Studies of workplace resistance tend to focus on research subjects as workers - reifying the notion of the ideal worker, disconnected from families and communities. This simplification of workers' experiences and their motivations lays the foundation for another: the idea that workers' actions can be easily and categorically understood either as accommodations of management interests or as resistance to those interests. Taking these two issues together, this dissertation considers the extent to which a more complete account of individuals' lives and interests might refashion our conceptualization of resistance. Focusing on workplace resistance, this multi-case study considers two central questions. First, what counts as resistance, and to what degree is the distinction between resistance and accommodation a useful distinction? Second, when considering the contours of everyday workplace resistance, in what ways does a multidimensional consideration of individuals' experiences as both workers and members of families and communities shape our understanding of power relations? The dissertation concludes by considering the potential positive or negative impacts of a broad - and contextualized - understanding of workplace resistance.

Family history of alcoholism (FHA) is posited to convey its risk on problematic drinking, in part, though how individuals react to stressful situations. Research thus far, however, has found equivocal results, with some studies concluding that FHA is associated with heightened stress-reactivity whereas others have found FHA associated with blunted stress-reactivity. In addition, the preponderance of this research has been conducted using laboratory-based paradigms, thus raising questions about the ecological validity of their findings. The purpose of the current study was to further clarify the association between FHA and affective reactions to two types of stress (social and academic stress) using an ecologically valid, micro-longitudinal research design. Participants were 1,606 undergraduate students (54% women) who completed a baseline survey, including questions related to both maternal and paternal alcohol use, and who subsequently completed a 30-day daily diary in which they reporting on their daily social and academic stress and affective states. Results showed a weaker positive association between social stress and anxiety among individuals with more paternal FHA symptoms, consistent with a blunted stress-reactivity perspective. The current study is the first to use an ecologically valid approach to investigate stress-reactivity in individuals with and without FHA. The results add to the current literature, providing a direction for future research to continue to clarify the nature FHA and stress-reactivity in order to understand the risk incurred by FHA.

The successful development of children in the early childhood years is facilitated by positive interrelationships within the child's ecosystem. This ecosystem is composed of the family and home environment, and the schools, child care centers, and teachers involved with the child's education and care. However, the educational literature reports conflicts between teachers and parents over the education and guidance of children in the United States throughout this century. The misunderstanding and confusion surrounding the different perspectives of teachers and parents can be problematic for the child's growth and development, and can jeopardize communication between the school and the home. Clarification of the similarities and differences between the teacher and parent roles will add to our understanding of these multiple perspectives, as they influence the child, and will suggest ways to improve teacher preparation with regard to parent and family communication. One direct way of getting data on the complementary and conflicting aspects of the parenting and teaching roles is to study women who experience them simultaneously, that is who teach their own child in an early childhood classroom. This study uses phenomenological interview data and a developmental assessment of self-knowledge to gather more information concerning the complex dynamics of the teacher and mother roles. The data collection proceeded in three parts. First, a written questionnaire designed to assess self-knowledge level of teacher/mothers was administered. Second, in-depth interviews were conducted with ten of the survey respondents, all of whom taught their own child in an early childhood group setting. The interview protocol focused on each participant's personal background as a teacher and a mother, her experience as a 'teacher called mommy', and the importance and meaning of that experience to her as a teacher and as a mother. The interviews were transcribed and edited into a profile of each participant. Profiles were coded for common themes and issues across participants. The third phase involved sharing the themes in a Focus Group session with the interview participants. They considered the relevance and salience of the themes in light of their own experiences and made recommendations for teachers, parents, administrators, and future 'teachers called mommy'. The findings point to common themes within the experience of the 'teacher called mommy', and indicate a range of experiences within each theme. Developmental analysis of the self-knowledge levels of the participants is used to group the responses within each of the themes, and provides a helpful model for understanding the variations within each theme. Recommendations suggest strategies to facilitate parent and teacher communication in general, and more specifically to supporting the simultaneous dual role situation of 'teacher called mommy'.

abstract: Gas Dynamic Virtual Nozzles (GDVN) produce microscopic flow-focused liquid jets and are widely used for sample delivery in serial femtosecond crystallography (SFX) and time-resolved solution scattering. Recently, 2-photon polymerization (2PP) made it possible to produce 3D-printed GDVNs with submicron printing resolution. Comparing with hand- fabricated nozzles, reproducibility, and less developing effort, and similarity of the performance of different 3D printed nozzles are among the advantages of using 3D printing techniques to develop GDVN’s. Submicron printing resolution also makes it possible to easily improve GDVN performance by optimizing the design of nozzles. In this study, 3D printed nozzles were developed to achieve low liquid and gas flow rates and high liquid jet velocities. A double-pulsed nanosecond laser imaging system was used to perform Particle Tracking Velocimetry (PTV) in order to determine jet velocities and assess jet stability/reproducibility. The testing results of pure water jets focused with He sheath gas showed that some designs can easily achieve stable liquid jets with velocities of more than 80 m/s, with pure water flowing at 3 microliters/min, and helium sheath gas flowing at less than 5 mg/min respectively. A numerical simulation pipeline was also used to characterize the performance of different 3D printed GDVNs. The results highlight the potential of making reproducible GDVNs with minimum fabrication effort, that can meet the requirements of present and future SFX and time-resolved solution scattering research. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Mechanical Engineering 2020

This is a contemporary examination of the challenges that religion provides to workers in the defense industry, and, in turn, less explicitly, to their families. The challenges of prophetic religion which give rise to workers' doubts about the fruits of their labor and whether they should remain in the industry are examined from four different angles: first, in a content analysis of pastoral letters concerning peacemaking promulgated by several Protestant denominations and the Roman Catholic Church in the United States in the 1980's; secondly, in the religious witness provided by significant religious leaders in the country, who challenged various forms of the defense industry in their local situations; thirdly, in the structural support offered by seven regional and national religious organizations which directly or indirectly help defense workers struggling with conscience; and in face-to-face interviews with defense workers in sixteen states. Broader implications for the triad are considered.

The purpose of this case study was to investigate from the communication perspective how persons chose or did not choose address forms when addressing their spouses and how the selection influenced the existing contexts. This study focused on two families with a particular interest on spousal addressing behavior. The approach of exploring the mutually influencing "reflexive" relationship between address forms and context is distinct from traditional linguistic and sociolinguistic approaches. Rather than mapping between address forms and social factors, this study attempted to explain why certain address forms were selected in spousal interaction among a host of options available and also in what way the address forms reconstructed the existing contexts. To illuminate and clarify the couples' addressing behavior, I also examined other sets of their communicative actions, e.g., the spouses' argument in Family One and the family's negotiation of family matters in Family Two. The linguistic and nonlinguistic actions together brought the nature of their communication patterns into a clear focus. To analyze the reflexive process between actions and the context, the research utilized the theory of the coordinated management of meaning (CMM). For interviewing, this study used circular questioning, developed by the systemic family therapy of the Milan Group, which shares many of the metatheoretical commitments of CMM theory. The analyses revealed that actions were reflexively related with the context: The spousal communication pattern in Family One was identified with slow "strange loops"; the pattern in Family Two was identified with "charmed loops." In Family One, strange loops were produced by the wife's oscillation between assertive self and nonassertive self, which was influenced by a reflexive effect from her husband. The charmed loops in Family Two, on the other hand, were the result of the younger family members' absolute giving in to the eldest member. The communication patterns of the two families also showed a reproduction of their existing context even when something new is brought in.

This study assesses adolescents' influence on household purchase decisions. The data analyzed were from a survey of 281 fourteen and sixteen year old male and female students from three area school districts in Western Massachusetts. The sample represented blue and white collar families in suburban, urban and rural areas. The objectives of this study were: to determine the amount of influence teenagers exert over household purchases of low and high priced consumer durables and non-durables; to identify factors that influence teenagers' choice of consumer goods; and to identify adolescents' sources of consumer information. The study utilized a questionnaire developed by the researcher which in addition to questions related to teenagers' influence on household purchases, included items concerning family composition, ethnic background, employment, individual earnings, and parents' employment status. The study revealed that adolescents have an important role in family decision making and represent a substantial economic force in the U.S.

This study attempted to explore further to decreased optimism of college-aged children of divorce regarding their success in marriage by first examining both their vulnerability to divorce and the specific perceptions of marriage in comparison to college-aged children from intact families. To distinguish between the role of parental divorce and the amount of conflict between parents, regardless of marital status, the parents' relationship was also examined. When comparing the parental divorced respondents (PD) with the respondents from intact families (IF), analyses showed that those in the PD group were significantly more vulnerable to and worried about divorce. When asked to rate their changes of divorcing in comparison to other college students and college-aged children of divorce, however, the PD respondents maintained as strong an illusion of invulnerability as their IF counterparts; both groups believed that they were less vulnerable to divorce than either of the targets. The PD group was more likely to believe that people change over time and marriages cannot always accommodate these changes, thus it is unrealistic to expect marriages to last a lifetime. The IF respondents were more apt to agree that people's marriages resemble their parents' and that marriages break up because people do not try hard enough to save them. College-aged children from intact homes were also more likely to stress the importance of developing a close relationship with the partner's family and to see themselves forming this bond. When comparing responses by the amount of parental conflict, the high conflict respondents were more vulnerable to divorce than the low conflict, yet both perceived themselves as less likely to divorce than other students or children of divorce. High parental conflict respondents, however, also indicated they were less likely to marry, perhaps because they too endorsed the notion that marriages cannot last a lifetime. Further exploratory analyses seemed to indicate that the parental relationship and the dissolution of a marriage may affect the perceived vulnerability conjointly; parental conflict may be sufficient to produce this effect, but in its absence, parental divorce may be necessary.

During the past two decades, the recognition of relationship violence as a significant and frequently occurring problem has generated a great deal of interest and study. The extensive body of literature that has been produced as a result has focused on the traits of perpetrators and victims of violence; sociological factors contributing to violent relationships; and gender-related ideology about relationships in which violence occurs. Largely absent from the literature are the voices of the couples who have themselves experienced such violence. This study attempts to take a systematic look at the subjective experiences of these couples. In so doing, the meanings that the couples construct in relation to the events of violence, as well as the processes involved in constructing those meanings are the focus of this inquiry. The primary method of inquiry utilized was indepth, conjoint interviews with couples who volunteered to participate in the study. Three of these couples had experienced some form of physical violence with one another. Of the two remaining couples who were interviewed, the members of one had experienced extreme physical violence but with partners in earlier relationships. The interviews with each couple were scheduled as two or three one-hour-plus, videotaped and/or audiotaped sessions over a period of three to four weeks. The interviews were minimally structured and open-ended. Case studies were constructed from the data collected in the interviews. The case studies were analyzed from several perspectives. First, unique meaning constructions were considered. Second, the roles of each of the participants as narrators were considered. Further consideration was given to the role of the interviewer in the sessions and, finally, to the experience of participating in the research as reflected in comments made by the participants. Several focal aspects emerged from these analyses. First, meanings cannot be removed from the context of within which they are constructed without distortion. Second, meanings are embedded in a complex network of referential domains. Finally, this systematic approach to studying subjective material, validates the importance of listening to the voice of those who have themselves experienced relationship violence.

This dissertation is a deep qualitative examination of intrafamily action during episodes of vacation planning and purchase. It serves as a metatheoretical counterpoint to the positivistic paradigm which dominates the literature. Employing the theory, Co-ordinated Management of Meaning, as theoretical framework, it seeks to reveal the social-constructed reality of intra-family meaning and action. Three cases are reported. Though demographically similar, these families co-construct accounts of vacation planning process and action which are widely divergent. The results indicate that vacation-planning and purchase is a contextually varied phenomenon which is analytically accessible through a rules perspective. Coherent intra-family meaning and action is identified by reference to context markers such as cultural pattern, family narrative, autobiography, biography, relationship, episode and age. Many different constitutive and regulative rules are reported. New light is cast on the varied local meanings of influence, vacation and consensus. Regulative rules are found to be a useful analytic device for examining intrafamily process. Families co-constructed dissimilar accounts of how they dealt with conflict in vacation purchase planning. These accounts rotate around systemic constructions of consensus, compromise and control. The findings call into question the universality of the knowledge claims of the dominant paradigm, whose concepts, constructs and claims do not capture the contextually varied processes expressed in intra-family action.