Masters Degrees (Clinical Psychology)

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An exploratory investigation of the self esteem of preadolescent children in residential care.
(1980) Dunn, John William.; Basckin, David R.
Abstract available in PDF.
Type A behaviour pattern and coronary heart disease in the South African Indian population.
(1991) Barry, Timothy Aiden Bose.; Wassenaar, Douglas Richard.
Abstract available in PDF.
An investigation of community mental health strategies : a case study of the Bambayi care-givers group.
(1992) Stavrou, Paraskevi.; Killian, Beverley Janet.
Abstract available in PDF.
Alexithymia, chronic pain and depression.
(1993) Choladja, Clair Anye Louise.; Lindegger, Graham Charles.; Lachenicht, Lance Gary.
Abstract available in PDF.
Investigation into codependency in spouses of alcoholics: an exploratory study.
(1994) Van der Veen, Marchiene Berdine Wilhelmina.; Solomon, Vernon Philip.
Abstract available in PDF.
The psychological effects of violence on children: an exploratory study of a sample of black primary school children from the Natal Midlands.
(1994) Mason, Barbara Lynn.; Killian, Beverley Janet.
Abstract available in PDF.
Children in residential care: an evaluation of current practice and recommendations for differential placements.
(1994) Chaloner, Ann Jillian.; Killian, Beverley Janet.
Abstract available in PDF.
Changes in perceptions of others in black and white South African adolescents: the effects of participation in a youth development programme.
(1994) Ferguson, Margaret Gardner.; Basson, Clive James.
Abstract available in PDF.
The efficacy of client-generated and therapist-generated metaphors in psychotherapy.
(1995) Christelis, Paul James.; Sharratt, Pamela Arlette.
The purpose of the reported research was to determine the efficacy of client-generated and therapist-generated metaphors in psychotherapy. The aim of the study was to ascertain whether client-generated metaphors are more appropriate and effective than a) therapist-generated metaphors and b) conditions in which no metaphors are used (literal conditions). Exploratory aims included examining the impact of counsellor training on subjects' attitudes towards the three conditions and ascertaining the effect of therapists' and clients' sex on these attitudes. The author hypothesized that client-generated metaphors would be perceived as being most effective by subjects in both the Trained group (ie. those subjects who received input on counselling skills) and the Untrained group (ie. those subjects who received no such input) and that therapist-generated metaphors would be rated least effective. A quantitative analysis comprising Kuder Richardson Formula 20 Analyses of Variance and the Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient was adopted and a content analysis was performed on the qualitative data. Although the results were not found to be significant, they approached significance and pointed to undeniable trends in the data. Specifically, these trends were that client-generated metaphors were perceived as most effective amongst trained counsellors; that literal communication was favoured by untrained subjects; and that both groups deemed therapist-generated metaphors to be the least effective of the three conditions. The only significant finding on the relationship between sex and attitude towards metaphor, was that female subjects tend to adopt a more positive attitude towards client-generated metaphors than male subjects do. The results showcase the importance of context when using metaphors in psychotherapy, and suggest avenues for future research.
An investigation of child sexual abuse in terms of content and effectiveness of 2 modalities of group therapy treatment.
(1995) Morgan, Joan Wendy.; Killian, Beverley Janet.
Within the field of child sexual abuse much of the research concerning initial effects has been obtained from clinical anecdotes and case material. Empirical validation is therefore needed to substantiate research in this area. In addition, research on the outcome and efficacy of different group treatment modalities is lacking. The aim of the study is twofold. The first aim is to investigate the verbalization of negative emotions relating to initial psychological effects of child sexual abuse in a structured and an unstructured treatment group. The second aim is to evaluate the effectiveness of a structured group treatment programme (Sturkie, 1983) versus an unstructured group treatment programme for sexually abused children. The participants in the study were 􀁙 female child sexual abuse swvivors who ranged in age from 8 years 9 months to 12 years 6 months with a mean age of 10 years 6 months. The subjects were arbitrarily assigned to the structured and the unstructured group. All subjects were individually assessed pre- and postintervention on the Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept Scale (1984), the Rutter Teacher's Questionnaire (1967), the Human Figure Drawing Test (1968) and the Kinetic Family Drawing Test (1970). An analysis of the results reveal that the verbalization of negative emotions relating to initial psychological effects of child sexual abuse accounted for 17.27% of the total verbalizations in the structured group and 20. 72% of the total verbalizations for the unstructured group. The unstructured group allowed for greater verbalization of statements relating to anger and the feeling of being unclean, soiled or dirty. There was no significant difference in the verbalization of any of the other emotions relating to initial psychological effects of child sexual abuse. Results of the pre- and post-assessment appear to indicate an increase in self-esteem in relation to the children's attitudes concerning their physical characteristics. In addition, an improvement in attributes such as leadership and the ability to express ideas is indicated. The variable relating to a subject's anxiety, worry, nervousness, sadness, fear and a general feeling of being left out of things approached significance and indicated a trend to increased self-esteem. No significant differences were noted on any of the other variables measured in the pre- and post-test assessments. In conclusion, there is no evidence to suggest that a structured versus an unstructured group therapy programme appears to be a more effective method of treatment for child sexual abuse survivors, although certain issues pertaining to the different group modalities are discussed.
An investigation into the relationship between suicide intent, attributional style and coping style in a sample of female Indian and Coloured adolescent parasuicides.
(1995) Hare, Ann Judy.; Wassenaar, Douglas Richard.
Absctract Available in PDF.
PINS 1983 - 1998 and the construction of an alternative discourse : text and psychology in South(ern) Africa from apartheid to liberation.
(1999) Clark, Erica.; Solomon, Vernon Philip.
This study analyses the journal Psychology in Society for the period 1983 to 1998. It does so with a view to determining whether collectively the contributors fulfilled the editors' call for the construction of discourses alternative to those of mainstream psychology, both during apartheid and after liberation. In other words, it seeks to assess whether PINS constitutes a local critical psychology in print. Mainstream discourse is chiefly understood in terms of formulations in PINS and only indirectly from my readings of mainstream publications. Analyses suggest that, from 1983 to 1990, contributors to PINS aligned themselves with the editors' brief to challenge "mainstream conformist" psychology in "apartheid capitalist" South Africa. More than half of the articles have a critical Marxist thrust with the others given over to liberal humanist or progressive positions. Almost all the domains of psychology are represented. Black writers and women appear but in small numbers compared to their white, male colleagues. With the socio-political shifts of around 1990, a significant decline is evident in Marxistorientated discourses and an increase in those from liberal humanist, post-marxist, feminist and psychoanalytic sources. Africanisation also becomes an urgent issue. The dominant DA themes for the journal of "relevance", "critique", "oppression" and "indigenous" remain consistently in focus. While individual contributors cannot be said to have constructed an alternative discourse, they drew collectively on discourses mostly at odds with, or marginalised by, mainstream psychology. Some tried to include indigenous approaches to mental distress. Although the approach adopted is critical Marxist Discourse Analysis (DA), I have incorporated "deconstruction" theory. The difficulties posed by a combination of Marxism and poststructuralism are eased by employing Bhaskar's "critical realism". This allows for the analyst to '"discover" patterns of discursive features, to understand that these are also a "construction" based on assumptions and theoretical preferences, and to anchor the process in the historical contingencies of economics, power and language. The critical Marxism driving the analysis is located in the tradition of the Frankfurt School and active today in the work of social psychologists such as Ian Parker (1992, 1993, 1996). In testing my assumptions about PINS, I followed modified versions of Parker's theoretical stance and the methodological framework provided by Potter and Wetherell (1987, 1988, 1995).
Emerging masculinities: a qualitative analysis of the construction and practice of adolescent masculinities.
(2005) Danckwerts, Sally Ann.; Lindegger, Graham Charles.
This study aimed to investigate how a sample of South African adolescent boys construct and negotiate their masculine identities from the different versions of being male available to them within their particular social and cultural contexts. This study employed a qualitative research design using the semi-structured interview protocol developed by Frosh et al.(2002). The results of this research consistently reveal that masculinity among adolescent boys is dynamic, multiple and continually being made, performed, resisted and contested. The subjects described different ways of being male, often having to negotiate a coherent masculine identity from many competing, often contradictory versions of masculinity. However hegemonic or 'hard' masculinity remains the dominant standard against which other ways of being male are evaluated. These masculinity constructions show remarkable similarities to those of the English adolescent boys in the Frosh, Phoenix and Pattman (2002) study, which suggests that the hegemonic ideal is particularly wide ranging and well-entrenched in the lives of boys.
Barriers and facilitating factors to HIV testing: a survey of tertiary students.
(2005) Mkhize, Ntombifuthi Constance.; Solomon, Vernon Philip.
Research estimates show that almost one in four of South Africa's university undergraduate student population is HIV positive. This study examined the factors that promote and inhibit the uptake of HIV testing among university students. The sample consisted of 602 multicultural students with 74.8% females and 25.2% male students. The current study showed that 48% of University students had an HIV test and 51 % had never been tested before. However, 60% of students claimed to know their status without having been tested for HIV and 40% did not know their status. Chi-square tests showed a significant relationship between inhibiting and promotive factors towards the decision to undertake and not to undertake an HIV test. In this study, we found that university students primarily get tested because they have been engaged in unprotected sex knew someone who died of AIDS and being advised by someone else. All of these reasons suggest reactive rather than proactive reasons to testing. The findings also indicated that students forego testing because they perceive themselves to be at low risk, have abstained, fear a positive result and they see no benefit in testing for HIV. Knowledge of status is the important tool towards the prevention of HIV.
Barriers and facilitating factors to HIV testing: a survey of tertiary students.
(2005) Mkhize, Constance Ntombifuthi.; Solomon, Vernon Philip.
Research estimates show that almost one in four of South Africa's university undergraduate student population is HIV positive. This study examined the factors that promote and inhibit the uptake of HIV testing among university students. The sample consisted of 602 multicultural students with 74.8% females and 25.2% male students. The current study showed that 48% of University students had an HIV test and 51 % had never been tested before. However, 60% of students claimed to know their status without having been tested for HIV and 40% did not know their status. Chi-square tests showed a significant relationship between inhibiting and promotive factors towards the decision to undertake and not to undertake an HIV test. In this study, we found that university students primarily get tested because they have been engaged in unprotected sex knew someone who died of AIDS and being advised by someone else. All of these reasons suggest reactive rather than proactive reasons to testing. The findings also indicated that students forego testing because they perceive themselves to be at low risk, have abstained, fear a positive result and they see no benefit in testing for HIV. Knowledge of status is the important tool towards the prevention of HIV.
A study of ethical decision-making in HIV-related psychotherapy.
(2007) Maharaj, Kushil.; Wassenaar, Douglas Richard.
There are complex ethical and legal issues that arise when an HIV-positive client presents as a danger to others as a result of engaging in unprotected sex. The purpose of this study was to examine how and why psychologists deal with such a situation. The respondents were asked a combination of questions related to a case vignette in which a male client was diagnosed as HIV-positive after an extra-marital relationship with a work colleague. The client was not prepared to disclose his HIV-status to his wife. A total of 154 psychologists within South Africa responded to the study, which was a response rate of 25%. The results of this study indicated that an overwhelming proportion (96.7%) of the respondents assessed the client to be very dangerous in terms of the HIV/ AIDS risk to his wife. The majority of the respondents ( 65 .1 % ) indicated that the primary goal in psychotherapy would be to guide the client to disclose his HIV status to his wife. Almost 59% of the respondents indicated that they would not breach confidentiality by contacting the client's wife. Examination of the psychologists' ethical decision-making process took into account the respondents' knowledge of the HPSCA (2004) guidelines to guide the client to disclose his HIV status to his partner. The study also assessed the respondents' knowledge of the foundational ethical principles. The findings of this study have implications regarding how psychologists function in their professional domain. Of particular concern is that a significant proportion of psychologists may not have adequate knowledge of the ethical principles and HPCSA guidelines in this area. One of the limitations of this study was the low response rate (25%), which prevented the examination of a complete range of participant demographics. Given the low response rate, future research in this field is needed to better understand Psychologists' management of the duty to warn in HIV-related psychotherapy.
The utility of the RRPQ in assessing the costs and benefits of participating in trauma research within the South African context.
(2011) Bassa, Hameeda.; Collings, Steven John.
Across all disciplines, research needs to follow certain ethical guidelines in order to protect participants from harm. These principles include autonomy, beneficence and non-maleficence. Previously within trauma research, these principles have been adhered to by means of subjective assessments due to the absence of empirical data. This created difficulties in accurately identifying the possible costs and benefits of research participation in trauma studies. The Reactions to Research Participation Questionnaire (RRPQ) by Newman, Sinclair and Kaloupek (2001) is a recently developed empirically based questionnaire which requires participants to self-report their perceived costs and benefits of participating in trauma research. This study aims to use this measure for the first time within the South African context, in order to determine whether the factor structure of this questionnaire found in other studies, is applicable to the South African context. Data were collected in two phases. Phase 1 involved using a structured questionnaire which surveyed child abuse experiences and the RRPQ which evaluated participants’ reaction to research participation. Phase 2 occurred as part of a two week follow up to assess short-term effects of Phase 1 participation. Results indicated that research participation was well tolerated with the majority of respondents reporting satisfaction with their participation (65%) and personal benefit as a result of participating (56%), as well as positive risk-benefit ratios (67%). A sizeable proportion of respondents (31%) found participation distressing; with 13% of respondents reporting distress at a two week follow up. Research findings provided no evidence that participation was experienced as re-traumatising. This study therefore has important implications for future research within the field of trauma, and for the possibility of redefining the ethical paradigm which has thus far dominated trauma related research.
The religious characteristics that influence risk behaviour in Christian youth.
(2014) Oduntan, Rachel Oluwayemisi.; Lindegger, Graham Charles.
The purpose of this study was to investigate if the belief and practice of Christianity is associated with alcohol use/abuse behaviour as well as risky sexual behaviour among Christian youth. The religious characteristics of focus were social support from church leaders/elders, social support from church peers, God control beliefs and reported religiosity. The sample selected were Christian youth between the ages of 18 and 21 years from churches in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal. The need for this research was motivated by the limited amount of research on religion and risk behaviour among young people as well as what religious factors influence these said risk behaviours. Furthermore, available research on religion and risk behaviour have mostly focused on indirect religious influences such as church attendance and involvement in church activities. However, God control beliefs argued to be a more direct religious influence have been less studied. This study sheds light on these direct and indirect characteristics of religion as factors that influence risk behaviour. A questionnaire comprising demographic information, a measure of reported religiosity, the AGLOC-A scale, the SexGLOC-A scale, the Social Support from Church Peers scale and the Social Support from Church Leaders/elders scale was used to collect the data. The results found God control beliefs to be the most predictive of alcohol use/abuse behaviour. With risky sexual behaviour, significant negative relationships were found with social support from church peers, social support from church leaders/elders and God control beliefs, however the most significant predictor of risky sexual behaviour was social support from church leaders/elders.
An interpretive evaluation of a positive rights based sexual health programme for Grade 11 learners in a secondary school in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal.
(2014) Mncwabe, Joachim Sduduzo.; Frizelle, Kerry Lyn.
Advances in the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS in the past 15 years have led to a reputable decline in the rate of new infections and a reduction of HIV related deaths. However, the prevalence rate in the Sub-Saharan region reveals that HIV/AIDS still meets general epidemic criteria. South Africa is the country with the highest number of people living with HIV. While there is a number of sexual health programmes aimed at South African youth their effectiveness is not the same for all programmes. Thus, there is a continued need to evaluate implemented interventions to assess for effectiveness. This study was initiated as a response to the need for an evaluation of an annual youth sexuality and sexual health programme offered by service learning university students. Objective: In this study, a process evaluation of a sexuality and sexual health programme designed and implemented by HIV/AIDS Service learning module students was evaluated. The learners’ subjective experience of the programme was explored. The learners’ evaluation of the programme in comparison to other programmes, the experience of being taught by University students, and areas of interests related to youth sexuality were explored. Methods: Four focus group interviews were conducted with a sample of 18 learners who had participated in the programme. Interpretive data analysis was used to analyse the data. Findings: The participants were appreciatively receptive to a youth sexuality programme facilitated by service learning university students. Furthermore, the positive rights based approach was recognized by the learners as one that nurtures a comfortable environment for learning about youth sexuality and sexual health. Comparisons with previous sources of information highlighted the perceived relevance of the programme evaluated in this study. Gender inequality, sexual diversity, positive aspects of sexuality and safe sex practices emerged as key areas of interest for learners.
Sexual socialisation and gender identities : the impact on risky sexual behaviour in Ematyholweni.
(2014) Tuluma, Vuyolwethu.; Van der Riet, Mary Boudine.
In South Africa, there is a high rate of HIV/AIDS infection and 12.2 percent of the population is HIV positive (UNAIDS, 2012). This can be traced in the dynamics that exist between gender and identity. To understand these dynamics, this study explored the gender and power dimensions of sexual relationships and how this influenced HIV risk. The purpose of this study was to find out how the youth are sexually socialized about sex, relationships and gender roles. It also explored how learning about sex, relationships and gender roles influences the construction of masculine and feminine identities. The study investigated how this creates risk for HIV among the youth of Ematyholweni, a rural area in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. A qualitative research design was adopted in this study. This study sampled data from a broader data set originating in an NRF study on sexual activity and risk behaviour. Seven focus groups and 12 individual interviews with female and male participants aged between 15-30 years were sampled for this study. The total sample size for this study was 58. Thematic analysis and a discursive framework guided the analysis of the data. The analysis found that the youth are sexually socialized in and through different sites and processes such as schools, traditional isiXhosa games, clinics, the mass media, as well as through peers and parents. In this process youth learn about gender roles. For example young women learn the importance of being in a committed relationship, and young men learn the importance of sexual intercourse in a relationship. This study found that barriers to safe sex are influenced by dominant discourses and how young people learn about sex, relationships and gender roles. These ways of learning and the participants’ investments in these discourses rationalized risky sexual behaviours.

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