Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Constructing Marriage: A Thematic Analysis Of Self-Help Books On Marriage, Stephanie Mae Jones

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Questions about what makes a marriage work are treated widely in the popular press. This study seeks to discover how we learn about marriage through self-help books. According to Cameron (2007), these texts can become a part of our construction of everyday life. Therefore this study focuses on how marital self-help books frame the institution, and whether relational dialectics were present in each book. Two books— Laura Schlessinger’s The Proper Care and Feeding of Marriage and John Gottman’s Seven Principles of Making Marriage Work—were selected through an exhaustive process. A thematic analysis was conducted on each text, and topics …

An Organizational Communication Perspective On The University: Understanding How Individuals Constitute Organizations, Charles Ritchie Woffinden

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Change in the university has been the topic of recent discussion in contemporary business, popular, and academic literature. This thesis uses organizational communication theory and literature to examine how communication constitutes what we know as the university. This perspective provides an analytical lens to confront the organizational questions central to contemporary ideas surrounding the university. Furthermore, it generates new ways of viewing current issues, debates, and contestation regarding its constitution. This thesis examines the role of communication as a powerful process, and the agency of each individual in creating, recreating, and transforming the university.

To understand the constitution of the …

Women In White Coats: Female Physician Role Enactment In Medical Clinic Interactions, Katie Lynn Bohannon

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Roles are a fundamental part of our lives. We constantly play a variety of roles within different relationships. In turn, these roles are embedded into social networks, such as organizations. It is through our interactions within such networks that we enact particular roles.

Virtually There: Social Structure Over Time And Space, Wayne Erik Rysavy

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Communication is both process and art. It is the vehicle through which we share our thoughts and feelings as much as it is a creative activity resulting in the production of new meanings and ways of knowing. While we commonly understand communication as a continual process of reception and interpretation, new electronic media continue to extend our knowledge of what constitutes communication and how we characterize communication. Challenging the longstanding assumptions of fixed and positioned ways of knowing, studies with new electronic media accentuate the burgeoning contrast between the authority and stability of the written word and the mutability of …