This research project explores whether the delivery of positive psychology interventions in the workplace through an employee assistance program (EAP) can improve employees’ authentic happiness/flourishing as well as decrease symptoms of depression. A small convenience sample of 13 Manitoba public school educators accessing employee assistance were recruited for a quasi-experimental research design. Nine participants were randomly assigned to the experimental group and the remaining participants assigned to the control. Experimental group members participated in a six session psychoeducational, experiential, and process-oriented positive psychotherapy group that met once a week over six weeks. Experimental group participants’ scores on the authentic happiness/flourishing measure increased by a statistically significant 9% and depression scores decreased by a statistically significant 45% from pre-intervention to one month post-intervention. The study’s findings therefore provide promising confirmation that positive psychology interventions delivered through EAPs can make a meaningful difference as both secondary prevention and primary enhancement strategies in the workplace.

In April 1997 Kainos Community in HMP The Verne, Dorset, England became the first faith-based prison unit to be established in the Western world. The foundations and ethos of Kainos are based on Christian concepts of ‘loving your neighbour’ and forgiveness. The community operates as a hybrid therapeutic community (TC) and cognitive behavioural programme (CBP). It is open to and inclusive of prisoners of all faiths and none. The aim of this study is to explore the Kainos community ethnographically, guided by the principles of grounded theory and thematic analysis, in order to investigate whether or not Kainos ameliorates some of the de-humanising aspects of prison, and if so, how it rehumanises the prison space. Theoretically, this study highlights the dehumanisation of imprisonment, and illuminates the role that a holistic, Christian-based approach can play in terms of making the prison environment ‘more human’. My findings reveal that on Kainos there are physical, liminal and spiritual spatial mechanisms, in which a family of sub-themes interact to enable flourishing to occur. Kainos has created a physical space in which spaces of architecture and design; sensory experience; movement; and home interact to enable flourishing, whereby prisoners feel ‘more homely’, ‘free’, safe, and calm. Kainos has created a liminal space in which spaces of atmosphere; identity; home; and creativity interact to enable flourishing, empowering prisoners in their self-expression; as a cathartic tool; and as a means of regaining or creating a new identity. Kainos has created a spiritual space in which spaces of Christian activism, love, and forgiveness enable self-worth, healing, transformation, and meaningful change. The implication is that Kainos has created spaces of flourishing, safety and peace within an otherwise dehumanising carceral space, and this plays an important role in the process of transformational change imperative in the desistance process. If society must have prisons, this study concludes that Kainos provides a model for how they should be.

The research was conducted from the perspective of a positive psychological paradigm and investigated the interrelationship dynamics between the psychological constructs of resistance to change, work engagement and psychological capital which have been under-researched in the rapidly changing open distance learning work environment of academics. A quantitative survey was conducted on a probability sample of 423 (N=423) academics at a South African open distance learning higher education institution. Confirmatory- and exploratory factor analysis, in the absence of goodness of fit, revealed a four-construct measurement model for resistance to change, a two-factor measurement model for work engagement and a four-construct measurement model for psychological capital. A correlational analysis revealed significant relationships between resistance to change, work engagement and psychological capital and structural equation modelling indicated an adequate fit of the conceptual structural model. Tests for statistically significant mean differences revealed no differences between male and female academics, or between the educational levels of groups of academics, with regard to levels of resistance to change, work engagement and psychological capital. At a theoretical level, the research provided insight into the different concepts and theoretical models that lead to the development of positive psychological functioning, such as understanding of the notion of resistance to change in the work environment. At an empirical level, the new knowledge and insights derived from the results may add to a broader perspective on interrelationships between the psychological behavioural constructs of resistance to change, work engagement and psychological capital. This research has also added to the body of knowledge on how academics’ positive psychological behaviour can contribute to a positive organisation as well as to individual well-being in a changing open distance learning work environment. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / D. Com. (Industrial and Organisational Psychology)

The research focused on constructing a psychological well-being profile for flourishing practices for junior leaders by establishing the relationship between junior leaders' dispositional attributes (emotional affect, career orientations, and organisational commitment) and the flourishing attribute (positive psychological functioning). A nonprobability purposive sampling quantitative method was applied to a sample of South African National Defence Force (SANDF) personnel in Gauteng (N = 458) at junior leadership levels to explore the statistical relationship between their dispositional attributes (emotional affect, career orientations, and organisational commitment) and the flourishing attribute (positive psychological functioning) attribute. Multiple regression analyses indicated the dispositional attributes with the exception of emotional affect as significant predictors of the flourishing variable. The structural equation modelling (SEM) indicated a good fit of the data with the correlation-derived measurement model. Moderated hierarchical regression analyses indicated that age, race, gender and years of service as significant moderators of the relationship between the participants‘ dispositional attributes (emotional affect, career orientations and organisational commitment) and flourishing (positive psychological functioning) attribute. Tests for mean differences discovered that participants differed in terms of their age and race. The study made a significant contribution to the bulk of knowledge in the field of Industrial and Organisational Psychology. On a theoretical level, the study deepened the understanding of the individual and cognitive, affective, conative and relations management dimensions of the hypothesised psychological well-being profile. On an empirical level, the study developed an empirically tested psychological well-being profile that informs flourishing practices for individual junior leaders and organisational levels. On a practical level, dispositional and flourishing practices that inform the dimensions of the psychological well-being profile were recommended. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / Ph. D. (Industrial and Organisational Psychology)

Mental health has traditionally been described as the absence of mental problems, being those second ones equated to impairments, overlapping disability with mental illness. This unfounded conviction is being replaced by a positive mental health approach that recognizes them as distinct constructs. The two continua model is the first model to prove with empirical support that the presence of mental problems does not entail a lacking positive mental health. In the midst of this transformation disabled children’s voices are being acknowledged as an often-ignored presence as the United Nation’s Convention of People with Disability pushes for their recognition.  This systematic review aims to explore which instruments are being used to measure the mental health of children with disabilities, and to assess how do they compare to the Mental health Continuum Scale (MHC-SF) which emerges as the operationalization of positive mental health in the Two continuum model. Five databases were explored, eight articles were chosen from which nine questionnaires were analysed and quality assessed with the Cosmin Checklist. From those, two instruments focused on mental problems (SDQ and ChYMH), two Surveys from which items were taken and adapted to measure flourishing (NSCH 2016/2011-2012 and L&H-YP 2011), three instruments targeting quality of life on children with a disability (Kidslife, CPQoL-Teens and Kidscreen), a newly developed subjective mental health questionnaire for children with intellectual disability (WellSEQ) and the MHC-SF itself.  Results show the emotional wellbeing dimension to be the most widely used, but positive functioning is misrepresented often measured as external factors. There is a tendence towards the traditional deficit-based formulation of items, despite that, there are good quality instruments that cater to children with disabilities with self-report measures (CPQoL-Teens, WellSEQ and Kidscreen) although severe ID co-mobilities are excluded. The use of digital resources in the administration poses a promising path to allow large scale surveys in children with cognitive and motor impairments, even more so being that the School is the common place of administration without acknowledging that children with chronic health conditions present higher rates of absenteeism.

1 ABSTRACT Title: Calmness of Heart as Topos of the Epicurean Lifestyle Reflected in the Biographical Narration of Contemporaries Author: Pavlína Havlová Department: Oral History - Contemprorary History Supervisor: Mgr. David Bartoň Abstract: The proposed diploma thesis focuses on the presence of the Epicurean tradition in the biographical narration of selected contemporaries. The main emphasis is laid on substantiating relatedness between the thoughts that were formulated by the Greek thinker Epicurus at the turn of 3rd and 4th century BC and the values and lifestyle of the given individuals. The theoretical basis of the thesis is Epicurus's Letter to Menoeceus, which contains the explication of human life and ethics in particular. Based on the analysis of the letter, four general topics were defined (sobriety, moderation, internal and external lifestyle). These topics served as starting points for the interviews that also enabled their analysis and interpretation. The interviews were recorded using the oral history method, which facilitates individual approach to the scrutiny of biographical narration of selected contemporaries. Keywords: Epicurus, Epicurean, Ethics, Character, Sensibility (Temperance and Sobriety, Sophrosyne resp.), Happiness (Well-fare/Flourishing, Eudaimonia resp.), Moderation...

This study examined the work-life balance (WLB) and subjective well-being (SWB) of Baby Boomers, Generation X and Generation Y in the current world of work. The instruments used in this study for data collection was Work-life Balance Scale, the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire, and the Work Engagement Questionnaire. The research was conducted from the perspective of a positive psychological paradigm and investigated the interrelationship dynamics between the constructs of generations and work-life balance and work-life balance and subjective well-being, as well as the differences between the levels of work-life balance and subjective well-being across generations in a South African sample. This study calculated Exploratory Factor Analyses (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analyses (CFA) to examine the psychometric structure of a proposed SWB construct and to test the hypothesis that SWB is a latent variable comprising of Happiness, Optimism, Self-Esteem, and Engagement. Based on the results of the two EFA and CFA models, there is enough statistical evidence to accept this hypothesis. Correlational analysis and structural equation modelling revealed the relationships between work-life balance and subjective well-being. Regression analysis and tests for significant differences identified the differences in work-life balance and subjective well-being levels across the generations. The results revealed that there were some statistically significant differences between generations. For Baby Boomers and Generation X work-life balance was influenced by SWB factors, whilst Generation Y were mostly influenced by biographical variables. The results showed that hours worked, and hours paid were predictors of work interfering with personal life (WIPL) for both Generation X and Generation Y. Self-esteem was a significant predictor for the Baby Boomers. With regards to personal life interfering with work (PLIW) hours worked and happiness were found to be predictors for Generation X, whereas hours paid was a negative predictor for Generation Y. Furthermore, hours worked, happiness and engagement were found to predict work and personal life enhancement (WPLE) for Generation X. An overall difference was noted for happiness across the generations, with Generation Y employees having significantly lower levels of happiness than Generation X, whilst no significant difference was noted between Generation X and Baby Boomers. The current study linked the emerging constructs of positive psychology in general by investigating the relationships and differences between generations, WLB and SWB. The results could be used as a framework for IOP.The research makes a contribution to the field of Industrial and Organisational Psychology on three levels, namely, on a theoretical, an empirical and a practical level. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / D. Com. (Industrial and Organisational Psychology)

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An ontology describing the constructs and their inter-relationships for business models has recently been built and evaluated: the Business Model Ontology (BMO). This ontology has been used to conceptually power a popular practitioner visual design tool: the Business Model Canvas (BMC). However, implicitly these works assume that designers of business models all have a singular normative goal: the creation of businesses that are financially profitable. These works perpetuate beliefs and businesses that do not create outcomes aligned with current natural and social science knowledge about long term individual human, societal and ecological flourishing, i.e. outcomes are not strongly sustainable. This limits the applicability and utility of these works. This exploratory research starts to overcome these limitations: creating knowledge of what is required of businesses for strongly sustainable outcomes to emerge and helping business model designers efficiently create high quality (reliable, consistent, effective) strongly sustainable business models. Based on criticism and review, this research project extends the BMO artefact to enable the description all the constructs and their inter-relationships related to a strongly sustainable business model. This results in the Strongly Sustainable Business Model Ontology (SSBMO). To help evaluate the SSBMO a practitioner visual design tool is also developed: the Strongly Sustainable Business Model Canvas (SSBMC). Ontological engineering (from Artificial Intelligence), Design Science and Systems Thinking methodological approaches were combined in a novel manner to create the Systemic Design Science approach used to build and evaluate the SSBMO. Comparative analysis, interviews and case study techniques were used to evaluate the utility of the designed artefacts. Formal 3rd party evaluation with 7 experts and 2 case study companies resulted in validation of the overall approaches used and the utility of the SSBMO. A number of opportunities for improvement, as well as areas for future work, are identified. This thesis includes a number of supplementary graphics included in separate (electronic) files. See “List of Supplementary Materials” for details.