Abstract Young drivers between the ages of 15 and 24 are overrepresented in automobile crash statistics worldwide. Despite the common assumption that young drivers are more at risk of crashing than older drivers due to inexperience, age appears to be the main factor influencing crash risk, even after experience has been taken into account. It is possible that young drivers are involved in a high number of crashes because of their risk-taking tendencies. Accident involvement is not so much influenced by errors and lapses by the driver, but by the willingness to commit driving violations intentionally. However, studies that attempted to measure the risk-taking tendencies of drivers have so far used mainly self-report questionnaires, which are limited in their ability to predict real-world behaviour. This thesis used a new behavioural measure of risk-taking known as the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART). In this task, participants engage in computer simulation where a balloon is pumped in order to accumulate money, but when the balloon is pumped too high it explodes, and the money that could have been gained is lost. A group of 50 male drivers were the participants of this study, and these were separated into three age groups: adolescents, aged 16-17, young adults, aged 20-21, and older adults, aged 25 years and over. In addition to the BART, the participants answered a series of questionnaires that focused on risk-related constructs, such as impulsiveness and subjective risk assessment, as well as driving attitudes and intentions. The expectation was that younger drivers would be shown to have greater risk-taking tendencies than older drivers. The results showed that the BART showed no relationship with either driving attitude scores (apart from a small correlation with attitudes towards close following), or any of the self-reported measures of risk. The other self-report risk measures, however, showed many correlations with various aspects of driving attitudes and intentions. Over age groups, the level of impulsiveness was found to decrease, and the attitudes became less in favour of taking physical risks. Adolescents were also found to be more approving of using a cell phone while driving, and of overtaking in risky circumstances. They had greater intentions to commit violations in the future, and were more likely to get a thrill from driving. The failure of the BART to reveal any significant findings may have been because so far it has only been shown to correlate with self-reported real-world behaviour, and not so much with attitudes and risk-related constructs. The other suggestion of this thesis was that the BART does not simulate risk-taking in the truest sense because there are no specific negative consequences for risk taking, only the removal of a possible benefit. The finding of greater risk taking in adolescent drivers was discussed in relation to Risk Homeostasis Theory and Problem Behaviour Theory, with a focus on how age-related factors might influence driver risk taking. As further discussed, these age-related factors might include the effect of incomplete brain development, the motives for driving, and the lifestyle of the individual.

The overall aim of this thesis is to demonstrate the usefulness and the efficacy of the Rasch model to provide solutions to a variety of measurement problems in the specific context of pain assessment. As Rasch models rest on the requirement of unidimensionality and as verbal self-report has been described as the most valid measure of the experience of pain (Melzack and Katz, 2006), all chapters of the present work focus on the measurement of a single dimension of the pain experience, its intensity and on self-reported rating scales assessing this dimension. Chapter 1 presents the basics of the Rasch methodology and describes how one model of the Rasch family of models, the many-facet model, can be applied to the analysis of pain intensity responses following CO2 laser heat stimulation. Several intensities of stimulation were delivered on the hand of one hundred subjects who had to rate their pain perception on a three-level verbal rating scale. This methodological chapter stressed the ability of the Rasch models to transform the original ordinal scores into linear measures on an interval scale. Advantages and disadvantages of the Rasch methodology are discussed. Chapter 2 presents a second application of the Rasch methodology: the development and validation of a new measurement tool. In that chapter, an item questionnaire, the Situational Pain Scale (SPS), measuring the mental representation of pain in imaginary painful situations was developed and validated with healthy and chronic pain adults. Chronic pain patients also completed questionnaires assessing clinical and emotional attributes. Responses to the SPS were analyzed according to the rating scale Rasch model to select unidimensional and unbiased items. The final SPS consisted of 18 items with a widespread measurement range, a distribution well-targeted for the sample of healthy subjects and chronic pain patients and a high index of measurement precision. The measure of pain representation was significantly related to present pain intensity and anxiety about pain. Fibromyalgia patients showed significantly higher pain representation measures than all other groups. The psychometric properties of the SPS allows to further test its value to predict behaviors such as chronification of an acute pain condition or coping strategies developed by the chronic pain patient Chapter 3 detailed a third application of the Rasch models: the investigation and optimization of rating scale functioning. It more specifically examines the question of the optimal number of response levels required to assess the intensity of pain. A first section details the problematic, reviews studies previously conducted and presents the statistical indexes provided by the Rasch methodology for investigating the functioning of rating scales. Two empirical studies follow. They investigate the optimal number of response levels required to assess the intensity of pain by means of the Rasch analysis. The first study is devoted to the examination of three verbal rating scales (four, five and ten response categories) in healthy adults rating the 18 items of the SPS (developed in chapter 2). Results showed that the 10- and the 5-level verbal rating scales (VRSs) were not effective to assess pain intensity but that the 4-level one was. Recategorization procedures applied on the 10- and the 5-level VRSs revealed that the optimal number of response levels was also around four. In conclusion, this study shows that the human being can only distinguish four response levels when assessing the pain intensity of hypothetical events on a VRS. The second empirical study is devoted to the examination of faces scales (FSs) in healthy children aged from four to seven years. Results of this second study showed an improvement in the ability to distinguish the response categories with age. The 4-5 year-old children could only distinguish two response categories and the 6-7 year-old children were able to discern the three levels of a three-level faces scale. In conclusion, young children do not distinguish as many faces as proposed by the majority of available faces scales. / L'objectif de cette thèse est de montrer l'utilité et l'efficacité du modèle de Rasch dans l'apport de solutions à divers problèmes rencontrés lors de la mesure de la douleur. Etant donné que le modèle de Rasch repose sur l'exigence d'unidimensionnalité et que l'auto-évaluation par le sujet a été décrite comme étant la mesure la plus valide de l'expérience de la douleur (Melzack and Katz, 2006), tous les chapitres de la thèse se sont focalisés sur la mesure d'une seule dimension de la douleur, son intensité, et sur les échelles d'auto-évaluation mesurant cette dimension. Le chapitre 1 présente les fondements de la méthodologie Rasch et décrit comment un des modèles de Rasch, le modèle multi-facettes, peut être appliqué à l'analyse de scores d'intensité de douleur fournis en réponse à des stimulations de chaleur délivrées à l'aide d'un laser CO2. Plusieurs intensités de stimulation ont été délivrées sur la main de cent sujets sains qui devaient évaluer leur perception de douleur sur une échelle verbale simple à trois niveaux de réponse. Ce chapitre méthodologique met l'accent sur la capacité du modèle de Rasch à transformer les scores originaux ordinaux en mesures linéaires sur une échelle d'intervalles. Les avantages et inconvénients de la méthodologie Rasch y sont discutés. Le chapitre 2 présente une seconde application de la méthodologie Rasch: le développement et la validation d'un nouvel instrument de mesure. Dans ce chapitre, un questionnaire, le Situational Pain Scale (SPS), mesurant la représentation mentale de la douleur lors de situations de douleur imaginaires est développé et validé dans une population d'adultes sains et de patients douloureux chroniques. Les patients douloureux chroniques ont également rempli une batterie de questionnaires évaluant diverses variables cliniques et émotionnelles. Les réponses au SPS ont été analysées à l'aide du modèle rating scale afin de sélectionner les items satisfaisant au critère d'unidimensionnalité et d'invariance de l'échelle. L'échelle finale comprend 18 items présentant une large étendue de mesure, une distribution bien ciblée par rapport à l'échantillon de sujets sains et de patients douloureux chroniques et une précision de mesure élevée. La mesure de la représentation de la douleur est significativement corrélée avec l'intensité de la douleur au moment de l'évaluation ainsi qu'avec l'anxiété spécifiquement liée à la douleur. Les patients fibromyalgiques ont une représentation de la douleur plus élevée que tous les autres groupes. Les qualités psychométriques de l'échelle permettent, dans le futur, de tester sa capacité à prédire certains comportements comme par exemple le risque de chronification d'un état de douleur aiguë ou encore les stratégies développées par le patient pour faire face à son état de douleur chronique. Le chapitre 3 détaille une troisième application des modèles de Rasch : l'investigation et l'optimisation du fonctionnement des échelles de réponse. Ce chapitre examine plus spécifiquement la question du nombre optimal de niveaux de réponse nécessaire pour évaluer l'intensité de la douleur. Une première section introduit la problématique, présente une revue de la littérature sur la question et détaille les indices statistiques fournis par la méthodologie Rasch pour étudier le fonctionnement des échelles de réponse. Deux études empiriques suivent. Elles étudient le nombre optimal de niveaux de réponse nécessaire pour l'évaluation de la douleur. La première étude est consacrée à l'investigation de trois échelles verbales simples (quatre, cinq et dix catégories de réponse) chez des adultes sains évaluant les 18 items du SPS dont le développement a été présenté au chapitre 2. Les résultats montrent que les échelles verbales simples (EVSs) à dix et cinq niveaux ne sont pas efficaces pour évaluer l'intensité de la douleur alors que l'échelle à quatre niveaux l'est. Les procédures de recatégorisation appliquées sur les EVSs à dix et cinq niveaux révèlent que le nombre optimal de niveaux de réponse est de quatre. En conclusion, cette étude montre que l'être humain ne peut distinguer que quatre niveaux de réponse lorsqu'il évalue des situations imaginaires sur une EVS. La seconde étude empirique est consacrée à l'investigation des échelles visages chez des enfants sains âgés de quatre à sept ans. Les résultats de cette seconde étude montrent une amélioration dans la capacité à distinguer les catégories de réponse avec l'âge. Les enfants de quatre et cinq ans ne peuvent distinguer que deux catégories de réponse alors que les enfants de six et sept ans peuvent distinguer les trois niveaux d'une échelle à trois visages. En conclusion, les jeunes enfants ne peuvent pas distinguer autant de visages que proposés par la majorité des échelles visages publiées.

The use of coercion in psychiatry involves clinical, legal, scientific, ethical and emotional considerations. This thesis represents an attempt to further increase our understanding of some empirical aspects of this phenomenon. Interviews with 202 involuntarily admitted psychiatric patients and 201 voluntarily admitted patients and 295 of their next of kins were performed and analysed together with data from records and assessments made by professionals. Data was collected during two different periods of time with a compulsory psychiatric care law reform in between. Experience of at least one coercive measure was more common amongst patients who had been committed during the most recent legislation. Otherwise there were no differences in patient experiences during the different laws. Subjective short-term outcome was associated with having a contact person at the ward and being subjectively treated well. There were no relationships between subjective and assessed outcome or between legal status, perceived coercion at admission and subjective or assessed improvement. The changed legislation had no clear effect on the attitudes of patients and next of kins towards coercion. A majority of patients were able to accurately answer the question whether they had been restrained by belt or not during a specific treatment episode. Nineteen of 115 patients reported they had been restrained by belt. Eleven of these cases were true positive and 8 cases were false positive. In conclusion, the main results were first that when it comes to issues related to psychiatric coercion there are typically considerable differences between how these are perceived and interpreted by the professional and by the patient, and second that efforts made to change the face of psychiatric coercion in the minds of patients as well as the public on part of public policymakers have had limited effects.

<p>In this thesis report we conducted research study on driver's behavior in T-Intersections using simulated environment. This report describes and discusses correlation analysis of driver's personality traits and style while driving at T-Intersections.</p><p>The experiments were performed on multi user driving simulator under controlled settings, at Linköping University. A total of forty-eight people participated in the study and were divided into groups of four, all driving in the same simulated world.</p><p>During the experiments participants were asked to fill a series of well-known self-report questionnaires. We evaluated questionnaires to get the insight in driver's personality traits and driving style. The self-report questionnaires consist of Schwartz's configural model of 10 values types and NEO-five factor inventory. Also driver's behavior was studied with the help of questionnaires based on driver's behavior, style, conflict avoidance, time horizon and tolerance of uncertainty. Then these 10 Schwartz's values are correlated with the other questionnaires to give the detail insight of the driving habits and personality traits of the drivers.</p>

In recent years, physical activity and fitness transitions, described as declines in physical activity and aerobic fitness, coupled with increased sedentary behaviour, have been observed among school-aged children. Consequently, the prevalence of childhood overweight/obesity has also increased considerably. While there is a wealth of evidence supporting such behavioural transitions in higher income countries, there exists a paucity of data on the situation in lower income countries, such as those in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The premise of this thesis was to investigate the robustness of these relationships in other global regions. The first objective was to investigate the evidence for an overweight/obesity, physical activity, and fitness transition among SSA’s school-aged children. Systematic review methodology was used to examine temporal trends and correlates of overweight/obesity, physical activity, fitness, and sedentary behaviour in apparently healthy or population based samples of children (5 - 17 years). The second objective of this thesis was to determine the prevalence and correlates of overweight/obesity and physical activity among Kenyan children aged 9 to 11 years, having contextualised Kenya within the broader situation in SSA. Further, the relationships between self-reported and directly assessed measures of physical activity and sedentary time by weight status in Kenyan children were investigated. The third objective was to examine moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) patterns accrued by time of day among Kenyan children using the International Study of Childhood Obesity, Lifestyle and the Environment (ISCOLE)-Kenya data. Activity patterns in the Kenyan setting were then compared to similar ISCOLE-Canada data from Canadian children, revealing differences and similarities in the accumulation of MVPA, light physical activity, and sedentary time. Systematic review data syntheses revealed a trend towards increasing proportions of overweight/obesity among Sub-Saharan Africa’s school-aged children. Further, urbanization and higher socioeconomic status (SES) were associated with decreased physical activity and aerobic fitness, and increased sedentary behaviours and body composition measures. ISCOLE-Kenya data analyses found a prevalence of childhood overweight/obesity of 20.8% in Nairobi, with few children meeting global physical activity guidelines (12.6%). Mean daily sedentary time was 398 minutes, time spent in light physical activity was 463 minutes, and time spent in MVPA was 36 minutes. Higher SES and parental education attainment were associated with a higher likelihood of children being overweight/obese and a lower likelihood of children meeting the physical activity recommendations. Data analyses also revealed considerable discrepancies in both self-report and direct measures of physical activity by weight status, and weak to moderate correlations between self-report and direct measures of physical activity. Under/healthy weight children had significantly higher directly measured mean daily minutes of MVPA compared to overweight/obese children (39 verses 20 minutes); had lower mean weekend-day minutes of sedentary time (346 verses 365 minutes); and had a higher proportion who met physical activity guidelines (15.5% versus 2.6%). Lastly, while MVPA patterns among urban Kenyan children were largely similar to those of urban Canadian children with regard to relationships by sex, BMI category, and weekday/weekend days; in the Kenyan sample, much unlike many higher income countries, lower SES was associated with higher MVPA.

Training can enable performers to express music in a personal and emotional way while communicating aesthetic impressions to an audience. Little research has been done on the emotive experiences of performing musicians listening to their own performances. The main goal of this study was to develop a reliable way to investigate emotive content of such experiences through a combination of listening profiles and continuous measurement. This empirical, methodological study used a mixed-method design. Responses from formally and informally trained musicians were tested. The methodology consists of two parts: listening profiles (Part I), and the continuous measurement of self-reported emotional response to music (Part II), supported by interviews. Part I consists of a demographic questionnaire, a listening test and a personality test. Part II consists of a computerised questionnaire with four questions: 1) word sorting, 2) word, colours, and facial expressions checklists, which participants use to indicate their emotional responses while the music plays, 3) free description, and 4) rating scales. Data was obtained during three test periods. Part I results revealed that personality, illness, preferences, and psychological factors influence the emotive content of listening experiences. Participants’ response time and manner of word sorting was also supportive of their profiles. Part II results revealed that listeners pay attention to both structural and performance elements as well as emotive content in both prescribed and personal musical tracks. Only a few participants were able to identify the predetermined emotion of the prescribed musical tracks. Participants’ experiences seemed to be influenced by training and personal preferences. Listening to their own recorded performances, informally trained participants were able to focus progressively less on performance elements and more on emotive content, while formally trained participants seemed to focus progressively more on performance elements, and less on emotive content. / Thesis (MMus)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012

Inledning: Syftet med undersökningen är att få en bild av självskattade symptomförändringar hos de unga vuxna som genomfört en psykodynamisk psykoterapi på Stadsmissionens Terapicenter för Unga, under perioden 2008-september 2013. Frågeställningar: Den övergripande frågeställningen var om och i vilken grad patienternas självskattade symptom förändrats under behandlingstiden. Utgångshypotesen för undersökningen var att den skulle visa en signifikant förbättrad självupplevd psykisk hälsa hos de unga vuxna som ingår i studien. Metod: Studien har genomförts genom att en statistisk analys gjorts av insamlat självskattningsmaterial i SCL-90, för perioden 2008 - september 2013, från Stadsmissionens Terapicenter för unga. Materialet består av enkätsvar från 209 personer. Resultat: Resultaten visar att det sker en positivt signifikant symptomförändring under behandlingstiden. Störst är den positiva symptomförändringen i det generella genomsnittsvärdet, GSI, samt vad gäller depression, ångest, interpersonell känslighet och tvång. Resultaten visar också att det finns ett betydande bortfall som inte är slumpmässigt, då bortfallet tenderar att överrepresenteras av personer med en högre nivå av psykiska besvär. Diskussion: De positiva behandlingsresultaten går tyvärr inte att generalisera på grund av ett betydande bortfall, dessutom saknades i hög utsträckning persondata i databasen vilket bidrar till en brist i resultatdiskussionen. En bredare och mer kontrollerad bortfallsinformation, såväl som ytterligare persondata, skulle vara till gagn för framtida utvärderingar.

Despite its convenience, the process of self-report in personality testing can be impacted by a variety of cognitive and perceptual biases. One bias that violates local independence, a core criterion of modern test theory, is the order effect. In this bias, characteristics of an item response are impacted not only by the content of the current item but also the accumulated exposure to previous, similar-content items. This bias is manifested as increasingly stable item responses for items that appear later in a test. Previous investigations of this effect have been rooted in classical test theory (CTT) and have consistently found that item reliabilities, or corrected item-total score correlations, increase with the item's serial position in the test. The purpose of the current study was to more rigorously examine order effects via item response theory (IRT). To this end, the FACETS modeling approach (Linacre, 1989) was combined with the Generalized Partial Credit model (GPCM; Muraki, 1992) to produce a new model, the Generalized Partial Credit FACETS model (GPCFM). Serial position of an item serves as a facet that contributes to the item response, not only via its impact on an item's location on the latent trait continuum, but also its discrimination. Thus, the GPCFM differs from previous generalizations of the FACETS model (Wang&Liu, 2007) in that the item discrimination parameter is modified to include a serial position effect. This parameter is important because it reflects the extent to which the purported underlying trait is represented in an item score. Two sets of analyses were conducted. First, a simulation study demonstrated effective parameter recovery, though measurements of error were impacted by sample size for all parameters, test length for trait level estimates, and the size of the order effect for trait level estimates, and an interaction between sample size and test length for item discrimination. Secondly, with respect to real self-report personality data, the GPCFM demonstrated good fit as well as superior fit relative to competing, nested models while also identifying order effects in some traits, particularly Neuroticism, Openness, and Agreeableness.

O conceito de autoconsciência em psicologia é definido como a habilidade de o indivíduo se tornar objeto de sua própria consciência. Este trabalho visou a investigar essa tradicional definição de forma teórica e empírica. Considerações sobre o conceito de autoconsciência sob a perspectiva da fenomenologia, do pragmatismo e da semiótica sugerem uma abordagem da autoconsciência não apenas como objeto da consciência, mas como uma instância presente em toda a experiência humana. Esta conclusão da parte teórica é posta à prova empírica em dois contextos que viabilizam o estudo da autoconsciência em psicologia: as medidas de autorrelato e a conversa interna verbalizada em tarefas de resolução de problemas. Para realizar estes dois estudos empíricos, a tese ainda envolveu a adaptação de três medidas de autorrelato relacionadas à autoconsciência para a população brasileira: a Escala de Autoabsorção, a Escala de Autorrelfexão e Insight e a Escala Filadélfia de Mindfulness. Os estudos empíricos que se seguiram apontaram resultados que sugerem inovações no conceito de autoconsciência em psicologia, no sentido de contemplar não apenas sua dimensão reflexiva, mas também pré-reflexiva. Tais achados puderam ser observados tanto nas dimensões resultantes da análise fatorial realizada com todos os itens das medidas de autorrelato integrantes do estudo, assim como na conversa interna verbalizada dos participantes que resolveram a problemas analíticos e de insight. / Self-consciousness has been definied within the Psychological Science as a capacity that one has to become the object of their own consciousness. This dissertation aimed to investigate such traditional definition using theoretical and empircal procedures. Considerations on the concept of self-consciousness in the phenomenological, pragmatical and semiotic approaches suggest an understanding of self-consciouness not only as an object of consciousness, but also as an instance that is present throughout the whole human experience. This conclusion is under empirical testing in two contexts that allow the study of selfconsciousness in Psychology: self-report measures and verbalized inner speech in problem-solving tasks. In order to proceed with these two empirical studies, this dissertation had to include the adaptation to the Brazilian population of three selfreport measures related to self-consciousness: the Self-Absorption Scale, the Self- Reflection and Insight Scale and the Philadelphia Mindfulness Scale. The following empirical studies suggested results related to inovations in the concept of self-consciousness to the Psychological Science, so that it would include not only its reflexive dimension, but also its pre-reflective one. Such outcomes were observed not only in the resulting dimensions of a factorial analysis of all the items from the self-report measures used in this study, but also in the verbalized inner speech of those participants who solved analytical and insight problem tasks.

O estudo do auto-relato de falhas de memória pode colaborar para o campo de investigação da qualidade de vida e de perda de memória, principalmente entre idosos. Sendo que percepção de auto-eficácia de memória é relacionada à capacidade de memória, questionou-se quais seriam as associações entre autoeficácia geral e o auto-relato de falhas de memória geral, prospectiva e retrospectiva a partir de dois estudos. O primeiro apresenta a tradução, adaptação e validação para o português do Prospective and Retrospective Memory Questionnaire (PRMQ) (Smith e cols., 2000). A amostra constou de 642 participantes com idade entre 16 e 81 anos (26,62±13,89). Análises fatoriais apontaram que dos 16 itens do PRMQ, somente oito apresentaram validade de construto. Após a adição de dois itens divididos, obteve-se a validade convergente e discriminante em uma amostra de 38 participantes com idade entre 60 e 81 anos (69,03±5,28). O PRMQ-10 é apresentado como válido e fidedigno na sua composição reduzida, com cinco itens para cada uma das escalas: prospectiva e retrospectiva. Para o segundo estudo, foram investigadas as relações entre o autorelato de falhas de memória (prospectiva e retrospectiva), com auto-eficácia geral, idade, escolaridade e sexo. Os participantes foram os mesmos do primeiro estudo. Análises de regressão hierárquica e de covariância revelaram que o auto-relato de falhas de memória prospectiva está mais fortemente associado à auto-eficácia geral. Contrariamente, o auto-relato de falhas de memória retrospectiva apresentou maior associação com escolaridade e idade. São discutidos pontos de reciprocidade entre o auto-relato de falhas de memória e avaliações de desempenho de memória. / Studies concerning self-reported memory failures can contribute to investigations about quality of life field and memory loss, mainly among elders. Once general self-efficacy has been indicated as an intervenient factor in memory tasks, it was aimed to investigate the association between general self-efficacy and self-report of general, prospective and retrospective memory failures. The first study presents the Prospective and Retrospective Memory Questionnaire (PRMQ) (Smith e cols., 2000) translation into Portuguese and psychometric validation. The sample was 642 participants aged between 16 and 81 years old (26,62±13,89). Factorial analysis showed construct validity of eight in 16 items. Two divided items were added to the retrospective factor, and convergent and concurrent validity were established in a sample of 38 participants aged between 60 and 81 years old (69,03±5,28). Thus, the Portuguese version of PRMQ showed validity and confidence with 10 items, five on each scale: prospective and retrospective. In the second study, performed with the same sample, are presented relations among self-reported memory failures (prospective and retrospective), general selfefficacy, age, years of formal education and gender. Analysis of hierarchical regression and covariance revealed a strong association between self-reported prospective memory failures and general self-efficacy. By contrast, the selfreported retrospective memory failures showed a strong association with years of education and age. As a further result, reciprocity between memory complaints and experimental results in memory tasks is discussed.