Research shows that very little is known about the experience of ‘gender disappointment’ amongst parents in Western cultures, where there is not an explicit cultural bias that favours one sex of child over another as occurs in parts of Africa and Asia. This study explores the lived experience of nine White British women, residing in the UK, who profess to having struggled with ‘gender disappointment’; feelings of sadness about the sex of their children. The participants were mothers of sons only, who would have liked daughters. The transcripts from semi-structured interviews were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). Four superordinate themes emerged: Alienation, Loss, Control and Commodification. The results indicate that ‘gender disappointment’ is a pervasive and multi-faceted phenomenon which left the participants feeling isolated from their families and society, grieving for something they could not have, and feeling out of control of their bodies, thoughts and emotions. These experiences were underpinned by a wider socially constructed phenomenon of the commodification and objectification of children, and the ethics of reproductive autonomy. Results are discussed in light of the cultural context, drawing on previous discourse on maternal ambivalence and gender stereotyping. It is proposed that the research will be of significance in improving the therapeutic services offered to mothers, and recommendations for future research are made.

The aim of this study is to explore the emotion of disappointment in organisations and to develop a new line of theorising inspired by psychodynamic theory. The current literature casts disappointment as a negative emotion undermining morale, depressing expectations and justifying inaction and inertia. This only captures part of the complexity of disappointment and leaves unexplored both its impact on the organisation and its potential creativity. The study presents a theoretical framework derived from research that depicts disappointment as unfolding in three positions; I am disappointing, I am disappointed and I disappoint. It asserts the importance of disappointment as an integrative emotion. The study identifies a contradiction: that at the same time as being seen as ‘of little concern’ to individuals, there is fear within organisations that disappointment will undermine stability and destroy positive feelings. The study shows how disappointment is connected to, and may help to transform, the dynamics of blame in organisations. Such transformation can be based on an ability to integrate failure and on a development of the relationship between disappointment and learning. Disappointment represents the loss of the fantasy of stability. When reconceptualised in this way, disappointment results in a reimagining of possibility. Fantasy and reality are brought into conscious awareness and tolerated rather than extruded. The imaginary ideal organisation can be seen for what it is: a fantasy that can never be realised. The imaginary ideal is mourned and replaced by a more realistic entity. Organisation members’ previous efforts to organise disappointment through blame, shame and extrusion is now recognised as a disappointing strategy. Understood thus, disappointment is at the very heart of organising as it invites consideration of the relationship between fantasy and reality. This differentiates it from other types of social defences which, by their nature defend against thinking and learning.

Thesis (D. Min.)--Ashland Theological Seminary, 2003. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 145-146, 162-167).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Ashland Theological Seminary, 2003. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 145-146, 162-167).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Ashland Theological Seminary, 2003. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 145-146, 162-167).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2006. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

This dissertation contributes to a better understanding of curiosity resolution. I investigate the premise that the experience of curiosity resolution is influenced both by the fact that curiosity is resolved, as well as how it is resolved. While the outcome associated with curiosity resolution can be positive or negative in nature, the experience of curiosity resolution itself is predicted to be pleasant in nature. Therefore, I propose that the degree to which each of these two resolution facets is salient will influence curiosity-related evaluations. In this dissertation, I investigate pre-resolution expectations as well as post-resolution downstream consequences. Prior to curiosity resolution, I propose that individuals are likely to be focused on the outcome they will obtain. However, when faced with uncertain outcomes, individuals strategically heighten anticipated feelings of disappointment in order to protect against actual disappointment when the outcome is revealed; thus, I predict and demonstrate in four studies that curious consumers will display heightened levels of pre-resolution feelings of anticipated disappointment. After curiosity resolution, I propose that individuals experience not only positive or negative feelings associated with the outcome obtained, but also positive feelings of resolution itself. In four studies, I investigate the power of curiosity resolution to buffer negative responses to relatively undesirable outcomes. Importantly, I also demonstrate that consumers' focus on either the outcome obtained or on the experience of resolution itself can be experimentally shifted, thereby mitigating the previously described effects. / Ph. D. / When people become curious, they are more likely to engage with and explore the object of their curiosity. In a marketing context, this can result in positive outcomes such as increased interest and responsiveness to ads. Thus, marketers may seek to induce consumer curiosity in order to obtain these beneficial responses. However, little is known about what happens when consumers’ curiosity is resolved; individuals may react with a disappointed, ‘big deal’ response, or may experience more positive feelings of relief or reward. In this research, I seek to better understand curiosity resolution. I suggest that consumers may react positively or negatively to curiosity resolution depending on the outcome they receive. However, I also suggest that the experience of curiosity resolution itself, the feeling of finding out what you wanted to know, is positive. I suggest that these distinct sources of negative and positive feelings have different implications for consumers’ expectations of curiosity resolution and for consumers’ postresolution evaluations. Prior to curiosity resolution, individuals are expected to be focused on the nature of the unknown outcome they will obtain. Thus, they engage in an ‘expect the worst’ process in which they anticipate feelings of disappointment in case the unknown outcome they obtain is negative. However, if they shift their focus to the experience of resolution itself, these feelings of disappointment are reduced. After curiosity resolution, feelings associated with the outcome obtained are predicted to be tempered by positive feelings associated with curiosity resolution itself. Thus, consumers who experience curiosity resolution, compared to those who don’t, react less negatively to a relatively undesirable outcome. However, a shift in focus can change this reaction, such that a greater emphasis on the outcome obtained yields a more negative response to a relatively undesirable outcome.

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It has been shown in the literature that the oil and gas industry deals with a substantial number of biases that impact project evaluation and portfolio performance. Previous studies concluded that properly estimating uncertainties will significantly impact the success of risk takers and their profits. Although a considerable number of publications investigated the impact of cognitive biases, few of these publications tackled the problem from a quantitative point of view. The objective of this work is to demonstrate the value of quantifying uncertainty and evaluate its impact on the optimization of oil and gas portfolios, taking into consideration the risk of each project. A model has been developed to perform portfolio optimization using Markowitz theory. In this study, portfolio optimization has been performed in the presence of different levels of overconfidence and directional bias to determine the impact of these biases on portfolio performance. The results show that disappointment in performance occurs not only because the realized portfolio net present value (NPV) is lower than estimated, but also because the realized portfolio risk is higher than estimated. This disappointment is due to both incorrect estimation of value and risk (estimation error) and incorrect project selection (decision error). The results of the cases analyzed show that, in a high-risk-tolerance environment, moderate overconfidence and moderate optimism result in an expected decision error of about 19% and an expected disappointment of about 50% of the estimated portfolio. In a low-risk-tolerance environment, the same amounts of moderate overconfidence and optimism result in an expected decision error up to 103% and an expected disappointment up to 78% of the estimated portfolio. Reliably quantifying uncertainty has the value of reducing the expected disappointment and the expected decision error. This can be achieved by eliminating overconfidence in the process of project evaluation and portfolio optimization. Consequently, overall industry performance can be improved because accurate estimates enable identification of superior portfolios, with optimum reward and risk levels, and increase the probability of meeting expectations.

The study adopts Uses and Gratifications (U&G) theory as the framework to test antecedents and consequences in using fanqiang (bypassing Internet censorship) as an alternative medium along with accessible Internet, TV, newspaper and radio as mainstream media in a Chinese context. By online between-group experimentation (N = 132 in the experimental group, N = 127 in the control group), the study shows that curiosity about forbidden political content and political apathy predict fanqiang and most accessible media use tendencies. Moderation effects exist between curiosity and self-efficacy in predicting fanqiang tendencies. Disappointment as an emotional effect is directly related to curiosity and political apathy, where the mediation effects of media use tendencies are not salient. Explicit Internet censorship increases curiosity about forbidden political content and decreases the dimension of lack of interest in political apathy. However, it does not change accessible media use tendencies and disappointment levels. Still, participants show fewer of fanqiang tendencies than with accessible media, except radio. The results highlight the cognitive roots of motivations and emotional constructs as a part of gratification in U&G research, that self-efficacy as a necessary requirement for curiosity to drive media use, and that information attributes can change motivations. We urge future scholars to build broader explications of political apathy when applied to different societies, to try diverse methods like experimentation in U&G research, and to adopt a sociopsychological approach when studying the influences and effectiveness of Internet censorship.