Method: Forty participants with TBI and 32 matched healthy participants completed a battery of tests assessing the three functions of interest. In addition, self-and proxy reports of pre-and post-injury behaviour, mood, and community integration were collected. Results:The TBI group performed significantly poorer than the comparison group on all tasks of emotion recognition, understanding intention and on one task of response selection. Ratings of current behaviour suggested significant changes in the TBI group relative to before the injury and showed significantly poorer community integration and interpersonal behaviour than the comparison group. Of the three functions considered, emotion recognition was associated with both post-injury behaviour and community integration and this association could not be fully explained by injury severity, time since injury or education. Conclusions:The current study confirmed earlier findings of associations between emotion recognition and post-TBI behaviour, providing partial evidence for models proposing emotion recognition as one of the pre-requisites for adequate social functioning.. May. Social behaviour and social cognition impairments 3

Orientation: Because of its historic, symbolic and psychological representation, presenting a diversity event on Robben Island posed invaluable opportunities to form an in-depth understanding of South African diversity dynamics. This research focussed on such an event interpreted from the systems psychodynamic perspective.Research purpose: The purpose of the research was to describe the experiences of participants attending the Robben Island Diversity Experience (RIDE) in order to understand South African diversity dynamics from a depth psychology perspective.Motivation for the study: Of the many and different diversity events presented in South African organisations, RIDE is the only annual systems psycho-dynamically designed and presented event. This research was an effort to explore the nature of these dynamics which manifest themselves from below the surface.Research design, approach and method: Qualitative and descriptive research from a hermeneutic phenomenology paradigm was used. The 15 participants who attended a RIDE event formed a case study. The data from an unstructured interview was content-analysed and interpreted using the systems psychodynamic perspective. The themes were integrated into a research hypothesis. Main findings:Five themes manifested themselves, namely, crossing boundaries, engaging the brave new world, ties that bind, being imprisoned and the struggle. Practical/managerial implications:The research highlighted the importance of understanding unconscious dynamics in the context of diversity in order to inform consultants about diversity management interventions in organisations. Contribution/value-add:The research contributed towards how South African diversity dynamics manifest themselves and how that can be addressed in organisations. IntroductionIn the South African context, DIVERSITY can indeed be written in capital letters. The country's history is fraught with differentiation, segregation, exclusion and discrimination (Bekker & Carlton, 1996;Eades, 1999). The replacement of the apartheid regime by the first democratically elected government in 1994 facilitated opportunities for everyone in the rainbow nation towards the celebration of diversity (Beck, 2000;Charlton & Van Niekerk, 1994). This road, to reconstruct the South African society, has been far from smooth (Hunt & Lascaris, 1998;Thompson, 2001).Organisations realised that diversity often leads to frustration, misunderstandings, unhealthy conflict and an increase in turnover of people if it is not properly managed (Milliken & Martins, 1996;Van Eron, 1995). Often such organisations use mechanistic approaches to diversity (Cilliers & May, 2002). Although these approaches do little more than achieve certain structural and behavioural changes, they seem to create an environment in which consultants and employees can work with diversity. A solitary diversity intervention is however doomed to failure since the emotions and resistance that it elicits, normally fuel various unconscious dynamics that subvert the possibility of tr...

Current healthcare is weight-centric, equating weight and health. This approach to healthcare has negative consequences on patient well-being. The aim of this article is to make a case for a paradigm shift in how clinicians view and address body weight. In this review, we (1) address common flawed assumptions in the weight-centric approach to healthcare, (2) review the weight science literature and provide evidence for the negative consequences of promoting dieting and weight loss, and (3) provide practice recommendations for weight-inclusive care.

<strong>Orientation:</strong> Positive Psychology&rsquo;s focus on positive behaviour has resulted in research and organisational consultants to focus relatively more on positive behaviour, thus avoiding negative and often unconscious behaviour and its manifestations.<p><strong>Research purpose:</strong> The aim of the study was to explore the systems psychodynamic nature of the manifesting defensive structures operating in Positive Psychology.</p><p><strong>Motivation for the study:</strong> The study investigated the popularity of Positive Psychology amongst academics, students and organisational consultants and the tendency to avoid the complexity of the relatedness between positive and negative as part of the human condition.</p><p><strong>Research design, approach and method: </strong>Qualitative research by means of a Listening Post was used, consisting of six psychologists in their roles as lecturers and organisational consultants. Thematic analyses led to the formulation of various working hypotheses, integrated into a research hypothesis.</p><p><strong><strong>Main findings:</strong> </strong>Four themes manifested &ndash; namely, the manifesting defence mechanisms, a reluctance to relinquish positive psychology as an object of hope, a need to guard against being too hasty in breaking down positive psychology and a need for a psychology that can engage us in a conversation about integrating the complexities of the human condition.</p><p><strong><strong>Practical/managerial implications:</strong> </strong>The findings were linked to Deo Str&uuml;mpfer&rsquo;s work, indicating that Positive Psychology originated in early 20th century psychology, which is indeed not about simplification, but is imbedded in the complexity of various behavioural continua.</p><p><strong><strong>Contribution/value-add:</strong> </strong>Academics, students and organisational consultants are encouraged to revisit Str&uuml;mpfer&rsquo;s work to ensure that this psychology is appreciated for its depth and quality.</p><p><strong><strong>How to cite this article:</strong><br /> </strong>Cilliers, F., &amp; May, M. (2010). The popularisation of Positive Psychology as a defence against behavioural complexity in research and organisations. <em>SA Journal of Industrial Psychology/SA Tydskrif vir Bedryfsielkunde, 36</em>(2), Art. #917, 10 pages. DOI: 10.4102/sajip.v36i2.917</p>