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FROM THEIR PERSPECTIVE: DISCOVERING THE SOURCES OF IMPACT
ON OLDER WOMEN UNDERGRADUATES’ IDENTITY DEVELOPMENT
AND MAPPING THOSE EXPERIENCES
by
Michelle R. Stiles
A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE ROSSIER SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF EDUCATION
May 2007
Copyright 2007 Michelle R. Stiles
Object Description
| Title | From their perspective: discovering the sources of impact on older women undergraduates' identity development and mapping those experiences |
| Author | Stiles, Michelle R. |
| Author email | mstiles@usc.edu |
| Degree | Doctor of Education |
| Document type | Dissertation |
| Degree program | Education (Leadership) |
| School | Rossier School of Education |
| Date defended/completed | 2007-03-06 |
| Date submitted | 2007 |
| Restricted until | Unrestricted |
| Date published | 2007-03-27 |
| Advisor (committee chair) | Goodyear, Rodney K. |
| Advisor (committee member) |
Hocevar, Dennis J. Kezar, Adrianna |
| Abstract | This two-phase, mixed methods study examined (a) the sources of impact that women undergraduate students, 35 years old and older, perceived to have affected their personal identity development and (b) how they conceptually organized those experiences. Through a purposeful sampling strategy, 62 undergraduate women (whose ages ranged from 35 to 58) participated in the first phase of the study by completing the College Years Experience Questionnaire (CYEQ). Using a variant of Flanagan's (1954) Critical Incident Technique, the CYEQ asked participants to reflect on their experience as a college student and report experiences that had affected their sense of who they are. A team of three doctoral students identified 12 categories of impact in the incidents. These categories were used in the Phase Two paired comparison questionnaire, in which students were asked to rate the similarity of each possible pair of the 12 categories. Eighteen Phase One undergraduate women participated in Phase Two and rated the similarity of the categories.; Using multidimensional scaling, a two dimensional concept map was created from Phase Two data to illustrate how the women organized the experiences. The dimension weights were used to plot the coordinates of the 12 themes and the dimensions were named (Constructive versus Destructive Experiences; External Affirmation versus Personal Perseverance). Hierarchical cluster analysis was used to define a three cluster solution that illustrated how the themes were qualitatively different. The raters named the three clusters to describe the types of themes contained in each cluster.; The 12 themes that emerged during the analysis of Phase One data were associated with key factors that theory and prior research identified as influencing personal identity development and demonstrated the profound effect of college on the study participants' personal identity development. The clusters and dimensions illustrated the importance of relationships, especially student-faculty relationships, to the women. That the clusters and dimensions were consistent with prior theory and research provides validation for the results. Limitations of the study, suggestions for future research, and implications for higher education practitioners were also discussed. |
| Keyword | women undergraduates; identity development; concept mapping; multidimensional scaling |
| Language | English |
| Part of collection | University of Southern California dissertations and theses |
| Publisher (of the original version) | University of Southern California |
| Place of publication (of the original version) | Los Angeles, California |
| Publisher (of the digital version) | University of Southern California. Libraries |
| Type | texts |
| Legacy record ID | usctheses-m330 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Rights | Stiles, Michelle R. |
| Repository name | Libraries, University of Southern California |
| Repository address | Los Angeles, California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@dots.usc.edu |
| Filename | etd-Stiles-20070327 |
| Archival file | uscthesesreloadpub_Volume17/etd-Stiles-20070327.pdf |
Description
| Title | Page 1 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@dots.usc.edu |
| Full text | FROM THEIR PERSPECTIVE: DISCOVERING THE SOURCES OF IMPACT ON OLDER WOMEN UNDERGRADUATES’ IDENTITY DEVELOPMENT AND MAPPING THOSE EXPERIENCES by Michelle R. Stiles A Dissertation Presented to the FACULTY OF THE ROSSIER SCHOOL OF EDUCATION UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF EDUCATION May 2007 Copyright 2007 Michelle R. Stiles |
