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This research study explores the interlinkages of three major themes, namely transcultural romantic love relationships (TRLRs), sense of coherence (SOC), and identity development (ID) in individuals who are presently involved in romantic love relationships (RLR) with partners from different cultural or ethnic backgrounds. The study uses a qualitative research design within the hermeneutical interpretative research paradigm, aiming to understand the interlinkages of TRLR, SOC, and ID. Based on purposive and snowball sampling techniques, the study includes 22 participants (12 female and 10 male) between 23 and 68 years of age, from 14 different (self-defined) cultural backgrounds. At the time of the interview, participants had been in TRLRs for at least 6 months to a maximum of 26 years. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and analysed through content analysis. Qualitative quality criteria and ethical considerations were applied. The findings show that TRLRs are firmly based on relationship qualities, strong feelings, common actions, spirituality, and future orientation. Further, the findings present clear interlinkages between TRLR and SOC, contributing positively to meaningfulness, manageability, and comprehensibility. Finally, TRLRs support SOC on intrapersonal, cultural, and interpersonal levels. In addition, they influence the development of identity awareness, actions, feelings, and sexual SOC. Conclusions, limitations, and recommendations for theory and practice are provided.

This book introduces the topic of intercultural mediation and conflict management. Based on the latest scientific research and successful conflict management practices, it provides theoretical insights and practical, self-reflective exercises, role-plays and case studies on conflict, mediation, intercultural mediation, and solution-finding in conflict mediation. The book serves both as a self-learning tool to expand personal competences and cultural sensitivity, and as training material for seminars, workshops, secondary, advanced and higher education and vocational training. It is a valuable contribution to the fields of intercultural conflict mediation and conflict management, intercultural communication, intercultural training and coaching. This is a book about practicing – the applied practice of competent conflict crafts in diverse intercultural contexts. Conflict practitioners, mediators, and intercultural trainers would be inspired by Professor Claude-Hélène Mayer’s creative integration of relevant intercultural models with do-able conflict strategies and in reaching intergroup harmony with reflexivity and cultural resonance. --- Professor Stella Ting-Toomey, Human Communication Studies, California State University at Fullerton, USA, and Co-Editor of The SAGE Handbook of Conflict Communication, 2e Given the difficulty and complexity of successful intercultural collaboration and conflict mediation, this is a much-needed addition to cross-cultural positive psychology. It is rich in content and training. I highly recommend it for teaching, corporate training, and for executive coaches. --- Professor Paul T.P. Wong, President International Network on Personal Meaning and President Meaning-Centered Counselling Institute, Toronto, Canada Intercultural conflict resolution is a critically important task in this modern world. This book by Professor Mayer is a welcome handbook on how to use mediation to resolve those conflicts. It should be in the library of every conflict mediator. My congratulations to Professor Mayer for her important work. --- Dan Landis, Founding President, International Academy of Intercultural Research, Affiliate Professor of Psychology, University of Hawaii

This book offers far-reaching insights into perceptions of conflict in South Africa. Claude-Hélène Mayer's approach is remarkable, because she imparts the recollections of numerous people from diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds. The author captures the essence of about one-hundred interviews reflecting disparate attitudes towards social changes in the post-apartheid Republic of South Africa. Unexpected statements - for example, with respect to the continued existence of internalized apartheid - are carefully analyzed and hermeneutically understood. At the beginning of the research, presumptions might have raised expectations for the similarity between the narrative interviews. However, it becomes clear during the reading of this work that each interview was itself unique and each created a unique situation between the interviewer and the interviewee, inviting the reader to listen again and again to the spoken and analyzed words. The thorough, months-long field stays, from 1999 until 2004, emphasize the researcher's exhaustive effort better to understand the perspective of the interviewees. In addition to the book's research-related merits, its data can increase the cultural competence of those readers who are interested in information on specific predominant-cultural standards in present day South Africa. Readers can more fully appreciate how the people in South Africa live a special, dynamic form of their unmatched "unity in diversity."

This is a book about Mori-Joe and the cultural and spiritual journey she embarks on. After spending her formative years in Germany she moves to South Africa with her parents, where exciting new worlds await her. Somehow these worlds are already uncannily familiar to her. Her journey is told in the form of a didactic narrative. It is an amazing story on the one hand, on the other a biographical excerpt that has its roots in a set of profound cross-cultural scenarios. Mori-Joe's story is based on David S. Hoopes' cross-cultural personality development methodologies and cleverly conceptualises this into a humorous and entertaining narrative. Found at the end of the story is a compact, scientific 'user guide' on intercultural personality development with select references to the literature that has been consulted on this subject. The book has been written as a novel in a style that is both palatable to young people and adults alike, as it is to persons in a professional context devoted to the subject of cross-cultural development and learning. It can be adopted by schools and universities as foundational material for an understanding of the subject, as well as for topics like psychobiography and anti-racism. Claude-Hélène Mayer holds a Master and Doctorate in Socio-Cultural Anthropology from the University of Göttingen, Germany, and a Doctorate in Management from Rhodes University, Grahamstown. Her research areas are cross-cultural conflict management, identity, value and health in organisational contexts. She is currently Professor of Intercultural Business Communication at the University of Applied Sciences in Hamburg, Germany, and Senior Research Associate at Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa. PD Dr. habil. Claude-Hélène Mayer, PhD (RU) ist Visiting Professor an der University of South Africa, Pretoria, Distinguished Visiting Professor (2013) und Senior Research Associate an der Rhodes University, Grahamstown, sowie Privatdozentin am Lehrstuhl für Sprachgebrauch und Therapeutische Kommunikation, Europa-Universität Viadrina, Frankfurt (Oder). Sie ist interkulturelle Trainerin, Mediatorin & Ausbilderin für Mediation (BM), systemische Beraterin (NIS) und systemische Familientherapeutin (SG), Hypnosetherapeutin (TIM) und integrierte Lerntherapeutin (ILT). Ihre Forschungsthemen sind interkulturelle Gesundheit in Organisationen, interkulturelles Konfliktmanagement und Mediation sowie Beratung. Sie ist Autorin mehrerer Kinderbücher, Fachbücher, wissenschaftlicher Artikel und Monographien.

This brief explores wildlife crime and its international and culture-specific combat in South Africa from a green psychology perspective, focusing on a specific method of forensic trace recovery by analysing and evaluating the use of gelatine lifters. It provides theoretical and applied insight into visualising and sequential processing of finger-, shoe- and footprints, and environmental traces. It allows the reader in-depth insight into effective methods of international wildlife crime combat, based on the South African perspective. This brief gives theoretical and applied recommendations for international, regional and local actors for successful cooperation on wildlife protection. As global and local programs, actions and law enforcement strategies to combat wildlife crime are gaining strength, forensic trace evidence is a useful method for investigative and preventive success. This brief will be useful for students and researchers in forensic science, wildlife crime, green criminology, as well as for law enforcement and international actors combating wildlife crime practically on both international and local levels.

"Even if it's easy to forget, in a research landscape dominated by statistics, psychology is the science of human beings and, in order to understand humans, we need to understand their life stories. Psychobiographical investigations, with their focus on meaning-making and identity construction, were instrumental for developing some of the discipline's best known theories. And yet, the qualitative and sociocultural investigation of the lifecourse is rarely visible today. To its credit, the present volume foregrounds this topic and illustrates it with rich and complex cases, reminding us all of the place and value of one of psychology's oldest methods." Vlad P. Glaveanu, Webster University Geneva, Switzerland & University of Bergen, Norway This book explores psychobiography with focus on meaning making and identity development in the life and works of extraordinary individuals. Meaning-making and identity development are existential constructs influencing psychological development, mental health and wellbeing across the lifecourse. The chapters illustrate through the eyes of 25 international psychobiographers various theoretical and methodological approaches to psychobiography. They explore how individuals, such as Angela Merkel, Karl Lagerfeld, Henri Nouwen, Vivian Maier, Charles Baudelaire, W.E.B. du Bois, Loránt Hegedüs, Kim Philby, Zoltan Paul Dienes, Albertina Sisulu, Ruth First, Sokrates, and Jesus construct their lives to make meaning, develop their identities and grow as individuals within their sociocultural contexts. The texts provide deep insight into life's development. Claude-Hélène Mayer is Professor in Industrial and Organisational Psychology at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa. Her research interests are psychobiography, transcultural mental health and salutogenesis, women in leadership, and shame. Paul, J.P. Fouché is Professor of Counselling Psychology, Department of Psychology at University of the Free State, South Africa. Paul has published numerous articles on psychobiography. He supervises post-graduate scholars undertaking life history research. Roelf Van Niekerk is a registered Clinical and Industrial Psychologist as well as a Master Human Resource Practitioner. He is currently Director at the School of Industrial Psychology and Human Resources at Nelson Mandela University, South Africa. .

This book is a psychobiography on the life of Viktor Frankl and a unique exploration of his life from a positive psychology perspective. It uses Paul Wong’s theory of positive psychology wave 2 (PP2.0) and explores the concepts of meaning and virtue throughout Frankl's life span. The authors define virtue in terms of appreciation of beauty, gratitude, hope, humour and spirituality, and define meaning based on Paul Wong’s PURE model. They apply Irving Alexander’s primary indicators of psychological salience and W.T. Schultz’s prototypical scenes to analyse Frankl's important life events. This psychobiography presents an original contribution to theory on three levels: advancing the literature in psychobiography, developing the field of PP2.0, and providing new insights into Frankl’s life. It is a must for psychographers, positive psychologists and people interested in Frankl’s life and theoretical contributions.

Möchten Sie interkulturelle Kompetenzen erwerben, die Ihnen insbesondere in Verhandlungen und Konfliktsituationen neue Perspektiven und Handlungsoptionen eröffnen? Dieses Buch gibt Aufschluss über Verfahren der Mediation in westlichen und interkulturellen Kontexten. Die Leserschaft erfährt die Besonderheiten von Mediation und Konfliktbearbeitung in deutsch-afrikanischen Interaktionen. Schließlich geben die Autoren einführende Trainingsmethoden an die Hand, die für all diejenigen notwendig sind, die verantwortungsvoll in interkulturellen Kontexten arbeiten wollen. Der konstruktivistische Ansatz des Buches bringt neue Aspekte und Perspektiven in die Wahrnehmung deutsch-afrikanischer Wirklichkeiten und in die aktuelle Diskussion um interkulturelles Konfliktmanagement. Claude-Hélène Mayer ist Professorin für Industrial and Organisational Psychology am Department for Industrial Psychology and People Management, University of Johannesburg, Südafrika. Sie ist zudem Privatdozentin am Institut für Sprachgebrauch und Therapeutische Kommunikation an der Europa Universität Viadrina, Frankfurt (Oder), in Deutschland und Senior Research Associate an der Rhodes University, Grahamstown, Südafrika. International arbeitet sie als Mediatorin und Ausbilderin für Mediation (BM), als interkulturelle Trainerin, systemische Beraterin, Therapeutin und Lehrtherapeutin (SG, DGSF). Weiterhin ist sie weltweit in der internationalen Unternehmensberatung tätig. Ihre Forschung schließt Themen wie Frauen in Führung, interkulturelle Mediation und Konfliktmanagement, Gesundheit in Organisationen und Scham ein. Mayer, Claude-Hélène, (Dr. habil., PhD, PhD) is a Professor in Industrial and Organisational Psychology at the Department of Industrial Psychology and People Management at the University of Johannesburg, an Adjunct Professor at the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder), Germany and a Senior Research Associate at Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa. She holds a Ph.D. in psychology (University of Pretoria, South Africa), a Ph.D. in management (Rhodes University, South Africa), a doctorate (Georg-August University, Germany) in political sciences (socio-cultural anthropology and intercultural didactics), and a habilitation (European University Viadrina, Germany) in psychology with focus on work, organizational, and cultural psychology. She has published several monographs, text collections, accredited journal articles, and special issues on transcultural mental health, sense of coherence, shame, culture and health, transcultural conflict management and mediation, women in leadership in culturally diverse work contexts, constellation work, coaching, and psychobiography.

Die »systemischen Sternstunden« vermitteln neuartige Denkansätze und inspirierende Tools für systemische Praktiker:innen, die neue Anregungen suchen, noch mehr in den Austausch mit anderen gehen wollen und tiefere Verbindungen erfahren möchten. In sieben kurzen und prägnanten Kapiteln präsentiert Claude-Hélène Mayer diese innovativen Themen und Tools: •Ikigai: Ein japanisches Konzept zur Sinnfindung im Therapieraum •Sinnlosigkeit und Fußball: Albert Camus ganz praktisch •TTT: Technologie – Tiefe Beziehung – Therapie •Die Liebe: Kulturelle Perspektiven auf ein Gefühl •Unter der Oberfläche: Systemdynamiken durchschauen •Die Theorie des Terrors oder was wir alles tun, um unsterblich zu werden •Treebathing: Die Natur neu erleben Jedes Kapitel gibt einen knappen theoretischen und praktischen Einblick in das jeweilige Thema, stellt den Bezug zur systemischen Praxis her und verdeutlicht diesen in Anwendungsbeispielen und Best Practices. Ergänzende Reflexionsfragen können Berater:innen für sich selbst nutzen oder in systemischen Therapie- und Beratungsprozessen einsetzen. Gerade wenn es im beraterischen und therapeutischen Alltag herausfordernd wird: Diese Zusammenstellung von überraschenden Interventionen und cleveren Tools bringt frischen Wind hinein.

Das Trainingshandbuch der Autorin Claude-Hélène Mayer, nun in dritter, aktualisierter Auflage, stellt den Themenkomplex der interkulturellen Mediation in Form trainingsorientierter und praxisnaher, kurzer theoretischer Inputs und praktischer, selbstreflexiver Übungen dar. Dabei gliedert sich das Buch in vier aufeinander aufbauende und doch einzeln anwendbare Bausteine: Konflikt, Mediation, interkulturelle Mediation und Lösungsoptionen. Die Bausteine sind als Trainingsmaterialien für Seminare, Workshops, Weiter- und Ausbildungen in den Bereichen interkultureller Konfliktlösung und Mediation und in interkulturellen Trainings und Coachings einsetzbar. Sie stellen außerdem Materialien für den Einsatz in der schulischen bzw. universitären Arbeit zur interkulturellen Kommunikation und Konfliktlösung bereit. Darüber hinaus können sie als autodidaktische Lernmaterialien für all Personen dienen, die im Bereich von Training, Beratung, Coaching, Lehre und Mediation ihre persönlichen Kompetenzen für die interkulturelle Praxis erweitern möchten. Claude-Hélène Mayer ist Professorin für Human Resource Management am Department for Industrial Psychology and People Management, University of Johannesburg, Südafrika. Sie ist zudem Privatdozentin am Institut für Sprachgebrauch und Therapeutische Kommunikation an der Europa Universität Viadrina, Frankfurt (Oder), in Deutschland und Senior Research Associate an der Rhodes University, Grahamstown, Südafrika. International arbeitet sie als Mediatorin und Ausbilderin für Mediation (BM), als interkulturelle Trainerin, systemische Beraterin, Therapeutin und Lehrtherapeutin (SG, DGSF). Weiterhin ist sie weltweit in der internationalen Unternehmensberatung tätig. Ihre Forschung schließt Themen wie Frauen in Führung, interkulturelle Mediation und Konfliktmanagement, Gesundheit in Organisationen und Scham ein. Claude-He?le?ne Mayer holds a Doctorate in Socio-Cultural Anthropology, University of Go?ttingen, Germany, a PhD in Management, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa, a PhD in Psychology, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa. Her Venia Legendi is in Psychology with focus on Work, Organisation and Cultural Psychology. Her research areas are transcultural conflict management and mediation, mental health/salutogenesis and women in leadership. She is currently an Adjunct Professor at the European University in Frankfurt (Oder), Germany, and Senior Research Associate at Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa. She has also published several children's books.