Digital Commons Network^™

Redefining The Art Experience : From Static To Temporal Art Forms, Justine Mcknight

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This research examines an approach to art making and viewing that questions the acceptance of the autonomous object in favour of a transient experience. It focuses specifically on work and writing from the 1960s by the American artist Robert Morris that attempted to alter the then predominant Formalist understanding of the art object as autonomous and self-referential. This investigation follows the formal and conceptual development of Morris' work (and that of associated artists Richard Serra and Rafael Ferrer) with particular focus on the shift from static objects to time-based and transient an-forms including film/video and installation. I address the influence …

Fitness To Stand Trial In Australia: The Investigation And Comparison Of Clinical Opinion And Legal Criteria, Miranda P. Hogg

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The extent to which Australian psychologists and psychiatrists are cognisant of the legal standard for Fitness to Stand Trial (FST) was investigated. 198 psychologists from The Australian Psychological Society (APS), and 125 psychiatrists from The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP) responded to a survey. Psychiatrists identified a greater number of legal criteria than psychologists. This finding extended across clinicians who had experience in the evaluation of fitness to stand trial and those who did not. No difference was found between psychologists and psychiatrists for mentioning irrelevant or insufficient considerations. However, a within-group analysis revealed that the …

A Case Study Of Employees' Motivation To Participate In A Workplace Language And Literacy Program, Marguerite Mary Cullity

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The reasons why non-English speaking background (NESB) shopfloor employees participate in workplace language and literacy classes and the factors that affect their motivation to participate are relative unknowns. This study investigates NESB shopfloor employees' motivation to participate in a Communication Skills Development Program (CSDP) course and the factors that affected their motivation. An inductive analysis of findings revealed that all of the employees participated in one of the CSDP courses for a variety of pre-determined life-specific reasons. These reasons are represented by three main categories of goals (i.e., 'Self-improvement through language and literacy development', 'Work', 'Outside work'). Of these goals, …

Extending The Reach: Exploring What It Means To Be A Parent Of A Hostel Adolescent Assisting With Their Child's Career Development : A Case Study, Julie A. Howell

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Research indicates that parents are an important influence on the career development of their children, but, that they have often been considered as an untapped resource. Rural high school aged students, who reside in metropolitan hostels, often live with their parents for less than 15 weeks per year. How do their parents contribute to their career development? This one year research explored the involvement of parents of hostel children, in the career development process of their youth. Through a case study, an analysis described what it means to be a parent of a hostel adolescent with respects to how they …

The Meaning Of Quality In Living Service Environments: An Analysis Of The Experiences Of People With Disabilities, Elderly People And Service Workers, Ruth Marquis

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The purpose of the study was to examine the experiences of both people with disabilities and elderly people and to identify their perceptions of quality as it relates to living in a service or being supported by a service to live in the community. The study was naturalistic in design and used a phenomenological approach and inductive analysis. It involved immersion in living services for a two year period, in-depth interviews with people living and working in services and participant observation. Fifty service users between the ages of twenty-one and ninety-six, and twenty-six service workers between the ages of twenty-six …

The Lived Experience Of A Group Of Mothers, Geographically Isolated From Their Extended Families, In Establishing Their Social Support Networks, Stephanie Jackiewicz

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This study explores the Jived experience of a group of women, geographically isolated from their extended family, as they establish their new support networks. It is based on the assumption that the shape and structure of families are constantly changing and evolving and this change in family structure impacts on both the parents and the children. One of the significant changes families are experiencing is the increasing isolation of the nuclear family from traditional family networks. It is the purpose of this study to explore the experience of this group of women to identify how the members establish their support …

Perceptions Of Elder Abuse Among Australian Elderly Individuals And General Practitioners, Marianela Cuevas

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Research available on elder abuse is limited. There continues to be a lack of uniformity in how to define and identify the problem, as well as how to intervene. One group which continues to be excluded from the process of gaining knowledge on the issue of elder abuse is the elderly themselves. As general practitioners are the primary source of health care for older people, their perspectives on elder mistreatment should be explored as well. The first objective of this study was to examine whether differences existed in the perceived severity of potentially abusive situations between three groups of older …

Burnout In Academics : The Role Of Humour And Optimism As Stress Buffers, Natalie R. Fairclough

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The relationship between university lecturers' perceived stress, use of humour to cope with stress, optimism, pessimism, and burnout was investigated. Participants included 180 lecturers from a range of Perth universities and disciplines. Questionnaire packages were delivered to the participants at their universities and were later returned to the researcher by mail. A principle components analysis was first performed on the Life Orientation Test-Revised, a self-report instrument designed to measure optimism, and demonstrated support for a two-dimensional model of optimism and pessimism. A hierarchical multiple regression analysis was subsequently conducted to determine the ability of perceived stress, humour, optimism, and pessimism, …

Early Discharge Planning : Primiparous Women's Perceptions Of Their Readiness For Going Home, Graeme N. Boardley

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Early discharge for women after childbirth was introduced in Australia approximately ten years ago. Early discharge involves going home from hospital within three days of giving birth. Since its introduction, early discharge has been the subject of much debate. Previous research has argued the cost effectiveness and safety of early discharge, but little has been done to examine this phenomenon from the human aspect. An exploratory study of first time mothers, in an early discharge programme was undertaken to address how these women felt in relation to their readiness for going home. A purposive sample of twenty Caucasian, English speaking …

Research In Mathematics Education: A Contemporary Perspective, Alistair Mcintosh (Ed.)

Research outputs pre 2011

The twelve chapters in this book-all but two written by researchers in Australian universities-provide ample evidence of the impressive contributions currently being made by Australia to research in mathematics education. The authors' fields of inquiry are diverse: they include discussion of the roles of language and imagery, problem posing and problem solving, students' beliefs and students' thinking, gambling and mental computation. T!1eir methodologies are no less diverse, incorporating descriptions of both quantitative and qualitative research projects, including action research in classrooms, theoretical perspectives and the development of theoretical models, reviews of research, surveys, clinical interviews and descriptions of new research …

The Effects Of Gender And Task Complexity On Audit Judgment, Janne Chung, Gary S. Monroe

Research outputs pre 2011

This study examines the interaction effect between gender and task complexity on audit judgment based on the selectivity hypothesis. This hypothesis states that males are selective information processors whereas females are detailed information processors. The study extends this hypothesis to an auditing context and hypothesizes that males will outperform females when task complexity is low while females will outperform males when task complexity is high. A two (males and females) by two (task complexity - high and low) full factorial experiment was carried out. The low and high task complexity conditions were created by manipulating the number of cues. The …

Proceedings Of The Fifth International Women In Leadership Conference: Ethics Or Leadership? The 90'S Dilemma, Adrianne Kinnear (Ed.)

Research outputs pre 2011

The International Women in Leadership conference attracts internationally renowned speakers as well as a wide audience from across the nation. The Conference is at the forefront of organisational and leadership research and provides a means of personal interaction with preeminent female researchers and leaders in Australia and overseas. Such interaction deepens the understanding of the leadership capacities of women and of leadership in organisations, knowledge which is central to the intellectual work of the Women in Leadership Project. Held at the Esplanade Hotel, Fremantle, from the 25th-27th November 1996, the Fifth International Women in Leadership conference focused on the theme: …

Principles And Practices Of Esl Teachers: A Study Of Adults And Children, Michael P. Breen, Bernard Hird, Marion Milton, Rhonda Oliver, A. Thwaite

Research outputs pre 2011

The study reported here aimed to identify the particular practices and uncover the particular principles of a group of ESL teachers. Some of the teachers were working with adult learners and some were working with young children. The research aimed to answer three main questions:

1. What are the classroom practices of this group of language teachers?

2. What principles do they identify as underlying their work in the classroom?

3. What is the relationship between the principles they held and the practices they adopted?

The study also aimed to find out if there were similarities or differences between teachers …

Australian Aboriginal Students In Higher Education, Ian Malcolm, Judith Rochecouste

Research outputs pre 2011

One of the striking features of Australian higher education over the last ten years has been the marked increase in participation by Indigenous Australians. In a National Review of Education for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, carried out in 1994, it was noted that the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students had more than doubled between 1988 and 1993 (National Review of Education for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, 1994:28-29). Indigenous Australians constitute 1.6 per cent of the population of Australia and in 1993 some 5,578 indigenous people were attending Australian public universities, which is 1.3% …

Human Services: A Discussion Paper, David Wiles

Research outputs pre 2011

Human services is an emergent field of study and work in Australia. Its definition is complex, needing continuing theoretical and empirical clarification. Despite the contemporary decline of the Australian welfare state, human services has emerged in cultural congruence with historic Australian notions of a 'fair go', of social equity, and of social egalitarianism. Human services constitutes a nascent profession, which - in the main - helps people with problems, particularly including members of the social 'underclass'. With much of its origins in volunteerism and the voluntary sector, human service organisational theory is now developing, and is helping workers and students …

The Effects Of Counterexplanation And Audit Groups On Fraud Detection, Janne Chung, Gary S. Monroe

Research outputs pre 2011

Prior studies have found that auditors' fraud detection rates are relatively low (Bernardi 1994; Pincus 1991 ). The present study examines whether counterexplaining inaccurate judgments will increase fraud detection rates and whether audit groups can counterexplain more effectively compared to individual auditors. The possible negative effect of counterexplanation is examined by requiring audit groups and individual auditors to counterexplain accurate judgments. The purpose of this 'inanipulatiori is to determine whether counterexplaining accurate judgments will lead to negative belief revision, and whether this negative belief revision will be mitigated by the use of audit groups. A 2 x 2 x 2 …

Factors Influencing Continuation And Withdrawal From Coaching Youth Football In Metropolitan Western Australia, James T. K. Milne

Theses : Honours

It is inevitable that at some stage of his career. a coach will withdraw. This qualitative study explored the various reasons why coaches of youth football (between the ages of 13 and 17 years) choose to continue or withdraw their involvement with the sport. It was the first part of a two phase larger study into this topic involving: (a) in depth interviews with current and former youth football coaches: and (b) the uses of themes from the interview data to develop a questionnaire for distribution to a larger sample of youth football coaches at a later stage. Perceptions and …

How Do You Do Your Rage? : A Qualitative Investigation Into Contemporary Women's Experience Of Their Rage, Verena Homberger

Theses : Honours

Feminist researchers investigate women’s lives. This project is looking at a tiny thread embedded in a small section in the huge fabric of women's lives. The section is women’s capacity for violence, and the thread within it is women’s rage. This is a qualitative study of contemporary women experiencing and expressing their anger and rage. Discussions of violence within feminist literature have been largely restricted to accounts of male violence against women and children, and may have inadvertently endorsed the mainstream construction of femininity, which perceives rage in women to be an inappropriate emotion. In this project, I argue that …

Sequential Testing Effects Re-Visited : Is The Effect Of Test Presentation Contingent Upon Slide Linearity?, John D. Jones

Theses : Honours

Evidence regarding the potential mediating effects sequential test presentation has upon eyewitness suggestibility is divided. Bekerian and Bowers' (1983) research suggested that sequential test presentation reduced misinformation effects, whilst McCloskey and Zaragoza's (1985) results failed to indicate any effect of this presentation method. A possible reason for these conflicting results is that the respective research groups have used different sets of slides. Bekerian and Bowers' (1983) slides appeared to contain more thematic content (i.e., linear content), which in turn increased participants' resistance to misleading postevent information. Conversely, McCloskey and Zaragoza's (1985) slides appeared to lack this feature (i.e., they are …

Testing The Matching Hypothesis : Implementing A Minimal Stress Intervention By Matching Writing Task To Emotional Coping Style, Pamela D. Mcneill

Theses : Honours

The theory of inhibition and psychosomatic disease supports the concept that failure to express emotion is psychologically and physically stressful, and associated with long-term health problems. One aspect of this study was to investigate the discrepancy hypothesis proposing that specific emotional coping styles elicit patterns of discrepant self-report and physiological responses. The major focus of the study tested whether matching therapeutic writing tasks to specific emotional coping styles would significantly decrease stress and somatic symptoms, and whether mismatching such writing tasks to emotional coping styles would not decrease stress and somatic symptoms. Undergraduate students were identified as having an emotional …

The Effect Of Pre-Interview Training And Warnings On Children's Eyewitness Testimonies, Julie A. Jost

Theses : Honours

The present study examined two important issues regarding children's eyewitness testimonies -compliance which is the tendency to agree with misleading questions and the misinformation effect whereby participants incorporate misleading postevent information into their memory recall of the original event. Eighty six primary school children (6-8 years) watched a video, listened to a misleading narrative and were then interviewed individually. To reduce compliance half the children received a pre-interview training package composed of instructions and practice questions with 'neither' and 'don't know' response options. To reduce the misinformation effect children were given a warning that they may have heard some misleading …

The Psychosocial Correlates Of Cigarette Smoking Among Tertiary Students, Tina Hankins

Theses : Honours

The present study was undertaken to examine the relative contribution of psychosocial variables toward tertiary student smoking behaviour, and their ability to distinguish smokers from non-smokers, or smokers from ex-smokers, amongst this population. Given the higher prevalence of cigarette smoking amongst females of this age group, the psychosocial variables distinguishing female smokers from female non-smokers in the tertiary education system were also examined. It was hypothesised that smoking status of tertiary students would be associated more with their attitude toward smoking than environmental factors. Furthermore, it was hypothesised females would place less emphasis on participation in sporting activities than males, …

Biometrics : An Exploration And Analysis Of User Acceptance Issues, Brendan J. O'Loughlin

Theses : Honours

The security industry has undergone dramatic growth over the last twenty years due to a burgeoning of demand for security products and services. The protection of people, assets and information has been prominent among the concerns of business, industry and the broader community. Crimes against domestic, commercial, and industrial premises, small and large, are a commonplace occurrence and security has therefore become an essential component of any facility's continual operation. The security industry has been quick to respond to these concerns through the rapid development of a wide range of products and services. Growth in security as an academic discipline …

Young Children's Understanding Of Design In The Technology Process, Jean E. O'Sullivan

Theses : Honours

This study explored the development of children's thinking when social constructivist principles of learning were implemented through technological experiences. The study monitored the development of children's understanding of “design" through project work, using classroom based action research. In addition to investigating children's understandings, the study explored the use of technology in early childhood curriculum to develop the skills said to be required in the next millennium. The study found that five year old children are capable of "designing" and that technology is an effective vehicle for developing socially, contextually and culturally appropriate learning experiences.

The Effect Of Training Mode On Skill Acquisition And Transfer, Douglas F. Brewer

Theses : Honours

This study examined the transfer of skills developed in solving a simple algebraic formula. Forty-two university Psychology undergraduates, randomly assigned to one of two training groups. were required to practice solving the formula (X²-Y)/2 by substituting numbers for the variables x and y. One group of participants practiced with eight sets of numbers, while the other group practiced with 16 sets of numbers. All participants performed 320 trials during training. In the transfer phase, the response times required to solve the same formula with a set of numbers not previously encountered was analysed to determine if the variation …

Performing Cooperative Work And Conferencing On An Intranet Using Java, Thaveeporn Limpanyalers

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The process of organising, preparing and conducting a meeting is a time consuming one. Additionally, geographic separation compounds the amount of effort required. Within this study, an electronic conferencing system in an Intranet environment is designed and implemented, thus enabling employees in the same organisation to meet up electronically without the dual constraints of time and space. Specifically, the study investigates incorporation of facial expressions and an ongoing polling system. The results demonstrate that a presence of facial expressions helps users to better engage in on-line discussion and that users find an ongoing poll to be useful in determining direction …

A Case Study : A Short Term Art Therapy Intervention For A Child Victim To Bullying, Ffyona Matthews

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This single case study of a child bullied at school investigates whether a short-term, individual Art therapy intervention, within a school that runs an anti-bullying program, will ease the effects of bullying in that child. The subject is a 10 year old girl referred as being school avoidant due to being bullied. The intervention encouraged expression of emotions, fears and worries about the bullying, an- understanding of the bullying and its effects, exploration of alternative responses to being bullied and therapeutic support to help empower, build self-esteem, lower depression, loneliness, stress, and unhappiness at school. The intervention involved six one …

Improving Provision For Disaffected Students: Toward A New Educational Model, Cecilia Netolicky

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The purpose of this study is to develop and review strategies and policies to drive retentive teaching-learning environments for disaffected students, modifying their modus operandi sufficiently for them to qualify and retain a tertiary place or position in the workforce, or sustain a return to mainstream schooling. I employed action research methods to examine Strike Four. an educational model servicing students with severe social and/ or emotional difficulties and behavioural disorders. I tested the Strike Four model during an intensive study period on two programs. Part 1 of the thesis comprises three Chapters. An introduction to the issue of the …

Extending The Boundaries : Portraits Of Activism In Perth, Western Australia, Alan Wilson

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

For some analysts, post-industrial capitalist societies have pathological deficiencies which manifest themselves locally and further afield, in marginalisation and oppression of people and despoliation of the environment. For those who are passionately driven to challenge those consequences of the dominant paradigm, activism is deemed to be a potent force for effecting social and political change. The aim of this study was to establish how activists integrate issues, context, strategies, personal factors and other influences into a strategy for action.

"Family" As Constructed By Adoptees After Making Contact With Their Birth Families, Adrianne Moloney

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Legislative changes during the 1980s and 1990s opened confidential adoption files of the past enabling many adoptees and relinquishing parents to establish contact. This study examines the way in which the meaning of family is constructed by adoptees who have made contact with their birth relatives, and how these constructions were altered after contact. The ways in which biological and social definitions of family are constructed and contested in these settings is explored. Sociological definitions of family are discussed and the gap between ideal notions of 'family' and the lived experience of 'family' is explored. The study focuses on the …