Sexual excess is one of an increasing list of ‘excessive’ behaviours which have in recent times been pathologised by the psycho-medical establishment, increasing regulation and control of spheres previously accepted as ‘normal.’ This study analyses the genealogy of the events, institutions, organisations and individuals in post-World War II United States of America to the present which made it possible to think scientifically and nosologically about ‘excessive’ male sexual behaviour as ‘sexual addiction.’ / The grass-roots twelve-step ideologies of Alcoholics Anonymous in the mid-1970s gave birth to twelve-step programs for ‘sex addicts’ predicated on admitting powerlessness over sex and lust rather than over alcohol as the key to recovery as the first step. The publication of Patrick Carnes’ Out of the Shadows: Understanding and Treating Sexual Addiction in 1983 created the academic concept and discourse of sex addiction, which in turn paved the way for widespread scientific debate and investigation of the concept. The AIDS phenomenon offered a platform for many groups to highlight their own causes amid the chaos of illness and death. The sex addiction movement was one such group which made use of the hysteria by pathologising homosexuality and the gay lifestyle as symptomatic of ‘sexual addiction.’ This forged an inexorable conceptual nexus between sexual addiction and AIDS and death motifs, thereby legitimising the concept of sexual addiction as a harmful and often fatal disorder. / Analysis of psycho-medical and public discourse on the sex lives of two American presidents, John F. Kennedy and Bill Clinton, in two different eras revealed changing understandings of male sexual excess. Journalistic mores, socio-cultural values and psycho-medical ideologies (or the lack thereof) played a great role in pathologising Clinton’s behaviour while leaving Kennedy’s, at the time of his presidency but not so in the decades following it, unscathed. / This study has far-reaching implications because sex is an issue affecting and involving people from all walks of life, irrespective of gender, race, colour, creed or religion. Analyses demonstrated how the sexual addiction movement’s assault on traditional conceptions of masculinity predicated on promiscuity as a rite of passage or envied and admired behaviour has precipitated a convergence of the genders in respect of prescriptive sexual behaviour. The pendulum of power is subtly shifting from males embracing notions of sexual liberation and sexual self-determination to mental health professionals whose new diagnostic labels pathologise and stigmatise.

Ce mémoire a pour objectif de mieux comprendre l'impact de trois promotions des ventes (les promotions par le prix, le cadeau avec achat et les programmes de fidélité) sur le processus décisionnel des consommatrices de la génération du baby-boom lors de l'achat de vêtements. Suite à une recension des écrits sur les promotions des ventes et sur la génération du baby-boom, l'attention de cette recherche portera uniquement sur les femmes de cette génération car elles ont un processus décisionnel plus complexe que celui des hommes. De plus, elles forment présentement le segment le plus puissant sur le plan de la consommation. Les différents ouvrages sur le sujet nous informent qu'il existe une différence comportementale entre les personnes anglophones et francophones lorsqu'elles sont soumises à un type de publicité. Puisque la ligne est parfois mince entre la publicité et la promotion des ventes et que pour certains la promotion des ventes est une forme de publicité nous avons décidé de nous intéresser uniquement aux femmes francophones du Québec. Afin de répondre à l'objectif de cette recherche, un questionnaire a été distribué à 394 femmes francophones vivant au Québec nées entre le 1er janvier 1946 et le 31 décembre 1965. Les répondantes ont été sollicitées soit par le porte-à-porte où directement sur leur lieu de travail. Un questionnaire auto-administré divisé en quatre parties leur était présenté et la participation à l'étude était sur base volontaire. La première section de ce questionnaire comporte différentes questions touchant les promotions prix. La deuxième section est consacrée au cadeau avec achat. La troisième section porte sur les programmes de fidélité. La dernière section comporte diverses questions servant à dresser le portrait sociodémographique de l'échantillon. Trois hypothèses de recherche ont été formulées afin de mieux comprendre l'impact de ces promotions. L'hypothèse H₁ s'intéresse à l'intérêt que peuvent avoir les promotions prix et si cet intérêt se traduit en acte d'achat. L'hypothèse H₂ touche les mêmes aspects que la première hypothèse, mais pour le cadeau avec achat. En ce qui a trait à l'hypothèse H₃, elle s'intéresse à l'impact des programmes de fidélité sur le choix du point de vente par les consommatrices. L'analyse des résultats a permis de répondre à nos hypothèses de recherche. Nous avons constaté que les promotions par le prix sont principalement efficaces au point de vente, que le cadeau avec achat ne suscite aucun intérêt lors de l'achat de vêtements et que les programmes de fidélité sont des promotions alternatives qui sont un bon outil permettant de fidéliser la clientèle participante. De plus, ces résultats nous ont permis de dégager des implications managériales et des avenues de recherches futures. ______________________________________________________________________________ MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : Promotion des ventes, Promotion prix, Cadeau avec achat, Programme de fidélité, Génération du baby-boom, Comportement d'achat, Intention d'achat.

Our current LTC system is burdensome to state and federal governments, to family members, and to individuals’ pocket books; it is not expected to endure the weight of the baby boom generation. Total national spending for long-term care in 2005 was $207 billion and is only expected to rise. This study examined the LTC planning behavior of individuals of baby boom birth years (1946 to 1964), focusing on the influence of individuals’ views about whose responsibility is the provision of LTC on planning behavior. Specifically, the study has three aims: to 1) to describe the LTC planning behavior among baby boom aged adults; 2) examine baby-boom aged adults’ views on whose responsibility is the planning/provision/cost of LTC (location of responsibility); and 3) examine the influence of potential predictors of individuals’ LTC planning with specific focus on the influence of location of responsibility (LOR). Data was collected between May and August of 2009 using a mixed modes self-administered 80-item original survey via the internet and regular mail (study sample = 1,066; 1,166 responding; response rate 58%). The study population consists of benefit-eligible Black, Hispanic/Latino, and Non-Hispanic White faculty/staff born in or between the years of 1946 and 1964 from a large southwestern university. This study found overall low levels of LTC planning; however, with regard to LTCI purchase, the participation rate is good relative to the national coverage rate. The study informs us that baby-boom aged individuals as a whole believe themselves (individuals) to have a high level of responsibility for their own potential LTC needs, but also that responsibility lies with the government, employers, and adult children as well. Consistent with hypotheses, LTC awareness/avoidance predicted a higher level of extent of planning (gathering, deciding, and concretizing); worthwhileness and self-efficacy predicted LTCI purchase; and awareness, subjective norm, worthwhileness, and self-efficacy predicted LTC specific savings. Additionally, individual responsibility (negatively), female (positively), income (positively), experience (self and other; positively), LTC knowledge (positively), and Hispanic (negatively) all predicted extent of planning. Employer responsibility (positively), faculty (negatively), marital status (married; negatively), Black (positively), and medical diagnoses all predicted LTCI purchase. And, employer responsibility (positively), government responsibility (negatively), income (positively), experience-other (positively), and knowledge (positively) all predicted LTC-specific savings. Implications for practitioners, employers, program planners, and policy-makers are presented. / text

published_or_final_version / Sociology / Master / Master of Philosophy

Over the past several decades, the senior age group has become the fastest growing segment of the population in the United States (Warner, 2011). This study seeks to contribute to the ongoing discussion of the impacts that the increases in senior travel will have on the future transportation systems and planning efforts. The main objective of this research is to conduct an explorative analysis of the changes in senior travel behavior over the past two decades and discuss the implications of these changes to transportation planning in the future. This thesis seeks to further understanding of this topic by providing a detailed analysis and consideration of relevant contexts through a review of previous studies and the author's background in the field of transportation. Results indicate significant changes in travel behaviors and make-up of the senior population. Over the three (1990, 2001, and 2009) survey periods, senior travel changed as a result of increased activity and a need to maintain their typical way of life well into older age. As the baby boom generation continues to out travel each previous generation, there is no evidence to assume that as they reach retirement age that trend will end. Seniors today are remaining active and working well into their older age and the age group has continued to increasingly contribute to total travel. These increases will be echoed by the baby boom generation and must be considered by traffic forecasters, researcher and policy makers in the future.

With the first of the 77 million (www.census.gov) Baby Boomers turning 60 this year, the impact on retirement and retirement communities has suddenly become a vital and pressing issue. The massive numbers of Baby Boomer cohorts have amplified and intensified the importance of whatever experiences they've had at each new moment in their lives. When they reach any stage of life, the issues that concern them — whether financial, interpersonal, or even hormonal — become the dominant social political, and marketplace themes at the time. (www.agewave.com 2006) Retirement will be no different. Using this understanding of the Baby Boomer generation, this study examined their impact on retirement community design.Data specific to Baby Boomer retirement preferences was analyzed, an expert in the field of gerontology at Ball State University was interviewed, research was completed in retirement community design and age related health concerns, and case studies in a range of established retirement communities in southwest Florida were visited, all in an effort to determine what the current trends are in the retirement community market today and how Boomers would effect them.Research showed that Boomers want to pursue new and exciting experiences in their retirement years. They are not willing to settle for a retirement tucked out of the way, out of sight out of mind. They want to be in the middle of activity and enjoyment. They are looking to make a difference and have an impact in this next phase of life.The result of these endeavors is a conceptual design for an active adult retirement community, in northeast Lee County Florida, that will attract Baby Boomers by appealing to their sense of fun, their sense of purpose and their social and environmental conscience. / Department of Landscape Architecture

This thesis examines how Baby Boomers utilize Facebook to promote radical political ideology. A convenience sample of 51 Baby Boomer Facebook profiles were selected and critically analyzed for radical content using Bernard L.Brock’s (1965) A Definition of Four Political Positions and a Description of their Rhetorical Characteristics, and Making Sense of Political Ideology: The Language of Democracy (Brock, et al., 2005). The rhetoric from these profiles was then categorized using James W. Chesebro’s (1972) Rhetorical Strategies of the Radical Revolutionary. Conclusions from the research indicate that radical Boomers on Facebook seem to have moved from real world activism to symbolic action on Facebook through the liking and sharing of radical articles and posts. Though consistent in posting radical content in their profiles, radical Boomers using Facebook in this study utilized profiles more to promote radical culture online than to foment political revolution offline. / Department of Telecommunications

Older adults have the lowest mental health utilization of any age cohort. This study compared baby boomers, born between 1946 and 1964 versus older adults born in 1944 or earlier, on attitudes and intentions to utilize mental health services. Ajzen’s theory of planned behavior and its related constructs of attitudes, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control, and intentions were used as a theoretical model. The Inventory of Attitudes toward Seeking Mental Health Services (IASMHS) and Beliefs About Psychological Services (BAPS) were used for measuring the constructs in the theory of planned behavior. Gender and previous mental health service utilization were also measured. Participants (n = 401) included current and retired faculty and staff from a mid-sized Midwestern University. Statistical analysis, using MANOVA, found main effects for previous mental health experience and age cohort, but not for gender. Those with previous mental health service experience expressed more positive attitudes, intentions, and perceived behavioral control over receiving mental health services. Contrary to the primary hypothesis, the older adult cohort expressed more positive attitudes, greater intentions, was less affected by the subjective norm, and had more perceived behavioral control than baby boomers. Regression analyses, using gender, previous mental health service use, attitudes, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control accounted for 55.7% of the variance in intentions for the older adult cohort and 58.2% for baby boomers. For both cohorts, attitudes accounted for the greatest amount of variance. Promoting positive attitudes through reducing environmental and economic barriers and increasing education regarding mental health services is likely to increase mental health service utilization in baby boomers and older adults. / Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services

Social ideologies appeared to influence dietary behaviour, physical activity and BMI. These influences varied through different pathways in younger and older baby boomers. Studies provide insight into the segmentation of baby boomer population in relation to concrete social ideologies that could be used for policy development and effective health promotion.

Sexual excess is one of an increasing list of ‘excessive’ behaviours which have in recent times been pathologised by the psycho-medical establishment, increasing regulation and control of spheres previously accepted as ‘normal.’ This study analyses the genealogy of the events, institutions, organisations and individuals in post-World War II United States of America to the present which made it possible to think scientifically and nosologically about ‘excessive’ male sexual behaviour as ‘sexual addiction.’ / The grass-roots twelve-step ideologies of Alcoholics Anonymous in the mid-1970s gave birth to twelve-step programs for ‘sex addicts’ predicated on admitting powerlessness over sex and lust rather than over alcohol as the key to recovery as the first step. The publication of Patrick Carnes’ Out of the Shadows: Understanding and Treating Sexual Addiction in 1983 created the academic concept and discourse of sex addiction, which in turn paved the way for widespread scientific debate and investigation of the concept. The AIDS phenomenon offered a platform for many groups to highlight their own causes amid the chaos of illness and death. The sex addiction movement was one such group which made use of the hysteria by pathologising homosexuality and the gay lifestyle as symptomatic of ‘sexual addiction.’ This forged an inexorable conceptual nexus between sexual addiction and AIDS and death motifs, thereby legitimising the concept of sexual addiction as a harmful and often fatal disorder. / Analysis of psycho-medical and public discourse on the sex lives of two American presidents, John F. Kennedy and Bill Clinton, in two different eras revealed changing understandings of male sexual excess. Journalistic mores, socio-cultural values and psycho-medical ideologies (or the lack thereof) played a great role in pathologising Clinton’s behaviour while leaving Kennedy’s, at the time of his presidency but not so in the decades following it, unscathed. / This study has far-reaching implications because sex is an issue affecting and involving people from all walks of life, irrespective of gender, race, colour, creed or religion. Analyses demonstrated how the sexual addiction movement’s assault on traditional conceptions of masculinity predicated on promiscuity as a rite of passage or envied and admired behaviour has precipitated a convergence of the genders in respect of prescriptive sexual behaviour. The pendulum of power is subtly shifting from males embracing notions of sexual liberation and sexual self-determination to mental health professionals whose new diagnostic labels pathologise and stigmatise.