Poon, Ka Chun Joe. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 68-72). / Abstract also in Chinese. / Abstract --- p.i / Abstract in Chinese --- p.ii / Acknowledgement --- p.iii / List of Tables --- p.viii / List of Figures --- p.ix / Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 2 --- Literature Review --- p.5 / Chapter 2.1 --- Money and Growth --- p.5 / Chapter 2.2 --- "Social Status, Money, and Growth" --- p.9 / Chapter 3 --- One-Sector Exogenous Growth Model With Cash-In-Advance Constraints --- p.15 / Chapter 3.1 --- The Basic One-Sector Model --- p.15 / Chapter 3.1.1 --- Optimization --- p.16 / Chapter 3.2 --- Extension 1 - CIA with Investment --- p.19 / Chapter 3.3 --- Extension 2 - Including Separated Social-Status Function --- p.22 / Chapter 3.3.1 --- Simulation --- p.25 / Chapter 3.4 --- Extension 3 - General Utility Function --- p.28 / Chapter 3.4.1 --- Optimization --- p.28 / Chapter 3.4.2 --- Steady State and The Effect of Money Growth --- p.30 / Chapter 3.4.3 --- Dynamical System --- p.31 / Chapter 3.4.4 --- Simulation --- p.35 / Chapter 3.5 --- Extension 4: General Utility Function and CIA with investment --- p.38 / Chapter 3.5.1 --- Optimization --- p.38 / Chapter 3.5.2 --- Steady State and The Effect of Money Growth --- p.41 / Chapter 3.5.3 --- Dynamical System --- p.42 / Chapter 3.5.4 --- Simulation --- p.47 / Chapter 4 --- Concluding Remarks --- p.49 / Chapter 5 --- Appendices --- p.52 / Chapter 5.1 --- Appendix 1 - Detailed Calculation of Basic One-Sector Model --- p.52 / Chapter 5.1.1 --- Optimization --- p.52 / Chapter 5.1.2 --- Steady State and The Effect of Money Growth --- p.53 / Chapter 5.1.3 --- Dynamical System --- p.55 / Chapter 5.2 --- Appendix 2 - Detailed Calculation of Extension 1 - CIA with Investment --- p.57 / Chapter 5.2.1 --- Optimization --- p.57 / Chapter 5.2.2 --- Steady State and The Effect of Money Growth --- p.59 / Chapter 5.2.3 --- Dynamical System --- p.60 / Chapter 5.3 --- Appendix 3 - Detailed Calculation of Extension 2 - Including Separated Social-Status Function --- p.63 / Chapter 5.3.1 --- Optimization --- p.63 / Chapter 5.3.2 --- Steady State and The Effect of Money Growth --- p.64 / Chapter 5.3.3 --- Dynamical System --- p.65 / References --- p.68

This study examines style shift between formal and informal styles in first- encounter conversations between Japanese native speakers and demonstrates how the speakers shifted the speech style in the context. Many researchers have studied this type of style shift and demonstrated that style shifts occur within a single speech context where social factors, such as differences in age, status, and formalness remain constant (e.g., Cook, 2008; Geyer, 2008; Ikuta, 1983; Maynard, 1991; Okamoto, 1999). This study contributed support to these previous studies. In this study, both quantitative and qualitative analyses focusing on Japanese native speakers' use of style shifting in first-encounter conversations were conducted. The data came from four dyadic first-encounter conversations between Japanese female speakers. The conversations were audio-recorded in a room where the researcher was not present. After recording the four conversations, the researcher conducted follow-up interviews in person or by phone in order to check the validity of my analysis collected for this study. Overall, all the speakers shifted between formal and informal styles at least ten times, indicating that they did not speak exclusively in one style or the other in the current data. The frequency of style shifts varied depending on the speakers, but in each conversation, the older partners of the pairs shifted their speech style more frequently than the younger partners of the pairs. Furthermore, this study found six factors that accounted for style shifts between the formal and informal. When (1) introducing a new topic and (2) closing a topic, speakers shifted from informal to formal style. This signaled the opening of a new topic directly to the addressee. On the other hand, they shifted from formal style to informal style when (1) expressing feelings, (2) using self-directed utterances, (3) asking questions for confirmation or inference, and (4) adjusting to the context (formality and/or deference). The follow-up interviews revealed that the factors referred to as (1) expression of feelings, (2) self-directed utterances, and (3) questions for confirmation or inference were used by some speakers unconsciously. The self- directed utterances of factor (2) were divided into three types: soliloquy-like remarks, asking oneself a question, and recalling something. Factor (4) adjusting to the context (formality and/or deference), formal style was used to show politeness toward the addressee, and informal style was used to show friendliness, casualness, or empathy. Friendliness, casualness, or empathy was conveyed by use of informal style when the speakers' utterances brought laughter to the context and/or when the speakers showed empathy for the addressee.

Black women remain at a higher risk for HIV infection than women of any other ethnic group. Of all new infections reported among U.S. women in 2010, 64% occurred in African Americans compared to 18% Whites and 15% Hispanic/Latina women (CDC 2013a; CDC 2014b). While the literature on HIV risk among African American women is extensive, it mostly focuses on low income, low education subgroups of women or those involved in high risk behaviors such as drug use. Very little has been done to understand the risk for HIV among college educated, middle class women who do not fit into traditional "risk categories." Based on extensive fieldwork in Atlanta, GA, this study illustrates how middle class African American women's attitudes, beliefs, perceptions, and behaviors related to HIV risk are influenced by their social and cultural norms. This research employed a womanist framework to examine the intersection of race, gender, and class and the way these factors interact to shape HIV risk in middle class African American women. Whereas some middle class African American women perceive their HIV risk as low based on social class, structural factors associated with experiences of being an African American woman in Atlanta, GA (e.g., gender imbalance, geographic location, sexual networks) weaken the protective influence of class and put them at risk for HIV. Thus, findings from this study will help inform prevention strategies to focus on African American women who fall outside of "traditional risk groups."

This thesis investigates the nature and the development of a delinquent social identity. Three issues are addressed. These concern the negative identity that results from social comparison processes in school, the role of the peer group in delinquency and the variable nature of the delinquent social identity. One argument of the thesis, which is based on the concepts of self-categorization theory, is that the delinquent social identity develops out of a negative identity because of perceived differences between groups of adolescents in the school in terms of their commitment to academic studies and their attitude towards authority. The first study in this thesis demonstrates that compared to non delinquents, delinquents are more likely to perceive their social status in the school to be low as well as stable, and are more concerned about their reputation among their peers. Also, delinquents are more likely to rationalize against guilt through the techniques of neutralization, are more likely to value unconventional norms and tend to have negative experiences, both at home and in school. Based on social identity theory, this thesis argues that delinquency arises out of a search for an alternative positive identity through " social creativity ", which is only possible through the group. Membership in a delinquent group or a delinquent social identity offers the delinquent a sense of " positive distinctiveness " which is derived from the rejection, redefinition and reversal of conventional norms. It is only through a social identity where members perceive each other as interchangeable and share an interdependency, that such a reversal receives social validation, and that members achieve a sense of self-consistency which becomes part of their reputation. The second study in this thesis confirms that delinquents show a relative preference for a group strategy of derogation of the outgroup for coping with negative social comparison, rather than one which involves an individual strategy of competition, and that this group strategy is more likely to enhance their self-esteem. Delinquents' tendency to reverse conventional norms is demonstrated in the third study of the thesis, which also revealed that this reversal is evident only when delinquents are compared to non delinquents, and that this rejection is not total. These findings not only provide support for Cohen's subcultural theory of delinquency but also that of Sykes and Matza who argue that delinquents drift in and out of such behaviours. In fact, this thesis suggests that this drift can be explained in terms of a shift in the salience of identity. Because the delinquent identity is a social identity, it is variable and context-dependent. Differences in attitudes towards authority, rationalizations against guilt and self-derogation can be explained by differences in the salience of the delinquent social identity. The last three studies of the thesis provide evidence of these variations with both self-report and incarcerated delinquents.

<p>Natten mellan den 5 och 6 oktober 2007 misshandlas Riccardo Campogiani så allvarligt i Stockholm att han senare avlider. Detta fall kom att få en enormt stor massmedial uppmärksamhet. Uppsatsens fokus ligger på hur denna rapportering om händelsen kom att gestaltas i Aftonbladet och i Expressen. Uppsatsen belyser hur tidningarna gestaltade och benämnde de inblandade aktörerna samt hur allmänhetens reaktioner på det inträffade kom att framställas. Fokus ligger även på vilka individer som fick komma till tals i den massmediala debatten. Den metodologiska utgångspunkten är diskursanalys där diskursteori använts som metod.</p>

Ziel der Studie war die Untersuchung individueller und familialer Faktoren für den sozialen Status eines Kindes in seiner Schulklasse. Durch die Unterscheidung von Akzeptanz und Einfluss als zweier Hauptdimensionen des sozialen Status konnte die Arbeit aufklären, welche Rolle verschiedene Attribute für das Erreichen von Akzeptanz oder Einfluss spielen. 234 Dritt- und Fünftklässler aus Berliner Grundschulen erhielten soziometrische Maße, durch welche der soziale Status erhoben wurde (Akzeptanz und Einfluss). Individuelle und familiale Faktoren wurden mittels Peernominationen über das Verhalten der Kinder (Fremdurteil), Schulnoten (Lehrerangabe)und Maße des sozio-ökonomischen Status der Eltern (Elternangabe)erhoben. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass Akzeptanz positiv mit prosozialem und negativ mit aggressivem Verhalten eines Kindes assoziiert ist. Die Zusammenhänge dieser Verhaltensweisen mit Einfluss wiesen in dieselbe Richtung, waren aber deutlich geringer. Ideenreichtum und Humor hingen mit Akzeptanz und Einfluss gleichermaßen positiv zusammen, sowie Traurigsein gleichermaßen negativ mit beiden Statusdimensionen verbunden war. Das Verhalten eines Kindes vermittelte den Zusammenhang zwischen Merkmalen wie Geschlecht, relativem Alter, Schulnoten und der Akzeptanz und dem Einfluss eines Kindes. Zum Beispiel war die positive Beziehung zwischen Schulnoten und dem sozialen Status überwiegend auf die mit(guten)Schulnoten assoziierten Verhaltensweisen Prosozialität und (geringe) Aggressivität zurückzuführen. Die größere Akzeptanz von Mädchen ließ sich ebenso durch deren größere Prosozialität und geringere Aggressivität erklären. Jungen waren im Hinblick auf ihren Einfluss sowohl am oberen als auch am unteren Ende der Hierarchie überrepräsentiert. Sowohl sehr einflussreiche als auch einflusslose Jungen zeichneten sich durch eine erhöhte Aggressivität aus. Komplexere Analysen wiesen daraufhin, dass Jungen negative Auswirkungen von aggressivem Verhalten durch Humor und Ideenreichtum auf ihren Status kompensieren konnten. Der moderate Zusammenhang zwischen dem elterlichen sozioökonomischen Status und dem sozialen Status des Kindes wurde vollständig durch das Verhalten des Kindes mediiert. Das Elternhaus war wichtiger für die Akzeptanz als für den Einfluss eines Kindes. Kinder mit Migrationshintergrund waren sowohl weniger akzeptiert als auch weniger einflussreich in ihrer Klasse. Elterliche Trennung trug nicht zur sozialen Position eines Kindes bei. / The goal of this study was to investigate individual and familial factors contributing to a child’s social status in its schoolclass. Separating acceptance and influence as two main dimensions of social status, this work aims at clarifying the impact of different attributes for becoming accepted or influential. 234 third and fifth grade children from Berlin schools were administered sociometric measures providing information about social status (acceptance and influence). The contributing factors where measured using peer nominations of each child’s behaviour, school-grades and familial variables such as the parents’ socio-economic status. Results show that acceptance was positively linked to prosocial and negatively linked to aggressive behaviour. Pointing in the same direction, influence was less related to aggression and prosociality than acceptance. Having ideas and a sense of humour contributed positively and being sad contributed negatively to both dimensions of social status. Furthermore, behavioural tendencies mediated the impact of non-behavioural attributes such as gender, relative age in class and school-grades on social status. For example, the positive relation between schoolgrades and social status was mainly mediated by prosocial and non-aggressive behaviour. Looking at gender, girls were more prosocial and less aggressive than boys and therefore more accepted than the latter. Within their class boys were more often represented at both ends of the influence dimension than girls. Moreover highly influential as well as powerless boys were found to be rather aggressive. More complex analyses showed that boys could possibly compensate the negative impact of aggression with humour and ideas. The moderate relation between parental SES and a child’s socials status was fully mediated by a child’s behaviour. SES was more important for the acceptance than for the influence of a child. Children with a migration background were both less accepted and influential. Parental separation did not contribute to a child’s social position.

Natten mellan den 5 och 6 oktober 2007 misshandlas Riccardo Campogiani så allvarligt i Stockholm att han senare avlider. Detta fall kom att få en enormt stor massmedial uppmärksamhet. Uppsatsens fokus ligger på hur denna rapportering om händelsen kom att gestaltas i Aftonbladet och i Expressen. Uppsatsen belyser hur tidningarna gestaltade och benämnde de inblandade aktörerna samt hur allmänhetens reaktioner på det inträffade kom att framställas. Fokus ligger även på vilka individer som fick komma till tals i den massmediala debatten. Den metodologiska utgångspunkten är diskursanalys där diskursteori använts som metod.

This study investigated the relationship between math test scores and social economic status (SES). The model for this study was separated into three parts: student role performance (SRP), school, and family model segments. SES was divided into three categories: low, mid, and high SES. This study used the data from the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS). It was found that students with a higher SES have higher math test scores. It was also found that for large families of low and mid SES, students scored lower on their math test scores. Further study is needed to determine which aspects of SES have the greatest effect on math test scores. / Thesis (M.A.)--Wichita State University, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. / "May 2006." / Includes bibliographic references (leaves 27-32)

Social status influences reproductive physiology in many species, and sex change in marine teleost fishes provides an excellent model to understand how an organism can modulate its reproductive system in response to social stimuli. The series of experiments presented in this dissertation has focused on the proximate mechanisms underlying sex change and, in particular, the neuroendocrine factors that might translate social information into physiological changes. The bluebanded goby (Lythrypnus dalli) is a sexually plastic fish, and the dominant female typically changes sex when the male is removed from the social group. The direct physical interactions between the male and the females were found to be the main sensory cues that inhibit sex change. Sex steroids can both modulate and be modulated by behavior, and as a result they have been the most obvious candidates for a key role in the regulation of sex change. Males and females showed similar diurnal patterns for steroid hormones, but females had significantly higher water-borne estrogen levels. Concentrations of estradiol, testosterone and 11-ketotestosterone presented sex and tissue differences in brain, gonad and muscle, and they varied in complex ways in different tissues during sex change. The neurotransmitter serotonin (5-HT) has been suggested to be involved in the inhibition of socially regulated sex change because of its role in the modulation of both reproductive and aggressive behavior. None of the pharmacological manipulations performed in L. dalli to alter serotonergic activity was able to overcome the input from the social environment and affect sex change. Neither monoamine levels nor the area or number of 5-HT immunoreactive neurons were different between males, females and sex changers or between dominant and subordinate females. The results do not support the hypothesis of a serotonergic inhibition on sex change in L. dalli, but show that rapid changes in brain androgen levels might be implicated in inducing behavioral or morphological changes associated with sex reversal. Also, steroids respond to changes in the social environment in different ways in different tissues so local steroid synthesis should receive greater attention, and caution is required when using circulating levels to understand behavioral regulation.

This thesis analyzes the marketing activities of the companies in the consumer society of today and their social impacts on the consumption habits of individuals. The creation of a social environment with the mass oriented marketing activities of the producers and the association of individuals with the products that they or others consume are studied. The perception of the products as symbols of social status or their utilization to have distinction from others are analyzed. Throughout this thesis, the question of how brands are socially accepted and appreciated were addressed within the frame of the analysis of the mass oriented marketing activities of producers. Under these activities how the new consumer stereotypes are artificially created are criticized. This thesis also seeks to answer the question of how the social image of the brands and logos reach beyond the product sphere and used as a medium for creating social, cultural and individual identifications.