Atualmente a obesidade, considerada um problema de saúde pública, vem sendo alvo de inúmeras pesquisas dada a gravidade desta doença crônica e de seus altos índices epidemiológicos. Poucos estudos têm sido feitos na tentativa de compreender a psicodinâmica deste tema. Esta pesquisa se insere nesta direção, pretende descrever, através da perspectiva kleiniana, os principais aspectos e conteúdos psicodinâmicos das crianças obesas estudadas. Os participantes foram seis crianças de oito a dez anos de idade com diagnóstico clínico de obesidade. Utilizaram-se como instrumentos para análise e interpretação dos dados o Procedimento de Desenhos-Estórias e o Teste de Apercepção Temática Infantil com Figuras de Animais, além da realização de entrevista semi-dirigida com as mães, visando obter dados da história de vida dos participantes. A análise dos instrumentos se baseou em Tardivo (1997), identificando as atitudes básicas, figuras significativas, sentimentos expressos, tendências e desejos, impulsos, ansiedades e mecanismos de defesa. Os resultados encontrados indicaram nas crianças avaliadas voracidade, agressividade reprimida e, em maior parte, utilização de mecanismos defensivos predominantemente relacionados à posição esquizo-paranóide, tais como, cisão, negação e idealização para lidar com as situações de perda e sofrimento, o que indica predomínio da relação de objeto parcial, porém evidenciaram-se tentativas de reparação em alguns momentos. Também foram observados sinais e sintomas indicativos de depressão clínica em parte da amostra avaliada. Observou-se que a história de vida das crianças, o ambiente interno e externo, os comportamentos aprendidos e o desenvolvimento emocional, interferiram na evolução da obesidade. Sanciona a importância de uma intervenção psicoterapêutica que possa ajudar as crianças integrar os objetos parciais e fortalecer o ego para que possam lidar de forma mais efetiva com a culpa depressiva, pois, muitas vezes, prejuízos marcantes nas relações objetais, podem estar associados ao desenvolvimento de doenças, transtornos ou mesmo grande sofrimento psíquico / Nowadays obesity is considered a public health problem, it has been subject of numerous studies due to the severity of chronic disease and its high epidemiological levels. Few studies have been developed to understand the psychodynamics of this theme. This research goes toward this direction, it aims to describe, by kleinian perspective, the main psychodynamic aspects and inside contents of the obese children studied. The participants were six children aged eight to ten years old with a clinical diagnosis of obesity. The Drawings-Stories Procedure, Childrens Apperception Test with Animals Figures, in addition to a semi-directed interview with mothers to obtain data about participants life history were used as instruments for analysis and interpretation. The analysis of the instruments was based on Tardivo (1997), identifying the basic attitudes, significant figures, sentiments, tendencies and desires, impulses, anxieties and defense mechanisms. In the evaluated children, the results indicated voracity, repressed aggressiveness and, in most of them, use of defensive mechanisms predominantly related to paranoid-schizoid position, such as splitting, idealization and denial to deal with situations of deprivation and suffering, which indicates the predominance of a partial object relation, but there were reparation attempts in some moments. Signs and indicative symptoms of clinical depression were also observed in part of the sample. It was observed that the lives history of children, the internal and external environments, learned behaviors and emotional development, influenced the obesity evolution in the evaluated sample. It demonstrates the importance of a psychotherapeutic intervention that can help children to integrate the partial objects and reinforce the ego, so that they can deal more effectively with depressive guilt, because, many times, outstanding damages in object relations may be associated with the development of diseases, disorders or major psychological distress

The objectives of this study were to construct and develop a two-tiered multiple-choice test for the measurement of student misconceptions in optics at the level of secondary education in Thailand, as well as to investigate the effects of gender, grade level, and type of school upon levels of student misconceptions. Misconceptions were measured by the Two-Tiered Optics Misconception (TTOM) test instrument developed for this study. Based upon criteria-evidence, the validity or appropriateness, meaningfulness, and usefulness of inferences derived from scores obtained from administration of the instrument was demonstrated at acceptable levels. The TTOM was administered to 932 high school subjects from randomly selected all-male, all-female, and coeducational 10th through 12th grade classes in Bangkok, Thailand. A mixed analysis of variance model was used to investigate the effects of gender, grade level, and type of school upon subject misconception scores in the field of optics. Analysis of the data revealed the following: 1) a paper-pencil test based upon a pattern of two-tiered multiple-choice questions and reasons developed for this study provided a valid and reliable measure of student misconceptions in optics at the level of secondary education in Thailand; 2) gender, grade level, and type of school did not have significant effects upon subject misconception scores among Thai high school students; 3) the subgroup school within type was found to have a significant effect upon subject misconception scores; 4) when fixed grade levels were considered for type of school, there were significant differences in misconceptions among 12th grade subjects from different types of schools; 5) certain consistent misconceptions in the area of optics, related to the properties of a converging lens, images from a plane mirror and a converging lens, light rays, regions of light travel, shadow formation, and lightning flashes, existed among Thai physics students at the level of secondary education. / Graduation date: 1994

The purpose of this study was to develop an instrument to provide valid and reliable measures of misconceptions in the area of photosynthesis and respiration among fourth, fifth, and sixth grade students in Thailand. A 17-item, two-tier multiple-choice test was developed and validated using construct-related evidence to determine the appropriateness of inferences from a set of test scores. The test was administered to 4,346 students in the fourth, fifth, and sixth grades in schools throughout Thailand. The study attempted to identify misconceptions held by Thai elementary students in the area of photosynthesis and respiration, and to examine the effects of grade level and gender on students' understandings of these concepts. A two-way analysis of variance, with grade level and gender as independent variables, was used to analyze test scores. Findings revealed that: (a) The two-tier multiple-choice test was valid and reliable; (b) mean scores among grade levels were significantly different (p=0.001); (c) mean scores between male and female genders were not significantly different (p=0.180); and (d) there was a significant interaction effect between grade level and gender (p=0.005). From these findings, the following was concluded: (a) The two-tier multiple-choice test provided valid and reliable measures of student misconceptions of selected science concepts at the elementary school level in Thailand; (b) most Thai students in grades 4, 5, and 6 held a large number of misconceptions of the selected concepts; (c) a majority of the students answered the content questions correctly, but did not understand the justification for the correct responses; (d) the higher the grade level, the greater the understanding of the concepts; and (e) female and male Thai students in grades 4, 5, and 6 did not differ significantly in their understanding of photosynthesis and respiration. / Graduation date: 1994

There is no abstract available for this dissertation.

published_or_final_version / Medical Sciences / Master / Master of Medical Sciences

This study investigated cultural bias in the 46 Verbal items of the McCarthy Scales of Children's Abilities (MSCA). Two separate approaches to the examination of item bias were utilized. The first approach examined item bias empirically by comparing performance differences in terms of correct item responses given by examinees from Anglo and Mexican-American cultures. The second approach addressed the issue of face validity by obtaining the opinion of Anglo-American (AA) and Mexican-American (MA) judges regarding their perception of item bias for AA and MA examinees. The two criteria used to judge item bias were examinee opportunity to learn item content and examinee familiarity with the language used in the items. The Verbal items of the McCarthy Scales were administered to 59 Anglo-American and 59 Mexican-American examinees matched for age and sex. Ability differences were controlled by generating common ability intervals for both groups based on overall Verbal scale score. The obtained data was tested utilizing procedures for the analysis of contingency tables. Two statistical analyses applied to the data were Scheuneman's modified chi-square and the log-linear technique using the likelihood ratio chi-square statistic. Statistically significant performance differences between the two groups, identified by both analyses, were found for only two items of the Word Knowledge II subtest which measures vocabulary comprehension. The differences in perception of the two groups of judges in terms of opportunity to learn item content and familiarity with item language across AA and MA examinees was examined. The obtained ratings of item bias were tested with the chi-square statistic. Significant differences in ratings of two groups of judges on the opportunity to learn dimension were found for 16 items. It was revealed that more AA judges perceived 14 of these items to be fair for both groups of examinees in terms of opportunity to learn, while more MA judges perceived the AA child as having more opportunity to learn the content of these items. However for two of the 16 items the statistically significant difference between the two groups reflected the perception of MA judges that bias favored the MA examinees. There was a high degree of agreement between the two groups of judges in their rating on the familiarity dimension, with both groups indicating more familiarity with item language for AA subjects for most items. Significant differences in the ratings of the two groups were identified for four items. These items were from the Word Knowledge and Verbal Memory subtests. For three of these items the obtained data indicated that the greater number of MA judges perceived these items as favoring AA subjects. For the remaining item the results pointed out that more MA judges perceived that MA subjects seemed to have greater familiarity with the item language as compared with their Anglo counterpart. There was no discernible pattern of judgment in terms of item difficulty, with easier items perceived as more biased than more difficult ones in some cases. Judge responses appear more related to specific item content than level of difficulty or verbal complexity. The findings from both studies led to the conclusion that the majority of the verbal items in the McCarthy Scales seemed to be fair for Anglo and Mexican-American subjects. Implications of these findings were discussed and recommendations were made for future studies intended to examine item bias.

Eating disorders were predominantly perceived to be a white, Western higher socioeconomic phenomenon. However, as Western cultural values have been embraced, eating disorders appear to have become prevalent across racial, ethnic and socio-economic groups. In the last decade there has been an increased interest in assessing eating disorders from a cross-cultural perspective. Many studies have been conducted in the United Kingdom and the United States of America. Relatively few empirical studies have been conducted in South Africa. The Eating Disorders Inventory (EDI) is an instrument that has been used in eating disorder research and is known to be reliable and valid. Although the EDI has been used in South Africa, its cross-cultural validity has not yet been determined. The purpose of this research is a pilot cross-cultural validation of the EDI to determine if this design would be appropriate for a large-scale validation project. / Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg,2004.

The purpose of this study is to assess the effectiveness of alternative treatment to Ritalin. / Thesis (M.Ed.) - University of Durban Westville, 2005.

Copy and recall drawings of the Rey Complex Figure obtained during the standard clinical testing of patients with well-localized epileptic foci before and after left frontal-, left temporal-, right temporal-lobe resection were re-scored blind as to lesion site using standard protocol (18 elements scored 0, 1/2, 1, or 2 based on whether they are drawn and placed correctly for a total out of 36). They were also scored for which, and how many, elements were missing, distorted, displaced, and/or repeated. Contrary to previous findings, no main effects of side or lobe or side-by-lobe interactions were found on copy and recall scores obtained either before or after surgery, and all patients' recall improved equally from pre-operative to follow-up testing. Furthermore, patients' lesion site could not be predicted on the basis of any single measure or across all measures of performance. While group differences had been found on the previously assigned scores, the between-group overlap was almost complete and the original scoring was not done blindly. These results suggest that, despite previous claims, the Rey Complex Figure, a widely-used measure of non-verbal memory, is not an effective tool for localizing neural disturbance in temporal- and frontal-lobe epilepsy patients.

The process of social problem-solving appears to consist of several general stages including problem orientation, problem definition, generation of alternatives, and decision making. A significant number of studies have found that depressed individuals have a more negative orientation towards their problems and generate a smaller number of less effective solutions on pencil-and-paper measures. Rumination in response to a dysphoric mood has been found to exacerbate feelings of sadness and social problem-solving deficits, while efforts at distraction have been found to reduce or eliminate these effects. To date, nearly all of the research on social problem-solving has utilized pencil-and-paper measures of how individuals feel they would respond to hypothetical problems. The current investigation was designed to evaluate the social problem-solving ability of dysphoric and non-dysphoric participants while talking with a counselor in an analogue counseling interview.More specifically, this study examined the effects of dysphoria and the use of temporary distraction techniques on the social problem-solving ability of 84 female undergraduate students. A structured problem-solving interview and corresponding coding system was designed to measure D'Zurilla and Goldfried's (1971) stages of problem-solving. The coding system yielded high levels of internal consistency, content validity, and construct validity. Forty-one dysphoric females and 43 non-dysphoric females were randomly assigned to either a rumination or distraction task. Dysphoric participants in the rumination condition reported increased levels of sadness, whereas dysphoric participants in the distraction condition reported decreased levels of sadness. After engaging in the rumination or distraction task, each participant was asked to talk with a female counselor during a structured problem-solving interview. Results of a 2 (dysphoric/non-dysphoric) X 2 (rumination/distraction) MANOVA yielded a non-significant interaction effect and a significant difference for the main effect of dysphoria on participants' ratings of problem severity and confidence in solving the problem. Dysphoric participants, whether given a rumination or distraction task, reported a more negative orientation towards their problems, but did not display any deficits in their ability to describe the problem, generate effective solutions, or choose an effective solution. The current findings underscore the need for more naturalistic, behavioral measurements of problem-solving ability and call into question the assumption that depressed individuals exhibit social problem-solving deficits. / Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services