http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/217 2013-05-21T22:46:25Z 2013-05-21T22:46:25Z Shaw, Mildred LG http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/7408 2013-04-29T11:47:45Z 1978-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: On becoming a personal scientist: Interactive computer programs for developing personal models of the world Authors: Shaw, Mildred LG Abstract: This thesis describes an endeavour to produce a technology for the philosophy of personal construct theory. In 1955 Kelly published his major work in which he describes his theory in terms of a fundamental postulate together with eleven corollaries; and attempts to understand man as a personal scientist who forms theories about his world, testing these against his personal experience, reviewing and revising his theories, anticipating on the basis of them, and acting on the basis of his anticipation. A set of tools has• been produced in the form of computer interactions to help man in becoming a personal scientist. Using the basic concept of the Kellian repertory grid these programs interact with the participant's conscious modelling of his cognitive and affective processes, suggesting analogies and isomorphisms in such a way as to give the participant a novel real-time insight into his processes and, where relevant, how they relate to those of other people. The repertory grid is a matrix of events against abstractions. This is constructed by the individual in the dimensions of his significant referents or schemata, by applying personally meaningful constructions to his personal observations. This system of constructs is elicited and monitored by the computer using a conversational paradigm in such a way as to provide immediate feedback to the participant on cross-references within the system as it is elicited from the individual at the terminal. The computer offers the facility of interactive and participative methods of analysis of such data, which extract and display the essence of the subjectively and personally meaningful relationships in a single grid, a pair of grids, or a group of grids; where the pair or group may be within one person or between people. In this way each person is offered a view of himself and his relationships in a non-directive and supportive environment as he is developing personal models of the world. Description: This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.

1978-01-01T00:00:00Z Zuccarini, Carlo http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/7394 2013-05-21T13:05:25Z 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Enjoying the operatic voice: A neuropsychoanalytic exploration of the operatic reception experience Authors: Zuccarini, Carlo Abstract: There has been a long-standing and mutually-informing association between psychoanalysis, literature and the arts. Surprisingly, given the oral/aural basis of the ‘talking cure’, music has largely been overlooked by psychoanalysis. On the other hand, neuroscientific research investigating music reception and production has been increasing steadily in range and scope over the years. However, in order to avoid confounding factors, empirical studies have focused primarily on non-vocal music. Operatic vocal music has not featured prominently in either field. Yet the multidimensional, multi-layered nature of opera, which fuses together a number of different arts, would appear to provide fertile soil for both disciplines. This thesis aims to fill that gap, providing a stepping stone for further research. The individual strengths of psychoanalysis and neuroscience are leveraged separately at first, according to a ‘complementarist’ approach, and then jointly as the inter-discipline of neuropsychoanalysis. By combining various theories of mind with current knowledge about music processing in the brain, a more comprehensive understanding of the reception experience can be achieved. As a result, a neuropsychoanalytic theory can be formulated to account for the operatic reception experience in subjective as well as objective terms. According to this theoretical formulation, the bittersweet enjoyment of operatic vocal music, which can literally move an operaphile to tears, lies in a numberof subjective dynamics that are unique to the reception of opera, rather than in any distinct objective neural processes, which are common to the reception of all music. These subjective dynamics, which are recruited during neural processing, are triggered by the equally unique features of the operatic voice, in combination with a number of auxiliary elements that are specific to opera. Description: This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.

2012-01-01T00:00:00Z Winkler Reid, Sarah http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/7393 2013-05-21T13:05:19Z 2013-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Valuing the informal realm: Peer relations and the negotiation of difference in a North London comprehensive school Authors: Winkler Reid, Sarah Abstract: This thesis is an ethnographic study of the informal realm in a North London comprehensive school. Although situated within, and formed by, an institutional context, this network of peer relations is largely unmanaged by adults. Pupils are in charge. They exert influence, manifest social definitions, create their own hierarchies and negotiate their differences. My focus of study is a cohort of 15 to 16 year-olds in Year 11. They come from a diversity of backgrounds, in terms of religion, parental occupation, academic attainments and ethnicity. Through close attention to the pupils’ words and actions in the day-to-day workings of the informal realm in this school, I explore the constitution and consequences of this impressive phenomenon. Anthropological studies of the informal realm are few and far between, and ones in British schools even rarer. Yet, the informal realm offers valuable contributions to three areas in anthropology: the emerging anthropology of youth; the little-studied everyday realities of Western personhood; and an application of Munn’s theory of value production (1986). Munn’s model has not yet been applied to the informal realm. However I argue her theory of value production serves to illuminate the entire realm. It is intrinsically relational and involves subjective transformation. Centrally, action is the primary unit of analysis, as it is for my analysis. There are no structures or formal roles in the informal realm, so pupils must continuously maintain their arena with a constant flow of transactions. I argue that in the process of creating and maintaining this realm, pupils come to value themselves as particular kinds of people (Evans 2006). Different groups engage in different modes of value production. Through these actions, their subsequent evaluations, and the daily debate over what constitutes positive and negative value, pupils collaboratively establish a constellation of differences. They organise their world, enabling them to share the same social space yet define themselves as very different kinds of people. In this constellation of differences, ethnicity, gender and sexuality are particularly salient categories of distinction, subject to pupils’ collaboratively set conventions. In order to ‘fit in’ pupils have to conform to these conventions. Thus this ethnography delineates what is involved in becoming an appropriately ethnic, sexual and gendered person in school. The application of an intrinsically relational model of subjective formation challenging Western ideals of the autonomous individual. These processes of differentiation occur at the same time as processes of unification. Throughout their time as a community, Year 11 pupils are producing communal value through which they can define themselves worthwhile as a group. They end their time of compulsory schooling with a celebration of this communal value. Description: This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.

2013-01-01T00:00:00Z Lowrey, Craig http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/7390 2013-04-26T14:42:12Z 1999-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Electricity pricing and regulation Authors: Lowrey, Craig Abstract: This work aims to assess the development of competition in the electricity industry of England and Wales, emphasising one of the key elements of the restructured industry, the pool - a centralised day ahead electricity spot market. The pool's structure is examined, along with the relationship that the pool has with the market for electricity forward contracts. However, the key to this work is the relationship between the major electricity generators and the industry's regulator. This is introduced through two theoretical models, and undertaken through a series of econometric models using pool prices, forward prices, electricity demand, and the sharep rices of the major generators: National Power and Powergen. The work tests the hypotheses put forward by Green( 1992) and Helm & Powell (1992) of an inverse relationship between the volume of output that a generator sells forward through contracts and the general level of pool prices. The break-up of the first and second sets of forward contracts - which expired in 1991 and 1993 - and their impact on pool prices are assessed By using the market model, this work examines the impact of a series of both regulatory and nonregulatory events on the share returns of National Power and Powergen. Given the existence of spot and forward markets for electricity, one would expect a relationship between the prices in these markets The relationship is examined for England and Wales by a synthetic data set that approximates the prices at which the contracts were sold. The relationship is then examined using actual and forecast electricity prices for California, this latter analysis forming part of an overview of electricity deregulation in America. Ultimately, this research hopes to add to the growing amount of material on energy privatisation - a topic that continues to promote interest and controversy in academic and industrial circles. Description: This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.

1999-01-01T00:00:00Z