Meaningful social connections are an important part of our lives, especially as we age, and are associated with life satisfaction and psychological well-being. At the same time making friends and creating connections is known to be challenging in older age. In this thesis, we focus on studying how technology can help to collect information about older adults that can be useful for facilitating friendship formation and social interactions among users. We start by describing early work that shows the opportunities of technology in improving well-being of older adults. The conducted studies and review work highlights the potential of social interactions in motivating older adults for technology use and exercising. We then study factors affecting people's social connectedness and friendships. The study highlights that common life points are related to higher levels of connectedness and frequency of interactions. We then move the focus on studying friendship formation in later life, and specifically on how technology can help to facilitate friendship formation. From observations in the nursing homes we see that reminiscence is often used to collect information about a person’s history and values, we look at this practice as a way to identify information potentially useful to recommend friendships, especially in nursing homes context. We conduct Interviews and observations with nursing homes stakeholders and gerontology doctors to define requirements and opportunities of reminiscence conversational agent suitable to their current practices. We then conduct a study to explore how the concept of the bot and features are perceived by elderly, NH staff and doctors. Finally, we present the work carried out to define and validate the concept of a reminiscence-based conversational agent aimed at: i) conducting storytelling conversations that are engaging and natural and ii) being effective in collecting information about the user (e.g values, interests, places) that later can be used for recommending potential friends.

Skill sets such as understanding and applying computational concepts are essential prerequisites for success in the 21st century. One can learn computational concepts by taking a traditional course offered in a school or by self-guided learning through an online platform. Collaborative learning has emerged as an approach that researchers have found to be generally applicable and effective for teaching computational concepts. Rather than learning individually, collaboration can help reduce the anxiety level of learners, improve understanding and create a positive atmosphere to learning Computational Thinking (CT). There is, however, limited research focusing on how natural collaborative interactions among learners manifest during learning of computational concepts. Structured as a manuscript style dissertation, this doctoral study investigates three different but related aspects of novice learners collaboratively learning CT. The first manuscript (qualitative study) provides an overall understanding of the contextual factors and characterizes collaborative aspects of learning in a CT face-to-face classroom at a large Southeastern University. The second manuscript (qualitative study) investigates the social interaction occurring between group members of the same classroom. And the third manuscript (quantitative study) focuses on the relationship between different social interactions initiated by users and learning of CT in an online learning platform Scratch™. In the two diverse settings, Chi's (2009) Differentiated Overt Learning Activities (DOLA) has been used as a lens to better understand the significance of social interactions in terms of being active, constructive and interactive. Together, the findings of this dissertation study contribute to the limited body of CT research by providing insight on novice learner's attitude towards learning CT, collaborative moments of learning CT, and the differences in relationship between social interactions and learning CT. The identification of collaborative attributes of CT is expected to help educators in designing learning activities that facilitate such interactions within group of learners and look out for traits of such activities to assess CT in both classroom and online settings. / PHD

In order to succeed in an intellectually, economically, socially, and politically controlled system, as México, one has to develop a sense of inner direction and empowerment, where critical thinking is vital yet patriarchy becomes an impediment to the development of an inner compass and empowerment when it shapes and controls the masses’ identity and behavior through different strategies, methods, and institutions. One of the most powerful and popular identity shaping strategies is film making. Film is considered by most as a source of entertainment portraying social interactions. Yet it is a powerful identity-shaping tool for the establishment. It has been used by the Mexican government and its associates, for a long time, in an effort to sustain the status quo and justify its existence and social performance. The selected methodology of this study allowed comparison and contrasting of messages transmitted about identity, behavior, role-identification, values, and life scripts, using films from three different periods of the development of México: agricultural (1920s-1950s), industrial (1950s-1990s), and neoliberal (1990s-today). Religion, social interactions, gender, ethnicity, and nation-states are some of the main themes that emerged from this exploration of identity and behavior shaping strategies used in the Mexican films analyzed. The Identity shaping strategies are an efficient way of dealing with conflict because controlling and constraining is done by the individuals rather than by the nation-state.

Autism is primarily a social disorder and deficits in social?orienting may be responsible for the failure of children with autism to initiate critical social behaviors. The purpose of this research was to improve the quality of social interactions of children with autism by implementing naturalistic behavior strategies intervention utilizing a multiple baseline design across four participants. Naturalistic behavior strategies comprised a comprehensive package of integrated components including: (a) intervention in the child’s natural environment; (b) child-initiated play activities ; (c) prompts to emit language; (d) shaping for all vocal approximations and (e) delivery of natural reinforcement with embedded social interactions to maintain learned behavior. In addition to intervention, generalization of child behaviors was assessed across untrained parents and/or caregivers in the same environment. Results indicated the effectiveness of naturalistic teaching strategies package in increasing (a) the frequency of vocal mands for all children, (b) the number of times that children initiated social engagement during manding, and (c) intervals of nonverbal dyadic orienting. These skills generalized across two untrained caregivers in the same clinical setting without any training from the interventionist. Two parents required training during the generalization phase in order for their child’s behaviors to maintain at levels demonstrated during the intervention phase. Implications for future research and clinical practice are discussed.

Effective relationships among the levels of educational administrators will support the emphasis on academic excellence at national, state, and local levels. Recognizing the factors involved and understanding the interactions of those factors is a complex process. This study examined the bureaucratic leadership style of a superintendent in the organizational structure and the social interaction between the superintendent and campus principals in that organization as perceived by the principals. Quantitative data were collected by using two instruments: (1) the Administration Organi zationa1 Inventory to define the superintendent's bureaucratic leadership style and (2) the Perceived Social Interaction Questionnaire to determine the degree of social interaction between the superintendent and the campus principals. The study included the superintendent and the forty-three principals of a Texas suburban public school. Data analysis examined the leadership style and its relationship to the social interaction and both style and social interaction in relationship to age, sex, elementary or secondary level, and years of experience as a principal. Results of the study did not clearly define the superintendent's leadership style in a bureaucratic organization and indicated no significant difference between the style and social interaction and the four biographical variables. However, analysis of the data revealed that more principals perceived the superintendent as a Professional with a high degree of expertise and low degree of authority when biographical data were considered. Principals who perceived the superintendent as having a high degree of expertise also indicated they had a warm and friendly social relationship with the superintendent. Further analysis revealed that older, male, secondary principals with more than ten years of experience had a warm and friendly social interaction with the superintendent. This study attempted to provide greater knowledge of the organizational structures and the inward workings of a school system so that other administrators might better understand essential factors affecting district decisions and practices

Master of Landscape Architecture / Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional and Community Planning / Mary Catherine (Katie) Kingery-Page / According to Barbara Hendricks, play environment designer and consultant, “If we want children to grow up with a zest for living we need to give them living spaces that express life as a grand experience.” Hendricks emphasizes playtime is important for children to process formal lessons (Hendricks 2011). This applied design research project seeks to facilitate child development through an experiential learning playscape while addressing stormwater management for Bluemont Elementary School. The central research question of this project is: How can school playgrounds be designed to afford children improved social interactions and experiential learning? An exploration of landscape affordances theory (Sanseter and Hansen 2009, Heft 1988) and experiential learning (Kolb 1984), combined with social interactions and cognitive child development (Addo-Atuah 2012), formed a theory base for the project. Playground observations, stakeholder surveys, stakeholder interviews, and site inventory and analysis informed the eventual design. Major factors influencing students’ play include age, playground rules, equipment available for use, and weather. Site conditions, including topography and site drainage, can also influence students’ play. In current conditions, stormwater is a schoolyard liability restricting play and safe site circulation. The researcher gathered insights from student surveys, playground observations, teacher interviews, and site inventory and analysis to complete a comprehensive master plan. The comprehensive master plan and detailed stormwater management plan address the schoolyard over the next twenty to fifty year outlook. The designs resolve practical issues while increasing the variety of site educational and play affordances available to students and teachers for play and learning. A primary goal of the detailed plan is to convert stormwater schoolyard liabilities into amenities and educational tools.

Comprendre comment les processus de transmission non génétique comme la transmission sociale influencent l’évolution comportementale des espèces est une problématique importante en biologie de l’évolution. Cette thèse cherche à appréhender les mécanismes de diffusion et de maintien d’une information au sein d’un groupe par l’étude de la transmission sociale d’un choix de site d’oviposition chez Drosophila melanogaster. Le premier volet de cette thèse met en évidence l’existence d’une transmission du choix de site de ponte entre des femelles démonstratrices possédant l’information et des femelles observatrices naïves ainsi qu’à déterminer le processus d’apprentissage social sous-jacent. Le transfert de l’information sociale du choix d’oviposition se fait par le biais d’interactions directes entre les démonstratrices et observatrices. L’analyse de ces interactions par une méthode de vidéo tracking révèle l’existence d’un transfert de l’information bidirectionnel : plus les observatrices et les démonstratrices interagissent plus les observatrices acquièrent le choix d’oviposition et plus les démonstratrices le perdent. L’acquisition d’une information personnelle de la part les démonstratrices n’induit pas systématiquement sa transmission sociale aux observatrices suggérant que les deux processus sont dissociés. Le deuxième volet vise à comprendre dans quels contextes l’information sociale est employée et comment un individu réalise la balance entre l’utilisation des informations sociales et personnelles présentes dans son environnement. L’influence du groupe est examinée sur l’efficacité de la transmission par l’étude de paramètres tels que le ratio entre démonstratrices et observatrices, la taille du groupe, ou la présence d’une variabilité génétique. Les drosophiles montrent une stratégie d’apprentissage social de « copier la majorité » pour choisir leur site de ponte. Lorsque deux informations sociales sont présentes et contradictoires, les drosophiles acquièrent celle en adéquation avec leur préférence innée. La taille du groupe n’influence pas la transmission sociale mais perturbe l’utilisation de l’information personnelle des démonstratrices. La présence d’une variabilité génétique au sein du groupe, issue du polymorphisme du gène foraging, montre des différences de stratégies d’apprentissage social entre les individus des différents variants alléliques. L’utilisation de l’apprentissage social est parfaitement intégrée dans les prises de décision des drosophiles laissant envisager sa prévalence dans le règne animal. Cette thèse permet d’apporter de nouveaux éléments sur les mécanismes d'adaptation du comportement basé sur les processus de transmission sociale et de dégager les futurs enjeux liés à son étude. / Understanding how the process of non-genetic transmission as social transmission influence species behavioral evolution is an important issue in evolutionary biology. This thesis seeks to understand the diffusion mechanisms and information maintenance within a group studying social transmission of a choice of oviposition in Drosophila melanogaster. The first part of this thesis show social transmission occurrence of oviposition choice between informed demonstrator and naive observer females and try to determine social learning processes underlying. Social information transfer of oviposition choice occurs through direct interactions between demonstrators and observers. Analysis of these interactions by a video tracking method reveals a bidirectional information transfer: the more observers and demonstrators interact, the more observers gain oviposition choice behavior and the more demonstrators lose it. Personal information acquisition of oviposition choice by demonstrators is not sufficient to induce its transmission to observers, observers social learning seems to require special conditions. The second part of this thesis analyzes how social context influence social information use and how an individual realizes the balance between social and personal information use. The influence of group composition on social transmission efficiency is studied through different parameters such as the ratio between demonstrators and observers, group size, and the presence of genetic variability within the group. Flies show a “copy the majority” social learning strategy in their oviposition site choice behavior. Females acquire social information matching with their innate preference in presence of two contradictory social information. Group size does not affect the social transmission but perturbs demonstrator’s use of personal information. Genetic variability within the group stems from foraging gene polymorphism shows differences of social learning strategy between allelic variants. This thesis highlights a social learning use fully integrated into individuals’ decision-making and brings new elements on behavioral adaptation mechanisms based on social transmission processes.

A Reforma Psiquiátrica brasileira defende o tratamento não asilar para indivíduos diagnosticados com transtornos mentais severos e/ou persistentes, principalmente através dos Centros de Atenção Psicossocial (CAPS). Esta pesquisa propõe mostrar como se dá a dinâmica dos ajustamentos primários e secundários em uma unidade CAPS, levando em consideração as interações sociais e os discursos produzidos na instituição. Para isso, é utilizada a técnica de observação participante e a análise de documentos formais e informais. O diálogo teórico principal é com a produção de Erving Goffman e é tomado como contraponto o trabalho de Michel Foucault. Existem dois fatos que chamam a atenção na unidade pesquisada: o ativismo da equipe técnica e a obrigação de aprovação da pesquisa por um Comitê de Ética relacionado ao Ministério da Saúde. Verifica-se que a participação dos usuários modificou a forma como se dão as relações sociais na instituição. Em instituições não totais que buscam respeitar os direitos humanos, como o CAPS, há controle social e, consequentemente, resistência. O controle social imposto pela instituição gera, por parte dos pacientes, a necessidade de defender seus self dessas violações mesmo que esses possam ser consideradas mais sutis, em comparação com a realidade de um hospital psiquiátrico. Acredita-se que a fronteira entre os ajustamentos primários e secundários se tornou mais conflitiva e que essas questões foram reformuladas devido à participação dos usuários na instituição, o que leva a instituição a constantemente fazer acordos com os pacientes para manter o controle da instituição. Ao verificar na instituição os ajustamentos e as relações de poder através das interações e dos discursos dos atores sociais, pode-se dizer que uma característica nova na instituição CAPS, em relação ao hospital psiquiátrico, é a participação dos usuários na instituição e essa mudança produz acordos e conflitos entre usuários e membros da equipe multiprofissional. / The Brazilian Psychiatric Reform advocates non-asylum treatment for individuals diagnosed as suffering from severe and/or persistent mental disorders, mainly through the Psychosocial Care Centers (CAPS). This research proposes to show how the dynamics of primary and secondary adjustments occurs in a CAPS unit, taking on account the social interactions and the discourses produced in the institution. For that, it is used the participant observation technique and the analysis of formal and informal documents. The main theoretical dialogue is with the production of Erving Goffman and it is taken as counterpoint the work of Michel Foucault. There are two facts that draw attention in the unit researched: the activism of the psy staff and the obligation to have the research approved by an Ethics Committee related to the Ministry of Health. It is verified that the participation of the users modified the way in which the social relations in the institution take place. In non-total institutions that seek to respect human rights, as the CAPS, there are social control and, consequently, resistance. The social control imposed by the institution generates on the part of the patients the need to defend their self from these violations even if they can be considered subtler, when compared to the reality of a psychiatric hospital. It is believed that the boundary between primary and secondary adjustments has become more conflicting and that these issues have been reformulated due to the participation of the users in the institution, which leads the institution to constantly make agreements with the patients to maintain the control of the institution. When verifying in the institution the adjustments and the power relations through the interactions and the discourses of the social actors, it can be said that a new feature at the CAPS institution, in relation to the psychiatric hospital, is the participation of the users in the institution and this change produces agreements and conflicts between users and members of the multiprofessional staff.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-03-05T18:25:56Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 28 / Nenhuma / A dissertação propõe um estudo de caso no âmbito da instituição de educação Senac, buscando entender aspectos de sua produção comunicacional. O caso se configura pela entrada do Senac no contexto da Educação Superior, quando, anteriormente, atuava com Cursos Técnicos. Nessa transição, tensões se exacerbam por conta da inevitável mudança organizacional. É justamente essa circunstância nova que cria o estímulo para a investigação – saber que esse fato se demarca como novidade em relação à conjuntura anterior. A reflexão se desenvolve no âmbito mais amplo das transformações da sociedade em midiatização na qual as organizações redimensionam o paradigma da construção da imagem institucional. A pesquisa concentra-se nos desafios que a gestão comunicacional das organizações enfrenta nessa sociedade. O caso é estudado por meio de entrevistas e de pesquisa documental, sobre as quais fazemos um trabalho analítico-interpretativo. A partir dos registros das entrevistas, são elencados parâmetros fundamentais na mudança Se / This paper intends to present a case study within the scope of the educational institution named Senac, in an attempt to understand aspects of its communicational production. The case is configured upon the entrance of Senac into the context of Higher Education while previously it operated only with Technical Courses. During such transition, stresses exacerbated due to the unavoidable organizational change. And, it is exactly this new circumstance that creates the investigative impulse – knowing that this fact is marked out as something new in relation to the prior conjuncture. The reflection develops within the widest scope of the society changes in a mediatization, in which the organizations reshape the paradigm of the institutional image construction. The research focuses challenges faced by the communicational management of the organizations within this society. The case is studied using interviews and documentary research, on which an analytical-interpretative work is developed. From the records of the

Boa parte (senão todos) os fundamentos culturais de uma sociedade convergem em seu modo particular e sistemático de lidar com a morte, formulando prescrições técnicas e simbólicas que estabelecem códigos de conduta, instituem papéis profissionais etc., de modo a integrar a morte à realidade social e garantir a restauração da vida comunitária após a morte de um ou alguns de seus membros. Mas tais prescrições operam muito além dos momentos de luto e, de fato, condicionam largamente todas as interações sociais que compõem a vida cotidiana das pessoas - por isto mesmo, os sistemas de lida com a morte apresentam grande interesse para a Psicologia Social, embora venham sendo estudados incipientemente neste campo. O presente estudo visa contribuir para o necessário aprofundamento conceitual e metodológico sobre o assunto, primeiramente através da delimitação de campo dos sistemas de lida com a morte, a descrição de suas estruturas e funcionalidades e o estabelecimento de uma terminologia clara, já que estes sistemas têm sido nomeados na literatura especializada, indistintamente, como mortuários, tanatológicos, funerários ou necro-sistemas; adicionalmente, através do estudo comparativo de dois grupos humanos contemporâneos que apresentam características histórico culturais específicas: os moradores da cidade de Lins-SP (linenses) e os remanescentes Bororo que vivem em onze aldeias no estado de Mato Grosso. Nesta perspectiva, o trabalho compreendeu uma revisão da literatura em busca das elucidações teóricas visadas, bem como uma pesquisa empírica que consistiu de levantamento bibliográfico e exame de fontes documentais sobre a estrutura e a dinâmica social de ambos os grupos, a história da ocupação e das transformações dos territórios por eles habitados, seus principais mitos fundadores e as instituições, práticas, discursos, técnicas e símbolos utilizados na lida com a morte. Estas informações foram complementadas por observações participantes e entrevistas temáticas semi-estruturadas, tendo sido realizadas onze entrevistas (sete linenses e quatro Bororo) e uma visita de nove dias à aldeia Meruri. As informações colhidas foram interpretadas à luz das teorias estudadas, na perspectiva da fenomenologia hermenêutica. Os resultados permitem constatar que ambos os grupos, frente às alterações sócio-culturais intensificadas nas últimas décadas, vivenciaram um progressivo distanciamento dos indivíduos adoentados, moribundos e enlutados. Contudo, e a despeito do intenso processo de aculturação dos Bororo, este grupo ainda guarda diferenças marcantes em relação aos linenses quanto ao modo de lidar com a morte. Sobretudo, os Bororo mantém a possibilidade de expressar coletivamente sua dor e de vivenciar o luto comunitariamente, enquanto aos linenses restam apenas formas privadas e discretas; além disto, os Bororo guardam muito maior proximidade com tudo o que cerca a morte e o morto. Em ambos os grupos confirma-se que o aparato técnico e simbólico de lida com a morte representa um importante organizador psicossocial, pois orienta e auxilia as pessoas no enfrentamento individual e/ou coletivo da morte, favorecendo a elaboração dos impactos psíquicos e a reorganização dos papéis e vínculos sociais. Também se verificou, em ambos os grupos, fenômenos indicativos de ataques aos seus respectivos sistemas de lida com a morte que, ao que parece, contribuem para aumentar o distanciamento de todas as faces e nuances da morte / Many of (if not all) the cultural foundations of a society converge in their particular and systematic way of dealing with death, formulating technical and symbolic prescriptions that establish codes of conduct, institute professional roles etc., in order to integrate death to social reality and ensure the restoration of life in community after the death of one or some of its members. But such prescriptions operate far beyond the mourning period and, in fact, theywidely affect all social interactions that make up the everyday life of people for this reason, the systems of dealing with death show great interest to Social Psychology, although they have been studied incipiently in this field. This study aims to contribute to the necessary conceptual and methodological deepening of the subject, first through the delimitation of the field of systems of dealing with death, the description of their structures and functionalities and the establishment of clear terminology, since these systems have been named in specialized literature, interchangeably, as mortuary, thanatological, Funeral or necrosystems; additionally, through the comparative study of two contemporary human groups that have specific historical cultural features: the residents of the city of Lins-SP (linenses) and the remaining Bororo people that live in eleven villages in the state of Mato Grosso. In this perspective, the paper comprised a revision of the literature searching the targeted theoretical elucidationsas well as empirical research consisted of bibliographical survey and examination of documental sources about the structure and social dynamics of both groups, the history of the occupation and transformation of the territories inhabited by them, their major founding myths and institutions, practices, speeches, techniques and symbols used when dealing with death. This information was complemented with participant observation and semi-structured thematic interviews, eleven interviews have been made (seven linenses and four Bororo) and a nine-day visit to Meruri village. The collected information was interpreted in light of the studied theories, in the perspective of hermeneutic phenomenology. The results help determine that both groups before the intensified socio and cultural changes in the last decades, have been keeping a progressive distance from sick, dying and bereaved individuals. However, and despite the intense process of acculturation of the Bororo, this group still keeps striking differences from the linenses regarding the way they deal with death. Above all, the Bororo maintain the possibility to express their grief collectively and get through their mourning communally, whereas for the linenses there are only private and discrete ways; furthermore the Bororo keep a closer relationship with everything surrounding the death and the dead. In both groups it is confirmed that the technical and symbolic apparatus to copy with death is an important psychosocial organizer, as it guides and assists people when copying with death individually and/or collectively, favoring the elaboration of psychic impacts and reorganization of roles and social ties. It has also been found, in both groups, indicative phenomena of attacks to their respective systems of dealing with death, it seems that they contribute to increase the distance from all the faces and nuances of death