The clinical learning environment (CLE) provides students with an opportunity to build confidence and competence in the provision of patient care (Benner, 2010). The aim of this qualitative descriptive research was to explore and describe student perceptions of developing confidence through their clinical learning experiences, discovering what features of the CLE support their learning and the development of confidence. Ten students were recruited through purposive sampling and participated in one-on-one semi-structured interviews. Self-efficacy theory (Bandura, 1997) was used as a theoretical framework to guide this research and for the interpretation of the content analysis. The analysis revealed five socio-structural themes that support student learning and development of confidence. These findings elaborate Bandura’s (1997) theory. The most influential, through verbal persuasion was the clinical nursing instructor (CNI) followed by self, the buddy nurse, peers, and the staff/unit environment. Students perceived their development of confidence through a bi-directional interaction between their cognitive/affective processes, behaviour and the CLE. Understanding student perceptions of their confidence development, signals the need for informed pedagogical strategies to support student learning and development of confidence. / October 2016

The thesis is aimed at normative and instrumental aspects of compliance with the law and cooperation with the criminal justice system in the Czech society, namely trust in the police and criminal courts and their perceived legitimacy, personal morality and perceived risk of sanctions. Its purpose was to empirically verify the revised Tyler's procedural justice model of compliance as suggested by Jackson et al. (2011) within the Czech context. A review of literature on the topic implied potential constraints to validity of the model in the Czech society, mainly in respect to low levels of trust and legitimacy of the police and courts. Nevertheless, the empirical analysis based on structural equation modelling with use of two representative datasets (ESS Round 5 2010, Bezpečnostní rizika 1999) indicates trust in police procedural fairness to be - in contrast to fear of sanctions - a strong factor in predicting compliance. The obligation to obey the law shaped mainly by trust in procedural fairness and personal morality appear to be comparatively the most important predictors of compliance in the Czech Republic. The model was not significant in case of courts nor for the 1999 dataset, probably due to poor internal consistency of some constructs. Keywords confidence, legitimacy, criminal justice, compliance

Master of Science / Department of Statistics / Paul Nelson / Trimmed means are robust estimators of location for distributions having heavy tails. Theory and simulation indicate that little efficiency is lost under normality when using appropriately trimmed means and that their use with data from distributions with heavy tails can result in improved performance. This report uses the principle of equivariance applied to trimmed means sampled from a Cauchy distribution to form a discrepancy function of the data and parameters whose distribution is free of the unknown median and scale parameter. Quantiles of this discrepancy function are estimated via asymptotic normality and simulation and used to construct confidence intervals for the median of a Cauchy distribution. A nonparametric approach based on the distribution of order statistics is also used to construct confidence intervals. The performance of these intervals in terms of coverage rate and average length is investigated via simulation when the data are actually sampled from a Cauchy distribution and when sampling is from normal and logistic distributions. The intervals based on simulation estimation of the quantiles of the discrepancy function are shown to perform well across a range of sample sizes and trimming proportions when the data are actually sampled from a Cauchy distribution and to be relatively robust when sampling is from the normal and logistic distributions.

Master of Science / Department of Family Studies and Human Services / Jared R. Anderson / This study investigated the relationships between attachment style, relationship confidence, and constructive communication among a sample of 71 newlywed military couples. Using Karney & Crown’s (2007) military adapted Vulnerability-Stress-Adaptation model as a guide, the current study predicted that romantic attachment style (an enduring vulnerability) would be associated with couples’ communication (an adaptive process) directly, and indirectly through marital confidence (a marital resource). Actor and partner effects were examined using the Actor Partner Interdependence Model (APIM; Kenny, Kashy, & Cook, 2006). Results indicate that after controlling for financial worry and husband’s rank, wives’ avoidant attachment was directly associated with her constructive communication and husband’s anxious attachment was directly associated with his constructive communication. Tests of mediating paths from anxious and avoidant attachment to relationship confidence through constructive communication were significant for wives. When accounting for anxious attachment partner effects were present between relationship confidence and constructive communication. The results suggest the importance of assessing for attachment style and relationship confidence when working with military couples in the early years of their marriage.

Magister Artium (Child and Family Studies) - MA(CFS) / Adolescence can be understood as the transitional period between childhood and adulthood. During adolescence individuals tend to experiment and discover who they are in terms of their unique social identity and are more susceptible to health risk behaviour engagement. Health risk behaviour place individuals at risk for numerous health complications. The most common forms of health risk behaviours are smoking, drinking, illicit drug use, risky sexual behaviour, violence and physical inactivity. Life skills development has been proven to reduce many health risk behaviours in adolescents. The Life Effectiveness Questionnaire (LEQ) is a psychometric instrument which has been developed to measure life skills. Social Cognitive Theory posits that people are not driven by inner forces nor are they controlled by external stimuli, rather there is a reciprocal triadic relationship where the environment, cognition and personal factors influences learning through observation. When in the presence of their peers, adolescents are more likely to engage in health risk behaviour because of peer influence and immediate rewards. This study aimed to study the effects of the LEQs life skills domains as it relates to the engagement in health risk behaviour among Grade 8 learners in a selected high school in Paarl. This study used a quantitative methodology with a cross-sectional design employing written surveys. The sample consisted of 104 Grade 8 learners. The data was collected using self-reported questionnaires. One was the LEQ (Appendix 5 and 6) which measures life skills and the other was the Youth Risk Behaviour Surveillance Survey (YRBSS) (Appendix 7) which measures the prevalence of health risk behaviour engagement. The data was analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences V24 (SPSS). The results suggested that there is still a high prevalence of health risk behaviour engagement among Grade 8 learners with increases evident in some of the health risk behaviours.

Within today's society, social media has grown to become a more common thing than most. In Sweden, almost 83 % of the population use social media. With this marketing growth, a role that have become more common is the term ‘influencer’. Whereas an influencer is someone who inspires people in any sort of way by using social media platforms, such as Instagram. The marketing strategy that has evolved through influencers is called ‘influencers marketing’ and is a commonly used marketing strategy in today’s reality. However, the question that companies must ask themselves is - How will this affect consumers? By studying how ‘influencer marketing’ affect consumers whom all follow influencers on Instagram - this study presents which factors have a more deciding role when it comes to being affected by influencer marketing. Whereof we have had several semi-qualitative interviews regarding questions such as; how trustworthy a person finds influencers and if influencer marketing affects a person's consumer behaviour. The results of this study show that consumers feel a certain trust to influencers whereof this study presents 4 factors that affects an individual's ‘trust’. The result showed for example that a person value, genuity and personal connection to an influencer. The trust that an individual has towards influencers showed to have a direct connection to consumer behaviour. / I dagens samhälle har sociala medier växt fram och blivit allt vanligare. Hela 83% av internetanvändarna i Sverige använder sig av sociala medier (Karlsson 2018). En roll som har uppmärksammats på sociala medier är begreppet influencer. En influencer är en person som via sina sociala medier kan påverka och inspirera andra människor. Varav denna studie fokuserar på sociala medie-plattformen Instagram. Begreppet influencer är dock något som en stor mängd människor inte vet om vad det betyder (Kádekova & Holienčinová 2018). Detta är ett problem för framförallt företag som vill använda sig av influencer marketing. Problemet ligger i att det är svårt att veta vilken genomslagskraft en influencer har på konsumenterna. Denna studie ämnar därför att undersöka om en konsument känner förtroende för influencers samt om de påverkar en individs konsumtionsvanor. Denna studie är av den kvalitativa forskningsansatsen eftersom det är känslor och upplevelser som studerats. Därav valdes det att utföra semistrukturerade intervjuer för att få djupgående svar från respondenterna. Intervjuerna utfördes på 12 stycken respondenter som alla är mellan åldrarna 18–25 år. Åldersspannet är en medveten avgränsning då tidigare forskning visar på att influencers har mest påverkan på dessa åldrar. Svaren från intervjuerna är den data som används i undersökningen, det vill säga ingen sekundärdata har tagits i beaktning vid resultatet. Resultatet inom studien visade att konsumenter känner förtroende för influencers och studien har kommit fram till ett antal faktorer som bidrar till förtroende. Bland annat att en influencer visar genuinitet eller att en konsument känner en personlig anknytning till influencern. Det förtroende en konsument har för en influencer visade sig ha en direkt påverkan på en individs konsumtionsvanor.

Esta pesquisa tem, por hipótese, a morte da culpa na responsabilidade contratual e, por objeto, aferir se o aludido elemento subjetivo pode (ou não) ser suprimido da arquitetura jurídica da responsabilidade contratual. Vale resgatar que, se é certo não sem vozes em sentido oposto que, em muitos momentos, o direito contratual não reservou papel algum à culpa, em outros tantos instantes, na visão da doutrina majoritária, ela continua a brilhar como em seus momentos de maior esplendor. A tese estrutura-se em quatro capítulos, metodologicamente alinhados às correntes pós-positivistas do Direito e projetados a partir de uma matriz teórica-crítica em busca da compreensão do fenômeno jurídico recortado para fins de investigação. Em um primeiro momento, explora-se a travessia da responsabilidade civil para o direito de danos. Nesse percurso, (a) analisa-se o contexto em que exsurgem as primeiras codificações; (b) identificam-se as balizas utilizadas pelo Estado Liberal na configuração do dever de reparar; e (c) demonstra-se que os mitos erigidos no Liberalismo perderam sua utilidade no processo de conformação da responsabilidade contratual contemporânea. O caminho conduziu também (d) à compreensão sobre o papel dos princípios constitucionais na intelecção do fenômeno obrigacional; (e) à percepção das razões pelas quais a Modernidade fora deixada para trás; (f) à identificação das principais características da contemporaneidade; e (g) à percepção das consequências mais visíveis da ruptura do paradigma Moderno na conformação da responsabilidade contratual. No capítulo subsequente, identifica-se que a existência de um contrato, a presença de uma conduta antijurídica e de um dano a ela atado por uma relação de causa e efeito são os pressupostos do dever de reparar. Nesse mesmo capítulo, a relação obrigacional é explorada tanto em perspectiva estática, como em perspectiva dinâmica. Em um terceiro momento, promove-se a análise da ascensão e declínio da culpa na conformação do dever de reparar. Demonstra-se ainda que a noção de culpa é uma só e que não há razão que justifique classificar as obrigações como de meio ou de resultado. No último capítulo, restando provado que a culpa perdeu sua razão de ser, demonstra-se por que seu lugar há de ser ocupado pela confiança. Demonstra-se, enfim, por que o contrato que hoje obriga é o contrato justo. A conclusão da morte da culpa na responsabilidade contratual encerra mesmo que provisoriamente esta tese de doutoramento. / This research considers the hypothesis of guilt death within the contract responsibility and it aims at assessing if the mentioned subjective element may (or may not) be abolished from the legal architecture of the contract responsibility. It is worth rescuing that, if it is right not without opposite voices that, in many moments, the contract law did not reserve any role to guilt, upon several other moments, under the view of the majority doctrine, it continues to glow like in its moments of highest splendor. The thesis structure comprises four chapters. Grounded on a post-positivist theoretical matrix, at the first moment, one exploits the transition from civil responsibility onto the right to claim damages. Along this course, (a) one analyzes the context where the first code applications ex-surge; (b) one identifies the markers utilized by the Liberal State in the configuration of the repair duty; and (c) one demonstrates that the myths raised in the Liberalism have lost their utility within the conformation process of the contemporaneous contract responsibility. The path also led (d) to the understanding about the role of the constitution principles in the intellectual seizure of the duty phenomenon; (e) to the perception of the roots whereby Modernity has been left behind; (f) to the identification of the main features of contemporaneousness; and (g) to the perception of the most visible consequences deriving from the rupture of the Modern paradigm upon the conformation of the contract responsibility. In the subsequent chapter, one identifies that the existence of a contract as well as the presence of an anti-juridical conduct and of a damage attached to it by a causeeffect relation are the presuppositions of the repair duty. In this same chapter, the duty relation is exploited both under the static perspective and the dynamic one. At a third moment, one promotes the analysis of the guilt rise and decline upon the conformation of the repair duty. One evidences, yet, that the notion of guilt is just one. Thus, there is no reason that justifies classifying the duties into those of care and of outcome. Having proved that guilt has lost its rationale, in the last chapter, one demonstrates why its place ought to be taken by confidence. Finally, one demonstrates why the contract that nowadays obliges is the fair one. The conclusion drawn as to the guilt death in the contract responsibility closes although provisionally this PhD thesis.

Regression models describingthe dependence between a univariate response and a set of covariates play a fundamental role in statistics. In the last two decades, a tremendous effort has been made in developing flexible regression techniques such as generalized additive models(GAMs) with the aim of modelling the expected value of a response variable as a sum of smooth unspecified functions of predictors. Many nonparametric regression methodologies exist includinglocal-weighted regressionand smoothing splines. Here the focus is on penalized regression spline methods which can be viewed as a generalization of smoothing splines with a more flexible choice of bases and penalties. This thesis addresses three issues. First, the problem of model misspecification is treated by extending the instrumental variable approach to the GAM context. Second, we study the theoretical and empirical properties of the confidence intervals for the smooth component functions of a GAM. Third, we consider the problem of variable selection within this flexible class of models. All results are supported by theoretical arguments and extensive simulation experiments which shed light on the practical performance of the methods discussed in this thesis.

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Chan, Ka Yan Elisa. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 99-106). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / ABSTRACT (ENGLISH) --- p.ii / ABSTRACT (CHINESE) --- p.iv / ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS --- p.vi / TABLE OF CONTENTS --- p.viii / LIST OF TABLES --- p.xi / LIST OF FIGURES --- p.xii / LIST OF APPENDICE --- p.xii / Chapter CHAPTER ONE --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- Background --- p.1 / Chapter 1.2 --- Overview of Research Objectives --- p.2 / Chapter 1.3 --- Outline of the Current Study --- p.2 / Chapter CHAPTER TWO --- LITERATURE REVIEW --- p.4 / Chapter 2.1 --- Defining “Experience´ح in Consumption --- p.4 / Chapter 2.2 --- Experience-rich Consumption --- p.7 / Chapter 2.3 --- Consumer Value --- p.8 / Chapter 2.4 --- Models and Scales of Consumer Value --- p.11 / Chapter 2.4.1 --- Typology of Consumer Value by Holbrook (1999) --- p.11 / Chapter 2.4.2 --- The Theory of Consumption Value --- p.12 / Chapter 2.4.3 --- Consumer Perceived Value --- p.16 / Chapter 2.4.4 --- Experiential Value Scale (EVS) --- p.17 / Chapter 2.5 --- Summary of Literature Review --- p.19 / Chapter CHAPTER THREE --- OBJECTIVES OF THE CURRENT STUDY --- p.22 / Chapter 3.1 --- First Objective of this Research --- p.22 / Chapter 3.2 --- Second Objective of this Research --- p.22 / Chapter 3.3 --- Third Objective of this Research --- p.23 / Chapter CHAPTER FOUR --- CONCEPTUALIZATION OF EXPERIENTIAL VALUE --- p.25 / Chapter 4.1 --- Exploring the Components of Experience --- p.25 / Chapter 4.1.1 --- Psychology Literature: Everyday Life Experience --- p.25 / Chapter 4.1.2 --- Stimulus-Organism-Response Framework --- p.26 / Chapter 4.2 --- Dimensionality of Experiential Value --- p.27 / Chapter 4.2.1 --- Emotional Value --- p.28 / Chapter 4.2.2 --- Intellectual Value --- p.30 / Chapter 4.3 --- Dimensional Relation Between Emotional and Intellectual Value --- p.33 / Chapter CHAPTER FIVE --- DEVELOPING THE EXPERIENTIAL VALUE SCALE --- p.35 / Chapter 5.1 --- Study 1: Item Generation and Selection --- p.35 / Chapter 5.1.1 --- Literature Review --- p.35 / Chapter 5.1.2 --- Focus Group --- p.37 / Chapter 5.2 --- Study 2: Item Reduction and Dimensionality of the Scale --- p.38 / Chapter 5.2.1 --- Scale Purification with Exploratory Factor Analysis --- p.39 / Chapter 5.2.2 --- Initial Confirmatory Factor Analysis --- p.42 / Chapter 5.2.3 --- Scale Reliability and Validity --- p.42 / Chapter 5.3 --- Study 3: Convergent and Discriminant Validity Analysis --- p.43 / Chapter 5.3.1 --- Method --- p.43 / Chapter 5.3.2 --- Results --- p.44 / Chapter CHAPTER SIX --- CONCEPTUAL MODEL TESTING --- p.50 / Chapter 6.1 --- Study 4: The Antecedents and Consequents of Experiential Value --- p.51 / Chapter 6.1.1 --- Subjective Well-Being --- p.52 / Chapter 6.1.2 --- Method --- p.53 / Chapter 6.1.2.1 --- Dependent Measures --- p.54 / Chapter 6.1.3 --- Results and Discussion --- p.54 / Chapter 6.1.3.1 --- Discriminant Validity of Constructs --- p.54 / Chapter 6.1.3.2 --- Overall Model Results --- p.55 / Chapter 6.1.3.3 --- Equivalence Across Religious Group --- p.56 / Chapter 6.2 --- Study 5: Using Experiential Value to Predict Consumer Behavior and the Moderating Effect of Experience Context --- p.57 / Chapter 6.2.1 --- "Experiential Values, Consumer Trust, and Loyalty" --- p.57 / Chapter 6.2.2 --- The Moderating Effect of Shopping Context --- p.59 / Chapter 6.2.3 --- Method --- p.61 / Chapter 6.2.3.1 --- Dependent Measures --- p.61 / Chapter 6.2.4 --- Results and Discussion --- p.62 / Chapter 6.2.4.1 --- Discriminant Validity of Constructs --- p.62 / Chapter 6.2.4.2 --- Overall Model Results --- p.63 / Chapter 6.2.4.3 --- Moderation Model Results --- p.63 / Chapter CHAPTER SEVEN --- GENERAL DISCUSSION AND MANAGERIAL IMPLICATION --- p.65 / Chapter 7.1 --- Theoretical Contribution --- p.66 / Chapter 7.2 --- Managerial Implication --- p.68 / Chapter 7.3 --- Limitations and Future Research --- p.71 / REFERENCES --- p.99