Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 2007. / Directed by Leila E. Villaverde; submitted to the School of Education. Title from PDF t.p. (viewed Oct. 18, 2007). Includes bibliographical references (p. 197-203).

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Montana, 2007. / Title from title screen. Description based on contents viewed Aug. 6, 2007. Includes bibliographical references (p. 56-58).

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Humans have an innate need to evaluate themselves and their progress toward life goals and they fulfill this need by comparing themselves to others. One way in which individuals conduct social comparisons is by comparing their possessions with the possessions of others. Prior literature suggests that consumers purchase and conspicuously use brands, not only for their functional benefits, but also for their psychological benefits. These psychological benefits can include reaffirmation of one’s status or group membership and increased self-esteem. Although previous research shows that social comparisons can influence consumer attitudes and behavior, it has focused primarily on the negative consequences of upward comparisons and the positive consequences of downward comparisons in the pre-purchase context. Because consumers do not stop conducting social comparisons once they purchase a brand, it is important to understand how social comparisons affect consumer attitudes and behavioral intentions in a post-purchase context. Additionally, little research has addressed how factors such as a brand’s concept and whether the brand will be used in public (vs. private) affect the relationship between the direction of social comparisons and consumer attitudes and behavioral intentions. This dissertation is focused on filling these gaps by looking at the potentially negative effects of downward comparisons and potentially positive effects of upward comparisons on consumer post-purchase attitudes and behavioral intentions. Specifically, this dissertation examines how observing an unsuccessful (successful) other using the same brand affects consumer attitudes toward the brand, preferences for conspicuous consumption, and repurchase intentions. This dissertation also examines how a brand’s concept and whether the brand is used primarily in public vs. private moderates this relationship. Unlike previous research that shows social comparisons can influence people’s preferences in a pre-purchase context, this research investigated how social comparisons influence people’s attitudes and behavioral intentions in the post-purchase context. Specifically, I examined how people’s attitudes and behavioral intentions towards brands they already own can differ based upon the direction of social comparisons. An examination of social comparison’s effects in the post-purchase context is important given the benefits that repeat and loyal customers provide firms. Results indicate that consumer post-purchase brand attitudes, repurchase intentions, and preferences for conspicuous consumption differ based upon the direction of social comparison. This indicates that attitudes and behavioral intentions can change based upon the direction of the comparison. Results also indicate that the effects of social comparisons on consumer attitudes and behavior are significant for symbolic brands but not for functional brands. Results also indicate that the effects of social comparisons on consumer attitudes and behavior are significant for public brands but not private brands. Finally, results indicate that perceived similarity between a consumer and comparison target mediates the relationship between social comparison and consumer attitudes and behavior. Theoretically, this research adds to the social comparison literature by showing the potentially negative consequences of downward comparisons on consumer attitudes and behavioral attitudes in the post-purchase context. It is also among the first to examine how a brand's concept interacts with the direction of a social comparison. Managerially, this research draws managers' attention to the importance of keeping brand concepts consistent.

The “Black-White” achievement gap, in which some African American students show lower academic achievement than their White American counterparts, has received increased empirical attention. Classism has rarely been explored in psychological research as a significant contextual factor for understanding African American college students’ academic performance. Previous research shows that academic self-concept (ASC) is an attitudinal construct which consistently predicts African American college students’ grade point averages (GPA). A wealth of previous research also suggests that college student’s social class background and experiences with classism significantly influence students’ academic attitudes and performance. With this empirical and theoretical backing, a hierarchal regression analysis was run to test experiences with classism (EWC) as a moderator of the effects of academic self-concept on GPA for a sample of 124 cisgender, heterosexual African American students at SIUC, a predominantly white institution (PWI). Thus, the present study was conducted to test the hypothesis that African American college students’ levels of experience with classism would significantly moderate the effects of students’ ASC on their GPA. Results of the regression analysis showed that EWC did not significantly moderate the effects of ASC on GPA. An alternative mediation model was also tested, and showed that EWC did not mediate the relationship between ASC and GPA. Potential explanations for the results are provided, as well as limitations, and implications. Although the findings were not significant, the results of the present study call for future research to explicitly explore the influence of social class on psychological experiences, especially as it intersects with marginalized identities in the U.S. Overall, as African Americans’ and college students’ academic experiences are both greatly influenced by social class and classism, the academic achievement of African American and White American students should be discussed in the context of systems of oppression in which their achievements occur.

Criar um novo corpo, produzi-lo e in-carná-lo – dotá-lo de consistência intensa e conceitual, de carne, ossos e fluídos. Lugares de uma jornada empreendida via uma nova cartografia, uma vez que a qualidade de um corpo que não se limita ao que se toma pela realidade. Procura por veículos que auxiliem a passagem da carne a um novo corpo, já que esta é uma tarefa que demanda um trabalho individual, onde se empreende uma jornada sob o pretexto do desejo, uma peregrinação para a Personagem Conceitual, O Peregrino, que o discursa . Difícil encaixar em discursos e palavras de ordem, a produção do Corpo In-carnato passa pelo conceito. E a fundamentação do pensar passa pela produção dos próprios conceitos e suas especificidades, num colóquio entre tantos correspondentes inventados, cujo texto se fabula num formato epistolar como maneira de deixar os rastros do caminho e sua pesquisa aparentes. Neste trajeto, acompanham autores da Diferença como Deleuze, Guattari, Nietzsche, assim como o alimento das artes, atuante na liberação de novos corpos e humores que nutre, uma vez que tais corpos estarão sempre e plenamente ligados à vida. Seus liames afetam, esgotam e sucedem novos agenciamentos possíveis. E se o corpo é o plano de imanência por excelência, a vida e suas diferenças serão os possíveis da filosofia. Uma vida que se quer vivida passa por caminhos, rotas e lugares, Mas também pelo vazio, cujo esgotamento lhe retornará em novos corpos e espaços compossíveis. / Create a new body, prodcuting and in-carnate it – giving it the intense and conceptual consistence, with flesh, bones and fluids. Places of a journey made trough a new cartography, once the quality of a body it’s not limitated from what is taken as reality. It searches for vehicles that may help the passage from the flesh to the new body, since it is a duty wich demands an individual work, where a journey is made over the forces of the desire, a peregrination to the Conceptual Personage, The Pilgrim, whose discurse it. Hard to incase in speeches and words of order, the production of the In-carnato body passes through the concept. And the embasement from this way of thinking passes trhough the concepts and it’s especifications themselves, in a dialogue between many invented correspondents, whose the text fabulate it self at an epistolar shape, as a way to allow the tracks from the path and the reserach maight be visible. In this passage, authors from the Diference’s Philosophy walk with him, as Deleuze, Guattari, Nietzsche, just like the art’s food, acting on the liberation of new bodies and humors that it nourishes, once these bodies will be always conected to life. Its lines afects, deplete and succeed new possible experiences. And, if the body is the Imanence Plane par exellence, the life and its diferences will be the possibles from the philosophy. A life wich is desired lived well passes trough ways, pahts and places. But also trough the emptiness, where the depleting will return in new compossible bodies and spaces.