The Kanger-Lindahl theory of normative positions has great potential of serving as a logical foundation for normative systems for MAS, and its generality allows for great freedom when interpreting the theory. As a first step towards a typology of interpretations of the theory, the application of normative positions is studied in the context of a class of transition systems in which transitions ...

Among most economists, political scientists, and sociologists, it is taken for granted that the rational choice approach is a predictive methodology, and its strengths and weaknesses are judged in relation to that purpose. However, the rational choice model of action is found in a far wider range of disciplines across academia, and the purpose for which it is adopted varies greatly, with predic...

Social anxiety is a psychological disorder affected by cognitive aspects of person. The aim of study was to investigate the role of informational, normative, and avoidance identity styles in predicting the variance of social anxiety amongst Iranian medical science students. Using stratified sampling method, one hundred and twenty students were selected from each of the colleges of medicine, pha...

Empirical methodologies and philosophy are rarely discussed together but this essay is about how simulations and experiments may be useful in the pursuit of philosophical knowledge. It focuses on how these methods can illuminate some fundamental problems in political philosophy viewed as a branch of ethical philosophy. It is widely accepted that the way a social decision is made can affect not ...

This paper explores the related questions of (i) whether there is a pragmatic presumption against imprecise probabilities and (ii) how imprecise probabilities should be integrated into a normative theory of rational choice. Elga (2008) argues that one rather natural way of effecting this integration allows an agent to reject each of a series of bets that promises a positive payout. A number of ...

We used a nationally representative panel of Australian households to replicate a study by Yap et al. (2012) that evaluated how life satisfaction changed following major life events and the extent to which personality moderated those changes. We replicated the protective function of marriage but found that long-term declines that follow widowhood mostly reflect normative changes. In addition, w...

Eighty-one 13- to 14-year-old boys at risk for delinquency (target boys) engaged in brief dyadic conversations with their peer friends. The target boys' verbal behavior was coded into two mutually exclusive content categories, rule-break talk and normative talk. Positive social responses from peer boys for each category of talk were also recorded, and were presumed to reinforce the target boys'...