Objective: This study aims to explore the traumatic experiences and to estimate prevalence and predictor factors for PTSD, depression and general psychiatric morbidity amongst Palestinian adults living in the Gaza Strip. Method: A total of 500 Palestinian adults were recruited from four areas of the Gaza Strip using a snowball sampling. The same sample was used for both quantitative studies. Four scales were employed to identify predictors for trauma, PTSD, depression and general mental health. Participants were divided into three age groups: young adults (18 to 25 years), adults (26 to 49 years) and older adults (50 to 65 years). The third qualitative study was aimed at exploring the traumatic experiences of adults living in the Gaza Strip to expand upon the outcomes from the quantitative studies. Results: For Studies 1 and 2, the prevalence rate of PTSD symptoms was 90% and 36.7% met the criteria of DSM-IV for PTSD. Study 2 found depression was 38.4%, and general mental health comorbidity was 67.1%. Study 2 revealed significant differences in PTSD between age groups. Novel results were found amongst adults and older adults on the re-experiencing subscale for PTSD. Participants who lived in Gaza City scored significantly higher on the PTSD subscale for hyperarousal compared to those living in the middle Gaza region. Study 3 expanded on the psychometric data through interviewing members of the Gaza community. When analysed five main themes were identified: Siege related stressors; war related trauma; psychological negative effects; re-experiencing initial event and coping strategies. Conclusions: The findings indicated that blockade was the predominant cause of the increased prevalence rate of PTSD. These studies found that the Palestinian adult participants in Gaza had been exposed to a variety of traumatic events on an ongoing basis that was having a detrimental impact on their mental health.

A travel management programme allows an organisation to manage corporate travel expenditure, and through a well-formulated travel policy, to control its travel expenses. Traveller non-compliance of the travel policy is an increasing area of concern with surveys conducted amongst travellers showing various reasons for non-compliance, both deliberate and unknowing. This study goes beyond established reasons and argues that non-compliance may also be the result of underlying factors not yet fully investigated or recognised by management and industry in general. Two broadly conceptualised factors that influence travel policy compliance are identified. The first is termed corporate related factors and the second, personal related factors. The overall purpose of this study was to conceptualise and test a model of travel policy compliance based on these factors. To achieve this, a literature review as well as empirical research was conducted. Finally, a conceptual model for policy compliance was proposed which served as the framework for the empirical research and from which hypotheses were derived and tested. The empirical research was conducted as a formal, descriptive and explanatory study. Corporate travel management, Travel Management Companies (TMCs) and corporate travellers made up the target populations of the study. Non-probability sampling methods, namely purposive and convenience sampling were used in this study. The researcher used qualitative as well as quantitative methods to gather data. In depth interviews and the Delphi technique, a qualitative method; was used to collect data from TMCs and management for the purpose of establishing an exhaustive list of possible determinants of policy non-compliance. Quantitative methods used to collect data from corporate travellers included self-administered, structured questionnaires. A multinomial logistic regression modelling technique was used to test the conceptual model in order to identify the factors that have the most significant influence on policy compliance. A limitation of the study within which data analysis occurred was the low response rate. This limitation was taken into account in the interpretation of the results and the recommendations. The study shows a number of significant results and as such provides a valuable contribution to the corporate travel literature by being the first study of its kind to measure the impact of factors not previously identified. This study shows that travel policy non-compliance within organisations needs to be viewed at a much deeper level than previously considered. The results show corporate-related factors such as an ineffective travel policy, lacking control measures and perceived organisational injustice have a significant influence on policy compliance. Personal related factors such as self-interest could also impact policy compliance significantly. The results should enable corporate travel management to identify factors within their organisations that could lead to non-compliance. The implementation of the tested model could lead to a higher compliance rate within organisations and ultimately to considerable cost-savings. / Thesis (DCom)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Tourism Management / unrestricted

This diploma thesis describes Cause Related Marketing as a modern communication tool which enables to link commercial business interests to the needs of the nonprofit sector. The theoretical part presents the term Cause Related Marketing and specifies its definition, mechanisms and effects it brings to individual subjects. It also describes typical consumer attitudes to the concept and factors that influence their relationship to CRM. The effect of these factors is presented on examples of foreign campaigns. The practical part describes research of consumer attitudes carried out among Czech Millennials. After presenting the findings of past research studies concerning this topic it continues with the results of the conducted research which are analyzed according to the sex and age of respondents. At the end contrasts between the perceptions of American and Czech consumers are studied.

Rejection sensitivity (RS) can have significant effects on interpersonal relationships. Previous research has shown the negative social effects of RS, but less is known about the cognitive implications of having high levels of RS. The current study examined the effect of RS on various event-related potential (ERP) components associated with performance monitoring (error-related negativity, ERN; feedback-related negativity, FRN) and attention (P300; late positive potential, LPP). Participants completed a social or nonsocial Flanker task and an emotional Stroop task. Results showed an increased ERN on error trials for individuals with higher RS. Although the FRN, P300, and LPP were not influenced by RS, FRN was influenced by an expectancy-valence interaction. FRN amplitude was also sensitive to condition, with correct feedback eliciting significantly more negative FRN in the social condition compared to the nonsocial condition; FRN for unexpected feedback was also greater in the social condition. Overall, the results suggest a relationship between error monitoring and RS, as well as a relationship between social information and feedback processing. Future research should further explore the potential relationship between rejection sensitivity and attention throughout goal-directed tasks.

This is a qualitative study about the implementation of the National Agency for Educations directives regarding honour violence and culture. The focus will be on the work of the teachers, principals and curators and how they implement The National Agency for Education’s directives regarding honour violence and culture. Through the use of interviews and mainly through Lennart Lindquist’s theory “want, understand and able” the essay has its purpose to study the implementation of the directives in four different schools. Interviews were conducted with principals, teachers and curators in hopes of getting the perspective of if and how the people in the mentioned field implement the directives. The study shows both similarities and differences between the different professions which we present in the analysis chapter and later address in the discussion part of the study.

Performance monitoring is a crucial metacognitive function that allows for adaptive behaviour. Electrophysiological studies on error monitoring specifically, have shown how error trials in different tasks elicit two distinct signatures, the error-related negativity (ERN) and the error positivity (Pe). While studies find a robust relation between error awareness and the Pe, results regarding error awareness and the ERN are more divergent. Also, no agreement has been reached on the mechanisms that elicit these signals. This meta-analysis aims to explore the relation between these electrophysiological signatures and error awareness and how disparities in study design might explain divergent study results. Two meta-analyses were conducted and found a significant effect-size for error awareness on both the ERN and the Pe. Subgroup analyses were conducted to explore how different study-characteristics can influence these outcomes. Although no effects were found, these results remain mainly inconclusive since the number of included studies was very low, and their study designs quite similar.

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Whilst studies on rhythm-keeping and error-related negativity have been conducted, previous studies have given participants auditory or visual cues to indicate the rhythm they are meant to be maintaining. In this electroencephalography study, a novel experiment called the Human Metronome Task was introduced, using healthy university students as participants. The Human Metronome Task tested the participants by having them tap in synchrony with a beat, and then having the beat be removed, with the participants still being supposed to maintain the same beat with their taps, now without any auditory or visual aids. The purpose was to see if deviations in unassisted rhythm keeping are sufficient to elicit error-related negativity. When comparing different deviations of the tap-timing of each participant to their average tap-timing, no significant differences in electroencephalography amplitude were found. It was concluded that the Human Metronome Task is unable to elicit error-related negativity in participants. It seems plausible that this is due to the ambiguity of whether responses are erroneous or accurate. Thus, it seems as if it is necessary for more indications of whether a response is erroneous or not for the elicitation of error-related negativity than was present in the Human Metronome Task.

Arbetsrelaterad känsla av sammanhang (KASAM), empowerment och psykosocial arbetsmiljö (PSAM) är väletablerade begrepp. Det finns begränsad forskning om deras inbördes relation, dock har tidigare forskning konstaterat att höga nivåer av KASAM och empowerment är relaterad till god upplevelse av anställdas PSAM. Studiens syfte var att undersöka relationen och variationen mellan PSAM, KASAM och empowerment. Detta besvarades genom fyra frågeställningar och tre hypoteser. I studien ingick 130 deltagare (74 kvinnor och 56 män). Datainsamlingen skedde på två separata arbetsplatser. Enkäten inkluderade fem bakgrundvariabler och tre skalor. Materialet analyserades med korrelationer och regressionsanalyser. Analyserna visade att KASAM och empowerment kompletterar varandra med att förklara variationen i PSAM. Korrelationerna indikerade att högre upplevelse av KASAM och empowerment är kopplade till en högre skattning av PSAM. Utöver detta korrelerade KASAM och empowerment med varandra. Slutsatsen som drogs var att arbetsplatser måste undersöka dessa tre delar tillsammans för att få en överblick över hur anställda upplever sin PSAM.

The use of still images in instruction has a long history in the field of education. With the widespread use of microcomputers and the development of graphic software, the ability to create and use animated images has greatly increased; today many people use animated images in their teaching and training activities. Since the use of different types of images in instruction has various influences on students'learning results, the different effects between animated images and still images have been studied widely among researchers. However, the research results are not consistent. Some research results show that animated images are more effective than still images and some show no difference or less effective results. This experimental study explores the effects of animated images and still images on college students' learning of motion-related tasks and non-motion related tasks, with the students possessing different levels of field dependence-independence. This study found that: For learning tasks involving motion and/or change, animated images were more effective than still images for college students, and field dependent students benefited more from animated images than did the field independent students. However, for learning tasks that did not involve motion or change, there was no difference in learning results from the use of still images as opposed to animated images. In addition, for such learning tasks, there was no difference in the learning benefits of still images to field dependent versus field independent learners. / Ph. D.