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A recent meta-analysis by Berry, Ones, and Sackett (2007) revealed that perceptions of organizational justice and employee personality were two significant predictors of counterproductive work behaviors. The facets that make up the organizational justice construct are: procedural justice, distributive justice, interpersonal justice, and informational justice (Berry et al., 2007). Employees perceive justice when organizational justice rules are adhered to. However, when these rules are violated, employees may perceive injustice. The effect of perceived injustice on CWB might depend on individual characteristics, such as personality, particularly Dark Tetrad traits. The Dark Tetrad includes narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and sadism (Buckels, Jones, & Paulhus, 2013). The intent of this study was to investigate the relationship between the Dark Tetrad traits and counterproductive work behaviors, as well as examine the moderating influence of perceived organizational injustice (distributive, procedural, interpersonal, informational, and overall injustice) on the relationship between the Dark Tetrad personality traits and four types of CWB; CWB directed towards supervisors, coworkers, the organization itself, and total CWB. Participants completed a two-part online study through Amazon Mechanical Turk, the first of which assessed perceptions of organizational (in)justice (Full-range justice scale; Colquitt, Long, Rodell, & Halvorsen-Ganepola, 2015) as well as levels of Dark Tetrad personality traits (Short Dark Triad Scale SD-3; Jones and Paulhus, 2014, and the Short Sadistic Impulse Scale SSIS; O'Meara, Davies, & Hammond, 2011). The first part of the survey also assessed participants’ negative affectivity (Negative Affectivity subscale of the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule; Watson, Clark, & Tellegen, 1988), and justice sensitivity (Victim Perspective subscale of the Justice Sensitivity Scale; Schmitt, Gollwitzer, & Arbach, 2005). The second survey was distributed 5 days after the first survey and assessed participants’ frequency of engagement in each type of CWB (Workplace Deviance Scale (WDS); Bennett & Robinson, 2000; modified using items from the Supervisor-Directed Deviance Scale; Mitchell & Ambrose, 2007). It was hypothesized that each DT trait would have a significant positive relationship with each type of CWB. This hypothesis was shown to be supported. It was also hypothesized that low levels of perceived organizational justice would moderate the relationships between the DT traits and CWB. This hypothesis was partially supported. Linear regression analyses were conducted, and the results showed that none of the justice facets significantly moderated the relationship of Machiavellianism with any of type of CWB. However, several justice facets showed significant moderating effects between the other three DT traits (narcissism, psychopathy, and sadism) and types of CWB. These results suggest that when individuals perceive a higher level of perceived organizational justice, those with dark tetrad personality traits are more likely to report engaging in fewer counterproductive work behaviors, relative to those who perceive lower levels of perceived organizational justice. The implications are that by improving perceptions of organizational justice, organizations could potentially reduce counterproductive work behavior in employees with strong dark tetrad personality traits.

The purpose of this project was to create molecular tools for the study of meiosis in Arabidopsis thaliana and to evaluate their effectiveness. Two types of transgenic plants were created with an intron-spliced hairpin RNA (ihpRNA) construct to target the AHP2 gene for RNA silencing. One had a constitutively expressed promoter; the other’s promoter was inducible with dexamethasone (DEX). Transformations with the constitutively expressed construct gave rise to ahp2RNAi plants with reduced AHP2 transcript levels, abnormal meioses and reduced fertility phenotypes. The creation of plants containing the dexamethasone-inducible construct was confirmed via PCR genotyping, and induction with DEX. However, the induction conditions tested do not appear to silence AHP2 as the transgenics had normal meiotic and reproductive phenotypes. Also a triple-locus, three color, fluorescent protein marker-tagged Arabidopsis line was created that will allow calculation of recombination frequencies for two intervals on chromosome 2 in both wild type and mutant plants.

The purpose of this project was to create molecular tools for the study of meiosis in Arabidopsis thaliana and to evaluate their effectiveness. Two types of transgenic plants were created with an intron-spliced hairpin RNA (ihpRNA) construct to target the AHP2 gene for RNA silencing. One had a constitutively expressed promoter; the other’s promoter was inducible with dexamethasone (DEX). Transformations with the constitutively expressed construct gave rise to ahp2RNAi plants with reduced AHP2 transcript levels, abnormal meioses and reduced fertility phenotypes. The creation of plants containing the dexamethasone-inducible construct was confirmed via PCR genotyping, and induction with DEX. However, the induction conditions tested do not appear to silence AHP2 as the transgenics had normal meiotic and reproductive phenotypes. Also a triple-locus, three color, fluorescent protein marker-tagged Arabidopsis line was created that will allow calculation of recombination frequencies for two intervals on chromosome 2 in both wild type and mutant plants.

The work of Marshall McLuhan has often been reduced to the form of catchphrases and "McLuhanisms," such as the "global village" and "the medium is the message" in the field of communication. Though these phrases capture an aspect of his thought, the scholarly understanding of McLuhan's vision remains incomplete, even within the specialized area of Media Ecology, of which McLuhan is recognized as the intellectual father. Throughout his corpus, McLuhan makes reference to the classical and medieval trivium, which was the basis for education throughout Western history until the Renaissance. Indeed, he developed a history of the trivium up to the Renaissance in order to understand the works of Thomas Nashe. At the end of his life, he worked to synthesize his views on technology, media, and communication, and the arts of the trivium-- grammar, logic, and rhetoric--which were essential to these works. Consequently, this project details the connection between the classical and medieval trivium and McLuhan's tetrad, which was the heuristic tool that advanced as New Science for the twentieth and twenty first centuries. By detailing this connection, the tetrad is a tool that advances a neo-Medieval theory of communication. In its essence, the neo-Medieval communication theory is attentive to the linguistic essence of the cosmos, is attentive to the transformative nature of understanding, and unifies the human person within a perceptual and poetic understanding of the world. / McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts / Communication and Rhetorical Studies / PhD / Dissertation

From an evolutionary perspective, “dark” personality traits are argued to comprise a coordinated system of co-adapted traits that facilitate exploitive, manipulative, and aggressive strategies to vie for valued social and reproductive resources. Three quantitative studies were conducted to examine the cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between dark personality characteristics with bullying (Study 1), delinquency and dating (Study 2), and status-striving (Study 3) in adolescents aged 15–18 (Studies 1–2) and adults aged 18–61 (Study 3). In Study 1, using random-intercept cross-lagged panel modeling in a sample of N = 514 adolescents from ages 15–18 (Grades 10–12), Machiavellianism and psychopathy (but not narcissism) shared significant between-person associations with bullying. Within-person cross-lagged relations supported both disposition- (e.g., Machiavellianism at Grade 10  bullying at Grade 11) and perpetration-driven pathways (e.g., bullying at Grade 11  narcissism at Grade 12). In Study 2, cross-lagged panel modeling with the same sample as Study 1 revealed that secondary (i.e., impulsivity), but not primary (i.e., callous-unemotionality), psychopathy as well as delinquency were positively correlated with being in a current dating relationship at Grade 10. An indirect effect was found, whereby secondary psychopathy at Grade 10 positively predicted delinquency at Grade 11, which then predicted being a dating relationship one year later. In Study 3, path analysis with a sample of N = 516 adults aged 18–61 demonstrated that narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy positively predicted dominance status-striving, whereas only narcissism positively predicted prestige. Indirect aggression mediated the positive associations between psychopathy and sadism with dominance status-striving. Findings from the current dissertation indicate that dark personality traits are dynamically related to bullying and delinquency in youth, as well as aggression in adults, which is of relevance to educators, clinicians, and researchers looking to curb problematic behaviour that can carry significant personal and interpersonal harm.

Moral identity, moral personality, and moral emotion have all been suggested to influence moral behavior individually, however, the results have been mixed and contradictory. Furthermore, they have never been tested together to determine their relative contribution in predicting moral decision-making. An anonymous online survey was administered to undergraduate students (N = 432). Moral Reasoning was assessed by a series of six hypothetical moral dilemmas. Participants were asked which of two choices they would prefer, one being a more deontological choice, in other words, follow a principle such as “tell the truth”, and the other being a more utilitarian choice, such as “lie to spare a person’s feelings”. In addition, participants were asked how confident they felt that they made the right choice in each dilemma. Other measures in the survey battery included Moral Identity which has two subscales, one for Moral Importance, or the degree to which they feel being a moral person is important, and one for Moral Expression, or the degree to which they try to behave consistently with their moral values; a survey of Moral Emotion with subscales for Shame and Guilt; and a measure of Moral Personality variables otherwise known as the dark tetrad: Narcissism, Machiavellianism, Sadism, and Psychopathy. Age and moral expression were the only significant predictors of utilitarian choices on hypothetical moral dilemmas. Although guilt was also correlated with utilitarianism, it failed to be a significant factor when all variables were combined into one regression equation. The degree of confidence participants expressed in their decisions on the hypothetical moral dilemmas was correlated with shame and moral importance, however, none of the morality variables was a significant predictor of confidence ratings when entered together into a regression equation. Possible reasons for the lack of significant results are explored and suggestions for future studies are suggested.

本研究為台灣電視電影（TV-film）之初探性研究，首先分析國外電視電影之四大律效應，做為探究台灣電視電影之參考切入點，從新舊媒介交替、轉換之理論觀點出發，採用麥克魯漢父子之「媒體四大律」、以及McQuail對新媒介提出的文化觀點、McCombs等人對新媒介提出的經濟觀點，做為瞭解台灣電視電影之理論架構。電視電影一詞在台灣之定義模糊不清，本研究為釐清電視電影定義以及瞭解其特性，分別探討電視、電影兩媒介之特質，並爬梳各家對於電視電影之說法，對電視電影進行認識。同時也整理國外電視電影發展歷史與概況，包括美國、歐洲、日本與中國。 本研究透過對學、業界人士之深度訪談，輔以文獻資料的蒐集，瞭解台灣電視電影的源起背景，並分析其如何造成媒體四大律之「放大」、「淘汰」、「重拾」、「轉化」等四大效應，以及台灣電視電影對於文化思想與經濟市場的影響。最後探討其存在於現今台灣影視環境中的意義與未來。 / This study explores the conception of alternating and transition between the new and old media of Taiwan TV-film based on the tetrad theory. The theoretical framework of this article includes McQuail’s cultural explanation and McComb’s economic viewpoint. As the concept of TV-film is not clear in Taiwan, this study aims at clarifying its definition and understanding its characteristics by incorporating different viewpoints. This paper also sorts out the history development and profile of foreign TV-film, including the United States, Europe, Japan, and China. Through in-depth interviews and collections of literature, this study traces back to the origin of Taiwan TV-film and evaluates the effects of the four laws: enhancement, obsolescence, retrieval and reversal. Moreover, this study also analyzes the influence of Taiwan TV-film on cultural thoughts and economic market. Finally, the study explores the significance and future of TV-film in Taiwan’s media environment.

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Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) is a framework of statistical methods that allows us to represent complex relationships between variables. SEM is widely used in economics, genetics and the behavioral sciences (e.g. psychology, psychobiology, sociology and medicine). Model complexity is defined as a model’s ability to fit different data patterns and it plays an important role in model selection when applying SEM. As in linear regression, the number of free model parameters is typically used in traditional SEM model fit indices as a measure of the model complexity. However, only using number of free model parameters to indicate SEM model complexity is crude since other contributing factors, such as the type of constraint or functional form are ignored. To solve this problem, a special technique, Confirmatory Tetrad Analysis (CTA) is examined. A tetrad refers to the difference in the products of certain covariances (or correlations) among four random variables. A structural equation model often implies that some tetrads should be zero. These model implied zero tetrads are called vanishing tetrads. In CTA, the goodness of fit can be determined by testing the null hypothesis that the model implied vanishing tetrads are equal to zero. CTA can be helpful to improve model selection because different functional forms may affect the model implied vanishing tetrad number (t), and models not nested according to the traditional likelihood ratio test may be nested in terms of tetrads. In this dissertation, an R package was created to perform CTA, a two-step method was developed to determine SEM model complexity using simulated data, and it is demonstrated how the number of vanishing tetrads can be helpful to indicate SEM model complexity in some situations.