Theorists from diverse psychotherapy traditions converge in asserting that maladaptive expectations about interactions with other people play an important role in creating and maintaining clinical problems. While there is a consensus that the modification of these dysfunctional expectations is a vital aspect of effective therapy, there is also agreement that these expectations once established, are extremely resistant to change. The present study was conducted to investigate the cognitive mechanisms which mediate the effect of expectations upon the perception of other people. The objective was to explore the nature of these cognitive processes in ordinary social perception, with the hope of providing clinicians with new insights regarding potential therapeutic interventions. Subjects were given one of two sets of expectations about the interpersonal characteristics of a target male actor. They then viewed a videotape of a staged interaction between him and a female actor. Subjects were instructed to indicate subjectively salient events while observing the videotape, using a modified version of Newtson's (1973) unitizing procedure. This was employed as an index of selective encoding of interpersonal behavior. Following the videotape, subjects were administered a memory recognition test which was designed to distinguish between selective memory retrieval and selective memory reconstruction. They then rated the male actor on a series of interpersonal adjective scales. The results confirmed that subjects' impressions of the target person were biased in a manner which was consistent with their initial expectations. Evidence was obtained consistent with the hypothesis that this bias was mediated by the selective encoding of expectation congruent information. No evidence was obtained for the mediating effects of either selective memory retrieval or selective memory reconstruction. The potential clinical implications of these findings are discussed. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

The purpose of this study was to investigate further the nature of the relationship between creativity and some factors previously found to be involved in creative expression and to explore the possible relationship of some other factors to creativity.

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Johannesburg, South Africa, 2018 / The global adoption of mobile phones has fundamentally changed life as we know it. This study hopes to understand if mobile- and/or smartphones have changed the way in which work and home domains are constructed and what the consequences are on the individual’s workfamily balance. More importantly, are individuals able to self-regulate the flow of communication from the work into the home domain via a mobile- and/or smartphone in order to maintain the intricate work-family balance. To determine the plausibility/feasibility of this hypothesis, the study builds on Clark's (2000) Border theory with respect to work-life balance and border violations, bearing recent technological advances in mind, through the incorporation of Bandura’s (1986) self-regulation mechanism to explain the border management mechanism. To determine the validity of this hypothesis, a mixed-methods study was conducted which utilised a managerial participant sample recruited from South Africa in three phases; a pilot study (N = 30); a primary sample of a further 227 managers; and in-depth follow-up interviews with 27 managers and their partners. To determine the relationship between self-regulation and mobile phone usage for after-hours work in the home domain, Pearson’s correlation coefficients were used. The relationship between self-regulation and work-family balance was further explored through moderated multiple linear regressions, using a model from Baron and Kenny (1986), which created further explorative points which were investigated in the 27 interviews. The interviews were conducted to determine if individuals understand their afterhours mobile phone usage for work purposes and this was analysed via thematic content analysis (TCA). There was evidence for relationships between self-regulation and the time spent on organisational work within the work day and at home (after hours), which results in an impact on the development of work-family conflict. The relationship between the mobile phone use for work can be attributed to self-regulation, which implies that self-regulation is an intermediary mechanism. Moderated multilinear regression, unexpectedly, showed that individuals with low (deficient) self-regulatory ability, facilitated work ubiquitously with their mobile phones while simultaneously increasing their own self-esteem, as it supported their own work-family balance. The interviews uncovered three different border-keeper groups (borderexpanders, border-adapters, and border-enforcers). The outcomes of this research indicates that mobile- and/or smartphones have the ability to alter the border construction between the work and home domains as well as the intricate balance between them. Keywords: Work-family balance, Border theory, Mobile phones, Smartphones, Self-regulation, Self-esteem, South African managers / GR2019

The purpose of this investigation was to assess the validity of utilizing the same semantic differential test as a measure of social evaluation for persons of different ages. The semantic differential, a rating technique by which judgments of stimuli are made on seven-interval bipolar descriptive continua called "scales", currently receives widespread usage as a measure of attitudes toward aging and the elderly. However, a lack of semantic stability across stimuli and across subjects, known, respectively, as "concept-scale" and "subject2 scale" interaction, has been found to occur with the technique in various areas of research. That such a lack of stability might occur across stimuli and/or subjects of different ages is suggested by the existence of . di fferences between people of different ages which affect both the appearance and functioning of the individual. These differences derive from the biological aging process, the life cycle process, and the social change process. This study investigated whether such cross-age differences are of sufficient severity to cause people of different ages to be perceived as different classes of stimuli and/or to perceive others as different populations of subjects. Ratings of eight videotaped stimulus models were made by 60 younger (aged 22 to 32) and 60 older (aged 60 and older ) volunteer subjects on a semantic differential test composed of 38 scales. The stimulus models, consisting of four younger and four older adults, were non-actors, unknown to the rating subjects, and presented for one minute in a standardized visual format and without sound. Of the 38 scales used, seven were selected as reference scales from earlier studies, 30 were suggested by a volunteer "generating" sample of 30 younger and JO older subjects, and one (young/old) was included as a check on the perceived ages of the stimulus models. Scale scores were factor analyzed to establish the underlying factor structure of social evaluation and to ascertain whether it rema1ned stable across stimulus model and subject age levels. Four separate factor analyses were performed -- younger stimulus models/younger subjects, younger stimulus models/older subjects, older stimulus J models/older subjects, and older stimulus models/younger subjects -- permitting comparisons between the factor matrices for concept-scale and subject-scale interaction. Three factors were defined by each of the four separate factor analyses of the scales. Factors A and B were found by two different methods of assessing factor similarity (inspection and coefficients of congruence) to be highly similar across both stimulus model and subject age levels; Factor C (a weakly defined factor) was found to be similar only for the older stimulus models across subject age levels. An examination of the scales heavily loaded on each factor for all relevant factor matrices resulted in the interpretation of Factors A, B, and C as reflecting Interpersonal Ability, Instrumental Ability, and Propriety, respectively. This study resulted in findings bearing upon three interrelated areas. First, the data suggest that: 1) older and younger adults constitute qualitatively approximately the same class of stimuli, and 2) older and younger adults constitute qualitatively approximately the same population of subjects. That is, perceptions were based on the same underlying dimensions of meaning regardless of age. Second, the data suggest that two major dimensions of social evaluation are Interpersonal Ability and Instrumental Ability. Comparisons of these two attitudinal dimensions with dimensions from other semantic differential studies revealed striking similarity. Third, the finding of stable scales and replicable dimensions suggests the appropriateness of constructing a cross-age semantic differential for social evaluation. Consequently, a 15-scale Cross-Age Semantic Differential for the measurement of social evaluation was proposed.

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Detta är en studie vilken har undersökt spelares uppfattning av en NPC:s funktion i en fiktiv 1800-talskontext i relation till NPC:ens ansiktsbehåring. Människor har genom tiderna kategoriserat individer i form av stereotyper baserat på visuella aspekter, så som bland annat ansiktsbehåring. Stereotyper förväntas bete sig enligt specifika regler, och om en karaktär inte beter sig som dess publik förväntar sig uppstår dissonans (Loyall, 1997). Undersökningens artefakt bestod av en serie porträtt föreställandes en och samma NPC men med varierande uppsättningar ansiktsbehåring. Studiens respondenter ombads tilldela vart porträtt en NPC-funktion baserade på Bartles (2004) lista med NPC-funktioner. Resultatet visade på trender där ett fåtal funktioner föredrogs för var form av ansiktsbehåring. I framtida arbeten skulle andra kontexter kunna undersökas. Även mer avancerade undersökningar skulle kunna genomföras där NPC:erna placeras i en spelsimulation.

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2005. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: To address the research question of how young women themselves experience the transition into womanhood, by looking at the articulated subjective experiences of young women involved in negotiating the process of 'becoming a woman'. The research question was approached from a post-modern feminist and social constructionist perspective, using qualitative methodology. In-depth interviews were conducted with two groups of young women - five white, middle class students who are involved in the Women's Mental Health Research Project (WMHRP) as interviewers, and five coloured, working-class young women who would be interviewees in the WMHRP. These two groups of participants were recruited from different social backgrounds in order to investigate contextual variations in their identity negotiation processes. Transcripts of the interviews were analyzed according to constructivist grounded theory protocol (Charmaz, 2003; Henwood & Pidgeon, 2003). Three main categories were constructed from the data, namely 1) the girl/woman dichotomy, 2) the "woman imperative", and 3) different processes experienced. In chapter one, an introduction is provided which discusses the importance of the research question to feminist and developmental psychologists, and highlights the paucity of research on the topic within these areas. Chapter two examines the empirical literature surrounding the research question, which highlights the marginalization of the transition into womanhood by psychological researchers. Anthropological studies of 'rites of passage' are also briefly discussed. In chapter three the theoretical framework that informed the present study is discussed, namely 1) social constructionism, with its focus on discourse and its rejection of essentialism, and 2) feminism, with its emphasis on gendered identity, difference and power. Concepts central to the present study, namely development, gender, and identity are also discussed in this chapter. Chapter four provides an explanation of the methodology and methods that were used in the present study, while chapter five presents the results and a discussion of the results. Finally, chapter six consists of a discussion of the conclusions that can be drawn from the findings, as well as their implications for research and practice. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie spreek die vraag aan van hoe jong vroue self die oorgang na vrou-wees ervaar. Dit word ondersoek aan die hand van die subjektiewe belewenisse van jong vroue midde-in die proses van vrou-word, soos deur hulself geartikuleer. Die navorsingsvraagstuk is benader vanuit 'n post-moderne feministiese en sosiaalkonstruktiewe perspektief, deur gebruik van kwalitatiewe metodologie. In-diepte onderhoude is met twee groepe jong vroue gevoer - vyf hoofsaaklik blanke studente uit die middelstand wat betrokke is by die "Women's Mental Health Research Project" (WMHRP) as onderhoudvoerders, en vyf kleurling jong vroue uit die werksklas, met wie die onderhoude gevoer is. Hierdie twee groepe deelnemers is uit verskillende sosiale agtergronde gekies ten einde kontekstuele variasies in hulle identiteitsvormingsprosesse te kan ondersoek. Transkripsies van die onderhoude is ontleed aan die hand van konstruksievisties-gefundeerde teorie protokol (Charmaz, 2003; Henwood & Pidgeon, 2003). Drie hoof-kategoriee is uit die data gekonstrueer, naamlik die meisie/vrou dikotomie, die verskillende prosesse beleef, en die "vrou imperatief'. In hoofstuk een, wat die onderwerp inlei, word die belangrikheid van navorsing vir feministiese en ontwikkelingsielkundiges bespreek, en word die skaarste aan navorsing oor die onderwerp uitgelig. Hoofstuk twee bied 'n bespreking van die empiriese Iiteratuur rondom die navorsingsvraagstuk, wat die marginalisasie van die oorgang tot vrou-wees onder navorsers in die sielkunde onderstreep. Antropologiese studies oor inisiasie-rituele word ook vlugtig bespreek. In hoofstuk drie word die teoretiese raamwerk wat die studie inlig bespreek, naamlik 1) sosiaal-konstruksionisme, met fokus op diskoers en die verwerping van essensialisme, en 2) feminisme, met klem op geslagsidentiteit, differensiasie en mag. Konsepte sentraal tot hierdie stud ie, naamlik ontwikkeling, geslag en identiteit word ook in hierdie hoofstuk bespreek. Hoofstuk vier bied 'n verduideliking van die metodologie en metodes wat in hierdie studie aangewend is, terwyl in hoofstuk vyf die navorsingsresultate en 'n bespreking daarvan, aangebied word. Hoofstuk ses as slothoofstuk bestaan uit 'n bespreking van die gevolgtrekkings waartoe aan die hand van die navorsingsbevindinge geraak kan word, sowel as die implikasies daarvan vir navorsing en die praktyk.