A research report submitted to the Department of Social Work, School of Human and Community Development, Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Occupational Social Work, 2016 / The primary purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of occupational stress among social workers employed by the Department of Social Development in Mpumalanga Province, Ehlanzeni District. Mpumalanga Province is predominantly rural and the assumption is that work-related challenges for social workers in rural areas are different from urban areas. There are theoretical basis suggesting that people view and respond to stress differently thus their coping strategies even in identical situations are different. The study has therefore focused on the experiences of occupational stress among social workers, the contributory factors that led to occupational stress, the impact of occupational stress, the social workers’ coping strategies with occupational stress; and the availability and effectiveness of organisational support offered to employees experiencing occupational stress as perceived by social workers. The research used both qualitative and quantitative methods. The researcher utilised a questionnaire consisting of open-ended questions, together with the Work-Related Quality of Life scale consisting of closed questions that measured work stress, administered to 40 social workers employed at Ehlanzeni District offices. One year’s working experience as a social worker in the Department of Social Development was a qualifying criterion in the study. Thematic content analysis and descriptive statistical analysis were used to analyse data. The findings of the study suggested that unsatisfactory salaries, working conditions, high workload, lack of recognition and a lack of support were the main stressors for social workers in this study. The research concluded with recommendations that will hopefully assist in improving the quality of work-life of the sound workers and facilitate a balanced understanding between the employees and the employer. / GR2017

This study was an exploratory thematic and categorical analysis of the titles and abstracts of women and men psychology master's dissertations completed from 1964 to 1998. These dissertations represent research undertaken at all South African universities. They are located on the Nexus database, developed by the Centre for Science Development (CSD) at the Human Science Research Council (HSRC) and maintained by the National Research Foundation (NRF). This research is an investigation of trends, which might lead to conclusions regarding the areas of psychological specialisations chosen for research, the methodologies of research applied and the sample type employed in the research. Secondly, a longitudinal analysis was conducted to examine if any shifts of focus over time in any of the three areas already mentioned (i.e. specialisation, methodology and sample type) had occurred. The methodology used was a combination of both quantitative statistical analysis and qualitative analysis of selected women's and men's dissertations. Content analysis was the preliminary research method used to code the data which was then statistically analysed by means of correspondence analysis. The literature review examined psychology's historical exclusion of women both as professionals and as potential subjects of research. The literature also examines the founding premise of psychological research dominated by scientific empiricism underpinned by logical positivism. Feminist literature was then reviewed in order to offer a commentary on the patriarchal underpinnings embedded in the discipline and to offer and explore alternatives. The outcome of this study revealed a number of valuable findings. First, there had been a major increase in the selection of women masters' students in psychology. Second, the dominant methodology remains quantitative in nature. There is however a slight increase in qualitative and combined research by both women and men in the 1990s. Third, there has been a radical increase in the 1990s of women entering the male domain of industrial psychology. Fourth, no major differences were found between women and men masters' students and their choice of specialisation area, methodology and sample type selected. Finally, women more often than men recognised the gender and ethnicity of their sample subjects. It must however be noted that gender and ethnicity of the sample subjects were still relatively infrequently registered in the titles and abstracts of both women and men's masters' dissertations. In conclusion the plethora of data available on Nexus and the findings identified in the present study a window has opened up to the potential for many future projects in terms of South African psychology masters' research.

<p>This study explored the effects of a teacher development programme based on Philosophy for Children. One of the challenges facing education in South Africa is that the school curriculum has to promote the development of values, such as respect for life, equality, protection of freedom and the right to an opinion, through creative and critical thinking. The theorists, Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky inform our understanding of cognitive development with the important notions of active involvement, mediated learning and the development of thinking skills. Many programmes have been developed to assist learners in this regard. One such programme is Philosophy for Children. This study located Philosophy for Children and the locally developed material, Stories for thinking, in Vygotskian theory and explored its application within a South African context.</p>

This thesis is based on research aimed to develop and test a systematic framework to describe and analyse dysfunctions in underperforming schools in South Africa, the Explanatory Model of School Dysfunctions. The theoretical foundation of the model was created by synthesising the literature from various disciplines and conceptualising dysfunctions in relation to their antecedents, motivations, and consequences. The model was then applied and refined on three different data sets. The three data sets included data from principals, teachers, and learners. The principal data consisted of 80 essays written by principals or their representatives, the teacher data of 40 essays from teachers in the Gauteng area, and the learner data of 1,500 open-ended responses from recent high school graduates in South Africa. Content Configuration Analysis explored how school dysfunctions varied in degree, kind, and interconnectedness. Four groups of dysfunctions were identified: dysfunctions relating to rules and rule breaking, issues of competence, resources, and issues extrinsic to the school context. After application and refinement, the Explanatory Model of School Dysfunctions was found to be a suitable model to account for the problem sets experienced by these three actor groups. The goal of this model is to provide a theory-based approach to analyse dysfunctions within schools and to invite researchers to explore these and other problems within this framework. / Psychology / M.A. (Psychology)

M.A. / This study looks into the types of stressors specific to the Emergency Medical Services. The study was undertaken over a period of two years with the following objectives: • A literature survey regarding stress, organisational stress in general and stress in the context of Emergency Medical Services in particular. • An investigation of the personnel of the Emergency Medical Services to ascertain the stressors perceived as stressful by them. • Recommendations on how to prevent or lower stress in the Emergency Medical Services. The first part of this study is devoted to a theoretical investigation which gives an overview of stress in its broadest sense as well as stress in organisations which includes cumulative stress/burnout. Critical Incident Stress and Post Traumatic Stress are also closely examined, as well as the personality characteristics of members of the Emergency Medical Services. The point of departure for the researcher is an ecosystemic perspective where objectivity itself is questionable. Therefore, qualitative research was called for and the transactional/interactional model of Richard Lazarus was used to categorise stressors. The research results suggest that what the Emergency Medical Service personnel perceive as stressful are mainly organisational stressors but they acknowledge that in the long term the continual dealing with death and trauma starts to take its toll. Criticisms that could be levelled against the study are that the results are only generalisable to the personnel of the Johannesburg Emergency Services, whose demographic characteristics and backgrounds differ, for instance, from those who work at Bryanston, or Pretoria. As the study relied solely on personal disclosure and observation the results can be seen as somewhat subjective in nature. What was communicated as stress-related events was what was perceived as stressful by the personnel as well as the researcher's subjective perception of whether certain events were perceived as stressful for the personnel. After working on the ambulance with these personnel for over three years, the researcher is an accepted part of their system, and became subject to the same blunting of affect and depersonalisation of victims as the Emergency workers. Over an extended period in time, it became harder to divorce the researcher from the "worker" while on duty, to maintain a scientific perspective and to write objectively. However, the findings of this study concur with those done by previous researchers on this subject such as Sparrius (1992) and Du Toit & Botes (1996).

D.Ed. / The overall objective of this research is the description of an educational psychological therapeutic approach for the use of educational psychologists in private practice in the treatment of adolescents with emotional and behavioral problems.Two research questions arose out of the need for the development of an integrated educational psychological therapeutic approach, namely: In what way can the educational psychological perspective, existentialphenomenological psychology, transpersonal psychology and Medical Hypnoanalitical approach be integrated in order to develop a holistic view of humanity through which conscious and subconscious meanings in a person's experience world (psychodynamic, perinatal and transpersonal experiences) could be described to reflect the personal, unique, unrepeatable and original qualities of the individual? Based on the description of a holistic view of human nature which serves as the foundation for the development of a therapeutic approach through which the client with emotional and behavioral problems could be understood within the referential framework of his own experiences, the researcher poses the question: What constitutes the therapeutic approach through which the therapist could gain insight into the conscious and subconscious meanings in the experience world (psychodynamic, perinatal and transpersonal experiences) of a person in order to address the true causes underlying the pro lematic symptoms?

M.A. / In this study it is assumed that psychological factors are playing an increasingly important role in the success of rugby teams in a professional era. One such a factor is that of group dynamics and specifically that of group cohesion. In this study, the use of another psychological construct, personality, in the improvement of cohesion is investigated. The personality profiles of the players in a particular team are analysed to determine the possible effects that the personalities of the players could have on the cohesion in the team. In this regard, the Jackson Personality Inventory —Revised is used to plot the personality profiles of all the players. Only scales of the inventory, that are relevant to cohesion, are being used. The relevancy of these particular scales are determined by the literary review of the cohesion construct, which includes the definition and essence of cohesion. Correlation studies would have to determine the true correlation between cohesion and the selected scales of the inventory. General tendencies in the team regarding the profiles and consequent influence on cohesion are discussed as well as the individual profiles of each one of the members of the team. In this regard, the possible influence that a particular player's personality profile could have on the cohesion in the team, is indicated and discussed. It is concluded that the use of personality profiles could be seen as a framework from which coaches and managers of rugbyteams could make use of in order to improve the cohesion in the team.

M.A. / This research has been undertaken against the background of Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) as being one of the major causes of death in South Africa. An indepth literature study made it evident that, despite intervention programs that have been successful in reducing the CHD rate, it still remains a number one killer. This could possibly be attributed to CHD prevention programs that historically have focused on biologically related lifestyle factors, and neglected a very important adjuvant risk factor for CHD, namely Type A behaviour. The aim of this dissertation was to study the viability of changing Type A behaviour in childhood through group sport participation in view of the fact that the Type A behaviour pattern (TABP) already present in childhood, has to date not been addressed as a primary preventative possibility. Group sport was chosen as an intervention by nature of it being co-operative, socially supportive and successful in the improvement of a number of relevant factors. Sport has also been demonstrated to be an appropriate outlet for aggressive impulses apparent in Type A behaviour. Twenty subjects participated in the intervention program that took place over a period of eight weeks. A second group of ten Type A subjects served as a no-treatment control group. The intervention was carried out at a primary school in Johannesburg. The results of the study revealed that Type A behaviour (TAB) was not reduced, save for the impatience component, by participation in group sport. Aggressive potential and anxiety in the Type A child, were also not reduced. It is concluded that the intervention of group sport in the reduction of TAB was not successful, and that future studies should investigate an intervention that is successful for the reduction of the TABP in childhood.

M.Sc. / With the changes in the South African political and economic climate in the past years, an increase in violent crime has become one of the most significant issues affecting the people of this country. Among them is car hijacking, which has reached epidemic proportions. As a result of this traumatic experience, many of the victims of hijacking develop posttraumatic stress disorder or symptoms thereof. From the literature it would seem that certain . variables may increase the vulnerability for the development of this disorder. This study sought to investigate a number of these variables, namely, demographic information, attributional style, personality style, and both premorbid depression and anxiety. The purpose was to establish whether pre-existing risk factors, that were found in the literature to play a role in the development of PTSD, also apply to the South African population, as well as to victims of car hijacking specifically. As this situation is unique to South Africa, there is a great need for information in this area. If these risk factors could be isolated, more effective treatment may be developed for victims. A sample of 38 hijack victims was approached to complete a battery of psychometric tests to assess the above mentioned variables as well as a measure of posttraumatic stress syrnptomology. The Revised Impact of Events Scale, Attributional Style Questionnaire, Millons Clinical Multiaxial Inventory, State- Trait Anxiety Inventory and Beck Depression Inventory were used as psychometric instruments for this study. Inferential statistical analyses as well as descriptive statistical analyses were performed on the data. In general, no specific constellation of premorbid factors contributing to the impact of the event were found. Depression and state anxiety showed significant contribution to the impact of the hijacking but these variables measured current symptoms rather than premorbid. No other variables proved to be significant. This result may have been strongly influenced by the fact that the sample was very homogenous. The findings therefore offer difficulties as far as generalizability is concerned. It is recommended that this study be performed on a larger, more representative and diverse sample in the future.

M.A. / This phenomenological study was designed to explore the victim's lived experience of undergoing a motor vehicle hijacking. The aim of the study was to add to the knowledge and understanding of this complex phenomenon. The design of the study was qualitative. Data was collected through in depth unstructured interviews with four people who had very recently been hijacked. The interviews were recorded on audio tape and transcribed verbatim for each subject. An intra-individual analysis of each subject's account rendered an understanding of the experience in context for that individual, while an inter-individual analysis of the accounts permitted a discussion of common and contrasting themes and patterns. The nature of the subjects' experiences during, immediately after and in the days following the hijacking trauma is elucidated in detail. Based both on the literature reviews of trauma and hijacking, and the findings of this study, suggested contributions towards a theoretical framework for understanding the victim's experience of motor vehicle hijacking are proposed. The findings of this study will hopefully increase understanding of what it is like to be hijacked, provide relevant information and guidelines to clinicians working with these trauma victims, and provide suggestions for future research in this field.