Magister Legum - LLM / Section 105A of the Criminal Procedure Act is unconstitutional with regard to its failure to extend benefits to an unrepresented accused. Unlike a represented accused, an unrepresented accused cannot benefit from section 105A. The only recourse available to him or her is to enter a plea of guilty under section 112 of the Criminal Procedure Act. This plea of guilty does not offer him the benefits under section 105A. This causes the section to operate unfairly against the unrepresented accused based on his/her failure to secure legal representation. This continued operation of section 105A infringes on the rights of an accused by not affording this protection to the accused. This is in terms of a right to equality before the law, freedom from discrimination and what constitutes a justifiable limitation under section 36 of the Constitution. South Africa has ratified or acceded to international and regional treaties which require, inter alia that the right to equality before the law is respected. This requires a model framework to be put in place to ensure that unrepresented accused can benefit from section 105A. An evaluation of the viability of adding the unrepresented accused to the protection under section 105A is done. This is informed by experiences from other jurisdictions, which aid the need for reform.

Stigmatized obese individuals tend to internalize the pervasive weight stigma which might lead to self-discrimination and increased psychopathology. While explicit and implicit weight stigma can be measured using self-report questionnaires and Implicit Association Tests (IAT), respectively, the assessment of self-discrimination relied solely on self-report. The present study sought to develop an IAT measuring implicit self-discrimination (SD-IAT) in samples of obese individuals with and without binge-eating disorder (BED). Seventy-eight individuals were recruited from the community and individually matched in three groups. Obese participants with BED, obese participants without BED (OB), and a normal weight control group without eating disorder psychopathology (HC) were assessed with the SD-IAT and other measures relevant for convergent and discriminant validation. Results revealed significantly higher implicit self-discrimination in the BED group when compared to both OB and HC. Furthermore, significant correlations were found between the SD-IAT with body mass index, experiences of weight stigma, depressive symptoms, and implicit self-esteem. Finally, implicit self-discrimination predicted eating disorder psychopathology over and above group membership, and experiences of weight stigma. This study provides first evidence of the validity of the SD-IAT. Assessing implicit self-discrimination might further increase understanding of weight stigma and its significance for psychosocial functioning among vulnerable obese individuals.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-29T13:18:02Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Lilian Evelin dos Santos.pdf: 696473 bytes, checksum: 4b3297aade76d4ea7d8436d44b6b10d8 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2005-04-19 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / The present study was a replication of Dymond & Barnes (1994). The study aimed: (a) to verify if the establishment of a pattern of responding as a discriminative stimulus, consistently paired with a stimulus that belonged to a class of equivalent stimuli, would establish the pattern of responding as a member of the same equivalence class, and (b) to verify if the other stimuli of the stimulus class would control responding as a discriminative stimulus, through the insertion of the response pattern in the class. The experimental procedure had 4 phases: (1) a conditional discrimination training and tests for the emergence of two equivalence classes of 3 stimuli (A1, B1, C1 and A2, B2, C2); (2) a self-discrimination training where two distinct response patterns (clicking or not clicking a mouse, in a 5s period) each one systematically paired with one stimulus of each of the equivalence classes (B1 or B2) were established as conditional stimuli controlling the discriminative function of two stimuli (B1 and B2); (3) Test 1: of the possible control of the self-discrimination response over new stimuli, where it was tested if the response patterns with the mouse also controlled the choice between two other stimuli of the equivalence class (C1 and C2), which were never before paired with responding with the mouse; and (4) Test 2: of the possible control, by the stimuli of the equivalence class, over the pattern of responding with the mouse, where it was tested if a choice of either C1 or C2 was followed by responding / not responding with the mouse. Of the 11 adults who started the experiment, 6 completed the study: the performance of 4 of these 6 participants on Test 1 and of 3 of them on Test 2 were successful. Results were similar to the ones found by Dymond & Barnes (1994), suggesting that: (a) response patterns may acquire behavioral functions as stimuli and may become part of equivalence stimulus classes, and (b) stimuli that are part of a equivalent stimulus class may share behavioral functions, because of a history of differential reinforcement related to only one member of the stimulus class / O presente estudo foi uma replicação de Dymond e Barnes (1994). Seu objetivo foi verificar se (1) o estabelecimento de um padrão de respostas como estímulo discriminativo para outras respostas de um individuo tornaria a resposta (como SD)_membro de uma classe de estímulos equivalentes da qual faz parte um estímulo sistematicamente pareado com a resposta discriminada (e discriminativa), sem qualquer treino direto e se, por outro lado, (2) a participação dessa resposta como membro da classe de estímulos equivalentes tornaria os outros estímulos membros da classe estímulos discriminativos para as mesmas respostas controladas dicriminativamente pela resposta. O procedimento consistiu em quatro fases: 1) treino de discriminação condicional e teste de formação de estímulos equivalentes para a formação de duas classes de três estímulos (A1, B1, C1 e A2, B2 e C2); 2) treino de autodiscriminação, no qual dois diferentes padrões de responder (clicar ou não clicar o mouse num período de 5s) pareados, cada um deles com um estímulo de cada classe de estímulos equivalentes (B1 e B2) - foram estabelecidos como estímulos condicionais numa segunda tarefa - de escolha entre dois estímulos (B1 e B2), cada um deles membro de uma das classes de estímulo equivalente estabelecidas anteriormente; 3) Teste 1: do controle da resposta de autodiscriminação sobre novos estímulos, no qual se testou se os padrões de responder (clicar / não clicar o mouse) controlariam a resposta de escolha entre dois estímulos das classes de equivalência (C1 ou C2), jamais pareados com esses desempenhos e; 4) Teste 2: do controle dos estímulos da classe de estímulos equivalentes sobre o responder , no qual se testou se a escolha entre os estímulos C1 e C2 (que seria controlada pelo desempenho no mouse) passaria a controlar o desempenho posterior no mouse. Participaram deste estudo 11 adultos, dos quais 6 concluíram o experimento. Dos participantes que concluíram, 4 tiveram um desempenho positivo no Teste 1, e destes, 3 tiveram também um desempenho positivo no Teste 2. Os resultados sugeriram que: a) padrões de respostas podem adquirir funções comportamentais de estímulos e podem fazer parte de classes de estímulos equivalentes e b) estímulos que participam de uma classe de estímulos equivalentes podem compartilhar as mesmas funções comportamentais, a partir de uma história de reforçamento diferencial em relação a apenas um estímulo pertencente à classe

Stigmatized obese individuals tend to internalize the pervasive weight stigma which might lead to self-discrimination and increased psychopathology. While explicit and implicit weight stigma can be measured using self-report questionnaires and Implicit Association Tests (IAT), respectively, the assessment of self-discrimination relied solely on self-report. The present study sought to develop an IAT measuring implicit self-discrimination (SD-IAT) in samples of obese individuals with and without binge-eating disorder (BED). Seventy-eight individuals were recruited from the community and individually matched in three groups. Obese participants with BED, obese participants without BED (OB), and a normal weight control group without eating disorder psychopathology (HC) were assessed with the SD-IAT and other measures relevant for convergent and discriminant validation. Results revealed significantly higher implicit self-discrimination in the BED group when compared to both OB and HC. Furthermore, significant correlations were found between the SD-IAT with body mass index, experiences of weight stigma, depressive symptoms, and implicit self-esteem. Finally, implicit self-discrimination predicted eating disorder psychopathology over and above group membership, and experiences of weight stigma. This study provides first evidence of the validity of the SD-IAT. Assessing implicit self-discrimination might further increase understanding of weight stigma and its significance for psychosocial functioning among vulnerable obese individuals.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-29T13:18:03Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Anna.pdf: 760748 bytes, checksum: b044a10b965a0e34c78dd6437370adac (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007-05-18 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / The purpose of this study was: (1) to establish the control of two (typing) responses as SD or conditional stimuli over a second response of choice between stimuli in a MTS task, (2) to verify if the typing responses became members of equivalent stimulus classes, and (3) if other stimuli of the equivalent classes would have discriminative functions similar to these responses . Seven adults participated in the study. On Phase 1 subjects were trained in a MTS task (stimuli relations AB and BC), then tested for the emergence of two stimulus equivalence classes (1 and 2) with three arbitrary stimulus in each one. On Phase 2 typing RFV or UJM on a computer became the stimuli controlling the choice of stimuli B1 or B2. On Phase 3 it was tested if (a) the typing responses became members of the equivalence classes established on Phase 1 and (b) if stimuli (C1 and C2) which had not been present on Phase 2 - acquired discriminative functions similar to the typing responses. Results showed that: equivalence classes were established for all participants on Phase 1; the typing responses assumed discriminative/ conditional functions, controlling the choice between two arbitrary stimuli on Phase 2; the typing responses became members of the equivalence classes; and members of the equivalence classes not present on Phase 2 assumed discriminative functions. Discussion highlights these findings and the consistency of the results / O objetivo desta pesquisa foi colocar respostas (de escolha entre estímulos em uma tarefa de MTS) sob controle de outras respostas (de digitação) como estímulos discriminativos ou condicionais e, então, verificar se as respostas de digitação se tornariam membros de classes de estímulos e, ainda, se a função discriminativa destas respostas seria assumida por outros estímulos membros das classes de estímulos equivalentes, sem treino direto. Participaram de todas as três fases experimentais sete adultos. Na Fase 1 os participantes foram submetidos a um treino de MTS entre estímulos arbitrários (relações AB e BC) no computador e testados para formação de duas classes de estímulos equivalentes (classes 1 e 2) com três estímulos arbitrários em cada uma (A, B, C). Na Fase 2 havia duas tarefas no computador. O objetivo desta Fase foi estabelecer autodiscriminação na qual o participante digitava RFV ou UJM na primeira tarefa e escolhia o estímulo B1 ou B2 na segunda tarefa, condicionalmente a cada uma das respostas possíveis na tarefa 1. Na Fase 3 foi testado se as respostas de digitação participariam das classes de estímulos equivalentes treinadas na Fase 1 e se outros estímulos (C1 e C2) da classe de equivalência demonstrariam as funções discriminativas dos estímulos/respostas de digitação. Destaca-se nos resultados que na Fase 1 todos os participantes formaram classes de estímulos equivalentes, na Fase 2 estabeleceu-se autodiscriminação para todos os participantes. Na Fase 3 averiguou-se que as respostas de digitar passaram a fazer parte das classes de estímulos equivalentes de que participavam os estímulos B1 e B2 e que estímulos das classes de equivalência que não participaram do treino de autodiscriminação (C1 e C2) assumiram função discriminativa como B1 e B2. Na discussão dos resultados ressalta-se a pouca variabilidade nos desempenhos dos participantes, o sucesso no treino de autodiscriminação e nos testes posteriores