- Title
- The posttraumatic growth of Oprah Winfrey: a psychobiography
- Creator
- Oosthuysen, Yolandé
- Subject
- Winfrey, Oprah
- Subject
- Posttraumatic growth Psychology -- Biographical methods
- Subject
- Post-traumatic stress disorder -- Patients -- Rehabilitation
- Date Issued
- 2019
- Date
- 2019
- Type
- Thesis
- Type
- Masters
- Type
- MA
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10948/43115
- Identifier
- vital:36737
- Description
- Posttraumatic growth is a unique outcome of trauma that is relatively new to empirical investigation and not yet fully understood. Psychobiographies provide a valuable method to interpret and evaluate the applicability of psychological theories, such as posttraumatic growth. This study explored the unique manifestation of posttraumatic growth in the life of Oprah Winfrey. An exploratory-descriptive design was employed to examine the life history of Winfrey. She was selected through purposive sampling, based on her traumatic life history and extraordinary success in the television industry. Primary and secondary sources of biographical and historical data were used during the process of data collection. The data was processed according to Alexander’s data analysis method in conjunction with an analytic framework to organise the data. To maintain ethical principles, the researcher was guided by respect, empathy and accountability in dealing with any personal information regarding Winfrey. The findings demonstrated the occurrence of all five factors of the posttraumatic growth model, proposed by Calhoun and Tedeschi, in Winfrey’s life. The order of these factors, according to a number of identified instances in the data, matched the order of variance percentages per factor identified by Tedeschi and Calhoun. The analysis of PTG in the life of Winfrey, according to the PTG theoretical model, indicates the applicability and value of the model to interpret positive change as it manifests in the lives of individuals after trauma.
- Format
- vii, 83 leaves
- Format
- Publisher
- Nelson Mandela University
- Publisher
- Faculty of Health Sciences
- Language
- English
- Rights
- Nelson Mandela University
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| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details Download | SOURCE1 | Yolandé Oosthuysen.pdf | 894 KB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |