The main aim of this study is to investigate the effect of gender in adolescent Theory of Mind. The term Theory of Mind (TOM) was introduced more than 30 years ago. Most of the TOM studies investigated Theory of Mind among animals, infants, children and clinical patients. Based on literature review, we know that developmental changes do not stop in childhood but continue through adolescence and into adulthood. Evidently there is a lack of studies on Theory of Mind in adolescents, despite the fact that adolescence is a critical stage for social, emotional and relationship skills. One of the variables important for our research is the effect of gender and gender identity. Gender differences are considered one of the least examined aspects of TOM, and further studies are not specifically aimed to gender-related differences. The tests we employed were Reading Mind in the eyes test (revised version, RMET-R) and Bem Sex-Role Inventory (BSRI). Statistical analysis revealed that older adolescents (17- year old) scored significantly higher than younger (16-year old) on the RMET-R test. There were no significant differences between females and males on the RMET-R test performance results. We found no significant effect of gender identity, feminine traits and familiarity with TOM stimuli in relation to RMET-R...

Uppsatsen behandlar transpersoners livsberättelser och hur deras utveckling påverkat dem. Syftet med studien är att skapa en ökad förståelse kring transpersoners identitetsutveckling och hur det påverkar deras livsvillkor. Uppsatsens huvudfrågeställning är: Hur beskriver transpersoner sin identitetsutveckling samt på vilket sätt påverkas informanterna av att ses som avvikande i deras livsberättelser? I genomförandet av studien valde vi att använda oss av en kvalitativ intervjumetod med sju transpersoner. Studien har en fenomenologiskt inspirerad metodsansats samt en hermeneutisk analysansats. Det teoretiska ramverket i uppsatsen var Goffmans teori om Stigmatisering, Scheffs begrepp Sociala band samt Queerteorin som samhällsbakgrund. Resultatet påvisade transpersonernas bristande livsvillkor i samhället. Det framkom att informanterna präglades av en komplex livssituation där samtliga nämnde att deras identitetsförändring haft en negativ inverkan på deras liv. Detta har skapat en psykisk ohälsa som bland annat uttryckts genom självdestruktivitet. Samhället behöver utveckla sin förståelse och kunskap inom ämnet. Vi ser att vidare forskning i ämnet är viktigt för att förbättra samhällets kunskap och synsätt i hopp om att skapa ett mer jämlikt samhälle. / The essay addresses transgender life stories and how their development affected them. The purpose of the study is to create an increased understanding of the development of identity in transgender and how it affects their life conditions. The main question of the essay is: How do the transgender tell recount their identity development and in what way are the informants affected by being seen as deviating in their life stories? A qualitative interview method with seven transgender was used in the implementation of the study. The study has a phenomenologically motivated methodology and a hermeneutic analysis approach. Goffman's theory of Stigmatization was used as the theoretical framework as well as Scheff's concept Social Bonds and Queer theory to describe the background of society. The results demonstrated the transgender's lack of life conditions within the society. It emerged that the informants were characterized by a complex life situation where all mentioned that their identity change had a negative impact on their lives. This has resulted in mental ill-health which was expressed by self-destructiveness. Society needs to develop its understanding and knowledge in this subject and we note that further research is important for improving society's knowledge and approach to transgenders in hope of creating a more equal society.

M. Ed.

D.Litt. et Phil. (Sociology) / Inquiry that seeks to understand young people’s engagement in risk behaviours is numerous. Concern for and interest in young people has stimulated a wide range of debates about what makes young people do the things they do. Despite the plethora of research in this area there are still gaps in our knowledge, primarily because much of the research has sought to understand young people by looking at their decision making from the outside. This study departs from what has gone before by applying a youth development approach to understanding youth risk. In order to do so it sought to delve into the worlds and lives of a few young people living in an informal settlement in Gauteng, South Africa. The key question that the study poses pertains to how young people understand and negotiate risk as an aspect of their everyday identity-work. It is thus important to note that youth in this study is not understood simply as a particular age range or a phase that exists between childhood and adulthood. Rather it is understood as a life stage that carries with it particular experiences, needs and processes. In particular for the purposes of this study identity-work is understood to be an intensive process during the life stage of youth that involves drawing on culturally and socially available labels (McCall, 2003), definitions and markers of identity and testing them in their social networks in a process of reflexivity towards developing a self-identity (Giddens, 1991). In order to generate a deep understanding of the lives and worlds of young people, this study employed a critical ethnographic design, combining the usual methods of ethnography such as observation and interviews, with innovative methods that sought to challenge commonly held perceptions of research that young people might have had, and to encourage them to participate in the research. The study found that risk is understood in multiple ways. Young people understand and internalise the risk prevention messaging that is often targeted at them but they also have other perceptions of risk that ‘experts’ tend to overlook. Most important of these were their perceptions of risk that were influenced by their socio-economic surroundings – risks that were foremost in their lives because of their day-to-day struggles to manage them. The study also demonstrates the ways in which risk is negotiated as a feature of identity-work in three ways – in identity-work that has to do with masculinity and femininity, in identity-work pertaining to who one is within a family, and in identity work that involves their roles in the community. One of the main recommendations arising from this research is the need for integrated interventions that combine the prevention models that are currently employed, with locally specific interventions aimed at enhancing the protection and preparedness of young people in order to reduce their vulnerability. By conceptualising young people and the phase of ‘youth’ differently, and applying a youth development approach to understanding youth risk, it is hoped that an innovative way of considering how young people make decisions regarding risk has been opened for future consideration in research.

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Paul Emmanuel is a South African artist who produces incised drawings, outdoor installations and prints (particularly intaglio etchings and manière noire lithographs). These focus on the representation of male bodies and experience. Having begun his career as a collaborative printmaker, since 2002, his work has become more ambitious as well as critically acclaimed. In 2010, his most recent body of work, Transitions, was exhibited at the Smithsonian Museum of African Art in Washington D.C. I propose that Emmanuel represents the male body as a presence that either is not easily seen or that actively disappears or erases itself. Its subjectivity, and the viewer’s engagement with it, may be characterised as one of intimacy, exposure, loss and vulnerability. Emmanuel’s work may be said to question conventions and ideals of masculinity while, at the same time, refusing any prescriptive interpretation. To develop this proposition, I examine specifically Emmanuel’s incising drawing technique that ‘holds open’ transitions in male lives. In these liminal moments, Emmanuel represents men as ‘seen’ to change state or status, thereby exposing the ongoing process of building masculine identities. Equally elucidatory is Emmanuel’s imprinting of his own body, which, in his use of “traces” that reveal the vacillation between presence and absence, makes contingently ‘visible’ this gendering process, and has particular implications for the expression of subjectivity in a contemporary South African context.

Trans* studies and issues have recently increased in coverage by the media and popular press. With recent changes in the DSM-5 (APA, 2000; APA 2013) and insurance law (HHS, 2014), trans* healthcare has been under increasing scrutiny. While a small number of studies (Bradford, Reisener, Honnold, & Xavier, 2013; Grant et al., 2011; Rounds, McGrath, & Walsh, 2013; Tanner et al., 2014) have documented discrimination and lack of cultural competencies from the perspective of trans* patients, little research exists that examines the training, support, and decision-making processes of medical professionals who treat trans* patients (Snelgrove et al., 2012, p. 2). The goal of this research study is to explore the training and cultural competencies of healthcare professionals in treating trans* patients by surveying and interviewing healthcare professionals about their experiences of trainings, familiarity with practices/protocols, and attitudes toward treating trans* patients. A survey of 35 health care professionals and nine interviews were conducted. These health care professionals, while generally accepting of trans* individuals, still had some reservations about working with trans* patients and suggested that there were many barriers and challenges to providing trans* health care. A majority of health care professionals had little or no familiarity with treatment protocols or diagnoses for trans* patients, and very few had received any type of training (formal or informal) before or after starting working in the health care about trans* patients. While there are many areas in which there perceived challenges and barriers to care, several participants did observe that there has been a shift in health care recently that is moving towards being more inclusive and responsive to trans* patients.

The focus of this study will be on gender stereotypes versus gender equality in Swaartbooi's novel “UMandisa” and in Saule's novel “Idinga”. CHAPTER ONE will be the introductory chapter where the aim of the study, methodology, motivation and definition of terms will be given, as well as the biographical outline of Ncedile Saule and that of V.N.M. Swaartbooi. CHAPTER TWO will focus on developing the theoretical framework of the study. Theories are used to advocate a change of approach in the teaching and reading of literature. The theory to be employed in this study will be based on aspects of the female gender and feminism. CHAPTER THREE will explore the issues of gender stereotypes as portrayed in Swaartbooi's “UMANDISA” CHAPTER FOUR will focus on gender equality as portrayed in “IDINGA” by Saule and “UMANDISA” by Swaartbooi. The two novels raised the question of equality between women and men. CHAPTER FIVE will serve as the concluding chapter where the evaluation of the study will be made.

Increasingly, developmental psychology has emphasized that childhood career development should be viewed as holistic and comprise all aspects of a child’s maturation. This would include an emphasis on the career development of children which is considered vital to the complete education of the child (Brown, 2002). Career development refers to the process of developing beliefs, values, skills, aptitudes, interests, personality characteristics and knowledge of work (Zunker, 2006). Research has indicated that early societal factors and personal preferences associated with gender influence the child’s later occupational aspirations (Stockard & McGee, 1990). There are many ways in which individuals learn about gender roles and acquire “gender-appropriate” behaviour during childhood, some of which manifest in the occupational aspirations of children. As children grow up they learn, through reinforcement and modeling, that society has different expectations and standards for the behaviour of males and females. While family and friends are often the most important agents of socialization in young children, television and other popular media have also played a vital role in gender stereotyping, resulting in children forming perceptions regarding which occupations “belong” to which gender (Taylor, Peplau, & Sears, 2006). The present research aims to explore, describe and compare the occupational aspirations and the occupational gender stereotyping of male and female South African and Australian senior primary school learners. The research approach for the study was descriptive and exploratory in nature and was conducted within a quantitative framework. A survey-type questionnaire, the Career Awareness Survey xiii (McMahon & Watson, 2001), was used as the data collection measure as part of a larger international study. The sample comprised of 511 South African and 372 Australian participants from Grades 6 and 7. Responses to the occupational aspirations questions were coded according to Holland’s (1985) interest typology and status level coding for occupations. For descriptive purposes, frequency counts were computed for the coded typology, status level and occupational gender stereotyping data. The z-test and chi-square test for independence were computed in order to test whether gender groups differed in terms of their occupational aspirations and occupational stereotyping. The chi-square test was also used to compare the occupational aspirations and gender stereotyping of South African and Australian senior primary school learners. The results of the present research indicate that male and female South African and Australian female children tend to aspire towards more Investigative and Social type occupations in the high status level category. The Australian male children, however, tend to aspire towards more Social and Realistic type occupations in the high status level category. Across nation and gender, the majority of the children believed that both males and females could perform certain occupations, with senior primary school children tending to limit the range of occupations which they believe to be predominantly suited to either male or female. Cross-national comparative results yielded interesting findings with few significant differences emerging on occupational aspiration typology, status level and the occupational gender stereotyping of occupations. The results of the present research emphasise the need for further cross-national comparative studies on the occupational aspirations and occupational gender stereotyping of senior primary school children.

South Africa provides a rich and challenging socio-political context in which to conduct career development research. South African children face a unique range of social, cultural and economic challenges such as poverty and the impact of HIV/AIDS on the family system which influence their career development. Internationally there has been a call for research that explores children’s career development as the majority of extant career research focuses its attention on the career development of adolescents and adults. The focus in South Africa is no different and despite the introduction of career education into the most recent school curriculum (Curriculum 21), there remains a void in South African child career development research. As such children’s career education and guidance has not been guided by local research findings. The findings of the present research will provide important baseline information relating to the career development of rural Xhosa-speaking senior primary school children. With this in mind, the present research aimed to explore and describe the occupational aspirations of male and female rural Xhosa-speaking senior primary school children. The present research also aimed to explore and describe the ways in which children assign gender-based stereotypes to different occupations. In order to provide a rich theoretical foundation for the present research, child developmental theories and developmental theories of career development as well as post-modern constructivist theories of career development have been used. The present research is quantitative in nature and makes use of the Revised Career Awareness Survey, a self-report questionnaire, which was originally designed to explore children’s knowledge and understanding of the world of work and to gain insight into the way in which they form gender-based occupational stereotypes. Three rural schools in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa were selected using a non-probability, purposive sampling method. From these schools, a non probability, convenience sample of 292 grade 6 and 7 learners was asked to complete the measure. The information gathered was then coded into nominal categories and analysed using descriptive statistics. Results from the present research indicate that rural Xhosa-speaking senior primary school children tend to aspire towards more Social and Investigative type occupations in the high status level category. The findings showed that rural Xhosa speaking senior primary school children tend to limit the range of occupations which they believe men and women can do. Here it was found that Social type jobs and household chores were most frequently named as jobs that women can do. The children in the present research listed Realistic type occupations most frequently as jobs that men can do, and least often as being jobs that women can do. It was also established that housework activities and other ‘domestic’ jobs are not seen by the participants as jobs that men can do. The results of the present research should not only inform the field of child career development in South Africa, but can also be meaningfully applied to the development of future career education programs at the primary school level in South Africa.