Induced Security and the Expressive Writing Paradigm: An Attachment Theory Perspective on Therapeutic Efficacy

Research has shown that attachment-related events such as a romantic relationship break-up can activate and/or make more salient the cognitions, affect, and behaviors associated with attachment style. Research has also shown that security primes, which seek to increase the degree of attachment security, can help to mitigate the degree to which insecure attachment style negatively affects key processes and outcomes. The current study tested the impact of attachment style and/or security primes on a single-session expressive writing task. Participants were roughly 150 undergraduates (the actual sample size varied somewhat by the hypotheses) who had recently experienced a romantic relationship break-up were randomly assigned to one of the following three conditions: (a) an expressive writing only task in which participants were asked to delve into their deepest thoughts and feeling related to the break-up, (b) a writing + prime task in which participants were exposed to a security prime prior to the expressive writing task, (c) a control writing task. The goals of this study were, first, to investigate whether or not the writing samples would reflect participants' attachment styles and, second, to examine the extent to which attachment style or the security prime would affect the results of the expressive writing interventions. Results revealed that attachment style and the security prime did not generally affect the degree to which the expressive writing task promoted psychological and physical health functioning. However, supplementary analysis suggested that attachment style and the security prime did affect some indices of psychological or physical health functioning in a subsample of participants whose ex-partner had reportedly initiated the break-up. Additionally, results reveal that participants' attachment style was reflected in the content of the writing samples

The Internet of Things Connectivity Binge: What are the Implications?

Despite wide concern about cyberattacks, outages and privacy violations, most experts believe the Internet of Things will continue to expand successfully the next few years, tying machines to machines and linking people to valuable resources, services and opportunities

Negotiating the security paradox: Afro-Colombians, Uribe (the United States), and the intrastate security crisis in Colombia, 2009

The purpose of this study is to determine whether the Colombian government's coordinated national security strategy, developed under the administration of Alvaro Uribe, to enhance security through expanding and strengthening the coercive machinery of its security apparatus, has made Afro-Colombians, paradoxically, less secure? To address this question, the study explores what is meant by security and contrasts traditional understandings of security which are state-centered, with a more expansive and holistic, people-centered theoretical orientation such as human security. In this study, human security is defined as "a condition or state of being characterized by freedom from pervasive threats to people's rights, their safety, or even lives." This study assesses the broad security environment in Colombia, a country ravaged for decades by multiple organized, well-armed and financed armed groups competing for territory, resources, strategic corridors, access to structural power and to a lesser degree political legitimacy. It also examines the role that the United States plays in influencing national and human security in Colombia, with its dominant role in the hemisphere and the world, expressing its national power and wealth through foreign policy initiatives from the "Cold War," the "War on Drugs," and the "War on Terror." The study revealed that while some sectors/spheres of Colombian society have become more secure as reflected in a number of significant improvements in a number of security indicators, the human security of Afro-Colombians is far more difficult to ascertain, and in fact, the findings, extrapolated from the primary research, are paradoxical. Afro-Colombians continued to be disproportionately and systematically dispossessed from their territories and forcibly displaced, terrorized and targeted for violence by all armed actors in the conflict in spite of the unprecedented security initiative orchestrated by the administration of President Alvaro Uribe. Examining their condition requires an analysis which takes into consideration their position within a radicalized socioeconomic hierarchy, geographic distribution, proximity to strategic resources, critical infrastructure and industry and the intersection between private and public forms of discrimination. More specifically, the study demonstrated that Afrocaribeiios, particularly in the Montes de Maria region, were susceptible to various provocative acts of violence propagated by all armed actors and their sense of security is more tenuous than other Afi-o-descendant populations examined. The study suggests that Afro-caribeiios, due to their proximity to the armed conflict and the lack of scholarly inquiry and production of knowledge on the subject require increased scholarly consideration

The management of security officer's performance within a private security company in Gauteng

This study was undertaken to investigate whether there is a performance management system within the security industry, applicable specifically to Security Officers. To investigate which performance factors, apply to security officers and how security officers perceived performance management. The management of Security Officers’ performance is an aspect of management which has not garnered much interest compared to other operational and management areas – hence the paucity of research on the performance management of security officers. They make a major contribution to the labour market with 7 949 security companies listed on the Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority (PSIRA) website, and 2 973 companies (37%) based in Gauteng alone. However, despite the high number of companies, the industry has attracted the least attention in terms of performance. The overall research purpose of this study was to explore the management of security officers’ performance in a private security company operating in South Africa,focussing specifically on a company based in the Gauteng Province. The scope of the study was aimed at investigating security officers’ perception of performance management and to link performance to actual job performance and security officers’ perceived work performance. The researcher also investigated whether biographical factors had an influence on security officers’ performance. A quantitative research methodology was utilised to conduct the study. The main research instruments were primary data, comprising a self-developed questionnaire and secondary data, comprising company records. The respondents consisted of security officers whom had been subjected to the Dependability and Safety Instrument (DSI) during the period 2013 to 2015, in the region, who were still employed at the company at the time of the study. The findings of the study identified 11 performance management factors and indicated links between self-reported and actual work performance. Biographical characteristics did not seem to influence the work performance of the security officers. However, the results did indicate that employees with less tenure were more prone to disciplinary action by the company and those with higher levels of education were prone to fewer disciplinary actions and dismissals based on AWOL. The study identified the areas that play a significant role in the management of security officers’ performance. The identification of performance management factors in the security industry and security officers’ perceptions about performance management should enable HR officers to develop and implement a performance management system that will contribute to better service delivery to both internal and external clients in this industry.Business ManagementM. Com. (Business Management

Stewarding Biodiversity and Food Security in The Coral Triangle: Achievements, Challenges, and Lessons Learned

The management team of the US Agency for International Development (USAID)- supported Coral Triangle Support Partnership (CTSP) commissioned this report to take a qualitative look at the achievements, challenges, and lessons learned from investment in CTSP. CTSP is part of a broader USAID investment supporting the Coral Triangle Initiative on Coral Reefs, Fisheries, and Food Security (CTI-CFF), a six-nation effort to sustain vital marine and coastal resources in the Coral Triangle located in Southeast Asia and the Western Pacific

DISRUPTING THE PRISON-TO-PRISON PIPELINE: DOING RESTORATIVE IDENTITY WORK WITH OFFENDER-LABELED YOUTH

The purpose of this qualitative ethnographic study was to addresses how the existence of counterspaces influences the psychological well-being of offender-labeled youth transitioning back into society. A counterspace has been defined as a social setting where two or more individuals come together to challenge deficit notions. No longer is recidivism solely being placed on offender-labeled youth that reside within juvenile correctional facilities, therefore the need for innovative programs that help develop resistance narratives and promote reengagement with the educational system are needed. In this 12-week qualitative ethnographic study the two concepts of restorative practices and narrative identity work are blended together and reconceptualized to create something new Restorative Identity Work. From an ontological perspective, the educational experiences within the counterspace (Room 21) was shared utilizing a musical playlist. The playlist is used to provide a thick description of the 12-session leadership group that was designed to be a resource for offender-labeled youth to become eligible for the high school Student Council within the correctional facility. Through the use of journals, theme songs, restorative practices, and narrative identity work, offender-labeled youth gradually gained a deeper understanding of their role in social narratives. The leadership group resulted in six out of nine offender-labeled youth becoming members of the Student Council and fostered the development of resistance narratives for all nine students

Bio+Terror: Science, Security, Simulation

The United States government has spent more than $125 billion since 2001 to prepare the nation for bioterrorism. This dissertation examines the emergence of bioterrorism as a credible threat in the contemporary moment, considering how the preparedness practices of the security state constitute new biopolitical formations. To explore how changing ways of knowing disease and risk are reshaping communities, this multi-sited study investigates the material outcomes of biosecurity in people\u27s lives. It shows how complex histories of disease and terror are remade in the modern age to bring about new spaces and forms of biological citizenship.Through interview, observation and detailed historical research, this research considers three sites where bioterrorism is reshaping public life. At Montana\u27s Rocky Mountain Laboratory, the community protest of the first high-security Biosafety Level-4 facility built in the 21st century exemplifies how public fear of microbes reshapes laboratory spaces and constructs environmental geographies around new conceptions of life, risk, and disease. The creation and implementation of new biopreparedness programs at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta show how the alliance of public health practices with the nation\u27s security complex brings a new level of militarism to everyday practices of health and wellness. Finally, a case study of bioterrorism simulation exercises in New Mexico considers how the public rehearsal of terrorism events creates a perpetual state of emergency as governments and citizens publicly perform their responses to a crisis.By studying the technoscientific extensions of war in the modern age, this research questions how the care-giving acts of governance have been militarized and how enlisting the bioscience industry in the War on Terror is changing societal norms of knowing life, death, nature, and disease, grounded in these re-articulations of life itself. The emerging spaces and economies of terrorism preparedness exemplify how the fusion of new genomic biologies with national security practices brings material change to the spaces where people live and work. This research aims to convince scholars as well as policymakers and activists that the ways in which bioterrorism has been produced have consequences in how people live

Crime Prevention Through Community Policing Interventions: Evidence from Harar City, Eastern Ethiopia

In Ethiopia, community policing has been announced ofcially as a national program in 2005 E.C with the impetus to nullify crimes at lower tiers. There have been growing reports of prevailing crimes in Jenila district of Harar city. Accordingly, this study endeavors to scrutinize the practices of community policing and associated challenges in the study site. A mixed research deign was used to fetch out primary and secondary data sets. Hence, the participants’ views were captured through questionnaires, key informant interviews and focused group discussions. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics such as frequency, bar graph and percentages. The fnding of the study revealed that a greater proportions of the respondents recognized that community policing practices had contributed in preventing crimes; burglary 94 (27%) and robbery 77 (22%) as most frequently recurring and reported types of crimes in the city. While community policing structures and concerned actors operate to smoothly run the programs, there were cropping up predicaments at the grass root levels. Limited awareness among the residents, inadequate fnancial resources and professionally ill-qualifed human power were reported as major obstructions. In the face of increasing crimes, both in terms of intensity and types on the one hand, and intricate challenges to penetrate through on the other hand, the communities of residents aspire to dive deep with a sense of ownership and exploit the opportunities for intensifying the programs stated in community policing programs. Eventually, there was need to move in concerted manner to lessen the impacts of crimes in Jenila district of Harar city. 

A Genealogy of Reflective Practice

The thesis considers the phenomenon of Reflective Practice as it is deployed in Higher Education in the United Kingdom today. It draws on a Foucauldian notion of governmentality to provide the theoretical basis for understanding the proliferation of Reflective Practice as a discursive practice in Higher Education. It undertakes a genealogy of Reflective Practice with a view to examining a ‘history of the present’ and considers the ways in which the Reflective Practitioner is the touchstone for a policy framework that seeks to acculturate the student into Higher Education. It problematises the Lockean premise that subscribes to the notion that experience is the foundation of knowledge and that through reflection one can change or direct self conduct in ways that can be planned for. The genealogy explores three distinct historical periods that engage with and reinforce the notion of the self as the site of knowledge construction and meaning making in the form of; the reflective practitioner of the 21st century; the entrepreneur of the self in the late 20th century ; and the subject of the Commonwealth of Learning as conceived by John Locke, of the seventeenth century and early enlightenment. It notes the ways in which Reflective Practice recurs as a teleological dynamic that serves to facilitate a transition to a new governmental order, with recourse to the reflexive subject as the touchstone of liberal governance. The thesis presents a case study of student writing to explore the relationship between discourses of education and actual processes of education that characterise Higher Education today. The concern is, after Fairclough (2006), that if we cannot provide adequate representations for processes of education we risk providing ideological ones

Psychosocial risks experienced by international students in the security industry of New Zealand : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the Master of Business Studies (specialisation in HRM), Massey University, Auckland, New Zealand

Many international students in New Zealand are employed under non-standard work arrangements as part-time/casual security guards in the security industry. The literature on the experiences of international students indicates that they often work irregular schedules, are paid minimum wages and benefits, and tend to be exploited by employers due to their limited knowledge about employment rights. Similarly, the literature concerning work in the security industry worldwide suggests that security guards generally work under unsafe and hazardous working conditions and are provided with limited equipment and training, which tends to have negative repercussions for their psychosocial wellbeing. However, there is sparse literature at both the national and global level discussing the experiences of international students working as security guards in the security industry. Thus, the present research was designed to qualitatively explore the experiences of international students engaged in non-standard work arrangements in the security industry of New Zealand and investigate their psychosocial wellbeing. Seven international students working as casual security guards within the broader Auckland region were interviewed. Three main overarching themes were identified in the analysis. Theme 1 highlighted ‘accessibility issues’ identified as workers’ inaccessibility to adequate provisions such as Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), kitchen and toilet facilities, sufficient training, adequate income and benefits, regular working hours, and knowledge about employment rights; all of which had negative consequences for their wellbeing. Relatedly, theme 2 ‘threats to psychosocial wellbeing’ presented a picture of the vulnerability of international student security guards in the industry by illuminating their exposure to physical and psychosocial harm, such as physical abuse and racial harassment, during their work. Additional stressors due to this group’s extended engagement with both studies and part-time work were also explored. In theme 3, the ‘unprofessional practices’ of both international students and employers (subcontractors) in relation to New Zealand employment law were outlined. Here, sub-themes of exploitation and self-exploitation were further investigated. Overall these findings emphasised the need for vigorous policy initiatives focussed on improving the working standards of the security industry and wellbeing of international students working as security guards, through collaborative efforts on the part of the regulatory agencies, main- contractors and subcontractors