The objective of this thesis was to describe how a contemporary textbook and its workbook forSwedish upper secondary English A course reflects integration of immigrants and fundamentalvalues for a society based on cultural diversity. A textual analysis of the texts in the textbook,questions and activities in the workbook, and a visual analysis of the images of the textbook werecarried out using quantitative and qualitative methods. The result of the study indicates that thethemes, texts, personalities, writers and images of the textbook appear to be selected consciouslyto avoid portraying stereotype messages and views of “them”, who are different. Although thereare a couple of stereotype messages, the textbook offers teachers and pupils of English A coursea wide range of texts and images, including activities in the workbook, which can be used to meetthe goals in LPF 94 regarding integration of immigrants and fundamental norms and values for asociety based on cultural diversity.

Littérature sur l'évaluation sociale a principalement analysé la dyade “audience-candidat”,laissant La recherche sur les évaluations sociales s’est principalement focalisé sur la dyade “audiencecandidat”,sans s’intéresser à la façon dont l’audience principale (par exemple un agent exerçant uncontrôle social) influence l’évaluation d’une autre audience. Cette thèse explore la question desévaluations sociales dans un contexte d’audiences multiples. Elle se focalise sur les comportementsorganisationnels condamnables – une important forme d’évaluation sociale, pourtant en partieignorée par la recherche – et pose la question suivante : “Pourquoi une audience change-t-elle sonévaluation après un comportement organisationnel condamnable?”. Les trois essais s’intéressent àune différente forme d’audience (ou d’évaluation) : les individus (plaintes), les investisseurs (prix del’action) et les médias (évaluation de la presse écrite). Deux contextes novateurs et données uniquesont été utilisés : l’auto régulation du secteur de la publicité en Grande-Bretagne, et Calciopoli, lescandale qui a affecté la Série A en Italie en 2006. Les résultats montrent qu’en cas de comportementorganisationnel condamnable, l’évaluation des agents de contrôle social influence l’évaluation d’autreaudience, mais cet effet n’est pas mécanique. Trois modérateurs sont identifiés : l’ambiguïté de lanorme, la proéminence de l’évènement, et à quel point les transgresseurs sont des acteurs locaux. Enrésumé, cette thèse montre que les normes sociales sont mieux comprises dans un cadre triadique :“candidat – agent de contrôle social – autre audience”. Les normes sociales ne sont pas exogènes,mais sont crées de manière endogène par les actions des candidats et les évaluations de deuxaudiences au moins. / Literature on social evaluations has mainly analyzed the “audience-candidate” dyad,leaving underexplored the way the evaluation of a main audience (e.g. a social-control agent)influences the evaluation of another audience. This dissertation looks at social evaluations in amultiple-audience context. It focuses on organizational social misconduct - an important, yetunderstudied social evaluation - and it investigates “Why does an audience change its evaluationfollowing organizational social misconduct?”. Each of the three essays focuses on a differentaudience (evaluation): people (people’s complaints), investors (share price) and the media(newspapers’ evaluation). Two novel settings and unique databases were used: advertising selfregulationin the UK and Calciopoli, the scandal that affected the Italian Serie A in 2006. Resultsshow that in case of organizational social misconduct, the evaluation of a social control agent doesinfluence the evaluation of another audience, however this effect is not mechanical. Three primarymoderators emerge from the three essays: the ambiguity of the norm, the saliency of the event, andlocalness of the transgressors. In summary, this dissertation shows that social norms are betterunderstood in a triadic framework: “candidate – social-control agent – another audience”. Socialnorms are not set exogenously, but are endogenously created by the actions of the candidates andthe evaluations of (at least) two audiences.

The study is conducted in cooperation with a gender research group, at Mid Sweden University as a part of their larger study of gender equality within the organisation SCA. The purpose is to identify the challenges that females experience as leaders within male-dominated industries. The research approach is based on social constructivism philosophy and with an abductive reasoning approach. The empirical data were gathered with a qualitative method, usinginterviews as a research tool. The analysis was conducted with temple analysis method. The research’s findings showed that the organisation had a stereotype of a leader that connects the ideal leader to the male stereotype, that creates challenges for females in leading positions. It also indicated that the organisation had masculine structures and that it values employee’s that are being decisive, competitive, result-focused, etc. The research result also indicated that thestereotypes in the organisation are creating challenges for females in both operating abilities and challenges with advancing/get employment as a leader.

Masculinity research suggests help-seeking attitudes towards mental health concerns conflict with socialized masculine norms such as emotional control and self-reliance (Addis & Mahalik, 2003; Heath, Brenner, Vogel, Lannin, & Strass, 2017). As psychologists continue to find ways to reach out to men, exercise intervention may be the catalyst for men to seek out psychological services. More specifically, boxing training has been shown to increase the sense of self-confidence and character development (Shultz, Stoner, Lambrick, & Lane, 2014; Sokol, 2004). In this study, 24 men engaged in a six-session boxing training program to examine the impact high-intensity exercise has on psychological help-seeking attitudes and psychological distress. Participants reported lower psychological distress, an increase in health behaviors, and high levels of exercise self-efficacy throughout the intervention. Additionally, participants who reported greater adherence to traditional masculine norms endorsed greater psychological distress compared to participants reporting lower adherence to masculine norms. Help-seeking attitudes towards psychological services did not change throughout the boxing program, suggesting men may gain the psychological benefits they seek directly from action-oriented activities.

During college, students establish nutritional habits that may last a lifetime. Fruit and vegetable consumption often decreases during the first few years of college and the vast majority of college-­‐aged students are not meeting current recommendations. Social norms theory has been shown to be an effective method for influencing behaviors in this population. This study was designed to test whether or not providing students with normative and manipulated social norms feedback could influence fruit and vegetable intakes among college-­‐aged students as evidenced by changes in skin carotenoid levels and food frequency questionnaire reports. Participants (n=244) were randomly assigned to a control group or given either normative feedback or manipulated social norms feedback regarding their skin carotenoid levels in comparison to their peers, with carotenoid levels being an objective measurement of fruit and vegetable intake. Those receiving manipulated feedback were given an artificially low carotenoid score implying that peer consumption was greater than their own. Results indicated no significant within-­‐participant changes in fruit and vegetable intakes reported in the FFQ (P=.635). While there was no change in the control groups skin carotenoid levels (P=.996), there was a borderline significant increase among those receiving normative feedback (P=.066) and a significant increase among those receiving manipulated social norms feedback (P<.001). Repeated measures of analysis showed that within-­‐participant increases in carotenoid scores were dependent on group assignment (P=.033) with an effect size of η2p=.026 which according to Cohen’s guideline is a small effect size. The distribution of carotenoid scores and FFQ results were approximately normal. Comparisons between FFQ results and skin carotenoid levels found Pearson correlation coefficients of .301 (P<.001) and other positive correlations were found between skin carotenoid levels and both exercise and BMI (.111, P=.049; -­‐.253, P<.001). The results of this study suggest that manipulated social norms feedback can increase skin carotenoid levels. The observed increases may indicate higher carotenoid containing fruit and vegetable consumption. These findings imply that social norms feedback may potentially be used as a strategy to promote and influence greater fruit and vegetable consumption among college students.

Neuropsychological tests are standardized tasks used to measure psychological functioning that is associated with a particular brain structure. These tests often are used in diagnosing a cognitive deficiency resulting from brain injuries. Currently, there are a limited number of studies that have focused on standardization of neuropsychological tests in Latin America. Therefore, the vast majority of cognitive tests used in the evaluation of patients with brain damage have no normative parameters adjusted to the cultural characteristics of Latinos and Latinas. As a result, neuropsychological diagnoses among this population may be inadequate, and evaluation of rehabilitation program effectiveness limited. The importance of culturally appropriate indices of neurological tests cannot be overstated; of all the problems presented by individuals with brain injuries, cognitive disorders are the leading source of disability for adequate work, family, and social reintegration among this group. There is an urgent need to standardize neuropsychological tests in Latin America, among Latinos in the US and any other regions where neuropsychological test have not been standardized. An important population subgroup in Latin America severely lacking in norms for many neuropsychological tests are those deemed illiterate or unable to read or write. Developing normative data for individuals who are illiterate will allow neuropsychologists to have a more accurate comparison when attempting to diagnose cognitive deficits among this group in Latin America. This dissertation is unique, as no other studies have looked at the normative data and standardization of neuropsychological tests within this population in Latin America.

The majority of organic foods consumed by Americans are sourced internationally, which has global-reaching implications on health, economics, and sustainability. Current research findings show that environmental devastation and negative health outcomes have resulted from unsustainable, nonorganic agricultural practices; including herbicides, pesticides, and overcultivation. However, there is a lack of quantitative research on factors that motivate Americans to consume organic food. Based on the theory of planned behavior, this quantitative study employed an online survey to examine the role of attitudes, subjective norms, descriptive norms, and perceived behavioral control on the intention and behavior of American consumers to consume organic foods. Additional descriptors of willingness to pay and perceived product attributes were also measured. Theory of planned behavior and American Organic Consumption questionnaires were completed by 276 adult consumers in the United States. Multiple regression analyses were performed to identify relationships and create predictive models between constructs of a modified theory of planned behavior, sociodemographics, and organic consumption. Key findings revealed that a modified theory of planned behavior, which included descriptive norms, predicted intent to consume organics stronger than the nonmodified theory of planned behavior. Attitudes, perceived behavioral control, and descriptive norms were significant predictors of intention to consume organics. Health was perceived as the major product attribute for organic consumption and low willingness to pay was perceived as the major barrier. This study has implications for positive social change such that it contributes to understanding motivational factors behind American's food choices and consumption, which can be used to modify and target consumer behaviors and market campaigns.

Shared values and norms are at the core for unifying different cultures socializing or working to fulfill the goals and mission of organizations. Researchers have not examined how employees representing different cultures socialize via shared norms and values in human service companies. The purpose of this ethnography study was to explore the process of 8 culturally different employees working together at a human service organization. Using purposeful sampling, multicultural employees were selected from 4 departments within the human service company. Face-to-face interviews, field notes, questionnaire, and participant observation were the tools for collecting the data. Descriptive coding, value coding, and the Ethnograph software was used to identify themes from the data. The analysis of the data evolved from using the approach of the hermeneutic circle, which consisted of examining the parts, such as activities and the connection to the whole, such as core values. According to the study, most employees engaged in sharing the norms and values of the human service company, ultimately fulfilling the goals or core values. However, 2 out of 8 participants engaged in conflict and had a lack of knowledge about 1 out of 4 core values. Knowledge and compliance to the core values were fundamental ingredients for providing quality services. This study leads to positive social change by providing human service organizations information on compliance to the entire core values of the human service company and knowledge of the complete core values of the human service company.

A fundamental issue in educational measurement is what frame of reference to use when interpreting students’ performance on an assessment. One frame of reference that is often used to enhance interpretations of test scores is normative, which adds meaning to test score interpretations by indicating the rank of an individual’s score within a distribution of test scores of a well-defined reference group. One of the most commonly used frames of reference on student achievement provided by test publishers of large-scale assessments is national norms, whereby students’ test scores are referenced to a distribution of scores of a nationally representative sample. A national probability sample can fail to fully represent the population because of student and school nonparticipation. In practice, this is remedied by weighting the sample so that it better represents the intended reference population. The focus of this study was on weighting and determining the extent to which weighting grade 4 and grade 8 student records that are not fully representative of the nation can recover distributions of reading and math scores in a national probability sample. Data from a statewide testing program were used to create six grade 4 and grade 8 datasets, each varying in its degree of representativeness of the nation, as well as in the proximity of its reading and math distributions to those of a national sample. The six datasets created for each grade were separately weighted to different population totals in two different weighting conditions using four different bivariate stratification designs. The weighted distributions were then smoothed and compared to smoothed distributions of the national sample in terms of descriptive statistics, maximum absolute differences between the relative cumulative frequency distributions, and chi-square effect sizes. The impact of using percentile ranks developed from the state data was also investigated. By and large, the smoothed distributions of the weighted datasets were able to recover the national distribution in each content area, grade, and weighting condition. Weighting the datasets to the nation was effective in making the state test score distributions more similar to the national distributions. Moreover, the stratification design that defined weighting cells by the joint distribution of median household income and ethnic composition of the school consistently produced desirable results for the six datasets used in each grade. Log-linear smoothing using a polynomial of degree 4 was effective in making the weighted distributions even more similar to those in the national sample. Investigation of the impact of using the percentile ranks derived from the state datasets revealed that the percentile ranks of the distributions that were most similar to the national distributions resulted in a high percentage of agreement when classifying student performance based on raw scores associated with the same percentile rank in each dataset. The utility of having a national frame of reference on student achievement, and the efficacy of estimating such a frame of reference from existing data are also discussed.

Many studies have observed the involvement of stakeholders in farm to school (FTS) programming to further understand their role, yet no study had previously assessed the role of Utah farmers in FTS programming. As a result, the purpose of this research was to describe Utah farmers' role in FTS programming and their interest in institutional marketing of local foods. The researcher sent an online descriptive survey to 5,470 farmers belonging to the Utah Farm Bureau. The survey used Dillman's Tailored Design Method. Of the 184 survey responses received, 143 surveys were usable. The theory of planned behavior was the theoretical framework for the study. Respondents reported a positive attitude toward FTS programming, although a majority (83.6%) had not participated. They indicated that building relationships with community members and increasing awareness of local food were top benefits associated with FTS programming. Top barriers to participating in FTS programming included a lack of information about schools seeking to purchase local products and restriction of growing seasons. Respondents indicated that they intended to host farm tours for students and food service personnel. Their training and resource needs related to FTS programming included small business assistance. Demographics characteristics revealed a majority of respondents were male and had more than 22 years of farming experience. The subjective norm and perceived behavioral control components of the theory of planned behavior statistically predicted the intention of respondents to participate in farm to school programming. Theory components, including attitude, accounted for 67.2% of the variance in intention to participate in FTS programming. These findings suggest other influences contributed to the intention of respondents to participate in FTS programming. One future research recommendation for FTS programming includes conducting similar studies with different groups of farmers. The researcher recommends continued use of the theory of planned behavior as a theoretical framework for studies assessing involvement in FTS programming. Variables not included in this study may discover further influences on farmers' intention to participate in FTS programming. One recommendation is to increase outreach and marketing to farmers who may be interested in FTS programming.