This thesis deals with religious interpretations of psychotic illness. In the theoretical part, the psychotic disorder is first briefly defined and several stimulating psychological interpretations are outlined. An overview of the history of the relationship of psychology and religion follows. The next chapter summarizes some religious interpretations of psychosis. The focus of the work is on the research part. It is a psychological qualitative research, which shows how three Christian-oriented mentally ill women with psychotic symptoms interpret their own illness. The case studies are then compared in a separate chapter, entailing a slight generalization of the results. At the end there is a reflection on the limitations of the research.

<p>South Africa is reported to have the highest prevalence of HIV/AIDS infections in Sub-Saharan Africa. As a result the quality of life of families living with HIV/AIDS is negatively affected. Literature indicates that the majority of affected persons are young children and adolescents whose siblings or parents are infected with HIV/AIDS. Most affected adolescents are reported to have difficult social lives due to their parent&rsquo / s illness, difficult financial situations at home, stigma and discrimination within the society. The study attempts to explore the experiences of adolescents in households where the mother is HIV/AIDS positive. This research project is an exploratory study using a narrative approach within a qualitative methodological design. The study was conducted with 6 Xhosa-speaking adolescent boys (2) and girls (4) aged 12 to 15 years. An open-ended interview schedule was used to prompt participants to tell their stories. Data was collected by means of a voice recorder in order for adolescents to tell their stories. The responses were transcribed verbatim, translated and verified with the participants. The data were analysed by means of narrative analysis. The results indicate that most adolescent participants were coping with the mother being HIV/AIDS positive and maintained hope for their futures. Adolescents were coping due to support from friends and relatives. Some adolescents experienced rejection and discrimination. The biggest challenge in the home was due to socioeconomic status. The study is intended to benefit the community in terms of making recommendations to social workers at NGO&rsquo / s and the government sectors in terms of strengthening the existing support programmes in the community.</p>

The objective of this research study is to attempt to determine whether the realities or life-stories that successful' employees construct with input from both their cultures of origin (external culture) and the organisational (internal) culture impact on their state of motivation in the workplace. This mini-dissertation is approached from both a theoretical and practical point of view. Related theories and perspectives are explored in an attempt to arrive at an understanding of the philosophy pertaining to construction of reality and motivation in the workplace. Individual narrative discussions were conducted with successful employees, also referred to as respondents, in the research and development division of a South African target industry in an effort to determine whether internal and/or external locus of control impacted on construction of reality and subsequently on work-related motivation. The results from a motivation questionnaire were also incorporated in the research study in order to try to determine whether it supported the findings from the narrative discussions. It can be concluded from this study that successful employees are mostly also motivated employees and that both their cultures of origin and the organisational culture impact on their construction of reality regarding motivation in the workplace. Furthermore, this explanation revealed that an employee's construction of reality definitely impacts on his3 motivation. It is also evident from this research study that these employees have an internal and/or external locus of control. It seemed insignificant whether the respondents were motivated by internal or external factors, but what distinguished them from the other employees were the finding that they were in fact motivated by some or other factor. This study confirmed that different motivational factors impact on different employees as a result of their uniquely constructed realities regarding work-related motivation and success. The challenge for organisations therefore lies in determining which specific, culturally determined internal and/or external factors motivate individual employees. This will enable them to instigate, sustain or increase the motivation of their employees. / Thesis (M.A. (Sociology))--Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education, 2002.

The aim of this research was to empower Coloureds in Greenspark based on qualitative and quantitative research from a narrative approach so that they can develop their potential as leaders in the community by means of a group work leadership development programme. The thesis comprises of five Sections. SECTION A This section indicates the actuality of the research. The problem statement as well as the aim and five objectives are explained in this section. This research was undertaken within the DR & U model, namely The Developmental and Utilization model of Grinnell (1981) with a combined qualitative and quantitative research approach. This research was done from a social constructivist paradigm, and the research epistemology was qualitative by nature. The exploratory design was used as research plan. In order to note down data collection and processing systematically, video recordings were made of the group discussions. Two external evaluators as well as the group members themselves were also used to do the evaluation. The group work leadership development programme was also evaluated by the group members by means of a self-compiled questionnaire. SECTION B This section took the form of five articles in which the research findings were reported. All five articles form part of the overarching research aim and objectives and of the entire research project. However, each article is a distinctive subdivision of the entire research project, because it also functions independently - each with an own objective, own research methodology as well as a distinctive content. Section B consists of the following articles: Article 1 The objective of Article 1 was to establish the role the empowerment approach plays from the post-modern perspective in social work, by means of literature analysis. Empowerment was applied differently in different situations within the post-modern philosophy. Group work as a method of social work is a possible way in which the empowerment of individuals can be dealt with. Together with the community, the parties involved are responsible for empowering individuals. Article 2 The objective of this article was to establish the points of departure of the narrative approach by means of a literature analysis. From the literature analysis, it became clear that the narrative approach does not work with strategies, but with responsibilities, in which each individual takes responsibility for his/her own social construction, which includes his/her choices for life. Article 3 Article 3 discussed the role the narrative approach plays in group work within social work. Guidelines for dealing with empowerment within the group work process from the narrative approach were determined by means of a literature analysis. The focus was on relevant literature with specific reference to narrative theory, which included empowerment as well as the post-modern way of thinking and the description of group work. Article 4 The objective of Article 4 was to determine the role the narrative approach possibly plays in group work. The theoretical knowledge was utilised from the narrative approach in developing a group work leadership development programme. Article 5 With Article 5, the objective was to evaluate the group work development programme. This evaluation was attended to by two external consultants, as well as the group members themselves. SECTION C In Section C, the synoptic findings, conclusions and recommendations with regard to this research were discussed. The limitations of the research under review were indicated and recommendations were made with the view to use it in group work theory and in practice for training and research purposes. SECTION D Although each article and sections A and C are accompanied by an own source list, a combined source list of the entire research is given in this section. SECTION E All addendums that were referred to in the thesis are contained in this section. / Thesis (Ph.D. (MW))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2006.

<p>South Africa is reported to have the highest prevalence of HIV/AIDS infections in Sub-Saharan Africa. As a result the quality of life of families living with HIV/AIDS is negatively affected. Literature indicates that the majority of affected persons are young children and adolescents whose siblings or parents are infected with HIV/AIDS. Most affected adolescents are reported to have difficult social lives due to their parent&rsquo / s illness, difficult financial situations at home, stigma and discrimination within the society. The study attempts to explore the experiences of adolescents in households where the mother is HIV/AIDS positive. This research project is an exploratory study using a narrative approach within a qualitative methodological design. The study was conducted with 6 Xhosa-speaking adolescent boys (2) and girls (4) aged 12 to 15 years. An open-ended interview schedule was used to prompt participants to tell their stories. Data was collected by means of a voice recorder in order for adolescents to tell their stories. The responses were transcribed verbatim, translated and verified with the participants. The data were analysed by means of narrative analysis. The results indicate that most adolescent participants were coping with the mother being HIV/AIDS positive and maintained hope for their futures. Adolescents were coping due to support from friends and relatives. Some adolescents experienced rejection and discrimination. The biggest challenge in the home was due to socioeconomic status. The study is intended to benefit the community in terms of making recommendations to social workers at NGO&rsquo / s and the government sectors in terms of strengthening the existing support programmes in the community.</p>

The interest in the use of fiscal policy as an effective economic policy tool has been revived recently, since the global recession of 2008 hit the world. In spite of a large empirical literature, there remains substantial uncertainty about the size and even the direction of the effects of discretionary fiscal policy. This thesis seeks to investigate the macroeconomic effects of discretionary fiscal policy in the short term, highlighting several methodologies for identifying discretionary fiscal policy. In Chapters 2 and 3, we suggest a new instrument based on the narrative approach for identifying exogenous government spending shocks: natural disaster damages and the subsequent government emergency spending. While applying our methodology to the Korean and the U.S data, we find that our instrument is not only powerful but also superior to military build-ups used by most of the literature. The relief expenditure in the wake of natural disaster has several advantages such as the similarity in scope to general government activity and the easy applicability beyond the U.S. compared to military build-ups. In the analysis of Korean fiscal policy, using our narrative method and the Structural Vector Autoregression (SVAR) model, we find that government spending shocks increase GDP, consumption, and real wage, which is in line with the New Keynesian model. We also find that the timing is crucial in identifying government spending shocks due to the anticipation effects of fiscal policy. Furthermore, while analyzing the U.S. fiscal policy both at the state as well as national level, we estimate two kinds of non-defense spending multipliers: federal (1.4~1.7) and state (1.5~2.5), which exceed the defense spending multiplier obtained in the literature using military building-ups. In Chapter 4, in regard to the study of effects of fiscal adjustment, we develop the approach based on changes in cyclically adjusted primary balance (CAPB) by including fluctuations of asset price in the CAPB measure and allowing for individual country heterogeneity in the definition of fiscal adjustment. Using our new CAPB in 20 OECD countries, we find that fiscal adjustments have contractionary effects on economic activity in the short term, which is consistent with the result based on the narrative approach. Nevertheless, our results suggest that fiscal adjustments that rely predominantly on spending cuts are less contractionary than those involving tax increases.

The objective of this research study is to attempt to determine whether the realities or life-stories that successful' employees construct with input from both their cultures of origin (external culture) and the organisational (internal) culture impact on their state of motivation in the workplace. This mini-dissertation is approached from both a theoretical and practical point of view. Related theories and perspectives are explored in an attempt to arrive at an understanding of the philosophy pertaining to construction of reality and motivation in the workplace. Individual narrative discussions were conducted with successful employees, also referred to as respondents, in the research and development division of a South African target industry in an effort to determine whether internal and/or external locus of control impacted on construction of reality and subsequently on work-related motivation. The results from a motivation questionnaire were also incorporated in the research study in order to try to determine whether it supported the findings from the narrative discussions. It can be concluded from this study that successful employees are mostly also motivated employees and that both their cultures of origin and the organisational culture impact on their construction of reality regarding motivation in the workplace. Furthermore, this explanation revealed that an employee's construction of reality definitely impacts on his3 motivation. It is also evident from this research study that these employees have an internal and/or external locus of control. It seemed insignificant whether the respondents were motivated by internal or external factors, but what distinguished them from the other employees were the finding that they were in fact motivated by some or other factor. This study confirmed that different motivational factors impact on different employees as a result of their uniquely constructed realities regarding work-related motivation and success. The challenge for organisations therefore lies in determining which specific, culturally determined internal and/or external factors motivate individual employees. This will enable them to instigate, sustain or increase the motivation of their employees. / Thesis (M.A. (Sociology))--Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education, 2002.

The aim of this research was to empower Coloureds in Greenspark based on qualitative and quantitative research from a narrative approach so that they can develop their potential as leaders in the community by means of a group work leadership development programme. The thesis comprises of five Sections. SECTION A This section indicates the actuality of the research. The problem statement as well as the aim and five objectives are explained in this section. This research was undertaken within the DR & U model, namely The Developmental and Utilization model of Grinnell (1981) with a combined qualitative and quantitative research approach. This research was done from a social constructivist paradigm, and the research epistemology was qualitative by nature. The exploratory design was used as research plan. In order to note down data collection and processing systematically, video recordings were made of the group discussions. Two external evaluators as well as the group members themselves were also used to do the evaluation. The group work leadership development programme was also evaluated by the group members by means of a self-compiled questionnaire. SECTION B This section took the form of five articles in which the research findings were reported. All five articles form part of the overarching research aim and objectives and of the entire research project. However, each article is a distinctive subdivision of the entire research project, because it also functions independently - each with an own objective, own research methodology as well as a distinctive content. Section B consists of the following articles: Article 1 The objective of Article 1 was to establish the role the empowerment approach plays from the post-modern perspective in social work, by means of literature analysis. Empowerment was applied differently in different situations within the post-modern philosophy. Group work as a method of social work is a possible way in which the empowerment of individuals can be dealt with. Together with the community, the parties involved are responsible for empowering individuals. Article 2 The objective of this article was to establish the points of departure of the narrative approach by means of a literature analysis. From the literature analysis, it became clear that the narrative approach does not work with strategies, but with responsibilities, in which each individual takes responsibility for his/her own social construction, which includes his/her choices for life. Article 3 Article 3 discussed the role the narrative approach plays in group work within social work. Guidelines for dealing with empowerment within the group work process from the narrative approach were determined by means of a literature analysis. The focus was on relevant literature with specific reference to narrative theory, which included empowerment as well as the post-modern way of thinking and the description of group work. Article 4 The objective of Article 4 was to determine the role the narrative approach possibly plays in group work. The theoretical knowledge was utilised from the narrative approach in developing a group work leadership development programme. Article 5 With Article 5, the objective was to evaluate the group work development programme. This evaluation was attended to by two external consultants, as well as the group members themselves. SECTION C In Section C, the synoptic findings, conclusions and recommendations with regard to this research were discussed. The limitations of the research under review were indicated and recommendations were made with the view to use it in group work theory and in practice for training and research purposes. SECTION D Although each article and sections A and C are accompanied by an own source list, a combined source list of the entire research is given in this section. SECTION E All addendums that were referred to in the thesis are contained in this section. / Thesis (Ph.D. (MW))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2006.

Macroeconomic stability is one of the most important national objectives in any country. However, economies are often subjected to a number of shocks (internal and external), which can be destabilising, produce volatility and make it difficult to achieve and maintain economic stability. Consequently, various policies are used to help deal with the various shocks that may affect the economy. Of all the available policies, monetary policy appears to have been ever more at the centre of macroeconomic policymaking. Meanwhile, for monetary policy to be effective, there is a need for a better understanding of the transmission mechanism, i.e., the process through which monetary policy decisions are transmitted into changes in real output and inflation. Whereas extensive research on the transmission mechanism has been conducted in developed countries, such work in developing countries, especially in Africa is lacking. This could be due to the fact that it was not long time ago, around the 1990s that countries in Africa started adopting the more modem central bank operations in a market-based economic and financial system characterised by indirect monetary policy. Such operations require an understanding of the transmission mechanism. Lack of empirical analysis of the monetary transmission mechanism in Botswana and developing countries of Africa in general, is the main motivating factor behind this thesis. The main objective of this thesis is, therefore, to estimate the transmission mechanism of monetary policy in Botswana. Three different, but complementary techniques (the Narrative Approach, Vector Autoregression (VAR) analysis and the Structural Approach involving the estimation of a small structural model for Botswana economy) are used. Results from these methods tell a consistent story and indicate that monetary policy in Botswana affects real output and inflation through the interest rate channel, while the exchange rate channel is not operational. The credit channel is also active but not strong. The structural approach also indicates that devaluation is contractionary in Botswana, but more research is necessary before firmer conclusions could be made.

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