Schools are sites of great power and influence where the “obesity” discourse is often taken uncritically as truth and reproduced, to the detriment of young people. The purpose of this thesis was to investigate how theories of fatness can inform theories of culturally relevant pedagogy with the goal of helping teachers create spaces where increased size acceptance is possible for secondary students. Literature from both these areas of study was reviewed and applied to the Ontario secondary curriculum documents for science and physical education. This analysis demonstrated a body acceptance orientation in teaching these disciplines, and that doing so can mitigate many of the negative effects of living in a fat hating world.

Schools are sites of great power and influence where the “obesity” discourse is often taken uncritically as truth and reproduced, to the detriment of young people. The purpose of this thesis was to investigate how theories of fatness can inform theories of culturally relevant pedagogy with the goal of helping teachers create spaces where increased size acceptance is possible for secondary students. Literature from both these areas of study was reviewed and applied to the Ontario secondary curriculum documents for science and physical education. This analysis demonstrated a body acceptance orientation in teaching these disciplines, and that doing so can mitigate many of the negative effects of living in a fat hating world.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2005. / Supervisors: Kristin D. Neff and Stephanie S. Rude. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Problem: Parallels have been drawn between the rise of the internet in 1990s and the present rise of bitcoin (cryptocurrency) and underlying blockchain technology. This resulted in a widespread of media coverage due to extreme price fluctuations and increased supply and demand. Garcia et al. (2014) argues that this is driven by several social aspects including word-of-mouth communication on social media, indicating that this aspect of social media effects individual attitude formation and intention towards cryptocurrency. However, this combination of social media of antecedent of consumer acceptance is limited explored, especially in the context of technology acceptance.   Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to create further understanding in the Technology Acceptance Model with the additional construct: social influence, first suggested by Malhotra et al. (1999). Hereby, the additional construct of social media influence was added to advance the indirect effects of social media influence on attitude formation and behavioural intention towards cryptocurrency, through the processes of social influence (internalization; identification; compliance) by Kelman.   Method: This study carries out a quantitative study where survey-research was used that included a total sample of 250 cases. This sample consists of individuals between 18-37 years old, where social media usage is part of the life. As a result of the data collection, analysis was conducted using multiple regression techniques.   Conclusion: Analysis of the findings established theoretical validation of the appliance of the Technology Acceptance Model on digital innovation, like cryptocurrency. By adding the construct of social media, further understanding is created in the behaviour of millennials towards cryptocurrency. The evidence suggests that there are clear indirect effects of social media on attitude formation and intention towards engaging in cryptocurrency through the processes of social influence. This study should be seen as preliminary, where future research could be built upon. More specifically, in terms of consumer acceptance of cryptocurrency and the extent of influence by social media.

Mobile technology has become increasingly common in today’s society, enabling a whole new set of advantageous services that has a profound impact on our daily lives. This has led to that the mobile electronic identification application (mobile eID app) software has emerged, creating the possibility for users to authenticate important tasks and validating one’s identity through a mobile device. Existing literature on mobile electronic identification (mobile eID) has touched upon several aspects of this phenomenon, however, no specific research related to the user acceptance has been conducted. Thus, this paper seeks to identify the influencing factors that lead to the acceptance of using a mobile eID app. To analyze the adoption behavior of mobile eID app users, a conceptual, and later refined model consisting of 7 factors and the relationship between these were proposed. This model was based on the well-researched Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and extended to better fit the subject of this research. 13 hypotheses based on already existing research within the field of mobile service application acceptance were proposed and Sweden, having heavily implemented this phenomenon into the society, served as this study’s empirical site. The required primary dataset for hypotheses testing was collected through conducting a questionnaire distributed using a convenience sampling method. The gathered data was analyzed through the statistical software programs SPSS and SPSS AMOS to see if correlations between factors existed. The result showed that 10 hypotheses were accepted, and 3 hypotheses were rejected. This concludes that the factors influencing the acceptance of using mobile eID apps to validate one's identity online in Sweden are the following ranging from the largest effect to the least effect: perceived usefulness of a mobile eID app, subjective norm, perceived ease of use of a mobile eID app, perceived convenience of a mobile eID app, attitude towards using a mobile eID app, and perceived security of a mobile eID app. The findings of this study advance the theory within technology acceptance and contributes to the foundation for future research within the field of mobile electronic identification as well as for user acceptance within related subjects.

The use of Electronic Prescribing Systems (EPS) has significant potential role in improving patient safety and reducing adverse drug events. However, the introduction of these systems can have negative outcome on delivery of care if healthcare providers are not utilizing regularly and accept it. This study aims to explore paediatrician’s attitude towards electronic prescribing systems as well as understand the possible factors affecting user acceptance at tertiary care using the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). A qualitative research methodology was applied. Semi-structured interviews were developed according to TAM model and used as primary source of collecting empirical data. Seven research participants were interviewed. The findings of this study had identified factors that are important for paediatrician’s acceptance of EPS systems. Although paediatricians are positive to the usefulness of EPS, it appears that there are some acceptance problems due to ease of use concerns and usability issues of the system. The acceptance of EPS can be improved by leveraging ease of use as well as enhancing training.

This study aimed to investigate the use of values based training with typically developing adults to affect levels of physical activity recorded by FitBit Flex technology in the form of step count. Traditional approaches have shown promise but with mixed results. Interestingly, one must look outside of behavior analysis for interventions attempting to affect control by an individual’s covert verbal behavior. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) has been shown to be effective in various behavior change areas by using a values based approach that focuses on the control of rules and their motivative functions. An ACT training protocol (ACTr) consisting of values identification, present moment training, and committed action (goal setting) was implemented across four sessions to teach various tools in an effort to relate personal values to physical activity and create short-term and long-term goals with respect to those values. Results show small to moderate increases in physical activity during intervention with continued increases seen in follow-up. These results support the potential of using values based training to increase physical activity levels.

Användaracceptans är en viktig del i alla systemutvecklingsprojekt och är också en väldigt lättpåverkad variabel för en lyckad implementering. Därför är det viktigt att ha översikt på sådana faktorer som kan påverka användaracceptansen negativt, en sådan faktor är försening. Denna uppsats belyser sammanhanget mellan hur en försening påverkar användaracceptansen. Genom att låta en undersökningsgrupp genomgå en enkät utformad efter Technology Acceptance Model har jag samlat upp en generaliserad åsikt. Resultaten visar att försening som variabel inte påverkar användaracceptansen för fallstudien. / User acceptance is an important part of all system development projects and is also a very easily influenced variable for a successful implementation. That is why it is important to have an overview of those factors that could influence the user acceptance negatively, one of those factors being delay. This thesis highlights the cohesion between a delayed project and its influence over the user acceptance. By letting a study group answer a survey formed by the Technology Acceptance Model, I have gathered the generalized opinion of the group. The results show that delay as a variable does not influence the user acceptance of this case study.

Client self-acceptance is a crucial element of mental health and a goal of psychotherapy. It has been demonstrated that client self-disclosure in psychotherapy is instrumental in the promotion of self-acceptance. Reflection, probing, and paradoxical therapist responses frequently are used to elicit self-disclosure. Cognitive dissonance theory was used to provide a theoretical understanding of these techniques and their use in the promotion of self-acceptance. Reflection, probing, and paradoxical responses were conceptualized as providing a client with different perceptions of choice over self-disclosure that may affect the occurrence of self-acceptance. This study compared the effects of the reflection, probing, and paradoxical techniques on self-acceptance and anxiety following self-disclosure.

Human behaviour in educational contexts can be facilitated and supported by technology enhancements. This thesis considers a virtual 3D world as one such technological enhancement and explores its use in supporting technology acceptance in pre-service teacher education. The adaptation of different educational technology tools can often be challenging for teachers due to negative perceptions, lack of experience and a fear of technology. This thesis investigates the role that immersion within virtual environments can play to change perceptions, increase experience with and overcome fears associated to adopting technologies in the classroom. For this reason, this thesis asks the following questions: What factors and indicators show a positive influence on the participants’ perceptions of learning technologies? Do the virtual world (VW) activities encourage more VW connections and interactions inside the VW? What are the pre-service teachers’ reflections on learning in the VW setting? How is the learning experience in the VW applied to the real world classroom practice? This study focuses on the use of classroom technologies in a pre-service teaching program at the University of Malta. PreVieW (Pre-service teachers Virtual World experience) is evaluated using quantitative, qualitative and social network analysis (SNA). The combination of these three methods is used to measure the extent of the VW’s influence as a medium in affecting the participants’ perceptions about classroom technologies and their behavioural intentions to adopt technology during teaching. The results show that the VW experience has an overall significant positive effect on the self-reported perceptions of technology. Factors affecting this result are perceived ease of use, experience and attitude, whilst social network graphs show that VW activities are responsible for social group formations. Participants attribute the strengths of PreVieW to its flexibility and learner-centric activities whilst finding the technical setup as challenging. Participants reflect on the cultural differences in the understanding of teaching and learning in the VW as opposed to a traditional classroom. Findings lead to a deeper understanding of the human-computer interactions in a VW set in a formal learning experience. Following this a model is recommended proposing the integration of a VW experience in a teacher education program together with a number of propositions to enrich learning in a 3D VW.