An overview of recent literature indicates that mood and anxiety disorders are the most prevalent of all psychiatric disorders. Depression and anxiety are estimated to be two of the most important causes of disease burden in the world and appear to be more prevalent among women than men. A skewed distribution exists in mood and anxiety research with limited research being done into the area of gender, more specifically females with these disorders. The present study therefore intended to explore and describe the psychofortology of female psychiatric out-patients living with mood and anxiety disorders. An exploratory descriptive research design was used and participants were selected by means of non-probability purposive sampling. The sample consisted of 60 female psychiatric out-patients who were selected for inclusion based on predetermined inclusion criteria. Data were gathered through the administration of a biographical questionnaire, Hammer and Marting’s Coping Resources Inventory (CRI), Antonovsky’s Sense of Coherence Scale (SOC-29), Diener, Emmons, Larson and Griffin’s Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) and Kamman and Flett’s Affectometer-2 (AFM-2). These data were then analyzed according to the aims of the study by the use of descriptive statistics, inferential statistics and multivariate data analysis, namely, K-means cluster analysis. The results indicated that the female psychiatric out-patients with mood and anxiety disorders were generally experiencing lower levels of coping and subjective well-being. The results indicated three clusters which appeared to have no statistical or practical significance to each other. The first cluster could be characterized as being “of relatively high psychofortology” and patients in this cluster presented with better coping and subjective well-being. The patients in cluster two could be characterized as being “of relatively average psychofortology” and the third cluster as being “of relatively low psychofortology”. The third cluster was characterized by patients who were experiencing poorer levels of coping and subjective well-being.

Bibliography: leaves 149-178 / Anxiety Disorder is one of the most common disorders experienced by children and, if not managed, can extend into adulthood. Research has established a link between unintegrated primitive reflexes (UPR) and Learning Disorders. Learning Disorders are often co-morbid with symptoms of anxiety, however, the relationship between symptoms of anxiety and UPR have not been studied. This study aims to explore the relationship between the UPR and symptoms of anxiety in children between 10 – 13 years of age. No correlation was found between the total primitive reflex score and total symptoms of anxiety score; however, a significant relationship was found between symptoms of anxiety and the Moro, Plantar and Spinal Galant reflex. These UPR play an important role in balance. Research on balance dysfunction indicates a relationship with symptoms of anxiety. Prenatal maternal stress, common childhood illness and comorbidity with ADHD were also found to be factors in symptoms of anxiety in children. / Psychology / M.A. (Psychology)