Narrative counselling with a young engineer

This case study applied a narrative approach to develop the sense of self as a career resource for a young male engineer in his first working year. The participant client attended eight sessions lasting 60 to 90 minutes each over a period of five months. The case sessional data were thematically analysed. Following the intervention, the participant displayed career strengths of willingness to deal with challenges, enhanced adaptability strategies and volition to elect preferred work setting. He also displayed an enhanced future orientation. Narrative counselling appeared to support career adaptability development.     

Development of a Post-Modern Career Interest Questionnaire for South-African School Settings

The study explored the potential value and viability of an interest narrative (questionnaire) in terms of its psychometric properties and by comparing it with a commonly administered (positivist) career interest questionnaire. Participants were 159 boys and 183 girls, mean ages were 17.87 (males) and 17.41 (girls), SD (males) = 1.63, SD (females) = 1.70. In the first phase, four provinces were selected purposively: one urban and three rural or semirural. Secondly, a stratified random sample of schools was selected, divided according to medium of instruction (Afrikaans/English) and area (urban/rural area). Data were collected and analyzed using both qualitative and quantitative approaches: trustworthiness, assessment-reassessment consistency and intercorrelations with the Rothwell Miller Interest Blank (Hall, Halstead & Taylor, 1986). The CIP yielded satisfactory results with regard to, inter alia, trustworthiness, assessment-reassessment reliability and intercorrelations with the RMIB, and provides psychologists with a useful instrument for the identification of interest profiles of Grade 11 learners in South Africa.     

Professional Counseling in South Africa: A Landscape Under Construction

The focus of this article is on the history, status, and trends of the counseling profession in South Africa and on the similarities with the development of the counseling profession in the United States. A need exists for South African professional counselors to refocus their research efforts to reflect the realities of the 21st century and link counseling practice and theory with global realities to suit the needs and collectivist origins (ubuntu) of the South African population.     

Prone to Pregnancy: Orlando, Virginia Woolf and Sally Potter Represent the Gestating Body

The visibility of pregnancy in contemporary societies through various forms of medical imaging has often been interpreted by feminist critics as negative for the autonomy and experience of pregnant women. Here, I consider the representation of pregnancy in Virginia Woolf's novel, Orlando, and Sally Potter's film of the same name arguing that, despite limited critical attention to Orlando's pregnancy, these texts offer a productive interpretation of gestation that counters conventionally reductive cultural images of that embodied state. In particular, I argue that Potter's translation of Woolf's novel to the screen gives us a useful model for thinking through the new visibility of pregnancy in contemporary Western culture.     

Validation of an ipsative personality measure (DISCUS)

The purpose of this study was to examine the construct validity of an ipsative personality test (DISCUS), and various effects of the ipsative format of the test. Both an ipsative and a normative version of the DISCUS test was administered to a sample of undergraduate students (N = 103), along with an adjective based personality test that measures the Big-Five personality traits (5PFa). The results indicated that the normative and the ipsative version of DISCUS are not equivalent, and caution is needed when using the ipsative version for psychometric evaluations as in validation studies. The four DISCUS dimensions (Dominance, Influence, Stability, and Carefulness) represented combinations of the Big-Five traits rather than independent traits as indicated by the correlations with the Big-Five measure.     

Current issues in South African career counselling and availability of teachers in science and technology

Employability seems to be a major consideration for prospective students' career choices. To facilitate accountable career counseling understanding of students' needs and choices of careers through research is essential. Programs for increased specific training are needed as well as improvement in basic training to meet a growing national labor crisis in South Africa.     

Psychological measures as predictors of military training performance

The predictive validity of 7 ability tests, the Big Five, and the Rorschach method administered to 71 male applicants at the Naval Special Forces (NSF) of Norway was evaluated based on pass/fail results in training. The findings showed: (a) small correlations between the ability tests, the Big Five scales, and the success criterion; (b) Rorschach variables measuring stress tolerance, reality testing, cognition, and social adjustment correlated significantly (r =.25 to.48) with pass/fail results in training, and (c) logistic regression analysis revealed that 3 of the Rorschach variables accumulated incrementally in the prediction of training completion when entered after the ability tests and the Big Five scales, thus supporting the merit of using Rorschach variables for predicting NSF training performance     

Predicting success among first-year engineering students at the Rand Afrikaans University

160 first-year students in the Engineering Faculty at the Rand Afrikaans University completed the Study Orientation Questionnaire in Mathematics and the Senior Aptitude Test Advanced. 100 students who passed and 40 who failed the first year scored significantly differently on three subtests, Calculations, Study attitude in mathematics, and Problem-solving behaviour in mathematics. Step-wise linear regression showed a combination of three fields, namely, Calculations, Study attitude in mathematics, and Mathematics anxiety, contributed significantly (R2=25.8%) towards predicting the first-year aggregate score of first-year engineering students.     

Naming Speed Performance and Stimulant Effects Indicate Effortful, Semantic Processing Deficits in Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

This study investigated rapid automatized naming and effects of stimulant medication in school-age children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) with and without concurrent reading disorder (RD). Two ADHD groups (67 ADHD only; 21 ADHD + RD) and a control group of 27 healthy age-matched peers were compared on four variables: color naming speed, letter naming speed, phonologic decoding, and arithmetic computation. Discriminant function analysis (DFA) was conducted to predict group membership. The four variables loaded onto two discriminant functions with good specificity: phonologic decoding, letter naming speed, and arithmetic defined the first function; color naming speed defined the second function. Both ADHD groups were significantly slower in color naming than controls, but did not differ from one another. DFA correctly classified 96% of the control group, 91% of ADHD + RD, and 82% of ADHD only. A subset of children in the ADHD groups participated subsequently in an acute, randomized, placebo-controlled, crossover trial with three single doses (10, 25, 20 mg) of methylphenidate. Methylphenidate selectively improved color-naming speed but had no effect on the speed of naming letters or digits. These findings challenge the tenet that naming speed deficits are specific to RD and implicate naming speed deficits associated with effortful semantic processing in ADHD, which are improved but not normalized by stimulant medication.     

Psychological skills and mindfulness training effects on the psychological wellbeing of undergraduate music students: An exploratory study

This study explored the efficacy of psychological skills and mindfulness training intervention on the psychological wellbeing of undergraduate music students. Participants were undergraduate music students (n = 36) from the Department of Music at a South African university, 21 of whom were elected to take the psychological skills and mindfulness training intervention. Data on their self-reported psychological wellbeing, psychological skills, mindfulness and performance anxiety levels were collected pre-and post-intervention. The analysis applied non-parametric procedures to determine changes in students’ psychological wellbeing after the seven-week intervention programme. Findings suggest improvements in psychological wellbeing, psychological skills, mindfulness and performance anxiety with training. Psychological skills and mindfulness training may have benefits to the psychological wellbeing of music students.