The present study was designed to investigate the utilization of leisure time among women in psychotherapeutic treatment. Three quantitative aspects and one qualitative aspect of the utilization of leisure time were chosen for investigation. Those aspects were the number of activities in which the women participated during the past twelve months, the categories of leisure interest of the chosen activities (arts and crafts; dance; drama; games, sports, and athletics; hobbies; music; outdoor recreation; reading, writing, and speaking; social recreation; special events; and voluntary services), the total time spent in leisure activities, and the level of enjoyment per hour of participation in leisure activities.

Within the tourism literature, studies of crisis and disaster management in the tourism industry are relatively numerous. However, not only are most research case studies based on a Western-oriented paradigm, but also relatively few studies pay attention to tourists’ perceptions in relation to tourism crisis management. China has experienced numerous crises related to tourism in recent years and eventually coped with them. However, until the SARS outbreak in 2003 there tended to be a lack of subsequent research of crisis management. Following the completion of the Three Gorges Dam in 2009 and the successful completion of the 175-meter experimental water storage of Three Gorges Reservoir in 2010, the debates surrounding the major negative impacts of the dam on the Three Gorges region have become more intense. The transformation of environment has impacted on tourists’ experiences and perceptions, and even the number of inbound tourists. From a Western perspective, therefore, the Dam has become a ‘self-induced’ crisis for the Three Gorges area in general and for Three Gorges tourism. However, the Chinese government stresses that the Dam provides significant benefits to China’s economic development. The aim of this study is to identify appropriate strategies, within a conceptual framework of crisis management and tourism policy development, for rebuilding Three Gorges tourism in China following the completion of the Dam. Therefore, the research critically reviews the development of the Dam and existing tourism policies as a foundation for the principal research question: what are inbound tourists’ attitudes towards the Dam, and how might these inform strategic responses to the consequences of the Dam on the Three Gorges tourism? Subsequently at Stage One of this study, in addition to the secondary data collection related specifically to tourism in the Three Gorges, scoping research was conducted to elicit primary data regarding both tourism policy and planning for the region and an overview of tourists’ perceptions of the experience of the Three Gorges. Thus, the research at this stage involved two in-depth, semi-structured interviews with the supply-side stakeholders, namely, an expert specializing in Three Gorges tourism research and a high-level official from Chongqing Tourism Bureau, and semi-structured interviews with nine tourists from western countries visiting the Three Gorges. Having elicited the initial data and an overview of tourists’ perceptions of the Three Gorges Dam and the Three Gorges, it became evident that more detailed, rich data were required to inform an analysis of tourists’ perceptions of the Three Gorges and, hence, to underpin recommendations for future policy for Three Gorges tourism Therefore, an additional 17 semi-structured interviews with international tourists were conducted at Stage Two alongside a quantitative survey amongst international tourists who had just completed their trip in the Three Gorges region and were still on a cruise ship. In addition to these, an unstructured-interview with a senior tourist guide, as a supplementary source, was also conducted to further identify the international tourists’ perceptions of the Three Gorges and the Dam. The findings reveal that, from the perspective of Chinese government, the Three Gorges Dam is not considered as a self-induced crisis. Similarly, from the perspective of international tourists, the Dam has no yet caused any perceived tourism crisis. However, international tourists’ perceptions of environmental pollution indicate that water pollution in particular in the Three Gorges region is becoming worse. Such problem, if no controlled effectively, is likely to become a serious water pollution crisis in the future, affecting not only the life of local residents, but also the development of new Three Gorges tourism. Thus, in response to international tourists’ perceptions of the Three Gorges and the Dam, this research makes a number of recommendations for the development of new Three Gorges tourism. Overall, the purpose of this research is to establish a link between strategic responses, Faulkner’s framework of tourism crisis management and tourists’ perceptions of the destination in order to expand present tourism crisis management theory and models. In so doing, it adds an additional dimension to the contemporary crisis management and tourism in China literatures. The research also demonstrates the uniqueness of the case: although the Dam has been thought as a self-induced crisis created by humans, it differs from many crises, as the possible negative consequences brought by the Dam were predicted and predictable.

The provision of outdoor adventure leisure experiences for young people is a complex service task and it requires the careful management of participants' heterogeneous needs in a physically demanding and dynamic risk environment Research into the quality of this experience and its management is limited. It typically presents an adult perspective of young people's needs, without reference to the young people themselves. Practitioners and researchers alike acknowledge that the few studies conducted with young people to date suffer from the lack of clear theoretical and empirical underpinning, therefore this thesis, which draws on the conceptual basis for SERVQUAL, has a clear theoretical foundation. Also, many extant studies are quantitative and do not elicit richer, qualitative data from these young people and thus there is little deep understanding of their experiences to guide management. The literature on service quality links to that on customer satisfaction: in this thesis, the two are explicitly conjoined as a precursor to the field research here. A key contribution made by this thesis is to demonstrate that the main drivers of participants' satisfaction are based on elements not previously identified with clarity. These elements are their interactions with staff, their interactions with one another in their own peer 'socialscape' and their own performance in developing skilled leisure consumption. The explicit identification of a 'socialscape' is a particular feature of the research findings here. This thesis analyses qualitative perceptions of service quality from participants, employees and management, and evaluates how service quality and customer satisfaction are managed in a specific organisational context in outdoor adventure leisure. Firstly, watersports participants were interviewed before, observed during, and interviewed after their courses, to establish whether they felt their expectations were met and how this might have been achieved. Secondly, staff were interviewed to establish their perceptions of young people's experiences of the service, and the critical aspects of managing these experiences appropriately. The critical aspect of managing these experiences is that instructors must have specific personal qualities, summarised in this thesis as 'intrinsic service values', and be able to work in an empowered culture, where the changing physical service environment requires them to make flexible, autonomous decisions to ensure participants have an appropriate experience. There are additional findings, which conclude that the ADVENTUREQUAL Conceptual Gap Model is a more appropriate reconceptualisation of the SERVQUAL Conceptual Gap Model, to inform this study of young people's outdoor adventure leisure. This thesis thus provides both conceptual development and understanding, and managerial insight in a specific context.

The dominant focus in the service quality literature in general, and within the tourism and hospitality sector service literature in particular, has been on the drivers of customer-perceived service quality. That is, although the role of front-line employees in service quality has been acknowledged, few studies have actually identified the factors linked to the service encounter from the perspective of both the provider and customer. In practice, the role of front-line employees in service firms tends to be underappreciated, with the lowest paid, less experienced and trained ‘put’ on the front-line. Therefore, managing and measuring the employee-customer encounter becomes a vital determinant of service quality management. Consequently, there is need for more in-depth research from the perspective of both parties in service encounters. Traditionally, research into service quality has been undertaken from the perspective of a person’s (customer’s) satisfaction within service encounters through the expectancy-disconfirmation theory. Indeed, this has been one of the main concepts for assessing satisfaction (Oliver, Rust and Vark, 1997), including the well-known SERVQUAL scale for measuring service quality (Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry, 1988). However, a more recent focus on measuring and managing service quality through the service encounter and, ultimately, on business improvement has adopted a new approach: Human Sigma (Fleming and Asplund, 2007). This new approach has signified a shift away from isolated employee and customer satisfaction scales, described as meeting expectations, to an examination of the more powerful and emotional dimensions of engagement which are holistically measured and managed. This, in turn, can facilitate organisations in remaining highly competitive in attracting and retaining both customers and employees. Given, therefore, that this new approach has the potential to have a positive impact on service organisations in their quest to improve service quality, the purpose of this thesis is to explore the concept of Human Sigma within the context of the hospitality sector. More specifically, focusing on the UK tourism industry, which is primarily comprised of small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs), the purpose of this thesis is to appraise critically the philosophy of the Human Sigma concept of business improvement and to apply the Human Sigma model in a single service context, a UK tourism SME. Subsequently, in order to fully determine the applicability of Human Sigma, a postal questionnaire survey is first conducted amongst the managers of tourism SMEs to establish the extent of the utilisation and contribution of service management tools, techniques and approaches within contemporary small to medium businesses. Following, in-depth interviews are conducted with two key informants in order to enhance knowledge and understanding of the principles and practices of Human Sigma. Building on these results, the third and principal stage of the research applies the Human Sigma model in an operational analysis within a tourism SME. As a consequence, the research not only identifies potential limitations inherent in the Human Sigma model but also, and most significantly, enables the development of a new conceptual model and instrument for measuring and managing the service encounter. The thesis concludes by exploring the implications of this research for service managers and the future of service quality management.

This study adopts a two-stage structural equation modelling approach to demonstrate the nomological validity and utility of The Theory of Planned Behaviour to both predict and to explain the visiting intentions of middle-class residents to social history museums within the next 12 months. Working within an 'experience-based management approach' the present study provides both a descriptive contribution, in terms of identifying and providing significant improvements in the measurement of museum anticipated experiences and resource facilitators and constraints, as well as a predictive contribution, in terms of assessing the ability of The Theory of Planned Behaviour, and in particular, the relative contribution of attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control modelled with complex summated- interactive antecedents, to explain museum visiting intentions. Particular attention is given to the neglected role of belief evaluation in previous museum and heritage studies in describing the structure and structural dynamics of anticipated museum experience opportunities. Furthermore, attention is given to the potential contribution of perceived behavioural control, and an understanding of an individual's resource constraints, to the experience-based management approach. A two-stage development of a summated interactive- complex model is shown to overcome methodological and conceptual deficiencies which have been noted in previous expectancy-value attitude studies. In addition, this study examines the impact of the anticipated interpretative environment (physical designed space) on the museum experiential opportunities, control and social influences perceived by individuals, and compares the interpretative orientation of The New Museology (idea-based museum) to traditional mixes of museum interpretative media (object-based museum) in this respect. A qualitative-quantitative research design was employed. Thirty extended qualitative interviews formed the basis of the study by providing a 'real lived' understanding of common consumption experiences at heritage attractions, the resource problems associated with museum visits and the influences of social referents. Four hundred quantitative interviews with respondents from middle-class households formed the main focus of the study. Interviews were conducted using a systematic random sampling method applied in two spatially and demographically contrasting electoral wards of Edinburgh, Scotland. Across the spatial wards, respondents were randomly divided in two sub-groups (n=200). In each sub-group respondents were asked to evaluate a pictorial collage designed to capture the interpretative orientation of either the New Museology or traditional approach to museum interpretative mixes. The study highlights the superiority of interpretative media mixes common to The New Museology in raising the instrumental and experiential-process value individuals anticipate from this style of museum attraction. In doing so, the study finds support for the continued application of The Manning-Haas Hierarchy of Demand, where the importance of 'setting' in managing the consumption experiences of consumers is explicitly recognised. However, due to the 'egalitarian' objective of The New Museology, and the expected 'levelling' or increasing homogeneity observed between visitors and non-visitors to idea-based (The New Museology) in terms of anticipated experiential benefits and costs perceived in this museum environment, the present study finds the predictive ability of attitudes in The Theory of Planned Behaviour is reduced. For the idea-based museum, these findings raise some questions regarding the ability of the Manning-Haas Hierarchy, which is based on expectancy-value theory, to operate as a predictive modd of motivation as it was intended. However, the present study does support the use of the Manning-Haas Hierarchy as a descriptive heuristic for product development alone. Subjective norms were not found to increase our understanding of museum visiting intentions, while the explanatory ability of perceived behavioural control was limited to idea-based museum attractions. Further, based on the significant contribution for past expereince to explain visiting intentions to the idea based museum, the present study calls for further research to identify potential 'deficiencies' in explanatory variables needed to more fully understand the motivations of individuals to visit idea-based museums associated with The New Museology. Finally, the present study demonstrates the importance of both sub-group analysis in the Theory of Planned Behaviour in order to identify the moderating impact of past experience and gender on the relative impact of attitude, subjective norms and perceived behaviour control on museum visiting intentions.

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston University

Grounded in Basic Psychological Needs Theory (BNT; Deci & Ryan, 2000) and integrating theory from the group dynamics literature (i.e., team cohesion; Carron, 1982) this thesis extended current understanding of the determinants of optimal functioning in elite youth athletes and teams. The studies aimed to highlight the roles of task and social cohesion as antecedents and outcomes of basic psychological needs satisfaction (BPNS) in teams and provided supporting evidence of structural invariance across elite and non-elite competitive levels in hockey players. A team-referenced examination of the tenets of BNT in teams was supported providing a novel approach to the conceptualisation of optimal functioning in teams. The mediating role of BPNS in the relationships provided further information explicating the differing associations between the BNT-related variables between and within teams. The examination of rugby players’ perceptions of the coach-created climate revealed that autonomy support was negatively associated with mean rates of change in levels of negative affect over time. The chapters provided a systematic examination of the BNT processes that extends knowledge beyond conceptualisation and measurement of athletes’ perceptions with a focus on youth athletes operating within elite and non-elite teams.

Coronary heart disease (CHD) remains the primary cause of death in the United Kingdom today and postprandial lipaemia (exaggerated elevation of the plasma triacylglycerol (TAG) concentration after intake of a fat-containing meal) is gaining recognition as an independent CHD risk factor. This thesis provides an overview of the effect that single bouts of exercise can exert on postprandial lipaemia. The conclusions from the experimental chapters within this thesis are that: prior moderate exercise reduces the lipaemia associated with moderate and high fat meals to a very similar extent in percentage terms; a single session of resistance exercise does not lower postprandial TAG concentrations in overweight, sedentary men, regardless of exercise intensity; ad libitum energy intake is not significantly increased on the morning after a brisk walk, with the exercise-induced lowering of lipaemia akin to percentage reductions from studies where fixed size meals were given; and aerobic exercise which lowers postprandial lipaemia, also increases postprandial hepatic portal vein and femoral artery blood flow. The general message from this thesis is that moderate-intensity aerobic exercise should be advocated as a strategy to lower cardiovascular disease risk, based on experimental evidence that postprandial lipaemia is consistently reduced after single bouts of brisk walking.

The prevalence of obesity in childhood and adolescence is increasing and is often accompanied by poor physical and psychological health. Cardiovascular risk factors such as hypertension and impaired glucose tolerance are prevalent in up to 30% of obese children whilst psychological impairments such as low self-esteem and depression are also commonly observed. Numerous factors have been implicated in the development of obesity, and include both metabolic and environmental factors. This thesis explored these determinants with particular reference to the role of physical activity, dietary intake and cardiorespiratory fitness. Obese children and adolescents demonstrated very low levels of physical activity, reduced cardiorespiratory fitness and significant psychological impairments. Many interventions have been employed to counteract obesity in childhood; however most are limited by high attrition rates. Children and young people are unwilling to give up sedentary behaviours and therefore the development of interactive media games offers a potential strategy to increase physical activity. This thesis identified dance mat exercise as being sufficiently intense to improve cardiorespiratory fitness in obese, sedentary children and young people. Furthermore 12 weeks of dance mat exercise promoted favourable changes in body composition, cardiorespiratory fitness and psychological well-being; all of which point towards an improved quality of life.

The present thesis extends the goal striving literature by exploring personal and primed autonomous and controlled goal motivation in relation to goal-related outcomes (e.g. persistence, attainment, inter-goal relations), the responses to goal failure, and well- and ill-being. Aligned with the Self-Concordance (SC) Model (Sheldon & Elliot, 1999), the central hypothesis was that autonomous motives would be associated with more adaptive goal pursuit and higher well-being. We investigated this hypothesis within a sporting context. In Chapter 2, we used ecologically valid video primes to manipulate goal motives. Extending the previous literature, we demonstrated that primed autonomous motives were associated with higher objectively assessed persistence towards an increasingly difficult goal than primed controlled motives. Chapter 3 showed that primed goal motives did not moderate the responses to goal failure. However we presented recommendations for how future research can investigate how individuals react to goal failure. Within Chapter 4, we blended the SC model with the Hierarchical Model of Motivation (Vallerand, 1997) to explain how coach behaviour can facilitate adaptive goal striving and well-being in team-sport athletes. Finally, Chapter 5 used a person-centred approach to examine autonomous and controlled goal motives when pursuing goals in multiple domains. The results suggested that higher autonomous motives are important for adaptive facilitation between goals. The research presented within this thesis represents important conceptual advancements of the goal striving literature. Furthermore, we present important practical implications for those engaging in goal pursuit in sport. Overall, we demonstrate the importance of individuals striving for goals which are underpinning by autonomous goal motives.