Induced attitude change on online gaming among adolescents: an application of the less-leads-to-more effect.

The negative impact of Internet use on adolescents has received much popular attention and has also become a popular research topic. How to induce adolescent players to change their attitudes toward online gaming is one of the most important issues in online gaming addiction. The present study is based on the less-leads-to-more effect of dissonance theory. Experimental research was conducted to examine the effects of rewards and decision freedom on attitude change toward online gaming among adolescents considered at risk for addiction. The results supported predictions based on external justification in dissonance theory. Specifically, fewer rewards produced greater attitude change toward online gaming in the condition of personal freedom of choice after participants exhibited attitude-discrepant behavior. However, the less-leads-to-more effect was not prominent in the condition without personal freedom of choice. Adopting a reward strategy to induce game players to disengage online gaming is discussed.     

The wilderness therapy program: An empirical study of its effects with adolescents in an outpatient setting

The results of a study of the Wilderness Therapy Program involving 23 adolescents in outpatient counseling are presented. Data were collected before and after four trips on measures of locus of control, behavioral symptoms, self-efficacy, self-esteem, and a number of measures designed specifically for this program. Following a one and one-half to two week backpacking trip that included daily therapy, significant change was found for locus of control, self-esteem and symptom reduction. Positive changes were noted on the other measures as well. Future directions and social work implications were discussed.     

Employee satisfaction and job climate: An empirical study of Japanese manufacturing employees

This study identified supportive supervision, co-worker social support, and job awareness as three factors that affect job satisfaction of employees from two mid-sized Japanese manufacturing companies. In addition to the significant main effects of supportive supervision and co-worker social support, a significant interaction effect between supportive supervision and job awareness was obtained. This interaction suggests that supportive supervision is very important in increasing job satisfaction when workers have low levels of job awareness.We appreciate the comments and assistance of Professor Y. Hara, Associate Professor M. Yano, S. Kobayashi, J. Nukata, and two anonymous reviewers for their valuable recommendations on the earlier version of the article.     

The moderating effects of purchase importance in customer satisfaction process: An empirical investigation

Customer satisfaction continues to draw the interest of researchers and practitioners because it can lead to long term benefits including customer loyalty. Purchase importance plays a role in pre‐purchase process, yet little is known about how it may influence customer satisfaction formation process and loyalty intentions. This study examines the moderating effect of purchase importance in the customer satisfaction formation process and in loyalty intentions. A survey was conducted with customers in a restaurant setting, and structural equation analysis via LISREL was performed. The results show that perceived performance has a stronger influence on satisfaction when purchase importance is low, whereas satisfaction seems to be influenced both by disconfirmation and perceived performance when purchase importance is high. Post‐consumption expectations were found to influence on loyalty intentions under both high and low importance purchase conditions. The implications of these findings are discussed and suggestions for future research are made. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Motor vehicle accidents and adolescents: An empirical study on their emotional and behavioral profiles,defense strategies and parental support

Background: Research has limitedly focused on adolescents’ emotional–behavioral functioning preceding road collisions and on the role of family support. Objective: To verify whether the rates of motorbikes collisions among adolescents are associated with their emotional–behavioral functioning, their use of specific defense strategies and family support. Method: N = 150 adolescents who visited an emergency department for road accidents were selected and completed self-report questionnaires assessing emotional–behavioral functioning, difficulty in identifying and describing emotions, use of defense strategies and perceived family support. Results: Higher rates of motorbike collisions are associated with more maladaptive emotional–behavioral functioning. Higher perceived family support is associated with lower rates of collisions. Conclusions: Recidivism of motor vehicle collision among adolescents can be considered as a form of acting-out caused by their psychological difficulties.     

Exploring thematic influences on theme park visitors' satisfaction: An empirical study on Disneyland China

This study aims to explore thematic influences on theme park visitors' satisfaction through user-generated data. To this end, we first used an unsupervised machine learning method, structural topic modeling, and analyzed 112,000 reviews post by visitors to Shanghai Disney Resort from June 16, 2016 to March 4, 2022. Our findings are of great significance for reflecting consumer behavior through user-generated data. Specifically, we find that visitors' satisfaction is highly related to service in the theme park and their playing feeling, and early tourists pay more attention to the experience of specific playing items while later tourists focus on the overall playing experience. In addition, an empirical study is conducted by treating the ratings associated with each review as dependent variable and each topic represented by comments as independent variables, which shows that the relationship between the customer reviews and ratings by tourists becomes less pronounced over time. In other words, as time goes, customers review can reflect their subjective feelings or experience, but the rating is not. We discover the “dynamics” of user-generated data over time and gain a better understanding of the aspects and concerns of visitors' satisfaction over time. The findings of the study contribute to the literature on tourism, service, and consumer behavior while also providing valuable practical implications.     

Styles of decision making and their use: An empirical study

As interest has increased in teaching decision-making skills, so the need has grown for an empirically-derived classification system of decision-making behaviours. Six styles of decision making were accordingly isolated and validated by content analysis. Using cluster analysis, the styles were found to group into types along a passive-active continuum of involvement in the decision. Use of style was found to vary across situations, and to be related to the decision's perceived importance and the decision-maker's control in the situation.     

Self-reported effects of dreams on waking-life creativity: an empirical study

The authors studied the self-rated effect of dreams on creativity in participants who were not selected for creative abilities. Students (N = 444) and online respondents (N = 636) answered a questionnaire about dreams and creative dreams. In addition, the students completed several personality measures and creativity scales. Results indicated that dreams that stimulated waking-life creativity played a considerable role in the lives of ordinary people (about 8% of all dreams). Examples reported by the online participants fell into 4 categories: (a) dream images used for art, work, or similar areas; (b) dreams that solved a problem; (c) dreams that provided the impetus to do something that the dreamer otherwise had difficulty doing; and (d) dreams containing emotional insights. The main factors influencing frequency of creative dreams were dream recall frequency and the thin boundaries personality dimension. Future researchers should use diary techniques to study the effects of dreams on waking life and should develop techniques to increase the frequency of creative dreams that might be valuable as aids for people in creative jobs.     

Benefiting from social capital in online support groups: an empirical study of cancer patients.

With measures specific to the online cancer environment and data from an online survey of cancer patients, the current study finds support for the following model: asynchronous online communication --> social interaction --> social support --> positive health outcomes in terms of stress, depression, and coping. The findings suggest that the Internet can be a positive cyber venue for cancer patients as they confront illness, undergo treatment, and seek out support.     

Synchronous online CPD: empirical support for the value of webinars in career settings

The careers profession in England is facing unprecedented challenges. Initiatives to improve service delivery while keeping costs low are attractive and online training holds the promise of high impact at low cost. The present study employs a qualitative methodology to evaluate a series of online ‘webinars’ conducted with 15 careers advisers. Results showed that the technology itself could impede learning, and participants missed out on the peer-to-peer interaction that takes place in a ‘bricks and mortar’ setting, but overall participants found that access to relevant, good quality training from the convenience of their workplace more than compensated for the challenges. The article offers conceptual support for the viability of online learning through the theory of equivalency, andragogy and transactional distance theory, and makes recommendations for practice.     

Enhancing the effects of a narrative message through experiential information processing: An experimental study

First-person narratives are becoming a popular means to communicate health risk information. Although studies show they can increase risk perception and motivate health behaviours compared to statistical messages, more research on the conditions in which they are particularly likely to have effects is needed. In this study, we tested a moderator related to how information is processed. Specifically, we hypothesised that thinking in terms of emotions and personal experiences – known as experiential information processing – would increase people’s responsiveness to a narrative. Female college students (N = 138) who reported indoor tanning were randomly assigned to read a first-person narrative message or a statistical message about the risks of skin cancer. Prior to reading the message, the women received instructions that would activate either experiential or rational information processing. Participants then reported their risk perceptions of skin cancer, worry about skin cancer and behaviour intentions related to skin cancer. Analyses showed that message type and information processing interacted to influence risk perceptions and worry. Consistent with hypotheses, participants reported the highest risk perception and worry when they used an experiential information system prior to reading the narrative message. There were no effects on behaviour intentions. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

An empirical study of some demographic and work-related variables on job satisfaction of academics in a Turkish university

The Job Satisfaction Survey was administered to 610 faculty in a university in North Cyprus. As expected, job satisfaction increased with rank, and those who held administrative positions were more satisfied than staff who did not. The longer the participants had served in the current university, the higher their rated job satisfaction. Job satisfaction of women in higher academic positions was higher than that of their male peers. Age was not correlated with increases in job satisfaction.     

An empirical study of the decision to use condoms among Norwegian adolescents using the theory of reasoned action

The decision whether or not to use condoms was studied among Norwegian adolescents using the theory of reasoned action (TRA). The empirical data stem from a survey of a random sample of 3000 adolescents aged 17–19 (response rate 60.9 per cent). A total of 1172 persons had made their sexual debuts, and thus constituted the material of this paper. TRA is an expectancy-value model of attitude for understanding and changing a behaviour, and views condom behaviour as a decision based upon consideration of the expected consequences of using or not using condoms. The decision whether or not to use a condom was primarily under normative control, and immediate consequences were more important than long-term consequences, indicating that persuasive communications should pay more attention to social pressure and psychological costs. Most of the effect of prior behaviour upon intention was not mediated by attitudes and subjective norm, and by far exceeded the effects of attitudes and subjective norm, raising doubts of the generality of the model. The possible inclusion of a measure of perceived behavioural control is discussed.     

An examination of self-presentational concern of Turkish adolescents: an example of physical education setting

The purpose of this study was to examine self-presentational concern of Turkish adolescents with regard to the gender composition of physical education (PE) class and also to investigate the attitude toward PE and PE class preferences of Turkish adolescents based on this concern. A total of 1,807 eighth-grade students (936 females and 871 males) completed the Attitudes Toward Physical Education Scale and Social Physique Anxiety Scale (SPAS). The findings indicated that although self-presentational concern did not differ according to the gender composition of PE class, there was a significant difference in class preference among adolescents based on this concern with most of the females who had a high self-presentational concern preferring noncoed PE class. Additionally, no significant difference was found in attitude toward PE among self-presentational concern groups. These findings are discussed in relation to the sex composition of PE class and self-presentational concerns of adolescents.     

The relation between consciousness and attention: An empirical study using the priming paradigm

Dehaene et al., 2006, Koch and Tsuchiya, 2007 recently proposed taxonomies that distinguish between four processing states, based on bottom-up stimulus strength and top-down attentional amplification. The aim of the present study was to empirically test these processing states using the priming paradigm. Our results showed that attention (prime attended or not) and stimulus strength (prime presented subliminally or not) significantly modulated priming effects: either receiving top-down attention or possessing sufficient bottom-up strength was a prerequisite for a stimulus to elicit priming. When both top-down attention and sufficient bottom-up strength were present, the priming effect was boosted. The origins of the observed priming effects also varied between different processing states. We can conclude that our empirical study using the priming paradigm confirmed the presence of four processing states, which displayed a differential pattern of response priming effects and differential origins of the response priming effects.     

The role of positive psychology constructs in predicting life satisfaction in adolescents with and without cognitive disabilities: An exploratory study

Positive psychology has begun to foster change in the study of adolescence by directing increased attention to the importance of building on adolescents’ strengths and abilities as a means to promote positive outcomes. The purpose of this study was to explore the associations between hope, optimism, locus of control, self-determination, and life satisfaction in adolescents with and without cognitive disabilities using structural equation modeling. The results demonstrated comparability in the measurement of each of these constructs in adolescents with and without disabilities. Hope, optimism, locus of control, and self-determination were strongly correlated, and hope and optimism predicted life satisfaction in adolescents with and without cognitive disabilities. The implications of the findings for future research are discussed.     

Gender differences in the experience of body awareness: An experiential sampling study

Employing experiential sampling methodology, the body awareness of 40 males and 40 females were monitored during a two-day period. When females were attentive to their bodies the feelings they experienced were more negative than were those of males, and this awareness was more likely to be directed toward specific body parts or functions rather than to the body as a whole. Males and females did not differ in their degree of body awareness or in the importance of this awareness, but males' degree of body awareness was positively related to body esteem, while females' body experience was positively related to beliefs about the importance of physical criteria in judging their attractiveness. In contrast to females, the more positively males evaluated their body dimensions, the more important they believed those dimensions were in determining their attractiveness. Results are discussed in terms of the greater social pressures exerted on women to meet attractiveness standards.The authors would like to thank Mary Anne Siderits for her comments on an earlier draft of this article.     

Brand signal quality of products in an asymmetric online information environment: An experimental study

Previous research regarding the effectiveness of brand name signalling has focused mainly on when and how marketers will recover costs. This study reverses this trend by examining how buyers may interpret signals via the brand name, the effectiveness of signalling via brand name in terms of buyer‐value perspectives and how buyers' reactions to signals affect sellers' decisions to adopt a signalling strategy. Signalling theory and concepts from consumer‐based branding research are used to suggest how to evaluate the effectiveness of signalling via brand name in the context of the consumer market – a market in which information is asymmetric. Findings from a number of repeated experiments, using the methodology of experimental economics, demonstrate that the function of a brand fluctuates according to which market conditions prevail for brand and price, the extent of brand differentiation and the magnitude of brand‐building costs. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Antecedents of virtual community satisfaction and loyalty: an empirical test of competing theories.

The rapid growth of virtual communities (VCs) on the Internet raises important research questions regarding the antecedents of satisfaction and loyalty in VCs. This study compared the technology acceptance model (TAM), Seddon Information Systems Success Model (Seddon model), and an integrated model (combining the TAM and Seddon model) to examine which model best helps to predict user satisfaction with VCs. Using a structural equation model, data collected from 198 community members were used to compare the three models in terms of overall model fit, explanatory power, and path significance. The findings show that two TAM components (perceived usefulness and ease of use) are determinants of user satisfaction with VCs. This study also found the influence of quality-perception dimensions (e.g., system and information quality) on user satisfaction to be significant. Additionally, this study found general support for user satisfaction as a determinant of loyalty in VCs. Finally, an integrated model, combining the TAM and Seddon model, provided better explanatory power than either the TAM or the Seddon model alone. Finally, this study discusses the implications of these findings and offers directions for future research.