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A research report submitted to the Faculty of Humanities University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts (Drama Therapy), 2017 / The main intention of this paper is to share my experiences and discoveries explored through a theatre-making qualitative research process. In this manner, I created and directed my own autobiographical play as a means of revisiting and working through specific traumatic events in my past. The aim is to share how this helped heal the wounds of the past. In this paper, I have included my personal encounters, my observations and my reflections how Therapeutic Theatre and theatre-making methodologies were used in creating, in rehearsing and in the performance of the play to facilitate the healing of my traumatic past. The play, entitled Home Is Where Pap En Vleis Is, deals with a specific event believed to be the source of the trauma I have been dealing with. I used the play as a vehicle to journey into a dark forest to face my demons. As in Psychodrama, or in Robert Landy’s Role Method, the actor who played me took an auxiliary role while I, as the director, took the role of the helper. Together, we journeyed into the dark forest of my psyche to meet the ghosts needing to be laid to rest. Apart from seeking healing, as a training Drama Therapist, I also wanted to learn about the transformative potential of Therapeutic Theatre. As in the mythological Gilgamesh’s quest (Booker 2004:72) or as in the hero’s journey (Campbell 1968: 227), I wanted to come back with the boon. I needed to collect the “valuable prize”, by contributing to the development of Therapeutic Theatre in the South African context. Sharing the play with the audience was also a way of journeying with the larger community. / XL2018

The goal of the study was to investigate the contribution of early social skills to play development in preschool children with Autism (ASD). Two social skills, joint attention and imitation and their relationships with simple play and pretend play skills, were investigated. A longitudinal study with three phases of time was conducted to explore the sequence of the development of joint attention and imitation and play skills. Self-developed scales were used to measure the variables of interests and the reliabilities of the scales were established. Multiple regressions showed that imitation at Time 2 mediated the relation between joint attention at Time 1 and play skills at Time 3. The implication of the results for understanding the nature of play development and for design of early interventions for preschool children with ASD are also discussed. / published_or_final_version / Educational Psychology / Master / Master of Social Sciences

This case study aims to better understand the process through which a college theatre actor creates and presents a dereified reified "self' (the character(s) they are portraying) in a play environment, and to consider to what extent this process is conscious. In essence, the actor attempts to take nothing for granted, taking apart and examining assumptions and their cultural context. This study posits that the actor is consciously aware of and is able to recognize and manipulate culture to construct a "self' (the character) within a "play universe." This study is unique as it focuses on the actors themselves as the agents of reification as well as dereification as their processes intersect with the director, the script, and eventually the audience. This study also considers the influence of play theory on developing and breaking the "rules" of the created cultural world of the stage play by utilizing the anthropological research methods supplemented with an analysis of the personal journals of cast members. The subject population is a cast of college-age students (18-28 years old), both males (9) and females (8), from Ball State University's Theatre and Dance Department who participated in the fall 2007 production of The Human Faustus Project, directed by Jennifer Blackmer. / Department of Anthropology

A thesis presented on modern tabletop role-playing games and how they offer anthropologists a new way to approach issues of creativity, identity construction, social interaction, and the nature of play in American culture. In these games, players continuously challenge and redefine aspects of personal identity, social paradigms, gender identity, and reality construction. This thesis is exemplified by the interactions of two separate role-playing groups in Muncie, Indiana, as well as multiple interviews with gamers from many different areas. This idea is also clearly reflected in the interactions of role-players, both in their own personas and in character. Multiple layers of roles, in both the fictional world and within the social group of the players, are created, accepted, adapted, and discarded during the course of an average game. Gamers’ voices are emphasized, rather than game play itself, in order to explore how gamers feel and think about their play. Both Ludology and Carnival are explored as possible ways to approach the subject. Play in general allows individuals and/or small groups the creative space to form new strategies to enact personal and cultural change in the reality outside of the game; while tabletop RPGs allow players the liminal space to explore different aspects of their personal identities, even as they create an outlet for challenging social strictures. Negative cultural labeling of these games as deviant and subversive has created the illusion of secrecy that helps the games to function in this manor. The importance of both play and narrative become obvious when speaking to gamers about their hobby; allowing the gamers to form a sub-culture based on the shared experiences of the games. And it is in these shared experiences that the gamers find the power to alter their real-life self images, and experiment with change. / Department of Anthropology

Csikszentmihalyi’s (1975) concept of flow was examined in a sample of 81 four-year-olds. Intrinsic motivation to continue playing, measured by the number of attempts to toss a bean bag through a target, was observed in both a choice and an assigned condition, order counterbalanced. In the assigned condition, subjects were randomly assigned to an easy or hard level of challenge, whereas in the choice condition, subjects could control the level of difficulty of the game by varying their distance from the target. Children in the choice condition made significantly (p < .05) more attempts than did children in the assigned-hard condition, and subjects in the assigned-easy condition made significantly (p < .05) more attempts than those in the hard condition, but there was no difference between the choice and easy conditions. No effect was found due to order in which conditions were received. Significant school differences were found in the choice condition only. Findings were interpreted as supporting the hypothesis that choice of level of difficulty has a significant positive effect on intrinsic motivation to continue an activity. / Master of Science

This design thesis project explores the psychology, significance, and power of play. The value of play is supported through historical and cultural context. Research for the subject unfolds the relationship between play, productivity and the mastery of creative thinking. Examination of the engagement of play addresses its power to inspire in both design education and practice. It also touches upon crucial dynamics of physical, intellectual, social, and emotional development in the human life cycle of learning. As the facilitator of play in the context of three-dimensional space, I seek to elucidate the value of activating human behaviors that stimulate play such as curiosity, imagination, spontaneity, and personal expression. Serious fun is no game; play provides a meaningful strategy for solving serious design problems and developing mastery in the classroom and the practice of design. / by Annette M. Piskel. / Thesis (M.F.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2013. / Includes bibliography. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / System requirements: Adobe Reader.

Social relations are commonly seen as exchanges between entities, a view implicitly indebted to Hegel?s account of the development of independent subjectivity. It is an analysis that explains many social interactions but that cannot explain key moments in social life. These moments occur in the non-Euclidean space and time of the in-between. This concept will be elucidated in this thesis through analysis of fieldwork examples and in relation to the work of Martin Buber and Donald Winnicott. The in-between arises when adults and children play together in the way described by Winnicott as playing in the third zone. A phenomenological, interpretive analysis of forms of relations between parents and their two year old children revealed playing in the in-between during everyday family life. While the fieldwork focuses on families at home, the arguments are not restricted to this arena. It has implications for those working with young children, challenging the current emphasis on a task-oriented focus on teaching and learning. A focus on social exchange creates early childhood programs that lack opportunities for being in the present moment in an unforced, un-knowing way. Such programs achieve set goals but may lack moments of infinite mutuality and tenderness such as those observed in the research. Relations cannot form when there is a continual focus on what is understood and known, on past accomplishments and future objectives. The in-between has three aspects; being fully present, un-knowing and mutuality through love. This analysis provides new views that will encourage opportunities for children and staff to be with one another in simple but profound moments of the in-between.

Most toddlers with Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD) and Autism are non-compliant, have language delays and immature play; however, some have intact information processing ability, while others do not. Play data from two treatment outcome studies of children with PDD and Autism, and one normative longitudinal study were analysed to (1) compare play of normally developing children to delayed children with intact versus impaired processing; (2) investigate differential impact of a parent-implemented cognitive-behavioural treatment on children with intact versus impaired processing; and (3) investigate the use of information processing, and non-verbal play measures, including sustained attention, for use with children with delays. Both children with intact and those with impaired processing, but particularly children with impaired processing, displayed immature play relative to normally developing children. With treatment, sophistication of play improved substantially for children with intact processing and less for children with impaired processing confirming the usefulness of both information processing and play as alternative assessment procedures for children who are non-verbal and non-compliant.

Social relations are commonly seen as exchanges between entities, a view implicitly indebted to Hegel?s account of the development of independent subjectivity. It is an analysis that explains many social interactions but that cannot explain key moments in social life. These moments occur in the non-Euclidean space and time of the in-between. This concept will be elucidated in this thesis through analysis of fieldwork examples and in relation to the work of Martin Buber and Donald Winnicott. The in-between arises when adults and children play together in the way described by Winnicott as playing in the third zone. A phenomenological, interpretive analysis of forms of relations between parents and their two year old children revealed playing in the in-between during everyday family life. While the fieldwork focuses on families at home, the arguments are not restricted to this arena. It has implications for those working with young children, challenging the current emphasis on a task-oriented focus on teaching and learning. A focus on social exchange creates early childhood programs that lack opportunities for being in the present moment in an unforced, un-knowing way. Such programs achieve set goals but may lack moments of infinite mutuality and tenderness such as those observed in the research. Relations cannot form when there is a continual focus on what is understood and known, on past accomplishments and future objectives. The in-between has three aspects; being fully present, un-knowing and mutuality through love. This analysis provides new views that will encourage opportunities for children and staff to be with one another in simple but profound moments of the in-between.