3. Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) - All submissions
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Item Trauma in the South African Police force : personality and coping as risk factors for developing post-traumatic stress disorder.(2014-07-03) Waterston, DanielleThe South African service (SAPS) has a reputation for being resilient despite the amounts of trauma they are exposed to. Research has shown that this occupation is one of the most stressful. However, research surrounding the SAPS suggests that police work is one of society’s most stressful occupations. The way in which individuals respond to such traumatisations is dependent on numerous factors, two being personality and coping. In so far, this study investigated three main areas around police reservists – a unit within the SAPS - in order to understand their responses to trauma: whether personality factors were related to post-traumatic stress symptomatology (PTSS) in the police reservist population; whether coping moderated the relationship between personality factors and PTSS; whether a personality factors predict coping style. A quantitative analysis was conducted among a sample of 36 reservists in the Gauteng area of South Africa. This study found that the relationship between Neuroticism and PTSS is mediated by coping, specifically Emotion-Focused and Dysfunctional Coping styles. A relationship between Conscientiousness and PTSS showed to be prevalent, however this is not due to the mediation affect of coping. Furthermore, Neuroticism and Extraversion showed to predict coping style. Specifically, Neuroticism showed to affect EFC and DC and Extraversion showed to affect EFC. The descriptive statistics showed that this sample of police reservists is suffering from PTSD. Implications of these findings are discussed and directions for future research are explored.Item Cognitive vulnerability as a predictor of alcohol misuse and posttraumatic stress in trauma-exposed university students.(2013-04-04) Webster, VictoriaCognitive vulnerabilities have been implicated in the development of post-traumatic stress disorder and alcohol use disorders, two disorders that commonly co-occur. The comorbidity of these two disorders continues to pose a significant threat to the well being of university students. This study investigated the associations between the cognitive vulnerability of negative attributional style and both post-traumatic stress symptoms and alcohol use patterns. The number of reported traumatic events were also included in analyses. A battery of self-report questionnaires was completed by 123 university undergraduate students (mean age of 20.41 years). Negative attributional style was found to be significantly associated with post-traumatic stress symptoms, but not with alcohol use. It was also suggested that multiple traumas have an impact on post-traumatic stress, despite levels of alcohol use. These results suggested that the cognitive vulnerability of negative attributional style is predictive of posttraumatic stress in students and research in this area is valuable for increasing resilience, prevention and recovery among trauma survivors. Recommendations for future research, especially concerning multiple traumatisation is discussed.