Embodied Conversational Agents (ECAs) are intelligent software entities with an embodiment used to communicate with users, using natural language. Their purpose is to exhibit the same properties as humans in face-to-face conversation, including the ability to produce and respond to verbal and nonverbal communication. Researchers in the field of ECAs try to create agents that can be more natural, believable and easy to use. Designing an ECA requires understanding that manner, personality, emotion, and appearance are very important issues to be considered. In this thesis, we are interested in increasing believability of ECAs by placing personality at the heart of the human-agent verbal interaction. We propose a model relating personality facets and hidden communication goals that can influence ECA behaviors. Moreover, we apply our model in agents that interact in a puzzle game application. We develop five distinct personality oriented agents using an expressive communication language and a plan-based BDI approach for modeling and managing dialogue according to our proposed model. In summary, we present and test an innovative approach to model mental aspects of ECAs trying to increase their believability and to enhance human-agent affective communication. With this research, we hope to improve the understanding on how ECAs with expressive and affective characteristics can establish and maintain long-term human-agent relationships.

Nas últimas décadas, transformações políticas, sociais e econômicas alteraram as configurações do mundo do trabalho. A carreira, antes baseada em modelos organizacionais hierárquicos, começou a ser compreendida em termos da percepção individual sobre a sequência de experiências de trabalho no decorrer da vida. Se antes era possível estudá-la a partir de grandes escolhas iniciais, o foco passou a incidir sobre as decisões tomadas continuamente, ao longo de toda a carreira. Frente a esse cenário, surgiu uma demanda por estudos multidisciplinares que permitissem compreender a influência de fatores individuais sobre as decisões de carreira. A Psicologia Individual de Alfred Adler, com sua abordagem teleológica e de ênfase à subjetividade dos indivíduos, apresentou-se como uma perspectiva teórica adequada para esse fim. Dentre os constructos da Psicologia Individual, este estudo empregou a ordem de nascimento, em duas conceituações: posição do indivíduo na ordem de sucessivos nascimentos em sua família (ordem cronológica de nascimento) e interpretação do indivíduo para sua situação no quadro familiar (ordem psicológica de nascimento). Com o propósito de ampliar o conhecimento acerca dos motivos na tomada de decisão, realizou-se uma pesquisa descritiva e quantitativa com uma amostra não probabilística de 279 profissionais brasileiros que iniciaram suas carreiras há pelo menos 15 anos. A coleta de dados foi realizada por meio de questionário eletrônico e, para a análise inferencial dos dados, utilizaram-se testes não paramétricos (Friedman, Mann-Whitney, Kruskal-Wallis e Qui-Quadrado). Os resultados das análises estatísticas revelaram associações significativas entre a ordem de nascimento - tanto cronológica como psicológica - e a importância atribuída a diversos motivos de decisão na carreira, reforçando a relevância das percepções individuais sobre situações vividas na infância na compreensão de motivações no desenvolvimento de carreira. A maior parte dos achados corroboraram descrições de Adler para as diferentes posições familiares de nascimento. Os resultados também destacaram a influência temporal sobre a importância atribuída aos motivos de decisão. Recomendam-se novas pesquisas para o aprofundamento dos achados, em outros arranjos familiares e grupos culturais, bem como a abordagem de outros constructos Adlerianos nos estudos empíricos do desenvolvimento de carreira. / In recent decades, political, social and economic changes have modified the settings of the working world. The career, which was previously based on hierarchical organizational models, has begun to be understood in terms of the individual perception about the sequence of work experiences throughout life. At first, it was possible to study careers from the big initial choices, but the focus has now shifted to the decisions continuously made throughout the career. Against such a background, it has emerged a call for multidisciplinary studies allowing for the understanding of the influence of individual factors on career decisions. The Individual Psychology of Alfred Adler, with its teleological approach and emphasis on the subjectivity of individuals, was presented as an appropriate theoretical perspective for this purpose. Among all the constructs of Individual Psychology, this study has employed birth order on two different concepts: the individual\'s position in the order of successive births in the family (chronological birth order) and the way the individual interprets his situation in the family context (psychological birth order). With the purpose of increasing the knowledge about motivations in decision making, a descriptive and quantitative research was carried out with a non-probability sample of 279 Brazilian professionals who began their careers at least 15 years ago. Data collection was performed using an online survey and inferential data analysis used nonparametric tests (Friedman, Mann-Whitney, Kruskal-Wallis and Chi-Square). The results of statistical analysis demonstrated significant associations between birth order - both chronological and psychological - and the importance attributed to several motives in career decision, reinforcing the relevance of individual perceptions of childhood situations to the understanding of motivations in career development. Most research findings have corroborated Adler\'s descriptions to the different positions of birth in the family. The results have also highlighted time influence on the importance assigned to the various motives in career decision. Further research is recommended to explore these findings in other family arrangements and cultural groups, besides the approach of other Adlerian constructs in empirical studies of career development.

A dificuldade de se planejar a carreira em um ambiente caracterizado pelo dinamismo e descontinuidade tem demandado a realização de estudos centrados em referenciais internos que possam contribuir com o autoconhecimento. Este estudo exploratório teve por objetivo aprofundar o entendimento sobre a adaptação à transição de carreira na meia-idade utilizando um constructo oriundo da Psicologia: o locus de controle. Para tanto, foi realizada uma pesquisa qualitativa em que foram empregadas duas técnicas de investigação: um inventário de locus de controle e a entrevista semi-estruturada. Os relatos obtidos nas entrevistas foram transcritos para a utilização de técnicas de análise de conteúdo. A partir da análise dos resultados foram identificadas quais e como foram feitas as adaptações à transição de carreira na meia-idade, bem como formulada uma hipótese de pesquisa: o locus de controle interno facilita a adaptação às transições de carreira na meia-idade. / The difficulty in planning the career in an environment characterized by dynamism and disruption has demanded studies centered on personal internal references that may contribute to self-knowledge. The objective of this exploratory study was to deeply understand the adaptation to the career transition in the middle age by means of a psychological construct: the locus of control. A qualitative research, in which were used two investigation techniques: locus of control inventory and semistructured interview was carried out. The speeches from the interviews were transcribed, so that they could be submitted to content analysis techniques. From the analysis of the findings it was identified which and how the adaptations to the career transitions in the middle age occurred. Furthermore, a research hypothesis was stated: the internal locus of control facilitates the adaptation to the career transitions in the middle age.

There were two main objectives of this thesis. First, given that personality traits have been linked to a number of diabetes risk factors and precursors such as lifestyle and the metabolic syndrome, our aim is to explore whether personality traits are associated with type 1 and type 2 diabetes mellitus. Second, we aim to investigate several potential mechanisms by which personality could influence diabetes, and other health outcomes such as cardiovascular disease and mortality. Chapter 1 provides an introductory overview of the history of personality-health research, and discusses strengths and limitations of different methodological frameworks. Chapters 2-4 focus on the associations between personality and diabetes. Two studies described in Chapter 2 examine cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between personality and type 1 and type 2 diabetes. We used a large national sample with ten years of follow-up. We detected positive associations between openness and neuroticism and type 1 diabetes prevalence, and negative associations between neuroticism and type 2 diabetes incidence. In Chapter 3, we examine relationships between personality and type 2 diabetes incidence using aggregated personality and diabetes data on a level of the U.S. counties and states. In a six-years follow-up study, we found no evidence that mean levels of personality traits were associated with diabetes incidence in the U.S. states. In the following chapter we explore whether a possible mechanism by which personality may influence diabetes is by moderating the expression of its genetic risk. The study described in Chapter 4 looks at interactions between personality domains and facets with polygenic risk score for type 2 diabetes in predicting glycated haemoglobin levels using a large community-dwelling sample. This study found a negative phenotypic correlation between openness and glycated haemoglobin levels, though this association was confounded by cognitive ability. Moreover, genetic risk for diabetes was more strongly associated with glycated haemoglobin levels in people with lower levels of either agreeableness or conscientiousness. In Chapter 5 we move away from diabetes to discuss previously reported contradictory results regarding the effects neuroticism has on mortality. Some of the previous studies reported higher neuroticism being associated with higher risk of mortality, whereas some reported that higher neuroticism was associated with lower risk of death. We tested whether the sign of the neuroticism effect was a function of the covariates included in the models. In a national sample with ten years of follow-up we found that neuroticism was a risk factor for death in the models that did not include objective and self-rated health variables. However, when these variables were included, neuroticism was related to lower risk of death. In the last empirical chapter, Chapter 6, we explore whether autonomic nervous system activity is a biomarker for personality traits. The first study tests whether openness is associated with measures of sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system activation. We find that openness was associated with sympathetic nervous system activity under baseline but not in the stress conditions, and that it was not associated with measures of parasympathetic activation. The second study describes a model of associations between neuroticism and autonomic nervous system activation, while controlling for cardiovascular disease and depression and their mutual associations. We found that neuroticism has independent contributions to all measures of autonomic nervous system activity, and to heart disease, even when controlling for relevant clinical variables. Thus, autonomic nervous system activity may explain in part observed links between personality, and heart disease and mortality. Finally, in Chapter 7 we summarize the findings presented in the five empirical chapters, discuss the limitations of the current method, and offer suggestions for future research in the field.

Due to the growth of online shopping and services, various types of products can be recommended to an individual. After reviewing the current methods for cross-domain recommendations, we believe that there is a need to make different types of recommendations by relying on a common base, and that it is better to depend on a target customer’s information when building the base, because the customer is the one common element in all the purchases. Therefore, we suggest a recommender system (RS) that develops a personality profile for each product, and represents items by an aggregated vector of personality features of the people who have liked the items. We investigate two ways to build personality profiles for items (IPPs). The first way is called average-based IPPs, which represents each item with five attributes that reflect the average Big Five Personality values of the users who like it. The second way is named proportion-based IPPs, which consists of 15 attributes that aggregate the number of fans who have high, average and low Big Five values. The system functions like an item-based collaborative filtering recommender; that is, it recommends items similar to those the user liked. Our system demonstrates the highest recommendation quality in providing cross-domain recommendations, compared to traditional item-based collaborative filtering systems and content-based recommenders.

This dissertation examined the relationship between personality, individual values, work values and conditions of performance. The objective of this study was to determine what motivational constructs predict a smaller differential between performance outcomes under typical conditions of performance versus maximum conditions of performance. This study examined four research questions. 1) Is there a relationship between personality traits and conditions of performance? 2) Is there a relationship between individual values and conditions of performance? 3) Is there a relationship between work values and conditions of performance? 4) Which of the overall relationships are more highly correlated? Sackett et al. (1988) characterized maximum performance as evidenced when three conditions are met: 1) there must be explicit awareness that one is being evaluated, 2) there must be awareness of and acceptance of implicit or explicit instructions to maximize effort, and 3) performance must be measured over a short enough duration that the performer's attention remains focused on achieving maximum performance. Conversely, typical performance would be characterized by situations in which individuals were not cognizant of any performance evaluation, were not attempting to perform to the best of their ability, and in which performance was monitored over an extended period of time (Sackett et al., 1988). In this study, FFM personality traits of were proposed to correlate with a differential in performance outcomes between the two conditions of performance. Similarly, individual values of conformity, stimulation, hedonism, benevolence and achievement were proposed to correlate with a similar differential in performance. A specific set of work Values drawn from the Protestant Work Ethic were also proposed to correlate with a performance differential. The results of this research suggested performance outcomes do significantly vary under each performance condition, but that the results are highly correlated (.620 with p-value < .05). Individuals who perform at a superior level under conditions of typical performance also perform at a higher level under conditions of maximum performance as well. The study did not find support for the expected relationships between personality traits, individual values or work values and outcomes between conditions of typical and maximum performance.

Femfaktormodellen är en personlighetsteori som används för att beskriva och utvärdera människors personligheter. Denna studie utgick från Femfaktormodellen och undersökte sambandet mellan personlighetsdrag och kostval, vilka könsskillnader som fanns avseende personlighetsdrag och kostval samt vilka de främsta självrapporterade anledningarna till att avstå eller minska köttkonsumtion var. Deltagarna (N=274) var universitetsstudenter över 18 år gamla vid ett svenskt universitet. Deltagarna rekryterades via Internet och besvarade en digital enkät. Resultaten av bivariat korrelationsanalys samt variansanalyser visade att personlighetsdraget ”Öppenhet” korrelerar med kostval och att det finns könsskillnader i en människas kostval beroende på grad av personlighetsdragen ”Känslomässig instabilitet” och ”Vänlighet”. Resultaten visade även att de främsta självrapporterade anledningarna att avstå eller minska köttkonsumtion beror på kön, kostval samt grad av ”Känslomässig instabilitet”. Sammanfattningsvis har denna studie bidragit med ny kunskap beträffande sambandet mellan personlighetsdrag och kostval. / Big-Five personality is a personality theory that is used to describe and evaluate people's personalities. This study was based on the Big-Five personality theory and examined the relationship between personality traits and food choices, what gender differences that existed regarding personality traits and food choices and which the primary self-reported reasons to abstain or decrease meat consumption were. The participants (N=274) were university students over 18 years old at a Swedish university. The participants were recruited through Internet and answered a digital survey. The results from bivariate correlational analysis and analysis of variance showed that the personality trait ”Openness” correlates with food choices and that there are gender differences in a person's food choice depending on the level of the personality traits ”Neuroticism” and ”Agreeableness”. The results also showed that the primary self-reported reasons to abstain or decrease meat consumption depends on gender, food choices and level of ”Neuroticism”. In summary this study has contributed new knowledge regarding the relationship between personality traits and food choices.

To determine what type of young men and women are entering the profession of music today as compared with those entering other fields is the purpose of the present investigation. It undertakes a study of ninety advanced music students divided into two groups of forty-five each, those who prefer to do solo work and those who prefer to perform in an ensemble. A control group of fifty advanced students is taken from other fields of study in order to form a basis for judgment of the music students. These groups are compared with respect to age, intelligence, and various personality adjustments.

Cognitive adaptability has been conceptualised as the ability to effectively and appropriately change decision policies (i.e. to learn) given feedback (inputs) from the environmental context in which cognitive processing is embedded. Based on a large sample of 2650 established entrepreneurs in South Africa, this study attempts to determine how entrepreneurs cognitively adapt to unpredictable entrepreneurial environments. Multidimensional constructs representing cognitive adaptability and the Big Five personality traits were operationalised and empirically investigated. It was hypothesised that the Big Five personality trait dimensions of openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion and agreeableness are positively related to the cognitive adaptability dimensions of goal orientation, metacognitive knowledge, metacognitive experience, and metacognitive choice and monitoring. Neuroticism was hypthesised to be negatively related to the cognitive adaptability dimensions of goal orientation, metacognitive knowledge, metacognitive experience, metacognitive choice and monitoring. Hypotheses were tested using structured equation modelling and correlational and regression analysis. Results provide support for subcomponents of the Big Five personality traits. Intellectual interest (openness to experience), goal striving (conscientiousness), activity (extraversion), prosocial orientation (agreeableness) were found to be positively related to cognitive adaptability. They were found to be negatively related to prior metacognitive knowledge. Self-reproach (neuroticism) was found to be negatively related to cognitive adaptability. It was found to be positively related to prior metacognitive knowledge. This research builds on and extends existing literature on cognitive adaptability in an entrepreneurial context by bringing together two streams of literature from psychology metacognition and personality traits. The implications of the process for dynamic, adaptable thinking are important in an emerging context such as that found in South Africa. The results of this study will inform the practice of policy makers who are trying to encourage start-up entrepreneurs to think about thinking in unpredictable entrepreneurial environments. In terms of methodology, the use of a sample of established entrepreneurs is desirable for this type of research since metacognition is better studied in entrepreneurs who are involved in a series of activities. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2016. / Business Management / PhD / Unrestricted

The use of personality traits in the determination of an individual’s future job performance is considered to be a valid measure that offers organisations the ability to carry out career planning, pre-employment selection and promotional testing amongst other uses. The incorrect placement of an individual has negative implications on the business that manifest themselves in different forms but the most prevalent is that of the loss of productivity and increased costs. This study was carried out in the hope of producing an additional measure in the identification of the most suitable candidates for a sales management position.The study was conducted utilising a qualitative research design. A total of (n) = 218 respondents took part in this study and completed the research instrument. The statistical tests that were conducted are that of correlation and linear regression testing between the identified independent and dependent variables.The results produced from the study corroborate the use of personality traits as a predictor of an individual’s future job performance is flawed. It was determined that the dimensions of the big five personality traits were not correlated to, nor could not offer any predictive ability with the required level of significance that of the dependent variables. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted