M.Cur. / Contemporary problems in the nursing education and concern that the current nursing curriculum apparently does not prepare the nursing student for the task of unit management, prompted this investigation. In an effort to evaluate the curriculum of unit management', the learning opportunities available to nursing students to gain management skills have been investigated. Anon-experimental method of investigation has been used. In the first place a questionnaire on unit managers to supervisors has been used to determine the extent to which certain management tasks are being performed by unit managers. Secondly, it was determined what learning opportunities are available to nursing students to gain management skills in practice. The investigation identified the following deficiencies in the curriculum: - goal orientated and planned teaching strategies are not being implemented for unit management and the management skills gained by the students are merely to perform incidental and relevant tasks; - there are no structural and planned evaluation techniques to measure management skills or to evaluate to which extent supervision takes place. In view of these deficiencies certain recommendations are made for the utilization of learning opportunities in the curriculum of unit management for nursing students.

M.Ed. (Educational Psychology) / The purpose of this study is to determine whether there are significant differences in leadership skills between successful and unsuccessful candidates in house committee elections as indicated by senior students and other house committee candidates. The study consists mainly of two parts. The first is a study of the literature discussing the concepts : leadership, leadership development and leadership skills. The concept of leadership from an educational psychological perspective will be associated with the concept of leadership development. In the second place, an empiric study is carried out in order to establish to what extent the six skills of the successful and unsuccessful candidates differ. From the data it will be established which skills are essential for the formulation of a leadership development programme. From the literature study it appears that it wasinitially believed that leadership required inborn qualities. The other two prominent approaches concentrated on the behaviour of the leader and the situation in which he and his followers find themselves. The contemporary viewpoint supports the fact that leadership can be developed through leadership skills. Two women's residences and two men's residences were selected as representative of the student population. At the 1990 house committee elections HC-candidates and other selected students at each of the four residences were required to evaluate each of the candidates in respect of leadership skills. The results obtained from the questionnaires have been processed by the way of the Hotelling Il-test technique. It was found that significant differences exist between successful and unsuccessful candidates in respect of the six leadership skills. It appears that these skills are more prominent with successful candidates than with unsuccessful candidates. The development of leadership skills should therefore be considered when a leadership development programme is formulated.

M.A. / From the conceptualisation of burnout in the 1970’s until present day, burnout has been recognised as a significant problem for both individuals and organisations. Although originally confined to the helping professions, the notion that burnout can also occur in university students has recently emerged. University students experience a myriad of stressors on a daily basis, and may develop burnout and several of the symptoms of burnout. This in turn may have deleterious consequences for both the student and the university. With the recently developed Maslach Burnout Inventory - Student Survey, the examination of burnout in university students has received increasingly more research attention. However, the psychometric properties of this instrument has received limited research attention in South Africa. The relationship between burnout and personality has also received limited attention, both internationally and in South Africa. The role of personality in burnout is considered pertinent to a complete conceptualisation of the antecedents to burnout. Recent research suggests that Neuroticism and Extroversion tend to consistently demonstrate a relationship with burnout. The present study aimed to explore the notion of burnout in university students in the South African context, relying on the three-factor structure definition of burnout as forwarded by Maslach and Jackson (1981). These three factors, namely emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation and reduced personal accomplishment were complemented with a fourth structure, namely professional inefficacy, as suggested by Bresó, Salanova and Schaufeli (2007) and Schaufeli and Salanova (2007).

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

Magister Artium (Psychology) - MA(Psych) / Neuropsychiatric disorders place a great burden on the South African healthcare system. This burden is compounded by the shortage of integral human resources such as mental health care staff. Directed Masters programmes in Psychology can address this shortage as it is the practicing degree to qualify as a psychologist and subsequently register as such with the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA). A small group of students are selected into Professional Masters programmes in Psychology each year, but not all students complete their studies as some are either terminated from the programme or choose to self-terminate. There is a lack of systematic exploration of the factors contributing to non-completion due to self termination. The study therefore aimed to explore the experiences of postgraduate students that chose to self-terminate their studies in a directed Masters programme in Psychology and to identify the factors that contributed to such a decision. The study was qualitative and explorative in nature. The sample consisted of four participants who were previously enrolled for a directed Masters programmes in Psychology offered at a historically disadvantaged university in the Western Cape. The Senate Research and Senate Higher Degrees Committees of UWC (Ethics Clearance and Project Registration Number: 15/4/44) granted permission to conduct the study. Relevant ethics principles including informed consent, voluntary participation, confidentiality, and anonymity were adhered to. Data was collected through programme records and semi-structured interviews. Interviews were transcribed and analysed by two researchers using thematic analysis. Data collection and analysis occurred simultaneously until saturation was reached. Trustworthiness of the findings was achieved through continuous interrogation of multiple readings of the data, reflexivity, and external auditing. Findings revealed numerous factors that incorporate personal, programmatic and contextual considerations as motivations to self-terminate from a postgraduate programme, thus pointing to the complexity of the decision-making process within a socially embedded reality. The factors influential in self-termination prior to enrollment include the participants' interest in psychological work, their prior work experience and a need for skills capacitation which served as their motives for enrollment. Upon entry into the programme the participants experienced a disparity between their expectations and the nature and requirements of the programme, which led to a lack of satisfaction with the course. Lack of satisfaction, along with academic, physical and emotional unpreparedness, uncertainty about study choice, and perceived competence were some of the obstacles to academic integration. The dissonance they experienced were further exacerbated during enrollment by other factors such as the availability of financial support, interpersonal dynamics within the cohort group, and personal belief systems. The participants were able to find meaning in the process of self-termination as it led to a heightened pursuit of the realisation of personal goals. Participants have subsequent to their experiences in the programme been using the knowledge that they have gained in both salaried and volunteer positions, thus continuing to contribute to the field of psychology.

Perceptions of the Host-National Peers in a Program Designed to Aid the Adjustment of International Students at the University of British Columbia Foreign students want and need social contact with people from the host country when they study abroad. The Counselling Psychology Department at the University of British Columbia has developed a peer program where Canadian students are paired with foreign students in an attempt to ease the feelings of loneliness and isolation which these foreign students often experience. This paper contains a review of related literature, a description of the peer program, an analysis of interviews with host-national participants and recommendations for improvements to the program. The literature review surveys the problems associated with foreign students on North American campuses, several theories of the adjustment process and programs designed to aid that adjustment. Some factors which help students adjust to a new environment are counselling and peer support. Host peers commented on how and why they became participants in the program. They revealed some of the problems associated with being a helping peer. The benefits they received from the program were many but they were able to identify several aspects of the program which could be changed to make the program more rewarding to themselves and to the foreign peers. / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate

This study was undertaken in the belief that students of psychology possess a significantly greater degree of empathic ability than do students of other college majors. The purpose of this study was to determine whether there is any significant difference in empathic ability between psychology students and business students as a group.

Previous research suggests there are a number of variables that are associated with the expression of schizotypal personality disorder (SPD) symptoms. Such variables include childhood trauma, depression and anxiety, substance use, normal-range personality traits, ethnicity, and gender. However, research to date has not examined all of these variables in a single study to determine how they may be interrelated or differentially related to SPD symptom domains. Of particular interest is the association of these variables as explained by the diathesis-stress model. This study utilized a convenience sample of 298 undergraduate students to examine a continuous range of scores for symptoms of SPD and how the interrelation of biological factors such as gender and ethnicity and psychosocial factors and stressors such as childhood trauma and personality traits, specifically neuroticism and extroversion, influence the expression of SPD symptoms. It was predicted that anxiety, depression, stress, and childhood trauma would positively correlate to SPD symptoms. It was also hypothesized that neuroticism and substance use would positively correlate to schizotypal traits and extroversion would be negatively correlated to schizotypal traits as measured by the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire-Brief. It was further hypothesized that psychosocial stressors would be moderated by the aforementioned biological factors.

No description available.

Are there personality characteristics statistically significant and of relatively large enough differences to make distinctions between talented achievers and underachievers? Would an identification of those personality characteristics be a necessary value to the institution of remedial procedures that might assist them in the realization of their maximal potential? What are the means by which a talented student is to be measured, aside from intellectual diagnostic procedures, that indicate this particular potential in certain areas or his ability to achieve in academic subjects by G.P.A. designation? The factors that produce achievement and underachievement are recognized in the light of success or failure in the peripheral structure encompassing the subject field itself. The achiever is an achiever only if he can meet the problems existing in the academic subject and solve them according to prescribed criteria. The underachiever, if he falls below the arbitrary standards set for the academic subject, is given a grade that evaluated his lack of performance only as it affects the actual involvement with extrinsic material. These evaluations offer no clues or information as to the specific personality characteristics that are part of the personality matrix of the talented achiever or underachiever that negate or stimulate students’ achieving or underachieving in an academic environment. The problem does not perforce exist in the academic sphere since the situation can be resolved by giving specific grade value to different performance levels. It does exist however, in the means by which certain conditions can be identified as residing in the student, and his social-interaction environment. This social-interaction environment intrudes the classroom as well as his relationships in the social milieu. Therefore, if achievement and underachievement are to have any dimensional values the forces that produce them must be understood not in the terms of a specific G.P.A. but in terms of acceptance or rejection of the procedures that would bring about these end results.