A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree: PhD (COMMUNITY PSYCHOLOGY) IN THE DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY FACULTY OF ARTS UNIVERSITY OF ZULULAND, 2010. / Empowerment is an act of enriching someone within a certain context to gain inner self-control. The best way of understanding empowerment is to focus on its process rather than outcome. It is also important to determine the structure upon which empowerment is likely to exist. As a result, this study was about the exploration of the interaction between empowerment as a process and the self-help group which forms a structural basis of empowerment. Therefore, the main focus of the research study was to investigate specific processes through which one goes to achieve empowerment when participating in a self–help group for divorced women.The qualitative research method, which incorporated participant observation, semi-structured interviews and focus group,formed the basis for the process of data collection and analysis. The sample consisted of 10 divorced women who participated in a self-help group for a contracted period of eight weeks. The findings of the research study suggested that, the process of empowerment within a self-help group structure is interactive rather than linear. The process of empowerment through the self-help group encounters included discovering the reality of the divorced status, the role of frustration in the process of empowerment, critical reflection as the powerful force behind the process of empowerment and taking charge of one’s life as a motivational factor that facilitated the self-help group activities and the process of empowerment. The only interpersonal factor that was significant in the study was the role of social support by group members in the process of empowerment. The conceptualization of the process of empowerment in the context of the self-help group, that emerged from the study, was remarkably distinct from the conceptualization of empowerment that has been depicted in the literature. Therefore, a significant finding in this study was how the self–help group can facilitate the process of empowerment for divorced women, which contrasted with other studies in which a sense of community was critical to personal empowerment. The interactions which were both positive and negative with others were the foundations for the process of empowerment in the form of critical reflections.

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The goal of this effort was to write the definitive history of a high school for Blacks in Nansemond County. The destruction of school records in the fires that eventually led to the closing of the school made that task difficult. While attempting the historical research, however, two factors were found which still make the effort worthwhile. First, there was a definite sense of pride found in all who had been associated with the Nansemond Collegiate Institute. This pride gave one the sense that attending Nansemond Collegiate Institute was almost as much an expression of freedom as it was an effort to secure an education. The second factor was the determination of the need for Nansemond Collegiate Institute based on the disparities in services offered to Blacks when compared to Whites in the public school setting. Public education in Suffolk and Nansemond County, Virginia had its beginnings in 1871 when the first school boards were appointed for those localities. Nineteen years later, there still existed no secondary educational opportunities for the Blacks of Nansemond County. In order to address this lack, Blacks in the county pooled their resources and started their own school, Nansemond Collegiate Institute. Founded in 1890, Nansemond Collegiate Institute provided for the elementary and secondary educational needs of Black youth in Nansemond County, Virginia for nearly fifty years. This school was a case study of local control and self-help. The school maintained a classical educational curriculum during the time when the Hampton Industrial Education model was being touted as the preferred model of education for Blacks. Under the leadership of five principals, four of whom were ministers, the Institute demonstrated the power of a community to control its own destiny. The Institute's supporters raised the funds needed to establish and run the school. It struggled for many years with funding and curriculum issues. The school's last principal, Mr. William Huskerson, arrived in 1926. He made several advances in terms of funding and building. His tenure, however, began just one year before the county established its first public high school for Blacks. This competition and a series of "suspicious" fires ultimately led to the close of the Nansemond Collegiate Institute. This closing did not occur before the Institute had opened possibilities for many Blacks who might not otherwise have had varied career choices. By having existed, Nansemond Collegiate Institute had a lasting impact on the lives of many Blacks of Nansemond County. / Ed. D.

Large classes are becoming inevitable at large research Universities. The sociology department at Virginia Tech University routinely offers a course with approximately 600 students. Each year approximately a sixth of those students fail the first exam. To increase the performance of at-risk students a mentoring program was created, but many did not participate. The purpose of this study is to identify factors that contribute to at-risk students choosing not to take advantage of the academic mentoring program offered in their class. A survey was received from sixty-eight students who failed the first exam, in which only thirty-seven students participated in the tutorial program. The analysis will focus on eight domains and nineteen hypotheses that might be associated with help seeking. The domains are: classroom behavior; students' self-perception; classroom practices and institutional policies; general perceptions of help seeking; history with mentors; time commitment; college demographics; and respondent demographics. Some of the major findings suggest that students' self perception; time commitment; and college demographics are related to help seeking. Findings related to the classroom practices suggest that some students do feel that the different options (withdrawal rule, dropping the course, and dropping the lowest exam grade) led to their non-enrollment in the mentoring program. / Master of Science

Student Number : 0111065D - PhD thesis - School of Architecture and Planning - Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment / This thesis deals with self-help housing networks in Nairobi, Kenya and Johannesburg, South Africa. It starts by discussing some of the current manifestations and challenges of self-help housing in the two contexts. It locates these against neo-liberal development paradigms in Kenya and South Africa. It reviews some of the main theories and concepts that have been applied to understand self-help housing, arguing that there are many issues that these lenses fail to explain. Amongst these are the relationships amongst actors and the ways resources are exchanged in self-help housing. The thesis discusses some of the key resources used for self-help housing in Nairobi and Johannesburg, namely: land, finance, labour, materials and technology, and infrastructure and services. It develops a case for network analysis of these resources and actors in self-help housing. The second part of the thesis is dedicated to analysis of self-help housing networks in Nairobi and Johannesburg, based on empirical data. The three categories of networks analysed are: individual-based ego-centric networks; group-based networks of collective action; and content-of-ties-based networks of exchange. The study compares self-help housing networks in Nairobi and Johannesburg. On one hand, lack of the state intervention in Kenya has resulted in self-help housing in Nairobi being accessed almost exclusively through networks. On the other hand, state intervention in South Africa has resulted in weakening of ties within local groups and domination of state/market hierarchies in access to various self-help housing resources in Johannesburg. The major conclusion from this study is that, in both cities, networks remain a viable third way of provision of housing, in addition to (not instead of) housing production through state/market hierarchies and decentralised models. Networks tend to overcome lack of inclusion dominant in state/market hierarchies and lack of capacity, endemic in decentralised models. In terms of analysis, the study shows that network theories are relevant to understanding the operations of actors and access to resources in low-income housing, complementing sector-based understanding, which remains dominant in analysis of low-income housing today.

This study investigated computer users’ help-seeking behaviors within the context of accomplishing a novel and challenging computer task. In addition, this study examined how different help-seeking behavioral variables relate to both personal factors and outcome measures in an exploratory manner. Finally, a structural model examined the effect of personal factors on task performance through the mediating function of help-seeking effectiveness. A total of 67 undergraduate students participated in the study. Participants were asked to perform a challenging task in Microsoft Word. The usability software MORAE was used to record the interactions between participants and computer systems. Participants had access to five help sources: “F1 help,” “reference book,” “the Web,” “video tutorial,” and “lab assistant,” which differ in media type (electronic vs. non-electronic) and interactivity levels (high vs. low). This study found that participants showed a wide range of help-seeking behaviors. Some participants were more active in seeking help than others. Participants also engaged in different help-seeking patterns when using different help sources. A dominant help-seeking strategy was to stay with the same source used in the previous help-seeking episode. Help-seeking behavior affected task performances, but personal factors had no significant effect on help seeking or task performances. Based on the findings, the research value of this study, its practical implications, its limitations, and future research directions are discussed.

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