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Surprisingly enough, while it is generally acknowledged that emotion plays a vital part in the negotiation of every day life, there has been until recently a scarcity of communications scholarship directly concerned with its study. To date, those examining this variable have largely relied for the theoretical and methodological support on models imported from psychology. While their studies have arguably had a positive impact on our understanding of some aspects of emotion, this dissertation contends that an over-dependence on psychological theories and methods has resulted in a blinkered approach to its study. In general, the focus of research and scholarship has been on either display and recognition of facial expression, physiological response to environmental stimuli, subjective verbal labeling, and behavioral manifestation. On closer inspection, a positivist discourse which considers emotion in methodologically individualistic and empirically behavioral terms has informed much of this work. Building on behaviorism, intentionalist analytical philosophy, and phenomenology, emotion research in Communication Studies has tended to neglect the social. More sophisticated approaches to grasping this latter variable, found in Sociology and Anthropology, consequently have had little impact, leading communications scholars to consistently define emotion in terms of individual motivations, drives, desires, wants, and dispositions rather than as a process located in a social world. / In light of this, this dissertation strove not only to assemble a history and provide a critique of emotion study in psychology, but to relate it to advances being made in Sociology and Anthropology, especially those pertaining to communication and postmodernity. Alongside this, it endeavored to: (1) furnish a theory and methodology for explaining those relationships; (2) illuminate a way in which emotion can be reconceived as a formative and independent social variable integral to the reproduction of postmodernity; and (3) analyze the practices and discourses that have contributed to the historically changing, oftentimes, inconsistent and disputed, study of emotion. After the principle issues were introduced in the opening Chapter, the second Chapter outlined the relationships between emotion, the everyday, media, and postmodernity, with the everyday representing a key theoretical construct necessary for understanding our time. This Chapter closed with an exploration of so-called postmodern emotion. Using several theoretical frameworks, Chapter 3 tracked historical, discursive, and disciplinary interests in emotion and Chapter 4 relations between theories of emotions through pre-modern (5thC B.C.-1890), modern (1890-1960), and postmodern (1960-) periods. Next, Chapter 5 charted the etymologies of the primary emotion terms, while Chapter 6 explored approaches to the study of emotion in Communication Studies, or Communicology. After an initial analysis of 'bibliometric' data, the three primary traditional approaches were then systematically identified and examined. A fourth postmodern approach, the constructionist, was presented and assessed in the last Chapter. There it was argued that, from this perspective, communication constitutes reality and not merely provides a conduit for preformed intentional and emotional states. There, the concept of social emotion was advanced, the idea of emotion as socio-culture performance developed, and a rules based theoretical f

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Background: Despite the introduction of running footwear in the 1970’s, running injury rates continue to be unacceptably high. The subsequent revival of barefoot running and the introduction of minimalist footwear occurred, in an attempt to reduce injury rates and increase performance. There is much contention in the literature around the effectiveness of these footwear conditions. Furthermore individual responses have recently been proposed to provide more accurate and reflective conclusions than the use of mean data. Objectives: Twofold: a) to compare the biomechanical, physiological and perceptual responses between the shod, minimalist and barefoot footwear conditions and b) to assess and compare individual responses under these footwear conditions. Methods: 26 well-trained, male, habitually shod endurance runners, aged between 18 - 30 years completed three experimental sessions on an indoor runway and motorized treadmill. Each session was completed in either the shod, minimalist or barefoot condition, running at 15km.h-1. Variables assessed included stride rate, stride length, impact peak, vertical impact and average loading rate and strike time (biomechanical); heart rate, oxygen consumption and electromyography (physiological); and rating of perceived exertion and body discomfort (perceptual). Results: Biomechanics – Stride rate and stride length showed a significant (p<0.001) increase and decrease respectively when running in the minimalist or barefoot conditions versus shod. Running barefoot versus the minimalist and shod conditions resulted in a significantly (p<0.001) greater vertical impact loading rate. Strike time was significantly (p=0.008) reduced running in the minimalist and barefoot conditions versus shod. Physiology – Running barefoot versus shod resulted in a significantly (p=0.02) reduced heart rate and Tibialis Anterior activity (p=0.005). There was a large variability in individual responses for many variables, with responders and non-responders seen. Conclusion: The study suggests that there are significant differences between all three forms of running for some variables. It was further noted that there is support for the proposal that individual responses are highly variable and should be analysed accordingly

The purpose of this study was to assess the energy demands of a 2,000 meter race simulation (RS) for national level oarswomen; as evaluated on a rowing ergometer (RE). A Progressive Intensity Test (P.I.T.) was also performed on the RE to further evaluate the RS. Six national level oarswomen (X values: age= 24.5 yrs., ht= 179 cm, wt= 75 kg), all current national team candidates (1988), participated in this investigation. A 6 1/2 minute tape recorded water race was used to execute a 2,000 meter RS on a Dr. Gjessing Ergorow ergometer. The tape recording was an actual race tape that was respliced to last exactly 6 1/2 minutes. Metabolic and respiratory exchange variables were continuously monitored by an open circuit method, utilizing a Beckman Metabolic Measurement Cart interfaced on-line with a Hewlitt Packard 3052A data acquisition system. The energy demands were calculated from metabolic variables, total oxygen cost and the analysis of excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (recovery V0₂).Results indicated a mean V0₂max. of 3.85 1.min⁻¹ , mean net V0₂ of 24.48 1 and a mean recovery V0₂ of 4.92 1. This represented the aerobic cost of the event at approximately 80% or 4/5ths of the total energy cost while the anaerobic contribution was approximately 20% of l/5th of the total energy cost. During the RS, V0₂ values rapidly increased to 90% of mean V0₂max. (3.85 l.min⁻¹) in the first two minutes. Mean max. VE (BTPS) RS value was 122.4 1.min⁻¹. VE plateaued after two minutes and remained around 90% of P.I.T. mean max. VE for the final 4 1/2 minutes. Mean max. excess C0₂ for RS was 19.81 ml.kg⁻¹.min⁻¹. The average maximal heart rate, as recorded in the RS was 192.8 bpm. The results of this study indicate the high aerobic demands and tremendous exercise intensity involved in the 2,000 meter RS. / Education, Faculty of / Curriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department of / Graduate

M.A. / In all communities studied, most people suffer from headaches sometime in their life (Blau, 1991; Selby, 1983). A small portion of this group suffer from both migraine and tension-type headache on a regular basis. Currently the main treatment modality for headache is pharmacological in nature. This type of treatment is limited in as far as it does not address the concomitant psychological variables that often accompany chronic headaches. Furthermore, it seems that most psychophysiological therapies were developed in the USA and Canada over the last 30 years, but thus far research has not been done within the South African context. The aim of this study was to determine the effectiveness of an individualized psychophysiological treatment program for individuals suffering from migraine and tension-type headache. A change in headache activity and mood states such as anxiety and depression was envisaged. Seven subjects suffering from both migraine and tension-type headache were selected to participate in the study. The A-B-A single-subject design was employed allowing three weeks before and after the intervention for baseline recordings. The intervention consisted of seven sessions of cognitive coping training and electromyographic biofeedback. All subjects kept daily records of their headache activity over the eleven week period. They completed the Psychological Assessment of Headache Questionnaire, levels of depression and anxiety were assessed by the Beck Depression Inventory and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory which were administered three weeks prior to and after the intervention. Results indicated that subjects who exhibited a decrease in headache frequency and intensity and an increase in the number of headache-free days per week, were those who were not habituated to analgesic medication. Subjects who reported no differences at all with regard to headache activity were those who suffered from chronic daily headache. Those subjects were older and consumed analgesic and other medications daily. These findings support those found in literature (Blanchard & Andrasik, 1988). All but one subject reported lower scores at post-assessment on indicators of depression and state-anxiety. Even though there were no significant improvements regarding headache activity, for certain subjects. The overall aim of the study, namely to evaluate the effectiveness of individualized treatment strategies, were addressed and contribute to future intervention studies.

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published_or_final_version / Chemistry / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Botany / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy