Social aspects

This dissertation draws on feminist theory and ecofeminist philosophy to examine the connections between understandings of women and nature and the construction of pervasive conceptualizations and practices of childbirth. It also examines the relationship between conceptualizations of men and masculinity, culture and nature, and childbirth. In order to conduct such an examination, this study explores the dominant Western discourse around gender and childbirth. Specifically, the work aims to identify prominent characteristics and themes related to childbirth in both popular culture, such as Hollywood films (Knocked Up, The Backup Plan), documentaries (The Business of Being Born), birth guides, magazines, news articles, websites, and scholarly, medical and alternative healthcare discourse. This work seeks to consider how various conceptualizations of childbirth are used to legitimate, or, alternately, to undermine, patriarchal gender norms such as emphasized femininity and patriarchal (hegemonic) masculinity and, more generally, what ecofeminist philosopher Val Plumwood calls "master consciousness" (Val Plumwood 1993), a way of understanding the world that is reliant on an unjustifiably dualistic thinking and that is responsible for fostering social practices of domination. In particular, this work seeks to determine to what extent is our conceptualization of childbirth, and subsequent practice, based on potentially erroneous presumptions about the hierarchical division between the realms of culture and nature and masculinity and femininity? Perhaps most importantly, this dissertation sets out to consider the implications of alternative conceptualizations of childbirth emerging in the context of the natural birth movement. Specifically, I aim to determine whether or not these alternatives interpretations of childbirth counteract patriarchal gender categories and the culture/nature dualism.

Economic changes have made the immigration of women to the United States part of major political and social issues. Women from Latin America frequently immigrate alone and without legal documentation, leaving their children in the care of relatives or friends, thus becoming transnational mothers in the process. Hispanic/Latino groups comprise the largest minority in the U.S., and Latina women account for 48.9% of the total Latino population. This demographic trend is expected to continue, and Hispanic/Latino groups are projected to experience the largest population increase in the coming decades (Marshall, Urrutia-Rojas, Soto-Mas & Coggin, 2005). The separation from their family has a strong impact on the health and well-being of these women, rendering them vulnerable to health care barriers and health disparities. This qualitative research study explored the experiences of Latinas living transnational motherhood. Individual semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight Latin as living transnational motherhood between the ages 21- 39. The findings in this study describe the lived experience of Latina transnational mothers within their social, economic and cultural context. The narrative was analyzed using van Manen's (1990) interpretative hermeneutic phenomenological approach to narrative analysis. Findings indicate that Latinas experiencing transnational motherhood find meaning in mothering from afar through sacrifice, suffering, and hopefulness for a better life for their children, and for family reunification. Findings from this study inform nurses of the health care barriers that these Latinas living transnational motherhood encounter as they experience hardship in order to support their families abroad as well as themselves.

Chelsea Handler is a comedian and host of the TV show Chelsea Lately. She has been successful in the late night comedy talk show genre to a degree that no woman has before. While she represents the most significant advancement for women in the genre, she also plays to patriarchal themes in order to maintain her foothold. In my thesis, I locate Handler within the history of women's stand-up comedy, analyzing her appeal via the figure of "The Unruly Woman" and other image types. I apply a mythic analysis as I look for Handler's manifestation of mythic types, including archetypal Goddess representations. I analyze her treatment of violence against women, exploring how Handler approaches these themes in ways that allow her into the "old boys club." I use textual and audience analysis to assess Handler's ability to be a transformative and empowering figure for women in comedy and beyond.

This study investigates the relationship of three protective factors : self transcendance, social interest, and spirituality to well-being among adults living with HIV or AIDS. It is the first study to explore the relationships of these protective factors to well-being. A convenience sample of 115 adults living with HIV or AIDS completed the Self-Transcendance Scale, the Social Interest Index- Short Form-Revised, the Spiritual Perspective Scale, and the Index of Well-Being. The participants were adults diagnosed with HIV or AIDS residing in a large southeastern U.S. city. Data were analyzed with correlational and multiple regression methods. Statistically significant positive moderate to strong relationships were found between well-being and self transcendance (r=.66, p<.001 ), social interest (r=.51, p<.001), and spirituality (r=.39, p<.001). A stepwise regression demonstrated that self transcendance held the highest variance on well-being among the three protective factors (43%). Additionally, self-transcendane and social interest accounted for 45% of the variance in well-being. In short, the hypothesized positive relationship among these protective factors with well-being was supported. This study provides theoretical and empirical support for linking self transcendance, social interest, and spirituality to well-being among adults living with HIV or AIDS. The clinical implications of these findings are also discussed.

Evolutionary psychology offers a framework for investigating the design of evolved information-processing mechanisms that motivate costly behaviors such as men's partner-directed violence. The current research investigated predictors of and individual differences in men's intimate- partner-directed violence from an evolutionary psychological perspective. The problem of paternity uncertainty is hypothesized to have selected for the emotion of male sexual jealousy, which in turn motivates men's nonviolent and violent mate-retention behaviors. Study 1 documented a hierarchy of behaviors initiated with men's suspicions of partner infidelity leading to men's engagement in frequent non-violent mate-retention behaviors, ending in men's partner-directed violence. Study 2 documented an interaction between men's personality traits and the context of perceived partner infidelity risk to predict men's perpetration of violence. Finally, Study 3 extended Studies 1 and 2 by building a causal cascade model that captures the hierarchy of adaptive behaviors in order of: (1) men's childhood experiences with their parents' parental effort, (2) men's adaptive life history strategies and behavioral self-regulation, (3) men's perceptions of partner infidelity risk, and (4) men's non-violent mate retention behaviors, conclusively predicting men's perpetration of violence in intimate relationships.

This thesis uncovers a deep and recurring link between two indigenista texts of the 20th Century: Balâun Canâan, by Rosario Castellanos, and "El problema del indio," by Jose Carlos Mariâategui. Mariategui's text, an essay, takes a deductive approach to prove that the "Indian's problem" in Peru is related to the concentration of land in the hands of his oppressors. Using Marxist theory, Mariâategui shows that only through more equitable distribution of land can the indigenous Peruvian's fortunes be improved. Castellanos chooses the years of the Cardenas presidency (1934-1940) for her novel, a work that deals with the legacy of the Mexican Revolution. Set in Chiapas, Mexico, autobiographical and fictitious elements and characters dramatize a conflict over indigenous rights to land and education on a criollo family's enormous estate. Supported by intellectual criticism from a number of fields, this thesis connects episodes from Castellanos's novel with the core premises of Mariâategui's essay.

This thesis is intended to disrupt society's social cruise control. The goal is to make people stop and think, even if only for a brief moment, about the social conventions that guide and control their daily lives. People become disconnected from one another and their environments through repetition, apathy, and a general obliviousness toward shared moments. Making people more attuned to these moments - essentially creating an opportunity to take a brief pause - as a step toward reconnection. Social conventions are unique in that they can exist without the consent of the involved parties; the existence of the convention is enough to demand conformity. While it is possible to find graphic design projects that offer some degree of interactivity to draw people into a relationship with a space, projects that encourage social relationships through acknowledgment between people are rare. This thesis will explore ways in which design acts as a catalyst for disruption, while also encouraging interaction and dialogue.

The intention of this exhibition is to educate the viewer about the hidden impacts that result from simple choices of consumption. This is a critique of the materials economy and the responsibilities of the designers, consumers and industries that contributed to its success. The critique is expressed through four dominant and unsustainable consumer products: water bottles, plastic shopping bags, cigarette filters and farm chemicals, as each has its own specific story of consumption. The form is derived from manufacturing history, statistical data, and profiles of consumer behaviors. Graphic design is utilized in both formal and non-formal methods with the goal of communicating specific messages to the viewer as they progress through the exhibition space.

The purpose of this study was to (a) explore the lived experiences of school district employees who have sustained on-the-job injuries with specific attention to employee perceptions of employer response after injury and (b) examine whether purposeful empathetic response from the employer after workplace injury was related to changes in employee perceptions of employer response. This study included both qualitative and quantitative methods. In Phase 1, the sample for the interviews included nine workers from a large school district in South Florida who had active injury claims within two years before the study began. The Phase 1 findings were that the level of assistance and type of support received after reporting an injury varied among participants, despite working for the same employer; that the perceived response from the employer was more influential in affecting the participants' experience of workplace injury than participants' perception of the response of their coworkers; t hat the reaction from a majority of the school district employees (6 of 9) who were injured at work mirrored perceived employer response; and that more than half of the nine participants had unmet expectations of their employer with respect to how they were treated after experiencing workplace injury. In Phase 2, the 91 subjects that participated in the organizational response survey (See Appendix E and Appendix F) were employees from the same school district who were injured during an eight-week period. Data from three subscales (organizational support, return-to-work policies, and post-injury job satisfaction) on the survey instrument were compared between two groups.

Purpose: To evaluate the influence of physical fitness on the metabolic and perceptual responses to chest compression-only (CCO) CPR. Methods: In a counterbalanced design, forty-seven CPR-certified participants were randomized to perform: 1) a fitness assessment in which muscular (e.g., push-ups = PU) and cardiorespiratory endurance (e.g., step test recovery heart rate = RHR) were determined, and 2) a 10-minute CCO-CPR trial in which the heart rate (HR) response and ratings of perceived exertion (RPE) were determined. Results: Both PU and RHR were significantly correlated to the HR response to CCO-CPR (r = - 0.45, p < 0.01; r = 0.54, p < 0.001). PU were significantly correlated to RPE: local muscular (r = - 0.43; p < 0.01), central (r = - 0.45; p < 0.01), and over-all (r = - 0.39; p < 0.01). Conclusions: Greater physical fitness lessens the metabolic and perceptual strain to CCO-CPR.