To those familiar with schools, it is quite obvious that there is a definite problem of dropouts, and that this is particularly acute with those whose ability and interest do not fit them for the average school curriculum. Slow learners that constitute a large part of the dropout group are forced at least up to the point of compulsory attendance age to come to school. Realizing that our whole economic system is geared to competition, schools sometime assume they are justified in adopting the squeeze-out system also. But this very squeeze-out system, under the present form, is one of the basic reasons for dropout. / Typescript. / "August, 1952." / "Submitted to the Graduate Council of Florida State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts." / Advisor: W. Edwards, Professor Directing Paper.

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A consensus emerging from writings about attitudes towards advertising in general is that such attitudes consist of two dimensions: the social and economic effects. However, as is the case with other marketing concepts and propositions, the findings pertaining to the structure of advertising attitudes are primarily based on American research. This study investigates the dimensionality of advertising attitudes in a non-US setting. The results obtained from a survey of Saudi adult consumers suggest that advertising attitudes do indeed decompose into social and economic effects dimensions as espoused in the US-based literature. The measures developed to capture the two dimensions demonstrate satisfactory internal consistency reliability and pass the tests for convergent, discriminant and concurrent validity. The implications of the findings are discussed and suggestions for future research are provided.

Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Counselling Psychology in the Department of Psychology at the University of Zululand, South Africa, 2012. / The major aim of this study was to investigate the attitude of University of Zululand students towards pornography as well as the effects that pornography might have on their social and academic wellbeing. The study was conducted at the University of Zululand. A total number of 203 participants took part in this study. The questionnaire served to investigate the attitudes of students towards pornography and the effects that porn might have on their social and academic wellbeing. A statistical analysis of the results was conducted and the results indicated that students view pornography for various reasons which include, but are not limited to the following: sexual education, as a stimulant for arousal, as a tool to conform to peer-pressure. Effects of pornography viewing varied from negative to positive. It was also assumed and supported by literature that pornography viewing takes place at an early onset, which places a great responsibility on parents, teachers, care-givers and media to play a more active role in the management of pornography through; practical ways of empowering individuals and parents at early stages of development. Teaching youngsters on critical viewing of content they view on the internet. Promoting programmes with positive sexual content. The need for parental guidance on internet usage; computer to be placed in central places at home, in schools and in other public areas.

Submitted to the Faculty of Arts in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the Department of General Linguistics at the University of Zululand,2007. / The main aim for the study was to examine the attitudes of learners, educators and parents on the use of English as a language of learning and teaching and an additional language in selected schools to the north of KwaZulu Natal (Mthunzini Circuit). To this end questionnaires were used as a research instrument Questionnaires were administered to the parents, learners and educators. The research instruments were administered to a randomly selected sample of two hundred respondents. Not all the respondents returned the questionnaires. The findings revealed that learners have a positive attitude towards the use of English as a language of learning and teaching and an additional language in schools. The findings also revealed that educators have a negative attitude towards English as a language of learning and teaching and as an additional language in schools. The findings further revealed that parents had a positive attitude towards the use of English as a language of learning and teaching and an additional language in schools. On the basis of the findings, the study recommended that the school policy should stipulate that English should be strictly used as a language of learning and teaching with the aim of helping learners because they need English for the purpose of employment in future. Educators who qualify to teach English must have received appropriate training and qualification in English grammar, literature and general linguistics. On the other hand, the learners' mother tongue should also be developed for identity and communication purposes.

A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Education (Psychology Department) at the University of Zululand, South Africa, 2011. / This study aims to investigate the attitude of High School learners towards Life Orientation. Life Orientation is a new learning area that is being introduced into South African schools as part of curriculum transformation in our democracy. It is intended to equip learners with the skills to live meaningful lives in a society that requires rapid transformation. Our country has seen many changes lately within the context of the advancement of democracy and education is not exempt from these changes. Parker (1998) argued that people who will survive in society are people who have the ability to receive and process information quickly. More than a decade later his comment still rings true. This study of attitudes towards Life Orientation attempts to find out if knowledge that learners receive in Life Orientation is relevant enough to make learners live meaningful lives in a society that is so rapidly transforming. The research was conducted in twelve high schools which were randomly selected in and around the Pietermaritzburg and Durban Areas. Triangulation of qualitative and quantitative data was used. Questionnaires were administered to high school learners and key questions which inform outcomes and the content that is covered in Life Orientation were used to:  determine learners’ attitudes towards Life Orientation through the use of questionnaires;  establish the relationship (if any) between the nature of attitudes and respondents’ response variables such as age, gender and learner performance; and  determine the extent to which learners feel empowered by Life Orientation. The status and practice of Life Orientation reveal that learners have a positive attitude towards Life Orientation but they appear to attach more emphasis and display more attitudinal reaction to such issues as HIV/AIDS, personal development as well as the career aspects of Life Orientation. Furthermore, the study revealed that aspects of life orientation that are peripheral to individuals such as the qualities of Ubuntu (communality) and tolerance were considered important only later in the life of learners. The attitude of learners is influenced by the context they find themselves in. Educators were found to have contributed to the attitudes of their learners as interpreters of the curriculum. Lastly, findings also revealed qualitative development of wisdom in learners as they progress through their grades in their high school years. The findings of the research require attention by the Education Department to deal with educators, so that they can impact learners’ attitudes positively towards a desired outcome because they determine what is regarded as valuable knowledge. The need to place equal value on other aspects of Life Orientation requires strengthening in order to produce learners who will live meaningful lives in a society that requires rapid transformation.

Submitted to the Faculty of Education in fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Education in the Department of Educational Psychology and Special Education at the University of Zululand, South Africa, 2010. / One of the most devastating diseases in. modem history as measured in terms of loss of human life is the HIV/AIDS pandemic - Approximately 200 million people have already died. Sub- Sahara Africa is the most affected with South Africa severely affected with an estimated 6 million HIV positive South Africans and 2.5 million already dead from AIDS or related illnesses. This study, located at several primary and secondary schools in the deep rural areas of the Scottsburgh circuit, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, was undertaken to investigate the trend that, despite a higher level of knowledge and exposure to information about HIV/AID amongst educators and despite comprehensive campaigns to fight HIV/AIDS, an increasing number of educators are still dying from the disease. In this study it is assumed that knowledge alone is not enough and that attitude change is central to HIV/AIDS prevention since attitudes influence the way in which persons behave. The following research questions are asked: What is the nature of educators' attitudes towards HIV/AIDS, and, are the educators' attitudes towards HIV/AIDS influenced by variables such as age, gender, religion, experience and qualification? Thus the study aims to: determine the nature of educators' attitudes towards HIV/AIDS, and find out whether or not educators' attitudes towards HIV/AIDS are influenced by characteristics such as, gender, age, experience, religion, and qualification. To determine this, a quantitative study was conducted with 71 secondary and primary school educators in the rural area of KwaZulu Natal, Scottsburgh district. The survey, a cross sectional design, involved administering a fixed response questionnaire (Likert scale type) categorized into five scales, which described the nature of educators' attitudes towards HIV/AIDS. The study revealed that there was no significant difference amongst the sampled educators' attitudes towards HIV/ADS, and that these attitudes were mostly negative. This difference was also not influenced by educators' age, gender, qualification, experience or religion. The study found that educators were still discriminating, reluctant to test themselves and disclose their HIV/AIDS status, which may be related to the failure of HIV/AIDS prevention strategies. The campaign to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS in schools and m communities appears to be jeopardized by such attitudes of educators. The following was recommended: the cascading system of training educators did not work and therefore the Department of Education must ensure that every educator has an opportunity to receive training in HIV/AIDS information; that support systems (emotional, psychological, medical) for those educators infected and affected by HFV/AIDS be made available; financial allocations to HIV/AIDS prevention programmes should be increased but with better fmancial control; employment of full-time co-ordinators who are knowledgeable; provision of incentives to encourage educators to test for HIV/AIDS and programmes that provide social skills training needed for behavioural change, as well as those that aim at reducmg stigraatization, ostracism and discrimination of individuals infected. The researcher suggests that an immediate, urgent strategy to address educator attitudes towards the disease is required from the relevant government departments.

A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment ofthe requirements for the degree of Master of Arts (Counselling Psychology) in the Department of Psychology University of Zululand, 2008. / Attitudes determine commitment in their broad sense, though this is rarely understood in this fashion. An abortion decision is influenced by many factors that eventually lead to such a decision just to mention a few; general health of the mother, rape, occupational status of the expectant mother and the pressure from the society. Termination of pregnancy is sometimes if not most incongruent with one's belief and morale. Midwives as trained individuals to care for the needs of the patients who want to abortion have to step over their moral judgement and provide the service (abortion). In the recent past some reports on service delivery (abortion) stated challenges that midwives face within their health institutions, as well the pressure from the general public of South Africa expressing genuine opposition to termination of pregnancy policy, times do change together with the mentally and stereotypes closely attached to termination of pregnancy, although the reproductive policies are a sensitive issue in most countries. The study focuses on the attitudes of the midwives toward termination of pregnancy and it explores the difference on attitude between public and private hospitals. The findings of the study suggest that there is difference on attitude with regards to termination of pregnancy, amongst the midwives in public and private hospitals, this discrepancy also exist amongst senior midwives compared to junior midwives. There are however, a number of reasons for this, but the obvious one maybe that senior midwives have reached self actualization in their careers and view the professional duties beyond egocentric needs and morale, and this facilitate the expected role of the health service providers, which is to cater for the needs of the desperate public.

Many investigators of death attitudes have emphasized the limitation of self-report measures of the fear of death in that responses are often unreal and highly questionable due to defenses and ego maneuvers. The Self-Administered Threat Index (SATI) introduced by Rainey and Epting (1977) appears to meet most criticisms of other investigators. The present study was a partial replication of the Golding, et al. (1966) study with the SATI replacing the Sarnoff Fear of Death Scale. Forty-six introductory psychology students, both males and females, performed a tachistoscopic recognition task, completed the SATI and the Semantic Differential and were administered a brief structured interview.

The primary purpose of my dissertation was to assess two competing models of catch-related attitudes (CRA) of recreational anglers for: 1) valid psychometric measurement, 2) consistency of CRA under different angling contexts, and 3) effect of CRA on angler preferences. Data came from a statewide survey of 6,924 licensed Texas anglers, and a follow-up survey of 1,078 freshwater catfish anglers identified by the statewide survey. I used confirmatory factor analysis to determine that a 4-construct model of CRA provided better fit to the data than a 3-construct model, and was configural and metric invariant across gender, ethnic, and angling context groups indicating cross-group comparisons would be unbiased. However, low factor loadings on several items, and low variance extracted estimates, indicate that current CRA scales require refinement. Additionally, structural equation models found that angler responses to the CRA scale were moderately consistent when measured in generic and species-specific contexts (50-60% shared variance), and the relationship between the two was not consistently moderated by measures of angling avidity. Next, I assessed influence of CRA on angler fishing trip preferences using a stated choice analysis. Results showed that angler choice of hypothetical fishing trips was influenced primarily by travel costs and catch-related trip attributes, and that CRA were significant mediators of angler preferences for associated trip attributes. Finally, I used a latent class state choice model to analyze separate trip choice models for five sub-groups of catfish anglers divided based on their CRA scores. Individual models showed considerable variation in preference for catch-related attributes paralleling strength of each groups’ attitudes towards a given CRA construct. Overall, results indicated that CRA scales are valid predictors of angler preferences and behavioral intentions. Human dimensions researchers studying angler populations will find the CRA scale to be a useful tool to incorporate into predictive models of angler behavior and preferences. Furthermore, fisheries managers should find the CRA scales useful to assess management preferences of an increasingly heterogeneous angler clientele, and aide them in designing management plans that efficiently meet angler needs and catch-related expectations.