M.Ed. / The HIV and AIDS pandemic is changing the nature of the traditional family structure, particularly in South Africa, where the number of child-headed families is escalating and more teenagers are forced to head the home. These teenagers, are traumatised: many have suffered multiple losses (a father, mother, siblings), not to mention the possible additional losses of schooling, their hope for the future and their remaining childhoods. Hope is unlikely to emerge in teenagers left to fend for themselves and their siblings. Therefore, an approach that is both Afrocentric and ecosystemic needs to be adopted in building support structures to instil the possibility of hope in their lives. Hope, as a protective phenomenon, builds resiliency empowering teenagers heading a home to rise above their harsh circumstances. The purpose of this inquiry was to explore and describe the essence of hope in the lived experiences of teenagers heading an AIDS-orphaned home in order to make recommendations for support within the emerging inclusive educational system in South Africa. A qualitative study with a phenomenological research design was used with three teenagers from a Non-Governmental Organisation which assists child-headed households in Soweto, Gauteng. The participants were purposefully selected as hopeful — teenagers who had managed to stay in school, despite their circumstances, as a way of securing a brighter future. Data was collected through two in-depth interviews with the teenagers and included writing and drawing exercises. A story thickening the counterplot of hope in their lives, which are filled with the challenges of orphanhood, was written for each of the teenagers. The coconstructed stories were then used as data for analysis to write their descriptions of hope. Textual, structural and textual-structural descriptions of hope were written June 2008 based on the four processes of epoche, phenomenological reduction, imaginative variation and synthesis. The findings generated from their stories of hope indicate that the "hopeful self" is socially constructed evolving in the spaces between people and in the interaction iii of the person with his/her environment. Some of the findings suggest that hope emerges in the context of opportunities, support and education, and needs the African spirit of "ubuntu" to sustain it. School in particular, was seen as a way to future success. On the basis of these findings, a social constructionist model for nurturing the hopeful self was recommended to help professionals in their thinking and planning of psychological support programmes for all children and teenagers identified as vulnerable. The model embraces ecosystemic thinking and envisages the hopeful self as being nurtured in three nested domains of support: the emerging inclusive education system; a network of care under the facilitation of educational psychologists based in the District Based Support Teams; and a psychological support system that has not as yet been implemented in the care children orphaned by AIDS. Psychological support is seen as crucial to ensure the emotional well-being of teenagers at risk who who are faced with the reality of heading a home at such an early age as a result of the AIDS pandemic

M.Sc. / The current study sought to investigate the relationship between stress and illness, while examining the effects of daily stressors, depression, hardiness, social support and coping skills on this relationship. The information gathered was then used to design a time and cost effective questionnaire to predict people prone to stress-related illness. This questionnaire has been called the Stress Fitness Scale. The subjects (n = 44) were split into three groups (healthy, ill, and neither ill nor healthy) according to their scores on Gurin's Psychosomatic Symptom List for non-parametric statistical analysis. Scores on the Hardiness Scale, Perceived Social Support Friends and Family, Beck Depression Inventory, COPE, Hassles and Uplifts Scale and Life Experiences were analysed and significant differences were found between the ill and healthy groups in all five areas using a Mann-Whitney U test. An intercorrelation matrix was performed and significant correlation was found between Stress Fitness and the other scales, although not for all the sub-scales. Many of these correlations corresponded with the differences found between the two groups using the Mann-Whitney U test. Item analysis was performed on the Stress Fitness Scale. Significant inter correlation was found for all the items of the Prone sub-scale, and all but three items of the Protect sub-scale. Although further research is necessary, from this limited study the Stress Fitness Scale appears to provide a time and cost effective way of predicting people prone to stress-related illness.

M.A. / The purpose of the study was to investigate the relationship between job involvement and job satisfaction between the traffic officers and bus drivers of the Germiston Transitional Local Council. The following research questions were addressed: What are the levels of job involvement and job satisfaction that traffic officers and bus drivers experience? How does job involvement and job satisfaction of traffic officers and bus drivers compare? What is the relationship between job involvement and job satisfaction? Since this is a quantitative quasi-experimental investigation, the following hypotheses have been formulated, namely; Hypothesis 1. There is no statistically significant differences between the mean test scores of traffic officers and bus drivers in respect of job involvement and job satisfaction. Hypothesis 2: There is no statistically significant correlations between job involvement -- --and -job satisfaction, satisfaztion-and-extrinsit -satisfactioa of traffi -c--. officers - - bus drivers. In order to test the above mentioned hypotheses, the two group comparison and the popular Job Involvement Scale and Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire have been utilized as measurement instruments. The results of this study supported hypothesis one because there was no statistically significant difference between the mean test score of traffic officers and bus drivers in respect of job involvement and job satisfaction. With reference to hypothesis two, the results indicated that there is no correlation between job involvement and job satisfaction (including the sub components). The results indicated a correlation between job satisfaction, intrinsic and extrinsic satisfaction. The results of this study have demonstrated that the traffic officers and bus drivers are able to distinguish the extent to which they like their job (satisfaction), the degree to which they are absorbed in or preoccupied with their job, and the degree of attachment of loyalty they feel toward their employing organization. Finally, there is a need to replicate these findings. The use of a single local authority as the research site is a potential limitation in terms of validity and reliability of the results.

M.A. / The present study was undertaken in an attempt to understand and ascertain the relation between personality traits and posttraumatic stress (PTSD) in the South African Police Service (SAPD) leading to chronic illness and work-related dysfunctions. The specific hypothesis for this study will show that by means of the Comrey Personality Scales (CPS) a statistic significant distinction between police officers with PTSD and police officers without PTSD exists. The testing of the hypothesis entailed a group of 120 functional police officers that consists of white, male nonofficers. They worked in the Pretoria area of the SAPD. The PTSD status of the subjects was assessed by means of the PTDS Interview Guide of Watson, Juba, Manifold, Kucala and Anderson (1991). Police officers that met the criteria for PTSD by means of the PTSD Interview Guide were place in one group (PTSD-group, n = 414. Police officers that did not meet the criteria were placed in another group (Non-PTSD-group, n = 79). Personality traits were measured by means of the CPS. There was a significant difference between the personality traits of the PTSDgroup in comparison with the Non-PTSD-group. The PTSD-group appears to be more compulsive and ordered, more introspective, more neurotic, more sensitive and more defensive in comparison with the Non-PTSD-group. It is postulated that these personality traits can possibly cause policemen to be more susceptible for the development of PTSD.

M.Phil. / This research focuses on aspects of burnout amongst ministers of religion in the Dutch • Reformed Church ("NG Kerk") Synod of Southern Transvaal. Burnout is a common metaphor for a state of mental exhaustion, usually work-related. It is described as a syndrome of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and reduced personal accomplishment that can occur among individuals who do 'people work' of some kind. Research literature describes the general symptomatology of the syndrome, its preconditions, as well as the domain in which it occurs. From the literature it becomes apparent that burnout is a persistent, negative, work-related state of mind in 'normal' individuals that is primarily characterised by exhaustion, which is accompanied by distress, a sense of reduced effectiveness, decreased motivation, and the development of dysfunctional attitudes and behaviours at work. This psychological condition develops gradually but may remain unnoticed for a long time by the individual involved. It results from a misfit between intentions and reality at the job. Often burnout is selfperpetuating because of inadequate coping strategies that are associated with the syndrome. The research design can be typified as exploratory, descriptive and quantitative. The central hypothesis of this study is that burnout is the product of specific factors in the person-work environment interaction of ministers in the Dutch Reformed Church. With the aim of the study in mind, the following research process was followed: A literature review as theoretical grounding for burnout in general, as well as the analysis of literature specifically on burnout amongst ministers of religion. The development of a questionnaire, based on the review of literature, as self-report measure for burnout amongst ministers. After a field investigation, with the questionnaire as a method of data collection (on two occasions, 20 months apart), the data were analysed, consolidated, displayed and interpreted. The consolidated data were also interpreted in the broader perspective of the theoretical framework and recommendations were made about aspects of burnout amongst ministers in the Dutch Reformed Church. Possible causes, negative outcomes, ways of coping, interventions and support were explicated. The most important findings on aspects of burnout amongst ministers of the Dutch Reformed Church, as shown in this study, are: low horizontal mobility, quantitative work overload, time pressure, negative personal experience of the work situation, a negative evaluation of training and the negative evaluation of personal well-being because of the work situation. It can be concluded that ministers of the Dutch Reformed Church are at risk of burnout, caused by unique stressors in their work environment.

M.A. / Prisons in the South African context are considered to be places of correction for deviant individuals. The perception of the functioning of a correctional space is the correction of a particular type of functioning and the construction of another. One of the underlying assumptions of a penal system is the notion of a subject who is able to undergo a process of normalisation. This dissertation is directed towards the exploration of a different type of space that has been created within the correctional system at the Diepkloof Prison. It will be suggested herein that creative workshops, run within the prison by an outside facilitator, have succeeded in subverting the normalising discourse of the penal system, and have helped to facilitate a different type of healing experience within the confines of the institutional space. In order to place the discussion of the workshopping process within a sound theoretical framework, various theoretical questions regarding the shift from modernist to postmodern psychology are explored in some depth. It will be argued that the ideas emerging from social constructionist and narrative psychology, deconstructionist notions of language and subjectivity, as well as post-structuralist ideas on disciplinary power, offer a theoretical framework from within which to understand the healing process that occurs in the workshops themselves.

M.A. / Modern health-care services in general hospital settings are often characterised by mUltidisciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches to patient care. The underlying rationale of these approaches lies in the potential pooling of specialised medical resources from a variety of medical fields. Consequently there is usually an increase in the diagnostic procedures available, theoretically offering a more comprehensive health service. Whilst the above approach is seen to be effective when the health-car~ team specialists subscribe to one encompassing paradigm, it is hypothesised that the existence of other alternative paradigms may affect the efficacy of team work. Using the interface between the Psychology and Renal units of J.G. Strijdom Hospital as an example, this study describes the effect of paradigmatic differences within a team approach on the conceptualisation of problems and treatment choices. The traditional medical approach is contrasted against a systems based psychological approach. The existence of the two approaches within a single team encounters difficulty in the gaining of consensus regarding the level of focus.

M.A. (Psychology) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

M.A. / The present study explores the effect of social positioning, as manifested in relationship, in shaping personal narratives. Four homosexual men shared aspects of their personal narratives, particularly their experiences of self as a consequence of relationship. The narratives unfold in a setting of marginality, in that homosexuality is regarded as an illegitimate identity within the mainstream contexts of these men. One tape-recorded conversation of an hour and a half was held with each of the participants in the study. The conversation was guided by in-depth considerations of marginality, separation, belonging and the consequences of these. The narratives suggest that these men's sense of self is influenced by how they are addressed by others, demonstrating that relationship is the matrix from which people are socially positioned and from which their narratives of self emerge. Suggestions around alternative resources in accounting for the ontological within psychology include regarding relationship, language and social position as influencing what does manifest as a person's inner world. In order to counteract the tyranny of "normality" perpetuated within the social sciences, normality should be reformulated as a socially prescribed template of being. In terms of marginality, this study implies that marginality is a social process which emanates when a person interacts with people removed from his or her social context. It is a discourse which lacks expansion and focuses predominately on separation and belonging and nuances these. The discourse thereby suggests that marginality is not the function of an overtly disempowered identity vis-à-vis the mainstream, but a function of the discourses which emanate from interaction across dissimilar contexts.

D.Phil. / This study investigates the management of burnout among ministers of religion in the Dutch Reformed Church ("NG Kerk") Synod of Southern Transvaal. Burnout is a common metaphor for a state of mental exhaustion, usually work-related. The traditional, and most frequently used definition describes burnout as "a syndrome of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment that can occur among individuals who do 'people work' of some kind" (Maslach & Jackson, 1986: 1). Research literature describes the general symptomatology of the syndrome, its preconditions, and the domain in which it occurs. From the literature it becomes apparent that burnout is a persistent, negative, work-related state of mind in 'normal' individuals that is primarily characterised by exhaustion, which is accompanied by distress, a sense of reduced effectiveness, decreased motivation, and the development of dysfunctional attitudes and behaviours at work. This psychological condition develops gradually but may remain unnoticed for a long time by the individual involved. Often burnout is self-perpetuating because of inadequate coping strategies associated with the syndrome. The more recent multidimensional theory describes burnout as an individual's stress experience embedded in a context of social relationships involving the person's conception of both the self and others. According to this view burnout is a psychological syndrome of emotional exhaustion (stress component), depersonalization (otherevaluation component), and reduced personal accomplishment (self-evaluation component), the product of a major mismatch between the nature of the job and of the person who does the job, and the index of the dislocation between what people are and what they have to do. Six areas of organizational life are identified which can cause the imbalance, mismatch or misfit between the person and work: Workload, control, reward, sense of community, fairness and values. According to the multidimensional view burnout is also seen as a syndrome of exhaustion, negativity, hostility, cynicism and distance, and inefficiency on one side of a continuum, while the opposite and positive side of the continuum is represented by a state of engagement, characterised by energy, positive and supportive involvement and a sense of efficacy and accomplishment. Burnout is not a trivial problem but an important barometer of a major social dysfunction in the workplace that says more about the conditions of their job than it does about the workers. It is therefore not only a problem of the individual worker, but involves the complex interaction between organization and employees, on personal and interpersonal level, and also of specific working conditions and the context in which the work is being done. This interaction shapes the way people see and do their work, and impacts on the well-being of the workers and the organization. Burnout is therefore not only related to negative outcomes for the individual, including depression, a sense of failure, fatigue, and loss of motivation, but also to negative outcomes for the organization, including absenteeism, turnover rates, and lowered productivity.