Permission from the author to digitize this work is pending. Please contact the ICS library if you would like to view this work.

In this dissertation I criticize and reconfigure the ontological framework within which discussions of the organization, ontogeny, and evolution of organic form have often been conducted. Explanations of organismal form are frequently given in terms of a force or essence that exists prior to the organism’s life in the world. Traits of organisms are products of the selective environment and the unbroken linear inheritance of genetically coded developmental programs. Homological traits share unbroken vertical inheritance from a single common ancestor. Species are the product of exclusive gene flow between conspecifics and vertical genetic inheritance. And likewise, race is ascribed on the basis of pre-existing essential features. In place of this underlying preformationism which locates the source of form either in the informational program of inherited genes or within a selecting environment, I suggest form is the product of an organism’s self-construction using diverse resources. This can be understood as a modification of Kant’s view of organisms as self-organizing, set out in his Critique of Judgment (1790). Recast from this perspective the meaning and reference of “trait,” “homology,” “species,” and “race” change. Firstly, a trait may be the product of the organism’s self-construction utilizing multiple ancestral resources. Given this, homologous traits may correspond in some but not all of their features or may share some but not all of their ancestral sources. Homology may be partial. Species may acquire epigenetic, cellular, behavioural, and ecological resources both vertically and horizontally. As such, they are best conceived of as recurrent successions of self-constructed and reconstructed life cycles of organisms sharing similar resources, a similar habitus, similar capacities for sustaining themselves, and repeated generative processes. Lastly, race identity is not preformed but within the control of human organisms as agents who self-construct, interpret, and ascribe their own race identities utilizing diverse sets of dynamic relationships, lived experiences, and histories.

This research attempts to confirm the reliability and construct validity of a personnel selection instrument called a Situational Judgment Test (SJT) through reliability analysis and factor analysis. The existing literature on SJTs is reviewed, including the advantages of using SJTs in personnel selection as well as the debate on whether SJTs measure a single construct or whether they can be multidimensional depending on the content. The specific SJT in this research was theoretically developed and received expert ratings to assess four general constructs: problem solving, planning, priority setting, and leadership. No support from alpha internal consistency reliability analysis was found for the assembly of these items into the four a priori subscales, thus assembly of these items into the theoretical subscales and scales was not supported.

The aim of this thesis is to deepen the understanding about the function of control in the inspection process and to increase the knowledge about the legitimacy and impact from inspection on different types of social and welfare services. In the thesis the form and legitimacy of the inspection process are studied in two types of social services in Sweden: a less complex service where the task to investigate and make decisions about social care dominates (IAD), and a more complex service where the task to provide treatment interventions dominates (TI). The data consists of policy documents, inspection reports, casefile documentation, and interviews with inspectors, politicians, managers and social workers. The inspection process is discussed in relation to theories about control systems and legitimacy processes. Inspection is a policy instrument whose standards are derived from legislations and where those subject to the inspection are obliged to meet the demands made by the inspectorates. This form of disciplinary control has been questioned given that its complexity makes it hard to regulate the practice of social work through detailed rules. By including a less disciplinary form of control the instrument’s ability to impact on more complex aspects of social services are expected to increase. The results show a difference in how the inspection process is set up in the two types of services. In the IAD services the process takes the form of a disciplinary control system, whereas the process in TI services initially takes the form of a non-disciplinary system. In spite of the differences observed in the initial stages of the process, the results show that the judgments of inspectors in both types of services are almost exclusively based on information about concrete and detailed aspects. This entails that the judgements of inspectors in both types of services mostly take the form of statements on simple observable and concrete conditions, whereas judgments about more complex aspects are rarely made. The study also shows that although the propriety and relevance of the inspectors’ judgements are questioned more in TI organisations inspections seem to have greater validity and impact on TI than on IAD organisations. The results of the thesis point to two explanations. One explanation is that the costs of dealing with the problems underlying the identified deficiencies are lower for TI than IAD organisations. This in turn leads to greater acceptance of carrying out the proposed measures in TI than in IAD organisations. Another possible explanation is that the potential sanctions are greater for TI than IAD organisations.

Förutom standarder och riktlinjer utgör revisorns egna professionella bedömningar en stor del av hur denna bedömer väsentlighetsnivån vid en revision. Tidigare studier har funnit flertalet bakomliggande faktorer som påverkar denna bedömning. 2011 implementerades ISA i Sverige varför det finns ett intresse att undersöka vad denna standard har haft för påverkan på svenska revisorers väsentlighetsbedömning.  Studiens resultat visar att tre faktorer av de som ingår i studien kan förklara variationen i revisorers väsentlighetsbedömningar. Variablerna kön, chefspress och storlek på revisionsbyrå har i studien ett signifikant samband med variationen i bedömd väsentlighetsnivå. Att dessa olika faktorer har en påverkan på väsentlighetsbedömningen antas förklaras av bland annat olika nivåer av riskbenägenhet och revisionskvalitet. / Background: In addition to standards and guidelines, the auditor’s own professional judgment represents a big part of how the auditor assesses the materiality level for an audit. Previous studies have found a number of underlying factors that affects this assessment. In 2011, ISA was implemented in Sweden why there is an interest to investigate what impact this standard has had on the Swedish auditors' materiality judgments. Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe and explain the factors that affect the auditors’ professional judgment of the overall materiality level. Method: The study is based on a deductive approach where previous research in this areais used to formulate hypotheses regarding the factors that may affect auditors in their materiality judgment. Quantitative data is collected in the form of primary data through a survey. Furthermore, one experienced auditor is interviewed. Conclusion: The results show that the variables Gender, Pressure from management and Firm size can explain variations in different auditors' materiality judgments. These factors impact on the materiality assessment is assumed to be caused by, among other things, different levels of risk propensity and audit quality.

<p>People give each other advice on a variety of topics throughout their lifetimes. In this dissertation, I ask: Do advisors accurately perceive the impact of their advice? Or, do they possess blind spots that prevent them from doing so? I focus on whether advisors recognize the information they need in order to form judgments of the impact of their advice, which I call "impact judgments". Four studies demonstrate that advisors have blind spots in their perceptions of their influence and that these blind spots have consequences for advisors' accuracy and subsequent behavioral intentions. First, a free-recall task (Study 1) and a manipulated scenario task (Study 2) showed that advisors failed to recognize when they were missing information needed to form accurate impact judgments, namely, information on the advisee's initial, pre-advice opinion, unless they were prompted to think about why they need that information. Second, an experiment where participants were assigned the role of advisor or advisee (Study 3) demonstrated that advisors' impact judgments were less accurate when advisors did not know the advisee's initial, pre-advice opinion. Third, participants' recollections of a time they gave advice (Study 4) showed that advisors relied on their impact judgments for forming downstream behavioral intentions such as willingness to give advice again, even when they recognized that they were lacking needed information. I conclude with a discussion of the implications for advice giving by individuals and members of organizations, a general framework for impact judgments, and areas for future research.</p> / Dissertation

This study examines nursing students' adoption of inferential sets in a clinical situation. The investigation determines (1) the particular inferential set(s) nursing students adopt toward a patient in a clinical situation; (2) the particular inferential set(s) adopted by sophomore and senior nursing students in a clinical situation; and (3) whether or not inferential sets adopted by the sophomore and senior nursing students differ. Sophomore and senior nursing students at a woman's university in Texas were asked to complete a research tool designed to determine inferential set adoption.

Past research, guided by Piaget's and Kohlberg's theories of moral development, has shown that young children base their moral judgments on the consequence of the story protagonist's behavior while older children base their judgments on the protagonist's intent. Three age groups of children (144 subjects) heard four stories and were placed in three conditions to investigate whether their judgments could be influenced by asking them to pay attention either to why the protagonist did what she or he did or to what happened in the story, or given no instructions. As age increased, children's recall of stories and use of a protagonist's intention as a reason behind their judgments increased. Judgment scores followed the same pattern for all ages. Results were discussed in terms of social-emotional and cognitive development.

Every corporate director is under the obligation to perform his duties with reasonable care and loyalty. In connection with re-codification of the Czech private law, the Business Corporations Act brought a new institute to the Czech legal system - the business judgment rule. This rule provides corporate directors with a special protection against the liability for the breach of their duties. The aim of this thesis is to focus on this institute, to analyse the Czech version of business judgment rule, to compare it with its foreign models and provide the most likely judicial interpretation of it. The thesis consists of three main chapters. Chapter One deals with the issue of directors duties of care and loyalty and describes the grounds for existence of business judgment rule with a broaded context of law and economics knowledge. It explains the role of capital companies in business in order to define leading requirements for company regulation. Author focuses on the necessity of taking a risk in process of making entrepreneurial decisions. Chapter Two provides a description of two foreign models of business judgment rule. First, it deals with the business judgment rule originated from the practise of the courts in USA and two possible interpretations given by them - a standard of review and an...

Anyone who has ever had the opportunity to observe small children when playing or learning something new or telling something and anyone who has ever had the op- portunity to talk to them must have noticed the children sometimes treat the reality around them in a strange way. These are the funny moments when one is surprised what children think and how they treat logic. As though small children lived in an odd world where the rules of logic are completely different. The famous Swiss psy- chologist noticed this peculiar children's thinking and described the intellectual egocentrism in children of preschool and early school age. Egocentrism does not affect only the children's logical thinking but also other aspects of children's think- ing and experience. This special "setting" of children's minds can be observed when the children are playing, in children's communication, in their drawings or in chil- dren's moral judgement. In the field of children's morals Piaget spoke of the moral realism. Under the influence of moral realism children when morally judging the moral situations presented to them do not concentrate on the essential elements of the story but rather on irrelevant circumstances such as material results of an action and other outside matters. According to Piaget it is essential for...