abstract: A cornerstone of children’s socio-cognitive development is understanding that others can have knowledge, thoughts, and perceptions that differ from one’s own. Preschool-aged children often have difficulty with this kind of social understanding, i.e., they lack an explicit theory of mind. The goal of this dissertation was to examine the role mental state language as a developmental mechanism of children’s early understanding of their own mental states (i.e., their introspective ability). Specifically, it was hypothesized that (1) parents’ ability to recognize and appropriately label their children’s mental states and (2) children’s linguistic ability to distinguish between their mental states shapes the development of children’s introspective ability. An initial prediction of the first hypothesis is that parents should recognized differences in the development of children’s self- and other-understanding in order to better help their children’s introspective development. In support of this prediction, parents (N = 400, Mage = 58 months, Range = 28-93 months) reported that children’s understanding of their own knowledge was greater than children’s understanding of others’ knowledge. A prediction of the second hypothesis is that children’s linguistic ability to distinguish between and appropriately label their own mental states should determine their ability to make fined grained judgments of mental states like certainty. In support of this prediction, children’s (N = 197, Mage = 56 months, Range = 36-82 months) ability to distinguish between their own knowledge and ignorance states was associated children’s ability to engage in uncertainty monitoring. Together, these findings provide support for the association between children’s linguistic environment and ability and their introspective development. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Psychology 2018

Thesis (BTech (Surface Design))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2010 / A personal. phenomenological expression and discovery has been conducted. through being immersed in the four elements of nature. namely water, air, earth and fire. Each series represents one of the four elements. The established, Westem interpretations of the four elements have been contrasted with my personal embodied interpretation. The result of this was a concept based on the discovery of my context within the environment, manifested into an artistic reflection of my appreciation of creation. Embodiment. therefore. provides the theoretical framework as it is the merging of the body and mind in our interactions with the outer world, as a way of gaining knowledge and experience (Hocking. Haskell & Unds (eds.). 2001: xviii). Phenomenology of perception, according to Langer (1989: 158). is the study of structures of perception. and as a supporting theory, it ties in with embodiment and how our thoughts and feelings are a result of our physical body's conversation and interaction with the outer world. Embodiment is a tool used to rediscover that dialogue. and is one I have applied in order to design and create subjective and conceptual fabric sculptures. I have embodied my sculptures. shaping and installing a meaning, dictated by my experiential body perception. These two theories were important for my research in order to engage with and interpret my body's experiences within the elements of nature Inspiration for my product was derived from Deepa Panchamia. for her structured yet organic. pleated structures and Annalisa Vobis for her use of organic inspiration and the resulting conceptual interpretations. Andy Goldsworthy was also inspiration to me for the emphasis he puts on the raw and natural aspects of experience and process. This is evident in the nonpermanent characteristic of his land art. An important factor of this range is the display and exhibition of the Sculptures. by recording each series within the context of each element it represents, it grounds and highlights the strong inspiration of nature and process. evident within each sculpture. The entire range is created from polyester organza that has been permanently pleated and then hand manipulated to create 3-Dimensional. abstract sculptures. The use of this fabric creates a transparent, ethereal atmosphere. where the inner and outer layers of the sculptures seem to merge and interact. reflecting and indicating a fleeting moment of ghostlike embodied expression. Apart from the sculptures being the result of a self-expressive. introspective process, they are also aesthetically based conceptual art pieces with great potential to being translated into a variety of applications.

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Esta dissertação tem como objetivo o estudo da aplicabilidade e dos eventuais benefícios do Mind Map na gestão de projetos em áreas de consultoria, desenvolvimento de negócios e produtos. Como objetivos secundários, este estudo apresenta aplicações práticas do Mind Map, no ambiente empresarial, além de trazê-lo ao ambiente acadêmico brasileiro. O referencial teórico, dividido em duas partes, introduz, primeiramente, a gestão de projetos, a partir da visão de seus principais autores acadêmicos. A segunda parte traz, com maior profundidade, uma revisão bibliográfica do Mind Map, apresentando sua definição, princípios, leis, benefícios, aplicações e quatro casos de sucesso no mercado corporativo. A metodologia de pesquisa adotada nesta dissertação foi estudo de caso múltiplo, com cinco gestores, de quatro organizações atuantes no setor de serviços, que utilizam o Mind Map como ferramenta de gestão de projetos de consultoria, desenvolvimento de negócios e produtos. Como instrumento de coleta de dados, foram feitas entrevistas roteirizadas individuais com cada um dos gestores, realizadas pelo próprio pesquisador, além da coleta de dados secundários de domínio público. As conclusões, apresentadas neste trabalho, revelam que o Mind Map potencializa várias das habilidades necessárias a um bom gestor de projetos, permitindo uma melhor qualidade da sua prática de gerenciamento, principalmente no que tange ao planejamento e acompanhamento do escopo do projeto. Entretanto, ficou evidente a necessidade de um software de Mind Map, muitas vezes apoiado por outros programas clássicos normalmente utilizados em gestão de projetos, para que os objetivos fossem atingidos mesmo diante da complexidade dos casos analisados.

Au début du XXe siècle, les notions de révolte et de révolution de l’esprit ont beaucoup préoccupé les jeunes intellectuels français. Dans la première partie de cette étude, nous tenterons d’analyser le contexte historique et idéologique dans lequel Artaud a progressivement construit sa propre conception de la révolution de l’esprit. S’attarder sur les rapports et influences qu’il eut avec le mouvement surréaliste a pour objectif de nous servir de base solide dans la visée d’une analyse un peu plus approfondie de son aspiration de réapprendre à penser autrement. Le recours d’Artaud à l’art, au théâtre, au savoir primitif ou mystique — sur lesquels nous allons nous pencher dans la deuxième partie de notre étude intitulé "fragments de la révolution de l’esprit" — devra avant tout être interprété comme un moyen de se libérer de ce qu’il dénonce comme ses grands "envoûtements" de la culture occidentale. Tant dans ses écrits que dans ses comportements, Artaud montre une forte volonté d’atteindre un nouvel état et de se construire un autre corps. Un corps sans organes ! Une position radicale qui expliquera en grande partie son attitude dans l’internement, le refus de son identité civile, l’aspiration à un retour à l’enfance, le recours aux drogues ou encore sa révolte contre la sexualité. / At the beginning of the twentieth century, the meaning of the spirit’s riot and revolution had concerned enough the french intellectuals. At the first part of this research we will attempt to analyze the historical and ideological background in which Artaud had progressively built his own revolution of spirit. The detailed analysis of the relations and the influences he had with the movement of the surrealism has as an aim to be used as a stable basis of Artaud’s expectations for us to learn thinking in a different way. The relations which Artaud maintained with the art of painting, the art of theatre, the mysticism and the knowledge of the ancient civilisations (we will deal with them at the second part of this research with the title « fragments of the spirit’s revolution ») should be interpret as a mean of release from what he impeaches as incantations of the western culture. Artaud shows a great will to incarnate new experiences and to build a new body. A body without organs. This extreme position gives many explanations to his strange behaviour as a sanitarium’s inmate, his identity’s aversion, his will to become a chid again, his attraction to drugs or even his denial of every sexuality.

Background: There is increasing theoretical interest in the idea that a greater tendency for the mind to wander may reduce positive emotion experience, with specific interest in clinical conditions such as depression that are characterised by reduced pleasure experience (anhedonia). However, it is unclear to what degree these claims are empirically supported. Objective: A systematic review was conducted to examine the evidence regarding the association between mind wandering and positive emotion experience. Method: The Cochrane library, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, and Web of Knowledge databases were searched. A narrative discussion considered both the pattern of findings and the methodological approaches utilised in this literature. Results: 879 studies were identified and 21 relevant papers were fully reviewed, consisting of cross-sectional, prospective and manipulation studies. Conclusions: Fourteen out of 15 cross-sectional studies supported the claim that increased mind wandering was related to decreased pleasure experience. One prospective study indicated that mind wandering generally preceded but was not subsequent to reductions in positive mood. There were six studies that manipulated mind wandering experimentally, four of which found that inducing greater mind wandering led to reduced positive affect and two of which found null results. Overall, this literature supports the claim that greater mind wandering is related to reduced positive affect. However, very few studies examined this relationship in the context of depression and therefore it remains to be established if these findings generalise to clinical populations. Empiricial Paper: Previous research has established that greater levels of mind wandering are associated with reduced positive affect (PA) in the general population. The present study aims to examine whether this mechanism may mediate the relationship between depression and reduced PA (anhedonia). A community sample (N = 69) with differing levels of depression severity took part. Using experience sampling methodology, we measured mind wandering and PA during everyday life and when completing a few scheduled positive activities. To examine if mind wandering specifically influenced PA or emotion experience more generally, we additionally measured levels of negative affect (NA). Across both contexts, both greater mind wandering and greater depression severity were independently associated with reduced PA and increased NA. Greater depression severity was associated with increasing levels of mind wandering in everyday life, but not during scheduled positive activities. Mind wandering did not mediate the link between depression and reduced PA/increased NA. Exploratory analyses did however reveal that a greater tendency for the mind wander to negative rather than positive themes did mediate the link between depression and reduced PA in everyday life. We replicated previous findings that increased mind wandering is related to reduced PA and increased NA but there was no evidence that this mediated the relationship between depression and altered affective experience. However, the greater tendency for the mind to wander to negative themes may mediate the link between depression and affect. If depression treatment approaches are to target mind wandering this suggests they should therefore focus on mind wandering valence in addition to extent.

M.Phil. (Biokinetics) / Stress is an integral part of daily living and supports the ability to adapt. However, chronic activation without the ability to express the physical response results in overloading the physiological and psychological systems. Since urban South Africans are sedentary and experience high levels of stress, they are developing stress related chronic conditions and hypokinetic diseases (obesity, hypertension, depression). This study is aimed at decreasing the chronic physical manifestations of the stress response through somatic awareness exercise and aerobic exercise. The present investigation made use of a quantitative, comparative experimental research design over an eight-week period using pre- and post-tests. Participants were measured for psychological stress via a perceived stress scale and the chronic physical manifestations were measured via heart rate, blood pressure and body sway. The number of volunteers in the present study was 102 and they were recruited from corporate environments in the Johannesburg area. Their ages ranged from 18 to 65 years. The sample consisted of females (n = 42; % = 75) and males (n = 14; % = 25); white (n = 39; % = 69.6), black (n = 12; % = 21.4) and Indian (n = 5; % = 8.9) participants and non-smokers (n = 41; % = 73.2) and smokers (n = 15; % = 26.8). Untrained individuals were divided into 4 groups: a somatic awareness exercise (n = 9), aerobic exercise (n = 15), combination of somatic awareness and aerobic exercise group (n = 8) and a control group (n = 15). The aerobic group participated in aerobic activity, somatic awareness group in somatic awareness exercise and the combination group participated in both aerobic- and somatic awareness exercises. Individuals who trained were placed in a separate exercise group (n = 9) and had to add somatic awareness exercises to their weekly routines.

The current study identifies the reasons why change in traditional perceptions of learning is needed by tracing the philosophies of traditional methods and their effect on the perception of learning, and proposes an alternative geodesic approach, the Mind-Mapping Approach (MMA). Inherent in the model is the implication that traditional methods do not facilitate effective holistic thinking and as a result, do not produce effective lifelong learners. Extrapolated from the MMA model and its assumptions, is a practical framework, the MMA, that, when implemented within learning environments, will foster geodesic thinking which is in natural compliance with the functioning of the brain and therefore to be preferred. The study tested the validity of the above assumption by providing training in an alternative geodesic approach, the MMA, to a group of 45 teachers and therapists that work with learning disabled pupils - this comprised the first experiment of this study. The teachers and therapists in turn used the MMA methods with their pupils (639) - this comprised the second experiment of the study. In this way both the MMA as a geodesic framework, and the actual effectiveness of the MMA training programme in conveying geodesic principles, were evaluated. The results indicated that although significant benefit was derived by the teachers and therapists from the MMA training, these were conservative. Furthermore, the overall longitudinal trends of the pupils' results also indicated that a significant positive change was experienced by the pupils with the introduction of the MMA methods, but not to the extent predicted. It is speculated that this conservative, although significantly positive improvement in the teachers, therapists and pupils is attributed to the fact that the MMA methods are geodesic facilitating improved thinking, problem-solving and research skills, and innovative learning. However traditional methods of teacher training, testing and evaluating do not facilitate these skills as their emphasis is on the accrual as opposed to creation of facts. It is possible therefore that the conservatively positive results of this study reflect the "carry-over" effect of geodesic training. It can be said that the partial application of the MMA methods by the teachers and therapists did improve the performance of the pupils and that this study was therefore successful, but that the results would have been more positive had the pupils been evaluated in a way that matched the geodesic training. In addition, the study provides valuable information regarding the effect of geodesic systems on traditional systems of learning. / Thesis (DPhil)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology / unrestricted

This paper explores whether Cartesian dualism prioritizes the masculine over the feminine. Feminist authors have argued that due to the prioritization of the mind over the body in Cartesian dualism and the association of the masculine with the mind and the association of the feminine with the body, the masculine is prioritized. This paper analyzes both this prioritization of the mind over the body and the association of the masculine with the mind and the feminine with the body.

Contemporary emotion research typically takes the phenomenon of emotion to be exhausted by a class of mental events that are intentional, conscious, and related to certain sorts of behaviour. Moreover, other affective phenomena, such as moods, are also considered to be relatively short-term, episodic, or occurrent states of the subject undergoing them. Emotions, and other putative emotional phenomena that common-sense takes as long-lasting, non-episodic, or dispositional are things that both philosophers and scientists sometimes recognise, but that are relatively neglected in comparison to emotional episodes. This thesis aims at showing that this neglect is unjustified. I will argue that there is a class of entities, 'sentiments'—broadly characterised as dispositions to undergo emotional episodes—that (1) are irreducible to emotional episodes or collections thereof and (2) have properties that make them a suitable target of study by the emotion researcher. In the first chapter, I argue that an analysis of caring (and related phenomena, such as love) as a pattern of emotional episodes, while more plausible than alternative, non-emotional accounts, faces a number of counterexamples that motivate the search for an account of caring as related in a certain way to emotions but as irreducible to them. I argue that a dispositional account, according to which dispositions are conceived as distinct from their manifestations, is an account for which a strong case can be made. The second chapter is dedicated to defending a modest form of realism about dispositions in general and psychological dispositions in particular. According to realism, dispositions are genuine properties that, although perhaps reducible to non-dispositional properties, cannot be re-described in terms of events (including behaviour) only. In the third chapter, I show in what ways emotional dispositions (or sentiments) can positively contribute to the explanation of the occurrence (or non-occurrence) of emotional episodes. In the fourth chapter, I argue that caring, understood as a species of sentiment, is not to be construed as a mere disposition to produce certain events; rather, we should allow that certain dispositions are genuinely mental or psychological. Assuming realism about the mental, I argue that some dispositions are mental in a way that others (such as fragility) are not. I suggest that being intentional is the property that makes psychological dispositions genuinely mental. I end the chapter by drawing a connection between caring and the notion of character. On my view, caring is at least a necessary ingredient of certain character traits, in particular the virtues. In chapter five, I tackle a recent form of empirically informed scepticism about character and argue, on the basis of general considerations about psychological dispositions, that the sceptic’s case is not as strong as she makes out. Finally, in chapter six, I argue that at least certain forms of sentiment, for example romantic love, can be genuinely supported by reasons, thereby suggesting a way they can contribute to the value of our lives. Overall, the aim of this thesis is to establish the respectability of sentiments in a sophisticated account of the mind.