Equity theory has long been used to predict individuals' responses to equity and inequity. Tests of these predictions have been inconsistent, particularly for inequitable conditions of low inputs and high outcomes, or overreward. Based on empirical evidence pointing to the powerful effects of moods on cognitive tasks, this study incorporates mood into equity theory's propositions, with the expectation that considering mood will enhance equity theory's predictive power. Specifically, as Wyer and Carlston's (1979) "feelings-as-information" hypothesis suggests, subjects who receive favorable outcomes may use their positive outcome-based mood in judging the fairness of the situation. Cognitive research suggests that positive mood reduces the accuracy of judgments, which would explain the inconsistencies in equity perceptions. However, Schwarz and Clore (1983) discovered that the effect of mood on judgments may be eliminated if the mood can be attributed to a logical external source. Two studies were conducted using similar procedures with different overrewards and external sources. In both studies, overrewarded subjects rated the fairness of being overrewarded and the fairness of the procedures used to allocate the reward. These ratings were analyzed to assess the effects that subjects' inputs, outcomes, and procedures had on their perceptions of fairness. Two groups were given the opportunity to attribute their moods to a source other than the reward. It was hypothesized that mood effects on fairness judgments would be eliminated when subjects were able to attribute their mood to its correct source (i.e., undeserved reward) or to an incorrect but logical source (i.e., music or cheerful surroundings). Specifically, the elimination of the effect of positive mood should serve to increase accuracy in judgments of fairness. The hypothesis that subjects who were treated with fair procedures would view their outcome as more distributively fair was supported in both studies. In Study 1, the hypotheses regarding changes in judgment accuracy as a function of external attribution of positive mood were not supported. The results of Study 2, which used a different overreward and transient source, revealed that external attribution of positive mood had a significant effect on subjects' fairness ratings. / Master of Science

Studiens syfte var att undersöka om en jämställd fördelning av hushållssysslor och omsorg om barn påverkar föräldrars planer på att utöka familjen, samt hur värderingar angående jämställdhet samspelar med beteende gällande arbetsfördelning. I många europeiska länder är fertiliteten låg vilket kopplas till att kvinnors roller har förändrats under senare decennier. Andelen kvinnor i högre utbildning samt i förvärvsarbete har ökat, medan kvinnorna fortsätter att ta majoriteten av ansvaret för hem och barn. I Sverige är andelen förvärvsarbetande kvinnor hög samtidigt som även barnafödandet är relativt högt. Svensk familjepolitik har sedan 1960-talet skapat förutsättningar för jämställdhet och givit föräldrar konkreta möjligheter att dela lika på omsorgen om barn. Studiens teoretiska ramverk bygger på tre perspektiv. Gender equity theory utgår från att obalansen mellan graden av jämställdhet i samhället respektive inom familjen bidrar till lägre barnafödande. Gender revolution perspektivet vidareutvecklar detta och menar att ett ökat barnafödande är kopplat till att männen deltar aktivt i omsorg om barn och hem. Gender ideology perspektivet undersöker samspelet mellan värderingar och beteende, och hur detta har en betydelse för hur man upplever sin situation. Data är inhämtat från Generations and Gender Survey, och urvalet består av kvinnor och män som är 25-44 år, som lever i parförhållande och har ett eller två barn. Studiens beroende variabel är “barnplaner”, förklaringsvariabler är fördelning av omsorg om barn och hushållssysslor, samt variabler om jämställda attityder avseende mammors och pappors arbete, och materialet analyserades med hjälp av logistisk regression. Resultaten visade ett positivt samband mellan jämställd fördelning av omsorg om barn och planer på att utöka familjen, som dock endast var signifikant när interaktionen mellan värderingar och arbetsfördelning inkluderas i modellerna. Högst benägenhet att vilja utöka familjen har de individer som jämställt delar på omsorgen om barnen, men som har traditionella värderingar angående mammors arbete.

Silicon Valley is known for its amazing workspace and perks. Due to Equity Theory and Two-factor Theory, employees should be content and stay longer. However, studies have found that there's a higher rate of job-hopping, which seems like a contradiction (Fallick et al, 2006). Participants were 135 engineers, ages 18 to 35 years old, who completed an online survey looking at job satisfaction, job expectations, perk usage, employee perception of perks, personal equity sensitivity, and comparison others. Recruitment was done through personal connections in the Bay Area and various social media sites that are targeted towards engineers. Results did not show that job satisfaction influenced job expectations while individual differences in equity didn’t influence perk usage, perceptions of job expectations. In conclusion, this research adds to the dearth of literature about Silicon Valley, and, more broadly, explored a link between Equity Theory and Two-Factor Theory that had not been previously examined.

Hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) is a demanding cancer treatment for HSCT recipients and their caregivers. The thesis objectives were to (a) critically review the literature evaluating the psychosocial impact of being a caregiver to a HSCT patient; (b) evaluate a conceptual framework to examine the individual and dyadic experience of HSCT patients and their caregivers; and (c) gain a better understanding of how couples navigate the HSCT. Study 1 was a comprehensive literature review that demonstrated that caregiver distress is highest pre-HSCT and predictors of caregiver distress include female gender, elevated subjective burden, and higher patient symptom distress. This study also highlighted the need for theoretically driven research that examines reciprocal relationships between HSCT dyads. Study 2 proposed a conceptual model based on equity theory to examine the individual and dyadic experience of HSCT dyads that includes feelings of inequity, patient self-perceived burden (SPB), caregiver burden and distress. A cohort study with 72 HSCT patient-spousal caregiver dyads was conducted pre-HSCT. Questionnaire data was subjected to path analysis. Consistent with the model, pre-HSCT caregiver burden mediated the relationship between caregiver underbenefit and caregiver distress. Patient overbenefit was related to patient SPB, patient distress, and caregiver burden. Overall, the theoretical framework appeared to describe patient and caregivers individual experience of distress pre-HSCT, but did not as clearly encompass the dyadic experience of distress. Study 3 was a qualitative study of patient-caregiver dyads to gain insight on how some successfully navigate, whereas others have difficulties. One year post-HSCT five patient-caregiver dyads were interviewed separately (N =10). Five themes emerged. While all couples adopted patient and caregiver roles, four demonstrated effective adaptation whereas one couple experienced difficulties. Ongoing physical limitations, lack of mutual empathy and relational awareness, limited social support, and poor communication were associated with difficulty adjusting to the HSCT. This thesis provides a greater appreciation of the psychosocial challenges the patients and caregivers are experiencing and highlights that the experience of HSCT recipients and caregivers is unique and intertwined. Importantly, this thesis identifies current knowledge gaps in care of HSCT dyad, discusses its clinical implications and suggests avenues for future research.

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Transportation planning has become increasingly more performance-based over the past several decades. In part due the mandate from the 2012 Federal Surface Transportation Program authorization, Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP-21), agencies are adopting performance-based policies and programmatic frameworks to integrate the attainment of national goals into the transportation planning and decision making process. As agencies implement performance-driven decision making as a means to achieve national goals, local goals will become subject to the same framework. Although equity is not a national goal, transportation agencies continue to recognize it within their vision and planning goals. However, it is difficult to determine what constitutes equity, and to quantify and measure it. To plan for equitable outcomes in transportation therefore, it is necessary to develop evaluation methods that support the integration of equity in planning processes. The objectives of this research are to develop recommendations for procedures to formally incorporate equity considerations in transportation planning and program evaluation and to propose methodological revisions to existing analytical processes to enable evaluation of cumulative accessibility outcomes. A literature review -- drawing from the theories of equity, Federal regulations for addressing equity in transportation, performance management, and transportation and sustainability -- and practitioner interviews were used to gather information on the common and effective practices for addressing equity in transportation planning at the regional level. This information was an input in the development of a quantitative research approach to explore methodological limitations and planning gaps related to transportation planning for equitable outcomes. These results informed the development of a comprehensive approach to analyze and characterize cumulative impacts (i.e. accessibility) regionally. The approach is used to develop recommendations for regional transportation planning to influence equitable transportation outcomes for the full range of demographic groups over time. The research contributes to the knowledge base and professional practice of transportation planning by putting forward a construction for approaching equity in transportation planning and decision making based on equity theory, developing analytical methods to evaluate transportation investments for equitable outcomes, and offering a set of recommendations for moving transportation planning practices towards transportation planning for equitable outcomes.

In this study, equity theory and relationship maintenance were employed as the framework through which couples' perceptions of and use of diet- and exercise- related social influence strategies were examined. Additionally, this research investigated whether people's perceptions of social influence were associated with their health maintenance behaviors and relationship quality, as well as whether their perceived diet- and exercise-related support from the partner moderated these associations. Finally, individuals' motivation to use influence strategies to encourage their partners to be healthier was also be evaluated. This study included a sample of 192 cohabiting or married couples. The results of the Actor Partner Interdependence Models indicated that actors' perceived relationship maintenance and control mutuality were positively associated with their perceptions of positive influence strategies from the partner. Additionally, actors' perceived positive influence strategies from their partners were associated with greater health maintenance and relationship satisfaction, with the inverse being true for actors' perceived negative influence strategies from their partners. Individuals' reports of using social influence strategies varied depending on their various motivations for using social influence strategies (i.e., perceived partner ability and willingness to change, reasons for using social influence, and reasons for not using social influence). Finally, individuals reported engaging in more health maintenance behaviors when they also perceived more positive social influence and more diet- and exercise-related support from their partners. These results suggest that relationship functioning is related to individuals' perceptions of influence strategies from the partner, which are also associated with individuals' health maintenance behaviors and relationship quality. Consequently, romantic relationships appear to be an important context in which to examine diet- and exercise- related social influence strategies.

As of 2016, women in the U.S. are still making 80 cents on the dollar relative to men, and even with controls for other factors such as education, experience, and hours worked, the pay disparity is still around eight percent. The equity, efficiency wage, and Cognitive Evaluation Theories, suggest that a closed gender wage gap would be more beneficial to society. This paper uses these theories to investigate the relationship between productivity and pay disparity by using an ordinary least squares regression model to test the effects of the gender wage ratio on labor productivity while controlling for some human capital characteristics. Additionally, this paper furthers the hypotheses that the wage gap is detrimental to labor productivity and worker well-being by proposing a study in which a simulated wage gap is predicted to negatively affect worker satisfaction, motivation, and productivity. Findings and implications for further research are discussed.

Does wage disparity, measured as the difference between highest and lowest paid workers, affect the quality of reported financial information? I collect accounting professional wage data from an international accounting and finance employment placement firm for the period of 1972 to 2017. I investigate to what degree wage disparity in corporate and public accounting has affected accounting information quality by testing predictions derived from equity theory and tournament theory. I find that vertical wage disparity within, as well as horizontal wage disparity between, corporate and public accounting is associated with measures of the relevance and reliability of accounting information. Specifically, pay disparity within corporate accounting is associated with a significant reduction in earnings persistence, in the earnings-returns relationship, in the accruals-cashflow relationship, and with higher levels of absolute abnormal accruals. In tests of pay disparity within the public accounting profession I find evidence of improved information quality associated with higher pay disparity. These findings are consistent with the different structures of employment and career advancement within the corporate and public accounting professions.