Includes bibliographical references / The use of language is significant in co-constructing reality. This highlights the way that speakers relate to each other through talk with the available discursive positionings in a specific context. An institutional context with particular asymmetrical relations introduces how the construction of reality is an area accessible to explore the use of language in maintaining and creating power relations. This research study explores institutional talk through conversation analysis. The focus is on asymmetrical working relations in medical settings. This considers the implications on individuals with a differentiating status with how power is managed in conversations. Nurses and doctors represent asymmetrical relations and their conversations illustrate differences in the way that language creates reality in a medical context, in this case a public teaching hospital in South Africa. Nurses and doctors were recorded during ward rounds, which spanned 22 hours of audio recordings. Approximately 40 ward rounds were followed where both a doctor and nurse were present. Ward rounds provided an opportunity to capture nurse-doctor conversations. The recordings were supplemented by ethnographic data that focused on the management of power. This focus is both at an individual interactional level and at a broader institutional level. Thus, showing how language coincides with the predominant subject positions available in a medical institution. The findings show how doctors do power overtly through various ways of speaking which show leadership in interactions. The findings also show how a doctor's subjectivity relates to qualities that continually build superiority in interactions. Nurses, on the other hand, manage power indirectly, by negotiating agency while enacting a passive actor role in conversations. Both doctors and nurses manage power and assertiveness, but continually show the sensitivity embedded in orienting themselves to one another. This aids in showing speaker support and is especially important for nurses, who are in a lower status, for managing their position in relation to doctors.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 138-142). / In this study, the goal orientations of female riders between the ages of 7 and 20 and their parents are investigated. Goal orientations were identified by means of the Achievement Goal Questionnaire for Sport (AGQ-S) for: the daughter; the daughter's perceptions of her dominant-parent's goal orientation for the daughter; both parents' goal orientations; and both parents' stated goal orientations for their daughter. The rider's goal orientations were compared with: the rider's perception of her dominant-parent's goal orientation; both parents' goal orientations for the daughter; and both parents' own goal orientations.

Includes abstract. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 141-149). / The study serves as an example of a theory-based evaluation of a "real life" programme, highlights the strengths and weakness of this evaluation approach, and provides direction for future research on programmes that employ the purvey or method to distribute evidence-based programmes.

Includes abstract. / Includes bibliographical references. / The concept of the disinhibitory complex refers to a cluster of personality, psychiatric, cognitive, and electrophysiological inhibitory control impairments that have been documented in alcohol use disorders (AUDs). Previous AUD research has focused on treatment-seeking adults with comorbid psychopathology; with regard to the disinhibitory complex, such individuals are likely to differ from younger, treatment-naïve individuals, such as the sample here studied. Further, few studies have examined several domains of disinhibition simultaneously, and so little is known about relationships between the various correlates of disinhibition. This study aimed to (a) examine and characterize the disinhibitory complex in treatment-naïve adolescents with AUDs, (b) investigate sex differences in disinhibition, and (c) determine whether an underlying construct of disinhibition might explain elevated levels of disinhibition in AUDs observed on individual indices.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 94-102). / Previous research has shown that stress affects processing in many different memory systems. This study aimed to investigate the effects of acute psychosocial stress on declarative memory (DM) and working memory (WM) performance, and to explore whether sex differences exist under stress in these two memory systems. DM was assessed using cued recall and recognition of a verbal paired-associates list. WM was assessed using an n-back test with various difficulty levels. One hundred (42 males) undergraduate psychology students from the University of Cape Town were recruited. Phase of menstrual cycle and oral contraceptive use were controlled for in female participants. Participants took part in two sessions, 24 hours apart, each beginning after 16h00. Day 1 involved learning and immediate cued recall of the word pairs, and completing a practice n-back protocol. During Day 2, 45 participants were exposed to a psychosocial stressor and 41 were exposed to a relaxation period. Physiological and self-report measures of stress were taken at three intervals pre- and post-experimental manipulation. Participants then completed delayed cued recall and recognition tests for the previously-learned word pairs, and the full version of the n-back test. Data were analysed only for participants characterised as 'cortisol responders' following the experimental manipulation. The final sample included 57 participants (30 males). With regard to DM, stress did not affect either delayed cued recall or recognition performance in either men or women. With regard to WM, stress negatively affected accuracy among men, but not women. These results are largely consistent with previous literature, but also elucidate a sex difference in working memory performance under stress (viz., while men's performance is negatively affected by stress, women show improved performance). The study provides important evidence for sex differences in WM performance under stress, and highlights several methodological issues that should be addressed in future studies.

Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references.

Bibliography: leaves 57-61. / The neuropsychological understanding of confabulation has recently been enriched by the finding that confabulating patients present positive emotional biases in their false recollections. The exact mechanisms of this motivational phenomenon have been heuristically linked to the frontal lobe impairment accompanying confabulation. The present study aims at providing direct support for this claim. A patient with damage to the prefrontal cortex is examined and his performance is contrasted with two confabulating patients, a patient with non-frontal neurological damage and twenty matched controls on a number of tests of emotional processing.

Includes abstract. / The Boston Naming Test (BNT) is a popular confrontation naming test that is frequently used in the detection of naming deficits in Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, the test may not be appropriate when used outside of North America due to the influence of varying word frequency and familiarity between different cultures and languages. This study investigated the diagnostic validity of a South African 15-item adaption of the BNT (the BNT-SA-SF) in a Cape Town memory clinic population of patients with dementia and healthy, community-dwelling control participants. Between-groups comparisons, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analyses, and other diagnostic efficiency statistics were used to assess the test's discriminative capacity between patients with AD (n = 46), patients with other types of dementia (n = 23), and controls (n = 51), matched on key demographic variables. The AD group performed worse than patients with other types of dementia and controls on the BNT-SA-SF, and patients with other types of dementia scored more poorly than controls. The test showed the most significant discriminative capacity between patients with AD and controls, however. A general linear model examining the effects of socio-demographic variables on test performance found that BNT-SA-SF performance was not significantly affected by the socio-demographic characteristics of participants, including age, education, language, or socio-economic status, with the exception that men appear to achieve higher scores than women. Further, an item analysis identified a number of problematic items and suggestions are made concerning how to deal with these in future studies. Preliminary normative data stratified by sex and education are presented. Results support the clinical utility of the BNT-SA-SF as a screening test to aid in the diagnosis of AD from normal aging with older adults in South Africa. This study is a valuable step forward in the ongoing attempt to provide culturally appropriate and valid neuropsychological tests and norms for clinical and research purposes in South Africa. Future studies should examine the functioning of the test in larger samples, representative of the other major population and language groups in South Africa.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 64-71). / An impressive collection of research has shown that mindfulness - described as a heightened awareness of the present moment - nurtures inner resources for reducing stress, and improving well-being. The aim of this study was to further validate, and add to these findings by illustrating the relationship between mindfulness and affect, cognition and physiological reactivity to stress.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 75-90). / South Africa has one of the world's highest rates of HIV infection. Little previous research has focused on the relationship between individuals in different sexual contexts and their attitudes toward condom choice. I tested the hypotheses that (a) implicit and explicit measures of attitudes towards condom choice would show that individuals in casual sexual contexts, compared to those in the context of exclusive sexual relationships, would spontaneously associate more strongly with brand-name condoms over generic condoms, and (b) there would be a positive correlation between explicit and implicit attitudes towards condom choice.