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The development and evaluation of a psycho-educational self-enhancement programme

D. Ed. (Adolescent Guidance) / An excessive amount of literature is currently available in the field of selfdevelopment. The sale of books, self-help courses, and the attendance of programmes in this regard have reached higher levels than ever before. It is impossible for the average person to assimilate all the available information, and unfortunately most of these learning materials were never verified to prove their results. It is undeniable that a need for self-development and enhancement programmes does exist - it is however necessary that they are evaluated to establish whether they do indeed work, and that they integrate some of the information to cover as broad an area as possible of the intrapersonal sphere of influence, without overloading the individual learner. In this study, a wide-ranging literature study lead to the researcher concluding that most information in the domain of intrapersonal enhancement can be divided into three primary categories. The first category, the Life Script, which is primarily formed during the childhood years and strengthened or altered by adult experiences, includes all the issues, events and endeavors of the individual's life that made him/her what he/she is today. The second category is the Life Plan, which is future-oriented and represents the dreams, desires and ambitions of the person. The final category is the Strategies, and contains the techniques and skills the individual needs to move from category one, the "as is"/Life Script-scenario, to the second category, the "to be"/Life Plan-scenario. Roughly guided by the 80/20 principle the researcher separated the "vital few'' from the "trivial many" and through the reasoning processes of analysis, derivation and synthesis, supplemented by personal experience in the field, generated a new conceptual framework for intrapersonal enhancement. A cyclical model, based on this conceptual framework, is postulated and described in detail, and showed the way for the development and compilation of the "Du Toit Self-Enhancement Programme." This programme is evaluated through research methodology that is qualitative, explorative, descriptive, and contextual in nature. Ten respondents within a corporate environment attended the programme, and their experiences in this regard explored through phenomenological interviews, reflective diaries, and field notes. The data was analysed, coded and categorized, and the results discussed in detail. The results suggested the existence of two main themes regarding the experiences of the respondents. The first theme is the experiences of change initiated by the programme, including all alterations to the established way of doing, thinking or feeling. The second theme is the experience of the utility value of the programme, including all experiences regarding the usefulness and profitability of the programme. From the discussion of the research results it is evident that the programme had a major effect on the individual learners. It can be concluded that the programme achieved its goal, which is, based on a new conceptual framework on intrapersonal development, to teach and facilitate optimal intrapersonal enhancement. The study's ultimate goal has also been achieved, which is the creation of an integrated and unique conceptual framework on intrapersonal behaviour, and the verification of the programme based on it.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uj/uj:1978
Date January 2012
CreatorsDu Toit, Hermanus Anthonie
Source SetsSouth African National ETD Portal
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis

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