Thesis (MA (Psychology))--University of Stellenbosch, 2005. / The current study investigates intercultural differences in suggestibility between Black, Coloured and White students at a South African university using the Creative Imagination Scale (CIS), (Wilson & Barber, 1978). The CIS and a short biographical questionnaire measuring embeddedness in traditional culture were administered to three samples (N=20 each) from students belonging to the above cultural groups. Statistical tests were applied to determine the effects of ethnicity, cultural embeddedness and gender on CIS scores. The results indicate that these three dimensions do not significantly impact on CIS scores. Implications of the results obtained are discussed and ensuing recommendations for future related research are made.

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2014. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Scientific research that focuses on South African females’ success in engineering is limited. The South African engineering workforce and universities have been encountering challenges in attracting and retaining as many females as possible in these fields. This research assignment seeks to advance the understanding of challenges and reasons that contribute to most female learners shying away from engineering studies at tertiary level. To achieve this, Grade 11 and Grade 12 Mathematics and Physical Science female learners from six different schools, which are in a single educational circuit, were observed and interviewed. Mathematics and Physical Science are the two subjects which are prerequisites for engineering studies at any South African higher education institution. For this reason the research focused on female learners who were studying both these subjects. This study also includes a literature review of factors affecting South African women engineers in the labour market. This includes the factors that females around the world consider before choosing a career and the reasons why females stay in their chosen careers. The findings highlight a number of variables that contribute to females’ underrepresentation in engineering. These variables include societal expectations, perceptions of females in careers that are historically male dominated, the quality of education that female learners receive at school, female learners’ performance in Mathematics and Physical Science, guardians’ support of careers chosen by female learners, learners’ knowledge of the various career streams, the use of home language in teaching subjects assessed in English, family responsibilities, and university admission requirements for engineering. Suggestions on how some of these challenges can be mitigated have been highlighted in this research assignment. The main points are:  The need for career guidance workshops and companies’ exhibitions to be taken to the students’ schools where attention can be given to the students of one school at a time and companies can facilitate discussions with learners about the types of work that their companies offer.  Encouraging and advocating for greater parental involvement in the students’ studies as this can reduce the number of students who do not study on a regular basis.  Offering of teaching employment to candidates who fully meet the requirements for the positions they are applying for especially for core subjects like English, Maths, and Science.  Adding engineering faculties to the two universities in the Limpopo Province and giving bursaries or financial aid to help school girls who want to study engineering at university  Teaching school girls time management skills from an early age so as to help them know how to balance the time they spend on each subject. Further details on how some of these suggestions can be achieved are discussed in the last chapter of this research report.

This thesis is a study of patterns of language attitudes and use among Xhosa home language speakers at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa. Speakers of Xhosa, according to Statistics South Africa 2000, form the second largest speech community in South Africa (17.9% of the total population), second only to speakers of Zulu (22.9% of the total population). The University of the Western Cape, which is situated just outside Cape Town, was originally intended to serve only the Coloured (mixed-race) population of South Africa. Coloureds form the majority group in the population of the Western Cape, one of the nine provinces of South Africa. In 1982, the university took the bold step of defying the apartheid regime, by opening its doors to students of all races. Students from all over South Africa now attend the university, but Xhosa students, drawn mainly from the provinces of the Eastern and Western Cape, form the largest language group or speech community on the campus. The thesis presents a study of the patterns of language attitudes and use with which Xhosa students enter the university, as well as patterns of change in language attitudes and use revealed by a longitudinal study of a smaller group of Xhosa students.

M. Tech. Business Administration / The study of perceptions on nuclear energy programmes in South Africa was aimed at a small population of students with special focus on first-year students studying in UJ, in any field of study. Quantitative data was collected using a questionnaire. Descriptive analysis was done. The perceptions were directed towards nuclear energy programmes thus determining the causes or reasons behind their perceptions and recommend r aspects to be considered as corrective measures, to combat the perceptions. These include educating the public about nuclear energy, involving the public and allowing their participation at an early stage and using better communication platforms for nuclear related public communication.

M.Ed. (Psychology of Education) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

M.Ed. (Psychology of Education) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

M.Ed. / Please refer to full text to view abstract

M.Cur. (Professional Nursing Science) / Career planning of learner nurses, has been identified as an important tool to improve the retention of nurses in the health care system (Department of Health, 2008:12). First year learner nurses leave the nursing profession because they experience dissatisfaction in nursing as the career of choice. Miller and Marvin [ca 2008] state that career planning leads to greater ownership of work roles, taking initiative, and ongoing professional development. People involved in career planning are better collaborators, more likely to get along with their co-workers and supervisors, and more likely stay in and add value to the organization. Little has been done to improve career orientation of nurses, which has been identified as an important tool to improve nursing in the health care system (Department of Health, 2008:12). After six months of training, first year learner nurses starts to leave the nursing profession because they experience dissatisfaction in nursing as the career of choice. This problem is assigned to a lack of career orientation at nursing training colleges. It was unclear how first year learner nurses experience nursing as a career of choice, after having been exposed to the academic environment and nursing practice setting for six months in nursing. The central statement of the study was that learner nurses after entering nursing as a career of choice could be orientated on career planning that requires a career plan with guidelines or actions to be followed during their first year of nursing. The purpose of this study was to explore and describe the lived experiences of first year learner nurses on nursing as a career of choice with the intention of describing guidelines on career planning for learner nurses at a nursing college in the Johannesburg Region. Purposive sampling was used and all (52) first year learner nurses who have been in training for more than six months at a nursing college were selected as a target population. .Interviewing by means of narrative story writing, in-depth individual unstructured questioning of the participants, focus group interviews was conducted until saturation of data was achieved.

M.Ed. / The problem of truancy is causing a great deal of concern for the communities, for the state, for the family and for the school. The number of students who deliberately stay away from school on certain occasions is on the increase. The fact that absenteeism and truancy have become significant predictors of problem behaviour, troublesomeness and sometimes delinquency in secondary schools, makes it even more vital that the problem of truancy needs to be addressed with the urgency that it deserves. Up to now, very little is known about the contribution made by the curriculum content towards truancy. The structure of the curriculum, methods of instruction, the timetable, examination pressures and extramural activities are some of the possible causes of truancy. School rules, teacher attitude and teacher expectations are also among some of the contributing factors to absenteeism. The purpose of this research, therefore, is to attempt to find out if the curriculum content plays any part in curbing the problem of truancy, and to ascertain if there is a possible contribution of the curriculum content towards truancy. It is also one of the fundamental aims of this survey to learn more about the value orientations of children who do not attend school regularly and to establish curriculum changes that might be needed to alleviate the problem of truancy. In order to investigate the possible contributions made by the curriculum content, and the perceptions of black truants of their schooling, a two-part methodology was devised. In the first place, a questionnaire was formulated and a pilot study was conducted at a school that was not part of the target group. A survey was subsequently carried out at three Mamelodi high schools. The data from the questionnaire were analysed using the first and second order factor analyses, and even a discriminate analysis was applied on the data. The following format has been used in the presentation of the results. First, the findings from the literature study are discussed, and then results obtained from the empirical study are also outlined. From the literature study it was found that the content of the curriculum does not satisfy the needs of the individual student and can therefore lead to truancy. The schools' system such as school rules, timetables, language and methods of instruction sometimes demotivate students from attending school regularly. Teachers and family members also play a role in discouraging students from seeing any value in attending school. The following statistically significant differences were found after the analysis of the respondents' estimates of the applicability of the statements in the literature study as reflected in the questionnaire. If students had a choice, more truants than non-truants would stay away from school. More truants find school and school activities less interesting and most do not know what they want to do with their lives after completing school. More truants than nontruants find school irrelevant and school subjects less important and of less value to their future aspirations. It is against this background that one can conclude that indeed the school curriculum content does not help much in curbing the problem of truancy.

This study explores high-performing male psychology students’ narratives of identity. The rationale for undertaking this study is that men presently represent a shrinking minority within the academic and professional practice of psychology in South Africa. While much quantitative research has noted gendered trends within the field, there remains a paucity of qualitative data on these men’s thoughts and experiences within the South African context. A narrative research design, underpinned by an interpretative phenomenological epistemology, was employed to explore this topic in a participant-led manner. The unique life stories of the six male participants, recruited from third-year, honours and masters psychology courses, were explored through an open-ended narrative interview that was later followed by a semi-structured interview. Both interviews were audio-recorded and the interview transcripts were subjected to a two stage inductive thematic analysis in which emergent themes were interrogated both for each participant and between participants. The first round of data analysis yielded thirty thematic codes according to which these participants’ narratives of identity could be interpreted and during the second stage of analysis these codes were clustered into six master themes which were mapped onto the secondary research questions informing this study. Thematic analysis revealed: (1) active efforts by the participants to defy hegemonic gender norms and (re)define masculinity through engagement in what is traditionally defined as “women’s work” in their adoption of a care-giver role by providing emotional support to others while also attempting to redefine psychology as a profession that is not exclusively feminine. (2) These participants reported selecting their career option on the basis of passion as opposed to pragmatics by valuing their desire to engage in this field over hegemonic concerns with prestige and earning-potential. However, such considerations were peripheral rather than absent in their narratives. (3) Consistent with previous findings, these men all reported experiencing life struggles as a route to developing empathy and therefore exhibited elements of the wounded-healer model. (4) Those men who are pursuing careers neuropsychology and industrial psychology showed an interest in humanity (scientists) fostered by feelings of difference while those in therapeutic orientations report developing a desire to help (helpers) based on experiences of marginalisation. While the participants differed as to whether they were more inclined towards the more traditionally masculine values of science or the more traditionally feminine values of care, they all reported a desire to both help and understand as professional psychologists. (5) While diversity and difference were reported by these men to contribute to an enhanced sense of empathy and social interest, they mentioned such a sense of difference having developed from the experience of early geographic movement and exposure to multiple cultures. This seems to have fostered a keen social awareness that contributed to a growing interest in the different lifestyles that people and communities enjoy which they now study and work with as aspiring psychologists. (6) Furthermore, their dynamic and changing world is suggested to have garnered a love of variety and iterative sense of self which has permitted continuing development in professional psychology as they report finding the personal growth and development endemic to the field to be an important part of how they understand themselves. Findings of the research which may broadly map directions for future research include a lack of conflation by these men of sexual orientation and masculinity suggesting that homosexuality is not necessarily understood as a contravention of masculine norms not suggested by previous research findings. Importantly, while feelings of difference were explored in this study, race was a shared silence during the interviews and further investigation into the experiences of black men aspiring to become male psychologists in the South African context is considered vital to enhancing our understanding of the diverse body of professionals in South African psychology.