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Browsing by Author "Bell, Paul A., advisor"

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    A longitudinal assessment of privacy and territory establishment in a college residence hall setting
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2008) Benfield, Jacob A., author; Bell, Paul A., advisor
    College student retention/persistence is of great concern to higher education officials and has been linked to academic, social, and cultural factors that predict successful adjustment and satisfaction with the setting and the experience. The current research examines territory formation in a residence hall as one of the predictors of favorable outcomes for first-year students.
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    Evaluation of motivations that influence consumer attitudes and behavior when purchasing local foods
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2009) Nurse, Gretchen Ann, author; Bell, Paul A., advisor
    In an increasingly complex and differentiated food system, the local food movement appears to be gaining momentum. This increased attention to the sustainable food movement highlights both the public and private benefits to eating local food, propelling the "local food" movement into the public eye as an important attribute in one's food consumption. Research suggests that positive attitudes towards locally grown food might not necessarily result in purchasing locally grown food. Although primary motivators for consumer food purchases remain to be price, quality, convenience and brand familiarity, there seem to be other factors that are influencing the decision criteria for some consumers. This project used an expanded Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) model as a framework to examine different motivators or predictors of behavioral intention, source of produce purchase, and willingness to pay for local food. Three studies utilized different methods and samples. In a sample of Introductory Psychology students (n=218) using a comprehensive paper survey, consumer confidence; attitudes; social norms; and perceived consumer effectiveness (PCE) and product availability (both forms of perceived behavioral control) played a significant role in understanding consumer purchase motivations. In a nationwide internet survey (n=1269) the TPB model-including attitudes, social norms, and PCE-proved a good framework to predict who would be purchasers of produce from direct sources (grower, farmers market) as well as willingness to pay for local produce. Also, actual local tomato purchases by an in-store sample (n=72) of consumers found that 92 percent purchased local and that consumer confidence and social norms were correlated with purchases. All of the factors in the expanded TPB model were significant predictors of a behavioral outcome regarding local produce in at least one study. Taking these factors into account should improve the effectiveness of marketing campaigns designed to increase support of the local food system.
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    Exploring differences in adolescents' educational expectations: a structural equation modeling approach
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2010) Wood, Valerie Ford, author; Bell, Paul A., advisor; Edwards, Ruth W., advisor; Swaim, Randall C., committee member; Dik, Bryan J., committee member; Most, David E., committee member
    The current study examined a number of influences that are theorized to affect adolescents' educational expectations, including socio-economic status, perceived barriers to success, peer factors, family influences, school performance, and school adjustment. This study utilized a subset of pre-existing data, with the subset consisting of 76,218 students who completed the Community Drug and Alcohol Survey as part of a stratified random sample of junior high schools throughout the United States. The hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling. The major findings were that Perceived Family SES was related to Resource Barriers, Resource Barriers was related to School Performance, Friends' School Adjustment was related to School Adjustment, Family Academic Support was related to School Adjustment, Friends' School Performance was related to School Performance, School Adjustment was related to School Performance, Family Academic Support was related to Educational Expectations, and School Performance was related to Educational Expectations. The measurement model results indicated that the latent construct of Perceived Barriers was more appropriately considered to be several distinct latent constructs. When this revision was taken into account, the measurement model achieved adequate fit (Robust NFI = .901, Robust CFI - .902). The structural equation model results found that the Perceived Barrier items may have been interpreted differently by the students than intended, with minority students in particular interpreting those items differently. While the peer constructs operated as hypothesized, the structural model achieved a better fit when Family Academic Support rather than School Performance, was used as a predictor of School Adjustment. Overall, the proximal indicator of Educational Expectations in the current study was School Performance. The initial structural model achieved a fit of Robust NFI = .811, Robust CFI = .812, and the revised structural model achieved improved fit at a level of Robust NFI = .859, Robust CFI = .860. While the current study is limited by a number of factors, the results are in agreement with findings from previous literature, and indicate that School Performance may be more important to understanding adolescents' Educational Expectations than previously acknowledged.
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    Museum soundscapes and their impact on visitor outcomes
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2011) Jakubowski, Robert D., author; Bell, Paul A., advisor; Dik, Bryan, committee member; Zimmerman, Don, committee member; Loomis, Ross, committee member
    Consistent with Attention Restoration Theory, restorative experiences can help people recover from the effects of life stresses. Research suggests that noise can interfere with the restorative process or with factors necessary for restorative outcomes, and there is reason to believe that pleasant sounds such as classical music or nonthreatening sounds of nature can enhance restorative outcomes. Research demonstrates that a visit to a museum or park can result in a restorative experience. The impact of extraneous sounds in such settings might depend on the type of sound and the purpose of the setting. The settings for the current study were an art exhibit and a natural history exhibit at The Wildlife Experience, a museum in Parker, Colorado that focuses on various aspects of wildlife. The art exhibit (Some Like it Hot, Cold Wet, Dry), displayed paintings, sculpture, and taxidermy about wildlife in four climates, and was frequented by enthusiasts of diverse ages, especially adults. The natural history exhibit (CritterCam), contained many different interactive displays based on photos and information gained from cameras mounted on wild animals, focused on wildlife, and tended to attract families with young children. Each day as researchers observed visitors and conducted an exit interview with them (n = 430 art, 433 natural history), either no added sounds were piped into the exhibit (control condition), or a soundtrack of either human voices, instrumental classical music, or natural sounds (birdsong) was piped into the gallery space at a low (approximately 50dB(A)) or high (approximately 60dB(A)) volume level. In general, in the art exhibit natural sounds and classical music yielded the highest dwell times, engagement, satisfaction, and knowledge gain, and human voices, especially louder voices, yielded the worst outcomes. In the natural history exhibit the ambient noise (e.g., children's voices and other crowd noise) somewhat masked the added soundtracks, and there were fewer effects of the added soundtracks; visitors in the control condition (i.e., no added sound) experienced the best outcomes when compared to the other sound delivery conditions, in terms of longer dwell times and lower ratings of noisiness. In terms of dispositional measures, in the art exhibit, extraversion was positively correlated with self-reported knowledge gain, satisfaction, and restoration; and need for cognition was positively correlated with knowledge gain, satisfaction, and dwell time. In the natural history exhibit, extraversion was positively correlated with engagement and knowledge gain; and noise sensitivity was negatively correlated with satisfaction and knowledge gain. Results are consistent with a congruence interpretation: sounds congruent with visitor expectations of an exhibit are more likely to yield a restorative experience.
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    The relationship of extraversion to self-efficacy and chronic pain management in women
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2008) Romano, Patricia Ann, author; Bell, Paul A., advisor
    Chronic pain is a silent health epidemic that afflicts millions of Americans each year and the majority of them are women. Researchers continue to try and identify causes of chronic pain and treatment strategies. One treatment strategy has been to evaluate how personality traits impact the experience of chronic pain. The purpose of this project was to assess the relationship of extraversion to self-efficacy, selection of wellness strategies, overall perception of pain disability, and number of pain days reported among a group of individuals with chronic pain. Thirty-five women between 40-65 years of age with chronic pain conditions of arthritis, fibromyalgia, or back problems completed a series of surveys over several waves of data. Results indicated that extraversion was significantly and positively correlated with self-efficacy. This is an important link because previous studies have identified self-efficacy as an essential factor for proactive pain management. However, the personality traits of agreeableness and openness were also significantly and positively correlated with self-efficacy. Extraversion was not found to be significantly correlated with selection of wellness strategies. This might be due to the possibility that the wellness strategies included in this study require special knowledge or training. Although no significant correlation was found between extraversion and overall perception of pain disability and number of pain days reported, potential relationships trended in the inverse direction. A larger sample would help clarify whether a meaningful relationship exists between those variables. Furthermore, it was hypothesized that self-efficacy would be a moderator and/or mediator variable between extraversion and the other three dependent variables. This was not found. The overall conclusion of this study is that the relationship of personality traits to aspects of chronic pain is complex. However, it is worth continuing to explore these relationships so that professionals can teach chronic pain patients how to use or modify their behavioral tendencies for effective pain management.