Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Enablers And Barriers Experienced By Grandparents Who Become Primary Caregivers Of Grandchildren: An Occupational Perspective, Janice Du Preez

Theses : Honours

Aim: The aim of this review was to identify current issues affecting grandparents who are raising their grandchildren in Australia.

Method: The study systematically reviewed twelve studies that evaluated supports for grandparents. The Checklist Analysis of Research for Systematic Review and the Quantitative and Qualitative Checklist were used to evaluate the studies.

Findings: Five support issues affecting grandparent-headed families were evidenced in the literature as being of priority. These include stress, intergenerational conflict, community support, legal and financial aspects, policies and service frameworks.

Conclusions: The paucity of research implies that further funding for large-scale research is required. Implications for informal …

Letter Reversal Assessments: A Systematic Review Of Measurement Properties, Administration Guidelines And Reversal Content And Richmond Reversal Rating: Construct Validity In Relation To Visual-Spatial Abilities, Lucinda Venter

Theses : Honours

Background: With several assessments available that purport to measure the letter reversal rates of young school-aged children, the question was raised how reliable and comparable these assessments are and to what extent each assessment addresses the concept of letter reversals? A systematic review of these assessments was performed to evaluate the measurement properties and administration guidelines, and to compare the reversal content of these assessments.

Method: Relevant assessments and studies were identified through literature searches. For each of the assessments the measurement properties, quality of the studies that report the measurement properties, and administration guidelines were evaluated, and the content …

A Comparison Of Alexithymia Levels Of Male Intimate Partner Abuse Perpetrators And Men From The General Community, James Strickland

Theses : Honours

Intimate partner abuse (IPA) is a significant social issue with diverse and complex risk factors. Recent attention, however, has been placed on the individual psychological and emotional factors associated with IPA, including deficits in the processing of emotions. The construct of alexithymia, which involves difficulties identifying and describing emotions, integrates some of these emotional deficits. Currently, no published research has examined the levels of alexithymia among Australian men who perpetrate IPA. The aim of the current study was to compare the alexithymia levels of IPA perpetrators (n = 31) with those of men from the general community (n = 34) …

An Investigation Into The Psychological Impact Of Informal Aged Care: The Lived Experience Of Older Female Informal Aged Carers, Emma Stein

Theses : Honours

It has been estimated that 196,000 (38%) informal carers in Australia are aged over 65 years, with the majority of these carers providing care to someone in their own age group. In particular, it is women who have been providing most informal care. Recognition of this has highlighted women’s needs for psychological support in their caregiving roles. However, research into women’s experiences of this phenomenon is scarce. The present study aimed to explore the lived experiences of women in this context, asking the question “what are the perceived psychological impacts of aged care on older women who are informal carers?” …

Human - Animal Interaction And The Benefits To Mental Health: A Phenomenological Study, Jasmin Jau

Theses : Honours

The prevalence of mental illness is a major concern in Australia and worldwide. It is one of the leading causes of disability in Australia and it is estimated that globally one in four people will experience a mental illness at some point in their life. One of the lesser known therapies and activities in the mental health field are animal assisted interventions that incorporate animals as part of the therapeutic or ameliorative process. Although emerging research literature shows that interaction with animals has positive effects on mental health and wellbeing, it is not clearly understood how and why there are …

Construct Validity Of The Developmental Test Of Visual-Motor Integration 6th Edition (Beery Vmi-6) In Western Australian Primary-School Children, Christine Van Vreeswijk

Theses : Honours

AIM: The construct validity of the 6th edition of the Developmental Test of Visual-Motor Integration (Beery VMI-6), is yet to be tested for a Western Australian population. This study aimed to use a combination of factor analysis and correlational tests to provide preliminary evidence for the construct validity of the Beery VMI-6 when administered to a Western Australian population of 6-10 year old children.

METHOD: This pilot study utilised a quantitative non-experimental exploratory design. Convenience sampling was used to recruit 91 children (aged 6-10 years old) from two schools in the northern suburbs of Perth. Administration of the Beery VMI-6 …

Parkinson's Diagnosis From The Caregiver's Perspective, Helen Maree Bradley

Theses : Honours

Parkinson’s disease (Parkinson’s) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder. The irreversible and accumulating disability experienced means that people with Parkinson’s progressively lose their autonomy, eventually requiring complete care. Consequently, Parkinson’s significantly impacts sufferers and the people who care for them. Informal care, predominantly provided by female spouses becomes exceptionally demanding over time, and caregivers experience significant morbidity. Stress manifests across all stages of the caregiving trajectory, with diagnosis reported as a particularly stressful period for caregivers; however, few attempts have been made to understand what makes it stressful. The current study explored female spousal caregivers’ subjective experience of the Parkinson’s diagnosis, …

In The Name Of National Interest? Assessing The Shift Of Australian Foreign Policy Regarding West Papua During 2006, Jaymin Beck

Theses : Honours

The Australian government currently maintains a strong position against an independent West Papua. Despite claims of human rights abuses by the Indonesian Government in West Papua and the huge number of West Papuan refugees fleeing to Australian shores, the Australian Government continues to tighten foreign policy and migration laws to make it increasingly difficult for West Papuans to seek asylum in Australia and hope for an independent West Papua. When Australia’s humanitarian intervention in the Timor-Leste fight for independence in 1999 is considered, reasons why the Australian government maintains an anti-separatist position towards West Papua are unclear. Australia took a …

Mother's Experience Of Social Media: Its Impact On Children And The Home, Abe Van Hatch

Theses : Honours

With the prevalence and accessibility of social media within the last 15 years it has become possible for children to have constant access to their friends and social networks. It is relatively unknown what impact adopting social media has on children and how mothers interpret this. There are gaps in the literature investigating the pervasive effects of modern technology and what meaning mothers ascribe to their children using social media as a method of connecting with the world. The present research aims to explore this phenomenon by investigating the experiences of mothers who have children that have recently adopted social …

Examining The Appeal And Ascribed Meanings Of Complementary And Alternative Medicine (Cam) Use By Males: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, Kathryn V. Hogan

Theses : Honours

Men are commonly and consistently underrepresented in global depression rates, however figure predominantly in rates for substance abuse and suicide. It has been suggested that men’s under-utilisation of mental health services accounts for the discrepancy between the genders and that hegemonic masculine stereotypes have created a barrier for males in seeking help for mood disorders. The use of Complementary and Alternative Medicines (CAM) has been expanding globally, with research showing in some instances of self-diagnosed depression and anxiety, CAM is being utilised more often than mainstream health care services. The present study explored the personal meanings of males who currently …

Teachers' Experiences With Disengagement In Physical Education Classes At Secondary School Level In The Perth Metropolitan Area, Nuno Matos Oliveira

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Students’ disengagement from school has been one of the major concerns in educational research (Fredricks, Blumenfeld, & Paris, 2004). According to researchers (Alexander et al., 1997; Finn & National Center for Education Statistics, 1993; Finn & Rock, 1997; Finn & Voelkl, 1993; Fredricks & Blumenfeld et al., 2004) the more disengaged the students are, the more likely they will be to fail academically and ultimately drop out. Although researchers have already identified several risk factors that can influence students’ engagement (Fulton, 2007; Lee & Burkam, 2003; Newmann, 1992), very few studies have explored teachers’ views of this educational issue. The …

Memory, Truth And Justice: A Contextualisation Of The Uses Of Photographs Of The Victims Of State Terrorism In Argentina, 1972-2012: Communicating An Intersection Of Art, Politics And History, Richard Askam

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Photographs of the victims of Argentine state terrorism from 1972 to 1983, and most prominently those of the detained-disappeared victims of the Proceso de Reorganización Nacional dictatorship (1976-1983), have had a significant role in elucidating the demands of human rights activists since the aftermath of the Trelew Massacre in 1972. In this thesis I examine the role of photographs of victims of state terrorism in the construction of unofficial, or counter, narratives critical of those produced by two dictatorships and by elected democratic administrations in the demand for truth and justice, and in the construction of social memory. I discuss …

The Australian Football League And The Closet, Andrew Douglas

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This thesis examines the complete absence of openly gay males from the ranksof the professional players in the Australian Football League (AFL). It seeks to explain this absence in the context of the modern gay rights movement. incontemporary Australian society. It compares and contrasts the effects of thismovement on both the AFL and other mainstream Australian social institutions.

Over more than four decades, the gay rights movement has effected a number of social changes. These changes include both specific legal reforms and more general trends such as the increasing social visibility of gay men across a range of mainstream institutions …

The Creation And Validation Of A Youth Fundamental Hitting Scale: The Assessment Of Youth Baseball And Softball Hitting Fundamentals And The Perceived Psychological Barriers To Hitting A Pitched Ball, Andrew Walsh

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The primary purpose of the thesis was to create a hitting scale for youth players that assess the fundamentals of a baseball swing. Secondly, the purpose of this thesis was to determine the interactions between the changes in anxiety, perceived competence and fear variables have with actual hitting competence over a four week sport specific training program.

Feeling The Fleshed Body: The Aftermath Of Childhood Rape [Thesis], Brenda Downing

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The point of propulsion for this research is my raped and censured body with its somatic aftermath narrative. This doctoral research project is a feminist and creative investigation that sought to uncover and articulate the long term somatic impacts of childhood rape as they manifest in the adult female body. I employed a multi-modal, complementary, and embodied methodology using a combination of autoethnography, somatic inquiry, writing-as-inquiry, and performance-making-as inquiry. In addition to my autoethnographic explorations, I gathered information from other women raped in childhood, as well as information from women’s healthcare professionals. Drawing on the autoethnographic and participant information gathered, …

A Leap In The Dark: Identity, Culture And The Trauma Of War Mediated Thorough The Visual Arts Of North-East European Migrants And Émigrés To Australia After 1945, Eileen Whitehead

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This thesis explores the contribution to the cultural life of post-war Australia by migrant artists from north-eastern Europe. It researches the lives and work not only of displaced artists arriving in the mass exodus from Europe after the Second World War, but also second and third generation artists descended from original migrant families, and much later émigré artists.

Art histories written to date about the post-war period provide little coverage of the contributionto the art and culture of Australia by migrant artists from north-eastern Europe. The coverage in the literature written about the visual art produced by established Australian artists …

University Student Support Systems, Help-Seeking Behaviour And The Management Of Student Psychological Distress, Richard Bostwick

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The issue of student management and retention remains one of the most pertinent considerations for any university. In a climate of increasing awareness of mental and physical health issues, university policy development needs to adapt to ensure all students engage with and utilise support services effectively. It would appear that there are various influences on a student’s university experience, including learning abilities and styles, impact of life events and situations, for example, housing and finance, availability of support services and the ability of an individual to seek out appropriate help. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, in combination with the Health Belief …

What Remains Is The Book: The Idea Of The Book In And Around Electronic Space, Andy Simionato

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The purpose of this study is to question the idea of the book in general and how this idea is transforming in electronic space, understood as a space of flows as distinct to a space of places (Castells, 1989, p. 349). In order to question the idea of the book in electronic space we must begin at its ending, or more specifically, at a point in the histories of the book that is widely understood as representing a closing of a parenthesis - that began with the invention of the printing press, up to the end of print—spanning some 500 …

Australian Psychologists' Perceptions And Experiences Of Client Threats, Penny Hyde

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

There is empirical evidence that workplace violence is increasing, particularly in settings where health care professionals such as psychologists are employed, and often these incidents are perpetrated by clients. Given that client violence can have wide ranging and serious consequences, it is not surprising that researchers are focussing on this issue. One notable finding is that psychologists feel that they do not have the training or confidence to manage the violent behaviour of clients. A review of the relevant literature was undertaken to determine why psychologists feel ill prepared for such incidents. Whilst there is a wide range of definitions …

Website Accessibility In Australia And The National Transition Strategy: Outcomes And Findings, Vivienne Conway

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

In the most recent statistics, published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics in 2012, it was reported that slightly under one in five people stated they had a disability. A further twenty-one percent of the population (4.7 million people) reported that they had a long-term health condition that did not restrict their everyday activities. This total group of people who suffer either a disability or a long-term health condition numbers 8.9 million people, or over thirty-nine percent of the Australian population. Of the people reporting a disability, 3.7 million or eighty-eight percent of that group experienced limitations in the activities …

Role Of Physical Exercise In Reducing Depression And Improving Mental Health In Cancer Survivors, Gregory Levin

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Cancer survivors are more than twice as likely as the general population to suffer the debilitating effects of depression. This comorbid condition is associated with several negative consequences, such as reduction in compliance with cancer treatments, and hastened mortality. Recent research has examined the therapeutic effect of exercise on depression and reported excellent results of similar magnitude to those achieved with pharmacotherapy or psychological intervention. However, no research, to date, has examined the effectiveness of exercise on reducing depression in depressed cancer survivors. In order to address this important question this thesis reviewed previous literature in the area of cancer …

Religion, Heritage, And Power： Everyday Life In Contemporary China, Asan Xue

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Based on an ethnographic study of the religious life of ordinary people in the town of Dongpu, this research explores the relationships between: religion and state power; Chinese ritual (li, 礼/禮) tradition and Christian culture; and religion and intangible cultural heritage in contemporary China.

This research found that both the practitioners of Chinese rituals and the Christian community deploy tactics to resist and negotiate with the hegemonic official culture through spatial and religious practices in their everyday life. Chinese ritual practices dedicated to deities and ancestors are defined as idol worship in the doctrine of Christianity and denigrated …

A Mixed Methods Obesity Prevention Intervention For Australian Children Aged 6-12 Years: Influence Of Parents Misperceptions About Food And Exercise On The Efficacy Of Educational Obesity Simulations, Claire Ellen Roockley

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Increasing numbers of Australian children are being classified as overweight or obese. Given the health complications associated with excess weight, interventions to prevent children becoming overweight are crucial. Despite literature showing that parents shape their children’s food and exercise habits, no child obesity prevention programs have directly targeted parents. Moreover, although fear appeals have been used across several health promotion areas to change attitudes and behaviours, they have not been incorporated into an obesity preventive program. This study addressed these gaps by testing whether fear-based obesity simulations, targeted at parents as a tool for preventing childhood obesity, was more effective …

An Investigation Of Technique And Equipment Factors Associated With Clubhead Speed In Golf, Christopher Joyce

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

If golfers achieve long hitting distances whilst maintaining their accuracy they will gain a competitive advantage. To increase hitting distance, faster clubhead speed is required and this can potentially be achieved through a number of factors. Firstly, anthropometric factors such as height and physical factors such as trunk rotational power have been previously considered to be of importance. However, biomechanical factors such as; the X-factor (separation of the trunk-pelvis alignment when viewed in the transverse plane), have been a major focus of recent research. Further, the interaction of the golfer with the implement they hit with i.e. the golf club …

Examining Tacit Exchange, Embedded Within Socially Shared Hand-Stitching Practices, With The Shipibo Artists Of Peru, Nicolle Anne Desmarchelier

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This exegesis reflexively examines the role of the tacit in my intercultural creative exchange with a number of the Shipibo artists of Peru. Central to the research was a three month residency spent in Peru with these artists. The research reflexively examines the impact of the residency on my creative praxis.

In particular, the research explores how the process of hand-stitching, embedded within the day to day lifeworld, can offer a space for such intercultural exchange. Furthermore, the research focuses on the shared hand-stitching practices as part of a socially communicative process. This creative exchange is placed in the social …

The Effect Of Shared Leadership On Workgroup Creativity, Simon Guive Minaee

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Research on leadership typically assumes a single leader who has managerial authority over the group, unit or organisation. Shared leadership is an emerging concept of leadership as a group-level phenomenon. It builds on antecedents such as democratic leadership, semi-autonomous and self-managed work groups, participative decision-making and co-leadership that are typically studied as variations of leadership by a single leader. Shared leadership is seen as more distributed, informal and emergent than these. Recent empirical research shows shared leadership can have beneficial effects on a variety of group process and outcome variables. However, so far its effects on creativity have not been …

The Identity Of The Heart Patient In The Context Of The Gift Economy: Heartnet And Media Framing, Lynsey Uridge

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This health communication research examines the identity levels of the heart patient on a therapeutic website HeartNET through an empirical investigation of site interactions as manifestations of a gift economy. The thesis also explores the media’s representation of heart health in both television and print.

This research utilised a longitudinal qualitative ethnographic and netnographic approach involving twenty-six participants who completed two in-depth interviews. The first one-on-one interview occurred during the early stages of the participants’ heart journey, explored their heart story and use of interactive technology for heart health support. The second interview occurred six to twelve months later, and …

The Role Of Resilience In Individual Innovation, Muhammad T. Amir

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Organisations in today‘s changing environment face significant challenges, requiring continual innovation. A critical factor in their response may be employees‘ resilience, the ability to apply high levels of effort and persistence while initiating, promoting and applying new ideas. However, despite growing evidence of the value of many positive psychological characteristics in organisational behaviour, the role of resilience in individual innovation has received little attention in the literature.

This thesis describes two studies of this issue. First, current perspectives and definitions of resilience were reviewed, revealing a need for an improved definition, a re-examination of its dimensions and a new measure. …

Information Provision And Retrieval In The Farming Industry In Western Australia, Hasham Al Musawi

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Agricultural information dissemination to farmers has been studied extensively. However, farmers preferred methods of delivery has not been investigated thoroughly within a Western Australia (WA) context.

Availability of different information delivery channels have led to the overwhelming and overlapping of information available to farmers. As a consequence, the type of information required by WA farmers should be considered as knowing information needs could allow farmers to access relevant, concise and timely agricultural information.

To answer the research questions, a survey was designed, using Likert-scale, close ended and open ended questions techniques, enabling qualitative and quantitative data analysis. The study‘s findings …

Learning From The Experts: Qualitative Study Of The Lived Experience Of Mental Illness, Zdenka Bartova

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Severe mental illness has a profound effect on the affected individuals yet it does not necessarily prevent them from leading a meaningful and fulfilling life, and therefore recovering. Recovery has received a great interest in clinical and consumer research yet little is known about how those individuals who do not primarily identify with recovery respond to the concept and come to accept it as something that is personally meaningful. Using a qualitative approach following the principles of Gadamer’s (1975) hermeneutics, the present study explored people’s subjective experience of mental illness with the aim of identifying factors related to their views …