This thesis is a Heuristic Self-Search Inquiry (HSSI) that explores the personal experience of one gay man's participation in a gay male friendship group whose culturally constructed sense of being gay, characterised by specific places, customs and practices the researcher considers 'cultic'. The study is undertaken through the researcher who found himself outside a closed group of emotionally intimate gay friends, which represented an entire world. Using the HSSI model created by Sela-Smith (2002), this profoundly personal qualitative study considers the researcher's internal experiencing as the primary source of knowledge. Material from online images, academic papers and personal writing of the inquirer's lived experience of the research topic provided for periods of contemplative incubation and illumination, typical of HSSI. The output was the depiction of six emergent themes that highlight the qualities and nuances of the topic: pain, frustration, mistrust, joy, disgust and confusion. The other main findings are: this gay male friendship group developed characteristics of a symbolically enclosed cultic institution; that gay men are susceptible to forming cultic relationships; and a depth of distress experienced when intimate friendships between gay men fail. The findings finish by offering a creative synthesis, which captures the resultant integrated understanding of the experience in the form of a short story. Recommendations are made for counselling professionals to trouble their understanding of gay male friendship groups, and for public and third sector organisations working with Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) identifying peoples to begin discussing interpersonal issues inside LGBTQ populations.

This study aims to provide strategies for blended learning situations which combine supervised on-line courses with traditional classroom lectures in order to take into account the different learning styles of particular groups of students. Most studies, to date, on learning styles have focused on the individual level. This research proposed that commonly preferred learning styles and leanings towards certain media presentations can be identified in whole groups that share some common group characteristics. An interpretive case study was chosen as the methodology to reach the research goal because it collectively combines the benefits of a case study and multiple data collections from students who studied on a required on-line course in the same learning context. The students, who participated in this study, were majoring in either Science, Social Science, or Management. Various data collection techniques included a survey of 576 students who studied IT courses, personal interviews of 34 students, participatory and on-line observations, and reference to institutional documents. Qualitative analysis of the data employed a concept synthesis coupled with a template analysis to compare and contextualise all the facets of reality depicted by the data (King, 2004). This approach was necessary due to the extensive theoretical background required to generate the initial template and the need to completely comprehend the group learning phenomenon. The research discerned that students in specific major academic fields have common preferences for on-line media and activities that assist the learning process because they process and perceive information differently. A model is proposed to identify the interactions between the learner, the media and activity content, and the context of learning. The design of on-line course materials should take into account group learning styles to propose a holistic picture for effective learning. This is a valuable resource for the teachers and designers of compulsory on-line courses and for those who determine educational policy and strategy.

There are many studies conducted on cognitive performance and of different aspects that can affect the performance. However, the literature review reveal that there is a knowledge gap in the area of measurements for bicycle stability and in how bicycle stability is affected during acute alcohol intoxication. The aim of this study is, therefore, to investigate if different group characteristics such as cycling experience, physical activity, sensation-seeking, or previous alcohol habits have an effect on bicycle performance or executive functions during acute alcohol intoxication. The method of the study was to measure stability while bicycling on a tread-mill and give participants doses of alcohol until a Breath alcohol concentration (BrAC) level of approximately 0.8‰ was reached. The results showed that cognitive performance was almost unaffected for the different groups studied. The results of bicycle stability were almost equal in effect of time among the four different group characteristics in both Roll and YAW measurements. Three of the group characteristics showed a main effect or a tendency for interaction effect of group by time. The conclusion is that the measure of Roll, the vertical orientation on a bicycle, maybe is the most effective stability measurement for bicycles.