1. Quality of Life: Criteria for Behavioral Adjustment Author: Marianne FrankenhaeuseraAbstractNew insights into potentially harmful consequences of modern technology have increased efforts to use the methods of the social, behavioral, and biological sciences in searching the psychosocial environment for aversive factors and in identifying high-risk individuals and groups. Examples are given from an ongoing project concerned with the impact of technology on workers, health and satisfaction, in particular problems concerned with adjustment to underload and overload associated with automation and mechanization in industry. Furthermore, the stress involved in urban commuting is illustrated with psychophysiological data. On the basis of results obtained in these and related studies it is argued that a moderately varied flow of stimuli and events, opportunities to engage in psychologically meaningful activities and to exercise personal control over external conditions, may be considered key components in the quality-of-life concept. Health risks associated with adjusting to demands characteristic of life in technologically advanced countries are discussed in this context.From: International Journal of Psychology<br />Theories of Technology<br />There are a number of theories attempting to address technology, which tend to be associated with the disciplines of science and technology studies (STS) and communication studies. Most generally, the theories attempt to address the relationship betweentechnology and society and prompt questions about agency, determinism/autonomy, and HYPERLINK quot;
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teleonomy.<br />If forced, one might categorize them into social and group theories. Additionally, one might distinguish between descriptive and critical theories. Descriptive theories attempt to address the definition and substance of technology, how does it emerge, change, and, of course, what is its relation to the human/social sphere? More substantively, to what extent is technology autonomous and how much force does it have in determining social structure or human practice? Critical theories of technology often take a descriptive theory as their basis and articulate concerns and ask in what ways can that relationship be changed? The authors mentioned in this article are those that have some concern with technology or media, though they often borrow from one another and of course build upon seminal theorists that preceded them.<br />Social theories<br />Descriptive approaches<br />Actor-network theory (ANT) - posits a heterogeneous network of humans and non-humans as equal interrelated actors. It strives for impartiality in the description of human and nonhuman actors and the reintegration of the natural and social worlds. For example, Latour (1992) argues that instead of worrying whether we are anthropomorphizing technology, we should embrace it as inherently anthropomorphic: technology is made by humans, substitutes for the actions of humans, and shapes human action. What is important is the chain and gradients of actors' actions and competences, and the degree to which we choose to have figurative representations. Key concepts include the inscription of beliefs, practices, relations into technology, which is then said to embodythem. Key authors include HYPERLINK quot;
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Latour (1997) and Callon (1999).<br />Social construction of technology (SCOT) - argues that technology does not determine human action, but that human action shapes technology. Key concepts include:<br />interpretive flexibility: quot;
Technological artifacts are culturally constructed and interpreted ... By this we mean not only that there is flexibility in how people think of or interpret artifacts but also that there is flexibility in how artifacts are designed.quot;
<br />relevant social group: shares a particular set of meanings about an artifact<br />closure and stabilization: when the relevant social group has reached a consensus<br />wider context: quot;
the sociocultural and political situation of a social group shapes its norms and values, which in turn influence the meaning given to an artifactquot;
<br />Key authors include Pinch and Bijker (1992) and Kline.<br />Structuration theory - defines structures as rules and resources organized as properties of social systems. The theory employs a recursive notion of actions constrained and enabled by structures which are produced and reproduced by that action. Consequently, in this theory technology is not rendered as an artifact, but instead examines how people, as they interact with a technology in their ongoing practices, enact structures which shape their emergent and situated use of that technology. Key authors include DeSantis and Poole (1990), and Orlikowski (1992).<br />Systems theory - considers the historical development of technology and media with an emphasis on inertia and heterogeneity, stressing the connections between the artifact being built and the social, economic, political and cultural factors surrounding it. Key concepts include reverse salients when elements of a system lag in development with respect to others, differentiation, operational closure, and autopoietic autonomy. Key authors include Thomas P. Hughes (1992) and HYPERLINK quot;
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Luhmann (2000).<br />Other stances<br />Additionally, many authors have posed technology so as to critique and or emphasize aspects of technology as addressed by the mainline theories. For example, Steve Woolgar (1991) considers technology as text in order to critique the sociology of scientific knowledge as applied to technology and to distinguish between three responses to that notion: the instrumental response (interpretive flexibility), the interpretivist response (environmental/organizational influences), the reflexive response (a double hermeneutic). Pfaffenberger (1992) treats technology as drama to argue that a recursive structuring of technological artifacts and their social structure discursively regulate the technological construction of political power. A technological drama is a discourse of technological quot;
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within the processes of technological regularization, adjustment, and reconstitution.<br />An important philosophical approach to technology has been taken by Bernard Stiegler, whose work has been influenced by other philosophers and historians of technology including Gilbert Simondon and André Leroi-Gourhan.<br />d targeting and optimization== One aspect of ad serving technology is automated and semi-automated means of optimizing bid prices, placement, targeting, or other characteristics. Significant methods include:<br />Behavioral Targeting - Using a profile of prior behavior on the part of the viewer to determine which ad to show during a given visit. For example, targeting car ads on a portal to a viewer that was known to have visited the automotive section of a general media site.<br />Contextual Targeting - Inferring the optimum ad placement from information contained on the page where the ad is being served. For example, placing Mountain Bike ads automatically on a page with a mountain biking article.<br />Creative Optimization - Using experimental or predictive methods to explore the optimum creative for a given ad placement and exploiting that determination in further impressions.<br />http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theories_of_technology<br />Social Learning Theory (Bandura)<br />Summary: Bandura’s Social Learning Theory posits that people learn from one another, via observation, imitation, and modeling. The theory has often been called a bridge between behaviorist and cognitive learning theories because it encompasses attention, memory, and motivation.<br />Originator: Albert Bandura<br />Key Terms: Modeling, reciprocal determinism<br />Social Learning Theory (Bandura)<br />People learn through observing others’ behavior, attitudes, and outcomes of those behaviors. “Most human behavior is learned observationally through modeling: from observing others, one forms an idea of how new behaviors are performed, and on later occasions this coded information serves as a guide for action.” (Bandura). Social learning theory explains human behavior in terms of continuous reciprocal interaction between cognitive, behavioral, and environmental influences.<br />Necessary conditions for effective modeling:<br />Attention — various factors increase or decrease the amount of attention paid. Includes distinctiveness, affective valence, prevalence, complexity, functional value. One’s characteristics (e.g. sensory capacities, arousal level, perceptual set, past reinforcement) affect attention.<br />Retention — remembering what you paid attention to. Includes symbolic coding, mental images, cognitive organization, symbolic rehearsal, motor rehearsal<br />Reproduction — reproducing the image. Including physical capabilities, and self-observation of reproduction.<br />Motivation — having a good reason to imitate. Includes motives such as past (i.e. traditional behaviorism), promised (imagined incentives) and vicarious (seeing and recalling the reinforced model)<br />Bandura believed in “reciprocal determinism”, that is, the world and a person’s behavior cause each other, while behaviorism essentially states that one’s environment causes one’s behavior, Bandura, who was studying adolescent aggression, found this too simplistic, and so in addition he suggested that behavior causes environment as well. Later, Bandura soon considered personality as an interaction between three components: the environment, behavior, and one’s psychological processes (one’s ability to entertain images in minds and language).<br />Social learning theory has sometimes been called a bridge between behaviorist and cognitive learning theories because it encompasses attention, memory, and motivation. The theory is related to Vygotsky’s Social Development Theoryand Lave’s Situated Learning, which also emphasize the importance of social learning.<br />http://www.learning-theories.com/social-learning-theory-bandura.html<br />Situated Learning Theory by Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger<br />quot;
The theory of situated cognition…claims that every human thought is adapted to the environment, that is, situated, because what people perceive, how they conceive of their activity, and what they physically do develop togetherquot;
(Clancey, 1997).<br />Situated cognition is argued that it provides a broad, useful framework focusing on everyday cognition, authentic tasks, and the value of in-context apprenticeship training. But, how does this learning theory differ from behavioral or cognitive perspective of learning?<br />Behaviorist theories and cognitive theories look at knowledge external to world, either in behaviors or internal processes or structures. On the contrary, situated learning looks at the learning phenomenon in a broader and holistic perspective incorporating behaviors (actions) and cognition by recognizing the interaction between people and environment and the role of situation. Wilson and Myers (2000) commented that situated learning quot;
is positioned to bring the individual and the social together in a coherent theoretical perspective.quot;
<br />Situated LearningBehavioral and Cognitive Learning TheoriesLearning process is a process of enculturation, emphasizing the socio-cultural setting and the activities of the people within the setting. In other words, quot;
learning is not an accumulation of information, but a transformation of the individual who is moving toward full membership in the professional community.quot;
(Hmelo and Evensen, 2000)The situated cognition focuses on the participation in communities of practice.Knowledge is located in the actions of persons and groups. Human knowledge and interaction cannot be divorced from the world.Learning process both in behavioral and cognitive psychology is individual one.Behavioral theories focus on formation of the association between the stimuli and response via the manipulation of reinforcement; cognitive theories focus on the information process and knowledge representation within the learner, i.e. cognitive processes take place within the heads of individuals)(Norman, 1993: the brain is the computational engine of thought, and thereby concentrating one's efforts upon understanding brain mechanisms and mental representations)Knowledge is revealed in behavioral changes implied by the behavioral theories; and knowledge is organizational structure resides within the learner.<br />Lave's Situated Learning and Everyday cognition (1988)In Cognition in Practice (1988), Lave discussed the transfer problem in school learning, and argued that learning in natural setting, contrast with most of classroom learning, occurs is a function of the activity, context and culture in which it is situated. Lave studied cognition in everyday situation and gave descriptions of the following findings:<br />Cognition is socially defined, interpreted, and supported.<br />Social context constrain and aid cognition: research should examine cognition in everyday to determine the generality of cognitive skills and articulate the role of culture in the development of these skills<br />People devise satisfactory opportunistic solutions. People do not employ formal approaches to solving problems in everyday thinking. Participation in interaction results in adaptivity of successful reasoning and learning.<br />http://www.personal.psu.edu/students/w/x/wxh139/Situated.htm<br />