Thesis (D. Min.)--Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, 1999. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 213-216).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Trinity International University, 2002. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 114-116).

The thesis compared the likelihood of taking risks in dyads and individuals in varying situations. Patterns of risky decision making were examined in the standard risky choice task and a novel risk management task. The relative successes of two theories of risky decision making were assessed: Prospect Theory emphasizes perceptual and psychophysical processes, whereas Security-Potential/Aspiration Level Theory emphasizes dispositional and motivational processes. The thesis also examined dyads’ decision behavior in light of competing social influence perspectives regarding risky versus cautious shifts and group polarization. Participants, as individuals or as part of a dyad, made decisions in 23 trials about hypothetical two-outcome monetary gambles in one of two different tasks. Risky choice involved making choices between two given 50-50 lotteries which varied in riskiness (i.e., outcome variability), whereas risk management required actively manipulating an existing 50-50 risk by changing outcome values. The 23 trials were equivalent across tasks. Dyad participants communicated via an instant messenger program, while viewing the same lotteries on different computers. Data on risk preferences across gain and loss domains were analyzed using a mixed factorial ANOVA design. Consistent with Prospect Theory value function predictions, the risky choice task led to risk averse preferences for gains and risk seeking preferences for losses, though risk seeking was weak. Consistent with SP/A theory predictions, the risk management task led to overall risk averse preferences, with movement toward risk taking for gains. In addition, there was some evidence of social influences in that dyads tended to be more conservative than individuals in their decision behavior when dealing with undesirable outcomes. Thus, a cautious shift was observed, but only for lotteries involving guaranteed losses. This could not be explained by group polarization.  Each of the theories received some support, but none of them could explain all of the findings. Recommendations were made to give greater attention to defining and measuring risk attitudes and dispositions, and to continue exploring differences in decision situations and social settings to obtain a more comprehensive understanding of risky decision making processes. Findings here suggest the need for an overarching theory that can account for a wide variety of influences. A dual processes approach was recommended as one promising avenue. Social and situational influences may prove an essential part of understanding risky decision making in real life contexts.

This project centers on an office environment and the physical and psychological well-being of the people who work within it. Located at 525 Beresford Avenue in Winnipeg, Manitoba, the Churchill Park United Church was converted to serve as an office space for a hypothetical publishing firm, Choice Publications. With recent knowledge concerning the health and well-being of employees, the design of workplaces has shifted to comprise a human-centered approach. The purpose of this practicum project was to investigate the evolving nature of the office and to determine its role regarding the identity, well-being, and behavior of individuals in order to better accommodate their needs. Central to the exploration is the study of environmental psychology theories and the introvert-extrovert dichotomy. Research into third place theory and the significance of home act as the primary lenses to evolve conventional office design into a hybrid of new typologies. / October 2015

A recent debate has identified a description– experience gap, where the non-linear weighting function identified in prospect theory reverses when probabilities are discovered through experience rather than by description (probabilities). This thesis will explore the role of experience and probabilities theoretically and empirically. It is argued that both behaviors are compatible on a theoretical basis given a preference for the status quo, but produce opposing decision weights due to different cognitive and motivational factors. Probabilities focus a decision on the potential for rare events creating a preference for certain outcomes and reduced risk taking consistent with loss aversion. Experience overweighs customary outcomes consistent with sensitivity to a reference point or the status quo. Experience in the form of loss, however, moderates the effect of probabilities on risk taking. An experimental game of dice supports this hypothesis, suggesting ambiguity seeking in the face of loss and raising the possibility that the use of probabilities may not be always be maximizing behavior.

We live in an era where internationalization and globalization are two extremely attractive concepts. People aim to create a society where limits and restrictions are erased and a thriving society is a reality. Numerous transformations have occurred in order to realize this and one of the most vital ones is the globalization of the economy. The globalization was made possible through the discovery on the capital market. This market enables people to trade with each other, no matter place or time. Thus, a more efficient solution is offered for rapid and significant transfers such as loans and investment. According to various researchers, the capital market determines, in a way, which company will grow and which will stagnate in development. However, the capital market needs to be efficient in order to offer the services intended. The aim of this dissertation is to explain how efficient the capital market is when incorporating information regarding football player transfers. By examining the empirical findings, it will also be able to establish if assets of the same market value cause different share price fluctuations depending on if they are acquired or sold.

In many areas of Artificial Intelligence (AI), we are interested in helping people make better decisions. This help can result in two advantages. First, computers can process large amounts of data and perform quick calculations, leading to better decisions. Second, if a user does not have to think about some decisions, they have more time to focus on other things they find important. Since users' preferences are private, in order to make intelligent decisions, we need to elicit an accurate model of the users' preferences for different outcomes. We are specifically interested in outcomes involving a degree of risk or uncertainty. A common goal in AI preference elicitation is minimizing regret, or loss of utility. We are often interested in minimax regret, or minimizing the worst-case regret. This thesis examines three important aspects of preference elicitation and minimax regret. First, the standard elicitation process in AI assumes users' preferences follow the axioms of Expected Utility Theory (EUT). However, there is strong evidence from psychology that people may systematically deviate from EUT. Cumulative prospect theory (CPT) is an alternative model to expected utility theory which has been shown empirically to better explain humans' decision-making in risky settings. We show that the standard elicitation process can be incompatible with CPT. We develop a new elicitation process that is compatible with both CPT and minimax regret. Second, since minimax regret focuses on the worst-case regret, minimax regret is often an overly cautious estimate of the actual regret. As a result, using minimax regret can often create an unnecessarily long elicitation process. We create a new measure of regret that can be a more accurate estimate of the actual regret. Our measurement of regret is especially well suited for eliciting preferences from multiple users. Finally, we examine issues of multiattribute preferences. Multiattribute preferences provide a natural way for people to reason about preferences. Unfortunately, in the worst-case, the complexity of a user's preferences grows exponentially with respect to the number of attributes. Several models have been proposed to help create compact representations of multiattribute preferences. We compare both the worst-case and average-case relative compactness.

Thesis (D. Min.)--Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, 1999. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 213-216).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Trinity International University, 2002. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 114-116).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, 1999. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 213-216).