quality is measured based on a disclosure index developed from AASB 1033 Presentation and Disclosure of Financial Instruments. A finding of concern is that the majority of firms in this study provide less than complete information and therefore enforcement power is required to ensure compliance (Kothari, 2000) Prior studies have related disclosure quality of accounting information with firm characteristics but no attempt has been made to relate those characteristics with the disclosure quality of derivative instruments. The current study contributes to the literature by examining the relationship between firm characteristics and the quality of derivative disclosures. Firm characteristics investigated are size, profitability, price-earnings ratio, market-to-book ratio, research and development activity, auditor, debt-to-equity ratio and type of extractive firm. This study finds that the variables, firm size, price-earnings and debt-to-equity ratios are associated with the disclosure quality of derivative information. To a lesser extent, the variables, market-to-book ratio and profitability, are also associated with disclosure quality. High disclosure quality has been argued to lead to a reduction in the cost of debt (Sengupta, 1998) and equity (Botosan, 1997), resulting in higher security prices (Miller and Bahnson, 2002). The results of this study indicate that high quality derivative information, as represented by the disclosure index, is value relevant. Market participants do consider hedge information and risk information components as important for decision-making. However, examining the specific information disclosed in the financial statements indicate that some of the disclosed information such as the unrealised gain or loss on financial assets and liabilities and off-balance sheet derivative financial instruments are not significant. These results contribute to the value relevance literature as this study focuses on the extractive industries which have been neglected in the literature. This study provides important information for standard setters and regulators for future directions in developing accounting standards and is particularly relevant for the impending adoption of International Accounting Standards.

Thesis (M.S.W.)--Smith College School for Social Work, Northampton, Mass., 2008. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 47-51).