Thesis (Ph.D.)--Northwestern University, 2002. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 63-11, Section: A, page: 4051. Adviser: John Hunwick.

M.A. / This research study was undertaken from a social constructionist perspective. It aims to explore the impact of the emergence of female equality on the South African Male identity. Specifically the researcher tried to investigate how men from different racial and cultural groups cope with changes brought about by the new democracy and gender equality. The first part of the dissertation consists of a review of the literature on the shift from modernism to postmodernism. It includes postmodernist ideas on language, meaning, narrative and the social construction of gender as well as identity. The literature study further provides an overview of the different feminisms. Male identity is then reviewed highlighting the different factors that contribute to its formation, maintenance, as well as its expression in the South African context. In line with the researcher’s epistemology, the methodology was qualitative in nature and semi-structured interviews were used. The narratives of the participants were subjected to a thematic analysis. The significant themes that emerged from the analysis are presented in the results chapter. It is evident from the narratives of the research participants that some males are experiencing difficulty in trying to adapt to the emerging female conscience. It has also been noted that although men are now taking on a greater childcaring role and placing more emphasis on relationships such change seems to be occurring on a very small scale. The slow change in gender roles can be attributed to the normative structure of the patriarchal cultures in South Africa that make role change difficult. The results are thus discussed in light of the literature study as well as the South African context. Finally a conclusion is offered together with the reflections of the researcher and a discussion of the limitations of the study. Lastly recommendations are made in the hope that it would help psychologists, sociologists and lawmakers’ work towards a better understanding of men’s position in society and their fears. It is only through understanding both sides that one can facilitate better gender relationships. / Ms. Brenda Radebe

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Enron, Pfizer, UBS, Halliburton: In recent years, organizational wrongdoing has cost taxpayers and stakeholders billions of dollars. Whistleblowers, organizational insiders who witness and report wrongdoing with the intent of effecting an organizational response, play a major role as combatants to such corruption. What motivates whistleblowers versus silent witnesses of wrongdoing? And what cognitive and emotional patterns underlie their actions? Here I construe whistleblowing as a personally costly but pro-organizational action (Miceli, Near, & Dworkin, 2008). As such, whistleblowing represents a novel type of extreme pro-group behavior that identity fusion theory seeks to explain (Swann, Jetten, Gomez, Whitehouse, & Bastian, 2012). The identity fusion approach posits that some people experience a visceral feeling of "oneness" with a group, a feeling that motivates a range of extreme pro-group actions. Across four preliminary studies, I first establish that fusion with one's organization (i.e., work or university) parallels fusion with other groups (e.g., country, political party). In addition, Preliminary Study 4 shows that fusion and whistleblowing are associated in retrospective accounts of workplace behavior. Given this initial support, a controlled lab experiment was conducted to address two major questions. First, to what extent is identity fusion with one's university associated with initial and formal whistleblowing behaviors? Second, in what ways, if any, do strongly vs. weakly fused individuals' cognitive and emotional experiences differ in response to witnessing organizational wrongdoing? As hypothesized, fusion with one's university predicted spontaneous reporting of an in-group transgressor. Strongly fused students' actions were associated with several cognitive and emotional factors, and cross-method evidence indicated that active negative emotions (e.g., anger) coupled with a heightened sense of personal responsibility drove strongly fused persons to spontaneously blow the whistle. Furthermore, strongly fused students were also especially likely to formally (as compared to spontaneously) report the transgressor. Evidence from participants' debriefing responses suggested that while weakly fused students diffused formal reporting responsibility to others, strongly fused students felt personally responsible to follow-through with a formal report. Overall, these results suggest that identity fusion is a promising perspective for understanding motives underlying personally costly pro-group behaviors. / text

This dissertation is an ethnographic study of nine different students in three American public high schools, their experimentation with alcohol and drugs, and their respective processes of identity formation. While much work has done to establish the relevant and various paths towards finding identity in the American adolescent and in the fields of American education, public schooling, and youth culture, this work attempts to offer a specific presentation of what the path towards finding identity looks like in the American classroom for students who also experiment with alcohol and drugs. The nine students are presented in this work via three different category types of identity formations: Creativity Through Chemical, Charisma Through Chemical, and Challenge Through Chemical. The presentation of the students is ethnographic in nature given the various strengths and attributes of the ethnographic approach. The classroom is a valuable location for establishing a unique perspective on adolescent self-expression, a place where students’ projections and the perceptions of others are intertwined. What students experience in the classroom as a group and individually is a meaningful element to their evolving identities. This work establishes the significance of these experiences in conjunction with the students’ experimentation with alcohol and drugs. Adolescence, as a period for young people of identifying with group culture and as an individual while differentiating between right and wrong is a significant developmental phase. This work acknowledges the communities in which these students are engaged, their respective high school communities, the relevant details of each classroom, and explicates the details of their processes of identity formation for these nine students within the context of their classroom cultures. / text

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Literary and Cultural Studies / Master / Master of Arts

published_or_final_version / Literary and Cultural Studies / Master / Master of Arts

published_or_final_version / Literary and Cultural Studies / Master / Master of Arts

Understanding Armenian identity, what shapes it and why, is necessary for understanding the Republic of Armenia. For it is this identity and its preservation that motivates the Republic of Armenia to create certain policies that agitate for measures that ultimately either improve or threaten stability within the Southern Caucasus as well as Armenian relations with the international community. This thesis utilizes the lens of memory to trace the evolution of Armenian identity through the Russian Imperialist, Soviet, and post-Soviet periods of Armenian history, seeking new ways to analyze and understand the factors that influence the formation of national narratives and to what end. It will explore the expansion of Russia into Armenian life, society, and culture and how this affected the ways in which Armenians were perceived and treated by the Empire. Imperialist perceptions, policies, and actions impacted Armenians’ understanding of themselves in the pre-Soviet era and ultimately created an environment that gave rise to an Armenian nationalism and its quest for nationhood. Furthermore, Armenian life in the Soviet Union and the influence of lingering memories of communism and the Soviet experience on the formation of Soviet and post-Soviet Armenian identity, as well as the post-Soviet resurgence and re-appropriation of historic memories and the reconstruction of a national identity grounded in ideals of historic exceptionalism, reunification, and self-determination, will be discussed. / text

Despite the extensive investigation into murder, violence and aggression, it continues to be a pervasive problem in the modern world. As Menninger (in Halleck, 1967) said, "We still don't know how to protect Abel and we still don't know what to do with Cain." The position of this thesis is that if we want to know why Cain murdered his brother then we should ask him - a phenomenological perspective. That is to advocate that the subjective experience an individual has, offers the reality about the intention of the action. Traditionally objectivism and the desire to obtain absolute truths has taken precedent over constructivist thought, which values the idea that reality belongs within the mental representation an individual makes of the world. Thus this research supports narrative theory which offers a framework that invites the exploration of these mental representations of the self and the world. This theory with mounting support illustrates how people think and make sense of their lives as stories. Didion (in McAdams 1988) succinctly says 'We tell ourselves stories in order to live.' The life story is seen as being synonymous with self-identity. This research set out to explore the idea that a problem in the self-identity of murderers may be intrinsic in the emergence of murder. Following McAdams 1988 proposal, self-identity was viewed as being reflected in the self-narrative. The narrative accounts of fifteen homicide offenders were collected from Nottingham Prison by two interviewers. These were tape recorded then transcribed for analysis. The narratives were deconstructed and assigned to groups of how structurally similar they were to each other based upon a scheme founded by McAdams' idea that there are six criteria for a good narrative form vis a vis mature identity; coherence, credibility, openness to change, reconciliation, differentiation and generativity. Apart from the group where the offenders claimed to have changed, each group appeared to be defined by lacking in at least one of the criteria. (Apart from differentiation which was seen to be an underlying process upon which these other criteria depended). Moreover there appeared to be a cumulative structure from coherence to generativity. Thus the aim of the analysis was threefold. Firstly to demonstrate the cumulative structure from well formed narratives to incoherent narratives. Secondly to show how this ability to make sense of ones life (or not) manifest itself in the account an offender gives about himself, his life and the murder. Thirdly to explore the issue of change. The results showed that there was a cumulative structure based around how well formed the narrative accounts were. The "better" the narrative the more sense it made and the more the offender had to offer with respect to information about himself and his life. The group who has changed, told reflective stories about a central character who had changed over time, how personal issues had been resolved not least coming to terms that they were killers. It was then found that murderers could be seen to be dysfunctional on a scale of development. This shows how well they can make sense of themselves and their lives. The change having taken place in the offenders in the last group suggests that change comes about through being able to make sense of oneself and incorporate the disparate parts of ones identity. This then has implications for the possibility of change. The likelihood of change decreasing as the narrative becomes less well formed. In commenting on the assertion that we tell ourselves stories in order to live. The findings of this research suggest that we need to be able to tell good stories in order to live functional lives.