Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston University / Designed within the framework of communication theory and utilizing psychological methods, a study of the Protestant parish ministry has been made yielding basic vocational information, and permitting the formulation of five major problems confronting the ministry and the Church today. Vital information about each communication which took place on one weekday and one Sunday in the life of each minister was systematically collected by a self-recording technique. All topics of conversation were gathered for content analysis. The methodology of this study differs from others made in this field in deriving primary data of communication from records made close to the moment of action, employing extensive followup interviews, and representing a virtually complete sample of the professional Protestant ministry in a greater urban area of 150,000 people. Primary data were transferred to IBM punch cards and processed electronically; statistical results are presented in thirty-two tables and illustrations. Analysis is made of the contents, means, motives, and personal network of communication, providing answers to the questions: What does the minister talk about? By what means does he communicate with others? To whom does he communicate, and why? On the basis of primary and interview data five crucial problems of communication are formulated: (1) the problem of specialization, arising from the desire for vocational fulfilment, but largely frustrated by an overwhelming need for non-professional services; (2) the problem of supply and demand, which calls attention to the Church's failure to provide facilities and manpower to meet rising demands, and the inadequacy of a communication network corresponding roughly to a single wheel with all lines converging at the center, the minister; (3) the problem of selectivity or bias, indicating the degree to which the minister's conscious and unconscious preferences interfere with the establishment of truly cosmopolitan and inclusive Christian communities; (4) the problem of superficiality, indicated by the heavy predominance of incidental contents, brief contacts, and impersonal means of communication; and (5) the problem of sensitivity, of remaining a sensitive receiver of communication in spite of the serious barriers created by status, schedule, and preoccupation with parish detail. Judging from his communications, the major role of the minister today is that of pastor, with the role of administrator a close competitor. In actual conversation as well as by stated preference, ministers move away from administrative functions toward pastoral, while parishioners and others call upon them more often for administrative than for pastoral services. Heavy involvement in committees and groups, averaging one fourth of all working time, gives new prominence to the organizational role, a role in which the minister is not well adjusted, and lacks strategy. The more professional ministry involving direct attention to religion in either pastoral, priestly, preaching, or teaching situations is mainly a Sunday phenomenon, all of these put together accounting for only 11% of weekday conversation. A large proportion of ministers in this study are dissatisfied with their present vocational roles. Yet, they seem unable to cut out spheres of major activity and competence for themselves, and to interpret this specialization to their congregations. In outlining a strategy of communication to meet the situation, the author begins with a consideration of the pastor's own motives and vocational goals, laying particular stress upon the hazards of the Messiah complex. In asserting the need for multiple foci of communication, he analyzes the effects of staff on the actual communications of the pastor, and critically evaluates the staff-solution to the minister's dilemma. Greatest hope is seen in a renewal of a true ministry of all believers under the direction of a spiritual overseer, the pattern of communication which prevailed in the New Testament Church.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston University. / Two problems are dealt with in this dissertation. The first is that of understanding the meaning of death anxiety, discovering its causes, and determining the means whereby it can be relieved. The second problem is to discover the relationship of death anxiety to Christianity by exploring the Christian theory of death, and by seeking to discover whether Christianity can make a distinct contribution to dealing successfully with anxiety about death. The dissertation premises a belief in immortality and does not seek to prove or disprove it. Death anxiety is a universal concern which is repressed into the unconscious, being too threatening to be dealt with by the conscious mind. Its possible emergence into one's consciousness is deterred by a complicated system of customs and emotions shielding the individual from the menacing thoughts of his eventual fate. [Truncated]

Thesis (M.S.)--Boston University. A travel guide and time capsule of Boston in 1952: "When a visitor comes to Boston he is handed an armful of pamphlets, maps and advertisements from which he can garner little about modern Boston. This book has included the information from all available publications and then gone much further and gives the whole and: true story and picture of Boston in 1952."

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston University. / The purpose of this dissertation is (1) to offer a redefinition of the psychology of religion in light of its historic and contemporary status; (2) to discover the flaccid aspects traditionally present in the psychology of religion and invigorate these aspects with contemporary psychological theories, especially certain theories emphasized by Gordon W. Allport; and (3) to present various illustrative hypotheses to be tested in view of the understanding of what is meant by the psychology of religion as developed in this study, thus indicating special factors to be considered in designing future research in the psychology of religion. [TRUNCATED]

The Light of the World Church in East Boston is a minority church that has historically served the Latino immigrant community. Its tight connection to the mother church in Mexico and the continual growth from immigration established its religious identity as a minority church with the social function of ethnic preservation. As a minority church, it also sacralized sociocultural elements from the mother church’s context that were not part of the church’s official theology but helped its growth by providing a cultural safe haven for its immigrant members. As the church developed and grew, the ethnic religious identity was challenged by the US-born Latino members who were assimilated to American culture and by the church’s own people of God theology, which called for a multicultural congregation. The ethnic nature of the church, on the one hand, and the universal nature the church’s own theology called for, on the other, as opposing views of what the church should be, created an identity crisis. The crisis threatened congregational unity by leading towards the creation of two distinct churches, the ethnic immigrant church and the assimilated American church. This thesis project begins to close the gap between the culturally conflicted Light of the World Church in East Boston and the multicultural people of God envisioned in its theology, by reimagining identity through the adoption of a Christ-like consciousness, the creation of a multicultural congregational ethos and modified gender power structured within.

Thesis (M.S.)--Boston University, 1953

Thesis advisor: Brian Gareau / Thesis advisor: Stephen Pfohl / This ethnographic study follows Greater Boston birth workers to understand the following questions: 1) What do area birth workers see as the problems within the maternity care system? 2) What role does knowledge, i.e. medical vs. alternative knowledge, play in their work? 3) What is their reason for doing this work? 4) How do they go about their work? In analyzing my ethnographic data, I used theory on discourse, power and knowledge (Foucault 1973; 1971; 1978; 1980), childbirth and authoritative knowledge (Davis-Floyd & Sargent 1997), the commodification of healthcare (Rylko-Bauer & Farmer 2002), and social movement theory, including work on communities of practice (Wenger 1998), reflexive consumption and citizen publicizers (DuPuis 2000) and consciousness-raising (Hooks 2000). Through this I find that Greater Boston birth workers find fault with the singularity of medical discourse surrounding birth and with the fact that the commodification of healthcare has resulted in lower quality care for marginalized populations, primarily people of color and low socioeconomic status (SES) individuals. Furthermore, Greater Boston birth workers aim to advocate for their clients through the unique discourse about birth which their community has formed. By employing narratives counter to medicalized birth and sharing alternative, experiential knowledge, birth workers allow women to be conscious of the ways the medical maternity system does them a disservice. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2019. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Scholar of the College. / Discipline: Sociology.

Thesis (Ed.D.)--Boston University / One goal of science education reform is student attainment of scientific literacy. Therefore, it is imperative for science educators to identify its salient elements. A dimension of scientific literacy that warrants careful consideration is scientific thinking and effective ways to foster scientific thinking among students. This study examined the use of mental models as evidence of scientific thinking in the context of two instructional approaches, transmissional and constructivist. Types of mental models, frequency of explanative information, and scores on problem solving transfer questions were measured and compared among subjects in each instructional context. METHODS: Subjects consisted of sophomore biology students enrolled in general biology courses at three public high schools. The Group Assessment of Logical Thinking instrument was used to identify two equivalent groups with anN of 65. Each group was taught the molecular basis of sickle cell anemia and the principles of hemoglobin gel electrophoresis using one of the two instructional approaches at their schools during five instructional periods over the course of one week. Laboratory equipment and materials were provided by Boston University School of Medicine's MobileLab program. Following the instructional periods, each subject was asked to think aloud while responding to four problem solving transfer questions. Each response was audiotaped and videotaped. The interviews were transcribed and coded to identify types of mental models and explanative information. Subjects' answers to the problem solving transfer questions were scored using a rubric. RESULTS: Students taught in a constructivist context tended to use more complete mental models than students taught in a transmissional context. Fifty two percent of constructivist subjects and forty four percent of transmissional subjects demonstrated evidence of relevant mental models. Overall fifty two percent of the subjects expressed naive mental models with respect to content. There was no significant difference in the frequency of explanative information expressed by either group. Both groups scored poorly on the problem solving transfer problems. The average score for the constructivist group was 30% and the average score for the transmissional group was 34%. A significant correlation was found between the frequency of explanative information and scores on the problem-solving transfer questions, r = 0.766. CONCLUSION: The subjects exhibited difficulty in formulating and applying mental models to effectively answer problem solving transfer questions regardless of the context in which the subjects were taught. The results call into question the extent to which students have been taught to use mental models and more generally, the extent to which their prior academic experience has encouraged them to develop an awareness of scientific thinking skills. Implications of the study suggest further consideration of mental modeling in science education reform and the deliberate integration of an awareness of scientific thinking skills in the development of science curricula.

Thesis (M.S.)--Boston University / This is a study of thirteen families with an emotionally disturbed child, who reapplied to the Douglas A. Thom Clinic for Children after the termination of a treatment contact. The study explored (1) factors which might reflect that these parents will reapply; (2) factors existing at termination of the first contact which might relate to the bases on which these cases were reaccepted for further treatment, if this occurred; and (3) factors relating to the use of help when they reapplied.

Thesis (M.S.)--Boston University / This study will present one of the methods of treatment for alcoholism, Conditioned Reflex (Response) Therapy, at the Washingtonian Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, where it is felt that success can be achieved in the treatment of some cases. It may be that this new treatment method is at last on the way to removing the aura of hopelessness, that is, if patients can be selected from the larger alcoholic group who can be considered to have a fairly high probability of success. This Conditioned Reflex treatment group has a high percentage of successes. There are also a certain number of failures. The purpose of this study is to look more closely at the characteristics of both groups of patients, the successes and the failures, to see if the number of successes can be increased by an even more careful selection of candidates for treatment. Before discussing the Conditioned Reflex treatment group, it would seem useful to discuss the larger group from which these patients are chosen and some of the theories of alcoholism.