Thesis--University of Pittsburgh. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 52-56).

Thesis (M.A.)--Wheaton College Graduate School, Wheaton, IL, 2003. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 74-75).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Ohio University, August, 2005. / Title from PDF t.p. Includes bibliographical references (p. 95-100)

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2005. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 151-166).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Oregon State University, 2006. / Printout. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 200-205). Also available on the World Wide Web.

M.Phil. / In the changing world of today, individuals experience a lack of meaning and direction in their lives. Personal leadership is an approach that enables individuals to achieve a deeper self-insight and form a more distinct vision of their future. The objective of this study was to investigate the contribution of self-awareness to personal leadership. With a view to gain a better understanding of self-awareness, a word and concept analysis of self-awareness was conducted in Chapter two by means of dictionary explanations as well as consulting viewpoints of experts from different perspectives. The relevant information gleaned from psychology and sociology was categorized to describe the ontological (essential nature), teleological (purpose), sociological (social nature) and methodological (methods) dimensions of self-awareness. Based on this analysis, self-awareness can be described as a psychological state or condition of attending to one's physical, spiritual, emotional and/or mental qualities by means of reflection, introspection and/or inner speech. It is thus an on-going process of seeing things both as they are and as they could be, as well as to form a perception of what is real. Furthermore, it was determined that self-awareness provides the key to a person's being, as it enables one to achieve: • self-knowledge or a candid assessment of personal strengths, limitations, needs, abilities, values and beliefs; • a solid self-concept or an awareness of the dominant thoughts, perceptions and feelings one has about oneself and thus to alter any unrealistic beliefs; • self-acceptance or insight into and understanding of oneself, which culminates in accepting oneself and others; • self-regulation or an awareness of one's internal states and values enabling one to manage oneself and to be flexible in adapting to change; • self-actualization or an awareness of one's unique nature, abilities and purpose enabling one to fulfil one's needs, realize one's potential and achieve meaning in life. In addition, it was also discovered that self-awareness could be achieved and/or developed through various methods like self-analysis, personality instruments, meditation, mentoring, and/or facilitation courses. Chapter three focused on the contribution of self-awareness to personal leadership. It was indicated that personal leadership is a process in which a person takes control of his/her own life. By consulting views of various authors on the subject, it was also established that the underlying foundation of personal leadership is an 'inside-out' approach, which means to start first with one's own perceptions, character and motives. As this approach involves a proactive attitude that is character-based and centred on principles and values, it enables one to achieve personal mastery. The role of self-awareness in each phase in the process of personal leadership was investigated. It was found that self-awareness enables the individual to gain knowledge of his/her different qualities, potential and core values, which is vital for understanding "Who am I?" in the first phase of personal leadership. Furthermore, it was also established that an awareness of one's unique nature, abilities and core values culminates in creating a personal vision, which is crucial to the second phase of "Where am I going?" in the personal leadership process. The last phase in this process addresses the question of "How am I going to get there?" and, consequently, an awareness of one's values, purpose, roles and conscience plays a vital role in taking certain steps to ensure that one realizes one's dreams. Based on the contribution of self-awareness to various aspects of personal leadership, the conclusion of this study was that self-awareness is a condition for personal leadership.

M.A. (Clinical Psychology) / Humour serves various intrapersonal and interpersonal functions. The affiliative, self-enhancing, aggressive and self-defeating humour styles are employed by individuals throughout their interactions and can influence their and others’ intrapersonal and interpersonal functioning. Humour styles have been related to positive attributes, such as self-esteem and optimism. Individual differences in the type of humour style displayed could furthermore be influenced by an individual’s cultural background. Self-esteem can be understood as an overall evaluation of one’s worth or value. Differences in self-esteem have been found between cultures but it is yet unclear how culture could influence the relationship between humour styles and self-esteem. Therefore, this study aimed to examine the role that culture could play in the relationship between humour style and self-esteem. In this study culture was conceptualised as self-construal which is determined by an individual’s cultural context of individualism or collectivism. This study involved 962 first year psychology students from the University of Johannesburg. The population in this university is multicultural with students of various race and culture. The Sense of Humour Questionnaire, Humour Styles Questionnaire, Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale and the Self-Construal Scale were used. A correlational analysis and moderated multiple regression analyses were employed to determine the extent to which independent and interdependent self-construal influenced the relationship between each of the four humour styles and self-esteem. All four humour styles correlated as expected with self-esteem. Affiliative and self-enhancing humour styles correlated positively and aggressive and self-defeating humour styles correlated negatively with self-esteem. Neither independent nor interdependent self-construal statistically significantly influenced the relationship between the affiliative, self-enhancing, or aggressive humour styles and self-esteem. Both independent and interdependent self-construal statistically significantly moderated the relationship between self-defeating humour style and self-esteem although the effect sizes were low. Excessive use of self-defeating humour has been associated with low self-esteem and emotional neediness...

Part One I A Perspective on Guidance II Concepts of Self This section is a review and discussion of the two conceptualizations which are fundamental to the research structure: guidance as an overall framework within which procedures are devised for the development of this understanding of the "self" . Part Two • III Didactic Discovery IV The Class Citation Award A way of thinking about an ~ducational approach which could generate a classroom mileu, where the in a practical ongoing process to encourage participation and CCA is the key~ote strategy involve the group in "self" and "other" awareness. Part Three V VI Experiment, Survey, Action Research Results, Reflections and Recommendations The three research methods employed to gather evidence of pupil awareness and its implications, with a discussion patterns of self~knowledge, and its effect on the NOTE: Constant reference to thi s page, and to page xxxii will enable the reader to view the thesis as a whole

In recent years we have witnessed a burgeoning interest in the role socializing agents' play in the development of children's self-perceptions of competence. Outlined extensively by Harter (1981, 1982, 1985), the basic assumption underlying this work is that the self-concept is a multidimensional construct reflecting cognitive representations of individuals' socialization experiences across achievement contexts. These multiple dimensions are subsumed under the guise of self-perceptions and are thought to reflect distinct cognitive structures within the phenomenological world of the child. To date, however, the majority of research stemming from Harter's original theoretical conceptualizations has been limited to examining the impact of socializing agents' expectations on children's self-perceptions of academic competence. The differential contributions made by socializing agents to the prediction of children's self-perceptions of competence across achievement domains, however, has not been assessed. In the present study, an attempt was made to fill this research gap. In accordance with the recognition of the multidimensional nature of perceived competence, the purposes of this study were: (1) to compare the contributions made by different socializing agents' expectations to the prediction of children's self-perceived academic, social, behavioral and athletic competence; (2) to assess the extent to which socializers' expectations contribute differentially to children's perceived competence when examined in conjunction with additional variables instrumental in the development of self-concept in children; (3) to extend Harter's (1981) original conceptualization of the self by testing a uniform perceived competence model across achievement domains; and (4) to identify the primary references children utilize to define themselves. Data were collected from 87 fourth and fifth grade children. The children completed questionnaires that assessed their self-perceived academic, social, behavioral and athletic competence. Teachers' and parents' actual expectations, children's perceptions of these expectations and children's academic and social performance were also measured. Four stepwise hierarchical regression analyses were conducted (i.e., one for self-perceived academic, social, behavioral and athletic competence, respectively) to identify those variables which best predict children's domain-specific self-perceptions. Results revealed that: (a) the relative contributions made by socializers' expectations to the prediction of children's perceived competence across achievement contexts vary as a function of the domain assessed; (b) children's perceptions of significant others' expectations and performance factors also play a significant role in the prediction of domain-specific perceived competence; and (c) the social references children utilize when making self-evaluations can be conceptualized within a domain and context specific framework. Issues related to the development of self-concept theory, empirical research and counselling practices are discussed in relation to the acquisition of self-knowledge in children. / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate

Prior research has established that individual differences in self-esteem moderate reactions to self-relevant events. Although all people generally favour positive outcomes to negative outcomes, low self-esteem (LSE) people exhibit more affective extremity in response to artificially-contrived events than high self-esteem (HSE) people. That is, LSE people exhibit more positive affective reactions to positive outcomes and more negative affective reactions to negative outcomes than HSE people. Two competing theoretical models have been proposed to account for the self-esteem differences in mood extremity in the laboratory setting—the defensive-styles hypothesis and the life-events composition hypothesis. Evidence from two studies, the Mood-Diary Study and the Role-Playing Study, provide support for the first hypothesis by demonstrating that (a) esteem-related differences in the cognitive interpretations and causal attributions for positive and negative self-relevant events exist for naturally-occurring events as well as laboratory-contrived feedback, (b) LSE subjects claimed that these events had a greater impact on their mood and that they considered them to be more personally important than did HSE subjects, and finally, (c) LSE subjects were more variable in their moods across time than their HSE counterparts. Although esteem-related differences in mood variability were predicted for both differences in the extremity and frequency of mood changes, the differences were obtained only on the frequency of change measure. Although the evidence for the defensive-styles model was substantial, there was also some evidence for the life-events composition model, which essentially postulates that the lives of HSE and LSE which essentially postulates that the lives of HSE and LSE individuals differed markedly. Finally, an exploratory investigation of the relationship between self-esteem, self-complexity, and mood indicated that the two individual difference variables were positively correlated and that both were related to the frequency of change in mood but not mood extremity. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate