M.A. / The purpose of this study is to tell the story of sexual revictimisation of coloured women. The epistemological framework of this study is an integrated one including both modem and postmodern approaches to the study of revictimisation. The dominant postmodern approach is that of constructivism. Both quantitative and qualitative methods of research are used to collect and analyse the data. The story of revictimisation was recounted firstly through responses to a questionnaire by a sample of coloured women within the context of a coloured community. Secondly, the unique stories of sexual revictimisation were re-authored through the co-author's lens in the form of themes that emerged from the stories told by each of the three narrators. The effects of sexual revictimisation, as well as the specific ways each narrator survived their abuse experiences was discussed. Recurring themes evident in the stories of all three narrators were elucidated in a co-constructed story of stories. A comparison between the quantitative research results, the qualitative story constructions and the literature on sexual revictimisation concluded the re-constructed story where the numerous stories, within either a unique, cultural or universal context, were integrated into a conceptual whole. The information gained could serve as guidelines for those working with adult survivors of child sexual abuse within a coloured context. An understanding of sexual revictimisation and the risk factors involved in the effects of child sexual abuse may be useful in the prevention of sexual revictimisation.

Para avaliar se ocorreriam mudanças cognitivas, sensoriais, comportamentais e emocionais positivas duradouras em mulheres submetidas à psicoterapia cognitivo-comportamental em grupo em relação à fibromialgia, foram selecionadas 36 doentes do sexo feminino, 18 formando o grupo experimental e 18 o grupo comparativo. O grupo experimental foi submetido a 10 sessões em grupo de psicoterapia cognitivo-comportamental. Os resultados foram comparados e analisados qualitativamente, o que permitiu a elaboração da representação social da mulher com fibromialgia / In order to evaluating if the cognitive-behavioral group psychotherapy would provide cognitive, sensorial, behavioral, emotional, lasting and positive changes in women with fibromyalgia, in comparison to those who had not been submitted to this intervention, thirty-six women participated in this study; eighteen formed an experimental group and eighteen, a comparative group. The experimental group underwent ten sessions of cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy. The recollected data had been compared and analyzed qualitatively, which allowed elaborating the social representation of the woman with fibromyalgia.

by Phoebe Lai Chung Yin. / Thesis (M.S.W.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1995. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 111-120). / Acknowledgment / Abstract / Chapter Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1-2 / Chapter Chapter 2 --- Purpose of Study --- p.3-4 / Chapter Chapter 3 --- Literature Review --- p.5-25 / Chapter Chapter 4 --- Theoretical Framework --- p.26 -30 / Chapter Chapter 5 --- Operational Definitions --- p.31 -33 / Chapter Chapter 6 --- Research Design and Methodology --- p.34 -38 / Chapter Chapter 7 --- Research Findings I --- p.39 -52 / Chapter Chapter 8 --- Result of Data Analysis --- p.53 -71 / Chapter Chapter 9 --- Conclusion and Practice Implications --- p.72 -86 / Appendix A Questionnaire (English version) --- p.87 -95 / Appendix B Questionnaire (Chinese version) --- p.96 -109 / Appendix C Reliability Measures of C-BDI --- p.110 -110 / References --- p.111 -120

Mak Hoi Yan Iris. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 77-82). / Abstracts in English and Chinese; questionnaire in Chinese. / Chapter Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter Chapter 2 --- Literature Review --- p.3 / Chapter Chapter 3 --- Goals of this study --- p.16 / Chapter Chapter 4 --- Personality constructs --- p.17 / Chapter Chapter 5 --- Methodology --- p.28 / Chapter Chapter 6 --- Statistical methods --- p.33 / Chapter Chapter 7 --- Results --- p.36 / Chapter Chapter 8 --- Discussion --- p.68 / Chapter Chapter 9 --- Conclusion --- p.76 / References --- p.77 / Tables 1-11 --- p.83 / Appendix 1 / Appendix 2

INTRODUÇÃO: O aborto em consequência do abuso sexual é permitido na legislação brasileira, porém não significa que exista um consenso sobre esse tema na nossa sociedade. O nosso questionamento foi, sobretudo, o livre arbítrio da mulher em decidir sobre a interrupção da gestação frente a esse direito que lhe é concedido e o impacto do abuso sexual na vida dessa mulher. Utilizamos dos conceitos basilares da bioética para fundamentar a problemática referente ao inicio da vida, bem como do principio da autonomia do ser humano diante da escolha. O sujeito que iremos nos deter é a mulher que um dia foi vitima de um delito e em outro momento se tornou uma criminosa. MÉTODOS: A pesquisa foi realizada na Penitenciaria de Piraquara no Estado do Paraná, Brasil. A seleção foi feita na escola da penitenciaria, no programa de educação de jovens e adultos. Após a seleção dos sujeitos, realizamos uma entrevista a partir de um roteiro semiestruturado. A analise qualitativa foi realizada a partir de uma analise temática. RESULTADOS: Tivemos em nossa amostra 65 sujeitos sendo que 50 responderam não terem sofrido abuso sexual e 15 responderam afirmativamente a essa questão. Isso representa que 23 % da população estudada foram abusadas sexualmente. E desses 15 sujeitos que sofreram abuso sexual 4 afirmaram procuraram o serviço de saúde e forma orientadas sobre os procedimentos para prevenir a gestação e doenças sexualmente transmissíveis. Realizamos a entrevista e na analise temática abordamos os seguintes tópicos: (1) o episodio da violência sexual, (2) momento da vida em que ocorreu, (3) se procurou ajuda , (4) se conhece o agressor , (5) se ficou gravida e se interrompeu a gestação decorrente do abuso sexual. CONCLUSÃO: A amostra estudada não representa todos os seguimentos sociais, uma vez que a pesquisa foi realizada com a população carcerária feminina. A interrupção da gestação em consequência do abuso sexual passa a ser um assunto secundário frente ao abuso sexual. Ocorreu um consenso entre todas as entrevistadas que o abuso sexual deixa marcas para sempre e que caso ocorresse uma gravidez fruto desse abuso iriam interromper / INTRODUCTION: Abortion as a consequence of sexual abuse is accepted by the Brazilian legislation. However, that does not mean that there is a consensus on the issue in our society. Our question was, above all, women\'s free will to decide upon interrupting her pregnancy, as this right is granted to her, as well as the impact of sexual abuse in their lives. We used bioethics concepts to as the base for the problem related to the beginning of their life, as well as the principle of human autonomy when facing a choice. The subject who we will analyze is the woman who, one day, was the victim of abuse and, in another moment, became a criminal, and started dealing drugs. METHODS: The study was carried out in the Piraquara Penitentiary in the state of Paraná, Brazil. Selection was carried out in the penitentiary school, in the education program for adults and young adults. After subjects were selected, they were interviewed using a semi-structured questionnaire. The qualitative study was performed by thematic analysis. RESULTS: There were 65 subjects in our sample, and 50 of them said they had not suffered sexual abuse; 15 stated they had, represented 23% of the population studied. From these 15 subjects who suffered sexual abuse, four stated they had sought the health services and were informed about the procedures to prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. We carried out the interview and the thematic analysis on the following topics: (1) episode of sexual abuse; (2) moment of life when this occurred; (3) if they looked for help; (4) if they knew the abuser; (5) if she got pregnant and if they interrupted the pregnancy caused by sexual abuse. CONCLUSION: The sample analyzed does not represent all social segments, once the study was carried out among female prisoners in a women\'s penitentiary. Interruption of pregnancy as a consequence of abuse becomes a secondary issue when sexual abuse is considered. There was a consensus among the interviewees that sexual abuse marks the person for life, and that they would interrupt pregnancy if it was a result of the abuse.

遲敏瑜. / Thesis (Ed.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2011. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 80-89) / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in Chinese and English. / Chi Minyu.

Young women’s sexual attitudes, experiences, and sense of self develop within multiple social contexts, including the schools in which they spend so much of their time, their romantic and sexual relationships, and a larger normative climate of expectations and beliefs about sexuality. Girls may struggle to develop a healthy view of their sexuality in the face of prevailing sexual beliefs that in many ways deny girls’ sexual desire and define female sexuality as passive and vulnerable. Despite these negative messages, however, many girls do develop positive attitudes about their sexuality, feeling entitled to sexual pleasure and safety. This study explores how young women develop this sense of sexual agency during adolescence and the transition to adulthood. Using longitudinal data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, I place adolescent sexual development in a social context, by considering the role of schools and early sexual relationships in young women’s developing sexual agency. Additionally, I consider the consequences of girls’ sexual attitudes and first sexual experiences not only for their sexual health but for their later sexual relationships as well. Finally, I consider how young women’s experience of sexual agency may be connected to another manifestation of gender inequality in relationships - housework. Findings suggest that girls’ attitudes toward sex and contraception are related to their sexual relationships in adulthood: girls who see sex as having negative consequences - either for their social relationships, their sense of self, or their future - are less likely to experience sexual agency in their adult relationships. Results also suggest that schools may play contradictory roles in girls’ sexual empowerment, as girls who do well in school were more confident about their ability to use contraception but were also more likely to associate sex with guilt and shame. Additionally, schools provide a peer context for the development of sexual attitudes. Finally, results suggest that explanations for gender inequality in housework are less relevant for sexual behavior, though women and men who are committed to equality in their relationships are likely to be more egalitarian in both housework and sex. / text

This study is concerned with the nature of suffering as experienced by women struggling with problems related to the body. Since the body is viewed to be integral in the formation of a woman's identity and self-concept, any illness, ailment or deficiency associated with it may lead the woman to experience pain and suffering. To explore meanings of personal suffering related to the body three contexts have been chosen. These are familial breast cancer, eating disorders and infertility. Common themes of suffering that were co-constructed in the interviews between six women participants and myself form the basis of this study. These themes emerged through the process of social constructionism and dialogue. Through the process of language, personal realities and meanings were discussed and shared to elicit a greater understanding of the nature of suffering. A qualitative approach, using the case study method, was also adopted to provide rich descriptions of the different experiences with suffering. The case study presentations illustrate the linguistic domain between the participants and myself. It is hoped that the information presented in this study will contribute to a therapeutic understanding of personal suffering as experienced by women. / Psychology / D. Litt et Phil.

The purpose of this study is to explore the processes of individuation and connection in mother-daughter relationships, and describe how these relationships may or may not be facilitated by the intervention of reflections and joint narratives. This study used social constructionism as the epistemological framework and involved in-depth interviews with three mother-daughter pairs. Hermeneutics was used to analyse the data. The participants' experiences were recounted through the researcher's lens in the form of themes that characterised their relationships as well as interactional patterns. Participant's experiences of the research process, and what the researcher believed were helpful and unhelpful behaviours in her interaction with each mother-daughter pair, were discussed. A comparative analysis was also undertaken between the common themes identified in the stories of the mother-daughter pairs and the literature. The information gained could assist women as well as professionals in understanding and respecting mother-daughter relationships in their specific contexts. / Psychology / M. A. (Psychology)

A história narra as peculiaridades do papel atribuído à mulher na sociedade. Ao longo dos séculos este foi sendo transformado a partir das novas formas de se pensar e representar o mundo e as relações de gênero. Por muito tempo a representação dominante era a religiosa mais precisamente, na cultura ocidental, a judaico-cristã. Continuamos atualmente recebendo influências dessa visão de mundo, porém de maneira muito particular, modificada pelo contexto socioeconômico da pós-modernidade. Por sermos constituídos enquanto sujeitos dentro de um contexto sociocultural, do qual a religião faz parte, surge o questionamento: como pensar a identidade feminina a partir da ótica da experiência religiosa. Desta forma, a presente pesquisa procurou apreender a representação da Identidade Feminina apresentada por mulheres evangélicas, residentes na cidade do Recife, analisando a forma como entendem o lugar da mulher na família, no espaço público e as influências dos códigos religiosos cristãos protestantes sobre essa representação. Para isso, participaram deste estudo quinze mulheres, pertencentes à camada sociocultural média, com idade entre 20 e 35 anos, criadas em um lar cristão protestante e que, atualmente, congregam em Igrejas Históricas (Batista; Presbiteriana e Episcopal). Os indicadores sociais levados em consideração para definir a camada social foram: grau de instrução, profissão, local de residência e renda mensal. Realizamos entrevistas semi-estruturadas, no horário e local de conveniência das participantes, partindo de uma questão disparadora, a saber: O que significa, para você, ser mulher?. Para analisar o material fornecido, transcrevemos a fala das participantes, e orientados pelos objetivos da pesquisa, fizemos uso da Análise do Conteúdo. Identificamos dois núcleos de sentido: Relações de Gênero: na família, no trabalho e na igreja e Mulheres de antigamente e de hoje em dia. Tomamos emprestado da Teoria do Cinema o termo modos de endereçamento a fim de explanar o que são as representações sociais a partir de uma perspectiva pós-estruturalista, e, em seguida, compreender a interpretação dessas mulheres sobre o que significa ser mulher. Em relação ao atravessamento dessas identidades pelo discurso religioso, vimos que a transmissão e o investimento em tais posicionamentos requerem a crença no conteúdo revelado de escrituras como sendo da ordem do sagrado. Logo, fora dos sistemas de significação religiosos, essas posições receberiam outras valorações. Nesse contexto, as participantes utilizam-se do mito criacional de Adão e Eva a fim de explicar as relações de Gênero estabelecidas dentro dos espaços que ocupam. Por acreditarem que a mulher foi feita para o homem, visando complementá-lo, esta é representada como sendo sua auxiliadora. Nessa relação, o homem é apontado enquanto líder do casal nomeadamente cabeça do lar devendo a mulher submeter-se à sua liderança. Não obstante, a temática da submissão está diretamente ligada ao tipo de relação de gênero estabelecida dentro de um espaço social (seja este privado ou público).Concomitantemente, estas mesmas mulheres recebem endereçamentos outros, de discursos mais variados, que influenciam na releitura e redirecionamento das posições recebidas pelo discurso religioso cristão protestante. Releituras estas identificadas através das variações de significação apresentadas. / The history tells the peculiarity of the roll attributed to women in society. Through out the centuries this roll has been transformed along with the new ways of thinking and representing the world and the gender relations. For a long period of time the dominant representation was the religious one to be more precise, in the western culture, the Jewish and Christian. We continue to receive influences from this specific view of world, but in a very particular way considering the changes and the new social, economical and cultural context of post-modernity. As we become subjects in a cultural and social context of which religion is part, the following question arises: What is the possibility of thinking about the feminine identity having the religious experience as a starting point. Therefore, the present study searched to apprehend the representation of Feminine Identity presented by evangelical women, living in the metropolitan area of Recife, by analyzing how they comprehend the roll of woman in family, public space and the influences of the religious Christian protestant code. For this, fifteen women pertaining to the average sociocultural layer, with age between 20 and 35 years, created in a protestant Christian home and that has been currently congregating in Historical Churches (Baptist; Presbyterian and Episcopal) participated in this study. The social pointers taken in consideration to define the social class were: instruction degree, profession, place of residence and monthly income. We carried out half-structuralized interviews, in the schedule and place of convenience of the participants, by asking the following starting question: What it means, for you, to be woman?. To analyze the supplied material, we transcribed the participants speeches, and guided by the objectives of the research, we made use of the Analysis of the Content. We identified two main groups: Gender relations: in the family, at work and at church and Women of other times and of nowadays. We loaned from the Theory of the Cinema the term addressing ways in order to explain what are the social representations from a post-structuralism perspective, and after that, to understand the interpretation of these women on what it means to be woman. In relation to these identities crossed by the religious speech, we saw that the transmission and the investment in such positionings require the belief in the disclosed content as Holy. So, out of the religious significance systems, these positions would receive other valuations. In this context, the participants make use of Adam and Eve criacional myth in order to explain the established gender relations inside the spaces they occupy. For believing that the woman was made for the man, aiming at to complement it, they are represented as being its helper. In this relation, the man is pointed out to be the couple1s leader - nominated head of the home - having the woman to submit to his leadership. Nevertheless, the thematic of submission is directly related with the kind of gender relation established inside a social space (either private or public). Concomitantly, these same women receive other addressings, from varied speeches, influencing the reading and redirection of the positions received from the Christian protestant religious speech. Reading and redirection identified through the presented variations of significations.