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Although adorning the body by means of tattoos and body piercings is an ancient practice, it has become increasing popular as of late in Western cultures including the United States (U.S.A.). The increasing popularity of body art has been most apparent among young adults and has given rise to a growth industry catering to these consumers. Little attention has been paid to the increasing popularity of body art from the marketing perspective. The purposes of this study were to explore the prevalence of body art among college students and to gain an appreciation of the nature of the consumer decision-making process with respect to body art. Data were collected by means of a survey from 496 respondents at 14 geographically diverse colleges and universities in the U.S.A. The results include overall prevalence rates for tattoos and body piercings as well as relationships between prevalence of both forms of body art and key demographic variables including gender. Also included are results concerning the...

The authors define mobile phone etiquette, and then summarize the academic research on the topic from its beginnings as usage in public and private spaces. We also provide tabular summaries of basic etiquette rules and inappropriate locations based on an extensive review of the consumer and trade press literature (newspaper and magazine articles, Internet web postings, and books). The authors end with suggestions for further research, a References section with 101 citations, and key articles and books that graduate students, who want to continue the research in this area, should read and study.

Academic units within universities and colleges across the world are placing greater emphasis on scholarly productivity in making decisions relating to tenure, promotion, and merit raises for faculty. Their perception of the importance and prestige of a journal is a central aspect of the evaluation process and the value of the publication. At present, there is not a universally standard value assessed to business/marketing journals.

There has been tremendous growth in the cellular telephone industry in recent years. The present study was undertaken in order to better understand the pattern of usage among one of the most important target markets for cell phone products—young adults attending college. Data were collected from a total of 383 cell phone consumers residing in four states in different geographic regions of the United States. Respondents ranged in age from 18-57 with a median age of 23 years. Data analyses revealed several interesting and potentially important patterns of usage. Among these were the findings that the majority of those surveyed indicated that they use their cell phones for the purpose of social stimulation, to remain continually available, for domestic reasons, to leave themselves memos and reminders, for time-keeping, for emergency purposes, and to use the phone's phonebook function. It was also found that the cell phone market among the target population is relatively mature in that the vast major...

With dramatic changes in the policies and practices of marketing healthcare to the public, providers of mental health services are being forced to consider strategies for more effectively and competitively promoting their services. Little empirical information relating to the manner in which prospective clients choose such services in a competitive, and often confusing, marketplace is currently available. The purpose of this study was to explore search strategies that might be used by consumers to identify potential providers of mental health services. In the present study, young adults were asked to rate the likelihood of using each of 19 empirically-derived sources of information in selecting a mental health provider. Factor analysis, as well as descriptive item analyses, suggest that, as is the case with certain other health care decision-making situations, consumers are most likely to depend on personal sources of information such as physician referrals and recommendations from friends and co...

The use of technology in classrooms is expanding rapidly. Though electronic classroom innovations generally are believed to be beneficial, the mode and frequency of use vary considerably in the area of finance instruction. In this study, the authors investigated classroom technology use in finance instruction by surveying faculty members listed in the December 2001 Financial Management Association Directory of Membership.

Children ranging in age from eight to twelve years were exposed to a short videotaped commercial in order to test for differences in the way in which black and white children respond to such advertisements. The results indicated no significant racial differences for product attitudes, recall, or product selection. Implications are discussed and suggestions for future research are made.

Peripheral neuropathy is a common consequence of diabetes that often results in loss of protective sensation. Early identification of this loss is critical to minimize secondary complications. The authors' purpose was to assess the behavior patterns of physical therapists as to their opinions and behaviors related to sensory testing for individuals with diabetes. A questionnaire was sent to physical therapists across the United States with the following results: a high level of agreement concerning the benefits of sensory testing, but with a far less agreement as to the actual performance of sensory testing by those same physical therapists.

Although there is an established literature concerned with the manner in which consumers select providers of general health care, far less attention has been given to the nature of the process used by consumers to select providers of mental health services. The present study provides further insight into this process by identifying dimensions used by consumers to differentiate among potential providers. A sample of 153 undergraduate college students was asked to read a scenario describing a situation in which they had decided that they were in need of mental health services and then to complete a questionnaire pertaining to the importance of a therapist possessing various characteristics. The results indicated that whereas demographic characteristics of potential providers were not heavily weighted as selection criteria, credentials, specific expertise, as well as personal characteristics of the therapist were of considerable importance.

There has been tremendous growth in the cellular telephone industry in recent years. This evolving technology has given rise to concerns over the social rules of etiquette governing cellphone usage behaviour. The present study was undertaken to better understand the perceptions of cellphone usage propriety among one of the most important target markets for cellphone products – young adults attending college. Data were collected from a total of 383 cellphone consumers residing in geographically diverse regions of the United States. Overall, the results indicated a high degree of agreement among respondents as to appropriate and inappropriate situations for cellphone usage. Respondents considered inappropriate situations for cellphone usage to include during worship/church, during class, in a library and in a movie theatre during a movie. Respondents considered it to be appropriate to use cellphones while on public transportation, in a supermarket, and to use a hands-free set while driving. Specific differences were found as a function of geographic regions, gender and employment status.

A total of 146 kindergarten and sixth-grade children served as Ss in an experiment which investigated the effects of denomination value (5¢, 10¢, 25¢, 50¢) and number of coins (2 vs 10) on sharing behavior. Children were rewarded for playing a game and subsequently were given an opportunity to share their earnings. The number of units donated was analyzed by employing two separate 2 × 4 ANOVAS. A significant main effect for age was obtained when children were given either two or 10 coins. In the two-coin condition a significant denomination value effect was found.

Many leading authorities contend that “materialism,” the disposition to own and consume products, is a basic core value of the contemporary culture of the United States. Little is known, however, regarding the manner in which children's interest in consumer products changes with age. This article examines this and related issues, citing empirical evidence of age‐ and gender‐based patterns with respect to materialism as evidenced by reference to consumer products in children's conversations with peers.

Two experiments were conducted to test the impact of postevent information on earwitness and eyewitness testimony. In the first experiment, subjects witnessed an automobile accident, visually, auditorily, or both, and were then exposed to postevent questioning using either marked or unmarked modifiers. There was greater accuracy in the visual than in the auditory condition; the auditory condition was most influenced by the marked modifiers. In the second experiment, subjects witnessed an automobile accident, visually, auditorily, or both, and were then questioned using either the verb hit or smashed. Again, there was greater accuracy in the visual condition, whereas the auditory condition was most vulnerable to postevent information.

Two hundred and four elementary and secondary public school teachers and student teachers were presented with an inventory of potentially stressful school situations in five categories: discipline and classroom management, personal relations with students, student progress, institutional demands, and facilities and supplies. Subjects rated the situations according to levels of stressfulness and importance. Dependent measures were analyzed employing a 2 (elementary vs. secondary) × 2 (full-time vs. student teacher) MANOVA. Analysis of the data revealed that elementary school teachers reported significantly higher levels of stress than secondary school teachers. Significant univariates were found between these two groups in four of the five categories. The pattern of significant effects supports a conception of two types of stress, structural and conflict, affecting the teacher.

One of three representations of a staged automobile collision was shown to 180 students from introductory psychology classes. We then questioned the students about details of the accident, using either marked or unmarked modifiers. Half the students were questioned immediately after viewing the stimulus material and half after a 20-min delay. The results indicated that estimates of the magnitude of a number of aspects of the collision were significantly greater when unmarked modifiers were used in phrasing the relevant questions. Students who were questioned after the 20-min delay gave significantly greater estimates of monetary damage than the students who answered immediately after viewing the representation. The nature of the stimulus material had inconsistent but significant effects.

Summary Fifty-four kindergarten and 54 sixth grade children participated in an investigation of the relative effects of a model's behavior and verbal exhortations on generosity. Following exposure to the model, the children won a nominal, fixed amount of money while playing a game and were given the opportunity to donate to charity. The results indicated that the older children exhibited a higher level of generosity than the young children. The children's generosity was not significantly affected by the model's exhortations or behaviors.

Twenty bilingual first-grade children (10 Vietnamese-English) and 10 Spanish-English) were compared with 20 monolingual children on the WISC-R Block Design and on spatial role-taking tasks of increasing complexity. It was hypothesized that the cognitive flexibility of bilinguals would lead to significantly higher scores than the control groups on both types of tasks. A 2 × 2 analysis of variance on the WISC-R Block Design yielded main effects (ps < .05) for bilingualism and for culture; no significant interaction was found. For all spatial role-taking tasks no significant main effects were found. Significant interactions were found for the two most complex spatial role-taking tasks (p < .05).

Summary The present study compared the speech of fathers and mothers to their young daughters in the age ranges of 19 to 29 months and 32 to 43 months. Verbatim transcripts of audio tape recordings of the verbal interactions of 20 father-daughter dyads and 20 mother-daughter dyads engaged in free play in the family home revealed the degree of parental speech modification to be a function of the age of the child. Both fathers and mothers adjusted certain aspects of their speech relative to child age and displayed very similar patterns of speech adjustment.

Children in the first through eighth grades (n = 128) and college students (n = 32) viewed a film depicting an automobile collision and were subsequently asked to estimate the speed of one of the vehicles. The results indicated that the phrasing of the question significantly affected the subjects' speed estimates. Specifically, subjects at all grade levels provided significantly higher speed estimates when the adverb fast, as opposed to slow, was used. Subjects in the seventh and eighth grades gave higher speed estimates when the verb smashed was used than when hit was used. This latter effect did not occur at other grade levels sampled.