This thesis analyzes the process of women&rsquo / s mythmaking in the plays written by female playwrights. Through writing the lives of female writers and rewriting the literary characters, which have been created by male writers, the women playwrights assume the role of a mythmaker. A mythmaker possesses the power to use the &lsquo / word,&rsquo / thereby possesses the power to control &lsquo / reality.&rsquo / However, for centuries, women have been debarred from generating their own myths, naming their own experiences, and controlling their own &lsquo / realities.&rsquo / Male mythmakers prescribed the roles women were required to perform within the society. Feminist archetypal theorists believe that through a close study of related patterns in women&rsquo / s writing, common grounds, and experiences, the archetypes shared by women will be disclosed. Unveiling these archetypes will eventually lead to the establishment of new myths around these archetypes. As myths are regarded as the source of collective experiences, analyzing how women have rewritten, revised, devised, and originated myths would thus permit women to reclaim the power to name, and hence to influence the so-called reality established by the patriarchy. Hence, this study analyzes the constantly developing process of women&rsquo / s mythmaking/mythbreaking in Liz Lochhead&rsquo / s Blood and Ice, Rose Leiman Goldemberg&rsquo / s Letters Home, Bilgesu Erenus&rsquo / Halide, Timberlake Wertenbaker&rsquo / s The Love of the Nightingale, Bryony Lavery&rsquo / s Ophelia, and Zeynep Avci&rsquo / s Gilgamesh. These playwrights try to depose the stereotypical images attributed to women by male mythmakers.

This thesis aims to discuss NATO&rsquo / s Partnership for Peace (PfP) program in Central Asia in terms of its role in promoting regional security. It focuses on the evolution of the cooperation between NATO and its Central Asian partners within the framework of the NATO&rsquo / s PfP program, as well as the Alliance&rsquo / s vision of security in Central Asia. The thesis argues that although NATO is active in Central Asia with its PfP programs, its engagement with the Central Asian states is mainly motivated by its own global security priorities rather than promoting regional security cooperation in Central Asia. This thesis comprises four main chapters. After the introduction chapter, the second chapter examines regional security challenges in post-Soviet Central Asia. The third chapter discusses the fundamental characteristics of NATO&rsquo / s PfP program and regional security in Central Asia. The fourth chapter examines NATO&rsquo / s PfP programs in individual Central Asian states by examining the priorities of each state in cooperating with the Alliance. The fifth chapter analyses the relevance of NATO&rsquo / s PfP programs for increasing its involvement in Central Asia since 2001 by taking its global and regional security priorities. The concluding chapter discusses the main findings of this thesis.

THE SOCIALIST WORKERS&amp / #8217 / SELF-GOVERNMENT IT&amp / #8217 / S EFFECT ON WORKERS&amp / #8217 / INFLUENCE AND THE TRANSCENDENCE OF THE ALIENATION OF LABOR IN YUGOSLAVIA Ali Milliogullari Ph.D. Department of Political Science and Public Administration Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Sinasi Aksoy September 2007, 224 pages The objective of this dissertation study is to explore the socialist workers&amp / #8217 / self-government and to what extend the socialist workers self-government&amp / #8217 / s theoretical aim and potential for the transcendence of the alienation of labor has been realized in the experience of the Socialist Yugoslavia, by a theoretically and socio-historical contextually grounded comparative empirical inquiry in Yugoslavia. The main theoretical thesis of this study is that compared to the etatist-bureaucratic socialist system and the capitalist societal system, the self-governing socialism can have a qualitatively more significant positive effect on the workers influence over decision-making and the transcendence of alienation of labor in work organizations. The study is composed of three main parts: (1) the examination and evaluation of the theoretical perspectives on the socialist workers&amp / #8217 / self-government and the alienation of labor, (2) the examination of the development of the socialist workers&amp / #8217 / self-government in Yugoslavia in practice, and (3) a comparative empirical study concerning the effect of the socialist workers&amp / #8217 / self-government in Yugoslavia and the capitalist non-participative management in Turkey on the workers influence over decision-making and the transcendence of the alienation of labor in work organizations. The analyses of the research data for the within - the socialist workers self-management system in Yugoslavia revealed that, contrary to the expectations of the related theory, ideology and de jure structure, the socialist workers self-management did not have a qualitatively significant positive effect on the workers influence and transcendence of the alienation of labor in work organizations. However, as to the between societal systems comparison, the analyses of the research data indicated that, in consistent with the theoretical expectations, compared with the capitalist management system in Turkey, the socialist workers self-management in Yugoslavia has a statistically more significant positive effect on the workers influence and the reduction of the powerlessness in work dimension of the alienation of labor.

This thesis aims to analyze oil as a security challenge for the European Union. The energy security policy is getting more and more important with the decrease of energy sources, which holds and shapes the balance of power in the world. Especially in the future, energy sources will be the key to political strategies. The European nations have created energy security policies in order to protect their benefits. The central argument of this thesis is that although the EU has attempted to create a common EU energy policy throughout its history, it could not escape from the impact of the national energy policy of the member states. The main focus is on the oil policy of the community. Thus, the aim of the thesis is to explore the policies created for oil security, especially in the Middle East, and why the EU could not implement these policies it created.

This thesis aims at evaluating the impact of euro upon European identity. By analyzing the theory of identity and the concept of money, this thesis reveals the relationship between currency and collective identity and applies this logic to the dynamics between euro and European identity. In order to grasp a better understanding, the thesis studies some selected member states in more depth and evaluates each one within their special circumstances. The findings of this thesis suggest that the constructive impact of euro upon European identity is determined by the level Europeanization or the strength of the sense of Europeanness in respective member states. To this extent the euro has a constructive impact upon European identity in member states in which Europeanization or European identity is perceived positively. On the other hand, in those member states in which Europeanization or European identity is perceived negatively, the euro has neither negative nor constructive impact.

In this study, construction of sexuality has been studied among middle class, educated women who are living considered &#039 / normal&#039 / , in a social structure assumed where sexuality from one side is talked about a lot and from another full of unknowns about perceptions and experiences. Certain conclusions were derived on construction of women sexuality following the interviews performed with twenty nine women whose ages vary from twenties to fifties.

The aim of this study is to investigate the vulnerability stress model in prediction of the psychological problems and life satisfaction of newcomer Turkish immigrants in the Netherlands. Vulnerability factors were considered to be personal characteristics of immigrants which they had both prior and after to their arrival. Stress factors, on the other hand, were selected based on the immigrants&rsquo / experiences after their arrival. Depending upon this distinction, attachment, independent and interdependent self construals, ethnic identity and ethnic self-esteem, religiousness, religious support, and social support were all organised as vulnerability factors. Migration related factors, namely time spent in the Netherlands, level of spoken Dutch, level of socialisation with Dutch natives, level of media use, satisfaction with life in the Netherlands, perceived discrimination, and acculturation orientations were organised as stress factors. Psychological problems of the immigrants were measured by their scores of depression, anxiety, and psychosomatic complaints. The participants of the study were 109 newcomer Turkish immigrants who arrived in the Netherlands after 1998. In the regression analysis that attempted to predict the psychological problems of immigrants, the results revealed several significant effects including gender, host culture acculturation orientation, perceived discrimination, and independent self construals. Furthermore, the interaction of independent self construal and host culture acculturation orientation as well as the interaction of religion and host culture orientation showed significant effects on psychological problems. In the regression analysis to predict life satisfaction, only independent self construal revealed a significant relationship with life satisfaction.

In the last decade outdoor and recreational activities hence white-water rafting gained more attention in the sport market. According to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Turkey, every year around 600.000 local and foreigner people are purchasing and participating in the white-water rafting activity as outdoor and recreational consumers. However, there has been little research done on outdoor and recreational sports participants. In particular, the reason why consumers participate in outdoor and recreational activities has not been investigated in the local market although the number of participants is rapidly extending. Since motivation and decision making behavior is a significant determinant of sport. participation, it is essential for the sport marketers to understand and evaluate psychological needs and motivations of outdoor sport participants. The purpose of this study is to analyze motivational factors of individuals as consumers who become involved in a daily rafting trip as an outdoor and recreational sport. The current research has been modified and applied from the survey of motivations of the sport consumer which was developed by McDonald and Milne (1999). The original instrument includes 43 items which represent 13 motivation factors. The survey questionnaire attempts to define and portray the Turkish white-water rafting consumers by analyzing the thirteen constructs on 517 white-water rafting trip participants and adapt the Milne &amp / McDonald&rsquo / s (1999) Motivation of the Sport Consumer Scale to Turkish culture by examining Turkish outdoor and recreational sport consumers in the case of a daily white water rafting rafting trip. To determine the dimensional structure of the items chosen and to assess the adequacy of motivational factors of the rafting consumers, data were subjected to exploratory factor analysis. Maximum Likelihood factor method was used to extract possible factors, followed by an oblique rotation to identify stable factor loadings for each item. Results of the exploratory factor analysis indicated the existence of a nine dimensions, (Self actualization &amp / self esteem, aggression, physical fitness, social facilitation, achievement &amp / competition, stress release, affiliation &amp / aesthetics, risk taking, value development) in 43-item, scale that accounted for 56.654% of the common variance. According to the results of the second factor analysis generated to define the 4 sub factors , the first factor that labeled as &lsquo / Mental well being needs&rsquo / was defining the 26.131 % of the common variance. The second factor &lsquo / Sport based needs&rsquo / was defining the 6.569 % of the common variance. The third factor which was including only the &lsquo / physical fitness&rsquo / construct / defined the 6.523 % of the common variance and labeled as Fitness needs. Finally the fourth factor which was labeled as social well being needs defined the 5.116 % of the common variance and contained the social facilitation and affiliation constructs. .

The aim of thesis is to analyze the relationship between language planning policies and nation building process in post-Soviet Kazakhstan. The language planning policies in Kazakhstan aim to raise the status and role of Kazakh language in political and social contexts (status planning), develop Kazakh language as the medium of administration, education, media and science (corpus planning), and spread the use of Kazakh language (acquisition planning). However, given the demographic conditions, heterogeneous and multilingual ethnic composition of Kazakhstan, the desired progress has not been achieved. The main argument of the thesis is that so long as Kazakhstan cannot develop comprehensive, well-integrated language planning policies with suitable short-, medium- and long-term targets it cannot be expected to have success in their desire to make Kazakh the state language. The reason lies in the fact that Kazakhstan consist of a sizeable Russian minority and an ethnic nation building process takes place in the country. Thus, the existing language planning policies cannot respond to the needs of the society. The thesis examines factors and reasons affecting this process. To this end, the thesis shall cover an analysis language policies and nation building policies within a historical context.

The aim of the study was to investigate to what extent gender, age, academic achievement, depression and perfectionism predict academic procrastination among Faculty of Education students. The participants were 368 undergraduate students enrolled in five departments of Middle East Technical University, Faculty of Education. Data was collected by a questionnaire packet including demographic data form / Procrastination Assessment Scale-Students (PASS), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (MPS). The results of the multiple regression analysis for the total sample revealed that, self-oriented perfectionism, others-oriented perfectionism, academic achievement and depression were significant predictors of academic procrastination among Faculty of Education students. However age and socially prescribed perfectionism did not have any significant contribution to the prediction of academic procrastination. Predictive roles of the variables were differantiated across genders. While self-oriented perfectionism, others-oriented perfectionism, depression and academic achievement had significant predictive role on academic procrastination among females, self-oriented perfectionism was the only variable that had a significant contribution in predicting the academic procrastination of male students. Implications of the findings were discussed and some suggestions were made for further research.