<p>  </p> <p>To fully understand the nature of help, we need to study it from both the helper’s and the recipient’s perspectives, yet the recipient's perspective of help has been often overlooked. This study aimed to identify and measure people’s general beliefs about seeking and receiving help. The first study used thematic analysis to identify broad belief themes from 81 participants’ written thoughts and experiences of help. The five belief themes were then used to generate a pool of items to measure general beliefs about seeking and receiving help. The second study used a split-half sample to assess the factor structure and identify items to remove using EFA and CFA. Ten distinct, though related, subscales of the five belief themes were retained, and these items were then assessed through a content validation study, which supported the definitional correspondence and distinctiveness of the items to their scales. While further validation of the measure needs to be conducted, there is promising evidence of the scale’s content coverage compared to previous scales, reliability, and content validity of the identified subscales. </p>

Although prosocial behavior has been moving in directions that highlight complexity over the past few years, little research has assessed the cost of this behavior. This study created a scale assessing the tendency to perceive costs of prosocial behavior. This was validated via focus groups, content and discriminant validity. In six focus groups, 29 13- to 25-year olds described specific prosocial acts and the costs that they experienced from the act. A questionnaire was then given to 391 emerging adults. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted. Results suggest a four-factor solution with adequate model fit, suggesting cognitive, behavioral, emotional, and social costs. Convergent and discriminant validity add support to the scale. Discussion focuses on the implications of this measure for the prosocial behavior literature and important future directions.

Adolescence is an uphill struggle. Research abundantly displays that Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) have a distinct and detrimental effect on adolescents and their development. Recent research has explored the perspectives, thoughts, behaviours, and beliefs of helping professionals who integrate spirituality into their work with adolescents. The purpose of this qualitative study is to develop a thematic analysis of helping professionals’ narratives of care with this population. The narratives of helping professionals’ care of adolescent males with ACEs points to the desire to connect with spiritual community and to make meaning. Helping professionals’ narratives also highlight the constraints of locating spirituality. Theological reflection on parrhesia focuses on developing open, unencumbered discussion as an ethical, professional, and spiritually-sensitive form of integration. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

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One unresolved issue in the study of cooperative breeding is why individuals that delay their own reproduction assist others in raising young. Red-cockaded woodpecker helpers may again future indirect fitness benefits by increasing survival of breeders, who produce offspring related to the helper in the future. Breeder survival may be enhanced because of general benefits of group living, either because of the helper's own presence or because helping increases the production of fledglings. I demonstrate that breeder survival increases in the presence of helpers and additional young. Helpers may also reduce the workload of the breeder, and this may increase breeder survival as well. I show that breeders spend less time incubating and provisioning young when a helper is present. Helpers may also gain fitness benefits if once they become breeders, they are assisted by young they previously helped raise. Expected frequencies of reciprocal exchange of helping are low (2%). Slightly higher observed frequencies may be accounted for by preferential helping of kin and effects of territory quality. Reciprocity occurs no more often than expected among helpers unrelated to the young they help raise suggesting that young males do not preferentially helper former care-givers. i conclude that helpers do not gain fitness benefits from reciprocity. I examined the proximate causes of delayed breeding and helping behavior by measuring plasma testosterone (T) and prolactin (PRL) concentrations in female breeders, male breeders, and male helpers during different stages of the reproductive cycle. Among male breeders and helpers, T is low during the nonbreeding stage, peaks during copulation and declines during the incubation and nestling-provisioning stages. Helpers appear physiologically capable of reproducing: their T concentrations are equal those of breeders. Helpers unrelated to the breeding female have higher T than helper related to her. Sexual inactivity by male helpers is best explained by behavioral suppression. Female breeder, male breeder, and male helper PRL was equal and increased from the nonbreeding stage through the copulation and incubation stages. During the nestling provisioning stage, male breeder and male helper PRL declined, while female PRL continued to increase. I conclude that the physiological bases of helping behavior and parental behavior are the same. / Ph. D.

This study investigated the relationships among prepartum parenting support groups, social support, marital support, and maternal perceptions of infants. The subjects were 20 prospective first-time parents; nine of the 20 women attended the workshops with their husbands. Subjects completed measures of social support number and satisfaction (SSQ-S and SSQ-N), marital support (MAT), and perceptions of infants (NPI) at three times: prepartum, at one week postpartum, and at 8 weeks postpartum. Social support number and satisfaction, and marital support, were stable and highly correlated with each other at all three times. None of the support variables predicted perceptions of infants. Postpartum perceptions of infants were significantly more positive than prepartum perceptions, most likely due to increased experience with infants. Women with low levels of marital support were significantly more likely to experience Cesarean section birth. The design of this study was modest, utilizing no control group. Results are discussed in light of this limitation. / Ph. D. / incomplete_metadata

A market maven is a highly social consumer who engages in many discussions regarding the marketplace and has a broad general knowledge of several products throughout the marketplace. They are eager to share the knowledge with other consumers and are often sought by other consumers for their information. It has been said that the behavior of market mavens is influenced by three different motives. The first is the obligation to share information, meaning some individuals feel that it is his or her duty to become knowledgeable and more discerning consumers. A second motive could be that of pleasure in sharing information. The final possible motive is the desire to help others. What drives market mavens to gather and disseminate product information? Are their motives truly selfless in nature? I contend that market mavens’ motives are not as altruistic in nature as prior research seems to suggest. Instead, in the present research, I suggest that a deeper and more selfish personal need to form and maintain a specific social identity may be attended to through market maven behavior. Perhaps the individual performing these marketing deeds is actually seeking approval and reassurance though his or her brand purchases and their resulting knowledge of products throughout the marketplace. The research in this thesis will act to uncover possible selfish and internally focused motives of marketing mavens.

The purpose of this study is to provide a comprehensive description of what a peer helper programme is and to set guidelines for the design and implementation of a peer helping programme for university residence students. In order to achieve these objectives a literature study was firstly conducted to attain a good understanding of the problems that students of tertiary institutions are currently experiencing. The conclusion was made that students are today faced with a lot of frustrations, problems and challenges resulting in a need for care, support and effective help. Secondly the terms "peer helping", "peer helper" and "peer helper programmes" were defined and peer helping was consequently identified as an effective way of addressing the need for help in the student community. This was followed by a description of guidelines for the design and implementation of a peer helper programme for students in university residences. Plomp's general educational design model was used as a point of reference in the setting of these guidelines. An empirical study was done in the form of a case study as it was exercised only at the Potchefstroom Campus of the North-West University. The aims of the empirical research were to determine firstly if there was a real need for the implementation of a peer helper programme among students in university residences; secondly, to look into and examine the guidelines set for the design and implementation of a peer helpers' programme in university residences, and finally to evaluate the efficacy of the training of peer helpers for university residences. Questionnaires, observations and semi structured interviews were used in the empirical study in order to come to the following general conclusions: Students tend to confide in friends when they experience problems of a more serious nature. In other words they share their problems and concerns with people whom they are in a close relationship with. There is a definite need for a peer helpers' programme in university residence environments. Students are willing to take part and make use of such a programme and students want to take the lead in organising and managing such a programme. In order to design and implement a peer helpers' programme successfully in a university residence, the set guidelines for the effective designing and implementation of such a programme should be followed. Finally it is recommended that a peer helpers' programme should be implemented in every residence or on the campus of every university or tertiary institution in South Africa in order to address the growing need for help among students, effectively. Various recommendations for further research were made. / Thesis (M.Ed.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2005.