While new agricultural technologies may lead to substantial yield improvements, the take-up rates in developing countries have frequently been low. There are many possible reasons why a farmer might refrain from adopting a new technology, and literature has pointed to several possible reasons in different settings. A key area for research is to understand what policies could encourage higher adoption rates. This thesis studies the research question by using a case study of fertiliser adoption in cocoa farming in Ghana. Chapter I investigates whether returns to fertiliser in cocoa farming are high and whether farmers' adoption decisions can be explained by comparative advantage. Chapter I uses data from Ghana to measure the returns to fertiliser using a correlated random model and static and dynamic panel models of homogeneous returns to fertiliser. The estimated returns in different models are positive, high and strongly significant statistically. The chapter also presents a correlated random effects model of heterogeneous technology, which allows for farmer-specific comparative advantage. The effect of the comparative advantage is found not to be statistically significant. Chapter II explores the fertiliser investment decisions and risk preferences of Ghanaian cocoa farmers in a framed field experiment. The experimental subjects decided whether to invest in fertiliser, and the fertiliser return depended on a stochastic weather realisation. An inexpensive index insurance scheme with a positive level of basis risk was found to have a minor positive effect on the fertiliser take-up, but this effect was statistically insignificant. An expensive index insurance scheme with no basis risk was found to have a substantial positive effect, and this effect was strongly significant. The experimental findings suggest that farmers are willing to pay for an index insurance if it successfully shields them from income variability. Chapter III investigates the effect of trust and of an ambiguous environment on fertiliser investments under index insurance. These two behavioural factors were studied by means of a framed field experiment conducted with Ghanaian cocoa farmers. The subjects had an option to invest in a package of fertiliser bundled with index insurance with a positive level of basis risk. The returns depended both on the subjects ́ investment choices and a stochastic weather realization. The key ingredient of the study was that for different subjects, the nature of the basis risk was framed differently. Substantially fewer subjects adopted fertiliser when possible losses of fertiliser investment were framed as resulting from the insurer ́s failure to meet its contract obligations, compared with an alternative in which the losses were framed as resulting from a mismatch between their own weather realizations and those on which the index insurance was based. A large negative effect on fertiliser investments was also found in treatments with either a small or large ambiguity regarding the exact level of basis risk. Both negative treatment effects were strongly significant. This may suggest that technologies with which farmers are relatively more experienced are more likely to be adopted under index insurance schemes. The overall experimental findings provide evidence that trust and ambiguity may be significant factors other than basis risk, limiting the effectiveness of index insurance in promoting agricultural innovation.

This dissertation describes a qualitative study that explored the perceived barriers to reporting military sexual assaults that servicewomen experienced following a sexual assault while on active duty. The study aimed to answer the following research questions: (1) What barriers to reporting did servicewomen who survived sexual assault in a military setting perceive?; (2) What role did betrayal (the act of going against a promise) play in their decision? Semi-structured interviews with three servicewomen who were sexually assaulted while on active duty and did not report the assaults were analyzed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Four superordinate themes emerged from the data including (1) external factors, (2) internal processes, (3) interpersonal aspects, and (4) need for a cultural shift. A review of existing literature, research methodology implemented, a review of results including supporting quotes from participant narratives, and a discussion of the results will be presented in this dissertation. A minority stress model adapted for servicewomen will be explored, as well as implications for clinicians and suggestions for future research.

This dissertation investigates representations of betrayal in works by Hanif Kureishi, Salman Rushdie, Irvine Welsh, and Alan Hollinghurst. In rethinking "bad" acts of betrayal as embodying an ethical desire not for the good but for "the better," this dissertation challenges the simplistic good/bad binary as mandated by neo-imperialist, late capitalist, and heteronormative society. In doing so, my project intervenes in the current paradigm of ethical literary criticism, whose focus on the canon and the universal Good gained from it runs a risk of underwriting moral majoritarianism and judgmentalism. I argue that some contemporary narratives of betrayal open up onto a new ethic, insofar as they reveal the unethical totalization assumed in ethical literary criticism's pursuit of the normative Good. The first full chapter analyzes how Kureishi's Intimacy portrays an ethical adultery as it breaks away from the tenacious authority of monogamy in portraying adult intimacy in literature, what I call the narrative of "coupledom." Instead, Intimacy imagines a new narrative of "singledom" unconstrained by the marriage/adultery dyad. In the next chapter on Fury, a novel about Manhattan's celebrity culture, I interrogate the current discourse of cosmopolitanism and propose that Rushdie's novel exposes how both cosmopolitanism and nationalism are turned into political commodities by mediafrenzied and celebrity-obsessed metropolitan cultural politics. In a world where an ethical choice between cosmopolitanism and nationalism is impossible to make, Fury achieves an ethical act of treason against both. The next chapter scrutinizes Mark Renton's "ripping off" of his best mates and his critique of capitalism in Trainspotting and Porno. If Renton betrays his friends in order to leave the plan(e) of capitalism in the original novel, he satirizes the trustworthiness of trust in Porno by crushing his best mate's blind trust in business "ethics" and by ripping him off again. The last full chapter updates the link between aesthetics and ethics in post-AIDS contexts in Hollinghurst's The Line of Beauty. In portraying without judgment beautiful, dark-skinned, dying homosexual bodies, Hollinghurst's novel "fleshes out" the traditional sphere of aesthetics that denies the low and impure pleasures frequently paired with gay sex.

This study examines the theme of betrayal in three different literary works.Betrayal is seen in different forms in the three novels. In the first chapter of the thesis, the protagonist&rsquo / s betrayal to his friend in the English writer Joseph Conrad&rsquo / s Under Western Eyes is evaluated in terms of the reasons, process, and results. Psychological analysis of the character that betrays is made. In the second chapter adultery is examined in The Painted Veil by Somerset Maugham, who is another English writer. The reasons for the adultery the woman commits, her guilty conscience after the adultery, and the enlightenment process are discussed. In the third chapter, two characters&rsquo / betrayal to their ideology is examined with the background set as Turkey in the 1970s in Bir D&uuml / g&uuml / n Gecesi by Adalet Agaoglu, who is a Turkish writer. Psychological status of the characters is studied based on their feelings at a wedding night with their reasons to have deviated from their political views.Themes such as lack of love and dilemma, which collect the three novels under the same title, are particularly examined.

<p>In this essay I argue that the plot in Sunrise with Sea Monster, written by Irish writer Neil Jordan, is based on the Oedipal myth, such as interpreted by Freud and psychoanalyst literary theory. By applying aspects of this theory we discover meanings buried within the novel. The Oedipus situation arises when the main character Donal falls in love with his piano teacher Rose, but so does his father, who decides to marry her. The desire both men have for the same woman creates a conflict of interest, as well as leading to a series of betrayals, of which the worst and ultimate one is of the father, Sam, by the son, Donal. The situation is not helped further by the lack of communication which exists between the two men. When the Oedipal stage is overcome, when both Rose and Sam are out of the picture, this leads to a sort of reconciliation between Sam and Donal. Betrayal and reconciliation are the two main themes and these are governed by the Oedipal framework of the novel. I also argue that the imagery, in particular that of water and what it is connected to adds depth to the novel as well as closely relating to the main themes and the Oedipal background: the diverse aspects of the Oedipal conflict are expressed symbolically, metaphorically etc. in the novel.</p>

The presented dissertation has as purpose to develop a reading about the modern tragedy inserted in the plays A falecida, Anjo negro e Perdoa-me por me traires, of Nelson Rodrigues, including as analytical category the betrayal, appealing theme in the studied texts, which presence echoes in the reflection dramatic action. This work points as a theoretical discussion, the concept of modern tragedy elaborated by Raymond Williams, who included the social thought of the literary work and its performance as a reflexive instrument and transformer, having in view its permanent correlation with the history and the culture. In that sense, the tragedy expresses a critical-reflexive approach, for presenting the tension between the traditional and the individual human experience, and the betrayal, as immanent resource in the composition tragic of Nelson Rodrigues, comes to represent the lonely human fight as expression of the Brazilian modern dramatic art. / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / A dissertação apresentada tem como finalidade desenvolver uma leitura sobre a tragédia moderna inserida nas peças A falecida, Anjo negro e Perdoa-me por me traíres, de Nelson Rodrigues, incluindo como categoria analítica a traição, temática recorrente nos textos estudados, cuja presença repercute na reflexão da ação dramática. Este trabalho salienta como discussão teórica, o conceito de tragédia moderna elaborado por Raymond Williams, o que inclui o pensamento social da obra literária e sua atuação como instrumento reflexivo e transformador, tendo em vista a sua permanente correlação com a história e a cultura. Nesse sentido, a tragédia expressa uma abordagem crítico-reflexiva, por apresentar a tensão entre o tradicional e a experiência humana individual, e a traição, como recurso imanente na composição trágica rodrigueana, vem a representar a luta humana solitária como expressão da moderna arte dramática brasileira.

Being a mother is often described as a difficult but rewarding experience. Maternal parenting reward (PR) may serve an important function, helping to facilitate responsive maternal care and healthy infant development. However, it should not be taken for granted that the rewards of parenting will emerge naturally for women, particularly women who were abused by their own caregivers in childhood, within family systems that enabled or perpetuated the abuse. Despite an abundance of research on the neurobiological correlates of PR, surprisingly little is known about mothers’ self-reported experience of PR, both in general and in relation to early adversity. The aims of this survey-based dissertation were to develop and psychometrically evaluate a PR self-report measure, and to determine the extent to which childhood abuse predicts short-term (family betrayal) and long-term (maternal depression, posttraumatic stress, and problematic substance use) sequelae of abuse that are associated with diminished PR. In Study 1, with 203 mothers of young children, the final 14-item questionnaire assessed PR in a way that was not confounded with social desirability or maternal demographic characteristics, and was distinct from the related constructs of parenting pleasure and satisfaction. On average, mothers reported being highly rewarded by parenting, though there were individual differences in PR within and across mothers. In Study 2, with 270 mothers of young children, maternal history of childhood psychological and sexual abuse by caregivers each predicted diminished PR indirectly. Childhood psychological abuse was strongly associated with family betrayal, or actions and inactions by the family of origin that enabled or perpetuated abuse, which in turn predicted recent maternal depression and posttraumatic stress, each of which predicted diminished PR. The association between childhood sexual abuse and diminished PR was mediated by increased maternal posttraumatic stress symptoms only, not by family betrayal or alcohol use problems related to posttraumatic stress, as hypothesized. Although alcohol use problems predicted diminished PR at the bivariate level, they did not predict PR in the full model. Maternal childhood abuse by caregivers is indirectly associated with disruptions to the social rewards of attachment, with potential intergenerational consequences for the mother-infant relationship and infant development. / 10000-01-01

In this essay I argue that the plot in Sunrise with Sea Monster, written by Irish writer Neil Jordan, is based on the Oedipal myth, such as interpreted by Freud and psychoanalyst literary theory. By applying aspects of this theory we discover meanings buried within the novel. The Oedipus situation arises when the main character Donal falls in love with his piano teacher Rose, but so does his father, who decides to marry her. The desire both men have for the same woman creates a conflict of interest, as well as leading to a series of betrayals, of which the worst and ultimate one is of the father, Sam, by the son, Donal. The situation is not helped further by the lack of communication which exists between the two men. When the Oedipal stage is overcome, when both Rose and Sam are out of the picture, this leads to a sort of reconciliation between Sam and Donal. Betrayal and reconciliation are the two main themes and these are governed by the Oedipal framework of the novel. I also argue that the imagery, in particular that of water and what it is connected to adds depth to the novel as well as closely relating to the main themes and the Oedipal background: the diverse aspects of the Oedipal conflict are expressed symbolically, metaphorically etc. in the novel.

A SINGLE REGRET is a murder mystery set on the post Hurricane Sandy Jersey shore. At thirteen, Jimmy Miller killed his father in retribution for murdering his mother. Twenty years later, he returns home because of the murder of his childhood best friend, Dillon Abernathy. Jimmy learns that Gavin, a classmate turned junkie, is charged with murdering Dillon, a scenario Jimmy doesn’t find plausible, so he decides to pursue leads the police won’t. Told in first person past tense, A SINGLE REGRET follows Jimmy as he unearths the secrets behind his friend’s death and also learns the truth behind the destruction of his own family. As in Dennis Lehane’s Mystic River, the novel examines how childhood ties shape perceptions in ways that are both true and false. Jimmy is forced to evaluate his own sense of bitterness and learn how to forgive his own mistakes and those of others.

abstract: When consumers find that something critically out of the ordinary has occurred, they direct attention to evaluate such a critical incident more closely. The results of this evaluation may put consumers on a switching path or it might lead them to engage in unfavorable behaviors from the perspective of the organization, such as engaging in negative word-or-mouth online. The negative consequences of some product (goods or services) failures go beyond simple product attribute defects, leading customers to terminate the relationship with the organization. This dissertation, which is composed of three essays, investigates how consumers engage in negative word-of-mouth on social media channels in response to their various product failures and explores an important relationship event of betrayal, which can be triggered by certain product failures. It investigates how betrayal is perceived by customers and influences a range of their behaviors across business-to-consumer and business-to-business contexts. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Business Administration 2019