The aim of this study is to describe breast cancer survivors' experiences and the associated meanings participating in their important activities during and after breast cancer treatment and the relationship among the survivor, environment, occupation, and performance, using a concurrent mixed method design. Ten survivors between the ages of 45 and 64 with Stage I, II, or III breast cancer who had been treated consecutively with surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy were recruited for the study. Each survivor completed the Activity Card Sort-modified scoring system (ACSm) during the first and last week of radiation therapy and 3 and 6 months post radiation therapy. Additionally, each survivor participated in a semi-structured interview at the end of radiation therapy and 6 months afterwards. Qualitative data was analyzed using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) to understand the survivors' experiences participating in their most important activities. The means and standard deviations of the proportion of activities resumed for the participants' global and category activities were calculated at each time point. A desire to resume participation in meaningful activities emerged from the data and demonstrated the interrelationship between environment, person, and occupation. Themes from the last week of radiation were (a) individual outlook influences how activities are approached, (b) social support reduces the stress of life, (c) side effects influence how activities are completed, and (d) personal and treatment stresses and struggles influenced their perspectives on life. At 6 months post radiation therapy, the themes were (a) emotional effect on activities, (b) life after cancer has changed due to cancer diagnosis and treatment, and (c) side effects continue to influence daily activities. Using the seven stages of analyzing mixed method data developed by Onwuegbuzie and Teddlie (2003), the qualitative and quantitative data were integrated. The results illustrated that the participants resumed a greater proportion of instrumental activities, which were reported consistently as one of their five most important activities. Additionally, supportive extrinsic factors appeared to be more influential in resuming participation important activities than intrinsic factors. Findings from this study support using the Person-Environment-Occupational-Performance (PEOP) model to develop treatment plans for women undergoing or recovering from breast cancer treatment.

Objective: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is one of the most common neurological diseases affecting adults of working age, and those of younger ages of onset have been increasingly recognized. Twenty-seven percent of people with MS (PwMS) are age 30 years old or younger. The burden of MS for young adults puts them at risk for poorer outcomes regarding their education, family planning, vocation, and social skills as they transition to adulthood. Fine motor (FM) skill impairment might impede performance within the daily occupations of young adults who are transitioning into adulthood. Few studies focus on the occupations and occupational performance of younger adults with MS. Method: Forty participants with MS between the ages of 18 to 30 were recruited to participate in a study. Two standardized measures were used to identify possible FM dexterity deficits and one standardized self-report was used to measure the perceived satisfaction and performance of occupations for this population. A semi-structured interview was conducted with a subgroup of 18 participants to understand the lived experiences of young adults with MS (YAwMS) and their FM performance during their occupations. Results: With quantitative and qualitative analysis, a relationship was suggested between FM scores and both perceived performance and satisfaction scores of an adapted performance measure. Conclusion: Young adults with MS perceive difficulties with occupations that are influenced by their FM status. It is recommended that occupational therapy professionals consider the motor skill needed to perform and complete occupations that specifically require FM skills.

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(地球環境学) / 甲第19160号 / 地環博第135号 / 新制||地環||27(附属図書館) / 32111 / 京都大学大学院地球環境学舎環境マネジメント専攻 / (主査)教授 ｼｮｳ ﾗｼﾞﾌﾞ, 教授 岡﨑 健二, 准教授 西前 出 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Global Environmental Studies / Kyoto University / DFAM

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The construction and usage of gender stereotypes are a continuous social process that occurs daily in the labour market. It is a common conception that negative stereotypes are harmful; however, they are still regularly used for decision-making. Gender stereotypes affect which occupations are interpreted as suitable for women and men. Therefore, women in the labour market face several obstacles to being viewed as legitimate workers and have a more challenging time advancing. This problem is especially evident in low-skilled male-dominated occupations. This paper aims to study how workers in low-skilled male-dominated occupations accept and rationalise differences in internal mobility opportunities. Material from vignettes will be analysed through a mixed method approach, including both quantitative and qualitative analysis. The results will be analysed through the concepts of the Worker and the Woman, which have been constructed with inspiration from social role theory, gender systems theory, and the ideal worker. The result shows that it is more accepted among workers in low-skilled male-dominated occupations that male workers with less experience get more internal mobility opportunities than female workers with more experience. This phenomenon is rationalised through gender stereotypes, such as that men have more significant interest and experience in these types of occupations, and are more likely to be favoured by their managers. Women’s opportunities for internal mobility are less accepted, and they are more expected to need help developing their skills. This study concludes that gender stereotypes affect the acceptance and rationalisation of gender differences in internal mobility. Thus, women in low-skilled male-dominated occupations face several challenges, and the results should be used as motivation that efforts to improve the gendered organisational culture is needed.

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This project examines the professional experiences of women of color faculty to uncover less visible mechanisms of inequality in the academy. It is a mixed-methods study with both qualitative and quantitative components. I address the limitations of past research by revealing how even despite the relative successes of women of color in academia, they continue to struggle daily with professional legitimacy and belonging. My main research question is: How do women of color faculty at selected public research universities engage with discourses and practices of professionalism? Professionalism refers to the taken-for-granted and seemingly neutral norms that guide workers in various institutions and organizations such as the university. Researchers have found that professionalization is both a gendered and raced process, where "doing" professionalism often requires one to perform both masculinity and whiteness. Professionalism only recently has been given attention in the literature regarding minorities' experiences of work, but little has been written about either the unique experiences of women of color or how professionalism functions at the university. Ultimately, this dissertation research uncovers two major paradoxes for women of color in relation to discourses of professionalism: first, although women of color are increasingly being incorporated into universities, specifically to fulfill the rhetoric of inclusion, they are structurally denied legitimacy as scholars and educators due to the fixed and immutable norms of professionalism. Second and related, although women of color faculty often successfully signal professionality through vigilant control of their dress, emotions, and demeanor, they nevertheless fail to garner professional legitimacy due the systemic invalidation of their professional priorities. / Sociology

The United States Employment Service has implemented a recently developed testing program. The Validity Generalization (VG) Testing Program, adopted its name from the meta-analytic technique which cumulates the findings of test validation studies. For this testing program, predictors were developed for five job families based on a validity generalization study of 515 validation studies. The Employment Service claims that these predictors are valid and virtually all jobs are covered in the five job families. This study is a direct test of the validity of one of the five predictors, Job Family IV Validity Generalization percentile scores. (The Employment Service estimates its true validity is .53.) Secondly, two potential moderators of that predictor's validity were investigated: jobs and locations. Three "computing and account recording" clerical jobs and two locations were examined. Finally, evidence of whether general abilities were better predictors of performance than specific abilities was examined, since the testing program's predictors are comprised of composite, general ability scores. A concurrent validation study was conducted with 219 clerical bank employees. Two predictors, the General Aptitude Test Battery (GATB) and the American Bankers Association's test battery, were administered. Two criteria measures were obtained, supervisory ratings on the Descriptive Rating Scale for all subjects, and, objective measures - strokes per hour - for proof operators. The observed validity for Job Family IV's predictor with the global DRS criterion was .16, Observed validity with a composite of DRS dimensions was .19. Corrected for attenuation, those coefficients were .18 and .20 respectively. However, general cognitive ability measures appeared to be slightly better than the percentile scores at predicting performance. While there was no statistical evidence of moderators, the relatively small effect size resulted in low power for the tests and may account for the results. Nevertheless, the evidence raised questions about the possible existence of situational moderators. Finally, measures of general ability did not appear to predict performance better than measures of specific abilities. / Ph. D.