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Menopause is a biological change that affects the aging woman at some point in her life. Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) has been a primary medical intervention for decades, and this study explores how HRT products are marketed to women experiencing menopause through direct-to-consumer (DTC) drug ads. Through a qualitative analysis of DTC ads and interviews with women experiencing menopause symptoms, this research investigated their perspective on HRT drug ads to understand if women respond to this type of advertising. Women’s understanding and experiences concerning menopause are influenced by a number of factors and can vary depending on the meanings that are associated with menopause. In U.S. culture, physical appearance is emphasized above other characteristics, so menopause and other signs of aging chge the beauty ideal. Media portrayals of women too often value youth and ideal beauty, with direct-to-consumer (DTC) ads reinforcing this notion by emphasizing how women can remain young, fight the signs of aging, and maintain their vitality by using HRT products. Women also feel conflicted about their bodies as they age because of these dominant standards that can then lead to negative body image. Social comparisons are an inherent process guiding behavior and experiences that affect how people understand themselves (Corcoran, Crusius, & Mussweiler, 2011). People look at others and to media images of others, relating that information to themselves as a way to measure what they are and aren’t capable of. When advertisements construct menopause as a deficiency that women need to treat with medications, women compare themselves to mediated images as they try to understand their menopause experience. Ads analyzed for this study presented messages that women need medication to maintain healthy activities during and after menopause. Most of the ads focused on painful sex that can happen with menopause but nearly all of the participants agreed that these ads did not relate to their experiences. This research found that women don’t believe menopause is a disease to be treated but if medications are used, it should be for the shortest time possible and only if the symptoms drastically interfere with a woman’s quality of life. Through these interviews with menopausal women and analysis of HRT ads, this study adds to limited current research on DTC ads for hormone replacement therapies and menopause.

This research investigated the relationships between reference group choice and job satisfaction, and explored womens definitions of career success. Women working in traditional and non-traditional occupations (N = 52) in a mid-sized university in Western Canada participated in personal interviews. The results revealed that significantly more women compared themselves to others when assessing their job satisfaction than those who did not. No significant differences emerged when comparing levels of satisfaction of women in non-traditional occupations with male reference groups and women in traditional occupations with female reference groups. Similarly, no significant differences in levels of satisfaction emerged between women in non-traditional occupations with female reference groups and women in traditional occupations with female reference groups. However, low power may have accounted for the non-significant findings. Other factors, such as job characteristics, that may be influencing levels of job satisfaction are discussed. Content analysis of womens definitions of career success suggested that women in each type of occupations used similar subjective criteria when defining career success, with the two most frequent coded criteria being happy with work and achieving their goals. Organizational implications of the findings are discussed, including possible factors influencing womens levels of satisfaction, and the development of reward systems reflective of the interests of all employees. Future directions for research are proposed, such as continued investigation of the concept of similar comparison others for women, and womens perceptions of the importance of social comparisons in assessing levels of job satisfaction.

This research investigated the relationships between reference group choice and job satisfaction, and explored womens definitions of career success. Women working in traditional and non-traditional occupations (N = 52) in a mid-sized university in Western Canada participated in personal interviews. The results revealed that significantly more women compared themselves to others when assessing their job satisfaction than those who did not. No significant differences emerged when comparing levels of satisfaction of women in non-traditional occupations with male reference groups and women in traditional occupations with female reference groups. Similarly, no significant differences in levels of satisfaction emerged between women in non-traditional occupations with female reference groups and women in traditional occupations with female reference groups. However, low power may have accounted for the non-significant findings. Other factors, such as job characteristics, that may be influencing levels of job satisfaction are discussed. Content analysis of womens definitions of career success suggested that women in each type of occupations used similar subjective criteria when defining career success, with the two most frequent coded criteria being happy with work and achieving their goals. Organizational implications of the findings are discussed, including possible factors influencing womens levels of satisfaction, and the development of reward systems reflective of the interests of all employees. Future directions for research are proposed, such as continued investigation of the concept of similar comparison others for women, and womens perceptions of the importance of social comparisons in assessing levels of job satisfaction.

Embarrassmet is a very common emotion but usually hard to express, which plays a very important role in social encounter. There are many reasons why people feel embarrassed, like being criticized, making a fool of oneself, performaning inferior to self or other people¡¦s expectation, and so on. The social encounter attribute in service marketing not only is the basic condition for embarrassment but also fits the Social Impact Theory. However, most studies on embarrassment dedicated their attention to personal psychology and social encounter; few of them are about product buying behavior. Therefore this study would verify the impact of embarrassment in service encounter, test how the severity of embarrassing event and numbers of others on site influent consumers¡¦ emotional and behavioral reaction. Besides, researcher puts social comparison theory and consumer pre-consumption mood into the study to verify the impact of consumers¡¦ original mood and others¡¦ relevance to consumers¡¦ percepted embarrassment and behavioral reaction. The research material in Experiment 1 is a story about shopping in a clothe counter in department store. Reseracher finds out that the severity of embarrassing event (the criticism from counter sales representative) and numbers of others on site have different impact on perceived embarrassment. The negative emotion arised from embarrassment mediates their behavioral reaction; the stronger the negative emotion, the stronger ther leaving intention and negative word of mouth are. In Experiment 2, researcher verifies that consumers¡¦ pre-consumption mood and others¡¦ relevance moderate the impact of embarrassment to consumers¡¦emotional and behavioral reaction. The major contribution of this study is that we put ¡§embarrassment¡¨ as the leading role of this study and prove that one¡¦s mood and other customers on site have impact on service encounter. In the end of this article, researcher provides managerial implication, research restriction, and the future research directions.

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Syftet med studien var att undersöka mentalt hälsofrämjande aspekter av sociala medier i relation till skapande. En kvalitativ metod som bestod av tre fokusgruppsintervjuer med 3-5 deltagare i varje fokusgrupp användes för att samla in data. Insamlad data analyserades med hjälp av en manifest innehållsanalys, där tre underkategorier; omge sig med inspiration och likasinnade, olika dimensioner av att visa upp sina verk och omfamna speglandet av verkligheten bildade ett huvudtema; att dela och ta del av: hälsofrämjande aspekter av skapande och sociala medier. Resultatet visar på att sociala medier i relation till skapande bidrog positivt till den mentala hälsan genom bland annat genuinitet, ärlighet, samhörighet och inspiration bland likasinnade på sociala medier. Bekräftelse kunde vara både positivt och negativt beroende på hur deltagarna förhöll sig till det. Hanterandet av sårbarheter framkom i form av olika strategier, däribland att ta kontroll och olika sätt att finna mod. Slutsatsen visar att det går att få hälsofrämjande effekter på den mentala hälsan genom att använda sig av sociala medier i relation till sitt skapande. / The aim of this study was to explore mentally health promoting aspects of social media in relation to crafting. A qualitative method which consisted of three focus group interviews with 3-5 participants in each focus group was used to collect data. The data were analyzed with a manifest content analysis, where three subcategories; surround yourself with inspiration and like-minded people, various dimensions of displaying your work and embrace the reflection of reality formed a main theme; to share and take part: health promotive aspects of creative crafting and social media. The result shows that crafting in relation to social media contributed positively to mental health by factors like genuineness, honesty, affinity and inspiration amongst like-minded people on social media. Confirmation and affirmation could be both positive and negative depending on how the participants related to it. Dealing with vulnerability emerged as different strategies, for example taking control and different ways to find courage. The conclusion shows that it’s possible to get health promotive effects on mental health by using social media in relation to one's crafting.

abstract: This dissertation explores the determinants of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) perquisites, i.e., nonmonetary compensation offered to particular employees and not essential to the accomplishment of a CEO’s duties. While the current CEO perquisite literature has focused on understanding the economic determinants of CEO perquisites, I study the social-psychological determinants of perquisites. Specifically, I propose that organizational status is positively associated with CEO perquisites. The status literature suggests that high-status organizations derive benefits from status and status signals, while agency theory proposes that perquisites are a way for CEOs to extract private rents. Therefore, I posit that for high-status organizations, the benefits derived from certain CEO perquisites may negate the costs associated with those perquisites. I examine a specific CEO perquisite: the mandatory use of corporate aircraft for personal travel. Prior research and the popular press suggest that this perquisite is often seen not only as a status signal but also as an agency cost. Accordingly, I hypothesize that higher status organizations and organizations with higher status directors are more likely than lower status organizations or organizations with lower status directors to mandate their CEOs to use corporate aircraft for personal travel. I also propose that the effect is stronger for low- or high-status organizations than for middle-status organizations. In addition, I hypothesize five contingencies moderating the above relationships. I examine hypothesized relationships using a sample of S&P 500 organizations, and I find support for many of my hypotheses. This dissertation contributes to both status and executive compensation literature. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Business Administration 2019

This research examined the role that idealised image characteristics have in determining post-exposure body image and amount of self-reported social comparisons. This was tested by exposing female undergraduate students to media-portrayed idealised images that varied in their level of relevance, salience, or attainability. A negative impact of these images was indicated by greater post-exposure body dissatisfaction and body size estimation inaccuracy. In contrast, a positive impact was considered to have occurred when body dissatisfaction decreased and body size estimation was more accurate. If the images had a neutral impact on body image, one would expect little difference between groups or over time. A further aim was to determine whether a higher level of trait tendency to compare was related to more negative responding at post-exposure. In addition, thin ideal internalisation and restraint were examined as possible moderators. Studies 1, 2a, 2b, and 3 indicated that idealised image relevance and salience had little differential impact on post-exposure body image. That is, exposure to thin idealised images, irrespective of the salience and relevance manipulations, resulted in similar post-exposure body dissatisfaction and body size estimation. In contrast to this, the attainability of the image seemed to influence post-exposure responding, at least in terms of body size estimation (Study 4). Higher trait tendency to compare was associated with a greater amount of self-reported comparison with the images, but had little impact on body image. Surprisingly, these results were not moderated by thin ideal internalisation or restraint. The role of individual differences was explored with additional analyses in Study 5, which revealed that, when the power is sufficient, thin ideal internalisation, restraint, and self-reported comparisons with the images predicted post-exposure body dissatisfaction, but not body size estimation. Overall, this program of research suggests that idealised image features do not play a vital differential role in determining post-exposure body image, unless it is the body itself that is being manipulated. Results from this research support the idea that the mere presence of an idealised body is sufficient to activate negative responses, and there was little, if any, evidence for the occurrence of positive responses. These findings are discussed in terms of social comparison and schema theory, and in terms of their practical implications.

This research examined the role that idealised image characteristics have in determining post-exposure body image and amount of self-reported social comparisons. This was tested by exposing female undergraduate students to media-portrayed idealised images that varied in their level of relevance, salience, or attainability. A negative impact of these images was indicated by greater post-exposure body dissatisfaction and body size estimation inaccuracy. In contrast, a positive impact was considered to have occurred when body dissatisfaction decreased and body size estimation was more accurate. If the images had a neutral impact on body image, one would expect little difference between groups or over time. A further aim was to determine whether a higher level of trait tendency to compare was related to more negative responding at post-exposure. In addition, thin ideal internalisation and restraint were examined as possible moderators. Studies 1, 2a, 2b, and 3 indicated that idealised image relevance and salience had little differential impact on post-exposure body image. That is, exposure to thin idealised images, irrespective of the salience and relevance manipulations, resulted in similar post-exposure body dissatisfaction and body size estimation. In contrast to this, the attainability of the image seemed to influence post-exposure responding, at least in terms of body size estimation (Study 4). Higher trait tendency to compare was associated with a greater amount of self-reported comparison with the images, but had little impact on body image. Surprisingly, these results were not moderated by thin ideal internalisation or restraint. The role of individual differences was explored with additional analyses in Study 5, which revealed that, when the power is sufficient, thin ideal internalisation, restraint, and self-reported comparisons with the images predicted post-exposure body dissatisfaction, but not body size estimation. Overall, this program of research suggests that idealised image features do not play a vital differential role in determining post-exposure body image, unless it is the body itself that is being manipulated. Results from this research support the idea that the mere presence of an idealised body is sufficient to activate negative responses, and there was little, if any, evidence for the occurrence of positive responses. These findings are discussed in terms of social comparison and schema theory, and in terms of their practical implications.