The purpose of this study was to evaluate the thesis that matching locus of control with type of relaxation training enhances physiological self-control. This was accomplished by comparing the effectiveness of a somatic and a cognitive relaxation method for internal and external locus of control subjects. It was hypothesized that the two techniques vary in degree of cue salience, and that the attentional strategy of internals would interact with the cognitive approach while externals would respond better to the somatic approach. Subjects were 80 volunteers from stressful occupations who scored high on the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory A-trait scale. Forty internals and 40 externals as defined by extreme scores on the Adult Form Nowicki Strickland Locus of Control Scale were randomly assigned to either the Jacobson or Autogenic group for five weekly laboratory training sessions with daily home practice. The effectiveness of the relaxation training was measured by six dependent variables: EMG, skin temperature, heart rate, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (A-state and A-trait scales), and self-reported home practice sessions. The data were analyzed by using analyses of variance with repeated measures. The expected interaction between locus of control and type of relaxation training was found only for heart rate. While the treatment was effective in reducing physiological and subjective anxiety for all subjects, internal locus of control subjects and those who received Jacobson training reduced muscle tension and increased temperature better than externals and subjects in the Autogenic group. Externals became more internal during training, and the allegedly stable characteristic of trait anxiety significantly decreased. The possibility that heart rate may be a less easily perceived parameter than EMG or skin temperature is discussed, and it is recommended that future research evaluate other physiological variables for enhanced responsivity under congruent conditions. The importance of further basic research on relaxation training is emphasized, and it is noted other aspects of this widely used treatment approach should be investigated for interactions with locus of control.

Research on self-control suggests that people do not do as well at self-control after they have already exerted self-control on something else. Despite the obvious importance of self-control in drinking behavior, few studies have examined alcohol consumption as an outcome measure in the context of self-control depletion and the potential role of cognitive processes in the self-control to drinking relationship remains largely unexplored. Although it is widely agreed that alcohol expectancies play an important role in one's decision to drink, no study has examined the role of expectancies in self-control's influence on drinking. This study addresses this important gap in the research by testing whether positive expectancies for alcohol influence the relationship between self-control depletion and placebo alcohol consumption in the laboratory. Results offer support for the resource model of self-control depletion in the context of drinking decisions; participants in the depleted self-control condition drank more placebo alcohol despite being reminded to be ready for an upcoming memory task. Hypotheses of conditional and indirect effects consistent with a process model of self-control were not supported. Using nonparametric analytic techniques, patterns in the data emerged suggestive of conditional indirect effects, though they appear to be very small in scale. Findings support the further exploration of the primary hypotheses, given the consideration of current limitations.

One of the least explored areas of C.S. Peirce's wide range of work is his contributions to psychology and the philosophy of mind. This dissertation examines the corpus of this work, especially as it relates to the subjects of mind, habit, instinct, sentiment, emotion, perception, consciousness, cognition, and community. The argument is that Peirce's contributions to these areas of investigation were both highly original and heavily influenced by the main intellectual currents of his time. An effort has been made to present Peirce's philosophy without apology, within the conceptual framework and idiom of its time, and without appeal to a comprehensive view that Peirce never articulated. Nevertheless, as several noted interpreters have argued, much of this work can be viewed through the lens of Peirce's innovative theory of signs and the notion of the semiotic triad as its central unifying feature, despite the fact that the general theory was itself under continuous refinement and remained incomplete at the time of his death. Another hermeneutical device employed is William James' better known and more accessible work which, when juxtaposed with Peirce's ideas, serves to bring them into sharper relief. While general and historical in the presentation of material, this study seeks, at the same time, to engage the criticism of contemporary Peirce scholars in an attempt to account for several of the conundrums inherent in Peirce's work. Among the problems with implications for his philosophy of mind and theory of inquiry are the limitations of his theory of continuity, his negative view of the self, his somewhat ambiguous position on the relation of psychology to logic, and the metaethical puzzle arising from application of his theory of probable inference to truly fateful decisions. These problems provide an interesting perspective and lend balance to the truly insightful contributions Peirce made to the discovery of the mind.

<p>Människor tenderar att attribuera framgångar till sig själva och misslyckanden till externa källor, fenomenet kallas för Self-serving bias. Hur individer attribuerar kan enligt forskning påverkas av bland annat graden av självkontroll samt självkänsla. Enligt forskning kan intentioner eller beteendemål aktiveras automatiskt och omedvetet av en utlösande signal, så kallad priming, och därmed aktivt guida en persons självreglering. Denna studie har genom ett experiment, med 56 högskolestudenter, undersökt om priming av självkontroll och självförtroende kan påverka hur en individ attribuerar vid framgång och misslyckande. Resultatet visade ingen signifikant skillnad mellan priminggrupperna. Humör visade sig ha betydelse för hur deltagarna attribuerade. En ojämn gruppfördelning och en för bred variationsvidd på beroendemåttet diskuteras om det hade någon påverkan på resultatet.</p>

In their challenge-point framework (CPF) Guadagnoli and Lee’s (2004) argue that learning is maximized when a person faces an optimal level of challenge during practice. It is suggested that challenge level can be manipulated through the combination of different practice variables. The purpose of this study was to investigate how practice schedule and self-controlled feedback frequency manipulations affect performance and learning of motor skills. Participants (n=96) attempted to learn three versions of a key-pressing task. The task consisted of pressing five computer keys in specified sequences in a goal criterion time. Participants were assigned to either a blocked practice schedule with self-controlled feedback (BLK-SC), a random practice schedule with self-controlled feedback (RND-SC), a blocked practice schedule with yoked feedback (BLK-YK), a random practice schedule with yoked feedback (RND-YK), a blocked practice schedule and 100 percent feedback (BLK-100), or a random practice schedule with 100 percent feedback (RND-100). Participants in the blocked conditions practiced 30 trials of each task according to a blocked practice schedule. Participants in the random conditions practiced 30 trial of each task according to a random practice schedule. Participants in the self-controlled feedback condition were allowed to choose whether or not to receive feedback on each trial. Yoked participants had their feedback schedule matched to a participant with similar characteristics in the self-control condition. Participants in the 100% feedback condition received feedback after every trial. Participants were also asked to complete the NASA Task Load Index (Hart & Staveland, 1988) and an adapted Perceived Competence for Learning scale (adapted from Williams & Deci, 1996) after the completion of the 5th and 90th trial. After 24 hr participants performed a retention test. The results indicated no difference between groups during retention or for the NASA-TLX and PCL scores. The feedback frequency analysis indicated no differences between BLK-SC and RND-SC groups. In general, the findings of the present study show that the effects of practice schedule conditions can be offset by self-controlled feedback manipulations. They also suggest that a number of different combinations of practice schedules and feedback frequencies can lead to similar challenge levels.

Syftet med denna studie är att via tre kvalitativa intervjuer undersöka gränsdragningen mellan privat och offentlig sfär på Internet ur ett socialpsykologiskt perspektiv. Huvudfrågorna lyder; ”Finns det en gräns mellan privat och offentligt på Internet och var går i sådana fall den?”; ”Vad är det människor vill skydda från insyn och varför?” samt ”Hur stor är medvetenheten kring privat sekretess på Internet?” Studien innefattar bland annat en historisk överblick om hur privat och offentlig sfär utvecklats genom åren och hur dagens arenor till stor del överlappar varandra. Fokus ligger på den ständiga gränsdragningen kring privat och offentlighet i vardagen och hur individer uppträder online, hur de där formar sina roller och sin identitet och där G. H. Meads teorier om I och Me och den generaliserade Andre såväl som Foucaults panoptikon aktualiseras. Resultatet av denna undersökning tyder på att det inte finns någon definitiv gräns mellan privat och offentligt, utan individen baserar sitt gränsdragande på en rad faktorer som exempelvis livssituation, samhällets normer samt kommersiell yttre påverkan. Medvetenheten om sekretess hos deltagarna tycks tämligen stor. / Name of paper: Regarding Boundaries at the Digital Arena - A qualitative study concerning Private and Public on the Internet  The purpose of this study is to explore the boundaries between private and public sphere on the Internet based on three interviews. The main questions are: “Is there a border between private and public sphere on the Internet and in that case, where?”; “What do people want to protect from prying eyes and why?” and “How widespread is the awareness of personal privacy on the Internet?”  Theory includes a historical overview of how the private and public sphere has developed over the years and how they today seem to overlap. Everyday life decisions about where to draw the lines are here being examined along with how people behave online and how they form their identities. G. H. Meads theories on I and Me and the significant others as well as Foucault’s understanding of panopticon are also brought up. The result of this survey shows that there is no definite line between private and public and that individuals instead base their borders on factors such as situation in life, social norms and external commercial influences. The participants also show a large awareness concerning secrecy.

Människor tenderar att attribuera framgångar till sig själva och misslyckanden till externa källor, fenomenet kallas för Self-serving bias. Hur individer attribuerar kan enligt forskning påverkas av bland annat graden av självkontroll samt självkänsla. Enligt forskning kan intentioner eller beteendemål aktiveras automatiskt och omedvetet av en utlösande signal, så kallad priming, och därmed aktivt guida en persons självreglering. Denna studie har genom ett experiment, med 56 högskolestudenter, undersökt om priming av självkontroll och självförtroende kan påverka hur en individ attribuerar vid framgång och misslyckande. Resultatet visade ingen signifikant skillnad mellan priminggrupperna. Humör visade sig ha betydelse för hur deltagarna attribuerade. En ojämn gruppfördelning och en för bred variationsvidd på beroendemåttet diskuteras om det hade någon påverkan på resultatet.

<p>Despite the considerable influence of situational factors and the resulting variability in behavior, individuals maintain stable average ways of acting. The purpose of the studies presented in this paper was to investigate one possible explanation of this trait stability. It is hypothesized that contra-trait behaviors, those that are different from typical trait levels, demand more effort, or self-control, than do trait-typical behaviors. In Study 1, participants reported on the trait content of their behavior along with several other variables. In Study 2, participants completed several tasks in the lab and were instructed to act at contra-trait or trait-typical levels of conscientiousness. Support for the contra-trait effort hypothesis was found in Study 1: Participants reported that contra-trait behavior was more effortful than trait-typical behavior. In addition, habitual contra-trait behaviors, which do not require self-control, were exempt from this effect. In Study 2, no support was found for contra-trait hypotheses: Participants generally did not rate contra-trait behaviors as more effortful, and subsequent behaviors were not affected by contra-trait behaviors. The implications of the findings and the possible explanations of the non-findings are discussed.</p> / Dissertation

<p>This dissertation concerns methods to test whether or not self-control</p><p>is costly, the form of temptation, and the affects different assumptions</p><p>about costly self-control and temptation have on optimal borrowing</p><p>and saving mechanisms. The second chapter shows that costly self-control</p><p>and temptation can be differentiated from changing impatience in a</p><p>stochastic income consumption-savings environment. The third chapter</p><p>describes an experiment to test whether subjects have time inconsistent</p><p>preferences, whether self-control is costly, and if so, whether the</p><p>cost of self-control is time dependent. The fourth chapter describes</p><p>the affects on the optimal borrowing and savings mechanisms that assumptions</p><p>about the myopia of temptation and the strength of costly self-control</p><p>have.</p> / Dissertation

The present study aimed to integrate situational and dispositional perspectives on the investigation of unethical and dishonest behavior through an experimental and a correlational study. More explicitly, the current study explored the effects of state self-control and social influence on cheating, and investigated the trait self control and conformity as predictors of academic dishonesty. Two preliminary studies were conducted. First, a pilot study with 230 undergraduate students was conducted to assess the reliability of the Turkish versions of the four scales intended to measure the constructs of interest. All four scales were found to have sufficient reliabilities. A second preliminary study was conducted to observe and to ameliorate the effects of two manipulations constructed for the main study, namely the rewriting task (depletory versus neutral) and the norm induction (deciding to cheat, not to cheat or to meet with a friend after the study). The main study was conducted with 87 undergraduate students. Correlational results underlined the importance of low self-control and high susceptibility to social influence as predictors of past behavior of academic dishonesty. Experimental results revealed that first, groups