SPECIAL OBJECTS: A STUDY OF THE MEANINGS OF THINGS (SYMBOLISM, JUNGIAN, ENVIRONMENTAL, STRUCTURALISM).
Item
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Title
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SPECIAL OBJECTS: A STUDY OF THE MEANINGS OF THINGS (SYMBOLISM, JUNGIAN, ENVIRONMENTAL, STRUCTURALISM).
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Identifier
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AAI8708311
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identifier
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8708311
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Creator
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OURY, MARTHA ANNE.
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Contributor
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Susan Saegert
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Date
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1987
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Psychology, General
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Abstract
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In this exploratory study, subjects described objects that have been especially important to them at some time in their lives from childhood to the present. Responses were content analyzed, means compared for women and men in each category, and dominant themes developed.;Objects were grouped into cultural artifacts (personal objects, home environment objects, and wider world objects) and objects of the natural environment (living creatures and natural objects and phenomena).;Reasons for importance were grouped into those experienced through thinking (associations with people, experiences, ideas, and history), sensing (objective descriptors and personal interactions), feeling (affective and evaluative), and intuiting (anticipations and imaginations). Themes of transition and transformation of meaning were identified. Some objects continue to be special, others gradually lost meaning, still others were described in terms of wrenching losses.;A relationship was found between the qualities of objects and the meanings that they carry: objects representing nurturing and those representing achievement were coded as soft or hard; these proportions were significantly different. Sequences of objects experienced as having similar meanings were grouped and discussed.;In the first study, women used 34 categories significantly more often; men used only 2 categories more often: guns and sports. Women were more interested in personal objects; men were more interested in things of the wider world.;In the second study, women used 14 categories significantly more often; men only one category more often: achievement. Women were also more interested in personal objects; men were more interested in things of the wider world.;A linguistic model was used to look at the broader patterns of meaning within which objects signify; three sets of structural relations wre discussed: relationships between signified and signifier that produce the structure of the symbolic object itself, the horizonal structures of relations that influence object selections over time, and the vertical structures of relations create the set out of which this particular object was chosen.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
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Program
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Psychology
