The effect of construal level on consumers' anticipated (un)ethical behavior: Hypothesis and observed empirical findings

Amaral, Nelson Borges University of Minnesota 2013 해외박사(DDOD)

소속기관이 구독 중이 아닌 경우 오후 4시부터 익일 오전 9시까지 원문보기가 가능합니다.

Despite the many lapses in ethical behavior that have attracted widespread attention in recent years, little is known about the cognitive processes that shape people's (un)ethical behavior and expectations of when it will occur. This lack of understanding exists despite substantial research on this topic within marketing. This research offers an initial attempt to fill this void. I do so by drawing on a corpus of work concerning both psychological distance and construal level theory. Psychological distance refers to the gap that often exists in time, space, familiarity, or likelihood that separates an event or object from the direct and personally experienced reality of the here and now. Moreover, variations in psychological distance have been found to affect people's construal level, which refers to the level of abstraction at which people think about and mentally represent an event in memory. Increases in an event's psychological distance prompts individuals to think about an event in a more abstract, less detailed manner, while decreases in psychological distance elicit thoughts about the event in a more concrete or specific manner. Importantly, investigations into the effects produced by variations in psychological distance have demonstrated that adoption of a high construal level prompts people to place greater priority on the desirability of pertinent end-states or goals. In contrast, adoption of a low construal level leads people to place higher priority on the feasibility and means used to achieve the end-state or goal. The theory that underlies my hypotheses integrates the preceding two notions, namely, (a) a high construal level increases the relative importance assigned to desirability aspects of ethics-related situations, and (b) a focus on desirability aspects encourages unethical behavior by fostering a desire to attain end-states/goals irrespective of ethical considerations, yet a focus on feasibility/means promotes more ethical behavior by heightening the salience of unethical actions. Combining the aforementioned premises and using extant knowledge of factors that influence psychological distance, I derived the following hypotheses. When individuals consider the behavior of an unknown person and thereby adopt a relatively high construal level, they should anticipate that this person will engage in unethical behavior when the event's psychological distance is greater. But when individuals consider the behavior of the self they may anticipate that the self will largely eschew unethical behavior, irrespective of other less potent factors that alter construal level by varying the psychological distance of the event. The first two experiments found support for this hypothesis in nine different ethical scenarios that varied construal level in a number of ways. In both experiments, construal level was manipulated by altering the focal actor. In experiment 1, it was also manipulated through the temporal distance of the event; in experiment 2 changes in temporal distance were replaced by a fluency manipulation that varied a novel dimension of psychological distance. In both experiments a significant two-way interaction revealed that for an unknown other, a higher construal level increased the expectation of unethical behavior, but expectations that the self would behave unethically were low regardless of variation in the event's temporal distance or fluency. Experiment 3 sought evidence of the mechanisms that underlie the preceding effects. Consistent with my theorizing, analyses of mediated moderation and mediation found that together, desirability and feasibility related thoughts accounted for the effects of the social distance and construal level on participants' expectations of unethical behavior. In particular, while variation in construal level significantly influenced the number of desirability related thoughts that participants produced when they considered the behavior that an unknown other person would enact, this relationship was absent when participants anticipated how they themselves would behave. However, when participants considered how they themselves would behave, feasibility related thoughts were significantly elevated, especially when individuals relied on a low construal level. This increase in feasibility related thoughts mitigated the influence of desirability related thoughts. As a result, the heightened feasibility related thoughts prompted participants to anticipate that, irrespective of their construal level, they would behave ethically in response to the dilemma. The final two experiments addressed an important issue by extending my research into an investigation of real behavior. Specifically, these final two studies established that a key factor that distinguishes between hypothetical situations and real ones is whether individuals explicitly envision and attend to themselves as the actor, or instead their thoughts about the self as actor fade into the periphery as other more pressing considerations command more attention. Together, the results from all five studies I report provide converging support for the effects of construal level on ethical behavior. In addition, they shed light on the mediating roles that the desirability and feasibility of events play in producing this effect. (Abstract shortened by UMI.).

Effect of supplemental fat source on production, immunity, hepatic gene expression, and metabolism of periparturient dairy cows

Amaral, Bruno Cesar Do University of Florida 2008 해외박사(DDOD)

소속기관이 구독 중이 아닌 경우 오후 4시부터 익일 오전 9시까지 원문보기가 가능합니다.

Experiments using periparturient Holstein cows were conducted to evaluate how supplemental fat sources enriched in specific fatty acids affected production, immunity, hepatic gene expression, and metabolism of periparturient dairy cows. In Experiment 1, fat supplements enriched with C18:1 (sunflower oil), Ca salt of trans C18:1, C18:2 (Ca salt of palm and soybean oils), or C18:3 (linseed oil) were fed (1.35 to 1.75% of dietary DM) in isolipid diets from 30 d before to 105 d post calving to 22 primiparous and 32 multiparous animals. Cows fed C18:3 tended to produce more 3.5% fat-corrected milk due to an improvement in concentration of milk fat compared to cows fed the C18:2 source. Supplementation with trans C18:1 increased trans C18:1 in plasma, milk fat, and liver fat. Supplementation with C18:2 increased C18:2 in plasma and milk fat. Supplementation with C18:3 increased C18:3 in plasma, milk fat, and liver fat. Animals fed C18:3 had greater plasma NEFA concentrations at wk 2 and 5 postpartum which were accompanied by upregulation of mRNA pyruvate carboxylase and phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase in the liver during this same time period. Concentrations of plasma IGF-1 and expression of hepatic IGFBP-3 mRNA increased at a faster rate postpartum for animals fed C18:2 or C18:3 compared to those fed cis or trans C18:1; this was accompanied by a faster rate of increase for plasma insulin of multiparous cows fed C18:2 or C18:3 sources. Primiparous cows supplementated with C18:3 had fewer neutrophils in the uterine flushing at 40 d postpartum. Trans C18:1 may have had immunostimulatory effects as evidenced by increasing concentrations of plasma acid soluble protein and haptoglobin of primiparous cows compared to those fed cis C18:1. In Experiment 2, fat supplements enriched with C18:2 (Ca salt of safflower oil) or C20:5 and C22:6 (Ca salt of palm and fish oils) were fed (1.5% of dietary DM) as well as a no-fat supplement control diet from 34 d before to 49 d post calving to 16 primiparous and 29 multiparous animals. Animals fed fish oil tended to consume less DM (% of body weight) and produce less milk fat compared to animals fed C18:2. Mean values for dry matter intake prepartum, milk yield, milk protein yield and concentration, body weight, body condition score, and plasma concentrations of glucose, nonesterified fatty acids, beta hydroxybutyrate, and prostaglandin F metabolite were unchanged across the 3 diets. Concentrations of plasma progesterone increased earlier in primiparous cows fed fish oil compared to safflower oil fed cows and return to first ovulation was improved by 6 day across parities. Consumption of fish oil appeared to have immunosuppressive effects. A greater proportion of the animals fed fish oil were diagnosed with a more severe case of metritis at 5 and 10 d postpartum, had lower blood concentrations of white blood cells and neutrophils and had circulating neutrophils that consumed fewer E. coli per neutrophil on -18, 0, 7, and 40 d postpartum. Primiparous cows fed fish oil had lower plasma concentrations of ceruloplasmin. In addition, animals fed fish oil had circulating lymphocytes that produced fewer cytokines when isolated and stimulated in vitro on 10, 20, and 30 d postpartum. On the other hand, the C18:2 fat source had immunostimulatory effects. Cows had a greater humoral response of IgG concentrations in serum postpartum to repeated ovalbumin injections, did not experience the decrease in concentration of blood neutrophils at 7 d postpartum that occurred in the other treatments, and multiparous cows had increased fibrinogen concentrations in plasma. Based upon greater plasma concentrations of acute phase proteins, primiparous cows were under greater stress from parturition and lactation compared to multiparous cows. In conclusion enrichement of the diet with specific fatty acids during the periparturient period were reflected in the incorporation of these fatty acids into different tissues. Omega-3 fatty acids attenuated immune responses compared to omega-6 supplementation and shortened return to first ovulation.

Collaborative learning and testing in introductory general chemistry

Amaral, Katie Elizabeth University of Florida 2004 해외박사(DDOD)

소속기관이 구독 중이 아닌 경우 오후 4시부터 익일 오전 9시까지 원문보기가 가능합니다.

Students taking General chemistry at the University of Florida are either well-prepared or under-prepared. To meet the needs of the under-prepared students, an introductory course (CHM 1025) was developed. An accurate method of placement into CHM 1025 or the mainstream course (CHM 2045) was needed. The Chemistry Readiness Assessment Exam was written and tested and students are advised to take either course based upon their scores. The accuracy of the cutoff scores was examined, with the minimum passing chemistry score lowered to six correct out of 18, and the math score raised to six correct out of eight. Collaborative problem-solving sessions were held during every CHM 1025 class. These sessions were shown to increase student achievement in CHM 1025. Group placement was also shown to have an effect on student achievement in the course. Students placed randomly into collaborative groups had the highest average GPA, while students placed by achievement had the lowest average GPA. The efficacy of CHM 1025 was examined to determine if the students who required the course do as well in CHM 2045 as those students who did not need it. Students who had taken CHM 1025 had a higher GPA in CHM 2045 than the students who went directly into CHM 2045. Students in the spring semester of 2004 took collaborative exams. Achievement levels of students who had collaborative exams were compared to students who took traditional exams to determine if collaborative testing had an effect on student achievement and retention in CHM 1025. There was no significant difference in achievement although the collaborative exams were harder. Percentages of students taking each exam were also compared, with more students taking the collaborative exams. Finally, undergraduate students called peer mentors, who had taken CHM 1025, were recruited to assist with the course. Mentors helped CHM 1025 students with the collaborative problems. The mentors' presence helped lower students' withdrawal rates in the class. The mentors also benefited from the program, as evidenced by their higher GPA in CHM 2045.

"En todo se hallaron los tlaxcaltecas": The Measure of Conquest in Sixteenth-Century New Spain

Amaral, Jannette Columbia University 2014 해외박사(DDOD)

소속기관이 구독 중이 아닌 경우 오후 4시부터 익일 오전 9시까지 원문보기가 가능합니다.

This dissertation exposes the pivotal nature of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century geographic discourses and practices---both European, indigenous and mestizo---in the articulation of strategies of power, resistance, and negotiation in the kingdoms of the New World. Focusing on the Descripcion de la ciudad y provincia de Tlaxcala (1580--1585) by Diego Munoz Camargo---a manuscript that is part of the relaciones geograficas de Indias corpus and contains a voluminous alphabetic text written in Spanish and a pictographic text of 156 images---this dissertation proposes to expand our understanding of the rhetorical resources and repertoire of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century writers in New Spain by studying the cultural innovations produced in the exchange, appropriation, and re-articulation of diverse written and pictographic traditions coming from both sides of the Atlantic. Focusing on geographic discourses---which take the form of prose geography, cartography, map making, land and itinerary measurements, symbols, simulacra, and Mesoamerican ideo-pictographic writing of geographic meaning or value---this dissertation discusses how these innovations are an integral part in the articulation of a Tlaxcalteca discourse of conquest and privilege that seeks to conceptualize and regulate notions of territoriality, movement, and network in the recently globalized world at the end of the sixteenth century.

The archaeology of a maroon reduccion: Colonial beginnings to present day ruination

Amaral, Adela L The University of Chicago 2015 해외박사(DDOD)

소속기관이 구독 중이 아닌 경우 오후 4시부터 익일 오전 9시까지 원문보기가 가능합니다.

In 1769, the reduccion Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe de los Morenos de Amapa (Amapa), was constructed in colonial Mexico. Reduccion was a widespread Spanish colonial civilizing practice that was both a process to create Christian colonial subjects and a physical town in which to achieve this production. Although reducciones typically targeted indigenous groups, this colonial experiment was focused on runaway slaves of African descent, or maroons, who fled from sugar plantations in central Veracruz. According to colonial officials, the Amapa reduccion was "to reduce the barbarous blacks or maroons to a political and Christian life." Among the buildings neatly illustrated on the 1770 plan map of Amapa were rows of houses organized around the plaza, an administrative building, and a church. The town was further systematized through the labeling of buildings with specific functions, i.e. house. In this demarcated and ordered space, the maroons were to be reduced into traceable colonial subjects. Colonial Mexico received over half of the African slaves destined for the Americas up until 1640. And just shortly after Mexico's conquest in 1521, runaway slavery and revolts were prevalent. By the early 17th century, wide scale slave rebellions and maroonage were particularly extensive in central Veracruz. The 18th century in Veracruz was no less violent, with major slave uprisings in 1725, 1735, 1741, 1749, and 1756, all of which contributed to the maroon numbers. The establishment of Amapa therefore emanated after more than a century and a half of unsuccessful attempts to militarily conquer maroons. This dissertation combines archaeological, documentary, and ethnographic data to develop a comprehensive understanding of the Amapa reduccion. Previous historical scholarship on the maroons has treated the history of Amapa as a singular and uncomplicated event, ignoring a pre and post reduccion analysis. The settling of the reduccion in fact unsettled social relationships and colonial power by providing "uncivil," black maroons with rights to and exercise of a material means, a town, that was reserved for colonial subjects. However, my research first considers how the possibility for the reduccion in 1769 was created. Beginning in the early seventeenth century, I trace the legal, social, and material developments of a slave and maroon population. I also analyze the changing approach local officials took toward maroons. While officials had exclusively attempted to conquer maroons through arms, beginning in 1751 the goal of conquest became knowledge as captured maroons were systematically interrogated. Through archaeological investigations, my work compares the reduccion's material and ideological ideals with its execution in practice. Materials excavated during the 2013 archaeological field season (Permit #401.B(4)19.2012/36/0754) from the site's foundation period yielded approximately 20 centimeters of modest artifact concentration. The paltry use of space as suggested by the lack of materials and cultural levels proposes that the reduccion did not succeed in creating the ideal colonial subject that was intended. Drawing from ethnographic, archival data, and ruined architectural data, I also examine the process of ruination and the ways in which the ruined landscape intersects temporally and spatially with the present. I argue that while above ground ruins denaturalize the landscape, these ruins are themselves naturalized by Amapans. Although the ruins are centrally located in the present day town, they do not possess a central position in people's daily lives. More palpable to Amapans than material ruination is their town's history and current state of social and moral decay. Amapa was established on the grounds of the moral redress of savage maroons and anxieties over moral and social ruination have been constant since the town's founding.

Designing intelligent language tutoring systems for integration into foreign language instruction

Amaral, Luiz Alexandre Mattos do The Ohio State University 2007 해외박사(DDOD)

소속기관이 구독 중이 아닌 경우 오후 4시부터 익일 오전 9시까지 원문보기가 가능합니다.

Intelligent Computer-Assisted Language Learning (ICALL) is a multidisciplinary area of research that combines Natural Language Processing (NLP), Intelligent Tutoring System development, Second Language Acquisition (SLA) and Foreign Language Teaching and Learning. So far, most of the work done in ICALL has primarily focused on the development of NLP technology for error diagnosis, and very few systems have been fully implemented to the point where they could be used in an existing foreign language program. The work presented here proposes to develop an ICALL system focusing primarily on the needs of foreign language students and instructors. The research project started with a survey with foreign language instructors on how ICALL could support their everyday practice. The survey was followed by an analysis of the capabilities of NLP technology, and a study on how some of the NLP tools could be used to produce a system that presented activities which could be incorporated into actual language programs. The final step was to develop a system that provides intelligent feedback following the pedagogical principles outlined. The specific context of the study was the Portuguese Individualized Instruction Program (IIP) at the Ohio State University. The main research contribution of the project is to show one way NLP technology can be used to cope with the real needs of language learners following precise pedagogical specifications. The concrete contribution of this research is an intelligent electronic workbook that is currently being used by IIP students. The overall contribution of the project is to take a concrete step in the direction of bridging the gap between the development of NLP technology for ICALL and the actual use of such technology in real life foreign language programs.

(The) proposal of a minimum housing standards for affordable housing

Amaral, Lolita Da Silva 중앙대학교 대학원 2021 국내석사

(Die)Gattungsgliederung der Ochnaceae DC. mit besonderem Hinblick auf die Unterfamilie Sauvagesioideae Lindl

Amaral, Maria do Carmo E. do Univ. Hamburg 1990 국내박사

Demographic change and economic development at the local level in Brazil

de Lima Amaral, Ernesto Friedrich The University of Texas at Austin 2007 해외박사(DDOD)

소속기관이 구독 중이 아닌 경우 오후 4시부터 익일 오전 9시까지 원문보기가 가능합니다.

In this analysis, I estimate the impact of the changing relative size of the adult male population, classified by age and education groups, on the earnings of employed males living in 502 Brazilian local labor markets during four time periods between 1970 and 2000. The effects of shifts in the age distribution of the working age population have been studied in relation to the effect of the baby-boom generation on the earnings of different cohorts in the United States. However, the question has received little attention in the context of the countries in Asia and Latin America, which are now experiencing substantial shifts in their age-education distributions. Taking advantage of the huge variation across Brazilian local labor markets, the models in this research suggest that age-education groups are not perfect substitutes, so that own-cohort-education size depresses earnings, as expected by the theory. Compositional shifts are influential, attesting that this approach represents a fruitful way of studying this central problem in economic development, going beyond the effects normally analyzed by formal labor market equations.

Human development and regional inequalities: Spatial analysis across Brazilian municipalities

Haddad, Monica Amaral University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 2003 해외박사(DDOD)

소속기관이 구독 중이 아닌 경우 오후 4시부터 익일 오전 9시까지 원문보기가 가능합니다.

The primary analytical focus of this dissertation is to assess municipal (district) human development by using spatial analysis and spatial econometric techniques with the intent of guiding decision-making processes. The Human Development Index (HDI) from the United Nations Development Program is the main focus of this study, which relies on geographic information systems (GIS) technology to incorporate the spatial dimension in the HDI, and to provide the data platform for analyses. Methods of Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis and Confirmatory Spatial Data Analysis are used to accomplish the research objectives. The results of this dissertation suggest that the geographic environment plays an important role in the understanding of the relationship between human development and public intervention. In the case of Brazil, public sector involvement in enlarging people's social choices must explicitly consider relative location if the goal is to create equitable access to opportunities through strategic investment in education, health, and skills of the people. This enhanced, spatial perspective will enable a greater number of the population to participate in the growth process as well as to share its benefits, and further expand people's capabilities. From the regional inequality perspective, that characterizes Brazil, Southeast municipalities have a comparative advantage because of their higher level of development; as a consequence, these municipalities have a stronger capacity to manage social issues. In contrast, Northeast municipalities, because of their lower level of development, do not have such a strong capacity. From the intra-urban perspective, similar, diverse spatial dynamics can be observed in the districts of Sao Paulo municipality. This dissertation draws three main conclusions concerning the relationship between human development and public intervention. First, the tendency to allow an uncontrolled decentralization process, common in many developing countries, may need to be replaced with some coordination mechanisms. Second, if there is a willingness to implement ‘pro-equality’ policies, social policies should be spatially focused, instead of being applied universally across all municipalities. Third, a few spatial strategies are proposed as alternatives to implement ‘pro-equality’ policies. These strategies are based on the existence of spatial diffusion processes that take place in the study areas.