Nietzsche is a name not often invoked in relation to the topic of responsibility. This study reveals, however, that his work engages vigorously with the problem of responsibility in modernity on both the conceptual and methodological levels. In the concept of &quote; bad conscience,&quote; Nietzsche presents a " dangerous and multi-coloured " alternative to the more monochrome varieties of self-consciousness which ground theories of individual responsibility in the work of other modern philosophers, such as Locke and Kant. The complexity of Nietzsche's approach to self-consciousness allows him to shed light on the range of interconnected practices of responsibility and irresponsibility that characterize modern life. It also raises pressing questions about the possibility and conditions of philosophy in modernity. In grappling with " bad conscience" within the performative structures of his own thought, Nietzsche makes experimental use of methodological resources drawn from both the ancient and modern traditions of Western philosophy. In particular, this study examines Nietzsche's appropriation and " reinterpretation" of meditational methods which form part of the ancient philosophical " art of living," and which re-emerge in altered form, in the work of Descartes. In Nietzsche's writings, such methods are used to provoke and reflect upon the passions of " bad conscience," a dangerous practice which involves the risk of exacerbating this " illness," but which also promises to give birth to new insight and skill in confronting the problem of responsibility in modernity.

This study investigated the relationship between gender, self-esteem, self-consciousness, social self-efficacy and shyness among 9th, 10th, and 11th grade school students. Participants of the study were 424 high school students (250 female and 174 male) from four high schools in Bursa. Demographic information form, Revised Cheek and Buss Shyness Scale (RCBS) (Cheek &amp / Buss, 1981), Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES) (Rosenberg, 1965), Self-Consciousness Scale (SCS) (Feningstein, Scheier, &amp / Buss, 1975), and Social Self-Efficacy Scale (Matsushima &amp / Shiomi, 2002) were used as data collection instruments. The results of multiple regression analysis indicated that self-esteem, self-consciousness, and social self-efficacy were significant predictors of high school students

Free will is a paramount concept that is central to our everyday lives, society and moral judgements. In this thesis, I search for the conditions under which free will can exist. This is done in relation to two topics: determinism and agency. Finally, I also explore the relation between free will and several social and philosophical concepts, and discuss briefly what would be the case if there were no free will.

The visual feedback loop has long-been ignored as a form and an aesthetic within new media. Media theories have largely assumed a medium is defined by the material technology, relegating visual feedback to a circumstance of media rather than a unique and well-defined concept. This thesis sets forth a criteria for characterizing the visual feedback loop as a desired form, that is, a distinct set of formal and phenomenological qualities that are independent of a medium. Grounding the criteria are the cinema theories of Gilles Deleuze and Sean Cubitt; these theories propose that the cinematic image relates visual forms to generate information in decoding rather represents information directly. The thesis elaborates the theoretical concepts in examples of visual feedback loops from video (Nam June Paikâ s TV Buddha, Bruce Naumanâ s Live Taped Video Corridor), new media art (Daniel Rozinâ s physical mirrors), and digital technologies (GPS navigation systems). To reconcile the visual feedback loop within media theories, the thesis calls for a radical change in how theorists define a medium. Moving away from notions of inscription and materiality, media now rely on a collapsed distinction between sender and receiver. Hence, visual feedback loops exist as remediations of a conceptual framework rather than a technological one, and so require a logic within media theory that allow for the rise of other desired forms like the visual feedback loop.

This thesis aims to investigate the relationships between vanity, social comparison and purchase behaviour. Specifically, this thesis defines and develops a conceptual model that expands on these relationships where vanity and social comparison act as antecedents to consumers’ self-esteem and product evaluation which in turn gives rise to purchase behaviour for luxury fashion products. Using this model, the research examines how manipulations of social comparison and vanity are reflected in these relationships and the resulting impact on purchase behaviour. To empirically test this model, an online experiment using a 3x2 between-subjects factorial design was conducted, where respondents were exposed to modified print advertisements for luxury branded sunglasses. A total of 297 responses were collected from a pool of Amazon’s Mechanical Turk workers, which were analysed using multiple regression, factorial ANCOVA and path analysis to assess the hypothesised relationships. The results indicate that vanity appeals were indeed responsible for the way in which the product was evaluated which positively translated into purchase consideration. However, though social comparison was proven to negatively impact on self-esteem, this change in self-esteem was not significant in determining purchase behaviour. Additionally, social anxiety and public self-consciousness were found to be antecedents to the modelled relationships. The theoretical and managerial implications of these findings, along with suggested directions for future research, are discussed.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether or not significant relationships existed between dispositional factors (self-consciousness, anxiety, approach coping style) predictive of choking under pressure in competition with factors associated with healthy psychological functioning (dispositional mindfulness and dimensions of psychological well-being). Choking under pressure has been identified as a factor that not only negatively impacts an athlete’s level of success in competition, but also the athlete’s psychological well-being. Despite these negative effects, minimal interventions exist to address choking under pressure. Mindfulness is a construct that has received attention for its positive effect in the lives of individuals, both in daily living and symptom-relief for a host of issues. As such, the relationships between factors associated with choking-susceptibility, mindfulness, and psychological well-being were examined in the current study to determine if the development of a mindfulness intervention for athletes identified as “choking-susceptible” is appropriate. The sample for this study included 95 Division I athletes from large Southwestern and Western universities. The data were analyzed using univariate and multiple linear regressions and correlational analysis. The findings of this study revealed significant negative relationships between two out of the three dispositional choking-susceptibility factors (self-consciousness and anxiety), mindfulness, and psychological well-being. Given the significance of these findings, the development and evaluation of a mindfulness-based choking intervention is warranted. / text

Darbas „Studentų didaktinės savimonės ugdymas geografijos studijose“ – tai darbas apie pedagoginės savimonės formavimąsi tiek geografijos teorinėse studijose, tiek pedagoginės praktikos metu. Visų pirma pateikiamas išsamus „pedagoginės savimonės“ apibrėžimas, kuris teigia, jog pedagoginė savimonė - teigiamas profesionalaus ugdytojo santykis su savimi kaip žmogumi ir profesijos atstovu, su atliekama veikla, aplinka, su įsisąmoninimu privalomų vaidmenų, adekvačiu jų reikšmės supratimu, veiklos prasmės bei su tuo susijusių asmeninių savybių tobulinimu ir kompetencijų didinimu, su kokybiška veikla ne tik ugdymo institucijoje, bet ir už jos ribų. Kvalifikuotiems pedagogams parengti reikalinga veiksminga sistema, kurios pagrindinė paskirtis – parengti švietimo sistemai pedagogus, įgijusius dabarties iššūkius atsiliepiantį išsilavinimą ir profesinę kvalifikaciją, sudaryti sąlygas jai tobulinti, prireikus – persikvalifikuoti. Praktiniai gebėjimai pedagoginėse studijose – tai studentų teorinių žinių pritaikymas mokyklinėje praktikoje. Optimaliam rezultatui gauti didelę reikšmę turi pedagoginės praktikos organizavimas. Nuo sistemingo ir tikslaus organizavimo priklauso galutis rezultatas. Todėl Sėkmingo studentų didaktinės savimonės tyrimo atlikimą lėmė sistemingas užduočių parinkimas ir efektyvus jų pateikimas pedagoginę praktiką atlikusiems studentams. Gauti rezultatai atspindi Geografijos specialybę studijuojančio ir pedagogo darbui rengiamo studento paveikslą:  pagrindinės... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / This work „The Development students’ didactic self-consciousness in Geography studies” is about forming of educational self consciousness as much in Geographic’s theoretical studies as much during time of educational practice. First of all there is exhaustive explanation of “educational self-consciousness” presented, which says, that educational self-consciousness – is positive relation of professional pedagogue with himself as human and representative of profession, with his current activities, environment, realizing of compulsory roles and correct understanding of theirs meaning, sense of activities and improvement of related personal skills and rising of competence, with quality activity not only in educational institution, but as well of it’s bounds. To prepare qualified pedagogues operational system is required, which aim would be to rise pedagogues for Educational System, that have intelligence, required to handle modern challenges and professional qualification, to make conditions for improvement, and (if needed) to re-qualify. Practical skills in pedagogical studies – that means adaptation of student’s theoretical knowledge in school practice. For achieving optimal results, organization of pedagogical practice is vital. Final result depends on systematic and precise planning. That’s why successful research was decided by systematically choosing of tasks and their effective presentation to students, who fulfilled pedagogical practice. The results shows picture of... [to full text]

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The research explores the concept of human consciousness and its being experienced in a particular social context, focusing on consciousness’s ‘highest potential’ as described in both ancient Buddhist Philosophy and more recent spiritual teachings. The main attention is on the individual’s emotional and mental experience of ‘conventional’ and ‘ultimate’ reality as taught by these traditions and the possible transformation of consciousness they might initiate. Two years of fieldwork was carried out at the Barbara Brennan School of Healing, which is a spiritual educational institution, offering a four-year training to become a healer. The School emphasis is on the human individual and his or her inherent existential power to transform and transcend limitations or delusions, focusing on the process of self- transformation. Being human in the eyes of the School is seen as an endless potential for growth, creativity, the capacity to love, and about learning to become fully responsible for one’s own life and happiness. The thesis explores the effect that this particular understanding of human potential has in the quotidian existence of the trainee and her or his social relations. Methodologically the study is based in phenomenological anthropology. This approach here implies that life cannot be understood through the conceptual or systematic study of its outward forms. Therefore it places conscious experience at the centre of its investigation, rather than disengaged objectivity. By employing the first-person perspective and undertaking part of the training myself, I hope to do justice to the inherently subjective dimension of consciousness and to gain as deep an understanding as possible of the processes of its transformation. The thesis thus includes subjective personal experience as primary data, and understands being objective in the sense of being open and without bias to both internal and external experience, giving the ‘perennial wisdom’ of spiritual traditions the same status as approved scientific laws.

In this dissertation I conduct a historical and theoretical reexamination of Walter Ong in order to explore the extent to which technology transforms consciousness. I discover within his work an understanding of literacy, technology, and humanity that can help us negotiate change without succumbing to the teleological urge to dichotomize. Technology transforms consciousness, but consciousness also transforms technology. This relational aspect of evolutionary change, which is essential to Ong’s work, is often missed or misread. The misreadings obscure important concepts in Ong’s work that can help us negotiate questions that occupy our own present and near-future. How do we teach writing in the presence of technology? What is literacy becoming and how can we understand the increasing multiplicity? Are our students being transformed by the latest technologies? Ong’s work offers answers in a somewhat unexpected way. Rather than continuing or redefining the orality, literacy, secondary orality continuum, I demonstrate that Ong’s work is grounded in more relevant concepts that should no longer be overlooked. A deeper understanding of “the word,” “interior,” and “presence” leads to the revelation that understanding “noetic economy” and “sensorium” not only clarifies Ong’s work, but also offers tools for transforming pedagogy, understanding literacies, and advancing historical understandings. Ong’s work is an enactment of scholarship within the sensorium. That enactment was somewhat unconscious; he did not always articulate the interaction of aural, oral, visual, kinesthetic, olfactory, and tactile, but merely referred to the human sensorium to explain the interactions of the physical and intellectual aspects of human existence. This recovery of Ong’s work demonstrates our need for conscious enactment of the sensorium. One such enactment includes rereading Alexander Bain, who failed to respond to the shifts in the human sensorium occurring alongside developments in writing technologies. Changes in the noetic economy shifted invention away from oral and memory-based composition towards visual and kinesthetically-enacted shaping and revising of ideas. Bain’s assumption that ideas come fully formed from the mind, shared with his students, became reified in current traditional pedagogy. Enacting the sensorium offers us an opportunity to avoid passing on problematic pedagogy to our own students. / Walter Ong's reception in English studies -- Speaking of changes, or, "How the divide is not so great" -- Before orality and literacy : earlier explorations in Walter Ong's thought -- The (not so) great divide : recalling the sensorium -- Applications. / Department of English