<div>Objectives: The Attribution Model of mental illness stigma posits that attributions about the causes and controllability of mental illness contribute to prejudicial emotional reactions, which in turn may lead to discriminatory behaviors towards people with mental illnesses. Given that people make different assumptions about different mental illnesses, if this model is correct, it suggests that specific diagnoses would elicit different types of stigma. Another important, but unexamined, predictor is extrinsic religious orientation, which correlates positively with other types of prejudice and may predict higher levels of mental illness stigma. The purpose of this study was to test the Attribution Model of stigma and examine the relationships between diagnosis, religious orientation, and stigma. </div><div>Methods: Participants (n = 334) were recruited via Amazon Mechanical Turk, randomized to read one of three vignettes about a person with a mental illness (i.e., schizophrenia, anorexia nervosa, depression), and completed measures of mental illness stigma, religious orientation and affiliation, familiarity with mental illness, and authoritarianism. Using latent variable path analysis, analysis of covariance, and multiple regression analyses, relationships in the Attribution Model of mental illness stigma were assessed, as well as the impact of diagnosis and extrinsic religiosity on specific aspects of stigma as measured by the Attribution Questionnare-27 subscales (i.e., blame, anger, pity, danger/fear, avoidance, segregation, and coercion). </div><div>Results: Assessment of the Attribution Model indicated moderate overall model fit after respecification. Path coefficients indicated strong relationships between variables that were generally consistent with paths predicted by the model. One notable exception was that feelings of pity were not associated with greater helping behaviors. Analysis of covariance suggested that diagnosis was a key predictor of stigma, and that schizophrenia was the most stigmatized. Multiple regression analyses revealed that extrinsic religiosity was also an important predictor of stigma; extrinsic religiosity appeared to increase certain types of stigma, and moderate the relationship between diagnosis and stigma overall. </div><div>Discussion: Although the respecified Attribution Model fit the data fairly well, the findings suggest that either the scale or the model would benefit from further refinement. Results support prior evidence that severe mental illnesses like schizophrenia are more stigmatized than other diagnoses. Extrinsic religiosity was also predictive of increased stigma, both directly and indirectly. As a moderator, extrinsic religiosity may decrease the impact of diagnosis on stigma, raising stigma for diagnoses perceived as more “controllable” (i.e., anorexia nervosa, depression) such that levels were similar to schizophrenia. Limitations and suggestions for future research are discussed. </div><div><br></div>

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Arts in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor in Community Psychology in the Department of Psychology at the University Of Zululand, South Africa, 2015 / The incidence of rape in South Africa is high. A total of 50 481 rape cases were reported in 2010. Rape trauma is exacerbated by the fact that the country has a limited number of professionally trained therapists to attend to survivors. Most survivors end up looking for assistance from their churches, and therefore claim to be healed spiritually. This study was conducted in the Nkangala district of South Africa because of the high incidence of reported rape cases. While it is estimated that one woman is raped in every five minutes in this district, there are only three psychologists employed by the government to attend to a population of 1 020 592. As a result of the scarcity of health care professionals, survivors end up looking for assistance from their churches. South Africa is a country in which spirituality is clearly important. Seventy five percent of the population claim to be Christian and twenty percent claim allegiance to other religions In-depth interviews were conducted with eight female rape survivors between the ages of 18 and 40yrs, who considered themselves to have experienced spiritual healing. Content analysis indicated that spiritual healing approximated psychotherapeutic interventions in the provision of unconditional positive regard, empathy, congregational support and respect. Survivors strongly believed that their healing occurred as a result of prayer, reading Holy Scriptures, church support and spiritual guidance, which gave them strength to forgive perpetrators and move on with their lives. / Department of Health Mpumalanga Province

A thesis submitted in lulfillment of the requirements for the degree of PHD Community Psychologv in the Department of Psychology University of Zululand, 2001. / There is strong evidence showing the adverse effects of unemployment on social and psychological functioning as well as on physical health. With the present depressed economy, individuals will continue to be vulnerable to the harmful effects of retrenchment and unemployment. Such factors contribute to crime in our country. The South African community psychology movement is an attempt to take psychology to the people and empower communities, particularly historically and economically disadvantaged communities, through improved networking, education, health, social welfare and development projects which optimize local resources, resolve problems of the apartheid years and improve relationships within and between communities. A qualitative participatory action research approach to empowerment was utilized in this thesis. Mutual aid groups proved to be a successful empowering methodology to unemployed people in their own communities and their contexts. The contention of the present study is that qualitative research, with its value emphasis on capturing the diversity of respondents" experiences, its attention to the context of researched phenomena and its capacity to document the voices of historically marginalized communities, greatly facilitated the realization of these core values in our work with communities. The main finding in this study is that research and practice both benefit from a narrative approach that links process to practice and attends to the voices of the people of interest. Narrative theory an^ methods tend to open the field to a more inclusive attitude as to the data and to cross disciplinary insights as well as community collaboration. From the present study it becomes clear that culture tends to prescribe certain ways of acting which can be referred to as prescribed stories. The narrative approach used here does not claim that culturally prescribed stories are either good or bad, nor does it take a moral or evaluative position on the dominant narratives in communities Mutual aid group methods are found to be appropriate for those conducting action research and those concerned to "empower' research participants because the participants become an active part of the process of analysis. Group participants may actually develop particular perspectives as a consequence of talking with other people who have similar experiences. / The National Research Foundation

While the prevalence rates of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) are increasing, the screening rates for the disease are low. A major barrier to AD screening is older persons’ lack of knowledge about the disease (Ayalon & Arean, 2004). Older adults have anxiety about AD (Corner & Bond, 2004; Devlin et al., 2007), but less is known about how that anxiety may affect their screening behavior. The current study measured AD Knowledge and AD Anxiety and determined how these factors were related to Willingness to Screen for AD in a sample of midlife and older adults (N = 96, mean age = 62.45, range 55 to 86). It was expected that greater AD Knowledge would be associated with more Willingness to Screen and that higher AD Anxiety would be associated with less Willingness. Further, it was hypothesized that AD Anxiety would moderate the relationship between AD Knowledge and Willingness. AD Knowledge and Trait Anxiety were not significant predictors of Willingness to Screen, while AD Anxiety was positively associated with Willingness. AD Anxiety moderated the relationship between AD Knowledge and Willingness. When individuals had lower AD Anxiety, their Willingness increased as their AD Knowledge increased. In contrast, for participants with relatively more AD Anxiety, their Willingness decreased as their AD Knowledge increased. Understanding how knowledge about AD affects older adult screening preferences differently based on the amount of anxiety they have about AD will facilitate development of the most effective interventions to increase awareness about AD and promote screening.

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The theoretical and historical foundations of body work and movement therapies are explored. Wilhelm Reich is credited with bringing into prominence the inclusion of the body in psychotherapy. His influence on Alexander Lowen and Fritz Perls is explored in detail. The importance in psychotherapy of breathing, energy, self-expression, spontaneous movement, and awareness is stressed. Six expressive movement therapies -- Gestalt body work, t'ai chi, encounter group exercises, bioenergetic therapy, psychomotor training, and dance therapy -- are described in detail. An evaluation and comparison of the various movement forms is offered, along with suggestions for outcome research in the area. The authors believe the inclusion of body work and expressive movement in psychotherapy is important, either as a sole intervention technique or as an adjunct to traditional verbal methods.

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