Thesis (D. Min.)--Denver Conservative Baptist Seminary, 1986. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 156-161).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--West Virginia University, 2002. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains ix, 91 p. : ill. Vita. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 39-50).

Background:Rapid development of digital technologies creates innovative ways of learning, Massive Open Online Courses being one of them. To keep up with the development, two Swedish universities have launched their own courses despite lack of clear benefits for education. Exploring the adoption process of employees and identifying differences between universities are important as the acceptance of innovation among employees is crucial for success. Purpose:The purpose of this study is to explore the adoption process of a new innovation in the education sector, thus contributing to a more concrete research of individual adoption of an innovation in education context. Research question:What are the differences between the two Swedish universities in the adoption of an innovation, being MOOC, based on the individual perception of the employees? Methodology:A qualitative embedded multiple case study strategy, with deductive reasoning. Conclusion:The findings acknowledged that the adoption of MOOCs occurs on individual level at the universities despite unclear outcomes, absence of performance-based incentives and lack of managerial support. Hence, the findings suggest that non-financial incentives and innovativeness of the individuals were the important factors triggering the acceptance. Moreover, a presentation of potential outcomes and personal benefits of the MOOCs will enhance the adoption.

The primary objective of this study is to provide a comprehensive understanding of consumers’ acceptance of mobile advertising. Specifically, this research explored how the persuasive communication process works via mobile advertising. In order to accomplish this research objective, the relationships among various factors identified from earlier studies were tested. Based on previous literature regarding consumer attitudes, media use, and innovation adoption, a conceptual framework was developed to understand consumer acceptance of mobile advertising. For this reason, the current study employed an online survey with 514 online participants. The results suggest that consumers’ attitudes toward mobile advertising are closely related with all three factors used in this study (e.g., mobile device, message, consumer factors). Furthermore, consumers’ attitudes toward mobile advertising are strongly influenced by message factors (e.g. entertainment, credibility, irritation, message interactivity) and consumer factors (e.g. social influence, compatibility). Thus, careful considerations in message strategy and thoughtful consumer research are needed to increase the effectiveness of mobile advertising. Additionally, the sizable and significant impact of consumer attitude on behavioral intention further supports findings from previous research. / text

Recent investigations have suggested that the use of emotion-avoidance or emotion- suppression strategies to cope with anxiety contributes to the development and maintenance of anxiety disorders, and that substituting these strategies with emotional acceptance can lead to effective symptom reduction. We wished to consider whether attempts to suppress the negative emotions associated with exposure therapy would serve to impede emotional processing and symptom reduction, and conversely, whether acceptance of these emotions would augment treatment efficacy. Fifty-nine participants displaying marked claustrophobic fear were assigned to receive 30 minutes of exposure (enclosure in a small chamber) while receiving, A) instructions to accept and allow the experience of unpleasant emotions (ACC), B) instructions to control and suppress the experience of unpleasant emotions (SUP), or C) no instructions regarding emotion regulation (exposure only; EO). Outcome assessments were conducted prior to treatment, immediately following treatment, and at one-month follow-up, and included fear and heart rate reactivity in response to a behavioral approach test. We predicted that ACC participants would display greater reductions in claustrophobic fear than EO participants, and that EO participants would in turn display greater reductions in claustrophobic fear than SUP participants. These hypotheses were not supported. In addition, a detailed analysis of treatment process data was conducted. Peak fear ratings, claustrophobic threat expectancies, self-efficacy, and acceptance of anxiety were collected over the course of the treatment session, and hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) was used to produce individual growth curves for these variables. Three hypotheses were formulated: 1) ACC participants would display a more rapid improvement in these measures than SUP and EO participants, 2) threat expectancies, self-efficacy and anxiety would mediate reductions in fear over the course of treatment, and 3) mediational pathways would be moderated by treatment condition. Though no support was found for our first process hypothesis, treatment specific mediation was found. Among ACC participants, self-efficacy and suffocation expectancies mediated the session-fear relationship, and among EO participants, entrapment expectancies mediated this relationship. Among SUP participants, no significant mediators were identified. / text

This research established that fishskin leather is still in the introductory stage of its product life cycle, in spite of the fact that the leather has been in existence for more than 200 years. The reasons why such an innovative product did not have more widespread prestige were studied. It was found that a critical factor was a need for a change in attitude about the leather by both manufacturers and consumers. Further, there appeared to be little activity directed towards overcoming the observed negative image of a product made from the skin of fish, which could be improved by more effective marketing and persuasive advertising. The marketing environment was studied in order to establish how it works and what effect it might have on the marketing of fishskin leather products; consumer acceptance of fishskin leather was also examined, the -research then included a series of steps for grounded theory building according to Eisenhardt and Dibb and Simkin. This work was designed to contribute to the innovation-development process, to include consumer acceptance of fishskin leather products. As a result, a model was constructed by modifying that of Albrecht, Horne, Kunz and Stout to produce an international and national model of fishskin leather marketing channels. Survey and statistical research began with the isolation of a representative sample from the target population consisting of tanners, designers, manufacturers and retailers - a city centre survey of the opinions of shoppers was also carried out, as were a series of case studies. From the literature and interviews, significant variables were selected so that a questionnaire could be constructed, and pilot tested prior to circulation. Two forms of analysis were applied to the collected data. The first was descriptive which allowed the data to be cleaned up and for the researcher to become more familiar with the data. Descriptive statistics were followed by submitting normally distributed data to the multivariate techniques of factor and cluster analysis. The statistical analysis identified that the most important new product characteristics were quality, craftsmanship, price and style, and that the most successful marketing strategies were those of product and price of the retail marketing mix or the four p's product, price, place and promotion. This research has produced a better understanding of the factors involved in the diffusion of fishskin leather. It has also identified the strategic methods and marketing innovation activities needed for the marketing of fishskin leather products.

Problematic levels of eating disorder (ED) spectrum problems are becoming increasingly pervasive on college campuses, especially among female college students. Research suggests that ED cognitions and a lack of body image acceptance are linked to diminished psychological flexibility (PF), which is linked to ED and other negative health symptoms. Two hundred thirty-six undergraduates completed an online survey, and mediation analyses were conducted. PF fully mediated the relation between ED cognitions and non-specific psychiatric symptoms and partially mediated the link between ED cognitions and ED symptoms. PF also partially mediated the link between body image acceptance and non-specific psychiatric symptoms, but not the relation between body image acceptance and ED symptoms. Findings suggest that clinical symptoms and one’s coping style are both important factors to take into consideration in case conceptualization and treatment, and suggest that therapies such as ACT that target PF may be beneficial in treating ED spectrum problems.

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Intrusive cognitions are a natural occurrence within our stream of consciousness, however, when they become repetitive, negative, distressing, and difficult to control, they may warrant clinical concern. Thought suppression is a common control strategy used to manage intrusive thoughts even though research suggests it may actually exacerbate the problem. Conversely, acceptance-based interventions have gained recent attention as an alternative strategy for managing distressing internal experiences. Only preliminary research has focused on the psycho- and neurophysiological bases of intrusive cognitions, and their relationship to cognitive control strategies. Evidence suggests that the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) may be a brain region critically involved in this process. The present investigation compared the subjective, behavioral, and physiological effects of a thought suppression and acceptance strategy in a sample of university students with high or low obsessive-compulsive (OC) characteristics who were exposed to an emotion-evoking film clip. Participants were instructed either to suppress or accept any intrusive cognitions during a rest period after the film clip, while monitoring for the number of intrusions. Next, psychophysiological signals and reaction times were measured while participants performed a variant of the Stroop task. The commission of errors during a forced choice task generates an error-related negativity (ERN), which is believed to index activity in the ACC. Results showed that self-reported intrusions during the rest interval were greater for the acceptance group and the high-OC group. Correlations suggested that participants who reported more effort at suppression also indicated more distress about their thoughts, whereas those who reported more acceptance indicated less distress. During Stroop task errors, the ERN was apparent as a maximal frontal negativity, and was larger for the suppression group than the acceptance group at a frontal scalp site (Fz), but not a central scalp site (Cz). Correlations between self-reported intrusions at rest and ERN amplitude indicated that participants who reported fewer intrusions demonstrated enhanced ERNs, a marker for increased ACC activity. These findings may be interpreted as supporting the hypothesis that thought suppression is associated with increased ACC activity and greater self-reported discomfort with the intrusions.