Purpose - To develop a greater understanding of the experience of happiness as it is perceived by children with learning difficulties. This study focuses on the interpretative aspect of perception, which is seen to consist of; (1) how the experience feels, (2) how the structure of the experience is understood, and (3) what relevance is attributed to the experience. Methodology and rationale - The paradigmatic point of departure is Positive Psychology, which forms part of the strength-based perspective. Positive Psychology explores those factors that allow individuals and communities, not just to survive, but to flourish. The methodological orientation of this study is phenomenological and qualitative in nature. Findings - While the most consistent theme was the relationship between friendship and happiness, this study offers insight into all three aspects of perception as defined above. It also suggests that children with learning difficulties may seek their happiness outside of the context of school and learning. / Further Teacher Education / M. Ed. (Guidance and Counselling)

Purpose - To develop a greater understanding of the experience of happiness as it is perceived by children with learning difficulties. This study focuses on the interpretative aspect of perception, which is seen to consist of; (1) how the experience feels, (2) how the structure of the experience is understood, and (3) what relevance is attributed to the experience. Methodology and rationale - The paradigmatic point of departure is Positive Psychology, which forms part of the strength-based perspective. Positive Psychology explores those factors that allow individuals and communities, not just to survive, but to flourish. The methodological orientation of this study is phenomenological and qualitative in nature. Findings - While the most consistent theme was the relationship between friendship and happiness, this study offers insight into all three aspects of perception as defined above. It also suggests that children with learning difficulties may seek their happiness outside of the context of school and learning. / Further Teacher Education / M. Ed. (Guidance and Counselling)

Adolescent motherhood is a reality amongst South African adolescent girls from all cultures. However, there is a scarcity of information available on Swazi adolescents’ experiences of early motherhood. The research consequently aimed at exploring and describing the experiences of early motherhood amongst Swazi adolescent girls. The participants were encouraged to describe their unique lived experiences as to the early period of adolescent motherhood (pregnancy included). Positive psychology provided the theoretical framework, and phenomenology was used as the methodical design for this qualitative study. Purposeful and snowball sampling was used to find the nine participants. Semistructured one-on-one interviews were conducted with Swazi girls ranging from the ages of 16 to 20 years. The interviews were conducted in English as a second language of the participants, and they all resided within the Nkomazi municipality in Mpumalanga, South Africa. The collected data were analyzed according to the interpretative phenomenological approach (IPA) and five main themes were identified: (a) The influence of emotions; (b) Social support during early adolescent motherhood; (c) Challenges experienced during early motherhood; (d) Personal growth; and (e) Resilience. The research findings indicate that early motherhood amongst Swazi adolescents comprises both positive and negative experiences and results in good and bad emotional experiences. All the participants experienced incidences in which their immediate environment (family, friends, community, neighbours, school, and boyfriends) rejected them and were unsupportive. This was especially evident in the ongoing lack of support offered by the biological father of the baby and the deterioration of original friendships. Ultimately however, it became apparent that the inherent Swazi culture and African principle of “Ubuntu” resulted in their being mostly accepted and supported. Furthermore, most participants experienced personal growth and a sense of maturity. Insights gained from motherhood resulted in participants making more responsible choices with regards to sexual behaviour, changes in their priorities, developing their characters, becoming more ambitious to achieve their personal life goals and becoming future orientated. The personal growth of most participants was clearly indicated by the mastering of several challenges related to early motherhood. A change in lifestyle was the most significant problem to overcome, and other challenges included the “burden” of being a provider, financial constraints in the present and future, interrupted education, loss of leisure time, and the experience of helplessness in times of need, for example when the baby is ill. Despite the fact that adolescent motherhood was experienced as a difficult occurrence, most participants (six of the nine) demonstrated high levels of resilience. These participants demonstrated effective coping strategies by taking responsibility and ownership of the difficulties associated with adolescent motherhood, and expressed the desire to be good mothers. Recommendations are given to enhance the well-being of Swazi adolescent mothers and the findings offer guidelines for a pregnancy prevention program as well as giving ideas on how to support adolescent girls in their journey of motherhood. / MA (Psychology), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

This research focuses on exploring foster girls’ perceptions of respect in relationships in a Child and Youth Care Centre (CYCC) context. The study was undertaken within the paradigm of positive psychology. Relational well-being is of key importance for all adolescents from all cultures and contexts. Respect is viewed as a dynamic aspect of relational functioning. However, when adolescent foster girls do not experience respectful interactions with CYCC caregivers, health workers and with peers, their healthy development could be seriously affected. There is a scarcity of information available on foster girls’ perceptions of respect, with particular reference to the dynamics of respect within a CYCC context. Therefore, the study endeavours to highlight the importance of a bottom-up approach by investigating foster girls’ perceptions of respect. The qualitative study was conducted by using a phenomenological design. For the purpose, aim and coverage of this empirical study a homogenous sample was selected. Twenty female occupants from a South African CYCC were selected, with ages ranging from 12 to 16 years. The participants were all African adolescents, and the study was carried out on the CYCC premises. This homogenous sample allowed detailed investigation of social processes in this context. Data was collected by means of a world café technique where all twenty participants took part to tap into their collective wisdom. Individual interviews were also used and six participants were selected from the original group. All requirements regarding ethical concerns were followed in the research process. Thematic analyses were undertaken after the group and individual sessions. The findings are presented as four main themes, namely relating and respectful interacting (relationships), the role of emotions, resilience and the role of gender. It has been determined that respectful interacting promotes positive support and encouragement during bad times, as well as sharing concerns and ideas with peers and positive role-models. The role of fluctuating emotions – both positive and negative ─ emerged as being of major importance in the girls’ lives. These included pride, belonging, trust (or lack thereof), happiness, hopelessness, aggression / anger and a sense of shame and disappointment with failures. The theme of resilience covered effective coping and how the girls resist languishing and strive to better themselves despite their adverse circumstances. The final theme is that of gender role, which addresses the various forms of differentiation, especially in the treatment of girls and boys. Recommendations are given in order to ameliorate the girls’ lives and to shape future research that could explore the instruction of life skills in order to develop self-esteem, interpersonal relationships (showing respect for one another), a sense of worth and tolerance within a CYCC context purposefully. A possible limitation of this study could be the various Western models of well-being that were studied by the researcher while the participants came from various African cultural backgrounds with different perspectives on Ubuntu. The specific context of foster girls is, therefore, of crucial importance to their wellness, seeing that the context could harbour enabling or limiting conditions for these adolescents. / MSc (Psychology), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

Adolescent motherhood is a reality amongst South African adolescent girls from all cultures. However, there is a scarcity of information available on Swazi adolescents’ experiences of early motherhood. The research consequently aimed at exploring and describing the experiences of early motherhood amongst Swazi adolescent girls. The participants were encouraged to describe their unique lived experiences as to the early period of adolescent motherhood (pregnancy included). Positive psychology provided the theoretical framework, and phenomenology was used as the methodical design for this qualitative study. Purposeful and snowball sampling was used to find the nine participants. Semistructured one-on-one interviews were conducted with Swazi girls ranging from the ages of 16 to 20 years. The interviews were conducted in English as a second language of the participants, and they all resided within the Nkomazi municipality in Mpumalanga, South Africa. The collected data were analyzed according to the interpretative phenomenological approach (IPA) and five main themes were identified: (a) The influence of emotions; (b) Social support during early adolescent motherhood; (c) Challenges experienced during early motherhood; (d) Personal growth; and (e) Resilience. The research findings indicate that early motherhood amongst Swazi adolescents comprises both positive and negative experiences and results in good and bad emotional experiences. All the participants experienced incidences in which their immediate environment (family, friends, community, neighbours, school, and boyfriends) rejected them and were unsupportive. This was especially evident in the ongoing lack of support offered by the biological father of the baby and the deterioration of original friendships. Ultimately however, it became apparent that the inherent Swazi culture and African principle of “Ubuntu” resulted in their being mostly accepted and supported. Furthermore, most participants experienced personal growth and a sense of maturity. Insights gained from motherhood resulted in participants making more responsible choices with regards to sexual behaviour, changes in their priorities, developing their characters, becoming more ambitious to achieve their personal life goals and becoming future orientated. The personal growth of most participants was clearly indicated by the mastering of several challenges related to early motherhood. A change in lifestyle was the most significant problem to overcome, and other challenges included the “burden” of being a provider, financial constraints in the present and future, interrupted education, loss of leisure time, and the experience of helplessness in times of need, for example when the baby is ill. Despite the fact that adolescent motherhood was experienced as a difficult occurrence, most participants (six of the nine) demonstrated high levels of resilience. These participants demonstrated effective coping strategies by taking responsibility and ownership of the difficulties associated with adolescent motherhood, and expressed the desire to be good mothers. Recommendations are given to enhance the well-being of Swazi adolescent mothers and the findings offer guidelines for a pregnancy prevention program as well as giving ideas on how to support adolescent girls in their journey of motherhood. / MA (Psychology), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

This research focuses on exploring foster girls’ perceptions of respect in relationships in a Child and Youth Care Centre (CYCC) context. The study was undertaken within the paradigm of positive psychology. Relational well-being is of key importance for all adolescents from all cultures and contexts. Respect is viewed as a dynamic aspect of relational functioning. However, when adolescent foster girls do not experience respectful interactions with CYCC caregivers, health workers and with peers, their healthy development could be seriously affected. There is a scarcity of information available on foster girls’ perceptions of respect, with particular reference to the dynamics of respect within a CYCC context. Therefore, the study endeavours to highlight the importance of a bottom-up approach by investigating foster girls’ perceptions of respect. The qualitative study was conducted by using a phenomenological design. For the purpose, aim and coverage of this empirical study a homogenous sample was selected. Twenty female occupants from a South African CYCC were selected, with ages ranging from 12 to 16 years. The participants were all African adolescents, and the study was carried out on the CYCC premises. This homogenous sample allowed detailed investigation of social processes in this context. Data was collected by means of a world café technique where all twenty participants took part to tap into their collective wisdom. Individual interviews were also used and six participants were selected from the original group. All requirements regarding ethical concerns were followed in the research process. Thematic analyses were undertaken after the group and individual sessions. The findings are presented as four main themes, namely relating and respectful interacting (relationships), the role of emotions, resilience and the role of gender. It has been determined that respectful interacting promotes positive support and encouragement during bad times, as well as sharing concerns and ideas with peers and positive role-models. The role of fluctuating emotions – both positive and negative ─ emerged as being of major importance in the girls’ lives. These included pride, belonging, trust (or lack thereof), happiness, hopelessness, aggression / anger and a sense of shame and disappointment with failures. The theme of resilience covered effective coping and how the girls resist languishing and strive to better themselves despite their adverse circumstances. The final theme is that of gender role, which addresses the various forms of differentiation, especially in the treatment of girls and boys. Recommendations are given in order to ameliorate the girls’ lives and to shape future research that could explore the instruction of life skills in order to develop self-esteem, interpersonal relationships (showing respect for one another), a sense of worth and tolerance within a CYCC context purposefully. A possible limitation of this study could be the various Western models of well-being that were studied by the researcher while the participants came from various African cultural backgrounds with different perspectives on Ubuntu. The specific context of foster girls is, therefore, of crucial importance to their wellness, seeing that the context could harbour enabling or limiting conditions for these adolescents. / MSc (Psychology), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Psychology / Clive J. A. Fullagar / Student engagement has become an important way of assessing student outcomes for college and is used to provide information to accreditation agencies, for internal accountability as well as to assess impact of college on students. However, current measures of student engagement do not assess the core process underlying student engagement, instead focusing on antecedents and consequences of engagement. The current research addressed this gap by first developing a new measure of student engagement called SAENS (Student Academic ENgagement Scale), which is strongly grounded in theory derived from the work engagement literature. Two dimensions of engagement were found: enjoyment and effort. A second study validated this measure by forming a nomological net of relationships with other variables and testing these antecedents and consequences of engagement. Results indicated that engagement effort is strongly related to student grades for their classes and the dimension of enjoyment is related to the teaching style of collaborative learning. However, engagement was not related to students’ levels of critical thinking.

Studiens syfte var att undersöka motivationshöjande frågeställningars eventuella koppling till det subjektiva välbefinnandet. Det var 47 deltagare i interventionsgruppen och 37 i jämförelsegruppen. Dessa fyllde i en självskattningsenkät, Mood adjectiv checklist scale, före och efter en 14 dagar lång interventionsperiod. Studiens motivationshöjande frågeställningar utformades med utgångspunkt i dels den positiva psykologin, som lägger fokus på att ta vara på det positiva hos människan, dels utifrån den kognitiva psykologin som menar att människan formas utifrån hennes tankesätt.  Resultatet visade att studiens motivationshöjande frågeställningar kan ha en viss positiv inverkan på sinnesstämning. Slutsatsen blev därför: att föra en inre dialog utifrån särskilt utformade frågeställningar kan öka det subjektiva välbefinnandet. Studiens resultat bidrar till teorin om att positiva psykologiövningar kan förbättra det subjektiva välbefinnandet.

This thesis examines the psychological processes dancers experience while learning choreography through a phenomenological hermeneutic lens. This investigation took place at Scripps College Dance Department where I composed a choreographic work to explore the outer expressivity of internal experiences. By measuring psychological experiences of flow, the research identifies when dancers do or do not experience positive mental states of being in flow while engaged in the choreographic process of making concert dance. Data was collected using the Event Experience Scale (FSS-2) and the Performance Competency Evaluation Measure (PCEM), as well as additional comments from the participants. This thesis challenges the notion that the psychological experiences of creating dance cannot be investigated qualitatively.

Previous research has shown that humankind is not becoming happier, and that in fact symptoms of depression continue to rise, despite the belief of many that happiness is the ultimate purpose of human life. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether happiness can be taught through an intervention programme aimed at increasing levels of subjective wellbeing as measured by scales of self-reported happiness and depression. Participants attending a course based on research into Positive Psychology that included the practice of multiple validated interventions made up the experimental group (N=33), and participants in other community education courses made up the control group (N=41). A pre-intervention, post-intervention and follow-up design was used, with participants completing sets of questionnaires designed to test levels of happiness and depression, and additional questionnaires capturing demographic information and signature character strengths. The results of this study suggested that the intervention had a positive effect on increasing happiness and reducing symptoms of depression. The non-randomised groups resulted in a more depressed experimental than control group prior to the intervention. Generally speaking, it was not true that any subgroup benefited more from the intervention than others, nor were happier or more depressed than others. This study appears to support earlier research that found that subjective wellbeing could be increased through education and volitional behaviour. Implications for the findings are discussed in relation to group education and therapeutic intervention both for increasing happiness as well as reducing symptoms of depression.