For many centuries the legal profession has maintained a distinct image secured by institutional, organizational and symbolic boundaries. The thesis acknowledges that these boundaries have weakened over time. Of interest to this thesis is one symbolic boundary that can maintain distinction: the professional identity of members of the legal profession. The research has at its focus the identity of a specific group of legal professionals; namely, solicitors in mid-market law firms. The research examines the central constructs of solicitor identity and the dominant influences upon this identity. Answers to this help shape a contemporary account of these professionals. The empirical study begins with the proposition that social identity theory is a viable means through which identity formation can be understood. This is in recognition that membership of a valued group facilitates the formation and preservation of a unique identity. Semi-structured interviews allow access to solicitors’ accounts of their professional identities. The research reveals that respondents struggle to express their own professional identity and their limited reflections lack positive overtones. There is instead a greater concern for outsiders’ adverse opinions about solicitors and more generally the legal profession. Additionally, the research uncovers that the most dominant influences upon respondents’ identity are negative and threatening ones. Processes and mechanisms used by respondents to protect themselves from identity threats were also unveiled; namely, disidentification, displacement of blame, and formulating an identity around ‘what one is not’. The thesis highlights too how membership of the legal profession now has little value and saliency as an identity category for the respondents. Finally, the thesis contributes an empirical study on the under-researched area of solicitor identity to organization studies.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Pacific Graduate School of Psychology, 2000. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 61-06, Section: B, page: 3271. Adviser: Stephen Hibbard.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Pacific Graduate School of Psychology, 2005. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 66-07, Section: B, page: 3960. Adviser: Wendy Packman.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Pacific Graduate School of Psychology, 2005. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 66-08, Section: B, page: 4534. Adviser: Wendy Packman.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Fairleigh Dickinson University, 1998. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 59-08, Section: B, page: 4533. Chairperson: Janet A. Sigal.

The study is concerned about employers' liability to protect the mental welfare of employees alongside their physical health. The need for protection is demonstrated in several ways. Firstly, the introduction examines the statistical evidence of harassment in the workplace and its effect on its victims. Secondly, data was collected from nine participants who had taken their employer to court claiming that they had been bullied out of their jobs. These documents which were supplemented in some cases by personal statements, were analysed using the Glaser and Strauss Grounded Theory method tempered with Case Study method. Ethical issues coming to the fore during data collection supplied additional material for a chapter which eflects on problems researchers will encounter when working with vulnerable research participants. Analysis showed the importance of social support for victims and implicated the role the trade unions, the medical and legal professions plays in secondary victimisation for victims of workplace bullying. A review of existing legislation was conducted to determine if internal voluntary guidelines or new legislation would give best protection. Employer-led bullying was identified as the form on which internal guidelines have no impact. Workplace bullying was always found to be morally wrong and the issue of what is legally right but not morally right was discussed. The findings emerging from the analysis together with recommendation to place protection of harassment at work within Health and Safety policies was presented to opinion makers to gauge the level of interest in the investigator's recommendation that European Union Health and Safety officials should take the lead in advancing legislative change outlawing workplace harassment.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Pacific Graduate School of Psychology, 2002. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 63-08, Section: B, page: 3948. Chair: Phillip Akutsu.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Dept. of Philosophy, August, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

The purpose of the research was to explore the theoretical models which social workers applied to the understanding of adolescents coming before the juvenile court for troublesome behaviour; and to ascertain whether different models were applied to the behaviour or family situation of black and white adolescents. The study examined the use of models derived from psychology and sociology, and considered the influence of moral values and cultural stereotypes, both within the previous research tradition in this subject, and as possible underpinning to the social workers' use of theory. A sample was drawn of 93 adolescents committed to care in London under Section 1(2)(c-f) or 7(7) of the 1969 Children and Young Persons Act. Data was taken from social work reports on the children's behaviour and family background. Analysis focussed in detail on those adolescents who had been committed to care within 18 months of referral to the social services department, and from this group a sample of 22 matched pairs of black and white children (44 children) was selected for detailed content analysis of the social workers' reports to the court. The research attempted to develop grounded theory to aid the sociological understanding of the substantive problem, and refine the understanding of three relevant sociological models: the marginal position of black social work clients in a white-dominated professional culture; the stigmatisation of social work clients, especially those from ethnic minorities; and the use of social work as a means of social control. Results suggest that social workers' use of theory is more complex than previously thought, with differential strategic use of psychology and sociology in open court and confidential file reports, and when dealing with particularly sensitive subjects such as race. Social workers developed a form of composite theorising which blended sociology and psychology in a coherent whole to meet the complexity of an observed situation. This reflects the impossibility of seeking a whole explanation within any single, pre-paradigmatic discipline. Doubts were also cast on the usefulness of sociological models of marginality, which could not be demonstrated by systematic analysis, as distinct from the use of selective examples. The use of stigmatising mechanisms could be demonstrated. The issue of social control emerged as a multi-faceted negotiating process rather than as a direct two-way struggle between the powerful and the powerless.

This thesis comprises three studies that explore the attitudes and beliefs of prison staff and prisoners towards HIV and hepatitis B and C prevention policy in prisons. Analysis of the factors that influence the way prisoners and prison staff view prevention strategies highlighted some important issues from the perspective of the people most closely involved with implementation of prevention policy. The exploration of these issues was complex due to the security, legal, cultural and ethical issues that had to be considered. A case study approach incorporating qualitative and quantitative methods was used to try to embrace the complexity of the research aim. A qualitative foundation for staff and prisoner interviews was used for two reasons; firstly, so that the views of the researcher were not imposed and secondly because there were few prior research studies to base the current study on. In addition, as prisons differ in security category and in the types of prisoners held, it was presumed that developing the research to give a wider representation of the issues would be valuable; this overview was achieved by questionnaire. Data were collected from ten prisons, there were fortyone in-depth staff interviews from three types of prisons; data from 182 questionnaires from 7 prisons and 18 in-depth interviews with prisoners from the three prisons where staff were interviewed. The results show that the predominant concern of staff is that the prevention policies discussed in the study are to do with sex and drug misuse; activities considered illegal within the prison environment. Staff believed that some of the prevention measures concerned with reducing the risk associated with injecting drug use conflict with their discipline and security role and also conflict with the drug strategy policies that focus on eradicating drug use in prisons. Opiate detoxification programmes, abstinence based therapeutic programmes and drug-free areas were viewed most positively by staff and were portrayed as most closely aligned to their security and discipline role and the role of prisons in society. Most staff believed that providing condoms in prisons would also act against their discipline and security role. This is principally because of the potential to conceal or smuggle drugs using condoms and also because the stigma of same sex relationships in prisons may lead to aggression and bullying from other prisoners. Prisoners described a hidden culture of same sex relationships in prisons and generally did not completely welcome policies concerned with improved access to condoms. However, some of the prisoners highlighted a moral imperative to distribute condoms in prisons. Prisoners stated that they would view suspiciously any change in prevention policy concerned with injecting drug use, which ran counter to the current policies of intolerance to illicit drug use in prisons.