M.Comm. (Investment Management) / It was postulated that the aim of consumer psychology as a science is to create constructs which can serve as a framework according to which consumer behaviour can be explained, predicted and influenced. The consumer decision-making process approach proves to be the most comprehensive and integrated approach to explain and predict consumer behaviour in terms of the individualised consumer. A fundamental problem, however, is that, as a result of their complexity and cognitive substructure, the models which have been designed to express this approach cannot easily be verified in practice. It was indicated that the model designed by Overton (1981) provides a way out of this dilemma. On the one hand the model relates well to existing consumer decision-making models, and on the other hand it is extremely useful from the viewpoint of the marketer, since consumers can be segmented according to two scales resulting from 'the model in terms of their cognitive orientation towards prcxiJct purchasing in general. The two scales were defined operationally as a rational and social consumer orientation respectively. The aim of this study was to obtain more information about cognitive consumer orientation. Contently, the study also aimed to promote scientific unity by integrating cognitive consumer orientation theoretically with field dependence and field independence, to provide a broader classification system from which new hypotheses could be derived. It was shOW1 that field independence and a rational consumer orientation both point to autonomous and cognitive-analytical functioning. A social-interpersonal disposition, on the other hand, underlies both field dependence and a social consumer orientation. Hierarchically, the constructs were set out with field dependence and field independence as the two general constructs, and the social and rational consumer orientations as the two consumer-specific constructs. The theoretical implications which the broader classification system has for cognitive consumer orientation were spelled out; amongst others, that it indicates that "field independent" could be substituted for the troublesome term "rational" . It was also shown what implications research of field dependence and field independence with regard to certain biographical correlates has for cognitive consumer orientation in terms of certain existing market segments. scenarios for certain demographic and socia-economic market segments, as well as for the so-called black and white consumer markets, were outlined. Recently it was found that field dependence does not occupy a bipolar position with regard to field independence in a•unitary construct, as has been traditionally accepted, but that the two are independent constructs. Consequently, the empirical study could be conducted more narrowly than the literature study to which it refers. Cognitive consumer orientation was also only tested in terms of cross-Cultural and gender differences…

M.A. / Please refer to full text to view abstract

Although research on consumer evaluation/perception of attribute quality is extensive, few have investigated the factors influencing perception of credence qualities, qualities that cannot be determined immediately after product use. Two sets of credence qualities were identified, those that can be determined through the acquisition of expert information and those that are determinable only through the passage of time after product use. Using a home banking service as the experimental context, subjects used the service by requesting a specified transaction to be carried out. They learnt how accurate it was carried out either immediately or a simulated one month after using the service. It was found that how soon subjects received information about its transactional accuracy influenced their evaluation/perception of its credence qualities that are related to the passage of time (e.g. security of personal access code and confidentiality of financial record) but not those that were not related to the passage of time but could be determined through the acquisition of expert information (e.g., sophistication of computer language used). As predicted, subjects who learnt a month later that their requested transaction was accurately carried out rated security and confidentiality higher than those who received the same information but immediately after use. Those who experienced an inaccurate service rated such qualities significantly lower when they learnt of its inaccuracy a month later than immediately after use. No difference in perception was found for credence qualities that are determinable through an expert and not over time. The results suggest that similarity between the known and perceived attribute qualities in terms of whether they are revealed over time or independently of time (such as through expert information) is a major influence on consumer's evaluation/perception of credence qualities. Theoretical, methodological, and managerial implications arising from this research are furnished. / Business, Sauder School of / Graduate

This was an exploratory, descriptive study, focussed on the concepts used by certain teacher educators to describe their work. Open-ended interviews were conducted with 25 teacher educators who worked with undergraduate student teachers in one Canadian university. Their descriptions of the knowledge and the practice which they believed important to the successful completion of their work were classified. Themes were identified and compared to themes derived from a review of literature about teacher education. Three broad categories of belief about the nature of, and the relationship between, the theory and the practice of teacher education were identified. Sub-categories of two of the three broad categories were also identified. The categories which emphasized the primacy of theory were called naive deduction, classical rationalism and technical rationalism. The categories which emphasized the primacy of practice were naive induction, personal practical knowledge and inquiry. The third category emphasized the necessary interaction of theory and practice. Two other broad categories of belief were identified. They described teacher educators who believed student teachers acquire knowledge and skill best If teacher educators teach theory directly (reductionlsm) and those who believed student teachers learned best when helped to interpret experience (wholism). These beliefs were interpreted as being sustaining beliefs, that is, beliefs which serve as general guides to teacher educators' work. Some of these sustaining beliefs reflect the school context of teacher education, others the university context. As a result, teacher educators face dilemmas of choice. It was concluded that this research provided some avenues for further investigation which may help teacher educators to understand more clearly the difficulties experienced when programs are developed or changed. / Education, Faculty of / Curriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department of / Graduate

Research investigating the problems experienced and the advantages enjoyed by the minority-culture child in the North American schoolroom has focused both on changing the child and on changing the school environment. Little attention has been paid to the more basic question of differences in subjective aspects of culture across ethnic grouping and generation of residence in Canada. In addition, little appears to be known about the variability in subjective culture across levels of variables like gender, ethnic salience, or use of mother tongue. The research reported in this dissertation is a basic study of subjective aspects of the concept of "person", a concept important in virtually every society and, in addition, central to Western educational thought. The study itself was an investigation of the views of 1288 Grade 10 students in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia. Each subject ranked the importance of each of 21 positive qualities of a person, and listed up to three criteria for concluding that a person has each of 11 of those qualities. Substantive hypotheses about differences in students' rankings across ethnic groups and generation of residence in Canada were confirmed. The results suggested both persistence and change in views of personal qualities, which were dissimilar across ethnic groupings. Exploratory analyses revealed provocative information about the moderating relationships of strength of religious feeling, gender and a complex of variables related to ethnicity including ethnic salience, mother tongue, religious affiliation and occupational information. Examination of the students' criteria yielded useful information about the behaviors and traits related to each of the 11 qualities, and about ages and genders of people thought to have a great deal of each quality. It was concluded that the overall results may further development of theory in the area. In practical terms, they may help to guide the classroom teacher, may stimulate the development of policy and practice in the multicultural educational setting, and may be useful for curriculum development and teacher education in the Canadian context. / Education, Faculty of / Curriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department of / Graduate

Littering, giving blood, conserving energy, voter registration and wearing seatbelts serve as examples of public behaviours which governments have attempted to alter. Whether it be for purposes of controlling costs, helping other citizens, or protecting the environment, altering behavioural patterns which operate against the general well-being of society has become big business. A plethora of techniques have been employed in efforts to sway the activity patterns of people. While various approaches have been undertaken, the research focuses upon two traditions. First, an economic or behavioural approach is employed where behavioural changes are believed to be influenced most effectively by material rewards. Second, cognitive or attitudinal approaches stress that attitudes play an operative role in effecting behavioural change. Using shifts in daily patterns of energy use as an example of social behaviour, the research reported here contrasts cognitive and economic models. While the two approaches can be complementary, it also may be that under certain conditions one or the other model is most successful. Where the two models do contrast is in the predictions made about what behavioural change will result after the removal of economic incentives. Data from a large field-experiment using a multi-stage probability sample of nearly 700 Wisconsin households is analysed to examine the influence of cognitive and behavioural models of time-of-day energy usage. The objective of the experiment was to determine whether economic stimuli could be used to reduce peoples' use of peak-time energy consumption. Behavioural change in energy consumption patterns was measured by in-house meters which recorded all usage for a year prior to the introduction of special time-of-day rates; for three years while the rates were in effect; and for a sub-sample of households, the summer after the rates ended. In addition, three waves of survey data from mailed questionnaires administered prior to, during, and following the experiment allow monitoring of the development and change in attitude toward time-of-day pricing of electricity, and its influence on behaviour. In contrast to earlier published work, this analysis suggests only a minimal, independent impact of attitude on behavioural change under time-of-day electricity rates. At the conclusion of the experiment, and in the absence of any further financial rewards, households, by and large, returned to former consumption levels. Concomitant changes in attitudinal commitment occurred as well. Nevertheless, a subset of households, constituting some twenty percent of the original sample, remained highly committed to peak electricity reductions and, to a degree, maintained their prior conserving behaviours without further financial reward. Several analyses were performed in an attempt to reconcile the contradictory nature of the current findings with those of earlier research. It is argued that the apparent influence of attitude in affecting behaviour at the time the pricing incentive was in effect was exaggerated by householders substituting an attitudinal for a financial motive. Further, the influence of price on attitude formation may have been underestimated due to the curvilinear relation of price with behaviour. Evidence in support of each of these hypotheses is provided. It is concluded that, in combination with price, attitude is important to maintaining behavioural change, but that its independent influence, in this instance, is minor. At the same time, the effect of price appears less based on the size of the pricing incentive, than serving as an informational source signalling appropriate action, irrespective of the absolute financial reward. Finally, the thesis concludes with some speculations on the lessons from this experiment for other attempts to alter behavioural patterns. / Arts, Faculty of / Sociology, Department of / Graduate

The present study examined types of practical models evident in the reported practice of counsellors at the every-day clinical level. It was found that there was one dominant model. The practical model reported by graduate counselling students was similar to the predominant model indicated by professors. The model found tends to agree with the relationship aspect of counselling as described by Egan (1982) in Stage 1 and Stage 2. However, goal setting and problem-solving techniques found in Stage 2 and 3, respectively; were not apparent. Twenty-seven individuals, twelve faculty members and fifteen graduate students in the Department of Counselling Psychology at the University of British Columbia participated in the study. Using sixty statements selected from Egan's (1982) developmental model of counselling, each participant was asked to Q-sort the statements according to what was most characteristic of oneself as a practising counsellor or as characteristic of oneself as the practising counsellor one hoped to be. Participant's results were intercorrelated. The matrix of intercorrelations was submitted to principal components analysis and then to a varimax rotation. The clearest data reduction was achieved by the first principal component without rotation. The results indicated one dominant, hypothetical model of counselling used by this sample. Also, the similarities of the hypothetical counselling model and Egan's (1982) model were within Stages 1 and 2. They differed in setting goals and problem-solving techniques. / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate

The purpose of this study was to describe counsellors' perceptions of their collaboration experiences with psychiatrists working in the context of a community mental health team. Specifically, perceptions of facilitating and impeding factors that influence collaboration were identified. Interpretive description (Thorne, Kirkham, & McDonald-Ernes, 1997), a qualitative methodology, was selected as the means of attaining descriptions of the collaboration process that would depict the commonalities among the participant sample while maintaining the unique experience of each individual. Participants included four female and four male Caucasian counsellors between the ages of 38 and 57 who possessed either an M.A. or M.Ed. degree and were currently working in a mental health team. The counsellors engaged in open-ended interviews in which they read an orienting statement and responded to the following directive: Talk about some of the particular collaboration experiences you have had with psychiatrists. Aspects of collaboration experiences fit into one of three general categories: 1) external-structural factors stemming from the work setting; 2) internal cognitive factors pertaining to counsellors' perceptions of psychiatrists and themselves; or 3) social-relational factors arising from communication styles and ways of interacting. The findings suggest that much of the quality of a collaborative interaction arises from the actual quality of the professional relationship. Findings are considered in relation to previous and future research, existing ethical codes, and counsellor training. / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate

The purpose of this study was to investigate the construct validity of the Index of Work Satisfaction developed by Slavitt and others (1978) to measure job satisfaction for nurses. Based upon need satisfaction theories, the scale contained seven subscales which were believed to explain job satisfaction. A global satisfaction level item was added in an attempt to obtain a separate measure of the dependent variable. A review of the literature revealed that a valid tool for measuring nurses' job satisfaction does not presently exist. The instrument was modified, pilot-tested for reliability and after a second phase of modification, was administered to a volunteer sample of 177 staff nurses representing several hospital and community work settings. Multiple regression and discriminant function analyses were performed on the data, and the results of these analyses were interpreted in terms of the construct validity of the job satisfaction scale. Results indicated that the scale is highly reliable, and that three of the subscales explained approximately 30 percent of the variance in the scores on the global satisfaction measure of job satisfaction. High intercorrelation of the subscales with each other and with the total scores hindered the interpretation of the variance in the total scores explained by each of the significant variables. The results of the analyses suggest that the high reliability of this version of the tool makes it a psychometrically useful measurement of job satisfaction for nurses, to the extent that job satisfaction is comprised of the seven components contained in the scale. Regarding its construct validity, there is conclusive evidence that the linear additive model of job satisfaction on which the instrument is based does not allow a complete view of the construct. Whether the three significant predictors of the total score, Professional Status, Administration, and Interaction, are part of one broader construct, or whether they interact in some unique way, could not be determined because of the multicollinearity problem. A major difficulty throughout the study was the lack of a reliable alternate measure of the criterion. The global satisfaction item responses did not correlate highly with the total test scores, and this self-report, Likert-type item would be subject to the same response bias as the questionnaire itself. Apart from the demonstration that the Professional Status, Administration, and Interaction components appear to contribute to the measurement of the construct, the study failed to gather evidence in support of the construct validity of the modified Slavitt scale. It can be concluded, therefore, that the scale 'reliably measures some aspects of job satisfaction for nurses, but one cannot state with confidence that it actually measures the complex attitude which comprises the construct "job satisfaction." Recommendations have been made for appropriate use of the tool and for further construct validation studies. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Nursing, School of / Graduate

Examines the attitudes and perceptions among parolees, and police officers on why inmates join prison gangs, how powerful they are, and their power and control in prison. Data was gathered from 250 surveys distributed to a group of parolees at an undisclosed southern California municipal police department jail, and 250 surveys distributed to police managers attending the FBI National Academy in Quantico, Virginia. Results of this study validated the hypothesis that there is a significant difference in attitudes and perceptions of parolees and police officers of why inmates join prison gangs and the power and control gang inmates have in prison.