Local government, as government at grassroot, has, probably undergone transformation more than any institution in post-1994 South Africa. State-of the- art legislation have been passed that have restructured municipalities, and, especially, in the areas of performance and conduct of councillors and officials. Prominent in the areas of transformation are the roles of the Executive Mayor, which are no longer ceremonial as well as the radical changes which have been legislated in municipal financial management. This study was undertaken to determine the challenges that confront the Executive Mayor in financial management in selected local municipalities in the Free State. The hypothesis was formulated that “despite the state-of-the art legislation to regulate municipal finance, Executive Mayors in municipalities face the challenge of poor service delivery as a result of noncompliance to financial statutes due to human resource incapacity”. To test the hypothesis, use was made by empirical research that comprised questionnaires completed by sample of managers and officials in the selected local municipalities of Mafube, Metsimaholo, Moqhaka and Ngwathe.The findings, amongst others, were that: • Human capital in the 4 selected local municipalities are in their prime age. 69 present of managers are in the aged between 30 years to 50 years; • 57 present of the managers responded that they have adequate qualifications and training to pursue the challenges in municipal finance; • All 4 municipalities normally get their budgets approved as required by compliance. • The hypothesis was consequently, invalidated. The study ends with recommendations to help improve standards and quality of financial management practice in the 4 municipalities. / MA (Industrial Psychology), North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2014

Distortions in the perception of time historically have been associated with dissociation and psychosis in clinical populations. However, the relations among dissociation, psychosis, and time perception in sub-clinical populations have not been investigated. In the present study, college undergraduates scoring either normally or deviantly high on the Per-Mag were given a Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES) and a computerized time-estimation/production task. Participants scoring high on the Per-Mag obtained higher scores on the DES than participants scoring low on the Per- Mag. Per-Mag scores also correlated positively with DES scores across 608 total participants screened. The relation between dissociative and psychotic symptomatology is discussed considering dichotomous versus continuous conceptualizations of psychopathology. The effects of intelligence, social desirability, malingering, gender, and post-traumatic stress on the measures used are also discussed.

Relationship marking, which focuses on ways to build, develop, and maintain successful relational exchanges, is an important way to sustain loyal customer. Previous studies that note the types of bonds that enhance commitment suggest that customer commitment can be built through the application of financial, social, and structural bonds. Although empirical research that focuses on the application of relational bonds in a virtual environment is relatively sparse. The purpose of this study is to explore that different bonds(financial bonds, social bonds, and structural bonds) can enhance what kinds of consumer commitment(continuance commitment, affective commitment, and normative commitment). This study also attempt to explain the relationships between types of bonds and consumer commitment in different degree of customization and consumer relationship proneness. This study takes the consumer who in hair beauty and gas station for example. A total of 291 questionnaires were recovered, and after deducting the 71 invalid responses, the effective questionnaire sample contains 220 copies. The data gleaned from the questionnaire was subjected to descriptive statistical analysis, SEM, 1-Way MANCOVA and regression analysis in order to prove the hypothesis proposed in the theoretical structure of this research.The findings of this study are fivefold. 1.Almost all respondents confused social bonds with structural bonds. In this study, we combine social bonds with structural bonds, and named it core bonds. 2.The results suggest that financial bonds have positive impacts on normative commitment and continuance commitment. 3.The results suggest that core bonds have positive impacts on normative commitment, continuance commitment and affective commitment. 4.The different degree of customization influences relationship between bonds and commitment. 5.The people who has high relationship proneness will have high commitment.

Fantasies are defined as byproducts of human imagination and mental activities to internalize unusual external objective stimulus. In the literature, utilization of fantasy in educational settings promoted intellectual and emotional improvements. However, the research implications from these fantasy research studies are mostly limited to traditional game design and classroom teaching. There are two research purposes in this study. The first is to examine how different types of fantasy and student fantasy proneness influence science learning, factual information acquisition, and game engagement in a 3D educational game environment called “Alien Rescue.” To accomplish this purpose, this research investigated the effects of fantasy type and fantasy proneness on science learning, factual information of alien characters, and game engagement. The second purpose of this study is to investigate student’s perception of the varying types of fantasy. To accomplish the second purpose of the study, this research inquired how student identified each type of fantasy and related his or her past experience to the embodied characteristics in alien characters. The participants of the study were 103 students who used Alien Rescue in four classes as their science curriculum for 10 days. The students in two classes were assigned to a treatment group using models with portrayal fantasy and the students in two classes were assigned to the other treatment group using models with creative fantasy. Employing mixed methods, this study analyzed both quantitative and qualitative data such as surveys and student interviews. The results in the quantitative part of the study showed that portrayal fantasy was effective for science learning, alien information acquisition, and game engagement. Specifically, the students who used portrayal fantasy models showed higher improvement of science knowledge and scored better on both alien information acquisition and game engagement. High fantasy proneness group also showed better game engagement. The finding with qualitative data showed that the students pointed out eight elements in identifying 3D fantasy objects, and those elements were relevant to the design elements that the researcher included in the 3D modeling procedure. The students also showed a perception pattern that they understood 3D game characters based upon previous experience regardless of fantasy type. The findings suggested that portrayal fantasy was effective in enhancing content learning, factual information acquisition, and engagement in educational games because the familiarity of the fantasy elements makes the identification of the fantasy characters easier and faster. However, too deep involvement in fantasy resulted in ineffective and inefficient learning outcomes. The findings also suggested that eight components of 3D models were essential elements in identifying fantasy game characters by learners as well as designing the 3D characters by game designers. / text

Local government, as government at grassroot, has, probably undergone transformation more than any institution in post-1994 South Africa. State-of the- art legislation have been passed that have restructured municipalities, and, especially, in the areas of performance and conduct of councillors and officials. Prominent in the areas of transformation are the roles of the Executive Mayor, which are no longer ceremonial as well as the radical changes which have been legislated in municipal financial management. This study was undertaken to determine the challenges that confront the Executive Mayor in financial management in selected local municipalities in the Free State. The hypothesis was formulated that “despite the state-of-the art legislation to regulate municipal finance, Executive Mayors in municipalities face the challenge of poor service delivery as a result of noncompliance to financial statutes due to human resource incapacity”. To test the hypothesis, use was made by empirical research that comprised questionnaires completed by sample of managers and officials in the selected local municipalities of Mafube, Metsimaholo, Moqhaka and Ngwathe.The findings, amongst others, were that: • Human capital in the 4 selected local municipalities are in their prime age. 69 present of managers are in the aged between 30 years to 50 years; • 57 present of the managers responded that they have adequate qualifications and training to pursue the challenges in municipal finance; • All 4 municipalities normally get their budgets approved as required by compliance. • The hypothesis was consequently, invalidated. The study ends with recommendations to help improve standards and quality of financial management practice in the 4 municipalities. / MA (Industrial Psychology), North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2014

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Michigan, 1969.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Michigan, 1969.

The purpose of this study was to examine factors related to information technology (IT) implementation in the curriculum. The focus was on Malaysian Ministry of Education Polytechnic (MoEP) faculty members' attitudes toward IT, as well as IT availability and IT use in teaching. The response rate from the 332 surveys sent to the MoEP was 75.9%. Faculty members as a whole appeared to have readiness for adoption of changes related to IT use in teaching despite the lack of IT use in general. The use of selected IT items was skewed greatly in the direction of non-use. Faculty attitudes toward the use of IT in their teaching were very positive. The overall professional development experiences in IT that respondents had were greatly skewed toward non-participation. Results for items associated with supports services showed that they were available for faculty use. Sixty-nine percent of the respondents reported to face barriers to the use IT in their teaching. The extent of IT use in general for male respondents and female respondents showed a significant difference among gender. ANOVA revealed no difference between MoEP membership and IT use in general. Analysis of department membership and IT use in general revealed no difference between the two. Highest level of education had a low significant correlation with extent of IT use in general. A low negative correlation was shown between highest level of education and other demographic variables. Age had a moderate positive correlation with years served for the MoEP and a high correlation with years served for the MoE. Years served for the MoEP also has a moderate correlation with years served for the MoE. There were no significant correlations among variables except for online discussion and teaching load. Highest level of education showed a low correlation with email, WWW, and scanner. Multiple regression analysis was conducted to determine what variables were the best predictors of IT use. Results revealed an R2 of 0.04. Highest level of education contributed significantly to the variance. Adoption proneness proved to be a predictor for IT use in teaching, while other selected demographic variables were not significant predictors. / Ph. D.

The purpose of the current study was to examine the mediating role of anger proneness in explaining the relationship between masculine gender role stress (MGRS) and aggression. Additionally, the moderating effect of anger proneness was also examined. Both physical and verbal forms of aggression were examined in the current model. Participants were 163 male undergraduate students. The criteria proposed by Baron and Kenny (1986) and Holmbeck (1997, 2002) were followed to test for mediational and moderational effects. Hierarchical regression analyses were conducted. Results indicate that anger proneness does mediate the relationship between MGRS and aggression, particularly physical aggression. Tests for moderated effects were not supported. The clinical and theoretical implications of these findings are discussed. / Master of Science

This study began testing the Sewell and Williams (in press) model that differing trauma types yield differing presentations in social versus event processing domains. Other hypotheses explored trauma type with levels of guilt, and shame-proneness with anxiety. Volunteers were 44 male combat veterans being treated for PTSD. Data analyses determined whether trauma type related to guilt and perceived social support and whether shame-proneness related to levels of anxiety. High shame persons may process anxiety and social support differently than low shame persons. Results can assist professionals understand how a person's functioning is affected by certain types of trauma. Future research should focus on increasing social support for persons who have experienced trauma.