Die verband tussen psigologiese welstand en kognitiewe buigsaamheid by adolessente

[摘要] English: The primary aim of this study was to investigate the relatioship between cognitive flexibility and psychological wellbeing amongst adolescents empirically, as well as to determine the role of sex and culture as possible predictive variables. Cognitive flexibility was theoretically explored and defined as a cognitive process, characterised by plasticity, elasticity and pliancy, as well as an ability that simultaneously leads to the reconstruction of information and facilitation of problem solving.Adolescence as developmental phase was theoretically explored. Specific attention was given to the potential role of cognitive flexibility regarding problematic developmental tasks, especially within the current South African context and in connection with the adolescent's experience of psychological wellbeing. Psychological wellbeing was also theoretically examined within the context of the science of psychofortology. Psychological wellbeing is defined as a dynamic state of being at the highest position on the continuum of human functioning. The following constructs were used to determine psychological wellbeing: satisfaction with life, sense of coherence and fortitude.The empirical research conducted amongst schools of the National Department of Education in the Eastern Cape, Gauteng province and Mpumalanga during 2001, amongst others yielded information regarding the psychological wellbeing and cognitive flexibility of a study sample of 1203 grade 11 and grade 12 learners. During 2002 the research sample was enlarged by means of 271 additional adolescents from two schools in Potchefstroom (Northwest Province) with an African language as their mother tongue. All the grade 11 and grade 12 learners of these two schools were included in the study and the necessary consent was obtained.The psychological wellbeing of the study sample was determined by means of the Satisfaction with Life Scale (Diener, Emmons, Larsen & Griffen, 1985), the Fortitude Questionnaire (Pretorius, 1997) and the Sense of Coherence Scale (Antonovsky, 1988). Cognitive flexibility was measured by the Cognitive Flexibility Scale (Martin & Rubin, 1995). Acceptable reliability and validity indices for all the measurements were obtained.It was found that a negative correlation exists between the cognitive flexibility and sense of coherence of the adolescents in the study sample. A difference was also found between the two sexes; no meaningful correlation was found between the cognitive flexibility scores of girls and the three factors measured for psychological wellbeing, whilst the scores of boys statistically correlate meaningfully with all three factors for psychological wellbeing, though negatively. A difference was also found to exist between the two language (cultural) groupings. In the case of Afrikaans speaking learners, a positive correlation was found, whereas a negative correlation was found amongst the speakers of an African language.The importance of culture, life context as well as the spirit of the time upon the functioning of the individual has been confirmed in this study - to such an extent that well established Western theories of cognitive functioning and psychological well-being can indeed be questioned when evaluated within the African context.From the results obtained, recommendations were made for future research. The manifestation of cognitive flexibility amongst different cultures and males and females respectively, as well as the prevalence thereof during later developmental stages should be further investigated.

[发布机构] University of the Free State