The consumption of energy-dense fast foods has been implicated as a causal factor in the development of obesity. The development of strategies to modify food choice behaviour requires an understanding of both the behaviour and the influencing factors (in particular, beliefs, attitudes, and social influences). The Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB; Ajzen, 1988) is one of the most widely used and accepted models of the intention-behaviour relationship within the health literature (Bagozzi, Wong, Abe, & Bergami, 2000; Conner & Armitage, 1998; Sheppard, Hartwick, & Warshaw, 1988; Sutton, 1998). This thesis spans three studies, applying and extending the TPB to examine factors influencing fast-food consumption in an Australian population. The first study is a qualitative analysis examining components of the belief stage of the TPB, including behavioural outcome, normative, and control beliefs in relation to frequent fast-food consumption. Aside from details of these beliefs, which were used to develop a quantitative measure for application in the second study, the key outcomes of this study were a definition of fast food which was applied throughout each of the studies, clarification of how fast food fits within Australian lifestyles, and generation of additional information regarding other possible influences on fast-food consumption beyond those addressed by the TPB. The additional variables included for examination were affective responses to fast food, individual differences in sensitivity to reward, and the extent to which both consideration of the future consequences of frequent fast-food consumption and fear of being negatively evaluated are influential on consumption rates. The second, quantitative study applied both the TPB-based instrument developed from findings of the first study as well as the four additional measures with the aim of improving the explanatory ability of the TPB in terms of fast-food consumption. Structural equation modelling was used and although the model performed well overall, explaining up to 50% of the variance in both intention and behaviour, there were some variables that did not perform strongly. In particular, the measure of affective responses captured with a semantic differential scale was not significantly predictive, and the third study was designed and conducted to test the performance of a more sophisticated measure in the hope that implicit, in addition to explicit, responses would provide greater explanatory value. The Implicit Association Test (IAT; Greenwald, McGhee, & Schwartz, 1998; Greenwald, Nosek, & Banaji, 2003) is said to provide some insight into more implicit attitudes by measuring the degree to which an individual associates conceptual categories through response latencies (or timed responses) whilst opportunities for introspection are minimised. Some have also suggested that the IAT may contribute well when it is combined with other measures, particularly in the prediction of behaviour, choice, or judgement (Brunel, Tietje, & Greenwald, 2004). Therefore, the third study combined measures based on the TPB with the IAT to investigate the nature of both implicit and explicit beliefs underlying attitudes towards fast foods. Overall, the associations captured by the IAT did not help to explain a great deal of variance in fast-food consumption, although there were differences in associations according to stimulus type with arousal-related stimuli generating stronger results than valence-related stimuli. Differences in associations with fast food were also found across groups divided according to Body Mass Index, with overweight people demonstrating more positive associations than either normal weight or obese people. A summary discusses the potential application of the findings in the development and implementation of future intervention and obesity prevention strategies as well as directions for future research. / http://proxy.library.adelaide.edu.au/login?url= http://library.adelaide.edu.au/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=1326647 / Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Psychology and School of Medicine, 2008

The consumption of energy-dense fast foods has been implicated as a causal factor in the development of obesity. The development of strategies to modify food choice behaviour requires an understanding of both the behaviour and the influencing factors (in particular, beliefs, attitudes, and social influences). The Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB; Ajzen, 1988) is one of the most widely used and accepted models of the intention-behaviour relationship within the health literature (Bagozzi, Wong, Abe, & Bergami, 2000; Conner & Armitage, 1998; Sheppard, Hartwick, & Warshaw, 1988; Sutton, 1998). This thesis spans three studies, applying and extending the TPB to examine factors influencing fast-food consumption in an Australian population. The first study is a qualitative analysis examining components of the belief stage of the TPB, including behavioural outcome, normative, and control beliefs in relation to frequent fast-food consumption. Aside from details of these beliefs, which were used to develop a quantitative measure for application in the second study, the key outcomes of this study were a definition of fast food which was applied throughout each of the studies, clarification of how fast food fits within Australian lifestyles, and generation of additional information regarding other possible influences on fast-food consumption beyond those addressed by the TPB. The additional variables included for examination were affective responses to fast food, individual differences in sensitivity to reward, and the extent to which both consideration of the future consequences of frequent fast-food consumption and fear of being negatively evaluated are influential on consumption rates. The second, quantitative study applied both the TPB-based instrument developed from findings of the first study as well as the four additional measures with the aim of improving the explanatory ability of the TPB in terms of fast-food consumption. Structural equation modelling was used and although the model performed well overall, explaining up to 50% of the variance in both intention and behaviour, there were some variables that did not perform strongly. In particular, the measure of affective responses captured with a semantic differential scale was not significantly predictive, and the third study was designed and conducted to test the performance of a more sophisticated measure in the hope that implicit, in addition to explicit, responses would provide greater explanatory value. The Implicit Association Test (IAT; Greenwald, McGhee, & Schwartz, 1998; Greenwald, Nosek, & Banaji, 2003) is said to provide some insight into more implicit attitudes by measuring the degree to which an individual associates conceptual categories through response latencies (or timed responses) whilst opportunities for introspection are minimised. Some have also suggested that the IAT may contribute well when it is combined with other measures, particularly in the prediction of behaviour, choice, or judgement (Brunel, Tietje, & Greenwald, 2004). Therefore, the third study combined measures based on the TPB with the IAT to investigate the nature of both implicit and explicit beliefs underlying attitudes towards fast foods. Overall, the associations captured by the IAT did not help to explain a great deal of variance in fast-food consumption, although there were differences in associations according to stimulus type with arousal-related stimuli generating stronger results than valence-related stimuli. Differences in associations with fast food were also found across groups divided according to Body Mass Index, with overweight people demonstrating more positive associations than either normal weight or obese people. A summary discusses the potential application of the findings in the development and implementation of future intervention and obesity prevention strategies as well as directions for future research. / http://proxy.library.adelaide.edu.au/login?url= http://library.adelaide.edu.au/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=1326647 / Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Psychology and School of Medicine, 2008

The consumption of energy-dense fast foods has been implicated as a causal factor in the development of obesity. The development of strategies to modify food choice behaviour requires an understanding of both the behaviour and the influencing factors (in particular, beliefs, attitudes, and social influences). The Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB; Ajzen, 1988) is one of the most widely used and accepted models of the intention-behaviour relationship within the health literature (Bagozzi, Wong, Abe, & Bergami, 2000; Conner & Armitage, 1998; Sheppard, Hartwick, & Warshaw, 1988; Sutton, 1998). This thesis spans three studies, applying and extending the TPB to examine factors influencing fast-food consumption in an Australian population. The first study is a qualitative analysis examining components of the belief stage of the TPB, including behavioural outcome, normative, and control beliefs in relation to frequent fast-food consumption. Aside from details of these beliefs, which were used to develop a quantitative measure for application in the second study, the key outcomes of this study were a definition of fast food which was applied throughout each of the studies, clarification of how fast food fits within Australian lifestyles, and generation of additional information regarding other possible influences on fast-food consumption beyond those addressed by the TPB. The additional variables included for examination were affective responses to fast food, individual differences in sensitivity to reward, and the extent to which both consideration of the future consequences of frequent fast-food consumption and fear of being negatively evaluated are influential on consumption rates. The second, quantitative study applied both the TPB-based instrument developed from findings of the first study as well as the four additional measures with the aim of improving the explanatory ability of the TPB in terms of fast-food consumption. Structural equation modelling was used and although the model performed well overall, explaining up to 50% of the variance in both intention and behaviour, there were some variables that did not perform strongly. In particular, the measure of affective responses captured with a semantic differential scale was not significantly predictive, and the third study was designed and conducted to test the performance of a more sophisticated measure in the hope that implicit, in addition to explicit, responses would provide greater explanatory value. The Implicit Association Test (IAT; Greenwald, McGhee, & Schwartz, 1998; Greenwald, Nosek, & Banaji, 2003) is said to provide some insight into more implicit attitudes by measuring the degree to which an individual associates conceptual categories through response latencies (or timed responses) whilst opportunities for introspection are minimised. Some have also suggested that the IAT may contribute well when it is combined with other measures, particularly in the prediction of behaviour, choice, or judgement (Brunel, Tietje, & Greenwald, 2004). Therefore, the third study combined measures based on the TPB with the IAT to investigate the nature of both implicit and explicit beliefs underlying attitudes towards fast foods. Overall, the associations captured by the IAT did not help to explain a great deal of variance in fast-food consumption, although there were differences in associations according to stimulus type with arousal-related stimuli generating stronger results than valence-related stimuli. Differences in associations with fast food were also found across groups divided according to Body Mass Index, with overweight people demonstrating more positive associations than either normal weight or obese people. A summary discusses the potential application of the findings in the development and implementation of future intervention and obesity prevention strategies as well as directions for future research. / http://proxy.library.adelaide.edu.au/login?url= http://library.adelaide.edu.au/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=1326647 / Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Psychology and School of Medicine, 2008

Background: Brands that decide to publish sexist advertisements can generate issues for the company, as well as the perception the consumer has of the brand can become negative. This as consumers form attitudes towards the brand’s delivered communication which influence the overall evaluation the consumer has towards the brand. It is therefore of importance for brands to understand how to respond to sexist advertisements that have been published in order to determine the created negative publicity, where one given approach is to apply one of the image repair strategies. Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe how a brand’s image repair strategy towards its sexist advertisement affects consumers’ attitudes. Methodology: This research undertook a qualitative research approach with a descriptive nature. In order to ensure that the advertisements were classified as sexist and that the image repair strategies correspond with the brand’s responses according to the public, a pre-study was conducted through five semi-structured interviews. For the main study eight semi-structured interviews were conducted with both men and women as participants within the ages of 19-56 years old. Findings: The thesis identified that consumers' attitudes were affected by the four components: correspondence between advertisement and response, authenticity in the response, clarity regarding what actions to take and pre-knowledge of the brand. These components are therefore of importance for companies to take in consideration when responding towards sexist advertisements that they have sent out. Conclusion: Regarding the image repair strategies it was found that the responses given through the strategies of denial, evasion of responsibility and reduction of offensives lacked in all detected components. Furthermore, mortification as a strategy was not perceived as negative regarding the responses, however it still lacked the components. Corrective action was the only strategy where consumers' attitudes did not become negative towards the correspondence and authenticity in the response. However, all five strategies lacked clarity regarding what actions to take.