Thesis (Psy.D.)--Rutgers University, 2009. / "Graduate Program in Organizational Psychology." Includes bibliographical references (p. 92-94).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oklahoma, 1994. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 183-196).

published_or_final_version / Nursing Studies / Master / Master of Nursing in Advanced Practice

Cooperative marriage is a heterosexual marriage negotiated and performed by a lala (a woman with same-sex desire) and a gay man. Building on growing debates on cooperative marriage within the tongzhi community and on intensifying media and academic attention, this thesis presents an empirical investigation of how gay men and lalas understand their experiences while in cooperative marriage. The study is based on in-depth interviews, participant observation and focus group interviews of twenty-two gay men and lalas in cooperative marriage distributed across five cities in China: Beijing, Shenyang, Hangzhou, Guangzhou and Foshan. Among the questions addressed are: Why do gay men and lalas opt for this particular type of marriage? What are the lived experiences of sexual minorities facing cultural and institutional discrimination in China? What are the main living strategies and styles they adopt to cope with such discrimination? The study also explores different ways of relating to others and some novel intimate practices emerging. It is shown that, in general, these are not in harmony with the heteronormative values that are dominating society today. The new ways and practices are therefore challenging criticism from liberal rights activists, particularly with regard to issues such as coming out. I identify four types of orientations of gay men and lalas towards cooperative marriage: familial, individual, pragmatic, and idealistic. These reveal how gay men and lalas understand their relations to other main players in their lives and strategize accordingly. Among the characteristics playing key roles in their decision making are gender, being the single child of the family and co-residence with the parents in the same city (local vs. non-local). It is shown that the lives of gay men and lalas in cooperative marriage are being complicated by the need to negotiate multiple relationships, e.g., with the marital partner, the same-sex partner, the marital partner’s partner, the natal family, the in-laws, and the gay community around. I also theorize on the major types of politics of intimate relationships engaged in by gay men and lalas as they craft their living spaces while in cooperative marriage. Finally, I demonstrate that cooperative marriage has led to a new sub-cultural tongzhi movement where gay men and lalas build on the rapport they have developed with each other; e.g., they share information and experiences while participating in semi-open public discussions and matchmaking events. This is leading to emergent types of new ethics within the community which have critically challenged the stereo types and dominant narratives on tongzhi strategizing. / published_or_final_version / Social Work and Social Administration / Master / Master of Philosophy

As Student Affairs has developed as a profession, scholars and practitioners have identified deficiencies in classical identity development theory pertaining to women; gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, or trans-gendered people; people of color, people with disabilities; and other historically underrepresented identities. Further, the school of thought is that student development theory is primarily based on research subjects who are middle/upper-class Caucasian men and thus is applicable to this population primarily. Thus, newer scholarship has emerged to explain identity development in particular minority groups and women. This project argues that classical theory not only fails to capture salient developmental processes of marginalized groups, but in fact fails to capture elements of male identity development. While the theories are gendered male per se (due to the subjects studied), they are resonant with hegemonic (socially constructed and imposed) masculinity rather than an authentic human masculine identity. There are consequences to this for men and women.The Student Affairs field has established knowledge, values, and best practices, which is inculcated into new practitioners through the professional socialization process. The purpose of this constructivist inquiry was to examine this process, its underlying values and norms, and its effect on professionals' conceptions of male students. Seventeen Residence Hall Directors with graduate degrees in Student Development or related disciplines were interviewed about their socialization into the field, thoughts about male students, and reactions to a case example depicting an incident on a college campus. Findings suggest a lack of theoretical or conceptual understanding of male gender identities, and consequently a difficulty in viewing male students developmentally. Moreover, without such understanding, new professionals' conception of marginalized identities can unwittingly reify rather than interrupt stratification and privilege.

Introduction: Human papillomavirus (HPV) is the sexually transmitted etiologic agent of cervical cancer. While HPV infects both men and women, little is known about HPV infection in men. Specifically, knowledge of the prevalence of type-specific HPV infection and the distribution of these infections by anogenital anatomic site in men is incomplete. Evaluation of factors associated with HPV infection based on complete anogenital sampling and with HPV-16 antibody detection may lead to a better understanding of HPV transmission and prevention.Methods: A total of 493 asymptomatic men ages 18 to 40 years old were recruited in Tucson, Arizona, and Tampa, Florida, from 2003 to 2006. Eligibility requirements included having had sex with a woman within the past year and having no history of genital warts. Testing for HPV from anogenital swabs from six anatomic sites and semen was conducted by PCR and reverse line blot genotyping for 37 HPV types. Serum antibodies for HPV-16 were detected by ELISA. Self-administered demographic, health, and sexual history/behavior questionnaires were collected. HPV prevalence and type distributions by anatomic site were calculated, as was seroprevalence of HPV-16 antibodies. Multivariate logistic regression was used to identify independent risk factors for HPV infection at any anatomic site and for having HPV-16 antibodies.Results: HPV was detected in at least one sample for 303 (65.4%) men, with 29.2% of men having an oncogenic infection and 36.3% having a non-oncogenic infection. Multiple HPV types were detected in 27.2% of men. Factors associated with infection were a greater lifetime number of female sexual partners, currently smoking 10 or more cigarettes per day, lack of condom use, and more sexual partners in the past three months. HPV-16 antibodies were detected in the serum of 63 (12.8%) men, and detection was associated with increasing age and concurrent detection of HPV DNA in perianal or anal canal samples.Discussion: The combination of more complete anogenital sampling and sensitive HPV detection for 37 HPV types resulted in a higher HPV prevalence in asymptomatic men than previously reported. Smoking and condom use were the most important modifiable risk factors for HPV in men. These results have implications for research of HPV transmission.

The phenomena of men and depression is poorly understood. Men continue to be under diagnosed with depression but commit suicide four times the rate of women. This grounded theory study explored the psychosocial processes that occurred in men who suffered from depression. There were a total of nine men who participated in this study who ranged in age, educational level, and marital status. Eleven interviews were conducted with nine men.The theory that emerged from this study was Navigating Inward and Outward Through Depression. The process of navigating was the core concept and defined as a process of moving through depression and having to steer one's life in different directions in order to move in and out of the stages of depression. The first stage was: Being Different. In this stage the men attempted to share their feelings, but were constantly rejected by society came to believe that nobody cared or nobody would understand their feelings. The second stage, Concealing Feelings, refers to how the men learned to navigate out of stage one and into stage two of learning to hide their internal feelings and thoughts. The third stage, Disconnecting, was defined as the way the men would numb their emotional pain. As their emotional pain became more intense, the concealing no longer worked. The men used external behaviors to physically numb their pain. The fourth stage, Hitting Bottom, refers to the men losing hope for their future and wanting to give up on life. The men had thoughts of suicide or thoughts that death would be an option to relieve the emotional pain. The fifth stage, Acknowledging and Confronting, refers to the ability to acknowledge they were depressed and understand how depression was affecting their lives.

There are many researching studies to be found that describes how media relates to men and women differently. Even if it’s a newspaper research or a magazine research they all display the same information. That there are differences in the way that women and men are described or portrayed in articles and pictures. Most of these gender studies are made on a basis of magazines that are mainly intended to men or to women. They all send out messages that the consumer sees as a fact but that really are a construction of the reality. In this research we have studied a movie magazine called Cinema from a gender perspective. The magazine intends to both men and women. One of our main goals was to see if there were any differences between how the men and women are described in Cinema compared to the ones that only are intended to men or women. We have been studying eight articles of well known actors from the magazine Cinema. Four of them are portraits of men and four are portraits of women. We have been using qualitative analysis to study the texts and the pictures in the articles to see if there are any differences in the way that men and women are portrayed. We have also considered and researched if the gender of the writers influences the article and what it is in the portraits that construct genders. The results of our study, points out that there are differences in the way that men and women are portrayed by the magazine Cinema but not to such a great extent as the magazines that are only intended to men or women. But there are still differences. In this study we have been pointing out many of these differences and constructions that make a woman to be seen as a woman and a man to be seen as a man. Hopefully this will help both producers and consumer to become more aware of how the media constructs the reality.

No description available.

Background: Sexual satisfaction is a multidimensional construct encompassing the positive and negative aspects of a sexual relationship and is influenced by many factors. Objectives: To investigate the relationship between body composition (weight (kg), total fat (kg, %) and trunk fat (kg, %)) and sexual satisfaction in young adults while controlling for age, body image, relationship satisfaction, sexual function and sexual frequency. Methods: A cross-sectional sample of 157 young adults completed a series of questionnaires and underwent body composition testing (DXA). Stepwise logistic regression models were tested. Results: For both women and men, trunk fat (kg) but no other body composition variable predicted sexual satisfaction. For women, sexual function had the greatest impact followed by relationship satisfaction, trunk fat (kg) and sexual frequency. For men, relationship satisfaction had the greatest impact followed by sexual frequency, age and trunk fat (kg). Conclusions: Other variables better predict sexual satisfaction than body composition. / Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada