Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Arts (University of Zululand) in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Counselling Psychology, 2007. / The effect of career guidance on grade 9 learners' readiness to make career choices was measured. The specific research question was: does career guidance increase the learners' ability to make more informed career choices? The sample consisted of learners from Trenance Manor Secondary School. 35 subjects were randomly selected to serve as the experimental group and 35 subjects were randomly selected to serve as the control group. Data was collected using the career readiness questionnaire. The questionnaire was administered to the experimental group as a pre-test and post-test measure and was administered to the control group once. Frequency tables and f-tests were utilized to analyse data obtained, it was found that the difference between the pre-test scores and the post-test scores (for the experimental group) were statistically significant and not due to sampling error. The post-test scores were significantly higher than the pre-test scores, it was found that there was no significant difference between the pre-test scores and the control group's scores. It was concluded that career guidance does increase the learners' readiness to make informed career choices.

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A dissertation submitted in the Faculty of Education in partial fulfilment of requirements for a Master’s degree in Educational Psychology at the University of Zululand, 2017. / The current study examines the influence of family birth order on the career choices of students at the University of Zululand. The objectives of the study were: • To establish the extent to which family birth order influence students’ career choices. • To determine whether there is a relationship between the students’ characteristics such as age, gender, race and their career choices. Data was collected using both qualitative and quantitative methodology. The convenience sampling was employed in selecting the thirty students for the study. To collect data unstructured, semi-structured interview questions were formulated and a self-administered questionnaire to address objective number two, Interview questions consisted of close-ended and open-ended questions-which were conducted to the students in determining the influence of their family birth order on their career choices. Qualitative data analysis was employed in order to draw conclusion about the influence of the students’ family birth order on their career choices. Research findings led to the following inferences: Family birth order of students has an influence on their career choices. Some students believed that had they been born before or after their original birth order in the family, they would have chosen a different career. Others believed their birth order position had somehow pressured them to choose different a career from what they had always wanted to do. Other students mentioned that even though their birth order was that of a youngest child in the family, they somehow felt the pressure that is said to be expected by the first born in the family; hence they chose careers that were typically assumed by the first-borns. The findings also revealed that some participants chose their careers because their siblings had followed the same career paths and so they felt it was better to pursue similar a career path as their siblings. Age was one of the factors that might have had an influence on their career choices, the students revealed that their age did play a significant role on their career choices, that if it was not for their age they would have chosen their seemingly “dream careers”. The findings revealed that most students felt their race had an influence on their career choices and that they still felt that if they were a different race, more opportunities were going to be offered to them to choose the careers they wanted. The results revealed that there is a gap between career orientation and the students’ career choices. The findings also revealed that there is a need for psycho-career education for students at the university right from before they enroll in their first year. Based on the findings, recommendations for career counseling, psycho-career education, a more active career guidance center were put forward in order to empower students with career guidance and development.

Current government policy aims to redress the persistent under-participation of Pasifika children in early childhood education by improving the standard and availability of services delivered through Pasifika early childhood initiatives. This research explores the rationale that underpinned the choices of sixteen New Zealand-born Samoan parents in Christchurch by using the qualitative method of in-depth interviews, structured around a questionnaire. Three primary themes emerged from the primary data: Pasifika early childcare provisions; identity issues; and the effect of generational changes in parenting styles. As first and second generation New Zealand-born Samoans, participants' preference vis-ā-vis the types of early childhood initiatives they accessed, reflected trans-generation differences between the original migrants and their offspring. Moreover, some participants and many of their children are of multi-ethnic heritage, exemplifying the changing face of Pasifika people in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Participants were divided into three groups. Findings indicate that Group A parents, who had the highest levels of social, cultural and economic capital, made informed decisions to access Pasifika Education and Childcare Centres in order to ensure their children were acculturated in Samoan language and culture. While there were multiple reasons why Group B parents withdrew their children from Pasifika services they were generally ambivalent about the effectiveness of Pasifika provisions in meeting the needs of their children. Group C parents did not access Pasifika preschool education; barriers to participation included their personal perceptions of alienation from the traditional Samoan community. Findings suggest that government policy formulation processes exclude the voices of stakeholders who demographers predict will comprise an increasingly large percentage of the population of Aotearoa/New Zealand. Pasifika parity in accessing early childhood education is contingent upon service provision that is conducive to meeting the needs of all Pasifika parents, including those who are marginalized by mainstream society and Pasifika communities.

ABSTRACT This study is the first of a series of community-based surveys that the City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality (CTMM) has planned to conduct in the next 15 years to fulfill its provincial mandate (being the provider of primary health care services) in accordance with the Gauteng District Health Services Act (Act No 8 of 2000)1. The study determined the prevalence rate of contraceptive use and method choice, and the effects of the availability of reproductive health services on contraceptive use and method choice in the CTMM in 2004. The study used a descriptive cross-sectional population-based study design and a sample of 3, 547 women of childbearing age (15-49 years) using a multi-stage cluster sampling with probability proportional to size to determine these effects. A modified 1998 SADHS questionnaire helped to collect information on selected individuals, programmes and district explanatory variables from women living in the four health sub-districts and data were used in three B (4 variables), C (six variables) and D (eight variables) unconditional binary logistic regression models and a multinomial logistic model to estimate their effects (odds ratios and pvalue at 5% level) on contraceptive use and method choice. The selection of these variables is based on the conceptual framework that recognizes that contraceptive use or method choice is the consequence of service utilization, which, in turn, is influenced by individual, service/programme and community factors2,3. The availability of reproductive health services was measured by the presence or absence of the supply source of contraceptive methods in a district. After controlling for the effects of individual (social and demographic) variables, none of the programmatic variables was independently associated with contraceptive use. By contrast, district/place of residence predictor was associated with reduced odds of contraceptive use and with reduced odds of condom, injection and IUD’s choice against pill in all the models and districts, respectively. In terms of the source of first information on contraceptive methods and the differences between IUD and injection, the study shows that nurses (odds ratio, 1.80, p<0.05) are more likely than mothers to be the providers of information on IUD while physicians (odds ratio, 0.65, p<0.05) are shown to be less likely than mothers to be the providers of information on injection as opposed to the pill. The private sector ( odds ratio, 2.12, p<0.01) is shown to be more likely than the public sector to be the supply source of IUD methods rather than the pill, and also more likely (odds ratio, 1.97, p<0.01) than the public sector to be the supply source of IUD instead of injection. Private pharmacies (odds ratio, 2.25, p<0.05) are more likely than the public sector to supply condoms rather than the pill. The presence or absence of reproductive health services in a district was significantly associated with reduced odds of both contraceptive use and choice of condom, injection and IUD methods against pill. This may be attributable to women’s willingness to travel outside their place of residence to get their preferred method. Thus availability of reproductive health services in the district seems not to have an important effect on use and choice of modern contraception in the City of Tshwane in 2004.

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The study examines how story choices in video games affect the player’s sense of agency. A literature review was done to understand and define the terms used. Agency is the power to take meaningful action and see the consequences of those actions, also connected to the player’s sense of control. The type of story choices used were meaningful, ones that change the game state, and inconsequential choices, that do not change it. An artefact was created to present these choices through dialogue, in the form of a video game. After playing through the artefact, players were asked to fill in a questionnaire and some participated in follow-up interviews. Results showed that inconsequential choices can affect the player negatively if they realize that the choices were not real, while players requested more meaningful choices. For future work it is of interest to, among other things, examine player’s definition of meaningful choices. / <p>Det finns övrigt digitalt material (t.ex. film-, bild- eller ljudfiler) eller modeller/artefakter tillhörande examensarbetet som ska skickas till arkivet.</p>

The intent of this study was to supply more data to further potential investigations in the systematic study of the normal personality as described in previous paragraphs.

The problem of this study was to determine the relationship between certain aspects of vocational choice and certain non-intellectual personal characteristics.

Research has suggested that memories for difficult or painful experiences seem related to a combination of the worst and most recent moments. This peak-end theory was tested in relation to an exercise task (eccentric quadriceps using a BIODEX machine) as well as a cognitive task (standardized quantitative test questions). For each type of task there were two trials: short and happy endings. The happy endings trial included the same task as the short trial with an additional 25% duration at a lesser intensity (80% of short task intensity). A 2 (task type) by 2 (trial type) repeated measures design was used. Participants made global ratings of difficulty immediately after each component, thus generating four ratings, and later indicated their preferences for hypothetical future trials. Results indicated support for the theory that the shorter trials are evaluated as more difficult, with the cognitive task being evaluated as more difficult overall than the exercise task. Preference scores, however, revealed a preference only for the happy endings cognitive task, with no preference indicated on the exercise task. Results confirm previous research in suggesting differences between judgements of tasks and future choices. However, confounds complicated interpretations, especially for the cognitive task. The most conservative interpretation of data suggests that in circumstances where "more is better," happy endings will result in more work with no higher level of discomfort. Implications for future research and applications of the theory are discussed.