<p>Extensive evidence demonstrates how mental illness symptomatology can inhibit perceptions of and actual performance on important tasks. However, receiving treatment from the medical establishment for such symptomatology requires diagnosis, whereby the patient becomes labeled and subject to the stereotypes connected to that label. Mental illness labeling is associated with a variety of negative outcomes including inhibited access to unemployment, housing, health insurance, and marriage and parenthood opportunities and can disrupt interpersonal relationships. However, the repercussions of mental illness labeling for one area of life have remained largely overlooked; that area is task performance. Adults spend a substantial portion of their lives at work engaged in group-based or individual level tasks. This dissertation explores external perceptions of mental illness in task groups and the role of self-internalization of stereotypes about mental illness in individual task performance through two experimental studies. </p><p> Previous research has revealed that, on average, task partners with a mental illness are stigmatized and subject to diminished status when they are identified to participants as having been hospitalized for general psychological problems for an extended period of time. Study 1 of this dissertation explores the stigma- and status-based attributions triggered by engaging with a partner in a mutual task who is identified as having a specific mental illness label: none, Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), or schizophrenia. </p><p> Additionally, research has revealed that members of a group about which negative stereotypes exist may face a situational threat in a domain relevant task--stereotype threat. Race, gender, social class, age, and a variety of other sociodemographic attributes can trigger stereotype threat. However, little research has considered the potential for stereotype threat to emerge on the basis of mental illness labeling. Study 2 of this dissertation focusing on individual-level performance, exploring the potential for ADHD to trigger stereotype threat in test-taking situations.</p><p> Results from Study 1 suggest that the specific mental illness labels studied, presented devoid of symptomatology severity, do not trigger stigmatized attributions but may trigger some negative status attributions in the case of a task relevant diagnosis. (ADHD). Study 2 suggests that a task relevant diagnosis may also trigger stereotype threat in a test-taking situation, negatively impacting performance. Taken together, the results indicate that task relevance of one's mental illness label may be a driving factor in negative external and internal perceptions of mental illness.</p> / Dissertation

Many large-scale social systems such as Web-based social networks, online social media sites and Web-scale crowdsourcing systems have been growing rapidly, enabling millions of human participants to generate, share and consume content on a massive scale. This reliance on users can lead to many positive effects, including large-scale growth in the size and content in the community, bottom-up discovery of “citizen-experts”, serendipitous discovery of new resources beyond the scope of the system designers, and new social-based information search and retrieval algorithms. But the relative openness and reliance on users coupled with the widespread interest and growth of these social systems carries risks and raises growing concerns over the quality of information in these systems. In this dissertation research, we focus on countering threats to the quality of information in self-managing social systems. Concretely, we identify three classes of threats to these systems: (i) content pollution by social spammers, (ii) coordinated campaigns for strategic manipulation, and (iii) threats to collective attention. To combat these threats, we propose three inter-related methods for detecting evidence of these threats, mitigating their impact, and improving the quality of information in social systems. We augment this three-fold defense with an exploration of their origins in “crowdturfing” – a sinister counterpart to the enormous positive opportunities of crowdsourcing. In particular, this dissertation research makes four unique contributions: • The first contribution of this dissertation research is a framework for detecting and filtering social spammers and content polluters in social systems. To detect and filter individual social spammers and content polluters, we propose and evaluate a novel social honeypot-based approach. • Second, we present a set of methods and algorithms for detecting coordinated campaigns in large-scale social systems. We propose and evaluate a content- driven framework for effectively linking free text posts with common “talking points” and extracting campaigns from large-scale social systems. • Third, we present a dual study of the robustness of social systems to collective attention threats through both a data-driven modeling approach and deploy- ment over a real system trace. We evaluate the effectiveness of countermeasures deployed based on the first moments of a bursting phenomenon in a real system. • Finally, we study the underlying ecosystem of crowdturfing for engaging in each of the three threat types. We present a framework for “pulling back the curtain” on crowdturfers to reveal their underlying ecosystem on both crowdsourcing sites and social media.

This qualitative multiple-case study examined the pedagogical role that performance arts training played in the emergence of students’ mature artistic identities. As one of many instructors in the musical theatre program of a post-secondary college, the author fulfilled both the roles of researcher and studio music teacher. Multiple learning contexts were observed for eight first-year students; these contexts included the regimens in various artistic classrooms and in the vocal studio. The data comprised field observations from studio and classroom settings, individual interviews with eight students from the vocal studio, and audio recordings from their studio sessions. Data analysis revealed that the students’ construction of identity was positively impacted by: the “triple-threat” program components, the unique dyad relationship between the vocal studio teacher and her students, and the rigorous, professional training the students underwent. A study of the interactions amongst the disciplines of music, dance, and drama exhibited several implications in relation to the students’ acute identity experiences. Recommendations for improved musical theatre curricula centred on improved integration of the three disciplines, enhanced studio time, and greater skill development in the studio. Suggestions for future research in performance arts education were also offered. / Thesis (Master, Education) -- Queen's University, 2008-08-12 23:23:52.131

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The purpose of this study was to examine the threats from climate change coverage in the media. The climate threats start to appear more frequently in the media and because of that it is important to examine what the media conveys to the viewers and readers since it may effect how people act when it comes to climate threats. In this study newspaper has been examined, more specifically daily press and evening press. The papers chosen was Aftonbladet and Expressen, which represented evening press, and Dagens Nyheter represented daily press. The method applied was both a quantitative and qualitative text analysis. With the quantitative method variables were formed and tested against the material. After that the result were analyzed qualitative to gain greater depth with the result. The theory used in this study is primarily framing but also agenda setting and news value are used. The variables were formed after the theories, which mainly focused on framing, and specific frames. The specific frames were: conflict frame, human interest frame, economic consequences frame, morality frame and responsibility frame. The result showed that the newspapers framed the issue pretty similar. All the newspapers used the conflict frame and the human interest frame the least. The responsibility frame was used often and the government was usually given the responsibility. The newspapers differ when it comes to morality frame and the economic consequences frame. The daily paper used the morality frame more often then the evening press and the evening press used the economic consequences frame more frequently, portraying the climate threat.

In a South African society in transformation it is well known that "white‟ Afrikaans-speaking South Africans are experiencing social change as a painful process. Against this background the purpose of the study was to investigate the construction of identities of being Afrikaans during family conversations between school-going Afrikaner adolescents and their parents in the post-apartheid context. A qualitative research design was utilized to investigate the phenomenon of negotiating identities of Afrikaansness in depth, openness and rich detail. A social constructionist meta-theoretical perspective underpinned the study. Theoretical perspectives from discursive psychology, as well as the dialogical self theory, formulated by Hermans and colleagues, framed the analysis and interpretation of the data. In contrast to conventional psychological approaches to the study of adolescent identity, such as the neo-Eriksonian identity status model developed by Marcia, identity was conceptualised as discursively produced between speakers in dialogue, and in particular social, cultural and historical contexts. Nine Afrikaner families, consisting of both parents and at least one school-going adolescent, between 16 and 18 years of age, were invited to take part in family conversations about their "white‟ Afrikaner identity. The nine family conversations were managed as focus groups (Wilkinson, 2004), and the purpose was to allow family members to talk freely and interact with one another around their experiences as "white‟ Afrikaans-speakers in the post-apartheid society. A discursive and rhetorical analysis, using Billig's (1996) rhetorical approach, was utilized to analyse the transcribed texts of the family conversations. The analysis revealed that when Afrikaners talk about their identities of being Afrikaans in the post-apartheid context their discourse involves talk about being threatened. Afrikaners seem to experience a sense of threat in relation to the stigma of being branded as "oppressors‟ and "racists‟ under apartheid, and they often utilize the discursive strategy of constructing themselves as victims and the Other as a powerful opponent or enemy. Furthermore, the analysis showed that the threat narratives contained an ambivalent structure. This ambivalent structure can be seen in the use of disclaimers, mitigations and other forms of racism denial in the construction of these threat narratives. These are the routine discursive manoeuvres of social face-keeping when talking about the Other. Analysis of the interview transcripts revealed that discourses of the past were often recited in the construction of threat narratives. In unpacking the Afrikaner threat narratives, it was shown how the participants recited ways of talking that were dominant in the apartheid era in making sense of changing realities in post-apartheid South Africa. The discourse of the "Swart Gevaar‟ (Black Danger) seems to be one of the most pervasive discourses in the production of the threat narratives, and it is used to construct a powerful Enemy that wants to harm the language, culture and interests of Afrikaners. The analysis indicated that Afrikaner adolescents and their parents often collaborated in producing identities of threat and apartheid in conversation. However, during the dialogue forms of contradiction, contestation and discursive struggle also emerged. There were occasions during the dialogue where the adolescents utilized discursive and rhetorical resources from being embedded in de-segregated settings. These ways of talking can be characterized as "non-threat talk‟ and "non-separation/apartheid talk‟. From a discursive and dialogical self theory perspective, identities are taken up as ways of doing or enacting identities in discourse and in dialogue, and not as universal and timeless structures of personality (such as the neo-Eriksonian identity status model). In trying to understand the complex identity struggles of Afrikaner adolescents in a tension-filled and rapidly changing society like South Africa, it is necessary to utilize theoretical and methodological tools that are appropriate in dealing with the complexity and multiplicity of identity responses that emerge in these contexts. For this reason the dialogical self theory was found to be a useful theoretical perspective in making sense of the multiplicity of voices or identities that emerge in a heterogeneous and globalizing society like South Africa. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2012.

This dissertation examines how we construct security threats. Theoretically, it contributes to the literature on securitization and threat construction, which has hitherto overlooked how influential bureaucracies that – in contrast to the police and the military – have little to gain from widened threat perceptions, may still contribute to threat construction. The dissertation studies the European Commission and the issue of irregular immigration. By using frame analysis, it firstly explores what constructions of irregular immigration that the Commission generates and to what extent these contribute to threat construction. Using the Bourdieusian concepts of field, capital and habitus, it secondly analyzes how certain constructions of irregular immigration are authorized at the expense of others, due to the inner bureaucratic logic of the Commission. The empirical result reveals that the Commission mostly defines irregular immigrants as victims, yet simultaneously favors policy solutions that mainly seek to avert immigration. The Commission thus contributes to threat construction primarily through its policy solutions. Studying the inner logic of the Commission field highlights how informal routines and tacit power relations between Commission departments authorize certain frames over others. Importantly, the analysis shows how the naming of irregular immigrants as victims tends not to cost the officials anything in terms of symbolic capital, whereas the suggesting of less restrictive solutions tends to do so. Definitions and policy solutions thus follow different bureaucratic logics, which enables a mismatch between them. Moreover, the threat construction appears not because Commission officials believe that restrictive measures are the only way to solve problems linked to irregular immigration. On the contrary, officials believe that a multitude of solutions are needed. Instead, the threat construction is an unintended consequence of the logic of the field. / <p>Författaren är verksam både vid Statsvetenskapliga institutionen på Stockholms universitet och vid Statsvetenskapliga avdelningen på Försvarshögskolan.</p>

This study examined advice interactions following infidelity. Participants (N = 213) completed a survey concerning an instance on infidelity and a subsequent advice interaction. Injured party perceptions of advice interactions were measured by examining advice messages, perceived face threat, and perceived face support, in addition to perceived effectiveness of the advice message. Results from this study showed no significant differences in perceived face threat, perceived face support, or advice effectiveness between different advice messages. Results also indicated both positive and negative face threat as negative predictors of advice effectiveness. While negative face support was a positive predictor of advice effectiveness, positive face support was a negative predictor. When controlling for relational closeness, negative face support was the only significant predictor of advice effectiveness.

Why are some issues seen as threats? This dissertation attempts to explain the dynamics of threat construction by national decision-makers. The theoretical ambition is twofold: first, the dissertation aims at improving the research on threat construction by suggesting a broad approach that analyzes this process in a structured manner. Second, the dissertation also contributes to the more mainstream International Relations security research agenda, which often under-problematizes this issue. The point of departure is that the link between a condition (e.g. structure) and threat framing (e.g. agency) is not to be taken for granted, and that threat construction is subjective and varies among actors.  This assertion is supported by the findings of the dissertation’s component parts. Essay I finds that US security doctrines such as the Truman and Bush doctrines are not routine responses to external threats but rather the natural continuation of a political and societal discourse in which certain norms and identities interact. Essay II finds that a condition that could lay the foundation for a threat construction does not necessarily evoke such a reaction, such as the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Russia. Essay III demonstrates the opposite situation; that a securitization can take place although the contextual conditions do not necessarily point toward such a move, such as US President Clinton’s declaration that AIDS is a threat to the national security of the United States. Essay IV proposes a framework that incorporates explanatory factors from the international, the domestic, and the individual levels of analysis. Such a framework allows for a more refined analysis which better captures the contingent relationships between factors. Taken together, the findings of this dissertation indicate that the correlations between conditions and threat constructions are intricate, and that the explanation of a securitization lies in the interaction of certain social and cognitive processes.

Based on the multiple resource model, a more difficult auditory task should use more attentional resources and leave fewer resources to attend to visual information. Research suggests that trying to listen to and understand a speaker with an accent is difficult. In addition, stimuli that are considered threatening can raise stress levels and reduce the amount of attentional resources available. In the present study, participants watched one of four videos that portrayed a bank robber delivering a statement with either a Midwestern or Serbian accent and with either high or low level of threat. For the perpetrator’s appearance, participants provided significantly more correct and fewer incorrect details if they heard the Midwestern accent or the low threat statement. These results support the multiple resource model and suggest that further research is needed with the model in eyewitness memory. / Department of Psychological Science