Impact of social anxiety on quality of life : a longitudinal study

This thesis found that individuals with social anxiety had high levels of co-morbid depression, reduced quality of life, poorer health and wellbeing, and they used maladaptive coping strategies. The negative effects of social anxiety and social anxiety co-morbid depression could be predicted over a 6-month time period. The portfolio argues the impact of poor attachment style, poor parenting behaviour and negative environmental influences as contributors to individuals' longer term psychological functioning with four case studies highlighting the contributing role of these early influences on later functioning.

Brand affinity and consumer repurchase behaviour : an empirical analysis

This research established a construct termed brand affinity, comprising the measures of anticipation of usage, social attraction, commitment, loyalty, and trust. In the context of a highly uncertain, intermittently available service, it was found that brand affinity had greater influence over consumers' repurchase intentions than the typical antecedents of overall and attribute level satisfaction.

Readiness to change a problem behaviour : a conceptual framework

The thesis study aims to develop a model of readiness to enter treatment to change problem behaviour by addressing the limitations of previous models. The research shows that a model consisting of personal and social factors, mediated by problem recognition and desire for help accurately assesses readiness to enter treatment. The portfolio examines the broad framework of the Multifactor Offender Readiness Model (MORM) which assesses an offender's readiness to engage in treatment. Four case studies are presented.

Developmental stress and female mate choice behaviour in the zebra finch

The potential effects of early environmental conditions on adult female mate choice have been largely neglected in studies of sexual selection. Our study tested whether developmental stress affects the mate choice behaviour of female zebra finches, Taeniopygia guttata, when choosing between potential mates. In an experiment manipulating developmental condition, female zebra finches were raised under nutritional stress or control conditions. In adulthood, female preferences were assessed using extensive four-stimulus mate choice trials. Nutritional stress affected growth rates during the period of stress, with experimentally stressed females lighter than controls. During mate choice trials stressed females were almost three times less active than controls and made fewer sampling visits to the stimulus males, although we found no evidence of a direct effect of developmental experience on which males were preferred. Thus, developmental experience had a clear effect on behavioural patterns in a mate choice context. To test whether this effect is specific to a mate choice context, we also investigated the effect of developmental stress on female activity rates in three social contexts: isolation, contact with a conspecific male (a potential mate) and contact with a conspecific female. Here, female activity did not differ between the experimental treatments in any of the social situations. Overall, our findings suggest that environmental conditions during early development can have long-term context-dependent consequences for adult female mate choice behaviour, mediated by changes in activity rates.

Effects of parental perception of neighbourhood deprivation and family environment characteristics on pro-social behaviours among 4-12 year old children

Objective : To assess the effect family environment stressors (e.g. poor family functioning and parental psychological distress) and neighbourhood environment on child prosocial behaviour (CPB) and child difficulty behaviour (CDB) among 4-to-12 year old children.

Methods : Analysis of the 2006 Victorian Child Health and Wellbeing Survey (VCHWS) dataset derived from a statewide cross-sectional telephone survey, with a final total sample of 3,370 children.

Results : Only family functioning, parental psychological distress, child gender, and age were associated with CPB, explaining a total of 8% of the variance. Children from healthily functioning families and of parents without any psychological distress exhibited greater prosocial behaviours than those from poorly functioning families and of parents with mental health problems. Neighbourhood environment was not found to contribute to CPB. A total of eight variables were found to predict CDB, explaining a total of 16% of the variance. Poor family and parental psychological functioning as well as poor access to public facilities in the neighbourhood were associated with conduct problems in children.

Conclusion : Our results point to the importance of the family environment in providing a context that fosters the development of empathic, caring and responsible children; and in buffering children in exhibiting behaviour difficulties during the formative years of life. Programs aimed at promoting prosocial behaviours in children need to target stressors on the family environment.

Corporate social responsibility reporting : a business strategy by Australian banks?

The growth of voluntary corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting reflects society's expectations for business to set higher ethical standards and to undertake business in a way that meets the profit imperative (the bottom line). Additionally, the community expects socially and environmentally responsible behaviour practices; the so-called triple bottom line approach. The paper briefly reviews the development of corporate social responsibility reporting from the perspective of two large Australian banks and attempts to understand their motivation for voluntary disclosure. Stakeholder theory and game theory provide a means to analyse why banks undertake CSR reporting. The paper compares Westpac and National Australia Bank's CSR reporting over the period 2004-2005 utilising external rating agencies and CSR reports to determine the extent of disclosure in relation to employees, environment, community and customers. The paper concludes with a discussion of the pros and cons of CSR, the role of regulation and recommendations for future policy direction.

Gender differences in personal, social and environmental influences on active travel to and from school for Australian adolescents

Active travel (walking or cycling for transport) is an important contributor to adolescents overall physical activity (PA). This study examines associations between personal, social and environmental variables and active travel to and from school using data from a large observational study to examine active travel in 2961 year 6 and 8 students (48.7% male), aged 10–14 years (M = 11.4, SD = 0.8 yrs) from 231 schools. Participants completed an on-line survey and all reported living within 2 km of school. Data collected included mode of travel to and from school, self-reported health, and PA variables. Social environmental variables included having playgrounds, parks or gyms close by, feeling safe to walk alone, barriers to walking in the neighbourhood (e.g. traffic, no footpaths), peer and family support for PA, existence of sports teams/scout groups, community disorder and perceived neighbourhood safety. Results showed that while more girls (44.3%) than boys (37.4%) walked to school, lower proportions rode bikes (8.3% vs 22.4%) and hence fewer were active travellers overall. Logistic regression models, adjusted for age, location and socio-economic status were conducted for active travel to/from school, separately for boys and girls. Predictors for boys and girls being ‘active travellers’ to/from school included recreational facilities close to home, higher perceived safety of the neighbourhood and higher community disorder. For boys, social support from friends, scout groups available and higher enjoyment of physical activity was also important. These findings suggest areas for future research and may be used to guide strategies to increase active travel to and from school.

Understanding the correlates of adolescents' TV viewing : a social ecological approach

Objective. To examine associations between social ecological factors and Dutch adolescents’ TV viewing. Design. Cross-sectional examination of predictors of adolescents’ TV viewing.

Participants. A total of 338 adolescents, aged 14 years (55% boys).

Measurements. Adolescents self-reported their age, ethnicity and TV viewing (dichotomized at two hours/day) and responded to items from all three social ecological domains; individual (cognitions based on the Theory of Planned Behaviour and TV viewing habit strength, and other behaviours, such as computer use), social (parental rules about TV viewing and parental TV viewing behavior) and physical environmental factors (TV in bedroom, physical activity equipment available). Parents reported demographic factors (e.g., ethnicity, education level), and their own TV viewing (mins/day); adolescents’ weight status (not overweight vs. overweight/obese) was calculated from objective measures of height and weight. Logistic regression analyses examined associations between socio-ecological factors and adolescents’ TV viewing, and whether associations were moderated by adolescents’ sex, parents’ education and ethnicity.

Results. Compared with others, overweight/obese adolescents (odds ratio (OR)=3.0; p≤0.001), those with high computer use (OR=2.3; p≤0.0001), with high TV viewing habit strength (OR=1.3; p≤0.0001), and those whose parents had high levels of TV viewing (OR=2.4; p≤0.01) were more likely to exceed two hours of TV viewing per day. The association with habit strength was moderated by gender, and the association with parents’ TV viewing was moderated by parents’ education and ethnicity.

Conclusions. Interventions should target parents’ TV viewing behaviors and aim to amend habitual, ‘mindless’ TV viewing among adolescents.

Social work and welfare education without discrimination : are we there yet?

The Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has identified education as one of five crucial issues relating to the settlement of African Australians into the Australian community from a human rights perspective (AHRC 2009:5). In this paper I advocate that social work and welfare work in Australia are placed in important and multi dimensioned positions in relation to our complicities, responsibilities and potentialities with this educational human rights issue. As a Technical and Further Education (TAFE) welfare and University social work educator, I offer an outline of the ‘mutual respect inquiry approach’ that developed between myself and Southern Sudanese Australian students as a basis for discussion, reflection and change. I seek to stimulate thinking and action, particularly among those welfare work and social work educators, practitioners and students who identify as critical and anti-oppressive, to consider how these approaches can be realised and reshaped in practice to enhance not only Southern Sudanese Australians' right to education that is 'without discrimination', but indeed all students in our diversity.

Need to know : lessons from Sino-Australian business negotiators on the importance of guanxi, emotions and generational differences in Chinese negotiation behaviour

The forces of globalisation over the last few decades have created opportunities for intemational business as never before, whilst leaving no organisation immune to competition. With the Global Financial Crisis impacting the world economy, the BRIC economies as a group - Brazil, Russia, India and China, have steadily benefited from continuing growth in 2008 and 2009 (Bhattacharya, Hemerling and Waltermann,2010). Despite China being a key international trading partner for Australia, the number of successful joint ventures and negotiations between the two countries remains limited. A closer examination of the international business interactions between Australia and China is thus urgently needed. When negotiating with the Chinese, Western managers may not always be aware of what they are really negotiating for. To be successful, they have to be equipped with the 'specialised knowledge', a form of 'tacit or implicit knowledge', which comes with experience (Nonaka, 1994, Pavesi, 2003) in communicating and negotiating with their Chinese counterparts. The Chinese way of business negotiation can challenge the logic of Western business thinking. This, coupled with possible generational differences or changes in the Chinese business counterpart's way of doing business, means we must try to understand the business communication and negotiation process from not only the Western but also the Chinese perspective. In particular, in addition to the contextual (Phatak, & Habib, 1996; Risberg, 1997), social (Ghauri, & Fang, 2001), and cognitive factors (George, Gareth, & Gonzalez, 1998) focused on by past researchers, the intangible aspects of negotiation must also be considered. These include trust, reputation, relationship quality (guanxi in the case of the Chinese), and the moods and emotions that shape the processes and outcomes of communication and negotiation (Griffith, 2002; Hartel & Ma, 2006; Ma & Hartel 2005; and Zhao & Krohmer, 2006). This paper reports on a qualitative investigation of the communication processes occurring in negotiations between Australian and Chinese managers and entrepreneurs. The examination is based on a theoretical framework looking at emotions and culture from an affective events theory (AET) perspective. Both interview and focus groups techniques were used. Findings identified guanxi, core to relationship development and maintenance in Chinese culture, together with emotions as major determining factors of negotiation outcomes. Findings also suggest there are generational differences in attitudes among Chinese managers with Gen. X and Gen. Y placing a different emphasis on guanxi in business. These findings suggest that the popular advice to people doing business in China is out of date.

Social cognitive theory and the adoption of e-book devices

The book publishing industry has been revolutionised by the technological innovations created by the Internet. Electronic book (e-book) devices such as Kindle by Amazon, Nook by Barnes and Noble and the iPad by Apple are relatively new technological innovations that will change the way individuals purchase and read books. The purpose of this paper is to examine the factors that will lead to a person adopting an e-book device. In this paper, a social cognitive theoretical framework is utilised to understand an individual’s intention to adopt an e-book device like the Kindle, Nook or iPad. A conceptual model is proposed, which focuses on the antecedents to a person’s adoption behaviour and is empirically tested through a survey of Australian youths. A portion of the conceptual model is supported. This suggests that marketing has an effect on a person’s intention to adopt an e-book device, which is mediated by their entrepreneurial orientation. The conceptual model proposed and tested has implications for the e-book industry as it demonstrates the internal and external environmental factors that influence adoption behaviour. The paper highlights for the book industry the important areas of e-commerce and m-commerce and how technological innovations are influenced by environmental factors. More recently, m-commerce has increased in usage as people can buy an electronic book via their e-book device anywhere in the world. E-book devices are a mobile device that people adopt in different ways depending on environmental factors

Observing the behaviour and interactions of adults with congenital deafblindness living in community residences

Background Adults with congenital deafblindness (CDB) have received little attention from researchers. In this study we examined the nature of interactions between adults with CDB and the staff who mediate their support, and investigated the reliability of an observation coding system, originally designed for observing adults with severe intellectual disability.

Method The behaviours of 9 adults with CDB, including their interactions with support staff from 2 community residences, were recorded and subsequently coded by 2 observers.

Results Interrater reliability, measured using Cohen's k, was variable across the coding system. Adults with CDB were predominantly observed to be disengaged, with few observations of engagement according to the coding schedule's definition of engagement. Interactions between the residents and support staff were rare.

Conclusion The introduction of interventions designed for staff to promote resident engagement in social interaction is recommended.

Maximising clinical trial participation - how important is the social context?

Individuals participate in clinical research for a variety of reasons, dependant not only on the trial phase and their own clinical status but also their sense of optimism, altruism, clinician influence, or financial gain. Practical factors influencing participation may include geographical access, motivation, availability, and language spoken. Widely-used health psychology models (e.g the Theory of Reasoned Action, the Health Belief Model) demonstrate that, in addition to these factors, the primary reason for non-participation in clinical research is social perception of risk. These models detail how beliefs and attitudes toward clinical research develop within, and are influenced by, an individual's social context. Perceived social benefits and barriers toward participation are considered alongside perceived susceptibility and severity of side-effects from participation, or symptoms of disease. A major factor in such models is the subjective norm i.e. individuals' beliefs that important others expect or wish him/her to perform this behaviour, and the motivation to act in accordance with their expectations or wishes. This includes, but is not limited to, the role of the media, peers and family members, clarification of risk associated with trial participation and discussion of comparative risk, and risk equivalence between trials and same treatment outside trials.
The workshop will involve a 30 minute presentation from the discussion leaders and a 30 minute group-work session to explore how an understanding of the social context of participation in clinical research can maximise appropriate clinical trial participation.

Physical activity, sedentary behaviour and depression among socio-economically disadvantaged women

Promoting physical activity, particularly for leisure and transport, could be an important aspect in preventing depression amongst women living in disadvantaged neighbourhoods. Furthermore, including some aspect of social physical activity and reducing time spent in sedentary behaviours may further reduce risk of depression.

Reigniting the fire : a contemporary research agenda for social, political and nonprofit marketing

The paper reports on the core challenges faced by the nonprofit, political and social marketing disciplinary areas and suggests a series of research agendas to develop theory and practice to meet these challenges.

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Social marketing's research agenda involves the continued adaptation of the new developments in commercial marketing, whilst building a base of social marketing theory and best practice benchmarks that can be used to identify, clarify and classify the boundaries of social marketing against social change techniques.
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Nonprofit marketing is pursuing the dual research agenda of developing the theory and practice of social entrepreneurship whilst seeking deeper consumer-based research to understand motivations for charitable behaviour and gift giving.
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Political Marketing's research agenda looks for an increase in the level of background research, core data and market research to use as a basis for developing more advanced theoretical and practical models. In addition, as political marketing is being transferred internationally between a range of political and electoral systems, there is a need for comparative research into both the relevance and effectiveness of these techniques to isolate nation independent and nation dependent political marketing strategies and campaigns.