Spirituality and environmental friendliness (i.e., nature connectedness, environmental attitudes and behaviours) are inextricably linked. They share the common basis of transcendence (Grouzet, 2011; Grouzet et al., 2005). However, the relationship between the two lacks empirical support. The current study employed experimental and daily diary methods to investigate the influence of spirituality upon environmental friendliness. Spirituality was marginally, but not significantly, increased through guided daily reflection among religious participants and slightly decreased among non-religious participants. This, subsequently, led to greater sense of connection to nature, but no other changes in environmental friendliness. These findings provide preliminary evidence of the relation between spirituality and environmental friendliness. / Graduate / 0623 / 0451 / esl@uvic.ca

No description available.

Increasing numbers of students with disabilities are being educated in mainstream schools in response to the international call for inclusive education. This study investigated the experiences of five students diagnosed with Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) with challenging behaviours, and those who support them including parents, class and special education teachers, regarding inclusive education. At the time of the study, the five male students were all of upper primary school age, and attended state schools in Queensland, Australia. A multi-case study approach was adopted to better understand the nature of inclusion through engaging participants (students, class teacher, parents, and special education teachers) in "conversations" about their experiences of inclusion by means of semi-structured interviews. Students diagnosed ASD with challenging behaviours are testing the educational system as it attempts to meet their individual needs. This is due in part to the complexities associated with the disability of ASD and the many factors required in the delivery of effective inclusive practices. The findings of the research study reflected significant variance in the nature of inclusive schooling practices. Data collected from participants involved in a focus group interview and five case studies were used to describe the practices adopted in response to meeting the educational needs of individual students diagnosed ASD with challenging behaviours. There were five key findings that emerged from this study. Firstly, a range of practices was identified for each of the five children and these were posited along the continuum from inclusive to exclusive. Secondly, inclusive practices emerged from a number of interconnected processes including training, stakeholder collaboration, a school culture pursuing educational inclusion, and educator efficacy. Thirdly, educator efficacy appears to be the most crucial factor in the establishment of inclusive practices, without it exclusionary practices prevail. Fourthly, legislation and policy alone do not appear to result in the universal adoption of inclusive educational practices. Lastly, while all students had unique educational programming needs, this thesis found that there is a need for an appropriate model to be implemented to offer a foundation level of appropriate education interventions. Implications for educational policy and practice relevant to inclusive education were discussed.

Depression and anxiety are prevalent in adults with diabetes and are associated with poorer adherence to diabetes self-care. The Common Sense Self-Regulation Model (CS-SRM) hypothesises that both illness cognitions and emotions determine adherence to health behaviours but little is known about the causal pathways through which poor emotional health impairs adherence. Using the CS-SRM as a theoretical framework this thesis aimed to identify the pathways that exist between diabetes cognitions and poor emotional health and explored their combined and independent effects on diabetes self-care. A systematic review with meta-analysis identified that all previous observational studies used cross-sectional designs to explore the relationships between diabetes cognitions and poor emotional health, excluding one. Randomised controlled trials showed that changes in diabetes cognitions were associated with changes in poor emotional health but these mechanisms of action were not confirmed by mediation analyses. Few observational studies have rigorously tested how diabetes cognitions and poor emotional health operate together to determine diabetes self-management behaviours. This thesis used a longitudinal design to test whether: i) diabetes cognitions and poor emotional health have a longitudinal bi-directional relationship and ii) diabetes cognitions and poor emotional health have a combined (mediated) and independent (direct) longitudinal effect on diabetes self-care. Outpatients with Type 2 diabetes (N=261) were recruited at baseline and completed self-report measures of poor emotional health (Well-being Questionnaire), cognitions (Revised Illness Perception Questionnaire; Beliefs about Medicines Questionnaire) and diabetes self-care (Summary of Diabetes Self-Care Activities Scale) at baseline and six months follow-up. Hypothesised pathways were tested simultaneously using structural equation modelling. Participants who were more anxious at baseline perceived diabetes to be unpredictable and were apprehensive about their medications at follow-up. These effects were not observed for depression. Baseline diabetes cognitions did not predict change in poor emotional health at follow-up. Equally, neither baseline depression or anxiety predicted change in diabetes self-care behaviours at six months (directly or indirectly via diabetes cognitions). Baseline personal control beliefs remained independent of poor emotional health: greater personal control beliefs were associated with reduced adherence to diabetes self-care. A bi-directional relationship between diabetes cognitions and poor emotional health was absent in this sample. The main direction of effect was from anxiety only to diabetes cognitions. Depression and anxiety had no relationship with diabetes self-care. Whilst personal control remained independent of poor emotional health, mastery beliefs appear to be insufficient on their own to sustain adherence behaviours over time suggesting that interventions should also provide patients with action plans whilst managing outcome expectations. The unexpected findings for the relationship between poor emotional health, cognitions, and diabetes self-care may be because the sample did not include individuals with more severe depression or anxiety. This study needs to be replicated among people experiencing clinically significant levels of depression and anxiety in diabetes.

No description available.

There is a debate among researchers and clinicians as to whether the judicious use of safety behaviours (SBs) during exposure therapy is helpful or detrimental. Central to this debate is the premise that SBs may interfere with one’s ability to gather disconfirmatory evidence. However, no study to date has assessed: 1) how SB use may interact with cognitive mechanisms at play during an exposure-like task, or 2) whether it is SBs themselves, or rather, beliefs about SBs that are most important. The two studies outlined in this dissertation sought to investigate the cognitive, emotional, behavioural, and psychophysiological underpinnings and consequences of exposure with SBs. In Study 1, speech anxious participants (N = 111) were randomly assigned to deliver an evaluated speech with or without SBs. Self-reported anxiety ratings and psychophysiological arousal measures were recorded at baseline, in anticipation of the speech, and following the speech. Measures of working memory capacity, ability to gather disconfirmatory evidence, and speech task acceptability were administered. Results demonstrated no differences between conditions on most outcomes. However, condition did influence willingness to deliver future speeches, such that participants in the SB condition were less willing than those in the NoSB condition to deliver a future speech without SBs. In Study 2, speech anxious participants (N = 144) were given divergent information on the helpfulness of SBs. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions and were told either that SBs are: helpful (decrease anxiety), unhelpful (counterproductive and increase anxiety), or were provided with no information on the anxiolytic effects of SBs (control condition). Self-reported anxiety ratings were recorded at baseline, in anticipation of the speech, and following the speech. Similar to Study 1, measures of working memory capacity, ability to gather disconfirmatory evidence, and speech task acceptability were administered. Results demonstrated that participants in the helpful condition perceived the exposure as being more likely to succeed in helping them reduce their anxiety. Moreover, exposure expectancy mediated the relationship between the helpful condition (but not the unhelpful condition) and willingness to engage in future exposure exercises. There were no differences between conditions on most other outcomes. Taken together, these findings suggest that SB use may not necessarily be detrimental to outcomes on an exposure-like task, as individuals were able to gather disconfirmatory evidence (one of the proposed primary mechanisms underlying exposure success) across conditions in both studies. However, clients may believe SBs to be more helpful than they actually are, and clinicians should work collaboratively with clients to identify whether judicious SB use may be appropriate and helpful (or inappropriate and detrimental) in achieving their treatment goals. The current research program has the potential to improve our understanding of the consequences of SB use and identify the ways in which cognitive behavioural therapies could be improved.

<p> Organizational justice has received considerable research attention over the past three decades. Most of this attention, however, has focused on examining the relationship between organizational justice and outcome variables such as work attitudes and behaviours. The question of organizational antecedents of organizational justice has not been fully explored. Also, most previous studies have been conducted in western countries. The amount of available research from nonwestern countries is limited. The present study investigates both antecedents and outcomes of organizational justice using a sample of 242 supervisor-subordinate dyads from Chinese organizations. A path model is developed and tested depicting perceived HR practices (empowerment, psychological contract breach, and communication) as antecedents to organizational justice perceptions (distributive, procedural, and interactional), and organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB) and turnover intention as outcomes. The results provide empirical evidence of the impact of: (a) empowerment on distributive justice perceptions; (b) psychological contract breach on distributive and procedural justice; and (c) communication on procedural justice and interactional justice. The results also demonstrate that perceptions of distributive, procedural and interactional justice positively predict OCB and that perceptions of distributive and interactional justice contribute to turnover intention. The theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed.</p> / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Thesis (M. A.( Clinical psychology)) -- University of Limpopo, 2013 / Refer to document

This study addresses methodological critiques of ethnicity research in organisations by combining intersectionality and identity work frameworks. Additionally, it extends intersectionality beyond its traditional focus on multiple disadvantage and demonstrates contextual sensitivity to ethnicity. Taking an individual constructivist stance, I examined ethnicity and its intersection with gender and seniority through an identity work lens. The research question was: How do senior black, Asian and minority ethnic women and men make meaning of episodes that raise the salience of their intersecting identities at work? The study investigated how 24 senior black, Asian and minority ethnic (BME) women and men constructed an understanding of their multiple-identified selves in response to affirming, contradictory or ambiguous identity-heightening work experiences. Respondents kept journals about episodes that raised the salience of their intersecting identities. Then, in interviews, they described the sense they made of the episodes and their responses to them. Following a template-based analysis of 101 accounts, a typology emerged of Accommodating, Refuting, Reconciling, Affirming and Exploratory identity work modes, describing senior BME individuals’ identity construction in response to identity-heightening episodes. I introduce ‘intersectional identity work’ to illustrate how individual (e.g. cognitive effort to reconcile a paradox), relational (e.g. a sense of responsibility and affinity for subordinate minority colleagues) and contextual (e.g. visibility resulting from demographic distribution in one’s immediate environment) factors influence intersecting senior, ethnic and gender constructions at work. Integrating intersectional and identity work perspectives to examine ethnicity demonstrates the dynamic interplay of multiple identity dimensions during meaning-making, the range of modes adopted and the intensity of effort expended by senior BME women and men during personal meaning-making. This approach makes a methodological contribution to ethnicity and intersectionality research. It also makes an empirical contribution to UK ethnicity and identity work research through the suggestive model of identity work modes and rich insight into senior BME individuals’ experiences at the juxtaposition of disadvantage and privilege.

Youth health promotion activities should reflect the concerns and interests of the youth being served. A quantitative exploration of youth concern related to health risk behaviour (HRB) engagement was conducted among youth in Winnipeg, MB. This study involved descriptive and inferential analysis of HRB engagement and attitude data from a cross-sectional survey of 250 youth (14–24 years). Chi-squared tests, Fisher’s exact tests, logistic regression and cluster analyses were employed to explore relationships between sociodemographic traits, HRB engagement, and HRB-specific concern. Findings demonstrated that A) youth in Winnipeg, regardless of their sociodemographic characteristics, do express concern about HRBs that they engage in; B) the likelihood of concern varies depending on what HRB one is examining; and C) while youth display similar trends in their concern about HRBs, different groups of youth, characterized by different patterns of engagement and sociodemographic traits vary in their likelihood of being concerned about particular HRBs. / October 2016