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Master of Science / School of Family Studies and Human Services / Jared R. Anderson / Couples often wait until the very end to seek help for their relationship, with divorce being one of the primary concerns cited in couple’s therapy (Doss, Simpson & Christensen, 2004). While couples appear to be reluctant to seek formal resources, we know that over 50% of individuals are confiding in friends and family about their relationship (Lind Seal, Doherty, & Harris, 2015). Currently, the literature is limited and unable to provide a comprehensive explanation for why individuals do or do not seek help for their relationship. Using an interdisciplinary approach, we adapted a medical model- the Health Belief Model (HBM)- to relationship help-seeking. Based on the success of this model at predicting help-seeking behaviors related to physical and mental health, we believe it could be applicable to relationship help-seeking. In addition to identify factors associated with relationship help-seeking behaviors, we hope to identify factors that mediate both formal and informal relationship help-seeking behaviors. To study this we collected data from 347 individuals in emotionally committed relationships. The results of the analysis showed that the perception of threats, such as greater relationship instability and greater negative social comparison, were linked to more online help-seeking; whereas expectations such as the greater endorsement of stigma of self and masculinity were linked to lower levels relationship help-seeking behaviors and worse attitudes toward help-seeking. Furthermore, greater stigma of self was found to be directly linked to having a worse attitude toward help-seeking, as well as indirectly linked to lower rates of formal and online relationship help-seeking behaviors via the prior effects of attitudes toward help-seeking. The results of this study suggest further areas for investigation in regard to relationship help-seeking, specifically around self-stigma.

Master of Science / School of Family Studies and Human Services / Amber V. Vennum / Cyclical relationships (where multiple break-ups and renewals have occurred) have been characterized as being in a state of “stable instability” (Vennum & Johnson, 2015), and emerging adulthood has been deemed a critical phase of relational development and learning, as well as a time marked by instability (Arnett 2000; 2007). While the research continues to expand on what we know about the concurrent and enduring risks for distress associated with relationship cycling, little is known about what change mechanisms/interventions may reduce these risks, or how helping professionals (therapists, relationship educators) can specifically assist young adults in cyclical relationships. After conducting five focus groups, researchers found specific factors that promote or detract from “decision-making resiliency”, or DMR. Specific points of intervention for professionals working with cyclical relationships to promote DMR are discussed, which included identity development, communication, power/control dynamics and intentionality. Building off of what is known about the nuances of cyclical relationships, this study aims to inform assessments and intervention(s) that would help bolster resilience and decision-making skills in cyclical couples (or couples who have slid into relationships and are, thus, at risk for cycling) in an effort to reduce further distress.

abstract: Research has demonstrated that intimate partner violence (IPV) plays an important role in relationship satisfaction. Consistently, the research has indicated a negative association between the prevalence of IPV and relationship satisfaction (Cano & Vivian, 2003; Hotaling & Sugarman, 1990; Vivian & Langhrinrichsen-Rohling, 1994); however, more recent research has provided evidence of higher relationship satisfaction when IPV is present (Frieze, 2005; Hamby & Gray-Little, 2000; Williams & Frieze, 2005). There has been less emphasis placed on uncovering possible explanations for this inconsistency. Some researchers have suggested that victims find ways to rationalize their offender's behavior (Ackerman & Field, 2011), do not consider themselves victims of violence (Hamby & Gray-Little, 2000), or even fail to identify physical violence as IPV (Ferraro & Johnson, 1983) in order to maintain their desire to feel satisfied in their relationship. There is a need for additional research to understand why an individual might report higher relationship satisfaction when IPV is present in her/his intimate relationship and attempt to uncover underlying, contributing factors of IPV. This study sought understanding of the potential mediating role that idealization, the overly positive illusions of a partner or the intimate relationship (Murray, Holmes, & Griffin, 1996a; 1996b), may play on the association between IPV and relationship satisfaction. Additionally, gender was examined as a potential moderator between the predictor and outcome variables as IPV research has consistently documented the need for greater gender symmetry within this topic. One hundred and fifty-two adults (75 males and 77 females) who were currently involved in an intimate relationship (e.g., dating, engaged, married) or had been within the past 12-months completed a survey that assessed IPV, idealization, and relationship satisfaction. Three types of IPV were measured for the purposes of this study (i.e., psychological aggression, physical assault, and sexual coercion), and each was analyzed separately. Results indicated that idealization served as a mediating variable in the relationship between IPV and relationship satisfaction for all three types of IPV. Gender was not found to moderate the relationships for any of the three types of IPV and relationship satisfaction. Limitations, implications, and future research are discussed. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Counseling Psychology 2018

Regardless of therapeutic orientation, the therapeutic relationship has been consistently shown as central to the therapeutic process. However, research has also shown that this can be difficult to achieve when working with sex-offenders. Less is known about the experience of this relationship and little qualitative research has been conducted in this area. This current study therefore aimed to provide valuable insight into the first-hand accounts of therapists directly working with this client group through exploring their experience of the therapeutic relationship, using a qualitative approach. The study focused upon the experiences of eight Counselling Psychologists, in order to keep the sample homogenous, and explored the differences the therapists may have experienced compared to other client groups. Additionally, it aimed to highlight what difficulties, if any, have arisen in the therapeutic relationships and potentially how these have been experienced, managed, overcome and addressed. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with eight counselling psychologists who have worked therapeutically with sex-offenders. Verbatim transcripts of the interviews were then analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). The analysis illustrated four master themes: i) Forming a relationship- negotiating the degree of intimacy; ii) overcoming barriers to the relationship- contending with the context; iii) establishing a relationship- feeling a reaction yet managing a response; iv) reaping the rewards of the relationship- out of the darkness and into the light. A description of these master themes and the related subordinate themes were presented. The results of the analysis were considered in light of existing theory and their clinical implications.

This research project explores a number of issues related to the topic of Total Customer Engagement Value, specifically looking to ascertain whether encouraging engagement amongst consumers can be costly to a firm, whether Word of Mouth activity distributed through high engagement channels may be relatively ineffective, whether the acquirement and utilisation of information from these channels can damage an organisation and whether the rewarding of customers for engagement behaviours can lead to resentment on behalf of their lower engaged counterparts. A quantitative study was undertaken wherein the following was measured amongst consumers of Internet Service Providers: Total Customer Engagement Value, Personal Values, the level of technological-savviness of individuals who seek out information from respondents, the stated likelihood of switching to an alternative service provider, measurements related to service expectations, and perceptions related to the preferential treatment of other customers. The study did find that there are a number of potential issues regarding the asserted benefits of customer engagement. It was illustrated that in some instances lesserengaged customers may be more desirable to a firm. Word of Mouth may remain isolated to a group of similar individuals, and thus limit the supposed effectiveness of the spread of information via social media. Focussing on Highly-Engaged individuals as a source of information was also shown to be potentially dangerous, as they differed in four of their personal values. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / zkgibs2014 / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / MBA / Unrestricted

M.Com. (Marketing Management) / Despite the extensive research undertaken in the subject area of services marketing, not much research has been conducted in the internal marketing area, specifically in the South African context. This study attempted to address this subject and focused on seven internal marketing mix elements (internal product, internal price, internal promotion, internal distribution, internal people, internal process and internal physical evidence) and their influence on the satisfaction of graduate development employees within retail banks in South Africa. Further to this, the link between employee satisfaction and affective commitment was explored due to its impact on employee productivity. The growth of the service sector worldwide has led to services being considered as one of the most important sectors in the world. The contribution of the South African service sector to GDP was 68.1% in 2012, where the financial services sector in South Africa has already overtaken the manufacturing sector as the largest contributor to GDP. The financial service sector contributed 22% in 2008. Given the homogeneity within the retail banking industry, there is very little differentiating the banks, and imitation of any innovation is inevitable. For this reason a market-driven strategy that enables retail banks to deliver superior quality is essential as service quality is the only real differentiator and key to building a competitive advantage. Given its employees who create the service experience, the employee as the internal customer becomes the organisation’s most valuable asset. For this reason, retail banks in South Africa have been placing an increased focus on recruiting at the graduate level leading to the establishment of Graduate Development Programmes (GDPs). These banking GDPs are specifically designed to help graduates succeed in complex environments and to build the talent pipeline by providing an in-depth training programme. However one of the biggest challenges faced by banks is the satisfaction and retention of their GDP employees. Banks generally experience high attrition rates amongst this group of employees mainly due to job dissatisfaction which impacts service quality provided to external customers, and which increases the organisation’s costs. An internal marketing programme aimed at employees could enhance employee satisfaction which in turn could enhance employee levels of affective commitment resulting in higher retention rates. Satisfied employees will go the extra mile to serve external customers and in this manner service quality can be improved. In order to investigate the influence of the internal marketing mix on employee satisfaction and test the relationship between employee satisfaction and affective commitment, an empirical investigation was conducted. The primary research objective of the study was to investigate the influence of the internal marketing mix on employee satisfaction from GDP employees’ perspective in order to enhance their satisfaction at retail banks with graduate development programmes in South Africa. In addition to this, the relationship between satisfaction and affective commitment was explored. A census approach was applied to the study using a person administered and an electronic survey method. All retail banks with graduate development programmes were invited to participate in the study of which three agreed to participate. Of the 360 graduates, 64 employees agreed to participate in the study. Regression analysis was used to test the relationships proposed in the study. The internal promotion and internal physical evidence scales were discarded due to poor construct validity, internal distribution emerged as a two-factor solution and was split into collaborative culture and organisational structure, and the internal price element was not regarded as statistically significant. From the study, the internal marketing mix elements that influenced employee satisfaction to come to fore included internal product, collaborative culture, organisational structure, internal people and internal process. The outcome of the regression analysis showed that employee satisfaction is influenced by internal product, collaborative culture, organisational structure, internal people and internal process. In addition to this, it was concluded that employee satisfaction influences affective commitment. Based on these outcomes, recommendations were made to retail banks for the implementation of a formal internal marketing mix through for example the implementation of the internal people element. Retail banks would be able to ensure that supervisors are easily accessible and providing constant ongoing feedback, a benefit which was identified as the most important contributor to GDP job satisfaction.

Marriage it seems has always been a key element in the family systems of the western world. The joining of two people of the opposite sex in a unity bond, with the purpose of creating a system to produce children and bring them to adulthood. These marriage bonds usually start with a romantic love affair between the partners that lead to a permanent joining in some form of marriage. It is these long term bonds that seem to suffer from endless pursuits to find a way to be joined for a lifetime. In most of the western world the divorce rate between couples average fifty pe People from all walks of life seem to suffer the same fate and Christians specifically do not seem to indicate a higher rate of marital success. The faith and biblical principals Christians adhere to is a strong motivator to keep people together but does not have all the practical answers for the co-habitation of to individuals in a long term relationship. Christian marriage counseling possess several unique traits that enhances their counseling processes but does not indicate to have a significant higher success rate than an other form of marital counseling. Imago relationship therapy is an approach to relationship counseling that offers some new ideas and methods. It combines several principals from different psychological therapeutic approaches into a unique relational approach. Based on the belief that the relationship is a systemic it approaches the couple as a unity and all therapy is done with both partners present. The approach uses several practical exercises to foster emotional connection between the partners and teach them new relational and communication skills. This approach indicates a high success rate and seems to seamlessly flow with normal Christian counselling. The principals of Christian marriage counseling can be enhanced and put into practice by using the imago techniques. It is deducted that Imago relationship therapy can easily be integrated into a Christian marriage counseling approach and produce good results. / Prof. W.J. Hattingh

D.Phil. (Sports Management) / Despite the large amounts of money spent on sponsorships and per implication sport sponsorship, little research is available concerning sponsorship practices in South Africa. There is thus a need for a research study or project to establish how corporate sponsors and sport organisations manage relationship marketing within sponsorships. Literature shows that there is a need to understand the various relationships in sport sponsorships, in order to be able to establish and maintain long-term successful sponsorship agreements. Most international as well as local research on the subject, focused on the establishing of the sponsorship objectives (Abratt & Grobler, 1989; Mattheus, 1996; Polonsky, Sandler, Casey, Murphy, Portelli & Van Velzen, 1996 and Spence, Abratt & Mattheus, 1997). Although this gap is prevalent in the broader field of sponsorships, the focus of this study is on the maintaining and enhancing of the sponsorship relationship between a corporate sponsoring organisation (the sponsor) and sport federations (the sponsoree). The primary objective of this study is to develop a framework from a marketing perspective that could guide the establishment and enhancment of relationships in sport sponsorships in South Africa between a sponsor and a sponsoree. The following sub objectives were formulated to help achieve the primary objective of the study: - Identify, describe, analyze and contextualize the relationships within sport sponsorships. - Investigate, describe and argue the theoretical framework of marketing and the positioning of relationships therein. - Compare the theoretical framework of relationships in sport sponsorship with the current practices within the South African context. For the purpose of this study, the respondents have been divided into two categories. The first category is corporate organisations in South Africa involved with sport sponsorships (that is corporate organisations sponsoring sport). The second category is the sport organisations in South Africa (sport codes) that receive sponsorship money. The first phase of the study involved an intensive study of the available literature on the subject, involving local as well as international resources. This provided the academic as well as the theoretical basis for this study. The second phase of the study focused on the empirical research of the study. During the empirical research phase, a questionnaire was developed in order to determine the primary and secondary objectives of the study. The growth in sponsorships illustrates its popularity as a marketing communication element to be applied by organisations. All indicators are that sport sponsorships will continue to play a major role in the marketing communication of organisations. It is therefore important that marketers understand the role of sport sponsorships within marketing. Corporate organisations view the sponsorship relationships as an activity that will benefit both the corporate organisations, as well as the sport federations. This implies that such a relationship already exists. Sport federations on the other hand rank the development of such a relationship as a priority, implying that they are of the opinion that such a relationship does not exist at this point. The two target groups ranked the reasons (or intentions) to become involved in sponsorships somewhat differently. For the respondents of the corporate organisations, the development of the corporate image is the most important goal. The respondents from the sport federations are of the opinion that the most important goal for corporate organisations to get involved with sponsorships lies in the fact that sponsorships have the ability to generate some free publicity for the organisation. The respondents of the two target groups viewed the different factors that might have an influence on the sponsorship decision-making differently. Respondents from corporate organisations viewed the ability to get their organisation involved in the community as the element that had the greatest influence on their decision-making process while the respondents from the sport federations on the other hand saw the coverage that a sporting event would get, as the element that would have the biggest impact on the decision making process. Trust was viewed by both the corporate organisation as well as the sport federations as an important element in the forming and establishment of relationship marketing within sport sponsorships. In the establishment of relationships within sport sponsorships, the conclusion can be drawn that the concept of loyalty has a very strong influence, since the respondents from both target groups viewed it as such. The same conclusion can be drawn concerning the development of bonds in sport sponsorship relationships. After comparing the views of the two target groups concerning the role of empathy in sport sponsorship relationship, it was found that each group had a different view of its importance. The respondents from the corporate organsiations saw it as very important while the respondents

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