Thesis (D.Min.)--Dallas Theological Seminary, 2008. / Includes abstract. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 188-197).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2004. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 105-116). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2004. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 105-116). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Michigan, 1964.

Thesis (D. Min.)--Dallas Theological Seminary, 2008. / Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 188-197).

Thesis (D.Min.)--Dallas Theological Seminary, 2008. / Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 188-197).

Thesis (M.A.)--The Master's College, 2006. / Description based on Print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 138-147).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Illinois State University, 2002. / Title from title page screen, viewed January 5, 2006. Dissertation Committee: Gary Creasey (chair), Mary Campbell, Matthew Hesson-McInnis, Alvin House, Glenn Reeder. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 93-110) and abstract. Also available in print.

Whether they are gracing movie screens, tweeting about the size of their baby bump, or being photographed by the paparazzi in their swimwear accidently on purpose, celebrities compel consumers to care. Despite the pervasive consumer interest in celebrities, the fundamental process of how and when consumers develop relationships with and attachments to them is a subject that has been underexplored by marketing scholars, a discipline whose activities are often turbocharged by celebrities. In this research project, celebrities are viewed as brands in and of themselves, and accordingly, are examined through the prism of marketing's brand relationship literature. Drawing upon that literature and narrative transportation theory, a theoretical model of the celebrity brand attachment process is developed and empirically tested over the course of four online experiments. Results indicate that narratives about celebrity brands transport consumers to a place where they feel and behave as if they are in a communal-like relationship with the celebrity brand, despite their awareness of the contrary. These feelings and behaviors are lasting and manifest themselves back in the real world with increases in attachment and intention to consume more celebrity brand narratives. Furthermore, differences in the narrative type (on-stage vs. off-stage) and celebrity brand type (achieved vs. attributed) are found to impact the relationship between narratives and attachment level, while brand type and attachment style type are not found to significantly impact the narrative - attachment relationship.

Four decades of research demonstrates that infant-caregiver attachment has important implications for subsequent socio-emotional functioning, with attachment security predictive of a wide range of positive outcomes, and attachment insecurity—and the insecure-disorganized pattern in particular—predictive of later difficulties. This early risk can be ameliorated with early prevention, yet effective prevention depends on a more thorough understanding of the etiology of attachment disorganization. Because measures of caregiver behaviors shown to predict infant-caregiver attachment yield modest to moderate effect sizes, some researchers have suggested the field refocus on understanding the caregiver cognitive processes that underlie infant-caregiver attachment. In an effort to better understand these cognitive mechanisms underlying the development of infant-caregiver attachment disorganization, a previous study by the current author found that compared to women who go on to have a secure attachment relationship with their infant, those who go on to have a disorganized attachment relationship identified more infant faces as expressing anger and fewer as expressing sadness. The current study aimed to expand on this research linking specific patterns of caregiver recognition of negative infant affect with subsequent caregiver-infant attachment outcomes. More specifically, I expected the above findings would generalize to a postnatal (non-exclusively primiparous) sample. I also tested whether these hypothesized effects were unique or overlapping with two existing predictors of attachment—i.e. the Caregiving Helplessness Questionnaire (George and Solomon, 2011) and Adult Attachment Interview (George, Kaplan, & Main, 1985). Counter to hypotheses, I did not find that maternal recognition of infant anger or sadness predicted infant-mother attachment. I did, however, find that maternal helplessness predicted attachment categorization, and that compared to the mothers who went on to have secure attachment relationships with their infants, those who went on to have disorganized attachment relationships labeled more ambiguous infant faces as surprised. The other two facets of caregiver helplessness (caregiver and child fright and child caregiving) and overall unresolved State of Mind scores did not significantly predict infant-caregiver attachment outcomes, nor did adding these predictors to a model including emotion recognition predictors change the pattern of results. Limitations that may explain these null results and future directions are discussed.