Optimising visual solutions for complex strategic scenarios : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology at Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand

dc.contributor.authorHuggins, Thomas Jack
dc.date.accessioned2017-10-04T22:42:20Z
dc.date.available2017-10-04T22:42:20Z
dc.date.issued2015
dc.description.abstractAttempts to pre-emptively improve post-disaster outcomes need to reflect an improved understanding of cognitive adaptations made by collaborating researchers and practitioners. This research explored the use of visual logic models to enhance the quality of decisions being made by these professionals. The research looked at the way visual representations serve to enhance these decisions, as part of cognitive adaptations to considering the complexity of relevant pre-disaster conditions constituting community resilience. It was proposed that a visual logic model display, using boxes and arrows to display linkages between activities and downstream objectives, could support effective, efficient and responsive approaches to relevant community resilience interventions being carried out in a pre-disaster context. The first of three phases comprising this thesis used Q-methodology to identify patterns of opinions concerning building a shared framework of pre-disaster, community resilience indicators for this purpose. Three patterns identified helped to assess the needs for applied research undertaken in phase two. The second phase of this thesis entailed building an action-focused logic model to enhance associated collaborations between emergency management practitioners and researchers. An analysis of participant interviews determined that the process used to build this logic model served as a catalyst for research which could help improve community resilience interventions. The third phase used an experimental approach to different display formats produced during phase two to test whether a visual logic model display stimulated a higher quality of decisions, compared with a more conventional, text-based chart of key performance indicators. Results supported the use of similar methods for much larger scale research to assess how information displays support emergency management decisions with wide-ranging, longer-term implications. Overall, results from these three phases indicate that certain logic model formats can help foster collaborative efforts to improve characteristics of community resilience against disasters. This appears to occur when a logic model forms an integrated component of efficient cognitive dynamics across a network of decision making agents. This understanding of logic model function highlights clear opportunities for further research. It also represents a novel contribution to knowledge about using logic models to support emergency management decisions with complex, long term implications.en_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10179/12133
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.publisherMassey Universityen_US
dc.rightsThe Authoren_US
dc.subjectEmergency managementen_US
dc.subjectPsychological aspectsen_US
dc.subjectAdaptability (Psychology)en_US
dc.subjectCommunity psychologyen_US
dc.subjectResearch Subject Categories::SOCIAL SCIENCES::Social sciences::Psychologyen_US
dc.titleOptimising visual solutions for complex strategic scenarios : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology at Massey University, Wellington, New Zealanden_US
dc.typeThesisen_US
massey.contributor.authorHuggins, Tom
thesis.degree.disciplinePsychologyen_US
thesis.degree.grantorMassey Universityen_US
thesis.degree.levelDoctoralen_US
thesis.degree.nameDoctor of Philosophy (PhD)en_US
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