Regulatory Focus Theory predicts that the motivation to self-regulate goal-directed thought and behavior depends on two distinct regulation strategies: a promotion focus based on attaining gains and a prevention focus based on avoiding losses. This study took a social-cognitive approach predicting that regulatory focus has an impact on how family startups (several family related founders) explore “new ideas”, exploit “old certainties” and achieve the balance of both (ambidexterity), compared to lone founder startups (only one founder present). It was proposed that the social context of family ties among founders leads them to a prevention focus concerned with avoiding the loss of the socio-emotional benefits of those ties. In order to avoid such a loss, family founders were expected to increase their risk perceptions and thus, explore less than lone founders, who lack such socio-emotional ties. It was also proposed that two commonly used psychological traits in entrepreneurship research --achievement motivation and internal locus of control, predispose entrepreneurs to a promotion focus. Founders with a promotion focus, in turn, were hypothesized to lead startups to more risk-seeking behaviors and to more explorative orientation. The previous argument was used as a springboard to derive hypotheses about ambidexterity (the ability to exploit and explore simultaneously) and survival hazards. Using Regulatory Focus Theory, exploitative orientation, conceptualized as the motivational strength to continue on previous paths of action, was hypothesized to be not significantly different from that of lone founder startups. Taking previous arguments together, lone founder startups were hypothesized to be more ambidextrous than family startups. Finally, ambidexterity and internal locus of control were hypothesized to reduce survival hazards in family startups. The findings suggested that family startups explore less than lone founder startups even after controlling for group effects. Interesting but contradictory findings revealed that internal locus of control have both a positive direct effect and a positive interaction that increases the explorative and ambidextrous orientation gap of family startups over lone founder startups. As expected, ambidexterity and internal locus of control reduced survival hazards on family startups. Implications for practitioners were derived based on a sample of 470 nascent entrepreneurs.

No description available.

Hypertension is defined as an asymptomatic disease which means that the disease is not related to the experience of physical symptoms. This illness is mainly managed by means of oral drug therapies, but research shows that many patients fail to take their medication as they should. Non-compliance is the main problem associated with drug-related treatments, specifically amongst patients diagnosed with chronic conditions, such as hypertension. Past research has focused on many different factors accounting for the high occurrence of non-compliance. Psychological factors relate to patients’ beliefs about their diagnosed illness and their prescribed treatment regimen. These beliefs are conceptualized in terms of the self-regulation model as constituting 5 main dimensions: identity or symptoms of their illness, the consequences of their illness, timeline or specifically referring to the course of the illness (chronic or acute), causes of the illness and controllability. Compliance is vital in the treatment and management of hypertension and research attempting to understand the relation between compliance and patients’ illness cognitions are thus important. The already high prevalence of this condition coupled with an increase in the number of people reporting low compliance suggests the need for intervention. The research question informing the present study was based on the role that psychological factors play in impacting patients’ medication-taking patterns. The medication adherence model describes medication compliance in terms of purposeful action, patterned behaviour and feedback. Purposeful action concerns patients’ intentional decisions to take their medication while patterned behaviour relates to the medication-taking patterns that patients develop. The feedback dimension guides the medication-taking patterns, providing feedback about blood pressure for example. The theory informing the present study involved social cognitive theory, which highlights the role of self-efficacy and outcome expectancies. Self-efficacy is linked with feelings of personal control and specifically refers to people’s belief in their ability to perform certain actions that will produce desired outcomes. Outcome expectancies are described as people’s ability to consider the consequences of their actions and using this information to direct their behaviour. Bearing in mind these two aspects of social cognitive theory, patients’ belief in their ability to conform to their medication instructions together with their expectations that it will improve their health will direct their medication-taking behaviour (i.e. their compliance). The illness-perception questionnaire-revised and the medication-taking questionnaire were used to obtain information about patients’ illness cognitions and their medication compliance. The correlational findings as well as the results produced by regression analysis revealed that, although illness cognitions can play a determining role in patients’ compliance, the present findings found no relation between how patients take their medication and psychological factors, defined in terms of the self-regulation model. Only one of the factors used during factor analysis revealed to significantly predict medication. Limitations associated with the present study might account for this finding and it is recommended that future research should focus on a larger sample and also use supplementary assessment measures in conjunction with self-report measures. Copyright / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Psychology / unrestricted

Les célibataires involontaires (Incel) sont une communauté d’hommes qui ont commencé à attirer une attention scientifique, avec des démonstrations empiriques de propos misogynes, et des théorisations émergentes d’un parallèle entre les situations d’incels et les violences sexuelles animées par griefs. La présente étude vise ainsi donc en premier lieu à examiner si effectivement un célibat involontaire est lié autant à la solitude (autant comme caractéristique d’un célibat involontaire, mais aussi comme antécédent fréquent de crimes sexuels) et des attitudes soutenant des agressions sexuelles, mais elle vise aussi à voir si une situation de célibat involontaire, la solitude et des cognitions soutenant les agressions sexuelles sont reliées à des comportements d’agressions sexuelles. Un questionnaire sollicitant des hommes adultes à la recherche d’une relation amoureuse (N = 814), certains d’entre eux (61.5%) s’identifiant comme incel, a été conduit en ligne. Les analyses ont montré que l’endossement d’idées incels, de cognitions soutenant les agressions sexuelles et la solitude étaient reliés à l’autodéclaration d’avoir commis une agression sexuelle par le passé, et que la solitude en plus de certaines cognitions soutenant les agressions sexuelles étaient associées avec l’inclinaison à commettre une agression sexuelle dans le futur, mais l’endossement d’idées incel n’était pas relié à l’inclinaison à commettre une agression sexuelle dans le futur. Ces conclusions suggèrent que des recherches subséquentes sont nécessaires pour mieux comprendre la relation entre les situations de célibat involontaire et les violences sexuelles, et les implications que ceci aurait dans les secteurs d’intervention primaire, secondaire et tertiaire. / Involuntary celibates (Incels) are an online community of men that have begun to draw scientific attention, with some empirical demonstration of misogynistic views, and emerging theorization observing parallels between their situation and grievance-fueled sexual violence. The present study therefore firstly aimed to examine whether indeed inceldom is linked to both loneliness (as a hypothesized characteristic of inceldom as well as a frequent antecedent to sexual offending) and rape-supportive attitudes, and secondly, to see whether inceldom, loneliness and rape-supportive cognitions are related to behavioral outcomes of sexual aggression. A survey of adult men seeking romantic relationships (N = 814), some of whom (61.5%) identifying as incels, was conducted online. Regression analyses showed that regardless of incel self-identification the endorsement of incel ideas, rape-supportive cognitions and loneliness were related to self-disclosed previous sexual aggression, and that loneliness and some but not all rape-supportive cognitions were associated with inclination towards committing future sexual aggression, but endorsement of incel ideas was not related to inclination towards future sexual aggression. These findings suggest that further research is needed to better understand the relationship between inceldom and sexual violence and the implications that this would have for primary, secondary and tertiary interventions.

No description available.

Cette étude vise à décrire les caractéristiques psychologiques, cognitives et comportementales d'individus présentant un syndrome de Prader-Willi (SPW) au cours de la petite enfance et de l'enfance. La population est constituée de 36 enfants âgés de 2,5 à 15 ans, suivis régulièrement par le centre de référence du SPW. Trois études prospectives sont présentées. La première décrit la prise en charge et la scolarité de ces 36 enfants, leurs compétences cognitives et leurs comportements adaptatifs ainsi que les comportements connus comme problématiques chez les adolescents et les adultes SPW. L'ensemble de ces données sont étudiées de façon comparative entre les enfants de moins de 5 ans et ceux de plus de 6 ans. Nos résultats apportent un éclairage nouveau sur les caractéristiques de ces jeunes enfants SPW qui sont, en de nombreux points, différentes des descriptions issues des études rétrospectives. La seconde étude transversale décrit les aptitudes des 27 enfants de plus de 6 ans à apparier, dénommer et attribuer des émotions. Leurs performances sont comparées à celles d'enfants typiques appariés sur l'âge de développement et sur l'âge chronologique. Les résultats de cette étude pionnière montrent que les enfants SPW ont des compétences hétérogènes pour identifier les émotions, il existe à la fois un effet de l'émotion et un effet de la tâche. Enfin, la dernière étude présente les résultats d'un suivi longitudinal de 4 ans pour 10 enfants. Les compétences cognitives et les comportements adaptatifs sont ici décrits dans leur évolution, en précisant l'émergence de certains troubles du comportement.

L’objectif principal de ce travail est de caractériser par une approche multimodale d’imagerie les bases neurales structurales et fonctionnelles qui sous-tendent les troubles cognitifs et la QV dans la schizophrénie. L’objectif secondaire est de tester la valeur prédictive des troubles cognitifs et de la QV pour l’évolution et le fonctionnement dans la schizophrénie.Nous avons d’abord exploré les profils d’activation cérébrale au cours d’une tâche de mémoire de travail entre des patients qui ont une courte durée d’évolution de la maladie et ceux qui ont une longue durée d’évolution de la maladie. Nous avons retrouvé une hyper activation de certaines régions cérébrales chez les patients avec un longue durée d’évolution de la maladie comparativement aux patients avec une courte durée d’évolution. Nous avons ensuite étudié les bases neurales structurales de la QV. Nous avons mis en évidence qu’une QV altérée était associée à des changements plus importants de la microstructure cérébrale dans des régions altérées par le processus pathologique de la schizophrénie. Nous avons enfin étudié les réseaux cérébraux fonctionnels qui sous-tendent la QV. Nous rapportons que des régions cérébrales impliquées dans la prise de décision, dans le traitement des émotions et dans les cognitions sociales sont liées aux dimensions de la QV.D’une part nos travaux suggèrent qu’une réorganisation fonctionnelle dans le réseau cérébral de la mémoire de travail joue un rôle compensateur lors de l’évolution de la schizophrénie. D’autre part, nos résultats laissent supposer que la QV serait l’expression précoce des anomalies cérébrales induites par les processus pathologiques de la schizophrénie. / We conducted a multimodal neuroimaging approach combining the study of working memory activation with fMRI, the study of microstructural abnormalities associated with impaired QoL using MTI and the study of the functional brain substrate of QoL using SPECT. We aimed to characterize structural and functional neural basis of cognitive impairment and QoL in schizophrenia. We secondarily aimed to test the predictive value of cognitive impairment and QOL for the evolution and functioning in schizophrenia.First, we explored brain activation during a working memory task between patients with short disease duration and patients with long disease duration. We found a functional reorganization in patients with long schizophrenia duration having brain hyperactivations relative to short schizophrenia duration patients. Secondly, we investigated and compared microstructural abnormalities in patients with preserved Qol and impaired QoL. We showed that patients with impaired QoL had more microstructural changes in brain regions affected by the disease process of schizophrenia.Finally, we studied the neural substrate of QoL in schizophrenia. We reported that brain regions involved in cognitions, emotional information processing and social cognition underlie the different QoL dimensions in schizophrenia. On the one hand, our findings suggest that a functional reorganization in the working memory neural network plays a compensatory role in the schizophrenia course. On the other hand, our results suggest that QoL could be the early expression of brain abnormalities induced by the disease process of schizophrenia.

No description available.

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / This work is linked to the group that develops research on subjective aspects of foreign language teaching and learning process at the Instituto de Letras e Linguística of a Federal University. Its main objective is to investigate cognitions, conceptions and points of view about the role and relevance of research for in-service English language teachers and for professors / researchers working with language teachers` education. The term cognitions , according to Borg (2003) refers to non-observable aspects of the cognitive dimension: what the teachers know, believe and think. Thus, the development of the research starts from the following questions: (a) What are the cognitions of regular public school foreign language teachers` about research developed by professors working with language teachers` education? (b) What are the cognitions of professors working with language teachers` education, about research developed in/about the regular school context? To which extent do participants` cognitions converge / diverge? Q Methodology research approach, which makes use of PQMethod 2.11 software, was used. Focal group and semi-structured interviews were used, as secondary data gathering tools, for raising a wide range of participants` points o view and subsequent composition of a semi-structured Q sample of statements. These represent the participants` cognitions about the role and contributions of research on the process of teaching and learning foreign language. The subjects distributed statements along a continuum in a scale ranging from Totally agree (+5) to Totally disagree (-5), and the results of the Q Distribution were analysed with PQMethod 2.11 software. From further qualitative and interpretive analysis, the factors, or groups, that emerged from the fator analysis were defined, characterized and interpreted. These groups of participants share similar points of view about research on the teaching and learning process. The following aspects stand out among the emerging results: the relationship between theory and practice, Applied Linguistics contributions to foreign language teachers` Education, foreign language reflective practice, teachers and professors` cognitions about the relevance of research to practice; and the (re)construction of teacher knowledge in Applied Linguistics research. I believe that, through the development of awareness of roles and critical stance of practices, the results of this research may bring contributions to foreign language teachers at regular public schools as well as to professors working with language teachers` education. / Este trabalho está vinculado ao Grupo de Pesquisas sobre Aspectos subjetivos do processo de ensino e aprendizagem de línguas estrangeiras, do Instituto de Letras e Linguística da Universidade Federal de Uberlândia. O objetivo principal é investigar as cognições, concepções e pontos de vista sobre pesquisa, sobre o papel e relevância destas, para professores e formadores da área de ensino e aprendizagem de Língua Estrangeira (LE). É meu interesse investigar as cognições de professores-em-serviço e professores formadores sobres os estudos na área de ensino e aprendizagem de língua estrangeira. O termo cognição, na definição de Borg (2003) refere-se a aspectos da dimensão cognitiva não observável: o que os professores sabem, acreditam e pensam. Assim, o desenvolvimento da pesquisa se dá a partir dos seguintes questionamentos: (a) Quais são as cognições dos professores de LE de escolas regulares sobre pesquisas realizadas pelos professores formadores? (b) Quais são as cognições de professores formadores de LE em relação às pesquisas realizadas no/sobre contexto de escolas regulares? (c) Em que ponto as cognições dos participantes convergem/divergem? Como abordagem de pesquisa utilizei a Metodologia Q, que utiliza o programa PQMethod 2.11. Por meio do grupo focal e entrevistas semi-estruturadas, usados como instrumentos de coleta secundários, foi feito o levantamento de uma gama de pontos de vista dos participantes para a posterior composição de uma Amostra Q semi-estruturada de assertivas. Estas representam as cognições dos participantes sobre o papel e as contribuições das pesquisas sobre o processo de ensinar e aprender língua estrangeira. Os participantes distribuíram as assertivas ao longo de um contínuo em uma escala de concordo totalmente (+5) e discordo totalmente (-5) e os resultados obtidos pela distribuição Q foram analisados no pacote estatístico PQMethod 2.11. A partir da posterior análise qualitativa e interpretativista, os grupos que emergiram da análise fatorial foram definidos, caracterizados e interpretados. Após o levantamento dos resultados, surgiram fatores a serem analisados e interpretados, ou seja, grupos de participantes que compartilham do mesmo ponto de vista sobre as pesquisas do processo de ensino e aprendizagem. Dentre os aspectos emergentes desta pesquisa destacaram-se: a relação teoria e prática; contribuições da LA para a formação de professores; a prática reflexiva de LE; relação universidade-escola; cognições de professores sobre a relevância das pesquisas em LA para a prática e sobre os formadores e a (re)construção do saber docente na pesquisa em LA. Acredito que os resultados desta pesquisa podem trazer contribuições para professores e formadores, tendo em vista que a partir da conscientização e postura crítica perante suas práticas poderão, juntos compreender seus papeis e orientar suas ações. / Mestre em Linguística