School of Human & Community Development

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    Towards a South African Injury Costing Model
    (DOAJ, 2002) Bowman, B
    The costs of injury are of obvious importance for the purposes of priority setting in prevention planning by policy makers and stakeholders in general. The economic costs of injury and death have been the focus of considerable international attention in recent years. Localisation of these studies and their methods to the South African injury context, however, remains largely underdeveloped. The costing of fatal and non-fatal injuries in South Africa consists of a number of initiatives undertaken by various segments of both the public and private sectors. This article will review the existing literature devoted to the estimation of costs in various sectors of the South African morbidity and mortality contexts, with a view to illustrating the manner in which this information informed both provisional processes and structure for the implementation of a nationwide South African injury costing project. The literature is examined across three primary dimensions: the precise object of the study, the method employed in the costing of that object, and the sample coverage of the method. The findings of the review indicated a number of significant entry-points for the development of a local South African costing model. A preponderance of direct medical costing, significantly discrepant expenditure figures between the public and private health care systems and blurring of distinct costing concepts are problematic themes throughout the review of the literature. This article illustrates the manner in which the identification of the problems and promises of these existing costing studies informed the sites, injury types and methodology selected for development and implementation of a National South African Injury Costing Project.
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    Use of the 1996 Griffiths Mental Deveiopment Scales for infants: a piiot study with a Black, South African sample
    (Joumal of Child and Adolescent Mental Health, 2007) Amod, Z; Cockcroft, K; Soellaart, B
    Over the last few years, researchers have made a significant effort to address the need for more reiiabie and vaiid assessment measures for South Africa. The objective of this study was to acquire empiricai data regarding the use and appiication of the Griffiths iVIentai Deveiopment Scaies with Biaci« South African infants
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    The relationship between lecture attendance and academic performance in an undergraduate psychology class
    (South African Journal of Psychology, 2007) Thactcher, A; Fridjhon, P; Cockcroft, K
    This article reports on a preliminary investigation into the impact of non-attendance at lectures on the performance of students in a second-year psychology class. Results suggest that the frequency of lecture attendance is significantly, but moderately, related to better academic performance and that 'always' attending lectures is the best indicator of academic performance. These results are discussed in relation to understanding lecture non-attendance and improving academic performance
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    The Fallible Phallus: A discourse analysis of male sexuality in a South African men’s interest magazine
    (Psychological Society of South Africa, 2008) Schneider, V; Cockcroft, K; Hook, D
    This article presents a discourse analysis of the constructions of male sexuality in the South African publication Men’s Health. The focus of the analysis was a series of monthly featured articles on best sexual practices and behaviour. Since the magazine’s content appears to confront men with, on the one hand, the construction of the ideal, potent phallus, and, on the other hand, the fallibility inherent in attempting to live up to this ideal, the overarching discourse in the texts was termed the ‘Fallible Phallus’. By stipulating ideal sexual experiences and then juxtaposing these descriptions with the threat of those moments not occurring, a paradox is created in the texts between the phallic dominance of masculinity and the anxieties and insecurities that may result from sexual failure. The Fallible Phallus discourse is a synthesis of four subsidiary themes derived from the texts, namely the male sexual drive theme, the inadequacies of male sexuality, the rule book of sexual practices, and the problematic nature of female sexuality. In the discussion of these themes, it is suggested that the texts use male sexual performance as a yardstick for assessing level of masculinity.
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    ENGLISH SECOND LANGUAGE (ESL) STUDENTS AS NEW MEMBERS OF A COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE: SOME THOUGHTS FOR LEARNING AND ASSESSMENT
    (Per Linguam, 2008) Osman, R; Cockcroft, K; Kajee, A
    This article reports on English second language (ESL) students’ experiences of academic writing in a university setting. It draws on the notion of community of practice to explain that it is not sufficient for academic literacy courses to concern themselves only with the questions relating to the development of student academic literacy. Rather they should also be concerned with how students learn in social contexts and what knowledge is included and what knowledge is excluded. Such an orientation is vital because academic writing in the context of the university is more than just the ability to read and write, it is often the basis for the evaluation of students and, as such, becomes a powerful gatekeeper.
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    Sleep and daytime sleepiness in methylphenidate medicated and un-medicated children with ttention-deficit/hyperactivitydisorder (ADHD)
    (African Journal of Psychiatry, 2008) Cockcroft, K; Ashwal, J; Bentley, A
    Objective: Excessive daytime sleepiness due to any cause can result in various symptoms similar to those used for the diagnosis of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). A common treatment for children diagnosed with ADHD is methylphenidate which is also used to treat excessive daytime sleepiness. This paper reports on a study which compared the perceived levels of daytime sleepiness and prevalence of sleep disorders in medicated and un-medicated children with ADHD. Method: The sample consisted of two matched groups of children who had been formally diagnosed with ADHD. One group (n=12) was taking immediate release methylphenidate twice daily, while the other group (n=11) had never, and were not currently, taking any medication. The two groups, as well as their parents, rated their levels of daytime sleepiness at three points in a single day. Results: Significantly higher levels of daytime sleepiness were reported by the parents of the un-medicated children between the hours of 13:00 and 15:00, compared to the medicated children. The medicated children became increasingly sleepier from the first to the second measurement in both the morning and afternoon. There was no significant difference in the number of sleep disorders/disruptions reported by the parents of either group. Conclusion: In a group of children with ADHD taking methylphenidate, there was a significant increase in sleepiness a few hours after taking the medication, which may then have a significant impact on their learning. The data also imply that part of the mechanism of action of methylphenidate effects in these children may be by reduction of daytime sleepiness
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    Data to action: An overview of crime, violence and injury in South Africa
    (Medical Research Council, 2008) Suffla, Shahnaaz; Van Niekerk, Ashley; Bowman, Brett; Matzopoulos, Richard
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    Effects of Mediated Learning Experience, Tutor Support and Peer Collaborative Learning on Academic Achievement and IntellectualFunctioning among College Students
    (Journal of Psychology in Africa, 2009) Seabi, J; Cockcroft, K; Fridjhon, P
    The main objective of this study was to investigate the effects of mediated learning experience, tutor support and peer collaborative learning on academic achievement and intellectual functioning. The sample comprised 111 first year engineering students (males=38, females=73, age range =16-23), who were randomly assigned to three learning conditions (Mediation: n=45, Tutor: n=36 and Peer: n=30). Data on academic achievement were based on mid-year and end-year examination results, while intellectual functioning was measured by the Ravens Advanced Progressive Matrices and the Organiser. Paired t-tests and Analysis of Covariances (ANCOVAs) were conducted to compare pre- and post- test academic and intellectual scores and comparison between the groups. Following a five-week intervention period, significant improvements in academic and intellectual functioning were found within the Mediation Group. The findings revealed that intervention involving mediation processes was more effective not only in enhancing students’ intellectual functioning but also improving their academic achievements.
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    Applying upstream interventions for interpersonal violence prevention: An uphill struggle in low- to middle-income contexts
    (Health Policy, 2010) Matzopoulos, Richard; Bowman, Brett; Mathews, Shanaaz; Myers, Jonny
    In South Africa’s Western Cape province, interpersonal violence was identified among the key prevention priorities in the provincial government’s Burden of Disease (BoD) Reduction project. To date, there are no adequate systematic reviews of the full range of potential intervention strategies. In response, available data and the literature on risk factors and prevention strategies for interpersonal violence were reviewed with a view to providing policy makers with an inventory of interventions for application. Given the predominance of upstream factors in driving the province’s rates of interpersonal violence, efforts to address its burden require an intersectoral approach. Achievable short-term targets are also required to offset the long-term nature of the strategies most likely to affect fundamental shifts. Documentation and evaluation will be important to drive long-term investment, ensure effectiveness and enable replication of successful programmes and should be considered imperative by interpersonal violence prevention policymakers in other low- to middle-income contexts.
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    Children, pathology and politics: a genealogy of the paedophile in South Africa between 1944 and 2004
    (South African Journal of Psychology, 2010) Bowman, Brett
    By the early 1990s the paedophile as a ‘type’ of child sexual abuse (CSA) perpetrator was prioritised for study and intervention by the South African socio-medical sciences and cases of paedophilia featured prominently in the media reporting of the time. Drawing on the genealogical method as derived from Michel Foucault, this study aimed to account for this relatively recent emergence of the paedophile as an object of socio-medical study and social anxiety within the South African archive. Based on an analysis of archival texts against the backdrop of international biopolitics and local conditions of political possibility, the genealogy contends that the early figure of the paedophile was an instrument and effect of apartheid biopolitics. The paedophile was prioritised for research and escalated as social threat in the public imagination as part of the broader apartheid project aimed at protecting white hegemony through the ongoing surveillance of and health interventions directed towards South Africa’s white children. While the apartheid project constructed black children as posing fundamental threats to white supremacy, discourses beginning in the mid-1980s repositioned them as vulnerable victims of apartheid itself. It was from within these discourses that child sexual abuse (CSA) as a public health concern began to crystallise. By locating blackness within the fields of discipline and desire, the material conditions for an ever-expanding net of sexual surveillance were established. The study thus demonstrates that even the paedophile cannot be effectively researched without considering the historical co-ordinates that so powerfully contoured its emergence as an important object of study and social intervention within South Africa’s highly racialised systems of thought.
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    Paedophile as Apartheid event: Genealogical lessons for working with the Apartheid Archive
    (DOAJ, 2010-03) Bowman, B; Hook, D
    The narratives that constitute the beginnings of an apartheid archive do well to illustrate the value of collecting, centralising and analysing everyday accounts of apartheid’s subjects. Developing an archive of narratives that give voice to the quotidian experiences of apartheid is a valuable historical strategy. This approach may be usefully mobilised to offset some of the totalising effects of conventional history writing. Notwithstanding this value, an unreflective turn to narrative as a means to reading the socio-historical and political contours of apartheid, risks reducing critique to a symbolic exercise that centres subjectivity and subject positions as the key analytic targets. Such readings may shift the analysis away from the various levels of materiality and power of which these subject positions are both instruments and effects. In an attempt to demonstrate the way that Foucault’s genealogical maxims may be used to counter the danger of centring the subject in history writing, we present some of the key analytic strategies undertaken in a previous study that produced an effective history of the South African paedophile. In so doing, we argue for a re-scoping of the apartheid archive project to include materials required for undertaking histories of the present. This extension would challenge many of the methodological and political constraints implied by limiting the archive to a corpus of memory narratives.
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    Speech Intelligibility and Marital Communication in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis
    (Sage, 2010-06-25) Joubert, K; Bornman, J; Alant, E
    Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a rapidly progressive neuromuscular disease, has a devastating impact not only on individuals diagnosed with ALS but also their spouses. Speech intelligibility, often compromised as a result of dysarthria, affects the couple’s ability to maintain effective, intimate communication. The purpose of this exploratory study was to determine the association between the deteriorating speech of persons with ALS (PALS) and couples’ perceptions of marital communication. There were two participant groups: (a) persons with ALS (PALS) and (b) their spouses. Data were collected over a 12-month period through the administration of objective and subjective measures. A review of the findings suggested a positive relation between declining speech intelligibility and a couple’s perception of marital communication. A holistic approach to communication intervention should be adopted for PALS, as communication as a means of facilitating and maintaining intimacy in the marital relationship is particularly pertinent to this population.
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    The influence of epidural anesthesia on new-born hearing screening
    (2010-06-25) Khoza-Shangase, K; Joubert, K
    OBJECTIVE: The main aim was to establish if epidural anesthesia had an influence on new-born hearing screening results in newborns born via elective Cesarean section in healthy pregnancies. Specific objectives included determining screening results in a group of newborns born to mothers who had undergone epidural anesthesia during Cesarean section childbirth (experimental group); and comparing the findings with those of a group of newborns born to mothers who had undergone natural delivery without epidural anesthesia (comparison group); while establishing if the time of screening following delivery had any effect on the overall screening results
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    What's in a name
    (Blackwell, 2010-09-15) Milani, Tommaso
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    Critical reflections on collecting class attendance registers in large Psychology classes
    (2011-05-06) Thatcher, Andrew; Rosentein, David; Grootenhuis, Geertje; Haiden, Gillian
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    Online flow experiences, problematic Internet use and Internet procrastination
    (2011-05-06) Thatcher, Andrew; Wretschko, Gisela; Fridjhon, Peter