This thesis is devoted to the development of creative thinking. The main objectives of the work are to identify, define and justify the psychological factors, stages and qualitative characteristics of creative thinking. Show through practical experiments that specially organized cognitive activity leads to the development of creative thinking through the development of its qualitative properties. In my work I analyze in detail the concept of creativity, creative thinking, and cognitive activity in terms of different scientific approaches. One important aspect is the detailed functional analysis of the process of creative thinking and cognitive activity. Cognitive activity in the context of my work is discussed as a functional space for the development of creative thinking. During the practical part by experimental work we confirm the hypothesis that the development of individual qualitative characteristics of creative thinking during a specially organized cognitive activity leads to the overall development of creative thinking. Practical work includes preparation and adaptation of Torrance figural test of creative thinking to identify creative potential, preparation of exercises and tasks for the development of each property of creative thinking, preparing a presentation to familiarize students with concepts: creativity, creative thinking, cognitive activity and the capacity to distinguish psychical phenomena influencing the creative thinking. Creating an appropriate atmosphere for the development of emotionally-positive attitude of students to the process of creative thinking. Ensuring an impact of detected psychological factors through the implementation of certain conditions. Carrying out classes targeted to the development of individual qualitative characteristics of creative thinking in the 5th, 6th and 7th classes of elementary school Janského. By creating a control and experimental groups we provide the ability to track changes in the practical section. After comparing and analyzing the results we can make the conclusion that the specially organized cognitive activity leads to the development of creative thinking. Own contribution of the work lies in the fact that the effect of each identified, evidence-based psychological factor in the development of creative thinking of individual is guaranteed due to creation of certain conditions to initiate and activate this process, while developing each of the four qualitative characteristics of creative thinking takes place gradually. The research results can be used in the practice of educational institutions to create a comprehensive program targeted to develop creative thinking and the implementation of this framework program in the school education process. During writing this thesis we used the following methods: a theoretical analysis of philosophical, psychological and pedagogical literature, examined the practical experience on the subject. Developing creative thinking of individual during cognitive activity was studied using experimental tests of J. Guilford, E.P. Torrance and others. The work consists of two parts. First, more theoretically oriented part, is divided into two chapters. The first chapter deals with definitions of basic terms, describes the process of creative thinking and its stages. The second chapter deals with the revelation of psychological factors and phenomena influencing the process of creative thinking and functional analysis. Second, practically oriented part, deals with the preparation of tests and tasks targeted to the development of individual qualities of creative thinking, practical implementation of research among primary school pupils and analysis of the results.

Uppsatsen handlar om kritiskt tänkande hos revisorer. En revisor ska utföra sina arbetsuppgifter med professionell skepticism och enligt god revisionssed. Syftet med uppsatsen är att studera om detta kritiska tänkande är genomgående i beteendena på revisionsbyråer. Genom en fallstudie har beteenden och handlingar på en revisionsbyrå i Kristianstad studerats. De tre respondenterna som intervjuats är auktoriserade revisorer och intervjuerna utfördes på arbetsplatsen. Teorin om funktionell dumhet, vilken använts som analysverktyg, är ett relativt nytt begrepp som har utvecklats av Alvesson och Spicer (2012). Funktionellt dumt beteende innefattar ett okritiskt samt icke reflekterande tänkande i syfte att underlätta för individers tillvaro. Det finns många fördelar med funktionell dumhet eftersom det får organisationer att fungera smidigt och konfliktfritt men när det brukas i för hög grad finns konsekvenser på lång sikt. Det finns fem typer av funktionell dumhet vilka även är kategorierna som intervjufrågorna utformats från. De fem typerna är: ledarskaps-, struktur-, imitations-, varumärkes- och kulturgenererad dumhet. Vid analys av respondenternas svar framkom att vissa aspekter är mer aktuella än andra inom revisionsfirman. Hänsyn bör dock tas till denna studies omfattning samt att omständigheter är av sådan grad att inga fasta slutsatser kan dras. Det finns innebörder av substans vilka kräver vidare studier i större omfattning för att ge mer reliabilitet och validitet till påståendena. / The essay is about auditors and critical thinking. An auditor should perform his or her duties with professional skepticism and in accordance with good auditing practice. The purpose of the thesis is to study whether this critical thinking is consistent in behavior at the auditing firm. Through the case study, behaviors, and actions at an auditing firm in Kristianstad have been studied. The three respondents interviewed are chartered accountants and the interviews were conducted at their workplace. The theory of functional stupidity, which has been used as an analysis tool, is a relatively new concept that has been developed by Alvesson and Spicer (2012). Functionally stupid behavior includes uncritical and non-reflecting thinking in order to facilitate the existence of the individuals. There are many benefits to functional stupidity because it makes organizations work smoothly and conflict-free, but when used to much, there are long-term consequences. There are five types of functional stupidity which are also the categories from which the interview questions are designed. The five types are: leadership-, structure-, imitation-, brand- and culture-generated stupidity. An analysis of the respondents answers revealed that certain aspects are more relevant than others within the auditing firm. However, the scope of this study should be considered and the circumstance are of such a degree that no firm conclusions can be drawn. There are meanings of substance which require further studies to a greater extent in order give more reliability and validity to the claims.

Text in English / Although the participation of students at institutions of higher learning in South Africa is increasing, student dropout remains a challenge. Student dropout is influenced by a variety of factors, some of which are psychological. The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of adjustment and sense of belonging on students’ intention to dropout of university. The study comprised of three distinctive objectives. The first objective of the study was to examine the relationship between sense of belonging, adjustment and students’ intention to drop out of university. Second, the study sought to test whether sense of belonging and adjustment would predict students’ intention to dropout of university. Finally, the study sought to test whether students’ socioeconomic status would moderate the relationship between sense of belonging and intention to dropout of university. The sample for the study consisted of 955 students enrolled for undergraduate programmes for the 2018 academic year. Pearson correlation, multiple linear regression and moderation analysis were used to test hypotheses stated in the study. The findings revealed a statistically significant relationship between sense of belonging, adjustment and the intention to dropout. The findings also confirmed that sense of belonging and adjustment predict the intention to dropout. However, the study could not prove the hypothesis that socioeconomic status moderates the relationship between sense of belonging and the intention to dropout. Nevertheless, the findings of this study highlighted the importance of psychological factors on undergraduate students’ academic success. Thus, universities should consider initiating programmes that will address students’ psychological challenges throughout their enrolment at university to improve student retention and rates of graduation. / Psychology / M.A.(Psychology with Specialization in Research Consultation)

Bakgrund: År 2020 infördes ett nytt kompetenskrav i SwedSec om ekonomisk psykologi och finansiella rådgivare. Det har under de senaste åren varit stora ekonomiska oroligheter där konsekvenserna av Coronapandemin och det pågående kriget i Ukraina i kombination med andra faktorer har resulterat i rekordhöga inflationsnivåer, vilket i sin tur har resulterat i höjningar av styrräntan. Vid ekonomiskt oroliga tider är det en större risk att personer faller offer för psykologiska fallgropar eller påverkas av psykologiska faktorer. Således är det relevant att skapa förståelse om hur rådgivare påverkas och hanterar psykologiska fallgropar i rådgivningsprocessen. Syfte: Syftet med denna studie har varit att undersöka finansiella rådgivares råd och rekommendationer till kunder under de ekonomiska omständigheterna under första halvåret 2023. Författarna har analyserat hur rådgivare har anpassat sig till de nya kunskapskraven inom ekonomisk psykologi som införts i SwedSecs rådgivningslicens 2020, och utforskat i vilken utsträckning rådgivare uppger att de influeras av psykologiska bias i deras beslutsprocesser. Slutligen har studien syftat till att identifiera metoder som rådgivare använder för att undvika dessa fallgropar och förbättra kvaliteten på deras rådgivning. Metod: En kvalitativ metod har använts i form av nio semistrukturerade intervjuer med finansiella rådgivare. Studien har en abduktiv ansats och axial kodning användes för att analysera de transkriberade intervjuerna. Slutsats: Majoriteten av rådgivarna har låga eller obefintliga kunskaper kring ekonomisk psykologi och de har inte heller vidtagit några åtgärder för att försöka uppfylla SwedSecs kompetenskrav, några rådgivare kommer inte heller ihåg att kompetenskravet infördes. Trots detta är risken liten för att de skall påverkas av psykologiska bias på grund av de använder sig av ett standardiserat rådgivningsverktyg. Studiens resultat pekar således på att rådgivare inte behöver ytterligare kompetenshöjande utbildningar för att motverka psykologiska fallgropar vid rådgivning till kunder, så länge som de använder sig av det rådgivningsverktyget som finns på det finansiella institut som de arbetar på. / Background: In 2020, a new competence requirement was introduced in SwedSec on economic psychology and financial advisors. The past years have seen major economic turmoil where the consequences of the Corona pandemic and the ongoing war in Ukraine combined with other factors have resulted in record high inflation levels, which in turn has resulted in increased benchmark interest rates. In times of economic uncertainty, people are more likely to be influenced by psychological biases and psychological factors. Thus, it is relevant to understand how advisors are affected by and deal with psychological bias in the financial advisory process. Purpose: The purpose of this study has been to examine financial advisors advice and recommendations to clients during the economic circumstances of the first half of 2023. The authors have analyzed how advisors have adapted to the new knowledge requirements about economic psychology introduced in SwedSec's advisory license 2020 and explored the extent to which financial advisors state being influenced by psychological biases in their decision-making processes. Finally, the study aims to identify methods that advisors use to avoid these biases and improve the quality of their recommendations. Methodology: A qualitative method has been used in the form of nine semi-structured interviews with financial advisors. The study has an abductive approach and axial coding was used to analyze the transcribed interviews. Conclusion: Most of the advisors have little, or no knowledge regarding economic psychology and have not taken any measures to try to meet SwedSec's competence requirements, some advisors do not even remember that the competence requirement was implemented. Despite this, the risk of being influenced by psychological bias is small because they use a standardized advisory tool. The results of the study thus indicate that advisors do not need additional competence-enhancing training to counteract psychological pitfalls when advising customers, assuming they use the advisory tool available at the financial institution where they work

Phishing is a form of social engineering, in which attackers attempt to trick victims with e-mails designed to look like legitimate requests (Vishwanath et al., 2011), aiming “to exploit human error or human behaviour with the objective of gaining access to information or services” (European Union Agency for Cybersecurity [ENISA], 2023, p. 7). According to the ENISA Threat Landscape 2023 report, phishing is the most prevalent form of social engineering and predicted to continue posing a significant threat to users (ENISA, 2023). In this, attackers have also already succeeded in circumventing second-factor authentication (2FA) (ENISA, 2023). This thesis aimed to contribute to the ongoing research concerning the mitigation of social engineering attacks by investigating phishing susceptibility and a UX-based mitigation approach in the context of 2FA, which to the best of our knowledge had not been previously researched. Based on prior research in other contexts, stress, attention, elaboration, involvement and 2FA frequency were identified as potentially relevant factors. Under consideration of these factors, a 2FA implementation was designed, combining automated URL verification with verification-basedwarnings. An online study (N = 94) was conducted to investigate how the posited susceptibility factors as well as the UX design can influence users’ decisions to abort or proceed with logging in to a suspicious website. In this, a between-subject study design was used to investigate howmuch of an impact specifically the “opinionatedness” of a warning design, i.e. its “use of visual design cues to promote a recommended course of action” (Felt et al., 2015, p. 2893), can have in the 2FA context compared to an otherwise identical design offering a neutral choice. In the collected sample, involvement had a significant negative effect on the likelihood to proceed with the login, in accordance with its posited influence. In addition, confidence in the decision made was discovered as another potential predictor, also showing a significant negativeeffect on the likelihood to proceed in the collected sample. The observed effect of the opinionated design can be seen to contradict the posited assumption that users would be more likely to go with the promoted action. However, overall, the results can be seen to suggest thattaking susceptibility factors into consideration when designing 2FA implementations might be a promising approach towards phishing mitigation. Further research is needed to validate these indications, due to the insufficient sample size and use of convenience sampling in this thesis.

Linguistic fossilization is a prevalent phenomenon in adult ESLA and presents a perpetual pedagogical challenge to teachers. Despite controversy about the theoretical concept, research is increasingly showing that persistent erroneousness cannot be attributed to single causal factors. This single case study examines controversial aspects surrounding the concept and formulates criteria for identifying fossilization. The study investigates the conversational output of an independent adult learner over a period of nine months and presents a holistic exploration of causal influences. The findings substantiate that fossilization arises from changing combinations of factors, and that such combinations are unique to the situation of each adult learner. The key to the successful treatment of fossilized errors may lie in identifying their roots, which can be achieved by analyzing output and through discussion with learners in order to gain insight into their experience of the learning process. Results also suggest that a critical perspective on the theoretical construct is needed in order to investigate the phenomenon in adult second language acquisition. / Linguistics / M.A. (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL))

The focus of this dissertation revolved around the phenomenon of friendship, specifically amongst adolescents. Friendship is a universal phenomenon, that occurs in every race, culture and religion. Within friendship there are some universal aspects that were investigated. The research attempted to understand the phenomenon of friendship amongst the developmental phase of the adolescent. Furthermore, the effect of friendship on the adolescent’s general psychological functioning had been investigated. The research came to the conclusion that friendship does have a positive influence on an adolescent’s general psychological functioning but that some psychological factors, such as communication skills, social skills and self confidence need to be developed to a certain extent in order for friendship to have a positive influence on the adolescent’s psychological functioning. If these psychological factors are however not in place, friendship may to a certain extent highlight an adolescent’s weaknesses and reinforce his/her social inadequacy, inferiority, lack of self confidence and negative self talk. / Psychology of Education / M. Ed. (Guidance and Counselling)

The quality of education in South Africa has come increasingly under scrutiny for various reasons and learners ‘performance in mathematics is one of the main areas of concern. Learners in secondary schools in Nzhelele East Circuit in Limpopo Province, South Africa, are not performing well in mathematics. Learners who want to pursue careers such as civil engineering, medicine and other qualifications where mathematics is a prerequisite find it difficult to follow these careers. The study used focus group discussions with 20 Grade 12 learners, face-to-face semi-structured interviews with six teachers and four SMT to investigate factors affecting grade 12 learners performance in mathematics in two secondary schools. The study highlighted socio-cultural and psychological factors that are seen to be barriers in mathematics performance. The purpose of this study was to explore factors that affect Grade 12 learners’ performance in mathematics. As there are many factors, this study's main emphasis was on the influence of the home environment, teachers’ competence and attitudes in teaching mathematics, learners’ attitudes towards mathematics and strategies that can be used to improve learners’ performance in mathematics. The afore-said were named themes each of which related to questions contained in the semi-structured interview schedule. The study included literature review from Kenya, Ghana and South Africa. Qualitative research method was used. Interviews were conducted with SMT, teachers and learners. The researcher set out to answer the following question What are the dominant and most profound socio-cultural and psychological factors of the Grade 12 mathematics learners affecting performance in the Nzhelele East Circuit, Vhembe District of Limpopo Province? The following points will also be taken into consideration during this research. How do learner performance trends in mathematics education look like among Grade 12 mathematics learners in the Nzhelele East Circuit, Vhembe District of Limpopo Province, and South Africa? What are the teacher-based factors established to have been contributory to the state of learner performance in mathematics in the selected participant schools? What are the School Management Team (SMTs) factors established to have been contributory to the state of learner performance in mathematics in the selected participant schools? THE AIMS AND OBJECTIVES Aim This study investigates the dominant and most profound socio-cultural and psychological factors affecting learner performance in mathematics among Grade 12 learners in the Nzhelele East Circuit, Vhembe District of Limpopo Province, and South Africa. Objectives The objective of this study was to explore the socio-cultural and psychological factors in the home and school environment that affect Grade 12 learners performance in mathematics at Nzhelele East Circuit, Vhembe District of Limpopo Province. Based on the above question the following were findings of the research. • Mathematics is believed to be a critical school subject in most regions of the world in general, and Sub-Saharan Africa in particular. • A plethora of governments – especially those in developing economies where governments are targeting industrialization and technological development believe mathematics is crucial for facilitating development and advancement of the general populace of their regions. • Mathematics is a compulsory subject in most education systems around the world. • There are a variety of complexities and constraints affecting the teaching and learning of mathematics in most regions of the world. • There is poor learner performance in mathematics. This is indicated by high failure rate in mathematics during end-of-year learner assessments. • The reasons for the poor performance of learners in mathematics in the selected schools were vast and intertwined. • Efforts have been made at international level to intervene with regard finding solutions to complexities and constraints affecting teaching-learning environment in mathematics. • The complexities and constraints affecting the teaching-learning environment of mathematics in South Africa stem from South Africa's past era of apartheid education. • Mathematics has been a major target of improvement and transformation by the post-apartheid government in South Africa. • Regardless of the efforts made by the post-apartheid government in South Africa to improve and transform teaching-learning environment in mathematics, there are perpetual complexities and constraints still hindering progress, and this affects learner output in mathematics. • Mathematics is one of the poorly performing subjects in the post-apartheid education system in South African schools – especially those schools which are based in formerly disadvantaged areas such as homelands and townships. • There is a growing body of literature investigating the complexities and constraints affecting the teaching-learning of mathematics in South Africa. Apart from the conclusions based on general observations, the study furthermore concluded that critical learner-based factors, teacher-based factors and SMT-base factors contributed to the state of affairs in the selected participant schools. This study therefore concluded thus: • Learner-based factors Mathematics learners were poorly prepared in the lower grades for senior grades. In other words, learners lacked proper foundation and background in mathematics. Learners were not well taught the basics of mathematics in previous grades. Furthermore, mathematics learners lacked assistance with homework for example because the majority of parents were illiterate and therefore not involved in supervision of learners beyond school environment. Learners showed negative attitude towards their teachers and the subject. Learners were not self-motivated in mathematics. • Teacher-based factors Teachers did not have enough workshops on how to teach mathematics, and also on content knowledge improvement. Less creative teachers were teaching mathematics. Teachers lacked support from their principals. The majority of teachers lacked passion in mathematics. • School Management Teams (SMTs) factors This study concludes that mathematics teachers were not receiving adequate support from the School management Teams (SMTs). Lack of teacher support by SMTs stems from poor organisation of supervisory roles expected from SMTs. Teachers' work is not being properly monitored and supervised. RECOMMENDATIONS Based on the conclusions drawn from the study, the following recommendations are crucial, and they have to be implemented: • Recommendations to the Department of Education This study recommends that the Department of Education should monitor or revisit the methods of teaching and learning of mathematics. Assessment should also be revisited to ensure that the mathematics paper is not too long for the learners during examinations. Enlisted service providers who facilitate teacher workshops for mathematics must be conversant with content requirements of mathematics. Considerations should be made to simplify the mathematics question paper. The Department of Education should also provide necessary resources such as textbooks timeously. Knowledgeable mathematics specialists and advisers could be enlisted to visit regular visits to schools to assist teachers and learners throughout the year. • Recommendations to the School Management Teams (SMTs) The SMT should ensure that their educators are adequately qualified to teach mathematics. as a subject as well as being able to teach their learners in a way that they understand the subject. In addition, teachers who are knowledgeable in teaching mathematics should be appointed to teach mathematics. The SMTs should also ensure that compulsory workshops are provided for mathematics teachers at school level. Furthermore, the SMTs should ensure that educators are able to identify learners that are under-performing, monitor the utilisation of study time and assist in resolving problems regarding the poor performance of such individual learners. School Management Teams shall facilitate additional after-hours lessons and sessions to assist learners identified as lacking in home environment assistance for example. Moreover, SMTs should also encourage all Grade 12 mathematics learners to participate in supervised extra mathematics lessons and extra-mural activities in order to develop and build their self-confidence and positive self-esteem. In addition, the SMT members should be more supportive to their mathematics teachers. Continuous moderation of teachers' work should be encouraged. School Management Teams (SMTs) should also develop motivational programmes and instruments to encourage and motivate learners in their respective schools. For example, performing learners could be awarded with prizes in public – especially during school organised functions which might include learners, teachers and parents. • Recommendations to the teachers The teachers should make it a point that they attended mathematics workshops as organised by various stakeholders. Teachers' interest in mathematics could be improved by improving their knowledge of subject content in mathematics, and personal recognition by authorities. Performing teachers could also be recognised and awarded with prizes publicly at school gatherings and meetings. Teachers should also be encouraged to obtain further qualifications and skills in mathematics. • Recommendations to the learners Efforts should be made to improve learners’ attitudes towards mathematics, and in addition to their mathematics teachers. Learners should be made aware of national target for mathematics education and the implications thereof. This could be achieved by utilizing educators – especially those who teach Guidance as a subject to learners to provide more convincing evidence of the spin-offs of obtaining good passes in mathematics in South Africa. SUGGESTION FOR AREAS NEEDING FURTHER STUDY There is a need to conduct follow-up research on: • applied strategies and instrument to improve learner attitude towards mathematics. • Establishing whether the complexities and constraints affecting learner performance in mathematics affect both girl and boy learners the same considering that their circumstances and conditions might materially differ. / Curriculum and Instructional Studies / M. Ed. (Curriculum Studies)

Thesis (M.A. (Psychology)) -- University of Limpopo, 2000 / Refer to document

Made available in DSpace on 2010-04-20T20:14:45Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2002-04-24T00:00:00Z / Uma vez definidos os conceitos ali fundamentais e tê-los analisado todo investigação bibliográfica detalhada, o pesquisador identificou fatores relevantes na adaptação a aposentadoria, como por anteriores estudos estrangeiros. contribuição do programa de aposentadoria ajuste aos aposentados e satisfação foi determinado. Os estudos de caso foram realizados em empresas localizadas em São Paulo, Brasil, a fim de verificar o fluxo alinhados programas de aposentadoria locais estão com as teorias discutidas e tendências. L = descobertas apoio financeiro, fatores biológicos, sociais e psicológicos, como maior determinantes da adaptação aposentados mais fácil de aposentadoria. / Once defined all fundamental concepts and having them analyzed throughout detailed literature investigation, the researcher has identified relevant factors in retirement adaptation, as per prior foreign studies. Retirement Program's contribution to retirees' adjustment and satisfaction was determined. Case studies were conducted in companies located in São Paulo, Brazil, in order to verify flow aligned local Retirement Programs are with discussed theories and trends.