Self-reports have described luck as an important factor in people’s lives, and there is a sizable body of psychological research conducted around the belief in luck, primarily as an intangible external element and a companion of gamblers. This thesis reviews the major part of this research, offering a critical analysis and identifying a region of research into luck that warrants further investigation. That is, if psychic events, collectively termed ‘psi’ are possible then such events may just appear to be lucky. Several parapsychological studies have investigated this relationship between luck and psi but have failed to discern if this relationship is real, perhaps because of the lack of explicit definition of luck or the measurement of what it is that the participants believe it to be. To address this issue existing luck belief measures were reviewed but it was clearly necessary to construct a new comprehensive measure based on thorough bottom-up test construction principles. A series of semi-structured interviews about luck were reanalysed qualitatively, the themes of which were used in the generation of items for a questionnaire. Through a series of factor-analyses a final 40-item, 4-factor Questionnaire of Beliefs about Luck (QBL) was produced, with factors labelled Luck, Chance, Providence and Fortune, to which was added a 1-item measure of Perceived Personal Luckiness (PPL). The new measure was found to be robust and internally reliable and correlated with paranormal belief supporting several predictions and thereby demonstrating sound construct validity. The literature on psi and luck indicated that luck might best be understood by Stanford’s (1974a) model of ‘psi-mediated instrumental response’ (PMIR) and a PMIR-type study was planned which incorporated the new QBL. A non-intentional precognition experiment with 100 participants utilised erotic-images as psi incentives and found good evidence of psi with this design. Furthermore, the QBL Luck subscale was found to be a significant predictor variable of psi score, indicating that the measure has good predictive validity, and PPL, belief in psi, and erotic reactivity also correlated with psi scores. There was also a near gender-effect. The findings were discussed in light of previous results and were interpreted in relation to the psychological theories outlined in the literature review, finding support for the notion of self-serving biases, and offering fresh insights into the illusion of control. A model was put forward for the relationship of luck and psi. It was concluded that the QBL was a comprehensive, reliable, valid and useful tool in the investigation of luck

In this PhD research a question is posed that concerns ‘varieties of creativity’ that have infrequently been explored empirically, although often described anecdotally. This question being: is, and if so, how, is creativity related to altered states of consciousness (ASCs) and parapsychological experiences? This thesis systematically explores the relationship between multiple dimensions of creativity and: personality traits characterised by an openness to intrapersonal experience and a fluid cognitive-style; specific altered states of consciousness and anomalous experiences (such as mystical experiences and subjective paranormal experiences); and anomalous cognition. The common thread is conceived as an examination of the extent to which creativity might involve ‘epistemological flexibility’ — that is, involves shifts into, and between, different ‘ways of knowing’. As such, a major part of this thesis was the psychometric development of a new self-report instrument, the Creative Cognition Inventory, which measures the reported use of different epistemological resources (such as intuition, dreams and rational logic) in the creative process. Creativity is defined in terms of a process, participated in at the person-level, which leads to a novel and adaptive product or performance. Drawing upon models of the creative process and person, it is suggested that a biphasic process is common to most theories of creativity, and that individuals with particular traits have been hypothesised to engage in this with more facility. Models that have explored cognitive, affective and perceptual ‘looseness’ as facilitating novelty are examined. As altered states of consciousness involve subjective shifts in these same dimensions, it is proposed that creativity and ASCs may be experientially related, either directly, or in terms of an overarching trait, such as ‘boundary-thinness’ or ‘transliminality’, which propitiates both. A multi-dimensional approach was taken to creativity measurement, accepting its complexity as a componential construct that might consist of multiple creativities. In Study One, the benefits of a multidimensional approach to creativity measurement were evident, refuting earlier work that had used only cognitive estimates of creativity and found no relationship with either boundary-thinness or transliminality. These constructs are experiential-traits that assess ones degree of intrapersonal openness, cognitive fluidity and sensitivity, and are associated with a proclivity to have unusual experiences. In Study One, they were found to be significantly correlated with both domain general measures of creativity (creative personality) and domain specific measures (emotional creativity and involvement in the arts). The sample for Study One consisted of 65 psychology undergraduates (49 females; 16 males). A second study assessed the degree to which different dimensions of creativity were related to different experiences of consciousness. 211 participants were recruited from the general population through opportunity sampling (108 females; 101 males). The sample included professional artists (n = 36) and scientists (n = 27). Competing models of a relationship between creativity and ASC-proclivity were assessed: cognitive expansion; affective openness; and motivational impetus. This study provided numerous insights into the experiences of consciousness that might be related to varieties of creativity. The key findings were that emotional creativity was most robustly associated with ASCs; artistic creative-personality was associated with ‘positive’ ASCs, including those along an oneiric continuum (e.g. hypnagogia and hallucinations), and those along an affective expansion continuum (e.g. dissociation and positive mystical experiences). Further, original and flexible cognition appeared to be associated with states along an oneiric continuum. Thus, Study Two found support for the affective and cognitive models, yet within different ranges of experience. This ‘model’ helps to clarify, by using heterogeneous, rather than homogenous constructs of ‘unusual experiences’, specific processes by which ASCs and creativity may be related and as such deserves further exploration. The final piece of research developed a novel protocol for recording impressions thought by participants to involve extrasensory perception (ESP) and associated states of consciousness in daily life, using experience- sampling methodology. As success in ESP experiments has consistently been reported amongst visual artists, the above models were used to explore what aspects of the creativity complex might be associated with ESP-performance. As only emotional creativity related to the reporting of parapsychological experiences in Study Two, the affective openness model was expected to predict ESP-performance. Further, a carefully matched control group (n = 15) was used against which to compare success of artists (n = 15). Artists did not demonstrate a superior ESP effect in this study, although they did perform at a level commensurate with previous research. The affective openness hypothesis for ESP performance was rejected. Rather, it was questioned whether previous studies had not adequately matched controls or that the ‘take-home’ methodology, perhaps increasing relaxation and control for the participants, increased performance levels for the non-artists

Recent studies of non-conscious processing have indicated that visually processed non-conscious informationcan be used to influence behaviour after as much as 5000 ms. This study further explores the possibilities of nonconsciousvisual working memory retention. Twelve participants were in this study instructed to memorizemasked faces and then make decisions based on what they believe they saw or guess intuitively. Results indicatethat increased working memory load only affected conscious trials, suggesting non-conscious stimulus remainedunperceived. Since no consciousness effect was observed when measuring response times of congruent trials thisstudy do not support non-conscious working memory retention. / Nya studier av undermedvetet processande har indikerat att visuellt behandlad undermedveten information kananvändas för att påverka beteende efter så mycket som 5000 ms. Denna studie undersöker även möjligheternavad gäller undermedveten inlagring i det visuella arbetsminnet. Tolv deltagare fick i denna studie i uppdrag attmemorera maskade ansikten och sedan fatta beslut utifrån vad de tror att de såg eller gissa intuitivt. Resultatentyder på att ökad belastning av arbetsminnet påverkar endast medvetna försöksomgångarna, vilket tyder på ickemedvetnastimuli förblev osedda. Eftersom ingen medvetandeeffekt observerades vid svarstiderna underkongruenta försök stöder inte denna studien undermedveten lagring av arbetsminnet.

本研究以臺北市文山區為例，探討都市住民之社區意識、家庭婚姻親子關係、夫妻角色關係、幸福感等價值態度及對社區發展看法等，本研究以問卷為研究工具，本研究鑑於文獻之不足，在問卷編製過程，除多方資料收集歸納參酌相關文獻外，並拜訪文山區之里鄰長、里幹事、居民等人員提供意見，加以編製都市住民意識調查問卷，本研究問卷經過預試後，正式問卷始告確立，本問卷共分四個部分，第一部分受訪者個人特質：包括性別、年齡、教育程度、職業、宗教信仰、世居情形、個人每月所得、及省籍等。第二部分住民對文山之社區意識。第三部分：住民對家庭婚姻親子關係、夫妻角色關係、幸福感等價值態度。第四部分：對文山社區發展看 法。針對文山區住民進行問卷調查，共得有效問卷603 份，所得資料以次數分配、平均數、t考驗、單因子變異分析、Scheffe法事後比較及皮爾森積差相關等統計方法進行分析，以達成研究目的。 本研究依上述統計分析之結果，得到以下結論： 一、個人特質的不同與住民意象有顯著差異 住民意象萃取分為生活環境、社區歸屬、生活環境、產業特色四個因素。宗教信仰與生活環境因素有顯著性差異；年齡、職業與產業特色因素有相當顯著性差異；教育程度與產業特色因素有極顯著性差異；宗教信仰與產 業特色因素有顯著性差異。 二、個人特質的不同與婚姻親子關係有顯著差異 婚姻親子關係萃取分為教養方式、親子互動、不婚觀、婚姻觀、婚姻幸福 、婚姻障礙六個因素。教養方式因素：年齡與教養方式因素有相當顯著性差異，世居情形與教養方式因素有顯著性差異；親子互動因素：性別與親子互動因素有顯著性差異；不婚觀因素：性別與不婚觀因素有顯著性差異 ，年齡、職業、宗教信仰與不婚觀因素有極顯著差異，教育程度、省籍與不婚觀因素有相當顯著差異；婚姻觀因素：性別、宗教信仰與婚姻觀因素有極顯著差異，教育程度、職業、世居情形、省籍與婚姻觀因素有相當顯著差異，年齡與婚姻觀因素有顯著差異；婚姻幸福因素：性別與婚姻幸福因素有相當顯著差異，個人每月所得與婚姻幸福因素有顯著差異；婚姻障礙因素：教育程度、個人每月所得與婚姻障礙因素有相當顯著差異。 三、個人特質的不同與夫妻角色關係有顯著差異 夫妻角色關係萃取分為家庭權力、家務分工、性別角色、兩性平權、性別分工五個因素。家庭權力因素：教育程度與家庭權力因素有顯著差異；家務分工因素：職業、宗教信仰與家務分工因素有相當顯著的差異；性別角色因素：性別、世居情形、宗教信仰、省籍與性別角色因素有顯著性的差異，個人每月所得與性別角色因素有極顯著的差異；兩性平權因素：教育程度、省籍與兩性平權因素有顯著的差異，宗教信仰、職業與兩性平權因素有相當顯著的差異；性別分工因素：省籍與性別分工因素有顯著的差異 。 四、個人特質的不同與幸福感有顯著差異 幸福感萃取分為人際幸福、生活充實、財富幸福三個因素。人際幸福因素 ：教育程度與人際幸福因素有相當顯著的差異，宗教信仰與人際幸福因素有顯著的差異；生活充實因素：年齡、世居情形、個人每月所得與生活充實因素有顯著的差異；財富幸福因素：教育程度、宗教信仰、省籍與財富幸福因素有顯著的差異，職業與財富幸福因素有相當顯著的差異。 五、住民婚姻親子關係、夫妻角色、幸福感具有顯著相關 （一）、婚姻親子關係及夫妻角色之相關性分析 1、教養方式因素與家庭權力因素有極顯著正相關；教養方式因素與家務分工因素有極顯著正相關；教養方式因素與性別分工因素有顯著正相關。 2、親子互動因素與兩性平權因素有極顯著正相關；親子互動因素與家務分工因素有相當顯著正相關。 3、不婚觀因素與家務分工因素、性別角色因素、兩性平權因素分別有極顯著正相關。 4、婚姻觀因素與家庭權力因素有相當顯著正相關；婚姻觀因素與家務分工因素、性別角色因素分別有極顯著正相關；與兩性平權有顯著正相關。 5、婚姻幸福因素與兩性平權因素有極顯著正相關；婚姻幸福因素與家務分工因素有顯著正相關；婚姻幸福因素與性別分工因素有極顯著正相關。 （ 二）、婚姻親子關係及幸福感之相關性分析 1、教養方式因素與生活充實因素有相當顯著正相關，與財富幸福因素極顯著正相關。 2、親子互動因素與人際幸福因素、生活充實因素有極顯著正，與財富幸福因素顯著負相關。 3、不婚觀因素與生活充實因素極顯著負相關，與財富幸福相當顯著負相關，與人際幸福因素相當顯著正相關。 4、婚姻觀因素與生活充實因素有相當顯著正相關，與財富幸福因素極顯著正相關。 5、婚姻幸福因素與財富幸福因素有顯著負相關。 6、婚姻障礙因素與人際幸福因素有極顯著正相關，與財富幸福因素顯著 正相關。 （三）、夫妻角色與幸福感之相關性分析 1、家庭權力因素與人際幸福因素有顯著正相關與財富幸福因素極顯著正相關。 2、家務分工因素與財富幸福因素有極顯著負相關。 3、性別角色因素與生活充實因素、財富幸福因素有極顯著正相關。 4、兩性平權因素與人際幸福因素、生活充實因素有極顯著正相關，與財富幸福因素顯著負相關。 5、性別分工因素與人際幸福因素、財富幸福因素有相當顯著正相關。 根據研究結果，提出建議，以供相關人員及後續研究者作為參考。

<p>Syftet med föreliggande uppsats var dels att psykometriskt utpröva en svensk översatt självskattningsskala för bland annat skam, Test of Self-Conscious Affect (TOSCA) och dels att undersöka i vilken grad patienter, som får korttidsbehandling av social fobi med hjälp av kognitiv beteendeterapi upplevelse av skam förändras. För den psykometriska utprövningen utgjordes jämförelsegruppen av 72 st psykologstuderande vid psykologiska institutionen, Stockholms universitet. Den kliniska gruppen utgjordes av 8 st behandlingsdeltagare. Resultaten visar att TOSCA har en god intern konsistens och en hög test-retest relia¬bilitet. Dock kunde ej testets samtidiga validitet påvisas i denna studie. Behandlingen uppvisade ej effekt på behandlingsdeltagarnas upplevelse av skam. Studien visar således att TOSCA:s reliabilitet är god men att dess validitet behöver utredas vidare.</p>

Guilt theoretically functions to motivate reparative behaviors, which, in turn, theoretically function to alleviate guilt and prevent psychopathology. Although several empirical studies in adults have demonstrated that guilt and reparative behaviors function as theorized, research has not investigated causal relations between guilt and reparative behaviors in children. Thus, this study examined whether guilt motivates children’s reparative behaviors, and whether their reparative behaviors successfully alleviate guilty feelings. Six-to ten-year olds (N = 97) were randomly assigned to one of three conditions. In the experimental condition, children were led to believe that they had transgressed to cause a peer’s distress. Children self-reported their guilt feelings following the pretend transgression, and then had the opportunity to repair the transgression by giving stickers and writing a note to the victimized peer. Following the repair opportunity, children self-reported their guilt a second time. Children in the experimental condition (i.e., children who felt guilty) engaged in greater reparative behavior relative to children in a no-guilt condition who were led to believe that they had caused a peer’s positive emotions. Further, children in the experimental condition reported reduced guilt at the second measurement, whereas children in the no-repair condition (who were led to believe that they had transgressed but were not be given a repair opportunity) did not report reduced guilt over time. Results demonstrate that guilt and reparative behaviors function as theorized in children and may begin to inform reparative interventions aimed at preventing unalleviated, maladaptive guilt and psychopathology.

Background: Exercise behaviour has largely been studied via reflective social cognitive approaches over the last thirty years. Emerging findings have shown habit to demonstrate predictive validity with physical activity. Habit represents an automatic behaviour that becomes developed from repeated stimulus-response bonds (cued and repetitive action) overtime. Despite the correlation with PA, the literature lacks research in understanding habit formation in new exercisers and experimental evidence of this construct. Hence, the purpose of this dissertation was to: i) understand the behavioural and psychological requirements of habit formation in new gym members, ii) investigate how regular gym members maintain their exercise habit, and iii) incorporate these findings to design a randomized-controlled trial (RCT) to test the effectiveness of an exercise habit building workshop in new gym members. In particular, the RCT sought to test if the habit group would develop greater exercise improvement over a control condition and another intervention group that employed a variety-based approach. Methods: Participants for all three studies were healthy adults (18-65) who were recruited from local gym and recreation centres in Victoria, BC. Studies I and III included only new gym members who were not meeting the Canadian Physical Activity guidelines upon recruitment while study II were a sample of gym members who have been exercising for at least one year. The first two studies were prospective, observational designs (twelve and six weeks respectively) while the third was a CONSORT based experimental study. Results: The first study found that exercising for at least four bouts per week for six weeks was the minimum requirement to establish an exercise habit. Trajectory change analysis revealed habit and intention to be parallel predictors of exercise in the trajectory analysis while consistency of practice revealed to be the best predictor. The second study highlighted the distinction between the preparatory and performance phases of exercise and further found intention and preparatory habit to be responsible for behaviour change across time. This study also found consistency to be the strongest predictor for habit formation. The intervention found the habit group to increase in exercise time compared to the control (p<.05, d=.40) and variety (p<.05, d=.36) groups. Mediation analysis found habit to partially mediate between group and behaviour. Contextual predictors revealed cues and consistency to mediate habit formation and group type. Conclusions: This dissertation provided significant novel contributions to the literature which included: i) calculating the behavioural and psychological requirements for establishing an exercise habit, ii) distinguishing two behavioural phases of exercise and iii) conducting the first exercise habit-based RCT. These findings demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed habit-based worksheet which could be helpful for trainers and new gym members in facilitating an exercise habit. / Graduate / kaushal@uvic.ca

Background: Agricultural activities occupy a significant part of the world’s land area and the food systems are comprehensively reliant on fossil fuels, resulting in that the sector is responsible for a large percentage of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. Changes are needed in order to meet the challenges of developing sustainable food systems. One change strategy would be to replace parts of animal proteins with greener plant substitutes. This thesis is part of a four-year transdisciplinary research project with the aim to, within four years, develop domestically produced products based on Swedish legumes. This paper will focus on exploring significant components affecting health-conscious consumers’ attitudes and purchase intentions regarding legumes-based products. By the thesis, valuable information and insights regarding legumes as a protein substitute will be gathered amongst the growing consumer group of health-conscious consumers.  Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore the attitudes regarding legumes, and underlying key components affecting health-conscious consumers purchase intentions towards legume-based products. Additionally, two research questions have been developed to reach valuable findings for this investigation.

As is evident from the title of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman (1949), the protagonist of the play, the salesman Willy Loman, will die. This essay will investigate what role Ben, Willy’s deceased brother, plays in Willy’s suicide. The thesis is that Willy needs Ben’s support in order to commit suicide and therefore needs to bring Ben’s values, at the possible expense of his wife Linda’s, into his superego. Ben is, to Willy, a true example of the American Dream, as he was a very successful businessman. Willy’s ego (or rational mind) seems to realize that his superego (or conscience) needs to replace the humane values of Linda with the economic values of Ben, in order to justify his motivation of an “economically beneficial” suicide. When Willy arrives at his final conclusion of how his favorite son Biff would financially benefit from his “accidental” suicide and thereby being able to attain Willy’s version of the American Dream, the evidence brought forth may suggest that Willy, at that point, allows Ben full access into his mind.        Willy’s mind will be investigated via Freud’s triple model of the psyche; the id, the ego and the superego.

It is widely acknowledged that under situations of heightened pressure, many expert athletes suffer from performance decrements. This phenomenon has been termed ‘choking under pressure’ and has been the subject of extensive research in sport psychology. Despite this attention, gaps in the literature remain leaving opportunities for further advancements in knowledge about the phenomenon, particularly in relation to its underlying processes and the development of appropriate interventions that can be adopted in order to alleviate, or even prevent choking. The present programme of research, in general terms, aimed to develop and test the efficacy of an intervention tool, based on priming, to alleviate choking under pressure. It was acknowledged that such a tool should be matched to the mechanisms that underlie the choking process and although an abundance of research has provided valuable information about these mechanisms, it was identified that there still remains a lack of consensus regarding the most appropriate explanatory theory. Therefore the initial study in this thesis aimed to provide further insight into the processes that govern choking by examining accounts from elite international swimmers of their experiences of performing under high levels of pressure. The results provided further support for the postulation that choking under pressure occurs as a result of a combination of conscious processing hypothesis (Masters, 1992) and processing efficiency theory (Eysenck & Calvo, 1992) and that an optimum level of skill-focused attention is beneficial to performance. The following studies utilised this information as well as that of the existent theories of choking, to develop and examine an effective priming based intervention tool (a scrambled sentence task). Specifically, Studies 2, 3 and 4 examined the amount of residual working memory available after activation of the prime, the optimisation of the priming task and the efficacy of the tool in promoting performance under high pressure respectively. Results revealed support for the efficacy of the tool in reducing online skill-focused attention and promoting performance under both low- and high-pressure conditions. Finally, the general themes that emerged throughout the whole programme of study are discussed, as well as the limitations and recommendations for future research. Implications for coaches, athletes and practitioners are also presented.