Graduate Program
Communication Studies
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Semester of Degree Completion
2005
Thesis Director
Melanie Mills
Thesis Committee Member
Unknown
Thesis Committee Member
Unknown
Abstract
Research has indicated that rape victims perceive their environment differently, or with a "new reality" after their rape, and their recovery process can be lengthy and traumatic. This auto-ethnography focuses on the recovery process that the author journals, and her transformation from victim to survivor. How are the labels of "victim" and "survivor" important to the rape recovery process? How is the decision to disclose the rape a trust issue? What drives the phases of disclosure development at different communication levels (intrapersonal, interpersonal, group, and public communication)? Once a person has accepted that they were raped and a healing process is well under way, what communication behaviors signal identity changes? How do victims and survivors of rape socially construct a recovery process?
Recommended Citation
Moll, Sarah R., "Searching for what was lost: An autoethnography on disclosure, identity, and social construction from a rape victim and survivor's perspective" (2005). Masters Theses. 1074.
https://thekeep.eiu.edu/theses/1074
