Made available in DSpace on 2015-03-05T19:36:35Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 20 / Nenhuma / Estudos científicos sobre as emoções despertam interesse por interpretarem fenômenos em torno do comportamento humano. Nesse contexto, ganha destaque o modelo quadrifatorial de Inteligência Emocional (IE), que considera a IE um conjunto de habilidades para compreender emoções e fazer seu uso de forma mais efetiva e consciente nos relacionamentos. Mais comumente associada a estudos de condições clínicas crônicas, a Qualidade de Vida contribui para adicionar as dimensões física, psicológica, social e ambiental dos sujeitos ao contexto de análise. O objetivo deste estudo foi o de avaliar a inteligência emocional de líderes organizacionais e possíveis relações com a qualidade de vida destes. A amostra foi composta de 30 lideranças organizacionais, sendo metade homens e metade mulheres. Foram utilizados os testes Mayer, Salovey e Caruso Emotional Intelligent Test - MSCEIT e o QV / OMS Simplificado. Os resultados apontaram para algumas diferenças de gênero e idade. Mulheres em posição de liderança são mais insat / Scientific studies about emotions arouse interest for interpreting events around human behavior. In this context, emerges de Four-Branch Model of Emotional Intelligence (EI), that considers EI as a group of abilities to understand emotions and use them at relationships in more effectively and conscious way. More often associated to health care studies, the Quality of Life concept contributes to understand different dimensions – physic, psychological, social and environmental – at the subjects’ analysis. The purpose of this study is to assess managers´ EI and to investigate its correlation with their quality of life. The sample was composed of 30 subjects (15 men – 15 women). The instruments used were the MSCEIT (Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test) and the WHOQOL - Brief (World Health Organization Quality of Life Questionnaire – Brief version). The results showed some gender differences. Women in leadership position are more unsatisfied with their quality of life than man and the younger leader

Submitted by Mariana Dornelles Vargas (marianadv) on 2015-05-19T18:05:23Z No. of bitstreams: 1 deus_nao.pdf: 2237986 bytes, checksum: 8c5a348f59bc16db281c7c5b7dd34d8a (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-05-19T18:05:23Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 deus_nao.pdf: 2237986 bytes, checksum: 8c5a348f59bc16db281c7c5b7dd34d8a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-02 / CAPES - Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Esta dissertação e composta por três artigos, um de revisão sistemática da literatura e dois empíricos. A pesquisa desenvolvida teve como foco de investigação o coping religioso/espiritual (CRE) em mulheres com câncer de mama e foi estruturada a partir de um delineamento misto. No Estudo 1, buscou-se a) examinar as relações entre o CRE e as variáveis sociodemográficas, clinicas e religiosas de 83 mulheres com câncer de mama (idade media = 52,3 anos, DP = 7,27) e b) conhecer a percepção subjetiva sobre quem e Deus para essas mulheres para, desta forma, compara-las aos estilos de CRE. Para o Estudo 2, selecionou-se as 15 mulheres que obtiveram os maiores índices de CRE positivo no Estudo 1, a fim de que essas participassem de dois grupos focais. Dessas, sete aceitaram o convite para participação (idade media = 51,5 anos, DP = 7,20). O objetivo do Estudo 2 foi o de compreender o lugar que a religiosidade/espiritualidade ocupa na vida dessas mulheres, as formas de coping utilizadas durante o período do diagnostico e tratamento, bem como as possíveis mudanças ocorridas durante a experiência da doença. Todas as participantes pertenciam a grupos de apoio a pacientes com câncer da região metropolitana de Porto Alegre . RS. Os resultados do Estudo 1, obtidos através da aplicação de um questionário de dados sociodemográficos, clínicos e de atividade religiosa/espiritual (incluindo a pergunta aberta: ?\Para você, quem e Deus?.) e da Escala de Coping Religioso-Espiritual, nao permitiram a identificação de nenhuma associação significativa entre as variáveis sociodemográficas e clinicas e o CRE total e positivo, ao passo que a escolaridade apresentou uma associação significativa (r = -0,254; p<0,05) com o fator N3 (Reavaliação negativa do significado) da dimensão CRE negativo. Em contrapartida, foi possível identificar maiores índices de CRE total e positivo entre as mulheres com maior frequência a encontros de natureza religiosa. Uma diferença marginalmente significativa [t(81) =1,749, p<0,10] foi encontrada no fator N1(Reavaliação negativa de Deus) entre mulheres que moravam com filhos (n=45) e aquelas que não moravam (n=38). Mulheres que não moravam com os filhos apresentaram media superior nessa estratégia de CRE (M= 2,11, DP= 1,09) do que aquelas que moravam com os filhos (M=1,73, DP=0,88). A percepção subjetiva das mulheres sobre quem e Deus permitiu a identificação de oito categorias, das quais, três apresentaram associações significativas com os estilos de CRE. Além disso, o Estudo 2 revelou o estabelecimento de uma relação positiva com Deus entre as participantes, capaz de proporcionar forca, esperança e conforto. As crenças religiosas auxiliaram no entendimento da doença, aumentando a confiança de que a enfermidade seria curada. A família e os membros de comunidades religiosas revelaram-se fontes potenciais de apoio social. Além disso, características da personalidade das participantes foram atenuadas, as quais foram decorrentes de um processo de reflexão quando do diagnostico. Contudo, destaca-se que estratégias de CRE negativo também estiveram presentes, merecendo ser observadas e trabalhadas para promover uma melhor adaptação. Os resultados reafirmam a necessidade de uma abordagem na qual os profissionais da saúde contemplem as crenças religiosas/espirituais das pacientes, visando o estimulo das estratégias de CRE positivas e a reavaliação daquelas nocivas. / This dissertation comprises three articles; one on literature review and two on empirical research. The study focused on religious/spiritual coping (RSC) in female breast cancer patients and was structured from a mixed delineation. Study 1 objectives were a) to examine the relation between RSC and sociodemographic, clinical and religious variables of 83 breast cancer patients (average age = 52,3 years, DP = 7,27) and b) to understand these women’s subjective perceptions of God in order to compare such perceptions against RSC styles. In Study 2, the women who had obtained the highest scores of positive RSC in Study 1 were selected to participate in two focal groups. Of these women, seven accepted the invitation to take part in the research (average age= 51,5 years, DP = 7,20).The objective of Study 2 was to understand the place that religiosity/spirituality have in these wom en’s lives, the coping strategies used during diagnosis and treatment period and p ossible changes during the course of the disease. All participants attended support gro ups for cancer patients in the metropolitan region of Porto Alegre - RS. The results of Study 1 were obtained through a questionnaire of sociodemographic, clinical and religious/spiritual data (including the open question: “For you, who is God?”) and the Religious-Spiritual Coping Scale. The results did not identify any significant association between sociodemographic and clinical variables and the total and positive RSC, whereas the education level variable showed significant association with the factor N3 (Negative meaning reappraisal) of the negative RSC dimension. On the other hand, it was possible to identify higher scores of total and positive RSC among women who more frequently attended religious meetings. A marginally significant difference [t(81) =1,749, p<0,10] was found in factor N1 (Negative reappraisal of God) between women who lived with their children (n=45) and those who did not (n=38).Women who did not live with their children showed higher average score on this RSC strategy than those who did. The women’s subjective perception about who God is allowed the identification of eight categories; of these, three showed significant association with the RSC styles. Moreover, Study 2 revealed the establishment, among the patients, of a positive relationship with God, capable of providing strength, hope and comfort. Religious beliefs helped in the understanding of the disease, increasing confidence that the illness would be cured. Family and members of religious groups proved to be potential sources of social support. Personality characteristics of the participants were also attenuated; this happened as a result of a reflection process at the moment of diagnosis. Nonetheless, it is worth point ing out that negative RSC strategies were also present, showing the need for such strategies to be monitored and addressed in order to promote better adaptation. The results endorse the necessity of an approach whereby health-care professionals address the religious/spiritual beliefs of the patients, so as to stimulate the adoption of positive RSC strategies and the reappraisal of negative ones.

In the light of present problems with stress related illness in organizations, often affecting women working in health care, the purpose of the current study was to examine proactive and malleable factors that could influence nurse’s perception of work stressors. Based on a model, self-efficacy and grouped organizational factors were examined as antecedents to the outcome of anxiety and stress via cognitive appraisals. The mediating role of the cognitive appraisals was further examined. The sample consists of 117 nurses and assistant nurses of which 112 were females working at a hospital in southern Sweden. The analyses were conducted with simple and multiple regressions. The result revealed that self-efficacy and the organizational factor together serve as antecedents to cognitive appraisals of stress, however, contrary to previous research, not to all appraisals. The mediating role of the cognitive appraisals showed that the harm appraisal mediate the relation between the organizational factor and the outcome of both anxiety and stress. The threat appraisal is found to partly mediate the relation between the organizational factor and the anxiety outcome as well as the stress outcome. The result further showed a none mediation role for the challenge appraisal between any of the antecedents and the outcomes, which suggest that the challenge appraisal do not serve as an underlying mechanism in either relationship. Other relations in the model are further shown and discussed in the study together with limitations, implications and suggestions of future research.

In appetitive conditioning, a neutral stimulus (CS) is conditioned to elicit a positive emotional response by pairing it with a positive/appetitive unconditioned stimulus (US). This method is useful for studying emotional disorders and emotion in general. Studying appetitive conditioning in humans has been hampered by the lack of adequate positive unconditioned stimuli. This study investigated multimodal social stimuli as potential unconditioned stimuli in an appetitive conditioning paradigm. Neutral faces (CS+’giggle’ and CS+’woohoo’) were paired with two multimodal unconditioned stimuli consisting of the same smiling face and two different sound stimuli (US‘giggle’ and US‘woohoo’). The dependent variable was participant skin conductance response (SCR) alongside participant emotional ratings of the stimuli, that together indexes the conditioned response. CS+’giggle’ was hypothesized to be rated as happier, and less fearful than CS+’woohoo’. Successful conditioning was evidenced by higher happiness ratings for both stimuli after acquisition compared to habituation. However, no effect of acquisition was found on SCR.  US’woohoo’ was also rated as more fearful and arousing and less happy and pleasant than the US’giggle’. In sum, this thesis presents a paradigm that can be used in future studies on appetitive conditioning.

Organizations are looking for ways to have higher employee engagement and productive employees. A way that this may be accomplished is through Positive Organizational Behavior (POB) practices. There is a lack of knowledge surrounding the successes and failures of implementing a POB culture by human resource departments (HRDs). The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study design was to explore the influence POB practices have on HRDs. Specifically, the research helped to gain an understanding of how a POB strategy operates and affects HRDs. Items examined in the conceptual framework include a foundation in positive psychology theories and human resource (HR) theories. The elements of HRDs that can affect POB are culture, group dynamics, job design, and policies and procedures. The outputs of the system include employee morale, company profitability, employee productivity, and employee engagement. The research questions centered on discovering how HRDs achieve a POB culture based on their policies, procedures, funding, structure, and internal and external relationships. The research questions explored how a POB culture has affected the HRDs positively and negatively. Thirty-one participants' from13 different companies provided the data. The findings cause social change by providing HR professionals insight into POB practices that increase employees' job satisfaction, team productivity, and organizational profitability. The outcomes create social change by allowing individuals to have increased job and life satisfaction.

Acceptance by a parental figure is one of the most important protective factors for LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer) youth and young adults (e.g., Ryan, 2009, 2010). Lack of parental acceptance may lead to a disruption in parent-child relationships and may increase risk for maladaptive behaviors and poorer psychosocial outcomes in LGBTQ youth (e.g., Bouris et al., 2010). Researchers have called for more inclusive samples and methods to better understand the experiences of families from diverse ethnic and racial backgrounds (e.g., Heatherington & Lavner 2008). Specific to Latinas/os, cultural factors and theoretically informed interventions that facilitate parental acceptance need systematic investigation (e.g., Ryan, 2009, 2010). The purpose of this study was threefold: (a) examine the cultural strengths and challenges that influence Cuban-American and Puerto Rican parental figures’ journey toward accepting their LGBTQ child; (b) explore how these parental figures reach acceptance; and (c) assess for the impact of an expressive writing (EW) exercise on the affect of these parental figures. Interpersonal acceptance-rejection theory (IPART) and family stress theory were used as a frame for the analysis of the process of acceptance toward one’s LGBTQ child in this sample of Cuban-American and Puerto Rican parental figures. Thirty participants completed a writing intervention after the initial prescreening. The writing intervention asked participants to write a letter about their journey toward accepting their LGBTQ child, including the aspects of their heritage, cultural beliefs, and values that facilitated this process. Thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006, 2013) guided the research design and analysis. The following themes helped parental figures accept their child: (a) family (support, maintaining family unity); (b) interactions with LGBTQ people; (c) resisting and embracing Latina/o gender norms (caballerismo, marianismo); (d) cultural dissonance; and (e) immigration and the American dream. In addition, the following themes described the process of how these parental figures navigated acceptance toward their child: (a) noticing and attempting to change gender atypical behaviors and/or presentation; (b) initial reactions (negative reactions, immediate acceptance); (c) adjusting to the child’s LGBTQ identity; (d) seeking out resources about LGBTQ identity; (e) increasing awareness of LGBTQ oppression; (f) reframing religious and/or spiritual values and beliefs and working through religious and/or spiritual conflict; (g) coping and reframing machismo; (h) balancing family dynamics; (i) highlighting the positive identities in one’s child; (j) learning lessons from one’s child; and (k) benefitting from acceptance. Pre and post affect ratings using the writing intervention illustrated that Cuban-American parental figures were significantly happier and less anxious after writing their acceptance narrative. Although not statistically significant, Puerto Rican parental figures reported increased happiness and decreased anxiousness after writing their acceptance narrative. Implications for psychological practice with Latina/o parents who recently learned about their child’s LGBTQ identity will be discussed.

The executive coaching and positive psychology fields are growing; however, minimal research exists regarding the coaching experiences of executive coachees with the various approaches a coach can utilize. The problem addressed in this study was the lack of research on consistent standards regarding how executive coaching should be conducted. The primary purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of executives who have been coached using approaches based on Snyder's hope theory, Buckingham and Clifton's theories of strength-based approaches to leadership, and the theories of positive psychology advanced by Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi. The participants in this study were a purposively selected sample of 20 executives. The primary data collection method was semistructured interviews, and the resulting data were recorded and organized into themes guided by the research questions, and was analyzed for overarching themes, validated, and interpreted against Snyder's hope theory. The findings demonstrated the importance of coaching approaches utilizing all components of hope theory and the importance of the coaching approach being the preference of the executive. These findings can be used by executive coaches to inform coaching approaches that lead to favorable leadership behavioral changes. The potential for social change from this study is that the findings can help guide improvements in leadership in all areas of organizations, including the non-profit sector, that lead to better serving of goals and increasing organizational capacities.

This study is designed to investigate the relationships among affective and cognitive personal qualities leading to psychological resilience among natural disaster survivors. The main assumption of this study is that positive personal qualities might be associated with better psychological adjustment. The study aimed at testing a hypothesized theoretical model accounting for resilience with regard to personal qualities. The sample for this study was composed of individuals who were exposed to earthquakes that occurred in 1999 in Marmara region of Western Turkey. The study hypothesized that the dispositional cognitive and affective constructs (hope, optimism, life satisfaction, self esteem and positive affect) play vital roles in pathways to psychological resilience. Initially hypothesized model based on cognitive-behavioral theoretical foundations was proposed and tested. The cognitive behavior approach holds the idea that thoughts are the determinants of functional and dysfunctional emotions and behaviors. In the model, global self esteem serve as an underlying mechanism that helps to human operate well on the environment. The positive influence of global self esteem can be observed in cognitive process and affective domain in individuals. Simultaneously a person develops an optimistic worldview based on the global self esteem. Self esteem leads a person to construe positive cognitive constructs influencing the general world of view positively and utilize those cognitive. Since thinking patterns influence the affective side of the person, if the person utilizes positive cognitive constructs while interpreting life events, he or she is likely to experience more positive feelings and to be satisfied with life at the same time The hypothesized model was trimmed. Dispositional hope (pathways and agentic thinking), optimism, positive affect, life satisfaction and self-esteem were regarded as independent latent variables while three factors of psychological resilience were valued as the latent dependent variables. Finally, a structural model was suggested to account for the pathways leading to resilience among the Turkish disaster survivors. According to the model, self esteem, dispositional hope and optimism have indirect effect on resilience components via positive affect and life satisfaction. For purposes, the Ego Resilience Scale was adapted into Turkish. Exploratory factor analysis yielded three-factor solution for Turkish disaster survivors and the resilience factors were labeled as Personal Strengths Relating Recovery / Positive Self-Appraisals and Openness to New Experience. The results revealed that the Ego Resiliency Scale is a validated and reliable measure of psychological resilience among Turkish disaster survivors.

Students with learning disabilities and/or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) experience decreased academic and social-emotional outcomes when compared to their peers without disabilities. Self-determination, positive psychology, and cognitive theories of learning offer suggestions for improving these outcomes. The purpose of this study was to develop The Personal Strengths Intervention (PSI) and investigate its impact on levels of self-determination and the social-emotional functioning of postsecondary students with learning disabilities and/or ADHD. PSI integrates key elements of self-determination, positive psychology, and cognitive theories. ADHDA multiple baseline design with seven participants was used to examine the intervention effects over time. Results indicate PSI demonstrates content, face, and social validity. The results from the examination of the impact of participation in PSI on self-determination and social-emotional levels were inconsistent. Visual analyses, effect sizes, and multilevel modeling of the time series data indicated there was little to no intervention effect across participants. However, results from the visual analyses and effect sizes revealed there were some intervention effects for particular participants. For participants who demonstrated intervention effects, effects ranged from small to large for self-determination dependent variables and small to moderate for social-emotional dependent variables. Pre- post-assessment results indicated there was an increase in self-determination and positive affect associated with participation in PSI. There were no changes in subjective well-being or negative affect. Results from a longitudinal qualitative trend analysis and final interviews with participants indicated improved self-determination and social-emotional levels. A discussion of possible explanations for the finding and implications is included. Suggestions for future research are provided.

The current study was interested in determining the moderating role of psychological capital in the relationship between job stress and the outcomes of incivility and job involvement among employees at a call centre in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal. A quantitative research design was adopted in conducting this study. The relationships between psychological capital, job stress, incivility and job involvement were examined using two theoretical frameworks, namely, the Broaden-and-Build Theory of positive emotions (Fredrickson, 1998) and the Job Stress Model (Spector & Fox, 2002). The research aimed to determine the relationship between psychological capital, job stress, incivility and job involvement, whether psychological capital and job stress held predictive value for the outcomes of incivility and job involvement, and the extent to which psychological capital moderated the relationship between job stress and incivility and job stress and job involvement. The sample consisted of 104 call centre agents, 28 male and 76 female employees, who were required to complete questionnaires measuring each of the constructs under study. Data was analysed using exploratory factor analysis, descriptive statistics, Pearson product-moment correlations, multiple regression analysis and hierarchical regression analysis. The findings of the study indicated that high levels of psychological capital correlated with low levels of incivility and high job involvement. Additionally, a high level of job stress was associated with high incivility and low job involvement. The findings of the study further indicated that job stress predicted incivility and job involvement, while the optimism dimension of psychological capital also predicted job involvement. Additionally, psychological capital did not moderate the relationship between job stress and incivility nor did it moderate the relationship between job stress and job involvement. The study contributes to the existing literature on psychological capital, job stress, incivility and job involvement while adding a new dimension to the existing literature available on each of these constructs, by determining the relationships between the constructs. / Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2013.