This dissertation examines the impact of trauma on information-seeking behaviors and decision-making processes. Essay 1 includes a qualitative analysis of the transcripts obtained from interviews with four military service members diagnosed with PTSD. The results showed that 75% of this small sample population exhibited addictive behavior that was presented in their information behaviors. All four members indicated that the excessive extent to which they seek information is related to the perceived importance of the information and their level of trust in the sources. Low trust in information sources increases the number of sources searched for validation in this population. Essay 2 involved the collection and analysis of survey data. The results of the stepwise backward regression show that two trauma variables (adult sexual assault, sudden fear) have a significant combined negative effect on decision-making in this population. The analysis and results of a different survey are presented in Essay 3. The stepwise logistic regression analysis results conducted on the summated scales developed showed a strong positive link between trust in scientific experts for scientific information and the dichotomous dependent variable trust in social media for news. The research conducted in this dissertation extends the understanding of how trauma affects people's information-seeking habits and decision-making processes. The findings have implications for how to communicate, policies relevant to information dissemination, and mental health measures. Future research is suggested to understand these behaviors and potential treatments better.

Forskning om feedback har länge haft ett stort fokus på traditionell feedback inom organisationer, som sker från chef till medarbetare, och det har inte funnits ett lika starkt intresse för att studera feedback från medarbetare till chef, så kallad “upward feedback”, vilket gör det relevant att öka förståelsen inom detta område. Syftet med studien var att öka förståelsen för hur chefer använder feedback från medarbetare för att leda och utveckla verksamheten och sitt eget ledarskap. Studien har en kvalitativ ansats, vilket ligger till grund för insamling av data genom tio semistrukturerade intervjuer med chefer från sex olika organisationer för att studera deras perspektiv på upward feedback och hur de skapar organisatoriska förutsättningar för att ta tillvara medarbetares feedback för att leda verksamheten. Resultatet visade att efterfrågan av och mottaglighet för feedback (både negativ och positiv) är en utmanande uppgift och behöver därför tränas upp. Därtill identifieras tillitsfulla relationer, trygghet i ledarskap och öppna dialoger som förutsättningar för cheferna att öka sin mottaglighet och förmåga att ta tillvara feedback. Slutsatsen dras att trygga chefer med tillitsfulla relationer till sina medarbetare använder upward feedback för att utveckla sig själva som chefer, utveckla en hälsosam arbetsmiljö och lärandeinriktad arbetsplats. / Research about feedback has mainly focused on traditional feedback within organizations, that is, feedback from managers to their employees, and little research has been made to study upward feedback, from employees to their managers. This makes it relevant to increase our understanding within this area. The aim of this study was therefore to contribute to the understanding of how managers utilize upward feedback to lead and develop organizations and their leadership. The study has a qualitative approach, which impacted the decision to gather data through ten semi-structured interviews with managers from six different organizations, with the aim to raise awareness about their perspective on upward feedback and how they use it as part of their leadership. The findings showed that receptivity towards feedback (both positive and negative) is a challenging task and therefore needs practice. Moreover, trustworthy relationships, confidence in leadership and open dialogues are essential conditions for managers to increase their receptivity for upward feedback and are therefore central aspects in utilizing feedback in a more favorable way. A conclusion is made that confident managers with trusting relationships with their employees utilize upward feedback to develop as leaders, develop a healthy working environment and work towards a workplace that fosters learning.

Information plays a significant role in the success of investment strategies. Within a non-advisory context, individual investors elect to build and manage their investment portfolios to avoid the cost of hiring professional advisors. To cope with markets’ uncertainty, individual investors should acquire, understand, and use only relevant information, but that task can be affected by many factors, such as domain knowledge, cognitive and emotional biases, information overload, sources’ credibility, communication channels’ accuracy, and economic costs. Despite an increased interest in examining the financial performance of individual investors in Saudi Arabia, there has been no empirical research of the information behavior of individual investors, or the behavioral biases affecting the investment decision making process in the Saudi stock market (SSM). The purpose of this study was to examine this information behavior within a non-advisory contextualization of their investment decision-making process through the use of an online questionnaire instrument using close-ended questions. The significant intervening variables identified in this study influence the individual investors’ information behavior across many stages of the decision making process. While controlling for gender, education, and income, the optimal information behavior of individual investors in the SSM showed that the Experience factor had the greatest negative effect on the Information Seeking Behavior of individual investors. This was followed by Risk Tolerance, Financial Self-Efficacy, Emotional Biases, Education Level, Formal Information Access, Regret Aversion Bias, and Subjective Financial Knowledge. The Information Acquisition and Information Searching Behavior was influenced by the Acquisition Skepticism, Regret Aversion Bias, Formal Information Access, Overconfidence, and Information Seeking Behavior. Furthermore, the findings indicate that Formal Information Sources have a statistically significant positive effect on the Information Seeking Behavior, and on the Information Acquisition and Information Searching of individual investors in Saudi Arabia. Finally, the Socioeconomic Status (SES) of individual investors in Saudi Arabia was significantly influenced by the employment status, work experience, age, marital status, and income.

This research was stimulated by an indication that members of the Africa Gospel Church do not utilise professional health care services optimally, probably due to religious reasons. This may also be the result of registered nurses’ inability to render culture congruent care. To render culture congruent care, nurses require knowledge of the belief system and the health seeking behaviours of the church members. The qualitative research investigated the religious beliefs and health seeking behaviours of members of the Africa Gospel Church in Francistown, Botswana. An exploratory ethnonursing research method was applied. Semi-structured interviews were held with two purposively selected samples. Qualitative data analysis was done using computer software to reduce data and interpret the research results. The study indicated that members utilise the Church structure for health care purposes and seek health care mainly from priests and prophets. / Advanced Nursing Sciences / M.A. (Nursing Science)

Contexte. Le paludisme provoque annuellement le décès d’environ 25 000 enfants de moins de cinq ans au Burkina Faso. Afin d’améliorer un accès rapide à des traitements efficaces, les autorités burkinabées ont introduit en 2010 la prise en charge du paludisme par les agents de santé communautaires (ASC). Alors que son efficacité a été démontrée dans des études contrôlées, très peu d’études ont évalué cette stratégie implantée dans des conditions naturelles et à l’échelle nationale. Objectif. L’objectif central de cette thèse est d’évaluer, dans des conditions réelles d’implantation, les effets du programme burkinabé de prise en charge communautaire du paludisme sur le recours aux soins des enfants fébriles. Les objectifs spécifiques sont : (1) de sonder les perceptions des ASC à l’égard du programme et explorer les facteurs contextuels susceptibles d’affecter leur performance ; (2) d’estimer le recours aux ASC par les enfants fébriles et identifier ses déterminants ; (3) de mesurer, auprès des enfants fébriles, le changement des pratiques de recours aux soins induit par l’introduction d’une intervention concomitante – la gratuité des soins dans les centres de santé. Méthodes. L’étude a été conduite dans deux districts sanitaires similaires, Kaya et Zorgho. Le devis d’évaluation combine des volets qualitatifs et quantitatifs. Des entrevues ont été menées avec tous les ASC de la zone à l’étude (N=27). Des enquêtes ont été répétées annuellement entre 2011 et 2013 auprès de 3002 ménages sélectionnés aléatoirement. Les pratiques de recours aux soins de tous les enfants de moins de cinq ans ayant connu un récent épisode de maladie ont été étudiées (N2011=707 ; N2012=787 ; N2013=831). Résultats. Les résultats montrent que le recours aux ASC est très modeste en comparaison de précédentes études réalisées dans des milieux contrôlés. Des obstacles liés à l’implantation du programme de prise en charge communautaire du paludisme ont été identifiés ainsi qu’un défaut de faisabilité dans les milieux urbains. Enfin, l’efficacité du programme communautaire a été négativement affectée par l’introduction de la gratuité dans les centres de santé. Conclusion. La prise en charge communautaire du paludisme rencontre au Burkina Faso des obstacles importants de faisabilité et d’implantation qui compromettent son efficacité potentielle pour réduire la mortalité infantile. Le manque de coordination entre le programme et des interventions locales concomitantes peut générer des effets néfastes et inattendus. / Context. In Burkina Faso, malaria causes approximately 25,000 deaths every year in children under five. In 2010, national health authorities introduced case management of malaria by community health workers (CHWs) as a way to increase prompt access to effective treatments. While this strategy’s efficacy has been demonstrated in controlled studies, very few studies evaluated its effectiveness under real-world and nation-wide conditions of implementation. Objective. The overarching aim of this thesis is to evaluate the effects of the Burkinabè program on treatment-seeking practices in febrile children. The specific objectives are: (1) to examine CHWs’ perceptions and investigate the contextual factors likely to affect their performance; (2) to estimate the use of CHWs in febrile children and its determinants; (3) to evalauate changes in treatment-seeking practices induced by the introduction of a concomitant intervention – the removal of user fees at health centres. Methods. The study was conducted in two similar health districts, Kaya and Zorgho. The evaluation design integrates quantitative and qualitative components. Interviews were carried out with all CHWs in the study area (N=27). Surveys were repeated every year from 2011 to 2013 in 3002 randomly selected households. Treatment-seeking practices of all children with a recent sickness episode (N2011=707; N2012=787; N2013=831) were examined. Results. Results show that the use of CHWs is really low in comparison to previous controlled studies. Feasibility issues in urban areas and barriers to implementation of the community case management of malaria programme were identified. Moreover, its effectiveness in rural areas was challenged by the removal of user fees at health centres. Conclusion. In Burkina Faso, community case management of malaria faces serious challenges of feasibility and implentation. These challenges compromise the programme’s potential to reduce child morbidity and mortality. The lack of integration between the programme and local concomitant interventions can generate unpredicted adverse effects.

The purpose of this current study was to determine the role of acculturation, ethnic identity, and religious fatalism regarding attitudes towards seeking psychological help among Coptic (Egyptian Christian) Americans. In addition, differences between groups of gender and generational status, first-generation adult immigrants versus U.S.-born second-generation Copts, were analyzed. The study had a total sample of 91 individuals that self-identified as Coptic by race and/or Coptic Orthodox by religion, who voluntarily completed an anonymous online questionnaire. Results indicate that ethnic identity and acculturation are strong predictors of religious fatalistic beliefs, and those who identified as having more Arab ethnic identity and less assimilation to dominate culture have stronger religious fatalistic beliefs than those who identified with more western culture and an American ethnic identity. However, religious fatalism and ethnic identity were not significant predictors of attitudes towards seeking psychological help, and other variables such as stigma, language barriers, and skepticism of western psychology may be better predictors of attitudes towards seeking psychological help. Between groups comparisons identified subtle differences between males and females, and between first and second-generation Coptic Americans on acculturation, ethnic identity, and religious fatalism, but the groups were not statistically significant from one another. Clinical implications and directions for future research will also be discussed.

The ongoing war in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has caused sustained trauma on a number of levels and stressors that could easily have debilitating consequences on the mental health of Congolese citizens. The literature further reveals that immigration brings with it a host of additional stressors. The stress related to immigration, an appreciation of diverse cultural understandings of mental health, the burdens and costs of adequate mental health policy and provisioning within developing countries, are concepts that are not well understood nor fully documented. The present study explored the cultural understanding and help-seeking behaviours of Congolese immigrants in South Africa. The purpose of the study was to understand the ways in which Congolese cope with stressors related to immigration. Using SocialIdentity Theory as a partial conceptual framework, the role of acculturation processes in their understanding and help-seeking behaviours regarding mental health challenges, were examined. A platform for participants to suggest suitable ways of responding to improving the management of mental challenges in their community was provided. A qualitative approach, based on Participatory Action Research (PAR) and content analysis to explore the emerging narratives, was used with a Gauteng-based sample to gather the accounts of the lived experiences of Congolese immigrants. A snowball sampling technique enabled twenty-seven respondents to participate in one paired conversation and five focus groups. The emerging findings are critically discussed aligned to the six categories of inquiry structured by the interview schedule, namely, coping strategies since immigration, the understanding of mental health challenges, the possible impact of being immersed in the South African culture, perceptions of mental challenges and persons affected within the Congolese community, the preferred help-seeking behaviours regarding mental health challenges and, finally, their recommendations for improving the management of mental health challenges. The layered meta-analysis of the data consisted of interrogating the thematic categories, then conducting an analytical review aligned to both the pertinent research aim and objectives, as well as related theoretical positions and research findings. v | P a g e The key research question underpinning this study was formulated as follows: “Will immigrating from the DRC to South Africa change the understanding and help-seeking behaviours of Congolese?” The study drew on the processes of acculturation from Social Identity Theory to examine these processes. Participants reported experiencing the effects of acculturation but in different ways. Patterns of assimilation, separation and integration were found. The study therefore served to contribute to our understanding of the effects of acculturation with regard to the cultural understanding and help-seeking behaviours of Congolese immigrants in South Africa regarding mental health. Most significantly, the assumption of high levels of trauma and stress within this vulnerable community were unfounded. Rich and complex survival strategies have emerged requiring refinement of our knowledge about migrant communities. The strengths and relative weaknesses of the study are shared as well as a set of recommendations for future research in this domain. / Psychology / M. Sc.(Psychology)

This research was stimulated by an indication that members of the Africa Gospel Church do not utilise professional health care services optimally, probably due to religious reasons. This may also be the result of registered nurses’ inability to render culture congruent care. To render culture congruent care, nurses require knowledge of the belief system and the health seeking behaviours of the church members. The qualitative research investigated the religious beliefs and health seeking behaviours of members of the Africa Gospel Church in Francistown, Botswana. An exploratory ethnonursing research method was applied. Semi-structured interviews were held with two purposively selected samples. Qualitative data analysis was done using computer software to reduce data and interpret the research results. The study indicated that members utilise the Church structure for health care purposes and seek health care mainly from priests and prophets. / Advanced Nursing Sciences / M.A. (Nursing Science)