The quality of the relationship between supervisors and subordinates strongly influences a variety of important work-related attitudes and behaviors, which consequently impact organizational effectiveness.

This project discusses the problem of eating disorders in dancers. The development of eating disorders can be attributed to sociocultural development, and psychological factors. Dance places an emphasis on thinness, and the pressure to obtain ideal standards of thinness appear to be particularly salient in the development of eating disorders in dancers.

A Dissertation submitted to the Psychology Department, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfillment of the course of the Degree of Bachelor of Arts with Masters in Industrial Psychology. / The aim of this research was to, firstly, explore the relationship between psychological contract breach and organisational commitment, and to examine the extent to which trust mediates this relationship. Secondly, the research aimed to develop and validate a scale to measure psychological contract breach. Data was collected from a large organisation that had completed nation-wide retrenchments. The quantitative sample population consisted of 84 employees in the organisation, while 10 members of the organisation were interviewed to obtain qualitative information. A cross-sectional design was used and data was collected by means of questionnaires and interviews. The process of triangulation was used to provide a deeper understanding of the relationship being assessed. The psychological contract breach scale was analysed by means of a factor analysis and was found to be valid, and the reliability was found to be satisfactory. The results of the study showed that there is a negative relationship between psychological contract breach and organisational commitment and that trust does not appear to mediate this relationship. Explanations for the findings are offered, and the theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed. Finally, limitations of this study and directions for future research are presented. / Andrew Chakane 2018

The aim of the current investigation is the development and validation of an Interbeing Identity Scale (IIS)—used to measure the integration of an individual’s fundamental sense of identity with all other beings, nature, and the cosmos. The study further investigates the association between scores on the IIS and 1) profiles of consciousness exploration practices and 2) psychological outcomes (mental health, positive psychology and relational ethics). Interbeing is a term coined by Thich Nhat Hanh which describes all beings as unique and yet one. Interbeing identity refers to a sense of personhood rooted in beliefs, experiences, and behaviors aligned with an awareness of interbeing. The IIS was constructed to measure interbeing identity as reflected in an individual’s sense of non-dual relationship to nature, the universe, and other beings. The scale was developed as a concise metric, amenable to administration in applied contexts. Scale items were generated and refined with input from monks of Thich Nhat Hanh’s Blue Cliff monastery, and from researchers and clinicians. Content validity, internal structure, and reliability were assessed via expert surveys, content validity analysis, cognitive interviewing, convergent validity analysis, exploratory factor analysis, and confirmatory factor analysis. The data indicates that: 1) the IIS is a valid and reliable measure of interbeing identity and 2) may be useful to assess identity transformation occasioned by spiritual, consciousness based, and/or clinical intervention.

Our decisions reflect who we are and shape who we become. The field of decision-making and learning has revealed how past outcomes guide our future choices by updating value representations. However, we often make choices among options we never experienced before, and therefore their value is not immediately accessible. How do we navigate these choices? This dissertation posits that such decisions rely on memory mechanisms that facilitate generalization and inferential reasoning. Through a combination of behavioral experiments, computational modeling and neuroimaging measures, I explore the diverse ways in which memory mechanisms influence value-based decisions between options for which value is unknown. In Chapter One, I investigate how individuals assign value to unchosen alternatives and propose that memory creates an associative link between choice options, with consequences for later updating of value. Through a series of five experiments, I demonstrate an inverse relationship between the valuation of unchosen options and the direct learning about chosen options, and show that this inverse inference of value is related to memory of the decision itself. In Chapter Two, I manipulate the associative link between choice options using a well-established memory manipulation technique and observe a reduction in the inverse inference of unchosen options. This provides further evidence for the causal role of associative memory in the inferential effect. Additionally, I introduce a novel policy-gradient model incorporating memory components that offers the best explanation for observed behaviors. Lastly, in Chapter Three, I present behavioral and neuroimaging evidence supporting the influence of conceptual knowledge in value-based decisions involving entirely new choice options. I show that people use existing category knowledge to group similar items together, enabling value extraction at a category level and generalization to novel items. Overall, this dissertation underscores the fundamental role of memory in shaping the construction and use of value to guide choice. It emphasizes the adaptive and flexible nature of memory, showing how it combines past experiences to guide future actions.

No description available.

Typescript (photocopy). / Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

Typescript (photocopy). / Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

Forms in pocket. / Digitized by Kansas State University Libraries

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1952 G74 / Master of Science