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141
and a group of us girls on the committee starting looking up USC Spring-admitted
freshmen on Facebook. I was completely shocked at some of the comments some of
the older girls made about the girls whose profiles we looked at. In particular, we
looked at a set of twins (fraternal) who were new to our university. Two girls (who
are no longer members of our sorority) wouldn’t shut up about how one of them was
soooo much prettier than the other and how they didn’t want the “ugly” one (read:
not ugly at all) to join the house. Then, when we didn’t get the pretty one but the
“ugly” one, I watched them be totally sweet and fake to her, the way I was treated
when I joined the house that Fall. It made me wonder whether the girls who had
rushed me really liked me at all, or if I was just a number to them.
3. A couple dinners into my time joining the sorority, not too long after we had been
initiated and i had been assigned a big sister I went to dinner and I sat down next to
her realized no one was talking to me and everyone seemed to be engrossed in their
own gossipy conversations. I felt like i was back in middle school and I wanted to
quit the sorority right there for making me question myself and my social skills. My
big sister in the sorority, the person who was supposed to steward me through things,
was ignoring me and pretending i wasnt there. I didn’t know her very well but the
idea that she had no desire to learn anything about me really hurt.
4. I think it would have to be one night when I was at a party and I mentioned
something about my sorority to one of my guy friends that I had known for over a
year. He told me he had no idea that I was even in a sorority. Ironically enough I had
lived in the house the year before when he met me and I was even an officer within
the house and was very involved and active member. This still stands out to me
today because I discovered that I had never molded or changed my attitudes to
become a typical “sorority” girl. It made me realize that I am my own person and no
activity I do or partake in shapes who I am or defines what I am.
5. Within my first few weeks at school, a group of boys out one night asked me and
my friends which house we belonged to. When we responded “Pi Phi” they all high-fived
us and told us that we were to be congratulated for making it into the “hot”
sorority. While immediately gratifying, after thinking back on the incident I realized
that I did not want to solely think of myself as a member of the “hot” sorority, and
that there was so much more to me and each of the girls within my house. This
experience opened my eyes to the stereotypes that occur within the Greek
community and made me in the long run value myself as a person with more to offer
than my appearance.
6. The first time I discovered a rumor that had been going around about me in one
fraternity for several months without me knowing about it. The other person
involved was just an acquaintance in that fraternity. It was important because it was
the first time something negative had been said about me for no reason and widely
Object Description
| Title | Student perspectives on identity development: describing the experiences sorority members perceive influenced their identity |
| Author | Sarkissian, Vergene |
| Author email | vergenes@usc.edu; sarkv@hotmail.com |
| Degree | Doctor of Education |
| Document type | Dissertation |
| Degree program | Education |
| School | Rossier School of Education |
| Date defended/completed | 2008-05-13 |
| Date submitted | 2008 |
| Restricted until | Restricted until 2 Oct. 2009. |
| Date published | 2009-10-02 |
| Advisor (committee chair) | Goodyear, Rodney K. |
| Advisor (committee member) |
Malloy, Courtney Espalin, Charles A. |
| Abstract | This qualitative study examined the college related sources of impact that sorority member students perceived affected their identity development. A variant of Flanagan's (1954) Critical Incident Technique was used to ask sorority members (n=70) to describe one or two critical incidents that they believed had affected their sense of self, and then to rate the immediate positivity of the incident, as well its eventual effect on their sense of self. Three doctoral students reviewed the 100 obtained incident reports, from which they developed 14 themes: Participating in rush an/or joining a sorority; Being elected or serving in a sorority leadership position; Dealing with crisis; Receiving the support of sisters with in the sorority network; Being elected or serving in a leadership position in a campus related organization; Learning about myself as a result of a romantic relationship; Making an important, independent decision for myself; Making a commitment to community service and outreach; Sorority affiliated judgment or rejection; Having an experience of failure; Making the transition from home to college; Studying abroad; Receiving personal or career guidance from others; Engaging in a selfless act of compassion. The findings of this study provide valuable insight and knowledge to the potential benefits of sorority affiliation in regards to college women's identity development. The findings also support previous research on women's identity development and suggest gender specific developmental pathways. In congruence with student development research and theory, experiences related to student involvement, relationship, autonomy and crisis were prevalent in the participant responses. The limitations of the study, recommendations for future research and implications for higher education practice are also presented. |
| Keyword | identity development; women's identity development; sorority membership; sorority network; student inolvement; leadership; relationships; mentorship; social capital; crisis; autonomy; study abroad |
| 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 |
| Provenance | Digitized by the University of Southern California |
| Type | texts |
| Legacy record ID | usctheses-m1619 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Rights | Sarkissian, Vergene |
| Repository name | Libraries, University of Southern California |
| Repository address | Los Angeles, California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
| Filename | etd-Sarkissian-2435 |
| Archival file | uscthesesreloadpub_Volume14/etd-Sarkissian-2435.pdf |
Description
| Title | Page 149 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
| Full text | 141 and a group of us girls on the committee starting looking up USC Spring-admitted freshmen on Facebook. I was completely shocked at some of the comments some of the older girls made about the girls whose profiles we looked at. In particular, we looked at a set of twins (fraternal) who were new to our university. Two girls (who are no longer members of our sorority) wouldn’t shut up about how one of them was soooo much prettier than the other and how they didn’t want the “ugly” one (read: not ugly at all) to join the house. Then, when we didn’t get the pretty one but the “ugly” one, I watched them be totally sweet and fake to her, the way I was treated when I joined the house that Fall. It made me wonder whether the girls who had rushed me really liked me at all, or if I was just a number to them. 3. A couple dinners into my time joining the sorority, not too long after we had been initiated and i had been assigned a big sister I went to dinner and I sat down next to her realized no one was talking to me and everyone seemed to be engrossed in their own gossipy conversations. I felt like i was back in middle school and I wanted to quit the sorority right there for making me question myself and my social skills. My big sister in the sorority, the person who was supposed to steward me through things, was ignoring me and pretending i wasnt there. I didn’t know her very well but the idea that she had no desire to learn anything about me really hurt. 4. I think it would have to be one night when I was at a party and I mentioned something about my sorority to one of my guy friends that I had known for over a year. He told me he had no idea that I was even in a sorority. Ironically enough I had lived in the house the year before when he met me and I was even an officer within the house and was very involved and active member. This still stands out to me today because I discovered that I had never molded or changed my attitudes to become a typical “sorority” girl. It made me realize that I am my own person and no activity I do or partake in shapes who I am or defines what I am. 5. Within my first few weeks at school, a group of boys out one night asked me and my friends which house we belonged to. When we responded “Pi Phi” they all high-fived us and told us that we were to be congratulated for making it into the “hot” sorority. While immediately gratifying, after thinking back on the incident I realized that I did not want to solely think of myself as a member of the “hot” sorority, and that there was so much more to me and each of the girls within my house. This experience opened my eyes to the stereotypes that occur within the Greek community and made me in the long run value myself as a person with more to offer than my appearance. 6. The first time I discovered a rumor that had been going around about me in one fraternity for several months without me knowing about it. The other person involved was just an acquaintance in that fraternity. It was important because it was the first time something negative had been said about me for no reason and widely |
