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As South Africa prepared to host the 30th International Congress of Psychology in 2012, a call was made to reflect on the strengths of and challenges facing contemporary South African Psychology. This article presents our response to our brief to focus on social issues by presenting the results of a situational analysis of South African Psychology over the last 5 years and comparing this corpus of data to a similar analysis reported in Macleod. Articles appearing in the South African Journal of Psychology and abstracts in PsycINFO with the keyword ‘South Africa’ over a 5.5-year period were analysed. The content of 243 South African Journal of Psychology articles and 1986 PsycINFO abstracts was analysed using the codes developed by Macleod. Results indicate that an increase in the number of articles, a reduction in the percentage of articles using quantitative methodologies and ‘hard’ science theoretical frameworks (particularly in the South African Journal of Psychology), and an increase in qualitative, theoretical, and methodological articles, and articles using systems-oriented theory (particularly in the South African Journal of Psychology). Traditional topics of assessment, stress and psychopathology continue to dominate, with social issues, such as housing, land reform, development programmes, water resources and socio-economic inequities being largely ignored. Most research continues to be conducted in Gauteng, KwaZulu/Natal and the Western Cape, predominantly with adult, urban-based, middle-class participants, sourced mainly from universities, hospitals or clinics, and schools. Collaborations or comparisons with other African, Asian, South American, and Middle East countries have decreased. While the analysis presented in this paper is limited by its exclusion of books, theses, research reports and monographs, it shows that in published research there are some positive trends and some disappointments. The limited number of social issues featuring in published research, the under-representation of certain sectors of the population as participants, and the decrease in collaboration with, or comparison to, countries from the global ‘South’ represent challenges that require systematic attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mixed methods are becoming increasingly popular in social science research. There has recently been a groundswell of literature suggesting that mixed methods should be viewed as a unique form of social enquiry with its own set of philosophical, methodological and practice guidelines, as opposed to the simple combination of quantitative and qualitative methods in one study. In response to three critiques of South African psychological research, this paper argues that regardless of whether we agree that mixed methods is a unique form of social enquiry, the current literature offers useful insights into conceptualising both mixed and mono methods research. It is hoped that this article will stimulate further interest in mixed methods research in South African psychological research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on adolescent youth living in the townships of the Midlands region of KwaZulu- Natal. The subject sample has lived within violence stricken communities for most of their lives. It was assumed that all participants were also victims of poverty and social discrimination. Four different communities, with varying profiles of political and criminal violence, combined with varied access to resources were selected. A life events scale, a symptom checklist and a coping scale were used to ascertain the degree of psychological distress. The results indicated that a number of individual and community variables are likely intervening variables. This led to the development of an interactionist model, which indicates that a number of mediating and/or moderating variables operate which enhance resilience or alternatively place an individual at greater risk for the development of psychopathology. Other probable mediating variables, not fully investigated in this study but suggested in recent literature, are discussed. These include cognitive attribution, meaning of the violence to the individual and the community as well as the nature of the ‘enemy’. The need for greater focus on factors which facilitate coping both at community and individual level are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is much debate at present around changing the professional structure of psychology to better meet the needs of South African society. In this paper this debate is assessed in terms of the requirements of the employment sector. Employment advertisements, for psychology and social and human science graduates appearing in three national weekly newspapers over 21 years, from 1976 to 1996, were analyzed. From the data it appears that the role of psychology in the 'New South Africa' is changing, with new opportunities opening up for graduates with broad as opposed to narrow professional qualifications. The implications of this for the professional structure of the discipline of psychology are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]