The purpose of this research was to provide a better understanding of handbooks and to establish criteria guidelines for handbook selection and use. Content analysis utilizing the library as fieldwork identified 15 handbooks for MsWs meeting selection criteria for this study. Coding and diagramming of over 2000 pages resulted in identification of 15 themes which grouped into 3 types of relationships: personal (to self and God), familial (to husband and children), and congregational (to the church). Six of these themes were recognized as distinctive to the life of the MsW. Three time frames (1940 to 1960, 1960 to 1980, and 1980 to 1998) were established, and handbooks were found to be consistent with the social context of their respective era. An unfolding picture of the life of the MsW as portrayed by key informants revealed a shift in emphasis, with earlier handbooks portraying a lifeworld revolving around role fulfillment, and later handbooks emphasizing development as a person. A lack of learning opportunities for MsWs was noted throughout the eras. A 30+ page appendix of metaphors indicates that MsWs use their gift of reasoning through word pictures. The authors taught lived world truth as they perceived it. This study indicated clues as to appropriateness of content in handbooks and safeguards to be taken in reading them for self-directed learning or other training purposes. The implication is that handbooks are adult education by default. Two original products resulting from this research were a schemata of the process of using handbooks as a format for learning and selection criteria guidelines for choosing a handbook. The process may be utilized in self-directed learning (individual or guided) and within other educational settings, and the guidelines may be adapted to handbooks for other populations. This research should encourage related studies to broaden the knowledge base of understanding handbooks and recognizing their place in training, utilizing field research using literature sources, and assisting MsWs with learning how to effectively manage their myriad roles and relationships. / Ed. D.

This dissertation explores how family and marriage relationships vary according to the culture in which they occur. Based on the individualism/collectivism framework about cultural variations in familial beliefs across countries, I study three topics of family and marriage relationships across cultures. In the first study, I examine how 17 member countries of Organisation of Economic and Co-operation and Development (OECD) differ culturally in older adults' preference for family elder care. I find that older adults from countries with more traditional values that emphasize the importance of a strong parent-child tie are more likely to prefer family care rather than formal care than those from more secular-rational countries with less emphasis on the parent-child tie; the cultural difference gets smaller at a higher level of individual family income. In the second study, I select China as a representative of the collectivist culture, and look into how the collectivist culture and older parents' filial beliefs shape the intergenerational relationship in China. I find that patrilocal and patrilineal traditions are still prevail in China. A highly cohesive intergenerational relationship people idealize in the collectivist culture is more common between older parents and married sons, and least common between older parents and married daughters. In the third study, I compare an individualist society, the U.S., and China, a collectivist society to test whether marriage also isolates people from their informal social network in China as observed in the U.S. I find that marriage does not isolate but integrates people into their informal social network in China, while marriage isolate people in the U.S. The three studies present new evidence on how marriage and family experiences differ due to different cultural beliefs about family, and under what conditions the cultural influences are weakened or reinforced. / Ph. D. / People tend to think and behave according to their individual cultural beliefs and value system and influenced by the cultural environment they live in. Three studies in this dissertation examine how the macro cultural environment and individual beliefs about the family and family relationships influence 1) the preference for family elder care in 17 countries in Europe, North and South America, and East Asia; 2) the intergenerational relationship in China; and 3) the marriage effect on socializing with friends, neighbors, and relatives in the collectivist China and the individualist U.S. In the first study, I find that the preference for family elder care is stonger among older adults from more traditional countries that value family traditions and strong parent-child ties than those from countries with less emphasis on family traditions and the parent-child tie. The cultural influence gets weaker as older adults’ family income increases. In the second study, I find that intergenerational relationship is still very traditional in China. A highly cohesive relationship idealized in the collectivist culture is more common between older parents and their married sons, and least common between older adults and married daughters. In the third study, I find that, compared to the never married and the previously married, married Chinese do not socialize less often with friends, and tend to socialize more often with neighbors and relatives. However, married Americans socialize less often with all these three groups of people in their informal social network than the unmarried. All three studies present new evidence on how marriage and family experiences differ due to different cultural beliefs about family, and how the cultural influence would change according to individuals’ social conditions.

This thesis is a reassessment of the concept of the ‘fort community’ and analysis of the people who dwelled within it, utilising archaeological evidence from the northern frontier of Roman Britain. Traditional approaches which have focused on military functions or on military-civilian dichotomies cannot provide a full account of discrepant identities (Mattingly 2011). A holistic approach which acknowledges and incorporates non-military activities can provide an important alternative perspective into how the inhabitants of Roman fort communities related to one another. The thesis utilises Lewis Coser’s concept of the ‘greedy institution’ (1974) to resituate the imbalance of power affecting identity within the Roman military. The discussion is framed within nested layers of identity and community. In the first chapter, a historical overview of Roman military scholarship is presented that contextualises the current archaeological climate and illustrates key issues of bias. Three core forms of identity are analysed in the second chapter in the context of the Roman auxilia; socio-cultural, gender, and ethnicity. This discussion positions the auxiliaries as a group both empowered and subjugated, consisting of ‘martial races’ exploited within a military role. In the third chapter, the textual evidence for identity on the northern frontier is analysed, using epigraphy and the Vindolanda tablets. Within these the discrepant identities of members of the fort communities are identified. In the fourth chapter, I analyse the architectural underpinnings of military identity through an examination of the development and ideology of the ‘standard plan’ fort. In the fifth chapter, I analyse the material evidence for the habitus of fort community life, focusing on three activity contexts; military display, craft and industry, and bodily consumption. The thesis concludes by assessing the strengths of the ‘greedy institution’ approach and outlining its significance with regards to future research.