M.Com. (Industrial Psychology) / Orientation: Professional industrial-organisational (I-O) psychology practitioners function and register under one title with the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) yet in practice the work is done under various other titles and in various fields and industries. I-O psychology professionals identify with the broader title, yet also identify with the subfield in which they work (e.g. Coach, Consultant [internal or external], Generalist, Talent Manager, Recruiter etc.). For many young aspiring I-O professionals the question lingers, “what is an I-O psychologist?”. This is the question of professional identity and shared mental models, “who are we?”. A professional identity is a social identity, yet there no obvious shared overarching identities across the profession, besides the title. The extent to which the professional identity is shared and whether there is a strong sense of it is what I am questioning. Research purpose: The aim of this study was to explore the mental models held by professional I-O psychologists to gain richer insight into the possible shared mental models within the profession and thus facilitate a better understanding of the professional identity. Motivation for the study: I am personally attached to the topic of the study in that I am an I-O psychology master’s student, and therefore the study looks into my own future profession. The world of practice for the registered I-O psychologist is wide and varied. For young students in the field the exact meaning, and purpose of I-O psychology is not always clear neither is the profession's contribution. The study not only feeds my curiosity, but also assists those who are interested in mental models that make up the profession. As a student I believe it is important to have an understanding of the profession to which one is committing oneself, as you will soon no longer be representing yourself only but also the profession. For a profession to be considered a legitimate community of practice, standards, governance and guiding principles are essential. Thus the idea of understanding the underlying mental models within the I-O psychology profession is both interesting and useful to the individual and also the larger professional body. Research design: Applying a qualitative case-study design I conducted interviews with eleven locally practicing I-O psychologists from varying backgrounds. They were registered with the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) for at least five years. Main findings: From the data gained from the I-O psychologists I derived fourteen different mental models. I categorised the models into the following five themes, namely: philosophies, events, social/relational, personal and regulation. I classified the themes further as either internal or external experiences. External experiences refer to mental models that aid the individual in linking with the broader community, while internal experiences entail mental models which individual professionals manage within themselves in ways particularly unique to themselves, aiding the maintenance of their personal identity. These two classifications, the internal and external experiences, help the professional balance the need for the sense of self with the need of belonging to the social community of practice. In applying theory when I analysed the research findings it became clear that individuals carry both shared and individual senses of their identity. Persons' perceptions were greatly dependent on their work experiences, and regardless of these being positive or negative they were incorporated into the manner in which the individual made sense of the profession identity and their personal identity. Accomplished professionals often possessed mental models which strengthened a sense of a collective professional identity (such as the mental models themed under philosophies) rather than a personal individual identity (such as the mental models themed under personal). Mental models which apply to the whole profession are associated with guiding principles such as ethics, collaboration and being people centred. While the others which are less shared, such as personal validation, point to a deep internal and personal experience of the profession. I-O psychologists carry both the unique and the shared sense of the profession, various mental models are used to aid in the balancing of the two. Contribution: The study’s theoretical contribution lies in (i) providing a better understanding of the level at which I-O psychologists' mental models are shared vs. individual, and (ii) demonstrating how common themes influence the identity work of I-O psychologists, and that identity work entails an ongoing process found throughout the professional lives of the I-O psychologist...

This study explored a sample of clinical psychologists' preferred resolutions to a series of hypothetical ethical dilemmas and their primary reasons for these choices. The relationship of various professional characteristics to choices and reasons was assessed. Ethical dilemmas volunteered by respondents were analyzed. Results indicated a general lack of consistency in decision making among psychologists in both actions taken to resolve dilemmas and reasons chosen to justify these actions. On the whole, psychologists with different characteristics did not differ in their choice of response to ethical dilemmas or their reasons for these choices. It is argued that diversity in professional decision making, and the ethical dilemmas volunteered by the profession, may serve as useful indices of those ethical issues that pose difficulties for professionals. These results are discussed in the light of similar findings and in the context of current ethical regulations. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1997.

M.Ed. / The research in this qualitative study focuses on the role of the educational psychologist as consultant in Inclusive Education. The rationale for the investigation is derived from the changing and expanding role of the educational psychologist. This role has been implicated by the move from excluding learners who experience barriers to learning from mainstream schools, towards a policy of Inclusive Education. Inclusive Education aims at restructuring and transforming schools and curricula, in order to promote needs-driven, holistic, effective, community-based and quality service delivery. However, the implementation of Inclusive Education poses complex problems to those involved. Knowledge, skills and attitudes are required in which most teachers, parents as well as personnel at the education support services are not yet trained. This necessitates a comprehensive solution, such as collaborative consultation. The educational psychologist thus needs to reflect on her current role, and should change and expand her role to that of a consultant. The report of the study commences with a theory framework in which collaborative consultation is explicated. The nature of collaboration as a constructivist learning and problem solving process, in whole school development for Inclusive Education, is discussed. Thereafter collaborative consultation as an ecosystemic approach to, and reflective practice in whole school development, is discussed and illustrated. The chapter ends by a summary of the role, knowledge, skills and attitudes of the consultant in whole school development for Inclusive Education. The theory framework is followed by a chapter on the design of the qualitative study, substantiating the choice of format and methods of data collection and analyses. A rich and tightly woven description of the chronological course of the research process is provided, when examples of raw data and data analysis from the sketches and transcriptions of the focus group and individual interviews are presented.

The informal breach of client confidentiality by psychologists was discussed in relation to various issues in professionalism and professional ethics, both in general and in the South African context. lnformal breaches of client confidentiality were identified as a common by under researched form of ethical malpractice, and nominated as the dependent variable in this study. Different emphases in ethical education were discussed in relation to various theories of moral thinking and moral action (particularly the 'levels' theory of moral thinking of R.M. Hare), and identified as an independent variable for the empirical portion of the study. A second independent variable, of countertransference responses by psychologists to clients, was also identified and discussed. A purpose-developed postal questionnaire was administered to a sample of South African clinical, counselling, and educational psychologists to assess the incidence of informal breaches of confidentiality in a South African sample, as well as the relationship between the variables. Although a high incidence of informal breaches of confidentiality was reported by the sample, and indirect support for Hare's levels theory of moral thinking found, the results did not demonstrate a significant relationship between the independent and dependent variables. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1998.

This is an explorative study into the challenges and ethical dilemmas that practitioners face when assessing the intellectual functioning of black learners. Participants were registered psychologists and intern psychologists involved in assessing black African learners. Data were collected by means of an interview schedule that had been designed for this purpose, based on the literature in the field. All participants were interviewed individually. The psychological practitioners interviewed in this study reported linguistic barriers, limited cultural knowledge, and lack of scientific validation as posing the major challenges for them in assessing black African learners. Among the ethical dilemmas that were reported were confidentiality and informed consent which were sometimes compromised by their dual responsibilities to the client and the schooling system or another third party. Forming discussion forums, development of new and appropriately normed assessment tools and incorporating relevant skills in training programs were recommended as some of the strategies to overcome these challenges and ethical dilemmas. / Thesis (M.Soc.Sci.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2010.

This study examined three perspectives on ethical dimensions of South African professional psychology. These perspectives were derived from three data sets. The first data set comprised a series of public complaints against psychologists; the second a series of ethical dilemmas reported by psychologists themselves, and the third comprised a study of the training of South African psychologists in professional ethics. Clear patterns emerged in the analysis of each data set, and efforts were made to integrate the findings. Psychologists in particular registration categories, trained at particular universities and working in particular practice contexts were disproportionately more likely to attract complaints. Similarly, patterns of dilemmas experienced by psychologists also emerged. Comparison of complaints with dilemmas suggested that there were significant differences and some similarities in the ethical issues and contexts associated with public complaints and psychologists' own ethical dilemmas. The study of ethics training suggested general dissatisfaction with the relevance and quantity of ethics training nationally. The main findings were integrated to make recommendations for improving the ethics training of South African psychologists. The limitations of the data are described, along with suggestions for future research to examine in greater depth and specificity several dominant patterns described by the present study. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2002.

The purpose of the study was to evaluate the ethical decision making self-efficacy of a sample of state-credentialed psychologists and counselors. A questionnaire was constructed which asked respondents to rate the confidence they possessed in relation to thirty items (reflecting ten a priori ethical decision-making domains). The items described ethical knowledge and ethical decision-making tasks and situations. The questionnaire also included eight questions pertaining to respondents' personal characteristics and professional education, training, and experience. The questionnaire was mailed to 400 Arizona-licensed psychologists and 340 Arizona-certified counselors. Although no formal, a priori hypotheses were established prior to the survey, it was expected that the extent and quality of professional ethics training might be associated with higher scores on factors generated by an exploratory factor analysis performed on survey results. In particular, it was anticipated that a values-clarification component of ethics training would be associated with higher ethical decision-making factor scores. Approximately 50% of the total sample responded to the survey. The factor analysis of scorable questionnaires resulted in a six-factor model of ethical decision-making self-efficacy. The six factors were: (1) Knowledge, (2) Behavior, (3) Thinking, (4) Awareness, (5) Resources, (6) Authorities-Conflict Analysis/Resolution. Having taken an ethics course as a student was associated with higher scores on factors 1, 5, and 6. Having taken an ethics training seminar as a postgraduate was associated with higher scores on factors 1, 2, and 5. Those respondents with a values clarification component to their ethics training scored higher on factors 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6. Study results suggest that further development of an Ethical Decision Making Self-Efficacy Scale and pursuit of a national survey of psychologists and counselors addressing issues raised in this study are warranted.

Submitted by Filipe dos Santos (fsantos@pucsp.br) on 2017-12-21T11:28:12Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Luane Neves Santos.pdf: 2173879 bytes, checksum: 2e95d8f77f461ce9146a3324e5489175 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-12-21T11:28:12Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Luane Neves Santos.pdf: 2173879 bytes, checksum: 2e95d8f77f461ce9146a3324e5489175 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-12-12 / Conselho Nacional de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico - CNPq / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / This work is a historiographical study developed with the aim of analyzing the social commitment of Brazilian psychology in the light of its development and understood as a critical project. The historiographical writing was based on dialectical historical materialism as a perspective for the production of historical reading, including the categories proposed by Antonio Gramsci: organic intellectuals, relations of force and hegemony. The documents analyzed in this work were gathered from literature review, including articles, books, dissertations, theses as well as from the mapping of events of the area of psychology such as the Mostras Nacionais de Práticas (National Exhibits of Practices) and editions of the Congresso Nacional da Psicologia (National Congress of Psychology), produced by Sistema Conselhos. Professional projects express principles of society projects and can be constructed by any category from an ideal image about itself and the effect it wishes to produce in the world. As a professional project, social commitment presents three dialectically interwoven dimensions: it is at the same time the condition of the project by providing the philosophical base in the sense of an organic ideology to the interests of the working classes, evidencing the alignment to a society project, as an alternative to the capitalist order; an element of the project, its public face, when it presents itself as a motto subsidized by the representative entities; and the broad designation of the project, which aggregates different political strategies to consolidate this perspective. Social commitment indicates the critical perspective as transversal stance to different personages and historical moments: initially, criticism towards type of population served and workplace; subsequently, towards instruments, theoretical models and methods used; and most recently in the discussion of the feasibility and risks taken by its adoption as a project in psychology. The constitution of the historical course of social commitment enabled us to conclude that this project intends to contribute to the transformation of society and, in its development, substantially transforms psychology / O presente trabalho apresenta-se como um estudo historiográfico que tem por objetivo analisar o compromisso social da psicologia brasileira sob a ótica do desenvolvimento desse projeto profissional, entendido como um projeto crítico. A escrita historiográfica baseou-se no materialismo histórico dialético como perspectiva para a produção da leitura histórica, incluindo as categorias propostas por Antonio Gramsci: intelectuais orgânicos, relações de força e hegemonia. Os documentos analisados foram reunidos a partir de revisão de literatura, incluindo artigos, livros, dissertações, teses e do mapeamento de eventos da área da psicologia como as Mostras Nacionais de Práticas e as edições do Congresso Nacional da Psicologia, produzidos pelo Sistema Conselhos. Os projetos profissionais expressam princípios de projetos societários e podem ser construídos por qualquer categoria a partir de uma imagem ideal sobre si mesma e do efeito que deseja produzir no mundo. Como projeto profissional, o compromisso social apresenta três dimensões dialeticamente imbricadas: é, ao mesmo tempo, a condição do projeto, por fornecer a base filosófica no sentido de uma ideologia orgânica aos interesses das classes trabalhadoras evidenciando o alinhamento a um projeto societário alternativo à ordem capitalista; um elemento do projeto, sua face pública, quando se apresenta como um lema subsidiado pelas entidades representativas; e a designação ampla do projeto, agregadora de diferentes estratégias políticas para a consolidação dessa perspectiva. O compromisso social indica a perspectiva crítica como postura transversal aos diferentes atores e momentos históricos: inicialmente, uma crítica ao tipo de população atendida e ao local de trabalho; posteriormente aos instrumentos, modelos teóricos e métodos utilizados; e mais recentemente, na discussão sobre a viabilidade e os riscos colocados pela sua adoção como projeto na psicologia. A constituição do percurso histórico do compromisso social possibilitou-nos concluir que ele pretende contribuir para a transformação da sociedade e, em seu desenvolvimento, transforma substancialmente a psicologia

Privilege is an evidential principle which, on the grounds of public policy, excludes evidence relevant and otherwise admissible. This thesis aims to discover whether privilege should be applied to the psychotherapeutic profession in South Africa. At present, the only profession in South Africa afforded privilege is the legal profession. There are two main theoretical justifications for privilege: the utilitarian and the individual/human rights approach. This thesis considers whether the psychotherapeutic profession wan-ants privilege under either theory, and recommends that the law of privilege integrate both theories rather than adopt one or the other. The impact of the Constitution and the right to privacy receive particular attention. Very little literature or case law on the question of psychotherapeutic privilege was found in South Africa. Consequently, extensive comparative research into the common-law systems of England, Canada and United States of America was done. This research yielded some interesting findings. The first is that case-by-case development of the law of privilege is uncel1ain and fragmented. The next is that psychotherapeutic privilege exists in almost absolute form in the United States of America, but is littered with lacunae causing as much uncertainty as the case-by-case approach to privilege law. The most helpful method of dealing with the problem was found in Canada, where a two-stage approach to protecting personal information, including psychotherapeutic records, has been developed. In light of this research, this thesis reassesses the original viability of psychotherapeutic privilege in South Africa. Privilege, it was found, is not the best solution to protecting psychotherapeutic communications. This thesis recommends legislative adoption of an amended two-stage approach based on the Canadian model for sexual offence trials as the best method of protecting psychotherapeutic communications in both civil and criminal proceedings. The thesis ends by suggesting draft legislative provisions.

Thesis (MEdPsych)--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / Includes bibliography / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: There has been a paradigm shift occurring in the field of educational psychology over the last few decades from a predominantly medical approach towards a more inclusive and systemic approach. This development has called for a change in the way educational psychologists conceptualise problems, as well as an expansion in their practices in order to provide effective support services. However, the question arose which theoretical approach educational psychologists currently espouse and implement. This study therefore endeavoured to explore the theoretical approaches underpinning educational psychologists’ practice, with a focus on those professionals working within District Based Support Teams (DBSTs) in the Western Cape.Within this broad aim, the research aimed to identify which theoretical approach(es) the educational psychologists personally espouse and which theoretical approach(es) is/are espoused within the DBSTs. A further objective was to determine what the practice of their theory-in-use entailed. This information would ascertain whether the educational psychologists’ espoused theories and theory-in-use correspond. Qualitative research within the interpretive/constructivist paradigm was employed for the research design. The participants included eight educational psychologists practising within District-Based Support Teams (DBSTs) in the Western Cape. Data was collected by means of an extensive literature review, self-administered questionnaires and individual interviews and analysed using qualitative thematic analysis and interpretation. The key findings of this research revealed that the educational psychologists in this study personally espouse a systemic approach to their practice of educational psychology. However, it was revealed that this approach is not necessarily adopted by all members of the DBSTs. Furthermore, the educational psychologists themselves experience many challenges in implementing this theory. Their theory-in-use at the Education District Offices incorporates both medical and systemic approaches. Assessment of learners is largely based on a medical model, whilst the interventions and support they provide appeared to be focused on a more systemic level. It was concluded that the theory that the educational psychologists personally espouse; the theory espoused within DBSTs; and the theory-in-use within the DBSTs, do not entirely correspond. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: ’n Paradigma skuif wat die laaste paar dekades plaasgevind het in die veld van opvoedkundige sielkunde, het meegebring dat die benadering verander het vanaf ‘n hoofsaaklik mediese model na ‘n meer inklusiewe en sisteem gebaseerde model. Hierdie ontwikkeling vra dat opvoedkundige sielkundiges probleme op nuwe maniere konseptualiseer, asook hul praktyk uitbrei om effektiewe ondersteuningsdienste te kan verskaf. Die vraag watter teoretiese benaderings opvoedkundige sielkundiges tans onderskryf en implementeer, het onstaan. Hierdie studie poog dus om te ondersoek watter teoretiese raamwerke opvoedkundige sielkundiges se praktyke onderlê, en fokus op die opvoedkundige sielkundiges wat werk binne die Distriksgebaseerde Ondersteuningsspanne (DBSTs) in die Wes-Kaap. Binne hierdie breë doelwit, word deur die navorsing gepoog om die teoretiese benadering(s) wat opvoedkundige sielkundiges binne die DBSTs persoonlik aanhang sowel as die teoretiese benadering(s) wat binne hierdie DBSTs gepropageer word, te identifiseeer. ‘n Verdere mikpunt was om vas te stel wat die deelnemers se praktyk (teorie-in-gebruik) behels. Hierdie inligting sou dit moontlik maak om vas te stel of die teorie voorgestaan en die teorie-in-gebruik ooreenstem. Kwalitatiewe navorsingsmetodologie vanuit ‘n interpretatiewe/konstruktivistiese paradigma is gebruik in die ontwerp van die navorsing. Die deelnemers was ag opvoedkundige sielkundiges wat binne die DBSTs van die Wes-Kaap praktiseer. Data is versamel deur ‘n uitgebreide literatuur oorsig, self ingevulde oop vraelyste en individuele onderhoude. Die data is geanaliseer deur van kwalitatiewe tematiese analise en interpretasie gebruik te maak. Die kernbevindinge van die studie het gedui op ‘n sistemiese benadering tot hul praktyk, wat deur die opvoedkundige sielkundiges persoonlik onderskryf word. Die bevindige het ook gedui daarop dat nie al die lede van die DBSTs dit aangeneem het nie. Verder ervaar die opvoedkundige sielkundiges self verskeie uitdagings ten opsigte van die implementering van sodanige teoretiese benadering. Die teorie-in-gebruik binne die Onderwys Distrikskantore bevat beide mediese model benaderings sowel as meer sistemiese benaderings. Die assessering van leerders is grootliks gebaseer op ‘n mediese model, terwyl die intervensies en ondersteuning wat gebied word blyk meer sistemiese onderlê te wees. Dit kom dus vooras of die teorie wat opvoedkundige sielkundiges persoonlik aanhang, die teorie wat binne die DBSTs onderskryf word, en die teorie-in-gebruik binne die DBSTs nie noodwendig ooreenkom nie.