This study explores the adoption and use of Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) in a context marked by ubiquitous connectivity and intense social interaction. Research in the field has predominantly explored the topic within closed and private contexts, such as work and education environments. Resulting theories tend to lose predictive strength when transferred to open and social contexts. Specifically, theories often assume that behaviour is shaped exclusively by the utility derived from technological functions – an occurrence more common in closed and private settings. Other influencing factors, whilst acknowledged, tend to be sidelined or treated as exceptions. Further complexities arise as theorists misread and mistreat user perceptions and intentions. The study combines an inductive strategy with a Skinnerian radical behaviourist philosophical worldview. Individual accounts and group discussion about online social networking and smartphone ownership were captured in a natural social setting. A total of 35 technology users from Malta aged between 18 and 40 years participated in face-to-face interviews and focus group discussions. In contrast to other studies, verbal accounts and group interaction were treated and analysed as social behaviour and not as cognitive decision processes. Findings show that a more holistic understanding emerges if the social and internal dimensions are considered alongside environmental consequences. Results indicate that beyond utilitarian benefits, users also seek pleasure and social status whilst averting risk and minimising cost and disruption. The study shows that consumer ICTs are different from other technologies, such as cars and refrigerators, since these are tools specifically designed for application within verbal behaviour. ICTs can be applied as tools to communicate information, share past experiences, provide feedback to others, and confer social status on others. ICT applications elicit feedback from listeners and observers rather than cause measurable changes in the environment. The study builds on this insight by proposing a conceptual framework as an interpretative tool for practitioners and as a theoretic proposition for future inquiry.

Social Dream-Drawing is a socioanalytic praxis conceived, developed and researched by myself as a psycho-social action researcher. Although it is built upon related praxes, such as Social Dreaming, Organisational Role Analysis and the Social Photo-Matrix, its unique contribution is the work with drawings of dreams done by participants, relating to an identified theme. The theory underlying all of these praxes is that thoughts from the unconscious can be made available to consciousness by the processes of free association and amplification. They can be further reflected upon and then used as the basis for intervention in organisations. The theme that I used for four of the five different groups that I worked with is “What do I risk in my work?” and my research goal was to “to evaluate the benefits of this type of developmental methodology for the work of organisational role holders”. I have worked with twenty-one participants in five different groups in four different countries. This study is among the first to actually use psycho-social research to demonstrate the value of a socioanalytic praxis. My three major findings are as follows: 1. SDD is a very valuable individual transformative professional learning experience. 2. SDD contains and supports those going through major transitions, either professional or personal. 3. SDD helps groups identify and explore their underlying systemic dynamics. The dissertation itself is divided into two sections. The first is devoted to the praxis itself, its underlying theory and development. The second focuses on the philosophy, methodology, methods, findings and ethics relating to the action research I undertook. I use the metaphor of the helix to capture my dual consultant/action researcher and psycho-social researcher roles. The dissertation ends with reflections on the experience, concerns and cautions about the use of this praxis and thoughts for possible next steps in using this praxis for organisational development interventions.

The transfer of knowledge from academia to industry is of critical importance to both academics and industrialists. It can be argued that patent documents referring to a set of well-researched concepts may be used as a measure of such a transfer. Concepts are typically articulated as terms, and shared terms in research papers and patent documents are proposed as the monitoring index. Key developments in science and engineering are usually signalled by the introduction of new terms and the exclusion of established ones; this change in the terminology may be construed as a change in the knowledge in that field. Early identification of these changes may provide opportunities for innovation and enhance an organisation's competitive intelligence. A corpus linguistic approach has been taken to research the changes in terminology that occurred in the development of Artificial Intelligence since 1936. We have examined the terminology used in a sample of journal papers and patents and found that the terminological preferences of the authors change over time. Biological models of growth have been applied to model the diachronic changes, and the results show that the growth of term usage and the transfer of knowledge may be modelled by using logistic growth techniques.

The question-behaviour effect, how asking attitude, intention and prediction questions influences behaviour, has been widely examined since its discovery by Sherman (1980). This PhD thesis on the question-behaviour effect consists of three parts: 1) A meta-analysis of the research thus far, 2) A series of studies investigating possible underlying mechanisms of the question-behaviour effect, and 3) A series of studies investigating the moderating roles of self-affirmation and goal difficulty in question-behaviour effect interventions. The meta-analysis in the first part of this thesis is carried out to examine the effectiveness of the question-behaviour effect as influence technique. Studies were included if they used an experimental design with random allocation of participants, where the experimental condition consisted of asking attitude, intention and/or prediction questions, and the dependent variable was a behavioural measurement. This resulted in 55 comparisons in 35 papers, with a total of 49108 participants. Applying a random-effects model on the data resulted in a small effect (d = 0.26, 95%CI [0.18, 0.34]). Methodological causes and moderators related to the applicability and universality of the technique are discussed. The second part of this thesis consists of three experimental studies that investigated whether dissonance processes can explain question-behaviour effects. The studies investigated how predicting future behaviour can influence participants’ recalled past behaviour regarding both positive and negative behaviours. Study 1 investigated how asking participants about positive (daily exercise) or negative (not brushing your teeth before going to bed) behaviours affected recalled past behaviour. Study 2 focused on how recalling past behaviour in a precise (number of times) or vague manner (never – all the time) influences the effect of prediction questions on recalling a negative behaviour (procrastination). Study 3 investigated how combining a future behaviour prediction with a positive or negative prime could influence recalled past behaviour regarding buying bottled water. The results of Study 1 showed that asking participants about a negative behaviour (going to bed without brushing your teeth) reduced recalled past behaviour. Study 2 showed that offering specific rather than vague answering possibilities is required to find an effect and the results of Study 3 showed that a positive or negative prime can influence recalled past behaviour in that direction, while adding a future behaviour prediction question attenuates the effect. Theoretical explanations of the findings and ideas for further research are discussed and a fourth, correlational, study is described that suggests social proof might explain some of the question-behaviour effect findings. In the third part of this thesis, the moderating role of self-affirmation and goal difficulty in question-behaviour effect interventions was investigated. In studies 5-7, participants were asked a prediction question related to eating five-a-day (hard-goal) or eating fruit and vegetables in general (easy-goal). Some participants received a self- affirmation task as part of their questionnaire and all participants received a voucher they could use to collect a free bowl of fruit or vegetables after completing the questionnaire. Results showed that easy-goal prediction questions (eating fruit and vegetables) resulted in an increase in voucher use while hard-goal prediction questions (eating five-a- day) resulted in a decrease in voucher use. Adding self-affirmation to the intervention attenuated these question-behaviour effects. Implications of findings and general themes of the thesis are discussed in the general discussion chapter.

Cyborgism and performance are perhaps on the face of it two different subject areas, and the many other topics covered or touched upon in this thesis on the face of it quite distinct areas of study. This thesis is a synthesis of these otherwise distinct fields of thought. The main line of argument will focus around a discussion of performance and performativity, and how performance studies presents an understanding of identity and of culture that dovetails with sociological notions, in particular those which use the language of the stage, notably social interaction and actor-network theory. The nature of cyborgism will become apparent through this discussion, particularly in discussion of the cultural phenomenon of the cyborg in fiction and in film. One of the primary concerns raised by this discussion and by the characteristics of the modern cyborg, however, will be the history, nature, and development of Modernism itself, from mediaeval times up to the present, and which will identify the Cyborg as its ultimate product. The philosophical thrust of the thesis will be to highlight the problems inherent in the Modernist, scientific materialist approach to understanding the world, and contrast it with a counter-history of philosophical approaches both vitalist and holistic, thereby casting the Cyborg as a warning and a threat.

This thesis investigates the lived experience of contact supervisors in the contact encounter. Contact supervisors and managers from five London local authorities participated in ten semi-structured interviews. Data were thematically and discursively analysed paying attention to issues of performativity of text and disciplinary power. A psychoanalytically informed analysis was also applied to add further complexity to the psychosocial investigation of the ‘warp and weft’ of the psychological and the social in contact supervision. Two core themes were identified. The Cinderella Service core theme postulated that the role of the contact supervisor is necessarily fractured and conflicted, as manifested in mutually enforcing and destabilising subject positions active in storylines of Rags to Riches and Doing the Dirty Work. Supervisors maintained panoptic systems of enclosed discourses, and concurrently resisted these through taking up alternative relational positions with regards to the triad of social care system/supervisor/family. The themes of rivalry and exclusion were voiced through the metaphor of early oedipal psychic functioning which enabled an understanding of the dynamics of unresolved mourning and loss at the heart of the contact encounter. The Gut Feelings/Fine Lines core theme presented the role of contact supervisor as a meeting point for competing moral dilemmas that are created and maintained through shifting relational experiences. These were articulated through the storylines Here-for-a-reason, Same-as-us and Parent-as-child that positioned and counter positioned supervisors in relation to families. The first order positioning of blame drew on neoliberal discourses of parenting, class and gender. The moral dilemmas faced by contact supervisors were formulated as being generated in part by a struggle to integrate dynamics of ambivalence. In discussion of the findings, contact was characterised by degrees of paralysis, active in structural, moral and emotional interrelated dimensions. This aspect of supervised contact enabled an exploration of the present challenges in contact and the implications of this research project on supervised contact design and practice. It is argued that because of the growth of contact supervision resulting from the increase in children in care it is urgent that this under-researched area should be studied and understood as a distinctive field of practice. This study offers a contribution of lived experience, psychosocially theorised to meet the lag between policy and practice. It stands as a call to focus on the contact encounter as the site for policy development derived from experience, respectful intervention for families rooted in relationships with supervisors and a validation and recognition of delicate and dedicated contact work.

Though it is natural to assume that people must be using social information when engaging in social interactions, little research has investigated whether trait assessments have any influence on social behaviour. This thesis explored the relationship between the basic dimensions of social perception; formidability and trustworthiness, and social decision-making behaviour. Chapter 2 examined the impact of assessing facial formidability and trustworthiness on social decision-making, and found that formidability was the primary trait influencing participant's behaviour. Chapter 3 looked at whether cross-cultural differences in trait influence exist, and found similarities between UK and Swiss behaviour, i.e. that formidability was the primary influencing trait, but an opposite pattern in two US populations, where trustworthiness has a larger impact on decision-making strategies. A further study examined possible underlying factors for this cross-cultural difference in behaviour, but the results were inconclusive. Chapter 4 looked at whether manipulating state anxiety altered participant's trait perception and decision-making strategy, and found no effect of increased state anxiety. Chapter 5 examined whether participants would assess personality traits from biological motion, as depicted by point-light walker stimuli, and whether they would use this information to inform their decision making. The findings suggest a nearly identical pattern to that found in a UK population using facial stimuli. Chapter 6 looked at whether assessments of prestige or dominance had a bigger impact on social behaviour and found level of prestige, taken from manipulating clothing on the presented stimuli, to entirely remove any impact of formidability on participant's social decision-making. Finally, Chapter 7 examined whether a participant's own level of formidability, taken from skeletal and muscular morphological measurements, altered their facial trait perception and social behaviour. No significant relationship between physical morphology and behaviour was found. These findings suggest that a relationship exists between the basic dimensions of social perception and social decision-making, although these strategies vary cross culturally.

No description available.

Prosocial Behaviour has a strong history rooted in Social Psychology. However, it has yet to be researched in the realm of social media. This line of research aims to better understand Prosocial Behaviour in social media environments and learn how to increase positive engagement online through the theoretical framework of Walther’s (1996) hyperpersonal model of computer-mediated communication. Four studies were conducted to obtain this goal. The first two studies explore what factors affect prosocial behaviour on social media sites. In particular, study one examines how gender, appearance, and number of social media friends affect whether or not individuals will give aid to their friends. The outcome suggested that the less social media friends a person had, the less likely the individual would help. Study two delves into whether the bystander effect and personalisation affect Prosocial Behaviour on social media sites. The bystander effect did not affect helping but personalising a message made it more than two times more likely that an individual would receive help. The third study looks at some barriers that prevent prosocial behaviour on social media sites. Three main barriers resulted including ‘Information Overload,’ ‘Can’t Live with It, Can’t Live without It,’ and ‘Privacy and Permanence of Information.’ The final study examines Prosocial Behaviour in a social media context through the means of two events where social media played an important role in helping behaviour. These events exemplified that social media is a powerful tool and can be used to effectively promote Prosocial Behaviour and also provided support for Walther’s hyperpersonal model. As the first to delve into helping behaviour on social media sites, this thesis advances the current body of knowledge on Prosocial Behaviour. In addition, the four studies provide vital knowledge on how to increase prosocial behaviour online using Walther’s (1996) hyperpersonal model on CMC. With the current Social Media Revolution and time spent online, it is vital to make social media engagement more positive and user friendly. The three main ways to increase positive online engagement gleaned from this thesis are 1) Make things personal, 2) Create a social media group with a hierarchical structure, and 3) Edit privacy settings and friend/follower settings on personal social media pages to fit one’s individual needs.

No description available.