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With many U.S. adults being diagnosed with or at high risk for largely preventable chronic diseases, positive health behavior change is a critical public health concern. Behaviors such as physical activity, healthy eating, substance use (e.g., alcohol, nicotine) have all been linked to risk of various chronic diseases and long-term health outcomes. Health coaching has emerged to fill the gap within the current healthcare system surrounding behavior change treatment. Many health coaching organizations and resources claim that the practice incorporates client-directive care. However, further research is warranted for determining what skills are necessary for health coaching clients to successfully work within this client-centered approach, and how to train deficits in these skills. Goal setting is a main component of health coaching, and according to most health coaching training programs and certifications, is at least partially determined by the client. The SMART goal setting method is one of the most widely used goal setting strategies in both health care and across industries.The current study used a multiple baseline across participants design to evaluate a behavior analytic training method, behavioral skills training (BST), to train individuals to set health-related SMART goals using a contrived multiple exemplar approach. Participant attempts at goal setting were scored across probes during baseline, training, and post-training. All participants’ scores significantly improved after receiving training on setting SMART goals and participants positively rated the acceptability of the training on average. The results suggest that incorporating at least one 1.25-hr BST session in addition to providing written materials on setting SMART goals may significantly improve health coaching clients’ ability to set effective health goals. More research is needed to replicate these findings across various demographic populations and settings, and determine whether increased skill in setting health-related goals leads to greater health behavior change during intervention.

The phenomenal financial expansion of the last decades has been characterised by an exacerbation of systemic instability and an increase in the frequency of financial crises, culminating in the recent meltdown in the US financial sector. The literature on financial crises has developed concomitantly, but despite a large number of papers written on this subject, economists are still struggling to understand the underlying determinants of these phenomena. In this dissertation, I argue that one of the reasons for this apparent failure is the way agents, as well as the environment in which they evolve, are modelled in this literature. After reviewing the existing literature on international financial crises, I outline an alternative framework, drawing from Post-Keynesian and Behavioural insights. In this framework, international financial crises are seen as being a direct consequence of the way agents formulate expectations in an environment of fundamental uncertainty and the investment and financial decisions they subsequently take. I argue that the psychological heuristics agents use in formulating expectations under fundamental uncertainty can lead to decisions which fragilise the economy and can thus be conducive to financial crises. I then apply this framework to the study of the 2000-2001 financial crisis in Turkey, which is notorious for not lending itself easily to explanations based on the existing theoretical literature on international financial crises. After outlining the crisis and reviewing the main existing accounts, I identify two moments prior to the crisis: A phase of increasing financial fragility, lasting from a previous crisis in 1994 to 1999, and a financial bubble in 2000 during the implementation of an IMF stabilisation program, partly predicated on the previous increase in financial fragility. My framework can account for both periods; it fits particularly well the first one and enhances the explanatory content of existing stories about the events that took place in 2000.

The proposed study extended the author's comprehensive project study completed in 1992. It aimed to accomplish two goals: (1) to compare the effects on binge eating and weight loss of two clinical weight management groups: one following a standard cognitive-behavioral format, and the other modified to encompass the tenets of Developmental Counseling and Therapy (DCT) as described by Ivey (1986, 1991a), to see if the binge eaters and others within the groups thereby differ on several outcome measures; and (2) to analyze patterns of cognitive processing styles to see if trends emerge that might elucidate the nature of the binge eating experience from a DCT viewpoint, and that might therefore suggest new approaches to treatment. The study found significant differences between the standard (control) and modified (experimental) group on measures of binge eating and cognitive developmental level change, while differences in depression inventory scores were less significant. The study therefore offers support for the idea of expanding cognitive behavioral protocols for weight management and binge eating to include a wider variety of cognitive-developmental change strategies. It also implies that people are enabled to change when assisted in broadening their capacity to engage in varied cognitive modes more adaptively and flexibly. Implications for clinical application and future research exploration are proposed.

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<p> This single explorative case study investigated the causes of churn in the telecommunication industry in Kenya, narrowed down to include only the capital city of Nairobi. The question of this dissertation was split into three sub-questions. The first sub-question investigated the behavioral patterns of customers causing churn. The second sub-question investigated the economic patterns causing churn, and the third sub-question investigated the policies and regulations that cause churn.</p><p> Data was gathered from carrier websites and publications from all the four carriers, Safaricom, Airtel, Orange, and YuMobile. Face-to-face interviews with one manager from each carrier were conducted. Field research was gathered from 29 customers who used multiple SIM cards or have changed their carrier. </p><p> Findings of this dissertation confirmed findings of most previous literature. Causes of churn differed based on the perspectives. Carriers thought they were mainly in control of churn, whereas customer causes reflected multiple behavioral and economic factors that were not related to the carriers. Findings also indicated that it not possible to investigate a single cause of churn without taking into consideration the effect of all other linked causes. Recommendations for telecommunication leaders have been provided, and a model illustrating the procedure that was followed to solve the problem was also provided. The first step that leaders must take is to identify the true causes of any problem from all the different perspectives before attempting to solve the problem. Future quantitative research is required to investigate the links between causes of churn. Results from this dissertation together with the quantitative research could be used to make customized churn prediction software to accurately predict churning customer.</p>