Spirituality has been identified as vital to client-centred, holistic occupational therapy (OT) practice. Attending to mind, body and spirit are essential for health and wellbeing. Spiritual beliefs have a significant impact on everyday routines and habits and give meaning and an additional dimension to everyday activities. Occupational therapists recognise the potential to make spirituality tangible through the use of deeply meaningful occupations. Many occupational therapists avow that they are unclear on how to integrate spirituality into treatment. They lack the confidence, knowledge and skill to address spirituality. Many argue that preparation for such a role should be embedded in the curricula. This study aimed to explore how spirituality is being addressed in OT practice by educators and clinicians in Gauteng, South Africa. A qualitative, descriptive, explorative research design using Appreciative Inquiry (AI) as an approach was conducted. The participants’ understanding of spirituality, their current successes, and their wishes concerning spirituality, as well as recommendations on how to address spirituality in OT were investigated. Purposive sampling resulted in a total of 24 participants. Data was collected by means of an AI workshop that consisted of self-report, AI interview schedules and focus group inquiries. Data was analysed through thematic analysis. Four major themes emerged from this study, namely 1) understanding spirituality as a construct, 2) client-centred practice/approach, 3) envisioned practice enablers of spirituality, and 4) nurturing spirituality within the therapist. Participants clearly articulated how spirituality is defined and understood in their practice. Current successes in spirituality were attributed to client-centred practice. Strategies to address, sustain and implement spirituality in education and practice were identified. These findings may contribute to the current discussion on spirituality in OT. Literature on the utilisation of the AI approach in OT and in healthcare is limited, thus this study may also serve to contribute to the existing body of knowledge. / Dissertation (MOccTher)--University of Pretoria, 2019. / Occupational Therapy / MOccTher / Unrestricted

It is important for an auditor to be independent both in mind and in appearance. The independence of the auditor is important for the trustworthiness of the auditor. Independence in appearance is the focus of this study and is how independent the auditor appears to be from the perspective of other stakeholders. This will be studied from the perspective of clients. The audit does not only have to be useful for the owners, but also for the client who pay for the audit. The aim of this study is to explain what factors that are affecting how clients perceive the auditor independence in Sweden. The study also wants to investigate if the client firm size affects the relationship between independence in appearance and factors affecting independence in appearance. To answer this, a questionnaire was sent via email to small and large limited companies in Sweden. This study found that audit tenure and auditor-client relationship partly have an influence on independence in appearance. How long the client has had the same audit firm is positively related to independence in appearance and how often the client has contact with the auditor is negatively related to independence in appearance. Client firm size couldn’t be used as a moderating variable since too few responses was received.

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Arts in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts (Clinical Psychology) in the Department of Psychology at the University of Zululand, South Africa, 2015 / A novice therapist, by virtue of his or her professional status, is exposed, and often susceptible to a plethora of obstacles and challenges which stem from a variety of sources. These include deficits in clinical experience and reasoning, interpersonal conflicts, intrapsychic dynamics, as well as a multitude of other challenges which exist within the field of psychotherapy. Thus, this research investigation is rooted in fully exploring, understanding and verifying the most significant obstacles and challenges encountered by student and intern psychologists in the greater KwaZulu-Natal region. The uniqueness of the dynamics of the South African society must be highlighted, South Africa being a confluence of cultural, racial, traditional and social norms which add to the body of challenges and obstacles that the psychologist can be expected to encounter and negotiate. The major findings of this research investigation were that majority of the obstacles and challenges faced by student and intern psychologists are indeed linked to clinical inexperience and the chasm between theoretical academic knowledge and practical, clinical application needs to be bridged. Another facet of this investigation analysed the strategies, techniques and methods employed by the participants to overcome or minimise the impact of these obstacles.

The purpose of the present study was two-fold: (1) to investigate various degrees of counselor-offered empathy in initial interviews, in order to determine whether consistently high levels of counselor-- offered empathy in the initial therapy interview causes high levels of client anxiety, and (2) to determine whether increased client anxiety or the levels of counselor-offered empathy that the client receives in the initial counseling interview affects the client's likelihood to continue in counseling following one session. To accomplish the purpose of the study 27 high-anxiety and 27 low-anxiety undergraduate, incentive volunteers were seen in an initial counseling session by one of three psychology, graduate-student counselors. During the interview the counselor offered the clients one of three predetermined levels of empathy (high, medium, or low). The subject's state-anxiety level was measured prior to the interview and during the interview by two paper and pencil, self-report measures, and also by heart rate. The likelihood to continue in counseling following the initial interview was also measured by a specially designed questionnaire. Results revealed that there were no differences between the anxiety scores of the subjects receiving high, medium, or low counselor-offered empathy. No relationship was found to exist between the subjects' anxiety scores and their choice to terminate or continue counseling after the initial interview. However, an interaction effect upon the subjects' likelihood to continue in counseling was found to exist between their trait anxiety level and the level of counselor-offered empathy which they received.

Theorists propose that because psychodiagnosis is not a completely objective procedure, it is influenced by sociocultural values. It was hypothesized that religion might be one aspect of sociocultural values which influences psychodiagnosis. The present study sought to determine, by using a clinical analogue design, whether psychologists' formal diagnoses of clients are biased by their present religious affiliations and activity levels, their religious upbringing (assessed by their fathers' and mothers' religious affiliations and activity levels), the clients' religious affiliations and activity levels, or interactions between psychologist and client religious variables. Questionnaires were sent to 228 psychologists licensed to practice in Utah, inviting them to participate in the study. Items eliciting the psychologists' religious characteristics were disguised amidst irrelevant items on the questionnaire. Respondents were sent four case reports which were varied on the religious affiliation (LOS vs. Other) and activity level (Active vs. Inactive) of the fictitious clients. The reports included identifying data, referral reason, background information, behavior observations, psychological test interpretations, and summary. Subjects diagnosed the reports according to the typology of the American Psychiatric Association's DSM-II. Usable data were obtained from 60 psychologists. The cases elicited a wide variety of diagnostic labels. Data were arranged in 56 frequency count tables (14 hypotheses on each of the four cases), and were analyzed with the chi-square test, with alpha = .05. Two significant relationships between religious variables and diagnosis were found. Because of the number of analyses performed, these were viewed as chance findings. In addition, the distributions of diagnoses in eight categories across all four cases were visually inspected according to the religious affiliations of the clinicians making the diagnoses and the clients being diagnosed. This procedure also failed to produce evidence of religious bias. It was concluded that formal diagnoses of clients made by psychologists in Utah are not influenced by psychologist or client religion, or by interactions between the two, when diagnoses are compressed into broad categories.

This thesis summarizes some of the challenges and risks faced by new civil engineering or surveying business owners, as well as, engineering managers in Mississippi. Additionally, this paper will cover how these business owners take on those business challenges to become and remain successful. The data covered represents answers from the owners asked via phone conversations. The number of twenty employees or less was the criteria for a firm to be considered small. It was decided that approximately 20% of the firms listed, or a total of 20, would statistically represent the current state of affairs of small to medium sized firms in Mississippi. The answers given from the firms are presented anonymously for this report.

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This study investigated the impact of counselor smoking behavior upon nonsmoking clients' perceptions of therapists both during and at the conclusion of treatment. Clients' impressions when counselor smoking behavior was consistent across sessions and when counselors smoked in only the first or only the second interview were examined. In addition, the effect of therapists' smoking behavior on the outcome of counseling was assessed in two ways: changes in clients' career decisiveness and counselors' ability to influence client behavior. Eighty-two female undergraduates met with a vocational counselor for two sessions during which the counselor either smoked or refrained from smoking. Prior to the first interview, subjects completed the Behavioral Indecision Scale. Subjects then met and discussed their vocational concerns with a counselor. Following the interview, subjects completed the Counselor Rating Form and the California Occupational Preference System. The latter instrument, an interest inventory, was interpreted by the counselor during the second interview. The Counselor Rating Form and the Behavioral Indecision Scale were again administered following the conclusion of treatment. Data were analyzed by 2 (counselors) X 2 (conditions) X 2 (interviews) multivariate analyses with repeated measures on the third factor. No significant differences emerged for clients' perceptions when the counselors' indulgence in or restraining from smoking was constant from the first to the second sessions. Similarly, clients' impressions did not differ in relation to the inconsistency of counselors' smoking behavior from the first to the second interviews. In addition, subjects' compliance to a counselor initiated behavioral task and reported certainty of career choice were not differentially affected by counselors' smoking behavior. In conclusion, this study suggests that it makes no difference in nonsmoking clients' impressions of therapists and in counseling outcome if the latter smoke during treatment. Suggested variables to further explore include the effects of counselors' smoking in brief and extended psychotherapy, the impact of therapists' smoking implements other than cigarettes, and smoking clients' perceptions of smoking therapists.

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