Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Community Psychology in the Department of Psychology in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Zululand, 2006. / The present study investigated the role that is played by family members in helping psychiatric patients cope with their illnesses. Twenty-seven psychiatric patients participated in the study. Of these, eighteen had been admitted to the local hospital for various complaints, and had been referred to the psychologist for psychotherapy. Nine participants were seen during private consultation sessions with the author/researcher. A convenient sample was used in that the criterion for inclusion of participants in the sample was based on patients suffering from certain psychiatric illnesses for example mood disorders, psychotic disorders or anxiety disorders. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect data for the study. The questionnaire covered participants' biographical information, details about psychiatric patients' illness such as their initial reactions to the diagnosis, knowledge about the illness, the level of support they received from family members and the community and the perceived causes of the illness. The procedure for data collection involved directed conversations in which patients reflected on their experiences both in and out of the hospital, for example the level of support they received from the family and community members, and information about their psychiatric conditions after being discharged from hospital. In addition, family members were asked to express their feelings and perceptions about the patients' conditions including the challenges they encountered as a result of having a family member with a psychiatric illness. The results of the study were that many psychiatric patients reacted with shock, fear and confusion to their illness diagnosis. Many also appeared to have some knowledge of the illness, including the belief by some that they had been bewitched. Some of the patients were unemployed as a result of being mentally ill, and this led to financial strains in the family. The main finding of the study was that most psychiatric patients still continue to be discriminated against in the communities in which they live. Most family members, however, were found to be supportive to their mentally ill relative. Some of the challenges faced by family members included a lack of knowledge about the illnesses affecting their relatives. The results of the study are generally consistent with the findings by other investigators regarding the important role that is played by family members in helping their relatives cope with psychiatric illnesses. In addition the study highlighted an urgent need by the government to improve mental health services by, among other things, providing adequately qualified professionals who may facilitate the process of integrating mentally ill persons with their communities.

This is an investigation into the history of masculinity in spaceflight during some of the tensest years of the Cold War era. This dissertation asks why the U.S. did not counter the Soviet launch of the first woman into space. Scholars have pieced together the story of American women’s fight for spaceflight. The dissertation adds another layer to this narrative by analyzing the construction of the astronaut image from 1958 to 1972, a period characterized by a widespread masculinity crisis. Scholars of Cold War America suggest that Americans saw communism, conformity, feminism, homosexuality, bureaucracy, corporations, male consumerism, leisure, automation, and the dreaded “organization man” as a threat to masculinity. The astronaut was not only a way for Americans to display their superiority over the Soviets; he also represented a widespread domestic reaction against the threat of automation. I build on the scholarship of the Cold War masculinity crisis by focusing on how the crisis played out within the public discourse of the astronaut image. I begin with a narrative of the Cold War masculinity crisis. Using print media, congressional records, and astronaut accounts, I explore how the masculinization of spaceflight created a public image of the astronaut that mirrored the Cold War masculinity crisis. As the average American man struggled for individuality and control in his own life, the astronaut struggled to exert and maintain individual control over the space capsule. Continuing through the Apollo program, the discourse surrounding the astronaut shifted away from depictions of him as a rugged individual exerting control in space toward an emphasis on the astronaut as a team player who shared control of the capsule with computers, the scientist-astronauts, and Mission Command. In the end, the astronaut struggled to represent a superior masculinity as he increasingly became the corporate organization man, symbolizing the masculinity crisis. The struggle to resolve the masculinity crisis continued as teamwork replaced individualism, hyphenated scientist-astronauts flew into space, and NASA commissioned the first passenger space shuttles.

Research suggests that gender role, rather than sex, is associated with the perception of individuals as leaders. The current study tests the effect of gender role on leadership emergence by using a pattern approach and manipulating task-type. 200 female undergraduate subjects, categorized based on their personality pattern of three variables (i.e., masculinity, femininity, and intelligence), were placed in groups of four members. Groups were randomly assigned to a consensus building or initiating structure task condition. Hypothesis one, which predicted that feminine-intelligent individuals would emerge more than masculine-intelligent or mixed personality pattern individuals in the consensus building task condition, was not supported. However, support was found for hypothesis two which predicted that masculine-intelligent individuals would be perceived as more leader-like than feminine-intelligent or mixed personality pattern individuals in the initiating structure task. Partial support was found for the emergence of androgynous-intelligent individuals in the consensus building task condition (hypothesis three), but full support was found for the emergence of androgynous-intelligent individuals in the initiating structure task (hypothesis four). The implications of these findings and directions for future research are discussed. / Master of Science

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM: This study, therefore, is an attempt to provide conceptual tools for understanding and facilitating the processes involved in the phenomenon of defining the roles for positions in new organizations (or new positions in old organizations) and redefining new roles for old positions in the light of changing circumstances. It seeks to answer the question, "What is known about the phenomenon of defining a role?". / 2999-01-01

Thesis (B.A.)--Boston University. University Professors Program Senior theses. / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / 2999-01-01

El objetivo del presente estudio es explorar el esquema de género de un grupo de 5 mujeres feministas. Para ello, se empleó el concepto de esquema de género como marco conceptual de la investigación y se utilizó una entrevista a profundidad para la recolección de información, la cual fue examinada mediante la estrategia de análisis de contenido, bajo el diseño fenomenológico de la metodología cualitativa. Una vez concluida la investigación, se encontró que la construcción y el cambio del esquema de género se da a través de un proceso de construcción de una nueva identidad, basada en la filosofía como mujer feminista y en todo lo que las participantes rechazan en relación al rol social que se le adjudica a las mujeres y los varones. / The objective of this study is to explore the gender scheme of a group of 5 feminist women. For this, the concept of gender scheme was used as a conceptual framework for research and an in-depth interview was used for the collection of information, which was examined through the content analysis strategy, under the phenomenological design of the qualitative methodology. Once the investigation was completed, it was found that the construction and change of the gender scheme occurs through a process of building a new identity, based on the philosophy as a feminist woman and on everything that the participants reject in relation to the social role assigned to women and men. / Tesis

Despite the fact that boys and girls in the US perform at equal rates on most standardized math exams, girls report lower self-confidence in, positive affect toward, and valuation of this subject. Internationally, the gap between girls’ and boys’ math scores is mostly accounted for by gender socialization and the rights of women in society. The present research uses Eccles’ (Parsons [Eccles] et al., 1983) Expectancy Value framework in considering the importance of math self-confidence, math valuation, and sex role egalitarianism on math achievement. Multiple regression will be used to determine the predictive ability of the independent variables. It is proposed that sex role egalitarianism and attitudes toward math will each significantly predict math achievement scores. Additionally, sex role egalitarianism will add to the prediction of math scores above what attitudes towards math contribute. Implications and future directions are discussed. / text

No description available.

No description available.

Context. Network Function Virtualization was recently proposed by European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) to improve the network service flexibility by virtualization of network services and applications that run on hardware. To virtualize network functions, the software is decoupled from underlying physical hardware. NFV aims to transform industries by reducing capital investments on hardware by using commercial-of-the-shelf (COTS) hardware. NFV makes rapid innovative growth in telecom services through software based service deployment. Objectives. This thesis work aims to investigate how business organizations function and the roles in defining a service relationship model. The work also aims to define a service relationship model and to validate it via proof of concept using network function virtualization as a service. For this thesis, we finally apply lean principles for the defined service relationship model to reduce waste and investigate how lean benefits the model to be proven as performance service oriented. Methods. The essence of this work is to make a business organization lean by investigating its actions and applying lean principles. To elaborate, this thesis work involves in a research of papers from IEEE, TMF, IETF and Ericsson. It results in modelling of a PoC by following requirement analysis methodology and by applying lean principles to eliminate unnecessary processes which doesn’t add any value. Results. The results of the work include a full-fledged service relationship model that include three service levels with roles that can fit in to requirement specifications of NFV infrastructure. The results also show the service levels functionalities and their relationships between the roles. It has also been observed that the services that are needed to be standardized are defined with syntax for ways to describe network functions. It is observed that lean principles benefit the service relationship model from reducing waste factors and hereby providing a PoC which is performance service oriented. Conclusions. We conclude that roles defined are fit for the service relationship model designed. Moreover, we conclude that the model can hence contain the flow of service by standardizing the subservices and reducing waste interpreted with lean principles and there is a need for further use case proof of the model in full scale industry trials. It also concludes the ways to describe network functions syntax which follows lean principles that are essential to have them for the sub-services standardization. However, PoC defined can be an assurance to the NFV infrastructure.