Problem‐Solving Phase Transitions During Team Collaboration

Multiple theories of problem‐solving hypothesize that there are distinct qualitative phases exhibited during effective problem‐solving. However, limited research has attempted to identify when transitions between phases occur. We integrate theory on collaborative problem‐solving (CPS) with dynamical systems theory suggesting that when a system is undergoing a phase transition it should exhibit a peak in entropy and that entropy levels should also relate to team performance. Communications from 40 teams that collaborated on a complex problem were coded for occurrence of problem‐solving processes. We applied a sliding window entropy technique to each team's communications and specified criteria for (a) identifying data points that qualify as peaks and (b) determining which peaks were robust. We used multilevel modeling, and provide a qualitative example, to evaluate whether phases exhibit distinct distributions of communication processes. We also tested whether there was a relationship between entropy values at transition points and CPS performance. We found that a proportion of entropy peaks was robust and that the relative occurrence of communication codes varied significantly across phases. Peaks in entropy thus corresponded to qualitative shifts in teams’ CPS communications, providing empirical evidence that teams exhibit phase transitions during CPS. Also, lower average levels of entropy at the phase transition points predicted better CPS performance. We specify future directions to improve understanding of phase transitions during CPS, and collaborative cognition, more broadly.     

Why (Most) Atheists Have a Duty to Pray

Drawing on principles relating to the duty of easy rescue, I argue that any atheist who is less than wholly certain of the non-existence of a God or gods will in some circumstances be morally obliged to pray.     

A Multilevel Investigation of the Influences of Employees' Resistance to Empowerment

We employed a multilevel research design to examine the effects of employees' resistance to empowerment. Survey responses were obtained from 637 customer service engineers who worked in 121 empowered teams. At the team level of analysis, resistance to empowerment climate related negatively to customer satisfaction as mediated by transition processes. In addition, resistance to empowerment climate evidenced an indirect relation with team performance via team action processes. At the individual level of analysis, employees' resistance to empowerment related negatively to their job satisfaction. Moreover, a cross-level relation was evidenced whereby team-level resistance to empowerment climate related negatively to job satisfaction, beyond that accounted for by the individual-level effects, as partially mediated by team interpersonal processes. Results are discussed in terms of the multilevel manner in which employees' resistance to empowerment can undermine organizational design changes.     

Parent Education in Youth Sport: A Community Case Study of Parents,Coaches, and Administrators

The present community case study was designed to highlight parent, coach, and administrator perceptions of community-based parent education in a youth sport community in the Rocky Mountain region of the United States. Interviews with parents (n?=?12), coaches (n?=?13), and administrators (n?=?11) were interpreted inductively using constructivist thematic analysis. Nine emergent categories are highlighted, including parents’ sport goals for their children, parents’ involvement in youth sport including impacts of involvement on children, and barriers to implementing parent education, as well as potential content for parent education. A proposed sequential framework informing community-based parent education, as well as suggestions for further action, and study limitations are included.     

Experimental Studies in Ocular Behavior: II. Ocular Inadequacies in Epileptic Patients

The Allport-Vernon-Lindzey Study of Values and the Brown Modification of the Thouless Test of Religious Orthodoxy were administered to 120 male and female students in introductory psychology. Measures of anxiety, self-esteem, authoritarianism, and humanitarianism were also administered to the Ss in an effort to determine whether the two measures of religiosity would yield different personality and attitude profiles of the “religious” individual. A significant positive correlation was found between authoritarianism and the Thouless Test and between humanitarianism and the Study of Values religious measure. All other correlations involving the two measures of religiosity were found to be nonsignificant. These findings lend support to the notion that using two divergent measures of religiosity does result in the formation of different profiles of the “religious” individual.     

Brain Potentials from Normal Speakers and Stutterers

The purposes of this study were to determine the differences in self-esteeem and alienation between homosexual and heterosexual American males, and the differences in self-esteem and alienation in homosexual males, by selected demographic variables and sexual behavior. Eighty-six American male homosexuals indicated significantly greater alienation than heterosexual males, but similar self-esteem levels. Religion, oral-genital insertion preference, and marital status were significantly related to self-esteem and alienation, whereas anal intercourse insertion preference and degree of homosexuality were not found to be significantly related to self-esteem and alienation.     

Relationship of Ocular Latency and Speed to Intellectual Performance

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relative effectiveness of specific media attributes (visual) on S performance on criterion tests measuring different levels of understanding. One hundred seventy-one Ss were assigned to one of three entering behavior groups (high, middle, and low) as a result of their performance on a pretest designed for this purpose. Ss participated in their respective presentations and received two criterion tests. Analyses indicated that (a) there was a significant relationship between entering behavior and performance on the criterion tests; (b) no significant relationship was found to exist between the level of stimulus explicitness and achievement on the criterion tests; and (c) no significant interactions were found to exist between entering behavior and type of visualization.