A qualitative investigation was conducted to explore close relatives’ experiences of symptom recognition and help-seeking for dementia. Nine participants took part in a one-to-one interview. The interviews were semi-structured and aimed to address the following topics: symptom recognition and the process of seeking information and support. Interview transcripts were analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). Three superordinate themes emerged from the analysis: ‘Developing the courage to act’, ‘Naming the elephant in the room’ and ‘Repositioning’. Findings highlighted how participants shifted from a position of having unspoken fears about their relatives’ symptoms to a point where they were able to address these fears and help their family member to seek help. Participants were engaged in developing representations of dementia, in line with research on the common sense model of illness representations (CSM). The findings highlighted potential areas of improvement for dementia services in the UK, including the provision of greater support for close relatives (e.g. psychological assessment and intervention). Further research, on a larger scale, is needed to determine whether the CSM provides a useful framework for understanding help-seeking for dementia.

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No description available.

Orientador: Abílio da Costa-Rosa / Banca: Sueli Terezinha Ferreira Martins / Banca: Silvio José Benelli / Resumo: O presente trabalho é resultado de um processo de intercessão realizado em um Centro de Atenção Psicossocial que atende os sujeitos dos impasses decorrentes do uso de álcool e outras drogas (CAPSad II). Trabalhou-se com o Dispositivo Intercessor (DI), uma ferramenta para a práxis da Atenção e para a produção do conhecimento, que tem como seus pilares epistemológicos o Materialismo Histórico, a Análise Institucional, a Psicanálise do campo de Freud e Lacan e a Filosofia de Deleuze. Entre seus objetivos estão: a superação micropolítica da divisão social do trabalho no Modo Capitalista de Produção, entre os que sabem (identificados nos acadêmicos/pesquisadores) e os que fazem (identificados nos "técnicos", trabalhadores da Atenção), objetivando a recuperação da "práxis" e a produção do conhecimento fora do laço social Discurso Universitário (como proposto por Lacan). O objetivo do intercessor é dar vazão aos movimentos já em curso na instituição, ocupando as brechas do instituído para, a partir daí, possibilitar que construções singulares sejam feitas pelos sujeitos da práxis. Salienta-se que, na construção da reflexão acerca da experiência vivenciada, não se trabalha com a pretensão de produzir um saber que seja generalizante e "sirva para todos", objetiva-se ampliar as possibilidades de intercessão e instrumentalizar outros sujeitos/trabalhadores que queiram se posicionar como intercessores em suas práticas / Abstract: This work is the result of a process of mediation conducted in a Psychosocial Care Center serving the subjects of impasses arising from the use of alcohol and other drugs (CAPSad II). Worked with the Intercessor Device (ID), a tool for the practice of Attention and the production of knowledge, which has as its pillars the epistemological Historical Materialism, Institutional Analysis, Psychoanalysis field Freud and Lacan and Philosophy Deleuze. Among its objectives are: overcoming micropolitics of the social division of labor in The Capitalist Mode of Production, between those who know (identified in academics / researchers) and those that do (identified in the "technical" Care workers), aiming at the recovery of practice and the production of knowledge outside of the social bond speech University (as proposed by Lacan). The goal of the intercessor is to give vent to movements already underway in the institution, occupying the gaps established to, from there, enabling unique buildings are made by the subjects of praxis. Stresses that, in the construction of reflection on lived experience, not working with the intention of producing knowledge that is generalizing and "fits all", the objective is to expand the possibilities of intercession and tool for other subjects / workers who want position themselves as intercessors in their practices / Mestre

Research has shown that having a child who experiences mental health difficulties can be highly stressful for parents and may lead to feelings associated with loss and grief. Currently little is known about how best to support these parents’ needs. Studies from a variety of fields suggest that the ability to find meaning in stressful life events is associated with decreased distress. The current study therefore sought to explore the ways in which a sample of parents whose adolescent children were experiencing mental health difficulties made sense of their experiences. Individual unstructured interviews were carried out with a sample of parents whose children were inpatients at an adolescent psychiatric hospital. A total of eight parents took part in the study, four male and four female. Interviews were audio recorded, transcribed verbatim and analysed using thematic and structural narrative analyses. The results suggested that parents varied in their extent and use of meaning making, with some able to find positive meaning in their child’s difficulties and others struggling to make sense of it. Four master themes emerged across participants; unpredictability and ambiguity, difficulties identifying mental health difficulties, difficulties accepting the gravity of the situation, and benefits. The findings suggest that parents would benefit from having the ambiguity of their child’s difficulties acknowledged. Interventions aimed at aiding meaning making should be offered to parents who struggle to make sense of their child’s difficulties.

Embodied emotion theory hypothesises a reciprocal relationship between physical expression of emotion and the manner in which emotional information is perceived. The Integrated Cognitive Subsystems (ICS) theory of depression and Mindfulness-Based Interventions (MBIs) propose the body as key in the development and treatment of depression. This study investigated the relationship between posture and outcomes of mindfulness practice; participants meditating in an upright posture were predicted to report greater mindfulness, positive affect and distress tolerance than in a slouched posture. A non-clinical, adult sample (N=39) carried out a 15-minute mindfulness breathing exercise in upright and slouched postures in a counter-balanced within-participant design, with outcome measures of mindfulness, affect and distress tolerance. Participants also reported qualitative experiences. Due to order effects, only data from the first posture participants adopted were analysed, converting the study into a between-participant design. Hypotheses were not supported; between-subjects analyses found no difference in participants’ reported mindfulness, affect or distress tolerance between the two posture groups; potentially due to measurement or power issues. Keeping with previous MBI research, negative affect decreased following the practice in both postures. There was tentative evidence that distress tolerance decreased in the slouched posture condition; although there was no change in the upright condition. Qualitatively, participants reported breathing was easier when upright. These two findings may provide some support for the importance of attending to an upright posture in mindfulness practice. Further research is required to understand the role of the body in depression and MBIs.

Recovery focus has shifted in recent years towards understanding the impact of mental health difficulties on the wider individual context. This includes focus on social inclusion, engendering hope and peer support. For adolescents, psychosis and mental health treatment may interrupt typical developmental tasks such as individuation and successful stage progression. The aim of this research was to expand understanding of how young people with psychosis experience hope. This included how hope was experienced in specific domains and to which factors young people attributed changes in their hopefulness. The study employed a qualitative non-experimental design, using a semi-structured interview schedule developed in accordance with narrative methodology. Ten young people between 16 - 26 years old were interviewed. The experience of hope as an overarching strand throughout the narratives had three common elements; a sense of belonging, the importance of information and the significance of planning and occupation in relation to hope. Work was often a goal within domain-specific hope, and friendships seemed to be less apparent. The study concludes that for some young people, psychosis can act as a turning point towards hopeful thinking. Information can both promote and hinder hope and the importance of meeting others with lived experience in engendering hopeful thinking and greater social inclusion should be considered when working with young people.

Behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia (bv-FTD) is a rare form of the condition which manifests in personality and behavioural changes. Literature has indicated that this is a particularly challenging condition for family carers. Research has begun to explore the qualitative experiences of this group of carers, but is limited to date. The current study aimed to further explore these experiences with an emphasis on how these carers learn to adjust and accept their situation. Grounded theory methodology was adopted to analyse semi-structured interviews with 12 spousal carers (2 were male). A theoretical model is proposed to describe the carer journey and cyclical adjustment process within the progressive context of bv-FTD. This model implies that early stages in the process, including pre-investigation, as well as a number of mediating factors, including the carer’s own past experiences, influence the adjustment process. There is a continuous cycle of adjustment for these carers. These findings add to the existing research base by considering different stages of the adjustment process and linking themes together for a better understanding of the experiences.

Doctorat en sciences psychologiques / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

D.Phil. / In the Republic of South Africa, higher education institutions today are challenged with the need to address a number of pressing demands. In a new democratic dispensation and following the imperatives set out in the National Plan for Higher Education in South Africa (2001), universities have widened participation to students from all population groups. With the ultimate goal of successful throughput, equal opportunity and access must be provided to all prospective students. However, already in 1996 it was acknowledged that equity of access needs to be combined with equity of success. The White paper (1997, clause 1.18) underlines that the principle of equity requires “fair opportunities both to enter higher education programmes and to succeed in them.” Though equity of access, and hence a more representative student body has been greatly achieved, present statistics and national research findings still confirm ignificant challenges in the retention and successful throughput of students. These results suggest that challenges in this regard remain unresolved. A less contradictory relationship between access to university education and academic success at university level needs to be cultivated. More effective admission and selection decisions, together with the identification of accurate predictors of academic success, can make a positive contribution in solving this dilemma. In the past, selection and placement decisions for studying at a university were made primarily on the basis of performance-related criteria and other cognitive variables. In this study the researcher wanted to determine whether the non-cognitive factor of personality, more particularly as it is represented in the Big Five model of personality (Digman,1990; McCrae & Costa,1987; Goldberg,1990), can be used as predictor of academic achievement (and consequently as a proposed instrument of selection and placement) in a multicultural South African context. The Big Five model of personality represents a hierarchical organisation of personality traits in terms of five basic dimensions called Extraversion, Neuroticism, conscientiousness, Openness to Experience and Agreeableness (McCrae & John, 1992). Although the predictive validity of the Big Five factors in academic achievement has often been researched internationally, less research in this area has been completed in South Africa. Recent work in South Africa showed that measurement equivalence across population groups can be established for South African samples; less work had been done on the equivalence across population groups of the predictive validity of the Big Five factors with reference to academic performance. The overarching aim of the present study was therefore to investigate the relationship between the Big Five personality factors and the academic achievement of first-year B Com university students in South Africa, as well as to examine whether these relationships are equivalent for African and white students. In order to achieve this goal the incremental predictive validity of the Big Five personality factors, compared to cognitive ability, in the academic achievement of students was explored. In addition, the predictive value of Population group above and beyond that of intelligence and personality traits was researched. The possible interaction between the Big Five personality factors and Population group was explored in the final step.