This study explores some of the possible correlations between creativity and criminal thinking evident in the literature in an attempt to link the two forms of cognition. An understanding of the concept of Malevolent Creativity can serve the purpose of elucidating another component of the criminal personality.

This research addressed the influence employee age has on organizational justice perceptions (OJPs) and organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) through conscientiousness. Given the valuable contributions of older employees in the workforce, the aim of this study was to investigate the processes by which age affects justice perceptions, the expression of conscientiousness traits, and workplace behaviors. Additionally, a theoretical framework was provided where the conservation of resource, equity, fairness, socioemotional selectivity, and conscientiousness at work theorieshelp explain the linkages from the integrative model. A total of 179 MTurk workers participated in this study, which required participants to answer questions about their workplace perceptions and behaviors. The primary scales used in this study measuring OJPs, conscientiousness, and OCBs were obtained from previous studies that found these measures to be reliable and valid. Using those scales, three main hypotheses were tested: Hypothesis 1 predicted age would moderate the relationship between OJPs and OCBs; Hypotheses 2 predicted conscientiousness would mediate the relationship between OJPs and OCBs; and Hypothesis 3 predicted employee age (moderating variable) would interact with justice perceptions (independent variable) and predict organizational citizenship behaviors (dependent variable), through conscientiousness (mediating variable). Results suggested that age does not moderate the relationship between OJPs and OCBs; however, conscientiousness mediates the relationship between OJPs and OCBs; and employee age only moderates the mediating effects of conscientiousness in the relationship between distributive justice perceptions and OCBs. Overall, this research provides preliminary findings to a model that had never been researched before, provides theoretical and practical implications, as well as directions for future research.

Child sexual abuse (CSA) is recognized as a public health problem with consequences affecting all levels of the ecological model. In recent years it has been recognized that up to 40% of reported sexual offenses occur at the hands of adolescent offenders (Burton, 2000), who are defined as children aged 12-18 years. In recent years, research has suggested that attachment deficits contribute to sexual offending behavior in adolescence. The current study augments the sparse research with adolescent offenders and by exploring of the participant's perceived attachment to important others (mother/mother figures, father/father figures, and peers/friends). Participants included 101 Juvenile sex offenders (JSO) and 97 Juvenile Delinquents (JD) detained in Oregon Youth Authority (OYA) facilities during the summer of 2010. Significant differences were found in adolescents' attachment to father/father figures in both overall attachment and a perceived degree of trust. Additionally JSO also showed a higher level of alienation from father/father figures and lower in overall perceived degree of trust with all important others. These findings may provide an opportunity for early intervention strategies, as well as support programs designed to strengthen or develop connections between adolescent offenders and positive male role models to enhance the effectiveness of juvenile sex offender treatment.

Despite an abundance of research on interventions to improve social skills of young children with intellectual disabilities (ID), there is limited research on interventions aimed at improving social skills of adults with ID. The purpose of this single-subject study was to evaluate the outcomes of the Behavioral Opportunities for Social Skills (BOSS) teaching program for adults with ID. The theoretical framework for this study was Skinner's operant conditioning which incorporates the principles of applied behavior analysis, reinforcement, and operant extinction. After direct support professionals were trained in the BOSS teaching program, research questions were used to determine (a) changes in the frequency of praise statements given by direct support professionals to adults with ID; (b) differences in the frequency of cooperative and polite behaviors of adults with ID; and (c) increases or decreases in the frequency of challenging behaviors exhibited by adults with ID. A multiple-baseline design across participants and settings was used to evaluate the behavioral changes. Prosocial behaviors of 3 adults with ID and 3 direct support professionals' delivery of specific praise statements showed visually discernable increases and large effect sizes (ES -?¥ 0.92). The outcomes of this study contribute to positive social change as demonstrated by the positive behavioral changes achieved by the adults with ID who increased their prosocial behaviors and the direct support professionals who increased their delivery of specific praise statements following the implementation of the BOSS teaching program.

Development of vocalizations in early learners with autism is critical to the acquisition of verbal behavior and other important life skills. The purpose of the present studies was to (1) evaluate the efficiency and efficacy of Stimulus-Stimulus Pairing (SSP) and standard Echoic Training (ET) procedures for the development and onset of verbal behavior in early learners with ASD to improve early intervention efficiency and (2) elucidate predictive characteristics or variables for the effective use of SSP. The present studies were comprised of a multiple-baseline (across behaviors) experimental design buttressed within a reversal design, also known more broadly as within-subject controlled experimental designs. It was found that SSP can have a greater treatment efficacy than ET, but any efficacy advantage is transitory. Shifting an SSP treatment to direct reinforcement contingencies once vocalizations are produced are likely the most effective strategy. SSP produces discrepant effects across learners, thus highlighting the need to assess a learner’s characteristics and assumed reinforcer effectiveness. It was also found that higher-functioning learners will benefit more greatly from ET as opposed to SSP.

Direct-care staff working with individuals with developmental disabilities (DD) are frequently exposed to challenging behavior from residents and expected to respond correctly to challenging resident behavior, but often receive insufficient training due to lack of resources and high staff turnover (e.g., Collins, 2012; Collins, Higbee, & Salzberg, 2009; Haberlin, Beauchamp, Agnew, & O’Brien, 2009; Pelletier, McNamara, Braga-Kenyon, & Ahearn, 2010). Training methods such as Behavioral Skills Training (BST) are highly intrusive and require high amounts of resources (e.g., Parsens, Rollyson, & Reid, 2012). Research suggests technological based alternatives are more cost effective, decreases training time and response effort from management, and increases distance learning opportunities and dissemination capabilities. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the use of a hierarchical training model that incorporated video modeling, video modeling+assessment, and BST to train behavior management strategies for direct-care staff working with adults with developmental disabilities. Subjects were exposed to the most cost effective training approach first (i.e., video model) and sequentially moved to more intrusive methods (i.e., video model+assessment, & BST) as needed. All subjects implemented behavior management strategies with fidelity after exposure to technological based training alternatives (i.e., video model, video mdoel+assessment).

由於資訊科技與顯示技術的大幅進步，電子書閱讀裝置成為近來十分受矚目的產品，然綜觀目前國內外電子書的發展，多以較具消費能力的上班族為對象，較少以基礎教育的學生為目標使用者。 本研究針對使用於教育市場的電子書閱讀器進行前導性的實驗，並透過自行設計的使用者介面、數位學習平台及結合傳統問卷與自動化使用者行為蒐集程式，結合質化研究與量化分析的優點，以瞭解最真實的學生使用習慣與方式。 本研究目的在於探索電子書閱讀器進入高中學生的實際課堂學習與日常生活之中，對學生的學習經驗或閱讀習慣所產生之影響，並進一步瞭解從學生最初接觸電子書的新鮮試用期，到後續逐漸習慣使用或棄用電子書等不同階段的行為變化。透過此研究，瞭解電子書閱讀器應用於教育市場的接受程度及可能潛力，做為未來電子書設計、開發與推廣使用的可行性參考依據。 / Recently, e-book reading devices based on electronic ink (e-ink) have gained a lot of attention thanks to the rapid advances in both information and display technology. However, current products are mainly targeted on general users for their daily reading activities. Research on introducing the e-reading device into high school or college campuses has commenced only quite recently. In this thesis, we exploit the potential of employing e-book reading devices in facilitating learning in a high school campus. We have custom-designed the user interface as well as the textbook content to suit the needs of this particular user group. The unique opportunity of having access to the hardware device, software design and potential users creates an ideal experimental platform for us to unbiasedly investigate the role of this new technology through a long-term user behavior collection and analysis process. This study aims to explore how the introduction of e-book reader into high school campus influences the students’ learning and daily life. We documented changes in the users’ e-book reading behavior during the course of a six-month experiment, corresponding to progressive stages of growing familiarity and comfort with using the machine. We found that e-book reader does help the students to develop a habit of mobile reading. Its effect exceeds our expectation of achieving digital learning. We hope that the findings presented in this thesis can be useful to teachers and system designers to develop new types of teaching materials and activities by taking advantages of the characteristics of this new technology.

Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB) is defined as employee behavior that benefits others yet is not required by the employee’s job description. OCB can be divided into two categories: behavior that is either directed toward individuals (OCBI) or behavior that is directed toward the organization (OCBO). Researchers have posited that there are three different motives behind OCB: impression management, prosocial values, and organizational concern. Additionally, researchers have recognized the importance of coworker relationships within organizations and have suggested that the degree to which one likes his or her coworkers may serve as an additional source of motivation to engage in different types of OCB. This research consisted of two studies investigating the effect of motive and coworker liking on intention to engage in OCBO and OCBI. Participants in both studies read a vignette manipulating motive and degree of coworker liking. The second study incorporated two additional items in the manipulation check to increase the saliency of the coworker liking manipulation. In both Study 1 and Study 2 participants were more likely to engage in OCBO than in OCBI. Both studies failed to support the hypotheses that either motive or degree of liking would predict the type of OCB performed.

The purpose of this study was to replicate and extend recent findings in the functional contextual literature by 1) establishing complex deictic relational responding skills in 3 persons diagnosed with Schizophrenia and mild-moderate Mental Retardation and 2) assessing generalization through pre and post-instructional measures of Social Anhedonia and Theory of Mind functioning. Results suggest that increasingly complex levels of deictic relational responses were acquired and mastered by all 3 participants and that generalization extended to the Deceptive Container Task (ToM levels 4 & 5) and Hinting Task. Support is provided for the notion that perspective taking skills might be shaped through operant conditioning of deictic frames and that acquisition of these skills may generalize to novel stimuli and settings.

This study investigated effects of commercially available picture activity schedules (PAS) and system of least prompts (SLP) to teach recreation skills to four high school students with Autism Spectrum Disorders and intellectual disabilities using Lego sets. Results were evaluated through a multiple probe across participants design and indicate that a combination of PAS and SLP was effective for teaching the students to build Lego sets. All students improved their ability to build and were able to generalize the skill to novel sets after the completion of intervention. Limitations and implications for future practioners are discussed.