Browsing by Subject "Authority"
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Item An analysis of the relationship between open-closed belief-disbelief systems and security-insecurity(Texas Tech University, 1972-05) Montgomery, Peter Samuel,Not availableItem An elemental model of assertive behavior:: the effects of attraction, authority, and type of expression elements on perceived assertive behavior(Texas Tech University, 1977-05) Schwartz, Joseph MichaelThe popular literature of the general public and the more esoteric literature of the psychologists have both reflected a growing awareness of a complex set of behaviors subsumed under the broad title of "assertiveness." Although assertiveness has become increasingly visible in the literature, little effort has been directed toward systematic investigation of this construct. The increased emphasis on this newly emerging construct has raised various research and applied questions suitable for scientific investigation. For example, the interested psychologist might ask: just what is assertiveness; is it the same to all people; why is it so popular; and, finally, is it really an expression of a prosocial response? The general purpose of this study was to develop a conceptual model of assertive behavior and to examine the functional relationship between assertive behavior, attraction, and status variables. A corollary purpose was to explore the intention to behave assertively in specific situations.Item Authoritarianism: a study of the socialization process and teacher attitudes(Texas Tech University, 1971-08) Forbes, Winona RobertsonThe purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between authoritarianism and education. It is important to make clear the value of a study of authoritarianism and then the task becomes that of understanding how authoritarian attitudes are perpetuated.Item Authority and self-knowledge(2010-05) Sevel, Michael Allen; Deigh, John; Martinich, AloysiusPhilosophers have long thought that practical authority is morally problematic. The most familiar explanation is that exercising authority (for example, by the giving of commands) interferes with a subjectâs responsiveness to the reasons that apply to her; in this sense, authority is thought to be irrational or somehow inconsistent with autonomy. This explanation of the problem presupposes an account of what it is to exercise authority: to exercise authority over a subject is to intentionally change the reasons that apply to that subject. In this paper, I begin to develop a new account of authorityâs problematic nature by focusing on the relation between the content of authoritative directives and an agentâs intention in obeying. In cases of personal authority, the issuing of a command involves the giving of an intention to act to the subject; I argue that this breaks down the self-other asymmetries which theorists of self-knowledge assume exist with respect to the âprivileged accessâ one is said to have of oneâs own mind. This understanding of the problem is missed if we think about authority primarily in terms of reasons and reason-giving, as in the case of Razâs service conception.Item Authority identification in online communities and social networks(2013-05) Budalakoti, Suratna; Barber, K. SuzanneAs Internet communities such as question-answer (Q&A) forums and online social networks (OSNs) grow in prominence as knowledge sources, traditional editorial filters are unable to scale to their size and pace. This absence hinders the exchange of knowledge online, by creating an understandable lack of trust in information. This mistrust can be partially overcome by a forum by consistently providing reliable information, thus establishing itself as a reliable source. This work investigates how algorithmic approaches can contribute to building such a community of voluntary experts willing to contribute authoritative information. This work identifies two approaches: a) reducing the cost of participation for experts via matching user queries to experts (question recommendation), and b) identifying authoritative contributors for incentivization (authority estimation). The question recommendation problem is addressed by extending existing approaches via a new generative model that augments textual data with expert preference information among different questions. Another contribution to this domain is the introduction of a set of formalized metrics to include the expert's experience besides the questioner's. This is essential for expert retention in a voluntary community, and has not been addressed by previous work. The authority estimation problem is addressed by observing that the global graph structure of user interactions, results from two factors: a user's performance in local one-to-one interactions, and their activity levels. By positing an intrinsic authority 'strength' for each user node in the graph that governs the outcome of individual interactions via the Bradley-Terry model for pairwise comparison, this research establishes a relationship between intrinsic user authority, and global measures of influence. This approach overcomes many drawbacks of current measures of node importance in OSNs by naturally correcting for user activity levels, and providing an explanation for the frequent disconnect between real world reputation and online influence. Also, while existing research has been restricted to node ranking on a single OSN graph, this work demonstrates that co-ranking across multiple endorsement graphs drawn from the same OSN is a highly effective approach for aggregating complementary graph information. A new scalable co-ranking framework is introduced for this task. The resulting algorithms are evaluated on data from various online communities, and empirically shown to outperform existing approaches by a large margin.Item Essays on authority(2010-08) Sevel, Michael Allen; Deigh, John; Leiter, Brian; Woodruff, Paul; Martinich, Aloysius; Berman, MitchellThe chapters contained in this dissertation are three essays on the nature of practical authority, and the role it plays in the thought and action of those subject to it. In chapter 1, I criticize a recent and influential philosophical theory of authority, Joseph Razâs service conception, and argue that it is inadequate because it does not recognize that authority thwarts an obedient subjectâs ability to express her personality and character traits in action. In chapter 2, I argue that, in cases of personal authority, the issuing of a command involves the authority supplying the content of an intention to act to the subject, and that this breaks down the self-other asymmetries which theorists of self-knowledge have assumed exist with respect to the âprivileged accessâ one is said to have to oneâs own mind. In chapter 3, I argue that in cases of both personal and non-personal (e.g., institutional) authority, there is a further problem in exercising and obeying authority which has gone unrecognized. I draw on recent work in social psychology to show that authoritative directives fix a subjectâs understanding of her own actions across time and thus thwart the otherwise dynamic process of the development of the subjectâs self-conception. I show that these arguments constitute a new burden in justifying authority and therefore revive the anarchist objection that authority and autonomy are conceptually incompatible.Item Journalism innovation and the ethic of participation : a case study of the Knight Foundation and its news challenge(2010-08) Lewis, Seth Corwin; Reese, Stephen D.; Buckley, Cynthia J.; Chyi, Hsiang I.; Gil de ZĂșñiga, Homero; Lasorsa, Dominic L.The digitization of media has undermined much of the social authority and economic viability on which U.S. journalism relied during the 20th century. This disruption has also opened a central tension for the profession: how to reconcile the need for occupational control against growing opportunities for citizen participation. How that tension is navigated will affect the ultimate shape of the profession and its place in society. This dissertation examines how the leading nonprofit actor in journalism, The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, has sought to help journalism innovate out of its professional crisis. This case study engages a series of mixed methodsâincluding interviews, textual analysis, and secondary data analysisâto generate a holistic portrayal of how the Knight Foundation has attempted to transform itself and the journalism field in recent years, particularly through its signature Knight News Challenge innovation contest. From a sociology of professions perspective, I found that the Knight Foundation altered the rhetorical and actual boundaries of journalism jurisdiction. Knight moved away from âjournalismâ and toward âinformationâ as a way of seeking the wisdom of the crowd to solve journalismâs problems. This opening up of journalismâs boundaries created crucial space in which innovators, from inside and outside journalism, could step in and bring change to the field. In particular, these changes have allowed the concept of citizen participation, which resides at the periphery of mainstream newswork, to become embraced as an ethical norm and a founding doctrine of journalism innovation. The result of these efforts has been the emergence of a new rendering of journalismâone that straddles the professional-participatory tension by attempting to âferry the valuesâ of professional ideals even while embracing new practices more suited to a digital environment. Ultimately, this case study matters for what it suggests about professions in turbulent times. Influential institutions can bring change to their professional fields by acting as boundary-spanning agentsâstepping outside the traditional confines of their field, altering the rhetorical and structural borders of professional jurisdiction to invite external contribution and correction, and altogether creating the space and providing the capital for innovation to flourish.Item Masculinity, gender, and power in a Mayan-Kaqchikel community in SololĂĄ, Guatemala(2014-05) Ajcalon Choy, Rigoberto; GonzaÌlez-LoÌpez, Gloria, 1960-How do self-identified heterosexual Kaqchikel men in the rural areas of SololĂĄ attain status and power in their relationships with women? This question is explored here by analyzing different masculine roles in various social spaces. The complexity of masculine identity requires a meticulous analysis to assess the extent to which the masculine role and identity has been or not a determinant factor in the social and personal development of both women and men in the communities. This exploration also allows us to see the different expressions of masculine identities and evaluate their current role in society. I learned that the Kaqchikel men I interviewed find their social power and status in part through well-established, old ideologies and belief systems, as well as their perception of a biological superiority, which they justify by their hard work in agricultural activities. Based on this socially constructed beliefs and practices, men emphasize the passivity of the women and their social absence â their subordinate status in society. However, the authority of the men is not limited to their remarkable role as leaders and head of the households; it also encompasses pernicious acts such as domestic violence, which is still highly prevalent in contemporary SololĂĄ. This project also explores these menâs perceptions about: (1) the women living in their communities, (2) the low level of education of these women, and (3) the justice system that is still weak and flawed. While all of these are indeed prevailing problems in the communities, women are challenging to an extent all the practices and beliefs associated with the authority of the men.Item The concept of political authority in the works of Emile Durkheim and Yves R. Simon(Texas Tech University, 1983-08) Chandler, Carolyn A.Not availableItem The question of legitimate authority: considerations of Intelligent Design in public schooling(Texas Tech University, 2007-08) Riegle, Sandra; Simpson, Douglas J.This study will address some of the questions surrounding the contemporary debate as to whether or not â or, the extent to which â Intelligent Design (ID) justifiably can be included in public high school science curriculum. More specifically, its first guiding question will unpack three primary arguments that ID proponents often assert to validate its legitimacy, and to advance support for its inclusion in curriculum: namely, that ID is a valid insertion in the public school curriculum that allows for the re-placement of teleological concerns in modernity; that it is not neither a âGod in the gapsâ theory, nor essentially religious; and, finally, contrary to the contentions of some its critics (e.g., Antolin and Herbers, 2001; Forrest, 2005a, b; Hewlett and Peters, 2006; Matzke and Gross, 2006; Scott, 2006, 1997; Wexler, 2006, 1997), ID is not creation-science with a new name. The second guiding question of this study will address IDâs figurative placement in the culture war by examining: the extent to which recent attempts at its inclusion in the public school curriculum represent good pedagogical practices; the hegemonic discourse that its advocates both debunk and adopt; and the relevance that the combination of the afore-mentioned factors ultimately have upon considerations of education for posterity.
The study will provide, primarily, philosophical and theoretical analyses of some of the critical issues and questions surrounding ID. More specifically, it will weave together theoretical and philosophical, as well as some historical, concerns, as it addresses some of the prominent arguments that shape support for ID, and the question of its authoritative status in public school curriculum. As such, this study will be an analysis of relevant contemporary research, and offer insight both into how and why ID has developed into an intellectual inquiry, and emerged as a potent idea supported by numerous academics and at least some of the general the public. For its discussions regarding ID specifically, this document primarily will focus upon the writings of two thinkers who have gained prominence in the continued development of the theory; namely, William Dembski, a mathematician and philosopher, and Michael Behe, a biochemist.Item Toward an Aristotelian liberalism(2011-05) Sherman, James Arthur; Bonevac, Daniel A., 1955-; Dancy, Jonathan; Hurka, Thomas; Martinich, Aloysius P.; White, Stephen A.My dissertation develops and defends a contemporary Aristotelian form of political liberalism. I articulate an Aristotelian interpretation of individual autonomy as excellence in deliberating about ends, and develop a decision-theoretic model for representing this type of deliberation. I then provide a precise characterization of individual freedom, building on Amartya Senâs neo-Aristotelian theory of freedom as capability. I argue that we should understand individual liberty, the guiding value of political liberalism, as a compound of autonomy and freedom as I have articulated these notions. I then argue that liberty in this sense is the proper focus of a liberal theory of distributive justice. I provide a teleological justification of the stateâs authority to pursue a liberty-based program of distributive justice, and argue for a liberty-based interpretation of the harm principle as the appropriate limitation on state action.