Thesis (M.A (Psychology))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Humanities, 2016 / Cognitive assessment tests that were standardised in the US and UK continues to be used to assess South African populations, and those that are standardised in South Africa are standardised using urban populations. These facts draw a question to the validity of the cognitive assessments when administered in rural South African populations. A test battery was conducted, containing WAIS-IVSA, Stroop, Trail Making Test, Rey Osterrieth Complex Figure Test, Ray Auditory Verbal Learning Test, Controlled Oral Word Association Test, Wechsler Card Sorting Test, Logic Memory and One Minutes Maths. Construct validity of South African standardised test (WAIS-IVSA) was therefore assessed with the use of Confirmatory Factor Analysis, and the results stipulated that the WAIS-IVSA structure was not measuring what it is supposed to. Thus further analysis on individually selected measures was done. The effects of Language, Education, Age and gender were also assessed with the use of Spearmen correlation. / MT2017

M.A. (Psychological Counseling) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

D.Litt. et Phil. / In recent times the South African society has been subject to rapid and important changes. These changes resulted in new responsibilities placed on social workers and psychologists. This situation has lead to the development of new perspectives and the expansion of knowledge and understanding. Social workers and psychologists are increasingly under pressure to provide cost effective services to an increasing number of clients without reducing accountability. Counsellors have to be able to support their decisions with scientific evidence ...

M.A. (Information & Knowledge Management) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

This study is seen as a step towards addressing the acute shortage of psychometric instruments that can be validly and reliably used in the assessment of Zulu-speaking individuals. The Symptom Checklist-90-Revised (SCL-90-R) , a 90-item multidimensional self-report symptom inventory, was translated into Zulu. A multistage translation procedure, involving back-translation, decentering, and the committee approach was employed. The translated instrument was pretested on a group of Zulu farm workers (N = 12) and revisions made in order to improve its comprehensibility and acceptability to Zulu respondents. The psychometric equivalence of the Zulu and English versions of the SCL-90-R was investigated with bilingual Zulu students (N = 61) . Scale-level factor analysis yielded similar factor structures for both versions, and suggests that the Zulu SCL-90-R may be best utilised as a global measure of psychological distress. Scores at the scale- and item-level were reasonably comparable for the two language versions, although retest effects and apparent bilingual response sets suggest that the bilingual technique may not be a valid means of assessing translation equivalence. Acceptable test-retest reliability and internal consistency measures were obtained, indicating that the translation into Zulu did not adversely affect the reliability of the SCL-90-R. The concurrent validity of the Zulu SCL-90-R was investigated with samples of male psychiatric inpatients (N = 23) and nonpatients (N = 26). The global severity index of the SCL-90-R demonstrated moderate diagnostic efficiency, with a sensitivity of 70% and a specificity of 77%. These results suggest that the Zulu SCL-90-R may be validly utilised for the purpose of screening for mental illness. / Thesis (M.Soc.Sci.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1998.

M.A. (Psychology) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

There is a dire need for psychological tests to be standardized for the African child and for appropriate norms to be developed. This study is part of two larger studies that began in 2008, namely the National Early Learning Standards Age Validation Study (NELDS) (Kvalsvig, Govender & Taylor; 2008) (Principal Investigator – Dr. S. Kauchali), and the INSTAPA Work Package 6 Study (Kvalsvig, Govender & Taylor; 2008) (Principle Investigator – Dr. J.D. Kvalsvig). This study considers aspects of the Kilifi Development Inventory (KDI) as a measurement tool used to provide a structured and standardized procedure for monitoring the cognitive development of children from the age of 6 to 35 months. It is situated in the positivist paradigm and has adopted the classical test theory in attempting to establish the reliability of the Kilifi Developmental Inventory. Stratified purposive sampling techniques were used to select the South African sample, which comprised 120 participants categorized by gender (males and females), age (6 – 18 months and 18 – 35 months) and area (urban and peri urban/rural). The internal reliability of the KDI was investigated. Results from the data analysis (using SPSS 18.0) suggest that the measurement tool as a whole had inadequate internal reliability and therefore, further investigations and modifications have to be undertaken in certain subtests of the measurement tool before the assessment tool can be standardized for the South African population. / Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2011.

Increasing focus is being placed on fair assessment practices in South Africa. Most psychological tests used in this country were designed and developed in other countries. Research has shown that when using these tests on a different target population, it is important to determine the suitability of the test for that population. This involves investigating reliability, validity and possible sources of bias. It is equally important to have local normative data with which scores can be compared and interpreted. Research in this area has been limited. The purpose of this study was to undertake such research by evaluating a widely used test, the Raven's Coloured Progressive Matrices (RCPM), and its existing norms, for Zulu children in South Africa. The study also aimed to provide raw data, which could be used to assist with the compilation of local norms. The test was administered to a convenience sample of 522 primary school children between the ages of 5 and 12 years old. The sample was divided into two groups to represent two different geographical locations: rural and urban. The sample consisted of 284 rural children and 237 urban children. There were 263 males and 259 females in the sample. Findings indicated good test reliability for this sample. Test validity however could not be confirmed as possible sources of bias at the content and item levels were shown. Age had a significant effect on performance, but level of education appeared to be the strongest predictor of performance on the RCPM for this sample. Significant gender differences were found. There was a tendency for males to outperform females on the test. Location had a significant effect on scores, where urban children performed better than rural children. Comparison of Zulu sample scores with those produced by the British standardisation sample, revealed a large discrepancy in performance between the two different cultural groups. The Zulu sample mean scores were significantly lower than the British mean scores. These findings highlight the need for locally developed normative data. The validity of the test for the sample requires further investigation. Results indicate that test adaptation may be required for Zulu children. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2005.

Thesis (MComm (Industrial Psychology))--Stellenbosch University, 2009. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Organisations in open market economic systems aspire to optimally utilize the scarce resources at their disposal so as to maximize profits. To achieve this goal, the human resources function is tasked with the responsibility to acquire and maintain a competent and motivated workforce in a manner that would add value to the bottom-line. Selection thereby becomes a critical human resources management intervention in any organisation in as far as it regulates human capital movement into and through the organisation. To be able to make informed selection decisions, industrial-organisational psychologists and human resources practitioners need valid and reliable information on predictor constructs to allow them to make accurate predictions of the criterion construct. This provides the essential justification for the primary objective of this study which was to undertake a factor analytic investigation of the first-order factor structure of the Fifteen Factor Questionnaire Plus (15FQ+) on a sample of Black South African managers. The data used in this study was drawn from the database of Psymetric (Pty) Ltd with the permission of Psytech SA. The sample comprised 241 Black managers assessed by Psymetric (Pty) Ltd between 2002 and 2006. Item- and dimensionality analyses were performed on the 15FQ+ subscales to assess the success with which they represented the underlying personality constructs. The outcome of both the item and dimensionality analyses showed that although the items in each of the subscales seemed to be representing the underlying personality construct, they were not without problems. A spectrum of goodness-of-fit statistics was used to assess the measurement model fit. The model‟s overall fit was found to be good. The model parameter estimates, however, gave some reason for concern. The results of the confirmatory factor analyses suggest that the claim made by the 15FQ+ authors that the items included in each subscale reflect specific personality dimensions is tenable. The magnitude of the estimated model parameters, however, suggests that the items generally do not reflect the latent personality dimensions they were designated to reflect with a great degree of success. The items are reasonably noisy measures of the latent variables they represent. Based on these findings, this instrument should be used with caution, particularly on groups different from the UK samples on which it was originally developed and standardised. This study expands our understanding of this measure. Its findings should guide future research on a larger, more representative sample from the same target population to give credence to, or to refute these findings. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Organisasies in „n vrye-mark ekonomiese stelsel streef daarna om die skaars hulpbronne tot hul beskikking optimal aan te wend ten einde wins te maksimeer. Om hierdie doel te bereik word die menslike hulpbronfunksie getaak met die verantwoordelikheid om ‟n bevoegde en gemotiveerde werksmag te verkry en in stand te hou op ‟n wyse wat waarde tot die onderneming voeg. Keuring word daardeur ‟n kritieke menslike hulpbronintervensie in enige organisasie in so verre dit die beweging van menskapitaal in en deur die organisasie reguleer. Ten einde ingeligte keuringsbesluite te kan neem, benodig bedryfsielkundiges en menslike hulpbronpraktisyns betroubare en geldige inligting oor voorspellerkonstrukte om hul in staat te stel om akkurate voorspellings van die kriteriumkonstruk te maak. Dit bied wesenlik die regverdiging vir die primêre oogmerk van hierdie studie, naamlik om „n faktoranalitiese ondersoek van die eerste-orde faktorstruktuur van die Fifteen Factor Questionnaire Plus (15FQ+) op „n steekproef swart Suid Afrikaanse bestuurders te onderneem. Die data wat in die studie gebruik is, is verkry uit die databasis van Psymetric (Pty) Ltd met die toestemming van Psytech SA. Die steekproef het bestaan uit 241 swart bestuurders wat tussen 2002 en 2006 deur Psymetric (Pty) Ltd getoets is. Item- en dimensionaliteitontledings is op die 15FQ+ subskale uitgevoer ten einde die sukses vas te stel waarmee hul die onderliggende persoonlikheidskonstrukte verteenwoordig. Die resultate van beide die item- en die dimensionaliteitontledings het aangedui dat ofskoon die items van elke subskaal die onderliggende persoonlikheidskonstruk skyn te verteenwoordig, was hulle nogtans nie sonder probleme nie. ‟n Spektrum passingsmaatstawwe is gebruik om die pasgehalte van die metingsmodel te beoordeel. Die model se algehele passing was goed. Die skattings van die model parameters het egter wel rede tot kommer gegee. Die resultate van die bevestigende faktorontleding dui daarop dat die aanspraak van die ontwikkelaars van die 15FQ+ dat die items wat in elke subskaal ingesluit is spesifieke persoonlikheidsdimensies reflekteer, wel houbaar is. Die grootte-orde van die geskatte modelparameters dui egter daarop dat die items oor die algemeen nie die persoonlikheidsdimensies wat hul ontwerp is om te reflekteer met groot sukses reflekteer nie. Die items is redelik raserige metings van die latente veranderlikes wat hul verteenwoordig. Gebaseer op hierdie bevindinge behoort hierdie instrument met omsigtigheid gebruik te word, veral op groepe wat verskil van die VK steekproewe waarop die instrument ontwikkel en gestandaardiseer is. Die study dra by tot ons begrip van die instrument. Die bevindinge van die studie behoort toekomstige navorsingop 'n groter, meer verteenwoordigende steekproef uit dieselfde teikenpopulasie te rig ten einde die onderhawige bevindinge te steun of te weerlê.

Cross-cultural assessment in South Africa has become more prominent since the first democratic elections held in April 1994, as stronger demands for the cultural appropriateness of psychological tests have been made. The use of psychometric testing, including personality assessment in the workplace, is now strictly controlled by legislation, among others the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa (Act 108 of 1996), the Labour Relations Act (66 of 1995), and the Employment Equity Act (55 of 1998), and the Health Professions Act (56 of 1974). The present study forms part of the development process of the South African Personality Inventory (SAPI), which seeks to explore the indigenous personality structure of all the 11 official language groups found in South Africa and to then develop a personality inventory based on this. The present study aimed to explore and describe the personality facets and clusters that were found among a sample of 95 Xhosa-speaking South Africans. An exploratory descriptive research method was used and participants were selected by means of non-probability purposive sampling. Data were gathered by administering a biographical questionnaire and a tape-recorded 10- item interview questionnaire. Content analysis was used to analyse and reduce the data obtained from interviews into personality descriptors. Of the 1872 personality-descriptive words obtained from the interview questions, 164 facets of different personality characteristics were finally configured as a consequence of a data-reduction process. These facets were further categorised into a total of 37 personality sub-clusters and nine personality clusters which were labelled as Extraversion, Soft-heartedness, Conscientiousness, Emotional Stability, Intellect, Openness, Integrity, Relationship Harmony and Facilitating. These clusters and their sub-clusters resonate well with significant aspects and values of the Xhosa culture (e.g., Ubuntu). There also seems to be a moderate correspondence between the clusters and sub-clusters identified in the Xhosa-speaking sample and factors of the Five-Factor Model, especially with respect to the six clusters of Extraversion, Soft-heartedness, Conscientiousness, Emotional Stability, Intellect, and Openness. Nonetheless, differences in the composition of the clusters/facets were found, some of which are due to the more unique facets and sub-facets of personality identified in the Xhosa-speaking sample. The limitations of the study are identified and suggestions are made for further research.