Showing papers on "Perspective (graphical) published in 1989"

The Experience of Nature: A Psychological Perspective

Abstract: A study of the natural environment, people, and the relationship between them. The authors offer a research-based analysis of the vital psychological role that nature plays. They try to understand how people perceive nature and what kinds of natural environments they prefer.

The Decoupling of CEO Pay and Performance: An Agency Theory Perspective

Abstract: It is common to thank the anonymous reviewers of a paper. In this case, we want them to know that they added in a very significant way to this study. Their comments provided helpful guidance that made a nice study a much better article. Their comments helped both of us learn a great deal about a theoretical domain with which we were unfamiliar. The way they dealt with this project could well be a tutorial for everyone who serves as a reviewer. This paper examines the extent to which monitoring and incentive alignment of Chief Executive (CEO) compensation and influence patterns of various actors on CEO pay vary as a function of ownership distribution within the firm. Based on the reports of 175 chief compensation officers in manufacturing, it was found that the level of monitoring and incentive alignment was greater in owner-controlled than management-controlled firms. For both types of firms, there was a direct relationship between monitoring and the risk level to the CEO of annual bonuses and long-term income, although the relationship was stronger among owner-controlled firms. In the owner-controlled firms, there was more influence over CEO pay by major stockholders and boards of directors. In management-controlled firms, the CEO pay influence was separated from major stockholders and boards. The results suggest that a behavioral approach to measuring agency theory concepts can provide some new insights into the process used to determine CEO pay.'

Gender and power in organizations: A longitudinal perspective.

Abstract: Presentation d'un modele permettant d'organiser un bilan des recherches empiriques concernant les differences selon le sexe dans le pouvoir au sein des organisations

Strategic Adaptability and Firm Performance: A Market-Contingent Perspective:

Abstract: The authors test the proposition that the effectiveness of a particular strategic orientation—reactor, defender, analyzer, and prospector—is contingent upon the dynamics of the market. In mildly vo...

Just a Mirage: The Search for Dispositional Effects in Organizational Research

Abstract: There has been renewed interest in dispositional explanations of individual behavior in organizations. We argue that this new stream of dispositional research is flawed both conceptually and methodologically, and we suggest several theoretical and empirical improvements. We conclude by discussing the costs of a dispositional perspective for both organizations and organizational participants.

A laboratory for teaching object oriented thinking

Abstract: It is difficult to introduce both novice and experienced procedural programmers to the anthropomorphic perspective necessary for object-oriented design. We introduce CRC cards, which characterize o...

A perspective on thinking.

Abstract: Research on general thinking abilities-productive, higher order, critical and creative thinking-has progressed slowly compared with the rapid progress that has been made in the study of cognitive structures and procedures. As alternatives to currently prevailing assumptions, three framing assumptions for the study o f thinking are proposed, involving situated cognition, personal and social epistemologies, and conceptual competence. Evidence consistent with these assumptions is outlined, and topics in the psychology of thinking are discussed in relation to the assumptions. The psychological study of thinking has two parts. One part is concerned with performance on specific tasks. The other part is concerned with broader capabilities of productive thinking, higher order thinking skills, critical thinking, and creativity. In the past 20 years, there has been major scientific progress in the psychology of thinking concerned with performance on specific tasks, and much less in the psychology of critical, productive, higher order, and creative thinking. The study of complex information processing, pioneered by Newell and Simon (1972), has provided a progressive framework for analyzing the cognitive structures and processes in many tasks, including tasks used in Piagetian research (Siegler, 1976), puzzles such as cryptarithmetic and the Towers of Hanoi (Anzai & Simon, 1979), items used in intelligence tests (Pellcgrino & Glaser, 1982; Simon & Kotovsky, 1963; Sternberg, 1977), various kinds of syllogisms (Johnson-Laird, 1983), concept identification (Gregg & Simon, 1967), and tasks used in school instruction, especially in science and mathematics (Anderson, 1982; Greeno, 1978; Resnick, in this issue; Riley & Greeno, 1988). Research on the topics of productive, higher order, critical, and creative thinking has not been an integral part of the major success of cognitive and developmental psychology during the past 20 years or so. In contrast to the remarkable progress achieved in analyses of specific tasks, research on general thinking capabilities has not led to significant advances in theoretical understanding or a systematic body of empirical knowledge. Many efforts to enhance children's thinking abilities have been made, and some of these have been evaluated in research studies. Excellent reviews are available by Chipman, Segal, and Glaser (1985); Nickerson, Perkins, and Smith (1985); Resnick (1987); and Segal, Chipman, and Glaser (1985). The dominant psychological idea in these development efforts is that thinking can be viewed as a skill. Successful thinking in specific subj~-'t-matter domains uses knowledge that is specific to the domains, as much research has shown. At the same time, it is reasonable to expect that there are aspects of thinking skill that are common across domains, and this possibility has motivated the development of many programs in the attempt to enhance general thinking skills. Evaluations of several of these programs have shown positive results, which encourage the idea that there are teachable components of general thinking ability. At the same time, there has been no perceptible progress toward a coherent account of what makes some of the programs succeed; nor has the research contributed significantly toward a set of principles that would constitute an articulate theory of the characteristics of thinking abilities. Nickerson, Perkins, and Smith (1985) summed up the situation, at least regarding programs emphasizing cognitive operations, as follows: Reviewing the various programs discussed, we are impressed by how easy it is to make up a list of fundamental operations, and also by the fact that the lists produced by different programs differ considerably from one another. Each of these lists can be seen as a theory of the components of intelligence or at least of determinants of intellectual performance. And this is the problem. There are too many of these theories for comfort. To be sure, some themes recur frequently but the differences are substantial. (p. 188) Some of the causes of this relatively slow progress may be implicit in the theories and framing assumptions that have dominated our scientific inquiry. There are three framing assumptions about thinking and learning that may be responsible for our apparent inability to develop a more adequate theory of thinking. First, the locus of thinking is assumed to be in an individual's mind, rather than in interaction between an agent and a physical and social situation. Second, processes of thinking and learning are assumed to be uniform across persons and situations. Different individuals are more or less capable of critical or creative thinking, and different situations are more or less conducive to learning and thinking, but the activities of thinking and learning are assumed to have approximately the same character wherever and in whomever they occur. Third, resources for thinking are assumed to be knowledge and skills that are built up from simple components, especially through instruction in school, rather than general conceptual capabilities that children may have as a result of their everyday experience or native endowment. 134 February 1989 • American Psychologist Copyright 1989 by the American Psychological Association, Inc. 0003-066X/89/$00.75 Vol. 44, No, 2, 134-141 These framing assumptions are reflected in the research and discussions of thinking, including discussions of creative thinking, where Kogan (1983) has summarized a large body of research about whether individuals think divergently or convergenfly and where Weisberg (1986) recently debunked several accounts in terms of genius, divergent thinking, mysterious insight, and inspiration and proposed replacing these with an account in terms of information-processing, problem-solving capabilities; motivation; and concentration. Resnick's (1987) discussion characterized higher order thinking as nonalgorithmic, complex, self-regulative, meaningful, effortful, and providing multiple solutions, nuanced judgments, multiple criteria, and uncertainty, all defined in terms of cognitive traits and processes of individuals. Chipman (1986) characterized a consensus among cognitive scientists that successful thinking depends on organization of cognitive activity with a hierarchy of goals and operations. Alternative Framing Assumptions A different set of framing assumptions may be needed if we are to make significant headway toward an adequate understanding of thinking and creativity. The three assumptions that I propose are the following. 1. Situated cognition. Thinking is situated in physical and social contexts. Cognition, including thinking, knowing, and learning, can be considered as a relation involving an agent in a situation, rather than as an activity in an individual's mind. 2. Personal and social epistemologies. Thinking and learning are situated in contexts of beliefs and understandings about cognition that differ between individuals and social groups, and fundamental properties of thinking and learning are determined by these contexts. 3. Conceptual competence. Children have strong potential capabilities for cognitive growth that enable complex and subtle processes of construction of knowledge and thinking skills. Thinking~ learning, and cognitive growth are activities in which children elaborate and reorganize their knowledge and understanding, rather than simply applying and acquiring cognitive structures and procedures. These assumptions are too general to allow direct empirical tests. Their acceptance will depend on the theoretical analyses and systematic empirical work that result from their use. At the same time, there are at least three kinds of empirical evidence that are consistent with the assumptions and encourage their further use and development. This research was supported by the Office of Naval Research, Contract N00014-88-K-0152, Project 1142CS, and the Institute for Research on Learning. I am grateful for conversations with John Seely Brown, Andy diSessa, Brigitte Jordan, Jean Lave, George Fake, Alan Sehoenfeid, and Susan Stucky in the development of these ideas. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to James G. Greeno, School of Education, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305. Situated Cognition We have thought of thinking as a process within an individual's mind, perhaps influenced by a context provided by the situation. Recent ethnographic research suggests a different view, in which thinking is an interaction between an individual and a physical and social situation. One example is in observations by Seribner (1984) of young men whose job is to fill drivers' orders in a dairy. The task involves different products that come in different-sized containers. Containers are packed in cases; the number of containers per case is different for the different container sizes. The worker gets a form failed out for each driver, in a special notation that shows, for each product, a number of cases and a number of containers that should be added or subtracted. The task could be done algorithmically; for example, the loader could locate the number of full cases that are specified and either remove the number of containers specified with a negative integer or add a partial case with the number of containers specified with a positive integer. The loaders did better, using partial cases to obtain more efficient solutions. The workers used optimal solutions in more than 90% of the cases that were observed. These workers' performance was not based on mathematical knowledge of the kind that we might expect individuals to obtain in school. We can imagine giving a word problem in arithmetic about the situation, involving the number of cases and containers needed for the order, the number of containers in a partially filled case, and the question \"How many more containers are needed for the order to be filled correctly?\" We would expect some pencil-an

Determinants and Effects of the Use of ″Made in″ Labels

Abstract: Selected empirical findings on the effects of a product′s “made‐in” label are integrated with theoretical developments in consumer information processing and the economics of consumer search. The result is an internally consistent theory of how country‐of‐origin effects vary across situations, individuals and products. The new perspective explains why country stereotyping influences decisions more among well‐informed buyers and dismisses the idea that country‐of‐origin cues are necessarily misleading or bad. It also generates predictions of when country‐of‐origin effects are greater and when they are smaller.

Connectionism in Perspective

Abstract: Knowledge Representation and Memory. Perception and Action. Learning. Problem Solving and Reasoning. Trends, Research Programs. Abstracts, Work in Progress.

Socialization Turning Points: An Examination of Change in Organizational Identification.

Abstract: This report identifies a gap between theory and research which plagues two areas of organizational inquiry, describes a method through which these concerns may be addressed, and describes a study which employed this method. Specifically, recent conceptualizations of organizational socialization and organizational identification view individuals as active participants in their relationships with organizations. Yet, research in both areas has over‐emphasized the organization's perspective and under‐emphasized the individual's. Turning point analysis is a method through which researchers may nisten” to participants’ points of view. It was used in a study reported here in order to help round out the relevant bodies of research. Retrospective interviewing was used to reconstruct the history and process of individuals’ socialization experiences over an eight‐month period. Fifteen types of turning points were identified. The results derived from turning point analysis are compared with conceptualizations of soci...

Clues, Myths, and the Historical Method

Abstract: In the diversity of methods and objects of analysis it offers, Clues, Myths, and the Historical Method offers a fresh perspective on this Italian historian who has become such an essential point of reference in many domains of cultural study today. -- Dana Polan, Camera Obscura.

Depression in children and adolescents: Assessment issues and recommendations

Abstract: Energized by renewed research and clinical activities, the current status of assessments of child and adolescent depression merits review. With a multidisciplinary perspective, the present review considers levels of depression, diagnostic criteria, classification systems, and the relationship of childhood/adolescent depression to adult depression. Methods for the measurement of child and adolescent depression are described and evaluated: child self-report, peer nominations, ratings by significant others, measures of overt behavior, physiological measures, projectives, and measures of constructs related to depression (e.g., self-esteem). The use of children as the source of assessment data, the degree of convergence across measures, and problems in discriminant validity are identified as pertinent assessment issues. Recommendations include use of measures with established norms, cut scores, multiple assessment methods and periods, and multiple gating.

An historical perspective on low back pain and disability.

Abstract: (1989). An historical perspective on low back pain and disability. Acta Orthopaedica Scandinavica: Vol. 60, No. sup234, pp. 1-23.

Does Being in Here Mean There Is Something Wrong With Me

Abstract: Much of what has been written about how psychiatric hospitals change a patient's self-image has been written from the perspective of the hospital and related social forces. Little has been done to explain the patient's perspective and role in this process. This study examines the process from that essential perspective, using both qualitative and quantitative methods. The results suggest that both frequency and duration of exposure to psychiatric hospitals, as well as a past history of hallucinations, are important variables in determining engulfment in the patient role. The process of engulfment appears to be a developmental sequence with important transitional events (e.g., hallucinations, Supplemental Security Income, repeated hospitalizations) demarcating and pushing forward the process, and shifting beliefs and definitions associated with each developmental stage. What seems to underlie this process is patients' need to maintain a positive view of themselves as competent.

Community development in perspective

Abstract: Community development in perspective , Community development in perspective , مرکز فناوری اطلاعات و اطلاع رسانی کشاورزی

Knowledge Bases and Salesperson Effectiveness: A Script-Theoretic Analysis:

Abstract: Salesperson effectiveness in customer interaction is evaluated from a script-theoretic perspective. Differences in salesperson performance are traced to differences in knowledge of the actions and ...

The sociology of medicine : a participant observer's view

Abstract: Provides a social, cross-cultural and interdisciplinary perspective on health, illness, and medicine. Analyzes first-hand, participant observer-based, qualitative studies in the field.