Abstract  Background: Growing global concerns about sustainability highlight the importance of environmental sustainability, particularly environmentally conscious behaviors. There has been a growing focus on pro-environmental behavior (PEB) as a way for individuals to minimize their environmental impact. Global environmental challenges underscore the pressing need for proactive environmental action, particularly the growing emphasis on the importance of motivating individuals' daily actions and choices, as they directly contribute to environmental conservation and pro-environmental behavior. In the context of Sweden, the country is widely recognized for its commitment to environmental sustainability. Moreover, considering the increasing number of international university students in Sweden, it contributes to the academic environment and allows for the exploration of environmental behaviors within a diverse population. Given this, understanding, and promoting pro-environmental behaviors among this demographic in Sweden is essential, and it also helps contribute to the societal commitment to environmental conservation.  Purpose: This thesis aims to investigate the determinants that influence pro-environmental behavior among international university students in Sweden, employing social cognitive theory and the reciprocal determinism model. Focusing on personal (internal) factors like environmental knowledge and attitudes as well as environmental (external) factors like subjective norms and place attachment, this thesis also explored the interaction between pro-environmental behavior and its associated factors. By understanding these factors’ roles, this thesis aims to contribute to the development of effective strategies for promoting pro-environmental behavior among this population. Method: This thesis adopts a quantitative approach to examine the interplay of variables via an online survey. Data were collected from 203 individuals in Sweden, focusing on investigating the relationships between different factors and pro-environmental behavior based on eight formulated hypotheses. Respondents were selected using judgmental sampling, and data analysis was conducted using techniques such as Pearson’s correlation and multiple regression analysis in SPSS.  Conclusion: The results of this thesis reveal a significant association between different factors and pro-environmental behavior among international university students in Sweden. Specifically, environmental attitude and place attachment were found to positively influence pro-environmental behavior. Moreover, subjective norms were shown to have a positive impact on both environmental knowledge and attitude. However, neither the relationship between place attachment and environmental knowledge nor the relationship between environmental knowledge and subjective norms had any significant impact on pro-environmental behavior.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Family Studies and Human Services / Kristy L. Pederson-Archuleta / Viewership of reality television has been indicated to influence behaviors among individuals and groups, as existing literature has linked reality television viewership to an increase in the likelihood of demonstrating other non-financial behaviors. The literature notes increases in risky sexual and dating behavior, increases in tobacco, drug, and alcohol use, and increases in violent behavior. This dissertation examined the perceptions of the influence of reality television on financial behavior. Situational reality television programming was found to have the greatest influence on the financial behaviors of college students. Ten college students were interviewed using a phenomenological qualitative approach. There were four primary findings from this study. The first was that reality television has the ability to inform the financial behavior of college students. Second, an individual’s connection to his or her social system has an influence on financial behavior. Third, reality television does have the ability to influence financial behavior change and fourth, reality television influences the meaning of money as perceived by the respondents. The results of this study provide valuable information to promote further inquiry as to how reality television and other forms of media influence financial behavior.

There is almost a universal agreement among scholars in information retrieval (IR) research that knowledge representation needs improvement. As core component of an IR system, improvement of the knowledge representation system has so far involved manipulation of this component based on principles such as vector space, probabilistic approach, inference network, and language modeling, yet the required improvement is still far from fruition. One promising approach that is highly touted to offer a potential solution exists in the cognitive paradigm, where knowledge representation practice should involve, or start from, modeling the human conceptual system. This study based on two related cognitive theories: the theory-based approach to concept representation and the psychological theory of semantic relations, ventured to explore the connection between the human conceptual model and the knowledge representation model (represented by samples of concepts and relations from the unified medical language system, UMLS). Guided by these cognitive theories and based on related and appropriate data-analytic tools, such as nonmetric multidimensional scaling, hierarchical clustering, and content analysis, this study aimed to conduct an exploratory investigation to answer four related questions. Divided into two groups, a total of 89 research participants took part in two sets of cognitive tasks. The first group (49 participants) sorted 60 food names into categories followed by simultaneous description of the derived categories to explain the rationale for category judgment. The second group (40 participants) performed sorting 47 semantic relations (the nonhierarchical associative types) into 5 categories known a priori. Three datasets resulted as a result of the cognitive tasks: food-sorting data, relation-sorting data, and free and unstructured text of category descriptions. Using the data analytic tools mentioned, data analysis was carried out and important results and findings were obtained that offer plausible explanations to the 4 research questions. Major results include the following: (a) through discriminant analysis category members were predicted consistently in 70% of the time; (b) the categorization bases are largely simplified rules, naïve explanations, and feature-based; (c) individuals theoretical explanation remains valid and stays stable across category members; (d) the human conceptual model can be fairly reconstructed in a low-dimensional space where 93% of the variance in the dimensional space is accounted for by the subjects performance; (e) participants consistently classify 29 of the 47 semantic relations; and, (f) individuals perform better in the functional and spatial dimensions of the semantic relations classification task and perform poorly in the conceptual dimension.

The current study examined the impact that components of Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT) have on choice behavior and academic performance in African American or Black, undergraduate students. SCCT is a highly valued and researched theory, but few studies examine the impact that SCCT components have on choice behavior and academic performance in Black college students. This study focused on evaluating SCCT components’ relevance to variables that have been shown to predict later objective career success. This is important because African Americans tend to have significantly lower paying and less prestigious jobs, as well as attain lower levels of education than most other racial populations in the United States. However, there is a paucity of current career development and attainment literature specific to the African American undergraduate population. In an effort to promote understanding of within group differences in SCCT variables that can contribute to educational and career success, 247 African American undergraduates were recruited to participate in this study. The participants completed online questionnaires regarding demographic information, self-efficacy, contextual barriers, contextual supports, choice goals, and choice behavior. Participants also gave permission for researchers to access grades. Findings indicate that academic coping self-efficacy, contextual barriers, and contextual supports may be particularly important to academic choice behavior in African American college students. Further, choice behavior appears to be important to grade point average. Implications, limitations, and recommendations for future research associated with this study’s findings are discussed.

Bakgrund: Andelen äldre i vårt samhälle ökar och alltfler äldre är fysiskt inaktiva, vilket kan ses som ett folkhälsoproblem. Att utforska inaktiva äldres syn på fysisk aktivitet kan bidra till värdefull kunskap när det gäller att stödja dessa personer till en ökad fysiskt aktiv livsstil.  Syfte: Att ta reda på vad inaktiva äldre upplever har betydelse för att vara fysiskt aktiva, samt vad de anser kan få dem att förändra sitt beteende till en mer fysiskt aktiv livsstil. Metod: En kvalitativ studie med semistrukturerade intervjuer genomfördes med ett bekvämlighetsurval med sex kvinnor, 65–74 år. Data analyserades induktivt med kvalitativ innehållsanalys där koder och kategorier sorterades fram.  Resultat: Fysisk miljö och yttre stöd ansågs ha betydelse för att inaktiva äldre skulle vara mer fysiskt aktiva. Vardagliga aktiviteter prioriteras framför fysisk aktivitet. Yttre stöd, förändrade rutiner i samband med pension, kunskap och erfarenheter samt känslor och attityder kring fysisk aktivitet ansåg de äldre ha betydelse för den fysiska aktivitetsnivån. Slutsatser: De psykosociala faktorerna uppfattades ha stor betydelse vad gäller fysisk aktivitet, deltagarna betonade omgivningens betydelse, yttre stöd ansågs ha en stor betydelse för att en beteendeförändring skulle kunna ske. / Background: The number of elderly in our society is increasing and the quantity of physically inactive seniors is growing along with it, this observation can be viewed as a global health issue. By exploring inactive elderly people´s view of physical activity it can contribute to valuable knowledge for supporting this age group into a more physical active lifestyle. Aim: To find out what elderly experiences have importance for being physically active, and what they think can make them change their behavior into a more physically active lifestyle. Method: The study was qualitative, semistructured interviews were made, a convenient sample of six women, 65-74 years old, were included. Data were interpreted inductive with a qualitative content analysis and then sorted into codes and categories. Result: Physical environment and external support was considered to be important by elderly inactive people to be more physically active. Ordinary everyday activities are prioritized over physical exercise. External support, changed habits after retirement, knowledge, experience and attitudes regarding physical activity. This altogether results in an impact on the level of physical activity amongst elders.   Conclusion: The psychosocial factors  were perceived to have great importance in terms of physical activity. The participants expressed how the support from the surroundings has a great importance for a behavioural change.

Submitted by Filipe dos Santos (fsantos@pucsp.br) on 2018-12-12T09:30:07Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Paulo Ferreira do Carmo.pdf: 863389 bytes, checksum: 85bcbdd002e1538d36adf2efa4d1c569 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-12-12T09:30:07Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Paulo Ferreira do Carmo.pdf: 863389 bytes, checksum: 85bcbdd002e1538d36adf2efa4d1c569 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-09-25 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / Theories focused on the conceptualization of mathematical thinking have developed in the scope of mathematical education. These theories are cognitivist and aim to know the processes of formation of mathematical thinking, and in this way they make a valuable contribution to teaching and especially to learning in this area of knowledge. This thesis presents an investigation on this theme of the formation of advanced mathematical thinking, more specifically on the notions of Brazilian mathematical educators expressed in dissertations and theses produced in the period from 2010 to 2016. In this context, we have as an objective of this thesis, to understand and analyze in which, as and to what purpose the notion of advanced mathematical thinking appears in Brazilian production, and to evaluate what results were measured in these works and whether they express in any way different conceptions of this notion. The methodological procedures performed to reach this goal were to read and analyze scientific publications that somehow brought the theme of advanced mathematical thinking theory, which began to appear from the late 1970s, being David Tall and Tommy Dreyfus the leading researchers in the development of this theory. In the composition of the corpus of analysis there are 26 dissertations and theses selected because they fulfill the requirements announced in the proposed objective. Based on the precepts of the methodology of content analysis, we created two categories that reflect the objectives, the research questions and the results of the academic papers analyzed. The analysis of these categories indicated that Brazilian dissertations and theses presented in the period studied associate the notion of advanced mathematical thinking with mathematical thinking developed in the learning of mathematical contents of higher education and the formalization of mathematical concepts. The analysis of the corpus also revealed that it is admitted that the process of formation of mathematical thinking, necessary for the development of certain activities, is guided by cognitive obstacles and as a consequence, these obstacles generate learning difficulties. We can point out as a result of this research that the theory of advanced mathematical thinking is being used to understand the functioning of the process of the formation of this thinking, and from this to find elements that illuminate teaching strategies that promote learning in a more qualified way of mathematical concepts / As teorias voltadas à conceituação do pensamento matemático têm se desenvolvido no âmbito da educação matemática. Essas teorias são de cunho cognitivista e visam conhecer os processos de formação do pensamento matemático, e dessa forma elas trazem uma contribuição valiosa ao ensino e principalmente à aprendizagem dessa área do conhecimento. Esta tese apresenta uma investigação sobre esse tema da formação do pensamento matemático avançado, mais especificamente sobre concepções de educadores matemáticos brasileiros expressas em dissertações e teses defendidas no período de 2010 a 2016. Nesse contexto elencamos como objetivos desta tese, compreender e analisar em quais, como e com que finalidade aparece a noção de pensamento matemático avançado em dissertações e teses brasileiras, e avaliar que resultados foram nelas aferidos e se os mesmos expressam de algum modo diferentes concepções dessa noção. Os procedimentos metodológicos realizados para atingirmos esses objetivos foram de leitura e análise de publicações cientificas que, de alguma forma traziam, o tema da teoria do pensamento matemático avançado, literatura essa que começa a aparecer a partir do final da década de 1970, sendo David Tall e Tommy Dreyfus os principais pesquisadores no desenvolvimento dessa teoria. Na composição do corpus de análise constam 26 dissertações e teses selecionadas por preencherem os quesitos anunciados nos objetivos propostos. Tomando por base os preceitos da metodologia da análise de conteúdo, criamos duas categorias à quais refletem os objetivos e os resultados dos trabalhos acadêmicos analisados. A análise dessas categorias, nos indicaram que as dissertações e teses brasileiras apresentadas no período estudado associam a noção de pensamento matemático avançado ao pensamento matemático desenvolvido na aprendizagem de conteúdos matemáticos de ensino superior e à formalização dos conceitos matemáticos. A análise do corpus também revelou que é admitido que o processo de formação do pensamento matemático, necessário para o desenvolvimento de certas atividades, é pautado por obstáculos cognitivos e em consequência, esses obstáculos são geradores de dificuldades de aprendizagem. Podemos apontar como resultado desta pesquisa que a teoria do pensamento matemático avançado está sendo utilizada para se compreender o funcionamento do processo da formação desse pensamento, e, a partir disso, para se buscar elementos que iluminem estratégias de ensino que promovam de forma mais qualificada a aprendizagem dos conceitos matemáticos

Bakgrund:Som yrkesverksam fysioterapeut inom primärvården finns det flera olika behandlingsmetoder för långvarig ländryggssmärta att välja mellan, men inga tydliga riktlinjer att följa. Grundat i det kliniska resonemanget tar fysioterapeuter beslut som påverkas och förändras i mötet med patienten. Då det finns lite forskning som undersökt hur fysioterapeuter utbildade inom Mekanisk diagnostik och terapi (MDT) beskriver sitt kliniska resonemang till patienter med långvarig ländryggssmärta syftar denna studie till att åskådliggöra fysioterapeuters syn på ämnet.    Syfte:Att undersöka hur fysioterapeuter beskriver sitt kliniska resonemang gällande användning av MDT till patienter med långvarig ländryggssmärta.    Metod:Kvalitativ semistrukturerad intervjustudie med induktiv ansats och deskriptiv design. Datainsamling skedde genom sex intervjuer. En kvalitativ innehållsanalys användes vid analys av materialet.    Resultat:Analysen genererade 22 underkategorier fördelade i sju kategorier. Informanterna beskrev sitt kliniska resonemang vid användning av MDT i form av sin syn på metoden, patientdelaktighet i undersökning, struktur och tydlighet, fynd som påverkar behandling, hypotestestning, patientansvar i behandling och värdering av egna förmågor.   Slutsats:Studiens resultat visade att informanterna beskrev sitt kliniska resonemang vid användning av MDT vid långvarig ländryggssmärta inom primärvården främst påverkades av biomekaniska fynd hos patienten. Psykologiska fynd beskrevs som sekundära faktorer att ta hänsyn till, och sociala faktorer beskrevs lite eller inte alls trots att de är viktiga att ta hänsyn till för att åstadkomma en beteendeförändring. Därmed har ett utvecklingsområde för MDT inom fysioterapi tydliggjorts då det finns evidens för att ett biopsykosocialt arbetssätt vid långvarig ländryggssmärta är att föredra. / Background: As a physiotherapist in primary care, there are several different treatment methods for persistent low back pain to choose from, but no clear guidelines to follow. Based on the clinical reasoning, physiotherapists take decisions that are affected and changed in the patient encounter. Since there is a lack of research that have investigated how physiotherapists educated in Mechanical Diagnosis and Therapy (MDT) describe their clinical reasoning to patients with persistent low back pain, this study aims to illustrate the physiotherapists' view of the topic.   Aim: To explore how physiotherapists describe their clinical reasoning regarding the use of MDT for patients with persistent low back pain.   Method: A qualitative semi-structured interview study with an inductive approach and a descriptive design was conducted. The data collection included six interviews. A qualitative content analysis was used to analyze the data.   Result: The analysis generated 22 subcategories divided into seven categories. The informants described their clinical reasoning when using MDT as their view of the method, patient participation in examination, structure and clarity, findings that affect treatment, hypothesis testing, patient responsibility in the treatment and evaluation of own abilities.   Conclusion: The study's results showed that the informants described their clinical reasoning when using MDT with persistent low back pain in primary care were mainly influenced by biomechanical findings with the patient. Psychological findings were described as secondary source to take into consideration, and social factors were described very little or not at all even though they are important to take into consideration in order to achieve a behavioral change. Thus, a development area for MDT in physiotherapy has been clarified as there is evidence that a biopsychosocial approach to persistent low back pain is preferable.

Bakgrund: Digitala patientmöten ökar med visionen om ökad e-hälsa, det kan användas för att nå fler patienter och verka kompletterande till traditionell fysioterapi. Det finns lite information om digitala patientmöten med fokus på att kunna stödja beteendeförändring. Syfte: Syftet med studien var att undersöka hur fysioterapeuter beskriver sina möjligheter och begränsningar att kunna stödja beteendeförändringar hos patienter i digitala patientmöten.Metod: Studien utfördes som en kvalitativ intervjustudie med en induktiv ansats. Sex fysioterapeuter deltog i studien och data från intervjuerna analyserades med en kvalitativ innehållsanalys. Resultat: Intervjuerna resulterade i fem kategorier med tolv underkategorier. Dessa kategorier var: behov att överbrygga det fysiska avståndet, digital fysioterapi passar kortare, enklare kontakter, krävs mer tydlighet i digitala möten för att få med patienten, avsaknaden av fysisk kontakt vid digital fysioterapi hindrar samt rutin för uppföljning. Slutsatser: Deltagarna beskrev det digitala patientmötet som positivt för enkla och snabba patientkontakter. Dock menade de att det inte kan ersätta traditionell fysioterapi då avsaknaden av den fysiska kontakten och den bristande uppföljningen begränsar deras möjligheter att stödja beteendeförändringar. Studien ger grund för fortsatt forskning om organisatorisk implementering av stödjande arbetssätt för beteendeförändringar i digital / Background: Meeting patients in a digital format increases with the vision of increased e-health. It can be useful to reach more patients and work complementary to traditional physiotherapy. There is little information on digital patient meetings with a focus on being able to support behavioral changes. Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate how physiotherapists describe their possibilities and limitations to support behavioral changes in digital patient meetings.Method: The study was conducted as a qualitative interview study with an inductive approach. Six physiotherapists participated in this study and data from the interviews were analyzed with a qualitative content analysis. Result: The interviews resulted in five categories with twelve subcategories. These categories were: the need to bridge the physical distance, digital physiotherapy fits for shorter, simpler contacts, more clarity is required in digital meetings to engage the patient, the lack of physical contact during digital physiotherapy prevents and routines for follow-up. Conclusions: The participants described the digital patient meetings as positive for simple and quick patient contacts. However, they meant that it could not replace the traditional physiotherapy since the lack of physical contact and the lack of follow-up limits their ability to support behavioral changes. This study provides support for continued research on the organizational implementation of supporting working methods for behavioral change in a digital environment.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Human Ecology-Personal Financial Planning / D. Elizabeth Kiss / Maurice M. MacDonald / The purpose of this study was to investigate the determinants that explain and predict an individual’s propensity to perform responsible financial actions and make on-time mortgage payments. The research was guided by Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) (Bandura, 1986) and explored personal factors, environmental influences, and attributes of behavior as co-factors within a combined causal framework. Data for this study came from the publicly available, 2009, 2012, and 2015 National Financial Capability Study (NFCS) datasets. These datasets were selected for the specific questions, timeframe, and richness of the financial information provided by the respondents. Responses for each survey were weighted to be representative of Census distributions according to the American Community Survey (FINRA Investor Education Foundation, 2017). The data are weighted to be representative of each state based on age, gender, ethnicity, and education. The two variables of interest were the responsible financial actions index and mortgage payment history. To isolate the determinants of these two variables more accurately, this research adopted a multi-step approach to the analytical procedure. The analyses began with the construction of the responsible financial actions index – unifying the most fundamental responsible financial actions recommended by financial professionals into a single value. Once confirmed as a valid and reliable measure, the responsible financial actions index was explored empirically as both a dependent variable and a target variable. Further analyses involved the application of the SCT Triadic Model to develop OLS and Multinomial Logistic regression models. Utilizing a series of regression models, this study explored empirically the hypothesized relationships among variables categorized as personal factors, environmental influences, attributes of behavior, and on-time mortgage payment history. When exploring variables to predict the responsible financial actions index, the OLS regression models provided consistent findings when analyzing data from the 2009, 2012, and 2015 surveys. As predicted by the SCT Triadic Model, the following personal factors, age, subjective and objective financial knowledge, financial self-efficacy, and financial risk tolerance were significant across all three survey years. The following environmental influences were significant: income, educational attainment, and marital status. To estimate the odds of paying a mortgage on-time, a series of Multinomial Logistic regression analyses were conducted. When evaluating these results, key findings were identified across all three years of data in two models. Model 1, never late vs. late once, and Model 2, never late vs. late more than once. In Model 1, for all three years, self-efficacy was found to be predictive of on-time mortgage payment history. In Model 2, for all three years, both financial self-efficacy and the financial actions index were found to be predictive of on-time mortgage payment history. These findings contribute to the body of empirical literature related to consumer economics and personal financial planning providing insight and understanding for how financial outcomes can be improved through basic responsible financial actions. This has important implications for financial professionals, counselors, and educators given the applicable value for the responsible financial actions index. For example, these results should encourage educators to work towards identifying new pedagogical approaches for improving financial self-efficacy among students.

Determining the level of belief one has in themselves, or their self-efficacy, can be a key factor to improve certain dietary patterns and choices in the rural youth population. Sugar sweetened food and beverage consumption continues to rise and fruit and vegetable intake remains a struggle in rural areas; addressing both the food environment and adolescents’ self-efficacy could have a lasting impact on changing the nature of a generation of rural student’s food and beverage choices. This study measured self-efficacy levels of (n=425) adolescents in rural Kentucky and North Carolina using the Youth Impact Questionnaire and dietary intake using the NHANES Dietary Screener. Multiple linear regression analysis found that higher levels of self-efficacy resulted in a statistically significant ability to consume more vegetables. Further associations found that higher levels of self-efficacy resulted in increased fruit consumption, and improved added sugar food and beverage selections. These findings suggest that it could be beneficial to target adolescents’ self-efficacy as a way to modify certain health behaviors in a sparse food environment such as these rural Appalachian areas.