The current study examined the scale-level factor structure of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-Adolescent (MVIPI-A) in a sample of 428 gifted and talented adolescents to validate use of this approach with a gifted population. The MMPIA structural summary was developed to help simplify interpretation of the 69 scales and subscales that are produced with a full administration of this assessment. A principal component analysis was conducted in an attempt to replicate the eight-factor structure identified by Archer, Belevich, and Elkins (1994) in the MMPI-A normative sample and by Archer and Krishnamurthy (1997) in a clinical sample. Results yielded eight factors which accounted for 69.57% of the total variance. Six of these eight factors appeared highly congruent with the original eight structural summary factors identified by Archer, Belevich, and Elkins in the MMPI-A normative sample. The results of this factor analysis supported use of the structural summary approach with gifted and talented high school students. This investigation then used MMPI-A structural summary profiles to describe the psychological characteristics of gifted adolescents. The main finding was that the gifted and talented sample presented with scores within the normal range, and the percentage of gifted students with elevations on any one factor did not exceed the percentage expected in a normal distribution. The highest number of elevations was on the Naivete factor followed by Social Discomfort and then General Maladjustment. These results suggested that this sample of gifted and talented adolescents presented with no more psychological maladjustment than would be expected from any other group of adolescents. Implications of these results for future research and practice with gifted and talented youth were discussed. / Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services

Test feedback has been recommended as an effective adjunct to brief therapy, despite a continued lack of empirical support. Previous research demonstrates the benefits of providing test feedback; however, it is unclear whether feedback interventions are responsible for producing positive outcomes. To clarify the efficacy of incorporating test feedback into the counseling process, a constructive research strategy was followed to examine collaborative MMPI-2 feedback as an isolated treatment component in brief counseling. A multiple source effect, as outlined by social influence theory (Strong, 1968) and the elaboration likelihood model (Petty & Cacioppo, 1981), was proposed to explain the benefits of collaborative test feedback. Specifically, the source characteristics of the counselor and the test were hypothesized to facilitate counseling outcomes.Forty undergraduate students, who were willing to discuss personal concerns with a counselor during two counseling sessions, were randomly assigned to either a counseling-only or a counseling + feedback intervention. The counseling process in both treatment groups was the same (i.e., participants answered personal questions), but MMPI-2 feedback was provided only in the counseling + feedback group. After each counseling session and a two-week follow-up, participants completed the Session Impact Scale, Outcome Questionnaire, Counselor Rating Form, Thought Listing procedure, as well as counseling attitudes and persuasion to change measures.Regardless of whether personality feedback was provided, the counseling sessions were evaluated favorably, participants' psychological functioning improved, and counselors were perceived to be influential. Although group differences were not large enough to be statistically significant, providing MMPI-2 feedback was associated with more reliable change in symptomatic distress. In addition, participants from both groups reported comparable levels of cognitive processing and counseling attitudes and were similarly persuaded to alter their behavior. Because significant changes occurred regardless of test feedback, counseling outcomes were not moderated by providing test feedback. Multiple source effects were not demonstrated in the test feedback process. These results indicate common therapeutic factors, such as answering therapeutic questions and finding solutions to presenting concerns, are responsible for treatment gains previously attributed to test feedback. Suggestions for future test interpretation research are provided and recommendations for theoretical development are discussed. / Department of Educational Studies

The assessment of depression among older adults is difficult because depression rating scales can contain items that are related to cognitive deficits, physical illnesses, and other normal age changes. This study attempted to identify those items on the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory - Revised (MMPI-2) depression scale which strongly correlated with age as a basis for dividing the depression scale into two subscales: one measuring aging and the other measuring depression. These subscales were then evaluated by comparing two groups of older adults, one depressed and the other healthy, to determine if there would be no difference on the aging.subscale and a significant difference on the depression subscale.This research was conducted in two stages. The first stage entailed giving the extracted MMPI-2 depression scale (MMPI-2 D) to healthy older adults (n=114, aged 60 and above) and to healthy younger college students (n=142, aged 18 to 29) in order to assess which of the 57 MMPI-2 depression items were correlated with age.Using a cutoff score of 20% endorsement difference (Butcher & Pancheri, 1976) between the two groups (p<.001), it was determined that fifteen items of the MMPI-2 D scale differentiated the healthy older adult and the healthy younger adult groups and were therefore related to aging and not depression. Twelve of these items were in the depressive direction for older adults. Those items which strongly correlated with age were used to create an aging subscale of the MMPI-2 depression scale (MMPI-2 Da). The remaining items were assumed to measure depression and were considered a depression subscale (MMPI-2 Dd).The second stage of this research addressed the utility of the subscales. It was hypothesized that the MMPI-2 Da (aging subscale) would not discriminate between depressed and healthy older adults since both groups were the same with respect to age. It was further hypothesized that the MMPI-2 Dd (depression subscale) would discriminate between these groups because the groups were different with respect to depression.When the two subscales were used with a new healthy older adult group (n=54) and a depressed older adult group (n=36), both hypotheses were supported. There was no significant difference between the healthy and depressed older adults on the aging subscale (MMPI-2 Da) and there was a significant difference on the depression subscale (MMPI-2 Dd). Implications and limitations of these findings were discussed. / Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services

This study investigated the interaction between test feedback style (interactive and delivered) and a client’s information processing style (experiential and rational) based on Cognitive Experiential Self-Theory (CEST) with a sample comprised of 39 clients from a university outpatient clinic and a community outpatient clinic in a midsized, midwestern city. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three groups: interactive test feedback, delivered test feedback, and examiner attention control group. Participants attended three sessions (initial session, feedback session, follow-up session) with a doctoral-level examiner. Participants in the two experimental groups (interactive and delivered feedback) received test feedback on their MMPI-2 profiles based on their assigned feedback condition while participants in the control group were not provided with feedback until after the conclusion of the study. The instruments assessing client response to treatment over time consisted of process-oriented (client’s perception of counselor and session) and outcome-oriented (symptomatology and self-esteem) measures. The results of two MANCOVAs (one for process and one for outcome variables) found no difference between participants who received test feedback and the control group. Partial support was found for the attribute by treatment interactions. There was some support for the matching effect of experiential information processing and interactive test feedback. This interaction was significant for self-esteem; individuals with higher levels of experiential information processing who received interactive feedback reported higher levels of self-esteem over time than those participants receiving delivered feedback or examiner attention only. The interaction of experiential information processing and treatment group was also significant for symptomatic distress; however, this interaction was opposite to the hypothesized direction. A matching effect for rational information processing and delivered test feedback was not supported. Finally, the three-way interaction of test feedback style, information processing style, and time was not significant for the process- or outcome-oriented benefits. The current study is one of the first studies to examine personality feedback with a community outpatient population. The lack of support for the benefits of personality feedback is noteworthy. In part, the results may be explained by low statistical power. Further examination of beta weights and directions of effects, however, suggest that even with a larger sample support for the benefits of personality feedback may not be found. These findings suggest caution should be exercised in generalizing previous results to a more severely impaired community population. Other limitations are discussed and implication for theory, research, and practice are provided. / Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services

Purpose - The purpose of this thesis is to identify factors that have an impact on supermarket inventory levels that supply a manufacturing line and investigate how the impact of these factors can be controlled. In order to fulfill the purpose it was broken down into two research questions.   What factors have an impact on supermarket inventory levels supplying a manufacturing line? 2.      How can the impact of these factors be controlled? Method - To answer the research questions a literature study and a case study were conducted. The empirical findings from the case study and the literature study were used to find the answer to the first research question. The identified factors in the first research question were then analysed with the theoretical framework in order to answer the second research question. Different techniques have been used in order to collect necessary data including documentation studies, interviews, observations and basic training in the case company’s procurement system (GILM).   Findings - Total safety lead time, firm time and shortage impact were discovered during the case study. These factors were not to found during the literature study because they were specific parameters that are predetermined in the case company’s procurement system. Internal material handling and supermarket order quantity were factors also found during the case study. The identified factors are divided after which tool or method that can be used to gain control over the factor. Four different tools have been identified as solutions to gain control over the internal material handling. The factors that only have one identified tool as a solution are either case specific or not attentive in the theoretical framework as the other tools.   Implications - The identified factors from the literature study are considered as common factors that can be applied for companies that have a supermarket inventory. If manufacturing companies are facing problems with their supermarket inventory levels they can increase control by investigating the tools and methods presented in this thesis. Contributions - The factors that were identified during the case study have contributed with new discoveries in the field of study, since there is limited research done in this subject regarding supermarket systems.   Research limitations - More case studies could have been performed at similar companies, in order to investigate how generalizable the answers to both research questions are.

Many real-world supply chains can be characterised as large and complex multi-echelon systems since they consist of several stages incorporating assembly and distribution processes. A challenge facing such systems is the efficient management of inventory when demand is uncertain, operating costs and customer service requirements are high. This requires specifying the inventory levels at different stages that minimise the total cost and meet target customer service levels. In order to address this problem, researchers proposed the Stochastic-Service Model and the Guaranteed-Service Model (GSM) approaches. These two approaches differ in terms of assumptions with regard to how to address demand variations and service times. This thesis develops several contributions to the GSM based multi-echelon inventory optimisation problem. First of all, we conduct a comprehensive literature review which gives a synthesis of the various GSM work developed so far. Then, we study the impact of some specific assumptions of the GSM such as bounded demand, guaranteed-service times and common review periods. Our numerical analysis shows that the bounded demand assumption may cause a deviation on customer service levels while the guaranteed-service times and common review periods assumptions may result in an increase on the total cost. In real-world supply chains the impact of these assumptions might be significant. Based on the findings presented while investigating the impact of the common review periods assumption, we develop an extension of the GSM that enables to simultaneously optimise the review periods (reorder intervals) and safety stock levels (order-up-to levels) in general acyclic multi-echelon systems. We formulate this problem as a nonlinear integer programming model. Then, we propose a sequential optimisation procedure that enables to obtain near optimal solutions with reasonable computational time. Finally, we focus on the issue of customer service level deviation in the GSM and propose two approaches in order to mitigate this deviation. The numerical study shows that the first approach outperforms the second one in terms of computational time while the second approach provides more accurate solutions in terms of cost. We also present some related issues in decentralised supply chain settings.

The aim of this study was to explore the validity of the Values in Action Inventory of Strengths (VIA-IS) in an African context. This 240-item self-report questionnaire that measures 24 character strengths (Peterson & Seligrnan, 2004), was developed in a western individualistic context, and it cannot be assumed to be valid in African contexts without prior scientific evaluation. The current study, a first step in the evaluation of its validity in an African context, focussed on psychometric properties such as reliability, mean scores and variance, criterion-related validity, confirmatory and exploratory factor analyses, as well as translatability. In a cross-sectional survey design an availability sample of African students (N=256) completed the original English version of the VIA-IS and other criterion-related measures of psychological well-being and health, during facilitated group sessions. The latter scales were the Affectometer 2 (Kammann & Flett, 1983), the Fortitude Questionnaire (Pretorius, 1998), the Sense of Coherence Scale (Antonovsky, 1987), the Satisfaction with Life Scale (Diener, et al. 1985), and the General Health Questionnaire (Goldberg & Hillier, 1979). Translation of the VIA-IS into Setswana and back-translation were conducted and evaluated by a research evaluation committee. Results indicated that mean scores of the VIA-IS subscales are relatively aligned with those in a western context. Twenty of the twenty-four VIA-subscales showed satisfactory Cronbach alphas reliability indices above .70. The VIA-IS satisfies criterion-related validity as indicated by positive correlation with life satisfaction, positive affect, fortitude and sense of coherence, and negative correlation with negative affect and symptoms of ill-health. The VIA-IS was found to be translatable with preservation of original meaning, but in some instances technical terms had to be borrowed. Second order confirmatory and exploratory principal component factor analyses on the 24 strengths yielded three significant factors, and not six as theoretically expected, in this African group. The three emic virtue clusters are 1) Wisdom, knowledge and courage, 2) Horizontal and vertical relatedness and 3) Integrity in a group context: temperance and justice. This clustering of virtues reflects a socio-centric, collectivistic African cultural value system. It is concluded that the VIA-IS may have merit in an African context, but is not completely valid in its original form with its hypothesised six value clusters. With modifications and adaptations a more valid version may be developed for an African context. Studies on randomly selected, larger African samples are recommended. / Thesis (M.Sc. (Clinical Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2005.

Cross-cultural assessment in South Africa has become more prominent since the first democratic elections held in April 1994, and stronger demands for the cultural appropriateness of psychological tests have arisen. 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). Much controversy has arisen regarding the relevance and applicability of assessment instruments in South Africa. The majority of assessment procedures still make use of imported instruments that are either used in their original or adapted form. Psychological assessment instruments imported from abroad have an insufficient suitability in the multicultural South African context. There are various perspectives regarding the appropriate measurement of personality across cultures. In this research study implicit perspectives of personality, the lexical approach, indigenous psychology and the emic approach were used to determine the personality perspectives of the Tsonga culture in South Africa. The objectives of this study were to investigate how personality is conceptualised in literature, to identify the problems surrounding personality measurement for the South African context, to explore how personality perspectives could be determined and to investigate the personality descriptive terms in the Tsonga language group. A qualitative research design was used to collect the data of this research. A total of 5 502 personality descriptors were obtained through the 1 0-item interview questionnaires. Content analysis was used to analyse, reduce and interpret the data obtained from the participants. The personality descriptors obtained were reduced by removing superfluous words. These personality descriptors were then interpreted and categorised into a total of 109 personality dimensions. These characteristics were categorised into nine clusters, namely Optimism, Agreeableness, Emotional Stability, Narrow-mindedness, Intelligence, Conscientiousness, Aggressiveness, Dominance and Sociability. The following personality dimensions had the highest frequency: Emotional Stability, Caring, Helpful, Hard working, Advising, Generous, Traditional, Aggression, Recreational, Substance use, Religious, Sociable and Loving. Recommendations for future research were made. / Thesis (M.A. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.

The aim of this study was to determine the psychometric properties of a shortened version of the Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory (ZTPI) in an African context. This self-report questionnaire, referred to as the Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory -Revised Form (ZTPI-RF) consists of 20 items representing the five subscales of the original scale, namely: Past-Positive, Past-Negative, Present-Hedonistic, Present-Fatalistic and Future. The ZTPI-RF was completed by participants (N=1050) from urban (n=451) and rural (n=599) areas in the North-West Province of South Africa, together with a number of measures of psychological well-being. These scales, which were included for criterion-related validity purposes, were the Affectometer 2 (short version) (Kammann & Flett, 1983), the Satisfaction with Life Scale (Diener, Emmons, Larsen & Griffin, 1985), Sense of Coherence Scale (Antonovsky, 1987, 1993) and the General Health Questionnaire (Goldberg & Hillier, 1979). Results regarding the reliability and construct validity of the ZTPI-RF and its subscales were unsatisfactory. Qualitative data was also obtained, and analyzed by means of direct content analysis to help establish a picture of how time perspective prevails in an African context, and to determine whether time perspective is associated with psychological well-being. Qualitative results showed that participants from an African context were strongly oriented toward the present and that social support played the most prominent role regarding participants' attitude toward the present. It was concluded that the ZTPI-RF is, in its current form, not reliable for the determination of time perspective of individuals from an African context, and that a longitudinal qualitative approach might be best suited to obtain information about the nature and dynamics of time perspective in an African context. / Thesis (M.A. (Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2008.

The Employment Equity Act, 55 of 1998, Section 8 (Government Gazette, 1998) provides clear guidelines for psychometric testing in South Africa. Due to the cultural complexity of the South African population, personality tests in particular do not always comply with these specifications. Most personality tests used in South Africa have been developed in and imported from other countries, and are consequently not always appropriate for all cultural groups. Also, the majority of indigenous personality tests were developed and standardised specifically for the white population. Today a major challenge in personality assessment development is to develop and standardise inventories for the 11 official language groups in South Africa. The objectives of this study were to develop valid and reliable items for an Intellect–measuring instrument that will form part of a larger personality inventory, to investigate the factor solution of this Intellect cluster, and to compare the factor solutions of the white and African race groups respectively. An Intellect questionnaire consisting of 202 items was developed based on the qualitative phase of the South African Personality Inventory (SAPI). This research served as a pilot study. The sample consisted of (N=524) students from tertiary institutions in the Gauteng and the North West Provinces of South Africa. A quantitative design with an exploratory approach was used to collect data. Statistical analysis was used to analyse the data. The results indicated that only 18 of the original 202 items proved to be unreliable. Acceptable reliability levels for all facets were found. First–order factor analysis produced two sub–clusters: Aesthetics and Intellect. The Aesthetics sub–cluster consisted of the Artistic, Concrete work and Creative facets, and the Intellect sub–cluster consisted of the Intellect, Knowledgeable, Logical, Self–insight, Articulate, Competent, Enterprising, Perceptive, Social Intellect and Understanding facets. Second–order factor analysis indicated a single–order factor for the Intellect cluster with two second–order factors: Aesthetics and Intellect. Support was found to discard the Musical and Enterprising facets from the Intellect cluster. Similar factor solutions were found for the white and African groups - except for the Musical facet, which loaded on the Aesthetics sub–cluster for the white group and on the Intellect sub–cluster for the African group. Recommendations were made for future research. / Thesis (M.Com. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.