Then And Now: A Longitudinal Study Of Attitudes Toward Women As Managers

This paper reports the results of a longitudinal study comparing the attitudes of business undergraduate students toward women as managers.  Survey results from 1981, 2000, and 2010 are compared.  For all three time periods, females report significantly more positive attitudes toward women as managers than males.  Comparing the same sex survey groups, the females of 2000 are significantly more positive toward women as managers than their 1981 counterparts.  There is no difference in attitudes when the results from 2000 and 2010 are compared.  The attitudes of the males in 2000 are not significantly different from their 1981 comparison group.  However, a significant difference in attitudes is found when the results from 2000 and 2010 are compared

An examination of the Health Belief Model when applied to Diabetes mellitus.

Previous research studies which have used Health Belief Model (I-IBM) dimensions in order to understand health outcomes have many problems which prevent clear and reliable conclusions about their results. Studies about diabetes-related health beliefs have proved to be no exception to this rule. The research presented here is an attempt to address some of these problems which include the lack of satisfactory scales to measure diabetes-related health beliefs, the use of heterogeneous samples of patients with different disease and regimen types, and the lack of prospective studies in which health beliefs are used to predict outcomes in the future. Another major problem which applies to all HBM research is that the relationships between the various dimensions of the model have not been determined. As such, the HBM is not a model at all but a catalogue of variables. The present research aimed to specify the relationships between the components of the HBM and attempted to integrate self-efficacy and locus of control beliefs in order to extend the model and improve the amount of outcome variance explained. Scales to measure diabetes-specific health beliefs were developed from the responses of 187 tablet-treated outpatients with Type II diabetes. Health beliefs were examined, on the one hand, in relation to other psychological and behavioural variables, and on the other, for their sensitivity to change after educational and treatment interventions. Both cross-sectional and longitudinal study designs were employed. The relationships between the HBM components themselves were explored in a linear and non-linear fashion

The Relation of Oral and Silent Reading with Reading Comprehension Through the Use of Eye-Tracking

Although eye-tracking measures demonstrate the ability to provide unique contributions to reading research, use of these tools among child populations remains sparse and only one other study has explored the role of reading modality on eye movement behaviors among developing readers using structural equation modeling (SEM) techniques. To address these concerns, this study utilized an eye-tracking tool to examine reading fluency and comprehension skills during oral and silent reading among 490 students in fourth and fifth grade. ANOVAs were used to examine grade and modality differences in eye movement behaviors. Grade level and reading modality significantly impacted participants’ rereading duration, number of gazes per word, and probability of committing interword regressions. Specifically, during silent reading, fourth graders exhibited fewer gazes per word compared to students in fifth grade. Shorter rereading durations were found among fifth graders when reading silently whereas they engaged in more interword regressions during oral reading. SEM analytic approaches were used to examine the factor structure of eye movements, which yielded a unidimensional latent factor in this sample consisting of single-fixation duration, first-fixation duration, and rereading duration. To better understand reading development, further studies should consider the factor structure of eye movements during oral and silent reading, and how these processes impact reading comprehension skills

Interventions for resilience in educational settings: challenging policy discourses of risk and vulnerability

‘Resilience’ has become a popular goal in research, social policy, intervention design and implementation. Reinforced by its conceptual and political slipperiness, resilience has become a key construct in school-based, universal interventions that aim to develop it as part of social and emotional competence or emotional well-being. Drawing on a case study of a popular behavioural programme used widely in British and American primary schools, this paper uses a critical social understanding that combines bio-scientific and social constructionist ideas in order to evaluate key challenges for policy, research and practice framed around resilience. The paper argues that although critical social perspectives illuminate important contemporary manifestations of old problems with behavioural interventions, and challenge narrow, moralising definitions of ‘risk’ and ‘vulnerability’, they coalesce with behavioural perspectives in a search for better state-sponsored responses to the shared question of how to build resilience amongst ‘vulnerable’ groups and individuals. Instead, we argue that critical sociologists need to resist responses that offer more sophisticated behavioural interventions and generate new forms of governance and subjectivity

Sticktion: Assessing Memory for the Customer Experience

In the quest for better service design, hospitality and service firms have often been frustrated to find that service experiences that are based on what customers say they want are not always successful. A psychological analysis of this phenomenon suggests the following premises: (1) Customers’ memory of an experience fades quickly; (2) customers’ memory of an experience comprises many sub-experiences; (3) customers’ memories of experiences are multidimensional and unintuitive; and (4) consumers cannot accurately predict what they will learn or remember. The goal of an experience design is to create a series of sub-experiences that will “stick” with the customer. This “sticktion” analysis is applied to the practical challenge of redesigning the customer experience at Pizza Hut UK. This consumer research provides a test of the four premises and an application of the underlying sticktion principles. Surveys of Pizza Hut customers found that the existing experience had its bright spots but was generally forgettable. Not only could customers not predict what they would remember about the experience, but one week after visiting the restaurant, the customers also filled in memory gaps with details that did not appear on their initial description of the visit. Even more troublesome was the fact that the invented details tended to be negative. To fill these gaps, the researchers tested specific aspects of the experience that would “stick” and included those in the new restaurant concepts. Using this approach, the chain was able to roll out new concepts that met with initial favorable results

How Co-Production and Authenticity Affect: Experience Design Management

Two keys to profitable operation are ensuring that customers have a memorable experience and developing a relationship that matches their needs. Meeting at the Cornell School of Hotel Administration, experts in experience management from industry and academe focused on ways to improve customers’ experience in a way that makes it memorable, with a goal of fostering a mutually beneficial lasting relationship. Focusing on the elements of the relationship between consumers and their favorite brands, participants in the experience management roundtable considered the most effective approaches to improve customer relationship management. One important tactic is to provide experiential clues that help customers to remember their experiences in a favorable light. This type of “sticky” recollection fends off the human tendency to invent negative details to fill gaps in memory. One useful way to view the nature of the relationship between customers and a brand is to gauge the levels of love and respect between the parties. In this framework, a brand needs to match customers’ desires for both of those relationship aspects. Customers who feel high levels of both love and respect for a brand are likely to be lucrative long-term patrons

End-of-life priorities of older adults with terminal illness and caregivers: A qualitative consultation

Abstract Background As older adults approach the end‐of‐life (EOL), many are faced with complex decisions including whether to use medical advances to prolong life. Limited information exists on the priorities of older adults at the EOL. Objective This study aimed to explore patient and family experiences and identify factors deemed important to quality EOL care. Method A descriptive qualitative study involving three focus group discussions (n = 18) and six in‐depth interviews with older adults suffering from either a terminal condition and/or caregivers were conducted in NSW, Australia. Data were analysed thematically. Results Seven major themes were identified as follows: quality as a priority, sense of control, life on hold, need for health system support, being at home, talking about death and competent and caring health professionals. An underpinning priority throughout the seven themes was knowing and adhering to patient's wishes. Conclusion Our study highlights that to better adhere to EOL patient's wishes a reorganization of care needs is required. The readiness of the health system to cater for this expectation is questionable as real choices may not be available in acute hospital settings. With an ageing population, a reorganization of care which influences the way we manage terminal patients is required

Establishing Open-Ended Assessments: Investigating the Validity of Creative Exercises

Open-ended assessments, defined as assessments with a large set of possible correct answers, by nature lend themselves to concerns regarding accurate and consistent grading. This article describes one particular open-ended assessment, named Creative Exercises (CE), designed for promoting students\u27 interconnection of concepts in a college general chemistry setting. The article presents evidence concerning several aspects of validity, including the extent scores represent chemistry knowledge and the extent scoring is consistent across three graders. The evidence is also presented in the context of what is known about concept maps, a commonly employed open-ended assessment in chemistry. Implications for the administration of CEs and the appropriateness of measuring students\u27 hierarchical organization of knowledge are also discussed as a result of this comparison