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This study investigated the psychological effects and coping strategies of women who were raped in the Gauteng province. The study aimed to dete1mine the effects that rape has on the victims and to determine the coping strategies that the victims employ to deal with their ordeal. Using a quantitative methodology the study was conducted among I 00 female rape victims that were sampled from selected rape crisis centres in the Gauteng province. The researcher used the Trauma Symptom CheckJ ist (TSC-40), as well as the Coping Strategies Inventory Short Form (CS I-SF) which are both standardised and validated instruments. The responses of the participants were analysed to determine which of them were more traumatised than others. To come to the conclusion of who was more traumatised than the other, a comparison of the rating of the Trauma Symptom Checklist (TSC) was done and consideration of all questions was taken. It was then dete1mined how the more traumatised and the less traumatised used the coping strategies to deal with the negative emotions due to rape. This was done by analysing the coping strategies of each participant according to how they responded on each question on the Coping Strategies Inventory (SF). Using means, standard deviations and regression analysis, the results revealed that a high number of rape victims had higher levels of trauma. This was indicated by their high scores on the dissociation, anxiety, depression, sexual abuse trauma index, sleep disturbance and sexual problems subscales of the TSC. Higher percentages of those, rarely engaged in problem focused coping and resorted to emotion focused coping instead. Those who had less trauma were found to be engaging more in problem focused coping. The victims that had less trauma were found to be communicating effectively with other people and were engaging in positive thinking. Those who had high levels of trauma were found to be not interacting effectively with people in their immediate environment which may have influenced their emotion focused coping strategies. The results also revealed that emotional reactions and coping strategies are not affected by age and marital status of rape victims. / Thesis (M. Soc Sci (Clinical Psychology) North-West University, Mafikeng Campus, 2012

Thesis (M.Soc.Sc (Clinical Psychology) North-West University, Mafikeng Campus, 2014

Divorce in the United States is so widespread that it touches the lives of every citizen in some way. Divorcing adults face a multiplicity of problems including emotional, physical, and economic factors. The literature overwhelmingly suggests evidence of stress associated with this transition process. This study surveyed the feelings and opinions of 84 recently separated or divorced adults, 23 men and 61 women, in Pima County, Arizona, through a questionnaire designed to identify current life stressors, sources of support, and the quality of that support. The two stressors that were identified most often for both men and women were loneliness and anger. The source of support listed most often for both sexes was friends. There was strong evidence to support the hypothesis that it is a universal response for people faced with stress and trauma to turn to others for help and nurturance. It would appear that support networks do help to ameliorate some of the stress and pain, and that individuals have a multisource network.

This thesis illuminates the phenomenon of the emergent needs post-grief experienced by Adventitiously Visually Impaired (AVI) adults following loss of sight. The research focuses on specific experiential areas related to the phenomenon; the perspectives the AVI adults have of their loss of sight; their experience of grief as a resolvable or chronic process; the emergent psychological, emotional and practical needs they experience; and the support from society, families and rehabilitation in meeting their needs. The influence of the length of time of the impairment on these experiences is also considered. The literature survey indicates that most research on Adventitious Visual Impairment (VI) concentrates on the period before and immediately after rehabilitation, and emphasises practical, technological and technical needs and issues. This focus is limited in acquiring insight and understanding about the psychological and emotional reactions and needs of AVI adults throughout the time course of their impairments. This study applies an adapted phenomenological research strategy using 10 case studies of adults, AVI within and beyond 6 years, to understand the researched phenomenon. Essential insight gained from the study is that loss of sight is an unique experience which is inextricably linked to the degree of vision loss, that many unique but also common psychological, emotional and practical needs are experienced, and that length of time of the VI has a profound impact on these needs and the experience of the grief process. This research challenges the traditional resolvable grief theory and emphasises a chronic, recurrent and episodic grief process. These contrasting processes impact on experienced needs. The research challenges the linear and invariant notion of Maslow's (1987) Need Hierarchy, and emphasises both ascent and descent and simultaneous experiences of unsatisfied needs on different levels of the hierarchy. The research highlights the need for society to know and understand the complex real world of Adventitious VI with all its diverse implications, limitations and needs. As always, there are more questions than answers, but this research provides further insight into the complex real world of Adventitious VI. / Psychology / D. Litt. et Phil. (Psychology)

Studies in the perceptual identification of emotional states suggested that listeners seemed to depend on a limited set of vocal cues to distinguish among emotions. Linguistics and speech science literatures have indicated that this small set of cues included intensity, fundamental frequency, and temporal properties such as speech rate and duration. Little research has been done, however, to validate these cues in the production of emotional speech, or to determine if specific dimensions of each cue are associated with the production of a particular emotion for a variety of speakers. This study addressed deficiencies in understanding of the acoustical properties of duration and intensity as components of emotional speech by means of speech science instrumentation. Acoustic data were conveyed in a brief sentence spoken by twelve English speaking adult male and female subjects, half with dramatic training, and half without such training. Simulated expressions included: happiness, surprise, sadness, fear, anger, and disgust. The study demonstrated that the acoustic property of mean intensity served as an important cue for a vocal taxonomy. Overall duration was rejected as an element for a general taxonomy due to interactions involving gender and role. Findings suggested a gender-related taxonomy, however, based on differences in the ways in which men and women use the duration cue in their emotional expressions. Results also indicated that speaker training may influence greater use of the duration cue in expressions of emotion, particularly for male actors. Discussion of these results provided linkages to (1) practical management of emotional interactions in clinical and interpersonal environments, (2) implications for differences in the ways in which males and females may be socialized to express emotions, and (3) guidelines for future perceptual studies of emotional sensitivity.

Thesis (MA)--University of Stellenbosch, 2011. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Parental bereavement has generated interest internationally, and yet very few bereavement studies have been conducted within South Africa, even though the prevalence of South African adolescents experiencing parental bereavement is on the increase. The attachment theory explains why the loss of a parental figure during adolescence could have a long lasting negative influence on adolescents’ psychological development. The present study aimed to explore the psychological experience of bereavement for 66 adolescents who recently lost either a parent or a significant caregiver who played a parental role for the bereaved adolescent. By means of a cross-sectional quantitative design the following variables were examined: depression (using the Beck Depression Inventory–Second Edition; BDI-II), anxiety (using the Beck Anxiety Inventory; BAI), coping (using the Coping Strategy Indicator; CSI), attachment (using the Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment; IPPA) and social support (using the Social Support Appraisal; SSA). The results showed that the strongest significant positive correlations were between depression and anxiety, followed by positive correlations between attachment to the remaining mother figure and problem-solving coping. Furthermore, the results showed that the strongest significant negative correlations were between: depression and problem-solving coping, followed by the correlation between attachment to the remaining mother figure and peers and depression. Support from significant attachment figures in the bereaved adolescent's life was found to promote healthy adjustment to the significant loss by lowering depression and strengthening perceived social support for the bereaved adolescent. For the South African population, peer run support group interventions, based in schools or community youth groups, have been identified as best suited to promote resilience for adolescents during the bereavement process. The interventions would bring together bereaved adolescents, creating a support group for the adolescent to draw on during their bereavement. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: In teenstelling met die internasionale gemeenskap geniet studies rakende ouerlike verlies in Suid- Afrika relatief min belangstelling en alhoewel gevalle van adolessente wat ouerlike verlies ondervind in Suid-Afrika vermeerder, word daar baie min sulke studies plaaslik onderneem. Die teorie van gehegtheid verklaar hoekom die verlies van ‘n ouer-figuur gedurende adolessensie langtermyn psigologiese newe-effekte kan meebring. Hierdie studie beoog om die psigologiese ondervindinge van 66 adolessente , wat onlangs ‘n ouer of voog moes afstaan, te bestudeer. Deur gebruik te maak van ‘n kwantitatiewe kruispeiling is die volgende veranderlikes bestudeer: depressie (deur gebruik te maak van die “Beck Depression Inventory-Second Edition; BDI-II”), angs (deur gebruik te maak van die “Beck Anxiety Inventory; BAI”), aangewassenheid (deur gebruik te maak van die “Coping Strategy Indicator; CSI”), gehegtheid (deur gebruik te maak van die “Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment; IPPA”) en sosiale ondersteuning (deur gebruik te maak van die “Social Support Appraisal; SSA”). Die resultate toon dat die sterkste betekenisvolle positiewe korrelasies tussen angs en depressie bestaan, gevolg deur positiewe korrelasies tussen gehegtheid tot ‘n oorblywende moeder-figuur en aangewassenheid. Verder toon die resultate dat die sterkste betekenisvolle negatiewe korrelasies tussen depressie en probleem-oplossings opgewassenheid gevind kan word, gevolg deur gehegtheid aan ‘n oorblywende moeder-figuur en tydgenote en depressie. Ondersteuning van figure waarteen die adolessent aangeheg voel bewys om gesonde aanpassing tot die verlies te bewerkstellig deur die aanslag van depressie te bestry en begrip van sosiale ondersteuning te bevorder. In die Suid-Afrikaanse omgewing is gevind dat ingrypende ondersteuningsgroepe, wat bestuur word deur tydgenote van die adolessent, gebaseer in skole of gemeenskap jeug groepe, die beste vaar daarin om adolessente opgewasse te maak teen die verlies van ‘n ouer of voog gedurende die treur proses. Hierdie ingrypende ondersteuning groepeer treurende adolessente saam en bevorder so die vorming van ondersteuningsgroepe waar treurende adolessente mekaar kan bemoedig.

published_or_final_version / Clinical Psychology / Master / Master of Social Sciences

The research literature reveals a widespread reluctance on the part of therapists to work with older people therapeutically as it is believed to be an unrewarding experience and of little benefit for this cohort. This is in contrast to empirical research which shows that therapeutic interventions can be effective and beneficial for older people. There is little literature that looks at the lived experience of therapists who work with older people and none from a counselling psychology perspective. It is therefore hoped that gaining a phenomenological understanding of the experience will provide insight and understanding into the lived experience of therapists who work with older adults. The research question was: 'What is the experience of working therapeutically with the older client?' A qualitative methodology, Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) (Smith and Osborn, 2003) was employed for both the conduct and the analysis of the research. Purposive sampling enabled the selection of seven participants for whom the research question was relevant. Semi-structured interview were carried out with three counselling psychologists and four therapists. The age range of the participants was 31-68 years; there were two males and five females. Three master themes emerged: (1) in respect of age - doing therapy differently; (2) the impact of the older client on the therapist; and (3) the reluctant therapist. A description of the master themes, and related constituent themes, is presented and discussed. Although these findings are consonant with the relevant research literature, the research is unique in capturing not only the therapist's lived experience but that of the counselling psychologist as well. It is therefore an important and significant contribution to the field of therapeutic work with older people and a vital addition to the counselling psychology literature. The results of the analysis and implications for counselling psychology are discussed.

Two studies were conducted to examine if and how failure can lead to subsequent psychological flourishing. Both studies used the context of individuals’ biggest job-related failure or most significant challenge to test a proposed model of adaptive response to failure. Specifically, it was proposed that, at a cognitive/emotional level, an adaptive response to failure is characterized by acceptance of negative emotions and self-acceptance. Further, it was proposed that at a behavioral level, an adaptive response to failure involves goal disengagement coupled with goal reengagement, including reengaging with new goals that are intrinsically meaningful. These complementary studies both examined the relationship between individuals’ response to failure and psychological flourishing. Studies were conducted with different participant samples and used complementary designs to provide converging evidence for the proposed model. Using a random sampling process to recruit participants, Study 1 (N = 50) consisted of semi-structured interviews with individuals from the Austin community. Study 2 (N = 101) was an online study and consisted of a series of questionnaires and a writing task. Analyses were conducted on interviews, questionnaires, and writings to examine the relationships between response to failure, including acceptance of negative emotions, self-acceptance, goal disengagement, and goal reengagement, and psychological flourishing. Overall, findings underscored the significance of acceptance and goal reengagement in predicting psychological flourishing after failure. Goal reengagement, in particular, consistently predicted subsequent flourishing. Results also indicated that in response to failure, both persistence toward meeting established goals and moving beyond established goals can lead to subsequent flourishing. These findings imply that flexibility, rather than adherence to a singular response, may be adaptive in responding at a behavioral level to failure. Furthermore, results showed that failures characterized by higher emotional distress can lead to greater subsequent psychological flourishing than failures characterized by low levels of emotional distress. Overall, both studies demonstrate that failure, when responded to in an adaptive way, can lead to a broad range of positive psychological outcomes. / text