This study investigated the effects of a South African Black youth jive on selected Biophysical, Physiological and Psycho-social parameters, using 31 Black youths, males and females (mean age 19.29 yrs) as subjects. All subjects participated in the pre- and post-programme testing protocols (acting as their own control) and in a 7-week jive programme. While the female subjects were significantly (p<0.05) heavier with a greater percentage body fat than their male counterparts, a two factor analysis of variance revealed no significant changes in body composition (p<0.05) of either sex group. However, significant improvements did occur in the cardio-respiratory . parameters of working and recovery heart rates, predicted V0₂ max, and the anaerobic capacity. Here, the males exhibited superior cardio-respiratory qualities and performed better in all motor fitness parameters except flexibility, where no significant sex difference occurred. Also, there were significant improvements in all motor fitness tests with the exception of power (as tested in the 18-Item Illinois test). No significant differences occurred between male and female psycho-social responses with no changes occurring after the 7- week programme. It can be concluded that involvement in the 7-week jive programme improved physiological parameters but failed to bring about alterations in the biophysical and psycho-social domains..

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 1948. / No abstract available

In 2009 an estimated 33 million people were living with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). Of this global population, 35% live in South Africa. Furthermore, sub-Saharan Africa is home to 80% of the world’s population of HIV-1 positive children and adolescents. The most prominent form of transmission of HIV in children in South Africa is from mother to child. Until 2004, South Africans had limited access to ARV treatment at and after birth due to the government legislation. As a consequence, treatment of HIV in children may only have been initiated after clinical presentation of immune deficiency. Therefore, currently, HIV-1 positive adolescents born during the period of restricted ARV-access may have experienced physical and developmental symptoms associated with the virus including neurological deficits, prior to initiating treatment. This study investigated the current psychomotor functioning, such as psychomotor speed, manual dexterity, graphomotor and visual-motor coordination of a group of low socio-economic HIV-1 positive adolescents in Johannesburg, South Africa, who are now on a managed antiretroviral programme and how this compared to a HIV negative contrast group. A Mann-Whitney U Test indicated a significant difference in mean non-dominant hand performance in the Grooved Pegboard Test between the two groups (U = 738, p < .05), with the HIV positive group performing slower than the HIV negative group. An independent samples t-test indicated a significant difference between groups in the Block Design subtest of the WISC-R [t(88) = -2.93, p < .01] where the HIV positive group performed significantly worse than the HIV negative group. Additionally, a Mann-Whitney U Test revealed a significant difference in number of errors made in the WISC-R Mazes subtest between groups (U = 736.50, p < .05), where the HIV negative group made more errors. Another Mann-Whitney U Test revealed a significant difference between groups in the ROCFT Copy score (U = 534.50, p < .01) where the HIV positive group achieved a significantly lower score than the HIV negative group. Lastly, a Mann-Whitney U Test demonstrated significant differences between the groups in the Trail Making Test A time (U = 445.00, p < .01), Trail Making Test B time (U = 509.00, p < .01), the number of errors made on the Trail Making Test B (U = 729.00, p < .05) and the difference between Trail Making Test B – A time (U = 769.50, p < .05) with the HIV positive group performing slower and making more errors in Part B than the contrast group. The findings of the current study imply that HIV-1 vertically-infected adolescents in Johannesburg, South Africa, on a delayed HAART programme appear to have persisting difficulties in complex psychomotor skills where an integration of functions is required. Furthermore, these results indicate an overall poor psychomotor performance in comparison to international normative data, supporting previous findings. Developmental, remedial and therapeutic recommendations were made.

Visual motion can be conveyed by a variety of information sources in the environment, and those types of information may be detected at various levels by different motion-perceiving mechanisms in the visual system. High-level visual information has been demonstrated to have 3rd order, or salience-based properties (Lu & Sperling, 1995). The perceptual system they describe that computes motion from these types of information shares several characteristics with Hock and colleagues' counterchange detection system, notably flexibility with respect to types of input from which motion can be computed, which comes at the cost of diminished processing speed. The mechanism of counterchange detection is well suited to processing visual features often present in environmental scenes, e.g., objects and surfaces, and may be a mechanism of 3rd order motion. Consistent with reported properties of 3rd order motion, the current experiments tested count erchange-, luminance-, and color-based motion stimuli with 3 objectives: to identify whether the 3 systems framework generalizes beyond the stimulus type with which it was defined, to test whether counterchange shares similarities with the 3rd order system with respect to dichoptic integration, and perception of isoluminant color-based motion, and to test subjectively objectless sources of motion-defining information (spreading luminance and hue) to see if they display properties of the 1st order system derived from sine wave gratings. Results indicate that counterchange-based stimuli displayed predicted properties of dichoptic integration, and perception at isoluminance, but putative 1st order (spreading) stimuli also displayed these properties. This may suggest that object-like surfaces, even when not directly the source of motion information, can contribute to computation of motion. Further, these results highlight the difficulty of generalizing from one theoretical framework to another, and specifically, of psychophysically testing high-level information while isolating contributions from low level information upon which high level visual stimuli are built. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2015. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

The reach-to-eat movement, in which a hand is advanced towards a food item, shapes to grasp the food item, and withdrawals to place the food item into the mouth for eating, is a behaviour that is performed daily. The movement is controlled by two sensory systems, vision to guide hand advance and grasping, and somatosensation to guide hand withdrawal and mouth placement. The purpose of the present thesis was to examine how the sensory control of reaching-to-eat develops in infancy and degenerates following neurodegenerative disorder. The tight coupling of vision to hand advance and somatosensation to hand withdrawal has a developmental profile from six months to one year of age. That is, six-month-old infants rely on vision to advance their hand, grasp the target, and withdrawal the target to the mouth. By twelve months of age, infants display the adult pattern of coupling vision to hand advance and grasping. The tight coupling of vision to hand advance degenerates with basal ganglia disease, such that subjects with Parkinson’s disease and Huntington’s disease show an overreliance on vision to guide hand advance for grasping and hand withdrawal for mouth placement. The results of the thesis demonstrate that efficient use of sensory control to guide motor behaviour is an important aspect of development that is disrupted by neurodegenerative disease. / xiv, 286 leaves : ill. ; 29 cm

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 1999. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 86-90).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2008. / Title from first page of PDF file (viewed June 1, 2009). Available via ProQuest Digital Dissertations. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 124-131).

In the field of counseling the thinking-feeling-acting (T-F-A) trichotomy provides several advantages over conventional approaches to select counseling methods. Hutchins developed the TFA system and a corresponding instrument, the Hutchins Behavior Inventory (HBI), to assess a client’s thinking-feeling-acting orientation. Factors influencing the cognitive, affective, and psychomotor domains of human functioning have been identified, but past research often led to conflicting or unsatisfying results. Some researchers claim that there are significant cognitive, affective, and psychomotor gender differences, whereas others describe the effects of gender as nonexistent. The influences of socioeconomic status on an individual’s level of thinking, feeling, and acting have rarely been studied, and, by and large, the question of whether or not human functioning is situation specific has been theoretically addressed rather than empirically researched. In this study path analysis and the LISREL methodology were used to investigate to what extent thinking-feeling-acting orientations are dependent on gender, socioeconomic status, and the situational context. The Hutchins Behavior Inventory was used to assess the TFA orientations of 172 resident counselors at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. The effects of gender and socioeconomic status on thinking, feeling, and acting were minimal, whereas relatively strong influences of situational context on thinking and acting were found. These results provided some evidence that the TFA system does not discriminate on the basis of sociodemographic factors but that counseling professionals should give careful consideration to the specific situation under which behavior is assessed. In addition, arguments were presented showing that HBI scores are not all of an ipsative nature and thus are suitable for statistical analyses. Further evidence was provided that the HBI is a reliable instrument consistently measuring thinking-feeling-acting orientations. / Ph. D. / incomplete_metadata

This thesis examines the emerging intercultural dialogues around disability, performance dance and children in the multicultural context of KwaZulu-Natal. It focuses on creative dance (or modem educational dance), as it has emerged in KwaZulu-Natal schools post-1994. The intervention of the arts and a holistic approach to education is examined by appropriating Rudolf Laban (1948), Smith-Autard (1992) and other guiding principles for dance education. The thesis presents an analysis of how creative dance has come to influence notions of contemporary performance dance. This has provided a framework to argue in favour of dance making by untrained (sic) dance teachers and children with and without disabilities. The period under investigation post-1994 coincided with fundamental transformations within the South African cultural landscape, including the following: restructuring of performing arts council, the merging of former separate education departments and the strengthening of disability consciousness within human rights culture. These topics are briefly discussed. The transformation of the arts at The Playhouse Company in KwaZulu-Natal contributed to changes within dance development programmes. These dance development works addressed previously marginalized communities, including the disabled. The potential shifts to mainstream notions of performance dance by children with disabilities have provided an opportunity to theorise the practice of dance in special education and its relation to performance dance in the multicultural KwaZulu-Natal setting. Chapter one begins by firstly problematising disability, which it argues is an occurrence constructed by medical, social, political, historical, cultural and gender identities. Chapter one goes onto explore the changing concepts of dance for children with disabilities by offering a critique of existing notions of performance dance for children with disabilities. Distinctions between social dance. performance dance, dance therapy and educational dance are clarified and the practice of children's dance is contextualised. Chapter two argues that 'disability' within a context of multiculturalism in South Africa could be seen as a culture in and of itself. It does this by accessing the critical writings of Schechner (1991), Pavis (1992), Brustein (1991) and others. Definitions of 'culture' are problematised and the debates: high art vs culture, fusion, multi-, intra-, and inter-culturalism in the South African context are explored. Chapter three looks at three specific dance projects, which emanated from The Playhouse Company. The case studies explore how children between the ages of 8 - 18, who are defined as disabled, have engaged with dance and have had little or no interaction with the performing arts particularly as performers. It critiques and evaluates these projects in order to make conclusions around the following: the need for training of dancers and choreographers with disabilities and to underscore the role of the media in the disabled's plea for access to the performing arts. The idea of integrated 'enablers'(children and adults) with disabled children in the same performance dance work was innovative. Such inclusion and re-dress, as also expressed by The White Paper 6 on Special Education are supported by this thesis. Many children and their teachers have, through these creative movement and dance projects, begun to challenge notions of disability and of performance dance within the 'mainstream' performing dance environment as they emerge as potential artists in their own space. The thesis concludes by offering suggestions for how dance by those defined as 'disabled' is understood, critiqued and reported by reviewers and researchers of dance. It is hoped that these suggestions would strengthen the wider acceptance of notions of dance that emerge from a range of previously marginalised groups. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2001.

Thesis (PhD) -- University of Stellenbosch, 2002. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The purpose of this study was to determine if the participation in a movement programme, utilising 21 life skill development strategies would make a significant contribution to adolescent girls' self-esteem. The adolescent girls participating in the programme were from a previously disadvantaged community in the Western Cape, South Africa, and considered to be at-risk youth. The movement divisions through which the life skill strategies of the five and one half month programme were presented to the experimental group, were designed by the investigator, and included: modern dance, swimming, self-defence and an individual session of team building. Harter's (1985) Self-perception Profile for Children was used to measure the six subscales of self-competence/esteem of a control group (n = 8) and an experimental group (n = 13) of girls between ages 13 - 16. The six dimensions of self-esteem measured, included: global self-worth; scholastic competence; social acceptance; athletic competence; physical appearance, and; behavioural conduct. On completion of the movement intervention programme by the experimental group, all the girls (N = 21) were post tested, using the same quantitative measurement instrument. The experimental group completed an additional open-ended Life Skill Questionnaire, designed by the investigator, to see if there had been a cognitive transferral of the life skills used in the movement programme from the movement experience to everyday life activities. Following the comparison between the pre- and post-test data of Harter's (1985) Se/fperception Profile for Children, it was concluded that participation in the movement programme had an overall positive and significant affect on the six sub-scales of the girls' self-esteem. On analysis of the girls' responses to the Life Skill Questionnaire it was found that they had been able to utilise all 21 life skills in the various movement components offered in the programme, and that cognitive transferral of the skills had taken place to their everyday environment. Conceming the movement division, the statements revolving around the utilisation of the skills predominantly revolved around ii Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za the swimming, followed by dance and lastly self-defence. The life skills that were most widely used in their everyday environment were highlighted by the themes of perseverance, commitment and academics. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die doel van hierdie studie was om vas te stel of die deelname aan 'n bewegingsprogram, waartydens 21 lewensvaardigheid-ontwikkelingstrategiee gebruik word, beduidende bydrae tot die selfagting van die adolessente meisie sou lewer. Die adolessente meisies wat aan die program deelgeneem het, kom vanuit 'n voorheenbenadeelde gemeenskap in die Wes-Kaap, Suid-Afrika, en word as hoe-risiko jeug beskou. Die bewegingsverdelings waarmee die lewensvaardigheidstrategiee van die vyf en 'n half maandelange program vir die eksperimentele groep aangebied is, is deur die navorser ontwerp en sluit die volgende in: mode me dans, swem, selfverdediging en 'n individuele sessie van spanbou. Harter (1985) se "Sett-perception Profile for Children" is gebruik om die ses sub-skale van self-bevoegdheid/agting van 'n kontrolegroep (n = 8) en 'n eksperimentele groep (n = 13) van meisies tussen die ouderdomme van 13 - 16 te meet. Die ses dimensies van selfagting wat gemeet is, het die volgende ingesluit: globale selfwaardigheid, akademiese bevoegdheid, sosiale aanvaarding, atletiese bevoegdheid, fisieke voorkoms en gedragsbeheer. Na die afhandeling van die bewegings-intervensieprogram deur die eksperimentele groep is al die meisies (N = 21) getoets met behulp van dieselfde kwantitatiewe meetinstrument. Die eksperimentele groep het In addisionele Lewensvaardigheidsvraelys voltooi, wat deur die navorser ontwerp is om te sien of daar 'n kognitiewe oordrag van die lewensvaardighede was wat in die bewegingsprogram vanaf die bewegingservaring tot daaglikse aktiwiteite gebruik is. Na die vergelyking van die voor- en na-toetsdata van Harter (1985) se "Self-perception Profile for Children" is gevind dat deelname aan die bewegingsprogram 'n algehele positiewe en beduidende effek het op die ses sub-skate van die meisies se selfagting. Die analise van die meisies se terugvoer op die Lewensvaardigheidsvraelys het getoon dat hulle instaat was om al die 21 lewensvaardighede in die verskeie bewegingskomponente te gebruik wat in die program aangebied is en dat kognitiewe oordrag van die vaardighede plaasvind na hul daaglikse omgewing. Wat die bewegingsverdeling betref, het die stellings aangaande die gebruik van die vaardighede hoofsaaklik gehandel oor die swem, gevolg deur dans en laastens selfverdediging. Die lewensvaardighede wat die meeste gebruik is in hul daaglikse omgewing is sterk na vore gebring deur temas soos deursetlingsvermoe, verpligting en akademie.