Includes bibliographical references. / This study was designed to investigate the interrelation between cognition and affect inobsessive-compulsiveness/Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Based on established empirical evidence that hyperactive conflict-monitoring is highly correlated both with hyperactivity in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and with symptom severity in OCD- and therefore that overactive conflict-monitoring can be conceptualized as a possible mechanism of the disorder - it was hypothesized that hyperactivity of the PANIC/separation-distress emotion system in the brain (which is largely localized in the ACC) would co-vary with conflict-monitoring levels in people with tendencies towards OCD and thus could be considered the correlate of OCD in the affective sphere. Two questionnaires (the Meta-Cognitions Questionnaire and the Padua Inventory) were used to position a non-clinical, college sample of 1119 participants in terms of their tendency towards obsessive-compulsiveness. The top 21 and bottom 20 scorers were then tested to gauge their levels of cognitive conflict-monitoring and separation-distress. Independent-test analysis revealed that the two groups differed significantly on scores of separation distress(as well as on the Affective Neuroscience Personality Scales subscales ANGER,FEAR and PLAY), whilst there was no significant difference in the group scores for conflict-monitoring. Correlational analyses revealed no significant relationships between any of the nine OCD questionnaire factors and conflict-monitoring; similar analyses emphasized differences found for separation-distress scores and provided further, detailed description of relationships between the OCD questionnaire factors and this affective aspect. Implications for neuropsychology are that separation-distress seems likely to be a pivotal emotion involved in OCD.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 124-136). / In the light of social identity theory and contact theory, this study looked at the effects of racial identity on contact and prejudice. The sample consisted of 826 UCT students who belonged to the White and African population groups. Their mean age was 20.50 and they were 52.54% females and 47.46% males. A pilot study using 42 participants answered questions concerning the face validity of the scales and questions aimed at testing the on-line system for data collection. The data was gathered by means of a questionnaire accessed by the participants on-line. The interval scales measuring racial identity, nature and frequency of contact and prejudice/social distance were all found to have Cronbach's coefficient alphas bigger than .73. Another variable measured the proportion of cross-race friendships as a percentage. Two statistical techniques were used to analyse the data: path analysis and simultaneous multiple regressions. Some information was added by the theme analysis of the comments of the participants concerning the study. The results of the study revealed total mean values above the mid-point for all variables that are: in-group identity, nature and frequency of contact, positive feelings of the participants towards each other and desire for interracial contact. Two things are salient in the results of the present study: a) interracial contact did not allow cross-race friendships forming at a moderate or high percentage and; b) in the African population group racial identity (social identity) did not have statistically significant effects on prejudice and social distance. It did have them when the group was split by gender. Two research hypotheses were confirmed and the other two were partially confirmed. Racial identity had a direct negative causal effect on nature of contact for the entire sample and for the White population group. It also had an indirect negative causal effect on prejudice and social distance via nature of contact for the entire sample and the White population group. For this group, racial identity also had direct negative causal effects on prejudice/social distance. Racial identity had direct causal effects on prejudice for the African males and females separately. Nature of contact had the strongest direct positive causal effects on prejudice/social distance. The variance in prejudice/social distance is explained by racial identity, nature and frequency of contact acting together, with the nature of contact being the strongest contributor. The results show positive effects of inter-racial contact on prejudice/social distance on UCT campus. This trend was also found by some previous studies. Some limitations linked to the research methodology inhibited the generalisation of the results.

Approximately 85% of the global cervical cancer deaths occur in women living in developing countries. In South Africa, cervical cancer is the second most common cancer amongst women, with Black South African women having the highest risk of developing cervical cancer. Previous research with the same population group found that there are structural (time, health education, age) and psychosocial (fear of screening and stigmatization) influences to cervical screening. The purpose of this research was to identify socio-cultural factors affecting cervical cancer screening adherence within a disadvantaged community in South Africa, a developing country. To identify the social-cultural factors four focus groups consisting of men and women between the ages of 18 and 60 were conducted. A combination of the Health Belief Model (HBM) and Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) provided a theoretical framework for this study. Thematic analysis was used to identify themes that emerged from the focus groups and participant observation. Through conducting these focus groups, themes emerged which strongly highlighted the role of cultural norms, gender roles, the western medical model and traditional medicine in a woman’s decision to adhere to cervical screening. It was found that factors such as knowledge and stigma, found previously in research, were also shared amongst this sample group. However, spiritual and religious beliefs (traditional healers, religion, and balancing paradigms), gender beliefs, social construction and acceptance of disease were factors which also emerged as exerting influence in a woman’s decision to adhere to cervical screening.

In light of research which suggests that father involvement is associated with positive outcomes for children, including emotional, social and financial benefits, the high rate of father absence in South Africa has been interpreted as a ‘crisis’ of fatherhood (Ratele, Shefer, & Clowes, 2012). However, there is a lack of research that explores fathering and fatherhood from the perspective of South African children. This study aimed to investigate the ways in which a group of nine female and five male adolescents in an urban, low-income community of Cape Town discursively construct the roles and responsibilities of fathers in their community. Using Photovoice methodology, participants produced photographs of ‘fathering in my community’ and then participated in a photo-elicitation interview. The interview transcripts were subjected to a discourse analysis to identify discursive constructions of fatherhood. Consistent with previous research which has been conducted with fathers, participants drew on hegemonic discourses which positioned fathers as financial providers and protectors, and mothers as ‘natural’ care-givers and nurturers. Fathers were predominantly represented as failing to fulfil their roles and responsibilities. However, there were also instances in which participants resisted these dominant discourses through drawing on a discourse of ‘involved’ fathering which positioned fathers as nurturers and carers. Participants also discursively constructed a form of non-biological ‘social father’ who could fulfil some fathering roles. In light of these findings it appears that there is a need to challenge rigid and inflexible hegemonic constructions of fathering (and masculinity more generally), and to elaborate contesting versions of fatherhood, in order to make alternative, more fluid subject positions available to men as fathers.

Bibliography: leaves 132-154. / This randomized controlled experimental study was designed to determine whether Kinesiology, as an adjunct to medical therapy, would improve the management of patients with Crohn's disease. One hundred and fifty consecutive Crohn's disease patients, attending the Gastrointestinal Clinic at Groote Schuur Hospital, were randomly assigned to a Kinesiology (n=50) and a Control Group (n=50). In order to assess the effect of physical contact, a third group who received Massage (n=50), was also included. All participants attended their monthly hospital visits and continued taking their prescribed medication.

Includes bibliography. / Most psychosocial services for people with cancer remain under-utilised. This phenomenon disturbs the logic of two facts: that people with cancer do experience psychosocial problems, and that most interventions are capable of alleviating psychological distress and improving quality of life. This dissertation approached the above problem using a multi-modal methodology. First, a multi-choice questionnaire survey was conducted at the out-patient oncology clinic, Groote Schuur Hospital, showing that interest in the more professionalised services such as psychiatry, psychotherapy, coping skills courses, and social work was low, while interest in less professionalised services such as self-help groups and veteran patient visits was relatively high. In the context of the narrative and discursive approaches to understanding human experience, it was argued that psychosocial oncology presents a particular view of the person 'ith cancer, rooted in positivist and medical frameworks, which may be out of sink with patients' own understandings of themselves. A discourse analytic study, using two focus group interviews and four individual interviews with people with cancer, served as an alternative approach to understanding the coping process and patients' attitudes towards psychosocial care. Two contrasting discourses were highlighted in this way: an individualistic discourse and a psychological discourse. Respondents employed various rhetorical strategies in order to ensure domination of the rational, individualistic, and coping 'I' over the emotional, psychologized mind. Taken together, these results suggest that less professionalised services, based largely on fellow patient support, should be central to a more consumer-friendly system of psychosocial care. An action research approach was recommended as a possible means of developing such a system of care.

Bibliography: leaves 127-136. / South African social psychological research on national identity has been limited. The current research aimed to address some of the gaps in the local literature. Two studies were conducted among Grade 11 learners at Cape Town high schools. Study 1 (N=565) included Black African-language speakers, Coloured English-speakers, White Afrikaans-speakers and White English-speakers aged between 16.5 and 18.5. This study was an experimental test of hypotheses based on the principle of 'functional antagonism' within Self-Categorisation Theory (Turner, 1987), as well as on other concepts derived from European and local research. Based on methods used by Cinnirella (1998) and Rutland and Cinnirella (2000), participants were randomly assigned to one of three experimental conditions designed to make national, sub-national, or personal identity salient. The effect of this experimental manipulation on identification with South Africa and with Africa was then assessed across ethnic groups. Study 1 also investigated the relationship between attitudes towards diversity, perceived sub-national group security, and strength of identification with South Africa. Study 2 (N=91) was restricted to Coloured English-speakers within the same age range as in Study 1. Study 2 tested a hypothesis about the relative sensitivity to the experimental manipulation, of alternative measures of identification. No effects for the experimental manipulation of identity salience were found on any of the dependent variables. Significant differences were, however, found between ethnic groups on absolute and relative identification with South African and Africa, as well as on certain pertinent attitudes and beliefs. The result of Study 2 provided a degree of methodological triangulation for Study 1, while also providing additional information about the relative strength of South African, Africa, and nine other social identities. The results are discussed in the light of findings from prior South African research.

Includes bibliographical references. / Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for 69% of the global HIV burden. Due to a variety of social, economic and behavioural factors, mentally ill patients are more likely to engage in high risk sexual behaviours. In turn, co-morbid substance use which is present in up to 75% of mentally ill patients is a leading risk factor for sexual risk behaviours. Worldwide methamphetamines are the most commonly used illicit stimulant. Both injectable and noninjectable methamphetamines have evidenced associations with high risk sexual behaviours. Smoking and inhalation of crystal methamphetamine is the predominant mode of use in South Africa. The use of crystal methamphetamine amongst mentally ill persons in Cape Town has escalated over the last decade. We aimed to determine the occurrence of methamphetamine use and risky sexual practices amongst mentally ill patients. In addition we aimed to explore the associations between methamphetamine use and HIV sexual risk behaviours in a sample of mentally ill inpatients in Cape Town, South Africa.

Bibliography: leaves 162-180. / This dissertation applies the theoretical ideas of Michel Foucault -viz. confession, surveillance and subjectivity - to advice columns from three South African women's magazines. An interpretative analysis effects of discourse, renders salient the relationship between knowledges, discursive practices, power and institutions. Using, as a standing point, Wendy Hollway's work on subject positioning of women in discourses concerning heterosexual relationship practice, the ways in which women are impelled to ""work"" in psychologized and medicalized ways to effect normalization in ""crises"" of ""physical attractiveness"" and ""monogamy"" are examined in advice texts. These technologies and practices produce rewards of power for Subjection, and these powers are critically discussed in terms of (a) ""liberal"" / ""humanist"", ''feminist'' and ""Foucauldian"" strategies of women's empowerment, and (b) the formal dynamics and constraints of advice columns.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 123-135). / Students eligible to receive need-based financial aid represent a group of students that are of particular concern for universities in post-apartheid South Africa. The academic success of these students is a concern considering the high failure and attrition rates among these students, which represents a huge waste of financial resources for universities. There is however a paucity of literature on the determinants of academic performance among these students. The present study attempted to address the gap in the existing literature by investigating the effect of various psychosocial factors on the academic performance of first-year university students, who were the recipients of need-based financial aid at the University of Cape Town (UCT). The main aim of the present study was to test the hypothesis that adjustment mediates the relationship between students' help-seeking behaviours, academic motivation, self-esteem, perceived stress and academic overload, and their academic performance. This hypothesis has not been tested previously. The sample for the present study consisted of 194 of the 465 students considered eligible to participate in the Student Development Programme at UCT. All of these students received need-based financial aid from the university. The sample for the present study consisted of participants between 17 and 28 years (M=19 years) who were mostly 'black' African participants and who mainly spoke an African language as their first language. Path analysis was utilised to test the hypotheses. The results show that adjustment did not function as a pure mediator. It was found that adjustment mediated some of the effects of the psychosocial factors on academic performance. Academic performance was best explained by the direct and mediated effects of the psychosocial factors. Intrinsic motivation, identified regulation, self-esteem and perceived stress were significant predictors of adjustment. Only extrinsic regulation and academic overload were significant predictors of academic performance. Further analyses revealed that the proposed model, including adjustment as a mediator variable, was more appropriate in explaining academic performance among male students than among female students. Gender differences in the effect of introjected regulation, self-esteem and perceived stress on adjustment were found. Only motivation was a significant predictor of academic performance among female students. Adjustment, academic overload and self-esteem were significant predictors of academic performance among male students. Further analyses were conducted to explore the effects of the individual SACQ sub-scales on academic performance. Academic adjustment had a significant positive impact on academic performance whereas social adjustment had a significant negative impact on academic performance.