Counseling, Higher Education & Special Education Theses and Dissertations
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2757
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Item A Grounded Theory of Lesbian and Gay Leadership Self-Efficacy Development(2011) Ostick, Daniel Townsend; Komives, Susan R.; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of gay and lesbian college students engaged in leadership and the meaning they made of their leadership self-efficacy development, particularly as it related to their identity development and various environmental assisters and constraints. The study sought to identity what shaped the development of leadership self-efficacy for these students and generated additional questions for future research. Using Grounded Theory Methodology, this study explored the primary research question: How do gay and lesbian college students engaged in leadership develop their leadership self-efficacy? Three interviews were held each with 10 students who self-identified as gay, lesbian, queer, or sexually fluid who were highly involved in leadership activities on campus. The theory that emerged from the participants' experiences centered on the individual's self-efficacy to engage in leadership defined within the context of their beliefs about the nature of leadership engagement. The self-efficacy of the students was enhanced by support, success, and deep and broad involvement and was diminished by failure and active criticism. The students‟ gay, lesbian, or queer identities served to either improve self-efficacy or leadership or had no demonstrable effect, according to the participants‟ stories. Sexual orientation served to improve self-efficacy for engagement in leadership by broadening perspectives, improving relationships and comfort within groups, allowing the participants to bring their full selves to their experiences, creating empathy and understanding, and improving personal awareness. Participants also shared that their identities were integral to their involvements, that being out increased their overall self-confidence, that greater comfort led to greater involvement, and that visibility and voice was important to their leadership self-efficacy. Students also shared that their sexual orientation did not have an appreciable effect on their leadership self-efficacy when they already had a great deal of confidence to engage in leadership, when they had already integrated their sexual orientations, when situations did not relate to their sexual orientations, or when the saliency of their sexual orientations was lower than other aspects of their personality.Item Educating for Change: How Leadership Education and Training Affect Student Activism in Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Undergraduates(2011) Leets, Craig Stuart; Komives, Susan R; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This thesis explored the extent to which leadership education and training experiences predicted student activism in lesbian, gay, and bisexual undergraduate students. The impact of these experiences were compared to the impact of participants' involvement and leadership in co-curricular and off-campus organizations to identify the additional ways that leadership education and training can supplement a student's organizational participation in encouraging student activism for this student population. Data from 2,681 students who identified as lesbian, gay, or bisexual on the Multi-Institutional Study of Leadership were used for this study. A single hypothesis was tested using the College Impacts model as the conceptual framework, and multiple regression was the chosen statistical method. The model established for this study explained 51.3% of the observed variance in student activism with demographic variables, pre-college experiences, organizational participation, and leadership education and training experiences serving as positive predictors.Item Development and Validation of the Behaviors Toward Gays and Lesbians Scale (B-GAL)(2005-07-14) Walton, Heather Marie; Fassinger, Ruth E; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This thesis discusses the current state of research regarding attitudes and behaviors toward lesbians and gay men and outlines the development and testing of the Behaviors Toward Gays and Lesbians Scale (B-GAL). Establishment of internal consistency reliability and construct validity (convergent, discriminant, and predictive validity, as well as factor analysis) was determined on a sample of 175 female and male heterosexual college students. Results suggested a highly internally consistent and valid behavioral measure consisting of three factors. The thesis also discusses the use of the B-GAL in providing a preliminary assessment of college students' behaviors toward lesbians and gay men.Item The Relationship of Lesbian and Gay Identity Development and Involvement in Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Student Organizations(2005-06-03) Lynch, John Wiley; Lucas, Margaretha; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study investigated the relationship between gay and lesbian identity development and involvement in lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender organizations. Eighty nine undergraduate and graduate students who self identified as gay, lesbian, or questioning were surveyed at a large, mid-Atlantic, state university. The Gay and Lesbian Identity Questionnaire (Revised) (Fassinger, 2001a; Fassinger, 2001b) was used to measure identity development. An instrument was created to measure involvement. No significant relationship was found between identity development and level of involvement. However, it was found that participants with more integrated identities showed a preference for support and social type organizations over education and cultural organizations. There were also significant relationships between age, coming out, and gay and lesbian identity development. Implications for theory and practice and directions for future research were examined.