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The aim of the current investigation is the development and validation of an Interbeing Identity Scale (IIS)—used to measure the integration of an individual’s fundamental sense of identity with all other beings, nature, and the cosmos. The study further investigates the association between scores on the IIS and 1) profiles of consciousness exploration practices and 2) psychological outcomes (mental health, positive psychology and relational ethics). Interbeing is a term coined by Thich Nhat Hanh which describes all beings as unique and yet one. Interbeing identity refers to a sense of personhood rooted in beliefs, experiences, and behaviors aligned with an awareness of interbeing. The IIS was constructed to measure interbeing identity as reflected in an individual’s sense of non-dual relationship to nature, the universe, and other beings. The scale was developed as a concise metric, amenable to administration in applied contexts. Scale items were generated and refined with input from monks of Thich Nhat Hanh’s Blue Cliff monastery, and from researchers and clinicians. Content validity, internal structure, and reliability were assessed via expert surveys, content validity analysis, cognitive interviewing, convergent validity analysis, exploratory factor analysis, and confirmatory factor analysis. The data indicates that: 1) the IIS is a valid and reliable measure of interbeing identity and 2) may be useful to assess identity transformation occasioned by spiritual, consciousness based, and/or clinical intervention.

This dissertation is an analysis and critical framing of my recent compositional work, magnolias in bloom (2022) and Weavings (2023), both of which utilize ephemerality as a sonic and physical property to illustrate the content and narrative of the compositions. I give an overview of the last five years of installations, performances, and compositions and highlight ideas of grief, identity, and queerness within my recent work. I investigate how my composition magnolias in bloom uses the ephemeral nature of unfired clay and amplifies the sound it makes when immersed in water as a metaphor for loss and grief. I also look at how the unstable nature of analog modular synthesis, nonlinear modulation, and timbral fluidity contribute to themes of queer theory and identity politics. Through these works, ephemera is left behind in the form of clay and patch cables. At the end of each chapter I examine works that have both influenced and informed my practice and throughout the dissertation, I highlight the writings of José Esteban Muñoz, Pauline Oliveros, and bell hooks to relate their work to my own practice. My analysis of magnolias in bloom and Weavings through a lens of ephemerality draws a connecting thread between the two vastly different compositions.

This book reveals that the roots of modern Tibetan literature grow in the rich and fertile soil of Tibet's oral and literary traditions, rather than in the 1980s as current scholarship presents. Embracing a multidisciplinary approach drawing on theoretical insights in Western literary theory and criticism, political studies, sociology, and anthropology, this book shows that the Tibetan nation's development is inextricably linked to modern Tibetan literature

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This dissertation seeks to explore the perceived intricate relationship that exists between constructed identity, discrimination and violence as portrayed in Bessie Head's trilogy from varying perspectives, including aspects of postcoloniality, materialist feminism and liminality. Starting with a background to some of the origins of racial hybridity in Southern Africa, it looks at how racial identity has subsequently influenced the course of Southern African history and thereafter explores historical and biographical information deemed relevant to an understanding of the dissertation. Critical explorations of each text in the trilogy follow, in which the apparent affinities that exist between identity, discrimination and violence are analysed and displayed. In conclusion the trilogy is discussed from a largely sociological perspective of hope in a utopian society. / English Studies / M.A.(English)

Young people are currently affected in the realm of self-esteem, identity development and relational behaviour amidst advancing technology. There is the need for research in this area. Obstacles include fragmented homes, distance job–location and back-log parental education. There is the need for spiritual direction and for the formation of Christian spiritual principles. This is evident in the attraction of young people to cults and the influences of the New Age. The study will explore the complexity of relationships, identity and behaviour in young people. The empirical research will be obtained with permission from a school in the Eastern Cape; the focus group of this study is ages 11 – 18 years. The aim of this study will be to explore interventions which can help facilitate better personal, family and peer relationships in adolescents. The aim will further be to help bring about better integration in their personalities, relationships and communication. / Practical Theology / M. Th. (Practical Theology)

A question addressed in this study is; how are identities of children constructed using narratives and photographs in humanitarian discourse? This study is a sociological exposition of ethical issues that arise from representations of children within humanitarian discourse. Humanitarian discourse is treated as a special type of cultural representation. This discourse entails uses of a special form of language that constructs represents and portrays stereotypical identities of children. Such cultural representation illustrates how children’s identities are socially constructed realities. Constructions of realities of children are shaped, influenced and ‘controlled’ by intentions of humanitarian professionals as social actors. Humanitarian professionals’ actions as agents are also located within socio-cultural structures and contexts that give rise to the humanitarian discourse. This means reality is not ‘unified’ but a product of intentional and conscious inter-subjective human actions in specific contexts. Such is an assumption of phenomenological sociological theory that situates this study. This assumption also influenced qualitative research methods of this study. Qualitative methods emphasise the significance of individual perceptions and interpretations when analysing social issues. Identified ethical issues arise from practical program situations causing humanitarian professionals to collect children’s narratives and photographs in the first instance. Those situations include; conducting child focused researches, designing children’s programs, writing child rights advocacy articles and policy briefs, marketing children’s issues, media publishing, writing project proposals, monitoring and evaluating projects. Ethical issues that arise from the above include; violations of children’s privacies, lack of informed consent to collect and use children’s narratives and photographs, uses of enticements to induce information from children, disclosures of sensitive data, exaggerations, sensationalising and manipulations of children’s identities. Based on study findings, knowledge or academic contribution situated within phenomenological sociology is proposed. The study’s knowledge contribution is that constructions of children’s identities reveal how perceptions and interpretations of identities create socially determined realities within humanitarian discourse. / Sociology / D. Phil. (Sociology)

Although women increasingly contribute their labour to an ever-burgeoning workplace, little is understood about their roles and sense of identity at work. Adopting a phenomenological approach to this study will allow the researcher to discover what women’s experience of their sense of identity at work encompasses. Furthermore, a review of the contemporary literature, and a phenomenological approach to the study employing semi-structured interviews and an explication of the protocols using the ‘modified’ Stevick-Colaizzi-Keen method (Creswell, 1998), may be used to explore women’s experience of their sense of identity in the workplace. Recommendations may be made for future research and organisational practice. The main findings indicated, inter alia, that the participants expressed their sense of identity at work from a ‘collective’ or social identity orientation. This finding also supports various feminist researchers’ viewpoints that women may develop a unique sense of identity relative to the environment in which they find themselves (Ely, 1994; Hakim, 1996). Themes that arose from the interviews with the participants included the concerns women express universally to a greater extent, yet included their interests, abilities, traits and material characteristics to a lesser extent (Ashforth & Mael, 1989; Hogg & Turner, 1987). The study findings also questioned psychology-based “person-centred” ideas about women’s relationships with other women at work, and added credence to the supposition that the demographic composition of an organisation may influence an individual’s experiences at work (Ely, 1994, p. 203). Furthermore, as social v identities are more significant in organisations, due to the incidence of social groups (Fisher, 1986; Mortimer & Simmons, 1978; Van Maanen, 1976), it would appear that as fewer women are employed in management and the upper echelons of organisations, they would therefore not benefit from being involved in the social environment of work, and would therefore not be in a position to adopt the identity of their counterparts (Becker & Carper, 1956). The contribution of this research to understanding women’s experience of their sense of identity, and the provision of a basic framework in this regard, may assist female employees, and their employers and managers, in their relationships at work, and in this way improve the employment prospects and retention of women. / Industrial & Organisational Psychology / M.A. (Industrial and Organisational Psychology)

This study arose from the experience of difficulties in individuating incorporating tensions in the self-group, self-other, and self-self relational dimensions. This situation initiated the questions: What does individuation mean in collectivist cultures? Can selfexpression occur in a different way to opposing public opinion? Can one conceptualise experiential dialectics to facilitate their resolution in practice? The literature initiated the questions: How do Western theories on individuation incorporate 'culture'? Does a relationship between the socio-cultural context and the process of self-expression exist? Conclusions were: - that the socio-cultural context influences this experience directly by influencing the process of self-expression via defining what is experienced as narcissistic, altruistic, or individualistic behaviour, and indirectly by the theories which reflect its norms; - that the relationship between experience, and theory and personal epistemologies potentially initiate tensions, and facilitate their resolution; - that a theory of individuation in collectivist cultures is lacking. A way of interpreting 'individuation' was discussed. / Psychology / M.A. (Psychology)