Thesis (M.A.)--University of Chicago, 1950. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Western Conservative Baptist Seminary, 1985. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 118-135).

Thesis (M.A.B.S.)--Multnomah School of the Bible, 1982.

Thesis (M. Div.)--Western Evangelical Seminary, 1956.

Thesis (Th. M.)--Grace Theological Seminary, 1974. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves [109]-112).

Thesis (Th. M.)--Western Seminary, Portland, OR, 2007. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 165-171).

This thesis investigates how educational expansion, the trend towards the service society and the German unification affect East and West German women's life courses and family lives. It focuses on educational enrolment, educational attainment level, labour force participation, career resources, social origin, the educational match among partners as well as historical periods and examines their consequences on women's entry into first motherhood as well as partnership formation and dissolution processes. Using longitudinal data from the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS), we have applied multivariate methods such as event history analysis. The findings suggest that women's entry into motherhood during full-time education is highly dependent on women's age, social origin and the policy measures in a country. Furthermore, women's education has mainly an effect on the time structure of entry into first motherhood over the life course of differently qualified women but not on their final decision to enter into motherhood. Only if higher educated women can turn their educational investments into career resources, there is an effect on childlessness. This thesis also looked into women's partnership formation and dissolution processes. East and West German women do only differ slightly with regard to these transitions; nevertheless, the results showed that it is mainly West German women that transform their partnerships if they experience a pregnancy. Furthermore, the transmission of norms within a family seems to play an important role in women's partnership formation and dissolution processes. Based on a new theoretical model on educational assortative mating and divorce, this thesis is able to show that there are not only benefits from division of work but also benefits from communication within married couples. The empirical results show that the combined gains and losses of division of work and communication are different for educationally married up, homogamous or down women. Women's upward marriages are the most stable ones, with homogamous marriages ranking second, followed by married down marriages being the least stable ones.

The present study has extended the contextual model of marriage (Bradbury & Fincham 1987, 1988). A proximal context was established under laboratory conditions using positive and negative false-feedback to induce mood, and proximal attributions were elicited. Mood and proximal attributions, as proximal context variables, were then tested along with distal context individual difference measures consisting of attribution styles, dysfunctional relationship beliefs, and functional flexibility, for their relative contributions to the prediction of marital satisfaction. It is hypothesized that proximal variables mediate the relations between distal variables and marital satisfaction. Fifty-two married couples completed distal variable questionnaires and engaged in a laboratory task involving the prediction of each other's risk-taking behavior. The role of proximal and distal contexts in the prediction of marital satisfaction differed as a function of sex of subject and feedback condition. Proximal context mediated the relation between distal context and marital satisfaction only for women in the positive feedback condition.

The Council on Social Work Education published, in 1949, a study on the objectives of social work education. This thirteen-volume work proposed, in the section on casework method, that the concepts of "role" and "stress" be used in combination for the purpose of assessing clients' problems. Some research has already been done to bring the theory to the level of practice, but it is generally agreed that further testing is still necessary. This thesis is an attempt to make a contribution in this area by applying "role" and "stress" concepts to a sample of social work practice. Specifically, the objective is to test the usefulness of these formulations in the assessment of marital interaction. The sample group are eight cases from the files of the Adult Clinic, Mental Health Centre. Adults there are seen on referral from medical practitioners for the primary purpose of assessment and treatment of psychiatric problems, but relatives are seen where this is deemed necessary by the treatment "team". Frequently the spouse of the patient is drawn into the treatment program and marriage counseling is done when the problem in the marriage is considered to play a significant part in the etiology of the psychiatric symptoms. In this study, the reciprocal relationship of husbands and wives seen in the Clinic were examined and the case records were analyzed on the basis of the concept of "stress". The attempt was made to identify (a) the source of stress, (b) the values threatened, (c) the duration of stress, (d) the response to stress, (e) the effect of the stress on the reciprocal role relationship of husband and wife. Assessment and re-definition of the marital problem was then attempted in each case. The study brought a number of analytical features to light. (a) The use of the concept of reciprocal role functioning in a marriage made it possible to partialize the clients' total social functioning and extract the manageable units of husband and wife roles. (b) The use of stress concepts revealed a pattern of stress and response to stress that began in the early experiences of childhood and extended into the marriage relationship. (c) There was a discernable relationship between the source of stress and the development of conflict in the marriage. (d) The nature of the stress factors appeared to color the quality of the interaction between the marriage partners. (e) There appeared to be a progressive building up of stress factors in a discernable pattern. This has been only a beginning attempt at testing out the usefulness of these concepts and it would seem that further research is indicated. / Arts, Faculty of / Social Work, School of / Graduate

This is an exploratory study of (a) material and (b) method, for analyzing the role of the male partner in marital conflict cases, and the casework implications of the involvement of the husband in the treatment process. For this purpose a small number of cases (15) from the files of the Family Service Agency of Greater Vancouver, were selected for intensive examination, and compared as three groups: (I) in which the casework treatment was focussed on the wife, (II) in which the casework treatment was focussed on the husband, and (III) in which casework was focussed equally on husband and wife. Methods of analysis and classification were worked out in the following areas; (1) the problems discussed by the marriage partners, (2) the performance of the husband in the masculine role, (3) the patterns of interrelationship between husband and wife, and (4) the casework treatability of each marriage partner. It was found, in all cases, that the male spouses were failing in the emotional areas of their roles, in their relationships with their wives and with their children. They were, generally, able to perform adequately as economic providers of the family, and to conform to social and cultural standards. All of the men disclosed a problem in handling their emotional dependency. Nearly three-quarters showed excessive dependence on their wives; the others were trying to handle their dependence in different, but still neurotic fashions. The background information about these men often indicated that their early relationships to their parents had been such as to prevent a healthy resolution of their oedipal feelings, resulting in weak masculine identification, or identification to a pathological pattern of masculine behaviour. In Groups I and II, where casework was focussed on one partner almost to the exclusion of the other, it was generally found that treatment had been focussed on the spouse who had applied first to the agency, and who had been interviewed by a caseworker of the same sex. The focus of treatment on one partner or the other was also clearly related to the relative willingness of the spouses to use casework service. In Group II in which the men were the focus of treatment, to the virtual exclusion of the wives, the men rated better in their performance in the masculine role than in Group I in which the reverse was the case. The treatment techniques used were found to be predominantly those of psychological support and clarification. Movement was measured by an adaptation of the Hunt-Kogan Movement Scale; and techniques described by Florence Hollis. In Groups I and II in which the focus was mainly on one partner, greater positive movement was achieved by this partner. In Group III, in which the treatment was focussed dually on husband and wife, the partners generally both achieved positive movement, to a similar degree. While some improvement in the marriage was seen to result from the positive movement achieved by one partner, generally, considerable improvement in the marriage seemed to result only when both partners achieved positive movement. No improvement occurred in one-fifth of the cases, there was some improvement in slightly less than half the cases, and considerable improvement in one-third of the cases. Some of the factors apparently influential in determining success or failure in these cases, are discussed. / Arts, Faculty of / Social Work, School of / Graduate