Includes bibliographical references (leaves 123-135). / Students eligible to receive need-based financial aid represent a group of students that are of particular concern for universities in post-apartheid South Africa. The academic success of these students is a concern considering the high failure and attrition rates among these students, which represents a huge waste of financial resources for universities. There is however a paucity of literature on the determinants of academic performance among these students. The present study attempted to address the gap in the existing literature by investigating the effect of various psychosocial factors on the academic performance of first-year university students, who were the recipients of need-based financial aid at the University of Cape Town (UCT). The main aim of the present study was to test the hypothesis that adjustment mediates the relationship between students' help-seeking behaviours, academic motivation, self-esteem, perceived stress and academic overload, and their academic performance. This hypothesis has not been tested previously. The sample for the present study consisted of 194 of the 465 students considered eligible to participate in the Student Development Programme at UCT. All of these students received need-based financial aid from the university. The sample for the present study consisted of participants between 17 and 28 years (M=19 years) who were mostly 'black' African participants and who mainly spoke an African language as their first language. Path analysis was utilised to test the hypotheses. The results show that adjustment did not function as a pure mediator. It was found that adjustment mediated some of the effects of the psychosocial factors on academic performance. Academic performance was best explained by the direct and mediated effects of the psychosocial factors. Intrinsic motivation, identified regulation, self-esteem and perceived stress were significant predictors of adjustment. Only extrinsic regulation and academic overload were significant predictors of academic performance. Further analyses revealed that the proposed model, including adjustment as a mediator variable, was more appropriate in explaining academic performance among male students than among female students. Gender differences in the effect of introjected regulation, self-esteem and perceived stress on adjustment were found. Only motivation was a significant predictor of academic performance among female students. Adjustment, academic overload and self-esteem were significant predictors of academic performance among male students. Further analyses were conducted to explore the effects of the individual SACQ sub-scales on academic performance. Academic adjustment had a significant positive impact on academic performance whereas social adjustment had a significant negative impact on academic performance.

When participants are presented with lists of items for immediate serial recall, tradition would suggest that a race begins - between the need to constantly refresh or recycle the memory trace of that list, and a tendency for the memory trace to decay. Standard models in the literature assumed a complex interaction of mental subsystems whereby a controlling attentional process strove to keep the memory of such a list alive for a sufficiently long period of time so it could be remembered and output in order, using a type of recirculating loop rehearsal and storage mechanism to offset the decay process. Evidence supporting such models stemmed from the observation that more short words could be remembered in order than long words (Baddeley, Thomson, & Buchanan, 1975). This word length effect, described in the second chapter, was a crucial piece of evidence for rehearsal and decay models, in the example given, the recirculating loop was seen as being time-based and extremely limited in capacity, such that memory was deemed equivalent to the amount of information which could be cycled through the rehearsal loop in about two seconds. A number of recent challenges to this model of remembering have cast doubt on the nature of the process as described in such models as that of Baddeley (1990; 1996). Chapter 1 began by providing an overview of the development of such models from their earliest form, and also introduced some alternative ideas about the structure and function of human memory. A processing view was described, in which the probability of recalling a list of items depended not upon a race between decay and rehearsal, but on differential processing of items based on their nature. As remembering a list in its original order involves not only remembering the items themselves, but also information about how they relate together in the list, an alternate theory was advanced that in some cases the processing of information about the items, and information about their serial order could dissociate, producing a processing tradeoff. As individual items were better remembered, information about their presentation order diminished. This observation (Nairne, Riegler, & Serra, 1991) was introduced as the item-order hypothesis. The item-order hypothesis suggested that under certain conditions increased item processing could lead to deficits in order processing, and that this produced a dissociation in performance between item and order memory tasks. The generation effect (Slamecka & Graf, 1978) was one such example, as was the perceptual interference effect (Mulligan, 2000), and these were discussed in Chapter 3. The word length effect was seen as another instance where this tradeoff might be observed. A design incorporating elements of item and order tasks based upon Nairne et al. (1991) was detailed in the fourth chapter, leading on to empirical testing of the word length effect (Chapter 5), the generation effect (Chapter 6) and the perceptual interference effect (Chapter 7). This series of experiments compared word length and generation effects under serial recall and single item recognition tasks, using a range of test conditions designed to allow replication and extension of existing data from these separate streams of research. Results did not appear as predicted for some aspects of generation and all aspects of perceptual interference, and further experiments in Chapter 8 attempted to address the current findings. For the experiments involving word length, short words were better recalled than long words on the serial recall task, but long words were better recognised in the recognition task. Following additional manipulations in Chapter 8, the generation effect began to produce a similar pattern, but the results for perceptual interference were inconclusive. Word length data, however, were consistent with the item-order approach and supported a novel explanation for the word length effect. Implications and conclusions were discussed in Chapter 9.

The problem of understanding how terrorists are psychologically enabled to undertake violence against other human beings is one that has not been adequately examined in past research on terrorism. Indeed, while much has been researched on discovering motivations for such acts, an examination and analysis of the loss of inhibitions as a significant factor in the overall process of becoming a terrorist has been somewhat overlooked. This thesis is an attempt to remedy this shortcoming in the literature, and therefore represents an inquiry into how the process of disinhibition relates to the overall process of terrorism. By examining a number of different factors theoretically and applying them to two contemporary cases of terrorism, this thesis aims to show that there are numerous disinhibitors in relation to acts of terrorism, and that, in some situations, these disinhibitors can relatively easily come into play.

This thesis takes a lifespan approach to investigate attentional bias from childhood into older adulthood. Using the dot-probe task throughout, the primary aim was to identify age-related differences in attentional bias across the lifespan. Short and longer stimulus presentation times were used in some studies to investigate the time course of attentional bias. Furthermore, anxiety and executive function were measured to examine how these factors may influence attentional bias across the lifespan. Results found that children showed an attentional bias away from emotion faces which was most evident in those with low trait anxiety. Young adults attended to angry faces at the short presentation time, this was not maintained at longer presentation times. In older adults, results showed an initial avoidance of happy faces followed by a bias towards happy faces at the later presentation time. A direct comparison between children and young adults found that children showed avoidance of emotion compared to adults. A direct comparison of young and older adults found in those with higher state anxiety, young adults showed a bias towards threat at the long presentation time, whereas older adults showed a bias away from threat. Contrary to the predominant theory of attention, executive function was not found to be related to attentional bias in children or young adults. However it did influence attentional bias in older adults, where poorer inhibition was related to a bias away from the happy face. To summarise, this thesis has identified differences in attentional bias according to age and prompts further research into how age, anxiety, executive function and attentional bias may interact in a non-clinically anxious population.

Abstract not available.

published_or_final_version / Psychology / Master / Master of Philosophy

One of the most exciting recent developments in the social sciences has been the rapid formulation and acceptance of evolutionary psychology. Evolutionary psychology (EP) theory informs us that the human mind has certainly evolved and innate mechanisms have been shaped by our ancient social history. Consequently, specifically-evolved mental mechanisms exist that assist the human mind in dealing with complex social phenomena, such as cooperation. Evolutionary psychology theorists posit that for human beings to maximise the benefits of cooperation there need to be efficient ways for individuals to determine whether other members of the social group are operating equitably. Central to successful human cooperation, therefore, we find, amongst others, crucial concepts such as fairness, trust, autonomy, reciprocity, democracy and social recognition.Because the associated mental mechanisms have evolved over millennia they are largely hardwired into the human brain, are relatively slow to evolve, and have not been able to keep pace with the vast and rapid social change brought about through modernity and industrialism. We are left struggling, therefore, with psychological stressors that exist because of the resultant mismatches.This research study considers moral ethics within the workplace as an important component of quality of worklife (QWL), and suggests a new view be taken through the lenses provided by evolutionary psychology theory. This is done specifically with respect to the ethics of a social environment (the business community) that is often quite alienating to our socially evolved minds. This study was conducted with reference to business ethics specifically and it highlights the incongruent landscape lying between that and personal moral ethics. Through the application of social critical theory, it challenges the orthodoxy concerning the relationships between personal liberty, justice and the neo-liberal market economy. It also illuminates the reasons why it is important for business ethics and personal ethics to be brought closer together, and it suggests redefining QWL as a way of bringing about this paradigmatic shift.

A philosophical and philological commentary on Cicero, first book of the Tusculan Disputations.

One of the most exciting recent developments in the social sciences has been the rapid formulation and acceptance of evolutionary psychology. Evolutionary psychology (EP) theory informs us that the human mind has certainly evolved and innate mechanisms have been shaped by our ancient social history. Consequently, specifically-evolved mental mechanisms exist that assist the human mind in dealing with complex social phenomena, such as cooperation. Evolutionary psychology theorists posit that for human beings to maximise the benefits of cooperation there need to be efficient ways for individuals to determine whether other members of the social group are operating equitably. Central to successful human cooperation, therefore, we find, amongst others, crucial concepts such as fairness, trust, autonomy, reciprocity, democracy and social recognition.Because the associated mental mechanisms have evolved over millennia they are largely hardwired into the human brain, are relatively slow to evolve, and have not been able to keep pace with the vast and rapid social change brought about through modernity and industrialism. We are left struggling, therefore, with psychological stressors that exist because of the resultant mismatches.This research study considers moral ethics within the workplace as an important component of quality of worklife (QWL), and suggests a new view be taken through the lenses provided by evolutionary psychology theory. This is done specifically with respect to the ethics of a social environment (the business community) that is often quite alienating to our socially evolved minds. This study was conducted with reference to business ethics specifically and it highlights the incongruent landscape lying between that and personal moral ethics. Through the application of social critical theory, it challenges the orthodoxy concerning the relationships between personal liberty, justice and the neo-liberal market economy. It also illuminates the reasons why it is important for business ethics and personal ethics to be brought closer together, and it suggests redefining QWL as a way of bringing about this paradigmatic shift.

There is an urgent pressure of the time (2016) to re-evaluate our patterns of consumption to adapt to changing climates and reduce waste and pollution. Because an immediate restructuring of global production strategies is not likely any time soon, industrial innovators are finding new ways of redesigning supply-chain management in efforts to move towards environmentally sustainable business in which all manufacturing practices are transparent. Patagonia, Inc. is a testament to the often-debated question of economic value in green business practices, and this thesis acts as an outline as to how they arrived at such an impressive presence in the business world, grow financially, maintain global influence, while maintaining their environmental priorities. Through its transparent and environmentally conscious supply-chain management, Patagonia has effectively set the scene for other producers to follow its lead in a time where redesign and innovation is the only answer to depleting natural resources and the need to eliminate waste. The crucial connection that Patagonia maintains with its consumers can be examined through the inherent environmental psychological analysis of Patagonia’s mission to create the highest quality product while doing the least amount of harm to the environment. The consumers who are buying products to engage in outdoor recreation presumably attach high value to those natural lands and waters that they are venturing out into. Therefore, with this deep emotional significance comes motivation to protect the sanctity of those places on Earth, and support those organizations and businesses that are driven by this same passion.