published_or_final_version / abstract / Real Estate and Construction / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Politicians and social marketers considering whether, and how, to implement a national smoking ban in their countries require sound evidence regarding what the causes of support are amongst key stakeholders, how this support will develop over the short to medium term in which they seek to be re-elected, and how support relates to critical outcomes like enforcement. In response to this need, I use structural equation models to develop a model of the antecedents of support, based on theories of self interest and common sense justice, amongst hospitality industry managers. I show that support is determined more by fairness related constructs than self interest constructs, that support for national smoking bans increases consistently over time, and that the initial level of support, and the rate at which support increases, is positively related to subsequent enforcement behaviour by bar managers, in the year after implementation of such a ban, in New Zealand. I use growth mixture modeling to identify two subgroups of bar managers whose support changes at different rates. First, a class of bar managers with a high proportion of smokers who reported fewer instances of respiratory related health problems, showed low initial support, and whose support for the legislation slowly decreased. And second, a class of bar managers comprised of fewer smokers, but reporting more instances of respiratory related health problems. This class began with a high degree support, and steadily increased in support for the national smoking ban. I discuss the implications of these findings for social marketers, health educationalists, and politicians interested in introducing a similar ban in other countries.

Este trabalho se propõe a remontar a dissolução ocorrida no tempo em que a Economia Política buscava limitar seu campo de estudo, particularmente no que se refere a percepção sobre a conduta humana e a assunção de que os homens são intrinsecamente egoístas. Para tanto, é desenvolvida a visão do homem moralmente condicionado em Adam Smith e também as modificações subsequentes originadas nas diferentes concepções dos autores da escola clássica e da neoclássica. Sendo que estas mudanças enfatizam o egoísmo do agente econômico. Neste intento, é retraçado o caminho da consolidação do postulado do egoísmo, assim como os percalços, controvérsias e conflitos desta caracterização. São explorados os elementos que auxiliaram na transformação do homem smithiano em homo economicus, tais como a leitura descontextualizada de Smith, o individualismo, o utilitarismo, o individualismo metodológico, o positivismo e a própria necessidade de abstração teórica. Adicionalmente, é verificado que a confusão de conceitos presente nesta construção metodológica traz a referência de que a ciência econômica faz apologia ao egoísmo. Esta percepção é um subproduto do desenlace da economia com as questões morais. / This research is proposed to reassemble the dissolution occurred when the Political Economy sought to limit their field of study, particularly in the perception of humann behavior and the assumption that men are inherently selfish. To do that, it is developed the perception of Adam Smith about human behavior, and the subsequent changes resulting from different conceptions of classical and the neoclassical authors. These changes emphasize the selfishness of the economic agent. In this attempt, is showed the way of the consolidating of self-interest premise, the mishaps and controversies of this path. It explores the the elements that collaborated in the transformation of Smithian man in homo economicus, such as decontextualized reading of Smith, individualism, utilitarianism, methodological individualism, positivism and the very necessity of theoretical abstraction. Additionally, it is observed that the confusion of concepts present in this methodological construction suggests that economics salutes the egoism. This is a result of the distinction between moral and economic aspects.

<p><strong>Objective:</strong> In this thesis, we assume that the organizations' interests are governing their behavior/positions. It seems possible to draw conclusions about organizations'interests on the basis of the behavior / positions that will appear in the givenopinions on Swedish Public Investigations. The purpose of this thesis is toidentify self-interests of the studied organizations as they appear in their givenopinions.</p><p><strong>Method:</strong> The authors have made a qualitative and quantitative study of the opinions.</p><p><strong>Theoretical perspective:</strong> The basis of the study is the organization theories that focus the self-interest oforganizations.</p><p><strong>Empiric:</strong> Information is taken from four Swedish Public Investigations: the New Company Act, International Accounting for Swedish companies, Abolition of the audit requirement for small and medium sized enterprise and Simplified accounting. Altogether 310 opinions have been given on these, out of which we have studied 59. Furthermore, we have collected information on tasks, activities and objectives from the websites of the opinion giving organizations.</p><p><strong>Conclusions:</strong> In the literature, we found, as mentioned, that organizations havet hree self- interests which we define as general self-interests. They are the interest in survival, resources and power. We have found - what we believe – an additional general self-interest of organizations, namely the interest to avoid accountability and transparency. It was possible to divide the organizations intogroups with high community of interest within each group while the community between the groups was low. This provides an empirical support to Dimaggio’s and Powell’s theory which says that organizations in specific areas are similar. This means that it is possible to study the interest of organizations, without studying the individuals in an organization. We found that the owner's interests expressed in tasks, activities and objectives of the organization are important factors affecting the organization's interest structure. We also found indications - however unclear - that the public interest has an impact on the organizations' self interests. We also found an interest to protect its own market which can be related to the general interest of resource influx under Pfeffers and Salanciks theories of resource dependence.</p>

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2006. / The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file viewed on (February 20, 2007) Includes bibliographical references.

Title from PDF of title page. / Document formatted into pages; contains 76 pages. / Thesis (M.A.)--University of South Florida, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references. / Text (Electronic thesis) in PDF format. / ABSTRACT: The present study examined the effects of perceptions of fairness, prejudice and collective self-interest on the affirmative action attitudes of 85 White undergraduate students. Participants were classified as non-racists, modern racists or old-fashioned racists based on their scores on the Implicit Association Test and Attitudes Toward Blacks scale. In the first phase of the study, participants read affirmative action information preceded by either high or low attention instructions. In the second phase, fairness, status of position and race of the target of an affirmative action plan were manipulated using vignettes. No significant differences were found in the first phase of the study. In the second phase, it was found that when the plan was unfair and the target Black, participants preferred plans for low status positions to plans for high status positions. / ABSTRACT: This finding was consistent with the idea that fairness, race and collective self-interest are related to affirmative action attitudes. However, contrary to the initial hypotheses, these effects did not interact with level of prejudice. Possible reasons for the null results regarding prejudice were discussed. / System requirements: World Wide Web browser and PDF reader. / Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Despite growing concerns for environmental crisis and the recent economic downturns, worldwide appetite for luxury goods has remained stable and has even grown dramatically in some countries. Luxury goods implicitly convey certain meanings and norms. What are psychological and behavioural consequences of exposure to luxuries? In this proposal, I argue that exposure to luxury goods increases cognitive accessibility of constructs relate to self-interest and subsequently affects social judgments and behaviour. I aim to establish a theoretical conjunction between (a) anthropology’s study of material culture, which focuses on material evidence in attributing human cultures, and (b) psychology’s priming technique, which examines the effects of activated cognitive representations on psychological responding. Accordingly, three studies were conducted to investigate the implicit link of luxury and self-interest. The results showed that exposure to luxury primes automatically activated mental associations relate to self-interest and subsequently increased one’s propensity to allocate more resources to oneself relative to another person (study 1), caused some harvesters to defect in a multi-stage N-person commons dilemma (study 2), but did not necessarily induce unethical behaviour aimed to harm others (study 3). Research about the psychological effects of luxury goods are important because luxuries are implicitly embedded in institutional settings and organizational environments in which negotiations are typically conducted and resource allocation decisions are made. / Graduate / 0621 / 0623 / 0451 / angelch@uvic.ca

We have from our research, conducted in Guardamar del Segura, Spain, discovered that most of the communication between native Spaniards and immigrant Bulgarians is negative non-verbal communication which leads to a division between the two groups. The result of high unemployment and social stress, which the current situation in Spain provides, tend to create stronger ties inside the groups and at the same time enlarge the distance towards other groups. Also, the large amount of nonverbal communication such as observing each other’s behavior leads in this case to negative stereotyping and prejudices that creates and maintain the different group’s relations in the society.

Abstract Beliefs about which behaviors and responsibilities should typical be assumed by women and men are central in shaping gender relations and gender equality in society. The belief that women should be responsible for domestic work, while men should provide economically for the family gives rise to an uneven opportunity structure, situating women in a disadvantaged position compared to men. In order to achieve gender equality traditional gender role attitudes need to liberalize. This thesis examines who supports non-traditional gender roles in Sweden. Data representative of the Swedish population between the ages of 18-79 were used to explore the relationship between social context and individual self-interest and gender role attitudes. The results showed that women are more likely to be positive towards non-traditional gender roles if they are situated in highly educated social contexts. Conversely, men were found to be more likely to be positive if situated in gender equal contexts. This indicates that men’s beliefs regarding what is appropriate for women might be countered by women in gender equal contexts, while women may find confirmation regarding their non-traditional gender role attitude in other equally liberal women.

Politicians and social marketers considering whether, and how, to implement a national smoking ban in their countries require sound evidence regarding what the causes of support are amongst key stakeholders, how this support will develop over the short to medium term in which they seek to be re-elected, and how support relates to critical outcomes like enforcement. In response to this need, I use structural equation models to develop a model of the antecedents of support, based on theories of self interest and common sense justice, amongst hospitality industry managers. I show that support is determined more by fairness related constructs than self interest constructs, that support for national smoking bans increases consistently over time, and that the initial level of support, and the rate at which support increases, is positively related to subsequent enforcement behaviour by bar managers, in the year after implementation of such a ban, in New Zealand. I use growth mixture modeling to identify two subgroups of bar managers whose support changes at different rates. First, a class of bar managers with a high proportion of smokers who reported fewer instances of respiratory related health problems, showed low initial support, and whose support for the legislation slowly decreased. And second, a class of bar managers comprised of fewer smokers, but reporting more instances of respiratory related health problems. This class began with a high degree support, and steadily increased in support for the national smoking ban. I discuss the implications of these findings for social marketers, health educationalists, and politicians interested in introducing a similar ban in other countries.