My dissertation uses multiple methods to introduce the novel concept of racial sexual preference - individuals’ preferences for a sexual or romantic partner based on race. This project builds on an insight from Daryl Bem’s “Exotic Becomes Erotic” theory of sexual development: a diverse set of sexual preferences exists beyond gender. I argue the very real social consequences of race make preferences in regard to it (sexual or otherwise) an important area for systematic study. I focus on gay male subculture, which has uniquely developed a terminology for expressing racial preferences. I investigate how racial preference is understood and organized within this subculture by collecting gay men’s sexual history narratives of cross-race preferences through interviews, as well as collecting archival materials from the national organization Black and White Men Together (BWMT) that pertain to racial sexual preference. I find that racial sexual preferences are experienced early in the life course and are consistent over time, similarly to experiences of gendered sexual orientation, though generally less exclusive. Unlike gendered sexual orientation, identities are unlikely to form in relation to racial sexual preferences because there is little ideological structure to support expression of cross-race racial preferences. Even within the organizational structure of BWMT, founded to support racial sexual preferences, over time I find a decrease in discourse and identity related to racial sexual preference (in favor of a colorblind ideal of preferences). I end my study by using the concept of racial sexual preference, supported by the findings from interviews and case study, to build on and challenge the theoretical work of Daryl Bem, Lisa Diamond, and James Giles in the area of sexual development and desire.

My goal was to examine potential moderators that affect emotional coordination between romantic partners. I conducted three separate empirical studies that are conceptually related. I used data collected in conjunction with Dr. Emily Butler (all 3 papers), and Dr. Shanmukh Kamble of Karnatak University, India (paper 3). Using models of two forms of emotional coordination in partners - emotion transmission and synchrony - I examined the moderating effects of attachment, cooperation and marriage type on emotional coordination between partners. The purpose of first paper was to examine the role that individual factors, specifically differences in attachment avoidance and anxiety, have on the transmission of emotions between partners. Interestingly, results were counter to hypotheses based on attachment differences in emotion regulation, which suggests the limitations of taking an individual perspective within dyadic contexts. The second paper examined how cooperation impacts emotional coordination between partners. I found that cooperation produces different emotional coordination patterns for men and women. Specifically, when both partners were at high levels of cooperation, men showed an in-phase emotional coordination pattern (changes in unison), whereas women showed an anti-phase emotional coordination (changes in opposite directions). Therefore, while both partners were engaging in similar behaviors their emotional experience was different. In the third paper, I moved to a more global analysis of factors that moderate emotional synchrony between partners. Specifically, I examined how different marriage-types in American and Indian cultures (love versus arranged marriages) impact emotional synchrony between partners. I expected that Indian-love marriages would show similar synchronization patterns to American marriages, and that both would show more synchrony in comparison with Indian-arranged marriages. Unexpectedly, Indian-love and Indian-arranged marriages were similar and both displayed lower synchrony than American couples. These findings suggest that emotional experience between partners may be influenced by the boarder culture, irrespective of marriage type. Taken together, these papers provide evidence for when emotional coordination between couples can have beneficial or detrimental effects on the relationship, depending on individual, dyadic and cultural factors.

Pradinių klasių mokinių pasiekimams vertinti naudojamas formuojamasis, idiografinis, apibendrinamasis, diagnostinis vertinimas. Kadangi nėra išskirta vertinimo tinkamumo kriterijų, vertinimas ne visuomet yra taikomas tinkama forma. Darbe išskirta 10 vertinimo kriterijų, pagal kuriuos nustatyta Kėdainių pradinių klasių mokytojų taikomo vertinimo atitiktis jiems. Atliktas vertinamasis kiekybinis tyrimas, kuriame dalyvavo 40 Kėdainių pradinių klasių mokytojų ir 196 pradinukų tėvai. / In order to assess the achievements of primary pupils formative, idiografic, summative, diagnostic assessments are used. As there are no proper assessment criteria distinguished, the assessment is seldom used in inappropriate form.10 assessment criteria were distinguished and the correspondence of the assessment used by Kedainiai primary techers to these criteria was determined. Assessive quantitative research was performed. 40 primary schools teachers and 196 pupils' parents participated in it.

Tyrimo objektas – motyvacijos ir kūno kultūros pamokų lankomumo sąsajos. Darbo tikslas: Nustatyti mokinių sportavimo/mankštinimosi motyvaciją bei jos sąsajas su kūno kultūros pamokų lankomumu. Uždaviniai: 1. Nustatyti ir palyginti mokinių motyvaciją ir jos lygį lyties aspektu. 2. Nustatyti ir palyginti mokinių subjektyvią nuomonę apie kūno kultūros pamokų lankomumą lyties aspektu. 3. Nustatyti ir palyginti mokinių motyvacijos bei jos lygio ir kūno kultūros pamokų lankomumo sąsajas lyties aspektu. Tyrimo rezultatai: 1. Tiek berniukų tiek mergaičių motyvacijoje dominuoja vidine motyvacija. Mergaitėms labiau nei berniukams būdingas išorinis reguliavimas, o berniukams identifikavimas (p<0,05). Penktadaliui abiejų lyčiu mokiniu būdingos kelios dominuojančios motyvacijos, o introjekcija pasižymi labai maža mokiniu dalis. 2. Tiriamieji, tiek berniukai tiek mergaitės (tiriant jų subjektyvią nuomone apie pamokų lankymą), vienodai linkę lankyti kūno kultūros pamokas. Daugiau nei puse jų (59 proc. mergaičių ir 65 proc. berniukų) nepraleidžia pamokų. 3. Mokiniai (ir berniukai ir mergaites) turintis vidine motyvacija labiau nei kiti linkę lankyti kūno kultūros pamokas (p<0,05). Berniukai su identifikavimo motyvacija labiau nei mergaitės linkę lankyti kūno kultūros pamokas (p<0,05). Mergaitės kurioms būdingas išorinis reguliavimas labiau nei berniukai linkusios dažnai praleidinėti kūno kultūros pamokas (p<0,05). Visi mokiniai turintis introjekcijos motyvacija, nors jų skaičius labai... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / The object of research – Motivations and physical education class attendance interface. The aim of research – Determine students in sports/exercise motivation and its relation with physical education lesson attendance. Propositions: 1. Identify and compare students motivation and motivation level in the perspective of gender. 2. Identify and compare children subjective opinion about the attendance of physical education classes. 3. Determine and compare students motivation, motivation level and physical education lessons attendance interfaces by gender. Conclusion: 1. Analysis showed that dominating motivation of boys and girls is internal motivation. Girls more than boys is motivated by external regulation, and boys by identification (p<0,05). One fifth of students of both genders is characterized by several dominant motivation and introjection has a very small proportion of pupils. 2. Both boys and girls (with their subjective opinion about school attendance) is equally likely to attend physical education classes. More than half of them (59 perc. of girls 65% and boys) is more likely to non attend in physical education class. 3. Pupils (boys and girls) with intrinsic motivation is more likely than others to attend physical education classes (p <0.05). The boys with the motivation of identification is more likely to attend physical education classes than girls (p <0.05). Girls are characterized by external regulation more often than boys, they tend to skip physical... [to full text]

Hyperkalemic periodic paralysis is characterized by myotonic discharges followed by paralysis. Caused by a mutation in the gene encoding for NaV1.4 channel, patients do not experience symptoms during infancy, but the onset starts between 1-10 years of age. The symptoms severity then increases with age until adolescence. A large increase in gene expression marked by an increase in oxidative capacity of muscles has also been reported in HyperKPP. It is possible that the onset of symptoms is related solely to NaV1.4 channel content/activity reaching a critical level. It is also possible that the onset of some symptoms are due to defective NaV1.4, while other symptoms and the increase in severity with age are related to changes in membrane components as a result of changes in gene expression. To test these possibilities, the progression of paralysis and changes in fiber types were followed with age in HyperKPP mice in relation to changes in NaV1.4 content and activity. Changes in fiber types (index of changes in gene expression), started after the onset of paralysis was observed, which coincided with NaV1.4 channels reaching maximum expression. Therefore, the onset of symptoms was related to defective NaV1.4 channels.

Type inference can be considered a form of partial evaluation that only evaluates a program with respect to its type annotations. Building on this key observation, this dissertation presents a uniform framework for expressing computation, its dynamic properties and corresponding static type information. By using a unified approach, the static phase divide between values and types is lifted. Instead, computations and properties can be freely assigned to the static or dynamic phase of computation. Even more, moving a property from one world to the other does not require any program modifications. This thesis builds a bridge between two worlds: That of statically typed languages and the dynamically typed world. The former is wanted for the offered static guarantees and detection of a range of defects. With the increasing power of type systems available, the kinds of errors that can be statically detected is growing, nearing the goal of proving overall program correctness from the program’s source code alone. However, such power does come for a price: Type systems are becoming more complex, restrictive and invasive, to the point where specifying type annotations becomes as complex as specifying the algorithm itself. Untyped languages, in contrast, may provide less static safety but they have simpler semantics and offer a higher flexibility. They allow programmers to express their ideas without worrying about provable correctness. Not surprisingly, untyped languages have a strong following when it comes to prototyping and rapid application development. Using the framework presented in this thesis, the programmer can have both: Prototyping applications using a dynamically typed approach and gradual refinement of prototypes into programs with static guarantees. Technically, this flexibility is achieved with the novel concept of auxiliary computations. Auxiliary computation are additional streams of computation. They model, next to the data’s computation, the computation of property of data. These streams thereby may depend on the actual data that is computed, as well as on further auxiliary computations. This expressiveness brings auxiliary computations into the domain of dependent types. Partial evaluation of auxiliary computations is used to infer static knowledge from auxiliary computations. Due to the interdependencies between auxiliary computations, evaluating only those parts of a program that contribute to a property is non trivial. A further contribution of this work is the use of demands on computations to narrow the extent of partial evaluation to a single property. An algorithm for demand inference is presented and the correctness of the inferred demands is shown.

This dissertation originated out of a research interest in the role of moral-reasoning development in different types of crime. However, as this interest developed, it became apparent that the evidence that moral-reasoning development is differentially involved in different types of crime was a) somewhat weak and b) did not apply to all types of crime. In addition, as part of the developmental work for this dissertation, it was decided to re-analyze a previous Taiwanese study by the author. This reanalysis substantially supported what the previous research literature had indicated in terms of the, at best, modest role of moral-reasoning development in different types of crime. Furthermore, it was found that when the data were analysed ignoring the conventional moral norms that previous research had employed, there was evidence that question content had a role in differentiating different types of crime. This is at variance with structural approaches to moral-reasoning development. Taken together, these findings steered the development of this dissertation in the direction of social cognitive theories of deviant behaviour for which the research evidence is fairly compelling. Consequently, the dissertation moved from structural models of moral reasoning development to socio-cognitive explanations of why some offenders demonstrate a clear pattern of specialization in particular types of crime. This research aimed to assess different social cognitions about offending and moral reasoning ability and used them to predict characteristic types of offending. The participants were four hundreds and thirty two male (adult=302, juvenile= 130) prisoners incarcerated in seven correctional facilities in Taiwan. Based on the offenders' self-reported crime histories, crime specialism indexes (CSI) were calculated to represent offenders' crime propensities in drug abuse, theft, sexual and violent offending for each of respondents. Twenty-three of these respondents were questioned using semi-structural interviews. The qualitative aspect of the research was informed by interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). In addition to moral reasoning competence measured by Gibbs's SRM-SF, five additional social cognitions were investigated including 1) normative beliefs, 2) crime cognitive beliefs, 3) moral domain placement, 4) crime episode judgments, and 5) criminal-identity. It was hypothesized that different cognitive representations predict decisions about types of offences committed. Research questions were, 1) What are the relationships between moral reasoning ability in overall, individual moral value, age, crime episode judgments, and CSIs? a) Juvenile offenders operated at immature moral reasoning level, while adults predominantly exhibited at mature stages. b) No significant correlations emerged between sociomoral reflection moral score (SRMS) and CS Is, except a positive relationship found with the juvenile sexual CS!. c) Comparatively arrested development was found in both age offenders' property & law and legal/justice than the rest of three moral values. d) Except one in the juvenile drug taking (SRMS), and two in life and legal justice, as well as one significant correlations showed in the adult legal justice in sexual offending context, there was no relationship found between the trend of responses towards crime episode questions and moral reasoning ability. 2) What are the relationships between offenders' crime perceptions, evaluations and CS Is? a) Only drug CSI correlated positively with the criminal identity, while negative relationships were found with theft and sexual CSIs. b) A self approval tendency in normative beliefs was found in all but the juvenile sexual CSIs. c) A self endorsement tendency was observed in cognitive beliefs scale in the adult group. d) Findings indicated that there were two differences in the adult drug and theft CSIs, with those offenders thinking drug taking and stealing behaviour as personal discretions being higher in these two acts CSIs than those regarded these two crimes as moral domains, respectively. 3) Is it possible to predict CSIs from sociocognitive factors considered? Multiple-regressions indicated that content-oriented cognitive appraisals predicted types of criminal behaviour, while structural variables did not, with two exceptions. In the case of adult violence CSI two moral reasoning level indicators accounted for some additional variance. In the case of juvenile violence, SRMS accounted for some additional variance. But in this latter case, a higher level of moral reasoning was associated with greater specialisation in violence. In the qualitative research questions, research question 4) What are the relationships between offenders' crime perceptions, evaluations and offending behaviour? Interviewees tended to approve their own behaviour more, particularly when compared with other crime patterns. Most of interviewees showed appreciations of Gibbs's mature moral reasoning forms. This seems to contradict with what they had done to others. Despite the meanings behind laws were recognised they largely based their justifications on heteronymous moral thinking. 5) How do offenders' explain the above conflicts, if any? Drug abusers tended to see there was more consistent than conflict, For example, it is a personal prerogative issue. Although theft and violent offenders admitted conflicts present, the former group tended to justify with reasons, such as if they do not harm other physically, stealing is not that bad behaviour, while the latter indicated they only use violence under threatening or legitimate circumstances. Although relatively little information was elicited from sexual offender interviewees on this issue, conflicts were expressed by them. In summary, a self-serving yet other-blaming tendency was observed in cognitive evaluations both in qualitative and qualitative data. The more intensive an offender's involvement in a specific type of crime the more likely were they to evaluate this type of crime more positively, legitimately and less moral concerns involved then any of the other crime types. Moral reasoning may simply accommodate to offenders' progressively firm crime social cognitions. Based on the research findings, a crime cognitive whirlpool model was proposed. This is an idea that offenders are being pulled down (socio-cognitively strapped) to crimes. The model illustrates how a differential relationship between content and structural social knowledge develops for specific crime commitment. Future research should explore in greater depth the specificity and versatility of social cognitive reasoning in this context. Also, the factors which intervene between beliefs about what is good and good behaviour need to be understood better.

In Malaysia, ethnic and cultural tension and conflicts have escalated in the past 5 years bringing undesirable impacts on the nation’s economy and, most importantly, on inter-ethnic relationships. In line with the government’s 1Malaysia effort to produce a more integrated society, this study proposes the need to construct a shared Malaysian identity, starting from the classroom, which is facilitated by teachers through the use of Malaysian short stories. This proposition, amidst the differences in cultural, religious and beliefs systems, aims to close the ethnic and cultural divide and cultivate widespread inter and intra cultural awareness. The study is grounded in the notion of hybridity in the Third Space espoused by Bhabha (1994) and ameliorated and geared towards the classroom context by the works of Gutiérrez (1999, 2004, 2008). The inquiry was designed using primarily qualitative research instruments employing non-participant classroom observations, semi-structured interviews with 7 English Language teachers, and group interviews with 6 groups of students from 4 different schools in Kuala Lumpur. A one-day workshop was also conducted with the 7 teachers to introduce new Malaysian short stories and also for the purpose of sharing experiences in teaching literature in English. This data source was then supported by secondary quantitative data derived from self-completion questionnaires administered to the students of the teachers involved in this study. The findings from the analyses of the results show various attitudes, beliefs and teaching and practices in the English language classroom in response to the notion of constructing a shared identity in the Third Space. The notion of the hidden curriculum is also investigated to determine how it can be usefully theorized towards identity construction in the classroom. On the one hand, students mainly accepted the shared identity concept as a basis for classroom practice, whilst teachers had a range of views about this idea. In the conclusion, the thesis explores the implications of the classroom practices adopted by the teachers in this study as part of the process of constructing a shared Malaysian identity. It also examines the plausibility of and barriers to creating an awareness of the Third Space through the use of narratives produced by local writers, both as a medium for developing the skills to access the Third Space and also as the container of messages about Malaysian society and identity. Finally, this study suggests the way forward for realizing the country’s aspiration of a unified society and becoming a full-fledged developed country, which can possibly start in the classrooms.

Existing evaluation research has presented equivocal findings regarding the efficacy of outdoor adventure education (OAE) interventions for vulnerable young people. The evidence-base is weakened by methodological limitations and a paucity of unified theoretical models. The current study presents an evaluation of the psychological impact of a naturally occurring OAE intervention for children perceived to be vulnerable by their mainstream primary school teachers. This study attempts to address previous methodological limitations and to facilitate a real-world application of the Adventure Experience Paradigm (AEP: Martin & Priest, 1986; Priest, 1992, 1993). The mixed-methods research design involves an exploratory qualitative phase, a randomised control trial (RCT, n = 38) and group interviews with participants (n = 27). The RCT forms the most significant part of the design, measuring the impact of the intervention on participants’ locus of control, self-perceptions and teacher-reported emotional and behavioural difficulties (EBD). The results show that the intervention did not have a statistically significant effect on participants’ locus of control or self-perceptions. There is some evidence to suggest that the intervention had a positive impact on teacher perceptions of participants’ EBD, however, these findings are limited by a possible Hawthorne Effect. The group interviews allowed the researcher to explore participants’ perceptions of the OAE intervention however, conclusions are tentative due to the surface-level nature of the thematic analysis procedures employed. Participants appeared to perceive the intervention in a positive light with emerging themes of ‘The Physical Experience’, ‘Outside Comfort Zone’ and ‘Competence’ identified. These findings appear to contradict the quantitative findings and offer support for the AEP. Overall, the validity of the quantitative findings is limited by low statistical power and ceiling effects as a result of sampling error. These limitations are discussed and the findings are interpreted in line with existing research and the AEP. Implications for future research and professional practice are also considered. The findings support the benefits of mixed-methods approaches and RCT designs in future OAE evaluation research.

Mémoire numérisé par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.