PhD GraduatesFormer CSU Vice chancellor Ian Goulter with Dr Felicity Small (centre) and Deputy Chancellor Kathryn Pitkin at the graduation ceremonies in Bathurst

This list of recent PhD graduates includes a theses abstract and principal supervisor information.

The National Library of Australia webpage is a source for further information.

For previous years : 2011 / 2010 / 2009 / 2008 / 2007 / 2006

Pic by Frank Colzato

Jodie Kleinschafer
Energy efficiency and household decision-making: Managing residential electricity demand

Increasing electricity demand and environmental concerns have meant that electricity retailers, governments and environmentally motivated NGOs are seeking to increase the efficiency of residential electricity consumption. However, to date attempts to manage household electricity demand or increase efficiency have had only sporadic success. In seeking to address these challenges there has been limited investigation into how households make energy efficiency choices. In this thesis it is argued that an understanding of how households make the choice to alter their electricity consumption will inform the development of more effective demand management strategies. Hence the research problem that forms the basis of this investigation is: how are household decisions made to reduce electricity consumption/increase efficiency? Research from both the household efficiency literature and the household decision-making literature (part of the consumer behaviour literature) has been used to inform this investigation.

Principal supervisor Professor Mark Morrison

Felicity Small
Imagination, Social Interactions and the Consumer Decision Process

The focus of this thesis is the relationship between mental imagery, social interactions and consumer purchasing intentions. Mental imagery is when the consumers can see in their mind a picture of the things they know, remember and want. Mental imagery is a useful and natural problems solving technique. The consumer can create mental images of anything from products to social relationships. The principal conclusion of this research is that consumers are using their imagery and social interactions to develop Purchase Intentions. The research was from a realism perspective, and the data were collected using an online questionnaire. The purpose of this research was to test the hypotheses created in the theoretical model, thus a quantitative approach was adopted. The sample for the main study was collected from an online research panel. The questionnaire consisted of established measures for each construct. Each scale was accessed for its appropriateness based on reliability (Cronbach Alphas) and content and construct validity. A pilot test was conducted and analysed to ensure the appropriateness of the measures and the analysis technique.

Principal supervisor Professor Mark Morrison

Kylie Eklom
Vegetation structure & food resources in drought affected semi-natural grasslands: Implications for the nationally vulnerable Plains-wanderer Pedionomus torquatus

This thesis investigates the availability of invertebrate and seed food resources in grasslands used by the Plains-wanderer Pedionmus torquatus, a nationally vulnerable grassland bird endemic to Australia. While there is good knowledge about the relationship between vegetation structure and habitat suitability for Plains-wanderers, less is known about how food resources vary across grasslands of different structural suitability and how stock grazing impacts on food abundance. Also, the diet of the Plains-wanderer is relatively well known (comprising fallen seeds and invertebrates), but there is no information about the nutritional importance of seeds and invertebrates as sources of assimilated nutrients.The overall aim of this thesis is to investigate the relationship between vegetation structure, grazing and food resources and the nutritional importance of these food resources for Plains-wanderers in semi-natural grasslands. Plains-wanderers occurred in very low numbers throughout this study which prevented any direct work being carried out on the interaction between Plains-wanderers and food resources.

Principal supervisor Associate Professor Gary Luck