The only constant thing in today's world is change. Change is everywhere, even in the education sector. The education system has undergone tremendous changes in the past 10 years. This includes several curriculum changes. Change always contributes to stress, which individuals in the education department are experiencing quite intensively, judging by the popular media. Stressful events may lead to ill-health and might negatively impact the workforce and the overall well-being of these educators. The emergence of positive psychology has contributed to the increased research of well-being, rather than the negative antipode of illness, in relation to occupational stress. One of these positive aspects of wellbeing is work engagement, which is considered to be the opposite of burnout. Thus, describing burnout, engagement and stress is a first step in facilitating the work-related wellness of educators. Furthermore, individual dispositions that may act as resources or buffers in the handling of stress and burnout, facilitate engagement and protect educators7 health are also of interest. To measure burnout, engagement, stress and health, it is important to use reliable and valid instruments. Various studies are available on the reliability and validity of the burnout and engagement scales, but it is rather limited for educators in the South African environment. Furthermore, little information exists regarding the causes and effects of work stress, health, burnout and engagement of educators in South Africa. The first objective of this research was to standardise the Maslach Burnout Inventory-General Survey (MBI-GS) and the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES) for educators in the Goldfield region of the Northern Free State province. The second objective was to determine if biographical variables can be used to describe educators' burnout and engagement. The third objective of this research was to determine causes of stress among educators, and again to investigate the role of biographical differences. Lastly, the focus in this research fell on the determination of the role of optimism in predicting the health of educators in the Goldfield region of the Northern Free State province. A cross-sectional survey design, in which a sample is drawn from a population at one point in time, was used to attain the research objectives. Participants were randomly selected from the total population of educators in the Goldfield region of the Northern Free State province. A sample of 469 educators was used from the total population of 1014 (i.e. 46,25% of the total population). Schools in the Goldfields region of the Northern Free State province were randomly selected to participate in this research. The MBI-GS, the UWES, the Educator Stress Questionnaire (which was developed by the author for the purpose of this research), the Health Subscales of the Asset, the LOT-R and a biographical questionnaire was administered. Descriptive statistics, Cronbach alpha coefficients, inter-item correlations, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, Pearson correlations, multivariate analysis of variance, one-way analysis of variance, t-tests, dummy coding and multiple-regression analyses with interaction terms were used to analyse the data. Structural-equation modelling confirmed a three-factor model of burnout consisting of Exhaustion, Depersonalization and Professional Efficacy. All three factors showed acceptable internal consistencies for three main language groups. A three-factor model of engagement was also confirmed, consisting of Vigour, Dedication and Absorption. These scales also indicated acceptable reliability. Results of a second order factor analysis indicated that the work wellness of educators can be described as consisting of two dimensions. The Burnout dimensions of Exhaustion and Depersonalisation can be grouped together on one factor, while the Burnout dimension of Professional Efficacy can be grouped with the Engagement variables of Vigour, Dedication and Absorption. Results showed that biographical variables that consist of the gender, marital status, home language, age and years work experience of educators could be used to describe educator burnout and engagement. It was found that Exhaustion could be predicted by gender. Educators who speak an African language scored lower than Afrikaans-speaking educators in terms of Exhaustion. Marital status could also be used to predict exhaustion. Educators between the ages of 37 and 46 measure lower on depersonalisation than educators between the ages of 22 and 30 years. Educators who have between 13 and 20 years of experience, have higher levels of depersonalisation than participants with 6 or less years of experience. Both English and African-language-speaking educators measure lower on Professional Efficacy than the Afrikaans language group. Language remains a significant predictor of Professional Efficacy. Educators who are older than 31 years of age measure higher on Professional Efficacy than those younger than 31 years of age. Professional Efficacy could be predicted among educators who are English speaking and/ or older than 31 years of age. Additionally, being married or divorced measure lower on Professional Efficacy when compared to their single counterparts. The eldest educators measure higher on Professional Efficacy. Female educators measure lower on Vigour than their male counterparts. Educators between the ages of 47 and 64 measure higher on dedication than educators between the age of 22 and 30 years. Married educators measured lower on dedication, when compared to single educators. The ESQ, a measure of educators' occupational stress that consists of 48 items, was developed and administered. During analysis, 4 items were discarded due to non-loading, and a further 8 items were discarded due to significant secondary loadings. Five factors were extracted and were labelled Rewards and Participation, Support and Communication, Job Insecurity, Role Overload and Task Characteristics. Furthermore, the biographical variables that were used to describe burnout and engagement among educators (language, age, gender, work experience and marital status), could also be used to describe educator stress. The various stress factors that were identified through the ESQ, could also be used to determine well-being among educators. This includes Support and Communication, Rewards and Participation, Role Overload, Job Insecurity and Task Characteristics. In terms of predicting the physical and psychological health of educators, separate analyses were carried out for the burnout and engagement components. It was shown that that educators' home language, their experience of optimism, role overload and task characteristics predicts physical health, and home language, participants' levels of optimism, experiences of rewards and participation, support and communication, job insecurity, role overload and task characteristics predicts psychological health. Additionally, the interaction terms Professional Efficacy and Optimism, as well as the interaction between Vigour and Optimism, proved to be significant predictors of physical health. The interaction term of Depersonalisation and Optimism, as well as the interaction term of Support and Communication and Optimism, proved to be significant predictors of psychological health. Language was also shown to be a constant predictor of physical and psychological health, where educators speaking an African language experienced significantly better overall well-being than Afrikaans and English-speaking educators. By way of conclusion, recommendations for future research and the education department are made. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Michigan, 1985. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Michigan, 1985. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record.

This study explores how highly educated refugees in the U.K. perceive the relation between their post-migration experiences and their psychosocial well-being. A literature review of the migration and psychological health area and the widely-used stress and coping approach revealed that the “vulnerable” and “passive” images have all too often been assigned to refugees when discussing their psychological health, and that the latter have often been approached as beings detached from their social context. The aim of the research was to explore the participants’ own perceptions (or “lay narratives”) of their experiences and their well-being. These were used to converse with the stress and coping concepts and with the images related to psychological activism, an alternative stress and coping perspective that views people as active agents who try to take control of their life, instead of mere passive recipients of stress. The study is based on constructivism, and accordingly the emphasis is put on the subjective world of experience and the researcher critically reflects on how the social context shapes the participants’ perceptions. The empirical work consists of two studies. In the first one, semi-structured interviews were carried out with fifteen young and highly educated refugees in the U.K. The findings highlight how the participants used the stress and coping concepts and the images related to psychological activism, so the value of such concepts is reconfirmed. But a deeper critical look reveals that the semi-structured interviewing may have strongly directed how the participants discussed their perceptions and that it was unclear how these perceptions are formed in social interaction. Consequently I conducted additional empirical work to carry the emerging issues further. In the second study, autobiographical narrative interviews were carried out with another group of fifteen highly educated refugees in the U.K. The findings reveal that they made sense of their experiences and their well-being through three distinctive stories. The stories of hope and survival presented by two subgroups of participants suggest a more balanced view of refugees, one that is not necessarily “vulnerable” and “passive”. These participants made sense of their experiences and well-being through the elements of “hope, persistence and activism”. But the story of disappointment presented by a third subgroup revealed that some participants did not perceive their experiences and their well-being through a positive lens. It also highlighted the need to further explore how they formed their perceptions in social interaction. Indeed, it was shown how the social context, particularly negative attitudes they received at the community level, was largely responsible for their narrative of disappointment. The theoretical contribution of this research lies in exploring how the participants, through their own narratives, made sense of the concepts of stress and coping. The methodological contribution refers to the bridging of ideas and previous work from other disciplines and to the innovative application of narrative interviewing to this population. A major practical contribution is that this research offered a channel for refugees to talk about their experiences and their well-being in their own words. Furthermore, possible explanations emerge on why some refugee groups can indeed seem “vulnerable” and “passive” and this has important implications for those who design and implement interventions aimed at enhancing the well-being of refugees.

The current study considered school stress appraisal, as a challenge or hindrance, as it relates to individual school outcomes (performance and satisfaction), and individual health outcomes (physiological and psychological). Correlations were calculated between predictor and outcome variables. Confidence intervals were calculated and regression analyses performed in order to highlight differences in the relationship between predictors on the same outcome variables. A mediation analysis was conducted to establish the potential effect of health on the relationship between the predictors and performance/satisfaction outcomes. Challenge and hindrance stress were each found to be correlated with both types of health outcomes. Hindrance stress was found to be correlated with satisfaction. Challenge stress was found to be correlated with performance. Physical and psychological health were found to partially mediate the relationship between hindrance stress and satisfaction. Overall, stress appraisal was found to be a good predictor of individual outcomes. Health outcomes were found to mediate the relationship between satisfaction outcomes.

Objectives Self-esteem may affect the processing and regulation of emotion. However, it is unclear whether differences in self-esteem are associated with changes in initial emotional appraisal or engagement of emotion regulation. I investigated whether individual differences in self-esteem predicted brain responses to negative emotional stimuli: 1) when they were viewed without intentional regulation; and 2) during downregulation using cognitive reappraisal. Thirdly, I investigated whether self-esteem predicted reappraisal success. Method Twenty-nine healthy adults (age M=47, SD=15; 16 female) performed a cognitive reappraisal emotion regulation task during fMRI scanning. Participants viewed and subsequently reappraised or attended to negative and neutral images. Trait self-esteem (Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale) was included as a predictor in a whole-brain multiple regression analysis. Analyses were thresholded at p<.005, k>p20, p<.05 family-wise error (FWE)-corrected at cluster-level. The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC; BA32) and the dorsal prefrontal cortex (PFC; BA6) were a priori regions of interest (ROI), since both have previously been reported in fMRI studies of self-esteem and cognitive reappraisal. A post-hoc ROI analysis tested the correspondence of self-esteem-related ACC activation with findings from a meta-analysis of emotion regulation. Ratings of negative emotional intensity following reappraisal trials were subtracted from ratings following attend-negative trials to index reappraisal success. Results Self-esteem was associated with potentiated ACC ROI activation during viewing of negative, compared to neutral, images (MNI x, y, z = -6, 17, 38, k=43, punc=.001 at peak, pFWE=.368 at cluster-level). For reappraisal compared to attended negative images, self-esteem was positively associated with activation in the left posterior insula (MNI x, y, z = -30, -10, 17, k=30, punc<.001 at peak, pFWE=.959 at cluster-level) and negatively associated with activation in the mid cingulate cortex (MNI x, y, z = 3, -34, 35, k=50, punc=.001 at peak, pFWE=.805 at clusterlevel). However, only the post-hoc ACC ROI analysis was significant after multiple comparison correction (MNI x, y, z = -6, 23, 38, k=22, punc=.001 at peak, pFWE=.021 at clusterlevel). For reappraisal, self-esteem was not related to activation in the ACC or dorsal PFC ROIs. Trait self-esteem did not correlate with reappraisal success, r =.16, p =.208. Conclusion Trait self-esteem may affect recruitment of the ACC during initial emotional appraisal. This may reflect successful automatic emotion regulation for high self-esteem, consistent with the demonstrated spatial overlap with a meta-analytic emotion regulation cluster. While selfesteem may affect brain responsivity during cognitive reappraisal, the observed trends must be interpreted carefully, since the findings do not survive correction for multiple comparisons, and emotional outcomes of applying reappraisal do not differ as a function of self-esteem. Taken together, these findings suggest that high trait self-esteem may be advantageous for rapid automatic emotion regulation, but not deliberate cognitive reappraisal.

Magister Artium (Psychology) - MA(Psych) / This study compared the fortigenic constructs of the Sense of Coherence, Fortitude, Potency, Hardiness, Problem-Solving, and Ego-Resilience in terms of three aspects: (i) Psychometric properties of instruments that are used to measure them (ii) Their effects on the relationship between stress and psychological health (iii) To determine the extent to which these constructs have some common underlying dimensions. The sample comprised one-hundred and twenty five male and female undergraduate Psychology students enrolled at the University of the Western Cape. Data were collected by using the following self-report questionnaires: the CBS-Depression Scale , the Short happiness Affect Research Protocol, the Problem-Solving Inventory, the Potency Scale, the Fortitude Questionnaire, the ER89 Questionnaire, the Personal Views Survey, the Orientation to Life Questionnaire, the VOEG, and the Life Experiences Survey.

Объектом данной работы является личность IT-специалиста. Предметом исследования являются особенности психологического здоровья IT-специалиста. Магистерская диссертация состоит из введения, двух глав, заключения, списка литературы (77 источников) и приложения, включающего в себя бланки применявшихся методик. Объем магистерской диссертации 98 страниц, на которых размещены 9 рисунков и 6 таблиц. Во введении раскрывается актуальность проблемы исследования, разработанность проблематики, ставятся цель и задачи исследования, определяются объект и предмет исследования, формулируются основная и дополнительные гипотезы, указываются методы и эмпирическая база, а также этапы проведения исследования, научная новизна, значимость работы. Первая глава включает в себя обзор иностранной и отечественной литературы по теме исследования, проводится общетеоретический анализ тематики. Представлены разделы, посвященные рассмотрению психологии здоровья в свете различных подходов и авторов, проблеме разделения сфер психического и психологического здоровья, специфике отрасли информационных технологий и ее влиянию на состояние специалиста. Выводы по первой главе представляют собой итоги по изучению теоретического материала. Вторая глава посвящена эмпирической части исследования. В ней представлено описание организации и методов проведенного исследования и результатов, полученных по всем использованным методикам: Также в главе представлены сравнительный и корреляционный анализ результатов исследования. Выводы по главе 2 включают в себя основные результаты эмпирического исследования. В заключении в обобщенном виде изложены результаты теоретической и эмпирической частей работы, а также выводы по выдвинутым гипотезам, обоснована практическая значимость исследования и описаны возможные перспективы дальнейшей разработки данной проблематики. / The object of this work is the identity of an IT specialist. The subject of the study are the features of the psychological health of an IT specialist. The master's thesis consists of an introduction, two chapters, a conclusion, a list of literature (77 sources) and an appendix, which includes the forms of the applied methodologies. The volume of the master's thesis is 98 pages, on which are placed 9 figures and 6 tables. The introduction reveals the relevance of the research problem, the development of the problematics, the purpose and objectives of the research are set, the object and the subject of the study are determined, the basic and additional hypotheses are formulated, the methods and the empirical base are specified, as well as the stages of the research, the scientific novelty, the significance of the work. The first chapter includes a review of foreign and domestic literature on the topic of the study, a general theoretical analysis of topics is conducted. The sections devoted to the consideration of the psychology of health in the light of different approaches and authors, the problem of separation of spheres of mental and psychological health, the specifics of the information technology industry and its impact on the specialist's condition are presented. Conclusions on the first chapter are the results of the study of theoretical material. The second chapter is devoted to the empirical part of the study. It provides a description of the organization and methods of the study and the results obtained from all the methods used: Also in the chapter the comparative and correlation analysis of the research results is presented. The conclusions of Chapter 2 include the main results of the empirical study. In conclusion, the results of the theoretical and empirical parts of the work, as well as conclusions on the hypotheses put forward, are presented in a generalized form, the practical significance of the study is substantiated and possible prospects for further development of this problem are described.

South Africa is no longer trapped in an apartheid era and is now perceived as a multinational state, implying that not only the composition of labour forces have changed, but all other institutions have developed into being more representative of all races. Thus whilst the workplace demographics are rapidly changing, more individuals are preparing themselves to enter the workplace. As a result more diverse cultures also prevail within hostels of higher educational institutions. The objectives of this study were to investigate individual preferences in terms of acculturation strategies as utilised by students in hostels of a higher education institution. Another important objective was to understand the effect of acculturation strategies has on the general well-being and health of individuals. In order to achieve these objectives, Berry's bi-directional Acculturation Model, as well as the Interactive Acculturation Model was used. A cross-sectional survey design with an availability sample (N = 245) was used, taken from hostel students of 3 higher education institution in South Africa. The questionnaire consisted of various items on the acculturation scale, as well as a biographical questionnaire. Descriptive statistics, factor analyses, Cronbach alpha coefficients, MANOVAs, Multiple Regression Analysis, and Pearson product-moment correlation coefficients were used to analyse the data. The results pointed out that females preferred Separation or Assimilation, while males preferred Integration as acculturation strategy. Female hostels preferred Separation as acculturation strategy and male hostels preferred Integration as acculturation strategy. Acculturation strategies in terms of race showed that White groups preferred integration and African groups preferred Separation. Regarding the effect that acculturation strategies have on health, males experienced high levels of physical health problems. Recommendations were made for further research. / Thesis (M.Com. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007

Higher education institutions in South Africa are undergoing transformation because of increasing student numbers, government and the private sector relying on tertiary institutions to assist in solving problems in addition to the globalisation of knowledge. University staff is continuously faced major changes. Immense pressure is placed on academic institutions, including support staff. Support staff are constantly faced with increasing job demands and decreasing job resources. This imbalance and the increase of job stress over a prolonged period of time can lead to the devastating result of burnout. The objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between task characteristics, burnout, health and life satisfaction in a higher education institution in the North West Province. A cross-sectional design was used. The study population (N=334) consisted of support staff members of higher education institutions in the North West Province. The Job Demands-Resources Scale (JDRS), The Maslach Burnout Inventory - GS (MBI-GS), the Health subscale of the ASSET and The Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) were used as measuring instruments. Descriptive statistics (for example, means, standard deviations and kurtosis) were used to analyse the data. Pearson correlations and multiple regression analyses were used to assess the relationships between job demands, job resources, burnout, physical health, psychological health and life satisfaction. The correlation coefficients indicated that exhaustion was positively related to psychological ill-health. Cynicism correlated negatively with growth opportunities. Multiple regression analysis showed that overload and growth opportunities predicted 26% of the variance for exhaustion and 29% of the variance in cynicism. Exhaustion predicted 24% of the variance for physical ill-health and 37% of the variance for psychological ill-health. Psychological ill-health predicted 16% of the variance of life satisfaction. Recommendations for future research and the organisation were made. / Thesis (M.A. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.