Human sociality, with its wide scope, early ontogeny and pervasiveness across cultures, is remarkable from an evolutionary perspective. We form bonds with other individuals and live in large social groups. We help, empathise with and share our resources with others, who are unfamiliar and genetically unrelated to us. It has been suggested that interpersonal coordination and rhythmic synchronisation of movements may be one proximate mechanism that enables such widespread human sociality and facilitates cooperation. In the last decade, considerable research has examined the effect of movement synchrony on social bonding and cooperation. However, when this thesis started, there was virtually no experimental study investigating the ontogeny of the movement synchrony-social bonding link, which is proposed to have deep evolutionary roots and important, long-lasting consequences in social life. This thesis aims to investigate the effects of movement synchrony on social bonding and cooperative behaviour across different time points in ontogeny. Three experimental studies were conducted examining infancy, early childhood and middle childhood. Each study explored a different aspect of social bonding and cooperation based on the motor, social and cognitive developments that mark that age group. Study 1a found that at 12 months of age, infants prefer individuals who move in synchrony with them, when the individuals are social entities, but not when they are non-social. Study 1b showed no preferences for synchrony at 9 months in either social or non-social contexts, however. Study 2 revealed that in early childhood, performing synchronous movements actively with a peer facilitates helping behaviour among the children, as well as eye contact and mutual smiling during the interaction. Finally, Study 3 showed that the social bonding effects of movement synchrony applied to inter- group settings and that performing synchronous movements with out-groups increased bonding towards the out-group in middle childhood. This thesis followed an interdisciplinary, integrative and naturalistic approach, where (i) literature from a wide range of disciplines motivated and guided the present research; (ii) links between motor, social and cognitive aspects of development, which are often investigated separately, are formed; and (iii) the experiments were designed in ways that represent the real-life occurrences of the investigated phenomena. The current findings provide the first substantial evidence that movement synchrony facilitates social bonding and cooperation in childhood and thereby provides a foundation for future research.

La mémoire de travail est un composant essentiel de la pensée qui est fortement impliquée dans les apprentissages et la réussite scolaires. Pourtant, elle est rarement étudiée chez l’enfant d’âge préscolaire, du fait notamment d’un manque de paradigmes adaptés. Cette thèse visait donc à étudier le fonctionnement de la mémoire de travail chez cette population, soit entre 2 et 6 ans. Pour cela, deux paradigmes originaux ont été utilisés. Ils ont été conçus pour être proches de situations de jeux, propices à aider le jeune enfant à focaliser son attention sur la tâche. Ainsi, il a tout d’abord été montré que les performances de rappel diminuaient au fil du temps, et ce, même en l’absence de tâche interférente. Les enfants de cette tranche d’âge opèrent donc un maintien passif de l’information, i.e. sans mise en œuvre spontanée de stratégie de maintien de l’information. De plus, le déclin de l’information était similaire au travers de l’âge. Pour la première fois, il a donc été mis en évidence que la vitesse d’oubli de l’information ne variait pas entre 2 et 6 ans. Finalement, aucun de ces deux facteurs, i.e. mise en œuvre de stratégie de maintien de l’information et modification de la vitesse d’oubli de l’information, ne peut être avancé pour expliquer l’augmentation des capacités mémorielles entre 2 et 6 ans. Ensuite, il a été montré que les caractéristiques intrinsèques de la tâche pouvaient conduire à une amélioration des performances de rappel, peut-être par la mise en œuvre d’une stratégie de maintien. Notamment, la réalisation d’une activité motrice, i.e. marche durant le délai de rétention, a permis à ces jeunes enfants de contrecarrer dans une certaine mesure l’oubli temporel de l’information. La mise en œuvre d’une activité motrice, en dirigeant l’attention du jeune enfant vers un indice visuel du but à atteindre, aiderait celui-ci à maintenir le but de la tâche en mémoire. Les ressources attentionnelles ainsi dégagées pourraient être mises au service d’une amélioration des performances de rappel, peut-être par la mise en œuvre d’une stratégie de maintien. / Working memory is an essential component of thought that is highly involved in learning and academic achievement. However, it is rarely studied in preschoolers, mainly because of a lack of suitable paradigms. Therefore, this thesis investigated the functioning of working memory in children between 2 and 6 years. For this purpose, two original paradigms were used. They were designed to be close to game situations which should help young children to focus their attention on the task. Firstly it was shown that the recall performance decreased over time, even in the absence of an interfering task. Children of this age therefore use a passive maintenance, i.e. without spontaneously implementing any strategy of maintenance. Furthermore, the decline of the information was similar through age. For the first time, it has been demonstrated that the rate of information forgetting did not vary between 2 and 6. Finally, none of these two factors, i.e. implementation of a strategy of maintenance and change in the speed of forgetting can explain the increase in memory capacity between 2 and 6 years of age. Secondly, it has been shown that the intrinsic characteristics of the task could lead to improved recall performance, perhaps by inducing a strategy of maintenance. Particularly, the implementation of a motor activity, i.e. walking during the retention period, has enabled these young children to counteract to some extent the temporal decay of information. Then, the implementation of a motor activity, by directing the attention of young children to a visual cue related to the goal of the task, help them to maintain in memory the purpose of the task. Attentional resources could be harnessed to improve performance of recall, perhaps by implementing a retention strategy.

It is a common practice for therapists-in-training and experienced therapists to ensure their self-care and ethical competency requirements through seeking and maintaining therapeutic counselling when dealing with significant personal concerns (Moulden & Firestone, 2010; Everall & Paulson, 2004; Spelliscy, 2009; Pope, Sonne, & Green, 2006; Amundson, 2009; Tjetviet & Gottlib, 2010). However, therapists-in-training and experienced therapists have reported challenges and barriers that arise when making the decision to seek and maintain therapy. Some of these challenges and barriers of seeking and maintaining therapy noted in the current research literature, includes concerns of public and self stigmas, a fear of emotion, fear of treatment, confidentiality concerns, difficulties with the choice, accessibility, and acceptability of therapists’ credentials or educational programs, and the actual financial costs associated with obtaining therapy (Dearing, Maddux, & Tangney, 2005; Komiya, Good, & Sherrod, 2000; Holzman, Searight, & Hughes, 1996; Ey, Henning, & Shaw, 2000; Siebert & Siebert, 2007; Barnett & Hillard, 2011; Gilroy, Carroll, & Murra, 2002; Siebert, 2005). Similarly, current research literature regarding the challenges and barriers that Asian individuals face when deciding to seek or maintain therapeutic counselling, have also reported a list of institutional and sociocultural barriers to seeking services (Shea & Yeh, 2008; Sue & Sue, 2003; Braun, Tanji, & Heck, 2001; Park & Kim, 2008; Tsang, Tam, Chan, & Cheung, 2003; Chen & Mak, 2008; Akutse & Chu, 2006; Zane & Yeh, 2002). Acculturation is the process of adapting to behaviours, values, knowledge, and identity of the dominant society (Kim & Abreu, 2001). It has been found, that different levels of acculturation will affect an individual’s level of tolerance towards social, professional, and cultural stigmas, as well as their level of confidence in seeking therapy (Zhang & Dixon, 2003). Leong & Lau, 2001, stated that an individual’s level of acculturation has a major influence on the attitudes towards seeking therapy. It is these themes in the current research literature on the challenges and barriers to seeking and maintaining therapy that resonated with my own personal experience navigating through the mental health system for therapeutic support as a first generation Asian individual, therapist-in-training. Being an acculturated first generation Asian and therapist-in-training, through careful consideration, I use analytic autoethnography as my methodology to explore, reflect, and share my experiences and journey navigating through my self-care journey before and after my father’s death. With the use of analytic autoethnography, I bring together parallels between my personal experience with what themes are noted in current research literature on the challenges and barriers to seeking and maintaining therapy.

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Met die oog daarop om 'n basisteorie vir familiepastoraat te ontwerp, word verskeie basisteoretiese konsepte geidentifiseer en bespreek. Dit is veral die relasionele definiering van families - eerder as die tradisionele biologiese definiering - wat van fundamentele belang vir basisteoretiese besinning is. Hierdie 'ekologiese' verstaan van families, sluit familiesisteme van alle vorms in en hou rekening met huidige sosiologiese realiteite sowel as bepaalde teologiese perspektiewe. In aansluiting by die relasionele definiering van families, het familiepastoraat 'n verhoudingsfokus en werk dit met 'n multidimensionele perspektief wat op al die dinamiese verhoudingsprosesse en -fases binne familiesisteme gerig is. In verbondenheid met die gemeente, benader familiepastoraat families as ekologiese geloofsisteme en funksioneer dit in die lig van die evangelie asook doelbewus binne koninkrykskonteks. In die slothoofstuk word al die sentrale basisteoretiese konsepte geintegreer tot 'n teoretiese geheel. Die basisteorie vir familiepastoraat, wat hier ontwerp word, kan kemagtig soos volg geformuleer word: Familiepastoraat is gesprekmatige verhoudingsorg van die ekologiese familie en dit geskied binne koninkrykskonteks. / For the purpose of developing a basic theory for family pastoral work, several basic theoretical concepts are identified and discussed. The defining of families in terms of relations - rather than the traditional biological defining - is of fundamental importance for basic theoretical reflection. This 'ecological' understanding of families includes families of all shapes and forms, whilst it also reflects sociological realities and it takes into account certain theological perspectives. The aim of family pastoral work is synchronised with the relational defining of families and focus, therefore, on the multiple dynamic relational processes and phases within family systems. For this manifold relational focus, family pastoral work operates with a multidimensional perspective. The basic theory developed for family pastoral work, can be formulated as follows: Family pastoral work is dialogical care of the relationships of ecological families and it operates within context of the Kingdom. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / M.Th. (Practical theology)

The work deals with the aspects of the role and responsibility of a worker in helping professions at work with a client who lost their meaning of life. The work answers the questions on what sphere of knowledge the helper is supposed to have to be able to provide a high-quality and expert care. Life situations are mentioned here, which presuppose the loss of meaning of life as well as the riscs of loss of meaning of life are evaluated. Also the role and responsibility of the worker in helping profession is outlined. The work was based primarily on literature by existential-minded authors and on professional literature focused on psychology, psychiatry, social work and ethics.

In the thesis on the pro-social traits of workers in helping (assistance-providing) professions I dedicate myself to pro-social behavior, empathy and the basic characteristics of personality issuing from the five-factor personality model {--} The Big Five. Most professionals agree that pro-social behavior and empathy belong among the basic characteristics that assistance-providing professionals should have. An important role is also the personality of the care provider. The listed constructs and connections among them however remain the home environment of empirical research and thereby represent the phenomena regarding which there exist few verified findings. The goal of the paper rests in fining the level of empathy and personal dispositions in accordance with the Big Five model that could influence pro-social behavior in selected groups of assistance-giving professionals. The factors in question are neuroticism, extroversion, and openness to experience, graciousness and conscientiousness. Data collection took place with the help of two psychodiagnostic questionnaires. The IRI questionnaire measures level of empathy and the NEO-FFI questionnaire was used for diagnosing the five personality dimensions. The study was quantitative. The monitored set included respondents from three assistance-giving professions {--} nurses, members of the Czech Republic Fire Rescue Corps, and elementary-school teachers. The results confirmed the hypothesis that care providing workers show higher levels of empathy in comparison to the population average, and the hypothesis that these professionals show a higher level of personality traits that, in an interpersonal context, display positive orientation towards others, that is that they are more extroverted and gracious in comparison with the population average, was refuted. These results make it possible to consider that the relationship between the basic personality dimensions and pro-social tendencies may be mediated by the level of empathy with regard to other psychological constructs and the results of social learning. Conclusions cannot be generalized, due to a relatively small sample group. For this purpose it would be interesting to carry out a professional study, which would exceed, in its scope and possibilities, the usual requirements of a thesis paper.

This thesis addresses aspects of helping professions that could represent a certain ?risk? of using power; it especially focuses on a social work sphere. In the first part, the thesis deals with basic terms that are essential for this issue. It pays attention to power itself and its specifications and connections to the helping professions. Further, it focuses on characteristics of terms that apply to the helping professions and social work or on a formulation of aspects which represent a risk of an improper use of power. In addition, it deals with the topics of burnout, helper?s syndrome or supervision as spheres that are closely related to the topic. The second part of the thesis refers to the necessity of ethics application in social work and in the helping professions in general. It is based on values from which the helping professions arise and which are crucial to them. It focuses on the Code of Ethics of social workers as a tool to solve ethical problems and on its justification in social work. It attempts to introduce ethical theories which are crucial and relevant to this sphere, and further - on the basis of these theories - to outline the basic ethical principles which play an important role in the ethical justification of proper decisions and in the use of power in the context of helping professions. The aim of this thesis is to describe an ethical framework of helping professions themselves and subsequently to analyze the problem of power in helping professions. This will be used as a basis on which to formulate basic ethical starting points that should be taken into account during the execution of helping professions.

THE ABSTRACT It has been shown recently that workload, stress, and burnout syndrome among the staff of the medical rescue service may be major risk factors in terms of triggering the use of psychoactive substances. Representing what is understandably a delicate issue, substance use among emergency medical staff has not been thoroughly studied in our country. Emergency medical workers' difficult working conditions and the chronic stress they are exposed to, in combination with a lack of support and care on the part of their employers, result in exhaustion and general distress, accompanied by the development of symptoms associated with both physical and mental disorders. This condition may lead to the use of psychoactive substances as a negative coping strategy. Consisting of both theoretical background and case studies, the paper points out the relationship between the chronic effect of stressors pertaining to the job of emergency medical workers and the use of psychoactive substances as a way of coping with and compensating for the implications of work-related stress and fatigue. Thorough case studies are presented to demonstrate the onset and development of addictive behaviour within a wider context, with special emphasis being placed on its association with coping with both acute and chronic occupational...

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