The number of displaced people around the world today is unprecedented in world history, with a third of those displaced below the age of 18. These children often undergo traumatic experiences which can cause serious mental health issues before and during their flight as well as afterwards when resettling in a new country. In Sweden, they are offered psychological aid in order to better deal with these issues and hence recover. However, due to the cultural stigma attached to mental health problems, psychosocial aid is often ruled out by the child themselves. In addition, up to 30% of these unaccompanied children have been reported to suffer from PTSD, where merely speaking about one's issue can trigger a relapse of the trauma. There is therefore a shortage of pragmatic approaches to help tackle the challenges that these children faces. The aim of this thesis is to investigate how creative programs such as the organisation Clowns without Borders works with unaccompanied refugees and how their methods affect the wellbeing of these children. This thesis explores the effects that laughter and playing has on a child’s well-being using a qualitative field research approach. The research is a contribution to the field of development since it offers new grounds on how to work towards increasing the living standards of resettled displaced persons.

Magister Commercii - MCom / The current research aims to identify the variables that influence turnover intentions. In particular, this research explored the concept of turnover intentions by investigating the mediating effects of job satisfaction and psychological capital amongst a sample of 70 employees involved in the tourism industry. The study highlights that employees within the tourism industry within the Western Cape were the most satisfied with work content, and the least satisfied with leadership / supervision. The results emanating from the current study indicate that there is a strong, inverse relationship between job satisfaction and turnover intention amongst tourism employees in the Western Cape. Furthermore, the study revealed that a statistically significant, inverse relationship exists between psychological capital and turnover intention. Multiple regression analysis revealed these variables significantly explained the variance in turnover intention. / South Africa

Magister Psychologiae - MPsych / According to the findings of this study, childcare workers caring for HIV-positive children working in a residential care setting, have similar experiences and challenges to nurses, community-based caregivers and primary caregivers, such as coping with loss and contagion fear. Nonetheless, caring for HIV-positive children poses unique challenges for the caregiver, calling for flexibility and situation-dependent coping strategies.

It is understood that trauma is something that can affect people in life. Trauma is a term that is readily used to acknowledge the experience of someone exposed to an adverse life event. There are various psychological therapies that help individuals to overcome trauma experiences. The unique contribution of this study is that little is known about the way in which Solution Focussed Brief Therapy (SFBT) can help clients coming to terms with such an experience, because it can help to facilitate post traumatic growth. SFBT is strengths based and is part of the positive psychology movement, where there is more of an emphasis on client resilience, rather than alleviating distress. SFBT offers a different way of working to the approaches already being utilised in this field. The current study aimed to provide insight into the experiences of Solution Focused Practitioners facilitating post traumatic growth during brief therapy, using qualitative methods. The study explored the experiences of a homogenous sample of six Solution Focused Practitioners; all had worked with trauma and were using SFBT in their working practice. Responses to questions asked during semi structured interviews were framed by the setting in which the practitioners worked, because they all operated from a centre known to the researcher. However, despite the potential influence of the setting, the researcher gained honest insight into the application of SFBT to trauma. Semi structured interviews were conducted and the interviews were transcribed. Verbatim transcripts were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) and from this four main themes were found: (i) Who am I? – Becoming Solution Focused; (ii) A problem world where trauma exists; (iii) A positive cocoon where growth can occur; (iv) The longevity of the approach – a big fish in a small pond. Further exploration of these themes along with their subthemes is included in the paper. Research literature relevant to this study is discussed and implications for further research and practice are also taken into consideration.

Pupils from a low SES differ in their development within the same school context. It is argued that the mechanisms through which education and the school environment as a whole can contribute to the successful development of children from a low SES should be identified and mapped. Therefore a focus on the mechanisms that lead to children with a low SES succeeding, in addition to discussing the reasons for these children not succeeding is proposed. The present research is drawn upon bio-ecological and symbolic interactionist theories of human development in an effort to understand resilience as involving person-context transactions. Specifically, the resilience of adolescents in the school context is studied as a joint function of personal characteristics and social contextual affordances that either promote or thwart the development of person-level, resilient-enhancing characteristics. The study employed inductive as well as deductive methods for knowledge development. Firstly, the concept of “resilience” was defined and operationalized in a Resilience Questionnaire (VVL). This questionnaire was validated on 399 middle-adolescents from five Educational Opportunity Schools in the Netherlands. Secondly, the inductive “Grounded Theory” method was followed with 21 middle-adolescents from three of the five Educational Opportunity Schools. In answer to the main question “How does the school environment contribute to the resilience of middle-adolescent students?”, the school environment can contribute to resilience through facilitating safety and good education. Resilient and Not-Resilient middle-adolescents differ in their dependence on the school environment for their access to these resilience-enhancing circumstances and factors. In relation to the first sub question, “What are resilient middle-adolescents’ perceptions of the contribution of the school environment to their resilience?”, the school environment contributes to the resilience of resilient middle-adolescents by challenging them (e.g with high expectations) and by offering opportunities to create constructive relationships with adults and fellow students in the school environment (e.g through informal conversations and through keeping order in the classroom). In answer to the second and third sub questions, “What are the perceptions of not-resilient middle-adolescents of the contribution of the school environment to their state of resilience?” and “How can the comparison between these two perceptions be explained?”, Not-Resilient middle-adolescents identify and utilise the services and potentially protective factors in the school enviroment less of their own accord than Resilient middle-adolescents do. The school environment can contribute to the resilience of Not-Resilient middle-adolescents by facilitating an overview, insight and positive future expectations in a very direct, controlling manner: An overview over risks for one’s own development and the presence of potential resources to assist one’s own development; insight into his or her own abilities to deal with possible risks; and positive future expectations on the improvement of a situation after a problem or risk has occurred. In summary, the daily situations in the school environment offer enough tools to contribute to the resilience of resilient and not-resilient middle-adolescents. These should, however, be recognised by both the middle-adolescent and the adults in the school environment as opportunities for development, which should subsequently be grasped in order to learn to deal with these challenges constructively. / Thesis (PhD (Learning Supoort, Guidance and Counselling))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Educational Psychology / PhD / unrestricted

By adopting a positive psychology framework, the aim of this study was to explore and describe the level of curiosity and exploration amongst psychologists-in-training, and how they dealt with uncertainty in the context of their professional development. A mixed-method exploratory-descriptive research design was employed to collect the quantitative data by means of the Curiosity and Exploratory Inventory. The qualitative data were collected using semistructured interviews to explore how psychologists-in-training have dealt with uncertainty. Purposive-availability sampling was used to select the participants at three South African universities. A total number of 50 participants completed the CEI and six participants were interviewed. The data were analysed using mixed-method data analysis. It was found that participants had moderate-to-high levels of curiosity and exploration, with higher levels of exploration than absorption. The majority of participants reported that they actively sought as much information as they could and frequently looked for new opportunities to grow as persons. The strategies used by the selected group of participants to deal with uncertainty included: reliance on clinical supervision; consultation with peers; self-enhancement; reliance on theory; learning from practical experience; using certain cognitive appraisals; and self-care. Certain conclusions and recommendations were made based on the findings of the study.

The purpose of my study was to investigate an indigenous form of stone play as a projection medium in child psychological assessment. My theoretical framework was grounded in indigenous psychology. My literature study consulted theory relating to indigenous psychology, indigenous knowledge, play, assessment, asset-based approach and positive psychology. I followed a qualitative research approach, guided by an interpretivist epistemology. I employed an intrinsic case study design and purposefully selected the participant. My data collection methods consisted of interviews with the participant’s mother and observations of the participant during the Masekitlana sessions. I relied on audio-visual methods and a self-reflective journal as methods of data documentation. Six main themes emerged as the result of thematic analysis and interpretation that I have completed. Firstly, I found that during the Masekitlana sessions, the participant mentioned a desire or a huge need for food. Secondly, the participant also experienced conflict in the neighbourhood as a result of living conditions and poverty. This included experiences of peer conflict as well as indirect conflict among adults in the community. Thirdly, environmental factors in the informal settlement came to the foreground, like infrastructure, water supply and housing. In the fourth instance the participant expressed her daily routine of bathing, going to school, doing school work and going home. Fifthly, the participant projected her belief system by mentioning indigenous concepts, such as ‘Naka’ which refers to a sangoma (traditional healer). Lastly positive qualities within the participant are identified as a theme. Masekitlana poses to be a valid projection medium to conduct a psychological assessment with the participant because it provides an authentic psychological image. The standardization of Masekitlana as an assessment medium is suggested. Further research to develop psychological assessment media for children from African origin and culture is needed in South Africa. Copyright / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Educational Psychology / unrestricted

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El presente estudio tiene como objetivo explorar el bienestar subjetivo en el proceso creativo en estudiantes de artes plásticas de Lima Metropolitana. El enfoque fue cualitativo y el diseño fenomenológico. Se realizaron entrevistas a profundidad en nueve participantes que cursaban alguna especialidad de artes plásticas (pintura, grabado, escultura y dibujo). Los hallazgos obtenidos se analizaron en los siguientes ejes temáticos: bienestar subjetivo, búsqueda de sí mismo, liberación emocional y compromiso social. El estudio reveló que los participantes experimentaban bienestar durante su proceso creativo, haciendo énfasis en el efecto liberador y sanador para sí mismos. Se pretende orientar futuras investigaciones en el campo de la psicología positiva respecto a la creatividad como una herramienta de expresión, crecimiento y salud mental. / The present study aims to explore the subjective well-being in the creative process of plastic arts students in Metropolitan Lima. The focus was qualitative and the design phenomenological. In-depth interviews were carried out in nine participants who were studying a specialty of plastic arts (painting, engraving, sculpture and drawing). The findings obtained were analyzed in the following thematic axes: subjective well-being, self-search, emotional liberation and social commitment. The study revealed that participants experienced wellness during their creative process, emphasizing the releasing and healing effect for themselves. It is intended to guide future research in the field of positive psychology regarding creativity as a tool for expression, growth and mental health. / Tesis

Analysis of Happiness Management in Organizations in the Czech Republic Bc. Marie Kotálová Abstract: The objective of this thesis is to analyse the forms of happiness management in the Czech republic, focusing on the activities and competencies of happiness managers. Firstly, the premises and psychological origins of happiness management in organisations are discussed. Then, the implementation of happiness management into a business setting is scrutinised, its goals and tools, with due attention given to happiness managers and the position they occupy within their respective organisations. The paper includes a qualitative study in select Czech organisations, which have introduced the position of a happiness manager. A semi-structured interview with these very managers was the method of choice. The aim of the study is the cataloguing and comparison of various happiness management forms; happiness manager activities and responsibilities, as well as their qualifications and competency profiles within the selected organisations. Key words: happiness, happiness at work, positive psychology, happiness management, happiness manager