M.Ed. / Educational psychology honours students and Theraplay: a relational case inquiry. The South African community is moving towards fundamental socio-and-political restructuring. Part of the restructuring process is establishing suitable psychological intervention for the needy black child. From the researcher's understanding of the black child's need and knowledge of the different types of play therapies, the research question pertaining to how black students would relate to Theraplay emerged. The aim of the study was to investigate how black students relate to the proposed Theraplay principles. The method of investigation entailed superimposing a training model onto a research format in order to train and simultaneously observe the students relating to Theraplay. The five training phases of the model served as template to five observation opportunities for data collection. The data were analysed and consolidated in order to arrive at eight final categories. These eight categories were interpreted in relation to the proposed Theraplay principles, and black philosophy, in order to draw conclusions on how the students related to Theraplay. The research found that the students related well to the Theraplay principles of nurturing, intrusion, structuring and using the child as play object. The students related poorly, however, to the Theraplay principles of challenging, differentiating, playing in the "here-and-now" and controlling the sessions. Implications ofthe findings for practice, for educational psychology and for research are stated in conclusion to the inquiry.

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This pilot study, grounded in social learning theory, demonstrated that leisure education services can be delivered on the Internet. Participants (n=40) successfully accessed the Web page program and responded to instruments and surveys. The treatment group (n=16) effectively completed four leisure education sessions on-line. Confidentiality, privacy, and anonymity issues were controlled. Responses were monitored and feedback provided as to the complexity of the program and comprehension of the participants. The leisure education program had no significant effect on posttest measures of alcohol expectancies and leisure motivations. Mean changes frompretest to posttest may indicate trends. The small n and convenience sample may have introduced many extraneous variables. Professional implications include compliance issues (57% experimental mortality rate), technology-related anxiety, and limited professional competency to work in this environment. Future research which examines the provision of leisure education and other components of therapeutic recreation service on-line is warranted.

Human footwear is not yet designed to optimally relieve pressure on the heel of the foot. Proper foot pressure assessment requires personal training and measurements by specialized machinery. This research aims to investigate and hypothesize about Preferred Transition Speed (PTS) and to classify the gait phase of explicit variances in walking patterns between different subjects. An in-shoe wearable pressure system using Android application was developed to investigate walking patterns and collect data on Activities of Daily Living (ADL). In-shoe circuitry used Flexi-Force A201 sensors placed at three major areas: heel contact, 1st metatarsal, and 5th metatarsal with a PIC16F688 microcontroller and Bluetooth module. This method provides a low-cost instantaneous solution to both wear and records plantar foot simultaneously. Data acquisition used internal local memory to store pressure logs for offline data analysis. Data processing used the perpendicular slope to determine peak pressure and time of index. Statistical analysis can utilize to discover foot deformity. The empirical results in one subject showed weak linearity between normal and fast walk and a significant difference in body weight acceptance between normal and slow walk. In addition, T-test hypothesis testing between two healthy subjects, with , illustrated a significant difference in their Initial Contact pressure and no difference between their peak-to-peak time interval. Preferred Transition Speed versus VGRF was measured in 19 subjects. The experiments demonstrated that vertical GRF averagely increased 18.46% when the speed changed from 50% to 75% of PTS with STD 4.78. While VGRF increased 21.24% when the speed changed from 75% to 100% of PTS with STD 7.81. Finally, logistic regression between 12 healthy subjects demonstrated a good classification with 82.6% accuracy between partial foot bearing and their normal walk.

There is limited data on the quality of life of individuals who exercise in a group versus individuals who exercise alone. The purpose of this study was to determine if there is a difference in the quality life between adults who attend an exercise class and those who exercise alone. Using the WHOQOL-BREF, 27 adult females were surveyed in Central California at two Church of Latter Day Saints locations. Ten females were enrolled in a group exercise class while 17 were individual exercisers. The data was analyzed using a t-test for independent samples to determine if there is a significant difference in scores. There was not a significant difference in overall quality of life, environmental domain, and physical domain, but there was a significant difference in the psychological and social domains. Further research is recommended and benefits are detailed.

The present study sought to determine whether or not state anxiety levels were significantly reduced when individuals participated in aerobic dance workouts of 15 minutes and 30 minutes. Undergraduate university students and faculty enrolled in an aerobic dance class were volunteers in this study. As hypothesized, subjects in the aerobic dance classes did reduce anxiety acutely following both their 15 minute and 30 minute workout as assessed by the STAI (Y-Form State Anxiety). Thus, results indicate that state anxiety may be reduced through aerobic dance with similar situations and individuals. In addition, the study also looked at the posttest state anxiety score differences between the 15 minutes and 30 minutes. The results were not significant, indicating neither length of aerobic dance workout session was superior to the other. These results contribute to a currently expanding area of research examining the relationship between anxiety reduction and aerobic dance.

Esta dissertação é produto de algumas reflexões originadas durante um período de trabalho em alguns CAPS na cidade de Campina Grande/PB, no qual eram realizados atendimentos em grupo, e individual, com crianças autistas. A partir dessa experiência, surgiu o interesse de pesquisar sobre o espaço relacional nesses encontros e as possibilidades de interação entre crianças com autismo e o outro. Um aspecto importante nesse período em que participei dessas atividades do CAPS, foi observar o uso que essas crianças autistas faziam da experiência do brincar, despertando-me o interesse em pesquisar o que acontece nesse fenômeno, e se é possível pensá-lo como um dispositivo favorecedor da intermediação entre a criança e o outro. Winnicott destaca que o brincar é uma atividade elaborada, que permite a criação da externalidade com condição para o viver criativo, no qual se desenvolve o pensar, o conhecer e o aprender de forma significativa, e brincando que se aprende a transformar e usar os objetos do mundo para nele realizar-se e inscrever os próprios gestos, criando a própria subjetividade. Assim, questões pertinentes ao autismo e ao brincar foram discutidas neste trabalho, considerando a importância da relação mãe-bebê, entendendo que uma falha nesta relação poderá trazer dificuldades no processo de amadurecimento dela. Foi nesse contexto que o trabalho teve como objetivo estudar o uso do brincar na relação da criança autista com o outro. Tratou-se de uma pesquisa de caráter qualitativa, que usou o referencial teórico da teoria psicanalítica, sobretudo winnicottiana, a respeito do autismo, bem como acerca do brincar, na condição de eixos fundamentais. Algumas discussões foram realizadas, a partir de memórias de atendimento a crianças autistas no contexto de CAPS, como ilustração para o debate sobre o brincar na terapêutica com essas crianças. Ao fim do trabalho, constatou-se que o brincar permite à criança desvendar um mundo para além de si mesmo, facilitando o trabalho psicoterápico e a relação interpessoal com o outro e funcionando como um dispositivo terapêutico útil. / This work is the product of some reflections originated during a period of work in some CAPS in the city of Campina Grande / PB, in which calls were made in group and individual with autistic children. From this experience, became interested in researching the relational space in these meetings and the possibilities for interaction between children with autism and the other. An important aspect in this period I participated in these activities CAPS, was observed using these autistic children were the experience of playing, awakening my interest in researching what happens in this phenomenon, and that you can think of it as a device favoring the intermediary between the child and others. Winnicott points out that the play is an elaborate activity that enables the creation of externality with condition for creative living, which develops thinking, knowing and learning in a meaningful way, and playing you learn to transform and use the objects the world for it to carry out and sign the gestures themselves, creating their own subjectivity. Thus, issues related to autism and the play were discussed in this paper, considering the importance of the mother-infant relationship, understanding that a failure in this regard might cause difficulties in her maturing process. It was in this context that the work aimed to study the use of play in respect of the autistic child with the other. This was a qualitative research study, which used the theoretical framework of psychoanalytic theory, particularly Winnicott, about autism and about the play, provided the cornerstones. Some discussions were held, from service to autistic children memories in the context of CAPS, as an illustration to the debate about play therapy in these children. At the end of work, it was found that the play allows the child to unravel a world beyond itself, facilitating psychotherapeutic work and the interpersonal relationship with each other and functioning as a useful therapeutic device.

Forty spinal cord injury (SCI) patients were studied in order to determine the effects of an attribution based therapeutic recreation program on their perception of freedom in leisure. Perception of freedom in leisure of SCI patients was measured by a seventy-two item scale. This scale was translated into Spanish, adapted, revised, validated, and tested for reliability. The reliability of the Spanish Version of the scale was very similar to the English Version of the scale.

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship of leisure satisfaction, job satisfaction, and life satisfaction among selected faculty in higher education institutions whose specialty teaching subject area was therapeutic recreation. This study also investigated the relationship of specific demographic variables to leisure satisfaction, job satisfaction, and life satisfaction. The variables included age, gender, education, income level, health, tenure, marital status, type of institution where employed, and participation in therapeutic recreation organizations. The population for this study consisted of 162 faculty whose specialty teaching subject area was therapeutic recreation. Subjects were selected from colleges and universities of the United States listed in the curriculum catalog published by the Recreation and Park Association, Society of Park and Recreation Education for the year 1993-1994.

The purpose of this study is to determine the effects of increased resistance training frequency on strength and hypertrophy in trained individuals. Six Studies were deemed eligible based on the inclusion exclusion criteria. The inclusion criteria for this review were healthy trained individuals. “Trained” refers to over one year of resistance training experience. Exclusion Criteria were study’s that examined either untrained or obese individuals as participants. The evidence indicates a dose-response trend in frequency. Resistance training each muscle group twice a week may be superior compared to once per week. Further more, resistance training each muscle group three times a week may enhance hypertrophy and strength adaptations even more compared to either once or twice a week. Recovery of the muscle may be reached in approximately 72 hours or 3 days. Mechanisms that may correlate to this phenomenon could be related to the more frequent elevations in muscle protein synthesis and physiological anabolic hormones. These results may help develop more specific guidelines in programming for intermediate to advanced athletes as well as lead way to more research on acute training variable manipulation.