Albania was noteworthy, not just for the isolationist policy of its government, or its domestic rigid policies applied to Europe's poorest country, but because of its high life expectancy at birth. At the end of the eighties, life expectancy at birth passed the boundary of seventy, although the country's GDP per capita was $2500 in 1990, the lowest in Europe (Madison 1995).This puzzled scholars, who either doubted the success of Albania, or because of the lack of firm information, speculated with different explanations (Watson, 1995). This research was initiated by this controversy in trying to first, estimate the scale of Albania's success in improving life expectancy and document the mortality transition in Albania during the period 1950-1990. It also looks at the social, economic and political factors behind the success of improving life expectancy at birth from 51 to 71 years in a relatively short period of 40 years. The research attempts to explain why the Albanian pattern of mortality, with very high infant and child mortality and very low adult mortality, is so different from that of other East European countries, which had the same social and economic backgrounds. The analysis concludes that the life style factors are the most likely factors in explaining the controversial mortality pattern of Albania. The research uses a new set of complete data, obtained from formerly-closed Albanian State Archives, which were made available only after 1994. It is the first time that the cause specific data are used to analyse the mortality transition in Albania. The research starts with a description of country's cultural and historical background. It continues with the political, social and economic transition during the communist rule 1945-1990, which are of particular importance in understanding the demographic regime in general, and the mortality transition in particular (Caldwell, 1986). The research continues with a detailed analysis of the availability and quality of mortality data. The analysis of mortality trends and patterns during this period confirms the success of Albania in achieving high life expectancy at birth by the end of eighties. It also shows that this was achieved by very low adult mortality, and relatively high infant and child mortality. The later analysis shows that this finding is related to the cause specific pattern of mortality, as well as regional differences within the country. The research ends with an international comparison of mortality trends and patterns in Albania, in the context of whether the Albanian success was part of the experience of countries that had "a good health at low cost" (Caldwell, 1986), or if the Albanian way is another route to low mortality.

In the areas of Service Failure Recovery and Expectancy-Disconfirmation, the extant literature contains studies of predictive expectations conducted in a consumer services setting, which show how a customer believes a seller would respond during a service failure situation. However, a focus on the expectations of enterprise managers and purchasing decision-makers for how a provider should respond in such a situation has not been explored. In addition, the literature contains studies that support the influence of service criticality and failure severity on recovery satisfaction, but the mechanisms by which these variables impact recovery satisfaction has not been extensively discussed. In order to contribute to this discussion, the current study adds to the current Recovery Disconfirmation model by illustrating how service criticality and failure severity influences customers’ normative recovery expectations, which in turn affect customer disconfirmation and recovery satisfaction. This research contributes to the marketing and information technology literature by applying the expectancy disconfirmation model to managers and purchasing decision-makers in an enterprise Internet services setting. Practical implications of this research include helping information technology services providers to understand how customers establish expectations of their provider, and how to design recovery responses to optimize customer satisfaction after a service failure.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 186-194).

Thesis (M.S.) -- Brigham Young University. Dept. of Statistics, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 115-120).

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / Populations are rapidly growing older across the globe. In South Africa, life expectancy has been on the increase over the past decade, and the proportion of older people is projected to increase dramatically over the coming years. Whilst this is a remarkable achievement, it does not mean that additional years of life will be healthy. To this end, the question being asked by researchers and policy makers is whether people are living longer and healthier lives? In order to answer this important question, health expectancies have been developed which combine morbidity and mortality data into a single index that measures population health. The health expectancies have become standard measures of population health across first world countries. Unfortunately, there is little awareness about their use in developing countries, including South Africa. The aim of this study was to estimate health expectancies based on various objective and subjective measures, in order to give a first comprehensive analysis of the health and wellbeing of older people in South Africa. The data were drawn from two nationally representative surveys namely; the WHO-Study on Global Ageing and Adult Health (SAGE) and the South African National HIV Incidence, Prevalence, Behaviour and Communication Survey (SABSSM) surveys. The results are presented in the form of five manuscripts each submitted for publication. The first manuscript estimates sexually active life expectancies and factors associated with sexual activity. The results show that older people are gaining more years of sexual activity. HIV in older women and chronic conditions in older men reduced odds of sexual activity. The second manuscript found that there was both absolute and relative compression of morbidity in older people between 2005 and 2012, based on self-rated health measure. The third manuscript estimates happy life expectancy and examines factors associated with happiness in older people. Happy life expectancy was greater for men than women, and wealth status was the strongest predictor of happiness. In the fourth manuscript, subjective and objective measures were used to estimate health expectancies. The former showed a more positive outlook compared to the latter. Gender differentials were evident in that although women live longer than men, they spent a greater part of their lifetime in poorer health than men. The fifth manuscript goes a crucial step further, to estimate the contribution of specific diseases to disability. This is important for policymakers as this identifies entry points of interventions aimed at reducing the onset and burden of disability in the elderly population. The most contributors of disability were musculoskeletal and cardiovascular diseases. The thesis concludes that the health of older people is complex and multidimensional, and therefore requires several measures to give a comprehensive analysis. When measured using subjective measures, it can be concluded that the health of older people has been improving. However, a different conclusion could be reached, if objective measures are used. It is important to continue to monitor the health status of older people, and make appropriate interventions in order to improve their health, wellbeing and quality of life.

The disproportionate amount of mentally ill offenders in the United States’ prison system and the lack of correctional treatment they receive have been an under-addressed problems for decades. This goal of this study was to examine the various individual and institutional barriers that hinder mentally ill offenders from accessing and participating in mental health treatment services. These barriers are analyzed using an expectancy theory framework. Specifically, the factors are fit into the Valence – Instrumentality – Expectancy model in an attempt to predict the impact that these barriers have on the number of mental health contact hours the offender engages in. Data for this analysis was obtained from 165 offenders with mental illness incarcerated in the Illinois Department of Corrections. Results indicate that offenders who experience fewer individual barriers (stigma and skepticism) and institutional barriers (quality of provider) are more likely to engage in more mental health services hours. Further, expectancy variables were expected to have the strongest impact on service engagement, but this hypothesis was not supported. Instead, valence variables had the strongest impact. But, the expectancy theory model with all components included is significant and useful to examine correctional mental health treatment utilization. This study is the first to apply expectancy theory to correctional mental health, and illuminates areas of policy improvements in this area.

The purpose of this study is to assess a hypothesized model of the influences of alcohol-related expectations, drinking behaviors, and ecological contexts, on first-year college students’ experience of negative, alcohol-related consequences. Growing concern about college student alcohol abuse and its critical consequences has elicited extensive research, prevention, and intervention efforts by academic institutions. Understanding the impacts and interactions of the cognitive, behavioral, and contextual influences associated with college student alcohol abuse is crucial to developing prevention and intervention efforts that effectively mitigate these issues. This investigation analyzed data gathered through the University of Oregon’s AlcoholEdu program to assess the influences and interactions of alcohol expectancies, specific drinking behaviors, and ecological contexts on the development of negative alcohol-related consequences among 3,240 first year university students. The model proposed in this study assessed the influences and interactions of students’ (a) positive and negative alcohol expectancies, (b) engagement in high-risk drinking, (c) use of protective behavioral strategies, and (d) exposure to ecological risk and protective contexts, on their experience of negative alcohol-related consequences. Implications for further research, intervention and prevention efforts are discussed.

No description available.

Alcohol consumption and on college campuses has long been a significant problem. The severity of the situation and lack of effective alcohol programming on college campuses warranted the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism to commission a Task Force on College Drinking in 2002, which has been vital in revealing drinking patterns and negative consequences which are specific to the college environment. The Task Force proposed three strategies that were empirically validated for prevention and intervention in the college setting. Of the three recommendations, implementing cognitive behavioral skills training and offering motivational enhancement interventions, while proven effective are costly and time consuming to implement. The final strategy recommended, challenging alcohol expectancies, has been validated for use in a group setting making it a more viable option for reaching larger audiences. Within the college environment there are certain factors that have shown to be important in influencing college students' drinking behaviors, attitudes toward drinking, and alcohol related negative consequences. Specifically, membership in a fraternity or sorority has revealed a unique predictor of risky drinking behavior and an increased risk of suffering from negative consequences related to alcohol. The purpose of the present study was to implement an expectancy-based presentation in Greek chapter houses to alter expectancies and decrease risky drinking behavior. Alcohol expectancies were measured before and immediately after the presentation. Alcohol consumption was also assessed in a self-report measure of drinking for the 30 days prior to the presentation as well as 30 days following it. Analyses revealed significant reductions in positive alcohol expectancies and alcohol consumption on measures of quantity (average drinks per sitting), frequency (average drinking days per week), and heavy episodic drinking (average weekly peak blood alcohol content). Therefore, the structure and effectiveness of the current intervention program proves extremely useful and practical for widespread implementation in Greek chapter houses across all college campuses.

Hunter satisfaction has received extensive attention in the literature, but the role of expectations on satisfaction has been neglected. Consumer satisfaction researchers often use the expectancy disconfirmation paradigm (i.e., differences between expectations and reality) to address relationships between expectations and satisfaction. I used this paradigm to examine the relationship between expectations and satisfaction for waterfowl hunters in Arkansas and Mississippi. I found hunter satisfaction was a partial function of fulfilled expectations in both studies. Performance-only measures generally correlated more strongly with overall satisfaction than disconfirmations measured by a difference score. Conversely, disconfirmation of expectations for a season measured on a single item scale, had the greatest relationship with overall satisfaction for a season. Knowledge of congruence between hunter expectations and outcomes offers managers an avenue to effectively focus management efforts to improve satisfaction levels.