Zugl.: Konstanz, Univ., Habil.-Schr., 2005

Thesis (MEd) -- Macquarie University, Australian Centre for Educational Studies, School of Education, 2008. / Bibliography: leaves 86-89.

As the world becomes increasingly interdependent, mutual understanding becomes increasingly important. Therefore, it is essential that people strive for reductions in social distance on an international level. Study abroad is one of the ways to approach internationalization and promote understanding among different peoples and cultures. Prior research has been done on the degrees of social distance between people from different cultures; however, little research has been done regarding changes that cultural immersion produces among those who reside in different cultures. Studies about study abroad programs have focused on cultural sensitivity and adaptability, yet few have combined the study abroad experience with the perceptions of self and other cultural groups. This study presents a framework for understanding people through intercultural activities. It studied social distance and attitude changes brought about in social distance as an artifact of cultural immersion. The study took place both in China and in the United States. It focused on the social distance among American undergraduate students who participated in a China Study Abroad program sponsored by the University of North Texas. The study measured before and after social distance of a group of American students who studied abroad in China. The study abroad program itself was the intervention and lasted for three weeks. A mixed methods research design was used in the study. Social distance data were collected before and after students studied abroad in China. Both inferential statistics and descriptive statistics were used. Qualitative data were also collected and analyzed in the study. Most of the sample population were close to the Chinese people to begin with. Some participants positively changed their social distance and attitudes towards the Chinese people after the study abroad program, even though the changes were not statistically significant. This study merits replication among randomly selected samples. Study abroad programs should be promoted and supported. More research needs to be done that explores the quality of cultural immersion study abroad programs. Studies also need to be done to examine attitude changes among peoples in host countries.

Master of Landscape Architecture / Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional and Community Planning / Katherine Nesse / Many cities around the United States struggle with racially segregated neighborhoods (USA on Race 2013). The existence of isolated neighborhoods continues to reinforce racial distrust and promotes stereotypes. Some of the primary negative consequences associated with residential segregation include unequal job opportunities, greater health risk, high concentrations of poverty, educational constraints, and high building and lot vacancy rates. Residential segregation is an issue in Kansas City, Missouri along Troost Avenue. Troost Avenue is a stark racial dividing line within the city core. West of Troost Avenue, whites account for 88 percent of the population while blacks make up 93 percent of the population to the east (Troost Village Community Association 2013). The intent for this project is to create a resource to help establish and promote social interaction within the Troost Avenue neighborhoods by creating a purpose-driven community garden at the St. James Place apartment complex. The site’s unique location, positioned adjacent to other apartment complexes and subdivisions in the Citadel Neighborhood, had the potential to attract many types of users to the garden site. Through a process of literature review, surveys, interviews, and precedent study analysis, design goals were established. The design proposals for the St. James Place Community Garden focus on increasing site activity, establishing accessibility, and promoting originality.

Typescript (photocopy). / Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

The population of older persons has increased dramatically over the years in South Africa as well as internationally. As populations continue to age, the concept of active ageing has received increasing attention from researchers. Active ageing can be defined as the process of optimising older persons’ opportunities for health promotion, participation, and security in order to enhance their quality of life. In this definition, “health” refers to physical, mental, and social well-being. “Participation” refers to the optimisation of participation in activities such as employment, education, the arts, and religion, and “security” refers to ways in which the protection, dignity, and care of older persons can be maintained and improved. The distribution of older persons in South Africa by ethnic group is disproportionate with older white persons representing 21% of the total older population. Many of these white older persons reside in retirement villages resulting in their being populated by older white persons more so than by members of other ethnic groups. Retirement village policies and programmes generally incorporate an active ageing philosophy. However, most research on active ageing in retirement villages is conducted internationally, and, furthermore, it does not include the subjective experiences of older persons in these active environments. The aim of this research was therefore to explore the experiences of older residents in a retirement village with an active ageing approach. Barker’s behaviour setting theory and the continuity theory were applied in this study. The behaviour setting theory holds that the environment (retirement village) in which people function is important when explaining human behaviour and exploring the subjective experiences of older persons. The continuity theory rests on the premise that ageing is not a static process but rather an ongoing process and that continuity is a primary strategy used by people to deal with changes associated with ageing. According to this theory, people endeavour to continue with the psychological and social patterns they developed and adopted during their lifetimes. The study was conducted at a retirement village in Boksburg, Johannesburg (Gauteng, South Africa), that follows an active ageing approach, making it an ideal context for exploring the subjective experiences of older persons in an active ageing environment. The retirement village has a dedicated life style consultant who has developed specific programmes for every day of the week with time slots allocated for different activities in which older persons can participate. The programmes exclude frail people in the facility who cannot participate owing to their physical limitations. The director of the organisation that is responsible for many retirement villages, and this one in particular, contacted the researchers and asked them to explore the residents’ quality of life experiences so that the services provided to them could be adjusted if necessary. Ethical approval for the research was obtained from the Health Research Ethics Committee of the North-West University. The manager of the retirement village was also asked to distribute posters indicating the nature of the research. On the day of the data gathering, the participants were told about the research and that they would be required, if they wished to participate, to engage in individual interviews with the researchers and take part in the Mmogo-method®, a projective visual research method (Roos, 2008, 2012). The residents who agreed to participate gave their informed consent and confirmed that their participation was voluntary and they had been made aware that they could withdraw from the study at any time. Twenty participants were recruited for the study of whom 16 were women and four were men. The ages ranged between 65 and 80 years with an average age of 73. Two of the participants were English speaking, and the remainder were Afrikaans speaking. They were given the Mmogo-method® materials, which consisted of clay, straws, and colourful beads, and were invited to make visual representations of their lives and activities at the retirement village. The research request was, “Build something that describes your life here at the retirement village”. When all the participants had completed their visual representations, the representations were photographed and served as visual data. The researcher then asked each participant what he or she each had made and why he or she had made it. An informal group discussion was subsequently held with the 18 participants who had taken part in the Mmogo-method®. Individual in-depth interviews with two participants were conducted after the Mmogo-method® had been carried out. All the discussions were audiotaped and served as textual data. The visual data were analysed by getting the literal meanings of the visual representations from the participants in relation to the specific research request. The textual data were analysed thematically, which involved identifying, analysing, and reporting patterns or themes in the data. Different techniques, including crystallisation and member checking, were applied to ensure the trustworthiness of the research process and findings. The findings revealed that the participants were actively involved in a variety of activities on a daily basis. The activities included physical activities organised by the life style consultant or self-initiated activities such as playing tennis, doing line-dancing, going for brisk walks, working out in the gymnasium, and engaging in recreational activities such as fishing, reading, and scrapbooking. The objectives of these activities were to maintain joint flexibility, general health, and mental fitness. Some of the older residents had formalised roles in the retirement village, which they had previous experience of. The participants also took part in different social activities such as paying social visits and making friends. The spiritual activities of the participants were solitary as well as communal. The participants thus experienced the retirement village as a very busy environment with full schedules. In such an environment, people often engage in activities to distract themselves from dealing with difficult circumstances in their lives. Barker’s settings theory holds that older residents’ physical presence in an active environment influences their levels of activity and their subjective experiences. For some residents, an active environment fits into the continuation of the active life styles they developed during the course of their lives, but for others it may have implications for their psychological well-being if they do not have self-regulatory skills to navigate themselves and act merely on feeling obligated to do something. Using an active environment to deal with difficult circumstances can be either a constructive or a destructive coping strategy for older persons. The individual needs of residents should always be taken into account, and retirement villages with an active ageing approach should be aware that one size does not fit all. This study aimed to draw the attention of retirement village managers to the need to take cognisance of the experiences of older persons when implementing ageing policies in their facilities. It also shed new light on the experiences of active ageing among older residents. / MA (Clinical Psychology), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

The population of older persons has increased dramatically over the years in South Africa as well as internationally. As populations continue to age, the concept of active ageing has received increasing attention from researchers. Active ageing can be defined as the process of optimising older persons’ opportunities for health promotion, participation, and security in order to enhance their quality of life. In this definition, “health” refers to physical, mental, and social well-being. “Participation” refers to the optimisation of participation in activities such as employment, education, the arts, and religion, and “security” refers to ways in which the protection, dignity, and care of older persons can be maintained and improved. The distribution of older persons in South Africa by ethnic group is disproportionate with older white persons representing 21% of the total older population. Many of these white older persons reside in retirement villages resulting in their being populated by older white persons more so than by members of other ethnic groups. Retirement village policies and programmes generally incorporate an active ageing philosophy. However, most research on active ageing in retirement villages is conducted internationally, and, furthermore, it does not include the subjective experiences of older persons in these active environments. The aim of this research was therefore to explore the experiences of older residents in a retirement village with an active ageing approach. Barker’s behaviour setting theory and the continuity theory were applied in this study. The behaviour setting theory holds that the environment (retirement village) in which people function is important when explaining human behaviour and exploring the subjective experiences of older persons. The continuity theory rests on the premise that ageing is not a static process but rather an ongoing process and that continuity is a primary strategy used by people to deal with changes associated with ageing. According to this theory, people endeavour to continue with the psychological and social patterns they developed and adopted during their lifetimes. The study was conducted at a retirement village in Boksburg, Johannesburg (Gauteng, South Africa), that follows an active ageing approach, making it an ideal context for exploring the subjective experiences of older persons in an active ageing environment. The retirement village has a dedicated life style consultant who has developed specific programmes for every day of the week with time slots allocated for different activities in which older persons can participate. The programmes exclude frail people in the facility who cannot participate owing to their physical limitations. The director of the organisation that is responsible for many retirement villages, and this one in particular, contacted the researchers and asked them to explore the residents’ quality of life experiences so that the services provided to them could be adjusted if necessary. Ethical approval for the research was obtained from the Health Research Ethics Committee of the North-West University. The manager of the retirement village was also asked to distribute posters indicating the nature of the research. On the day of the data gathering, the participants were told about the research and that they would be required, if they wished to participate, to engage in individual interviews with the researchers and take part in the Mmogo-method®, a projective visual research method (Roos, 2008, 2012). The residents who agreed to participate gave their informed consent and confirmed that their participation was voluntary and they had been made aware that they could withdraw from the study at any time. Twenty participants were recruited for the study of whom 16 were women and four were men. The ages ranged between 65 and 80 years with an average age of 73. Two of the participants were English speaking, and the remainder were Afrikaans speaking. They were given the Mmogo-method® materials, which consisted of clay, straws, and colourful beads, and were invited to make visual representations of their lives and activities at the retirement village. The research request was, “Build something that describes your life here at the retirement village”. When all the participants had completed their visual representations, the representations were photographed and served as visual data. The researcher then asked each participant what he or she each had made and why he or she had made it. An informal group discussion was subsequently held with the 18 participants who had taken part in the Mmogo-method®. Individual in-depth interviews with two participants were conducted after the Mmogo-method® had been carried out. All the discussions were audiotaped and served as textual data. The visual data were analysed by getting the literal meanings of the visual representations from the participants in relation to the specific research request. The textual data were analysed thematically, which involved identifying, analysing, and reporting patterns or themes in the data. Different techniques, including crystallisation and member checking, were applied to ensure the trustworthiness of the research process and findings. The findings revealed that the participants were actively involved in a variety of activities on a daily basis. The activities included physical activities organised by the life style consultant or self-initiated activities such as playing tennis, doing line-dancing, going for brisk walks, working out in the gymnasium, and engaging in recreational activities such as fishing, reading, and scrapbooking. The objectives of these activities were to maintain joint flexibility, general health, and mental fitness. Some of the older residents had formalised roles in the retirement village, which they had previous experience of. The participants also took part in different social activities such as paying social visits and making friends. The spiritual activities of the participants were solitary as well as communal. The participants thus experienced the retirement village as a very busy environment with full schedules. In such an environment, people often engage in activities to distract themselves from dealing with difficult circumstances in their lives. Barker’s settings theory holds that older residents’ physical presence in an active environment influences their levels of activity and their subjective experiences. For some residents, an active environment fits into the continuation of the active life styles they developed during the course of their lives, but for others it may have implications for their psychological well-being if they do not have self-regulatory skills to navigate themselves and act merely on feeling obligated to do something. Using an active environment to deal with difficult circumstances can be either a constructive or a destructive coping strategy for older persons. The individual needs of residents should always be taken into account, and retirement villages with an active ageing approach should be aware that one size does not fit all. This study aimed to draw the attention of retirement village managers to the need to take cognisance of the experiences of older persons when implementing ageing policies in their facilities. It also shed new light on the experiences of active ageing among older residents. / MA (Clinical Psychology), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

Thesis (PhD)--University of Stellenbosch, 2002. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: An increasing number of children in South Africa are deprived of adequate parental care. Factors exacerbating the situation are the deaths of parents due to HIV/AIDS and contextual stressors like poverty and violence. Children removed from family care in accordance with stipulations of the Act on Child Care, were all exposed to factors of inadequate care like a lack of basic means of existence and/or physical, emotional or spiritual neglect or sexual abuse. The current thesis tried to determine to what extend these factors influence the social development of children. Theories of psychosocial development have shown that optimal social development starts with securing a strong positive and reciprocal emotional bond with the primary caregiver. This is the basis of personal security and interpersonal trust upon which further developmental elements like a positive self image, autonomy, pro-social behaviour, emotional well-being, moral values, the ability to find solutions to problems, self control and expectations about the future, will be based. Schema theory has confirmed the importance of positive developmental experiences in establishing positive expectations about social interaction. Negative developmental experiences will lead to dysfunctional schemas and selective processing of information. This will negatively influence emotional well-being, the ability to solve interpersonal problems and realistically assessing the self and others. Dysfunctional interpersonal patterns, inappropriate social behaviour and a less positive expectation of the future, will follow. Patterns of parental care are still important in adolescence and influence body image, sexual identity, academic achievement, career aspirations, values, autonomy and emotional well-being. Negative patterns of parenting, like loveless over-control and child abuse, lead to dysfunctional interpersonal expectations. Residential care increases the risk of diffused bonding, unless sufficient preventive measures are put in place. In the current thesis ten elements of interpersonal schemas were identified according to the above theories. Statistical comparisons of the elements were done using two groups of adolescents. Adolescents in the first group were removed from parental care in accordance with the Act on Child Care, while adolescents in the second group experienced continuous and adequate parental care. The results supported all of the hyphotheses, with a measure of ambivalence about autonomy. Psychosocial history was proved to be a measurable discriminating factor in adolescent interpersonal schemas. Sex proved to be a further discriminating factor in some elements. Girls were influenced most by the presence or lack of family security. In a second section, current programmes for social empowerment in use in children's homes, were evaluated according to the above results. Indications were given about possible adaptations and additions to therapeutic and skills programmes, the role of substitute families and character traits of staff that may help in limiting the risks of residential care. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: 'n Toenemende getal kinders in Suid-Afrika ontbeer deurlopende en toereikende gesinsorg. Faktore wat hiertoe bydra, is ouersterftes weens MIVNIGS en kontekstuele stressors soos armoede en geweld. Kinders wat uit gesinsorg verwyder word weens die bepalings van die Wet op Kindersorg, was almal blootgestel aan faktore van ontoereikende sorg soos gebrekkige bestaansmiddele en/of fisieke, emosionele of geestelike verwaarlosing of seksuele misbruik. Hierdie proefskrif het probeer vasstel in watter mate dié faktore die sosiale ontwikkeling van kinders beïnvloed. Teorieë omtrent psigososiale ontwikkeling toon aan dat optimale sosiale ontwikkeling begin by die vestiging van 'n sterk positiewe en wederkerige emosionele band met 'n primêre bindingsfiguur. Dit vorm die basis van persoonlike sekuriteit en interpersoonlike vertroue, waarop ontwikkelingselemente soos 'n positiewe selfsiening, outonomie, pro-sosialiteit, emosionele welstand, morele waardes, probleemoplossingsvaardighede, selfbeheer en toekomsverwagting gebaseer is. Skema-teorie bevestig die belang van positiewe ontwikkelings-ervarings in die daarstel van positiewe verwagtings omtrent sosiale interaksie. Negatiewe ontwikkelings-ervarings lei tot disfunksionele skemas, waarin inligting selektief verwerk word. Dit het 'n negatiewe uitwerking op emosionele welstand, die vaardigheid om interpersoonlike probleme op te los en realisties oor die self en ander te oordeel. Die gevolg is patrone van interpersoonlike wanaanpassing, ontoepaslike sosiale optrede en 'n minder positiewe toekomsverwagting. In adolessensie speelouerskapspatrone steeds 'n rol ten opsigte van liggaamsbeeld, geslagsidentiteit, akademiese prestasie, beroepsideale, waardes, outonome optrede en emosionele welstand. Negatiewe ouerskapspatrone, soos oormatige en liefdelose beheer en kindermishandeling, lei tot disfunksionele interpersoonlike verwagtings. Residensiële sorg verhoog die risiko vir diffuse bindingsgedrag, tensy doeltreffende voorsorgmaatreëls daargestel word. In die proefskrif is tien elemente van interpersoonlike skemas aan die hand van die teoretiese uiteensetting geïdentifiseer. 'n Statistiese vergelyking ten opsigte van die elemente is gedoen met twee groepe adolessente. Die eerste groep is weens wetlike bepalings uit ouersorg verwyder, terwyl die tweede groep deurlopende en toereikende ouersorg ervaar het. Die resultate het al die hipoteses ondersteun, met 'n mate van ambivalensie omtrent outonomie. Psigososiale geskiedenis was dus 'n meetbare onderskeidingsfaktor ten opsigte van interpersoonlike skemas in adolessensie. Geslag was 'n verdere meetbare faktor by sommige elemente. Dogters was die meeste beïnvloed deur die teenwoordigheid van óf gebrek aan gesinsekuriteit. In 'n tweede afdeling, is die bestaande programme van sosiale bemagtiging in kinderhuise geëvalueer in die lig van bogenoemde resultate. Aanbevelings is gedoen oor die aanpassing en uitbouing van terapeutiese en vaardigheidprogramme, die rol van substituut-gesinne en die eienskappe van personeel wat kan bydra om die risiko's van inrigtingsorg te verminder.

Music and language are both deeply rooted in our biology, but scientists have given far more attention to the neurological, biological and evolutionary roots of language than those of music. Because of this, and probably partially due to this, the purpose of music, in evolutionary terms, remains a mystery. Our brain, physiology and psychology make us capable of producing and listening to music since early infancy; therefore, our biology and behaviour are carrying some of the clues that need to be revealed to understand what music is “for”. Furthermore, music and language have a deep relationship, particularly in terms of cognitive processing, that can provide clues about the origins of music. Non-verbal behaviours, including voice characteristics during speech, are an important form of communication that enables individual recognition and assessment of the speaker’s physical characteristics (including sex, femininity/masculinity, body size, physical strength, and attractiveness). Vocal parameters, however, can be intentionally varied, for example altering the intensity (loudness), rhythm and pitch during speech. This is classically demonstrated in infant directed speech (IDS), in which adults alter vocal characteristics such as pitch, cadence and intonation contours when speaking to infants. In this thesis, I analyse vocal modulation and its perception in human social interaction, in different social contexts such as courtship and authority ranking relationships. Results show that specific vocal modulations, akin to those of IDS, and perhaps music, play a role in communicating courtship intent. Based on these results, as well the body of current knowledge, I then propose a model for the evolution of musicality, the human capacity to process musical information, in relation to human vocal communication. I suggest that musicality may not be limited to specifically musical contexts, and can have a role in other domains such as language, which would provide further support for a common origin of language and music. This model supports the hypothesis of a stage in human evolution in which individuals communicated using a music-like protolanguage, a hypothesis first suggested by Darwin.

The overall aim of the thesis is to examine young people’s languaging, including literacy practices, and its relation to meaning-making and social positioning. Framed by sociocultural and dialogical perspectives, the thesis builds upon four studies that arise from (n)ethnographic fieldwork conducted in two different settings: an institutional educational setting where bilingualism and biculturalism are core values, and social media settings. In the empirical studies, micro-level interactions, practices mediated by languaging and literacies, social positionings and meso-level discourses as well as their intertwinedness have been explored and discussed. The data, analysed through adapted conversational and discourse analytical methods, include video and audio recordings, field notes, pedagogic materials, policy documents, photographs as well as (n)ethnographic data. Study I illuminates the doing of linguistic-cultural ideologies and policies in everyday pedagogical practices and focuses on situated and distributed social actions as nexuses of several practices where a number of locally and nationally relevant discourses circulate.  In Study II, the focus is on everyday communicative practices on the micro and meso levels and the interrelations of different linguistic varieties and modalities in the bilingual-bicultural educational setting. Study III highlights young people’s languaging, including literacies, in everyday learning practices that stretch across formal and informal learning spaces. Study IV examines social positioning and identity work in informal and heteroglossic literacy practices across the offline-online continuum. Consequently, the four studies map the kinds of languaging practices young people are engaged in both inside and outside of what are labelled as bilingual school settings. Furthermore, the studies highlight the kinds of social positions they perform and are oriented towards in the course of their everyday lives. Overall, the findings of the thesis highlight issues of bilingualism as pedagogy and practice, the (un)problematicity of multilingualism across space and time and multilingual-multimodal languaging as a premise for social positioning. Together, the studies and the thesis form a descriptive-analytical illustration of “multilingual” young people’s everyday lives in and out of school in late modern societies of the global North. Overall, the thesis provides insights concerning the education and lives of a large, yet sparsely documented minority group in Sweden, i.e. the Sweden Finns. / Denna avhandling fokuserar på ungdomars språkande, inklusive literacy-praktiker, och dess relation till deras meningsskapande och social positionering. Avhandlingen tar avstamp i sociokulturell och dialogisk teoribildning och bygger på fyra studier som blivit till genom (n)etnografiskt fältarbete i två olika sammanhang: inom en skola där tvåspråkighet och bikulturalitet är viktiga värderingar, och sociala medier. I de empiriska studierna undersöks hur interaktion, språkande och literacy-praktiker och sociala positioneringar görs på mikronivå. Dessa fenomen studeras vidare i anslutning till och som en del av diskurser som drivs på meso-nivå. Avhandlingens data har analyserats med tillämpade samtals- och diskursanalytiska metoder och inkluderar video- och audioinspelningar, fältanteckningar, pedagogiska material, policy-dokumentation, fotografier samt (n)etnografiskt skapad data. I Studie I undersöks hur lingvistisk-kulturella ideologier och policys görs i vardagliga pedagogiska praktiker. Den fokuserar på situerade och distribuerade sociala handlingar som praktiknexus där flera lokalt och nationellt relevanta diskurser cirkulerar. Studie II intresserar sig för vardagliga kommunikativa praktiker på mikro- och meso-nivåer samt för samspelet av språkliga varieteter och modaliteter i den tvåspråkiga-bikulturella skolan. I Studie III studeras ungdomars språkande, inklusive literacies, i vardagliga lärandepraktiker som sträcker sig över tid och rum i formella och informella lärandemiljöer. Studie IV fokuserar på social positionering och identitetsarbete i informella och heteroglossiska literacy-praktiker både offline och online. Tillsammans kartlägger de fyra studierna olika slags språkandepraktiker som ungdomarna deltar i och bidrar till både inom och utanför vad som kallas för tvåspråkiga skolsammanhang. Vidare illustrerar studierna vardagslivets görande av olika slags sociala positioneringar och identitetsperformanser. Resultaten visar på hur tvåspråkigheten i skolans värld kan ses som både pedagogik och praktik, att flerspråkigheten är (o)problematisk för ungdomarna och för skolan och att språkandets karaktär som flerspråkig och multimodal är central för social positionering. Studierna och avhandlingen bildar tillsammans en deskriptiv-analytisk illustration av ”flerspråkiga” ungdomars vardag i och utanför skolan i ett senmodernt nordiskt samhälle. Vidare bidrar avhandlingen till kunskapsbasen gällande utbildningsfrågor och vardag för en av Sveriges nationella minoriteter, sverigefinländare. / LIMCUL / DIMuL