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The research concerns one of the more central components of store image, that of prestige or status. Relevant literatures include store image, occupational prestige, social class, and life style. The investigation focuses on two primary areas of inquiry. The first concerns establishing the construct validity of store prestige using a structural equations methodology. The second area examines the characteristics which cause individuals to differ in prestige grading and uses a similar methodology. Two scales are used to measure prestige, price, and quality of fifteen stores where clothing can be purchased. The results indicate that for this product class and the stores considered, individuals equate the three image dimensions at near unity. In this study the construct validity of store prestige is not supported. Future research using a broader range of retail institutions and different measurement techniques will lead to more definitive conclusions. Without firm conceptual standing of the measurement of store prestige, the second part of the dissertation is re-conceptualized. Store prestige dissensus and articulation are defined more generally as store image dissensus and articulation. The sample as a whole exhibits a substantial degree of agreement when ranking the stores according to any of the three image dimensions. Yet, for stores which may be considered more high culture, there is significantly less agreement in rankings. Although not statistically significant, there is a substantive trend toward increasing consensus in rankings among groups higher in education, occupational prestige, income, browsing, purchasing, and clothing involvement. Finally, with the exceptions of occupational prestige and income, all of these same characteristics are statistically significant predictors of store image articulation. The dissertation concludes with a model proposing cause and effect linkages of retail cognitive complexity. While the research was not originally pursued from a cognitive psychology framework, the results concerning store image articulation suggest several hypotheses involving the more general concept of cognitive complexity.

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Psychology / Master / Master of Philosophy

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The purpose of this study was to determine how mentally retarded persons accept or reject their disability by comparing perceptions that retarded individuals hold of themselves with their perceptions of persons labeled as mentally retarded. The study was also designed to compare perceptions that retarded individuals hold of themselves with their perceptions of persons with no disability label. Finally, the study was designed to compare perceptions that retarded individuals hold of persons labeled as mentally retarded with their perceptions of persons with no disability label. The subjects of this study were 48 males and 48 females from sheltered workshops in Arizona. All subjects were identified as mentally retarded by professional staff from the rehabilitation facilities and voluntarily participated in the study. The subjects were randomly assigned to one of six experimental groups. In Group 1, subjects successfully performed an assembly test and evaluated themselves; in Group 2, subjects failed on the assembly test and evaluated themselves. Subjects in Group 3 evaluated a person labeled as mentally retarded after observing that person successfully complete the assembly test; subjects in Group 4 evaluated the same labeled person after observing that person fail on the assembly test. Members of Group 5 observed an unlabeled person succeed at the assembly test and evaluated that person, and members of Group 6 evaluated the same unlabeled person after observing that person fail on the assembly test. A factorial design varying target persons (self vs. person labeled as mentally retarded vs. person with no label) and performance outcomes (success vs. failure) on the assembly test was employed. The dependent variables were: (1) each subject's assessment of the cause of the target person's performance outcome as measured by the Causal Attribution Scale; (2) each subject's description of the target person as measured by the Semantic Differential and the Adjective Checklist; and, (3) each subject's expectations of the target person as measured by the Expectancy Questionnaire. Rank mean scores on each instrument were produced for the experimental groups and analyzed by Mann-Whitney U tests. In general, the results of the study indicated that mentally retarded persons do not perceive extensive differences between themselves and persons who are identified as being mentally retarded. Similarly, someone labeled as mentally retarded is not perceived in any more less favorable terms than a person who is not identified as being mentally retarded.

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