Burnout not only affects psychiatric nurses' ability to provide optimal patient care, but its consequences extend to the nurse's psychological and physical health. Couched in a cognitive-transactional model, the broad aim of the current study was to measure burnout levels for psychiatric nurses and to determine the respective roles of the environment and the individual on burnout levels. Burnout levels were measured using Maslach and Jackson's (1986) Burnout Inventory. Environmental variables measured included work load, collegial support. role conflict and role ambiguity. Finally, Antonovsky's (1987) sense of coherence (SOC) measured the characteristics of the individual. Although burnout levels were generally high, a low sense of personal accomplishment was particularly problematic. Emotional exhaustion and depersonalisation correlated significantly with all factors of the work environment and with the SOC. Personal accomplishment related only to role conflict. Multiple regression analyses showed the sense of coherence and work load to explain a large proportion of both emotional exhaustion and depersonalisation, and role conflict to explain a small but significant amount of the variance in personal accomplishment. Moderated multiple regression analyses added to a growing body of research pointing towards a possible direct effect of the SOC on burnout.

Piagetian and Lurian assessment procedures were employed to evaluate the neurocognitive processes of seven-year-old historically disadvantaged children (n=27), residents of traditionally Black areas who were identified as experiencing learning problems (LP group) in English medium schools. Comparisons were made with a reference group of Black children in the same schools (n=23) currently not experiencing learning problems (NLP). No significant differences were found between factors such as maternal education, occupational status, Home Screening Questionnaire or the amount of English spoken in the homes of the two groups. On Piagetian tasks of conservation and seriation, it was observed that the performances of the NLP group were age appropriate, while the LP children showed a developmental lag, despite the fact that no significant difference was observed on classification tasks. Using Majovski et als (1978) adaptation of Luria's tests, significant differences were noted on all tasks with the exception of Acoustic-Motor organisation and Higher Visual Functions. The results of the Lurian tasks indicated difficulties with basic skills but especially with the regulatory and directional aspects of language which manifested in lower level dysfunctions regarded as prerequisites for gaining higher level skills. The occurrence of different maturation rates and skills for the two groups as shown by Piagetian and Lurian tasks, was also supported by differences obtained on Goodenough's (1929) DAP test (p<.001). Significant correlations were found between conservation and seriation tasks with Lurian functions of motor, acoustic-motor, expressive language, arithmetic and reading /writing skills. The possibility is raised that Piagetian and Lurian approaches can offer greater insight into children's cognitive levels and task performance.