Abstract
M.Ed.
Educational psychology honours students and Theraplay: a relational case inquiry.
The South African community is moving towards fundamental socio-and-political
restructuring. Part of the restructuring process is establishing suitable psychological
intervention for the needy black child. From the researcher's understanding of the black child's
need and knowledge of the different types of play therapies, the research question pertaining
to how black students would relate to Theraplay emerged.
The aim of the study was to investigate how black students relate to the proposed Theraplay
principles. The method of investigation entailed superimposing a training model onto a
research format in order to train and simultaneously observe the students relating to
Theraplay. The five training phases of the model served as template to five observation
opportunities for data collection.
The data were analysed and consolidated in order to arrive at eight final categories. These
eight categories were interpreted in relation to the proposed Theraplay principles, and black
philosophy, in order to draw conclusions on how the students related to Theraplay. The
research found that the students related well to the Theraplay principles of nurturing,
intrusion, structuring and using the child as play object. The students related poorly, however,
to the Theraplay principles of challenging, differentiating, playing in the "here-and-now" and
controlling the sessions.
Implications ofthe findings for practice, for educational psychology and for research are stated
in conclusion to the inquiry.