Tam Wing-sai Jessica. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 226-234). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Abstracts --- p.i / Acknowledgements --- p.iii / Prelude --- p.1 / Chapter Chapter1 --- Literature Review / Chapter 1.1 --- Literature Review on Cyber Researches --- p.5 / Chapter 1.11 --- Cyberspace and Self --- p.7 / Chapter 1.111 --- Goffmanian Dramaturgy: Presentation of Self in Cyberspace --- p.9 / Chapter 1.112 --- The Postmodern View: Fragmented and Multiple Cyberselves --- p.13 / Chapter 1.12 --- Later Foucault on Ethics --- p.19 / Chapter 1.121 --- Self-Writing as Self-Technology --- p.24 / Chapter 1.13 --- Conceptual Framework: Practice of Ethics in Cyberspace --- p.25 / Chapter 1.2 --- Summary --- p.32 / Chapter Chapter2 --- Research Design / Chapter 2.1 --- Research Site --- p.34 / Chapter 2.2 --- Research Method --- p.38 / Chapter 2.21 --- Textual Analysis --- p.38 / Chapter 2.22 --- Online Participatory Observation --- p.36 / Chapter 2.23 --- Online Interview / Chatting --- p.43 / Chapter 2.3 --- Summary --- p.45 / Chapter Chapter3 --- Approaching the Cyber Context: On the Threshold of Cyberspace / Chapter 3.1 --- Intrinsic Nexuses of Cyberspace --- p.47 / Chapter 3.11 --- Nexus of Space and Place --- p.47 / Chapter 3.111 --- Invisibility /Anonymity --- p.50 / Chapter 3.112 --- Sociality --- p.52 / Chapter 3.12 --- Nexus of Nearness and Remoteness --- p.60 / Chapter 3.121 --- Strangeness --- p.61 / Chapter 3.2 --- People on the Net: a Classification of Cyber-individuals --- p.63 / Chapter 3.21 --- Instrumental net user --- p.68 / Chapter 3.22 --- Cybernaut --- p.70 / Chapter 3.23 --- Netizen --- p.71 / Chapter 3.24 --- Net-addict --- p.75 / Chapter 3.3 --- Summary: Crossing the Threshold of Cyberspace --- p.79 / Chapter Chapter4 --- Caring the Cyberself: Self-awareness and Mind-caring / Chapter 4.1 --- Problematization of Virtuality and Virtual self --- p.82 / Chapter 4.11 --- Relationship with Virtual Reality: Materiality Vs Virtuality --- p.83 / Chapter 4.12 --- Relationship with Selves: Authentic self? Unauthentic self? --- p.91 / Chapter 4.13 --- Self-caring: Forgetting the body? Caring the mind --- p.97 / Chapter 4.131 --- Ethical Substance: Free and Reflective Subject --- p.109 / Chapter 4.2 --- Summary: Cyberself as an Ethical Subject --- p.114 / Chapter Chapter5 --- Creating the Cyber Flesh: Self-fashioning as a Virtual Self-technology / Chapter 5.1 --- Nickname --- p.117 / Chapter 5.2 --- Personal Details --- p.124 / Chapter 5.21 --- Net-hupomnemata --- p.126 / Chapter 5.22 --- Net Self-narration --- p.134 / Chapter 5.3 --- Summary: Self-fashioning as Virtual Self-technology --- p.137 / Chapter Chapter6 --- Playing the Cyberself: Self-experiment as a Virtual Self-technology / Chapter 6.1 --- Forms of Cyberself --- p.140 / Chapter 6.11 --- Disembodied --- p.140 / Chapter 6.12 --- Plastic --- p.141 / Chapter 6.13 --- Multiple and interchangeable --- p.142 / Chapter 6.2 --- Virtual Self-experiment --- p.143 / Chapter 6.21 --- Multiplicity: Self as a Masquer --- p.143 / Chapter 6.22 --- Plasticity : Self as a Creator --- p.151 / Chapter 6.221 --- Gender Swapping --- p.153 / Chapter 6.3 --- Summary: Self-Experiment as Virtual Self-Technology --- p.158 / Chapter Chapter7 --- Narrating the Cyberself: Self-Narration as a Virtual Self-Technology / Chapter 7.1 --- Net-Narration --- p.161 / Chapter 7.11 --- Net-diary --- p.162 / Chapter 7.12 --- Net-Correspondence --- p.166 / Chapter 7.2 --- Summary: Self-Narration as Virtual Self-technology --- p.176 / Epilogue-Game of Power in Cyberspace / Part I: Cyber-nature and Cyber-individuals --- p.179 / Part II： Self-awareness --- p.182 / Part III: Self-technologies --- p.185 / Reflection --- p.191 / Notes --- p.195 / Appendices --- p.207 / Bibliography --- p.226

Background: Self-injury is a serious behaviour undertaken by those in distress. Attitudes to self-injury both with and without intent to end life is often studied in terms of professionals working in Accident and Emergency (A&E), with little attention paid to other professionals or non-professionals. There are several potential aspects to one's stigmatising attitudes, such as willingness to help individuals, perceived causes for behaviour, optimism for prognosis and general empathy experienced. Moreover, some research suggests stigmatising attitudes may be different depending on the severity of the self-injury, including the presence or absence of suicidal intent. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact on these factors of the form of self-injury and professional background. Methods: Using an online survey methodology 436 respondents completed the survey. The attitudes of Mental Health Professionals, Primary Care Professionals and those not working in either of these settings ('Non-Professionals') were compared to explore their attitudes towards self-injury. Participants were randomly shown a vignette depicting either self-injury with or without intent to end life and reported their overall empathy, willingness to help, attributions for the behaviour and optimism for prognosis. Results: On all measures Non-Professionals reported more negative attitudes than either healthcare professional group, who had similar attitudes towards self-injury. Both professional groups differed in their attitudes towards self-injury with and without suicidal intent on all measures expect for optimism for prognosis. Across all professional groups a difference was seen between the optimism for personal and others' intervention. Conclusions: The study outlined the current attitudes of different healthcare professionals and the general public towards self-injury both with and without intent to end life. Differences in attitudes were seen, showing the potential to improve the stigmatising attitudes experienced by those who self-injure; methods were suggested by which to do this. Further research is needed in order to assess the clinical effectiveness of attempts to improve stigmatising attitudes.

Self-affirmation has been shown to alter individuals' reactions to a wide range of threats, yet comparatively little is known about its cognitive and affective consequences, especially in the immediate aftermath of self-affirmation. This thesis explored these effects and the role of trait self-esteem in moderating them. In relation to cognition, in Study 1 (Chapter 2, N = 83), self-affirmation improved performance on two tasks (testing working memory and inhibition) related to executive function; Effects were not moderated by self-esteem. In Study 2 (Chapter 3, N = 107), self-affirmation decreased performance on a different working memory task among high self-esteem individuals. In relation to affect, a systematic review (Chapter 4) indicated that self-affirmation is not consistently associated with positive affect, despite the fact that positive affect has received much attention as a possible mediator of self-affirmation effects. Study 4 (Chapter 5, N = 161) showed that self-esteem moderated the effects of self-affirmation on positive affect: high self-esteem individuals reported more positive affect after self-affirming. Study 5 (Chapter 6, N = 270) revealed that self-affirmed (vs control) participants used more positive affective language. Participants in Study 6 (Chapter 6, N = 73) were randomised to a positive mood, self-affirmation or control condition, and read about the health consequences of fruit and vegetable consumption. At one-week follow-up, self-affirmed participants reported highest consumption, but positive affect did not mediate this effect. Overall, the findings show some support for an impact of self-affirmation on executive function, providing a useful link between the diverse areas which self-affirmation has been known to affect. They also support the notion that positive affect can be an immediate product of self-affirmation, especially for those high in self-esteem. However, they do not support the view that positive affect is the mechanism underlying the effect of self-affirmation on the processing of self-relevant threatening information.

The study of self within psychology has been limited in a number of ways. Two sets of empirical studies extended the study of self beyond traditional trait-based self-perception. In the first set of studies, seven hundred and eighty-nine adults listed their multiple “self-aspects” that represent meaningful elements of their lives and completed trait ratings for each of their self-aspects. The similarity between trait responses for the different self-aspects indicated the degree of “self-complexity” for a participant, as well as the degree of “self-integration.” Results replicated previous findings indicating that lower self-complexity is associated with higher well-being, and that network-based approaches for measuring self-complexity were more strongly with well-being. Finally, participants who completed the same task 3 weeks later demonstrated an increase in self-integration. Broadly, the results demonstrate that network-based approaches are an effective metric for studying the structure of the self and that future work may have success using networks to inform identity-based interventions. In the second set of studies, five hundred and ninety-four adults completed studies about personal identity and morality. Participants imagined that some trait about someone had changed and were asked to indicate the degree to which the trait change would change the person’s identity. Comparisons of interest examined the degree to which moral trait changes led to more perceived identity change than non-moral trait changes and the degree to which imagining changes to oneself versus to another person yielded differences in perceived identity change. Results replicated previous work indicating that morals lead to most perceived identity change and find that changes to self yielded large perceived identity change than changes to a friend. Moreover, neuroimaging work revealed that thinking about identity change for both targets recruits regions of the cortical midline and that thinking about moral trait words does not recruit any regions compared to thinking about non-moral trait words, challenging previous assumptions about the nature of self-perception and personal identity. Results from both sets of studies were integrated with philosophical and translational perspectives to consider the overall contributions to real-world, self-control issues and broader questions about the nature of the self.

Previous research documented a strong relationship between nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) and negative affect as well as rumination. Recent studies have also shown that specific negative affect such as anger and anger rumination play distinctive roles in the development and maintenance of NSSI. The present study examined the roles of trait anger, anger rumination and self-punishment tendency in the development of NSSI among Chinese adolescents in Hong Kong using a 6-month follow-up design. In the first wave of assessment, 4,778 Chinese secondary school students aged 10 to 19 completed measures assessing NSSI, trait anger, anger rumination, self-punishment tendency and other relevant variables. The second wave of assessment was conducted six months later and 3,918 of the Wave 1 participants completed the same measures. Results showed that trait anger and anger rumination reliably predicted the severity of NSSI both concurrently and longitudinally, even after controlling for overall negative emotion and borderline personality symptoms. Significant interaction effects between trait anger and anger rumination were also found. Structural equation modeling results revealed that self-punishment tendency partially mediated the relation between anger dysregulation and NSSI. The mediating role of self-punishment was identified in both the concurrent and the longitudinal mediation model. Conceptual and clinical implications of these findings were discussed. / 過往文獻記錄了非自殺性自傷行為（以下簡稱自傷行為）與負面情緒以及反芻思維的密切聯繫。最近的研究也揭示了特定的負面情緒如憤怒，以及憤怒導向的反芻思維在自傷行為的發展和維持中起到獨特的作用。本論文用一項六個月的追蹤研究考察了憤怒特質、憤怒反芻思維和自我懲罰傾向對中國青少年自傷行為的影響。在第一期測評中，4,778名香港中學生（10到19歲）完成了關於自傷行為、憤怒特質、憤怒反芻思維、自我懲罰以及其他與自傷相關因素的自我報告問卷。第二期測評于六個月后進行，3,918名參與過第一期測評的學生完成了相同的問卷施測。數據分析結果表明憤怒特質與憤怒反芻思維顯著地預測了同期和未來的自傷行為嚴重程度，並且二者的預測效力在控制了被試的總體負面情緒與邊緣型人格症狀后仍然顯著。同時，本研究也證實了憤怒特質與憤怒思維在預測自傷行為時的顯著交互作用。結構方程模型結果顯示，自我懲罰傾向在憤怒失調與自傷行為的關係中起到了部分中介的作用，並且這一中介作用在橫向研究和縱向研究兩個模型中都得到了證實。這些發現對於增強我們對青少年自傷行為的理解、推動進一步針對自傷行為中情緒和思維的研究以及促進臨床診斷及治療都具有重要啟示。 / Zhou, Xiaoyi. / Thesis M.Phil. Chinese University of Hong Kong 2015. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 83-113). / Abstracts also in Chinese. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on 12, October, 2016). / Zhou, Xiaoyi. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only.

The goal of this thesis is to bring Rogers and Kierkegaard into productive conversation with each other, across disciplines, around the themes of self, authenticity, and relationality. The purpose is to show that people can still learn a great deal from these thinkers, particularly by reading each of them in light of the other. Rogers and Kierkegaard wrote in different historical periods and cultural settings. However, by identifying some cognate concepts (in English) we can appreciate how, for both of them, the central task of life is to promote human well-being, in community with each other, and in humble relation to a higher good or ideal. This thesis shows more specifically that Rogers' theory of person-centeredness and Kierkegaard's theory of Christian neighbor-love both reflect the conviction that being an authentic self if necessary for sustaining good relationships with others. Both authors argue that being in right relationship with others is, in turn, essential to self-actualization and authenticity.

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Contrary to common folk and expert theory, the human self is not unitary. There is no Cartesian theatre or homunculus functioning as a metaphorical overlord. Rather, it is an abstractum gleaned from a person�s experiences-a centre of narrative gravity (Dennett 1991). Experiences are a person�s cognisance of her ventures in life from a particular unique perspective. In perspectivising her experiences, the person imputes a certain structure, order, and significance to them. Events are seen as unfolding in a certain inherently and internally coherent way characterised by causality, temporality, or intentionality, etc. In other words, a person�s self emerges out of her innumerable narrativisations of experience, as well as the different protagonist roles she plays in them. Her behaviours in different situations can be understood as different life-narratives being foregrounded, when she is faced with different stimuli different experiences/events present. In real life, self-reflective discourse frequently alludes to a divided, partitive self, and the experiences/behaviours that it can engage in. In academic study, this concept of the divided and narrative-constructivist self is well-represented in disciplines ranging from philosophy (e.g., Dennett 1991, 2005), developmental psychology (e.g., Markus & Nurius 1986; Bruner 1990, 2001; Stern 1994), cognitive psychology (e.g., Hermans & Kempen 1993; Hermans 2002), neuropsychology (e.g. Damasio 1999), psychiatry (e.g., Feinberg 2001), to linguistics (e.g., McNeil 1996; Ochs & Capps 1996; Nair 2003). Depending on the particular theory, however, emphasis is often placed either on its divided or its narrative-constructivist nature. This thesis argues, however, that the two are coexistent and interdependent, and both are essential to the self�s ontology. Its objectives are therefore: (i) to propose a partitioned-narrative model of the self which unifies the two perspectives by positing that the partitioned-representational (Dinsmore 1991) nature of narratives entails the partitioned structure of the self; and (ii) to propose that the partitioned-narrative ontology of the self is what enables and motivates much of our self-reflective discourse and the grammatical resources for constructing that discourse. Partitioning guarantees that a part of the self, i.e., one of its narratives, can be selectively attended to, foregrounded, objectified, and hence talked about. Narrativity provides the contextual guidance and constraints for meaning-construction in such discourse. This claim is substantiated with three application cases: the use of anaphoric reflexives (I found myself smiling); various usages of proper names, including eponyms (the Shakespeare of architecture), eponymic denominal adjectives (a Herculean effort), etc.; and partitive-self constructions which explicitly profile partitioned and selectively focal narratives (That�s his hormones talking). When analysed using the proposed model, these apparently disparate behaviours turn out to share a common basis: the partitioned-narrative self.

This thesis examines how the reification of the concept of ' self - esteem ' has been achieved discursively. It investigates how the concept of self - esteem has been developed over time and how it operates as an explanatory construct across a rage of areas and disciplines. The analyses in this thesis examine texts coming from psychiatry, self - help publications and public policy. These disciplines have taken up, utilized and, consequently re - constructed the concept of self - esteem according to their own specific needs and their particular discursive organizations. The thesis adopts the assumption that abstract psychological constructs are linguistically achieved and thus can be most effectively studied through focusing on the ' workings of language ', rather than on ' discovering ' some inner phenomena. Informed by Wittgenstein, critical psychology, and critical linguistics, the analyses undertake grammatical investigations into the concept of self - esteem. These investigations, based on the analysis of patterns in the lexico - grammar, examine ' meanings ' accumulated in the concept of self - esteem. These examinations extend to the level of social, cultural, and political contexts which have influenced our understandings of the concept of self - esteem. The investigations of ' meanings ' embedded in the notion of self - esteem make possible an exploration of the values, assumptions and connotations carried by this concept. The analyses demonstrate that self - esteem has been constructed over time as an increasingly more tangible, internalized and cognitive phenomenon. This intensified reification produced a ' self - esteem ' that is not only a consistent and measurable ' feature ' of the human psyche, but is an agentive force shaping human lives. Moreover, these constructions of self - esteem promote particular ethical principles and ultraconservative values. Paradoxically, while discourses of self - esteem have become a part of neo - liberal philosophies emphasizing personal liberty and freedom of choice, they serve to limit the choices of many social groups. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Medical School, 2005.

Diabetes self-management has clear benefits in reducing diabetes symptoms and complications and improving the health, wellbeing and quality of life of people with diabetes. Successful intervention programs focus on the development of diabetes self-efficacy, which promotes the capacity of people with diabetes to perform diabetes self-management even in the face of difficulty. Diabetes self-management, however, presents considerable challenges for health systems that have been structured to provide acute, rather than chronic care, and health professionals who have been trained to cure illness, rather than manage behaviour. It presents further challenges for people with diabetes who live in socioeconomically disadvantaged circumstances and have limited financial resources for diabetes care and therapies, and poor access to resources for diabetes self-management, such as clean, safe exercise areas and healthy foods at low-cost. These sociostructural determinants of diabetes self-management, defined here as GP care and socioeconomic resources, have the potential to impede the uptake and effective dissemination of diabetes self-management policy and intervention. This research thesis investigated the impact of sociostructural determinants on diabetes self-management using a model developed from self-efficacy theory. The model was empirically examined using a mixed quantitative and qualitative methodology, where qualitative data were used to illuminate the findings of quantitative data. The quantitative component comprised a random cross-sectional survey of 105 people with diabetes subjected to hierarchical multiple regression with tests for moderator effects. The qualitative component comprised three group interviews of 27 English-speaking, Vietnamese-speaking and Arabic-speaking people with diabetes, analysed using the phenomenological method. Findings provided partial support for the model. Relationships between sociostructural determinants and diabetes self-management were complex. While good quality GP care facilitated diabetes self-management, it also acted as a barrier to self-monitoring of blood glucose for people with low levels of diabetes self-efficacy. Having limited access to socioeconomic resources did not impede diabetes self-management, even for people with low levels of diabetes self-efficacy, although this may have been masked by access to public health schemes and welfare support. The findings from this small-scale exploratory study suggest that self-efficacy may exert an impact on diabetes self-management, even in the face of sociostructural determinants.