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Bruchmann, Kathryn Irene Gaetz. "Exploring the implications of construal level for social comparison theory." Diss., University of Iowa, 2013. https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/1555.
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This dissertation examines the relationship between two social psychological theories: Social Comparison Theory (Festinger, 1954) and Construal Level Theory (Liberman & Trope, 1998). More specifically, this research assesses how a person's level of mental abstraction (i.e., construal level) might influence the way social comparison information from individuals or aggregates is used to form self-evaluations. Typically, comparison information from individuals (versus information about aggregates) is given disproportionate weight when forming self-evaluations; in other words, there is a "local" (i.e., individual) dominance effect in the utilization of social comparison information (e.g., Zell & Alicke, 2010). It is predicted that with greater mental abstraction (i.e., higher construal level), this tendency will be reversed, and instead comparison information from aggregates will be relied upon more when evaluating the self. In other words, abstract mindsets (versus concrete mindsets) should result in a "global" (i.e., aggregate) dominance effect in the weighting of social comparison information.
Six studies examine the influence of construal level on the use of aggregate versus individual social comparison information. Two pilot studies provide initial evidence that abstract mindsets lead to a global dominance effect. The generalizability of these effects is tested by providing comparison feedback on different tasks (Study 1 and Study 4), testing the influence of different construal mindset manipulations (Study 2), as well as manipulating the psychological distance (an antecedent of construal level; e.g., Trope and Liberman, 2003) of social comparison targets (Studies 3 - 4). Additionally, the relative weighting of individual versus aggregate comparison targets is directly tested by comparing self-evaluations with only aggregate comparison information, and with both aggregate and individual comparison information (Study 2 and Study 4).
Results across all studies indicate that while social comparisons with better off or worse off targets typically result in robust effects, evidence of local dominance and effects of construal manipulations are much more subtle. Theoretical implications for Social Comparison Theory and Construal Level Theory and practical implications are discussed.
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Farsides, Thomas Lycan. "Self-esteem, social comparison and discrimination : a reappraisal and development of Tajfel's social identity theory." Thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London), 1996. http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/82/.
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Six main empirical studies are reported. Study 1 employed the "thinkaloud" procedure in the minimal group paradigm (MGP) and concludes that social categorization is insufficient to cause social identity or intergroup discrimination, and that no theoretical explanation of minimal group behaviour is adequate to explain the variety of strategies employed within that paradigm. Study 2 employed both "Tajfel matrices" and new "allocation grids" in the MGP and concludes that two distinct forms of intergroup discrimination need to be distinguished: one which maximizes in-group profit consistent with positive in-group distinctiveness, and another which maximizes positive in-group distinctiveness by accompanying in-group profit with out-group derogation. In Study 3 subjects completed three sets of Tajfel matrices in the MGP: individually, in "sub-groups" , then again individually. Mean intergroup discriminatory behaviour polarized and mean intergroup equitable behaviour depolarized between the first and the latter two conditions. The best account of the results was concluded to be a normative one. Study 4 demonstrated that the self-esteem hypothesis within social identity theory (SIT) is best tested using a state measure of specific social identity contingent self-esteem and concludes that this hypothesis has to date been both inadequately formulated and inadequately tested. Study 5 compared predictions from SIT with those from Tesser's self-evaluation maintenance model concerning the consequences of social comparison outcomes and concludes that a modified version of the former theory is best able to account for the results obtained at both group and individual levels of comparison. Study 6 investigated a host of issues within SIT and concludes that the theory is too simplistic in respect of many of its key notions and propositions. A general discussion argues that a modified version of SIT can be developed which improves on Tajfel's "original" social identity theory by more adequately specifying the processes by which group phenomena are manifest.
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Betz, Andrew L. "Memory comparison theory : some preliminary evidence for the social distortion of memory /." The Ohio State University, 1992. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1487779439848882.
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Aldridge, Fiona Jane Psychology Faculty of Science UNSW. "The role of idealised image features in determining post-exposure body image and social comparisons." Publisher:University of New South Wales. Psychology, 2008. http://handle.unsw.edu.au/1959.4/41373.
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This research examined the role that idealised image characteristics have in determining post-exposure body image and amount of self-reported social comparisons. This was tested by exposing female undergraduate students to media-portrayed idealised images that varied in their level of relevance, salience, or attainability. A negative impact of these images was indicated by greater post-exposure body dissatisfaction and body size estimation inaccuracy. In contrast, a positive impact was considered to have occurred when body dissatisfaction decreased and body size estimation was more accurate. If the images had a neutral impact on body image, one would expect little difference between groups or over time. A further aim was to determine whether a higher level of trait tendency to compare was related to more negative responding at post-exposure. In addition, thin ideal internalisation and restraint were examined as possible moderators. Studies 1, 2a, 2b, and 3 indicated that idealised image relevance and salience had little differential impact on post-exposure body image. That is, exposure to thin idealised images, irrespective of the salience and relevance manipulations, resulted in similar post-exposure body dissatisfaction and body size estimation. In contrast to this, the attainability of the image seemed to influence post-exposure responding, at least in terms of body size estimation (Study 4). Higher trait tendency to compare was associated with a greater amount of self-reported comparison with the images, but had little impact on body image. Surprisingly, these results were not moderated by thin ideal internalisation or restraint. The role of individual differences was explored with additional analyses in Study 5, which revealed that, when the power is sufficient, thin ideal internalisation, restraint, and self-reported comparisons with the images predicted post-exposure body dissatisfaction, but not body size estimation. Overall, this program of research suggests that idealised image features do not play a vital differential role in determining post-exposure body image, unless it is the body itself that is being manipulated. Results from this research support the idea that the mere presence of an idealised body is sufficient to activate negative responses, and there was little, if any, evidence for the occurrence of positive responses. These findings are discussed in terms of social comparison and schema theory, and in terms of their practical implications.
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Howard, Dawn. "Supported employment versus day centre attendance : a comparison of the impact on the self-concept of people with learning disabilities." Thesis, Open University, 1999. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.390668.
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Roca, Gina-Maria. "Through the Lens of Objectification Theory: Social Media Use and Women's Behavioral Health." Scholar Commons, 2018. https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/7707.
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Background: Objectification theory considers how gender and culture intersect to position women at a greater risk of developing eating disorders, depression, and sexual dysfunction. Self-objectification is defined as the internalization of a third person perspective to view one’s own body, which then leads to mental health consequences of anxiety, body shame, insensitivity to internal drives, and decreased peak motivational states. Body surveillance, the habitual and constant monitoring of the body, denotes the behavioral manifestation of self-objectification. Altogether, the accumulation of objectifying experiences and mental health consequences heighten women’s risks of developing the aforementioned mental disorders.
Rationale: Extant experimental and correlational research supports objectification theory, in particular regarding eating disorders and depression. Research into the effects of social media on mental health is a relatively new frontier, thus gaps exist in the current body of literature. This study endeavored to contribute to the existing research base by employing qualitative methods to impart women’s personal descriptions of the experience of self-objectification and its proposed consequences in relation to social media use.
Purpose of the Study: The purpose of the study was to explore how women’s social media consumption contributes to self-objectification, body surveillance, appearance comparison, body shame, and appearance-based self-worth. Also, the study sought to understand if women perceived themselves differently when they were not using social media platforms.
Methods: Fifteen women completed the Social Media Use and Activities Questionnaire and the in-depth, semi-structured interview. The questionnaire assessed women’s active social media accounts, frequency of social media use, and social media behaviors. The interview protocol contained questions designed to extract explanations of constructs from objectification theory such as self-objectification, body surveillance, and body shame. A multilevel thematic data analysis was performed.
Results: All of the individuals interviewed were heavy social media users based on the frequency of use (66.7% visit platforms several times daily), as well as the number of accounts operated (minimum of 4). Indicative of self-objectification and body surveillance, women emphasized the importance of how their physical appearance and body attributes are portrayed on social media sites. Also consistent with the definition of self-objectification, women expressed concerns about perceptions, reactions, and disapproval from others on social media regarding their physical appearance. Three additional modalities of body surveillance surfaced including: (1) using filters to enhance or modify the appearance of skin in pictures; (2) posing to accentuate facial features, hairstyles, and body attributes; and (3) women’s personal criteria regarding uploading and “tagging” of appearance-based pictures shared on social media.
Findings strongly suggest women compare their physical appearances, features, and bodies to other women. Beauty ideals are determined by evaluating the number of individuals associated with other women’s social media accounts, as well as the distribution of ‘likes’ and positive comments written by people on their appearance-focused content. Five women recollected comparing their appearances and bodies to others, engaging in body surveillance, and feeling as if their own body and appearance failed to comply with beauty ideals, which then led to the experience of feeling body shame.
Low self-esteem, depression, disordered eating, compulsive exercise, or bulimia nervosa were cited as reasons for deletion, temporary deactivation, or taking breaks from social media. Refraining from using social media was associated with feeling less pressured, engaging in less comparisons overall, being more mindful of the present moment, and relaxing standards for personal appearances.
Conclusions: This study generated contextually rich, in-depth descriptions which illustrated women’s experiences with self-objectification, body surveillance, appearance comparisons, body shame, and appearance-based self-worth in the virtual world of social media. Based on results from this study, objectification theory is clearly applicable to women’s social media use and there is definitive need for future research to address the effects of social media consumption on mental health, particularly among younger generations.
Meanwhile, primary prevention initiatives should educate people about the process of self-objectification and its associated consequences, as well as teach resistance strategies. Learning how to deconstruct media content, critically analyze others' online portrayals, and build self-esteem and self-worth may impede self-objectification and its negative mental health effects. Furthermore, public health campaigns should build upon the momentum of the body positivity movement. Known to young women as “BoPo,” this movement encourages women to see themselves as more than their bodies, inspires self-acceptance, and empowers them to be unapologetic and celebrate their body in its current form without adhering to societal beauty norms. These messages are instrumental to dismantling beauty ideals, exhibiting inclusivity of all body types, and mitigating the effects of sexual objectification of the female body.
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Kirst, Maritt. "The social construction of 'bad girls' as a social problem: A comparison of the claims-making activity of social problems experts and print journalists." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1998. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk2/tape15/PQDD_0002/MQ36708.pdf.
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Sterling, Christopher M. "A TALE OF TWO ENVYS: A SOCIAL NETWORK PERSPECTIVE ON THE CONSEQUENCES OF WORKPLACE SOCIAL COMPARISON." UKnowledge, 2013. http://uknowledge.uky.edu/management_etds/5.
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My dissertation examines how individuals respond to workplace social comparisons. I measure the explicit set of referent others that individuals compare themselves against in order to evaluate their own level of performance. I examine how the social context of these comparisons impact discretionary performance related behaviors by examining how an individual’s position within a social network and the structural characteristics of an individual’s reference group influences the experience of discrete emotions. Specifically, I examine how malicious envy and benign envy mediate the relationship between social comparison and workplace behavior in a field setting. Results indicate that social network structure plays a significant role in motivating both productive and counterproductive responses to social comparison. Whether or not an employee responds to upward social comparisons by increasing their own work effort or engaging in deviant behavior is influenced by the experience of benign and malicious envy, which is in turn influencedby the network structure of reference groups. Furthermore, social network position plays a moderating role in the occurrence of workplace deviance by either enhancing or limiting the opportunities an employee has to engage in deviant behavior.
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Molnar, Amy. "Differences in Social, Teaching, and Cognitive presence: a comparison of two discussion formats in an online course." The Ohio State University, 2015. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1429885926.
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Kibbe, Mackenzie R. "Factors Influencing the Relationship Between Instagram Use and Female Body Image Concern: An Extension of Objectification Theory." The Ohio State University, 2017. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu150048751624449.
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Bryant, Malika S. "Johnson Publishing Company’s Tan Confessions and Ebony: Reader Response through the Lens of Social Comparison Theory." Ohio University / OhioLINK, 2021. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1618997653408659.
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Phillips, Amanda S. "Self-Efficacy and Competence: A Physical Activity Experimental Comparison." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2019. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1538687/.
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Sedentary behavior has been shown to lead to overweight and obesity, which are risk factors for chronic diseases such as cardiovascular heart diseases (CHD) and type 2 diabetes mellitus. Two constructs have been used to attempt to enhance motivation in order to promote long-term physical activity behavior change: self-efficacy (from Self-Efficacy Theory) and competence (from Self-Determination Theory). Though these constructs are from two different theories and purportedly measure two different concepts, they have been used interchangeably in physical activity research. This project examined similarities and differences in the theoretical explanations of self-efficacy and competence. Participants were college students ages 18 to 53 (n = 194, 65.8% female) who were randomized to one of two intervention groups (competence vs. self-efficacy) or an attention control group, with an overall attrition rate of 0.6%. Repeated measures ANCOVAs controlling for strenuous exercise and BMI showed no within groups or between-groups differences in competence or self-efficacy. Measures of competence and self-efficacy were strongly correlated (r = .74). Further inspection showed both measures were tapping into a third variable: confidence. Additionally complicating the findings is documented evidence of college students over-reporting high confidence levels. Recommendations include incorporating items measuring growing mastery into competence scales and examining this same question for older sedentary adults.
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Martin, Kenneth Edward. "A comparison of TAFE in Australia and FE in the UK in terms of 'new managerialism', human capital theory and social capital theory." Thesis, University of Bath, 2006. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.426286.
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Meyer, Ines. "Discrimination: because I want to or because I have to? : a comparison between the explanations of social identity theory and social dominance theory for intergroup prejudice in South Africa." Doctoral thesis, University of Cape Town, 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/15776.
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Includes bibliographical references.This thesis attempts to determine whether the amount of discrimination a person displays is more influenced by stable attitudinal orientations, as implied by the Social Dominance Orientation (SDO) construct of Social Dominance Theory, or by the context variance favoured by Social Identity Theory. To this end, three studies were conducted. The first study was designed to establish whether the standard assessment tool, the SDO6 scale, is an appropriate measure of SDO in South Africa. It was found that the scale possessed the same general characteristics as in other societies, as assessed using a diverse sample of people from the Cape Town metropolitan region. However, the finding that Black females had a higher desire for inequality between groups than Black males, and that younger subjects desired more inequality than older participants, suggests that cultural aspects have to be taken into consideration when interpreting findings obtained with the SDO6 scale. The second and third study employed the scale in order to assess the research question, as stated above. The second study employed an experimental design to determine whether manipulations of group status, stability, and the legitimacy of status differences influences in-group bias in English speaking students from the University of Cape Town. They completed the SDO6 scale before and after being exposed to a contrived theory of coping differences between English and Afrikaans speakers. As the manipulations of stability and legitimacy were unsuccessful only the influence of status and SDO on discrimination could be tested High status group members described themselves their own group as more competent than the group of Afrikaans speakers, and also contributed greater coping ability to English speakers than to Afrikaans speakers. Differences in SDO levels were not reflected in the amount of in-group bias expressed. The third study investigated the influence of SDO, group status, stability and legitimacy on race- based discrimination by analysing survey data collected from a large and diverse sample from the Cape Town metropolitan region. This study differed from previous SOT research, which focused on societies with stable societies, by investigating the applicability of the concept of SDO in a society which has been recognised as undergoing socioeconomic and political change. The results obtained support SOTs assumption that stratification systems are rather persistent to change. Black, Coloured and White participants still see the historically dominant White South African group as dominant and the Black South African group as the most subordinate group. The participants expected this hierarchy to remain stable over the next five years. Black participants were the most in favour of equality between race groups, despite SDT's prediction that the most subordinate group would have the lowest SDO levels. In contrast to the finding in Study 2, a higher SDO level was relate to more favouritism for a person's own group. The effect of SDO was moderated by perceptions of the own group's relative status and the perceived legitimacy of the stratification stem. The socio-structural variables by themselves did not contribute to the explanation of individual differences in discrimination. It is concluded that under some conditions, SITs socio-structural variables are better able to explain why people discriminate and in others the SDT's concept of SDO has more value. In other words, SDO is not as general as posted by social dominance theorists. Further research on the influence of the salience of group distinctions and cultural factors in general on the desire to establish and maintain social hierarchies is required.
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Howell, Alexandra L. "Exploration of Social Comparison Theory's Application for Women Who Engage in Lifelong Habitual Indoor Tanning." Ohio University / OhioLINK, 2010. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1276607275.
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Lange-Altman, Tiffany. "Seeking safety and the social model of addictions treatment| A comparison study for the homeless, addicted, and traumatized." Thesis, Spalding University, 2014. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=3632067.
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A comparison study examined the effects on coping styles that occur when an evidence-based treatment, Seeking Safety (SS), is added to an established social model of recovery. Moreover, an exploratory analysis of participant variables in the control group (136 males, 162 females) was conducted within the social model in order to establish the foundational needs of the population as well as ensure that the experimental group was comparable (22 males, 30 females). Participants volunteered to engage in an eight-session closed-group format of SS to determine if participation contributed to an increase in Adaptive coping styles as well as a decrease in Maladaptive coping styles. Overall, findings support the hypothesized enhancements. A closer look at components of coping demonstrated that individuals improved on nine out of ten substyles of Adaptive coping but displayed no change in using humor to handle stressors. For Maladaptive coping, participants decreased using four of the five substyles. However, females worsened in venting of emotions. As a whole, significant improvement was noted in 15 of the 17 coping styles assessed. Support for these findings was also demonstrated in subjective feedback from participants who expressed receiving benefits beyond enhancement of coping skills in regards to emotional healing. It is believed that the study provides foundational support for the benefits of incorporating evidence-based treatment with the social model of recovery.
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Lin, Mei-Chun. "A comparison of carers' experiences of caring for individuals with dementia or intellectual disability : a logitudinal grounded theory study." Thesis, Edinburgh Napier University, 2008. http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/2397.
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Introduction: Increasingly the provision of care for older people with dementia or children with intellectual disabilities (ID) has shifted from institutions to the community. This has resulted in an increase in burden and a reduction in autonomy for those who care for these individuals. Aims: This study sought to identify, describe and explore the changes in the carers' experiences of looking after a relative living with dementia or adolescents with ID, and the effects of caring on the carers' autonomy and health over time. Research Design and Methods: A longitudinal, grounded theory approach in three phases was used. In-depth interviews were conducted with six spouses and seven mothers at the beginning, at six months and at eighteen months. A constant comparative analysis of taped and transcribed interviews was used. Findings: Four categories emerged: My Life Changed, Commitment, Responsibility and Duty, and Support. The core category My Life Changed was identified as representing the beginning of the caregiving journey; and the learning from experience that occurred as a consequence of that journey, offering a new perspective on the experience of carers. Of the other categories, Commitment refers to a deepened and sustained element; Responsibility and Duty increases over time and finally Support refers to the fluctuating nature of help provided by formal and informal sources. All participants experienced changes in the caregiving journey; the degree and nature of necessary adaptations varied. Conclusions: A Theory of Caring emerged: overall there is a great degree of similarity in the journey of caring, what changes were experienced did not appear to conform to any fixed pattern. All carers learned by experience to manage their situations although for the older group it is more rapid in the early stages of caring while the mothers experienced this learning more gradually. For all carers their autonomy and health was challenged.
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Lozano, Brian Edward. "Comparison of Participatively-set and Assigned Goals in the Reduction of Alcohol Use." Diss., Virginia Tech, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/27694.
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The effects of setting goals on goal commitment and goal achievement in the context of an alcohol use intervention were examined using an experimental design in which participants were randomly assigned to participatively-set goals, assigned goals, and no goal conditions. The current study provides information regarding the links between degree of participation in goal setting, goal commitment, self-efficacy for oneâ s goal, subsequent alcohol use, and goal achievement. It was hypothesized that: 1) Goal setting and participation in goal setting would significantly predict alcohol use outcomes: a) having a goal for alcohol consumption would cause lower quantity and frequency of alcohol use relative to not having a goal; b) participation in goal setting, rather than being assigned a goal, would influence goal achievement such that participation in goal setting would cause greater success in achieving oneâ s goal. 2) Participation in goal setting would influence goal commitment such that participation in goal setting would cause greater goal commitment. 3) Goal commitment would influence goal achievement such that greater goal commitment would be predictive of greater success in achieving oneâ s goal. 4) The facilitative effect of participation in goal setting on subsequent goal achievement would be mediated by goal commitment. 5) Self-efficacy for oneâ s goal would influence goal achievement such that greater self-efficacy for oneâ s goal would be predictive of greater success in achieving oneâ s goal.
One hundred and twenty-six binge-drinking college students received a single cognitive-behavioral assessment/intervention session and completed measures of goal commitment, self-efficacy for goal achievement, and alcohol use. Results were consistent with, and expanded upon, previous research by demonstrating that having a goal for alcohol consumption was predictive of lower quantity and frequency of alcohol use relative to not having a goal; however, participation in goal setting did not result in significantly better alcohol use outcomes or greater goal achievement relative to when goals were assigned. Participation in goal setting yielded greater goal commitment and self-efficacy for goal achievement than assigned goals. Lastly, goal commitment and self-efficacy contributed unique variance to the prediction of goal achievement across follow-up as well as changes in quantity and frequency of alcohol use at follow-up after controlling for baseline use.Ph. D.
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Thomas, Kim. "The Effects of Upward and Downward Comparison on a Subsequent Emotion Recognition Task." Cleveland State University / OhioLINK, 2013. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=csu1368142615.
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Lugnet, Emma, and Josefin Nyberg. "Själ(v)bilder i blickfång : En kvalitativ studie om mentalt hälsofrämjande aspekter av sociala medier i relation till skapande." Thesis, Luleå tekniska universitet, Institutionen för hälsovetenskap, 2020. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:ltu:diva-79682.
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Syftet med studien var att undersöka mentalt hälsofrämjande aspekter av sociala medier i relation till skapande. En kvalitativ metod som bestod av tre fokusgruppsintervjuer med 3-5 deltagare i varje fokusgrupp användes för att samla in data. Insamlad data analyserades med hjälp av en manifest innehållsanalys, där tre underkategorier; omge sig med inspiration och likasinnade, olika dimensioner av att visa upp sina verk och omfamna speglandet av verkligheten bildade ett huvudtema; att dela och ta del av: hälsofrämjande aspekter av skapande och sociala medier. Resultatet visar på att sociala medier i relation till skapande bidrog positivt till den mentala hälsan genom bland annat genuinitet, ärlighet, samhörighet och inspiration bland likasinnade på sociala medier. Bekräftelse kunde vara både positivt och negativt beroende på hur deltagarna förhöll sig till det. Hanterandet av sårbarheter framkom i form av olika strategier, däribland att ta kontroll och olika sätt att finna mod. Slutsatsen visar att det går att få hälsofrämjande effekter på den mentala hälsan genom att använda sig av sociala medier i relation till sitt skapande.The aim of this study was to explore mentally health promoting aspects of social media in relation to crafting. A qualitative method which consisted of three focus group interviews with 3-5 participants in each focus group was used to collect data. The data were analyzed with a manifest content analysis, where three subcategories; surround yourself with inspiration and like-minded people, various dimensions of displaying your work and embrace the reflection of reality formed a main theme; to share and take part: health promotive aspects of creative crafting and social media. The result shows that crafting in relation to social media contributed positively to mental health by factors like genuineness, honesty, affinity and inspiration amongst like-minded people on social media. Confirmation and affirmation could be both positive and negative depending on how the participants related to it. Dealing with vulnerability emerged as different strategies, for example taking control and different ways to find courage. The conclusion shows that it’s possible to get health promotive effects on mental health by using social media in relation to one's crafting.
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Zorland, Jennifer Lee. "The Association between Social Context and Phase of Recovery among Drug Court Clients: A Gender Comparison." Digital Archive @ GSU, 2008. http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/psych_theses/48.
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The association between drug court clients’ pro-drug and pro-recovery social context at multiple ecological levels, and phase of recovery was assessed, and gender comparisons were evaluated. Drug courts provide alternatives to incarceration for substance abusing offenders, providing treatment within clients’ social environments. The findings indicated that social context is associated with recovery, and that this relation differs by gender. Specifically, increased favorable attitudes toward drug use among social referents were associated with men being in an earlier phase of recovery and women being in a later phase of recovery. Furthermore, perceived encouragement to use drugs was associated with being in earlier phases of recovery, while positive outcome beliefs related to recovery were associated with being in later phases of recovery. Therefore, drug courts may lead to positive long-term outcomes, as social context can be addressed during the recovery process. Additionally, these courts might benefit from incorporating gender-specific components into treatment.
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Visman, Heidré. "A comparison of the relationship between peer pressure and social acceptability among hookah-pipe users and non-users." University of the Western Cape, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/11394/6897.
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Magister Artium - MAHookah-pipe smoking escalated from being a cultural phenomenon to being a social phenomenon. Studies suggest that the hookah-pipe is a high-risk phenomenon which has become a highly acceptable social practice influenced by social factors such as smoking initiations among peers. What is unknown is whether peer pressure and social acceptance have an influence on the use of the hookah-pipe. The aim of this study is therefore to compare the relationship between peer pressure and social acceptance among adolescent hookah-pipe users and non-users. The objectives of the study are to determine the prevalence of peer pressure, social acceptability and smoking tobacco using the hookah-pipe among adolescents; establish the relationship between peer pressure and social acceptability of adolescent hookah-pipe users and non-users and to compare the relationship between peer pressure and social acceptability among adolescent hookah-pipe users and non-users. A cross-sectional comparative correlation study was conducted with a sample of Grade 9 adolescents attending secondary schools in the Metro East Education District in Cape Town. Structured questionnaires constructed from the NationalASH 10 Year Snapshot Survey, the 10-year in-depth survey, the health and lifestyle survey and peer pressure, as well as an NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development questionnaire were completed by the participants. The Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS) software was used to analyse the data. The results show that no relationship was found between peer pressure and social acceptance, but a relationship was found between parental rules and monitoring around tobacco use for hookah-pipe users. A significant difference was also found in the attitudes towards hookah use between users and non-users. The ethics for this study included voluntary participation, informed consent and anonymity.
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Swiatkowski, Paulina, and Paulina Swiatkowski. "Reality TV, Relational Aggression, And Romance: The Effects of Reality Show Viewing On Relational Aggression and Relational Quality in Romantic Relationships." Diss., The University of Arizona, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/626679.
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Reality shows remain a prominent genre of today’s media culture. More importantly, plot lines tend to be dominated by interpersonal relationship trajectories, which often include conflict such as relational aggression (Coyne, Robins, & Nelson, 2010). When relational aggression is included in analyses that compare the content of scripted and reality shows, researchers find that aggression is more likely to occur in reality shows than scripted shows (Coyne et al., 2010). Furthermore, reality shows are often described as “unscripted,” portraying “real” people during their “ordinary” days (Riddle & De Simone, 2013). Relational aggression is link to physical violence and other poor social and psychological effects (e.g., Caetano, Vaeth, & Ramisetty-Mikler, 2008; Linder, Crick, & Collins, 2002) and, therefore, needs better understanding. Therefore, the present study’s theoretical foundation in cultivation theory, theory of reasoned action, social cognitive theory, and social comparison theory sought to understand how reality shows influence adult viewers and their perceptions and behaviors within romantic relationships. Four-week longitudinal data from 117 dyads was analyzed for potential media effects and how those effects could influence relational aggression within relationships and relational quality. The results suggest minimal media effects but do support negative longitudinal effects of relational aggression on relational quality. Limitations and future directions are discussed.
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Walkner, Tammy J. "Managing your private personal summer: how hormone replacement treatments are marketed to women." Thesis, University of Iowa, 2015. https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/1789.
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Menopause is a biological change that affects the aging woman at some point in her life. Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) has been a primary medical intervention for decades, and this study explores how HRT products are marketed to women experiencing menopause through direct-to-consumer (DTC) drug ads. Through a qualitative analysis of DTC ads and interviews with women experiencing menopause symptoms, this research investigated their perspective on HRT drug ads to understand if women respond to this type of advertising. Women’s understanding and experiences concerning menopause are influenced by a number of factors and can vary depending on the meanings that are associated with menopause. In U.S. culture, physical appearance is emphasized above other characteristics, so menopause and other signs of aging chge the beauty ideal. Media portrayals of women too often value youth and ideal beauty, with direct-to-consumer (DTC) ads reinforcing this notion by emphasizing how women can remain young, fight the signs of aging, and maintain their vitality by using HRT products. Women also feel conflicted about their bodies as they age because of these dominant standards that can then lead to negative body image.
Social comparisons are an inherent process guiding behavior and experiences that affect how people understand themselves (Corcoran, Crusius, & Mussweiler, 2011). People look at others and to media images of others, relating that information to themselves as a way to measure what they are and aren’t capable of. When advertisements construct menopause as a deficiency that women need to treat with medications, women compare themselves to mediated images as they try to understand their menopause experience.
Ads analyzed for this study presented messages that women need medication to maintain healthy activities during and after menopause. Most of the ads focused on painful sex that can happen with menopause but nearly all of the participants agreed that these ads did not relate to their experiences. This research found that women don’t believe menopause is a disease to be treated but if medications are used, it should be for the shortest time possible and only if the symptoms drastically interfere with a woman’s quality of life. Through these interviews with menopausal women and analysis of HRT ads, this study adds to limited current research on DTC ads for hormone replacement therapies and menopause.
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Li, Ruimin. "Bank capital regulation : a comparison of risk measurements based on the GVAR model." Thesis, Cardiff University, 2019. http://orca.cf.ac.uk/119684/.
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Risk measures are the core indicator of risk management and a proper risk assessment model is essential for successful financial institutions. Value at Risk and Expected Shortfall are the two most popular and acceptable risk measurement methods presently employed to assess risks in the financial market. In the past few years, researchers have attempted to demonstrate that Expected Shortfall performs better against the traditional Value at Risk method. However, the lack of elicitability and difficult backtesting of this method suggest that the popularisation of ES might be gradual. This thesis will present a comparison of these two methods not only from a traditional perspective, such as the measurement of tail risk, but also form the perspective of risk capital requirement. Through Historical Simulation and Filtered Historical Simulation, it concludes that switching from Value at Risk to Expected Shortfall method would reduce risk capital requirement and enhance financial leverage of organisations. Additionally, this research also combines macroeconomic elements, the financial market and central banks, and analyses the influence of a positive leverage shock on the macro-economy through a Global Vector Autoregression model.
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Stevens, Jessica Lyn. "Comparison of Physical Activity Levels In a 6th Grade Hip-Hop Dance and Floor Hockey Unit of Instruction." The Ohio State University, 2008. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1211679561.
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Lin, Wen-Hsu. "General Strain Theory and Juvenile Delinquency: A Cross-Cultural Study." Scholar Commons, 2011. http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/3208.
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General strain theory (GST) (Agnew, 1992, 2001, 2006a) is an established criminological theory. Although the theory has been examined by many and enjoys empirical support, some limitations of previous studies need to be addressed. First, previous studies have not incorporated all major types of strain in their models; hence, the effects of these strains on delinquency are unclear. Second, many previous studies did not include negative emotions and even negative emotions other than anger. Finally, and the most serious limitation, many previous studies rely heavily on samples from Western countries, mostly the U.S.; thus, possible cultural influences are ignored. Although a few studies have moved forward by using subjects from Asia (e.g., China, Korea), these studies only provide empirical results regarding whether GST is applicable in other cultures. The lack of comparable samples from both Western and Eastern cultures hinders direct comparison.
The present research contributes to the theoretical body of literature through addressing the aforementioned three limitations. First, the study measures the major types of strain that are mentioned by Agnew. Second, anger and depression are included in the analysis, which addresses not only the limitations of previous studies but also the suggestions of Agnew (2006a). In addition, the measure of anger is situational and consistent with GST. Thirdly, the present study uses the same research instrument to collect comparable samples from both the U.S. (Western country) and Taiwan (Eastern country). This enables a direct comparison across cultural boundaries, and the similarities and differences can be empirically established.
Whereas the core propositions of GST are supported, the study finds some negative results. In addition, most of the GST processes are found to be similar between the U.S. and Taiwanese juveniles. However, some differences were also discovered. Explanation of these similarities and differences from their cultural perspectives are offered. Furthermore, the results from this study also raise some challenges to GST and point out that revisions of GST may be required.
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Hollist, Julie. "The Ideal Mormon Woman: An Analysis of Ensign Articles and Comparison to LDS Women's Perceptions of Gender Role Expectations." DigitalCommons@USU, 2008. https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/etd/220.
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This study was conducted to identify what principles leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were teaching women about their gender roles and expectations from 2000 through 2007, and to investigate whether age, marital status, or media exposure correlated with women's perceptions of levels of importance of those concepts to both their leaders and to themselves personally. This study used deductive and inductive framing analyses to examine visiting teaching messages and General Conference Relief Society talks published in the Ensign, the official magazine of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The study built on those results to create a survey conducted with LDS women living in Cache Valley, Utah, in 2008. Survey results provided insight into levels of importance LDS women living in Cache Valley assigned to doctrinal and cultural concepts surrounding the "ideal Mormon woman." The doctrine reflected an overwhelming emphasis on both inner spiritual characteristics and religiously motivated actions. Lack of correlation between exposure to either visiting teaching messages or General Conference talks and what the women said Church leaders thought was important indicated some disconnect between what was being taught and what the LDS women reported. Although leaders' priorities were revealed by the frequency with which they taught individual components of the doctrine, the women did not recognize those priorities. Instead, they perceived that nearly everything was very important or important to their leaders. The women also indicated that although religiously motivated actions were very important, inner spiritual characteristics were even more important to them personally. Although the women reported inner spiritual characteristics as more important, they were also taking on responsibilities for those behaviors that may be more visible and easily compared to others. Exposure to General Conference talks correlated highly with how important survey items were to the women personally, which may indicate a channel of communication that is working for Church leaders. Statistically significant correlations in women's perceptions about what their leaders think and what they think personally were also found according to age and marital status, but there are not consistent trends that can be easily summarized.
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Gervais, Mary Ellen. "Chronic Care Management to Improve Adherence: A Comparison of Approaches in the Care of Diabetes." VCU Scholars Compass, 2010. http://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/etd/2230.
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Managing chronic conditions is seen as the public health challenge of the 21st century. The number of Americans with chronic conditions is expected to rise to 157 million by 2020. Diabetes prevalence and costs contribute to the growing problem. Diabetes was the seventh leading cause of death in 2006. Nationally, the cost of diabetes is expected to be $138 billion in 2020. Diabetes leads to multiple and significant complications. The desired outcomes of management of chronic conditions are improvement in clinical status, avoidance of complications, prevention of co-morbid conditions and avoidance of the costs associated with complications. In the 1990s, disease management programs were implemented in an attempt to effectively manage chronic conditions. The primary approach in these programs focuses on individual-level interventions. Despite these efforts, poor outcomes exist. As a result, other approaches to diabetes management are being explored. This study examines a system-level approach to diabetes management versus an individual level one. The system level approach is based on full implementation of the Chronic Care Model, framed in Social Ecology Theory. This retrospective, non-experimental study explores changes in adherence to select diabetes screening guidelines based on the approach to adopted by two health plans. Analyses were conducted on adherence to LDL, A1c, retinopathy and nephropathy screening 2 ½ years after program implementation. In addition, logistic regression analyses were conducted on the predictive impact of approach to chronic care management in relation to changes in adherence. Other variables known to impact health behaviors were factored into the analysis. There were two main findings of the study. The first is that for each of the screenings, there was a statistically significant difference between participants in the two plans. Comparisons of changes in adherence by approach from before implementation to after implementation resulted in a small number of subjects in some cells which can lead to accepting the null hypothesis when it is false. The second is that approach to management was associated with changes in adherence to three of the four screenings. The logistic models, however, account for less than 23% of the variance in adherence, a moderate effect size.
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Rudolph, Stephanie. "Is there a fate worse than death? a comparison of social exclusion and terror management theory : employing cultural primes to elicit cultural worldviews /." Diss., Connect to the thesis, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/10066/751.
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Londo, Marc. "A SOCIAL COGNITIVE APPROACH TOWARDS UNDERSTANDING THE EFFECTS OF POPULAR POKER TELEVISION SHOWS ON COLLEGE STUDENTS." Master's thesis, University of Central Florida, 2006. http://digital.library.ucf.edu/cdm/ref/collection/ETD/id/2414.
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Tournament poker shows have become a leading ratings draw on American television. Since ESPN and the Travel Channel began airing their innovative poker shows in 2003, the game has reached a new following, particularly among college students. There are unique and psychologically significant factors that characterize the college population that make students particularly receptive to popular characterizations in media. This study investigates the potential exacerbating effect that these widely popular poker television shows have on the gambling behavior of college students. 444 college students completed a survey designed to assess gratifications sought through media along with measures of attitudes, gambling behavior, and social systems. Using Social Cognitive Theory as a framework of influence, exposure to these shows – ranging from the individual student to the overall college environment – was assessed and evaluated. Results indicated that student gambling is strongly correlated to viewership of poker shows, particularly among younger students. This was especially seen among students who utilized the online gambling option. Gambling behavior of peers wasn't shown to be a strong influence for student gambling. However, excitement was shown to be a strong variable that should be looked at closer.M.A.
Nicholson School of Communication
Arts and Sciences
Communication
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Lim, Ai Keow. "Cross-cultural variations in naïve psychology : a longitudinal comparison of preschool children in the United Kingdom and Singapore." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/5989.
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This thesis presents a three-phase longitudinal study of naïve psychology and pretend play behaviour development between preschool children in the United Kingdom (UK) and Singapore. Research conducted in the Western contexts has shown that children develop an understanding of pretence and desires at 18 months of age (e.g. Nielsen & Dissanayake, 2004; Repacholi & Gopnik, 1997), before level-1 visual perspective-taking at 2½ years of age (e.g. Flavell, Everett, Croft, & Flavell, 1981) and followed by level-2 visual perspective-taking, appearance-reality distinction and false-belief understanding at 4 years of age (e.g. Flavell et al., 1981; Flavell, Flavell, & Green, 1983; Wellman, Cross, & Watson, 2001). A major issue that has dominated the field for many years concerns whether naïve psychology follows a universal developmental pattern. The majority of the studies to date have tended to rely heavily on false-belief understanding as an index of children’s understanding of mental representation. Some cross-cultural results have shown that the onset of false-belief understanding coincides with Western norms (e.g. Callaghan et al., 2005) whereas several non-Western studies have demonstrated a time lag in development across cultural groups (e.g. Vinden, 1999). To date no longitudinal study comparing the development of other naïve psychology concepts from 2 to 4 years of age between diverse cultures has been published. The present study aims to address the gap in the literature by tracking longitudinally and comparing the developmental patterns of children’s understanding of a range of naïve psychology concepts in the UK and Singapore at 2½, 3 and 3½ years of age (phases I, II and III respectively). Singapore with its mixed blend of Eastern and Western values represents a unique case for comparative study. This study employed a repeated-measures design, incorporating a large battery of established tasks that tapped children’s understanding of pretence, desires, visual perceptions and beliefs. In addition, a semi-structured observational approach was employed to study children’s naturally occurring pretend play behaviour. A total of 87 children were recruited in the UK (M = 28.60 months, SD = 1.90) and Singapore (M = 29.89, SD = 2.76) in the first phase of study. Of the initial sample, 36 children (M = 42.75, SD = 1.84) in the UK cohort and 38 children (M = 43.68, SD = 2.79) in the Singapore cohort participated in all three phases of the study. This thesis has five research questions. The first question relates to the extent to which acquisition of naïve psychology concepts differ between the two cultures at 2½ years of age. The baseline results reported in Chapter 5 indicate that 2½-year-old children in both cohorts acquired a rudimentary understanding of some aspects of pretence, discrepant desires, action prediction, emotion prediction and level-1 visual perspective-taking. The results showed no gross cross-cultural differences. However, subtle cross-cultural differences in children’s understanding of discrepant desires and action prediction were found. The second question addresses longitudinal cross-cultural differences in naïve psychology development between 2½, 3 and 3½ years of age. The results presented in Chapter 6 reveal cultural similarities in children’s performance on several pretence understanding, the level-2 visual perspective-taking, the appearance-reality distinction and the false-belief explanation tasks. Nonetheless, cultural differences were observed in some aspects of naïve psychology. The UK cohort performed significantly better than the Singapore cohort in the unexpected transfer false-belief prediction task at 3½ years of age, after verbal mental age (VMA) and gender were treated as covariates. Additionally, the UK cohort achieved significantly higher total mean for the level-1 visual perspective-taking task across the three phases and the mental representation in pretence task across phases II and III. In contrast, the Singapore cohort scored significantly higher in total mean for the discrepant desires task across the three phases. The third question considers longitudinal differences in children’s understanding of knowledge-ignorance and beliefs from 3 to 3½ years of age. The analysis in Chapter 7 indicates that the Singapore cohort performed significantly more poorly than the UK cohort in understanding knowledge-ignorance attribution (for the false-belief prediction and falsebelief explanation tasks) and true-belief ascription (for the false-belief explanation task) across phases II and III, after VMA and gender were considered as covariates. Comparison of children’s false-belief prediction and justification scores revealed that the cross-cultural difference in false-belief prediction related to an explicit ability to predict false-belief without concurrent ability to justify a naïve character’s behaviour based on false-beliefs. Twenty-four (66.7%) and 11 (28.9%) children in the UK and Singapore cohorts respectively were able to make correct false-belief prediction at 3½ years of age. Among these children, only six and five children from the UK and Singapore cohorts respectively provided correct justifications on the basis of false-beliefs. These findings therefore indicated cultural similarities in that the same number of children in both cohorts was able to predict and justify other’s behaviour in terms of false-beliefs. The fourth question explores the degree to which presence of sibling(s), birth order, language (VMA) and bilingualism contribute to individual differences in naïve psychology development. The results in Chapter 8 show no evidence that presence of sibling(s) and birth order facilitated understanding of action prediction, discrepant desires, level-1 visual perspective-taking, mental representation in pretence and false-belief prediction in either cohort. With respect to the role of language in children’s naïve psychology development, there were concurrent (within phase) associations between VMA and false-belief prediction at 3½ years of age and longitudinal associations between VMA at 2½ years of age and falsebelief prediction at 3½ years of age for both cohorts. These findings suggest that language ability contributes to individual differences in false-belief understanding. It is worth highlighting that not all aspects of naïve psychology and VMA were related. The fifth and final question focuses on longitudinal cross-cultural similarities and differences in pretend play behaviour and examines the links between pretend play behaviour and naïve psychology development. The observational data in Chapter 9 reveal that the Singaporean children spent significantly more time engaged in non-pretend play and non-social pretend play at 2½ years of age whereas the UK children spent significantly more time engaged in social pretend play. This finding contrasted with the marked cultural differences in naïve psychology development found at 3 and 3½ years of age. It is important to note that the UK and Singaporean children showed similar developmental sequences from non-pretend to non-social pretend and finally to social pretend play behaviour and from simple to complex forms of social pretend play behaviour. With respect to other pretend play behaviour, the UK children spent significantly more time engaged in positive complementary bids, negative conflict, other forms of pretence, metacommunication and in the pretend theme of outings, holiday and weather across all phases than the Singaporean children. The associations between some early pretend play behaviour and later acquisition of some naïve psychology concepts for both cultures provide partial support for the proposition that pretend play behaviour is an early marker of understanding mental representation.
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Höglund, Emma. "Hur elitidrottare upplever sociala medierutifrån upplevelser relaterade tillprestationsångest – en kvalitativ studie." Thesis, Mittuniversitetet, Institutionen för hälsovetenskap, 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:miun:diva-42555.
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Clement, Ifabeau, and Emelie Östman. "Användares mediebehov och vikten av träningsinfluerade bilder på Instagram : En kvalitativ intervjustudie av vana Instagramanvändare på Actic." Thesis, Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för medier och journalistik (MJ), 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-78471.
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A qualitative interview study aimed at investigating the role of training images for people and the needs of Instagram users. The study focuses on the Actic gym in Kalmar, which is a relatively unexplored area. The questions that the study asks are; What does Instagram mean for media users at Actic? What results of workout does skilled Instagram users experience on Actic? Is there any visible difference between the sexes that practice at Actic and their experience of exercise pictures at Instagram? Semi-structured interviews have been made with eight people age 18-24, as this is the age group that is most active on Instagram. The interviews were transcribed and resulted in a discussion that we lean against the Uses and Gratifications theory and the social comparison theory. The result shows a number of needs that users are considered to need to fill and the perception of training-influenced images that are both positive and negative. The needs are such as inspiration and motivation as well as the help that may be needed to go to the gym.
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Sliter, Michael T. "An Investigation of Emotional Events: Effects of Comparison Contrast on Judgments and Stress in Service Encounters." Bowling Green, Ohio : Bowling Green State University, 2009. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc%5Fnum=bgsu1256781728.
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Molisani, Anthony J. "Evaluation and Comparison of Theoretical Models’ Abilities to Explain and Predict Colorectal Cancer Screening Behaviors." VCU Scholars Compass, 2015. http://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/etd/4017.
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BACKGROUND: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the fourth most common and second most deadly cancer in the United States. However, it is highly preventable and treatable if detected at the precancerous or local stage of development. There exists multiple screening methods each with varying sensitivity, required effort, and recommended frequency of use. Complete adherence to screening guidelines by the recommended, at-risk population would halve the current mortality rate. Unfortunately, screening adherence remains the lowest of all screened cancers with a median state screening adherence rate of about 65%. To understand what individual-level factors influence an individual’s decision to be screened, health behavior theory is used. However, few studies have evaluated the performance of entire behavioral theories in their ability to explain CRC screening intentions and behaviors.
METHOD: Health Belief Model, Theory of Reasoned Action, Theory of Planned Behavior, and Attribution Theory were evaluated within the context of colorectal cancer screening using an online national sample (N=403) of at-risk individuals age 50 and older. Confirmatory factor analyses were performed for each evaluated construct of the theory. Structural equation models were created using the estimated constructs for each theory. Each theory was evaluated for the following screening use: colonoscopy, sigmoidoscopy, fecal occult blood test (FOBT), and general screening use. Fit statistics were estimated for each model. Models with acceptable fit were examined for significant pathways within the model as well as consistency of the model with the behavioral theory.
RESULTS: All models displayed adequate fit statistics. While not all pathways were significant in each model, no estimate was the inverse in directionality to that hypothesized. This provides support that each theory lends some explanatory power and none of the theories evaluated detract from understanding CRC screening intentions and behaviors. Comparison of the models illustrates advantages to each theory and suggests potential integration of theories.
CONCLUSION: The constructs of the Health Belief Model, Theory of Planned Behavior, and Attribution Theory all provide adequate explanations of individual-level CRC screening behavior influences. Although, further review and refinement of the theories is warranted and recommended.
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Holst, Liselott. "Studie- och yrkesvägledares yrkesidentiteter : En intervjustudie med några verksamma studie- och yrkesvägledare på grund- och gymnasieskolan." Thesis, Stockholms universitet, Institutionen för pedagogik och didaktik, 2013. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-97800.
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Abstract Författare: Liselott Holst Titel: Studie- och yrkesvägledares yrkesidentiteter- En intervjustudie med några verksamma studie- och yrkesvägledare på grund- och gymnasieskolan Masteruppsats: 91 – 120 hp Handledare: Niklas Gustafson Pedagogiska Institutionen Bakgrunden till denna uppsats är att det riktats en hel del kritik mot skolans studie- och yrkesvägledning av bl.a. Skolverket. Ur dessa rapporter framkom bl.a. kritik mot att det idag finns stora skillnader i kvalitet mellan olika kommuner och olika skolor när det gäller skolornas studie- och yrkesvägledning. En förklaring till dessa kvalitetsskillnader är att det enligt skollagen finns en stor frihet för den enskilda skolan att själv bestämma över innehållet och organiseringen av skolans studie- och yrkesvägledning. Tydligare riktlinjer för hur skolans studie- och yrkesvägledning ska bedrivas har därför framförts. Uppsatsens syfte är att studera hur några verksamma studie- och yrkesvägledare inom grund- och gymnasieskolan talar om sig själva och sitt yrke i relation till den egna arbetsplatsen. Min teoretiska utgångspunkt är diskursanalys och social jämförelseteori och jag har använt mig av kvalitativa intervjuer med hjälp av en intervjuguide. Ur resultatet av det empiriska materialet har jag kunnat identifiera en diskursordning för vägledare på grund- och gymnasieskolan. Inom denna diskursordning finns olika åsikter bland respondenterna i studien bl.a. när det gäller arbetsuppgifter som ligger utanför vägledarens egentliga yrkeskompetens. Diskursen om ”mångsyssleri” är den mest framträdande diskursen i denna studie. Ett annat intressant resultat är att personligheten är viktigare än yrkesgrupp när det gällde frågor om samarbete och känsla av tillhörighet med andra yrkesgrupper på den egna arbetsplatsen. I intervjuerna framkom också att det finns ett önskemål bland några av respondenterna om ökad reglering och tydligare riktlinjer för skolans studie- och yrkesvägledning medan andra värdesätter ett större handlingsutrymme för den egna verksamheten.Author : Liselott Holst Title: professional identities of guidance counselors - A interviewstudy with some active guidance counselors in elementary and secondary school Master Thesis : 91 - 120 hp Supervisor: Niklas Gustafson Department of Education The purpose of this thesis is to study how some active guidance counselors in elementary and secondary school are talking about themselves and their profession in relation to their own workplace. My theoretical starting point is discourse analysis and social comparison theory, and I have used qualitative interviews using an interview guide. From the result of the empirical material I have been able to identify a discourse scheme for counselors in elementary and secondary school. Within this order of discourse are different opinions among the respondents in the study, including when it comes to tasks that are outside the counselors' actual professional competence. The discourse of "versatile artist" is the most prominent discourse in this study. Another interesting result is that personality is more important than profession when it came to matters of cooperation and sense of belonging with other professionals in their workplace. The interviews also revealed that there is a desire among some respondents about increased regulation and clearer guidelines for school guidance and counseling, while others value the greater latitude for their own operations.
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Andreasson, Mimmi, and Peter Borojevic. "Hur personer inom en vänskapskrets påverkas av att dela och jämföra skärmtid." Thesis, KTH, Skolan för elektroteknik och datavetenskap (EECS), 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-298294.
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Smartphones blir allt mer en integrerad del av människors liv genom att erbjuda funktioner som till exempel tillfredsställer våra sociala behov. Samtidigt har dessa funktioner också blivit en källa till smartphoneberoenden. Detta har bidragit till utvecklingen av digital detox-applikationer som kan hjälpa en att minska sin smartphoneanvändning. I några av dessa digital detox-applikationer existerar en funktion där man kan dela och jämföra skärmtid med andra personer, där en anledning kan vara att motivera varandra till att minska sin skärmtid. Att människor jämför sig med andra personer för att utvärdera sig själva från en viss aspekt, för att i sin tur utveckla ett nytt beteende kan kopplas till Social Comparison Theory och Selfevaluation maintenance model (SEM modellen). SEM modellen argumenterar bland annat för att personer som står en psykologiskt nära har en större tendens till att motivera en till självförbättring. Detta kan ske om de presterar bättre i ett område som är relevant för ens självdefinition. Studien har därför undersökt hur delning och jämförelse av skärmtid påverkar personer inom en vänskapskrets och om det kan leda till minskad mobilanvändning. Detta har undersökts med hjälp av applikationen Timedown där 5 vänner fått dela och jämföra sin skärmtid med varandra under 12 dagar. Slutligen genomfördes en semistrukturerad intervju med varje enskild deltagare. Intervjuerna syftade till att ta reda på hur deltagarna upplevde att använda funktionen och om det påverkat deras mobilanvändning. Resultatet av studien visar att personer påverkas olika av att dela och jämföra skärmtid med vänner och att det beror på hur ens skärmtid förhåller sig till övrigas. En person som har en förhållandevis hög skärmtid jämfört med sina vänners tenderar att ha en större benägenhet till att minska sin skärmtid än en person som har en lägre skärmtid. Resultatet bör dock inte generaliseras för alla vänskapsgrupper som använder den här typen av funktion. Däremot kan det bidra med nya perspektiv på hur jämförandet av skärmtid kan användas i digital detox-sammanhang.Smartphones are increasingly becoming an integral part of people's lives by offering functions that for example satisfies our social needs. At the same time, these functions have also become a source of smartphone addiction. This has contributed to the development of digital detox-applications which help to reduce one's smartphone usage. In some of these digital detox- applications, a function exists where you can share and compare screen time with other people. A reason for this can be to motivate each other to decrease smartphone usage. That people tend to compare themselves with others to evaluate themselves from a certain aspect and thereby develop a new behaviour, can be connected to the Social Comparison Theory and the Self-evaluation maintenance model (SEM-model). The SEM- model argues, among other things, for the fact that people who are psychologically close to a person, have a greater tendency to motivate that person to self-improvement. This happens if they perform better within an area relevant for the person's self-definition. The study has therefore investigated how sharing and comparing screen time affects persons within a friend group and if it can result in decreased screen time. This has been investigated using the application Timedown, where 5 friends have shared and com- pared their screen time with each other during 12 days. Finally, a semi-structured interview was carried out with every single participant. The interviews aimed to find out how the participants experienced using the feature and if it affected their smartphone usage. The result of the study shows that people are differently affected by sharing and comparing screen time with friends, and that it depends on your screen time in relation to the others. A person with a relatively high screen time compared to one's friends tends to have a greater inclination to decrease their screen time than a person with a lower screen time. The result should not be generalized for all friend groups using this type of feature. Instead, it could contribute to new perspectives on how the comparison of screen time can be used in contexts of digital detox.
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Björnfors, Martin. "Insurgent Organisation Structure : A Neglected Subject?" Thesis, Écoles de Saint-Cyr Coëtquidan, 2011. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:fhs:diva-1419.
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On 1 November, 1954 an armed insurgency against French rule commenced with a large scale terrorist attack throughout various parts of Algeria. France responded by sending troops from the continent to Algeria and was soon involved in a full out counterinsurgency against the Front Liberé National (FLN), a revolutionary movement organised in a classical communist insurgent pattern. Many of the experiences the French gained conducting counterinsurgency in Algeria have been examined by writers of COIN literature. The conclusions have been incorporated into counterinsurgency doctrines of many countries, and the works of Galula, who experienced the war, is considered basic literature for many counterinsurgency courses. This has been inherited by modern COIN literature. The US FM 3.24 draws from the French experiences and theorists in its main body. This essay examines whether modern counterinsurgency literature derived from French experiences and theories gained, fighting FLN fails to address the question on how the insurgent organisation is structured. It provides a few arguments why we should know this, such as knowing your enemy’s structure will help you understand his vulnerabilities. To archive this and lay a foundation for the argumentation it first compares the Algerian FLN to modern day Taliban to establish if their organisational structures are different or similar.
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Pahlavan, Mehdi. "The new immigrant| A comparison of the factors contributing to upper class status among non-Hispanic groups in the United States." Thesis, Howard University, 2014. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=3629340.
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Historically, the majority of immigrants to the United States came from European countries. The 1965 Immigration Reform Act (IRA) fundamentally changed the configuration of immigrants to the United States. The largest immigrant communities now consist of Latin Americans, Asians, and Africans. Another important development in immigrant communities in the past few decades has been the growth of a disproportionately large upper class in non-Hispanic immigrant communities. In this study, I will investigate the determinants of upper class status with a focus on non-Hispanic immigrants in the United States.
I have used a theoretical framework consisting of a wide spectrum of social theories. The theoretical framework encompasses Demographic and Structural Factors, Assimilation Theory, Weberian Theory, Elite Theories, and Marxian Theory. From this wide spectrum of theories, I have developed a set of fifteen exogenous variables including key socio-demographic variables, metropolitan area, region, the number of hours worked, immigration from an English speaking country, citizenship status, the length of stay in the United States, occupational status, occupational prestige, educational attainment, private schooling, and employment status. Consequently, I have analyzed the influence of these variables on upper class status attainment among non-Hispanic immigrants in the United States.
The current study has utilized secondary data analysis from the 2010 American Community Survey (ACS). Bivariate and multivariate regression analyses were used to examine the relationship among study variables. More specifically, by conducting block analysis, the result of the regression analysis spelled out the degree of influence of each theoretical perspective on the dependent variable, upper class status attainment.
The results of this study have revealed that Structural and Demographic factors make up the largest share of influence on upper class status attainment among non-Hispanic immigrants in the United States. The most influential variables emerged as “hours worked” (β = 0.211) from the Demographic and Structural Factors block, “educational attainment” (β = 0.174) from elite theory, and “Marital Status” (β = 0.119) from the Demographic and Structural Factors block respectively.
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Singh, Linda. "Instagram affordances among post-pregnant body advocates." Thesis, Malmö universitet, Fakulteten för kultur och samhälle (KS), 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-21452.
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ABSTRACTObjectification of especially women have often been mentioned in connection to discussions concerning negative body image wherein individuals have been claimed to evaluate their body and look based on standardized societal ideals (Nash:2015, Hodgkinson, Wittkowski & Smith:2014). Studies have also shown that newspapers, magazines, and movies routinely present post-pregnancy bodies as something temporarily that women should strive to improve (Breda et al.:2015, Roth et al.:2012, Williams et al.:2017). Although, it has been stated that social media can work as a supportive and inspirational tool for this specific group of women (Baker & Yang:2017, Jarvis:2017) as well as platform of expression where users can shape and spread their own beauty standards (Cwynar-Horton:2016a, Guha:2014, Earl & Rohlinger:2018). Women’s thoughts of their post-pregnancy bodies in connection to the motivations behind their bodily exposure on social media platforms have not yet been examined, even though it has been claimed that this group is particularly vulnerable to body image concerns due to social media representations (Coyne et al.:2017). As a contribution to the field of post-pregnant body advocates affordances of Instagram, this paper has focused on Swedish post-pregnant women that have posted images of their bodies under the hashtags #mammamage (mum tummy) and/or #mammakropp (mum body). By applying affordance theory’s suggestion that environments afford different affordances for individuals, this paper has asked 94 post-pregnant women how they feel about their bodies and what they think of societal body ideals, as well as examined their motivations behind their use of Instagram with the aim to identify prominent emotional affordances. Here, objectification theory, comparison theory, postmodern feminism, and feminist reflexivity were used as supporting theories in the analysis of the data which was conducted through a mixed methods survey.The main findings have been that Instagram is seen as a platform that enables its users to experience emotional affordances of 1) criticism and comparisons, 2) inspiration and support and 3) acceptance, where post-pregnant body advocates are using the affordances primarily to visualize average post-pregnancy bodies, challenge standardized body ideals and get inspired or inspire other women into re-thinking the notion(s) of their post-pregnancy bodies. What this paper further has contributed with is a greater understanding of post-pregnant body advocates experiences of their own bodies, a broader perspective on post-pregnant body advocates thoughts of societal ideals, a more profound comprehension behind post-pregnant body advocates motivation(s) behind their use of Instagram, and new knowledge to the field of emotional affordances among Instagram users.Keywords: post-pregnant women, body advocates, Instagram, affordances, affordance theory, emotional affordances, objectification theory, feminist reflexivity, comparison theory, postmodern feminism, survey, mixed method
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Horn, Chrys. "A complex systems perspective on communities and tourism : a comparison of two case studies in Kaikoura and Rotorua." Lincoln University, 2002. http://hdl.handle.net/10182/1606.
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This thesis analyses research into the evolution and adaptation of the communities in Rotorua and Kaikoura by using a complex systems perspective. This perspective requires that the analyst look beyond the obvious impacts of tourism such as employment, crowding, and congestion, to the processes that underlie the experiences of local people in relation to tourism. The configuration of the destination, the flows of people in the area, the visitor types and the ratio of hosts to guests all influence a community's interactions with tourists. In small destinations, the effect of host interactions with guests is potentially much greater than is the case in larger destinations. However, in using a complex systems perspective to analyse the effects of tourism on these two destinations, it becomes clear that the impacts of tourism are more than just the impacts of tourists. The impacts of tourism are intertwined with the processes of trust, leadership and decision making occurring both within the community and within the wider regional and national socio-economic systems. As such, local perceptions of tourism are associated with history, geography, local politics and local social processes. As concepts, the meanings of both 'tourism' and 'community' emerge from the experiences people have, and the associations that they make with the two terms. Thus, the meaning of both 'tourism' and 'community' are idiosyncratic and locally defined. Each term means different things to residents in Rotorua and Kaikoura, and each affects how residents perceive tourism in their respective towns. For example, the associations that people make between historical events and processes such as restructuring are quite different in each of the two communities. In Rotorua, tourism is seen as a source of stability, as a phenomenon that confers a higher level of perceived control on the community. In Kaikoura, tourism is seen as a source of change and it confers a lesser sense of perceived control on the community overall. Likewise, the relationship between the local council and the community underlies the sense of security people feel about local decision making processes. This relationship is mediated by a range of processes including the effort that the council put into communicating with community members, the leadership shown by the council, the way in which they facilitate community visioning processes, which then provide a basis for both leadership and decision making. Underlying these processes are community processes of rivalry, competition, cooperation, labelling and stereotyping that all affect the levels of trust that the community have in those around them. Community cohesion (which is not the same as community agreement) underlies a community's ability to work together to manage tourism. Thus using a complex systems approach to analyse the impacts of tourism in two destinations has shown that there is much more to tourism than the impacts of tourists and their activities. Instead, the way the community system interacts with the tourism system gives rise to the impacts of tourism. Tourism can be usefully conceptualised as a process that is inextricably interwoven with history, politics and community interaction processes at the destination level. Perceptions of tourism reflect these processes and the understanding that local people have of them, and the level of control that they feel they have over tourism development. With little trust in local decision making processes, people have a low sense of control over how tourism development affects them. In tourism planning, therefore, it may be more effective to focus primarily on the processes by which tourism development and management occurs in the local area and to look at mitigating the effects of tourists only after building community capacity to adaptively manage tourism in their area. Communities need a sense of control over their world, and this is only undermined when experts and institutions try to advise courses of action without involving a range of community players in the process of managing tourism. Thus, government and other organisations and institutions at local level must focus on working with communities to build local capacity to manage tourism, without imposing on those communities to convince them to 'treat tourists well' or to manage their environment better, so they become more attractive as a destination.
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Brathwaite, Kyla Noni. "BOPO-PRIATION:Exploring the Effects of The Corporate Adoption of the Body Positivity Movement and Audience Feedback on Women’s Perceptions of the Movement." The Ohio State University, 2020. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1587501502000494.
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Trkulja, Ivana, and Luka Tadic. "Financial anxiety and saving intentions during the Covid-19 crisis : A comparison between Sweden and Serbia." Thesis, Jönköping University, Internationella Handelshögskolan, 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hj:diva-53055.
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The Covid-19 crisis disrupted consumer behaviour in many ways and created financial challenges for the majority of people. This led to increased levels of financial anxiety, especially among young adults. The purpose of this study was to explain the influence of Covid-19 induced financial anxiety on the saving intentions of millennials. This study was based on the Theory of PlannedBehaviour, which we extended with an additional variable – financial anxiety. Additionally, the aim was to compare how this financial anxiety manifests in terms of saving intention in two different countries, Sweden and Serbia. A quantitative study was conducted, using an online survey. Data collection was carried out between April and May 2021. The non-probabilistic, snowball sampling method was utilized together with posting the survey on different Facebook groups, which resulted in 150 usable responses in Serbia and 131 in Sweden. The findings of this study suggest that financial anxiety negatively influences saving intentions in both countries. Moreover, financial anxiety had a negative impact on three out of four components (attitude to saving, perceived behavioural control to saving, personal saving intention) of the Theory of planned Behavior. Attitude towards saving is found to be the strongest predictor for the intention to save followed by perceived behavioural control. Subjective norms had the least predictive power, especially in Serbia where they failed to predict personal saving intention.
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Jarekvist, Anja. "The social construction of gender : A comparison of Tennessee Wiliam´s A Streetcar Named Desire and Eugene O´Neill´s Long Day´s Journey into Night." Thesis, Högskolan i Halmstad, Sektionen för lärarutbildning (LUT), 2013. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hh:diva-21784.
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This essay focuses on making a comparative gender analysis between Eugene O´Neill´s play “Long Day´s Journey into Night” and Tennessee William’s play “A Streetcar Named Desire”. It emphases the portraying of socially constructed gender and how the authors present their characters in relation to emotional response as well as power and acting space.
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Taylor, David Pernell. "Blacks in policing and organizational change: A comparison of departments’ participation in community oriented policing activities." Diss., NSUWorks, 2018. https://nsuworks.nova.edu/cahss_jhs_etd/19.
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Civil unrest in the1960s pitted Black citizens and police officers against each other (Kerner Commission, 1968). The Kerner Commission examined race relations and recommended the hiring of more Black officers to patrol Black neighborhoods. Recent shooting deaths of unarmed Black males primarily by White officers has led to renewed calls for police reform (Scholsser, Cha-Jua, Valgoi & Neville, 2015). This quantitative secondary analysis study utilizes data from the 2013 LEMAS survey to compare local police departments from three states (N=184) to examine whether police departments with a Black chief and/or a higher rate of Black officers reported more participation in community oriented policing activities than police departments led by Whites. The study’s hypothesis is that local police departments led by a Black chief and departments with a high rate of Black officers will report greater participation in community oriented policing activities. Descriptive data along with results from Pearson’s correlation, ANOVA and multiple regression analysis indicate there are some benefits to appointing Blacks as police chief along with hiring more Black officers. In this study, the race of the chief had a positive but not significant impact on the number of reported COP activities. The presence of more Black officers was positively correlated at a significant level with reports of higher rates of COP activities.
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Nosenzo, Daniele. "Social preferences and social comparisons." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2010. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/11362/.
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Chapter 1 introduces the thesis providing an overview of the common themes and methods underlying this research. Chapter 2 reports an experiment that examines the characteristics of effective leaders in a leader-follower voluntary contributions game. We focus on two factors: leaders’ cooperativeness and their beliefs about followers’cooperativeness. We find that groups perform best when led by cooperatively inclined leaders, partly because they are intrinsically motivated to contribute more than non-cooperative leaders, partly because they are more optimistic about followers’ cooperativeness. Chapter 3 reports an experiment comparing sequential and simultaneous contributions to a public good in a quasi-linear two-person setting. As predicted, we find that overall provision may be lower under sequential than simultaneous contributions. However, we also find that the distribution of contributions is more equitable than predicted when the first-mover is predicted to free-ride, but not when the second-mover is predicted to free-ride. These results can be explained by second-movers’ willingness to punish free-riders, and unwillingness to reward first-movers who contribute. Chapter 4 investigates the impact of social comparisons on reciprocal relationships. Using a three-person gift- exchange game we study how employees’ reciprocity towards an employer is affected by pay comparison information (information about what co-workers earn) and effort comparison information (information about how co-workers perform). We find that pay comparison information does not affect reciprocity, while effort comparison information can influence reciprocal relationships in important ways. Chapter 5 also examines the impact of pay comparisons on effort behaviour. We compare effort in a treatment where co-workers’ wages are secret with effort in two ‘public wages’ treatments differing in whether co-workers’ wages are chosen by an employer, or are fixed exogenously by the experimenter. We find that pay comparisons are detrimental for effort, particularly when coworkers’ wages are exogenous. Chapter 6 summarises the findings of this research and concludes.
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Sörensen, Viktoria. "Ungdomars åsikter om kroppsideal i media : en enkätundersökning bland gymnasieelever." Thesis, Högskolan Kristianstad, Sektionen för lärande och miljö, 2016. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hkr:diva-15633.
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Dominerande kroppsideal är föränderliga över tid och kopplas till samhällets normer, attityder och kultur. Det ideal som dominerats längst är det kvinnliga smalhetsidealet och det manliga muskulösa kroppsidealet. Idag sprids bilden av den ”perfekta” kroppen snabbare än någonsin tidigare och genom media nås allt fler. Ungdomar är en särskilt känslig målgrupp för exponeringen av kroppsideal. Det åtråvärda kroppsidealen är idag kopplade till en ökad psykisk ohälsa bland ungdomar där symtomen är bland annat; depression, ångest och ätstörningar. Som ett resultat av en förändrad attityd i samhället har ett nytt fenomen blivit allt vanligare. Fenomenet är bilder som visar upp kroppar som varierar i storlek och utseende. Även några företag har börjat använda sig av denna nya företeelse, för att göra upp med ouppnåeliga kroppsideal. Syftet med studien har varit att undersöka gymnasieelevers åsikter om det nya fenomenet, för att undersöka om det möjligen kan användas som en hälsofrämjande insatts. En nätbaserad enkätstudie genomfördes där 28 gymnasieelever svarade. Resultatet visade att majoriteten av svarspersonerna hade en positiv attityd till bilder av ”vardagliga kroppar”. Studien visade slutligen att media kan användas som arena för att sända ut hälsofrämjande budskap. Resultatet visade även vikten av att avsändarna för budskapet kodar budskapet meningsfullt och presenterar det på ett sådant sätt så att målgruppen kan ta till sig budskapet.Dominating body ideal is changing over time and are related to community’s norms, attitudes and culture. The ideal that dominated longest for females is slenderness ideal and for the males, the muscular body ideal. Today spreads the image of the "perfect" body faster than ever before and through the media reaches out to more people. Young adolescents are a particularly vulnerable target group for the exposure of dominating body ideal. The normative body ideals is now linked to the increasing of mental illness among young people whose symptoms include; depression, anxiety and eating disorders. As a result of a change of attitude in society, a new phenomenon has become gradually common. The phenomenon is pictures that shows up bodies that varies in size and appearance. Although some companies have begun to make use of this new phenomenon, to make up with unattainable body ideals. The aim of the study was to explore high school students' opinions about the new phenomenon, to investigate whether it can possibly be used as a health-insert. A web-based questionnaire study was conducted in which 28 high school students responded. The results showed that the majority of the respondents had a positive attitude to images of "everyday bodies." The study last showed that the media can be used as an arena to send out health promotion messages. The result also showed the importance of the senders of the message encodes the message meaningful and presents it in a way so that the intended audience can understand the health message.
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West, Shelia F. "Body image and self perception among African American women aged 18-30." Thesis, Kansas State University, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/2097/15053.
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Master of ScienceDepartment of Apparel, Textiles, and Interior Design
Melody LeHew
The purpose of this study was to explore how African American women think and feel about their bodies. Specifically, this study examined how Black women define beauty by means of variables such as body shape, skin complexion, and hair texture; whether African American women ages 18-30 compared themselves to media images; and if so, did comparison to these media images impact African American women’s body satisfaction. In addition, this study explored if African American women felt pressure to adopt beauty standards attributed to the dominant culture, as well as the role of racial identity in forming beauty standards and social comparison behavior. Twelve African American women were interviewed and findings of this exploratory research illustrated that the Black community has different standards than the traditional beauty standards of the U.S. Even though interviewees articulated standards of beauty for women in the Black community, there was a lack of uniformity in how these women felt about their own attractiveness: some identified with the Black beauty standards, while others did not. In addition, opinions varied regarding Black women’s engagement in social comparison behavior and whether it was related to racial identity or body satisfaction. Limitations of study included: how Black women define social comparison behavior and racial identity, self-identification of participants, and the lack of Caucasian women included in this study. However, this research still provided rich data exploring Black women’s perceptions of beauty among other issues within the Black community. Future research is required to better understand influences shaping standards of beauty within this subculture of the United States and recommendations are provided in the last chapter.
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Beyer, Steven Phillip. "Examining the Impact of Race Matching and Cultural Worldview Matching On Treatment Outcomes for Patients with Schizophrenia." University of Akron / OhioLINK, 2017. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=akron1513168908905989.
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