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Social isolation has been linked with negative health effects in senior women. The purpose of this study was to understand the lived experiences of socially-isolated senior women. Local senior-serving organizations assisted with the recruitment of six socially-isolated senior women to participate in individual qualitative interviews. Three service providers were also interviewed. Seniors’ interviews were analyzed using interpretive phenomenological analysis and service provider interviews were analyzed using thematic analysis. Three superordinate themes were derived from the senior interviews: social needs, self-perceptions of isolation and loneliness, and constraints to and facilitators of social engagement. Five superordinate themes were derived from the service provider interviews: definitions of social isolation, differences between social isolation and loneliness, gender differences in isolation and loneliness, identifying socially-isolated seniors, and essential components of initiatives aimed at reducing social isolation. The views of socially-isolated seniors are important to understand to develop programs and policies that promote healthy aging.

This thesis is a theoretical exploration of the problem of the neighbour as an encounter with the Grey Zone. I look at various materials that can be formulated as expressions of the anxiety over the unknown that can come out in confrontation with problematic neighbours. Using an interpretive lense that recognizes the fundamental ambiguity in any speech (Blum 2010, Bonner 1997, 1998) I attempt to show how such talk is grounded in the problem of anxiety in the face of the unknown. I begin with an analysis of city life and problem neighbours in general, I then move to a theoretical discussion of the problem that Žižek’s formulation of the Neighbour as Other and Raffel’s discussion of a shared world brings out. I then look at the problem of a specific kind of bad neighbour, a methadone clinic can have in terms of the experience of parenting, and how this is articulated in some theoretical writings on city life. I then turn to an analysis of the proverbial fence as a solution to the Neighbour, followed by an analysis of the Russell Williams case as a call to revisit the problem of the Neighbour in relation to the Grey Zone. Though seemingly disconnected, all the cases I deal with can be understood as part of a conversation on the relation of health, neighbourliness and anxiety in the city to the problem of an encounter with the unknown.

Social isolation has been linked with negative health effects in senior women. The purpose of this study was to understand the lived experiences of socially-isolated senior women. Local senior-serving organizations assisted with the recruitment of six socially-isolated senior women to participate in individual qualitative interviews. Three service providers were also interviewed. Seniors’ interviews were analyzed using interpretive phenomenological analysis and service provider interviews were analyzed using thematic analysis. Three superordinate themes were derived from the senior interviews: social needs, self-perceptions of isolation and loneliness, and constraints to and facilitators of social engagement. Five superordinate themes were derived from the service provider interviews: definitions of social isolation, differences between social isolation and loneliness, gender differences in isolation and loneliness, identifying socially-isolated seniors, and essential components of initiatives aimed at reducing social isolation. The views of socially-isolated seniors are important to understand to develop programs and policies that promote healthy aging.

This thesis is a theoretical exploration of the problem of the neighbour as an encounter with the Grey Zone. I look at various materials that can be formulated as expressions of the anxiety over the unknown that can come out in confrontation with problematic neighbours. Using an interpretive lense that recognizes the fundamental ambiguity in any speech (Blum 2010, Bonner 1997, 1998) I attempt to show how such talk is grounded in the problem of anxiety in the face of the unknown. I begin with an analysis of city life and problem neighbours in general, I then move to a theoretical discussion of the problem that Žižek’s formulation of the Neighbour as Other and Raffel’s discussion of a shared world brings out. I then look at the problem of a specific kind of bad neighbour, a methadone clinic can have in terms of the experience of parenting, and how this is articulated in some theoretical writings on city life. I then turn to an analysis of the proverbial fence as a solution to the Neighbour, followed by an analysis of the Russell Williams case as a call to revisit the problem of the Neighbour in relation to the Grey Zone. Though seemingly disconnected, all the cases I deal with can be understood as part of a conversation on the relation of health, neighbourliness and anxiety in the city to the problem of an encounter with the unknown.

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While psychotherapy constitutes psychologists’ primary form of intervention, psychotherapy research has evidenced a dearth of qualitative data surrounding the practise of psychotherapy as experienced from the perspective of the psychotherapist. To address this, the aim of the present study was to explore the lived experiences and meaning(s) of South African psychologists doing psychotherapy. In doing so, a qualitative research approach, embedded within an interpretive phenomenological theoretical framework, was adopted. Six South African psychologists were identified and selected using snowball sampling and in-depth semi-structured interviews conducted with each of the participants. Each interview was audio recorded and interpreted using interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA). From the data, the following four main themes were identified the space, the process, the Sisyphean burden, and being-seen whilst seeing-others. Additional subthemes and integrated themes including: the self and the search for meaning also emerged. The findings spoke to the complex, challenging and deeply meaningful experiences psychologists identified in doing psychotherapy. The explored experiences and identified meaning(s) reflected psychologists’ understandings of, and responses to, the challenging nature of their profession. As such, the findings of this research study endeavour to contribute towards bridging the epistemological gap, surrounding the paucity of idiographic research and qualitative accounts, of the lived experiences of psychotherapy amongst psychologists in South Africa. These findings therefore aim to shed light on, and better equip, current and future practising psychologists in navigating the inherent stressors of their profession. / Mini Dissertation (MA Clinical Psychology)--University of Pretoria, 2020. / Psychology / MA (Clinical Psychology) / Unrestricted

The purpose of this study was to understand the relationships between participation in park interpretive programs and attitudes, norms and behavior about theft of petrified wood at Petrified Forest National Park (PFNP). The Theory of Reasoned Action guided the research. Data collection included observation of theft behavior, on-site interviews and mailback questionnaires. Findings indicated that more time spent at interpretive centers and programs did not result in visitors; attitudes and norms about individual acts of wood theft being more negative. Also, attitudes and norms about petrified wood theft did not vary by type of interpretive programs judged most helpful in learning the park;s story and in learning the park;s rules and regulations. Tentative evidence suggests that the norm against taking a handful of wood was stronger among individuals who cited visitor centers as their most helpful source than it was for respondents who said the same about other national park interpretive programs. Similarly, the attitude variable that it is all right to take a piece of petrified wood as long as it is a small piece did vary for two categories of interpretive programs (other national park programs and all ranger programs). Ranger programs measured significantly higher than other national park programs. The rate of theft of petrified wood was not inversely related to the amount of interpretive programs participated in and did not vary by type of interpretation judged most helpful. Finally, attitudes and norms about petrified wood theft did not shape theft behavior. However, knowing visitors; attitudes helped to predict who would be a non-thief. / Master of Science

Purposes/Aims: This study described the unique relationships that develop while providing cancer care to American Indian (AI) populations and the underlying meaning that nurses ascribed to these experiences. Rationale/Conceptual Basis/Background: The establishment of caring relationships in order to provide high quality cancer care is particularly challenging for nurses who engage with ethnic minority populations as they contend with cultural and contextual influences different from those found in the majority population. AIs represent an Indigenous minority group in the U.S. facing a considerable cancer care inequity. Nurses who care for AI patients frequently encounter population-specific issues that impact the caring dynamic, yet their experiences and the meaning they ascribe to them are largely unknown. Methods: This was an interpretive phenomenological study with iterative data collection and analysis. Nine cancer care nurses with a minimum of three years of experience working with AI patients participated by engaging in 2-3 exploratory, open-ended, reflective interviews over a period of 9 months. Thematic reduction was completed to explicate the fundamental structures of nurse-patient relationships during cancer care. Phenomenological and hermeneutical reflective writing resulted in linguistic transformation illuminating the essential meaning for nurses within this patient-nurse phenomenon. Results: Findings include individually-situated wholistic descriptions capturing the existential experiences of each of the participants. Reduction of individually-situated themes into seven shared meta-themes included From Task to Connection; Unnerving Messaging; We Are One; the Freedom of Unconditional Acceptance; Attuning and Opening; Atoning for the Past, One Moment at a Time; and Humanizing the Inhumane. Themes were explicated in a comprehensive general structural description followed by the reconstitution of the data and self-reflection into a deeply introspective essential description, suggesting that the meaning of the AI patient-cancer care nurse relationship was expressed in contradictory yet simultaneous patterns of joy and sorrow; ease and difficulty; obligation and vocation. From one moment to the next, nurses sought synchronicity with their patient as they danced to a life rhythm that revealed and concealed; enabled and limited; connected and separated. Being in relationship provided nurses great purpose within the universal human context of caring. Implications: Results contribute to the development of interventions designed to improve both the AI cancer care experience and the support and training of the nurses who serve this population. Refinement of our praxis will result in improved outcomes for both nurses and AI patients, reflecting the inseparability of the two entities within the cancer care relationship. The complimentary and mutually dependent nature of the patient-nurse relationship implies that strengthening and improving support for one entity may in turn positively impact the other. Further research into the AI patient’s perspective of their relationships with cancer care nurses is called for.

Scheme86 is a computer system designed to interpret programs written in the Scheme dialect of Lisp. A specialized architecture, coupled with new techniques for optimizing register management in the interpreter, allows Scheme86 to execute interpreted Scheme at a speed comparable to that of compiled Lisp on conventional workstations.