Theses and Dissertations from UMD

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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 give thesis/dissertation in DRUM

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

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    Words on Music, Perhaps: The Writings of Arthur Berger
    (2020) Kobuskie, Jennifer Miriam; Haldey, Olga; Music; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    When Arthur Berger (1912–2003) is mentioned in the history books, it is often as a mid-20th century American composer, or a practitioner and teacher of music theory who, during his tenure at Brandeis University, had trained a generation of theorists and composers. This dissertation aims to demonstrate that Berger made one of his most significant contributions to the history of 20th-century music as a writer of prose. As a full-time critic, his work was featured in major newspapers of New York and Boston, and nationally distributed periodicals. He helped found two music journals, contributed regularly to others, and authored two books. For decades, his voice was widely heard and broadly influential. His aesthetic views, stated boldly and unapologetically, helped shape the post-WWII discourse on modern, particularly American music, and continue to impact both public and scholarly debate on this topic. This study surveys Berger’s personal history as a writer, including his career as a music critic, his involvement with the creation of the scholarly journal Perspectives of New Music, his pioneering biography of Aaron Copland, and his seminal article on Stravinsky’s octatonicism. The dissertation also offers a detailed, comprehensive analysis of Berger’s voluminous corpus of writings, both published and unpublished, as well as his personal archive of notes, drafts, and correspondence, in order to elucidate his aesthetic principles, and his views on a broad variety of subjects related to modern music, such as neoclassicism, nationalism, innovation and tradition, the music of Stravinsky, Copland, and their American successors, as well as the role of classical music in American culture, and the place of American music in the world. Finally, the study is concerned with the reception of Berger’s ideas, his personal aesthetic evolution, and his lively involvement in his own reception.
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    PARTNER'S CONFLICT BEHAVIOR AND RECIPIENT'S ATTACHMENT STYLE AS PREDICTORS OF PERCEIVED CRITICISM IN CLINICAL COUPLES
    (2011) Savory, Kara Lee; Epstein, Norman B; Family Studies; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    The association between critical communication behavior exhibited by one member of a couple during a conversation and the amount of criticism that is perceived by the person's partner was explored. The study investigated whether that association is moderated by the degrees to which the recipient of messages identifies with each of four attachment styles (secure, fearful, preoccupied, and dismissing). The sample was 95 couples who had sought therapy at a university-based couple and family therapy clinic. Each couple engaged in a 10-minute discussion of a conflictual issue in their relationship, which was video-recorded and subsequently coded for constructive and destructive communication behavior, including criticism. For both men and women, the amount of actual criticism predicted the amount perceived. Attachment styles did not directly predict the amount of criticism perceived, but there was evidence that for both genders attachment styles moderated the relationship between the degree of conflict behavior exhibited by the partner and the amount of criticism that the recipient perceived.
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    Communication Behaviors, Perception of Criticism, Changes in Emotional State, and Relationship Satisfaction in African American and Caucasian Heterosexual Couples
    (2006-08-10) Galloway, Serena Christine; Werlinich, Carol; Epstein, Norman B; Family Studies; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships among partners'communication behaviors, perception of criticism, emotional state, and relationship satisfaction among African American and Caucasian couples. Partners' perception of criticism was examined as a mediator of the relationship between communication behaviors and emotional state, as well as relationship satisfaction. The influence of partners' perception of criticism was expected to vary by culture/race. Secondary analyses were conducted for 29 Caucasian and 20 African American heterosexual couples presenting for therapy at a university-based clinic as part of the ongoing Couples Abuse Prevention Program. Couples completed self-report measures of perceived criticism and dyadic adjustment, as well as completing a 10-minute communication sample and reporting their moods before and after the discussion. Results supported perception of criticism as a mediator, and the association between negative communication behavior and partners' perception of criticism was stronger for Caucasian husbands than for African American husbands.