The ability to classify complex visual forms was studied in three, four, and five year old children. Each subject performed two tasks based on two classes of computer-generated stimuli. The oddity task required the identification of the odd form in a set of three eight-sided polygons. The sequential task required the assignment of each sequentially presented single polygon to one of two classes. No feedback was given. The results revealed a marked developmental change in classification ability occurring between about 4 1/2 and 5 1/2 years of age. The oddity task appeared to be a more sensitive test of class concept formation. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

This examination of the most popular plays of Rodolfo Usigli, Salvador Novo, and Emilio Carballido shows their concern with Mexico's social problems--especially as evidenced by their representation of contemporary social classes through characterization. Treating socio-political and sexual problems with special emphasis upon psychology, Usigli combines melodramatic reality and imagination. Psychoanalysis is also important in Novo's characterizations; his themes and characters express a social criticism which often becomes a malicious satire of Mexican life. Carballido's symbolic surrealism creates an atmosphere of fantasy, with scenic neo-realism representing everyday life, bourgeois ideas, and the Mexican psychology.

The diploma thesis examines the depiction of social classes, men, women and ethnic minorities in historical television serials. It is concentrated specifically on a qualitative analysis and comparison of two serials, namely Bridgerton (2020) and The Knick (2014- 2015), of which both fall within the quality television genre. The thesis deals with the ways of representation of the societies of their respective periods, aiming especially at identifying the incorrect depiction of the historical period in question, if any, and at finding similarities with the problems concerning the today's society (such as addressing the issues of social inequalities and manifestations of the identity policy). The theoretical part of the diploma thesis describes the phenomenon of a television serial, namely that concerning the historical serial and quality TV genres, the latter being the kind of television serial work distinguishing itself by comprehensive and innovative procedures, elaborate narratives, and emphasis put on the development of characters. Attention is also paid to the field of the cultural studies, mainly the hegemony theory and the concept of ideology, media and their representation, as well as the study of media audience. In its conclusion, the first part of the thesis focuses on the presentation of...

This dissertation offers a novel quantitative method for assessing an actor's subjective temporal orientation. Our method involves the use of supervised machine learning techniques in concert with natural language processing tools and linguistic principles. We suggest our method may offer a clandestine technique for extracting aspects of an actor’s temporal orientations from right behind their back. This capacity occurs because of the unique ways time references are reflected in language syntax. This reflection does not simply occur in face-to-face spoken interactions, but also resides in recorded vocal transcripts and within textual documents articulated by speakers for a social audience (e.g., political speeches). . From a social theory point of view, we argue that our technique can help objectify some of the major links theorists have long made between the temporal features of mind, subjective meaning, and social processes. Temporal orientation has long been defined as a tripartite mental process. Edmund Husserl famously defined this process as involving retention (a mental focus on past), presentation (a mental focus on the present) or protention (a mental envisioning of the future). From a pure phenomenology perspective, Husserl’s innovation was to link this mental interlocking process with meaning-making. For Husserl, it was directly through an actor’s temporal orientation that meaning became variably constituted and the problem of subjectivity emerged. From a sociological point of view, it is primarily through Alfred Schutz’s formulation of social phenomenology that Husserl’s tripartite system was opened to accommodate the influence of the social in meaning-making. This opening has possessed a long-standing contradiction. For Schutz, endogenous social structure could affect where an actor temporally orients. The resulting implication is that social structure could have a direct effect on how actors assign specific meanings in social systems. Even more, social structure could facilitate shared temporal orientations among actors. However, Schutz also promoted the idea that different temporal orientations could explain how different meanings could be assigned to the same social object by disparate actors. This possibility served as the centerpiece of Schutz’s well-known methodological critique of Max Weber’s direct linkage between subjective meaning, motive, and empathetic based interpretations of social action. To carry out our efforts to quantify how the subjective processes of temporal orientation appear to be influenced by endogenous social processes, we employed our algorithm on three different text-based data sets. We suggest these datasets possess strong reflections of the social world. The first dataset entails a collection of matched twitter tweets that correspond to Trump’s reelection bid and Biden’s challenge during the 2020 period. In this dataset, our method illustrates how both candidates appear to have different temporal orientations despite being bounded by a similar social event. We suggest this finding may reflect the relationship between what Schütz called inner duration and the influence of external stocks of knowledge (i.e., external structures.) The second dataset corresponds to a recorded conversational transcript of the Cuban missile crisis, taken from President Kennedy’s Executive Committee of the National Security Council (ExComm) on the 6th of October in 1962. Using our algorithm, we offer objective measures of homogenous temporal orientations of committee members that are consistent with meso-group conformity. We suggest that our method may offer a novel way of measuring group conformity in general. The third dataset consists of the State of the Union Corpora (SOU). In this dataset, we apply our algorithm to identify changes in temporal orientation occurring among a single President’s entire collection of SOU speeches. Furthermore, we compare the average temporal orientation of the Presidents in relation to various social categories, such as party affiliation and societal events. The scope of the Presidents inventoried for temporal orientation is restricted from Eisenhower to Biden.

This dissertation brings the works of Antonio Gramsci and W.E.B. Du Bois in conversation with each other to theorize transformative hegemony as a project aiming to overcome racial capitalism despite the backlashes and resilience of this social order. The dissertation argues that racial capitalism is sustained by a strategy that divides the subalterns, the non-ruling classes, through coercion and co-optation in a way that perpetuates cycles of crises and violence. The project of transformative hegemony aims to overcome this by forming a broad passionate coalition of the subalterns around a new worldview that can offer a genuine answer to the contradiction of this socio-economic system. To form such a coalition despite the pervasive division amongst the subalterns, Gramsci and Du Bois present a strategy of war of position that is meant to empower the subalterns and destabilize the ruling coalition. They compare this strategy to a form of trench warfare because it prepares the subalterns for a long-term struggle, requires mobilizing a broad coalition from different groups with diverse needs, interests, and grievances, and creates trenches to foster transformation in different spheres of society. The dissertation develops Gramsci and Du Bois’s insight into the role of culture, leadership, science, and the organization of movements as trenches of transformation meant to empower the subalterns and destabilize the ruling coalition to bring about a transformative hegemony.

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There has been a growing understanding in recent years of the links between conflict emergence and horizontal inequalities and increased focus on the role which development policies can play in both ameliorating and exacerbating the root causes of violent conflict. This study tests the empirical relationship between horizontal inequalities and conflict causation using the Sri Lankan ethnic conflict as a case study. The analysis shows robust support for the empirical relationship between horizontal inequality (which encompasses political, economic, social and cultural dimensions) and the emergence of violent conflict in Sri Lanka. In this context of inequality, Tamil leaders, who faced political exclusion, and their followers, who themselves experienced inequitable access to employment, education opportunities, assets, were inspired to mobilise and engage in armed violence. Thus, the ethnic conflict stemmed from the disillusionment, frustration and increasing radicalisation of Tamils in their attitude towards the Sri Lankan state, rejecting what they perceived as exclusionary policies. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) emerged as a key protagonist in the conflict, with an expressed view to establish a Tamil homeland in Sri Lanka. While most post war development policies are strongly aligned to government objectives, there are very little steps taken towards the design and adoption of policies to ameliorate horizontal inequalities. Instead, the government has identified security issues and economic growth as the cornerstone in the post war development process, and they are given greater emphasis in policies compared to underlying causes of violent conflict: inequalities in access to political power, economic resources and/or cultural status. Most Sri Lankan state actors are either not mandated to address equality issues or prefer conflict sensitive approaches to post war development. In general, there is a weak approach to conflict sensitivity in early post war development and reconstruction strategies (from 2009 to 2013). Likewise, there is relatively little attention paid to other conflict sensitive causes and dynamics such as the nature of the political system ii and problems of human rights. The failure to address fundamental issues relating to minority Tamil grievances has the potential to re-ignite the conflict. / Development Studies / D. Litt. et Phil. (Development Studies)

published_or_final_version / abstract / Sociology / Master / Master of Philosophy

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

There has been a growing understanding in recent years of the links between conflict emergence and horizontal inequalities and increased focus on the role which development policies can play in both ameliorating and exacerbating the root causes of violent conflict. This study tests the empirical relationship between horizontal inequalities and conflict causation using the Sri Lankan ethnic conflict as a case study. The analysis shows robust support for the empirical relationship between horizontal inequality (which encompasses political, economic, social and cultural dimensions) and the emergence of violent conflict in Sri Lanka. In this context of inequality, Tamil leaders, who faced political exclusion, and their followers, who themselves experienced inequitable access to employment, education opportunities, assets, were inspired to mobilise and engage in armed violence. Thus, the ethnic conflict stemmed from the disillusionment, frustration and increasing radicalisation of Tamils in their attitude towards the Sri Lankan state, rejecting what they perceived as exclusionary policies. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) emerged as a key protagonist in the conflict, with an expressed view to establish a Tamil homeland in Sri Lanka. While most post war development policies are strongly aligned to government objectives, there are very little steps taken towards the design and adoption of policies to ameliorate horizontal inequalities. Instead, the government has identified security issues and economic growth as the cornerstone in the post war development process, and they are given greater emphasis in policies compared to underlying causes of violent conflict: inequalities in access to political power, economic resources and/or cultural status. Most Sri Lankan state actors are either not mandated to address equality issues or prefer conflict sensitive approaches to post war development. In general, there is a weak approach to conflict sensitivity in early post war development and reconstruction strategies (from 2009 to 2013). Likewise, there is relatively little attention paid to other conflict sensitive causes and dynamics such as the nature of the political system ii and problems of human rights. The failure to address fundamental issues relating to minority Tamil grievances has the potential to re-ignite the conflict. / Development Studies / D. Litt. et Phil. (Development Studies)