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Most consequential decisions are made by more than two people. People frequently argue with each other to make better decisions. However, most decision making research usually only involves small purchases and individual decisions. The lacking of investigation in high-cognition decisions and argumentative settings is the motivation of this research. Researchers studying decision making have largely focused on how the decisions that people make are affected by task characteristics, and how labile decisions are with respect to situational factors. However, the fact that many preferences are constructed does not imply that all constructions are equally good. That people differ from each other in thinking is obvious. How and why they differ is less clear. Therefore, the first two studies are foundational studies in order to find out the most important and germane individual difference factor that may be the best predictor of thinking ability, including argument generation quality, evaluation ability, and debiasing ability. I found that logical reasoning ability is the best predictor of both thinking and debiasing ability. Argumentative Theory (Mercier & Sperber, 2011) claims that when reasoning is used in argumentative contexts, the confirmation bias contributes to an efficient form of division of cognitive labor, and then lead to better decisions and attitude depolarization. In study 3, I provided implication evidence to show that either arguing with the other person or viewing arguments from the opposite perspective may lead to attitude depolarization. Most interestingly, individual differences did moderate the main effects. / Business Administration/Marketing

The Internet is being used more and more frequently as a way for people to meet. The Internet also provides increased opportunities to initiate couple relationships, as well as affairs. The present study adds to the existing literature base in Internet infidelity treatment as well as therapist conceptualization processes. The present study investigated how family therapists assess and treat Internet infidelity. It assessed whether gender and other social background variables of therapists are operating in treatment decisions. Specifically, this study provided three clinical vignettes to 508 practicing marriage and family therapists and asked them several treatment and assessment questions about the cases while manipulating the gender of the clients in the vignettes. The questions asked of clinicians assess the clinician's prognosis of the case, the clinician's treatment strategy, how many sessions might be necessary, and how severe the clinician perceives the problem. Results include: a) treatment decisions of therapists regarding Internet infidelity cases b) information as to whether the assessment and treatment decisions vary according to the gender of the clients in Internet infidelity vignettes c) whether the treatment decisions vary depending on the clinician's social background characteristics (such as age, religiosity, gender). The results indicate that therapists who are more religious tended to view Internet infidelity as that which might require a greater individual focus. Age and gender of the clinicians also affected how therapists used treated cases, with younger clinicians more likely to alter environmental issues and female clinicians more likely to focus on couple processes in treatment. Further, clinicians also viewed men as more likely to be sex addicted, while women engaging in the same behavior were viewed as atypical for engaging in the same behavior. Clinicians also made differential decisions in treatment based on client needs, client gender, client health, and their personal theoretical orientation. This study sheds light on the role of specific identity variables in treatment decisions. It also provides a foundational knowledge of the treatment of Internet infidelity that will serve as a springboard for future projects to examine the effectiveness of different treatments, develop treatment protocols, and elevate the standard of care for this increasingly prevalent presenting problem. / Ph. D.

Fearful temperament represents one of the robust predictors of the development of child and adolescent anxiety. Not all children with fearful temperament unvaryingly develop anxiety, however. Diverse processes resulting from the interplay among attention, cognitive control, and motivational system drive the trajectories toward more adaptive or maladaptive directions. In this study, I examined various factors that underlie the association between fearful temperament at age 9 and adolescent anxiety symptoms including attention biases, different components of effortful control, and frontal EEG asymmetry. 78 children participated in this study. Results indicate that fearful temperament at age 9 significantly predicted adolescent anxiety symptoms. This association, however, was moderated by children's effortful control and frontal EEG asymmetry at age 9. Specifically, fear at 9 years predicted adolescent anxiety only when children had low attentional control, low inhibitory control, low activation control, and exhibited greater right activation from baseline to task. The associations between AB and fearful temperament as well as anxiety were not significant. The association between fear at 9 years and sustained AB during adolescence, however, was moderated by children's attentional control, inhibitory control, and frontal EEG asymmetry at age 9. Specifically, fear predicted attention biases away from threat when children had high attentional control, high inhibitory control, and showed greater left activation. The findings will be discussed in terms of the roles of attention biases in the development of anxiety and how different components of effortful control and frontal EEG asymmetry contribute to the resilience process. / Doctor of Philosophy / Anxiety disorders represent one of the most commonly occurring mental health problems in childhood and adolescence. Children who tend to show wariness and distress to negative stimuli are more likely to have anxiety. Not all children with fearful temperament develop anxiety, however. Certain individual characteristics can protect fearful children from having anxiety symptoms. In this study, I examined the roles of attentional biases toward threat (AB), different components of self-regulation (EC), and the asymmetrical frontal brain activation (FA) in changing the relation between fearful temperament and anxiety. 78 children participated in this study. Results indicated that adolescents were at higher risk for anxiety if they showed high fearful temperament at age 9. However, the risk could be attenuated if children were better able to control their attention and behaviors, and exhibited greater left activation from resting to a mildly stressful situation at age 9. In addition, fearful children were better able to direct attention away from threat during adolescence if they were better able to control their attention and behaviors, and exhibited greater left activation from resting to a mildly stressful situation at age 9. The findings provide suggestions for early identification and intervention of children who are more vulnerable to anxiety during adolescence.

Previous research on the role that culture plays in reader response to literature generally has not been based on clear operational definitions of the term "culture." More often than not, researchers appear to be using the term synonymously with the reader's race, nationality, or social class, rather than including specific anthropological explanations. Moreover, there has been no research reported that isolates and then studies individual readers' cultural backgrounds as influences on their responses to American regional literature; and, while there have been some studies reported that use ethnographic methodology to examine how cultural context or setting affects response, there has been no reported ethnographic research that focuses on the influences of readers' cultural backgrounds and the cultures depicted in texts. / Ed. D.

Many buildings underperform leading to up to 20% energy waste. Case studies on monitoring-based commissioning (MBCx) have shown that using energy management and information systems (EMIS) for continuous energy monitoring and analysis enables the identification of issues that cause energy waste and verifies energy conservation measures. However, MBCx is underutilized by organizations leading to an energy efficiency gap between the energy saving potential of technologies like EMIS and observed savings. This energy efficiency gap can be attributed to general barriers to MBCx and barriers caused specifically by cognitive bias in the decision-making process. Using qualitative data from over 40 organizations implementing and practicing MBCx, this manuscript provides a better understanding of these barriers. Chapter 1 synthesizes and codes the qualitative data to develop a framework of variables acting as barriers and enablers to MBCx. The framework highlights commonly experienced barriers like data configuration, and also variables with conflicting results like payback/return on investment, which was experienced as a barrier to some organizations and enabler to others. Chapter 2 examines the barriers to MBCx through a behavioral decision science lens and finds evidence of cognitive biases, specifically, risk aversion, social norms, choice overload, status quo bias, information overload, professional bias, and temporal discounting. The success of choice architecture in other energy efficiency decisions is used to offer suggestions for ways to overcome these cognitive biases. This manuscript can be used by practitioners to better understand potential barriers to MBCx and by researchers to prioritize gaps and find methods to overcome the barriers to MBCx. / Master of Science / Buildings have the potential to save 20% of their energy use through the practice of monitoring-based commissioning (MBCx). MBCx involves continuous monitoring and analysis of a buildings energy use to quickly identify and resolve issues that cause energy waste. However, MBCx is underutilized due to technical and non-technical barriers. This manuscript uses qualitative data from over 40 organizations implementing and practicing MBCx to provides a better understanding of these barriers. Chapter 1 synthesizes and codes the qualitative data to develop a framework of variables acting as barriers and enablers to MBCx. The framework highlights commonly experienced barriers like data configuration, and also variables with conflicting results like payback/return on investment, which was experienced as a barrier to some organizations and enabler to others. Chapter 2 examines the barriers to MBCx through a behavioral decision science lens and finds evidence of cognitive biases, specifically, risk aversion, social norms, choice overload, status quo bias, information overload, professional bias, and temporal discounting. The success of choice architecture in other energy efficiency decisions is used to offer suggestions for ways to overcome these cognitive biases. This manuscript can be used by practitioners to better understand potential barriers to MBCx and by researchers to prioritize gaps and find methods to overcome the barriers to MBCx.