M.A. / HIV and AIDS are a growing problem with multiple implications on various fields in our society. It looks as if we are conscious only of the tip of the iceberg. This study commits itself to suggest alternatives other than medical support to ensure longevity in HIV and AIDS persons. From within a psychological framework certain psychological and social factors are identified that could possibly have an influence on immunology in the form of CD4 and CD8 counts. The results suggest that definite links exists between certain psychological factors and physical markers of immunology (CD4 and CD8 counts). A Factor analysis show that Social factors (measured with the FES scale) possibly lead to emotions that resort under psychological factors (Conflict, Course of illness and Independence). These factors unleash the need of self- expression. If this need to selfexpression are not relieved it leads to psychological factors (Anger, Depression and Tension). These factors have a marked short-term effect on CD4 count as well as a long-term effect on CD8 count. The result is a circular response comprising of psychological factors (Anger, Depression and Tension) that lead to feelings of avoidance and fatalism. In turn these factors lead to feelings of hopelessness resulting in a strengthening effect on another set of psychological factors (Conflict, Course of illness and Independence). OptimismNigor repeatedly played a leading role in the Course of illness, influencing the cognitive attitude of respondents. Initially 71 respondents took part in the study but comprehensive data over the sixmonth period could only be obtained for 40 respondents. The results suggest that a specific dynamic are concealed in the process between mind, body and illness and needs to be explored through further research. .

This study investigated the impact of organisation restructuring on the psychological contract and the effects on employee engagement and organisational commitment. The study focused on employees from selected health care institutions. The sample consisted of 156 employees from the selected health care institutions. Results indicated positive relationships between employee engagement, psychological contract and organisational commitment. The researcher recommended a better understanding of the manner in which individuals interpret various inducements where would clearer prescriptions be provided. Therefore, employers were advised to be aware of employees’ values and attempt to address them as they are important

M.A. / Professional identity development of counselling psychologists in South-Africa occurs through seven (and possibly eight) phases of professional development. Phases of professional development are necessary when one attempts to establish optimal levels of professional identity development for counselling psychologists in terms of their experience and training. Using these phases, counselling psychologists may be compared in each development phase to ascertain his/her development or the lack thereof. The phases also serve as guidelines for both the training personnel and the counselling psychologist, enabling them to affect certain changes or modifications in order to optimise professional development for the counselling psychologist. The benefits of optimised development should not be underestimated. The objective of this comparative research study was to ascertain the extent of similarities found in the professional development phases, as postulated by Skovholt and Ronnestad (1995) and the results of the current research study. The eight phases are the conventional phase, transition to professional training phase, imitation of experts phase, conditional autonomy phase, exploration phase, integration phase, individuation phase and the integrity phase. The research strategy consists of a qualitative analysis of responses obtained from a structured interview. Analysis is made possible by way of a replication strategy together with the use of a matrix. The matrix consists of eight categories used by Skovholt and Ronnestad (1995) to describe the relevant developmental phase and to regulate the responses. After describing and allocating the responses according to the categories of the matrix, a storyline is derived by use of an iteration process. Themes become apparent which outline the developmental path across the eight proposed professional developmental phases. Both the categories and the themes are compared to those proposed by Skovholt and Ronnestad (1995). Great similarity was found. The differences and themes derived from this study can also be used as hypotheses for further research.

M.A. / The goal of the present study was to investigate the relationship between trait anxiety, years of service and posttraumatic stress disorder in the South African Police Service. This study was regarded as important because posttraumatic stress can have a significant influence on the personal life and work-related performance of police officers. One hundred and twenty white, male police officers volunteered to participate in the study. A structural model of the relationships between trait anxiety, years of service and posttraumatic stress was postulated. The model specified that trait anxiety and years of service influence posttraumatic stress both individually and jointly. Trait anxiety is operationalised by means of the IPAT Anxiety Scale and posttraumatic stress disorder by means of the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Interview Schedule. The fit of the postulated model with the observed data was investigated by means of structural equation modelling. The results indicated that the postulated model showed an acceptable fit with the observed data. The estimated parameters of the model indicated that the subscales of the IPAT Anxiety Scale and the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Interview Schedule are good indicators of their respective constructs. It was further shown that trait anxiety and years of service have a significant influence on posttraumatic stress disorder. The results support those of previous studies where it was shown that these variables can influence posttraumatic stress disorder. The present study emphasizes that trait anxiety may predispose police officers to the development of trait anxiety. The study also shows that if police officers are exposed to extended periods of traumatic experiences, they run the risk of developing posttraumatic stress disorder.

M.A. (Psychology) / Anger, hostility and aggression have long been regarded as important factors in the etiology of essential hypertension and coronary heart disease. Fast changing lifestyles and cultural differences are among a few of the factors that create stress, 'disease', stress in addition to the development of the self-generation of stress by means of the type A behavioral pattern. Anger and aggression are components that apparently account for the largest amount of variance in the type A behavior pattern. These emotions are again associated with elevated systolic blood pressure levels. The aim of this study was therefore to determine whether hypertension was indeed associated with anger and aggression amongst urban as well as rural Blacks in South Africa. Seftel (1980) found a very high prevalence of hypertension in Johannesburg Blacks and Seedat (1978) found a similarly high prevalence in Durban Zulu, possibly lending support to the hypothesis that urbanization was associated with the development of the type A behavioural pattern, and thus causal to the development of hypertension. Two groups, one consisting of hypertensives, and the other of people with other cardiovascular diseases were subjected to the Anger-Expression Scale and the Grant Urban-Rural Scale. The result of the study provided support for the thesis while the hypothesis that stated that hypertension would indicate a higher urbanization supported. In essence the results of the study indicated that there was a definite correlation between elevated blood pressure levels among urban Black South Africans and the chronic suppression of anger and aggression, as well as the inability to express these emotions.

M.A. (Clinical Psychology) / In this project, the author explores, analyses and interprets the experiences of a group of students and teachers who worked together at a farm school for almost a year. Certain pertinent questions relating to the nature of therapy, training, research and community work are examined. The dominant view is that therapy and community work are different activities, requiring different sets of skills, for which different training is needed. Fundamental to this discussion is the issue of what is meant by community. The author proposes that community can be usefully conceptualised as the meaning people give to the evolving processes of their inter-connectedness, and their co-creation of ideas. Furthermore, these processes contain the potential for individuals to experience personal shifts that may be described variously as learning/growth/change/transformation. There is impetus for transformation at the interface between connectedness and disconnectedness. This renders unnecessary any differentiation between the process of training students for clinical and community work. Central to all training would be a person's ability to connect and utilise this connectedness, or its counterpart of disconnectedness, in a meaningful way. Essentially all interactions, including those in a training, therapy, research and community context, could then be viewed as a process of co-creation around people's sense of connectedness disconnectedness. The implications of all the above are that the processes of co-creation of community constitute fundamental elements of training, therapy, research and community work. The author uses an alternative research paradigm, subscribing to the principles of ecological inquiry, according to which research and intervention are inseparable.

D.Litt. et Phil. / A plethora of research has been conducted on victims of township violence, detention and political unrest, but there is no research on car hijack victims or the prevalence of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), which could result from this crime. The implications of this lack of research are important because people are confronted by trauma on a daily basis but there are few guidelines for providing treatment. Hijackings are a somewhat recent phenomenon unlike other traumas such as wars and natural disasters, but the effects of hijacking are no less severe. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) always requires an initiating event which is assumed to be traumatic. The context in which car hijackings occur in South Africa can be considered to meet the criteria for what constitutes a traumatic event, which could possibly lead to the development of PTSD (Myerson, 1995). Not all crime victims who need professional assistance will enter therapy. This is often due to the victim's self-perception of weakness, feelings of embarrassment, or the perception that others will not understand their experience. A group-based intervention offers the advantages of reducing isolation, providing comfort and support, and eliminating feelings of stigma. For this reason it was important to analyse the nature of PTSD and how to intervene to aid the recovery from PTSD, in the South African context. The literature points to the recovery from PTSD as being contingent upon the psychotherapeutic input that the traumatised individual receives. This research focused on the development of a group-based cognitive behaviour intervention programme for victims who developed Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder as a result of car hijackings. Cognitive behavioural therapy is the only treatment modality that is supported by objective measures of success (Peterson, Prout & Schwartz, 1991) and has been found to be one of the most effective treatments (Kaplan & Sadock, 1993). In order to test the hypotheses, the Beck's Depression Inventory was used to measure the level of depression, the Spielburger's Stai Anxiety scale was used to measure the level of anxiety, and the CAPS and PCL were used to determine whether Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder existed in the individuals who participated in the study and the intensity and frequency of the symptoms.

M.A. (Psychology) / South Africa in 1997 is commonly seen as one of the most violent non-war countries in the world. Crime has become so much part of the daily routine of the average South African, that it is almost accepted as the norm. This study investigates the experiences of six persons, directly affected by a violent crime. The researcher endeavours to relate the constructions the victims hold around their experience of a car-jacking as truthful as possible and thus uses the paradigm of social constructionism ...

D.Cur. / South Africa, like many other countries, is charged with ensuring that her adolescents are mobilised to believe in the power of their own dignity in order for their life-world to change. Hundreds of thousands of adolescents were forced to experience political upheavals, violence, neglect, incarceration and family disorganisation. Many of these adolescents were forced onto the margins of society in their strive for understanding and survival. Many dropped out of school, are unskilled and therefore unemployed. They feel hopeless as they struggle for a place in society, because society has no faith in them - "they are lost to society". The purpose of this study was to generate a psychiatric nursing model to facilitate the reintegration of marginalised adolescents into the community. This study therefore has profound social, political and economic implications for the South African community. Through this model, which is a theoretical framework to be utilized by the advanced practitioner in psychiatric nursing, adolescents will be empowered to believe in themselves, to engage in meaningful relationships and activities with their families, peer groups and the broader community. The model provides a theoretical framework that attempts to rekindle and inspire the adolescents from a state of hopelessness and disillusionment, to integrated individuals who are respected, valued and accepted as integral members of their families, peer groups and communities. The model will assume a problem solving and preventative approach. Based on this discussion, the following questions were addressed in this research: What obstacles exist that hamper marginalised adolescents' reintegration into the community? What could be done to assist marginalised adolescents' reintegration into the community? A theory generative, qualitative, contextual, exploratory and descriptive design was followed. The research was conducted in four steps with a pilot-study that preceded step one of the research. In step one, focus group discussions were conducted with five groups of respondents to explore and describe obstacles that hamper the reintegration of marginalised adolescents into the community, as well as their views on how marginalised adolescents can be assisted to be reintegrated into the community. Data was analysed using Tesch's method. Based on the results of analyzed data, disempowerment, characterized by hopelessness, alienation/isolation, anger, frustration and worthlessness - related to poor socialisation, lack of support and services, family disorganisation, peer pressure and fragmented services - was identified as a main theme among stumbling blocks. Empowerment, characterized by improved self-image, feelings of worth, belief in own dignity - related to a sense of wellbeing, belonging and respect - resulting in personal growth and societal change with ultimate reintegration, was identified as major strategy to address marginalisation. In step two, the defined concepts were related to each other to show interrelationships. Classification of central and relational concepts followed to formulate relationship-statements, the result being to depict related concepts in structural form. In step three, a visual model to be utilized as a theoretical framework by the advanced psychiatric nurse practitioner to facilitate the marginalised adolescents as recipients and the advanced psychiatric nurse as agent, was designed to facilitate reintegration into the community. The model was evaluated by a panel of experts. Step four dealt with guidelines to operationalise the model in practice, education and research. Recommendations and limitations of the research were also discussed.

M.A. / This study is an attempt to investigate the way in which female survivors of childhood sexual abuse made sense of their experiences. Three participants were interviewed and the relevant themes that emerged from those interviews were coded and reported. The study was conducted from a qualitative perspective that was grounded in social construction methodology. The survivors' individual constructions of meaning at the time of their sexual abuse, their introduction to the social constructions of meaning about child sexual abuse and the double bind between these constructions are reported. The survivors' narratives are representations of the positive way they constructed meaning about their experiences as a way of coping. Their stories are also reflections of the confusion they experienced when introduced to the social constructions of child sexual abuse that differed from the meaning they attributed to their experiences. The study is a representation of the double bind that the difference between the individual and social constructions of their child sexual abuse created for them.