The lived experiences of dementia in older persons have been well studied, but the unique experiences of persons between ages 35 and 65 years who are living with young-onset dementia have not been closely examined. The purpose of the research was to explore the experiences of middle-aged individuals living with young-onset dementia. Van Manen‘s (1990) approach to interpretive phenomenological inquiry was used to answer the research question. Purposive sampling was used to recruit 9 people between 42 to 61 years of age who had received a formal diagnosis of mild or early-stage dementia. Participants were prescreened for the ability to reflect on their illness and the Short Portable Mental Status Questionnaire (SPMSQ) was used to verify the participant‘s eligibility. Semi-structured, conversational interviews were used to gather the data. Consistent with van Manen‘s method of phenomenological reflection, theme analysis using the selective approach was used to grasp the essential meanings of the experience. Each participant was interviewed a minimum of two times. Six themes were extracted from 19 conversational interviews with persons living with young-onset dementia: feeling frustrated, fear of slipping away, loss of personhood, life interrupted, finding a sense of security in the familiar, and wanting one‘s voice to be heard. These themes are interpretations of the human experience of living with dementia and are not intended to be generalizations or theoretical concepts. The experiences described in this study raise awareness about young-onset dementia and help health care practitioners and society-at-large develop a better understanding of what it is like to live with the disease. The misperception that people suffering from dementia do not have insight and the underestimation of their abilities is a great source of frustration for these people. iv Study findings also suggest that middle-age people with dementia want to be involved in meaningful, productive activities. Their resounding plea is to have their personhood embraced instead of negated.

Thesis advisor: Jeffrey Bloechl / The dissertation addresses two interrelated questions through a reading of works by Emmanuel Levinas and Simone Weil: (1) what justification is there for the reality of ethics since the Shoah, and (2) what does the vulnerability of the person and of ethics imply about the nature of human subjectivity and its witness to atrocity? The thesis argued is that vulnerability is the one quality that best defines human existence at every level of experience, hence that ethics requires constant active preservation. After introducing Levinas and Weil through their ideas of substitution and decreation, respectively, we consider how their tolerance of contradiction defines a decreative hermeneutics, or self-abdicative interpretation of the world. Further preliminaries justify Levinas’s use of value judgments in philosophical arguments and review the relation of his and Weil’s thought to Heidegger’s philosophy, to Nelson Goodman’s notion of worldmaking, and to the problem of evil. Through Levinas’s controversial notion of persecution, the method of decreative phenomenology is developed as an approach to ethical problems that explicitly seeks to preserve the alterity of the other person. Applications include Levinas’s idea of subjectivity as expiation, the status of testimonial literature on atrocity, and the present-day totalizing legacy of the concentration camps. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2020. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Philosophy.

The rise in American pediatric death led to a shift in pediatric end-of-life care from focusing care only on the dying pediatric patient to include focus on the family. Most literature has focused only on mothers’ experiences or the combined experiences of mothers and fathers. Fathers’ experiences at their child’s end of life, as an individual phenomenon, is overlooked and ignored. Hence, significant knowledge gaps exist related to the repeated exclusion of fathers’ individual experiences. This study aimed to begin to fill this gap. Using the lens of Merleau-Ponty, this existential phenomenological study aimed to describe the lived experiences of fathers who have experienced their child’s end of life. Using an unstructured interview process, a total of eight fathers participated in one-on-one interviews via Zoom or telephone. Data analysis and interpretation was conducted using an iterative analytic process, whereby transcripts were read and examined line-by-line to identify figural themes against the ground. Merleau-Ponty’s existential grounds of time, body, others, intentionality, and perception are interwoven throughout fathers’ individual stories. The following four themes emerged: (a) “I done been through hell”, (b) “I felt helpless”, (c) “I’m a protector”, and (d) “Who is there to help me?”. Additionally, five subthemes describing fathers’ emotional pain, forgetfulness, and masculine inabilities emerged. Greater understanding of fathers’ lived experiences requires serious attention and more research is needed. There are implications that have the potential to impact nursing care and the creation of meaningful nursing interventions for fathers at their child’s end of life.

Research question: How do you people with schizophrenia and their carers live with a diagnosis of schizophrenia? Research aim: To gain a greater understanding of the meaning and experience of schizophrenia. The objective of this phenomenological study was to explore the lived experience of schizophrenia. Sample: Self-selected sample of 35 participants (22 people with schizophrenia and 13 carers) recruited from the local community. . Data collection: 33 unstructured audiotaped interviews conducted in participants¿ own homes. In addition some participants completed diaries. Interviews were conducted in two stages: in stage one 10 participants were interviewed, transcripts were analysed and probes were fine tuned and in stage two these probes were used in the remaining interviews. Data analysis: Verbatim transcripts were analysed using the coding paradigm proposed by Strauss (1987), in conjunction with Burnard¿s (1991) 14 stage model of analysis. Inductive coding was used and respondent validation was completed. Findings: Stress was described as a major cause of schizophrenia. Some participants with schizophrenia described moving on in their lives, a factor associated with having a positive self-concept. Other participants with schizophrenia reported feeling stopped in their lives, which was associated with acceptance of the diagnosis, and having a negative self-concept. The most severe problems they reported were social and psychological. Male and female participants with schizophrenia were treated differently. Some participants with schizophrenia sought support while others chose isolation. Mental health nursing care was reported as coercive and disempowering. Carers described conflict within families, carer burden, and stress. Those who had been caregiving for longer appeared to have adapted and now experienced less stress and burden than others. Younger carers and carers who have been caregiving for a shorter time and were less willing to accept the caregiving role, reported more burden and stress. Conclusions: These findings suggest that a positive self-concept may be necessary to move on after the diagnosis of schizophrenia. The inability to move on may be a result of a negative self-concept or disempowering care. There was no partnership and no shared understanding of schizophrenia, or of care, between these participants with schizophrenia and nurses, or between these participants with schizophrenia and their carers, or between carers and nurses. Many of the participants¿ self-identified needs were not met. A new attitude displaying reluctance about a caregiving role may be emerging.

Young people today are increasingly disengaged from their education. Studies indicate that of all school subjects, American students struggle to engage in STEM subjects more than others. For decades, we have known that student engagement/disengagement impacts teachers. Researchers have also claimed that engagement/disengagement can be described as a construct made up of affective, behavioral, and cognitive dimensions (ABC). However, we do not understand how teachers experience student disengagement in these three areas. At a crucial time in education, investigation into the experiences of teachers with disengaged students is needed to uncover insights which may help us understand how teachers interpret student disengagement as well as how they cope with or mitigate it. In this study, we report findings from interviews with STEM teachers where they used an operationalized form of the ABC disengagement construct to interpret previous experiences with disengaged students. We discuss their recommendations for coping and mitigation. Chief among our findings is that when our subjects were introduced to the construct, they were then able to identify strategies to help address student's disengagement patterns. An operationalized form of the ABC disengagement construct may be useful for practitioners to diagnose and remedy student disengagement.

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Thesis advisor: Richard Kearney / All our movements presuppose our being oriented. But what does it mean for the embodied subject to be oriented in space? How is the egocentric space of the lived body connected to the larger domain of objective space? While Husserl explored how the egocentric subject comes to situate itself within intersubjectively constituted objective space, Merleau-Ponty’s further inquiry into pre-objective spatiality suggests that the embodied subject is always already oriented beyond itself, via its connections to the three dimensions of the physical world. His work on the subjective experience of depth and verticality laid the groundwork for a phenomenology of the three dimensions, which I undertake here. For each of the three dimensions—verticality, horizontality and depth—I explore the interconnections among a) the sensed dimensions of bodily space b) the dimensions of intersubjective space and c) the geometric, abstract axes of objective space. Each of the dimensions in lived space is qualitatively distinct, both as sensed in the body and perceived externally, and they differ accordingly as bearers of meaning. My primary aim is to elucidate the specific character of the dimensions in all their expressive, existential, and cultural significance; this is done first at the level of subjective, bodily spatiality and then again at the broader cultural and historical level. To this end, I look to philosophy as well as to visual art, architecture, the history of religion and myth, psychology, cognitive linguistics and neuroscience. Investigating the axes of the body in relation to the dimensions of the world means asking about orientation itself, for it lies at their nexus. I examine the role of spatial orientation in self-understanding, self-identity and memory as well as in shaping relations with the Other. Ultimately, the prevailing cultural (western) ideas of modern space and subjectivity, rooted in the cogito, prove to be in tension with a phenomenology of space and the three dimensions. The primacy of egocentricity deserves to be questioned in light of various alternate modes of spatial experience (attuned, shared) and alternate modes of orientation (allocentric, absolute). I conclude that orientation is better described as symbiotic and reciprocal, with the lived body always in relation to the world beyond itself. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2020. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Philosophy.

The literature concerning the relationship between black women and beauty has revealed conflicting findings: some argue that black women are negatively affected by ‘white’ beauty ideals while others argue for the existence of an alternative ‘black’ beauty standard. The purpose of this research is to describe and analyze young African American women’s awareness of beauty standards and their perception of themselves with relation to these standards, examine whether beauty standards are negotiable, and explore how perceptions of self affect daily social interactions. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with black females between the ages of eighteen and twentyive that were current students in one of three colleges in Mississippi (N = 21). Results reveal that context is an important element for understanding how black women relate to and use beauty standards. Their understanding of beauty standards and the expectations of others dictates how they manage/present themselves in a variety of situations.

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