Browsing by Subject "Exploration"
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Item ADULT ATTACHMENT AND EXPLORATION: THE EFFECT OF ATTACHMENT STYLE ON THE EXPERIENCE OF EXPLORATION(2010-07-14) Martin, Archibald M.According to attachment theory a key moderator in the enjoyment of exploration is the strength of a person's secure base. To study exploration we placed participants in a situation in which they confronted a novel stimulus. We also gathered self-reported data on their mood immediately before and after this encounter with a novel stimulus as well as their attitudes about the novel stimulus activity. The effect of a ?secure base? on this encounter was examined in two ways: first through chronic attachment, and second through priming participants with either a secure attachment prime, an insecure attachment prime or a neutral prime. Thus, this study makes two categories of predictions: the first regarding the effect of chronic attachment, and the second regarding the effect of primed attachment. Regarding the effect of chronic attachment, we predicted that there would be an interaction between the novelty of the stimulus and chronic attachment. Specifically, we found that both chronic attachment avoidance and chronic attachment anxiety predicted greater tense mood following the activity and greater anxiety about the activity. In addition, we found that chronic avoidant attachment was related to greater anger following the activity and less happiness following the activity. These results remained significant even when mood immediately before the activity was controlled. Regarding primed attachment, we found that there was an interaction between primed attachment and novelty condition. (During the study, participants in the low novelty condition interacted more extensively with the novelty stimulus than did participants in the high novelty condition.) Specifically, we found that participants in the low novelty condition reacted more strongly to the attachment prime than participants in the high novelty condition. Further, the attachment prime predicted the direction of the change in mood. Thus, for the low novelty conditions, participants primed with secure attachment reported significantly more happiness and higher positive affect on a composite mood scale, compared with participants primed with insecure attachment. In the same way, again for the low novelty conditions, participants primed with secure attachment reported significantly lower levels of anger, compared with participants primed with insecure attachment.Item Development of curricular material for an exploration based Precalculus workbook(2009-08) Johnson, Lesley Kaheana; Armendáriz, Efraim P.; Daniels, Mark LThe body of this report, a workbook titled Creative Discovery Explorations in Precalculus, is the final outcome of the project of editing and supplementing a compilation of investigative exercises designed to enhance a Precalculus curriculum. The addition of an Instructor Support section to each of the original explorations is in response to research and interviews, and is designed to help Precalculus teachers incorporate collaborative discovery activities into their classrooms.Item Here be dragons : imaginative geographies of online video games(2013-05) Schwartz, Leigh; Zonn, LeoAs articulated by J. K. Wright (1947), "terrae incognitae," or unknown lands, capture the imagination and inspire an excitement to explore and learn, but with a reduction in travel times and subsequent expansions of potential travel range, along with growth in media and the development of the video game industry, for many, terrae incognitae has shifted from places on Earth to the intangible environments of interactive media. While the virtual environments of video games can be fantastic, they are also designed and created by human beings to exist entirely in relation to the game player, who is an adventurer, explorer, settler, civilizer, or conqueror. Using qualitative research methods, this dissertation analyzes the geographies online video gaming in relation to an original framework based on the mutually constitutive concepts of representation, exploration, and geographic narrative, as well as the intersecting roles of myth, fantasy, and the virtual in shaping narratively structured imaginative environments. With specific chapters examining themes of interaction between human and software, gender and sexuality, exploration, narrative, cooperation, and creativity, this dissertation proposes that video games can be best understood as both collaborative representations and virtual environments.Item Organizational exploration and exploitation in high-tech industries: Magnitude, balance and strategic consistency(2011-08) Moss, Todd; Payne, Tyge; Short, Jeremy C.; Brigham, Keith H.; Wan, William P.; Wilcox, James B.There is wide-spread scholarly agreement that exploration and exploitation (E/E) have emerged as the foundational strategic perspective in organizational adaptation research. The growth in interest in this research stream has been accompanied by multiple theoretical perspectives that provide different explanations about how these phenomena impact firm performance. Drawing from research on dominant logic, strategic orientations, and upper echelon theory, I explicitly integrate time into the logics that relate E/E to firm performance through the use of strategic consistency. I propose that strategic consistency is a key dimension of E/E that complements the previously-studied dimensions of magnitude and balance. To advance knowledge regarding E/E, I examine these two dimensions in four different industries, each representing high and low levels of environmental munificence and dynamism. I utilize organizational narratives to assess a firm’s strategic emphasis on E/E over time, namely management discussion and analysis sections from 10(k) reports. I analyze these narratives using computer-assisted textual analysis and panel regression over distinct blocks of time, rather than yearly cross-sections, to gauge the consistency of a firm’s E/E strategy, and its effect on firm performance. I make five distinct contributions in this dissertation. First, through a comprehensive literature review I underscore specific areas that are underrepresented in E/E research through an analysis of how this research stream has developed over time. I also highlight future research opportunities relevant to the strategy and entrepreneurship literatures by suggesting specific management theories that have yet to be fully utilized in exploration and exploitation research. Second, I examine the role of consistency of a firm’s E/E strategy to assess how firm strategy evolves over time. Third, I extend recent work on E/E by examining how strategic consistency interacts with a firm’s E/E magnitude and balance. Fourth, I examine how the relationship between E/E dimensions is affected by environmental factors such as munificence and dynamism, thereby providing the first study which shows how these moderators affect the relationship of strategic consistency in E/E, and performance over time. Finally, I examine the effects of E/E magnitude, balance, and strategic consistency, and their environmental moderators, on multiple measures of firm performance. Doing so provides a level of granularity to the results that is unique to this research stream, because it shows how the results are similar or different across these multiple performance variables for each hypothesis. The results from this dissertation generally supported the hypothesized relationships for the four industries as a whole. The main effects of balance, magnitude, and strategic consistency were all positively related to performance. Interactions of these variables were frequently opposite the hypothesized direction, while interactions of the main effects with munificence and dynamism supported the hypotheses more often than not. Post hoc analyses revealed that some findings were robust to the time period sampled, as well as to individual industries.Item Romantic relationships and adult attachment: providing a secure base for exploration(Texas A&M University, 2007-09-17) Martin, Archibald McLeish, IIIThe current study examines both attachment style and the current romantic relationship's influence on exploration. A sample was gathered of 152 female and 130 male undergraduate students from Texas A&M University. The study found that attachment styles were related to the participants' perceptions of their partner with regards to exploration. Specifically, avoidant people report using exploration as a means to distance themselves from their partner. Anxious people respond that they are dependant on their partner to explore. In addition, the study found that the Anxiety dimension predicted exploration across a range of established scales from the literature. Finally, the study presents evidence that the degree to which anxious people feel that they explore out of dependency on their partner mediates the association between anxiety and exploration. These findings highlight the importance of accounting for the current relationship partner in future studies of exploration and attachment.