Rationalist causes of war : mechanisms, experiments, and East Asian wars

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Political Science, 2013.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references.This dissertation specifies and tests rationalist mechanisms of war. Why would rational states fight each other despite their incentives for peaceful bargains that would avoid the costs of war? In the rationalist theory of war, private information and the commitment problem are the key causes of war. I study the effects of these factors - and the mechanisms regulating their effects - through randomized experiments, historical analysis of the decision processes in three wars, and a comparative study of all international wars fought in East Asia in the last century. This is the first integrated study of rationalist causes of war that combines randomized experiments with historical cases. Despite a wide theoretical literature, there are few empirical tests of rationalist explanations for war. I use experimental and historical evidence to show that the commitment problem has strong positive effects on conflict. The effects of private information are less clear. Next, I specify six mechanisms that regulate the effects of the commitment problem and the private-information problem: three mechanisms (exogenous, endogenous, and inadvertent enforcement) for the first problem and three mechanisms (signaling with sunk cost, implementation cost, and salient contradiction) for the second. The experimental and historical evidence largely converge. Each of the three enforcement mechanisms calms the commitment problem and reduces the risk of conflict. Evidence for the three signaling mechanisms is mixed. Finally, I use the case universe of East Asian wars to assess the relevance of the mechanisms, suggest theoretical refinements, and infer alternative theories of war.by Ch-yuan Kaiy Quek.Ph.D

Sharing reality: an insight from phenomenology to John Burton's problem solving conflict resolution theory

The starting-point of the thesis is the idea that conflict may be endemic and even functional. However, the question remains whether the man is inherently aggressive and violent. It is assumed in the thesis that every theory of conflict and conflict resolution consists of an image of human 'being' and human nature, and that one of the most seminal analyses a conflict analyst can engage in deals with these images. John Burton is one of the leading figures in the field of conflict and conflict resolution theory who introduced the notion of 'problem-solving workshop conflict resolution' to Internationa Relations in the late 1960s. The thesis focuses on how Burton applies human needs thinking to conflict and conflict resolution theory. It examines also what kind of 'model of man' is included in his theory. It is argued that Burton's biologically-based image of human 'being' leads him to deny culture its constitutive role in conflict and conflict resolution. In other words, Burton's conception of universal human needs which function as motives of behaviour offers a potent way to defuse contextualism. As a consequence, problem-solving workshop conflict resolution is thought by Burton to be essentially the same for all peoples of all cultures. In the second half of the thesis a social constructionist image of human 'being' which clearly challenges Burton's views, is introduced. It studies how social groups and institutions distribute knowledge, define reality through shared typifications and use language. Moreover, it is argued that reality as well as needs and identifies are socially and culturally constructed. Given this notion of human existence, the thesis claims that problem-solving workshop conflict resolution can be best understood to be an attempt to find a shared reality between the parties in conflict

Individual differences & instance based decision making: putting “bounded rationality” to the test

Instance based risk taking behaviour allows relatively little time for information processing and may be responsible for unconsciously driven erratic behaviour in judgment and decision making. Previous theories that have explored the factors involved in risk taking behaviour include dispositional, decision-making, and neurocognitive functioning based theories. The present studies examine the contributions of age and gender, emotional intelligence, dispositional traits and affective states, involved in instance based decision-making. Participants were assessed using a binary choice task (study 1-A) and a double gamble risk taking task (study 1-B) which involved choices between financial gains with different pay-offs and risk levels, and an ignorance based task (study 2) which involved ignorance based judgments in the classic city size task. Participants were also administered the Trait Emotional Intelligence questionnaire, the Positive Affect Negative Affect Schedule, a self-report measure based on Gray’s behavioural activation and behavioural inhibition systems theory (BIS/BAS scale), and Dickman’s Impulsivity Inventory which distinguishes in functional and dysfunctional impulsivity. The purpose of these studies was to investigate whether individual differences in personality, emotional intelligence (EI) and affect predicted instance based risk taking behaviour. The participants were 64 (study 1-A), 68 (study 1-B), and 73 (study 2) university students; In study 1-A there were significant correlations between positive affect (PA), BAS Drive, BAS Fun-Seeking (FS), and total BAS and the number of risky choices in the binary choice task (r = .28, .25, .26, .31; p= .02, .04, .04, .01). In study 1-B there were significant correlations between PA, FS and total BAS and the number of risky choices in the binary choice double gamble task (r = .24, .25, .32; p = .04, .04, .01). There were no significant associations of trait EI or (functional or dysfunctional) impulsivity with the number of risky choices. These results indicate that individuals who are high in PA, BAS Drive and BAS Fun-Seeking tend to be riskier in decision making involving monetary incentives on an instance based decision making task. In study 2 there were significant correlations between functional impulsivity and negative affect and absolute scores of the Discrimination Index (r = .26, 33; p = .02, .01). These results indicate that individuals who are high in FI and NA tend to base their judgments and decision making on recognition heuristic use. The findings of the three studies indicate that dispositional variables and affective states may play a very important role in instance based risk taking behaviour. Also they indicate that affect is an important factor in instance based decision making, but the role of impulsivity is less clear. The findings in general imply a connection between personality and affective states and performance in professional risk laden domains such as the security, finances, and insurance sectors where individuals are called to take split second decisions

The processing of conflict in organizational groups: A case study in a Greek industrial company.

The purpose of the research was to investigate the way in which employees in two departments of a Greek industrial company resolved conflict situations encountered in the context of their department. The premises are that (a) the positive effects of conflict for the organization are related to the way in which it is resolved; (b) the investigation of the phenomenon of conflict resolution necessitates the examination of employees' conflict handling behaviour during a conflict episode, as well as of their representation of the particular episode; (c) the bureaucratic culture of the organization and the wider social culture determine the conditions within which employees represent and deal with conflict situations. The research used a single case design to develop new ways to model the conflict resolution process. The use of open-ended interviews constituted the methods of data collection. Employees from two departments (Research/Design and Supplies) of the organization were selected. The analysis of data in the first part of the thesis led to the development of a net model, indicating patterns of conflict handling behaviour during any conflict episode; the generic structure of the net model, which was found to be common to both departments, was discussed in the light of Greek culture, as well as of the bureaucratic practices of that particular organization. On the basis of this analysis, a further analysis was made of the data relating to those nodes of the net model where employees were found to be involved in a decision making process. The methodology selected enabled the representation of the process of the conflict management problem by organizational members. The basic assumption incorporated within this methodology is that the conflict management problem can be represented in more than one way. The identification, via employees' discourse, of the way in which conflict situations are conceptualized in the context of the two departments, indicated how this representation relates to the wider social and organizational nexus within which it is embedded. The contribution of this study lies in identifying the conflict resolution structures and processes within two departments of the organization studied and, to a certain extent, the wider organization, while offering an insight into how this organization shapes the way in which conflict situations are processed by organizational members, using their own discourse

建築利用者の心理に対する建築理論家と実務家の多様な認識の研究 - 現代心理学の思考傾向の概念を用いて

早大学位記番号:新8141早稲田大

Religion and patterns of social transformation

In this book nineteen eminent authors from twelve different countries discuss connection between religious and social transformation. These changes are discussed in the context of western countries and societies as well as in the context of post-communist, transitional countries and societies. Analysis includs different aspects of the fenomenon (legal, sociological), different religious communities (traditional churches, new religious mowements), different levels (institutional, group, individual) and different methods and tehniques used (both quantitative and qualitative, such as survey, interview, content analysis, comparative method)

Religion and patterns of social transformation - or: how to interpret religious changes in post-communism

Having in mind the classical concepts of mutual relevance of religious and social processes (Durkheim, Weber, Bellach, Luhman etc.) authors point to the systemic and subjective perspectives as one of the possible views at the transformational changes in Post-Communism