The prevalence of dieting is alarmingly high amongst adolescents in South Africa. Dieting behaviour, influenced by the promotion of the thin ideal, poses one of the main risks for eating disorders, which have serious physical, psychological and social consequences, including death. Treatment of eating disorders is a costly, difficult and long-term process, therefore preventative measures have been advocated. One of the shortcomings of existing school-based primary intervention programmes has been the failure to bring about significant changes in body image, a key defining feature of eating disorders. This study evaluates the effectiveness of a modified version of Rosen's body image programme with adolescents, with the view to exploring the idea of adding a body image component to existing preventative programmes. The modified version of Rosen's programme proved to be effective in improving the body image of mid-adolescents. / Educational Studies / M. Ed. (Psychology of Education, with specialisation in Guidance and Counselling)

The study sought to explore the influence of gastrointestinal symptoms in female respondents with emetophobia disorder, panic disorder with agoraphobia and obsessive compulsive disorder. The research assessed a sample of sixty respondents which formed part of three groups which were recruited from clinical and online support groups. The age ranged from twenty to forty-five years. Non-probability quota sampling was employed. A non-experimental research design was implemented in order to make comparisons between these groups’ association of gastrointestinal symptoms and the occurrence of possible vomiting. The differential research strategy determined whether a statistically significant difference existed. The groups were assessed on the Gastrointestinal Symptom Score (2005) and the Patient Assessment of Upper Gastrointestinal Symptom Severity Index (2004). The research aimed to determine whether empirical support exists for the Cognitive Behavioural Model of Emetophobia by Boschen (2007). / Psychology / M.A. (Psychology)

M.A. / This study is an attempt to investigate the way in which female survivors of childhood sexual abuse made sense of their experiences. Three participants were interviewed and the relevant themes that emerged from those interviews were coded and reported. The study was conducted from a qualitative perspective that was grounded in social construction methodology. The survivors' individual constructions of meaning at the time of their sexual abuse, their introduction to the social constructions of meaning about child sexual abuse and the double bind between these constructions are reported. The survivors' narratives are representations of the positive way they constructed meaning about their experiences as a way of coping. Their stories are also reflections of the confusion they experienced when introduced to the social constructions of child sexual abuse that differed from the meaning they attributed to their experiences. The study is a representation of the double bind that the difference between the individual and social constructions of their child sexual abuse created for them.

Submitted by Biblioteca Central (biblioteca@unicap.br) on 2017-10-09T18:21:28Z No. of bitstreams: 1 dissertacao_socorro.pdf: 967151 bytes, checksum: 3a33e81100f886b31528d2091a495bdf (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-10-09T18:21:28Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 dissertacao_socorro.pdf: 967151 bytes, checksum: 3a33e81100f886b31528d2091a495bdf (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-05-07 / The study of domestic violence is an important theme that has been arousing interest in social and human sciences researchers. In order to contribute to a better knowledge of this subject, this research had as objective to comprehend the experience of women in domestic violence situation and the ways that these women subject this violence. It is a work that intended to put on the agenda the need of an organization with systematic services of global attention, considering the different requests regarding health, social and legal protection. The importance given to the problem is due to the increasing awareness of gender hierarchy and inequality, the recognition of women’s rights and the consistent evidences of the phenomenon’s great magnitude at a world level. The participants were women resident in the cities of Recife and Afogados da Ingazeira/PE – Sertão do Pajeú who usually seeks the services of Grupo Mulher Maravilha non-governmental organization. The instrument used to approach this phenomenon was semi-structured interviews which were performed individually. Collected data were grouped in thematic axis according to their nucleus of meanings for a better comprehension. The analyzed data shows the difficulty that women find in breaking up with the suffered violence by letting themselves to expose their situation through different reasons: the fear of their partner kills them and the possibility of their children see their father arrested; the credit given to the matrimony and family concept; the fact of they feel sorry for the partner to be an alcoholic or for he is unemployed ; and because they cannot find effective help from the organizations of woman’s defense. It is valuable to emphasize that this data corroborates with the idea that the roots of domestic violence against women are founded in a society that is based in a patriarchal system, fruit from the disparity between men and women of different races and social and cultural positions. Therefore, violence is observed as a complex matter as well as the politic solutions for its prevention and eradication and so requiring a wide comprehension of the problem. In the other hand, this research shows the importance of the clinic psychology in the break process of domestic violence contributing for a rescue of women’s self-esteem and autonomy in their attempt to interrupt the violence cycle and the matrimonial and domestic pacts which to they are submitted. / O estudo da violência doméstica é um tema de suma importância que vem despertando interesse por parte de pesquisadores das ciências humanas e sociais. Com o intuito de contribuir para o aprofundamento desta temática, esta pesquisa teve como objetivo compreender a experiência de mulheres em situação de violência doméstica e os modos como estas mulheres subjetivam esta violência. Trata-se de um trabalho que pretendeu colocar em pauta a necessidade de uma organização de serviços voltados a esta população, assentados na atenção global, considerando as diferentes demandas pertinentes à saúde, proteção social e jurídica. A importância dada ao problema é fruto da crescente conscientização acerca das desigualdades de gênero, do paulatino reconhecimento dos direitos da mulher e das consistentes evidências da grande magnitude do fenômeno em escala mundial. As participantes desta pesquisa foram mulheres que estão em situação de violência doméstica residentes na cidade do Recife/PE e em Afogados da Ingazeira/PE – Sertão do Pajeú que procuram os serviços do Grupo Mulher Maravilha – organização não-governamental. O instrumento utilizado para nos aproximarmos do fenômeno foram entrevistas semidirigidas, realizadas individualmente. Os dados coletados foram agrupados em eixos temáticos para, a partir daí, compreendê-los segundo seus núcleos de sentido. Os dados analisados mostram a dificuldade que as mulheres encontram em romperem com a violência sofrida, deixando expor o seu aprisionamento por diferentes motivos: o medo de o companheiro matá-la; o receio de que os filhos venham sofrer com a possibilidade de verem o pai preso; o valor creditado ao casamento e a família; sentem pena do companheiro por ser um alcoolista ou por está desempregado; e por não encontrarem ajuda efetiva dos órgãos de defesa da mulher. Vale ressaltar que esses dados corroboram que as raízes da violência doméstica contra a mulher estão fundadas em uma sociedade que se constituiu baseada em um sistema patriarcal, fruto da desigualdade entre homens e mulheres de diferentes raças, etnias, classe social e cultural. Portanto, observa-se a violência como uma questão complexa, bem como as soluções políticas para a sua prevenção e erradicação, requerendo uma compreensão ampla do problema. Por outro lado, a pesquisa mostra a importância da psicologia clínica no processo de ruptura da violência doméstica, contribuindo para um resgate da auto-estima e da autonomia das mulheres, na tentativa de elas romperem o ciclo da violência e os pactos conjugais e domésticos a que estão submetidas.

This study examined the relationship between perceived social support and negative mental health outcomes in battered women. Correlations between perceived social support and depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder were analyzed. Perceived social support, particularly from family members, was found to be significantly related to mental health outcomes. Results indicate that agencies that work with battered women should include social support in the assessment and intervention processes. The study utilized a quantitative survey design with a sample of 120 battered women from four domestic violence agencies throughout Riverside and San Bernardino counties. Quantitative data analysis procedures, such as multivariate analysis and logistic regression, were used to further examine variables. Samples of the instruments used in the study are included.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Women who fail to confront sexism can experience negative intrapersonal consequences, such as greater negative self-directed affect (negself) and greater obsessive thoughts, particularly if they are highly committed to challenging sexism. Female undergraduates (N = 392) were sampled to investigate whether failing to confront past sexism influences future task performance and whether any effects on performance occur through the depletion of cognitive resources. Participants were randomly assigned to recall either confronting or failing to confront past sexism, then completed measures of affect, obsessive thoughts, working memory, and performance. Women who recalled failing to confront were expected to have greater negself and obsessive thoughts related to the situation and lower working memory and performance, and desire to respond to the situation was expected to moderate these effects. As predicted, compared with women who recalled confronting, women who recalled failing to confront reported greater negself. Contrary to predictions, there was no significant effect of confrontation condition on obsessive thoughts, working memory, or performance. However, condition interacted with desire to confront, such that the more women who recalled failing to confront wanted to respond to the situation, the more negself they reported and the lower their working memory. In addition, for women who recalled confronting, greater desire to respond was associated with higher performance, while desire to respond was unrelated to performance for women who recalled failing to confront. In contrast to predictions, neither obsessive thoughts nor working memory mediated the failure to confront-performance relationship, and there was no evidence of moderated mediation. In sum, although the cognitive variables of obsessive thoughts and working memory did not mediate the effect of failing to confront on performance, the results nevertheless demonstrate the importance of confronting sexism, particularly when one wants to do so, and have important implications for settings like the workplace where women may face discrimination and have to decide whether or not to confront.