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published_or_final_version / English / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Literary and Cultural Studies / Master / Master of Arts

published_or_final_version / Comparative Literature / Master / Master of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Literary and Cultural Studies / Master / Master of Arts

The purpose of this research was to investigate the impact of social support on adherence to a therapeutic regimen among obese Type II diabetic clinic patients. The aims of the study were to compare the effect of small reference group management with an educational advice program on the therapeutic outcomes of adherence and to test a theoretical model proposed to explain adherence to a diabetic regimen. The concepts of the model were derived from symbolic interactionist and role theory. Forty-one patients attending an outpatient diabetic clinic were randomly assigned to the two treatment programs and 32 patients completed the 6 month study. Subjects met for a total of 10 one-hour sessions which were held weekly the first month, biweekly the second month, and monthly the final 4 months. Demographic information, knowledge of diabetes, and measures of the model variables (social support, health locus of control, health perceptions, diabetic belief, regimen adherence), were collected at the start (t₁) and the termination of the study (t₁₀). Analysis of audiotapes recorded at t₂ and t₉ indicated that patient-initiated interactions were significantly longer in duration for the small reference group. The experimental group also demonstrated significantly lower blood glucose values at t₁₀, however, there was not a corresponding difference between groups in glycohemoglobin, urine glucose, or percent overweight. The total sample experienced a significant mean reduction in glycohemoglobin (-11.1%; p < .05) and an increase in social support and knowledge. Serial blood glucose and glycohemoglobin values indicated improvement in diabetic control was more marked when subjects met weekly or biweekly and stabilized or worsened when meetings were reduced. The staged recursive theoretical model was analyzed using multiple regression statistics. The empirical test of the model of t₁ indicated minimal support in terms of significant explained variance in 6 of the 8 dependent variables. In addition, some of the path coefficients indicated a possible interaction effect between resistance and locus of control. The t₁₀ model demonstrated cohesion among the first three stages of independent variables and greater explained variance, however, multicollinearity proved to be a significant problem when interpreting the path coefficients.

This dissertation analyses identity formation through music among contemporary Colombian musicians. The work focuses on the emergence of musical fusions in Bogotá, which participant musicians and Colombian media have called "nueva música Colombiana" (new Colombian music). The term describes the work of bands that assimilate and transform North-American music genres such as jazz, rock, and hip-hop, and blend them with music historically associated with Afro-Colombian communities such as cumbia and currulao, to produce several popular and experimental musical styles. In the last decade, these new fusions have begun circulating outside Bogotá, becoming the distinctive sound of young Colombia domestically and internationally. The dissertation focuses on questions of musical circulation, affect, and taste as a means for articulating difference, working on the self, and generating attachments others and therefore social bonds and communities. This dissertation considers musical fusion from an ontological perspective influenced by actor-network, non-representational, and assemblage theory. Such theories consider a fluid social world, which emerges from the web of associations between heterogeneous human and material entities. The dissertation traces the actions, interactions, and mediations between places, people, institutions, and recordings that enable the emergence of new Colombian music. In considering those associations, it places close attention to the affective relationships between people and music. In that sense, instead of thinking on relatively fixed and consistent relationships between music, place, and identity, built upon discursive or imagined ties, the work considers each of these concepts as a network of relations enmeshed with each other and in consistent re-articulation.

Tsang, Stephanie Jean. / "September 2011." / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2011. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 137-151). / Abstracts in English and Chinese; appendix includes Chinese. / Chapter Chapter 1: --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter Chapter 2: --- Theoretical Background --- p.12 / Deliberative and Participatory Democracies --- p.12 / Interpersonal Discussion --- p.25 / Online Political Engagement --- p.36 / Chapter Chapter 3: --- Framework --- p.45 / Chapter Chapter 4: --- Design and Methods --- p.64 / Chapter Chapter 5: --- Analysis and Results --- p.76 / Results - Content Analysis --- p.76 / Results - Survey --- p.82 / Chapter Chapter 6: --- Discussions --- p.97 / Chapter Chapter 7: --- Limitations and Future Studies --- p.114 / Chapter Chapter 8: --- Appendices --- p.118 / Appendix A --- p.118 / Appendix B --- p.120 / Chapter Chapter 9: --- References --- p.137