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Risky decision-making in the Context of Contingency Management for Methamphetamine Use DisorderLake, Marilyn Toni 29 January 2020 (has links)
Background: Risky decision-making is strongly implicated in adverse real-world risk-taking behaviour, and is associated with Substance Use Disorder, including Methamphetamine Use Disorder. Laboratory neurocognitive tasks typically utilized to assess risky decision-making have been able to distinguish participants with Substance Use Disorder from controls, although considerable heterogeneity is still evident within substance-using populations, which remains largely unexplained. Preliminary evidence has also tied risky decision-making to treatment outcomes, although no research has investigated risk-decision-making within Methamphetamine Use Disorder in the context of Contingency Management treatment. Methods: This study aimed to investigate decision-making on the Iowa Gambling Task and the Balloon Analogue Risk at baseline as both a function and predictor of treatment response on an 8-week treatment of Contingency Management. Of 26 participants with Methamphetamine Use Disorder, 17 responded to Contingency Management treatment, whilst 9 were non-responders. Using various mixed-effect modelling techniques and ANCOVA, performance by nonresponders were compared to responders, as well as a group of 19 healthy, nonsubstance-using control participants. Results: Group differences between non-responders, responders and controls were exclusively obtained on the Iowa Gambling Task. A trend-level (p=.051), large effect size (g=-0.98) was observed in the effect of reward magnitude between non-responders and healthy controls. More specifically, non-responders tended to seek-out large short-term rewards in spite of long-term losses relative to controls, however, groups did not also differ in effect of short-term loss magnitude. Non-responders also appeared to demonstrate poorer learning than healthy controls, although this finding was also at trend-level (p=.081) with a medium effect size (g =-0.63). In addition, results showed that responders and non-responders were differentially influenced by the frequency of outcomes, where responders demonstrated a greater preference for frequent rewards and infrequent losses relative to non-responders. This difference was at trend-level (p=.053) and the effect was moderately sized (g =-0.74). Impulsivity did not moderate group differences in decision-making, but did positively predict a greater likelihood of relapse at least once during Contingency Management (p =.035), although this effect was small (OR=1.10). Poor overall performance on the IGT appeared to predict a greater likelihood of prolonged relapse on Contingency Management following initial relapse, although this was at trend-level (p =.071) with a small effect size (OR=1.80). Conclusion: Findings provide evidence for individual differences in risky decision-making within Methamphetamine User Disorder, suggesting that risky decision-making is unlikely to be a homogeneous characteristic of substance-using populations, as is typically treated in the literature. Risky decision-making may also act as a risk factor for poor treatment success on Contingency Management, which in turn suggests that assessing risky decision-making of individuals with Methamphetamine Use disorder prior to commencing Contingency Management treatment might assist in identifying those at high risk.
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Status Of Skills Development In The Financial Sector (A Namibia Case Study)Muyoba, Heritha Nankole 13 February 2020 (has links)
A financial sector establishes stability on the capabilities and skills of its human resources, which comprises the essential material for its growth. Therefore, it is essential that the financial service sector improves the quality of its human resources in order to ensure enough human capital that fosters ongoing growth. The Namibian Government identified the shortage of skills in the financial sector as one of the biggest obstacles in realising economic growth targets set out in Namibia’s Vision 2030. Namibia suffers from a shortage of skills in the areas of auditing, actuarial science, chartered accountancy, information technology, investment banking, property evaluation, and compliance and risk management. The objectives of the study were to investigate the nature of strategies implemented in the financial service sector in order to address skills shortages experienced by this industry, to examine development challenges encountered by the financial sector, to identify critical and scarce skills within the financial industry and to investigate skills development funding mechanisms currently utilised by employers in the financial sector in Namibia. The study aimed to document the status of skills in the financial sector since the inception of the Namibian Financial Sector Strategy and Charter in 2012 Stratified sampling was used to select a sample from the 174 institutions classified as the study population. The banking and non-banking entities sampled were categorised according to characteristics they had in common which would identify them as homogeneous. Therefore, participants were divided into sub-sector categories. The database built from surveying those institutions was stratified according to the characteristics. The research instruments were two questionnaires, one for employers and the other for universities, which were utilised to collect data. The essential finding of the research maintains that skills shortages, the expenditure budget allocated for training and the overall labour turnover in the financial sector hinders its skills development. A discussion of the study’s findings was presented and concluded with recommendations for future research. The shortage of skills and a lack of experience in the workplace, coupled with labour turnover, were identified as challenges experienced by the industry. What is evident from the study is that these challenges are not unique to Namibia but affect the global labour marketplace as well. The situation could, in part, be due to the process of globalisation.
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Barking up the wrong tree : pet therapy in South AfricaNaidoo, Pevashnee January 2003 (has links)
Bibliography: leaves 183-238. / There exists but one local detailed, documented study by Bergensen (1989) that focused on the effects of pet facilitated therapy on the self-esteem and socialisation of primary school children. In addition, a handful of articles have been published in South African journals. It is rather perturbing to note that a proven, highly effective adjunct to conventional therapeutic intervention is lacking in the South African therapeutic milieu. The marked ignorance and defence behind practitioners scorn for this form of therapy is rather perplexing, especially in light of its official existence for over thirty years. This dissertation probes the concept of pet-facilitated therapy by referring to extensive studies, focusing on various sub-populations, and concludes with a study investigating local opposition to pet therapy.
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The cognitive effects of Obstructive Sleep Apnoea Syndrome (OSAS) : a comparison between untreated patients and patients on at least 3 months Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) treatmentWong, Andrea Jane January 2006 (has links)
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 68-75) / Objectives: To investigate whether or not OSAS patients from the South African population showed any cognitive impairment relative to healthy individuals from the same population, and to assess whether or not untreated OSAS patients and patients on CPAP treatment differed in their cognitive functioning.
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Attachment and Emotion Regulation in Adolescents with FAS-DysmorphismKemp, Andrea 16 February 2022 (has links)
Children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) are frequently reported by caregivers and teachers to have difficulties in socio-emotional functioning. It has been suggested that deficits in emotion regulation underlie these deficits in socio-emotional functioning. Children with prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) have also been found to demonstrate higher rates of insecure attachment, as well as disorganised attachment. Previous research proposes that the attachment relationship serves as a foundation for the development of emotion regulation. However, while this association has been examined in typically developing samples, the relation between attachment and emotion regulation has yet to be examined in individuals with FASD. Previous research has also suggested that a portion of individuals who are considered heavily exposed but are non-syndromal (HE) who do not present with the full phenotype characteristic of FAS or PFAS may nevertheless present with subtle facial dysmorphism only detectable using dense surface modelling and signature analyses of 3D facial images. Furthermore, it has been shown that HE children with this subtle facial dysmorphism perform more poorly on cognitive assessments than HE children who do not present with this subtle facial dysmorphism. These findings therefore suggest that presence of even subtle dysmorphism (i.e. only detectable on signature analyses of 3D facial images) consistent with FAS can be a good indicator of cognitive performance. Given this, the aims of the current study were to examine the association between FAS-dysmorphism and insecure as well as disorganised attachment. Furthermore, the study aimed to examine the extent to which FAS-dysmorphism was associated with emotion regulation difficulties in adolescence after controlling for the effects of attachment security in infancy. Participants included 77 adolescents (M age = 17.66, SD = .7): 13 with fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS), 12 with partial FAS (PFAS), 7 HE-dysmorphic (HE+), 18 HE-nondysmorphic (HE-) and 27 non- or minimally exposed controls. At the 13-month infant assessment, the mother-infant attachment relationship was assessed using the Ainsworth Strange Situation Paradigm (Hay, Jacobson, Molteno, Viljoen, & Jacobson, 2004; Jacobson & Jacobson, 2013). At the adolescent follow-up assessment, emotion regulation was assessed using two caregiver-report measures – the Emotion Regulation Checklist (ERC; Shields & Cicchetti, 1997) and the Affect Regulation Checklist (ARC; Moretti, 2003). Results showed that infants with FASdysmorphism+ did not demonstrate significantly higher levels of insecure and disorganised attachment than those in the FAS-dysmorphism- group. In terms of emotion regulation, FASdysmorphism+ did not significantly predict any of the adaptive or maladaptive emotion regulation subscales. However, insecure attachment predicted maladaptive emotion regulation, but not adaptive emotion regulation. These results suggest that while individuals with FASD are often reported to exhibit difficulties with emotion regulation, other variables, including IQ and attachment security in infancy, may explain some of the variation in the emotion regulation difficulties observed for individuals with FASD.
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Interactional accomplishments between nurses and doctors in a medical contextDe Nobrega, Nicia January 2010 (has links)
Includes bibliographical references / The use of language is significant in co-constructing reality. This highlights the way that speakers relate to each other through talk with the available discursive positionings in a specific context. An institutional context with particular asymmetrical relations introduces how the construction of reality is an area accessible to explore the use of language in maintaining and creating power relations. This research study explores institutional talk through conversation analysis. The focus is on asymmetrical working relations in medical settings. This considers the implications on individuals with a differentiating status with how power is managed in conversations. Nurses and doctors represent asymmetrical relations and their conversations illustrate differences in the way that language creates reality in a medical context, in this case a public teaching hospital in South Africa. Nurses and doctors were recorded during ward rounds, which spanned 22 hours of audio recordings. Approximately 40 ward rounds were followed where both a doctor and nurse were present. Ward rounds provided an opportunity to capture nurse-doctor conversations. The recordings were supplemented by ethnographic data that focused on the management of power. This focus is both at an individual interactional level and at a broader institutional level. Thus, showing how language coincides with the predominant subject positions available in a medical institution. The findings show how doctors do power overtly through various ways of speaking which show leadership in interactions. The findings also show how a doctor's subjectivity relates to qualities that continually build superiority in interactions. Nurses, on the other hand, manage power indirectly, by negotiating agency while enacting a passive actor role in conversations. Both doctors and nurses manage power and assertiveness, but continually show the sensitivity embedded in orienting themselves to one another. This aids in showing speaker support and is especially important for nurses, who are in a lower status, for managing their position in relation to doctors.
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Young horse-riders and their parents : an investigation into the parent-child interaction and the achievement goal profiles of horse-ridersDuff-Riddell, Caroline January 2008 (has links)
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 138-142). / In this study, the goal orientations of female riders between the ages of 7 and 20 and their parents are investigated. Goal orientations were identified by means of the Achievement Goal Questionnaire for Sport (AGQ-S) for: the daughter; the daughter's perceptions of her dominant-parent's goal orientation for the daughter; both parents' goal orientations; and both parents' stated goal orientations for their daughter. The rider's goal orientations were compared with: the rider's perception of her dominant-parent's goal orientation; both parents' goal orientations for the daughter; and both parents' own goal orientations.
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A theory-based evaluation of the implementation of a purveyor type programmeGelderblom, Christa January 2009 (has links)
Includes abstract. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 141-149). / The study serves as an example of a theory-based evaluation of a "real life" programme, highlights the strengths and weakness of this evaluation approach, and provides direction for future research on programmes that employ the purvey or method to distribute evidence-based programmes.
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Disinhibition in South African treatment-naïve adolescents with alcohol use disordersCuzen, Natalie January 2012 (has links)
Includes abstract. / Includes bibliographical references. / The concept of the disinhibitory complex refers to a cluster of personality, psychiatric, cognitive, and electrophysiological inhibitory control impairments that have been documented in alcohol use disorders (AUDs). Previous AUD research has focused on treatment-seeking adults with comorbid psychopathology; with regard to the disinhibitory complex, such individuals are likely to differ from younger, treatment-naïve individuals, such as the sample here studied. Further, few studies have examined several domains of disinhibition simultaneously, and so little is known about relationships between the various correlates of disinhibition. This study aimed to (a) examine and characterize the disinhibitory complex in treatment-naïve adolescents with AUDs, (b) investigate sex differences in disinhibition, and (c) determine whether an underlying construct of disinhibition might explain elevated levels of disinhibition in AUDs observed on individual indices.
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The impact of acute psychological stress on declarative and working memory functioningHuman, Robyn January 2010 (has links)
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 94-102). / Previous research has shown that stress affects processing in many different memory systems. This study aimed to investigate the effects of acute psychosocial stress on declarative memory (DM) and working memory (WM) performance, and to explore whether sex differences exist under stress in these two memory systems. DM was assessed using cued recall and recognition of a verbal paired-associates list. WM was assessed using an n-back test with various difficulty levels. One hundred (42 males) undergraduate psychology students from the University of Cape Town were recruited. Phase of menstrual cycle and oral contraceptive use were controlled for in female participants. Participants took part in two sessions, 24 hours apart, each beginning after 16h00. Day 1 involved learning and immediate cued recall of the word pairs, and completing a practice n-back protocol. During Day 2, 45 participants were exposed to a psychosocial stressor and 41 were exposed to a relaxation period. Physiological and self-report measures of stress were taken at three intervals pre- and post-experimental manipulation. Participants then completed delayed cued recall and recognition tests for the previously-learned word pairs, and the full version of the n-back test. Data were analysed only for participants characterised as 'cortisol responders' following the experimental manipulation. The final sample included 57 participants (30 males). With regard to DM, stress did not affect either delayed cued recall or recognition performance in either men or women. With regard to WM, stress negatively affected accuracy among men, but not women. These results are largely consistent with previous literature, but also elucidate a sex difference in working memory performance under stress (viz., while men's performance is negatively affected by stress, women show improved performance). The study provides important evidence for sex differences in WM performance under stress, and highlights several methodological issues that should be addressed in future studies.
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