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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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 De Fidelis(2008-04-29) Enszer, Julie R.; Plumly, Stanley; English Language and Literature; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)DE FIDELIS is a collection of poems that examines domestic life and the ways that domestic life comes undone by the challenges of contemporary culture. The content of the poems is drawn from a wide range of personal experiences--a kind of travel in which the customs and ideology of "home" are explored and challenged, the home where domesticity is embedded with fidelity and the specter of infidelity, death, and the world that remains when the dead continue to engage with the living. What unites the poems are the close observations of relevant objects and memory.Item Coping with Heterosexism and Homophobia: Young Adults with Lesbian Parents Reflect on Their Adolescence(2007-01-24) Kuvalanka, Katherine A.; Leslie, Leigh A.; Family Studies; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)A growing number of lesbian and gay parents are raising children in the United States and around the world. The presence of heterosexism and homophobia, however, continues to present legal, economic, and social challenges for these families. Despite this reality, social science research has demonstrated the positive, healthy development of children and adolescents with lesbian and gay parents. How is it, then, that these children and adolescents demonstrate resilience despite exposure to heterosexism and homophobia? Utilizing a grounded theory, qualitative approach, 30 young adults with lesbian parents were interviewed to explore how they perceived, experienced, and coped with heterosexism and homophobia during their adolescence. Feminist theory applied to a risk-resilience framework guided the development of this study, the primary purpose of which was to develop a theory-driven model to explain how adolescents with lesbian parents cope with heterosexism and homophobia. Findings revealed evidence of resilience of all participants despite varying levels of exposure to interpersonal, institutional, and cultural heterosexism and homophobia from their peers, extended family members, schools, religious institutions, and government. Participants utilized both "protective" and "de-marginalizing" coping strategies in response to the various types of heterosexism and homophobia they faced. Intervening factors in participants' lives that helped to foster their resilience, such as social support on the part of family and friends, were also identified. Based on these findings, a theoretical model of how adolescents with lesbian parents cope with heterosexism and homophobia was developed. Study findings, including the proposed theoretical model and implications of the study findings for researchers, policymakers, and practitioners who are interested in fostering the resilience of adolescents with lesbian parents, are discussed.Item When the Clothes Do Not Make the Man: Female Masculinity and Nationalism in Eighteenth-Century British Literature(2006-08-01) Jansen, Leslie; Lanser, Susan S; English Language and Literature; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Recently, masculinity has garnered much attention from scholars of eighteenth-century literature and history. However, these studies focus almost exclusively on the masculinity performed by men. Likewise, studies of female masculinity tend to examine masculine women only within the context of women. My dissertation lies at the convergence of these two areas of inquiry by examining the implications of female masculinity on normative masculinity and the link between these masculinities and nationalism from the early to late eighteenth century, with particular emphasis at the mid-point of the century. I argue that female masculinity was integral to the development and construction of an idealized masculinity and that both positive and negative responses to female masculinity fostered nationalist propaganda and aided in the development of the British Empire. In the first chapter, I trace the shifting grounds of normative masculinity and argue that what constitutes masculinity narrows as the century progresses and is defined by its resistance to any connection with French culture, particularly within the rising middle class. Chapter two examines three female soldier narratives, some of the only positive representations of female masculinity. I argue that the authors praise female masculinity as a means of creating a heroic masculinity to serve the nation. The third chapter examines the function of female husbands. I argue that these texts employ female husbands as a means of inciting xenophobia and promoting nationalism, through narrative strategies of silence and disclosure. In the final chapter, I discuss the masculine women who populate four domestic novels. I posit that female masculinity functions as a means of authorizing sentimental masculinity, a mode of masculinity popular in mid-to late eighteenth-century novels. Through the examination of texts such as novels, pamphlets, and biographies, my dissertation insists that female masculinity was an integral force in the construction of normative masculinity and was intimately linked to a nationalist agenda in the eighteenth century.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.