Ulwaluko is a Xhosa word that refers to an initiation ritual. The purpose is to transform boys into men. Circumcision is one of the rituals performed. The ritual aims to instil good moral and social values. Due to socio-cultural shifts, the practice of Ulwaluko has changed and this has culminated in instances of criminal activity, drug abuse, risky sexual behaviours, and inhumane behaviours among some of the initiates. There has been a recent upsurge in research on Ulwaluko in South Africa. While many studies examined Ulwaluko from a constructionist framework, very few have focused on subject positions and how Ulwaluko contributes to the construction of masculinity in Xhosa men. Using social constructionist theory, the study employed a qualitative exploratory design and semi-structured interviews that were analysed using thematic decomposition analysis and positioning theory. Seven participants, from a university in Cape Town, aged from 19 to 32 were recruited using purposive sampling. The results of the study reflect the fluidity of masculinity as reported in literature. First, in some of the participants, Ulwaluko created an idealised masculine identity that was chiefly characterised by upholding ritual teachings and yet the same men were burdened by a prescriptive set of masculine role expectations. Second, through self-reflection and critical engagement, some men contested Ulwaluko resulting in the creation of rival masculinities and thus the study created spaces to rethink masculine identities.
Sexuality constitutes a central feature of what it is to be human, yet health practitioners, families, and caregivers frequently perceive romantic and sexually intimate relationships among persons with intellectual disabilities to be inappropriate tending to regard such individuals as either ‘asexual’ or ‘hyper-sexed’. A number of myths, stereotypes, and prejudices intersect in a manner that has deleterious consequences for persons with intellectual disabilities. This article reviews the literature on sexuality and barriers to sexual expression among persons with intellectual disabilities. Relevant legislative frameworks and human rights issues, in particular, the tensions between protecting persons with intellectual disabilities from exploitation, and the promotion of sexual autonomy also receive consideration. In addition, the article explores issues relating to competency to consent to sexual acts and concludes with a synthesis of the current knowledge.
Self-leadership has been recognised as a fundamental competency for effective learning and job performance. The primary goal of this study was to validate the Abbreviated Self-leadership Questionnaire on a South African sample. Numerous questionnaires have been developed to measure self-leadership, with the Revised Self-leadership Questionnaire being the most widely used questionnaire. However, the Revised Self-leadership Questionnaire has been deemed too long; hence, the authors abbreviated the measure. Therefore, there is a need to assess the reliability and construct validity of the abbreviated Self-leadership Questionnaire on a South African sample. A non-probability sample consisting of 400 students drawn from a university in the Western Cape was used. The reliability of the Abbreviated Self-leadership Questionnaire was evaluated using SPSS, while construct validity was assessed via confirmatory factory analyses in the LISREL program. Moderate levels of reliability were found for the subscales of the Abbreviated Self-leadership Questionnaire. Reasonable model fit with the data was found for the first-order measurement model. The study contributes to the requirements of the Amended Employment Equity Act of South Africa (Republic of South Africa, 1998) which promotes the use of reliable and valid instruments in South Africa by confirming the psychometric properties of the Abbreviated Self-leadership Questionnaire.
Extant research has shown that incidental haptic sensations can, nonconsciously, influence judgements of objects or people that are non-diagnostic (unrelated) for the actual qualities of the items being judged – including interpersonal judgements. Evidence suggests that this could also be true for intrapersonal judgements. The application of this conception to the use of personality questionnaires lead to the following hypothesis: incidental exposure to a specific haptic experience (firmness or flimsiness of the paper) could, nonconsciously, trigger physically grounded mental frameworks, which, in turn, may effect the intrapersonal judgements of individuals completing a personality questionnaire. A randomized post-test only, one-way experimental design was conducted using a sample of university students (n = 178). The experiment found evidence to support the hypothesis that a physically grounded mental framework, consistent with embodied cognition, could nonconsciously lead participants to form stronger self-judgements on agreeableness and extraversion, when encountering an incidental haptic experience of firmness in a personality questionnaire. The findings of this research may serve to create awareness of the influence of incidental haptic sensations as a confounding variable in questionnaire design. Implications of the findings and future research directions are discussed.
South African society is characterised by a high prevalence of exposure to traumatic events that can lead to post-traumatic stress disorder. In treating post-traumatic stress disorder, mental healthcare providers are tasked with ensuring that their practice is evidence based. However, existing evidence indicates that the rates of adoption of evidence-based practice are generally poor. The promotion and implementation of evidence-based practice into routine clinical settings requires an understanding of the attitudes of mental healthcare providers towards these practices. This study investigated attitudes towards evidence-based practice in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder. Participants were 60 mental healthcare providers (clinical/counselling psychologists, social workers, and registered counsellors) in the Western Cape Province working predominantly with trauma survivors. Participants completed a demographic survey and the Attitude Towards Evidence-Based Practice Scale, adapted to assess for attitudes towards the adoption of evidence-based practice in relation to the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder. Overall, participants reported favourable attitudes towards evidence-based practice in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder. Statistical analysis revealed that occupation, age, and gender significantly correlated with attitudes. Social workers and registered counsellors were more likely to report adopting evidence-based practice for post-traumatic stress disorder compared to clinical and counselling psychologists. Older participants and women also reported more favourable attitudes towards evidence-based practice. The implications of these findings are discussed.
The goal of our study was to provide a situation analysis of clinical psychology services in South Africa’s public rural primary healthcare sector. In this setting, the treatment gap between human resources for and the burden of disease for mental illness is as high as 85%. The majority of South Africa’s mental health specialists – clinical psychologists and psychiatrists – practice in the country’s urban and peri-urban private sector. At the advent of South Africa’s democracy, public clinical psychological services were negligible, and the country is still facing challenges in providing human resources. The study was based on the analysis of both primary and secondary data. Primary data were collected by interviewing the heads of 160 public hospitals classified as rural by the Department of Health, while secondary data comprised a literature review. The number of clinical psychologists working in the public sector indicated a substantial growth over the last 20 years, while the number employed and/or doing out-reach to public rural primary healthcare areas shows a shortfall. Clinical psychology’s numbers, however, compare favourably to that of other mental health specialists in public rural primary healthcare settings. Since the National Mental Health Summit of 2012, strategies have been implemented to improve access to mental health care. In clinical psychology’s case relating to human resources, these strategies have showed encouraging results with a substantial amount of participating institutions reporting that clinical psychologists form a part of their proposed future staff establishment.
This study aimed to determine the factor structure of the Health-Promoting Lifestyle Profile II scale in a South African sample. The sample consisted of 211 students at a university. Students completed an online survey that included the 52-item Health-Promoting Lifestyle Profile II. Confirmatory factor analysis, items analysis, and exploratory factor analysis were used to determine the factor structure of the Health-Promoting Lifestyle Profile II and reduce the number of items. Confirmatory factor analysis did not confirm the original six-factor structure for the Health-Promoting Lifestyle Profile II. The measure produced high internal consistency value (Cronbach’s alpha = .92) indicating over-redundancy of items. Item analysis was conducted in order to reduce the number of items. A subsequent exploratory factor analysis yielded a six-factor model for the Health-Promoting Lifestyle Profile II in the current sample. The final 24-item measure demonstrated good reliability (Cronbach’s alpha = .87) and can be used as an alternative to the original measure within the current sample.
Associations between community violence exposure, family management practices, and substance use were compared in a sample of early adolescents in low-income communities from the United States (N = 151; M age = 12.71 years, standard deviation = 0.65; 50.3% female) and South Africa (N = 175; M age = 12.55 years, standard deviation = 0.85; 64.6% female) using home interviews with youth and their maternal caregivers. Past year victimization was associated with recent youth substance use. The moderating role of family management practices varied by type of practice (e.g., parental knowledge, control, solicitation, or child disclosure), reporter, and country. High parental knowledge reported by caregiver was protective against substance use only for South African youth. In youth reports, parental knowledge was protective across the United States and South Africa. Youth reports of their disclosure to parents were negatively associated with substance use in the United States but not South Africa. These data highlight the importance of considering both ecological context and reporter in the links between violence exposure, parenting, and substance use in youth.
This study examined whether higher sensitivity to reward predicted higher fat and sugar intake among a sample of South African students at a university in the Western Cape and explored whether this relationship was mediated by food cue responsivity. It also examined whether sensitivity to punishment predicted higher fat and sugar intake among those who eat in response to anxiety. University students (n = 320) completed a series of questionnaires that measured sensitivity to reward and punishment, diet, their tendency towards hedonic eating, and their tendency towards eating in response to anxiety. Results showed that higher sensitivity to reward predicted higher fat intake. This relationship was partially mediated by eating in response to food-rich environments (hedonic eating). Sensitivity to punishment failed to predict diet. The results of this study add to the growing body of evidence showing a relationship between sensitivity to reward and eating behaviours, and how this relationship might play out in a university environment.
We explored the experiences of a racially mixed group of young men in post-apartheid South Africa to investigate how they conceptualised suicide and document their suggestions for suicide prevention. Data were collected via in-depth semi-structured interviews and analysed using thematic content analysis. Findings suggest that in spite of socio-political transformation, young men in South Africa may not feel liberated to deviate from traditional gender norms. Participants described restrictive heteronormative gender roles that are akin to hegemonic masculinity and that create a rigid gender regime that prevents authentic relating, disconnects young men from each other, and makes it difficult to receive emotional support. Participants attributed suicidal behaviour to feelings of disconnectedness, thwarted belonging, pressure to conform to the gender regime, and feelings of shame when unable to achieve masculine ideals. They suggested that suicide prevention should be aimed at fostering connectedness, relationship building, and disrupting the gender regime. Furthermore, they suggested that in cyberspace, the gender regime was less rigid and stated that they felt more liberated online to express distress and access support, which has implications for suicide prevention interventions.
The last 20 years in South Africa and abroad have evidenced huge changes in the ways in which research is accessed and produced. These changes were facilitated by the rapid developments in technology. Collaborating with researchers across the globe and accessing articles and research can be done at the push of a button and response times are as instantaneous. Conducting and communicating one’s own research are also much easier. This led to a veritable explosion of publishers and journals, some of which are legitimate and others predatory. In this climate, the adage of ‘publish or perish’ has become a lived reality placing increasing pressure on scholars to publish. An unintended consequence of this is the increasing lack of methodological rigour in studies. This article advocates for increasing attention to methodological rigour in quantitative research. In so doing, guidelines and suggestions are provided in terms of elements to be considered within each of the broad aspects of a study, namely, sampling, instrumentation, methods, design, and data analysis. These are drawn from the literature as well as the author’s own experiences in teaching quantitative research methods, supervising postgraduate student research, reviewing articles for local and international journals, as well as experiences of reviewing articles located within the quantitative paradigm as Associate Editor for the South African Journal of Psychology. Ultimately, this article seeks to create awareness among researchers around the necessity for methodologically rigorous research to enhance the quality of outputs. This will have the effect of producing impactful research that can confidently inform policy, practice, and training within the discipline.
Ethics review of psychological and sociobehavioural research is increasingly required by leading South African research institutions and universities, following international trends, and national statutory developments. Local and international scholarly journals are also more routinely requesting proof of ethics approval before accepting empirical work for publication. In some instances, psychological researchers may regard ethics review as a process that imposes delays and adds little value to proposed studies, and they may experience the process as frustrating and unrewarding. This article aims to briefly review the issue of ethics review for such research and to focus on pragmatic recommendations for psychological researchers navigating ethical review, including how they could engage their research ethics committee more effectively to strengthen this critical relationship.
According to self-determination theory, an individual’s goal content and the processes involved in goal setting often represent the status of the individual’s mental health and well-being. When examining the importance placed on goal setting, an individual’s goals and aspirations are often synonymous with mental health and well-being. Aspiring to achieve intrinsic life goals has been associated with greater psychological well-being in literature. This study therefore aimed to establish the relationships between goals and aspirations, mental health behaviour (interpersonal relations, stress management, and spiritual growth), and psychological well-being (measured by positive affect). A sample of 457 secondary school learners in the Overberg Educational District, Western Cape, South Africa, participated in the study. The results suggest a significant positive relationship between placing importance on intrinsic goals and aspirations, and psychological well-being (as indicated by positive affect). However, psychological well-being was not correlated with mental health behaviour. The results of the hierarchical regression analysis suggest that importance placed on intrinsic goals and aspirations predicts psychological well-being and accounts for 8% of the variance. The results highlight the role of intrinsic goals and aspirations in predicting the psychological well-being of adolescents. The findings are supported by the theoretical assumptions of self-determination theory.
Two of the most popular psychotherapeutic approaches to treat depression are cognitive-behavioural therapy and psychodynamic psychotherapy, yet little consensus has been reached concerning which therapy is most beneficial for the treatment of depression. A review of the literature revealed that, while cognitive-behavioural therapy and psychodynamic psychotherapy are the most effective psychotherapeutic modalities for the treatment of depression, evidence suggests that neither of these modalities is superior to the other. Furthermore, multiple issues plague the studies investigating these treatments. Efficacy and effectiveness are often confounded, while rates of remission and response are often far less than might be expected from such highly regarded and widely used treatments. Severity of depression appears to moderate treatment outcomes, yet many studies overlook this, while the impact that the aetiology of a patient’s depression has on treatment outcomes is largely ignored in the literature. Additionally, a majority of studies have focused on therapies of short duration, which often have poor follow-up results. Finally, mechanisms of change in the treatment of depression have been ignored to a large extent, but there is some evidence that non-specific therapeutic factors may be more important than specific therapeutic techniques in producing positive treatment outcomes. These issues need to be closely examined and resolved if researchers and clinicians are serious about optimising treatments, improving outcomes, and adequately addressing the serious problem of depression.
Traumatic brain injury is a multi-faceted condition that affects individuals on physical, cognitive, and emotional levels. The study investigated the relationship between depression and neuropsychological performance in a group with traumatic brain injury. A retrospective review was conducted on 75 participants who completed neuropsychological assessments. Information on clinical characteristics, sociodemographic information, neuropsychological outcomes, and Beck Depression Inventory scores were included in the analysis. Results indicated that 36% of the participants reported experiencing severe symptoms of depression, 28% moderate symptoms of depression, and 36% mild/minimal symptoms of depression. Performance on the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test indicated inverse relationships with depression scores suggesting that traumatic brain injury patients with lower depression scores perform better on verbal memory tasks. Similarly, findings for the written and oral versions of the Symbol Digit Modalities Test reflected inverse correlations with depression scores, indicating that lower depression scores are correlated with increased processing speed and capacity. A significant positive association between the time taken to complete the Trail Making Test Trail A and Trail B and depression scores was found, suggesting that higher depression scores in this sample were related to slower performance speed and lower executive performance. When specific clinical and sociodemographic variables were included as covariates in a partial correlational analysis, neuropsychological performance indicators and depression scores remained significant for Symbol Digit Modalities Test (oral and written), the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test Retrieval and Recognition trials, and Trail Making Test (Trail B). This study indicates that in a traumatic brain injury cohort, depression levels are significantly associated with specific neuropsychological performance measures. The findings of this study have implications for psychosocial treatment planning after a traumatic brain injury and contribute to our understandings of the inter-relationship between cognition and emotion.
This study investigated the validity of the Scale of Positive and Negative Experience in a South Africa context using a sample of 992 university students. Item fit and unidimensionality of the Positive and Negative Experience subscales were examined using a process of Rasch analysis. Reliability of the subscales was evaluated, and correlations between the Scale of Positive and Negative Experience, the Mental Health Continuum – Short Form, and the Satisfaction with Life Scale were examined. In general, the Scale of Positive and Negative Experience exhibited good Rasch fit and reliability. However, there were two items, one from each Positive and Negative Experience subscales, respectively, that exhibited some problems with Rasch fit. While the substantive effect of these problematic items on reliability was marginal, their identification as problematic corroborated analysis in another study, enjoining, if not their removal, certainly a direction for future research. Overall, the findings serve to both support the notion that in its present form, the Scale of Positive and Negative Experience is a psychometrically sound instrument to measure positive and negative experiences as a facet of well-being among South African university students and to indicate directions for further research on the scale.
There have been increasing calls for career development interventions that take the local context into account while providing a firm theoretical basis to engage with the career processes and attributes of individuals coming from diverse backgrounds. The goal of this study was to determine the effect of a career intervention programme derived from Social Cognitive Career Theory on the career decision-making self-efficacy of Grade 11 learners at three schools with diverse socio-economic backgrounds in the Eastern Cape. Using a quasi-experimental design, measurements were taken at a pretest, post-test and a follow-up occasion 8 weeks after the completion of the programme in a sample of 222 learners using the Career Decision-Making Self-Efficacy Scale. The study demonstrated that the career decision-making self-efficacy of the intervention group improved significantly subsequent to the career intervention programme underscoring the value of the career intervention programme. Although the current study demonstrated a medium effect on the intervention group by the end of the intervention, the time period of the programme may not have been long enough to sustain the impact 8 weeks after the completion of the programme. This may suggest that a longer intervention period or intermittent reinforcement such as booster sessions may be needed to sustain the effect. The study confirms that a group-based career development programme, designed specifically for the South African context, can serve as an essential tool to help high school learners from different socio-economic backgrounds enhance their career maturity expressed in terms of their career decision-making self-efficacy.
The aim of this study was to provide preliminary normative guidelines for the use of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale–Fourth Edition (English administration) for South African Eastern Cape Xhosa-speaking adults (n=31), aged 18–32, with 12years of disadvantaged quality of education. The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale–Fourth Edition normative indications were compared with those from an equivalent population on the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale–Third Edition. The substitution of Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale–Fourth Edition core subtests with supplemental subtests was also investigated. The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale–Fourth Edition and Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale–Third Edition findings were broadly equivalent, indicating a lowering of 20–25 intelligence quotient points compared with the US standardisation. The use of supplemental subtests revealed improved outcome on all four Index scores. It is concluded that practitioners can gainfully advance to the use of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale–Fourth Edition with this educationally disadvantaged African first language population, on the proviso that the extent of lowering relative to the US standardisation is taken into consideration.
We examine the extent to which psychotherapy can be successfully conducted with the aid of an interpreter. We propose that, even if we assume idealistic levels of training on the part of the interpreter and the therapist, and openness on the part of the client, there are still many challenges inherent in interpreter-assisted therapy. We focus on some of the characteristics common to client experiences of effective psychotherapy, as well as the characteristics and habits of effective therapists, and show how the insertion of an interpreter into the therapeutic relationship could affect both. Where the literature provides, we also note steps which could be taken to minimise the harmful impacts and maximise the positive contributions which the therapist–interpreter–client dynamic could yield. In South Africa, where informal interpreters play the invaluable role of facilitating essential communication between psychotherapists and their clients, it is imperative that informal interpreters, and clinicians working with interpreters, are aware of some of the complex issues at play in interpreted interactions. The issue of interpreting in mental health care is commonly addressed only in regard to the question of the competence of interpreters; we suggest that attitudinal and skill issues are equally important for clinicians. We conclude that successful therapy with an interpreter necessitates a consideration of the dynamic interaction between all parties involved.
Clinical supervision is fundamental to the training and development of professional psychologists; however, no clear supervision methods have been developed, and the ideal competencies for psychologists and supervisors are yet to be defined. This lack of consensus is aggravated in the field of clinical neuropsychology supervision due to the dearth of literature available, which has an impact not only in the supervisory activities and the training of new professionals, but also ultimately in the quality of service provided to people that in many cases could be considered to be a vulnerable population. The theoretical background provided in this review covers conceptual developments and debates in relation to clinical supervision. Specifically, it reflects on the definition of supervision in the context of neuropsychology, as well as competencies and practices required in order to render supervision. A brief review of supervision in the field of clinical neuropsychology is included. Additionally, some insights are offered into the dearth of research and theoretical developments in this area. Finally, some comments are included in relation to the professional progress of clinical neuropsychology in developing countries, with particular reference to South Africa.
Information is needed regarding the antecedents and outcomes of flourishing, particularly in sports contexts, where the study of this optimal well-being state has remained largely unexplored. This study examined the role of strength use to facilitate flourishing, enhance team embeddedness, and counter withdrawal behaviour of athletes. It further investigated the role of flourishing to retain athletes to their sport and teams and examined the role of team embeddedness in this relationship. A cross-sectional research design was utilised with structural equation modelling to assess model fit and examine postulated relationships. The sample comprised 235 student athletes. The results suggested that team strength use predicts flourishing. It further revealed positive paths to team embeddedness from both individual and team strength use. Flourishing was also positively related to team embeddedness. Lastly, a negative association was found between team embeddedness and withdrawal behaviour among the athletes.
Individual realities and perceptions are embedded in a web of dominant social and cultural views which shape the individual. Mothers of deaf children therefore cannot be understood in isolation, and neither can their experiences, perceptions, and well-being. The present research investigated the construction of deafness through the experiences of mothers raising a deaf child and considered the manner in which these constructions impacted their well-being and relationship with the child. The study explored the experiences of six Black South African hearing mothers of a deaf child between the ages of 3 and 8 years. Individual semi-structured interviews were conducted. Through an interpretive theoretical framework, this qualitative study noted seven main themes, namely, deafness is foreign and unknown, increased awareness and normalising of deafness, religious and Traditional African beliefs about disability/deafness, external pity and the mother’s rejection of it, the discourse of the ‘superiority’ of speech and encouragement of speech and hearing, barriers to communicating with her child, and ‘Why me?’ attribution of cause and the emergence of blame. Extrapolation of the data suggests that there is a lack of awareness regarding the deaf individual, and this creates misinformed perceptions about deafness which impact negatively both mother and child.
The wider availability of highly active antiretroviral therapy has resulted in a concomitant increase in adults aging with HIV and the persistence of milder forms of neuropsychological impairment in this cohort. This study investigated the differences in neuropsychological functioning between a group of HIV+ adults and older adults and an HIV– matched control group. Participants from a semi-urban community clinic volunteered to participate in the study. The performance of 50 participants (33 HIV+ and 17 HIV–) who met the inclusion criteria were compared on the following measures: Dementia Rating Scale-2, the Stroop Color and Word Test, the Symbol Digits Modalities Test, and the Delis–Kaplan Executive Function System Trail Making Test. The results indicated that the HIV+ in comparison with the HIV– negative group had poorer performance profiles in global cognitive functioning, memory, executive functioning, visuoconstruction ability, psychomotor functioning, and processing speed. The findings suggest that further research in South Africa will contribute to a better understanding of the neuropsychological profiles of adults aging with HIV and inform intervention strategies specific to addressing the mental healthcare needs of this subgroup.
Measurement invariance of the Beck Depression Inventory-Second Edition across race (Blacks and Whites) was examined in a sample of university students, from two universities from diverse geographical areas of South Africa (N = 870). Multigroup confirmatory factor analysis (i.e., means and covariance structures) was used to test the factorial invariance of the hierarchical four-factor structure, composed of three first-order factors (i.e., Negative Attitude, Performance Difficulty, and Somatic Complaints) and one second-order general factor (Depression) found with South African students. Evidence of measurement invariance was established at the level of configural, metric, and scalar invariance. However, there were some evidence of differential additive response style across race—with two non-invariant intercepts (Item 5 and 14) being identified. Results also revealed significant latent mean differences favoring Black students on the Performance Difficulty and Somatic Complaints factors but not on the Negative Attitude factor. Findings suggest that the Beck Depression Inventory-Second Edition provides an assessment of the severity of depressive symptoms that is equivalent across race in university students.
Competitive state anxiety is a common response to stressful competitive sports situations that could affect athletic performance. The effects of state anxiety on swimming performance need further inquiry. The aim of the study was to determine the component of state anxiety that best predicts swimming performance. A quantitative, cross-sectional study design that made use of the Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 to measure precompetitive state anxiety was used. A total of 61 male high school swimmers whose age ranged between 14 and 19 years (M = 16.16, standard deviation = 1.66 years) completed the Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 1 hr before competing in a 50-m individual swimming event. Performance was evaluated using finishing position. Due to the relatively short duration of the 50-m event, the available literature would suggest that Somatic Anxiety would have a greater effect on Performance—there is not enough time to allow cognitive anxiety to have a detrimental impact on performance. Thus, it was hypothesized that somatic rather than cognitive anxiety will best predict swimming performance. It emerged that both cognitive (b = .787; p < .001) and somatic anxieties (b = .840; p < .001) can independently predict swimming performance. However, when both cognitive and somatic anxieties were regressed onto swimming performance, somatic anxiety partially dominated cognitive anxiety (b = .626; p < .001) and became the significant predictor of swimming performance. It is recommended that swimmers and swimming coaches make use of specific intervention strategies that eradicate the detrimental effects of somatic anxiety immediately before competition.
The Resilience Scale for Adults is considered a valid and reliable measure of resilience resources and has received validation support across several populations. This study attempted to validate and examine the psychometric properties of the instrument in a sample of competitive tennis players to prospectively appropriate the inventory for use among athletes. The tennis athletes (n = 365) completed the Resilience Scale for Adults, the Sports Mental Toughness Questionnaire, and the stress items included on the Recovery-Stress Questionnaire for Athletes. Confirmatory factor analysis model fit indices revealed an acceptable level of fit for the original six-factor structure. The Resilience Scale for Adults scale and subscales were negatively associated with stress and correlated positively with mental toughness, providing evidence of the convergent validity of the Resilience Scale for Adults. Collectively, the findings offer initial support for using the Resilience Scale for Adults to assess a broad range of protective factors among competitive tennis players. Further research is required to explore the adaptation or refinement of the Resilience Scale for Adults for use in multiple sporting contexts.
In this article, the authors report on the development of an interest inventory (the Maree Career Matrix) for South Africans with a minimum of Grade 9 second language English or Afrikaans proficiency. The instrument was completed by 1106 learners in Grade 11 in the Gauteng, Mpumalanga, and North West provinces of South Africa. Rasch analysis was done; inter-category correlations, reliability coefficients, and differential item functioning values were calculated; and validity and norm tables were established. We concluded that the Maree Career Matrix is easy to use and has good psychometric qualities, takes relatively little time to administer, provides reliable and valid results, is standardised, and can be applied to large groups with relative ease. Additional research is needed to gather data on the profiles of people in other age brackets and to trace their progress, the aim being to further investigate and enhance the predictive value of the Maree Career Matrix.
Viewed in the context of an older-growing population, pressure on health-care and social (family and community) resources, and a perceived changed intergenerational ‘care contract’, relationships are often the only avenue open to address the care needs of both older and younger generations in economically deprived environments. This study explored how empathy manifested in the care experiences of older people (8 women and 1 man, aged between 60 and 85 years) in relation to middle adolescents (aged 16 years and younger). Empathy is proposed as an essential quality that can benefit care in any relationship, and indications of this were obtained by applying the Mmogo-method®, a projective visual data collection method. Textual data were analysed thematically, and visual data were analysed using Roos and Redelinghuys’ method of analysis. Findings indicated that older people viewed the relational interactions from a self-centred perspective and in a linear manner, referred to mid-adolescents in judgemental terms, and expressed conditional acceptance of these younger people. The findings indicated the antithesis (the opposite) of empathy, with the implication that older people might not give or elicit empathy in relation to younger people, particularly when the latter reach independence and exercise their autonomy. A lack of giving and receiving empathy holds serious implications for the future care needs of older people.
Despite the personal and organisational benefits and pitfalls associated with Impression Management, and considering the diverse nature of its population, South Africa is yet to develop, validate or adapt its own measure of impression management. The aim of this study was to validate the Bolino and Turnley Impression Management Scale for use in South Africa. A quantitative, cross-sectional survey design was employed using a sample of students from a South African university in Gauteng (N = 296). The exploratory factor analysis results show support for the five-factor model of the Impression Management Scale. The validation of the measure indicates sound psychometric properties and is therefore a valid predictor of impression management behaviour. The instrument may therefore be used in the South African university context to measure impression management behaviour. Recommendations include a validation of the same scale in an organisational setting.
Burnout is considered an occupational health concern. The burnout–depression overlap is an important area of research as the foundations of burnout and its diagnostic value have come under increasing scrutiny, calling for burnout to not be classified as an independent disorder but rather as a subtype of depression. Furthermore, as burnout is defined as a work-specific syndrome, workplace factors have been argued to be the major indicators of burnout. Recent research however, calls this into question. This study seeks to establish the overlap between burnout and depressive symptoms and to determine if burnout is in fact a multi-domain phenomenon. A cross-sectional research design was used, a convenience sample of educators from the Gauteng province of South Africa was collected (N = 399). Confirmatory factor analysis was applied in a structural equation modelling framework. Discriminant validity analysis was conducted by investigating the average variance extracted and the shared variance between constructs. Finally, relative weight analysis was conducted to ascertain the unique contribution explained by the work-specific and general life domain factors. Results showed that burnout could be distinguished from depressive symptoms. Job demands, depressive symptoms, and satisfaction with life all explained significant amounts of variance in the burnout construct. Relative weight analysis revealed that emotional load and depressive symptoms explained equal amounts of variance in burnout, but that the aggregated work-specific factors explained the most variance in burnout. This study indicates that burnout is a multi-domain phenomenon and not isolated to the domain of work. Further research is needed in this regard.
This article describes a study with two major objectives: first, to investigate whether prospective memory functioning is dissociated from retrospective memory functioning and, second, to examine whether field-independent cognitive style will differ significantly from field-dependent cognitive style in prospective and retrospective memory functioning. A total of 76 undergraduate students of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (41 men, 35 women; mean age: 19.66 years; standard deviation = 2.02) completed the Group Embedded Figures Test and the Prospective and Retrospective Memory Questionnaire. Omnibus statistic showed that prospective and retrospective memory was not dissociated (p < .001) and the field-dependent versus field-independent cognitive styles differed significantly on prospective (p < .001) and retrospective memory (p < .001). The results were viewed as tentative; the study maintains that future studies are required to provide converging evidence. Authors concluded with some suggestions for further research.
The present study examined the competing factor structures, validity, and reliability of the state and trait versions of the International Positive and Negative Affect Schedule – Short Form and the effect of the number of response categories on the scale qualities among Nigerians. Undergraduates (N-1510) completed a trait version of the scale with 5-point and 7-point response formats and a state version with a 7-point response format. Confirmatory factor analysis was employed alongside other techniques to gauge the psychometric properties of the scale. The obtained factor structures for the trait and state versions were in line with the theoretical assumptions of the scale and previous findings. A correlated two-factor model provided the best fit for the trait version, while an orthogonal two-factor model provided the best fit for the state version. The scale performed well with the 7-point response format, but it performed poorly with the 5-point response format, suggesting that the behaviour of the scale depends on the number of response categories. The findings, limitations of the study, and suggestions for further studies are discussed.
With increasing calls for evidence-based practice within the discipline of psychology in South Africa alongside the now established value of qualitative methodologies, qualitative research that is both relevant and methodologically sound is of vital importance. Internationally, the recognition of the need for criteria with which to evaluate qualitative research has generated a number of useful and important guidelines. Integrating these already existing guidelines, this article outlines four key concepts useful in pursuing quality in qualitative research: coherence, reflexivity, rigour and richness. To thicken these concepts, I use analogies and draw on examples from my own research. The article is aimed at teachers, consumers, reviewers and producers of qualitative research within psychology in South Africa with the purpose of fostering a particular attitude towards quality markers as foundational rather than additional to qualitative research.
South Africa has one of the highest rates of intimate partner violence in the world. The South African mass media have been recognised as playing an important role in influencing individual cognitions of social issues, including intimate partner violence. However, few studies have investigated how such violence is represented within the South African media. This article explores how the print media constructs men’s perpetrated violence against female partners, attending in particular to how and to what effect extreme acts of violence are represented in data from three newspapers that attract the highest readership in the Western Cape. Guided by social representations theory, an inductive thematic analysis was conducted to identify social representations of intimate partner violence as evident in 17 articles reporting on men’s perpetration of violence against intimate female partners. The analysis suggests that this form of violence is predominantly represented in terms of extreme acts of physical violence. This representation functions to reduce violence against women to a simplistic binary of male perpetration and female victimhood, undermining the complexities of this social phenomenon in South Africa. The article highlights the importance of representing intimate partner violence in a more comprehensive manner.
Compared to patients not receiving treatment, antiretroviral therapy users may experience a lower viral load, an increased CD4 count, slower disease progression, fewer opportunistic infections, and more rapid recovery time from HIV-related illnesses. As such, health-related quality of life is likely to be considerably greater for antiretroviral therapy users than for patients not receiving treatment. The dearth of quality of life research in sub-Saharan Africa brings into focus the need for and importance of documenting the various dimensions of well-being among people living with HIV. We administered the Functional Assessment of HIV Infection to a convenience sample of patients receiving antiretroviral therapy in the Western Cape in South Africa. We used confirmatory factor analysis and exploratory factor analysis to determine the factor structure of the Functional Assessment of HIV Infection. The confirmatory factor analysis revealed a poor model fit of the data. However, the exploratory factor analysis factor structure closely approximated the subscales of the measure, indicating the dimensions of physical, emotional, functional, and social well-being and cognitive functioning. We identified problematic items on the Functional Assessment of HIV Infection contributing to the poor model fit and argue that the measure is potentially useful in assessing quality of life among antiretroviral therapy users in South Africa.
The religious perception among individuals in sub-Saharan Africa that the ‘Big Five’ personality dimensions and fatalism are predictors of drivers’ behaviours and road accidents has received little scientific investigations. This paucity of research in the roles of psychological factors such as personality and fatalistic beliefs in shaping positive driver behaviour and attitudes has thus provided motivation for the conduct of this quantitative study. We collected data from 203 conveniently sampled taxi drivers in Gauteng province of South Africa by means of a structured questionnaire. Our analysis, using Structural Equation Modelling, found significant positive relationships between agreeableness and positive driver behaviour, conscientiousness and positive driver behaviour, fatalism and extraversion, as well as fatalism and positive driver behaviour. The results highlighted the dimensions of being methodical, organised, and risk aversive on the road, on the one hand, and being social, cooperative, and good-natured, on the other hand. Findings of the study further indicated that fatalistic beliefs are prevalent and indeed characteristic of individuals who are sociable, gregarious, and assertive. These individuals tend to uphold their religious and spiritual beliefs in the linkages between road accidents and destiny. Insights provided by this study could assist the Department of Transport and related Road Safety Authorities in designing road safety campaigns that addresses the erroneous beliefs by drivers that road accidents are pre-destined, and not as a result of individual’s driving behaviour.
The making of career choice is seen as an important decision in an individual’s life. Research in South Africa suggests there is little yet growing empirical focus on the career development processes of individuals termed as ‘previously disadvantaged’ by the apartheid policy of racial separation. The goal of this study was to investigate the factors that influence distance learning students’ career choices among a sample of previously disadvantaged distance learners in South Africa. Data were collected from 40 participants using unstructured interviews. Upon analysis, five themes emerged as influencing career choice: the influence of (a) significant others, (b) academic performance, (c) personal circumstances, (d) environmental forces, and (e) career interventions. Furthermore, each of these factors influencing the making of career choice was accompanied by difficulty en route to the enactment of choice. Based on the findings of this study, career counsellors can come up with interventions targeted at previously disadvantaged individuals. This can not only help in empowering career counsellors to understand their clients but also help in understanding the career development processes of such clients.
The Psychological Society of South Africa has embarked on a process of developing affirmative practice guidelines for psychology professionals working with sexually and gender-diverse people, inclusive of, but not limited to, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex concerns. Towards informing the guidelines, we explored self-identified lesbian, gay, and bisexual people’s experiences of psychotherapy and counselling in South Africa. A total of 15 qualitative in-depth interviews were conducted with selected participants. Among others, positive experiences entailed receiving unconditional positive regard, acceptance, and non-judgement from counsellors and/or psychotherapists. This included the counsellors and/or psychotherapists positively affirming participants’ sexual orientation by, for instance, viewing same-sex attractions, feelings, and behaviour as normal variants of sexuality and seeing sexual orientation as one aspect of the person, not the only aspect. Negative experiences were almost exclusively ascribed to the counsellors and/or psychotherapists being disaffirming of the client’s sexual orientation. Findings provide a potential basis for future affirmative practice guidelines and indicate that taking a stance affirming of sexual orientation was considered to be important.
Increasing globalization and immigration has seen an increase in linguistic and cultural diversity worldwide. This has necessitated the use of interpreters in public service settings. Of particular interest to the authors, and the focus of this article, is the impact of linguistic diversity on access to health care and, more specifically, to mental healthcare services. It is widely documented that language discordance impedes access to, and quality of, health care and that formally trained interpreter-assisted consults vastly improve client satisfaction and clinical outcomes. This article examines the current situation in South Africa regarding the use of interpreters in this setting. The ethical and practical implications for psychotherapy and psychodiagnostics are considered. Current policy and legislation relevant to language services and health care is reviewed. Possible ways forward to ensure equal access to healthcare services are discussed.
This article uses in-depth, open-ended individual interviews and a ‘contextualist method’-based thematic analysis to explicate the training experiences of eight research psychology post-interns. The experiences present internships within a specific training site as a messy and complex experience, as a process of professional socialisation, and as a space that evokes uncertainty about career identity, career opportunities, and financial independence. While there was some variability in how participants made sense of their unstructured transition into a trans-disciplinary professional space, their talk highlighted the troubling and affirming emotions inherent to the process of professional socialisation and the influences of life choices and financial considerations on professional decisions. Structured supervisory support may be crucial within life-oriented internship training.
This article describes the development and validation of a brief screen for developmental trauma appraisals. The 7-item screen was administered to a non-clinical sample of 477 South African adolescents who had experienced interpersonal violence during childhood. In all, 216 participants (45%) met the study criteria for a diagnosis of posttraumatic stress disorder and 41 (9%) met the study criteria for a diagnosis of complex posttraumatic stress disorder. Exploratory factor analysis yielded one factor which had a high level of internal consistency (α = .91) and acceptable levels of construct and concurrent validity for both posttraumatic stress disorder and complex posttraumatic stress disorder outcomes. Mediation analyses indicated that the appraisal screen measures a construct which effectively mediates the relationship between traumatic exposure and the severity of posttraumatic outcomes across a broad range of maltreatment types.
The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 Restructured Form (MMPI-2-RF) is an alternative version of the MMPI-2 and is useful for the differential diagnosis of psychiatric disorders. This study sought to assess the relationship between MMPI-2 Scale scores and psychiatric diagnoses, and to identify the scales that best predicted that a diagnosis would be assigned. The sample was comprised of participants who were administered the MMPI-2 between 2001 and 2010 at a university-based psychological services center, and participants were divided into diagnostic categories based on Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders–Fourth Edition, Text Revision diagnoses. Categories with enough participants to conduct statistical analyses were examined; these categories included participants who were diagnosed with substance-related disorders, depressive disorders, anxiety disorders, and participants who were not given a psychiatric diagnosis. The Substance-Related Disorders category was not significantly correlated with any scale but was best predicted by Cynicism (RC3) and Substance Abuse (SUB). The Depressive Disorders category was significantly correlated with Emotional/Internalizing Dysfunction (EID), Demoralization (RCd), Low Positive Emotions (RC2), and Self-Doubt (SFD) Scales, and was best predicted by RCd. The Anxiety Disorders category did not significantly correlate with any scale but was best predicted by Infrequent Somatic Responses (Fs) and Gastrointestinal Complaints (GIC). The No Diagnosis category was negatively correlated with Infrequent Responses–Revised (F-r), EID, RCd, Helplessness/ Hopelessness (HLP), and Cognitive Complaints (COG), and was best predicted by EID. This study offers important information regarding scales that best predict psychiatric disorders and adds to the research that suggests that the MMPI-2-RF can aid clinicians in the differentiation of psychiatric disorders.
Previous research suggests that (a) racial group membership attenuates empathy, and subsequent prosocial helping behaviour, towards out-group members, and (b) helping behaviour is modified by the potential helper’s pool of cognitive resources. It remains unclear, however, how cognitive load influences empathy and helping towards racial in- versus out-group members. We investigated this question using a sample of 30 White females. After completing either a high or a low cognitive-load task, participants viewed video clips depicting distressed White or Black females. We examined cardiovascular responses, self-reported empathic responses, and helping behaviour in response to the clips. We found no effect of racial group membership on empathic responding or on helping behaviour across cognitive-load conditions. However, results suggested that high cognitive load attenuates empathic responding, leading to decreased helping behaviour towards both racial in- and out-group members. Interestingly, a high internal motivation to respond without prejudice was associated with increased helping towards out-group members, but only under conditions of low cognitive load.
Long-term exposure to critical incidents can have a negative impact on officers’ well-being while affecting their capacity to maintain public safety. Operational flaws can, similarly, lead to hasty and incorrect decision-making; therefore, adequate briefing and debriefing systems are needed to facilitate the management of critical incidents. This study aimed to investigate the types of critical incidents and their impact on front-line officers’ well-being in light of the existing briefing and debriefing systems in Metro South African Police. A qualitative exploratory method was used to understand the impact of critical incidents and the Police officers’ perceptions of briefing and debriefing structures in the South African Metro Policing context. A total of 25 Metro Police officers were invited to share their experiences regarding their handling of critical incidents. The findings indicated that incidents involving mutilated victims or the death of a fellow police officer induced strong feelings of guilt and anger. Incidents with faceless crowds involving poor operational planning and execution strategies induced confusion, helplessness, frustration, and often humiliation. Participants were clearly fearful of appearing soft or inadequate in asking for help from their supervisors. Consequently, they remained reluctant to disclose their fears and concerns so as to avoid subsequent stigmatization in the absence of a systematic debriefing procedure. The current system of briefing and debriefing procedures cannot address the psychological and operational needs of the members of the police force. Internationally recognized briefing and debriefing systems must be urgently adjusted to and implemented within the South African policing landscape.