The purpose of this study was twofold: to test the Competence Model for Normal Aging and to generate valid and reliable indices of mental health outcomes in elderly clients. A correlational descriptive design accommodated the psychometric assessment of the instruments with a causal modeling methodology. The relationship between competence and self-esteem was the primary focus. Theoretical model testing was used to test the causal relationships between competence and three estimates of cognition: causal attributions, self-efficacy, and value. Associated demographic variables, age, and gender, were included in the model. Well elders (n = 137) living independently in Tucson participated in the study by completing 9 instruments within a 40-minute testing period. The mean age of the group was 73 (sd = 7.9). A quarter of the sample was at least 80 years old. All participants were caucasian, with more than twice the number of females than males. Most participants were married or widowed. The instruments met validity and reliability criteria in varying degrees. Hypothesis 1 was supported in both the separate success and failure models and the total sample theoretical model. Self-efficacy (β = .48) and value (β = .27) predicted competence (R² = .42). The social subscale of competence was strongly predicted by the same variables (β = .53, β = .26; R² = .39). The same predictors were evident in the total sample theoretical model (β = .52; β = .25; R² = .38). Hypothesis 2 was partially supported. Self-efficacy predicted total competence (β = .49; R² = .30) and the social dimension of competence (β = .59; R² = .32). Hypothesis 2 was minimally supported in the total sample theoretical model by self-efficacy (β = .29) predicting the social component of competence (R² = .44). Hypothesis 3 was most strongly supported. Competence predicted self-esteem under multiple conditions (βs averaged .43). The associated demographic and gender variables made minimal contributions to the model, except under failure conditions. Not being married and being a male negatively impacted upon competence (β = -.21; β = -.39; R² = .31). Both theoretical and empirical model results have similar explained variances. The theoretical model provided key information regarding the process of self-esteem, and the empirical model provided a guide for clinicians to measure mental health outcomes.

1. Sporto renginiai skatina socialinį aktyvumą, o vienas iš tokių renginių uždavinių – socialinių įgūdžių lavinimas. Socialinio aktyvumo trūkumas yra rimta moderniosios technologijos amžiaus problema. Sporto renginiai turi galios ir įtakos kovojant su šia neigiama aktualija, jie skatina neužsidaryti namuose prie kompiuterių ar televizorių, o integruotis į visuomenę. 2. Sporto renginiai – motyvuoja visuomenės narius socializuotis, susipažinti bei bendrauti ne tik su savo aplinkos žmonėmis. Skatina savirealizaciją ir mokymosi procesą bei šeimos, kaip pamatinės vertybės išsaugojimą. Ugdo vienybės jausmą tarp skirtingų žmonių ir turi išliekamąją vertę. Sporto renginiai turi unikalią galimybę keisti išankstinius nusistatymus ir sukurti socialinius pokyčius. Visa tai – gyvenimo kokybės gerinimas. 3. Pasaulio ledo ritulio čempionato renginys suteikė daug galimybių socialiniams pokyčiams ir socialinei įtakai žmonėms bei miestui, tačiau tam mažai įtakos turėjo renginio organizatorių pastangos. Sporto renginys nors ir ugdo bei skatina socialinį bendravimą, vienybės jausmą tarp skirtingų žmonių renginio metu ir turi išliekamąją vertę, tačiau sporto renginiai suburdami žmones į vieną erdvę, suteikia jiems galimybę sąveikauti vieniems su kitais ir taip socializuojantis savaime kurti socialines įtakas. / 1. Sports event promotes social activity and one of the goals is social skills development. Sort of the social activity is the great problem of modernity technology century. Sports event has the impact and power to lower this negative actualities, events promote not to be inside the house just for to watch TV or play with computer, but integrate in the society. 2. Sports event is motivating society to socialize, meet new people and make conversation with people from the different environment. It promotes self- realization and process of learning, the family like the base value saving. It develops sense of unity between different people and has long term impact. Sports event has unique opportunity to change precedent opinion and create social changes. All of that is making better of life quality. 3. The World Hockey Championship event is giving lot of opportunities for social changes and social impact for the people ant for the city. But for that little impact have efforts of event organizers. Sports event is developing and promoting social conversation, sense of unity between different people at the event and has long term value, but sports event get together lot of people in one space, give them opportunity to interact one with others and that’s how they socialize by them self and create the social impact.

The primary purpose of this study was to determine the status of brand loyalty to art festivals with reference to Klein Karoo national Arts Festival (KKNK). This was achieved by firstly analysing and discussing the role of branding in tourism marketing. Secondly, a literature study was conducted to analyse the concept brand loyalty. Thirdly, the results of the empirical research were discussed and finally the conclusions were drawn from the research and recommendations were made with regard to visitors’ loyalty to the KKNK. Literature indicated that when marketing a tourism product or service it involves a complex bundle of value, which is intangible, inseparable, variable and perishable. Therefore the tourist’s experience with the product is important to keep in mind. Every tourist counts in the tourism industry therefore knowledge related to the needs and wants of the tourists. This can be determined by market research that is designed to collect, analyse, interpret and report information. The marketer can use this information to create a marketing mix, however, in the tourism and hospitality industry the four P’s (price, promotion, product, place) are extended with more P’s, namely people, physical environment, processes, packaging, participation, productservice mix, presentation mix and communication mix. The tourism product or festival should be positioned in the minds of the tourists and this cannot be achieved without branding the product. The brand name is used to identify and differentiate the product from its competitors. It also creates meaning for the tourist and establishes a competitive position in the minds of the tourist. Brand loyalty should be an important marketing goal of the tourism product because it reduces a brand’s vulnerability to competitors’ action and create a committed relationship with the tourists that insure lifelong visiting behaviour among tourists or positive word-of-mouth recommendations. Brand loyalty is build on six levels which can also be utilised to determine the visitors loyalty towards the brand and to assist the marketer on focussing on areas which should be improved to achieve a higher level of loyalty. The aim of the marketer should be to achieve the highest level of brand loyalty namely Resonance. For the purpose of this study the visitors’ profile and the current status of brand loyalty, were measured by means of a questionnaire and the objective of the questionnaire was to determine how loyal the visitors were to the KKNK. The questionnaires were distributed among the visitors at the KKNK in Oudtshoorn, in April 2009. Availability sampling was used to collect the data based on the fact that the respondents were conveniently available on the festival grounds and at show venues and willing to complete the questionnaires. A total of 422 questionnaires were completed during the festival. The factor analysis determined that Brand Feelings were the loyalty level that was rated the highest by the respondents to the KKNK. Therefore it was determined that the visitors’ loyalty to KKNK is currently at the fifth loyalty level and will have the most influence on the visitors when deciding to visit or recommend the KKNK. This is expected for a festival that is 15 years old however, the organisers of the KKNK can continue to improve the visitors loyalty until they reach the sixth and highest, loyalty level. This study contributes to the limited available literature on brand loyalty to arts festivals. / Thesis (M.Com. (Tourism))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012

This dissertation research project was conducted to investigate religion as a coping resource in later life. The major proposition of the study was that intrinsic religious orientation is positively associated with mental health in late life. A forty three-item questionnaire was distributed to residents of four independent retirement communities resulting in a sixty-six percent return rate. The convenience sample of 214 individuals, with a mean age of 81.94 years, consisted of 156 female and 58 male respondents. Intrinsic religious orientation was held as the independent variable, while mental health was the dependent variable. Stress vulnerability characteristics were held as control variables including age, gender, education, stressful life events, marital status, perceived social support, and physical health. The zero order correlation between the independent and dependent variables was r = .128, sig. = .034 (1 tailed). When all control variables were entered, the relationship between intrinsic religious orientation and mental remained, r = .116, sig. = 046 (1 tailed). Regression analysis produced three predictors of mental health for females: stressful life events, age, and intrinsic religious orientation. Intrinsic religious orientation did not significantly change the relationship between stressful life events and mental health. A highly narrow variability in the sample limited stronger results. Findings indicate the importance of further investigation into religion as a coping resource, especially among older females.

Sleep disturbances and insomnia are prevalent, with around 33% of adults indicating that they experience at least one main symptom of insomnia, and bidirectional relationships exist with common psychopathology, particularly major depressive disorder (MDD). However, genetic and environmental (e.g., traumatic event exposure) contributions to the etiology of these phenotypes are not yet well understood. A genetically informative sample of approximately 12,000 Han Chinese women aged 30-60 (50% with recurrent MDD) was used to address several gaps within the sleep literature. Sleep disturbances were assessed in all individuals using a general item addressing sleeplessness (GS). A sleep within depression sum score (SDS) was also created in MDD cases, combining information from the GS and two insomnia items within MDD. A total of 11 traumatic events were assessed and additional information on childhood sexual abuse (CSA) was also obtained. First, factor analyses were conducted to determine trauma factor structure. The best-fit solution included 3 factors: interpersonal, child interpersonal, and non-assaultive, and composite variables were constructed accordingly. A series of hierarchical regressions were run to examine differential effects of trauma type and timing on sleeplessness. All traumatic events predicted sleeplessness at similar magnitudes, although population models indicated that childhood interpersonal trauma may be particularly potent. An association between CSA and sleeplessness was also replicated. A series of genetic analyses demonstrated that the single nucleotide polymorphism-based heritability of sleep phenotypes did not differ significantly from zero. Further, association analyses did not identify any genome-wide significant loci. However, using a liberal false discovery rate threshold of 0.5, two genes of interest, KCNK9 and ALDH1A2, emerged for the SDS. Polygenic risk score (PRS) analyses demonstrated genetic overlap between the SDS in MDD cases and GS in MDD controls, with PRSs explaining 0.2-0.3% of the variance. A final combined model of both genetic and environmental risk indicated that both PRS and traumatic events were significant predictors of sleeplessness. While genetic results should be interpreted with caution given the lack of heritability, additional research into the genetic and environmental contributions to insomnia, utilizing more standardized phenotypes and properly ascertained samples, is clearly warranted.

Social support has been shown to lessen the negative effects of life stress on psychological and physical health. The stress buffering model and the main effects model of social support were compared using two samples of women over the age of 50 who were either married or recently widowed. These two groups represent low and high uncontrollable major life stress respectively. Other life stress events were also taken into account. Measures assessed current level of life stress, perceived social support, satisfaction with social support, and psychological symptomatology. Results using overall psychological health as the dependent variable support the main effects model.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the possible events in the external environment between 1987 and 1997 that may affect the future of North Texas State University. Two groups of experts participated in the study, a group of individuals from outside North Texas State University and a group of experts from the university.

The purpose of the study was to compare the attitudes of 4-H youths and their parents concerning 4-H competitiveness. The sample was composed of seventy-nine 4-H youths and their parents from three North Texas Counties. The instruments, which consisted of an "Opinionnaire for Parents" and an "Opinionnaire for 4-H'ers," were designed to obtain the 4-H'ers' and parents' attitudes about 4-H competition. The study revealed no significant difference in competitive attitudes between 4-H youths' and their parents' or between younger and older 4-H'ers. 4-H boys were found to have more competitive attitudes than 4-H girls. No significant relationship was found between parents' level of competitiveness and length of 4-H service.

Thesis subject is the evaluation of runoff and flood regime of rivers Lužnice and Skřemelice at the closing profiles just before their confluences. The results are compared with findings from the profile Pilař, which were published in the past by other authors. More attention is paid to the evaluation of the hydrological year 2013 and in detail is described the flood in June of the same year. Daily flow data from the years 1971 - 2014 were used for evaluating of runoff conditions. The assessment of the runoff regime in terms of daily, monthly and annual flows were compared with the runoff regime in Pilař gauge station. The source regions with dominating influence on the resulting runoff were discovered. Analysis of the flood regime confirmed that spring floods in Lužnice came mainly from upland and hilly parts of catchment and large summer floods have main source area in the catchment of Lužnice river itself, before the confluence of the Lužnice river and Skřemelic river. When assessing flood in 2013, the main source areas of flood flows that hit Lužnice river basin were founded. The flood extremity was compared in each closing profiles.

The theoretical part of the thesis mainly deals with the definitions of sense of humor, humor, stress, life events and life satisfaction and presents an overview of the most basic theories related to these topics at the same time. The aim of the work is looking for connection between the three themes. Above all, it shows the positive impact of sense of humor to cope with stress and life events. What role play a sense of humor in psychotherapy? Can psychotherapy help to improve life satisfaction? As this work was created behind the ongoing systemic psychotherapy, corresponds to the mentioned questions also. The research seeks to establish relationships between sense of humor and life satisfaction and consequently their impact on coping stress and life events. The empirical part is based on quantitative data processing, which were obtained by using several questionnaire. The results of quantitative data analysis are supplemented by qualitative observations and insights that explain conclusions of study. Based on the processed data has shown that life satisfaction increases clients during psychotherapy. However the relationship between sense of humor and life satisfaction, as well as their impact on coping stress and life events has not been empirically confirmed. Keywords: humour, sense of humour,...