An empirical phenomenological investigations of the experience of being unemployed : a critical study in the South African context
- Authors: Jaffray, Timothy William
- Date: 1990
- Subjects: Unemployment -- Psychological aspects , Unemployment -- South Africa -- Psychological aspects
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2904 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002068
- Description: Unemploynent is a problem that confronts many western countries. The aim of this dissertation is to understand, on the basis of a phenomenological investigation, what it means to be an unemployed, white, South African citizen. These meanings are then seen and discussed against the background of the problems associated with the ideological structure within the country. How the latter relates to white employment and psychological life is also explored. The results demonstrate the negative impact unemploynent has upon the psychological functioning of the individual. The results further show the despair such individuals face, having been 'denied' an accepted role within society.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1990
- Authors: Jaffray, Timothy William
- Date: 1990
- Subjects: Unemployment -- Psychological aspects , Unemployment -- South Africa -- Psychological aspects
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2904 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002068
- Description: Unemploynent is a problem that confronts many western countries. The aim of this dissertation is to understand, on the basis of a phenomenological investigation, what it means to be an unemployed, white, South African citizen. These meanings are then seen and discussed against the background of the problems associated with the ideological structure within the country. How the latter relates to white employment and psychological life is also explored. The results demonstrate the negative impact unemploynent has upon the psychological functioning of the individual. The results further show the despair such individuals face, having been 'denied' an accepted role within society.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1990
Religious experience and schizophrenia in modern man : an experiential theoretical study
- Borchardt, Frederick Francois
- Authors: Borchardt, Frederick Francois
- Date: 1990
- Subjects: Schizophrenia -- Religious aspects , Experience (Religion) -- Psychological aspects
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2897 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002061
- Description: In this study the psychological structures of two categories of religious and schizophrenic experience were examined from a phenomenological- existential perspective. Existing theories describe schizophrenia as an unfree, rigid experience with limited possibilities for selfhood. Some theorists believe, however, that some forms of schizophrenia can be seen as potential growth experiences which could facilitate existential renewal. These forms of schizophrenia are mystical, mythical or spiritual in nature. Religious experiences are, according to the literature, essentially renewal experiences facilitating existential growth and transformation through a particular system of thought and devotional relationship shared by a group of people. The Duquesne phenomenological- psychological method was used to analyse seven case studies, four of which involved schizophrenic experiences and three which involved religious conversion experiences. The general psychological structure which emerged through this analysis showed both schizophrenia and religious experience to have specific implications for the personal, social, material and mystical dimensions of being. The description of a specific psychological structure of experience which could optimally facilitate existential growth and transformation was attained by examining psychological structures where the subject's experience culminated in existential growth and transformation (such as religious experience and certain schizophrenIc experiences). As both these categories of experience displayed a strong mystical component, a psychological structure of experience which facilitates a transformative mystical experience was described. It can be concluded that an experience involving a mystical dimension could be transformative if the general psychological structure of the person displays (a) an openness towards reality as it presents itself (b) an experience of oneself as having a measure of existential freedom (c) a certain sense of security in one's own selfhood and (d) a social world which could understand, support and reflect inner experiences.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1990
- Authors: Borchardt, Frederick Francois
- Date: 1990
- Subjects: Schizophrenia -- Religious aspects , Experience (Religion) -- Psychological aspects
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2897 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002061
- Description: In this study the psychological structures of two categories of religious and schizophrenic experience were examined from a phenomenological- existential perspective. Existing theories describe schizophrenia as an unfree, rigid experience with limited possibilities for selfhood. Some theorists believe, however, that some forms of schizophrenia can be seen as potential growth experiences which could facilitate existential renewal. These forms of schizophrenia are mystical, mythical or spiritual in nature. Religious experiences are, according to the literature, essentially renewal experiences facilitating existential growth and transformation through a particular system of thought and devotional relationship shared by a group of people. The Duquesne phenomenological- psychological method was used to analyse seven case studies, four of which involved schizophrenic experiences and three which involved religious conversion experiences. The general psychological structure which emerged through this analysis showed both schizophrenia and religious experience to have specific implications for the personal, social, material and mystical dimensions of being. The description of a specific psychological structure of experience which could optimally facilitate existential growth and transformation was attained by examining psychological structures where the subject's experience culminated in existential growth and transformation (such as religious experience and certain schizophrenIc experiences). As both these categories of experience displayed a strong mystical component, a psychological structure of experience which facilitates a transformative mystical experience was described. It can be concluded that an experience involving a mystical dimension could be transformative if the general psychological structure of the person displays (a) an openness towards reality as it presents itself (b) an experience of oneself as having a measure of existential freedom (c) a certain sense of security in one's own selfhood and (d) a social world which could understand, support and reflect inner experiences.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1990
A metabletic study of the male/female process in psychology
- O'Brien, Keith Stanley Edward Michael
- Authors: O'Brien, Keith Stanley Edward Michael
- Date: 1989
- Subjects: Psychology -- Philosophy , Sex difference (Psychology) , Psychotherapy
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2908 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002073
- Description: The motivation to explore the subject matter of this thesis arises from two interlinked processes: (1) the experience of the power and pervasiveness of a "basic split" experienced in therapy in the unity of the individual, (2) the tendency in the unitary discipline psychology for theorists to adopt views which are polar opposites. In trying to understand these phenomena one has to explore the basic paradox of being which has fascinated thinkers and mystics down through the ages, the paradox of the One and the many, and thus the phenomenon of change. This paradox is explored in mythology, in the "philosophia perennis" and as encountered in high-energy sub-atomic physics. Out of this emerges the awareness of Being as One but as embodying a dynamic polar process, the first of whose manifestations is the male and the female process (or Yin/Yang in Chinese). The male/female process is defined and explored and it is shown that the female process has been progressively ignored and largely repressed in the West. I demonstrate this process in a metabletic (hermeneutical phenomenological) study of Greek sacred architecture. Metabletics as defined by its originator, J.H. van den Berg, is "the theory of change" or a psychology of history. It is thus a particularly suitable method of analysing the cultural-historical process of the repression of the female process in Western society. The emergence of the male process as predominant in the West is explored hermeneutically through the emergence of the individual and the suppression of the old unity centred in the Mother Goddess, and the receding of the Father God to the heavens. The choice by the great Greek philosophers of the male process is particularly important because of their emphasis on the Logico-Mathematical Sequential (L.M.S.) mode of knowing and perception at the expense of the female process, Intuitive-Creative Holistic (I.C.H.) mode.The dominance of the male process in the West is traced from the aboriginal female-process state through neolithic village culture to the rise of the first cities. Processes studied are the rise of kingship, war, private property and the splitting of labour. The roots of anomie and alienation are described. The emergence of god as powerful ruler and lawgiver is shown. The splitting of the male/female process leads to the splitting of the individual from him/herself, from others, from the world and from the divine. This is traced in the mystery religions, in religious dualism, in the rise of the Judaeo-Christian tradition and Gnosticism. The split and its effects are demonstrated in Western science and psychology. The necessity and possibility of integration in science and in psychology is demonstrated through the integration of our process of knowing and perceiving which is used as a model for the integration of psychology. The effects of the male/female split on the individual in Western society are shown. The split in our society leads to anomie and alienation, which produce "socioses". These affect the child born into the society and lead to a "Parent/Child" split. The possibility of healing the split in the individual, between people, between humankind and the world and in re-establishing our unity in the One is illustrated. The unity of the One is experienced through the dynamic polar interaction of the male/female process.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1989
- Authors: O'Brien, Keith Stanley Edward Michael
- Date: 1989
- Subjects: Psychology -- Philosophy , Sex difference (Psychology) , Psychotherapy
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2908 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002073
- Description: The motivation to explore the subject matter of this thesis arises from two interlinked processes: (1) the experience of the power and pervasiveness of a "basic split" experienced in therapy in the unity of the individual, (2) the tendency in the unitary discipline psychology for theorists to adopt views which are polar opposites. In trying to understand these phenomena one has to explore the basic paradox of being which has fascinated thinkers and mystics down through the ages, the paradox of the One and the many, and thus the phenomenon of change. This paradox is explored in mythology, in the "philosophia perennis" and as encountered in high-energy sub-atomic physics. Out of this emerges the awareness of Being as One but as embodying a dynamic polar process, the first of whose manifestations is the male and the female process (or Yin/Yang in Chinese). The male/female process is defined and explored and it is shown that the female process has been progressively ignored and largely repressed in the West. I demonstrate this process in a metabletic (hermeneutical phenomenological) study of Greek sacred architecture. Metabletics as defined by its originator, J.H. van den Berg, is "the theory of change" or a psychology of history. It is thus a particularly suitable method of analysing the cultural-historical process of the repression of the female process in Western society. The emergence of the male process as predominant in the West is explored hermeneutically through the emergence of the individual and the suppression of the old unity centred in the Mother Goddess, and the receding of the Father God to the heavens. The choice by the great Greek philosophers of the male process is particularly important because of their emphasis on the Logico-Mathematical Sequential (L.M.S.) mode of knowing and perception at the expense of the female process, Intuitive-Creative Holistic (I.C.H.) mode.The dominance of the male process in the West is traced from the aboriginal female-process state through neolithic village culture to the rise of the first cities. Processes studied are the rise of kingship, war, private property and the splitting of labour. The roots of anomie and alienation are described. The emergence of god as powerful ruler and lawgiver is shown. The splitting of the male/female process leads to the splitting of the individual from him/herself, from others, from the world and from the divine. This is traced in the mystery religions, in religious dualism, in the rise of the Judaeo-Christian tradition and Gnosticism. The split and its effects are demonstrated in Western science and psychology. The necessity and possibility of integration in science and in psychology is demonstrated through the integration of our process of knowing and perceiving which is used as a model for the integration of psychology. The effects of the male/female split on the individual in Western society are shown. The split in our society leads to anomie and alienation, which produce "socioses". These affect the child born into the society and lead to a "Parent/Child" split. The possibility of healing the split in the individual, between people, between humankind and the world and in re-establishing our unity in the One is illustrated. The unity of the One is experienced through the dynamic polar interaction of the male/female process.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1989
Health and politics : appraisal and evaluation of the provision of health and mental health services for Blacks in South Africa
- Authors: O'Donoghue, Sean B
- Date: 1989
- Subjects: Black people -- Mental health -- South Africa , Mental health services -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2909 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002074
- Description: The aim of this study has been to examine, in the light of recent events in the field of Health Care in South Africa, the remarks and claims made by the World Health Organization, and the American Psychiatric Association between 1976 and 1978 on Health Care services, as provided for Blacks, by the South African government. In two reports, these organizations instituted the earliest, and arguably most significant claims against South Africa's system of Health Care. This study sketches firstly the political genesis and social context of the WHO, and APA examinations. Secondly, this study evaluates responses made by the South African State to the critical climate inspired by the above mentioned reports, through a close analysis of recent events associated with the politics, and provision of Health Care Facilities - particularly with regard to Black South Africans. This analysis suggests that the governments' earlier tentative policy of privatisation (which was soundly condemned by WHO and the APA) has been even more enthusiastically pursued - in contradiction to it's avowed policies of Commu ity Health Care, and to the continuing detriment of those South African communities who are in most need of adequate Health Care services. The study concludes that the criticisms raised by the WHO and APA had the effect of inspiring positive reforms in South Africa's health services, but in no way thwarted the governments', at first only tentative plans, to increasingly privatise it's psychiatric and other medical institutions.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1989
- Authors: O'Donoghue, Sean B
- Date: 1989
- Subjects: Black people -- Mental health -- South Africa , Mental health services -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2909 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002074
- Description: The aim of this study has been to examine, in the light of recent events in the field of Health Care in South Africa, the remarks and claims made by the World Health Organization, and the American Psychiatric Association between 1976 and 1978 on Health Care services, as provided for Blacks, by the South African government. In two reports, these organizations instituted the earliest, and arguably most significant claims against South Africa's system of Health Care. This study sketches firstly the political genesis and social context of the WHO, and APA examinations. Secondly, this study evaluates responses made by the South African State to the critical climate inspired by the above mentioned reports, through a close analysis of recent events associated with the politics, and provision of Health Care Facilities - particularly with regard to Black South Africans. This analysis suggests that the governments' earlier tentative policy of privatisation (which was soundly condemned by WHO and the APA) has been even more enthusiastically pursued - in contradiction to it's avowed policies of Commu ity Health Care, and to the continuing detriment of those South African communities who are in most need of adequate Health Care services. The study concludes that the criticisms raised by the WHO and APA had the effect of inspiring positive reforms in South Africa's health services, but in no way thwarted the governments', at first only tentative plans, to increasingly privatise it's psychiatric and other medical institutions.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1989
Obedient daughter, silenced witch: the hysteric in Freudian psychoanalysis
- Authors: Roux, Catharina
- Date: 1989
- Subjects: Freud, Sigmund, 1856-1939 -- Criticism and interpretation , Hysteria , Psychoanalysis , Seduction
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3117 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1004637 , Freud, Sigmund, 1856-1939 -- Criticism and interpretation , Hysteria , Psychoanalysis , Seduction
- Description: This study explores the theoretical consequences of Freud's renunciation of the seduction theory. The dissertation defends the thesis that the seduction theory was shaped as much by Freud's adherence to the nomonological model as by the empirical evidence of child sexual abuse. A renunciation of the seduction theory was inevitable, not because the accounts of the daughters were lies, but because the methodology was inappropriate. The nomonological model obscured the emotional structure of the nuclear family in which the structure itself, through which sexuality emerged, directed the girl's entrance into womanhood and caused the woman's dis-ease. Freud's methodology forced him to isolate an event as cause of an illness and to attribute the event to an agent. The universal perversity of the Victorian father thus became the central theme around which an explanation of a female disease was built. When this theme became theoretically untenable, Freud renounced the seduction theory and, still using the nomonological model, built up the construct of the Oedipus complex in which the father was vindicated. In order to exonerate the father, the transactions through which the child's libido developed were represented as originating in inherent tendencies. As a result, the hierarchical nature of the interaction between parent and child was distorted, and this led to the formulation of the distinction between real events and fantasies as a basic premise on which the difference between the pleasure principle and the reality principle rests. This formulation gave rise to the sharp duality between fantasy and reality which eventually compelled him to separate psychic reality and social reality. The theoretical structure built on this duality could not but fuse hysteria, masochism and "normal" femininity into an explanation of the female state, and obscure the essential social relations between men and women which were structured in terms of dominance and submission. The thesis traces the journey from the perverted father as cause of a female disease, hysteria, to the theoretical conjunction of masochism and hysteria. It comes to the conclusion that Freud's model is unable to explain the self-mutilation of the hysteric; nor is it capable of explaining the hysteric's refusal to participate in the circuit of symbolic exchanges which constituted Victorian society. The study further attempts to understand hysteria in terms of the complex interlacing of fact and fantasy and tries to show that fantasy was rooted in the facts of Victorian culture.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1989
- Authors: Roux, Catharina
- Date: 1989
- Subjects: Freud, Sigmund, 1856-1939 -- Criticism and interpretation , Hysteria , Psychoanalysis , Seduction
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3117 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1004637 , Freud, Sigmund, 1856-1939 -- Criticism and interpretation , Hysteria , Psychoanalysis , Seduction
- Description: This study explores the theoretical consequences of Freud's renunciation of the seduction theory. The dissertation defends the thesis that the seduction theory was shaped as much by Freud's adherence to the nomonological model as by the empirical evidence of child sexual abuse. A renunciation of the seduction theory was inevitable, not because the accounts of the daughters were lies, but because the methodology was inappropriate. The nomonological model obscured the emotional structure of the nuclear family in which the structure itself, through which sexuality emerged, directed the girl's entrance into womanhood and caused the woman's dis-ease. Freud's methodology forced him to isolate an event as cause of an illness and to attribute the event to an agent. The universal perversity of the Victorian father thus became the central theme around which an explanation of a female disease was built. When this theme became theoretically untenable, Freud renounced the seduction theory and, still using the nomonological model, built up the construct of the Oedipus complex in which the father was vindicated. In order to exonerate the father, the transactions through which the child's libido developed were represented as originating in inherent tendencies. As a result, the hierarchical nature of the interaction between parent and child was distorted, and this led to the formulation of the distinction between real events and fantasies as a basic premise on which the difference between the pleasure principle and the reality principle rests. This formulation gave rise to the sharp duality between fantasy and reality which eventually compelled him to separate psychic reality and social reality. The theoretical structure built on this duality could not but fuse hysteria, masochism and "normal" femininity into an explanation of the female state, and obscure the essential social relations between men and women which were structured in terms of dominance and submission. The thesis traces the journey from the perverted father as cause of a female disease, hysteria, to the theoretical conjunction of masochism and hysteria. It comes to the conclusion that Freud's model is unable to explain the self-mutilation of the hysteric; nor is it capable of explaining the hysteric's refusal to participate in the circuit of symbolic exchanges which constituted Victorian society. The study further attempts to understand hysteria in terms of the complex interlacing of fact and fantasy and tries to show that fantasy was rooted in the facts of Victorian culture.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1989
A phenomenological explication of the experience of having one's bereavement denied by others
- Authors: Sennett, Margot Jane
- Date: 1988
- Subjects: Death -- Psychological aspects , Bereavement , Grief
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3108 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1004527 , Death -- Psychological aspects , Bereavement , Grief
- Description: Bereavement is the natural human reaction to the death of a significant other. Often the experience of the bereaved person is denied expression in the social context. The aim of this thesis is to examine what it means to have one's bereavement denied by others. The relevant literature was reviewed. Theories which have both reflected and influenced the way the bereaved are perceived in contemporary western society have been discussed. The historical background to changing attitudes towards death was described and the reasons for the "denial of death" were examined . The narcissistic personality in particular was considered . Using the Phenomenological method, a question was formulated to elicit the lived structure of the experience being researched. This was asked of thirteen voluntary subjects who had experienced the denial of their bereavement by others. Five written answers (protocols) were chosen and explicated. The lived structure of the experience can be described as "a profound and fundamental distancing of the world of the bereaved from the world of others." The implications of this for the bereaved person, bereavement support groups, health care professionals, future research and society as a whole were then critically discussed .
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1988
- Authors: Sennett, Margot Jane
- Date: 1988
- Subjects: Death -- Psychological aspects , Bereavement , Grief
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3108 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1004527 , Death -- Psychological aspects , Bereavement , Grief
- Description: Bereavement is the natural human reaction to the death of a significant other. Often the experience of the bereaved person is denied expression in the social context. The aim of this thesis is to examine what it means to have one's bereavement denied by others. The relevant literature was reviewed. Theories which have both reflected and influenced the way the bereaved are perceived in contemporary western society have been discussed. The historical background to changing attitudes towards death was described and the reasons for the "denial of death" were examined . The narcissistic personality in particular was considered . Using the Phenomenological method, a question was formulated to elicit the lived structure of the experience being researched. This was asked of thirteen voluntary subjects who had experienced the denial of their bereavement by others. Five written answers (protocols) were chosen and explicated. The lived structure of the experience can be described as "a profound and fundamental distancing of the world of the bereaved from the world of others." The implications of this for the bereaved person, bereavement support groups, health care professionals, future research and society as a whole were then critically discussed .
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1988
An existential phenomenological study of gaining insight into oneself through perceiving another person
- Authors: Hoek, Trevor Martin
- Date: 1988
- Subjects: Self Self-perception
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSocSc
- Identifier: vital:3113 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1004594
- Description: The aim of this study was to examine the structure of the experience of gaining insight into oneself through perceiving another person. Such a one-to-one situation was selected in order to ensure a minimal level of complexity. The researcher conducted a pilot study in order to check whether people could relate such an experience in response to a long and difficult interview question. One female first year student responded from among a group of thirty to whom the question was posed. She was then interviewed. The data appeared acceptable. This was confirmed after the data analysis using the phenomenological-psychological method of textual analysis. The analysis showed that the subject, while comparing herself with the person whom she was with, discovered that she structured her life too rigidly in her attempt to meet the expectations of others. This discovery gave her the opportunity to restructure her approach to her world and to the others whom she had seen in only a narrow and abstracted way. Lengthier interviews were then conducted with a further six potential subjects. These were then transcribed. Two of those subjects, though, were found to have experienced insight through perceiving more than one other person. The data from the four remaining subjects were then analysed using the phenomenological psychological method. The researcher discovered that insight involves a clarity of perception which is achieved when the person becomes aware of clearly differentiated possibilities; these are revealed to him through his intensely reflecting on where he stands in relation to the other person whom he perceives, or in relation to alternatives revealed to him by the other. The polarities that are revealed allow the person to take up a new approach to his world, since the person discovers that his experience has revealed that he has been inauthentic in his muddled concern about others, and this gives the person a perception of truth that he was previously unaware of. These findings were dialogued with the writing of psychologists and philosophers who have written on the subject of becoming aware of oneself in relation to others.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1988
- Authors: Hoek, Trevor Martin
- Date: 1988
- Subjects: Self Self-perception
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSocSc
- Identifier: vital:3113 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1004594
- Description: The aim of this study was to examine the structure of the experience of gaining insight into oneself through perceiving another person. Such a one-to-one situation was selected in order to ensure a minimal level of complexity. The researcher conducted a pilot study in order to check whether people could relate such an experience in response to a long and difficult interview question. One female first year student responded from among a group of thirty to whom the question was posed. She was then interviewed. The data appeared acceptable. This was confirmed after the data analysis using the phenomenological-psychological method of textual analysis. The analysis showed that the subject, while comparing herself with the person whom she was with, discovered that she structured her life too rigidly in her attempt to meet the expectations of others. This discovery gave her the opportunity to restructure her approach to her world and to the others whom she had seen in only a narrow and abstracted way. Lengthier interviews were then conducted with a further six potential subjects. These were then transcribed. Two of those subjects, though, were found to have experienced insight through perceiving more than one other person. The data from the four remaining subjects were then analysed using the phenomenological psychological method. The researcher discovered that insight involves a clarity of perception which is achieved when the person becomes aware of clearly differentiated possibilities; these are revealed to him through his intensely reflecting on where he stands in relation to the other person whom he perceives, or in relation to alternatives revealed to him by the other. The polarities that are revealed allow the person to take up a new approach to his world, since the person discovers that his experience has revealed that he has been inauthentic in his muddled concern about others, and this gives the person a perception of truth that he was previously unaware of. These findings were dialogued with the writing of psychologists and philosophers who have written on the subject of becoming aware of oneself in relation to others.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1988
An existential-phenomenological exploration of interracial love relationships in South Africa
- Authors: Ross, Christopher James
- Date: 1988
- Subjects: Interpersonal relations -- South Africa , South Africa -- Race relations
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2900 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002064
- Description: The aim of the study was to explicate the experience of interracial love relationships between Blacks and Whites in South Africa. As a point of departure, a basic question was established which would elicit the actual experience of this phenomenon. The researcher conducted twelve interviews and chose the six psychologically richest accounts. The researcher then analysed in detail (using the phenomenological method) the resulting protocols comprising the interviews. The researcher then explicated the experience and discovered that interracial love was a historical process of going through a relationship over time. The subjects experienced a particular historical background in the face of which they felt unfulfilled which brought about the potential to search for authenticity in a particular way. The subjects were placed in a situation where interracial love became a possibility. The subjects saw the other as human and fell in love. A new horizon emerged and a learning experience, about themselves and the world, occurred. The element of conflict was always present which was exacerbated by the South African Apartheid system. Subjects experienced fulfillment and disappointment depending on whether or not their historical demand was met. This structure of the experience was dialogued with the writings of existential-phenomenological philosophers and psychologists and also with that of previous research in the context of discussing particular areas of psychological significance such as historical background and Apartheid, racism, alienation, motives for interracial love, love and the universality of human nature and interracial love as a learning experience.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1988
- Authors: Ross, Christopher James
- Date: 1988
- Subjects: Interpersonal relations -- South Africa , South Africa -- Race relations
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2900 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002064
- Description: The aim of the study was to explicate the experience of interracial love relationships between Blacks and Whites in South Africa. As a point of departure, a basic question was established which would elicit the actual experience of this phenomenon. The researcher conducted twelve interviews and chose the six psychologically richest accounts. The researcher then analysed in detail (using the phenomenological method) the resulting protocols comprising the interviews. The researcher then explicated the experience and discovered that interracial love was a historical process of going through a relationship over time. The subjects experienced a particular historical background in the face of which they felt unfulfilled which brought about the potential to search for authenticity in a particular way. The subjects were placed in a situation where interracial love became a possibility. The subjects saw the other as human and fell in love. A new horizon emerged and a learning experience, about themselves and the world, occurred. The element of conflict was always present which was exacerbated by the South African Apartheid system. Subjects experienced fulfillment and disappointment depending on whether or not their historical demand was met. This structure of the experience was dialogued with the writings of existential-phenomenological philosophers and psychologists and also with that of previous research in the context of discussing particular areas of psychological significance such as historical background and Apartheid, racism, alienation, motives for interracial love, love and the universality of human nature and interracial love as a learning experience.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1988
Theory in interpretive psychology - with special reference to Paul Ricoeur's interpretation of Freud
- Authors: Du Toit, Barry
- Date: 1988
- Subjects: Freud, Sigmund, 1856-1939 , Ricœur, Paul , Psychoanalysis
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2906 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002071
- Description: The thesis aims to show that, while an interpretive psychology is not compatible with theory as it occurs in the predictive- causal explanation of the natural sciences, it is both possible and necessary to develop a concept of theory valid within an interpretive methodology. These claims are advanced in the course of an examination of Ricoeur 's interpretation of Freudian psychoanalysis. After examining some traditional ways in which phenomenological psychology has responded to the psychoanalytic challenge, the thesis presents an interpretation of Freudian psychoanalysis as a hermeneutic approach which utilized theoretical constructions in a productive way, although distorted by Freud's natural-scientific self- understanding. Freud's causal-explanatory language and natural- scientific meta theory are shown to be significant inasmuch as they provide a vehicle for theory construction in psychoanalysis. However, since the theory is modeled on that of the natural sciences, it proves incompatible with the interpretive aspects of Freud's approach. We then establish a concept of theory and of causal analysis which is different to that of the natural sciences, and is compatible with, and indeed founded in, an interpretive approach to psychology. These concepts are then illustrated in the context of psychoanalysis. In the final chapter the advantages of the use of theory in interpretive psychology are discussed.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1988
Theory in interpretive psychology - with special reference to Paul Ricoeur's interpretation of Freud
- Authors: Du Toit, Barry
- Date: 1988
- Subjects: Freud, Sigmund, 1856-1939 , Ricœur, Paul , Psychoanalysis
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2906 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002071
- Description: The thesis aims to show that, while an interpretive psychology is not compatible with theory as it occurs in the predictive- causal explanation of the natural sciences, it is both possible and necessary to develop a concept of theory valid within an interpretive methodology. These claims are advanced in the course of an examination of Ricoeur 's interpretation of Freudian psychoanalysis. After examining some traditional ways in which phenomenological psychology has responded to the psychoanalytic challenge, the thesis presents an interpretation of Freudian psychoanalysis as a hermeneutic approach which utilized theoretical constructions in a productive way, although distorted by Freud's natural-scientific self- understanding. Freud's causal-explanatory language and natural- scientific meta theory are shown to be significant inasmuch as they provide a vehicle for theory construction in psychoanalysis. However, since the theory is modeled on that of the natural sciences, it proves incompatible with the interpretive aspects of Freud's approach. We then establish a concept of theory and of causal analysis which is different to that of the natural sciences, and is compatible with, and indeed founded in, an interpretive approach to psychology. These concepts are then illustrated in the context of psychoanalysis. In the final chapter the advantages of the use of theory in interpretive psychology are discussed.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1988
Funeral rites of the amaXhosa as therapeutic procedures compared to crisis intervention : an anthropological-descriptive evaluation
- Solomon, Angela Ntombizodwa Nokuphila
- Authors: Solomon, Angela Ntombizodwa Nokuphila
- Date: 1987
- Subjects: Xhosa (African people) -- Funeral customs and rites , Xhosa (African people) -- Psychology , Bereavement -- Psychological aspects , Mourning customs -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: vital:3164 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007699
- Description: This study was undertaken in an attempt to investigate the analogy between the Crisis Intervention Model and the Funeral Rites of the amaXhosa. The latter group includes both traditional as well as Western Christian elements. The study was confined to the geographical area of Ciskei and more specifically the villages in and around Peddie and Ndevana near Zwelitsha, as regards traditional people, and the Black townships of Zwelitsha and Whittlesea,as regards more Westernized people. It is, however, the contention of the study that experiences discussed here are common to Blacks in South Africa irrespective of ethnicity. The justification for this generalisation is based on anthropological commonalities as well as historical vicissitudes among Blacks in Southern Africa. For instance, ritual slaughter performed after death in propitiation with the ancestors is known among all Blacks in South Africa. Also the Politico-historical events as well as socio-economic developments in the country affect Blacks in a more or less similar manner. For example, the changing family structure among Blacks, because of changes from one type of economy to another, is a social process affecting all Blacks in Southern Africa - in particular the working class (Colin Murray, 1980). The Funeral rites under study are postulated as possessing elements of therapeutic and practical value which result in the alleviation of grief and the encouragement of full acceptable means of mourning. The study is chiefly descriptive and anthropological material has been used. Recordings were made from participant observation whenever there was a funeral in the area studied. Information about funerals is easily obtainable as these are announced over Radio Ciskei and Radio Xhosa every evening. Mourners and interveners were interviewed. The former to elicit the needs they had felt, the latter to elicit the needs they had perceived the former to have. The Crisis Intervention Model is fairly simple to understand and uses practical theory. Therefore, it is not surprising that there should be elements of similarity between this model and the funeral rites of the amaXhosa as both deal with people in need of support. These funeral rites are rooted in a culture which has as one of its crucial aspects intimate, face-to-face interaction of its members in constant exchange as regards both emotional support and services. These "credit networks" ensure that a person is never bereft of emotional support. Moreover, temporary services are always accorded to a person in crisis. An effort has been made to relate the Crisis Intervention Model to the South African context of Blacks (both traditional as well as Christian). By necessity this has meant looking at all cultural dimensions of Black society - historical, political, economic and cultural, in order to provide a clearer picture of the people under study. That is, human psychological experiences of grief and mourning are seen as processes related to and developing within the concrete everyday realities. Some of the experiences described have been personally witnessed by the researcher in her personal involvement with cultural practices. Funerals are, of necessity, sad occasions and this study, using participant observation methods sometimes brought on sad memories of the researcher's own losses of loved ones. In the discussion a comparison was made between the traditional methods of grief work, the Crisis Intervention theory and the mourner studied and it was found that these rites do indeed, contain therapeutic and practical elements of dealing with grief and mourning, comparable to the Crisis Intervention Model. Finally in the conclusior a proposal for further areas of study in this field was suggested.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1987
- Authors: Solomon, Angela Ntombizodwa Nokuphila
- Date: 1987
- Subjects: Xhosa (African people) -- Funeral customs and rites , Xhosa (African people) -- Psychology , Bereavement -- Psychological aspects , Mourning customs -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: vital:3164 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007699
- Description: This study was undertaken in an attempt to investigate the analogy between the Crisis Intervention Model and the Funeral Rites of the amaXhosa. The latter group includes both traditional as well as Western Christian elements. The study was confined to the geographical area of Ciskei and more specifically the villages in and around Peddie and Ndevana near Zwelitsha, as regards traditional people, and the Black townships of Zwelitsha and Whittlesea,as regards more Westernized people. It is, however, the contention of the study that experiences discussed here are common to Blacks in South Africa irrespective of ethnicity. The justification for this generalisation is based on anthropological commonalities as well as historical vicissitudes among Blacks in Southern Africa. For instance, ritual slaughter performed after death in propitiation with the ancestors is known among all Blacks in South Africa. Also the Politico-historical events as well as socio-economic developments in the country affect Blacks in a more or less similar manner. For example, the changing family structure among Blacks, because of changes from one type of economy to another, is a social process affecting all Blacks in Southern Africa - in particular the working class (Colin Murray, 1980). The Funeral rites under study are postulated as possessing elements of therapeutic and practical value which result in the alleviation of grief and the encouragement of full acceptable means of mourning. The study is chiefly descriptive and anthropological material has been used. Recordings were made from participant observation whenever there was a funeral in the area studied. Information about funerals is easily obtainable as these are announced over Radio Ciskei and Radio Xhosa every evening. Mourners and interveners were interviewed. The former to elicit the needs they had felt, the latter to elicit the needs they had perceived the former to have. The Crisis Intervention Model is fairly simple to understand and uses practical theory. Therefore, it is not surprising that there should be elements of similarity between this model and the funeral rites of the amaXhosa as both deal with people in need of support. These funeral rites are rooted in a culture which has as one of its crucial aspects intimate, face-to-face interaction of its members in constant exchange as regards both emotional support and services. These "credit networks" ensure that a person is never bereft of emotional support. Moreover, temporary services are always accorded to a person in crisis. An effort has been made to relate the Crisis Intervention Model to the South African context of Blacks (both traditional as well as Christian). By necessity this has meant looking at all cultural dimensions of Black society - historical, political, economic and cultural, in order to provide a clearer picture of the people under study. That is, human psychological experiences of grief and mourning are seen as processes related to and developing within the concrete everyday realities. Some of the experiences described have been personally witnessed by the researcher in her personal involvement with cultural practices. Funerals are, of necessity, sad occasions and this study, using participant observation methods sometimes brought on sad memories of the researcher's own losses of loved ones. In the discussion a comparison was made between the traditional methods of grief work, the Crisis Intervention theory and the mourner studied and it was found that these rites do indeed, contain therapeutic and practical elements of dealing with grief and mourning, comparable to the Crisis Intervention Model. Finally in the conclusior a proposal for further areas of study in this field was suggested.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1987
A phenomenological analysis of the psychological manifestations of ontic conscience as derived from Heidegger's ontological conception of that phenomenon
- Authors: Parker, Michael Alan
- Date: 1986
- Subjects: Conscience , Heidegger, Martin, 1889-1976
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2911 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002076
- Description: The aim of this study was to investigate ontic conscience, as derived from Heidegger's ontological conception of conscience, as it is lived in concrete experience. Having established, through a close examination of Heidegger's writings on conscience, a question which would elicit actual experience of this phenomenon, the researcher collected sixty-four written accounts of these experiences. Of these he chose the four psychologically richest accounts and, having interviewed each of these four subjects on his situated experience, analysed in detail (using the phenomenological method) the resulting protocols comprising the written accounts and interviews. He then explicated the structure of conscience within its context of authenticity and inauthenticity. The context of conscience was discovered to be such that the person, having surrendered himself to others' experience and expectations of him, lives a pretence in the service of (inauthentically) being-for-others. He loses his sense of (bodily) self in the process, and it is at this point of his living at the extremes of inauthenticity, that he is forced to realise his own (authentic) reality which he has hitherto been concealing both from himself and from others. His primary attunement is reflected in feelings of betrayal, guilt, shame, dread and ambivalence. Through openly and resolutely living his authentic experience, he heals the rupture in his existence between what is revealed (his being-for-others) and what is concealed (his authentic experience), and feels liberated in so doing. This structure of conscience was dialogued with the writings of existential and psychoanalytic philosophers and psychologists in the context of discussing particular areas of psychological significance such as self, others, meaning, awareness and psychotherapy.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1986
- Authors: Parker, Michael Alan
- Date: 1986
- Subjects: Conscience , Heidegger, Martin, 1889-1976
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2911 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002076
- Description: The aim of this study was to investigate ontic conscience, as derived from Heidegger's ontological conception of conscience, as it is lived in concrete experience. Having established, through a close examination of Heidegger's writings on conscience, a question which would elicit actual experience of this phenomenon, the researcher collected sixty-four written accounts of these experiences. Of these he chose the four psychologically richest accounts and, having interviewed each of these four subjects on his situated experience, analysed in detail (using the phenomenological method) the resulting protocols comprising the written accounts and interviews. He then explicated the structure of conscience within its context of authenticity and inauthenticity. The context of conscience was discovered to be such that the person, having surrendered himself to others' experience and expectations of him, lives a pretence in the service of (inauthentically) being-for-others. He loses his sense of (bodily) self in the process, and it is at this point of his living at the extremes of inauthenticity, that he is forced to realise his own (authentic) reality which he has hitherto been concealing both from himself and from others. His primary attunement is reflected in feelings of betrayal, guilt, shame, dread and ambivalence. Through openly and resolutely living his authentic experience, he heals the rupture in his existence between what is revealed (his being-for-others) and what is concealed (his authentic experience), and feels liberated in so doing. This structure of conscience was dialogued with the writings of existential and psychoanalytic philosophers and psychologists in the context of discussing particular areas of psychological significance such as self, others, meaning, awareness and psychotherapy.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1986
Singing and dancing in Holy Spirit: an understanding of the Xhosa Zionist healing service
- Authors: Miller, Martin Jonathan
- Date: 1985
- Subjects: Health -- Religious aspects -- Zionist churches (Africa) , Healing -- South Africa -- Grahamstown -- Religious aspects , Zionist churches (Africa) -- South Africa -- Grahamstown
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3158 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007638 , Health -- Religious aspects -- Zionist churches (Africa) , Healing -- South Africa -- Grahamstown -- Religious aspects , Zionist churches (Africa) -- South Africa -- Grahamstown
- Description: Introduction: This project takes as its subject a particular example of ecstatic Christianity of the African Zionist type, practised by a group of urban African persons in Grahamstown, South Africa. The study is concerned specifically with the meanings of music (singing and drumming) and movement (dancing and clapping) in the context of a Church service whose overall intention is the employment of spiritual powers in the healing of sick persons.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1985
- Authors: Miller, Martin Jonathan
- Date: 1985
- Subjects: Health -- Religious aspects -- Zionist churches (Africa) , Healing -- South Africa -- Grahamstown -- Religious aspects , Zionist churches (Africa) -- South Africa -- Grahamstown
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3158 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007638 , Health -- Religious aspects -- Zionist churches (Africa) , Healing -- South Africa -- Grahamstown -- Religious aspects , Zionist churches (Africa) -- South Africa -- Grahamstown
- Description: Introduction: This project takes as its subject a particular example of ecstatic Christianity of the African Zionist type, practised by a group of urban African persons in Grahamstown, South Africa. The study is concerned specifically with the meanings of music (singing and drumming) and movement (dancing and clapping) in the context of a Church service whose overall intention is the employment of spiritual powers in the healing of sick persons.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1985
A phenomenological explication of the experience of counselling chronic callers in Life Line
- Authors: Matthis, Kenneth Skeen
- Date: 1983
- Subjects: Life Line Movement , Hotlines (Counseling)
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3135 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006893 , Life Line Movement , Hotlines (Counseling)
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1983
- Authors: Matthis, Kenneth Skeen
- Date: 1983
- Subjects: Life Line Movement , Hotlines (Counseling)
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3135 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006893 , Life Line Movement , Hotlines (Counseling)
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1983
A phenomenological investigation of the experience of "connected breathing"
- Authors: Van Wyk, Edmund
- Date: 1983
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:21110 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/6439
- Description: My interest in "Connected Breathing" began with my own experience of this technique during a Gestalt workshop. It had a profound impact on me. I knew practically nothing about the theory, or lack of a theory, but my interest had been aroused. In my reading on the subject later, I was struck by the incongruence between my experience and what I read I was supposed to be experiencing. This led me "zu der Sache selbst." By using the phenomenological method, this study then is an attempt to come to an essential description of the experience of "Connected Breathing" and to make some evaluation of its usefulness as a psychotherapeutic technique. "Connected Breathing" is the main technique of the “Rebirthing”movement. It is, therefore, necessary to give some account of the development and theory, if any, of this movement. "Rebirthing" does not claim to be a psychotherapy. However, its technique of "Connected Breathing" does seem to have much in common with the techniques used by various established somatic psychotherapies. A brief overview of the development of some of these psychotherapies and their emphasis on breathing techniques is, therefore, also essential.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1983
- Authors: Van Wyk, Edmund
- Date: 1983
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:21110 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/6439
- Description: My interest in "Connected Breathing" began with my own experience of this technique during a Gestalt workshop. It had a profound impact on me. I knew practically nothing about the theory, or lack of a theory, but my interest had been aroused. In my reading on the subject later, I was struck by the incongruence between my experience and what I read I was supposed to be experiencing. This led me "zu der Sache selbst." By using the phenomenological method, this study then is an attempt to come to an essential description of the experience of "Connected Breathing" and to make some evaluation of its usefulness as a psychotherapeutic technique. "Connected Breathing" is the main technique of the “Rebirthing”movement. It is, therefore, necessary to give some account of the development and theory, if any, of this movement. "Rebirthing" does not claim to be a psychotherapy. However, its technique of "Connected Breathing" does seem to have much in common with the techniques used by various established somatic psychotherapies. A brief overview of the development of some of these psychotherapies and their emphasis on breathing techniques is, therefore, also essential.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1983
Categories of experience amongst the Xhosa : a psychological study
- Authors: Schweitzer, Robert David
- Date: 1977
- Subjects: Xhosa (African people) -- Psychology
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3237 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013172
- Description: Transcultural studies of psychological states may be seen as falling within two schools, one adopting a position in which universal criteria of "mental health" are assumed, the other a cultural relativist position in which phenomena are understood in terms of the context in which they occur. The present study, in adopting the latter position, examines categories of experience amongst the Xhosa in terms of their meaning within Xhosa cosmology. The thoughts and practices of a Xhosa Iqgira (diviner) were extensively examined using an idiographic approach. This was corroborated by in-depth interviews with his consultees who were undergoing the categories being studied. Three categories, thwasa, phambana and amafufunyana are explicated. Thwasa is seen to be related to the individual- shade communion. Phambana is predominantly related to custom and witchcraft. Amafufunyana is related to disharmonious interpersonal situations within the community. The universalist position, derived from descriptive psychiatry, has often viewed the mental status of amaqgira {diviners) as neurotic or even psychotic. This finding is not supported in the present study. The implications of the research for community mental health in Southern Africa are discussed.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1977
- Authors: Schweitzer, Robert David
- Date: 1977
- Subjects: Xhosa (African people) -- Psychology
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3237 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013172
- Description: Transcultural studies of psychological states may be seen as falling within two schools, one adopting a position in which universal criteria of "mental health" are assumed, the other a cultural relativist position in which phenomena are understood in terms of the context in which they occur. The present study, in adopting the latter position, examines categories of experience amongst the Xhosa in terms of their meaning within Xhosa cosmology. The thoughts and practices of a Xhosa Iqgira (diviner) were extensively examined using an idiographic approach. This was corroborated by in-depth interviews with his consultees who were undergoing the categories being studied. Three categories, thwasa, phambana and amafufunyana are explicated. Thwasa is seen to be related to the individual- shade communion. Phambana is predominantly related to custom and witchcraft. Amafufunyana is related to disharmonious interpersonal situations within the community. The universalist position, derived from descriptive psychiatry, has often viewed the mental status of amaqgira {diviners) as neurotic or even psychotic. This finding is not supported in the present study. The implications of the research for community mental health in Southern Africa are discussed.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1977
The Jesus People : attitude, personal-orientation and life-style changes as a function of non-conformist religious influence
- Authors: Stones, Christopher R
- Date: 1976
- Subjects: Jesus People -- South Africa -- Johannesburg -- Hillbrow -- Attitudes , Youth -- South Africa -- Johannesburg -- Hillbrow -- Religious life , Religious communities -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: vital:3242 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013312
- Description: The Jesus People of Hillbrow, Johannesburg, assert that since joining the Jesus movement they have undergone radical changes; from a life of turmoil to a life of relative serenity. Such claims, if valid, have implications for the counter-culture, which is comprised largely of youth alienated from mainstream society and church. The present study then, was an investigation to determine whether the members of the Jesus movement have changed and if so, attempts were made to delineate such changes. The Jesus People investigated were members of the "Invisible Church", who had been residing communally for a period of not less than three months. A battery of questionnaires was administered on two occasions. The first occasion required the subjects to complete the questionnaires as they would have prior to their conversion, while the second administration required that the subjects complete the questionnaires according to their attitudes, values and opinions presently held. To counter any practice effects, the requirements for completion of the questionnaires were reversed for one half of the group randomly chosen. The order of presentation of the questionnaires was kept the same to counter any fatigue-effects. (The control group being matched with the experimental group should experience the same degree of fatigue.) The individuals selected for the control group were recruited from established-church youth clubs. These individuals were matched with the members of the Jesus movement for age, sex, home-language, general intelligence and occupation of father. The procedure of questionnaire administration for the control group was identical to that adopted for the experimental group. Both the experimental and the control group comprised 22 individuals. Incidental to the major design of the present study was the generation of a small (eight) group of Pentecostals, the results of which were analysed separately from those of the experimental and control groups. The finding that this group underwent the least change did not support the a priori expectation that Pentecostals should show changes which are intermediate to those of the experimental and control groups. It is argued however, that this Pentecostal group is not representative of Pentecostals per se. Bearing in mind, that the answers received depend, to a large extent, on the nature of the questions posed, the Jesus People, as a function of conversion (operationally defined as a "Jesus Experience"), underwent significant increases in their degree of perceived security but revealed significant decreases on attributes related to self-actualization. In addition, their predominant life-style orientation changed from personalistic to sociocentric, and there was an increased support for biblicistic fundamentalism. Associated with the above changes were decreases on the majority of the Wilson conservatism-scale dimensions, together with changes on a questionnaire explicitly developed for the present study. It is argued that the changes undergone by the members of the Jesus movement are in a positive direction, the "Invisible Church" serving as a 'half-way house'. Such changes are posited to be a function of an operationally defined "Jesus Experience"; a psycho-sociological experience rather than a theological, ecclesiastical experience.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1976
- Authors: Stones, Christopher R
- Date: 1976
- Subjects: Jesus People -- South Africa -- Johannesburg -- Hillbrow -- Attitudes , Youth -- South Africa -- Johannesburg -- Hillbrow -- Religious life , Religious communities -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: vital:3242 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013312
- Description: The Jesus People of Hillbrow, Johannesburg, assert that since joining the Jesus movement they have undergone radical changes; from a life of turmoil to a life of relative serenity. Such claims, if valid, have implications for the counter-culture, which is comprised largely of youth alienated from mainstream society and church. The present study then, was an investigation to determine whether the members of the Jesus movement have changed and if so, attempts were made to delineate such changes. The Jesus People investigated were members of the "Invisible Church", who had been residing communally for a period of not less than three months. A battery of questionnaires was administered on two occasions. The first occasion required the subjects to complete the questionnaires as they would have prior to their conversion, while the second administration required that the subjects complete the questionnaires according to their attitudes, values and opinions presently held. To counter any practice effects, the requirements for completion of the questionnaires were reversed for one half of the group randomly chosen. The order of presentation of the questionnaires was kept the same to counter any fatigue-effects. (The control group being matched with the experimental group should experience the same degree of fatigue.) The individuals selected for the control group were recruited from established-church youth clubs. These individuals were matched with the members of the Jesus movement for age, sex, home-language, general intelligence and occupation of father. The procedure of questionnaire administration for the control group was identical to that adopted for the experimental group. Both the experimental and the control group comprised 22 individuals. Incidental to the major design of the present study was the generation of a small (eight) group of Pentecostals, the results of which were analysed separately from those of the experimental and control groups. The finding that this group underwent the least change did not support the a priori expectation that Pentecostals should show changes which are intermediate to those of the experimental and control groups. It is argued however, that this Pentecostal group is not representative of Pentecostals per se. Bearing in mind, that the answers received depend, to a large extent, on the nature of the questions posed, the Jesus People, as a function of conversion (operationally defined as a "Jesus Experience"), underwent significant increases in their degree of perceived security but revealed significant decreases on attributes related to self-actualization. In addition, their predominant life-style orientation changed from personalistic to sociocentric, and there was an increased support for biblicistic fundamentalism. Associated with the above changes were decreases on the majority of the Wilson conservatism-scale dimensions, together with changes on a questionnaire explicitly developed for the present study. It is argued that the changes undergone by the members of the Jesus movement are in a positive direction, the "Invisible Church" serving as a 'half-way house'. Such changes are posited to be a function of an operationally defined "Jesus Experience"; a psycho-sociological experience rather than a theological, ecclesiastical experience.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1976
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