M.A. (Psychology) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

M.A. (Political Science) / Recent studies in a diversity of social science disciplines indicate the growing importance of cross-cultural attitude surveys; and the central theme of this dissertation is the methodological implications thereof. This study aims (1) to make a contribution to the relatively small number of studies ,in South-Africa on the subject of Political Science research methodology, and' (2) to analyze systematically the methodological problems of cross-cultural research into political attitudes. The research problem was formulated as follows: How should cross-cultural survey research of a political nature be planned, structured and conducted to ensure reliability, validity and objectivity? The focus throughout the dissertation, was on two dimensions of the research process namely (1) research design and (2) data-collection, the latter being further divided in two main categories: instrument construction and instrument implementation. A theoretical framework (Chapter 2) was developed incorporating the different methodological factors to be taken into: account when designing and implementing a research project. This framework was applied to (1) survey research in general (Chapter 3), and (2) cross-cultural political attitude surveys (Chapter 4), Special attention was given to research conducted in South Africa. The last chapter contains (1) a summary of the most important considerations relevant to cross-cultural attitude research, and (2) an overview of the main problems of cross-cultural political attitude research in South Africa. The main finding of the study is that in cross-cultural attitude research in South Africa, too little attention is given to methodological issues - both in designing and implementing research projects. In particular, the explication of methodological issues and procedures in research articles and reports is recommended.

A comprehensive battery of commonly used neuropsychological tests, including the WMS Associate Learning and Visual Reproduction subtests, forming the focus of this study, were administered to a southern African sample (n = 33, age range 18-40). This sample composed of black South African, IsiXhosa speakers with an educational level of Grade 11 and 12, derived through DET and former DET schooling. The gender demographics were as follows; females n = 21 and males n = 12. This sample was purposefully selected based on current cross-cultural research which suggests that individuals matching these above-mentioned demographics are significantly disadvantaged when compared to available neuropsychological norms. This is due to the fact that current norms have been created in contexts with socio-cultural influences; including culture, language and quantity and quality of education distinctly dissimilar to individuals like that composed in the sample. Hence the purpose of this study was fourfold namely; 1) Describe and consider socio-cultural factors and the influence on test performance 2) Provide descriptive and preliminary normative data on this neuropsychologically underrepresented population 3) Compare test performance between age and gender through stratification of the sample and finally to 4) Evaluate the current norms of the two WMS subtests and assess their validity for black South Africans with DET and former DET schooling with comparisons to the results found in the study. Information derived from the statistical analyses indicated that a higher performance in favour of the younger group over the older age range was consistently found for both WMS subtests. With regards to gender, some higher means were evident for the male population in the sample than was produced by the female group. Lastly, due to the fact that most scores derived from the sample were considerably lower when compared to the available norms, it is felt that socio-cultural factors prevalent to this population are a significant cause of lower test performance and thus warrant the development of appropriate normative indicators.

The purpose of this study was to compare the WISC-R subtest score scatter patterns and obtain preliminary normative data on the WISC-R Adjunctive tests (Digit Span Forward; Digit Span Backward; Digit Supraspan; Coding Immediate Recall and Coding Delayed Recall) on a non-clinical population of South African English (n= 15) and Xhosa (n= 12) speaking, standard six children, studying in English medium schools. Tests were administered to 27 subjects, both male (n=19) and female (n=8), with a mean age of 14.1 years (range = 13.3-15.3). The results show that White English speaking children outperform Black Xhosa speaking children on Verbal, Performance and Full Scale IQs and all subtests, but that these differences tended to disappear when Full Scale IQ and school grade average were controlled for. No subtest score scatter was present for either group although more specific test items appeared to be more difficult for Xhosa speaking subjects and may have contributed to generally lowered scores. Results suggest that caution must be employed in assigning Xhosa speaking South African children to absolute IQ categories. However, the WISC-R has validity for diagnostic use on both White English speaking and Black Xhosa speaking South African children as there was no evidence of a significant Verbal IQ/Performance IQ discrepancy, or significant low subtest scatter for either group. Normative tables are presented for the use of WISC-R Adjunctive tests. / KMBT_363 / Adobe Acrobat 9.54 Paper Capture Plug-in

Cross-cultural assessment in South Africa has become more prominent since the first democratic elections held in April 1994, as stronger demands for the cultural appropriateness of psychological tests have been made. The use of psychometric testing, including personality assessment in the workplace, is now strictly controlled by legislation, among others the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa (Act 108 of 1996), the Labour Relations Act (66 of 1995), and the Employment Equity Act (55 of 1998), and the Health Professions Act (56 of 1974). The present study forms part of the development process of the South African Personality Inventory (SAPI), which seeks to explore the indigenous personality structure of all the 11 official language groups found in South Africa and to then develop a personality inventory based on this. The present study aimed to explore and describe the personality facets and clusters that were found among a sample of 95 Xhosa-speaking South Africans. An exploratory descriptive research method was used and participants were selected by means of non-probability purposive sampling. Data were gathered by administering a biographical questionnaire and a tape-recorded 10- item interview questionnaire. Content analysis was used to analyse and reduce the data obtained from interviews into personality descriptors. Of the 1872 personality-descriptive words obtained from the interview questions, 164 facets of different personality characteristics were finally configured as a consequence of a data-reduction process. These facets were further categorised into a total of 37 personality sub-clusters and nine personality clusters which were labelled as Extraversion, Soft-heartedness, Conscientiousness, Emotional Stability, Intellect, Openness, Integrity, Relationship Harmony and Facilitating. These clusters and their sub-clusters resonate well with significant aspects and values of the Xhosa culture (e.g., Ubuntu). There also seems to be a moderate correspondence between the clusters and sub-clusters identified in the Xhosa-speaking sample and factors of the Five-Factor Model, especially with respect to the six clusters of Extraversion, Soft-heartedness, Conscientiousness, Emotional Stability, Intellect, and Openness. Nonetheless, differences in the composition of the clusters/facets were found, some of which are due to the more unique facets and sub-facets of personality identified in the Xhosa-speaking sample. The limitations of the study are identified and suggestions are made for further research.

The present study focused on changes over time in university-level Japanese students' sociocultural perceptions of social status during their year abroad in Canada, and the impact of such altered perceptions on their perceptions at subsequent time points. The sociocultural perception to be examined was perceived "social status" which Brown and Levinson (1987) discussed as a contributory factor in the perception of social asymmetry, power and authority. The study attempted to examine (1) whether (and to what extent) Japanese students, before they came to study in Canada, had recognized English native speakers' understanding of social status and had learned how to offer advice appropriately in English to individuals of various social statuses, (2) what proportion of differential pragmatic development among Japanese students in Canada was accounted for by their English proficiency and amount of exposure to English, and (3) whether (and to what extent) living and studying in Canada facilitated Japanese students' pragmatic development, which was assessed by the degree of approximation to native speech act behavior in various advice-giving situations repeated during the course of an academic year. To this end, the study compared the development of Japanese exchange students' pragmatic competence during their year abroad in Canada with peers in Japan who did not undertake a year abroad. / Education, Faculty of / Language and Literacy Education (LLED), Department of / Graduate

The strength of the relationship between various measures of self, such as self-esteem, self-concept, self-acceptance, and achievement has been studied extensively with varying results (see Hansford & Hattie, 1982). This variation may be attributable to the use of different self and achievement measures, ranges in the age of those studied, and not controlling for socioeconomic status, ethnicity/race, gender, or school effects. The main goal of my thesis was to estimate the strength of the relationship between self-esteem, and achievement when gender, ethnicity/race, socioeconomic status, aspects of the parent-child relationship and school contextual effects were controlled. Analyses were conducted on two large data sets. The first was taken from the National Educational Longitudinal Study (NELS) - 1988 and consists of 21,039 grade 8 students sampled from the United States. The second data set was taken from the School-Based Prevention Project (SBPP) - 1995 and consists of 6,795 grade 8 through 12 students from 20 schools in British Columbia, Canada. For both data sets, 7 of 10 items from the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (1965) were used to measure self-esteem. Analyses of the NELS data set yielded three notable findings: (1) the strength of the self-esteem/ achievement relationship is not equivalent across gender-ethnic/racial groups, (2) the self-esteem/ achievement relationship varies when grades versus tests scores are used as achievement measures, and (3) the variability in self-esteem is largely within-schools. Variables controlled in these analyses were gender, ethnicity/race and socioeconomic status. Analyses of the SBPP data yielded four notable findings: (1) the strength of the self-esteem/ achievement relationship varies across a new measure of coping styles, (2) relational factors reduce the strength of the self-esteem/achievement relationship, (3) relational factors explain much more of the variance in self-esteem than does achievement, and (4) almost all the variance in self-esteem is within schools. Variables controlled in these analyses included gender, grade-level, socioeconomic status, perceptions of Mother's and Father's love, and coping styles. The theoretical implications of these results are discussed in terms of attachment theory (Ainsworth, 1969), coping styles (Horney, 1950), and the need to belong (Baumeister & Leary, 1995). / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

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

Intimate partner violence (IPV), typically considered in the domestic context, has been shown to have considerable effects on women's employment and health. While the literature has recently grown in this area, very few studies have examined the prevalence of work-related IPV among men. Furthermore, the extant literature on work-related IPV has largely ignored the experience of ethnic minorities, specifically Latinos. Many factors suggest that rates and forms of IPV might be different among other racial and ethnic groups. Some studies that examine IPV among Latinos have sought to understand the role of acculturation and socioeconomic contexts. The purpose of this study was to examine work-related IPV among a sample of men enrolled in batterer intervention programs. In addition, we sought to examine the relationship between acculturation, socioeconomic contexts, and reports of work-related IPV among a subset of male Latinos. Overall, the findings confirm the upper ranges of previous estimates across studies (36% to 75%) of employed victims of IPV and their harassment by abusive partners while at work (Swanberg, Logan, & Macke, 2005; Taylor & Barusch, 2004). Specifically, we found that 60% of the entire sample reported work-related IPV that involved threatening behaviors and physical violence at their partner's job. The findings among Latinos suggest that a positive relationship exists between acculturation and work-related IPV. Specifically, proxy variables of acculturation (e.g., country of birth, language of survey, number of years in the U.S.) were hypothesized to be positively associated with higher levels of acculturation. Consistent with the hypotheses, we found significant relationships in the direction proposed. Lastly, socioeconomic status (e.g., income, education, employment status) was hypothesized to play a moderating role between acculturation and work-related IPV. However, results generally suggest that socioeconomic status (i.e., income, education) did not moderate the relationship between acculturation and work-related IPV. This study makes important contributions to the literature and has implications for employers. The significant rates of work-related IPV found in this study highlight the need to address this problem among employed males as an important step in preventing work-related IPV. Among Latinos, the level of acculturation and factors such as income, employment, and education are important contextual factors that provide a better understanding of IPV in Latino communities (Gryywacz, Rao, Gentry, Marin, & Arcury, 2009).

The primary emphasis in the field of expatriate adjustment has focused on the experiences of the person working overseas on assignment. Research that includes the experiences of the accompanying partner of the working expatriate frequently positions this person as an antecedent to the working partner's adjustment process. Understanding the adjustment process from the accompanying partner's perspective is underrepresented in the literature. In this qualitative research project eight expatriate couples were interviewed to examine in detail their experiences of adjusting overseas on assignment in order to identify the critical adjustment factors, the resources that are available to assist the adjustment process, and what personal characteristics aid a successful intercultural experience while living overseas. Recommendations are provided for both the employer and the accompanying partner to assist the adjustment process.