This study examines a new method for conceptualizing and measuring roletaking ability. Role-taking is defined in a manner that facilitates further theory building and testing. The task of designing and validating a measure of role-taking that departs from the self-evaluative measures currently used is undertaken and validated with an experimental design. A computer-based survey instrument is created consisting of video and written vignettes designed to test subjects’ ability to predict their study partner’s behavior. It is found that one type of vignette is more suitable for measuring role-taking accuracy than is the other. Females, regardless of experimental condition, record higher role-taking scores than do their male counterparts. Subjects’ self-reported role-taking accuracy is not correlated with their actual role-taking accuracy scores. Because this is the case, it leads to a re-thinking of the meaning of studies that use self-reported ability as the sole measure of role-taking ability. An additional finding is that participants seem to overestimate individual differences. Personality factors measured by the Big Five Inventory were not correlated with role-taking accuracy.

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<p>In the social sciences, the dominant approach to the study of character—people’s</p> <p>essential interactional dispositions, especially of a moral and durable nature—has been to</p> <p>treat it as a set of objective dispositions lodged within the individual. This dissertation</p> <p>challenges the objectivist orthodoxy in the study of character by examining it from a</p> <p>symbolic interactionist perspective (Mead 1934; Blumer 1969; Strauss 1993). Drawing on</p> <p>14 months of ethnographic research in two Protestant Christian seminaries as an</p> <p>empirical case, I find that character is ultimately a matter of audience definition, a selfother</p> <p>dispositional designation achieved in social interaction. Three empirical papers</p> <p>examine specific aspects of the character-making process. The first paper considers</p> <p>character as a contingency influencing people’s trajectories of involvement in group life.</p> <p>The second paper examines how ministry students define and experience character</p> <p>formation in the seminary. The third paper analyzes how character problems are</p> <p>identified and responded to in the seminary.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

A qualitative study, using an oral history method was completed. Seven participants (2 men, 5 women) of Gullah descent from the St. Helena's Island and Charleston, South Carolina area were extensively interviewed. Symbolic interactionism provided the theoretical framework for the study. Findings included the recognition of the Gullah as a unique cultural group and the possible effects of slavery on identity formation for individuals as well as the Gullah community. Striking differences in physical space utilization between Gullah and non-Gullah residents were suggested. The presence of conflict between African and European beliefs and practices were seen in areas such as religious traditions, child rearing, and language. The pervasive effect of racism on identity and its relationship to biculturalism was discussed. Biculturalism appeared to be strongly related to survival as well as being an integral part of the participants' identities. / Ph. D.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that babies be exclusively breastfed for the first six months of life, and continue to breastfeed throughout the first year of life and as long after as is mutually desired. Recent survey data suggests that initiation rates of breastfeeding are high; according to the CDC, 75.0 percent of children in the U.S. have been breastfed. Although initiation rates of breastfeeding are high, breastfeeding duration rates consistent are much lower; 33.0 percent of infants were exclusively breastfed at three months, and only 13.3 percent of infants were exclusively breastfed at six months. Additionally, only 22.4 percent of infants were still breastfeeding at twelve months. Social and behavioral research has identified social support received from the infant's father to be one of the most important predictors of breastfeeding initiation and duration. Although several prior studies have identified paternal attitudes and support to be important influences of breastfeeding duration, few studies have been conducted to understand the specific forms of paternal support that are most important to mothers, and the forms of paternal support that are most predictive of breastfeeding duration. Also, to the author's knowledge, this was the first study to investigate negative forms of paternal support that may discourage breastfeeding. This mixed-methods study sought to better understand the perceived forms of positive and negative paternal support for breastfeeding amongst a cohort of first-time parent couples. A longitudinal study design was utilized, in which each parent participated in an in-depth interview at four time points: prenatally, and at one, three, and six month post-partum. At each time point, mothers and fathers also completed a quantitative survey; breastfeeding intention was assessed at the prenatal period, and information about current breastfeeding status was collected at the post-natal time points. A final sample of fourteen parent couples was recruited from Champions for Children prenatal classes, and all interviews took place between June 2013 and February 2014. The quantitative portion of this study found that at one month post-partum, mothers with higher prenatal breastfeeding intention scores were more likely to still be breastfeeding (85.7%), with the largest percentage of mothers still exclusively breastfeeding (50.0%); additionally, mothers with lower prenatal breastfeeding intention scores were more likely to be exclusively formula feeding (14.3%) (p = 0.03). In general, mothers with higher prenatal breastfeeding intention scores also identified more types of positive paternal support for breastfeeding; however, the only association found to be statistically significant was appraisal support (p=0.03). For the qualitative portion of this study, expectant mothers and fathers identified forms of paternal support that they perceived to be either positively or negatively supportive of breastfeeding. More often than any other type of positive support, mothers and fathers mentioned a father providing instrumental support as helpful to sustain breastfeeding, and at the post-natal time points, almost every mother identified help with household chores as being the support they receive most often which helps them to sustain breastfeeding. Whereas mothers mentioned instrumental support most often when asked to identify forms of paternal support for breastfeeding, after delivery mothers indicated that emotional support was truly most valuable; almost every mother identified words of encouragement and motivation as being the support they receive from their partner that is most important, and which helps to sustain breastfeeding. At the post-natal time-points very few mothers or fathers identified any forms of negative support actually received from their partner; mothers and fathers instead elaborated on examples of support that they perceived as negative for a mother to receive from her partner including failure to provide positive support, indifference to infant feeding method, a negative attitude towards breastfeeding or preference for formula, and negative or discouraging comments. At the post-natal time points, the majority of mothers perceived a father being verbally negative about breastfeeding as the worst form of negative support for breastfeeding. This study primarily used qualitative methods to gather rich, in-depth personal accounts of first-time mothers' and first-time fathers' perceptions of paternal support for breastfeeding. This provided valuable insight and allowed for an emic perspective of the participants' personal experiences which led to a more in-depth understanding of the specific forms of paternal support most important to mothers. Unlike previous studies conducted to better understand paternal support for breastfeeding, this study utilized a longitudinal design which allowed for the collection of data at four time points, both pre- and post-natal. A longitudinal design strengthened this study as perceived forms of paternal support were compared at different time points, and shifts in perceptions over time amongst mothers and fathers were captured. This study contributes new knowledge to the field of breastfeeding promotion regarding the specific forms of paternal support that mothers and fathers perceive as positive or negative of breastfeeding. It is imperative to improve our understanding of the precise forms of paternal support which are most positively associated with breastfeeding exclusivity and duration, so that future efforts to increase positive paternal support and decrease negative paternal support are most effective. The findings of this study can be used to help engage fathers in the breastfeeding process, including educating them on the specific ways that they can offer meaningful support to their breastfeeding partner.

Parenthood is a role that shapes the lives of parents and children. According to the sociology of families and marriages, criminology, and the sociology of punishment, the most alienated individuals in unequal America practice parenthood in fragile families struggling with poverty, the code of the street, and under correctional supervision. In attempts to connect and contribute to these literatures, this research project examines how individuals' delinquent/criminal role performance on the street stage and client/inmate role performance on the correctional stage influence their parent role performance on the home stage. To do so, this qualitative study collected 57 semi-structured interviews (12 mothers and 45 fathers) and analyzes participants' parent role, delinquent/criminal role, and client/inmate role. The findings suggest that a cross-generational role conflict shapes participants' parent role performance throughout their life course. Although conflicting roles (roles with conflicting expectations) can coexist in the self, limited resources (time, energy, and money) and problematic boundaries (weak or impenetrable) between social situations bring role conflict to the center of role performance. In this case, the role conflict between participants' ideal parent role on the home stage, delinquent/criminal role on the street stage, and client/inmate role on the correctional stage shapes participants' parent role performance throughout their life course.

In the Chinese village Wukan, violence between the authorities and protesters took place when farmers resisted land transaction 2011. Wukan is one out of about ten thousand local protests annually in China, but unique in the modern Chinese history since it resulted in suspension of land transaction and the leaders of the protest where elected into the village committee, in an election which is considered by external observers as the most democratic in China. The aim of this paper is to understand destructive and constructive processes emerging out of interaction between protesters and the authorities. The focus is on how the actors (the authorities vs. protesting farmers) interpret their opportunities to: a) understand the intention of the other, b) be understood by the other, and c) influence the action of the other, in the different phases of the conflict. The conclusion is that when actors respond to disagreement with discursive closure, the destructivity increases, and vice versa.

In this dissertation, I describe patterns of interaction that were identified from in-depth narrative interviews with LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer) people in two contrasting research sites. Thirty-five participants live in a small town in the Midwest known for its religious and political conservatism, and thirty-one live in a mid-sized city on the east coast that is known for being “liberal.” The dissertation focuses on these patterns of interaction at three key social sites. First, in interactions with straight family and friends, I show that sexuality—like race, class, or gender—influences the emotion work one is expected to perform. LGBTQs’ deliberations about belonging lead them to suppress or evoke emotions as they work to overcome relational boundaries. Second, in interactions with the general public, I find that LGBTQs in the small town describe a moral framework of “respect” that compels them to refrain from acts of visibility; while LGBTQs in the urban site feel they have a “responsibility” to enact a visible gay presence. Beliefs, in this case, influence LGBTQs’ decisions to engage in acts of “everyday queer visibility.” Finally, I find that rural LGBTQs engage in a process of intragroup boundary-work as they distance themselves from other LGBTQ people and from a larger gay community. Contrary to other scholarship and hypotheses about how marginalized people construct identity and community, LGBTQ people in this site reject collective identity, while simultaneously solidifying boundaries between “straight” and “gay.” While a good deal of other research focuses on LGBTQ identity, this dissertation utilizes a “critical interactionist” framework in order to examine the influence of dominant, place-based ideologies on LGBTQs’ patterns of interaction. Such an approach offers a more inclusive portrayal of the variety of LGBTQ experience, one that does not simply privilege narratives of resistance, but also sheds light on how social power functions in the everyday lives of LGBTQs.

In my dissertation, I use multi-ethnographic methods to examine how mediators talk about, manage, and process families going through divorce. I show how a dominant narrative about marriage and the cultural expectations of parenthood provide a framework for mediators to manage the discourse of divorcing parties so assets and care giving can be split 50/50. The dominant P.E.A.C.E. narrative (P=parenting plan, E=equitable distribution, A=alimony, C=child support, E=everything else) restricts available discourse in mediation and guides mediators’ behaviors in ways that homogenize families by providing a linear formula for mediators to follow which results in only certain stories being allowed to enter the mediation. Next, I show how constructions about power and violence serve to frame and shape understandings of divorce for mediators, thereby guiding their actions in mediation and discursively impacting the discourses of mediated parties. Power and violence are constructed in ways that conflate the concepts, and no clear protocol is offered to manage these complicated concerns for family law mediators. The outcome is mediators report being unsure and often fearful about mediating cases where intimate partner violence is a concern. Finally, an analytic autoethnographic examination of family law mediation provides an example of the power of ideology and makes clear my positionality within this dissertation. I explore my own identity as a white, heterosexual, female, in a world ripe with expectations about marriage and family creation as I encounter alternative messages and information in my fieldwork. Throughout my dissertation, I uncover larger cultural narratives about marriage, and families that guide and manage people, illustrating the ways identities, stories of violence, and the ideology of marriage are shaped.

The public acts of violence during the summer of 2012 in Toronto brought the theme of gangs back to the forefront in Canadian media coverage. As renewed debates argued old subject matters, our understanding of gangs was not able to diverge from its endless roundabout. This paper inverts the study of gangs that has classically looked towards the gang as a collective to explain its sub-cultural delinquent and sometimes violent tendencies, and explores the individualized interpretation of gang membership from the perspective of four Latin-Canadian males from the Greater Toronto Area. This study takes on the challenge of observing the trajectory of gang membership based on the first hand experiences of self-proclaimed ex-gang members and through an in-depth dialogue with these participants, ventures through the turning points that led these individual actors through the process of onset; commitment and desistance. This exploration into the lived experiences of gang membership is seen through a Symbolic Interactionist lens and views gang membership as one of many identities that can actively be portrayed by the social being. In this perspective, the concepts of gangs and gang membership are described as a subjective experience completely open to interpretation, but guided by the flow of unique interactions that these individuals encountered within a variety of complex situations and environments. That which is being observed herein is the process of how the participants interacted with their existing environments and the circumstances produced by them, highlighting the momentous events that continuously defined the individuals understanding of their own self concept as a gang member up until the point of non-membership. What was observed by a dissection of the interviewee’s accounts was that the onset of gang membership was influenced primarily by a feeling of disassociation and alienation which the participants actively sought to suppress, whereby the idea of belonging to a gang offered the remedy. The aspect of commitment was shown to be focused more towards upholding the identity of gang membership and their reputation than towards the gang itself. Reinforcing the identity maintained the individual’s social status and relevance amongst their peers, solidifying the aspired identity of gang membership. Finally, the process of desistance surfaced once the gang member identity no longer seemed beneficial. Life threats, a re-emergence of the feeling of solidarity, the experience of disloyalty and the acceptance of another identity as being more imperative were factors that separately influenced the move for the discontinuance for the projection of the gang member identity. Although the participants admit to and self proclaim ex-membership, they do nonetheless acknowledge that the gang mask could once again be put back on.