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

Guided by the mediated wisdom of experience and Fisch's capacity model, two studies explore the developmental trajectory of children's mixed emotional responses to eudaimonic entertainment and subsequent outcomes. Study one (n = 449) employed a retrospective survey to collect information about parents' and children's prior experiences watching eudaimonic media. Portrayals of death or injury and human connection were the most common eudaimonic content viewed. Parents reported that children asked questions related to plot clarification and emotional responses. Study two (n = 230) recruited parent and child (ages 8 – 12) dyads for an online experiment. Dyads were randomly assigned to view a movie clip (eudaimonic content: high vs. low) and discussion (conversation prompts: high quality vs. low quality). Children in the high eudaimonic video condition (57.1%) were more likely to experience mixed emotions than children in the low eudaimonic condition (28%). No effects were found on emotional range or delayed gratification. Although age did not interact with the eudaimonic clip on emotional responses or narrative comprehension or emotional responses, girls (68%) reported greater mixed emotions than boys (47%). Theoretical implications are discussed.

Committee: James Bonus (Committee Chair); Michael Slater (Committee Member); Emily Moyer-Guse (Advisor) Subjects: Communication; Developmental Psychology; Mass Media

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2019, Communication

Past research has indicated that meaningful entertainment content is processed more elaboratively in comparison to the hedonic processing typically associated with entertaining narrative content, content which is typically considered from a processing perspective in terms of absorption into that narrative. This study explores the coincidence of meaningfulness and narrative, in the context of a socio-political narrative. It successfully demonstrates an indirect manipulation of eudaimonia (meaningful affect) by administering a meaningful or non-meaningful video clip prior to reading the narrative. Individuals who expressed more meaningful affect towards the narrative correctly answered more questions about that narrative than those who did not experience meaningful affect. The impact of transportation was considered, with evidence that it both mediates and moderates the impact of meaningfulness on comprehension. The narrative did not promote greater political efficacy or intentions to participate, as predicted; meaningfulness did predict increased government efficacy, but also predicted a decrease in external political efficacy. Implications for narrative communication research are considered.

Committee: Emily Moyer-Gusé (Advisor); Michael Slater (Committee Member); Gerald Kosicki (Committee Member) Subjects: Communication

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2018, English (Arts and Sciences)

This research project seeks to establish the degree to which morality and ethics are implicated in writing pedagogy. While writing, rhetoric, and ethics have long been interlinked in the traditions of rhetorical pedagogy, perhaps most famously in Socrates' admonishment of the Sophists, postmodern skepticism has, in part, diminished the centrality of morality and ethics to college writing instruction. I arrive at this project prickled by my own assumptions that writing might well be taught aside from moral and ethical considerations. To this end, I curate a collection of representative work applying the concepts of ethics to composition pedagogy research and scholarship from 1990 to the present. This work is necessary because the theory and practice of ethics in composition studies is diverse and diffuse. While a few scholars have made ethics a primary concern (for example, Marilyn Cooper; Peter Mortensen; James Porter) and others who have sought to map the disciplinary engagement (for example, Paul Dombrowski; Laura Micciche), treatments of ethics in composition scholarship remain fragmented and idiomatic. This research project draws together the streams of thought informing composition's diverse engagement with ethics to provide a representative sampling of approaches and ethical treatments pertaining to writing pedagogy. My approach is to seek to understand what prompts scholars to engage ethics: What problems and questions drive writing scholars toward ethics? And what do these scholars hope to accomplish by doing ethics? Employing a descriptive method grounded in feminist interpretations of pluralist ethics, this research project collects ethical interventions into writing scholarship interested in writing tradition, theory, research methods, and social advocacy. This research projects concludes by considering how writing ethics has transformed my writing praxis.

Committee: Sherrie Gradin (Committee Chair) Subjects: Composition; Rhetoric

Bachelor of Arts (BA), Ohio University, 2011, Philosophy

In this paper, I explore the role of pleasure in the ethical system of Stoicism, a school of philosophy from the Hellenistic period. It is my aim to argue that despite the Stoic's austere ideals, there is a valid role for physical and emotional pleasures in the pursuit of virtue.

Committee: D. Scott Carson PhD (Advisor); James Petrik PhD (Committee Member); Steve Hays PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Classical Studies; Philosophy

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2009, Philosophy, Applied/Institutional Theory and History

This dissertation presents a perfectionist argument for viewpoint neutral free speech. It is argued that developed states ought to maintain or adopt the Viewpoint Neutral Principle: As a matter of public morality, any public institution is disqualified from intentionally aiming to hinder the expression of any viewpoint by suppression except for purposes of temporary censorship to prevent clear, present, and imminent danger. This principle allows for regulation but does not allow for censorship due to objectionable viewpoints. After demonstrating how the standard justifications for free speech are not sufficient for the viewpoint neutral principle, I construct a Millian self-development argument drawing from the oft neglected justification of freedom of speech in On Liberty. Mill argues that a person is not deserving of confidence in his opinion unless he has engaged in certain practices of justification for his own opinions. These practices are the only way to acquire the intellectual virtue of justified belief-forming, and censorship undermines these practices. Furthermore, the intellectual virtue of justified belief forming informs moral virtues which include dispositions to express praise or blame. Censorship can undermine and, in some cases, make impossible the practices of justification. If the state engages in viewpoint specific censorship of public speech, it undermines the individual pursuit of justified opinion to the extent that it hinders critical reflections, adjustment, and exposition of opinions. After explicating the argument itself, I apply the justified opinion argument to one contemporary example. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights under the auspices of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations has passed articles 7/19 and 7/20. These resolutions violate the viewpoint neutral principle. It is argued that developed nations should reject these resolutions in order to preserve (among other things) inte (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Daniel Jacobson PhD (Advisor); Fred Miller PhD (Committee Co-Chair); Steven Wall PhD (Committee Member); Ellen Paul PhD (Committee Member); David Jackson PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Philosophy

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2005, Philosophy, Applied

The concept of well-being is relevant to a multitude of issues in the domains of ethics, law, medicine, mental health, and everyday decisionmaking. And yet while there seem to be some shared pre-theoretical intuitions about the nature of well-being, there is no widely accepted comprehensive account within the philosophical community. This essay takes up one strand of the discussion concerning well-being, namely what is the relationship between an individual's subjective stances, such as desiring, enjoying, or preferring, and his well-being. Subjectivism posits a dependency of well-being on the subjective stances of the individual, while objectivism denies this dependency. This essay takes Aristotle's eudaimonism as its point of departure. Aristotle's view is typically regarded as a paradigmatically objective account of well-being. Nonetheless, subjective stances do evidently play some role in well-being even according to Aristotle. This fact serves as impetus to consider accounts offered by current subjectivists as well as objections that are raised against them in the course of the debate. It is concluded that no existing objective account seems able to survive the counterexamples now standardly launched against them. Furthermore, subjectivism faces an additional problem that none of the considerations that are thought to motivate it in the first instance uniquely point to some version of subjectivism as the best available account. Thus, it is argued that subjectivism as a category of account is ill-founded. The account of well-being that satisfies the intuitions of both objective and subjective accounts while avoiding the major drawbacks of each is a hybrid view with elements of both the subjective and the objective. This view defines well-being as the development of our natural strengths as individuals and human beings plus endorsement in the form of autonomous choice to develop these strengths.

Committee: Fred Miller (Advisor) Subjects: Philosophy

Ph.D., Antioch University, 2012, Leadership and Change

This dissertation will explore leadership as a mytho-poetic transformational journey toward self-knowledge, authenticity, and ultimately wisdom; the power to make meaning and give something back to the world in which we live; and the necessity of transformation. I view leadership as a transformative process and a transformational responsibility. As leaders we must undergo our own transformation in order to lead change on a larger scale. The dissertation will be both philosophical and theoretical, exploring how the threads of the hero's journey, transformation, wisdom, and leadership intertwine. It will also examine the role of education in this process. Education does not necessarily mean institutional learning as it is so often taken to mean. A broader understanding of what education is and how it needs to serve us individually and as a society, particularly with the intention of developing wisdom and leadership (or wisdom in leadership) will be explored. The hero's journey, the mytho-poetic journey toward authenticity and self-knowledge, is the golden thread that weaves itself throughout this dissertation. It is both the idea of developing leadership and wisdom as a journey (as opposed to a destination) and the idea that meaning and authenticity is ultimately what drives wisdom and leadership. These concepts manifest themselves in different ways throughout the chapters. In many ways this is a very unorthodox and unusual way to approach leadership. It asks for full engagement, participation, excellence, and mastery—a lifelong dedication. None of these concepts are new, but most of them are often unheeded or not practiced. It also focuses on the common good, an element that research in both wisdom and higher stages of consciousness share. The intent is to explore the transformational process inherent in becoming a leader and consequently leading transformation that ultimately makes the world a better place on a number of different levels—leading deeply. Leading de (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Carolyn Kenny PhD (Committee Chair); Laura Morgan Roberts PhD (Committee Member); Jonathan Reams PhD (Committee Member); Donna Ladkin PhD (Other) Subjects: Adult Education; Business Education; Developmental Psychology; Education Philosophy; Organization Theory; Philosophy; Spirituality