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The increasing contribution of Generation Z (Gen Z) to Macao’s economy may be the driving force behind the recent changes in Macao’s consumption patterns. This dissertation analyzes how consumption patterns of Macao’s Gen Z differ from other generations. To investigate the types of goods and services consumed, the shopping modes, and the factors that influence the consumption decisions of different generations of Macao, this study conducts a survey to collect primary quantitative data from 296 Macao residents. This study found that the most Macao residents consumed 21%-60% of their income, showing a balance between consumption and saving. They spent most on food and non-alcoholic beverages, healthcare, and education. In terms of receiving information about new products, many Macao consumers learned from family and friends and social media, such as the Red Book and TikTok. Electronic payments have become increasingly popular, such as the local payment system, MPay. The t tests for statistically significant differences show that Gen Z was more likely to make online purchases when buying beauty products and electronic devices than other generations. Compared to other generations, Gen Z was more concerned with the level of fun of the brand, impacts on the environment, society, and local community of the product, personal preference and research, and the recommendations of online reviewers, influencers, and salesperson. Based on the findings of this study, businesses can develop up-to-date marketing strategies to introduce their products to different generations in Macao

Source-based summary writing is an important aspect of academic writing at the undergraduate level; it includes summarizing and paraphrasing when producing texts in essay, report, or thesis formats. For university students whose second language or foreign language is English, source-based writing can be a challenging task as it involves and requires complex cognitive processes as well as reading-and-writing demands. Organized into three phases, this mixed method, small-scale exploratory feasibility case study investigated: (i) challenges and difficulties in online and offline English source-based summary writing of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) university students in Macao, identifying the cognitive and writing processes they experienced in a timed reading-writing task; and (ii) how to design and conduct interventions that could be used to diagnose, assess, and address essay challenges in source-based summary essay writing in everyday classroom sessions. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected through a summary online writing essay using Inputlog, a keystroke logging software, and retrospective think-aloud protocol in Phase One, a source-based summary essay writing task in a quasi-experiment in Phase Two, and a survey questionnaire and error analysis of pre-test and post-test essays of the control and experimental groups in Phase Three. The processes of reading and writing in English were found to be challenging and complex for EFL university students to perform in a limited time. As an initial exploratory feasibility, efficacy trial, deliberately small scale to address issues of risk, this study found that the diagnostic assessment tools and interventions had the potential to improve the summary writing processes and proficiency of EFL students, focusing on their cognitive writing skills in everyday class sessions. The thesis recommends scaling up the research in future studies, in terms of sampling and the duration of interventions designed to improve source-based summary essay writing and the cognitive writing processes that are part of this

This thesis explores the impact of the exploration of methadone treatment programs in heroin-dependent the perspective from use and the quality of life. The primary objective of this research is to investigate how different types of participants that methadone will affect their quality of life. A mixed-methods approach was employed, combining quantitative surveys with qualitative interviews to gather comprehensive data from a sample of 59 participants, 8 female, and 51 male, for the questionnaire to know about their quality of life and well-being. A structured questionnaire was used to quantitatively assess participants' quality of life, well-being, and satisfaction with methadone treatment. The survey included standardized scales measuring various dimensions of quality of life, such as physical health, mental health, social functioning, and overall life satisfaction. A mixed-methods approach was adopted, combining quantitative and qualitative research methods to provide a comprehensive understanding of treatment efficacy and genetic influences. In the course of this research on the impact of methadone treatment programs on the quality of life for heroin-dependent individuals, several key findings emerged from both the quantitative surveys and qualitative interviews. To overall improvement in quality of life the participants reported significant improvements in various dimensions of quality of life after starting methadone treatment. On average, scores for emotional well-being, social functioning, and physical health showed marked increases over the treatment period

In Macau, gaming is a pillar industry. The job performance of the employees is a determining factor for gaming and integrated resorts’ ability to improve their competitiveness in an evolving environment. Therefore, organizational behavior is an important topic for gaming and integrated resorts. In view of social exchange theory, this study takes the employees of the six gaming and integrated resorts in Macau as sampling. The study would be overviewing how psychological contract fulfillment affects their organizational citizenship behavior in the organization, and relationship between work engagement and their abusive supervision in the six gaming and integrated resorts employees in the Macau gaming and related industry. This study takes psychological contract fulfillment as the independent variable, organizational citizenship behavior as the dependent variable, work engagement as the mediating variable, abusive supervision as the moderating variable. Data was collected through random online questionnaire research method and 257 valid questionnaires were obtained. SPSS statistical software applied for reliability and validity analysis, Pearson correlation and regression analysis. The conclusions are listed in following: (1) Psychological contract fulfillment has a partial positive impact on organizational citizenship behavior ; (2) Psychological contract fulfillment has a partial positive impact on work engagement; (3) Work engagement has a positive impact on organizational citizenship behavior; (4) Work engagement has a positive mediating effect between psychological contract fulfillment and organizational citizenship behavior; (5) Abusive supervision has no moderating effect between psychological contract fulfillment and work engagement; (6) Abusive supervision has no moderating effect between work engagement and organizational citizenship behavior

The research highlights the significance of souvenirs in contributing to the preservation of cultural heritage and communicating cultural messages to tourists. However, a need for more study exists on the visual elements and brand communication employed in designing cultural and creative products that represent local culture. This research aims to investigate the cultural and creative products industry's status and identify the essential visual elements for designing Macau's cultural and creative products. The study also seeks to understand the visual elements and communication strategies that significantly influence product design and brand communication while capturing the image and style of Macau. The research collected 265 valid questionnaires from online participants and interviewed four designers from small local artist brands. The analysis revealed that local consumers prefer products from small local artist brands, but there needs to be a higher brand awareness. Respondents suggested that utilising social media platforms would effectively increase brand awareness and engage with consumers. Furthermore, it was found that Macau's cultural and creative products can integrate various local elements and design styles to represent its unique style. These visual elements are deemed adequate for cultural and creative product design. This research contributes to the creative and tourism industries by providing designers and scholars with insights and references to better comprehend visual and brand communication for local small artist brands

The rapid development of counselling began after World War II. Meanwhile, texting services became available in the 1980s. Texting has been widely applied in both health area and mental health areas. A chatbot is a specific type of artificial intelligence (AI) that can have conversations with humans through texting. The combination of counselling and texting is known as chat counselling. The effectiveness of chatbots in alleviating psychological symptoms was supported by scientific research. Nonetheless, people hold different perceptions towards chatbots. Some common factors in counselling, including empathy and warmth, were also important in evaluating AI chatbots. Other important factors included acceptability, satisfaction and trust. The current study is the first to use AI as a counsellor. This study investigates people’s perceptions of human and AI counsellors (ChatGPT) and whether people can differentiate between human and AI. Participants needed to rate the counsellors in three scenarios: the original scenario taken from a training book, the human counsellor scenario generated from a text conversation with a human counsellor and the AI counsellor scenario produced by texting with ChatGPT, which acts as the counsellor. Prompts used to generate conversation with ChatGPT are included. The dialogues were parts of the conversations containing similar client responses and were presented using the WhatsApp interface. Questionnaires were delivered both online and in paper form. Results demonstrated that people’s ratings of human counsellors and AI counsellors did not differ in perceived empathy, acceptability, and satisfaction. While the warmth and trustworthiness of AI counsellors were perceived to be higher than those of human counsellors. On the other hand, people were unable to differentiate between human and AI counsellors in uncertain conditions. Younger people and the general population are more accurate in identifying between humans and AI, while people above 40 and psychologists or counsellors are less capable of doing so. The current study supports the potential of utilising ChatGPT in counselling. Having people experience and evaluate real chat counselling with human and AI counsellors can potentially eliminate some limitations of the current studies. Future studies can investigate how prior knowledge contributes to AI detection and examine AI counsellors' efficiency in longitudinal studies

Within the realm of video games, female characters often become ensnared in stereotypes, thus becoming objects of the male gaze. Moreover, the neglect of female characters' subjectivity in game design reflects a failure to acknowledge their agency. Additionally, the female perspective is frequently disregarded in game design. These issues have had adverse effects, leading to designs that are less hospitable to women, perpetuating misogyny, sexual harassment, and discrimination in online gaming, and further marginalizing women within the gaming industry. Integrating feminist principles into video game design has the potential to dismantle the cultural center of inequality within gaming culture and foster a more diverse and inclusive video game world, brimming with possibilities. This research investigates such phenomena through a blend of questionnaires and online interviews. Following data refinement and summarization, it explores the potential fusion of feminism and game design. While findings from these studies aid in establishing a framework for this synthesis, feminist game research presents complexity. The study offers pertinent references aimed at advancing the field

Drama-in-Education (DiE) has been recognised as a valuable teaching pedagogy in the western world for decades, and yet it has not been fully or systematically adopted in the secondary English classes in Asian contexts, including Macau, despite the numerous reported advantages for English language teaching (ELT) in the past studies. This study explores Macau’s secondary school English teachers’ perceptions of utilising DiE in their classes. A mixed-methods research (MMR) approach was adopted in this study, consisting of three phases. First, pre-survey interviews were conducted to understand the potential major concerns about the choices of teaching approaches and the application of DiE of Macau’s secondary school English teachers. Subsequently, a questionnaire survey targeting local secondary school English teachers was administered, the results of which were cross-examined by, and integrated with, the results of two post-survey group interviews. While the results affirm the local secondary school English teachers’ positive view on DiE as an ELT pedagogy and identify their perceived advantages of DiE, the study indicates the over-determination of multi-faceted challenges to its implementation in Macau’s secondary education context. The study identifies and recommends necessary substantial changes to further the application of DiE in Macau’s secondary education milieu

Virtual reality (VR), a computer-generated 3D environment, allows one to navigate and possibly interact, resulting in real-time simulation of one or more of the user’s five senses (M. Gutierrez et al., 2008; Vince, 2004). Despite its history through past decades, this technology has quickly developed recently. Virtual tours and spaces have been widely used in the education, arts, and rehabilitation industries. According to research, it has significant effects on mindfulness (improving mood), cognitive development (better learning ability), and embodiment (relieving pain and medical conditions). This thesis aims to identify the conditions for Macao's single-user experience to achieve mindfulness in virtual reality through immersion and interactivity. With their various definitions, this research uses the two spectrums on the levels of immersion and interactivity, conducts four experiment settings with Macao residents, and collects qualitative questionnaires and quantitative survey data. The four settings differ as they tackle different aspects: spiritual memory, historical memory, aesthetic appreciation, and meditation through concept. The analysed results were then evaluated to seek better conditions for the local community to achieve mindfulness by immersing themselves in virtual reality

Research suggested that students struggle because of lacking understanding of basic concepts, formulas, and procedures in algebra, leading to inefficiency in logical thinking and problem-solving skills. (Julius et al., 2018; Jupri et al., 2021). Schemabased instruction (SBI) aims to enhance learning and problem-solving by activating and building upon students' prior knowledge structures, known as schemas (Powell et al., 2008). The common schemas include the total, difference, change, equal groups, comparison, ratios/proportions (Hughes & Cuevas, 2020). SBI has been found to be effective, particularly for students who struggle with mathematics word problems (Marshall, 2012; Hughes & Cuevas, 2020). Research related to SBI has not yet been conducted in Macau region. An early pre-test was administered by the researcher, thirty-one students were asked to solve 10 questions about percentages. The results showed that some students lacked the fundamental knowledge needed to investigate and explore the abstract ideas, patterns, and relationships in percentages problems. A daily schema-based instruction (SBI) as a part of an experimental intervention study was implemented, pre-test and post-tests were administered to investigate the effect of SBI on students' mathematical procedural fluency skills. Thirty-one students from the researcher’s class were invited to engaged in 40 minutes of daily SBI lessons for two weeks, 12 lessons in total. During each of the twelve 40-minute session, students practiced schemas to develop procedural fluency competencies, such as solid number sense and arithmetic operations, to solve percentages problems. Within-group descriptive and inferential statistics were adopted. The results indicated that after SBI, students can solve mathematical problems with greater procedural fluency. This research shares implications and provides suggestions regarding SBI and procedural fluency

This study examined the acquisition of higher-order thinking skills in an English as a Second Language (ESL) classroom at a secondary school in Macau. It included an investigation of the way teaching might affect the development of higher-order thinking skills and language proficiency. This study also included an examination of the degree to which existing societal practices or values might have influenced the acquisition of higher-order thinking skills. Research instruments such as a questionnaire, a twelve-week experiment, pre-and post-tests and interview sessions were used for the data collection. The findings suggested that after twelve weeks the experimental groups developed higher synthetical and evaluative skills than the control groups which instead demonstrated better language skills. The results also identified incongruences between the curriculum and the expectations of the parents and employers

The researcher aims to understand how Christian and Muslim communities in East Timor cope with and recover from trauma arising from war, violence, and conflict. The research seeks to identify critical spiritual and religious coping mechanisms as present in East Timor (Timor Leste) that could help victims heal and reconstruct their lives after a war trauma experience. The study uses a mixed method, first deploying a quantitative investigation of Christian and Muslim communities in East Timor. The questionnaire aimsto understand how religion and spirituality feature in individuals' coping with trauma and the healing practices prescribed or encouraged by religious institutions and practices. In addition, a qualitative research and thematic analyses have been conducted and added with the facilitation of 6 Interviewees, 3 Muslims, and 3 Christians. This study aimed to investigate trauma levels and religious coping strategies among participants from East Timor. The quantitative findings indicated that the participants experienced a moderate level of trauma, with trouble sleeping being the most significant symptom. The qualitative findings revealed in some participants a high level of traumatic experiences. Recurrent thoughts of traumatic events and feeling jumpy were also prevalent. However, feeling strange around people or objects and feeling personally damaged by the trauma were less common. Regarding coping strategies, participants tended to rely on positive religious coping, seeking a stronger viii connection with God, finding comfort in religious communities and beliefs, and using spiritual interventions to manage emotions and worries, finding healing and a path toward the future. Both Catholics and Muslims employed positive religious coping strategies, with Catholics showing a slightly higher level in their utilization. However, the difference between the two groups was minimal. Positive coping strategies were more frequently used by participants from both religious backgrounds, highlighting their importance in dealing with trauma. Positive religious coping did not significantly impact trauma symptoms, showing no decrease or increase. However, a notable positive correlation existed between negative religious coping and more severe trauma symptoms. Individuals relying on negative coping strategies were more likely to experience heightened trauma symptoms. These findings align with previous research, emphasizing the positive association between Islamic appraisals and religious coping with better post-traumatic adjustment, while trauma-related appraisals are linked to worse adjustment. The study underscores the need to respect individual coping variations and recognizes the impact of negative religious coping on trauma experiences

The insurance companies in Macau are potentially facing a crisis of high turnover rates, exacerbated by the limited studies conducted on the insurance industry to address this issue, as the gaming and travel industries are currently experiencing a significant demand for human resources due to economic recovery. In light of this, a study was conducted to better understand the attitudes of 105 currently employed insurance agents in Macau insurance companies, specifically their commitment and thoughts of staying or leaving their employers. The study examined several independent variables (distributive justice, perceived organizational support (POS), job satisfaction, and caring climate) in relation to insurance agents’ turnover intention and the role of affective commitment. The aim was to determine the association between these variables and turnover intentions among insurance agents. The snowballing methodology was employed to effectively engage with the insurance agents and gain insights into their perspectives. The results of the statistical analysis revealed positive correlations between all independent variables and affective commitment. Job satisfaction and POS were identified as strong positive predictors. Additionally, mediated regression analyses demonstrated that affective commitment significantly mediated the relationship between all independent variables and turnover intention. Finally, the study provides implications for insurance company management to address and reduce the high turnover rate. Furthermore, the importance of future orientation is further discussed

Macao, a developing city, has been undergoing rapid and significant changes economically, culturally, and socially, partly as a consequence of the changes to the economy brought about by the gaming and tourism industry. Changes in Macao have had a major impact on its schools. Parents have a significant impact on students in school, and Macao’s secondary schools are having to handle a range of challenges and problems brought by students and their parents, many of these as a result of the changes in the wider society of Macao. The response of many schools to the challenges faced is limited, and they understate and under-use the important role played by more developed forms of parental involvement in schools. This study examines the nature, scope and extent of the problems that secondary schools in Macao are having to handle from parents and students, how the schools are handling them, and what needs to be done in order to address the problems and handle them more effectively. Through a large scale survey, interviews and a small scale questionnaire, the thesis identifies key problems facing the schools from students and parents, and it reveals that many of Macao’s secondary schools are ill-equipped to handle these, and there are many signs that the problems are becoming more acute. The thesis finds that negative parental behavior has had a stronger effect on students than positive parental behavior, and it finds that there are several reasons why the schools, in their present state, cannot address these matters effectively. A significant gap is found between what the schools indicate they should be doing and what they are actually doing to address increased parental involvement in order to impact positively on Macao’s students. Recommendations are made for intervention and action