Doctoral Dissertations

Author

John H. Stuhl

Date of Award

8-1995

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Major

Education

Major Professor

Marla P. Peterson

Committee Members

Lee Humphreys, Mark Hector, Bill Poppen

Abstract

The concern over values has exploded into public arenas in recent years, affecting presidential elections, national and local decision making boards, counseling processes, and educational curriculum choices. This concern has brought with it the need for continued investigation, addressing not only the types of values and value sets which people hold, but the issue of what a person is aware of when she or he experiences her or his values. The focus of this research was on the experience of values as people live them.

Volunteers from one college on the campus of a state university and one congregation of a mainline denomination were solicited and asked to describe those occasions or occurrences when they experienced values. Traditional phenomenological methodology was applied in analyzing interviews and identifying the thematic structures that emerged. All interviews were recorded via cassette tape, tapes were then transcribed into protocols which were analyzed by a phenomenological research team and phenomenological researchers. Existential meaning units were extracted from the protocols, and these units were arrayed into common clusters. From these clusters, themes were identified, and a structure evolved.

Four themes emerged from the transcribed narratives,and all four themes were present in every protocol. Each theme has an antipodal dyad, and these dyadic themes are: change being in place, loss of connection connection, confusion clarity, and conflict peace. These themes emerged from the ground of life story, the particularized experience of signal events by which the co-participant made meaning of her or his life.

Results are discussed in terms of psychosocial issues that deal with values as concern, and the relationship of these issues to people and their values. Psychological and existential theories are addressed, comparing and contrasting the frames of reference these perspectives provide with that of the current findings. Finally, implications for therapists, multicultural issues and educational concerns are considered.

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