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This article summarizes activity theory as advanced by Finnish organizational analyst Yrjo Engestrom, with particular attention paid to antecedents of activity theory in the work of Vygotsky, Leontyev, Luria, and others identified with the Soviet sociohistorical approach to psychology. Activity theory is illustrated through a retrospective analysis of activity systems operating in events leading up to the Challenger shuttle catastrophe, comparing the approach to the theory of 'normal accidents' advanced by Perrow. Implications for the study of organizations and organizational actors, as well as issues related to use of activity theory to conduct retrospective analyses (as against its use as an intervention strategy) are discussed.

When comparing alternative courses of action, modern military decision makers often must consider both the military effectiveness and the ethical consequences of the available alternatives. The basis, design, calibration, and performance of a principles-based computational model of ethical considerations in military decision making are reported in this article. The relative ethical violation (REV) model comparatively evaluates alternative military actions based upon the degree to which they violate contextually relevant ethical principles. It is based on a set of specific ethical principles deemed by philosophers and ethicists to be relevant to military courses of action. A survey of expert and non-expert human decision makers regarding the relative ethical violation of alternative actions for a set of specially designed calibration scenarios was conducted to collect data that was used to calibrate the REV model. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the survey showed that people, even experts, disagreed greatly amongst themselves regarding the scenarios’ ethical considerations. Despite this disagreement, two significant results emerged. First, after calibration the REV model performed very well in terms of replicating the ethical assessments of human experts for the calibration scenarios. The REV model outperformed an earlier model that was based on tangible consequences rather than ethical principles, that earlier model performed comparably to human experts, the experts outperformed human non-experts, and the non-experts outperformed random selection of actions. All of these performance comparisons were measured quantitatively and confirmed with suitable statistical tests. Second, although humans tended to value some principles over others, none of the ethical principles involved—even the principle of not harming civilians—completely overshadowed all of the other principles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Laboratory studies of the funnel-web spider Agelenopsis aperta were conducted to determine the action patterns displayed by males and females during courtship, and to identify the elements of courtship associated with subsequent acceptance by the female. When placed on a female's web, a male usually went through a courtship sequence that included lateral swaying of his abdomen and flexing the web with his walking legs. These displays were punctuated with rest periods of varying duration. In all successful matings, females entered a cataleptic state in which they collapsed and appeared unconscious. In some courtships, males began mating with the female immediately after inducing catalepsis. But in most successful courtships (79%) males abandoned the cataleptic female and resumed the courtship sequence. Successful males were more active than unsuccessful males during the early stages of courtship. Successful males also tended to sway their abdomens with higher frequency than unsuccessful males during the courtship dance. We hypothesize that females are selecting males on the basis of vibratory performance during courtship, but that other factors, including chemical communication, may also play a role in mate selection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]