This dissertation presents a constructivist discussion of the experiences of the author in doing hypnosis. It explores the practice of hypnosis as a progression of behavioral changes by the hypnotis in facilitating the initiation, expansion and coherence of the hypnotic domain. These changes include punctuating and redefining everyday experiences and environmental events as hypnotic, and engaging participants in discussions based on the hypnotic logic. Hypnosis is defined as social and cognitive domain that is specified in language, and maintained by the embodied descriptions of participants. It is described how the hypnotic system evolves in terms of complexity, distinctness and functional integrity, and how this reflects the structurally determined fit between its members. In this system the hypnotist facilitates the development of the hypnotic description as a viable domain of existence that is experienced as real and all-inclusive. In conclusion some constructivist ideas for research, treatment and training are presented before constructivist thinking is used to contextualize the dissertation itself. / Psychology / M.A. (Clinical Psychology)

M.A. / This study looks at how our identities are communally formed and shaped within various contexts. It considers how such interaction can create a sense of self that could potentially shift, remain the same or become "stuck" in our experiences of connectiondisconnection. Modernism and postmodernism as two of the main ways of understanding our world/s are considered in positioning this research instance. Furthermore, the field of community psychology and some community psychological models are discussed along with the underlying principles of each. This study looks at identity-formation from a post-modern perspective and assumptions are based on ideas from the field of social constructionism. Such assumptions include the following notions: That our sense of self are manifestations of relationships; that we have multiple possible selves relative to the context; that our identities are evolving products of history and that our sense of belonging and of being separate are elements of identity. Ideas around "mental illness", the treatment system and the labelling of the "mentally ill" are also considered in the processes of identity formation. The aim of this study is to look at all the abovementioned elements in the process of coconstructing a healing community with chronic psychiatric patients, so that, the ways in which we look at ourselves as well as others in the world, could include wider healing self-definitions.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2006. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 204-226).

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

This dissertation presents a constructivist discussion of the experiences of the author in doing hypnosis. It explores the practice of hypnosis as a progression of behavioral changes by the hypnotis in facilitating the initiation, expansion and coherence of the hypnotic domain. These changes include punctuating and redefining everyday experiences and environmental events as hypnotic, and engaging participants in discussions based on the hypnotic logic. Hypnosis is defined as social and cognitive domain that is specified in language, and maintained by the embodied descriptions of participants. It is described how the hypnotic system evolves in terms of complexity, distinctness and functional integrity, and how this reflects the structurally determined fit between its members. In this system the hypnotist facilitates the development of the hypnotic description as a viable domain of existence that is experienced as real and all-inclusive. In conclusion some constructivist ideas for research, treatment and training are presented before constructivist thinking is used to contextualize the dissertation itself. / Psychology / M.A. (Clinical Psychology)

Orientador: Mário Sérgio Vasconcelos / Banca: Adriano Rodrigues Ruiz / Banca: Raul Aragão Martins / Resumo: Vários estudiosos do desenvolvimento infantil, independentemente das diferenças epistemológicas, salientam a importância do brincar como fator de desenvolvimento afetivo, cognitivo, social e físico. Pesquisas têm apontado, contudo, que, a despeito desta importância, o brincar está sendo substituído por um processo de precoce pedagogização formal na educação infantil. Assim, o brincar tem sido reduzido cada vez mais a mero procedimento didático. Um outro resultado de tais pesquisas é o de que o brincar é concebido pelos educadores como recurso para a recreação das crianças. Estes aspectos nos levaram a indagar acerca do valor que tal atividade tem enquanto fator de desenvolvimento no contexto educacional infantil. Nesse sentido, o presente estudo teve como finalidade principal analisar as relações que os professores que ministram aulas na educação infantil fazem entre o brincar e o desenvolvimento psicológico. Para isso, realizamos entrevistas com dez sujeitos representativos da população de educadores de instituições municipais de educação infantil da cidade de Assis (SP). As entrevistas foram descritas e analisadas segundo a teoria psicológica construtivista piagetiana. Chegamos às seguintes conclusões, dentre outras: as docentes consideram o brincar como um fator importante para o desenvolvimento psicológico. Entretanto, não demonstram clareza sobre o conhecimento do desenvolvimento infantil e desconhecem qualquer teoria que evidencie a importância do brincar no desenvolvimento psicológico infantil. Estas questões nos levaram a concluir que, pelo menos nos aspectos que investigamos, os educadores possuem uma formação precária, mostrando-nos a necessidade de uma melhor formação para a ocorrência de uma prática educativa de qualidade. / Abstract: Many child development's studious, apart from epistemological differences, draw attention to the importance of playing as an affective, cognitive, social and physic development factor. The researches have shown, however, that, even knowing the importance of playing, it has been substituted by a formal and young pedagogization process when talking about child education. This way, the act of playing has been more and more reduced to a simple didactic process. Another result of these researches is that the teachers see the act of playing as a mere recreational resource to the children. Because of these aspects, we ask about the value of these activities as development factors inside the child educational context. This way, this study's main objective is to analyze the relationship teachers who work in child education make between playing and psychological development. So, we have interviewed 10 representative subjects from the teachers who work at municipal schools from the city of Assis (SP). The interviews were described and analyzed following the Piaget's constructivist psychological theory. We could conclude, among many things: teachers consider the act of playing as an important factor to the psychological development. Though, they don't seem to understand clearly child development and don't know any theory, which shows the importance of playing to the psychological child development. These matters have led us to conclude that, al least the points we have investigated, the teachers are bad prepared. This fact shows us the necessity to a better formation, so there will be a high-quality educational practice. / Mestre

The purpose of the study was to determine if exposure to a challenging interpersonal situation would have an adverse impact on intra- and interpersonal constructs. Individual difference variables including level of hostility and anger, Type A behavior, control in social situations, depression and sex were examined as "predictors" of those more likely to be adversely affected by personal challenge. Eighty subjects, 40 male and 40 female, completed questionnaires at a pretesting session including measures of hostility, the Type A behavior pattern, trait anger, exaggerated social control, depression, and self-other constructs. Twenty subjects then participated in a "supportive" role-play condition where the confederate was agreeable and friendly. Sixty subjects participated in a "challenge" role-play condition; the confederate was disagreeable, confrontive, and unpleasant. The posttesting measures were then completed.

The purpose of this study is to tell the story of lay trauma counsellors - how the work they do affects them, what helps them to cope and what hinders their coping. The epistemological framework of this study is constructivism. This study involved in-depth interviews with three lay trauma counsellors from different cultural backgrounds who counselled for a minimum of one year. Hermeneutics was the method used to analyse the data. The stories of participants were recounted through the researcher’s lens in the form of specific themes that emerged for individual participants. Recurring themes evident in the stories of all three participants were discussed and compared with the literature. The information gleaned could be valuable to organisations considering setting up lay trauma programmes, to those with established programmes, as well as to prospective and experienced lay counsellors. / Psychology / M.A. (Psychology)

Research indicates that the number of individuals diagnosed with neurological, learning and psychiatric disorders has shown a sharp increase in recent years. An increasing acknowledgement of the importance of narratives and discourses in constructing social reality has stimulated much debate on the consequences of diagnosing individuals with such diagnostic labels. The aim of this study was to explore the ways in which such individuals construct meaning from their experiences of adapting to their diagnostic labels by reframing them as interpersonal metaphors. In service of this aim, a social constructionist epistemology was adopted and discourse analysis was used to analyse the results from three participants’ interview data. The results indicate that participants managed to construct meaning from their experiences with their diagnostic labels through a reframing process that serve to promote positive perceptions of self in relation to others. Furthermore, this meaning-construction process appears to be a reflective and interactional one, in that it relies on a negotiation of meanings between people in a retrospective fashion. / Psychology / M.A. (Clinical Psychology)

Previous constructivist research was integrated with a field study to investigate the hypothesis that the subjective perceptions of the current social, security and economic situation of the high and low-income groups in South Africa differ to the extent that they could be said to be living in totally different worlds of phenomenological experience. The data demonstrated clear differences when coded in terms of worldviews along an Optimism-Pessimism Continuum. A number of additional processing phenomena and social dynamics able to influence these perceptions were also identified from an interpretative analysis of the data. The results were explained in terms of the cueing and activation of specific schemata constructed from income-related prior experiences associated with each group and led to the conclusion that income and living conditions could well be factors contributing to the ongoing confrontations between government and impoverished communities. A number of recommendations to improve inter-group relations were included. / Psychology / M.A. (Psychology)