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A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts (Counselling Psychology) in the Department of Psychology, University of Zululand, 2010. / The main objective of this study was to find out the self-perceived psychological factors that may contribute to road rage in Empangeni. A phenomenological approach was adopted in this study to facilitate the understanding of the information gathered. The sample consisted of 10 participants, 9 males and 1 female. All participants were the drivers. Open-ended questions were asked from the participants. The findings of this study revealed the following themes: impatience, frustrations and anger; substance abuse contribution to bad driving; bad mood leading to aggressive driving; disrespecting other road users; poor compliance with the rules of the road; prolonged hours of driving leading to fatigue; family and work related problems impacting on drivers; attention and focus; gender issues; and bad driving viewed on media (television) impacting on drivers. The study concluded with a brief discussion on the limitations of the study and recommendations for future research.

Security analysts play a central role in the functioning of financial markets through their privileged position as intermediaries between firms and investors. Analyst activity is important to reduce information uncertainty but it is not unbiased. On the one hand, the literature shows that these sophisticated agents promote market efficiency by facilitating the incorporation of new information into stock prices. On the other hand, there is evidence that analysts underreact to negative information and that they tend to be optimistic about firms they follow. Recent studies show that the market does not assimilate immediately the disclosure of a first-time going-concern modified (GCM) audit report. This accounting event is part of a wide range of bad news events which investors are particularly inefficient at dealing with. My thesis explores how analysts deal with the GCM audit report and whether they facilitate the correct assimilation of such information into stock prices. In particular, I use a sample of 924 firms for which their auditors disclose a GCM audit report for the first-time between 01.01.1994 and 31.12.2005. I find that security analysts anticipate the publication of a first-time GCM audit report. My results show that within the one-year period before the GCM disclosure, security analysts downgrade the average recommendation for GCM firms from “buy” to “hold” whereas similar non-GCM firms maintain an average “buy” rating. A number of robustness tests confirm that this finding is not sensitive to the criteria used to select the non-GCM control firm. Moreover, analysts are more likely to cease coverage of GCM firms prior to the GCM event than for matched control firms. In addition, I show that analysts react to the publication of a GCM audit report by ceasing coverage of GCM firms. My results suggest that investors do not recognize an average “hold” recommendation for a stock of a firm immediately before the announcement of a GCM audit report as an unfavourable message even considering that it represents a downgrade from a previous “buy” rating. In particular, I find that the negative short-term market reaction to the publication of a GCM audit report is significantly higher for firms with pre-event analyst coverage compared to firms with no pre-event analyst coverage. This suggests that analyst activity may be misleading the market in terms of the saliency of pre-GCM unfavourable news by issuing “disconfirming opinions” to the market and thus increasing the “surprise” associated with the publication of a GCM audit report. In addition, I show that analyst post-GCM coverage does not increase the efficiency with which the market assimilates the GCM audit report into stock prices. In particular, I fail to find significant differences between the post-GCM return performance of covered firms compared to firms with no analyst coverage. However, I show that the percentage of covered firms following the GCM disclosure is significantly higher for those with best post-GCM return performance than for those with worst post-GCM return performance. This suggests that post-GCM return performance explains the decision of analysts to cover GCM firms but analyst coverage does not influence significantly the post-GCM return performance of such firms. Overall, my thesis contributes to the accounting and finance literature by showing that analyst activity is not providing investors with adequate value-relevant information for their investment decisions in the GCM bad news domain. Firstly, the reluctance of analysts to issue a clear unfavourable message about the stocks of GCM firms seems to explain why the “surprise” associated with the publication of a GCM audit report is greater for covered firms than for non-covered firms. Secondly, the tendency of analysts to cease coverage of GCM firms and the low level of analyst coverage following the GCM announcement may explain why analyst coverage does not reduce the magnitude of the post-GCM negative drift. As such, analyst contribution to the price-discovery process in this case is likely confined to firms with high levels of analyst coverage.

BACKGROUND: The ability to disclose bad news to patients is a complex and essential skill for health care providers. Although certain specialties have a higher incidence of engaging in these conversations, this task is done regardless of a provider’s discipline. There are many components to breaking bad news, some of which include finding a private setting, eliciting how much the patient wants to know, providing clear information, and responding to the patients’ emotional needs and reactions. As this task is associated with a large amount of emotional stress, the outcome of this exchange can have lasting impact on both the provider and patient. Unfortunately, patients are dissatisfied with how they receive bad news, and providers admit to lack of comfort and knowledge with this task. LITERATURE REVIEW FINDINGS: Studies show that inadequate education is main area for improvement. Fortunately, the ability to break bad news is a teachable and retainable skill. Didactic sessions, role-play, and small groups are some of the available models used to educate learners. There is promising evidence for the incorporation of SPs into various curricula, because they provide an opportunity for students to learn without compromising patient safety and allow for feedback useful to enhancing skills. PAs are valued health care providers who practice across a variety of specialties. As their education is similar to that of a medical student, and they practice autonomously under the supervision of a physician, it is equally important that they are able to successfully break bad news. However, there are few studies that examine the PA student curriculum for breaking bad news education. Furthermore, there are no studies that examine PA student competency with this skill. PROPOSED PROJECT: The goal of this study is to use a literature review to create a novel curriculum that employs SPs to increase PA students’ competencies for breaking bad news. CONCLUSIONS: An optimal curriculum intervention will include opportunities for feedback, discussion, and practice. SPs can help aid with many of these components, as well as assess interpersonal and technical components of breaking bad news. SIGNIFICANCE: It is expected that the results of this study will parallel those identified for medical students, and PA students’ skills will improve to meet the standards set forth by the ARC-PA. It is the hope that the results of this study will serve as an initial platform for future studies aimed at PAs’ ability to disclose bad news to patients.

This paper studied earnings management through Bad Debt Expense. The goal of this thesis was to see if managers manipulate Bad Debt Expense in order to smooth their bottom line. In order to test this, I created several different variables relating to Bad Debt Expense and some control variables for Net Income. I found that my results are consistent with earnings management. The results are not clearly stated and therefore I cannot say that earnings management is definitely happening, but it is a possibility.

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A revision of the author's thesis, Göttingen, 1963. / Bibliographical references included in "Anmerkungen" (p. 92-96).

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This thesis presents an approach which the small and medium size firms can use in-house to introduce manufacturing information systems. The approach developed is generic and employs information system design and analysis techniques to guide Small and Medium size Enterprises (SME's) from specification of their need, right through to the implementation of an appropriate solution. Although there are various tools and methodologies that are available for large organisations needs, none are available for SME's. Therefore, the approach presented in this thesis provides original and significant improvements on current practice. The approach emphasises the importance of taking a company wide approach to analyse systems throughout its various departments to establish bad practices and system flaws which may impinge on the performance of the manufacturing operations. The research involved three independent stages. The first stage was the identification of the problem which was realised from two sources: literature survey and interviews with case study company managers. The second stage was the development of a novel approach. The final stage included the validation of the approach by implementing it in five different SMEs in the Devon and Cornwall region. Through the use of this work, company's are encouraged to improve ownership and commitment to the manufacturing information systems by fully involving the relevant company personnel in identifying and resolving various problems. The approach proposed also helps managers understand how the various processes work in other areas of company, and can subsequently lead to improvements in other departments.

Zugl.: Duisburg, Essen, Univ., Diss., 2007