Ubiquitous Technologies for Emotion Recognition

Emotions play a very important role in how we think and behave. As such, the emotions we feel every day can compel us to act and influence the decisions and plans we make about our lives. Being able to measure, analyze, and better comprehend how or why our emotions may change is thus of much relevance to understand human behavior and its consequences. Despite the great efforts made in the past in the study of human emotions, it is only now, with the advent of wearable, mobile, and ubiquitous technologies, that we can aim to sense and recognize emotions, continuously and in real time. This book brings together the latest experiences, findings, and developments regarding ubiquitous sensing, modeling, and the recognition of human emotions

Detecting Well-being in Digital Communities: An Interdisciplinary Engineering Approach for its Indicators

In this thesis, the challenges of defining, refining, and applying well-being as a progressive management indicator are addressed. This work\u27s implications and contributions are highly relevant for service research as it advances the integration of consumer well-being and the service value chain. It also provides a substantial contribution to policy and strategic management by integrating constituents\u27 values and experiences with recommendations for progressive community management

Detecting Well-being in Digital Communities: An Interdisciplinary Engineering Approach for its Indicators

In this thesis, the challenges of defining, refining, and applying well-being as a progressive management indicator are addressed. This work\u27s implications and contributions are highly relevant for service research as it advances the integration of consumer well-being and the service value chain. It also provides a substantial contribution to policy and strategic management by integrating constituents\u27 values and experiences with recommendations for progressive community management

Illinois Classical Studies v.19 1994: Studies in Honor of Miroslav Marcovich (vol. 2)

published or submitted for publicatio

Research Methods In Psychology

This textbook is an adaptation of one written by Paul C. Price (California State University, Fresno) and adapted by The Saylor Foundation under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License without attribution as requested by the work’s original creator or licensee. The original text is available here: http://www.saylor.org/site/textbooks/ This adaptation constitutes the second Canadian edition and was co-authored by Rajiv S. Jhangiani (Kwantlen Polytechnic University) and I-Chant A. Chiang (Quest University Canada

A study of the implications of applying a competency-based approach to performance management in a global organization

Evidence shows that an organization will function more effectively if the various components of its human resource management system are aligned and acting in a mutually supportive way (Baird and Meshoulam, 1988; Semler, 1997; Bowen and Ostroff, 2004). According to some authors a competency-based performance management system supports the concept of alignment by defining and rewarding the behaviour that is expected and associated with effective performance (Grote, 2000; Boam and Sparrow, 1992; Richards and Howard, 2004; Hopen, 2004; Mosley and Bryan, 1992). The assumptions underpinning the competency-based approach to performance management have, however, been questioned by a number of other authors, including Burgoyne (1989), Jacobs (1990), Morgan (1997) and Day, (1988). The motivation for this research study resulted from a perceived misalignment between (1) the desired leadership behaviour espoused by the top team members of a major UK multinational organization, (2) the behaviour prescribed in the organization’s leadership competencies, and (3) the behaviour that was rewarded in practice. The study takes an unusual opportunity to conduct an in-depth study of the application of a competency based approach to performance management. In the first of three linked research projects, one-to-one interviews were conducted with the organization’s six top team members using an approach that combined repertory grid and laddering techniques. The aim was firstly, to identify the top team members’ criteria 'in use' for assessing and rewarding leadership behaviour in the context of the organization's decision to utilise a competency-based approach to performance management, and secondly, to test the degree of alignment of these criteria among the top team members. The data revealed a good degree of alignment regarding the competencies required, but a poor degree of alignment on their definitions of the behaviours needed to support those competencies. It was also found that two competencies mentioned by the top team members were missing from the organization’s new formal leadership competencies. In the second project the output of Project 1 was used in a web-based questionnaire that was distributed to the 301 members of the organization’s Global Services Leadership Team (GSLT), whose performance appraisals were based on the leadership competencies. The purpose of Project 2 was firstly, to test the degree of alignment between the GSLT's views of what constituted appropriate behaviour and the views of the top team revealed in Project 1, and secondly, to test the degree of alignment of how the desired behaviours identified by the top team were seen to support the leadership competencies. The results showed a good degree of alignment across the GSLT with the top team views of what constituted appropriate behaviour but a poor degree of alignment of understanding of how those behaviours supported the formal competencies. The results also identified a degree of ambiguity within and between the competencies. In the third and final project I conducted a series of participative feedback sessions with key organizational stakeholders based on the results of Projects 1 and 2. Using principles taken from action research, Project 3 was a joint exploration of the problems identified with the performance management system exposed in Projects 1 and 2. The purpose of Project 3 was to stimulate the organization to make changes to improve the alignment and effectiveness of the performance management system. Project 3 identified that it was deemed unrealistic and inappropriate to try to define a unified set of competencies that could be applied in all contexts and applied to all of the different challenges facing the organization. The principle proposal resulting from this study is the need for a modification to alignment theory. It is proposed that extant competency literature appears to be overly prescriptive and fails to take account of contextual factors and the particular challenges facing individuals. The proposed modification to alignment theory requires the inclusion of the process of dialogue and the need for the active involvement of the leadership team members in facilitating understanding and effecting organizational alignment when applying a competency-based approach to performance management. It is proposed therefore that effective leadership action is critical to the creation of alignment that ultimately leads to more effective performance at the level of the individual, the process and the organization. Suggestions for further research to explore these proposals are made.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

The development of a technique to assess the quality of life (QOL) of patients with dementia and of their carers

Although there are quality of life measures, both generic and disease-specific, for most medical conditions, to date none has been developed for the elicitation of subjective reports from patients with dementia. There are a number of methodological issues which make such assessments potentially difficult. Since progressive, global cognitive problems are the cardinal feature of the disorder, the first consideration is whether interviewing patients about their own QOL is feasible. The aim of this research was to develop a quality of life assessment schedule for patients with dementia and to ascertain at what point in the disease-process patient self-report of QOL is no longer possible. A subjective, respondent-driven QOL assessment technique was developed and psychometrically validated. This was based on an existing psychological theory and methods, namely, Personal Construct Theory and Repertory Grid Technique. The resulting Quality of Life Assessment Schedule (QOLAS) is a generic technique. Five domains of functioning are assessed by the method: physical, psychological, social/family, work/economic and cognitive. In order to test the psychometric properties of the new technique, the method was tested in two groups of patients with epilepsy in addition to psychometric testing in patients with dementia and their carers. After piloting the technique in patients with dementia and their carers, the method was slightly modified for use in this context. A group of patients with mild-to-moderate dementia, plus their primary carer, were recruited and interviewed 3 times: at baseline, 6 months later and 12 months from baseline. The interviews conducted were: patient rating self; carer rating patient and carer rating their own QOL. The streamlined, simplified Quality of Life Assessment Schedule (QOLAS) formed the core of the interview in each case. A number of existing generic and disease-specific questionnaires were administered and qualitative data were also collected. The question of the reliability or stability of the patients' perception of their own QOL was addressed in two ways: (i) by looking at correlations between scores obtained on a number of instrument subscales assessing the same, or similar, items; (ii) by a head-to-head comparison of the patients rating themselves and the carer rating the patient on the same instrument. Methodological issues in dementia research such as patient heterogeneity, variations in the pattern of cognitive decline, anosognosia, denial, ambiguity of questions, coping and adjustment are addressed and recommendations are made. Patients with dementia are able to assess and report their own QOL at the onset of their illness but reliability diminishes with disease progression. The findings suggest that the simplified QOLAS technique is a valid procedure in assessing the QOL of patients with mild-to-moderate dementia and the QOL of their principal carer