Despite the crucial importance of Hamilton's (1964) kin selection theory in evolutionary behavioral biology, psychological studies of family relationships have been relatively slow to incorporate a Darwinian perspective. One practical reason may be that existing evolutionary models of animal families, such as the honest signaling models, are applicable only if all family members fall into the same class in terms of age, sex, or health. The animal models are thus of limited use for investigating human families, in which the relative age of the child, as a corollary of birth order, may have played a pivotal role in shaping evolved family psychology. My dissertation has two main objectives: 1) to construct evolutionary mathematical models of family interactions that fully take into account the role of reproductive value and hence can be directly applied to human families; 2) to characterize the design features of evolved psychological mechanisms of human kinship by empirically testing a priori predictions derived from the models. I first examine how parents are expected to allocate their limited resources among offspring of differing ages. I show that the optimal strategy that serves parental interests is to bias parental resources toward the older offspring (chapter 2). I then empirically test the predictions derived from the first study, in comparison with previous evolutionary hypotheses of parental favoritism. The empirical results confirmed the predictions derived from the first study: in hypothetical allocation tasks, participants allocated more tangible resources toward older children (chapter 3). Next, I investigate how intrafamilial conflict over the allocation of parental resources occur when each family member (a parent, its senior offspring, and its junior offspring) are allowed to differ in age. The results gained in this study may require a substantial revision of Trivers' (1974) classical theory of parent-offspring conflict. Moreover, it will open a fruitful avenue for inferring the adaptive design of psychological mechanisms dealing with sibling relationships (chapter 4). I then show that evolutionary insights can be also applied to the psychological study of distant kin relationships such as cousins (chapter 5).

published_or_final_version / Social Work / Master / Master of Social Sciences

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Using a stress and coping framework, this study examines the role of religious coping in the divorce adjustment process. This study utilizes three waves of data from a longitudinal study of divorcing mothers with young children. The primary analyses examine the role of religiosity in the divorce appraisal process, as well as the influence of both positive and negative religious coping on divorce appraisal, depression, and changes in religiosity. The study also explores how changes in divorce appraisal and religiosity influence change in depression over time. The results indicate that higher rates of negative religious coping are linked to more negative divorce appraisal, higher levels of depression, and declines in religiosity. In contrast, positive religious coping is associated with increases in religiosity over time. Additionally, findings show that changes in divorce appraisal predict changes in depression, but this relationship is moderated by one’s level of religiosity. / text

This research investigated the psychometric characteristics of self-actualisation, locus of control, sense of coherence and emotional intelligence as constructs of psychological wellness. Details of the intercorrelatedness of the various constructs will assist in understanding the nature of psychological wellness and its measurement. In the literature review a definition for psychological wellness was determined by studying various definitions and models of psychological wellness. During this investigation it was determined that the four constructs mentioned above were related to psychological wellness. An explorative factor analysis was conducted to address the empirical research questions. Three factors (psychological adjustment, self-actualisation and stress management) were extracted from the analysis. The descriptive statistics were analysed in terms of management responsibility, gender and race. The findings of the explorative factor analysis supported the theoretical definition of psychological wellness. It was found that self-actualisation played a key role in psychological wellness. Meaningfulness, although indicating a low loading on all three factors, must be present to provide meaning to day to day functioning. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / MCOM (Industrial and Organisational Psychology)

This research investigated the psychometric characteristics of self-actualisation, locus of control, sense of coherence and emotional intelligence as constructs of psychological wellness. Details of the intercorrelatedness of the various constructs will assist in understanding the nature of psychological wellness and its measurement. In the literature review a definition for psychological wellness was determined by studying various definitions and models of psychological wellness. During this investigation it was determined that the four constructs mentioned above were related to psychological wellness. An explorative factor analysis was conducted to address the empirical research questions. Three factors (psychological adjustment, self-actualisation and stress management) were extracted from the analysis. The descriptive statistics were analysed in terms of management responsibility, gender and race. The findings of the explorative factor analysis supported the theoretical definition of psychological wellness. It was found that self-actualisation played a key role in psychological wellness. Meaningfulness, although indicating a low loading on all three factors, must be present to provide meaning to day to day functioning. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / MCOM (Industrial and Organisational Psychology)

In South Africa access to mental healthcare resources is restricted for a number of reasons including language barriers that prevent suitable communication between mental healthcare professionals and African language speaking South Africans. The translation of psychometric tools into African languages has been identified as one method in improving access to psychological services for African language speakers. The Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation - Outcome Measure (CORE-OM) has demonstrated its clinical utility within the United Kingdom (UK) National Healthcare Service (NHS) as a standardised psychotherapy outcome measure that evaluates the degree of psychological distress individuals present with at the start of psychotherapy treatment, and the degree of change that has been effected at the termination of therapy. A measure like the CORE-OM holds valuable clinical utility for the South African context. This thesis argues that the availability of a valid Xhosa version of the CORE-OM would allow for improved access to psychotherapy resources for Xhosa speaking individuals, and allow for the evaluation of the effectiveness of psychotherapy interventions conducted in Xhosa. The CORE-OM developers have provided a translation design and set of guidelines to standardise the translation of the CORE-OM into different languages. However this thesis argues that these guidelines are incomplete. Instead International Test Commission (ITC) guidelines are recommended as a culturally sensitive method to supplement current CORE-OM translation guidelines, in order to generate a valid Xhosa measure of distress. A mixed methods approach is applied which first investigates the construct equivalence and bias of the CORE-OM English version within a South African student population sample, both qualitatively and quantitatively, in order to establish the degree of adaptation required to generate a valid Xhosa version of distress. Next the CORE-OM English version is translated into Xhosa using the five-stage translation design prescribed by the CORE System Trust, supplemented by ITC guidelines. All changes made to the CORE-OM during translation into Xhosa are documented. The CORE-OM Xhosa version is then investigated for reliability and validity. This investigation reveals low internal reliability within the subjective wellbeing domain indicating that these items are less meaningful as depictions of distress within the Xhosa language. A reduced version of the CORE-OM demonstrates strong psychometric properties as a valid Xhosa measure of distress.