PubMed Health⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

G Straker

Publications and source records attributed to G Straker.

11 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1999

Social perspective taking and use of discounting in children's perceptions of others' helping behavior.

The authors investigated the relationship between children's ability to take the social perspective of another and their use of the causal attribution principle known as discounting in assessing others' kindness in helping. The participants (N = 153), 7 to 16 years old, were interviewed in a township bordering Johannesburg. Each participant was administered 2 perspective-taking tasks and a series of vignettes, based on prosocial versus self-interested motives, assessing perceptions of kindness in helping. A significant relationship was established at p < .01 between social perspective-taking ability and use of discounting, such that participants at higher perspective-taking levels judged helpful behavior as significantly less kind than did their peers when the behavior was motivated by self-interest. This finding is interpreted in terms of literature suggesting that advances in perspective taking facilitate the recognition of the manipulative function of externally offered incentives. Observations are made regarding the cross-cultural investigation of these variables.

Altruism↗
PubMed1997

The association between illusions of invulnerability and exposure to trauma.

The study investigated, in a high risk adolescent sample, the relationship between illusions of invulnerability and exposure to six specific traumatic events. The most significant finding was the significant negative relationship between exposure to trauma and level of invulnerability, indicating that the greater the exposure to trauma, the less the invulnerability expressed in regard to potential risk. A further significant finding of the study was that vicarious exposure to trauma affects how one estimates risk of death in relation to the "average other" but not in relation to the self. Direct experience of trauma, on the other hand, affects perceived risk in relation to both self and other.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1996

Violent political contexts and the emotional concerns of township youth.

This article presents the findings of a series of studies that examine the perceptions of black South African youth about township life and the civil conflict and violence it encompasses. The studies were conducted with comparable samples of 58-82 youth at 3 points in South Africa's history, all characterized by high levels of violence but differing in terms of their political contexts. These contexts were overt State-community conflict, covert opposition and political repression, and intracommunity violence. The data revealed that in all 3 contexts youth reported a high exposure to violence, but only when violence occurred in the context of intracommunity conflict was it subjectively construed to be the most problematic. Reasons for this may include the real increase in more extreme forms of violence, including deaths, that occurs in intracommunity violence and the blurring of the distinction between political and criminal violence in this context.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1994

Interacting with trauma survivors in contexts of continuing trauma.

Within a burgeoning literature on the survivors of catastrophic trauma, there is an increasing focus on therapists' reactions to these survivors. Within this tradition, the present paper examines the responses of a group of therapists working with survivors of South Africa's political repression and civil conflict. It highlights how, in this context, both the potential for retraumatization of survivors, as well as the potential for direct traumatization of the therapists, intensifies these reactions and complicates their resolution. The similarities and differences between this particular context and other contexts of trauma within which therapists may work are discussed.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗
PubMed1994

Integrating African and Western healing practices in South Africa.

Through a detailed analysis of a dream shared by three adolescent girls suffering from PTSD, this paper has outlined many similarities between an African and a Western understanding of their symptoms. It has shown how both systems would acknowledge these symptoms to be a function of: (a) the breaching of stimulus boundaries; (b) the existence of survivor guilt; (c) the phenomenon of frozen mourning. It has illustrated further how many factors considered to be part of Western psychotherapy, e.g., (a) catharsis following an emotional reliving of the traumatic event; (b) re-ordering of perceptions following insight; (c) fostering hope for the future following a re-establishment of continuity with the past, may be promoted while interpreting dreams within the traditional meanings ascribed to them by an African healing framework. That is, it has been shown how these elements may be fostered while working within the African belief that dreams are not the manifestation of intrapsychic conflict but communications from ancestral spirits concerning interpersonal duties that need to be fulfilled. Finally this paper has illustrated the importance of therapists developing a general appreciation of myths and metaphors.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1988

Post-traumatic stress disorder: a reaction to state-supported child abuse and neglect.

The policy of apartheid not only fosters conditions conducive to child abuse and neglect, but is in itself abusive. Apartheid policies have led to civil unrest and high levels of violence in South Africa's black townships. Many youth are thus exposed to multiple trauma including witnessing death, being arrested, being beaten, being in exile, and being separated from family and friends. This had led many to develop Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSD) although this term is a misnomer in the South African context as traumatic stress is not historic but is current. Treatment programs have thus to be modified to accommodate the impossibility of guaranteeing even the physical safety of patients. They have also to be modified to accommodate the fact that most black youth are totally unfamiliar with the notion of the "talking cure." This paper describes a modified treatment program for PTSD which was developed in working with a group of 60 township refugees. Systematic follow up studies of its effectiveness were impossible as many of those treated have gone into hiding to escape the continuing violence in their communities, a violence facilitated by the ultimate guardian of the child, the State. However there are indications that the program was successful in providing immediate relief.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1982

Peer group interaction of physically abused children.

The aim of this research study was to test the assumption that physically abused children differ significantly from their non-abused peers along dimensions which characterize abusing adults and other social deviants. Nineteen 5-10 year-old physically abused children and 38 non-abused peers were assessed by video-taped behavioral observations during free-flowing social interaction in a playroom. The dimensions tapped were: aggression, warmth, fear, pleasure, concentration, imagination and social participation. The dimension social participation was split into three variables: total social participation, negative participation and positive participation. The data from these nine dimensions was subject to a Pearson's correlation. Given the high correlation amongst these variables the data was subject to a principal components analysis with varimax rotation. From this analysis two components emerged which explained 76.9% of the total variance. These components were designated "social interaction" (component 1) and "hostility" (component 2) and were then subject to analyses of variance. A significant difference was found between the two groups on the "social interaction" component. The implications of these findings were explored and treatment possibilities examined.

Child↗
PubMed1979

A study of the relationship between family interaction and individual symptomology over time.

The study was designed to answer two questions: (a) Can a relationship over time between family interaction and individual symptomatology be demonstrated? (B) Can it be shown that changes in interaction have more influence on changes in the symptom than vice versa. Five interaction dimensions were taped in weekly, three-quarter hour sessions over 20 weeks in five families, each consisting of a mother-father-child triad who met certain criteria and had an encopretic child. The interaction dimension scores were abstracted weekly from these sessions by content analyses relying on various scales. The derived ratio scores were then related to the number of days the child soiled himself in the week preceding and following the interaction measurement. The relationship was assessed by Pearson correlation coefficients and step-wise multiple regression analyses adjusted to account for the possible inflationary effects of taking measures from the same subjects more than once. The results of the analyses answered both questions posed by the study in the affirmative, thus supporting the rationale underlying family therapy.

Family↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Selected methodological problems in research in child abuse: a developmental perspective.

It is apparent from extensive literature reviews that only a few authors have attempted to enhance the quality of their research in the area of child abuse. Despite the refinements made by these authors there are still gross weaknesses apparent in much of the research. These deficits are clearly linked to the problems encountered in doing research in childhood psychopathology in general where there is fragmentation both on an empirical and theoretical level. The aim of this paper is to represent some of the many issues which have to be taken into account when conducting research into childhood psychopathology in general and child abuse in particular and when making comparative evaluations of the research. Amongst the issues discussed are: the purpose of the research; naturalistic v. experimental continuum; techniques of data collection; expectations of subjects; experimental bias; individual v. group observation; sampling issues viz definition of abuse; age at which assault occurred; time lapse investigation and last known incidence of abuse; definition of subject sample; demographic variables; technical issues and behavioural research, e.g. specificity v. generality of behaviour; unit of use and time sampling.

Child↗