Saving is viewed as deferred consumption and studied within the framework of intertemporal choice. The literature, drawn from psychology, economics and economic psychology, suggests that whilst there have been many theoretical references to the relationship between individual differences associated with intertemporal decision-making and saving, and these individual difference variables have been studied in relation to other behaviour, there is a lack of empirical research investigating their relationship with saving. The particular variables of interest are delay of gratification, time preference (impatience), self control, impulsiveness and consideration of future consequences. This thesis presents a series of empirical studies which used carefully constructed or selected measures to investigate the relationship between individual differences associated with intertemporal decision-making and saving. A variety of methods were used. The first two studies measured delay of gratification using a behavioural choice paradigm and investigated its relationship with saving. The next three studies measured a construct known as the consideration of future consequences and examined its relationship with saving. In-depth interviews, focusing on impulsiveness and impatience provided a more realistic investigation of the personality structure of delay, and aided the development of quantitative measures of impulsiveness. Secondary analysis of Dutch panel data enabled the hypotheses to be tested with a larger dataset and shifts in assets as a measure of saving. The group of studies culminated in a postal survey of married couple households, allowing a multivariate investigation of all the individual difference constructs which had been developed and investigated. This final study also addressed issues such as the relative influence of psychological data from both spouses in a decision-making unit. The results are discussed throughout the thesis in the light of their implications for psychology, economics, policy-making and marketing, as well as for economic psychology. The main contributions are some new measures of theoretically relevant individual difference constructs, which will require further testing in order to prove their worth

The purpose of this dissertation is to explore the use of discursive practice in the media public sphere as part of the educational policymaking process. The theory of definitional advantage suggests that powerful policy players have preferred access to media accounts of educational issues. Links between educational policy research and media research suggest that this definitional advantage translates into educational policy settlement. My research begins from the premise that this theory requires further clarification as recent evidence suggests definitional advantage and links to settlement are context specific and more complex than initially envisioned. This study focuses on policy player representations in newspaper accounts of educational choice issues in Edmonton and Calgary, Alberta from 1990 to 2005, with attention to who was saying what, when, and with what authority. A fifteen year timeline was chosen in order to illuminate periods of policy crisis and settlement, and contrasting case study sites were chosen due to key differences in school board resistance and local policy implementation. While newspaper accounts shifted overtime in response to local conditions, main narrative issue themes focused on charter approval challenges, administrative issues, and monitoring and support needs. Policy players also weighed in on the school choice debate by articulating claims related to equity, quality, and the need for diversity of educational opportunities. Charter school, school board, and government players were best able to articulate their positions in the public sphere as evidenced by measures of access, recognition, responsiveness, and intertextuality. Teachers’ union representations were surprisingly limited in both newspapers. Differences across local sites reveal strategies for effective counter-hegemonic work in the public sphere. By reinforcing their position of accommodation, connecting to local conditions, and limiting their assertions, the Edmonton board stopped the spread of charter schools early in the policymaking process. In contrast, the Calgary school board took an aggressive position of resistance that reinforced public perceptions of self-interest and mediocrity. Educational policy players should be encouraged that power is not a prerequisite for definitional advantage. Rather, connecting to local conditions, avoiding blame, and targeting assertions are effective policymaking strategies to be used in the public sphere.

Arguments in the debate over abortion can, for the most part, be categorized as aiming to provide an answer to one of two questions: “Is abortion Immoral?”, and “Should abortion be legal?” I will argue that those wishing to make arguments in support of the Pro-Choice position ought to focus on providing an answer to the legal question rather than the moral one. I will argue for two claims in support of this thesis, first, that the current state of the debate over the answer to the moral question is one of reasonable disagreement; second, if we accept David Boonin’s methodology of appealing to one’s opponent on terms that she is likely to accept, then it makes sense for the Pro-Choicer to focus on answering the legal question.

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The field of strategic marketing has long been identified as fruitful ground for gaining competitive advantage. Ever since the market segmentation concept was introduced in the late sixties, research interest steadily increased, covering issues as e.g. which fundamental segmentation strategy is most appropriate, in which ways can segments be identified or constructed, which algorithm provides optimal data-driven segmentation solutions, which number of segments should be constructed etc.. Interestingly, the issue of segment evaluation and choice has not been emphasised very strongly in the past, although this is of primary interest as soon as it comes to practical implementation. This article tries to fill this gap in an experimental manner: the consequences of different corporate segment choice strategies based on different segment evaluation criteria are investigated under different environmental conditions formalised in a complex artificial consumer market. The results indicate that complex decision models for segment choice do not turn out to be superior in general. Both mass marketers and firms concentrating on particular segments based on an a priori logic can be just as successful under "favourable" market conditions, the most influential condition being the available advertising budget. (author's abstract) / Series: Working Papers SFB "Adaptive Information Systems and Modelling in Economics and Management Science"

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The research was stimulated by involvement in leading elements of an Education Management programme. Developing part of the teaching material led to the realisation that while pupils' choice of school has been extensively researched it appeared that subject choice, particularly at A level had not. It also became apparent that ideas and models concerning decision making, extensively adopted within the Consumer Behaviour literature had not been applied in this context. Extensive reviews ofthe literature confirmed this position and indicated that the post sixteen school choice was also under researched and further that it was not possible to apply extant consumer behaviour models directly to the A level or School choice contexts. The research programme consisted of a mixture of qualitative and quantitative techniques. Building on elements of theory, from the literature, exploratory research employing focus groups was used to develop an initial model of adolescent pupil decision making. Early in the exploratory research it was found that the decision for adolescents choosing where to study their A levels was inextricably linked to choice of subjects. Choice of A level subjects was added to the research programme. Based on the exploratory results a quantitative study, using questionnaires, was developed to test the model on both single (choosing a school) and multiple (choosing A level subjects) choice situations. The study investigated differences between single-choice and multiple-choice decision making, an area neglected by consumer research, which provides at least a partial explanation of the process used by the pupils when they choose schools/colleges and A level subjects. Findings identify that although some aspects ofthe choice process are similar, there are important differences between the two types of decision. Evoked set are larger for multiple-choice decisions, and multi-choice decisions are likely to involve more stages in the decision making process than single-choice decisions. The results also identified that the parents' role has changed from 'decider', when their children were younger, to 'influencer', with the adolescent pupils becoming the decision makers. Concomitantly, choice criteria are shown to have evolved with 'discipline' decreasing markedly in importance and subject range increasing. The pre-eminence of personal sources of information is confinued but co-orientation emphasised.

Educational programs for children with autism rely on the use of extrinsic rewards to increase childrens motivation to participate. However, maintenance and transfer of intervention gains remains problematic. Research with typically developing children and adults has shown that extrinsic rewards can have differing effects on intrinsic motivation. That is, the ways in which rewards are administered (reward contingency, interpersonal context) can increase, decrease, or leave an individuals intrinsic motivation unaffected. The present research examined whether these characteristics would increase the intrinsic motivation of children with autism, and whether observed increases maintained and generalized to novel contexts. In two different studies, children with autism were given performance-based rewards for engaging in academic activities in both choice and no-choice conditions. Each correct response earned the children one token that was exchangeable for one minute of time with their preferred reward. In some conditions, children were offered opportunities to make choices during the activity, whereas in other conditions, choice making was not allowed. Results indicated that childrens intrinsic motivation for the academics was neither undermined nor enhanced following the receipt of the reward. Further, children showed a clear preference for the academic subject associated with enhanced choice. These results were discussed in terms of Skinners behavioral theory and cognitive evaluation theory. The limitations, as well as the practical implications, are also discussed. / Special Education