Goal-oriented Actions Research Articles

CYBERNETICAL ACTIONS AND MARKOV PROCESSES

A goal-oriented action that is performed by a biocybernctical system, with minimum losses, subject to some constraints, is termed cybernetical action. Actions of this kind (often related to survival, e.g., defense or predatory actions) are widespread in nature. A mathematical model of these actions, based on a special kind of operators, termed message operators (or optimization operators), is investigated in connection with the customary transition matrices used in the theory of Markov processes. It is shown that, under certain conditions, transition matrices may be regarded as a special kind of message operators; hence, most of the properties of Markov chains can be expressed in terms of the latter ones. Accordingly, a new class of “stochastic processes with optimization” is defined, which enables Markovian as well as non-Markovian evolutionary processes to be modeled in a general way. Furthermore, by taking into account some recovery phenomena (related to biological rhythms) a new model of sequential actions is suggested. It is shown that the corresponding stochastic process with optimization always involves adaptive learning (that is, the action is stored in the memory of the system, in its optimal form). Thus, by including in the mathematical model the fundamental “optimization principle” which is inherent to the nature of any biological system, a new tool is obtained, permitting to investigate some unknown aspects of the biocybernctical systems in a more general manner as compared with the customary means.

Grandma Moses and the "Corruption" of Data

Distortion of data is caused by purposeful, goal-oriented activity of people who produce data, as well as by attempts to cheat or manipulate social service delivery systems. Failure to recognize a constructive motivational component is attributed to an over-reliance on positivism in the social sciences. It is argued that increased regulation may actually increase distortion and decrease the availability of valid information about social services. Legitimization, self-knowledge, and understanding dynamic processes are suggested as alternatives to using program evaluation for measuring effects of social intervention.

Policy Analysis and Foreign Policy Decisions

Foreign policy decisions constitute a main dimension of governmental activities from early history. Their significance for society varies with the acceptance of different ideological commitments in respect to external national goals, with changes in degrees of interdependence between nations and with transformations of the capacity to influence interaction with other countries through nationally controlled and goal-oriented activities. Changes in international scenery, in accepted values, in technology and in internal political structures are among the variables which illustrate factors that influence the significance of foreign policy decisions, and — even more so — their contents and role.Looking at contemporary foreign policy decisions, we gain the impression that, for most European countries, the significance of such decisions is decreasing, with priority going to the domains of economics, quality of life and internal politics. But this is an illusion caused by too conservative and narrow a conception of “foreign policy decisions”. True, in many European countries the traditional main concerns of foreign policy decisions, such as defence matters, are regarded as decreasing in importance within the given situation. This may be correct at present, as far as it goes. But to deduce from so singular and narrow a phenomenon any general conclusions in respect of the diminishing significance of foreign policy decisions is, it is submitted, a serious mistake.

集団の体制化に及ぼす課題条件の効果

Despite the importance of task for leadership and small group analysis, there have not been enough psychological studies on task structure. It seems increasingly clear that task structure is intimately related to the results obtained in many experiments on the interaction process between individuals or leader-follower relations. The task to which group is exposed is defined as the structures of the path the group should follow in reaching the goal.The purpose of this study was to clarify the effects of the relevance of the individuals' goal-oriented activities upon their organization process.Six three-person groups were used as subjects in each of Exp. I and Exp. II. All of the subjects were 10 to 11 years old primary school boys.Relevance was defined as the degree of freedom of each individuals' goal-oriented activities. The degrees of relevance were operationally produced by the two kinds of task. One consisted of “6 questions” (high relevant), and the other consisted of “30 questions” (low relevant). Both of them were similar to the well known game called “twenty questions” which is a very popular radio program.In these tasks, the importance of one question should be increased as the number of questions allowed are decreased. Particularly, the first 6 questions of the 6 question game are more important than the first 6 questions of the 30 question game. Therefore we compare the group organization process observed during the first 6 questions (decisions) in the 6 question game with that of the 30 question game. And the greater the importance of each question, the greater the restriction of the freedom of the individuals' goal-oriented activities.Discussion or interaction in each group raised during the first 6 questions (decisions) process under the two task conditions was systematically observed and analysed by categories similar to Bales' interaction process analysis (Table 1).Each group performed co-operatively two 6 question and two 30 question games alternately.The main results of our expeiments were as follows:1. Group-oriented activities, which were made for the purpose of controlling the individuals' goal-oriented activities, were more frequently observed under the 6 question game than the 30 question game (Table 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 14, 15, 16, 17), It seemed to be clear that the pressures toward uniformity were stronger under high relevant condition than under low relevant condition.2. In Exp. I where the subjects were instructed to ask questions in turn, the high relevant task conditon induced more group steering role differentiation than low relevant task conditon, but the degree of group task role differentiation did not differ significantly between the 6 and 30 question games (Table 4, 5).3. In Exp. II where such instructions as used in Exp. I were not given, the low relevant task condition induced more role (group steering and task role) differentiation than high relevant task condition (Table 12, 13).

Aggressive Response Strength as a Function of Interference with Goal-Oriented Responses near to and Far from Their Goal

The hypothesis was tested that interference with a goal-oriented activity close to the goal leads to stronger aggressive responses than does interference with a goal-oriented activity far from the goal. One group of fourth-grade Ss attempting to score 100 on a pinball machine task was interfered with by a “tilt” light after scoring 90 points (close to the goal), another group was interfered with by the “tilt” light after scoring 20 points (far from the goal), while an uninterfered-with group served as a control. The hypothesis was not supported. The interfered-with Ss became more self punishing, as measured by the Rosenzweig P-F Study, than the control group.