This study argues that gender is a significant factor to consider in investigations of political opinions and presents evidence of the relevance of gender to support for various issues and in the social construction of opinion. Moreover, it argues that the patterning of women's and men's opinions, and differences in the sources of those opinions, point to a difference in political cultures: a women's political culture and a men's political culture. Using survey evidence gathered at the time of the 1988 Canadian federal election, the study follows three separate investigative paths in an attempt to uncover the existence of distinctive political cultures. The first path investigates gender gaps in opinions at the time of the election and links these findings to earlier work suggesting the existence of a women's agape ethos, their weaker hawkishness, and their weaker support of continentalism. It is shown that controls for women's lower average incomes, their lesser educational attainment, their greater support of feminism, and gender roles do not fully account for differences in women's and men's attitudes. Moreover, evidence is addressed of women's greater religious fundamentalism, which often works in such a fashion on attitudes as to attenuate gender gaps in opinions. The second path investigates the social structure of women's and men's opinions and finds that despite the similarity of opinion on a number of issues, divergence appears in the sources of opinion. The influence of economic self-interest, age cohort, region, social group memberships, religious fundamentalism and feminism are found to vary between women and men across a number of issues. The third and final path elaborates on opinion structure by the investigation of women's and men's belief systems, that is the connections between various opinions and the manner in which these connections are hierarchical. Although women's and men's belief systems are very similar, the positioning of feininist belief differs by gender. For women, regardless of their level of political sophistication, feminism is connected to the most basic ideological belief, economic liberalism. For men, however, ferninism is only connected with ideological belief among the politically sophisticated. The study links this evidence to the existence of a women's political culture and argues that it stems partially from each gender's socialization, but that it is a culture in transition. The weakening of religious belief generally is likely to result in larger gender gaps in opinion in the future. / Arts, Faculty of / Political Science, Department of / Graduate

Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education in the Department of Psychology of Education of the University of Zululand, 2004. / In order to study adolescents perception of rape, relevant literature pertaining to rape and adolescence as a stage in the development of an individual was reviewed. The literature review pertaining to rape deals mainly with the following aspects: > Rape in terms of the law. > Conditions in society that promote rape. > Reasons for raping. > Recognition of sexual abuse. > Reactions to rape. > Needs of the rape victim. > Types of rape. > Coping with rape. > The responsibility of parents towards rape victims. Literature on the following aspects of adolescence is also reviewed: > Developmental tasks of the adolescent. > Relations of adolescents. > Characteristics of adolescent sex offenders. The descriptive method of research was used to collect data with regard to adolescents' perception of rape. Grade eleven learners at selected schools in the Bergville District, Ladysmith Region of KwaZulu-Natal, completed an empirical survey comprising a structured questionnaire. The data that was collected was analysed using inferential statistics. From the information gathered the following are the most important findings of the research regarding adolescents' perception of rape: > Adolescents are aware that rape is unlawful. > Adolescents believe that effective law enforcement can curb rape. > Adolescents do not believe that a culture of violence contributes to rape. > Women are reluctant to report being raped. > Adolescents' perception is that rape victims have difficulty in coping with relationships with other people. > The study reveals that it is vital for rape victims to talk about the rape. > Adolescents perceive rape as a crime of aggression. > Adolescents do not want parents to support a child that has been raped. > Rape is an action that decreases the self-esteem of women. > They do not believe that there is any relationship between rape and family violence. > They are uncertain if there is a relationship between women abuse and rape within marriage. The study also reveals that there is a significant difference statistically between the responses of males and females regarding responses to question that deal with rape whereas there is no significant difference between the responses of males and females regarding questions based on adolescence as a developmental stage. Based on the findings, the study makes the following recommendations: > Adolescents must lobby support to ensure more effective law enforcement, speak out against rape and must not be put under pressure by peers to engage in sex. > Parents need to communicate more effectively with adolescents. > Law enforcement must be stepped up to curb rape. > Programs must be put in place to educate adolescents regarding rape.

The plight of the poor has played a role in America’s politics for decades. In the 1930’s, Franklin Roosevelt’s Democratic Party vowed to fight the Great Depression, and by implementing countless anti-poverty initiatives and agencies it won enormous favor with the public and ushered in a period of Democratic dominance. In modern politics, narratives surrounding the poor and programs designed to help them are utilized by Republicans and Democrats to further their party’s agenda. I examine the influence of various demographic factors on the attitudes of Mississippi residents towards spending by the government intended to alleviate poverty, using the Mississippi Poll’s results from the years 2004-2014 as my dataset and using cross-tabulation analyses to draw conclusions. I find that gender and religiosity are relatively weak predictors of poverty spending attitudes, while income, education, and age are stronger predictors, and race and party identification are very strong predictors.

No description available.

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1963 M33

Digital file includes the first chapter from The Librarian Stereotype: Deconstructing Presentations and Perceptions of Information Work, edited by Nicole Pagowsky and Miriam Rigby; digital file also includes foreword by James V. Carmichael, Jr., Embracing the Melancholy: How the Author Renounced Moloch and the Conga Line for Sweet Conversations on Paper, to the Air of "Second Hand Rose

The purpose of this research was to explore patients' perceptions of services provided by hospital dietitians. The two-phase study included: (1) personal interviews of thirty-one patients to determine service attributes believed important when receiving a dietitian's service, and (2) development of a survey instrument, NUTRI-SERVE. Responses were obtained from 103 inpatients and 107 outpatients to identify service dimensions, differences in rating dimensions by patient group and gender, and relationships between dimensions, satisfaction, and recommendation of services. Results of personal interviews via qualitative analysis were used to develop NUTRI-SERVE. The survey format was a seven-point agreement scale. The instrument was reviewed for face validity and pilot tested. For the hospital survey, patients were randomly selected and surveyed by telephone; response was 87%. An a priori analysis approach was utilized examining dimensions with factor analysis to assess unidimensionality. Service dimensions: rationale, teach, motivate, care and consideration, reliability and responsiveness, and support staffphis outcome dimensions: learn and belief in the dietitian resulted. The factored scales demonstrated reliability. Outpatients rated service and outcome dimensions significantly more favorably than inpatients. Male outpatients rated and recommended the majority of services and outcomes significantly higher than female outpatients. The support staff dimension was rated highest by patients, while the teach dimension was rated lowest. The lowest rated outcome was learn. Inpatients and outpatients equally rated satisfaction with the dietitian's services favorably. Service and outcome dimensions were highly correlated. Motivate was the strongest driver for satisfaction and recommendation of services. Care and consideration was the strongest driver for motivate. Satisfaction with handouts was a driver for outpatient service dimensions, while satisfaction with the diet instruction room was a greater driver for inpatients. A customer service model was developed from these dimensions. This research provides insight into patients' perspective of service quality relating to hospital dietitians. It suggests satisfaction with dietetic education in an outpatient setting is strongly related to successfully learning the diet. This could be a useful management and marketing tool for dietetic managers, educators, and dietetic interns. Further research using NUTRI-SERVE is recommended to explore demographic and regional perceptions of service quality in dietetics. / Graduation date: 2003

The effect of psychoeducation on opinions about mental illness, attitudes toward help seeking, and expectations about psychotherapy were investigated. One group served as a control, one group read a written lecture on information about mental illness, and one group read a written lecture on information about psychotherapy. The control group, and experimental groups immediately after reading the lecture, completed demographic information, Attitudes Toward Help Seeking-Short Form, Expectations About Counseling-Brief Form, Nunnally Conceptions of Mental Illness Questionnaire, and three College Adjustment Scales (Depression, Anxiety, Self Esteem). Participants were asked to complete the same measures four weeks after the initial assessment. Results: No significant improvement in attitudes toward help seeking was demonstrated in either experimental group, at either time of testing. Expectations about psychotherapy were significantly improved in both experimental groups, which remained significant at Time 2. Opinions about mental illness demonstrated an immediate significant improvement in attitudes with the mental illness lecture group, however this effect did not remain at Time 2. The psychotherapy lecture group did not have significantly improved opinions about mental illness at either time of testing. The control group did not produce any significant changes between Time 1 and Time 2 testing. Experimental group scores demonstrated similarity with those who had previous experience with psychotherapy. No relationship was found between level of adjustment and attitudes toward help seeking, expectations about psychotherapy, or opinions about mental illness at either time of testing.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--York University, 2000. Graduate Programme in Political Science. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 464-485). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/yorku/fullcit?pNQ67908.

The objective of the study was to determine how visitors perceive park management method alternatives to preserve scenic beauty in Mounds State Park, and how other factors, such asvisitor characteristics and primary purpose for visiting the state park affected their preferences. Additionally, this study has presented a comparison of preferences for park management approaches between park managers and visitors, and a relationship between visitors' perceptions of scenic beauty and other factors. Furthermore, this study explored the contribution of a qualitative analysis. The result showed that visitor preferences for some park management approaches were influenced by sociodemographic characteristics, while visitor preferences for other park management approaches were influenced by the current state of scenic conditions in the park. Differences were observed between park manager's perceptions and visitors' perceptions. Visitors' perceptions of scenic beauty were related to whether or not they had visited the park in the past. Finally, it was clear that qualitative analysis was worthwhile for obtaining information that quantitative data could not provide. / Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Management