Doctoral Degrees (Psychology)

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From West Street to Dr Pixley KaSeme Street: How contemporary racialised subjectivities are (re)produced in the city of Durban.
(2009) Brown, Lyndsay.; Durrheim, Kevin Locksley.
From West Street to Dr Pixley kaSeme Street:1 How contemporary racialised subjectivities are (re)p roduced in the city of Durban This thesis is part of the larger mission to understand and challenge the ongoing reproduction of race. The focus of this particular project is on how race is perpetuated through the continuing construction of our racialised subjectivities in/through place. This idea is broadly epitomised by the idea that „who we are is where we are? (Dixon and Durrheim, 2000) and the recognition that this process is highly racialised. This emphasis locates this project squarely within the social psychology of race, place and identity. To collect data that could facilitate access to racialised place-identity constructions I used a mobile methodology wherein black and white city government officials (who had grown up in Durban) took me on a walking and/or driving tour of the city of Durban talking with me about the racial transformation of this city from our childhood (in apartheid times) to the present (post-apartheid) city. These conversations were digitally recorded and transcribed for analysis. I also recorded various activities that took place during the tour and made extensive pre-tour and post-tour notes. All of this material was utilised analytically. Initially I analysed the discursive practices which we (the participants) engaged in as we constructed the racialised city historically and contemporaneously and reflected on the attendant subjectivities of blackness and whiteness invoked by this particular place-identity talk. When it became apparent that there was more to the production of race on the tours than that which was produced by our implaced talk my analysis progressed to an examination of other practices which produced race on the tours, namely, our material/embodied interactive practices. Through paying close analytic attention to our interaction on the tours it became evident that key practices which produced race on the tours – the spatial, discursive and embodied practices – were inextricably connected to each other in a „trialectical? (tri-constitutional) relationship. I argue that we need to analyse this trialectical relationship further because of the ways in which it facilitates the creation of racial sticking points which obfuscate racial transformation in South Africa.
An analysis of the experiences of children with cerebral palsy in therapeutic horse riding
(2009) Naidoo, Pravani.; Hayes, Grahame.
This study utilised a qualitative interpretive approach to investigate the subjective
The standardisation of a battery of intelligence tests suitable for Indian primary school children in Durban.
(1956) Logue, G. D.; Schmidt, Wilfred H. O.
No abstract available.
The production of context : using activity theory to understand behaviour change in response to HIV and AIDS.
(2009) Van der Riet, Mary Boudine.; Durrheim, Kevin Locksley.
This thesis explores the problem of sexual behaviour change in a country which has the largest number of people living with HIV in the world. Despite awareness of HIV, and knowledge of protective behaviours, many young South Africans still engage in risky sexual practices, exposing themselves to risk of HIV infection. This lack of behaviour change by people who know the risks involved is the focus of this thesis. I begin by developing a critique of the dominant behaviour change theories which underpin HIV and AIDS interventions, and the way in which they conceptualise the relationship between the individual and society. These theories assume a universal, rational individual who engages in decision-making before action, or is prevented by problematic factors of ‘context’ (e.g. poverty, culture, gender dynamics) from engaging in appropriate protective health decisions. This conceptualisation of behaviour is inadequate in understanding the problem of behaviour change. Cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT), with its roots in the theories of Marx, Engels, Vygotsky and Leontiev, enables a different gaze on the problem of behaviour change, shifting the primary focus from cognition to activity. This provides an alternative dialectical conceptualisation of the relationship between the individual and society. In this thesis I articulate and extend the methodology inherent in CHAT. In a study conducted in a rural area in South Africa I recruited qualitative research processes to explore the cultural-historical context of early sexual experiences leading to intercourse; and the participants’ experiences of sexual activity in relation to HIV and AIDS. The conceptual and methodological tools inherent in CHAT enabled the production of the context of sexual activity. The focus on sexual activity as the central object unit and the analysis of the activity system illuminated the activity of sex as a social practice, produced and enacted within particular interpersonal, social and historical dynamics. Through an historical and current contextualisation of sexual activity CHAT-based analysis of the data enabled an articulation of contradictions and turbulence within the activity system. The problem of a lack of behaviour change is understood through this production of context. Activity system analysis revealed how the introduction of the injectable contraceptive gendered the division of labour in sexual activity. An analysis of the relationship between the subject and the object of the activity system revealed a phalocentric identity investment as an outcome of sexual activity. This analysis also illustrated the relative invisibility of HIV compared to pregnancy as a negative outcome of sexual activity. These dynamics of the activity system structure power and resistance to change in the interaction. By accounting for the status of the activity system this analysis facilitated an understanding of a lack of behaviour change in response to HIV and AIDS. This research process forms the basis for a tentative proposal for intervention using the CHAT-based Change Laboratory approach.
Implications of the multi-male troop structure in vervet monkeys (cercopithecus aethiops pygerythrus)
(1991) Baldellou, Maria Isabel.
The aim of this study is to assess the advantages and disadvantages to all the troop members, of vervet males remaining in heterosexual groups outside the mating season. Extensive data on time budgeting and social interactions have been obtained for both a caged and a free-ranging undisturbed troop. Some of the potential advantages males provide to other members of the troop are: improvement in predator detection, maintenance of the troop unity and interference in agonistic interactions involving females and immatures. Special emphasis is placed on the analysis of seasonal changes in agonistic, social, sexual and proximity relationships of male-male and male-female pairs. The influence of male and female dominance rank and the vervet male genital signalling system are discussed. Also a framework to achieve a better understanding of vervet monkey sexuality is provided. A detailed analysis of male inspection of female's genitalia (visual, tactile, olfactory and muzzling), female receptivity, attractivity and proceptive behaviour has been done in order to investigate male and female mate choice. These behaviours are expected to be related to time of conception, although it was found that male and female rank, mate choice and possibly the age of the mates influence their outcome. In addition, sexual consortships and other alternative male strategies (besides agonistic rank) to control access to receptive females are described for the first time in vervet monkeys. The multi-male structure of vervet societies has been questioned by other authors, mostly because of the absence of male-male agonistic coalition against other males, and the absence of sexual consortships and other special friendly bonds between males and females. However, the results of this study do show that all the above patterns may also occur among vervet monkeys, therefore the multi-male structure of vervet monkeys is similar to the one found in baboon and macaque societies.
Making practice visible : analysing the interactional tasks of voluntary counselling and testing.
(2008) Van Rooyen, Heidi.; Lindegger, Graham Charles.; Durrheim, Kevin Locksley.
Voluntary counselling and testing, the cornerstone of HIV/AIDS prevention efforts worldwide, is at the centre of a policy debate rega rding its effectiveness. Informed by social constructionism and drawing on various tools from ethnomethodology and conversation analysis, a sample of twenty-seven vid eotaped simulated counselling interactions in South Africa was analysed. The aim was to assess how the interactional tasks of the voluntary counselling and testing sess ion were worked through by clients and counsellors, and how this was done against the publ ic health and counselling frameworks that inform voluntary counselling and testing pract ice. The goal of the analysis was not to examine practitioners’ competencies, but to exam ine their unfolding actions in the situation and to consider the interactional functio ns these actions might serve. The results show that of the three interactional ta sks of voluntary counselling and testing, information-giving lays the foundation upon which the advice and support goals are realised. It is constructed as critical to client a nd counsellor identities and is a powerful tool through which hope is dispensed. Both the info rmation-giving and support tasks of voluntary counselling and testing combine to manage client distress into more concrete and manageable terms that encourage client coping. Counsellors draw on a range of advice-giving strategies – those that place the onu s of responsibility on the client to those that view the counsellor as the moral guide able to direct client change – in order to encourage clients to reflect on their risk behaviou r. In general, voluntary counselling and testing is framed as a moral activity, and this is most evident in the advice-giving segments. The public health and counselling framewo rks that inform voluntary counselling and testing create a dilemma for counse llors. In practice, counsellors orient towards a directive and health-advising role rather than a non-directive, client-centred counselling role. The implication of this research is that voluntary counselling and testing needs to be defined and framed more clearly – i.e. as a public health intervention with preferred outcomes that draws on a set of client-centred skills. Reconceptualisations of voluntary counselling and testing need to acknowledge the mor al framework under which it operates. Clear implementation guidelines (and training) on what voluntary counselling and testing is and that define its goals more clearly will be useful in assisting counsellors to implement the policies that govern their practice.
An emerging black identity in contemporary South Africa.
(2008) Mtose, Xoliswa Antoinette.; Durrheim, Kevin Locksley.
This study aims to understand emerging black identities in contemporary South Africa. The focus is on the impact the radical transformation of the political and social system in South Africa is having on black identity. This study emphasises two key ideas: possibilities for the construction of black identity and the significance of apartheid on black identity, and how these two factors have impacted on the construction of black identity. A reflection on the work of Biko (1978) is used as the key theoretical framework for this study to understand the construction of black identity in the process of encounter with whiteness and encounter with racism. In this thesis, black people‟s autobiographies have been studied as a site where shared images of the past are actively produced and circulated: a site where a collective engagement with the past is both reflected and constructed.
The behaviour and development of infants with iron deficiency anaemia : systematic observation of 9-month-old Pemban caregiver-infant dyads.
(2009) Dellis, Andrew Mark.; Cowley, Stephen.; Spurrett, David.
Background: The Zanzibar Infant Nutrition Campaign is a large-scale randomised control trial investigating the effects of iron and zinc supplementation on the morbidity and mortality of infants and young children on Pemba Island, Zanzibar, Tanzania. The Child Development Study is a substudy of the larger ZINC control trial assessing the effects of 12 months of iron and zinc supplementation on motor and language development. The Caregiver-Infant Interaction Study is a substudy of the Child Development Study, assessing the effects of 1 to 3 months of iron and zinc supplementation on caregiver-infant interaction among 9-month-old dyads. This thesis reports on the dyads enrolled in the Caregiver-Infant Interaction Study. While not examining treatment effects1 • Formulate behavioural and developmental hypotheses specific to a population of 9-month-old caregiver-infant dyads affected by a history of IDA , hypothesised disturbances in the behaviour and development of infants affected by a history of iron deficiency anaemia (IDA) are examined. Objectives: • Develop a hypothesis-driven observational coding system and establish the psychometric properties of this measure • Test hypotheses about the relationship between a history of IDA and the behaviour and development of 9-month-old caregiver-infant dyads Rationale: Iron deficiency anaemia is the most common nutritional disorder in the world. Prevalence is especially high among women, young children and infants in developing countries. As a public health concern, the effects of IDA are various and insidious, however the relationship between IDA and infant behaviour and development is not known. The majority of studies concerned with the impact of IDA in infancy have relied on global developmental scales, such as the Bayley Scales of Infant Development (Bayley, 1969, 1993). While infants with IDA consistently score worse than non-anaemic comparisons on mental and motor subscales, the value of this form of assessment is known to be limited. Apart from being of questionable validity as indices of abilities or functions (e.g., Fagan & Singer, 1983), the scores and ratings produced by traditional developmental scales are not designed to assess the specific functions hypothesised to be affected by IDA (Lozoff, De Andraca, Castillo, Smith, Walter & Pino, 2003). Over-reliance on this kind of measure thus rules out meaningful hypothesis-driven research. Recently, malnutrition researchers have begun to made use of systematic behavioural observation as a means of assessment. While a promising approach, extant research is limited to only two studies (see Footnote 6), and both of these have been conducted by the same research group. Moreover, these studies have relied on fairly rudimentary behavioural coding to examine a version of the ‘Functional Isolation Hypothesis', originally proposed some time ago in the infrahuman literature (Levitsky & Barns, 1972, 1973). More sophisticated hypotheses are available, especially given the ready availability of insights from developmental psychobiology and cognitive science. Design: A correlational design was used to examine the behaviour and development of 9-month old caregiver-infant dyads with a history of IDA. Setting: Wete District, Pemba Island, Zanzibar, Tanzania. Participants: 160 Caregiver-infant dyads assessed observationally at 9-month of age. Main Outcome Measure: Systematic observational coding. Main Findings: Infants with a history of more severe IDA spent significantly less time in high energy states during free play, and their caregivers made less physically demanding requests. A history of IDA also correlated with developmental disturbances in postural control. Affectively, IDA infants were hypo-responsive, and caregivers showed more (overt) positive affect for healthy males, but not females. Caregivers coordinated actions and vocalizations less often during interaction with infants affected by a history of IDA. Conclusion: A history of IDA among 9-month old infants is related to behavioural and developmental disturbances in both motor and socio-cognitive domains. Note to reader: The present research was first submitted as a Masters dissertation in 2008. The author was subsequently offered the opportunity rather to upgrade to a Doctoral thesis and resubmit the work as PhD. Chronologically then, studies which did not inform the design and development of the coding system used for data collection, or which published findings after the first submission of the present work, are discussed in the final chapter.
The development and evaluation of a community-based programme offering psychosocial support to vulnerable children affected by HIV/AIDS, poverty and violence.
(2004) Killian, Beverley Janet.; Durrheim, Kevin Locksley.
This research programme endeavours to develop, implement and evaluate an effective method of offering psychosocial support to vulnerable children. Vulnerability is defined by trained community members as including children who are experiencing especially difficult lives. The forms of difficulties experienced by the children has usually been a consequence of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, extreme poverty combined with other psychosocial risk factors, child abuse (especially child sexual abuse) and violence. This community based programme incorporates four phases of intervention, only two of which were the focus of summative evaluation. However, due to the integrated nature of the programme it was necessary to implement and document the various phases of the intervention programme: (i) community selection and mobilisation; (ii) the 5-day Sensitisation Programme (SP) sensitises adult community volunteers to the psychosocial needs of vulnerable children; (iii) the 15-session Structured Group Therapy Programme (SGTP) enables children to work through past adversities and to build resilience within small groups of peers in a programme where community volunteers served as apprentice facilitators under the supervision, guidance and ethical responsibility of qualified psychologists; (iv) community based initiatives to offer on-going of PSS activities to vulnerable children in each of the partnering communities. Nine partnering communities were selected, three township, periurban and rural communities. This programme was not effective in the informal settlements as it was not possible for these communities to place children as a priority. A qualitative summative evaluation of the SP took place using post workshop evaluation questionnaires, focus group discussions conducted by an independent researcher and an audit of the community based initiatives that developed as a result of participation in the SP. The SGTP was summatively evaluated using a 4-way Factorial design with one within-subject and three between-subject conditions: to investigate the age of the subjects, the geographic regions and gender variables. The 741 children formed five experimental and control conditions to conduct various combinations of the above-mentioned phases programmes and to adequately control for the many confounding variables. Pre- and post intervention assessments were conducted by trained community research assistants. The dependent variable measures were the Culture Free Self Esteem Inventory (Battle, 1992), the Trauma Symptom Checklist for Children (Biere & Elliot, 1997), the Reynolds Depression Scale for Children (Reynolds, 1989), the Social Support Scale (Beale Spencer, Cole, Jones, and Phillips Swanson, 1997) and the Connor's Parent Questionnaire Connors, 1998). Multivariate analysis evaluated the effectiveness of the various experimental and control conditions. The results indicate that the SGTP, run in combination with the SP, is an effective intervention strategy in that it alleviates symptoms of self-reported depression and other psychosocial manifestations of distress as well as decreased the number and severity of symptoms reported by primary caregivers, and leads to increased access to perceived social support. The SP and the SGTP conducted independently of each other have limited benefits and as such can be considered to be partially effective. The children who had formed part of the non-vulnerable control group felt left out of the programme and report an increase in symptomatology and decreased access to social support. While this community-based programme can be considered to be an effective method of therapeutic intervention and of offering psychosocial support to vulnerable children, further research is needed to consider the cost-effectiveness, the sustainability and ways in which those children who do not participate can still can benefit.
The questioning process in the development of knowledge.
(2000) Bradbury, Jill.; Miller, Ronald.
The aim of the present study is to investigate the role of questioning in the learning-teaching process, with particular reference to English second-language students studying the disciplines of the Human Sciences. The broad context for the study is the imperative for higher education institutions in South Africa to meet the learning needs of those students previously disadvantaged by the Apartheid schooling system. The focus of the research is on how particular kinds of questioning may serve to mediate between the historically constituted disciplines of textual knowledge characteristic of the Human Sciences and the worlds of knowledge and understanding of new, underprepared learners. The study was conducted in two phases. In the first phase, the subjects were students (n=117) admitted to the University of Natal through an alternative selection process, the Teach-Test-Teach Programme. The selection procedure was designed to reveal the academic potential of students who did not meet the standard academic criteria for admission. In order to develop and consolidate their identified potential, selected students were required to participate in a foundation course. The data for this first phase were drawn from aspects of students' performance on the foundation course, in particular, their responses to tasks designed to elicit different kinds of questioning engagement. The second phase of the investigation was situated in a context of curriculum development in the Department of Psychology, necessitated by the changing learning needs of substantial numbers of underprepared students. The primary subjects in this phase of the study were the second-language students of the first-year psychology class (n=274). The study explores the nature of their engagement with the task demands of different kinds of examination questions. In addition, the task engagement of these students was compared with that of a group of failing first-language students (n=88) in order to establish whether the academic difficulties of the two groups could be explained in the same way. The framework of analysis incorporated a combination of quantitative and qualitative elements. However, given the textual nature of the tasks in the Human Sciences , the usual relation of the quantitative and qualitative modes of analysis was reversed , with established general quantitative trends providing the context for more detailed qualitative analysis . Categories for analysis were derived from the data drawing on theoretical analyses of the mediated nature of both tasks and cognitive functioning. Tasks conducted in the first phase of the study were of three kinds: questioning text; modeling appropriate questioning of text; and analysis of academic questions. Contrary to the received view that students are passive or inactive, analysis of their responses to these tasks reveals a highly active process of cognitive engagement. The data show that because underprepared students do not understand the implicit questioning epistemology of text, the question posed by a textual task is transformed and reconstructed . This reformulated question then provides an inappropriate framework for the construction of a possible answer. In the second phase of the study, the investigation focuses on students' engagement with conventional academic assessment questions. The transformation of given questions was again evident; inadequate answers could be interpreted as very effective responses to entirely different questions than those posed. The analysis of engagement with different kinds of academic questions (factual, relational or conceptual) reveals that the particular formulation of the question provokes varying kinds of inappropriate engagement. This finding provides a strong indication of the mutually constitutive nature of tasks and cognitive processes. Finally, a comparative analysis of students from different educational backgrounds reveals that the phenomenon of underpreparedness can be distinguished from other sources of failure. The study concludes that the nature of academic tasks, the process of instruction, and the cognitive engagement of students are all implicated in the problem of underpreparedness and must, therefore, be addressed in the design and implementation of effective intervention strategies.
Culture and the self in moral and ethical decision-making: a dialogical approach.
(2003) Mkhize, Nhlanhla Jerome.; Durrheim, Kevin Locksley.
This study investigated isiZulu-speakers' conceptions of morality. The relationship between concepts of the self and morality was also explored, as were influences of gender, family and community on moral reasoning. Fifty-two participants of both genders were interviewed. The sample was drawn from urban, peri-urban and rural areas in KwaZulu-Natal. The participants were invited to tell a story involving a moral dilemma they had experienced in their lives. The resulting narratives were analyzed using an adapted version of the Relational Method, an analytic procedure developed by Gilligan and her colleagues (e.g. Brown & Gilligan, 1991) to analyze narratives of real life conflict. Respondents considered morality to be a state of connection or equilibrium between the person, other people, and his or her social milieu. Connection is characterized by caring, just and respectful relationships among people and everything to which they stand in relation. Immorality, which is characterized by relationships devoid of care, justice and respect, results from a breakdown in social and communal relationships. Conceptions of morality were found to be dependent on respondents' understanding of the self. The view that morality is characterised by connection was associated mainly with the communal or familial self. However, tensions were also noted between competing concepts of the self within the person, namely the communal and independent selves. These tensions complicated respondents' choices in the face of moral conflict. Gender was also found to influence moral reasoning: in the face of moral dilemmas involving gender, men were concerned with the preservation of their masculine identities, while women found themselves positioned powerlessly by culturally defined narratives of femininity. These results are discussed with reference to traditional African philosophical frameworks and dialogical theory. The implications of the study to psychological theory, social science research ethics and health-related intervention policies are highlighted.
The effects of coping, social support, attribution and cognitive illness representation on outcome measures of pain, disability and psychological well-being in rheumatoid arthritis patients.
(2002) Naidoo, Pamela.; Lindegger, Graham Charles.
This study investigates the psychosocial aspects of rheumatoid arthritis (RA),a chronic debilitating disease. It explores the quality of life in a low socio-economic group of clinic-based adult RA patients. The aims of the study were as follows: (1) to assess the impact of both socio-demographic and psychosocial factors on RA health outcome, (2) to develop a multivariate, predictive model for RA, and (3) to assess the moderating role (or stress-reducing function) of psychosocial factors between the objective experience of RA and the subjective experience of RA. A sample of 186 RA patients with a mean age of 49.51 years and a mean duration of RA of 10.80 years were subjected to a series of selfadministering questionnaires to assess their subjective experience of the disease. Coping, social support, causal attribution, cognitive illness representation, pain and functional status were assessed. The objective experience of RA was based on those health status measures that included the following: firstly, ESR levels (a laboratory measure), and secondly, class (classified level of disability) and joint status (severity of joint inflammation) which were assessed and recorded by the rheumatologist. The data obtained were subjected to a systematic statistical analysis to assess the following: (1) the relationships between the socio-demographic factors, psychosocial factors and factors representing RA health outcome using correlational analysis (Pearson r), (2) the value of socio-demograhic and psychosocial factors in predicting subjective and objective RA health outcomes using step-wise hierarchical multivariate regression analysis, and (3) the moderating or stress-reducing effect of psychosocial factors between the objective and subjective health status measures using moderated regression analysis. Findings revealed that psychological factors, especially coping, were more significant predictors than socio demographic factors of RA health outcome (quality of life of RA individuals). Furthermore, the psychosocial factors coping, network social support, helplessness and causal attribution were found to play a moderating role in RA health outcome. The results of the study confirm both the health-sustaining and the stress-reducing function of psychological factors. Theoretically this study is located within the stress and coping paradigm of Lazarus and Folkman (1984).
The psychology of Satanic cult involvement : an archetypal object relations perspective.
(1997) Ivey, Gavin.; Lindegger, Graham Charles.
The meaning of, and motives for, participation in satanic cult organisations was explored using a hermeneutic methodology based on psychoanalytic object relations theory. Fifteen self-professed ex-Satanists, ranging from 19 to 45 years of age, were interviewed using a semi-structured interview format. The transcribed interviews of seven of these participants (six males and one female) were selected for analysis. The interviews and interpretive analyses addressed five main questions: (1) what psychological factors predispose certain individuals to satanic cult involvement; (2) what is the process whereby individuals become satanic cult initiates, and what meaning does this have for them; (3) how do they experience life in the cult; (4) what is the psychological status of demons, and how may we understand the phenomena of demonic possession and invocation; and, (5) what prompts members to leave satanic cults, and how do they experience this process. The interpretive phase comprised three stages. In the first stage, the self and object representations in the subjects' narratives were identified, along with their associated affect links, interpersonal contexts, and fantasies about these interactional contexts. In the second stage, the underlying personality organisations structuring subjects' self and object representations were identified and employed to formulate a comprehensive interpretation of each subject's intrapsychic world, in order to illuminate the influence of this inner world on their cult experience. In the final stage, features common to the individual analyses were integrated into a general psychoanalytic interpretation of subjects' satanic involvement. A model based on a dialogue between object relations theory and analytical psychology was applied to extend the interpretive findings of the data analysis phase. This integrative archetypal object relations perspective was suggested to provide a richer and more encompassing understanding of satanic cult phenomena. The fact that Satanism in South Africa appears to be largely confined to the white sector of the population is located in the socio-historical context of recent political changes in South African society.
A study of systemic processes influencing educational change in a sample of isiZulu medium schools.
(2003) Ngesi, Mzimkhulu Justice.; Akhurst, Jacqueline Elizabeth.
The Department of Education and Culture (DoEC) has since 1994, after the democratic elections in South Africa, introduced radical changes to the system of education. This systemic change has required a fundamental shift in attitudes of educators and other school constituents in African schools in particular, which were in the past education dispensation marginalized and poorly resourced due to the Bantu education system. One of the main problems in IsiZulu medium schools has always been the seeming reluctance to change from apartheid era practices. The officials of the DoEC have often given what have appeared to be simplistic and platitudinous reasons for the apparent resistance to change and perennial poor academic performance in most IsiZulu medium schools. These reasons were used on a paucity of in-depth study into the underlying causes of the apparent reluctance to change. There was therefore a need to investigate some of the systemic processes which influence change in IsiZulu medium schools. This study therefore sought to identify and describe the processes which are associated with difficulties and inertia in order to try to improve the quality of education in a sample of IsiZulu medium schools. Systems theories, theories of change forces and strategies of educational change formed the conceptual framework of this study. A multi-layered systemic approach provided the basis for understanding the interactive processes within the school, and the interaction between the school and its environment (including the DoEC). The data was collected from a sample of three IsiZulu medium case study schools, utilising focus group methodology. In each school, focus groups of Educators, School Management Team (SMTs), School Governing Bodies (SGBs) and Representative Council of Learners (RCLs) were conducted to collect data through interviews and discussions. The data collection was at the same time intended to be an intervention process. This was done through utilising action research cycles that involved a self-reflective spiral of planning, observing, reflecting and replanning. The action research cycle process helped the researcher to observe how school constituents engaged with change processes. A three-stage process of data analysis was used. The outcome was the generation of categories which eventually emerged into patterns. These patterns were used to theorise about some of the underlying causes of apparent inertia to change in these schools. The study has found that many of the apartheid legacies such as quality of educational training, passivity and dependency syndrome caused by the DoEC's instructional top down approach in education management, still exist. Educators are frustrated by the disempowering management approach of the Department. Consequently they operate in a non-productive vicious circle, with little energy for problem solving and lack of authority and influence over parents and learners. The study has also found that there is a mismatch between job requirements and personal qualities of educators. Educators, parents and learners seemed to lack knowledge, strategies and skills to apply in specific problem areas of their schools. Clashes of ideological and cultural beliefs, lack of support from parents and communication between the school and parents, make it very hard for educators to cope with the new order of educational change.
Situated identity performance : understanding stereotype threat as a social identity phenomenon.
(2011) Quayle, Michael Frank.; Reicher, Steven.; Durrheim, Kevin Locksley.
Stereotype threat or boost (STB) is a situational modifier of task performance that occurs when a group stereotype becomes relevant to the performance of a stereotype-relevant task. This dissertation aimed to re-imagine STB in light of social identity theory. Ten studies were undertaken that each manipulated status and either identifiability, conflict or permeability and explored the effects on the performance of the Ravens Advanced Progressive Matrices. Additional identity and socio-structural constructs were also measured and explored, including stability, legitimacy and ingroup identification. The results showed that STB is not simply “activated” or “deactivated” when stereotypes become relevant to task performance. On the contrary, the specific features of identity, the contextual features of the social environment in which the identity performance takes place, and the performer’s strategic engagement with their identity resources and liabilities are important features of how STB impacts on performance, and how it is sometimes resisted and overturned by experimental subjects. Indeed, performance was generally not predictable on the basis of stereotype activation until resistance to the negative or positive status manipulations were also accounted for. Although the STB literature is tightly focused on the case of negative stereotypes undermining performance, incongruent effects in which negative stereotypes enhance performance and positive stereotypes undermine it have also been reported. In the present studies incongruent STB effects were frequently observed. Underperformance in boost conditions was most consistently predicted by perceived intergroup conflict, while enhanced performance under threat was consistently predicted by perceived group boundary permeability. Additionally, underperformance in boost conditions was often a result of ‘slipstreaming’ rather than ‘choking under pressure,’ since participants were evidently counting on their generally secure identity in the experimental context to buffer poor performance on the experimental task. Improved performance in threat conditions was most likely when participants perceived themselves to be representatives of their group and when they believed that their improved performance would make a difference for their own reputation or the reputation of their group. These findings challenge the common image of the passive subject in the STB literature and, instead, suggest that STB effects are an outcome of situated identity performance. This model of STB effects understands task-performance in a specific performance context as an active and strategic expression of situated identity oriented not only to the social features of the performance context (as argued by most SIT theorists), but also to the their own reading of that context, their total identity liabilities and resources (including individual ability and alternative identities) and their strategic motivations in the context.
Neuropsychological correlates of chronic fatigue syndrome.
(1997) Anderson, Stuart James.; Budek, Michael.; Lindegger, Graham Charles.
Neuropsychological deficits have been implicated in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) and there is some indication that cerebral efficiency is compromised in these patients. To further investigate the nature of this impairment, 20 patients who had received a medical diagnosis of CFS were neuropsychologically assessed and compared with age-, sex-, and education-matched controls (20 depressed and 20 healthy subjects). The test battery consisted of the Grooved Pegboard Trail Making Test, Symbol Digit Modalities Test, Auditory-Verbal Learning Test, Visual Design Learning Test, Controlled Oral Word Association Test and Paced Auditory Serial Addition Task. Additional measures included a CFS symptom checklist, SCL-90-R and Cognitive Failures Questionnaire (CFQ). Univariate statistical analysis revealed a significant difference between CFS patients and healthy individuals on only one measure; the "S" trial of the COWAT (F[2,59]=3.30, p <.05). This finding suggests the existence of subtle but detectable neuropsychological difficulty in executive or attentional mechanisms in CFS patients. Further analysis revealed that the observed finding could not be attributed to depression or medication side-effects. Although a trend of declining neuropsychological test performance was evident in moving across the spectrum of healthy, depressed, and CFS samples, this reached significance only for the CFS/depressed versus healthy comparison X22 [1] = 9.40, p < .05). The overall similarity of the neuropsychological profiles of CFS and depressed patients was noted, while an additional finding was the discrepancy between reported levels of subjective cognitive failure (CFQ) and objective neuropsychological findings in the CFS patients. The SCL-90-R profiles of the CFS and depressed patients were also found to be similar in terms of reported levels of psychological distress; however group discrimination was evident on two subscales (Somatization and Obsessive-Compulsive). Although the CFS and depressed controls did not differ with respect to levels of depression, there were some indications of a differential impact of depressive symptomatology on neuropsychological functioning. Taken together, the results of this study indicate that while subtle deficits are detectable in the neuropsychological profiles of CPS patients, the magnitude of impairment appears insufficient to significantly interfere with everyday cognitive functioning.
The governmentality of teenage pregnancy : scientific literature and professional practice in South Africa.
(1999) Macleod, Catriona Ida.; Durrheim, Kevin Locksley.
Teenage pregnancy is seen, on the whole, by researchers and service providers as a social problem. Various theoretical approaches have been utilised in the attempt to explain teenage pregnancy, and to find 'solutions' to the problem. What is common to these approaches is the assumption of the reality of teenage pregnancy, and the legitimation of the intervention of the expert. This thesis is concerned with these fundamental premises of the scientific literature and professional practice with regard to young women, their sexuality and reproductive behaviour. A feminist post-structuralist approach, which draws on the insights of Derrida concerning the absent trace and Foucault's analytics of power and governmentality, is taken. The tensions and commonalities between feminism and a Foucauldian approach are explored, and a radically plural post-structural feminism is explicated. The data used in this study consisted of South African scientific literature on teenage pregnancy (the technologies of representation), and transcriptions of interviews with service providers at a regional hospital (the technologies of intervention). The bulk ofthe thesis is taken up with analysis of the first of these. The aims of these chapters are to analyse how: (1) a range oftaken-for-granted assumptions or absent traces regarding, inter alia, the nature of adolescence, adolescent sexuality, mothering, and family formation and function underlie the scientific statements regarding the causes and consequences of teenage pregnancy; (2) the governmental tactics of medicalisation, psychologisation and pedagogisation are invoked in the literature with regard to teenage pregnancy; and (3) broader governmental tactics (the familialisation of alliance, the conjugalisation of reproduction, racialisation, the economisation of activity) are deployed in the literature to achieve particular gendering, racialising and class-based effects. The section on the technologies of intervention analyses how the governmental tactics described above are installed in the everyday lives of teenagers and their families through the deployment of the mechanisms of security at the interface between the service provider and the teenager or her parents. Finally, the undermining of the assumption of the reality of teenage pregnancy, the link between expertise and government, and the efficacy of the feminist post-structural approach are reviewed.
A study of certain correlates of introversion-extraversion among Indian high school and university students.
(1982) Balkisson, Bernard Arnold.; Ramfol, C.
No abstract available.
An investigation of the relation between life experience, personality characteristics, and general susceptibility to illness.
(1984) Chohan, Ebrahim Ajee.; Behr, Dorothea.
No abstract available
Mothers and children : an analysis of change.
(1985) Craig, A. P.; Miller, Ronald.
No abstract available.

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