Digital Commons Network^™

Females In Stem: Self-Efficacy Within Women Who Pursue Stem Majors, Lori Grata

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

While many efforts have been made within the United States, women are still underrepresented within STEM. Research within this document shows that women and men score similarly on STEM-related standardized tests. The question remains, why are there still large quantities of men outnumbering women in college majors and career fields of STEM? Looking at female STEM self-efficacy and gender role in culture could provide insight to the problem at hand. A survey was given to investigate self-efficacy and students’ STEM backgrounds of undergraduate female students who are currently in a 4-year STEM-related major within one university.

Evaluating Perceptions Of Student Voice And School Membership Of 9th Grade Students And Teachers, Dan Beck

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Adolescence marks a developmental period of rapid cognitive, emotional, and physical growth where teenagers are tasked with establishing an identity and strong sense of self. Students and parents often report that transition to ninth grade is a formidable social challenge amidst increased academic demands and stress, and some research suggests that females have a more difficult time in the transition to high school than males. Student voice is a range of student opportunities to interact, collaborate, and partner with adults in an exploration of ideas and perspectives. However, student voice opportunities are often only available to a select group of …

Involuntary Memories After Stressor Exposure: Contribution Of Hormonal Status And Rumination In Women., Samantha C. Patton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Women experience fewer traumatic stressors over their lifespan than men, but demonstrate a higher prevalence of major depression and stressor-related disorders as a result of trauma exposure (Breslau & Anthony, 2007; Kessler et al., 2005). Differences in prevalence of stressor-related disorders may partially be due to sex-linked vulnerabilities related to emotional memory. Emotion assists in modulation of memory through neurological processes. This modulation enhances memory for emotional stimuli and can lead to a greater frequency of involuntary recall after stressor exposure. This involuntary memory is also a hallmark symptom of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Sex-linked vulnerabilities, specifically hormonal status and …

Social Information Processing Deficits, Intimate Partner Violence, And Coercive Control In Dating Couples, Jillian Glasgow

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The current study investigated how social information processing (SIP) deficits are related to intimate partner violence (IPV) and coercive control among heterosexual dating couples. I assessed four steps of Crick and Dodge’s (1994) six-step SIP model, namely: attitudes and attributions, goal setting, coping response generation, and coping response selection. I used Dutton and Goodman’s (2006) theorized model of coercive control, which included assessing demands, surveillance, threats, and victims’ responses to demands. I hypothesized that (a) SIP deficits would be interrelated; (b) participants responding in timed conditions would show more SIP deficits, given theory and research (e.g., Eckhardt et al., 2012) …

Unruly Matter: Masculine Consumption In English Restoration Literature, Shawn Watkins

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Unruly Matter: Masculine Consumption in English Restoration Literature

Over the past several decades, material culture scholars working within the “Long 18^th Century” have identified how the figure of the woman consumer became an ideological nodal point that registered new enthusiasm for emerging economic dynamics (mercantilism, nascent capitalism, etc.) while also expressing masculine anxieties about consumerism and the role of consumable goods in English society. Although many scholars have noted that men functioned symbolically and ideologically as English society’s primary consumers of material goods in the later 17^th century, there is no scholarly work that aims to describe the …

Gender And The Body: Exploring The Relationship Between Eating Disorders And Sexual Activity, Emma Foong

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Drawing from the insights provided by feminist theory, this study explored the relationship between eating disorders, body image, and sexual activity. The desire behind most individuals with eating disorders is to achieve a “perfect body” (Barth & Starkman, 2016). Key to this inquiry was to find out whether or not a positive body image led to an increase of sexual activity, and if a negative body image led to a decrease of sexual activity. Using a qualitative methodology, this study employed semi-structured interviews, participants expressed that on days they feel confident about their bodies, they were more likely to engage …

Unpresentable Members: The Theology And Radical Phenomenology Of The Sexual Flesh, Justin Pearl

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Unpresentable Members begins with a wager: that a proper account of the flesh and its sexual character may not only prove philosophically fertile within its own limited domain, but may also provide insight into the theological question of the proper role and place of gender and sexual difference within communities, particularly Christian religious communities. In this regard, this dissertation has two distinct goals: one phenomenological and one theological. Phenomenologically, it offers an account of the manifestation of concrete sexual determinations not only as they objectively appear across the “body-object” (Körper, le corps) but with equal importance as …

Gender Stereotyping Of The Managerial Roles Of Ncaa Athletic Directors, Richard A. Fabri

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The study draws upon content analysis to investigate the construction of intercollegiate athletic director (AD) vacancy advertisements to better understand how such language may play a role in women’s perceived access to these positions. As a mixed method study, this content analysis was initially employed to analyze the terminology used to construct AD job vacancy advertisements. Subsequently, survey data were analyzed to explore any possible relationships among the participants’ gender, managerial sub-roles, the associated gender of the managerial sub-roles, and the perceived barriers the managerial sub-roles present. The women respondents in this study perceived three of the nine managerial roles …

(Un)Bound : Disrupting Notions., Reid Broadstreet

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

(un) bound: disrupting notions is a selection of art work that explores gender identity through the act of interpellation and the semiotics of clothing. The project aims to clearly define how concepts of “gender” and “sex” function in our language and, in turn, how the binary terms of these concepts (man/woman; male/female) enforce our genders rather than express them. Clothing is a particularly productive form for this investigation because clothing is often the way we express our gender, and yet it is also often produced for us along strict, socially-prescribed gender lines. Typically, conversations around gender are very black …

Marriage Among U.S. International Students : Meanings And Aspirations., Assel Kuzembayeva

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Although there exists a breadth of literature on Americans’ marital aspirations and experiences, there is a significant lack of research available on U.S. international students’ marital aspirations, specifically. In this study, transnational and gender theories are employed to analyze in-depth semi-structured interviews with 21 international students studying at a university located in a mid-size, midwestern city in the United States. The study reveals that the majority of international students maintain that marriage is important to them while they are living and studying in the United States. However, the study also finds that the cultural pressures of their home countries, including …

The Impact Of Alcohol Consumption On Academic Success And Athletic Identity In Collegiate Student-Athletes, Zoe E. Arnold

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Upon entering college in the United States, students are exposed to alcohol and, relatedly, the potentially dangerous experiences and effects that come with consuming alcohol. This is especially true for collegiate student-athletes, who have been found to have the highest consumption rate among student groups on campus. The purpose of the study was to understand the relationship between how student-athletes at a focus university, a Division I member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, experience alcohol consumption, how their consumption affects their academic grade point average (GPA), and how athletic identity plays a role in their experiences. While the research …

"Ocular Proof": Race, Religion, And Gender In The Merchant Of Venice And Othello, Edward A. Cooper

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project is a study of the development of early modern racial categories in England - focusing on religion and skin color as primary modes of demarcation interwoven with other prevalent categories of language, ancestry/blood, nationality, and gender - as illuminated in William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice and Othello. Religion and skin color, then, are the primary modes of racializing individuals in early modern England and characters in Shakespeare's works. This essay studies the context of racial difference as present in English and European rhetoric, art, theater, and exploration. Given this context, the paper explores the poetic geography …

A Gendered Intersectional Analysis Of The Private Security Industry, Noa Shapira

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis conducts an intersectional gendered analysis of the privatization of wars and armed conflicts through the use of private military and security companies (PMSC's), thus responding to an existing gap in scholarship on this matter. Two methodologies were used for this analysis. The first is a discourse analysis and interviews conducted in the 5th annual assembly of the International Code of Conduct Association, in November 2018. The second is a search in newspapers and secondary sources for specific incidences of gender-related human rights abuses. Based on lessons learned from peacekeeping operations, this thesis aims to answer the question how …

Not All Scholars, But Gentlemen: The Making Of Virginian Manhood At St. Christopher's School, 1911-1969, Katelyn Frazer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Through close study of St. Christopher’s School—an all-boys’ school in Richmond, Virginia—during its first fifty years, this thesis historicizes upper-class white masculinity in Virginia during the first half of the twentieth century. The school’s founder, Churchill Gibson Chamberlayne, linked the Lost Cause myth with other movements in education at the time, especially Muscular Christianity and the country day school movement. By looking at how students and administrators at St. Christopher’s made and remade traditions surrounding notions of masculinity, in addition to more muted manifestations of gender at the school, illuminate the existence of a gender hierarchy even before gender integration. …

Does Sharing Information With Friends And Family Cause Men To Adhere More Strongly To Masculine Norms?, Clint E. Johnson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

It is clear that social influence can elicit conformity to norms (e.g., Asch, 1956). It remains unclear, however, how various relationships elicit differential conformity to masculine norms in particular. In this pre-registered experiment, I tested the hypothesis that when men are asked to reveal their responses on the Conformity to Masculine Norms Inventory (CMNI; Mahalik et al., 2003), men conform more when sharing that identifiable information with others who know them (i.e., “public” conformity), namely friends and family, as compared to sharing that information anonymously with a random stranger (i.e., the anonymous “private” condition). My convenience sample consisted of participants …

Are Chronic Inflammatory Diseases Associated With Trauma Exposure And Gender? An Empirical Analysis Of Self-Reported Trauma And Health Histories Of Men And Women, Meghan Lacienski

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A growing body of research indicates an association between trauma, inflammation, and chronic inflammatory disease; however, the mechanisms of this relationship are not fully understood, and the salience of potential risk factors, such as cumulative effects of trauma, trauma type, and gender, remain unclear. Trauma is associated with poor mental and physical health, such as PTSD, depression, and chronic inflammatory conditions, and this association may be stronger when certain risk factors are considered (Brody, Pratt, & Hughes, 2018; Groer, Kane, Williams, & Duffy, 2014; Husky, Mazure, & Kovess-Masfety, 2018; Kilpatrick et al., 2013). For example, sexual trauma and multiple traumatic …