Doctoral Dissertations

Gayle Denham

Date of Award

8-1996

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Major

Nursing

Major Professor

Inez Puck

Committee Members

Joy DeSensi, Patricia Droppleman, Kathy Lawler, Mary Ann Modrcin-McCarthy

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to describe adult women's moral perspective in anger expression as it is experienced in typical day-to-day activities by the general population. Through phenomenological interviews 24 women reflected on an experience when they were angry and had to think about the right way to express their anger. A hermeneutical approach was used for data analysis. Significant statements were extracted and thematized within the dialogic process of the interpretive community (qualitative research group at the University of Tennessee Knoxville, College of Nursing). Then themes were clustered into the following essences of the experience: the realities of the self as moral, the morality of anger expression and the morality of outcomes.

Participant narratives represented a storytelling approach that was grounded within the context of time and space. Antecedents of the experience of moral perspective in anger expression were identified as expectations, power, anger and other emotions. Women placed importance on relaying the antecedents to their considerations of the right way to express their anger. The essence of the experience derived from the rich, vivid descriptions of the phenomenon describes the process of moral perspectives in anger expression in women. Ontology of a woman's moral perspective was grounded in her self-schema. Integration of past, present and future images of the moral self and lived experiences fashioned the moral perspectives experienced in anger expression situations in women. Findings were discussed in relation to implications and relevance for nursing. Suggestions were made for future research.

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