Stereotype threat or boost (STB) is a situational modifier of task performance that occurs when a group stereotype becomes relevant to the performance of a stereotype-relevant task. This dissertation aimed to re-imagine STB in light of social identity theory. Ten studies were undertaken that each manipulated status and either identifiability, conflict or permeability and explored the effects on the performance of the Ravens Advanced Progressive Matrices. Additional identity and socio-structural constructs were also measured and explored, including stability, legitimacy and ingroup identification. The results showed that STB is not simply “activated” or “deactivated” when stereotypes become relevant to task performance. On the contrary, the specific features of identity, the contextual features of the social environment in which the identity performance takes place, and the performer’s strategic engagement with their identity resources and liabilities are important features of how STB impacts on performance, and how it is sometimes resisted and overturned by experimental subjects. Indeed, performance was generally not predictable on the basis of stereotype activation until resistance to the negative or positive status manipulations were also accounted for. Although the STB literature is tightly focused on the case of negative stereotypes undermining performance, incongruent effects in which negative stereotypes enhance performance and positive stereotypes undermine it have also been reported. In the present studies incongruent STB effects were frequently observed. Underperformance in boost conditions was most consistently predicted by perceived intergroup conflict, while enhanced performance under threat was consistently predicted by perceived group boundary permeability. Additionally, underperformance in boost conditions was often a result of ‘slipstreaming’ rather than ‘choking under pressure,’ since participants were evidently counting on their generally secure identity in the experimental context to buffer poor performance on the experimental task. Improved performance in threat conditions was most likely when participants perceived themselves to be representatives of their group and when they believed that their improved performance would make a difference for their own reputation or the reputation of their group. These findings challenge the common image of the passive subject in the STB literature and, instead, suggest that STB effects are an outcome of situated identity performance. This model of STB effects understands task-performance in a specific performance context as an active and strategic expression of situated identity oriented not only to the social features of the performance context (as argued by most SIT theorists), but also to the their own reading of that context, their total identity liabilities and resources (including individual ability and alternative identities) and their strategic motivations in the context. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2011.

Neuropsychological deficits have been implicated in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) and there is some indication that cerebral efficiency is compromised in these patients. To further investigate the nature of this impairment, 20 patients who had received a medical diagnosis of CFS were neuropsychologically assessed and compared with age-, sex-, and education-matched controls (20 depressed and 20 healthy subjects). The test battery consisted of the Grooved Pegboard Trail Making Test, Symbol Digit Modalities Test, Auditory-Verbal Learning Test, Visual Design Learning Test, Controlled Oral Word Association Test and Paced Auditory Serial Addition Task. Additional measures included a CFS symptom checklist, SCL-90-R and Cognitive Failures Questionnaire (CFQ). Univariate statistical analysis revealed a significant difference between CFS patients and healthy individuals on only one measure; the "S" trial of the COWAT (F[2,59]=3.30, p <.05). This finding suggests the existence of subtle but detectable neuropsychological difficulty in executive or attentional mechanisms in CFS patients. Further analysis revealed that the observed finding could not be attributed to depression or medication side-effects. Although a trend of declining neuropsychological test performance was evident in moving across the spectrum of healthy, depressed, and CFS samples, this reached significance only for the CFS/depressed versus healthy comparison X22 [1] = 9.40, p < .05). The overall similarity of the neuropsychological profiles of CFS and depressed patients was noted, while an additional finding was the discrepancy between reported levels of subjective cognitive failure (CFQ) and objective neuropsychological findings in the CFS patients. The SCL-90-R profiles of the CFS and depressed patients were also found to be similar in terms of reported levels of psychological distress; however group discrimination was evident on two subscales (Somatization and Obsessive-Compulsive). Although the CFS and depressed controls did not differ with respect to levels of depression, there were some indications of a differential impact of depressive symptomatology on neuropsychological functioning. Taken together, the results of this study indicate that while subtle deficits are detectable in the neuropsychological profiles of CPS patients, the magnitude of impairment appears insufficient to significantly interfere with everyday cognitive functioning. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1997.

No abstract available. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal, 1985.

No abstract available. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Durban-Westville, 1987.

The study's findings support the hypothesis that Moffitt's taxonomy of life-course and adolescent-limited delinquents applies in a Black, developing, semi rural population in South Africa, using a qualitative life-story research design. While the research design did not allow for conclusive proof of early psychoneurological deficits, difficult temperament and conduct disorders, features in the infant and childhood phases of the life-course offender, support for Moffitt's taxonomy arose from many other sources. These were the earlier onset and more violent antisocial behaviour, poorer school performance and peer relationships, greater impulsivity, ineffective goal setting, retarded moral development and lower social esteem of the life-course, relative to the adolescent-limited, offender research groups. Group cognitive difference found by Moffitt did not emerge. Suggestions for a local South African pilot intervention based on Moffitt's principles were made. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2006.

This study utilised a qualitative interpretive approach to investigate the subjective experiences of six children with cerebral palsy who participated in a therapeutic horse riding intervention programme over a two-year period. Data was collected through a triangulation of methods and sources of data in the form of proxy reports from teachers, parents and therapists, and participant observations on my part. Research in the field of disability and rehabilitation remains largely ungrounded with respect to formalised theorising around concepts such as strengths, capabilities, and well-being. In attempting to address this gap, the nascent sub-discipline of positive psychology was identified as a field that holds significant research utility. Arguably, its keynote contribution entails directing researchers and practitioners in the field of disability and rehabilitation to the aim of building, reinforcing and extending disabled individuals' strengths in order to optimise their functioning. Consistent with existing work, this study found that the participants' lives were characterised by experiences of difference and marginalisation in relation to non-disabled individuals. More striking, however, was the finding that they were subject to experiences of difference and othering in relation to their disabled peers. This group dynamic seemed to be accounted for in terms of a hierarchy of similarities and differences with respect to their capabilities for communication and motor functioning. Further, the findings suggested that the participants tended to utilise their bodies, the site of their impairments, to engage with their environments and social others in their own idiosyncratic and agentic ways. By virtue of the tendency to negotiate and at times transcend their impaired physicalities, the participants were perceived as functionally autonomous, which worked to challenge prevailing stereotypes with regard to individuals with profound forms of physical disability. Importantly, such features impacted upon the degree and quality of their engagements with their physical and psychosocial environments in significant ways. In addition, in terms of the therapeutic riding activities engaged with during the course of this study, the participants came to experience their bodies as bodies that work. This seemed to have had positive implications for how they felt about their bodies and themselves. An enhanced sense of personal worth also tended to minimise their experiences of their bodies as impaired and dis-abled. In this way, their participation in therapeutic horse riding facilitated the children's experiences of themselves as more than disabled, thereby indicating the emancipatory potential of participating in this form of intervention. Moreover, it was noted that the limited body of existing, largely quantitatively oriented research in the field of therapeutic horse riding has often been methodologically wanting. As disconcerting was the noticeable absence of theorising around the mechanisms and processes by which therapeutic horse riding effected changes. It was therefore fitting to draw on theoretical frameworks within psychology to delineate possible mechanisms and processes by which participation in therapeutic horse riding could potentially effect subtle, meaningful shifts in the everyday functioning and psychological well-being of children with disabilities. This study contributed to existing research within the field of disability and rehabilitation through its efforts to yield "thick descriptions" and "thick interpretations" in combination with the theory-laden validation of findings around the everyday subjective experiences of children with disabilities. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2009.

No abstract available. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1989.

This research project aimed at exploring how masculinity is constructed and performed amongst young men who are students at University of KwaZulu Natal. This study was part of a larger SANPAD funded research project on South African masculinities. Seven participants between the ages of 18 and 25 were recruited from this institution; four Black, two White and one Coloured. Participants were given a disposable camera and were instructed to take photographs under the caption: “What is it like to be a young man in South Africa today”. A focus group discussion was conducted with the participants to explore constructions of masculinities based on the photographs they had taken. Photographs were analysed using content analysis and the focus group interview was analysed using thematic analysis. For the purpose of analysis, the 36 photographs were placed into 5 categories which were people, manmade objects, natural objects, animals and people and manmade objects. Content analysis revealed that the most common themes for the photographs were of cars, smoking, sports, drinking and women. Analysis of the themes from the focus group discussion revealed that the participants in the study had a clear understanding of how young men need to perform masculinity. In this regard they gave the following examples; young men play sport, young men drink, young men smoke, young men need to seek and attain success and respect, young men engage in heterosexual relationships, young men take responsibility, young men fight when the need arises and young men take initiative. The young men in this study drew on many strategies in constructing their masculinity, but mostly the strategies of hegemonic masculinity including compulsory heterosexuality, physical strength, violence and being a breadwinner. Race was an important factor in the construction of masculinity, particularly in sexuality and sport. Masculinity, it seems, is complex and is affirmed by other men. Young men who appear to have achieved a successful masculine identity amongst their peers are those who are successful financially and within the arena of sports, those men who are independent, reliable, strong and successful in their sexual prowess. These examples of the performance of masculinity echo the concepts of various masculinities, especially hegemonic masculinity. The findings of this study were examined from the perspective of various theories of masculinity, particularly the work of Connell. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2013.

The HIV and AIDS epidemic is having a devastating effect on the mental health of people living with HIV and AIDS (PL WHA), who join support groups to receive support and empowerment. However these support groups are often unstructured, sporadically attended and lacking in social cohesion. The purpose of this research was to design, implement and evaluate a psychological well-being intervention for PL WHA. The intervention was based on and measured with an objective psychological well-being scale, which included dimensions of autonomy, personal growth, environmental mastery, purpose in life, positive relations with others and self-acceptance. Following establishment of experimental and control groups, six-week interventions with weekly sessions were run during which participants took turns to lead group presentations on the improvement of a previously chosen component of psychological well-being. The six week interventions as well as individual sessions were pre and post-tested. Qualitative and quantitative evaluation revealed that participants generally found the psychological well-being intervention meaningful and valuable in its provision of knowledge, learning, understanding and empowerment. Further research with an extended intervention program, regular attendance, larger samples of participants, and comparative evaluations of physical, biological, social and environmental factors is needed in order to more clearly establish the effectiveness of psychological well-being interventions for PLWHA. / Thesis (M.A.) -- University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2004.

This study assessed the sexual attitudes and behaviours of the students at the University ofKwaZulu-Natal, Westville campus. The relationships between high risk sexual behaviour and sexual attitudes were explored. The sample was obtained from the second and third year psychology classes, and III questionnaires were analysed using a quantitative, correlational analysis. The findings indicate that the majority of the students are engaging in high risk sexual behaviour. These high risk behaviours were found to relate to more traditional attitudes towards rape myths and sexual coercion, as well as more traditional attitudes towards sexuality issues. These findings can be used to inform future research on the campus, as well as to "inform future intervention strategies. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2004