This thesis is interested in Wilkie Collins’s blurring of high and low, authoritative and non-authoritative discourses, in The Law and the Lady, The Moonstone and Armadale. It looks at how these novels undermine the legal system, realism, and medicine respectively—three discourses that presumed high levels of authority during the nineteenth century. Collins supplements this undermining of authority by privileging less official approaches to human understanding and behavior. I argue that it is this self-reflexive subversion of Victorian normative values that renders his novels deserving of critical attention and reconsideration within the canon

This thesis investigated online communication of women utilizing a homebirth forum in order to understand why Canadian women are choosing homebirth methods instead of the mainstream dominant trend of hospital births, and how a sense of community is created through an online forum. For this research fifty posts were selected from fifteen different threads within the homebirth forum group on BabyCenter. The homebirth forum group was followed for approximately one month, and a total of thirty-four women are represented in the posting sample analyzed. Using content analysis techniques, four recurring themes were extracted – Control, Home, Hospitals, and Community – with at least four sub-themes for each identified. It was found that women choose homebirth for a myriad of factors but predominantly because homebirth allows for the ability to have a better sense of control, choice, and comfort over their birthing desires. As well, a sense of community is created in an online capacity because of the commonality of interests between the forum users. The solidarity of the homebirth community is built upon advice, empathy and situational understanding.

This dissertation seeks to explore how Luke's socio-literary context may have impacted his use of authoritative citation. However, we must first seek to discern what that context is and specifically what genre Luke followed in composing the Third Gospel. Most biblical scholars place Luke, along with the other canonical Gospels, among the Greco-Roman ~iot of the ancient world. While biographical and historical literature have many overlapping formal features as instances of historically oriented Greek narrative discourse (isolated esp. through Burridge's detection criteria), chapters 2-3 ofthis dissertation argue that Luke's Gospel aligns more closely with ancient history than with βioς on the basis of seven disambiguation criteria: (1) preface length ratio, (2) βioς language in the preface, (3) attestation to event-participant orientation, (4) transition into the narrative body, (5) the placement of family tradition, (6) citation density, and (7) citation strategy. Having argued that Luke resembles ancient history more closely than βioς, chapter 4 then seeks to develop a method for interpreting authoritative citation in Greek history. Chapters 5-6 apply this method to the Greek historians both co-textually and contextually. Chapters 7-9 apply the same method to Luke's Gospel and conclude that Luke exhibits remarkable similarities with the Greek historians in his authoritative citation strategies. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

The purposes of this study were to explore the work of midwives and their experiences with the medical community, and to examine their goals and hopes for the profession of midwifery in Virginia. To facilitate this purpose, the guiding research questions included: What do midwives believe the role of a midwife is? What are their experiences with the medical community? What are their hopes and goals for the future of midwifery in Virginia? Through interviews, focus groups and participating as a researcher-observer, I found that both certified nurse-midwives and certified professional midwives believe the role of midwife is one of support. Furthermore, midwives' experiences with the medical community are both restrictive and supportive, and both groups are pursuing the advancement of midwifery acceptance and practice through building relationships and advocating for midwifery. The dominance of medical authoritative knowledge of childbirth in the United States creates struggles for midwives. Consequently networking and consumer advocacy are cited as vehicles for the growth of midwifery. / Master of Science

Relationships between parenting styles practiced in individuals' families of origin and the measurement of individuals' spiritual maturity in adulthood were studied. Relationships between gender and the authoritative (facilitative) parenting style comprised the main focus of the study. Participants for this study were recruited from a large, non-denominational Christian church located in north Texas. A total of 300 individuals were randomly selected. A total of 160 individuals filled out the demographic sheet, the Parental Authority Questionnaire (PAQ), and the Spiritual Assessment Inventory (SAI). Canonical correlation procedures were performed among the set of SAI scales measuring individuals' spiritual maturity (awareness, instability, grandiosity, realistic acceptance, disappointment, and impression management) and the set of PAQ scales that measure parenting styles (authoritative or facilitative, authoritarian, and permissive) of mothers and fathers. Conclusions about female and male students raised in homes characterized by fathers and mothers with an authoritative (facilitative) parenting style were varied. Female adults raised in homes characterized by fathers and mothers with an authoritative (facilitative) parenting style were not correlated in a positive manner with spiritual maturity. Male adults raised in homes characterized by fathers with an authoritative (facilitative) parenting style demonstrated significance at only a large observed p value and therefore, could not be reported. Male students raised in homes characterized by mothers with an authoritative (facilitative) parenting style were correlated significantly with spiritual maturity in one correlation at the .04 level of significance. In another correlation, at the .003 level of significance, male adults raised in homes characterized by mothers with an authoritative (facilitative) parenting style were not correlated. Some cautions were discussed regarding the findings, and directions for future research on parenting styles and spiritual maturity were discussed.

This study examined the relationship between parenting, adolescent personality, and adolescent optimism. Four hundred and eighty families with at least one adolescent child in the Seattle, Washington area completed a series of questionnaires assessing parenting style, personality, and optimism. Results from hierarchical regression analyses indicated that there is a small, yet significant, portion of the variance in optimism explained by parenting and personality individually, but that the relationship between optimism, parenting, and personality dynamics is far more complex than originally anticipated. Further research is needed to examine the nature of these relationships and to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the predictors of optimism.

This study examines the relations between depressive symptom expression and cultural and family contexts among adolescent females from different ethnic groups. Specifically, ethnic identity, parenting style, family stress and the quality of parent-adolescent relationships were examined as potential protective factors for depressive symptom expression among a diverse group of female adolescents. This study addressed the following research questions: 1) Are there ethnic group differences in depressive symptom expression across Latina, African American and Asian adolescent females? 2) Are there ethnic group differences in the association of family processes with depressive symptom expression across these three ethnic groups? 3) Regardless of ethnic group membership, does ethnic identity moderate the association of family processes with depressive symptoms? The sample consisted of 93 female high school students. Overall, 30% of participants reported depressive symptoms in the moderate to severe range. The results of this study indicate that there are few statistically significant differences in depressive symptom expression across Latina, African American and Asian participants; however, Latina participants consistently reported the highest rates of depressive symptoms. Family stress and authoritative parenting style were significant predictors of depressive symptom expression, such that participants of all ethnicities who reported high levels of depressive symptoms also reported high levels of family stress and low levels of authoritative parenting. No ethnic group differences were found for authoritative parenting, family stress or ethnic identity indicating that these processes were comparable across ethnic groups. These results indicate that family process variables are important predictors of depressive symptoms in adolescent females, which lead to recommendations that adolescent treatment of depressive disorders should include family therapy. In addition, due to the 30% prevalence rate of depression in this study, it is recommended that mental health professionals and school systems collaborate in order to offer outreach programs through local schools. INDEX WORDS: Adolescents, Depression, Ethnic minorities, Authoritative parenting, Family stress, Ethnic identity

Effective implementation and monitoring of education policies in schools impact directly on the quality of education in public schools in general and on the vision and mission of the North West provincial department of education in particular, where the research was conducted. The effectiveness of the implementation and monitoring of education policies in schools are investigated by analysing data collected in through questionnaires and interviews conducted on the study in the Moretele Area Project Office (APO) of the Bojanala Region of Education in the North West Province. The study was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of the implementation and monitoring of educational policies by educators, Principals and District Officials in schools. The study focused on their understanding of the concept policy and its purpose, since policies serve different purposes and are constructed for different reasons. It has immerged from the study that much still has to be done in order to improve on effective policy implementation and monitoring in schools. Educators have shown that they are aware of the concept policy and its purpose. There are, however, challenges identified in terms of implementing these policies and also ineffective communication by the district offices and the schools. This assertion is evidenced by the findings from the questionnaires that revealed a serious communication problem between districts and schools. It was also found that educators are aware of the different authoritative roles held by policies in education system. They were able to give examples of policy documents that have national authority, provincial authority, and district and school authority. What seems to be still lacking is the effective application of the theoretical knowledge gained on policies when executing their duties. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Education Management and Policy Studies / unrestricted

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