Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

How Technology Interacts With Emerging Adulthood Psychosocial Developmental Tasks: An Examination Of Online Self-Presentation And Cell Phone Usage, Samantha Lynn Gray

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation outlines three distinct, yet interrelated, projects aimed at understanding the role of technology in relation to emerging adulthood developmental tasks: individuation & identity development. The first paper provides a context for understanding the developmental tasks of emerging adulthood, and the role that technology may serve in relation to those developmental tasks. This brief review of the literature on emerging adulthood developmental tasks provides a solid theoretical background and history for the theoretical premises proposed for the respective studies included in this dissertation. The second project is an empirical investigation that seeks to understand how the task of identity …

Constructing Loyalty, Citizenship, And Identity: A Rhetorical History Of The Japanese American Incarceration, Kaori Miyawaki

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation reexamines loyalty, citizenship, and identity in the United States by closely reading historical materials about the Japanese American incarceration. The Japanese American incarceration is a unique and important historical event for studying citizenship and identity, since it was a moment in the U.S. history that citizens of the country were incarcerated by their government. This raises a larger question beyond the incarceration. What does it mean to be a loyal American citizen?

By closely analyzing texts generated by the U.S. government, the Japanese American community, and White American photographers, I identify multiple, conflicting meanings and implications behind the …

Citizenship And Ethnic Relations In Kosovo, Bekim Baliqi

UBT International Conference

The article explores the issue of multi-ethnic society, by looking at the state iconography, the citizenship issue as well as ethnic relations based on Kosovo as a case study. The theoretical framework is based on the power-sharing model known as consociationalism democracy. Research methods applied here are based mainly in discourse analysis and in content analysis of relevant documents, literature and other sources. The inter-ethnic relations between Serbs and Albanians will be traced historically from the period after the Second World War, following with the dissolution of Yugoslavia and Milosevic’s regime, continuing with the post-conflict period in Kosovo through to …

Online Dating Profile Analysis: The Intersection Of Identity, Gender & Religion, Sarah-Rose Marcus

Proceedings of the New York State Communication Association

According to standpoint theory, individuals experience the world based on the social groups that they belong to. Using this theoretical lens, my content analysis compared how gender and religion were conveyed on the user profiles of three online dating sites: JDate.com, ChristianMingle.com and OkCupid.com. In my initial reading of data, I used inductive thematic analysis to distinguish 7 categories of words and 7 categories of photographs that were relevant to portrayals of gender and religion. These categories were then analyzed through frequency counts by adding the total number of word types and photograph types used by men and women …

Making Sense Of Late Academic Careers: Stories, Images, And Reflections, Stephen Brown, John Ogilvie, Diana Stork, Jill Woodilla

Organization Management Journal

Four late-career academics take a “first person” view of their careers over time, using written autobiographies. These stories were coded for common phases, themes, and tensions, retold as narratives, reimagined as metaphors, and recreated as visual stories. A brief overview of relevant career theory and identity theory is presented, and various activities undertaken during the self-discovery process are described and linked to storytelling or narrative theory. Interpretation focuses on similarities and differences in the four late academic careers and identity work during role transitions. Connections are made to career theory and identity theory. The authors believe this article might serve …

Gangstas, Thugs, Vikings, And Drivers: Cinematic Masculine Archetypes And The Demythologization Of Violence In The Films Of Nicolas Winding Refn, Christopher John Olson

College of Communication Master of Arts Theses

This thesis considers how the depictions of masculinity in the films of Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn function as a critique of mainstream Hollywood cinema’s perpetuation of the notion that violent male behavior represents a heroic ideal for men to emulate. In films such as Pusher, Bronson, Valhalla Rising, and Drive, Refn constructs and presents his male characters by drawing upon recurring archetypal figures such as the gangster, the gangsta, the gunslinger, and the samurai. These figures recur throughout popular culture and across genres, and they perpetuate and reinforce a specific version of masculinity that emphasizes individualism, stoicism, and violence. …

The Basis Of Self And Other In Gender Constructed Identity, Julie L. Lemley

Journal of Undergraduate Research at Minnesota State University, Mankato

This paper is an extension of previous research projects wherein I applied theories of identity and labeling (Garfinkle), power (French and Raven) and gender (Pearson, West and Turner) to adolescent girls’ identity construction. Using methods of textual criticism, I argued then that the advertising targeting adolescent girls at the crucial transitional period between child identity and adult identity was dominated by patriarchal imagery, the implications of which are sexual violence, low-self esteem and self-objectification by young women. This paper applies the same methodology but to identity formation of adolescent boys, arguing on the basis of Hegel’s master-slave dialectic that adolescent …

You've Got Mail: Identity Perceptions Based On Email Usernames, Laura Pelletier

Journal of Undergraduate Research at Minnesota State University, Mankato

This study explores the idea that email recipients use the email username of the sender as a mediated cue to make basic assumptions of the identity of the sender. For this study 215 participants completed self-report surveys asking their perceptions of a fictional work group member including sex, age, race, and work productivity. Most participants were able to create a basic identity of their fictitious group member based solely on their email username.

Multiple Account Identity Deception Detection In Social Media Using Nonverbal Behavior, Michail Tsikerdekis, Sherali Zeadally

Information Science Faculty Publications

Identity deception has become an increasingly important issue in the social media environment. The case of

blocked users initiating new accounts, often called sockpuppetry, is widely known and past efforts, which have attempted to detect such users, have been primarily based on verbal behavior (e.g., using profile data or lexic al features in text). Although these methods yield a high detection accuracy rate, they are computationally inefficient for the social media environment, which often involves databases with large volumes of data. To date, little attention has been paid to detecting online decep- tion using nonverbal behavior. We present a detection …

Intimacy Uncertainty And Identity In Gay Male Couples Dealing With A Serodiscordant Hiv Status, Scott Allen Eldredge

Doctoral Dissertations

When individuals are diagnosed with a chronic illness, their lives instantly change. Daily routines are interrupted and attendance to the symptoms and side effects of illness and medication becomes a daily chore. However, the patient is not the only one that feels the disruptive effects of illness and the partner of the chronically ill patient must also contend with the daily effects of an illness that they themselves do not have. In the case of HIV, the infectious nature of the disease, along with the stigma associated with the disease, serve to be additional sources of stress in an already-stressful …

The Politics Of Memory, Nicole Maurantonio

Rhetoric and Communication Studies Faculty Publications

This chapter considers the definitional and disciplinary politics surrounding the study of memory, exploring the various sites of memory study that have emerged within the field of communication. Specifically, this chapter reviews sites of memory and commemoration, ranging from places such as museums, monuments, and memorials, to textual forms, including journalism and consumer culture. Within each context, this chapter examines the ways in which these sites have interpreted and reinterpreted traumatic pasts bearing great consequence for national identity. It concludes with a discussion of the challenges set forth by new media for scholars engaging in studies of the politics of …

Immigrants, Roma And Sinti Unveil The “National” In Italian Identity, Francesco Melfi

Cultural Encounters, Conflicts, and Resolutions

This essay picks up a few threads in the ongoing debate on national identity in Italy. Immigration and the intertwining of cultures locally have stretched the contours of the nation state to a breaking point. As a result, the social self has become a sharply contested terrain between those who want to install a symbolic electronic fence around an imagined fatherland and those who want a more inclusive nation at home in a global world. After discussing the views of Amin Maalouf (2000), Alessandro Dal Lago (2009), Abdelmalek Sayad (1999) and Patrick Manning (2005) on national identity and migration in …

Attitudes Toward Using Social Networking Sites In Educational Settings With Underperforming Latino Youth: A Mixed Methods Study, Keith Howard, Margaret Sauceda Curwen, Nicol R. Howard, Anaida Colon-Muñiz

Education Faculty Articles and Research

The researchers examined the online social networking attitudes of underperforming Latino high school students in an alternative education program that uses technology as the prime venue for learning. A sequential explanatory mixed methods study was used to cross-check multiple sources of data explaining students’ levels of comfort with utilizing a social networking site platform as a supplemental communication tool in connection with their schoolwork. Students were found to be significantly less comfortable using social networking sites than other online communication tools in connection with their schoolwork, and females were significantly more uncomfortable than males using such sites in school.

Reconsidering Childfreedom: A Feminist Exploration Of Discursive Identity Construction In Childfree Livejournal Communities, Julia Moore

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

This article employs participant definitional analysis, sensitized with feminist poststructuralism and critical ethnography, to understand three identity construction processes that members of childfree LiveJournal communities participate in: (a) naming childfreedom, (b) negotiating childfreedom, and (c) enacting childfreedom. I argue that childfree identities are contested and sometimes activist. Ultimately, I call for scholars to reconsider the definition of childfree to account for the complex and nuanced identities constructed by individuals who identify as such.

A Legacy Of Letters: The Construction Of An Aging Masculine Identity, K. Tiffani Baldwin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to investigate the construction of a masculine identity through a qualitative analysis of personal letters written by an aging man over the last two decades of his life (age 68-89). Symbolic interaction and life-span communication are the guiding frameworks behind the development of the research questions and the subsequent analyses. Research question one asks: What themes emerge from the personal letters written by an aging man? The following two themes emerged: a) relationality, and b) age and aging. Research question two asks: What do the metaphors that emerge from personal letters reveal about the …

Social Media Use During The College Transition, Kevin J. Yurasek

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Starting college is an exciting and pivotal time for students. During this time, the student will be faced with challenges of his or her social identity and will need to develop or modify identities based on new social situations. Previous research shows that social media play a role in identity development, but there is little information regarding the extent. Are new college students using Facebook during their transition to communicate their new identity/social group to new peers? Are they using Facebook to maintain nostalgia for previous identities/social groups? This information will be valuable to higher education professionals working with these …

Narrating Gender: A Feminist Approach To The Narratives Of The Transgender Experience, Jamie K. Lange

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Gender and identity are complex and often ubiquitous in nature. This is a study about gender and identity and the ways in which they manifest through the narratives of five transgender individuals, who all transitioned after the age of 45, who now live as women. This study about the transgender experience adds a significant and important perspective on gender, identity, identification, and the relationship between gender and identity. The most important conclusions are the lengths to which these people go to support gender social constructs, reinforcing the immense strength of the social construction of gender. The idea that social constructs …

You Bring Yourself To Work: An Exploration Lgb/Tq Experiences Of (In)Dignity And Identity, Sara J. Baker

Department of Communication Studies: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The workplace can be a hostile space for people who perform their gender, sex, and sexuality in ways that differ from heteronormative expectations. These employees are often met with messages that are particularly undignifying, thereby denying desires for respectful communication with others and damaging an individual’s sense of self-worth and value. Therefore, the goal of my project was to learn about the experiences of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and/or queer individuals in the workplace and what kinds of interactions either affirm or threaten workplace dignity, their strategies for resistance, and how the communication of (in)dignity influences processes of LGB/TQ identity …

Gettin' Weird Together: The Performance Of Identity And Community Through Cultural Artifacts Of Electronic Dance Music Culture, Andrew Matthew Wagner

Theses and Dissertations

The growing popularity of Electronic Dance Music (EDM) on nearly every continent has given rise to the transition of EDM music from underground raves to large scale, multiple-day music festivals. Attendance at EDM events, whether at concerts or festivals, is primarily dominated by today's youth generation. The number of youth attending these events continues to grow as elements of EDM are being mixed into other mainstream music genres. This increase in the popularity of EDM has been an area of research interest in the past decades for a variety of disciplines, such as psychology, sociology, marketing, and tourism. The present …

Digital Identity Formation: How Social Networking Sites Affect Real World Authenticity, Matthew Joseph Montoya

Institute for the Humanities Theses

The purpose of this paper is to explore the application of Heidegger's authenticity to online identity formation. This paper will attempt to determine if there is any way in which an authentic identity can be created, either online or offline, by using social networking sites. It will examine the positive and negative consequences of social networking sites to determine if these sites can help to contribute to our overall being, or determine if these sites serve only as a dangerous distraction to an authentic personal identity.

To do this, this paper will analyze Heidegger's philosophy to see if it is …

I Am What I Am? The Baller Identity Measurement Scale (Bims) With A Division I Football Team In American Higher Education, C. Keith Harrison, Laurel Traynowicz, Scott Bukstein, Ginny Mcpherson-Botts, Suzanne Malia Lawrence

Scott Bukstein JD

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of culture and socio-cultural contexts on academic and athletic motivation of American male college football student-athletes. This study measured perceptions of student-athletes' athletic and academic identities tied to motivation for performance using a culturally relevant assessment tool, the Baller Identity Measurement Scale.

Turf Wars And Corporate Sponsorship: Challenges In The Food System And The Academy Of Nutrition And Dietetics, Kristin K. Smith

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics is the leading professional organization for registered dietitians (RDs)--globally--with over 75,000 members. Professional organizations are often overlooked in communication scholarship. However, the Academy offers a rich setting for researching occupational identities, health activism, and neoliberalism.

I used semi-structured interviews to explore how taken-for-granted discourses, power relationships, and unquestioned norms are challenged, reinforced, and (re)constructed within the Academy. Specifically, this study analyzed two challenges to the Academy and the dietetics profession: claims to professional expertise and a debate surrounding the Academy's corporate sponsorship. My findings suggest that the profession, which happens to be predominantly female, …

Modern Japanese Literature And Visual Culture: Constructions Of Religious And Historical Identity, Ronald S. Green

Philosophy and Religious Studies

This course is a survey of modern Japanese literature and visual culture since the Meiji Restoration (1868). It focuses on constructions of identities within historical contexts. Our objective is to analyze ways in which writers and artists have positioned their subjects and re-imagined culture to create particular portrayals. The class examines a selection of shōsetsu (the Japanese novel) of Natsume Soseki, Kawabata Yasunari, Mishima Yukio, Murakami Haruki, and Ogawa Yōko, films of Miyazaki Hayao, and important anime. The course promotes critical methodologies and interdisciplinary or comparative studies, combining, for example, literature with film, visual culture, gender studies, cultural history, Buddhist …

African Pride And Vexation In World Cup Development Sportswriting, Richard J. Peltz-Steele

Faculty Publications

The first men’s football World Cup in Africa, in 2010, provided an opportunity for development sportswriting. As mediator of sport for the people, mass media are well positioned to capitalize upon the development potential of football. This research analyzed development-related World Cup coverage to better understand African perceptions of identity and the role of African media in improving the quality of human life. Using a news database, this research compiled and analyzed stories published in Africa, outside South Africa, during the World Cup. Stories were tested for a World Cup peg and possible development angle and flagged for representations of …

Nationalism, Identity, And Rhetoric In Bosnia-Herzegovina: A Rhetorical Analysis Of Presidential Speeches, 2004–2012, Mary Miller

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Ethnic divisions undermine statebuilding efforts in Bosnia-Herzegovina almost twenty years after the end of a war among the three main ethnic groups in the country. The political elites influence on how nationalism and identity is experienced in Bosnia-Herzegovina and offer reflections on how the country can or cannot be united. To what extent do the political elites at the level of the presidency articulate more narrow, ethnic themes or a broader national identity in pubic speeches? The rhetoric used by the political elites is explored to find occurrences of ethnic polarization or a framing of national identity. The thesis is …

"It's Not About You": Exploring The Liminal Experiences Of Graduate Forensic Coaches, Christopher Paul Outzen

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

The following document is a capstone thesis project focusing on the unique experiences of graduate forensic coaches through lens of liminality, a performance theory used to describe a sense of being between social identities when going through a rite of passage. The author contends that this liminal experience has unique characteristics which are important to consider in the context of identity and forensic culture. In order to gather data, the author utilized qualitative, semi-structured interviews with current graduate forensic coaches. The resulting interviews were interpreted using a process of open coding to determine key themes of the experience. The author …

Mother's Experience Of Social Media: Its Impact On Children And The Home, Abe Van Hatch

Theses : Honours

With the prevalence and accessibility of social media within the last 15 years it has become possible for children to have constant access to their friends and social networks. It is relatively unknown what impact adopting social media has on children and how mothers interpret this. There are gaps in the literature investigating the pervasive effects of modern technology and what meaning mothers ascribe to their children using social media as a method of connecting with the world. The present research aims to explore this phenomenon by investigating the experiences of mothers who have children that have recently adopted social …

Breaking The Mold: Four Asian American Women Define Beauty, Detail Identity, And Deconstruct Stereotypes, Allison Ginwala

Honors Theses and Capstones

The experiences of four women reveal how notions of outer beauty touch ideas of personal ethnic identity, racism, media-imposed pressure, and social stereotypes; shaping the lives of Chinese, Chinese American, and Asian American women.

The Identity Of The Heart Patient In The Context Of The Gift Economy: Heartnet And Media Framing, Lynsey Uridge

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This health communication research examines the identity levels of the heart patient on a therapeutic website HeartNET through an empirical investigation of site interactions as manifestations of a gift economy. The thesis also explores the media’s representation of heart health in both television and print.

This research utilised a longitudinal qualitative ethnographic and netnographic approach involving twenty-six participants who completed two in-depth interviews. The first one-on-one interview occurred during the early stages of the participants’ heart journey, explored their heart story and use of interactive technology for heart health support. The second interview occurred six to twelve months later, and …

People Don't Want To Call It Your Baby: Stigma And Identity In Misscarriage Narratives, Jennifer Fairchild, Arrington M.

Jennifer Fairchild Ph.D.

No abstract provided.