Title of diploma paper: Effect of anxiety on the athlete's sports performance in flatwater canoeing. Objectives: The aim of the study was to find out the values of competitive state anxiety and evaluate its influence on sports performance in a race. Methods: The questionnaire method CSAI-2 has been used to determine the values of the components of competitive state anxiety. The observed values were statistically compared with the standards of the best athletes and then analyzed with the performances of athletes in individual races. The dependence of the variable values was determined by correlation and regression analysis. Results: Flatwater kayakers and canoeists have higher cognitive and somatic anxiety and lower self- confidence compared to other athletes. In the test group flatwater kayakers, we managed to demonstrate that the higher the values of cognitive and somatic anxiety, the higher the negative effect on the athlete's sports performance. Higher values of self-confidence affect performance positively. The dependence of the variable values has been identified as medium to high at the 5% significance level. In the case of flatwater canoeists, this dependence has not been statistically proven. Self-confidence of the athlete is positively affected by higher age and experience. Keywords:...

Resumé: Tématem diplomové práce byla otázka vlivu dramatické a osobnostně sociální výchovy na sebevědomí žáka. V teoretické části byly vysvětleny psychologické pojmy týkající se osobnosti člověka. Rozložení jednotlivých kapitol umožnilo strukturovaně podávat informace, nezbytné k vytvoření uceleného obrazu dané problematiky.Největší prostor byl věnováno metodám a technikám používaným v hodinách dramatické a osobnostně sociální výchovy. V praktické části byl kladen důraz na aplikaci výše zmíněných metod a technik ve vyučovacích lekcích.

Bakgrund: Drogberoende patienters upplevda förmåga att hantera sitt drogberoende, antas påverka utfallet av vården. Self-efficacy förmodas spela en framträdande roll, tillsammans med sjuksköterskans förhållningsätt och stöd för denna patientgrupp.     Syfte: Att beskriva self-efficacy och dess roll vid påverkan på patienter med drogberoende.  Metod: Genom litteraturöversikt skapa en kunskapsöversikt över self-efficacys roll och påverkan på drogberoende patienter.   Resultat: Resultatet bekräftar self-efficacy som en viktig faktor, men att andra faktorer verkar självständigt och styrande i sitt förhållande till self-efficacy, i en komplex kontext. Andra viktiga faktorer utöver self-efficacy framkommer i resultatet, är socialt stöd och social kontext, kognitiva faktorer och psykisk hälsa, interventioner och behandling.  Slutsats: Self-efficacy är som faktor viktig och ingår i ett komplext sammanhang med andra faktorer. Self-efficacy framstår som en viktig faktor i sin roll för påverkan på de drogberoende patienterna. I detta sammanhang är sjuksköterskans personcentrerade förhållningssätt viktigt, för att genom ett evidensinformerat arbete sammanföra detta med den nödvändiga kunskapen som patienten har om sig själv och för att så stötta patienten på bästa sätt. Vidare omvårdnadsforskning bör göras på drogberoende patienters olika följdsjukdomar, tidiga interventioner och negativt behandlings utfall, med ett focus på self-efficacy. / Background:  Drug dependent patients perceived ability to deal with where drug addiction, are assumed to influence the outcome of care. Self-efficacy is likely to play a prominent role, together with the nurse's attitude and support for this group of patients.  Purpose:  To describe the role of self-efficacy and its effects on patients with drug dependence.  Method:  Through literature overview create a knowledge overview of self-efficacy’s effect on drug dependent patients.  Results:  The result confirms self-efficacy as an important factor, but other factors seems to be autonomous and self-governing in its relationship with self-efficacy, in a complex context. Other important factors that emerge in the result set in addition to selfefficacy are social support and social context, cognitive factors and mental health, interventions and treatment.  Conclusion:  Self-efficacy is as a factor important and are included in a complex context with other factors. Self-efficacy is emerging as an important factor in his role for the impact on the drug dependent patients. In this context, the nurse's personcentered approach is important, because with an evidence informed work combine this with the necessary knowledge that the patient has about himself and in so support the patient in the best way. Nursing research should be done on various sequelae of drug dependent patients, early interventions and negative treatment outcome, with a focus on self-efficacy.

Abstract This narrative research focuses on teachers’ perceptions of autonomy because of its importance to job commitment, efficiency, satisfaction, and motivation. A positive perception of autonomy relates to teachers’ feelings of competency, empowerment and professionalism. The overall importance of and desire for autonomy may be symptomatic of teachers’ reactions to obtain more, or to keep the autonomy they have. Previous studies have often depicted teacher autonomy as individualistic, comprising freedom from control. However, this research challenges the appropriateness of this conceptualisation of teacher autonomy by asking how upper-secondary school mathematics teachers perceive their autonomy in different contexts. To display contextual variations, the interviews with 15 upper-secondary school mathematics teachers from Canada and 12 from Finland were based mainly on open-ended questions. The contents of the teachers’ narratives were analysed in their whole and by comparing categories of narratives from one context to another. The findings suggest that context influences how teachers perceive their autonomy. They also reveal that trust plays a decisive role in whether teachers feel autonomous or not, that trust plays a central to the relationships teachers have at work, and that autonomy inextricably exists in relations. Consequently, this research claims that the spectrum of autonomy for teachers should be expanded beyond its current individuality, to include a broader, more relational understanding of autonomy. A core argument of this research is therefore that teacher autonomy needs to be reconceptualised as relying on contextual sensitivities and relationships. By providing a more comprehensive conceptualisation of teacher autonomy—i.e., one which is more context-sensitive and which focuses on teachers’ concerns—the findings of this research supports more empowering ways for teachers to exert a proactive influence on their own autonomy. Teachers’ perception of their autonomy is of practical and academic importance. Teachers who feel satisfied, supported, empowered and autonomous are more committed and motivated, which in turn advances better, more adaptive, and more adequate teacher education. / Tiivistelmä Tämän narratiivisen tutkimuksen kohteena ovat opettajien käsitykset autonomiasta. Ne ovat tärkeitä työhön sitoutumisen, tehokkuuden, tyytyväisyyden, ja motivaation kannalta. Myönteisellä käsityksellä autonomiasta on merkitystä opettajien tuntemuksiin pätevyydestä, voimaantumisesta ja ammattitaidosta. Autonomian arvostaminen ja tarve autonomiaan voivat kertoa opettajien halusta pitää kiinni autonomiastaan tai lisätä sen määrää. Aiempi kirjallisuus kuvaa opettajan autonomiaa yksilökeskeisenä, vapaana ulkopuolisesta kontrollista. Tämä tutkimus haastaa yksilökeskeisen näkemyksen kysymällä, miten lukion opettajat eri konteksteista kokevat autonomiansa. Kontekstuaalisten vaihtelujen tutkimista varten haastateltiin 15 lukion matematiikan opettajaa Kanadasta ja 12 lukion matematiikan opettajaa Suomesta esittämällä heille enimmäkseen avoimia kysymyksiä. Opettajien narratiivien sisällöt analysoitiin kokonaisuudessaan ja vertaamalla kategorioita kontekstien välillä. Tuloksista voidaan päätellä, että konteksti vaikuttaa merkittävästi siihen, miten opettajat kokevat autonomian. Luottamuksella on keskeinen merkitys sille, tuntevatko opettajat itsensä autonomisiksi toimijoiksi vai eivät. Lisäksi havaittiin, että luottamuksella on suuri merkitys työympäristön ihmissuhteissa, ja että autonomia on erottamaton osa näitä suhteita. Näin ollen tutkimuksen johtopäätöksissä esitetään, että autonomian käsitteen kirjoa tulisi laajentaa nykyisestä yksilökeskeisestä painotuksesta laveampaan määrittelyyn. Tämän tutkimuksen keskeinen väite on, että opettajan autonomiaa käsitteenä tulisi tarkastella uudelleen huomioimalla erilaiset kontekstit ja ihmissuhteet. Painottamalla kokonaisvaltaisempaa näkemystä opettajien autonomiasta, toisin sanoen huomioonottamalla kontekstin ja opettajien omat huolenaiheet, tämän tutkimuksen tulokset viittaavat tarpeeseen opettajien voimaannuttamisesta, jotta he voivat proaktiivisesti vaikuttaa omaan autonomiaansa Opettajien käsityksillä autonomiasta on merkitystä sekä käytännön että teorian kehittämisen näkökulmista. Työssään tyytyväinen, tuettu, voimaantunut ja itsenäinen opettaja on sitoutunut ja motivoitunut. Opettajien autonomiaan liittyvien käsitysten parempi ymmärtäminen edesauttaa opettajankoulutuksen kehittämistä.

<p>AbstractAuthors: Åsa Höjer, Karl WijkmarkTitle: The intercultural communicator. A study of cultures’ influence on communication.Level: BA Thesis in Media and Communication StudiesLocation: University on KalmarLanguage: SwedishNumber of pages: 67Date of seminar: 2009-01-15Advisor: Jens CavallinKey words: Intercultural communication, culture, Hofstede´s cultural dimensions, anxiety and uncertainty, self-confidence, high and low context, verbal and nonverbal communication, Telenor, Pakistan, Scandinavia.Case company: TelenorPurpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate what cultural differences, regarding communication, that are present between Scandinavia and Pakistan. Furthermore the purpose is to illustrate which factors that are important for personnel working for Telenor, that are about to work in a foreign culture, in order to create effective intercultural communication.Methodology: The following study is a case study that has used a qualitative methodology with interviews conducted via e-mail. To be able to interpret and understand human experiences and situations a hermeneutical approach has been taken. Since we have had existing theories which has enabled us to look and test the “real world” a deductive approach has been used.Theoretical perspectives: As a basis for this study lies a cultural theory with focus on Hofstede´s study of specific cultures within nations. Furthermore, theories within the intercultural communication´s area such as stereotypes, high and low context communication, verbal and nonverbal communication have been used. Finally a theory regarding anxiety and uncertainty was applied.Conclusions: By studying the Pakistani culture that is characterized by collectivism, a large power distance and high context communication where the messages are implicit, this study has established that communication is carried out in a rather different way than in Scandinavia. Besides having basic knowledge about the foreign culture, and thereby be able to manage and avoid misunderstandings in the communication, this study has established thatan individual´s personality has a big influence on the effectiveness of the intercultural communication. The person´s cultural background together with his/her individual traits and values creates a personal communication-pattern that is more or less suitable in the intercultural communication encounter.</p>

AbstractAuthors: Åsa Höjer, Karl WijkmarkTitle: The intercultural communicator. A study of cultures’ influence on communication.Level: BA Thesis in Media and Communication StudiesLocation: University on KalmarLanguage: SwedishNumber of pages: 67Date of seminar: 2009-01-15Advisor: Jens CavallinKey words: Intercultural communication, culture, Hofstede´s cultural dimensions, anxiety and uncertainty, self-confidence, high and low context, verbal and nonverbal communication, Telenor, Pakistan, Scandinavia.Case company: TelenorPurpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate what cultural differences, regarding communication, that are present between Scandinavia and Pakistan. Furthermore the purpose is to illustrate which factors that are important for personnel working for Telenor, that are about to work in a foreign culture, in order to create effective intercultural communication.Methodology: The following study is a case study that has used a qualitative methodology with interviews conducted via e-mail. To be able to interpret and understand human experiences and situations a hermeneutical approach has been taken. Since we have had existing theories which has enabled us to look and test the “real world” a deductive approach has been used.Theoretical perspectives: As a basis for this study lies a cultural theory with focus on Hofstede´s study of specific cultures within nations. Furthermore, theories within the intercultural communication´s area such as stereotypes, high and low context communication, verbal and nonverbal communication have been used. Finally a theory regarding anxiety and uncertainty was applied.Conclusions: By studying the Pakistani culture that is characterized by collectivism, a large power distance and high context communication where the messages are implicit, this study has established that communication is carried out in a rather different way than in Scandinavia. Besides having basic knowledge about the foreign culture, and thereby be able to manage and avoid misunderstandings in the communication, this study has established thatan individual´s personality has a big influence on the effectiveness of the intercultural communication. The person´s cultural background together with his/her individual traits and values creates a personal communication-pattern that is more or less suitable in the intercultural communication encounter.

The purpose of this study was to compare Turkey and the European Union (EU) regarding aspects (use, self-confidence and attitude) of students&rsquo / information and communication technologies (ICT), the relationships between ICT aspects and mathematical and problem solving literacy performances, and to understand education policy makers&rsquo / perceptions on ICT in Turkey. A multimethod (quantitative and qualitative) research design was used in this study. Country groups &ndash / an EU member group, a new EU member group and Turkey- were formed on the basis of the status of a country in the EU, and that of having ICT data in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2003. This study has three focuses. The first focus of the present study was to examine similarities and differences in ICT use, self-confidence in ICT and attitudes toward computers in students from Turkey and the EU. The sample of this focus was those students from the EU member group (N=56,610), the new EU member group (N=24,834) and Turkey (N=3,231) who participated in the PISA 2003. Multivariate analysis of covariance - controlling students&rsquo / economic, social and cultural status (ESCS) and attitudes toward computers- and univariate analysis of covariance -controlling ESCS- were conducted to see whether students&rsquo / ICT aspects differ across country groups. The first focus of the present study indicated that Turkish students have lower self-confidence in using computer and the Internet and they use the Internet less frequently than students in the EU. Contrary to this, the findings of this focus revealed that Turkish students have relatively more positive attitudes toward computers and they use program/software more frequently than do students in the EU. The second focus of the present study was to model the relationships among ICT factors and mathematical and problem solving literacy performances of Turkish and the EU students. The sample of this focus was those students from the EU member group (N=57,787), the new EU member group (N=25,359) and Turkey (N=3,590) who participated in the PISA 2003. The proposed path analytic models were separately tested for each country group. The second focus revealed that students&rsquo / socioeconomic and cultural status and selfconfidence in routine computer tasks have positive and medium level relationships with their mathematical and problem solving literacy performances, for all country groups. Furthermore, students&rsquo / self-confidence in Internet tasks had a positive and low level relationship with these performances for all country groups. On the other hand, it was found that students&rsquo / frequency of computer and Internet use and their self-confidence in high-level computer tasks have generally negative and small relationships with these literacy performances in all country groups. The third focus aimed to investigate education policy makers&rsquo / perceptions of the ICT policy making and implementation process in Turkey, and their evaluations of the findings of the quantitative phase of this study. The participants of this focus consisted of seven education policy makers from the Ministry of National Education and universities in Turkey. The data, collected with interviews, were content-analyzed by coding data, identifying, and relating the categories and sub-categories, that is, open, axial and selective coding were conducted respectively. In the third focus of the present study, participants specified the primary issues of ICT policy making and the implementing process in Turkey and made suggestions on these issues. Participants frequently related the findings of the quantitative phase of this study to the economic, social and cultural status of students.

The importance of passion increases with the extent of sorrow. While money can replace the passion by offering the opportunity to buy the added value for oneself and the society, social enterprises, artists and start-up organizations have bigger issues to organize the necessary resources. Passion is inevitable for making a difference in the society while suffering a lack of money. Thus, the presence of a certain obsession is a favorable situation for smaller organizations in order to go through difficulties. This thesis investigates the miracle of passion in order to gain an understanding about the ability of leading passionate people. Theories and experiences from passionate individuals are combined in this research paper and suggest different perspectives a leader must consider by leading passion. I assume the social interaction between leaders and followers which result in a mutual influence of behavior and performance. This thesis is focused on the perspective of passionate followership and elucidates factors that are needed to act passionate as well as the role of the leader within this passionate environment.

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between statistics self-efficacy, statistics anxiety, and performance in introductory graduate statistics courses. The study design compared two statistics self-efficacy measures developed by Finney and Schraw (2003), a statistics anxiety measure developed by Cruise and Wilkins (1980), and a course performance measure. To view self-efficacy from two perspectives, the Current Statistics Self-Efficacy (CSSE) assessed student confidence in their ability to complete specific statistics tasks in the present, whereas Self-Efficacy to Learn Statistics (SELS) assessed student confidence in their ability to learn statistics in the future. The performance measure was the combined average of the midterm and final exam scores only, excluding grades from other course activities. The instruments were distributed to four sections of an introductory graduate statistics course (N=88) in a College of Education at a large metropolitan university during the first week of the semester during Fall 2009 and Spring 2010. Both of the statistics self-efficacy measures revealed a low to moderate inverse relationship with statistics anxiety and a low to moderate direct relationship with each other. In this study there was no correlation between statistics anxiety (CSCS), statistics self-efficacy (CSSE and SELS), and course performance. There was high internal reliability for each instrument's items making the instruments suitable for use with graduate students. However, none of the instruments' results were significant in relation to course performance with graduate students in this sample. Unlike prior research involving undergraduate-level statistic students that has reported a relationship between the CSSE and SELS, the present study, involving graduate students, did not find any significant correlation with performance. Additional research is suggested to investigate the reasons for the differences between the studies.

Syfte och frågeställningar: Denna studie har granskat begreppet mental tuffhet och dess roll i sporten baseboll. Syftet var att, genom en kvantitativ och kvalitativ metod, undersöka hur fyra unga svenska pitchers reflekterar över de egenskaper, färdigheter och verktyg associerade till mental tuffhet för att skapa en ökad förståelse i unga pitchers mentala förmåga. Detta genomförs som den första svenska idrottspsykologiska studien i sitt slag. Hur upplever unga basebollspelare olika aspekter av de innefattande egenskaper och färdigheter som omfattar mental tuffhet? Besitter unga basebollspelare som håller en jämn prestationsnivå under match även en högre grad av mental tuffhet? Metod: Studien består av en kvalitativ och kvantitativ metod där ett urval av fyra pitchers först statistiskt har observerats under match för att sen intervjuas med en semistrukturerad intervjumetod. Statistikinsamling genomfördes med syftet att kvantitativt granska deras prestation under match sett till lyckade och misslyckade kast. Efter varje match har testpersonerna intervjuats med utgångspunkt från matchens statistik samt fyra idrottspsykologiska teman; självförtroende, motivation, idrottspsykologiska verktyg och målsättning. Denna metodtriangulering har använts för att granska hur de hanterar mentalt tuffa situationer i match. Resultat: Ett antal faktorer framkom i studiens analys som relaterade till mental tuffhet: fysiska och mentala förberedelser, den fysiska förmågan, fokusering/refokusering, viljan att bli bättre samt att hantera motgång. Även ett antal påverkande faktorer framkom: utbildning, lagkamrater/omgivning, yttre krav och externa distraktioner. Slutsats: Generellt framkom mental tuffhet som ett brett och komplext begrepp kopplat till många olika idrottspsykologiska faktorer. Kopplingar mellan self-efficacy och mental tuffhet har gjorts då testpersonerna beskrev prestationsbaserade självförtroende i sin tro på sin egen fysiska och tekniska förmåga, samt motivation i sin fysiska utveckling. Det framkom även att resultatets påverkande faktorer spelade en stor roll i hur de senare kände mental tuffhet i match. Nyckelord: Baseboll, pitchers, mental tuffhet, self-efficacy, självförtroende, motivation, visualisering, självprat, målsättning