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Several single factors have been identified as related to coping with trauma and as protective factors. Several studies emphasize the importance of personality, core beliefs, coping strategies and social support. However little attention has been paid to resiliency. The aim of the study was to identify some determinants of an individual’s resiliency after experienced traumatic life events, and to address the issue of its relationship to personality characteristics, psychopathology, coping resources and strategies, social support, sense of coherence and quality of life. In the present study, a convenience sample of 100 Iranian refugees, 66 males and 34 females in the age range of 18-65 were investigated. All the subjects have experienced one or several traumatic life events as soldiers, political prisoners or have been victims of torture or have escaped from the country in a stressful way. At the time of the present investigation the mean time living in Sweden was for male subject’s 12.8 years and for female 11.8. Nine instruments were administered during individual sessions, Temperament, Character Inventory (TCI), The EMBU (Swedish acronym for own memories concerning upbringing), The Symptom Checklist-90-Revised (SCL-90 – R), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Interview Schedule of Social Interaction (ISSI), Coping Resources Inventory (CRI), The Dysfunctional Attitude Scale (DAS), WHOQoL Group, 1995 (WHOQoL-100), The Sense of Coherence Scale (SoC). Several significant associations were found between personality temperament and character, parental rearing and psychopathology. When experiences of parental rearing were investigated in relation to psychopathology, male subjects scored high on parental rejection and were also more depressed compared to females. Although the individuals in the sample suffered from depression or anxiety, there were individuals that had adapted them-self well with the new life in Sweden and its demands. Nineteen percent of subjects who had low harm avoidance and high self directedness received more social support, had better coping strategies, higher sense of coherence and finally a better quality of life. This dissertation underscores the importance of multiple indicators when trying to understand resiliency. Personality traits, parental rearing, coping resources, social support and sense of coherence were the strongest predictors for resiliency. Having a systemic perspective helps to explain why some individuals are healthy and resilient despite traumatic life events, escaping from home country, applying for asylum, establishing a new home, learning new languages, to study and stablish and develop new bonds.

Schizophrenia is a common and serious mental disorder affecting approximately 1% of the population (WHO, 1973). That genetic and other developmental factors give rise to a predisposition or vulnerability to schizophrenia is well recognized. However, the role of the environment in conferring risk for the disorder is now indisputable. Psychosocial, economic and cultural factors all impact on risk as evidenced by recent epidemiological studies reporting variable incidence in relation to factors including unemployment, urbanicity, migration and trauma. Complex gene-gene and gene-environment (GxE) interactions lie at the origin of this common human disorder and account for the diversity of epidemiological findings and clinical presentations that we encounter in research and clinical practice. This thesis comprises of six research papers and includes data from two separate studies of first-episode psychosis (FEP) conducted in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The first study (Chapter 2) explored the impact of income inequality and poverty on the incidence of FEP and the results provide the first evidence for an association between increasing income inequality and increased incidence of FEP. The second study (Chapter 3) investigated the impact of a number of psychosocial, economic and cultural factors on the clinical presentation of FEP. Previous experiences of trauma were associated with positive and affective symptoms at psychosis onset, while cannabis use was associated with clinical features of FEP that previously have been associated with better outcome. Cultural factors such as spiritual attributions of cause and previous consultation with traditional healers may delay entry to psychiatric care and thereby negatively impact on prognosis of FEP. Chapter 4 addresses the issue of how the environment acts through GxE interactions to modify risk and alter the clinical presentation and course of schizophrenia. In this paper, new epidemiological findings are integrated with an evolutionary genetic theory of schizophrenia. In Chapter 5, I present a human rights perspective on the inequities and inequalities that characterize the lives of those with serious mental disorders such as schizophrenia, resulting from psychosocial, political, economic and cultural forces in the environment. The concluding chapter draws all of the data together, highlights key findings and conclusions from the thesis, addresses weaknesses and limitations of these conclusions and identifies priority areas for future research in this field. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2010.

Thesis (doctoral)--Freie Universität Berlin, 1994. / Includes bibliographical references.