This research analyzes the relationship between company performance and image and whether it has an impact on loyalty. Using a quasi-experimental model based on established research in consumer attitude formation and brand relationship marketing, the thesis rejects the popular notion that individual signals sent by companies affect consumer loyalty directly. Rather, this thesis demonstrates that the effects of image and performance and their impact on consumer attitudes do have an effect on consumer trust and perceived value, which are primary drivers of loyalty. This research suggests that while singular incidents are not enough to alter consumer loyalty, over time the impact of these signals may carry over through trust and value. Meanwhile, marketing managers should focus on activities that foster trust and value as opposed to positive brand image.

This purpose of this study was fivefold: a)to examine the relationship between participants' reported number of positive lesbian and/or gay relationship role models their relationship outcomes (i.e., satisfaction, success, degree of closeness, and length of relationship); b) to explore the relationship between participants' level of internalized negative views of lesbian relationships and their own relationship outcomes; c) to investigate the relationship between participants' number of positive relationship role models and their level of internalized negative views of lesbian relationships; d) to examine whether participants who reported acceptance of negative stereotypes of lesbian relationships and had fewer role models also reported lower levels of interpersonal selfefficacy; e) and to investigate the relationship between participants' level of interpersonal self-efficacy and their relationship outcome (satisfaction, success, degree of closeness, and length of relationship). The study included 192 lesbian women (age 18-71 years; M = 30.6) who responded to five questionnaires: the Relationship Information Questionnaire, the Role Models Questionnaire, the Interpersonal Self-Efficacy Scale, the Internalized Negative Views of Lesbian Relationships Questionnaire, and a demographic information page. Results showed that there was no significant correlation between participants' reported number of role models and their relationship outcome (Hypothesis One). Similarly, the current study failed to find a relationship between participants' level of internalized of negative views of lesbian relationships and their own relationship outcomes (Hypothesis Two). In addition, there were no significant correlations between participants' number of positive relationship role models and their level internalized of negative views of lesbian relationships (Hypothesis Three). Furthermore, the correlation between role models and self-efficacy was not significant; however, there was a significant correlation between participants' self-efficacy and their level of internalized negative views of lesbian relationships (Hypothesis Four). The results indicated that participants' level of interpersonal self-efficacy is positively correlated with their relationship satisfaction, success, and degree of closeness. However, self-efficacy was unrelated to relationship length (Hypothesis Five). Possible explanations, limitations, and suggestions for future research are discussed. / Department of Psychological Science

The purpose of this study was to determine if a significant difference exists between collegiate athletes' perceived and actual nutritional awareness. This study compared differences in athletes' perceived and actual nutritional awareness between sports focusing on appearance/body composition and those sports that do not, as well as, between genders. Participants (N = 92) for this study were obtained from a purposeful sample of 367 collegiate varsity athletes (n = 196 males, n = 171 females) at a Midwestern Division I University.The researcher observed the effects of the Nutritional Education Series treatment, between the pre- and post-test, and found significant differences (p < .05) across all groups of participants in athletes' perceived and actual nutritional awareness for protein, carbohydrates, iron, water during the day, water during sport, potassium, fiber, calcium, and fat. In addition, the researcher looked at the frequencies of the questions and found that the Nutritional Education Series treatment was significantly effective in altering the athletes' perceived versus actual nutritional awareness for protein, carbohydrates, iron, water during the day, water during sport, sodium, potassium, fiber, calcium, and fat.Specifically, both males and females showed a significant difference (p < .05) in perception and actual nutritional awareness for iron, but female athletes showed a greater difference than males. Significant differences (p < .05) in actual and perceived nutritional awareness for carbohydrate consumption were also observed for athletes participating in both sports focusing on appearance/body composition and those athletes that do not. Those participating in sports focusing on appearance/body composition showed the greatest difference in perception and actual nutritional awareness for carbohydrate consumption.The findings of this study would suggest that athletes demonstrate significant differences in their perceived and actual nutritional awareness, with significant differences observed between genders as well as between sports that do and do not focus on appearance/body composition. In addition, the results of this study would suggest that the systematic implementation of a nutritional educational program for athletes can modify athletes' nutritional and dietary awareness. Given the importance of nutrition in sport and physical activity, as well as the increasing competitiveness of athletics, it is important and necessary to learn the amount and accuracy of the nutritional education that athletes are receiving. Poor nutrition and an inaccurate perception of nutritional awareness can lead to a disruption in physical development and decrease an athlete's ability to play. / School of Physical Education, Sport, and Exercise Science

The purpose of this study was to establish the pre-shot routine usage pattern of amateur golfers using the driver and to correlate that pattern to their effectiveness off the tee. Forty eight participants including 42 males and 6 females participated in this study. The mean age of the total population was 34.6+12.4 and ranged from 20 to 60 years of age. The participants were asked to answer the pre-shot routine questionnaire. The participants completed the 5 section questionnaire consisting of subject demographics, playing experience, playing ability, driving ability from the tee box, and pre-shot routine on the tee. The participants indicated that slicing was the biggest problem. The results show that 37.4% of the participants sliced the ball 50% of the time or more. Of those individuals 4.2% sliced the ball 100% of the time. Hooking the ball was less of a problem with only 18.8% hooking 50% or more of the time. Hitting the ball fat (taking too much turf) and hitting the ball too thin (no turf taken) gave similar results, with 16.7% of the subjects hitting fat shots 50% of the time or more, and 12.5% of them hitting thin shots 50% of the time or more. The biggest difference being that none of the respondents hit fat or thin shot 100% of the time. A majority of the participants (66.6%) have a great deal of confidence that they would hit a good tee shot from an open fairway. However, that confidence level drops to only 27.1% when the fairway is tree lined and only 4.2% of our participants feel confidence 100% of the time. If the tee shot has to be made over water only 35.5% of the respondents feel confidence off the tee with 18.8% in the 100% category. The last factor we asked them to rate was whether or not they had confidence if someone was playing with them. Only 35.4% of the respondents felt confident 80% of the time or more, with only 12.5% being confident all of the time. Participants using the white, blue and gold tee box stand behind the ball and pick a target but the participants using the red tee box did not at all. It is interesting to note that the players with the best handicap and lowest average score use this technique 100% of the time, whereas less than half of the white and blue tee box players use it. It shows that standing behind the ball and picking a target may be more useful for the golfers than just lining up as they address the ball. Other elements like practice swing, mental rehearsal, and movement do not seem to have much correlation to the players ability in that they showed a great deal of variation. We can say that these elements are affected by personal habit or routine more than their playing ability. Although the forward push is highly recommended by professional players and instructors very few participants in this study used this technique. The results of this study show that a consistent pre-shot routine does not help amateur golfers. The inconsistency of the pre-shot routine these subjects used makes it impossible to make recommendations concerning the effectiveness of a pre-shot routine. What the data does do is provide the framework for additional research in which subjects are required to use the same pre-shot routine that is designed by professionals. / School of Physical Education, Sport, and Exercise Science

This qualitative study investigated the perceptions of exercise among individuals with fibromyalgia. The goal of this research was not to prove that exercise is good for people with fibromyalgia, but rather to gain an understanding of how health practitioners can help fibromyalgia patients adhere to regular physical activity. The research was conducted using three focus groups with people who are treated for fibromyalgia at Medical Consultants in Muncie, Indiana. The groups consisted of current exercisers and non-exercisers. Four themes emerged from the groups that the participants discussed. These themes were, reasons for exercising, barriers to exercise, desired characteristics of an exercise program, and key support personnel helping participants deal with their condition. The information contained within these themes can be used by health practitioners to develop exercise programs that entice fibromyalgia patients to adhere to a regular exercise program. / Fisher Institute for Wellness and Gerontology

There is no abstract available for this dissertation.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between variables that may be related to rape myth acceptance in college students. Identifying variables that may be related to rape myth acceptance is essential for improving rape prevention programming. The setting chosen to examine these variables consisted of 349 students enrolled in undergraduate courses at a mid-size, Midwestern University. Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was used to examine the relationship between gender, year in school, previous participation in rape prevention programming, knowing a victim and/or past experiences of sexual victimization, and knowing a perpetrator and/or perpetration with rape myth acceptance. Personality constructs were utilized as covariates due to their expected influence on the dependent variable. Overall, only Openness to Experience significantly correlated with rape myth acceptance and the effect size was small.Results indicated a significant 2-way interaction for gender and year in school. The interaction revealed that at freshmen year, men showed much higher rape myth acceptance than women. Rape myth acceptance in men declined from freshmen year to senior year, but consistently remained higher than women. Rape myth acceptance in women only slightly decreased between freshmen and sophomore year, yet were significantly lower from freshmen to senior year. Although a significant interaction between gender and year in school was found, the interaction was ordinal making the main effects interpretable. In fact, results indicated a significant main effect for both gender and year in school. Specifically, men report higher rape myth acceptance than women. Also, acceptance of rape myths decreased as year in school increased. Implications of these findings and future directions for research are discussed. / Department of Educational Psychology

The purpose of this study was to examine student attitudes, musical backgrounds, and immediate situations that affect string participation in the university orchestra. Two groups of university students located mainly in the Great Lakes Region were surveyed via an online website: 1. orchestra participants with high school orchestra experience (n=103), and 2. orchestra non-participants with high school orchestra experience (n=28).Findings in this study include differences between participants and non-participants concerning their decision to seek membership in the university orchestra. Commonalities between orchestra members with regard to their participation were found, while non-participants were found to differ from each other according to their reasons for non-participation.String players that have continued to participate in orchestra ensembles at the university level are likely to have more performance experiences in their background, especially in high school. Parental encouragement, private lessons, and participation in solo and ensemble festival are factors that affect participation. Positive attitudes such as the value of participating in a music ensemble, the enjoyment of playing in an orchestra, and confidence as a string player are also strong factors. Secondary influences may involve the invitation of a friend, director, and the offering of a scholarship. University orchestra members continue to enjoy their experience participating and work rehearsals into their busy schedule. Non-members are aware of the university orchestra but do not possess standard reasons they do not participate with regard to their attitudes and immediate situations. Reasons for not participation appear to vary from individual to individual.String players who continue to perform beyond high school by becoming a university orchestra member place a stronger value on participation, which is originally influenced by background experience and parental encouragement. It is likely university orchestra non-participants failed to cultivate these values strongly, and have shed activities which include music involvement which may have been more influenced by friends and parents at a younger age.University orchestra directors may positively influence string player participation by supplying high school students with more performance experiences, and aggressively marketing the orchestra program to university students. Coordinated efforts with high school directors to provide young students with experiences (i.e. youth orchestras and string camps) that have a positive lasting impression may be one way to increase orchestra participation beyond high school. Directors may also consider brainstorming creative ways to market and advertise the university orchestra to reach the attention of the non-major who may be interested if given enough encouragement. / School of Music

This thesis has explored the relationship between expressed teacher attitude and actual teacher behavior in the classroom. The Teacher Attitude Inventory was devised to measure teacher attitudes while the Teacher Behavior Inventory was constructed to indicate their behavior.Upon reviewing the data obtained from both inventories several reasons for the discrepancy between teacher attitudes and teacher behavior were formulated. They were: the statement of attitude was not reflected accurately by the statement of behavior on the Teacher Behavior Inventory, the marking system on the Teacher Attitude Inventory may not accurately help to reflect the exact opinions of teachers on particular statements; a misinterpretation of the attitude statements can lead to a discrepancy with the corresponding behavior statement; and the teachers actually believe what they said and yet they are unable to demonstrate such behavior in the class because of past experiences or because the school environment does not allow such behavior.

This study investigates the changes in attitudes of graduate students toward introductory statistics. The subjects are graduate students at a Midwestern university; the Survey of Attitudes Toward Statistics (SATS) was used to measure pre-test and post-test attitudes. Subjects in this study were grouped into three groups: experimental group (group of students who were taking the introductory statistics course), control group 1 (group of students who were required to take the introductory statistics course for their degree but had not already taken it), and control group 2 (group of students who did not need to take an introductory statistics course). The mixed design MANOVA was utilized in this study with grouping by pre-test and post-test. The between-subjects factor was group, gender, and section (with different instructor) and the within-groups factor was time. The main effects and interactive effects were tested in a multivariate sense, and then univariate statistics were used to interpret significant simple effects. This study was conducted to determine the effect of the six dependent variables (affect, cognitive, value, difficulty, interest, and effort) on students' attitudes toward the introductory statistics course. All findings were interpreted at alpha level p<0.05.Analysis of the data revealed significant differences in the attitude factor difficulty among all groups. The male and female attitude change was not significantly different among all groups. However, there were significant differences of attitudes changes between two sections (by different instructors) of students in the experimental group, but there were no significant differences of attitude changes between two sections by time. / Department of Mathematical Sciences