Neste trabalho, concentramo-nos em uma grande questão norteadora: a produção do discurso decisório, pelos representantes do Estado (juízes e desembargadores), no processo de subsunção da norma abstrata ao caso concreto, resulta em discursos imparciais, pautados exclusivamente na lei, ou estes discursos podem refletir decisões totalmente influenciadas e permeadas por outros discursos, representando as outras vozes que comporão conjuntamente estes discursos dialógicos? Para responder a esta questão, realizamos uma análise de sete sentenças judiciais e sete acórdãos, versantes sobre a situação jurídica de negros escravos. Como são decisões proferidas no século XIX, anos de 1873, 1874(3), 1875(3), 1876(4), 1877(3) e 1878, período de pré-vigência da Lei Áurea, encontram-se manuscritas. Por isso, utilizamos, para compreensão linguística dos manuscritos, da ciência filológica e de uma de suas formas de transcrição, a edição semidiplomática. Após a edição destas decisões, levantamos todos os aspectos do campo de produção deste gênero e do processo enunciativo, para então, posteriormente, detectarmos os recursos linguísticos e discursivos utilizados pelos magistrados em suas decisões, que revelaram como este juiz-autor de seu discurso- maneja as diversas vozes que os perpassam, as vozes dos personagens (autor, réu do processo, testemunhas), as vozes de outros julgamentos, outros tribunais ou a própria voz interior deste sujeito-autor-juiz, como uma singularidade. Com isto, objetivamos, debater o estatuto discursivo destas decisões judiciais e de suas constituição como gênero e como práxis discursiva dialógica, discussão esta amparada pelo arcabouço da teoria dialógica do discurso. / In this work, we concentrate on one major leading question: the decisive speech production by the representatives of the State (judges and high level court judges), the process of subsumption of the abstract norm to the concrete case, results on impartial speeches, guided only by the law or these speeches may reflect decisions totally permeated and influenced by other discourses, representing the other voices that compose together these dialogical discourses? To answer this question, we analyzed seven judicial judgment sentences and seven high level court judgments, about the legal status of slaves. As the decisions were made in the nineteenth century, years of 1873, 1874 (3), 1875 (3), 1876 (4), 1877 (3) and 1878, period of the Golden Law pre-term, they are handwritten. Therefore, we used, for linguistic understanding of the manuscripts, philological science and one of its forms of copying, the semidiplomatic edition. After editing these decisions, we raised all aspects of the production field of this gender and the enunciation process, and then, subsequently, detect the linguistic and discursive resources used by judges in their decisions, which showed how this Judge-author of their speech manages the several voices that permeate them, the characters voices (author, accused of the case, witnesses), the voices of other judgments, other courts or their own interior voice within this subject-author-judge, as a singularity. With this, we intend to discuss the discursive policy (statute) of these decisions and their constitution as a genre and as a dialogical discursive praxis, such discussion supported by the theoretical framework of the dialogical theory of discourse.

Calibrated Judgments of Learning (CJOL) represent the degree to which students' judgments of learning (JOL) relate to their actual learning. Although a substantial amount of research has been conducted on calibration and JOL in various domains of psychology, only a growing number of studies have begun to address the use of CJOL in applied educational settings. This study investigated the use of CJOL in university developmental math courses. Study participants included 185 men and 100 women with ages ranging from 18 to 61 years (M = 23.48, SD = 5.95). Study results indicate that these developmental math students were fairly accurate in their perceptions of their math performance. When inaccurate, students most commonly under estimated their performance. Students' accuracy was also greatly influenced by the difficulty of math questions on the tests. High performing students were consistently more accurate than lower performing students. Over the course of the study, students received feedback on their accuracy in an attempt to facilitate improved accuracy. Results indicated that students' accuracy decreased with time; likely this was due to the increase in the difficulty of math questions on each test.

Sports play an important role in the culture of the United States as does language, so the choice to use non-Standard dialects in a nation that privileges the Standard and negatively judges dialectical differences, especially those spoken by mostly people of color, is not undertaken lightly. Because of this privileging of Standard American English, it is assumed that only professional African American athletes are allowed to keep their native dialect if it is African American English (AAE) and still be successful. However, this is complicated by the historical and present increased criticisms women face in both sport and language. To investigate this claim, a quantitative analysis of post-game interviews of five men and five women in the National Basketball Association and Women’s National Basketball Association, respectively, was conducted. The athletes were analyzed to see if they used dental stopping and be-leveling, two features of AAE. Four additional features of AAE were also investigated on an exploratory basis. Inter-gender variance was found among both genders. Across genders, women used the features of AAE studied an average of 30.6 percent less than men, demonstrating a clear gender difference in the usage of AAE. The results of this study illustrate disparities in women and men’s language use that could be a consequence of the inherent and historical sexism women must face in the realms of both sport and language.

This study involves a first attempt to identify Chinese auditors’ values and examines their effects on ethical ideologies and ethical judgments and intentions. A survey methodology is used and the survey instrument includes a self-administered questionnaire and a short auditing ethical case. A sample of Chinese CPAs with auditing experience was drawn from accounting firms located in Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Beijing, and Kunming cities during 2006-7. Three hundred and twenty-five useable responses were received. The theoretical framework for this study is based on Forsyth’s (1980) model of ethical ideologies. This study identifies Chinese auditors’ cultural values as (1) Chinese traditional cultural values, (2) interpersonal relationships (guanxi), and (3) attitudes towards money. This study posits that Chinese auditors’ cultural values will impact on their ethical ideologies and that their ethical judgments and intentions are, in turn influenced by the ideologies they prefer. In this study, Chinese auditors’ ethical judgments and intentions are examined using a well understood ethical dilemma in auditing, specifically whether an auditor should accept a client’s suggestion to inappropriately alter the financial position or to adhere to accounting and professional standards. Four research questions are proposed in this study: 1. What national cultural values best describe Chinese auditors? 2. How do Chinese cultural values impact ethical ideologies (i.e., Idealism and Relativism) as they apply to practicing auditors? 3. Do identifiable ethical ideologies, adopted by auditors, influence the decision making process in issues relating to audit independence? In particular, ethical judgments and intentions. 4. How do certain contextual matters, namely firms’ ethical culture and personal factors influence ethical ideologies? / Chinese auditors’ beliefs about their national cultural values are measured using the Chinese Cultural Values (CVS) used in the Chinese Culture Connection (1987). Chinese auditors’ guanxi orientations are measured using a 12 item scale based on Ang and Leong’s (2000) 9 items favour-seeking guanxi scale and three items constructed by the author concerned with rent-seeking guanxi orientations. Chinese auditors’ attitudes towards money are measured using Tang and Chiu’s (2003) the Love of Money Scale (LMOS) scale. Chinese auditors’ beliefs about their firms’ ethical cultures are measured using Hunt et al.’s (1989) corporate ethical values scale. Chinese auditors’ ethical ideologies are determined by using Forsyth’s (1980) ethical position questionnaire (EPQ). Finally, Chinese auditors’ ethical judgments and intentions are measured using an auditing case study. The major statistical methods used in this study are descriptive, t-tests, correlations, and regression analysis. The following significant results are presented in this study: 1. Chinese auditors display strong views about their traditional cultural values in four of the five national dimensions, the exception being Confucian Work dynamism past orientation. Young auditors appear less concerned with Integration issues compared to their older counterparts. Again, younger and less experienced auditors display less interest in the Human-heartedness dimension compared to their older counterparts. Auditors with Masters Degrees identify less with Confucian Work dynamism future orientations when compared to those who hold a Bachelors degree. / Attitudes towards the Confucian Work dynamism dimension future orientation are found to be positively associated with Idealism, however attitudes relating to Confucian Work dynamism dimension past orientation component are found to be negatively associated with Idealism. Further, attitudes relating to Confucian Work dynamism dimension past orientation component are found to be negatively associated with Relativism. 2. Chinese auditors display significantly higher mean scores in both favour-seeking and rent-seeking guanxi orientations. Young and less experienced auditors are more likely to use rent-seeking guanxi than older and experienced auditors. Chinese auditors’ rent-seeking guanxi orientations are found to be negatively associated with Idealism and both favour-seeking and rent-seeking guanxi orientations are found to be positively associated with Relativism. 3. Chinese auditors’ attitudes towards money are high in two of the four dimensions relating to the love of money, namely the importance of money and the desire to be rich dimensions. Their attitudes towards money are significantly higher than for Hong Kong employees. Male auditors displayed significantly higher mean scores in the desire to be rich dimension than female auditors. Young auditors have significantly higher mean scores in the success and motivator dimensions compared to older auditors. Chinese auditors’ beliefs about the importance of money are found to be positively associated with Relativism. Interestingly, no association with Idealism was identified in this study. 4. Chinese auditors have stronger beliefs about their firms’ ethical cultures to compare the mid-point value but their beliefs are significantly lower than for American subjects. / Junior and senior auditors are less likely to believe their managers display unethical behavior compared to accounting firm partners. Auditors employed in work environments where punishment systems exist are likely to disclose attitudes that are positively associated with Idealism. Alternatively, auditors employed in work environments where managers are believed to display unethical behaviour are likely to disclose attitudes that are positively associated with Relativism. 5. Chinese auditors display relatively higher ethical positions (on both Idealism and Relativism) to compare the mid-point value. Males hold stronger relativist positions than females and older auditors are more idealistic than their youthful counterparts. Auditors who hold senior positions are more likely to be relativists compared to juniors. Chinese auditors’ ethical judgments are found to be positively associated with Idealism and negatively associated with Relativism. However, their ethical intentions are only found to be negatively associated with Relativism. Young auditors appear less ethical in terms of their judgments than older auditors and less experienced auditors are less intentioned compared to experienced auditors. This study contributes to our understanding of Chinese auditors’ values and their ethical ideologies and the effects these have on their ethical judgments and intentions. It is the first research to include a wide range of ethical decision-making factors within a business context in China using qualified CPAs. It is believed that valuable insights have been gained about the various cultural factors influencing ideological processes and how these flow through to the decision making level. / The study also contributes to the existing body of knowledge by providing additional evidence that ethical decision making is a universal concept involving moral philosophies such as those suggested by Forsyth (1980) and Hunt and Vitell (1986) and applies in an auditing context in China. Moreover, this study develops a rent-seeking guanxi scale based on Su et al.’s (2003) classification of guanxi orientations and Ang and Leong’s (2000) guanxi scale. It contributes by providing a scale to measure the extent to which business relationships involves back door deals and power dependence. One of the significant contributions of this study is that it contributes to the construction of a meaningful measure for the guanxi scale which includes favour-seeking guanxi and specifically for the first time, rent-seeking guanxi. Thus a confirmatory analysis with an independent sample could be used in the future to re-test the guanxi scale with the two dimensions developed in this study. contributions of this study is that it contributes to the construction of a meaningful measure for the guanxi scale which includes favour-seeking guanxi and specifically for the first time, rent-seeking guanxi. Thus a confirmatory analysis with an independent sample could be used in the future to re-test the guanxi scale with the two dimensions developed in this study.

<p>In this thesis I present and discuss the phenomenon of ethical fading, and its association with biased assessment of a fair action. Ethical fading is an intuitive, self-deceptive, unconscious mechanism by which even morally competent agents are lead to disregard the ethical consequences of a particular choice. In engaging in this psychological mechanism, I argue, agents are also presupposing a biased assessment of entitlement. This biased assessment of fairness is intentionally dubious, and to be found in decision frames and reinforced by contexts. In the final part of the work I present an applied ethics case to show how ethical fading may be a quite prevalent pattern of behavior.</p>

<p>Syftet med studien var att undersöka förekomst av överkonfidens samt hur den varierar mellan olika typer av bedömningar och personer. Mätinstrumenten som användes var dels ett frågeformulär om invånarantal i svenska kommuner med självbedömningsfrågor om prestation, och dels det svenska frågeformuläret om General Self-Efficacy. Totalt undersöktes 65 manliga respondenter. Resultatet visade att överkonfidens inte förekom, respondenterna var realistiska i bedömningarna av den egna prestationen. Differensen mellan bedömning och prestation varierade inte mellan olika typer av bedömningar. Vidare visade resultatet inget samband mellan generell self-efficacy och differens mellan bedömning och prestation. Ett negativt samband visades dock mellan de underkonfidentas generella self-efficacy och underkonfidens. Förslag på framtida forskning är att vidare undersöka realismen i olika konfidensmätningar, och att undersöka samband mellan generell self-efficacy och överkonfidens med frågeformulär konstruerade för att generera överkonfidens.</p> / <p>The aim of the study was to investigate the existence of overconfidence and how it varies between different types of judgments and individuals. The instruments that were used were both a questionnaire about inhabitants in Swedish municipalities including self-judgmental questions of performance and the Swedish questionnaire of General Self-Efficacy. A total of 65 male respondents were examined. The result showed that overconfidence did not occur; the respondents were realistic in judgments of their own performances. The difference between judgment and performance did not vary between different types of judgments. Furthermore the result showed no correlation between general self-efficacy and difference between judgment and performance. Although a negative correlation was shown between the underconfidents’ general self-efficacy and underconfidence. Suggestions on future studies are to further investigate the realism in different confidence measurements, and to investigate correlation between self-efficacy and overconfidence with questionnaires that are designed to generate overconfidence.</p>

In this thesis I present and discuss the phenomenon of ethical fading, and its association with biased assessment of a fair action. Ethical fading is an intuitive, self-deceptive, unconscious mechanism by which even morally competent agents are lead to disregard the ethical consequences of a particular choice. In engaging in this psychological mechanism, I argue, agents are also presupposing a biased assessment of entitlement. This biased assessment of fairness is intentionally dubious, and to be found in decision frames and reinforced by contexts. In the final part of the work I present an applied ethics case to show how ethical fading may be a quite prevalent pattern of behavior.

Syftet med studien var att undersöka förekomst av överkonfidens samt hur den varierar mellan olika typer av bedömningar och personer. Mätinstrumenten som användes var dels ett frågeformulär om invånarantal i svenska kommuner med självbedömningsfrågor om prestation, och dels det svenska frågeformuläret om General Self-Efficacy. Totalt undersöktes 65 manliga respondenter. Resultatet visade att överkonfidens inte förekom, respondenterna var realistiska i bedömningarna av den egna prestationen. Differensen mellan bedömning och prestation varierade inte mellan olika typer av bedömningar. Vidare visade resultatet inget samband mellan generell self-efficacy och differens mellan bedömning och prestation. Ett negativt samband visades dock mellan de underkonfidentas generella self-efficacy och underkonfidens. Förslag på framtida forskning är att vidare undersöka realismen i olika konfidensmätningar, och att undersöka samband mellan generell self-efficacy och överkonfidens med frågeformulär konstruerade för att generera överkonfidens. / The aim of the study was to investigate the existence of overconfidence and how it varies between different types of judgments and individuals. The instruments that were used were both a questionnaire about inhabitants in Swedish municipalities including self-judgmental questions of performance and the Swedish questionnaire of General Self-Efficacy. A total of 65 male respondents were examined. The result showed that overconfidence did not occur; the respondents were realistic in judgments of their own performances. The difference between judgment and performance did not vary between different types of judgments. Furthermore the result showed no correlation between general self-efficacy and difference between judgment and performance. Although a negative correlation was shown between the underconfidents’ general self-efficacy and underconfidence. Suggestions on future studies are to further investigate the realism in different confidence measurements, and to investigate correlation between self-efficacy and overconfidence with questionnaires that are designed to generate overconfidence.

Positive sequential dependencies occur when the response on the current trial n is positively correlated with the response on trial n-1. This was recently observed in a Judgment of Frequency (JOF) task (Malmberg and Annis, 2011). A model of positive sequential dependencies was developed in the REM framework (Shiffrin & Steyvers, 1997) by assuming that features that represent the current test item in a retrieval cue carry over from the previous retrieval cue. To assess the model, we sought a set of data that allows us to distinguish between frequency similarity and item similarity. Therefore, we chose to use a JOF task in which we manipulated the item similarity of the stimuli by presenting either landscape photos (high similarity), or photos of everyday objects such as shoes, cars, etc (low similarity). Similarity was modeled by assuming either that the item representations share a proportion of features or by assuming that the exemplars from different stimulus classes vary in the distinctiveness or diagnosticity. The model fits indicated that the best way to model similarity was to assume that items share a proportions of features.

The aim of this thesis is to examine the quality of the disclosure IAS 1 Presentation of Financial Statements, paragraphs 122 and 125 in the annual reports of Swedish publicly listed firms. These paragraphs state that firms are required to disclose judgments made by management in preparing financial statements that may have significant impact on the recognized carrying amount. These paragraphs should also include information about major sources of estimation uncertainty. A quantitative research approach is used and the sample consists of 1,519 annual reports over a 7-year period. We construct a disclosure index to assess the quality of the disclosures in Critical judgements and key sources of estimation uncertainty (IAS 1:122 and 1:125) note and categorize the annual reports into four index groups. Additionally, the number of headlines in the note are counted and sorted into three other groups, creating a headline index. Lastly, we multiply the disclosure index with the headline index to get a score, which then enable us to distinguish and rank the quality of disclosure between firms. Further, we count the number of words in each individual disclosure in each annual report. This additional quantitative data enable regression analyses, further ensuring objectivity in assessing the disclosure quality. Agency theory and political cost theory are used as base for determining which firm characteristics may affect disclosure quality. We examine the firm characteristics firm visibility, ownership concentration and leverage to investigate any relationship with disclosure quality. We use the ordinary least squares (OLS) regression method to analyse this data. The analysis shows that firm visibility and leverage have positive relationships with disclosure quality. This supports the political cost theory and suggests that firms that are more visible have stronger incentives to attain a high disclosure quality. Our findings also support debt-associated agency problems and are also in line with prior studies that found a positive relationship between disclosure quality and the degree of leverage, which indicates that disclosures reduces the information gap.