Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis PlanB (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references.

The negative impact of the fashion industry on both society and environment cannot be ignored, especially in recent years, due to news and reports on the negative impacts of the industry has raised awareness among consumers. Some of the consumers started questioning the fashion companies’ operations and demand for more sustainable supply chains. In order to respond the request coming from consumers’ side, the companies started to regulate their operations and communicate about them. Even though there are many different ways to communicate about sustainability approach, This study is questioning the potential outcomes of developing a common CSR label based on Higg Index 2.0 tool. To answer the research question, existing literature has analyzed from three different perspectives; social and environmental problems led by the industry and raising consumer awareness about negative impact of the industry. After the literature review, CSR communication approaches of the selected companies were analyzed. The second step of the research was, to apply a consumer survey in the Gothenburg Central Station to understand Swedish consumers’ perception. Outcomes of the consumer survey has compared with the existing literature and communication strategies followed by the analyses of selected companies.The company analyzes show that, even though, they are good at about regulating their supply chain with more sustainable approaches, the majority of fashion companies do not communicate about their CSR practices. Consumer survey expose that, consumers are lack of awareness regarding to existed CSR labels. Moreover, even though exist labels focus on only environmental factors or social factors, the consumers expect from labels to cover both areas. The data collected from the study expose that, even the majority of the consumer not completely influenced by the sustainability approach of the companies, there are consumers that influence by the companies CSR approach. Moreover, the lion share of consumers believes that a common labeling system based on Higg Index 2.0 will be helpful guide when they give their purchasing decision. Based on the findings from existed literature -consumer survey and analyze of companiesapproach-, it was observed that companies are lack of effective communication strategies which is a barrier for the consumers to get an action for to purchase more sustainable fashion products. Therefore, developing a common CSR labeling system that will controlled by third party institution such as Sustainable Apparel Coalition will increase the effectiveness of CSR label and influence the consumers response positively.

The phenomenon whereby people suffering from an illness or disability seem to be unaware of their symptoms was termed anosognosia, by Joseph Babinksi in 1914 (Langer & Levine, 2014). Originally described as a specific inability to recognise or acknowledge left-sided hemiplegia after lesions to the right hemisphere of the brain, the term now incorporates unawareness of a range of post-stroke impairments, such as hemianopia (Bisiach, Vallar, Perani, Papagno & Berti, 1986), hemianaesthesia (Pia et al., 2014), aphasia (Cocchini, Gregg, Beschin, Dean & Della Sala, 2010) and unilateral neglect (Jehkonen, Ahonen, Dastidar, Laippala & Vilkki, 2000). Anosognosia has also been observed in association with several other disorders, including Alzheimer’s disease (Agnew & Morris, 1998) and traumatic brain injury (Prigatano, 2010a). While advances have been made in understanding anosognosia, there are still many contradictory findings in relation to the nature and expression of impaired self-awareness (Prigatano, 2010a), which are partly attributable to diverse methodological approaches. Furthermore, research into anosognosia frequently rests on the assumption that neurologically intact individuals have accurate insight into their own abilities, particularly in regard to motor skill. The experiments reported in this thesis highlight that this may be a false assumption. Through a series of interrelated studies, I demonstrate that the type of questions typically asked of anosognosic patients may be inappropriate to elicit the manifestations of chronic stage unawareness after a stroke, that underestimation may be just as prevalent as overestimation, and that healthy individuals are not always able to monitor whether their executed movements match their intended movements. Moreover, those with poorer motor skills are less able to judge movement successes and failures than their more skilled counterparts, suggesting a mechanism analogous to the anosognosia observed in clinical populations. Chapter 1 provides an overview of the main neuropsychological models that have been proposed to account for anosognosia for hemiplegia (AHP); unawareness in the context of other impairments is discussed in the introductions to individual chapters. Chapter 2 presents some background research investigating stroke clinicians’ knowledge of the lateralization of right hemisphere cognitive symptoms, and their judgements of the impact of selected symptoms on the lives of patients and caregivers. While the clinicians were equally able to identify cognitive symptoms associated with left or right brain damage, they were far more likely to misattribute symptoms to right brain damage, suggesting a lack of confidence in their knowledge of the cognitive functions of the right hemisphere. They also regarded anosognosia as having relatively low impact on the lives of patients and caregivers, in stark contrast with the highly negative impact reported in the literature (Jehkonen, Laihosalo & Kettunen, 2006a). Chapters 3 and 4 present two experimental studies investigating different facets of awareness in two groups of stroke patients. Chapter 3 reports the development and testing of a tool designed to measure chronic unawareness of functional difficulties, the Visual Analogue Test of Anosognosia for impairments in Activities of Daily Living (VATA-ADL), with preliminary data from a group of chronic stroke patients. Approximately one third of the patients exhibited mild or moderate levels of overestimation of their ability to carry out day-to-day activities. This contrasts with previous reports that anosognosia is rare in the chronic stages, a discrepancy that may be explained in part by the inappropriateness of the measures typically used to measure it. Overestimation was observed in both right-brain-damaged and left-brain-damaged patients, and was not associated with higher levels of cognitive impairment. The study reported in Chapter 4 examined whether acute stage stroke patients who under- or overestimated their motor skills, similarly under- or overestimated performance on cognitive tasks in the domains of language, memory and attention and executive function. Contrary to the many dissociations between unawareness of different impairment reported in the neuropsychological literature, this study found that patients classed as overestimators of motor ability were also overly optimistic about their cognitive abilities. Overestimators were more likely to have right hemisphere lesions, higher levels of general cognitive impairments, and specific deficits in attention and executive function. Furthermore, by including patients with a range of functional ability, this study revealed that participants were just as likely to underestimate as overestimate their abilities. This unique finding presents a challenge to anosognosia research, suggesting that there may be factors other than neurological damage that predispose stroke patients to over- or under-estimate their abilities and that a baseline of accurate self-insight among control populations cannot be assumed. Chapter 5 reports three different experiments conducted with younger and older, neurologically healthy adults. Using a target-directed reaching task, these experiments investigated whether the participants’ ability to monitor the success of their movements, on a trial by trial basis, depended upon their motor skill level, and whether participants with lower skill were inclined to overestimate their ability, in line with a famous observation from cognitive psychology that people who perform worst in a given task tend to be unaware of how poorly they are performing (Kruger and Dunning, 1999). Overall, the results demonstrated an association between higher accuracy levels and faster movement times, and better ability to monitor success and failure. To my knowledge, this represents that first evidence of a relationship between motor performance ability and self-monitoring ability in healthy individuals, highlighting that some of the mechanisms underpinning anosognosia may also be evident in neurologically intact populations. However, contrary to the findings from cognitive psychology, poor performance was not associated with a specific bias toward overestimation. A similar relationship between task performance and self-monitoring ability was also observed for a visual memory task. Chapter 6 discusses the implications of the results of the clinical and self-monitoring studies for neuropsychological models of anosognosia, particularly those based on motor planning and control, and considers potential ways forward for research in this field.

The aim of the research was to investigate how to stimulate sustainable consumer behaviors that lead to a lowering of the carbon footprint. Because of environmental challenges at the individual and societal levels, researchers agree that behavioral change is necessary. We argue that when already performing a sustainable behavior, this behavior can spill over to other sustainable actions, even to more difficult ones. First, we studied whether a positive behavioral spillover occurs between product categories and whether the spillover effect depends on the ease or difficulty of the sustainable behavior. Second, we investigated whether high awareness of sustainability determines the spillover between categories. We conducted three online experiments in Central Europe, investigating whether spillover takes place between behaviors assigned to the same category (transport or food) or between behaviors assigned to different categories (transport or food). In all three studies participants had to make two independent decisions. In studies 1a (N=281) and 1b (N=195), the effect of the ease/difficulty of the behavior was tested. In study 2 (N=164), awareness of CO2 emission reducing effects was manipulated. Findings revealed a behavioral spillover between sustainable choices.

BACKGROUND: Although Chagas disease is not an endemic health concern in the United States, it is prevalent with estimates of approximately 300,000 infected individuals. Of this, an estimated 20 – 30% will develop severe, life-threatening consequences. While what is known about Chagas disease is extensive, there is limited knowledge of this disease, especially among medical providers and clinicians in the United States. In order to bridge the gap between what is known about Chagas disease and those who lack this knowledge, adequate and effective education interventions must be developed and delivered. Education that is tailored for medical providers and clinicians most likely to encounter individuals at greastest risk for having Chagas disease is essential. Once this knowledge is gained, accurate evaluation, diagnosis, and treatment of indivuals with Chagas disease may be pursued, ultimately decreasing and preventing disease-associated morbidity and mortality. PROPOSAL: Clinicians from six departments (infectious disease, cardiology, internal medicine, family medicine, pediatrics, and obstretrics and gynecology) will be recruited from Boston Medical Center where they will be given an educational module about Chagas disease. Their knowledge of Chagas disease and how to clinically apply it will be assessed prior to the educational module, immediately following the educational module and 1-month and 6-months following the educational module. CONCLUSION: Chagas disease is a burden to health systems in many countries worldwide including the United States, and awareness of Chagas disease is lacking among medical personnel of multiple specialities in the United States. Educational interventions have provided knowledge of various diseases leading to protocol development, ultimately influencing clinical practice to a degree that reduces morbidity and mortality. The same is needed with respect to Chagas disease. The goal of this educational intervention is to provide a knowledge base through teaching and resources for clinicians to learn, understand, and review the steps needed to clinically evaluate, diagnose, and treat patients with Chagas disease. Using the reseach identified in this study as well as the proposed educational intervention, it is hoped that this disease burden can be alleviated.

Environmental education plays an important role in the preservation and protection of biodiversity but also on the environment. It is for this purpose that the thesis aimed to assess the environmental knowledge and attitudes in school children in urban areas and those in rural areas in three regions of Senegal. This evaluation is focused on interviews with teachers and questionnaires administered to children. On the basis of 786 questionnaires collected in 19 schools including 7 in rural area (317 responding children) and 12 in urban areas (448 responding children), I found that children in rural area had higher environmental knowledge in comparison to those in urban areas, and it was also higher in boys than in girl with the same pattern in rural and urban areas. The level of environmental knowledge did not depend on the age of responding children. Concerning environmental attitudes, children expressed mostly similar attitudes in rural and urban areas and these were mostly negative towards environment. Regarding such results, it is recommendable to address the environmental issues through environmental education programs in order to get better knowledge and to build pro-environmental attitudes. The informal environmental education programs can provide opportunities for schools to improve their knowledge, interests, motivation and encouraged to adopt new attitudes towards the environment. The environmental education increases with theoretical and practical experience.

Redefinování role učitele použitím divadelních dílen založených na psychosomatickém přístupu v komunitě bez divadelního povědomí umožnilo účastníkům ocenit a prozkoumat své vlastní kreativní schopnosti, vedlo k rozšíření jejich kreativity a uvědomění si své tělesnosti a zodpovědnosti za tvorbu bezpečného a plodného prostředí k učení. Tato dizertační práce analyzovala mezinárodní experiment, který testoval trénink šestičlenného týmu z Katedry autorské tvorby a pedagogiky a nabídl možnost aplikace psychosomatického přístupu.

Because service failures are inevitable, marketing researchers have devoted considerable attention to the negative consequences of service failure and corresponding service recovery strategies. Previous research has overwhelmingly focused on customers' cognitive, coping, and behavioral reactions to failures. However, more recently, researchers have suggested that emotions may underlie the effects of customers' cognitive responses on their coping and behavioral responses. Despite the increased attention paid to the emotional dimension of customers' responses, the literature has not differentiated between different types of negative emotions. However, the appropriateness of service recovery strategies may rely on differentiating between similarly valenced emotions, because distinct emotions may require different recovery strategies. From a perspective of self-congruence theory, this dissertation contributes to the extant literature by investigating why customers experience distinct negative emotions - basic emotions (e.g., anger) and self-conscious emotions (e.g., shame) - in the context of service failure. Since emotions may influence coping and behavioral responses, distinct sets of coping responses (problem-solving vs. vindictive complaining and support-seeking vs. vindictive negative word of mouth) and behavioral intentions are also explored. Through two experiments, this dissertation provides support for the proposition that different forms of self-congruence evoke different sets of emotional and coping responses. Furthermore, drawing on self-awareness theory, this dissertation provides evidence for the proposition that the mechanisms underlying these observed patterns are distinct. Specifically, when service failures are involved, actual self-congruence and ideal self-congruence differentially trigger public self-awareness and private self-awareness and the different forms of self-awareness mediate the effect of self-congruence on customers' emotions.

In this study, I conduct a program evaluation of the International Cultural Service Program (ICSP), a scholarship program at University of Oregon which provides international students tuition remission in exchange for students giving presentations about their home country and culture in the local community and on campus. Through interviews, observations, and quantitative data, I assess ICSP’s impact on the community as well as the international students who participate in the program. After highlighting the research-based impacts of ICSP, as well as the program’s strengths and weaknesses, I provide recommendations for program improvement. This evaluation demonstrates that ICSP increases cultural awareness among ICSP students and community partners, positively impacts international student retention rates, and ultimately contributes to promoting peace across cultures—among a plethora of other benefits. This study incorporates best practices in program evaluation, and I conclude by providing a critique of the assessment process and suggestions for future studies.