Thesis (MSocWk (Research)) - University of Queensland, 2003. / Includes bibliography.

This study explored the relationship between life events and central need schemas(i.e. basic assumptions about oneself and the world). The hypotheses tested were 1) people who have experienced traumatic stress will have more negative or disrupted schemas in areas of central need than those who haven't experienced traumatic stress, 2) the schemas of lesbian women, gay men, and bisexual men and women who have not experienced significant traumatic stress differ from those of heterosexual men and women who have not experienced significant traumatic stress, and 3) one's sexual identity is a variable in how one responds to traumatic stress. Results did not support the first or third hypotheses. However, support was found for the second hypothesis. Lack of support for two of the hypotheses is believed to be due to the specific data analysis used for the study A discussion of the results and suggestions for future research are then presented. / Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services

Thesis (MSD (Play Therapy))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references. Available on the Internet via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (D Phil (Counselling Psychology))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references. Available on the Internet via the World Wide Web.

D. Ed. / Trauma can be described as the emotional shock response to a physical or emotional injury that is overwhelming and has a lasting effect on a person. Based on this definition, trauma can be considered an integral part of life in South Africa. The consequences and effects of trauma are severe, both on individual and society levels. Nobody escapes the effects of trauma, but women and children are particularly vulnerable. Unfortunately the vast majority of South Africans have little or no access to mental health services. Some people, however, seem to be resilient in response to trauma and hardship. Although various definitions of resilience can be found in the literature, resilience is defined in this thesis as the ability and characteristics that enable a person to endure, recover from, and be strengthened to grow personally, regardless of exposure to traumatic life events. Women are generally the primary educators of children in the South African society, whether it be their own children, grandchildren or others. If South African women were equipped with skills that could enable them to deal more effectively with trauma, they would – as primary educators – naturally transfer their skills and knowledge to the children in their care. There exists a need for preventative interventions that may equip women to cope effectively with trauma. Certain educational interventions may provide avenues through which this may be achieved. Educational drama is one such avenue through which women of diverse educational, socio-economical, and cultural backgrounds may be reached in a comprehensible, accessible and non-discriminatory way. In this study a number of issues pertaining to the prevalence of resilience in South African women have been explored and described. The purpose of this study was to create an interactive educational play aimed at facilitating mental health in women exposed to traumatic life events.

Attentional bias effects for threat and emotional words were investigated, using both the emotional Stroop and emotional lexical decision paradigms. Twenty-eight controls and twenty-eight survivors of sexual assault participated in this study, which comprised three key comparisons. First, key predictions of the threat and emotionality hypotheses were compared, in particular specific and general threat effects, and positive and negative emotionality effects. Second, two separate group comparisons were conducted, specifically controls versus survivors of sexual assault overall, and a matched subset of controls versus PTSD positive survivors of sexual assault versus PTSD negative survivors of sexual assault. Third, performance on the emotional Stroop task and emotional lexical decision task paradigms were compared directly. Slowed colour naming responses (i.e. interference) were observed for both threat effects and emotionality effects in the emotional Stroop task. For the emotional lexical decision task, slowed lexical decisions (i.e. interference) were observed for threat effects, whereas speeded lexical decisions (i.e. facilitation) were observed for emotionality effects. The findings of the current study indicate that threat and emotionality effects may co-exist in both control and survivor populations. The relationship between the presence or absence of PTSD symptoms and threat and emotionality effects requires further investigation with larger sample sizes. There may be a relationship between the presence of PTSD symptoms and specific threat effects, however the findings of the current study for general threat information were inconclusive. No relationship was evident between the presence of absence of PTSD symptoms and positive or negative emotionality effects. The current findings suggest that the emotional Stroop task may be better suited to quantifying threat effects but not emotionality effects, whereas the emotional lexical decision task appears to be able to quantify both threat and emotionality effects.

Thesis (MPsy(Clinical))--University of South Australia, 2001.

Thesis (MA (Counselling Psychology))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references. Available on the Internet via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (D Phil (Psychotherapy))--University of Pretoria, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references. Available on the Internet via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of New South Wales, 2006. / "May 2006." Title taken from title screen (viewed October 25, 2007). Includes bibliographical references (p. 188-206) and appendices.