A Cyber Phenomenon: A Q-Analysis on the Motivation of Computer Hackers

In computer security parlance, a hacker is an individual who actively seeks and takes advantage of flaws and weaknesses of a computer network or system. In recent years, one has seen the rise of hacking, often as a form of protest and retaliation for reasons ranging from political to social, but the question remains as to what really motivates an individual to hack a computer network? Using the Q-method, the study aimed to develop a classification of the motivation of computer hackers. This was done with the use of 43 participants who were subjected to preliminary interviews and the sorting method. The statements from the interviews were categorized that resulted in seven conceptual themes, namely social-positive, social-negative, intellectual gain, self-satisfaction, economic rewards, technological-positive and technological-negative. From these themes, three distinct profiles emerged and were used to describe the motivation of hackers.     

LAWS IN ECOLOGY: DIVERSE MODES OF EXPLANATION FOR A HOLISTIC SCIENCE

Ecology's reputation as a holistic science is partly due to widespread misconceptions of its nature as well as shortcomings in its methodology. This article argues that the pursuit of empirical laws of ecology can foster the emergence of a more unified and predictive science based on complementary modes of explanation. Numerical analyses of population dynamics have a distinguished pedigree, spatial analyses generate predictive laws of macroecology, and physical analyses are typically pursued by the ecosystem paradigm. The most characteristically ecological laws, however, are found in biotic analyses in the functional trait paradigm. Holistic credentials for ecology may thus be restored on two bases: its accommodating complementary modes of analysis and explanation, and its having some laws within the least reductionistic mode consistent with its subject matter. These claims, grounded in the aspectual theory of Herman Dooyeweerd, lead to some suggestions for enhancing the versatility and usefulness of ecology—and other sciences—by balancing different research paradigms under a holistic vision.     

The fate of completed intentions

The goal of this research was to determine whether and how people deactivate prospective memory (PM) intentions after they have been completed. One view proposes that PM intentions can be deactivated after completion, such that they no longer come to mind and interfere with current tasks. Another view is that now irrelevant completed PM intentions exhibit persisting activation, and continue to be retrieved. In Experiment 1, participants were given a PM intention embedded within the ongoing task during Phase 1, after which participants were told either that the PM task had been completed or suspended until later. During Phase 2, participants were instructed to perform only the ongoing task and were periodically prompted to report their thoughts. Critically, the PM targets from Phase 1 reappeared in Phase 2. All of our measures, including thoughts reported about the PM task, supported the existence of persisting activation. In Experiment 2, we varied conditions that were expected to mitigate persisting activation. Despite our best attempts to promote deactivation, we found evidence for the persistence of spontaneous retrieval in all groups after intentions were completed. The theoretical and practical implications of this potential dark side to spontaneous retrieval are discussed.     

Leverpress Escape/Avoidance Training Increases Neurotrophin Levels in Rat Brain

In addition to their well-known role in neural development, the neurotrophins BDNF and NGF help mediate the plasticity that occurs in the brain to promote learning. Exposure to learning procedures often leads to increases in neurotrophins, while exposure to stress often results in decreases. It is unclear how the neurotrophins would respond to an aversive learning task. Therefore, BDNF and NGF content in the dorsal striatum, hippocampus, and basal forebrain was measured following discrete trial lever-press escape/avoidance conditioning. Conditioning significantly increased levels of both neurotrophins in hippocampus and basal forebrain, relative to home cage controls (HCC). Contrary to expectations, the dorsal striatum did not show any significant changes. However, significant correlations were observed between dorsal striatal neurotrophins and aspects of avoidance performance. This may indicate that the dorsal striatum is involved in the performance aspects of the task. Results are discussed in terms of the role of neurotrophins in the acquisition of new information, and the neural structures involved in different types of memory.     

An alternate scoring method for the multiple stimulus without replacement preference assessment

DeLeon and Iwata (1996) described the difficulties in applying the percentage approached scoring method to the multiple stimulus without replacement (MSWO) preference assessment relative to its application in the paired stimulus assessment. This scoring method may result in highly preferred items being misidentified as moderate or low preference. In the present study, the results of 57 MSWO assessments were scored using both the percentage approach method and a point weighting method. More items were identified as highly preferred with the point weighting method. Reinforcer assessments were conducted on a subset of stimuli judged to be high preference using the point weighting method but moderately or non‐preferred when scored with the percentage approached method; all stimuli functioned as reinforcers. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A Short Index of Mystical Orientation (SIMO): A Study Among Roman Catholic Priests

The internal consistency reliability and concurrent validity of the 9-item Short Index of Mystical Orientation (SIMO) are established in relation with the parent 21-item Mystical Orientation Scale (MOS) among a sample of 1,468 Roman Catholic priests.     

Psychological type and sex differences among church leaders in the United Kingdom

A sample of 135 female and 164 male church leaders of mixed denominations completed the Francis Psychological Type Scales. The female church leaders demonstrated clear preferences for extraversion over introversion, for sensing over intuition, for feeling over thinking, and for judging over perceiving. The male church leaders demonstrated clear preferences for introversion over extraversion, for sensing over intuition, for thinking over feeling, and for judging over perceiving. The predominant type among the women was ESFJ (22%) and the predominant type among the men was ISTJ (30%). Extravert and feeling types were significantly overrepresented among female church leaders, compared with male church leaders.     

Repetition priming within and between languages in semantic classification of concrete and abstract words

Although concrete nouns are generally agreed to have shared core conceptual representations across languages in bilinguals, it has been proposed that abstract nouns have separate representations or share fewer semantic components. Conceptual repetition priming methodology was used to evaluate whether translation equivalents of abstract nouns have shared conceptual representations and compare the degree of conceptual overlap for concrete and abstract nouns. Here 72 Spanish-English bilinguals made concrete-abstract decisions on English and Spanish nouns. Both concrete and abstract nouns elicited substantial between-language priming and these effects were of equivalent size, indicating that translation equivalents of both concrete and abstract nouns have shared conceptual representations and that abstract words do not share fewer components. The between-language priming effects and their attenuation relative to within-language priming indicate that the within-language effect is based on facilitation of both word comprehension and semantic decision processes.