Thesis (M.A.)--West Virginia University, 2003. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains viii, 50 p. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 28-34).

This research targets the gender differences in the use of utterance-final particles in Cantonese with respect to the act of sajiao (撒嬌) under the speech act framework proposed by J. L. Austin. Sajiao is defined as the adorable petulance of a spoiled child or young woman who seeks material or immaterial benefits from an unwilling listener. It is hypothesized in this study that the use of utterance-final particles is not generally gender-linked. It is further suggested that some of the utterance-final particles are loaded with gender features which could feminize the utterances, thus performing the act of sajiao. This research has identified five utterance-final particles, including a newly emerged particle that has never been examined in the previous literature, which are believed to be gender-linked, namely 添 “tim1”, LU “lu3”, 噃 “bo3”, 喇喎 “laa3wo3” and 咖呵 “gaa3ho2”, and it has also analyzed meanings that are denoted by these five particles and the two genders’ usage of them. The investigator proposed that the first three particles could help soften the tone of an utterance, while at the same time, they add cuteness, so that the speakers present a more amiable impression of themselves, and thus could help them please or flatter the opposite sex. The two utterance-final particle clusters 喇喎 “laa3wo3” and 咖呵 “gaa3ho2”, on the other hand, are related to implicit demands. By skillfully employing these seemingly softer particles, female speakers could make the men who are appeared to be stronger to yield and satisfy their demands without creating any hard feelings. / published_or_final_version / Linguistics / Master / Master of Arts

 Rumination is generally defined as a repetition of a theme in thoughts. Rumination has been consistently associated with psychopathologies. Among these psychopathologies, the relationship between depression and rumination is likely the most widely researched. Rumination was found able to predict onset of depression and duration of depressive symptoms. Rumination was also suggested to be a maladaptive coping to stress and distress, which enhance avoidant coping strategies and then further increase depression. Hence, understanding the neural basis of rumination would shed important insight into the mechanisms underpinning the regulation and dysregulation of emotion that would guide the development of cost-effective interventions. Study One was conducted to understand the sex-related differences in the rumination subtypes’ relationships with negative affect and avoidance. Thirty-six healthy participants (23 females, 13 males) were recruited in the community. We found a positive association between brooding and negative affect in both males and females. We also found, as hypothesized, a positive association between brooding and avoidance, and a negative association between reflective pondering and depression in females. A negative association between reflective pondering and avoidance was also found in males. However, reflective pondering was found to be positively associated with depression in males in this study. The findings suggest a gender difference in their emotional regulation. The brain structural correlation with this sex-related behavioral data was investigated through a voxel-based morphometry study. The sex-related difference of rumination subtypes and their relationship with negative affect, avoidance and brain volumes were explored. We found males having a larger gray matter volume over left anterior cingulate than females, and gray matter volume of this region was found to be associated with brooding in the literature. A significant interaction effect of gender and brooding was found over gray matter volume of left lateral parietal, while a significant interaction effect of gender and reflective pondering was found over gray matter volume of the several frontal regions. Consistent with the behavioral study findings, the left inferior temporal, left postcentral and right anterior cingulate were found to be associated with the significant associations between rumination and negative affect found in Study One. We also found the left inferior temporal and right precentral positively associated with brooding and behavioral-nonsocial avoidance in females. This was also found to be consistent with results from Study One. In this study, the sex-related differences among rumination, negative affect and avoidant coping strategies were found to be correlated to the regional gray matter volumes. These findings do not only help us better understand the neural associates behind the sex-related behavioral differences often discussed and found in previous studies, they also give us further information and direction on the management plans of the emotional and avoidance problems associated with rumination. / published_or_final_version / Psychology / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

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Changing demographic characteristics of the American workforce include increased levels of education and increased numbers of females. In 1979, females became a majority in the workforce and in higher education. Little research has been conducted on the impact of education and gender on job satisfaction since these changes have occurred. The purpose of this study was to investigate the differences in job satisfaction associated with level of education and gender. The data of the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972 were used to answer the research questions: (1) Were there significant differences among education levels when measured by any of three measures of job satisfaction? and (2) Were there significant differences between males and females on any of the three measures of job satisfaction? Three levels of education were used, these were: high school graduate, two year college graduate, and four-year college graduate were the independent variable for education. Since the literature indicated job level, ability, and socioeconomic status could influence job satisfaction, they were included in the analysis as covariates. Multivariate analyses were used to determine whether education, gender or the interaction of these independent variables resulted in significant differences in any of the three measures of job satisfaction. The multivariate analyses indicated that there were significant differences for both level of education and for gender on the job satisfaction variables considered simultaneously. There was no significant interaction between the education and gender variables. Univariate analyses indicated that there were significant differences for both education and gender on the internal job satisfaction measure, but not on the external or overall measures. The Scheffe post hoc test was used to identify which levels of the education variable were responsible for the significant differences found. Two-year college graduates and four-year college graduates were found to be more satisfied with the internal aspects of their jobs than high school graduates. Similarly, males were found to be more satisfied with the internal aspects of their jobs than were females.

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This study argues that gender is a significant factor to consider in investigations of political opinions and presents evidence of the relevance of gender to support for various issues and in the social construction of opinion. Moreover, it argues that the patterning of women's and men's opinions, and differences in the sources of those opinions, point to a difference in political cultures: a women's political culture and a men's political culture. Using survey evidence gathered at the time of the 1988 Canadian federal election, the study follows three separate investigative paths in an attempt to uncover the existence of distinctive political cultures. The first path investigates gender gaps in opinions at the time of the election and links these findings to earlier work suggesting the existence of a women's agape ethos, their weaker hawkishness, and their weaker support of continentalism. It is shown that controls for women's lower average incomes, their lesser educational attainment, their greater support of feminism, and gender roles do not fully account for differences in women's and men's attitudes. Moreover, evidence is addressed of women's greater religious fundamentalism, which often works in such a fashion on attitudes as to attenuate gender gaps in opinions. The second path investigates the social structure of women's and men's opinions and finds that despite the similarity of opinion on a number of issues, divergence appears in the sources of opinion. The influence of economic self-interest, age cohort, region, social group memberships, religious fundamentalism and feminism are found to vary between women and men across a number of issues. The third and final path elaborates on opinion structure by the investigation of women's and men's belief systems, that is the connections between various opinions and the manner in which these connections are hierarchical. Although women's and men's belief systems are very similar, the positioning of feininist belief differs by gender. For women, regardless of their level of political sophistication, feminism is connected to the most basic ideological belief, economic liberalism. For men, however, ferninism is only connected with ideological belief among the politically sophisticated. The study links this evidence to the existence of a women's political culture and argues that it stems partially from each gender's socialization, but that it is a culture in transition. The weakening of religious belief generally is likely to result in larger gender gaps in opinion in the future.

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