In Martin Gilens’ book, Why Americans Hate Welfare, he argues that public opinion for welfare programs varies based on the public’s perception of who the poor are and why they are poor—expressing public opinion’s differing affinity for the “deserving” and the “undeserving.” Existing literature on Americans’ support for welfare programs suggests many possible reasons for this underlying sentiment about welfare recipients, primarily racial divides, gender differences, regional divides, and anti-state sentiments. This study attempts to determine which of these factors is strongest in determining how many Americans determine their beliefs about who is most deserving of certain types of welfare supports. By using a survey design paired with a conjoint experiment, this study seeks to capture the effect of the survey participant’s demographic characteristics and perceptions of certain economic and social issues surrounding the welfare debate, as well as how the respondent differentiates between sets of individuals when deciding who should be supported by various types of welfare programs. Based on this research design, I hypothesize that race is the strongest determinant of a participant’s perception of welfare deservingness, and that deservingness of welfare support is perceived to be higher when the participant has similar personal characteristics to the individual in question. Through this analysis, I do not find evidence to support Gilens’ and others’ claims that race is a dominant factor in how individuals determine who is deserving of welfare assistance and general support for welfare policies.

背景：除性別及年齡等人員變數外，犯罪思想被視為犯罪行為的重要因素。西方研究找出了犯罪思想不同的結構，同類型的研究在中國或香港相對罕見。這範疇的研究可促進對邊緣青年的預防工作，所以有急切性。 / 目標：本研究旨在了解西方犯罪思想結構能否適用於中國香港的年青罪犯，亦嘗試發掘本土獨有的犯罪思想。犯罪思想與犯罪行為的關係亦會被探究。 / 方法：六個焦點小組找出了超過三百多個青少年的犯罪思想。四位有經驗之臨床心理學家仔細分析並製訂了一個一百四十六題的問卷。 探索性的因素分析提取了具本土特性的犯罪思想題目。 它們與兩個外國的測量，名為犯罪情感測量表 (CSSM) 及犯罪思想測量表 (CTS) 一同被放進回歸模型， 以了解能否提升結構模式的適配度及解釋青少年人的普遍及具體犯罪行為。 / 結果：探索性因素分析找到了十四項具本土特性的犯罪思想題目， 它們能提升CSSM結構模式的適配程度 (goodness of fit) ，卻未能於CTS達至理想效能。 當它們與CSSM結合後，一個四因子模型 (包括「英雄主義」、「對司法系統的態度」、「對罪犯的認同」及「相信法庭對青年人寬大」) 被塑造了。 「對司法系統的態度」能解釋普遍的罪案和有關肢體暴力、財產、毒品及性暴力的罪行。 「對罪犯的認同」能解釋普遍的罪案和有關肢體暴力及財產的罪行。 具本土特性的犯罪思想因子跟CSSM有類似統計學上顯注的辨別能力， 「英雄主義」在識別肢體暴力的罪犯上有些微優勝，而「相信法庭對年青人寬大」則可識別干犯毒品罪行的年青人。 與西方研究結果相符，性別和年齡解釋了大部分犯罪行為的差異，犯罪思想測量表能帶來的附加值有限。 / 討論：是次研究為本地年青人犯罪思想的探索。 在CSSM中，只有「對司法系統的態度」和「對罪犯的認同」這兩個因子被確立，兩個本地獨有的犯罪思想卻被發現了。 討論圍繞着四個犯罪思想因子中共同包含了對司法系統的態度或期望及渴求朋輩的贊同或情感。 文章討論了有關的中國教子方法，指出了如何善用研究所得的資料辨別與輔導邊緣青少年。 / Background: Criminal thinking was one of the strongest predictors, apart from demographic variables like gender and age, in predicting offending behavior. There were quite a lot of western researches on criminal thinking coming up with different constructs. In Chinese or Hong Kong research on this domain was however relative rare. Corresponding research was called for to facilitate the early intervention on the at risk youth. / Objectives: The present study aimed at exploring the applicability of the western criminal thinking constructs to Hong Kong - Chinese young offenders' population and discovering any indigenous criminal thinking. The relationship of criminal thinking with criminal behavior of youth had been studied also. / Method: 6 focus groups in young offenders' populations generated over 300 criminal thinking related statements. Four clinical psychologists experienced in young offenders’ work had given their opinions and narrowed the statements down into a 146 questions’ assessment. Exploratory factor analysis was conducted to extract the indigenous items. These items were put into factor analysis and logistic regression together with the two western scales, namely CSSM and CTS, to see how well the indigenous items and factors could improve the goodness of fit of the model and the explanatory of general and specific criminal behavior of local young offenders. / Results: 14 local items had been generated from exploratory factor analysis. They had further improved the goodness of fit of CSSM, but not CTS, no matter in criminal or school samples. By combining the indigenous items with CSSM, a four factor model with factors namely, Heroism, Attitude towards Justice System, Identification with Criminal Others and Belief in Court’s Leniency toward Youth was yielded. Attitude towards Justice System could extensively explain general, physical violence, property, drug and sex offences. Identification with Criminal Others could explain general, physical violence and property offences. The two indigenous factors had comparable statistically significant classification power as the two factors of CSSM, with Heroism slightly more competent in identifying young criminals of physical violence, and Belief in Court’s Leniency towards Youth as more competent in identifying criminals of drug offences. Similar to the western finding, gender and age as demographic variables had explained most of the variances of criminal behavior and hence the added value of the scales on top of the demographic variables was limited. / Discussion: The current study aimed at exploring the constructs of criminal thinking in local young offenders. While only the constructs related to Attitude towards Justice System and Identification with Criminal Others of CSSM were being validated in Hong Kong - Chinese population, two indigenous criminal thinking constructs had been found. Discussion had been made on the two main elements in local young offenders’ criminal thinking as reviewed by the four factor model, i.e. attitude and expectancy towards justice system as well as need for approval and affiliation with peers. The cultural specific parenting style that might be associated with the thinking constructs were discussed. Directions to utilize the finding on early identification of and psychoeducation on at-risk youth had been highlighted. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Yeung, Yin Yan. / Thesis (Ph.D.) Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2014. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 329-360). / Abstracts also in Chinese; appendixes includes Chinese.

第三次民主化浪潮及其所代表的世界性民主化转型使得许多人相信民主不仅具有其本身的价值，而且有助于提高大众的福利水平。不少学者曾研究过民主制度与社会福利产出之间的关系。然而，在解释两者关系时并未得到一致性的结论。在很多情况下，民主制国家在改善人类发展指标和提高福利水平方面并没得到社会所期待的结果，而且经常被非民主制国家所超越。政治制度如何影响社会福利表现？民主化和社会福利发展之间是否存在取舍矛盾？如果这种取舍矛盾存在，如何将民主化的社会代价减到最小？ / 本研究试图加深我们对政治制度性质与社会福利产出水平之间关系的理解。为此，本文以维度路径分析政治制度的不同维度如何影响政府采取不同类型的政策选择。本文的核心问题是：民主制的哪些方面有利于/不利于哪种公共政策的实现？民主的不同维度能够促进/抑制哪些政策？竞争性选举和公众参与形成本研究的两个自变量维度。本研究应变量的两个维度是两种政府回应性：政府对公民基本需求（basic needs）的回应，即代表了社会福利表现的改进，以及政府对公民要求（wants and demands）的回应，即代表了满足群体所呼吁的而非客观上对其有利的政策福利。两者在概念上有所不同。本文首先在理论上分析自变量和应变量不同维度之间的关系，继而引用实证科学的定量和定性基本方法来检验所建立的理论关系。 / 本研究证明，并非所有的导致回应要求（wants）的民主属性也有助于使政府回应基本需求（basic needs）。公众要求和公众客观需求作为公共政策所回应的目标具有不同的特征。从委托-代理理论框架来看，回应公众基本需求的政策需要政府采取不同于在回应主观要求时所采取的措施。由于这些不同点，在两个民主维度（政治竞争和公众参与）当中，只有后者对基本需求有积极影响，而前者往往会阻碍以回应基本需求为目的的政策。在政治竞争压力之下，追求选票最大化的政治家更倾向于采取回应社会现有要求的短期措施，且往往以忽视客观需求为代价。因此，为了避免民主化的高成本，需要促进民主的参与维度，且同时要缓解其竞争维度的激烈性。 / The shift towards democracy globally under the “third wave“ of democratization has stirred the conviction that democracy is not only a good thing in itself but also a promoter of general welfare. A considerable amount of research has been conducted to explore the effects of democracy on social outcomes. However, unequivocal conclusions regarding democracy’s impact on health, education, life expectancy and other aspects of human well-being have not been achieved. Many democracies do not perform as good as they are expected to and are often outperformed by non-democratic regimes. Questions appear: How does political regime affect social performance? Is there a trade-off between democratization, on the one hand, and social development, on the other? If there is, how should democratization be carried out so as not to inhibit human well-being? / This dissertation attempts to enhance our understanding of the impact of political regime on social outcomes by applying a dimensional approach. Instead of asking whether democracy is good or bad, it asks: which dimensions of political regime are good for which kinds of outcomes? What kinds of policies are promoted and what are inhibited by different dimensions of democracy? On the causal side are such regime dimensions as competition and participation; on the outcome side are two kinds of government action: responsiveness to people’s objective needs, which conceptually stands for improvement of social outcomes, and responsiveness to subjective wants and demands, which conceptually stands for giving people what they want regardless what is objectively good for them. The relations between these causal and outcome dimensions are explored both theoretically and empirically applying quantitative as well as qualitative methods. / The dissertation demonstrates that not all dimensions of democracy that induce governments to satisfy public wants and demands also work in case of basic needs satisfaction. Public needs and wants, as targets of policymaking, are different. Within a principal-agent framework, responsiveness to needs, compared to responsiveness to wants, implies different strategies of policymaking and has different political implications. Due to these differences, of the two regime dimensions only participation has systemic positive effect on social outcomes. Competition, more often than not, inhibits regime responsiveness to basic needs. In competitive settings, vote-maximizing politicians tend to opt for short-term wants-oriented policies, often at the expense of responding to objective needs. To make democratization less costly, therefore, participation should be encouraged, and competition should be tamed. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Korolev, Alexander. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2012. / Includes bibliographical references. / Abstract also in Chinese. / Chapter 1 / Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1. --- Question --- p.1 / Chapter 1.2. --- Methodology --- p.3 / Chapter 1.3. --- Argument --- p.6 / Chapter 1.4. --- Significance --- p.7 / Chapter 1.5. --- Research design and methods --- p.10 / Chapter 1.6. --- Plan --- p.14 / PART I / A DIMENSIONAL THEORY OF DEMOCRATIC RESPONSIVENESS / Chapter 2 / Literature Analysis: “Two Modes“ of Regime Responsiveness --- p.22 / Chapter 2.1. --- The Dual Nature of Government Action --- p.22 / Chapter 2.2. --- Democracy and Public “Wants“ --- p.27 / Chapter 2.3. --- Democracy and Public “Needs“ --- p.31 / Chapter 2.4. --- Summary --- p.34 / Chapter 3 / Needs, Wants, and Two Dimensions of Responsiveness --- p.38 / Chapter 3.1. --- Concept of Basic Needs and its Cognates --- p.40 / Chapter 3.2. --- Public “Needs“ vs. Public “Wants“ as Targets of Policy Making --- p.44 / Chapter 3.2.1. --- Observability --- p.45 / Chapter 3.2.2. --- Variability --- p.47 / Chapter 3.2.3. --- Malleability --- p.49 / Chapter 3.2.4. --- Satisfaction criteria --- p.51 / Chapter 3.3. --- Needs/wants Dichotomy and Regime Responsiveness --- p.53 / Chapter 3.3.1. --- Observability and the issue of information asymmetry --- p.54 / Chapter 3.3.2. --- Variability and planning frame for policy making --- p.58 / Chapter 3.3.3. --- Malleability and the possibility for manipulation --- p.59 / Chapter 3.3.4. --- Satisfaction criteria and substantiveness of policy response --- p.61 / Chapter 3.4. --- Summary --- p.62 / Chapter 4 / Two Dimensions of Democracy and Responsiveness to Basic Needs --- p.67 / Chapter 4.1. --- Multidimensionality of Regime’s Impact and Decomposition Criteria --- p.68 / Chapter 4.2. --- Political Competition and Regime Responsiveness to Basic Needs --- p.76 / Chapter 4.2.1. --- Competition dimension in theory --- p.77 / Chapter 4.2.2. --- Competition dimension in practice --- p.81 / Chapter 4.3. --- Political Participation and Regime Responsiveness to Basic Needs --- p.89 / Chapter 4.3.1. --- Participation dimension in theory --- p.89 / Chapter 4.3.2. --- Participation dimension in practice --- p.93 / Chapter 4.4. --- Summary --- p.98 / PART II / EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS / Chapter 5 / Competition, Participation and Basic Needs A Quantitative Test --- p.102 / Chapter 5.1. --- Research Strategies and Statistical Model --- p.102 / Chapter 5.2. --- Analysis of Variables and Indices --- p.105 / Chapter 5.2.1. --- Indicators and socio-economic characteristics of basic needs --- p.106 / Chapter 5.2.2. --- Definitions and characteristics of the regime variables --- p.110 / Chapter 5.2.3. --- Critical quantitative analysis of the state capacity variables --- p.116 / Chapter 5.2.4. --- Socioeconomic variables --- p.125 / Chapter 5.3. --- Methods and Results --- p.127 / Chapter 5.4. --- Regime and Needs: Theoretical Explanation of the Statistical Findings --- p.139 / Chapter 5.4.1. --- When elections foster and when hinder basic needs satisfaction --- p.140 / Chapter 5.4.2. --- How participation helps, or is helped by, basic needs attainment --- p.153 / Chapter 6 / Qualitative Illustrations: The Politics of Healthcare in China and US --- p.160 / Chapter 6.1. --- General Patterns of Health Needs Provision in China and US --- p.163 / Chapter 6.2. --- Destructive Competition and Healthcare Reform in the US --- p.173 / Chapter 6.2.1. --- Trends in American healthcare sector --- p.173 / Chapter 6.2.2. --- Failed attempts to reform healthcare --- p.177 / Chapter 6.2.3. --- “Obamneycare bugaboo and public fears of healthcare reform --- p.179 / Chapter 6.3. --- Mobilized Participation and Healthcare Reform in China --- p.185 / Chapter 6.3.1. --- China’s healthcare in the post-reform period --- p.187 / Chapter 6.3.2. --- Policy response and the reversal of negative trends --- p.190 / Chapter 6.3.3. --- Participation and health policy making in china --- p.192 / Chapter 6.4. --- Summary --- p.205 / Chapter 7 / Conclusion --- p.207 / References --- p.212

abstract: ABSTRACT Although the US government has been using remotely piloted aircraft (RPA), more commonly referred to as drones, to conduct military strikes against terrorists and insurgents since at least 2001, only around 2011 did media outlets and polling organizations began assessing the attitudes of Americans towards the use of drones as a weapon of war. Initially, public support for drone strikes was robust with nearly 70 percent of Americans expressing approval. As the discussion of drone strikes intensified however, public support declined over 10 percentage points. Only a handful of studies have examined public opinion and drone strikes, and all have focused exclusively on explaining support. This study seeks to fill this gap in the literature and explain opposition to drone strikes. The primary argument put forth in this dissertation is that people’s beliefs determine their opinions, and their morality determines their beliefs. Although independent opinion formation is often considered a cognitive process, I argue that, at least in the case of drone strikes, the opinion formation process is largely an affective one. By examining media coverage and elite discourse surrounding drone strikes, I isolate three narratives which I believe communicate certain messages to the public regarding drone strikes. I argue that the messages produced by elite discourse and disseminated by the media to the public are only influential on opinion formation once they have been converted to beliefs. I further argue that conversion of message to belief is largely dependent on individual moral attitudes. To test my arguments, I conduct a survey-experiment using subjects recruited from Arizona State University’s School of Politics and Global Studies student subject pool. My research findings lead to two key conclusions. First, opposition to drone strikes is largely the product of the belief(s) that drone strikes are not necessary for protecting the United States from terrorist attack, and that drone strikes kill more civilians than do strikes from conventional aircraft. Second, whether an individual expresses support or opposition to drone strikes, moral attitudes are a relatively good predictor of both beliefs and disposition. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Political Science 2019

Thesis (M.Dev.) -- University of Limpopo, 2018. / Violence against women has been one of the critical concerns in South Africa. To stop violence against women we need to understand how the specific society views and perceives such violence. Then we can introduce effective and efficient strategy to tackle the problem. Literature reviews pointed out the nature of violence against women, the causes and the effects and also the communities’ perceptions on violence against women and the policies or strategies to reduce violence against violence. The study aimed at exploring local community perception on violence against women in Dan village. Qualitative study were conducted using individual interviews and focus group discussions with traditional leaders/ indunas, community policing forums, ward committees, civic organisations and community members of Dan village. A purposing sampling was used to obtain 11community leaders and 34 community representatives from the area. Qualitative content analysis technique was used to analyse the qualitative data collected. The findings revealed the increasing level of violence against women in the study area. The local leaders and authorities response to violence against women seems inadequate in the area. Violence in the area takes the form of physical, sexual, emotional and economical abuses on women. Violence against women committed by people who are very close to victims, including their husbands and family members. The study reveals that major causes of violence were jealousy and alcohol and drug abuse. It is recommended that rural women empowerment should be prioritised to equip them with education and skills, improved social and health facilities, access to micro-credits and job opportunities. It is further recommended that collaboration and networks among local actors needs to be strengthen to address alcohol and drug abuses, criminal gangsters and to create more awareness campaigns on violence against women.

L’identification des e-Leaders d’Opinion (e-LO) sur les réseaux sociaux internet est un enjeu important pour les managers marketing. Cette thèse s’intéresse à ces e-LO au travers de leur rôle, de leur statut et de leur identification. Chacun de ces trois piliers de la thèse fait l’objet d’une controverse dans la littérature. Les trois études menées dans cette thèse apportent des réponses complémentaires et croisées à ces controverses. Concernant le statut de l’e-LO, nous définissions l’e-LO dans les réseaux sociaux internet selon trois caractéristiques : l’expertise dans la catégorie de produit, la volonté de publier des contenus valorisables pour leurs contacts et la volonté de développer leur capital social. Concernant l’identification des e-LO, une échelle de mesure multidimensionnelle dotée d’une bonne validité externe est développée. Elle est confrontée à des mesures d’e-LO et de LO inspirées de la littérature, mais également à des mesures alternatives comme la métrique algorithmique Klout et des indicateurs sociométriques de profil Twitter. Enfin, quatre modèles et leurs variantes sont testés pour mieux comprendre l’origine et le mécanisme de l’e-influence de l’e-LO (rôle de l’e-LO). Nous montrons que l’e-LO a un impact sur l’e-influence dans la catégorie de produit. La confiance joue le rôle de médiateur entre l’e-LO et l’e-influence. Ces résultats plaident pour l’intérêt des e-LO pour le marketing viral. / E-Opinion Leaders (e-OL) identification on internet social networks is a major issue for marketing managers. This thesis deals with the role, status and identification of these e-OL. Each one of these three aspects are subject to controversial debates in the literature. Three studies are conducted within this thesis. They provide complementary and crossed answers to these debates. Regarding the e-OL status, we offer a definition for the e-OL concept in the specific context of internet social networks within three main characteristics: expertise in the product category, the will to publish valuable contents for their contacts, and the will to develop their social capital. Then, for the e-OL identification, we develop a new and multidimensional measurement scale for this concept. This scale shows good external validity. We confront it with others e-LO measures inspired by traditional OL measures, but also with alternative identification methods as the Twitter profile indicators and the Klout score algorithm. Finally, we test four models and their variants in order to better understand the origin and mechanism of the main e-LO role: the e-influence. We especially show that e-OL has an impact on e-influence. We also show that confidence mediates the link between e-LO and e-influence. These results speak to the relevance of e-OL in a viral marketing perspective.

The study of metaphor has moved from abstraction and poetics into the realms of cognitive science and cultural studies. Rather than being seen as purely figurative and secondary to literal meaning, investigation of metaphors reveals a close relationship to our processes of reasoning, a capacity to both reveal and cover, and a plasticity that forms within surrounding cultural values. I reviewed current metaphor theory, including its concerns and justifications, and designed a simple survey experiment through the Qualtrix webpage. The survey was distributed via the Amazon Mechanical TURK system. The experiment, in two different versions, briefly described obesity and then asked participants to describe their attitudes toward, and preferred solutions for, this emerging public health issue. The paragraphs differed only in the metaphor used to describe obesity. Based upon a metaphorical framing hypothesis, it was predicted that obesity as an "infectious epidemic" would bias readers towards societal causes and a preference for public policy changes, while obesity as "simple calorie math" would bias readers towards individualized causes, and less support for public policy changes. The hypotheses of the study were not supported; there was no significant difference in participant responses between frame conditions. Possible reasons for non-significant results include the survey format, unique aspects of obesity as a public health problem, and participants' level of media exposure to obesity. However, this study could be easily altered into various iterations to confirm or deny many aspects of brief metaphorical framing.

The purpose of the current study was to understand public opinion formation by determining what factors influence opinion leaders in the organic food community to engage in the genetically modified food debate, and how opinion leaders describe American lay publics' engagement in the debate.

This study explored the relationship between voters' political behavior regarding the issue of gay rights and the underlying psychological needs served by their attitudes on this issue. A telephone survey of 100 randomly selected local voters was conducted, during which Herek's (1987) Attitude Functions Inventory (AFI) was administered. Three of the four attitude function subscales (Experiential- Schematic, Social-Expressive and Ego-Defensive) were confirmed using a LISREL confirmatory factor analysis. The Value-Expressive subscale was not confirmed and showed poor reliability. Pro- and anti-gay rights behavior was measured using a Political Behavior Index (PBI) developed for this study. Regression analyses and MANOVAs were employed to test six hypotheses, all of which received some support. Pro-gay rights behavior was associated with ExperientialSchematic attitudes and a Value-Expressive item regarding civil liberties. Anti-gay rights behavior was associated with Ego-Defensive attitudes and a Value-Expressive item regarding moral beliefs. Men scored higher on the EgoDefensive function than did women. Those who knew more gay people were more likely to exhibit Experiential-Schematic attitudes and were less likely to hold Ego-Defensive attitudes. These findings imply that efforts to change anti-gay rights behavior need to address the underlying motivations of Ego-Defense and Value-Expression regarding the construct of moral beliefs. An additional implication is a potential for increasing support for the legal rights of gay people by increasing association with people one knows to be gay.

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