Prosocial behaviour in South African students a qualitative enquiry
- Authors: Cholerton, Steven M
- Date: 1995
- Subjects: Helping behavior , Interpersonal relations , Altruism , Social ethics , College students -- South Africa -- Attitudes
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MCom
- Identifier: vital:2948 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002457 , Helping behavior , Interpersonal relations , Altruism , Social ethics , College students -- South Africa -- Attitudes
- Description: The central aim of this study was to conduct a qualitative exploration of the prosocial inclinations possessed by young South African students. The literature review argues that traditional approaches to moral responding separate the individual from the social. An alternative approach that reinstates language and ideology is delineated. It is argued that such a paradigm is most appropriate to a study of prosocial responding during a period of social change. Hypothetical moral dilemmas were administered to twenty-nine students. Six students were selected and each was interviewed on two separate occasions. In this way six case studies were developed. The methodological traditions of phenomenology and hermeneutics were employed to analyze the protocols and subsequent interviews. Seven themes descriptive of a moral response were identified. These consisted of moral reasoning, empathy, mood, guilt, alienation, a sense of group-identity, and ambiguity regarding the relative interests of self versus other. These themes are fully discussed in terms of the literature. It is concluded that moral reasoning may be insufficient to motivate prosocial behaviour. Conventional moral narratives may be appropriated in order to make sense of conflicting emotions. Empathy was identified as a necessary but not sufficient condition for a prosocial response. Empathy might translate into either sympathy or personal distress. Mood was found to largely dictate attentional focus. Alienation was found to be a defensive formulation that inhibits the emergence of sympathy. Guilt might precipitate an alienated posture. It was found that guilt might be attributed to group-identity and thereby denied. Tension between a self- and other-oriented response, or between blame and sympathy, was common. It is suggested that this ambiguity reflects ideological contradictions that have been internalized. It is postulated that during periods of social change such contradictions are accentuated.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Cholerton, Steven M
- Date: 1995
- Subjects: Helping behavior , Interpersonal relations , Altruism , Social ethics , College students -- South Africa -- Attitudes
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MCom
- Identifier: vital:2948 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002457 , Helping behavior , Interpersonal relations , Altruism , Social ethics , College students -- South Africa -- Attitudes
- Description: The central aim of this study was to conduct a qualitative exploration of the prosocial inclinations possessed by young South African students. The literature review argues that traditional approaches to moral responding separate the individual from the social. An alternative approach that reinstates language and ideology is delineated. It is argued that such a paradigm is most appropriate to a study of prosocial responding during a period of social change. Hypothetical moral dilemmas were administered to twenty-nine students. Six students were selected and each was interviewed on two separate occasions. In this way six case studies were developed. The methodological traditions of phenomenology and hermeneutics were employed to analyze the protocols and subsequent interviews. Seven themes descriptive of a moral response were identified. These consisted of moral reasoning, empathy, mood, guilt, alienation, a sense of group-identity, and ambiguity regarding the relative interests of self versus other. These themes are fully discussed in terms of the literature. It is concluded that moral reasoning may be insufficient to motivate prosocial behaviour. Conventional moral narratives may be appropriated in order to make sense of conflicting emotions. Empathy was identified as a necessary but not sufficient condition for a prosocial response. Empathy might translate into either sympathy or personal distress. Mood was found to largely dictate attentional focus. Alienation was found to be a defensive formulation that inhibits the emergence of sympathy. Guilt might precipitate an alienated posture. It was found that guilt might be attributed to group-identity and thereby denied. Tension between a self- and other-oriented response, or between blame and sympathy, was common. It is suggested that this ambiguity reflects ideological contradictions that have been internalized. It is postulated that during periods of social change such contradictions are accentuated.
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The search for daily meaning: A technique for career counselling
- Authors: Rainier, Markseller Garrett
- Date: 1994
- Subjects: Uncatalogued
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/193003 , vital:45289
- Description: Because work is such a tremendous potential source of meaning in an individual’s life, techniques which turn career choice into technical talent matching are inadequate. The individual’s search for authentic meaning needs to be the focus of career counselling, but few approaches have been able to addressed this relationship between working and living. Major developments in career theory are reviewed to highlight the distinction between the more technical logical positivist and the phenomenological approaches. Super’s Career- Development Assessment and Counselling (C-DAC) model is described in detail as it is the first significant attempt to move beyond the technical approaches by incorporating developmental theory into career counselling and by stressing the role of counsellee readiness to use the information provided. However, especially in South Africa, any test-based approach to career counselling runs the risk of shifting the locus of control from the counsellee to the counsellor, so an autobiographical non-test approach, the life-line, is introduced to assist counsellees in their search for personal meaning without running the risks associated with test-based assessments. The life-line helps to contextualise the choice of work within the counsellee’s subjective life experience and turns career counselling into a shared search for a range of personal meanings rather than the provision, by the counsellor, of a limiting interpretation. Three case studies are presented to demonstrate the use of the life-line, and the conclusions arrived at are shown to be essentially1 similar to conclusions obtained from using the C-DAC battery. The advantages and limitations of the life-line are discussed and its ability to combat problems associated with school based career counselling is outlined as well as its usefulness with mid-life career changers, in cross-cultural contexts, and in group counselling. , Thesis (MA) -- Faculty of Humanities, Psychology, 1990
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- Authors: Rainier, Markseller Garrett
- Date: 1994
- Subjects: Uncatalogued
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/193003 , vital:45289
- Description: Because work is such a tremendous potential source of meaning in an individual’s life, techniques which turn career choice into technical talent matching are inadequate. The individual’s search for authentic meaning needs to be the focus of career counselling, but few approaches have been able to addressed this relationship between working and living. Major developments in career theory are reviewed to highlight the distinction between the more technical logical positivist and the phenomenological approaches. Super’s Career- Development Assessment and Counselling (C-DAC) model is described in detail as it is the first significant attempt to move beyond the technical approaches by incorporating developmental theory into career counselling and by stressing the role of counsellee readiness to use the information provided. However, especially in South Africa, any test-based approach to career counselling runs the risk of shifting the locus of control from the counsellee to the counsellor, so an autobiographical non-test approach, the life-line, is introduced to assist counsellees in their search for personal meaning without running the risks associated with test-based assessments. The life-line helps to contextualise the choice of work within the counsellee’s subjective life experience and turns career counselling into a shared search for a range of personal meanings rather than the provision, by the counsellor, of a limiting interpretation. Three case studies are presented to demonstrate the use of the life-line, and the conclusions arrived at are shown to be essentially1 similar to conclusions obtained from using the C-DAC battery. The advantages and limitations of the life-line are discussed and its ability to combat problems associated with school based career counselling is outlined as well as its usefulness with mid-life career changers, in cross-cultural contexts, and in group counselling. , Thesis (MA) -- Faculty of Humanities, Psychology, 1990
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An understanting of mirrors and mirroring in a schizophrenic patient obsessed with his appearance
- Authors: Zworestine, Barry John
- Date: 1993-04
- Subjects: Uncatalogued
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/191702 , vital:45149
- Description: This work addresses the role of mirroring and mirrors encountered while working with a patient obsessed with his appearance. At the same time, however, it also attempts to provide an understanding of the process of mirroring from the developing unborn child to the adult. It examines the womb as a reflective space, the mirroring role of the mother, psychological work as mirror work, the psychopathologies of disruptive mirroring and the nature of reflection as a story, confusion and a ghostly other, and finally, the relationship between mirror reflection and psychological life. What is examined and described in this process applies not only to the specific case in study but is relevant at a universal level to all of mankind regardless of race or religion. The case-study method was used to examine the process of therapy that took place over three months. The patient’s identifying data, reasons for referral, presenting problem, family background, basic personality, interpersonal relationships, mental state, diagnosis, dynamic formulation and rationale for psychotherapy were covered in detail. The process of psychotherapy over 27 sessions was recounted and discussed in detail. Theoretical understandings drawn on to facilitate an understanding of the case were from Davis and Walbridge on Winnicolt, Winnicot, Liedloff, Kay, Romanyshyn, Bettelheim, Schwartz and others. , Thesis (MA) -- Faculty of Humanities, Psychology, 1993
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- Authors: Zworestine, Barry John
- Date: 1993-04
- Subjects: Uncatalogued
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/191702 , vital:45149
- Description: This work addresses the role of mirroring and mirrors encountered while working with a patient obsessed with his appearance. At the same time, however, it also attempts to provide an understanding of the process of mirroring from the developing unborn child to the adult. It examines the womb as a reflective space, the mirroring role of the mother, psychological work as mirror work, the psychopathologies of disruptive mirroring and the nature of reflection as a story, confusion and a ghostly other, and finally, the relationship between mirror reflection and psychological life. What is examined and described in this process applies not only to the specific case in study but is relevant at a universal level to all of mankind regardless of race or religion. The case-study method was used to examine the process of therapy that took place over three months. The patient’s identifying data, reasons for referral, presenting problem, family background, basic personality, interpersonal relationships, mental state, diagnosis, dynamic formulation and rationale for psychotherapy were covered in detail. The process of psychotherapy over 27 sessions was recounted and discussed in detail. Theoretical understandings drawn on to facilitate an understanding of the case were from Davis and Walbridge on Winnicolt, Winnicot, Liedloff, Kay, Romanyshyn, Bettelheim, Schwartz and others. , Thesis (MA) -- Faculty of Humanities, Psychology, 1993
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The psychological sequelae of involvement in combat: a preliminary investigation
- Authors: Hodgson, Shane Ralph Colin
- Date: 1992
- Subjects: War -- Psychological aspects , War victims -- Mental health , Post-traumatic stress disorder
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: vital:2993 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002502 , War -- Psychological aspects , War victims -- Mental health , Post-traumatic stress disorder
- Description: The psychological sequelae of being involved in combat are only recently coming to be understood. Most of the available data are from research conducted on help-seeking Vietnam veterans in the United States, and very little work has been done in South Africa. There does not as yet appear to be any instrument designed specifically to detect combat-related psychopathologies amongst soldiers who are still in active service, either in the USA or in South Africa. Combat involvement has been shown to lead to a high incidence of combat stress reaction. This in turn has shown that it can predispose sufferers to the development of a Post-traumatic Stress Disorder. It is thus expected that there would be significantly higher incidences of reported symptoms of stress disorders amongst soldiers exposed to high levels of combat as compared with a similar group of soldiers who had no combat involvement. This study used a self-reporting questionnaire, developed in the USA but adapted for use in South Africa, to allow the soldiers in the study to rate the severity of various symptoms derived from the DSM-III criteria for Post-traumatic Stress Disorder. A Beck Depression Inventory was also administered to eliminate any persons who nay have been exhibiting symptoms of depression, as this would have confounded the results. Both questionnaires were administered to serving members of the Permanent Force of the South African Defence Force, with one group being members of various high-combat units based in what was then South West Africa, and the other group being non-combat or Headquarters elements. As a precondition of the study, absolute confidentiality of the respondents and their units was maintained. The study found the expected higher scores in the high-combat group, and also showed that the Keane questionnaire has a good coefficient alpha in South Africa. The study closes with several recommendations for further research, especially in the light of the new PTSD criteria in the DSM-IIIR.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Hodgson, Shane Ralph Colin
- Date: 1992
- Subjects: War -- Psychological aspects , War victims -- Mental health , Post-traumatic stress disorder
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: vital:2993 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002502 , War -- Psychological aspects , War victims -- Mental health , Post-traumatic stress disorder
- Description: The psychological sequelae of being involved in combat are only recently coming to be understood. Most of the available data are from research conducted on help-seeking Vietnam veterans in the United States, and very little work has been done in South Africa. There does not as yet appear to be any instrument designed specifically to detect combat-related psychopathologies amongst soldiers who are still in active service, either in the USA or in South Africa. Combat involvement has been shown to lead to a high incidence of combat stress reaction. This in turn has shown that it can predispose sufferers to the development of a Post-traumatic Stress Disorder. It is thus expected that there would be significantly higher incidences of reported symptoms of stress disorders amongst soldiers exposed to high levels of combat as compared with a similar group of soldiers who had no combat involvement. This study used a self-reporting questionnaire, developed in the USA but adapted for use in South Africa, to allow the soldiers in the study to rate the severity of various symptoms derived from the DSM-III criteria for Post-traumatic Stress Disorder. A Beck Depression Inventory was also administered to eliminate any persons who nay have been exhibiting symptoms of depression, as this would have confounded the results. Both questionnaires were administered to serving members of the Permanent Force of the South African Defence Force, with one group being members of various high-combat units based in what was then South West Africa, and the other group being non-combat or Headquarters elements. As a precondition of the study, absolute confidentiality of the respondents and their units was maintained. The study found the expected higher scores in the high-combat group, and also showed that the Keane questionnaire has a good coefficient alpha in South Africa. The study closes with several recommendations for further research, especially in the light of the new PTSD criteria in the DSM-IIIR.
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A phenomenological investigation of the beginning therapist's experience of the first session of psychotherapy with the first patient
- Authors: Allen, Jennifer Ann
- Date: 1987
- Subjects: Uncatalogued
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/193129 , vital:45301
- Description: The aim of this project is to come to an understanding of how the situation of the first session of psychotherapy with the first patient is lived by the beginning therapist and what meaning this situation holds for him. The writer's interest in this phenomenon grew out of her own experience of this situation as a clinical Masters coursework student, an experience which was of important to the writer and meaningful still as a therapist in training. In dialogue with experienced therapists the importance of this situation was again made apparant. It was the opinion of these therapists that although for some the details of this experience had become dulled by time, what remained meaningful to them was that this experience was seen as the beginning of a project which remains important to them - they identified this situation as an important moment in the history of their development as psychotherapists. In the hope that the literature pertaining to psychotherapy would throw some light on this situation, the writer turned to a number of sources in this area to discover that no literature available to her elucidated this situation in a holistic manner. This led the writer to go back to the beginning therapists themselves so that they may speak for themselves of their experience of this situation. A phenomenological method of enquiry is implemented in this study as it renders the subject matter accessible to investigation, and allows it to reveal itself as it essentially is. This project is then an attempt to come to a general description of the beginning therapist's experience of the first session of psychotherapy with the first patient and thus to articulate the structure of the beginning therapist's lived situation (world) in this context. , Thesis (MA) -- Faculty of Humanities, Psychology, 1987
- Full Text:
- Authors: Allen, Jennifer Ann
- Date: 1987
- Subjects: Uncatalogued
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/193129 , vital:45301
- Description: The aim of this project is to come to an understanding of how the situation of the first session of psychotherapy with the first patient is lived by the beginning therapist and what meaning this situation holds for him. The writer's interest in this phenomenon grew out of her own experience of this situation as a clinical Masters coursework student, an experience which was of important to the writer and meaningful still as a therapist in training. In dialogue with experienced therapists the importance of this situation was again made apparant. It was the opinion of these therapists that although for some the details of this experience had become dulled by time, what remained meaningful to them was that this experience was seen as the beginning of a project which remains important to them - they identified this situation as an important moment in the history of their development as psychotherapists. In the hope that the literature pertaining to psychotherapy would throw some light on this situation, the writer turned to a number of sources in this area to discover that no literature available to her elucidated this situation in a holistic manner. This led the writer to go back to the beginning therapists themselves so that they may speak for themselves of their experience of this situation. A phenomenological method of enquiry is implemented in this study as it renders the subject matter accessible to investigation, and allows it to reveal itself as it essentially is. This project is then an attempt to come to a general description of the beginning therapist's experience of the first session of psychotherapy with the first patient and thus to articulate the structure of the beginning therapist's lived situation (world) in this context. , Thesis (MA) -- Faculty of Humanities, Psychology, 1987
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