The present investigation evaluated the efficacy of a Cognitive-Behavioural Therapeutic Approach for the anger management of three adolescent males. The study is noteworthy because it utilised essential features of Beck's Cognitive Therapy in the cognitive restructuring phase of treatment. Previous studies have commonly employed Rational Emotive Therapy's disputation of irrational beliefs for this phase. For this reason it is considered to be an original contribution to the literature. A multiple (three) single-case study research design was employed. The three adolescents, aged 13 to 17 years, attended seven to nine one-hour counselling sessions over a two to three month period. Pre-, post-treatment and long-term followup psychometric measures of aggression and anecdotal reports of anger-control were obtained from parents and teachers. Self-reports in the affective and cognitive domain, progress in therapy, psychometric measures (aggressive behaviour subscale of the Child Behaviour Checklist, Adapted Novaco Anger Inventory and Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept Scale) and continuous (including pre-, post-treatment and long-term follow-up) assessments of the frequency of angry outbursts were obtained. Counsellor assessments of cognitive homework and behaviour in therapy were also made. Results reveal marked reductions in the average daily frequencies of angry outbursts in all cases by post-treatment and treatment effects were maintained throughout the three-month follow-up period. It was concluded that the cognitive-behavioural therapeutic approach warrants further investigation as it is proposed that it is a comprehensive and efficacious treatment for male adolescent anger problems.

There is limited research on the utility of specific assessment measures for cross-cultural psychological and research measurement within the South-African context. In addition limited knowledge exists on cross-cultural measurement of resilience in young children. This study analyses purposefully selected (existing) data from the Kgolo Mmogo project (which investigated psychological resilience in South African mothers and children affected by HIV/AIDS) with the aim of exploring the utility of a Düss fable as projective story-telling technique to measure resilience in young children. The primary research question that guided this study was: ‘What is the utility of a Düss fable as cross-cultural measure of resilience in young children?’ Using the ecological and social cross-cultural model as theoretical framework, the concurrent mixed method study compares inductively derived themes from the Düss fables (qualitative: content analysis) with quantitative scores obtained from secondary analysis of Child Behavior Checklist scores. Subsequent to the data analysis themes of resilience and non-resilience emerged from the Düss fables as well as from the CBCL. The themes of both resilience (protective resources) and non-resilience (risk factors) emerged and where significantly situated within the children’s environments. The core themes of resilience as expressed by the child-participants related to their coping strategies, their sense of belonging, the availability of material resources and their ability to navigate towards positive institutions. The most prominent themes of non-resilience that emerged from the participants’ Düss fables related to their coping strategies (maladaptive coping), their awareness of chronic risk, adversity and death. The CBCL was included in the study to provide insight into the perspective of the participants’ mothers with regards to their children’s functioning. Predominantly the mothers mostly perceived their children as well adjusted. The risk-related behaviours mostly reported by the mothers were externalising problems that manifested as rule-breaking and aggressive behaviour. The Düss fables provided meaningful insights into the life experiences of the children. There were instances where the participants’ responses were rich and detailed. The majority of the participants’ stories were age-appropriate and informative, while in some instances the participants gave limited responses. Nonetheless, the Düss fable provided valuable insights into the child-participants’ thoughts, emotions and life-experiences. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Educational Psychology / unrestricted