The previous study on the experiences of widowhood and beliefs about the mourning process of the Batswana people found that widows were stigmatised due to cultural beliefs that made coping a difficult process for the widow. The literature revealed that widowhood following the death of a partner from AIDS is a difficult process due to HIV and AIDS being highly stigmatized. Stigma is an attribute that is deeply discrediting and devaluating to an individual social identity. It also reduces the person from her usual status to one with a tainted image due to the belief that having contracted HIV and AIDS is a choice and that an individual is responsible for her immoral behaviour. This negative attitude that amounts to prejudice contributes to the women's feelings of unworthiness. It was also found that the stigma against people living with HIV and AIDS is not only directed at them, but also to those having close relationships with them namely, their spouses, children, relatives, as well as health workers, which is known as secondary or associated stigma. The stigma was found to be attributed to discrimination based on gender, age, sexual orientation and race, hence women living with HIV and AIDS were found to be more stigmatised than men. Women whose partners died of AIDS were thus perceived by the community as having infected their partners, therefore, they were blamed, isolated and excluded from community activities. Coping with the loss of a partner was found to be a difficult process for the widow, aggravated by the death from AIDS. Some women coped by denying their late partner's status, while others kept it secret to avoid stigmatization. Some women, however, coped by challenging perpetrators of stigma about their attitude. This study was motivated by the challenge perceived by the researcher concerning women who lost their partners to AIDS who had to be assisted with coping with stigma associated with them having had a partner who was infected and died from AIDS. The objectives of this study were to explore and describe the experiences of coping with stigma by women whose partners died of AIDS, as well as to develop, implement and evaluate a programme to assist women whose partners died of aids to cope with the stigma associated with their partner having had a relationship with an infected partner who died of AIDS. The literature was studied in order to contextualize both stigma and coping. A qualitative phenomenological design was followed in phase one of the study as well as a case study in phase two. A purposive sample was used in phase one as well as in phase two. Data were collected by means of single open ended questions. In-depth interviews were recorded on audio tape and transcribed verbatim. Personal, observational as well as methodological field notes were written after each interview. Data analysis was conducted according to the content analysis technique of Tesch. The co-coder and the researcher analysed the data independently, after which a consensus meeting was held to finalise data. Ethical principles were applied according to Burns and Grove, as well as the Democratic Nurses Organisation of South Africa and the Department of Health. Trustworthiness of the study was ensured through the model of Lincoln and Guba. The criteria of creditability, transferability, dependability, as well as confirmability were ensured. The findings of phase one of the study as well as the literature study of stigma intervention programmes assisted in the formulation of a programme. An eight sessions programme for coping with stigma for women whose partners died of AIDS was developed, implemented and evaluated. Phase two of the study consisted of a holistic multiple case design for presenting the developed programme. Data were collected by means of multiple sources of evidence. Data were analysed by means of a case record. Conclusions indicated that the programme for coping with stigma for women whose partners died of AIDS had a positive impact on the expansion of their coping skills. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Community Psychiatric Nursing))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2008.

ADHD, attention deficit hyperactive disorder was first described as such in the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, the DSM in 1987. Since then the disorder has had great interest from research but also from society. The amount of ADHD diagnoses has increased every year since the disorder has been established by the American Psychiatric Association and is in recent years the most established mental illness among children and adults. The goal of this paper is to explore how people diagnosed with ADHD subjectively define and experience the abstract object of ADHD. Previous research focuses on mapping the problems and impairments resulting from this “illness”, to gain more insight into the differences between people diagnosed with ADHD, and people who do not possess the described symptoms, often focused on the problems people experience. Social constructionists look upon ADHD as socially constructed; a socially valued dysfunction, a deviant pattern of behaviour was once observed and categorised into what we now call symptoms. The word symptom demonstrates indication or evidence, and the abstract object takes on disease like properties. The object becomes reified, which means as much as become real. The result is that ADHD is seen as the cause of problems, instead of a group of problems that was once labelled ADHD. The informants used for this research seem to have problems with controlling their impulses, which besides negatively influencing executive functioning, causes problems with social interaction. The informants often express feeling misunderstood by their environment, they feel different. They feel discriminated against by the structures of school, work and society as a whole which, they feel, impairs their abilities and missuses their talents. They express to feel at ease when they are fully occupied with something interesting and seem to call for understanding for their inabilities and space to develop their talents.

Researchers have noted that the level of contact respondents have with people who have a mental illness and how they attribute responsibility for these conditions contribute to their desire for social distance. Given that the literature suggests that increased contact is associated with reduced social distance and that social distance is highest when individuals are considered personally responsible for their situation, this thesis examines how much of the variation in the desire for social distance is accounted for by both the levels of contact and the attribution of personal responsibility. Ordinary least squares regression was used to analyze the 2007 Alberta Survey (N=1073). Results show that knowing someone, besides oneself, who has received treatment for a mental illness and attributing responsibility for a mental illness onto the individual explain some of the variation in the desire for social distance. The methodological limitations and suggestions for future research are also discussed.

The overall objective of our research is to understand  how social workers in social services protect the individual's autonomy, integrity and a coercive law which deprives the individual of his rights. In this study, we bring out social secretaries perspective on how they see the compulsory treatment and the problems that can arise in a detention. This study is based on the questions; How are power between social worker and client? What is the social secretary of the law on compulsory as a tool to help clients? We interviewed eight social workers who work specifically with compulsory treatment. We used the result to answer our questions. As a theoretical background, we chose to use the power perspective, the concepts of flexibility and freedom of action and categorizations. The results that emerged from our study are that compulsory treatment is considered to be a positive and negative thing. Social workers believe that the positive of compulsory treatment is that it is a tool to save lives but the downside is that it is forced to use violence.

Thesis (M A (Research Psychology))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references. Available on the Internet via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of North Texas, May, 2008. / Title from title page display. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Psy.D.)--University of Hartford, 2008. / Adviser: Otto Wahl. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Honors)--College of William and Mary, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 28-30). Also available via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, 2009. / Title from screen (viewed on November 4, 2009). School of Nursing, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). Advisor(s): Sharon Sims, Carrie Foote, Joan Austin, Melinda Swenson. Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 104-110).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2009. / Title from title screen (site viewed September 08, 2009). PDF text:: ca. 190 p. UMI publication number: AAT 3355220 . Includes bibliographical references. Also available in microfilm and microfiche formats.