<p>Syftet med studien var att undersöka fotbollsspelares upplevelser av visualisering, fotbollsspelares upplevelser av self-talk och om det finns något samband mellan deras upplevelser av visualisering och self-talk. I studien deltog tio manliga fotbollsspelare i Sverige med en medelålder på 23 år (SD = 4.029). Resultatet från undersökningen analyserades kvalitativt. Resultatet visade att nio av tio spelare använde sig av visualisering. Fotbollsspelarna upplevde både frivillig och ofrivillig visualisering. Alla nio spelare använde visualisering i samband med tävling och vanligt upplevda visualiseringsmönster var: Brytning, Överlappning och Göra mål i syfte att hitta rätt känsla. Alla tio spelare använde sig av self-talk, i samband med träning och tävling. Använda self-talkmönster bland spelarna var t.ex.: ”Kom igen nu”, ”Jag är stark” och ”Spela med hjärtat” och användes bla. för att förbättra koncentrationen, prestationen och hitta en positiv känsla. Vidare visade resultatet att fyra av tio spelare kombinerade visualisering och self-talk i samband med träning eller tävling. Resultatet diskuterades i relation till tidigare visualiserings- och self-talk-forskning.</p>

Recent work suggests that the links between religious belief and behavior with a variety of positive outcomes (e.g., longer life, more marital satisfaction, scholastic achievement, better health behaviors) may be partially explained by religious belief systems' ability to foster self-control and self-regulation. The current investigation sought to explore this hypothesis by determining if induction of religious cognition (through a supraliminal religious prime) could increase behavioral self-control, operationalized as performance on a maintained grip task. Using 118 participants, the author tested whether nonconscious exposure to religious content would increase the amount of time that participants were willing to physically persist at two rounds of the maintained grip task as compared to a control group. A within-subjects trial-by-prime interaction was found (the prime appeared to cause participants to persist at the task for less time during the first trial, but not the second) and a between-subjects sex-by-prime interaction was found (on average, men given the religious prime held their grip for less time than did men in the control group, whereas no differences were found between women). Findings are discussed in terms of the link between religion and self-control and future directions are suggested.

The movement of blog is its usage of friendly interface, which makes fearful people overcome the barriers to the technology. Moreover, blog makes people hold the power, which in the past only a few privileges could have to contact the society. Its model of usage also becomes uploading from downloading. Blogging has people be the public communicators to the whole world. Blogging, which contains the characteristics of personality, free writing style, immediateness, and hyperlinks, has become the top ten of popular internet activities in Taiwan since 2006. Blog is the virtual environment controlled by its owner. Therefore, the correct self-image presented in front of the audiences is quite important. Trammell and Keshelashvili found that A-list bloggers not only express much more self information than common users but also actively engage in the impression management. The purpose of this research uses the dramaturgy of Goffman, self-concept of James, and impression management of Jones to discuss these popular bloggers how to play each self-performance and fulfill the dreams to be super stars in their fields through the usage of some blog elements, such as words, multimedia and so on. A-list blogs are not merely searched, hyperlinked and subscribed by other blogs but their views can compete with the mainstream media as well. Therefore, this research has tried to investigate the internal characteristics of blog content and the self-presentation and the strategies of impression management of A-list bloggers. The results of this research are divided by the discussions in the three dimensions. First, the external characteristics of A-list blogs remain the basic or original structure and a little change. Moreover, A-list blogs use few stretched elements and their articles are published with both words and pictures. Second, the research has found that these A-list blogs are mainly diary-type and besides, personal and life-style typologies. In other words, A-list bloggers view blog as the platform of their expression and self-record. Especially, the female A-list bloggers prefer to the diary-type blogs. On the contrary, more male A-list bloggers have the filter-diary blogs. Furthermore, hyperlinks extend the bloggers¡¦ views, express their personal information and also present the image as¡§blog is me¡¨. Third, the self-presentation of A-list bloggers is the performance of the front stage, which most bloggers carefully control in front of the audiences to get their liking and praise with the ingratiation and self-promotion.

Syftet med studien var att undersöka fotbollsspelares upplevelser av visualisering, fotbollsspelares upplevelser av self-talk och om det finns något samband mellan deras upplevelser av visualisering och self-talk. I studien deltog tio manliga fotbollsspelare i Sverige med en medelålder på 23 år (SD = 4.029). Resultatet från undersökningen analyserades kvalitativt. Resultatet visade att nio av tio spelare använde sig av visualisering. Fotbollsspelarna upplevde både frivillig och ofrivillig visualisering. Alla nio spelare använde visualisering i samband med tävling och vanligt upplevda visualiseringsmönster var: Brytning, Överlappning och Göra mål i syfte att hitta rätt känsla. Alla tio spelare använde sig av self-talk, i samband med träning och tävling. Använda self-talkmönster bland spelarna var t.ex.: ”Kom igen nu”, ”Jag är stark” och ”Spela med hjärtat” och användes bla. för att förbättra koncentrationen, prestationen och hitta en positiv känsla. Vidare visade resultatet att fyra av tio spelare kombinerade visualisering och self-talk i samband med träning eller tävling. Resultatet diskuterades i relation till tidigare visualiserings- och self-talk-forskning.

Recent research has demonstrated that high social anxiety is associated with uncertainty about one’s self views and self-concept (Moscovitch et al., 2009; Stopa et al., 2010; Wilson & Rapee, 2006). However, no research has addressed potential mechanisms underlying the link between high social anxiety and low self-certainty nor has research examined whether this relationship is bi-directional. In the current research, I propose a cyclical model in which high social anxiety leads to low self-certainty, which in turn, feeds back into higher levels of social anxiety. I also propose that the relationship between high social anxiety and low self-certainty is mediated by the self-protective self-disclosure patterns employed by socially anxious individuals. In three interconnected studies, I examine the hypothesis that social anxiety, self-disclosure and self-certainty operate in a cyclical model. Study 1 provided a correlational test of the hypothesized feedback model in its entirety and demonstrated that honesty of self-disclosure was the most important and influential mechanism underlying the link between high social anxiety and low self-certainty. Experimentally manipulating the honesty of participants’ self-disclosures in Study 2 demonstrated that dishonest self-disclosures during a social task led to low self-certainty, but only amongst individuals high in trait performance anxiety. Finally, experimentally manipulating self-certainty in Study 3 demonstrated that low self-certainty led to high anticipatory anxiety about an upcoming self-disclosure task. Together, these results elucidate a cyclical maladaptive pattern in which low self-certainty as a result of self-protective self-disclosure leads to high social anxiety and a greater reluctance to self-disclose. Results from the three studies are discussed with respect to their theoretical implications and in relation to clinical applications for individuals with social anxiety disorder.

The immune system has the ability to discriminate self from non-self proteins and also make appropriate immune responses to pathogens. A fundamental problem is to understand the genomic differences and similarities among the sets of self peptides and non-self peptides. The sequencing of human, mouse and numerous pathogen genomes and cataloging of their respective proteomes allows host self and non-self peptides to be identified. T-cells make this determination at the peptide level based on peptides displayed by MHC molecules.<p>In this project, peptides of specific lengths (k-mers) are generated from each protein in the proteomes of various model organisms. The set of unique k-mers for each species is stored in a library and defines its "immunological self". Using the libraries, organisms can be compared to determine the levels of peptide overlap. The observed levels of overlap can also be compared with levels which can be expected "at random" and statistical conclusions drawn.<p>A problem with this procedure is that sequence information in public protein databases (Swiss-PROT, UniProt, PIR) often contains ambiguities. Three strategies for dealing with such ambiguities have been explored in earlier work and the strategy of removing ambiguous k-mers is used here.<p>Peptide fragments (k-mers) which elicit immune responses are often localized within the sequences of proteins from pathogens. These regions are known as "immunodominants" (i.e., hot spots) and are important in immunological work. After investigating the peptide universes and their overlaps, the question of whether known regions of immunological significance (e.g., epitope) come from regions of low host-similarity is explored. The known regions of epitopes are compared with the regions of low host-similarity (i.e., non-overlaps) between HIV-1 and human proteomes at the 7-mer level. Results show that the correlation between these two regions is not statistically significant. In addition, pairs involving human and human viruses are explored. For these pairs, one graph for each k-mer level is generated showing the actual numbers of matches between organisms versus the expected numbers. From graphs for 5-mer and 6-mer level, we can see that the number of overlapping occurrences increases as the size of the viral proteome increases.<p>A detailed investigation of the overlaps/non-overlaps between viral proteome and human proteome reveals that the distribution of the locations of these overlaps/non-overlaps may have "structure" (e.g. locality clustering). Thus, another question that is explored is whether the locality clustering is statistically significant. A chi-square analysis is used to analyze the locality clustering. Results show that the locality clusterings for HIV-1, HIV-2 and Influenza A virus at the 5-mer, 6-mer and 7-mer levels are statistically significant. Also, for self-similarity of human protein Desmoglein 3 to the remaining human proteome, it shows that the locality clustering is not statistically significant at the 5-mer level while it is at the 6-mer and 7-mer levels.

Ample evidence suggests that the behaviour of people with low self-esteem (LSEs) can lead to problems in close relationships (Wood, Hogle, & McClellan, 2009). To my knowledge, however, no research has investigated the role that perceptions of close others’ self-esteem play in undermining beneficial relationship processes. In the current paper, I propose that capitalization, a process associated with greater relationship quality (Gable, Reis, Impett, & Asher, 2004), might be hindered by the friends, partners, or family members of LSEs. In studies 1 through 3 I obtain experimental and behavioural evidence that people are reluctant to disclose their positive experiences (i.e., capitalize) when they believe the recipient has low self-esteem. In Study 4, I show the external validity of my findings with couples having real discussions. In Studies 5a and b, I examine mechanism and find that although participants have both self- and other-focused concerns regarding capitalizing with LSEs, their self-focused concerns appear to drive their behaviour. Overall, my research suggests that the perception of others’ self-esteem is a variable that guides behaviour in important social situations.

The author drew on sociometer theory to propose that self-esteem is attuned to traits that garner others’ acceptance, and the traits that garner acceptance depend on one’s social role. Attunement of self-esteem refers to the linkage, or connection, between self-esteem and specific traits, which may be observed most clearly in the association between self-esteem and specific self-evaluations. In most roles, appearance and popularity determine acceptance, so self-esteem is most attuned to those traits. At the same time, interdependent social roles emphasize the value of communal qualities, so occupants of those roles have self-esteem that is more attuned to communal qualities than is the general norm. To avoid the biases of people's personal theories, attunement of self-esteem to particular traits was assessed indirectly via the correlation between self-esteem and self-ratings (Study 2), with cognitive accessibility measures (Study 3), by observing the responsiveness of people’s self-concepts to social cues about the self (Study 4), and with an experiment involving social decision-making (Study 5). As hypothesized, self-esteem was generally more attuned to appearances than communal qualities, but interdependent social roles predicted heightened attunement of self-esteem to qualities like kindness and understanding.

The immune system has the ability to discriminate self from non-self proteins and also make appropriate immune responses to pathogens. A fundamental problem is to understand the genomic differences and similarities among the sets of self peptides and non-self peptides. The sequencing of human, mouse and numerous pathogen genomes and cataloging of their respective proteomes allows host self and non-self peptides to be identified. T-cells make this determination at the peptide level based on peptides displayed by MHC molecules.<p>In this project, peptides of specific lengths (k-mers) are generated from each protein in the proteomes of various model organisms. The set of unique k-mers for each species is stored in a library and defines its "immunological self". Using the libraries, organisms can be compared to determine the levels of peptide overlap. The observed levels of overlap can also be compared with levels which can be expected "at random" and statistical conclusions drawn.<p>A problem with this procedure is that sequence information in public protein databases (Swiss-PROT, UniProt, PIR) often contains ambiguities. Three strategies for dealing with such ambiguities have been explored in earlier work and the strategy of removing ambiguous k-mers is used here.<p>Peptide fragments (k-mers) which elicit immune responses are often localized within the sequences of proteins from pathogens. These regions are known as "immunodominants" (i.e., hot spots) and are important in immunological work. After investigating the peptide universes and their overlaps, the question of whether known regions of immunological significance (e.g., epitope) come from regions of low host-similarity is explored. The known regions of epitopes are compared with the regions of low host-similarity (i.e., non-overlaps) between HIV-1 and human proteomes at the 7-mer level. Results show that the correlation between these two regions is not statistically significant. In addition, pairs involving human and human viruses are explored. For these pairs, one graph for each k-mer level is generated showing the actual numbers of matches between organisms versus the expected numbers. From graphs for 5-mer and 6-mer level, we can see that the number of overlapping occurrences increases as the size of the viral proteome increases.<p>A detailed investigation of the overlaps/non-overlaps between viral proteome and human proteome reveals that the distribution of the locations of these overlaps/non-overlaps may have "structure" (e.g. locality clustering). Thus, another question that is explored is whether the locality clustering is statistically significant. A chi-square analysis is used to analyze the locality clustering. Results show that the locality clusterings for HIV-1, HIV-2 and Influenza A virus at the 5-mer, 6-mer and 7-mer levels are statistically significant. Also, for self-similarity of human protein Desmoglein 3 to the remaining human proteome, it shows that the locality clustering is not statistically significant at the 5-mer level while it is at the 6-mer and 7-mer levels.

<p>Higgins' regulatory focus theory (1997) postulates two cognitive/motivational systems for pursuing desired end states: the promotion and prevention systems. The theory predicts that failure in each system is discriminantly associated with dysphoric and anxious affect respectively; and that significant failure in these systems creates vulnerability to depression and anxiety. This study tested these hypotheses among adolescents who took part in the longitudinal Wisconsin Study of Families and Work. We found partial support for the theory's predictions. Specifically, the original adult Selves Questionnaire (SQ), which was administered at age 13, did not demonstrate the expected discriminant associations with dysphoric and anxious affect and symptoms. However, the Selves Questionnaire - Adolescent Version, which was administered at age 15, yielded partial support for the theory. Ideal self-discrepancy was discriminantly associated with depressive affect but ought self-discrepancy was not discriminantly associated with anxious affect. However, feared self-discrepancy was discriminantly associated with anxious affect, which adds to the literature suggesting that feared self-discrepancy might be a better construct to use in measuring prevention failure among adolescents. The association between self-discrepancy and affect was found cross-sectionally but not longitudinally. The study also tested recently formulated predictions of regulatory focus theory which state that significant failure in one regulatory system is likely to negatively impact the other system (Klenk, Strauman, & Higgins, 2011). No support for this prediction was found. Implications of the findings, and aspects of the study that may have reduced our ability to test the hypotheses of interest, are discussed.</p> / Dissertation