<p>This research study employs a strengths perspective. This means that, instead of the traditional deficits or pathology-based approach of focusing on weaknesses, the focus is on positive outcomes. Fortitude, more specifically, is the strength gained from appraising oneself, one&rsquo / s family, and one&rsquo / s social support, in a positive manner. This strength equips people to cope successfully in stressful situations. Fortitude as a construct in the strengths perspective promises to give insight into student success because it takes more than one level of analysis into account. The current research study investigates whether there is a link between fortitude and academic achievement in first year students at the University of the Western Cape.</p>

The Trappan Model is one of the most implemented treatment programs for children who have experienced domestic violence. This study undertakes a wider evaluation of the model through a pilot study. The approach is both quantitive and qualitative. Theory as well as the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire have been used to fulfil the aim. The design is pre-post. The respondents are thirteen children who have undergone Trappan treatment programs in Uppsala during 2007. Pre-tests and comparison groups have been used to ascertain the psychological, emotional and behavioural health of the children prior to treatment. It is evident that the children have fewer peer relationships than other children before treatment, positive changes have occurred after treatment regarding the active social development of the children.

Many homeless youth come from foster homes, group homes, and other forms of substitute care. For young people in the child welfare system, elopement represents a major problem as it places them at risk for a number of troubling outcomes. Three studies were undertaken examining elopement among young people living in substitute care in Canada and the United States. The first study explored strengths and needs in a sample of 5,011 children and youth housed in a variety of substitute care settings including foster homes, group homes, residential treatment centres, emergency shelters, and juvenile justice facilities. Results indicated that needs, but not strengths, predicted running among children, while both needs and strengths predicted running among adolescents. Problems with school attendance, substance abuse, and delinquency also predicted running among both children and adolescents, with the exception of young children, for whom substance abuse was not a significant predictor. The second study explored the relationship between trauma, strengths, and elopement in a sample of 2,296 adolescents living in substitute care. Sexual abuse, physical abuse, school violence, and traumatic grief/separation were found to predict elopement. In addition, family violence and community violence predicted running among younger but not older adolescents. Educational strengths predicted a lower risk of running away for all adolescents, while well-being and relationship permanence predicted a lower risk of running among younger and older adolescents, respectively. The impact of strengths on the relationship between trauma and elopement was evaluated, with results suggesting that elopement was not predicted by an interaction between strengths and trauma. The third study was qualitative in nature and explored the perspectives of youth who had run away from substitute care at least once in their lifetime. Youth provided information about their experiences as well as suggestions designed to reduce the prevalence of running away among youth in substitute care. Findings for all three studies were discussed in relation to the literature with implications for research and prevention.

Im Rahmen der vorliegenden Arbeit wurden von Juli bis Oktober 2008 alle auf allgemeinpädiatrischen Stationen der Krankenhäuser Wurzen, Borna und Torgau behandelten Kinder und Jugendliche im Alter von 3 bis 16 Jahren mittels Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ, Goodman 1997) untersucht. Anhand der Elternfrage-bögen (n=414) wurden insgesamt 11,8% (95%KI: 8,7-14,9) der beurteilten Patientinnen und Patienten als psychisch auffällig und weitere 10,4% (95%KI: 7,5-13,3) als grenz-wertig eingestuft. Somit lag der Gesamtanteil psychischer Auffälligkeiten in der pädiatrischen Inanspruchnahmepopulation signifikant über dem der Allgemein-bevölkerung (gemessen im Kinder- und Jugendgesundheitssurvey, Robert- Koch-Institut, KiGGS-Studie 2003-2006). Durch den zusätzlichen Einsatz eines fallbezogenen standardisierten Personalfragebogens konnte erfasst werden, dass das Pflegepersonal bei 31,6%, die behandelnden Ärztinnen und Ärzte bei 15,6% aller Patientinnen und Patienten psychische Symptome wahrnahmen. Der konkrete Bedarf an kinder- und jugendpsychiatrischen Konsilen lag bei 12,4%. Die Expertenangaben aus den ergänzend durchgeführten strukturierten Interviews verdeutlichten die Notwendigkeit einer Intensivierung der Kooperation zwischen Pädiatrie und Kinder- und Jugendpsychiatrie und belegten gemeinsam mit den Fragebogenergebnissen den Bedarf frühzeitiger kinder- und jugendpsychiatrischer Interventionen.

Personality traits have been used extensively over the past forty years in assessing leadership potential, with varying degrees of success. A major limitation of this research has been the measures of personality. Another important limitation has been the availability of quantifiable measures of leader effectiveness. A third limitation is the lack of longitudinal studies. Because of these limitations, researchers have had difficulty determining the strength of personality traits as predictors of leadership effectiveness over time. Recent studies have used the Five Factor Model of personality to predict leadership effectiveness (e.g., Hogan, Curphy, & Hogan, 1994; Judge, Bono, Ilies, & Gerhardt, 2002; McCormack & Mellor, 2002); and researchers in positive psychology (e.g., Seligman, Steen, Park, & Peterson, 2005; Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000) have suggested that character strength and virtues (i.e., courage, temperance, and transcendence) might also offer an approach useful in predicting leadership success. This research builds on these approaches and examined two trait-based instruments, the Big Five instrument (NEO-PI-R) and the Values in Action Inventory of Strength (VIA-IS) instrument as they relate to leader effectiveness. Using undergraduates at the United States Military Academy as participants, the research examines the relationship and efficacy of the NEO-PI-R and the VIA-IS in predicting leadership effectiveness over a two and a half year study. Regression analysis demonstrated that conscientiousness was the most significant predictor of leadership effectiveness. However, latent growth curve analysis suggests that there are three distinct patterns of leadership effectiveness. Using mixture modeling, these trajectories are best explained by the personality factors and virtue variables of extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness and temperance. The findings of this study have broad implications for emergent leader selection, leader development programs, and executive coaching in organizations. / Dissertation

A quantitative research study was conducted with teenagers attending Bandina Christian Youth Camp for one week in the summer of 2008. Students were divided into two groups; a control group and an intervention group. All participants were given a Self- Reflective Survey immediately prior to and following the week of summer camp. In addition to the pre- and post- Self-Reflective Surveys, the intervention group was required to complete Gallup's StrengthsQuest assessment (to determine his/her five greatest strengths) and e-mail those findings to this researcher before the first camp session. Once at camp, the intervention group participated in a five day Faith Based Strengths Training class one hour a day. The intervention group recognized and identified all 34 strengths, learned the uniqueness of his/her top five strengths, identified and related to famous individuals and their strengths and explored optimal career fields that best correlated to the participants' top five strengths. Strengths Training proved to be an effective tool in changing the intervention group's self confidence, sense of direction and his or her personal desire to learn more about Strengths collectively with a .03 p at an alpha level of .05. Youth based national organizations such as Boys & Girls Club, Boys Scouts, Girl Scouts, 4-H, Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) and others could greatly enhance their programs by incorporating Strengths Training into their curriculum, as Strengths Training builds on the development of core values, positive self image and character development that all of these national organizations strive to provide the youth of today. The summer camp experience offers a distinct opportunity for learning and exploration. This unique educational atmosphere sets up a positive cognitive environment where youth are typically more receptive to learning new concepts and ideas. The intervention group outcomes for this quantitative research study resulted in a positive outcome with only five hours of training. This infers a positive impact to not only the Y generation, but future generations to come and raises the need for more research in how these youth based national organizations can not only implement Strengths Training into their existing programs but network Strengths Training.

Over a long time psychology was focusing on human frailties and mental diseases. In 1998, positive psychology was introduced - the scientific study of strengths, well-being and optimal functioning. Theory and research in the area has identified 24 character strengths, in which each individual owns and celebrates a number of top strengths, signature strengths. These strengths have been shown to be important in achieving happiness and well-being. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between character strength and psychological well-being, job satisfaction, harmonious- and obsessive passion and stress. The results showed that wisdom, kindness, social intelligence, curiosity, hope, creativity, spirituality and love was positively correlated with psychological well-being. Few strengths correlated with job satisfaction and harmonious passion. No strengths were significantly correlated with obsessive passion. The results from the study provide little support for the theory. Some support was found for the relationship between character strengths and psychological well-being. It seems like character strengths are not important for job satisfaction, harmonious passion, obsessive passion and stress. An explanation for the few correlations, can be that this research examined each of the 24 character strengths compared with previous research that has investigated the use of individual signature strengths. More basic research is needed to confirm the theory. / Efter psykologins långa period av fokusering på mänskliga svagheter och psykiska sjukdomar, introducerades år 1998 positiv psykologi - den vetenskapliga studien av styrkor, välmående och optimal funktion. Teori och forskning inom området har identifierat 24 olika karaktärsstyrkor, av vilka varje individ besitter ett antal toppstyrkor, signaturstyrkor. Dessa styrkor har visat sig vara viktiga för att uppnå lycka och välbefinnande. Syftet med studien var att undersöka karaktärsstyrkors relation till psykologiskt välbefinnande, arbetstillfredsställelse, harmonisk- respektive tvångsmässig passion och stress. Resultatet visade att styrkorna vishet, vänlighet, social intelligens, nyfikenhet, hopp, kreativitet, andlighet och kärlek var positivt korrelerade med psykologiskt välbefinnande. Få styrkor var korrelerade med arbetstillfredsställelse och harmonisk passion. Inga styrkor var signifikant korrelerade med tvångsmässig passion. Studiens resultat ger lite stöd åt teorin. Ett visst stöd hittades för kopplingen mellan karaktärsstyrkor och psykologiskt välbefinnande. Karaktärsstyrkor verkar inte vara betydande för arbetstillfredsställelse, harmonisk- respektive tvångsmässig passion och stress. En förklaring till de få korrelationerna som uppkom, kan vara att studien undersökte var och en av de 24 karaktärsstyrkorna jämfört med tidigare forskning som har undersökt en användning av individuella signaturstyrkor. Mer grundläggande forskning är därför i behov av att utföras för att bekräfta teorin.

Adequate assessment of the needs of HIV-positive individuals in the South African context is essential, as it may provide insight concerning limitations in healthcare. This study focuses on the subjective experience of nine HIV-positive individuals, in order (a) to investigate their needs; (b) to gain knowledge and understanding of the strengths available to them; (c) to investigate their coping strategies; and (d) to generate a set of guidelines for the development of a secondary prevention programme to improve their psychological well-being and immune functioning. This article employs a qualitative research method, utilising hermeneutic thematic analysis to gain a greater understanding of the subjective psychological functioning of HIV-positive individuals in the South African multicultural context. To a great extent, this research focuses on the salutogenic/fortigenic perspective, where the focus is on strengths, capacities and emotional/psychological well-being. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine asymptomatic HIV-positive individuals. The needs identified during this study involved the psychological, economical, informational and social categories. The strengths available to HIV-positive individuals in order to make sense or construct meaning in their lives, consisted of four themes, namely internal, social, self-regulative and spiritual strengths. The study further indicates that the psychological strengths utilised by HIV-positive individuals are closely related to the concept of meaningfulness, the mechanisms of coping and psychological resilience. A broad range of coping strategies was identified that participants employed in the management of the disease and in dealing with the negative emotions associated with an HIV-positive diagnosis. These strategies could be conceptually grouped into five categories based on the functions these strategies served, namely self-management coping strategies, cognitive coping strategies, social support coping strategies, religious coping strategies, and avoidance coping strategies. The implications of this study are that the various identified concepts related to needs, strengths and coping strategies, may contribute to the development of a secondary prevention programme, in order to improve HIV-positive individuals' psychological well-being and immune functioning. The concept of "Sense of Coherence" which consists of three elements, namely Comprehensibility, Manageability and Meaningfulness, could be successfully incorporated into an intervention programme in order to achieve a positive redefinition of participants' subjective feeling that life is meaningful, as well as to improve their comprehensibility and manageability of their illness. / Thesis (M.Sc.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2004.

Farm dwellers in the North West Province have been identified as an extremely vulnerable group. in terms of physical, physiological and mental health. Therefore the North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus (Focus Area 9.1) launched the FLAGH study with the broad aim of gaining reliable information on the reasons for and contributing factors to their poor health status, which could be used to design appropriate intervention programmes. The research formed part of this multidisciplinary study and focused on farm dwellers' experience of the farm as the environment in which they live and work. While a great deal is already known about the psychological strengths of people that protect them against psychological malfunctioning, far less is known about environmental elements protecting people against adversity. From a social work perspective it is a long-cherished conviction that individual outcomes are the results of a transactional process between personal and environmental influences. However, it is also a conviction that is often not reflected in social work practice. Strength-based assessment models are, for example, overwhelmingly concerned with individual human factors, while practice guidelines and specific practice knowledge about environmental factors are lagging behind. This situation consequently pointed to the need for further theoretical and empirical research. The concept of social niche was identified as a possible framework for organising strengths and risks as experienced by a specific group within a specific context (in this case people living on farms). Against this background a research need was identified to develop an approach to assess environmental strengths and risks. This was done by means of a literature study and an empirical investigation. The strengths perspective and the concept of social niche are described and evaluated as a paradigm and theoretical construct (or perspective) for developing an approach to assess environmental strengths and risks. It is concluded that, from the strengths perspective, an environment can be considered strong when it consists of human beings who are connected to their innate strengths and capacity for healing, where there is community, membership, mutuality and connection among people and the environment, and people who experience the environment as strong and contribute to creating a strong environment. From the social niche perspective, an optimal niche refers to conditions and resources that would enable people to function at the best possible level, while a realised niche refers to the more limited spectrum of conditions and resources which allows people to survive. These niche types have enabling and entrapping elements to a greater or lesser degree. It was found that the social niche concept does provide a theoretical approach to assessing the environment in terms of strengths and risks and gives better insight into the result of the transactional process between person and environment. It was also found that the niche construct does not fully reflect the assumptions of the strengths perspective in terms of mainly two points: (1) the belief in the inherent strengths and capacity for healing of people (human agency), and (2) understanding reality as it is subjectively constructed. Based on this evaluation, it was thus endeavoured to broaden both the description of social niche, based on a critical evaluation of the ecological analogy, and to reflect more fully the strengths perspective. A revised definition of social niche is proposed and each of the niche components presented in the definition are discussed, evaluated and in some instances broadened, as indicated earlier. Farm dwellers' experience of their environment is explored and described, following a qualitative approach in order to promote an understanding of their specific experience from their own viewpoint. The social niche is used, in addition, as a tentative conceptual framework to describe the main dimensions of their experience. Analysis of the farm dwellers' narratives produced six categories (each with several sub-categories), namely: employment (unhealthy working conditions for men, employment security threatened, grievance procedures unsatisfactory, limited work opportunities and underemployment of women); income and spending (inadequate income and high cost of living, debt trap, a longing for the former practice of 'mahala', and supplementing income); housing (housing security threatened, and availability and access to housing outside the neighbourhood a concern); transportation (distance, means of transport and cost involved are major considerations); community life (the importance of family and friends, lack of connection between residents, community life in the past being better, and ambivalence about the employer as support system); and people, places and services outside the immediate farm environment (importance of extended family, church as a source of strength, and health services a link with the outside world). It is concluded that numerous entrapping elements are present in the account of farm dwellers of their life on the farm, namely a lack of tangible resources, a lack of social resources and a low sense of power. The entrapping nature of farm dwellers' social niche, however, can not only be understood in terms of lack of social and tangible resources. The experiences and the meanings the farm dwellers attach to their environment provide the key to a better understanding of the living experiences of farm dwellers and the entrapment contained in their narratives. However, it also reveals their experience of a few enabling elements within this environment. Based on the critical analysis of viewing the environment from a strengths perspective, the evaluation and broadening of the concept of social niche, and findings from the fieldwork done with farm dwellers, a social niche approach for assessing environmental strengths and risks is proposed. The goal of the social niche assessment approach is to provide a framework to review people's environmental strengths and risks/stressors, based on their own experience and understanding, in collaboration with another person (social worker), so as to co-construct a description of their human environment. A diagram and description of the approach is provided. This approach has already been validated through peer evaluation. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Social Work))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2004.

The aim of this study was to explore the validity of the Values in Action Inventory of Strengths (VIA-IS) in an African context. This 240-item self-report questionnaire that measures 24 character strengths (Peterson & Seligrnan, 2004), was developed in a western individualistic context, and it cannot be assumed to be valid in African contexts without prior scientific evaluation. The current study, a first step in the evaluation of its validity in an African context, focussed on psychometric properties such as reliability, mean scores and variance, criterion-related validity, confirmatory and exploratory factor analyses, as well as translatability. In a cross-sectional survey design an availability sample of African students (N=256) completed the original English version of the VIA-IS and other criterion-related measures of psychological well-being and health, during facilitated group sessions. The latter scales were the Affectometer 2 (Kammann & Flett, 1983), the Fortitude Questionnaire (Pretorius, 1998), the Sense of Coherence Scale (Antonovsky, 1987), the Satisfaction with Life Scale (Diener, et al. 1985), and the General Health Questionnaire (Goldberg & Hillier, 1979). Translation of the VIA-IS into Setswana and back-translation were conducted and evaluated by a research evaluation committee. Results indicated that mean scores of the VIA-IS subscales are relatively aligned with those in a western context. Twenty of the twenty-four VIA-subscales showed satisfactory Cronbach alphas reliability indices above .70. The VIA-IS satisfies criterion-related validity as indicated by positive correlation with life satisfaction, positive affect, fortitude and sense of coherence, and negative correlation with negative affect and symptoms of ill-health. The VIA-IS was found to be translatable with preservation of original meaning, but in some instances technical terms had to be borrowed. Second order confirmatory and exploratory principal component factor analyses on the 24 strengths yielded three significant factors, and not six as theoretically expected, in this African group. The three emic virtue clusters are 1) Wisdom, knowledge and courage, 2) Horizontal and vertical relatedness and 3) Integrity in a group context: temperance and justice. This clustering of virtues reflects a socio-centric, collectivistic African cultural value system. It is concluded that the VIA-IS may have merit in an African context, but is not completely valid in its original form with its hypothesised six value clusters. With modifications and adaptations a more valid version may be developed for an African context. Studies on randomly selected, larger African samples are recommended. / Thesis (M.Sc. (Clinical Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2005.