Variations and differences in skin colour has been a complex phenomenon around the world. Issues of colour and identity in a postcolonial and post-Apartheid context, is also a significant field of interest. Popular stereotypes portray darker skin pigmentation as undesirable and inferior to lighter pigmentation. The process of ‘lactification’ (Fanon, 1968) remains a question today as much as during earlier colonial times. These stereotypes also bring to the fore, essential questions about hierarchies of power and oppression, culture and identity and how these are shaped to fit popular dominant culture. This study explored peoples’ perceptions around different shades of skin colour and attitudes towards various shades of pigmentation. The study adopted a qualitative approach and explored perceptions around skin colour through in-depth interviews. Fifteen adult participants in Soweto, Gauteng were recruited for the study via purposive sampling. The data collected was analysed using thematic content analysis. The study found that the western idea of attractiveness is still highly regarded. Black women and men take various measures to conform to the western ideal simply to be acknowledged as attractive and stigma is attached to the dark complexion. Self-esteem is affected by the perception of beauty, high perception of attractiveness equals to the high self-esteem.

Overall, this thesis purports to make two significant contributions to knowledge. The first is a foundational critique of political economy in the context of an emergent global knowledge economy. The second is a method for analysing evaluations in language. The relationships that give coherence to those two contributions are as follows. The widely-heralded emergence of a knowledge economy indicates that more intimate aspects of human activity have become exposed to commodification on a massive scale, specifically, activities associated with thought and language. Correspondingly, more abstract forms of value have developed as the products of thought and language have become dominant commodity forms. Historical investigation shows that value has moved from an objective category in political economy, pertaining to such substances as precious metals and land, to become situated today predominantly in “expert” expressions of language, or more precisely, their institutional contexts of production. These are now propagated and circulated on a global scale. Legal, political, and technological developments are key in the development of new, more abstract forms of labour and value, although the relationships connecting these are neither simple nor direct. They are, however, inseparably related in the trajectories that this thesis describes. Consequently they are dealt with inseparably throughout.

Systemic corruption has fierce impacts on human development. Research indicates that systemic corruption in Armenia has invaded into all the sectors of social life and has transformed society making from it a comfortable environment for existence. Human development, social structure, human resources, public way of thinking, opportunities are constrained by the limitations and restriction put by corrupt system. This paper provides a comprehensive study of the systemic nature of corruption and its consequences, the picture of socio-cultural attitude to the corruption through analysing public perceptions, and analyses the connection between corruption, corrupt behaviour and human development. Keywords Corruption, social perceptions, human development, opportunities, corrupt behaviour, social capital.

The purpose of this study was to examine the social perceptions of young children with disabilities and young children of color. Further, an attempt was made to determine whether differential rates of acceptance were experienced by either group, or by the group of children who were of color and also had a disability within integrated classrooms. Young children (age 5.0 through 6.11) were studied in intact groups (N=120) from child care centers in the Texas counties of Denton and Dallas. Three measures of social perceptions were implemented: (a) a forced choice (multiple alternative) technique using dolls of a variety of ethnicities and ability statuses in which children must select dolls they feel represent a list of positive and negative attributes; (b) social distance theory as measured by children's artwork; (c) a sociometric rating. The results of this study showed significant areas (p< 05) of stereotype and bias in the perceptions of young children toward ethnicity, disability and gender. Implications for further research into the efficacy of multicultural and anti-bias education programs is recommended.

In an effort to extend the literature (e.g., Landry & Mercurio, 2009; Moradi & Hasan, 2004) on the effects of discrimination on personal sense of control, this current study aims to examine how African American women's sense of personal control is affected by their beliefs about discrimination and how their beliefs about justice and fairness in their own lives further explain the relationship. A total of 173 African American or Black identified women were recruited through professional contacts, an undergraduate psychology course, and social media networking sites. Participants' awareness of discrimination was experimentally manipulated by random assignment to one of four conditions suggesting varying likelihoods of personally experiencing discrimination. Participants responded to self-report instruments of Personal Beliefs in a Just World (Dalbert, 1999) before the manipulation and Environmental Mastery (Ryff, 1989; measure of personal control) as the dependent variable after the manipulation. It was predicted that a significant interaction term between experimental condition and just world beliefs on personal control would supersede any main effects. Yet only a significant main effect was found between personal beliefs in a just world and personal control, with no significant interaction effects.

No description available.

This study examines whether aggression and prosocial behavior shape changes in perceptions of friendship quality within stable reciprocal best friend dyads. A longitudinal Actor-Partner Interdependence Model was used to investigate whether individual characteristics predict changes 6 to 12 weeks later in perceptions of relationship support and negativity. The sample included 76 same-sex dyads drawn from classrooms in grades 4 (M = 9.48 years) through 6 (M= 11.43 years) in two public schools in the United States. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2015. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of dentofacial appearance on perceived social attributes of college-aged adult males and females as judged by their peers. Specifically, the objective was to determine if ideal smile esthetics positively influenced this age group’s perception of opposite-sex peers based on ratings of the following psychosocial characteristics: attractiveness, desire to spend time with, desire to date, and desire for a long-term relationship. Evaluators were shown digital photographs of subjects with ideal and nonideal smiles and asked to rate those 4 attributes using a visual analogue scale (VAS). The subjects’ photographs with ideal smile esthetics were consistently rated higher on average than the same subjects’ photographs with nonideal smile esthetics. The differences in ratings between ideal and nonideal smile images were significant for all 4 psychosocial judgments (P <.0001). These differences ranged in magnitude depending on the sex and race of the evaluator and subject.

A pesquisa sobre as percepções de residentes da região de Piracicaba em relação às questões ambientais e ao futuro da humanidade no planeta foi desenvolvida com base em um questionário semi-estruturado. As questões buscaram levantar dados autoavaliativos sobre perfil, comportamentos, estado de humor, qualidade de vida, condição econômica e hábitos de consumo, práticas para destinação de resíduos, iniciativas de exercício de cidadania em prol da sustentabilidade socioambiental, para enfim, indagar sobre percepções de futuro e avaliações sobre o contexto socioambiental dos participantes da pesquisa. A aplicação dos questionários foi feita de forma aleatória estratificada nos bairros das cinco regiões da cidade de Piracicaba: Norte, Sul, Leste, Oeste e Centro. Por meio dessas aplicações, foram obtidos 655 questionários, que foram sistematizados, tabulados e analisados estatisticamente, utilizando-se gráficos de frequência, o Teste de Kruskal Wallis, os Testes de Correlação de Spearman e Kendall, o Teste de Qui-Quadrado e o Teste Exato de Fisher. Foram também criadas nuvens de palavras, desenvolvidas no software online \"Wordle\" (FEINBERG, 2014). Os resultados obtidos com essa pesquisa e as análises desenvolvidas indicam que 227 pessoas, isto é, aproximadamente 35% dos respondentes, possui uma percepção pessimista sobre o futuro da humanidade no planeta. Porém, 493 pessoas, o equivalente a aproximadamente 75% do total de respondentes, considerou que, dentre as alternativas apresentadas no questionário (Desenvolvimento de tecnologias; Controle de natalidade; Educação e mudanças culturais; Cobrança de impostos com base nos impactos ambientais; Intervenção do Estado), a educação e mudanças culturais são fundamentais no processo de transformação social e de superação das problemáticas ambientais. Observou-se também que a crise hídrica vivenciada na época em que os questionários foram aplicados também influenciou na percepção social dos respondentes, uma vez que a palavra \"água\" foi citada 380 vezes. Por meio do trabalho, foi também possível analisar o comportamento ambiental dos pesquisados, notando-se que ainda há a necessidade de promoção de atividades educacionais e comunicacionais que possam estimular a adoção de hábitos e comportamentos mais comprometidos com ideias de sustentabilidade e que levem a mudanças mais efetivas nos padrões de relacionamento entre sociedade e meio ambiente. / The research about the perceptions of residents in Piracicaba on environmental issues and the future of humanity on the planet has been developed based on a semi-structured questionnaire. Its questions sought to raise self-evaluative data on the profile, mood, quality of life, economic condition and consumer habits, waste handling practices, citizenship exercise initiatives for environmental sustainability, to finally inquire about future perceptions and assessments about the socio-environmental context of the research participants. The questionnaires were applied in a stratified random way in neighborhoods in the five regions of Piracicaba: North, South, East, West and Central. Through these applications, we obtained 655 questionnaires, which were then systematized and statistically analyzed, using frequency graphs, the Kruskal Wallis test, the Spearman correlation test and Kendall test, the Chi-Square test and the Fisher\'s exact test. Word clouds were also created, developed on the online software \"Wordle\" (FEINBERG, 2014). The results obtained from this research and developed analyzes indicate that 227 people, that is, approximately 35% of respondents have a pessimistic perception of the future of humanity on the planet. However, 493 people, equivalent to approximately 75% of all respondents considered that, among the presented alternatives of the questionnaire (Technology development; Birth control; Education and cultural changes; Tax collection based on the environmental impacts; State intervention), education and cultural changes are fundamental in the process of social transformation and overcoming environmental problems. It was also observed that the water crisis experienced at the time the questionnaires were applied also influenced the social perception of respondents, since the word \"water\" was cited 380 times. Through the research, it was also possible to analyze the environmental performance of those surveyed, noting that there is still the need to promote communicational and educational activities that can stimulate the adoption of habits and behavior that are more compromised to sustainability ideas and that can lead to more effective changes in the relationship patterns between society and environment.

A pesquisa sobre as percepções de residentes da região de Piracicaba em relação às questões ambientais e ao futuro da humanidade no planeta foi desenvolvida com base em um questionário semi-estruturado. As questões buscaram levantar dados autoavaliativos sobre perfil, comportamentos, estado de humor, qualidade de vida, condição econômica e hábitos de consumo, práticas para destinação de resíduos, iniciativas de exercício de cidadania em prol da sustentabilidade socioambiental, para enfim, indagar sobre percepções de futuro e avaliações sobre o contexto socioambiental dos participantes da pesquisa. A aplicação dos questionários foi feita de forma aleatória estratificada nos bairros das cinco regiões da cidade de Piracicaba: Norte, Sul, Leste, Oeste e Centro. Por meio dessas aplicações, foram obtidos 655 questionários, que foram sistematizados, tabulados e analisados estatisticamente, utilizando-se gráficos de frequência, o Teste de Kruskal Wallis, os Testes de Correlação de Spearman e Kendall, o Teste de Qui-Quadrado e o Teste Exato de Fisher. Foram também criadas nuvens de palavras, desenvolvidas no software online \"Wordle\" (FEINBERG, 2014). Os resultados obtidos com essa pesquisa e as análises desenvolvidas indicam que 227 pessoas, isto é, aproximadamente 35% dos respondentes, possui uma percepção pessimista sobre o futuro da humanidade no planeta. Porém, 493 pessoas, o equivalente a aproximadamente 75% do total de respondentes, considerou que, dentre as alternativas apresentadas no questionário (Desenvolvimento de tecnologias; Controle de natalidade; Educação e mudanças culturais; Cobrança de impostos com base nos impactos ambientais; Intervenção do Estado), a educação e mudanças culturais são fundamentais no processo de transformação social e de superação das problemáticas ambientais. Observou-se também que a crise hídrica vivenciada na época em que os questionários foram aplicados também influenciou na percepção social dos respondentes, uma vez que a palavra \"água\" foi citada 380 vezes. Por meio do trabalho, foi também possível analisar o comportamento ambiental dos pesquisados, notando-se que ainda há a necessidade de promoção de atividades educacionais e comunicacionais que possam estimular a adoção de hábitos e comportamentos mais comprometidos com ideias de sustentabilidade e que levem a mudanças mais efetivas nos padrões de relacionamento entre sociedade e meio ambiente. / The research about the perceptions of residents in Piracicaba on environmental issues and the future of humanity on the planet has been developed based on a semi-structured questionnaire. Its questions sought to raise self-evaluative data on the profile, mood, quality of life, economic condition and consumer habits, waste handling practices, citizenship exercise initiatives for environmental sustainability, to finally inquire about future perceptions and assessments about the socio-environmental context of the research participants. The questionnaires were applied in a stratified random way in neighborhoods in the five regions of Piracicaba: North, South, East, West and Central. Through these applications, we obtained 655 questionnaires, which were then systematized and statistically analyzed, using frequency graphs, the Kruskal Wallis test, the Spearman correlation test and Kendall test, the Chi-Square test and the Fisher\'s exact test. Word clouds were also created, developed on the online software \"Wordle\" (FEINBERG, 2014). The results obtained from this research and developed analyzes indicate that 227 people, that is, approximately 35% of respondents have a pessimistic perception of the future of humanity on the planet. However, 493 people, equivalent to approximately 75% of all respondents considered that, among the presented alternatives of the questionnaire (Technology development; Birth control; Education and cultural changes; Tax collection based on the environmental impacts; State intervention), education and cultural changes are fundamental in the process of social transformation and overcoming environmental problems. It was also observed that the water crisis experienced at the time the questionnaires were applied also influenced the social perception of respondents, since the word \"water\" was cited 380 times. Through the research, it was also possible to analyze the environmental performance of those surveyed, noting that there is still the need to promote communicational and educational activities that can stimulate the adoption of habits and behavior that are more compromised to sustainability ideas and that can lead to more effective changes in the relationship patterns between society and environment.