Aims: The study was aimed at exploring adolescents‟ level of knowledge of HIV/AIDS and the influence this knowledge has on their sexual behaviour. Methods: In total, 20 in- depth interviews were conducted from a group of 20 (both males and females) secondary school learners. The interviews were audio taped with consent from participants. Results: The results of the study showed that participants possess basic knowledge of HIV/AIDS, including methods of prevention and transmission. No serious misconceptions about modes of transmission of HIV were found in this study. Although, participants reported condom use, no sexual intercourse with multiple concurrent partners and no intergenerational sexual relationships, the findings revealed some risk factors such as early sexual debuts, early dating, multiple sexual partnerships. Conclusions: The aforesaid sexual behaviours and the sexual activeness among learners is a cause for angst. Thus, these findings highlighted the need for a comprehensive approach to sexual reproductive health education by all interested parties in order to enhance and sustain behaviour change among young people. / Health Studies / M.A. (Public Health)

Child pedestrian injury and mortality is an issue of significant public health concern in the city of Johannesburg, Gauteng, in South Africa. Since there is a paucity of studies in the last decade or more on fatal childhood traffic and non-traffic injuries in Johannesburg, this study aspires to address the disproportion in this domain of research, and provide more recent, and comprehensive empirical evidence over a ten-year period. The overarching aim of this study was to describe and examine the magnitude, circumstances, and neighbourhood characteristics of fatal pedestrian injuries among children (0-14 years) in Johannesburg for the period from 2001 to 2010. More specifically, the objectives of the study were: firstly, to provide a comprehensive epidemiological description of the magnitude, trends and occurrence of pedestrian mortality among children; secondly, to describe and examine the epidemiology of child pedestrian mortality in relation to children as motor vehicle passengers; thirdly, to describe and examine child pedestrian mortality in relation to non-traffic injuries, in particular, burns and drowning; and fourthly, to assess the influence of neighbourhood characteristics on child pedestrian mortality. The study conceptualised pedestrian road safety within an ecological systems framework. The study used quantitative descriptive, and multivariate logistic regression methods of analysis to examine child pedestrian mortality data. The study drew on data from the National Injury Mortality Surveillance System (NIMSS) and the Census 2001. The main findings indicated that black, male children aged 5 to 9 years (11.02/100 000) are the most vulnerable, and that mortality occurred predominantly during the afternoons and early evenings (12h00-16h00 and 16h00-21h00), over weekends, during school holidays, and to a lesser extent, during non-holiday months. In addition, neighbourhood characteristics that reflected concentrations of disadvantage, single female-headed households and residentially stable areas were associated with child pedestrian mortality. The study findings highlight the need for critical action in terms of investment in child pedestrian safety research, and appropriate prevention initiatives guided by stringent evidenced-based studies, and the design of safe pedestrian, vehicular and urban environments. / Psychology / D.Phil. (Psychology)

Unintended and unwanted pregnancies are major reproductive health problems impacting negatively on women’s health globally. When faced with these pregnancies, many women choose termination of pregnancy (TOP) as their recourse. The purpose of the study was to explore and describe physical, psychological and social implications of TOP on the woman’s health. A qualitative and descriptive research design was used. The population comprised women who had TOP three months to one year before the study and were willing to participate in the study. A non-probability purposive sampling was used to select participants for the study. In-depth phenomenological interviews were used for data collection until data saturation was reached with 20 participants. The findings reveal that women had psychological, physical and social implications after TOP which impacted negatively on their health. Recommendations were made to improve the services of women choosing to terminate a pregnancy to lessen negative implications. / Health Studies / M.A. (Health Studies)

Today, the use of one's bank card to pay or withdraw money is common. Modern technology provides us with the convenience of instant transactions at the automated teller machine or point of sale but unfortunately, it has also brought the reality and risk of card skimming and counterfeit card fraud. Criminals have become very efficient and technologically advanced in skimming and counterfeiting cards, to such an extent that counterfeit card fraud has become a significant threat to the public, banking, retail and business in South Africa. Counterfeit card fraud is a complex, multi-faceted crime, requiring specific skills and knowledge of card counterfeiting methods from police and bank investigators. The scope of its investigation is wide. It includes different crime scenes and offenders, sophisticated equipment and various aspects that need to be identified positively. Investigators find it difficult to identify perpetrators and certain aspects unique to this crime and, as a result, many investigations are unsuccessful. This research endeavours to establish what identification methods are available to investigators and which are effective. / Police Practice / M. Tech. (Forensic Investigation)

This paper examines bubbles on the JSE All Share Index as well as the critical time of the stock market crash from 2/01/ 2004 – 27/03/2014. The underlying hypothesis define bubbles as extreme and begin as a group of small events which grow in a super exponential form explained by a log periodic power law model (LPPL model). The hypothesis is based on the assumption of investors’ herding behavior, where investors collude by making investment decision correlated with their counterparties. The paper implements a Savitzky Golary Algorithm to detect peaks and calculate the critical time of the crash from the peaks. An Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) method is used to determine both the value of stock market price index at the critical time and the increase in the stock market price index over the time before the crash. The remaining parameters of the LPPL model are estimated using a Maximum Likelihood Estimation method. On the empirical results; 68 peaks were detected, and the LPPL model at the critical crash time is estimated 34736.586. Five bubbles are detected; the 15/8/2005 bubble, 28/5/2013 bubble, 23/8/2013 bubble, 5/11/2013, and 1/20/2014.

M.A. (Psychology) / This study regarding the long-term effects of the Westdene bus-disaster which was undertaken after a period of seven years, had the following objectives: (1) A literature survey regarding the theory of disaster psychology; (2) An investigation of the long-term effects of traumatic events in the primary victims of the Westdene bus-disaster; (3) A survey to establish the long-term effects of therapeutic inputs in the primary victims. The first part of this study is devoted to a theoretical investigation which gives an overview of the Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. Since the concept of stress is essential to the understanding of this syndrome, it is also closely examined. The conclusion was reached that the concept of stress and how stress is measured should be reconsidered. Stress should be seen as a contextual phenomenon and not just physioloqical and intra-psychological one. The specific types of disasters are also examined in the literature survey. The way in which children and adolescents experience stress differently to adults is also discussed. This is largely due to the dynamic processes involved during development which allows them (within the context of supportive systems) to absorb elements of healing faster and more effectively. The processes involved in development are also discussed in the literature survey. Research was done mainly in a qualitative way. The results of the research suggest that the experiencing of serious trauma by adolescents negatively influence the process of becoming independent and forming of an identity. This appears to be a function of the adolescent's in ability to separate from his/her family of origin and/or the inability of the family of origin to allow the adolescent to become independent. It further appears that the presence of PTSS in victims of a traumatic event is not a linear matter which follows automatically after exposure to a certain amount of stressful events. There appear to be other factors that play a causal role in the extent to which the victim experiences " events as stressful or not. These factors operate as "mediating factors" with regards to the victim's experience of an event as stressful or not. Such factors include social networks and whether vicitim's experience events as ideologically meaningful or not. With regards to psychological help/therapy and the long-term effects of such interventions, the researcher came to the conclusion that developmental processes in interaction with a supportive psychological climate can be a powerful antidote for the experiencing of PTSS symptoms in the long-term. Criticism against this study is that due to the long lapse of time between the taking place of the disaster and the of the study factors other than the disaster maybe responsible for the current functioning of the primary victims,as well as the fact that the group used for research purposes was to a degree self-selective.

M.A. (Geography) / The provision of open space m cities is important in creating a pleasant atmosphere, in dividing incompatible land zones and m providing recreation facilities. Researchers on this topic agree that with rapid population growth and urbanization it is necessary that, in future, city planning should be done to enhance the quality of life of city dwellers ...

M.Ed. (Educational Psychology) / There has been a growing concern for the number of first year students who drop out of university before completing the course they have registered for. The increase in technological development and the creation of new and more demanding job opportunities requires a highly. skilled workforce. Therefore it is imperative that each individual should reach his highest potential. Numerous studies have been undertaken to determine the reasons for the high incidence of student - drop out. Both academic and social factors have been investigated. One factor that has only recently been investigated is the learning strategies of the student. Learning strategies entail the way in which a student plans and executes his studies, and the processes that are involved in this activity. This study was undertaken to determine if there exists a difference between the learning strategies of a first year student who is impersonally well adjusted versus a first year student that is maladjusted with regard to interpersonal adjustment.

M.Ed. / Please refer to full text to view abstract

M.A. (Clinical Psychology) / Hypertension is a current health science priority. This is because it is associated with chronic diseases such as coronary disease. Further it is known to cause end organ damage. It has been clearly established over the last 20 years that antihypertensive drug therapy decreases mortality in those with moderate or severe hypertension. However, the use of drugs for long-term prophylaxis carries with it the risk of long-term side effects. It is for this reason that the need for non-pharmacological treatment of hypertension has risen. The wider acceptance of a more cautious. conservative approach towards drug therapy in general seems necessary. Biobehavioral approaches to the treatment of hypertension have been a 'promising' aItemative or adjunct to drug treatment programmes. However. these approaches have been met with limited success due to the fact that they fail to take into account the effect of family systemic variables as a contributing factor in the causation and maintenance of hypertension. This study investigated the possibility that biopsychosocial techniques offer an added dimension to the biobehavioral approach to the treatment of hypertension by taking into account the familial systemic variables which may contribute to maintaining hypertension. The biopsychosocial techniques may playa significant adjunctive role in permitting control of blood pressure to be maintained without the side-effects seen with the chronic use of medication. An exploratory study was conducted in which a single-subject. AS design was utilized in order to determine whether the added component of a systemically based family intervention would add to decrease or increase the effects obtained with the Fahrion Mayo-protocol. In this context five subjects were consecutively Subjected to health information. muscle relaxation training and biofeedback-assisted training. The systems-based family intervention occurred-throughout the procedure. There was significant decrease across all five subjects of baseline to follow-up systolic blood pressure. This could indicate that the programme as a whole provided an effective decrease in systolic blood pressure. Of particular interest is the possibility that the biofeedback-assisted training intervention could be a placebo intervention associated with the technological nature of the intervention. It is therefore quite clear that the data would be indicative of a non-biofeedback, but relaxation. health information and systemic family intervention to be effective in the treatment of hypertension.