Global ETD Search

51	Self-Management of Disaster Risk and Uncertainty: The Role of Preventive Health in Building Disaster Resilience Gowan, Monica Elizabeth January 2011 (has links) One of the great challenges facing human systems today is how to prepare for, manage, and adapt successfully to the profound and rapid changes wreaked by disasters. Wellington, New Zealand, is a capital city at significant risk of devastating earthquake and tsunami, potentially requiring mass evacuations with little or short notice. Subsequent hardship and suffering due to widespread property damage and infrastructure failure could cause large areas of the Wellington Region to become uninhabitable for weeks to months. Previous research has shown that positive health and well-being are associated with disaster-resilient outcomes. Preventing adverse outcomes before disaster strikes, through developing strengths-based skill sets in health-protective attitudes and behaviours, is increasingly advocated in disaster research, practise, and management. This study hypothesised that well-being constructs involving an affective heuristic play vital roles in pathways to resilience as proximal determinants of health-protective behaviours. Specifically, this study examined the importance of health-related quality of life and subjective well-being in motivating evacuation preparedness, measured in a community sample (n=695) drawn from the general adult population of Wellington’s isolated eastern suburbs. Using a quantitative epidemiological approach, the study measured the prevalence of key quality of life indicators (physical and mental health, emotional well-being or “Sense of Coherence”, spiritual well-being, social well-being, and life satisfaction) using validated psychometric scales; analysed the strengths of association between these indicators and the level of evacuation preparedness at categorical and continuous levels of measurement; and tested the predictive power of the model to explain the variance in evacuation preparedness activity. This is the first study known to examine multi-dimensional positive health and global well-being as resilient processes for engaging in evacuation preparedness behaviour. A cross-sectional study design and quantitative survey were used to collect self-report data on the study variables; a postal questionnaire was fielded between November 2008 and March 2009 to a sampling frame developed through multi-stage cluster randomisation. The survey response rate was 28.5%, yielding a margin of error of +/- 3.8% with 95% confidence and 80% statistical power to detect a true correlation coefficient of 0.11 or greater. In addition to the primary study variables, data were collected on demographic and ancillary variables relating to contextual factors in the physical environment (risk perception of physical and personal vulnerability to disaster) and the social environment (through the construct of self-determination), and other measures of disaster preparedness. These data are reserved for future analyses. Results of correlational and regression analyses for the primary study variables show that Wellingtonians are highly individualistic in how their well-being influences their preparedness, and a majority are taking inadequate action to build their resilience to future disaster from earthquake- or tsunami-triggered evacuation. At a population level, the conceptual multi-dimensional model of health-related quality of life and global well-being tested in this study shows a positive association with evacuation preparedness at statistically significant levels. However, it must be emphasised that the strength of this relationship is weak, accounting for only 5-7% of the variability in evacuation preparedness. No single dimension of health-related quality of life or well-being stands out as a strong predictor of preparedness. The strongest associations for preparedness are in a positive direction for spiritual well-being, emotional well-being, and life satisfaction; all involve a sense of existential meaningfulness. Spiritual well-being is the only quality of life variable making a statistically significant unique contribution to explaining the variance observed in the regression models. Physical health status is weakly associated with preparedness in a negative direction at a continuous level of measurement. No association was found at statistically significant levels for mental health status and social well-being. These findings indicate that engaging in evacuation preparedness is a very complex, holistic, yet individualised decision-making process, and likely involves highly subjective considerations for what is personally relevant. Gender is not a factor. Those 18-24 years of age are least likely to prepare and evacuation preparedness increases with age. Multidimensional health and global well-being are important constructs to consider in disaster resilience for both pre-event and post-event timeframes. This work indicates a need for promoting self-management of risk and building resilience by incorporating a sense of personal meaning and importance into preparedness actions, and for future research into further understanding preparedness motivations. disaster risk uncertainty self-management natural hazards earthquake tsunami evacuation preparedness recovery resilience quality of life health-related quality of life well-being subjective well-being preventive health health promotion risk risk assessment risk perception riskscape hazardscape psychosocial risk reduction wellington christchurch canterbury new zealand disaster management emergency management geology health sciences risk management health management vulnerability meaning salutogenesis health behaviour change motivation epidemiology quantitative epidemiology survey health-protective behaviours multi-dimensional health models affective domain evacuation preparedness disaster preparedness disaster research
52	A Geographical Study of Mono Township Edwards, Karen Louise 04 1900 (has links) No Abstract Provided / Thesis / Bachelor of Arts (BA)
53	Action in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: an Enactive Psycho-phenomenological and Semiotic Analysis of Thirty New Zealand Women's Experiences of Suffering and Recovery Hart, M J Alexandra January 2010 (has links) This research into Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) presents the results of 60 first-person psycho-phenomenological interviews with 30 New Zealand women. The participants were recruited from the Canterbury and Wellington regions, 10 had recovered. Taking a non-dual, non-reductive embodied approach, the phenomenological data was analysed semiotically, using a graph-theoretical cluster analysis to elucidate the large number of resulting categories, and interpreted through the enactive approach to cognitive science. The initial result of the analysis is a comprehensive exploration of the experience of CFS which develops subject-specific categories of experience and explores the relation of the illness to universal categories of experience, including self, ‘energy’, action, and being-able-to-do. Transformations of the self surrounding being-able-to-do and not-being-able-to-do were shown to elucidate the illness process. It is proposed that the concept ‘energy’ in the participants’ discourse is equivalent to the Mahayana Buddhist concept of ‘contact’. This characterises CFS as a breakdown of contact. Narrative content from the recovered interviewees reflects a reestablishment of contact. The hypothesis that CFS is a disorder of action is investigated in detail. A general model for the phenomenology and functional architecture of action is proposed. This model is a recursive loop involving felt meaning, contact, action, and perception and appears to be phenomenologically supported. It is proposed that the CFS illness process is a dynamical decompensation of the subject’s action loop caused by a breakdown in the process of contact. On this basis, a new interpretation of neurological findings in relation to CFS becomes possible. A neurological phenomenon that correlates with the illness and involves a brain region that has a similar structure to the action model’s recursive loop is identified in previous research results and compared with the action model and the results of this research. This correspondence may identify the brain regions involved in the illness process, which may provide an objective diagnostic test for the condition and approaches to treatment. The implications of this model for cognitive science and CFS should be investigated through neurophenomenological research since the model stands to shed considerable light on the nature of consciousness, contact and agency. Phenomenologically based treatments are proposed, along with suggestions for future research on CFS. The research may clarify the diagnostic criteria for CFS and guide management and treatment programmes, particularly multidimensional and interdisciplinary approaches. Category theory is proposed as a foundation for a mathematisation of phenomenology. action Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Myalgic Encephalomyelitis Chronic Immune Deficiency Syndrome enaction social enaction social enactivism enactive psycho-phenomenological psychophenomenological vipassana groundlessness mind-body korper leib co-generative Focusing co-creative environment Antonio Damasio reciprocal constraints Pierre Vermersch Claire Petitmengin Antione Lutz narrative discourse phenomenal invariants Evan Thompson Merleau-Ponty Algirdis Julien Greimas Husserl first-person Fransisco Varela modelling invariants Natalie Depraz isotope John Boyd OODA loop Jonathan Shear Shaun Gallagher Arthur Kleinman Humberto Maturana second-person Alva Noe Dan Zahavi stages Embodied Mind Canterbury Wellington New Zealand non-dual non-reductive embodied phenomenological third-person graph-theoretical cluster analysis cognitive science experience solution subject-specific categories universal categories universal categories self energy illness process intersubjectivity Mahayana Buddhism contact narrative recovered making sense recursive loop perception dynamical decompensation neurology diagnosis empathy treatment management neurophenomenological neurophenomenology consciousness veracity agency multidimensional interdisciplinary category theory enculturation mathematisation of phenomenology interview nomenclature diagnostic criteria incidence prevalence coping strategy etiology epidemiology psychosomatic medicine meaning women girl female anthropology sociology cognitive behavioral therapy exercise therapy recovery mindful awareness suffering symbolisation Prasangika no-self aggregates wheel of karma cognition basic element analysis mental factors operational closure stereotypes enactive ontologically fragile self grief process-knowledge epoche phenomenal invariants textual invariants compound meaning saturation formalisation cluster analysis inter-session review inter-individual validation explicitation interview intricacy confidence psychophenomenology self-esteem sanction self dis-integration permanence continuity ego-self emotion surrender semiotic square meditation empathy semiotic compassion existential feelings goal obstruction movement transformation change somatic Giovanna Colombetti agoraphobia panic anxiety psychotherapy sleep rest pain weakness strength stamina Diego Cosmelli heaviness food chemicals allergy recovering despair frustration helplessness fear efference valence afference as-if-body-loop consciousness representation attention recovery intention sustainable sustainability neurasthenia existential feelings asthenia hysteria mononucleosis samatha-vispasnya prajna vijnana Eugene Gendlin Abhidharma dukkha shamatha interdependence vipashyana

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