Thesis (MA(Practical Theology))--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 114-116).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Duquesne University, 2004. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on Mar. 31, 2005). Abstract included in electronic submission form. Includes bibliographical references (p. 223-239) and abstract.

Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)--University of Waikato, 2008. / Title from PDF cover (viewed March 9, 2009) Includes bibliographical references (p. 82-84)

Thesis (Ph.D.) - Carleton University, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 236-259). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis (D.Phil (Psychology))--University of Pretoria, 2005. / Includes abstract in English and Afrikaans. Includes bibliographical references.

O tema desenvolvido guarda pertinência com a denúncia unilateral do contrato, a qual só deve produzir efeitos depois de transcorrido prazo compatível com eventuais investimentos consideráveis realizados pela contraparte, a teor do art. 473, par. ún., do Código Civil. Sendo assim, a pesquisa foi iniciada com premissas teóricas atinentes à liberdade contratual e suas vicissitudes em distintos momentos históricos. Esclarecido que a liberdade contratual deve ser sopesada com a intervenção Estatal para otimizar o desenvolvimento econômico e o bem-estar social, o trabalho demonstra, inicialmente, a coerência da mencionada norma em meio ao paradigma contemporâneo dominante. Em seguida, foram apresentadas reflexões para explicar a finalidade da inserção do dispositivo legal no ordenamento positivo. Com intuito de vedar o abuso de poder econômico, a norma foi introduzida especificamente para coibir o exercício abusivo do direito de resilição. Sendo este o escopo da norma, a primeira parte do trabalho ofereceu subsídios para justificar porque cabe ao juiz impor a prorrogação contratual, quando o denunciante não respeitar prazos compatíveis com os investimentos empreendidos pela outra parte. Já quanto à segunda parte, foram lançadas elucubrações sobre os distintos aspectos das relações contratuais duradouras. Nesse ponto, foram apontadas importantes contribuições doutrinárias a respeito da influência do aspecto temporal sobre as relações contínuas e, ainda, perspectivas da análise econômica do direito, além da abordagem relacional do contrato. Restando elucidado que a prorrogação do contrato pode (e deve) ser imposta pelo intérprete, na última e terceira parte deste trabalho, é proposta uma interpretação sistemática e axiológica da norma do art. 473, par. ún., do Código Civil. / The subject developed concerns the unilateral termination of the contract, which shall only take effect after certain length compatible with sizeable investments made by the counterparty, as set forth in Article 473, sole paragraph, of the Civil Code. Therefore, the research began with theoretical premises regarding the contractual freedom and its variations in different historical moments. Once clarified that the contractual freedom must be counterbalanced by governmental intervention in order to optimize economic development and social well-being, the study initially demonstrates the consistency of the aforesaid rule in the midst of the currently reigning paradigm. In addition, some reflections were presented to explain the purpose of the insertion of the provision in the written body of laws. Seeking to prevent the abuse of economic power, the ruling was created specifically to diminish abusive use of the right to terminate. Given the scope of the provision, the first part of the paper sustained why should the judge extent the length of the notice when the terminating party fails to comply with a compatible term taken into account the investments carried out by the other party. As for the second part, there are musings about different aspects of long-term contracts. Important contributions from legal doctrine were pointed out concerning the influence of time on long-term relationships, and furthermore on perspectives of the economic analysis of Law, besides the relational approach to the contract. As it becomes plain that the extension of a contract may be, or rather ought to be, imposed by the judge, on the third and last part of the dissertation, it is proposed a systematic and axiological interpretation of the ruling set forth by Article 473, sole paragraph, of the Civil Code.

M.A. / Spousal abuse has been a practiced for decades across many cultures. According to the Domestic Violence Act, 1998 of S.A. spousal abuse consists of physical, sexual, emotional verbal psychological and economic abuse as well as various forms of intimidation by a spouse. Abuse against women and children seems to be entrenched in gender power equalities and hierarchical gender relations prevalent in society. The advent of feminism, that deals with issues of inequality between the genders, in the nineteenth century highlighted the problem of spousal abuse and challenged cultural and patriarchal notions of women. In South Africa spousal abuse is alarmingly prevalent and deeply ingrained within our society and is often viewed as a normative rather than a deviant practice. The legacy of political repression, a declining economy and diminishing job opportunities, insufficient educational opportunities and racial and ethnic divisions, has for decades generated deep rooted divisions in our society. Women in particular are the historically the victims of political and economic exclusion and have suffered the ravages of patriarchy, sexism and discriminatory practices that have kept them outside of social, political and economic power structures. In this process, abuse against women has been subtly sanctioned by society. This reflects the extent to which exploitation and abuse, in varying forms, have come to pervade the very foundations of our society and have become a socially sanctioned instrument for resolving conflict and promoting change. Because of the continued cultural sanctioning of spousal abuse it is often underreported, making statistics on the subject extremely difficult to obtain. The present study explored the women’s endogenous factors that contributed to the maintenance of their abusive spousal relationship. In essence these factors refer to the thoughts, feelings and beliefs which are significant in the experience of being in an abusive relationship. The study further looked at how these endogenous factors entrap women in abusive relationships. In order to contextualise the experience of being in an abusive spousal relationship the literature review (which makes up the first four chapters 2 of this study) concentrated on several different areas. The first chapter addresses the aims and motivations of the present study. The second chapter deals with established theories and thoughts about the existence of spousal abuse in relationships. Theoretical explanations highlighting some of the endogenous maintaining factors in an abusive spousal relationship are presented. These include psychodynamic theories, systems theory, feminism, eco-systemic approach, social constructionism and postmodernism. The third chapter deals with women’s responses to spousal abuse. The fourth chapter deals with the interaction between women’s socialisation and their response to spousal abuse. It would seem that abused woman find themselves in varying contradictory interactional contexts. Their spouse represents the person who loves them the most, yet he hurts them the most too. Their calls for support by informing others are seen as dishonouring their families yet when they decide to keep the abuse quiet they are condemned. These paradoxes confront abused women when they are in need of help, support and understanding. These cultural and societal norms are confusing and inconsistent, together with various emotions, serve to paralyse the abused women and limit their choices.

This dissertation addresses both the terminological diversity problem raised in the workplace aggression literature and the mechanism by which workplace aggression may impact job performance in a series of studies. In addressing the first question, the factor structure of incivility, interpersonal conflict, bullying, abusive supervision, and social undermining was investigated using a single factor model and a second order model. . Data was collected across two studies consisting of samples of 410 students and 247 working adults, respectively. The results indicated relatively better fit for the second order model, showing all of the workplace aggression constructs items loading on their original construct. The unique variance contributed by workplace aggression constructs was also tested in study two using self-rated performance ratings and the experience of flow-states. The results indicated that there were no tangible differences in the variance explained between the five aggression construct. Together, these findings suggest that there is a terminological diversity problem in the workplace aggression literature as each construct may be tapping into the same latent workplace aggression variable. Further, the indirect effect of workplace aggression through the experience of flow states was supported using multi-wave data. This dissertation highlight the current state of the literature, supporting our understanding that the experience of workplace aggression is both detrimental to work related performance and impacts the mechanisms individuals use in engaging with the world around them.

The purpose of this preliminary and exploratory research project was to identify possible links between insecure male attachment patterns and wife assault. Attachment theory suggests that the quality of early interpersonal relationships has a profound effect on the psychological, emotional and social development of the individual. Insecure attachment has been found to be associated with a number of relationship problems and these interpersonal problems have also been identified with men who assault their wives. Based on this similarity, the insecure attachment paradigm may offer a useful theoretical orientation for understanding the conflict behaviours of men who assault their wives. The sample of fifty adult men who had assaulted their female partners was drawn from two therapy groups. In this preliminary and exploratory study, a number of measures were used to assess each man's mental representation of childhood attachment and his adult intimate attachment patterns, intimate conflict tactics and interpersonal jealousy and anger problems. The associations between insecure preoccupied, dismissing, and fearful attachment pattern ratings and male conflict tactic and relationship problems were then analyzed. The findings indicated that men who assault their wives had a high proportion of insecure adult intimate attachment patterns. These assaultive men were also found to be predominantly insecure in both their mental representations of childhood attachment and adult intimate attachment pattern ratings, with the greatest continuity occurring with the insecure preoccupied and fearful pattern ratings. Three patterns of relationship problems corresponding to the three insecure adult intimate attachment pattern rating were found. Preoccupied attachment pattern ratings were positively correlated with interpersonal jealousy scores and the reported use of the reasoning, verbal/symbolic abuse, physical abuse and severe physical abuse conflict tactics. Dismissing attachment pattern ratings were positively correlated with interpersonal anger scores and negatively correlated with the reasoning, verbal, physical and severe physical abuse conflict tactics. Fearful attachment pattern ratings were similar to the dismissing pattern in the positive correlation with interpersonal anger scores. The importance of considering insecure adult intimate attachment pattern ratings when providing group therapy to men who assault their wives was considered. Men with high insecure dismissing adult intimate attachment pattern ratings seem to require a distinctly different therapeutic approach than those with high insecure preoccupied adult intimate attachment pattern ratings and ideas in this regard are discussed. / Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies / Graduate

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / The main goal of this study was to develop assessment and intervention guidelines that will provide practitioners with a framework to develop and implement batterer intervention programmes. The development of batterer intervention programmes must be informed by risk-based assessment and the study has identified this as a priority. This priority was informed by the popular notions that batterer intervention by itself, is futile and that intervention efforts were misdirected and useless. The author was of the opinion that if specific risk markers were identified, the batterer intervention efforts could be a tool to influence the values, beliefs and dangerous behaviours of abusive men. This study attempted to formally identify those risk factors that should be considered with batterers so that appropriate guidelines for assessment and intervention could result. / South Africa