Thesis (M.S.W.)--University of Hong Kong, 1993. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.W.)--Smith College School for Social Work, Northampton, Mass., 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 49-51).

Thesis (M.S.W.)--Smith College School for Social Work, Northampton, Mass., 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 65-68).

Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of Queensland, 2004. / Includes bibliography.

Thesis (M.Psych.Clin.) - University of Queensland, 2004. / Includes bibliography.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Illinois State University, 2001. / Title from title page screen, viewed April 18, 2006. Dissertation Committee: Janice Neuleib (chair), Patricia Dunn, Julia Visor. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 282-292) and abstract. Also available in print.

This study examines the relationships between celebrities and their followers through social networking sites (SNS). A total of 239 participants completed the survey through MTurk. The results show that celebrities’ self-disclosure on SNS increases their Parasocial Interaction (PI) with fans. In addition, when a celebrity is perceived as trustworthy, s/he would have a higher PI with fans. Meanwhile, celebrities’ self-disclosure was not associated with trustworthiness. Furthermore, time spent on SNS was also not associated with PI. This study also found that type of celebrity does not determine the degree of influence they have on the followers. People have almost same parasocial interaction with their favorite celebrity whether the celebrity is a singer, athlete, actor, or any other. Additionally, there is no specific social networking site on which people have a stronger PI with celebrities. PI with celebrities on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, and the other platforms is almost the same.

Submitted by Rodrigo Nejm (rodrasn@gmail.com) on 2016-11-21T00:50:42Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Tese_Rodrigo Nejm_RI.pdf: 4677648 bytes, checksum: 90eab96887acdf1dffc2653ec67a44b0 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Oliveira Santos Dilzaná (dilznana@yahoo.com.br) on 2016-12-02T12:35:25Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Tese_Rodrigo Nejm_RI.pdf: 4677648 bytes, checksum: 90eab96887acdf1dffc2653ec67a44b0 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-12-02T12:35:25Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Tese_Rodrigo Nejm_RI.pdf: 4677648 bytes, checksum: 90eab96887acdf1dffc2653ec67a44b0 (MD5) / CAPES / O uso da Internet por adolescentes cresce gradativamente no Brasil. Neste cenário de uso de múltiplas mídias, as relações afetivas, de trabalho, os estudos e o lazer passam a ter dispositivos tecnológicos como mediadores em situações e contextos variados. Considerando a singularidade das plataformas digitais como dispositivos complexos e híbridos que configuram práticas sociais ao mesmo tempo em que são configurados por elas, realizamos uma análise qualitativa sobre a exposição de si (self-disclosure) de adolescentes nos contextos digitais, atentando para as estratégias utilizadas para gerenciar a privacidade enquanto regulação dos acessos ao self nas interações mediadas. Realizamos entrevistas individuais sobre as exposições nos aplicativos e redes sociais Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp e Snapchat, e observamos publicações nos perfis do Facebook e Instagram. Reconhecendo os adolescentes como protagonistas de suas experiências, destacamos as regras e limites que criam para gerenciar o fluxo das suas informações privadas nestas quatro plataformas. Verificamos que compartilhar informações privadas nos contextos digitais não significa o abandono da preocupação com a privacidade, mas sim novos limites, com regras definidas individual e coletivamente, negociadas para cada plataforma e para cada grupo de alvos das exposições. Apesar do uso diário, intenso e privativo pelos celulares, com uma grande quantidade de amigos no Facebook, seguidores no Instagram e contatos no WhatsApp e Snapchat, os relacionamentos interpessoais e as exposições ocorrem prioritariamente com as mesmas pessoas que conhecem de encontros em copresença física, uma proporção muito pequena das listas de contatos. Regular os conteúdos, as audiências e a própria copresença são formas de regular a privacidade enquanto regulação dos acessos ao self. Esta regulação mostrou-se associada às estratégias de apresentação de si, sendo o gerenciamento das impressões uma das formas mais explícitas de gerenciar o fluxo das informações em copropriedade com os pares sociais. A escolha de cada plataforma, a seleção dos conteúdos e dos alvos das exposições são ações realizadas com base em regras, expectativas e convenções sobre o que é considerado apropriado em cada situação social. Na tentativa de ampliar o controle sobre as situações, estas escolhas indicam estratégias criativas para descolapsar os contextos digitais e para lidar com a potencial sobreposição de audiências. Concluímos que ao gerenciar os limites e regras das exposições voluntárias, os adolescentes buscam regular os graus de envolvimento e de acesso ao self em cada relacionamento mediado. Por sua vez, o mesmo gerenciamento não ocorre com relação aos rastros digitais e às informações privadas expostas e registradas involuntariamente nas plataformas. Este acúmulo de tantos aspectos do self e o processamento pelos algoritmos traz à tona novos desafios para a regulação da privacidade, exigindo também o gerenciamento dos limites de acesso ao que chamamos de meta-self. / Internet use by teenagers grows gradually in Brazil. With the current intense use of media, affective relationships, work, studies and leisure have technological devices as mediators in different situations and contexts. Considering the uniqueness of digital platforms as complex and hybrid devices that shape social practices at the same time that are configured by them, we conducted a qualitative analysis of adolescents self-disclosure in digital contexts as networked publics. Assuming privacy as the regulation of the access to the self, we focused on the strategies they use to manage their privacy on networked publics. We conduct individual interviews about their discloses in social network sites and social applications Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Snapchat, and collected part of online publications from their Facebook and Instagram profiles. Recognizing adolescents as protagonists of their experiences, we highlight the rules and limits they designed to manage the flow of private information in this four digital platforms. We found that sharing private information in digital contexts does not mean the renunciation of privacy concerns, but new limits with rules individually and collectively defined, negotiated for each disclosure's platform and target group. Despite the daily, intense and private mobile use, with a lot of friends on Facebook, followers on Instagram and contacts on WhatsApp and Snapchat, interpersonal relationships and disclosures occur primarily with the same people they know in physical co-presence, a very small proportion of the contact lists. Manage the content, the audience and even the co- presence are ways of privacy regulation, forms of control access to the self. This regulation was associated with self presentation strategies and the impression management is one of the most explicit way to manage the flow of private information in co-ownership with social peers. The choice of platforms, the selection of content and targets for self-disclosure are actions taken on the basis of rules, expectations and conventions about what is considered appropriate in each social situation. In an attempt to extend control over situations, these choices indicate creative strategies to descollapse contexts to deal with potential overlapping audiences on networked publics. We conclude that managing boundaries and rules of voluntary self-disclosure, adolescents seek to regulate the degree of involvement and access to their selves in each digital mediated relationship. In turn, the same management does not occur with respect to digital tracks and unintentionally private information disclosed that are recorded on the platforms. The accumulation of so many aspects of the self and the treatment by algorithms brings up new challenges for privacy regulation, also requiring access boundaries management to what we call meta-self.

M.A. / Many women who live with body disfigurement as a consequence of illness, continue to suffer from body perceptual disturbances many years following their recovery. Problematic however, is the tendency of disease-specific studies investigating body perceptual disturbances to focus on illness associated body changes. Consequently, this silences the experiences of many women who live with body disfigurement in the absence of illness and more specifically, in instances where body disfigurement is the result of having suffered a common ailment (Francis, 2002; Newell, 2000). Impeding the concerns raised are inferences of earlier studies such as that by Patterson and Craig (1963) who reason that, by virtue of the body's integrity being dependent upon external appearances, hysterectomy, as something internal to the body, fails to feature as a psychological difficulty experienced in women who have this. Recent studies by Newell (2000) and Francis (2002) identify a need for research on body disfigurement following a common ailment and in the absence of illness. In an attempt to address some of the concerns raised, and in keeping with body disfigurement resulting from a common ailment (e.g. cancer, dysmenorrhoea and uterine fibroids, etc), this study compares levels of depression and self-concept in women who have undergone either mastectomy, hysterectomy or vulvectomy. Additionally, this study challenged the inferences by Patterson and Craig (1963) in that the onset of psychopathology in these women is here thought to develop irrespective of the levels of disfigurement visibility (whether disfigurement is internal to the body as in hysterectomy or external to the body as in mastectomy and vulvectomy). In terms of the three areas of participation, of the hysterectomy group (n = 16), of the mastectomy group (n = 8), and of the vulvectomy group (n = 4). Additionally, only participants who had not undergone reconstructive surgery were selected. To investigate for self-concept and body perceptual disturbances, data was collected using the Beck Depression Inventory II, the Self-Description Questionnaire III, the Six Factor Self-Concept Scale and also from open-ended questions posited in a Biographical Questionnaire. The Mann-Whitney, Kruskal-Wallis and Wilcoxon Signed Ranks tests were utilised as nonparametric statistics of choice in the data analyses. The results showed seven areas of significant group differences as this pertains to: levels of depression, physical appearance, spiritual/religious values, general esteem, opposite sex peer relations, parent relations and power. Most striking was the participant responses made in respect to the Importance versus Accuracy subsection of the SDQ-III. Of the 12 statements contained under this section, all were considered to be more important to the participants than the statement was thought accurate of them. Significant differences on this subsection were observed in terms of: parent relations, spiritual/religious values, emotional stability and physical appearance. Although investigating depression and self-concept in women with body disfigurement in South Africa proved to be a complex and difficult research undertaking, the results of this study clearly strengthen its implementation value and demonstrate the need for future research in this area. This pilot study enabled for invaluable insight to be gleaned in terms of the thoughts, feelings and struggles of these women. Similarly the study provided for a method of pre-testing and fine-tuning prior to Phase Two. Additionally, the results of this study contribute to the sparse volume of literature on body disfigurement in the absence of illness. This complex, yet emotionally charged and dynamic terrain is fraught with a magnitude of possibilities for future research and of which can take an infinite number of directions. Altered body appearance and function can invariably result in highly complex psychological and psychosocial disturbances. Francis (2002) echoes what this study commits to when she says: "… when the process of knowing is fractured in a sudden catastrophe, when knowing of the external surfaces of the familiar body is interrupted, the sense of being at home in ones body becomes problematic" (p. 108). As such, this study embraces the possibility that many women in South Africa, who live with body disfigurement in the absence of illness, continue to suffer disturbances in body perception years later and that this is so despite being illness free and irrespective of visibility levels. The study's demonstration of this in real-life intervention serves to highlight this. Similarly, in that 92.3% of participants felt the need to join group therapy or formulate support groups for disfigured individuals as a means by which to voice and better come to terms with past and current traumatic experiences encountered as a result of living with altered body appearance and function, the need for future research in body disfigurement in the absence of illness, is strengthened. It is hoped that, albeit in some small way, this study adds volume to the silenced experience of these women. Similarly, this study hopes to provide a foundation from which many silenced experiences can be voiced.

Client self-acceptance is a crucial element of mental health and a goal of psychotherapy. It has been demonstrated that client self-disclosure in psychotherapy is instrumental in the promotion of self-acceptance. Reflection, probing, and paradoxical therapist responses frequently are used to elicit self-disclosure. Cognitive dissonance theory was used to provide a theoretical understanding of these techniques and their use in the promotion of self-acceptance. Reflection, probing, and paradoxical responses were conceptualized as providing a client with different perceptions of choice over self-disclosure that may affect the occurrence of self-acceptance. This study compared the effects of the reflection, probing, and paradoxical techniques on self-acceptance and anxiety following self-disclosure.