Social comparisons on social media: THE impact of Facebook on young women's body image concerns and mood

© 2014 Elsevier Ltd. The present study experimentally investigated the effect of Facebook usage on women's mood and body image, whether these effects differ from an online fashion magazine, and whether appearance comparison tendency moderates any of these effects. Female participants (. N=. 112) were randomly assigned to spend 10. min browsing their Facebook account, a magazine website, or an appearance-neutral control website before completing state measures of mood, body dissatisfaction, and appearance discrepancies (weight-related, and face, hair, and skin-related). Participants also completed a trait measure of appearance comparison tendency. Participants who spent time on Facebook reported being in a more negative mood than those who spent time on the control website. Furthermore, women high in appearance comparison tendency reported more facial, hair, and skin-related discrepancies after Facebook exposure than exposure to the control website. Given its popularity, more research is needed to better understand the impact that Facebook has on appearance concerns

Social activity-travel patterns : the role of personal networks and communication technology

Social activities are responsible for an important portion of trips and they constitute the fastest growing segment of travel. Moreover, social activities and mobility are important aspects of people’s quality of life. Therefore, social activities are important for transport planners to take into account. As social activities involve meeting with other persons at a certain time and location, the spatial-choice behavior for social activities is critical for successful urban design and planning. Over the last decades, researchers have attempted to explain individual (social) travel behavior as a result of socio-demographic and land-use variables. However, recently, it has been acknowledged that other variables that offer opportunities for social mobility have to be added. As social travel demand is derived from a wish or need to perform activities with other people, it is important to incorporate social networks into the study. Moreover, social activities are likely to be influenced by the use of new information and communication technologies (ICT’s), as these ICT’s offer new possibilities for the maintenance of social networks that are becoming more geographically spread. Knowledge about the relationship between ICT’s, social networks and social activity-travel behavior is rather limited. In order to assess future transportation needs for social activities, research is needed. The aim of this dissertation is therefore to study the way in which social activity-travel patterns are influenced by people’s personal characteristics, properties of the built environment, ICT-use and social networks. To that end, a data collection instrument was designed. The instrument consists of a two-day paper-and-pencil social interaction diary a questionnaire on personal characteristics and a follow-up questionnaire on personal social network members. The social interaction diary captured data on ICT-mediated social interactions, as well as face-to-face social activities and travel for these activities. In addition, the social interaction diary was used to collect data on the people with whom the respondents interacted during those two days, including age, gender, social category, distance and frequency of communication with different modes. In addition to the social interaction diary a questionnaire was designed to gather data on the respondents’ personal and residential characteristics. To allow the estimation of the impact of the built environment a requirement for the data collection was to secure sufficient variation in characteristics of the built environment. To this end, the sample was stratified by urban density. The data were collected between January and March 2008 in the region of Eindhoven, among 747 respondents, aged 15 or over. To capture the respondents’ social networks, a follow-up questionnaire was used, which was mailed to a subsampleof the respondents. In this social network questionnaire, respondents were asked to record information on all their social network members, including gender, age, social category, how long they have known each other, distance to their homes and the frequency of interaction with each alter by different modes (face-to-face, telephone, SMS, e-mail, IM). The social network questionnaire was completed by 116 respondents. Quantitative analyses were performed on the data. The analyses focus on exploring and testing multivariate relationships in the data. Analyses were carried out to examine the effects of personal characteristics and properties of the built environment on size and composition of social networks; contact frequency and choice between different communication modes, and social activity-travel patterns. The analyses also explored to what extent and how the nature and strength of the relationship between personal characteristics and properties of the built environment and social activity-travel patterns is mediated by ICT-mediated communication and characteristics of social networks. Regression and discrete choice models were used to predict one dependent variable as a function of one or more independent variables. To analyze simultaneously the direct and indirect dependencies between use of communication technology, social networks and activity-travel patterns, a structural equation approach was used. Because the data have a hierarchical structure (individuals (egos) have multiple alters or interactions), multi-level analysis was used. The estimation results of the models allow us to reconstruct the generation of social activities and travel demand for social purposes. The empirical results suggest that the built environment, ICT-use and social networks all play an important role in the generation of social activity-travel and have to be taken into account in transport policy

Solar bikes: user acceptance:understanding user experience, preference and acceptance

Car traffic causes carbon emissions and air pollution and has negative effects on public health and quality of life in cities. Solar bikes are an innovative, sustainable transport option that can offer a substitute for car travel. Solar bikes are electric bikes with solar cells that are powered by the sun. This expands their range compared to regular e-bikes as the bikes are charged during the trip and at the destination without electricity. The aim of this project is to understand people’s preferences, conditions for acceptance and experiences with the solar bike. Insight in preferences and experiences will assist urban policy makers in identifying which interventions in the built environment can stimulate the acceptance and use of solar bikes

Aminoacidos en músculo abdomminal

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Consumentenvoorkeuren betreffende warenhuizen:Hoe zou een warenhuis eruit moeten zien?

Dit onderzoek gaat over de voorkeuren van consumenten betreffende de indeling van warenhuizen. Daarbij gaat het om welke afdelingen het meest gewenst zijn in een warenhuis en op welke verdieping elke afdeling het best geplaatst kan worden. Tevens is onderzocht welke onderafdelingen en extra voorzieningen per afdeling gewenst zijn. De belangrijkste conclusie is dat consumenten, zowel mannen als vrouwen, het liefst ‘Vers &amp; Horeca’ op de begane grond en Mode op de eerste verdieping van het warenhuis zien. Ook zijn mannen en vrouwen het met elkaar eens over de locatie van de Beauty-afdeling, namelijk bovenin het warenhuis. Overigens hoeven mannen niet zo nodig een Beauty-afdeling, zij zien liever een Elektronicaafdeling

Estimating social travel demand of senior citizens in the Netherlands

Like many other countries, the Netherlands is experiencing a sharp rise in the ageing population. As age increases, people’s mobility may decrease. However, older people have more leisure time compared to their younger (working) counterparts, and potentially spend more time on social activities. Therefore, this group can possibly increase social travel demand. However, to date, the travel demand for social activities of senior citizens has received only little attention. This paper studies trip-making for social purposes, with a special focus on the demographic ageing factors. Using social activity diary data, models are estimated to predict the number of social trips, the travel distance and mode of transport for social trips. The results indicate that the elderly of today seem to be as mobile as their younger counterparts with respect to the number of social trips. High education and involvement in clubs on average result in more social trips and full time work is found to result in fewer social trips. With regard to trip distance the results show that the average travel distance does not decrease as people get older. Full time work is found to result in longer social trips. Shorter trips were found for people in urban as well as rural areas. Trips for the purpose of visiting or joint activities tend to be longer than average. With regard to transport mode choice the results indicate that older seniors (75+) are less likely to choose the bicycle, relative to driving. No other significant age effects were found. Significant effects were found for gender, household structure, education level, car ownership, having a disability, urban density, distance and the purpose of the social activity

Size and composition of ego-centered social networks and their effect on geographical distance and contact frequency

Social activities are responsible for a substantial proportion of trips by individuals and households. Therefore, travel demand is determined primarily by the size and the spatial distribution of people’s social networks. In the field of transportation, little is known about social networks in relation to trip generation. However, research interest in social networks is rapidly emerging. This paper describes the instrument used to collect data on ego-centered social networks in a survey in the Netherlands and the analysis of these data in relation to travel demand. Five successive regression models were used to analyze and predict the size of the ego’s social network, distribution of network members across seven social categories, geographic distance, and contact frequency (by means of information and communication technology and face-to-face) with each social network member based on sociodemographic characteristics of the ego. The results indicate that, even though significant relationships exist, the relationships between sociodemographic variables and social network size, the choice of social category, geographic distance, and (mediated) contact frequency are not strong. A better model fit is found for predicting face-to-face contact frequency