The purpose of this study was to examine the targets and functions of humor in relation to group development processes in order to ascertain if there were any changes and patterns in the way groups use humor as they evolve through developmental stages. Four small groups, consisting of five or six, were videotaped. Tapes were observed and coded by trained observers. Coding categories were incident, target, and social function(s). In addition, observers assessed group development stage via the Group Development Stage Analysis instrument (Carew, Parisi-Carew, Stoner & Blanchard, 1988). Data were also obtained from examination of transcriptions of the videotapes, group participants' journals of the experience, exit interviews, and written exit responses. Combinations of quantitative and qualitative methods were used to analyze the data obtained. By using these approaches, observable phenomena were linked with participant experience and perception to ascertain connections of humor to group dynamics. All of the groups manifested similar patterns in the functional use of humor in relation to group development stages. Evidence of discernable "humor stages" (Just Joking, Evoking, Yoking, Poking) was identified and delineated. The stages reflect the unfolding of both overt and underlying relationship issues present within a group as it develops. The results of this study should offer a greater understanding of changes in the way groups use humor in relation to developmental processes. This is particularly important in helping people learn to use humor in more constructive ways, such as enhancing creativity and reaching consensus, and to prevent destructive uses of humor, such as perpetuating stereotypes and scapegoating.

<p> A robust body of research has identified three primary life experiences that foster a lasting commitment to active care for the environment. These are: time spent enjoying nature, especially during childhood; a close, often familial, role model for nature appreciation; and participation in a nature or environment focused organization that offers direct learning opportunities. Family nature clubs (FNCs) bring groups of families together to explore nature on a regular basis &ndash; thus fulfilling all three of these experiences. This study used ecological psychology, attachment and family systems theories, and community psychology to create a framework for understanding how these experiences can come together in the form of FNCs to foster pro-environmental behavior as well as individual, familial, and community well-being. The methodologies of ethnography, case study and action research and the methods of direct observation, surveys, and most-significant change interviews were used. The study population was the leaders in and participants of FNCs, including <i>Columbia Families in Nature</i>, a FNC I founded. Study results incorporate data from 47 FNCs and over 350 participants. More than twenty distinct positive outcomes of FNC participation were identified in the areas of: greater knowledge of and sense of connection with nature; more time spent in nature; enhanced individual and familial well-being; stronger social connections; and greater environmental and social action. The youth nature experiences of the adult participants was found to be significantly related to their current sense of connection to nature (<i>p</i> &lt; 0.001) and level of environmental action (<i>p</i>=0.03). Family time in nature was found to be significantly related to connection with nature (<i>p</i>=0.007), environmental action (<i>p</i>=0.02), and social action (<i>p</i>=0.03). </p>

Modernists theorists propose that one's self is fragmented, invisible, or false when one shows different versions of one's self in various situations. Believing this, Modernists further suppose that with respect to one's gender or sexual orientation identity, one is either appropriately representing one's biological gender and earliest understandings of one's sexual orientation (usually presumed to be heterosexual), or else one is pathological and needs clinical treatment. Poststructuralists look instead at context, and offer a view of the self which takes contextual factors into account, avoiding the pathologizing of anyone's social identity variations. Since identities such as gender and sexual orientation are lived in contexts which include social pressures and restrictions and one's reactions to and actions towards these pressures, emphases also must be placed upon analyzing gender roles and privileges, and the impact these have on one's expectations, apparent choices, and decisions for the living of these social identities. This two-year ethnographic study investigated how gender and sexual orientation identities were continually socially negotiated in two small groups. These groups met as part of a program whose purpose is to offer theatre training, counseling, and performance opportunities for volunteer adolescents. Also investigated were the ways the members' changing perceptions of levels of group and interpersonal connection and safety affected these social identity negotiations, and how the variations in gender and sexual orientation identities were perceived and received by members. Members described the program Norms, of confidentiality, respect, punctuality, commitment, and sobriety, as the main factors which positively guided the members' favorable interactions and created the safe atmosphere. Despite wider cultural backlashes and restrictions, variability in identities occurred frequently among these adolescents; negative attitudes about social identities, with rigidity and intolerance, characterized many of their early group interactions. Most research on social identities usually presents development as consisting of "stages," with clashes among those at different stages offered as the cause for most identity-based social problems. The participants co-created the theory that liberational, and authentic gender and sexual orientation identities may be co-constructed. Differential Authenticity describes the ways program participants flexibly lived these social identities.

The purpose of this study was to assess how attendance at a peer-led sexual harassment workshop affects college students' intervention in response to their peers' sexually harassing behaviors. A quasi-experimental panel design was used to assess change over an interval of six months. An instrument, the Sexually Harassing Behaviors Bystander Intervention Inventory (SHBBII), was developed to measure self-reported intervention response to different sexually harassing behaviors. College student peer sexually harassing behaviors were categorized as gender harassing, taunting or intrusive sexually harassing behaviors. Statistically significant differences were found between control and workshop students' post-test interventions on Gender Intervention, Intrusive Intervention and Total Intervention scores. Students intervened more as observers among other witnesses than when they were sole witnesses. A causal model was constructed from a blocked hierarchical regression analysis for each of the sexually harassing behavior dimensions and for Total Interventions, using five student characteristics (student gender, academic class, racial/ethnic identity, resident assistant status and other sexual harassment training experience), pre-test scores and treatment condition. Implications for program assessment, educational policy, future legal directions and future research are discussed.

This dissertation is a study of a phenomenon, namely the existence of individuals who have actively committed their lives to social change. The study was designed to explore two aspects of social activism: (a) how these individuals were able to follow careers in social change work; and, (b) that aspect of consciousness through which these individuals come to know the world in a certain way. This way of knowing involves a commitment to ending oppression, an understanding that oppression is a constructed phenomena that can be changed, and a commitment to change that is based on concepts of participation and volition. The most salient theme to emerge in regard to the career paths of these individuals was its gradual, unplanned nature. Within that theme, there were a number of commonalities or patterns that acted as catalysts for their career paths. These patterns were: (a) A sense of being different; (b) experiences of cognitive dissonance; (c) being "noticed" by others; and, (d) intellectual aptitude. As to the development of consciousness, the theme that illuminated all of the choices made by these individuals was their commitment to a set of values rooted in concepts of freedom and equality. Patterns or commonalities within this theme were: (a) The sense that these values had always been with them; and, (b) these values had led them to act outside of, or beyond, their socialization experience. Finally, the researcher focuses on her own meaning making which, while rooted in the themes and patterns that emerged, is neither a clear synthesis nor a prescriptive analysis. Instead, the meaning making moves the findings into new theoretical perspectives and brings to the foreground new phenomenological issues that deal with the acausal and multi-causal nature of the themes and patterns. Those relationships included the acausal phenomena of synchronicity, and the interactive and multi-causal nature of the other themes and patterns. She then suggests that neither socialization nor educational experience can fully explain either aspect of the phenomenon. Beyond socialization and beyond educational experiences, there seem to be some transactional connections between consciousness and a specific set of values.

Four elementary teachers were interviewed in a qualitative study to determine how gender was reflected in their thinking. All four teachers, three female and one male, had been at their job for 20 to 25 years and were designated by their colleagues as sensitive to issues of gender in the classroom. They grew up in the 1950's when gender roles were rigidly defined and were young adults when the women's movement began to challenge the traditional roles of women and men in society. During the past decade these teachers worked in an area in which gender equity training and resources were readily available. Although there were no references made by the teachers to the cultural changes that occurred during their earlier years or to the current emphasis on gender equity in education, the data did indicate three ways that gender was reflected in the teachers' conversations. Sometimes it was implied. At other times, although gender issues were explicitly described, they were not identified as relating to gender. There were also instances in their interviews where the teachers directly described bow gender issues affected them or their students.

This ethnographic study of an American community of high school poets frames poetry 'ideologically,' focusing on the tensions faced by students who were members of a particular community of poets as they constructed social identities in relation to poetry writing. The study begins in the public high school poetry writing classroom at the center of their school poetry writing community and moves outward to include community contexts for poetry writing beyond the classroom--a poetry club and poetry conferences--and the contexts of the students' homes. Seven students who were members of the poetry writing community were followed in depth, and their experiences with poetry writing from family stories of literacy and personhood to circumstances for the writing of particular poems are analyzed in relation to 'ideological' tensions around poetry writing and social identity. Portraits were constructed of each of the seven students to show the connection between poetry writing and social identity. In each portrait, the data analyzed includes: (1) a description of the particular stories linking personhood and literacy in the student's family; (2) what social tensions these represented for the student as a poet writing to fulfill classroom assignments; (3) how in their choices about writing particular poems, students sought to resolve these social tensions; and (4) how students seemed to have positioned themselves as poets of greater or lesser status by the standards of poetry as art in resisting or embodying particular topics or conventions of language. Five types of tensions are identified: (1) those involving the low status of poetry as art in the school (2) those involving the definition of poetry in detached terms which differed from the students' experiences with poetry in contexts outside of school; (3) those stemming from a perception of poetry as an 'effeminate' social practice of literacy; and (4) those involving the use of male-authored texts as models in the classroom, despite primarily female membership in the poetry community. Implications of the study for developing an 'ideological' model of poetry instruction are discussed.

The peer related social behavior of children contains both verbal and motoric components. While previous research has described the verbal social behavior of typical preschoolers, few researchers have specifically examined the motoric components of the peer related social behavior of typical preschoolers, and even less information is available concerning the motoric components of the social behavior of preschool-aged children with autism. The present study measured peer related social behavior in children with autism and typical children at four years old and at five years old. Both verbal (e.g., suggesting a play theme, answering a request) and motoric (e.g., sharing a toy, playing at a similar activity) social behaviors were measured. Several population differences and developmental trends were found. Typical children spent more time than did children with autism in peer related social behavior in general, and in particular in verbal social behaviors. However, for both populations of children, motoric behaviors occurred in a majority of the social intervals. The text presents specific patterns of verbal and motoric social behavior in both populations. The present study highlights the importance of motor behaviors, such as playing near other children at a similar activity, in the social development and social competence of preschool-aged children. These behaviors, while not necessarily initiating interactions, may serve an important role in setting the stage for interactions to occur, and allowing interactions to continue past the first initiation-response exchange. Thus, these behaviors impact on children's social acceptance, social competence, and social development. Differences between the two populations, and their implications for intervention and future research are also discussed.

Return to education is as an intervention in the life course that produces changes in sense of self and relationship. This study investigated the subjective experience of adult women who returned to school and completed an undergraduate degree after age 25. Thirteen women who returned to school and earned a Bachelor's degree were interviewed at least two years after graduation; their retrospective evaluations and understandings of changes initiated by return to school constituted a perspective missing from the literature. Analyses of interview themes were based on the principles of grounded theory. Relationships between codes representing participants' experiences were investigated to understand motivation before returning, experiences while in school, including stress, coping, and support, and evaluations at interview of change and stability in perceptions of senses of self and relationships with others. There was considerable support for the idea that education fostered developmental progression, rather than developmental stagnation or regression, in terms of increased capacity for independence and individuation, and in terms of increased capacity for relatedness and connection. Further, the perspective of retrospect and a qualitative approach added considerable richness and depth to understandings of experiences of return to education.

Increasingly, war and armed conflict are having devastating effects on the psychological and social well-being of civilian survivors throughout the world. There is a serious shortage of practitioners and culturally-appropriate models for assisting victims of psychological trauma with their healing and recovery. Educational settings, be they formal or nonformal, are appropriate places for psychotherapeutic interventions. This dissertation focuses on the intentional use of a nonformal educational setting for psychosocial healing of those exposed to war-induced trauma. A participatory education program designed to teach Central American community mental health workers the basic concepts and techniques of trauma treatment also served as a healing environment for the trainees. Individual psychological trauma as well as war-related intra-group conflict were addressed. Using an integrative model of healing and recovery, the intervention combined cognitive, emotional, spiritual, social, and physical approaches. The educational setting provided a larger interactional framework for the social contextualization of intrapsychic wounds, thus supporting healing. The case illustrates the importance of self-care for professionals and para-professionals working with the psychologically traumatized, which is rarely mentioned in the literature. This is a qaulitative study that combines a literature review on the nature of trauma and recovery, a case study with Central American community mental health workers, interviews with practitioners, and personal experience. The literature review takes into consideration cultural and Latin American perspectives, the importance of community-based approaches, and the linkage of individual and social dimensions. It includes a critique of posttraumatic stress disorder as a conceptual framework. The inquiry examines the viability of intentional incorporation of psychosocial healing into an educational setting, and indicates which components of participatory nonformal education best lend themselves to interfacing with psychological healing. Findings from both the literature and case study point to a need to question long-held assumptions of psychotherapy when working with trauma survivors. Self-care, safe container-building, peer support, mentoring, and a heightened role for para-professionals are recommended. The training and preparation of community mental health workers is seen as an effective response to the proliferation of war-related trauma.