In a plural democratic society, the macro phenomena and policies are formed by individual cognition and choices. Thus the field of decision-making and judgment analysis based on individual cognitions has become the major analytical method in the public affairs management. The citizenship view of the republicanism requires citizens to reach consensus. The group decision-making method is so helpful for reaching consensus and overcoming the limits of individual cognition that it¡¦s necessary in forming public policies. By reviewing various group decision-making methods, the study found that there are at least Program Planning Method (PPM; Delbecq & Van de Ven, 1971), Policy Delphi (Turoff, 1970), Interactive Management(IM; Warfield & Cárdenas, 1994), and Social Judgment Theory(SJT; Hammond, 1965, 1996; Hammond et al., 1975, 1977, 1980) can be used to reach consensus in a plural society. Among them, the IM results have been proven effective for solving complicated problems and compliant with citizen participation spirit of a plural society ( Wang Min-shen & Chang Ning, 2002; Warfield & Cárdenas, 1994) . However, the accuracy of IM results can not be proven by the method and the weight between factors can not be identified, either. SJT can be used to analyze the assumption between decision criteria of different hierarchies and obtain the weights between different factors out of the same result so that SJT can examine the annotated graphics of IM. Besides, since SJT emphasizes cognitive feedback, it can facilitate reaching consensus by comparing various stakeholders¡¦ judgment principles dissolving the cognitive conflicts. Thus the study applied theoretical SJT to examine the validity of IM results. I discussed SJT procedure in a collective, hierarchic and large-scaled way. The study also adopted classic experimental design to compare the cognitive changes of participants before and after the SJT procedure to explore the performance of SJT results of group decision-making in public affairs cases in terms of consistency, individual learning effect and satisfaction. The results of this study show that SJT procedure can be operated in a large-scaled way while consensus with high satisfaction will be reached. In addition, the theoretical validity of IM results on psychological cognition provides the reason why participants accepted the results. Talking about the changes of the participants¡¦ cognition through SJT procedure, the participants using SJT have not improved their consistency, while the learning effect changes significantly towards group conclusion. In the subjective evaluations such as satisfaction, learning effect and caring degree, the participants who use SJT are better than those who don¡¦t, but not better than those who use IM procedure. In terms of policy significance, though the covert consistency between the participants who use SJT has not been improved, their overt satisfaction towards the group conclusion is better than those who don¡¦t. It shows that the conflict between participants has not disappeared yet, while they accept the consensus. Therefore, the way to wipe away the conflicts in a plural society is not to build up a single exclusive value, but to design a procedure allowing the stakeholders accept consensus.

The following dissertation is an endeavor to put forward the conceptual background of Gadamer&rsquo / s assertion in Truth and Method that art has a truth value. This conceptual background includes many important concepts which are indispensable in understanding the assertion that art has a truth value. Second chapter is mainly concerned with Bildung and sensus communis. Bildung describes the nature of knowledge which flourishes in the character of the person and which changes that person by penetrating the personality of him. Sensus communis describes the relationship of truth with the power of persuasion and the power of making right choices in social life. Taste, on the other hand, not only accompanies us when we are fulfilling our most basic needs in life and also shows itself in all of our moral decisions. In that sense, a developed taste is very effective in directing us to the truth. The third chapter offers an analysis of Gadamer&rsquo / s critique of Kant&rsquo / s aesthetics revolving around the concepts of judgment, taste, genius and Erlebnis. For Gadamer, Kant has subjectivized aesthetics. This subjectivization has two sides. Firstly, Kant argues that the experience of beauty does not give us any knowledge about the beautiful object. That is to say, Kant insists that aesthetic experience does not contain any cognitive element, because he believes that the only source of truth and knowledge is science. Secondly subjectivization means that Kant reduced art and beauty only to the experience of it / he talks only about experience of beauty, not about work of art itself at all. The forth chapter introduces the ontology of the work of art which is elaborated mainly on concepts of play, representation, mimesis, total mediation, contemporaneity. When inquiring into the mode of being of play, Gadamer defends that the subject of the play is play itself and in the same way in the experience of art the subject is not the subjectivity of the person who experiences it but the work of art. In the last chapter history of hermeneutics is elaborated in order to find the proper place of Gadamer&rsquo / s constituting concepts in the general frame of hermeneutics.

The Community Policing should not take only the policing viewpoint into consideration, but be carried out by taking the community as the core network functioning conformity. Strategic formulation of Community Policing cannot be self-lauded as police professionalism, but be understood in the context of solving policing problems connected with other topics that depend on widespread opinion consultation, research questionnaires and public verification. Community Policing is precisely what police and people share in mutual governance; it is a witnessing of public affairs participation that carries out democracy at the grassroots level. However, its foundation is established on effective communication, mutual understanding and confidence between the police and citizens. It also depends on environmental social capital to develop gradually. Therefore, it is the key to learn how to respect and yet contain different societies and individuals with cognition of their roles in such societies. Accordingly, we can try to seek collective mutual recognition. This research puts emphasis on the operation pattern of the ¡§partnership spirit¡¨ and the ¡§network governance¡¨ from the ¡§acts as circumstances permit¡¨ characteristic of Community Policing. In addition, it discusses the problem of lack of people-participation in Community Policing in the Penghu area by literature discussion (including area background material analysis), expert interview, interactive management (IM), questionnaire survey of society judgment theory (SJT), cross-territory analysis and so on. Through question analysis and interactive conference, 12 items of the first plan and enhancement drawings are obtained. It belongs to the fourth level according to the IM success rank, i.e. it can discover a suitable plan that promotes the participation of the populace, and thus can be recommended to the policing governance and relevant administration agencies. This research takes Penghu as the background and the IM as the interface. The community populace and the performers of Community Policing network (including government institution, private enterprise and Non-governmental organizations) are the main participants. Then, the collective consensus containing multi-dimensional individual cognition was delivered. Furthermore, the endorsement of the local policing decision-making group was investigated through the V-C-S strategic triangle analysis and the SJT questionnaire. Overall, the twelve plans of top priority can be categorized into three essential strategies: ¡§strengthen the policing management to respond to the populace¡¨, ¡§enhance community empowerment to form a policing network¡¨ and ¡§specialization community policing¡¨, separately presenting the viewpoint of three main participants: the experts, the populace, and the basic unit police. Moreover, ¡§specialization of Community Policing¡¨ was considered to be the top priority. However, taking the above essential strategies as the judgment cues to perform the SJT questionnaire to the local policing decision-making group demonstrates that the policing decision-making commanding officer most take seriously the notion of ¡§strengthen the policing management to respond to the populace¡¨, but the ground-roots staff most take seriously the ¡§enhance community empowerment to form policing network¡¨ strategy. Through the investigation, the IM model is proven to be effective in enhancing public participation in Community Policing affairs and reaching a consensus; through SJT questionnaires, the local policing decision-making group gave high approval to the key strategies from interactive deliberation. The result of the survey also shows that people in different positions could have various considerations and judgments. Thus, this research suggests that enforcement authorities can actualize their policies by adopting IM and reach consensus through public participation and mutual understanding.

In this research, a model for ethically questionable decision-making is developed by amalgamating several decision-making theories. The variables of interest are the techniques of neutralization, perceived moral intensity, Machiavellianism, unethical intentions, and ethical judgment. Using a sample of 276 U.S. marketing professionals, partial least squares structural equation modelling was used to validate the model. Findings reveal that U.S. marketing professionals rationalize their ethically questionable intentions through their: (1) perception of moral intensity (i.e., minimizing the harms on others, perceiving their self-interest as most salient, and indifference to social consensus), (2) reliance on various neutralization techniques, and; (3) judgment of their ethically questionable intentions as ethical. After controlling for the Machiavellian personality trait, Machiavellianism did not have a profound effect on the decision-making process, which implies that marketers, in general, are capable of the cognitive distortions found in this study. The main contribution to knowledge is the synthesis of the techniques of neutralization and the perceived moral intensity construct. Through this amalgamation, knowledge of the intermediary steps in the decision-making process has emerged. A contribution to knowledge involves testing the relationship between Machiavellianism and unethical intentions through the mediating variable of the techniques of neutralization. Through this investigation, it was found that the Machiavellian personality is inconsequential to the decision-making process. As a contribution to managerial knowledge, it was found that through cognitive distortions, marketers are capable of various illicit behaviours, which have been shown to be costly to not only stakeholders, but also to the profitability and reputations of organisations.

No matter what domain, the judgment of performance occupies a key area of investment. Experts are trained and societal institutions are constructed to judge performance, and to identify, develop, and reward the highest levels of achievement. This research demonstrates that experts are just as vulnerable as novices to being confounded by the vision heuristic--the dominance of visual information over more relevant evaluation metrics. Using a multi-method approach spanning laboratory experiments, surveys, interviews, and field data, this research explores the impact of visual information on judgment and decision making in performance contexts. The first paper indicates that professional musicians use primarily visual information to judge music performance, even when they report that sound is most important to their evaluations. The second paper highlights the underlying mechanisms that account for the dominance of visual information. Additional work elaborates on the generalizability of the vision heuristic to management domains. The third paper suggests that visible cues about leadership and team dynamics matter more to expert judges than the group performances themselves. In another set of studies, venture capitalists and investors are found to neglect the content of entrepreneur pitches, instead overweighting dynamic visual cues. Finally, the latest study demonstrates that the visual performance cues displayed by firm managers can lead financial analysts to make less accurate forecasts of firm performance. In sum, this research shows that both laymen and experts rely heavily on visual information in their judgments; this dominance extends to organizational contexts, where it can strongly bias performance assessments. These findings have implications for the optimal design of processes for professional selection and advancement, and communication in organizations.

Bakgrund: Allt mer struktur införs i revisionsbranschen. Revisorer behöver i sitt arbete balansera strukturerade och bedömningsrelaterade arbetsuppgifter för att bibehålla en hög kvalitet i revisionen. Den enskilde revisorn inverkar på processen då personlighetsdrag har visat sig ha samband med vilka arbetsuppgifter som föredras.  Syfte: Syftet är att förklara hur revisorns personlighetsdrag påverkar preferens för struktur och bedömning. Teori: Traitteori med fördjupning inom Big Five, yrkesmässiga intressen, komfortteori och definitioner av struktur och bedömning. Metod: I studien används en deduktiv forskningsansats där hypotesprövning används för att pröva ovanstående teorier. Studien är kvantitativ och en enkätundersökning genomförs. Auktoriserade revisorer från Revisorsnämndens lista (2015) ingår i urvalet. Resultat och slutsats: Resultatet indikerar att revisorers personlighetsdrag förklarar preferens för struktur och bedömning. Studien presenterar ett positivt signifikant samband mellan öppna revisorer och bedömningsrelaterade arbetsuppgifter samt ett negativt samband med strukturerade arbetsuppgifter. Ett positivt signifikant samband existerar mellan samvetsgranna revisorer och strukturerade och bedömningsrelaterade arbetsuppgifter. Komfort visar sig i studien vara ett alternativt sätt att mäta preferens. Studiens bidrag: Studien bidrar med ett nytt perspektiv inom struktur- och bedömningsdilemmat. Studien ger även rekryterare inom revisionsbranschen en förståelse för personlighetens betydelse i revisorns arbete. / Background: More structure is being introduced in the auditing profession. Auditors need to balance structured and judgment-related tasks to maintain a high quality in the audit process. The individual auditor influences the process as personality traits have been shown to be related to the tasks which are preferred.  Aim: The purpose is to explain how the auditor's personality traits influence preference for structure and judgment. Theory: Trait theory with focus on Big Five, vocational interests, comfort theory and definitions of structure and judgment. Method: The study uses a deductive research approach where hypothesis testing is used to test the above listed theories. The study is quantitative and survey method is used. The sample consists of certified auditors from Revisorsnämnden (2015). Result and conclusion: The result indicates that the auditor's personality traits may explain preference for structure and judgment. The study presents a positive significant relationship between auditors that are open and judgment-related tasks, and a negative significant relationship with structured tasks. A positive significant relationship exists between auditors that are conscientious and structured and judgment-related tasks. The study shows that the term comfort is an alternative way to measure preference. Contribution: The study provides a new perspective in the structure and judgment dilemma. The study also gives recruiters within audit companies an understanding in how the personality affects the work of auditors.

This study investigated isiZulu-speakers' conceptions of morality. The relationship between concepts of the self and morality was also explored, as were influences of gender, family and community on moral reasoning. Fifty-two participants of both genders were interviewed. The sample was drawn from urban, peri-urban and rural areas in KwaZulu-Natal. The participants were invited to tell a story involving a moral dilemma they had experienced in their lives. The resulting narratives were analyzed using an adapted version of the Relational Method, an analytic procedure developed by Gilligan and her colleagues (e.g. Brown & Gilligan, 1991) to analyze narratives of real life conflict. Respondents considered morality to be a state of connection or equilibrium between the person, other people, and his or her social milieu. Connection is characterized by caring, just and respectful relationships among people and everything to which they stand in relation. Immorality, which is characterized by relationships devoid of care, justice and respect, results from a breakdown in social and communal relationships. Conceptions of morality were found to be dependent on respondents' understanding of the self. The view that morality is characterised by connection was associated mainly with the communal or familial self. However, tensions were also noted between competing concepts of the self within the person, namely the communal and independent selves. These tensions complicated respondents' choices in the face of moral conflict. Gender was also found to influence moral reasoning: in the face of moral dilemmas involving gender, men were concerned with the preservation of their masculine identities, while women found themselves positioned powerlessly by culturally defined narratives of femininity. These results are discussed with reference to traditional African philosophical frameworks and dialogical theory. The implications of the study to psychological theory, social science research ethics and health-related intervention policies are highlighted. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2003.

Kooperatives Verhalten lässt sich in vielen Bereichen menschlichen Zusammenlebens sowie im gesamten Tierreich beobachten. In evolutionären Modellen wurde gezeigt, dass Netzwerkstrukturen die Kooperation erhöhen können. Empirische Studien versuchten vergeblich diesen Mechanismus auch bei Menschen nachzuweisen. Es scheint, als würden Netzwerke nur dann die Kooperation erhöhen, wenn die Strukturen nicht statisch sind, sondern dynamisch. Das heißt, dass die Individuen die Möglichkeit haben, ihre Partner zu wechseln. Eine wichtige – aber bislang unerforschte – Eigenschaft dynamischer Netzwerke ist jedoch, dass derartige Wechsel von Partnern in der Regel Kosten verursachen, ob in Form von Zeit oder Ressourcen. Kapitel I meiner Arbeit schließt diese Lücke, in dem es sich mit den Effekten von Kosten auf dynamischen Netzwerken befasst. Ich konnte nachweisen, dass Menschen seltener Interaktionen mit Partnern beendeten, wenn die Kontaktaufnahme mit einem neuen Partner mit Kosten verbunden war. Bei sehr hohen Kosten, wurden Partner so selten gewechselt, dass das Netzwerk fast statisch war. Interessanterweise blieb die Kooperation dennoch sehr hoch. Das bedeutet, dass für kooperatives Verhalten entscheidend ist, ob man die Möglichkeit hat, Partner zu wechseln. Im Gegensatz zu bisherigen Annahmen ist es daher nicht wichtig, wie oft tatsächlich Partner gewechselt werden, sondern lediglich ob es die Möglichkeit dazu gibt. In Kapitel II beschäftige ich mich mit optimalem Entscheidungsverhalten. Im sogenannten Judge-Advisor-System geht es darum, dass eine Person, der Judge, eine unbekannte numerische Größe schätzen will. Dazu erhält der Judge eine zweite unabhängige Schätzung als Rat von einer zweiten Person, des Advisor. Schließlich ist die Frage, wie der Judge optimal den Rat verwerten kann um seine Anfangsschätzung zu verbessern. Bisherige Forschung konzentrierte sich hauptsächlich auf zwei mögliche Methoden, (i) das Bilden des Mittelwerts und (ii) das Wählen der besseren Anfangsschätzung. Das Hauptargument für diese einfachen Methoden ist deren häufige Verwendung in bisherigen Experimenten. Allerdings wurden sehr wohl auch andere Gewichtungen beobachtet und daher ist eine gründliche Analyse der optimalen Gewichtung erforderlich. In der vorliegenden Arbeit leitete ich ein normatives Modell her, das beschreibt, unter welchen Bedingungen welche Methode das bestmögliche Ergebnis liefert. Es wurden drei Methoden verglichen: (i) das Bilden des Durchschnitts, (ii) das Wählen der besseren Anfangsschätzung, und (iii) das Bilden eines gewichtetet Mittelwerts, wobei das Gewicht vom Kompetenzunterschied abhängt. Welche Methode optimal ist, hängt davon ab, wie groß der Kompetenzunterschied ist und wie gut er vom Judge erkannt wird. Die Durchschnittbildung ist immer dann vorteilhaft, wenn der Kompetenzunterschied nicht groß ist, oder nur schwer richtig eingeschätzt werden kann. Wenig überraschend lohnt sich das Wählen der besseren Anfangsschätzung, wenn der Kompetenzunterschied hinreichend groß ist, vorausgesetzt es wird tatsächlich die bessere Anfangsschätzung gewählt. Wenn der Kompetenzunterschied vom Judge gut eingeschätzt werden kann, ist eine Entsprechende Gewichtung immer die beste Methode, unabhängig vom tatsächlichen Unterschied. In Übereinstimmung mit bisheriger Forschung wurde auch die Kombination von Durchschnittbildung und Wählen der besseren Anfangsschätzung untersucht. Diese Kombinationsmethode beruht darauf, bei als gering eingeschätztem Kompetenzunterschied den Durchschnitt zu bilden und ansonsten die bessere Anfangsschätzung zu wählen. Interessanterweise schneidet diese Kombinationsmethode sehr schlecht ab, was hauptsächlich daran liegt, dass zu oft die falsche Anfangsschätzung genommen würde. Insgesamt ist das gewichtete Mittel also eine geeignete Methode für einen großen Parameterbereich.

Previous solutions for the the Law of Categorical Judgment with category boundary variability have either constrained the standard deviations of the category boundaries in some way or have violated the assumptions of the scaling model. In the current work, a fully Bayesian Markov chain Monte Carlo solution for the Law of Categorical Judgment is given that estimates all model parameters (i.e. scale values, category boundaries, and the associated standard deviations). The importance of measuring category boundary standard deviations is discussed in the context of previous research in signal detection theory, which gives evidence of interindividual variability in how respondents perceive category boundaries and even intraindividual variability in how a respondent perceives category boundaries across trials. Although the measurement of category boundary standard deviations appears to be important for describing the way respondents perceive category boundaries on the latent scale, the inclusion of category boundary standard deviations in the scaling model exposes an inconsistency between the model and the rating method. Namely, with category boundary variability, the scaling model suggests that a respondent could experience disordinal category boundaries on a given trial. However, the idea that a respondent actually experiences disordinal category boundaries seems unlikely. The discrepancy between the assumptions of the scaling model and the way responses are made at the individual level indicates that the assumptions of the model will likely not be met. Therefore, the current work examined how well model parameters could be estimated when the assumptions of the model were violated in various ways as a consequence of disordinal category boundary perceptions. A parameter recovery study examined the effect of model violations on estimation accuracy by comparing estimates obtained from three response processes that violated the assumptions of the model with estimates obtained from a novel response process that did not violate the assumptions of the model. Results suggest all parameters in the Law of Categorical Judgment can be estimated reasonably well when these particular model violations occur, albeit to a lesser degree of accuracy than when the assumptions of the model are met.

It has been postulated that occupational therapists when choosing an appropriate intervention method, use theoretical and practical knowledge (factors), based upon identifying client's goals to guide their clinical reasoning. The overall aim of this study was to identify factors and their relative contributions to the decisions occupational therapists make in the management of upper limb (UL) hypertonicity of children and adolescents with cerebral palsy (CP). Studies about general factors which influence occupational therapists' decision making have been addressed widely in the literature. However, studying influential factors in specific areas such as in the management of UL hypertonicity of clients with CP is limited. The information obtained from studies of decision making with other client groups can not readily be generalised as it has been demonstrated that specific task characteristics induce different types of cognitive thinking. For example, working with clients with orthopaedic problems may induce logical thinking, while practicing with clients with neurological problems promotes intuitive thinking. The management of UL hypertonicity of clients with CP was chosen as the focus of this study for two main reasons. First, the incidence of CP is high, manifesting in between 1.4 and 2.4 of 1000 live births. Second, people with CP are one of the major client groups referred to occupational therapy (OT) clinics as outpatients. The literature reviewed highlighted a lack of evidence about what therapists attend to when making decisions about the management of UL hypertonicity for clients with CP. To identify and evaluate these factors, the current research employed Social Judgment Theory (SJT). This methodology was selected because it had the capacity to access intuitive thought or tacit knowledge that is very difficult for experienced therapists to explain. Furthermore, SJT is most relevant in situations where there is no optimal decision. The current study proceeded in five phases. Phases One to Three were conducted to identify the most relevant factors to be used in the case vignettes necessary for the application of SJT. This process involved a review of the literature, consultation with clinical experts and then involved twelve experienced therapists in a process of identifying, refining, and ranking the relevant factors in order of priority. As a result of the processes in Phases One to Three 37 factors and their ranked importance were identified. The identified factors were reduced from 37 to 12 on the basis of ranking, cluster analysis and consultation with experts and appropriate scales identified for their measurement. These factors formed the basis of Phase Four of this study. In Phase Four 10 sample case vignettes as well as an administration manual were developed and four therapists were asked to make decisions for these cases. On the basis of therapists' comments, some changes were made in case vignettes and administration manual. Finally, 110 case vignettes were generated randomly (20 were repeated to examine consistency) for Phase Five of the study. In Phase Five, eighteen occupational therapists (16 females and 2 males), mean age of 36.7 years (SD = 7.6 years) who had worked with people with CP for a mean of 10.4 years (SD = 6.0 years) made decisions for the generated case vignettes. The findings of Phase Five revealed that therapists used three factors mainly in their decisions including severity of spasticity, wrist and finger posture, and client and family background. They had poor insight into their decision making (r = 0.36) and demonstrated only moderate consistency (r = 0.46). When therapists were divided into two groups based on their level of performance in respect to therapists' consistency and their ability to discriminate between cases, both groups used severity of spasticity and wrist and finger posture in their decision making. However, the higher performing group used limitation in passive range of movement and previous intervention in their decision making, and the low performing group used client and family background.