Investigating the neurophysiology behind our action encoding system offers a way of probing the underlying mechanisms regarding how we understand seen action. The ability to mentally simulate action (motor simulation) is a strong proposal to understand how we interpret others’ actions. The process of how we generate accurate motor simulations is proposed to be reliant on the context of the movement and sensory feedback from the limb. However, the neurophysiological mechanisms behind motor simulation are not yet understood. Known motor physiology for right-handed individuals show there is a left parietal-frontal network for the mental simulation of skilled movements; however, it remains unclear whether this is due to right limb dominance of the observer’s motor system because action simulation research has been focused primarily on right-handed individuals. The goal of this dissertation is to understand the underlying neurophysiology of the motor simulation process during action encoding. Generally, we propose different strategies of action simulation between right and left handed individuals. More specifically, we propose that right-handed individuals rely on their motor dominant left hemisphere for action encoding and motor simulation, while left-handed individuals will rely on their motor dominant right hemisphere. We will test this by evaluating neurobehavioral patterns of potential symmetry and asymmetry of motor simulation and action encoding based on patterns of limb dominance. We will also evaluate how impaired sensory feedback affects motor simulations, which can reveal how limb state affects the simulation process. The results of this series of studies will fill a void in our basic understanding of the motor simulation process and may generalize to populations with upper limb functional loss. Specifically, those with different hand dominance may require different rehabilitation programs in order to retrain an affected limb.

There is an increasing recognition in environmental sustainability research of the significance of Indigenous land and water management practices that are locally developed and grounded in traditional resource use. This dissertation explores land and water management policies and practices in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) region of Bangladesh, with a particular focus on traditional Indigenous and invasive government and non-governmental policies and practices enacted within the Laitu Khyeng Indigenous community located in the CHT. Three main questions guide the study: (1) What were traditional Indigenous Laitu Khyeng land-management customs and practices, particularly in relation to environmental sustainability? (2) To what extent were Laitu Khyeng community members affected by introduced land-management policies, such as those promoted by government, NGOs, commercial companies, and multinational agencies? And, (3) What were Laitu Khyeng hopes and expectations regarding land management policies and practices, particularly in relation to environmental sustainability? Data collection methods included: traditional sharing circles, individual story sharing, photovoice, participant observation, and commonplace books. The research findings revealed that current management practices, imposed by both government and non-government agencies, have seriously undermined local, traditional land and water management practices. The effects of these management projects include: dramatic increase in the non-Indigenous population resulting from an outsider brick-field industrial project within the last 10 years; increased destitution, displacement, and deforestation of natural resources resultant from force, fraud, and manipulated occupation of forest and plain land over two decades; recent expansion of the Bangladesh Forest Department and private companies’ lumber plantation projects by outsiders; and increase in national and multinational corporations’ tobacco plantation projects within last 15 years. Addressing questions of resource management and sustainability, participating Elders, knowledge-holders, and community leaders articulated meanings of land and water management in terms traditional cultivation culture, administrative structures, and spiritual practices. In addition to these themes, youth participants emphasized land and water management as involving key responsibilities, including learning traditional cultivation knowledge from Elders, and organizing peaceful campaigns to protect their land, water, and identity rights. The research findings demonstrate that the Laitu Khyeng Indigenous traditional land and water management practices value biodiversity, human and nonhuman relationships, spirituality, conservation, historical practices protection, and also draw from non-Indigenous knowledge and practice in environmental resource management. To achieve environmental sustainability in the community, participants emphasized that all youth in the community learn local Indigenous knowledge and practices in order to protect the environment.

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Over 50 years of research on prejudice has identified dozens of strategies that effectively reduce stereotyping, prejudice and discrimination. However, very few studies have examined if any of these strategies reduce bias when used directly by a stigmatized target. A few studies show that when stigmatized targets attempt to reduce bias by blatantly confronting people, or by presenting counter-stereotypic attributes, outgroup perceivers are threatened and motivated to retaliate against the target (Czopp & Montieth, 2003; Rudman & Glick, 2001). The Target Empowerment Model (or TEM) provides a framework for addressing these problems. The TEM proposes that targets can blatantly challenge bias in others if they first use strategies that diffuse perceptions of threat, like asking self-affirming questions (Stone et al., 2010). Using a social networking paradigm, three experiments tested the effects of asking self-affirming questions, confronting through perspective taking, and the combination of these strategies, on the biases expressed toward an Arab American target individual. Experiment 1 showed that when an Arab American target challenged perceivers by asking them to take their perspective, highly prejudiced participants showed increased dislike and distancing relative to a neutral question control condition. Experiment 2 showed that as predicted by the TEM, distancing in high prejudiced individuals was significantly reduced if the target first asked questions designed to affirm the perceiver's sense of fairness prior to insisting on perspective taking. Experiment 3 demonstrated that when the target affirmed prejudiced perceivers on values related to creativity prior to implementing a perspective taking strategy, perceivers showed less dislike and distancing compared to using either affirmation or perspective-taking strategies alone. In addition, reductions in the negative emotions directed at the target partially mediated the relationship between the use of different TEM strategies and distancing from the target. Taken together, these studies support the TEM predictions that stigmatized targets can effectively challenge prejudiced perceivers to reduce their biases if they first use a subtle bias reduction strategy that reduces perceptions of threat.

Background          Schizophrenia has been negatively observed in today’s society due to several major violent crimes and violent actions committed by persons with the diagnosis. The general populations’ lack of knowledge increases the risk of a faulty attitude when meeting individuals with schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is a psychosis which creates suffering for the effected. Common symptoms of schizophrenia are hallucinations, delusions, apathy and difficulties with emotional relations. Nearly half of all schizophrenics attempts suicide, at some point.   Aim                        The aim of this study was to describe how people with schizophrenia experience their life-world.               Method                  This study is based on six autobiographies and is analyzed with qualitative content analyses.   Results                   The study resulted in six categories which are perception of their illness, positive symptoms, negative symptoms, suffering, experiences of health care and medication and strategies towards a brighter future. During psychotic periods the individuals often experienced their surrounding as frightening because of hallucinations. Some of them live their lives alone because they are afraid of being perceived as crazy and want to conceal their diagnosis. The result shows strategies that the persons were using for reducing their suffering.                                  Conclusion            Prejudices about the disease can generate that persons with schizophrenia is not getting the care they need. If the patient is treated based on a life-world perspective, he or she will feel like being seen as a person rather than a diagnosis.

The purpose of this essay has been to seek understanding of how young people in high school and adult education experience the use of educational media tools in teaching. Examples of questions submitted material has been: What are the positive and negative experiences of ICT in the classroom? The essay is of a qualitative nature, in which five students were interviewed about their experiences of ICT in the school environment. The result is analyzed from a sociocultural perspective and from an inward-student perspective. The results showed that students felt that it was difficult to absorb many of the ICT facilities as sources of knowledge in the school environment. Due to lack of quality in teaching material and difficulties of the pupils to sort out the important information of the injected.

During the past three decades the economic performances of South Africa organisations were poor. This poor performance forced a lot of South African organisations to look at the way they do business. A method to analyse the way business is conducted through an Organisation Diagnose. Organisation Diagnose is the process of using concepts and methods from the social and behavioural sciences to assess the current state of an entire organisation and to find ways to improve the organisations effectiveness. The aim of this research was to evaluate perceptions of employees of a distribution organisation through an Organisation Diagnose. A cross-sectional design was used as model for the research. Interviews and questionnaires were used as methods for data gathering. A representative sample (N=30) from different job levels and departments were interviewed. The main themes were identified and these themes were included in the questionnaire as dimensions. The Study population (N=88) was chosen from a depot of a distributing organisation. The empirical investigation was aimed at establishing the reliability and validity of the derived questionnaire and to determine the important dimensions to be focused on with regards to interventions. The results of the empirical study showed that employees of a depot of a distributing organisation tend to have positive perceptions about supervision, remuneration and change organisations. The research also showed that employees of a depot of a distributing organisation tend to have negative perceptions about interpersonal relationships and promotion. The research also indicated a large number of factors that was considered as neutral. This can be an indication that employees of a depot of a distribution organisation may have a lack of motivation. Finally suggestions for future research were made. / Thesis (M.Com. (Industrial Psychology))--Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education, 2003.

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