UMD Theses and Dissertations

Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/3

New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a given thesis/dissertation in DRUM.

More information is available at Theses and Dissertations at University of Maryland Libraries.

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Author: search.filters.author.Arseneau, JulieEnd date: 2009

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    "Born That Way" and Other Notions: Measuring Sexual Minority Individuals' Beliefs About Sexual Orientation
    (2008-08-03) Arseneau, Julie; Fassinger, Ruth; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    The focus of the present study was the creation and initial validation of a measure of popular beliefs about sexual orientation in a sample of sexual minority (i.e., lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, or otherwise same-sex attracted) adults, the Sexual Orientation Beliefs Scale (SOBS). While drawing from the empirical literature on essentialist beliefs about social groups, the current project sought to investigate ontological assumptions that are both essentialist and non-essentialist in nature, specifically including beliefs rooted in agentic and social constructionist perspectives as yet untested in the empirical literature. Participants (N = 332) were a national sample of sexual minority adults ranging in age from 18-74 years. Data was collected using through the use of an internet-based survey, and exploratory factor analysis was used to investigate the underlying factor structure of the SOBS. An initial 91 items were reduced to a 35-item scale using a best-fit four-factor solution that accounted for 35.33% of the obtained variance. Based on their component items, the four subscales of the SOBS were named Naturalness, Discreteness, Entitativity, and Personal and Social Importance of Sexual Orientation. Relationships between sexual orientation beliefs and right-wing authoritarianism, need for cognitive structure, collective self-esteem, and sociodemographic characteristics of participants were explored and results of these analyses are presented. Notably, the level of endorsement of specific types of beliefs, as measured by the SOBS subscales, was found to differ significantly according to gender and sexual orientation self-labeling of participants. Results broadly suggest the need for further investigation of popularly-held beliefs about sexual orientation and their correlates. Strengths and limitations of the present study, as well as recommendations for future research with the SOBS, are also discussed.
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    Climate and Identity in the Career Experiences of Women Employed in the Chemical Industry
    (2006-05-02) Arseneau, Julie; Fassinger, Ruth E; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Despite recent gains in the literature on women's career development, scant information is available about women in nontraditional careers, including the sciences and engineering. The purpose of the present study was to utilize a qualitative methodology to investigate the experiences of 22 diverse women employed in the U.S. chemical industry in order to examine the role of workplace climate and demographic identity in their careers. Results of semi-structured interviews presented here suggest that formal and informal company policies impacted upon interviewees' perceptions of climate and that workplace support was a significant factor in managing general career challenges as well as those specific to demographic location. Differential influence of gender, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, geographic location, and functional area within the company were described by participants. Results also suggest that some participants may engage in identity management strategies as a way of negotiating unfavorable aspects of workplace climate.