A test of self-determination theory in the exercise domain

In accordance with self-determination theory (SDT; Deci & Ryan, 1985), this study examined the relationship between autonomy support, psychological need satisfaction, motivational regulations, and exercise behavior. Participants (N5369) were recruited from fitness, community, and retail settings. Fulfillment of the 3 basic psychological needs (i.e., competence, autonomy, and relatedness) related to more self-determined motivational regulations. Identified and introjected regulations emerged as positive predictors of strenuous and total exercise behaviors. Competence need satisfaction also predicted directly and indirectly via identified regulation strenuous exercise. For participants engaged in organized fitness classes, perceptions of autonomy support provided by exercise class leaders predicted psychological need satisfaction. Furthermore, competence need satisfaction partially mediated the relationship between autonomy support and intrinsic motivation. These findings support SDT in the exercise domain

Parental Psychological Control and Autonomy Granting: Distinctions and Associations with Child and Family Functioning

Objective:This study utilized an observational coding scheme to identify parenting behavior reflecting psychological control and autonomy granting, and examined relations between these parenting dimensions and indices of child and family functioning. Design: A community sample of 90 preadolescents (aged 10.5 to 12 years) and both of their parents engaged in a triadic interaction that was coded for parental psychological control and autonomy granting. Participants also completed measures of child adjustment, interparental conflict, and triangulation. Results: Factor analyses indicated that a two-factor model better fit the data than a one-factor model, suggesting that psychological control and autonomy granting are best conceptualized as independent but related constructs. Parental psychological control and autonomy granting exhibited some shared and some unique correlates with indices of child and family functioning. Hierarchical regressions revealed significant interactions between these dimensions, suggesting that the strength of some associations between parents\u27 use of psychological control and youth adjustment problems depends on the level of autonomy granting exhibited by the parent. Conclusions: By examining psychological control and autonomy granting simultaneously as unique constructs, this study identifies patterns of psychological control and autonomy granting that undermine youth adjustment. Findings inform targeted intervention efforts for families of preadolescent youth

Women's autonomy and social support and their associations with infant and young child feeding and nutritional status: community-based survey in rural Nicaragua.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the associations of women's autonomy and social support with infant and young child feeding practices (including consumption of highly processed snacks and sugar-sweetened beverages) and nutritional status in rural Nicaragua. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. Feeding practices and children's nutritional status were evaluated according to the WHO guidelines complemented with information on highly processed snacks and sugar-sweetened beverages. Women's autonomy was assessed by a seventeen-item questionnaire covering dimensions of financial independence, household-, child-, reproductive and health-related decision making and freedom of movement. Women's social support was determined using the Duke-UNC Functional Social Support Questionnaire. The scores attained were categorized into tertiles. SETTING: Los Cuatro Santos area, rural Nicaragua. SUBJECTS: A total of 1371 children 0-35 months of age. RESULTS: Children of women with the lowest autonomy were more likely to be exclusively breast-fed and continue to be breast-fed, while children of women with middle level of autonomy had better complementary feeding practices. Children of women with the lowest social support were more likely to consume highly processed snacks and/or sugar-sweetened beverages but also be taller. CONCLUSIONS: While lower levels of autonomy and social support were independently associated with some favourable feeding and nutrition outcomes, this may not indicate a causal relationship but rather that these factors reflect other matters of importance for child care

Women’s Autonomy in the Context of Rural Pakistan

The paper explores the elements that constitute women’s autonomy in rural Pakistan. Hitherto most research on women’s status in Pakistan has either been restricted to proxy measures of women’s status generally or to the urban areas. Community or region, each of which has distinctive features, have an overriding influence on this subject. Northern Punjabi women have lower economic autonomy but greater mobility and decision-making authority than women in Southern Punjab. Gender systems at the village level are also important predictors of women’s autonomy. Economic class has a weak and ambivalent influence on women’s autonomy in rural Punjab. Class influences both education and employment of women, these remains the routes to empowerment in rural settings. While most women in rural areas contribute economically, the majority works on the household farm or within the household economic unit. These women do not derive any additional autonomy as a result of this contribution. Paid employment, though offset by other restrictions on poor women, offers greater potential for women’s autonomy. Education, on the other hand, has a lesser influence on female autonomy in the rural Punjabi context.

Computer Modeling of Personal Autonomy and Legal Equilibrium

Empirical studies of personal autonomy as state and status of individual freedom, security, and capacity to control own life, particularly by independent legal reasoning, are need dependable models and methods of precise computation. Three simple models of personal autonomy are proposed. The linear model of personal autonomy displays a relation between freedom as an amount of agent's action and responsibility as an amount of legal reaction and shows legal equilibrium, the balance of rights and duties needed for sustainable development of any community. The model algorithm of judge personal autonomy shows that judicial decision making can be partly automated, like other human jobs. Model machine learning of autonomous lawyer robot under operating system constitution illustrates the idea of robot rights. Robots, i.e. material and virtual mechanisms serving the people, deserve some legal guarantees of their rights such as robot rights to exist, proper function and be protected by the law. Robots, actually, are protected as any human property by the wide scope of laws, starting with Article 17 of Universal Declaration of Human Rights, but the current level of human trust in autonomous devices and their role in contemporary society needs stronger legislation to guarantee the robot rights.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, presented at Computer Science On-line Conference 201

War As Morally Unintelligible: Sovereign Agency and the Limits of Kantian Autonomy

Kant’s treatment of war is usually discussed as part of his political philosophy or philosophy of history. In contrast, this essay locates these discussions in direct reference to major elements of his moral philosophy: autonomy, the categorical imperative, and the moral relationality of the kingdom of ends. Within this context, Kant’s account of war, particularly in writings from the 1790s, can be read as affirming war as morally unintelligible: It is the expression of a collective withdrawal from the constitutive relationality of moral community. This results in a radical disparity in the exercise of moral autonomy by the sovereign agency of the state with respect to peace, on one hand, and with respect to war, on the other

Meaningful and Effective Performance Evaluations in a Time of Community Policing

It is well recognized that the success of community-policing initiatives may be dependent on a variety of organizational changes, such as decentralization, increased officer autonomy and discretion, and permanent or stable geographic assignments. What is equally important, yet often overlooked, is the importance of a revised performance evaluation system that reflects the work to be performed in a community policing atmosphere. In a community policing context, performance evaluations do far more than simply evaluate police behavior; they serve as important vehicles for increasing awareness and understanding, conveying organizational expectations, and rewarding behavior concordant with a broadened police role (Oettmeier & Wycoff 1997). This manuscript suggests a step-by-step process for administrators interested in devising an evaluation system that will accomplish these goals

The Obstacles of Implementation of Village Allocation Fund Program in the North Konawe Southeast Sulawesi

Provision of Village Allocation Fund is predicated on the realization of the right to hold the village of village autonomy. This is done so that the village can grow and evolve to follow the growth coming from the village itself based on diversity, participation, indigenous autonomy, democratization, and empowerment. Rural Institutions have increased due to the ability of an optimal are not adequately involved in the planning process using the Alokasi Dana Desa (ADD) village without there even through the planning process as the existing guidelines, were never involved in the implementation of ADD and also have never been involved in the evaluation of the implementation of the ADD, all plans activities and filing submitted to Badan Pemberdayaan Masyarakat Desa (BPMD). This phenomenon shows that community involvement is still an obstacle. The main barriers associated with the management of the village administration who have not gotten the right formula in community involvement, especially in aspiration. That is because of the following: 1) The low level of public education 2) Weak managerial ability of the village and other village institutions and 3) Failure mechanisms of socialization and increased capacity building by BPMD to the village