No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

Motiverande samtal (Motivational Interviewing, MI) är en utbredd metod som används vid exempelvis drogberoende, viktminskning och diabetes för att uppnå varaktiga beteendeförändringar. Sådana här beteendeförändringar är önskvärda även inom tandvården, och syftet med denna litteraturstudie var därför att undersöka om motiverande samtal kan användas inom vårt område. Sökning i databaserna PubMed, PsycINFO via CSA och Cochrane library resulterade i sex relevanta artiklar: tre av dessa redogjorde för kariesprevention hos små barn, två behandlade rökavvänjning och en av artiklarna studerade tandvårdsutnyttjande. Analys av artiklarna indikerar att MI kan ha en ökad kariespreventiv effekt jämfört med traditionell munhälsoinformation, men angående metodens effekt på rökavvänjning och tandvårdsutnyttjande kan dock inga slutsatser dras. Vår litteraturstudie visar en tendens mot att MI kan fungera bättre än traditionell munhälsoinformation men fler studier behövs inom ämnet oral hälsa.

Very limited research exists on middle class African American families doing math homework. The present study examines the real life experiences of African American families doing math homework, with special emphasis on emotional and motivational factors that contribute to African American homework practices. This study focuses on 3 African American middle class families, all in 1 elementary school, doing 4th grade math homework. Students in Grade 4 and their parents are interviewed to examine what math homework means to them and what they believe about math homework. In addition, two teachers are interviewed to provide their perspectives of the aforementioned subject matter. Both parent and child in each case study are interviewed using open-ended topics to examine the motivational and emotional factors of homework practices among the three families. The researcher observes the students’ homework experiences for about 1 hour. Documents from all families are collected to gain insight into the homework experiences. These case studies combine interviews, observations, documents, and data analysis to look closely at the homework experiences of these students. Major findings include atypical math homework practices in terms of Caucasian middle class norms: The families believed that math homework was challenging and a serious business matter. Therefore, they worked twice as hard with a sense of urgency and priority at completing math homework. The mothers approached math homework with a warm, yet firm demeanor by providing external motivation through pushing their daughters, who lacked interest in math homework.

The idea of multi-criteria decision making has been around for quite a while. All judgement tasks are potential points of bias introduction. Each judgement task was assessed to identify common biases introduced through an extensive literature review for each task and bias. In several other studies, the distinction is made between cognitive and motivational biases. Cognitive biases are widely studied and well known with mitigations that have been validated. Motivational biases are judgements influenced by the decision maker’s desire for a specific outcome, also referred to as intentional bias, that are hard to correct and received very little testing and exploration. This study tested the techniques that are identified for reducing motivational bias and tested an instrument to identify characteristics within a decision maker that would increase the likelihood that they would be motivationally biased. The results of this study provide a methodology for assessing the susceptibility to motivational biases of the decision makers and provides a framework for reducing the motivational bias within the multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) process using the general steps applicable to all multi-criteria decision analyses. Given that the general steps are used, this methodology is generalizable to any MCDM problem or domain and was found to be reliable and consistent with previous instruments and tools. A summary of the future research to further the explore the methodology and additional techniques for reducing motivational bias is proposed.

This study attempted to test! 1) an alternative interpretation of Amsel frustration effect and, 2) the possibility of extending Bindra’s novelty theory. Sixty-eight children were trained to pull two successive levers. During training two groups, 100:50 and 100:100, were always rewarded at the first goal box (G1) whereas two other groups, 0:50 and 0:0, were never rewarded at G1. During testing groups 100:50 and 0:50 were given 50% reward at G1 while groups 100:100 and 0:0 were respectively always rewarded and never rewarded at G1. All subjects were always rewarded at G2 both during training anti testing. The data did not yield the typical frustration effect which rendered the alternative interpretation un-testable. The data offered supportive evidence for Bindra’s novelty theory. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)