The effects of knowing or not knowing the satirical nature of a piece of humor were examined and compared to the effects of disparaging humor. One hundred and twenty-six heterosexual undergraduate students (male: n = 43; female: n = 83) were randomly assigned a satirical or an offensive comic about gay men. Some of those who read the satirical piece were told of the satirical intentions of the author. Some of the predicted hypotheses were partially supported. Low SDO participants found the satirical comic, regardless of whether the author’s satirical intentions were explicitly told or not, less humorous and more offensive than high SDO participants. On the other hand, high SDO participants found the disparaging comic to be more humorous and less offensive than low SDO participants. The implications of these findings as well as the difficulties with measuring the effects of satire are addressed.

Many authors (refer: Swayne and Tucker, 1973; Kahneman and Lovallo, 1994; Baron, 1998; Stewart et al., 1998; Simon et al., 1999; Simon and Houghton, 2003; Baum and Lock, 2004; Mathews, 2008) have examined the traits and skills of the entrepreneur. Others have been more interested in their behaviors (refer: Bhave, 1994; Byers et al., 1997; Sarasvathy, 2001; Shook et al., 2003; Baron, 2007; Davidsson, 2008), trying to describe the entrepreneurial processes on the initial stages of venture development. However, studies that try to define how an entrepreneur reacts when facing changes have not been found in the literature. The focus of this research is thus, to explore the attitude of the entrepreneur towards changes throughout the development of the start-up project. The theoretical background is divided into three main parts: the entrepreneurial attitude, the attitude towards change, and the relation between perceptions of organizational climate and attitudes. The first section reviews the literature about the traits and behaviors that define an entrepreneur. The second section concentrates on research papers concerning the attitude towards change for middle managers in well-established firms. Finally, the third section, through a review of the relevant literature, emphasizes the importance of the impact of the working environment perception on people’s attitude towards work. The approach of this qualitative study is inductive at first, but also incorporates a deductive approach during the data analysis using a grounded theory method. The data were gathered through seven semi-structured interviews with entrepreneurs from Cyprus, India, Mexico, United Kingdom, and Sweden. The outcome of the present study is a model emphasizing the main results of the research. It presents three main reasons (interest/work experience in the business area, definition of the gap in the market, and desire to create) that lead to the decision to initiate the project. The market and future perception, as they have an impact on the actual start of the process, are presented and discussed as well. Concerning the attitude towards changes occurring during the process, four different reactions have been found to be relevant (adaptation, search for assistance, determination/commitment, and passion/persistence). Furthermore, the help provided by the learning experience, the social networking, and the future planning to overcome changes were also identified. Finally, the perception by the entrepreneur of the change and the overall process are explained.

Despite the availability, capability, and inclination of older workers to remain in the workforce, research indicates that older workers are generally perceived and evaluated less favorably than younger workers (cf., Kite, Stockdale, Whitley, &Johnson, 2005). However, little is known about what factors lead older workers to be perceived less favorably. Up until this point, research investigating attitudes towards older workers has been limited to traditional work contexts. However, telework is an increasingly popular alternative work context and may be more appropriate for older workers. Another possible factor relating to evaluations of older workers is knowledge about age-related changes in ability. For example, the task demands of a job may be particularly high in fluid ability or crystallized ability. The work context and task demands of a job may be two potential sources of influence regarding perceptions of older workers. In the current set of studies, I examined the impact of applicant age, work context (telework and office work), and task demands (fluid ability and crystallized ability) on participants ratings of younger and older job applicants. In Study 1, a total of 16 job descriptions were selected based on their suitability and dependency on: office work/crystallized ability, office work/fluid ability, telework/crystallized ability, telework/fluid ability. Hiring managers recognized the jobs that were suited to telework or office work, but did not distinguish when either fluid or crystallized ability was of primary importance to a particular job. In Study 2, participants rated either younger or older applicants for 4 jobs selected from Study 1. The results of Study 2 were compelling. Older applicants were rated as more qualified when the job was dependent on crystallized ability, as well as when the job took place in a telework context. However, there were no significant differences between older and younger applicants when the job was dependent on fluid ability, or when the job took place in an office work context. The current research is critical to understanding the influence of task demands and the work context on differences between evaluations of older and younger workers.

During recent years (2010), magnitude and quality of household living space of Taiwanese families have both significantly increased. As living aesthetics is pursued as well, furniture and the furnishings have played important roles in their daily lives at the same time. In addition, international titanic chain stores of furniture entered into Taiwan market rapidly, advocating multi-faceted values of living and purveying fashions of furniture. Consequently, many new concepts about furniture and house furnishing have been conceived in the minds of consumers in the Formosa island. The current study has two empirical research: (1) for the market as a whole, observing the relationships among on stores evaluation, attitude towards furniture involvement, purchase risk, and readiness to buy; (2) regarding individual consumers, exploring the alteration of consideration and brand type choices in terms of different situations which are designed by store type, demand situation, and furniture categories, two alternatives for each dimension. In methodology, the first research was conducted by questionnaire survey, with 112 valid samples. For the second, a factorial design of experiment was undertaken with 224 participation, students and rank-and-file populace distributed evenly. The major findings include: (a) the effect of furniture involvement on local store evaluation is moderated by purchase risk; (b) purchase readiness influences the relationship between furniture involvement and store evaluation; (c) furniture stores affect consumers¡¦ brand-category choice; (d) for experienced populace, local traditional store is preferred in purchase for first time; (e) brand and fashion is emphasized more in living room furniture than bed room; (f) when in first purchase for bedroom furniture, the particpants preferred the designer brand, while in replacement purchase, the preference is rendered for living room furniture.

The thesis is a course that a pre-service teacher gropes after his selfhood¡¦s curricular consciousness. The author has a dig at how he ¡§perceives¡¨ it followed by the notion of the curricular consciousness and Cherryholmes¡¦ viewpoint of deconstruction towards curriculum. Furthermore, the author must ¡§awaken¡¨himself to what the possibilities are to ¡§perceive¡¨ such kind of selfhood¡¦s curricular consciousness. In addition, the author refers to the method of the autobiography on curriculum studies from W. F. Pinar¡¦s conception, and he revises it to meet his study condition moderately to anchor the skeleton of the study. The author initiates the review of the literature concerning the ¡§curricular consciousness¡¨ and¡§Cherryholmes¡¦ viewpoint of deconstruction towards curriculum¡¨. Later, he captures the possible complements between them, and he also attempts to ¡§perceive¡¨ the map of his ¡§selfhood¡¦s curricular consciousness¡¨. After that, he gives retrospects to his past school life and tries to ¡§awaken¡¨ his selfhood to understand what the possibilities are to ¡§perceive¡¨ such kind of a map in the process of the study. Afterwards, the author retraces to the ¡§awakening¡¨ process, and intends to form a ¡§meta- awakening¡¨ to catch on how he ¡§awakens¡¨ himself in the process of the study. Eventually, he looks back to the study, and feels like envisaging his deeds in futurity, and he also offers several suggestions to the advanced study of the field. In the awakening country of the ¡§curricular consciousness¡¨, are you preparing for awakening yourself?

The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of different types of web page design on browsers' attitudes, figure out if the information processing styles play the moderating roles, and examine the relationship between attitude towards the web page and visit intention. Three web pages are designed specially for this research. They are created in different types, words only, pictures only, and combination of words and pictures. Respondents are undergraduate students, and answer questionnaires online. SPSS 14 is used to perform statistical analyses. Principal findings are summarized as follows. First, there is no significant difference between high and low NFC individuals about attitude towards the web page when the tourism web page presents in words (all-verbal) design. However, when the web page is only composed of pictures without any written description, NFC individuals, without respect to high or low NFC, show much lower level of attitude towards the web page and no differences appear between them. Second, the statistical analysis shows a higher level of attitude towards the web page is associated to high PFA individuals, compared with low PFA individuals, when the tourism web page presents in pictures (all-visual) design. When the tourism web page presents in words design, high and low PFA individuals show much lower level of attitude towards the web page and no differences appear between them. Third, we find that individuals with high NFC and high PFA are significantly different from the other groups when the tourism web page presents in combination (words and pictures) design. They show higher level of attitude towards the web page, compared with the other processor groups. Lastly, result shows that there is a positive correlation between attitude towards the web page and visit intention. Attitude towards the web page has a significant impact on visit intention, namely, higher level of Awp, then higher level of VI.

The purpose of this study was (1) to explore pre-service science and mathematics teachers&rsquo / levels of computer self-efficacy and attitude towards computers, (2) to investigate the effects of gender, grade level, major of study, and computer ownership of pre-service science and mathematics teachers on computer self-efficacy and attitudes towards computers, and (3) to examine the relationship between computer self-efficacy and attitudes towards. For this study 650 students from two departments, which were Elementary Science Education and Elementary Mathematics Education, of three public universities in Ankara participated. Also, students were enrolled in first and fourth grades. The scales were administrated during 2006 Fall semester. Computer Self-efficacy Scale and Computer Attitude Scale which had four sub-scales, namely anxiety confidence, liking, and usefulness were used to determine pre-service teachers&rsquo / computer self-efficacy and attitudes towards computer levels. Moreover, the v questionnaire had some questions that asked demographic characteristics of participants. The results indicated that pre-service Science and Mathematics teachers had high computer self-efficacy and attitude levels. Furthermore, participants&rsquo / gender was not a significant factor on their computer self-efficacy and computer attitude except for liking sub-scale. Males liked more computer than females. Major of participants did not have any effect on computer self-efficacy and computer attitude. Grade level was an important factor for computer self-efficacy and attitude / fourth graders had higher scores on both scales. Computer owner participants had significantly higher scores of computer self-efficacy and attitudes towards computers. Finally, results showed that participants&rsquo / computer self-efficacy scores were related to sub-scale scores of computer attitude scale.

ABSTRACT COMPARISON OF 2002 AND 2004 ELEMENTARY SCIENCE CURRICULA WITH RESPECT TO COGNITIVE AND AFFECTIVE CHARACTERISTICS OF STUDENTS Oru&ccedil / , Akif M.S., Department of Secondary Science and Mathematics Education Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Giray Berberoglu June 2009, 116 pages The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of 2004 elementary science and technology curricula at grade level 7. For this purpose, the effect of 2004 curricula on the (1) achievement of the students in knowledge, conceptual understanding and higher order thinking skills clusters, (2) attitude toward science and technology, (3) teachers&rsquo / classroom activities were evaluated. This study was conducted on 290 7th grade students at six elementary schools in 2006-2007 spring term. These schools were located in Sincan, Yenimahalle and Mamak in Ankara. Two schools were administering 2004 curricula as pilot group and four of them were teaching science with 2002 curricula. Grade level 7 was selected for the study since both 2002 and 2004 curricula were being implemented in the schools only at this particular grade level. The achievement test questions were selected from TIMMS science achievement tests and the researcher&rsquo / s own questions written in line with the test plan. The questions include the common objectives of both 2002 and 2004 curricula. The Test of Science Related Attitudes was developed by Chaerul (2002). As a result of the factor analysis it was decided that, the scale contains five sub categories: Social implication of science, Scientist lifestyle, Enjoyment of learning in science lesson, Leisure interest in science, and Career interest in science. Teachers&rsquo / Classroom Activities Scale was taken from Pekiner (2007). It was decided that, the scale contains five sub categories / New Approach, Care of Teacher, Use of Equipment by teachers, Classical Classroom Activities and Processing the Subject category. The data were analyzed by using multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA). The results of this analyses indicated no major difference between two science curricula. On the other hand, significant differences were found in leisure interest of students and use of equipment by teachers in favor of 2004 curricula. Knowledge and conceptual understanding level learning, the enjoyment of learning in science lesson and teachers&rsquo / classroom activities with reference to new approaches indicated significant results in favor of 2002 curricula.

This study aims to investigate pre-service elementary science teacher&rsquo / s scientific literacy level and their attitudes towards science. In addition, whether pre-service elementary science teacher&rsquo / s scientific literacy and their attitudes towards science differs in some demographic variables such as gender, high school profile, grade, place of family residence, parents educational level and family income level were examined. Finally, possible relationship between participants&rsquo / scientific literacy level and their attitudes towards science was explored. The present study conducted with 285 pre-service elementary science teachers from Elementary Science Education Program at Dokuz Eyl&uuml / l University during the second semester of 2008-2009 academic year. The data were collected by administering v Turkish version of Test of Basic Scientific Literacy (TBSL) and SAI-II (Science Attitude Inventory) scales. Analysis of the data indicated that pre-service elementary science teachers have satisfactory scientific literacy level and moderately positive attitudes towards science. Moreover, participants&rsquo / scientific literacy level and attitudes towards science showed differences in only some demographic variables: gender and place of family residence. Finally, the analysis also indicated that there is a positive significant relationship between participants&rsquo / scientific literacy level and their attitudes towards science.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the statistical literacy of 8th grade students and their attitudes towards statistics. Moreover, the relationship between their statistical literacy and attitudes towards statistics was examined. The study was conducted in Yenimahalle district of Ankara in the Spring semester of 2011-2012 academic year. The sample of this study was obtained through cluster random sampling. Nine schools were randomly selected for the study. A total of 1074 eighth grade students in these schools participated. The scales used in the data collection were Statistical Literacy Test (SLT) adapted from Probability Attitudes Scale previously developed for Turkish students (Bulut, 1994) and Attitude towards Statistics Questionnaire (ATSQ) developed by the researcher based on Watson&rsquo / s (1997) three tier framework. The analysis of the mean scores of statistical literacy in terms of content domains revealed that although sample, graphs, and chance contents had closer mean scores to each other which was around moderate value / average, inference, and variation content domains had lower mean scores. A one-way within subjects ANOVA indicated that there were significant differences between Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3 aspects of statistical literacy. The pairwise comparisons indicated that students performed lowest in third tier of statistical literacy where students were required to evaluate inappropriate statistical claims. Although, students performed slightly higher in the first tier where they showed their ability in understanding statistical terminology / their performance was the highest in the second tier which was interpreting statistical claims in context. Eighth grade students&rsquo / attitudes towards statistics were positive with a mean score of 3.52 in five point scale. The correlation analysis indicated that there were positive and significant relationship between students&rsquo / attitudes towards statistics and statistical literacy scores.