Thèse de doctorat : Acoustique : Le Mans : 2006. / Titre provenant de l'écran-titre. Bibliogr. p. 147-155.

No man is an island. Across cultures and evolutions, human beings desire to be socially accepted by groups and individuals. Having sustainable and positive social connections with others not only promote physical and psychological well-being, but they also provide easy access to important resources, such as food, protection, and information (Baumeister & Leary, 1995). Because ostracism is an aversive interpersonal experience that unjustifiably deprives people's access to important benefits and resources (e.g. Williams, 2007, 2009), ostracized people may feel that they are psychologically entitled to more internal and external rewards than others. These increased feelings of psychological entitlement may then increase their propensity to behave dishonestly. Six experiments were conducted to examine the hypotheses that ostracism increased dishonesty through increased feelings of psychological entitlement. The results revealed that compared to included and control participants, ostracized participants indicated higher levels of dishonest intentions (Experiments 1, 2, and 5) and behaved more dishonestly in a performance task to obtain undeserved money (Experiments 3, 4 and 6). Furthermore, increased feelings of psychological entitlement mediated the effect of ostracism on dishonesty (Experiments 4 to 6). Framing ostracism as an experience that may be beneficial to the self weakened the effects of ostracism on psychological entitlement and dishonest behavior (Experiment 6). Taken together, these findings provide the first experimental evidence that ostracism increases dishonesty. They also highlight the importance of psychological entitlement in explaining and understanding when and why ostracism increases dishonesty. The understanding of the mechanism underlying the effect of ostracism on dishonesty is useful in deciding methods to weaken the connection between ostracism, psychological entitlement and dishonest behavior. Further implications are discussed. / published_or_final_version / Psychology / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

Social isolation has been linked with negative health effects in senior women. The purpose of this study was to understand the lived experiences of socially-isolated senior women. Local senior-serving organizations assisted with the recruitment of six socially-isolated senior women to participate in individual qualitative interviews. Three service providers were also interviewed. Seniors’ interviews were analyzed using interpretive phenomenological analysis and service provider interviews were analyzed using thematic analysis. Three superordinate themes were derived from the senior interviews: social needs, self-perceptions of isolation and loneliness, and constraints to and facilitators of social engagement. Five superordinate themes were derived from the service provider interviews: definitions of social isolation, differences between social isolation and loneliness, gender differences in isolation and loneliness, identifying socially-isolated seniors, and essential components of initiatives aimed at reducing social isolation. The views of socially-isolated seniors are important to understand to develop programs and policies that promote healthy aging.

The quarantine of people suspected of being exposed to a disease, and the isolation of those with clinical symptoms of the disease, constitute what is probably the oldest infection control mechanism since the beginning of recorded human history. The thesis is based on using mathematical modelling and analysis to gain qualitative insight into the transmission dynamics of a disease that is controllable using quarantine and isolation. A basic model, which takes the form of an autonomous deterministic system of non-linear differential equations with standard incidence, is formulated first of all. Rigorous analysis of the basic model shows that its disease-free equilibrium is globally-asymptotically stable whenever a certain epidemiological threshold (denoted by Rc) is less than unity. The epidemiological implication of this result is that the disease will be eliminated from the community if the use of quarantine and isolation could result in making Rc < 1. The model has a unique endemic equilibrium whenever Rc > 1. Using a Lyapunov function of Goh-Volterra type, it is shown that the unique endemic equilibrium is globally-asymptotically stable for a special case. The basic model is extended to incorporate various epidemiological and biological aspects relating to the transmission dynamics and control of a communicable disease, such as the use of time delay to model the latency period, effect of periodicity (seasonality), the use of an imperfect vaccine and the use of multiple latent and infectious stages (coupled with gamma-distributed average waiting times in these stages). One of the main mathematical findings of this thesis is that adding time delay, periodicity and multiple latent and infectious stages to the basic quarantine/isolation model does not alter the essential qualitative features of the basic model (pertaining to the persistence or elimination of the disease). On the other hand, the use of an imperfect vaccine induces the phenomenon of backward bifurcation (a dynamical feature not present in the basic model), the consequence of which is that disease elimination becomes more difficult using quarantine and isolation (since, in this case, the epidemiological requirement Rc < 1 is, although necessary, no longer sufficient for disease elimination). Numerous numerical simulations are carried out, using parameter values relevant to the 2003 SARS outbreaks in the Greater Toronto Area of Canada, to illustrate some of the theoretical findings as well as to evaluate the population-level impact of quarantine/isolation and an imperfect vaccine. In particular, threshold conditions for which the aforementioned control measures could have a positive or negative population-level impact are determined.

The quarantine of people suspected of being exposed to a disease, and the isolation of those with clinical symptoms of the disease, constitute what is probably the oldest infection control mechanism since the beginning of recorded human history. The thesis is based on using mathematical modelling and analysis to gain qualitative insight into the transmission dynamics of a disease that is controllable using quarantine and isolation. A basic model, which takes the form of an autonomous deterministic system of non-linear differential equations with standard incidence, is formulated first of all. Rigorous analysis of the basic model shows that its disease-free equilibrium is globally-asymptotically stable whenever a certain epidemiological threshold (denoted by Rc) is less than unity. The epidemiological implication of this result is that the disease will be eliminated from the community if the use of quarantine and isolation could result in making Rc < 1. The model has a unique endemic equilibrium whenever Rc > 1. Using a Lyapunov function of Goh-Volterra type, it is shown that the unique endemic equilibrium is globally-asymptotically stable for a special case. The basic model is extended to incorporate various epidemiological and biological aspects relating to the transmission dynamics and control of a communicable disease, such as the use of time delay to model the latency period, effect of periodicity (seasonality), the use of an imperfect vaccine and the use of multiple latent and infectious stages (coupled with gamma-distributed average waiting times in these stages). One of the main mathematical findings of this thesis is that adding time delay, periodicity and multiple latent and infectious stages to the basic quarantine/isolation model does not alter the essential qualitative features of the basic model (pertaining to the persistence or elimination of the disease). On the other hand, the use of an imperfect vaccine induces the phenomenon of backward bifurcation (a dynamical feature not present in the basic model), the consequence of which is that disease elimination becomes more difficult using quarantine and isolation (since, in this case, the epidemiological requirement Rc < 1 is, although necessary, no longer sufficient for disease elimination). Numerous numerical simulations are carried out, using parameter values relevant to the 2003 SARS outbreaks in the Greater Toronto Area of Canada, to illustrate some of the theoretical findings as well as to evaluate the population-level impact of quarantine/isolation and an imperfect vaccine. In particular, threshold conditions for which the aforementioned control measures could have a positive or negative population-level impact are determined.

Thesis (B.A.Hons.) from the Dept. of Geography, University of Adelaide. / Typescript (photocopy).

Thèses (M.Sc.A.)--Université de Sherbrooke (Canada), 1997. / Titre de l'écran-titre (visionné le 15 août 2006). Publié aussi en version papier.