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| With the group "Personality, mental health and culture" you can choose a topic and further develop the study together with the team. If you are interested, please contact the indicated (co-)supervisor. In addition to a brief CV, please include a brief explanation about your motivation to work on this topic. The master thesis may only be booked after consultation with the (co-)supervisor. It is recommended to book the master thesis parallel to the research colloquium 2. Bei Interesse wenden Sie sich bitte an eine der genannten Kontaktpersonen. (Bitte fügen Sie Ihrer Bewerbung für eine Masterarbeit neben einem kurzen Lebenslauf auch ein kurzes Motivationsschreiben bei, in welchem Sie erklären, warum Sie sich für das Forschungsprojekt bewerben) |
Durch Klick auf die einzelnen Themen werden die Detail-Informationen angezeigt.
offen:
Beschreibung: In our team's preliminary work on disorder symptoms in Namibia, we identified different views and patterns of alcohol use compared to European and other Western contexts. This includes different attitudes, motivations, and community reactions. Here qualitative analysis of interviews with 48 interviews Ovambo young adults in Namibia will explore experiences with and motivations for drinking, in order to understand the ways that choices and habits are formed. The study is expected to make a useful contribution to (a) the international literature on drinking motivations (e.g. Cooper, 1994; Cooper et al, 2003; Cooper et al., 2015) by providing the contrast of a sample from an African country, and (b) aid clinicians and public health officials in Namibia seeking to reduce harmful alcohol use in the country.
Method: Likely using content analysis, but possibly reflexive thematic analysis if preferred
Mentored by Selma Uugwanga, but contact Daniel Hofmann until November 15, 2024
Kontakt: Selma Uugwanga, E-Mail
Beschreibung: A group of in-depth qualitative interviews with young adults of several ethno-linguistic groups and life experiences were interviewed in Namibia. These emerging adults described their childhood experiences, current lives, and their hopes and aspirations for the future. Portions of the interviews can be used for qualitative studies with different focal questions. Reflexive thematic analysis will be taught and mentored.
One topic of particular interest are their views of family and their hopes for children and marriage. In this more matrilineal context, where pre-marital parenthood is common, virtually all interviewees reported wanting to have children, but they were much more ambivalent about marriage. How does this fit in to cultural norms in Namibia, and what does it mean for these young people?
Another topic of interest, to be co-supervised by Jeffrey Jensen Arnett, is religion, faith, and spirituality. This topic was of great importance to the group of interviewees, who described views and experiences related to Christianity as well as to traditional African beliefs and practices.
Kontakt: Daniel Hofmann, E-Mail
Beschreibung: Many variables have been identified to described psychological differences between cultural groups. An initial emphasis was on distinguishing Western contexts from the far East, or from the rest of the world. Recent work makes better distinctions among other world regions. The proposed thesis uses a variety of variables administered to Africa Long Life Study participants in Kenya, Namibia and South Africa https://www.psychology.uzh.ch/en/areas/sob/psyges/research/alls.html for an analytically simple exploratory study of cultural differences within Africa. Africa is home to nearly 2000 ethno-linguistic groups, 50 of which are represented in our study. This project will use methods like those in Saucier et al (2015) to identify the best predictors of group differences, defined by country, language group, and other factors (SES, traditional rural vs. urban lifestyle, etc.).
Saucier, G., Kenner, J., Iurino, K., Malham, P. B., Chen, Z., Thalmayer, A. G., ... & Altschul, C. (2015). Cross-cultural differences in a global" Survey of World Views". Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 46(1).
Kontakt: Selma Uugwanga, E-Mail
Beschreibung: The impact of cultural context on psychology and health is increasingly recognized, and psychological studies ideally include adequate description of participant socio-demographic characteristics to understand the potential role of background and context on the variables of interest. The great diversity of Sub-Saharan Africa, however, has not yet been well quantified for explanation in psychological studies. In addition to 2,000 language groups, Sub-Saharan Africa is home to communities living traditionally as hunter-gatherers, subsistence farmers, or pastoralists, as well as to giant urban centers that in turn range from luxury to slums. The region has seen many economic and political changes in the last decades, including increased market integration, rural-urban migration and access to education, as well as the highest income inequality in the world. Individual lives may be dynamic and include mixtures of rural and urban, traditional and globalized elements. This thesis project will seek ways to better quantify, describe, and understand lifestyle differences relevant to psychology among the Africa Long Life Study participants, young adults from throughout Namibia, Kenya and/or South Africa. Specifically, the thesis will explore the concepts of ?market integration? (food sources while growing upo f how) and urbanicity as well as other complementary ways to explore and describe the diversity of the sample, including exploration in data and literature as to how these may relate to psychological factors, e.g. mental health and life satisfaction.
Novak NL, Allender S, Scarborough P, West D. The development and validation of an urbanicity scale in a multi-country study. BMC Public Health. 2012 Jul 20;12:530. doi: 10.1186/1471-2458-12-530. PMID: 22818019; PMCID: PMC3554435
Kontakt: Selma Uugwanga, E-Mail
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