Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Psychological aspects of Nature (Aesthetics)'

The relationship between the changes in color values of scenic landscapes, and the corresponding shifts in viewers' preferences to those changed environments, was the focus of the presented research. Color modifications, either natural or based on some human intervention, provide visual clues that an environment has undergone some transformation. These color changes can occur at both the micro and macro scale, can having temporal dimensions, and can be a result of combinations of both physical landscape change, and shifts in an observer's perspective with respect to that landscape. The research reviewed two existing models and related them in an integrated program of scenic change analysis. The first, a bio-physical remote sensing model, identified the relationships between the existing bio-physical environmental conditions and measured color signatures of selected landscape features. The second, a psychophysical perception model, established relationships between the landscape's bio-physical attributes and measured perceptual responses to those environments. By merging aspects of each model, the research related the changing scenic color patterns with observers' responses to those changed environments. The research methodology presented a program of scenic change analysis incorporating several technologies including (1) ground-based biological inventories, (2) remote sensing, (3) geographic information systems (GIS), and (4) computer visualization. A series of investigations focused on landscape scenes selected from a high elevation coniferous forest in southern Utah. Three initial scenic investigations compared (1) the impact of changing view angles on scenic color values, (2) color shifts due to changing sun-illumination angles within a day, and (3) color shifts due to changing biological conditions over a 12-month period. A fourth investigation measured the color changes caused by a spruce bark beetle outbreak, and developed a series of color signatures to simulate the color shifts indicative of an outbreak at different stages of development. These signatures were applied to digitized site photographs to produce a series of visualizations displaying different levels of beetle damage. The visualizations were then applied in a series of perceptual experiments to test the precision and reliability of the visual simulations.

The present study hypothesized that (1) perception of the built environment is organized around a prototype, the notion extensively studied by Rosch and others, and, (2) judgement of attractiveness of the built environment is influenced by that structure. 37 subjects rated prototypicality of 51 slides of houses and an independent sample of 33 subjects rated attractiveness of the same slide set. Results showed that people perceived some residential houses as more prototypical than others. Also a significant correlation between prototype rating and attractiveness rating was found. People found the high level prototypicality most attractive, as opposed to the low prototypicality stimuli. It was also found that the residential prototype could be identified by physical features.

Voices are used as a vehicle for language, and variation in the acoustic properties of voices also contains information about the speaker. Listeners use measurable qualities, such as pitch and formant traits, as cues to a speaker’s physical stature and attractiveness. Emotional states and personality characteristics are also judged from vocal stimuli. The research contained in this thesis examines vocal masculinity, aesthetics and personality, with an emphasis on the perception of prosocial traits including trustworthiness and cooperativeness. I will also explore themes which are more cognitive in nature, testing aspects of vocal stimuli which may affect trait attribution, memory and the ascription of identity. Chapters 2 and 3 explore systematic differences across vocal utterances, both in types of utterance using different classes of stimuli and across the time course of perception of the auditory signal. These chapters examine variation in acoustic measurements in addition to variation in listener attributions of commonly-judged speaker traits. The most important result from this work was that evaluations of attractiveness made using spontaneous speech correlated with those made using scripted speech recordings, but did not correlate with those made of the same persons using vowel stimuli. This calls into question the use of sustained vowel sounds for the attainment of ratings of subjective characteristics. Vowel and single-word stimuli are also quite short – while I found that attributions of masculinity were reliable at very short exposure times, more subjective traits like attractiveness and trustworthiness require a longer exposure time to elicit reliable attributions. I conclude with recommending an exposure time of at least 5 seconds in duration for such traits to be reliably assessed. Chapter 4 examines what vocal traits affect perceptions of pro-social qualities using both natural and manipulated variation in voices. While feminine pitch traits (F0 and F0-SD) were linked to cooperativeness ratings, masculine formant traits (Df and Pf) were also associated with cooperativeness. The relative importance of these traits as social signals is discussed. Chapter 5 questions what makes a voice memorable, and helps to differentiate between memory for individual voice identities and for the content which was spoken by administering recognition tests both within and across sensory modalities. While the data suggest that experimental manipulation of voice pitch did not influence memory for vocalised stimuli, attractive male voices were better remembered than unattractive voices, independent of pitch manipulation. Memory for cross-modal (textual) content was enhanced by raising the voice pitch of both male and female speakers. I link this pattern of results to the perceived dominance of voices which have been raised and lowered in pitch, and how this might impact how memories are formed and retained. Chapter 6 examines masculinity across visual and auditory sensory modalities using a cross-modal matching task. While participants were able to match voices to muted videos of both male and female speakers at rates above chance, and to static face images of men (but not women), differences in masculinity did not influence observers in their judgements, and voice and face masculinity were not correlated. These results are discussed in terms of the generally-accepted theory that masculinity and femininity in faces and voices communicate the same underlying genetic quality. The biological mechanisms by which vocal and facial masculinity could develop independently are speculated.

Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2014.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Humanity‘s growing separation from nature is central to the convergent social and ecological crises facing earth. This is both a psychological (e.g. perceptual, emotional) and physical (e.g. experiential) disconnect and is therefore better understood as a crisis in consciousness. This research arises out of an intense interest in how to alleviate humanity‘s fading connectedness with nature and, specifically, if meaningful nature experience is capable of healing the divisive ways in which humans tend to think, see and act in the world. This study brings together four core themes: connectedness with nature (CWN), invasive alien species (IAS), and education for sustainability (EfS); each of which are explored around - and in relationship to - the core concept of meaningful nature experience (MNE).1 In doing so, this transdisciplinary research utilizes a theory of complexity to integrate diverse disciplinary perspectives by drawing upon: (conservation) ecology; (environmental-/eco-) psychology; (sustainability) education; and phenomenology as a guiding philosophy. Adopting an interpretivist and pragmatic approach, this research employs mixed methods (quantitative and qualitative/phenomenological analysis) to, firstly, uncover the essences which help describe what MNE feels like (how it appears in consciousness) and that which makes MNE what it is. Secondly, the study explores the relationship between MNE and CWN; the extent to which MNE is perceived to influence attitudes and environmentally responsible behaviour (ERB); and whether ecological change as experienced through IAS may affect MNE or, in turn, how MNE and CWN influence perceptions on IAS. Thirdly, the research examines the implications of the above for EfS: is there merit for integrating MNE and CWN in EfS? What would such a process look like and how can it be applied in a way which revitalizes EfS? Finally, as a form of heuristic inquiry, this study represents my process of conscious transformative learning. Reflective narratives are dispersed throughout this dissertation to capture this enriching personal journey. Research findings draw on over 200 unique accounts of MNEs which were elicited from: online and public questionnaires; in-depth interviews, email submissions and complemented by in-situ field observation and participation. The questionnaires and in-depth interviews also elicited responses on CWN, IAS and EfS. The research finds that a MNE is triggered by an unexpected encounter with the 'non-ordinary‘ in nature. It is characterized by heightened sensory awareness (e.g. the beauty and detail of natural phenomena arrest our attention), intensified emotional (e.g. awe, amazement) and physiological responses (e.g. a 'rush‘). If an animal is involved, close proximity, extended length of time and reciprocity are key themes. For a MNE not involving an animal, perceived aliveness, vibrancy and energy pervading the land-/ sea-/ sky-scape is primary. As mind meets matter, one feels interrelatedness and a diminished sense of self. The privilege to commune with an 'other‘ (re)defines a person‘s being and belonging in the world. Synchronicity as a MNE is distinctive as an uncanny (e.g. numinous) experience of: insight; flow; guidance; a 'knowing‘; and interconnectedness. Respondents who have had a MNE exhibit a higher CWN; a positive correlation exists between frequency of MNE (fMNE) and CWN. Stronger correlations with CWN were found when a wild animal was involved in the MNE. Spiritual / religious practices positively correlate with fMNE and CWN with regular displays of gratitude toward nature returning slightly stronger correlations with CWN. Strongest correlations were found between the experience of synchronicity and CWN. A qualitative analysis of respondents‘ MNEs and their responses on how they perceive their MNE(s) to have changed them, found multiple and diverse mention of (newfound) appreciations of (inter)connectedness. This suggests that MNE acts as a conduit for CWN: one powerful MNE may be sufficient to catalyse the process; however, a higher fMNE increases the likelihood for heightened CWN. Such results affirm the idea that MNEs facilitate a relational worldview necessary for a consciousness attuned to CWN. CWN is considered to be a reliable predictor for ERB. Over 90% agreement was found between respondents on the positive impact of MNEs in: shaping their views on nature and biodiversity; influencing their current behaviour and actions toward nature and the environment; and heavily influencing, changing or transforming their outlooks on life. The most common themes to emerge on how MNE was perceived to have changed respondents related to understanding of (inter)connectedness/interdependence; career choice; respect for nature / life; and new ways of seeing the world. This supports the premise that, by affectively bonding with nature, MNEs can motivate: ERB; life paths into conservation-minded careers; and serve as catalysts for personal growth and transformation, particularly when complemented with reflection, social (guided) facilitation and ecological literacy. The presence of IAS in landscape is likely to adversely affect MNE for stated reasons of ecological impacts, diminished 'naturalness‘, destructiveness and reduced diversity. Those viewing IAS as potentially enhancing their MNEs cite reasons of beauty, novelty and enjoyment. Respondents‘ CWN does not appear to affect perceptions of IAS; however, elevated CWN may invoke empathy, a sense of relatedness and appreciation of their intrinsic value as 'life‘. IAS may also feature in MNEs and, through experiential and metaphorical insight, can deliver newfound understandings of social and ecological connections as they relate to IAS. Respondents concur that today‘s education does not prepare society to learn from MNE: overwhelming agreement was found on the societal and ecological benefits of an education that promotes understanding of MNE through a blend of intellectual concepts; experiential activities; values and ethics; and integrated learning approaches. Experiential nature-based activities were encouraged as vital EfS vehicles for enhancing sensory awareness; respect for nature; ecological knowledge and encountering connectedness. In-depth interviewees saw future EfS opportunities and solutions as focusing more on: participating with nature; bridging spirituality and science; facilitating 'openness‘ and shared experience; instilling values reflecting an interconnected reality; mentoring; contemporary rites of passage; and simply learning to live better. The essence of this research is an expanded appreciation of connectedness - embodying Nature, Community, Self, Source - and the manifold ways it is encountered through MNE. Revitalized EfS (realized through Theory edU) invites a consciousness that attends to an enlivening process of connecting, harmonizing and becoming.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie bring vier kern temas na vore: verbintenis met die natuur (VMN), indringende uitheemse spesies (IUS), en opvoeding vir volhoubaarheid (OVV); waarvan elk verken is rondom – en in verhouding is tot die kern konsep van betekenisvolle natuur ervaring 2 (BNE). Deur dit te doen, wend hierdie transdisiplinêre studie 'n teorie van kompleksiteit aan om diverse dissiplinêre perspektiewe te integreer deur gebruik te maak van: bewarings ekologie; omgewings-/eko- sielkunde; onderwys; en femenologie as 'n rigtinggewende filosofie. Deur 'n interpretatiewe en pragmatiese benadering aan te neem, is gemengde metodes (kwantitatief en kwalitatief / femenologiese analise) gebruik om eerstens die essensies wat help om te beskryf hoe BNE voel (hoe dit in die bewussyn voorkom) en dit wat BNE maak wat dit is, te ontbloot. Tweedens verken die studie die verhouding tussen BNE en VMN; die mate waartoe BNE beskou word om houdings en omgewings verantwoordelike gedragte beïnvloed (OVG); en of ekologiese verandering soos deur IUS ervaar word BNE kan affekteer, of, op sy beurt, hoe BNE en VMN persepsies van IUS kan beïnvloed. Derdens bestudeer die navorsing implikasies van die bogenoemde vir OVV: is daar meriete vir die integrasie van BNE en VMN in OVV? Hoe sal so 'n proses lyk en hoe kan dit toegepas word op 'n manier wat OVV weer nuwe lewe sal gee? Ten einde, as 'n vorm van heuristiese ondersoek, stel hierdie studie my proses van bewuste transformatiewe leer voor. Reflektiewe narratiewe is regdeur die proefskrif versprei om hierdie verrykende persoonlike reis vas te lê. Navorsing bevindinge gebruik meer as 200 unieke verklarings van BNE‘s wat aan die lig gebring is deur: aanlyn en publieke vraelyste; in-diepte onderhoude, e-pos indienings en dit is gekomplementeer deur in-situ veld observasie en deelname. Die vraelyste en in-diepte onderhoude het ook reaksies op VMN, IUS en OVV ontlok. Die navorsing het bevind dat 'n BNE word veroorsaak deur 'n onverwagste ontmoeting met die 'nie-gewone‘ in die natuur. Dit word gekarakteriseer deur verhoogde sensoriese bewustheid (bv. die prag en besonderhede van natuurlike verskynsels beset ons aandag), versterkde emosionele (bv. verwondering en verbasing) en psigologiese reaksies (bv. 'n stormloop). Indien 'n dier betrokke is, is nabyheid, verlengde duur van tyd en wederkerigheid sleutel temas. Vir 'n BNE wat nie 'n dier insluit nie, is waarneembare lewendigheid, dinamiek en energie wat die landskap / see / luglandskap deurdring primêr. Soos wat die gees die stof ontmoet, voel 'n mens 'n onderlinge verband en 'n verminderde sin van die self. Die voorreg om in noue aanraking met 'n 'ander‘ te kan wees (her)definieër 'n persoon se wese en behoort in die wêreld. 'Synchronicity‘ as 'n BNE is kenmerkend as 'n ongelooflike (bv. numineuse) ervaring van: insig, vloei, leiding; 'n 'wete‘; en onderlinge verbintenis. Respondente wat 'n BNE gehad het, het 'n hoër VMN getoon; 'n positiewe korrelasie bestaan tussen die frekwensie van BNE (fBNE) en VMN. Sterker korrelasies met VMN was gevind in die geval waar 'n wilde dier in die BNE betrokke was. Geestelike / religieuse praktyke korreleer positief met fBNE en VMN waar gewone openbarings van dankbaarheid tot die natuur effens sterker korrelasies met VMN terugbring. Die sterkste korrelasies was gevind tussen die ervaring van 'synchronicity‘ en VMN. 'n Kwalitatiewe analise van respondente se BNE‘s en hul response van hoe hulle hul BNE(s) as dit wat hul verander het, beskou, het veelvoudige en diverse antwoorde van (nuutgevonde) erkennings van (onderlinge) verbintenis navore gebring. Dit dui daarop dat BNE as 'n toevoerbuis vir VMN optree: een kragtige BNE mag voldoende wees om die proses te kataliseer; aan die anderkant verhoog 'n hoër fBNE die waarskynlikheid vir verhoogde VMN. Sulke resultate bevestig die idee dat BNEs 'n relasionele wêreldbeskouing is wat nodig is vir 'n bewustheid wat ingestel is vir VMN. VMN word as 'n betroubare voorspelling vir OVG beskou. Meer as 90% van respondente was in ooreenstemming ten opsigte van die positiewe impak van BNEs in: die vorming van hul beskouings van die natuur, biodiversiteit; beïnvloeding van hul huidige gedrag en aksies tot die natuur en die omgewing; en hoe dit hul vooruitsigte op die lewe hewig beïnvloed, verander of transformeer. Die meesal gemene temas wat ontluik het, was oor die beskouing van hoe BNE respondente se verstaan aangaande (onderlinge)verbintenis / onafhanklikheid; beroepskeuse; respek vir die natuur / lewe; en nuwe maniere om na die wêreld te kyk, verander het. Dit ondersteun die uitgangspunt, dat deur affektiewelik met die natuur in verbinding te tree, BNEs gemotiveer kan word: OVG; lewens paaie tot bewaring-gesinde beroepe; en as katalisators dien vir persoonlike groei en transformasie, veral as dit met refleksie, sosiale (begeleide) fassilitering en ekologiese geletterdheid gekomplimenteer word. Die teenwoordigheid van IUS in 'n landskap kan waarskynlik BNE nadelig affekteer weens verklaarbare redes van ekologiese impakte, afneembare 'natuurlikheid', verwoestendheid en verminderde diversiteit. Diegene wat IUS as iets positief tot hul ervaring beskou, verskaf redes soos skoonheid, nuutheid en genot. Dit wil voorkom of deelnemers se VMN nie algemene persepsies van IUS affekteer nie; alhoewel, verhoogde VMN empatie, verwantskap en waardering vir hul intrinsieke waarde as 'lewe' mag oproep. IUS mag ook in BNE vertoon en deur ervarings- en metaforiese insig, kan dit waardevolle nuut-bevinde begrippe van sosiale en ekologiese verbande soos wat hulle aansluit by die probleem van IUS, lewer. Respondente is dit eens dat vandag se onderwys nie die samelewing voorberei om te leer van BNE nie: oorweldigende ooreenstemming was gevind aangaande die maatskaplike en ekologiese voordele van onderwys wat die verstaan van BNE bevorder deur middel van 'n vermenging van intellektuele konsepte; ervarings leeraktiwiteite; waardes en etiek; en geïntegreerde leer benaderings. Ervarings leer natuur-gebaseerde aktiwiteite was aangemoedig as essensiële middels vir OVV vir die verhoging van sensoriese bewussyn; respek vir die natuur, ekologiese kennis en die teëkoming van verbintenis. In-diepte ondervraagdes het geleenthede en oplossings vir toekomstige OVV gesien in terme van 'n groter fokus op: deelname aan die natuur; die orbruging van spiritualiteit en wetenskap; fassilitering van 'oopheid‘ en gedeelde ervaring; vestiging van waardes wat 'n onderlinge verbonde realiteit reflekteer; mentorskap; kontemporêre deurgangsrites; en om eenvoudig te leer om beter te lewe. Die kern van hierdie navorsing behels 'n toenemende waardering van verbintenis – beliggaming van die Natuur, Gemeenskap, Self, Bron – en die menigvuldige maniere waar op dit deur BNE ondervind is. Hernude OVV (soos ontdek deur Theory edU) nooi 'n bewustheid uit wat aandag skenk aan 'n verlewendige proses van verbintenis, harmonisering en wording.

This thesis examines socialization in the homes and crèches of a rural area in a time of change. Change which is controlled and initiated from outside the local context, creates a dilemma for socialization agents when it introduces a knowledge paradigm different from that operating locally. Rural South African communities frequently experience exogenous change. The introduction of rural preschools, locally known as crèches, provides one example of such change challenging local socialization agents. While rural residents may not operate within knowledge paradigms to deal effectively with such change, they are not necessarily defeated by it. They "grapple" with the uncertainty, developing ways of coping and containing the change. This forms the focus of this thesis. Vygotsky's concept of mediation and conceptualization of the individual/society relationship, informs the examination of "grappling" with change. Two central questions are addressed: In an unfamiliar situation, what is mediated and what resources are drawn on? The research was designed around the recognition of the process nature of research, the constructivism inherent in research and the significance of the social context. Two central mediators, the mother and the crèche teacher, and the broader social context of the home and the creche, were examined. Three levels of investigation were utilised. An analysis of mediation in dyads working on an unfamiliar task provided insight into the social/psychological dynamics. Interviews with residents highlighted socialization beliefs and practices and the social context. Analysis of verses and stories taught to children revealed the inherent ideology of socialization. The main findings of this study are that: Rural residents "grapple" with social change by drawing on their own resources; in "grappling" with the unfamiliar what is mediated is an adult/child interactional status based on the inherent ideology of socialization and the dominant resource drawn on is the "culture of orality". It is argued that in the situation of neither mastery nor defeat, rural residents have used intermediary strategies of coping and containing the effect of the preschool as an agent of exogenous, social change. Recommendations are made for integrating "socialized" and "learned" knowledge from the home and the crèche.

Coming to terms with breast loss and its effect on body image, femininity and self-esteem are major issues confronting women who have lost a breast to cancer. Furthermore, messages from the media, cosmetic industry and health care profession perpetuate the 'beauty myth' affecting the self-esteem of breast cancer patients. This emphasis on the aesthetic often takes precedence the grief associated with losing a body part that for many women is strongly linked to their self-concept. Based on interviews with nine breast cancer survivors in Winnipeg, Manitoba and Montreal, Quebec, three issues will be addressed: first how the cultural influences that support and perpetuate the 'beauty myth' affect breast cancer survivors; how, as a result of this issue, the grieving process is hindered and third, the experiences of women treated for breast cancer within the medical system. Implications for social work will also be discussed.

The National Alliance for Youth Sports compared field reports released in 1995 to those in 2000, illustrating a 5% to 15% increase in adults that have gotten out of line at youth events (Carlozo, 2000). The purpose of this study was to assess the nature and frequency of adult comments at Little League baseball games for children ages 9 to 12. In addition, adults were surveyed in order to evaluate their personal opinions of crowd conduct.The participants in this study consisted of adults attending Little League baseball games in rural Indiana from May 30, 2001 to June 26, 2001. To address the purpose of the study, the researcher recorded adult comments using an adaptation of the Parent Observation Instrument for Sports Events (Kidman et al., 1999). An additional sample of 65 adults attending the last game of the season was purposefully selected to complete the survey portion of the study.The researcher tried to determine if there were significant differences between the nature of the adult comments (positive or negative), the frequency of adult comments by team play (offense or defense), by gender of the adult, by team status (winning or losing), or by competitive level (major league or minor league). Additionally, the researcher tried to determine whether there were qualitative differences between actual comments and adult opinions of comments.A chi square analysis was calculated for hypotheses 1 - 5 (p < .05) and the last hypothesis compared a chi square calculation to the frequency counts on a survey of adults. The results showed a significant difference in the frequency of comments based on the nature of the comment (positive/negative), gender, and competitive level (major league/minor league). There was no significant difference between team status (winning/losing) and frequency of comments made. There was consistency between adults' opinions of comments and actual observations. Observation results showed higher frequencies of positive comments than negative comments. Through survey data analysis, it was determined that adults believed more positive comments were made at the games.
School of Physical Education

Dissertation (MScSportSc)--University of Stellenbosch, 2000.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study investigated the components of mental toughness as reported in the sport psychology literature and by coaches and athletes. A questionnaire devised for this purpose by the researcher, was completed by 131 expert coaches from 30 different sport disciplines and by 160 elite level athletes from 31 different sport disciplines. The information gathered from the literature, as well as from the coaches' and athletes' written statements, was analysed by means of an inductive content analysis. Content analysis organises the data into increasingly more complex themes and categories representing the components of mental toughness. From the literature analysis, eight components of mental toughness were identified, these being: motivation level, arousal control, confidence maintenance, cognitive skill, competitive behaviour, planning skills, emotional readiness and team cohesion. The analysis of the statements provided by the coaches and athletes resulted in the identification of 12 components of mental toughness. These are, in descending order: motivation level, coping skills, confidence maintenance, cognitive skill, discipline and goal-directedness, competitiveness, possession of prerequisite physical and mental requirements, team unity, preparation skills, psychological hardiness, religious convictions and ethics. In addition the coaches and athletes rated their mentioned characteristics. The coaches regarded concentration as the most important characteristic while the athletes regarded perseverance as most important. The coaches rated a coach and a sport psychologist respectively, to be significantly more effective (p<0.05) in strengthening the characteristics of mental toughness than athletes did. It is concluded that a definition of mental toughness should include the following components: motivation level, coping skills (including arousal control strategies), confidence maintenance (including discipline and goal directedness), cognitive skill, competitive behaviour (including competitiveness and possession of the prerequisite physical and mental requirements), planning and preparation skills, psychological hardiness (including emotional readiness) and, finally, religious convictions and ethics. In team sports the definition of mental toughness contains an extra component, namely team cohesion and unity.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie het die komponente van sielkundige taaiheid ondersoek soos dit in die sportsielkunde literatuur en deur afrigters en atlete vertolk word. 'n Vraelys, wat deur die navorser vir hierdie doelontwerp is, is deur 131 kundige afrigters vanuit 30 verskillende sportdissiplines en deur 160 elite atlete vanuit 31 verskillende sportdissiplines, voltooi. Die inligting ingesamel vanuit die literatuur, asook die stellings gemaak deur die afrigters en atlete, is deur middel van 'n induktiewe inhoudsanalisemetode geanaliseer. Inhoudsanalise organiseer data in toenemende komplekse temas en kategorieë wat die komponente van sielkundige taaiheid voorstel. Vanuit die analise van die literatuur het die volgende agt komponente van sielkundige taaiheid na vore gekom: motiveringsvlak, beheer van opwekking, handhawing van selfvertroue, kognitiewe vaardigheid, kompeterende gedrag, beplanningsvaardighede, emosionele gereedheid en spankohesie. Die analise van die afrigters en atlete se stellings het tot gevolg gehad dat 12 komponente van sielkundige taaiheid geïdentifiseer is. Hulle is, in dalende volgorde: motiveringsvlak, hanteringsvaardighede, handhawing van selfvertroue, kognitiewe vaardigheid, dissipline en doelgerigtheid, mededingendheid, beskikking oor die nodige liggaamlike en sielkundige vereistes, eenheid van die span, voorbereidingsvaardighede, sielkundige gehardheid, godsdienstige oortuigings en etiese waardes. Bykomend het die afrigters en die atlete die belangrikheid van hul stellings beoordeel. Konsentrasie is deur die afrigters as die belangrikste geoordeel terwyl deursettingsvermoë deur die atlete verkies is. Die afrigters het bepaal dat 'n afrigter en sportsielkundige beduidend meer (p<0.05) die eienskappe van sielkundige taaiheid kan versterk, as wat die geval met die atlete was. Die gevolgtrekking is dat 'n definisie van sielkundige taaiheid, die volgende komponente moet bevat: motiveringsvlak, hanteringsvaardighede (sluit opwekkingsbeheer in), handhawing van selfvertroue (sluit dissipline en doelgerigtheid in), kognitiewe vaardigheid, kompeterende gedrag (sluit mededingendheid en beskikking oor die nodige fisieke en sielkundige vereistes in), beplanning- en voorbereidingsvaardighede, sielkundige gehardheid sluit emosionele gereedheid in) en, laastens, godsdienstige oortuigings en etiese waardes. Spansportsoorte se definisie van sielkundige taaiheid sluit 'n ekstra komponent, spankohesie en -eenheid in.

In this dissertation the author argued for a postcolonial reading of the sublime that takes into account the racial and gendered underpinnings of Immanuel Kant's and Edmund Burke's classic theories. The thesis used the understanding of the sublime as a lens for an analysis of the cultural politics of landscape in a range of late imperial and early modern texts about Africa. A re-reading of Henry Morton Stanley's central African exploration narratives, John Buchan's African fiction and political writing, and later texts such as Alan Paton's fiction, autobiographies and travel writing, together with an analysis of colonial mountaineering discourse, suggest that non-metropolitan discourses of the sublime, far from being an outmoded rhetoric, could manage and contain the contradictions inherent in the aesthetic appreciation and appropriation of contested colonial landscapes.

Cognitive impairment is common in multiple sclerosis (MS), with as many as 70% of patients with MS affected. Individuals with MS who experience cognitive deficits are less likely to be employed, and may have more difficulty performing independent activities of daily living. Most commonly, deficits are observed in processing speed, complex attention, and memory. Because lesion location varies widely among individuals, no clear pattern of cognitive dysfunction in MS has emerged. However, a number of risk and protective factors may influence the likelihood of individuals to develop and/or express dysfunction, though the contribution of each to specific domains of cognition has not been fully explored. Recently, support for the cognitive reserve hypothesis (i.e., enriching life experiences protect against cognitive decline despite disease burden) has emerged in the MS literature. The current study investigated the contributions of cognitive reserve to learning and memory functioning in MS and the interaction of cognitive reserve variables and risk factors known to impact cognitive functioning in individuals with MS. Finding revealed cognitive reserve protects against decline in the domains of processing speed and complex attention. Furthermore, indirect protective effects of cognitive reserve through these domains were observed for verbal learning and memory. Finally, in line with previous literature, cognitive dysfunction predicted employment status of the current sample. Clinical implications and future directions for intervention efforts are discussed.

This thesis takes as its focus the relation between particular constructions of filmic time and the resulting affective and emotional experiences these temporalities produce on a spectatorial level. This connection between time and affect is thought through more specifically here in relation to an idea of the everyday not only as a thematic concern with the minutia of routine daily existence but also as distinct, and yet shifting, conceptions of filmic and viewing time. While film studies has often approached the temporal construction of the quotidian through the rubric of ???real time,??? I explore different articulations of the everyday in a number of film practices through the writings of Henri Lefebvre. As a sociologist and philosopher preoccupied with the revolutionary quality of everyday time in both material reality and art practices including film, Lefebvre???s work enables this thesis to approach film as an especially potent and significant site for affective experiences of time and of the everyday. Beginning with John Cassavetes??? Faces (1968) and an analysis of an affective everyday temporality that film is able to produce as a temporal medium, this thesis goes on to consider the quotidian through photography and stillness in Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (Chantal Akerman, 1975), dying and witnessing via Silverlake Life: The View from Here (Tom Joslin and Peter Friedman, 1993), and finally melodrama and unrequited love in Wong Kar-wai???s In the Mood for Love (Huayang Nianhua, 2000). In the analysis of these films and videos, this thesis draws on film debates explicitly concerned with time as well as focusing on those places in philosophy and critical theory where a promising and productive articulation of film and its inscription of time and affect can be found and conceptualised. In this investigation, the everyday as both a temporal construction and a spectatorial affective experience is a means to reflect on the cinema as a continually shifting and dynamic affective site.

An increasingly large body of literature sees disconnection from nature as central to the convergent social-ecological crisis, rooted in anthropocentric ontologies. This study explored the potential for embodied, sociomaterial nature-based activities to engender shifts in children’s perceptions of, and sense of connectedness with, nature. Equally it explored how children’s socio-cultural-historical value positionings (SCHVP) mediated their perceptions of, and connectedness with, nature. The nature-based activities, spread over five-day camps, were located at Hobbiton-on-Hogsback, a centre that has existed for decades to provide experiential learning and graded exposure to natural spaces, aiming to increase environmental knowledge and nature-connection. The experiences of two groups of children from wide-ranging socioeconomic and socio-cultural backgrounds in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa were explored using interpretive case study methodology. Through semi-structured interviews and focus groups with selected children (aged 10-14) and the Hobbiton staff members who worked with them, as well as participant observation, data were collected and analysed thematically. This study was guided by a layered theoretical framework that included Deep Ecology as an under-labourer, and Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) as a substantive, analytical framework. Interactions between participants’ SCHVP and the sociomateriality of the nature- based activities were analysed in relation to the children’s nature-perceptions and sense of Connectedness-With-Nature. The findings highlight both the importance of the children’s SCHVP and the sociomateriality of the nature-based activities in mediating their prior perceptions of, and connectedness with nature. The nature-based activities acted as a primary stimulus for developing environmental empathy, awareness and pro-environmental intentions. In essence, Hobbiton acted as a primary ‘seed planter’ towards greater feelings of Connectedness-With-Nature. However, recommendations are put forward for more decolonised, ethics-oriented and sociomaterial design of Hobbiton’s nature-based activities, with an emphasis on integrating children’s SCHVP into the pedagogical-design process in relation to the sociomaterial elements of the nature-based activities. Emically integrating the children’s multiplicities of knowing, doing, valuing and being into the pedagogical-design process could contribute to the decolonisation of nature-based experiences in such contexts cultural, socio and political diversity.

This thesis explores the historical, theoretical and philosophical development of cinematic media as a collective form of technological perception and consciousness. Central to my inquiry is the philosophical notion that with the invention of cinema emerges a cyborg vision, a new modern mechanics of thinking that extends the phenomenological and epistemological experience of human perception and knowledge into hitherto unknown realms of thinking, sensation and being. Drawing on some of the key cultural thinkers and philosophers of the twentieth century, including Walter Benjamin and Gilles Deleuze, as well as contemporary philosophers of media such as Jonathan Beller, Sean Cubitt, D.N. Rodowick and Mark B. Hansen, my research into the philosophy of cinema and digital media articulates a branch of media theory that reads the political economy of the moving image through an amalgam of continental philosophy, marxist theory and film studies. Coterminous with the investigation into the philosophical object of cinematic or media consciousness, the thesis also endeavors to map the historical genealogy of the moving image as it evolves from the industrial mechanics of cinematic technologies to the virtual informatics of digital culture. Central to this inquiry is the idea that the history of cinematic and visual media is inextricably connected with the rise, towards the end of the twentieth century, of postmodern consumer culture and the global information society. The transition from a modern industrial economy to a postmodern information economy that reorganises the logic of production according to the 'variables' of scientific knowledge, communication and informational technologies, parallels a metamorphosis in our media consciousness as the representational ontology of cinematic moving image is transformed by the virtual ontology of the digital image. The first part of my thesis looks at the period of industrial cinema, focusing on Soviet constructivism and the films of Dziga Vertov and Sergei Eisenstein. In this section I trace the origins of cinema as a mode of communication for the commodity, examining how the modern cinematic imaginary opens up new economies of vision and sensation for capital. Following this investigation into what Jonathan Beller calls the cinematic mode of production, the second part of my thesis proceeds to investigate how cinematic consciousness is transformed from the industrial to the post-industrial era. Taking Deleuze's historiographical demarcation of cinema into the two regimes of the 'movement-image' and the 'time-image' as a philosophical frame, the second section of my thesis investigates how in the post-war films of the Italian neorealists and Michelengelo Antonioni our cinematic consciousness develops a new way of thinking the ontology of time and space. This analysis leads into my discussion of how in the age of digital special effects and the Hollywood blockbuster, cinematic consciousness is further expanded with the time-consciousness of the 'virtual' as our bodies attempt to accommodate the heightened flows of information that bombard our senses in the interfaces of digital culture.

Academic research in the area of music and learning has proven that there is both a deficiency and need for classroom music education commencing at the primary grade levels. The research has shown that by incorporating music education into the academic curriculum the arts can be more effectively taught and other academic subject areas can gain from the diverse teaching strategies the arts bring to education. There are two goals of this project. One is to demonstrate to teachers what primary grade level students should be learning in music. A second goal of this project is to design a music education handbook for primary teachers that can serve as a basis for intergrating music into the curriculum. This handbook takes into consideration the general lack of sufficient teacher training in music instruction, along with teaching time constraints, and potential roadblocks, such as the acquisition of music and instrumental supplies.

Through a qualitative case study approach this research investigated the nature of three Grade 4 learners’ mathematical learning dispositions. It further explored how these dispositions evolve within the context of their participation in a weekly after school mathematics club over time. Of particular significance the research drew on the dispositional frameworks of Kilpatrick, Swafford and Findell’s (2001) and Carr & Claxton (2002) and pointed to ways in which these framework can be usefully brought together to provide a richer picture of learning dispositions. Kilpatrick, Swafford and Findell’s (2001) framework of mathematical proficiency involves five interrelated strands of which productive disposition is the fifth strand and largely underresearched (Graven, 2012). This strand is defined as ‘the tendency to see sense in mathematics, to perceive it as both useful and worthwhile, to believe that steady effort in learning mathematics pays off, and to see oneself as an effective learner and doer of mathematics’ (Kilpatrick, Swafford and Findell, 2001, p. 131). Carr & Claxton (2002) similarly argue for the importance of learning dispositions and point to the importance of resilience, playfulness and resourcefulness as three key indicators. The research outlines findings of the three case study learners in terms of data obtained from a questionnaire and interview about students’ learning dispositions. The interview asked learners various questions including for example, complete the sentence ‘Maths is…’, describe an effective learner of mathematics and say what you do if you don’t know an answer. The instrument was first administered orally and learners were asked to write their answers (in May 2012) and a year later it was administered as an interview by the club facilitator (in May 2013). While there is the limitation of comparison due to the different ways in which learners responded in 2012 (written) and 2013 (oral) the shifting nature of responses in certain respects provides some indication of shifts towards increasingly productive dispositions. Additionally the research analysed detailed transcripts of video recordings of several club sessions over a five-month period. Findings suggest ways of extending dispositional frameworks and that learners have restricted dispositions particularly in terms of sense making and resourcefulness across time. The findings also suggest shifts in dispositions over time especially in terms of seeing steady effort as paying off.

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2003.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis explores the role played by drawings in the creation of knowledge. The study specifically focuses on drawings of the South African landscape and how it led to knowledge of our country. The Western perception of the concept of nature in relation to culture or civilisation is investigated by brief reference to a few periods in Western history. It is argued that man and nature was separated in Western thought by the establishment of rational thinking. This concept led to man's exploitation of nature to his own advantage. The division between man and nature was broadened in the quest for technological advancement. The first European travellers came to South Africa with a Western mind set, hoping for better economical conditions. The illustrated traveller's report reflects the verbal and visual capturing and exploitation of the South African landscape. It is further argued that European travellers tried to structure the landscape according to Western aesthetical traditions. Drawings appear to be picturesque but have radical political, economical and social implications. Colonial depictions created knowledge, but in fact symbolically legitimise the expansion of power. Until the middle of the twentieth century Western aesthetic traditions were applied to visual depictions of the South African landscape. During this period, artists were uncritical of the oppressive political system and in doing so gave their tacit consent. Ever since the middle of the twentieth century, several artists voiced their opinions against the unfair policy of the ruling political party. Visual images asked subtle questions and gave radical judgements; thus knowledge was created and a contribution made to the freedom of all South Africans. My drawings of South African landscapes are to be understood against this theoretical background. I use drawings to ask questions about the relationship between the visual image and the establishment of knowledge. I also refer to the relationship between the original and the copy, reality, the photo and the drawing. I conclude the following: drawings lead to the creation of knowledge and landscape depictions have implications of power. The solution to this problem lies, in the end, once more III drawings.My depictions of South African landscapes are given as an answer.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie tesis is 'n ondersoek na die rol wat visuele beelde kan speel in die oordrag van idees. Daar word spesifiek gekyk na hoe tekeninge van die Suid-Afrikaanse landskap gelei het tot die totstandkoming van kennis oor ons land. Die Westerse verstaan van die begrip natuur in verhouding tot kultuur of beskawing word ondersoek deur kortliks te verwys na 'n paar periodes gedurende die Westerse geskiedenis. Daar word aangevoer dat Westerse denke die mens en die natuur van mekaar geskei het deur die instelling van rasionele denke. So het daar 'n geloof in menslike rede ontstaan. Dié beskouing het daartoe gelei dat die mens die natuur begin uitbuit het tot eie voordeel. Die kloof tussen mens en natuur het al hoe dieper geword in 'n strewe na tegnologiese vooruitgang. Die eerste Europese reisigers het vanuit 'n Westerse verwysingsraamwerk na Suid-Afrika gekom met die hoop op beter ekonomiese vooruitsigte. Die geïllustreerde reisverslag weerspieël die inneming en uitbuiting van die Suid-Afrikaanse landskap visueel en verbaal. Daar word aangevoer dat Europese reisigers die landskap deur middel van tekeninge, uitgevoer volgens Westerse estetiese tradisies, probeer struktureer het. Tekeninge kom skilderagtig voor, maar het radikale politiese, ekonomiese en sosiale implikasies. Koloniale tekeninge het kennis geskep en in werklikheid magsuitbreiding simbolies gelegitimeer. Westerse estetiese tradisies is tot die middel van die twintigste eeu toegepas op visuele uitbeeldings van die Suid-Afrikaanse landskap. Gedurende dié tydperk het kunstenaars die onderdrukkende, heersende politieke stelsel in werklikheid ondersteun deur totaalonkrities daarteenoor te staan. Teen die middel van die twintigste eeu het verskillende kunstenaars in opstand gekom teen die onregverdige beleid van die regerende party. Visuele beelde is gebruik om subtiele vrae te stel sowel as radikale uitsprake te lewer en het so kennis geskep en bygedra tot die bevryding van alle Suid- Afrikaners. My tekeninge van Suid-Afrikaanse landskappe moet teen dié teoretiese agtergrond gelees word. Ek gebruik teken om vrae steloor die verhouding tussen die visuele beeld en kennis wat so tot stand kom. Daar word verwys na die verhouding tussen oorspronklike en kopie, werklikheid, foto en tekening. Die gevolgtrekking is dat tekeninge kan lei tot die totstandkoming van kennis en dat uitbeeldings van landskappe magsimplikasies kan hê. Die oplossing vir hierdie probleem lê uiteindelik weer in tekeninge. My uitbeeldings van Suid-Afrikaanse landskappe word as antwoord gebied.

張經緯.
論文(哲學碩士) -- 香港中文大學硏究院敎育學部, 1998.
參考文獻: leaves 64-66.
中英文摘要.
Zhang Jingwei.
Chapter 第1章： --- 引言 --- p.1
Chapter 1.1 --- 研究背景 --- p.1
Chapter 1.2 --- 研究問題 --- p.3
Chapter 1.3 --- 研究目的 --- p.3
Chapter 1.4 --- 研究重要性 --- p.4
Chapter 第2章： --- 文獻回顧 --- p.5
Chapter 2. 1 --- 美學 --- p.5
Chapter 2.1.1 --- “自上而下的美´學ح與“自下而上的美´學ح --- p.5
Chapter 2.1.2 --- 客觀論美學與主觀論美學 --- p.5
Chapter 2.1.3 --- 美學發展的簡介 --- p.5
Chapter 2.2 --- 藝術心理學 --- p.6
Chapter 2.2.1 --- 藝術心理學之始 --- p.6
Chapter 2.2.2 --- 藝術心理學發展的三大取向 --- p.7
Chapter 2.3 --- 完形心理學 --- p.9
Chapter 2.3.1 --- 完形心理學的源起 --- p.9
Chapter 2.3.2 --- 完形(Gestalt) --- p.10
Chapter 2.3.3 --- 同型論(lsomorphism) --- p.11
Chapter 2.3.4 --- 圖形與背景 --- p.12
Chapter 2.3.5 --- 完形視知覺組織定律 --- p.12
Chapter 2.4 --- ARNHEIM的完形藝術心理學 --- p.16
Chapter 2.4.1 --- 視覺思維 --- p.16
Chapter 2.4.2 --- 形狀與形式 --- p.17
Chapter 2.4.3 --- 形式與力 --- p.17
Chapter 2.4.4 --- “美即適´切ح及“美即動力性結構對´應ح --- p.18
Chapter 第3章： --- 研究方法 --- p.21
Chapter 3.1 --- 研究對象 --- p.21
Chapter 3.2 --- 研究過程 --- p.21
Chapter 3.3 --- 材料 --- p.22
Chapter 3.4 --- 資料分析 --- p.22
Chapter 第4章： --- 研究結果及討論 --- p.26
Chapter 4. 1 --- 砌圖過程 --- p.27
Chapter 4. 1.1 --- “具意´念ح的創作開端及過程 --- p.27
Chapter 4. 1.2 --- """乏意´念ح的創作開端及“具意´念ح的創作過程" --- p.28
Chapter A) --- 漸現式 --- p.28
Chapter B) --- 頓現式 --- p.29
Chapter C) --- 速現式 --- p.30
Chapter D) --- 平衡式 --- p.31
Chapter E) --- 反覆驗式 --- p.33
Chapter 4.2 --- 美的解釋 --- p.33
Chapter 4.2.1 --- 初步個案分析 --- p.33
Chapter 4.2.2 --- 美的解釋分類歸類過程及架構重建 --- p.33
Chapter 4.2.3 --- 美的解釋類別要義 --- p.35
Chapter 4.2.4 --- 美的解釋分類架構 --- p.35
Chapter 4.2.5 --- 美的解釋分佈與個案組別分佈 --- p.37
Chapter 4. 3 --- 美的解釋與個人獨特性及經驗的關係 --- p.42
Chapter 4.3.1 --- 美的解釋與個人獨特性(包括經驗)的關係---以個案為單位的整理 --- p.43
Chapter 4.3.2 --- 美的解釋類別與個人獨特性(包括經驗)的關係---以解釋類別為單位的整理 --- p.46
Chapter 4.3.2.A --- 形式特質(F0)與個人獨特性 --- p.46
Chapter A1 --- 視覺元素/構圖原則(Visual Elements/ Compos itional Principles)與個人獨特性 --- p.46
Chapter A2 --- 表徵(Representation)與個人獨特性 --- p.48
Chapter 4.3.2.B --- 個人關聯(PR)與個人獨特性 --- p.48
Chapter B1 --- 自我肯定(Self-assurance)與個人獨特性 --- p.48
Chapter B2 --- 感覺(Fee ling)與個人獨特性 --- p.49
Chapter B3 --- 喜好/價值(Liking/Value)與個人獨特性 --- p.51
Chapter B4 --- 意念（ldea)與個人獨特性 --- p.51
Chapter 4.3.2.C --- 創作關係(CR)類別與個人獨特性 --- p.55
Chapter C1 --- 思想空間(Horizon)與個人獨特性 --- p.55
Chapter C2 --- 創作態度/感受(Attitude/Feeling of Creation)與個人獨特性 --- p.55
Chapter 4.3.2.D --- 互動 (IN)與個人獨特性 --- p.55
Chapter 第5章： --- 結論 --- p.58
Chapter 5.1 --- 研究結果摘要 --- p.58
Chapter 5.1.1 --- 砌圖過程 --- p.58
Chapter 5.1.2 --- 美的解釋 --- p.58
Chapter 5.1.3 --- 美的解釋與個人獨特性(包括經驗)的關係 --- p.61
Chapter 5.2 --- 研究限制建議 --- p.62
參考資料 --- p.64
附錄 A---幾何圖形(GEOMETRIC SHAPES)舉隅及其數量與色彩分佈表 --- p.67
附錄 B---不規則圖形（IRREGULAR SHAPES)(1:5. 3) --- p.73
附錄 C---幾何圖形與不規則圖形色表 --- p.77
附錄 D---“GUMMED MOSAICS JUMBO PAC´Kح舉隅 --- p.78
附錄 E---創作指引 --- p.79
"附錄 F---審美訪談(AESTHETIC JUDGMENT INTERVIEW, AJI)" --- p.80
附錄 G---美的解釋個案分析 --- p.82
附錄 H---美的解釋分類(以個案為單位) --- p.107
附錄 I---美的解釋類別要義 --- p.117
附錄 J---美的解釋與個人獨特性(包括經驗)的關係---以個案為單位的整理 --- p.125

Author's previously published articles appended.
Bibliography: leaves 292-341.
xviii, 388 leaves ; 30 cm.
Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library.
Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Psychology, 2005

This report presents the fmdings of an exploratory study into the perceived benefits and subjective experiences of Local Bird Guides along the Zululand Birding Route, an avitourism project, sponsored by Rio-Tinto, managed by BirdLife South Africa (BLSA), one of the largest conservation Non-Governmental Organisations in South Africa. The report explores the impact development and empowerment, through training, offered by BLSA as part of a conservation initiative, has had on the every day lives of Local Bird Guides. The fmdings are based on research generated by conducting qualitative, semistructured interviews with eight Local Bird Guides operating along the Zululand Birding Route. Recorded interviews were transcribed, and analysed using theory led thematic analysis. The results of the study provide insight into the perceived benefits and expectations of participants, their experiences, perceptions, expectations and disappointments in respect of the project.
Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2007.

There is much support for ecotherapy as a psychological intervention within the current literature. Research has indicated that ecotherapy does have a detectable therapeutic effect, particularly for programmes that run for more than 20 days. Furthermore, a number of studies have provided evidence ofthe effectiveness ofecotherapy in improving self-esteem and psychological health. However, research and evaluation ofecotherapy programmes have been plagued with poor quality studies with serious methodological problems. Many past evaluations ofecotherapy programmes have used anecdotal evidence and outcome-based interpretations. The current study evaluated the effectiveness ofthe N.P.A.T. KwaZulu Natal Midlands Ecotherapy Programme. The study focused on subjects' self-esteem and the manifestation ofpsychological symptoms as outcome measures. The experimental design employed three different experimental groups and a control group. All experimental and control groups were administered a pretest and posttest consisting ofthe Symptoms Checklist-90-Revised and the Culture-Free Self-Esteem Inventory-2. The pretest was administered before the ecotherapy programme. The experimental groups were administered the posttest one month after the ecotherapy programme. The control group were given no intervention, and were administered the posttest one month after the pretest. Pretest and posttest differences were tested for significance using repeated measures analysis ofvariance (ANOVA). No statistically significant difference was found between the experimental and control groups on the pretest and posttest. This suggests that the ecotherapy programme had no detectable effect on the experimental group subjects' self-esteem or the manifestation of psychological symptoms. The implications ofthese results and future considerations were discussed.
Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2003.

ACES is an integrated curriculum program that has been a part of the Yukon public education system since 1989. This study explores the impacts of this place-based outdoor education program on the participants‟ relationships with the environment. Interview and observation data were collected from 15 participants during a 13 day canoe trip on the Yukon River, which was the culmination of their semester long course. There were nine significant themes that emerged from the data that provide insight into the successes of the program and the impact it has on the students. The findings support the importance of outdoor education as a means for connecting young people with nature and as a catalyst for change and growth. They demonstrate the central role the teacher has in the success of the program and how the Yukon-centric focus promotes a connection with the local landscape resulting in concern for local environmental issues.

Three trends are occurring today in the United States which inspired this research. First, America is growing increasingly urbanized. Today, more Americans are living in cities than in rural environments, and this pattern is predicted to continue for the foreseeable future. Urban living has benefits, but there are also challenges for city residents including pollution, traffic, and crime. As social scientists, we need to improve our understanding of urban dwellers' relationship with their natural environment just as biophysical scientists are focusing more and more on the impacts of urban development on the natural world. Second, Americans are spending less time recreating outdoors. There has been a documented decline of participation in nature-based recreation, likely being replaced by an increase in use of electronic media during people's leisure time. Less contact with nature has consequences for people, perhaps especially for city dwellers who spend the majority of their time surrounded by the built environment of concrete and asphalt. It is likely that reliance on electronic entertainment has played a substantial role in decreasing amounts of physical activity. Lastly, Americans are becoming more sedentary. Today, the number of Americans who report getting no physical activity is about equal to the number who report getting regular physical exercise during their free time. Rising rates of obesity for adults and children in the U.S. have raised considerable concerns among medical and public policy professionals. The purpose of this research was to examine how small-scale urban nature parks are affecting city residents in Portland, OR. I looked at three elements of Portland residents' relationship with urban nature parks. First, I looked at whether there was an association between individual physical and psychological health and park use. Prior research has revealed that people who spend time recreating outdoors tend to be more physically active than people who do not. These observed higher levels of physical activity are associated with improved physical health. Time in nature settings has also demonstrated a positive effect on psychological well-being, such as reduced anxiety and improved ability to concentrate. Second, I examined whether having a nature park in their community had an effect on Portland residents' sense of neighborhood health. Previous research suggests that having natural areas in urbanized areas directly contributes to city residents' sense of a stronger, healthier community. Green space in cities has been associated with not only higher levels of reported satisfaction with the neighborhood, but also with higher property values, and with higher levels of retail spending. Third, I employed a social psychological model of attitude formation to evaluate Portland residents' attitudes about their nature parks. Attitudes are particularly important for natural resource managers to understand and account for in policy decisions since management of natural resources often engages the public's sense of personal freedoms and concerns over government regulations. Furthermore, because people in cities are so closely in contact with urban green space on a regular basis, inclusive and responsive policy requires that managers take account of public attitudes. I collected the data relating to these three elements of the relationship between urban residents and their nature parks in Portland because it is the largest city in Oregon. I obtained the data through a general population survey, randomly distributed to residents in the Portland metropolitan area during the fall of 2010. I conducted customary social science statistical analysis, including linear regression, to assess the relationship between Portland nature parks and personal and community health. To evaluate my sample's attitudes, I used the tripartite model of attitude formation originally developed in social psychology research. Because I was working with latent factors of attitude formation, I used structural equation modeling to assess the relationship of the observed variables to their latent factors, and the relationship among the latent factors. My results largely agree with those of other researchers, though I approached the question of physical health and nature recreation slightly differently. For my work on physical health, rather than ask about physical activity and infer health outcomes, I asked directly about physical health. I tested two hypotheses. One hypothesis was that there would be a positive association between self-reported physical health and park use, and the other tested for a positive association between park use and psychological health. My hypothesis for the physical health-parks relationship was partially supported. I tested two physical health variables, and found that one, which described overall health, did reveal a statistically significant relationship to park use. The other, relating to role limitations due to physical health problems, did not have a significant relationship to park use. My second hypothesis asserted that there would be a positive relationship between psychological health and park user status. This hypothesis was not supported, but I did find indications of an association between psychological health and park use. The second element of the relationship between city residents and urban nature parks related to neighborhood health. My results from this analysis were consistent with prior research findings which tend to support a positive association. I tested whether parks close by respondents homes (a fifteen to twenty minute walk), and parks farther away (no more than a ten minute drive away from home) were positively associated with self-reported neighborhood health. I found that both levels of proximity were positively associated with perceptions of neighborhood health. Because prior research suggests that one of the ways that neighborhood green spaces promote stronger communities is through the social interactions that occur in parks among neighbors, I also tested whether park-related social interaction was positively associated with community health ratings. In testing for a mediating effect of social interaction on the relationship between parks and neighborhood health, I found that park-related social interaction had a partial mediating effect on neighborhood health ratings for both parks within walking distance and within driving distance. In testing for moderation, I found that the moderation effect of social interaction was present only for parks within walking distance. The third and final element of the relationship between urban nature parks and city dwellers was attitudes about urban nature parks. I employed a model of attitude formation originally proposed in the social psychology literature. The tripartite model argues that an attitude is formed through three precursors: the cognitive, the affective, and the behavioral components. I also included an additional variable for social networks which I proposed would act as a moderating variable on the relationship between the other components and park attitude. My results for the entire, combined sample of both park users and nonusers indicated that both the cognitive factor and the affective factor have a significant association with attitude formation, while the behavioral component did not. The model for the combined sample also showed that social networks had a statistically significant, inverse relationship with attitudes. I conducted a test for attitude differences between groups (users and nonusers), and found a statistically significant difference. I also tested for a moderating effect of social networks on the other attitude formation components, but that relationship was not supported. Finally, I conducted comparisons between the two groups to assess any differences in the attitude components between users and nonusers. Side-by-side comparisons revealed that both users' and nonusers' attitudes were significantly influenced by the affective component. Perceived outcomes of park use was not predictive of attitude for either group. The values component (on an anthropocentric-biocentric scale) was significant for users, but not nonusers. Nonusers attitudes were also significantly impacted by the behavioral component (i.e., behaviors related to parks), and by social networks. Social networks were not predictive of users' park attitudes. The research I have presented herein provides support for the hypotheses that time spent in natural settings is associated with better physical and psychological health and that community green spaces contribute to satisfaction with one's neighborhood. I also found that attitudes about parks differed between users and nonusers, yet both groups valued them as benefits in the urban environment. Since my sample size was insufficient to make generalizable statements about Portland's population, my results are suggestive, but are consistent with prior research. My research results can help urban natural resource managers and city decision-makers make more inclusive decisions by incorporating an understanding of city residents' relationships to urban nature parks. The results of my research on personal and community health support the position that urban green space fulfills an important function by providing valuable public health benefits, and promoting healthier, more "livable" communities. My results indicate that, for my sample, social interaction at parks was positively related to neighborhood health. Such a positive association suggests that parks could be leveraged to build community cohesion which ultimately leads to benefits like increased sense of safety and happier residents. My results pertaining to park attitudes can help managers develop more targeted public outreach campaigns. For instance, I found that for park nonusers, social networks were a statistically significant predictor of park attitudes. This result implies that park staff and managers could benefit by identifying community organizations and business associations that might be conduits to reach nonusers. Through such information pathways, park managers could disseminate information about urban nature parks that could attract current nonusers. Urban nature parks are not the sole answer to building healthier communities and people. They cannot alone reverse social ills that many urban neighborhoods contend with routinely. However, the scientific data do support the idea that urban natural spaces like nature parks are positively associated with personal and community health. With careful participatory planning that includes a substantial public input component, urban natural resource managers could develop urban nature parks as part of a city's green infrastructure that not only provides valuable ecosystem services like cleaner water and reduced energy consumption, but also provides for nature-based recreation experiences that promote healthier, happier city residents.
Graduation date: 2012

A productive workforce is recognized as the primary resource for all organizations. Workforce training and constant retraining must be a priority. The trainers' role to add value in this process is recognised. The general aim of this research was to ascertain the correlation and difference between trainer competency and psychological optimisation. The following measurement instruments were used in the study - TCQ, POI, SOCq and SCS. This study was conducted among 57 trainers working for a large transport organisation. Through a literature survey, training and psychological optimisation were defined and a personality profile of the competent trainer integrated with that of the psychological optimal functioning individual. Through an empirical study, the correlation and difference between trainer competency and psychological optimisation were determined. Supporting evidence, although not enough, indicates a correlation between trainer competency and psychological optimisation, and a difference in psychological optimisation between the high and low trainer competency groups.
Industrial and Organisational Psychology
M. Admin. (Industrial Psychology)

Literature in arts education suggests that experiences in the arts support the development of thinking skills such as critical thinking and reasoning (Fiske, 1999; Eisner, 2004; Greene, Kisida, and Bowen, 2014). But do individuals make aesthetic judgments supported by critical thinking and reasoning, or are these judgments based only on subjective preferences or personal taste? The present study examines whether undergraduate college students from an elite private university serving primarily students of high socioeconomic status (SES) and a public university serving primarily low SES students (n=150) invoke criteria when making evaluative judgments across the domains of visual art, music, and a non-aesthetic more general domain. Students were asked to compare two works of art (visual art or music), and to compare two fictional political candidates and to indicate whether one could be judged superior to the other and if so on what basis. Responses reflected levels of epistemological understanding—that is, whether judgments are based primarily on facts (Absolutist level), subjective opinions (Multiplist level), or criteria (Evaluativist level). The majority of participants displayed Multiplist levels in the aesthetic domains. Evaluativist levels were more common in the non-aesthetic domain, although significantly so only in comparison to the music domain among the students from the private elite university. Group comparisons across the two aesthetic domains showed that individuals scored at the Evaluativist level with more frequency in the visual art domain as compared to the music domain. However, this difference was significant only among the participants from the private elite university and not among the participants from the public university. The general educational and social background of the participants (private elite university setting versus public university setting) proved to be the strongest predictor of Evaluativist-level responses. Continued research in epistemological understanding in the aesthetic domain is needed, as development in epistemological thinking may afford insights into the degree to which individuals exercise critical thinking about the arts, and how such thinking can be fostered.

The research on "The healing touch of Nature in the context of pastoral therapy" illustrated the role of Nature in bringing healing to individual people in an urban context in South Africa. The role Nature plays in connecting the participants with God and how this positively affects their daily lives, has been central in the research. Through their interaction with Nature, the participants lead richer, more meaningful lives and experience a greater sense of well-being. Nature stimulates and elicits response as the digital world is set against the calm energy and "warmth of the earth". Through connection with God in Nature, the participants translate the healing metaphor into more tangible "language" – the "beautifying effect" of Nature. It is not the words that captivate, but the thoughts which the words carry. Mostly the research tells the story of the experiential knowledge of living in the intimate presence of God and the healing power of God‘s presence. This narrative is about a kind of knowing that can only come through Nature. The research offers a way of seeing Nature that could influence pastoral care today.
Practical Theology
M. Th. (Practical Theology with specialisation in Pastoral Therapy)

Text in English
The present paper analyses the neuroanatomical and neuropsychological backgrounds of art reception and art creation in modern visual art and creative processes. It critically presents two models of aesthetic experience to provide a comprehensive theoretical basis for the discussion. The research purpose is to show that with increasing experience and expertise the referential frame of the aesthetic judgment is changing and that neural processes involved in object recognition provide a starting point for visual aesthetics. Thus, the investigation focuses on constructing and testing neuropsychological theories that fall in the domain called 'neuroaesthetics'. These theories, in turn, serve as a starting point to formulate neural laws of art and aesthetics and aesthetic experience. Some artistic styles, such as expressionism, reflect specific neural processes. Various studies indicate correlations between hemispheric specialisation and art or creativity and show the right hemisphere plays a particular role in it. However, studies exploring the neural correlates of aesthetic preference have yielded mixed results. Furthermore, neuroimaging studies have proved that different categories of modern artworks are processed in different areas of the brain. These diverging results will be discussed in a critical assessment of the two models of aesthetic experience. Besides, the question of identifying exclusive neural correlates of aesthetic preference will be raised. Comparing amateurs and experts has revealed the more reduced the cortical activation, the more efficiently it works. Biological and neuropsychological factors of creativity point out the meaning of the activation level, cognitive inhibition and prefrontal cortex. Divergent thinking differs from convergent thinking in terms of the neural level. Neurodegenerative processes and brain injuries sometimes influence the artistic output surprisingly or even launch it. Lesion studies contributing to understanding art experience will be explained.
Psychology
M.A. (Psychology)

Custody disputes have traditionally been considered a legal matter. More recent trends have seen the recognition of divorce and custody as both legal and psychological events. This necessitated the involvement of professionals of the helping services in custody recommendations. Such a multidisciplinary approach is currently taken by the Office of the Family Advocate, Pretoria, in disputed custody matters. It is suggested that the way in which the problem of custody is currently defined, is on a pragmatic level, and does not include a higher-order awareness as implied by an ecosystemic epistemology. Such an awareness denotes self-reflexivity, and calls for a more aesthetic emphasis. The dialectic between aesthetics and pragmatics is maintained by means of a descriptive look at the various systems involved in a disputed custody case. Adopting an ecosystemic epistemology is recommended, through the metaphor of mediation, as a further evolution of an already changing process.
Psychology
M.A. (Clinical Psychology)

The complex functioning of the human body produces the biological, historical and environmental contingencies of lived existence. These experiences of embodiment are chiasmic, dialectical and dialogical, and underpin the narrative dilemmas we create through the storied nature of our attempts to make sense of them. In testifying my own embodiment this autobiographical form of sensual scholarship emphasizes the subjective basis for my body’s psychology. By developing the complicating action segments of my life story told through interview data into a chronologically-ordered and textually- layered account of personally significant memories, I craft a story of my panicking body. My upbringing was influenced by discourses that reinforced parental and family affiliation at the expense of my feeling body. Unravelling my need to exercise as a contingency of this affiliation provides retrospective meaning to the distress my panicking caused. Situating my feelings, thoughts, emotions and actions within the broader constraints of my family’s history, community, religion and culture reveals the contingent nature of my embodiment. Describing the shifting contingencies of a life lived since my upbringing in the small, rural town of Inglewood, New Zealand, provides the opportunity to recognize and to re-align the dialectics of identity that help to make up my body’s psychology. Juxtaposing this narrative meaning-making are my revelations of experiential integration achieved through the flow of exercise. Understood as an extension of my body’s fundamental sensuality, this evolutionally-refined capacity for engagement underpins my lived experiencing. Together these sentient and reflexive forms of testimony confirm the inherence of my sensuality and the circumstance of self-hood, and invite you, the reader, to explore the workings of your own body. By revealing the sensual and symbolic strands of my embodiment this story of human contingency reveals something of the fleshy consciousness that we all share, not by speaking for anyone else, but by calling attention to the taken-for-granted nature of its unfolding. By arguing for a psychology more relevant to lived experiencing, my thesis questions the body of Western science and, in particular, psychology’s version of it. Articulating the felt nature of my experiencing situates my mind back in my body and, in doing so, fleshes out its psychology. While the insights shared here are personal, the relevance of the felt-body is found in the ways it becomes discoursed and narrated.

Perceptions of increased rates of violence worldwide have heightened the need to understand what children think about their experiences as victims or witnesses of violence. Few studies have examined violence from the viewpoint of children. The purpose of this study was to examine children's perceptions of the prevalence, incidence, and impact of violence experienced or witnessed by them and to explore the factors that might mitigate and reduce its impact. A national survey of New Zealand children, aged 9 to 13 years, with a representative sample of 2,077 children from 28 randomly selected schools of various sizes, geographic areas and socioeconomic neighbourhoods was undertaken. A questionnaire was developed for children to report the nature and extent of physical, sexual and emotional violence (including bullying) experienced within their main contexts (home and school). To assess the impact of this violence, as well as children's perceptions of school, their coping experiences, and the extent to which they used violence in their own interpersonal relationships, analyses of data comprised frequencies, bivariate correlations, t-tests, and multiple regressions. Results showed high prevalence rates of physical, emotional, and sexual violence. Comparison of the three types of violence revealed emotional violence to be the most prevalent form of violence and as having more impact on children than physical violence. Sexual violence had the most overall impact. Witnessing violence was more prevalent and, except for sexual victimisation, also had greater impact than direct violence. All types of violence involving adults were rated higher than violence involving children. The study also examined the ethical considerations and philosophy underpinning research that involves children. Guided by Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, the results support the controversial ethical decision to adopt a passive consent procedure. The study demonstrated children's competence to express the ways in which violence has affected them. Conclusions are that effective development of policy and provision should be based on data that reflects children's perceptions of the violence in the context of their own lives

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)
This study uses a rhetorical visual analysis to investigate supplement advertisements within the top three fitness magazines, according to circulation, to provide a richer understanding of the message construction within the visual images the advertisements contain. The advertisements were selected at random over a time span of a year and a half within each of the magazines, totaling nine separate advertisements for analysis. The purpose of this study is to determine to what extent, if any, the construction of advertisements in men's fitness magazines operates as ideographic images establishing legitimacy as determined through application of Sonja Foss' rhetorical visual analysis methodology. Previous research has identified various analyses of visual images within the fitness culture, however, rhetorical visual analysis of supplement advertisement does not appear to have been investigated prior to this project which is the primary concern for the initiation of the current research. Employing rhetorical analysis in order to understand visual images provides a perspective that is imperative to identification of elements and functions of visual images. The current findings indicate that images in advertisements in men's fitness magazines do not establish rhetorical legitimacy, as understood from a rhetorical perspective. However, when examined through a traditional aesthetic intentionalist perspective, the construction of the advertisements operates as ideographic images, establishing legitimacy through the image. This information provides us with the understanding that advertisements within current muscle magazines are operating under a traditional viewpoint, and as such, produce traditional perspectives. The advertisement industry within this genre is reliant upon the consumer first knowing what the product is and then realizing how the image fits into that function. The limitation within this perspective of the advertisement industry is the consumer's knowledge base concerning the product, the product being explained through text and the time the consumer is willing to spend on correlating the intent or function with the images presented.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)
In this study, Janis Edwards and Carol Winkler’s method, based on Michael McGee’s ideograph, is applied to non-discursive forms in order to understand the extent to which these images can be understood as a representative form functioning ideographically. Artifacts for analysis include the 2008 Shepard Fairey Obama “PROGRESS” and “HOPE” images, related campaign graphics, and parodies, political and non-political, humorous and serious. Literature on visual rhetoric, the ideograph, and extensions of McGee’s ideograph to visual forms was reviewed. When the method was applied to the artifacts, the Obama “HOPE” image was found to be an example of a representative form. Additionally, the representative form was demonstrated to function ideographically in the parodied examples analyzed in this thesis. Opportunities for further study on the visual ideograph and additional artifacts were proposed.

Orthodox Jewish adolescents develop and mature within a very structured environment. The aim of this study was to explore adolescent psychosocial identity development within Orthodox Jewish education. The secondary focus was the nature of the religious identity acquired through religious education, specifically Jewish Orthodox education. The literature study explored adolescent identity and development (within Erikson's framework), religious orientation and Orthodox Jewish education. The qualitative research was conducted empirically, in the form of a case study of seven adolescents from a single-sex Orthodox school based in Johannesburg. The themes that emerged from the empirical study are as follows: the community; Orthodox Judaism; education; parents, family and peers; adolescent and religious identity. The study indicated that the participants' identity development is dominated by their religious psychosocial world that paradoxically provides the structure that supports and complicates their identity development.
Educational Studies
M.Ed. (Guidance and Counseling)

The aim of the study was to investigate the motivation and job satisfaction of teachers in the Ilembe District of KwaZulu-Natal. To this end, a literature study was undertaken on relevant theories and on the results of previous research on the issue. This was followed by an empirical investigation. The research design was a mixed-methods sequential explanatory design. During the quantitative phase, a structured questionnaire was completed by 100 respondents from five secondary schools. The qualitative phase involved a phenomenological study in which 16 teachers from the same schools were interviewed. This research found that the teachers generally exhibited high self-efficacies. Teachers with positive self-efficacies were more satisfied with their physical environments and their school’s cultures than the others. However, teachers of different age groups, post levels and personality types were in agreement that the physical working conditions at rural schools were not conducive to effective teaching and learning. Parental involvement in school matters was restricted due to poverty and illiteracy. These factors served to lower teacher motivation and job satisfaction. In addition, teachers believed that school policies related to remuneration, safety and security, school governance, and assessments and evaluations needed to be revised if teacher motivation and job satisfaction were to be raised. Teachers were unhappy with their workloads and the multiple roles they played at school. With respect to interpersonal relations, their relations with their school principals, School Management Teams and parents were unconstructive. Many learners were also ill-disciplined and underachievers. Some significant differences in perceptions were found. Male teachers were more satisfied with policies, interpersonal relationships and school organisation. African teachers were happier than Indian teachers with policies and the nature of the work. Teachers with 26 and more years of experience were less negative about their physical environments. Qualifications also made a difference: teachers with certificates only were the least satisfied with their physical environments, school organisation and structure. Most importantly, teachers who were given the opportunity to demonstrate their potential to be successful, was significantly more satisfied with work-related issues. The study made recommendations to improve the motivation and job satisfaction of teachers.
Education Leadership and Management
D.Ed.(Education Management)