The dissertation is concerned with the values issue in the South African context, a multicultural education situation. South Africa is a pluralistic society. Being pluralistic, means that the country is rich in different cultures, belief- and value systems. Different cultures have different value systems. If an institution is practising multicultural education, the question is, which values are to be used? If we say the institution should use the values of the majority culture, will that not disadvantage minority cultures? If minority cultures are undermined by neglecting their cultures won't that cause conflict between minority cultures and the majority culture? Each society that is implementing multicultural education should consider that there are common human values and particular values. In multicultural education particular values are important because they show how a particular group behaves and what its beliefs and culture are. Common values develop from particular values and teachers must emphasise common values without neglecting particular values, to encourage tolerance and acceptance between different groups. / Psychology of Education / M.A. (Philosophy of Education)

Thesis (MA)--University of Stellenbosch, 2004. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: According to Hurlock ( in Louw, Gerdes & Meyer, 1985), traditional society has a larger number of prescribed values and rules of behaviour than is the case in modern society. In modern society the onus rests on the individual who is expected to direct his behaviour in accordance with the values of his choice. The individual has to accept responsibility for determining his own values. This may create problems for the adolescent because he will be confronted by a wide range of diverse values without the benefit of guidelines or rules to tell him which of those values should be accepted and which should rather be avoided. Against this background it becomes clear why the internalization of moral values, as they develop, is of utmost importance to the adolescent. In this study an attempt has been made to investigate the relationship between stage of moral development and locus of control within a group of Afrikaans-speaking adolescents. The study has further attempted to determine the influence of intellectual ability on the relationship between stage of moral development and locus of control. Males and females were also compared with respect to moral development and locus of control. The sample comprised 193 white, Afrikaans-speaking grade eleven pupils. Seventy-six were boys and 117 girls. The subjects were selected from three high schools situated in three different towns and/or cities. All the subjects came from complete families in which both biological parents were present. Taylor's Reasons for Action Questionnaire (1978) was used to determine the stage of moral development. This questionnaire is based on Lawrence Kohlberg's six stages of moral development which in itself developed from the cognitive-developmental structural approach to moral development. The Rotter Internal-External Locus of Control Questionnaire was used to measure the level of locus of control. Intelligence test scores, as measured by the New South African Group Test, were obtained from the E119 records at the various schools. The responses to a biographical questionnaire were used to facilitate the demarcation of the sample. The results of the study indicated that on average the sample as a whole, functions on a conventional moral level. A significantly negative correlation (r(193) = -,28; P < ,001) was found between locus of control and level of moral developement. This indicates that within this group of Afrikaans-speaking adolescents an internal locus of control is associated with a higher level of moral development whilst and external locus of control is associated with a lower level of moral development. In this study intelligence had little or no influence on the relationship between level of moral development and locus of control. This supports the view of Kohlberg (1969) that there is a curved line relationship between the level of moral judgement and intellectual ability. Finally it may be said with a 95% degree of certainty, that there is a significant gender difference in respect of the construct of moral development. The girls used in this sample displayed a more developed level of moral development than the boys. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: In tradisionele samelewings is daar, volgens Hurlock (aangehaal in Louw, Gerdes & Meyer, 1985), meer waardes en reëls vir gedrag voorgeskryf as in die moderne samelewing. In die moderne samelewing rus die onus op die individu om sy gedrag volgens die waardes van sy keuse in te rig. Hierdie verantwoordelikheid wat op die individu rus om self sy waardes te bepaal, kan vir die adolessent probleme skep aangesien hy deur 'n groot verskeidenheid waardes konfronteer word sonder riglyne of reëls oor watter waardes aanvaar en watter liefs vermy moet word. Teen hierdie agtergrond is dit duidelik waarom die internalisering van morele waardes, soos dit ontwikkel, van uiterste belang is vir die adolessent. Die onderhawige studie poog om die verband tussen die stadium van morele ontwikkeling en lokus van kontrole by 'n groep Afrikaanssprekende adolessente te ondersoek. Verder is probeer om die invloed van intellektuele vermoë op die verband tussen die stadium van morele ontwikkeling en lokus van kontrole te ondersoek. Laastens is die geslagte met mekaar vergelyk ten opsigte van die twee konstrukte, naamlik stadium van morele ontwikkeling en lokus van kontrole. Die ondersoekgroep het bestaan uit 193 blanke Afrikaanssprekende graad 11 leerlinge. Hiervan was 76 seuns en 117 meisies. Die toetslinge was afkomstig uit drie hoërskole wat in drie verskillende dorpe en/of stede geleë is. Die toetslinge het uit volledige gesinne gekom, dit wil sê, gesinne waar beide die biologiese ouers nog teenwoordig was in die huishouding. Die Redes vir Optrede Vraelys van Taylor (1978) is gebruik om die stadium van morele ontwikkeling vas te stel. Hierdie vraelys is gebaseer op Lawrence Kohlberg se ses stadia van morele ontwikkeling wat ontstaan het vanuit die kognitief-ontwikkelende strukturele benadering van morele ontwikkeling. Die Rotter Interne-Eksterne Lokus van Kontrole Vraelys is gebruik om die vlak van lokus van kontrole te bepaal. Verstandtoetstellings, soos gemeet deur die Nuwe Suid- Afrikaanse Groeptoets, is vanaf die E119-vorms by die onderskeie skole verkry. Die response op "n biografiese vraelys is benut ten einde die steekproef effektief at te baken. Die resultate van die ondersoek toon dat die totale steekproef wat gemiddeldes betref, op 'n konvensionele morele vlak redeneer. Daar is "n beduidende negatiewe verband r(193) = -,28; p< ,001) tussen lokus van kontrole en vlak van morele ontwikkeling gevind. Dit dui daarop dat, by hierdie groep Afrikaanssprekende adolessente, "n interne lokus van kontrole saamgaan met "n hoër vlak van morele ontwikkeling en "n eksterne lokus van kontrole met "n laer vlak van morele ontwikkeling saamgaan. In hierdie studie het intellektuele vermoë ook weinig tot geen invloed op die verband tussen vlak van morele ontwikkeling en lokus van kontrole gehad nie. Die bevinding ondersteun Kohlberg (1969) se siening dat die verband tussen vlak van morele oordeel en intellektuele vermoë kromlynig is. Laastens kan daar met 95% sekerheid gesê word dat die geslagte beduidend van mekaar verskil ten opsigte van die konstruk morele ontwikkeling. Dit blyk dat die meisies in hierdie steekproef moreel verder ontwikkel het as die seuns.

Numerous studies have reported psychological benefits associated with the practice of values-based self-affirmation. However, there is little evidence regarding their clinical applicability. Many of the purported benefits of values-based self-affirmation are highly relevant to people with bulimia nervosa (BN). This study used a multiple case study design in order to investigate the effectiveness, underlying mechanisms and acceptability of a brief (three week) intervention focussing on the development and practice of values-based self-affirmations with people who have BN. Two participants were recruited from an Eating Disorders (ED) Service waiting list. They completed questionnaires measuring cognitions associated with ED, attitude towards change, self-esteem, self-compassion, body image acceptance, psychological flexibility, cognitive defusion, and SELF repertory grids over four time points. Following appointments qualitative data was collected, and on completion of the intervention participants were interviewed, regarding their experiences. Pre and post intervention behavioural measures of BN were also collected. The use of a personal values-based self-affirmation intervention was associated with reductions in behaviours associated with BN, enhanced attitude towards change and reduced discrepancy between self and ideal self. There was little convincing evidence that the intervention was associated with a reduction in cognitions associated with ED. A very small degree of change in a positive direction was observed in relation to self-esteem, self-compassion, body image acceptance, psychological flexibility and cognitive fusion. However, scores did not reflect Reliable Change in these processes. Overall, results appeared to be slightly better explained by theory underpinning Personal Construct Psychotherapy rather than Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. However, neither theoretical explanation fully accounted for the data. Participants generally found the intervention to be acceptable. The results add novel findings to the literature regarding the use of values-based self-affirmation within the treatment of BN. They suggest that a brief values-based self-affirmation intervention might be a useful adjunct to evidence based treatment of BN. However, the case study design that is utilised in this study limits the degree to which these results may be generalised and future research should explore this further.

This research builds on Implicit Leadership Theory, which suggests that a leader's performance is likely to be higher when there is congruence between a follower's prototype of what a leader should be and his or her perception of the leader's behaviour. The essence of effective leadership, according to this theory, is being seen as a leader by others. Data were collected from 196 leaders and 1,738 followers from 23 countries within Cargill Incorporated, a US food and agricultural multinational. The research was conducted in two phases. During the first phase data were collected on followers' desired leadership values and their perception of their leader's behaviour on the same dimensions. These data were used to compute a congruence score based on a weighted sum of absolute differences. The congruence score data formed the heart of an individualised Leadership Fit Report written for each leader in the study showing the extent of congruence across 21 leadership characteristics (see Appendix A). The second phase of the study focused on a subset of 933 followers from five countries testing the two hypotheses. The two hypotheses in Phase Two were partially supported. The first was that congruence between desired leadership values and perceived behaviour leads to high performance of a leader and incongruence leads to lower performance. The second was that the relationship between congruence and leader performance varied by nationality. The cross-cultural test of Implicit Leadership Theory captured in Hypothesis 2 was particularly important to Cargill because it revealed unique and important differences between the five countries included in the second data set. This study found that the nature of the relationship between congruence and leader performance varies significantly between all five countries. More specifically the data suggests that congruence does not always lead to high performance. This study, albeit exploratory, makes theoretical, methodological and practical contributions in the following ways. i. A cross cultural test of Implicit Leadership Theory in a multinational organisation with a significant sample size. ii. An existing desired leadership values questionnaire was used and developed further to measure leadership values and leader perception. iii. All 196 leaders received a personalised feedback report showing the level of congruence (or degree of fit) for 21 leadership characteristics. iv. A methodological contribution was made by using Polynomial Regression Equations and Response Surface Methodology to measure the nature of the relationship between desired leadership values, perceived behaviour and leaders' performance. Implicit Leadership Theory was shown to be complex yet very relevant to management practice. The research undertaken was exploratory yet it has created the basis for on going discussion.

The rapidly evolving biosciences increasingly rely on the analysis, manipulation and reproduction of the human body. In the health setting, novel biotechnologies offer new methods/avenues for the investigation of wellbeing and the treatment of illness, but they do not just expand the clinician’s toolbox, they increase the very scope of her work. By offering new (and formerly invisible) measures for health, they have created new categories of illhealth (ie: expanding the ways in which humans can be classified as abnormal, unhealthy, or diseased). In doing so, they contain huge marginalising potential. And they are evolving at a pace that the law cannot match. Given this, important questions arise such as: What institutions are acting in this field and what is guiding them? How is health-related research being encouraged and regulated? How does the human subject figure in the bioeconomy? What values are we claiming and vindicating under existing regulatory regimes? What values ought we be emphasising bearing in mind social needs and individual rights? The body of work that forms this submission represents five years of socio-legal research and evolving thought on the topic of how values inform the law and are operationalised through the law and legal institutions. While the publications relied on are diverse, they all pursue small facets of this value inquiry. The first theme addressed – international values and actors – is composed of three papers which explore broad internationally shared values claimed in legal instruments such as the Universal Declaration on the Human Genome and Human Rights and the Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights, and institutions such as UNESCO and the EPO. A range of values emerge from these. Papers under the second theme – human participation in health research – explore how we access and use the human body in the modern biosociety/bioeconomy, and how we might better encourage subject participation in, and equitable benefit from, the biomedical research setting. Focusing on population biobanking, it assesses who has rights in the body and what those rights are, and how the existing environment interacts with our claimed values. Papers under the third theme – encouraging stem cell research in Argentina – explore governance instruments and their significance for realising claimed or desired values. These papers are informed by original empirical work conducted in Argentina over a 24-month period during which the Argentine government grappled with the realities of the new biosociety and the (perceived) need to facilitate bioscience research and medical treatment using human tissue. While these papers represent only part of the scholarship deriving from this project, they deploy new evidence on the existing environment and the way forward in that jurisdiction. As argued in the Critical Review, these publications form a broadly coherent and farranging body of interdisciplinary work which persistently questions the link between law and values and how we govern modern bioscience. While there are necessarily descriptive elements, the whole is critically analytical and normatively suggestive. In addition to summarising the aims, objectives, methodology, results and conclusions of these works, and indicating how they form a coherent body of work, the Critical Review goes further. Drawing on evolving thinking and recent scholarship, it argues for a regime less reliant on instruments and more reliant on expert institutions informed by, and charged with protecting, socio-moral values informed by the human rights paradigm.

With up to four generations working together in today’s workforce, research suggests that managers may feel overwhelmed at the idea of strategically managing the diversity of work values amongst their teams. Many studies suggest practical implications for managing a generationally diverse work force, however strong opposition does exist questioning the impact that generation alone has on work values and management strategy. There exists a lack of research studying how managers themselves perceive these conclusions regarding generational differences in work values, and their effect on how they should manage their teams, an intriguing scenario, as it is them whom the conclusions have been derived for. As such the purpose of this study was to be one of the first to determine the degree to which practicing managers acknowledge common conclusions pertaining to the effect an employee’s generation has on their work values, and it’s relevance in management strategy.   The research followed a deductive approach as existing theories and conclusions were tested with the perceptions of practicing managers. A qualitative design allowed for the researchers to engage with respondents in a way that is not possible through a quantitative survey, avoiding the potential overgeneralizations already perceived by some to be abundant in the field. 11 experienced respondents from a single company within the engineering consultancy industry were interviewed addressing three research questions.   Results of the study revealed that practicing managers do recognize work value differences between generations, showing consistencies with existing research however with some deviations in certain work values.  Analysis of results revealed that generation was not the only contributing factor in these differences. Factors such as age, life stage and career stage, as well as industry trends were also revealed to be factors. Generation was not found to be an important influence on an employee’s individual work values compared to individual traits such as one’s personal upbringing, as well as other external, and dynamic factors. Generation was also not an important consideration when creating project teams. As such, understanding employees as individuals was regarded as more relevant than generation in the context of management strategy. Two preliminary models were developed to illustrate the theories and were updated reflecting the results of the analysis.   The study added to the existing body of knowledge by gaining insight on the idea of generational work value differences from a unique perspective by employing a different methodology than commonly seen in the area.

Inspired by the Enlightenment’s principles of rationality, positivistic ideologies as well as the nascent modern-industrial state, sociology since its inception in Europe was conceived as a fundamentally secular enterprise. Whereas positivistic streams have been rather left aside, secularism in sociology still remains as a cornerstone of the discipline’s identity. However, is sociology in the 21st-century really ‘secular’? In this dissertation I present to the reader an empirical research about the epistemological influences of Catholicism upon sociology in Mexico, a constitutionally secular state since the 19th century. Theoretically, I draw from authors who have put forward the epistemological influences of Christianity upon western social science. I argue that these authors have unintentionally re-stated, with interesting additions, Durkheim’s rather neglected theses about the socio-religious origin of our ‘categories of thought’ –‘classification’ and ‘causality’ in particular. Although I will not attempt to trace the origins of sociological classifications and causalities back to Catholicism in Mexico, I will argue that it is possible to find salient similarities between both knowledge fields in terms of these categories and other discursive characteristics. By analysing these resemblances in a (neo)Durkheimian-Weberian frame, I will explain how Catholic discourses in Mexico, combined with the Mexican state’s teleological discourses on democracy, modernisation and progress, influence sociological discourses not through Durkheim’s ‘imitative rites’ and a priori ‘necessary connections’, but through a series of ‘bridge’ institutions and particular cultural-ideological structures. Individuals’ own religious beliefs and their deliberate and unintended interactions with these elements and their emergent properties turn apparently parochial Catholic discourses into a series of ‘discursive offensives’ which subtly yet pervasively shape common sense in society at large and also predispose sociology practitioners to adopt and develop i) ‘mono-causal’ and ‘power-over’ interpretations of social phenomena, ii) implicit and explicit dichotomistic logics as well as iii) normative-prescriptive sociological stances. In arguing this, I account for how Weberian authority models and Weberian-Mertonian religious values are not only key ‘background factors’, but also constitute actual cognitive devices in the production of sociological knowledge. I also offer empirical evidence about the role that individuals’ religious beliefs play in the conception of sociological models of power and causality and, by extension, in the construction of scientific reason or scientific beliefs. These accounts support the view of contemporary religions as plastic discourses whose ideological powers permeate, under certain historical conditions, the knowledge produced in scientific domains whose secularity has been mistakenly taken for granted. And this, I conclude, strongly suggests the need to revise the secularist foundations of sociologies of science and scientific knowledge, of sociology in general as well as current monolithic theories and paradigms of secularism and science-religion dualistic debates.

Abstract Title: Is it in line? – Textbook analysis in religious studies liked to a specific core content   The purpose of this study is to find out how the core content "How different life issues, such as the meaning of life, relationships, love, and sexuality is portrayed in popular culture” (Skolverket, 2011) is handled in three different textbooks within the subject of religion. The textbooks examined are PRIO Religion Stadiebok, Religion och liv 7-9 and Utkik Religion 7-9. These textbooks are published by distinguished publishers and they are common in the Swedish school teaching of religion. The selected textbooks are published after 2011, when the new curriculum in Lgr11 was introduced. The study uses a content analysis as a method. In this case, textbooks linked to the core content of the school subject religion are analyzed. The research questions for this study are: How is the central content "How different life issues, such as the meaning of life, relationships, love, and sexuality is portrayed in popular culture" in the school's religious topic, handled in the textbooks PRIO Religion Stadiebok, Religion och liv 7-9 and Utkik Religion 7-9? How do these three textbooks differ. What consequences may the usage of different textbooks have for different schools? What values ​​are conveyed in the parts that deal with the specified key content? Do the values of the books agree with the school values? The conclusion of this study is that textbooks focus more on some parts then others and they also differ in how they treat the central content.

In an economically developing world, the process of modernization has been proven to change people’s cultural and political values. Political scientists Ronald Inglehart and Christian Wetzel’s revised theory of modernization shows evidence that people’s political and cultural values move along two dimensions in a predictable pattern. Economic development shift people’s values from traditional and survival toward more secular-rational and self- expressive. This rise in post-material values has unknown effects on people’s mental health. Using Esping-Andersen’s theory on welfare state regimes the aim of this study is to both examine what effect post-material values have on mental health and, furthermore, if this effect plays out differently in different welfare state regimes. This was done using regression analysis based on data from a large number of countries from all over the world. The results of the analysis show that a rise in post-material values is positively correlated with worse mental health. But when welfare state regimes were brought into the model the relationship between post-material values and mental health did not stay the same but varied in its effect across the different regimes. The conservative welfare state regime stood out as the regime in which post-material values generated the worst mental health. On the whole, results indicate that the relationship between post-material values, welfare state regimes and mental health is a very complex relationship that is in need of further examination.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 25-28, 1999 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / Experimentation with various routines that create floating point values in MIL-STD-1750A 32 and 48 bit formats has uncovered several flaws that result in loss of precision in approximation and/or incorrect results. This paper will discuss approximation and key computational conditions in the creation of values in these formats, and will describe algorithms that create values correctly and to the closest possible approximation. Test cases for determining behavior of routines of this type will also be supplied.