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Processes of Organizational Purpose Change:
No full textThesis advisor: Michael G. PrattThis dissertation draws on interviews, observation and archival materials, to explore how a Jewish Services Organization changed its purpose due to external and internal pressures. Past research shows that organizations can change their purpose, but how they do so has not been explicated, and further knowledge of which would help organizations adapt to their changing realities more efficiently. This dissertation explores the underlying mechanisms of organizational purpose change in organizations that have historically operated with a clear and intentional raison d'être, which is widely embraced by organizational members. The purpose change process is shown to be (a) co-creative such that multiple stakeholders, both internal and external, are involved in this process; (b) conflict-laden such that the change process can lead to latent identity splits within organizations to resurface; (c) dynamic such that it leads to continuous changes around the meaning and interpretation regarding purpose in the organization; and (d) most successful when focused on renewal such that it allows organizations to maintain continuity with their past and their identity while embracing new directions. By explaining this process, this dissertation contributes to our understanding of purpose change in organizations and elaborates on theoretical interlinkages of organizational purpose with organizational identity content and organizational identity complexity, an understanding of which can lead to successful (or unsuccessful) efforts to change the purpose of an organization.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2023.Submitted to: Boston College. Carroll School of Management.Discipline: Management and Organization
Don't Say Quiet
No full textThesis advisor: Allison AdairThis collection of poems and nonfiction essays is intended to explore the experiences of both patients and providers in the field of emergency medical services. Written by a first responder, the pieces study the grief, intimacy, discomfort, and humanity witnessed in a few years' work. Topics to be examined include the writer’s own experience as a patient, vulnerability in medicine, the separation of provider and person, end-of-life experiences, and the human desire to connect deeply with one another.Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2023.Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Departmental Honors.Discipline: English
At Home in the Cosmos: A Thomistic Personalist Account of the Family
No full textThesis advisor: Peter KreeftThis dissertation is a Thomistic personalist account of the human family. It seeks to shed light on the nature of the family by way of a metaphysical and phenomenological analysis. Or better, I hope to contribute to a conscious awareness of the presence of the family. Such a project is necessary because personalists have said much about the individual person but less about the person-in-the-family. Moreover, Thomistic personalism will benefit from a synthesis of late 20th and early 21st century insights regarding philosophical anthropology; such a synthesis I offer here. I pose the philosophical question thus: what is the nature of the family? And the central claim of the dissertation: the family is beautiful. Now, there is a distinction between ontological and aesthetic beauty. Ontological beauty belongs to beings as such. It is the kind of beauty that is contained in the classical meaning of the term cosmos—"the beauty resulting from order.” For its part, aesthetic beauty deals with the artifacts of man. It is a derivative kind of beauty. So, my dissertation will be an examination of the family as ontologically beautiful, or said differently, the family as a microcosm.
Such a claim contends with two prominent, contemporary philosophies of the family. First, feminist philosophy following Foucault imagines the family as an artificial structure of sexual oppression. For these, the family is not a microcosm, but is instead a prison—artificial and controlling. Second, reforming philosophers such as Henry Rosemont Jr., reject any metaphysical account of the family and argue that the value of the family is strictly utilitarian in nature—it is a community of merely cooperating human beings towards the end of the greatest, communal happiness.
To respond to these objections, I draw on the 20th century Catholic personalists to articulate a portrait of the family as beautiful according to the three Thomistic attributes of the beautiful: integritas, consonantia, and claritas.
The dissertation unfolds in this way. After examining the objections, in Thomistic fashion I provide a sed contra by considering three world wisdom authorities on the question. I show that the Islamic Quran, the Bhagavad Gita and the philosophy of Confucius all take the family to be of cosmic import and beautiful. I next lay Thomistic personalist foundations for a study of the family. This includes the anthropology of Karol Wojtyla and the metaphysics of W. Norris Clarke. Wojtyla describes the human person as a rational being, free and related to the eternal. Clarke explains that the person is a substance-in-relation and proposes system as a category of being to account for the unity of relating substances. With these key notions in hand, I turn to St. Thomas’s cosmology to articulate the attributes of the cosmos that will in turn describe any microcosm; specifically: esse, diversity, metaphysical inequality, and teleology.
Following the articulation of foundational notions in Thomistic personalism, I begin the examination of the family according to the attributes of beauty. Under integritas, I consider the person-in-the-family beginning with Clarke’s metaphysical account of the person as ontologically relational. Next, I turn to Dietrich Von Hildebrand to provide an account of the role of the heart in human persons, given the heart’s crucial role in the experience of relationships in the family. Finally, I consider three Thomistic positions on the gender of persons: each attributing gender to either matter, form, or esse respectively. In the final move, I argue that a home is crucial to the integrity of the family too.
Consonantia has to do with harmony and therefore I attempt a phenomenology of the familial relationships, arguing that each person of the family has a vocation to contribute to family unity. Drawing on Marcel’s study of fatherhood, I propose an existential order in the family wherein the father is found at some existential distance from the family. This distance is a condition that calls a father to provide a unity of direction for the family—to lead. To explain this leadership, I consider the Aristotelian distinction between a king and a tyrant to say that the father’s vocation is kingly: to order the family to virtue through giving himself. For her part, the mother is at the existential center of the family. She actualizes the unity of the family with her ineinanderblick (loving gaze). To understand this, I turn to Dietrich Von Hildebrand’s phenomenology of love as a value response. Finally, I consider the relationship of children as those who receive love in the family and so complete the perfection of being as both acting and receiving according to Clarke’s notion of receiving as an ontological perfection. Moreover, I consider Marcel’s insight that children are both incarnations of the parent’s love and also a judgement.
In my final move, I take up the claritas of the family. I account for the intelligible unity of the family as a metaphysical system characterized by the central qualities of freedom and virtue. Regarding freedom, I examine Marcel’s notion of founding a family as a free act. With respect to virtue, I consider the traditional notion of the family as a school of virtue, not only for the children but for the parents. Finally, I propose that the family has a sacred character because, of all the unities or systems in the cosmos, the family most clearly reflects the splendor of God.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2023.Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Philosophy
Degradable Vinyl Copolymers via Photocontrolled Radical Ring-Opening Cascade Copolymerization:
Get PDFThesis advisor: Jia NiuThis dissertation discusses two main projects focusing on synthesizing degradable vinyl copolymers. The first project describes the development of a general approach to synthesizing degradable vinyl random copolymers through photocontrolled radical ring-opening cascade copolymerization (rROCCP). The rROCCP of a macrocyclic allylic sulfone with acrylates or acrylamides mediated by visible light at ambient temperature achieved near-unity comonomer reactivity ratios over the entire range of feed compositions. Such a powerful approach provides degradable vinyl random copolymers with comparable material properties to their non-degradable counterparts. Experimental and computational evidence also revealed an unusual reversible inhibition of chain propagation by in situ generated sulfur dioxide (SO2), which was successfully overcome by reducing the solubility of SO2 during polymerization. The second project depicts a general method for organocatalyzed photocontrolled radical copolymerization of a macrocyclic allylic sulfone and various types of vinyl monomers, including acrylates, acrylamides, styrene, and methacrylate. Catalyzed by Eosin Y under visible light irradiation, copolymerization of the macrocyclic allylic sulfone and acrylic monomers displayed near unity comonomer reactivity ratios by fitting the copolymer composition to the Beckingham-Sanoya-Lynd integrated model. The macrocyclic allylic sulfone was also successfully copolymerized with styrene or methyl methacrylate to generate degradable polystyrene and poly(methyl methacrylate). These degradable vinyl copolymers exhibited tunable thermal properties correlated with the incorporation of degradable main-chain diester motif.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2023.Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Chemistry
Recent Anthropogenic Impacts on the Geochemical Composition of Northern New England Lake Sediments:
No full textThesis advisor: Noah P. SnyderNitrogen is an important component in the biogeochemical processes of freshwater systems. Likewise, it is unknown if, and to what magnitude, changes in land use in the watersheds of New England lakes have affected nitrogen availability. This study examines the effects of land-use change on the present and historic isotopic signatures of nitrogen in three New England lakes of varied histories, Lower South Branch Pond, Little Kennebago Lake, and Sennebec Pond. The histories of all three sites indicate minimal discernible disturbance before the onset of Euro-American-induced land use change. For two sites, the dominant mechanism of change was timber harvest, which began in the latter half of the 19th century. Sediment cores for each site were examined and variations in geochemical and sedimentological indicators were evaluated in the context of changes within respective basins. Statistical analysis indicates significant shifts in the means and variance of the geochemistry within the Little Kennebago Lake and Sennebec Pond watersheds after the incursion of Euro-American settlers, while the Lower South Branch Pond watershed displays similarities to a more widespread signal of anthropogenic nitrogen that has been deposited remotely. The record of magnetic susceptibility in Little Kennebago Lake displays the largest variation compared to the other two lakes, which may indicate that the magnitude of land-use change within the basin was more impactful relative to Lower South Branch Pond and Sennebec Pond. This is significant in that all three sites experienced some level of land-clearance.Thesis (MS) — Boston College, 2023.Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Earth and Environmental Sciences
Jean-Luc Marion's Phenomenological Approach to the Trinity and Its Inspiration for Christian Theology
Get PDFThesis advisor: Andrew L. PrevotThesis advisor: André BrouilletteThe philosopher Jean-Luc Marion presents a phenomenological approach to the Trinity. He criticizes traditional trinitarian theology based on metaphysics in that it fails to resolve the intrinsic contradiction between the unicity of the one God and the plurality of the persons of the Trinity. He proposes, rather, 'trinitarian revelation'; in this, Jesus Christ, the par excellence revelation, unveils the Father, while the Holy Spirit guides the beholder to see the icon of the Son from the proper perspective. This anamorphosis model overcomes the limitations of the metaphysical theology of the Trinity; it stresses that the beholder sees the sole visibility of the Son and appreciates the communion of plurality in charity within the mutual relationships of the persons of the Trinity. One of the outstanding points of Marion's phenomenological approach to trinitarian revelation, moreover, is that the viewer is involved in triune God's unveiling. Believers can experience 'trinitarian revelation' through praying personally and participating in the sacraments of the Church. In this conversation of the perspective, they receive the gifts of sacrifice, forgiveness, and communion as the manifestation of the communion of charity among the persons of the Trinity. Paradoxically, as with the communion within the Trinity, these gifts are not directed inwardly to the individual believer, but they are gifts to be given out to others. This is how God reveals himself in Marion's trinitarian mode and how we participate in that revelation of triune God.Thesis (STL) — Boston College, 2023.Submitted to: Boston College. School of Theology and Ministry.Discipline: Sacred Theology
Towards a Just and Corrupt-Free Nigerian Society: Proposing Virtues and Their Exemplars
Get PDFThesis advisor: Daniel DalyThesis advisor: James F. KeenanI propose in this long essay that men and women of virtue, clergy and lay alike, who dot the Nigerian landscape, bedeviled by vices and lack of social trust, can, by their virtuous formation and lives, bring enduring change.Thesis (STL) — Boston College, 2023.Submitted to: Boston College. School of Theology and Ministry.Discipline: Sacred Theology
St. Teresa of Jesus's Self-understanding through the Humanity of Christ
Get PDFThesis advisor: André BrouilletteThesis advisor: Colleen GriffithThesis (STL) — Boston College, 2023.Submitted to: Boston College. School of Theology and Ministry.Discipline: Sacred Theology
Evidence for “Tailoring” in the Matching of Integrated Services to Students’ Developmental Needs in City Connects Schools Using Pattern Analysis and Latent Class Analysis:
Get PDFThesis advisor: Mary E. WalshWith an increase in emphasis on individual uniqueness and multi-contextual influences, developmental and intervention/prevention science along with similar fields of research (e.g., personalized medicine, personalized learning, health communication, business marketing) have promoted the design and implementation of interventions that would tailor responses and strategies to optimize targeted outcomes based on individual needs and variability (Joyner & Paneth, 2019; Kreuter et al., 1999; Vesanen, 2007). However, in spite of the effort and resources invested in personalization in the past decades, evidence for the realization and utility of tailored interventions have been more anecdotal than quantitatively empirical. The majority of person-centered studies have been qualitative (Lerner et al., 2019). While there is little agreement on what “tailoring” means across the different fields of study, there is a consensus that the term “tailoring” and tailoring-related terms (e.g., personalization, individualization, differentiation, and customization) lack a common and feasible theoretical foundation. Consequently, this semantic crisis has made the construct increasingly difficult to conceptualize and operationalize (e.g. Economist Group, 2021; Shemshack & Spector, 2020). Drawing on insights from the Specificity Principle, Orthogenetic Principle, and Developmental Contextualism in developmental science, this dissertation proposed a provisional definition of “tailoring”: the process of matching unique patterns of services based on each student’s cumulative strengths and needs and the availability of services (e.g., Bornstein, 2015; Lerner et al., 1998; Walsh et al., 2002; Werner & Kaplan, 1956). Guided by this definition, this dissertation sought to find evidence of “tailoring” in one “whole-child,” school-based/evidence-based Integrated Student Support (ISS): City Connects. City Connects partners with school personnel and multiple community agencies to systematically and cost-effectively allocate services/resources to students and their families from low-income communities in order to promote strengths, address needs, and mitigate risks (Moore & Emig, 2014; Dearing et al. 2016; Walsh & Theodorakakis, 2017). After establishing a theoretically-informed basis for “tailoring” as an operationalizable construct, this dissertation employed a comprehensive, three-dimensional approach to data analysis: nomothetic (for finding general/ “universal” trends), differential (for finding differences between groups), and idiographic (for finding differences between individuals) (e.g., Lerner et al., 2019; Overton, 2015; Salvatore & Valsiner, 2010). This was to magnify the descriptive power of the data and findings. In order to accomplish this, the two exploratory substudies in this dissertation employed 1) descriptive analysis, 2) a novel approach for comparing the service patterns matched to each student’s unique sets of strengths and needs, and 3) Latent Class Analysis (LCA). The major findings suggest that “tailoring” in City Connects schools is occurring in five ways: 1) students with higher needs receive more support than students with fewer needs; 2) City Connects is adaptive in responding to the emerging needs of individuals as circumstances change in the course of time; 3) there are unique patterns of services that are either shared (two more students have the same combination of services/types of services) or unshared (only one student has a particular service pattern); 4) service patterns are related to students’ developmental needs (i.e., higher risk level->higher percentages of individualized service patterns); and 5) service pattern matching is purposeful and does not occur randomly. The implications that these findings have on theory, research, and practice are discussed.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2023.Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education.Discipline: Counseling, Developmental and Educational Psychology
Early Associations Between Adversity and Child Behavioral Outcomes: An Examination of the Functional Form and the Role of Neighborhood Context
Get PDFThesis advisor: Rebekah Levine ColeyResearch on adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) has demonstrated the high prevalence rates of such experiences, with about 60% of individuals in national U.S. samples reporting one or more types of ACEs as children (Chapman et al., 2013; Finkelhor et al., 2015). Further, research has established robust links between ACEs and a range of negative behavioral and health outcomes in adulthood (Felitti et al., 1998; Hughes et al., 2017; Kalmakis & Chandler, 2015; Wang et al., 2020; Wang & Maguire-Jack, 2018; Wolff et al., 2018). Less is known about when potential negative consequences of ACEs exposure emerge. The few studies that have examined the relationship between ACEs and early outcomes have employed inconsistent modeling strategies which has left the functional form of the relationship unclear, which could lead to either under-or over-estimating the risk associated with various levels of ACEs exposure (Crouch et al., 2019; Hughes et al., 2017; Lanier et al., 2018; Wang et al., 2019). Further, these studies have not comprehensively examined the potential moderating role of socio-ecological factors like neighborhood context. Theoretical frameworks suggest neighborhood resources might buffer children from negative consequences associated with ACEs while exposure to neighborhood-level adversities might exacerbate negative consequences. In order to address these gaps, the currently study examined the functional form of the relationship between ACEs experienced in the first four years of life and kindergarten behavioral outcomes and tested the moderating role of neighborhood resources and neighborhood adversities in a large, nationally representative sample of young children drawn from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study - Birth Cohort (ECLS-B; N ≈ 10,700) linked with neighborhood administrative data. Using inverse probability weighting to strengthen internal validity, numerous modeling strategies supported a linear relationship between early childhood ACEs and kindergarten behavioral outcomes. Greater ACEs exposure was associated with significantly lower prosocial skills and significantly higher externalizing behavior problems, with small effect sizes of 0.075 to 0.143 standard deviation shifts in behaviors for each additional ACEs exposure. Interaction models found that ACEs were significantly associated with behavioral consequences regardless of neighborhood context. Overall, the robust modeling strategies employed provide the strongest evidence to date of the significant, linear relationship between ACEs and early behavioral consequences.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2023.Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education.Discipline: Counseling, Developmental and Educational Psychology