The purpose of this study was to develop a greater understanding of self-efficacy in music performance. I sought to (a) contribute to fundamental knowledge of self-efficacy in music performance, (b) determine whether scores from the Music Performance Self-Efficacy Scale (MPSES) were valid and reliable, and (c) provide insights for developing self-efficacy among secondary school music students. Participants (N = 290) were middle and high school students in band, chorus, and string orchestra ensembles from 10 schools in the southeast and western regions of the United States. Participants completed four online questionnaires: (a) Music Performance Self-Efficacy Scale, (b) Sources of Middle School Mathematics Self-Efficacy Scale, (c) Self-Esteem of Musical Ability, and (d) Advanced Measures of Music Audiation. Teachers provided 5-point Likert-type ratings of their student's music self-efficacy. Data from the MPSES demonstrated good fit with Bandura's proposed self-efficacy model (SRMR = .06, RMSEA = .06). The strength of the relationships between the sources and composite construct were consistent with theory and findings from other studies. Mastery experience was strongest, followed by verbal/social persuasion, physiological state, and vicarious experience. No differences in responses were found between middle and high school students, or among band, chorus, and string orchestra students. Items on the MPSES were also found to assess participants equally across grade levels. Music aptitude was found to predict self-efficacy in music performance (â = .16) and accounted for 3% of the variance in self-efficacy. This finding raises questions about the role of self-efficacy in mediating the relationship between music aptitude and music achievement. The Music Performance Self-Efficacy Scale was found to be a valid and reliable measure of self-efficacy in music performance. Evidence of validity was based on test content, response process, and internal structure, along with convergent, discriminant, and multi-method relationships. Evidence of reliability was based on test-retest correlation (r = .87) and internal consistency (á = .88). Recommendations for researchers were to link the sources of self-efficacy to performance achievement; explore self-efficacy's relationship with aptitude and achievement; and expand the investigation to other populations. Recommendations for educators focused on improving understanding of self-efficacy and interpreting MPSES results.

Consumers acquire products to enhance their lives, but the happiness from these acquisitions generally decreases with the passage of time. This process of hedonic adaptation plays an integral role in post-acquisition consumer satisfaction, product disposal and replacement behavior, and the "hedonic treadmill" that partially drives the relationship between consumption and happiness. Humans are social animals, however, and we know little about the relationship between the social environment and hedonic adaptation. My dissertation addresses this gap by exploring the moderating role of social presence (Essay 1) and self-concepts (Essay 2) on hedonic adaptation to products. Essay 1 explores how social presence affects hedonic adaptation to products. Research on general happiness has shown that significantly positive life events tend to maintain their positivity for longer periods of time when they involve active social interactions. I examine a more common situation in the domain of product consumption, i.e., the presence of others during consumption, and test whether hedonic adaptation to products is moderated by public contexts. By tracking happiness with products over time, I show that a "social audience" (i.e., the presence of others and the perception that those others notice the consumer) moderates hedonic adaptation through a consumer's inference of the social audience perspective. Inferring that the social audience is admiring one's product slows down adaptation, and inferring that the social audience is negatively viewing one's product accelerates adaptation. Essay 2 explores the role the identity-relevance of a product plays in hedonic adaptation. Extant research illustrates that consumers avoid consuming identity-inconsistent products in order to avoid dissonance arising from product choices conflicting with important self-concepts. I show that dissonance can also arise from consuming identity-consistent products because of the force of hedonic adaptation. I provide evidence that consumers feel uncomfortable experiencing declining happiness with identity-consistent products and thus resist hedonic adaptation to such products in order to resolve the dissonance. / text

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The relation between temperament and happiness in children aged 8-12 was examined. Participants included 311 students in Grades 4-6 and their parents, recruited from public and private schools in the Central Okanagan. Parents rated their children’s temperament using the Emotionality, Activity, and Sociability (EAS) Temperament Survey (Buss & Plomin, 1984) and rated their children’s happiness using a single-item measure. Children rated their own temperament using the EAS Temperament Survey and the Piers- Harris Self Concept Scale for Children, Second Edition (Piers-Harris 2) (Piers & Herzberg, 2002). Children also rated their own happiness using a single-item measure, the Oxford Happiness Scale, Short Form (Hills & Arygle, 2002), and the Subjective Happiness Scale (Lyubomirsky & Lepper, 1999). Confirmatory factor analyses established that parent and child ratings on the EAS Temperament Survey conformed to the four-factor structure proposed by Buss and Plomin (1984). Multiple regression analyses revealed that temperament accounted for between 9-29% of the variance in children’s happiness depending on the rater (i.e., parents vs. children) and the measure of happiness. Individual temperament variables that predicted a unique amount of the variance of children’s happiness over and above the combined effect of all temperament variables varied with the rater of children’s temperament (i.e., parents vs. children) and with the measure of happiness. Children who were more social, less shy, less emotional, and more free from anxiety rated themselves, and were rated by others, as happier. Children who scored higher on the activity temperament rated themselves, and were rated by others, as happier. The results of the current study parallel results of research investigating the relation between happiness and personality in adults. It establishes a strong relation between temperament and happiness, and iii supports the use of self-reports with children. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal

This study deals with pastoral guidance for persons who, due to unresolved trauma, are often emotionally and spiritually wounded and consequently exhibit internalised lies. Some important questions relating to this theme put on the table here include the following: * What is the origin of an internalised lie? * What effect do these lies have on the life of the wounded person? * What is truth and how can it be discerned? * How can the wounded person be guided and protected in the renewal of his/her thinking? The basic–theoretical research shows that being emotionally wounded and the accompanying internalisation of lies usually take place during childhood. This is the period when the child does not have the verbal, emotional or spiritual competence to interpret correctly or assimilate trauma and the accompanying injury. Further it transpires that the emotionally wounded person is engaged in a daily struggle with Satan and that the struggle mainly lodges in his heart and thoughts, and is based on lies. From this section it is also clear that only truth can overcome the onslaught of Satan's misrepresentation and that the truth can only be reached in a relationship with Jesus Christ. The wounded person has the choice of whom to follow, Satan or Jesus. It is therefore essential for such a person to take up the daily responsibility for the renewal and control of his mind. For this the Lord provides special weapons with which the struggle for renewal of one?s thoughts can successfully be approached. Meta–theoretical research has shown that optimal brain functioning is of cardinal importance in the renewal of the mind since behaviour, personality, cognitive ability, emotions as well as thoughts all originate in the brain. The brain is the most complex organ in the human body and the way it functions affects a person?s choices, vision and personality as well as success or failure in life. In the case of a person manifesting broken relationships or compulsive behaviour patterns, it must first be ascertained whether the brain functions correctly before labelling the person with some or other abnormality. The study shows that the brain does have the ability to recover with the help of diet and exercise as well as attitude of mind. The empirical study involved six collaborators who had been exposed to inter–generative trauma and consequently had exhibited internalised lies. Information relevant to trauma, medical background, head injuries and the family of origin was collected and after being processed, was presented in a genogram. The structure and style of every family as well as the role of the particular respondent in every family was represented schematically and explained to the respondent. From the practical–theoretical section it clearly emerged that emotional and spiritual healing can only take place by means of God's Word and his truth. In this respect it is essential that the injured person should take daily responsibility regarding the renewal of his mind. After all, transformation is a process demanding patience and practice as well as faith in Christ and it is clear that there are no shortcuts to healing. To reach the necessary goals in this process an integrated holistic approach is necessary where the different neighbouring sciences are involved. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Pastoral))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

This study deals with pastoral guidance for persons who, due to unresolved trauma, are often emotionally and spiritually wounded and consequently exhibit internalised lies. Some important questions relating to this theme put on the table here include the following: * What is the origin of an internalised lie? * What effect do these lies have on the life of the wounded person? * What is truth and how can it be discerned? * How can the wounded person be guided and protected in the renewal of his/her thinking? The basic–theoretical research shows that being emotionally wounded and the accompanying internalisation of lies usually take place during childhood. This is the period when the child does not have the verbal, emotional or spiritual competence to interpret correctly or assimilate trauma and the accompanying injury. Further it transpires that the emotionally wounded person is engaged in a daily struggle with Satan and that the struggle mainly lodges in his heart and thoughts, and is based on lies. From this section it is also clear that only truth can overcome the onslaught of Satan's misrepresentation and that the truth can only be reached in a relationship with Jesus Christ. The wounded person has the choice of whom to follow, Satan or Jesus. It is therefore essential for such a person to take up the daily responsibility for the renewal and control of his mind. For this the Lord provides special weapons with which the struggle for renewal of one?s thoughts can successfully be approached. Meta–theoretical research has shown that optimal brain functioning is of cardinal importance in the renewal of the mind since behaviour, personality, cognitive ability, emotions as well as thoughts all originate in the brain. The brain is the most complex organ in the human body and the way it functions affects a person?s choices, vision and personality as well as success or failure in life. In the case of a person manifesting broken relationships or compulsive behaviour patterns, it must first be ascertained whether the brain functions correctly before labelling the person with some or other abnormality. The study shows that the brain does have the ability to recover with the help of diet and exercise as well as attitude of mind. The empirical study involved six collaborators who had been exposed to inter–generative trauma and consequently had exhibited internalised lies. Information relevant to trauma, medical background, head injuries and the family of origin was collected and after being processed, was presented in a genogram. The structure and style of every family as well as the role of the particular respondent in every family was represented schematically and explained to the respondent. From the practical–theoretical section it clearly emerged that emotional and spiritual healing can only take place by means of God's Word and his truth. In this respect it is essential that the injured person should take daily responsibility regarding the renewal of his mind. After all, transformation is a process demanding patience and practice as well as faith in Christ and it is clear that there are no shortcuts to healing. To reach the necessary goals in this process an integrated holistic approach is necessary where the different neighbouring sciences are involved. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Pastoral))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

Self-concept structure has been extensively studied in the literature especially with regard to its relationship with psychological adjustment. However, the behavioral outcomes of the cognitive structure of the self and the mechanisms through which the relationship between self-concept structure and psychological adjsutment operate are still to be maintained. This study offered that the two dimensions of self-concept structure, differention and integration, would be related to the two dimensions of behavioral flexibility: Behavioral repertoire and deliberate adjustment of behaviors. iv Differentiation, tapping behavioral repertoire, was assumed to determine whether a person is flexible or rigid, while integration tapping deliberate adjustment were supposed to determine the quality of flexibility (i.e., whether the repertoire is controlled by the individual or by situational factors). By crossing these two dimensions, a model with four behavioral patterns was proposed: (1) Functional flexibility, characterized by both high integration and high differentiation / (2) situational flexibility, characterized by high differentiation but low integration / (3) stereotypical rigidity, characterized by low differentiation but high integration, and (4) effacing rigidity, which is low on both dimensions. Three studies were conducted on university students (N = 163, N = 123 and N = 242 for the three studies respectively) in order to test this model. Results revealed that the behavioral repertoire dimension of behavioral flexibility was linked to selfconcept differentiation, whereas the deliberate adjustment dimension was related to selfconcept integration. Functional flexibility and effacing rigidity patterns were clearly specified by measures of psychological adjustment, locus of control, need for cognition, need for approval and Big Five dimensions. Stereotypical rigidity and situational flexibilty patterns, however, seemed to require more elaboration. The model offering that flexibility mediates the link between self-concept structure and self-esteem was not supported.

Functional vision refers to the use of vision to perform day-day tasks and is assessed by the ability to perform these tasks. Assessment of functional vision is an integral component of the management of children with visual impairment. The results of the assessment help in designing appropriate educational and rehabilitation intervention strategies. The L V Prasad-Functional Vision Questionnaire (LVP-FVQ) is a reliable and valid tool for assessing self-reported functional vision performance (FVP) in children. Self-reports are obviously the child's perception of his or her ability to perform certain tasks but they may not reflect actual performance. Various studies of FVP in adults have used actual performance measures of everyday tasks, but very few studies, even in adults with visual impairment, have compared self-reports and performance measures and none have included identical tasks on the 2 methods of assessment. To date, no study has assessed FVP using performance measures of daily tasks in the paediatric population. Therefore, the aims of the current study were: (1) To develop performance measures of FVP and compare them with self-reports of FVP from the LVP-FVQ in a prospective cohort of Indian school-going children with visual impairment. (2) To investigate the effect of a psychological attribute, self-concept, on self-reports, performance measures and the relationships between the 2 measures. (3) To investigate the relationship between clinical measures of vision and FVP. Performance measures of FVP for children with visual impairment were developed for 17 day to day tasks for comparison with self-reports of the same tasks for the LVP-FVQ. The LVP-FVQ was verbally administered by the researcher to 178 Indian school-going children aged between 8 and 17 years with visual impairment. Similarly, the performance of each of the tasks by these children was measured by the researcher. The performance measures for most of these tasks were recorded on continuous scales and later categorized to match the ordinal ratings from the LVP-FVQ. The self-report and performance measure ratings for the 17 tasks were then converted into the same metric using a Rasch model allowing an accurate picture of whether and how these two measures of FVP compared with each other. Rasch analysis was used to estimate the person ability and item difficulty for FVP from the 2 methods of assessment. Self-reports showed stronger correlations with performance measures of FVP than were hypothesized. Similar to some studies in adults, binocular high-contrast visual acuity was found to be the single most significant predictor of a child's functional vision performance. Contrary to expectations, self-concept did not have a significant effect on the relationship between the 2 measures. A few reasons for the stronger than expected relationship between the 2 methods of assessment of FVP in children with visual impairment are suggested. Firstly, the use of identical tasks for self-reports and performance measures of FVP is likely to improve the relationship. Secondly, the LVP-FVQ was developed using focus groups of children with visual impairment, their parents, low vision specialists and rehabilitation professionals leading to good content validity. Since children were included in the development of the LVP-FVQ, the tasks were representative of a child's typical daily life. Thus, the performance measures were also suited to the day-day tasks of school-going children but were not tapping any social and psychological issues relating to visual impairment. Thirdly, the use of Rasch analysis which addresses many of the issues of unequal measurement and defines a hierarchy of items for self-reports and performance measures could have led to higher correlations in the present study. Finally, the high reliability and validity of self-reports and performance measures of FVP in the present study may have contributed to the higher than expected correlations. None of the demographic variables or self-concept affected the relationship between self-reports and performance measures of FVP, but self-concept had a weak significant association with self-reports. This result is unique to this study and warrants further investigation. Binocular high-contrast visual acuity alone, the most common visual function measured in ophthalmic clinics, explained between one-third and two-thirds of the variance in functional vision performance. This confirms the expected trend that with worse visual impairment, FVP is lower. The addition of the variable, self-concept, resulted in a very small increase in the variability explained for self-reported FVP. Similarly, the addition of other clinical measures of vision such as binocular low contrast visual acuity and colour vision resulted in a small increase in the variability explained for performance measures of FVP. The correlation between binocular high-contrast visual acuity and performance measures of FVP was statistically significantly higher than that between binocular high-contrast visual acuity and self-reports of FVP. There are a few possible reasons for this higher correlation. Firstly, performance measures are considered to be a more "objective" form of assessment, while self-reports are a child's perception of his or her ability and therefore lack a context, which may result in either over-estimation or under-estimation of actual ability. Furthermore, performance measures include dimensions such as the time taken to perform a task or other criteria specific to a task, while self-reports do not use such qualifiers. Secondly, the higher correlation may be the result of the visual complexity of some of the tasks. While self-concepts of children with visual impairment played a small but significant role in the self-reported FVP, studies in adults with visual impairment have suggested that other psychological factors such as mood, anxiety, motivation etc. are associated with an individual's perception of visual performance. Future studies are required to explore the possible role of these and other factors in FVP in Indian school-going children with visual impairment. This thesis makes a significant contribution to the field of paediatric low vision rehabilitation by providing performance measures of FVP and relating them to self-reports in children with visual impairment and their relationship with common measures of visual function. With self-reports, the child is reporting his or her perception of ability to complete a task, where performance measures examine the child's ability to complete a task by observing his or her performance. Thus, although the two methods are comparable, it is because of the different yields from each of these measures that they are not considered interchangeable. A combination of the 2 measures where practical would perhaps provide a richer depiction of the FVP of children with visual impairment. As developing countries such as India have limited resources allocated for eye care services where less than seven percent of the gross national product is spent on health care, self-reports can be utilized together with clinical measures of vision (mainly visual acuity) to assess the FVP in children with visual impairment in a community setting. However, both methods of assessment of FVP together with clinical measures of vision are essential if a comprehensive assessment of FVP is to be carried out in children with visual impairment. Information from these assessments can help clinicians better understand the functioning of children with visual impairment and incorporate them in the management of low vision in school-going children with visual impairment in India.