Choral experts have promoted either sectional block or mixed seating formations in choirs for various reasons. Previous research by Lambson indicates that there is no clear advantage to choral sound in either mixed or sectional formations, and, according to Tocheff, mixed formation has no advantage over sectional block formation. This research attempted to relate choral seating arrangements to individual musical growth and sociological dynamics. One hypothesis suggested that a mixed formation promotes individual musical growth in ear-training/sight-singing, vocal freedom, perceived scope of a choral work and also promotes group cohesion. The second and third hypotheses considered the correlation between the percentage of time spent in mixed formation and individual and group trust. Only two relationships were statistically significant: between mixed formation and perceived scope of a choral work, and between the percentage of time spent in mixed formation and group trust. An ancillary finding suggests that individuals who sing in mixed formation, prefer to sing with individuals from different voice parts. These findings suggest that individual musical growth and individual responsibility are enhanced in mixed formation.

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Johannesburg, 2014. / Entomophagy, the consumption of insects, has attracted interest as a low input minilivestock with good nutritional value. The inflated stinkbug, Encosternum delegorguei, is an appetizing food, a hangover cure and a trade item in South Africa, Malawi and Zimbabwe yet very little is known about it. This study comprehensively integrates plant aspects (food and shelter) and insect biology (distribution, life cycle and fecundity) with socio-economic and conservation aspects. Firstly, E. delegorguei was observed in outdoor insectaries where it exhibited reproductive winter diapause and declining abdominal fat content attributed to non-feeding. In spring (September) E. delegorguei fed on Combretum imberbe, Combretum molle (Combretaceae), Peltophorum africanum (Fabaceae), and to a lesser degree on Dodonaea viscosa (Sapindaceae) and the grass Pennisetum clandestinum (Poaceae). Copulation occurred during October/November but eclosion was reduced by the egg parasitoid wasp, Anastatus sp. Secondly, structured interview schedules with 106 harvesters indicated that an estimated total of 3803 + 43.4 kg (mean+S.E.) dry stinkbugs was harvested with an annual gross per capita income of =US$ 345. In South Africa stinkbugs are consumed by two locally separate ethnic groups the Vhavenda and Mapulana, with a third group, the Bolobedu selling them. Ethnic differences in nomenclature and oral history, methods of collection and preparation, as well as perceptions pertaining to availability were documented between the three groups. Damage to host trees occurred when harvesters poached from pine plantations or private land, whereas, in communal-lands, sustainable methods proliferated. Using a regional maximum entropy modelling method (MAXENT) on winter locations of E. delegorguei known to harvesters, current and future distribution scenarios were identified. Winter precipitation and to a lesser degree summer precipitation and winter temperature were key climatic variables limiting the regional distribution of E. delegorguei. Moreover, potential new sites unknown to harvesters or areas where minilivestock initiatives could be piloted have been highlighted for further investigation. Opportunities to reduce impediments to collection and trade are discussed in a sustainable framework. For example legitimisation of harvesting and introduction of a collection funnel to reduce conflicts with plantation, orchard and private land managers. Awareness and optimal use of beneficial bio-resources, such as E. delegorguei, could encourage community driven habitat stewardship.

Adulthood holds a paradoxical position in sociology. It is a central category in so far as it provides the unarticulated background to a majority of social inquiries, but it is largely defined by default, as the taken-for-granted status of the social actor, and the middle stage of life. The meaning of adulthood is only rarely addressed directly. This thesis explores a way to fill this lacuna in sociology. An emerging lag between the prevalent normative ideals of adulthood and contemporary social trends is identified as the core of the 'prolonged adolescence thesis' - a dominant view in the social sciences and everyday discourse, which holds that many twenty and thirtysomethings are deferring or rejecting adulthood. My thesis argues that this approach is informed by a model of adulthood that is losing its empirical validity. I further argue that the practices of these young people are congruent with salient features of current social conditions. Drawing on theories of social recognition and the analysis of interview material, I hold that even though the form social recognition takes is subject to pluralisation, recognition of individuals' full membership in society is the meaningful constant of adulthood. I also propose that the redefinition of contemporary adulthood is marked by an intersubjectively constituted 'recognition deficit': commentators and social scientists often misunderstand young adults' practices, notwithstanding the structural rewards which these practices reap. At the same time, young adults themselves eschew the conventional markers of adult status. In so doing they forge their own, radically different, adulthood. Underpinned by an ideology of youthfulness, and subject to the fluid social relations of contemporary modernity, this adulthood eludes fixity. Its normative criteria flow from the everyday practices of individuals who, far from prolonging their adolescence, are the new adults of today.

The alien abduction phenomenon has garnered considerable media attention in the last fifteen years, including many representations in books, film, and television. An overview of significant abduction literature is presented. Contrasts and comparisons are noted between popular written accounts and both the visual representations they engender and reports outside the mainstream, such as those compiled and statistically compared by folklorists. Also considered are comparisons between popular fictionalizations of victims of abduction and the relevant psychological literature on this population. Theories bordering on the psycho-spiritual and New Age are briefly introduced in regards to their connection to UFO phenomena and the popular belief in a changing collective consciousness. Throughout, it is argued that most forms of cultural production featuring themes of alien abduction, being subject to marketplace demand, alter or fictionalize their source content for dramatic purposes. This popularization and commodification of anomalous phenomena negatively impacts serious study by encouraging dismissive attitudes towards evidence, reports, and those individuals involved, informants, victims, and investigators. This commodification thus serves to protect the status quo, in the form of a consensus reality, from challenges by unknown or anomolous phenomena. / Graduation date: 1999

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Clinical Psychology / Master / Master of Social Sciences

No description available.

Current studies in the field of occupational sociology often present the deficiency of regarding workplace and work community as a backdrop, in front of which workers perform their duties. The two elements have not been receiving the attention they deserve. In light of this, this thesis argues that instead of merely setting the scene for investigation, workplace and work community are crucial and deciding factors in the construction of work identity. During the process, the influence of clients, including supervisors, peers and customers also comes in and participates in portraying this identity. Employing data collected through personal work experience, participant observation and in-depth interviews in commercial kitchens, this thesis advocates a conceptual model to explain the impact of these elements during the construction of work identity, and the dynamics among them therein. In terms of research method, this is also a demonstration of the importance of "going back to the workplace" when conducting similar researches under the auspice of occupational sociology. / Fung Yat-chung. / "December 2004." / Adviser: Lui Tai-lok. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-01, Section: A, page: 0356. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 200-202). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest Information and Learning Company, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstract in English and Chinese. / School code: 1307.

This thesis explores the historical roots of scientific medicine in an effort to highlight the lack of humanist intersubjectivity within the contemporary medical model. The study notes that contemporary medicine is overtly scientific and that its scientific framework is upheld and furthered by a medical model which draws legitimation from the irrefutability of what is referred to variously within this work, as its scientific "regime". It is shown that in terms of the humanist tradition people, not science, constitute the epicentre of meaningful experiential participation in the defining of human social reality. This, it is argued, implies a radically different ontology from other sociological perspectives on medicine. The thesis suggests that the contemporary medical model loses sight of the patient's ability to cognitively participate in the defining of illness, diagnosis and treatment in terms of his/her experience thereof , and argues that contemporary medicine, by advancing the idea that it alone has the correct and only answer to such problems, has led to a situation which promotes an overmedicalisation of society . The study gives an indication of the way in which this overmedicalisation has led to areas of human life becoming conceived of only in relation to medical expertise. In this respect it is noted that medicine has so successfully infiltrated the human consciousness (involving areas as diverse as childbirth, genetic engineering, transplant surgery and death), that decisions on health are invariably taken from a foundation of scientific legitimation which seems to exclude the patient as subject. It is argued that this way of making decisions reinforces the requirement for a scientific medical model which as it negates the human element insidiously amplifies its power over human life; thereby devaluing the very people it seeks to serve. The thesis suggests that in terms of a humanist reading of the Oath of Hippocrates, medical decisions can only be taken within a framework of experiential involvement which includes both medical expertise and lay understanding. It is indicated that when this happens, social reality functions in terms of a symbolic participation which fosters a commitment to equalise the conditions of human existence, and promotes a dialogical negotiatory process which is both intersubjectively and ongoingly produced.

Medicine has proven particularly successful with regard to its development and maintenance of a primary position within the professions. While many analyses of the medical profession have dealt with its unique status, explanations of authority relations have largely been presented as medicine's jockeying for power with other elite occupational types. In the following work, medicine's organization is used as a context for the subsequent analysis. Individual medical practitioner ties to the American Medical Association are tested for degree of association with organizational platforms and policies. The "distance" between medicine and other health-related industries is described as a feature of the wieldy AMA's diffuse authority. The strong association of medicine with science and the physical role are considered as equally important elements in the professional dominance of medicine. Finally, the medical client is brought into the analysis, pointing to the substantial contribution of clients as assistants to medical authority. Each aspect is described as a dimension of the medical profession, necessary for the definition and protection of its boundaries.

This dissertation examines the lives of recently-arrived Mexican immigrant youth who arrive to New York City from both rural and urban Mexico, and either enter into formal school settings, or remain out of these settings, foregoing formal schooling altogether or entering into non-formal educational institutions. Based on a qualitative case study of fifty-three Mexican youth, both pre and post immigration, this dissertation employs transnational theory, cultural and social reproduction theory, and life course theory to explain how even prior to immigration, youth are already forming ideas about work and school-going in the United States. Subject both to the social and economic conditions of their home communities, as well as to the messages they receive from their kin and friends already in New York City related to age, work and schooling, Mexican immigrant youth's worldviews are oriented towards particular pathways prior to immigration. Post-immigration, Mexican immigrant youth continue, for the most part, on these pathways, as they interact with social institutions and fields in New York, including the labor market and the educational system. Contributing to current immigration and education literature which emphasizes the formal school-going practices of immigrant youth, this dissertation broadens this discussion to explore not only their practices in pre and post immigration settings, but also how they impact school-going or non school-going.