Дисертації з теми "Anthropology and psychology"

Current psychological research into religiosity can be located into two paradigms: the cross-cultural psychology interpretive tradition and the cultural psychology interpretive tradition. To generate support for the latter paradigm, American and Mainland Chinese respondents were asked to describe a religious or spiritual other as a way of exploring the impact of individualism-collectivism cultural values on expressions of religiosity. Statements from Chinese respondents were expected to have more socially related content compared to American respondents. Responses were analyzed using a linguistic analysis computer program with attention given to social process, family, friends, and humans content. Raters were also instructed to generate categories based on the content of the responses. No significant differences were found between American and Mainland Chinese respondents on all four content categories. Religious self-rating was found to significantly predict family content, while religious and spiritual self-ratings significantly predicted humans content. Raters also generated 11 categories from American responses, and 10 categories from Mainland Chinese responses. Methodological and theoretical implications are also discussed.

This qualitative inquiry takes place within a growing body of interdisciplinary work dedicated to reimagining community, one’s relationship to it, and ultimately one’s place within the global community. The study is rooted in depth psychology’s recognition that the psyche is independently real and everything has meaning. Community is an ongoing story: a living myth. One can tally all the concrete aspects of community yet still not understand what makes community. To better understand community, this study used a hermeneutic-phenomenological approach to explore the lived experience of those living in a small Tuscan village, Pari. This entailed relying on an archetypal mythological lens to interpret a rich harvesting of interviews, storytelling, dreamy attention, and the researcher’s own reflections. The goal was to understand what it means to be part of this ancient community today, to appreciate the dynamics at work within the community psyche, and to dream the community on into the future. It was found that life in this community has a rhythmic structure that permeates everyone and everything. The most important common thread was that love connects people to this place. It was also found that as this once self-enclosed community becomes increasingly porous to the world, the population diversity increases and self-sufficiency decreases. It was concluded that Pari’s myth is to become a global village. The community’s challenge for survival is to integrate its core rhythmic structure with the incoming technology age.

Keywords: community, door, myth, rebirth, hermeneutic-phenomenology, Janus

The purpose of this inquiry was to develop a depth psychological understanding of immigration as a liminal experience. The Free Association Narrative Interview (FANI) method derived meaning from the lived experiences of five recent immigrants from both Western and Eastern cultures. Emergent themes referenced the expanded understanding of immigration as a process of homecoming, perceived psychoanalytically as a transitional phenomenon; in Jungian terms, a transcendent one. Homecoming represented both a process of transformation and an area of experiencing as the individual came to terms with the liminal experience of immigration by integrating self-experience and bridging differences and similarities. Results offered a new view of a depth psychological approach to the phenomenon of immigration, suggesting an association between trauma and the loss of a sense of home, and the function of symbolization in the process of bridging differences and similarities, enabling psychic growth. Clinical implications included understanding the nature of the sense of loss of home, developing coping strategies for immigrants who see themselves as being in between worlds or homeless, and integrating immigrant clients into the new culture. Future research emphasized methodological considerations.

The Chamorros of Guam have experienced colonially-influenced change on spatial and temporal scales for nearly four-hundred and fifty years. They are continuously redefining their identity with respect to these changes, and within the power related discourses of colonialism. The adoption of a colonial understanding of "tradition" has alienated Chamorro from their perception of indigenous identity. A difference between a contemporary "livelihood" and a more traditional "way of life" is apparent, also considered to be a conflict between how a Chamorro "must" behave versus how a Chamorro "ought" to behave to maintain an indigenous identity. Lack of agency, the rise of individualism, and the institutionalization of Chamorro culture have compartmentalized Chamorro identity, and forced contemporary Chamorro to abandon that which is "traditional" in order to engage with a modern world.

This thesis explores these phenomena through a mixed-methods lens, employing participant observation, semi-structured, qualitative interviews, and surveys to explore the domains in which Chamorro draw meaning and personal and cultural identity. The village of Umatac, on the southern-end of Guam, is used as a study population, as the issue of identity formation and remaking is explored through the theoretical perspectives of cognitive anthropology, discursive formation, and place attachment.

This theoretical study seeks to continue the work initiated by Freud in 1918 on the taboo of virginity by assessing (a) the place of virginity in Lacan's theory on femininity and (b) the question of whether virginity can be considered a myth in Lacanian terms. Feminine virginity is the object of this research, with a focus on heterosexual feminine virginity in contemporary U.S. culture. The approach selected is psychoanalytical and uses the theory of Jacques Lacan, a 20th-century French psychoanalyst. As Lacan never refers to virginity or to the Freudian taboo of virginity, his work offers a space for new research.

Virginity is presented in its historical context, followed by a recounting of the various proofs of virginity utilized—to demonstrate the lack of scientific accuracy. A review of current information disseminated in the U.S. media on the topic of virginity provides an account of two movements in fierce opposition. It is then proposed that virginity is a cultural concept, and the review of literature continues with an assessment of virginity in psychoanalysis. Freud's work on taboo and his article "The Virginity Taboo" (Freud, 1918/2006c) set the stage for a total of six psychoanalytical papers that address feminine virginity. The theoretical tools used for this research consist of Freud's greatest contribution, the unconscious, and his work on feminine sexuality. Lacan's psychoanalytical project is presented in its historical context, and concepts relevant to this study are defined. Further, an elaboration of the role and purpose of myths in psychoanalysis, with a review of the contributions from Freud, Lévi-Strauss, and Lacan, provides the basis for the discussion.

This research led to two major conclusions. First, virginity plays no role in sexual difference in Lacanian theory; to the contrary, it negates sexual difference. Second, virginity is a myth that refers to the impossible response to the Other's desire. Virginity belongs to the imaginary, inasmuch as it is a semblance placed over feminine jouissance in the failed attempt to inscribe the feminine all into the symbolic, under the phallic function.

With all the discussion surrounding the significance of culture within the realms of professional services organizations, this researcher was curious as to how to improve the quality of a culture. A higher quality culture, evidenced by a more positively energized work force, serves to improve competitive advantage for a concern, in a commoditized world. The following qualitative case study, a thirty-five day intervention in the months of May and June, 2016, with nine participants, that happened at Think Creative, Inc., of Orlando, Florida, intends on shedding light on how and why professional services organizational leaders should consider instituting a regimen of Creative Gestures Beyond Self, to clients, prospects, colleagues, suppliers, and whomever else germane to the enterprise. Several critical considerations emerged and will be discussed at length. Most notably, it is imperative for leaders to earnestly resolve to establishing an environment where ideas to delight constituents, beyond the business at hand, are balanced by the paradox of structure and light-heartedness. Also emerging from the data of discussion and observation, was the need for the right leader, who spearheads the meetings for CGBSs, with an appropriate blend of strength and grace. Nine participants engaged in the study, and several ideas for further scientific exploration hatched, and will be discussed.

Since the terrorist attacks of 9/11, there has been a significant amount of research on the Middle East and Islam. These studies inform the academic community regarding the culture and religion of the region and its people. An area of research regarding the culture and people of the Middle East that has not been represented in the literature is the experience of honor. Honor has been researched from a sociological and anthropological perspective, and honor killings have been present in the media. However, there was a need for the experience of honor, specifically among first generation Levantine Arab American women, to be explored in a qualitative study. The methodology used for this study was Moustakas’ heuristic research design, which allowed the primary researcher to illuminate the experience of honor among first generation Levantine Arab American women. The study found that honor was a complex experience for the participants. The multifaceted experience was familial and societal, public and private, and individual and collective. The experience of honor among first generation Levantine Arab American women was found to be one that started in early childhood and continued into adulthood, never really ending for the participant. The participants describe their lives as a struggle between the wants of the individual and the wants of the family and community. The implications of the study are discussed further in Chapter 5.

Exploring a "call" to a place, this work uses the Alchemical Hermeneutic method developed by Robert Romanyshyn, along with elements of Rosemary Anderson's Intuitive Inquiry and Craig Chalquist's Terrapsychology to reflect on the "soul" of a part of Monterey, California, on a hill known to the Rumsen Ohlone people as "Hunukul." With a view of the Monterey Bay, which conceals a mile-deep canyon and provides the environment for the upwelling of a teeming marine life, a portal is found through which to enter the depths of Psyche, both historically and existentially.

Many groups have met in this place, from the time that the first buildings were erected by a group of Theosophists from Pasadena in 1918 to the current occupation by Saint James Episcopal Church. Young people with disabilities, addicts and alcoholics, people with psychiatric diagnoses seeking expression through art, Zen meditators, Korean evangelicals, and the Monterey Bay Friends of C. G. Jung have all found refuge in the place, and a way to dwell together.

Archetypal commonalities among these groups are herein explored, including the wounded image of Christos Dionysos (contrasted with the heroic image of Christos Mithras), strong manifestations of women's leadership and power, and an ongoing presence of the shadow of war.

Rather than postulate a quasi-material soul of this place, the relationship of human psyche and the psychic dimensions of place are seen as part of an ongoing process, the boundaries of which pulse in space and time through the life expressed in this place. Place may not "have" a soul. From one perspective, place may "be" soul.

This dissertation sets forth a typology of contemporary collectors of objects of material culture. This study characterizes four types of collectors, identified by separate and unique abilities of inner and outward perception, which resonates in their collections as praxis.

This typology also analyses the degree of both conscious and unconscious meaning in the collection, which, over time and place, becomes a self-referential composition. The meaning of objects as perceived and handled relates to the collector's level of consciousness of this epistemological function. The form or kind of the object, although significant, is not the basis for this ontological study as much as the method of each type of collector in the handling of their collections.

The latent or manifest drive towards degrees of coherence or completion lies in the collection, a visual, relational structure created by the collector. This structure may result in conscious enquiry, realization, and individuation, or may build a material bastion of self-protection, due to unconscious compensation or denial.

The handling of objects is the handling of a personal relationship, as collectors do not simply perceive objects, they perceive with objects, over time, in praxis. This dissertation allows for the great significance of home, within which a collector curates objects.

This dissertation employs a multi-disciplinary and hermeneutical approach as befits each type of collector's idiosyncratic and heterogeneous relationship to lucid materiality. Four types of collectors, the acquirer, the connoisseur, the fetishizer and the hoarder exhibit a neoteric aesthetic of material culture, analyzed individually as types through selected methodologies: the depth psychological perspective, process theory, the mythological approach, and through semiotic structuralism.

This typographical analysis results in the discovery of four unique ways in which collectors create meaning from our material world with approaches to the nature and concept of a "thing."

How a thing becomes visual image, which becomes the structure of a psychic reality fortuitously grasped by a mind and the hand, is a reflection of the importance of objects and of a collector's personal epistemology.

A Production Component, a book called Generosity of Eye: A Seasoned Appraiser Answers Clients' Questions, discusses the evaluation of objects from the perspective of a professional appraiser.

An exploratory, action research approach was used with adult Karen-Refugees (n = 26) separated by sex (male/female) in focus group sessions. The aim of the study was to explore a cultural-, context-specific definition of resilience and the factors that may contribute to resilience in resettlement using an ecological framework. In vivo coding techniques were used resulting in several themes. Results suggested a definition of resilience that encompassed a sense of gratitude, positive outlook, and resourcefulness; demonstrating a strong work ethic and perseverance, and moving towards a sense of community and belonging. Factors contributing to resilience in resettlement include language and availability of resources, the importance and value of education, the availability of other resources in the community (e.g., employment), a supportive civil society, special care for the elderly, and opportunities for the exhibition of cultural- pride, and preservation, which lead to a sense of community and belonging. Implications for prevention and intervention services are discussed along with contributions to literature pertaining to international psychology, resilience, and refugee research.

Research has demonstrated that gossip meets many social and individual needs and serves several functions, often conflicting in the literature. The current study focused on examining the experiences of mothers as they publicly share and privately consume celebrity gossip to better understand celebrity gossip's functions. Motherhood is a demanding role filled with uncertainty and information seeking, as mothers seek to understand what constitutes a "good mother." Given that mothers may selectively seek and expose themselves to content to gain information, reduce uncertainty and to find validation they are a "good mother," this study revealed that participation in celebrity gossip plays a functional role by meeting both social and individual needs in these mothers' lives. Of particular interest however, was the exploration of the relationship between the public sharing and private consumption of celebrity gossip. Three focus groups and six individual interviews were conducted with mothers who enjoy sharing and consuming celebrity gossip. A Grounded Theory approach was used to analyze the data, revealing eight emergent categories. The study found that while celebrity gossip does meet social and individual functions, the process is also more complex, involving a simultaneous interaction taking place when mothers publicly share and privately consume celebrity gossip.

The lessons that psychologists acquire from their work with their clients has been somewhat overlooked in psychological research. Following the initial study of Hatcher et al. (2012), and the related investigation of Smith (2012), this cross-cultural investigation explores the narratives of psychologists who practice in different cultures with regard to their learning from clients. American, Mexican American, and psychologists from México participated in this study. This investigation has a tripartite objective as it seeks to expand the understanding of: (a) what psychologists learn from their work with clients across nine different areas: life lessons, relationships, ethical dilemmas, coping mechanisms, courage, personality styles and psychopathology, cultural differences, life stages and general wisdom; (b) to explore emic themes that reflect values, dimensions, professional experiences, and realities of therapists who work with bicultural Hispanic clients; and (c) to shed light on cross-cultural similarities and differences that emerge between the three groups. Participants were presented with semi-structured interviews that were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed using qualitative thematic analysis. Altogether, the analysis of the three groups found nearly more similarities than differences. Broadly, these results suggest that working with psychotherapy clients across different nations, cultures, or Spanish/English languages provides more universal than local wisdom. Culturally, American psychologists voiced themes representing individualism, multicultural awareness, and ideas for working with non-western clients. Both psychologists in México and Mexican Americans brought forth themes representing familismo, marianismo, personalismo, and religion. Mexican American narratives are distinctive for containing Hispanic bicultural, intersectionality, and México-America borderland themes. The responses of psychologists in México and Americans were the most similar, while the narratives of Mexican American psychologists were most different. This key finding might be explained by observing that bicultural individuals likely have a greater number of expectations and beliefs to consider than unicultural peoples.

This thesis examines the psychosocial and cultural factors behind body modification practices of breast augmentation, female circumcision, and foot binding in order to understand the growing trend of cosmetic surgery. Body modification is examined through the lens of Albert Bandura’s social learning theory using hermeneutic methodology that analyzes quantitative and qualitative data. Cross-cultural research on breast augmentation, female circumcision, and foot binding provides insight into how body modification practices are internalized through observational learning. The findings demonstrate that women are faced with social pressures to conform to physical ideals that often require modification of the body. Bandura’s theory of self-efficacy provides insights into how women can exercise choice, personal agency, and self-direction to guide personal decisions pertaining to cosmetic surgery within the context of social pressures.

The relationship to food, whether on an individual or societal basis, carries with it potential for nourishment on multiple levels. A mindful, healthy connection to the sourcing, preparation, serving, and enjoyment of food can become a catalyst for inner transformation, psychologically and physiologically. Utilizing hermeneutic methodology, this thesis explores food in relation to the soul by examining historical and cultural practices and beliefs about food. Various works of literature and the writings of culinary aficionados are discussed, giving examples of savoring food and receiving deep nourishment. In addition, a heuristic approach is undertaken to demonstrate the influence food has had on this researcher by recording personal reflections on her life and on literature that include memorable stories about the healing power of food. Depth psychological practices and theory may be positively impacted by the results of this research, due to the far-reaching implications for both mind and body.

Increased immigration finds children in a quandary to develop an identity consolidating their multiple locales and cultures. Additionally, the internet is highly integrated into children's lives and plays a consequential role in their identity formation processes. "Local culture," as referred to by scholars (e.g. Elias & Lemish 2008, 2009; De Block & Buckingham 2007), is a major influence on diaspora children's identity formation. Unfortunately, "local culture" is not clearly defined in literature thus far; it can refer to any combination of at-home and outside-the-home cultures with which children in a new country interact. This paper delineates parts of local culture in a way prior literature has not and introduces the notion of "new national identity" (NNID) as a component of local culture that immigrant children acquire. NNID is derived from new national culture. It is the culture of the immigrant-receiving nation as commonly available to all immigrants regardless of their ethnic background. The case studies presented here examine NNID acquired through internet usage specifically by Iranian-American and Iranian-Canadian youth. The case studies bring to light the importance of birthplace in how children of the diaspora perceive new national identity. Their perceptions and conceptions of this development can be mitigated by many factors including, but not exclusive to, place of birth, age at which emigration occurs, parental familiarity with new national culture, local social demographics, and local co-ethnic support, to name a few.

This is an ethnographic and depth psychological study of Post-Cool Kids, people born into the 1960s American counterculture between 1964 and 1978. This population has been predominantly overlooked by the academy apart from the Family Lifestyles Study completed at UCLA twenty years ago. In this, the first study of its kind, I explore the ethnological specificity of this set of people, Post-Cool Kids.

I have integrated the methodologies of Michel Foucault and the theories of archetypal psychology developed by James Hillman with work done by Victor Turner as well as other work from the disciplines of anthropology, sociology, literary criticism, feminist theory, cultural studies and histories of the sixties era. I use this interdisciplinary data to inform a qualitative study of eighteen subjects raised by countercultural parents. I asked my subjects about their lives as children, teenagers, young adults, and currently approaching midlife. Through an analysis of these interviews I identified six cultural complexes specific to the counterculture that I then deconstructed and discussed as systems of knowing within the American culture of the last forty years: freedom, anti-authority, intense experience, cool, being real, and utopia. These complexes together provide a unique way of experiencing the world that informs the ethnological and psychological perspective of Post-Cool Kids, and provides them with a multi-schematic, process-based way of engaging with the world around them. I also discuss such topics as alternative education, communal experiences, drug addiction, creative thinking, embodied trauma, parental entwinement, and personal activism. My objective was to identify the transmission of culture from counterculture parents to their Post-Cool Kids. In the process I developed several unique methodological approaches. Merging postmodern theory, archetypal psychology and methods from religious studies and anthropology, I evaluate the nature of belief within a secular cultural context. Ultimately, I place American historical concepts of utopia side by side with the experience and multi-schematic perspective of Post-Cool Kids to suggest that they represent an emergent pattern in culture, and show how they can inform new theories of utopia.

This descriptive phenomenological study investigated Anglo Saxon Americans' lived experience of self-identity. The focus was to determine if construction of their self-concepts was influenced by Ancestral connectedness, characterized by: (a) lived recognition of one's Ancestral origins and the experience of connection to one's larger constellation of familial lineage, (b) reverent encounter with one's Ancestors on a daily basis as expressed in Ancestor communion, and (c) felt responsibility to ensure the Ancestors' continued well-being and positive disposition toward the living through the practice of remembering the Ancestors in active storytelling, prayers to the Ancestors, and the making of libations and offerings to the Ancestors. Three Anglo Saxon Americans participated in the study. Each participant completed two half-hour, one-on-one, in-person interviews and also completed a demographic questionnaire about his or her background. Participants were asked to describe (a) their identities and how they understand themselves, (b) their understanding or definition of Ancestor, (c) how they think about their Ancestors, and (d) how their connectedness to their Ancestors influence their self-identities. Giorgi's (1985, 2009) four-step descriptive phenomenological method was used to analyze the data and produce a psychological description of the phenomenon studied. Study results revealed a general structure for the Anglo Saxon American self-concept in relation to Ancestral connectedness consisting of eight constituents: (a) a lack of importance placed on the question of self-identity, (b) an emphasis on individuality and separation, (c) a negative approach to self-identity, (d) changes in self-identity independent of Ancestry, (e) awareness of the White race and its privileges, (f) socioeconomic status, (g) an unconscious Ancestral influence, and (h) no establishment of a positive Ancestral influence on self-identity. The results also revealed a limited amount of conscious understanding of one's Ancestral origins and personal connection to a larger constellation of familial lineage, suggesting partial fulfillment of the first criterion of Ancestral connectedness. However, this was the extent of the lived experience of Ancestral connectedness in relation to the Anglo Saxon American self-identity formation.

The purpose of this artistic self-case study is to explore how the role of the soldier might be transformed from service in war to service for community, via creative exploration of the archetypal figures, Warrior and Shaman. With this in mind, a creative and introspective method was tested for its efficacy in generating new images and stories to promote conflict transformation for our warrior class.

The strategy of inquiry employed is based on the case study model, modified to be a self-case study. Creation-based data was generated by the researcher to evoke intersubjective dialogue between academically rational and creatively nonrational data and processes in this research. In lieu of the traditional written chapters that comprise the body of a dissertation, “creative chapters” in the form of mixed media pictorial representations are presented. Data analysis was conducted using Abt’s (2005) articulation of Jungian picture interpretation, in order to discern meaning from each creative chapter—the titles of which served as a query for topics related to the research question.

A liberation paradigm was then utilized as a critical point of departure, to guide the issues examined (healing and community roles for our warrior class), the people for whom the study is relevant (the warrior class and practitioners working with them), the researcher’s role in the study (up front/personal; grounded in experience), and how the research was presented in its final form (written text with supporting pictorial data; conclusions drawn from creative interpretation).

The combined chapter interpretations were reviewed and analyzed in the concluding chapter for their implications in community praxis with returning soldiers and veterans. They revealed consistent themes of imbalanced masculine and feminine energies, and the need for development of an introspective, Shamanic aptitude by our Warriors in order for them to continue their duty of protection and care of their local communities.

Recommendations are then made for adapting this research model in community work with soldiers and veterans, along with suggestions for building greater levels of reliability, validity, and generalizability into creative qualitative research.

Keywords: Warrior, Shaman, trauma, conflict transformation, resilient communities, Jungian, phronesis, counterinsurgency, initiation, creative.

Over the past five years, American public opinion on homosexuality has rapidly shifted in a more positive direction. Its subjugation exemplifies how an intimate and singular topic can be used to ignite and potentially misguide the American people, resulting in violent demonstration and even death. Although public opinion has shifted towards a greater acceptance of homosexuality, viewpoints are still very polarized. In addition to the available literature, elements from the complete data set of the General Social Survey (1972–2014) were analyzed to better understand this polarization that persists. Subject-specific variables concerning homosexuality were extrapolated and simple Ordinary Least Squares regression models were tested using STATA version SE 12.1. The evidence gathered supports this thesis’ assertion that Snyder’s theory of hope, when applied to the topic of homosexuality, provides a uniquely useful and alternative lens through which to explain the polarization of current public opinion about homosexuality in America.