Thesis (M. Soc. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 2005.

It is my contention that those critics are right who hold that the Q text of the Merry Wives of Windsor is a reported text -- that is, that some stage of its transmission was memorial. I certainly cannot believe that Q represents a Shakespearian first draft and F a Shaskepearian revision, or that Q is a farce interlude adapted from F. Limitations of space prohibit discussion of the possibility that Q is a stenographic report. But the problem of Elisabethan shorthand has been thoroughly investigated by competent scholars, and their findings convince me that there was no contemporary system capable of reproducing the best reported parts of Q from performance in the theatre. Surely, on the basis of the shorthand theory, we should have to assume an extraordinarily low standard of accuracy in the actors of Shakespeare’s company to account for the wholesale memorial corruption also observable in Q. The only reasonable hypothesis seems to me to be that the ‘gross corruption, constant mutilation, meaningless inversion and clumsy transposition’ in Q are solely the result of inept memorial reconstruction. It is my further belief that Q is a report of an original in substantial agreement with the F text. I propose now to adduce fresh evidence pointing to the conclusion that the Q text is indeed memorial; at the same time attempting to show that the theories which represent Q as a first sketch of the F text or a farce interlude adapted from F are untenable. [...]

Abuse of women by male partners is a significant social problem in New Zealand. Ten participating women, whose experiences span more than fifty years, provided interviews focused on their recovery from partner abuse but including the broader context of their lives. Grounded Theory methodology with a feminist perspective was applied in conjunction with Grounded Theory methods. The study identifies GROWING THROUGH ADVERSITY as the basic psychosocial process of recovery from an abusive relationship. GROWING THROUGH ADVERSITY has three inter-related core categories: FINDING A PATH BEYOND ABUSE concerns experiencing abuse and finding safety; GETTING A LIFE is about interactions with the social world; and BECOMING MYSELF involves personal growth and development. In the first of five phases, FALLING FOR LOVE, women commit to the relationship with unexamined, traditional beliefs in gender ideals. When the partner becomes abusive stereotyped meanings of relationship require compliance as the price of 'love', or result in shame and self-blame. In phase two, TAKING CONTROL, coping strategies of resistance and compliance fail. Seeking help for themselves, or the relationship, results in finding other perspectives and new contexts of meaning, prompting participants to overcome personal, social, and safety constraints to separation. Phase three includes the distress and difficulty of SECURING A BASE. In the fourth phase, MAKING SENSE OF IT, participants seek both explanation and meaning for their experience. By the fifth phase, BEING MYSELF, participants have constructed new meaning systems and integrated into wider social contexts. They have become women who live by their own values, without partner abuse. Analysis of participants' experience highlights the changing purpose of help-seeking, The paradox of shame and self blame, and processes of meaning-making and coping are clarified. Victim-blaming is identified as a social sanction that supports abuse. Personal growth processes are conceptualised by integrating several developmental theorists.

PhD / This thesis explores the lives of key female members of the Bolshevik elite from the revolutionary movement’s beginnings to the time of Stalin’s death. Through analysing the attitudes and contributions of Bolshevik elite women – most particularly the wives of Lenin, Molotov, Voroshilov and Bukharin – it not only provides for a descriptive account of these individual lives, their changing attitudes and activities, but also a more broad-ranging, social handle on the evolution of elite society in the Soviet Union and the changing nature of the Bolshevik elite both physically and ideationally. Chapters one and two focus on the physical and ideological foundations of the Bolshevik marriage. Chapter one traces the ideological approach of the Bolsheviks towards marriage and the family, examining pre-revolutionary socialist positions in relation to women and the family and establishing a benchmark for how the Bolsheviks wished to approach the ‘woman question’. Chapter two examines the nature of the Bolshevik elite marriage from its inception to the coming of the revolution, dwelling particularly on the different pre-revolutionary experiences of Yekaterina Voroshilova and Nadezhda Krupskaya. Chapters three and four then analyse two key areas of wives’ everyday lives during the interwar years. Chapter three looks at the work that Bolshevik wives undertook and how the nature of their employment changed from the 1920s to the 1930s. Chapter four, through examining the writings of wives such as Voroshilova, Larina and Ordzhonikidze, focuses upon how wives viewed themselves, their responsibilities as members of the Bolshevik elite and the position of women in Soviet society. The final two chapters of this thesis explore the changing nature of elite society in this period and its relationship to Soviet society at large. Chapter five investigates the changing composition of the elite and the specific and general effects of the purges upon its nature. Directly, the chapter examines the lives of Zhemchuzhina, Larina and Pyatnitskaya as wives that were repressed during this period, while more broadly it considers the occupation of the House on the Embankment in the 1930s and the changing structure of Bolshevik elite society. Chapter six focuses on the evolution of Soviet society in the interwar period and how the experiences of Bolshevik elite wives differed from those of ‘mainstream’ Russian women. While previous studies of the Bolshevik elite have focussed upon men’s political lives and investigations of Soviet women’s policy and its shifts under Stalin have mainly concentrated upon describing changes in realist terms, this thesis demonstrates that not only is an evaluation of wives’ lives crucial to a fuller understanding of the Bolshevik elite, but that by comprehending the personal attitudes and values of members of the Bolshevik elite society, particularly with regards to women and the family, a more informed perspective on the reasons for changes in Soviet women’s policy during the interwar period may be arrived at.

Thesis (honors)--Georgia State University, 2007. / Title from file title page. Julia Perilla, thesis advisor. Electronic text (34 p. : ill.) : digital, PDF file. Description based on contents viewed Jan 16, 2008. Includes bibliographical references (p. 28-31).

Thesis (Ed. D.)--Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1993. / Vita. Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 121-126). Also available via the Internet.

Thesis (M.S.W.)--University of Hong Kong, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 108-117).

Thesis (M.S.W.)--University of Hong Kong, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 97-107).

Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 2005. / Title proper from title frame. Also available in printed format.

The focus of this study was the interrelation among the causal attributions, affective reactions, and coping effectiveness of battered women. Fifty female residents of a shelter for battered women were interviewed in depth, and shelter counselors rated each woman on a measure of coping effectiveness. Consistent with predictions, both attributions and emotional state were related to coping. The major deviation from the hypothesized relationship, however, was the finding that self-blame attributions were not related to effective coping while another measure, women's perceptions of the degree of contingency between aspects of themselves and their partners' abusive behavior, was highly related to successful adjustment. As predicted, positive emotional state correlated with effective coping. The hypothesized relation between attributions of blame and affective state was not supported. While subjects' perceptions of avoidability were not related to coping as predicted, it was found that both perceived contingency and a decision not to return to the abusive situation were positively correlated with perceptions of the abuse as unavoidable. Finally, several variables distinguished the group of women who returned from those who did not. Those who returned were characterized by negative affect, a tendency to blame their partners, previous departures from the abusive situation, shorter durations of violence than those who did not return, and were more likely to perceive the abuse as avoidable. The concept of perceived contingency and in particular the difference between this measure and self-blame, is discussed at length because it has implications for both theoretical and applied concerns. The absence of a relation between attributions and affect is also discussed in some detail since an attribution-affect link has received strong support in other psychological research. Problems associated with the definition and measurement of coping are discussed, and finally, the implications of the findings for both attribution theory and research and practice in the area of domestic violence are presented. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate