<p>Objective: Acute alcohol intoxication has been clearly identified as a risk factor for intimate partner aggression (IPA). There is a critical need for effective IPA interventions that can be applied during episodes of acute intoxication. A self-awareness intervention for general aggression that was designed to be applied during acute intoxication could fill this gap. This intervention is grounded in objective self-awareness and alcohol myopia theories, with the main premise being that intoxicated individuals who are exposed to self-awareness cues should focus on standards of correct behavior, which will serve to inhibit aggression. The purpose of the current study was to apply this intervention to alcohol-facilitated IPA and to examine potential moderators of this effect in order to determine for whom the intervention may be most effective. Method: Participants in the current study included 133 heterosexual community couples with a history of heavy drinking and IPA. Participants took part in a two-session laboratory study investigating the efficacy of this self-awareness intervention. Participants were randomly assigned to the intervention (<i>n</i> = 71) or control (<i>n</i> = 62) condition. During the study, they consumed alcohol and participated in an aggression task ostensibly against their romantic partner. Results: Findings were inconsistent with hypotheses. There was no between-group difference in laboratory aggression, and the moderators investigated in this study did not have an impact on the intervention’s efficacy. Conclusions: Present findings suggest that the self-awareness intervention may be ineffective for reducing alcohol-facilitated IPA. Potential explanations for this finding and implications for future research are discussed. </p>

The phenomenon known as premenstrual syndrome (PMS) has been researched across many disciplines including Psychology, Women's Health, Women's Studies and Sociology. It has been researched as a personal issue, a health issue, a psychological issue, and a political issue. Underlying these approaches to the study of PMS are two basic paradigms: the medical model and the social constructionist model. A rather polarized debate has emerged between the two. While both approaches have contributed to research on PMS, neither paradigm has focused particular attention on what PMS is and what it means from the perspective of the women who experience it. In this project, I have examined narrative accounts of PMS as told by eight women who identify themselves as women who report experiencing the phenomenon. Findings suggest that these women view PMS as a complex phenomenon. They seem to view this phenomenon as both a "thing," something that has a bodily nature and bodily symptoms, and also as a label. They also seem to view the label as something that can be beneficial because it gives this "thing" a name that is used and accepted in their social worlds. These findings confirm some aspects of previous research while also yielding some new insights into the lived experience of the phenomenon known as PMS.

Managerial self-awareness is thought to impact leadership. A multi-rater feedback instrument was used to gather performance data on 70 managers in a large multi-national airline in regards to five leadership dimensions: making sound decisions, driving for results, effective communication, self-management, and innovation. Difference scores between self and direct reports were calculated and used as the operational definition of managerial self-awareness. T-tests were run to examine the difference between high performers and average performers. No significant differences were found. Additionally, correlational measures between the five leadership competencies and the managerial self-awareness measure indicated statistically weak relationships.

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Multi-Source Feedback (MSF) has become an important tool for leadership development programs. Previous research has examined how self-other agreement in MSF relates to leadership effectiveness. Discrepancies exist in the literature between how to measure self-other agreement and which method best depicts self-awareness. The current study examined the relationship between various measurements of self-other agreement, self-awareness and transformational leadership. MSF data were collected from target leaders (n = 31), and their respective direct report, peer and supervisor raters (n = 233). Raters also evaluated their leaders' self-awareness and leadership behavior. Self-other agreement was measured using a reliability coefficient, self-other agreement r, and a difference squared score, self-other agreement D2. These measures of self-other agreement as well as the direct measure of self-awareness were used to predict transformational leadership. Results indicated that self-other agreement r did not significantly predict transformational leadership, while self-other agreement D2 did significantly predict some of the dimensions of transformational leadership. However, the direct measure of self-awareness was the strongest predictor of transformational leadership. The two methods of calculating self-other agreement did not have a significant correlation, indicating that they may be measuring different constructs. The direct measure of self-awareness also did not correlate significantly with self-other agreement, suggesting that there is a conceptual gap between these two constructs and complexities may arise when researchers operationalize self-other agreement as self-awareness. The issues surrounding the various methods of measuring self-other agreement, as well as the possible confounding effects of the direct measure of self-awareness and difference scores are discussed. Implications for interpreting self-other agreement in MSF processes are also discussed.

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<p>All beings who possess the capacity for core self-awareness are moral persons and ought to be legal persons. More specifically, I argue that core self-aware beings ought not to be used merely as a means. This moral prohibition ought to be legally enforced and such enforcement can only be effectively accomplished with legal personhood status. Moreover, the moral prohibition that core self-aware beings ought not to be used merely as a means constitutes the essence of moral personhood. This prohibition is defended with four mutually supportive justifications: Kantian ethics, utilitarianism, ethical empathism and a principle of equal consideration of interests. The moral frameworks appealed to either support the thesis directly or do so after philosophically questionable elements have been removed form them. These frameworks are ultimately justified by an appeal to Aristotelian ethics. Although Aristotle concludes that only those who are capable of abstract rational contemplation can embody the good that is the proper subject of moral philosophy, it is briefly claimed within this thesis that Aristotle's undefended premises assume this conclusion. This claim regarding Aristotle's conclusion about rational beings is not defended herein and is left for a future work. The thesis that all beings who possess the capacity for core self-awareness are persons, or ought not to be used merely as a means, is relatively rare in philosophical discourse. The present work is original because its essential claim is defended with a synergy of seemingly disparate traditional moral theories, a new moral theory and a principle of equal consideration of interests. It is a significant contribution to III philosophical knowledge because the question of who counts in ethics, or who is the proper subject of moral discourse, is fundamental to moral philosophy. An important political implication of this thesis is that non-human animals are persons.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

While dreaming, one lacks the understanding that what is experienced is self-generated hallucinatory contents of consciousness. However, during dreaming there is a rare state called lucid dreaming. The minimal requirement for a dream to be considered lucid is that one is self-aware that one is currently sleeping. If self-awareness is the minimal criterion for lucid dreaming, that would entail the activation of those brain areas and networks typically related to self-referential processing. Further, lucid dreaming often entails the ability to exert volition over dream content. This thesis is a systematic review of the neural correlates of lucid dreaming and investigates the potential overlap of the neural correlates of lucid dreaming and volition. Only peer-reviewed original empirical articles that used healthy adults as participants were included. Thus, five studies were found. Two of the studies used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), two used electroencephalography (EEG), and one used both EEG and fMRI. This thesis found that the precuneus and left parietal lobe, which are brain areas related to self-referential processing, have increased activity during lucid dreaming compared to non-lucid dreaming. Also, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) has increased functional connectivity in people who are more likely to experience lucid dreaming. DLPFC has been associated with metacognitive functions, which includes volition.There also seems to be an overlap in brain regions activated in volition compared to lucid dreaming; these areas include the parietal cortex, supplementary motor area, and anteriorprefrontal cortex.