In this thesis, estimation in simple linear regression model with one-fold nested error is studied. To estimate the fixed effect parameters, generalized least squares and maximum likelihood estimation procedures are reviewed. Moreover, Minimum Norm Quadratic Estimator (MINQE), Almost Unbiased Estimator (AUE) and Restricted Maximum Likelihood Estimator (REML) of variance of primary units are derived. Also, confidence intervals for the fixed effect parameters and the variance components are studied. Finally, the aforesaid estimation techniques and confidence intervals are applied to a real-life data and the results are presented

This study investigates unconditional convergence of Turkish regions and provinces. A recently introduced time series procedure developed by Nahar and Inder (2002) is used to test the convergence hypothesis for the period 1975-2001. Both the Ordinary Least Square and the Seemingly Unrelated Regression techniques are applied to analyze convergence of sixty five provinces, seven geographical regions as well as 12 NUTS - 1 regions of Turkey. The empirical findings indicate that most of the cases yield no evidence of convergence, which is a general result stated by the other studies in the literature regarding Turkey.

Esta tese de doutorado parte da perspectiva inicial de que a gramaticalização se restringe a tratado sobre itens lexicais ou discursivos que se tornam itens gramaticais (o que a enquadraria dentro da Teoria da Variação, inserta esta dentro da Pesquisa Sociolinguística), mas segue em direção a um salto epistemológico que remodele aquela perspectiva, ampliando-a a patamar do qual ela pode ser observada como teoria autônoma, investigativa de fenômenos limítrofes e nem sempre discretos entre linguagem e língua, discurso e texto, descrição e prescrição, oralidade e escrita, léxico e gramática. Desse modo, propugna-se pela visão epistemológica do tema, conduzido, até aqui, de modo puramente ontológico, circunscrito a um (e apenas um) dos muitos espectros que se podem alcançar com a aludida ampliação àquele que vem sendo perquirido como tratado, porém que, segundo se pretende demonstrar, pode e deve ser expandido à malha de uma teoria geral, qual seja a Teoria Geral da Gramaticalização: trata-se, aqui, de seu objetivo geral. Para esse propósito, vale-se a tese de filósofos da linguagem que atuaram sobre essa faculdade ou capacidade humana de forma direta ou indireta desde os seus primórdios ocidentais (como Sócrates, Platão e Aristóteles), passando pelos pensadores mais incisivamente preocupados com os aspectos cognitivos e interativos da linguagem e da língua (como Hegel, Husserl, Saussure, Sapir, Bloomfield, Wittgenstein, Derrida, Chomsky, Labov, Charaudeau, Maingueneau, Ducrot, Coseriu), além de ser necessária a incursão à Gramaticografia mais estrita (como a empreendida por Dionísio da Trácia, Varrão, Arnault e Lancelot, Nebrija, Jerônimo Soares Barbosa, Eduardo Carlos Pereira, Said Ali, Bechara), e, naturalmente, a contribuição filosófica dos pesquisadores sobre a gramaticalização (como Meillet, Vendryès, Bréal, Kurilowicz, Traugott, Heine, Hopper, Lehmann). Uma vez que se tenha mostrado ser verossímil aceitar-se a gramaticalização como teoria autônoma, esta tese pretende legar-lhe o papel instrumental de metodologia auxiliar a muitas entre as que ora se empreendem quando se trata de pesquisas em campos cuja ocupação é a linguagem e a língua: trata-se, aqui, de seu objetivo específico. Para essa duplicidade de metas ou objetivos, será necessário compreender conceitos, categorias e protótipos oriundos da Filosofia da Ciência (Epistemologia), do contraste entre ciências da linguagem e outros ramos do saber, da imersão em Gramaticologia e Gramaticografia (e, em alguns aspectos, em Gramatização e Gramatologia) referentes à Língua Portuguesa, da defesa, enfim, de que o ensino da Gramática Formal (ou Normativa) do idioma privilegia a acepção reflexiva e ativa (plena) dos usos ou atos a que a linguagem só pode chegar por meio do domínio da língua em toda a sua tessitura epistemológica, que gera comunicação e expressividade, raciocínio e emotividade, indo da concretude do discurso ou da oralidade à abstração da entidade pouco ou nada material, que, por sua vez, é mais nitidamente representada pela escrita, seu estágio por assim dizer de forma ainda mais pura, conquanto não excludente da substancialidade com que dialoga de modo incessante no seu constante e dialético passado-futuro ou diversidade-homogeneidade (tese e antítese) de onde emerge o seu presente ou a sua unidade (síntese) / This thesis begins from the initial view that grammaticalization is restricted to tract on lexical or discoursive items that become grammatical items (what would insert it into the Theory of Change, insert into the Sociolinguistics Research), but goes towards an epistemological leap which reshape that perspective, expanding it to the level where it can be seen as an autonomous theory, investigating borderline phenomena between the language and specific languages, speech and text, description and prescription, orality and literacy, vocabulary and grammar. Thus, it intends to show the possibility of the epistemological view of the subject, conducted hitherto purely on an ontological way, restricted to one (and only one) of the many spectra that can be achieved with the expansion alluded, which should be expanded to a general theory, which is the General Theory of Grammaticalization: its overall goal. For this purpose, it is necessary to go to the view of philosophers of language who served on the human faculty or capacity directly or indirectly from its Western origins (such as Socrates, Plato and Aristotle), through the thinkers most pointedly concerned with the cognitive aspects and interactive language and specific languages (as Hegel, Husserl, Saussure, Sapir, Bloomfiled, Wittgenstein, Derrida, Chomsky, Labov, Charaudeau, Maingueneau, Ducrot, Coseriu). The incursion in the Grammaticography will also be required (as undertaken by Dionysius of Thrace, boar, Arnault and Lancelot, Nebrija, Jerome Soares Barbosa, Carlos Eduardo Pereira, Said Ali, Bechara), as well as the philosophical contribution of the researchers on the grammaticalization (as Meillet, Vendryes, Breal, Kurilowicz, Traugott , Heine, Hopper, Lehmann). Since it has been shown to be believable to accept it as a standalone grammaticalization theory , this thesis intends to bequeath his instrumental role in helping many among which we hereby undertake when it comes to research methodology in fields whose occupation is the language and specific languages: its specific goal . For this duplicity goals or objectives , it is necessary to understand concepts , categories and prototypes derived from the philosophy of science (epistemology), the contrast between the language sciences and other branches of learning, immersion in Grammaticology and Grammaticography (and, in some respects, in grammatization and Grammatology ) for the Portuguese language, defending, finally, that the teaching of formal (or normative ) grammar language favors the reflective and active sense of uses or acts that the specific languages can only achieve when they go to the the field of language in all its epistemological possibilities that generates communication and expressiveness, reasoning and emotion, going from the concreteness of speech or of orality to abstraction, which is represented by writing, that not excludes the substantiality that dialogues with unrelenting in its constant dialectic and past-future or homogeneity-diversity (thesis and antithesis), where is its present or its unity (synthesis)

Orientador: Enéas Rente Ferreira / Banca: Vera Maria Favila Miorin / Banca: Darlene Aparecida de Oliveira Ferreira / Banca: Maria Aparecida dos Santos Tubaldini / Banca: Giancarla Salamoni / Resumo: Este estudo analisou as bases teórico-metodológicas da geografia agrária brasileira partindo do ano de 1939 até 2009, com base em dez periódicos científicos selecionados em geografia. Evidenciou-se o pluralismo de concepções metodológicas e temáticas a partir da década de 1990. Assim, a pesquisa mostrou uma determinada coerência metodológica entre os períodos de 1939 a 1965, com base no método indutivo-descritivo-empírico alicerçado na geografia regional francesa. Após este momento, a geografia agrária passou a adotar uma linguagem matemática-estatística para a explicação dos fenômenos espaciais, com base no positivismo lógico, durante este paradigma vigente entre 1965 a 1980. A renovação crítica inseriu nos estudos agrários a preocupação com o dado social e as análises da contradição do capitalismo, abordagens políticas e econômicas, o auge dessa geografia agrária crítica foi nas décadas de 1980 a 2000. A partir desse momento, há uma diversidade de abordagens metodológicas não permitindo dizer que exista uma principal tendência paradigmática na geografia agrária brasileira neste início de século XXI. Destaca-se neste tese a importância do resgate de teorias e conceitos já utilizados na geografia agrária eu explicam os fenômenos atuais, além de salientar as principais tendências teórico-metodológicas no início do século XXI / Abstract: This study aims at analyzing the process of transformation occurred in the theoreticalmethodological assumptions of Brazilian Agrarian Geography, based on ten scientific journals selected between 1939 and 2009, which attests the pluralism in methodological and themetic conceptions from the 1990s. Thus, this perspective demonstrated a determined methodologic coherence between the years of 1939 and 1965, based on inductive-descriptive-empirical method, rooted in the Frence Regional Geography. Until that moment, Agrarian Geography had chosen a mathematical-statistical language in order to explain space phenomena, based on logic positivism, during this paradigm current between 1965 and 1980. The critical renewal inserted in the agrarian studies a concern with the social datum and the analysis of the contradiction of capitalism, political and economic approaches, and the summit of that agrarian geography was between the 1980s and 2000s. From that moment on, there is a diversity of methodological approaches, which does not permit to affirm the existence of a main and paradigmatical trend in the Brazilian Agrarian Geography in the early 21st century / Doutor

Esta tese de doutorado parte da perspectiva inicial de que a gramaticalização se restringe a tratado sobre itens lexicais ou discursivos que se tornam itens gramaticais (o que a enquadraria dentro da Teoria da Variação, inserta esta dentro da Pesquisa Sociolinguística), mas segue em direção a um salto epistemológico que remodele aquela perspectiva, ampliando-a a patamar do qual ela pode ser observada como teoria autônoma, investigativa de fenômenos limítrofes e nem sempre discretos entre linguagem e língua, discurso e texto, descrição e prescrição, oralidade e escrita, léxico e gramática. Desse modo, propugna-se pela visão epistemológica do tema, conduzido, até aqui, de modo puramente ontológico, circunscrito a um (e apenas um) dos muitos espectros que se podem alcançar com a aludida ampliação àquele que vem sendo perquirido como tratado, porém que, segundo se pretende demonstrar, pode e deve ser expandido à malha de uma teoria geral, qual seja a Teoria Geral da Gramaticalização: trata-se, aqui, de seu objetivo geral. Para esse propósito, vale-se a tese de filósofos da linguagem que atuaram sobre essa faculdade ou capacidade humana de forma direta ou indireta desde os seus primórdios ocidentais (como Sócrates, Platão e Aristóteles), passando pelos pensadores mais incisivamente preocupados com os aspectos cognitivos e interativos da linguagem e da língua (como Hegel, Husserl, Saussure, Sapir, Bloomfield, Wittgenstein, Derrida, Chomsky, Labov, Charaudeau, Maingueneau, Ducrot, Coseriu), além de ser necessária a incursão à Gramaticografia mais estrita (como a empreendida por Dionísio da Trácia, Varrão, Arnault e Lancelot, Nebrija, Jerônimo Soares Barbosa, Eduardo Carlos Pereira, Said Ali, Bechara), e, naturalmente, a contribuição filosófica dos pesquisadores sobre a gramaticalização (como Meillet, Vendryès, Bréal, Kurilowicz, Traugott, Heine, Hopper, Lehmann). Uma vez que se tenha mostrado ser verossímil aceitar-se a gramaticalização como teoria autônoma, esta tese pretende legar-lhe o papel instrumental de metodologia auxiliar a muitas entre as que ora se empreendem quando se trata de pesquisas em campos cuja ocupação é a linguagem e a língua: trata-se, aqui, de seu objetivo específico. Para essa duplicidade de metas ou objetivos, será necessário compreender conceitos, categorias e protótipos oriundos da Filosofia da Ciência (Epistemologia), do contraste entre ciências da linguagem e outros ramos do saber, da imersão em Gramaticologia e Gramaticografia (e, em alguns aspectos, em Gramatização e Gramatologia) referentes à Língua Portuguesa, da defesa, enfim, de que o ensino da Gramática Formal (ou Normativa) do idioma privilegia a acepção reflexiva e ativa (plena) dos usos ou atos a que a linguagem só pode chegar por meio do domínio da língua em toda a sua tessitura epistemológica, que gera comunicação e expressividade, raciocínio e emotividade, indo da concretude do discurso ou da oralidade à abstração da entidade pouco ou nada material, que, por sua vez, é mais nitidamente representada pela escrita, seu estágio por assim dizer de forma ainda mais pura, conquanto não excludente da substancialidade com que dialoga de modo incessante no seu constante e dialético passado-futuro ou diversidade-homogeneidade (tese e antítese) de onde emerge o seu presente ou a sua unidade (síntese) / This thesis begins from the initial view that grammaticalization is restricted to tract on lexical or discoursive items that become grammatical items (what would insert it into the Theory of Change, insert into the Sociolinguistics Research), but goes towards an epistemological leap which reshape that perspective, expanding it to the level where it can be seen as an autonomous theory, investigating borderline phenomena between the language and specific languages, speech and text, description and prescription, orality and literacy, vocabulary and grammar. Thus, it intends to show the possibility of the epistemological view of the subject, conducted hitherto purely on an ontological way, restricted to one (and only one) of the many spectra that can be achieved with the expansion alluded, which should be expanded to a general theory, which is the General Theory of Grammaticalization: its overall goal. For this purpose, it is necessary to go to the view of philosophers of language who served on the human faculty or capacity directly or indirectly from its Western origins (such as Socrates, Plato and Aristotle), through the thinkers most pointedly concerned with the cognitive aspects and interactive language and specific languages (as Hegel, Husserl, Saussure, Sapir, Bloomfiled, Wittgenstein, Derrida, Chomsky, Labov, Charaudeau, Maingueneau, Ducrot, Coseriu). The incursion in the Grammaticography will also be required (as undertaken by Dionysius of Thrace, boar, Arnault and Lancelot, Nebrija, Jerome Soares Barbosa, Carlos Eduardo Pereira, Said Ali, Bechara), as well as the philosophical contribution of the researchers on the grammaticalization (as Meillet, Vendryes, Breal, Kurilowicz, Traugott , Heine, Hopper, Lehmann). Since it has been shown to be believable to accept it as a standalone grammaticalization theory , this thesis intends to bequeath his instrumental role in helping many among which we hereby undertake when it comes to research methodology in fields whose occupation is the language and specific languages: its specific goal . For this duplicity goals or objectives , it is necessary to understand concepts , categories and prototypes derived from the philosophy of science (epistemology), the contrast between the language sciences and other branches of learning, immersion in Grammaticology and Grammaticography (and, in some respects, in grammatization and Grammatology ) for the Portuguese language, defending, finally, that the teaching of formal (or normative ) grammar language favors the reflective and active sense of uses or acts that the specific languages can only achieve when they go to the the field of language in all its epistemological possibilities that generates communication and expressiveness, reasoning and emotion, going from the concreteness of speech or of orality to abstraction, which is represented by writing, that not excludes the substantiality that dialogues with unrelenting in its constant dialectic and past-future or homogeneity-diversity (thesis and antithesis), where is its present or its unity (synthesis)

In support of society's technological evolution, the study of nonlinear systems in engineering and sciences has become a vital research area. Aiming to contribute in this field, this thesis investigates the behaviour of nonlinear systems using the 'Wiener theories'. As a useful example the Duffing oscillator is investigated in this work. In many real-life applications, nonlinear systems are excited randomly so this work examines systems under white-noise excitation using the Wiener series. Equivalent Linearisation (EL) is a well-known and simple method that approximates a nonlinear system by an equivalent linear system. However, it has deficiencies which this thesis attempts to improve. Initially, the performance of EL for different types of nonlinearities will be assessed and an alternative method to enhance it is suggested. This requires the calculation of the first Wiener kernel of various system defined quantities. The first Wiener kernel, as it will be shown, is the foundation of this research and a central element of the Wiener theory. In this thesis, an analytical proof to explain the interesting behaviour of the first Wiener kernel for a system with nonlinear stiffness is included using an energy transfer approach. Furthermore, the method mentioned above to enhance EL known as the Single-Pole Fit method (SPF) is to be tested for different kinds of systems to prove its robustness and validity. Its direct application to systems with nonlinear stiffness and nonlinear damping is shown as well as its ability to perform for systems with two degrees of freedom where an extension of the SPF method is required to achieve the desired solution. Finally, an investigation to understand and replicate the complex behaviour observed by the first Wiener kernel in the early chapters is carried out. The groundwork for this investigation is done by modelling an isolated nonlinear spring with a series of linear filters and certain nonlinear operations. Subsequently, an attempt is made to relate the principles governing the successful spring model presented to the original nonlinear system. An iterative procedure is used to demonstrate the application of this method, which also enables this new modelling approach to be related to the SPF method.

Classification approaches are used in many areas in order to identify or estimate classes, which different observations belong to. The classification approach, Mahalanobis Taguchi System (MTS) is analyzed and further improved for multi-class classification problems under the scope of this thesis study. MTS tries to explore significant variables and classify a new observation based on its Mahalanobis distance (MD). In this study, first, sample size problems, which are encountered mostly in small data sets, and multicollinearity problems, which constitute some limitations of MTS, are analyzed and a re-sampling approach is explored as a solution. Our re-sampling approach, which only works for data sets with two classes, is a combination of over-sampling and under-sampling. Over-sampling is based on SMOTE, which generates the synthetic observations between the nearest neighbors of observations in the minority class. In addition, MTS models are used to test the performance of several re-sampling parameters, for which the most appropriate values are sought specific to each case. In the second part, multi-class classification methods with MTS are developed. An algorithm, namely Feature Weighted Multi-class MTS-I (FWMMTS-I), is inspired by the descent feature weighted MD. It relaxes adding up of the MDs for variables equally. This provides representations of noisy variables with weights close to zero so that they do not mask the other variables. As a second multi-class classification algorithm, the original MTS method is extended to multi-class problems, which is called Multi-class MTS (MMTS). In addition, a comparable approach to that of Su and Hsiao (2009), which also considers weights of variables, is studied with a modification in MD calculation. It is named as Feature Weighted Multi-class MTS-II (FWMMTS-II). The methods are compared on eight different multi-class data sets using a 5-fold stratified cross validation approach. Results show that FWMMTS-I is as accurate as MMTS, and they are better than FWMMTS-II. Interestingly, the Mahalanobis Distance Classifier (MDC) using all the variables directly in the classification model has performed equally well on the studied data sets.

This thesis presents an aerodynamic shape optimization methodology for rotor blades of horizontal axis wind turbines. Genetic Algorithm and Blade Element Momentum Theory are implemented in order to find maximum power production at a specific wind speed, rotor speed and rotor diameter. The potential flow solver, XFOIL, provides viscous aerodynamic data of the airfoils. Optimization variables are selected as the sectional chord length, the sectional twist and the blade profiles at root, mid and tip regions of the blade. The blade sections are defined by the NACA four digit airfoil series or arbitrary airfoil profiles defined by a Bezier curve. Firstly, validation studies are performed with the airfoils and the wind turbines having experimental data. Then, optimization studies are performed on the existing wind turbines. Finally, design optimization applications are carried out for a 1 MWwind turbine.

O objetivo desta tese é analisar a relação entre saberes locais e arqueológicos na construção do conhecimento sobre o passado, usando da metodologia etnográfica, e com base nos conceitos de arqueologia pública e patrimônio arqueológico. Como estudo de caso, escolhi o sítio arqueológico \"Charqueada Santa Bárbara\", fragmento de uma antiga estancia de produção de charque (carne seca) de mesmo nome, em Pelotas/RS. Com isso, minha pesquisa esteve associada ao projeto O Pampa Negro: Arqueologia da escravidão na região meridional do Rio Grande do Sul (1780-1888), coordenado por Lucio Menezes Ferreira. Como ferramentas de análise, tomei como guia cinco conceitos específicos: representação social, memória, paisagem, narrativa e agência. Como resultado, defendo três pontos essenciais. Primeiro, que a arqueologia pública não se deixe fagocitar pelas estratégias de mercado, e permaneça como um veio da disciplina preocupado com produção de conhecimento crítico sobre o passado, e com uma postura engajada no presente. Segundo, que patrimônio é uma categoria Estatal de gestão do espaço e memória social. Como tal, ela não é análoga à relações de afeto desenvolvidas entre pessoas e coisas. Mas concede à arqueologia um poder, mesmo que pequeno, sobre as condições sociais e histórias que serão representadas no patrimônio arqueológico, e devemos usar esse poder pelo viés da arqueologia pública como defendo. Por fim, em consonância com os demais resultados, busquei produzir uma narrativa de história recente sobre os moradores que ainda vivem sobre o sítio arqueológico. Para isso, analisei suas materialidades cotidianas, que se mostraram mais representativas de suas histórias, e também de histórias mais críticas sobre o passado de Pelotas. Entre tantos temas identificados pela etnografia, escolhi falar sobre história das mulheres na Chácara. / The aim of this thesis is to analyze the relationship between local and archaeological expertise in the construction of knowledge about the past, using an ethnographic method, and based on the concepts of public archeology and archaeological heritage. As a case study, I chose the archaeological site of \"Charqueada Santa Bárbara\", a fragment of an old plantation of charque production (jerked beaf) of the same name, in Pelotas/RS/Brazil. My research was associated to the project The Pampa Negro: Archeology of slavery in the southern region of Rio Grande do Sul (1780-1888), coordinated by Lucio Menezes Ferreira. Among so many themes identified by ethnography, I chose to talk about the history of women in Chácara Santa Bárbara. As tools of analysis, I followed the path of five particular concepts: social representation, memory, landscape, narrative, and agency. As a result, I advocate three essential points. First, public archeology must remain a branch of discipline concerned with producing critical knowledge about the past and an engaged political stance in the present while disallowing itself to be absorbed by marketing strategies. Second, heritage is a State category for space and social memory management. As such, it is not analogous to the affective relations developed between persons and things. Nonetheless, it gives archeology the power to help define social conditions and stories that will be represented in the archaeological heritage, and we must use that power to show critical and socially responsible versions of the past. Finally, according to these premises, I tried to produce a recent historical narrative about the residents who still live at Charqueada Santa Bárbara. For that, I analyzed their daily material culture, which were more representative of their life stories, and of more critical pictures of Pelotas\' past.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-04T18:28:20Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 JEFERSON CARLOS BORDIGNON.pdf: 1541651 bytes, checksum: ecec97d87d28d54a99acdf0d97e86e08 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-02-13 / How the adolescent phenomenon has been studied and understood in psychology in the last ten years? From this issue and assuming as a theoretical framework the historic-cultural psychology, this bibliographic research objective contribute to a critical reflection on the subject. The analysis of article abstracts and keywords returned by the Scielo database between 2003 and 2013, which were constituted as our research material, reveals the difficulty in accessing information in this way, since lack basic information about the research in the abstracts. It is evident, also, certain vagueness of what "method" since the dispersion of methods and techniques to study the adolescence of psychology point of view and the concentration of these techniques (application of standardized instruments). As the dispersion of theories, with the concurrent concentration of one of them (psychoanalysis) and the unequal distribution of publications in the Brazilian regions (South and Southeast regions produced ? of the total). Adolescence related issues are in your majority fragmented or focus pathologies. It is concluded that this issue, adolescence is a complex phenomenon and can be approached by different points of view and studied by various methods and techniques, however, there is not a minimum consensus on how to study it. This dispersion of contradictory theories and methodologies hinders the advancement of psychology as a field of knowledge, because there is no formulation that is adolescence to psychology, but definitions restricted to its numerous approaches. / Como vem sendo estudado e compreendido o fen?meno da adolesc?ncia no campo da psicologia nos ?ltimos dez anos? Partindo dessa problem?tica e assumindo como referencial te?rico a Psicologia Hist?rico-Cultural, esta pesquisa de natureza bibliogr?fica objetiva contribuir para uma reflex?o cr?tica sobre o tema. A an?lise dos resumos de artigos e palavras-chave retornados pela base de dados Scielo no per?odo entre 2003 e 2013, que se constitu?ram como nosso material de pesquisa, revela a dificuldade em acessar informa??es por esta via, visto que faltam dados fundamentais sobre as pesquisas nos resumos. Evidencia-se, tamb?m, certa indefini??o do que seja m?todo visto a dispers?o de m?todos e t?cnicas para se estudar a adolesc?ncia do ponto de vista da psicologia e a concentra??o de uma dessas t?cnicas (aplica??o de instrumentos padronizados). Assim como a dispers?o de teorias, com a concorrente concentra??o de uma delas (psican?lise) e a distribui??o desigual de publica??es nas regi?es brasileiras (regi?es Sul e Sudeste produziram ? do total). Assuntos relacionados ? adolesc?ncia s?o em sua maioria fragmentados ou focalizam patologias. Conclui-se que esta tem?tica, a adolesc?ncia, ? um fen?meno complexo, podendo ser abordado por diversos pontos de vista e estudado atrav?s de diversos m?todos e t?cnicas, por?m, n?o h? um consenso m?nimo sobre como se deve estud?-la. Essa dispers?o de teorias e metodologias contradit?rias dificulta o avan?o da psicologia enquanto ?rea do conhecimento, pois n?o h? uma formula??o do que seja a adolesc?ncia para a psicologia, mas defini??es restritas ?s suas in?meras abordagens.