This study was based on the premise that one outcome of education is ego development. The research was based on Jane Loevinger's theory that ego development is the central frame-of-reference through which people view themselves and their relationships with others. The study looked for evidence of ego development in adult students and for contributing factors, including academic environments. It compared the ego levels of students aged 35 to 55 at two higher education institutes and some experiences that are common to most colleges. The variables compared were based on Loevinger's levels of ego development and theories of academic environments of Moos, Pace, and Knefelkamp. The variables used were: ego development, type of school, background characteristics, relations with faculty, enthusiasm about school, opinions about academic environment and estimates of gains. The study was done in two stages. Five hundred forty students responded to a questionnaire on background characteristics and selected portions of Pace's Measuring the Quality of College Student Experiences. From this group, 150 students were mailed Loevinger's Sentence Completion Test and 85 were returned. Study findings provided an opportunity to expand the knowledge about the ego levels of adult students. Statistical analyses included chi-square and ANOVA. No statistically significant change in ego levels was found. No statistically significant differences were found between the ego levels of the students by schools or background characteristics. There were differences in how the two total populations responded to the questionnaire about school, environment and personal gains. Students attending the small liberal arts college indicated that they were more enthusiastic about college, felt that their school placed a stronger emphasis on both the subjective and objective outcomes of college. These students felt that their school placed a higher emphasis on interpersonal relationships. The students from the small liberal arts college were more likely to say that they had gained the most personally. Personal gains included development of values and standards, understanding of self, and the ability to work with others. These are characteristics that are indicative of ego growth. Recommendations included additional research into maximizing developmental environments of adult students and faculty education on adult development and learning styles.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / For pedestrians and autonomous vehicles (AVs) to co-exist harmoniously and safely in the real-world, AVs will need to not only react to pedestrian actions, but also anticipate their intentions. In this thesis, we propose to use rich visual and pedestrian-environment interaction features to improve pedestrian crossing intention prediction from the ego-view.We do so by combining visual feature extraction, graph modeling of scene objects and their relationships, and feature encoding as comprehensive inputs for an LSTM encoder-decoder network. Pedestrians react and make decisions based on their surrounding environment, and the behaviors of other road users around them. The human-human social relationship has al-ready been explored for pedestrian trajectory prediction from the bird’s eye view in stationary cameras. However, context and pedestrian-environment relationships are often missing incurrent research into pedestrian trajectory, and intention prediction from the ego-view. To map the pedestrian’s relationship to its surrounding objects we use a star graph with the pedestrian in the center connected to all other road objects/agents in the scene. The pedestrian and road objects/agents are represented in the graph through visual features extracted using state of the art deep learning algorithms. We use graph convolutional networks, and graph autoencoders to encode the star graphs in a lower dimension. Using the graph en-codings, pedestrian bounding boxes, and human pose estimation, we propose a novel model that predicts pedestrian crossing intention using not only the pedestrian’s action behaviors(bounding box and pose estimation), but also their relationship to their environment. Through tuning hyperparameters, and experimenting with different graph convolutions for our graph autoencoder, we are able to improve on the state of the art results. Our context-driven method is able to outperform current state of the art results on benchmark datasetPedestrian Intention Estimation (PIE). The state of the art is able to predict pedestrian crossing intention with a balanced accuracy (to account for dataset imbalance) score of 0.61, while our best performing model has a balanced accuracy score of 0.79. Our model especially outperforms in no crossing intention scenarios with an F1 score of 0.56 compared to the state of the art’s score of 0.36. Additionally, we also experiment with training the state of the art model and our model to predict pedestrian crossing action, and intention jointly. While jointly predicting crossing action does not help improve crossing intention prediction, it is an important distinction to make between predicting crossing action versus intention.

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Perception of depth, ego-motion and robust keypoints is critical for SLAM andstructure from motion applications. Neural networks have achieved great perfor-mance in perception tasks in recent years. But collecting labeled data for super-vised training is labor intensive and costly. This thesis explores recent methodsin unsupervised training of neural networks that can predict depth, ego-motion,keypoints and do geometric consensus maximization. The benefit of unsuper-vised training is that the networks can learn from raw data collected from thecamera sensor, instead of labeled data. The thesis focuses on training on imagesfrom a monocular camera, where no stereo or LIDAR data is available. The exper-iments compare different techniques for depth and ego-motion prediction fromprevious research, and shows how the techniques can be combined successfully.A keypoint prediction network is evaluated and its performance is comparedwith the ORB detector provided by OpenCV. A geometric consensus network isalso implemented and its performance is compared with the RANSAC algorithmin OpenCV. The consensus maximization network is trained on the output of thekeypoint prediction network. For future work it is suggested that all networkscould be combined and trained jointly to reach a better overall performance. Theresults show (1) which techniques in unsupervised depth prediction are most ef-fective, (2) that the keypoint predicting network outperformed the ORB detector,and (3) that the consensus maximization network was able to classify outlierswith comparable performance to the RANSAC algorithm of OpenCV.

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The relationships of cognitive complexity, social perspective taking, and moral reasoning have been primarily examined in children or juveniles. Little work has been done to study their relationships in the late adolescent and young adult college student population. Additionally, the research to date has only examined relationships among pairs of these constructs. There has been no attempt to assess the combined relationship of cognitive complexity and role-taking skills to moral reasoning at any developmental level. Therefore, there are two purposes in this study. First, to test the theory of ego function regression in depression on cognitive developmental concepts related to interpersonal functioning. Second, the study will determine the individual as well as combined relationships of cognitive complexity and social perspective taking to moral judgment in a late adolescent to young adult college student population.

La investigación, tuvo como objetivo determinar si existe relación entre las variables del Estado de Flow y Orientación a la Meta en deportistas extremos. El estudio empleó una metodología de tipo correlacional (Hernández, Fernández y Baptista, 2014), cuya población estuvo conformada por 198 participantes (124 hombres y 74 mujeres) con edades que fluctuaron entre 18 y 60 años. Los instrumentos aplicados fueron el “Flow State Scale (FSS)” de Jackson y Marsh (1966) validado por Shimokawa (2008) y para evaluar la Orientación a la Meta se empleó “Task and Ego Orientation in Sport Questionnaire (TEOSQ)” de Duda y Nicholls (1989), a partir de la traducción de Balaguer, Castillo y Tomás (1996) y adaptado al contexto peruano por Reyes-Bossio (2010). Los resultados demostraron que el estado de Flow se correlaciona significativamente con la variable Orientación a la Meta y al mismo tiempo con sus dimensiones Ego y Tarea. / The main aim of research is to determine the existing relationship between the variables, Flow State, and Goal Orientation in extreme athletes. The research is of correlational type (Hernández, Fernandez and Baptista, 2014), the population is made up of 198 participants (124 men and 74 women) with ages that fluctuated between 18 and 60 years. The instruments applied were the “Flow State Scale (FSS)” of Jackson and Marsh (1966) validated by Shimokawa (2008) and to evaluate Goal Orientation, the “Task and Ego Orientation in Sport Questionnaire (TEOSQ)” by Duda and Nicholls (1989) was used, based on the translation by Balaguer, Castillo and Tomas (1996) and adapted to the Peruvian context by Reyes-Bossio (2010). The results showed that the Flow state is significantly correlated with the Goal Orientation variable and at the same time with its Ego and Task dimensions. / Tesis

This study evaluated the effectiveness of proxy voice intervention, embedded within couple enactments, on client-perceived softening. During enactments, direct couple interaction is the focus while the therapist coaches from the periphery. In the context of an enactment, the therapist may use proxy voice when partners appear to be distressed and expressing themselves in terms of secondary emotions by modeling appropriate attachment and self-concept expression. The primary research question was whether therapist use of proxy voice in an enactment would be more likely to bring about softening effects, or whether use of proxy voice was counter-intuitive to enactment conceptualization and would bring about effects related to struggle (e.g. withdrawal or negativity). The review of literature sets forth (1) enactments as common factors; (2) enactments conceptually and operationally; (3) proxy voice in the context of enactments; and (4) the effects of proxy voice on softening versus withdrawal or negativity. Proxy voice occurred 42 times in nine research sessions where proxy voice was delivered repeatedly in a 20-30 minute enactment episode. Results indicated that proxy voice was significantly (both statistically and clinically) associated to softening while dissimilarly linked with withdrawal or negativity. Results also suggested that proxy voice may be used to dampen volatility and foster couple softening during enactment in the following ways: (1) proxy voice temporarily increases the structure of the couple interaction, thereby allowing the therapist to dampen reactivity and model healthy expression before returning to direct couple interaction; (2) proxy voice is a hypothesis of softer emotions that fits the clients' experiences, helps them to feel validated, and encourages them to consider something in a newer, softer way; and (3) proxy voice taps into foundational relationship dynamics surrounding self-concept and attachment experiences that "propel" interaction processes but remain outside conscious awareness or explicit expression for the couple. These preliminary findings suggest that proxy voice intervention embedded within a fluid, carefully delineated, and discriminating model of enactments effectively facilitates essential elements of couple interaction (expression of primary affect, and self-concept and attachment threats) while promoting self-reliant couple interaction and increased couple softening.

This work explores three phenomenological views of subjectivity in light of methodological transitions within phenomenology since its inception. Jean-Luc Marion offers a critique of Husserl 's transcendental ego in Cartesian Questions. This critique characterizes Husserl's transcendental ego as a 'schizophrenic ego'. This criticism is aimed at phenomenology's intentionality thesis as well as the method of reduction(s). Marion is influenced by Emmanuel Levinas' ethics and takes issue with a 'theoretical bias' within Husserl 's thought, a bias that characterizes subjectivity in the same terms as objectivity. I frame Marion's and Levinas' views of subjectivity in terms of two seemingly opposed 'origins' of subjectivity: Marion's notion of subjectivity embraces a notion of an originally auto-affected subject, while Levinas' position privileges an originally hetero-affected subject. I argue that both these views of subjectivity remain within dualist perspectives. Both thinkers try to overturn a hierarchy of reason over sensation/ emotion/ feeling by calling for a radically passive institution of subjectivity through either a givenness prior to subjectivity (Marion) or the face to face encounter with an Other (Levinas). However, both positions end up instituting a new hierarchy, one where reason is subjugated to feeling. Rather than dismantling dualism both thinkers end up defending a revised hierarchical thinking. I argue that Husserl's transcendental ego is indeed a 'schizophrenic ego' (i.e., a split ego) in Marion's sense but that this is not a problem for classical phenomenology but an alternative to either an auto-affected subject or a hetero-affected subject. Husserl's works on internal time-consciousness and passive and active synthesis illustrate a necessary correlation between passivity/ activity, matter/ form, reason/ emotion, ego/ world and self/ other which moves beyond the hierarchical thinking associated with traditional dualist thought. Husserl's notions of correlation and synthesis actually suggest a subject that is always intentionally related to the world and others and is also intentionally self-related. The implicit aim of this work is to suggest an alternative to an ethics of irreducibility endorsed by both Marion and Levinas. Husserlian phenomenology offers the possibility of an ethics of reciprocity, which paradoxically does not undermine the irreducibility of the subject, others or the world. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

“Playing pretend” is often regarded as childish, but many people continue to role-play well into adulthood through various forms of games, activities, and experiences that become an established part of societal norm. In this study, I attempt to establish links between marginalized identities, self-discovery, self-acceptance, and role-play. My findings may help in development of serious and applied games, as well as role-play’s use in therapeutic settings. I surveyed players online from a specific Art Role-Playing Game (ARPG) community, Pouflons, to find out how their characters’ personas and identities spillover and bleed into the player’s primary identity. Existing literature has reported instances of bleed between character and player identity, but usually in an autoethnographic report, small study, or only in theory. I intended to confirm the phenomena of identity bleed and emancipatory bleed by using a larger sample size, at 138 complete responses. I found that this community had a large population of people identifying as LGBT and that a clear majority of players report that their identity has been affected by their role-play.