Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2003. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI Company.

Thesis (Th. M.)--Dallas Theological Seminary, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 95-96).

Thesis (M.A.)--York University, 2002. Graduate Programme in Psychology. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 127-136). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/yorku/fullcit?pMQ71583.

This thesis is an empirical study on the phenomenon of compensated dating [hereafter known as CD] in Hong Kong. It examines the lived experiences of CD participants and their self-understandings of their identities and behaviors. Drawing from formal in-depth interviews with 30 male clients and 12 young women who provided CD, cyber ethnography of a major online CD forum, informal conversations with CD participants and offline participant observations of various types of non-commercial and non-sexual social gatherings amongst groups of CD participants from the period between March 2010 and December 2012, this thesis examines why and how individuals come to be involved in CD, how they form intimacies in the context of CD and the nature of these intimacies. In the process, it illuminates the emerging social phenomenon of CD in light of the transformation of intimacy, plastic sexuality, new female and male biographies, gender relationships, the advance of information technology, and various social changes in an increasing fragmented and risky society as we enter into the world of late modernity. This thesis argues that CD participants perceive CD as a space for practicing plastic sexuality rather than a form of prostitution. The fact that sex does not necessarily happen in CD, the dynamic interactions amongst CD participants, and the changes of conventional sexual script from a marital, reproductive and monogamous one to a non-marital, non-reproductive, recreational, non-monogamous and even emotionally indifferent one make the CD script more like the mainstream sexual script in late modernity and less like the traditional commercial sexual script. The resemblance between the CD script and modern intimacy serves as a major rationale for CD participants to justify their CD behaviors. This thesis also argues that male clients of CD desire more than just bounded authenticity and that CD relationship is a complex and dynamic interpersonal relationship rather than a simple and static seller-buyer relationship because more often than not, CD participants extend their relationships beyond a bounded, commercial sexual context to an unbounded, non-commercial social context. This thesis examines the factors that facilitate CD participants to transform an impersonal and bounded commercial relationship to a genuine and unbounded interpersonal and/or romantic relationship. This thesis concludes that although CD relationships may be ephemeral, precarious and founded on economic elements, so too are many conventional relationships in modern society. There is an increasing intellectual tension to demarcate between CD relations and conventional intimate relations because while the former underscores the romantic and reciprocal qualities of the later, the later also reflects the recreational, economic and unstable elements of the former. Although plastic sexuality, the transformation of intimacy and various consequences of modernity are not in themselves the causes of the emergence of CD, they do create the contexts of an environment that is favorable to the development and growth of the CD phenomenon. / published_or_final_version / Sociology / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

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The purpose of this study was to replicate the findings of McDonald and McKinney (1988) who found a significant relationship between low self-esteem and exclusive dating among high school students. Its purpose was also to study components that might lead an adolescent with low self-esteem to seek a steady dating relationship and to discern if any gender differences in this compensation occurred. Measures designed to determine: activity involvement; dating status; the person (parent or peer) an adolescent was most likely to talk to; and self-esteem were administered to 122 high school students. Analysis did not replicate the original findings by McDonald and McKinney. Also the only variable found to have a significiant interaction with self-esteem was activity involvement. Interesting gender differences were found in the relationship between who a person talks to and dating style. Boys, who were involved in an exclusive or steady dating relationship, were significantly more likely to turn to peers for conversation than were boys not involved in this type of dating. No such relationship existed for girls, however. It is hypothesized that population differences lead to the non-replication of the previous study and that for some boys, intimacy may only be found in the dating relationship. / Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services

Thesis (M.A.)--Bowling Green State University, 2007. / Document formatted into pages; contains v, 57 p. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2009. / Title from title screen (site viewed May 5, 2009). PDF text: iv, 194 p. ; 459 K. UMI publication number: AAT 3344727. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in microfilm and microfiche formats.