Typescript (photocopy). / Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

Social support is classically conceptualized as “what you can do” or “what you can offer” to support someone in times of stress. But for some individuals, could less be more when it comes to social support? Empirical research has shown that support receipt can have differential effects. A preference for self-reliance in stressful situations might be one explanation as to why social support is not always beneficial for some individuals. The current work introduces the phenomenon that some people prefer to be self-reliant in times of stress, i.e., they want to independently deal with the stressor instead of receiving direct supportive acts from a partner or someone else. Across seven studies, within three unique populations, and through low and high stress periods, we aimed to understand individual differences in a preference for self-reliance within close relationships. We discovered that a preference for self-reliance is a common phenomenon from adolescence through adulthood. This preference matters at a daily level across different outcomes and relationships, and is an integral part of daily human interaction affecting support transactions across different support providers. People with certain personality traits may be more likely to prefer self-reliance. The interaction between a preference for self-reliance and social support provision has important implications during critical time periods such as the college application process. Times of acute stress are particularly revealing of links between a preference for self-reliance and support transactions. Wanting to be self-reliant in stressful situations may be a more common desire than previously thought in the literature on close relationships. Individual differences such as the preference for self-reliance may explain the mixed effects of social support. The addition of preference for self-reliance as an individual difference impacting support transactions expands the field’s current understanding of social support and support provision. We now know that there is a desired form of support beyond the classic conceptualization of social support and, for some, less is in fact more.

Modernising discourses of intellectual disability have brought innovative social technologies that promote participation and freedom for people so labelled. This thesis argues there is a key experiential contradiction between these discourses as operationalised in neo-liberalism and the ways that people with intellectual disability embrace self-advocacy and become political actors in their own right. Through its inherently moral claims, self-advocacy supports the experiential voice of the 'other' and reveals itself as a sustaining and enduring pillar in the struggle against human injustice and inequity. These other discourses, in contrast, intensify individualisation, ignore power relations and depoliticise self-advocacy as a politics of resistance. The first part of the thesis critically examines the emergence of intellectual disability as a dimension of human difference and examines how forms of knowledge shape social and policy responses to such people. The second part presents a collaborative action research methodology and a reflective study which challenges the bio-medical, positivist and psycho-reductionist styles of research that have objectified people with intellectual disability. Using this methodology, the voices and experiences of two groups of self-advocates, one in England and the other in Australia are interpreted. Contemporary professional and other governmental interventions demand individual competencies in the pursuit of self-determination. These discourses of empowerment and citizenship are in constant tension with historically conditioned structures which shape the material and social lives of people with intellectual disability. The thesis finds similarities in the ways that self-advocates and their allies interpret these political realities and work within, across and beyond their contradictory trajectories of constraint and freedom. The study suggests that self-advocacy is a complex and sophisticated practice aimed at recognition of the unique lived experience of intellectual disability and the legitimacy of claims to self-representation. It also operates at a deeper level as an emotional process of transformation. Its powerful recuperative character sustains liberated identities for people with intellectual disability, many of whom have experienced lives of abuse, neglect and mis-recognition. Such practices have the potential to contribute to transforming both the centres of policy-making and power and subaltern selves.

Thesis (M. P. A.)--University of Hong Kong, 2006. / Title proper from title frame. Also available in printed format.

Social Cognitive Theory (SCT: Bandura, 1997) has been used successfully in understanding exercise adherence. To date, the majority of the exercise research has focused on situations of personal agency (i. e. , self as agent: e. g. , McAuley & Blissmer, 2000). However, there are a number of exercise situations in which people look to others to help them manage their exercise participation by enlisting a <i>proxy-agent</i> (Bandura, 1997). While using assistance from a proxy can promote the development of self-regulatory skills, Bandura (1997) cautions that reliance on a proxy actually reduces mastery experiences which can result in an inability to self-regulate one?s behaviour. Although research examined proxy-agency in exercise (e. g. , Bray et al. , 2001), the issue of reliance on the proxy at the expense of the participant?s ability to adjust to exercise without that agent has not been investigated. This potential dilemma of proxy-agency in exercise was at the core of this dissertation and was investigated in a series of three studies. Study 1 investigated whether those who differed in preferred level of proxy-contact also differed in their social-cognitions both within and outside a proxy-led exercise context. In addition, the relationships between proxy-efficacy, reliance and self-efficacy were examined. Results indicated that participants who preferred regular contact with an exercise proxy had lower self-regulatory efficacy, lower task efficacy, and weaker intentions in a proxy-led exercise context. Further, high-contact participants were shown to be less efficacious in dealing with the behavioural challenge of sudden class elimination. It was also demonstrated that higher reliance on the instructor was associated with lower self-efficacy and higher proxy-efficacy. Study 2 served to extend the findings of Study 1 through the examination of behavioural differences characteristic of differential levels of preferred proxy contact and the reasons for use of proxy-agency. It was found that exercise class participants preferring high contact with a proxy found exercising independently more difficult than did their low contact counterparts. It was also found that when faced with class elimination, those preferring high contact chose a self-managed activity alternative less frequently than did those preferring low contact. High contact participants also reported feeling less confident, less satisfied and perceived their alternative activity as more difficult than did those preferring low contact. In examining the reasons for preferring high proxy-contact, results indicated that a preference for high contact was associated with having had less experience exercising independently and allotting more responsibility for in-class participation to the class instructor as compared to preferring low proxy-contact. Study 3 used Lent and Lopez?s (2002) tripartite model of efficacy beliefs to examine the associations between relational efficacies (i. e. , other-efficacy and relation inferred self-efficacy (RISE) beliefs, proxy-efficacy) and various social cognitions relevant to proxy-agency. Results revealed that relational efficacies were distinct yet related constructs which additively predicted self-regulatory efficacy, satisfaction, intended intensity and reliance. Relational efficacies were also shown to make unique contributions to the predictions of the relevant social-cognitions. It was also demonstrated that RISE beliefs were associated with the attributions participants made. Specifically, higher RISE beliefs was associated with making more internal, personally controllable and stable attributions. These results represent the initial examination of relational efficacy beliefs in the exercise literature and provide additional evidence of the proxy-agency dilemma in exercise. Taken together, the present series of studies both support theorizing by Bandura on the dilemma of proxy-agency and represent an extension of the existing literature of proxy-agency in exercise. Results suggest that seemingly healthy, regularly exercising adults who choose to employ proxy-agency may be at risk for nonadherence in situations of behavioural challenge. The current findings have important implications for exercise leaders and interventionists as they must be aware of the balance between helping and hindering.

I de flesta fall är diagnosen en välkommen orsaksförklaring till individens symtom men den kan också komma att bli en mall med förväntningar som individen anpassar sig efter. Det finns risk att individen låter sig påverkas negativt av diagnosen. Syftet med studien var att undersöka hur terapeutiskt verksamma personer upplever att patienten påverkas av att få diagnosen depression. Sex semistrukturerade intervjuer genomfördes med deltagare som valdes målinriktat utifrån följande kriterium: kliniskt verksamma terapeuter med minst fem års erfarenhet inom utredning och/eller behandling av patienter med depressionstillstånd. Resultaten visade att den formella diagnosen enligt terapeuterna sällan upplevdes negativt av patienten utan att den istället normaliserade och förklarade individens tillstånd. Detta kan förklaras av att diagnosen depression idag är relativt utbredd i samhället. Det hade dock varit intressant att se den här problematiken ur patientens perspektiv, huruvida diagnosen upplevs normaliserande i samma grad som terapeuterna i denna studie visat på.

Based upon the view that changes in institutional environment have an effect on transaction attributes, which will make anew the choice of economic organization, the purpose of the thesis is to explain the organization development and structure change of Mainland China's non-state-owned enterprises. It tries to modify O. E. Williamson's theory of governance structure in order to theorize China's economy more suitably. More importantly, the thesis describes a specific dimension of transaction ¡Ðthe need for "political reliance" in the transitional economy, with which we supplement and/or on substitute Williamson's (1999) concept of "probity". We find out that the need for political reliance in stead of probity, is the key to understanding why and which kind of governance mechanism is more "efficient" in managing transaction in Mainland China's non-state-owned section. The theory we establish is applied to explaining the organization development and structure change of Mainland China's non-state-owned interprises, which have experienced different need of political reliance in different stages of China's economic reform. Especially suitable for the theory to explain is about the surge and fall of the unique form of organization, i.e. the so-called "Gua-kau"(±¾¾a) enterprises. The thesis also predicts the tendency of structure change in Mainland China's non-state-owned seitor by using the same theory.

For over a century, researchers have studied methods for revitalizing urban communities. Many studies show that entrepreneurship plays a vital role in sustaining valuable resources that are necessary for community development. The current study adds to previous research by identifying factors that are related to self-reliance and lower crime. I analyze data from the 1991 National Race and Politics Study, which explored attitudes on various issues related to community development and politics. My findings indicate that jobs, more say in government decisions, and hard work are significantly related to self-reliance, while small business, neighborhood organizations, care for the homeless and job training are significantly related to lower crime. These results support the work of previous researchers by showing that crime and neighborhood organizations play important roles in community development. The study goes a step further to identify additional attitudinal variables that are related to self-reliance and lower crime. These results should assist policy makers in determining what factors may help revitalize urban communities that suffer from high levels of unemployment and crime. / text

Modernising discourses of intellectual disability have brought innovative social technologies that promote participation and freedom for people so labelled. This thesis argues there is a key experiential contradiction between these discourses as operationalised in neo-liberalism and the ways that people with intellectual disability embrace self-advocacy and become political actors in their own right. Through its inherently moral claims, self-advocacy supports the experiential voice of the 'other' and reveals itself as a sustaining and enduring pillar in the struggle against human injustice and inequity. These other discourses, in contrast, intensify individualisation, ignore power relations and depoliticise self-advocacy as a politics of resistance. The first part of the thesis critically examines the emergence of intellectual disability as a dimension of human difference and examines how forms of knowledge shape social and policy responses to such people. The second part presents a collaborative action research methodology and a reflective study which challenges the bio-medical, positivist and psycho-reductionist styles of research that have objectified people with intellectual disability. Using this methodology, the voices and experiences of two groups of self-advocates, one in England and the other in Australia are interpreted. Contemporary professional and other governmental interventions demand individual competencies in the pursuit of self-determination. These discourses of empowerment and citizenship are in constant tension with historically conditioned structures which shape the material and social lives of people with intellectual disability. The thesis finds similarities in the ways that self-advocates and their allies interpret these political realities and work within, across and beyond their contradictory trajectories of constraint and freedom. The study suggests that self-advocacy is a complex and sophisticated practice aimed at recognition of the unique lived experience of intellectual disability and the legitimacy of claims to self-representation. It also operates at a deeper level as an emotional process of transformation. Its powerful recuperative character sustains liberated identities for people with intellectual disability, many of whom have experienced lives of abuse, neglect and mis-recognition. Such practices have the potential to contribute to transforming both the centres of policy-making and power and subaltern selves.

Thesis(M.S.)--Auburn University, 2005. / Abstract. Vita. Includes bibliographic references.