Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 2007. / Title proper from title frame. Also available in printed format.

Television has developed dramatically over the past six years in Afghanistan with a potential for providing extensive health information to its viewers, yet little is known about the coverage of health issues on Afghan television. Using the theories of agenda-setting and framing, and social norms approach this study explored what health-related topics were covered, how they were covered, and what sociocultural practices were broadcasted by the major Afghan private, national televisions. The study used a sample of six constructed weeks in 2010 of two leading private, national television networks. Firstly, the study found that priority health problems such as maternal and child health, communicable disease and mental health received very less coverage. Secondly, however, individual-level and societal-level causes were blamed equally for the health problems; individual behaviour solutions were the favourite choice of the media, turning a blind eye to government weakness and organizational solutions. Thirdly, self-prescription, religious and traditional health seeking behaviour, and gender inequity were routine practices reflected on television. As the first content analyses of the coverage of health-related issues in Afghanistan, the study provides public health professions, the Afghan media and policy makers a broad picture of health information available to the public on the leading Afghan television stations.

Television has developed dramatically over the past six years in Afghanistan with a potential for providing extensive health information to its viewers, yet little is known about the coverage of health issues on Afghan television. Using the theories of agenda-setting and framing, and social norms approach this study explored what health-related topics were covered, how they were covered, and what sociocultural practices were broadcasted by the major Afghan private, national televisions. The study used a sample of six constructed weeks in 2010 of two leading private, national television networks. Firstly, the study found that priority health problems such as maternal and child health, communicable disease and mental health received very less coverage. Secondly, however, individual-level and societal-level causes were blamed equally for the health problems; individual behaviour solutions were the favourite choice of the media, turning a blind eye to government weakness and organizational solutions. Thirdly, self-prescription, religious and traditional health seeking behaviour, and gender inequity were routine practices reflected on television. As the first content analyses of the coverage of health-related issues in Afghanistan, the study provides public health professions, the Afghan media and policy makers a broad picture of health information available to the public on the leading Afghan television stations.

Television has developed dramatically over the past six years in Afghanistan with a potential for providing extensive health information to its viewers, yet little is known about the coverage of health issues on Afghan television. Using the theories of agenda-setting and framing, and social norms approach this study explored what health-related topics were covered, how they were covered, and what sociocultural practices were broadcasted by the major Afghan private, national televisions. The study used a sample of six constructed weeks in 2010 of two leading private, national television networks. Firstly, the study found that priority health problems such as maternal and child health, communicable disease and mental health received very less coverage. Secondly, however, individual-level and societal-level causes were blamed equally for the health problems; individual behaviour solutions were the favourite choice of the media, turning a blind eye to government weakness and organizational solutions. Thirdly, self-prescription, religious and traditional health seeking behaviour, and gender inequity were routine practices reflected on television. As the first content analyses of the coverage of health-related issues in Afghanistan, the study provides public health professions, the Afghan media and policy makers a broad picture of health information available to the public on the leading Afghan television stations.

Thesis (M.S.)--Auburn University, 2007. / Abstract. Vita. Includes bibliographic references (ℓ. 59-61)

Television has developed dramatically over the past six years in Afghanistan with a potential for providing extensive health information to its viewers, yet little is known about the coverage of health issues on Afghan television. Using the theories of agenda-setting and framing, and social norms approach this study explored what health-related topics were covered, how they were covered, and what sociocultural practices were broadcasted by the major Afghan private, national televisions. The study used a sample of six constructed weeks in 2010 of two leading private, national television networks. Firstly, the study found that priority health problems such as maternal and child health, communicable disease and mental health received very less coverage. Secondly, however, individual-level and societal-level causes were blamed equally for the health problems; individual behaviour solutions were the favourite choice of the media, turning a blind eye to government weakness and organizational solutions. Thirdly, self-prescription, religious and traditional health seeking behaviour, and gender inequity were routine practices reflected on television. As the first content analyses of the coverage of health-related issues in Afghanistan, the study provides public health professions, the Afghan media and policy makers a broad picture of health information available to the public on the leading Afghan television stations.

Social norms interventions have been shown to be effective in reducing problematic alcohol use on college campuses. However, not all interventions have been successful, and the campus environment may be responsible for the variable reactions that students have to these interventions. The following three articles investigate the nature and utility of social norms interventions in an environment where alcohol use is relatively low. The first article details an online social norms intervention implemented on a low-use campus. Results suggest that if adapted to the campus culture, a social norms approach to reducing alcohol use could be successful in this unique environment. The second article investigates the impact of social norms in the form of censuring alcohol use. Using the theory of reasoned action, the study shows how alcohol use differs for those exposed to different types of norms, and how attitude toward being censured may change whether exposure to a particular social norm is indicative of decreased alcohol use. The third article is a process evaluation of the social norms intervention in a unique environment. It reviews difficulties encountered in implementing an intervention as well as recommendations for future online approaches to intervention implementation.

The purpose of this paper is to test the ability of Ajzen’s theory of planned behavior and Shapero's model of the entrepreneurial event to predict entrepreneurial intent (EI) among Swedish university students. A conceptual framework was developed where attitude towards entrepreneurial behavior was constituted by perceived self-efficacy, perceived social norms, and independence and serves as a mediator for the EI.A comparison between three focus groups composed of non-business students, business students and participants from the 'Enterprising & Business Development' (EBD) program at Linnaeus University was undertaken. The results show all three studied variables are significant determinants of EI, which in turn is a precursor of the attitude toward entrepreneurial behaviour. However, evidence suggests a negative relationship between the perceived social norms and the EI among EBD and business students.This paper contributes to the entrepreneurship literature by testing how certain factors affect the EI of university students. Its originality arises from combining the two most significant models for EI and applying them to three groups with different prerequisites. Although the study is subject to some limitations, they can be overcome by further studies.

Although the non-profit sector is now the third largest sector of the global economy, relatively little is known about the psychological processes that underlie decisions to donate to charity. Across five experiments, the present research explores two factors that are thought to underlie giving: social norms and personal values. Study 1 elicits personal values and manipulates descriptive social norm information and finds that both of these factors influence giving behavior. Study 2 replicates these findings with injunctive norms in place of descriptive norms. Study 3 manipulates both descriptive and injunctive social norms within a single study and finds that while both have an influence on giving, they do not interact in any meaningful way with each other. Study 4 manipulates descriptive and injunctive norm information in the context of a realistic online donation decision and finds that both injunctive norms influence rates of giving, but that descriptive norm information alone influences willingness to give. Study 5 experimentally manipulates the costs and benefits associated with viewing social information and finds that while participants are willing to view social information when there are no associated costs, willingness to view information decreases dramatically under even very small costs. We conclude in Chapter 6 by discussing the implications of these findings and potential directions for future research.

Previous theory-driven research studies in the activity area examining descriptive norms (e.g., Priebe & Spink, 2011, 2012) have demonstrated that these perceptions about others’ behaviour can influence individual behaviour. Although the results of these studies are informative, many questions still remain. The studies comprising this thesis add to the extant literature by improving upon methodological limitations of past work, extending the examination of the effects of norms on activity to include both injunctive norms (i.e., perceptions about others’ approval) and combined norms (aligned and misaligned), examining other activity-related cognitions (self-efficacy) and behaviour (sedentary), as well as examining characteristics of the norm reference group. Three independent experimental studies were conducted. Study 1 examined the effects of a descriptive norm message on muscular endurance and task self-efficacy in Pilates participants. Results revealed greater endurance and higher task self-efficacy among participants in the descriptive norm information condition as compared to control group participants. Study 2 compared four information conditions: injunctive, aligned descriptive and injunctive, misaligned descriptive and injunctive, and control with respect to their influence on muscular endurance and efficacy in a student population. Individuals receiving the aligned norms had the longest post-condition muscular endurance and greater task efficacy than all other conditions. No differences emerged between the injunctive, misaligned, and control conditions. Study 3, an online experimental field study, examined the effects of descriptive norms on both light activity and sedentary behaviour in an office setting. Study 3 also examined the effects of norms when the reference group differed in personal or contextual similarity. No differences emerged between participants receiving information about groups that varied in similarity. However, after receiving an email with descriptive norm information about co-workers’ behaviour, light activity increased and sitting behaviour decreased within the office setting across all conditions. Results from these three studies suggest the following: (1) aligned norms seem to be more effective than misaligned, (2) standalone injunctive norms might not be salient in the activity setting, (3) descriptive norms can impact objective activity behaviour, self-report light activity and sedentary behaviour, and (4) descriptive norms also may inform related cognitive constructs such as task self-efficacy.