Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Perception Control Theory'

This study examined the effects of Control Theory training upon self-concept and locus of control among students enrolled in the Provisional Admission Program (PAP) at the University of Texas at Arlington. Twenty-nine students randomly assigned to treatment or placebo control groups took the Coppersmith Self-Esteem Inventory (CSSEI-A) and the Adult Nowicki-Strickland Internal-External Locus of Control Scale (ANSIE) as pre- and posttests. Participants in the placebo control group attended their regular educational program for the same amount of time given to the treatment group. No significant differences were found on the Analysis of Covariance for CSSEI—A or ANSIE scores following the training period. CSSEI-A and ANSIE scores were elevated, indicating that PAP students think of themselves internally as do other college students, regardless of their SAT scores. The results of this study indicate that Control Theory training is insignificantly effective in producing changes in the self-concept and locus of control among PAP students. Control Theory research may need to be carried out with a smaller group size, use larger samples, provide more time to address the issues specific to PAP student needs, include a stronger counseling emphasis to meet their needs, use more sensitive instruments to detect such changes, and allow more time for the learning to occur before the administration of the posttest.

The objective of this study was to examine whether the factors which constitute the manufacturer/industrial-representative relationship, influence performance as predicted by control theory. In addition, the study evaluated the contribution of selected demographic factors such as size of the firm, and the representative's experience, on performance.

The aims of the current research programme were, first, to examine expertise effects with regard to anticipation skill and the perception of deceptive movement, and, second, to examine how knowledge of the probability of behavioural events influences anticipation performance and visual search behaviour. In addition, this thesis sought to test the predictions of attentional control theory (ACT) in examining how anxiety affects the influence of top-down probability information on anticipation skill and visual search behaviour. In Chapter 3, skill-based differences in anticipation and decision making were examined using judgement accuracy and confidence ratings. High-skilled soccer players demonstrated superior anticipatory performance and were less susceptible to deception compared with low-skilled players. In Chapters 4 and 5 Posner’s spatial cueing paradigm was adapted to examine the influence of top-down probability information on anticipation skill and visual search behaviour. High-skilled participants were found to be more accurate and demonstrate more efficient visual search behaviour compared to low-skilled participants. However, findings demonstrated that both groups benefited from the provision of probability information, and performance was moderated by the degree of certainty conveyed through the probability information. In Chapter 6, the same anticipation task and process tracing measures were used to examine the effects of heightened anxiety on the processing of probability and visual information. The findings supported the predictions of ACT, as the influence of top-down information was suppressed during high-pressure conditions, owing to an increased influence of the stimulus-driven attentional control system. The series of studies in this thesis are the first to explore the influence of top-down probability information on anticipation performance and the perception of deception. Study 4 is also the first to test the predictions of ACT regarding the processing of (top-down) explicit knowledge and (bottom-up) visual information under pressure during a simulated soccer anticipation task. The use of probability information through performance analysis feedback plays a prominent role across a number of sports, and the present findings highlight the importance of understanding the costs and benefits associated with such information. It is concluded that future perceptual training interventions should incorporate context-specific information that mimics the real-life demands of competitive sport, and should be directed towards enhancing players' ability to detect deception rather than training players to become attuned to non-deceptive movement.

Client reports of perceived helpfulness in therapy may provide valuable information to clinicians and researchers about what makes therapy therapeutic for individuals. This may help us to understand more about common factors in effective psychotherapies, to explain the processes through which these factors might operate and to understand how the therapeutic relationship contributes to change for different clients. However, the meth-methodological complexity involved in the design of experimental studies has so far prevented research from being able to fully utilise what clients can tell us about their experience of change. This thesis aimed to address some of these challenges in client centered psychotherapy process research.

This exploratory research inquires into the effect that national culture, among other cross-national factors has upon perceptions of management control. It studies differences in control perceptions between mainland Chinese, Czech and British managers workingfor two Western multi-national companies (MNCs). Different perceptions can lead to misunderstanding and thence to weak, or break down in, control. Barriers of national culture and differences in national contexts pose ever greater challengesfor managers who need to provide or receive assurance that their business is under effective control. They also have implications for regulation of internal control of MNCs. Empirical cross-national research to date into management control is to a large extent inconsistent, and offers little supportfor theory. Existing theory appears to be insufficiently grounded in past empirical research to provide a sound foundation for hypotheses and future nomothetic research. Middle range methodology is put forward as a way out of this quandary. Middle range research between objectivist and subjectivist methodologies faces competing criteria for rigour. Criteria are interpreted for middle range methodologies and developedfor grounded theory case studies. The main features of the substantive theory from this grounded theory (Strauss and Corbin, 1998) case study are that there is no standard perception of management control. Control perception is therefore unpredictable from a manager's cultural background Yet, clear patterns in control perceptions emerge between countries of upbringing; these patterns are distinct from differences between the 2 MNCs. Six key areas of differences in perception are analysed (external relations, obligations of responsibility and accountability, internal relations, information, law and procedures, and systems logic). A number of values and preferences, generally shared by managers from the same country, appear to underlie these differences in perception. Differences in control perception are related to national cultures and other contextualfactors, yet all of these are seen as potentially interdependent. This substantive theory does not provide a basisfor prediction. It is a skeletal theory that can be transferred to other situations where researchers and practitioners find it applicable. It may there give awareness of possible differences in control perceptions, assist explanation, and contribute to the building of consistent knowledge and learning. Awareness and understanding of cultural differences in control perceptions are shown to be useful to ethnocentric or polycentric approaches to management control. They may also assist reconciliation of cultural differences for management that adopts a geocentric approach. Perceptions by the managers from the Czech Republic and mainland China are generally inconsistent with accountability theory, although not with a systems approach to management control. The implication is that some management control theories may be parochial to the cultures in which they have been developed. This has policy implicationsfor howfar professional guidance and standards on internal control (COSO, 1994; IIA - UK, 1994; APB, 1995; Turnbull, 1999) can be applied internationally without recognising the impact of national culture and other crossnational contextual factors.

The goal of this research was to investigate teachers' perceptions of professional discretion and satisfaction related to internal and external factors of curriculum control. Results of the study were intended to provide data to policy makers and school district administrators that could be used in the development and implementation of the curriculum reform process. Middle and high school teachers in a large central Florida school district completed the survey. The survey's six constructs were 1. Influence of Teacher Beliefs 2. Perceptions of Success and Satisfaction 3. Influence of Tests and Curriculum Guides 4. Teacher Control of Pedagogy 5. Leadership 6. Maintaining High Standards The research questions focused on determining the difference in perspectives due to years of teaching experience, level of teaching (middle or high school), and curriculum control category (high, medium, or low). The results revealed there was not significant disagreement among teacher perceptions based on years of teaching experience. However, results indicated significant differences in perceptions based on level of teaching and curriculum control category in regard to the six survey constructs. The construct of leadership revealed significant differences between both levels of teaching and curriculum control categories. Overall, the results indicated a significant relationship among curriculum control policies and effects on teachers' perceptions of professional discretion and satisfaction. The literature on curriculum reform efforts since the 1980s, specifically in the areas of curriculum standards, textbook adoption policies, testing policies and leadership practices, framed the study. The literature review focused on existing research issues within the six constructs and the research questions. The information gained from this study may be used to inform policies, improve teachers' working conditions, and promote teacher and leadership effectiveness. Recommendations for practice were addressed in terms of what policy makers, school district administrators, and individual classroom teachers can and should do to implement and support meaningful curriculum reform. The researcher emphasized that recognizing the professional expertise and knowing the perspective of teachers are key to the development and implementation of an effective curriculum reform process.
Ed.D.
Department of Educational Research, Technology and Leadership
Education
Education EdD

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, 2008.
Title from screen (viewed on August 27, 2009). Department of DEPT, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). Advisor(s): Margaret Adamek, William H. Barton, David Westhuis, G. Roger Jarjoura, Jeffrey Anderson. Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 161-184).

Narratives of conflict regarding the connections between science and religion receive considerable attention in multiple forums of public discourse. These discussions tend to focus on philosophical, abstract, and/or polemical, rather than empirical issues. Data from a 2007 national survey indicate that a relatively small proportion of American adults perceive incompatibility between science and religion. Those who do are divided evenly into groups privileging science and privileging religion. These groups are markedly different with regard to sociodemographic and religious characteristics. Overall, I advocate a theoretical perspective on “science and religion” that is culturally constructionist, but methodologically empiricist.

Preventing cyberterrorism is becoming a necessity for individuals, organizations, and governments. However, current policies focus on technical and managerial aspects without asking for experts and non-experts values and preferences for preventing cyberterrorism. This study employs value focused thinking and public value forum to bare strategic measures and alternatives for complex policy decisions for preventing cyberterrorism. The strategic measures and alternatives are per socio-technical process.

La legislation juste est importante pour organiser la vie sociale. Pour cette raison, dans cet essai de sociologie legislative, une enquete sociologique-type dont le fondement theorique est inspire par la definition de la justice de j. Rawls et par la methode de sa theorie, est proposee. Cette enquete a pour ambition de degager le contenu que chaque societe bien precise attribue aux notions de la justice et de la legislation juste. Ladite enquete contient un questionnaire-type sur la justice et sur la solution juste a divers problemes legislatifs : elles sont concues comme le contenu d'un contrat social historique et impartial entre enfants qui choisissent les regles d'une cooperation ideale entre eux. Ce questionnaire integre plusieurs elements necessaires a la definition du contenu desdites notions tels que la connaissance des problemes et l'impartialite des reponses : 1) la connaissance objective des problemes est fournie dans le questionnaire qui est chaque fois elabore par les scientifiques et qui est adapte a la maturite d'esprit des enfants. 2) l'impartialite des reponses est egalement integree : les sujets de l'enquete sont des enfants presumes plus eloignes que les autres tranches d'age des interets socio-economiques particuliers a defendre. Les enfants peuvent repondre de facon impartiale, comme plusieurs indices en temoignent. La perception du contenu de la notion de la justice et d'une legislation juste par les enfants peut etre representative de leur societe et pourrait orienter la regulation juridique. Par cet essai de sociologie legislative, une pratique generalisee d'une enquete-type, pratique auxiliaire aux institutions democratiques existantes, est proposee. Dans cette enquete, la connaissance des problemes legislatifs a resoudre, la participation du corps social a la prise des decisions et leur impartialite sont combinees. Ainsi, cet essai contribue a une renouveau democratique.

This thesis analyses research into the evolution and adaptation of the communities in Rotorua and Kaikoura by using a complex systems perspective. This perspective requires that the analyst look beyond the obvious impacts of tourism such as employment, crowding, and congestion, to the processes that underlie the experiences of local people in relation to tourism. The configuration of the destination, the flows of people in the area, the visitor types and the ratio of hosts to guests all influence a community's interactions with tourists. In small destinations, the effect of host interactions with guests is potentially much greater than is the case in larger destinations. However, in using a complex systems perspective to analyse the effects of tourism on these two destinations, it becomes clear that the impacts of tourism are more than just the impacts of tourists. The impacts of tourism are intertwined with the processes of trust, leadership and decision making occurring both within the community and within the wider regional and national socio-economic systems. As such, local perceptions of tourism are associated with history, geography, local politics and local social processes. As concepts, the meanings of both 'tourism' and 'community' emerge from the experiences people have, and the associations that they make with the two terms. Thus, the meaning of both 'tourism' and 'community' are idiosyncratic and locally defined. Each term means different things to residents in Rotorua and Kaikoura, and each affects how residents perceive tourism in their respective towns. For example, the associations that people make between historical events and processes such as restructuring are quite different in each of the two communities. In Rotorua, tourism is seen as a source of stability, as a phenomenon that confers a higher level of perceived control on the community. In Kaikoura, tourism is seen as a source of change and it confers a lesser sense of perceived control on the community overall. Likewise, the relationship between the local council and the community underlies the sense of security people feel about local decision making processes. This relationship is mediated by a range of processes including the effort that the council put into communicating with community members, the leadership shown by the council, the way in which they facilitate community visioning processes, which then provide a basis for both leadership and decision making. Underlying these processes are community processes of rivalry, competition, cooperation, labelling and stereotyping that all affect the levels of trust that the community have in those around them. Community cohesion (which is not the same as community agreement) underlies a community's ability to work together to manage tourism. Thus using a complex systems approach to analyse the impacts of tourism in two destinations has shown that there is much more to tourism than the impacts of tourists and their activities. Instead, the way the community system interacts with the tourism system gives rise to the impacts of tourism. Tourism can be usefully conceptualised as a process that is inextricably interwoven with history, politics and community interaction processes at the destination level. Perceptions of tourism reflect these processes and the understanding that local people have of them, and the level of control that they feel they have over tourism development. With little trust in local decision making processes, people have a low sense of control over how tourism development affects them. In tourism planning, therefore, it may be more effective to focus primarily on the processes by which tourism development and management occurs in the local area and to look at mitigating the effects of tourists only after building community capacity to adaptively manage tourism in their area. Communities need a sense of control over their world, and this is only undermined when experts and institutions try to advise courses of action without involving a range of community players in the process of managing tourism. Thus, government and other organisations and institutions at local level must focus on working with communities to build local capacity to manage tourism, without imposing on those communities to convince them to 'treat tourists well' or to manage their environment better, so they become more attractive as a destination.

Minority students are lagging behind their non-minority peers in academic achievement. Compounding this problem is the lack of research on minority students' perceptions on their connections to school, their feelings of autonomy, and their relationship with their parents. These variables are important considerations in this problem, as Ryan and Deci's self-determination theory suggests a strong relationship between student performance in school and students' perceptions of their intrinsic and extrinsic motivators. To address that gap, this cross-sectional, quantitative research study examined the relationship between minority high school students' perceived self-efficacy, locus of control, and parents' educational involvement on their self-reported academic achievement at a suburban charter high school. Differences in these variables by grade level and gender were also assessed. A convenience sample of 158 male and female students in the 10th, 11th, and 12th grades completed the Self-in-School instrument, Levenson Multidimensional Locus of Control Inventory, Importance of Parent Involvement Scale, and a demographic survey that included self-reported academic achievement. Regression analyses and multivariate analysis of variance revealed that school self-efficacy and students' perception of parental involvement of minority students were statistically significant predictors of self-reported academic achievement. No statistically significant differences were found on the 3 scales by grade, but statistically significant differences were obtained between male and female minority students' perception of parental involvement on their academic achievement. These findings may contribute to social change by helping mental health professionals and educators understand the importance of psychosocial variables in charter students' academic performance.

This study aims at exploring the social, affective and cognitive variables that would be related to the use of the address form usted in Chilean Spanish. Specifically, we refer to the use that can be observed in interactions between Chileans residing in Sweden. A particular aspect of this situation is that, while the majority group almost exclusively use the form that is commonly associated with solidarity (in this case the Swedish pronoun du), the minority group referred to maintains the pronoun that normally is associated with power, distance, formality and politeness: usted. In other words, while the equivalent in Swedish of usted (ni) is seldom used in majority language, the opposite is observed in the minority language object of study. We believe that the motives for the use of usted in this minority context are more complex than they appear to be. Consequently, an alternative hypothesis has been worked out with reference to theories within the area of Social Psychology. On this basis the following main hypothesis was formulated: Individuals representing the minority group in ethnic contact situations tend to increase their identification with the minority group in order to be admitted by and adhere to this group, if they feel that they are rejected by the majority group. The form usted is not the result of a fortuitous situation, nor can it be explained by the fact that it is the normal usage in the native country, but that it fulfils a strategic objective: to mark the affiliation with the minority group. The method has consisted in grouping together and correlating factors pertaining to the environment, the agent and the guest according to the Ecological Triad, the interaction of which contributes to the appearance of the observed behaviour that underlies this study. The statistical analysis enabled us to verify what was put forward in the hypothesis.

Denial of service attacks (DoS) are a common threat to many online services. These attacks aim to overcome the availability of an online service with massive traffic from multiple sources. By spoofing legitimate users, an attacker floods a target system with a high quantity of packets or connections to crash its network resources, bandwidth, equipment, or servers. Packet filtering methods are the most known way to prevent these attacks via identifying and blocking the spoofed attack from reaching its target. In this project, the extent of the DoS attacks problem and attempts to prevent it are explored. The attacks categories and existing countermeasures based on preventing, detecting, and responding are reviewed. Henceforward, a neural network learning algorithms and statistical analysis are utilized into the designing of our proposed packet filtering system.

Dissertation presented as the partial requirement for obtaining a Master's degree in Information Management, specialization in Marketing Intelligence
Nowadays, companies use consumers' information as a tool to optimize the right offer to the right consumer, but how does the relationship between brand and consumer go when the consumer realizes himself in a vulnerable position? This research aims to understand how brands, in the hotel industry, are endangering themselves by asking customers for their information, by understanding if Data Access Vulnerability has higher downstream effects than control and transparency, without endangering their Brand’s Trust. Two Online Surveys were conducted to understand better the effects of data access vulnerability while doing a booking process. The findings from 160 participants indicate that personal information is a common practice of the industry, having low impacts of vulnerability and are not impacted either by transparency or control. Managerial and theoretical implications are discussed and future research suggestions are provided.

The primary purpose of the study was to identify relationships among sources of interpersonal influence, putative psychological mediators, and physical activity. The moderation of these relationships by age, body composition, and educational attainment was also evaluated. Responses from 1224 employees were collected through an online survey at a major healthcare facility in central Texas. Structural equation modeling was used to construct the Social Context Scale of Interpersonal Influence and to estimate its ability to explain intention to be physically active and predict physical activity behavior. Invariance testing provided estimates of moderation by age, education, and body composition. Home social context was positively associated with self-efficacy and positive anticipated outcomes and negatively associated with negative anticipated outcomes. Friend social context was positively associated with self-efficacy, positive anticipated outcomes, and intention. Teasing was positively associated with negative anticipated outcomes. Self-efficacy and positive anticipated outcomes were positively associated with intention. Negative anticipated outcomes were negatively associated with intention. The relationship between friend social context and both positive anticipated outcomes and intention was stronger for obese than non-obese respondents. Home social context was more strongly associated with self-efficacy for those with four year degrees than for those without. Self-efficacy was more strongly associated with intention for those with four year degrees than for those without. Self-efficacy predicted subsequent total leisure time physical activity and the relationship was stronger for respondents over 45 years of age than for those younger than 45. The association between self-efficacy and subsequent total leisure time physical activity was also stronger for respondents with a four year degree than for those without. Home and friend social contexts provide potential conduits for post intervention influence on physical activity behavior. The discussion of the benefits of physical activity among friends may encourage overweight and obese individuals considering exercise, especially those with limited physical activity experiences of their own.
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Thesis (M.A.)--York University, 2009. Graduate Programme in Interdisciplinary Studies.
Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 102-110). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:MR51524