THREE STUDIES TO INVESTIGATE BIOPSYCHOSOCIAL INFLUENCES ON MARITAL CONFLICT

Research is beginning to find a positive and significant relationship between marriage and health. Even though the current literature shows that separation and divorce have strong negative consequences for the mental and physical health of both spouses (Dush & Amato, 2005), the answer to why and how this occurs has yet to be solved. A comprehensive perspective that could greatly benefit the analysis of this connection is the use of social neuroscientific methods in a biopsychosocial model. By including biological factors, social elements, and psychological variables in analyzing marriages, researchers would be able to further understand both the intra- and interpersonal elements of a relationship and their subsequent influence on marital stability. Thus, the purpose of this dissertation was to use social neuroscientific techniques to provide a comprehensive biological, psychological, and social assessments of couples, and compare that comprehension with marital satisfaction. This was accomplished by performing three studies focused on each section of the model: heart and brain reactions for biological, familial influence for social, and personal definition of love for psychological. The sample used for the first study involved 20 married couples that were recruited through flyers on the University’s campus and through announcements on a website (i.e., Craigslist). The participants came into the Family Interaction Resource Lab located on campus and were instructed to engage in a conflict interaction while being connected to a device used to measure heart and brain waves. The sample used for studies two and three included 635 participants that were recruited through mailouts, emails, and recruitment on a website (i.e., Facebook). These participants completed an online questionnaire using Qualtrics software and were all currently married. The insights provided by the results helped to (1) advance current knowledge surrounding interpersonal relationships, (2) elucidate on marital conflict for therapists and educators working with couples, (3) expand upon a rarely used research procedure for analyzing relationships, and (4) build upon the extant literature across numerous disciplines

Creating Through Mind and Emotions

The texts presented in Proportion Harmonies and Identities (PHI) Creating Through Mind and Emotions were compiled to establish a multidisciplinary platform for presenting, interacting, and disseminating research. This platform also aims to foster the awareness and discussion on Creating Through Mind and Emotions, focusing on different visions relevant to Architecture, Arts and Humanities, Design and Social Sciences, and its importance and benefits for the sense of identity, both individual and communal. The idea of Creating Through Mind and Emotions has been a powerful motor for development since the Western Early Modern Age. Its theoretical and practical foundations have become the working tools of scientists, philosophers, and artists, who seek strategies and policies to accelerate the development process in different contexts

The phenomenology of customer delight: a case study of product evaluation

This thesis presents a phenomenological case study of customer delight during product evaluation. The literature presents two existing 'theories' of customer delight. The first, from the field of Consumer Research, presents a cognitive model of post-purchase customer delight as the affective result of expectation disconfirmation. The second, from the Manufacturing literature, proposes that customers are delighted when products contain unexpected features or levels of qualities that exceed expectations. This research was motivated by the fact that our current understanding of this commercially important phenomenon is confined by expectation-based thinking. Furthermore, both streams of research have neglected to study the naturalistic occurrence of delight from the customer's perspective. The aim of this research was to generate an integrated understanding of the affective, behavioural, and cognitive nature of customer delight and its product basis. A case study methodology, incorporating interview, self-report and observational methods, was adopted to generate a triangulated understanding of productbased customer delight. The naturalistic product evaluations of 918 customers were observed and self-reported delight reactions were collected from 66 research participants. In total 414 customer delight reactions were analysed in detail. This approach aimed to generate new theory, rather than test the existing models, and this new integrative understanding of customer delight is the primary contribution of this thesis. A new model of product-based customer delight is presented, and the existing Manufacturing model is extended to incorporate the empirical findings of the case study. Whilst the findings of this research support concepts contained within the existing theories of customer delight, they also demonstrate their limitations. The cognitive and affective diversity of customer delight reactions, previously unaccounted for in the literature, was uncovered and five product-based routes to delight were identified. The emergent theory successfully integrates the two previously separate concepts of delight and builds upon them by identifying the behaviours associated with customer delight resulting from both attribute-based and holistic product appraisals

Issues of recognition and participation in changing times: the inclusion of refugees in higher education in the UK

Higher Education has become and an increasingly diverse and globalised system in which the binaries between ‘traditional’ and ‘non-traditional’ students, exclusion and inclusion have less resonance and analytical purchase. Drawing on longitudinal, empirical research with a group of refugees in higher education, this paper will argue that higher education can be marked simultaneously by belonging and recognition, deficit and exclusion. Complex differences and inequalities remain hidden and unspoken, raising new questions and challenges for pedagogy and for equal participation of students

The phenomenology of customer delight : a case study of product evaluation

This thesis presents a phenomenological case study of customer delight during product evaluation. The literature presents two existing 'theories' of customer delight. The first, from the field of Consumer Research, presents a cognitive model of post-purchase customer delight as the affective result of expectation disconfirmation. The second, from the Manufacturing literature, proposes that customers are delighted when products contain unexpected features or levels of qualities that exceed expectations. This research was motivated by the fact that our current understanding of this commercially important phenomenon is confined by expectation-based thinking. Furthermore, both streams of research have neglected to study the naturalistic occurrence of delight from the customer's perspective. The aim of this research was to generate an integrated understanding of the affective, behavioural, and cognitive nature of customer delight and its product basis. A case study methodology, incorporating interview, self-report and observational methods, was adopted to generate a triangulated understanding of productbased customer delight. The naturalistic product evaluations of 918 customers were observed and self-reported delight reactions were collected from 66 research participants. In total 414 customer delight reactions were analysed in detail. This approach aimed to generate new theory, rather than test the existing models, and this new integrative understanding of customer delight is the primary contribution of this thesis. A new model of product-based customer delight is presented, and the existing Manufacturing model is extended to incorporate the empirical findings of the case study. Whilst the findings of this research support concepts contained within the existing theories of customer delight, they also demonstrate their limitations. The cognitive and affective diversity of customer delight reactions, previously unaccounted for in the literature, was uncovered and five product-based routes to delight were identified. The emergent theory successfully integrates the two previously separate concepts of delight and builds upon them by identifying the behaviours associated with customer delight resulting from both attribute-based and holistic product appraisals.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo