A novel sequence representation for unsupervised analysis of human activities

Formalizing computational models for everyday human activities remains an open challenge. Many previous approaches towards this end assume prior knowledge about the structure of activities, using which explicitly defined models are learned in a completely supervised manner. For a majority of everyday environments however, the structure of the in situ activities is generally not known a priori. In this paper we investigate knowledge representations and manipulation techniques that facilitate learning of human activities in a minimally supervised manner. The key contribution of this work is the idea that global structural information of human activities can be encoded using a subset of their local event subsequences, and that this encoding is sufficient for activity-class discovery and classification.In particular, we investigate modeling activity sequences in terms of their constituent subsequences that we call event n-grams. Exploiting this representation, we propose a computational framework to automatically discover the various activity-classes taking place in an environment. We model these activity-classes as maximally similar activity-cliques in a completely connected graph of activities, and describe how to discover them efficiently. Moreover, we propose methods for finding characterizations of these discovered classes from a holistic as well as a by-parts perspective. Using such characterizations, we present a method to classify a new activity to one of the discovered activity-classes, and to automatically detect whether it is anomalous with respect to the general characteristics of its membership class. Our results show the efficacy of our approach in a variety of everyday environments.     

Personality theories facilitate integrating the five principles and deducing hypotheses for testing.

Comments on the original article "A New Big Five: Fundamental Principles for an Integrative Science of Personality," by Dan P. McAdams and Jennifer L. Pals (see record 2006-03947-002). In presenting their view of personality science, McAdams and Pals (April 2006) elaborated the importance of five principles for building an integrated science of personality. These principles are stances on evolution and human nature, dispositional signatures, characteristic adaptations, life narratives, and the differential role of culture. Their main emphasis involved differentiating these principles and indicating that they are all relevant to understanding personality. The discussion by McAdams and Pals certainly illuminates the various aspects of personality, but it also cries out for some greater, more systematic integration of the five principles into particular kinds of personality. It is not yet possible, in their approach, to identify different types of personality orientation and to evaluate the relative effectiveness of these orientations. As presented, their approach may be considered a start but hardly a finish. Here, the current author suggests that the metatheory of personality theories that he has proposed (Maddi, 1969/1996) could accelerate the needed integration of the five proposed principles. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The hardy organization: Success by turning change to advantage.

Our turbulent times require organizations that are hardy in the sense of having cultures, climates, structures, and workforces capable of turning potentially disruptive changes into opportunities. At the individual, or workforce, level, hardiness involves the attitudes of commitment, control, and challenge and the complementary skills of coping and social support. At the organizational level, the isomorphic counterparts of hardy attitudes are the cultural values of cooperation, credibility, and creativity. Furthermore, an organization is hardy if these cultural values are indeed expressed on an everyday basis through its climate and if its structure involves the matrix management scheme of semi-autonomous work teams rather than the more traditional hierarchical arrangement. This article also considers the assessment and consulting functions that can increase the hardiness of organizations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The high-speed rail challenge for big intermediate cities: A national, regional and local perspective

Previous research on high-speed rail (HSR) and urban development has underlined the need for a multilevel analysis and has differentiated between HSR’s impact on small cities and on big intermediate cities. This paper focuses on big intermediate cities along HSR lines, develops a multilevel analysis at national, regional and local levels and examines HSR’s selective capacity to transform time distances and accessibility.The paper draws together data which make clear how HSR opens up new opportunities for these big intermediate cities. Specifically, it analyses three particular cases: Córdoba and Zaragoza in Spain and Lille in France. This case-study approach, taking account of specific circumstances and contexts, facilitates the understanding of the similarities and differences in HSR’s impact on urban and territorial development.     

Comments on trends in hardiness research and theorizing.

The author discusses the history and current status of the hardiness approach to enhancing performance, conduct, morale, stamina, and health, and comments on the articles appearing in the Spring 1999 special issue of Consulting Psychology Journal. Observations are made about the future of hardiness and its participation in a new emphasis on personality. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Alienation and exploratory behavior.

Tested the hypothesis that attitudes of alienation inhibit intrinsically motivated exploration of an unfamiliar but ordinary environment. 29 university students completed measures including the Alienation Test and the Maudsley Personality Inventory, and their exploratory behavior was observed during a mock waiting period. Stepwise multiple regression confirmed the hypothesis. Additional analyses indicate that nihilism and adventurousness were the most inhibitory types of alienation. The most inhibitory interpersonal contexts were alienation from social institutions, other persons, and the self. The adaptive disadvantage of alienation attitudes is noted. (42 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Hardiness and health: A prospective study.

Hypothesized that hardiness—commitment, control, and challenge—functions to decrease the effect of stressful life events to producing illness symptoms. 259 upper- and middle-level male managers (mean age 48 yrs) were administered a battery of tests (including Rotter's Internal–External Locus of Control Scale, the Schedule of Life Events, and the Seriousness of Illness Survey) covering a 5-yr period. Results support the hypothesis by showing main effects on illness for both stressful life events and hardiness and an interaction effect for these independent variables. (37 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The existential neurosis.

This is an attempt to clarify existential literature by distinguishing among the relevant behavioral manifestations those that are psychopathological and those that signify mental health. Existential neurosis emerges as chronic meaninglessness, apathy, and aimlessness. The premorbid identity out of which this neurosis may come involves definition of self as nothing more than an embodiment of biological needs and a player of social roles. The premorbid identity can be undermined, producing existential neurosis, by stresses such as threat of imminent death, social upheaval, and acute awareness of superficiality. Discussion of the premorbid identity leads to postulation of the ideal identity as expressive of not only the biological and social sides of man, but the psychological side as well. The psychological side includes symbolization, imagination, and judgment. Developmental hypotheses for premorbid and ideal identities are presented, and general implications of the position are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Stressful events are indeed a factor in physical illness: Reply to Schroeder and Costa (1984).

This article presents a conceptual and empirical reply to the study by Schroeder and Costa (1984) that reported relations between stressful life events and physical illness are artifacts of contamination in the events measure by neurotic, subjective, and physical health influences. The present study considers potential conceptual exaggerations that (a) only retrospective studies have shown a stress–illness relation, (b) self-report measures of stressful events are virtually useless, (c) anything is better than self-report illness measures, and (d) frustration stimulated the development of models of resistance to illness. Schroeder and Costa's concern that subjective and physical status items may be present on stress measures appears exaggerated given current research approaches, and their concern about the role of neuroticism is unclear. By using two different samples and two different sets of stress items, our study provides evidence that items uncontaminated by subjectivism, physical status, and neuroticism do indeed correlate with concurrent and prospective illness. These results are at variance with the findings of Schroeder and Costa and are discussed in terms of underlying assumptions about measurement common in psychology that bear reconsideration. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)