Master of Science (MS), Wright State University, 2021, Human Factors and Industrial/Organizational Psychology MS

Though research has identified common outcomes of ethical work climates, less is known regarding its antecedents. Situational components such as ethics programs and individual, moral-related variables such as moral identity and moral attentiveness may influence the way employees perceive the ethical climate of their organization. I conducted t-tests and calculated bivariate correlations to determine if there were significant relationships between ethics program components, individual moral-related variables and ethical climate dimensions. My results (N = 422 recruited from Mechanical Turk) revealed that ethics program components and individual, moral-related variables are significantly related to multiple dimensions of ethical climate. Most significant relationships were observed when caring, law and code, and rules climate dimensions were the outcomes, suggesting conceptual overlap between these climate dimensions. Also, it is likely that climate dimensions influence the types of employees who are attracted and hired.

Committee: Debra Steele-Johnson Ph.D. (Advisor); Nathan Bowling Ph.D. (Committee Member); Corey Miller Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Organizational Behavior; Psychology

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2015, Higher Education (Education)

Character development is a central function of higher education. This phenomenological study describes Black women's personal lived experiences with character development and ethical leadership development at Spelman College, America's oldest historically Black college for women. The following research question guided the study: How do students at a historically Black women's college describe their experiences with character development and ethical leadership development? The study also explored student's thoughts about the academic and co-curricular programs that best prepared them to be ethical leaders. Interviews were conducted with 10 graduating seniors from the Class of 2014 Women of Excellence Leadership (WEL) series offered by the Center for Leadership and Civic Engagement at Spelman College. Eight alumnae members of the WEL program were also interviewed to provide their thoughts about character development and ethical leadership development. Participants were asked to share the learning and skills they attributed to their experiences as undergraduate students and campus leaders. Finally, the Director of the Center for Leadership and Civic Engagement was interviewed to provide an administrative perspective on character development and ethical leadership development. The theory referenced in this study is Gilligan's (1988) work on women's development which illustrates that women are more concerned with care, relationships, and connections with other people as they engage in moral and ethical development. The findings of this study suggest that a supportive environment and expectations for success, educational programs that focus on conscious Black feminist-activist development, opportunities to become leaders and learn about leadership, and faculty and alumnae interaction, mentoring and support influence character development and ethical leadership development of students at Spelman College. In addition, the participants shared expectations (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Peter Mather Dr. (Committee Chair); Gordon Brooks Dr. (Other); David Horton Dr. (Committee Member); Valerie Martin Conley Dr. (Committee Chair) Subjects: African Americans; Black Studies; Ethics; Gender; Higher Education; Womens Studies

Psy. D., Antioch University, 2015, Antioch New England: Clinical Psychology

Mental health clinicians are bound by professional ethics codes that are intended to ensure beneficence toward clients. When clinicians reside in rural areas, ethical dilemmas result from the distinct nature of rural life and clinical practice. Despite extant literature on the ethical dilemmas of rural practice, little research has examined the effect of ethical dilemmas on the social-emotional functioning of clinicians. In response to this need, the study investigated the relationships of frequency of and discomfort from ethical dilemmas on clinician social-emotional functioning. Participants were rural and small town clinicians (N = 60) between ages 24-65 and primarily Caucasian (83.3%), from 19 states of the U.S., and one from Costa Rica. They responded to an online survey. Answer formats ranged from a Likert scale to open-ended statements to multiple choice options. Survey questions addressed demographic information; frequency and discomfort related to ethical dilemma types; decision-making strategies used; confidence in and stress relief from use of decision-making strategies; and frequency of service denial due to payment problems. The Friedman Well-Being Scale and Maslach Burnout Inventory were also included. Hypotheses predicted that frequency of encounters with ethical dilemmas and increased discomfort from ethical dilemmas would relate to lower well-being and higher burnout. Research questions were aimed at understanding the types and frequency of ethical dilemmas experienced by rural and small-town clinicians and decision-making strategies used. Differences between well-being and burnout scores of the study participants and participants of the normative studies for these measures were studied. Results indicated that frequency of and discomfort level from ethical dilemmas predicted the burnout dimension of Emotional Exhaustion. Dual role and clinician visibility dilemmas were most common. Most participants used a case-by-case, multiple-strategy approach fo (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Gargi Roysircar-Sodowsky PhD (Committee Chair); Gina Pasquale PsyD (Committee Member); Daniel Lafleur PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Clinical Psychology

Doctor of Education (EdD), Ohio University, 2014, Educational Administration (Education)

The purpose of this study was to investigate the ethical leadership perspectives of Ohio public school superintendents. Secondly, this study examined to what extent ethical leadership perspectives of Ohio public school superintendents vary according to school district characteristics. Furthermore, the study examined to what extent do ethical leadership perspectives of Ohio public school superintendents vary according to leader demographics. A survey was used to collect data of both superintendent demographics and school district characteristics. Included in this survey were an Ethical Leadership Scale (ELS) and Social Desirability Scale (SDS). The ELS was used to measure ethical leadership perspectives of the superintendents. The SDS was used to measure social desirability of the superintendents. The survey was sent to 606 public school district superintendents in the State of Ohio of which 231 responded. Additionally, this study included an ancillary study in which the researcher conducted interviews with 15 superintendents from across the State of Ohio. The goal of these small group and individual interviews was to gain further information regarding ethical leadership perspectives and social desirability of superintendents in the State of Ohio, and furthermore, to identify district characteristics and leader demographics associated with ethical leadership perspectives. Included in these interviews, the researcher administered the ELS and SDS instruments to each participant.

Committee: Gordon Brooks (Committee Chair) Subjects: Education; Educational Leadership; Ethics

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Wright State University, 2012, Human Factors and Industrial/Organizational Psychology PhD

There were four purposes for this study. One purpose was to develop a direct assessment of individuals' ethical schemas for how to operate within work settings. I proposed structural assessment using Pathfinder as a means of measuring the structural network of ethical knowledge. I expected structural assessment to be a better means of assessing moral development within organizations than the Defining Issues Test (Rest, 1979). A second purpose was to examine the extent to which implicit aspects of the ethical decision-making process have differential effects on behavioral criteria than explicit aspects of ethical decision-making. A third purpose of this study was to examine the impact that contextual factors (i.e., ethical work climates) have on ethical decision-making and behavior. Thus, I investigated the unique and interactive effects of ethical work climates and ethical decision-making on behavioral criteria. Finally, a fourth purpose of this study was to merge the ethical behavior and counterproductive work behavior (CWB) literatures to increase our understanding about theory and variables in both literatures. There were two data collections. In the first sample, I used college undergraduates to develop measures. In the second sample, I conducted formal tests of hypotheses. I recruited individuals who participated in Amazon's MechanicalTurk program, which reflected a diverse set of individuals with a wealth of work experience. In addition, I used full-time employees who were enrolled in an MBA program to increase sample size. I used hierarchical regression to test hypotheses. Results showed that using structural assessment and Pathfinder to measure ethical schemas accounted for unique variance in CWBs, controlling for the DIT, and that implicit processes exhibited a greater impact on CWBs than explicit processes. The implications for theory development, training, selection and organizational cultures are discussed.

Committee: Debra Steele-Johnson PhD (Committee Chair); Nathan Bowling PhD (Committee Member); Melissa Gruys PhD (Committee Member); David LaHuis PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Behavioral Sciences; Cognitive Psychology; Ethics; Organizational Behavior; Psychology

Master of Science (MS), Ohio University, 2009, Apparel, Textiles, and Merchandising (Education)

The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of college students' attitudes toward fashion counterfeits on their purchase intentions. Additionally, this study explored how college students' attitudes toward fashion counterfeits are affected by past purchase experience and personality traits, such as fashion consciousness, public self-consciousness, ethical obligation, and ethical judgment using the Theory of Planned Behavior as the theoretical framework. A total of 341 completed surveys were collected from students at a Midwestern University in the U.S. One-way ANOVA, independent t-test, regression, and correlation analyses were used to test the hypotheses. Statistical results suggest that college students' purchase intentions of fashion counterfeits are dependent on their attitudes toward fashion counterfeits, which in turn are influenced by their past purchase experiences, their beliefs about the benefits and risks of buying fashion counterfeits, and their ethical judgment. Ethical obligation, however, does not have a significant influence on attitude.

Committee: Yingjiao Xu (Committee Chair); V. Ann Paulins (Committee Member); Elizabeth Blair (Committee Member) Subjects: Behaviorial Sciences

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2003, Educational Research and Evaluation (Education)

This study investigates if differences exist in students' and instructors' ethical ideologies and ethical decision-making. Ethics comprises only a small portion of the athletic training curriculum, which is a competency-based model. Ethical decision-making, however, is vital to practice effectively across clinical settings, and an individual's ethical ideology may affect athletic training practitioners' ethical decision-making abilities. The Ethics Position (EPQ) and Dilemmas in Athletic Training Questionnaires (DAT-Q) assessed respondents' ethical ideologies and ethical decision-making. Respondents (N = 598) included 373 females (62.4%) and 225 males (37.6%), ranging in age from 18 to 63 years (M = 23.5, SD = 6.3). Principal components factor analysis with varimax rotation revealed both the EPQ and DAT-Q to possess reasonable construct validity. Internal consistency of the EPQ's idealism and relativism subscales and the DAT-Q scale were .79, .72 and .82, respectively. Overall, respondents reported higher idealism (M = 37.56, SD = 4.91) than relativism scores (M = 31.70, SD = 4.80). The mean DAT-Q score for all respondents was (M = 80.76, SD = 7.88). The research design incorporated three separate 2 (gender) x 3 (educational status) factorial ANOVAs utilizing idealism, relativism and DAT-Q scores as dependent measures. The main effect for gender illustrated that males reported significantly higher relativism scores, F (1, 592) = 9.183, p < .05, η² = .015, than females. The main effect for educational status revealed significant differences between students' and instructors' idealism, F (2, 592) = 3.99, p < .05, η² = .013, relativism, F (2, 592) = 15.53, p < .001, η² = .050, and DAT-Q scores, F (2, 592) = 8.06, p < .001, η² = .027. Post–hoc analysis using Tukey's HSD indicated instructors possessed lower idealism and relativism scores and higher DAT-Q scores than students. Findings do not support changes in athletic training educational practices to address gender sp (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Ralph Martin (Advisor) Subjects: Health Sciences, Education

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2009, Leadership Studies

The purpose of this correlational study was to examine the relationship between Ohio music educators' self-perceived ethical awareness, with special attention paid to the ethic of care, and their high school music ensemble students' self-perceived sense of belonging and academic achievement. By doing so, the study attempted to lend validity to Starratt's (1991) Multidimensional Model of Ethical Leadership and Langlois' (2005) Ethical Leadership Questionnaire, which supports Starratt's model.The participants in the present study were 40 music educators from 32 Ohio school districts, and 2,550 students, who participate in the respective music ensembles. Educators were given the Ethical Leadership Questionnaire developed by Dr. Lyse Langlois. The ethic of care subscale had 11 items, ethic of justice had 13 items, ethic of critique had 12 items, and ethical sensitivity had three items. The students answered questions from Goodenow's (1993) the Psychological Sense of School Membership survey. Four questions about their current music educator's personal and professional traits were also included. General themes, common descriptors, and noteworthy responses were identified in the qualitative data provided by students. Important questions that were answered included whether music educators' level of ethical awareness (care, justice, and critique) was a predictor in students' sense of belonging and academic achievement and whether there was a relationship between music educators' self-perceived ethical awareness and their students' self-perceived sense of belonging and academic achievement. In addition, the ways students perceive music educators' ethic of care and personal and professional characteristics to be important factors in their sense of belonging and academic achievement were explored. Students' sense of belonging, the ethic of critique, and the ethic of care were found to be predictors of GPA. Students who participated fewer years scored significantly lower on se (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Patrick Pauken (Advisor); Vincent Kantorski (Committee Member); Lyse Langlois (Committee Member); Rachel Vannatta (Committee Member) Subjects: Education; Educational Theory; Fine Arts; Management; Music; Music Education; Personal Relationships; School Administration; Secondary Education; Teacher Education; Teaching

Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2024, Philosophy (Arts and Sciences)

This is a critical examination of several theories concerning the relationship between moral content and aesthetic value. It concentrates on the questions of how, if, and when the moral content may affect the aesthetic value of an artwork. The arguments are narrowly tailored by focusing the assessments on four theories—radical autonomism, radical moralism, moderate autonomism, and moderate moralism. The assessments and critiques are based on the work of philosopher Noel Carroll, and those who stand in opposition to his position of moderate moralism. Moderate moralism is not without philosophical gaps when scrutinized; nonetheless, it offers great insight into the intimate relationship between morality and the conferral of value upon artworks.

Committee: James Petrik (Committee Chair); Christoph Hanisch (Committee Member); Scott Carson (Committee Member) Subjects: Aesthetics; Art Criticism; Philosophy

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2024, Journalism (Communication)

This research assesses the effects of media richness on journalism students' attitudes and readiness to report on mental illness ethically and accurately. Due to the ongoing inaccurate and sensationalized depictions of mental illness in media, future journalists must be trained to combat these issues. This study engaged 280 U.S. journalism students in a posttest-only experimental design. Participants were assigned to one of three conditions through Qualtrics: rich media with a narrated slide deck, moderate media with a non-narrated slide deck, and lean media with a static text page. Results indicated no significant difference in attitudes, self-efficacy, or intentions between the groups, challenging the predicted educational advantage of rich media. These findings suggest alternative factors – such as individual motivation – might also influence learning outcomes. This study calls for further inquiry into rich media educational methods to prepare journalism students to tackle subjects like mental health in their future careers.

Committee: Parul Jain (Advisor); Greg Newton (Committee Member); Kimberly Rios (Committee Member); Robert Stewart (Committee Member) Subjects: Journalism; Mass Communications; Mass Media; Mental Health

Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, 2024, Management

There is a growing body of literature highlighting the significance of adopting Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) principles, which contribute positively to an enterprise's value. The influence of stakeholder theory has prompted global organizations to increasingly embrace ESG principles, garnering heightened attention in recent years, a shift from the past. However, there is a paucity of literature on empirical studies investigating the impact of organizational behaviors on the decision-making process of adopting ESG principles. This dissertation employs a sequential mixed-method research design to explore the effects of leadership styles on the perceived importance of ESG factors in organizations. Initially, an exploratory qualitative inquiry, involving semi-structured interviews with thirty respondents, examines the factors influencing the decision to adopt and implement social-related issues in organizations. Subsequently, an archival study delves into the mechanisms through which ESG indirectly influences firm profitability via employee satisfaction. The research also investigates the direct effects of authentic and ethical leadership on perceptions of ESG. Informed in general by the upper echelons theory and the stakeholder theory of the firm, the study considers leadership authority as a factor driving the embrace and implementation of ESG principles. Leaders exert influence in allocating organizational resources to achieve desired outcomes. Additionally, other factors such as costs, regulation, and reputation play a role in the decision to adopt ESG-related policies. The second phase of the dissertation explores the direct and indirect effects of positive performance indicators of environmental, social, and governance aspects on corporate financial performance (CFP) through employee satisfaction (ES) among S&P 500 companies from 2015 to 2019. The findings indicate a significant positive impact of employee satisfaction on corporate financial perf (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Timothy Fogarty, Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Olubunmi Faleye, Ph.D. (Committee Member); Yunmei Wang, Ph.D. (Committee Member); Philip Cola, Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Management

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2023, Leadership Studies

The expectation of healthcare professionals is to provide quality, patient-centered care to all patients. Miscommunication between the healthcare team resulted in segmented care and medical errors. As disconnects were discovered, healthcare professionals began promoting a team-based approach to care. The team-based approach helped eliminate barriers that inhibited effective communication and quality care to patients, providing a more cohesive patient care experience. Implementing team-based, patient-centered care in professional practice requires training to be introduced at the educational level of healthcare programs. A teaching strategy called interprofessional education (IPE) was developed to help teach students from different healthcare professions to learn with, from, and about each other's professions. Over time, healthcare education program accreditors were able to integrate IPE recommendations into their learning standards. However, not all healthcare professions chose to include IPE in their educational accreditation standards which left the decision to use IPE in some healthcare programs up to the program director. One healthcare profession in particular, radiography, has not yet mandated IPE into its educational accreditation standards. This study explored if radiography program directors' self-reported attitudes, knowledge, and perceptions of IPE were associated with their self-reported level of use of IPE in their programs. The author created a survey to collect data from radiography program directors accredited by JRCERT (N = 262). Analysis of the data revealed a positive association between program directors' attitudes, knowledge, and perceptions of IPE and their decision to use IPE in their radiography programs. Investigating the relationship between program directors' attitudes, iv knowledge, and perceptions of IPE and their level of use of IPE contributed to an understanding of how educational leaders' make decisions that impact their progra (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Judith May Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Kristina LaVenia Ph.D. (Committee Member); Margaret Brooks Ph.D. (Other); Dawn LaBarbera Ph.D. (Committee Member); Patrick Pauken Ph.D., J.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Education; Health Care; Medical Imaging; Radiology

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2023, Arts and Sciences: Sociology

Neoliberalism is a politico-economic framework that emphasizes deregulation, free trade, and minimal government intervention in the economy; further, it suggests that social issues are best addressed through market mechanisms. Responsibilization occurs when individuals internalize responsibility for addressing problems caused by large social structures, and is a salient instrument in the inculcation of neoliberal ideology. In this study, I examine ethical consumption within the context of cultural neoliberalism by interviewing 50 self-identified ethical consumers about how they experience responsibilization. I explore the spaces in which they deploy their efforts, the ways they attempt to shape the market through their economic agency, the ideologies that inform their approach, and the way they conceptualize their own identities as ethical consumers. By looking at this from the perspective of the shopper, I am able to capture nuanced emotional experiences. My findings reveal the dilemmas intrinsic in the undertaking of ethical consumption, including instances of role strain and role conflict they encounter, and the frustration and sense of futility they sometimes feel in the face of trying to single-handedly fix global capitalism.

Committee: Annulla Linders Ph.D. (Committee Chair); David Maume Ph.D. (Committee Member); Steven Carlton-Ford Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Sociology

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2023, Philosophy

This dissertation concerns some issues in machine ethics, the area of artificial intelligence (AI) research that is concerned with questions regarding the design of ethical machines or ethical AI. It consists of four chapters. Chapter 1 sets the stage for the rest of the dissertation by presenting a succinct overview of the field of machine ethics and summaries of each of the succeeding chapters. It also states how this dissertation relates to the current state of AI research and prevailing attitudes about the riskiness of AI. Chapter 2 argues that a certain kind of ethical AI, which I call end-constrained ethical AI, is preferable to merely safe AI and end-autonomous ethical AI. It raises concerns for both merely safe and end-autonomous ethical AI, and it contends that end-constrained ethical AI can evade such concerns. Chapter 3 provides a qualified defense of top-down design approaches in machine ethics. It offers some advantages and limitations of those approaches, and it discusses the proper domain of application for ethical AI trained via top-down approaches. Chapter 4 argues that the development of sophisticated ethical AI systems that are capable of theorizing about ethics would be risky. This is because such AI could opt to cause significant harm upon reaching certain metanormative conclusions.

Committee: Justin D'Arms (Advisor); Tristram McPherson (Committee Member); Eden Lin (Committee Member) Subjects: Artificial Intelligence; Ethics; Philosophy

Bachelor of Science of Journalism (BSJ), Ohio University, 2023, Journalism

Following the arrest of serial killer and rapist Anthony Sowell, reporters in Cleveland, Ohio investigated the number of untested rape kits in the city. Their efforts led to a nationwide initiative to test backlogged rape kits. In this case study analysis, I analyzed reporting that followed the rape kit testing initiative using framing theory, discourse analysis and sexual violence expert recommendations on reporting on sexual violence.

Committee: Bernhard Debatin (Advisor) Subjects: Journalism

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2022, English

This dissertation will present a novel corpus of eighteenth-century medical satires to perform a reparation on the secular epistemological terrain of the eighteenth-century Medical Enlightenment. It employs an allegorical method of interpretation informed by syncretic-feminist theology to a collection of eighteenth-century Enlightenment literature to demonstrate how the satirical mode was used to push back against the bodily technologies of the medical profession. This project helps us to identify the characteristic features of these topical satires, which voice a deep epistemological discomfort with the principles, methods, and practices of the emergent secular medical field. Medical satires feature narrators and targets that elide the figures of the physician and the satirist as humoral healers, scientific methodologies applied to absurd and bawdy topics, and a considerable amount of human and animal suffering resulting from poorly-applied medical treatments. This dissertation then reads Laurence Sterne's The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy as a virtuosic representative of the medical satire subgenre whose narrator thoroughly foils both his own and a reader's attempt to rationalize and unify his creation and circumstance. This project hopes to offer literary and medical scholars an allegorical perspective into medicine's literary origins and entanglements to support the gradual recovery and revitalization of pre-Medical Enlightenment medical wisdom.

Committee: Sandra Macpherson (Advisor); Jennifer Higginbotham (Committee Member); David Brewer (Committee Member) Subjects: Literature

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2022, Business Administration

The current study seeks to explore how follower unethical behaviors may be the cause of ethical leadership. Prior research has investigated employee unethical behaviors (e.g., employee deviance) as an antecedent of abusive supervision. Drawing on the social identity theory, the current research deviates from prior research and suggests that two types of social identities of team leaders (team identification and leader identity) would serve as boundary conditions that lead to ethical leadership as an alternative response to team member unethical behaviors. Across three studies (i.e., one scenario-based experiment, one time-lagged online study, and one multisource field study), I found that when leaders' team identification was high, the morally questionable behaviors of team members would lead to team leaders' felt vicarious shame, and the association between leader felt shame and leader moral person behaviors received mixed results. When leader identity was high, team leaders would feel the responsibility to make changes in the workplace, which was positively related to leader proactive moral manager behaviors. The current studies contribute to our understanding of the antecedents of the two dimensions of ethical leader behaviors and highlight ethical behaviors as more constructive responses to team unethical behaviors.

Committee: Jia Hu (Advisor); Timothy Judge (Committee Member); Bennett Tepper (Committee Member) Subjects: Organizational Behavior

Doctor of Management, Case Western Reserve University, 2022, Weatherhead School of Management

This research explores the factors which influence and enhance ethical decision-making. Themes of managerial education, a liberal arts training, religiosity, personal value-guided behavior, and mindfulness are explored. This integrative paper reports two mixed method studies following an exploratory sequential design. The first qualitative study consisted of 30 qualitative semi-structure interviews of executives both at the C-level as well as at the middle manager level about their experiences in the corporate setting of ethical dilemmas which they faced. The second quantitative study involved a survey of 316 respondents composing of college students, entrepreneurs, and executives. Both studies provided insights about ethical decision-making at the workplace specifically the positive effects of personal value-guided behavior and religiosity. The relationship between mindfulness and ethical decision-making could not be demonstrated. As business ethics involves its own set of morals and values (e.g., profit-maximization vs ethics-maximization) that are becoming central in a workplaces and corporations, ethical business leaders stand to benefit from exploring multiple ways of neutralizing ethical misconduct including relying on personal values and religiosity.

Committee: James Gaskin Ph.D. (Advisor); Corinne Coen Ph.D. (Advisor); Peter Whitehouse M.D, Ph.D. (Advisor) Subjects: Business Administration; Education; Ethics; Philosophy; Religion

Bachelor of Science of Media Arts and Studies (BSC), Ohio University, 2022, Media Arts and Studies

My project consists of two pieces, a television pilot and a research paper. The television pilot is a period piece about a tattooed woman entering the freak show. The story explores the American Dream and who can achieve it. It features people deemed freaks by society, performers pulling off extraordinary bodily feats every night for the entertainment of an audience, and the titans of industry that ran the circuses who were equivalent to Rockefeller and Vanderbilt. The accompanying research paper outlines what ethical representation is and a methodology for how to achieve it. The paper uses the pilot as a model of the principles in action. The methodology includes researching the time period the story takes place in (history is usually more diverse than the way it is portrayed in the movies), doing research into tropes leveled at minority groups that would be in the story, listening to diverse voices to inform your worldview, and listening to critique and feedback. There is a large demand for stories that represent diverse groups, but there is no methodology for going about achieving it in a respectful way that doesn't harm the group it is depicting. My research paper fills this hole in the literature.

Committee: Beth Novak (Advisor); Kim Little (Advisor); Eric Williams (Advisor) Subjects: Film Studies; Mass Media

Ph.D., Antioch University, 2021, Antioch New England: Marriage and Family Therapy

Utilizing an arts-based feminist autoethnographic stance and method, this dissertation is an evocative exploration of the process and experience of attempting to develop a cohesive identity and build a secure attachment to the self. The author uses countercultural methods—prioritizing and centralizing her experience and uncovering and acting in defiance of oppressive norms—to identify and experience their impact on her identity and intra- and inter- personal relationships. Various tensions are explored, including the suppression of self and desire, self-objectification, fearful-avoidant attachment, and shame; and their influence on engaging in emotional and sexual intimacy is examined. Critique on the role of female socialization—especially caretaking and objectification—and research on undermining women's power, identity, and self-advocacy are presented. The effects of culture, feminism, monogamy, and ethical non-monogamy on the experience of a middle-aged woman is highlighted. The use and experience of creativity, nature, shamanic practices, interpersonal experimentation, and autoethnography in accepting and moving through fear is also presented. Implications and tools to develop a more empowered and cohesive identity, attachment to the self, exploring intimacy, and conscious relationships; and guidance on overcoming self-objectification, dysfunctional relationship patterns, projection, and denial are included for therapists as well as individuals and their partners, family, and friends.

Committee: Denzel Jones PhD (Advisor); Kevin Lyness PhD (Committee Member); Dana Riger PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Aging; Counseling Psychology; Families and Family Life; Gender Studies; Individual and Family Studies; Personal Relationships; Psychotherapy; Social Psychology; Spirituality; Therapy; Womens Studies