Negative Attitude

Negative Attitude toward Robots Scale (NARS) is a questionnaire developed by Nomura et al. [162] to assess the negative attitude of human participants.

From: Robotics and Autonomous Systems, 2022

Mentally Ill: Public Attitudes

D. Bhugra, W. Cutter, in International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, 2001

5.3 Gender

Males tend to have more negative attitudes and, as noted above, are also more likely to be rejected when they suffer mental illness. Females may be more sympathetic, for a number of reasons. Other studies of attitudes toward other alien groups also demonstrate that females are more positive. They are also more likely to be carers, and may be the first to contact psychiatric services on behalf of individuals. For women, change in role after mental illness is likely to produce more stigma. Yet they are more likely to be admitted with more ‘masculine’ illnesses such as personality disorder and drug abuse. The gender roles in the context of illness may well play a role in generating negative attitudes.

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Ethnocentrism

Thomas F. Pettigrew, in Encyclopedia of Social Measurement, 2005

Social Psychological Experiments

Favoring your ingroup not only develops in children before negative attitudes toward outgroups, but it is easily aroused in experimental situations. Social psychologists have shown repeatedly that mere arbitrary classification into groups (called a minimal intergroup situation) can invoke a systematic ingroup bias in the distribution of positive resources. But further experiments cast doubt on the Sumnerian hypothesis. When investigators repeat these same experiments and ask subjects to distribute negative outcomes between the ingroup and outgroup, the ingroup bias is virtually eliminated. In conflict with Sumner's assumptions, people appear quite willing to favor their ingroup, but they are reluctant to hurt outgroups more blatantly.

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Adolescent Health and Health Behaviors

T.A. Wills, in International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, 2001

4.9 Academic Involvement

Low involvement in school is a notable risk factor for adolescent substance use and other problem behaviors. This may be reflected in negative attitudes toward school, low grades, poor relationships with teachers, and a history of discipline in school (Wills et al. 2000a). The effect of academic involvement is independent of characteristics such as SES and family structure, though it is related to these to some extent. The reasons for its relationship to problem behavior are doubtless complex. Low involvement in school can be partly attributable to restlessness or distractibility, which make it difficult to adjust to the classroom setting, or to aggressive tendencies that make it difficult for the child to keep friends. Disinterest in getting good grades may derive from a social environment that devalues conventional routes to achievement or a conflictual family that does not socialize children to work toward long-term goals. It should be noted that many adolescents have one bad year in school but do better in subsequent years, without adverse effect; but a trajectory of deteriorating academic performance and increasing disinterest in school could be predictive of subsequent problems such as frequent substance use.

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Uncertainty

George J. Klir, in Encyclopedia of Information Systems, 2003

I. Introduction

Traditionally, science, mathematics, and engineering showed virtually no interest in studying uncertainty. In fact, eliminating uncertainty was viewed as one manifestation of progress. This negative attitude toward uncertainty, prevalent prior to the 20th century, was seriously challenged by some developments in the 20th century. These developments include the emergence of statistical mechanics, Heisenberg's uncertainty principle in quantum physics, and Godel's theorems regarding consistency and completeness of formal systems. In spite of these developments, the traditional attitude toward uncertainty changed too little and too slow during the first half of the century. While uncertainty became recognized as useful (e.g., in statistical mechanics), it was for long time tacitly assumed that probability is the only way to deal with uncertainty.

The assumption that probability theory is capable of capturing any kind of uncertainty was challenged only in the second half of the 20th century by the emergence of two important generalizations in mathematics. One of them is the generalization of classical set theory to fuzzy set theory, introduced by Lotfi Zadeh in 1965. The second one is the generalization of classical measure theory to the theory of monotone measures, first suggested by Gustave Choquet in 1953–1954 in his theory of capacities. These generalizations enlarged substantially the framework for formalizing uncertainty and allowed us to formalize numerous new types of uncertainty. To explain this enlarged framework, we need to explain the two underlying concepts first: fuzzy sets and monotone measures.

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Staffing the Information Systems Department

Magid Igbaria, Conrad Shayo, in Encyclopedia of Information Systems, 2003

III.B.2. Identify High-turnover Risk Employees and Address Their Needs

Employees who are young, inexperienced, and highly educated tend to hold low levels of satisfaction with their jobs and careers and tend to experience low levels of organizational commitment. These negative attitudes, in turn, are associated with their intention to leave for “greener” pastures. Employers must understand and address the sources of disaffection among their younger and more highly educated workforce. Realistic job previews must be provided to recruits so that they enter the organization with an accurate picture of their duties and responsibilities. Moreover, providing sufficient job challenge and performance feedback to the new employees can help bolster positive attitudes toward the job and the organization, and help forestall early intentions to leave.

Managers should use organizational socialization tactics that foster a fit between organizational and individual values and norms. Socialization should focus on the five most important factors, namely, (1) higher perceived value of the individual, (2) high opportunities for growth, (3) higher levels of trust, (4) communication, and (5) shared organizational values and beliefs. Managers should also use some of the top five motivating techniques reported by employees, namely, (1) providing personal thanks, (2) providing written thanks, (3) promotion for performance, (4) providing public praise, and (5) implementing morale-building meetings.

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Leadership and Professional Development

Tony W. York, Don MacAlister, in Hospital and Healthcare Security (Sixth Edition), 2015

Attitude

Monitoring the attitude of security staff is the most subjective factor when evaluating performance. Supervisors should look at specific instances of positive or negative behavior instead of a general feeling of good or bad. Supervisors should maintain a running history on each employee’s attitude that is maintained by chronological entry. This will help the supervisor and the employee remember the instances used to determine the evaluation. Box 7-1 demonstrates a sample supervisor log of individual employee performance.

Box 7-1

Sample Supervisor Log of Individual Officer Performance

Supervisor Log
Officer Smith received a positive comment from ED staff for his successful de-escalation of an unruly on 3/17/14.
Officer Cummings reported late for duty twice in one week (1) 10 minutes on 7/21/14 and 15 minutes on 7/23/14.
Officer Greene spotted a trip hazard near the Main Entrance, marked it with a safety cone, and notified Facilities on 8/4/14.
I had to return Officer Browne’s reports because they contained many misspellings in the month of April 2014.

The morale of employees is a frequent topic of concern for top management, and often centers on negative attitudes. The supervisor plays a major role in maintaining the morale of subordinates. Obtaining desired performance cannot be accomplished solely by power, prestige, and authority. A supervisor’s real power is achieved through a network of satisfactory relationships with subordinates and upper management.

Negativity is contagious. A negative attitude of one officer can quickly spread and infect anyone exposed to it. But because an attitude is difficult to define and explain, we will focus on negative behavior. Negative behavior cannot be ignored, and the sooner a corrective strategy is undertaken, the better.

The beginning of a cure for negativity is professionalism and zero tolerance. The supervisor must be professional and demand professionalism from their team. Supervisors must keep negativity in mind and not allow it to become visible in actions or words. This is the first step. Next, the supervisor must have open and honest discussions with employees (in private) regarding perceived grievances or issues. Involvement by the employee in the solution agreed upon is important to the success of that solution. Sometimes there is no possible solution. In these cases, the supervisor must hold to the standards for employee attitudes, and employees must understand what is expected of them and the consequences if they fail to perform.

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Human-centered design for acceptability and usability

Kevin Doan-Khang Bui, ... Rochelle J. Mendonca, in Rehabilitation Robots forNeurorehabilitation in High-, Low-, and Middle-Income Countries, 2024

30.1.1.2 Barriers in low- and middle-income countries

Disability leads to poorer health outcomes, lower education achievements, and less economic participation, which results in a perpetuating cycle of disability and poverty [6]. Despite evidence that rehabilitation is highly effective in improving clinical outcomes and quality of life, people residing in LMICs face specific barriers to accessing rehabilitation.

Barriers to the wider use of rehabilitation include inadequate policies and standards, negative attitudes toward disability, problems with service delivery, lack of accessibility, and a lack of data and evidence. Additionally, there is a lack of rehabilitation professionals to provide rehabilitation services. These professionals include physical and rehabilitation medicine doctors (physiatrists), physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech and language pathologists, prosthetists, and orthotists. There are fewer than 10 physiotherapists per 1 million residents in many LMICs, whereas high-income countries often have several times more rehabilitation professionals [7]. Addressing these barriers to rehabilitation can provide a positive societal impact by building human capacity, improving the quality and affordability of services, and achieving the Sustainable Development Goal of ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all [6].

However, most solutions are only available in high-income countries, with high costs often associated with limited market penetration of rehabilitation robotic systems. In addition to the high costs of these systems, other barriers to adoption in LMICs include a lack of training (for maintaining these systems), high duty or import taxes, and the lack of studies establishing the feasibility and cost-effectiveness of therapy in relevant settings.

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Research Ethics Committees in the Social Sciences

Søren Holm, Louise Irving, in Encyclopedia of Social Measurement, 2005

RECs as Public Bodies Legitimating Research

Although researchers often view RECs only as an obstacle to be overcome, it is important to acknowledge that RECs also legitimate and thereby facilitate research. The right to academic freedom and to free choice of research topic (where it exists) is only a negative right protecting the researcher from interference from outside bodies; it is not a positive right giving the researcher permission to involve other persons as research subjects. RECs are a way of giving ethically legitimate research a form of quality approval, and being able to point to REC approval can help researchers in situations in which potential research subjects have an a priori negative attitude toward research.

Research involving human subjects is a social practice that relies on social acceptance for it to continue and flourish. This social acceptance has to encompass both the goals of the activity and the way the activity is conducted. Research and development is always an optional goal. It is not incoherent or irrational to think that no more research should be performed, as long as one is willing to also accept that no more progress will be made. The RECs probably have only a minor role to play in explaining the general goals of research to the public, but they do have potentially very important roles to play with regard to the social acceptance of the goals and conduct of specific projects.

If we view RECs as institutions within a democratic framework that at the same time regulates and legitimizes research, we can become clearer about the roles of the RECs. When an REC approves a project, it is not a neutral administrative act—it is also an implicit endorsement of the project and its qualities.

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Standardized usability questionnaires

Jeff Sauro, James R. Lewis, in Quantifying the User Experience (Second Edition), 2016

Availability of a neutral response

A question related to the number of scale steps is whether to provide a neutral response option. Neutral response options are a natural consequence of items with an odd number of steps—the neutral response is the option in the middle. Another way to allow a neutral response is with a Not Applicable (NA) choice on or off the scale. A neutral point allows respondents who honestly have no definite attitude with regard to the content of the item to indicate this. An even number of steps forces respondents to express a positive or negative attitude (although they always have the choice to refuse to respond to the item).

For questionnaire design in general, there is no simple recommendation for providing or withholding a neutral response option. Presser and Schuman (1980) found that offering a middle position increases the size of that category but “tends not to otherwise affect univariate distributions” (p. 70). As Parasuraman (1986, p. 399) puts it, “the choice between a forced or nonforced format must be made after carefully considering the characteristics unique to the situation.”

The designers of most standardized usability questionnaires with items containing a relatively small number of steps have chosen an odd number of steps, implicitly indicating a belief that it is possible, perhaps even common, for respondents to have a neutral attitude when completing a usability questionnaire. An exception is earlier versions of the QUIS, which had ten steps ranging from 0 to 9. The current Version 7 has nine steps ranging from 1 to 9, with an NA choice (see http://lap.umd.edu/quis/).

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Enterprise Applications Administration Teams

Jeremy Faircloth, in Enterprise Applications Administration, 2014

Personality, Culture, and Diversity

One of the key indicators of a high-performing enterprise applications administration team is the ability for the team members to work together well and collaborate. By bouncing ideas off of each other, the team members are able to enhance and refine their thoughts and come up with a better overall result than working alone. This is one of the reasons that people like to work in teams and one of the benefits of this type of organizational structure.

However, it’s easy to cancel out these benefits if the team members do not mesh well and work together effectively. The most destructive element to any team is personality conflict between team members. It is impossible for all team members to get along at all times, but it is important that the personalities of the individual team members be compatible and conductive to a high-performing team. For example, if there is a team member that presents a negative attitude at all times, this will bring down the overall team morale and will lead to the other team members being unhappy. As a manager, you must be able to recognize any issues that the team members are having interacting with each other and work with the team as a whole or one-on-one to ensure that the team is able to work together well.

It is important for the team to be diverse as each team member must bring their own style, knowledge, skills, and background to the team in order for it to be an effective enterprise applications administration organization. In no other type of technical team is this as crucial as it is for administrators dealing with a variety of technologies. However, that diversity can lead to conflict and you must be prepared to deal with any conflicts that arise. In most corporations, the human resources department can help with diversity training for employees as well as provide suggestions and recommendations to managers working with diverse teams.

In addition to the background cultures of individuals, there are also the factors of corporate cultures and team cultures to keep in mind when managing enterprise applications administration teams. Every company has their own culture, and team members in every organization must be able to work within and with the culture of the company that they’re employed by. Within enterprise applications administration teams, it is typical for the team to develop their own internal culture that differs somewhat from other teams within the information technology organization. This is generally a good thing, but care must be taken to ensure that the team’s culture is complementary to the company culture and takes into account the background cultures of each individual team member.

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