Minimal scientific research has been conducted regarding female sexual offenders within the South African context, despite its prevalence. This study explores behavioural and contextual characteristics of female sexual offenders to gain an understanding of the phenomenon. This qualitative study in the form of a systematic review, focuses on the findings of ten original international research articles published from 2002 to 2012 regarding the behavioural and contextual characteristics of female sexual offenders. The epistemological foundation of this study was postmodernism and social constructionism. Three main themes and various subthemes emerged from the data by applying the thematic content analysis. The aim of this study was to explore the similarities and differences between the findings of the research articles. Lacunas in the existing literature were explored in an attempt to extend scientific knowledge on female sexual offenders. Finally, recommendations for future scientific studies on female sexual offenders were discussed. / Psychology / M.A. (Clinical Psychology)

This study offers the reader an opportunity to glimpse the world and narrative of a gay man recently come out of the closet and to be invited to participate in his search for improved understanding of his sense of identity. It is a study of autobiographical works in order to gain insight into the changes occurring in the author’s sense of identity but is also in itself an autobiographical work. It is a reflection on the author’s story and an interpretation of aspects of that story, using selected documents written by him over a period of time, in order to highlight specific changes that occur in his sense of identity. The aim of this study is to generate some insight into the sense of identity of a gay man, and optimistically other marginalised groups of people, with specific focus on the changes that have occurred over. This study will be approached from a social constructionist paradigm using qualitative and interpretative methods to analyse the various autobiographical works. This will provide information on the changes that occur over time in a gay man’s sense of identity. / Dissertation (MA (Counselling Psychology))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Psychology / MA / unrestricted

Syftet med studien var att analysera biståndsutredningar utifrån ett genusperspektiv för att undersöka om det finns några skillnader både språkligt och innehållsmässigt utifrån kön. Vårt gemensamma intresse för genusfrågor och socialt arbete för individer med funktionsnedsättningar är anledningen till valet av studiens inriktning. Karin Barrons teori om att kvinnor och män med funktionsnedsättningar inte tilldelas kön har inspirerat till studien. Med hjälp av socialkonstruktivism och ett genusperspektiv har empirin analyserats med en kvalitativ innehållsanalys. Studiens empiri består av biståndsutredningar enligt Lagen om stöd och service för vissa funktionshindrade (SFS 1993:387) angående ansökan om personlig assistans. Utredningarna kommer ifrån en relativt stor kommun. Resultatet visar att språket i biståndsutredningarna synliggör kön och skapar olika bilder av kvinnor och män med funktionsnedsättningar. Utredningarna porträtterar mannen som drabbad av sin funktionsnedsättning, drabbad men fortfarande stark och kompetent. I samma sorts texter skildras kvinnan som att hon är, har eller har utvecklat sin funktionsnedsättning och som beroende av hjälpmedel och annat stöd / The purpose was to analyze needs assessment investigation to explore if there are differences in the linguistic and content regarding gender. We have common interest in both gender perspective and disability care. Therefore these areas were chosen for the study. Karin Barron and her theory about disabled people being declined their gender was the inspiration to the study.  A social constructionist and a gender perspective were used throughout this research and a qualitative content analyze were used to analyze and process the documents. The documents consisted by needs assessment investigation regarding applications about personal assistance. The applications are regulated by the Swedish law, Lagen om stöd och service för vissa funktionshindrade (SFS 1993:387). The data was collected from a relatively large municipality. The results show that in these documents gender is visible and creates different images of disabled men and women. The documents presented the men as victims of their disability, victims but still strong and abled and the women were presented as accountable of their disability and dependent of means

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore organizational identity as a potential process.   Design/Methodology/Approach: We applied a qualitative method and followed an inductive approach that was applied to a multiple-in-depth-case study for which we conducted semi-structured interviews with 26 members of two organizations, the Swedish consulting company REACH and the Swiss digital agency WONDROUS. Following a narrative approach, both for structuring the empirical findings, as well as conducting the analysis, we used over 16 hours of interviews to create company narratives and subsequently analyzed them in multiple steps in the fashion of a narrative analysis.   Findings: Based on our empirical findings and the empirical analysis, we developed a conceptualization, the Flux Model. We contribute to the existing body of literature by proposing that the Flux Model visualizes the dynamics of how organizational members socially construct organizational identity on the premise of their own (self-)perceptions. By presenting the different parts of the model and their multiple layers, the process of how organizational identity is continuously becoming is illustrated.   Research Limitations/Implications: The scope of our study is restricted to the two case companies in question. If our abstractions from the cases in form of the Flux Model help to better understand the process of organizing, managers become liberated to make deliberate choices about their organizations’ identities. For research this means an even tighter connection to individual psychology and a deepening of the perspective that organizational identity can not only be viewed as something companies have.   Originality/Value: Out of skepticism towards the usefulness of viewing organizational identity as a process, we applied a symbolic interpretivist perspective and allowed for the possibility that we might not find a process after all. The primary value of this study we believe to be found in the extensive presentation of empirical data, together with our narrative analysis and our conceptual contribution (the Flux Model).

This study explores trainee psychotherapists' experiences of double bind situations and inconsistency between explicit and implicit contexts of training. The epistemological foundations of this text are postmodern, social constructionist and ecosystemic. A review of the relevant literature is presented, which includes aspects such as explicit and implicit contexts, double bind and experiences of trainees in training. This is followed by an account of the qualitative research approach adopted, namely, discourse analysis. Themes that are extracted from the text of the transcribed interviews are assumed to reflect discourses in training and the broader societal contexts in which trainees find themselves. These discourses are seen to inform trainees' constructions of their experiences in training. The findings of the analysis are found to concur with the initial hypotheses of this dissertation, as well as with findings in the literature. Recommendations for future research are offered. / Psychology / M.A. (Clinical Psychology)

This Social Constructionist study originated from the researcher’s exposure to a significant loss and her unanswered questions about other cultures’ experience of grief. Literature is scarce from a social constructionist framework that focuses on the cultural experiences on death and bereavement from a South African perspective. The researcher’s aim was to provide three culturally diverse South African women constructed as ‘bereaved’ the opportunity to tell their stories of the death of a loved one and their bereavement thereof. The three diverse cultures were Tswana, Islamic Muslim and Afrikaans. A qualitative research method was employed. Unstructured, in-depth interviews were conducted with each of the three participants and the method used to analyze the collected data was thematic content analysis. The study allowed rich and valuable information about death and bereavement from three culturally diverse women to emerge. The themes of ‘mourning procedures and practices’, ‘bereavement behaviour’ ‘socio-political context’ and ‘private and public display of grief’ were identified as valuable areas for clinical practice and future research. Lay people, schools and the work environment too, will gain a better understanding of cultural differences on death and bereavement. / Psychology / M.A. (Psychology)

Considering the high incidence of suicide in the South African context, the fact that suicide is considered an occupational hazard for psychologists, with more than half experiencing the suicide of a patient in their career and the dearth of post-suicide qualitative research among psychologists, the purpose of this study is to explore and describe the experience of psychologists after the suicide of their patient, and to develop guidelines as a framework of reference to assist psychologists in dealing with the suicide of their patient. In keeping with a social constructionist ontological and ecosystemic epistemological theoretical framework, data was collected by means of meaning-making conversations with six purposively selected psychologists, with a minimum of five years‟ experience and at least one year having passed after the suicide of their patient. The data was analysed independently by the researcher and an independent coder using Tesch‟s open and descriptive method. The present study found that, following the suicide of their patient, the participants were propelled into a myriad of acutely distressing emotions. They often described a suffocating sense of responsibility for the suicide and the lingering presence of their patient. The participants experienced feelings of guilt and self-doubt, often questioning their own professional competence. The post-suicide process was described as being both a personally and professionally isolating event, due to the sense of having to carry the burden of the suicide alone for ethical reasons and fear of social stigmatisation. The participants appeared to grapple with the paradoxical dance between their personal emotional realities and what they perceived to be “clinically” or “professionally” acceptable. Having gone through the traumatic experience of losing a patient to suicide, most of the participants eventually found new wisdom, which helped them become wounded healers. Based on these findings, post-vention guidelines with practical actions were developed to assist psychologists in dealing with the suicide of their patient. Recommendations are made with regard to suicidology research, suicide education and psychologists‟ practice. / Psychology / M.A. (Clinical Psychology)

This study explores trainee psychotherapists' experiences of double bind situations and inconsistency between explicit and implicit contexts of training. The epistemological foundations of this text are postmodern, social constructionist and ecosystemic. A review of the relevant literature is presented, which includes aspects such as explicit and implicit contexts, double bind and experiences of trainees in training. This is followed by an account of the qualitative research approach adopted, namely, discourse analysis. Themes that are extracted from the text of the transcribed interviews are assumed to reflect discourses in training and the broader societal contexts in which trainees find themselves. These discourses are seen to inform trainees' constructions of their experiences in training. The findings of the analysis are found to concur with the initial hypotheses of this dissertation, as well as with findings in the literature. Recommendations for future research are offered. / Psychology / M.A. (Clinical Psychology)

This Social Constructionist study originated from the researcher’s exposure to a significant loss and her unanswered questions about other cultures’ experience of grief. Literature is scarce from a social constructionist framework that focuses on the cultural experiences on death and bereavement from a South African perspective. The researcher’s aim was to provide three culturally diverse South African women constructed as ‘bereaved’ the opportunity to tell their stories of the death of a loved one and their bereavement thereof. The three diverse cultures were Tswana, Islamic Muslim and Afrikaans. A qualitative research method was employed. Unstructured, in-depth interviews were conducted with each of the three participants and the method used to analyze the collected data was thematic content analysis. The study allowed rich and valuable information about death and bereavement from three culturally diverse women to emerge. The themes of ‘mourning procedures and practices’, ‘bereavement behaviour’ ‘socio-political context’ and ‘private and public display of grief’ were identified as valuable areas for clinical practice and future research. Lay people, schools and the work environment too, will gain a better understanding of cultural differences on death and bereavement. / Psychology / M.A. (Psychology)

Considering the high incidence of suicide in the South African context, the fact that suicide is considered an occupational hazard for psychologists, with more than half experiencing the suicide of a patient in their career and the dearth of post-suicide qualitative research among psychologists, the purpose of this study is to explore and describe the experience of psychologists after the suicide of their patient, and to develop guidelines as a framework of reference to assist psychologists in dealing with the suicide of their patient. In keeping with a social constructionist ontological and ecosystemic epistemological theoretical framework, data was collected by means of meaning-making conversations with six purposively selected psychologists, with a minimum of five years‟ experience and at least one year having passed after the suicide of their patient. The data was analysed independently by the researcher and an independent coder using Tesch‟s open and descriptive method. The present study found that, following the suicide of their patient, the participants were propelled into a myriad of acutely distressing emotions. They often described a suffocating sense of responsibility for the suicide and the lingering presence of their patient. The participants experienced feelings of guilt and self-doubt, often questioning their own professional competence. The post-suicide process was described as being both a personally and professionally isolating event, due to the sense of having to carry the burden of the suicide alone for ethical reasons and fear of social stigmatisation. The participants appeared to grapple with the paradoxical dance between their personal emotional realities and what they perceived to be “clinically” or “professionally” acceptable. Having gone through the traumatic experience of losing a patient to suicide, most of the participants eventually found new wisdom, which helped them become wounded healers. Based on these findings, post-vention guidelines with practical actions were developed to assist psychologists in dealing with the suicide of their patient. Recommendations are made with regard to suicidology research, suicide education and psychologists‟ practice. / Psychology / M.A. (Clinical Psychology)