Browsing by Author "Mullet, Kathy K."

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    The Development of a Conceptual Framework for Identifying Functional, Expressive, Aesthetic, and Regulatory Needs for Snowboarding Helmets
    Chae, Myung-Hee (Virginia Tech, 2006-11-10)
    The purpose of this research was to identify the design characteristics and attitudes that impact the use of snowboarding helmets and to test statistically a proposed conceptual framework for identifying perceived importance of functional, expressive, aesthetic, and regulatory (FEAR) needs of snowboarding helmets for current snowboarders. Data for this study was collected online. The final sample was composed of 391 participants, which represented a 13.67% response rate. Multiple comparisons were used to examine mean differences among the FEAR variables, as well as attitudes toward helmet use. A multiple linear regression was used to test four proposed hypotheses. The results of hypotheses revealed that there was an impact between attitudes toward helmet use and perceived importance of functional needs, but this relationship depended on the level of expressive needs, aesthetic needs, and helmet usage. The typical impact of functional needs on attitudes toward helmet use was positive (slope = .013) when all variables were at their respective means (Hypothesis 1). Hypothesis 2 tested to see if there was an impact between attitudes toward helmet use and perceived importance of expressive needs, but again, this relationship depended on the level of functional needs and helmet usage. The typical impact of expressive needs on attitudes toward helmet use was positive (slope = .014) when all variables were at their respective means. Similarly, the impact between attitudes toward helmet use and the perceived importance of aesthetic needs was dependent on the level of functional needs and helmet usage. The impact of aesthetic needs on attitudes toward helmet use was typically negative (slope = -.012) when all variables were at their respective means (Hypothesis 3). Finally, Hypothesis 4 looked at the impact between attitudes toward helmet use and the perceived importance of regulatory needs. Unlike the other three hypotheses, this relationship did not depend on any other variables. The impact of regulatory needs on attitudes toward helmet use was positive, and the strength of association was .010. Although hypothesis 1-3 were substantially supported, and hypothesis 4 was fully supported, from a statistical point of view, the interaction effects between the independent variables (i.e., FEA needs) and the covariate (i.e., helmet usage) limit the findings, so we can not really state that the hypotheses were supported. However, based on information obtained from the respondents in this study, the application of a FEAR needs assessment of snowboarding helmets could help to enhance the overall performance of snowboarders. In other words, the improvement of helmet functionality, expressive qualities, aesthetic attributes and regulatory needs would provide a more enjoyable snow activity to participants. Thus, the conceptual framework of the perceived importance of FEAR needs would be acceptable to understand the attitudes toward helmet use among snowboarders.
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    The effects of shoulder position on four sleeve/bodice structures
    Mullet, Kathy K. (Virginia Tech, 1991)
    Investigated in this research was the effect of different shoulder positions on different sleeve/bodice structures. Since a sleeve/bodice may have numerous variations and design details incorporated into the structure, this research concentrated on the set-in sleeve, kimono sleeve, raglan sleeve, and kimono sleeve with gusset. The variables used to determine the reaction of the different structures to different shoulder positions were garment slippage away from the wrist, the waist, the center back/waistline positions, and the angle formed by the center back/waistline intersection. A Factorial ANOVA was used to test for significant differences between the sleeve/bodice structures and shoulder positions. A Tukey's pairwise comparison was used to determined the difference between the slippage at each shoulder position and each sleeve/bodice structure compared with each of the others. Regression equations were fit as linear, quadratic and their interactions with each sleeve/bodice structure. Based on the theoretical framework, the amount and location of the slippage found in the statistical analyses was not necessarily those predicted. From the analyses, it was determined that when comparing the slippage at the wrist, waist, center back/waistline location and the center/back angle as a whole, general trends which occurred in the data were that the set-in sleeve consistently exhibited the greatest amount of slippage and the kimono sleeve exhibited the least. From the plots of the regression coefficients, the amount of slippage illustrated for the raglan sleeve was of similar slope to that of the set-in sleeve, whereas the kimono sleeve with gusset was more closely related to the slippage of the kimono sleeve. The results of this study provide information that other clothing designers may find useful when developing sleeve/bodice structures based on specific shoulder positions. From known shoulder positions, a designer may determine which sleeve/bodice structure would exhibit the least or most garment slippage, or be able to predict the amount of garment slippage for a specific structure.