Thesis (M.S. in Modeling, Virtual Environments, and Simulation)--Naval Postgraduate School, September 2003. / Thesis advisor(s): Russell D. Shilling, Rudolph P. Darken. Includes bibliographical references (p. 169-172). Also available online.

Dissertation (Ph.D.) -- University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, 2006. / Vita. Bibliography: pp. 246-266.

In the last ten years, a number of behavioral approaches to marital therapy have been developed and applied to married couples. Intervention techniques have included selective reinforcement, extinction, modeling, aversive consequences, and contingency contracting. The present study investigated the use of the bug-in-the-ear (BITE) instrument as an aid in shaping marital interaction. The BITE has been applied in several child behavior modification programs, but no applications in marital therapy have been reported. The use of the BITE has been demonstrated and is considered clinically feasible. Since the N of this study was small and since the raters evaluating progress were knowledgeable and indeed involved in the hypothesis under investigation, caution must be exercised in the evaluation of the data. The necessity for evaluation of specific further research issues is discussed.

O Jogo Patológico é um transtorno psiquiátrico em que fatores genéticos e de personalidade contribuem significativamente para seu desenvolvimento. Este estudo comparou características clínicas, de personalidade e polimorfismos de genes envolvidos na atividade dopaminérgica cerebral em pares discordantes de irmãos para o diagnóstico de Jogo Patológico. Na análise discriminante, as dimensões de personalidade extravagância, persistência, segunda natureza, apego e o escore total da Escala de Impulsividade de Barrat foram capazes de classificar corretamente 90,7% dos sujeitos, sugerindo-se a utilização deste modelo para a identificação de indivíduos vulneráveis em famílias com histórico de Jogo Patológico. O polimorfismo -800 T/C do gene DRD1 foi associado ao diagnóstico de Jogo Patológico / Pathological Gambling is a psychiatric disorder in which personality characteristics and genetic factors significantly account for its development. This study compared clinical and personality features, and genes involved in dopaminergic transmission in discordant sib-pairs for the diagnosis of Pathological Gambling. Discriminant analysis revealed that the personality dimensions of extravagance, persistence, second nature, attachment and the total score on the Barrat Impulsiveness Scale were able to correctly classify 90,7% of the subjects, suggesting that this model could be useful in identifying vulnerable subjects in families with prior history of Pathological Gambling. The DRD1 gene polymorphism -800 T/C was associated to the diagnosis of Pathological Gambling

Now Convenience Store Sector is most popular franchise chain in Taiwan industry. Especially in such high rate of franchise, it¡¦s more difficult to manage and control. But franchisee make a formal contract with franchiser, is it suitable to operate franchisee by only clear formal lease? In management control system(MCS) field, it has not any research to discuss about how to link different type of MCS which exclusive and simultaneous exist. Therefore, this research belongs to an exploratory study which choose President Chain Store Corp. as interviews in order to find chain convenience store¡¦s MCS. This study visit an important role: Operational Field Consultant(OFC) between franchise and franchisee. The interview target is 4 OFC in Kaohsiung Region of President Chain Store Corp. The research find are: the chain convenience store¡¦s MCS which is outcome control and behavior control exclusive and simultaneous. The outcome control comes from franchiser, and the behavior control comes from OFC. This research understands OFC position and role who plan a conflict solver and a moderator. This study also find the interface effect does not come from budget distribution. It should be the OFC role who negotiate between franchiser and franchisee and make them a profit successfully. The conclusion is as follows: 1. President Chain Store Corp have two different types of MCS. The outcome control comes from franchiser, and the behavior control comes from OFC. 2. The interface effect of MCS is actually exist. 3. The interface effect of CVS may link by OFC, especially OFC play an plan a conflict solver and a moderator.

This research takes the hospital as an example to explore the relationship between internal marketing and customer-orientation. There are three purposes of this research: First, exploring the relationships among internal marketing, job satisfaction, organization commitment, and customer-orientation; second, exploring the relationship between customer-oriented attitude and customer-oriented behavior, and third, testing if the behavior control can moderate the relationship between customer-oriented attitude and customer-oriented behavior. In order to understand if the control mechanism varies with the levels of hospital in Taiwan, convenience sampling is conducted in three different hospital levels, medical center, regional hospital, and district hospital. In addition, in order to increase the variety of samples, Web-questionnaire was used. Finally, a total of 278 valid questionnaires have been collected. When talking to the data analysis, Factor analysis, Reliability analysis, Correlation Analysis, Structured Equation Model (SEM), and Moderated Regression Analysis are used as analysis methods. The results are as following: 1. Internal marketing has an impact on customer-oriented attitude through job satisfaction and organization commitment. 2. Affective commitment influences normative commitment positively. 3. Normative commitment influences continuance commitment positively. 4. Three kinds of commitment influence customer-oriented attitude positively. 5. Customer-oriented attitude has a positive impact on customer-oriented behavior. 6. Activity control and Capability control can moderate the relationship between Customer-oriented attitude and customer-oriented behavior.

Thesis (M.S.) -- University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, 2005. / Vita. Bibliography: 40-46.

Este trabalho tem como objetivo principal investigar o efeito da sinalização de qualidade na expectativa de recuperação ante uma falha no contexto de serviços. As expectativas de recuperação são as crenças que os clientes têm sobre o nível de recuperação adequado depois de uma falha no serviço, e a percepção de qualidade é considerada um dos seus antecedentes. A teoria da sinalização indica que os sinais são ações que a empresa pode realizar para transmitir informações sobre a qualidade dos seus produtos. Assim a sinalização, ao afetar a qualidade percebida, também afetaria a expectativa de recuperação que o cliente pode ter do serviço. Neste trabalho foram utilizadas como variáveis sinalizadoras o preço e a responsividade. O controle comportamental percebido, entendido como a percepção do indivíduo sobre sua habilidade para realizar um comportamento, é proposto como moderador da relação entre as variáveis sinalizadoras e a qualidade percebida. Foram conduzidos dois estudos experimentais de desenho fatorial e intersujeitos para se testar as hipóteses formuladas com base na literatura. Os experimentos contaram com a participação de 116 e 220 estudantes de graduação, respectivamente. No primeiro experimento foram manipuladas as variáveis preço e responsividade; no segundo experimento foi adicionado a essas variáveis o controle comportamental percebido para-se verificar seu efeito moderador. Os resultados demonstram que a sinalização de qualidade através das variáveis preço e responsividade afetam a qualidade percebida e a expectativa de recuperação dos clientes ante uma falha. O segundo estudo suporta a hipótese envolvendo a moderação do controle comportamental percebido na relação entre a variável sinalizadora preço e a qualidade percebida. Estes resultados e as implicações encontradas são finalmente discutidos no capítulo de considerações finais. / The main purpose of this research is to investigate the effect of signal quality in the recovery expectation after a service failure. Recovery expectations are customer beliefs about proper levels of compensation after service failure, and this is preceded by the quality perception. The signaling theory states that signals are firms actions that can be performed to communicate information about the quality of a product. Thus signaling by affecting the perceived quality also affects customer recovery expectation. This study explores the signaling effects of price and responsiveness. The perceived behavior control, regarded as the individual perception over the ability to perform a behavior, was proposed as a moderator between signaling variables and perceived quality. Two experimental studies with factorial design and between subjects were conducted in order to test the hypotheses formulated based on the literature review. These experiments were performed with 116 and 220 undergraduate students. For the first experiment price and responsiveness variables were manipulated; for the second one, perceived behavior control was added to verify its moderation impact. Results show that signaling quality through price and responsiveness can affect perceived quality and it affects the customer recovery expectation after a failure. The second experiment supports the hypothesis of the perceived behavior control moderation between price as a signaling variable and the perceived quality. These results and their implications are discussed in the chapter of concluding remarks.

Este trabalho tem como objetivo principal investigar o efeito da sinalização de qualidade na expectativa de recuperação ante uma falha no contexto de serviços. As expectativas de recuperação são as crenças que os clientes têm sobre o nível de recuperação adequado depois de uma falha no serviço, e a percepção de qualidade é considerada um dos seus antecedentes. A teoria da sinalização indica que os sinais são ações que a empresa pode realizar para transmitir informações sobre a qualidade dos seus produtos. Assim a sinalização, ao afetar a qualidade percebida, também afetaria a expectativa de recuperação que o cliente pode ter do serviço. Neste trabalho foram utilizadas como variáveis sinalizadoras o preço e a responsividade. O controle comportamental percebido, entendido como a percepção do indivíduo sobre sua habilidade para realizar um comportamento, é proposto como moderador da relação entre as variáveis sinalizadoras e a qualidade percebida. Foram conduzidos dois estudos experimentais de desenho fatorial e intersujeitos para se testar as hipóteses formuladas com base na literatura. Os experimentos contaram com a participação de 116 e 220 estudantes de graduação, respectivamente. No primeiro experimento foram manipuladas as variáveis preço e responsividade; no segundo experimento foi adicionado a essas variáveis o controle comportamental percebido para-se verificar seu efeito moderador. Os resultados demonstram que a sinalização de qualidade através das variáveis preço e responsividade afetam a qualidade percebida e a expectativa de recuperação dos clientes ante uma falha. O segundo estudo suporta a hipótese envolvendo a moderação do controle comportamental percebido na relação entre a variável sinalizadora preço e a qualidade percebida. Estes resultados e as implicações encontradas são finalmente discutidos no capítulo de considerações finais. / The main purpose of this research is to investigate the effect of signal quality in the recovery expectation after a service failure. Recovery expectations are customer beliefs about proper levels of compensation after service failure, and this is preceded by the quality perception. The signaling theory states that signals are firms actions that can be performed to communicate information about the quality of a product. Thus signaling by affecting the perceived quality also affects customer recovery expectation. This study explores the signaling effects of price and responsiveness. The perceived behavior control, regarded as the individual perception over the ability to perform a behavior, was proposed as a moderator between signaling variables and perceived quality. Two experimental studies with factorial design and between subjects were conducted in order to test the hypotheses formulated based on the literature review. These experiments were performed with 116 and 220 undergraduate students. For the first experiment price and responsiveness variables were manipulated; for the second one, perceived behavior control was added to verify its moderation impact. Results show that signaling quality through price and responsiveness can affect perceived quality and it affects the customer recovery expectation after a failure. The second experiment supports the hypothesis of the perceived behavior control moderation between price as a signaling variable and the perceived quality. These results and their implications are discussed in the chapter of concluding remarks.

Este trabalho tem como objetivo principal investigar o efeito da sinalização de qualidade na expectativa de recuperação ante uma falha no contexto de serviços. As expectativas de recuperação são as crenças que os clientes têm sobre o nível de recuperação adequado depois de uma falha no serviço, e a percepção de qualidade é considerada um dos seus antecedentes. A teoria da sinalização indica que os sinais são ações que a empresa pode realizar para transmitir informações sobre a qualidade dos seus produtos. Assim a sinalização, ao afetar a qualidade percebida, também afetaria a expectativa de recuperação que o cliente pode ter do serviço. Neste trabalho foram utilizadas como variáveis sinalizadoras o preço e a responsividade. O controle comportamental percebido, entendido como a percepção do indivíduo sobre sua habilidade para realizar um comportamento, é proposto como moderador da relação entre as variáveis sinalizadoras e a qualidade percebida. Foram conduzidos dois estudos experimentais de desenho fatorial e intersujeitos para se testar as hipóteses formuladas com base na literatura. Os experimentos contaram com a participação de 116 e 220 estudantes de graduação, respectivamente. No primeiro experimento foram manipuladas as variáveis preço e responsividade; no segundo experimento foi adicionado a essas variáveis o controle comportamental percebido para-se verificar seu efeito moderador. Os resultados demonstram que a sinalização de qualidade através das variáveis preço e responsividade afetam a qualidade percebida e a expectativa de recuperação dos clientes ante uma falha. O segundo estudo suporta a hipótese envolvendo a moderação do controle comportamental percebido na relação entre a variável sinalizadora preço e a qualidade percebida. Estes resultados e as implicações encontradas são finalmente discutidos no capítulo de considerações finais. / The main purpose of this research is to investigate the effect of signal quality in the recovery expectation after a service failure. Recovery expectations are customer beliefs about proper levels of compensation after service failure, and this is preceded by the quality perception. The signaling theory states that signals are firms actions that can be performed to communicate information about the quality of a product. Thus signaling by affecting the perceived quality also affects customer recovery expectation. This study explores the signaling effects of price and responsiveness. The perceived behavior control, regarded as the individual perception over the ability to perform a behavior, was proposed as a moderator between signaling variables and perceived quality. Two experimental studies with factorial design and between subjects were conducted in order to test the hypotheses formulated based on the literature review. These experiments were performed with 116 and 220 undergraduate students. For the first experiment price and responsiveness variables were manipulated; for the second one, perceived behavior control was added to verify its moderation impact. Results show that signaling quality through price and responsiveness can affect perceived quality and it affects the customer recovery expectation after a failure. The second experiment supports the hypothesis of the perceived behavior control moderation between price as a signaling variable and the perceived quality. These results and their implications are discussed in the chapter of concluding remarks.