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This research addresses the question, can dispositional complements to situational self-congruity and situational functional congruity be identified? Self-image congruence research, which establishes a background for the situational impact of image and function-laden information, is reviewed. A theoretical rationale for developing dispositional measures is based on the interactionist paradigm in personality psychology combined with self-congruity theory and Blake and Mouton's orientation to tasks vs. people. It was hypothesized that the dispositional measures of self-congruity and functional congruity would moderate the relationship between situational self-congruity and functional congruity and the adoption of a brand of credit card. Results supporting this hypothesis would provide evidence of the nomological validity of the dispositional measures. A 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 factorial experimental design involving situational self-congruity, situational functional congruity, dispositional self-congruity and dispositional functional congruity was operationalized with ads for the Sierra Club credit card providing image and/or function-laden cues. Manipulation checks in the form of situational evaluations and behavioral measures in the form of credit card adoption were ascertained. Pretests were conducted to generate and refine items for the dispositional scale and to initially assess reliability and validity. Subsequently, a main study was conducted involving 320 students from two universities. The results show that the dispositional measures are highly reliable. Dispositional measures were also shown to have discriminant validity, however, the tests of nomological validity indicated that these measures may not be valid. This study emphasizes the importance of considering the coaction of situational and dispositional factors in understanding behavior. Limitations of the study, future research, and managerial implications of the findings are discussed. / Ph. D.

This thesis provides an introduction to an advance in technology-aided instruction. Most of the research in this area has focused on PowerPoint® based applications or white board-centered electronic ink applications with the capability of broadcasting slides, ink annotations and so forth, used for presentation or classroom lectures. But these tools lack the capability of annotating on any kind of applications with active content playing (a movie or a simulation, for instance) in the background. Additional useful, but currently unavailable functionality would include the capability of broadcasting the presentation information, which can further consist of lecture slides, ink annotations, video of the desktop screen activity, or any other application program that might be used to demonstrate a concept or illuminate an idea. Therefore, the current research attempts to provide these facilities with a new tool, WriteOn. WriteOn improves both the presentation of information and the interactivity in classroom instruction, because it gives the instructor the ability to ink annotate on any application by using a virtual transparency surface, called electronic vellum or simply eVellum, which in effect resides on top of all desktop window applications. The instructor can enable the vellum at any point during the lecture and write on it to draw diagrams, make notes, emphasize points, or otherwise elucidate the presentation content. The instructor can also pierce the eVellum in order to switch to different applications, modify an applications parameters or operating values, or otherwise manipulate an operating program as part of a classroom demonstration or discussion. These features allow the instructor to demonstrate the dynamic operation of any application, which is an improvement on a static PowerPoint display of a program's operation. With WriteOn, the instructor can save the ink annotations along with desktop screen activity over an interval of time as a movie file and later make this file available to students. Alternatively, the instructor can transmit to the students the presentation information along with ink annotations in real-time so that the students can make their own notes on top of information being produced by the instructor. Thus the tool can be used to enhance the interactive lecturing process and help students to develop good note-taking processes and habits. WriteOn is also capable of saving the voice of the instructor, provided there is an audio device attached to the instructor's Tablet PC. However, broadcasting the instructor's voice is not yet fully supported. The WriteOn tool was developed using Microsoft's technologies: Windows Media Encoder® and DirectShow of DirectX®, as well as Microsoft's ConferenceXP API to achieve streaming of the presentation information. The first chapter explains the need for computer tools used for effective teaching purposes. The second chapter presents the architectural and technical details of WriteOn. Chapter three describes the architecture of the WriteOn tool. Chapters four through six explain the major software components of the system and also give the pros and cons of the DirectShow and Windows Media Encoder technologies. The seventh chapter provides an explanation of the usage of the tool by instructors and students. The eighth chapter presents the experiences of the instructors and students using the WriteOn tool in the classroom and concludes with a discussion of future work in this area. The Appendix V provides a developers guide for those who might like to expand on this open source code. / Master of Science

Social anxiety is a prevalent and harmful experience, predicting negative outcomes even for those not reaching clinical levels. While evidence-based treatments are well-documented for Social Anxiety Disorder, simple and accessible interventions for subclinical samples are a valuable endeavor for research. The current study aimed to test an experimental task for reducing social anxiety through increasing participants’ impression self-efficacy. A secondary goal was to explore the impacts of and responses to positive and neutral feedback. The primary hypothesis was that condition would predict changes in social anxiety indirectly through changes in impression self-efficacy. Participants (n=127) completed a structured interaction with a research confederate. In the experimental condition, participants were exposed to a social obstacle and provided with positive feedback, while a neutral condition and control condition did not encounter an obstacle and received neutral and no feedback, respectively. A mediation analysis indicated that condition significantly predicted changes in impression efficacy and changes in social anxiety, and changes in impression efficacy significantly predicted changes in social anxiety. However, the indirect effect when comparing the experimental condition to the control condition was nonsignificant. Additionally, neutral evaluative feedback predicted lower positive affect and increased rejected feelings compared to other conditions. Exploratory analyses were conducted to investigate nuances of participants’ responses to feedback. Overall, results offer noteworthy information about the use of the experimental manipulation and the impacts of feedback within research contexts and non-laboratory settings.

Diploma thesis "How do adolescents present their own person on social networks?" Deals with virtual self-presentation of internet social network users in the age range from 15 to 18 years. The presented master thesis is conceived as theoretical - empirical. In the theoretical part, the key concepts related to the submitted master's thesis - identity and self-presentation - will be explained. Attention will also be paid to social networks, especially to their functions and self-presentation means, which will be characterized in the theoretical part. In the empirical part of the thesis, the research will be carried out and a comprehensive presentation of the results will be presented.

Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka om det fanns någonassociation mellan ett visst kroppsideal och valet av träningsform,samt att undersöka om det fanns en skillnad mellan män och kvinnorgällande kroppsideal och valet av träningsform. Syftet var även attundersöka om det finns en variation i viljan att framstå som perfekt(perfektionistisk självpresentation) mellan olika träningsformer samtmellan de olika könen. För att undersöka detta utfördes entvärsnittsstudie med enkäter med sammanlagt 82 deltagare, varav 42var män. Deltagarnas ålder varierade mellan 18 och 42 år med enmedelålder av 25.6 år. Resultatet visade att det fanns ett tydligtkroppsideal för männen respektive kvinnorna. Den mest valdaträningsformen bland båda könen var styrketräning, men det varnågot vanligare bland männen. För män som valt ett muskulöst idealvar det vanligast att träna styrketräning. För kvinnor som valt ettkurvigt ideal var det också mest vanligt med styrketräning, men detvar mer vanligt att träna konditionsträning än för männen. I viljan attframstå som perfekt fanns ingen signifikant skillnad mellan de olikaträningsformerna, men det fanns en signifikant skillnad mellan deolika könen. Sammanfattningsvis kunde vi konstatera att kroppsidealtill viss del är kopplat till vad man väljer för träningsform samt attkvinnorna i studien tenderade att ligga högre i viljan att framstå somperfekt. / The purpose of this study was to examine whether there was anassociation between a certain body-image and the choice of exercise,and to examine whether there was a difference between men andwomen. The second aim was also to examine whether there was anyvariation in the tendency to display a perfect self in front of othersbetween the different exercise types and whether there were anygender differences. To investigate this we performed a cross-sectionalstudy with questionnaires with 82 participants. There were 42 menand 40 women in the study and their ages ranged between 18 and 42years old. The results showed that there was a clear ideal-body forboth men and women. The mostly chosen exercise form for bothgenders were weight-training, but it was somewhat more common formen. For men who chose a muscular ideal-body it was mostlycommon to choose weight-training. For women who chose a curvyideal-body it was also most common with weight-training, although itwas more common with aerobic exercise. In the tendency to display aperfect self, there was no significant difference between the differentexercise types, but there was a significant difference between men andwomen. In conclusion, it seems that body-ideal is associated with thechoice of exercise form in some manner. Women tend to display aperfect self in front of others somewhat more than men.

Thesis (M. A. (English)) --University of Limpopo, 2018 / Assessment of English Second Language (ESL) science learners’ presentation skills is an area which has not received sufficient attention over the years. This is pertinent to both learners and educators. The study set out to assess (ESL) science learners’ presentation skills in Driekop Circuit, Limpopo Province. Science learners and ESL educators in this rural area were assessed quantitatively as well as qualitatively; the learners’ oral and report writing skills, and the educators’ assessment skills were assessed, respectively. On the whole, the learners and educators lack presentation skills and as a result, need support in a number of respects. The teaching learning environment of these learners compounds the situation; it remains dire. Therefore, some intervention, in this domain, by the Department of Education could be imperative.

As our society moves into a more technical era, journalism and the reporting of culture have had to follow. But where has that left the cultural critique, and journalist/reviewers, in our local newspapers? This bachelor thesis will try to map and explain the change of the cultural presentation in the local newspapers from the day it was firstly introduced as a genre in the modern journalistic world until today – 1840 and onwards. Whether it has turned into complete tabloid journalism or if it's methods are used to expand the knowledge about the cultural object, it shall be discovered with the help of an analysis of the cultural sections in some newspapers – both from the last quarter of 2012 (October - December) and one date from two years prior to that. One of the answers provided by the analysis, and perhaps the most relevant to this thesis, is that by adding features of tabloid journalism in reports of cultural news, culture journalism can better adapt its contents according to academic and social preferences of what is considered important aspects of information in the news, as it positions itself according to the technological fields and the changes within the cultural area itself.

Instruktioner har syftet att förmedla ett arbetssätt eller utförande av en uppgift som användaren sen tidigare inte är bekant med. För att instruktionen ska vara framgångsrik krävs dock att den utformas på ett sätt som gör den enkel att använda och att tolka korrekt. Större efterfrågan på kundanpassning och krav på flexibilitet gör att tillverkande företag i allt större omfattning behöver effektiva metoder för att ta fram instruktioner. På uppdrag av PartnerTech i Åtvidaberg genomfördes under vårterminen 2014 ett examensarbete inriktat mot att underlätta framtagning och revision av instruktioner. Vilka presentationsformer som bäst stödjer användaren var också del av det huvudsakliga målet. Utöver det önskades även en metod för att kategorisera produkter efter monteringskomplexitet, vilket skulle underlätta fördelning av personal. PartnerTech är en kontraktstillverkare som ständigt ställs inför nya produkter och produktionsscenarion, vilket medför löpande behov av nya instruktioner. Bakgrunden till initiativet för projektet ligger i att den nuvarande metoden inte upplevs som tillräckligt effektiv och att kunskap från vetenskapliga studier saknas. Examensarbetet har utförts av en student vid det maskintekniska programmet på Linköpings tekniska högskola. Projektet inleddes med en studie av nuläget och forskningsresultaten inom de berörda områdena. Därefter utvärderades mjukvaran SolidWorks Composer för att se vilka fördelar den skulle kunna bidra till, jämfört med det nuvarande arbetssättet. Ett förslag till en layout för en alternativ form av instruktion utarbetades utifrån fynden under litteraturstudien, vilken senare testades på verkliga produkter. Parallellt utvecklades en metod för att kategorisera produkterna som produceras i Åtvidaberg. Projektet resulterade i en alternativ layout för instruktionerna och ett förslag till ny presentationsmetod. Som framtagningsverktyg föreslås Microsoft Powerpoint, vilket använts under projektet och visat på flera fördelar mot nuvarande program. Istället för att som idag använda utskrivna papperskopior av instruktionerna föreslås presentation via bildskärmar i form av ett bildspel. Utvärderingen av SolidWorks Composer visade att det finns potential för att effektivisera framtagningen av bilder för instruktionerna, förutsatt att ett antal kriterier uppfylls. Metoden för kategorisering av produkterna resulterade i en checklista, baserad i huvudsak på ja/nej-frågor. / The purpose of instructions is to pass a strategy or method for work on to a previously unexperienced person. For an instruction to be successful it must be designed in a manner that allows easy use and correct interpretation. The increasing demand for customer customization and flexibility leads to an ever increasing need for manufacturing companies to create and utilize instructions in an effective way. On the behalf of PartnerTech in Åtvidaberg, a project was conducted as a master thesis during the spring semester of 2014, with the target of facilitating the creation and revision of instructions. How information should be presented to best support the user was also a main objective of the project. Beside this, a method for categorizing the company’s products was requested, to facilitate the allocation of personnel at the assembly lines. PartnerTech as a contract manufacturer is continuously challenged with new products at various development stages. As a consequence, instructions needs to be created regularly. The initiative for the project originates from the dissatisfaction related to the current method. The master thesis has been conducted by a student at the mechanical engineering program at Linköping University. The initial part of the project involved a study of the current method and the company’s needs, as well as research within the concerned areas. Later the software SolidWorks Composer was evaluated to see which possible benefits it could hold. A proposal for a new layout of the instructions was developed, based on the found literature during the research. Instructions was established using the layout and principles, which then was tested on real products. Parallel to this a method for categorizing the products was developed. The project resulted in an alternative layout for instructions and a proposal for a new presentation method. The tool proposed for creating and maintaining the instructions is Microsoft PowerPoint, which was used during the project and showed several benefits compared to the current software. The evaluation of SolidWorks Composer showed that there is potential for more effective creation of images for instructions, given that some criteria is fulfilled. The method for categorizing products resulted in a checklist, based essentially on yes/no-questions.