This study explored the effects of a person's God image and religiosity on his or her attitudes toward seeking mental health services. God image for participants was measured using the God Image Scale (Lawrence, 1997) and the Loving and Controlling God Scales (Benson & Spilka, 1973) and religious devotion was measured using the Religious Orientation Scale-Revised (Gorsuch & McPherson, 1989) and the Santa Clara Strength of Religious Faith Scale (Plante, Yancey, Sherman, Guertin, & Pardini, 1999). Attitudes toward counseling were measured using the Attitudes Toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help Scale-Short Form (ATSPPH-SF). Results indicated that individuals who perceive God as present, benevolent, and loving have more positive attitudes towards seeking professional help. Individuals who report higher degrees of intrinsic religiosity also indicated more positive attitudes toward counseling. Further, religious devotion did not add meaningful predictive power to God image in predicting attitudes towards counseling. Finally, religious beliefs were demonstrated to be neither a strong nor statistically significant predictor of attitudes towards counseling.

This study explored the effects of a person's God image and religiosity on his or her attitudes toward seeking mental health services. God image for participants was measured using the God Image Scale (Lawrence, 1997) and the Loving and Controlling God Scales (Benson & Spilka, 1973) and religious devotion was measured using the Religious Orientation Scale-Revised (Gorsuch & McPherson, 1989) and the Santa Clara Strength of Religious Faith Scale (Plante, Yancey, Sherman, Guertin, & Pardini, 1999). Attitudes toward counseling were measured using the Attitudes Toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help Scale-Short Form (ATSPPH-SF). Results indicated that individuals who perceive God as present, benevolent, and loving have more positive attitudes towards seeking professional help. Individuals who report higher degrees of intrinsic religiosity also indicated more positive attitudes toward counseling. Further, religious devotion did not add meaningful predictive power to God image in predicting attitudes towards counseling. Finally, religious beliefs were demonstrated to be neither a strong nor statistically significant predictor of attitudes towards counseling.

Submitted to the Faculty of Education in fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Education in the Department of Educational Psychology and Special Education at the University of Zululand, South Africa, 2010. / One of the most devastating diseases in. modem history as measured in terms of loss of human life is the HIV/AIDS pandemic - Approximately 200 million people have already died. Sub- Sahara Africa is the most affected with South Africa severely affected with an estimated 6 million HIV positive South Africans and 2.5 million already dead from AIDS or related illnesses. This study, located at several primary and secondary schools in the deep rural areas of the Scottsburgh circuit, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, was undertaken to investigate the trend that, despite a higher level of knowledge and exposure to information about HIV/AID amongst educators and despite comprehensive campaigns to fight HIV/AIDS, an increasing number of educators are still dying from the disease. In this study it is assumed that knowledge alone is not enough and that attitude change is central to HIV/AIDS prevention since attitudes influence the way in which persons behave. The following research questions are asked: What is the nature of educators' attitudes towards HIV/AIDS, and, are the educators' attitudes towards HIV/AIDS influenced by variables such as age, gender, religion, experience and qualification? Thus the study aims to: determine the nature of educators' attitudes towards HIV/AIDS, and find out whether or not educators' attitudes towards HIV/AIDS are influenced by characteristics such as, gender, age, experience, religion, and qualification. To determine this, a quantitative study was conducted with 71 secondary and primary school educators in the rural area of KwaZulu Natal, Scottsburgh district. The survey, a cross sectional design, involved administering a fixed response questionnaire (Likert scale type) categorized into five scales, which described the nature of educators' attitudes towards HIV/AIDS. The study revealed that there was no significant difference amongst the sampled educators' attitudes towards HIV/ADS, and that these attitudes were mostly negative. This difference was also not influenced by educators' age, gender, qualification, experience or religion. The study found that educators were still discriminating, reluctant to test themselves and disclose their HIV/AIDS status, which may be related to the failure of HIV/AIDS prevention strategies. The campaign to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS in schools and m communities appears to be jeopardized by such attitudes of educators. The following was recommended: the cascading system of training educators did not work and therefore the Department of Education must ensure that every educator has an opportunity to receive training in HIV/AIDS information; that support systems (emotional, psychological, medical) for those educators infected and affected by HFV/AIDS be made available; financial allocations to HIV/AIDS prevention programmes should be increased but with better fmancial control; employment of full-time co-ordinators who are knowledgeable; provision of incentives to encourage educators to test for HIV/AIDS and programmes that provide social skills training needed for behavioural change, as well as those that aim at reducmg stigraatization, ostracism and discrimination of individuals infected. The researcher suggests that an immediate, urgent strategy to address educator attitudes towards the disease is required from the relevant government departments.

No description available.

Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor Educationis in the Department of Educational Psychology and Special Education Faculty of Education University of Zululand, South Africa, 2012. / The aim of this investigation was to determine learners’ attitudes towards language choice in secondary school. The focus was on secondary school learners attending schools where the medium of instruction is not in their mother tongue. An introductory literature review was provided of mother tongue education versus English as medium of instruction. Advocates of mother tongue education argue that a child learns better and quicker through the mother tongue than through an unfamiliar linguistic medium and it is also an important means of identification among the members of the community to which the child belongs. However, black communities are generally opposed to instruction in their home language because they view the indigenous languages as low status languages and as barriers to their upward mobility in a world dominated by English. In the South African society English is associated with prestige as it is in many other countries. An overview of the current language-in-education practices in South African high schools revealed that depending on which language is taught, as first language either English or Afrikaans is compulsory as a second language. English, as a first language and Afrikaans, which is their third or fourth language, as a second language. The problems experienced with second language instruction were discussed with reference to reading, writing, speaking and listening. For the purpose of the empirical investigation, a self-structured interview was conducted with the educators. A quantitative descriptive analysis was undertaken of the completed questionnaires and a qualitative analysis of the interviews. In conclusion a summary of the study and findings emanating from the literature and empirical investigation was presented. Based on these findings the following recommendations were made:  A school based language policy should be formulated in accordance with the national language-in-education policy but must also take into consideration the language needs of the learners in the school.  Indigenous languages must be developed and promoted by providing financial assistance and/or incentives for literature works and textbooks in the indigenous languages.  Educator training should include strategies to teach multilingual classes.

The study sheds light on the impact of the Iraq invasion of Kuwait in 1990 on Kuwaiti foreign policy, with particular reference to changes in behaviour towards Iraq, from 1990-2010, and the impact of this invasion on changes to the concepts of Kuwaiti foreign policy at regional, Arab and international levels. Thus, the study investigates the ‘impact’ of this invasion on Kuwaiti foreign behavior towards Iraq during the period from 1990 to 2010, the principles and determinants of Kuwaiti foreign policy towards Iraq in this period, and the ‘outstanding issues’ between Iraq and Kuwait and the Kuwaiti vision for Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime from 2003 until 2010. It finds that the trauma of the invasion drastically affected both Arab politics overall and Kuwait’s own policy: for the first time the notion of alliance became a cornerstone of Kuwait’s overall foreign policy – even if its geographical location and exposure to possible threats from Iraq meant that, after Saddam’s fall in 2003, there was a gradual evolution towards trying to help a stabilisation in that country occur. The combination of geographical location and ideational factors in the shape of sectarian cleavages crossing domestic and regional theatres, meant a continued sharp focus not only on military security with external help, but also on the pre-emption of spill-over effects from the sectarianised Iraqi political landscape to Kuwait’s own latent ethno-sectarian divisions. Even so, there were certain red lines that remained uncrossed, in the shape of the so-called outstanding issues that remained to be resolved between Iraq and Kuwait.

Past research has demonstrated that empathy can reduce prejudicial attitudes as it leads people to share a sense of common identity with other cultural groups (Stephan & Finlay, 1999) or by arousing feelings of injustice (Finlay & Stephan, 2000). However, the current volume of research largely centers around administering empathy-inducing scenarios to participants and then assessing levels of prejudicial attitudes as opposed to examining initial levels of empathy. In addition, there is a lack of research regarding modern prejudicial attitudes towards individuals of Aboriginal descent. The present study examines the predictive value of ethnocultural empathy, age, gender, and social desirability on the levels of those prejudicial attitudes. One hundred and sixty eight undergraduate students from the University of Saskatchewan completed a questionnaire, including the Scale of Ethnocultural Empathy (Wang, Davidson, Yakushko, Savoy, Tan, & Bleier, 2003), the Prejudiced Attitudes Towards Aboriginals Scale (Morrison, 2007), and Form C of the Marlowe Crowne Social Desirability Scale (Reynolds, 1982). <p>The multiple regression analysis revealed that ethnocultural empathy and age were predictive of modern prejudicial attitudes toward Aboriginals. Participants with higher levels of ethnocultural empathy reported reduced levels of modern prejudicial attitudes. However, contrary to expectation, gender was not a significant predictor variable. Practical applications and limitations of these findings are discussed as well as directions for future research.

Past research has demonstrated that empathy can reduce prejudicial attitudes as it leads people to share a sense of common identity with other cultural groups (Stephan & Finlay, 1999) or by arousing feelings of injustice (Finlay & Stephan, 2000). However, the current volume of research largely centers around administering empathy-inducing scenarios to participants and then assessing levels of prejudicial attitudes as opposed to examining initial levels of empathy. In addition, there is a lack of research regarding modern prejudicial attitudes towards individuals of Aboriginal descent. The present study examines the predictive value of ethnocultural empathy, age, gender, and social desirability on the levels of those prejudicial attitudes. One hundred and sixty eight undergraduate students from the University of Saskatchewan completed a questionnaire, including the Scale of Ethnocultural Empathy (Wang, Davidson, Yakushko, Savoy, Tan, & Bleier, 2003), the Prejudiced Attitudes Towards Aboriginals Scale (Morrison, 2007), and Form C of the Marlowe Crowne Social Desirability Scale (Reynolds, 1982). <p>The multiple regression analysis revealed that ethnocultural empathy and age were predictive of modern prejudicial attitudes toward Aboriginals. Participants with higher levels of ethnocultural empathy reported reduced levels of modern prejudicial attitudes. However, contrary to expectation, gender was not a significant predictor variable. Practical applications and limitations of these findings are discussed as well as directions for future research.

Rabies is a viral disease caused by the rabies lyssavirus (RABV). Despite effective rabies vaccines for humans and animals, this disease continues to pose a major public health challenge, causing an estimated 59 000 human deaths each year, over 99% of which are caused by the domestic dog (Canis familiaris). Current methods of dog population management used in rabies control programs are ineffective. Surgical sterilisation does not reach enough of the dog population to curb population densities and contraceptives need to be administered at a specific phase in the oestrous cycle or cause a range of side effects. Immunocontraception in dogs would allow rabies vaccination coverage to be maintained, in turn reducing the burden of rabies on public health. The aim of this study was to develop an immunocontraceptive vaccine for dogs capable of eliciting a stronger immune response than that of previously constructed vaccines allowing for effective dog population management and allowing rabies vaccination coverage to be maintain, in turn reducing the burden of rabies on public health. By stabilising the dog population size, the 70% vaccination coverage required to interrupt rabies transmission within a population can be maintained. The immunocontraceptive vaccine constructed in this study contained two reproductive hormones, namely GnRH and kisspeptin, in the hope of eliciting a stronger contraceptive effect than either of these could produce alone, as well as the partial tetanus toxoid gene as an immune stimulant. The nucleic acid GnRH, kisspeptin and partial tetanus toxoid gene (GKT) insert fragment was PCR amplified from a DNA construct (pVAC-GKT) and was cloned into the adenoviral vector using In-fusion cloning technology. Transfection of pAdeno-X 293 cells was confirmed using green fluorescent microscopy and expression of the Ad-GKT mRNA in cell culture was confirmed using real-time RT-PCR. The antigenicity of the Ad-GKT construct was evaluated using female Swiss Webster mice. An indirect ELISA was used to detect seroconversion of the GnRH and Kisspeptin insert fragments. The Ad-GKT construct was successful in eliciting an immune response against GnRH and kisspeptin. Future research should include a comparative study to determine the antigenicity of the Ad-GnRH1 and Ad-GKT constructs in a canine trial for potential use in rabies control programs. / Dissertation (MSc (Microbiology))--University of Pretoria, 2021. / The Poliomyelitis Research Foundation grant (19/89). University of Pretoria postgraduate masters research bursary. Technology Innovation Agency Seed Fund. National Research Foundation grant (122016). / Microbiology and Plant Pathology / MSc (Microbiology) / Restricted

Each year, there is an increase in the number of international students pursuing higher education in the United States. These students often experience varying degrees of acculturative stress. International students are however not likely to seek counseling. Stigma has been identified as a major barrier to seeking psychological help. The study explored the relationship between self-stigma, social stigma, gender, and length of stay/residence as predictors of attitudes towards seeking professional psychological help of international students attending Mississippi State University. Results of the study indicated that between self-stigma and gender were statistically significant predictors of international students’ attitudes towards seeking professional psychological help. Self-stigma was inversely related to students’ attitudes towards seeking counseling and implied that international students with greater self-stigma were more likely to have negative attitudes towards seeking professional psychological help. Mean scores on the attitudes towards counseling scale suggested that some participants were positively inclined towards counseling while others were not. Similarly, mean scores on the self-stigma scale indicated that some participants found the act of seeking help personally stigmatizing while others did not. There were no statistically significant differences between males and females, and their attitudes towards seeking professional counseling. The results indicated that self-stigma might have a greater influence on help seeking as compared to social stigma. It also confirms the research that suggests that gender might play a role in influencing attitudes toward counseling. Limitations of the study, especially with regard to recruitment and mode of data collection, sampling procedures, instrumentation, and other demographic variables were discussed and alternatives explored.