This thesis draws primarily upon the work of Furedi (2001; 2002) and his notion of a culture of fear to explore contemporary parenting and childhood from a social psychological perspective. Furedi argues that contemporary society is dominated by a sense of anxiety which is ubiquitous and free-floating (2007) and it is arguable that this fear is particularly easily attached to issues around childhood as children are considered increasingly vulnerable - giving rise to the phenomenon of paranoid parents (Furedi, 2002). While these and related issues have been explored elsewhere in the social sciences (e.g. Jackson & Scott, 2000; Katz, 2008; Valentine, 1996) there has yet to be a study from a social psychological perspective which would seek to understand how these fears are articulated, constructed and managed in relational interaction. The first stage of analysis is a content analysis of newspaper articles, providing partial information about the socio-cultural backdrop of the study. This is complemented by focus group data from both parents and children (aged 12-13) which is analysed using strategies and tools drawn from discursive psychology (Edwards & Potter, 1992). This approach allows for an examination of how participants construct fears, anxieties and concerns that exist in and around modern parenting and childhood. Themes that emerged from this analysis include a focus on the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, a fear of hypothetical dangers, and a catalogue of potential risks. These concerns are also worked up in the participants talk as related to wider social changes (such as an increase in crime and changes in family structure) and connected with a nostalgia for a past which is constructed as safer, simpler and more liberated; even the children display a fondness for this utopian childhood. Hence the study begins to develop an empirical understanding of how aspects of a culture of fear may be worked up in relation to contemporary parenting and childhood, and so points toward some of its possible psychological implications.

no abstract available / Teacher Education / M.Ed. (Specialisation in Guidance and Counselling)

Aan die hand van 'n literatuur- en empiriese studie is daar ondersoek ingestel na die fenomene skuld en skaamte. Vir diagnosering is daar onderskeid tussen die emosies gemaak. Dit blyk dat die belewing van skaamgevoelens direk met die self te doen het, terwyl skuldgevoelens fokus op die daad wat gedoen of versuim is. Aan die hand van 'n literatuurstudie is riglyne vir die hantering van skuld en skaamte voorgestel. 'n Vraelys is daargestel om skuld en skaamte te identifiseer, om die intensiteit van die emosies te bepaal asook om te onderskei tussen rasionele of irrasionele belewing van skuld en skaamte. 'n Empiriese studie is gedoen om kwalitatief na 'n paar gevallestudies te kyk om sodoende die effektiwiteit van die psigoterapeutiese model en die vraelys te bepaal. Bevindinge van die empiriese studie dui daarop dat die psigoterapeutiese model en die vraelys effektief vir die hantering van skuld en skaamte is. / The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate the phenomena guilt and shame. For effective diagnosis a differentiation between the two emotions was made. It appears that shame feelings focus directly towards the self. Guilt feelings focus on "wrong" or neglected deeds. In view of literature and empirical investigations guidelines were set up for the handling of guilt and shame. A questionnaire was developed to identify guilt and shame, to determine the intensity of these feelings and to differentiate between rational and irrational guilt and shame. Results of the empirical study indicated that the psychotherapeutic model and questionnaire were effective in the treatment of guilt and shame. / Psychology of Education / M. Ed. (Voorligting)

In this study, the author provided a discussion of international cross-cultural validation studies which reported low internal consistency reliabilities for the self-motivation facet of the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire (TEIQue). A review of salient models of emotional intelligence (EI) revealed that self-motivation was consistently conceptualised as part of the sampling domain of trait and mixed models of EI, but not ability-based conceptualisations of the construct. The author provided a qualitative evaluation of the ten self-motivation test items as they appeared in the TEIQue with the purpose of exploring the operationalisation of the construct in a multi-cultural South African sample. The exploratory-descriptive research was conducted amongst permanent employees who have all completed the TEIQue as part of on-going employee assessments. The present study found limited support for a satisfactory operationalisation of the self-motivation facet of the TEIQue as it related to a multi-cultural South African research sample. / Psychology / M.A. (Psychology)

In this study, the author provided a discussion of international cross-cultural validation studies which reported low internal consistency reliabilities for the self-motivation facet of the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire (TEIQue). A review of salient models of emotional intelligence (EI) revealed that self-motivation was consistently conceptualised as part of the sampling domain of trait and mixed models of EI, but not ability-based conceptualisations of the construct. The author provided a qualitative evaluation of the ten self-motivation test items as they appeared in the TEIQue with the purpose of exploring the operationalisation of the construct in a multi-cultural South African sample. The exploratory-descriptive research was conducted amongst permanent employees who have all completed the TEIQue as part of on-going employee assessments. The present study found limited support for a satisfactory operationalisation of the self-motivation facet of the TEIQue as it related to a multi-cultural South African research sample. / Psychology / M.A. (Psychology, with specialisation in Research Consultation)

The development of sensor-based technologies has opened up avenues for a dialogue between the body and digital spaces, uncovering new possibilities for cross-disciplinary projects and engagements that demand new methods compatible with the ethos of embodied practices, which, in turn, require new approaches and tools. This research seeks to address this need by examining the quantifiability and visual properties of embodied emotion through a multi-layered study of human movement and gesture. It is an elaboration of scientific and artistic research methods, intended to answer the following principal question and related sub-questions: How can emotions, expressed via whole-body movement be visually documented and archived as a reference framework to stimulate the use and studies of expressive gesture in digital environments? As a consequence the following sub-questions become relevant for this research: The first, ontological in its nature; what is expressed emotion? And the second, methodological; how can bodily expressed emotions be visualised and quantified? To answer these questions, the research is divided into three parts. Drawing on phenomenological interpretative inquiry and heuristic methodology, whole-body emotive expressions are documented and analysed from multiple perspectives: body, expressiveness, time, space volume and their correlations. The first part contains information related to video data collection and the database design. The second part describes silhouette extractions of whole body emotive expressions and an online survey where the visual perception of visual data is measured. The third part of the research contains visual and quantitative data analysis providing the basis for visualisation of the four archetypal emotions: anger, fear, joy and sadness and their relationships. In this process, a multi-method approach was adopted combining both qualitative and quantitative methods adopted from sociology and cognitive science. The contextual review, where virtual embodiment and interactivity are explored build on the aesthetics of performance within new technology, highlighting the adaptability of the methods used in performance art to the field of game design. The results of this research and contribution to knowledge reside within both the ontological and methodological approaches used within this study. The ontological resides within the development of two reference frameworks: a correlation table defined as the Periodic Table of Movements (PTM) and a PTM database. The PTM database is a synthesis of embodied emotion data derived from multiple visual representations such as colour, shape, space, volume, time and intensity, whereas the relationship between expressions is visualised in the PTM correlation table. Within the context of an educational framework, the database also provides visual concepts of emotion as epistemic objects for analysis and experimentation. It is a starting point for future cross-disciplinary studies and research on emotions in the context of embodiment and digital technology. The novel methodology of this research contributes to a number of fields with new methods and models of enquiry, grounded within a hermeneutical interpretation driven by artistic development. This exploration opens up a holistic approach to future studies and research grounded in a multimodal attitude to knowledge acquisition.

The objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between emotional intelligence, work engagement, creativity and demographic variables. A non-experimental and cross-sectional survey design was used and the population consisted of 180 employees working within a call centre division of an insurance organisation in South Africa. The participating sample consisted of 85 respondents which indicated a response rate of 47.2%. The Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire (TEIQue-SF), Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES-17), the Creative Personality Scale (CPS) and the Alternate Uses Tasks were administered to all participants. A theoretical relationship was found by means of a literature study. The results of the empirical study suggest that there was a significant positive relationship between emotional intelligence, work engagement and creative personality. Emotional intelligence was reported to be a significant predictor of work engagement. Significant results were also found in terms of these constructs and demographic factors. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / M. Com. (Industrial and Organisational Psychology)

Research suggests that there are now two distinct approaches to Emotional Intelligence (EI): ability and trait. To date, however, the literature indicates that the construct remains poorly defined and not always adequately measured. Focusing on trait EI, the current thesis identifies a number of research questions that centre on what it is that defines EI in relation to existing definitions and other constructs, namely, happiness, self-esteem, mood and personality. Moreover, a programme of empirical study investigates whether a training intervention can enhance levels of EI and thus contribute to the emerging applied field of enquiry. This has been achieved through the employment of a series of studies. The initial study used the Repertory Grid Technique (RGT) and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to generate a definition of EI, which directed this thesis towards alignment with the trait approach. The second study aimed to identify correlations and explore possible predictor variables through the application of Pearson’s r and Hierarchical Regression analysis. Moreover, a Mediation and Moderation analysis investigated whether EI has a mediating or moderating role when combined with other predictors. Two further experimental studies examined whether EI could be experimentally enhanced through a programme of relaxation and positive thinking when compared with a control group engaged in a non-demanding reading task. The results of the first study produced a definition of EI that included descriptions of work-related qualities with the second study yielding results of high correlations between EI, happiness and self-esteem, which were also identified as predictor variables. EI was found to act as a mediator and moderator. Analysis of Variance generated results for the first experimental study that showed overall non-significant interactions. To investigate beyond these findings, the second programme showed that the training programme induced positive changes. It was concluded that, overall, the results contribute to a definition beyond existing definitions of EI, demonstrating EI’s strong associations particularly with happiness, self-esteem and, its mediating and moderating role with other predictors. Primarily, the results from the second experimental study demonstrate the potential of EI in the applied field, including education, work and health.

La philosophie a tendance à ne pas concevoir le désir comme une notion historiquement connotée, mais plutôt comme un concept immuable. Le présent travail, au contraire, se propose de fournir des éléments pour l’élaboration philosophique d’une histoire du désir contemporain, s’articulant à travers des dispositifs et des discontinuités, des tendances et des moments de rupture. Notre objectif n’est pas de rédiger l’Histoire du désir et ses récentes transformations. En revanche, on se propose d’un côté de fournir des éléments pour pouvoir penser, philosophiquement, l’existence d’une histoire du désir, pour la fonder théoriquement ; de l’autre, de mettre en évidence, sans aucune prétention d’exhaustivité, certains des caractères définissant le désir de nos jours, certaines parmi les mutations qui, en premier lieu, nous ont suggéré l’existence d’une telle histoire encore toute à explorer. L’élaboration d’une telle histoire a été effectuée à partir d’une convergence entre la pensée de Deleuze, Foucault et Lyotard autour des notions principales structurant les présent travail : le désir, l’histoire, la notion de dispositif et celle de discontinuité. Néanmoins, nous avons croisé la pensée de ces auteurs avec d’autres, dans la tentative de souligner une convergence générationnelle. Dans l’histoire du désir contemporain on a reconnu un privilège à l’écran – à comprendre en tant que dispositif, au sens foucaldien du terme – à partir duquel on élaborera des tentatives de périodisation et on identifiera des discontinuités. Faire une histoire du désir contemporain signifie pour nous se demander comment l’on désire selon les écrans. / Philosophy tends to consider desire not as a historical notion, but rather as an immutable concept. Our work, however, aims to provide some elements for a philosophical elaboration of a history of contemporary desire, alternating dispositifs and discontinuity, tendencies and moments of rupture. Our purpose is absolutely not to define The History of desire and of its recent transformations. On the contrary, on one side we try to provide some theoretical elements in order to start thinking, philosophically, to a historicity of desire. On the other, without any claim of completeness, we try to identify some features defining the status of contemporary desire, by analysing some among the many mutations of desire which characterise our times and inspired this research in the first place. The elaboration of such a history mainly results from a convergence among the thoughts of Deleuze, Foucault and Lyotard, around the fundamental notions structuring this work, such as desire, history, dispositif, discontinuity. Nevertheless, we will often compare the thoughts of those authors with others, in order to highlight a sort of generational convergence. In the history of contemporary desire, we acknowledged a privilege to the screen – that has to be understood as a dispositif, in the large sense that Foucault gave at this notion. Thanks to its privilege, the screen will be the starting point for a periodisation of the history of contemporary desire and the identification of its discontinuities. How do we desire according to screens?

The objective of this study was to investigate the construct validity of the Emotional Intelligence Scale (EIS) from a wellness perspective. The conceptualisation and measurement of emotional intelligence has recently received much attention due to its applicability to various workplace variables. The theoretical component of this study covers the definition and measurement of emotional intelligence, and integrates this with the concepts of salutogenesis and psychological well-being. The empirical study investigates the relationship between emotional intelligence and three wellness-related constructs. Measures of these constructs were administered to a non-random sample of 118 employees at a South African software development organisation. Statistical analysis confirmed the relationship between emotional intelligence and sense of coherence, locus of control and three of the five emotion-focused coping strategies measured. / Industtrial and Organisation Psychology / M.Comm. (Industrial and Organisational Psychology)