Syftet med denna studie var att ur ett public relations-perspektiv studera polisens kriskommunikationsretorik i samband med kritik från allmänheten. Denna uppsats har utgått från två fall; fallet i arresten och kvinnoregistret. I uppsatsen har en kvalitativ textanalys använts på sammanlagt 14 texter från polisens egna kanaler. Den teori som använts för att urskilja vilka försvarsstrategier som polisen använt i materialet är image restoration theory. Dessutom har ett public relations-perspektiv använts för att förstå varför försvarsstrategierna använts samt för att belysa ett annat relevant public relationsbegrepp, nämligen öppenhet. Resultatet av analysen blev bland annat att polisen i båda fallen var konsekventa med sin information och att de använt en strategi mer än andra i respektive fall. En slutsats som dras är att allmänhetens förtroende är mycket viktigt för polisen. En annan slutsats som dras är att öppenhet anses vara viktigt, inte bara av tidigare forskning, utan också av polisen själv. / The purpose of this study was by using a public relations perspective study the Swedish police’s crisis communication when criticism from the multitude has occurred. This thesis point of departure has been two cases; fallet i arresten and kvinnoregistret. A qualitative textual analysis has been made on 14 articles from the police homepage and Facebook. The theory that has been used to distinguish what image repair strategies that the police has used is image restoration theory. A public relations perspective has also been applied to produce an understanding for why the image repair strategies has been used, as well as to provide the thesis with another concept important to public relations; openness. The result of the analysis has been among other things that the police in both of the cases were consistent with their information and that they primarily has used one of the image repair strategies. A conclusion is that the multitudes confidence in the police is very important for the police. Another conclusion is that openness is considered important, not only to previous researchers but by the police itself.

Lenney (1977) concluded that achievement gender differences were predicted by females' lower self confidence and expectancies in competitive situations, identifying three variables that mediated female self confidence in achievement situations, (1) task appropriateness. (2) social comparison, and (3) feedback. The present study manipulated all three mediating variables with 240 undergraduate 18-25 year old female subjects with the pursuit rotor task that requires tracking a moving (40 rpm's) white light with a hand-held stylus for 60 seconds. Response measurement was based upon time on target. Subjects were tested over five trials while setting goals for each trial. Females were randomly assigned to a male appropriate, female appropriate, or gender neutral task condition, a competition or alone condition, and to one of four feedback conditions (no feedback, feedback about own performance only, feedback about own performance that provided the perception that subject was performing better than an opponent and/or average on each trial, or feedback about own performance that provided the perception that subject was performing poorer than an opponent and/or average on each of the five trials). Results from the 2 (social comparison) X 3 (task appropriateness) X 4 (feedback) ANOVA were contradictory to previous findings (Corbin, 1981; Petruzzello & Corbin, 1988) as females performed significantly better in competition than alone. Data support the conclusion that presentation of clear and unambiguous feedback enhanced female self-confidence (Corbin, 1981; Petruzzello & Corbin, 1988; Lenney, 1977). Data also provide null findings for the task appropriateness condition which contradicts the previous research (Corbin, 1981; Lenney, 1977) in that females perceiving the task as male appropriate did not exhibit less self-confidence and perform poorer than when the task was perceived as either female appropriate or gender neutral. Conclusions reflect methodological differences from previous research and changes in gender role identification that have significantly impacted on female self-confidence and performance in competitive situations.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Maryland, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 287-317).

This research examines the confluence of consumers’ use of social media to share information with the ever-present need for innovative research that yields insight into consumers’ economic decisions. Social media networks have become ubiquitous in the new millennium. These networks, including, among others: Facebook, Twitter, Blog, and Reddit, are brimming with conversations on an expansive array of topics between people, private and public organizations, governments and global institutions. Preliminary findings from initial research confirms the existence of online conversations and posts related to matters of personal finance and consumers’ economic outlook. Meanwhile, the Consumer Confidence Index (CCI) continues to make headline news. The issue of consumer confidence (or sentiment) in anticipating future economic activity generates significant interest from major players in the news media industry, who scrutinize its every detail and report its implications for key players in the economy. Though the CCI originated in the United States in 1946, variants of the survey are now used to track and measure consumer confidence in nations worldwide. In light of the fact that the CCI is a quantified representation of consumer sentiments, it is possible that the level of confidence consumers have in the economy could be deduced by tracking the sentiments or opinions they express in social media posts. Systematic study of these posts could then be transformed into insights that could improve the accuracy of an index like the CCI. Herein lies the focus of the current research—to analyze the attributes of data from social media posts, in order to assess their capacity to generate insights that are novel and/or complementary to traditional CCI methods. The link between data gained from social media and the survey-based CCI is perhaps not an obvious one. But our research will use a data extraction tool called NetBase Insight Workbench to mine data from the social media networks and then apply natural language processing to analyze the social media content. Also, KH Coder software will be used to perform a set of statistical analyses on samples of social media posts to examine the co-occurrence and clustering of words. The findings will be used to expose the strengths and weaknesses of the data and to assess the validity and cohesion of the NetBase data extraction tool and its suitability for future research. In conclusion, our research findings support the analysis of opinions expressed in social media posts as a complement to traditional survey-based CCI approaches. Our findings also identified a key weakness with regards to the degree of ‘noisiness’ of the data. Although this could be attributed to the ‘modeling’ error of the data mining tool, there is room for improvement in the area of association—of discerning the context and intention of posts in online conversations.

No description available.

The main goal of the thesis is to build upon the existing research literature and to explore the relationship of sport confidence and sports performance, among which a positive correlation is often found. The theoretical part summarizes the present findings regarding this connection, as well as how sport confidence generally works, what constructs it relates to, or how it is measured. In the empirical part, quantitative research on a sample of Sri Lankan swimmers between 17 and 19, executed using the Sport-Confidence Inventory (SCI; Vealey, Knight, 2002), is then presented. Its results showed that participants scoring high at least in one of the three SCI subscales were performing better, regardless of how well the other components were developed, as opposed to participants whose scores were moderate in all the three subscales. The results also pointed to significant differences between the genders, where it showed that men generally scored higher on the level of sport confidence. Series of recommendations for trainers and psychologists working with athletes, but also for potential follow-up studies, can be drawn from the outcomes. Keywords: sport-confidence, multidimensionality of confidence, performance prediction, competitive swimming, SCI

Learning styles and readiness for self-directed learning were identified for 125 adult employees enrolled in self-paced training courses. The success of the self-paced instruction was measured by confidence to perform learned skills on the job. Confidence scores were compared across learning style types and self-directed learning readiness. It was concluded that self-paced training programs can be effective for a variety of learning style preferences. Additionally, adult employees who are highly self-directed will experience greater success in self-paced instruction than those less self-directed. The implication for businesses and academic institutions seeking to employ technology based, self-instructional programs is that a return on investment can be maximized by an examination of the target audience. Training programs which are self-paced may not generate the desired success which will translate into effective job performance for those adults who are not ready for self-directed learning.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.