Includes bibliographical references (leaves 72-79). / The effects of violent video game play on hostility and support for violence are unclear. Previous studies have shown increases, decreases or no effect at all. At the time of the first study (2007) it was unclear if attitudes and opinions within a game persisted after game play. Also unknown was how long any such effects would last, and if they would be affected by using embodied versus conventional controls in the game. 3 experiments were run on university students to investigate these points. It was hypothesised that violent play would increase hostility and support for violence, and that these effects would be short term and increased by the use of embodied controls. Study 1 investigated whether attitudes and opinions persisted immediately after game play by having participants play either a nonviolent or violent version of a computer game and then measuring their support for violence. The hypothesis was tentatively supported in males, who showed higher support for violence in the violent version group. Study 2 aimed to pilot a behavioural measure of hostility to be used in Study 3 by having participants watch either a non-violent (non-violent group) or violent clip (violent group) before completing the behavioural measure and the violence questionnaire used in Study 1. The hypothesis was not well supported in that the attitudinal scores were almost equal. However, the expected trend occurred in the behavioural measure. Study 3 investigated how long the effects on hostility and support for violence would last, and if they were affected by the use of embodied versus conventional controls. Participants played a non-violent and violent game on either the Playstation 2 or Nintendo Wii. Violent play did not increase support for violence and hostile decision making, it marginally decreased them. Also, the participants' responses did not completely return to baseline after 24 hours. Lastly, embodied controls were not found to have a greater effect on support for violence. Therefore, the 3 predictions of this study were not supported. Overall, the central tenet that video games can affect players' attitudes, opinions, cognition and behaviour post play and that this will be especially true in games wherein an in-game character mimics the physical actions of the player is not well supported.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 141-153). / Generally, an aim of the study was to establish the level of segregation among the students in the dining hall and to attempt to understand the motivations that establish and maintain such patterns. Students' level of intergroup contact and interracial attitudes were among the factors investigated for such motivations. With this, a further aim of the study was to establish whether the patterns observed were also patterns of friendship. If this were so, then a further aim of the study was to investigate the determinants of friendship for these students, generally, in order to ascertain the level of importance of race among such determinants. The analysis was focused around 10 specific objectives.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 61-67). / Various sources of evidence suggest that dream frequency, intensity and vividness are increased with the use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRJ's) commonly prescribed for depression and anxiety. In this study the effects ofSSRI use on dream frequency, intensity and vividness in psychiatric patients was examined through a comparision of the dream characteristics of an SSRI- medicated patient group vs. an unmedicated patient control group. Each group comprised 20 patients recruited through state psychiatric outpatient facilities affiliated with two research universities. Age and gender were evenly spread across the two groups. Psychiatric disorders represented were generalised an.xiety disorder, panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder and social phobia. Patients completed a questionnaire consisting of a most recent dream report and self-report likert-scaled questions regarding dream frequency, intensity, vividness and memorability. Two independent raters rated the dream reports for intensity on a likert scale. Self-reported visual vividness was significantly higher (p=0.027, effect size .86) among SSRI users compared with controls, whereas selJreported dream frequency and emotional intensity as well as independent raters assessment of dream intensity were not significantly different across the two groups. Findings of increased dream vividness without increases in dream frequency complement the results of an earlier study. Since serotonin is suppressed during REM sleep, these findings cast further doubt upon the notion of an isomorphic link between REM sleep and dreaming and argue for the searchfor a more sophisticated model of neurotransmitter modulation of sleep-cognition.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves [122]-132). / This qualitative study investigated the effect of a mother's physical disability on the mother-adolescent relationship, parenting and the adolescent's engagement in risky behaviour. Interviews were conducted with five mothers with visible physical disabilities and with their adolescent children. The adolescents comprised two boys and three girls between the ages of 12 and 15 years. All five mother-adolescent dyads were black, with low maternal educational levels, from low socio-economic backgrounds, and lived in neighbourhoods characterised by unemployment, gangsterism, substance abuse, violence and crime. The multiple case study design was used to compare and contrast evidence from the individual cases. Two separate semistructured interviews, covering the same topics, were conducted with both the mother and the adolescent in order to triangulate the data. The interviews focused on perceptions of (a) the impact of the mother's disability for mother-adolescent relations; (b) disability-related stigma and the adolescent's awareness of the mother's difference on the mother-adolescent relationship; (c) the ways in which the mother's disability and other contextual factors affect parenting and the adolescent's engagement in risky behaviour. The results illuminated a range of barriers andfacilitators to parenting with a physical disability but the variability notwithstanding, the majority of the families reported positive relationships and experiences given the cumulative stressors that they face.

Includes abstract. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 116-140). / Lynch syndrome (LS), the most common form of inherited colorectal cancer (CRC), carries with it a lifetime risk of approximately 80% of developing CRC. This study identified unexpected findings with regard to the relationships between neuropsychological functioning, knowledge and non-adherence within the context of LS, and highlights ways in which this might be investigated in the future.

Includes bibliographical references. / This study examined treatment response and participant characteristics amongst substance misusing clients of a Cape Town low-cost out-patient treatment programme.A theory-based approach to the evaluation was used and substance use outcomes of participants were measured over the three time periods of admission, 6- weeks postadmission (immediately after the intervention) and 10-weeks post-admission as were elements of the Centre's causal chain mechanism: Relationships between the domains of motivation (comprising the three sub-scales of Recognition, Taking Steps and Ambivalence), drug-taking confidence (self-efficacy), Alcoholics/Narcotics Anonymous affiliation and previous clean time against levels of substance use and severity of dependence at each time point were measured. Substance use and levels of severity of dependence should decline over time. As Self-Efficacy, Taking Steps and NA/AA Affiliation scores increase, so substance use levels and levels of severity of dependence should decrease. Higher scores of Recognition and Ambivalence should be associated with higher levels of substance use and severity of dependence. Forty seven percent of participants reported abstinence of all substances at 10-week follow-up and a further 13% abstained from all substances with the exception of alcohol which they had used only once or twice. Reductions in use of individual substances were high: 95% of participants who, on admission, reported use of methaquolone (mandrax), 89% of heroin users, 84% of cocaine users and 73% of methamphetamine users reported abstinence of those drugs at 10-week follow-up. Self-Efficacy and Taking Steps scores significantly increased over time and were also significantly associated with reduction in substance use and severity of dependence. Higher Recognition scores were significantly associated with higher levels of substance use at admission and 10-week follow-up. There was an inverse association between amount of exposure to the treatment programme and levels of substance abuse and severity of dependence. NA/AA affiliation was low at all time points and did not appear to be associated with reductions in substance use. As substance use and substance dependence significantly decreased and as measurable elements in the chain of causal mechanisms changed over time consistent with programme causal theory, and as the change in those elements impacted on levels of substance use in a significant way, it can be tentatively suggested that there was a treatment programme effect.

Includes abstract. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 117-127). / Previous research has shown that in normal individuals sleep is critical to the formation of memories. Successful memory consolidation during sleep is contingent on the presence of slowwave sleep (SWS), REM sleep and the successful transition of stages across the night. In PTSD, both sleep and memory processes are disrupted, but no previous study has examined whether these two variables are inter-related. This study aimed at determining whether disrupted sleep was a mechanism underlying declarative memory deficits in PTSD, investigating whether memory consolidation during sleep is disrupted in PTSD diagnosed individuals in comparison with controls.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 85-92) / The availability and free-access of ARV-treatment in South Africa has been a signifier of hope amongst fellow South Africans. This in effect has led to the government's assumption that the disclosure of an HIV/AIDS-infected status would be easier due to the treatment's effectiveness. Disclosing an HIV/AIDS-infected status to the individual/s with whom one cohabits with, has thus been made a policy by the government in order to be able to access ARV-treatment. This study examined the psychological challenges associated with disclosing an HIV/AIDS-infected status to the individuals one lives with, and the possible impact that such challenges have on ARV-treatment adherence.

Includes abstract. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 84-91). / Anecdotal evidence suggests that sleep can aid in creative performance, but few studies have systematically investigated this association. Prior research suggests that creative thinking, particularly divergent cognition, is similar to mental states found in sleep and dreaming, especially during REM sleep. Studies have found that sleep benefits general learning and problem-solving, and facilitates insight that promotes enhanced performance on cognitive tasks. This study investigated the effects of sleep on performance with verbal and visual tasks that explicitly require creative ability. I hypothesised that participants with a period of sleep between task preparation and execution would perform better than participants with an equal period of REM-deprived sleep, daytime wakefulness, or no interval between preparation and execution, but there would be no difference in performance between the participants in terms of convergent cognition. The study was a 4-level, single-factor design, with state of consciousness as the manipulated variable. Participants (n = 87) were recruited from the university undergraduate population. Participants memorised a wordlist for task preparation and then, after an interval of either normal sleep, REM-deprived sleep, waking activity, or no interval, used the same wordlist to write a creative short story for task execution. The stories were assessed for creativity-related constructs by the researcher and independent raters. Participants also completed a visual design fluency task at both stages of the study, following a 4-level, single-factor, repeated-measures design. Participants' scores on the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking (TTCT) Verbal Edition and the Shipley Institute of Living Scale (SILS) were used to control for general creative ability and IQ respectively. ANCOVA, repeated measures ANOVA, and Fisher's r to z transformation statistics were used to analyse the data. Although generally the hypotheses were not directly supported by the data obtained, trends suggest that there was a connection between sleep and creativity, especially an apparent interaction between baseline creativity and the type of interval. Based on the indirect evidence obtained, directions for future research for investigating sleep and creativity are discussed.

Bibliography: leaves 129-139. / The relationship between media exposure and disordered eating disordered behaviours is not without complexity and contestation in the existing literature. Much knowledge of this relationship in a sample of South African university students, who could be expected to have reasonably high levels of media exposure. It examined the relationship via both quantitative and qualitative methods. In the quantitative part, 222 second-year psychology students at the University of Cape Town completed the Eating Attitudes Test (EAT -26). Analyses of the EAT-26 scores and demographic variables using multiple regression showed that both the sex subjects (ß=0.23, p<0.001) and their levels of media exposure (ß=0.17, p<0.001) were significantly related to a higher risk of the development of symptoms of anorexia nervosa.