Indigenous trauma volunteers: survivors with a mission
- Authors: Moultrie, Alison
- Date: 2004
- Subjects: Volunteers -- Job stress , Volunteer workers in community development -- Job stress , Stress (Psychology) , Psychic trauma , Burn out (Psychology)
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSocSc
- Identifier: vital:3027 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002536 , Volunteers -- Job stress , Volunteer workers in community development -- Job stress , Stress (Psychology) , Psychic trauma , Burn out (Psychology)
- Description: There is a growing body of literature on the risk for secondary trauma amongst professional trauma workers. Nonetheless, there is scant published literature on the impact of trauma work on volunteers; particularly when such volunteers are indigenous to the highly traumatized communities which they serve. The study examined a group of parents (N=16) who volunteered in a school-based trauma support project in an impoverished, gang-ridden South African urban community in which they themselves reside. Aims were to 1) Explore the psychological impact of indigenous trauma volunteerism; 2) Explore volunteers’ perceptions of costs and benefits of volunteerism. Data collection was chiefly qualitative, using focus group and individual interviews. The Professional Quality of Life: Compassion Satisfaction and Fatigue Subscales (Stamm, 2002) were administered in order to determine risk for burnout, risk for compassion fatigue and potential for compassion satisfaction. The Stressful Life Experiences Screening Short Form (Stamm, 1997) was administered in order to gather descriptive information regarding personal trauma histories. Project documentation was reviewed. Analysis and interpretation of qualitative data involved a combination of both etic (theory-based) and emic (data and context-based) techniques. The volunteers’ experiences were co-constructed in interaction with three settings: 1) Experiences of training and supervision were affirming and empowering; 2) Experiences of the school context were mediated by the degree of access and integration into the school environment; 3) Experiences of the community context were mediated by the dynamics of identification, role fluidity and inter-setting negotiation. The primary cost of involvement was distress relating to limitations on capacity to help fellow community members with whom they strongly identified, and whom they felt intrapsychically, interpersonally and socially pressured to assist. These limitations included limited client resources, limited personal resources, limited occupational resources and limited systemic resources. Other sources of distress included context-related boundary management difficulties, institutional (school-related) stressors, difficulties in persuading children to disclose abuse and material costs of volunteering. Coping was facilitated by empowering training, supervision, peer support, and self-care practices. Benefits included acquisition of psychological, interpersonal and occupational skills, improved personal relationships, social support, validation, personal healing and role satisfaction.
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- Authors: Moultrie, Alison
- Date: 2004
- Subjects: Volunteers -- Job stress , Volunteer workers in community development -- Job stress , Stress (Psychology) , Psychic trauma , Burn out (Psychology)
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSocSc
- Identifier: vital:3027 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002536 , Volunteers -- Job stress , Volunteer workers in community development -- Job stress , Stress (Psychology) , Psychic trauma , Burn out (Psychology)
- Description: There is a growing body of literature on the risk for secondary trauma amongst professional trauma workers. Nonetheless, there is scant published literature on the impact of trauma work on volunteers; particularly when such volunteers are indigenous to the highly traumatized communities which they serve. The study examined a group of parents (N=16) who volunteered in a school-based trauma support project in an impoverished, gang-ridden South African urban community in which they themselves reside. Aims were to 1) Explore the psychological impact of indigenous trauma volunteerism; 2) Explore volunteers’ perceptions of costs and benefits of volunteerism. Data collection was chiefly qualitative, using focus group and individual interviews. The Professional Quality of Life: Compassion Satisfaction and Fatigue Subscales (Stamm, 2002) were administered in order to determine risk for burnout, risk for compassion fatigue and potential for compassion satisfaction. The Stressful Life Experiences Screening Short Form (Stamm, 1997) was administered in order to gather descriptive information regarding personal trauma histories. Project documentation was reviewed. Analysis and interpretation of qualitative data involved a combination of both etic (theory-based) and emic (data and context-based) techniques. The volunteers’ experiences were co-constructed in interaction with three settings: 1) Experiences of training and supervision were affirming and empowering; 2) Experiences of the school context were mediated by the degree of access and integration into the school environment; 3) Experiences of the community context were mediated by the dynamics of identification, role fluidity and inter-setting negotiation. The primary cost of involvement was distress relating to limitations on capacity to help fellow community members with whom they strongly identified, and whom they felt intrapsychically, interpersonally and socially pressured to assist. These limitations included limited client resources, limited personal resources, limited occupational resources and limited systemic resources. Other sources of distress included context-related boundary management difficulties, institutional (school-related) stressors, difficulties in persuading children to disclose abuse and material costs of volunteering. Coping was facilitated by empowering training, supervision, peer support, and self-care practices. Benefits included acquisition of psychological, interpersonal and occupational skills, improved personal relationships, social support, validation, personal healing and role satisfaction.
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Psychological resilience: the role of unconscious and conscious coping strategies in the mediation of stress in high risk occupational contexts
- Authors: Alexander, Debra Geraldine
- Date: 2002
- Subjects: Hazardous occupations , Teachers -- South Africa -- Job stress , Police -- South Africa -- Job stress , Emergency medical personnel -- South Africa -- Job stress , Stress (Psychology)
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3092 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003059 , Hazardous occupations , Teachers -- South Africa -- Job stress , Police -- South Africa -- Job stress , Emergency medical personnel -- South Africa -- Job stress , Stress (Psychology)
- Description: This study investigates the role of unconscious and conscious coping strategies in the mediation of stress in high risk occupational contexts. The Social Readjustment Rating Scale, the Multidimensional Coping Inventory and the Defense Style Questionnaires were completed by 194 police, ambulance and teaching personnel. A sample of 37 teachers served as a non high risk occupation control group. Descriptive statistics, regression analysis, analysis of variance, analysis of difference and principal component analysis were performed on the data. Results indicated minimal significant between group differences. Within group variances were yielded. A minor relationship between levels of stress and usage of positive and negative mechanisms was observed. The significance of these findings is discussed and recommendations made for further study.
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- Authors: Alexander, Debra Geraldine
- Date: 2002
- Subjects: Hazardous occupations , Teachers -- South Africa -- Job stress , Police -- South Africa -- Job stress , Emergency medical personnel -- South Africa -- Job stress , Stress (Psychology)
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3092 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003059 , Hazardous occupations , Teachers -- South Africa -- Job stress , Police -- South Africa -- Job stress , Emergency medical personnel -- South Africa -- Job stress , Stress (Psychology)
- Description: This study investigates the role of unconscious and conscious coping strategies in the mediation of stress in high risk occupational contexts. The Social Readjustment Rating Scale, the Multidimensional Coping Inventory and the Defense Style Questionnaires were completed by 194 police, ambulance and teaching personnel. A sample of 37 teachers served as a non high risk occupation control group. Descriptive statistics, regression analysis, analysis of variance, analysis of difference and principal component analysis were performed on the data. Results indicated minimal significant between group differences. Within group variances were yielded. A minor relationship between levels of stress and usage of positive and negative mechanisms was observed. The significance of these findings is discussed and recommendations made for further study.
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The importance of personal and collective resources in coping with stressors related to industrial action at the Coldstream sawmill
- Authors: Besseling, Elizabeth Anne
- Date: 1999
- Subjects: Stress (Psychology) , Stress (Physiology) , Industrial relations -- South Africa -- Case studies , Coldstream (South africa)
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2932 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002441 , Stress (Psychology) , Stress (Physiology) , Industrial relations -- South Africa -- Case studies , Coldstream (South africa)
- Description: The main purpose of the study is to investigate whether the stress response moderators served as effective variables in reducing the stress of the strike. For instance, if individuals differ in' their ability to actualise resources, does someone with a high SOC utilise friendships or supportive relationships more than someone with a low SOC? Does someone who has a high score for religious practice become less depressed when faced with a significant stressor than someone less involved in church activities?
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- Authors: Besseling, Elizabeth Anne
- Date: 1999
- Subjects: Stress (Psychology) , Stress (Physiology) , Industrial relations -- South Africa -- Case studies , Coldstream (South africa)
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2932 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002441 , Stress (Psychology) , Stress (Physiology) , Industrial relations -- South Africa -- Case studies , Coldstream (South africa)
- Description: The main purpose of the study is to investigate whether the stress response moderators served as effective variables in reducing the stress of the strike. For instance, if individuals differ in' their ability to actualise resources, does someone with a high SOC utilise friendships or supportive relationships more than someone with a low SOC? Does someone who has a high score for religious practice become less depressed when faced with a significant stressor than someone less involved in church activities?
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Discovering the meaning of stress: a qualitative approach
- Authors: Crowley, Michelle Laureen
- Date: 1991
- Subjects: Stress (Psychology)
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSocSc
- Identifier: vital:2957 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002466 , Stress (Psychology)
- Description: The aim of the study was to understand the meaning of stress, and towards this end eleven individuals who claimed to have experienced the phenomenon during the six months prior to data collection were asked to describe their experience. These transcribed protocols were explicated in terms of a phenomenological praxis, and the emotional content of descriptions subjected to taxonomic analysis. In addition, a literature review for the purposes of tracing the development of contemporary stress models and related constructs was conducted. The latter critiqued current conceptualisations of stress, and attempted to highlight some important contributions. Explication in terms of phenomenological praxis identified seven central features associated with lived stress, namely, lived stress as : the perception of personal cost; a sense of entrapment; persistent coping efforts; learned helplessness; embodiment; and, poor social relations. In addition, the unfolding nature of the experience suggested stress as a continuous process of adjustment to worldly demands, and furthermore, highliJhted several variations of structure. The latter themes were used to develop a more inclusive model of lived stress as a dynamic and unfolding process. Dialogue with existing literature was able to confirm the self-world split proposed by the transactional approach to stress as legitimate, and furthermore, confirmed the primacy of cognition for the stress phenomenon. In addition, the link between stress and personality factors, psychopathological conditions and related fields of enquiry (such as anxiety and burnout) as well as more positive modes of being (such as creativity) were discussed. Furthermore, lived stress was shown to involve a threat to the individual's continued existence, both with respect to his/her the desired self and its unfolding and his/her physicality, while the presence of mutual hostility between self and world was also noted. The study concludes with reflection concerning the methodologies employed, and suggests that while qualitative and interpretive methods are both cumbersome and time consuming if rigorously applied, they do enrich the understanding of complex experiential phenomena. Finally, several suggestions are made for further research and refinement in the stress field, the most pertinent of which appears to be that of establishing the relationship between lived stress and the development of more debilitating psychopathological conditions.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Crowley, Michelle Laureen
- Date: 1991
- Subjects: Stress (Psychology)
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSocSc
- Identifier: vital:2957 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002466 , Stress (Psychology)
- Description: The aim of the study was to understand the meaning of stress, and towards this end eleven individuals who claimed to have experienced the phenomenon during the six months prior to data collection were asked to describe their experience. These transcribed protocols were explicated in terms of a phenomenological praxis, and the emotional content of descriptions subjected to taxonomic analysis. In addition, a literature review for the purposes of tracing the development of contemporary stress models and related constructs was conducted. The latter critiqued current conceptualisations of stress, and attempted to highlight some important contributions. Explication in terms of phenomenological praxis identified seven central features associated with lived stress, namely, lived stress as : the perception of personal cost; a sense of entrapment; persistent coping efforts; learned helplessness; embodiment; and, poor social relations. In addition, the unfolding nature of the experience suggested stress as a continuous process of adjustment to worldly demands, and furthermore, highliJhted several variations of structure. The latter themes were used to develop a more inclusive model of lived stress as a dynamic and unfolding process. Dialogue with existing literature was able to confirm the self-world split proposed by the transactional approach to stress as legitimate, and furthermore, confirmed the primacy of cognition for the stress phenomenon. In addition, the link between stress and personality factors, psychopathological conditions and related fields of enquiry (such as anxiety and burnout) as well as more positive modes of being (such as creativity) were discussed. Furthermore, lived stress was shown to involve a threat to the individual's continued existence, both with respect to his/her the desired self and its unfolding and his/her physicality, while the presence of mutual hostility between self and world was also noted. The study concludes with reflection concerning the methodologies employed, and suggests that while qualitative and interpretive methods are both cumbersome and time consuming if rigorously applied, they do enrich the understanding of complex experiential phenomena. Finally, several suggestions are made for further research and refinement in the stress field, the most pertinent of which appears to be that of establishing the relationship between lived stress and the development of more debilitating psychopathological conditions.
- Full Text:
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