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Minor Courts And Communities At The Frontier: The Justice Of The Peace In Early Missouri, Bonnie Aileen Speck

Wayne State University Dissertations

ABSTRACT

MINOR COURTS AND COMMUNITIES AT THE FRONTIER JUSTICES OF THE PEACE IN EARLY MISSOURI

by

BONNIE A. SPECK

May 2011

Advisor: Sandra VanBurkleo

Major: American Legal and Constitutional History

Degree: History

This study focused on local and county courts operated by Missouri's justices of the peace between the Louisiana Purchase and roughly 1875. Its purpose was to investigate the role of township justices’ courts and county courts of commissioners in terms of interactions with local residents; effects of rulings and other court actions on everyday affairs; and wider impacts on Missouri society. Sources included territorial and …

The Effects Of Gestalt And Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy Group Interventions On The Assertiveness And Self-Esteem Of Women With Physical Disabilities Facing Abuse, Cilene Susan Adam Rita

Wayne State University Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the differential effects of Gestalt and Cognitive-Behavioral group therapy interventions on assertiveness and self-esteem among women with physical disabilities facing abuse. The eleven women, who met the study criteria, were randomly assigned to one of two experimental conditions, Gestalt Therapy (GT) and Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) group interventions. The Demographic Questionnaire (Adam Rita, 2009) documented personal characteristics of the participants. The criterion instruments were: a) RAS (Rathus, 1973), and b) CFSEI-2 (Form AD, Battle, 1992) measuring assertiveness and self-esteem respectively and were administered pre-and-post treatment. The research was conducted over a period of …

University Students' Attitudes Towards Body Hair And Hair Removal: An Exploration Of The Effects Of Background Characteristics, Socialization, And Societal Pressures, Bessie Rigakos

Wayne State University Dissertations

Body hair removal is a behavior that is taken for granted by many women in the United States. Existing feminist literature suggests that body hair removal is a major component of societal norms. This study aimed to contribute to the literature by exploring the social factors that influence the extent of women's depilation from public/visible body areas and private/hidden body areas, and the number of depilatory methods utilized. A total of 303 female students from Wayne State University completed questionnaires asking about their attitudes towards body hair/hair removal. It was confirmed that the vast majority (291 or 96%) remove their …

A Comparative Study Of Robert Lewis, Lee Strasberg, Stella Adler And Sanford Meisner In The Context Of Current Research About The Stanislavsky System, Ruthel Honey-Ellen Darvas

Wayne State University Dissertations

Decades of interpretation based on incorrect and incomplete information regarding Stanislavsky and his System have erroneously guided the advent of modern acting theory in the United States. This study, using current research about the Stanislavsky System, examines four notable acting teachers--Robert Lewis, Lee Strasberg, Stella Adler and Sanford Meisner--to determine whose philosophy most accurately reflects the Stanislavsky System as it is now understood. The concepts of action, imagination, bits, tasks, emotion memory and active analysis are each explored independently. Each concept is examined as it relates to the System and then compared to the concepts as interpreted and put into …

The Cultural Memory Of German Victimhood In Post-1990 Popular German Literature And Television, Pauline Ebert

Wayne State University Dissertations

My dissertation analyzes the representation of Germans as victims of the Third Reich and the Second World War in post-1990 German memory. After unification, there no longer were two states that could each blame the other as the heir of National Socialism and this past had to be renegotiated. The claim that many Germans had been victims became central as evidenced by the vast number of popular literature, commercial cinema and television programs of this subject. I argue with Wulf Kansteiner (2006) that to understand collective memory, we should explore mass media representations. As the majority of highbrow artifacts do …

The Rise Of Public Sector Unionism In Detroit, 1947-1967, Louis Eugene Jones

Wayne State University Dissertations

In 1947, the Michigan Legislature passed into law the Hutchinson Act banning strikes of state and local workers. The law provided for the termination of striking public sector workers but did not require state and local agencies to bargain with public employees or their representatives. It even allowed for fines and prison sentences for non public sector workers who influenced public sector workers to strike. The law forced public sector unions into an untenable state of "collective begging." Indeed, it was often referred to as punitive and draconian. 18 years later, the Michigan Legislature passed and the governor signed into …

Thinking Globally, Writing Locally: Re-Visioning Critical And Service Learning Pedagogies With Globalization Theory, Cara Lindsey Kozma

Wayne State University Dissertations

Based on a theoretically informed qualitative study, my dissertation looks at critical and service learning pedagogies, focusing on the numerous critiques that have arisen within contemporary composition scholarship. Critical pedagogy has recently come under scrutiny on the grounds that it opposes students' pragmatic views and career concerns, effects student resistance in the classroom, devalues students' personal experiences, and stigmatizes white students (particularly white males). Within service learning, scholars point to numerous problems as well: It can create a false hierarchy between students and community partners by evoking an ideology of "service" and an us/them mentality; it may not be truly …

Fighting For Survival: Coal Miners And The Struggle Over Health And Safety In The United States, 1968-1988, Richard Fry

Wayne State University Dissertations

My dissertation focuses on coal mining and occupational health and safety in the United States from 1968 to 1985. In the late 1960s, coal miners faced the constant risk of injury, occupational disease, and death. The dangerous conditions in the coal industry resulted in a massive explosion at the Farmington mine in West Virginia in 1968, which killed 78 miners. The Farmington disaster spurred miners to campaign for the reform of state and federal coal mine health and safety laws in the United States. They rejected the national leadership of their union, the United Mine Workers (UMW), which they perceived …

Bewitching The Stage: Elizabethan And Jacobean Witch-Lore And Witch-Hunt, Kyoung H. Lee

Wayne State University Dissertations

This project hypothesizes that the early modern stage witch's grotesque femininity and her masculine presumption of agency were the effective signifiers of the feminine covert, what men fantasized about the reproductive secrets of womanhood and their control over the feminine activities. My investigation of late Elizabethan and Jacobean drama indicates that the fictional witch is postulated as the negative example of female fertility and feminine nurture: the witch not only interferes in the natural process of fertility in humans as well as in nature but she also contaminates maids and mistresses with her mismanagement and overconsumption of household resources. I …

From Baby Formula To Solid Food: How The Influence Of Media Has Nourished Children's Literature, Nicole L. Wilson

Wayne State University Dissertations

This dissertation juxtaposes children's literature and media and investigates the resulting influence of media on literature. Jay Bolter and Richard Grusin's ideas regarding Remediation in conjunction with Henry Jenkins ideas regarding Convergence Culture provide the framework for my ideas regarding media and their roles in children's literature.

One way media influence children's literature is through the realm of nostalgia. Adults reflect on their childhoods and the literature they encountered. Their desires to recreate the truths they recall learning from literature lead them to produce reflective and restorative remediations of texts that allow modern youths new opportunities with canonical texts.

Another …

Manufacturing Menopause: An Analysis Of The Portrayal Of Menopause And Information Content On Pharmaceutical Web Sites, Deborah H. Charbonneau

Wayne State University Dissertations

Consumer-targeted prescription drug advertising serves as an interesting lens through which we can examine the portrayal of menopause in online drug advertisements. The aim of this study was to explore the portrayal of menopause on web sites sponsored by pharmaceutical companies for hormone therapies (HT). To unravel this question, a qualitative content analysis of web sites for FDA-approved hormone therapies was employed. A total number of 608 printed pages of web site content from eight web sites (N=8) were analyzed. Key findings elucidated how menopause was portrayed on the pharmaceutical web sites. First, descriptions of menopause articulated a biomedical perspective …

Exploring The Imaginary Domain: An Investigation Of The Interplay Of Alterity, Literature, And The Process Of Self-Definition, Matthew Brandon Ittig

Wayne State University Dissertations

This qualitative study explored how six secondary English students imagined definitions and redefinitions of themselves through encounters with self and other within the context of semiotic engagements with literature. A conceptual lens for exploring these imaginary spaces was fashioned by the braiding together of current trends from philosophy, critical theory, feminist theory, literary theory, and semiotic theory. These braided theories guided the research design. This conceptual frame allowed an investigation of the ways the interplay of alterity, the radical difference between self and other, and literature study created imaginary domains where the students could fashion definitions and re-definitions of self. …

Composition Under Review: A Genre Analysis Of Book Reviews In Composition, 1939-2007, Sandra Wald Valensky

Wayne State University Dissertations

Although reviews have been a part of two flagship composition journals, College English and College Composition and Communication throughout their publication histories, little attention has been shown to them in any full length research studies. This dissertation study provides a historical genre analysis of reviews to illustrate the role of reviews in reflecting and contributing to composition's struggle for full disciplinary status.

Methodologically, this mixed methods study uses historical analysis, genre analysis, and an interview study to investigate reviews and their functions in the field of composition. A corpus of 90 reviews, 45 from each journal, was analyzed from 1939 …

The Social Perceptions And Attitudes Held By African American Males Who Participated In A Self-Contained Special Education Middle School Program For Three Years And Dropped Out Of High School After The Ninth Grade, Sherrell Linnette Hobbs

Wayne State University Dissertations

ABSTRACT

THE SOCIAL PERCEPTIONS AND ATTITUDES HELD BY AFRICAN AMERICAN MALES WHO PARTICIPATED IN A SELF-CONTAINED SPECIAL EDUCATION MIDDLE SCHOOL PROGRAM FOR THREE YEARS AND DROPPED OUT OF HIGH SCHOOL AFTER THE NINTH GRADE

by

SHERRELL HOBBS

December 2010

Advisor: Dr. Marshall Zumberg

Major: Special Education

Degree: Doctor of philosophy

There are two parts to socialization, informal and formal. In the United States, informal lessons of socialization come from a child's primary caretaker(s). Imagine a child growing up in this informal setting only to see the world from one perspective through that unique experience. Later the child goes into a …

An Africentric Reading Protocol: The Speculative Fiction Of Octavia Butler And Tananarive Due, Tonja Lawrence

Wayne State University Dissertations

This examination of Africentric speculative fiction (ASF) applies an Africentric reading protocol to selected works of Octavia E. Butler and Tananarive Due. Butler's Parable Series and Due's African Immortals Series are examined using seven elements of Africentric narrative specific to cultural speculative fiction. Finally, I discuss the implications of using an Africentric reading protocol as an example of cultural analysis that can be adapted to the textual analysis of culturally specific works of fiction.

The Influence Of Religion And Spirituality On Rehabilitation Outcomes Among Traumatic Brain Injury Survivors, Brigid Waldron-Perrine

Wayne State University Dissertations

The long-term consequences of traumatic brain injury affect millions of Americans, many of whom report using religion and spirituality to cope. Little research, however, has investigated how various elements of the religious and spiritual belief systems affect rehabilitation outcomes. The present study sought to assess the use of specifically defined elements of religion and spirituality as coping resources in a sample of traumatically brain injured adults. Furthermore, various mechanisms by which religion and spirituality may affect outcome were explored.

The sample included 88 adults with brain injury from 1 to 20 years post injury and their knowledgeable significant others (SOs). …

Examining The Relationship Between Spiritual Resources, Self-Efficacy, Life Attidues, Cognition, And Personal Characteristics Of Homeless African American Women, Jean Gash

Wayne State University Dissertations

African Americans comprise 12% of the American population and 45% of the homeless sheltered population (United States Department of Housing and Urban Development [HUD], 2007). The fastest growing segment is African American women and African American women with children. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between spiritual resources, self-efficacy, life attitudes, cognition, and personal characteristics (e.g., physical and mental health, age, marital status, number of children, number and length of times homeless and perceptions of being at risk for serious illness) of homeless African American women from 30 years of age and older who were trying …

A Vignette Study Examining The Accuracy Of Diagnosis: The Role Of Patient And Practitioner Gender And Race Match, Kevin Johnson

Wayne State University Dissertations

ABSTRACT

DIAGNOSING MENTAL ILLNESS

By

KEVIN JOHNSON

2010

Advisor: Dr. Janet R. Hankin

Major: Medical Sociology

Degree: Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology

A convenience snowball sample of 228 mental health practitioners were surveyed and administered two vignettes of persons with mental illness and a 12-question survey that included occupational background and attitudinal questions about diagnosing mental illness. The gender and race of the patients were randomly altered, while the symptoms and characteristics of mental illness remained constant for each vignette. Each practitioner assigned a DSM-IV diagnostic label for axis I and axis II on both vignettes. The surveys were coded …

Media Effects: Cultural Appropriation And Attitudes Towards Cosmetic Surgery, Darlene Shauntanese Lee

Wayne State University Dissertations

The current study investigates media's influence on Caucasian women to culturally appropriate the physical features generally ascribed to African American women through non-surgical and or surgical cosmetic procedures and vice versa. Participants were 26 African American women and 54 Caucasian women who had previously undergone either non-surgical or surgical cosmetic procedures. Results indicate that African American women were more likely to culturally appropriate than Caucasian women. For African American women high media exposure to cosmetic surgery media messages played a significant role in the cultural appropriation process. Results also indicated that Caucasian women culturally appropriate at the same level, whether …

Jonson And Women; Or How One Man's Insistence On His Own Artistic Theory Challenges Dramatic Practices And Views Of His Own Gender Representations On The Elizabethan Stage, Tara Jean Hayes

Wayne State University Dissertations

Literary scholars consider Jonson's treatment of women "uninspiring" and "misogynistic." Surprisingly enough, however, there are no studies of Jonson's women to verify this categorization. This dissertation addresses the oversight, analyzing the female characters in the plays Jonson wrote during the Elizabethan period and revealing what prevailing scholarship has missed in Jonson's work: his individuated and layered characterizations of women, his playful use of gender and use of playful gender, his destabilization of gender as an identity category. With each play and each female character Jonson created as guides, I dismantle the standard consensus on Jonson and women and challenge the …

Black And White Women In Blue: A Case Study Of Policewomen, Danielle Marie Teunion-Smith

Wayne State University Dissertations

This exploratory study examines the policing experiences of fourteen African American and White female police officers using interviews and observations. There is ample research that addresses the ability of women to perform policing duties, but most of the literature presumes that White and African American policewomen are a single aggregate. These ignored societal differences and social realities of black and white policewomen, based on distinctive assigned social positions, histories, images and location, possibly contribute to different perspectives and experiences in law enforcement. These same social realities shape occupational positions, perspectives, perceptions, and treatment within law enforcement organizations. There are broad …