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<p>This dissertation offers a critical analysis of the dominant philosophical theory of law today: Hartian positivism. The arguments proffered are not meant to strike at the underlying methodology of that account. Rather, they are intended to demonstrate that it performs sub-optimally with regard to its own jurisprudential aspirations. More specifically, this thesis contends that the Hartian position is unable to model the law in a way that captures the de facto terms of institutional governance, while also being able to give due theoretical credence to the normative structures and mechanisms that are widely deployed to regulate it. With this conclusion in hand, a new theory of law is suggested – one that seeks to stay true to the methods and aspirations of its predecessor, but which has been constructed so as to surpass its descriptive-explanatory capabilities. In this way, the following dissertation means to push analytic jurisprudence beyond the Hartian pale, and into new areas of theoretical discourse.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

The aim of this project is to examine the relationships between two approaches to the measurement of life history strategies. The traditional method, termed here the biodemographic approach, measures developmental characteristics like birthweight, gestation length, inter-birth intervals, pubertal timing, and sexual debut. The alternative method under exploration, termed here the psychological approach, measures a suite of cognitive and behavioral traits such as altruism, sociosexual orientation, personality, mutualism, familial relationships, and religiosity. Although both approaches are supported by a large body of literature, they remain relatively segregated. This study draws inspiration from both views, integrating measures that assess developmental milestones, including birthweight, prematurity, pubertal timing, and onset of sexual behavior, as well as psychological life history measures such as the Mini-K and a personality inventory. Drawing on previous theoretical work on the fundamental dimensions of environmental risk, these measures are tested in conjunction with several scales assessing the stability of early environmental conditions, including both "event-based" measures that are defined with an external referent, and measures of internal schemata, or the predicted psychological sequelae of early events. The data are tested in a three-part sequence, beginning with the measurement models under investigation, proceeding to an exploratory analysis of the causal network, and finishing with a cross-validation of the structural model on a new sample. The findings point to exciting new directions for future researchers who seek to integrate the two perspectives.

The following thesis presents the results of a mixed-design study (quasi-experimental and true experimental) testing an integrated model of human risk-taking behavior, defined statistically as a preference for variance in outcomes. The research presented examines the relationships among early-life environmental conditions (i.e., harshness and unpredictability), life-history strategy, and risk-taking behavior for primary resources under various "resource-budget" conditions consisting of deprivation and non-deprivation in two areas: (1) Social-inclusion and (2) caloric "Energy-budget." Two hundred and forty seven (N=247) university students participated in the research. In session one, participants completed multiple questionnaires assessing levels of environmental harshness and unpredictability experienced during development and individual life-history strategy. In session two, participants were pseudo-randomly assigned to experience laboratory induced deprivation or non-deprivation in one of two possible areas: Social-inclusion or caloric "Energy-budget." Following the experimental manipulations, participants played two different behavioral risk-taking tasks: (1) The Wheel Spin Risk Task which required participants to select between a low variance "safe" wheel and a high variance "risky" wheel in an attempt to earn either points or food rewards (depending upon study condition). (2) The Operant Risk Taking Task which required participants to select between a low variance "safe" keyboard key which produced constant rewards and a high variance "risky" keyboard key which produced variable rewards (points or food, depending upon study condition). The results of the multivariate analyses supported main effects only (no moderation) between the characteristics of the early-life environment, life-history strategy, and the experimental manipulations on risk-taking behavior. Specifically, early-life harshness was significantly associated with a faster life-history strategy in participants. Participants with a faster life-history strategy were significantly more likely to select the risky spin wheel on the Wheel Spin Risk Task than were slower life-history strategy participants who were more likely to select the safe spin wheel. Furthermore, participants who experienced the deprivation experimental manipulations behaved more risky on the Operant Risk-Taking Task (for reward amount) than did participants exposed to the non-deprivation manipulations in the study. Interestingly, this effect was domain-general in that deprivation in either Social-inclusion or Energy-budget was associated with risk taking for both social points and for food rewards. The results of this study suggest that life-history strategy is predictive of instrumental risk-taking behavior for reward amount and that deprivation in adaptive areas like Social-inclusion and Energy-budget enhances risk-taking behavior for primary rewards in a domain-general manner as opposed to a domain-specific manner.

Behavior-analytic accounts of rule-adherence behavior suggest that rule-governance is a general class of functional (i.e., instrumental) behavior maintained by social consequences (Baum, 2005; Malott & Suarez, 2004; Jacobs et al., in prep.). Evolutionary Life-History (LH) theory suggests that LH strategy may underlie variation in rule-adherence behavior. Based on an integration of these two theories, a theoretical structural model of rule-governance was developed and tested. The structure of this model was used to develop follow-up experiments to test particularly salient links in the model. Consistent with theory, the structural model indicated that slow LH strategy directly and indirectly (through increased moral emotions and increased executive functioning) contributed to strength of rule-governance. Two experiments failed to replicate previously demonstrated effects of executive function depletion or moral identity priming (on moral behavioral outcome measures). Further, self-report measures of slow LH strategy, executive functioning, and rule-governance did not predict prosocial (donating) or rule-defiance (cheating) behavior in laboratory tasks. The limitations of relying solely on either self-report or behavioral tasks of unknown external validity are discussed.

The United States has one of the highest teen pregnancy rates among developed countries and ranks third overall in rates of teen pregnancy out of thirty countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperative Development, OECD (UNICEF, 2007). However, as a country we are spending an enormous amount of money on teen pregnancy prevention programs. For example, the Office of Adolescent Health has implemented grant funding opportunities for teen pregnancy prevention programs and provides approximately $105 million to states to design these programs. These programs include personal responsibility education and abstinence only education (http://www.hhs.gov/ash/oah/oah-initiatives/tpp). If we are spending this much on these programs, why do we still have one of the highest teen pregnancy rates among developed countries? Based on what we have learned from current prevention efforts, the goal of this dissertation is two-fold, to introduce alternative theoretical approaches for prevention design and test determinants and protective factors of sexual risk-taking in adolescence. To obtain these goals, this dissertation was written using the three paper option that contains a theoretical paper and two empirical papers that test hypotheses of determinants of sexual risk-taking in adolescence and possible factors that protect youth from engaging in sexual risk-taking, such as school-wide communication and sexual education. The theoretical paper introduces alternative theoretical approaches to not only target individual behavior that may be risky, but also target the contextual constraints in which teens are operating. The empirical papers analyze possible determinants and protective factors for sexual risk-taking in youth.

A dissertação que se segue trata de investigar as concepções teóricas de Oswald Spengler acerca da história, publicadas em seu livro A Decadência do Ocidente (Der Untergang des Abendlandes), pensando suas implicações para a questão da constituição do conhecimento histórico. Nessa investigação de cunho teórico são importantes, além do conceito de história, também os conceitos de cultura, civilização, vida, decadência e Estado, compreendidos por meio de seu principal texto teórico, assim como seus livros menos conhecidos, sobretudo Socialismo e Prussianismo (Preußentum und Sozialismus) (1920). A Obra de Oswald Spengler, O Declínio do Ocidente (1918/22), é um imbricado ensaio histórico que reúne em seu conteúdo ao mesmo tempo as áreas econômica, política, matemática, artística e cultural, para debatê-las sob uma ótica histórica. O foco deste trabalho encontra-se no conceito de história spengleriano, mas também na sua relação com o problema da identidade alemã, e na necessidade de uma parcela de intelectuais alemães em negar o progresso e a ciência. Desde o movimento Sturm und Drang esses intelectuais procuraram negar as ciências objetivas e os princípios do Iluminismo, procurando alternativas anti-iluministas para a História, para a filosofia e para as ciências. É nesse movimento que se inscreve a tentativa de Oswald Spengler de definir o modo de funcionamento da decadência na estrutura da História, assim como suas tentativas de negar princípios políticos e filosóficos dos iluministas. / The following essay investigates Oswald Spenglers theoretical concepts about history, which were published in his book The Decline of the West (Der Untergang des Abendlandes). It reflects about his implications for the matter of the historical knowledge constitution. In this investigation of theoretical nature, not only the concept of history, but the concepts of culture, civilization, life, decline and State are important. These concepts are understood through his main theoretical text and least popular books, such as Prussiandom and Socialism (Preußentum und Sozialismus) (1920). The work of Oswald Spengler, The Decline of the West (1918/22), is an imbricated historical essay which gathers in its content, areas such as economics, politics, mathematics, art and culture, in order to discuss them through a historical point of view. This research aims at the spenglerian concept of history, its relationship with the German identity issue, and the necessity of an amount of German intellectuals to deny the progress and science. Since the moment Sturm und Drang, these intellectuals had been denying the objective sciences and the Enlightenment principles, searching for anti-illuminist alternatives for History, philosophy and sciences. It is in this movement that Oswald Spenglers attempt to establish the operating way of the decline in Historys structure enrolls, just like his attempts to deny illuminists political and philosophical principles.

Esta tese é um estudo de epistemologia da história nos domínios da história econômica. Por ser um estudo de epistemologia histórica também é metodológico e historiográfico. Adotamos como objeto principal de investigação obra e pensamento do historiador francês Fernand Braudel (1902-1985). Nossa hipótese geral é a de que a disciplina de história econômica obteve com Fernand Braudel um novo significado no conjunto das ciências sociais e humanas. Já a nossa hipótese específica parte da noção de que economia mundo não se trata de um conceito comum na obra do autor, como tende a se sustentar na historiografia, mas sim de um mecanismo epistêmico dentro do conjunto braudeliano capaz não apenas de dar sentido à sua teoria histórica do capitalismo, mas fundamental para se compreender a partir da escrita estrutural associada à longa duração - a sua perspectiva de espaço-tempo nos domínios da história. Para comprovação das hipóteses apresentadas, três discussões nortearão esta pesquisa: i) a relação das disciplinas de história, economia e sua resultante, a história econômica; ii) o duelo entre a história estrutural braudeliana e o estruturalismo; e iii) os contextos da obra e pensamento braudelianos. Os resultados obtidos demonstraram que a história econômica não somente foi o maior campo de estudos do historiador francês, mas foi a base de seu projeto epistemológico para o conjunto das ciências sociais e humanas. Verificou-se também que o projeto braudeliano em boa parcela foi construído a partir da antinomia de método com o estruturalismo; uma incursão problematizadora dos princípios epistemológicos do método estruturalista demonstraram que seus formalismos impediram que seu maior expoente, Claude Lévi- Strauss, resolvesse a aporia do tempo. Essa incursão nos levou a estudar a concepção de espaço e de tempo na filosofia e na ciência. Verificou-se o debate entre ciência e filosofia em torno do novo problema espaço-tempo lançado pelo físico Albert Einstein enquanto contexto histórico do período de constituição dos paradigmas dos primeiros Annales e braudelianos. O projeto braudeliano, denominado de história global, de nada tem a ver com a pueril pretensão de estudar todos os fatos históricos humanos em todas as épocas possíveis, mas apenas de se inverter a ordem tradicional de investigação das ciências sociais e humanas que se autonomizaram na virada de século e no decorrer do século XX. Trata-se de não mais se restringir à dicotomia idiográfica hipotético-indutiva (empirista) versus nomotética hipotético-dedutiva (racionalista), trata-se de superá-la. / This thesis is a study of history epistemology within the domains of economic history. As it is a study of history epistemology, it is also methodological and historiographical. We have adopted the french historian Fernand Braudel\'s (1902-1985) work and thought as our investigation object. The general hypothesis is that the economic history discipline has had, with Fernand Braudel, a new meaning in the social and human sciences conjunct. In the other hand, our specific hypothesis is that world-economy is not about a commom concept in the author\'s theory, as it is maintained in historiography, but it\'s about an epistemical mechanism within the braudelian conjunct able to make sense not only to the author\'s historic theory of the capitalism, but fundamental to understand from the structural writing associated to long duration - , as well, his perspective of space-time in history domains. Three discussions will lead this research for validation of the hypothesis: i) the disciplines\' relations of history, economy and their resultant, economic history; ii) the battle between braudelian structural history and structuralism; and iii) the braudelian work and thought contexts. The obtained results have shown that economic history was not only the greater study field of the french historian, but also the bedrock for his epistemological project for the social science conjunct. It was also verified that the braudelian project was elaborated from the methodological antinomy with the structuralism; a problematical incursion of the epistemological principles from the structural method have shown that its formalisms prevented its greater exponent, Claude Lévi-Strauss, to solve the time aporia. This incursion lead us to study the concept of space and time in philosophy and in science. We have noticed that the debate between science and philosophy about the new problem space-time brought up by the physicist Albert Einstein, is related to paradigms from the earliest Annales, and the braudelians. The braudelian project denominated global history, has nothing to do with the puerile pretension of studying all the human historical facts of all possible times, but only to invert the traditional investigation order of social sciences which became independant by the century\'s upturn and throughout the XX th century. This is no longer about getting restricted to the hypothetical-inductive (empiricist) idiographic dichotomy versus hypothetical-deductive (rationalist) nomothetic, it is about to overcome it.

The ability to move and forage efficiently plays a major role in determining the fate of individuals, and has important implications for population dynamics and ecosystem functioning. Migration is a particular type of movement strategy, whereby animals may travel remarkable distances in order to take advantage of seasonality in resource availability or to avoid arduous winter conditions; however, this can be at a cost in terms of increased mortality. Indeed, anthropogenic threats in non-breeding areas are a major cause of population declines and a better understanding of non-breeding spatial ecology is required in order to advance both ecological theory and conservation management. The recent development of animal tracking technologies, in particular light-based geolocation, has made it possible to track large-scale and long-term movements; however, there are still gaps in our knowledge, such as the links between migratory and reproductive performance, connectivity among populations and the ontogeny of migration strategies. In this thesis, I utilise multi-species and longitudinal datasets from albatrosses and petrels, some of the most mobile species on Earth, to explore the drivers of variation in movements, habitat use and foraging behaviour, and the implications for life history and conservation. In Chapter 1, I provide an overview of the key topics of this thesis. In Chapter 2, I provide quantitative recommendations of minimum sample sizes needed to track pelagic seabird migrations, using data from 10 species. In Chapter 3, I examine between- and within-population differences in the habitat preferences and distributions of albatrosses, including the relative roles of habitat specialization and intra-specific competition. In Chapter 4, I investigate the year-round movement and foraging strategies of petrels living in nutrient-poor environments. In Chapter 5, I examine potential links between foraging behaviour during the non-breeding season and reproductive senescence. In Chapter 6, I explore the ontogeny of foraging behaviour and foraging site fidelity in young albatrosses, shedding light on their “lost years” at sea. Finally, I conclude with a general discussion summarizing main findings and suggesting future work. Overall, my results highlight the complex relationships among individual traits, the environment, movements and foraging behaviour, and population dynamics across the lifespan of individuals, with implications for the conservation of this highly threatened group of species.

abstract: Anti-atheist prejudice is cross-culturally prevalent and marked by intuitive distrust. However, recent research suggests that, when social perceivers know additional relevant information about others (i.e., their reproductive strategies), this information overrides religious information and nonreligious targets are trusted as much as religious targets. That is, perceivers seem to use religious information as a cue to a specific set of behavioral traits, but prioritize direct information about these traits when available. Here, I use this framework to explore the possibility that atheists are viewed positively in certain circumstances. First, atheists might be viewed positively for certain purposes because of their perceived reproductive strategies, even while being trusted less. Second, atheists who are family-oriented do not sacrifice trust, but may still be viewed positively for other traits (i.e., open-mindedness, scientific thinking). Third, given the constraints religion often imposes on behavior, atheists might be trusted more in situations where these constraints interfere with religious people’s inclination to cooperate. I tested these hypotheses using fictitious social media profiles to examine social perception. The study had a 3 (Target Religion: Religious, Nonreligious, or Atheist) × 3 (Target Reproductive Strategy: No Information, Committed, Uncommitted) experimental design (N = 550). Contrary to my predictions, participants did not rate atheists and nonreligious targets as “fast” compared to religious targets. Consistent with predictions, however, atheists and nonreligious individuals were rated significantly higher on perceived open-mindedness and scientific thinking. Finally, atheist and nonreligious targets were trusted more in two of the three trust domains: trust with scientific findings that contradict their worldview and trust with a secret about a friend’s abortion. Further analyses compared patterns of responding for religious and nonreligious individuals, finding evidence for ingroup bias in most perceptions, but not all. Results suggest that perceptions of atheists are complex, but that atheists may, at least sometimes, be viewed favorably. Finally, these results point to the importance of reproductive strategy as a dimension of social perception, as this variable had a clear effect, independent of target religion, on the hypothesized perceptions. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Psychology 2018