The purpose of this research was to investigate and describe the experience of lesbian parents and their adolescents regarding the adolescents’ development of a sense of self in the lesbian home, in order to compile guidelines that can provide help to these parents. The subject was investigated from both a pastoral base theory (normative perspective) and a Gestalt theoretical perspective (paradigmatic perspective). A qualitative approach was followed for the purpose of this study, with semi-structured interviewing with the adolescents and their parents respectively. Adolescents were also requested to make collages that served as an additional data gathering method. The sample group consisted of five adolescent boys and four adolescent girls, some of who were siblings, from six lesbian families respectively. Seven of the twelve parents were biological mothers from previous heterosexual marriages, and the remaining five women had no children of their own. From the literature review and the empirical results of this study, it appears that there are certain positive as well as negative aspects of a lesbian home that influence an adolescents sense of self. In lesbian homes where both parents are involved with the adolescents, share household duties equally and have a quality relationship with each other as well as with the adolescents, the adolescents are generally well-adapted, happy and able to handle challenges in order to develop a healthy sense of self. The positive influence that Christian religious certainty has on the overall development of the adolescents and on the sense of self, was confirmed through this study. On the other hand, adolescents experience the following aspects as challenging and impeding in their development of a healthy sense of self: Conflict and criticism from the companion parents are humiliating and destructive for the adolescents. Stigmatising, teasing and rejection from the hetero-normative society, as a result of their parents’ sexual orientation, appear to be the largest obstacle in their psychosocial development, which also influences their sense of self directly, because they react in a shy, negative and evasive way to the stigmatisation and withdraw themselves from situations that can be painful and humiliating. From the research findings, it appears that the absence of a father figure and financial tension in lesbian families are impeding to the adolescents’ healthy development of a sense of self. Due to the complexity of the aspects that can have a negative influence or impede on an adolescent’s healthy development of a sense of self within the lesbian parent relationship, the researcher realised that professional help, support and guidance might be necessary for some of the lesbian parents and adolescents in order to promote the adolescents’ development of a sense of self and the establishment of a unique identity. At the end of this study, the researcher was able to compile guidelines for lesbian parents as well as pastoral counsellors to help and guide them in their support to adolescents in order to enable them develop a healthy sense of self. / PhD (Pastoral Studies), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

Geen opsomming beskikbaar nie / No summary available / Industrial & Organisational Psychology / M. Com. (Industrial and Organisational Psychology)

Thesis analyses the reception of Augustine of Hippo's (354-430) ontological discourse on the soul in late antiquity and the early middle ages, more specifically in the sixth and the ninth centuries. Since Augustine never wrote a 'De anima', nor always presented his readers with definite answers to questions, there was room for later authors to interpret and improvise. This thesis focuses on 4 texts: Cassiodorus Senator's 'De anima', Eugippius of Lucculanum's massive florilegium the 'Excerpta ex operibus Sancti Augustini', both from the sixth century, Gottschalk of Orbais' letter 'Quaestiones de anima', and John Scottus Eriugena's apologetic 'De divina praedestinatione liber', both from the ninth century. This thesis establishes that, apart from Cassiodorus, the author's main interest in Augustine's ideas on the ontology of the soul rests on the way it impinges on their contemporary predestination debates. Cassiodorus consciously wanted to produce a Christian De anima in a classical vein. Especially the question of the origin of the soul takes the interest of Eugippius and Gottschalk. This is an important question for predestination debates, since it is supposed to explain technically how original sin came to be universal. Augustine never found a satisfactory answer to this thorny question. Eriugena's genius lies in building an original ontology of the soul on Augustine's own foundations which sidesteps this problem of the origin of the soul entirely.

Studien har gjorts på en avdelning på en förskola som till stor del består av asylsökande barn. Studien syftar till att undersöka hur barn med ett begränsat gemensamt verbalt språk leker utifrån ett barnperspektiv. För att komma närmare ett barnperspektiv har metoden varit videoetnografisk metod i kombination med fältanteckningar och informella samtal med pedagogerna på avdelningen. Studien utgår från en fenomenologisk ansats som intresserar sig för kroppens meningsskapande. Resultaten visade att barnen hade ett stort engagerande intresse för att ha roligt med varandra. Deras lekar, förhandlingar och samtal hade som mål att få vara tillsammans och ha roligt. Kroppsspråket och den totala närvaron har visat sig vara viktig för deras icke verbala kommunikation. De är således skickliga på att signalera lek till varandra och på att improvisera via signalerna och sin fysiska närvaro. Konflikter är ofta förekommande och ibland svåra att hantera och kan bli frustrerande för barnen men viljan att ha en rolig stund tillsammans hjälper dem igenom svårigheterna. Lekens egenvärde har visats ha stor betydelse för barnen men inte som pedagogiskt verktyg utan som ett sätt att umgås med varandra och ha roligt tillsammans.

Le premier verset de la Genèse raconte qu’au commencement, Dieu créa le ciel et la terre. Le monde, sa forme et sa matière, de même que le temps, soutient Augustin, surgissent alors dans l’être, à partir de rien, en un seul instant, celui de la Création. Censés couronner l’œuvre créatrice, l’homme et la femme, pourtant, ne tardent pas à rompre le lien de confiance qui les unit à leur Créateur, en faisant mauvais usage d’une chose bonne : leur liberté. À cause de sa première transgression, nous dit Augustin, l’humanité portera désormais la marque du péché, que seule la figure rédemptrice du Christ, le Second Adam, pourra effacer, grâce au pardon donné à tous ceux qui choisissent d’emprunter sa voie. Or, en raison de son désir irrépressible de connaître et de faire l’expérience du monde par le biais de son propre être donné, soumis au changement, l’homme semble perpétuellement tenté par la transgression des limites essentielles de sa relativité à Dieu. Pourtant, Dieu, l’unique créateur de l’être des choses créées, crée toute chose bonne, du moins dans une certaine mesure : le mal dont semblent caractérisés l’être même et les actions des hommes, correspond, en vérité, aux multiples degrés de bien qui résultent d’une privation plus ou moins grande du Bien suprême qu’est Dieu. Berbère de culture romaine, témoin et acteur des derniers jours de l’Antiquité, penseur bouillonnant et théologien essentiel, Augustin laissera une œuvre importante et féconde. Nous tenterons ici de comprendre le contexte d’émergence de sa doctrine du péché originel. / The first verse of Genesis says that in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The world, its form and matter, and time, argues Augustin, arose in Being out of nothing, in one single instant, that of the Creation. Conceived as the coronation of Creation, man, however, quickly breaks the trust relationship with his Creator, and does this by making evil use of a good thing: his free will. Because of its first transgression, says Augustine, humanity will, from now on, bear the mark of sin, which only the redemptive figure of Christ, the Second Adam, can erase, for all of those willing to follow his path. Yet, because of his irrepressible desire to acquire knowledge and experience of the world through his own given being, subject to change, man appears to be perpetually tempted by the transgression of his essential relativity to God. God, however, being the sole creator of the very being of created things, creates all things good, but to a certain degree: evil, which seems to characterize the being and actions of men, in reality, corresponds to varying degrees of goodness, which themselves result from more or less privation of the Supreme Good, namely, God. Berber of roman culture, witness and actor of the last days of Antiquity, passionate thinker and essential theologian, Augustine has produced some of humanity’s most important writings. In this work, we will attempt to understand the context which led to the emergence of his doctrine of original sin.

Le Contra Iulianum, écrit entre 421 et 422, appartient à la seconde phase de la controverse pélagienne, qui opposa Augustin à Julien, évêque d’Eclane. Cette thèse comporte trois parties. Tout d’abord, dans une introduction à l’ensemble du Contra Iulianum, sont étudiés les différents aspects de l’œuvre, dont ses enjeux théologiques (le péché originel et le mariage), son genre littéraire, les modes d’argumentation, l’hérésiologie augustinienne, la postérité du traité et sa tradition manuscrite. Puis est proposée une édition critique du livre III, qui vient corriger la dernière édition en date (établie par les Mauristes au XVIIème siècle), ainsi qu’une traduction française annotée (la première depuis le XIXème siècle). Enfin, dans une dernière partie, le commentaire du livre III vise à expliciter les passages les plus difficiles et à montrer les divers intérêts, philologiques, historiques, littéraires ou philosophiques, du texte. / The Contra Iulianum, written between 421 and 422, belongs to the second phase of the pelagian controversy, which opposed Augustine and Julian, bishop of Aeclanum. This thesis is divided into three parts. First of all, in a general introduction to the whole Contra Iulianum, we study the main interests of this text : its theological stakes (the original sin and the marriage), his literary genre, the ways of argumentation, the augustinian heresiology, the posterity of the text and its manuscript tradition. Then, we give a new critical edition of the book III, which emends the Maurists’one (XVIIth), with a french translation with notes. In the last part, the commentary of the book III, we explain the most difficult passages and study the text’s different interests (philological, historical, literary or philosophical).

Ce mémoire propose une analyse de la théorie de la volonté en relation avec le mal dans la pensée de Thomas d’Aquin. Le mal est une privation d’être et l’être est identique au bien. La volonté est une forme intellectuelle d’appétit, ainsi que la gouvernante des puissances inférieures, mais aussi de la raison qui est à la fois son principe. L’appétit est un mouvement vers ce qui est le bien d’une nature, il est donc difficile d’accepter que la volonté puisse élire son contraire qui est le mal. La thèse de Platon selon laquelle le mal n’est désiré que par ignorance est écartée, puisque le propos de Thomas est d’expliquer le consentement en faveur du mal connu. Or, si le mal peut être voulu, on ne peut le vouloir sans le référer au bien. Ainsi, le libre arbitre, bien qu’ayant Dieu pour principe, est le principe du premier mauvais choix. La compréhension de la problématique passe par la division de ce qui appartient à l’extérieur de la volonté et ensuite à l’intérieur. De soi, un acte extérieur peut être immoral, comme le vol, mais la volonté d’une intention bonne qui choisit cet acte devient mauvaise, bien qu’elle garde le mérite de sa bonne intention. Son choix mauvais est parfois dû à une certaine ignorance, mais, puisque nous n’ignorons pas toujours le mal, il faut attribuer une faiblesse à la volonté, car elle n’accomplit pas pleinement sa nature. Quand elle répète ses actes de faiblesse à l’égard du mal, elle se dispose à accueillir l’habitus de la malice, et alors elle cherche d’elle-même le mal. Aucun de ces principes, cependant, ne peut s’appliquer à l’homme originel ni au diable. Ceux-ci n’auront pour principe de leurs choix que l’orgueil dans le libre exercice de la volonté. / This paper proposes to analyse the theory of will in interaction with evil in Thomas Aquinas’s thought. Evil is a privation of being, and being is identical to good. The will is an intellectual form of appetite, as well as the governor of lower faculties and of reason, which is also its principle. Appetite is a movement towards the good of a nature; it is therefore difficult to accept that will could elect its opposite, which is evil. Plato’s thesis consisting of attributing the will towards bad to ignorance is discarded, because Thomas’s explanation concerns the consent towards evil witch is known. Now, if evil can be wanted, we cannot want it without referring it to good. In that way, free will, though having God for principle, is the principle of the first bad choice. The comprehension of the problem has to go through the division of that which belongs to the will’s exterior and to it’s interior. In itself, an exterior act can be immoral, like stealing, but the good intentioned will that choses this act then becomes evil, keeping nonetheless the merit of its good intention. The bad choice is sometimes attributable to ignorance, but since we do not always ignore evil, we have to accuse a certain weakness in the will for not being able to fulfill its nature. When it repeatedly acts weakly towards evil, it makes itself available for the mischievous habitus, and it then, on its own, searches the evil act. None of these principles, though, can apply to the original man or for the devil. They will not have any other principle for their choice than that of pride in the free exercise of their will.

The unique properties, such as large direct bandgap, excellent thermal stability, high μH × ns, of III-nitrides make them ideal candidates for both optoelectronic and high-speed electronic devices. In the past decades, great success has been achieved in commercialization of GaN based light emitting diodes (LEDs) and laser diodes (LDs). However, due to the lack of native substrates, thin films grown on sapphire or SiC substrates have high defect densities that degrade the device performance and reliability. Conventional epitaxy lateral overgrowth (ELO) can reduce dislocation densities down to ∼10-6 cm-2 in the lateral growth area, but requires ex situ photolithography steps. Hence, an in situ method using a SiNx interlayer (nano-scale ELOG) has emerged as a promising technique. The GaN templates prepared by this method exhibit a very low dislocation density (low-10-7 cm-2) and excellent optical and electrical properties. As a cost, such high quality GaN templates containing SiN, nanonetworks are not suitable for heterojunction field effect transistor (HFET) applications due to degenerate GaN:Si layer which serves as parallel conduction channel. This dissertation discusses the growth of low dislocation density GaN templates, by using the in situ SiNx nanonetwork for conductive templates, and the AIN buffer for semi-insulating templates. On SiN x nanonetwork templates, double-barrier RTD and superlattice (SL) exhibited negative differential resistances. Moreover, the injection current of Blue LEDs (450 nm) was improved ∼30%. On semi-insulating GaN templates, nearly lattice matched AlInN/AIN/GaN HFETs were successfully demonstrated and exhibited ∼ 1600 cm2/Vs and 17 600 cm2/Vs Hall mobilities at 300 K and 10 K, respectively. Those mobility values are much higher than literature reports and indicate that high quality HFETs can be realized in lattice matched AlInN/AIN/GaN, thereby solving the strain related issue. The attempt to use InGaN as the 2DEG channel has also been successfully implemented. A Hall mobility (1230 cm2/Vs) was achieved in a 12 nm InGaN channel HFET with AlInGaN barrier, which demonstrates the viability of InGaN channel HFETs.

This thesis deals with the question of evil as privatio boni according to the teachings of Augustine of Hippo and the conception of evil in the work of Carl Gustav Jung who denied this Augustine's teachings. In the thesis I analyze attitudes that adopt both thinkers to categories of good and evil in relation to impacts of their conceptions on understanding of God, self-understanding of man, of his life, death and salvation, further of the relation of God and man and the human moral responsibility before God and society. Augustine maintains that evil is an absence of good, but Jung thinks that the reality is put together from the balance of good and evil. Their attitudes I scarify with the aid of the secondary literature and the explanation of that biblical places that both thinkers refer to.

Die studie foku.s op die verwantskap tussen sin vir koherensie as 'n intrinsieke hanteringsbron aan die een kant, en elk van streshantering, algemene gesondheid en sielkundige uitbranding aan die antler kant. Vraelyste wat hierdie veranderlikes meet is aan 200 bestuurders gegee om te voltooi. Die bevindinge van hierdie studie toon aan dat bestuurders met 'n hoi! sin vir koherensie goeie algemene gesondheid geniet. Die bestuurder met 'n hoi! sin vir koherensie behoon dus meer e.ffektief te junksioneer in die werksiruasie as die bestuurder met 'n lae sin vir koherensie. Voons is ook bevind dar 'n hoi! sin vir koherensie nie noodwendig aanleiding gee tot lae vlakke van stres of van sielkundige uitbranding nie. Aanbevelings word gedoen oor hoe om die negatiewe gevolge van stres en sielkundige uitbranding te venninder en algemene gesondheid te bevorder, ten einde die bestuurder se potensiaal optimaal benut. This study focuses on the relationship between sense of coherence as an intrinsic coping mechanism. and work stress, general health and psychological burnout. To measure these variables, questionnaires were completed by 200 managers. The findings of this study indicate that managers with a high sense of coherence experience good general health. The manager with a high sense of coherence should therefore junction more efficiently in a work situation·than the manager with a low sense of coherence. It was also found that a high sense of coherence does not necessarily lead to low levels of stress nor of psychological burnout. Recommendations are made on how to reduce the negative effects of stress and psychological burnout and how to improve general health in order to make optimal use of the manager's potential. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / M. Com. (Industrial and Organisational Psychology)