“I pulled it out”: a discursive exploration of narrated accounts on decision-making and power differentials in the prescription and use of long-acting reversible contraceptives
- Authors: Ndabula, Yanela
- Date: 2024-10-11
- Subjects: Contraception Social aspects South Africa , Decision making , Long-acting reversible contraception , Reproductive rights South Africa , Control (Psychology) , Feminism
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/467017 , vital:76807 , DOI https://doi.org/10.21504/10962/467017
- Description: Long-Acting Reversible Contraception (LARC), viz., intrauterine devices, subdermal implants, and injectable contraceptives, are highly effective, long-term birth control methods that limit user action. Alongside the decrease in fertility rates achieved through their mass provision has been their coerced or non-consented administration to marginalised women. These highly effective yet provider-controlled and thus imposable contraceptives have been associated with problematic classed, raced, ageist, and ableist promotions. A critical lens that inquires into their endorsement within clinical practice is thus necessary. The bulk of literature evidencing reproductive injustices in relation to fertility control through LARC technologies emanates from the US and UK contexts. Not much research on the South African context has explored how contraceptive decision-making within clinical interactions shapes LARC uptake despite usage increasing through the years. Using a poststructural, postcolonial feminist framework alongside a reproductive justice stance, this study explores health providers’ and contraceptive users’ narrations of the prescription and usage of LARC technologies alongside how such talk emplots women who use, continue, or discontinue using these contraceptive technologies. In addition, the power relations (re)produced in the participants’ talk that maintain or constrain coloniality and reproductive justice with implications for certain people’s reproductive choices/rights were explored. To do so, I used data from 72 semi-structured interviews with contraceptive users (51) and healthcare providers (21). A combination of stratified purposive, convenient, and snowball sampling was used to sample the providers and users of LARC recruited within a city, town, and village. To elicit stories about healthcare providers’ and LARC users’ narrative emplotments in the prescription and usage decisions about LARC, semi-structured interviewing was used. The questions asked were open-ended and loosely structured around LARC technologies, the decisions that cohere around them, and the makers of those decisions. In analysing the data, I fused Parker's (1992) criteria for locating discourses with Barker’s (2017) method for determining the potential for emplotment into narratives. Findings suggest that participants framed contraceptive usage as either a personal, imposed, or shared decision. In personal decisions, the feminisation of contraceptive use emerged, with study, work, and relationship stability statuses requiring participants to solely and prudently self-discipline towards contraceptive uptake so as to match usage with reproduction desire. When decisions were imposed (subtly or openly), a passive role was assumed as female guardians (mothers, grandmothers, or aunts) recommended, pushed, and coerced health users (particularly young women) towards uptake. While the contraceptive users themselves were placed on the margins in decision-making, resisting the imposed decisions was difficult since participants’ “risk” of pregnancy was reportedly foregrounded. Shared decisions pointed to less one-sided accounts of decision-making. These decisions were enacted in relationships and were neither siloed nor imposed. Here, sexual partners, parents, or healthcare providers dialogically negotiated contraceptive uptake, and the possibilities for non-use were availed. Data from healthcare providers showed that non-use for young and postpartum women was not an option. In addition, healthcare providers either formed alliances with the LARC users themselves or concerned parents to support or push for contraceptive provision. Supportive alliances enabled secret uptake or ongoing contraceptive usage among some contraceptive users, thus resisting pronatalism or one-sided intentions for childbearing within intimate partnerships. These healthcare providers emplotted themselves as empowering contraceptive users. Alliances that pushed for contraceptive uptake were formed with guardians/parents upon menarche or in case the of rape. In overriding consent within these alliances, healthcare providers avoided being rendered responsible or blameworthy for early pregnancies in the face of the constructed risk used to emplot young women. This over-commitment to providing contraceptives has differing implications for women’s sexual agency and sexual health interventions. The data also describe decisions to use contraception as expert-led, patient-led, or collaborative decisions between health users and healthcare providers. Through the information and decision-making was expert-led micro-narrative, a medical discourse constituting use as a necessity and non-use as a risk emerged. A patient autonomy and a my body, my choice discourse informed the information and decision-making was patient-led micro-narrative; here, healthcare providers were either detached or excluded from decision-making as health users assumed more active roles in their own contraceptive care decisions. In collaborative decisions, both parties negotiated (non)use, with LARC users providing their embodied experiences and healthcare providers availing medical knowledge in reaching decisions. The study argues for a reproductive justice framework to underpin the signifier “fertility control”, showing how the threat of degeneration informs responses to reproduction by iii identifying and amplifying deficiency and negative outcomes while masking positive outcomes among certain women. It then creates a fertile ground for the re-engineering and recentring of colonialist thinking and its product, the restraining of the agency of fertile beings it renders “less developed”. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Humanities, Psychology, 2024
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2024-10-11
- Authors: Ndabula, Yanela
- Date: 2024-10-11
- Subjects: Contraception Social aspects South Africa , Decision making , Long-acting reversible contraception , Reproductive rights South Africa , Control (Psychology) , Feminism
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/467017 , vital:76807 , DOI https://doi.org/10.21504/10962/467017
- Description: Long-Acting Reversible Contraception (LARC), viz., intrauterine devices, subdermal implants, and injectable contraceptives, are highly effective, long-term birth control methods that limit user action. Alongside the decrease in fertility rates achieved through their mass provision has been their coerced or non-consented administration to marginalised women. These highly effective yet provider-controlled and thus imposable contraceptives have been associated with problematic classed, raced, ageist, and ableist promotions. A critical lens that inquires into their endorsement within clinical practice is thus necessary. The bulk of literature evidencing reproductive injustices in relation to fertility control through LARC technologies emanates from the US and UK contexts. Not much research on the South African context has explored how contraceptive decision-making within clinical interactions shapes LARC uptake despite usage increasing through the years. Using a poststructural, postcolonial feminist framework alongside a reproductive justice stance, this study explores health providers’ and contraceptive users’ narrations of the prescription and usage of LARC technologies alongside how such talk emplots women who use, continue, or discontinue using these contraceptive technologies. In addition, the power relations (re)produced in the participants’ talk that maintain or constrain coloniality and reproductive justice with implications for certain people’s reproductive choices/rights were explored. To do so, I used data from 72 semi-structured interviews with contraceptive users (51) and healthcare providers (21). A combination of stratified purposive, convenient, and snowball sampling was used to sample the providers and users of LARC recruited within a city, town, and village. To elicit stories about healthcare providers’ and LARC users’ narrative emplotments in the prescription and usage decisions about LARC, semi-structured interviewing was used. The questions asked were open-ended and loosely structured around LARC technologies, the decisions that cohere around them, and the makers of those decisions. In analysing the data, I fused Parker's (1992) criteria for locating discourses with Barker’s (2017) method for determining the potential for emplotment into narratives. Findings suggest that participants framed contraceptive usage as either a personal, imposed, or shared decision. In personal decisions, the feminisation of contraceptive use emerged, with study, work, and relationship stability statuses requiring participants to solely and prudently self-discipline towards contraceptive uptake so as to match usage with reproduction desire. When decisions were imposed (subtly or openly), a passive role was assumed as female guardians (mothers, grandmothers, or aunts) recommended, pushed, and coerced health users (particularly young women) towards uptake. While the contraceptive users themselves were placed on the margins in decision-making, resisting the imposed decisions was difficult since participants’ “risk” of pregnancy was reportedly foregrounded. Shared decisions pointed to less one-sided accounts of decision-making. These decisions were enacted in relationships and were neither siloed nor imposed. Here, sexual partners, parents, or healthcare providers dialogically negotiated contraceptive uptake, and the possibilities for non-use were availed. Data from healthcare providers showed that non-use for young and postpartum women was not an option. In addition, healthcare providers either formed alliances with the LARC users themselves or concerned parents to support or push for contraceptive provision. Supportive alliances enabled secret uptake or ongoing contraceptive usage among some contraceptive users, thus resisting pronatalism or one-sided intentions for childbearing within intimate partnerships. These healthcare providers emplotted themselves as empowering contraceptive users. Alliances that pushed for contraceptive uptake were formed with guardians/parents upon menarche or in case the of rape. In overriding consent within these alliances, healthcare providers avoided being rendered responsible or blameworthy for early pregnancies in the face of the constructed risk used to emplot young women. This over-commitment to providing contraceptives has differing implications for women’s sexual agency and sexual health interventions. The data also describe decisions to use contraception as expert-led, patient-led, or collaborative decisions between health users and healthcare providers. Through the information and decision-making was expert-led micro-narrative, a medical discourse constituting use as a necessity and non-use as a risk emerged. A patient autonomy and a my body, my choice discourse informed the information and decision-making was patient-led micro-narrative; here, healthcare providers were either detached or excluded from decision-making as health users assumed more active roles in their own contraceptive care decisions. In collaborative decisions, both parties negotiated (non)use, with LARC users providing their embodied experiences and healthcare providers availing medical knowledge in reaching decisions. The study argues for a reproductive justice framework to underpin the signifier “fertility control”, showing how the threat of degeneration informs responses to reproduction by iii identifying and amplifying deficiency and negative outcomes while masking positive outcomes among certain women. It then creates a fertile ground for the re-engineering and recentring of colonialist thinking and its product, the restraining of the agency of fertile beings it renders “less developed”. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Humanities, Psychology, 2024
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2024-10-11
The exploration of influence as a leadership competency amongst emerging adult males
- Authors: Munyai, Pfarelo Pardon
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Leadership , Leadership -- Psychological aspects , Influence (Psychology) , Control (Psychology) , Social media , Executives -- Training of , Executive ability , College students , Young adults , Educational leadership , Executive coaching , Male college students , Leadership -- Study and teaching (Higher) , College student government
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MBA
- Identifier: vital:852 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1017520
- Description: The association between leadership, influence and power is well developed in the literature. However, there is a notable lack of research on youth leadership development, especially as it pertains to their exercise of influence. This paper was borne out of the need to explore how youth - emerging adults’ males in particular - exercise influence as a leadership competency within their voluntary leadership positions. Using semi-structured face-to-face interviews and the Critical Incident Technique (CIT), the research primarily focused on influence tactics and how they were employed. This included assessing the related power bases and principles of influence that were manifest, as well as the learning and development that occurred when reflecting on the outcome of the influence process. Data was analysed using an open coding procedure. Incidents explored in the study were primarily interpersonal in nature. This was reminiscent of lateral influence that characterised the peer to peer contextual environment of the study. The study found that in their influence pursuits, emerging adults followed a rational approach to influence. The distinguishable power bases and their relative importance in application were context dependent (Krause and Kearney, 2006:59-86). In addition, various proactive influence tactics were employed with a leaning towards those perceived as positive, honest and non-manipulative in application, which was congruent with Head Student role expectations and the culture of the organization. The utilization of social media as a communication platform from which various tactics could be launched was a novel and notable finding. Consequently, the results were presented primarily under two themes, exploring how tactics of influence are used face to face and via the social media platform. In addition, the study emphasised the ethical implications of the exercise of influence in both of these platforms and related to this, the challenge of influencing friends or close associates, without undermining leadership integrity. Overall, the various influence incidents presented and their outcomes, evidently shaped leadership development by reinforcing tactics which worked and stimulating continuous reflection and learning, adaptive strategies and the development of new means to deal with resistance and non-compliance. All of these are critical to shaping future influence behaviour. Primary recommendations include the need for a proactive approach to educating youth on leadership and influence through formal programmes, if they were to be empowered with tools to develop and maximize their leadership potential. Equally, practitioners need to be sensitized to the significance of their role as catalysts in nurturing youth leadership development. In addition, the novel use of social media as a leadership influence platform was recognised as significant and as such, a candidate for further research. Beyond the limited scope of this study, other angles worthy of further research include, factoring in elements such as gender, cross-cultural differences and the aspect of voluntary versus incentivised (or paid) leadership positions. The research is presented in an academic paper format, and is structured in three sections. These sections are written up as relatively independent sections, but are complementary in covering the full scope of the research. Section One, which is essentially a paper in a format of an academic journal article, represent the primary section and covers the results of the study, together with discussions and recommendations. This is followed by a literature review (i.e. Section Two), which delves into all the relevant literature explored. Section Three covers the methodology, research design and research procedure pursued. As part of the addendum, a comprehensive summary of the incidents explored is presented. This gives insight into the nature of the various incidents, the influence tactics preferred, power bases and influence principles manifested, together with the outcomes of the incidents. Furthermore, lessons drawn in reflection are noted, which participants viewed as critical, in that they shaped the way they now intend to exercise influence and thereby reflects their personal leadership development.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
- Authors: Munyai, Pfarelo Pardon
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Leadership , Leadership -- Psychological aspects , Influence (Psychology) , Control (Psychology) , Social media , Executives -- Training of , Executive ability , College students , Young adults , Educational leadership , Executive coaching , Male college students , Leadership -- Study and teaching (Higher) , College student government
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MBA
- Identifier: vital:852 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1017520
- Description: The association between leadership, influence and power is well developed in the literature. However, there is a notable lack of research on youth leadership development, especially as it pertains to their exercise of influence. This paper was borne out of the need to explore how youth - emerging adults’ males in particular - exercise influence as a leadership competency within their voluntary leadership positions. Using semi-structured face-to-face interviews and the Critical Incident Technique (CIT), the research primarily focused on influence tactics and how they were employed. This included assessing the related power bases and principles of influence that were manifest, as well as the learning and development that occurred when reflecting on the outcome of the influence process. Data was analysed using an open coding procedure. Incidents explored in the study were primarily interpersonal in nature. This was reminiscent of lateral influence that characterised the peer to peer contextual environment of the study. The study found that in their influence pursuits, emerging adults followed a rational approach to influence. The distinguishable power bases and their relative importance in application were context dependent (Krause and Kearney, 2006:59-86). In addition, various proactive influence tactics were employed with a leaning towards those perceived as positive, honest and non-manipulative in application, which was congruent with Head Student role expectations and the culture of the organization. The utilization of social media as a communication platform from which various tactics could be launched was a novel and notable finding. Consequently, the results were presented primarily under two themes, exploring how tactics of influence are used face to face and via the social media platform. In addition, the study emphasised the ethical implications of the exercise of influence in both of these platforms and related to this, the challenge of influencing friends or close associates, without undermining leadership integrity. Overall, the various influence incidents presented and their outcomes, evidently shaped leadership development by reinforcing tactics which worked and stimulating continuous reflection and learning, adaptive strategies and the development of new means to deal with resistance and non-compliance. All of these are critical to shaping future influence behaviour. Primary recommendations include the need for a proactive approach to educating youth on leadership and influence through formal programmes, if they were to be empowered with tools to develop and maximize their leadership potential. Equally, practitioners need to be sensitized to the significance of their role as catalysts in nurturing youth leadership development. In addition, the novel use of social media as a leadership influence platform was recognised as significant and as such, a candidate for further research. Beyond the limited scope of this study, other angles worthy of further research include, factoring in elements such as gender, cross-cultural differences and the aspect of voluntary versus incentivised (or paid) leadership positions. The research is presented in an academic paper format, and is structured in three sections. These sections are written up as relatively independent sections, but are complementary in covering the full scope of the research. Section One, which is essentially a paper in a format of an academic journal article, represent the primary section and covers the results of the study, together with discussions and recommendations. This is followed by a literature review (i.e. Section Two), which delves into all the relevant literature explored. Section Three covers the methodology, research design and research procedure pursued. As part of the addendum, a comprehensive summary of the incidents explored is presented. This gives insight into the nature of the various incidents, the influence tactics preferred, power bases and influence principles manifested, together with the outcomes of the incidents. Furthermore, lessons drawn in reflection are noted, which participants viewed as critical, in that they shaped the way they now intend to exercise influence and thereby reflects their personal leadership development.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
The influence of the therapist's activities on clients' subject positioning in relation to gender in narrative couples therapy
- Authors: Friis, Kirsten Leigh
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: Narrative therapy , Couples therapy , Therapist and patient , Control (Psychology) , Critical discourse analysis , Psychotherapy -- Methods
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3227 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013050
- Description: Narrative Therapy draws on an understanding of how discourse acts to construct, reproduce and deconstruct power relationships. Therapy is focussed on collaborating with clients in a process of re-authoring their self-stories by critically evaluating the positions made available to them in relation to dominant discourses. Whilst there is a large body of theoretical knowledge on post-structuralism and psychotherapy, very few discourse analyses of psychotherapy sessions have been published. Thus, though post-structuralist therapeutic approaches are theoretically well supported, there is an identified gap in the literature on the therapeutic processes that occur within practice. This research aims to further explore these therapeutic processes, focussing specifically on subject positioning with relation to gender in Narrative Couple Therapy, and the influence of the therapist thereupon. It is based on the analysis of a video of a Michael White Narrative Couple Therapy session, "The Best of Friends." Using discourse analysis as a methodological approach, the analysis seeks first to identify talk that signifies discourses of gender difference, and then to explore how the subjects (therapist and clients) are positioned in relation to these discourses. The analysis focuses on the therapist's activities to investigate the influence of his interactions with the partners on how they are positioned or position themselves within stories of gender difference. The analysis shows that, by working reflexively, transparently and collaboratively with the partners, the therapist assists to render power, restrictive discourses, and alternate positions visible to the clients. The therapist resists being drawn into dominant therapy discourses of expert and patient, and instead continuously recognises the knowledges and expertise that the clients bring to the therapy context. He then works closely with the clients to thicken alternative representations of self.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014
- Authors: Friis, Kirsten Leigh
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: Narrative therapy , Couples therapy , Therapist and patient , Control (Psychology) , Critical discourse analysis , Psychotherapy -- Methods
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3227 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013050
- Description: Narrative Therapy draws on an understanding of how discourse acts to construct, reproduce and deconstruct power relationships. Therapy is focussed on collaborating with clients in a process of re-authoring their self-stories by critically evaluating the positions made available to them in relation to dominant discourses. Whilst there is a large body of theoretical knowledge on post-structuralism and psychotherapy, very few discourse analyses of psychotherapy sessions have been published. Thus, though post-structuralist therapeutic approaches are theoretically well supported, there is an identified gap in the literature on the therapeutic processes that occur within practice. This research aims to further explore these therapeutic processes, focussing specifically on subject positioning with relation to gender in Narrative Couple Therapy, and the influence of the therapist thereupon. It is based on the analysis of a video of a Michael White Narrative Couple Therapy session, "The Best of Friends." Using discourse analysis as a methodological approach, the analysis seeks first to identify talk that signifies discourses of gender difference, and then to explore how the subjects (therapist and clients) are positioned in relation to these discourses. The analysis focuses on the therapist's activities to investigate the influence of his interactions with the partners on how they are positioned or position themselves within stories of gender difference. The analysis shows that, by working reflexively, transparently and collaboratively with the partners, the therapist assists to render power, restrictive discourses, and alternate positions visible to the clients. The therapist resists being drawn into dominant therapy discourses of expert and patient, and instead continuously recognises the knowledges and expertise that the clients bring to the therapy context. He then works closely with the clients to thicken alternative representations of self.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014
The relationship between self-efficacy and ways of coping of first-year university students
- Authors: Goss, Joanne Kate
- Date: 2011
- Subjects: Self-efficacy , Control (Psychology)
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:9860 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/1555 , Self-efficacy , Control (Psychology)
- Description: This is a quantitative, exploratory study focusing on self-efficacy and ways of coping of male and female first-year psychology students at a university in the Nelson Mandela Metropole. The study aimed to explore and describe the relationship between The General Perceived Self- Efficacy Scale and the Ways of Coping Questionnaire of first-year university psychology students. A non-probability convenience sampling technique was employed. The sample consisted of 34 males and 94 females between the ages of 18 and 21 years, who were registered for a first-year psychology module. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse the data. The results showed moderate correlations between general perceived self-efficacy and problem-focused and focusing on the positive as ways of coping. In addition, the results showed significant relationships between general perceived self-efficacy and problem-focused coping, seeking social support and focusing on the positive as ways of coping. Gender differences with regards to the constructs of coping and self-efficacy were also explored. Limitations of the present research were noted and recommendations for future research were proposed.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2011
- Authors: Goss, Joanne Kate
- Date: 2011
- Subjects: Self-efficacy , Control (Psychology)
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:9860 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/1555 , Self-efficacy , Control (Psychology)
- Description: This is a quantitative, exploratory study focusing on self-efficacy and ways of coping of male and female first-year psychology students at a university in the Nelson Mandela Metropole. The study aimed to explore and describe the relationship between The General Perceived Self- Efficacy Scale and the Ways of Coping Questionnaire of first-year university psychology students. A non-probability convenience sampling technique was employed. The sample consisted of 34 males and 94 females between the ages of 18 and 21 years, who were registered for a first-year psychology module. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse the data. The results showed moderate correlations between general perceived self-efficacy and problem-focused and focusing on the positive as ways of coping. In addition, the results showed significant relationships between general perceived self-efficacy and problem-focused coping, seeking social support and focusing on the positive as ways of coping. Gender differences with regards to the constructs of coping and self-efficacy were also explored. Limitations of the present research were noted and recommendations for future research were proposed.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2011
Self-efficacy and social support of academy cricketers
- Authors: Cowan, Jenna
- Date: 2010
- Subjects: Self-efficacy , Control (Psychology) , Social networks , Cricket players
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:9859 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/1556 , Self-efficacy , Control (Psychology) , Social networks , Cricket players
- Description: Self-efficacy is considered to be a significant variable for enhancing all aspects of human performance (Druckman, 2004). Social support may influence self-efficacy through each of the four channels of self-efficacy information which consist of performance accomplishments, vicarious experience, verbal persuasion and physiological responses (Bandura, 1997). The primary aim of this study was to explore and describe the nature of change that occurred in selfefficacy and received social support of university-age academy cricketers over the duration of an academy programme. The secondary aim was to explore and describe the relationship between the two constructs, self-efficacy and social support. Sixty-five male, university-age (18-25 years) provincial academy cricketers completed a social support measure and a self-efficacy measure specifically designed for the purposes of this study. These measures were based on Rees and Freeman’s (2007) items and Cox, Martens and Russell’s (2003) revised Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 (CSAI-2 - Martens, Burton, Vealey, Bump & Smith, 1990) respectively. The perceived pre- and post-academy personal ratings of self-efficacy and social support, obtained prior to the start of the South African Interprovincial Academy Cricket week, referred to participants’ perceptions before and after attending their respective provincial academies. An inferential pre-experimental post-pretest design was used. The results included significant changes found in self-efficacy, esteem social support, informational social support and tangible social support over the academy season. There were no differences attributed to the length of time a cricketer had spent at the academy or to the cricketer’s highest level of achievement in cricket. The only significant correlation that existed between self-efficacy and social support was the correlation between self-efficacy and x informational social support. This study provided an initial insight into the role of self-efficacy and social support in talented cricketers, especially in a South African context.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2010
- Authors: Cowan, Jenna
- Date: 2010
- Subjects: Self-efficacy , Control (Psychology) , Social networks , Cricket players
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:9859 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/1556 , Self-efficacy , Control (Psychology) , Social networks , Cricket players
- Description: Self-efficacy is considered to be a significant variable for enhancing all aspects of human performance (Druckman, 2004). Social support may influence self-efficacy through each of the four channels of self-efficacy information which consist of performance accomplishments, vicarious experience, verbal persuasion and physiological responses (Bandura, 1997). The primary aim of this study was to explore and describe the nature of change that occurred in selfefficacy and received social support of university-age academy cricketers over the duration of an academy programme. The secondary aim was to explore and describe the relationship between the two constructs, self-efficacy and social support. Sixty-five male, university-age (18-25 years) provincial academy cricketers completed a social support measure and a self-efficacy measure specifically designed for the purposes of this study. These measures were based on Rees and Freeman’s (2007) items and Cox, Martens and Russell’s (2003) revised Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 (CSAI-2 - Martens, Burton, Vealey, Bump & Smith, 1990) respectively. The perceived pre- and post-academy personal ratings of self-efficacy and social support, obtained prior to the start of the South African Interprovincial Academy Cricket week, referred to participants’ perceptions before and after attending their respective provincial academies. An inferential pre-experimental post-pretest design was used. The results included significant changes found in self-efficacy, esteem social support, informational social support and tangible social support over the academy season. There were no differences attributed to the length of time a cricketer had spent at the academy or to the cricketer’s highest level of achievement in cricket. The only significant correlation that existed between self-efficacy and social support was the correlation between self-efficacy and x informational social support. This study provided an initial insight into the role of self-efficacy and social support in talented cricketers, especially in a South African context.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2010
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