This exploratory qualitative study seeks to describe and understand the career decision-making process of unemployed American women who make up the younger cohort of the baby boom generation, namely those born between 1955 and 1964. Career decision making is a complex process involving a number of generational characteristics as well as personal and economic considerations. Unemployment further complicates this process, especially in the decade prior to receiving retirement benefits. This study uses interpretative phenomenological analysis to analyze semi-structured interviews with eight unemployed younger baby boom women to investigate how their thoughts, assumptions, and opinions affect their career decision-making experience. Bronfenbrenner's bioecological model (2005), Erikson's lifespan theory (1959), and selected career development theories provide lenses through which these women's experiences can be understood. Eight themes emerged from the data, including the following: unemployment as a preparation period; career aspirations; digital natives; age discrimination; bioecological systems influence; generativity vs. stagnation; identity expressed in career decision making; and influence of intuition, chance, and personal factors. The findings suggest that the women used the period of unemployment to become self-aware and thoughtful about future career decision making, and enhance their computer as well as career decision making skills. Implications for theory and counseling practice as well as suggestions for future research are provided. / School of Education; / Counselor Education and Supervision (ExCES) / PhD; / Dissertation;

Master of Science / Department of Journalism and Mass Communications / Curtis B. Matthews / China’s society has been changing since 1979, when the open-door policy was implemented. Many great events in politics, economy and culture have brought lots of diversities to the Chinese younger generation who were born after 1979. These diversities have led to a cultural value change from collectivism to individualism among this generation (Cao, 2009; Sun & Wang, 2010; Moore, 2005). Cultivation analysis theory may be appropriate to explain this phenomenon as the open-door policy allowed American and European TV programs and other media products come into China. Effective advertising should cater to its audience in order to effectively persuade them to purchase its merchandise or service (Zhang & Harwood, 2004; Chang, 2006). If the cultural value of the Chinese younger generation has changed, it may be reflected in the commercial content of successful advertisers. This research conducted a content analysis of Chinese commercials, comparing the commercial contents in recent years to approximately ten years ago. It examined if the individualistic factors were more frequently showed in the commercials in recent years than approximately ten years ago, with the consideration to merchandise type and production place. Research results exhibited an increase of individualism revealing in Chinese commercials from approximately 2006 to 2016.

This thesis looks at how the Roman poet Lucan uses the character of Cato to elucidate his beliefs about Fortune and Stoicism. The traditional Stoic view of Fortune views it as a force for good that allows people to improve through hardship. Lucan portrays Fortune as a purely antagonistic force that actively seeks to harm the Roman people and corrupt even good individuals like Cato. Lucan's Fortune arranges events to place Cato in a situation where it is impossible to maintain his virtue. Rather than providing him an opportunity to improve in the civil war, Fortune makes it so that whatever choice Cato makes, he becomes guilty. Brutus' dialogue with Cato in Book 2 of Pharsalia illuminates the position that Cato is in. Brutus looks to Cato as the traditional Stoic exemplar that can forge a path for virtue in civil war. However, Cato admits that joining any side in the civil war would cause him to become guilty. Fortune's support of Caesar and its dominance over contemporary events has forced Cato into this situation. Cato's desert march in Book 9 continues to show Fortune's dominance over Cato by continually denying him opportunities to gain virtue for himself. Lucan's portrayal of Fortune shows his rejection of Stoic teaching about Fortune and the ultimate futility of trying to remain virtuous in a time of civil war.

In The Holy Kinship (1500-1510), the artist Matthäus Gutrecht the Younger defies convention by portraying the importance of matriarchy, via the semiotics of the nimbus. Within Christian art, the nimbus has been widely used as a signifier of divinity. Saints and angels, as well as members of the Holy Family, are often depicted nimbed in the history of art. In particular, men of divine status are frequently nimbed, as Christianity was predominantly patriarchal. However, there are several cases in which women are also represented with this divine signifier. One work in which the nimbus as a signifier of matriarchal status and lineage is epitomized is Gutrecht's portrayal of The Holy Kinship, in which the women, but not the men, are shown nimbed. This thesis explores the varied significance of the matriarchal nimbus. Furthermore, it challenges traditional patriarchal analyses of late medieval, German culture in order to examine how this altarpiece both reflects and constructs attitudes regarding a celebration of women's spiritual and secular roles. In this way, the painting presents a direct challenge to the more familiar representation of patriarchal lineage and power in Tree of Jesse images.

Sammanfattning   Undersökningen i denna studie handlar om förskolebarns tankar om nederbörd och olika nederbördsformer. Genom kvalitativa intervjuer visas barnens tankar kring nederbörd. I undersökningen intervjuades åtta förskolebarn i åldern tre till fem år.   Resultatet som tolkats visar att barns uppfattning av snö och regn är att det kommer från himlen. Majoriteten av barnen vet att regn är vatten.  De kopplar inte ihop moln med nederbörd. Barnen förstår att is är den fasta formen av vatten men inte att även snö är det. Något barn förstår fasövergången mellan flytande till fast. Att is smälter av värme vet barnen och de förstår att temperaturen har betydelse. Däremot visar barnen inte ett tydligt tecken på att de förstår innebörden i avdunstning med vatten i flytande form som övergår till vatten i gasform. Barnen visar ingen förståelse för fenomenet kondensation.      Nyckelord: förskolan, regn, snö, yngre barn / Abstract   The investigation in this study is about preschool children's ideas about precipitation and different forms of precipitation. Through qualitative interviews shows the children's ideas about precipitation. In the survey interviewed eight preschool children in the aged three to five years.   The result which has been interpreted is that children's perception of snow and rain is that it comes from heaven. The majority of the children know that rain is water. They do not associate clouds with precipitation. The children understand that ice is the solid form of water but not that snow is that. One of the children understands the phase transition between liquid to solid. That the ice is melting in heat understand the children and they understand that the temperature is significant. However the children show no clear signs that they understand the meaning of evaporation, that there is water in liquid form which is put into water in gaseous form. The children show no understanding of the phenomenon of condensation.    Keywords: preschool, rain, snow, younger children

This masters thesis investigates the environmental/climatic change that is thought to have brought about the economic shift and transition from Palaeolithic economic system of hunting gathering to Neolithic economic system of agriculture and domestication period around 11.000-10.000 years ago. This study uses the collected animal and plant data of the Natufian culture in the Levant region from the previous zooarchaeological and archaeobotanical literature anlyses. It shows a significant mathematical difference in the zooarchaeological assemblage measures between the Early and Late Natufian sites by calculating Economic value parameters of the Early and the Late Natufian sites, a comparison analysis was made in terms of percentage frequencies of animals site by site and between early-late periods. The result shows a significant animal food supply decrease and change-shift shown during the Younger Dryas climatic crisis times of the whole Late Natufian period sites total and early to late site by site individually, compared to whole Early Natufian period sites. It shows there is a possibility that some big-base camp Late Natufian occupation sites were better able to create coping mechanisms against food crisis/food shortage and more successfully than other Late Natufian sites during the climatic food crisis period. It shows supporting with the animal-plant data and changes in the human bones, burial practices, human teeth, diet changes and anthropological studies evidence, a big social-economic-cultural change and a huge food crisis was highly possible and humans highly possibly lived an economic crisis and an highly connected-related social-cultural crisis during the Younger Dryas in the Late Natufian times human societies.

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Объектом исследования явилась школьная самостоятельность учащихся младших классов. Предметом исследования стал уровень и проявления самостоятельности младших школьников в учебной деятельности. Магистерская диссертация состоит из введения, двух глав, заключения, списка литературы (78 источников) и приложения, включающего в себя бланки применявшихся методик. Объем магистерской диссертации 89 страниц, на которых размещены 16 рисунков. Во введении раскрывается актуальность проблемы исследования, разработанность проблематики, ставятся цель и задачи исследования, определяются объект и предмет исследования, формулируются основная и дополнительные гипотезы, указываются методы и эмпирическая база, а также этапы проведения исследования, научная новизна, теоретическая и практическая значимость работы. Первая глава включает в себя обзор иностранной и отечественной литературы по теме школьной самостоятельности учеников 6-10 лет. Представлены разделы, посвященные исследованию показателей структурных составляющих школьной самостоятельности и их взаимосвязей у учащихся младших классов. Выводы по первой главе представляют собой итоги по изучению теоретического материала. Вторая глава посвящена эмпирической части исследования. В ней представлено описание организации и методов проведенного исследования и результатов, полученных по всем использованным методикам: Диагностика параметров учебной самостоятельности младших школьников (по методике Н. В. Калининой), Методика «Нерешаемая задача» и экспертная оценка самостоятельности учащихся (А.К. Осиницкий), Карта проявлений самостоятельности (А.М. Щетинина), Анкета «Оценка уровня развития силы воли (Л.В. Балясникова). Также в главе представлен корреляционный и статистический анализ результатов исследования. Выводы по главе 2 включают в себя основные результаты эмпирического исследования. В заключении в обобщенном виде изложены результаты теоретической и эмпирической частей работы, а также выводы по выдвинутым гипотезам, обоснована практическая значимость исследования и описаны возможные перспективы дальнейшей разработки данной проблематики. / The object of the research was the school independence of primary school students. The subject of the research was the level and manifestations of the independence of primary schoolchildren in educational activities. The master's thesis consists of an introduction, two chapters, a conclusion, a list of literature (78 sources) and an appendix, which includes the forms of the applied methodologies. The volume of the master's thesis is 89 pages, on which are placed 16 figures. The introduction reveals the relevance of the research problem, the development of the problematics, the purpose and objectives of the research are set, the object and the subject of research are determined, the basic and additional hypotheses are formulated, the methods and the empirical base are specified, as well as the stages of the research, the scientific novelty, the theoretical and practical significance of the work. The first chapter includes a review of foreign and domestic literature on the topic of school independence for children 6-10 years old. The sections devoted to the study of indicators of the structural components of school independence and their interconnections in primary school students are presented. Conclusions on the first chapter are the results of the study of theoretical material. The second chapter is devoted to the empirical part of the study. It provides a description of the organization and methods of the study and the results obtained using all the methods used: Diagnostics of the parameters of educational independence of junior schoolchildren (according to the method of N. V. Kalinina), Method "Unsolvable problem" and expert assessment of the independence of students (A. K. Osinitsky), Map of manifestations of independence (A. M. Shchetinina), Questionnaire "Assessment of the level of development willpower (L.V. Balyasnikova). Also, the chapter presents a comparative, correlation and statistical analysis of the results of the study. The findings of Chapter 2 are the main results of the empirical study. In conclusion, brief results of the theoretical and empirical parts of the work are presented, as well as conclusions on the hypotheses. The practical significance of the study is substantiated and possible prospects for further development of the problematics are described.

Intergenerational relationships refer to relationships between people in alternate generational groups. The increasing numbers of older people all over the world highlight the need for studies on psychological processes that enhance well-being through intergenerational relationships. People from different generations are co-dependent for care and support. Older people constitute a diverse group: some may experience a depletion of energy, physical, financial and emotional resources, while others have good health, financial security and stable social support networks. What all people, including older people, have in common, however, is a need for meaningful relationships. This makes it worthwhile to explore the experiences of relationships with younger people from the perspective of older people. This study is important because research indicates that the relationships between older people (60 years and older) and adolescents and young adults are strained. An initial study on intergenerational care experiences from the perspective of people aged 60 years and older and young people in the middle-adolescent developmental phase (at 16 years) revealed a lack of empathy from the older generation towards the younger generation. It was decided to focus in this study on intergenerational empathy specifically. Mutual empathetic understanding is suggested as a means to overcome challenges between members of generations that have to compete for limited resources, especially in low-resource areas such as the specific rural African community studied in Vaalharts, South Africa. It is suggested that empathy could increase intergenerational understanding between older and younger people dealing with their respective developmental challenges. The research was conducted in a community with high levels of poverty and limited physical and material resources. The study is qualitative in nature and used an interpretive descriptive research design. This design provided the basis to explore the perceptions of empathy by using theoretical constructs to derive at an understanding of experiences in the community and specifically those of the older generation. The 18 participants were all older than 60 and Setswana speaking but were also proficient in Afrikaans and English. Eight of the participants (1 man and 7 women) participated in study using the Mmogo-method®. This is a projective technique that uses visual presentations to gain a deeper insight into meaning that is developed between the participants. For the Mmogo-method®, participants (older people) were invited to make visual representations of how they experienced care in relation to young people in the middle adolescent developmental phase, at around 16 years. A further 10 participants (4 men and 6 woman), who were not part of the Mmogo-method® project, participated in semi-structured interviews. These interviews provided them the freedom to elaborate on their own unique experiences. Semi- structured interviews also provide a certain amount of structure for the interviewer to make sure that detailed information on empathy in arising relevant conversations are obtained. Data were analysed using an inductive approach as well as thematic analysis of experiences about intergenerational care: empathy (and specifically, a lack of empathy) emerged as a recurrent theme. The literature shows a connection between empathy and care, which accordingly served as the focus of this study. The data were further subjected to a directed form of content analysis (deductive category application) which was conducted after literature and theory on intergenerational empathy have been consulted. A visual analysis was conducted on the visual presentations that the participants built as part of the Mmogo- method®. Trustworthiness was ensured by using the principles proposed by Guba’s model of trustworthiness and that include: obtaining thick descriptions, ensuring credibility, member checking and ensuring confirmabillity. Ethical consent to conduct this study was given by the Human Research Ethics committee of the Faculty of Health Sciences in the North-West University (reference number NWU-00053-10-S1). A gatekeeper was used to gain access to the community studied and participants gave their informed consent. The lack of empathy from the perspective or the older people emerged from the way in which older people viewed the relationship with the young solely from their own perspective and from their inability to place themselves in the position of the younger persons. Older people were at first unable to visualize the young in their caring relationships; they expressed negative and judgemental attitudes towards them and perceived that the young people are rejecting the wisdom of their elders. Older people resorted to outsiders to assist in communicating with and disciplining the young. The lack of empathy on the part of the older people for the young can have dire effects on their vital intergenerational relationships. It is recommended that community-based interventions be developed to promote empathy between the two generations. / MA (Research Psychology), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015