Past models (i.e., Crick and Dodge, 1994) of children’s social information processing (SIP) have neglected to include the role of emotions in children’s reasoning during social situations. A recent reformulation (Lemerise and Arsenio, 2000) updated Crick and Dodge’s model to incorporate emotions and their impact on children’s processing. Since then, studies have examined the influence of emotion in children’s SIP, but few have investigated the impact of children’s affective ties with their peers. This study explores the effect of the participant’s relationship with the provocateur on subsequent consequential reasoning concerning possible hostile, passive, and competent response; in addition, it addresses gaps in the literature by utilizing a different age range and investigating the response decision step of SIP. A sample of second and fifth graders (N=101) completed a social cognitive interview in which they reasoned about competent, hostile, and passive responses when the provocateur was a friend, neutral peer, or an enemy. Results indicated multiple relationship effects and gender differences, which illustrated the impact relationships can have on SIP.

Habitat selection research has focused on the role of vegetative and geologic habitat characteristics or antagonistic behavioral interactions. Conspecifics can confer information about habitat quality and provide positive density-dependent effects that may result in improved fitness, resulting in positive behavioral responses to conspecifics as a habitat selection strategy. I conducted 3 replicated, manipulative experiments to investigate use of conspecific cues in habitat selection for the golden-cheeked warbler (Dendroica chrysoparia) using simulated conspecific vocalizations during pre-settlement and post-breeding periods, across a range of woodland canopy cover. I measured territory density, pairing, and fledging success in paired treatment and control units. Territory density was >2 times higher in treatment units across the range of canopy (P = 0.02). Pairing success was positively correlated with territory density (P = 0.008). Territory density response was higher for pre-settlement than post-breeding treatment (P = 0.004). I found pre-settlement and post-breeding conspecific cues influence golden-cheeked warbler habitat selection, inducing settlement in previously unoccupied areas, and producing aggregations within areas of similar vegetative characteristics. Better understanding of social information use in habitat selection can improve our understanding of species distributions, yielding more accurate predictive distribution models; improve our ability to predict impacts of habitat changes on habitat use, survival, reproduction, and ultimately fitness; and provide a potential tool for attracting individuals to restored or managed sites.

Information technology (IT) professionals are continually placed in diverse employment arrangements as organizations continually look for ways to cut costs, enhance performance and maximize organizational goals. Organizations are using strategies beyond hiring permanent employees to achieve objectives in alternative sourcing. Even though the cost differential is positive when employing non-permanent individuals instead of permanent employees, little is known about the effects on the IT professional.This field study was designed to test the effects of employment arrangements on the IT professional's psychological contract and the effects of the level of fulfillment of their psychological contract on their organizational citizenship and innovative work behaviors using psychological contracts and social information processing theories. IT professionals were sampled from four different employment arrangements.The empirical findings show that there are differences in the IT pro proessional's psychological contract as explained by their employment arrangement, as well as by their perceptions of the characteristics of their particular employment arrangement. Permanent full-time IT professionals consistently had higher perceptions of their employer's obligations to them, than did IT professionals from the other employment arrangement categories. The level of fulfillment of the IT professional's psychological contract explained differences in their organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB) as a collective, with significant differences in the advocacy participation and obedience citizenship behaviors. This study also found significant relationships with the level of fulfillment of the IT professional's psychological contract and their innovative work behavior, as well as their organizational citizenship behaviors individually, specifically loyalty, advocacy participation, obedience, and functional participation. The primary predictors of the dimensions of OCB were the levels of fulfillment of the psychological contract as it relates to the scope, focus, and tangibility dimensions.The exploratory analysis into the characteristics of the employment arrangement provides a clearer understanding as to what encompasses the actual employment arrangement for IT professionals of differing categories. Independent contractors indicated significantly more job control than permanent full-time and contract company workers. Permanent full-time and permanent part-time have greater job stability than do independent contractors and contract company workers. Permanent full-time have greater benefits provided than the other three categories of IT professionals.

国立情報学研究所で電子化したコンテンツを使用している。

This study pretends, following the Legitimacy theory, to know the disclosure level of social information by Spanish listed companies, and the main factor influencing disclosure decisions. This study shows that studied companies disclose very few labour and non labour social information, and also shows the association among sector of activity, company size and the listing on international markets with the intention of disclosing social information voluntary. No association was found between ownership diffusion and voluntary disclosure. / El presente trabajo pretende conocer, siguiendo la teoría de la legitimidad, el grado de difusión existente de información social por parte de las empresas cotizadas españolas y los factores que determinan su revelación. Para ello, hemos analizado la información social que voluntariamente divulgan las empresas de la muestra como parte del informe anual. El estudio muestra que las sociedades analizadas revelan escasa información social laboral y no laboral, y muestra la relación existente entre el sector de actividad, el tamaño de la empresa y el hecho de cotizar en mercados exteriores con la decisión de revelar información social voluntariamente. No encuentra, por el contrario, ninguna relación con el grado de difusión de la propiedad, hipótesis planteada que no sido contrastada.

I denna studie undersöks närmare hur olika aktörer i samhället arbetar och bedriver sin verksamhet för att lära ut om sex- och samlevnadupplysning till nyanlända ungdomar. I studien skall man genom aktörernas egna berättelser få en inblick i hur det kan se ut att jobba med sex- och samlevnadsupplysning till nyanlända ungdomar. Dessa aktörer arbetar med att ge sexualupplysning till nyanlända ungdomar på lite olika sätt, vilket gjorde det intressant att studera och jämföra aktörernas arbetssätt med varandra för att sedan ha möjligheten att lyfta fram styrkorna i de olika arbetssätten. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka och beskriva hur ett antal aktörer i samhället arbetar med sex- och samlevnadsupplysning i mötet med nyanlända ungdomar. Vidare är ett delsyfte att undersöka eventuella skillnader eller likheter mellan de olika aktörernas sätt att arbeta med sex- och samlevnadsupplysning. Till denna kvalitativa studie har intervjuer valts som datainsamlingsmetod och kvalitativ innehållsanalys användes för att analysera data. Det huvudsakliga resultatet av studien framkom i form av temat Förändring. Temat Förändring visar på informanternas önskan om förändring gällande både arbetssätt och uppfattningar. Temat består av två domäner. Den första domänen är "Arbetssätt" och representerar hur de olika aktörerna ser på arbetet, och vad det finns för brister. Exempelvis behövs mer resurser och kontinuitet i arbetet och generellt hur arbetet med sex- och samlevnadsupplysningen ser ut. Under domänen Arbetssätt, finns kategorierna "mer resurser", "kontinuitet", "gruppera" och "delaktighet och samverkan". Den andra domänen är " Kunskapsläge och behov", som representerar aktörernas egna uppfattningar om hur kunskapsläget ser ut hos ungdomarna. Detta sammanfattar hur informanterna upplever att arbetet är och vilka behov som finns. Under domänen Kunskapsläge och behov, finns kategorierna "okunskap" och "attityder". I dessa kategorier belyses gruppens attityder gentemot sex- och samlevnadsupplysningen och de mötena med aktörerna samt attityderna inom verksamheterna. Slutsatsen är att det generellt behöver tillsättas mer resurser och temat Förändring sammanfattar det hela i hur aktörerna arbetar med sex- och samlevnadsupplysning samt önskemål för fortsatt arbete. Med detta menas att det bör satsas mer resurser inom området och de behöver kontinuerligt arbetas med detta område under en längre tid. Det framkom en delad uppfattning om att det behövs mer delaktighet och samverkan mellan aktörerna. Aktörerna anser att det krävs annorlunda sätt att gruppera vid mötet med ungdomarna och ett konstruktivt arbete med ungdomarnas attityder samt den okunskap som aktörerna anser finns hos ungdomarna kopplat till sex och samlevnad. / In this study, we explore more closely how different organizations in society work and do their business to learn about sex and social information for newly arrived young people. In the study, the participants' own stories will provide an insight into how it may appear to work with sex and social information for newly arrived young people. These organizations work to provide sex education to newly arrived young people in diverse ways, which made it interesting to rigorously compare the organizations work methods with each other and then highlight the forces in the diverse ways of working. The purpose of this study is to investigate how some organizations in society work with sex and social information aimed at newly arrived young people. Furthermore, an aim is to investigate these organizations own perceptions of this work and look at similarities and differences in their way of working. In this qualitative study, interviews have been chosen as data collection methods. Qualitative content analysis was used to analyze data for this study. The main result of the study was presented in the form of "Change". The theme Change shows the informants' desire for change in both working methods and perceptions. The theme consists of two domains. The first domain is "Way of working" and represents how the different organizations look at the work, and what are the shortcomings. For example, more resources and continuity at work are needed, and generally how the work on sex and cohabitation information looks. Under the domain of Work, there are four categories "more resources", "continuity", "grouping" and "participation and interaction". The second domain is "Knowledge Situation and Needs", which represent the actors' perceptions of how the knowledge situation among the youths. Under the Knowledge and Requirements domain, there are two categories, "ignorance" and "attitudes". In these categories, the group's attitudes towards sexual and social information and the meetings with the organizations, as well as the attitudes of the activities, are emphasized. An illumination of the lack of knowledge of the group is in the category of ignorance, deviant ignorance compared to young people in general. In conclusion, it is generally necessary to add more resources and the theme 'Change' summarizes the whole of how the organizations work with sex and social information or how they want to work with it. More resources should be invested in the field and they need to work continuously with this area for a lengthy period. A common picture and perception was established regarding that more involvement and cooperation between organizations. The organizations consider that diverse ways of grouping at the meeting with young people are needed and constructive work with the attitudes of young people and the ignorance that the organizations consider is associated with sex and cohabitation among young people.

Animals exhibit a wide variety of social behaviours that are shaped by the external group social structure. Thus, understanding social behaviours and processes requires examining the individual social associations that form the basis of a group’s social network. The first objective of this thesis was to assess the consistency of social position within wild networks of black-capped chickadees (Poecile atricapillus) and to evaluate the effects of individual behavioural traits (exploratory personality and social dominance) on network position. Intra-annual social position was found to be repeatable and centrality increased with dominance rank, suggesting that dominant individuals occupy more central positions. The second objective of this thesis was to evaluate how network position and individual traits influence the transmission of social information through groups; the use of information acquired by other group members is expected to be an important benefit to group living. Social information regarding the location of novel foraging patches was observed to be transmitted through all eight chickadee groups. The rate of information transmission was found to be positively associated with dominance rank, but was not influenced by exploratory personality, indicating that dominant individuals may have greater access to social information than more subordinate individuals. The final aim of this thesis was to assess if social information transmission varied between urban and rural environments, as increased resource variability in more rural sites was expected to lead to higher reliance on social foraging cues. However, no effect of level of urbanisation was detected on the transmission of social information regarding novel food sources, which may indicate a habitat-independent strategy of social information use in chickadees. In general the results from this thesis indicate the importance of dominance status on individuals’ position within a social group, which can lead to differential exposure to social processes, such as social information transmission.

Satisfying interpersonal relationships are an important and beneficial part of life. However, despite that fact that most people desire close interpersonal relationships, some people are less successful at forming and maintaining these relationships than others. One plausible explanation for such individual differences is that people differ in their levels of interpersonal competence – their ability to consistently enact behaviors that are effective, socially appropriate, and satisfying to others. The present research sought to examine different approaches to understanding and assessing interpersonal competence. A comparison of these approaches led to the creation of an Integrated Interpersonal Competence Model (IICM) that sought to maximize the strengths of each individual approach. This new model was tested in two studies (total N = 348) with the goal of understanding why people receive higher (or lower) interpersonal competence (IC) scores and how competence is related to successful interpersonal functioning. Both Studies 1 and 2 examined how the individual components of the IICM contributed to one’s overall IC score. Both studies found that the ability to accurately process social information was related to one’s likelihood of receiving a high IC score. In addition, how an individual evaluated response options seemed to play the largest role in determining whether or not the person would enact the response. Finally, IC appeared to be composed of a blend of interpersonal warmth and dominance. Study 1 also examined the relationship between IC and daily life outcomes. Results showed that higher competence individuals tended to experience a greater frequency of positive events, higher levels of prosocial feelings and satisfaction, and enacted fewer hostile and submissive behaviors on a daily basis. Study 2 investigated how IC was perceived by others. Individuals who were higher in IC were perceived to have fewer antisocial feelings, and be less selfish by peers and parents, and had higher quality relationships with their parents. Interestingly, processing abilities were unrelated to daily and informant-reported outcomes, but personality-like tendencies toward enacting friendly and hostile behaviors were consequential. Overall, the integrated model produced insights into interpersonal competence and can provide a useful guide for future investigations of interpersonal competence.

Violent behaviors among adolescents serve as a disruption to many aspects of society. If these behaviors remain uncorrected, there is increased potential for serious self-harm, harm to others, incarceration, and escalation of violence into homicide or suicide. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between youth exposure to community violence and adolescents' social information processing underlying aggressive responses, as well as the potential role of gender in moderating this relationship. A sample of 160 male and female 18-year-olds from the Midwestern United States completed an online survey, which included the Things I Have Seen and Heard (TISH) Scale to assess exposure to community violence and a measure of aggressive responding to ambiguous social situations, based on 4 vignettes devised by Crick and Dodge. The data were analyzed using moderated multiple regression analysis and correlational analysis. Results indicated that a relationship between community violence exposure and adolescents' social information processing of aggressive responses is moderated by gender; there was a significant correlation between TISH scores and the total score from the vignettes among females but not among males. The study results suggest that school-based interventions and violence prevention programs should target the ways in which adolescent girls and young women make decisions when placed in ambiguous or potentially threatening situations, with reference to the level of community violence to which they have been exposed. Hence, this study has implications for positive social change to break the cycle of community violence, based upon enhancing the understanding of mechanisms that relate previous exposure to violence and aggressive responding among youth.

Playful teasing is an ancient form of interaction that now occurs through computer-mediated communication. Teasing through short message service texting is examined conceptually and empirically in this dissertation. Teasing and computer-mediated communication are framed in the theoretical lens of social information processing in Chapter 1. The development of study materials and stimuli to examine teasing through texting, using iterative focus groups and online pilot data collection, are detailed in Chapter 2. The two studies that examined message features, social context, and rejection sensitivity in the context of playful teasing via texting are presented in Chapter 3. The influence of two commonly used message features (the “winking face with tongue” emoji and the “lol” initialism) on teasing text message interpretation, compared to unadorned texts, were investigated in Study 1. Rejection sensitivity was also examined in relation to interpretation. Texts with the emoji contributed to more positive interpretations compared to texts with the “lol” initialism or unadorned texts, providing the first evidence that emoji and initialism function differently in the context of teasing. The influence of social context (the sender-receiver relationship) on the interpretation of teasing texts, and the relationship between message interpretation and rejection sensitivity were examined in Study 2. Teasing texts sent by close friends were rated more positively than those from acquaintances. In both studies, higher rejection sensitivity was related to more negative interpretations of teasing texts, however, teasing texts with the emoji did not show this pattern. The studies’ findings are discussed in Chapter 4 in the context of social information processing theory and in practice, examining implications for individuals with rejection sensitivity and practices for text message composition.