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This study focuses on how a Personal Portfolio can facilitate the narration of an adolescent’s life story and the outcome on self understanding. An instrumental case study that was exploritative and descriptive in nature was used to gain insight into the potential value of using a Personal Portfolio to reflect an adolescent’s quest for identity development. Data were collected by means of Personal Portfolio activities, open-ended interviews, tape-recordings of participant interviews, reflective reports written by the research participant as well as observations and field notes recorded in a diary by the researcher. The thematic analysis of the data was done within a constructivist-interpretivist framework. Five core categories: Identity Crisis/Confusion, Identity Exploration,Identifying Developmental Assets, Unresolved Past Issues, and the Experience of Compiling a Personal Portfolio emerged. These core categories were further linked to sub-categories and related themes. This study found that compiling a Personal Portfolio supported the research participant’s quest for identity. In particular, it facilitated a process of self exploration regarding career choice and sexual identity and resulted in increased self-knowledge, an awareness of personal assets and an overall improved sense of self-worth and self-confidence. This study also provided the research participant with a platform to work from and the means to solve some personal problems. The study further more concluded that a Personal Portfolio is a cost effective method that is suitable for use in a diverse South African context which could be utilised by counsellors and educators with their task to assist adolescents with their identity development. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Educational Psychology / unrestricted

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Heutige Roboter sind nur begrenzt in der Lage etwas zu erlernen, sich unerwarteten Umständen anzupassen oder auf diese zu reagieren. Als Antwort auf diese Fragen, develomental robotics setzt sich den Aufbau eines künstlichen Systems zum Ziel, das motorische und kognitive Fähigkeiten analog zur menschlichen Entwicklung durch Interaktion mit der Umgebung entwickeln kann. In dieser Arbeit wird ein ähnlich Ansatz verwendet, mit Hilfe dessen grundlegende Verhaltenskomponenten identifiziert werden sollen, die eine autonome Aneignung motorischer und kognitive Fähigkeiten durch die Roboter ermöglichen könnten. Diese Arbeit untersucht die sensomotorische Interaktion als Mittel zur Schaffung von Erfahrungen. Es werden Experimente zu explorative Verhaltensweisen zur Aneigung von Arbewegungen, der Werkzeugnutzung und von interaktiven Fähigkeiten vorgestellt. In diesem Rahmen wird auch die Entwicklung sozialer Fähigkeiten, insbesondere durch joint attention, behandelt. Dabei werden zwei Vorraussetzugen zu joint attention untersucht: Zeigegesten und Erkennung von visueller Salienz. Dabei wurde das Framework der interen Modelle für die Darstellung von sensomotorischen Erfahrungen angewendet. Insbesondere wurden inverse und Vorwärtsmodelle mit unterschiedlichen Konfigurationen am sensorischen und motorischen Daten, die vom Roboter durch exploratives Verhalten, durch Beobachtung menschliche Vorführern, oder durch kinästhetisches Lehren erzeugt wurden geschult. Die Entscheidung zu Gunsten dieses Framework wurde getroffen, da es in der Lage ist, sensomotorische Zyklen zu simulieren. Diese Arbeit untersucht, wie grundlegende kognitive Fähigkeiten in einen humanoiden Roboter unter Berücksichtigung sensorischer und motorischer Erfahrungen implementiert werden können. Insbesondere wurden interne Simulationsprozesse für die Implementierung von Kognitivenfahigkeiten wie die Aktionsauswahl, die Werkzeugnutzung, die Verhaltenserkennung und die Self-Other distinction, eingesetzt. / State-of-the-art robots are still not properly able to learn from, adapt to, react to unexpected circumstances, and to autonomously and safely operate in uncertain environments. Researchers in developmental robotics address these issues by building artificial systems capable of acquiring motor and cognitive capabilities by interacting with their environment, inspired by human development. This thesis adopts a similar approach in finding some of those basic behavioural components that may allow for the autonomous development of sensorimotor and social skills in robots. Here, sensorimotor interactions are investigated as a mean for the acquisition of experience. Experiments on exploration behaviours for the acquisition of arm movements, tool-use and interactive capabilities are presented. The development of social skills is also addressed, in particular of joint attention, the capability to share the focus of attention between individuals. Two prerequisites of joint attention are investigated: imperative pointing gestures and visual saliency detection. The established framework of the internal models is adopted for coding sensorimotor experience in robots. In particular, inverse and forward models are trained with different configurations of low-level sensory and motor data generated by the robot through exploration behaviours, or observed by human demonstrator, or acquired through kinaesthetic teaching. The internal models framework allows the generation of simulations of sensorimotor cycles. This thesis investigates also how basic cognitive skills can be implemented in a humanoid robot by allowing it to recreate the perceptual and motor experience gathered in past interactions with the external world. In particular, simulation processes are used as a basis for implementing cognitive skills such as action selection, tool-use, behaviour recognition and self-other distinction.

This thesis investigates possible connections between the music of Erik Satie (1866-1925) and the later surrealist movement, turning to Parade (1917) in a case study that seeks to understand surrealism in music through the idea of self-exploration, a well-established interpretive approach in studies of surrealism in the visual arts. This thesis seeks to redefine surrealism in music not as a set of concrete musical characteristics, but as a collection of techniques meant to evoke subconscious turbulence by blurring the boundary between the "outside" and "inside," between conscious and subconscious, leading to a new discovery of higher or deeper truth. Satie's music aligns with the psychoanalytic elements of the discourse on surrealism. Psychoanalysis, pioneered by Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) and his followers in the 1890s in Vienna, permeated France around the time of the creation of the work. It inspired early surrealist techniques like automatism, illusory formal structures, collage, and stylistic allusion. This thesis demonstrates that such techniques can be discerned throughout Parade, not only in Satie's music, but also in its scenario, staging, costumes, and choreography. As such, Parade was a foundational work for the surrealist movement, with Satie's music contributing with the other media equally to the emotional and psychological impact of the ballet.