<p> With nearly 2.9 million work related injuries in the United States each year and nearly 5,000 work related deaths, opportunities exist to build on existing safety management interventions to improve workplace safety. In addition to the impact on worker&rsquo;s lives related to workplace safety accidents, workplace related injuries and deaths account for nearly $200 billion in direct costs to U.S. organizations. Current research in the application of workplace mindfulness offers the potential for a leading edge intervention that can lead to increased attention and situational awareness, which could greatly enhance workplace safety. The current study explored the relationship that low-dose mindfulness practice has on workplace safety. </p><p> Included in the current study was an examination of current and historical interventions for managing safety as well as a review of mindfulness research, with an emphasis on workplace mindfulness, and finally a review of the limited research that has begun to explore the relationship between mindfulness and workplace safety. A case study was conducted with a lab in a large bio-tech company in Southern California. 16 participants engaged in daily mindfulness training for six weeks. After the six-week trial, participants were interviewed, results were analyzed and organized into results, theoretical implications, and practical implications. The case study concluded with summarizing key themes, surfacing limitations of the study and recommendations for further study were identified. The findings of this study suggest there are great opportunities for low-dose mindfulness to positively impact workplace safety, potentially saving individuals from harm and organizations from costly accidents. </p><p>

<p> The purpose of this study was to examine the size (small, medium, or large), type (traditional vs. teamwork-based), and state (chaotic vs. organized) of organizations that are most attractive to corporate psychopaths. By identifying the specific types of organizations which are most attractive to a psychopathic candidate, it becomes easier to know where and when screening methods specifically for psychopathy should be applied during the hiring process. Using Amazon&rsquo;s Mechanical Turk, 188 participants responded to items measuring corporate psychopathy, organizational structure of their current workplace, and several demographic questions. Only one of the three hypotheses was confirmed, suggesting that people higher in psychopathic traits are more attracted to organizations with chaotic environments. No significant relationships were found between psychopathic traits and size or type of the organization. </p><p>

<p> The purpose of this study was to examine stereotype-driven discrimination as an explanation for veteran unemployment. Specifically, the study hypothesized that veteran job applicants would be rated lower in warmth, competence, and hirability than nonveteran job applicants. It was also hypothesized that application materials with warmth and competence manipulations would be rated higher in warmth, competence, and hirability. The third hypothesis posited that there would be a three-way interaction between veteran status, application materials, and hiring managers&rsquo; implicit person theories such that the difference between veterans and nonveterans in ratings of warmth, competence, and hirability would be attenuated when participants were presented with manipulated application materials and when they were incremental theorists. All three hypotheses were unsupported when tested with a 2 X 2 X 2 MANOVA. Exploratory analyses using a 2 X 2 X 3 design, however, found partial support for hypothesis three. Implications, limitations, and future research are discussed.</p><p>

<p> Leaders in organizations face complex situations, including how to develop valued leadership qualities to enhance an organization's performance. Research suggests improved emotional intelligence across various types of organizational leaders enhances charisma, connection, supports increased rates of promotion, and higher salaries. One measure of organizational effectiveness that has emerged more so in the research of the last decade is employee engagement. Although employee engagement has been studied, research regarding its association with the social competences of emotional intelligence has been limited. In this dissertation study I conducted research to investigate the potential relationships between emotional intelligence social competencies as representative measures of effective leadership traits in order to assess whether an association exists between relationship management and social awareness and the employee engagement scores a leader receives from his or her direct reports.</p><p>

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Juvenile fish belonging to three genera and ten species of salmonids, were compared in field and laboratory studies. The main objectives were to describe the aggressive social behavior in a comparative way and to study those components of behavior associated with stream residence. In comparisons of aggregating tendencies of lake trout, rainbow trout, cutthroat trout, coho salmon and chum salmon it was found that chum fry formed relatively tight schools while the others did not. Coho fry aggregated when feeding and dispersed afterwards. Both rainbow and cutthroat showed a preference for shadowed portions of their containers. Rainbow selected the deep end of a tank graded from shallow to deep, while chum fry swam back and forth. Rainbow showed no selection for a small waterfall. It was shown that food, predatory fish and dominant individuals affected the selection of a location. From these experiments it was reasoned that resident and migrant fish have different innate environmental preferences but that these can be modified by external factors. The rate of locomotion was shown to be highest in migrant chum fry, lowest in resident fishes and intermediate in lake trout. The continuous swimming of chum fry was contrasted with the discontinuous swimming of residents. Again lake trout were intermediate. Standard observations were made of intraspecific groups in the laboratory. Resident fishes were aggressive and developed social hierarchies based on fighting, displays and nipping. Most nipping was performed by dominant fish and all of the activities of the subordinates were influenced by the presence of the dominant individual in their group. Some migrant fishes were aggressive, others were not. Chum fry nipped and chased each other but, evidently because of their continuous swimming movements, did not develop stabilized dominance orders. Lake trout, sockeye fry and pink fry were not aggressive and did not develop social hierarchies. Dominant coho fry attacked intruders more vigorously than they did members of their own group and the intruders often died. It was observed that intruders showed a characteristic "escape behavior" which may have identified them and singled them out for attack. In field studies carried out during different seasons, it was observed that individual coho fry exchanged positions and moved about within a home range. They did not appear to restrict themselves to private territories. During winter floods the home range was vacated and the fish occupied pools along the stream edge. In spring pre-migrant smolts were in pools while newly emerged fry were in shallow margins. Predation by smolts appeared to affect the location of the fry. Interspecific combinations were observed in the laboratory. Rainbow trout were most aggressive. The aggressive activities of spawning adults were similar to those of the juveniles but the actual reproductive movements were unique to the adults. Agonistic behavior appeared to be primitive in lake trout with increasing specialization through dolly varden to brook trout. It was highly developed with specific variations in displays in brook trout, cutthroat trout, rainbow trout and coho salmon. The other species within the genus Oncorhynchus exhibited a degeneration in residential behavior. / Science, Faculty of / Zoology, Department of / Graduate

The present study attempted to investigate the effects of food-deprivation and pretest experience on operant level bar pressing. In addition, these effects were assessed over an extended number of sessions. Thirty male albino rats were assigned to two major conditions; one which received pretest experience in the experimental chambers for 15 sessions and one which did not. Ss in the major conditions were then factorially assigned to three feeding schedules; one an ad lib. or no deprivation schedule, one a 15 gm. or mildly deprived schedule, and one a 5 gm. or severely deprived schedule. All Ss were then placed in the experimental chambers for 15 sessions. The results indicated that Ss which had no pretest experience exhibited decreased responding as a function of deprivation, while following pretest experience deprivation Ss’ operant level. In addition, operant level fluctuated widely over sessions. It was concluded that the present results integrated the findings of other investigators working on operant level. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

A knowledge representation system is presented for studying hummingbird behaviour in a laboratory environment. It is shown that a set of procedural rules can be developed, based on numerical, symbolic and heuristic techniques to aid in discovering how a hummingbird learns a simple spatial grid pattern of food sources. The use of different types of tree-like data structures facilitates a systematic representation of the knowledge fragments and allows a thorough cross-examination of both the experimental designs and the hypotheses. The problem of analyzing a non-uniformly sampled time series of behaviour observations is discussed and a solution proposed that uses a mathematical matching algorithm called warping. A trajectory of individual feeder visitations is generated by a bird behaviour model. The technique of warping is used to test if this trajectory can be mapped to another generated by a bird foraging. The two-dimensional analogue of the warping technique is applied to the spatial grid in order to evaluate the degree of spatial specialization in the bird's foraging behaviour. A correlation measure is applied to groups of pairs of rule combinations to ascertain which of these account for most of the observed behaviour. It is shown that by using a collection of different types of similarity measures a procedural approach can be formulated to aid in the representation of the knowledge accumulated by a hummingbird during the course of a spatially distributed foraging experiment. These procedures are arranged in a hierarchy of choices and implemented in an interpreter which formed the basis for an expert system in hummingbird spatial foraging. Experimental applications of these numerical algorithms and data structures are presented. The system was then tested on a complete series of behaviours by testing five different individuals on the same design. The procedural algorithms were calibrated on the first individual and then applied to subsequent individuals to test the knowledge representation derived from the first case. The results from this experiment suggest that a knowledge representation system composed from these rule fragments can be developed into a grammar that would standardize the testing of all spatial foraging experiments. In addition it is indicated that representing knowledge as a hierarchy of procedural options is of use in testing the way in which experimental knowledge is gathered. The implications of this knowledge of spatial foraging can be tested interactively as an experiment progresses. / Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies / Graduate

I attempt in this paper to develop a theory of paternalism which indicates when and why a paternalistic action is justified. In the first two chapters I consider the extant theories on this subject: in the first chapter I develop a utilitarian theory of the justification of paternalistic interference, and in the second chapter I consider various non-utilitarian theories that have been offered. Although I do not agree with the utilitarian analysis of rights, and so with their rationale for paternalistic intervention, I argue that such a theory does provide a strong presumption against such interference. Nor do I find any of the non-utilitarian theories satisfactory, although they each contain certain important insights. In the third chapter I develop my own theory. I claim that there is really only a problem in justifying paternalism when the subject has the prima facie right to do what he proposes to do. It is therefore necessary to determine under what conditions any prima facie right can be interfered with. From results of this investigation I conclude that consent, either tacit or explicit, prior or subsequent to interference, is the key to the justification of paternalistic interference. More specifically, I argue that consent, or the disposition to consent upon receipt of factual information or correction of a logical error, is a necessary condition for justification, and that it is also sufficient except where it is gained by "warping" the subject's preferences, or where it is due to lack of relevant information, or a logical error. / Arts, Faculty of / Philosophy, Department of / Graduate

In the first experiment two hungry, but otherwise undeprived, pigeons were exposed to various fixed interval food reinforcement schedules for keypecking while either water or grit was concurrently, freely available. The inter-reinforcement interval was varied from 30 sec to 16 min in different phases of the experiment. Both subjects consumed grit, but neither subject drank water. The next four experiments attempted to replicate the grit consumption that occurred in the first experiment or to produce water consumption. In these experiments the grit and water containers were moved to various locations within the experimental chamber, the protein content of the subject's diet was varied, and the reflective windows in the chamber were covered to eliminate the possibility that attacks at their own reflections were competing with the subject's tendency to consume grit or water. The subjects did not consume grit or water in any of these experiments. The implications of this lack of consistent water and grit consumption behaviour in the pigeon for various theories of the determinants of behaviour are examined. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate