Work and family embody two of the most fundamental areas of adult life. The increased participation in the labour force of working women with children has had a major impact on the work and family interface. Theories of work and family have been incorporated to analyse potential relationships of conflict with undesirable work outcomes such as reduced job satisfaction and burnout. The study investigates whether work-family conflict ultimately leads to working women with children’s experiences of burnout and lower job satisfaction. The research study also explores the effects of the mother-role identity on the manifestation of family and work conflict in working women with children and posits that working women with children experience role salience differently from other working women without children. The study employed a quantitative research design using electronic self-administered questionnaires. Using the data from 545 employees in a fast-moving consumer goods industry showed that working women with children who identified closer with the mother-role identity, experienced greater work-family conflict. The mother-role identity forms a greater part of working women with children’s self than that of the employee-role identity and the results infer that role identity plays a significant role when conflict is experienced. In working women with children, strong relationships were found between family-work conflict and burnout, and moderate inverse relationships between work-family conflict and job satisfaction. Work-family conflict may ultimately lead working women with children to experience higher burnout and lower job satisfaction owing to their preoccupation with family-related responsibilities. The concept of role identity is introduced as a significant variable to consider into the work and family conflict investigation, as well as in the development of burnout and job satisfaction for working women with children. The current research also assists in understanding the work and family role integration of working women with children and provides a consolidated overview of the current work and family theories within a conceptual and unifying model. This research offers an explanatory model that outlines the relationship between the independent and dependent variables, by investigating the mechanisms by virtue of which such relationships exist. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / Human Resource Management / unrestricted

The current study investigated the impact of an integrated STEM collaborative approach embedded in a science methods course on early childhood and elementary preservice teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) and curricular role identity for teaching science, as well as the potential relationship between these two constructs. Participants were recruited from a group of preservice early childhood and elementary teacher candidates (N = 65) completing an undergraduate teacher education program at a university in the southeastern United States. Using a mixed-methods design, the preservice teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge and curricular role identity were assessed using concept maps and a curricular role identity for teaching science survey (Forbes & Davis, 2008) at the beginning and end of the semester. Semi-structured interviews were conducted after the semester to collect qualitative data to clarify and explain the quantitative results. Findings suggested that the integrated STEM collaborative approach led to a significant increase in preservice teachers’ PCK and curricular role identity for teaching science over the semester. The significant increase was found in both early childhood and elementary education preservice teachers, with little to no departmental difference. There was no statistically significant relationship between the preservice teachers’ PCK and curricular role identity. Preservice teachers in this study found that examining science standards, unit planning, microteaching, and connecting with other teachers were beneficial for their development of PCK and curricular role identity for teaching science. This study affirms the collaboration among university faculty and preservice and in-service teachers. Implications and suggestions for future research are included.

This study aimed to investigate the behaviour of lecture attendance amongst undergraduate students at the University of Cape Town (UCT) by applying the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB). A total of 169 respondents completed either a hard copy or online survey whilst meeting the inclusion criteria. The sample consisted of students from a first-year mathematics course (which had compulsory lecture attendance for registered students) and from a first-year organisational psychology course (which had voluntary lecture attendance for registered students). The study aimed to broaden the limited knowledge which exists around the perceptions of students regarding lecture attendance specifically in a South African context. Confirmatory Factor Analysis, Exploratory Factor Analysis and reliability analyses strongly supported the application of the TPB model scales and role-identity scale. Regression analysis showed that only attitudes help to predict intention towards lecture attendance behaviour where subjective norms, perceived behavioural control and role-identity were not significant predictors. Intentions were also seen to be highly correlated to actual attendance behaviour as well as helping to predict actual attendance behaviour. Actual behavioural control (ABC) was not seen as a moderator between intention and actual lecture attendance. Practical and theoretical implications were discussed. The information generated by this study can be used to further understand the occurrence of, and students’ perceptions of lecture attendance.

The stereotype that male nurses are less masculine has existed for generations and spans all age groups. Several studies have investigated masculinity and femininity in nurses using the Bem Sex-Role Inventory, but the results are conflicting and inconclusive. Therefore, a nationwide survey was conducted across the United States that examined the sex-role identity of individuals who chose nursing as a career path. Twenty-eight males and 81 females from 37 states completed the survey. The males and females in the study both had higher mean scores on masculinity and femininity scales when compared with previous studies. The greatest percentage of participants were classified as androgynous, as opposed to masculine, feminine, or undifferentiated, with half of the males and nearly half of the females falling into this category. © The Author(s) 2011.

Educational decision-makers influence the opportunities, experiences, and outcomes for all invested in public education. Given the increasingly complex social, cultural, political, and economic landscape within the United States in the 21st century, it seems more important than ever to better understand and appreciate who educational decision-makers are and the process by which these public education stewards make decisions. But while scholarship pertaining to educational decision-making is vast, only scarce research focuses explicitly on the decision-makers themselves. Specifically, extant research tends to overlook the way educational decision-makers understand their role and how they engage in educational decision-making. Therefore, this study set out to inquire into educational decision-makers’ meaning-making of themselves, their role, and the process by which they make educational decisions. This study’s guiding question was: how do educational decision-makers’ role-identity(ies) manifest and frame their educational decision-making? The study followed a phenomenological approach to investigate educational decision-makers perceptions and actions: the content, meaning-making, and process by which the participants construct their educational decision-maker identity and understand their decision-making process. The guiding theoretical frame for this study is the Dynamic Systems Model of Role Identity (DSMRI; Kaplan & Garner, 2017). The DSMRI conceptualizes decision-making to emerge from people’s contextualized and dynamic role interpretation—their role identity. According to the DSMRI, four interdependent multi-elemental components comprise role-identities: ontological and epistemological beliefs, purpose and goals, self-perceptions and self-definitions, and perceived action-possibilities. These components emerge within social-cultural contexts and function in a non-linear, non-deterministic, emergent manner to guide decision-making. The study investigated the content, structure, and process of formation of educational decision-makers’ role identities and how these elements frame the meaning of impactful decisions they made in their role. Seven educational decision-makers (5 women, 2 men) participated in this study. Each held either a state or a municipal educational decision-making position, with all positions located in the same educational context. Each participant partook in three life-story phenomenological interviews. The interviews followed Seidman’s (2013) protocol focusing on their past to the present (interview 1), their decision-making role (interview 2), and their insights from the previous two interviews (interview 3). Interviews were transcribed and analyzed with Kaplan and Garner’s (2016) DSMRI Codebook and Analysis Guide. The findings highlighted the complex and dynamic constellation of role-identities and role-identity elements that framed each educational decision-maker understanding of him- or herself and their decision-making. The findings depicted the participating educational decision-makers as unique individuals; highlighting their varied lived-experiences, socioeconomic backgrounds, educational degrees, professional expertise, and interpretations of their present self. Yet, the findings also highlighted the very similar process and content the participants engaged in for constructing their educational decision-maker role-identity. Specifically, despite their differences, all the decision-makers construed their current role-identity as grounded in perceived stable value-based personal aspects from their past role identities. In addition, all used similar cultural materials, meanings, and strategies to form their decision-making identity. This manifested most clearly in the shared underlying theme of their varied and dynamic role-identities as educational decision-makers who are “advocates.” The findings across these educational decision-makers paint a collective educational decision-making landscape within which the different decision-makers shared cultural themes and means for interpreting past personal events as forming their identity and decision-making. These insights may provide researchers, public education advocates, and even students and their families better insights into the way educational decision-makers approach their role and tasks. It may further guide stakeholders in strategies to engage these educational decision-makers by considering the fit of their agenda within the life-story educational decision-makers construe as foundational to their role identities and decision-making. The findings may also provide educational decision-makers a framework for reflection on their role and actions, and for further developing their identity and decision-making. Fundamentally, this research contributes to the efforts to improve educational experiences and opportunities for students attending public schools. / Educational Psychology

No / Aims This paper aims to explore and describe how qualified nurses working with in, in-patient surgical areas cope with the daily experiences they are exposed to. It has long been recognised that many aspects of nursing work can result in high levels of stress, with negative consequences for the individual nurse and patient care. Difficulties in coping with nursing work can also result in burnout, as well as raising concerns about cognitive dissonance, emotional labour and the use of emotional barriers. Why some nurses are more prone to experience these phenomena than others, is unclear. Method A descriptive qualitative approach is taken using a purposive, theoretically congruent sample of 16 qualified registered nurses all of whom participated in a semi-structured interview during 2002. All interviews were tape recorded and transcribed verbatim and then analysed using the four stages outlined by Morse and Field [Morse, J.M., Field, P.A., 1996. Nursing Research: The Application of Qualitative Approaches. Chapman & Hall, London]. Findings Three key themes emerged from analysis; relationships with patients, being a person and the effect of experience. All three interlink to describe a process whereby the individual switches off from the environment around them by adopting a working persona which is different but related to their own personal persona and is beneficially enhanced as a consequence of experience. Conclusion Working as a nurse results in exposure to potentially distressing and stressful events from which it is important to protect the self. Participants in this study achieve protection by the development of a working persona which facilitates switching off and is beneficially enhanced by experience.

The purpose of this paper is to synthesize literatures on stress, social support, symbolic interaction, and de Certeau as they pertain to the recovery of a homosexually-identified individual from a homophobic interaction. A model of the initial stressful interaction as well as the interaction between a homosexually-identified individual and his socially-supportive network is posited with the consumption of culturally-disseminated roles and the salience of role-identities as the mechanisms by which it works. The model is then considered as a form of resistance in the light of broader gay liberation social movements. The study focuses on white, middle-class, American, homosexually-identified males in order to control for variations that might occur from variables of race, class, nationality, and gender. Queer theoretical, essentialist, and postpositivist realist perspectives on identity are considered. The thesis concludes with possible future directions for an empirical study using the model outlined above.

This thesis focuses on the transformation of identities of international master students attending Örebro University along with their perception of how this experience will affect their future. A qualitative content analysis of 10 semi-structured interviews was employed to explore the topic and answer the research questions. The thesis is guided by the theoretical background that stands on the synthesis of Jenkins’ perception of identity and the identity theory, supplemented by the understanding of international students as ‘student travellers’. The analysis of respondents’ narratives revealed that all aspects of their identity were affected. International students, throughout their stay abroad, live in a certain bubble as they distance themselves from the society on one hand and identify with the international students’ group on the other, affecting their social identity. However, before a new identity is formed and while the old one is being changed, the students experience a state of limbo during which uncertainty of roles emerges. Their person identity is influenced as well due to the international experience providing an opportunity to consciously alter some aspects of personality and, furthermore, to promote their independence, open-mindedness, and awareness of other cultures. Additionally, through contact with these other cultures, the international student develops into a person of two minds – international and of the country of their origin. In regards to the students’ perception of the future, the desire to stay international, to travel and live abroad is essential in creating something of a nomad life. Moreover, the respondents considered the international experience to have a positive impact on their career through an advantageous position over others along with the acquisition of an international network.

This research thesis aims to explore the interplay between the recent introduction of generative artificial intelligence at work and professional role identity. As the public introduction of generative artificial intelligence shook up people’s lives in November 2022, we have reasons to think that an exploration of workers’ professional role identity regardinggenerative artificial intelligence is relevant. Due to the recent studies related to the massive introduction of artificial intelligence in the content creators’ field, we chose to explore how their role and their identity are evolving. Organizations face challenges in managing artificial intelligence systems and their impact on professional role identity, which, however, has received limited scholarly attention and is not well-understood yet. While prior research has studied various aspects related to artificial intelligence and has suggested that artificial intelligence can enhance productivity, efficiency, and prosperity, it has to a large extent neglected the influence of artificial intelligence on professional role identities. Therefore, this research aims to contribute to artificial intelligence literature by providing empirical insights into the evolution of work and identity.  To address the abovementioned gap, we build on previous research and conduct a qualitative study. We gathered important insights through interviews with several content creators, including photographers and designers from different countries, to discuss their experiences and elaborate a more comprehensive approach to the potential consequences of the introduction of generative artificial intelligence at work. Taking inspiration from a phenomenological approach, clarifications have been brought forward on the reasons exposed by content creators to introduce generative artificial intelligence in their work process and the consequences of such a choice. A broader perspective has been borrowed in order to question the legitimacy of clients and peers regarding the integration of generative artificial intelligence at work. More than adding a layer on the benefits of the introduction of generative artificial intelligence at work, our thesis sheds light on what we call “a dual motion” for workers’role identity, highlighting both interactions between generative artificial intelligence at work and professional role identity, challenging and enhancing each other. Additionally, this research explores manners content creators can enrich their work with generative artificial intelligence. This thesis gains perspective on this subject and aims to expose practical implications for workers to inform and broaden people’s minds about generative artificial intelligence.

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