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- Creators: Department of Psychology
Health and Wealthness is a podcast where your hosts, Emily Weigel and Hanaa Khan discuss pressing and trending topics about health and wealth that everyone should know about. Our first four episodes focus on the opioid crisis. Both the science and healthcare sides. We then go on to talk about burnout and mental health in a conversational episode.
This thesis project aims to help the AdviseAZ program reach out, guide, and prepare students for college by setting up a podcast to help answer questions and doubts high school students might have about college. A podcast like this would also help school counselors by relieving them of having to give out repetitive information about college, therefore opening time in their schedule to meet with students for in depth help. The podcast will provide episodes with information about college preparation and advice from college students and college representatives. The AdviseAZ podcast will help its partnered high school students between grades 9 through 12. The podcast will be new for AdviseAZ because as a program they have not explored this service idea for the students. It will be framed to be successful using the Bolman and Deal framework guidelines. These frames will allow the AdviseAZ podcast to prosper in a new way. Bolman and Deal's four-frame model has been a transforming business leadership. They use a multidisciplinary approach to management and provide tools for navigating the organization in a terrible circumstance. Organizations can see which of the four frames could draw to their needs for a solution or change.
think about how big of an impact just one of those pieces made in the world before it ended up
in my possession. A tiny spaghetti-strap tank top – bought from my local Goodwill for two dollars, originally purchased at H&M for eight – reminds me that although this square foot of
material might seem minute, it and the thousands of replicas manufactured along with it still
add to the carbon footprint of the fashion industry. Plain and simple – fashion comes at a cost,
whether fashionistas like to be privy to that truth or not. This truth launched an exploration of
my own fashion sense and work to uncover ways to make a difference, birthing ‘K’.
My intention stemmed from my love for clothes, a love rooted in some of my earliest
memories of my mothers’ fashion sense. I found it interesting that for her, and for myself, every
occasion seemed to call for a certain type of dress; occasions like school, church, vacations,
musicals, and nights out on the town to name a few. Not everyone abided by the rules of fashion
that seemed to be so important to me at a young age - no white pants after Labor Day kinds of
things – but, for me, these unspoken rules of dress carried true. Now, as an adult balancing
school, work, and social activity, I like to observe how my peers, coworkers, and friends present
their own sense of style.
After getting a job at a local resale store called Buffalo Exchange, the concept of fast
fashion and the ensuing lack of sustainability fueling it became a concern of interest. Thinking
about the styles of those around me, each completely unique to the wearer but similar in regard
to the individual pieces, struck me that people today are uninformed about the consequences of
their shopping habits. In reality, every consumer partakes in the fashion market in some sense,
meaning that every person feeds into the growing issues associated with fast fashion and similar
business, or join the conversation about sustainable fashion.
Taking my love for resale, a love birthed from ethical sourcing and the giddiness of
finding a good treasure after a big hunt, and partnering my creative skillset for fashion design, I
took on a big project to see for myself what people’s perceptions about resale are and how I
could be a part of the conversation. I began this line thinking about how my unique style always
seems to amass compliments from people liking just how different my items are. I figured that
taking my keen eye for aesthetics and using that to make resale items more desirable, I’d be able
to tap into a market that hardly acknowledges its own existence.
It was hypothesized that information about current romantic involvement could make a male target more attractive to females. A 2 (Gender) X 4 (Romantic Involvement: Current Romance, Past Romance, Friend, and Control) factorial design was created to test competing predictions from scarcity/reactance, impression-formation, and sociobiological perspectives. A total of 235 male and female subjects saw a photograph of an opposite gender target person, then read a brief description about the target that contained one of the three involvement manipulations, or contained no involvement manipulation (Control). Subjects then rated the target along a 14 item scale to measure romantic attraction. ANOVA and MANOVA results revealed main effects of Gender and Romantic Involvement. Simple effects for Romantic Involvement were found for female, but not male subjects. A priori contrasts testing the predictions from the competing theoretical perspectives provided support only for the socio-biological prediction for female subjects.
There are many successful cases of spokespeople enhancing a brand’s popularity and growing their sales, but what would happen to the brand if their spokesperson engaged in controversial behavior? The basis of this thesis, and my research, revolves around this research objective: to better understand if, and how, spokespeople affect a brand and its consumers. I conducted primary research in the form of a survey to test consumer’s attitudes and behaviors towards brands and spokespeople; additionally, I conducted secondary research to understand how spokespeople can impact a brand’s stock and sales performance. I expect spokespeople with high levels of association with the brands they represent to have a strong affect on a brand’s performance and perception.
The results of my research defy my expectations. Spokespeople that have a weaker association level with their brands had a strong affect on a brand and its consumers, and vice-versa with strong association levels. In the primary research, spokespeople with weak association levels with Nike and Papa John’s had a significant impact on how participants viewed and engaged with the brands. In addition, secondary research indicates there are significant affects on a brand’s performance as a result of the spokespeople, despite the weak association levels.
After conducting research, I concluded that to have effective spokespeople that can positively impact a brand and its consumers, they must possess two characteristics: trustworthiness and authenticity. The successful cases of spokespeople from my primary and secondary research possessed these characteristics. Consumers need to be able to trust the messages that come from spokespeople, and they need to be able to understand that the relationship between the them and the brand is authentic and makes sense. Therefore, if the spokespeople brands hire are trustworthy and authentic to the brand, then they will positively impact the performance and perception of the brand.