This study reports four content analyses of the character Nora in Henrick Ibsen's A Doll's House. The first three studies examine different media: the printed page, the play, and a film. The fourth study examines the film again using cluster unitizing as its methodology. The objectives of these studies were twofold: to develop a quantitative methodology for studying a character to complement the more established method of qualitative research; and to compare and contrast various media for presenting the same play. / An adaptation of Sandra Bem's Sex-Role-Inventory was applied to the study of androgynous behavior of the character, Nora. Bem's original scale was used in the first two content analyses with minor modifications. The final two content analytic studies used a revised 3-point scale with twenty adjectives (ten masculine and ten feminine) in place of the original sixty items. / Dietrich's motivational unit was used to unitize the play for each coding. The first three studies used unit-by-unit analysis while the fourth study used longer cluster units. The first two studies were based on one male and one female coder while the third study used four female coders. The fourth study employed fourteen adult coders (six female and eight male). / The intercoder reliability improved with each analysis. The book reliability was .25; the play's was .33; the film was .61; the second coding of the film was .92. Intrascale reliability remained high throughout, but especially with the last coding when reliability for female items was .93 and for male items was .94. Coders for the last study were given the Bem Sex Role Inventory test to determine whether their own androgyny levels affected their coding of Nora; no effect was found. / Coding results were consistent with a subjective, independent dramatic analysis of the play and contributed to a deeper understanding of the character. It was concluded that the adapted BSRI was a promising instrument for studying sex-role behavior in drama. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 44-06, Section: A, page: 1625. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1983.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_75097 |
| Contributors | BUELL, CYNTHIA LOUISE., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 173 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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