Background: Recent empirical research and theoretical models acknowledge that impulsive processes, can often undermine peoples’ attempts to lose weight despite currently available and effective support (Chapter 2). Aim: To develop, deliver, and evaluate an impulse management intervention to support weight loss in adults. Methods: A systematic review was conducted to identify available impulse management techniques for influencing eating behaviour (Chapter 3). Intervention Mapping was used to develop the intervention (Chapter 4) which drew on various sources including the findings from the systematic review, stakeholder consultations, existing guidance, and qualitative interviews. A two-arm randomised controlled feasibility trial (Chapter 5), with nested mixed-methods process evaluation and two cycles of intervention delivery and data collection (Chapter 6), was conducted. This assessed the feasibility and acceptability of, and informed refinements to, both the intervention and trial procedures in preparation for a full-scale effectiveness evaluation. Weight was measured as the proposed primary outcome for a full-scale trial at baseline, one-month, and three-months of follow-up, app usage data were collected at both follow-up time points, and semi-structured interviews were conducted at one-month with a subsample of intervention group participants only. Results: The systematic review critically appraised and synthesised evidence on 17 identified techniques which were categorised as Impulse-focused or Reflective techniques. Promising changes in eating behaviour and craving were found for the techniques of visuospatial loading, physical activity, and implementation intentions. Intervention Mapping resulted in development of a novel smartphone app-based intervention (ImpulsePal) aimed to reduce unhealthy snacking, overeating, and alcoholic and sugary drink consumption using impulse management techniques identified in the systematic review. Eighty-eight adults with a Body Mass Index of ≥25kg/m2 and wishing to lose weight, were recruited and randomised in a 2:1 ratio to use ImpulsePal (n=58) or to a waiting list control (n=30) group. Data were available for 74 participants (84%) at one-month and 67 (76%) at three months. Exploratory analyses suggest that the ImpulsePal group (n=43) lost 1.03kg (95% CI 0.33 to 1.74) more than controls (n=26) at one-month, and 1.01kg (95% CI -0.45 to 2.47) more at three months. Participants reported high satisfaction with the intervention and trial procedures. The process evaluation suggests that ImpulsePal and the impulse management techniques are feasible to deliver and acceptable to users. Interviews with twenty-two participants suggest that they valued having access to in-the-moment support, felt more aware of their own eating behaviour and influences on it, and felt an increased ability to resist temptations. Conclusions: This work has developed a novel, theory- and evidence-informed, person-centred app which showed potential to improve impulse management, promote healthier eating, and support weight loss. ImpulsePal is acceptable to overweight and obese adults who want to lose weight and is now ready for evaluation in a full-scale trial. The thesis discusses theoretical, methodological, and practical implications for the future development, evaluation, and implementation of digital behaviour change interventions.

With social structure and technology rapidly changing, business globalisation has been regarded as a worldwide trend. While there have been many cases and literature on management of culture integration for merger and acquisition from a Western perspective, few have discussed cultural integration in an Asian context. This study provides a case study of cultural integration strategies Lenovo has undertaken to manage employees from both teams after the M&A. It adopts a semi-structure face-to-face interview research method, which 5 participants were selected from the culture integration committee for interview. During the interview, each participant answered the questions from their perspective of the job position they are currently in. The method would enhance the quality of the research as it looks into the problems and strategy that Lenovo has encountered and undertaken from various points of view. However, as no employees from IBM PC-D on the committee were available to participate in the research, it might place some limitations on the research simply because IBM team’s opinions were not taken into account. After analysing the results obtained from the participants, the researcher found that there were several motives for Lenovo to acquire IBM PC-D, including: - 1) internationalization, 2) acquiring technology and skills, 3) acquiring a brand, 4) obtaining access to new customers, 5) increase bargaining position to suppliers. Among these five motives, acquiring brand was considered to be the most important motive. As Chinese product has always been marketed at the lower end of the product line with low costs and poor quality, acquiring IBM’s brand would enable Lenovo to boost its product image and to gain access to customers outside the Chinese market. In managing two teams within the organisation, Lenovo has taken very few steps to integrate two teams into one. Instead, a separate management mode was encouraged by Lenovo to allow IBM PC-D to maintain its own management system and procedures. In addition, a culture integration committee was voluntarily set up by employees from various departments to design initiatives to encourage communication between two teams. When problems arise due to the difference between two teams, Lenovo has adopted an accommodation strategy by making adjustments to the work schedule of its employee in the Lenovo team in order to accommodate employees in IBM team. As a result, it has increased the workload for staff in Lenovo team and this may thus lead to stress and work-life imbalance to its employees. Overall, the strategy that Lenovo has adopted to manage two teams seems to have worked well and the culture integration committee appears to have served well in encouraging the communication between two teams. On the other hand, as the participants in the interview were not directly involved with the designing and crafting the strategy of culture integration, that might have some limitation on the result. Therefore, it is suggested that further research can be done to capture the opinion from members that are directly involved in the design of culture integration strategy as well as teams from IBM PC-D in order to ensure a well provided empirical and consistent view.

In the last thirty years there have been many research studies which have examined the reasons why adolescents and young adults engage in sexual behaviours. Most of these studies have lacked a theoretical basis, Consequently there are many links made between variables, but no consistency across studies, or attempts to develop an underlying theory to explain the results. However, there have been theoretical models developed to explain adolescents’ and young adults’ sexual decision making. Unfortunately, many of these models have not been empirically validated. This thesis attempts to address these deficiencies in the literature by utilising a theory of behaviour and applying it to adolescent and young adult sexual decision making. This theory is the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB). Two longitudinal studies were conducted to examine the utility of an adaptation of the TPB to sexual decision making among adolescents and young adults. In the first study 58 adolescent males, aged between 14 years and 18 years participated in a longitudinal study using a questionnaire adapted from the Depth of Sexual Involvement Scale. In the second study, 194 young adults (156 female, 38 male) aged between 18 years and 21 years participated in a similar study. The first study found that intention to engage in behaviour was well predicted, although some of the variables in the model, did not in fact, contribute significantly to the prediction. The prediction of behaviour was less strong than that of intention. Study two found that intention to engage in behaviours was well predicted by the model. However, the degree to which intention led to behaviour was not well predicted. Overall, the results of these studies suggest that the TPB is a good theoretical basis from which to launch a systematic and theoretically informed explanation of adolescent and young adult sexual decision making. However, other factors may need to be added to the model to fully describe the decision making process and accurately predict behaviour. Suggestions are made for future research, as well as interventions that may arise as more knowledge is gathered using this paradigm.

Using a reversal design with two primary school aged children, the effectiveness in producing on-task behaviour was compared for a token system and a cognitive behaviour system. In the token system, points were earned for on-task behaviour at school which could be exchanged for rewards chosen by the pupil and parents at home. The cognitive program was conducted on an individual withdrawal basis during which time the child was taught to "stop, look, listen and think." With one child the token system preceded the cognitive and with the other child the order of the conditions was reversed. In both studies the token programs proved to be more effective than the cognitive programs in bringing about rapid and dramatic increase in on-task behaviour. When introduced first, the cognitive program appeared to produce better maintenance than when it followed the token program. Additionally, the programs helped to shift two of the teachers' attitudes towards the students from being fairly negative to more positive, as recorded on a Teachers Checklist.

Obesity is a growing public health issue with few effective treatments. Many of the human genes involved in weight regulation have homologues in other species. In Drosophila melanogaster, 11-cis-vaccenyl acetate (cVA) is a pheromone shown to affect both aggression and feeding behaviour. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of cVA exposure on gene expression in wild type flies and to confirm crosses with genetic knockouts in the cVA pathway. The genes studied in the wild type flies were Akh (homologue of glucagon), Dilp2,-3 and -5 (homologues of insulin), Dsk (homologue of cholecystokinin), sNPF (homologue of neuropeptide Y) and TβH. The knockout genes studied were Or65a, Or67d and TβH. RNA was extracted from whole heads, cDNA synthesis was performed and the cDNA was then used in SYBR Green RT-qPCR. The knockout genes were not confirmed, due to methodological problems. The expression of Dilp3, Dilp5 and Dsk were significantly lower in the experimental flies, the expression of the other genes where not affected. The results indicate that exposure to cVA affects the expression of some of the neuropeptides involved in weight regulation. Due to the methodological problems experienced, a recommendation is to confirm the data using different reagents.

Fairtrade is one way to reach sustainable development in emerging countries, for example South America and Africa. Lately, Fairtrade has become highlighted and popular. This has led to studies on consumers’ view on Fairtrade, for instance in Belgium and America. Among the previous studies, the ethical consumer has been identified. At the moment, there is no research done in Sweden on who the Swedish Ethical Consumer is, regarding purchases of Fairtrade coffee. Therefore, with this thesis we want to fill the research gap on identifying the Swedish Ethical Consumer and which factors that influence him or her in the purchase decision. The study was performed on Swedish coffee consumers on Facebook. Different factors such as consumer related, environmental related, and product related, are measured to see if there is any relationship between these factors and how they influence the Swedish Ethical Consumer. With help from a snowball sampling technique and a self-administrated survey, 111 answers were collected. From that, we could identify the Swedish Ethical Consumer, given this sample. The result showed that product and demographics seemed to be the most affecting factors on ethical consumer behaviour. For this sample, brand (taste) of the product was by far the most popular product related factor to consider when buying coffee. From the environmental factors, the demographics were of greatest matter. Attitudes and knowledge were the most important consumer related factors. It seems like a majority of the respondents who think that Fairtrade is important (attitudes) also do buy Fairtrade coffee. Also, the respondents who possess much information (knowledge) about it tend to buy it. This study contributes to fill the gap in the lack of studies of Swedish Ethical Consumer behaviour. The conclusions can be used as a guideline and tool for companies to brand a new product. It could also be helpful for organisations to provide more information about Fairtrade to the consumers.

It is widely accepted in our society that people’s paralinguistic (i.e., non-semantic characteristics of the voice) and nonverbal (i.e., posture, gestures, and facial expressions) behaviours play an important role in conveying information about their personality traits. Two particularly relevant traits include one’s preferred levels of dominance and affiliation, which are the two major axes of the interpersonal circumplex. The current study investigates how dominance and affiliation are conveyed through paralinguistic and nonverbal behaviour using a lens model framework. Two major issues addressed by this framework include: 1) How do observers make inferences about people’s dominance and affiliation using paralinguistic and nonverbal behaviours and 2) How do people’s trait dominance and affiliation relate to these behavioural cues? To examine these two questions, we collected data from 114 opposite-sex dyads who worked together to complete a relatively unstructured collaborative task. The videotaped interactions were coded for specific paralinguistic (e.g., pitch, volume, resonance) and nonverbal (e.g., hand gestures, trunk posture, facial expressions) behaviours, in addition to coding more global displays of dominance and affiliation. Participants also completed several measures of trait dominance and affiliation, which tapped both their relatively conscious (i.e., explicit) and their relatively unconscious (i.e., implicit) levels of these traits. Our findings suggest that observers used mainly paralinguistic behaviour to infer dominance and mainly nonverbal behaviour to infer affiliation. In comparison to observers’ perceptions, there were fewer significant relations between individuals’ self-reported trait dominance and affiliation and the nonverbal and paralinguistic behaviours they expressed during the interaction, suggesting that people may have limited conscious awareness of how these behaviours convey information about their trait dominance and affiliation. In line with this idea, several behaviours showed relations to implicit measures of trait dominance and affiliation. We also conducted factor analyses of the measured paralinguistic and nonverbal behaviours, to examine whether or not these behaviours might co-occur as subsets or factors. We found that paralinguistic and nonverbal behaviours can be captured by overarching factors which relate meaningfully to measures of dominance and affiliation. Finally, we demonstrated that dyad members’ paralinguistic and nonverbal behaviours become interdependent as they interact with one another.

It is widely accepted in our society that people’s paralinguistic (i.e., non-semantic characteristics of the voice) and nonverbal (i.e., posture, gestures, and facial expressions) behaviours play an important role in conveying information about their personality traits. Two particularly relevant traits include one’s preferred levels of dominance and affiliation, which are the two major axes of the interpersonal circumplex. The current study investigates how dominance and affiliation are conveyed through paralinguistic and nonverbal behaviour using a lens model framework. Two major issues addressed by this framework include: 1) How do observers make inferences about people’s dominance and affiliation using paralinguistic and nonverbal behaviours and 2) How do people’s trait dominance and affiliation relate to these behavioural cues? To examine these two questions, we collected data from 114 opposite-sex dyads who worked together to complete a relatively unstructured collaborative task. The videotaped interactions were coded for specific paralinguistic (e.g., pitch, volume, resonance) and nonverbal (e.g., hand gestures, trunk posture, facial expressions) behaviours, in addition to coding more global displays of dominance and affiliation. Participants also completed several measures of trait dominance and affiliation, which tapped both their relatively conscious (i.e., explicit) and their relatively unconscious (i.e., implicit) levels of these traits. Our findings suggest that observers used mainly paralinguistic behaviour to infer dominance and mainly nonverbal behaviour to infer affiliation. In comparison to observers’ perceptions, there were fewer significant relations between individuals’ self-reported trait dominance and affiliation and the nonverbal and paralinguistic behaviours they expressed during the interaction, suggesting that people may have limited conscious awareness of how these behaviours convey information about their trait dominance and affiliation. In line with this idea, several behaviours showed relations to implicit measures of trait dominance and affiliation. We also conducted factor analyses of the measured paralinguistic and nonverbal behaviours, to examine whether or not these behaviours might co-occur as subsets or factors. We found that paralinguistic and nonverbal behaviours can be captured by overarching factors which relate meaningfully to measures of dominance and affiliation. Finally, we demonstrated that dyad members’ paralinguistic and nonverbal behaviours become interdependent as they interact with one another.

Attachment research overlaps with many fields within psychology and is a highly under researched topic in South Africa. This study examined the relationship between the attachment style of Grade 1 learners and their socio-emotional behaviour. The following hypothesis was examined: Grade 1 learners who are securely attached display more age-appropriate socio-emotional behaviors than their counterparts who are not securely attached. The aims of the research were to: i.) describe mothers' perceptions of their children's attachment styles; ii.) investigate children's perceptions of their relationship with their primary caregiver and, iii.) describe the nature of the relationship between attachment style and certain aspects of socio-emotional behaviour in young children. In order to meet the above aims, the researcher constructed the Childhood Attachment Style Questionnaire (CASQ). In addition to the CASQ, the Preliminary Screening Checklist (PSCL), the Child Behaviour Scale (CBS) and the Kinetic Family Drawing test (KFD) were used to achieve the aims of the study. The sample consisted of 100 subjects who had met the criteria for participation in the study. Statistical and qualitative analyses of the data partially confirmed the hypothesis that secure Grade 1 learners were more likely to display age-appropriate socio-emotional behaviour as opposed to their insecure counterparts. Based on the findings of the study, various recommendations are made which have widespread relevance to the issues of behaviour problems, custody disputes and HIV/AIDS. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of Durban-Westville, 2001.

Following the deregulation of the Baking Industry in South Africa, the baking industry has since then burgeoned into a highly competitive, cut-throat industry, where survival depends on market share. As a direct result of the government's deregulation of the Bread Industry, all bread producers were forced to review their business strategies and consumer relationships, in order to survive. With an industry characterised by low margins and the notoriously low levels of brand loyalty, the challenges facing industry players in terms of strategy implementation and consumer focus has necessitated a re-look at the way businesses in the Industry operate. This study examines the factors influencing consumer behaviour in respect of bread purchases at Albany Bakeries Gauteng, with the aim of getting a deeper understanding of the drivers, of such behaviour. The study also critically examines Albany Bakeries current strategy to determine if the strategy is best suited to ensure market growth and consumer satisfaction With no formal research having been done on this subject matter, the purpose of this study is to deepen understanding, of consumer behaviour and to provide Albany Bakeries with meaningful insights in this regard. The knowledge gained from this research will help Albany Bakeries make more informed decisions and to support key marketing decisions, going forward The primary objective of this study is to determine the factors influencing consumer behaviour in respect of bread purchases at Albany Bakeries Some of the secondary objectives of this study included the determination of the strategic priorities of Albany Bakeries in relation to keeping consumers satisfied, the determination the drivers of consumer behaviour in respect of bread purchases and the determination to ascertain whether Albany Bakeries was consumer centric. IV This research study is exploratory in nature, to gain insight into the research problem. An extensive investigation into the relevant literature was done. An empirical study was also conducted and the measuring instrument consisted of a self - administered questionnaire. The population selected consisted of bread consumers from the Germiston (East Rand), Pretoria, Randburg and the West Rand geographical areas. The major findings indicated that Albany Bakeries dominates the Gauteng bread market with its product differentiation strategy. The research results indicate that product freshness and taste are the category passport factors and the major influencing decisions when making a purchase. In a deceptively complex and cut throat industry, Albany's product innovation is a key success factor Other main conclusions were also drawn. Albany Bakeries was seen to be consumer centric, with an admirable high level of consumer satisfaction. It was, inter alia, recommended that Albany Bakeries create more brand awareness by increasing the familiarity of the brand through repeated consumer exposure. It is also recommended that Albany Bakeries implement a programme to measure customer satisfaction, on an ongoing basis and to have available a mechanism to translate what customers want into information that can be usable for managerial decision making purposes. Based on the findings, the research study concludes with various recommendations, which provide direction for future research. / Thesis (MBA)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2006.