abstract: Purpose: To examine: (1) whether Non-Hispanic Blacks (NHB) and Non-Hispanic Whites (NHW) with diagnosed arthritis differed in self-reported physical activity (PA) levels, (2) if NHB and NHW with arthritis differed on potential correlates of PA based on the Social Ecological Model (Mcleroy et al., 1988), and (3) if PA participation varied by race/ethnicity after controlling for age, gender, education, and BMI. Methods: This study was a secondary data analysis of data collected from 2006-2008 in Chicago, IL as part of the Midwest Roybal Center for Health Promotion. Bivariate analyses were used to assess potential differences between race in meeting either ACR or ACSM PA guidelines. Comparisons by race between potential socio-demographic correlates and meeting physical activity guidelines were assessed using Chi-squares. Potential differences by race in psychosocial, arthritis, and health-related and environmental correlates were assessed using T-tests. Finally, logistic regression analyses were used to examine if race was still associated with PA after controlling for socio-demographic characteristics. Results: A greater proportion of NHW (68.1% and 35.3%) than NHB (46.5% and 20.9%) met both the arthritis-specific and the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) recommendations for physical activity, respectively. NHB had significantly lower self-efficacy for exercise and reported greater impairments in physical function compared to NHW. Likewise, NHB reported more crime and less aesthetics within their neighborhood. NHW were 2.56 times more likely to meet arthritis-specific PA guidelines than NHB after controlling for age, gender, education, marital status, and BMI. In contrast, after controlling for sociodemographic characteristics, age and gender were the only significant predictors of meeting ACSM PA guidelines. Discussion: There were significant differences between NHB and NHW individuals with arthritis in meeting PA guidelines. After controlling for age, gender, education, and BMI non-Hispanic White individuals were still significantly more likely to meet PA guidelines. Interventions aimed at promoting higher levels of physical activity among individuals with arthritis need to consider neighborhood aesthetics and crime when designing programs. More arthritis-specific programs are needed in close proximity to neighborhoods in an effort to promote physical activity. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.S. Exercise and Wellness 2013

Care work is emotionally and physically demanding and is coupled with organisational challenges. As such, care work has been associated with emotional exhaustion which not only negatively impacts staff but also the care that they provide. Greater understanding of the psychological health of dementia care staff and their perceptions of their work will provide insights into how this group may be better supported. The first paper provides a review of the literature relating to psychological outcomes in dementia care staff. The literature identified was viewed in terms of an existing model of psychological health, the BASIC Ph, with the aim of evaluating the evidence and enhancing understanding of psychological health in this group. The utility of this model was also evaluated. The model highlighted areas for potential intervention as well as those for future research. Clinical implications for Clinical Psychologists were also discussed. The second paper aimed to increase understanding of the experiences of dementia care assistants who perceived themselves to be competent in their role. Eight care assistants who had high levels of self-efficacy were interviewed. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) revealed four superordinate themes. Accounts of experiencing dilemmas provided important contextual information and constituted the first superordinate theme. The second theme 'togetherness and connection' described participants' experience of the need for support, closeness and the value of engaging with older people with dementia. The third theme encompassed the attunement between care assistants and the older people for whom they cared and described empathy, personal perspective-taking and circularity of emotion as guides to care. The final theme 'caring as part of life' described the link between caring and identity as well as a genuine interest in people, an accepting attitude and motivation to care. These themes provide fruitful areas for further research and have implications for care staff training.

It has long been accepted in the field of EFL teaching and learning that writing in a foreign language by learners is a complex practice that involves not only cognition, but also psychology. With this in mind, in the present study, social-psychological and social-cognitive research frameworks were adopted to explore the relationship between the writing attitudes, apprehension and self-efficacy of Saudi learners of English, and their writing performance, with a view to expanding the frontiers of current scholarship. This relationship was investigated on two levels: that of writing in general, and that of writing specific types of text. This relationship has been neglected in previous research; in addition, the scope of past studies of Saudi students has been limited to only one of the two traditional genders. The current study was designed to contribute to filling these gaps. The thesis consists of six chapters. Chapter One introduces the objectives, research question, theoretical framework and background of the study. Chapter Two reviews the related literature. Chapter Three describes the sample population, data collection and procedures. Chapter Four deals with the data analyses. Chapter Five discusses the findings and implications of the investigation. Chapter Six presents a summary and conclusions. The research found no correlation between psychological characteristics and writing performance in general, nor between psychological characteristics and the writing of narrative and persuasive text types, in particular. Overall, the results conflict with those of previous studies, in that it was found that rather than psychological characteristics influencing writing performance gender difference influenced writing performance, and the psychological characteristics did not influence anything, it was the other way round, gender difference also influenced psychological characteristics. This thesis thus contributes to the growing body of knowledge in the field of EFL, by providing evidence that the influence of psychological characteristics on writing is not salient in every socio-cultural context, and that the writers' gender can have an effect on their writing performance.

Self-efficacy har visat sig vara en betydelsefull personlig resurs i arbetslivet. Välmående är också viktig för arbetslivet, då en mer välmående personal visar mindre tendenser till utbrändhet. Denna studie testar dimensionerna social- och emotionell self-efficacy i en specifik kontext - kundtjänstbranschen. Syftet var att undersöka arbetsrelaterad social- och emotionell self-efficacy och förhållandet till välmående. Det var 135 kundstjänstspersonal som deltog, 83 kvinnor. De svarade på en webbenkät bestående av Scale of Occupational Emotional- and Social Self-Efficacy, Emotional Exhaustion scale, Emotional irritation scale samt The EPOCH measure of adolescents wellbeing. Resultatet bekräftade hypoteserna om att hög nivå av social- och emotionell self-efficacy samvarierar med hög nivå av välmående. Resultaten diskuteras med JDR-theory där self-efficacy kan ses som en stark resurs som hjälper individen att hantera arbetskraven, vilket leder till välmående. I vidare studier hade det varit intressant att undersöka relationen mellan social- och emotionell self-efficacy och välmående i andra branscher.

Graduate

Magister Artium (Psychology) - MA(Psych) / This study aimed to synthesise the debates on factors associated with promoting resilience among women survivors of sexual abuse. Using systematic review methodology, six electronic databases (EBSCO, PsychINFO, SAGE, Science Direct, Springerlink and JSTOR) were used. Several keywords related to resilience and sexual abuse were utilised to search for articles published between January 2000 and December 2013 for inclusion. These primary studies were collocated, systematically assessed, synthesised and interpreted. Using two reviewers, data extraction was conducted in three stages, namely: the title reading, the abstract reading and the full text reading of articles. For the quality assessment, four instruments were employed, two of which were self-constructed tools. Thirty articles acquired an acceptable threshold score during the analysis and were used to compose this systematic review. Findings of this review highlighted that resilience is multidimensional; that is, it is made up of intrinsic and extrinsic resources/factors and is also a complex gradual dynamic process with specific indicators. These indicators include demonstration of competence and excellent functioning in important areas of life such as work, relationships, self-management, psychological well-being, and good health. Ten interacting factors were identified as promoting resilience including, 1) availability of social support from family and friends; 2) ego resources; 3) temperament/personality factors; 4) biographic characteristics; 5) ability to regulate emotions; 6) cultural factors; 7) positive life opportunities; 8) religion and spirituality; 9) abuse related factors; and 10) coping skills/strategies. These factors interact together, leading the survivor to be resilient. Major findings of the study as well as the implications for practice and further research are discussed.

Magister Commercii (Industrial Psychology) - MCom(IPS) / This study focused on the relationship between emotional intelligence (EI) and self-efficacy amongst teachers in the Western Cape. Teachers are often emotionally overwhelmed by having to meet the demands and expectations set by the education system, parents, colleagues and learners (Coetzee & Jansen, 2007). The South African educational system is in a transitional stage. The lack of discipline in schools, the abolishment of corporal punishment, unmotivated learners, redeployment, retrenchments and retirement packages for teachers, large pupil-teacher ratios and a new curriculum approach all contribute to raising the stress levels of teachers (Ngidi & Sibaya, 2002). Teachers also experience intense, emotion-laden interactions on a daily basis and experience a great number of emotional demands compared to other professionals (Burke & Greenglass, 1995). In particular, primary school teachers in socially deprived areas at times are considered to be more a child-welfare assistant than a conventional school teacher (Eacute & Esteve, 2000). Salovey and Mayer (1990) define EI as the ability of people to deal with their emotions. The definition goes further to suggest that EI is the subset of social intelligence that involves the ability to monitor one's own and others' feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them and to use this information to guide one‟s thinking and action (Salovey & Mayer, 1990, as cited in Ream, 2010). Developing an individual‟s self-efficacy creates a regulation of self-awareness, which is essential in developing emotions. According to Bandura (1997), self-awareness creates a strong connection to self-efficacy, as self-efficacy emphasises selfawareness and self-regulation as factors influencing the development of self-efficacy beliefs. EI and self-efficacy merge as an individual interprets organisational realities by the ability to recognise thoughts, feelings and behaviours through self-awareness, regulation and control (Bandura, 1997). In order to enable teachers to cope effectively with these demands, this study aimed to determine the relationship between EI and self-efficacy of teachers. According to Gundlach, Marinko and Douglas (2003), the mental processes of self-efficacy can be impacted by emotions as "emotions left uncontrolled can interfere with the cognitive processing of information that can be vital to task performance" (p. 234). It can be deduced that a person with low EI and low self-efficacy will likely struggle in maintaining order in his/her daily tasks. Ream (2010) states that when individuals are able to control their emotions, make accurate attributions with regard to past workplace events and objectively understand how their emotions and attributions influence their thoughts, feelings and expectancies about future workplace events, they are better able to enhance their self-efficacy beliefs. However, when organisational members are unable to control their emotions and fail to make objective attributions with regard to causation, it is likely that they will underestimate their capabilities and that their self-efficacy perceptions will suffer (Gundlach et al., 2003). The study targeted teachers at various primary schools in the Western Cape. The respondents were asked to answer a self-administered consolidated questionnaire consisting of a biographical survey, the Schutte Self-Report Emotional Intelligence Test and the General Self-Efficacy Scale. Both these tests have been demonstrated to be psychometrically sound and their reliability and validity have been extensively reported on and supported in numerous studies. The sample group (n = 90) consisted of male and female teachers, and convenience sampling was utilised to select the sample. The key findings of this study suggest that there is no significant relationship between the EI and self-efficacy of teachers and their demographic profile. Consistent with theoretical and empirical research by Penrose, Perry and Ball (2007) and Tschannen-Moran and Woolfolk-Hoy (2001), the present investigation demonstrated that neither gender nor age nor race was significantly related to the self-efficacy levels of teachers. This study enriches the literature regarding teachers' EI and self-efficacy by exploring the existence and extent of the relationship between these two variables.

In Taiwan, the running race has become a prevalent physical activity (PA) over the past decade. A personalized running program, Run-Up, is a middle distance running unit that integrates a series of educational activities into an existing high school physical education (PE) course for enhancing students’ efficacy beliefs and enjoyment of running. Self-efficacy theory (SET) provided a framework to help the researcher understand how and why the Run-Up program activities affect students’ efficacy beliefs and perspectives on running. This qualitative case study was designed to explore the effectiveness of the Run-Up program in promoting high school students’ self-efficacy and enjoyment of a middle distance running in a single class of grade twelve students in Taiwan. Data collection methods included semi-structured interviews with students and the teacher, their course feedback forms, and the samples of their journal entries including the students’ course work and teacher’s teaching notes. Data were analyzed by using constant comparison. Three resulting themes explicated how diverse learning activities integrated with multiple learning strategies in the Run-Up program could serve as an avenue to foster high school students’ self-efficacy and enjoyment of running. Comments from both the teacher and students highlighted the value of the Run-Up program as an educational PA program. / Graduate

Midwives are often the lead providers of maternity care for women. To provide the variety of care required by women, they need to be confident in their role and practice. To date, only limited evidence exists in relation to confidence as experienced by midwives. This thesis aims to explore the phenomena of confidence through the lived experience of midwives. In particular, this will encompass confidence in the context of the intrapartum care setting. The theoretical basis for the study was hermeneutic phenomenology, guided by the work of Heidegger and Gadamer. Midwives were recruited from three clinical settings to obtain a diversity of views and experiences. Rich data from diaries and in-depth interviews, from twelve participants, provided insight into the phenomena of confidence and the factors midwives encountered that affected their confidence. The phenomena of confidence consisted of a dynamic balance, between the cognitive and affective elements of knowledge, experience and emotion. This balance was fragile and easily lost, leading to a loss of confidence. Confidence was viewed as vital to midwifery practice by the participants of the study; however, maintaining their confidence was often likened to a battle. A number of cultural and contextual factors were identified as affecting confidence within the working environment, including trust, collegial relationships and organisational influences. Midwives also described various coping strategies they utilised to maintain their confidence in the workplace environment. This study provides unique insight into the phenomena of confidence for midwives working in intrapartum care, resulting in a number of recommendations. These highlight the importance of leadership, education and support for midwives in the clinical environment in enabling them to develop and maintain confidence in practice.

This study examines the extent to which locus of control and social support are linked to self-efficacy with regard to disease management in HIV-positive adults. Perceived ability to effectively manage illness was measured with the Self-Efficacy for Managing Chronic Disease Scale. Scores from the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support and the Multidimensional Locus of Control Scale were used as predictors. The gender-balanced sample (N = 69) of HIV+ adults was primarily African-American (65.3%) and European American (30.5%), with a mean age of 47 years (SD = 8.37). Correlational analyses suggested significant positive relationships between self-efficacy, social support, and locus of control due to powerful others. A regression analysis found that the model accounted for 23% of the variance in self-efficacy (adj. R-squared =.23, F (5, 63) = 4.81, p < .01), with social support (&#946; = .37, t = 3.28, p < .01) and locus of control (&#946; = .25, t = 2.26, p < .05) both significant predictors. Results suggest that social support and locus of control contribute to the belief that HIV can be managed. Interestingly, an external locus of control contributed to this belief, perhaps due to the perception of a physician, religious icon, or partner as a "powerful other." Results suggest that a strong supportive relationship with a trusted other along with enhanced social support typically associated with group-based interventions may improve health outcomes by increasing self-efficacy in disease management in HIV-positive adults.