Work context has many consequences for the psychological outcomes of employees. These outcomes also have consequences for the employer through possible loss of productivity, impaired health of employees which may be associated with absenteeism and turnover intention, among others. The literature also shows that these outcomes are not always the same even under similar working conditions. Theorising in cognitive psychology indicates that the way in which an individual appraises a situation may be more important to psychological outcomes than the actual presence of a stressor. Recently, personal resources have been hypothesised to influence these individual differences. Few if any studies have explored such personal resources as moderators in the relationship between work context and psychological outcomes, especially in the South African public service context. Thus, the general aim of this study was to determine whether personal resources (emotional intelligence, self-efficacy and explanatory styles) are moderators in the relationship between work context Gob demands and job resources) and psychological outcomes (psychological well-being and work engagement) in a sample of government employees. A cross-sectional survey research design was implemented. Data were collected from 459 participants with the following measuring instruments, the Job-Demands Resources (JD-R) Scale, the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS), the Affectomemter-2 Short-form (AFM.), the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES) , the Emotional Intelligence Scale (ElS), the General Self-efficacy (GSE) scale, and the Explanatory Style (ES) Questionnaire. A demographic questionnaire was developed by the first author to capture diverse information from the participants relating to gender, turnover intention, post level and so forth. Analyses were conducted mainly in 2 steps. Firstly, multiple regression analyses were used to test the main effects of work context variables on psychological outcomes. Secondly, two-step hierarchical regression analyses were used to test whether personal resources (emotional intelligence, self-efficacy, and explanatory styles) moderated the relationship between work context variables and psychological outcomes. Before testing the moderation, all independent variables and moderator variables (dimensions of personal resources) were centred so as to exclude the possibility of any multicollinearity in the regression equation. The results of the study, reported in three articles/manuscripts, showed significant main effects for work context and the personal resources as predictors of psychological outcomes. In the second place, the results also showed that the personal resources used in this study moderate the relationship between work context and psychological outcomes. In the first article, it was concluded that emotional intelligence is of potential value, especially in the public sector that is focussed on optimal service delivery, and where emotional encounters are stock-in-trade. Emotional intelligence is a valuable personal resource to cultivate for establishing, developing, and maintaining positive outcomes in psychological well-being in the workplace. In the second article, it was concluded that as self-efficacy beliefs facilitate actions and behaviour taken by individuals, it is important that feedback and modelling could play an important role especially in service-oriented work contexts that may need self-regulation of emotions. In the third article, it was concluded that as attributional feedback can induce change in how individuals perceive their success or failure in a task, the role of explanatory styles in psychological outcomes could be cultivated through active feedback given to employees on their performance and possibilities of future growth in the organisation. Overall it was concluded that a lack of job resources in the presence of high job demands will undermine psychological outcomes even in the presence of personal resources. Therefore, the consequences for health impairment and negative outcomes cannot be over-emphasised in a situation where job demands outstrip job resources. Employees in the public service require skills such as social and emotional competency, self-efficacy and optimism as these are important tools in dealing with the public. Employees must have initiative, flexibility, motivation to achieve, empathy, self-esteem and confidence, self-control, and group management among fellow employees and the public that is served by them. Although the limitations for this study are related to the fact that it was a cross-sectional research design and data was collected using self-reports, insights were gained about the role of personal resources in the relationship between work context and psychological outcomes. Based on all three articles, it was recommended that cross lagged panel studies may be useful in further clarifying the role of personal resources in longitudinal studies about the relationship between job resources and psychological outcomes and possible upward spirals arising from facilitating these relationships. Aspects of such studies may also include a qualitative assessment of what participants perceive as job resources and personal resources and these help them to achieve their goals. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2010.

In this study the psychological phenomenon of learned helplessness is investigated to determine its significance as a characteristic of members of progressive co-operatives within the South African context . Most of the members of these co-operatives are black South Africans. It is argued that because of the country's racial policy, many of the members have become accustomed to a passive response to events in their lives and this gives rise to their failure to utilise the freedom and opportunities of the co-operative structure. The researcher hypothesises that this passive response could be explained in terms of a high level of learned helplessness among co-operative members. Two hypotheses are investigated in this study: Hypothesis 1: Passive co-operative members will have higher levels of learned helplessness than active members. Hypothesis 2:The level of learned helplessness decreases as the length of co-operative members involvement increases. Data collection for this study was carried out by combining a personal interview and a standardised questionnaire (the Attributional Style Questionnaire). To distinguish between the passive and active members, a Participation Index was constructed. The ASQ was translated into Xhosa, adapted for the sample and two translators were employed to conduct the interviews in Xhosa . The sample consisted of 50 black South Africans, many with limited education and was drawn from six co-operatives in the Eastern Cape. No significant differences were found between the active and passive groups in terms of their levels of learned helplessness. Furthermore, the length of involvement in the co-operative had no effect on the level of learned helplessness. No support was found therefore for Hypothesis l and 2 . A significant difference, however, was found between active and passive members and the number of months of involvement. This suggests that the length of involvement has an effect on how active members will be in the co-operative . The results of this study indicate that generally the sample does not suffer from learned helplessness . It is argued that Hypothesis 2 is not supported due to confounding variables. The study raises many doubts as to the reliability of the ASQ and the Participation Index used in the study.

115 undergraduate students were surveyed to see if attributional style would be different for individuals with alcoholic parents, depressed parents, or neither factor. Subjects were sorted into the three groups based on their responses to a family history questionnaire. Each subject filled out two attributional style questionnaires, the Attributional Style Questionnaire (ASQ) and the Attributional Style Assessment Test (ASAT-II). The three groups did not differ on attributional style for interpersonal, noninter- personal, or general situations. Within the adult children of alcoholics group, subjects reported that their successes in interpersonal situations were due to their strategy and effort, rather than ability, more so than for noninterpersonal successes.

The debate over the legitimacy of Fibromyalgia as a pain syndrome is often highlighted in the literature. The result of this is that patients are left feeling demoralised by the lack of acknowledgement of their symptoms and the innuendos of hypochondria or malingering. This study proposes that professionals move beyond this and into a more solution-focused stage that encourages the examination of predisposing factors and the implementation of means of improving the lives of patients. The aim of this study was to describe the psychological profiles of Fibromyalgia patients in terms of attachment styles, Sense of Coherence, Attributional Style and depression. Twenty-nine patients aged between twenty-two and sixty-four participated in the study, completing the relevant questionnaires. The design is a quantitative one, with both descriptive and inferential statistical procedures being employed to analyse the data. It is argued that key elements in the onset, maintenance and augmentation of Fibromyalgia Syndrome symptoms are to be found by examining the psychological feature of patients with the disorder. Although some research has been conducted into psychological factors in Fibromyalgia, the field is not nearly as well explored as the physical elements. This research is therefore of great importance to the Fibromyalgia knowledge base. Moreover, it offers a Salutogenic perspective, which may be useful in combating the devastating effects of this chronic pain syndrome. The study is limited by its cross-sectional design and lack of control group. Nonetheless, it does give rise to some intriguing findings. If attachment is to be regarded as the working model that an individual maintains of self and other, then it is possible that disorders that are believed to be related to depression (such as FMS) will also be correlated to insecure attachment styles. The research, however, indicates that the FMS patients in this sample do not display the predicted high percentage of insecure attachment styles. An almost even split between those having a high Sense of Coherence and those with a low score was also found. When relating these findings to other psychological parameters (such as Attributional Style and level of depressive symptoms), a discussion is born that allows for more complex interactions than a linear argument does. The research is then lifted from its pathogenic origins to embrace the origins of health. Further research is then prompted by this study and framed in the Salutogenic question: how do some patients with FMS maintain healthy attachment styles and a high Sense of Coherence despite their illness? / Dissertation (MA (Clinical Psychology))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Psychology / unrestricted

No description available.

No description available.

Bien que les recherches sur l'échec universitaire ne cessent de se multiplier, très peu se sont penchées sur celui des étudiants étrangers en France. C’est pourquoi la présente thèse vise à analyser les causes évoquées par ces étudiants pour expliquer leur échec ainsi que l’éventuel impact de leur culture d’origine sur leurs démarches attributionnelles. Pour répondre à cette interrogation, nous nous sommes inscrit dans le champ de la psychologie sociale, notamment avec la théorie de l'attribution causale. Cette dernière, qui constituera notre principale référence théorique, nous permettra d’appréhender la problématique de l'échec universitaire de ces étudiants. En outre, nous en avons étudié la genèse et l’évolution conceptuelle et paradigmatique en nous inspirant, pour des raisons épistémologiques et méthodologiques, du modèle attributionnel de Heider (1958) ainsi que de celui de Weiner (1986, 1992, 1994). Conscient à la fois de la complexité d’une démarche psychosociale en dehors d’une situation expérimentale et de l’importance de donner la parole aux acteurs, nous avons décidé d’entreprendre ce travail en nous basant sur des faits réels, à travers des entretiens avec des étudiants étrangers en situation d’échec universitaire. / Although research on academic failure continues to grow, very few studies have been conducted on foreign students in France. Therefore this thesis aims at analyzing the reasons the students gave to explain their failure and the potential impact of culture on their attributional approaches. To answer this question, we relied on a theoretical framework by considering psychosocial obedience, including the theory of causal attribution. The latter, which will be our main theoretical reference, will allow us to cast light on these students’ academic failure. Furthermore we studied the genesis and conceptual and pragmatical evolution of this theory by basing ourselves for epistemological and methodological reasons on Heider’s attribution theory (1958) as well Weiner’s (1986, 1992, 1994). Aware of both the complexity of a psychosocial approach outside of an experimental situation and the importance of giving a voice to those directly concerned we decided to use factual information rely on real-life cases through interviews with foreign students experiencing academic failure.

Thirty one students with learning disabilities (LD) and/or with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) completed a combined Academic Attributional Style and Coping with Academic Failures Questionnaire. The reformulated learned helplessness model (Abramson, Seligman, & Teasdale, 1978) predicted that students with negative attributional styles (i.e., internal-stable-global attributions) experienced motivational, cognitive, and emotional deficits. The present study examined college achievement (grade point average) of students with LD and/or ADHD. The Prediction that students with LD and/or ADHD with negative attributional styles would achieve less academic success than comparable students with positive attributional styles (i.e., extenal-unstable-specific attributions) was supported by the research results.

Introduction Child sexual abuse is a common problem. Psychological and behavioural problems in children and adults who have experienced child sexual abuse have been associated with the abuse. Little research has been conducted which has been long-term, prospective, involved substantiated sexual abuse, included a control group, took into account mediating factors, utilised multiple data sources, relied on standardised measures and had a high follow-up rate. Aim The aims of this study were to compare a cohort of sexually abused young people with a group of nonabused peers and to establish predictors of psychological and behavioural outcome. Method This study was a follow-up which was long-term, prospective, involved a sample of children with substantiated sexual abuse, included a control group, took into account mediating factors, utilised multiple data sources, relied on standardised measures and had a high follow-up rate. Eighty-four sexually abused young people were followed up five years after presenting to Children�s Hospitals� Child Protection Units for sexual abuse and were compared to a group of 84 nonabused young people of similar age and sex. The two groups were compared on the basis of demographic variables, family functioning, mother�s mental health and life events; the outcome measures of depression, self-esteem, anxiety, behaviour, criminal activity, alcohol and other drug use, eating problems, running away, suicide attempts, self-injury, hopefulness, despair and attributional style; and potential mediating factors such as further notifications to the Department of Community Services, receipt of psychological treatment, legal action against offenders and victims compensation. Potential predictors of outcome were (1) demographic variables, (2) sexual abuse characteristcs, (3) intake data and (4) five year follow-up variables. Main findings Follow-up rates were 81percent (n equals 68) for cases and 89percent (n equals 75) for controls. Five years after presenting for the sexual abuse, the sexually abused young people were performing more poorly than their nonabused peers on various measures of psychological state and behaviour. Although the abused children had experienced more negative life events (p<.001), were from lower socio-economic groups (p<.0001), had more changes in parent figures (p<.001) and had mothers who were more psychologically distressed (p equals .03), multiple regression analysis showed that after allowing for these and other demographic and family factors, there were still significant differences between the groups after the 5 years. The abused children displayed more disturbed behavior (p equals .002), had lower self-esteem (p<.001), were more depressed or unhappy (p<.001) and were more anxious (p equals .03) than controls. Sexually abused children had significantly higher levels of bingeing (p equals .02), self-injury (p equals.009) and suicide attempts (p equals .03). Significant predictors of psychological and behavioural outcome were significantly related to family and parent functioning variables. Abuse status was not a significant predictor when offered to each of the predictive models. Significant predictors of outcome included the following intake variables: family functioning, mother�s mental health, whether parents were employed or not, behaviour scores, prior notifications for neglect, history of parental discord and whether there were caregiver changes or not prior to intake. The classification of the index sexual abuse event as indecent assault and whether there were notifications for sexual abuse prior to the index event also significantly predicted outcome. Five year follow-up variables which were significant predictors of outcome were the young person�s age, number of negative life events, attributional style, self-esteem, depression, number of parent changes, anxiety, despair, whether there were notifications for abuse/neglect after intake and having a parent with a history of drug/alcohol problems. Conclusions Difficulties associated with child sexual abuse continue for some years after the abuse event. Child sexual abuse needs to be considered as a possible antecedent of behaviour and psychological difficulties in young people. Treatment and monitoring should continue for some years after the abuse. Treatment may need to be directed more towards young people�s psychological states rather than focusing specifically on the sexual abuse. Family and parent functioning may need to be addressed early in order to prevent some of the behavioural and psychological difficulties associated with the long-term outcome of child sexual abuse.

Introduction Child sexual abuse is a common problem. Psychological and behavioural problems in children and adults who have experienced child sexual abuse have been associated with the abuse. Little research has been conducted which has been long-term, prospective, involved substantiated sexual abuse, included a control group, took into account mediating factors, utilised multiple data sources, relied on standardised measures and had a high follow-up rate. Aim The aims of this study were to compare a cohort of sexually abused young people with a group of nonabused peers and to establish predictors of psychological and behavioural outcome. Method This study was a follow-up which was long-term, prospective, involved a sample of children with substantiated sexual abuse, included a control group, took into account mediating factors, utilised multiple data sources, relied on standardised measures and had a high follow-up rate. Eighty-four sexually abused young people were followed up five years after presenting to Children�s Hospitals� Child Protection Units for sexual abuse and were compared to a group of 84 nonabused young people of similar age and sex. The two groups were compared on the basis of demographic variables, family functioning, mother�s mental health and life events; the outcome measures of depression, self-esteem, anxiety, behaviour, criminal activity, alcohol and other drug use, eating problems, running away, suicide attempts, self-injury, hopefulness, despair and attributional style; and potential mediating factors such as further notifications to the Department of Community Services, receipt of psychological treatment, legal action against offenders and victims compensation. Potential predictors of outcome were (1) demographic variables, (2) sexual abuse characteristcs, (3) intake data and (4) five year follow-up variables. Main findings Follow-up rates were 81percent (n equals 68) for cases and 89percent (n equals 75) for controls. Five years after presenting for the sexual abuse, the sexually abused young people were performing more poorly than their nonabused peers on various measures of psychological state and behaviour. Although the abused children had experienced more negative life events (p<.001), were from lower socio-economic groups (p<.0001), had more changes in parent figures (p<.001) and had mothers who were more psychologically distressed (p equals .03), multiple regression analysis showed that after allowing for these and other demographic and family factors, there were still significant differences between the groups after the 5 years. The abused children displayed more disturbed behavior (p equals .002), had lower self-esteem (p<.001), were more depressed or unhappy (p<.001) and were more anxious (p equals .03) than controls. Sexually abused children had significantly higher levels of bingeing (p equals .02), self-injury (p equals.009) and suicide attempts (p equals .03). Significant predictors of psychological and behavioural outcome were significantly related to family and parent functioning variables. Abuse status was not a significant predictor when offered to each of the predictive models. Significant predictors of outcome included the following intake variables: family functioning, mother�s mental health, whether parents were employed or not, behaviour scores, prior notifications for neglect, history of parental discord and whether there were caregiver changes or not prior to intake. The classification of the index sexual abuse event as indecent assault and whether there were notifications for sexual abuse prior to the index event also significantly predicted outcome. Five year follow-up variables which were significant predictors of outcome were the young person�s age, number of negative life events, attributional style, self-esteem, depression, number of parent changes, anxiety, despair, whether there were notifications for abuse/neglect after intake and having a parent with a history of drug/alcohol problems. Conclusions Difficulties associated with child sexual abuse continue for some years after the abuse event. Child sexual abuse needs to be considered as a possible antecedent of behaviour and psychological difficulties in young people. Treatment and monitoring should continue for some years after the abuse. Treatment may need to be directed more towards young people�s psychological states rather than focusing specifically on the sexual abuse. Family and parent functioning may need to be addressed early in order to prevent some of the behavioural and psychological difficulties associated with the long-term outcome of child sexual abuse.