Theories Of Human Behavior Research Articles

Are Participants in Ethnonationalist Movements Rational-Choosers, Socially-Embedded Actors, or Psychologically-Instinctive Beings?: Motivations and Worldviews of Sikh Separatists from India

This article contributes to answering the fundamental research question, “Why do individuals participate in contentious ethnonationalist movements?” More specifically, it tries to ascertain which competing theory of human behavior—rational-chooser, socially-embedded actor, or instinctive psychological being—best explains this phenomenon. Based on over a dozen in-depth interviews with Sikh ethnonationalists from Punjab-India, this paper finds that social constructivism, and to a much lesser extent, the sociopsychological paradigm best explain why individuals join collective ethnonationalist movements. In contrast, the rational-choice theory finds only very limited support. Even when sociopsychological and rational-choice motivations are found for individual participation in risky ethnonationalist movements, they exist either intertwined or in close conjunction with social constructivist ones, thus giving even increased support for this dominant theory.

Critical success factors in the stages of technological transfer from university to industry: study in the Andean countries

Technology transfer (TT) is a tool for the development of societies and its success is affected by several factors; hence, it is important to identify them and note how they influence the different stages of the technology transfer process. The present work identifies new factors (adaptation to change, government policies, selection criterion of the project portfolio, work environment, product satisfaction, entropy, stress, and ethics), the same ones that have been supported in the theories of human and organisational behaviour, these affect all stages of the technology transfer process from university to industry. The study was made based on confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and the model of structural equations and was carried out on 85 universities in four countries of the Andean region. The obtained results confirm that, at 95% confidence, the proposed factors influence all stages of the technology transfer process.

A longitudinal analysis of the spatial spread of police-investigated physical child abuse

BackgroundResearch has shown that problematic behaviors, such as violence and drug use, may spread through shared physical space and social norms, lending rise to the notion of contagion theories of human behavior. ObjectiveThis study examines whether physical child abuse spreads across time and space in a pattern reflective of a contagion model. Participants and SettingThis study uses 15 years of data from a large U.S. city police department. Data points are geo-located police-investigated physical child abuse incidents that occurred from 2001 to 2015. MethodsPolice department data are combined with U.S. Census estimates of the number of child residents in each of the Census Tract comprising the study site to derive annual rates of police-investigated physical child abuse cases per 1000 children residing in each Census tract. A panel data spatial regression model is used to analyze the association between this dependent variable, the rate of police-investigated physical child abuse cases in surrounding Census tracts, and time. The analysis statistically controls for multiple covariates commonly associated with Census tract-level estimates of child maltreatment, specifically household median income, residential instability, racial composition, population density, and the concentration of child residents. ResultsThe rate of physical child abuse in a Census tract is positively associated with the rate of physical child abuse in the surrounding Census tracts, net of the covariates and the effect of time (β = 0.461, p < .001). ConclusionThis finding provides preliminary evidence that physical child abuse, like some other problematic human behaviors, may spread spatially.

Regional specificity of cathodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) effects on spatial-numerical associations: Comparison of four stimulation sites.

Based on a theory of impulsive and reflective human behavior, we test the effects of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) targeting either prefrontal or parietal cortex in either hemisphere. In a confirmatory registered report, cathodal tDCS is administered to conceptually reproduce tDCS modulations of implicit spatial-numerical associations, numerical distance effects, and response inhibition. Those cognitive operations are hypothesized to draw on left prefrontal, parietal, and right prefrontal activations, respectively, thereby susceptible to inhibitory, cathodal tDCS across those regions. Vice versa, the mutual regional and behavioral specificity of tDCS effects on these behavioral indices is examined and expected to produce double dissociations. In a mixed within-subjects (baseline, during tDCS, post-tDCS) and between-subjects (target electrode: left/right prefrontal cortex/posterior parietal cortex, or sham tDCS) design, we collect (a) confirmatory data on the robustness of cathodal tDCS effects on three behavioral effects and (b) differential data on the specificity of regional targets in male and female human participants. Results will provide crucial tests of theories of cortical organization implied by implicit associations and explicit regulation, which can direct future brain stimulation studies.

Internalization of rules and risk-behavior among early adolescents and relevance for public health

Abstract Introduction Self-determination theory (SDT) is a macro theory of human behavior and provides a substantial theoretical background for understanding and changing qualitative aspects of behavioral regulation such as the level of internalization in the context of health-related behaviors of individuals and communities. The aim of this study is to use this theory to focus on the internalization of parental rules in early adolescents in Slovakia and examine it in relation to their risk behavior. Methods A sample of 581 early adolescents (mean age = 12.5 SD = 0.5; 49% girls) from Slovakia participated in a larger project focusing on health-related behaviors (APVV-0253-11, APVV-15-0662). They completed measures based on SDT addressing the level of internalization or parental rules and the risk behaviors of alcohol use and smoking. These risk behaviors were measured on a dichotomous level (used/ not used). Binary logistic regressions were used to explore the relationship between the level of the internalization of rules with respect to alcohol use and smoking controlling for the relevant variables. Results The results of the analyses showed that after controlling for age and gender, internalized parental rules were negatively associated with alcohol use (95%CI=0.918-0.981). Conversely, the extrinsic regulation of parental rules indicated a higher likelihood of using alcohol (95%CI=1.039-1.151). However, this was not observed in smoking which was found to not be associated with rule internalization. Conclusions The findings stress the importance and relevance of the internalization process when studying behavioral regulation in the context of health. This was demonstrated in the internalizing of parental rules among early adolescents. However, the findings also suggest that a different approach might be needed with different contexts and different health related behaviors. Key messages Acknowledging the importance of the qualitative aspects of self/behavioral regulation such as the level of internalization may improve public health interventions. A different approach might be needed when internalization is considered in different contexts and different health related behaviors.

Critical Commons Scholarship: A Typology

Common-pool resource theory (CPR theory) emerged to understand the limitations of the tragedy of the commons narrative, and the theory of human behavior underlying it. Over time, diverse critiques of CPR theory have also emerged. Prominent critiques include inattention to power and coercion, assumptions that institutions can be crafted, and analyses that exclude history and context, among others. We label this literature critical commons scholarship. In this review paper, we define a typology of five types of critical commons scholarship. The functionalist critique (type 1) argues that a narrow focus on institutions that excludes history, context, and contingencies causes erroneous conclusions about the causes of resource sustainability. The apolitical management critique (type 2) argues that a focus on resource sustainability causes commons scholars to ignore how power is used to create and maintain inequalities through rules and norms structuring resource access. The methodological critique (type 3) argues that methodological incompatibilities, such as CPR theory’s dependence on general, abstract models, necessarily prevent these scholars from responding to type 1 and type 2 critiques. The project of government critique (type 4) argues that common-pool resource theory is used to support neoliberal and hegemonic practices. Finally, the ethical critique (type 5) argues that common-pool resource theory is premised on problematic north-south relationships where expert scholars in the global north provide information to be consumed by “commoners” in the global south. Mainstream CPR theory has been limited in engaging with critical commons scholarship, but there are new tools (such as the social-ecological systems framework and the critical institutionalism approach) for addressing each type of critique. Our goal in developing this typology is to make critiques of CPR theory legible and potentially actionable, while acknowledging the challenges associated with addressing them.

Collaboration Robots as Digital Doubles of Person for Communication in Public Life and Space

Trans-sectoral digital research of man, nature, society and industrial communication allows to create digital twins of social services. Digital duplicates associated with the service sector are created for intelligent process management. Digital twins of man provide services in the social sphere and in space. Training of digital twins in professional competences is carried out on the basis of communicative associative logic of technological thinking by cognitive methods. The study of the effectiveness of machine learning techniques, allowed the use of an approach that allows the combination of artificial intelligence and cognitive psychology. This approach provided pre-preparation of neural networks from accumulated data using existing behaviors. The approach combines existing scientific theories of human behavior with the flexibility of neural networks to make better decisions made by humans in space and in extreme situations. From a practical point of view, this makes it possible to more accurately determine the behavior of the human digital twin in space and in extreme situations. There are a number of socio-economic issues related to human-machine interaction. Complex technologies are not credible on the part of citizens. The coming years will take to improve safety and standardize the creation, application of digital twins and behavior of robots.

Explanatory stories of human perception and behavior in buildings

This paper is motivated by a perceived disconnect between standards and guidelines for supporting building design and operation professionals on the one hand and contemporary fundamental research findings in pertinent human sciences. In other words, the plethora of recent highly detailed studies do not appear to have been crystalized into versatile explanatory theories accessible to practice-oriented professionals in the building delivery process. In fact, to locate instances of high-level and intuitively comprehensible explanatory models of human perception and behavior, one may need to revert back to intellectual traditions originated as far back as in late nineteenth century. A review of a number of such explanatory models suggests that they display, despite their differences in levels of detail and degrees of sophistication, a few recurrent motifs. To revisit these models is rewarding not only from the historical point of view. Their conceptual transparency has arguably the potential to inspire the development of a new generation of accessible high-level explanatory theories of human perception and behavior.

Promoting Cumulation in models of the human mind

Lee et al. (2019) address a critical issue in cognitive science—defining scientific practices that will promote rigor and confidence in our science by ensuring that our mechanisms, models, and theories are adequately described and validated to facilitate replication and to foster trust. They provide a number of concrete suggestions to advance our science along that path. The recommendations emphasize preregistration of models and predictions combined with more comprehensive model evaluation, including published descriptions of exploratory analyses, alternative mechanisms, and model assumptions. These are excellent recommendations, and general adoption of such practices will benefit model assessment and validation methodologies in cognitive science research while improving trust in published reports of computational and mathematical accounts of cognitive phenomena. However, it is unclear that these strategies alone will resolve many other important challenges faced in developing quantitative theories of human cognition and behavior. For example, addressing the crisis of confidence will not, by itself, move the science toward the broader goal of developing more comprehensive and cumulative theories of the nature of the human mind. Cognitive modeling is a critical methodology for achieving that goal. However, to realize the potential will require changes not only to how we evaluate our models, but also to how we measure progress and scientific contribution.

Genres and situational appropriation of information

PurposeInformation science research has begun to broaden its traditional focus on information seeking to cover other modes of acquiring information. The purpose of this paper is to move forward on this trajectory and to present a framework for explicating how in addition to being sought, existing information are made useful and taken into use.Design/methodology/approachA conceptual enquiry draws on an empirical vignette based on an observation study of an archaeological teaching excavation. The conceptual perspective builds on Andersen’s genre approach and Huvila’s notion of situational appropriation.FindingsThis paper suggests that information becomes appropriable, and appropriated (i.e. taken into use), when informational and social genres intertwine with each other. This happens in a continuous process of (re)appropriation of information where existing information scaffolds new information and the on-going process of appropriation.Originality/valueThe approach is proposed as a potentially powerful conceptualisation for explicating information interactions when existing information is taken into use rather than sought that have received little attention in traditional models and theories of human information behaviour.

Nature and social work pedagogy: How U.S. social work educators are integrating issues of the natural environment into their teaching

ABSTRACTThe article presents a study of how U.S. social work educators are including discussion, exercises, readings, and other pedagogical approaches to the natural environment into their classrooms. The findings are part of a larger, naturalistic study that gathered data using a semi-structured interview format. The three major themes that emerged were human behavior theory, ecological and environmental justice, and environmental sustainability. The participants are introducing issues of the natural environment using varied pedagogical techniques including readings, in-class discussions and exercises, service learning, assignments, including written and practical work, research, self-awareness exercises, and class facilitation. Questions for further investigation of social work and the natural environment are included.

Launching a Revolution, based on Islamic Foundations

Conventional economics is deeply and fundamentally flawed, beyond the possibility of reform and repair. Its failings in the real world became obvious to all following the global financial crisis. The root of the problem is the theory of human behavior represented by “homo economicus”. The idea that short-sighted greed is “rational” is sheer folly. The theory is maintained in face of overwhelming empirical evidence to the contrary only because it serves the ideological interests of the rich and powerful capitalist classes. The philosophy of wealth maximization has led to the destruction of families, societies, economies, environment, fauna, and flora, as all are ruthlessly exploited for the creation and maximization of profits. Islamic teachings created a revolution in world history by promoting a society based on cooperation, generosity, and social responsibility. These ideas, completely missing from modern economics, have the same revolutionary potential today. The challenge for the Muslims today is to demonstrate this potential by translating these ideas into reality.

Transactional Analysis of Married and Unmarried Nurses

Background: Transactional analysis is a theory of human personality and social behaviour. It is a comprehensive system of psychotherapy founded in the late 1950s by Eric Berne. Lately, organisational psychologists are waking up to the value of transactional analysis as a valuable Human Resources tool, giving them an insight into various interpersonal transactional styles in various professions. Nursing as a profession has always been characterised as a nurturing, caregiving and comfort providing job, which can emerge as a very taxing and stressful profession in return. The myriad role that nurses play requires certain interpersonal tactics and styles which are very typical demands of their job role. But their personalities and dispositions cannot be ignored. Hence, an attempt is being made in the present study to analyse different transactional styles being adopted by female nursing professionals, along with their back up styles and also the role of their marital status on how they deal with their patients. Methodology: For this purpose, a sample of 120 female nurses, 60 married and 60 unmarrieds, falling in the age range of 25-40 years, working in various private and government hospitals of Chandigarh was taken. The data was collected with the help of Transactional Styles Inventory-Nurses. Results: Results revealed significant differences between married and unmarried nurses. Married nurses were more nurturing while the unmarried nurses emerged to be more regulated in their interpersonal transactions. Conclusion: The overall interpersonal efficacy of nurses needs to be improved so that they can attain the position best suited to help them meet the demands of various roles that they have to play.&#x0D; Keywords: Transactional analysis, transactional functions, nurse-patient interaction

A Hybrid Cognitive Architecture with Primal Affect and Physiology

Though computational cognitive architectures have been used to study several processes associated with human behavior, the study of integration of affect and emotion in these processes has been relatively sparse. Theory from affective science and affective neuroscience can be used to systematically integrate affect into cognitive architectures, particularly in areas where cognitive system behavior is known to be associated with physiological structure and behavior. I introduce a unified theory and model of human behavior that integrates physiology and primal affect with cognitive processes in a cognitive architecture. This new architecture gives a more tractable, mechanistic way to simulate affect-cognition interactions to provide specific, quantitative predictions. It considers affect as a lower-level, functional process that interacts with cognitive processes (e.g., declarative memory) to result in emotional behavior. This formulation makes it more straightforward to connect these affective representations with other related moderating processes that may not specifically be considered as emotional (e.g., thirst or stress). An improved understanding of the architecture that constrains our behavior gives us a better opportunity to comprehend why we behave the way we do and how we can use this knowledge to recognize and construct a more ideal internal and external environment.

Preventing harassment and increasing group participation through social norms in 2,190 online science discussions

Theories of human behavior suggest that people's decisions to join a group and their subsequent behavior are influenced by perceptions of what is socially normative. In online discussions, where unruly, harassing behavior is common, displaying community rules could reduce concerns about harassment that prevent people from joining while also influencing the behavior of those who do participate. An experiment tested these theories by randomizing announcements of community rules to large-scale online conversations in a science-discussion community with 13 million subscribers. Compared with discussions with no mention of community expectations, displaying the rules increased newcomer rule compliance by >8 percentage points and increased the participation rate of newcomers in discussions by 70% on average. Making community norms visible prevented unruly and harassing conversations by influencing how people behaved within the conversation and also by influencing who chose to join.

Belief in altruistic human nature and prosocial behavior: a serial mediation analysis

According to the theory of internal working model, belief in altruistic human nature positively influences prosocial behavior. However, the precise influencing mechanism remains unclear. Based on the determinants of human behavior theory and self-efficacy theory, we hypothesized that belief in altruistic human nature indirectly influences prosocial behavior through causally linked multiple mediators of prosocial attitude and prosocial self-efficacy. The results of the current research supported our hypothesis and demonstrated that this serial mediation model could be generalized across individualistic and collectivistic cultures.

Critical success factors in the stages of technological transfer from university to industry: Study in the Andean countries

Technology transfer (TT) is a tool for the development of societies and its success is affected by several factors; hence, it is important to identify them and note how they influence the different stages of the technology transfer process. The present work identifies new factors (adaptation to change, government policies, selection criterion of the project portfolio, work environment, product satisfaction, entropy, stress, and ethics), the same ones that have been supported in the theories of human and organisational behaviour, these affect all stages of the technology transfer process from university to industry. The study was made based on confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and the model of structural equations and was carried out on 85 universities in four countries of the Andean region. The obtained results confirm that, at 95% confidence, the proposed factors influence all stages of the technology transfer process.

A problem in theory.

The replication crisis facing the psychological sciences is widely regarded as rooted in methodological or statistical shortcomings. We argue that a large part of the problem is the lack of a cumulative theoretical framework or frameworks. Without an overarching theoretical framework that generates hypotheses across diverse domains, empirical programs spawn and grow from personal intuitions and culturally biased folk theories. By providing ways to develop clear predictions, including through the use of formal modelling, theoretical frameworks set expectations that determine whether a new finding is confirmatory, nicely integrating with existing lines of research, or surprising, and therefore requiring further replication and scrutiny. Such frameworks also prioritize certain research foci, motivate the use diverse empirical approaches and, often, provide a natural means to integrate across the sciences. Thus, overarching theoretical frameworks pave the way toward a more general theory of human behaviour. We illustrate one such a theoretical framework: dual inheritance theory.

Player and Organization Performance: A Study of First-time Major League Baseball Free Agents

Since Major League Baseball instituted free agency in 1976, scholars have observed notable increases and decreases in player performance around their eligibility to negotiate as free agents. Beginning with a sample of 305 position players (non-pitchers), this study uses two competing theories of human behavior to explain such changes in player performance between their contract year (year before becoming eligible for free agency) and free-agent year (year after signing a free-agent contract) and explores the impact of player performance on organization revenue in the free-agent year. Based on a comparison of actual and estimated performance in the contract year, 51 players who underperformed were found to have improved performance in their free-agent year and their contributions to organization revenue exceeded their salary. In contrast, 50 players who overperformed in their contract year experienced reduced performance in their free-agent year and their salary exceeded their contributions to organization revenue.

Creatures of Cain: The Hunt for Human Nature in Cold War America Creatures of Cain: The Hunt for Human Nature in Cold War America Erika Lorraine Milam Princeton University Press, 2019. 414 pp.

This week on the Science podcast, historian Erika Milam reveals why the "killer ape" theory of human behavior gained popularity in the aftermath of World War 2 and why it fell out of favor and discusses our ever-evolving quest to understand human nature.