M.Ed. (Educational Psychology) / The object of this research project was to determine if learning strategies of first year students with different intellectual abilities differed and if these differences also applied to male and female students of different language groups. The project comprised of two parts. The first part consisted of a literature study which defined the concepts of intelligence, learning, cognition, metacognition and learning strategies. This was followed by a discussion of possible reasons why intelligent students fail to use effective learning strategies . The second part included an empirical investigation of the differences in the learning strategies of first year students with different intellectual abilities. The students were divided into the following groups: Afrikaans speaking male students, Afrikaans speaking female students, male students from other language groups and female students from other language groups. It was evident from the literature stUdy that learning strategies consist of self-management skills that the learner acquires, presumably over a period of years, to govern his own processes of attending, learning and thinking. Researchers agree that the mastering of learning strategies by a student can influence the success of his university career. When attending university even the intelligent students need effective learning strategies. Some students fail to acquire affective learning strategies while still at school. These students cannot cope with the large quantities of study material and consequently they may underachieve or even fail.

Negative attitudes and stigmas against those diagnosed with mental illnesses have been found to prevail in modern society, despite the availability of effective treatments and attempts to educate people about mental health. Numerous studies have been conducted on the attitudes of various groups of people and communities towards mental illness. There is, however, limited research about student populations, particularly students registered for courses in the “allied health professions”. This study aimed to explore and describe the prevailing attitudes towards mental illness of a sample of the undergraduate Psychology student population (registered between 2nd and 4th year of study) within the Faculty of Health Sciences at a South African University. The procedure followed was an electronic intranet based survey, utilising the Community Attitudes to Mental Illness (CAMI) scale. The survey was accessed via the university’s student portal and links were sent via email to students to complete. A total of n=51 student responses were recorded and analysed. Data were quantitatively analysed using t-tests and Analyses of Variance (ANOVA). No statistically significant differences on the CAMI scales were found between the students in relation to the various student demographic variables such as age, gender, race or year level, and the CAMI findings. Overall, the sample of undergraduate Psychology students were shown to have favourable attitudes towards mental illness, which is potentially accounted for by their chosen field of study of Psychology. Education and knowledge about mental health were acknowledged as being most important in reducing stigma towards mental illness.

M.Ed. / The literature-study that was undertaken indicated that first-year students have problems in adapting to university- life. Extensive research has been done regarding the academic adaptation of first-year students. The social adaptation has been mentioned in various literature sources as a problem although intensive research on this subject has thus far not been done. The first objective of this study was directed towards gaining more clarity on the social adaptations that first-year students living in university residences have to make at university. A second objective was to determine the responsibilities these first-year students had to take in their social adaptation process, to ensure that they make the correct decisions. Thirdly, the male and female students° responses were compared regarding the above issues. A questionnaire was used to obtain data on the three objectives mentioned above. These objectives were analysed by making use of Hotelling's T 2 -test and Student's t-test. The results obtained in this study indicated the following: Male first-year students were more self-assured and had a greater need to socialise with people of the opposite sex. Female first-year students were uncertain about themselves and did not have the need to socialise with people of the opposite sex. Thus, first-year male students tended to adapt better socially in the first few weeks at university than was the case with female first-year students. First-year female students showed a higher degree of social responsibility. Male first-year students showed a higher tendency towards personal responsibility. In total, only a limited amount of responsibility was shown by first-year students during their social adaptation at a university.

M.Ed. (Educational Management) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

The central aim of this study was to conduct a qualitative exploration of the prosocial inclinations possessed by young South African students. The literature review argues that traditional approaches to moral responding separate the individual from the social. An alternative approach that reinstates language and ideology is delineated. It is argued that such a paradigm is most appropriate to a study of prosocial responding during a period of social change. Hypothetical moral dilemmas were administered to twenty-nine students. Six students were selected and each was interviewed on two separate occasions. In this way six case studies were developed. The methodological traditions of phenomenology and hermeneutics were employed to analyze the protocols and subsequent interviews. Seven themes descriptive of a moral response were identified. These consisted of moral reasoning, empathy, mood, guilt, alienation, a sense of group-identity, and ambiguity regarding the relative interests of self versus other. These themes are fully discussed in terms of the literature. It is concluded that moral reasoning may be insufficient to motivate prosocial behaviour. Conventional moral narratives may be appropriated in order to make sense of conflicting emotions. Empathy was identified as a necessary but not sufficient condition for a prosocial response. Empathy might translate into either sympathy or personal distress. Mood was found to largely dictate attentional focus. Alienation was found to be a defensive formulation that inhibits the emergence of sympathy. Guilt might precipitate an alienated posture. It was found that guilt might be attributed to group-identity and thereby denied. Tension between a self- and other-oriented response, or between blame and sympathy, was common. It is suggested that this ambiguity reflects ideological contradictions that have been internalized. It is postulated that during periods of social change such contradictions are accentuated.

The compilation of information on the incidence of eating disorders in South African university residence women has been identified as an urgent matter by the National Eating Disorders Coordinating Committee (NEDCC). This study was undertaken to determine the degree of eating disordered behaviour across cultures in female university residence students from the University of Natal, Durban and Pietermaritzburg campuses, and the University of Durban Westville. The Eating Disorder Inventory (EDI) was completed by 39 black, 41 white, 6 Indian and 4 Coloured students. It was hypothesised that white women would show higher rates of disordered eating; that black women in more advanced years of study ie. those who are more acculturated, would show more disordered eating behaviour than first year black students; that black females would demonstrate higher Body Mass Index (BMI) scores than white students; and that a positive relationship would be found between Socio-economic status (SES) and disordered eating. The results of this study indicated that there was no significant difference in disordered eating among black and white female students. Degree of disordered eating did not increase with year of study. Although black students demonstrated significantly higher BMI scores than white students, there was no difference in body dissatisfaction scores. Furthermore there was no relationship found between SES and degree of disordered eating behaviour. An attempt is made to explain these results by exploring the role of acculturation to Western appearance standards.

The research assumes a narrative constructionist and feminist perspective in order to explore stories concerning men and women's first sexual experience. Such a metatheoretical stance is concerned with the ways that lives are constructed and storied through language. There is a concern for the myriad voices, both personal and social, that speaks through individuals' stories and for the manner in which these voices are represented. Three men and three women were interviewed to elicit narratives of first sexual experience. The analysis of interview transcripts tells first sexual experience as a rite of passage described in terms of certain mythic elements. That is, the experience of first sex concerns three stages. Firstly the individual is detached from the experience of sex while still a virgin. Secondly the experience itself is one that is ineffable and diffuse. Thirdly the individual must make sense of the experience. Participants' experience could be characterised as containing elements of demonic, heavenly or earthly myths about sexual relationships: demonic elements concerned the base , physical and painful experiences of first sex; the myth of heavenly love emphasises the mental and emotional connection between partners; an earthly myth tells sex as a predestined meeting of two partners. The manner in which stories were constructed was different for male and for female participants, and these differences have implications for the power dynamics at play between genders in the context of sexual interaction, especially first sex. Further the research's storied and ritualised approach to these gender differences suggests the performative aspect of gender. / KMBT_363 / Adobe Acrobat 9.54 Paper Capture Plug-in

The main purpose of this study is to explore the factors that contribute to occupational stress as experienced by the Student Support staff in a Further Education and Training (FET) College in the Southern Cape. The Student Support staff has displayed many symptoms of stress over the past few years. This in turn has led to absenteeism, change in staff temperament, their feelings towards the College, motivation levels and a significant change in the staff’s day to day operations. Although the Head of Department for Student Support Services has engaged with the staff on numerous occasions to discuss the reasons for their experience of stress, no substantial reasons could be established in order to make the necessary changes in the department. No interventions that have been implemented to date have relieved the staff’s experience of stress. The researcher chose to use a qualitative, exploratory, descriptive and contextual research design to gain insight into the situation or phenomenon in order to identify the factors contributing to occupational stress and to identify measures that can be implemented to reduce occupational stress in the Student Support staff. The participants in this research included at least 10 Student Support staff within the Student Support Services Department at a Further Education and Training College in the Southern Cape. Purposive sampling was used in this research study. Interviews will continue until data saturation is achieved. The staff members must have been employed for at least one year in the Student Support Services Department. The researcher will make use of semi-structured interviews, observations and field notes. The data will be systematically collected and meanings, themes and general descriptions of the experience analysed within the specific context (de Vos, Strydom, Fouche & Delport, 2005). The researcher will make use of Tesch’s method of analysis, and use Guba’s strategies for ensuring Trustworthiness. The researcher will apply the ethical considerations of confidentiality, informed consent, ethical approval from relevant institutions, avoidance of harm to participants, truthfulness and the debriefing of participants when conducting this study. The findings were reported as three major themes and subthemes. The three major themes were; Student support staff identified several factors that contributed to occupational stress, Student support staff identified the effect that occupational stress has on them, Student support staff offered suggestions that the college could implement to reduce occupational stress. These themes were discussed and analysed in-depth.

M.A. (Psychology) / Career maturity is a dimension of development which have not been researched intensively in South Africa. This study was conducted to prove the usefulness of the Career Maturity Inventory (CMI) for first-year university students in the RSA. The respondents used is the 1986 first-year students of the Rand Afrikaans University of whom had completed the full diagnostic testing program, as well as the Attitude Scale of the CMI...

Thesis (M.A. (Clinical Psychology)) -- University of Limpopo, 2018 / Extensive research on the knowledge and attitudes of students regarding mental illness has been conducted among university students globally. Some of these studies have indicated that students’ attitudes are influenced by a number of factors such as gender, year of study and contact with people with mental illness. In addition, university students’ attitudes towards people with mental illness were found to vary based on the course that they were enrolled in. The present study sought to explore the knowledge and attitudes of university postgraduate students towards mental illness. A survey research design was adopted. Using systematic random sampling, 143 students enrolled for an honours degree in the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Limpopo were selected and enlisted to participate in the study. The students completed a self-reported questionnaire including the Mental Health Knowledge Schedule (MAKS) and Attitude Scale for Mental Illness (ASMI). The results of the study indicate that nearly half of students (49.7%) have adequate knowledge about mental illness. Most students (mean = 38.55) were able to identify mental disorders and were familiar with various treatment modalities. Gender, study course, and previous contact with people with mental illness had no effect on the students’ knowledge of mental illness. A further exploration revealed that 50.3% of the students displayed favourable attitudes towards people with mental illness. 31.5% of the students reported having previous contact with people with mental illness. A majority (60%) of students who had previous contact with someone with mental illness displayed favourable attitudes compared to students (46%) with no previous contact. Lastly, there was no relationship between the students’ knowledge about mental illnesses and their attitudes. The results suggest that educational and awareness campaigns aimed at improving students’ knowledge about mental illness and attitudes should promote contact with the mentally ill. However, the contact should be the type that will cultivate positive attitudes.