Research purpose: The purpose of the study is to investigate the extent to which supervisors are universally perceived as abusive across those they supervise. I propose social learning theory and social information processing theory as theoretical bases for understanding collective impression formation among subordinates reporting to the same supervisor. The study, therefore builds on a growing body of abusive supervision literature by analysing intraclass correlations between subordinates' and their co-workers' perceptions of the same supervisor. Research motivation: Studies that examine whether or not subordinates of the same supervisor have similar perceptions of abuse are in short supply. Therefore, this study examines the possibility of objective impression formation with regards to abusive supervision so as to answer the question: Do subordinates and their co-workers mutually perceive the extent to which a supervisor's behaviour is abusive? Research design, approach and method: This study follows a cross-sectional approach to investigate the extent to which subordinates of the same workgroup mutually perceive their supervisor's behaviour as abusive. Purposive sampling was employed to recruit full-time employed Master's of Business Administration (MBA) students from six respected universities in the United States (US). Purposive sampling was further aided by snowball sampling where each subordinate was asked to get two of their own co-workers involved in the study. A total of 1,029 surveys were distributed and 693 completed surveys were returned. The final sample consisted of 210 sets of surveys where responses were received from the focal subordinate and two of his or her co-workers. An intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) analysis was conducted to determine the strength of intra-group agreement regarding abusive supervision perceptions. Main findings: The results indicate that there is agreement between subordinates' and their co-workers' perceptions of abusive supervision as no significant differences were found between these two groups' assessments of the same supervisor's behaviour. The null hypothesis was accepted. A non-hypothesized finding is that dyadic tenure appears to influence the extent to which supervisory abuse is observed. That is, subordinates and their co-workers may view the same supervisor in the same light, the longer the duration of the supervisor-subordinate relationship. Limitations: The results should be interpreted, bearing in mind that there is limited literature available on abusive supervision at the group level. Furthermore, the results should be considered with caution as the perceptions of abusive supervision were only examined at one point in time, the use of snowball sampling method may be associated with the possibility of sampling bias, and that dyadic tenure was measured with a categorical response (i.e., not treated as a continuous variable). Finally, the results may not be generalisable to the South African context. Future research: It is suggested that future studies should investigate abusive supervision as a group-level phenomenon as few such studies currently exist. Additionally, future studies should examine the extent to which social learning and social information processing approaches contribute to the establishment of mutual perceptions about supervisory abuse. Researchers may also investigate the occurrence of abusive supervision at the group level through the lens of an alternative theoretical framework such as social identity theory. / Dissertation (MCom)--University of Pretoria, 2017. / Human Resource Management / MCom / Unrestricted

Magíster en Gestión de Operaciones. Ingeniero Civil Industrial / Los principales antecedentes y la motivación del presente trabajo provienen de la teoría de Assortment, los modelos de elección discreta y los procesos de Social Learning. Se apunta a reunir parte de la vasta literatura en torno a estos temas, proponiendo un modelo matemático que incorpore el feedback de los consumidores en la elección del surtido de productos a ofrecer por parte de un vendedor. El modelo propuesto incluye un comerciante minorista quien se enfrenta a una secuencia finita de clientes, los que tienen la opción de escoger alguno de los productos ofrecidos por el vendedor. En caso de comprar alguno, descubren su calidad y la reportan de manera pública, siendo esta información utilizada por futuros consumidores en su proceso de decisión mediante actualización bayesiana de sus creencias. Estos reportes a la vez permiten al retailer - quien sólo puede ofrecer una cantidad limitada de productos - optimizar su oferta, escogiendo aquel conjunto de alternativas que le entregue un mayor beneficio esperado. La manera natural para abordar el problema de optimización de assortment enfrentado por el vendedor es mediante Programación Dinámica Estocástica, al tratarse de una situación en tiempo discreto donde período a período se debe tomar una decisión ante un determinado estado del sistema. Sin embargo, el número de estados posibles aumenta explosivamente en función de los parámetros considerados, volviéndose un problema virtualmente imposible de resolver en instancias realistas. Es por ello que se opta por Programación Dinámica Aproximada, proponiéndose 3 heurísticas que permiten obtener resultados en contextos en los cuales no es posible optimizar de manera exacta. A modo de referencia, se compara el rendimiento de las heurísticas con el de una estrategia bajo la cual el vendedor no considera las evaluaciones hechas por los clientes, ni la incidencia de sus decisiones en períodos futuros. La diferencia en los beneficios llega a ser enorme, observándose en los experimentos realizados aumentos superiores a 300% al utilizar alguno de los algoritmos sugeridos, en vez de obviar la información disponible. Esto no solo valida la calidad de los métodos heurísticos propuestos, sino que sobre todo ilustra la importancia de considerar el feedback de los consumidores. / Este trabajo ha sido parcialmente financiado por CONICYT

abstract: Social media has become a significant aspect of American life and culture. Criminal groups including extremists of various ideological milieus have found social media useful in their recruitment efforts. Further, these online spaces allow extremists to easily interact with one another, reinforcing each other’s radical perspectives. Little research has examined social media’s role in radicalization and fewer studies have tested the differences between the radicalization processes of individuals espousing disparate ideologies. Using Profiles of Individual Radicalization in the United States, a data set of 804 extremist men, this study sets out to determine whether the role of social media in the radicalization process varies between Islamist and far right extremists using social learning as a theoretical framework. The results indicate no significant difference regarding the role of social media in radicalization between Islamists and far rightists. Additionally, the odds of having radical friends and family were much lower for Islamists than far rightists, suggesting only partial support for social learning theory as an explanation of radicalization. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Criminology and Criminal Justice 2019

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The instrumental misuse of prescription stimulants as "study drugs", particularly by college students, is a serious issue that needs to be further investigated. Using data from a sample of 549 University of Central Florida Orlando students, the current study tested the relationship between prescription stimulant misuse and social learning theory, as well as general strain theory. Approximately 17% of participants reported misusing prescription stimulants for academic purposes at least once in the past year. Findings show support for social learning theory; the number of friends who use prescription stimulants and the individual's attitudes about the effectiveness of the drugs are both significant variables. General strain theory was divided into two parts; the first one tests the relationship between strain and negative affect, while the second tests negative affect, strain and prescription stimulant misuse. Overall, general strain theory was not found to explain prescription stimulant misuse. Also, results showed students who binge drink or use other substances are significantly more likely to report prescription stimulant misuse. Potential implications for these findings are discussed, as well as future research directions.

Research has shown that sexual content is prevalent in television programming and that this content can have an effect on the viewer's attitudes about sex. This study examined this relationship within the theoretical framework of cultivation and social cognitive theories. This study used a survey to examine these relationships in young students at a large southeastern university. The researchers targeted freshmen, many in their first semester, for this study to get the best measure of attitudes, before they were influenced by college life. In addition to examining the effects of television viewing, the researcher looked at the effects of exposure to other media that may contain sexual content, such as magazines, Internet, DVD's, video games, and music. The study did not find significant relationships between television viewing and students' sexual attitudes and behaviors, but it did find several strong relationships among sexual attitudes and behaviors and students' exposure to other forms of media that may contain sexual content, including music, films, video games, and DVDs.

<p> Social learning, defined as learning from other individuals has been well studied in vertebrates and social insect species. I used fruit fly egg laying site selecting as a paradigm to test for social learning in a non-social insect. Focal females that experienced novel food together with mated females (models), who had laid eggs on that food, subsequently exhibited a stronger preference for laying eggs on that food over another novel food than focal females that experienced the same food alone. This socially influenced learning was also observed when focal females experienced both foods, one with mated models and their eggs and one alone. In contrast to the strong effect of a food with mated models and their eggs, neither a food with virgin models nor the aggregation pheromone (cVA) alone generated socially influenced learning. These results provide the first evidence for social learning about egg laying substrate in fruit flies. Further research utilizing fruit flies as a model system may help us gain a better understanding of the evolution and neurogenetics of social learning.</p> / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)