Linkage in extra-sensory perception
- Authors: Marsh, Maurice Clement
- Date: 1959
- Subjects: Telepathy , Extrasensory perception
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:3215 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1012840
- Description: The aims of this investigation were firstly to find whether 371 subjects, mainly students at Rhodes University, would be able to reproduce target drawings made 470 miles away by an agent in Cape Town, by means of General Extra-Sensory Perception; secondly, to find whether any association existed between any such hit scoring ability shown and personality ratings derived from a battery of personality test material; and thirdly, to find whether providing the subjects with material designed to link them more closely with the agent would increase their scoring rate. The 17,440 drawings returned by the subjects were randomised, and scored against a randomised set of 100 drawings consisting of 50 which had actually been used as targets, intermixed with 50 that were equal in difficulty but which had not been used as targets, and which were inserted merely as controls. Three independent judges assessed the subjects' drawings, and awarded hits in terms of title, shape and association. In the crucial title hits highly significant deviations in favour of the experimental target drawings were found, the control series of drawings showing no such effects. It was found that the subjects' hits were distributed evenly throughout the whole 25 day period of the experiment for each target, and showed no tendency to occur more frequently in the week a particular drawing was being used as a target than in the other weeks when it was not. When the subjects were divided into a high scoring and low-scoring group in terms of their E.S. P. abiility, the high- scoring group proved to be significantly more extraverted (as measured by the Bernreuter B3I scale) than the low- scoring group, confirming a relationship previously reported by Humphrey. In addition the data showed several other relationships, predicted by the work of previous experimenters, although these did not reach the .01 level of statistical significance. To assess the effect of the Linkage Material the subjects were divided into an experimental and a control group. The Experimental Group was supplied with correct Linkage Material, the Control Group with incorrect Linkage Material, which they were led to believe was correct . The two sets of Linkage Material were equated in all other respects. The Experimental Group showed significant improvements in scoring rate when supplied with a photograph and description of the agent, and a probably significant improvement when supplied with squares of handkerchief which had previously belonged to him. When supplied with squares of colour, also appearing on the agent's target sheets, no significant increase in scoring rate took place on the target drawings, but a significant decrease occurred in hits scored on the control targets. By contrast no consistent significant fluctuations were shown by Control Group Subjects, leading to the conclusion that the correctness of the Linkage Material was a factor contributing to its effectiveness. A qualitative examination of the hits scored by the subjects revealed that they tended to reproduce the concepts depicted by the target drawings, rather than the actual shapes drawn by the agent, suggesting that the hits were being produced by a telepathic process rather than a clairvoyant one. The results of the experiment suggest that the subjects were assisted by the Linkage Material to gain access to the agent's mind as a whole, and not to particular items in it. This throws doubt on the correctness of Whately Carington's Association Theory of Telepathy, which the experiment was designed to test.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1959
- Authors: Marsh, Maurice Clement
- Date: 1959
- Subjects: Telepathy , Extrasensory perception
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:3215 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1012840
- Description: The aims of this investigation were firstly to find whether 371 subjects, mainly students at Rhodes University, would be able to reproduce target drawings made 470 miles away by an agent in Cape Town, by means of General Extra-Sensory Perception; secondly, to find whether any association existed between any such hit scoring ability shown and personality ratings derived from a battery of personality test material; and thirdly, to find whether providing the subjects with material designed to link them more closely with the agent would increase their scoring rate. The 17,440 drawings returned by the subjects were randomised, and scored against a randomised set of 100 drawings consisting of 50 which had actually been used as targets, intermixed with 50 that were equal in difficulty but which had not been used as targets, and which were inserted merely as controls. Three independent judges assessed the subjects' drawings, and awarded hits in terms of title, shape and association. In the crucial title hits highly significant deviations in favour of the experimental target drawings were found, the control series of drawings showing no such effects. It was found that the subjects' hits were distributed evenly throughout the whole 25 day period of the experiment for each target, and showed no tendency to occur more frequently in the week a particular drawing was being used as a target than in the other weeks when it was not. When the subjects were divided into a high scoring and low-scoring group in terms of their E.S. P. abiility, the high- scoring group proved to be significantly more extraverted (as measured by the Bernreuter B3I scale) than the low- scoring group, confirming a relationship previously reported by Humphrey. In addition the data showed several other relationships, predicted by the work of previous experimenters, although these did not reach the .01 level of statistical significance. To assess the effect of the Linkage Material the subjects were divided into an experimental and a control group. The Experimental Group was supplied with correct Linkage Material, the Control Group with incorrect Linkage Material, which they were led to believe was correct . The two sets of Linkage Material were equated in all other respects. The Experimental Group showed significant improvements in scoring rate when supplied with a photograph and description of the agent, and a probably significant improvement when supplied with squares of handkerchief which had previously belonged to him. When supplied with squares of colour, also appearing on the agent's target sheets, no significant increase in scoring rate took place on the target drawings, but a significant decrease occurred in hits scored on the control targets. By contrast no consistent significant fluctuations were shown by Control Group Subjects, leading to the conclusion that the correctness of the Linkage Material was a factor contributing to its effectiveness. A qualitative examination of the hits scored by the subjects revealed that they tended to reproduce the concepts depicted by the target drawings, rather than the actual shapes drawn by the agent, suggesting that the hits were being produced by a telepathic process rather than a clairvoyant one. The results of the experiment suggest that the subjects were assisted by the Linkage Material to gain access to the agent's mind as a whole, and not to particular items in it. This throws doubt on the correctness of Whately Carington's Association Theory of Telepathy, which the experiment was designed to test.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1959
Die sielkundige aanpassing van drie groepe Bantoes volgens die Rorschach toets
- Authors: Du Preez, Pieter Hendrik
- Date: 1968
- Subjects: Rorschach test Black people -- South Africa -- Psychology Ethnopsychology
- Language: Afrikaans
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:3203 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1011495
- Description: Die huidige belangrike rol wat die Bantoe van Afrika in internasionale sake speel, is welbekend. So ook die belangrikheid van die Suid-Afrikaanse Bantoe. Hierdie belangrikheid van die Bantoe het egter verbasend skielik en vinnig gekom, so vinnig dat wetenskaplike kennis van hom as mens, nie kon tred hou nie, met die gevolg dat die beskaafde wereld hom swak ken. Die doel van hierdie proefskrif is dan ook om meer Iig te probeer werp op die persoonlikheid van die Bantoe en die lnvloed wat die snel veranderende omstandighede op hom uitoefen. Ten einde die maksimum waarde uit die Rorschach toets wat aangewend is, te verkry, is dlt nodig om beide die determinants berekenings sowel as die inhoudsanalise in berekening te bring. Vir navorsingsdoeleindes waar die resultate van verskeie proefpersone saamgevoeg word in verskiIlende groepe, is dit egter 'n moelIike taak om die gegewens kwantitatief hanteerbaar te kry. Dit is die rede waarom in hierdie studie van ordeskale gebruik gemaak is wat vir die doel heel doeltreffend blyk te gewees het.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1968
- Authors: Du Preez, Pieter Hendrik
- Date: 1968
- Subjects: Rorschach test Black people -- South Africa -- Psychology Ethnopsychology
- Language: Afrikaans
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:3203 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1011495
- Description: Die huidige belangrike rol wat die Bantoe van Afrika in internasionale sake speel, is welbekend. So ook die belangrikheid van die Suid-Afrikaanse Bantoe. Hierdie belangrikheid van die Bantoe het egter verbasend skielik en vinnig gekom, so vinnig dat wetenskaplike kennis van hom as mens, nie kon tred hou nie, met die gevolg dat die beskaafde wereld hom swak ken. Die doel van hierdie proefskrif is dan ook om meer Iig te probeer werp op die persoonlikheid van die Bantoe en die lnvloed wat die snel veranderende omstandighede op hom uitoefen. Ten einde die maksimum waarde uit die Rorschach toets wat aangewend is, te verkry, is dlt nodig om beide die determinants berekenings sowel as die inhoudsanalise in berekening te bring. Vir navorsingsdoeleindes waar die resultate van verskeie proefpersone saamgevoeg word in verskiIlende groepe, is dit egter 'n moelIike taak om die gegewens kwantitatief hanteerbaar te kry. Dit is die rede waarom in hierdie studie van ordeskale gebruik gemaak is wat vir die doel heel doeltreffend blyk te gewees het.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1968
The measurement of group differences in social concepts
- Authors: Morsbach, Gisela W L
- Date: 1968
- Subjects: Ethnic groups -- Psychology -- South Africa , Racism -- South Africa , Stereotypes (Social psychology) , Cross-cultural studies
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:3218 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1012907
- Description: The present study attempted a cross-cultural investigation of ethnic and national stereotypes in South Africa, a land inhabited by a heterogeneous population. In this country, real or imagined differences due to racial characteristics profoundly influence social interaction. Moreover, such differences are entrenched and underscored by the prevailing legal system while supplying the rationale for many actions of the goverru:tent in power. On the basis of relevant literature it was assumed that differentiation between stereotypes would be based mainly on colour, but that further distinctive differentiations would be present inside the ensuing major groupings ("White and "Non-White"). It was furthermore attempted to show that various groups differed significantly in their judgment of an ethnic stereotype only if they had a dissimilar relationship with the group to be judged. Altogether 760 subjects were tested. These belonged to the six major ethnic and cultural groups in South Africa (Africans, Afrikaners, Coloureds, English-speaking White Gentiles, Indians, and Jews). They were all asked to judge each one of ten concepts by means of the semantic differential technique, which consisted of twenty adjective pairs. Six of these concepts were the names of the South African groups mentioned above, while another three concepts represented the names of groups outside South Africa ("the Americans", "the Germans", and "the Russians") which play an important role in the thinking of South Africans. Finally, the subjects were asked to rate themselves ("Me"- concept). For the sake of better comparison, only first-year students were tested at various universities. The results were analyzed with the aid of a computer (the ICT computers at the University of Cape Town and at Rhodes University). Since a cross-cultural study rests on the theoretical assumption that any tests used for the purpose of comparison are reliable and valid in all cultures to be investigated, a few additional questions had to be asked. The checks undertaken confirmed that in the present study:- 1) The motivation of the subjects as well as their comprehension of the test's basic aims did not differ to any great extent. 2) The six groups did not differ appreciably as regards the social desirability of adjectives used, the semantic structure of the adjective pairs, and the range of scores on the adjective pairs. Furthermore, it was established that male-female differences in attitudes in each of the six groups tested were negligible. The stereotypes were compared with each other inside every one of the groups tested, as well as being compared between all the groups. These comparisons were carried out on the single adjective pairs separately (by means of the Sign Test and the Median Test), and then undertaken in the context of the factorial structure of the concepts. The major results showed that:- 1. The 'colour line' is an important criterion of evaluation in all groups but the Coloureds and the Jews. a) Apart from a 'Black Factor', on which the concepts "the Africans" and "the Coloureds" obtained high loadings, there appeared to be two factors dealing with the evaluation of the White groups. b) The evaluation of the 'Black Factor' by the African subjects was much more positive than the 'Black Factor' found in other groups. c) The Indian subjects did not regard themselves as belonging to the ' Non-Whites' ; neither were they regarded as such by the other subjects tested. 2. The criterion of colour was of less importance in the Coloured and Jewish groups tested. 3. The Jewish subjects appeared to possess the most differentiated stereotype structure, since, in their case, there were four, instead of the usual three factors to be extracted. Moreover, they tended to regard the Non-'White groups more positively than did the other two White groups. 4. The Afrikaans subjects held the most negative opinion of "the Africans"; conversely, "the Afrikaners" were also rejected more strongly than the English-speaking Whites by the Non-Whites tested. 5. Of all groups rated, "the Americans" were the most liked. 6. The stereotypes of "the Russians" and "the Germans" were fairly similar, except in the case of the Afrikaans subjects, who had an exceptionally positive regard for "the Germans". 1. Ratings of the subjects' own group were generally very much more positive than the ratings of the same group by members of other groups, except in the case of the English-speaking White Gentiles. 8. When any two groups rated a concept differently, this could generally be traced back to, on the one hand, differences in the relationships between each one of the judging groups, and, on the other, the group being judged. In conclusion it can be stated that differences between the groups as regards any one stereotype were generally smaller than the differences between the stereotypes of different concepts as held by any one group tested. Where no special relationships existed between a judging group and one being judged, ethnic and national stereotypes tended to be relatively similar in the various cultures and sub-cultures investigated.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1968
- Authors: Morsbach, Gisela W L
- Date: 1968
- Subjects: Ethnic groups -- Psychology -- South Africa , Racism -- South Africa , Stereotypes (Social psychology) , Cross-cultural studies
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:3218 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1012907
- Description: The present study attempted a cross-cultural investigation of ethnic and national stereotypes in South Africa, a land inhabited by a heterogeneous population. In this country, real or imagined differences due to racial characteristics profoundly influence social interaction. Moreover, such differences are entrenched and underscored by the prevailing legal system while supplying the rationale for many actions of the goverru:tent in power. On the basis of relevant literature it was assumed that differentiation between stereotypes would be based mainly on colour, but that further distinctive differentiations would be present inside the ensuing major groupings ("White and "Non-White"). It was furthermore attempted to show that various groups differed significantly in their judgment of an ethnic stereotype only if they had a dissimilar relationship with the group to be judged. Altogether 760 subjects were tested. These belonged to the six major ethnic and cultural groups in South Africa (Africans, Afrikaners, Coloureds, English-speaking White Gentiles, Indians, and Jews). They were all asked to judge each one of ten concepts by means of the semantic differential technique, which consisted of twenty adjective pairs. Six of these concepts were the names of the South African groups mentioned above, while another three concepts represented the names of groups outside South Africa ("the Americans", "the Germans", and "the Russians") which play an important role in the thinking of South Africans. Finally, the subjects were asked to rate themselves ("Me"- concept). For the sake of better comparison, only first-year students were tested at various universities. The results were analyzed with the aid of a computer (the ICT computers at the University of Cape Town and at Rhodes University). Since a cross-cultural study rests on the theoretical assumption that any tests used for the purpose of comparison are reliable and valid in all cultures to be investigated, a few additional questions had to be asked. The checks undertaken confirmed that in the present study:- 1) The motivation of the subjects as well as their comprehension of the test's basic aims did not differ to any great extent. 2) The six groups did not differ appreciably as regards the social desirability of adjectives used, the semantic structure of the adjective pairs, and the range of scores on the adjective pairs. Furthermore, it was established that male-female differences in attitudes in each of the six groups tested were negligible. The stereotypes were compared with each other inside every one of the groups tested, as well as being compared between all the groups. These comparisons were carried out on the single adjective pairs separately (by means of the Sign Test and the Median Test), and then undertaken in the context of the factorial structure of the concepts. The major results showed that:- 1. The 'colour line' is an important criterion of evaluation in all groups but the Coloureds and the Jews. a) Apart from a 'Black Factor', on which the concepts "the Africans" and "the Coloureds" obtained high loadings, there appeared to be two factors dealing with the evaluation of the White groups. b) The evaluation of the 'Black Factor' by the African subjects was much more positive than the 'Black Factor' found in other groups. c) The Indian subjects did not regard themselves as belonging to the ' Non-Whites' ; neither were they regarded as such by the other subjects tested. 2. The criterion of colour was of less importance in the Coloured and Jewish groups tested. 3. The Jewish subjects appeared to possess the most differentiated stereotype structure, since, in their case, there were four, instead of the usual three factors to be extracted. Moreover, they tended to regard the Non-'White groups more positively than did the other two White groups. 4. The Afrikaans subjects held the most negative opinion of "the Africans"; conversely, "the Afrikaners" were also rejected more strongly than the English-speaking Whites by the Non-Whites tested. 5. Of all groups rated, "the Americans" were the most liked. 6. The stereotypes of "the Russians" and "the Germans" were fairly similar, except in the case of the Afrikaans subjects, who had an exceptionally positive regard for "the Germans". 1. Ratings of the subjects' own group were generally very much more positive than the ratings of the same group by members of other groups, except in the case of the English-speaking White Gentiles. 8. When any two groups rated a concept differently, this could generally be traced back to, on the one hand, differences in the relationships between each one of the judging groups, and, on the other, the group being judged. In conclusion it can be stated that differences between the groups as regards any one stereotype were generally smaller than the differences between the stereotypes of different concepts as held by any one group tested. Where no special relationships existed between a judging group and one being judged, ethnic and national stereotypes tended to be relatively similar in the various cultures and sub-cultures investigated.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1968
Creative processes in young children
- Authors: Styles, Irene Mavis
- Date: 1971
- Subjects: Creative ability in children , Creative thinking
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:3244 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013327
- Description: Enthusiasm for developing creativity in the individual has been remarkably widespread - at least in America - over the past twenty-five years or so. The armed services, the arts and sciences, educational institutions, businesses and industries are recognising to a greater and greater extent, the urgent necessity of developing this relatively neglected aspect of people is personalities. Their reasons differ, of course, and usually the welfare of the individual himself is not the main concern. This is perhaps fortunate, as advances made on philanthropic grounds alone have never progressed very rapidly. In business and industry, new ideas are urgently needed for survival - this was especially evident after World War II which was, in the end, really a battle of ideas. The importance of this implication has not decreased with distance in time from that conflagration, indeed, individuals in the armed services are probably the people most deeply involved in and the most concerned with the problem of developing creative thought. "We are in a mortal struggle for the survival of our way of life", writes Guilford. "The need (for developing creativity) is a national crisis" says Anderson*. Intro., p. 1.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1971
- Authors: Styles, Irene Mavis
- Date: 1971
- Subjects: Creative ability in children , Creative thinking
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:3244 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013327
- Description: Enthusiasm for developing creativity in the individual has been remarkably widespread - at least in America - over the past twenty-five years or so. The armed services, the arts and sciences, educational institutions, businesses and industries are recognising to a greater and greater extent, the urgent necessity of developing this relatively neglected aspect of people is personalities. Their reasons differ, of course, and usually the welfare of the individual himself is not the main concern. This is perhaps fortunate, as advances made on philanthropic grounds alone have never progressed very rapidly. In business and industry, new ideas are urgently needed for survival - this was especially evident after World War II which was, in the end, really a battle of ideas. The importance of this implication has not decreased with distance in time from that conflagration, indeed, individuals in the armed services are probably the people most deeply involved in and the most concerned with the problem of developing creative thought. "We are in a mortal struggle for the survival of our way of life", writes Guilford. "The need (for developing creativity) is a national crisis" says Anderson*. Intro., p. 1.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1971
Accident liability and primary process thinking : a study in ego psychology
- Authors: Nell, Oelrich
- Date: 1975
- Subjects: Automobile drivers -- Psychology , Ego (Psychology) , Traffic safety -- South Africa -- Psychological aspects , Liability for traffic accidents -- South Africa , Traffic accidents -- South Africa -- Psychological aspects
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:3220 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1012950
- Description: Serious efforts must be made to combat the high accident rate on the roads in the Republic of South Africa. The same spirit which exists in the field of medicine when there are evidences that an epidemic is beginning to take its toll, must come into being amongst those who are concerned with traffic and its problems. The public itself needs to become more aware of road safety. Many associations and institutions have been created to assist with the inculcation of the road safety ideal. The National Road Safety Council, which creates opportunities for investigation into aspects of road safety must continue to expand its sphere of influence. The research project contained on the following pages represents an attempt to contribute to the human factor in traffic safety, particularly by making a closer study of the driver of the motor vehicle. The writer is concerned with the carnage that is caused by road accidents. His previous study of personality and particularly of the projective techniques of assessment has prompted a consideration of the problem.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1975
- Authors: Nell, Oelrich
- Date: 1975
- Subjects: Automobile drivers -- Psychology , Ego (Psychology) , Traffic safety -- South Africa -- Psychological aspects , Liability for traffic accidents -- South Africa , Traffic accidents -- South Africa -- Psychological aspects
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:3220 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1012950
- Description: Serious efforts must be made to combat the high accident rate on the roads in the Republic of South Africa. The same spirit which exists in the field of medicine when there are evidences that an epidemic is beginning to take its toll, must come into being amongst those who are concerned with traffic and its problems. The public itself needs to become more aware of road safety. Many associations and institutions have been created to assist with the inculcation of the road safety ideal. The National Road Safety Council, which creates opportunities for investigation into aspects of road safety must continue to expand its sphere of influence. The research project contained on the following pages represents an attempt to contribute to the human factor in traffic safety, particularly by making a closer study of the driver of the motor vehicle. The writer is concerned with the carnage that is caused by road accidents. His previous study of personality and particularly of the projective techniques of assessment has prompted a consideration of the problem.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1975
5-hydroxytryptamine and sexual behaviour in rhesus monkeys
- Authors: Gradwell, Peter Bertram
- Date: 1976
- Subjects: Rhesus monkey -- Behavior Sexual behavior in animals
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:3210 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1012086
- Description: Selective inhibition of 5-hydroxytryptamine by parachlorophenylalanine (PCPA) is able to restore sexual receptivity in female rhesus monkeys made unreceptive by bilateral adrenalectomy. PCPA in the doses used reduces the levels of 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid (5HIAA) in the cerebrospinal fluid to 40 per cent of the normal oestradioltreated condition. Both the increased sexual receptivity and the lowered 5HIAA levels "in the CSF are in turn reversed by 5-hydroxytryptophal (5HTP), the irrmediate precursor of 5HT and the substance whose synthesis is inhibited by PCPA. 5HTP on its own reduces sexual receptivity and increases 5HIAA levels in the CSF of ovariectomised, oestradiol-treated (but otherwise intact) female rhesus monkeys. A substance other than an adrenal androgen has therefore been shown to restore sexual receptivity in adrenalectomised female monkeys . Testosterone propionate and oestradiol benzoate both lower the turnover rates of 5HT in the brains of ovariectomised female monkeys, as measured by the 2 hour probenecid test. Taken together, these findings suggest that adrenal androgens could act on specific sites in the female monkey brain via 5HT-containing neural systems, to control (or at least influence) sexual receptivity. All the results of administering oestradiol to ovariectomised monkeys in these experiments are consistent with the established roles of this hormone in female sexual attractiveness and in the gonadotrophin- controlling systems of the hypothalamo-hypophyseal axis. In contrast to these findings on 5HT and sexual receptivity in female monkeys, no clear role for 5HT- containing neural systems could be demonstrated in the grooming, aggressive or social behaviours of female monkeys. No clear role for 5HT could be demonstrated in the refractory period following ejaculation in male monkeys , or when testosterone replacement is given to castrated male monkeys.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1976
- Authors: Gradwell, Peter Bertram
- Date: 1976
- Subjects: Rhesus monkey -- Behavior Sexual behavior in animals
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:3210 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1012086
- Description: Selective inhibition of 5-hydroxytryptamine by parachlorophenylalanine (PCPA) is able to restore sexual receptivity in female rhesus monkeys made unreceptive by bilateral adrenalectomy. PCPA in the doses used reduces the levels of 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid (5HIAA) in the cerebrospinal fluid to 40 per cent of the normal oestradioltreated condition. Both the increased sexual receptivity and the lowered 5HIAA levels "in the CSF are in turn reversed by 5-hydroxytryptophal (5HTP), the irrmediate precursor of 5HT and the substance whose synthesis is inhibited by PCPA. 5HTP on its own reduces sexual receptivity and increases 5HIAA levels in the CSF of ovariectomised, oestradiol-treated (but otherwise intact) female rhesus monkeys. A substance other than an adrenal androgen has therefore been shown to restore sexual receptivity in adrenalectomised female monkeys . Testosterone propionate and oestradiol benzoate both lower the turnover rates of 5HT in the brains of ovariectomised female monkeys, as measured by the 2 hour probenecid test. Taken together, these findings suggest that adrenal androgens could act on specific sites in the female monkey brain via 5HT-containing neural systems, to control (or at least influence) sexual receptivity. All the results of administering oestradiol to ovariectomised monkeys in these experiments are consistent with the established roles of this hormone in female sexual attractiveness and in the gonadotrophin- controlling systems of the hypothalamo-hypophyseal axis. In contrast to these findings on 5HT and sexual receptivity in female monkeys, no clear role for 5HT- containing neural systems could be demonstrated in the grooming, aggressive or social behaviours of female monkeys. No clear role for 5HT could be demonstrated in the refractory period following ejaculation in male monkeys , or when testosterone replacement is given to castrated male monkeys.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1976
A cross-cultural study of interpersonal distance and orientation schemata
- Authors: Edwards, D J A
- Date: 1977
- Subjects: Personal space -- Testing Orientation (Psychology) Cross-cultural studies
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:3206 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1011743
- Description: Expectations about interpersonal distance during social encounters (distance schemata) and body orientation (orientation schemata) were investigated among White English-speakers and Xhosa groups which included illiterate traditionalists (Reds), poorly educated urban dwellers, and highly literate students and nurses. In a series of six experiments a doll placement task was used in which subjects represented dyadic encounters by placing pairs of standing dolls. For each situation represented the responses of each group of subjects were summarised in the form of a profile which showed the mean of the distance and three angle measures (IPOS profile). Independent variables included culture of subject, type of situation represented (friendly encounter, quarrel, accusation and denial, request) and the sex, age or relationship of the persons represented. In the culminating experiment (Experiment 6), females from three Xhosa groups (Reds or XR, poorly educated urban or XU, and urban nurses or XN) made twenty-three placements. In some respects the schemata of the four groups were very similar, while in others both distance and orientation schemata were a function of cultural group. The experiments allowed an assessment of the validity of the doll placement method to be made, and results were discussed in terms of the effects on interpersonal distance and body orientation of cultural norms concerning the showing of respect and the nature and strength of the emotions present in the various types of situation. It was concluded that with cultural movement away from the traditionalist pattern the schemata of the urban Xhosa showed a transition towards those found among the Whites in some respects. However, while the schemata of the XN group showed features of both those of the XR and White groups, those of the XU group showed features found in neither which seemed to reflect the insecurity of the cultural milieu of the urban poor.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1977
- Authors: Edwards, D J A
- Date: 1977
- Subjects: Personal space -- Testing Orientation (Psychology) Cross-cultural studies
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:3206 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1011743
- Description: Expectations about interpersonal distance during social encounters (distance schemata) and body orientation (orientation schemata) were investigated among White English-speakers and Xhosa groups which included illiterate traditionalists (Reds), poorly educated urban dwellers, and highly literate students and nurses. In a series of six experiments a doll placement task was used in which subjects represented dyadic encounters by placing pairs of standing dolls. For each situation represented the responses of each group of subjects were summarised in the form of a profile which showed the mean of the distance and three angle measures (IPOS profile). Independent variables included culture of subject, type of situation represented (friendly encounter, quarrel, accusation and denial, request) and the sex, age or relationship of the persons represented. In the culminating experiment (Experiment 6), females from three Xhosa groups (Reds or XR, poorly educated urban or XU, and urban nurses or XN) made twenty-three placements. In some respects the schemata of the four groups were very similar, while in others both distance and orientation schemata were a function of cultural group. The experiments allowed an assessment of the validity of the doll placement method to be made, and results were discussed in terms of the effects on interpersonal distance and body orientation of cultural norms concerning the showing of respect and the nature and strength of the emotions present in the various types of situation. It was concluded that with cultural movement away from the traditionalist pattern the schemata of the urban Xhosa showed a transition towards those found among the Whites in some respects. However, while the schemata of the XN group showed features of both those of the XR and White groups, those of the XU group showed features found in neither which seemed to reflect the insecurity of the cultural milieu of the urban poor.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1977
An investigation of the relationship between acculturation, n achievement and n affiliation in Owambo
- Authors: Steyn, Daniël Marthinus
- Date: 1977
- Subjects: Ovambo (African people) , Acculturation -- Namibia , Achievement motivation , Affiliation (Psychology)
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:3241 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013295
- Description: The contents of this thesis were mainly determined by the traditional methodological requirements for a thesis of this nature. However a need was felt to include a somewhat expanded survey of the interrelationship between anthropology and psychology. This "need" developed during a review of the above-mentioned interrelationship especially when we found that the historical interaction between these two disciplines had never been followed from the earliest times to the present. Furthermore, although different writers have treated different aspects of this interaction, not one could be found that had treated all the different angles of the relationship. Thus although it is a well known fact that there is a prominent relationship between these two disciplines this was found to be quite inadequately documented. Furthermore, it is usually discussed from either a psychological or an anthropological viewpoint. The hazy view of the interrelationship between these two disciplines is naturally a frustrating situation for any researcher in this field - especially one who would prefer to have a view of the position of his research within the wider panorama of research surrounding it. Intro., p. 1.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1977
- Authors: Steyn, Daniël Marthinus
- Date: 1977
- Subjects: Ovambo (African people) , Acculturation -- Namibia , Achievement motivation , Affiliation (Psychology)
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:3241 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013295
- Description: The contents of this thesis were mainly determined by the traditional methodological requirements for a thesis of this nature. However a need was felt to include a somewhat expanded survey of the interrelationship between anthropology and psychology. This "need" developed during a review of the above-mentioned interrelationship especially when we found that the historical interaction between these two disciplines had never been followed from the earliest times to the present. Furthermore, although different writers have treated different aspects of this interaction, not one could be found that had treated all the different angles of the relationship. Thus although it is a well known fact that there is a prominent relationship between these two disciplines this was found to be quite inadequately documented. Furthermore, it is usually discussed from either a psychological or an anthropological viewpoint. The hazy view of the interrelationship between these two disciplines is naturally a frustrating situation for any researcher in this field - especially one who would prefer to have a view of the position of his research within the wider panorama of research surrounding it. Intro., p. 1.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1977
Abstract and lifelike experimental games
- Authors: Colman, Andrew Michael
- Date: 1980
- Subjects: Game theory Social psychology
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:3137 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006958
- Description: The theory of games seems to me to provide the most promising alternative to the traditional theories of social behaviour. Gaming modelS are inherently social in character (an individual's strategy choice in a game cannot even be properly defined without reference to at least one other individual) and they represent a radical departure from the "social stimulus - individual response" approach. They sean, furthermore, to be the only models which can adequately conceptualize an important (and large) class of social behaviours which arise from deliberate free choice. (From preface)
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1980
- Authors: Colman, Andrew Michael
- Date: 1980
- Subjects: Game theory Social psychology
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:3137 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006958
- Description: The theory of games seems to me to provide the most promising alternative to the traditional theories of social behaviour. Gaming modelS are inherently social in character (an individual's strategy choice in a game cannot even be properly defined without reference to at least one other individual) and they represent a radical departure from the "social stimulus - individual response" approach. They sean, furthermore, to be the only models which can adequately conceptualize an important (and large) class of social behaviours which arise from deliberate free choice. (From preface)
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1980
The meaning of becoming and being a member of a small and structured religious group
- Authors: Stones, Christopher R
- Date: 1980
- Subjects: Religious communities -- South Africa Jesus People -- South Africa -- Johannesburg Hare Krishnas -- South Africa -- Johannesburg Divine Light Mission Seminarians -- South Africa -- Pretoria Catholic theological seminaries -- South Africa Phenomenological psychology
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:3101 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1004381
- Description: The concern of this investigation is with the meaning of becoming as well as being a member of one of four specific small and structured religious communities. Three of these religious groups - the Jesus People, the Hare Krishna Devotees and the Maharaj Ji Premies - are considered to be nonconformist in terms of the life-style, value-system and theology each adopts within the mainstream social and theological ethos, while the fourth group - a sample of Catholic Seminarians - like the other groups is a small community with a structured life-style, but its life-style and value-system is not necessarily non-conformist. These groups are all to be found, amongst other places, in Johannesburg, apart from the Catholic Priests, all of whom were living in a seminary in Pretoria. All the members of these religious communities - both men and women - who were interviewed were Caucasian, their educational standard ranged from pre-matric through to university graduate status, and the overall average age of the 9rouP members was 24 years - the youngest subject was aged 17 while the oldest was 31 years of age. Rather than a meas~rement orientated procedure, a phenomenologically inspired methodological procedure was used to explicitate the data. It is argued that a descriptive phenomenological perspective is more appropriate for the elucidation of meaning-structures, especially with reference to the present inquiry, than would be a quantitative, measurement and mathematical treatment of the subject matter with which this thesis is concerned. The results are best summarized by stating that, although the explication revealed that the four groups are distinctly different in certain aspects of the meaning-structures of the individuals' becoming and being members of a group, there are nonetheless marked similarities between the groups in other aspects of the explicitated data.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1980
- Authors: Stones, Christopher R
- Date: 1980
- Subjects: Religious communities -- South Africa Jesus People -- South Africa -- Johannesburg Hare Krishnas -- South Africa -- Johannesburg Divine Light Mission Seminarians -- South Africa -- Pretoria Catholic theological seminaries -- South Africa Phenomenological psychology
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:3101 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1004381
- Description: The concern of this investigation is with the meaning of becoming as well as being a member of one of four specific small and structured religious communities. Three of these religious groups - the Jesus People, the Hare Krishna Devotees and the Maharaj Ji Premies - are considered to be nonconformist in terms of the life-style, value-system and theology each adopts within the mainstream social and theological ethos, while the fourth group - a sample of Catholic Seminarians - like the other groups is a small community with a structured life-style, but its life-style and value-system is not necessarily non-conformist. These groups are all to be found, amongst other places, in Johannesburg, apart from the Catholic Priests, all of whom were living in a seminary in Pretoria. All the members of these religious communities - both men and women - who were interviewed were Caucasian, their educational standard ranged from pre-matric through to university graduate status, and the overall average age of the 9rouP members was 24 years - the youngest subject was aged 17 while the oldest was 31 years of age. Rather than a meas~rement orientated procedure, a phenomenologically inspired methodological procedure was used to explicitate the data. It is argued that a descriptive phenomenological perspective is more appropriate for the elucidation of meaning-structures, especially with reference to the present inquiry, than would be a quantitative, measurement and mathematical treatment of the subject matter with which this thesis is concerned. The results are best summarized by stating that, although the explication revealed that the four groups are distinctly different in certain aspects of the meaning-structures of the individuals' becoming and being members of a group, there are nonetheless marked similarities between the groups in other aspects of the explicitated data.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1980
The elements of job evaluation in the development of a pay structural comparison system guide to conducting compensation surveys to determine competitive adjustments to base salary ranges
- Authors: Snelgar, Robin John
- Date: 1981
- Subjects: Wage surveys , Job evaluation , Job analysis
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:3118 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1004726
- Description: If the wage policy of an organisation is to remain competitive in the labour market, that is, pay rates that are at least approximately equal to those prevailing in the community, then it must collect accurate wage and salary data in order to alter its pay structure as may become necessary. Wage and salary survey information provides a means by which management can determine whether its entire wage level is in accordance with that of the external labour market, and thus it is absolutely essential that methods and techniques utilised to collect such information are as objective and accurate as possible. The vital factor which has been revealed by the utilisation of many existing wage and salary survey guides is that the unavoidable subjectivity involved in the basic techniques utilised in survey procedures tends to have a cumulative effect on both data collection and analysis, and ultimately interpretation. As each technique is utilised, whether it be to obtain job comparability or to adjust salary data, the overall level of subjectivity is increased, which results in a cumulative increase in the margin of error involved in data collection. This study has been aimed at developing and practically testing a comprehensive guide to conducting wage and salary surveys which effectively minimises and, over successive surveys, eradicates the necessity for these subjective techniques. Due to the fact that the elements of job evaluation, namely, job analysis, job description, job specification and the job evaluation plan itself, form the nucleus of the techniques utilised for the data gathering and analysis process, the initial study was aimed at developing a job evaluation process which would be as objective as possible. In the development of such a system a range of job evaluation plans were tested for comparability in rating of jobs, the hypothesis being that any evaluation method or plan, when correctly applied to a series of jobs, will result in the same classification. This study intercorrelated rates derived for twenty-four key jobs selected from one particular organisation, using the job evaluation methods utilised by sixteen different organisations, and found that these rates intercorrelated between 0,93 to 0,99. These intercorrelations indicate a high degree of commonality among the sixteen methods; thus providing a justification for the utilisation of one particular job evaluation plan for the adjustment and weighing of wage and salary data in the survey data analysis procedure. To further justify the utilisation of one particular method, and thereby increase probability of acceptance by participating organisations, the independence of the sub-factors of the selected plan were tested by intercorrelating the factor scores for two job samples, one consisting of sixty jobs, type and level being heterogeneous, the other consisting of forty jobs, type and level being homogeneous. Sub-factor intercorrelations in the group of heterogeneous jobs ranged from 0,71 to 0,98 while all but one correlated at or above 0,90 with the total score, thus emphasising the independence of sub-factors, while intercorrelations in the group of homogeneous sample were much lower, ranging from 0,26 to 0,89, indicating greater factorial independence due to the fact that these jobs are limited to a narrower range of grades such that specific job differences in respect of sub-factors are more likely to show up. Utilising this selected job evaluation plan as the core of the developed job evaluation process, a wage and salary survey guide was formulated, the unique concept being a comparison of participating organisation pay structures rather than comparison of positions as a basis for data collection. The job evaluation system was utilised in the formulation of a "one-time" standardisation of participating organisation pay structures according to the survey organisation pay structure, the hypothesis being that these standardised pay structures may be utilised over successive surveys without the necessity for restandardisation, and thus eliminating the use of subjective methods and techniques subsequent to the initial standardisation. Utilising an international oil company as the survey organisation this newly formulated structural comparison guide was practically tested by applying it in conjunction with the existing survey organisation wage and salary survey guide as a means of competitive market wage and salary data gathering and analysis, over successive survey years, namely, 1974, 1977, and 1980. The results obtained through application of this guide were subsequently compared with those results obtained by two professional survey organisations, and proved to be reliable and consistent enough over the applicable survey years to warrant acceptance of the pay structural comparison concept as a valid wage and salary survey technique.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1981
- Authors: Snelgar, Robin John
- Date: 1981
- Subjects: Wage surveys , Job evaluation , Job analysis
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:3118 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1004726
- Description: If the wage policy of an organisation is to remain competitive in the labour market, that is, pay rates that are at least approximately equal to those prevailing in the community, then it must collect accurate wage and salary data in order to alter its pay structure as may become necessary. Wage and salary survey information provides a means by which management can determine whether its entire wage level is in accordance with that of the external labour market, and thus it is absolutely essential that methods and techniques utilised to collect such information are as objective and accurate as possible. The vital factor which has been revealed by the utilisation of many existing wage and salary survey guides is that the unavoidable subjectivity involved in the basic techniques utilised in survey procedures tends to have a cumulative effect on both data collection and analysis, and ultimately interpretation. As each technique is utilised, whether it be to obtain job comparability or to adjust salary data, the overall level of subjectivity is increased, which results in a cumulative increase in the margin of error involved in data collection. This study has been aimed at developing and practically testing a comprehensive guide to conducting wage and salary surveys which effectively minimises and, over successive surveys, eradicates the necessity for these subjective techniques. Due to the fact that the elements of job evaluation, namely, job analysis, job description, job specification and the job evaluation plan itself, form the nucleus of the techniques utilised for the data gathering and analysis process, the initial study was aimed at developing a job evaluation process which would be as objective as possible. In the development of such a system a range of job evaluation plans were tested for comparability in rating of jobs, the hypothesis being that any evaluation method or plan, when correctly applied to a series of jobs, will result in the same classification. This study intercorrelated rates derived for twenty-four key jobs selected from one particular organisation, using the job evaluation methods utilised by sixteen different organisations, and found that these rates intercorrelated between 0,93 to 0,99. These intercorrelations indicate a high degree of commonality among the sixteen methods; thus providing a justification for the utilisation of one particular job evaluation plan for the adjustment and weighing of wage and salary data in the survey data analysis procedure. To further justify the utilisation of one particular method, and thereby increase probability of acceptance by participating organisations, the independence of the sub-factors of the selected plan were tested by intercorrelating the factor scores for two job samples, one consisting of sixty jobs, type and level being heterogeneous, the other consisting of forty jobs, type and level being homogeneous. Sub-factor intercorrelations in the group of heterogeneous jobs ranged from 0,71 to 0,98 while all but one correlated at or above 0,90 with the total score, thus emphasising the independence of sub-factors, while intercorrelations in the group of homogeneous sample were much lower, ranging from 0,26 to 0,89, indicating greater factorial independence due to the fact that these jobs are limited to a narrower range of grades such that specific job differences in respect of sub-factors are more likely to show up. Utilising this selected job evaluation plan as the core of the developed job evaluation process, a wage and salary survey guide was formulated, the unique concept being a comparison of participating organisation pay structures rather than comparison of positions as a basis for data collection. The job evaluation system was utilised in the formulation of a "one-time" standardisation of participating organisation pay structures according to the survey organisation pay structure, the hypothesis being that these standardised pay structures may be utilised over successive surveys without the necessity for restandardisation, and thus eliminating the use of subjective methods and techniques subsequent to the initial standardisation. Utilising an international oil company as the survey organisation this newly formulated structural comparison guide was practically tested by applying it in conjunction with the existing survey organisation wage and salary survey guide as a means of competitive market wage and salary data gathering and analysis, over successive survey years, namely, 1974, 1977, and 1980. The results obtained through application of this guide were subsequently compared with those results obtained by two professional survey organisations, and proved to be reliable and consistent enough over the applicable survey years to warrant acceptance of the pay structural comparison concept as a valid wage and salary survey technique.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1981
A phenomenological explication of dream interpretation among rural and urban Nguni people
- Authors: Schweitzer, Robert David
- Date: 1984
- Subjects: Nguni (African people) -- Religion Nguni (African people) -- Psychology Dreams Dreams -- Psychological aspects Healing -- South Africa -- Religious aspects
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:3125 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006189
- Description: Psychologists investigating dreams in non-Western cultures have generally not considered the meanings of dreams within the unique meaning-structure of the person in his or her societal context. The majority of dream studies in African societies are no exception. Researchers approaching dreams within rural Xhosa and Zulu speaking societies have either adopted an anthropological or a psychodynamic orientation. The latter approach particularly imposes a Western perspective in the interpretation of dream material. There have been no comparable studies of dream interpretation among urban blacks participating in the African Independent Church Movement. The present study focuses on the rural Xhosa speaking people and the urban black population who speak one of the Nguni languages and identify with the African Independent Church Movement. The study is concerned with understanding the meanings of dreams within the cultural context in which they occur. The specific aims of the study are: 1. To explicate the indigenous system of dream interpretation as revealed by acknowledged dream experts. 2. To examine the commonalities and the differences between the interpretation of dreams in two groups, drawn from a rural and urban setting respectively. 3. To elaborate upon the life-world of the participants by the interpretations gained from the above investigation. One hundred dreams and interpretations are collected from two categories of participants referred to as the Rural Group and the Urban Group. The Rural Group is made up of amagqira [traditional healers] and their clients, while the Urban Group consists of prophets and members of the African Independent Churches. Each group includes acknowledged dream experts. A phenomenological methodology is adopted in explicating the data. The methodological precedure involves a number of rigorous stages of explication whereby the original data is reduced to Constituent Profiles leading to the construction of a Thematic Index File. By searching and reflecting upon the data, interpretative themes are identified. These themes are explicated to provide a rigorous description of the interpretative-reality of each group. Themes explicated within the Rural Group are: the physiognomy of the dreamer's life- world as revealed by ithongo, the interpretation of ithongo as revealed through action, the dream relationship as an anticipatory mode-of-existence, iphupha as disclosing a vulnerable mode-of-being, human bodiliness as revealed in dream interpretations and the legitimation of the interpretative-reality within the life-world. Themes explicated within the Urban Group are : the physiognomy of the dreamer's life-world revealed in their dream-existence, the interpretative-reality revealed through the enaction of dreams, tension between the newer Christian-based cosomology and the traditional cultural-based cosmology, a moral imperative, prophetic perception and human bodiliness, as revealed in dream interpretations and the legitimation of the interpretative-reality within the life-world. The essence of the interpretative-reality of both groups is very similar and is expressed in the notion of relatedness to a cosmic mode-of-being. The cosmic mode-of-being includes a numinous dimension which is expressed through divine presence in the form of ancestors, Holy Spirit or God. These notions cannot be apprehended by theoretical constructs alone but may be grasped and given form in meaning-disclosing intuitions which are expressed in the lifeworld in terms of bodiliness, revelatory knowledge, action and healing. Some differences between the two groups are evident and reveal some conflict between the monotheistic Christian cosmology and the traditional cosmology. Unique aspects of the interpetative-reality of the Urban Group are expressed in terms of difficulties in the urban social environment and the notion of a moral imperative. It is observed that cultural self-expression based upon traditional ideas continues to play a significant role in the urban environment. The apparent conflict revealed between the respective cosmologies underlies an integration of traditional meanings with Christian concepts. This finding is consistent with the literature suggesting that the African Independent Church is a syncretic movement. The life-world is based upon the immediate and vivid experience of the numinous as revealed in the dream phenomenon. The participants' approach to dreams is not based upon an explicit theory, but upon an immediate and pathic understanding of the dream phenomenon. The understanding is based upon the interpreter's concrete understanding of the life-world, which includes the possibility of cosmic integration and continuity between the personal and transpersonal realms of being. The approach is characterized as an expression of man's primordial attunement with the cosmos. The approach of the participants to dreams may not be consistent with a Western rational orientation, but nevertheless, it is a valid approach. The validity is based upon the immediate life-world of experience which is intelligible, coherent, and above all, it is meaning-giving in revealing life-possibility within the context of human existence.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1984
- Authors: Schweitzer, Robert David
- Date: 1984
- Subjects: Nguni (African people) -- Religion Nguni (African people) -- Psychology Dreams Dreams -- Psychological aspects Healing -- South Africa -- Religious aspects
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:3125 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006189
- Description: Psychologists investigating dreams in non-Western cultures have generally not considered the meanings of dreams within the unique meaning-structure of the person in his or her societal context. The majority of dream studies in African societies are no exception. Researchers approaching dreams within rural Xhosa and Zulu speaking societies have either adopted an anthropological or a psychodynamic orientation. The latter approach particularly imposes a Western perspective in the interpretation of dream material. There have been no comparable studies of dream interpretation among urban blacks participating in the African Independent Church Movement. The present study focuses on the rural Xhosa speaking people and the urban black population who speak one of the Nguni languages and identify with the African Independent Church Movement. The study is concerned with understanding the meanings of dreams within the cultural context in which they occur. The specific aims of the study are: 1. To explicate the indigenous system of dream interpretation as revealed by acknowledged dream experts. 2. To examine the commonalities and the differences between the interpretation of dreams in two groups, drawn from a rural and urban setting respectively. 3. To elaborate upon the life-world of the participants by the interpretations gained from the above investigation. One hundred dreams and interpretations are collected from two categories of participants referred to as the Rural Group and the Urban Group. The Rural Group is made up of amagqira [traditional healers] and their clients, while the Urban Group consists of prophets and members of the African Independent Churches. Each group includes acknowledged dream experts. A phenomenological methodology is adopted in explicating the data. The methodological precedure involves a number of rigorous stages of explication whereby the original data is reduced to Constituent Profiles leading to the construction of a Thematic Index File. By searching and reflecting upon the data, interpretative themes are identified. These themes are explicated to provide a rigorous description of the interpretative-reality of each group. Themes explicated within the Rural Group are: the physiognomy of the dreamer's life- world as revealed by ithongo, the interpretation of ithongo as revealed through action, the dream relationship as an anticipatory mode-of-existence, iphupha as disclosing a vulnerable mode-of-being, human bodiliness as revealed in dream interpretations and the legitimation of the interpretative-reality within the life-world. Themes explicated within the Urban Group are : the physiognomy of the dreamer's life-world revealed in their dream-existence, the interpretative-reality revealed through the enaction of dreams, tension between the newer Christian-based cosomology and the traditional cultural-based cosmology, a moral imperative, prophetic perception and human bodiliness, as revealed in dream interpretations and the legitimation of the interpretative-reality within the life-world. The essence of the interpretative-reality of both groups is very similar and is expressed in the notion of relatedness to a cosmic mode-of-being. The cosmic mode-of-being includes a numinous dimension which is expressed through divine presence in the form of ancestors, Holy Spirit or God. These notions cannot be apprehended by theoretical constructs alone but may be grasped and given form in meaning-disclosing intuitions which are expressed in the lifeworld in terms of bodiliness, revelatory knowledge, action and healing. Some differences between the two groups are evident and reveal some conflict between the monotheistic Christian cosmology and the traditional cosmology. Unique aspects of the interpetative-reality of the Urban Group are expressed in terms of difficulties in the urban social environment and the notion of a moral imperative. It is observed that cultural self-expression based upon traditional ideas continues to play a significant role in the urban environment. The apparent conflict revealed between the respective cosmologies underlies an integration of traditional meanings with Christian concepts. This finding is consistent with the literature suggesting that the African Independent Church is a syncretic movement. The life-world is based upon the immediate and vivid experience of the numinous as revealed in the dream phenomenon. The participants' approach to dreams is not based upon an explicit theory, but upon an immediate and pathic understanding of the dream phenomenon. The understanding is based upon the interpreter's concrete understanding of the life-world, which includes the possibility of cosmic integration and continuity between the personal and transpersonal realms of being. The approach is characterized as an expression of man's primordial attunement with the cosmos. The approach of the participants to dreams may not be consistent with a Western rational orientation, but nevertheless, it is a valid approach. The validity is based upon the immediate life-world of experience which is intelligible, coherent, and above all, it is meaning-giving in revealing life-possibility within the context of human existence.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1984
The life-world of youth in children's homes
- Mudaly, Balasundran Subramani
- Authors: Mudaly, Balasundran Subramani
- Date: 1985
- Subjects: Children -- Institutional care -- Psychological aspects Self in children Emotions in children Identity (Psychology) in children
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:2915 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002080
- Description: The study sought to obtain an insightful understanding of the life-world of youth who have not only experienced long-term separation from their biological parents and families but who have also simultaneously experienced prolonged institutional life in a children'e home. Using a descriptive praxis in the context of an existential phenomenological perspective, the study elicited from participants written descriptions of their personal experiences of the phenomenon of self-fulfilment. The data were structurally analysed, expressed in the form of extended descriptions and utilised as the basis for an exposition/appreciation of the life-world relationships of institutional youth. The target group of teenagers was drawn from a specific children's home. However, in order to enhance the findings of the study, data from a comparative group of youth from intact families in the community were also utilised. The study yielded some useful comparative insights which not only formed the basis for certain recommendations but also served as directions for future research. Hopefully, these recommendations and research proposals will be of some immediate interest and comfort to both reeearchers and practitioners in the field of residential child and youth care
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1985
- Authors: Mudaly, Balasundran Subramani
- Date: 1985
- Subjects: Children -- Institutional care -- Psychological aspects Self in children Emotions in children Identity (Psychology) in children
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:2915 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002080
- Description: The study sought to obtain an insightful understanding of the life-world of youth who have not only experienced long-term separation from their biological parents and families but who have also simultaneously experienced prolonged institutional life in a children'e home. Using a descriptive praxis in the context of an existential phenomenological perspective, the study elicited from participants written descriptions of their personal experiences of the phenomenon of self-fulfilment. The data were structurally analysed, expressed in the form of extended descriptions and utilised as the basis for an exposition/appreciation of the life-world relationships of institutional youth. The target group of teenagers was drawn from a specific children's home. However, in order to enhance the findings of the study, data from a comparative group of youth from intact families in the community were also utilised. The study yielded some useful comparative insights which not only formed the basis for certain recommendations but also served as directions for future research. Hopefully, these recommendations and research proposals will be of some immediate interest and comfort to both reeearchers and practitioners in the field of residential child and youth care
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1985
An empirical phenomenological study of happiness
- Authors: Parker, Peter Burns
- Date: 1987
- Subjects: Happiness
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:2912 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002077
- Description: The aim of this study was to investigate man's attunement when happy. Having established a question which would elicit actual experiences of this phenomenon, the researcher collected sixty-four written accounts of the experience. Of these he chose the twelve psychologically richest accounts and, having interviewed each of these twelve subjects to push their written descriptions to their limits, he analysed the resulting protocols using an empirical phenomenological method. The general structure of the experience of happiness suggested that happiness emerged as a special openness against a background where individuals were less than happy. During happiness there is a breaking through the bonds of the individual's mundane, everyday disclosure of the world. It transports the individual to an existence in which the ruptures which form part of man's lived relationships to himself, to his fellowman, to the world and to life itself are healed, and in which life is lived in increased harmony with all. There is a coming home to the self, a move toward wholeness which is enlivened bodily by a radiating vibrancy (often a tingling lightness and brightness), as the individual expands with energy, power, self-confidence and mastery, and rises above the troubles of life. This structure of happiness was dialogued with the writing of existential philosophers and psychologists, psychoanalysts and humanists
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1987
- Authors: Parker, Peter Burns
- Date: 1987
- Subjects: Happiness
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:2912 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002077
- Description: The aim of this study was to investigate man's attunement when happy. Having established a question which would elicit actual experiences of this phenomenon, the researcher collected sixty-four written accounts of the experience. Of these he chose the twelve psychologically richest accounts and, having interviewed each of these twelve subjects to push their written descriptions to their limits, he analysed the resulting protocols using an empirical phenomenological method. The general structure of the experience of happiness suggested that happiness emerged as a special openness against a background where individuals were less than happy. During happiness there is a breaking through the bonds of the individual's mundane, everyday disclosure of the world. It transports the individual to an existence in which the ruptures which form part of man's lived relationships to himself, to his fellowman, to the world and to life itself are healed, and in which life is lived in increased harmony with all. There is a coming home to the self, a move toward wholeness which is enlivened bodily by a radiating vibrancy (often a tingling lightness and brightness), as the individual expands with energy, power, self-confidence and mastery, and rises above the troubles of life. This structure of happiness was dialogued with the writing of existential philosophers and psychologists, psychoanalysts and humanists
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1987
The development of a concept of psychological well-being
- Authors: Bar-On, Reuven
- Date: 1988
- Subjects: Mental health -- Psychological aspects Personality
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:2928 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002437
- Description: This thesis focuses on the development of an operational and theoretically eclectic concept of psychological well-being. A comprehensive research strategy was employed to examine various personality factors thought to be components of psychological health (i.e., the basis of the proposed concept). The general approach involved four major phases: (1) the clustering of various variables and identification of underlying key factors purported to be related to psychological health based on the writer's clinical experience and review of the mental health literature, (2) the formulation of an ~ priori concept of psychological well-being based on the operational definition of those factors, (3) the construction of an inventory designed to examine the proposed concept, and (4) the interpretation of the results and their implications for the development of the overall concept based on the examination of the factorial structure, validity and reliability of the inventory. The"a posteriori concept" evolved out of this process. The results of the present study indicate that the most valid and reliable factorial components of psychological well-being are self regard,interpersonal relationship, independence, problem-solving, assertiveness,reality testing, stress tolerance, self-actualization and happiness; social responsibility and flexibility emerged as questionable components of the a posteriori concept. The inventory which was designed to study the concept was successful in significantly differentiating various levels of psychological health. This way of conceptualizing and assessing psychological well-being has potential applicability for mental health practitioners and researchers.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1988
- Authors: Bar-On, Reuven
- Date: 1988
- Subjects: Mental health -- Psychological aspects Personality
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:2928 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002437
- Description: This thesis focuses on the development of an operational and theoretically eclectic concept of psychological well-being. A comprehensive research strategy was employed to examine various personality factors thought to be components of psychological health (i.e., the basis of the proposed concept). The general approach involved four major phases: (1) the clustering of various variables and identification of underlying key factors purported to be related to psychological health based on the writer's clinical experience and review of the mental health literature, (2) the formulation of an ~ priori concept of psychological well-being based on the operational definition of those factors, (3) the construction of an inventory designed to examine the proposed concept, and (4) the interpretation of the results and their implications for the development of the overall concept based on the examination of the factorial structure, validity and reliability of the inventory. The"a posteriori concept" evolved out of this process. The results of the present study indicate that the most valid and reliable factorial components of psychological well-being are self regard,interpersonal relationship, independence, problem-solving, assertiveness,reality testing, stress tolerance, self-actualization and happiness; social responsibility and flexibility emerged as questionable components of the a posteriori concept. The inventory which was designed to study the concept was successful in significantly differentiating various levels of psychological health. This way of conceptualizing and assessing psychological well-being has potential applicability for mental health practitioners and researchers.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1988
A phenomenological investigation into the psychotherapist's experience of identifying, containing and processing the patient's projective identifications
- Authors: Thorpe, Mark Richard
- Date: 1989
- Subjects: Psychotherapist and patient Psychotherapy Methods
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:3071 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002580
- Description: The aim of the study was to describe the therapist's lived experience of identifying, containing and processing the feelings, thoughts or fantasies evoked in him by the patient's projective identifications. A question which would elicit the experience of this phenomenon was formulated by examining case histories, and modified through the use of individual pilot studies. Fifteen experienced, psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapists were interviewed. The eight psychologically richest accounts were chosen for the study. Using the empirical phenomenological method, the four protocols that most clearly reflected the phenomenon were analysed in detail, while the remaining four were used to clarify areas of uncertainty. Projective identification is conceptualised as the process whereby the patient coerces the therapist to embody an un-appropriated aspect of his (patient's) world. The context of processing a patient's projective identification was discovered to be such that the therapist finds himself coerced to embody an incongruent, unfamiliar, confusing and inauthentic state of being which is consonant with the patient's perception of him. The discomfort of the experience leads the therapist to bring to awareness and thematise his feeling-state. He alternates between avoiding this state of being, which results in conf1ict with the patient and the therapist's own values, and appropriating it, which feels inauthentic. The therapist moves from a position of trying to understand the experience in relation to his own world, to the realisation that it is co-determined by the patient. From a position of reflective distance he re-appropriates aspects of his world that were closed to him while under the influence of the patient, in addition to appropriating previously unowned aspects. The therapist dialogues these appropriations with the invoked feelings, allowing him to differentiate those aspects of his feeling-state which are authentically his from those which are unowned aspects of the patient's aspects of his world that were closed to him while under the influence of the patient, in addition to appropriating previously unowned aspects. The therapist dialogues these appropriations with the invoked feelings, allowing him to differentiate those aspects of his feeling-state which are authentically his from those which are unowned aspects of the patient's world that he has been forced to embody. Through this process the therapist clarifies and gives meaning to his feelings. The therapist fee1s re1ieved and lighter, when in the service of the therapy, he temporarily gives himself over to the patient's experience of him, without feeling drawn to either disowning or appropriating it, while simultaneously remaining open to his own authentic reality. These findings were dialogued with the literature on projective identification.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1989
- Authors: Thorpe, Mark Richard
- Date: 1989
- Subjects: Psychotherapist and patient Psychotherapy Methods
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:3071 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002580
- Description: The aim of the study was to describe the therapist's lived experience of identifying, containing and processing the feelings, thoughts or fantasies evoked in him by the patient's projective identifications. A question which would elicit the experience of this phenomenon was formulated by examining case histories, and modified through the use of individual pilot studies. Fifteen experienced, psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapists were interviewed. The eight psychologically richest accounts were chosen for the study. Using the empirical phenomenological method, the four protocols that most clearly reflected the phenomenon were analysed in detail, while the remaining four were used to clarify areas of uncertainty. Projective identification is conceptualised as the process whereby the patient coerces the therapist to embody an un-appropriated aspect of his (patient's) world. The context of processing a patient's projective identification was discovered to be such that the therapist finds himself coerced to embody an incongruent, unfamiliar, confusing and inauthentic state of being which is consonant with the patient's perception of him. The discomfort of the experience leads the therapist to bring to awareness and thematise his feeling-state. He alternates between avoiding this state of being, which results in conf1ict with the patient and the therapist's own values, and appropriating it, which feels inauthentic. The therapist moves from a position of trying to understand the experience in relation to his own world, to the realisation that it is co-determined by the patient. From a position of reflective distance he re-appropriates aspects of his world that were closed to him while under the influence of the patient, in addition to appropriating previously unowned aspects. The therapist dialogues these appropriations with the invoked feelings, allowing him to differentiate those aspects of his feeling-state which are authentically his from those which are unowned aspects of the patient's aspects of his world that were closed to him while under the influence of the patient, in addition to appropriating previously unowned aspects. The therapist dialogues these appropriations with the invoked feelings, allowing him to differentiate those aspects of his feeling-state which are authentically his from those which are unowned aspects of the patient's world that he has been forced to embody. Through this process the therapist clarifies and gives meaning to his feelings. The therapist fee1s re1ieved and lighter, when in the service of the therapy, he temporarily gives himself over to the patient's experience of him, without feeling drawn to either disowning or appropriating it, while simultaneously remaining open to his own authentic reality. These findings were dialogued with the literature on projective identification.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1989
An explication of the dual nature of narcissism in Patrick White's novel The solid mandala
- Authors: Watts, Jacqueline Anne
- Date: 1989
- Subjects: White, Patrick, 1912-1990. The Solid Mandala White, Patrick, 1912-1990 -- Criticism and interpretation
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:2907 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002072
- Description: The focus of this thesis has been to engage in a hermeneutic dialogue with Patrick White's novel The solid mandala, to provide an explication of the dual nature of narcissistic wounding. To this end a brief review of Patrick White's novels is given, which traces a thematic development of the hero's strivings to attain wholeness and merger with an idealized image. This struggle is understood to reflect man's strivings to return to a state of omnipotent fusion with the maternal image, be it God, nature, the idealized other, or the self. Literature which reflects the dual nature of narcissistic wounding is reviewed, and the concept of narcissism is traced from the historical roots of Freud, to current understandings of the function and experience of narcissism. Emphasis is given to understanding the experiential nature of narcissistic wounding. As such it is implied that narcissism is a normal developmental component which requires the facilitation of containment and reflection for its transformation into appropriate adult functioning. The importance of the maternal environment is discussed, together with the various theoretical conceptualizations of the consequences of failure of the environment. The hermeneutic dialogue with the novel's description of the experiences of the twins, Waldo and Arthur provides the basis for an amplification of the experience of narcissistic wounding. This amplification is used as clinical material from which a number of psychoanalytic formulations are drawn. These formulations are supported by a number of clinical examples from the researcher's own practice. There appears to be evidence for the value of focusing on the dual nature of the experience of narcissistic wounding. This focus reveals two aspects of experience, a damaged, positive, libidinal aspect and a defensive, pathological destructive aspect. Amplification of these two aspects of experience contribute to further the understanding of the conflictual experience of narcissistic wounding, and suggest the necessity for such an understanding for effective therapeutic intervention
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1989
- Authors: Watts, Jacqueline Anne
- Date: 1989
- Subjects: White, Patrick, 1912-1990. The Solid Mandala White, Patrick, 1912-1990 -- Criticism and interpretation
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:2907 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002072
- Description: The focus of this thesis has been to engage in a hermeneutic dialogue with Patrick White's novel The solid mandala, to provide an explication of the dual nature of narcissistic wounding. To this end a brief review of Patrick White's novels is given, which traces a thematic development of the hero's strivings to attain wholeness and merger with an idealized image. This struggle is understood to reflect man's strivings to return to a state of omnipotent fusion with the maternal image, be it God, nature, the idealized other, or the self. Literature which reflects the dual nature of narcissistic wounding is reviewed, and the concept of narcissism is traced from the historical roots of Freud, to current understandings of the function and experience of narcissism. Emphasis is given to understanding the experiential nature of narcissistic wounding. As such it is implied that narcissism is a normal developmental component which requires the facilitation of containment and reflection for its transformation into appropriate adult functioning. The importance of the maternal environment is discussed, together with the various theoretical conceptualizations of the consequences of failure of the environment. The hermeneutic dialogue with the novel's description of the experiences of the twins, Waldo and Arthur provides the basis for an amplification of the experience of narcissistic wounding. This amplification is used as clinical material from which a number of psychoanalytic formulations are drawn. These formulations are supported by a number of clinical examples from the researcher's own practice. There appears to be evidence for the value of focusing on the dual nature of the experience of narcissistic wounding. This focus reveals two aspects of experience, a damaged, positive, libidinal aspect and a defensive, pathological destructive aspect. Amplification of these two aspects of experience contribute to further the understanding of the conflictual experience of narcissistic wounding, and suggest the necessity for such an understanding for effective therapeutic intervention
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1989
Towards an existential phenomenological interpretation of C.G. Jung's analytical psychology
- Authors: Brooke, Roger, 1953-
- Date: 1989
- Subjects: Jung, C G (Carl Gustav), 1875-1961 Existential phenomenology Phenomenology Psychoanalysis Psychology
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:3208 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1011983
- Description: The central aim of this study was to interpret the psychology of C.G . Jung in the light of existential phenomenology, thereby to lay the foundations for an integrated phenomenological analytical psychology. It was recognised that although Jung introduced a poetic understanding of psychological life he tended to adhere theoretically to a Cartesian and natural scientific epistemology and ontology, in which the knower is separated from the known, and psychological life is encapsulated inside the human subject. Thus the main task, which defined generally the study's scope and limitations, was to undercut the lingering Cartesianism in Jung's thought, thereby to recover the world in which one lives as intrinsically and authentically psychological, and one's psychological life as irreducibly world-related. The ontological guidelines for this endeavour were taken primarily from Heidegger and Merleau-Ponty, but it was consistently argued that this hermeneutic movement towards an existential understanding is given within Jung's work itself. Thus: Jung's method is primarily hermeneutic-phenomenological; the psyche is not "mind" or an inner realm more or less linked to the body, but is the embodied life-world, and Jung's descriptions of it - of its autonomy, spatiality and bodiliness, for instance - achieve ontological clarity when it is articulated as Dasein; the self as the totality of the psyche is interpretated in terms of Dasein, and individuation involves differentiation, personalisation and appropriation within existence itself; the complexes, archetypally grounded, are the vital densities of incarnate life, ambiguously conscious and unconscious, known and lived; the archetypes are the fundamental necessities of psychological life, autonomous imaginal structures within which both body and world are founded. Imaginal autonomy is revealed ontically as the metaphorical reality of things, but since imaginal autonomy has no ground thought about psychological life is ultimately poetic. Where relevant, recent theoretical developments in analytical psychology were discussed, particularly the Developmental and Archetypal movements. A clinical study was presented to illustrate some of the main themes of the thesis. In conclusion, the main themes of an integrated phenomenological analytical psychology were outlined, and the central contributions of analytical psychology and existential phenomenology were highlighted.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1989
- Authors: Brooke, Roger, 1953-
- Date: 1989
- Subjects: Jung, C G (Carl Gustav), 1875-1961 Existential phenomenology Phenomenology Psychoanalysis Psychology
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:3208 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1011983
- Description: The central aim of this study was to interpret the psychology of C.G . Jung in the light of existential phenomenology, thereby to lay the foundations for an integrated phenomenological analytical psychology. It was recognised that although Jung introduced a poetic understanding of psychological life he tended to adhere theoretically to a Cartesian and natural scientific epistemology and ontology, in which the knower is separated from the known, and psychological life is encapsulated inside the human subject. Thus the main task, which defined generally the study's scope and limitations, was to undercut the lingering Cartesianism in Jung's thought, thereby to recover the world in which one lives as intrinsically and authentically psychological, and one's psychological life as irreducibly world-related. The ontological guidelines for this endeavour were taken primarily from Heidegger and Merleau-Ponty, but it was consistently argued that this hermeneutic movement towards an existential understanding is given within Jung's work itself. Thus: Jung's method is primarily hermeneutic-phenomenological; the psyche is not "mind" or an inner realm more or less linked to the body, but is the embodied life-world, and Jung's descriptions of it - of its autonomy, spatiality and bodiliness, for instance - achieve ontological clarity when it is articulated as Dasein; the self as the totality of the psyche is interpretated in terms of Dasein, and individuation involves differentiation, personalisation and appropriation within existence itself; the complexes, archetypally grounded, are the vital densities of incarnate life, ambiguously conscious and unconscious, known and lived; the archetypes are the fundamental necessities of psychological life, autonomous imaginal structures within which both body and world are founded. Imaginal autonomy is revealed ontically as the metaphorical reality of things, but since imaginal autonomy has no ground thought about psychological life is ultimately poetic. Where relevant, recent theoretical developments in analytical psychology were discussed, particularly the Developmental and Archetypal movements. A clinical study was presented to illustrate some of the main themes of the thesis. In conclusion, the main themes of an integrated phenomenological analytical psychology were outlined, and the central contributions of analytical psychology and existential phenomenology were highlighted.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1989
An existential phenomenological study of the kind of therapeutic self-insight that carries a greater sense of freedom
- Authors: Todres, Leslie Allen
- Date: 1991
- Subjects: Psychotherapy Self-perception Self-actualization (Psychology)
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:3073 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002582
- Description: The central aim of this study was to contribute to the clarification of the nature of self-insight in psychotherapy by means of a qualitative research design. A pilot study provided direction by suggesting a psychologically relevant focus that was experientially specific; that is, the kind of therapeutic self-insight that carries a greater sense of freedom. A phenomenological research method was used to describe and interpret in depth the experiences of eight clients who had been in psychotherapy. Their experiences were explicated to yield a psychologically relevant general description of the phenomenon. The results indicated ten central constituents of the experience. Such themes included, amongst others, the role of language in providing perspective, the increased understanding of personal agency, the achievement of a more complex self-image, and the ability to express existing desires and motives within a more flexible or creative behavioural context. The general description also indicated how phenomena such as memory, feeling, motive, metaphor, dreams and present behaviour interact in the co-constitution of this kind of therapeutic self-insight. After dialoguing the results of the study with relevant literature, the thesis concluded with reflections on the intrinsic value of therapeutic self-insight, as revealed in this study, in relation to the spirit of technology.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1991
- Authors: Todres, Leslie Allen
- Date: 1991
- Subjects: Psychotherapy Self-perception Self-actualization (Psychology)
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:3073 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002582
- Description: The central aim of this study was to contribute to the clarification of the nature of self-insight in psychotherapy by means of a qualitative research design. A pilot study provided direction by suggesting a psychologically relevant focus that was experientially specific; that is, the kind of therapeutic self-insight that carries a greater sense of freedom. A phenomenological research method was used to describe and interpret in depth the experiences of eight clients who had been in psychotherapy. Their experiences were explicated to yield a psychologically relevant general description of the phenomenon. The results indicated ten central constituents of the experience. Such themes included, amongst others, the role of language in providing perspective, the increased understanding of personal agency, the achievement of a more complex self-image, and the ability to express existing desires and motives within a more flexible or creative behavioural context. The general description also indicated how phenomena such as memory, feeling, motive, metaphor, dreams and present behaviour interact in the co-constitution of this kind of therapeutic self-insight. After dialoguing the results of the study with relevant literature, the thesis concluded with reflections on the intrinsic value of therapeutic self-insight, as revealed in this study, in relation to the spirit of technology.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1991
A phenomenological investigation into the psychoanalytic psychotherapist's experience of identifying, differentiating and processing the patient's transference-based and reality-oriented reactions
- Authors: Danilewitz, Larry Mark
- Date: 1993
- Subjects: Reality therapy Transference (Psychology) -- Therapeutic use
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:2960 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002469
- Description: The aim of this study was to describe the psychoanalytically-oriented therapist's experience of identifying, differentiating and processing the patient's transference-based and reality-oriented reactions. In order to investigate the therapist's lived experience of being receptive to the total communication of the patient in the analytic situation, the researcher adopted the empirical phenomenological method. This descriptive and intuitive method grounded the researcher in the concreteness of the everyday life-world of the therapist, and enabled him to explicate the therapist's immediate, pre-theoretical experiences of his patient. The appropriate central research question, formulated to elicit the experience of this phenomenon, emerged through the process of enquiry during the pilot study. Thirteen experienced, psychoanalytically-oriented psychotherapists were interviewed and the five protocols considered most revelatory of the phenomenon under investigation were analyzed in detail. The remaining eight protocols were used to illuminate central themes and to clarify areas of uncertainty during the phase of formal explication. The central findings revealed that the oscillating process of the therapist as he shifts from being immersed in the world of his patient to being in a position of observation and self reflection is the fulcrum around which he evaluates the nature of his patient's communications. During this ongoing process of discrimination, living in duality, the therapist comes to experience himself as a patient scrutinized by his own and his patient's confrontations. His journey of disentanglement, the endeavour to differentiate his responses from his patient's actions, is dependent on his ability to engage in honest selfreflection and to access his pre-theoretical and articulated cognitions of his patient. This allows him to acknowledge his own role in what has unfolded interpersonally and to appropriate his previously denied feelings for and attitudes towards his patient, a prerequisite for the accurate and full appraisal of the nature of his patient's communications. Forsaking fixed judgements, the therapist becomes open to the confluence between the reality-oriented responses and transference-based reactions of his patient. This salient discovery, when dialogued with the literature, reinforced the theories of Greenson and Langs that not all the interactions between the patient and the analyst/therapist are transference-based and that it is therefore imperative that the analyst/therapist reflect on his participation in the analytic situation.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1993
- Authors: Danilewitz, Larry Mark
- Date: 1993
- Subjects: Reality therapy Transference (Psychology) -- Therapeutic use
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:2960 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002469
- Description: The aim of this study was to describe the psychoanalytically-oriented therapist's experience of identifying, differentiating and processing the patient's transference-based and reality-oriented reactions. In order to investigate the therapist's lived experience of being receptive to the total communication of the patient in the analytic situation, the researcher adopted the empirical phenomenological method. This descriptive and intuitive method grounded the researcher in the concreteness of the everyday life-world of the therapist, and enabled him to explicate the therapist's immediate, pre-theoretical experiences of his patient. The appropriate central research question, formulated to elicit the experience of this phenomenon, emerged through the process of enquiry during the pilot study. Thirteen experienced, psychoanalytically-oriented psychotherapists were interviewed and the five protocols considered most revelatory of the phenomenon under investigation were analyzed in detail. The remaining eight protocols were used to illuminate central themes and to clarify areas of uncertainty during the phase of formal explication. The central findings revealed that the oscillating process of the therapist as he shifts from being immersed in the world of his patient to being in a position of observation and self reflection is the fulcrum around which he evaluates the nature of his patient's communications. During this ongoing process of discrimination, living in duality, the therapist comes to experience himself as a patient scrutinized by his own and his patient's confrontations. His journey of disentanglement, the endeavour to differentiate his responses from his patient's actions, is dependent on his ability to engage in honest selfreflection and to access his pre-theoretical and articulated cognitions of his patient. This allows him to acknowledge his own role in what has unfolded interpersonally and to appropriate his previously denied feelings for and attitudes towards his patient, a prerequisite for the accurate and full appraisal of the nature of his patient's communications. Forsaking fixed judgements, the therapist becomes open to the confluence between the reality-oriented responses and transference-based reactions of his patient. This salient discovery, when dialogued with the literature, reinforced the theories of Greenson and Langs that not all the interactions between the patient and the analyst/therapist are transference-based and that it is therefore imperative that the analyst/therapist reflect on his participation in the analytic situation.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1993