Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Sex Education In Our Schools, Kelley Conti

Honors Projects

This research project involved interviewing 42 parents with children between the ages of 12 to 18-years-old regarding their views and opinions on sex education for today’s youth. All 42 parents agreed they wanted a more informative sex education for their children than what they were exposed to as children. This included those with formal sex education as well as those that learned from peers, siblings or in their neighborhood. Another aspect all parents agreed on was the need for a more comprehensive sex education. Thirty-eight parents thought abstinence should be included as an option in sex education classes but not …

Weeds, Tamar Mekvedijian

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

This is a short story collection about a family. The stories are linked but aren't necessarily connected, with family members appearing in more than one story. It is about the bonds of family, and the struggle we have against the health of our bodies.

Dismantling The Cult Of Manliness, Peter Capalbo

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

Explores the argument that several of Virginia Woolf's male characters, including Septimus Smith, Mr. Ramsay, and Bernard (in The Waves), challenge traditional male gender expectations in Britain after World War I. Examines Woolf's use of the concept of manliness in structuring her novels and her presentation of a series of men who do not conform to the British ideal of masculinity and who, thereby, allow her to expose the multiple fallacies of that ideal and a culture supported by such a concept. Posits that Woolf's work suggests that a new, more inclusive, understanding of gender is an important first step …

A Descriptive Review Of Health Care Providers Perspective On Stigmatization Of Hiv/Aids Patients: United States And South Africa, Ana I. Fonseca

Honors Projects

Compares the issue of social stigma affecting people with HIV/AIDS in the United State and in South Africa. Posits that stigma is more of an interpersonal problem in the United States, while it is a huge barrier to access to care in South Africa. Data was compiled through personal conversations and experiences in South Africa during June 2009, interviews with health professional and community members in Rhode Island during the fall of 2009, and reading of the professional literature.

The Rebellious Angel, Pamela Gannon Mazzuchelli

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

Examines Virginia Woolf's writing and her anger in historical contexts, revealing that circumstances dictated that she deflect this volatile emotion. Focuses on the ways in which this deflection of anger illuminates the fictional dynamics of Woolf's autobiographical novel, To the Lighthouse and analyzes the concept of the Angel in the House, posited to be at the root of Woolf's anger. Argues that anger exists on three levels in the novel and that the main character, Mrs. Ramsay, is a victim of the Angel in the House ideology.

What Qualities Do Parents Value In Their Children ? : A Revision Of Earlier Findings, Caitlin Lantagne

Honors Projects

Using General Social Survey data, examines the qualities that parents have valued in their children since 1986. Offers evidence that, in contrast to trends reported prior to this date, autonomy was no longer increasingly valued by parents during the period from 1986 to 2006 and that the trend away from valuing obedience had also slowed dramatically.

Open Adoption And Adolescence, Deborah H. Siegel

Faculty Publications

In open adoptions, birth and adoptive families exchange identifying information and have contact. Although most adoptions today include some form of openness, much of the public remains wary of this. The purpose of this study was to explore, longitudinally, adoptive parents' perceptions of their children's open adoptions. This article reports the findings of tape-recorded interviews with 31 adoptive parents who were first interviewed when their children were infants and toddlers, again 7 years later, and a third time when their children were adolescents. The study found adoptive parents were committed to maintaining contact with the birth family even when discomforts …

"You're Tearing Me Apart"! Investigating Ideology In The Image Of Teens In The 1950s, Danielle Bouchard

Honors Projects

Using cultural studies as a critical paradigm and ideological analysis as methodology, argues that gender, sexuality, and the nuclear family are core issues treated in two films and one television program from the 1950s featuring American teenagers. Focuses on the classic juvenile delinquent film, Rebel without a Cause, the quintessential clean teen film, Gidget, and the television series, Leave It to Beaver.

'Many Feign As They Are Dead": The Counterfeit Death In Romeo And Juliet And Much Ado About Nothing, Julie Bowman

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

Examines the function of the trope of the couterfeit death for two Shakespearean heroines, Juliet in Romeo and Juliet and Hero in Much Ado about Nothing. Using the plays, antecedents, analogues, and cultural materials, argues that the feigned death functions as a strategy for coping with the limitations and strictures of the heroines' cultural environment; it helps them achieve their particular goals, in both cases a desired marriage. Thus, the heroines become active players in the plots, exercising a measure of agency by counterfeiting death, rather than passive victims of the patriarchal culture.

Isolation And Community In Short Story Collections By Z.Z. Packer, Jhumpa Lahiri, And Mary Gaitskill, Katy A. Howe

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

Looking at short story collections by Z.Z. Packer, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Mary Gaitskill, this work explores the protagonists' development of identity in relation to others. Using relational psychoanalysis as a theoretical base, this thesis probes the tension between involvement in community and maintaining individuality.

One Grim View Of Life For The Aged Is Disputed, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

""The way the United States treats their elderly is a total disgrace... they cant live on the amount of money from Social Security... It's even worse than the poverty level." Thus spoke a Cranston senior citizen when Vice President Gore was in town recently to discuss the future of Social Security."

Population Numbers Are Necessary To Predict The Future, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"'Demographics explain about two-thirds of everything.' So say David K. Foot and Daniel Stoffman in Canada's best selling nonfiction book for 1996, Boom, Bust and Echo."

Growing Old: A Look At Rhode Island, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"The series of lectures and discussions on 'Growing Old in America' recently held at Brown University brought together authorities from across the country to examine some of the issues confronting our aging society.

Ranging from health care to business opportunities to life after 60, the aged in America represent a growing number of citizens who must be considered from may different perspectives: this the speakers did on a national level. But what of Rhode Island?"

What's In Store For Social Security?, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"Health-care costs are commanding considerable attention these days. From Washing, D.C., to Providence and state capitals across the nation, the burning questions are, "How much?" and "Who pays?""

Communities For Elderly As Money-Making Ventures, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"Fifteen miles northwest of downtown Phoenix, Ariz., you can see it in the distance: a veritable white walled oasis. A six-to-eight foot tall black fence nearly encloses it, cutting it from the sparsely settled desert and agricultural lands that surround it, providing a haven of community living that makes it one of the best-known residential areas in the nation."

More People May Be 20th Century's Greatest Feat, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"This century may well go down in history as humanity's most productive period of accomplishment."

Shape Of Things To Come, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"The age-old saying is that the future belongs to the young. However, in terms of new potential markets, the business sector ought to consider changing demographics, in nation and state, because the future for the merchants of goods and services may very well be with the old."

The Housing Options In Barrington, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"Barrington has a reputation as a fine town, with attractive homes surrounded by neat lawns, good schools, many boats moored in the harbor and only 15 minutes from the heart of Providence."

Changing Markets Require Different Style Of Houses, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"It touches on the heartstrings and evokes a sense of nostalgia: the scene of father and mother sitting near the fireplace with the children playing at their feet. Here it is, the typical family at home, secure, stable, symbolic of the American way of life. But is this picture really accurate?

Suburban Elderly Speak Out In Providence, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"The talk was designed to elicit information and reactions from the audience of elderly. And it did just that because old people do not waste words and are not reluctant to speak out, perhaps because they realize that they have little time left, so they were ready with their comments and quite willing to fill out the questionnaire."

Downtown St. Pete, Where The Pace Slows To A Shuffle, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"This is an unusual city: all of the curbside parking in the downtown is free; they give away the evening paper if the sun doesn't shine; the National Shuffleboard Hall of Fame is located here; and more than one-half of the population is over 44 years of age."

Soul City Deserves To Succeed, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream--a dream of equal opportunity and justice for all. An assassin's bullet prevented him from realizing his dream. His friend and well-known leader in the civil rights movement also had a dream--a dream to build a new town in which the injustices of society would be lessened. Today, in the rolling farmland country of North Carolina, Floyd McKissick is working to fulfill his long sought dream."