Highlighting relatedness promotes prosocial motives and behavior

According to self-determination theory, people have three basic psychological needs: relatedness, competence, and autonomy. Of these, the authors reasoned that relatedness need satisfaction is particularly important for promoting prosocial behavior because of the increased sense of connectedness to others that this engenders. In Experiment 1, the authors manipulated relatedness, autonomy, competence, or gave participants a neutral task, and found that highlighting relatedness led to higher interest in volunteering and intentions to volunteer relative to the other conditions. Experiment 2 found that writing about relatedness experiences promoted feelings of connectedness to others, which in turn predicted greater prosocial intentions. Experiment 3 found that relatedness manipulation participants donated significantly more money to charity than did participants given a neutral task. The results suggest that highlighting relatedness increases engagement in prosocial activities and are discussed in relation to the conflict and compatibility between individual and social outcomes

Formulation of a process for the planning and management of technology development

Presented at the 1st AIAA ATIO Forum, Los Angeles, CA, October 16-18, 2001.Due to the importance of technology use in Aerospace systems, the process of technology development is one of the most important parts of fielding a new system. Technology development is the process of creating and managing activities such as experiments, analysis, and prototyping in order to reduce the risk associated with the use of a new technology. While technical risk is addressed by the activities, the project must be planned and managed so as to reduce the cost and schedule risk associated with completing those activities. This study introduces a process that will assist in the planning and management of a technology development project and lead to successful development efforts