Thesis (MComm)--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In social psychology, social scientists have become interested in explaining social behaviour: how and why individuals become attached and why they pursue on-going close relationships. The investment model was developed that suggests how attachment to a relationship is formed. It has been suggested that the investment model can be applied to a wide variety of interpersonal relationships. In the same way as a relationship is formed between two individuals, the attachment that supporters have to a sports team is also formed. To understand the psychological connection supporters have to a sports team, the Psychological Continuum Model (PCM) was developed. PCM suggests supporters first become aware of a sports team, then supporters may become attracted, this leads to attachment to the sports team and allegiance to the sports team may then occur. Past research has focused on different aspects of the PCM. However, very few studies have yet explained how supporters become attached to a sports team. This study combines the PCM and the investment model to assess how supporters become attached to a sports team. Understanding the psychological connection that supporters have to a sports team was required thus, the Psychological Continuum Model (PCM) was used. How supporters become attached (based on the PCM) to a sports team was further understood by the investment model variables. Thus, the PCM was adapted and applied with the investment model. The study comprised of a 2x2x2 full factorial experimental research design. For the purposes of the study, respondents were first made aware of the sport, fistball. Respondents completed a questionnaire that was used to measure their attraction and attachment to a fistball team. During the interview, respondents were shown one of eight treatments, in the form of a newspaper clip on a poster that was manipulated using the investment model variables. The eight posters comprised of fictitious fistball teams to avoid any bias that may have been formed had another sport been chosen. There were 36 respondents per treatment group, ensuring that respondents could be split between the different levels of supporters. A repeat group was also conducted to ensure the validity of the study. The realised sample comprised of 318 respondents. The target population was South African supporters in LSM groups 8 to 10. Judgement sampling was used as no sampling frame exists for supporters. Respondents were selected in shopping malls in Gauteng due to the culturally diverse nature of the province. The results revealed that based on the level of support, attachment to a sports team varies. The results suggested that low supporters have a higher attraction than high supporters. High supporters are already attached to a sports team, and are not necessarily interested in being attracted to a different sports team. It would be recommended to attract high supporters by having initiatives that involve teams, where supporters‟ attachment to the team already exists. High supporters were considered to be those who were attached to a sports team. To package and deliver products and/or services most effectively, sport marketers should appeal to high supporters‟ attitudes, as it is their attitude that guides their behaviour. Based on the findings, there is an opportunity for sport marketers to encourage low supporters to become attached to a sports team by using the investment model variables. By incorporating social psychology with sport consumer behaviour, a better understanding of sport supporters was attained. In the same way that a dating relationship has various stages of courtship that may eventually lead to marriage, the relationship that supporters have with a sports team also goes through stages which may lead supporters who show allegiance. The study reveals that, similarly to a dating relationship where an attraction to an individual first needs to be formed, the type of sport plays a role in attracting supporters to a sports team. Likewise, whether an individual pursues a relationship depends on the investment model variables, which is also the case for supporters. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: In die sosiale sielkunde stel sosiaal-wetenskaplikes toenemend daarin belang om sosiale gedrag te verklaar: hoe en waarom individue geheg raak aan sosiale objekte en waarom hulle voortgesette verhoudings nastreef. Die beleggingsmodel, wat aan die hand doen hoe gehegtheid deur middel van ʼn verhouding tot stand gebring word, is ontwikkel. Daar word voorgestel dat die beleggingsmodel toegepas kan word op ʼn wye verskeidenheid van interpersoonlike verhoudings. Op dieselfde wyse waarop ʼn verhouding tussen twee individue gevorm word, word die verbintenis wat ondersteuners met ʼn sportspan het, ook verwesenlik. Ten einde die psigologiese verbintenis tussen ondersteuners en ʼn sportspan te verstaan, is die Psigologiese Kontinuummodel (PCM) ontwikkel. Die PCM suggereer dat ondersteuners eerstens van ʼn sportspan bewus word, dan moontlik aangetrokke voel tot die sportspan. Dit lei tot ʼn gehegtheid en moontlik uiteindelik getrouheid aan die sportspan. Vorige navorsing het die soeklig op verskillende aspekte van die PCM laat val, maar baie min ondersoeke het al verduidelik hoe ondersteuners ʼn verbintenis vorm met ʼn sportspan. Hierdie studie kombineer die PCM en die beleggingsmodel om vas te stel hoe ondersteuners ʼn verbintenis vorm met ʼn sportspan. Die PCM is gebruik omdat dit nodig was om die psigologiese verbintenis te verstaan wat ondersteuners met ʼn sportspan tot stand bring. Deur die veranderlikes van die beleggingsmodel in ag te neem, is daar verder lig gewerp op hoe ondersteuners geheg raak aan ʼn sportspan (gebaseer op die PCM). Die PCM is dus aangepas en tesame met die beleggingsmodel toegepas. In die studie is gebruik gemaak van ʼn 2x2x2 volle faktoriale eksperimentele navorsingsontwerp. Vir die doel van die studie is respondente eers bewus gemaak van die sport vuisbal. Die respondente het ʼn vraelys voltooi wat gebruik is om hul aangetrokkenheid tot en gehegtheid aan ʼn vuisbalspan te meet. Tydens die onderhoud is agt afsonderlike behandelings aan die respondente vertoon, elk in die vorm van ʼn koerantknipsel op ʼn plakkaat wat gemanipuleer is met die gebruik van die beleggingsmodel se veranderlikes. Die agt plakkate het fiktiewe vuisbalspanne uitgebeeld om enige vooroordeel uit te skakel wat moontlik sou voorkom as ʼn ander sportsoort gebruik was. Daar was 36 respondente per behandelingsgroep om te verseker dat respondente tussen die verskillende vlakke van ondersteuners verdeel kon word. ‟n Herhalingsgroep is ook gebruik om die geldigheid van die studie te verseker. Die gerealiseerde steekproef het uit 318 respondente bestaan. Die teikenpopulasie was Suid-Afrikaanse ondersteuners in LSM-groepe 8 tot 10 aangesien hulle die meeste mediablootstelling ontvang het. Daar is gebruik gemaak van oordeelsteekproefneming, aangesien geen steekproefraamwerk vir ondersteuners bestaan nie. Respondente is in groot winkelsentrums in Gauteng geselekteer vanweë die kultuurdiverse aard van die provinsie. Die resultate het getoon dat, gebaseer op die vlak van ondersteuning, die vlak van gehegtheid aan ʼn sportspan varieer. Die resultate suggereer dat laevlakondersteuners meer geneë is om ʼn verbintenis te vorm as hoëvlakondersteuners. Hoëvlakondersteuners het reeds „n band met ʼn sportspan en voel nie noodwendig die behoefte om ʼn verhouding met ʼn ander sportspan te vestig nie. Daar word dus aanbeveel dat hoëvlakondersteuners aangetrek word deur inisiatiewe aan te bied waarby spanne betrokke is wat reeds vaste aanhangers het. Hoëvlakondersteuners is beskou as diegene wat ʼn verbintenis met ʼn sportspan het. Ten einde produkte en/of dienste op die effektiefste wyse te verpak en te lewer behoort sportbemarkers op hoëvlakondersteuners se ingesteldheid te fokus, aangesien dit hul ingesteldheid is wat hul gedrag rig. Volgens die bevindinge bestaan daar ʼn geleentheid vir sportbemarkers om, deur van die beleggingsmodel se veranderlikes gebruik te maak, laevlakondersteuners aan te moedig om hulle aan ʼn sportspan te verbind. Deur sosiale sielkunde met sportverbruikersgedrag te kombineer is ʼn beter verstaan van sportondersteuners bereik. Net soos daar tydens ʼn liefdesverhouding verskillende stadiums van hofmakery is wat uiteindelik tot ʼn huwelik kan lei, gaan die verhouding wat ondersteuners met ʼn sportspan het ook deur stadiums wat uiteindelik getroue ondersteuners kan oplewer. Die studie toon ook dat, net soos in ʼn verhouding waar individue eers net met mekaar uitgaan, en hulle later sterk aangetrokke raak tot mekaar, daar in sport ook ʼn dieper verhouding moet ontwikkel. Dit blyk dat die soort sport ʼn belangrike rol speel wanneer ondersteuners tot ʼn sportspan aangetrek word. Net soos by ʼn liefdesverhouding, hang die sportondersteuner se verbintenis ook af van die veranderlikes van die beleggingsmodel. produkte en/of dienste op die effektiefste wyse te verpak en te lewer behoort sportbemarkers op hoëvlakondersteuners se ingesteldheid te fokus, aangesien dit hul ingesteldheid is wat hul gedrag rig. Volgens die bevindinge bestaan daar 'n geleentheid vir sportbemarkers om, deur van die beleggingsmodel se veranderlikes gebruik te maak, laevlakondersteuners aan te moedig om hulle aan 'n sportspan te verbind. Deur sosiale sielkunde met sportverbruikersgedrag te kombineer is ʼn beter verstaan van sportondersteuners bereik. Net soos daar tydens 'n liefdesverhouding verskillende stadiums van hofmakery is wat uiteindelik tot 'n

Limited research has been conducted with regards to the applicability of topic extraction techniques in Sociology. Addressing the modern methodological opportunities, and responding to the skepticism with regards to the absence of theoretical foundations supporting the use of text analytics, I argue that Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA), complemented by other text analysis techniques and multivariate techniques, can constitute a unique hybrid method that can facilitate the sociological interpretations of web-based textual data. To illustrate the applicability of the hybrid technique, I developed two case studies. My first case study is associated with the Sociology of media. It focuses on the topic extraction and sentiment polarization among partisan texts posted on two major news sites. I find evidence of highly polarized opinions on comments posted on the Huffington Post and the Daily Caller. The highest polarizing topic was associated with a commentator’s reference on Hoodies in the context of the Trayvon Martin’s incident. My findings support contemporary research suggesting that media pundits frequently use tactics of outrage to provoke polarization of public opinion. My second case study contributes to the research domain of the Sociology of knowledge. The hybrid method revealed evidence of topical divides and topical “bridges” in the intellectual landscape of the British and the American sociological journals. My findings confirm the theoretical assertions describing Sociology as a fractured field, and partially support the existence of more globalized topics in the discipline.

The problem of this research was to investigate David Sills' explanation of membership attrition in voluntary associations. Using the membership population of the Dallas Association for Retarded Citizens from 1969 through 1974, a survey was conducted to determine whether the organizational characteristics of bureaucracy, minority rule, and goal displacement are associated with membership attrition in a selected voluntary association. The findings of this study support Sills' ideas about the association of goal displacement and minority rule with membership attrition in voluntary associations. Bureaucratization, however, was not found to be related to membership attrition.

This thesis provides a comprehensive review of the evolution of Robert Agnew’s General Strain Theory of Delinquency, and tests his 2002 extension using two subsamples from the 2013 National Survey on Drug Use and Health: Juveniles between 12 and 17, and “emerging” adults that are 18 years old. Including an “emerging” adult subsample makes this analysis one of the first full tests of adults. Additionally, this analysis is the first partial test of Agnew’s 2013 extension of General Strain Theory. Overall, the results of the analysis lend support to Agnew’s 2002 extension. Measures of strain are revealed to significantly effect measures of negative emotionality and low selfconstraint, and measures of negative emotionality and low self-constraint significantly affect delinquency/deviance and illicit substance use. A major limitation to the thesis is that there is no negative emotionality measure of anger, which is Agnew’s (1985; 1992) key measures of negative emotionality. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2017. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

atisfaction with diabetes care, perceived feelings of empowerment to participate in self-care management, and glycemic control in a sample of older African American men and women with diabetes. A descriptive correlational quantitative design was used. The participants in this study were 73 men and women of African descent who were at least 50 years, English speaking, and diagnosed with diabetes for at least one year. The participants were asked to complete three survey instruments: the Patient Satisfaction Questionnaire-18 (PSQ-18), which measured how satisfied the participants were with their medical care; the Diabetes Empowerment Scale-Short Form (DES-SF), which measured attitudes towards diabetes and self-management of diabetes; and a demographic form, which collected data on the demographics of each participant. The most recent hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) of each participant was obtained from the medical records. The correlations between HbA1c, DES, and the PSQ-18 subscales were exam ined. The study data indicated all correlations were statistically significant and negative with one exception. There was no correlation between HbA1c and time spent, a satisfaction subscale. Approximately half the participants were high school graduates, married, and reported being born in the Caribbean. Most had primary care physicians, but less than half reported attending a diabetes education program. The average BMI was 33.0. The findings of this study indicated older African adults who reported higher satisfaction with the care provided by their health care provider reported feeling more empowered to participate in diabetes self-care and reported lower HbA1c levels, suggesting better glycemic control (R2 = .39; P=<.001). / The implications of this study are that feeling empowered to participate in diabetes self-care management may result in improved glycemic control. Positive diabetes outcomes have been linked in the literature with persons feeling empowered to participate in diabetes self-care. The significance of the findings from this study is that given the relationship between empowerment and glycemic control, nurses should support the empowerment model of diabetes teaching. Diabetes education should provide written materials that are culturally sensitive for African American elders. / by Bridgette M. Johnson. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2012. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2012. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Orientador: Leila Maria Ferreira Salles / Coorientador: Jorge Luis Mialhe / Banca: Joyce Mary Adam / Banca: Ana Elisa Spaolonzi Queiroz Assis / Banca: Maria Concepción Fernández Villanueva / Banca: Rui Decio Martins / Resumo: Esta pesquisa estudou, mapeou e investigou as políticas públicas de enfrentamento à violência contra as mulheres no Brasil, na legislação e nos depoimentos. Para tanto, analisamos conforme o entendimento dos autores visitados, o poder simbólico masculino exercido nas sociedades, os movimentos feministas, as conquistas das mulheres em termos de legislação internacional e nacional, a concepção de violência, de violência de gênero, de violência doméstica e as políticas públicas implantadas, tais como, as delegacias de polícia próprias para o atendimento das mulheres, os centros de referência para aconselhamento e encaminhamento dessas vitimadas e as casas abrigo para acolhimento das mulheres e sua prole, as quais não contam com outra opção para afastarem-se do lar e do agressor. O estudo estendeu-se à cidade de Madrid, na Espanha, junto às Faculdades de Direito e de Ciências Políticas e Sociologia da Universidade Complutense, para o estabelecimento de um comparativo entre as ações estatais brasileiras e espanholas diante da violência contra as mulheres. A pesquisa foi desenvolvida interdisciplinarmente, valendo-se da metodologia de abordagem qualitativa por permitir esclarecer fatos importantes para o entendimento do fenômeno violência, possibilitando que algumas mulheres abrigadas e que estiveram anteriormente acolhidas, fossem entrevistadas e oferecessem sua visão sobre a violência que sofreram e suas consequências / Abstract: This research studied, mapped and investigated the public policies to combat the violence against women in Brazil, in the legislation and in the testimonies. In order to do so, we analyzed the male symbolic power exercised in societies, feminist movements, women's achievements in terms of international and national legislation, conception of violence, gender violence, domestic violence and the public policies, such as, the Police Stations for the care of women, the centers of reference for counselling and referral of these victims and shelter's houses for women and their children, who don't have other option to move away from home and the aggressor. The research extended to Spain, in Madrid, at the Complutense University at the Colleges of Law and Political Science and Sociology, for the establishment of a comparison between Brazilian and Spanish states actions on violence against women. The research was developed interdisciplinary and used the qualitative methodology for clarifying important facts for the understanding of the phenomenon of violence, allowing that some women sheltered and that were sheltered had been interviewed and offer their vision on violence that they suffered and their consequences / Doutor

There are many ways parents can improve their offspring’s outcomes. For example, they can invest in offspring’s education or health. They can provide better social connections to obtain job information or personal references. In addition, they can exert political influence to obtain better labor market outcomes for their offspring. Understanding exactly how parents improve their offspring’s outcomes is very important for the formation of political perspectives and policy designs. However, it is very difficult to disentangle the factors, as parents of high socioeconomic status do many things to help their children succeed. This dissertation presents three quasi-experimental studies to understand the causal mechanisms of parents’ influence on children’s outcomes in the context of China and United States. Chapter two examines the implementation of court-ordered racial desegregation of schools and finds that school desegregation increases biracial births. This provides the first evidence of how an education policy that affects racial integration also has demographic implications and an intergenerational impact on social and economic opportunities. Chapter three examines the effect of school desegregation on infant health. This chapter adopts the same empirical strategy and data as chapter three. I extend the paper by examining the effect of school desegregation on infant health. I find that for black mothers, school desegregation improves infant health, as measured by preterm birth. It also increases maternal education and fertility age. These may be important pathways to improve infant health. Chapter two and chapter three add to the growing literature on the impact of school desegregation beyond academic achievement. Chapter five examines the effect of fathers’ political influence on offspring’s labor market outcomes in China. It presents a difference-in-difference approach that exploits the variation of political influence in three dimensions: parent bureaucrat occupation, retirement status instrumented by retirement policy, and offspring gender. Using cross-section data from China Household Income Survey, it finds that the retirement of a bureaucrat with political influence translates into a decrease in offspring’s income of 13 percent. Chapter six provides a summary and conclusions and discusses future research directions.

Within the context of debates concerning the impact of global media on local youth, this study explores how a sample of South African youth responds to texts which were produced internationally, but distributed locally. Recognising the profound rootedness of media consumption in everyday life, the research examines the way these youth, differentially embedded in the South African economic and ideological formation, use these texts as part of their ongoing attempts to make sense of their lives. The study rejects the 'either/or' formulations that often accompany competing structuralist and culturalist approaches to text/audience relationships. Instead, using a combination of quantitative and qualitative research methods, it seeks to highlight the interplay between agency and structure, between individual choice and the structuring of experience by wider social and historical factors. The findings of the study point to the complex individual and social reasons that lie behind media consumption choices, and the diverse (and socially patterned) reasons why local audiences are either attracted to, or reject, global media. These and other findings, the study argues, highlight the deficiencies of the media imperialism thesis with its definitive claims for cultural homogenisation, seen as the primary, or most politically significant, effect of the globalisation of media. As such, this study should be read as a dialogue with those schools of thought that take a more unequivocal point of view on the impact of globalised media culture.

Orientador: Leila Maria Ferreira Salles / Banca: Debora Cristina Fonseca / Banca: Angela Fatima Soligo / Resumo: Este trabalho tem como objetivo investigar as concepções e objetivos que fundamentam as ações e programas sociais direcionadas aos jovens, desenvolvidos em uma cidade do interior do Estado de São Paulo. O desenvolvimento desta pesquisa contou com o mapeamento dos programas sociais direcionados a jovens, examinando os objetivos desses programas e suas atividades, além de identificar e analisar a concepção de juventude que os fundamenta. O levantamento evidenciou que no total 17 programas estavam em execução no ano de 2013, onde foram analisados os documentos referentes aos programas e também aqueles disponibilizados nos sítios relativos aos projetos como os disponibilizados pelos membros gestores. Os programas foram agrupados conforme os objetivos centrais a que se propunham. O que parece subsidiar a atuação do poder público junto à juventude é a situação do jovem ser mais ou menos vulnerável. Os jovens objetos das políticas públicas são em geral os estereotipados como jovens problemáticos, facilmente sujeitos a "desvios", uso de drogas e protagonismo de violência / Abstract: The present study aims to investigate the concepts and objectives that underlie the actions and social programs targeted to the youths, developed in a city in the interior of the state of São Paulo. The development of this research included the mapping of social programs targeted at youths, examining the objectives of these programs and activities, and identifies and analyzes conception about youth that underlies them. The study showed that in total 17 programs were running in 2013, where documents relating to the programs and also those available on the sites for the projects such as those provided by the coordinators were analyzed. The programs were grouped according to the central objectives that had been proposed. What seems to support the performance of the government by the youth is the situation of the youth to be more or less vulnerable. The youths objects of public policies are generally stereotyped as troubled, easily subject to "deviations", drug use and protagonist of violence / Mestre

This thesis is the first dedicated sociological attempt to offer a critical response to cultural studies and allied discourses that concern themselves with the relationship between technology and violence. A critical reconstruction is necessary because these cultural theorists have failed to adequately contextualize their arguments in relation to both the globally ascendant neoliberal policy outlook and its associated social Darwinian technoculture: the combined pernicious effects of which could be described as the logic of ???social constructionism as social psychosis???. The most prominent manifestation of this theoretical psychosis has to do with an interest in biotechnology in particular. The problem I identify in the treatment of this theme is how easily it can be used to support a technologically determinist position. One undesirable side effect is that these determinists are able to project from present trends a dystopian exhaustion of all critique through their focus on violence. In the thesis of ???bioglobalism??? this state of affairs is also deployed to take sociologists to task for insufficient recognition of processual ???network??? forms of distributed agency in technological processes. At stake therefore is the recovery of sociological critique. It follows that the core of my thesis is the radical reworking of two related heuristic devices: seriality and contingency. Seriality is taken to refer to social practices as diverse as the possible relationships between the social problem of rationality, case studies of individuals who have run amok, and the functioning of network characteristics. I use contingency to eschew seriality???s deterministic accounting of the social. Here I propose a new conceptual relationship between creativity and action. Emphasis is accordingly placed upon two related normative projects: Raymond Williams???s cultural materialism, and three of the ???problematiques??? Peter Wagner has identified as inescapable for theorizing modernity: the continuity of the acting person, the certainty of knowledge, and the viability of the political order. I conclude with a renewed conception of the role of normative critique as a form of conceptual therapy for bioglobal projections of seriality.