Psychological Testing in South Africa: Perspectives Regarding Ethical and Fair Practices

1997 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 229-235 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheryl D. Foxcroft
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Test Development ◽  
Psychological Testing ◽  
The Past ◽  
Development Agenda ◽  
Testing Practice ◽  
National Test ◽  
The Impact

It is argued in this paper that the practice of psychological testing in South Africa needs to be understood in terms of the impact that past apartheid political policies have had on test development and use. I first reflect on the past and then present and discuss current issues that threaten the fair and ethical use of tests. Finally, I propose two ways of enhancing the ethical use of tests in South Africa, that is, the development of a Code of Fair Testing Practice as well as a national test development agenda.

Political Parties and Public Participation in Constitution Making: Legitimation, Distraction, or Real Influence?

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Hudson
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Public Participation ◽  
Participatory Methods ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Past ◽  
Party Strength ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Constitution Making

Over the past three decades, participatory methods of constitution making have gained increasing acceptance and are now an indispensable part of any constitution-making process. Despite this, we know little about how much public participation actually affects the constitution. This article investigates the impact of participation in two groundbreaking cases: Brazil (1988) and South Africa (1996). This analysis demonstrates that public participation has relatively small effects on the text, but that it varies in systematic ways. The theory advanced here posits that party strength (especially in terms of discipline and programmatic commitments) is the key determinant of the effectiveness of public participation. Strong parties may be more effective in many ways, but they are less likely to act on input from the public in constitution-making processes.

scholarly journals Community harvesting of trees used as dens and for food by the tree hyrax (Dendrohyrax arboreus) in the Pirie forest, South Africa

Koedoe ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 60 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth J. Opperman ◽  
Michael I. Cherry ◽  
Nokwanda P. Makunga
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Forest Management ◽  
Tree Species ◽  
Forest Tree ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
Annual Basis ◽  
The Past ◽  
Low Levels ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Commercial Harvesting

Forests in South Africa are harvested by local communities for multiple purposes and this affects the animals that inhabit them. The tree hyrax (Dendrohyrax arboreus) has a restricted distribution and utilises various tree species as dens and a source of food. In this article, we determined, through a series of interviews in the communities surrounding the Pirie forest, which plant species are harvested by local people and whether these overlap with those used by the tree hyrax. In addition, we determined the extent to which tree hyraxes are hunted by these communities. Of the trees used by the hyrax as dens in the Pirie forest, Afrocarpus falcatus, Schotia latifolia, Andrachne ovalis, Teclea natalensis and Apodytes dimidiata are important resources for local communities. But as these are harvested at relatively low levels, it is unlikely that current harvesting has a large impact on the tree hyrax. Opportunistic hunting occurs, but the hyrax is not targeted by hunters. Very limited commercial harvesting of A. falcatus has been taking place in the Pirie forest since 1975, but its impact on the hyrax population, although undetermined, is also unlikely to be high. We recommend that the Pirie forest tree hyrax population should be monitored by forest management in order to ascertain the impact of both commercial and community harvesting over the past quarter-century.Conservation implications: Tree hyrax populations in the Pirie forest should be actively monitored by management on an annual basis.

scholarly journals ‘VIPsm’, A Threat to Social Stability in South Africa: From Apartheid Exclusions to Democratized Inequalities

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (13) ◽  
pp. 6-14
Author(s):  
Mashele Rapatsa
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Social Stability ◽  
Transformational Leaders ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Major Goal ◽  
Social Challenges ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Poor ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Impact

AbstractThe object of this article is to present a critical analysis of the impact of the notion of ‘VIPsm’, a phenomenon through which human beings are socially ‘categorized’ or ‘classed’ according to status or wealth or position being held in society. The article is predicated on South Africa’s discernible constitutional pursuit of attaining social stability and equitable social justice. This work is also considerate of the country’s known unpleasant history of apartheid’s acute race-based social exclusions, and in contrast, the post 1994 persistent social and economic inequalities which thus far proliferates material disadvantage, poverty, social discontent and protests amongst citizens. The article employed ‘Transformational Leadership theory ‘and ‘Power and Influence theories’ as tools of analysis, given that the Constitution, 1996 is transformative in nature and thus require ‘transformational leaders’ in order to achieve its major goal of burying wounds of the past, to build one unified nation that is socially stable. It is asserted that social challenges and superfluous differential treatment of humans besieging contemporary South Africa are suggestive of the presence of leadership that is self-centered, opulence driven, and has little or no regard for the poor and thus, disfavor the solidarity principle.

scholarly journals Keeping you post-ed: Space-time regimes, metaphors, and post-apartheid

2021 ◽  
pp. 204382062199225
Author(s):  
Myriam Houssay-Holzschuch
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Systemic Change ◽  
Space Time ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Continuity And Change ◽  
The Past ◽  
Balanced Approach ◽  
Time Regime ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Post Space

Societies that have undergone systemic change are characterized as ‘post’—post-socialist, post-colonial, etc.—to encapsulate the impact the past still has on their structure and functioning. Research on these societies has therefore tended to adopt a mostly temporal approach, investigating the tension between continuity and change. Using the example of post-apartheid South Africa, I make a case for a more balanced approach to post situations by including space as equally valuable. I draw my theoretical inspiration from Hartog’s notion of regimes of historicity and Massey’s space-time to argue that we should investigate space-time regimes. I show that a space-time regime of entanglement, often passéist, with blurred temporal boundaries and messy, place-bound experiences of time, characterizes post situations. Finally, using South Africa as my empirical grounding, I offer a set of metaphors to describe and analyze the concrete places that this entangled, post space-time produces.

scholarly journals Heritage Lost:The cultural impact of wildlife crime in South Africa

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Megan Laura Griffiths
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Cultural Impact ◽  
Wildlife Crime ◽  
South Africans ◽  
The Past ◽  
Financial Consequences ◽  
Cultural Sphere ◽  
Negative Impacts ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Rhino Poaching

Crimes against wildlife have come to the fore in South Africa in the past decade – largely due to the dramatic escalation of rhino poaching.  As a major custodian of iconic species such as the Big Five, South Africa is at the core of the illicit wildlife economy.  Since the country is reliant on wildlife tourism for economic development, poaching brings serious financial consequences.  These negative impacts, however, extend far beyond the economy and also protrude into the cultural sphere.  While some South Africans may be unmoved by the plight of the country’s wildlife as a result of a lack of exposure thereto, many feel socially linked to wildlife.  Concerned citizens often consider that future generations will not be able to experience wildlife due to extinction, and will thus be deprived of their rightful cultural inheritance.  The impact of wildlife crime may therefore be seen as a form of cultural victimisation.

scholarly journals Knowing, believing, living in Africa: A practical theology perspective of the past, present and future

2013 ◽  
Vol 69 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gordon E. Dames
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Practical Theology ◽  
Cultural Influences ◽  
Interdisciplinary Approach ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
Church And Society ◽  
The Impact

The new democratic era in South Africa brought Western cultural influences forcefully into public and private living domains. This dichotomy deformed African cultures in many ways (Bujo & Muya). Local communities were previously ‘public people’ living and worshipping in transformative hermeneutical communities. This scenario has changed and local communities are steadily being driven into private spaces. The task of practical theology is to question what the undergirding epistemology and beliefs for this shift are and to reinterpret it in the light of the gospel. The impact of Western culture on African traditional villages is telling in so far as traditional African values and practices are being lost at the expense of Western ideology, technology, media, et cetera (Bujo & Muya). We argue that the former dominant monodisciplinary approach of practical theology contributed to a growing private individualist worldview. Practical theology has since developed into an interdisciplinary approach. This newfound reciprocity in the social sciences led to constructive change in church and society (Dingemans). Practical theology in Africa has to deal with an individualised, pluralistic world and tendencies of discontinuity, uncertainty, violence and destruction. In South Africa, practical theology is called upon to redress the dichotomies and defaults of Western and African cultures, respectively.

scholarly journals Mass killings and calculated measures: The impact of police massacres on police reform in South Africa

2018 ◽  
pp. 5-16
Author(s):  
Guy Lamb
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Public Order ◽  
Police Reform ◽  
Scholarly Literature ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Government ◽  
Mass Killings ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship

Over the past two centuries, the police have perpetrated massacres in response to protest action in numerous countries. Available scholarly literature has typically focused on the circumstances that contributed to such mass killings, but rarely has there been consideration of the impact that such massacres subsequently may have had on the police organisation. Hence, this article will explore the relationship between massacres perpetrated by the police and police reform, with a particular focus on South Africa. The article concludes that, in the context of public order policing, massacres perpetuated by the police can contribute towards relatively immediate police reforms, particularly in terms of police strategies and tactics. In some circumstances, massacres have even led to some restructuring of the police organisation. The nature of the government and the policing environment appeared to be key determinants of the types of police reforms, post-massacre.

Fluorescent potentiometric dyes for membrane-potential imaging

1994 ◽  
Vol 52 ◽  
pp. 166-167
Author(s):  
Leslie M. Loew
Keyword(s):  
Membrane Potential ◽  
Single Cells ◽  
Quantitative Imaging ◽  
Optical Recording ◽  
Biological Processes ◽  
Major Focus ◽  
The Past ◽  
Excitable Systems ◽  
Major Application ◽  
The Impact

A major application of potentiometric dyes has been the multisite optical recording of electrical activity in excitable systems. After being championed by L.B. Cohen and his colleagues for the past 20 years, the impact of this technology is rapidly being felt and is spreading to an increasing number of neuroscience laboratories. A second class of experiments involves using dyes to image membrane potential distributions in single cells by digital imaging microscopy - a major focus of this lab. These studies usually do not require the temporal resolution of multisite optical recording, being primarily focussed on slow cell biological processes, and therefore can achieve much higher spatial resolution. We have developed 2 methods for quantitative imaging of membrane potential. One method uses dual wavelength imaging of membrane-staining dyes and the other uses quantitative 3D imaging of a fluorescent lipophilic cation; the dyes used in each case were synthesized for this purpose in this laboratory.

Perceived Burden of Informal Caregivers of a Chronically Ill Older Family Member

GeroPsych ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 143-154 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elmar Gräßel ◽  
Raffaela Adabbo
Keyword(s):  
Family Member ◽  
Informal Caregiver ◽  
Chronically Ill ◽  
Stress Model ◽  
The Past ◽  
Perceived Burden ◽  
Hypothetical Construct ◽  
Care Situation ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Further Development

The burden of caregivers has been intensively researched for the past 30 years and has resulted in a multitude of individual findings. This review illustrates the significance of the hypothetical construct of perceived burden for the further development and design of the homecare situation. Following explanations regarding the term informal caregiver, we derive the construct burden from its conceptual association with the transactional stress model of Lazarus and Folkman. Once the extent and characteristics of burden have been set forth, we then present the impact of perceived burden as the care situation. The question of predictors of burden will lead into the last section from which implications can be derived for homecare and relief of caregivers.

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