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In today's society a beauty ideal exists in America, which attempts to define female beauty as fitting into a certain mold. Certain characteristics have been deemed the most attractive when it comes to female physical attractiveness, and an ideal image of beauty has been presented by the media. This research focuses on whether or not everyone buys into that beauty ideal, and examines the impact that a person's sex and race has on the physical characteristics which that individual defines as the most appealing. Surveys were administered to 300 UCF students age 18-35. Participants were asked about ten different physical characteristics relating to women, and were asked to choose the characteristic among each group that they found the most physically attractive or beautiful. The study showed that both sex and racial differences do exist, and that there are variations in what different people consider beautiful. Not everyone has the same opinion on what is attractive in regards to the physical appearance of women.

Previous experiments have shown that voice pitch (the perception of fundamental frequency and/or corresponding harmonics) is positively associated with women’s voice attractiveness, however all of this research is on women’s speaking voices. Singing is important for the mating success of non-human animals, is cross-culturally universal in humans, and is highly sexualized in many cultures. Thus, singing could contribute to mating success and attraction in humans. First, we investigated whether previous findings, that high voice pitch when speaking predicts women’s voice attractiveness, extend to when women sing. We also examined whether pitch- and rhythm accuracy contribute to women’s singing voice attractiveness. Voice pitch was positively related to women’s singing voice attractiveness as judged by men more than when judged by women, and speaking voice attractiveness was positively related to singing voice attractiveness. Thus, men and women may be reacting to the same indicator of women’s underlying quality (i.e. voice pitch) in both women’s speaking and singing voices, differently. Men may be attracted to high pitch, whereas women may show a weaker relationship, as they tend to be more romantically jealous of women with high pitched voices. Pitch- and rhythm accuracy did not predict women’s singing voice attractiveness. This result can be interpreted in different ways. It could mean that women’s voice pitch may be more important in determining men’s perceptions of their singing voice attractiveness than is their singing ability, or our measures were ill suited to the task. Collectively, these results are the first to show that singing voices are more attractive than speaking voices, people with attractive speaking voices tend to have attractive singing voices, and that singing and speaking voices relate to the same underlying qualities. Thus, singing may be an indicator of mate value and could have played a role in the evolution of sex differences in the voice if our ancestors had similar preferences. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

In the conditions of constantly changing economic phenomena and processes, regular fluctuations in the domestic and foreign markets, the most acute is the problem of effective investment and the use of capital in order to obtain a positive economic effect when investing. The purpose of the master's thesis is to develop a methodology for assessing the investment attractiveness of a small industrial enterprise. The analysis was based on the study of scientific and periodical literature, the study of existing methods of assessing investment attractiveness and experience of implementation in practice. As sources of information we used legal acts, the database of publications of the Russian science citation index, presented on the resource Elibrary, statistics on the subject of research, management reporting data and internal documents of the studied enterprise. In the course of writing a master's thesis, an algorithm for assessing the investment attractiveness of a small industrial enterprise was developed and tested. The use of the developed tools is aimed at increasing the level of investment attractiveness of small industrial enterprises, as well as improving the accuracy of the investor's assessment of small industrial enterprises in the selection of investment objects. As a result of approbation of the developed technique the level of investment attractiveness of the operating industrial enterprise was increased. / В условиях постоянно изменяющихся экономических явлений и процессов, регулярных колебаний на внутреннем и внешнем рынках, наиболее острой является проблема эффективного вложения и использования капитала с целью получения положительного экономического эффекта при инвестировании. Целью магистерской диссертации является разработка методики оценки инвестиционной привлекательности малого промышленного предприятия. Анализ основывался на изучении научно-периодической литературы, изучении существующих методик оценки инвестиционной привлекательности и опыта внедрения в практику. В качестве источников информации использовались нормативно-правовые акты, база публикаций Российского индекса научного цитирования, представленная на ресурсе Elibrary, данные статистики по тематике исследования, данные управленческой отчетности и внутренние документы исследуемого предприятия. В ходе написания магистерской диссертации была разработана и апробирован алгоритм оценки инвестиционной привлекательности малого промышленного предприятия. Использование разработанного инструментария нацелено на повышения уровня инвестиционной привлекательности малого промышленного предприятия, а также на повышение точность оценки инвестором малых промышленных предприятий при выборе объектов инвестирования. В результате апробации разработанной методики был повышен уровень инвестиционной привлекательности действующего промышленного предприятия.

The purpose of the current study was to explore whether personality dispositions can influence perceived physical appearance. Past research demonstrates that gendered and non-gendered characteristics lead to differential preferences for potential romantic interests among males and females (e.g., Cash & Smith, 1982). These previous studies have not, however, measured direct influence on pulchritude. In the present study, gendered and non-gendered personality descriptions were paired with pictures of average-looking individuals of both sexes to determine the influence of gender roles on perceived physical attractiveness. I hypothesized that males would find androgynous females more physically attractive than gender-typed and non-gender typed females. Similarly, females would find androgynous males more physically attractive than gender-typed and non-gender typed males. Findings indicated that feminine and androgynous personalities significantly increased perceived physical attractiveness of target females for the male participants, whereas undifferentiated and masculine roles significantly decreased perceived physical attractiveness of target males for female participants. Target photographs accompanied by feminine personality descriptions were rated the highest in overall desirability by both sexes.

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As the society we live in today is moving towards being more technology-driven, the competition in the labor market of attracting people within the IT industry is increasing. To attract people within the IT industry, firms must understand what attracts these people to then be able to form a proposition that suits these individuals. The case company of this study, DAF (Digital ASIC and FPGA), an internal organization within Ericsson AB, wants to get a better understanding of what people within the IT industry value in an employer and what actions they should take to be more attractive in the labor market. Therefore, the purpose of this report has been to explain how and to what extent different value-driving factors affect employer attractiveness for employees holding a specific technical competence needed at DAF. Based on a pre-study consisting of six interviews with working professionals within the field of employer branding and industrial marketing, as well as a comprehensive literature review, a model of analysis is established consisting of six value-driving factors; interest-, social-, management-, application-, development-, and economic value, that is expected to affect the overall attractiveness of an employer. These factors are further operationalized into 30 different codes that are set to explain the value factors more in detail. The main study is a multiple case study of employees working at DAF, as well as four competitor firms to DAF. The study is based on interviews with 21 employees spread out on the five case companies, all holding the targeted competence needed at DAF. During the interviews, the respondents spoke freely about what they value in their current and previous position so underlying value factors could be identified. Additionally, the respondents were asked to elaborate on their perception of the most important factors of an employer, as well as their perception of Ericsson as an employer to deepen the analysis and get an understanding of how the respondents perceive Ericsson. The interviews were analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively. In the analysis, the respondents were grouped based on what company they work for and the case companies were firstly analyzed separately. Secondly, the cases were compared to each other to answer how and to what extent the value-driving factors in the model of analysis affect employer attractiveness. Third, a series of inductive analyses where cross-case patterns between different groups of individuals were analyzed. Based on the analysis, it can be concluded that the most important factors of employer attractiveness for employees holding the target competence needed at DAF are social value, mostly in terms of organizational culture, teamwork, and collegial relationship, as well as application value, mostly in terms of challenging work tasks, task diversity, and the work tasks to be meaningful for the employee. Moreover, management-, development-, economic-, and interest value are all considered important drivers of employer attractiveness. For DAF to improve their employer brand and attractivity, they should craft a proposition that aligns with their unique selling points of first of all being a leader in telecommunication, technology, and innovation. Secondly, having supportive management that empowers employees to make decisions by themselves and shape their position based on personal preferences. Thirdly, offering challenging, diverse, and creative work tasks to enable opportunities for developing new skills. Furthermore, DAF is recommended to promote life at DAF and create a unified organizational culture within the organization, clarify opportunities for development, and provide more social- and team-building activities.

Two Studies investigated the relationship between verbal behavior and short-term mate selection. The first study, an observational traditional speed-dating study, collected audio and video recordings of dyadic interactions between men and women in addition to self-report data on whether the participant would like to talk to each date in the future. The second study, a true experiment, employed the use of a researcher confederate to manipulate verbal behavior and attractiveness level of the speed-date partner. Participants were led to believe they were being "matched" with three other undergraduates based upon online profiles. Verbal behavior manipulations included varying valence-based autoclitics (neutral or high) and self-other referential autoclitics in two sequential orders (based on I , you , I /you in relation to one another, and dyadic we frames of reference). During traditional speed-dating, a wide variety of verbal operants were used. In general, dyadic we was not frequently used by participants, imprecise tacting tended to be characteristic of no ratings, and successful speed-daters tended to modify their verbal behavior as appropriate to the specific listener. For online-dating, among the findings concerning the observed relationships between autoclitics, physical attractiveness, and various outcomes in short-term romantic interest, were confederate use of I-to-we sequential progressions with neutral valence tended to best predict longer times spent chatting, as chosen by participants when given the choice to chat more than the five-minute minimum. Additionally, confederate use of I and you in relation to one another was positively correlated with participant interest ratings of the confederate for medium-attractiveness confederates and was negatively correlated with interest ratings for low- and high-attractiveness confederates. Autoclitics moderated the relationship between physical attractiveness of the confederate and yes ratings for both low- and high- attractiveness confederates. Findings from the current projects are discussed in context of general dissemination of verbal behavior and in context of other populations. / Psychology

The attractiveness of the principalship is a variable that may help explain why candidates do and do not pursue principal positions. This study sought to determine if a discrepancy exists between what potential principal candidates desire and what they believe to be true about the attributes of the job of principal, and if that discrepancy can predict the attractiveness of the principalship to prospective candidates. A researcher-developed instrument was administered to teachers who are currently enrolled in four principal preparation programs in Virginia. Survey items were related to the domains that explain the attractiveness of the principalship. An overall attractiveness score was measured using a Thurstone Scale of Equal Appearing Intervals. A demographic section was included to collect background information. Overall, respondents rated the principalship as somewhat attractive. The regression found that there were five predictors of the attractiveness of the principalship. School location and number of years in education, both demographic factors, were the most significant predictors. Discrepancies in what candidates desired and believed to be provided regarding recognition of achievement, the ability to form relationships, and opportunities for professional growth followed as significant predictors of job attractiveness. / Ed. D.