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Experiences Of Bidialectism In College-Educated African Americans: An Exploratory Study, Ina N. Owens

Masters Theses

This study was undertaken to explore experiences of bidialectism in college-educated African Americans. The major questions in this study attempted to answer the following: 1) How do college-educated African Americans perceive and negotiate differences between Black and Standard English? 2) Does negotiating two language systems impact their sense of cultural identity? If so, in what ways? and, 3) Is there a conflict involved in negotiating two language systems? If so, what is the nature of the conflict?

Eight interviews were conducted with graduate students who were both Black and Standard English speakers. Subjects ranged in age from 22 to 50. …

'Pleonexia': A Modern Pathology Of Self, George R. Ingham

Masters Theses

This study is an examination of the compulsion to shop or acquire commodities seen as a culturally and historically distinctive pathology of the modern self. The Greek term 'pleonexia' ('acquisitiveness') is borrowed as a covenient and more accurately descriptive term than the common 'shopaholic'. Pleonexia is seen as a complex, habitual, impulsive behavior which attempts to maintain order and continuity in the sense of self. Pleonexia represents a failure in self­cohesion, an attempt to counter feelings of emptiness created by the fragmentation and objectification of desire in our commodity culture. Such internal functions as regulation of feelings, self-esteem, as well …

Familial Factors Influencing Female Transsexualism, Teresa Louise Buck

Masters Theses

A clinical survey of eight clinicians, drawing from their experiences with thirteen cases, was conducted to explore familial influences on the formation or maintenance of gender dysphoria in females so as to result in transsexualism. In preparation for disclosing and discussing these findings three areas are reviewed: (1) historical references to transsexualism from ancient and modern cultures; (2) differential definitions of transvestism, homosexuality, and transsexualism; and (3) theoretical perspectives on the etiology and phenomenology of female transsexualism.

The clinical survey did not provide sufficient multi-generational family material to effectively assess the influence of the family beyond the nuclear family. Some …

The Self Concept Of Black And White Disturbed Adolescent Girls In Residential Treatment, Cheryl A. Smith

Masters Theses

The purpose of the present study was to examine the extent to which race and self concept were associated in a group of disturbed adolescent girls in residential treatment. I The study drew on an earlier investigation of self concept, which conceived of the self concept as a part of the personality of an individual that acted as a motivating force. The study assumed that self concept was implicated in the dynamics of the disturbances that brought adolescents into treatment, and its purpose was directed towards securing a better understanding of the girls.

The study was conducted with a non-probability …