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    Tsunami awareness and preparedness in Aotearoa New Zealand: The evolution of community understanding
    (Elsevier Ltd, 2021-11-01) Dhellemmes A; Leonard GS; Johnston DM; Vinnell LJ; Becker JS; Fraser SA; Paton D
    After catastrophic events such as the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and the 2011 Great East Japan earthquake and tsunami there is a clear need for vulnerable countries like Aotearoa New Zealand to get prepared for tsunami. In the last ten years, the New Zealand government initiated major efforts to raise awareness of tsunami risk among coastal residents. This study explores tsunami awareness, preparedness, and evacuation intentions among residents of the East Coast of the North Island in a 2015 survey. The ten chosen locations also participated in a tsunami survey in 2003, with results demonstrating that tsunami awareness rose in the twelve years between the surveys. The 2015 survey also included questions on preparedness and intended action. Even though coastal residents know they live in a tsunami prone area, preparedness is relatively low and high expectations of a formal warning remain, even for a local source tsunami scenario. Furthermore, survey respondents had unrealistic ideas of evacuation procedures. When asked about their evacuation intentions, respondents intended to undertake a number of different actions before evacuating their homes, which could cause significant delays in the evacuation process. Most respondents were also reluctant to evacuate on foot and prefer using their vehicles instead, which could create dangerous traffic congestion. These surveyed intentions are consistent with a study of actual evacuation behaviours in the subsequent 2016 Kaikōura earthquake and tsunami, providing validation for the survey indicators. This paper identifies the procedures least understood by the public and offers some solutions to improve tsunami preparedness.
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    Peer recognition of prodromal signs of psychosis : a signal detection analysis : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree in Master of Arts in Psychology at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2005) Boyd, Robyn Joye
    Using signal detection analysis, this study investigated young peoples' sensitivity to prodromal signs or psychotic symptoms compared to more everyday signs of distress in their friends. In a questionnaire format, 117 high school students (aged 13 to 16 years) were asked to report the level of concern they would have if one of their friends exhibited certain characteristics. Half of the latter were neutral, everyday phenomena (no signal), and the remainder were either DSM-IV symptoms of psychosis or empirically-derived prodromal signs of early onset psychosis (signal). Each possible sign was modified (made more serious) by descriptors used in psychological models to define pathology behaviorally: rare in youth, high in frequency, recent change, and lack of obvious (rational) environmental cause. High frequency was the modifier leading to the greatest degree of concern. Accurate and sensitive detection, based on d' values, was adequate for psychotic symptoms, especially by females rather than by males, although depressed mood (a prodromal sign in this context) was most readily detected as a worrisome feature. The study has implications for analyzing how youth judge indices of distress in their friends and for their general ability to recognize that certain characteristics are more troublesome than others. Telling a responsible adult of their concerns was the most frequently suggested response, followed by attempting to help and talking to the peer about their concerns. If rapid detection of early onset psychosis is to be a goal of preventative mental health services, youth who are sensitive to classic symptoms of psychosis may still need educating in recognizing the difference between behavioral characteristics that are part of everyday distress and those that are indicative of more serious adjustment difficulties that might be emerging.
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    The influence of mindfulness in attention based tasks : a thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Psychology at Massey University
    (Massey University, 2008) Marshall, Alana Brandy
    Mindfulness, defined as the self-regulation of attention so that it is maintained on immediate experience, has demonstrated clinical efficacy for the treatment of a diverse range of mental and physical health concerns. This study sought firstly, to determine whether the mindfulness attention awareness scale (MAAS) developed by Brown and Ryan (2003) in America would be applicable for use with an adult sample in New Zealand. Secondly, this study investigated whether mindfulness, as measured by the MAAS, could be linked to enhanced attentional processing using attentional paradigms from cognitive psychology, including inattentional blindness (IB) and change blindness (CB) tasks. The results support the use of the MAAS with adults in New Zealand. The results also show that participants in the high mindfulness group detected the unexpected event in the IB task and reported changes in the CB task significantly more often than participants in the low mindfulness group. This finding provides support for the prediction that mindfulness and the MAAS would be associated with improvements in sustained attention and switching, in addition to facilitating the identification of objects in unexpected contexts. The results suggest the use and development of mindfulness as a tool to enhance attentional processing for a variety of psychotherapy, occupational, and sporting processes. The discussion considers these issues along with some reservations regarding the use of the MAAS, limitations of the study, and suggestions for future research.
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    Being storied; a lived experience in time : an exegesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Fine Arts at Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2009) Day, Catherine
    Being storied; a lived experience of time discusses selected aspects of the research and studio practice undertaken in the course of the year 2008. Central to the process has been attending to the mundane acts of everyday life in the rural environment in which I live. It discusses actions such as walking, listening, collecting and documenting as well as experiments with a waste material, used baling plastic that is installed in various ways into the landscape. Parallel to this are investigations with sound and text, which have drawn on my varied musical background. There is an exploration of time - the idea of durée, human experience of time, quality of attention through intense focus, and memory as it accumulates over time. Art of the everyday has also been a key area of research. Life changing events have occurred during the course of the year. The death of parents has substantially influenced the work. The practice described is multi-faceted, involving the use of text, sound, photography and film.