Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Human behavior – Social aspects'
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Zhang, Huiqi. "Socioscope: Human Relationship and Behavior Analysis in Mobile Social Networks." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2010. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc30533/.
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The widely used mobile phone, as well as its related technologies had opened opportunities for a complete change on how people interact and build relationship across geographic and time considerations. The convenience of instant communication by mobile phones that broke the barrier of space and time is evidently the key motivational point on why such technologies so important in people's life and daily activities. Mobile phones have become the most popular communication tools. Mobile phone technology is apparently changing our relationship to each other in our work and lives. The impact of new technologies on people's lives in social spaces gives us the chance to rethink the possibilities of technologies in social interaction. Accordingly, mobile phones are basically changing social relations in ways that are intricate to measure with any precision. In this dissertation I propose a socioscope model for social network, relationship and human behavior analysis based on mobile phone call detail records. Because of the diversities and complexities of human social behavior, one technique cannot detect different features of human social behaviors. Therefore I use multiple probability and statistical methods for quantifying social groups, relationships and communication patterns, for predicting social tie strengths and for detecting human behavior changes and unusual consumption events. I propose a new reciprocity index to measure the level of reciprocity between users and their communication partners. The experimental results show that this approach is effective. Among other applications, this work is useful for homeland security, detection of unwanted calls (e.g., spam), telecommunication presence, and marketing. In my future work I plan to analyze and study the social network dynamics and evolution.
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Tse, Wai Shing. "The role of noradrenaline in different aspects of human social behaviour." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2002. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.272325.
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Yang, Shuang-Hong. "Predictive models for online human activities." Diss., Georgia Institute of Technology, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/1853/43689.
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The availability and scale of user generated data in online systems raises tremendous challenges and opportunities to analytic study of human activities. Effective modeling of online human activities is not only fundamental to the understanding of human behavior, but also important to the online industry. This thesis focuses on developing models and algorithms to predict human activities in online systems and to improve the algorithmic design of personalized/socialized systems (e.g., recommendation, advertising, Web search systems). We are particularly interested in three types of online user activities, i.e., decision making, social interactions and user-generated contents. Centered around these activities, the thesis focuses on three challenging topics:
1. Behavior prediction, i.e., predicting users' online decisions. We present Collaborative-Competitive Filtering, a novel game-theoretic framework for predicting users' online decision making behavior and leverage the knowledge to optimize the design of online systems (e.g., recommendation systems) in respect of certain strategic goals (e.g., sales revenue, consumption diversity).
2. Social contagion, i.e., modeling the interplay between social interactions and individual behavior of decision making. We establish the joint Friendship-Interest Propagation model and the Behavior-Relation Interplay model, a series of statistical approaches to characterize the behavior of individual user's decision making, the interactions among socially connected users, and the interplay between these two activities. These techniques are demonstrated by applications to social behavior targeting.
3. Content mining, i.e., understanding user generated contents. We propose the Topic-Adapted Latent Dirichlet Allocation model, a probabilistic model for identifying a user's hidden cognitive aspects (e.g., knowledgability) from the texts created by the user. The model is successfully applied to address the challenge of ``language gap" in medical information retrieval.
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Grindle, Mark. "The power of digital storytelling to influence human behaviour." Thesis, University of Stirling, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/1893/21800.
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The aim of this multi-disciplinary research was to explore the power of digital, interactive or participatory storytelling to influence human behaviour in the context of public health. It addressed three related questions: RQ1: Does digital storytelling have the power to influence human behaviour? RQ2: If digital storytelling can influence human behaviour then how might it do so? RQ3: Is a ‘digital storytelling framework’ feasible as an approach to behaviour change? Four linked qualitative studies were conducted: a scoping review, in-depth interviews with 11 international ‘digital storytellers’, two case studies of ‘digital storytelling designed to influence human behaviour’ and six focus groups with 35 adolescent ‘digital story participants’. The research found that: RA1: Digital storytelling appears to influence human behaviour. RA2: Digital storytelling appears to influence by engaging at ever deepening emotional and non-conscious levels. Commerce appears to understand and embrace this power: But public health appears to rely on traditional uni-directional, non-participatory message led approaches and appeals to cognition. This presents threats and opportunities to public health. RA3: The proposed ‘digital storytelling framework’ is feasible and desirable as a behaviour change paradigm. The thesis concludes that Digital Storytelling appears to influence human behaviour. It appears to derive its power to influence by facilitating unprecedented depths of emotional engagement potentially en route to behaviour change. The current imbalance in how commerce and public health corral the power of digital storytelling suggests that the latter might embrace its potential; and tougher regulation might constrain how the former uses it to market harmful products. The proposed digital storytelling framework makes a valuable creative, analytical and critical contribution to both of these ends. Its core principles have informed the design of numerous story-led digital health interventions; and they now sit at the core of a counter-marketing campaign to reduce harmful effects of marketing on children’s health.
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Belin, Marie-Odile. "Étude bibliographique des aspects socio-culturels de l'alimentation." Nancy 1, 1986. http://www.theses.fr/1986NAN10008.
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Caine, Kelly Erinn. "Exploring everyday privacy behaviors and misclosures." Diss., Atlanta, Ga. : Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/1853/31665.
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Thesis (Ph.D)--Psychology, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2010.Committee Chair: Fisk, Arthur; Committee Member: Catrambone, Richard; Committee Member: Foley, Jim; Committee Member: Jeffries, Robin; Committee Member: Rogers, Wendy. Part of the SMARTech Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Collection.
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Thorpe, Jennifer. "Harmful scripts : raunch femininity as the disguised reiteration of emphasized feminine goals : an exploration of young women's accounts of sexually explicit forms of public expression." Thesis, Rhodes University, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1004521.
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Women are subject to a number of societal recommendations about what it means to be an 'ideal' woman. These recommendations take the form of social scripts, constructing an idea of ideal femininity, which women must perform in order to be socially accepted and successful. 'Emphasized femininity', a white, Western, script of femininity is dominant and has been critiqued by feminists, social theorists, and individual women for the limits that it places on women's behaviour. As a result a number of alternative scripts of femininity have arisen. These scripts can provide alternatives to restrictive understandings of female sexuality and beauty - they can serve to challenge 'appropriate' feminine behaviour and hence allow women to live more freely. Raunch femininity is a contemporary alternative that uses sexually explicit public performance, and encourages specific body and dress norms, in an attempt to challenge the norms of emphasized femininity. This thesis looks at raunch femininity, specifically its norms of sexuality and beauty, in the hopes of understanding what the effects of such a script are on women's behaviour. Theoretical understandings and explanations of women's lives are often contradicted by reports that women provide of their lived experiences. For this reason, this thesis investigates the lived experiences of women who self-identify as subscribers to this script in order to assess to what extent superficial expressions of freedom have deeper effects on women's freedom. The tension between theory and empirical reports is evident. However, in many cases, the reports of research participants reveal that the script of raunch femininity, like other scripts of feminine behaviour, has its own limits that women must abide with in order to be accepted. This thesis argues that these limits outweigh the benefits of this script.KMBT_363
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Simon, Nordsvan. "Counteracting Availability: Giving Control Back to Players Within Online Gambling." Thesis, Umeå universitet, Institutionen för informatik, 2020. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-172778.
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Gambling has become ever more available and begun to employ more techniques, such as gamification, in order to engage their players. Today, Gambling with the use of your computer or smartphone is not deemed very different from playing any other kind of game. This shortens the availability cascade, or chain of events, that in the context of Gambling can ultimately lead to severe economical or social consequences for the players. This thesis seeks to find out how the increased availability can be counteracted by giving control back to the players through the use of personal informatics as well as if, and if so how, the social aspect of Gambling affects responsibility and the perceived experience. By conducting in-depth interviews with 20 participants I gained insights into what would assist them in maintaining control as well as their perception of Gambling. In order to evaluate these findings they were, in conjunction with related research, translated into a design concept. The results of the evaluations of this design suggest that many of the same techniques used to increase engagement with Gambling can also be utilized to counteract the increased availability. The prospects for future research are outlined.
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Singleton, Patrick Allen. "Exploring the Positive Utility of Travel and Mode Choice." PDXScholar, 2017. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/3780.
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Why do people travel? Underlying most travel behavior research is the derived-demand paradigm of travel analysis, which assumes that travel demand is derived from the demand for spatially separated activities, traveling is a means to an end (reaching destinations), and travel time is a disutility to be minimized. In contrast, the "positive utility of travel" (PUT) concept suggests that travel may not be inherently disliked and could instead provide benefits or be motivated by desires for travel-based multitasking, positive emotions, or fulfillment. The PUT idea assembles several concepts relevant to travel behavior: utility maximization, motivation theory, multitasking, and subjective well-being.
Despite these varied influences, empirical analyses of the PUT concept remain limited in both quantity and scope. There is a need for more fundamental development and classification of the PUT idea and its multifaceted nature. The wide variety and quality of ways to measure PUT attributes are further research challenges. Additionally, few studies investigate both major aspects of the PUT concept--travel activities and travel experiences--simultaneously. Finally, research is only beginning to examine empirical associations between PUT measures and travel behaviors such as mode choice. This dissertation addresses many of these gaps in conceptualizing, measuring, and modeling the PUT concept.
First, a literature review strengthens the definition, classification, and empirical support for a PUT, defined as "any benefit(s) accruing to a traveler through the act of traveling." The two primary PUT categories are travel activities (travel-based multitasking) and travel experiences (travel subjective well-being), and the most useful PUT measures involve gathering self-reported assessments of these topics. Based on this review, an online questionnaire is designed and administered to nearly 700 commuters in the Portland, OR, region. The survey includes detailed questions about commute mode choice, activity participation, travel usefulness, positive emotions and fulfillment, and travel liking for a recent home-to-work trip.
Next, these PUT measures are empirically examined using factor analyses, finding groupings of activities and common unobserved constructs of hedonic ("Distress," "Fear," "Attentiveness," "Enjoyment") and eudaimonic ("Security," "Autonomy," "Confidence," "Health") subjective well-being. Many of these factors exhibit large variations among travel modes--walking and bicycling commuters are the most satisfied and appear to value time spent exercising--and are predicted (somewhat less strongly) by other trip and traveler characteristics in ordered logit regression and structural equation models.
Finally, integrated choice and latent variable models are estimated to examine relationships between measures of the PUT concept and commute mode choice. This is made possible by the unique dataset that collects PUT measures for not only the chosen mode but also modal alternatives. Measures of travel-based multitasking are significantly related to mode choice, suggesting people may be doing things more to pass the time than to be productive. A validated measure of travel subjective well-being is also a significant and positive factor, suggesting people are more likely to choose a mode that makes them happier. Overall, PUT measures greatly increase the explanatory power of the mode choice model. These findings make significant contributions to travel behavior research methods and knowledge. They also offer important implications for transportation policies around promoting nonautomobile travel and planning for autonomous vehicles.
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Roberts, Michael E. "Human collective behavior." [Bloomington, Ind.] : Indiana Unversity, 2008. http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:3330786.
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Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Depts. of Psychological and Brain Sciences and Cognitive Science, 2008.Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on Jul 22, 2009). Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 69-10, Section: B, page: 6448. Advisers: Robert L. Goldstone; Peter M. Todd.
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Swartz, Erik. "Mänskligt beteende - ett ofrånkomligt hot mot informationssäkerhet?" Thesis, Högskolan i Halmstad, Akademin för informationsteknologi, 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hh:diva-44967.
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Information har idag kommit att bli så viktigt att det av många aktörer kallas för den nya digitala oljan, och med anledning av just detta är information idag en av de främsta tillgångar en organisation kan besitta. För att skydda informationen lägger organisationer massiva summor pengar på tekniska och fysiska åtgärder. Tillsammans med dessa åtgärder utfärdas även interna bestämmelser och riktlinjer för hur IT-system och information får eller inte får hanteras. Trots detta sker både intrång och andra säkerhetsrelaterade incidenter som kan härledas till mänskligt felaktigt beteende, eller den så kallade mänsklig faktorn. I den här uppsatsen har därför författaren gjort en djupdykning i ämnet för att studera vilka samband som kan finnas mellan beteendevetenskapliga teorier och efterlevnad av informationssäkerhet. Med kvalitativa metoder har bland annat litteraturstudier genomförts för att ta reda på vilka teorier som är mest relevanta i sammanhanget. Intervjuer har sedan nyttjats för att bredda författarens uppfattning om vilka faktorer som kan påverka mänskligt beteende. De personer som intervjuats har bland varit yrkesverksamma som säkerhetschefer, säkerhetskyddshandläggare och ledande forskare inom det specifika området.
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Cary, Nathan Jess. "Bosnian Immigrants: An Analysis of the Bosnian Community's Influence on the Cultural Landscape of Bowling Green, KY." TopSCHOLAR®, 2013. http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/theses/1235.
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Diasporas have been occurring for thousands of years, and today globalization has facilitated the quick rate at which diasporas occur on a global scale. Diasporas entail the mass movement of refugees across international borders, and diasporic peoples today now find themselves journeying across oceans and continents to the safety of host cities in a matter of weeks or days. My research analyzes the effects that Bosnian immigrants have had on the cultural landscape of Bowling Green, Kentucky. When people move, they bring their cultures with them, and this type of cultural diffusion impacts the landscape of the host cities. As geographic research on diasporas is limited, this study aims to fill the gap that exists. Bowling Green, Kentucky, was selected for this analysis due to its large refugee population. Some of Bowling Green’s refugee population is comprised of immigrants from Iraq, Burma, Cambodia, and Sudan. Bosnians comprise the largest population of refugees in the city. In addition to examining immigrant policies and theories, the impacts of the Bosnian diaspora on Bowling Green’s cultural landscape will also be identified. Understanding how those cultures modify landscapes is an important part of diasporic research. The data used for this study were acquired through surveys, census details, telephone directories, interviews, and the extant literature. The hypothesis of this study is that Bosnian immigrants have a stronger visual impact on Bowling Green’s cultural landscape than other immigrant ethnic groups due to their large representation in the city.
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Jäkel, Frank. "Some theoretical aspects of human categorization behavior similarity and generalization /." [S.l. : s.n.], 2007.
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Bergqvist, Malin. "Designing for Empathy in Elderly Care : Exploration of Opportunities to Deliver Behaviour Change Interventions through mHealth Applications, to Promote Empathic Behaviour in Elderly Home Care Nursing Assistants." Thesis, Linköpings universitet, Interaktiva och kognitiva system, 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-157588.
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Background The Swedish population is ageing quickly and the system for elderly home care is under increasing pressure. Staff turnover is high, nursing assistants are reporting stress, and employers have to recruit staff lacking sufficient experience. These factors are barriers to empathic care, considered essential to patient health outcomes. Elderly care should rely on cognitive empathy, be other-oriented and improve the client’s situation based on contextual understanding. There is a need for education and support for nursing assistants, so that they can provide empathic care. Purpose The thesis explores empathy as a skill in elderly home care to identify opportunities of promoting empathy in the client-nursing assistant interaction, by means of behaviour change interventions delivered through an mHealth application that nursing assistants already use at work. Method A group interview was conducted with six nursing assistants from four elderly home care organisations in a Swedish municipality, to learn about their experience of empathy at work, and factors affecting their ability to give empathic care. The respondents were using the same mHealth application to get and provide information about client visits. The Behaviour Change Wheel framework was used to analyze behavioural drivers of empathic care in elderly home care. Results Influences on empathic behaviour was identified in all 14 domains in the Theoretical Domains Framework. 13 target behaviours, 7 Intervention Functions and 45 Behaviour Change Techniques were suggested as suitable candidates to investigate for intervention development. Conclusion Empathy seems possible to promote through resource-efficient digital behaviour change interventions. Future studies may use this work as a starting point for development of interventions to promote empathic behaviour in elderly care.
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Stanford, Jevetta. "Ecological Influences on Weight Status in Urban African-American Adolescent Females: A Structural Equation Analysis." UNF Digital Commons, 2012. http://digitalcommons.unf.edu/etd/356.
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The present study employed a quantitative, non-experimental, multivariate correlational research design to test a hypothesized model examining associative paths of influence between ecological factors and weight status of urban, African-American adolescent females. Anthropometric and self-report survey data of 182 urban, African- American adolescent females were collected during after-school programs, health and physical education classes, and community events in an urban area in northeast Florida. Descriptive analyses were conducted to characterize the study participants based upon their age, study setting, and weight status. A scale reliability analysis was conducted to assess the internal consistency reliability of the sample data using selected measures within the context of the study’s specific population and subsequently guided the structural equation model (SEM) analyses. The SEM path analysis was used to develop two measurement models to control for observed error variance for variables demonstrating poor internal consistency reliability (diet behaviors and nutrition selfefficacy) and a final structural model to test the associative paths of influence between latent (diet behaviors and nutrition self-efficacy) and manifest variables (teacher social support and friend social support) on weight status. The results of the path analysis indicated that both teacher social support and friend social support demonstrated a positive, indirect influence on child weight status through nutrition self-efficacy and diet behaviors following two different and specific paths of influence. Diet behaviors, in turn, demonstrated a positive, direct effect on child weight status. These findings provide clear implications for educational leaders that call for the integration of health behavior change theory into traditional education and leadership practice and actively addressing the childhood obesity epidemic in the school environment by implementing health behavior change strategies at various ecological environmental levels.
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Lin, Tao. "Personal social networks, neighborhood social environments and activity-travel behavior." HKBU Institutional Repository, 2015. https://repository.hkbu.edu.hk/etd_oa/224.
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Rapidly rising levels of car ownership in newly developed economies and increasing travel demand worldwide over the past several decades have intensified the negative externalities of transportation, such as traffic congestion and air pollution. To develop policies that mitigate these problems through managing and controlling travel demand, it is important to have a comprehensive understanding of the determinants of individuals’ activity-travel behavior. A considerable amount of research has been conducted around the impact of the built environment on travel behavior. As well, over the past decade, the social contexts of travel have gradually been recognized as important explanatory factors of activity-travel behavior. Thus, the link between social contexts and activity-travel behavior has become a much discussed research topic recently. This study aims to contribute to this growing literature by investigating three important but under-explored areas related to the connection between social contexts and activity-travel behavior: 1) how social network attributes influence the choice of companions for conducting daily activities and travel; 2) how personal social networks and neighborhood social environments influence activity location choices and time use; and 3) how the dynamics of social networks and changes in residential social environments induce activity-travel behavior changes as a result of home relocation. This study adopts a longitudinal design and uses both cross-sectional data and longitudinal panel data. Multivariate modelling approaches including Structure Equation Modelling (SEM), multilevel logistic regression and a doubly censored Tobit model are employed. Findings from this study show that social network variables are significant determinants in explaining individuals’ engagements in joint/solo activities/travel and choices of companions for joint activities. Social network attributes and neighborhood social environments are also found to significantly influence individuals’ choices between in- and out-of-neighborhood locations for activities and time use. The study also demonstrates that changes in travel after residential relocation are induced by changes both in the built and social environments as well as the geography of social networks. These findings contribute to the knowledge about the social contexts of activity-travel behavior.
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Gips, Jonathan Peter. "Social motion : mobile networking through sensing human behavior." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/37384.
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Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, 2006."September 2006."
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 62-65).
Low-level sensors can provide surprisingly high-level information about social interactions. The goal of this thesis is to define the components of a framework for sensing social context with mobile devices. We describe several sensing technologies - including infrared transceivers, radio frequency scanners, and accelerometers - that both capture social signals and meet the design constraints of mobile devices. Through the analysis of several large datasets, we identify features from these sensors that correlate well with the underlying social structure of interacting groups of people. We then detail the work that we have done creating infrastructure that integrates social sensors into social applications that run on mobile devices.
by Jonathan Peter Gips.
S.M.
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Heydenrych, Joan Ingrid. "Certain congenital anomalies : some psycho-social implications in adulthood." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 1988. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/17157.
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Bibliography: pages 195-202.This study is an investigation of some psycho-social implications in adulthood of being born with a congenital anomaly. The congenital anomalies - oesophageal atresia, Hirschsprung's disease and high anorectal malformations are surgically corrected at birth, but can be associated with residual problems. These problems could put patients at risk for psycho-social maladjustment. The three anomaly groups were seen to represent varying degrees of severity. The oesophageal atresia respondents represented the no to mild disability/residual problems group. Those who had Hirschsprung's disease represented the moderate disability/residual problem group. The high anorectal malformation respondents' represented the severe disability/residual problem group. The research hypothesis is that the severity of residual problems and psycho-social functioning will be directly proportional to each other, i.e. the more severe the handicap, the poorer the psycho-social functioning. A research study was conducted on 38 adult patients whose congenital anomalies were surgically corrected at The Red Cross War Memorial Children's Hospital. The research methods used were a descriptive survey method and a case-study method. The former involved three self-administered questionnaires. Information obtained concerned demographic, socio-economic, family background, medical and psycho-social problem data. An in-depth case-study was conducted with one respondent from each anomaly group. Information was obtained concerning the effect that residual problems had had on various aspects of patients' lives. Data was analysed descriptively. The findings of the study supported the research hypothesis, the medical prognosis and on the whole agreed with the literature. Severity of residual problems was found to be directly related to psycho-social functioning. Patients with severe disability/residual problems were experiencing the most psycho-social problems, those who had moderate disability/residual problems were found to have some psycho-social disability/residual problems, whereas those with mild disability/residual problems were found to have few or no psycho-social problems. Self-esteem, depression, interpersonal relationships and restricted social functioning were the psycho-social aspects found to be most affected by residual problems. The study revealed gaps in both medical and social work services for these patients in terms of ongoing follow-up services. Recommendation to improve these services have been proposed.
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Harris, Regina Gray. "Social emanations: Toward a sociology of human olfaction." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2007. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc5170/.
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Within the discipline of sociology human olfaction is rich with social significance yet remains a poorly charted frontier. Therefore, the following discourse is aimed toward the development of a foundation for the sociological study of olfaction. It is formed by the dual goals of unearthing the social history of olfaction and of providing a viable sociological account of the manner in which smells affect human ontology. From these goals arise the following research questions: (1) Have the meaning and social relevance of odors and the olfactory sensorium changed throughout different periods of history?; (2) How have those in the lineage of eminent sociological thinkers addressed the phenomenon of human olfaction during these periods?; and (3) What is the process by which aromatic stimuli are transformed from simple chemical compounds, drifting in the atmosphere, into sensations in a sensory field and then on to perceived objects, to subjects of judgment and interpretation, and finally to bases of knowledge which form and continually reform individuals in the world? The weaving of the sociohistorical tapestry of smell is undertaken to provide examples from thousands of years lived experiences as to the fluid and sociologically complex nature of individuals' olfactory senses. This historical information is presented in a narrative format and is synthesized from data gleaned from books, advertisements, articles in popular non-scientific magazines, as well as from the findings of studies published in medical/neurological, psychological, anthropological, and sociological scholarly journals. Regarding theoretical aim of this discourse, insights are drawn from Maurice Merleau-Ponty's phenomenological theory of human perception for the generation of a framework for the sociological study of olfaction. Merleau-Ponty's theoretical notions are modified, modernized, and refitted to more specifically fit the subject of human olfaction and to include all that has been discovered about the biological specifics of olfactory perception since the time of his writing. Taken in sum, this effort is an access point to the understanding of how olfactory sensory perceptions flow toward the ontological unfolding of individuals.
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Amato, Roberta. "Human collective behavior models: language, cooperation and social conventions." Doctoral thesis, Universitat de Barcelona, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/10803/565420.
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The topics dealt with in this thesis are all part of the general problem of social consensus, namely how a convention flourish and decay and what motivates people to conform to it. Examples range from driving on the right side of the street, to language, rules of courtesy or moral judgments. Some conventions arise directly from the need to coordinate or conform, such as fashion or speaking the same language, others, instead, apply to situations where there is a tension between individual and collective interest, such as cooperation, reciprocity, etc.
This thesis is developed around three main questions still open in the research field of collective human behavior: how coexistence of concurrent conventions is possible, why cooperation in real systems is more common than predicted and how a population undergoes collective behavioral change, namely how an initially minority norm can supplant a majority ones.
In the first work, we study the impact of concurrent social pressures in consensus processes. We propose a model of opinion competition where individuals participate in different social networks and receive conflicting social influences. The dynamics take place in two distinct domains, which we model as layers of a multiplex network. The novelty of our study lies to the fact that individuals can have different options in the different layers. This naturally reflects a common situation where an individual can possess some different opinions in different social contexts as a result of consensus with other individuals in the one context but not in the other. Our analysis shows that the latter property enriches the system’s dynamics and allows not only for consensus into a single state for both layers, but also for active dynamical states of coexistence of both options.
In the second model, we analyze the influence of opinion dynamic in competitive strategical games. Cooperation between humans is quite common and stable behavior even in situations where both game theory and experiments predict defection prevalence. One of the reasons could be just the fact that individuals engaging in strategic interactions are also exposed to social influence and, consequently, to the spread of opinions. We present a new evolutionary game model where game and opinions dynamics take place in different layers of a multiplex network. We show that the coupling between the two dynamical processes can lead to cooperation in scenarios where the pure game dynamics predicts defection and, in some particular setting, gives rise to a metastable state in which nodes that adopt the same strategy self-organize into local groups.
In the last work, we present the first extensive quantitative analysis of the phenomenon of norm change by looking at 2,365 orthographic and lexical norms shifts occurred in English and Spanish over the last two centuries as recorded by millions of digitized books. We are able to identify three distinct patterns in the data depending on the nature of the norm shift. Furthermore, we propose a simple evolutionary model that captures all the identified mechanisms and reproduces quantitatively the transitions between norms. This work advances the current understanding of norm shifts in language change, most often limited to qualitative illustrations (e.g., the observation that adoption curve of the new norm follows an ‘S-shaped’ behavior.Esta tesis se desarrolla en torno a tres preguntas principales aún abiertas en el contexto del estudio de los comportamientos humanos colectivos: ¿cómo es posible la coexistencia de convenciones (opiniones, idiomas, etc. ) concurrentes?; ¿por qué la cooperación en sistemas reales es más común de lo que se predice?; y ¿cómo una norma inicialmente minoritaria puede suplantar a una mayoría? En el primer trabajo nos centramos en formular un modelo capaz de contemplar la coexistencia de convenciones opuestas como una solución dinámica estable. En el segundo modelo, analizamos la influencia de la dinámica de opinión el primer análisis cuantitativo (el mejor de nuestro conocimiento) del fenómeno de evolución de las normas, es decir, lo que sucede cuando una nueva norma social reemplaza a una norma existente. Resumiendo, los resultados obtenidos en estos trabajos muestran que al modelar los comportamientos humanos colectivos, el hecho de que los individuos participan simultáneamente en diferentes contextos sociales juega un papel importante. Esto implica que los individuos están sujetos tanto a la influencia de diferentes dinámicas sociales como a estructuras de interacciones diferentes, pero no independientes. También hemos demostrado que, en el complejo proceso de cambio colectivo en la adopción de normas, la naturaleza del cambio de normas deja patrones distintos en los datos representados por tres tipos diferentes de transición dinámica. Este último trabajo avanza la comprensión actual de la evolución de las normas, más a menudo limitado a ilustraciones cualitativas (por ejemplo, la observación de que la curva de adopción de la nueva norma sigue un comportamiento ”en forma de S” ).
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Mao, Qiushi. "Experimental Studies of Human Behavior in Social Computing Systems." Thesis, Harvard University, 2015. http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:17467193.
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Social computing systems, fueled by the ability of the Internet to engage millions of individuals, have redefined computation to include not only the application of algorithms but also the participation of people. Yet, the true impact of social computing in the future depends on a systematic understanding of how to design interventions that produce desirable system-wide behavior. Behavioral experiments, with their fundamental ability to study causality, are an important methodology in reaching this goal.
This dissertation presents several examples of how novel experimental approaches to studying social computing systems can not only improve the design of such systems, but improve our understanding of human behavior. We investigate the differences in motivation and effects of incentives in a crowdsourcing task across paid and volunteer crowdsourcing systems, finding that varying financial incentives even at the same wage can be used to implicitly invoke different biases. We discover the effects of assembling teams of different size in a social, collaborative crisis mapping task, finding that larger groups exert less effort per individual, but make up for this loss in their ability to coordinate. We investigate the accuracy of voting in a human computation setting and how statistical models can be used to discover patterns of decision making across a population of individuals. Finally, we present the design and implementation of TurkServer, an software system that enabled these experimental studies.
The work in this dissertation suggests that experiments in social computing present an opportunity both for understanding design factors of social computing systems and for developing generalizable models of human behavior—and ultimately better theories of how people communicate and interact in our interconnected world.Engineering and Applied Sciences - Computer Science
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KOHLER, Stefan. "Bargaining and human sociality : an experimental economic approach." Doctoral thesis, European University Institute, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/1814/7015.
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Defence date: 5 February 2007Examining Board: Jordi Brandts, (Instituto de Análisis Económico (CSIC) ; Simon Gaechter, (University of Nottingham); Pascal Courty, (European University Institute); Karl Schlag, (European University Institute)
PDF of thesis uploaded from the Library digital archive of EUI PhD theses
This thesis adheres to the fundamental principle of maximizing behavior and equilibrium and shows how behavioral economic assumption of preferences, which go beyond self-interest, makes microeconomic theory applicable to a broad field of social behavior, where traditional models fail. All three thesis chapters are self contained but the thesis evolves from modelling social preferences and an analysis of their behavioral consequences in bargaining situations to an empirical test of their prevalence.
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Joanne, Pirie. "Human Being Leader." Licentiate thesis, Handelshögskolan i Stockholm, 2012. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hhs:diva-2286.
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TRIPODI, Egon. "Belief formation and prosocial behavior." Doctoral thesis, European University Institute, 2020. https://hdl.handle.net/1814/68844.
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Defence date: 5 November 2020Examining Board: Prof. David K. Levine (EUI); Prof. Michele Belot (Cornell University); Prof. Uri Gneezy (Rady School of Management, UC San Diego); Prof. Lorenz Götte (Institute for Applied Microeconomics, University of Bonn)
Awarded the EUI 2021 Vilfredo Pareto Prize for the Best Doctoral Thesis in Economics.
This dissertation consists of three self-contained essays on belief formation and on the role of beliefs for prosocial behavior. The first chapter is co-authored with Peter Schwardmann and Joel van der Weele. Does the wish to convince others lead people to persuade themselves about the factual and moral superiority of their position? We investigate this question in field experiments at two international debating competitions that randomly assign persuasion goals (pro or contra a motion) to debaters. We find evidence for self-persuasion in incentivized measures of factual beliefs, attitudes, and confidence in one's position. Self-persuasion occurs before the debate and remains after the debate. Our results lend support to interactionist accounts of cognition and suggest that the desire to persuade is an important driver of opinion formation. The second chapter is co-authored with Lorenz Goette. We propose a novel experiment that prevents social learning, thus allowing us to disentangle the underlying mechanisms of social influence. Subjects observe their peer's incentives, but not their behavior. We find evidence of conformity: when individuals believe that incentives make others contribute more, they also increase their contributions. Conformity is driven by individuals who feel socially close to their peer. However, when incentives are not expected to raise their peer’s contributions, participants reduce their own contributions. Our data is consistent with an erosion of norm-adherence when prosocial behavior of the social reference is driven by extrinsic motives, and cannot be explained by incentive inequality or altruistic crowding out. These findings show scope for social influence in settings with limited observability and offer insights into the mediators of conformity. The third chapter is co-authored with Christian J. Meyer. We study incentivized voluntary contributions to charitable activities. Motivated by the market for blood donations in Germany, we consider a setting where different incentives coexist and agents can choose to donate without receiving monetary compensation. We use a model that interacts image concerns of agents with intrinsic and extrinsic incentives to donate. Laboratory results show that a collection system where compensation can be turned down can improve the efficiency of collection. Image effects and incentive effects do not crowd each other out. A significant share of donors turn down compensation. Heterogeneity in treatment effects suggests gender-specific preferences over signaling.
--1. Self-Persuasion: Evidence from Field Experiments at Two International Debating Competitions -- 2. Social Influence in Prosocial Behavior: Evidence from a Large-Scale Experiment -- 3. Sorting Into Incentives for Prosocial Behavior
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Das, Sauvik. "Social Cybersecurity: Reshaping Security Through An Empirical Understanding of Human Social Behavior." Research Showcase @ CMU, 2017. http://repository.cmu.edu/dissertations/982.
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Despite substantial effort made by the usable security community at facilitating the use of recommended security systems and behaviors, much security advice is ignored and many security systems are underutilized. I argue that this disconnect can partially be explained by the fact that security behaviors have myriad unaccounted for social consequences. For example, by using two-factor authentication, one might be perceived as “paranoid”. By encrypting an e-mail correspondence, one might be perceived as having something to hide. Yet, to date, little theoretical work in usable security has applied theory from social psychology to understand how these social consequences affect people’s security behaviors. Likewise, little systems work in usable security has taken social factors into consideration. To bridge these gaps in literature and practice, I begin to build a theory of social cybersecurity and apply those theoretical insights to create systems that encourage better cybersecurity behaviors. First, through a series of interviews, surveys and a large-scale analysis of how security tools diffuse through the social networks of 1.5 million Facebook users, I empirically model how social influences affect the adoption of security behaviors and systems. In so doing, I provide some of the first direct evidence that security behaviors are strongly driven by social influence, and that the design of a security system strongly influences its potential for social spread. Specifically, security systems that are more observable, inclusive, and stewarded are positively affected by social influence, while those that are not are negatively affected by social influence. Based on these empirical results, I put forth two prescriptions: (i) creating socially grounded interface “nudges” that encourage better cybersecurity behaviors, and (ii) designing new, more socially intelligent end-user facing security systems. As an example of a social “nudge”, I designed a notification that informs Facebook users that their friends use optional security systems to protect their own accounts. In an experimental evaluation with 50,000 Facebook users, I found that this social notification was significantly more effective than a non-social control notification at attracting clicks to improve account security and in motivating the adoption of promoted, optional security tools. As an example of a socially intelligent cybersecurity system, I designed Thumprint: an inclusive authentication system that authenticates and identifies individual group members of a small, local group through a single, shared secret knock. Through my evaluations, I found that Thumprint is resilient to casual but motivated adversaries and that it can reliably differentiate multiple group members who share the same secret knock. Taken together, these systems point towards a future of socially intelligent cybersecurity that encourages better security behaviors. I conclude with a set of descriptive and prescriptive takeaways, as well as a set of open problems for future work. Concretely, this thesis provides the following contributions: (i) an initial theory of social cybersecurity, developed from both observational and experimental work, that explains how social influences affect security behaviors; (ii) a set of design recommendations for creating socially intelligent security systems that encourage better cybersecurity behaviors; (iii) the design, implementation and comprehensive evaluation of two such systems that leverage these design recommendations; and (iv) a reflection on how the insights uncovered in this work can be utilized alongside broader design considerations in HCI, security and design to create an infrastructure of useful, usable and socially intelligent cybersecurity systems.
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Morelos, Ronaldo. "Symbols and power in the theatre of the oppressed." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 1999.
Find full textAbstract:
Augusto Boal developed Theatre of the Oppressed as a way of using the symbolic language of the dramatic arts in the examination of power relations in both the personal and
social contexts. Boal understood that symbolic realities directly influence empirical reality and that drama, as an art form that employs the narrative and the event, serves as a powerful interface between symbols and actuality. In the dramatic process, the creation and the environment from which it emerges are inevitably transformed in the process of enactment. These transformations manifest in the context of power relations - in the context of the receptor's ability to make decisions and to engage in actions, and the communicator's ability to influence the receptor's opinions and behaviour. This thesis will examine two different
practices in which symbolic realities have been utilised in the context of human relations of power. Primarily, this thesis examines the theory and practice of Theatre of the Oppressed as it has developed. Additional(v, Theatre of the Oppressed will be examined in comparison with another body of theory and practice - one grounded in the martial and political fields. The similarities and differences between the two practices will be used as a way of elaborating
upon the objectives and methods of Theatre of the Oppressed, and as a way of examining the overall practice of 'cultural activism'. This thesis will look at the work of Augusto Boal from 1965 to 1998, and the body of his work known as Theatre of the Oppressed. Also examined will be the work of Edward Geary Lansdale from 1950 to 1983, chiefly his work in the Philippines and Vietnam. One is a theatre worker, a writer, director, theorist and politician.
The other retired as a major general in the US Air Force, a renowned intelligence operative and expert. This thesis will argue that they are working in the same field, albeit at different points in spectrums of material resources and ideology. They are both cultural activists. This
thesis will examine the way these two practitioners have used the narrative and the event, the myth and the ritual, to colour the canvas of cultures. Cultural activism is the orchestration of narratives and events. Cultural activists work with the symbolic in order to influence the actual.
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Mäkivierikko, Aram. "A Needs-Based Approach towards Fostering Long-term Engagement with Energy Feedback among Local Residents." Licentiate thesis, KTH, Hållbar utveckling, miljövetenskap och teknik, 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-254920.
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In order to reach the current climate goals, energy consumption needs to decrease in all sectors, including households, which produce 20% of the European emissions. However, it is difficult to increase residents’ engagement in their household electricity consumption as it is an ‘invisible’ form of energy, the monetary incentives are often too small and environmental incentives are not very effective. Building on the idea that an engagement mechanism should be based on user needs, and recent research showing that social influence can be an effective way to affect consumption behaviour, this thesis examines the potential of a neighbourhood-based digital local social network providing feedback on household electricity consumption as an engagement solution. By helping neighbours to know each other better, such a network could meet the basic human need of belonging to a group, while also taking advantage of the social influence between neighbours to increase the effectiveness of the energy feedback provided. This thesis sought to: 1) Identify needs of residents that could be served by a local social network and explore whether such a network could provide a beneficial context for energy feedback; 2) identify and evaluate a set of design principles for energy feedback and use them to propose a prototype feedback design suitable for use in a local social network; and 3) design and implement a baseline study for measuring changes in aspects of social and environmental sustainability in a neighbourhood that introduction of a local social network can achieve, such as social cohesion, trust, safety, and energy attitudes and behaviour. In order to achieve these objectives, the Research Through Design methodology was used. This resulted in mixed methods research using quantitative (household survey) and qualitative (focus group interviews, stakeholder consultation workshop) methods. The research was conducted in two eco-districts in Stockholm, Sweden: Hammarby Sjöstad and Stockholm Royal Seaport. Regarding the first objective, results from the household survey indicated a need for increased interaction between neighbours in Stockholm Royal Seaport, while the focus group discussions revealed local communication needs that a local social network could meet. However, the possibility to use social influence between neighbours in increasing the intention to save energy was shown to be rather weak, possibly because of the current low level of connection between neighbours. Regarding the second objective, a set of design principles was identified using a literature study. They were used to create a design prototype of energy feedback that was presented to potential end-users in a stakeholder consultation workshop and then refined using suggestions given in the workshop. The workshop indicated support for many of the design principles as they were indirectly mentioned in the discussions. The design principle of fair feedback was further explored, suggesting use of typical household consumption as part of a fair comparison metric and when setting reduction goals. Regarding the third objective, an evaluation method with baseline survey and follow-up surveys was suggested. The household survey served as a baseline for measuring social and environmental sustainability aspects in a neighbourhood. Further research is needed on the effectiveness of a local social network as an engagement mechanism for energy feedback.För att nå de nuvarande klimatmålen måste energiförbrukningen minska i alla sektorer, även för hushåll som står för 20% av de europeiska utsläppen. Det är dock svårt att öka medborgarnas engagemang kring förbrukningen av hushållsel då el är en "osynlig" energiform, de monetära incitamenten ofta är ofta för små och miljöincitament inte är särskilt effektiva. Baserat på idén att en engagemangsmekanism bör baseras på användarbehov samt ny forskning som visat att socialt inflytande kan vara ett effektivt sätt att påverka konsumtionsbeteendet, undersöker denna avhandling potentialen i ett grannskapsbaserat digitalt lokalt socialt nätverk som tillhandahåller feedback på hushållens elförbrukning som en engagemangslösning. Genom att hjälpa grannar att lära känna varandra bättre kan ett sådant nätverk uppfylla det grundläggande mänskliga behovet av att tillhöra en grupp, samtidigt som det sociala inflytandet mellan grannar kan utnyttjas för att öka effektiviteten hos den tillhandahållna energiåterkopplingen. Denna avhandling hade tre mål: 1) Identifiera behov hos boende som kan tillgodoses av ett lokalt socialt nätverk samt undersöka huruvida ett sådant nätverk skulle kunna tillhandahålla en bra kontext för energiåterkoppling, 2) identifiera och utvärdera en uppsättning designprinciper för energiåterkoppling, och använda principerna för att föreslå en prototypdesign för energiåterkoppling lämplig för användning i ett lokalt socialt nätverk och 3) utforma och genomföraen baseline-studie för att mäta förändringar i aspekter av social och miljömässig hållbarhet i ett grannskap skulle kunna främjas av införandet av ett lokalt socialt nätverk, exempelvis social sammanhållning, tillit, säkerhet samt energiattityder och beteende. För att uppnå dessa mål användes Research Through Design-metodiken, vilket i sin tur resulterade i en s.k. “mixed methods”-forskningsmetodik där både kvantitativa (hushållsundersökning) och kvalitativa (fokusgruppintervjuer, workshop) metoder användes. Forskningen genomfördes i två distrikt med miljöprofil i Stockholm: Hammarby Sjöstad och Norra Djurgårdsstaden. Beträffande det första målet indikerade hushållsundersökningen ett behov av ett ökat samspel mellan grannarna i Norra Djurgårdsstaden. Fokusgruppdiskussionerna avslöjade lokala kommunikationsbehov som ett lokalt socialt nätverk skulle kunna möta. Möjligheten att använda socialt viiinflytande mellan grannar för att öka intentionen att spara energi visade sig dock vara ganska liten, möjligen på grund av den nuvarande låga nivån av sammanhållning mellan grannarna. Beträffande det andra målet identifierades en uppsättning designprinciper med hjälp av en litteraturstudie. Dessa användes för att skapa en designprototyp på energiåterkoppling som presenterades till potentiella slutanvändare under en workshop. Prototypen förbättrades sedan med hjälp av de förslag som gavs i workshopen. Workshopen gav också stöd åt många av designprinciperna som indirekt nämndes under diskussionerna. Designprincipen för rättvis återkoppling undersöktes ytterligare vilket ledde till ett förslag om att använda typisk hushållskonsumtion som en del av en rättvis jämförelseindikator och vid fastställning av energisparmål. Beträffande det tredje målet föreslogs en utvärderingsmetod baserat på en baseline-studie och uppföljande studier. Hushållsundersökningen fungerade som en utgångspunkt för mätning av sociala och miljömässiga hållbarhetsaspekter i ett grannskap. Ytterligare forskning föreslogs för att visa på effektiviteten hos ett lokalt socialt nätverk som en engagemangsmekanism för energiåterkoppling.
QC 20190710
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Nall, Gregory Allen. "An alternative model of chimpanzee social structure, with implications for phylogenetic models of stem-hominid social structure." Virtual Press, 1992. http://liblink.bsu.edu/uhtbin/catkey/845924.
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The following research paper was concerned with five basic objectives:(1) outlining the major theoretical and methodological approaches used in the reconstruction of early hominid social behavior/social structure as a context in which to view Richard Wrangham's and Michael Ghiglieri's phylogenetic models of stem-hominid social structure.(2) examining Wrangham's and Ghiglieri's models of stem-hominid and chimpanzee social structure.(3) indicating how theoretical and methodological aspects of structure essentially represent an extension of the theoretical and methodological approaches the same researchers applied to their models of chimpanzee social structure.(4) addressing the theoretical and methodological deficiences of Wrangham's and Ghiglieri's models of chimpanzee social structure.(5) providing suggestions for improved phylogenetic models of early hominid social structure.The first objective was achieved by: (a) reviewing Tooby and Devore's (1986) and Wrangham's (1986) evaluations of the major theoretical approaches and methodologies used in the reconstruction of hominid social behavior/structure (b) defining, classifying and evaluating Wrangham's and Ghiglieri's phylogenetic approaches within this context.The second objective was accomplished by outlining, analyzing, and comparing/contrasting Wrangham's and Ghiglieri's phylogenetic models of stem-hominid social structure (i.e.Wrangham 1986; Ghiglieri 1987, 1989) and Wrangham's and Ghiglieri's models of chimpanzee social structure (i.e. Wrangham 1975, 1979; Ghiglieri 1984, 1985, 1987, 1989).The third objective was achieved by recognizing how Wrangham and Ghiglieri used/stressed principles and concepts derived from evolutionary biology and/or behavioral ecology to develop their models of stem-hominid and chimpanzee social structure. This analysis showed that Wrangham's models of social structure were more favorably inclined toward the method of behavioral ecology than Ghiglieri's models, which favored a sociobiological paradigm. Furthermore, although neither researcher relied exclusively on the above theoretical approaches, the main thrust of their argument often centered around it. For instance, Wrangham's analysis of chimpanzee social structure (Wrangham 1975, 1979) indicated that the ultimate cause of that structure was ecological i.e., patchy food distribution leads to wide female dispersal for optimal foraging efficiency, which in turn favors a male kin breeding group that can maintain a territority that includes several individual female ranges. In contrast, Wrangham's phylogenetic model of the social structure of the stem-hominid (Wrangham, 1986) suggested that phylogenetic inertia may be partially responsible for the shared social features found among African Hominoidea. However, in the same work, Wrangham also suggested that further socioecological analysis of African apes may indicate whether food distribution and its effects on female dispersion/association may partially explain conservative African ape social features.Ghiglieri's phylogenetic model of the stem-hominid (1987, 1989), on the other hand, explained the conservative social features of bonobos, common chimpanzees, and hominids to be primarily a product of phylogenetic inertia and sexual selection. Furthermore, for Ghiglieri the most important sexual selection variable was a male communal reproductive strategy. This, according to Ghiglieri, is the ultimate cause of social structure. Notably, Ghiglieri (1984, 1985) had earlier stressed the overiding importance of a male communal reproductive strategy but was less dogmatic in his insistence that chimpanzees had essentially solved their ecological problems (e.g. that they had solved the food distribution problem by fusion-fission sociality; predators were never a real problem). Nevertheless, Ghiglieri's earlier position similarily expressed the idea that a communal reproductive strategy constituted the ultimate cause of social structure.The fourth objective was accomplished by presentation of an alternative model of chimpanzee social behavior which suggested that structure; the effect of phylogenetic inertia on social structure; chimpanzee social structure is the combined product of ecological and sexual selection forces: female optimal foraging, male mating strategies, and predator pressure. The model was considered by the author to be unique in that it integrated essential aspects of both Wrangham's and Ghiglieri's models and, in addition, provided support for Alexander's (1974) contention that predation pressure is an ultimate cause of ape social structure. The model also outlined scenarios for the evolution of chimpanzee group._ extensibility (fusion-fission sociality) and the capacity for warfare among chimpanzees.The last objective was achieved by a discussion of the implications that the author's model had for phylogenetic models of stem-hominid social structure. In this discussion the author reviewed the following issues as they related to the phylogenetic reconstruction of hominid social structure: the role of phylogeny and/or ecology in the causation of social encountered when using a phylogenetic referential model for the personal biases that enter into phylogenetic econstructions; pitfalls reconstruction of early hominid social evolution; the significance of chimpanzee models of social structure.The importance of the preceding study lay in its ability to stimulate improved conceptual models of African hominoid social structure.Department of Anthropology
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Shah, Fahad. "Modeling human group behavior in virtual worlds." Doctoral diss., University of Central Florida, 2011. http://digital.library.ucf.edu/cdm/ref/collection/ETD/id/4704.
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Virtual worlds and massively-multiplayer online games are rich sources of information about large-scale teams and groups, offering the tantalizing possibility of harvesting data about group formation, social networks, and network evolution. They provide new outlets for human social interaction that differ from both face-to-face interactions and non-physically-embodied social networking tools such as Facebook and Twitter. We aim to study group dynamics in these virtual worlds by collecting and analyzing public conversational patterns of users grouped in close physical proximity. To do this, we created a set of tools for monitoring, partitioning, and analyzing unstructured conversations between changing groups of participants in Second Life, a massively multi-player online user-constructed environment that allows users to construct and inhabit their own 3D world. Although there are some cues in the dialog, determining social interactions from unstructured chat data alone is a difficult problem, since these environments lack many of the cues that facilitate natural language processing in other conversational settings and different types of social media. Public chat data often features players who speak simultaneously, use jargon and emoticons, and only erratically adhere to conversational norms. Humans are adept social animals capable of identifying friendship groups from a combination of linguistic cues and social network patterns. But what is more important, the content of what people say or their history of social interactions? Moreover, is it possible to identify whether people are part of a group with changing membership merely from general network properties, such as measures of centrality and latent communities? These are the questions that we aim to answer in this thesis. The contributions of this thesis include: 1) a link prediction algorithm for identifying friendship relationships from unstructured chat data 2) a method for identifying social groups based on the results of community detection and topic analysis. The output of these two algorithms (links and group membership) are useful for studying a variety of research questions about human behavior in virtual worlds. To demonstrate this we have performed a longitudinal analysis of human groups in different regions of the Second Life virtual world. We believe that studies performed with our tools in virtual worlds will be a useful stepping stone toward creating a rich computational model of human group dynamics.ID: 030646202; System requirements: World Wide Web browser and PDF reader.; Mode of access: World Wide Web.; Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Central Florida, 2011.; Includes bibliographical references (p. 162-183).
Ph.D.
Doctorate
Computer Science
Engineering and Computer Science
Computer Science
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Hillenbrand-Nowicki, Cathy. "The effect of plants on human perceptions and behavior within an interior atrium." Thesis, Virginia Tech, 1993. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/41917.
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Plants are frequently used as design components for various types of interior settings. Design professionals may specify plants because of a subconscious awareness of the human need for natural contact, or as in may cases, such as in a "sunspace", because it is traditional to do so. Past studies by behavioral and horticulture researchers have documented human preference for plants, and have shown that plants positively affect people psychologically, but little research has been done to determine whether the use of plants in interior environments can influence human behavior.
Interior plantscaping is a vital and expanding type of agribusiness, with millions of dollars being spent each year to install and maintain plants specified by design professionals. Plants are frequently used for clients in industry, health care, hospitality, retail, education, and in personal residences. Demonstrating that plants influence human physical behavior in interior environments would increase their value as interior design components, and provide a powerful sales tool to the plantscaping industry. Because of the potential importance of understanding more about the influence of plants in interior spaces on human behavior, this research examines whether user behavior patterns and spatial perceptions can be changed by the simple addition of interior plantscaping.
This study was conducted to determine whether the introduction of trees and plants into an underutilized area of a newly constructed interior atrium would affect user perceptions of, and/or behaviors in the space. User perceptions of and activities within the atrium were recorded on questionnaires and behavioral maps, both before and after the installation of Ficus trees and Chinese Evergreen plants. Surveys were used to collect demographic information, suggestions for improving the atrium, and to determine user perceptions via the use of 13 polar adjective pairs on a six point semantic differential scale. Maps were used to record user behaviors on the lower atrium level where the plants were placed.
The majority of data were analyzed descriptively by frequencies and percentages. Semantic differential analysis was done using two-tailed t-tests at p = .05. T-tests did not prove to be significant. There was mean movement of perceived perceptions from pre- to post-test. User behavior on the lower atrium level appeared to be affected by plant installation. A preference was shown for napping under the trees, and users spent more time on that atrium level when the trees and plants were present.Master of Science
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Kruusvall, I︠U︡. "Environmental and social influence on human activity." Tartu, Estonia : Dept. of Psychology, University of Tartu, 1994. http://catalog.hathitrust.org/api/volumes/oclc/35034030.html.
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Brunnlieb, Claudia [Verfasser]. "The role of Vasopressin in human social behavior / Claudia Brunnlieb." Lübeck : Zentrale Hochschulbibliothek Lübeck, 2014. http://d-nb.info/1059830655/34.
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Zimmerman, Tara D. "Examining Human Information Behavior on Social Media: Introducing the Concept of Social Noise." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2020. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1707349/.
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Social media information behavior is increasingly critical, impacting not only individuals and groups but the beliefs, values, and direction of society and culture. The purpose of this study was to investigate how persistent observation by members of the online network influences social media users' information behavior, resulting in the phenomenon of social noise. Data analytics, including LDA, LSA, and clustering methodologies, were performed but could not provide information about the users' motivations. Using an ethnographic approach, participant observations and interviews were conducted with Facebook users as they interacted with informational posts, and the data collected was coded using a recursive method. Four key constructs of social noise were identified, and sub-codes were assigned within each construct as patterns emerged, providing insight into the different facets of social noise. Additionally, in most instances more than one of the four constructs were present, layering their influence on the information behavior. Based on these findings, social media users are not always interacting with information based on true personal beliefs or desires; instead, concerns surrounding their personal image, relationships with others, core beliefs, and online conflict are influencing their observable information behavior. The results of this exploratory study provide a basis to further develop the social noise model. Qualitative data provides insight into the thinking and motivations behind social media users' observable information behavior, specifically in the areas of cultural agency, relationship management, image curation, and conflict engagement.
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Johnson, Susan C. "Social, legal and ethical aspects of human genetic modification and selection." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2004. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.404051.
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RIVA, FEDERICA. "Neural correlates of human action perception: motor, semantic and social aspects." Doctoral thesis, Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10281/46284.
Full textAbstract:
In the last decades, human action processing has been the research focus of a series of studies aimed at investigating the brain mechanisms underlying this complex process. Converging neurophysiological and functional neuroimaging literature suggested that human actions processing is associated with a large scale network involving areas within the temporal, parietal and frontal cortices. Against the amount of literature available on the localization of these areas, the temporal course of their activations is poorly understood.
The purpose of the present project was to explore the temporal dynamics associated with human action perception investigating the neural responses to different aspects of human behavior by means of a series of high-density electrophysiological recording experiments combined with source localization methods.
Specifically, the motor (Chapter 1), the semantic (Chapter 2) and the social (Chapter 3) aspects were investigated.
Results highlighted a crucial role of the social/affective content, revealing a very early recognition (at 170 ms) operated by the temporal and limbic areas, of this aspect of the human behavior. Starting from 250 ms the processing of the different aspects occurs temporally aligned, involving firstly the mid-superior temporal sulcus (STS) and subsequently the fronto-parietal mirror (hMNS) circuit. Evidence from the source localization analysis suggested also a later involvement of the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), associated with mentalizing process.
A deepening of the social content of actions was then performed (Chapter 4). Specifically, the modulation of the neural response to particular social actions, that is the communicative actions, caused by the different role held by the observer was investigated using fMRI. Activations in the brain circuits associated with action perception, namely the STS, the hMNS and the mPFC, were recorded only when participants were the addressees of the communicative actions, clearly indicating the importance of social involvement in processing human actions.
All in all, the present results point toward a complex interplay of different brain networks to process in parallel distinct aspects of the human behavior in order to ensure a rapid and effective comprehension of the surrounding social environment. The prominent role of the social aspect in human action perception is also supported by the clear result of the prevalence of the affective/social content on the others.
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Custance, Deborah M. "Social learning and imitation in human and nonhuman primates." Thesis, University of St Andrews, 1995. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/15076.
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Most people assume that monkeys and apes can imitate, but recently, several researchers have suggested there is little convincing evidence of imitation in any nonhuman species. The purpose of the present thesis is to compare the imitative abilities of human and non-human primates. Some of the most convincing evidence for imitation comes from anecdotal reports of imitative behaviour in great apes. A survey of the literature was performed and a database of imitative episodes in chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans was compiled (using a similar approach to Whiten & Byrne's 1988a tactical deception database). Each report was subjected to a strict evaluation, and it was deemed that 23 reports from chimpanzees, 3 from gorillas and 4 from orangutans provided relatively convincing evidence of imitation. An experiment was conducted to test if chimpanzees can imitate as the anecdotal data suggests. Two chimpanzees were taught to reproduce 15 arbitrary gestures on the command "Do this". Next they were presented with 48 novel items. They imitated 13 and 20 novel gestures respectively. Using a rigorous coding system, two independent observers correctly identified a significant number of the chimpanzees' imitations (P< 0.0001). These results show that chimpanzees are capable of the complex intermodal visual-motor co-ordination and control necessary for imitation. The second experimental chapter explores whether monkeys, apes, and/or humans imitate in the context of a functional task. Six capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella), eight chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and 24 children were presented with an analogue of a natural food processing task. The subjects were divided into two groups and each saw a different method for opening an artificial fruit. The children showed quite extensive imitation; the capuchin monkeys showed little to none; while the chimpanzees showed marginal imitative abilities. This constitutes the first experimental evidence of functional object imitation in a nonhuman specie.
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Berdoy, Manuel. "Feeding behaviour of wild rats, Rattus norvegicus : social and genetic aspects." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1991. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.670302.
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Björkman, Barbro. "Ethical aspects of owning human biological material." Licentiate thesis, KTH, Philosophy and History of Technology, 2005. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-610.
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Lichliter, Ann. "Organizational commitment of Nonprofit Human Service assistants." Thesis, Saint Mary's University of Minnesota, 2016. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=3745603.
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Nonprofit Human service assistants provide much of the direct care for the most vulnerable and disenfranchised populations (Annie E. Casey Foundation, 2003; Cleary et al., 2006.) Their high turnover rates compromise service quality and increase nonprofit costs (Annie E. Casey Foundation, 2003; Baumeister & Zaharia, 1987; Durlak & Roth, 1983; Mor Barak, Nissly, & Levin, 2001; Rutowski, Guiler, & Schimmel, 2009). To ensure client services are effective, nonprofit leaders need to identify strategies to enhance human service assistant’s organizational commitment. This qualitative study explored how human service assistants perceived their organizational commitment and the experiences that impacted their organizational commitment. From the interviews with 21 human service assistants, a grounded theory emerged illustrating the factors that foster organizational commitment. Human service assistants arrived at their agency with experiences, characteristics, and/or personal circumstances that may have influenced their commitment. Once employed, the nonprofit environment provided experiences that fostered organizational commitment. The culmination of these experiences resulted in participants feeling valued by the organization or I matter. Feeling they mattered was the core condition for organizational commitment.
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Russell, Jennifer J. "Alliance-protective and self-protective behavior strategies as adaptive responses to social anxiety." Thesis, McGill University, 2006. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=102721.
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The social implications of anxiety have received little empirical attention. Moreover, the continuity of interpersonal processes associated with clinical and non-clinical levels of chronic social anxiety has not been systematically investigated. The relation between interpersonal behavior and anxiety reported during naturally occurring social interactions was examined in two studies; the first examined community volunteers exhibiting a range of chronic social anxiety levels, while the second compared individuals with generalized social anxiety disorder (GSAD) to a matched sample of non-clinical controls. Unique patterns were expected to emerge with respect to state versus chronic levels of social anxiety. State social anxiety was conjectured to predict an alliance-protective response characterized by increased levels of agreeable behavior and decreased levels of quarrelsome behavior. Chronic social anxiety was hypothesized to predict a self-protective interpersonal style characterized by increased levels of submissive behavior and decreased levels of dominant behavior. Event-level appraisals of inferiority were expected to moderate this self-protective orientation; socially anxious individuals were expected to report enhanced levels of submission and reduced levels of dominance during interactions in which subjective inferiority was elevated. As predicted, increased state social anxiety was associated with decreased levels of quarrelsome behavior. Elevated state anxiety was also associated with increased levels of submissive behavior. This pattern was observed across all levels of chronic social anxiety, although participants with GSAD displayed an even greater tendency to increase submissiveness in response to state social anxiety compared to controls. As predicted, elevated levels of chronic social anxiety were associated with increased submissive behavior and decreased dominant behavior across all levels of state social anxiety. Subjective appraisals of inferiority enhanced levels of submission and reduced levels of dominance among socially anxious individuals. The results illustrated separate patterns of behavior for state and chronic social anxiety and were consistent with the proposition that situational elevations in social anxiety are associated with alliance-protective behavior strategies while chronic elevations are associated with a self-protective orientation that is amplified by sensitivity to negative social cues. The findings also supported the contention that social anxiety is a continuous construct associated with similar interpersonal processes across clinical and non-clinical populations.
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Streater, D. Brent. "Modeling how individual entities react to indirect fire." Thesis, Monterey, Calif. : Springfield, Va. : Naval Postgraduate School ; Available from National Technical Information Service, 2004. http://library.nps.navy.mil/uhtbin/hyperion/04Jun%5FStreater.pdf.
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Eriksson, Giwa Sebastian. "Procedural justice, social norms and conflict : human behavior in resource allocation." Doctoral thesis, Stockholm : Economic Research Institute, Stockholm School of Economics (EFI), 2009. http://www2.hhs.se/efi/summary/810.htm.
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Gears, Deborah A. "Wiki Behavior in the Workplace: Emotional Aspects of Content Development." NSUWorks, 2011. http://nsuworks.nova.edu/gscis_etd/161.
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Wikis have been found to be an easy-to-use, low-cost, and Internet-based technology useful in creating and mobilizing knowledge. Wikis hosted within firms (corporate wikis) have become a popular way for employees to share information and collaborate.
Preliminary research suggested that as few as 6% of wiki consumers contributed to the development of wiki pages. Conventional approaches argued that employees judged the costs of participating in wikis (e.g., authoring or changing material, reading messages, following an argument, and posting responses) to exceed the benefits of participating in wikis (e.g., recognition, reputation etc.) - thus many people "lurked" but did not post. Considering that people contemplated perceived benefits with costs of participating in wikis, research emphasized the cognitive aspects of decision-making.
The emotional aspects of wiki participation in firms have received little research attention. Yet, research in other fields such as law, economics, and health showed that emotions played a critical role in human decision making, where feelings were shown to outweigh contemplated costs and benefits. For example, Kiviniemi, Voss-Humke, and Siefert (2007) found that positive feelings about exercise resulted in more physical activity whereas positive feelings about food resulted in unhealthy food choices. For Wikipedia, a public wiki, studies suggested that emotion might be an important motivator in participation.
The purpose of this research was to study the role of emotion in corporate wiki participation. Since the area of research is new, the contextual details of wikis in an organizational setting made it difficult for a researcher to separate the context from the main effects. A grounded theory approach was needed. Under grounded theory, one starts with the data and builds arguments or theories from the "ground up."
This study used a grounded theory methodology to reveal data through interviews, employee journals, observations, wiki statistics, and other documentation. Data were analyzed on a continuum using grounded theory coding to identify codes, categories, concepts, and properties and to recognize relationships among concepts. An exploration of emotion in an organizational context resulted in theories that provided an important beginning to understanding wiki experiences and improving wiki outcomes.
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Warner, Gary E. "Predicting pedestrian use on outdoor urban plazas utilizing climate/behavior models." Thesis, This resource online, 1991. http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-12302008-063811/.
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Barberini, Marta. "The Impact of Humanitarian Photography on the Generation of Sympathy and on Donation Behavior." PDXScholar, 2010. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/18.
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This paper presents findings of an exploratory study to evaluate the impact of humanitarian photography on the generation of sympathy and donation behavior. Considering the large amount of money spent each year by charity organizations on marketing strategies, it seems crucial to shed light on the persuasive impact of images in this context. The overarching purpose of this study was to discern what impact, if any, a number of features in a photograph have on sympathetic reactions. Specifically the author examined facial expressions (sad vs. happy), eye contact vs. no eye contact and total number of subjects portrayed. Findings supported the hypothesis that sad expressions in photos would have greater sympathetic responses than happy expressions. The author hypothesized that direct eye contact would be more persuasive than indirect eye contact, but the data supported the inverse result: indirect eye contact elicited more sympathy than direct gaze. The third hypothesis, that single subject images would be more persuasive than multiple subjects, was not supported. The author concluded that results draw attention to sympathy-generating attributes of charity appeals that have been overlooked.
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Wei, Junqing. "Autonomous Vehicle Social Behavior for Highway Driving." Research Showcase @ CMU, 2017. http://repository.cmu.edu/dissertations/919.
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In recent years, autonomous driving has become an increasingly practical technology. With state-of-the-art computer and sensor engineering, autonomous vehicles may be produced and widely used for travel and logistics in the near future. They have great potential to reduce traffic accidents, improve transportation efficiency, and release people from driving tasks while commuting. Researchers have built autonomous vehicles that can drive on public roads and handle normal surrounding traffic and obstacles. However, in situations like lane changing and merging, the autonomous vehicle faces the challenge of performing smooth interaction with human-driven vehicles. To do this, autonomous vehicle intelligence still needs to be improved so that it can better understand and react to other human drivers on the road. In this thesis, we argue for the importance of implementing ”socially cooperative driving”, which is an integral part of everyday human driving, in autonomous vehicles. An intention-integrated Prediction- and Cost function-Based algorithm (iPCB) framework is proposed to enable an autonomous vehicles to perform cooperative social behaviors. We also propose a behavioral planning framework to enable the socially cooperative behaviors with the iPCB algorithm. The new architecture is implemented in an autonomous vehicle and can coordinate the existing Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) and Lane Centering interface to perform socially cooperative behaviors. The algorithm has been tested in over 500 entrance ramp and lane change scenarios on public roads in multiple cities in the US and over 10; 000 in simulated case and statistical testing. Results show that the proposed algorithm and framework for autonomous vehicle improves the performance of autonomous lane change and entrance ramp handling. Compared with rule-based algorithms that were previously developed on an autonomous vehicle for these scenarios, over 95% of potentially unsafe situations are avoided.
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Arpin, Sarah Noel. "Intrapersonal and Interpersonal Consequences of Loneliness: Health Behavior, Social Interactions, Self-Disclosure, and Perceived Responsiveness." PDXScholar, 2015. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/2340.
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As a social species, human beings are driven by an innate desire to belong and are thus motivated to develop and maintain meaningful social relationships. As such, perceiving a lack of belongingness strongly impacts psychological and physiological health and well-being. A common form of perceived relationship deficits is loneliness, a negative-affective experience detrimental to health and well-being over time. Through a series of three manuscripts, this dissertation applies the full-cycle model of social psychological research to explore various affective, behavioral, and cognitive consequences of loneliness. Whereas existing models of loneliness focus on long-lasting or chronic forms of loneliness, these studies investigate chronic and transient loneliness, as well as processes through which transient loneliness may develop into more chronic levels. The first paper demonstrates that solitary consumption is a unique behavioral response to transient loneliness, which may exacerbate the experience of loneliness and negatively impact health over time. The second paper provides support for a positivity-deficit perspective, demonstrating that chronic loneliness is related to less disclosure of recent positive experiences, a deficit which may be consequential for the development of close relationships. The third paper demonstrates the role of transient loneliness in inhibiting individuals and their interaction partners from reaping the social rewards of positive-event disclosure, particularly among those who typically feel socially connected. Taken together, these studies expand the current understanding transient loneliness, revealing various social-cognitive and behavioral consequences which could impede the social-reaffiliation process, and thus contribute to the maintenance of loneliness over time.
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Ge, Shuai. "The mass collaboration of human flesh search in China." Thesis, University of Macau, 2011. http://umaclib3.umac.mo/record=b2525506.
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Runeson, Andreas. "Performing on a digital stage : A Twitch.tv case study on streamer behavior." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för informatik och media, 2017. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-329939.
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Twitch.tv är en växande livestreaming-plattform, främst inriktad på spel. Streamers presenterar sig själva framför en livepublik. Detta leder till nya och intressanta interaktioner. I denna studie studerar jag två Twitch.tv livestreamers för att undersöka skillnaderna i beteende baserat på den interaktion som förekommer mellan dem och deras publik. Streamers publikstorlek varierade. För att undersöka skillnaderna användes följande forskningsfråga: Hur använder två livestreamers Twitch.tv för att interagera med sin respektive publik när publikstorleken skiljer sig? För att undersöka detta utfördes över 60 timmar videoanalys samt en intervju med en av deltagarna. Den insamlade datan analyserades med Erving Goffman’s (1990) Dramaturgical-teori. Resultaten visar på skillnader i beteende (Dramatisering samt Idealisering) samt skillnader mellan de båda streaminggränssnitten (Scen och kulisser). Båda deltagarna påverkades av förväntningar från deras respektive publiker samt skapade framsidor (fronts) för att leva upp till dessa förväntningar till uppträdandets fördel.Twitch.tv is a growing platform for game related live streaming. Streamers present themselves live in front of a live audience, where innovative interactions take place. In this study, I looked at two Twitch.tv live streamers with varying audience sizes. The study was conducted to better understand the differences in behavior based on their interaction with their audiences. The research question was as follows: How do two live streamers, one big and one small, interact with their audiences through the use of different features of Twitch.tv? To do this I conducted video analyses of over 60 hours worth of streaming data as well as one interview with one of the live streaming participants. The gathered data was analyzed using Erving Goffman’s (1990) Dramaturgical theory for studying the behaviors during the streamers performances. The results show differences in both performance behavior (Dramatization and Idealization) as well as differences in their streaming interface (Stage and Set pieces). Both streamers where affected by expectations from the audience while creating fronts to maintain these expectations for the benefit of the performance.
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Johnson, Debra Fay. "An assessment of the gambling behavior of older adults in a senior center setting." CSUSB ScholarWorks, 2007. https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd-project/3073.
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Fifty-two individuals 60 years of age or older participated in this research study. This study is of significance because as opportunities to gamble are becoming more available and accessible, older adults are participating in gambling activities for leisure and recreational benefits. This phenomenon is of concern because older adults may be at risk for problems related to gambling that they may not be able to recover from. Furthermore, senior center directors and social workers need to know how to assess, evaluate and intervene with older adults who may have gambling problems or problems related to their gambling behavior.