M.Sc. / Please refer to full text to view abstract

The climate of the Wester Ross region of NW Scotland is particularly sensitive to fluctuations in the strength and latitude of the North Atlantic Gulf Stream. This was particularly apparent during the last deglaciation (14.7-12.9 ka), when overall climatic amelioration was interrupted by periods of cooling, the most significant being a 1.2 ka return to glacial conditions during the Younger Dryas (12.9-11.5 ka). Glacial readvances during these cooling episodes left behind numerous geomorphological features, which have been mapped and interpreted through a variety of methods, including fieldwork observations, aerial photography and digital elevation models, to form a detailed reconstruction of the style and timing of deglaciation. These methods were augmented by the study of 3D digital models, produced by combining 5cm resolution, Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) scans with colour photography, leading to the production of a detailed geomorphological map of a cirque formation in Torridon, Wester Ross, which was covered by an ice-sheet at the Last Glacial Maximum, and experienced localised ice flow during subsequent deglaciation and readvances. Six statistically comparable cosmogenic 10Be bedrock exposure ages give a Younger Dryas age for sites in Torridon and Applecross (Wester Ross), and have also been used to constrain the vertical extent of these ice fields. Reconstructions of these ice bodies revealed that the Torridon ice field (mean ELA, 482m) covered ~100km2, over twice the surface area covered by the Applecross ice field (~43km2). This could have resulted from the survival of ice in Torridon prior to the onset of the Younger Dryas cooling, and is tentativelty supported by pre-Younger Dryas cosmogenic 10Be exposure ages from this study and previous studies, which imply that ice existed close to the Wester Ross coastline and within central Torridon between 14-13ka. The Applecross ice field mean ELA (361m) was lowered by the presence of independent glaciers, which formed in low-lying troughs as snow was efficiently transferred to the NE by prevailing SW winds. Using empirical values from a global dataset, average annual Younger Dryas palaeoprecipitation values for the Torridon and Applecross ELAs are 2010 ± 266 and 2312 ± 534 mm a-1 respectively, suggesting a wetter climate than today. Palaeoprecipitation calculated using equations based on a climate model of NW Scotland, yield lower values between 1005 ± 67 mm a-1 and 1758 ± 118 mm a-1 for the Torridon ELA and 1205 ± 233 mm a-1 to 2109 ± 407 mm a-1 for the Applecross ELA, perhaps a more reliable estimate which reflect enhanced continentaility, promoted by the formation of sea ice on the NE Atlantic seaboard during the Younger Dryas.Despite the rapid warming observed in palaeotemperature proxies, studies of glacial geomorphology and basal shear stress suggest that initial deglaciation was slow, oscillatory and warm-based, leading to the formation of prominent retreat moraines in the lower valleys. This prolonged transition can be related to the northward migration of sea ice and the gradual reintroduction of a Gulf Stream-dominated maritime climate. Ice remaining in the central area down-wasted in-situ as the regional ELA increased, creating hummocky landscape. Finally, cosmogenic 10Be exposure ages indicate that glaciers (probably characerised by a polythermal regime) retreated into the high north-facing corries at approximately 11.8ka, depositing a series of flutes.

Online international introduction sites that offer romance tours to American men in search of a foreign bride are an important and rapidly growing component of the internet dating industry; the number of these agencies in the U.S. tripled from two hundred to six hundred in the past 10 years. Previous scholars have examined the so-called ‘mail order bride’ industry in order to demonstrate that the women involved are agents and not victims. Many scholars have also highlighted the importance of race in shaping American men’s desires in one particular region or country. My dissertation provides an important addition to the literature surrounding romance tourism by including participants from all three major regions associated with romance tourism: Eastern Europe, South America, and Southeast Asia. I collected the data for the dissertation by becoming a participant observer of a romance tour in Ukraine, Colombia, and the Philippines. I argue that romance tourism is an important example of the global intimate, and the ways in which globalized processes are created and sustained through everyday intimate emotions and interactions. By examining the ways in which the emotions of desire, disgust, and anxiety influence individual romance tour participant’s constructions of racialized hierarchies, the links between individual emotions and global systems are revealed. The concept of the global intimate challenges the hierarchy of scale that places the body, the home, and the intimate on a much lower level than the scale of the global or the national, and at the same time challenges the binary that divides the individual from the global. Through highlighting the different emotional negotiations that are constantly occurring in the romance tour industry, I highlight the important ways in which individual emotions and affects influence global processes on a large scale and vice versa.

The arena for finding an intimate partner has changed significantly in the 21st century with online love relationships becoming more prevalent. Research indicates that individuals do experience meaningful online romantic love relationships and that these relationships often lead to face to face (FTF) relationships. However, limited research has been done on exploring the experiences of those who are/were involved in online romantic love relationships. Furthermore, research conducted on online love romantic relationships generally fails to investigate how people experience passion online, hereby ignoring this integral component of romantic love. The primary aim of the research study was to explore young adults’ experiences of romantic love relationships in virtual space. More specifically, the study explored how young adults experienced intimacy and passion as elements of romantic love online. The study was viewed from an interpretative paradigm and made use of a qualitative approach. The researcher conducted in-depth, semi-structured interviews with seven participants which were transcribed, and analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). Four superordinate themes were identified, namely, Online Intimacy, Online Romance and Passion, Online Love, and Social Exchange Online. The participants experienced romantic love online and reported that these relationships were very significant, real and impacted on their psychological well-being. The study created a heuristic base that will provide impetus for this emerging field in research.

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Rezension zu Julia Dombrowski: Die Suche nach der Liebe im Netz. Eine Ethnographie des Online-Datings. Bielefeld: Transcript 2011

Will a Lothario Millennial from Jersey commit to love or continue being a fuckboy? Genre: rom com, dramedy

Dating violence among college students has become a pressing concern. However, to date, the bulk of the research in this area has attempted to discern correlates of marital violence. Little research has been paid to the isolation of predictors of violence that occurs early in the relationship. This paper demonstrates the utility of several risk factors identified among male college students in predicting dating violence. Factors included are history of abuse in the family of origin; insecure attachment style as measured by parental attachment and girlfriend attachment; attributional style; anger; and depression. Though it is likely that many other factors predict male dating violence, this study aims to isolate those factors that operate within the framework of history of abuse and insecure attachment. Results indicated the following: 1. History of abuse accounted for a substantial portion of the variance in predicting dating violence. 2. The interaction of attachment to family and partner was related to verbal aggression and abuse toward and from the partner. 3. Attributional style did not significantly predict dating violence beyond history of abuse. 4. Depression was not significantly related to dating violence; however, anger was significantly and directly related to verbal aggression and overall abuse from self toward partner. 5. Results were also discussed in terms of the four abuse criteria, including some notable findings regarding partner attachment style and direction of abuse. In addition, implications for treatment and prevention and suggestions for future research were offered. / Master of Science

Individuals who experience bipolar disorder may have difficulty acquiring and maintaining relationships due to the stigma associated with mental illness. The purpose of this generic qualitative study was to examine the attitudes and perceptions of African American men and women regarding their experiences of dating and relationships with individuals who suffer from bipolar disorder. The theory used in this study was equity theory. The research question for this study explored how African American adults experience relationship acquisition and maintenance with a partner who has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. For this generic qualitative study, there were 12 respondents. Participants were African American adults who had dated or been in a relationship with an individual diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Themes that emerged from this study were sense of relief, sense of fear, unmodified affection, benefits of the relationship, resolution of unfair situations, reluctance to participate in a relationship with an individual diagnosed with bipolar disorder again, and race intensified the relationship. The participants associated acquisition, or the early stages of the relationship, with challenges, especially if they were unaware of the diagnosis in the beginning and could not explain certain behaviors. The results of this study can be used to promote understanding about bipolar disorder and the impact of mental illness on relationships.

This study intended to examine the demographic variables of gender, ethnicity, income, and the perception of success in interethnic/interracial couples. The Interethnic Couples Resource Questionnaire (ICREQ) was created and administered to 153 college students in a predominantly White campus. Other measures administered were the Modern Racism Scale and the Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure. A pilot with Latino/a- White couples on the ICREQ revealed ethnicity not as a variable of interest among 32 college students surveyed. Additional ethnicities were added in the main study. Findings revealed, as in the pilot study, that income was the only significant variable in perception of success. A partial correlation analysis controlling for age revealed no changes in the relationship between income combinations and the Modern Racism Scale. Previous dating history did not moderate the relationship between perceived success across income pairings. The relationship between modern racism and perceived success also remained significant across three of the four income groups. Partial correlations by gender, residential region, and parents' education did not reveal any relationship between modern racism and ratings based on income combinations. Limitations, recommendations, and implications are discussed.