The role of assault severity, rape myth beliefs, personality factors, attribution style and psychological impact in predicting coping with rape victimization

Student Number : 0500547G - PhD thesis - School of Psychology - Faculty of HumanitiesThis study is aimed at understanding the role of assault severity, personality traits and rape myths in predicting rape victims’ psychological responses and coping styles. Specifically, the study assessed the mediating role of victims’ attribution in predicting psychological impacts of rape victimization and the coping styles. On the basis of theory, it was postulated that the severity of assault (as determined by either the use of physical force and/or the presence of weapons); intrapersonal resources of hardiness; and the acceptance of rape myths would have a direct influence on survivors’ psychological impact and on coping. The thesis provides comprehensive coverage of the prevalence of rape victimization; the trauma and psychological impacts of rape victimization; coping with rape victimization; and the theory on the role of social cognition (appraisal and attribution) in explaining victims’ responses to rape. The theoretical conceptualisation underpinning the study offers a unique integration of this body of knowledge within the South African context. In investigating the research question, two hundred and fifty adult black (African) South African women who had experienced rape in the previous month were interviewed about the event and their subsequent responses. The interviewees were drawn from Xhosa, SePedi and Zulu speaking communities. The study was located within the quantitative research tradition. A structured interview questionnaire was developed. Descriptive statistics were calculated and the emphasis of the analysis was in the area of the Structural Equation Model. The model was successful in terms of explained variance in accounting for the two types of coping; approach and avoidance coping dimensions followed by the psychological impact and attribution. The results showed psychological impact as explained through the symptoms of Hyperarousal, Intrusion and Avoidance had the greatest influence on coping of rape survivors. As hypothesized, the results confirmed that an increase in rape assaults severity resulted into increased levels of psychological distress. The findings indicated that internal styles of self-blame attribution (behavioural and characterological attribution) were prevalent among victims of rape in the present study. Although hardiness (commitment and control) dimensions were not found to significantly influence coping, an orientation of control and commitment amongst survivors was found to significantly influence the attribution styles. Furthermore, the control dimension was found to have a significant influence on victims’ psychological distress. Interestingly, the results revealed that acceptance of rape myths among survivors resulted in a decrease in psychological distress. The findings demonstrate the strength of the current study in the development and testing of theoretically based models of processing rape victimization recovery among rape survivors. The implications of the data are explored

Colonial displacements and African coping strategies: The experience of BaTonga of Binga, Zimbabwe, 1956-2008

This study examines the challenges faced by BaTonga in livelihood reconstruction after involuntary displacement and resettlement from the Zambezi valley to pave way for the Kariba dam reservoir. It shows how they were forcibly evicted without compensation because of the racist policies of Southern Rhodesia. Their resettlement into an arid region infested with marauding elephants, malaria and tsetse fly undermined their complex livelihoods and eroded their self-sufficiency, but the study argues that they were active and resilient agents who adopted complex coping strategies. It shows how they had to adapt to dry-land farming and counter the effects of wildlife which plundered their crops and managed to secure the harvest in the drought-prone region. The study shows that although they adopted precarious livelihoods, they managed to survive under extreme circumstances for decades without any external assistance until the coming of NGOs who began to distribute free food from 1982. It argues that prolonged distribution of emergence food aid may not have been necessary, but its coming for almost three decades largely served political interests of both the NGOs and their governments. This perpetuated poverty as BaTonga also manipulated its distribution as a coping strategy against fragile livelihoods. This caused dependency which further plunged them into chronic food insecurity because they abandoned their traditional coping strategies. The study argues that both the colonial and postcolonial government as well as NGOs failed to address the root causes of livelihood insecurity in Binga for the five decades under study. It is therefore the contention of this study that the problem of food insecurity in Binga was not only an issue of recurring drought but was deeply rooted and pervasive due to multiple complex factors which made it difficult for the people to establish sustainable food production after displacement.Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Humanities, History, 202

Representations of adult women who have experienced 'absent' fathers: a thematic analysis of True Love magazine

This study explored how adult women who have experienced father 'absence' are represented in True Love magazine, a popular South African women's magazine targeting black women readers. The study examined nineteen articles published between 2016 and 2021 in True Love, featuring black women’s stories and clinical psychologists, which mentioned ‘absent’ fathers. Through the lenses of psychoanalytic, traditional African cultural, and feminist theoretical frameworks and their key concepts, the articles were examined in relation to how the effects on the adult women of complicated relationships with their fathers while they were growing up, were represented. The selected articles were analysed using Braun and Clarke's reflexive thematic analysis, and representational themes were identified guided by theoretical frameworks and familiarity with the scholarly literature on father ‘absence’ in South Africa. A wide range of childhood and young adult experiences of father-daughter relationships, and household circumstances, appeared alongside the strong maternal networks which supported these girls and women. Representations and themes of clinical psychologists involved Freudian psychoanalytic frameworks to describe the damaging psychological implications of ‘absent’ fathers, particularly affecting adult women’s capacities to form trusting intimate relationships with men. The adult women’s stories – largely successful businesswomen and/or celebrities in the arts, as represented by True Love feature writers and editors – presented themes of what the women had learnt from their mothers, and how they had overcome difficulties and obstacles. These themes included representations of resilience, and of being ‘survivors’, informed by empowerments from a feminist theoretical framework. These themes also represented the women as working psychotherapeutically to manage their past experiences and psychological distress, to transform their retriggering in adult heterosexual relationships, and to pursue healing and self-actualisation. These representations and themes are argued to have inspirational and motivating implications for girls and women in contemporary South Africa. They generate alternate stories about the longer-term effects and outcomes of father ‘absence’, rather than the prominent 'victim' stories in media and scholarly literature of young women doomed to suffer poor relationships and depression forever.Thesis (MA) -- Faculty of Humanities, Psychology, 202

The Acidic Probe LysoSensor™ is not Useful for Acrosome Evaluation of Cryopreserved Ram Spermatozoa

P. 363-367To try new acrosomal probes for assessing ram spermatozoa, we compared the LysoSensor™ probe, which labels acidic organelles, with the frequently used peanut agglutinin acrosomal probe (PNA‐PE; phycoerythrin as fluorescent moiety). The previous microscopic observations showed a lack of relationship of LysoSensor™ with acrosomal status. Semen was obtained from five rams and frozen in four pools. Each pool was analysed carrying out a triple staining propidium ioide/PNA‐PE/LysoSensor™ Green DND‐189 to test acrosome labelling, and a double staining SYBR‐14/PI, to assess sperm viability. Stained samples were analysed by flow cytometry. All measurements were replicated. Data were processed using agreement and repeatability tests. LysoSensor™ labelling did not agree with PNA (mean of differences: 30.8%; coefficient of agreement: 22.6%), confirming microscopic observations. Nevertheless, when LysoSensor™ was compared with SYBR‐14/PI, the agreement was high (mean of differences: −0.05%; coefficient of agreement: 5.07%). Repeatability of both methods was high and similar. LysoSensor™ did not seem to specifically stain the acrosome, but it may accumulate in the cytoplasm and label viable spermatozoa. Therefore, LysoSensor™ might not be used as an acrosomal probe in ram spermatozoa, but it could be used in other kind of studies, taking advantage of its pH sensitivity.S

Uncovering the effect of low-frequency static magnetic field on tendon-derived cells: from mechanosensing to tenogenesis

Magnetotherapy has been receiving increased attention as an attractive strategy for modulating cell physiology directly at the site of injury, thereby providing the medical community with a safe and non- invasive therapy. Yet, how magnetic eld in uences tendon cells both at the cellular and molecular levels remains unclear. Thus, the in uence of a low-frequency static magnetic eld (2 Hz, 350 mT) on human tendon-derived cells was studied using di erent exposure times (4 and 8 h; short-term studies) and di erent regimens of exposure to an 8h-period of magnetic stimulation (continuous, every 24 h or every 48 h; long-term studies). Herein, 8 h stimulation in short-term studies signi cantly upregulated the expression of tendon-associated genes SCX, COL1A1, TNC and DCN (p < 0.05) and altered intracellular Ca2+ levels (p < 0.05). Additionally, every 24 h regimen of stimulation signi cantly upregulated COL1A1, COL3A1 and TNC at day 14 in comparison to control (p < 0.05), whereas continuous exposure di erentially regulated the release of the immunomodulatory cytokines IL-1β and IL-10 (p < 0.001) but only at day 7 in comparison to controls. Altogether, these results provide new insights on how low-frequency static magnetic eld ne-tune the behaviour of tendon cells according to the magnetic settings used, which we foresee to represent an interesting candidate to guide tendon regeneration.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Human cardiac fibroblasts adaptive responses to controlled combined mechanical strain and oxygen changes in vitro

Upon cardiac pathological conditions such as ischemia, microenvironmental changes instruct a series of cellular responses that trigger cardiac fibroblasts-mediated tissue adaptation and inflammation. A comprehensive model of how early environmental changes may induce cardiac fibroblasts (CF) pathological responses is far from being elucidated, partly due to the lack of approaches involving complex and simultaneous environmental stimulation. Here, we provide a first analysis of human primary CF behavior by means of a multi-stimulus microdevice for combined application of cyclic mechanical strain and controlled oxygen tension. Our findings elucidate differential human CFs responses to different combinations of the above stimuli. Individual stimuli cause proliferative effects (PHH3+ mitotic cells, YAP translocation, PDGF secretion) or increase collagen presence. Interestingly, only the combination of hypoxia and a simulated loss of contractility (2% strain) is able to additionally induce increased CF release of inflammatory and pro-fibrotic cytokines and matrix metalloproteinases

Potential biological role of poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) in male gametes

Maintaining the integrity of sperm DNA is vital to reproduction and male fertility. Sperm contain a number of molecules and pathways for the repair of base excision, base mismatches and DNA strand breaks. The presence of Poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP), a DNA repair enzyme, and its homologues has recently been shown in male germ cells, specifically during stage VII of spermatogenesis. High PARP expression has been reported in mature spermatozoa and in proven fertile men. Whenever there are strand breaks in sperm DNA due to oxidative stress, chromatin remodeling or cell death, PARP is activated. However, the cleavage of PARP by caspase-3 inactivates it and inhibits PARP's DNA-repairing abilities. Therefore, cleaved PARP (cPARP) may be considered a marker of apoptosis. The presence of higher levels of cPARP in sperm of infertile men adds a new proof for the correlation between apoptosis and male infertility. This review describes the possible biological significance of PARP in mammalian cells with the focus on male reproduction. The review elaborates on the role played by PARP during spermatogenesis, sperm maturation in ejaculated spermatozoa and the potential role of PARP as new marker of sperm damage. PARP could provide new strategies to preserve fertility in cancer patients subjected to genotoxic stresses and may be a key to better male reproductive health