<p> This thesis is primarily concerned with the problem of recognition among feral Norway rats. Wild rats are known to behave amicably in the presence of colony members and act in a stereotyped aggressive manner towards unfamiliar conspecifics in a territorial context. Previous reports suggest that identity is basically olfactory and is organized around colony-specific odors residing in the nesting material or the metabolic excretions of the male members of a colony.</p> <p> The first experiments in this study were attempts to replicate various reports concerning the maleability of clan odors, thereby giving a wild rat the olfactory characteristics of an alien group and, conversely, to alter a resident's odor such that he was no longer identifiable as a member of his original clan. Further experiments examined identifier and regulator functions of behavioural cues on social interaction subsequent to recognition. The interactions of unfamiliar rats on a mutually common terrain was studied, and compared with that of familiar rats paired on an uncommon territory. The final experiment investigated the functional nature of olfactory stimulation in these situations and compared the reactions of anosmic residents towards familiar and unfamiliar conspecifics.</p> <p> These experiments indicate that recognition is indeed an olfactory process but that identity is highly resistent to alteration. The identifier substance does not appear to be contained in either the nesting matter nor in a colony's urine or feces. Bond of familiarity are not specific to a common terrain and in most cases behavioural cues appear to control the onset and termination of fight behaviour following the olfactory identification. Studies of anosmic residents indicate that novel odors elicit aggressive tendencies while familiar odors are not inhibitors of aggression. The results suggest the presence of a specific male pheromone that is essential for the arousal of aggression while the topography of interaction is regulated largely by the reciprocal behaviours of the animals.</p> / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

Objective: The current study aimed to explore associations between hypomanic personality traits, over-ambitious life goals, exercise motives, behavioural regulation and exercise behaviour. It was hypothesised that hypomanic traits would be significantly associated with setting more overly-ambitious life goals and extrinsic motives for exercise; these were derived from the theoretical perspectives of Self-Determination Theory (Deci & Ryan, 2000) and research into goal dysregulation in Bipolar Disorders (Johnson, 2005). Method: A sample of 165 undergraduate students (83% female [n = 133]; age, M = 19.3 years old, SD = 0.4, range 18-40) was recruited from the University of Exeter to take part in this longitudinal study. Participants completed a selection of self-report questionnaires measuring variables including hypomanic personality traits, over-ambitious goal setting, motives for exercise, behavioural regulation and exercise behaviour via an online survey. Exercise behaviour was then captured a week later in a follow-up survey. Results: Mediation analyses revealed an indirect effect of hypomanic traits on exercise motives via overly-ambitious goal setting. No significant relationships were found between hypomanic traits and exercise behaviour itself and further mediation analyses revealed no effect of exercise motives on exercise behaviour through behavioural regulations. Conclusions: Findings from this study provided mixed support for the proposed hypotheses; despite no significant associations between hypomanic traits and exercise behaviour itself, hypomanic traits appear to make a unique contribution to exercise motives, via over-ambitious goal setting. Therefore, they may play a role in the motivational processes that have consistently shown to be associated with exercise engagement and adherence (Ingledew & Markland, 2008, Teixeira et al., 2012). Exploring these variables within a clinical population may be a useful next step in further understanding these motivational processes.

Traditionally, real-time applications have been executed within an isolatedembedded system, but this is becoming outdated. These systems are growing andbecoming larger, more distributed and complex, and are often closely integratedwith the external structure. The ability to dynamically adapt and regulate thesesort of systems during runtime is an increasingly desired feature. It can increaseits lifespan and save costs in the form of both money and time. This thesisproposes a method to perform this dynamic adaptation and regulation with theconcept of computational reflection. The method is conformed to support theconstrained and varied environment faced when working with distributedembedded real-time systems. A prototype framework of the method has beenrealized in the programming language C++. This framework is lightweight anduses a minimum amount of dependencies. By including this framework into anexisting program and registering variables into the framework, the variables gainreflective properties. These properties are dynamic regulation and limited selfawareness.Lastly, the framework has been evaluated regarding its computationalload and memory consumption. This, in order to show how much extra strainthis sort of method would inflict on an existing system. The results show that,relative the functionality it provides, the strain is low in most of the cases.However, in a hard real-time environment this might not be a viable solution. / Traditionellt har realtidsapplikationer körts inom ett isolerat inbyggt system,men detta har blivit ett föråldrat synsätt. Dessa system växer och blir allt större,mer distribuerade och komplexa, och är ofta nära integrerad med den yttrestrukturen. Förmågan att dynamiskt anpassa sig och reglera denna typ av systemunder drift är en allt mer önskad egenskap. Det kan öka dess livslängd och sparakostnader i form av både pengar och tid. Denna examensrapport föreslår enmetod för att utföra denna dynamiska anpassning och reglering med hjälp avkonceptet kring computational reflection. Metoden är anpassad för att stödja denansträngda och varierad miljö man möter när man arbetar med distribueradeinbyggda realtidssystem. Ett prototyp ramverk för metoden har skapats iprogrammeringsspråket C++. Detta ramverk är lättviktigt och använder ettminimalt antal beroenden. Genom att inkludera detta ramverk i ett befintligtprogram och registrera variabler till ramverket så får variablerna reflektivaegenskaper. Dessa egenskaper är bland annat dynamisk reglering och enbegränsad självkännedom. Slutligen har ramverket utvärderats genom att testadess beräkningslast och minnesförbrukning. Detta, för att visa hur mycket extrapåfrestning denna typ av metod skulle orsaka i ett befintligt system. Resultatenvisar att, relativt dess funktionalitet, så är belastning låg i de flesta av fallen.Men i en hård-realtidsmiljö så är detta antagligen inte en hållbar lösning.

Grounded in Festinger s (1954) theory of social comparison processes, this thesis aims to examine three aspects of this theory in the physical education context, where ability is the characteristic under comparison: adolescent motives for comparison; frames of reference; and consequences of comparison. Although there is a growing evidence base investigating social comparison processes in academic subjects, there remains a dearth of knowledge concerning the role that comparison can play in determining outcomes in physical education. Furthermore, there is very little research within psychology in general that examines young peoples motives for and outcomes of comparison. This thesis begins to address this lack of knowledge by providing an in-depth exploration of social comparison processes (Study 1) which is followed by an examination of the role that two frames of reference (the class and a chosen individual) and motives for comparison (evaluation, improvement, enhancement) play in determining: physical self-concept; engagement; disaffection; self-efficacy, positive affect and negative affect (Studies 2-4). Additionally, the moderating role of behavioural regulations, motivational climate and perceived autonomy support are also investigated. Across the four studies, comparative evaluations with the class are influential in determining both positive and negative outcomes whilst the role of individual comparisons varies according to the dependent variable under investigation. Evidence for both the moderating and direct role of motives for comparison is presented as well as support for the moderating role of motivational climate and behavioural regulations. The findings highlight the need to investigate multiple aspects of social comparison processes simultaneously in addition to investigating moderators of comparative evaluations in order that a more comprehensive understanding of social comparison processes is achieved.

A large body of research implies that modern human behaviour threatens various life – sustaining resources. The excessive consumption patterns of resources by humans has been identified as one of the main causes of the environmental crisis. Automatic and unconscious decision-making behaviours have become deeply internalized among individuals, resulting in unsustainable and unnecessary consumption patterns. Emerging literature has begun to explore the concept of mindfulness in relation to sustainable consumption, and reports on a positive relation to lower ecological footprints, connectedness to nature and sustainable consumption patterns. This particular study builds upon existing empirical findings and addresses the relationship between mindfulness, impulsivity and consumption. An extensive literature review and primary data collection method based on a convenience sample, were used as methodological approaches for this study. Based on the data gathered through an online questionnaire, the study finds that mindfulness has a negative relation to impulsive buying behaviour, suggesting a decrease in impulsive consumption among individuals with a higher level of mindfulness. Contrary to existing research, this study found no significant relation between mindfulness and pro-environmental behaviour. However, there are several limitations to this study due to method bias, measurement issues as well as due to the format of the questionnaire approach, that need to be considered when discussing the findings. Overall, this research indicated that by tapping into mindfulness, individuals may become less vulnerable to automatic processing, helping to break routines and make consumers become more aware of negative effects of consumption choices. This paper recommends continued research and suggests possible future pathways.

This thesis examined the relationships of the conceptions of sport ability, achievement goals, and intrinsic motivation in Physical Education. Studies 1 and 2 investigated the psychometric properties of the Conceptions of the Nature of Athletic Ability Questionnaire (CNAAQ), a measure of sport ability beliefs. Results showed that the revised version of the scale possesses sound psychometric properties in assessing sport ability beliefs among children and youth. In addition, the relationships between ability beliefs, goal orientations, perceived competence, and behavioural indicators (intentions and amotivation) were also examined in the first two studies. An incremental belief predicted task orientation, whereas an entity belief predicted ego orientation. Intentions to be physically active were predicted by goal orientations indirectly through perceived competence, and directly by task orientation. In addition, amotivation was predicted directly and indirectly by ability beliefs and directly by achievement goals. Specifically, entity beliefs directly predicted amotivation, task orientation negatively predicted amotivation. Study 3 examined the interrelationships between ability beliefs, achievement goals, perceived competence, behavioural regulation, and arnotivation using cluster analysis. Five distinct clusters were identified based on these motivational constructs and these profiles were found to be related to perceived physical self-worth and levels of sport participation. Study 4 experimentally manipulated sport ability beliefs and examined their causal influence on achievement goals and motivation patterns when faced with failure. The causal link between ability beliefs and goals was supported. Ability attributions for failure were stronger for entity theorists compared to incremental theorists. However, hypotheses predicting differences on effort attributions, affective reactions, and behavioural markers were not supported. Study 5 examined the effects of goal involvement on enjoyment and intrinsic motivation under positive feedback. The results suggested that task-involved and ego-involved participants did not differ in self-reported enjoyment and free-choice behaviour measure. However, the free-choice behaviour of the ego-involved participants may not be fully intrinsically motivated. In addition, autonomous communication increased the positive effects of task and ego involvement on intrinsic motivation and enjoyment, whereas controlling communication had an undermining effect. Overall, results show that high incremental beliefs and high task orientation facilitate adaptive motivational patterns. Autonomy-supportive contexts also enhanced students' task motivation compared to controlling contexts.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between keeping a daily leisure-time physical activity record and adolescent (a) feelings of competence toward leisure-time physical activity, (b) motivational profiles toward leisure-time physical activity, and (c) leisure-time physical activity behaviors. Participants were 124 junior high and high school physical education (PE) students. Students completed the Behavioural Regulation in Exercise Questionnaire–2, the Godin Leisure–Time Exercise Questionnaire, the Perceived Competence Scale, and were assigned to keep an online leisure-time physical activity record for three weeks as part of their regular PE class. A 2 (gender) x 4 (trials) repeated measures ANCOVA was used to examine the relationships between recording compliance and the variables of perceived competence, motivation, and physical activity. Results showed a significant interaction between recording compliance and leisure-time physical activity. As students kept the leisure-time physical activity record, boys' leisure-time physical activity levels significantly increased and girls' leisure-time physical activity levels significantly decreased. Also, a significant interaction between recording compliance and introjected regulation was found. The more students recorded the less motivated they were by guilt and obligation to exercise in their leisure time. Lastly a significant interaction was found between recording compliance and intrinsic regulation, showing that the more students recorded the more intrinsically motivated they were to exercise in their leisure time. Implications and suggestions are set forth for PE professionals.