This study was designed to determine whether participation in an eight hour training program based on Adlerian theoretical principles would influence managerial attitudes. The effects of the training curriculum on three attitudinal dimensions were investigated: leadership style, acceptance of self and others and level of dogmatism. It was hypothesized that Adlerian training would increase the development of managerial human relations competence. Eighty-one managers participated in the study. The experimental group, comprised of 40 line managers, received eight hours of Adlerian training conducted in two one-half day sessions. The training was both didactic and experiential in content and contained modules on lifestyles/management styles, conflict resolution, effective communication strategies and understanding personality dynamics. The control group, comprised of 41 managers, did not receive training but participated in the pre-testing and post-testing process. Managers completed The Leadership Opinion Questionnaire, The Acceptance of Self and Others Questionnaire, and The Rokeach Dogmatism Scale, prior to the first training session and again two weeks after the final training session. A one-way analysis of covariance revealed a significant difference between the experimental and control groups on both the Consideration and Structure dimensions of the Leadership Opinion Questionnaire. This suggests that managers in the experimental group demonstrated a more participative and less authoritarian management style two weeks after training was completed. No significant differences were found between the two groups on managers' level of dogmatism or acceptance of self and others.

This study aimed to establish a connection, if any, between perceptions of information disclosure about medical treatment and decisional conflict in bereaved parents of children with cancer. Decisional regret was an important theme in this exploration because decisional conflict strongly aligns with the propensity to mentally redo past events, thereby forming counterfactual alternatives to reality. People generate counterfactuals to hypothesize a more favorable outcome subsequent to a negative event or the death of a child as applicable to this study. A secondary objective was to investigate the potential influence of counterfactual processing and regret on the construct of self-acceptance: a phenomenon researchers have rarely studied in the population of interest. Study participants included parents who lost a child to cancer in the United States after participating in medical treatment prescribed by a licensed oncologist. Cluster and convenience sampling were employed to recruit 92 participants. Quantitative methods were used in obtaining data samples through validated instruments for each independent and dependent variable. The responses collected indicate that a perceived lack of information disclosure about treatment risks and efficacy, yield a positive influence on decisional conflict after the death of a child. Similarly, decisional conflict positively correlates with decisional regret, while the latter negatively correlates with self acceptance in the bereavement process. The research implications call for additional studies that further isolate factors that contribute to decisional conflict. This study advocates for decision making tools and collaborative processes that ensure parents are well informed and involved in making medical decisions from diagnosis through palliative care, if a cure is not possible.

Text in English / Two consecutive referrals of early onset (symptom onset at 11 years) anorexia nervosa (restricting sub-type) to an inpatient eating disorders unit in a psychiatric hospital, will be described. Within both cases, there was a history of sequential mother-daughter dieting prior to the daughter's onset of anorexic symptoms. This pattern will be viewed from the perspective of systemic theory, with reference to the cybernetic processes implicated in the onset and maintenance of symptoms. Structural systemic interpretations, in terms of exchangeable senses of self within the mother-daughter pairs, will also be considered. A brief comment will be made about the symmetry which underlies the choreography of anorexia nervosa when viewed from the perspective of communication theory. The implications for intervention will be addressed. In conclusion, the nature of the intergenerational transmission of disordered eating behaviours, will be considered with reference to the nature-nurture debate. / Clinical Psychology / M.A. (Clinical Psychology)

Visual Analytics is a multi-disciplinary field that uses interactive visualisations to promote and assist the analytic reasoning and generate insights. Understanding the perceptual and cognitive factors is key to the progress in this field. This research focuses on understanding the benefits of interaction in terms of insight generation Moreover, this investigation explores the compounding effects individual differences have with interaction when analysing data to generate insights. This study investigated the individual differences in two sets; psychometric set measures, and a sensorial preferences multimodal learning style. Interaction was analysed from an information visualisation perspective, exploring the Visual Mapping and View Transformation interaction, by isolating interaction as an independent variable. Moreover, the View Transformation experiment used two different visual representations 2D and 3D. Additionally, the individual differences were analysed using the aptitude-by-treatment interaction (ATI) methodology. The ATI approach enabled the assessment of the performance gains in terms of insight generation according to pre-defined set levels of individual differences measures. This thesis confirms the benefits of interaction in generating more insights and increasing their accuracy, whilst facilitating the generation of insights requiring lower mental effort. Further, the results show significant conjoint effects between interaction and individual differences. Furthermore this research revealed a performance difference between 2D and 3D visual representation in the serious game problem solving context. Overall, this thesis provides tangible proof that both visual mapping and view transformation interaction are beneficial to visual analytics in generating insights. Strengthening the view that interaction with the problem-set improves understanding, and the number of insights gleaned into the problem and that more research into the use of individual differences, as a performance predictor in Visual Analytics is beneficial.

M.A. / The search for identity is an important developmental task during adolescence. During this period teenagers also evaluate their physical identity against existing external standards. Evaluation of the body is often done in comparison with the Western norms of beauty. These norms are however not universally attainable and can lead to negative evaluations of the body’s attractiveness, resulting in both negative evaluations of the body and body dissatisfaction, which creates concern due to the link that exists between body dissatisfaction and dieting. Diet behaviour has also been established as an etiological factor in the development of certain eating disorders. On the other hand positive evaluations of the body’s appearance and abilities are associated with higher levels of life-satisfaction. It is therefore necessary to develop interventions that could enhance female adolescents’ body evaluations, body-esteem and possibly also life-satisfaction albeit indirectly. Interventions that focused on more realistic evaluations of the self and attempted to enhance teenage girls’ self-esteem have already been implemented in the USA and Australia, but with mixed results. Existing research within the South African context that focus on female adolescents’ body evaluations, body-esteem and life-satisfaction are also limited and no studies could be found that investigated all three facets. The aims of this study were to develop and evaluate a psychosocial training programme (PTP), to enhance female adolescents’ body evaluations, body-esteem and life-satisfaction. A group of adolesscent girls (experimental group)(n = 39) participated in the PTP, while the control group (n = 33) looked at magazine photos and then answered questions about these photos. Both groups completed the following measurement scales before and after the completion of the PTP: Body evaluations (Body-Image Self-evaluation Colouring Lens, BISCL) (Gusella, Clark & van Roosmalen, 2003), body-esteem (Body Esteem Scale for Adolescents and Adults, BES) vi (Mendelson, White & Mendelson, 1996) and life-sattisfaction (Satisfaction with Life Scale,SWLS) (Diener, Emmons, Larson & Griffen, 1985). Firstly the experimental group’s mean averages on all measuring instruments were calculated before and after the completion of the PTP then compared to get an indication of the significance of differences in mean scores within the group. The programme resulted in statistically meaningful changes on al three the measured fascets. After the PTP the body evaluations of participants in the experimental group were less negative towards the form and function of their bodies (BISCL-v (p= .00) and BISCL-f (p= .00). The change in mean scores on the BES full scale (p= .003) and the subscales appearance (p= .01), attribution (p= .03) and weight (p= .00) indicated that evaluation of body- esteem was also more positive. Participants’ life-satisfaction was significantly higher after they participated in the PTP (p= .03). Effects sizes for the significance of difference in mean scores were also calculated, yielding a large effect on effect body evaluation (0.19 tot 0.20), a medium to large effect on body-esteem (0.12 tot 0.20) and medium effect on life satisfaction (0.11). These effect sizes suggest that the results also have practical significance. Secondly the mean scores of the experimental and control groups prior to and after the PTP were compared. No statistically meaningful difference was noted between the mean values of these two groups in terms of body evaluations, body-esteem or life- satisfaction. This is possibly due to the small sample size and variables such as age and ethnicity. In conclusion the psychosocial training programme shows promise as an intervention to enhance female adolescents’ body evaluations, body-esteem and life-satisfaction.

by Cheung Yiu Kwong. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1995. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 59-68). / Abstract --- p.ii / Acknowledgments --- p.iv / Table of contents --- p.v / List of tables --- p.vi / List of appendix --- p.vii / Chapter Chapter 1 - --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter Chapter 2 - --- Method --- p.18 / Chapter Chapter 3 - --- Results --- p.24 / Chapter Chapter 4 - --- Discussion --- p.44 / References --- p.59 / Appendix --- p.69

Bibliography: leaves 256-293. / xii, 293 leaves : col. ill. ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / Explores the intricacies of girls' micro-social lived realities within larger macro-social contexts and the notion of identity as process by centring on the process of 'self-making' by ten teenage girls, living in Adelaide, South Australia in the mid 1990s. The main hypothesis argues for the strategic role of play in the constitution of 'self-making'. This is contextualised within an analytical framework of 'social praxeology', highlighting the importance of social networks to the ways the teenage participants themselves perceived and negotiated subjectivities. Argues that the young participants in this study acquired their sense of cultural (self) identities through three aspects of 'bodily praxis' - place, space and play. While the understandings of the girls and their familial and social groupings provides the focal point to the analysis, these were framed within the perspectives of sixty-five other young people and over fifty significant adults in various social institutions and wider social networks and further contextualised by a reflexive analysis of the research process itself. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Anthropology, 1999

Bibliography: leaves 256-293. / xii, 293 leaves : col. ill. ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / Explores the intricacies of girls' micro-social lived realities within larger macro-social contexts and the notion of identity as process by centring on the process of 'self-making' by ten teenage girls, living in Adelaide, South Australia in the mid 1990s. The main hypothesis argues for the strategic role of play in the constitution of 'self-making'. This is contextualised within an analytical framework of 'social praxeology', highlighting the importance of social networks to the ways the teenage participants themselves perceived and negotiated subjectivities. Argues that the young participants in this study acquired their sense of cultural (self) identities through three aspects of 'bodily praxis' - place, space and play. While the understandings of the girls and their familial and social groupings provides the focal point to the analysis, these were framed within the perspectives of sixty-five other young people and over fifty significant adults in various social institutions and wider social networks and further contextualised by a reflexive analysis of the research process itself. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Anthropology, 1999

Thesis (D. Min.)--Abilene Christian University, 1992. / Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 197-207).

Thesis (Masters) -- The College of Saint Elizabeth, 2010. / Typescript. Available at The College of Saint Elizabeth - Office of Graduate Programs. "March 2010"