Thesis (M.A.)--Georgia State University, 2006. / Title from title screen. Layli Phillips, committee chair; Amira Jarmakani, Cassandra White, committee members. Electronic text (125 p.) : digital, PDF file. Description based on contents viewed May 2, 2007. Includes bibliographical references (p. 109-118).

This study examined separation—individuation developmental issues for young adult women, from the perspective of object-relations theory. Its purpose was to explore a woman's perception of her relationship with mother as it is affected by age and request for psychotherapy as well as the relationship between the mother-daughter bond and selfreported personality characteristics. Ninety-six women from 17 to 40 years of age volunteered to participate, and they were grouped into two age ranges. Life Stage 1 women were 17-22 years of age, while Life Stage 2 women ranged from 23-40. Within each Life Stage, the women were further categorized into clinical and non-clinical groups. All of the participants were college students and/or working women from clerical, managerial, and professional occupations who were recruited from their respective schools, jobs and outpatient clinics. Each woman completed the test packet which included a demographic data questionnare; the Identity vis-a-vis Mother Questionnaie (IVM-20) developed by Crastnopol (1980); the Clinical Analysis Questionnaire (CAQ) and Rotter1s Locus of Control Scale. The IVM-20 contains four scales, each designed to measure a unique mother-daughter relationship: Individuated (Ind), Symbiosis (Syra), Practicing (Prac) and Distancing (Dist). Ind is supposed to reflect a healthy autonomy with a loving mother-daughter bond, while Prac should represent ambivalence toward mother. Sym represents an overly dependent relationship and Dist was designed to measure an angry rejection of mother.

M.Ed. (Educational Psychology) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

M.Ed. / New legislation on the termination of pregnancy (Number 92 of 1996) was approved by President Mandela on 12 November 1996, and came into effect on 1 February 1997. This law allows any pregnant woman above the age of 12, thus including adolescents, to decide to have her pregnancy terminated. Furthermore, the adolescents do not need parental permission to have their pregnancies terminated. The question arising from this is the following: how do the parents, and more specifically the mother, experience the termination of their adolescent daughter's pregnancy? To explore and describe the feelings of these mothers, qualitative, explorative, descriptive and contextual research was utilized in two phases. During Phase I, in depth phenomenological interviews were conducted. During Phase II logical inference was used to generate guidelines for educational psychologists to enable them to assist and guide these mothers whose adolescent daughters had had their pregnancies terminated. The research showed that the following themes were observed recurringly: > Shock, disillusionment and internal conflict due to the decision to have the pregnancy terminated. > Sorrow due to overwhelming emotions after the termination of the pregnancy. > Helplessness due to the inability to deal with the course of events. > Mechanisms of defense in an attempt to protect themselves. The guidelines that have been set, are as follows: > Setting of goals and rational emotive therapy. > Guidelines regarding unconditional acceptance of the mother, the verbalising of emotions and the addressing of irrational thoughts. > Guidelines to empower mothers to assist both themselves and their daughters. > Guidelines to assist mothers to apply the mechanisms of defense in a positive way.

The purpose of this study was to explore the nature of the relationship between mothers and their incestuously abused daughters. The research sample consisted of five adult daughters who in their childhood and/or adolescence, were abused by their biological fathers. The volunteer participants were in therapy at the time of the research interviews. The study employed a phenomenological method in order to allow the daughters to describe their experiences and perceptions of their mothers. By engaging in a dialogue with the daughters, the researcher attempted to explore the dynamics and impact of the mother-daughter relationships on the daughters. Results confirmed that these mother-daughter relationships were damaged. However, the daughters also expressed strong desires to heal their relationships with their mothers. In addition, the daughters identified important connections between their relationships with their mothers and the continued influence of this relationship on their experience of themselves in their current lives. The findings of this study have important research and therapeutic implications. The research findings strongly suggest that the relationship between daughters and their mothers in families where father-daughter incest occurs needs to be examined beyond individual family member's roles which have been the exclusive focus of existing research. Furthermore, the strong connections made by the participants of the present study between their relationships with their mothers and their sense of self, may be an important consideration in therapeutic work with this client population. / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate

Twentieth century women's novels dramatize the daughter's conflicting desires to merge and to separate. Daughters are pulled between the passivity implied by attachment and autonomy they may construe as isolation. A psychoanalytic approach helps to illumine the struggles of daughters to reconcile the need for independence and the need for autonomy. In the struggle to define her own identity, a woman must learn to accept both her kinship with the mother and her separateness. In twentieth century women's novels, heroines have been moving away from the typical Victorian solutions to female identity—marriage and self-sacrifice. In an early novel such as May Sinclair's Mary Olivier, the heroine sacrifices her chance for marriage and remains tied to her mother's side; spiritually, however, she escapes into a mystical detachment. In Edith Wharton's novels, heroines are often caught in a love triangle, unable to reconcile their needs for mother love and sexual love; usually they end up alone. In later novels such as Doris Lessing's, the heroine leaves home to discover her own identity, but because she remains so closely identified with the mother, rejection of the mother means self-rejection. She struggles, then, to accept ambivalence toward her mother and toward herself, finally gaining a vision of integration through fantasy. Finally, in three recent novels—Lady Oracle, Jerusalem the Golden, and Earthly Possessions—the daughters learn that they cannot deny their mothers and their past in order to create themselves anew; they must re-discover the bond with the mother, but this time as adults rather than children. In Lady Oracle and Jerusalem the Golden, daughters struggle with guilt and self-hatred before they learn to recognize their underlying love for the mother. In Earthly Possessions, the heroine moves through emotional recognition of the mother-bond to discover a capacity for both intimacy and separateness. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate

This interpretive descriptive study explored the meaning and lived experience of breast cancer for 5 mothers and their 5 adolescent daughters, and for these mother-daughter relationships. Mothers had been diagnosed with breast cancer between 2 and 6 years ago, and their daughters were between 11 and 13 years old at the time of the diagnosis. A series of six in-depth interviews with mothers and daughters, conducted both jointly and separately, afforded a view of aspects of experience that were shared and privately held. Interview data were supplemented with participants' drawings of their experience, and the researcher's observations. The interpretive descriptive framework employed was augmented with the lens of portraiture in the conduct of study, data analysis, and composition of the product of inquiry. Portraiture utilizes five essential features: voice, relationship, context, emergent themes, and aesthetic whole. Individual and relational experience and meaning were described in four themes: (a) Inhabiting Another Landscape, (b) Intending and Acting, (c) Acquiring Wisdom, and (d) Enduring Mother-Daughter Relationships. The theme of Inhabiting Another Landscape described a trajectory of experience and meaning that began with diagnosis, persisted through prolonged effects of treatment, and continued in the present and into imagined futures. Mothers and daughters had privately held concerns about the mothers' breast cancer and the possibility that breast cancer might one day visit daughters as well. The most prominent reminder of vulnerability was recurrence among friends in the social networks of breast cancer. The theme of Intending and Acting described the mutual caring and protectiveness of these mothers and daughters. Mothers and daughters described actions and strategies to minimize the threat of breast cancer for themselves and for the other person. Actions included attempts by both persons to create and maintain a sense of normalcy. Conversations between mothers and daughters on the experience of breast cancer were limited, in particular around prognosis and the possibility of death. The theme of Acquiring Wisdom described personal growth and change after the diagnosis of breast cancer. For both persons, realizations of mortality brought a new perspective on what was important in life. Mothers passed on the wisdom gained from their experience either directly in what was said to daughters or indirectly in the attitudes and behaviours they modelled. The theme of Enduring Mother-Daughter Relationships described the quality of mother-daughter relationships and the import of breast cancer for these relationships. Mothers and daughters described their relationships as close. Daughters described their relationships as closer than most, in part because of their experience with breast cancer. Parenting and being parented was in some cases complicated by breast cancer. Friction between mothers and daughters was described as par for the course during the teen years, but one source of friction was the unexpected and prolonged effects of treatment. The findings in this study indicate the value in attending to the voices of teenage daughters, which remain largely absent in the literature. Mothers and daughters have needs for information and support that are not being met. The emotional landscape of breast cancer, which entails prolonged uncertainty for both mothers and daughters, deserves further study. Personal growth described by both mothers and daughters provides an alternative view of the largely problem-focused perspective in the literature of the meaning and experience of breast cancer. / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate

This study deals with identifying risk factors using measuring instruments in the relationshlp between stepmothers and adolescent stepdaughters in reconstituted families. Risk factors can complicate the relationshlp between stepmothers and adolescent stepdaughters and deviate from the given criteria in this study. Extensive literature survey has been done concerning the reconstituted family, relationshlps, stepmothers, adolescent stepdaughters . and biological fathers. Research shows that the stepmother-stepdaughter relationshlp is the most complicated relationshlp within the reconstituted family and adolescent stepdaughters experience more problems adapting than stepsons. Statistics reveal that the divorce rate and therefore the number of reconstituted families is still on the increase. Literature survey shows that overwhelmingly poor relationshlps are found within the reconstituted family. Added to the risk factors that have been identified during research, professional people were also consulted in identifying the risk factors that could complicate the relationship between stepmothers and adolescent stepdaughters as experienced in practice. After establishing the risk factors, measuring instruments have been emperically applied to determine if the mentioned risk factors in reconstituted families can be identified. The measuring instruments include five standardised and one unstandardised questionnaires. The EPI, 16-PF and HSPQ were used to determine the characteristics in the three parties involved. The Parentchild- communication questionnaire and the Persoonlike vraelys vir hoi!rskoolleerlinge were utilised to identifY various risk factors. The unstandardised RF-Agtergrondvraelys provides background information and highlights risk factors other measuring instruments do not identifY. Arising from information gained on a spesific reconstituted family through measuring instmments, the risk factors can be carried over onto the Samevattende evalueringsblad vir risikofaktore. The biggest problems seem to be discipline and divided loyalty. The structure and conditions of each reconstituted family are unique; therefore the risk factors will differ in families. Even similar risk factors can be experienced differently by each member or other families. The uniqueness and complexity surrounding the reconstituted family is emphasised by this. The identified risk factors can be used in various fields of study that involve reconstituted families. This study is helpful in court where custody placement of minors is broached. The identified risk factors can ease in counselling and therapy . / Educational Studies / D. Ed. (Psychology of Education)

published_or_final_version / Social Work and Social Administration / Master / Master of Social Sciences

This study deals with identifying risk factors using measuring instruments in the relationshlp between stepmothers and adolescent stepdaughters in reconstituted families. Risk factors can complicate the relationshlp between stepmothers and adolescent stepdaughters and deviate from the given criteria in this study. Extensive literature survey has been done concerning the reconstituted family, relationshlps, stepmothers, adolescent stepdaughters . and biological fathers. Research shows that the stepmother-stepdaughter relationshlp is the most complicated relationshlp within the reconstituted family and adolescent stepdaughters experience more problems adapting than stepsons. Statistics reveal that the divorce rate and therefore the number of reconstituted families is still on the increase. Literature survey shows that overwhelmingly poor relationshlps are found within the reconstituted family. Added to the risk factors that have been identified during research, professional people were also consulted in identifying the risk factors that could complicate the relationship between stepmothers and adolescent stepdaughters as experienced in practice. After establishing the risk factors, measuring instruments have been emperically applied to determine if the mentioned risk factors in reconstituted families can be identified. The measuring instruments include five standardised and one unstandardised questionnaires. The EPI, 16-PF and HSPQ were used to determine the characteristics in the three parties involved. The Parentchild- communication questionnaire and the Persoonlike vraelys vir hoi!rskoolleerlinge were utilised to identifY various risk factors. The unstandardised RF-Agtergrondvraelys provides background information and highlights risk factors other measuring instruments do not identifY. Arising from information gained on a spesific reconstituted family through measuring instmments, the risk factors can be carried over onto the Samevattende evalueringsblad vir risikofaktore. The biggest problems seem to be discipline and divided loyalty. The structure and conditions of each reconstituted family are unique; therefore the risk factors will differ in families. Even similar risk factors can be experienced differently by each member or other families. The uniqueness and complexity surrounding the reconstituted family is emphasised by this. The identified risk factors can be used in various fields of study that involve reconstituted families. This study is helpful in court where custody placement of minors is broached. The identified risk factors can ease in counselling and therapy . / Educational Studies / D. Ed. (Psychology of Education)