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This quantitative study is designed to examine possible cross-national differences between a Zambian and a South Africa student sample on specific aspects of Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory in relation to software piracy. Software piracy is when people make copies of the computer software without permission or they load software onto more machines than the licensed agreement says they can. A questionnaire composed of previously developed scales measuring attitudes, social norms, piracy intentions, incentives, deterrents, self-efficacy and moral disengagement within the context of software piracy was collated. During economics classes in a major University in Zambia and one in South Africa 150 copies of the questionnaire were handed out. The South African sample consisted of 37 males and 34 females all aged between 18-28, 44 were in 2nd year and 27 were in 3rd year. The Zambian sample consisted of 57 males and 12 females, 53 were between 18-28, 12 between 29-38 and 4 between 39-49, 27 were in their 3rd years of study and 42 in 4th year. The scales had adequate reliabilities (.60 to .89). There was sufficient evidence to suggest that there is a statistical difference between the two countries on attitudes and social norms. The South African sample had more positive attitudes and more favourable social norms than Zambia. South Africa reported higher extrinsic motivators (monetary, reinforcement and reciprocal exchange, and self-evaluative and reciprocal exchange) and Zambia reported higher intrinsic motivators and being deterred by the threat of harsh punishments. There was also sufficient evidence to suggest that attitudes, social norms and self-efficacy predict (in order of best predictors) piracy intention in both samples. Moral disengagement did not act as a moderator or mediator between attitudes, social norms and self-efficacy and piracy intention in either sample. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

The existence of emotional and behavioural problems in young children has been extensively documented. Such problems have a substantial impact on children themselves, their families, their schools, and society more generally. A basic tenet of social cognitive psychology is that the way people think in their daily lives about themselves and their social world is linked with the way they behave. Based on this assumption, the main aim of this thesis was to explore whether and how children who show emotional and behavioural problems in the first year of primary school, differ from their nonproblem peers in the way they think about themselves and their relationships with their mothers, teachers and peers. Three studies were carried out. The first two dealt with the development of a standardised procedure for identifying emotional and behavioural problems in children in the first year of primary school. The third study endeavoured to explore social cognitions of the selected children. In the first study, 61 reception class teachers in London (England) evaluated three existing behaviour rating scales by providing assessments for children in their classes. One of these scales was further evaluated for use In India, In a normative study of 488 children. Using this measure, 210 children attending the first year In 26 primary schools were selected. Of these, 115 formed the target group- showing emotional and behavioural problems and the rest were their comparison children- free from reported problems but matched on gender within the same class. The children's social cognitions were examined in individual interviews. The measures used included the Harter Scale, Cassidy's Incomplete Stories With Doll Families and the Puppet Interview. The children in the target group scored significantly lower than the comparison group on all the measures except the Puppet Interview, depicting a less positive view of themselves and their relationships with their mothers, teachers and peers. Follow up analyses indicated that the differences in the two groups were largely due to those children who showed internalising or multiple problems. Children showing predominantly externalising problems did not differ significantly from their comparisons. The findings add to the literature by showing that a meaningful link exists.

Based on past research that suggests an association between perspective-taking and theory of mind, the present study investigates the relationship between these two constructs by administering three perspective-taking and three theory of mind tasks, along with one measure of inhibition and one measure of expressive language, to eighty-four 3- and 4-year olds. The goals of this study were to (1) evaluate the relative difficulties of the six perspective-taking and theory of mind tasks, (2) assess whether the theory of mind and perspective-taking tasks scale onto the same dimension, (3) examine the distinctions proposed within the construct of perspective-taking, (4) investigate the relationship between inhibition and verbal ability with theory of mind and perspective-taking, and (5) examine the relationship between perspective-taking and theory of mind. The results show that the six theory of mind and perspective-taking tasks develop along a single continuum and produce a scale of the understanding of subjectivity for preschoolers. Results also demonstrate that the ability to take someone else’s perspective without directly confronting it with one’s own perspective is the least challenging, and understanding that others’ beliefs can be false is the most challenging task. Finally, results indicate that inhibition and verbal ability account for the relationship between almost all of the perspective-taking and theory of mind tasks. / Graduate

Bandura s (1986) Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) embraces an interactional model of causation in which environmental events, personal factors and behaviour all operate as interacting determinants of each other. This study aims to develop a model that predicts and explains incidents of unauthorised copying of software using SCT. To do this, the current study explored the relationship between attitudes, self-efficacy and social norms, with an individual s intention to copy software illegally. In addition, moral disengagement was considered as a mediator of the relationship. The study was conducted within one medium-sized South African Information Technology (IT) organisation, and one department of a large South African production organisation, within the surrounding Johannesburg area. In addition, a sample was also collected from four Zambian banking industries. The researcher received responses from 217 participants from across the organisations. Firstly the relationship between attitudes, self-efficacy and social norms with regard to intentions were analysed, by using correlations. The results of the correlation indicated that there is a significant positive relationship between each of the variables and intention to the unauthorised copying of software. The model predicted by the researcher is then tested empirically according to Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). The results of the SEM presented the researcher with four models, which will each be discussed independently, as well as suggesting the model that best fits the data. A discussion of the findings is presented, in addition to the limitations of the study and possible recommendations for improvement.

This study investigated social cognitive determinants of creatine supplementation among 171 male, undergraduate, recreational weight-lifters. Participants responded to a packet of questionnaires that assessed their history and rate of creatine use, self-efficacy for improving their workout performance with and without creatine, and expected outcomes of improved workout performance and creatine use, as well as several other demographic variables. Fifty percent of the sample reported past creatine use. The data was used to establish the internal consistency, test-retest reliability and predictive validity of factor-based scales for valued outcome expectancies and disincentives for creatine use scales. A social cognitive model was shown to predict past creatine use (R² = .372). The results lay the groundwork for further examination of the determinants of creatine supplementation and the use of other controversial and potentially harmful performance-enhancing dietary supplements. / Master of Science

Background: Large components for athletes are nutrition, training and recovery. These components are subjects all by them selves in all kind of media. That woke my interest to find out more about the connections between nutrition, training and recovery and how much knowledge athletes have of them together. Objectives: The purpose of this study is to investigate how athletes feelings and experience of nutrition, training and recovery. Method: A qualitative approach was used to investigate athletes eye on nutrition, training and recovery. Ten interviews were done face to face and notes was taken since no recording were done. Results: The results of the study shows that athletes don’t have experience of nutrition, training and recovery together. Athletes have knowledge of nutrition, training and recovery one by one. The study showed the athletes the dependency of nutrition, training and recovery together. The athletes did all the components by themselves but had not the knowledge of how big the dependencies was between the components. The athletes wanted to learn more about the dependencies to take advantage of the components in their own training.

Continually improving population health in the context of increased life expectancy challenges the assumption that aging invariably leads to significant physical decline. Currently, there is a perception that physical function and hence, independence, can be maintained well into later life (Ory, Hoffman, Hawkins, Sanner & Mockenhaupt, 2003). Given the growing proportion of older adults in many industrialized nations, it is imperative to consider possible factors that influence behaviour, which may in turn contribute to functional losses that have hitherto been attributed to aging. For example, pervasive ageist stereotypes may play a role in reducing older adults’ opportunities to independently perform physical tasks (i.e. removal of difficult or challenging physical tasks from older adult residences; younger individuals insisting on physical help that is unneeded) so that ability is gradually compromised by disuse. This study explores the potential for such reduced opportunity among community-dwelling older adults using a questionnaire-based methodology and hypothetical stimulus scenarios. In the scenarios, participants’ mature children offer the older adults unsolicited help with two functional tasks: rising from a sofa and grocery shopping. The 52 study participants (mean age = 78.4 ± 6.0 years) were each asked to report their independence preference, anticipated affective responses, behavioural intentions, self-efficacy for relevant physical skills, relation-inferred self-efficacy (RISE), attribution for why the help was offered, and perceived benefits of accepting and declining the help. Using a Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) framework, individuals with higher self-efficacy, stronger preference for independence, or more perceived benefits of declining relative to those of accepting help were expected to be more likely to intend to decline assistance. In addition to being related to intentions, these factors, along with lower RISE beliefs, were expected to be associated with greater negative affect. Finally, RISE was anticipated to be directly proportional to self-efficacy and thus, attribution of the offered help to physical (versus social) reasons was hypothesized to relate to lower self-efficacy and RISE. Primary study hypotheses were generally not supported, with a few exceptions. First, as hypothesized, those who perceived more benefits associated with declining help were more likely to decline and less likely to accept the offered help (p ≤ 0.005). Second, the more perceived benefits associated with declining help (relative to those associated with accepting help), the less total positive affect older adults reported (r ≤ -0.31, p ≤ 0.02). Third, individuals who had higher self-efficacy also reported higher RISE (r ≥ 0.34, p ≤ 0.01). Finally, those who made physical attributions for the offer of help reported lower RISE (p ≤ 0.009), and lower shopping self-efficacy (p = 0.004). Secondary analyses provided some insight into the lack of support for study hypotheses regarding the receipt of unsolicited assistance. For example, both high self-efficacy beliefs (mean = 85.1 ± 15.8% for rising and 91.5 ± 11.2% for shopping) and low TUG times (mean = 12.2 ± 4.7s) suggested that the sample was particularly high-functioning. This would help to explain why self-efficacy was not found to be significantly related to participant intentions to accept help. Another explanation for this finding is the influence of social factors considered by older adults in these helping situations. Participant intentions could have been based on anticipated social rather than physical benefits. This rationale was supported by high rates of selection for socially-relevant perceived benefits of receiving help. Further examination also confirmed that participants generally reported very low levels of total negative affect. This would partially account for the absence of a relationship between perceived benefits and negative affect, even though the former was shown to be correlated with total positive affect. Despite raising as many questions as it answers, the present study succeeds in illustrating the perceptions of higher functioning older adults in situations where physical help is offered to them. Although these participants would not require any help with the physical tasks presented, on average, older adults indicated that they would likely accept the offered assistance approximately half of the time. When the findings of the two sets of analyses are considered, they suggest that much research is needed to understand the perspective of older adults in helping situations. Assumptions about older adults’ reactions to receiving assistance with physical tasks may not be straightforward. Having the ability to function independently may not necessarily mean that older adults refuse assistance. Like younger adults, they may interpret the social situation in terms of a variety of outcomes. Indeed, if researchers do not consider complex interpretations for how older adults function in regard to physical independence, they may be letting personal ageism shape their research. Consequently, there is cause to pursue further research in this underserved area of investigation into the perceptions and actions of older adults. Future studies in this vein may make use of the lessons learned from this exploratory investigation.

Continually improving population health in the context of increased life expectancy challenges the assumption that aging invariably leads to significant physical decline. Currently, there is a perception that physical function and hence, independence, can be maintained well into later life (Ory, Hoffman, Hawkins, Sanner & Mockenhaupt, 2003). Given the growing proportion of older adults in many industrialized nations, it is imperative to consider possible factors that influence behaviour, which may in turn contribute to functional losses that have hitherto been attributed to aging. For example, pervasive ageist stereotypes may play a role in reducing older adults’ opportunities to independently perform physical tasks (i.e. removal of difficult or challenging physical tasks from older adult residences; younger individuals insisting on physical help that is unneeded) so that ability is gradually compromised by disuse. This study explores the potential for such reduced opportunity among community-dwelling older adults using a questionnaire-based methodology and hypothetical stimulus scenarios. In the scenarios, participants’ mature children offer the older adults unsolicited help with two functional tasks: rising from a sofa and grocery shopping. The 52 study participants (mean age = 78.4 ± 6.0 years) were each asked to report their independence preference, anticipated affective responses, behavioural intentions, self-efficacy for relevant physical skills, relation-inferred self-efficacy (RISE), attribution for why the help was offered, and perceived benefits of accepting and declining the help. Using a Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) framework, individuals with higher self-efficacy, stronger preference for independence, or more perceived benefits of declining relative to those of accepting help were expected to be more likely to intend to decline assistance. In addition to being related to intentions, these factors, along with lower RISE beliefs, were expected to be associated with greater negative affect. Finally, RISE was anticipated to be directly proportional to self-efficacy and thus, attribution of the offered help to physical (versus social) reasons was hypothesized to relate to lower self-efficacy and RISE. Primary study hypotheses were generally not supported, with a few exceptions. First, as hypothesized, those who perceived more benefits associated with declining help were more likely to decline and less likely to accept the offered help (p ≤ 0.005). Second, the more perceived benefits associated with declining help (relative to those associated with accepting help), the less total positive affect older adults reported (r ≤ -0.31, p ≤ 0.02). Third, individuals who had higher self-efficacy also reported higher RISE (r ≥ 0.34, p ≤ 0.01). Finally, those who made physical attributions for the offer of help reported lower RISE (p ≤ 0.009), and lower shopping self-efficacy (p = 0.004). Secondary analyses provided some insight into the lack of support for study hypotheses regarding the receipt of unsolicited assistance. For example, both high self-efficacy beliefs (mean = 85.1 ± 15.8% for rising and 91.5 ± 11.2% for shopping) and low TUG times (mean = 12.2 ± 4.7s) suggested that the sample was particularly high-functioning. This would help to explain why self-efficacy was not found to be significantly related to participant intentions to accept help. Another explanation for this finding is the influence of social factors considered by older adults in these helping situations. Participant intentions could have been based on anticipated social rather than physical benefits. This rationale was supported by high rates of selection for socially-relevant perceived benefits of receiving help. Further examination also confirmed that participants generally reported very low levels of total negative affect. This would partially account for the absence of a relationship between perceived benefits and negative affect, even though the former was shown to be correlated with total positive affect. Despite raising as many questions as it answers, the present study succeeds in illustrating the perceptions of higher functioning older adults in situations where physical help is offered to them. Although these participants would not require any help with the physical tasks presented, on average, older adults indicated that they would likely accept the offered assistance approximately half of the time. When the findings of the two sets of analyses are considered, they suggest that much research is needed to understand the perspective of older adults in helping situations. Assumptions about older adults’ reactions to receiving assistance with physical tasks may not be straightforward. Having the ability to function independently may not necessarily mean that older adults refuse assistance. Like younger adults, they may interpret the social situation in terms of a variety of outcomes. Indeed, if researchers do not consider complex interpretations for how older adults function in regard to physical independence, they may be letting personal ageism shape their research. Consequently, there is cause to pursue further research in this underserved area of investigation into the perceptions and actions of older adults. Future studies in this vein may make use of the lessons learned from this exploratory investigation.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2008. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 231-243).