Behaviorism (Psychology)

The study examines the potential threat to an auditor’s independence in fact which
may result from the extraordinarily favorable personal reputation (superstar status) of an
audit client’s CEO This potential threat to an auditors’ independence is the result of a
halo effect bias which can distort an individual’s judgment and behavior Accounting
firms use a business risk audit approach which involves conducting a strategic risk
assessment which assesses the overall threats to the business model of an audit client
Prior research has demonstrated that the strategic risk assessment can bias the judgment
of auditors pertaining to financial account level risk assessments For example, the Bernie
Madoff Ponzi scheme demonstrated how an extraordinarily well respected individual
with superstar status can distort the judgment of knowledgeable and normally skeptical
individuals An experiment was conducted to examine the potential threat of a superstar
CEO on an auditor’s independence as demonstrated by the ability to distort the judgment of the auditor during the performance of the strategic risk assessment In addition, the
experiment was designed to examine whether the halo cognitive bias can lessen the
impact that an auditor’s professional skepticism has on his or her judgment and behavior
during the audit of a client’s financial statement Unlike other studies which have sought
only to demonstrate that a cognitive bias exist which impairs auditor judgment; the study
also examined whether the influence of a halo effect bias can be mitigated by the formal
rating of audit evidence in a similar manner that was used by Embu and Finley (1977) to
successfully mitigate a framing effect
The experiment did not support the main hypothesis of the study that auditors
assess the strategic risk at a lower risk level for firms that employ a superstar CEO than
for those whom employ a non-superstar CEO This result may primarily be due to the
inability of the scenario used in the experiment to sufficiently differentiate the
characteristics of the superstar and non-superstar CEO Without establishing that the
participants’ judgment was being distorted by a superstar CEO; the other hypotheses
which involved testing a debiasing method to mitigate the halo effect caused by a
superstar CEO and investigating whether a halo effect reduces the impact that auditors’
trait skepticism level has on their judgment could not be properly tested

I show that auditors experience cognitive dissonance when they fail to take appropriate professionally skeptical (hereafter PS) action in line with high PS judgment I specifically show that cognitive dissonance leads auditors to revise their attitudes on low ranking audit actions upward and lower their risk assessments, consequently, lower overall professional skepticism I also find that auditor cognitive dissonance leads to exaggerated ex-post auditor self-assessments professional skepticism Professional skepticism is fundamental to performing an audit according to auditing standards and critical to audit quality Extant research that investigates treatments to enhance professional skepticism predominantly treats both skeptical judgment and skeptical action as analogous outcomes of professional skepticism If, however, there is a breakdown between PS judgment and PS action, the overall benefits of these treatments will be trivial I show that cognitive dissonance due to the incongruence between PS judgments and PS actions leads to an unforeseeable corollary of lower overall professional skepticism I also demonstrate a specific mechanism of how auditor incentives lead to lower professional skepticism, hence, lower audit quality Both researchers and practitioners can benefit from this study by better understating the intricacies in the critical link between PS judgment and action Additionally, I provide an empirical investigation of the components in Nelson’s (2009) model of professional skepticism and extend the model to reflect the intricacies between PS judgment and PS action I test my hypotheses via a three-group research design with attitude change as a proxy measure of cognitive dissonance

The purpose of this quantitative research study was to compare Chinese and
American students’ inclined level of critical thinking using the California Critical
Thinking Disposition Inventory (CCTDI) (Insight Assessment, 2013). The literature of
Paul and Elder (1996, 2000, 2005, 2010), Facione and Facione (1992, 1996) and
Brookfield (2005, 2010, 2013) and the conceptual framework in this study provided the foundation for the main research question of whether there are differences between Chinese and American students’ scores on the seven individual scales and their total score on the CCTDI. The Sample included 41 Chinese and 50 American undergraduate and graduate students at Florida Atlantic University, a regional research university located in southeast Florida. Independent t-tests concluded that there were no differences between the 41 Chinese students and the 50 American students regarding their critical thinking dispositions on each of seven scales on the CCTDI. A factorial analysis of variance measured moderator questions to determine
whether there was a difference between Chinese and American students’ CCTDI scores based on student gender, discipline of study, undergraduate or graduate status, or enrollment as an undergraduate within the United States. There were significant differences between the critical thinking dispositions of Chinese and American undergraduate and graduate students when comparing the scale of open mindedness and gender. There were also significant differences for the scale of confidence in reasoning and discipline. For the remaining questions, there were no significant differences. A Pearson’s correlation determined that there was no relationship between the length of time students had been in the United States and their scores on the CCTDI. Educational implications include that when problem-solving skills are developed in the college setting, critical thinking can be cultivated to help prepare students for work in future employment settings. Social implications include the use of critical thinking when faced with decision making in adults’ lives, as well as in their daily work. This study may be the foundation for future studies. Finally, educators may find the CCTDI helpful in positioning students’ critical thinking dispositions prior to learning or training activities.

Evolutionary psychology offers a framework for investigating the design of evolved information-processing mechanisms that motivate costly behaviors such as men's partner-directed violence. The current research investigated predictors of and individual differences in men's intimate- partner-directed violence from an evolutionary psychological perspective. The problem of paternity uncertainty is hypothesized to have selected for the emotion of male sexual jealousy, which in turn motivates men's nonviolent and violent mate-retention behaviors. Study 1 documented a hierarchy of behaviors initiated with men's suspicions of partner infidelity leading to men's engagement in frequent non-violent mate-retention behaviors, ending in men's partner-directed violence. Study 2 documented an interaction between men's personality traits and the context of perceived partner infidelity risk to predict men's perpetration of violence. Finally, Study 3 extended Studies 1 and 2 by building a causal cascade model that captures the hierarchy of adaptive behaviors in order of: (1) men's childhood experiences with their parents' parental effort, (2) men's adaptive life history strategies and behavioral self-regulation, (3) men's perceptions of partner infidelity risk, and (4) men's non-violent mate retention behaviors, conclusively predicting men's perpetration of violence in intimate relationships.

To prevent a partner's infidelity and relationship defection, men perform mate retention behaviors. Some of these mate retention behaviors are high-risk because they decrease the likelihood of infidelity while potentially increasing the likelihood of relationship defection. Although previous research has indicated that mate value may be related to mate retention generally, research has not addressed these cost-inflicting mate retention behaviors specifically. The current research examines the relationship between men's and women's mate values and men's use of partner-directed insults - a specific type of cost-inflicting mate retention behavior. The results from a sample of 158 women indicate that although men's and women's mate values predict men's partner-directed insults, men's mate value is a better predictor than is women's mate value. Women who report that their partners have lower mate value also report that their partners insult them more frequently than women who report that their partners have higher mate value.

The education of profoundly intellectually disabled individuals requires identifying motivators to help them learn basic tasks and skills. When these individuals also suffer from Autism Spectrum Disorder, one promising method of therapy, multisensory therapy, has been shown to relax patients, facilitating the educational process. Relaxation drastically minimizes maladaptive behaviors such as repetitive movement (stereotypy) and self-injury, allowing the participant to learn efficiently. In this study, a multi-axis measure was developed to determine behavioral differences between an experimental group that underwent the therapy and a control group that performed a functional task in their classroom. Stereotypic behaviors were significantly reduced and gaze focus was enhanced within the therapy. The significance of these effects carried over when participants were returned to their classroom.