This study extended previous research by applying Higgins (2007) theory of Regulatory Fit to the context of performance feedback. Participants worked on an in-basket task in two 30 minute segments. Following the first 30 minutes segment, they were given recommendations for improving their performance framed in a manner that either did or did not fit their motivational orientation. Hypotheses predicted that compared to instances of non-fit, conditions of regulatory fit between recommendation frame (Eager vs. Vigilant) and motivational orientation (Promotion vs. Prevention) would have a significantly greater, positive impact on the following three outcomes: 1) Variety and Frequency of Feedback Use, 2) Feedback Recall, and 3) Attitudes Following Feedback. Overall results supported this assertion. Participants in condition of regulatory fit engaged in a significantly greater variety of behaviors and did so more frequently than those assigned to non-fit conditions. And while the effect of regulatory fit on feedback recall was not significant, it did approach significance (p = .07) and produced a pattern of results consistent with the predictions of regulatory fit. Counter to previous research, regulatory fit did not have significant impact on Attitudes Following Feedback in the current study. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed. / Ph. D.

Men are much less likely to seek out mental health care services than women, despite having equally significant mental health related needs. The purpose of this study was to explore the impact of the construction and delivery of intervention messages designed to encourage men to seek help for mental health concerns. 225 men in the United States were randomly assigned to one of 4 vignette conditions featuring a pro-mental health help seeking message, varying based on the gender of the sender of the message (male vs. female) and based on the inclusion of information concerning misconceptions about therapy (inclusion vs. exclusion of information). A male message sender and a message that included information about misconceptions regarding therapy were both predicted to contribute to higher mental health help seeking intentions for men, and particularly so for men who conform strongly to masculine gender role norms. These hypotheses were not supported; however, the results replicated prior findings indicating that men who conform strongly to masculine gender role norms are less open to seeking help for mental health concerns. Additionally, men’s conformity to the specific masculine norms of self-reliance and violence both at least partially moderated the impact of message sender gender upon help seeking intentions. Further research should continue to investigate the potential effects of message sender gender and message content on men’s help seeking intentions by presenting the pro-help seeking message in person and by presenting a message that more explicitly challenges typical masculine attitudes about mental health care.

The study examined the frequent frames adopted by the CDC in the communication of the Covid-19 vaccine and how it impacts vaccine uptake through quantitative content analysis. The study builds on the framing theory and elaboration likelihood model. This study’s content collected 327 posts by the CDC on covid-19 vaccinations from December 2020- December 2022. A research randomizer was used to choose 200 posts as the final sample from the data that had been gathered. 122 posts out of the 200 total posts that the randomizer tallied were pertinent to the research questions for the study. It was found that the predominant framing strategy adopted by the CDC was the gain framing strategy, which outlined the benefits of being vaccinated. This is encouraging since, as advocates of health communication, we must understand that emphasizing the benefits of adopting a recommended action has a greater chance of having a positive impact.

Background: The protection of the environment requires everyone in this world to act together. If more individuals have the intention to protect the environment, then more individuals and a higher probability of taking action to protect the environment. In order to arouse individuals' attention to environmental issues, some non-profit organizations and government agencies have released public service advertisements. As a way of constructing advertisements, message framing can awaken individuals' emotional responses to the content of public service advertisements by conveying positive or negative information. Positive information can arouse individuals' positive emotions, while negative information can cause individuals' negative emotional reactions. Emotional responses could have an impact on individuals. Therefore, this article focuses on whether there is a relationship between emotional responses and intention.  Purpose: The purpose of the thesis is to explain how the emotional response to the message framing in public service advertisement impact individuals’ intention to protect the environment.  Methodology: This thesis followed a deductive approach; thus, the quantitative research method is applied to this paper. The data collection method is the questionnaire, the authors designed a self-completed questionnaire, and it was sent out online. Before the questionnaire sent, there was a small-scale pretest of the questions was conducted. Then, the questionnaire was posted online, and the authors received 590 valid responses as a result. Afterward, the authors used SPSS as the technical tool to analyze the data. Coding, descriptive analysis, Cronbach’s alpha, correlation analysis, and multiple linear regression analysis were used to analyze the data and test the hypothesis.  Findings: This study found that positive emotional responses to positive message frames in PSAs had a positive impact on individuals' intentions to protect the environment. In addition, negative emotions were found to have no positive effect on negative message framing in PSAs in relation to individuals' intentions to protect the environment.  Conclusion: This study shows that positive emotional responses to PSA images depicting positive messages have a positive impact on environmental conservation intentions. From a positive emotional response perspective, the researchers found that the use of natural environments in PSA images elicited strong positive emotions in respondents and could trigger higher levels of pleasure and happiness, as well as lower levels of awe.  In addition, although negative messages in PSA images can trigger negative emotions in individuals (fear, guilt, and sadness), they do not affect individuals' intention to protect the environment. Thus negative emotional reactions do not affect the intention to protect the environment.

No description available.

Widespread adoption of plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) can help to achieve deep reductions in global greenhouse gas emissions; however, the degree to which this potential will be realized depends on consumers’ decisions to purchase these vehicles over conventional ones. To provide comprehensive insight into the psychological and contextual influences on consumer vehicle preferences, three studies were performed using a mixed-methods approach. Study 1 employed a survey and stated choice experiment to explore: 1) the explanatory power of the three psychological variables from Ajzen’s (1991; 2005) theory of planned behaviour in predicting PEV purchase intentions among new vehicle buyers from British Columbia, and 2) the influence of hypothetical variations in financial and non-financial incentives on estimated PEV preference, with the goal of informing the design of provincial policy measures. Vehicle preferences were most strongly influenced by purchase price and point-of-sale incentives – with a roughly 4% forecasted increase in PEV new vehicle market share under a $5,000 purchase rebate – as well as by attitudes about PEVs (especially concerning personally-relevant PEV benefits), perceived behavioural control, and social norms. In Study 2, a latent class choice model was used to integrate survey and choice experiment data to characterize consumer classes based on vehicle preferences, demographic characteristics, and psychological variables. Findings revealed profiles of five distinct preference-based segments and demonstrated that the inclusion of psychological covariates can improve the fit of such latent class models. Study 3 extended these findings through a controlled message framing experiment that evaluated the impact of psychological distance on PEV purchase intentions. Results demonstrated that messages emphasizing both personally-relevant and societally-relevant PEV benefits increased related purchase intentions compared to the control group. Taken together, these findings may be useful in the development of PEV policies as well as targeted marketing and communications strategies aimed at supporting a transition to PEVs within Canada. / Graduate / 0451 / 0621 / 0709 / christine.kormos@gmail.com

This thesis was concerned with the branch of Cooperate Social Responsibility known as Cause-Related Marketing, and focused on the moderating effects of cultural orientation and message framing on CRM advertisement effectiveness. The well-established individualist/collectivist cultural domain was employed through application to Taiwanese and Canadian cultural contexts. With regards to framing, differences between altruistically and egoistically framed messages were explored. It was hypothesized that members of collectivist societies would have increased positive attitudes and purchase intentions towards altruistically framed messages, while members of individualistic societies would have more favorable attitudes towards egoistically framed messages. The primary rationale cited was cultural congruency between the participants and the messages. An experimental design was performed, making use of real world style simulated print advertisement copies, as well as pre and post exposure questionnaires. Overall, the two-way interaction between cultural orientation and message framing was upheld, albeit with interesting and notable secondary results. Although the collectivist orientation was correlated with higher altruistic tendencies and as a result higher overall attitudes towards the CRM advertisements presented, this did not translate into higher overall purchase intentions. Potential reasons discussed included the relatively hedonic nature of the product used in the experiment, which could explain the higher overall purchase intentions of the individualistically oriented participants, based on affect-based complementary theory. As well, the increased level of past exposure to and familiarity with CRM campaigns of the individualist group was considered as a possible covariate factor. This was the first study to explicitly relate CRM advertisement attitude to a crosscultural framework through message framing, thereby offering significant theoretical contributions to the social marketing literature. Managerial implications have been stressed throughout, with the findings of clear relevance to the marketer interested in launching CRM campaigns internationally.

As the leading cause of death in the United States, coronary heart disease (CHD) is a growing public health problem, despite the fact that many risk factors for the disease are preventable, especially if addressed early in life. The purpose of the current study was to examine the effects of loss-framed versus gain-framed versus information-only health messages on both intention to attend and actual attendance at an appointment to get screened for CHD risk factors (i.e., hypertension, diabetes, and dyslipidemia). It was hypothesized that a population of young adults would be more likely to view screening for CHD risk factors as a low-risk, health-affirming behavior as opposed to a risky, illness-detecting behavior and would thus be more strongly influenced by gain-framed messages than loss-framed messages. Additional goals included the exploration of the extensively researched individual health beliefs of perceived threat (as defined by the health belief model) and health locus of control as they relate to message frames. One hundred forty-three undergraduate students were randomly assigned to either the loss-framed, gain-framed, or information-only control conditions. Framing manipulation checks revealed that participants failed to discern differences in the tone and emphasis of the experimental pamphlets. As a result, no tests of framing effects could be conducted. Sixteen (11.2%) of the 143 participants who participated in Part 1 of the experiment participated in Part 2 (i.e., attended a risk factor screening appointment). Multiple regression analysis revealed risk index, age, and powerful others health locus of control as significant predictors of screening intention. Gender was the only demographic or health related variable that was significantly related to screening outcome, such that women were more likely to get screened than men. Limitations and recommendations are discussed.

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore and describe how the developmental asset framework could be used to conceptualise HIV/AIDS message framing. LoveLife media messages (as gain-framed HIV/AIDS prevention messages) were purposefully sampled. Qualitative content analysis allowed loveLife media messages to be analysed through coding, categorisation and memoing. The analysis process revealed core values and developmental assets portrayed in gain-framed HIV/AIDS prevention messages. Core values identified included, love, respect (portrayed least), dignity (portrayed most) and responsibility. Internal assets identified included, achievement motivation, school engagement, responsibility, integrity, restraint, honesty, planning and decision making, resistant skills, personal power, sense of purpose, self-esteem and positive view of personal future., External assets identified included, family support and positive family communication. Responsibility and personal power, were portrayed most and honesty together with family support, and positive family communication, least. Broadcast messages portrayed the most developmental assets and outdoor messages the least. Correlations were found between core values love, dignity, and responsibility, and the identified developmental assets. Insight was gained into three potential roles developmental assets could play in framing HIV/AIDS prevention messages. Firstly, developmental assets could serve as a source of enablement to make youth aware of strengths they could utilise to foster well-being. Secondly, developmental assets could direct incorporation of positive psychology principles in designing HIV/AIDS prevention messages. Lastly, the study revealed that the developmental asset framework could be used in conjunction with the theory of message framing in designing HIV/AIDS prevention messages. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Educational Psychology / unrestricted

Rock climbing has become a popular adventure activity, yet it poses a threat to the environment, particularly to the rare species that inhabit the lower vegetation density of rock faces. To address this concern, effective evironmental communication is necessary to provoke environmentally responsible behavior among climbers. This study explores what the most effective form of environmental communication is, that elicits a positive response from rock climbers. Regulatory Focus Theory as well as the nature values distinction (intrinsic, instrumental, and relational) are employed to assess the effect of value-based messages on rock climbers' environmental behavior. Moreover, this research investigates how personal values of rock climbers (biospheric, altruistic, and egoistic) impact their response to messages that highlight different nature values. Environmental messaging that resonates with the personal values of rock climbers can influence their response positively. Thus, crafting messages that are aligned with the target audience's environmental dispositions is essential for effective environmental communication. While the findings did not yield definitive results, the study indicates that messages emphasizing the instrinsic value of nature coupled with prevention-oriented foucus may be more effective for rock climbers. Moreover, altruistic and biospheric values significantly moderated climbers' response to environmental messages framed with nature values. Regulatory focus was not found to significantly influence rock climbers' environmental behavior. The study also shows that demographic characteristics such as age and gender can influence the environmental behavior of rock climbers. The study's insights provide a baseline for future research in persuasive messaging for adventure tourists. The research opens up new directions in tourism studies and identifies environmental values most relevant to the rock climbing community, providing guidance to climbing area managers and other stakeholders invested in safeguarding natural habitats. By shedding light on possible environmental communication strategies for the promotion of pro-environmental behavior among rock climbers, this research offers an important contribution to the protection of vulnerable ecosystems and the preservation of natural habitats.