Ability Grouping in Social Studies.

Science.gov (United States)

Social Education, 1992

1992-01-01

Presents a position statement of the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS). Reports that the NCSS objects to ability grouping in social studies. Argues that ability grouping disadvantages minority, handicapped, and low ability students. Suggests that ability grouping undermines the democratic ideals that should be the basis of the social…

Social group and mobbing

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Baltezarević Vesna

2009-01-01

Full Text Available Our reality, having been subject to the numerous social crises during the last decades of the 20th century, is characterized by frequent incidences of powerlessness and alienation. The man is more frequently a subject to loneliness and overcomes the feeling of worthlessness, no matter whether he considers himself an individual or a part of a whole larger social. Such an environment leads to development of aggression in all fields of ones life. This paper has as an objective the pointing out of the mental harassment that is manifested in the working environment. There is a prevalence of mobbing cases, as a mode of pathological communication. The result of this is that a person, subjected to this kind of abuse, is soon faced with social isolation. This research also aspires to initiate the need for social groups self-organization of which victims are part of. The reaction modality of a social group directly conditions the outcome of the deliberate social drama, one is subjected to it as a result of mobbing.

Group size and social conflict in complex societies.

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Shen, Sheng-Feng; Akçay, Erol; Rubenstein, Dustin R

2014-02-01

Conflicts of interest over resources or reproduction among individuals in a social group have long been considered to result in automatic and universal costs to group living. However, exploring how social conflict varies with group size has produced mixed empirical results. Here we develop a model that generates alternative predictions for how social conflict should vary with group size depending on the type of benefits gained from being in a social group. We show that a positive relationship between social conflict and group size is favored when groups form primarily for the benefits of sociality but not when groups form mainly for accessing group-defended resources. Thus, increased social conflict in animal societies should not be viewed as an automatic cost of larger social groups. Instead, studying the relationship between social conflict and the types of grouping benefits will be crucial for understanding the evolution of complex societies.

Older adolescents' motivations for social network site use: the influence of gender, group identity, and collective self-esteem.

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Barker, Valerie

2009-04-01

This study assessed motives for social network site (SNS) use, group belonging, collective self-esteem, and gender effects among older adolescents. Communication with peer group members was the most important motivation for SNS use. Participants high in positive collective self-esteem were strongly motivated to communicate with peer group via SNS. Females were more likely to report high positive collective self-esteem, greater overall use, and SNS use to communicate with peers. Females also posted higher means for group-in-self, passing time, and entertainment. Negative collective self-esteem correlated with social compensation, suggesting that those who felt negatively about their social group used SNS as an alternative to communicating with other group members. Males were more likely than females to report negative collective self-esteem and SNS use for social compensation and social identity gratifications.

Paranoid individuals with schizophrenia show greater social cognitive bias and worse social functioning than non-paranoid individuals with schizophrenia

OpenAIRE

Amy E. Pinkham; Philip D. Harvey; David L. Penn

2016-01-01

Paranoia is a common symptom of schizophrenia that may be related to how individuals process and respond to social stimuli. Previous investigations support a link between increased paranoia and greater social cognitive impairments, but these studies have been limited to single domains of social cognition, and no studies have examined how paranoia may influence functional outcome. Data from 147 individuals with schizophrenia were used to examine whether actively paranoid and non-paranoid indiv...

Effects of a music therapy group intervention on enhancing social skills in children with autism.

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LaGasse, A Blythe

2014-01-01

Research indicates that music therapy can improve social behaviors and joint attention in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD); however, more research on the use of music therapy interventions for social skills is needed to determine the impact of group music therapy. To examine the effects of a music therapy group intervention on eye gaze, joint attention, and communication in children with ASD. Seventeen children, ages 6 to 9, with a diagnosis of ASD were randomly assigned to the music therapy group (MTG) or the no-music social skills group (SSG). Children participated in ten 50-minute group sessions over a period of 5 weeks. All group sessions were designed to target social skills. The Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS), the Autism Treatment Evaluation Checklist (ATEC), and video analysis of sessions were used to evaluate changes in social behavior. There were significant between-group differences for joint attention with peers and eye gaze towards persons, with participants in the MTG demonstrating greater gains. There were no significant between-group differences for initiation of communication, response to communication, or social withdraw/behaviors. There was a significant interaction between time and group for SRS scores, with improvements for the MTG but not the SSG. Scores on the ATEC did not differ over time between the MTG and SSG. The results of this study support further research on the use of music therapy group interventions for social skills in children with ASD. Statistical results demonstrate initial support for the use of music therapy social groups to develop joint attention. © the American Music Therapy Association 2014. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Social group utility maximization

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Gong, Xiaowen; Yang, Lei; Zhang, Junshan

2014-01-01

This SpringerBrief explains how to leverage mobile users' social relationships to improve the interactions of mobile devices in mobile networks. It develops a social group utility maximization (SGUM) framework that captures diverse social ties of mobile users and diverse physical coupling of mobile devices. Key topics include random access control, power control, spectrum access, and location privacy.This brief also investigates SGUM-based power control game and random access control game, for which it establishes the socially-aware Nash equilibrium (SNE). It then examines the critical SGUM-b

Spatial associations between social groups and ozone air pollution exposure in the Beijing urban area.

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Zhao, Xinyi; Cheng, Hongguang; He, Siyuan; Cui, Xiangfen; Pu, Xiao; Lu, Lu

2018-07-01

Few studies have linked social factors to air pollution exposure in China. Unlike the race or minority concepts in western countries, the Hukou system (residential registration system) is a fundamental reason for the existence of social deprivation in China. To assess the differences in ozone (O 3 ) exposure among social groups, especially groups divided by Hukou status, we assigned estimates of O 3 exposure to the latest census data of the Beijing urban area using a kriging interpolation model. We developed simultaneous autoregressive (SAR) models that account for spatial autocorrelation to identify the associations between O 3 exposure and social factors. Principal component regression was used to control the multicollinearity bias as well as explore the spatial structure of the social data. The census tracts (CTs) with higher proportions of persons living alone and migrants with non-local Hukou were characterized by greater exposure to ambient O 3 . The areas with greater proportions of seniors had lower O 3 exposure. The spatial distribution patterns were similar among variables including migrants, agricultural population and household separation (population status with separation between Hukou and actual residences), which fit the demographic characteristics of the majority of migrants. Migrants bore a double burden of social deprivation and O 3 pollution exposure due to city development planning and the Hukou system. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Personality, Parasites, Political Attitudes, and Cooperation: A Model of How Infection Prevalence Influences Openness and Social Group Formation.

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Brown, Gordon D A; Fincher, Corey L; Walasek, Lukasz

2016-01-01

What is the origin of individual differences in ideology and personality? According to the parasite stress hypothesis, the structure of a society and the values of individuals within it are both influenced by the prevalence of infectious disease within the society's geographical region. High levels of infection threat are associated with more ethnocentric and collectivist social structures and greater adherence to social norms, as well as with socially conservative political ideology and less open but more conscientious personalities. Here we use an agent-based model to explore a specific opportunities-parasites trade-off (OPTO) hypothesis, according to which utility-maximizing agents place themselves at an optimal point on a trade-off between (a) the gains that may be achieved through accessing the resources of geographically or socially distant out-group members through openness to out-group interaction, and (b) the losses arising due to consequently increased risks of exotic infection to which immunity has not been developed. We examine the evolution of cooperation and the formation of social groups within social networks, and we show that the groups that spontaneously form exhibit greater local rather than global cooperative networks when levels of infection are high. It is suggested that the OPTO model offers a first step toward understanding the specific mechanisms through which environmental conditions may influence cognition, ideology, personality, and social organization. Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Topics in Cognitive Science published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of Cognitive Science Society.

Group Freedom : A Social Mechanism Account

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hindriks, Frank

2017-01-01

Many existing defenses of group rights seem to rely on the notion of group freedom. To date, however, no adequate analysis of this notion has been offered. Group freedom is best understood in terms of processes of social categorization that are embedded in social mechanisms. Such processes often

Social Identity and Group Contests

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Zaunbrecher, Henrik; Riedl, Arno

2016-01-01

Social identity has been shown to successfully enhance cooperation and effort in cooperation and coordination games. Little is known about the causal effect of social identity on the propensity to engage in group conflict. In this paper we explore theoretically and experimentally whether social

Small group experience for socially withdrawn girls.

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Houck, Gail M; Stember, Lisa

2002-08-01

Social competence is the effectiveness of social interaction behavior. Given its link to mental health outcomes, it is an important consideration in child and adolescent development. Social withdrawal is associated with depression. Socially withdrawn children make few social initiations and tend to be isolated in their play, further limiting their social involvement. To develop effective social behavior, experiences must be provided to learn relationship skills. This practice improvement project provided a small group experience for five socially withdrawn school-age girls. Weekly group meetings provided a social situation in which conversations could occur around a shared snack and craft project. The school nurse facilitated self-assertion and the expression of prosocial behavior in a socially safe (nonrejecting) environment and promoted social problem solving. On completion of the program, the participants not only showed more effective social reasoning and social skills, but developed friendships with each other that lasted beyond the life of the group.

Social group dynamics predict stress variability among children in a New Zealand classroom.

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Spray, Julie; Floyd, Bruce; Littleton, Judith; Trnka, Susanna; Mattison, Siobhan

2018-03-27

Previous research proposes stress as a mechanism for linking social environments and biological bodies. In particular, non-human primate studies investigate relationships between cortisol as a measure of stress response and social hierarchies. Because human social structures often include hierarchies of dominance and social status, humans may exhibit similar patterns. Studies of non-human primates, however, have not reached consistent conclusions with respect to relationships between social position and levels of cortisol. While human studies report associations between cortisol and various aspects of social environments, studies that consider social status as a predictor of stress response also report mixed results. Others have argued that perceptions of social status may have different implications for stress response depending upon social context. We propose here that characteristics of children's social networks may be a better predictor of central tendencies and variability of stress response than their perceptions of social status. This is evaluated among 24 children from 9.4 to 11.3 years of age in one upper middle-class New Zealand primary school classroom, assessed through observation within the classroom, self-reports during semi-structured interviews and 221 serial saliva samples provided daily over 10 consecutive school days. A synthetic assessment of the children's networks and peer-relationships was developed prior to saliva-cortisol analysis. We found that greater stability of peer-relationships within groups significantly predicts lower within-group variation in mid-morning cortisol over the two-week period, but not overall within-group differences in mean cortisol. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.

Group Effects on Individual Attitudes Toward Social Responsibility.

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Secchi, Davide; Bui, Hong T M

2018-01-01

This study uses a quasi-experimental design to investigate what happens to individual socially responsible attitudes when they are exposed to group dynamics. Findings show that group engagement increases individual attitudes toward social responsibility. We also found that individuals with low attitudes toward social responsibility are more likely to change their opinions when group members show more positive attitudes toward social responsibility. Conversely, individuals with high attitudes do not change much, independent of group characteristics. To better analyze the effect of group dynamics, the study proposes to split social responsibility into relative and absolute components. Findings show that relative social responsibility is correlated with but different from absolute social responsibility although the latter is more susceptible than the former to group dynamics.

Social vulnerability to heat in Greater Atlanta, USA: spatial pattern of heat, NDVI, socioeconomics and household composition

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Sim, Sunhui

2017-10-01

The purpose of the article is evaluating spatial patterns of social vulnerability to heat in Greater Atlanta in 2015. The social vulnerability to heat is an index of socioeconomic status, household composition, land surface temperature and normalized differential vegetation index (NDVI). Land surface temperature and NDVI were derived from the red, NIR and thermal infrared (TIR) of a Landsat OLI/TIRS images collected on September 14, 2015. The research focus is on the variation of heat vulnerability in Greater Atlanta. The study found that heat vulnerability is highly clustered spatially, resulting in "hot spots" and "cool spots". The results show significant health disparities. The hotspots of social vulnerability to heat occurred in neighborhoods with lower socioeconomic status as measured by low education, low income and more poverty, greater proportion of elderly people and young children. The findings of this study are important for identifying clusters of heat vulnerability and the relationships with social factors. These significant results provide a basis for heat intervention services.

Stereotypes of Norwegian social groups.

Science.gov (United States)

Bye, Hege H; Herrebrøden, Henrik; Hjetland, Gunnhild J; Røyset, Guro Ø; Westby, Linda L

2014-10-01

We present a pilot study and two main studies that address the nature of stereotypes of social groups in Norway within the framework of the Stereotype Content Model (SCM). The first study focused on stereotypes of a wide range of groups across categories such as gender, age, religious conviction, socioeconomic and health status. The second study focused on stereotypes of immigrant groups. Participants (n = 244 and n = 63, respectively) rated the groups on perceived warmth, competence, status, and competition. Results from both studies support the applicability of the SCM in Norway and provides a unique insight into stereotypes of Norwegian social groups. © 2014 The Authors. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology published by Scandinavian Psychological Associations and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

The Development of In-Group Favoritism : Between Social Reality and Group Identity

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Verkuyten, Maykel; Wolf, Angela de

2007-01-01

This study examined how social reality restricts children’s tendency for in-group favoritism in group evaluations. Children were faced with social reality considerations and with group identity concerns. Using short stories, in this experimental study, conducted among 3 age groups (6-, 8-, and

Discrete hierarchical organization of social group sizes.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhou, W-X; Sornette, D; Hill, R A; Dunbar, R I M

2005-02-22

The 'social brain hypothesis' for the evolution of large brains in primates has led to evidence for the coevolution of neocortical size and social group sizes, suggesting that there is a cognitive constraint on group size that depends, in some way, on the volume of neural material available for processing and synthesizing information on social relationships. More recently, work on both human and non-human primates has suggested that social groups are often hierarchically structured. We combine data on human grouping patterns in a comprehensive and systematic study. Using fractal analysis, we identify, with high statistical confidence, a discrete hierarchy of group sizes with a preferred scaling ratio close to three: rather than a single or a continuous spectrum of group sizes, humans spontaneously form groups of preferred sizes organized in a geometrical series approximating 3-5, 9-15, 30-45, etc. Such discrete scale invariance could be related to that identified in signatures of herding behaviour in financial markets and might reflect a hierarchical processing of social nearness by human brains.

Determining sociability, social space, and social presence in (a)synchronous collaborative groups.

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Kreijns, Karel; Kirschner, Paul A; Jochems, Wim; Van Buuren, Hans

2004-04-01

The effectiveness of group learning in asynchronous distributed learning groups depends on the social interaction that takes place. This social interaction affects both cognitive and socioemotional processes that take place during learning, group forming, establishment of group structures, and group dynamics. Though now known to be important, this aspect is often ignored, denied or forgotten by educators and researchers who tend to concentrate on cognitive processes and on-task contexts. This "one-sided" educational focus largely determines the set of requirements in the design of computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) environments resulting in functional CSCL environments. In contrast, our research is aimed at the design and implementation of sociable CSCL environments which may increase the likelihood that a sound social space will emerge. We use a theoretical framework that is based upon an ecological approach to social interaction, centering on the concept of social affordances, the concept of the sociability of CSCL environments, and social presence theory. The hypothesis is that the higher the sociability, the more likely that social interaction will take place or will increase, and the more likely that this will result in an emerging sound social space. In the present research, the variables of interest are sociability, social space, and social presence. This study deals with the construction and validation of three instruments to determine sociability, social space, and social presence in (a)synchronous collaborating groups. The findings suggest that the instruments have potential to be useful as measures for the respective variables. However, it must be realized that these measures are "first steps."

Determining sociability, social space, and social presence in (a)synchronous collaborating groups

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kreijns, C.J.; Kirschner, P.A.; Jochems, W.M.G.; Buuren, van H.

2004-01-01

The effectiveness of group learning in asynchronous distributed learning groups depends on the social interaction that takes place. This social interaction affects both cognitive and socioemotional processes that take place during learning, group forming, establishment of group structures, and group

Determining sociability, social space, and social presence in (A)synchronous collaborative groups

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kreijns, K.; Kirschner, P.A.; Jochems, W.; Buuren, H. van

2004-01-01

The effectiveness of group learning in asynchronous distributed learning groups depends on the social interaction that takes place. This social interaction affects both cognitive and socioemotional processes that take place during learning, group forming, establishment of group structures, and group

Affective expressions in groups and inferences about members' relational well-being: The effects of socially engaging and disengaging emotions.

Science.gov (United States)

Rothman, Naomi B; Magee, Joe C

2016-01-01

Our findings draw attention to the interpersonal communication function of a relatively unexplored dimension of emotions-the level of social engagement versus disengagement. In four experiments, regardless of valence and target group gender, observers infer greater relational well-being (more cohesiveness and less conflict) between group members from socially engaging (sadness and appreciation) versus disengaging (anger and pride) emotion expressions. Supporting our argument that social (dis)engagement is a critical dimension communicated by these emotions, we demonstrate (1) that inferences about group members' self-interest mediate the effect of socially engaging emotions on cohesiveness and (2) that the influence of socially disengaging emotion expressions on inferences of conflict is attenuated when groups have collectivistic norms (i.e., members value a high level of social engagement). Furthermore, we show an important downstream consequence of these inferences of relational well-being: Groups that seem less cohesive because of their members' proud (versus appreciative) expressions are also expected to have worse task performance.

A Neural Marker for Social Bias Toward In-group Accents.

Science.gov (United States)

Bestelmeyer, Patricia E G; Belin, Pascal; Ladd, D Robert

2015-10-01

Accents provide information about the speaker's geographical, socio-economic, and ethnic background. Research in applied psychology and sociolinguistics suggests that we generally prefer our own accent to other varieties of our native language and attribute more positive traits to it. Despite the widespread influence of accents on social interactions, educational and work settings the neural underpinnings of this social bias toward our own accent and, what may drive this bias, are unexplored. We measured brain activity while participants from two different geographical backgrounds listened passively to 3 English accent types embedded in an adaptation design. Cerebral activity in several regions, including bilateral amygdalae, revealed a significant interaction between the participants' own accent and the accent they listened to: while repetition of own accents elicited an enhanced neural response, repetition of the other group's accent resulted in reduced responses classically associated with adaptation. Our findings suggest that increased social relevance of, or greater emotional sensitivity to in-group accents, may underlie the own-accent bias. Our results provide a neural marker for the bias associated with accents, and show, for the first time, that the neural response to speech is partly shaped by the geographical background of the listener. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press.

A Systematic Review of Group Social Skills Interventions, and Meta-analysis of Outcomes, for Children with High Functioning ASD.

Science.gov (United States)

Wolstencroft, J; Robinson, L; Srinivasan, R; Kerry, E; Mandy, W; Skuse, D

2018-07-01

Group social skills interventions (GSSIs) are a commonly offered treatment for children with high functioning ASD. We critically evaluated GSSI randomised controlled trials for those aged 6-25 years. Our meta-analysis of outcomes emphasised internal validity, thus was restricted to trials that used the parent-report social responsiveness scale (SRS) or the social skills rating system (SSRS). Large positive effect sizes were found for the SRS total score, plus the social communication and restricted interests and repetitive behaviours subscales. The SSRS social skills subscale improved with moderate effect size. Moderator analysis of the SRS showed that GSSIs that include parent-groups, and are of greater duration or intensity, obtained larger effect sizes. We recommend future trials distinguish gains in children's social knowledge from social performance.

Social Maturation: Work Group Proceedings.

Science.gov (United States)

Resnick, Michael D.; And Others

1985-01-01

Each of the seven factors that affect adolescent social development is presented together with a description of potentially important research, service, and policy initiatives within each topic area. The factors are self-esteem, peer group, parenting, family, services, enforced dependency, and positive sexual socialization. (CT)

Group Modeling in Social Learning Environments

Science.gov (United States)

Stankov, Slavomir; Glavinic, Vlado; Krpan, Divna

2012-01-01

Students' collaboration while learning could provide better learning environments. Collaboration assumes social interactions which occur in student groups. Social theories emphasize positive influence of such interactions on learning. In order to create an appropriate learning environment that enables social interactions, it is important to…

Sharing a Personal Trainer: Personal and Social Benefits of Individualized, Small-Group Training.

Science.gov (United States)

Wayment, Heidi A; McDonald, Rachael L

2017-11-01

Wayment, HA and McDonald, RL. Sharing a personal trainer: personal and social benefits of individualized, small-group training. J Strength Cond Res 31(11): 3137-3145, 2017-We examined a novel personal fitness training program that combines personal training principles in a small-group training environment. In a typical training session, exercisers warm-up together but receive individualized training for 50 minutes with 1-5 other adults who range in age, exercise experience, and goals for participation. Study participants were 98 regularly exercising adult members of a fitness studio in the southwestern United States (64 women and 32 men), aged 19-78 years (mean, 46.52 years; SD = 14.15). Average membership time was 2 years (range, 1-75 months; mean, 23.54 months; SD = 20.10). In collaboration with the program directors, we developed a scale to assess satisfaction with key features of this unique training program. Participants completed an online survey in Fall 2015. Hypotheses were tested with a serial mediator model (model 6) using the SPSS PROCESS module. In support of the basic tenets of self-determination theory, satisfaction with small-group, individualized training supported basic psychological needs, which in turn were associated with greater autonomous exercise motivation and life satisfaction. Satisfaction with this unique training method was also associated with greater exercise self-efficacy. Autonomous exercise motivation was associated with both exercise self-efficacy and greater self-reported health and energy. Discussion focuses on why exercise programs that foster a sense of social belonging (in addition to motivation and efficacy) may be helpful for successful adherence to an exercise program.

Enhancing Social Communication Between Groups

NARCIS (Netherlands)

T. Stevens; P. Hughes (Peter); D. Williams; I. Craigie; I. Kegel; P.S. Cesar Garcia (Pablo Santiago); A.J. Jansen (Jack); M.F. Usrsu; M. Frantzis; N. Farber; M. Lutzky; S. Vogel

2010-01-01

htmlabstractThis paper describes a prototype software platform that supports advanced communications services, specifically services enabling effective group-to-group communications with a social purpose, between remote homes. The architecture, the individual components, their interfaces, and the

The Effects of Minimal Group Membership on Young Preschoolers’ Social Preferences, Estimates of Similarity, and Behavioral Attribution

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nadja Richter

2016-07-01

Full Text Available We investigate young children’s sensitivity to minimal group membership. Previous research has suggested that children do not show sensitivity to minimal cues to group membership until the age of five to six, contributing to claims that this is an important transition in the development of intergroup cognition and behavior. In this study, we investigated whether even younger children are sensitive to minimal cues to group membership. Random assignment to one of either of two color groups created a temporary, visually salient minimal group membership in 3 and 4-year-old study participants. Using explicit measures, we tested whether children preferred minimal group members when making social judgments. We find that, in the absence of any knowledge regarding the two groups, children expressed greater liking for ingroup than outgroup targets. Moreover, children estimated that ingroup members would share their preferences. Our findings demonstrate that from early in development, humans assess unknown others on the basis of minimal cues to social similarity and that the perception of group boundaries potentially underlies social assortment in strangers.

"Build Your Social Confidence": A Social Anxiety Group for College Students

Science.gov (United States)

Damer, Diana E.; Latimer, Kelsey M.; Porter, Sarah H.

2010-01-01

Social anxiety, a common concern among college students, carries significant negative consequences. Group therapy is an efficient and cost-effective way to provide treatment, and cognitive-behavioral group therapy (CBGT; Heimberg & Becker, 2002) is the most widely researched and empirically supported treatment for persons with social anxiety…

Groups 4 Health: Evidence that a social-identity intervention that builds and strengthens social group membership improves mental health.

Science.gov (United States)

Haslam, Catherine; Cruwys, Tegan; Haslam, S Alexander; Dingle, Genevieve; Chang, Melissa Xue-Ling

2016-04-01

Social isolation and disconnection have profound negative effects on mental health, but there are few, if any, theoretically-derived interventions that directly target this problem. We evaluate a new intervention, Groups 4 Health (G4H), a manualized 5-module psychological intervention that targets the development and maintenance of social group relationships to treat psychological distress arising from social isolation. G4H was tested using a non-randomized control design. The program was delivered to young adults presenting with social isolation and affective disturbance. Primary outcome measures assessed mental health (depression, general anxiety, social anxiety, and stress), well-being (life satisfaction, self-esteem) and social connectedness (loneliness, social functioning). Our secondary goal was to assess whether mechanisms of social identification were responsible for changes in outcomes. G4H was found to significantly improve mental health, well-being, and social connectedness on all measures, both on program completion and 6-month follow-up. In line with social identity theorizing, analysis also showed that improvements in depression, anxiety, stress, loneliness, and life satisfaction were underpinned by participants' increased identification both with their G4H group and with multiple groups. This study provides preliminary evidence of the potential value of G4H and its underlying mechanisms, but further examination is required in other populations to address issues of generalizability, and in randomized controlled trials to address its wider efficacy. Results of this pilot study confirm that G4H has the potential to reduce the negative health-related consequences of social disconnection. Future research will determine its utility in wider community contexts. Crown Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The impact of social media-based support groups on smoking relapse prevention in Saudi Arabia.

Science.gov (United States)

Onezi, Hamidi Al; Khalifa, Mohamed; El-Metwally, Ashraf; Househ, Mowafa

2018-06-01

Tobacco smoking remains a major preventable cause of mortality and morbidity across the globe. People who attempt to quit smoking often experience episodes of relapse before finally quitting. Understanding the part that social networking sites and social media can play in smoking cessation and prevention of relapse is important to aid the development of novel techniques to curb the smoking epidemic. This study investigated the use of extra-treatment provided outside of the formal healthcare setting, bolstered by online social support in order to prevent smoking relapse in Saudi Arabia. This cross-sectional study included 473 smokers taking part in smoking cessation intervention programs run by the Riyadh branch of King Abdul-Aziz Medical City and PURITY, a Saudi anti-smoking association. Only subjects who expressed an interest in quitting smoking, and those attempting to quit, were considered for inclusion. The sample was divided into three groups: subjects who subscribed to support groups on Twitter (n = 150), and WhatsApp (n = 150), and a control group of subjects who had not subscribed to any social media support groups (n = 173). A significant difference was found between the mean average numbers of people who quit smoking among the three groups, with social media support proving to be more effective than other traditional methods. Our findings imply that Twitter and WhatsApp users found it easier to quit smoking than those who did not take part in these social media groups. Social media provides a good platform to discuss smoking cessation treatment, and thus reduce smoking relapses. Our findings support the suggestion that more social media support groups should be developed to help people to effectively cease smoking after abstinence. Individuals who struggle to quit smoking should be encouraged to join support groups on their social media platform of choice to increase their likelihood of quitting. Future studies should assess the effectiveness

The effect of group attachment and social position on prosocial behavior. Evidence from lab-in-the-field experiments.

Science.gov (United States)

Baldassarri, Delia; Grossman, Guy

2013-01-01

Social life is regulated by norms of fairness that constrain selfish behavior. While a substantial body of scholarship on prosocial behavior has provided evidence of such norms, large inter- and intra-personal variation in prosocial behavior still needs to be explained. The article identifies two social-structural dimensions along which people's generosity varies systematically: group attachment and social position. We conducted lab-in-the-field experiments involving 2,597 members of producer organizations in rural Uganda. Using different variants of the dictator game, we demonstrate that group attachment positively affects prosocial behavior, and that this effect is not simply the by-product of the degree of proximity between individuals. Second, we show that occupying a formal position in an organization or community leads to greater generosity toward in-group members. Taken together, our findings show that prosocial behavior is not an invariant social trait; rather, it varies according to individuals' relative position in the social structure.

The effect of group attachment and social position on prosocial behavior. Evidence from lab-in-the-field experiments.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Delia Baldassarri

Full Text Available Social life is regulated by norms of fairness that constrain selfish behavior. While a substantial body of scholarship on prosocial behavior has provided evidence of such norms, large inter- and intra-personal variation in prosocial behavior still needs to be explained. The article identifies two social-structural dimensions along which people's generosity varies systematically: group attachment and social position. We conducted lab-in-the-field experiments involving 2,597 members of producer organizations in rural Uganda. Using different variants of the dictator game, we demonstrate that group attachment positively affects prosocial behavior, and that this effect is not simply the by-product of the degree of proximity between individuals. Second, we show that occupying a formal position in an organization or community leads to greater generosity toward in-group members. Taken together, our findings show that prosocial behavior is not an invariant social trait; rather, it varies according to individuals' relative position in the social structure.

Determining sociability, social space, and social presence in (A)synchronous collaborative groups

OpenAIRE

Kreijns, K.; Kirschner, P.A.; Jochems, W.; Buuren, H. van

2004-01-01

The effectiveness of group learning in asynchronous distributed learning groups depends on the social interaction that takes place. This social interaction affects both cognitive and socioemotional processes that take place during learning, group forming, establishment of group structures, and group dynamics. Though now known to be important, this aspect is often ignored, denied or forgotten by educators and researchers who tend to concentrate on cognitive processes and on-task contexts. This...

Social identity, social networks and recovery capital in emerging adulthood: A pilot study.

Science.gov (United States)

Mawson, E; Best, D; Beckwith, M; Dingle, G A; Lubman, D I

2015-11-11

It has been argued that recovery from substance dependence relies on a change in identity, with past research focused on 'personal identity'. This study assessed support for a social identity model of recovery in emerging adults through examining associations between social identity, social networks, recovery capital, and quality of life. Twenty participants aged 18-21 in residential treatment for substance misuse were recruited from four specialist youth drug treatment services - three detoxification facilities and one psychosocial rehabilitation facility in Victoria, Australia. Participants completed a detailed social network interview exploring the substance use of groups in their social networks and measures of quality of life, recovery capital, and social identity. Lower group substance use was associated with higher recovery capital, stronger identification with non-using groups, and greater importance of non-using groups in the social network. Additionally, greater identification with and importance of non-using groups were associated with better environmental quality of life, whereas greater importance conferred on using groups was associated with reduced environmental quality of life. Support was found for the role of social identity processes in reported recovery capital and quality of life. Future research in larger, longitudinal samples is required to improve understanding of social identity processes during treatment and early recovery and its relationship to recovery stability.

Parents, Peer Groups, and Other Socializing Influences.

Science.gov (United States)

Vandell, Deborah Lowe

2000-01-01

Critically examines three propositions of Harris' group socialization theory (1995, 1998) related to parents' long-term effects on children's psychological characteristics, peer groups' influences, and the nature of dyadic relationships. Maintains that available evidence is more consistent with a model of multiple socialization agents. Proposes a…

Effect of social group dynamics on contagion

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Zhao, Zhenyuan; Calderón, J. P.; Xu, Chen; Zhao, Guannan; Fenn, Dan; Sornette, Didier; Crane, Riley; Hui, Pak Ming; Johnson, Neil F.

2010-05-01

Despite the many works on contagion phenomena in both well-mixed systems and heterogeneous networks, there is still a lack of understanding of the intermediate regime where social group structures evolve on a similar time scale to individual-level transmission. We address this question by considering the process of transmission through a model population comprising social groups which follow simple dynamical rules for growth and breakup. Despite the simplicity of our model, the profiles produced bear a striking resemblance to a wide variety of real-world examples—in particular, empirical data that we have obtained for social (i.e., YouTube), financial (i.e., currency markets), and biological (i.e., colds in schools) systems. The observation of multiple resurgent peaks and abnormal decay times is qualitatively reproduced within the model simply by varying the time scales for group coalescence and fragmentation. We provide an approximate analytic treatment of the system and highlight a novel transition which arises as a result of the social group dynamics.

Preferences for group dominance track and mediate the effects of macro-level social inequality and violence across societies

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Kunst, Jonas R.; Sidanius, Jim; Thomsen, Lotte

2017-01-01

Whether and how societal structures shape individual psychology is a foundational question of the social sciences. Combining insights from evolutionary biology, economy, and the political and psychological sciences, we identify a central psychological process that functions to sustain group-based hierarchies in human societies. In study 1, we demonstrate that macrolevel structural inequality, impaired population outcomes, socio-political instability, and the risk of violence are reflected in the endorsement of group hegemony at the aggregate population level across 27 countries (n = 41,824): The greater the national inequality, the greater is the endorsement of between-group hierarchy within the population. Using multilevel analyses in study 2, we demonstrate that these psychological group-dominance motives mediate the effects of macrolevel functioning on individual-level attitudes and behaviors. Specifically, across 30 US states (n = 4,613), macrolevel inequality and violence were associated with greater individual-level support of group hegemony. Crucially, this individual-level support, rather than cultural-societal norms, was in turn uniquely associated with greater racism, sexism, welfare opposition, and even willingness to enforce group hegemony violently by participating in ethnic persecution of subordinate out-groups. These findings suggest that societal inequality is reflected in people’s minds as dominance motives that underpin ideologies and actions that ultimately sustain group-based hierarchy. PMID:28484013

Preferences for group dominance track and mediate the effects of macro-level social inequality and violence across societies.

Science.gov (United States)

Kunst, Jonas R; Fischer, Ronald; Sidanius, Jim; Thomsen, Lotte

2017-05-23

Whether and how societal structures shape individual psychology is a foundational question of the social sciences. Combining insights from evolutionary biology, economy, and the political and psychological sciences, we identify a central psychological process that functions to sustain group-based hierarchies in human societies. In study 1, we demonstrate that macrolevel structural inequality, impaired population outcomes, socio-political instability, and the risk of violence are reflected in the endorsement of group hegemony at the aggregate population level across 27 countries ( n = 41,824): The greater the national inequality, the greater is the endorsement of between-group hierarchy within the population. Using multilevel analyses in study 2, we demonstrate that these psychological group-dominance motives mediate the effects of macrolevel functioning on individual-level attitudes and behaviors. Specifically, across 30 US states ( n = 4,613), macrolevel inequality and violence were associated with greater individual-level support of group hegemony. Crucially, this individual-level support, rather than cultural-societal norms, was in turn uniquely associated with greater racism, sexism, welfare opposition, and even willingness to enforce group hegemony violently by participating in ethnic persecution of subordinate out-groups. These findings suggest that societal inequality is reflected in people's minds as dominance motives that underpin ideologies and actions that ultimately sustain group-based hierarchy.

Prefrontal recruitment during social rejection predicts greater subsequent self-regulatory imbalance and impairment: neural and longitudinal evidence.

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Chester, David S; DeWall, C Nathan

2014-11-01

Social rejection impairs self-regulation, yet the neural mechanisms underlying this relationship remain unknown. The right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (rVLPFC) facilitates self-regulation and plays a robust role in regulating the distress of social rejection. However, recruiting this region's inhibitory function during social rejection may come at a self-regulatory cost. As supported by prominent theories of self-regulation, we hypothesized that greater rVLPFC recruitment during rejection would predict a subsequent self-regulatory imbalance that favored reflexive impulses (i.e., cravings), which would then impair self-regulation. Supporting our hypotheses, rVLPFC activation during social rejection was associated with greater subsequent nucleus accumbens (NAcc) activation and lesser functional connectivity between the NAcc and rVLPFC to appetitive cues. Over seven days, the effect of daily felt rejection on daily self-regulatory impairment was exacerbated among participants who showed a stronger rVLPFC response to social rejection. This interactive effect was mirrored in the effect of daily felt rejection on heightened daily alcohol cravings. Our findings suggest that social rejection likely impairs self-regulation by recruiting the rVLPFC, which then tips the regulatory balance towards reward-based impulses. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Narrative-collaborative group coaching develops social capital

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Stelter, Reinhard; Nielsen, Glen; Wikman, Johan Michael

2011-01-01

The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of narrative-collaborative group coaching on career development, self-reflection and the general functioning of young sports talents with the goal of achieving integration of their sports careers, educational demands and private lives...... study included six participants. The group-coaching intervention had a significant effect on the scores for social recovery and general well-being. The qualitative study showed that groupcoaching participants valued the shared process of meaning-making as especially valuable. Narrative......-collaborative group coaching can be understood as a community psychological intervention that helps to support the development of durable social networks and the increase of social capital....

Empirical study on social groups in pedestrian evacuation dynamics

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von Krüchten, Cornelia; Schadschneider, Andreas

2017-06-01

Pedestrian crowds often include social groups, i.e. pedestrians that walk together because of social relationships. They show characteristic configurations and influence the dynamics of the entire crowd. In order to investigate the impact of social groups on evacuations we performed an empirical study with pupils. Several evacuation runs with groups of different sizes and different interactions were performed. New group parameters are introduced which allow to describe the dynamics of the groups and the configuration of the group members quantitatively. The analysis shows a possible decrease of evacuation times for large groups due to self-ordering effects. Social groups can be approximated as ellipses that orientate along their direction of motion. Furthermore, explicitly cooperative behaviour among group members leads to a stronger aggregation of group members and an intermittent way of evacuation.

Effect of Spatial-Dependent Utility on Social Group Domination

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Rodriguez, Nathaniel; Meyertholen, Andrew

2012-02-01

The mathematical modeling of social group competition has garnered much attention. We consider a model originated by Abrams and Strogatz [Nature 424, 900 (2003)] that predicts the extinction of one of two social groups. This model assigns a utility to each social group, which is constant over the entire society. We find by allowing this utility to vary over a society, through the introduction of a network or spatial dependence, this model may result in the coexistence of the two social groups.

Group colocation behavior in technological social networks.

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Chloë Brown

Full Text Available We analyze two large datasets from technological networks with location and social data: user location records from an online location-based social networking service, and anonymized telecommunications data from a European cellphone operator, in order to investigate the differences between individual and group behavior with respect to physical location. We discover agreements between the two datasets: firstly, that individuals are more likely to meet with one friend at a place they have not visited before, but tend to meet at familiar locations when with a larger group. We also find that groups of individuals are more likely to meet at places that their other friends have visited, and that the type of a place strongly affects the propensity for groups to meet there. These differences between group and solo mobility has potential technological applications, for example, in venue recommendation in location-based social networks.

Group Recommendation Systems Based on External Social-Trust Networks

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Guang Fang

2018-01-01

Full Text Available With the development of social networks and online mobile communities, group recommendation systems support users’ interaction with similar interests or purposes with others. We often provide some advices to the close friends, such as listening to favorite music and sharing favorite dishes. However, users’ personalities have been ignored by the traditional group recommendation systems while the majority is satisfied. In this paper, a method of group recommendation based on external social-trust networks is proposed, which builds a group profile by analyzing not only users’ preferences, but also the social relationships between members inside and outside of the group. We employ the users’ degree of disagreement to adjust group preference rating by external information of social-trust network. Moreover, having a discussion about different social network utilization ratio, we proposed a method to work for smaller group size. The experimental results show that the proposed method has consistently higher precision and leads to satisfactory recommendations for groups.

Assessing Group Interaction with Social Language Network Analysis

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Scholand, Andrew J.; Tausczik, Yla R.; Pennebaker, James W.

In this paper we discuss a new methodology, social language network analysis (SLNA), that combines tools from social language processing and network analysis to assess socially situated working relationships within a group. Specifically, SLNA aims to identify and characterize the nature of working relationships by processing artifacts generated with computer-mediated communication systems, such as instant message texts or emails. Because social language processing is able to identify psychological, social, and emotional processes that individuals are not able to fully mask, social language network analysis can clarify and highlight complex interdependencies between group members, even when these relationships are latent or unrecognized.

Social management of laboratory rhesus macaques housed in large groups using a network approach: A review.

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McCowan, Brenda; Beisner, Brianne; Hannibal, Darcy

2017-12-07

power structure. We discuss how these three major pathways leading to greater understanding and predictability of deleterious aggression in macaque social groups. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Social Groups Prioritize Selective Attention to Faces: How Social Identity Shapes Distractor Interference.

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Gewnhi Park

Full Text Available Human faces automatically attract visual attention and this process appears to be guided by social group memberships. In two experiments, we examined how social groups guide selective attention toward in-group and out-group faces. Black and White participants detected a target letter among letter strings superimposed on faces (Experiment 1. White participants were less accurate on trials with racial out-group (Black compared to in-group (White distractor faces. Likewise, Black participants were less accurate on trials with racial out-group (White compared to in-group (Black distractor faces. However, this pattern of out-group bias was only evident under high perceptual load-when the task was visually difficult. To examine the malleability of this pattern of racial bias, a separate sample of participants were assigned to mixed-race minimal groups (Experiment 2. Participants assigned to groups were less accurate on trials with their minimal in-group members compared to minimal out-group distractor faces, regardless of race. Again, this pattern of out-group bias was only evident under high perceptual load. Taken together, these results suggest that social identity guides selective attention toward motivationally relevant social groups-shifting from out-group bias in the domain of race to in-group bias in the domain of minimal groups-when perceptual resources are scarce.

Theoretical Issues in Clinical Social Group Work.

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Randall, Elizabeth; Wodarski, John S.

1989-01-01

Reviews relevant issues in clinical social group practice including group versus individual treatment, group work advantages, approach rationale, group conditions for change, worker role in group, group composition, group practice technique and method, time as group work dimension, pretherapy training, group therapy precautions, and group work…

A Pilot Study Examining Physical and Social Warmth: Higher (Non-Febrile) Oral Temperature Is Associated with Greater Feelings of Social Connection.

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Inagaki, Tristen K; Irwin, Michael R; Moieni, Mona; Jevtic, Ivana; Eisenberger, Naomi I

2016-01-01

An emerging literature suggests that experiences of physical warmth contribute to social warmth-the experience of feeling connected to others. Thus, thermoregulatory systems, which help maintain our relatively warm internal body temperatures, may also support feelings of social connection. However, the association between internal body temperature and feelings of connection has not been examined. Furthermore, the origins of the link between physical and social warmth, via learning during early experiences with a caregiver or via innate, co-evolved mechanisms, remain unclear. The current study examined the relationship between oral temperature and feelings of social connection as well as whether early caregiver experiences moderated this relationship. Extending the existing literature, higher oral temperature readings were associated with greater feelings of social connection. Moreover, early caregiver experiences did not moderate this association, suggesting that the physical-social warmth overlap may not be altered by early social experience. Results provide additional support for the link between experiences of physical warmth and social warmth and add to existing theories that highlight social connection as a basic need on its own.

Social categorization of social robots: anthropomorphism as a function of robot group membership.

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Eyssel, Friederike; Kuchenbrandt, Dieta

2012-12-01

Previous work on social categorization has shown that people often use cues such as a person's gender, age, or ethnicity to categorize and form impressions of others. The present research investigated effects of social category membership on the evaluation of humanoid robots. More specifically, participants rated a humanoid robot that either belonged to their in-group or to a national out-group with regard to anthropomorphism (e.g., mind attribution, warmth), psychological closeness, contact intentions, and design. We predicted that participants would show an in-group bias towards the robot that ostensibly belonged to their in-group--as indicated by its name and location of production. In line with our hypotheses, participants not only rated the in-group robot more favourably--importantly, they also anthropomorphized it more strongly than the out-group robot. Our findings thus document that people even apply social categorization processes and subsequent differential social evaluations to robots. ©2011 The British Psychological Society.

Effects of Community-Based Collaborative Group Characteristics on Social Capital

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Wagner, Cheryl L.; Fernandez-Gimenez, Maria E.

2009-10-01

Recent research suggests that community-based collaboration may build social capital—defined as trust, norms of reciprocity, and networks. Social capital may improve a group’s ability to collaborate, manage risk, innovate, and adapt to change. We used mail surveys of group participants and key informant interviews to assess whether the following collaborative group characteristics affected social capital built within 10 collaborative groups in northwest Colorado: perceived success, conflict, activeness, stakeholder diversity, previous collaboration experience, similar values and beliefs, group size, group age, and initial social capital. Perceived success and initial levels of social capital were the strongest predictors of current levels of and changes in social capital over time. Collaboration experience negatively influenced current levels of trust. Our results suggest that collaborative groups may need to consider the outcomes of collaborative interactions in order to build social capital.

Group as social microcosm: Within-group interpersonal style is congruent with outside group relational tendencies.

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Goldberg, Simon B; Hoyt, William T

2015-06-01

The notion that individuals' interpersonal behaviors in the context of therapy reflects their interpersonal behaviors outside of therapy is a fundamental hypothesis underlying numerous systems of psychotherapy. The social microcosm hypothesis, in particular, claims the interpersonal therapy group becomes a reflection of group members' general tendencies, and can thus be used as information about members' interpersonal functioning as well as an opportunity for learning and behavior change. The current study tested this hypothesis using data drawn from 207 individuals participating in 22 interpersonal process groups. Ratings were made on 2 key interpersonal domains (Dominance and Affiliation) at baseline and at Weeks 2, 5, and 8 of the group. Two-level multilevel models (with participants nested within groups) were used to account for the hierarchical structure, and the social relations model (SRM; Kenny, 1994) was used to estimate peer ratings (target effects in SRM) unconfounded with rater bias. Participants showed consensus at all time points during the interpersonal process groups on one another's levels of dominance and affiliation. In addition, self- and peer ratings were stable across time and correlated with one another. Importantly, self-ratings made prior to group significantly predicted ratings (self- and peer) made within the group, with effect sizes within the medium range. Taken together, these results provide robust support for the social microcosm hypothesis and the conjecture that interpersonal style within-group therapy is reflective of broader interpersonal tendencies. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Trust and compactness in social network groups.

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De Meo, Pasquale; Ferrara, Emilio; Rosaci, Domenico; Sarné, Giuseppe M L

2015-02-01

Understanding the dynamics behind group formation and evolution in social networks is considered an instrumental milestone to better describe how individuals gather and form communities, how they enjoy and share the platform contents, how they are driven by their preferences/tastes, and how their behaviors are influenced by peers. In this context, the notion of compactness of a social group is particularly relevant. While the literature usually refers to compactness as a measure to merely determine how much members of a group are similar among each other, we argue that the mutual trustworthiness between the members should be considered as an important factor in defining such a term. In fact, trust has profound effects on the dynamics of group formation and their evolution: individuals are more likely to join with and stay in a group if they can trust other group members. In this paper, we propose a quantitative measure of group compactness that takes into account both the similarity and the trustworthiness among users, and we present an algorithm to optimize such a measure. We provide empirical results, obtained from the real social networks EPINIONS and CIAO, that compare our notion of compactness versus the traditional notion of user similarity, clearly proving the advantages of our approach.

Towards identifying Collaborative Learning groups using Social Media

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Selver Softic

2012-11-01

Full Text Available This work reports about the preliminary results and ongoing research based upon profiling collaborative learning groups of persons within the social micro-blogging platforms like Twitter that share potentially common interests on special topic. Hereby the focus is held on spontaneously initiated collaborative learning in Social Media and detection of collaborative learning groups based upon their communication dynamics. Research questions targeted to be answered are: are there any useful data mining algorithms to fulfill the task of pre-selection and clustering of users in social networks, how good do they perform, and what are the metrics that could be used for detection and evaluation in the realm of this task. Basic approach presented here uses as preamble hypothesis that users and their interests in Social Networks can be identified through content generated by them and content they consume. Special focus is held on topic oriented approach as least common bounding point. Those should be also the basic criteria used to detect and outline the learning groups. The aim of this work is to deliver first scientific pre-work for successfully implementation of recommender systems using social network metrics and content features of social network users for the purposes of better learning group communication and information consumption.

Social protection initiatives for Zimbabwe's vulnerable groups ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Saharan African region. ... especially for vulnerable groups. At independence in 1980, Zimbabwe pledged to promote a viable social protection system that would be predicated on the principles of social justice and equality of opportunity.

The impact of size of cooperative group on achievement, social support, and self-esteem.

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Bertucci, Andrea; Conte, Stella; Johnson, David W; Johnson, Roger T

2010-01-01

The effect of cooperative learning in pairs and groups of 4 and in individualistic learning were compared on achievement, social support, and self-esteem. Sixty-two Italian 7th-grade students with no previous experience with cooperative learning were assigned to conditions on a stratified random basis controlling for ability, gender, and self-esteem. Students participated in 1 instructional unit for 90 min for 6 instructional days during a period of about 6 weeks. The results indicate that cooperative learning in pairs and 4s promoted higher achievement and greater academic support from peers than did individualistic learning. Students working in pairs developed a higher level of social self-esteem than did students learning in the other conditions.

Social Class and Group Size as Predictors of Behavior in Male Equus kiang

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Prameek M. Kannan

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Ethograms provide a systematic approach to identify and quantify the repertoire of behaviors of an organism. This information may assist animal welfare in zoos, increase awareness of conservation needs, and help curb high-risk behaviors during human-wildlife conflict. Our primary objective was to utilize an equid ethogram to produce activity budgets for Equus kiang males, a social ungulate that is among the least-studied mammals worldwide, and unknown to the ethological literature. We recently reported the existence of three social classes of this species; Territorial males, Bachelor males and ‘Transient’ males. Therefore, our secondary objective was to compare activity budgets in each of these three groups. We found that kiang spent >70% of their time performing six behaviors: vigilance (34%, locomotion (24.2%, resting (14.2%, mixed foraging (12.5%, browsing (5.1%, and antagonism (1.1%. Over 2% of the total behavioral investment was spent on olfactory investigations (genital sniffing, sniffing proximity and flehmen. Eleven of the eighteen behaviors differed by class. Habitat selection differed strongly by each group, with Territorial males favoring mesic sites with greater vegetation abundance. Vigilance also differed according to habitat selection, but not group size. Animals in the xeric, least vegetation-rich area were far less vigilant than animals at more attractive sites. We found that the full repertoire of behaviors, and relative investments in each, differ according to social class. These findings are a reminder that researchers should make every effort to disambiguate social class among ungulates– and other taxa where behaviors are class-dependent.

Cognitive behavioural group treatment for social anxiety in schizophrenia.

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Kingsep, Patrick; Nathan, Paula; Castle, David

2003-09-01

Anxiety symptoms reported by individuals with schizophrenia have been traditionally seen as symptoms associated with the principal disorder and therefore not requiring special attention. The primary aim of this paper is to therapeutically target social anxiety symptoms in individuals with schizophrenia in order to determine the effectiveness of the cognitive behavioural group treatment model as an intervention for social anxiety in this participant group. Thirty-three individuals with schizophrenia and co-morbid social anxiety were allocated to a group-based cognitive behaviour (CBGT) intervention or waitlist control (WLC). Baseline, completion and follow-up ratings consist of measures of social anxiety: the Brief Social Phobia Scale (BSPS), Brief Fear of Negative Evaluation scale (BFNE) and the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (SIAS); measures of general psychopathology: the Calgary Depression Scale for Schizophrenia (CDSS) and Global Severity Index (GSI) from the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI); and the Quality of Life, Enjoyment and Satisfaction Questionnaire (QLESQ). Pre- and post-treatment measures were subjected to statistical evaluation. All outcome measures displayed statistical improvement in the intervention group compared with no change in the control group. These treatment gains were maintained at follow-up. CBGT for social anxiety in schizophrenia was demonstrated to be effective as an adjunctive treatment for this population.

Does prior psychotherapy experience affect the course of cognitive-behavioural group therapy for social anxiety disorder?

Science.gov (United States)

Delsignore, Aba

2008-08-01

To examine whether and how different patterns of psychotherapy history (no prior therapy, successful therapy experience, and unsuccessful therapy experience) affect the outcome of future treatment among patients undergoing cognitive-behavioural group therapy for social anxiety disorder. Fifty-seven patients with varying histories of psychotherapy participating in cognitive-behavioural group treatment for social anxiety disorder were included in the study. Symptom severity (including anxiety, depression, self-efficacy, and global symptom severity) was assessed at pre- and posttreatment. A therapist-rated measure of patient therapy engagement was included as a process variable. First-time therapy patients showed more favourable pretreatment variables and achieved greater benefit from group therapy. Among patients with unsuccessful therapy experience, substantial gains were attained by those who were able to actively engage in the therapy process. Patients rating previous therapies as successful could benefit the least and tended to stagnate. Possible explanations for group differences and clinical implications are discussed. Prior psychotherapy experience affects the course of cognitive-behavioural group therapy in patients with social phobias. While patients with negative therapy experience may need extensive support in being and remaining actively engaged, those rating previous therapies as successful should be assessed very carefully and may benefit from a major focus on relational aspects.

Classification of group behaviors in social media via social behavior grammars

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Levchuk, Georgiy; Getoor, Lise; Smith, Marc

2014-06-01

The increasing use of online collaboration and information sharing in the last decade has resulted in explosion of criminal and anti-social activities in online communities. Detection of such behaviors are of interest to commercial enterprises who want to guard themselves from cyber criminals, and the military intelligence analysts who desire to detect and counteract cyberwars waged by adversarial states and organizations. The most challenging behaviors to detect are those involving multiple individuals who share actions and roles in the hostile activities and individually appear benign. To detect these behaviors, the theories of group behaviors and interactions must be developed. In this paper we describe our exploration of the data from collaborative social platform to categorize the behaviors of multiple individuals. We applied graph matching algorithms to explore consistent social interactions. Our research led us to a conclusion that complex collaborative behaviors can be modeled and detected using a concept of group behavior grammars, in a manner analogous to natural language processing. These grammars capture constraints on how people take on roles in virtual environments, form groups, and interact over time, providing the building blocks for scalable and accurate multi-entity interaction analysis and social behavior hypothesis testing.

How does social comparison within a self-help group influence adjustment to chronic illness? A longitudinal study.

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Dibb, Bridget; Yardley, Lucy

2006-09-01

Despite the growing popularity of self-help groups for people with chronic illness, there has been surprisingly little research into how these may support adjustment to illness. This study investigated the role that social comparison, occurring within a self-help group, may play in adjustment to chronic illness. A model of adjustment based on control process theory and response shift theory was tested to determine whether social comparisons predicted adjustment after controlling for the catalyst for adjustment (disease severity) and antecedents (demographic and psychological factors). A sample of 301 people with Ménière's disease who were members of the Ménière's Society UK completed questionnaires at baseline and 10-month follow-up assessing adjustment, defined for this study as functional and goal-oriented quality of life. At baseline, they also completed measures of the predictor variables i.e. the antecedents (age, sex, living circumstances, duration of self-help group membership, self-esteem, optimism and perceived control over illness), the catalyst (severity of vertigo, tinnitus, hearing loss and fullness in the ear) and mechanisms of social comparison within the self-help group. The social comparison variables included the extent to which self-help group resources were used, and whether reading about other members' experiences induced positive or negative feelings. Cross-sectional results showed that positive social comparison was indeed associated with better adjustment after controlling for all the other baseline variables, while negative social comparison was associated with worse adjustment. However, greater levels of social comparison at baseline were associated with a deteriorating quality of life over the 10-month follow-up period. Alternative explanations for these findings are discussed.

Peer Group Socialization of Homophobic Attitudes and Behavior during Adolescence

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Poteat, V. Paul

2007-01-01

A social developmental framework was applied to test for the socialization of homophobic attitudes and behavior within adolescent peer groups (Grades 7-11; aged 12-17 years). Substantial similarity within and differences across groups were documented. Multilevel models identified a group socializing contextual effect, predicting homophobic…

Social problem solving and social performance after a group social skills intervention for childhood brain tumor survivors.

Science.gov (United States)

Schulte, Fiona; Vannatta, Kathryn; Barrera, Maru

2014-02-01

The aim of this study was to explore the ability of a group social skills intervention program for childhood brain tumor survivors to effect two steps of the social information processing model: social problem solving and social performance. Participants were 15 survivors (eight men and seven women) aged 7-15 years. The intervention consisted of eight 2-h weekly sessions focused on social skills including friendship making. Social problem solving, using hypothetical scenarios, was assessed during sessions 1 and 8. Social performance was observed during intervention sessions 1, 4, and 8. Compared with session 1, significant increases were found in social performance: frequency of maintaining eye contact and social conversations with peers over the course of the intervention. No significant changes in social problem solving were noted. This pilot study is the first to report improvements related to group social skills intervention at the level of observed social performance over the course of intervention. The lack of change in social problem solving suggests that survivors may possess the social knowledge required for social situations but have difficulty enacting social behaviors. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Trolling new media: violent extremist groups recruiting through social media

OpenAIRE

Chang, Mark D.

2015-01-01

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited With the advent and subsequent growth of several new media technologies, violent extremist groups have incorporated social media into recruiting strategies. How are violent extremist groups using social media for recruiting? This thesis explores several new media technologies—websites, blogs, social media, mobile phones, and online gaming—to determine if violent extremist groups rely on social media for recruiting. By comparing the com...

The Use of Skilled Strategies in Social Interactions by Groups High and Low in Self-Reported Social Skill

Science.gov (United States)

Channon, Shelley; Collins, Ruth; Swain, Eleanor; Young, Mary-Beth; Fitzpatrick, Sian

2012-01-01

Individuals high or low in self-reported social skill were recruited opportunistically. When presented with everyday social scenarios ending with an awkward request or offer, the high social skill participants more often used sophisticated strategies that showed greater consideration for all parties. By contrast, the low skill participants were…

Social Group Stories in the Media and Child Development.

Science.gov (United States)

Dill-Shackleford, Karen E; Ramasubramanian, Srividya; Behm-Morawitz, Elizabeth; Scharrer, Erica; Burgess, Melinda C R; Lemish, Dafna

2017-11-01

How do children and youth come to understand what it means to be a member of a particular race, gender, and other social groups? How do they come to hold beliefs about the groups that they do and do not belong to? Both news stories and fictional narratives that we are tuned into as a culture tell stories about what it means to be a member of a particular social group. In this review article, we relate the latest scientific knowledge on news and entertainment media representations of race, gender and other social categories and what they tell us about how these messages are taken in and processed by developing minds. We include research on identity development, social learning about members of other groups, and both positive and negative behavioral outcomes to cultural messages about race, gender, and other social categories. We offer recommendations for stakeholders to understand the role of the media in educating youth about race, gender and other social categories. Copyright © 2017 by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

A social comparison theory analysis of group composition and efficacy of cancer support group programs.

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Carmack Taylor, Cindy L; Kulik, James; Badr, Hoda; Smith, Murray; Basen-Engquist, Karen; Penedo, Frank; Gritz, Ellen R

2007-07-01

Group-based psychosocial programs provide an effective forum for improving mood and social support for cancer patients. Because some studies show more benefit for patients with initially high psychosocial distress, and little or no benefit for patients with initially low distress, support programs may better address patient needs by only including distressed patients. However, distressed patients may benefit particularly from the presence of nondistressed patients who model effective coping, an idea many researchers and extensions of social comparison theory support. We present a theoretical analysis, based on a social comparison perspective, of how group composition (heterogeneous group of distressed and nondistressed patients versus homogeneous group of distressed patients) may affect the efficacy of cancer support programs. We propose that a heterogeneous group allows distressed patients maximal opportunity for the various social comparison activities they are likely to prefer; a homogeneous group does not. Though the presence of nondistressed patients in a heterogeneous group potentially benefits distressed patients, the benefits for nondistressed patients are unclear. For nondistressed patients, heterogeneous groups may provide limited opportunities for preferred social comparison activity and may create the possibility for no benefit or even negative effects on quality of life. We also discuss ethical issues with enrolling nondistressed patients whose presence may help others, but whose likelihood of personal benefit is questionable.

[Asymmetric effect of in-group social values on identity with common-identity and common-bond in-groups].

Science.gov (United States)

Nakashima, Ken'ichiro; Isobe, Chikae; Toshihiko, Souma; Ura, Mitsuhiro

2013-06-01

Moderating effects of group type on the relationship between in-group social values and group identity were investigated. Previous research has indicated that values attached to the in-group, such as its status, privileges, and power, lead to increased group identity. However, these studies have not investigated the role of the type of in-groups on this effect. We conducted an experiment that manipulated the in-group type. In the common-identity type of in-group condition, formation of in- and out-groups on the basis of social categorization was established. In the common-bond type of in-group condition, interactions between the group members were conducted. Results indicated that in the former condition, the degree of in-group social values affected group identity; however, this effect was not found in the latter condition. These results suggest that social values of the in-group have an asymmetric effect on group identity, depending upon the in-group type as a common-identity or common-bond group.

Asymmetry within social groups: division of labour and intergroup competition.

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Barker, J L; Loope, K J; Reeve, H K

2016-03-01

Social animals vary in their ability to compete with group members over shared resources and also vary in their cooperative efforts to produce these resources. Competition among groups can promote within-group cooperation, but many existing models of intergroup cooperation do not explicitly account for observations that group members invest differentially in cooperation and that there are often within-group competitive or power asymmetries. We present a game theoretic model of intergroup competition that investigates how such asymmetries affect within-group cooperation. In this model, group members adopt one of two roles, with relative competitive efficiency and the number of individuals varying between roles. Players in each role make simultaneous, coevolving decisions. The model predicts that although intergroup competition increases cooperative contributions to group resources by both roles, contributions are predominantly from individuals in the less competitively efficient role, whereas individuals in the more competitively efficient role generally gain the larger share of these resources. When asymmetry in relative competitive efficiency is greater, a group's per capita cooperation (averaged across both roles) is higher, due to increased cooperation from the competitively inferior individuals. For extreme asymmetry in relative competitive efficiency, per capita cooperation is highest in groups with a single competitively superior individual and many competitively inferior individuals, because the latter acquiesce and invest in cooperation rather than within-group competition. These predictions are consistent with observed features of many societies, such as monogynous Hymenoptera with many workers and caste dimorphism. © 2015 The Authors. Journal of Evolutionary Biology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of European Society for Evolutionary Biology.

Systems approach to studying animal sociality: individual position versus group organization in dynamic social network models.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Karlo Hock

2010-12-01

Full Text Available Social networks can be used to represent group structure as a network of interacting components, and also to quantify both the position of each individual and the global properties of a group. In a series of simulation experiments based on dynamic social networks, we test the prediction that social behaviors that help individuals reach prominence within their social group may conflict with their potential to benefit from their social environment. In addition to cases where individuals were able to benefit from improving both their personal relative importance and group organization, using only simple rules of social affiliation we were able to obtain results in which individuals would face a trade-off between these factors. While selection would favor (or work against social behaviors that concordantly increase (or decrease, respectively fitness at both individual and group level, when these factors conflict with each other the eventual selective pressure would depend on the relative returns individuals get from their social environment and their position within it. The presented results highlight the importance of a systems approach to studying animal sociality, in which the effects of social behaviors should be viewed not only through the benefits that those provide to individuals, but also in terms of how they affect broader social environment and how in turn this is reflected back on an individual's fitness.

Parents, peer groups, and other socializing influences.

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Vandell, D L

2000-11-01

Three propositions that are central to J. R. Harris's group socialization theory (1995, 1998) are considered in this review. These propositions are as follows: (a) Parental behaviors have no long-term effects on children's psychological characteristics, (b) peer groups are the primary environmental influence on psychological functioning, and (c) dyadic relationships are situation-specific and do not generalize. The evidence that J. R. Harris has outlined in support of each of these propositions is reviewed, as is additional empirical research not considered by J. R. Harris. Serious limitations to each proposition are identified. The available evidence is more consistent with a model of multiple socialization agents. An expanded research agenda that permits a more definitive test of J. R. Harris's propositions and social relationship theory is proposed.

Social participation and mortality: does social position in civic groups matter?

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Yoshiki Ishikawa

2016-05-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Social participation is known to predict longevity. However, little is known about the effect of social participation according to an individual’s position in civic groups. We evaluated the influence of social position on mortality, using data from a large cohort of Japanese older adults (the AGES cohort. Methods Of 14,804 individuals aged 65 years and older enrolled in the AGES, 14,286 individuals were followed up for approximately 5 years from 2003 to 2008. We performed inverse probability of treatment weighted (IPTW Cox proportional hazards regression with multiple imputation of missing values to compute hazard ratios (HR for all-cause mortality according to the individual’s position in the community organization(s to which they belonged. We examined participation in the following civic groups: neighborhood association/senior citizen club/fire-fighting team, religious group, political organization or group, industrial or trade association, volunteer group, citizen or consumer group, hobby group, and sports group or club. The values for IPTW were computed based on demographic variables, socioeconomic status, and self-reported medical condition. Results During 22,718 person-years of follow-up for regular members of community groups and 14,014 person-years of follow-up for participants in leadership positions, 479 deaths and 214 deaths were observed, respectively. Relative to regular members, crude HR for all-cause mortality for occupying leadership positions (e.g. president, manager, or having administrative roles was 0.72 (95 % CI:0.62–0.85. The IPTW-HR was 0.88 (95 % CI: 0.79–0.99 for participants occupying leadership positions. Conclusions Holding leadership positions in community organization(s may be more beneficial to health than being regular members.

Social immunity and the evolution of group living in insects.

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Meunier, Joël

2015-05-26

The evolution of group living requires that individuals limit the inherent risks of parasite infection. To this end, group living insects have developed a unique capability of mounting collective anti-parasite defences, such as allogrooming and corpse removal from the nest. Over the last 20 years, this phenomenon (called social immunity) was mostly studied in eusocial insects, with results emphasizing its importance in derived social systems. However, the role of social immunity in the early evolution of group living remains unclear. Here, I investigate this topic by first presenting the definitions of social immunity and discussing their applications across social systems. I then provide an up-to-date appraisal of the collective and individual mechanisms of social immunity described in eusocial insects and show that they have counterparts in non-eusocial species and even solitary species. Finally, I review evidence demonstrating that the increased risks of parasite infection in group living species may both decrease and increase the level of personal immunity, and discuss how the expression of social immunity could drive these opposite effects. By highlighting similarities and differences of social immunity across social systems, this review emphasizes the potential importance of this phenomenon in the early evolution of the multiple forms of group living in insects. © 2015 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved.

Individuality and social influence in groups : Inductive and deductive routes to group identity

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Postmes, T; Spears, R; Lee, AT; Novak, RJ

2005-01-01

A distinction between forms of social identity formation in small interactive groups is investigated. In groups in which a common identity is available or given, norms for individual behavior may be deduced; from group properties (deductive identity). In groups in which interpersonal relations are

Social prophylaxis: group interaction promotes collective immunity in ant colonies

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ugelvig, Line V; Cremer, Sylvia

2007-01-01

Life in a social group increases the risk of disease transmission. To counteract this threat, social insects have evolved manifold antiparasite defenses, ranging from social exclusion of infected group members to intensive care. It is generally assumed that individuals performing hygienic behavio...

How Peer Pressure Shapes Consensus, Leadership, and Innovations in Social Groups

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Estrada, Ernesto; Vargas-Estrada, Eusebio

2013-10-01

What is the effect of the combined direct and indirect social influences--peer pressure (PP)--on a social group's collective decisions? We present a model that captures PP as a function of the socio-cultural distance between individuals in a social group. Using this model and empirical data from 15 real-world social networks we found that the PP level determines how fast a social group reaches consensus. More importantly, the levels of PP determine the leaders who can achieve full control of their social groups. PP can overcome barriers imposed upon a consensus by the existence of tightly connected communities with local leaders or the existence of leaders with poor cohesiveness of opinions. A moderate level of PP is also necessary to explain the rate at which innovations diffuse through a variety of social groups.

How peer pressure shapes consensus, leadership, and innovations in social groups.

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Estrada, Ernesto; Vargas-Estrada, Eusebio

2013-10-09

What is the effect of the combined direct and indirect social influences--peer pressure (PP)--on a social group's collective decisions? We present a model that captures PP as a function of the socio-cultural distance between individuals in a social group. Using this model and empirical data from 15 real-world social networks we found that the PP level determines how fast a social group reaches consensus. More importantly, the levels of PP determine the leaders who can achieve full control of their social groups. PP can overcome barriers imposed upon a consensus by the existence of tightly connected communities with local leaders or the existence of leaders with poor cohesiveness of opinions. A moderate level of PP is also necessary to explain the rate at which innovations diffuse through a variety of social groups.

A Response to "Social Privilege, Social Justice, and Group Counseling: An Inquiry"

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Holcomb-McCoy, Cheryl

2008-01-01

This response discusses the importance of "privilege talk" and relates the concept of privilege to group counseling research. The impact of "colorblindness" on the dynamics of groups is discussed. The importance of understanding social privilege and its influence on counseling groups is emphasized.

Toward a social capital theory of competitive advantage in medical groups.

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Hoelscher, Mark L; Hoffman, James J; Dawley, David

2005-01-01

Social capital can have a positive impact on medical group performance. We forward our theory based on the integration of theories in social capital, resource advantage, and the resource-based view of the firm. Further, we suggest specific ways in which medical groups can increase their levels of social capital. First, medical groups should design or redesign the workplace so that there is ample interaction among employees. Second, employee participation within the community should be encouraged. Third, medical groups should recognize that social capital becomes ingrained in organizational culture. Therefore, medical groups should take steps to ensure a culture that supports its social capital. Fourth, hiring procedures should be designed (or redesigned) to ensure that new employees add social capital to the organization. Finally, trust must be fostered at the employee level.

Rapid Prototyping of Social Group Dynamics in Multiagent Systems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rehm, Matthias; Endrass, Birgit

2009-01-01

In this article we present an engineering approach for the integration of social group dynamics in the behavior modeling of multiagent systems. To this end, a toolbox was created that brings together several theories from the social sciences, each focusing on different aspects of group dynamics. ...

Is there any influence of personality disorder on the short term intensive group cognitive behavioral therapy of social phobia?

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Vyskocilova, Jana; Prasko, Jan; Novak, Tomas; Pohlova, Libuse

2011-03-01

The treatment of personality disorder is repeatedly reported as less successful than the treatment of patients without personality disorder. Most clinicians believe that anxiety disorder in tandem with a personality disorder often leads to longer treatment, worsens the prognosis, and thus increases treatment costs. Our study was designed to compare the short-term effectiveness of therapy in patients suffering from social phobia with and without personality disorder. The specific aim of the study was to assess the efficacy of a 6 week therapeutic program designed for social phobia (SSRIs and CBT) in patients suffering from social phobia with comorbid personality disorder (17 patients) and social phobia without comorbid personality disorder (18 patients). The patients were regularly assessed in weeks 0, 2, 4 and 6 using the CGI (Clinical Global Improvement) for severity, LSAS (Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale), and in self-assessments BAI (Beck Anxiety Inventory) and BDI (Beck Depression Inventory). Patients in both groups improved their scores in most of the assessment instruments used. A combination of CBT and pharmacotherapy proved to be the most effective treatment for patients suffering with social phobia with or without comorbid personality disorder. Treatment efficacy in patients with social phobia without personality disorder was significantly better than in the group with social phobia comorbid with personality disorder for CGI and specific inventory for social phobia - LSAS. The scores on the subjective depression inventory (BDI) also showed significantly greater decrease over the treatment in the group without personality disorder. The treatment effect between groups did not differ in subjective general anxiety scales BAI. Our study showed that patients suffering from social phobia and comorbid personality disorder showed a smaller decrease in specific social phobia symptomatology during treatment compared than patients with social phobia without personality

Mutual Group Hypnosis: A Social Interaction Analysis.

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Sanders, Shirley

Mutual Group Hypnosis is discussed in terms of its similarity to group dynamics in general and in terms of its similarity to a social interaction program (Role Modeling) designed to foster the expression of warmth and acceptance among group members. Hypnosis also fosters a regression to prelogical thought processes in the service of the ego. Group…

Social identity and the recognition of creativity in groups

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Adarves-Yorno, Inmaculada; Postmes, Tom; Haslam, S. Alexander

This paper develops an analysis of creativity that is informed by the social identity approach. Two studies are reported that support this analysis. Study I (N = 73) manipulated social identity salience and the content of group norms. The group norm was either conservative (i.e. promoted no change)

Understanding Online Health Groups for Depression: Social Network and Linguistic Perspectives.

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Xu, Ronghua; Zhang, Qingpeng

2016-03-10

Mental health problems have become increasingly prevalent in the past decade. With the advance of Web 2.0 technologies, social media present a novel platform for Web users to form online health groups. Members of online health groups discuss health-related issues and mutually help one another by anonymously revealing their mental conditions, sharing personal experiences, exchanging health information, and providing suggestions and support. The conversations in online health groups contain valuable information to facilitate the understanding of their mutual help behaviors and their mental health problems. We aimed to characterize the conversations in a major online health group for major depressive disorder (MDD) patients in a popular Chinese social media platform. In particular, we intended to explain how Web users discuss depression-related issues from the perspective of the social networks and linguistic patterns revealed by the members' conversations. Social network analysis and linguistic analysis were employed to characterize the social structure and linguistic patterns, respectively. Furthermore, we integrated both perspectives to exploit the hidden relations between them. We found an intensive use of self-focus words and negative affect words. In general, group members used a higher proportion of negative affect words than positive affect words. The social network of the MDD group for depression possessed small-world and scale-free properties, with a much higher reciprocity ratio and clustering coefficient value as compared to the networks of other social media platforms and classic network models. We observed a number of interesting relationships, either strong correlations or convergent trends, between the topological properties and linguistic properties of the MDD group members. (1) The MDD group members have the characteristics of self-preoccupation and negative thought content, according to Beck's cognitive theory of depression; (2) the social structure

Nonapeptides and the Evolution of Social Group Sizes in Birds

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James L. Goodson

2011-03-01

Full Text Available Species-typical patterns of grouping have profound impacts on many aspects of physiology and behavior. However, prior to our recent studies in estrildid finches, neural mechanisms that titrate species-typical group size preferences, independent of other aspects of social organization (e.g., mating system and parental care, have been wholly unexplored, likely because species-typical group size is typically confounded with other aspects of behavior and biology. An additional complication is that components of social organization are evolutionarily labile and prone to repeated divergence and convergence. Hence, we cannot assume that convergence in social structure has been produced by convergent modifications to the same neural characters, and thus any comparative approach to grouping must include not only species that differ in their species-typical group sizes, but also species that exhibit convergent evolution in this aspect of social organization. Using five estrildid finch species that differ selectively in grouping (all biparental and monogamous we have demonstrated that neural motivational systems evolve in predictable ways in relation to species-typical group sizes, including convergence in two highly gregarious species and convergence in two relatively asocial, territorial species. These systems include nonapeptide (vasotocin and mesotocin circuits that encode the valence of social stimuli (positive-negative, titrate group-size preferences, and modulate anxiety-like behaviors. Nonapeptide systems exhibit functional and anatomical properties that are biased towards gregarious species, and experimental reductions of nonapeptide signaling by receptor antagonism and antisense oligonucleotides significantly decrease preferred group sizes in the gregarious zebra finch. Combined, these findings suggest that selection on species-typical group size may reliably target the same neural motivation systems when a given social structure evolves

The precariat: A new social group in the global society

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Golenkova Zinaida T.

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The instability of social and labor relations has attained enormous proportions in both modern developed countries and in developing societies. This phenomenon has led to the creation of a new social group in the structure of modern societies, which is called the precariat, and is characterized by the unstable situation in the labor market and by social insecurity. Instability in employment leads to emotional, psychological and social instability, which causes latent social conflict and rebellious behavior of individuals, and therefore this social group, in Western Europe, the U.S. and Japan, is considered to be a 'dangerous class'.

Mnemonic transmission, social contagion, and emergence of collective memory: Influence of emotional valence, group structure, and information distribution.

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Choi, Hae-Yoon; Kensinger, Elizabeth A; Rajaram, Suparna

2017-09-01

Social transmission of memory and its consequence on collective memory have generated enduring interdisciplinary interest because of their widespread significance in interpersonal, sociocultural, and political arenas. We tested the influence of 3 key factors-emotional salience of information, group structure, and information distribution-on mnemonic transmission, social contagion, and collective memory. Participants individually studied emotionally salient (negative or positive) and nonemotional (neutral) picture-word pairs that were completely shared, partially shared, or unshared within participant triads, and then completed 3 consecutive recalls in 1 of 3 conditions: individual-individual-individual (control), collaborative-collaborative (identical group; insular structure)-individual, and collaborative-collaborative (reconfigured group; diverse structure)-individual. Collaboration enhanced negative memories especially in insular group structure and especially for shared information, and promoted collective forgetting of positive memories. Diverse group structure reduced this negativity effect. Unequally distributed information led to social contagion that creates false memories; diverse structure propagated a greater variety of false memories whereas insular structure promoted confidence in false recognition and false collective memory. A simultaneous assessment of network structure, information distribution, and emotional valence breaks new ground to specify how network structure shapes the spread of negative memories and false memories, and the emergence of collective memory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Group membership and social identity in addiction recovery.

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Buckingham, Sarah A; Frings, Daniel; Albery, Ian P

2013-12-01

Despite a growing interest in how group membership can positively impact health, little research has addressed directly the role social identity processes can have on recovery from addiction. Drawing on social identity theory and self-categorization theory, the present study investigated how recovery group membership can introduce a new social identity associated with recovery, compared to the social identity associated with addiction. We hypothesized that two processes--evaluative differentiation and identity preference--would be linked with higher self-efficacy and positive health outcomes (i.e., reduced relapse, lower levels of appetitive behavior, and elevated feelings of social connectedness [Study 2]). Study 1 recruited members (N = 61) from United Kingdom based mutual aid groups of Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous. Study 2 recruited ex-smokers (N = 81) from online sources. In Study 1, evaluative differentiation was significantly related to lowered relapse and reduced appetitive behavior. Identity preference was related to higher levels of self-efficacy, which was related to months drug-free and reduced levels of appetitive behaviors. In Study 2, evaluative differentiation was related to identity preference. Identity preference was also related to higher self-efficacy, which in turn was related to lower relapse. Although exploratory, these results suggest that developing a social identity as a "recovering addict" or an "ex-smoker" and subsequently highlighting the difference between such identities may be a useful strategy for reducing relapse among people with problems associated with addictive behaviors. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved.

Social Information on Fear and Food Drives Animal Grouping and Fitness.

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Gil, Michael A; Emberts, Zachary; Jones, Harrison; St Mary, Colette M

2017-03-01

Empirical studies in select systems suggest that social information-the incidental or deliberate information produced by animals and available to other animals-can fundamentally shape animal grouping behavior. However, to understand the role of social information in animal behavior and fitness, we must establish general theory that quantifies effects of social information across ecological contexts and generates expectations that can be applied across systems. Here we used dynamic state variable modeling to isolate effects of social information about food and predators on grouping behavior and fitness. We characterized optimal behavior from a set of strategies that included grouping with different numbers of conspecifics or heterospecifics and the option to forage or be vigilant over the course of a day. We show that the use of social information alone increases grouping behavior but constrains group size to limit competition, ultimately increasing individual fitness substantially across various ecological contexts. We also found that across various contexts, foraging in mixed-species groups is generally better than foraging in conspecific groups, supporting recent theory on competition-information quality trade-offs. Our findings suggest that multiple forms of social information shape animal grouping and fitness, which are sensitive to resource availability and predation pressure that determine information usefulness.

Group Discussion and Cooperation in Social Dilemmas.

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Bouas, Kelly S.; Komorita, S. S.

1996-01-01

Face-to-face discussion has been shown to increase cooperation behavior in social dilemmas. Two general explanations of this effect were tested: group identity and perception of consensus. Female undergraduate students (N=160) participated in four-person groups in one of four experimental conditions. Findings indicate the most plausible…

Social Groups and Subjectivity in Modern Society

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Læssøe, Jeppe; Gundelach, Peter

1996-01-01

outlines two examples. The first shows that energy research about the relation between lifestyles and energy consumption has to be aware of the change in social groups from stable communities towards partial imagined communities. Rituals and social signals are important means to constitute and maintain...... such communities. The acceptance or rejection of green consumption is influenced by this social dynamic. The second example attacks the widespread assumption among energy-behaviour researchers and administrators that the only way to change peoples behaviour goes from information to action. Based on psychological...

Responses of bat social groups to roost loss: More questions than answers

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Silvis, Alexander; Abaid, Nicole; Ford, W. Mark; Britzke, Eric R.; Ortega, Jorge

2016-01-01

Though characterization of, and understanding determinants of, social structure in bats is increasing, little is known about how bat social groups respond to disturbance resulting in roost loss. Given that many species of bats roost in ephemeral or transitory resources such as plants, it is clear that bat social groups can tolerate some level of roost loss. Understanding responses of bat social groups to roost loss can provide insight into social structure that have applied conservation use. Herein, we review the existing literature on the effects of disturbance on bat social groups, and present a parameterizable agent-based model that can be used to explore the relationships among roost dynamics, population dynamics, and social behavior.

Group processes in medical education: learning from social identity theory.

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Burford, Bryan

2012-02-01

The clinical workplace in which doctors learn involves many social groups, including representatives of different professions, clinical specialties and workplace teams. This paper suggests that medical education research does not currently take full account of the effects of group membership, and describes a theoretical approach from social psychology, the social identity approach, which allows those effects to be explored. The social identity approach has a long history in social psychology and provides an integrated account of group processes, from the adoption of group identity through a process of self-categorisation, to the biases and conflicts between groups. This paper outlines key elements of this theoretical approach and illustrates their relevance to medical education. The relevance of the social identity approach is illustrated with reference to a number of areas of medical education. The paper shows how research questions in medical education may be usefully reframed in terms of social identity in ways that allow a deeper exploration of the psychological processes involved. Professional identity and professionalism may be viewed in terms of self-categorisation rather than simply attainment; the salience of different identities may be considered as influences on teamwork and interprofessional learning, and issues in communication and assessment may be considered in terms of intergroup biases. Social identity theory provides a powerful framework with which to consider many areas of medical education. It allows disparate influences on, and consequences of, group membership to be considered as part of an integrated system, and allows assumptions, such as about the nature of professional identity and interprofessional tensions, to be made explicit in the design of research studies. This power to question assumptions and develop deeper and more meaningful research questions may be increasingly relevant as the nature and role of the medical profession change

Focus Groups as Social Arenas for the Negotiation of Normativity

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kristiansen, T. M.; Gronkjaer, M.

2018-01-01

Aim: This article aims to demonstrate how focus group discussions act as a social arena for the negotiation of social norms and normativity and to discuss the implications for the analysis of focus group discussions. Participants and methods: We have used sequences of group interactions from...... a focus group study on everyday life and chronic illness to demonstrate how methodological tools from conversation analysis and discursive psychology can be used to facilitate a systematic analysis of the negotiation and legitimization of social norms and normativity in focus groups. The empirical data...... consisted of six focus groups with a total of 32 participants. Results: The analysis demonstrated negotiations on normativity concerning four central aspects related to living with chronic illness: negotiating normativity about adjustment to the disease, negotiating normativity about being a dutiful...

Dominance Weighted Social Choice Functions for Group Recommendations

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Silvia ROSSI

2015-12-01

Full Text Available In travel domains, decision support systems provide support to tourists in the planning of their vacation. In particular, when the number of possible Points of Interest (POI to visit is large, the system should help tourists providing recommendations on the POI that could be more interesting for them. Since traveling is, usually, an activity that involves small groups of people, the system should take simultaneously into account the preferences of each group's member. At the same time, it also should model possible intra-group relationships, which can have an impact in the group decision-making process. In this paper, we model this problem as a multi-agent aggregation of preferences by using weighted social choice functions, whereas such weights are automatically evaluated by analyzing the interactions of the group's members on Online Social Networks.

Social Groups, Explanation and Ontological Holism | Sheehy ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The paper begins from the claim that ontological holism is given prima facie plausibility by the apparently ineliminable role of groups in some descriptions and explanations of the social domain. If the individualist accepts the link between indispensabilty and realism, then individualism must show that groups cannot play the ...

Life in groups: the roles of oxytocin in mammalian sociality

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Allison eAnacker

2013-12-01

Full Text Available In recent decades, scientific understanding of the many roles of oxytocin in social behavior has advanced tremendously. The focus of this research has been on maternal attachments and reproductive pair-bonds, and much less is known about the substrates of sociality outside of reproductive contexts. It is now apparent that oxytocin influences many aspects of social behavior including recognition, trust, empathy, and other components of the behavioral repertoire of social species. This review provides a comparative perspective on the contributions of oxytocin to life in mammalian social groups. We provide background on the functions of oxytocin in maternal attachments and the early social environment, and give an overview of the role of oxytocin circuitry in support of different mating systems. We then introduce peer relationships in group-living rodents as a means for studying the importance of oxytocin in non-reproductive affiliative behaviors. We review species differences in oxytocin receptor distributions in solitary and group-living species of South American tuco-tucos and in African mole-rats, as well as singing mice. We discuss variation in oxytocin receptor levels with seasonal changes in social behavior in female meadow voles, and the effects of oxytocin manipulations on peer huddling behavior. Finally, we discuss avenues of promise for future investigation, and relate current findings to research in humans and non-human primates. There is growing evidence that oxytocin is involved in social selectivity, including increases in aggression toward social outgroups and decreased huddling with unfamiliar individuals, which may support existing social structures or relationships at the expense of others. Oxytocin’s effects reach beyond maternal attachment and pair bonds to play a role in affiliative behavior underlying friendships, organization of broad social structures, and maintenance of established social relationships with individuals

How within-group behavioural variation and task efficiency enhance fitness in a social group.

Science.gov (United States)

Pruitt, Jonathan N; Riechert, Susan E

2011-04-22

How task specialization, individual task performance and within-group behavioural variation affects fitness is a longstanding and unresolved problem in our understanding of animal societies. In the temperate social spider, Anelosimus studiosus, colony members exhibit a behavioural polymorphism; females either exhibit an aggressive 'asocial' or docile 'social' phenotype. We assessed individual prey-capture success for both phenotypes, and the role of phenotypic composition on group-level prey-capture success for three prey size classes. We then estimated the effect of group phenotypic composition on fitness in a common garden, as inferred from individual egg-case masses. On average, asocial females were more successful than social females at capturing large prey, and colony-level prey-capture success was positively associated with the frequency of the asocial phenotype. Asocial colony members were also more likely to engage in prey-capture behaviour in group-foraging situations. Interestingly, our fitness estimates indicate females of both phenotypes experience increased fitness when occupying colonies containing unlike individuals. These results imply a reciprocal fitness benefit of within-colony behavioural variation, and perhaps division of labour in a spider society.

Group Rumination: Social Interactions Around Music in People with Depression

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Garrido, Sandra; Eerola, Tuomas; McFerran, Katrina

2017-01-01

One of the most important roles that music serves in human society is the promotion of social relationships and group cohesion. In general, emotional experiences tend to be amplified in group settings through processes of social feedback. However, previous research has established that listening to sad music can intensify negative emotions in people with tendencies to rumination and depression. This study therefore investigated the phenomenon of ruminating with music, and the question of whether listening to sad music in group settings provides social benefits for emotionally vulnerable listeners, or whether it further exaggerates depressive tendencies. Participants recruited via online depression groups and mental health websites were surveyed as to music listening habits. Results revealed that people with depression were more likely to engage in “group rumination” using music, and that this behavior could be partially explained by a general tendency to ruminate using music. Both affective states and coping styles were found to be related to the affective outcomes of group interactions around music. These findings go some way toward clarifying the situations in which group interactions around music are able to provide important social benefits for those involved, and situations in which negative emotions can be amplified by the group context. PMID:28421014

Extended parental care in communal social groups

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Stephen H. Forbes

2002-11-01

Full Text Available Recent developments in social insect research have challenged the need for close kinship as a prerequisite for the evolution of stable group living. In a model communal bee species, Lasioglossum (Chilalictus hemichalceum, previous allozyme work indicated that groups of cooperating adult females are not relatives. Yet at any given time, not all group members perform the risky task of foraging. We previously hypothesized that tolerance for non-foragers was a component of extended parental care, previously known only for kin based social systems. DNA microsatellites were used to study colony genetic structure in order to test this hypothesis. Microsatellite polymorphism was substantial (He = 0.775. Overall intracolony relatedness, mainly of immatures, was low but significant in nine, late season nests (r = 0.136 plus or minus0.023, indicating that broods contain five to six unrelated sib ships. Detailed analyses of kinship between pairs of individuals revealed that most pairs were unrelated and most related pairs were siblings. Mothers are absent for 89-91% of the developing immature females, and 97% of developing males. Alternatively, 46% of adult females had neither sibs nor offspring in their nests. These findings indicate that the extended parental care model applies broadly to both kin based and nonkin based social systems in the Hymenoptera.

Defining Social Class Across Time and Between Groups.

Science.gov (United States)

Cohen, Dov; Shin, Faith; Liu, Xi; Ondish, Peter; Kraus, Michael W

2017-11-01

We examined changes over four decades and between ethnic groups in how people define their social class. Changes included the increasing importance of income, decreasing importance of occupational prestige, and the demise of the "Victorian bargain," in which poor people who subscribed to conservative sexual and religious norms could think of themselves as middle class. The period also saw changes (among Whites) and continuity (among Black Americans) in subjective status perceptions. For Whites (and particularly poor Whites), their perceptions of enhanced social class were greatly reduced. Poor Whites now view their social class as slightly but significantly lower than their poor Black and Latino counterparts. For Black respondents, a caste-like understanding of social class persisted, as they continued to view their class standing as relatively independent of their achieved education, income, and occupation. Such achievement indicators, however, predicted Black respondents' self-esteem more than they predicted self-esteem for any other group.

Homogeneity in Social Groups of Iraqis

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Gresham, J.; Saleh, F.; Majid, S.

With appreciation to the Royal Institute for Inter-Faith Studies for initiating the Second World Congress for Middle Eastern Studies, this paper summarizes findings on homogeneity in community-level social groups derived from inter-ethnic research conducted during 2005 among Iraqi Arabs and Kurds

Social skills group training in high-functioning autism: A qualitative responder study.

Science.gov (United States)

Choque Olsson, Nora; Rautio, Daniel; Asztalos, Jenny; Stoetzer, Ulrich; Bölte, Sven

2016-11-01

Systematic reviews show some evidence for the efficacy of group-based social skills group training in children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder, but more rigorous research is needed to endorse generalizability. In addition, little is known about the perspectives of autistic individuals participating in social skills group training. Using a qualitative approach, the objective of this study was to examine experiences and opinions about social skills group training of children and adolescents with higher functioning autism spectrum disorder and their parents following participation in a manualized social skills group training ("KONTAKT"). Within an ongoing randomized controlled clinical trial (NCT01854346) and based on outcome data from the Social Responsiveness Scale, six high responders and five low-to-non-responders to social skills group training and one parent of each child (N = 22) were deep interviewed. Interestingly, both high responders and low-to-non-responders (and their parents) reported improvements in social communication and related skills (e.g. awareness of own difficulties, self-confidence, independence in everyday life) and overall treatment satisfaction, although more positive intervention experiences were expressed by responders. These findings highlight the added value of collecting verbal data in addition to quantitative data in a comprehensive evaluation of social skills group training. © The Author(s) 2016.

Social Group Dynamics and Patterns of Latin American Integration Processes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sébastien Dubé

2017-04-01

Full Text Available This article proposes to incorporate social psychology elements with mainstream political science and international relations theories to help understand the contradictions related to the integration processes in Latin America. Through a theoretical analysis, it contributes to the challenge proposed by Dabène (2009 to explain the “resilience” of the Latin American regional integration process in spite of its “instability and crises.” Our main proposition calls for considering Latin America as a community and its regional organizations as “social groups.” In conclusion, three phenomena from the field of social psychology and particularly social group dynamics shed light on these contradictory patterns: the value of the group and the emotional bond, groupthink, and cognitive dissonance.

Moderating Effects of Group Status, Cohesion, and Ethnic Composition on Socialization of Aggression in Children's Peer Groups

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Shi, Bing; Xie, Hongling

2014-01-01

We explored the effects of 3 group features (i.e., status, cohesion, and ethnic composition) on socialization processes of aggression in early adolescents' natural peer social groups. Gender differences in these effects were also determined. A total of 245 seventh-grade individuals belonging to 65 peer groups were included in the analyses. All 3…

Highly identified power-holders feel responsible: The interplay between social identification and social power within groups.

Science.gov (United States)

Scholl, Annika; Sassenberg, Kai; Ellemers, Naomi; Scheepers, Daan; de Wit, Frank

2018-01-01

Power relations affect dynamics within groups. Power-holders' decisions not only determine their personal outcomes, but also the outcomes of others in the group that they control. Yet, power-holders often tend to overlook this responsibility to take care of collective interests. The present research investigated how social identification - with the group to which both the powerful and the powerless belong - alters perceived responsibility among power-holders (and the powerless). Combining research on social power and social identity, we argue that power-holders perceive more responsibility than the powerless when strongly (rather than when weakly) identifying with the group. A study among leaders and an experiment supported this, highlighting that although power-holders are often primarily concerned about personal outcomes, they do feel responsible for considering others' interests when these others are included in the (social) self. © 2017 The British Psychological Society.

Ethnic Identity and Social-Cognitive Maturity in a Multicultural Group Experience

Science.gov (United States)

Johnson, Jennifer M.; Lambie, Glenn W.

2013-01-01

This study examined a multicultural group experience on students' ("N"= 94) ethnic identity development and social-cognitive maturity. Although no differences were identified between treatment and comparison group participants, group therapeutic factors scores were predictive of ethnic identity development and social-cognitive…

Social capital as norms and resources: Focus groups discussing alcohol

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Demant, Jakob Johan; Järvinen, Margaretha

2011-01-01

and an effect of their drinking experience. We apply Coleman's micro-oriented perspective on local network mechanisms – with a specific focus on collective norms negotiated in the focus groups – in combination with Bourdieu's definition of social capital as resources. The data used in this article come from......The aim of this article is to analyse the relationship between peer-group social capital and the use of alcohol among young people – as this relationship is expressed in focus group interviews. The main point to be made is that social capital affects alcohol use in two different ways: it incites...... focus group interviews with 18–19-year-old Danes. Read More: http://informahealthcare.com/doi/abs/10.3109/16066351003725776...

THE PROBLEMS OF SOCIALIZATION OF CHILDREN IN A CHILDREN’S MUSICAL GROUP

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Larysa Ostapenko

2017-07-01

Full Text Available The article studies the process of the socialization of children in a musical group. The author has studied diverse factors of the socialization of children and its types (spontaneous socialization; relatively controlled socialization and socially controlled socialization. The author has also given characteristics of creative activity stimulation and described the need to be accepted by peers being realized during the participation in children’s music festivals. The notion of socialization was defined as a complex process of a child’s personality development, especially during the school/teen age, whereby an individual acquires a personal identity and learns the norms, values, behavior, and social skills appropriate to his or her social position in the context of a musical group. Educational work conducted be teachers, family members and society contributes to this process. School education in terms of a musical group consists of activities organised in order to educate personality traits through the organization of practical creative communication. Schoolchildren’s interpersonal relations are always based on social relations. It is proved that the personality development in a children’s musical group is placed in social environment and social communication. The key role belongs here to the motivation and the incentive of the schoolchildren’s creative activity. Creative communication in a children’s musical group turns out to be a powerful inner stimulation for children to fulfil their abilities. It pushes a child towards self-assertion and the gain of authority among peers. The article proves that pedagogical guidance of the creative process can be led professionally only in a well-organised musical group.

Effective leadership in salient groups: revisiting leader-member exchange theory from the perspective of the social identity theory of leadership.

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Hogg, Michael A; Martin, Robin; Epitropaki, Olga; Mankad, Aditi; Svensson, Alicia; Weeden, Karen

2005-07-01

Two studies compared leader-member exchange (LMX) theory and the social identity theory of leadership. Study 1 surveyed 439 employees of organizations in Wales, measuring work group salience, leader-member relations, and perceived leadership effectiveness. Study 2 surveyed 128 members of organizations in India, measuring identification not salience and also individualism/collectivism. Both studies provided good support for social identity predictions. Depersonalized leader-member relations were associated with greater leadership effectiveness among high-than low-salient groups (Study 1) and among high than low identifiers (Study 2). Personalized leadership effectiveness was less affected by salience (Study 1) and unaffected by identification (Study 2). Low-salience groups preferred personalized leadership more than did high-salience groups (Study 1). Low identifiers showed no preference but high identifiers preferred depersonalized leadership (Study 2). In Study 2, collectivists did not prefer depersonalized as opposed to personalized leadership, whereas individualists did, probably because collectivists focus more on the relational self.

Movement Synchrony Forges Social Bonds Across Group Divides

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Bahar eTuncgenc

2016-05-01

Full Text Available Group dynamics play an important role in the social interactions of both children and adults. A large amount of research has shown that merely being allocated to arbitrarily defined groups can evoke disproportionately positive attitudes toward one’s in-group and negative attitudes toward out-groups, and that these biases emerge in early childhood. This prompts important empirical questions with far-reaching theoretical and applied significance. How robust are these inter-group biases? Can biases be mitigated by behaviors known to bond individuals and groups together? How can bonds be forged across existing group divides? To explore these questions, we examined the bonding effects of interpersonal synchrony on minimally constructed groups in a controlled experiment. In-group and out-group bonding were assessed using questionnaires administered before and after a task in which groups performed movements either synchronously or non-synchronously in a between-participants design. We also developed an implicit behavioral measure, the Island Game, in which physical proximity was used as an indirect measure of interpersonal closeness. Self-report and behavioral measures showed increased bonding between groups after synchronous movement. Bonding with the out-group was significantly higher in the condition in which movements were performed synchronously than when movements were performed non-synchronously between groups. The findings are discussed in terms of their importance for the developmental social psychology of group dynamics as well as their implications for applied intervention programs.

Shared death: self, sociality and internet group suicide in Japan.

Science.gov (United States)

Ozawa-De Silva, Chikako

2010-07-01

Existing models for understanding suicide fail to account for the distinctiveness of Internet group suicide, a recent phenomenon in Japan. Drawing from an ethnography of Internet suicide websites, two social commentaries in Japanese popular culture, and the work of developmental psychologist Philippe Rochat, I argue that participation in Internet suicide forums and even the act of Internet group suicide result from both a need for social connectedness and the fear of social rejection and isolation that this need engenders. These needs and fears are especially strong in the case of Japan, where the dominant cultural rhetoric ties selfhood closely to the social self that is the object of perception and experience by others. I show how such an understanding of Internet group suicide helps us to understand some of its basic characteristics, which are otherwise difficult to explain and which have puzzled the Japanese media and popular accounts: the "ordinariness" or casual nature of Internet group suicide, the wish for an easy or comfortable death, the wish to die with others, and the wish to "vanish." Internet group suicide sheds light on questions of Japanese selfhood in modernity and expands our understanding of suicide in Japan in general.

Young children seek out biased information about social groups.

Science.gov (United States)

Over, Harriet; Eggleston, Adam; Bell, Jenny; Dunham, Yarrow

2018-05-01

Understanding the origins of prejudice necessitates exploring the ways in which children participate in the construction of biased representations of social groups. We investigate whether young children actively seek out information that supports and extends their initial intergroup biases. In Studies 1 and 2, we show that children choose to hear a story that contains positive information about their own group and negative information about another group rather than a story that contains negative information about their own group and positive information about the other group. In a third study, we show that children choose to present biased information to others, thus demonstrating that the effects of information selection can start to propagate through social networks. In Studies 4 and 5, we further investigate the nature of children's selective information seeking and show that children prefer ingroup-favouring information to other types of biased information and even to balanced, unbiased information. Together, this work shows that children are not merely passively recipients of social information; they play an active role in the creation and transmission of intergroup attitudes. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Social networks improve leaderless group navigation by facilitating long-distance communication

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Nikolai W. F. BODE, A. Jamie WOOD, Daniel W. FRANKS

2012-04-01

Full Text Available Group navigation is of great importance for many animals, such as migrating flocks of birds or shoals of fish. One theory states that group membership can improve navigational accuracy compared to limited or less accurate individual navigational ability in groups without leaders (“Many-wrongs principle”. Here, we simulate leaderless group navigation that includes social connections as preferential interactions between individuals. Our results suggest that underlying social networks can reduce navigational errors of groups and increase group cohesion. We use network summary statistics, in particular network motifs, to study which characteristics of networks lead to these improvements. It is networks in which preferences between individuals are not clustered, but spread evenly across the group that are advantageous in group navigation by effectively enhancing long-distance information exchange within groups. We suggest that our work predicts a base-line for the type of social structure we might expect to find in group-living animals that navigate without leaders [Current Zoology 58 (2: 329-341, 2012].

The socialization of dominance: peer group contextual effects on homophobic and dominance attitudes.

Science.gov (United States)

Poteat, V Paul; Espelage, Dorothy L; Green, Harold D

2007-06-01

Using the framework of social dominance theory, the current investigation tested for the contextual effects of adolescent peer groups on individuals' homophobic and social dominance attitudes. Results from multilevel models indicated that significant differences existed across peer groups on homophobic attitudes. In addition, these differences were accounted for on the basis of the hierarchy-enhancing or -attenuating climate of the group. A group socialization effect on individuals' social dominance attitudes over time was also observed. Furthermore, the social climate of the peer group moderated the stability of individuals' social dominance attitudes. Findings support the need to examine more proximal and informal group affiliations and earlier developmental periods in efforts to build more comprehensive theoretical models explaining when and how prejudiced and dominance attitudes are formed and the way in which they are perpetuated. (c) 2007 APA, all rights reserved.

Common and distinct neural features of social and non-social reward processing in autism and social anxiety disorder.

Science.gov (United States)

Richey, John A; Rittenberg, Alison; Hughes, Lauren; Damiano, Cara R; Sabatino, Antoinette; Miller, Stephanie; Hanna, Eleanor; Bodfish, James W; Dichter, Gabriel S

2014-03-01

Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) and social anxiety disorder (SAD) are both characterized by social dysfunction, but no study to date has compared neural responses to social rewards in ASDs and SAD. Neural responses during social and non-social reward anticipation and outcomes were examined in individuals with ASD (n = 16), SAD (n = 15) and a control group (n = 19) via functional magnetic resonance imaging. Analyses modeling all three groups revealed increased nucleus accumbens (NAc) activation in SAD relative to ASD during monetary reward anticipation, whereas both the SAD and ASD group demonstrated decreased bilateral NAc activation relative to the control group during social reward anticipation. During reward outcomes, the SAD group did not differ significantly from the other two groups in ventromedial prefrontal cortex activation to either reward type. Analyses comparing only the ASD and SAD groups revealed greater bilateral amygdala activation to social rewards in SAD relative to ASD during both anticipation and outcome phases, and the magnitude of left amygdala hyperactivation in the SAD group during social reward anticipation was significantly correlated with the severity of trait anxiety symptoms. Results suggest reward network dysfunction to both monetary and social rewards in SAD and ASD during reward anticipation and outcomes, but that NAc hypoactivation during monetary reward anticipation differentiates ASD from SAD.

Empirical Studies on the Network of Social Groups: The Case of Tencent QQ.

Science.gov (United States)

You, Zhi-Qiang; Han, Xiao-Pu; Lü, Linyuan; Yeung, Chi Ho

2015-01-01

Participation in social groups are important but the collective behaviors of human as a group are difficult to analyze due to the difficulties to quantify ordinary social relation, group membership, and to collect a comprehensive dataset. Such difficulties can be circumvented by analyzing online social networks. In this paper, we analyze a comprehensive dataset released from Tencent QQ, an instant messenger with the highest market share in China. Specifically, we analyze three derivative networks involving groups and their members-the hypergraph of groups, the network of groups and the user network-to reveal social interactions at microscopic and mesoscopic level. Our results uncover interesting behaviors on the growth of user groups, the interactions between groups, and their relationship with member age and gender. These findings lead to insights which are difficult to obtain in social networks based on personal contacts.

Neural markers of a greater female responsiveness to social stimuli

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zani Alberto

2008-06-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background There is fMRI evidence that women are neurally predisposed to process infant laughter and crying. Other findings show that women might be more empathic and sensitive than men to emotional facial expressions. However, no gender difference in the brain responses to persons and unanimated scenes has hitherto been demonstrated. Results Twenty-four men and women viewed 220 images portraying persons or landscapes and ERPs were recorded from 128 sites. In women, but not in men, the N2 component (210–270 was much larger to persons than to scenes. swLORETA showed significant bilateral activation of FG (BA19/37 in both genders when viewing persons as opposed to scenes. Only women showed a source of activity in the STG and in the right MOG (extra-striate body area, EBA, and only men in the left parahippocampal area (PPA. Conclusion A significant gender difference was found in activation of the left and right STG (BA22 and the cingulate cortex for the subtractive condition women minus men, thus indicating that women might have a greater preference or interest for social stimuli (faces and persons.

Minority dissent, social acceptance in collaborative learning groups

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Curşeu, Petru Lucian; Schruijer, S.G.L.; Fodor, Oana

2017-01-01

The main aim of this paper is to test the extent to which social acceptance moderates the impact of minority dissent on group cognitive complexity (GCC). We hypothesize that divergent views expressed by a minority increase GCC especially when the group climate is open to divergent contributions

Social anxiety and alcohol use across the university years: Adaptive and maladaptive groups.

Science.gov (United States)

Brook, Christina A; Willoughby, Teena

2016-05-01

University/college can be a challenging time as students face developmental tasks such as building new social networks and achieving academically. Social anxiety may be disadvantageous in this setting given that social situations often include drinking and individuals with social anxiety tend to self-medicate through alcohol use. However, findings are mixed as to whether the association between social anxiety and alcohol use is positive or negative. To clarify the nature of this association, we used a person-centered longitudinal analysis to identify student groups based on levels of social anxiety symptoms and alcohol consumption. Undergraduates (N = 1132, 70.5% female, Mage = 19.06 at Time 1) enrolled in university completed a survey assessing social anxiety and alcohol use over 3 years, and psychosocial functioning and emotion coping behaviors at Time 1. Two out of 5 groups were identified with higher levels of social anxiety, 1 with moderately low alcohol use, and the other with moderately high alcohol use. Both groups reported higher levels of general anxiety, depressive symptoms, behavioral inhibition, emotional reactivity, daily hassles, and lower levels of social ties at Time 1 than the 3 groups with lower levels of social anxiety. Furthermore, the social anxiety-alcohol use group reported significantly lower academic grades and was more likely to endorse problematic emotion coping behaviors (e.g., self-injury) than the social anxiety-low alcohol use group. These results not only help explain the mixed findings in the literature but indicate that 1 group of socially anxious students may be particularly vulnerable to negative adjustment difficulties. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Digitalisation, Educational and Social Development in Greater China

Science.gov (United States)

Mok, Ka Ho; Leung, Dennis

2012-01-01

This new century has witnessed the rapid and frequent emergence of many new information and communications technologies (ICTs). On one hand, digitalisation enhances our economic, social and political lives. But on the other hand, it leads to certain negative social impacts. One prevalent problem is digital divide--the gap between different social…

Computational social dynamic modeling of group recruitment.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Berry, Nina M.; Lee, Marinna; Pickett, Marc; Turnley, Jessica Glicken (Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM); Smrcka, Julianne D. (Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM); Ko, Teresa H.; Moy, Timothy David (Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM); Wu, Benjamin C.

2004-01-01

The Seldon software toolkit combines concepts from agent-based modeling and social science to create a computationally social dynamic model for group recruitment. The underlying recruitment model is based on a unique three-level hybrid agent-based architecture that contains simple agents (level one), abstract agents (level two), and cognitive agents (level three). This uniqueness of this architecture begins with abstract agents that permit the model to include social concepts (gang) or institutional concepts (school) into a typical software simulation environment. The future addition of cognitive agents to the recruitment model will provide a unique entity that does not exist in any agent-based modeling toolkits to date. We use social networks to provide an integrated mesh within and between the different levels. This Java based toolkit is used to analyze different social concepts based on initialization input from the user. The input alters a set of parameters used to influence the values associated with the simple agents, abstract agents, and the interactions (simple agent-simple agent or simple agent-abstract agent) between these entities. The results of phase-1 Seldon toolkit provide insight into how certain social concepts apply to different scenario development for inner city gang recruitment.

The management of social problems talk in a support group

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Andrezza Gomes Peretti

2013-01-01

Full Text Available The comprehension of the health-disease process from a multifactorial perspective has allowed important transformations in the healthcare practices. In this article, we discuss the use of the support group as a resource for mental health care, analyzing how conversations about social issues are managed in this context. Based on contributions from the social constructionist movement, we analyzed the transcripts of the conversations developed in meetings of a support group offered to patients of a mental health outpatient clinic. The analysis of the process of meaning making indicates that the discourse of the social influence on mental health is not legitimized, due to a predominant individualistic discourse, which psychologizes care and is centered on the emotional analysis of the problems of the quotidian. We argue that this mode of management brings limits to the construction of the group as a device for promoting autonomy and encouraging the social transformation processes.

Self-categorization, commitment to the group and social self-esteem as related but distinct aspects of social identity.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ellemers, N.; Kortekaas, P.; Ouwerkerk, J.W.

1999-01-01

The aim of this study is to show that, when examining social identification, it is both possible and important to distinguish between self-categorisation, commitment to the group, and group self-esteem, as related but separate aspects of group members' social identity. This was demonstrated in an

False consensus in social context: differential projection and perceived social distance.

Science.gov (United States)

Jones, Paul E

2004-09-01

The study implicates the notion of perceived social distance as an explanation of why ingroup false consensus exceeds outgroup false consensus. Whilst previous demonstrations are best understood from social identity perspectives, the findings reported here suggest that self-group as well as inter-group comparisons can underlie such effects. In particular, perceived social distance was shown to mediate the effect of social categorisation: ingroup false consensus was greater because more social distance was perceived with the outgroup. The findings also extended to non-student samples and generalised across both opinion and ability items. In addition, examining the effect of item type in conjunction with social categorisation seriously challenged the generality of the false consensus effect.

Perceiving social inequity: when subordinate-group positioning on one dimension of social hierarchy enhances privilege recognition on another.

Science.gov (United States)

Rosette, Ashleigh Shelby; Tost, Leigh Plunkett

2013-08-01

Researchers have suggested that viewing social inequity as dominant-group privilege (rather than subordinate-group disadvantage) enhances dominant-group members' support for social policies aimed at lessening such inequity. However, because viewing inequity as dominant-group privilege can be damaging to dominant-group members' self-images, this perspective is frequently resisted. In the research reported here, we explored the circumstances that enhance the likelihood of dominant-group members' viewing inequity as privilege. Because social hierarchies have multiple vertical dimensions, individuals may have high status on one dimension but low status on another. We predicted that occupying a subordinate position on one dimension of social hierarchy could enhance perceptions of one's own privilege on a different dimension of hierarchy, but that this tendency would be diminished among individuals who felt they had achieved a particularly high level of success. Results from three studies that considered gender-based and race-based hierarchies in organizational settings supported our hypothesis.

Content analysis of neurodegenerative and mental diseases social groups.

Science.gov (United States)

Martínez-Pérez, Borja; de la Torre-Díez, Isabel; Bargiela-Flórez, Beatriz; López-Coronado, Miguel; Rodrigues, Joel J P C

2015-12-01

This article aims to characterize the different types of Facebook and Twitter groups for different mental diseases, their purposes, and their functions. We focused the search on depressive disorders, dementia, and Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases and examined the Facebook (www.facebook.com) and Twitter (www.twitter.com) groups. We used four assessment criteria: (1) purpose, (2) type of creator, (3) telehealth content, and (4) free-text responses in surveys and interviews. We observed a total of 357 Parkinson groups, 325 dementia groups, 853 Alzheimer groups, and 1127 depression groups on Facebook and Twitter. Moreover, we analyze the responses provided by different users. The survey and interview responses showed that many people were interested in using social networks to support and help in the fight against these diseases. The results indicate that social networks are acceptable by users in terms of simplicity and utility. People use them for finding support, information, self-help, advocacy and awareness, and for collecting funds. © The Author(s) 2014.

The Social Relations of a Health Walk Group: An Ethnographic Study.

Science.gov (United States)

Grant, Gordon; Pollard, Nick; Allmark, Peter; Machaczek, Kasia; Ramcharan, Paul

2017-09-01

It is already well established that regular walks are conducive to health and well-being. This article considers the production of social relations of regular, organized weekly group walks for older people. It is based on an ethnographic study of a Walking for Health group in a rural area of the United Kingdom. Different types of social relations are identified arising from the walk experience. The social relations generated are seen to be shaped by organizational factors that are constitutive of the walks; the resulting culture having implications for the sustainability of the experience. As there appears to be no single uniting theory linking group walk experiences to the production of social relations at this time, the findings are considered against therapeutic landscape, therapeutic mobility, and social capital theorizing. Finally, implications for the continuance of walking schemes for older people and for further research are considered.

Social and institutional evaluation report for Greater-Than-Class C Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anderson, T.L.; Lewis, B.E.; Turner, K.H.; Rozelle, M.A.

1993-10-01

This report identifies and characterizes social and institutional issues that would be relevant to the siting, licensing, construction, closure, and postclosure of a Greater-Than-Class-C low-level radioactive waste (GTCC LLW) disposal facility. A historical perspective of high-level radioactive waste (HLW) and LLW disposal programs is provided as an overview of radioactive waste disposal and to support the recommendations and conclusions in the report. A characterization of each issue is provided to establish the basis for further evaluations. Where applicable, the regulatory requirements of 10 CFR 60 and 61 are incorporated in the issue characterizations. The issues are used to compare surface, intermediate depth, and deep geologic disposal alternatives. The evaluation establishes that social and institutional issues do not significantly discriminate among the disposal alternatives. Recommendations are provided for methods by which the issues could be considered throughout the lifecycle of a GTCC LLW disposal program

Social and institutional evaluation report for Greater-Than-Class C Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Anderson, T.L.; Lewis, B.E.; Turner, K.H.; Rozelle, M.A. [Dames and Moore, Denver, CO (United States)

1993-10-01

This report identifies and characterizes social and institutional issues that would be relevant to the siting, licensing, construction, closure, and postclosure of a Greater-Than-Class-C low-level radioactive waste (GTCC LLW) disposal facility. A historical perspective of high-level radioactive waste (HLW) and LLW disposal programs is provided as an overview of radioactive waste disposal and to support the recommendations and conclusions in the report. A characterization of each issue is provided to establish the basis for further evaluations. Where applicable, the regulatory requirements of 10 CFR 60 and 61 are incorporated in the issue characterizations. The issues are used to compare surface, intermediate depth, and deep geologic disposal alternatives. The evaluation establishes that social and institutional issues do not significantly discriminate among the disposal alternatives. Recommendations are provided for methods by which the issues could be considered throughout the lifecycle of a GTCC LLW disposal program.

Radiology and social media: are private practice radiology groups more social than academic radiology departments?

Science.gov (United States)

Glover, McKinley; Choy, Garry; Boland, Giles W; Saini, Sanjay; Prabhakar, Anand M

2015-05-01

This study assesses the prevalence of use of the most commonly used social media sites among private radiology groups (PRGs) and academic radiology departments (ARDs). The 50 largest PRGs and the 50 ARDs with the highest level of funding from the National Institutes of Health were assessed for presence of a radiology-specific social media account on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, and LinkedIn. Measures of organizational activity and end-user activity were collected, including the number of posts and followers, as appropriate; between-group comparisons were performed. PRGs adopted Facebook 12 months earlier (P = .02) and Twitter 18 months earlier (P = .02) than did ARDs. A total of 76% of PRGs maintained ≥1 account on the social media sites included in the study, compared with 28% of ARDs (P Instagram, 2%. The prevalence of radiology-specific social media accounts for ARDs was: Facebook, 18%; LinkedIn, 0%; Twitter, 24%; YouTube, 6%; Pinterest, 0%; and Instagram, 0%. There was no significant difference between ARDs and PRGs in measures of end-user or organizational activity on Facebook or Twitter. Use of social media in health care is emerging as mainstream, with PRGs being early adopters of Facebook and Twitter in comparison with ARDs. Competitive environments and institutional policies may be strong factors that influence how social media is used by radiologists at the group and department levels. Copyright © 2015 American College of Radiology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Social relationships and reproductive performance in group-living arctic blue foxes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hannu Korhonen

1994-01-01

Full Text Available The aim of the present work was to study social relationships and reproductivity in captive arctic blue fox groups of different genetic origin. The social status of the individuals among groups remained constant during autumn and early winter. Males typically dominated over females in the groups. Males also had higher body weights and more social contacts than females. The locomotor activity of the animals increased during the breeding season, especially in the case of males. Urinary marking had a significant importance during the breeding season, being most pronounced in dominant males. No synchronization was observed in the heat development of females despite some kinship. Behaviours such as escape attempts, bitings and increased aggressiveness occurred in March-April as a result of increasing social tension combined with reproductive behaviour. Whelping success varied depending on group composition. Some of the non-breeding and breeding females were observed to act as communal nursing helpers.

Wii Social Skills Group and Inter-School Tournament

OpenAIRE

Julie Johnson; Juanita Germaine; Diana Maliszewski; Renee Keberer

2011-01-01

Abstract: Two schools in separate cites used the Nintendo Wii gaming system to assist selected boys in developing social skills. Using Skype and Twitter, the two groups collaborated at different stages of the project. The pilot project investigated the benefits of incorporating video games into traditional social skills programming, as well as the benefits of online collaboration between teachers in different school boards and students from different communities.

Wii Social Skills Group and Inter-School Tournament

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Julie Johnson

2011-12-01

Full Text Available Abstract: Two schools in separate cites used the Nintendo Wii gaming system to assist selected boys in developing social skills. Using Skype and Twitter, the two groups collaborated at different stages of the project. The pilot project investigated the benefits of incorporating video games into traditional social skills programming, as well as the benefits of online collaboration between teachers in different school boards and students from different communities.

Adult Social Capital and Track Placement of Ethnic Groups in Germany

Science.gov (United States)

Cheng, Simon; Martin, Leslie; Werum, Regina E.

2007-01-01

The dictum that "context matters" notwithstanding, few researchers have focused on how social capital affects educational outcomes for ethnic groups outside of the United States. Using German Socioeconomic Panel (GSOEP) data, analyses highlight the group-specific effects of parental social capital on track placement among 11-16-year-old…

Factors associated with social anxiety disorder in a group

Science.gov (United States)

Özşahin, Akatlı Kürşad; Altıntaş, Ebru

2018-04-30

Background/aim: Mental disorders may accompany obesity. This study aims to evaluate the association between social anxiety disorder (SAD) and obesity and the risk factors for SAD in obese female patients. Materials and methods: A total of 114 obese patients and 110 healthy controls were included. The Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), State and Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI I-II), and Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS) were administered to assess anxiety, depression, and social anxiety levels. Scale scores were analyzed statistically. Results: The rate of SAD in obese female patients was found to be 8.8%. Anxiety, depression, and social anxiety levels were significantly higher in the obesity group compared to the control group (P < 0.05). According to linear regression analyses, a significant association between LSAS anxiety level and age, prior surgery, social support, history of being teased, BDI, and BAI was found. Conclusion: The present study shows that many factors are related to obesity and SAD in obese female patients. The clinical implications of these findings should be considered. Interventions for these factors may help prevent SAD in obese female patients.

How social information can improve estimation accuracy in human groups.

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Jayles, Bertrand; Kim, Hye-Rin; Escobedo, Ramón; Cezera, Stéphane; Blanchet, Adrien; Kameda, Tatsuya; Sire, Clément; Theraulaz, Guy

2017-11-21

In our digital and connected societies, the development of social networks, online shopping, and reputation systems raises the questions of how individuals use social information and how it affects their decisions. We report experiments performed in France and Japan, in which subjects could update their estimates after having received information from other subjects. We measure and model the impact of this social information at individual and collective scales. We observe and justify that, when individuals have little prior knowledge about a quantity, the distribution of the logarithm of their estimates is close to a Cauchy distribution. We find that social influence helps the group improve its properly defined collective accuracy. We quantify the improvement of the group estimation when additional controlled and reliable information is provided, unbeknownst to the subjects. We show that subjects' sensitivity to social influence permits us to define five robust behavioral traits and increases with the difference between personal and group estimates. We then use our data to build and calibrate a model of collective estimation to analyze the impact on the group performance of the quantity and quality of information received by individuals. The model quantitatively reproduces the distributions of estimates and the improvement of collective performance and accuracy observed in our experiments. Finally, our model predicts that providing a moderate amount of incorrect information to individuals can counterbalance the human cognitive bias to systematically underestimate quantities and thereby improve collective performance. Copyright © 2017 the Author(s). Published by PNAS.

Why and how people engage in social comparison while learning social skills in groups.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Buunk, Abraham (Bram); Cohen-Schotanus, J; Nek, R.H.

This study was conducted among 269 medical students who participated in educational training groups. Self-evaluation was the most important motive to engage in social comparison with other group members, followed by, respectively, self-enhancement and self-improvement. Upward comparisons (i.e., with

The Influence of Social Comparison and Peer Group Size on Risky Decision-Making.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Dawei; Zhu, Liping; Maguire, Phil; Liu, Yixin; Pang, Kaiyuan; Li, Zhenying; Hu, Yixin

2016-01-01

This study explores the influence of different social reference points and different comparison group sizes on risky decision-making. Participants were presented with a scenario describing an exam, and presented with the opportunity of making a risky decision in the context of different information provided about the performance of their peers. We found that behavior was influenced, not only by comparison with peers, but also by the size of the comparison group. Specifically, the larger the reference group, the more polarized the behavior it prompted. In situations describing social loss, participants were led to make riskier decisions after comparing themselves against larger groups, while in situations describing social gain, they become more risk averse. These results indicate that decision making is influenced both by social comparison and the number of people making up the social reference group.

Social Skills Group Training in High-Functioning Autism: A Qualitative Responder Study

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Choque Olsson, Nora; Rautio, Daniel; Asztalos, Jenny; Stoetzer, Ulrich; Bölte, Sven

2016-01-01

Systematic reviews show some evidence for the efficacy of group-based social skills group training in children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder, but more rigorous research is needed to endorse generalizability. In addition, little is known about the perspectives of autistic individuals participating in social skills group training.…

The Purpose of Tutorial Groups: Social Influence and the Group as Means and Objective

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Rosander, Michael; Chiriac, Eva Hammar

2016-01-01

The aim of this study was to investigate how first-year students view the purpose of tutorial groups in problem-based learning. In all, 147 students from 24 groups participated, providing 399 statements. Data were analysed using thematic analysis. The results showed a focus on both learning and social influence. Learning involved the tutorial as…

A Group in Urban: The Social Capital of Ciliwung Depok Community (KCD)

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Tampi, D. M.; Sumabrata, J.; Zubair, A.; Kinan, N. H.

2018-03-01

Climate change is a phenomenon that not only affects physical aspect of the environment, but also the social aspect. As a consequence, the urban communities are also its group which is highly vulnerable to climate change impact. Depok Ciliwung Community or Komunitas Ciliwung Depok (KCD) is located under Grand Depok City Bridge to keep an environment such as land conversion and garbage. This study aims to determine the social capital of KCD’s group related to the potential of social resilience in Ciliwung riverbank along Depok City. Data were gathered from in-depth interviews, observation, and documentation within 4 months. KCD invited the local people to keep and maintain an environment of Ciliwung riverbank. The result of this study lies on the strengths and weaknesses of KCD’s Group and involvement of human resources, with the support of public and private sectors facilities. Their commitments and actions on behalf of social interests protecting the rights of individuals in society. The conclusions of this research are KCD group have several aspects of social capital that consists of strengths and weaknesses. The presence of social capital and the potential of social resilience helped KCD and the surrounding of Ciliwung riverbank in facing of climate change/threat of natural disruption caused by the humans itself.

A comparison of two group-delivered social skills programs for young children with autism.

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Kroeger, K A; Schultz, Janet R; Newsom, Crighton

2007-05-01

A social skills group intervention was developed and evaluated for young children with autism. Twenty-five 4- to 6-year-old (diagnosed) children were assigned to one of two kinds of social skills groups: the direct teaching group or the play activities group. The direct teaching group used a video-modeling format to teach play and social skills over the course of the intervention, while the play activities group engaged in unstructured play during the sessions. Groups met for 5 weeks, three times per week, 1 h each time. Data were derived and coded from videotapes of pre- and post-treatment unstructured play sessions. Findings indicated that while members of both groups increased prosocial behaviors, the direct teaching group made more gains in social skills.

Filipino students' reported parental socialization of academic achievement by socioeconomic group.

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Bernardo, Allan B I

2009-10-01

Academic achievement of students differs by socioeconomic group. Parents' socialization of academic achievement in their children was explored in self-reports of 241 students from two socioeconomic status (SES) groups in the Philippines, using a scale developed by Bempechat, et al. Students in the upper SES group had higher achievement than their peers in the middle SES group, but had lower scores on most dimensions of parental socialization of academic achievement. Regression analyses indicate that reported parental attempts to encourage more effort to achieve was associated with lower achievement in students with upper SES.

Marginalised social groups in contemporary weee management within social enterprises investments: A study in Greece

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Papaoikonomou, K.; Kipouros, S.; Kungolos, A.; Somakos, L.; Aravossis, K.; Antonopoulos, I.; Karagiannidis, A.

2009-01-01

This paper deals with the creation of appropriate conditions aimed at developing social services for reuse and recycling of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), by the inclusion of handicapped and Roma people in the workforce. Application areas for the project are the Hellenic (Greek) regions of Thessaly and North Aegean, where these groups suffer from professional and social exclusion. The efforts to reduce unemployment in the two aforementioned groups, together with the efforts to implement related Greek and European legislation for sustainable WEEE management, are examined here. Furthermore, networking and cooperation at local, regional and central levels between small enterprises, entrepreneurships and local authorities are examined, so that these social enterprises and their corresponding investments may support the development of the Greek alternative WEEE recycling system

Warring arthropod societies: Social spider colonies can delay annihilation by predatory ants via reduced apparency and increased group size.

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Keiser, Carl N; Wright, Colin M; Pruitt, Jonathan N

2015-10-01

Sociality provides individuals with benefits via collective foraging and anti-predator defense. One of the costs of living in large groups, however, is increased apparency to natural enemies. Here, we test how the individual-level and collective traits of spider societies can increase the risk of discovery and death by predatory ants. We transplanted colonies of the social spider Stegodyphus dumicola into a habitat dense with one of their top predators, the pugnacious ant Anoplolepis custodiens. With three different experiments, we test how colony-wide survivorship in a predator-dense habitat can be altered by colony apparency (i.e., the presence of a capture web), group size, and group composition (i.e., the proportion of bold and shy personality types present). We also test how spiders' social context (i.e., living solitarily vs. among conspecifics) modifies their behaviour toward ants in their capture web. Colonies with capture webs intact were discovered by predatory ants on average 25% faster than colonies with the capture web removed, and all discovered colonies eventually collapsed and succumbed to predation. However, the lag time from discovery by ants to colony collapse was greater for colonies containing more individuals. The composition of individual personality types in the group had no influence on survivorship. Spiders in a social group were more likely to approach ants caught in their web than were isolated spiders. Isolated spiders were more likely to attack a safe prey item (a moth) than they were to attack ants and were more likely to retreat from ants after contact than they were after contact with moths. Together, our data suggest that the physical structures produced by large animal societies can increase their apparency to natural enemies, though larger groups can facilitate a longer lag time between discovery and demise. Lastly, the interaction between spiders and predatory ants seems to depend on the social context in which spiders reside

Integrating a Social Behavior Intervention during Small Group Academic Instruction Using a Total Group Criterion Intervention

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Rodriguez, Billie Jo; Anderson, Cynthia M.

2014-01-01

Total group contingencies, a variation of interdependent group contingencies, provide educators with an efficient and effective mechanism to improve social behavior and increase academic skills. Their utility has not been examined in small educational groups. This is unfortunate as supplemental instruction frequently is delivered in small group…

Social influence in computer-mediated communication : The effects of anonymity on group behavior

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Postmes, T; Spears, R; Sakhel, K; de Groot, D

2001-01-01

Two studies examined hypotheses derived from a Social Identity model of Deindividuation Effects (SIDE) as applied to social influence in computer-mediated communication (CMC) in groups. This model predicts that anonymity can increase social influence if a common group identity is salient. In a first

Survival benefits select for group living in a social spider despite reproductive costs

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bilde, T.; Coates, K.S.; Birkhofer, K.

2007-01-01

The evolution of cooperation requires benefits of group living to exceed costs. Hence, some components of fitness are expected to increase with increasing group size, whereas others may decrease because of competition among group members. The social spiders provide an excellent system to investig......The evolution of cooperation requires benefits of group living to exceed costs. Hence, some components of fitness are expected to increase with increasing group size, whereas others may decrease because of competition among group members. The social spiders provide an excellent system...... to investigate the costs and benefits of group living: they occur in groups of various sizes and individuals are relatively short-lived, therefore life history traits and Lifetime Reproductive Success (LRS) can be estimated as a function of group size. Sociality in spiders has originated repeatedly...... and survival in the social spider Stegodyphus dumicola in two populations in Namibia. In both populations, the major benefit of group living was improved survival of colonies and late-instar juveniles with increasing colony size. By contrast, female fecundity, female body size and early juvenile survival...

Ideologically motivated activism: How activist groups influence corporate social change activities

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den Hond, F.; de Bakker, F.G.A.; Hickman, G. R.

2010-01-01

Using insights from the social movement literature and institutional change theory, we explore how activism influences corporate social change activities. As the responsibility for addressing a variety of social issues is transferred from the state to the private sector, activist groups increasingly

BEYOND SOCIAL SKILLS: GROUP DYNAMICS AT SOCIAL SKILLS TRAINING FOR HIGH FUNCTIONING ADOLESCENTS WITH AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDERS

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Agnieszka Siedler

2015-06-01

Full Text Available The usefulness of group social skills training in Autism Spectrum Disorder therapy has been well established. However, little is known about the group dynamics of this kind of intervention. The current multiple case studies were conducted to demonstrate that, despite of the functioning specifics of participants with ASD, processes associated with the dynamics of the group during group social skills training session may be noticeable. Intervention groups consisted of fifteen adolescents and preadolescents with high functioning Autism Spectrum Disorders aged between 11 to 17 years old divided into three training groups. The social skills training sessions were conducted on a weekly basis. The observation lasted for six months and it included the formation of the group, the period of stability and unexpected changes. After each group session, the therapists filled in a detailed report about the participants’ behavior and interactions between participants. Collected data were carefully analyzed for group dynamic features. It was noticed that adolescents participating in group interventions are susceptible to the influence of the group, take different individual roles and are moderately sensitive to changes in the group structure. The influence of the disorder characteristics on group dynamics was also observed. Although the results show that group dynamics can be observed at a group training for ASD, the need for further structured observation should be emphasized as a current study constituted the first approach to the subject.

Early social isolation impairs development, mate choice and grouping behaviour of predatory mites.

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Schausberger, Peter; Gratzer, Marian; Strodl, Markus A

2017-05-01

The social environment early in life is a key determinant of developmental, physiological and behavioural trajectories across vertebrate and invertebrate animals. One crucial variable is the presence/absence of conspecifics. For animals usually reared in groups, social isolation after birth or hatching can be a highly stressful circumstance, with potentially long-lasting consequences. Here, we assessed the effects of social deprivation (isolation) early in life, that is, absence of conspecifics, versus social enrichment, that is, presence of conspecifics, on developmental time, body size at maturity, mating behaviour and group-living in the plant-inhabiting predatory mite Phytoseiulus persimilis . Socially deprived protonymphs developed more slowly and were less socially competent in grouping behaviour than socially enriched protonymphs. Compromised social competence in grouping behaviour was evident in decreased activity, fewer mutual encounters and larger interindividual distances, all of which may entail severe fitness costs. In female choice/male competition, socially deprived males mated earlier than socially enriched males; in male choice/female competition, socially deprived females were more likely to mate than socially enriched females. In neither mate choice situation did mating duration or body size at maturity differ between socially deprived and enriched mating opponents. Social isolation-induced shifts in mating behaviour may be interpreted as increased attractiveness or competitiveness or, more likely, as hastiness and reduced ability to assess mate quality. Overall, many of the social isolation-induced behavioural changes in P. persimilis are analogous to those observed in other animals such as cockroaches, fruit flies, fishes or rodents. We argue that, due to their profound and persistent effects, early social deprivation or enrichment may be important determinants in shaping animal personalities.

Young children's inclusion decisions in moral and social-conventional group norm contexts.

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Rizzo, Michael T; Cooley, Shelby; Elenbaas, Laura; Killen, Melanie

2018-01-01

Being a member of a peer group involves making decisions about whom to include in or exclude from the group. Sometimes these decisions are related to whether members of the group support or challenge the norms of the group. To examine how young children weigh concerns for group norms and group membership in both moral and social-conventional norm contexts, children (3- to 6-year-olds; N=73) were asked to decide between including an ingroup member who challenged the group's norm or an outgroup member who supported the norm. Groups held either moral (equal or unequal resource allocation) or social-conventional (traditional or nontraditional) norms. In the moral contexts, children were more likely to include the peer who advocated for the moral concern for equality regardless of the peer's group membership or their group's specific norm. In the social-conventional contexts, however, children were more likely to include the peer who advocated for the conventional concern for maintaining traditions but only at the group-specific level. Furthermore, with age children increasingly based their inclusion decisions on normative concerns, rather than on group membership concerns, and differed in their inclusion decisions for ingroups and outgroups. Finally, children reasoned about their decisions by referencing concerns for fairness, group norms, and group membership, suggesting that preschool children weigh multiple concerns when deciding whom to include in their groups. Overall, the current study revealed differences in how preschool children weigh moral and social-conventional concerns in intergroup contexts. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A content analysis of chronic diseases social groups on Facebook and Twitter.

Science.gov (United States)

De la Torre-Díez, Isabel; Díaz-Pernas, Francisco Javier; Antón-Rodríguez, Míriam

2012-01-01

Research on the use of social networks for health-related purposes is limited. This study aims to characterize the purpose and use of Facebook and Twitter groups concerning colorectal cancer, breast cancer, and diabetes. We searched in Facebook ( www.facebook.com ) and Twitter ( www.twitter.com ) using the terms "colorectal cancer," "breast cancer," and "diabetes." Each important group has been analyzed by extracting its network name, number of members, interests, and Web site URL. We found 216 breast cancer groups, 171 colorectal cancer groups, and 527 diabetes groups on Facebook and Twitter. The largest percentage of the colorectal cancer groups (25.58%) addresses prevention, similarly to breast cancer, whereas diabetes groups are mainly focused on research issues (25.09%). There are more social groups about breast cancer and diabetes on Facebook (around 82%) than on Twitter (around 18%). Regarding colorectal cancer, the difference is less: Facebook had 62.23%, and Twitter 31.76%. Social networks are a useful tool for supporting patients suffering from these three diseases. Regarding the use of these social networks for disease support purposes, Facebook shows a higher usage rate than Twitter, perhaps because Twitter is newer than Facebook, and its use is not so generalized.

Social Exclusion of Disadvantaged Groups in the Modern Russian Society

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Evelina Ravilevna Galieva

2017-09-01

Full Text Available Social exclusion is both a scientific theory and a socio-political discourse. This paper deals with the study of social exclusion of deprived groups such as drug users, which is based on an analysis of complex issues arising from the spread and use of psychoactive substances. The spread of drug abuse as a phenomenon is the cause of the stigmatization of communities and the exclusion of drug users from societies. The problem carriers are not only patients with drug addiction, but also those who have experience of one-time, episodic experiments with drugs and psychotropic substances. This paper is based on the results of empirical studies, which the subject was the study of drug use practices in modern society. The combination of a quantitative and qualitative strategy for data collection and analysis represented a dynamic accumulation of information at different levels about the object under study – social exclusion of drug users: methods of document analysis were applied such as regulatory legal acts, interviews with drug users and experts in the field of drug use and questionnaire survey, as well as secondary analysis of data from all-Russian sociological research. The social exclusion of deprived groups and ways to overcome it directly depend on the nature of the scenarios for social exclusion, which is the result of the stigmatization of deprived groups.

The Role of Social Identity Complexity in Inter-Group Attitudes among Young Adolescents

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Knifsend, Casey A.; Juvonen, Jaana

2013-01-01

To supplement research on adolescent social identities, the current study examined how social identity complexity relates to ethnic inter-group attitudes in a young adolescent sample (N = 97; "age range" = 12-14 years). Social identity complexity refers to the perceived overlap of groups with which youth align themselves. Descriptive…

New Frontiers in Analyzing Dynamic Group Interactions: Bridging Social and Computer Science.

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Lehmann-Willenbrock, Nale; Hung, Hayley; Keyton, Joann

2017-10-01

This special issue on advancing interdisciplinary collaboration between computer scientists and social scientists documents the joint results of the international Lorentz workshop, "Interdisciplinary Insights into Group and Team Dynamics," which took place in Leiden, The Netherlands, July 2016. An equal number of scholars from social and computer science participated in the workshop and contributed to the papers included in this special issue. In this introduction, we first identify interaction dynamics as the core of group and team models and review how scholars in social and computer science have typically approached behavioral interactions in groups and teams. Next, we identify key challenges for interdisciplinary collaboration between social and computer scientists, and we provide an overview of the different articles in this special issue aimed at addressing these challenges.

How does social essentialism affect the development of inter-group relations?

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Rhodes, Marjorie; Leslie, Sarah-Jane; Saunders, Katya; Dunham, Yarrow; Cimpian, Andrei

2018-01-01

Psychological essentialism is a pervasive conceptual bias to view categories as reflecting something deep, stable, and informative about their members. Scholars from diverse disciplines have long theorized that psychological essentialism has negative ramifications for inter-group relations, yet little previous empirical work has experimentally tested the social implications of essentialist beliefs. Three studies (N = 127, ages 4.5-6) found that experimentally inducing essentialist beliefs about a novel social category led children to share fewer resources with category members, but did not lead to the out-group dislike that defines social prejudice. These findings indicate that essentialism negatively influences some key components of inter-group relations, but does not lead directly to the development of prejudice. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

From Social Exclusion to Supported Inclusion: Adults with Intellectual Disability Discuss Their Lived Experiences of a Structured Social Group.

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Wilson, Nathan J; Jaques, Hayden; Johnson, Amanda; Brotherton, Michelle L

2017-09-01

People with intellectual disability often have few friends and experience social exclusion. Recognising this gap, supported social groups with the aim of inclusion and interdependence were created by a supported employment provider. Interviews were undertaken with 10 adults with intellectual disability exploring their lived experiences of a supported social group. Data were analysed using descriptive phenomenology. Two themes emerged (i) supported engagement fosters wellbeing, and (ii) developing social belonging and connectedness. Participants not only acknowledged the support that they needed to participate, but also that the social group had changed their lives in many ways. Adults with intellectual disability want to socialise, have friends and be part of their community. For this to be achieved, they recognise the need to seek some form of support. With appropriate and targeted support, adults with intellectual disability can move from social exclusion towards supported inclusion and experience richer lives. © 2016 The Authors Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Social status drives social relationships in groups of unrelated female rhesus macaques.

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Snyder-Mackler, Noah; Kohn, Jordan N; Barreiro, Luis B; Johnson, Zachary P; Wilson, Mark E; Tung, Jenny

2016-01-01

Strong social relationships confer health and fitness benefits in a number of species, motivating the need to understand the processes through which they arise. In female cercopithecine primates, both kinship and dominance rank are thought to influence rates of affiliative behaviour and social partner preference. Teasing apart the relative importance of these factors has been challenging, however, as female kin often occupy similar positions in the dominance hierarchy. Here, we isolated the specific effects of rank on social relationships in female rhesus macaques by analysing grooming patterns in 18 social groups that did not contain close relatives, and in which dominance ranks were experimentally randomized. We found that grooming was asymmetrically directed towards higher-ranking females and that grooming bouts temporarily decreased the likelihood of aggression between grooming partners, supporting the idea that grooming is associated with social tolerance. Even in the absence of kin, females formed the strongest grooming relationships with females adjacent to them in rank, a pattern that was strongest for the highest-ranking females. Using simulations, we show that three rules for allocating grooming based on dominance rank recapitulated most of the relationships we observed. Finally, we evaluated whether a female's tendency to engage in grooming behaviour was stable across time and social setting. We found that one measure, the rate of grooming females provided to others (but not the rate of grooming females received), exhibited modest stability after accounting for the primary effect of dominance rank. Together, our findings indicate that dominance rank has strong effects on social relationships in the absence of kin, suggesting the importance of considering social status and social connectedness jointly when investigating their health and fitness consequences.

Communication and Social Exchange Processes in Community Theater Groups

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Kramer, Michael W.

2005-01-01

This study explores the communication experiences of two volunteer groups involved in the production of community theater musicals. Based on social exchange theory, it examined what group members perceived to be the positive benefits (primarily meeting people and having an opportunity to perform) and the negative costs (primarily disorganization,…

A Psychoeducational School-Based Group Intervention for Socially Anxious Children

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Vassilopoulos, Stephanos P.; Brouzos, Andreas; Damer, Diana E.; Mellou, Angeliki; Mitropoulou, Alexandra

2013-01-01

This study investigated the impact of a psychoeducational group for social anxiety aimed at elementary children. An 8-week psychoeducational program based on empirically validated risk factors was designed. Interventions included cognitive restructuring, anxiety management techniques, and social skills training. Pre-and posttest data from 3 groups…

An Automatic User Grouping Model for a Group Recommender System in Location-Based Social Networks

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Elahe Khazaei

2018-02-01

Full Text Available Spatial group recommendation refers to suggesting places to a given set of users. In a group recommender system, members of a group should have similar preferences in order to increase the level of satisfaction. Location-based social networks (LBSNs provide rich content, such as user interactions and location/event descriptions, which can be leveraged for group recommendations. In this paper, an automatic user grouping model is introduced that obtains information about users and their preferences through an LBSN. The preferences of the users, proximity of the places the users have visited in terms of spatial range, users’ free days, and the social relationships among users are extracted automatically from location histories and users’ profiles in the LBSN. These factors are combined to determine the similarities among users. The users are partitioned into groups based on these similarities. Group size is the key to coordinating group members and enhancing their satisfaction. Therefore, a modified k-medoids method is developed to cluster users into groups with specific sizes. To evaluate the efficiency of the proposed method, its mean intra-cluster distance and its distribution of cluster sizes are compared to those of general clustering algorithms. The results reveal that the proposed method compares favourably with general clustering approaches, such as k-medoids and spectral clustering, in separating users into groups of a specific size with a lower mean intra-cluster distance.

What's in a Name: Dimensions of Social Learning in Teacher Groups

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Vrieling, E.; van den Beemt, A.; de Laat, M.

2016-01-01

Induced by a literature review, this paper presents a framework of dimensions and indicators highlighting the underpinning aspects and values of social learning within teacher groups. Notions of social networks, communities of practice and learning teams were taken as the main perspectives to influence this social learning framework. The review…

A Programmatic Description of a Social Skills Group for Young Children with Autism

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Leaf, Justin B.; Dotson, Wesley H.; Oppenheim-Leaf, Misty L.; Sherman, James A.; Sheldon, Jan B.

2012-01-01

Deficits in social skills are a common problem for children with autism. One method of developing appropriate social skills in children with autism has been group instruction. To date, however, group instruction has produced mixed results. The purpose of this article is to describe a promising method of teaching social skills to children in small…

Cultural Values in Intergroup and Single-Group Social Dilemmas.

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Probst; Carnevale; Triandis

1999-03-01

Do cultural values influence the manner in which people cooperate with one another? This study assessed cultural characteristics of individuals and then related these characteristics to cooperative behavior in social dilemmas. Participants were assessed for their degree of vertical and horizontal individualism and collectivism, cultural values identified by Triandis (1995). They made choices in either a single-group or an intergroup social dilemma. The single-group dilemma entailed a three-person dilemma; the intergroup dilemma was identical but added subgroup competition, i.e., an opposing three-person group. The results indicated an interaction between cultural characteristics and type of dilemma for cooperation. The single-group versus intergroup effect reported by Bornstein and Ben-Yossef (1994) was replicated, but only for vertical individualists. The vertical individualists were least cooperative in the single-group dilemma but were more cooperative in the intergroup dilemma-where cooperation with the group maximized personal outcomes. The vertical collectivists were most cooperative in the single-group dilemma but were less cooperative in the intergroup dilemma- where group defection resulted in maximum group outcomes. The horizontal individualists and collectivists exhibited an intermediate level of cooperation, with no differences in cooperation between the single-group and intergroup dilemmas. Taken together, the results suggest that the relationship between cultural values and cooperation, in particular with reference to vertical and horizontal components of individualism and collectivism, is more complex than has been suggested in past research. Copyright 1999 Academic Press.

The group-lending model and social closure: microcredit, exclusion, and health in Bangladesh.

Science.gov (United States)

Schurmann, Anna T; Johnston, Heidi Bart

2009-08-01

According to social exclusion theory, health risks are positively associated with involuntary social, economic, political and cultural exclusion from society. In this paper, a social exclusion framework has been used, and available literature on microcredit in Bangladesh has been reviewed to explore the available evidence on associations among microcredit, exclusion, and health outcomes. The paper addresses the question of whether participation in group-lending reduces health inequities through promoting social inclusion. The group-lending model of microcredit is a development intervention in which small-scale credit for income-generation activities is provided to groups of individuals who do not have material collateral. The paper outlines four pathways through which microcredit can affect health status: financing care in the event of health emergencies; financing health inputs such as improved nutrition; as a platform for health education; and by increasing social capital through group meetings and mutual support. For many participants, the group-lending model of microcredit can mitigate exclusionary processes and lead to improvements in health for some; for others, it can worsen exclusionary processes which contribute to health disadvantage.

The Group-lending Model and Social Closure: Microcredit, Exclusion, and Health in Bangladesh

Science.gov (United States)

Johnston, Heidi Bart

2009-01-01

According to social exclusion theory, health risks are positively associated with involuntary social, economic, political and cultural exclusion from society. In this paper, a social exclusion framework has been used, and available literature on microcredit in Bangladesh has been reviewed to explore the available evidence on associations among microcredit, exclusion, and health outcomes. The paper addresses the question of whether participation in group-lending reduces health inequities through promoting social inclusion. The group-lending model of microcredit is a development intervention in which small-scale credit for income-generation activities is provided to groups of individuals who do not have material collateral. The paper outlines four pathways through which microcredit can affect health status: financing care in the event of health emergencies; financing health inputs such as improved nutrition; as a platform for health education; and by increasing social capital through group meetings and mutual support. For many participants, the group-lending model of microcredit can mitigate exclusionary processes and lead to improvements in health for some; for others, it can worsen exclusionary processes which contribute to health disadvantage. PMID:19761085

Incorporating social groups' responses in a descriptive model for second- and higher-order impact identification

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sutheerawatthana, Pitch; Minato, Takayuki

2010-01-01

The response of a social group is a missing element in the formal impact assessment model. Previous discussion of the involvement of social groups in an intervention has mainly focused on the formation of the intervention. This article discusses the involvement of social groups in a different way. A descriptive model is proposed by incorporating a social group's response into the concept of second- and higher-order effects. The model is developed based on a cause-effect relationship through the observation of phenomena in case studies. The model clarifies the process by which social groups interact with a lower-order effect and then generate a higher-order effect in an iterative manner. This study classifies social groups' responses into three forms-opposing, modifying, and advantage-taking action-and places them in six pathways. The model is expected to be used as an analytical tool for investigating and identifying impacts in the planning stage and as a framework for monitoring social groups' responses during the implementation stage of a policy, plan, program, or project (PPPPs).

The impact of high trait social anxiety on neural processing of facial emotion expressions in females.

Science.gov (United States)

Felmingham, Kim L; Stewart, Laura F; Kemp, Andrew H; Carr, Andrea R

2016-05-01

A cognitive model of social anxiety predicts that an early attentional bias leads to greater cognitive processing of social threat signals, whereas the vigilance-avoidance model predicts there will be subsequent reduction in cognitive processing. This study tests these models by examining neural responses to social threat stimuli using Event-related potentials (ERP). 19 women with high trait social anxiety and 19 women with low trait social anxiety viewed emotional expressions (angry, disgusted, happy and neutral) in a passive viewing task whilst ERP responses were recorded. The HSA group revealed greater automatic attention, or hypervigilance, to all facial expressions, as indexed by greater N1 amplitude compared to the LSA group. They also showed greater sustained attention and elaborative processing of all facial expressions, indexed by significantly increased P2 and P3 amplitudes compared to the LSA group. These results support cognitive models of social anxiety, but are not consistent with predictions of the vigilance-avoidance model. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Sexual predators, energy development, and conservation in greater Yellowstone.

Science.gov (United States)

Berger, Joel; Beckmann, Jon P

2010-06-01

In the United States, as elsewhere, a growing debate pits national energy policy and homeland security against biological conservation. In rural communities the extraction of fossil fuels is often encouraged because of the employment opportunities it offers, although the concomitant itinerant workforce is often associated with increased wildlife poaching. We explored possible positive and negative factors associated with energy extraction in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE), an area known for its national parks, intact biological diversity, and some of the New World's longest terrestrial migrations. Specifically, we asked whether counties with different economies-recreation (ski), agrarian (ranching or farming), and energy extractive (petroleum)-differed in healthcare (gauged by the abundance of hospital beds) and in the frequency of sexual predators. The absolute and relative frequency of registered sex offenders grew approximately two to three times faster in areas reliant on energy extraction. Healthcare among counties did not differ. The strong conflation of community dishevel, as reflected by in-migrant sexual predators, and ecological decay in Greater Yellowstone is consistent with patterns seen in similar systems from Ecuador to northern Canada, where social and environmental disarray exist around energy boomtowns. In our case, that groups (albeit with different aims) mobilized campaigns to help maintain the quality of rural livelihoods by protecting open space is a positive sign that conservation can matter, especially in the face of rampant and poorly executed energy extraction projects. Our findings further suggest that the public and industry need stronger regulatory action to instill greater vigilance when and where social factors and land conversion impact biological systems.

SOCIAL PROGRESS AND ECONOMIC PROJECTS FOR DISADVANTAGED GROUPS IN ROMANIA

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Aurelian Virgil BALUTA

2016-12-01

Full Text Available The paper aims to analyse the social progress, social politics, social law and successful projects applicable to the some disadvantaged groups: Roma people and woman. Inclusion of Roma people is analysed from economic point of view. The economic problems of equality by gender is presented in terms of labour rate and other relevant ratio. For Roma people the focus of analyse is also on labour involvement. The chapters of the communication are: introduction, literature review ( state of art in the field of social progress, theoretical background, tools for social progress in EU, economic inclusion of Roma population, economic equality by gender, conclusions.

Evaluating user-generated content in social media: an effective approach to encourage greater pro-environmental behavior in tourism?

OpenAIRE

Han, Wei; McCabe, Scott; Wang, Yi; Chong, Alain Yee Loong

2017-01-01

Appealing to tourists’ intrinsic interest for high-quality tourism environments, and thus encouraging them to act with a greater sense of personal responsibility toward the environment, could be critical to promoting sustainable tourism. Proliferating media channels makes the choice, style and delivery of pro-environmental messages a key issue for tourism marketers and management. Social media has become a recognized important channel for tourism information, with user-generated content (UGC)...

The walking behaviour of pedestrian social groups and its impact on crowd dynamics.

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Mehdi Moussaïd

Full Text Available Human crowd motion is mainly driven by self-organized processes based on local interactions among pedestrians. While most studies of crowd behaviour consider only interactions among isolated individuals, it turns out that up to 70% of people in a crowd are actually moving in groups, such as friends, couples, or families walking together. These groups constitute medium-scale aggregated structures and their impact on crowd dynamics is still largely unknown. In this work, we analyze the motion of approximately 1500 pedestrian groups under natural condition, and show that social interactions among group members generate typical group walking patterns that influence crowd dynamics. At low density, group members tend to walk side by side, forming a line perpendicular to the walking direction. As the density increases, however, the linear walking formation is bent forward, turning it into a V-like pattern. These spatial patterns can be well described by a model based on social communication between group members. We show that the V-like walking pattern facilitates social interactions within the group, but reduces the flow because of its "non-aerodynamic" shape. Therefore, when crowd density increases, the group organization results from a trade-off between walking faster and facilitating social exchange. These insights demonstrate that crowd dynamics is not only determined by physical constraints induced by other pedestrians and the environment, but also significantly by communicative, social interactions among individuals.

Greater Pupil Size in Response to Emotional Faces as an Early Marker of Social-Communicative Difficulties in Infants at High Risk for Autism.

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Wagner, Jennifer B; Luyster, Rhiannon J; Tager-Flusberg, Helen; Nelson, Charles A

2016-01-01

When scanning faces, individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have shown reduced visual attention (e.g., less time on eyes) and atypical autonomic responses (e.g., heightened arousal). To understand how these differences might explain sub-clinical variability in social functioning, 9-month-olds, with or without a family history of ASD, viewed emotionally-expressive faces, and gaze and pupil diameter (a measure of autonomic activation) were recorded using eye-tracking. Infants at high-risk for ASD with no subsequent clinical diagnosis (HRA-) and low-risk controls (LRC) showed similar face scanning and attention to eyes and mouth. Attention was overall greater to eyes than mouth, but this varied as a function of the emotion presented. HRA- showed significantly larger pupil size than LRC. Correlations between scanning at 9 months, pupil size at 9 months, and 18-month social-communicative behavior, revealed positive associations between pupil size and attention to both face and eyes at 9 months in LRC, and a negative association between 9-month pupil size and 18-month social-communicative behavior in HRA-. The present findings point to heightened autonomic arousal in HRA-. Further, with greater arousal relating to worse social-communicative functioning at 18 months, this work points to a mechanism by which unaffected siblings might develop atypical social behavior.

The Effects of Social Network Centrality on Group Satisfaction

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Choi, Peter M

2007-01-01

.... To determine the relationship between social network centrality and work group satisfaction, a longitudinal field study was conducted on 440 active duty enlisted military members in a leadership...

Online Social Support for the Prevention of Smoking Relapse: A Content Analysis of the WhatsApp and Facebook Social Groups.

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Cheung, Yee Tak Derek; Chan, Ching Han Helen; Wang, Man Ping; Li, Ho Cheung William; Lam, Tai-Hing

2017-06-01

Online social groups have been increasingly used for smoking cessation intervention. This study aimed to explore the social support components of the online discussion through WhatsApp and Facebook, how these components addressed the need of relapse prevention, and how the participants evaluated this intervention. We coded and analyzed the posts (N = 467) by the 82 recent quitters in WhatsApp and Facebook social groups, who were recruited from the eight smoking cessation clinics in Hong Kong to participate in a pragmatic randomized trial of relapse prevention. Participants' postintervention feedback was collected from the 13 qualitative interviews after the intervention. The WhatsApp social groups had more participants' posts than the Facebook counterparts. The participants' posts in the online social groups could be classified as sharing views and experiences (55.5%), encouragement (28.7%), and knowledge and information (15.8%). About half of the participants' posts (52.9%) addressed the themes listed in the U.S. Clinical Practice Guideline for preventing smoking relapse. The participants perceived the posts as useful reminders for smoking cessation, but avoidance of reporting relapse, inactive discussions, and uninteresting content were barriers to the success of the intervention. Online social groups provided a useful platform for the delivery of cessation support and encouragement of reporting abstinence, which support relapse prevention. The effectiveness of such intervention can be improved by encouraging more self-report of relapse, active discussions, sharing of interesting content, and using an appropriate discussion platform. Quitters who participate in the online social groups can benefit from peer support and information sharing, and hence prevent smoking relapse.

RELIGIOUS IDENTIFICATION AND SOCIAL DISTANCE BETWEEN RELIGIOUS GROUPS IN YOGYAKARTA

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Cahyo Pamungkas

2016-01-01

Full Text Available This paper explains how political, religious, and economic changes in Yogyakarta affect the formation of religious identity and social distance between different religious groups. The strengthening of religious identity in this area took place in the period of the Diponegoro War (1825-1830 when religious issues were used in the mobilization against the Dutch colonialist. Then, the spread of Christianity in Java at the end of 19th led to several tensions between missionaries and several Islamic organizations, but never developed into communal violence. In 1930s, the relation between religious groups remain harmonious due to the development of tolerant culture and pluralism. During the 1980s, the use of religious identity grew both in urban and rural areas in line with social processes of modernization. Da’wat activities on Campus (Lembaga Dakwah Kampus plays important roles in promoting religious life in urban areas. The 1998 political reform marked the rise of religious fundamentalist movements that to a certain degree contributes to social distance between religious groups.

Connecting the Dots: Social Network Structure, Conflict, and Group Cognitive Complexity

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Curseu, Petru L.; Janssen, Steffie E. A.; Raab, Jorg

2012-01-01

The current paper combines arguments from the social capital and group cognition literature to explain two different processes through which communication network structures and intra group conflict influence groups' cognitive complexity (GCC). We test in a sample of 44 groups the mediating role of intra group conflict in the relationship between…

Rethinking Conceptions of Borders in the Greater Mekong Subregion: An Interview With Chayan Vaddhanabhuti (RCSD

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Napakadol Kittisenee

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Dr. Chayan Vaddhanabhuti is Director of the Regional Centre for Social Science and Sustainable Development (RCSD, Thailand. The RCSD was established in 1998 at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Chiang Mai University, in response to the need for integration of social science and natural science knowledge in order to gain a better understanding of sustainable development in upper Mainland South-East Asia. Chayan Vaddhanabhuti has long been dedicated to the fi eld of social sciences, development issues, and engaged himself extensively with ethnic groups both within Thailand and beyond. In this interview he introduces the work of RSCD and discusses the changing perceptions of the concept of ‘border’ in the context of Thailand and the Greater Mekong Subregion.

Social groups and CO2 emissions in Spanish households

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Duarte, Rosa; Mainar, Alfredo; Sánchez-Chóliz, Julio

2012-01-01

This paper examines the social factors that underlie the composition of final demand and, therefore, determine the final volume of emissions. The study throws light on the relationships between the parameters characterising Spanish households (income, urban/rural residence, local population density, head of household's level of education and social class) and their behaviour with regard to consumption and the demand for goods and services. On this basis, we determine which consumption patterns are best aligned with sustainable growth and development. Our main conclusion is that the factors analysed determine the volume of emissions for each household in terms of their correlation with income, which is the primary determinant of consumption patterns. The methodology proposed combines linear SAM models and econometric estimation of emissions elasticity with respect to spending. - Highlights: ► The methodology proposed combines linear SAM models and econometric estimation. ► Social factors determine the volume of emissions for each household. ► This is due to their correlation with income, which determine consumption patterns. ► Higher levels of spending do not entail greater household emission intensities. ► Elasticities of emissions calculated are lower than one.

Ecology and Evolution of Communication in Social Insects.

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Leonhardt, Sara Diana; Menzel, Florian; Nehring, Volker; Schmitt, Thomas

2016-03-10

Insect life strategies comprise all levels of sociality from solitary to eusocial, in which individuals form persistent groups and divide labor. With increasing social complexity, the need to communicate a greater diversity of messages arose to coordinate division of labor, group cohesion, and concerted actions. Here we summarize the knowledge on prominent messages in social insects that inform about reproduction, group membership, resource locations, and threats and discuss potential evolutionary trajectories of each message in the context of social complexity. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Testing problem-solving capacities: differences between individual testing and social group setting.

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Krasheninnikova, Anastasia; Schneider, Jutta M

2014-09-01

Testing animals individually in problem-solving tasks limits distractions of the subjects during the test, so that they can fully concentrate on the problem. However, such individual performance may not indicate the problem-solving capacity that is commonly employed in the wild when individuals are faced with a novel problem in their social groups, where the presence of a conspecific influences an individual's behaviour. To assess the validity of data gathered from parrots when tested individually, we compared the performance on patterned-string tasks among parrots tested singly and parrots tested in social context. We tested two captive groups of orange-winged amazons (Amazona amazonica) with several patterned-string tasks. Despite the differences in the testing environment (singly vs. social context), parrots from both groups performed similarly. However, we found that the willingness to participate in the tasks was significantly higher for the individuals tested in social context. The study provides further evidence for the crucial influence of social context on individual's response to a challenging situation such as a problem-solving test.

The Insensitive Ruins It All: Compositional and Compilational Influences of Social Sensitivity on Collective Intelligence in Groups.

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Meslec, Nicoleta; Aggarwal, Ishani; Curseu, Petru L

2016-01-01

A group's collective intelligence reflects its capacity to perform well across a variety of cognitive tasks and it transcends the individual intelligence of its members. Previous research shows that group members' social sensitivity is a potential antecedent of collective intelligence, yet it is still unclear whether individual or group-level indices are responsible for the positive association between social sensitivity and collective intelligence. In a comprehensive manner, we test the extent to which both compositional (lowest and highest individual score) and compilational aspects (emergent group level) of social sensitivity are associated with collective intelligence. This study has implications for research that explores groups as information processors, and for group design as it indicates how a group should be composed with respect to social sensitivity if the group is to reach high levels of collective intelligence. Our empirical results indicate that collectively intelligent groups are those in which the least socially sensitive group member has a rather high score on social sensitivity. Differently stated, (socially sensitive) group members cannot compensate for the lack of social sensitivity of the other group members.

Treating Social Anxiety in Adolescents: Ten Group Therapy Lesson Plans

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Mazur-Elmer, Alison; McBride, Dawn

2009-01-01

This project provides a comprehensive overview of the research literature on social anxiety disorder (SAD) in adolescents and concludes by offering a set of 10 group therapy lesson plans for SAD that therapists can use in their practice. The overview includes a description of social anxiety disorder and highlights various theories of anxiety. The…

Group Counseling: Techniques for Teaching Social Skills to Students with Special Needs

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Stephens, Derk; Jain, Sachin; Kim, Kioh

2010-01-01

This paper examines literature that supports the use of group counseling techniques in the school setting to teach social skills to children and adolescents with special needs. From the review of this literature it was found that group counseling is a very effective way of addressing a variety of social skills problems that can be displayed by…

Social groups preferences relation to motivations and ability levels of whitewater kayakers

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Seth Turner; Rod Zwick

2002-01-01

Social groups play an important role in many adventure recreation activities. The purpose of this study was to examine the social group preference relation to motives and ability levels of whitewater kayakers. When participants go out on a kayaking trip they are seeking varying degrees of experiences, a major contributor to that experience comes from the members of...

Structured Play Therapy Groups for Preschoolers: facilitating the emergence of social competence.

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Stone, Susan; Stark, Martha

2013-01-01

Over the years, we have developed a working model of Structured Play Therapy Groups for Preschoolers, an innovative treatment approach designed to address the needs of young children ages 3 to 5 struggling to adjust to the social demands of their preschool classrooms. These short-term therapy groups facilitate development of the young child's social competence and capacity to participate effectively in a classroom environment. Although the literature on therapy groups for children suggests that preschoolers are not yet evolved enough developmentally to engage actively in a group process, our experience indicates otherwise. The model of treatment presented here will therefore challenge that contention with the claim that not only can preschoolers participate in a structured therapy group of peers but they can, by virtue of that very participation, benefit in ways that will prepare them (as they transition from preschool to kindergarten) for the ever-increasing demands of their ever-expanding social milieus.

The Parkinson's experience of group physical activity: Understanding social support, social comparison, physical self-perceptions, and posttraumatic growth

OpenAIRE

Sheehy, Tammy L

2014-01-01

Group physical activity programs for clinical populations can provide opportunities for adaptive social interactions, improving perceptions of competence, and may facilitate posttraumatic growth (positive psychological changes resulting from traumatic life experiences). Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine how people with Parkinson's experience social interactions and physical challenges in a group physical activity program, and to investigate what role they think those experie...

Group Buying: A New Mechanism for Selling Through Social Interactions

OpenAIRE

Xiaoqing Jing; Jinhong Xie

2011-01-01

This paper examines a unique selling strategy, Group Buying, under which consumers enjoy a discounted group price if they are willing and able to achieve a required group size and coordinate their transaction time. We argue that Group Buying allows a seller to gain from facilitating consumer social interaction, i.e., using a group discount to motivate informed customers to work as "sales agents" to acquire less-informed customers through interpersonal information/knowledge sharing. We formall...

CULTURAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL PECULIARITIES OF SOCIAL CAPITAL OF ETHNIC GROUPS IN RUSSIA

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Tatarko, A. N.

2009-01-01

Data of cross-cultural study of social capital of five ethnic groups of Russia (n = 300) is presented. According to proposed psychological point of view trust, social solidarity, civil identity, ethnic tolerance constitute the structure of social capital of polycultural society. The application of

How perceived social support relates to suicidal ideation: a Japanese social resident survey.

Science.gov (United States)

Endo, Go; Tachikawa, Hirokazu; Fukuoka, Yoshiharu; Aiba, Miyuki; Nemoto, Kiyotaka; Shiratori, Yuki; Matsui, Yutaka; Doi, Nagafumi; Asada, Takashi

2014-05-01

The loss of social support is one of the major risk factors for suicide. However, there are few empirical studies that have examined how a person's suicide ideation relates to their social support. To examine the relationship between social support and suicidal ideation. Self-report questionnaires were sent to 2,200 randomly selected adults in Japan. The questionnaire inquired the participants about the severity of suicidal ideation, the details of current perceived social support and their degree of satisfaction with this social support. Social support and related indicators were compared among three groups of participants that varied in severity of suicidal ideation. People in the group that had suicide ideation during their lives reported receiving significantly less support from their family and had greater feelings of dissatisfaction with that support than those in the other groups. Furthermore, people who had suicide ideation during the month immediately preceding the survey reported providing less support to their family, relatives or friends, as well as receiving less support from family than other groups, and having stronger feelings of dissatisfaction with social support. Our study identified a strong relationship between the severity of suicidal ideation and perceived social support.

Monogamy, strongly bonded groups, and the evolution of human social structure.

Science.gov (United States)

Chapais, Bernard

2013-01-01

Human social evolution has most often been treated in a piecemeal fashion, with studies focusing on the evolution of specific components of human society such as pair-bonding, cooperative hunting, male provisioning, grandmothering, cooperative breeding, food sharing, male competition, male violence, sexual coercion, territoriality, and between-group conflicts. Evolutionary models about any one of those components are usually concerned with two categories of questions, one relating to the origins of the component and the other to its impact on the evolution of human cognition and social life. Remarkably few studies have been concerned with the evolution of the entity that integrates all components, the human social system itself. That social system has as its core feature human social structure, which I define here as the common denominator of all human societies in terms of group composition, mating system, residence patterns, and kinship structures. The paucity of information on the evolution of human social structure poses substantial problems because that information is useful, if not essential, to assess both the origins and impact of any particular aspect of human society. Copyright © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Unexpected Acceptance? Patients with Social Anxiety Disorder Manifest their Social Expectancy in ERPs During Social Feedback Processing

Science.gov (United States)

Cao, Jianqin; Gu, Ruolei; Bi, Xuejing; Zhu, Xiangru; Wu, Haiyan

2015-01-01

Previous studies on social anxiety have demonstrated negative-expectancy bias in social contexts. In this study, we used a paradigm that employed self-relevant positive or negative social feedback, in order to test whether this negative expectancy manifests in event-related potentials (ERPs) during social evaluation among socially anxious individuals. Behavioral data revealed that individuals with social anxiety disorder (SAD) showed more negative expectancy of peer acceptance both in the experiment and in daily life than did the healthy control participants. Regarding ERP results, we found a overally larger P2 for positive social feedback and also a group main effect, such that the P2 was smaller in SAD group. SAD participants demonstrated a larger feedback-related negativity (FRN) to positive feedback than to negative feedback. In addition, SAD participants showed a more positive ΔFRN (ΔFRN = negative – positive). Furthermore, acceptance expectancy in daily life correlated negatively with ΔFRN amplitude, while the Interaction Anxiousness Scale (IAS) score correlated positively with the ΔFRN amplitude. Finally, the acceptance expectancy in daily life fully mediated the relationship between the IAS and ΔFRN. These results indicated that both groups could differentiate between positive and negative social feedback in the early stage of social feedback processing (reflected on the P2). However, the SAD group exhibited a larger FRN to positive social feedback than to negative social feedback, demonstrating their dysfunction in the late stage of social feedback processing. In our opinion, such dysfunction is due to their greater negative social feedback expectancy. PMID:26635659

Unexpected Acceptance? Patients with Social Anxiety Disorder Manifest their Social Expectancy in ERPs During Social Feedback Processing.

Science.gov (United States)

Cao, Jianqin; Gu, Ruolei; Bi, Xuejing; Zhu, Xiangru; Wu, Haiyan

2015-01-01

Previous studies on social anxiety have demonstrated negative-expectancy bias in social contexts. In this study, we used a paradigm that employed self-relevant positive or negative social feedback, in order to test whether this negative expectancy manifests in event-related potentials (ERPs) during social evaluation among socially anxious individuals. Behavioral data revealed that individuals with social anxiety disorder (SAD) showed more negative expectancy of peer acceptance both in the experiment and in daily life than did the healthy control participants. Regarding ERP results, we found a overally larger P2 for positive social feedback and also a group main effect, such that the P2 was smaller in SAD group. SAD participants demonstrated a larger feedback-related negativity (FRN) to positive feedback than to negative feedback. In addition, SAD participants showed a more positive ΔFRN (ΔFRN = negative - positive). Furthermore, acceptance expectancy in daily life correlated negatively with ΔFRN amplitude, while the Interaction Anxiousness Scale (IAS) score correlated positively with the ΔFRN amplitude. Finally, the acceptance expectancy in daily life fully mediated the relationship between the IAS and ΔFRN. These results indicated that both groups could differentiate between positive and negative social feedback in the early stage of social feedback processing (reflected on the P2). However, the SAD group exhibited a larger FRN to positive social feedback than to negative social feedback, demonstrating their dysfunction in the late stage of social feedback processing. In our opinion, such dysfunction is due to their greater negative social feedback expectancy.

Unexpected acceptance? Patients with social anxiety disorder manifest their social expectancy in ERPs during social feedback processing

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jianqin eCao

2015-11-01

Full Text Available Previous studies on social anxiety have demonstrated negative-expectancy bias in social contexts. In this study, we used a paradigm that employed self-relevant positive or negative social feedback, in order to test whether this negative expectancy manifests in event-related potentials (ERPs during social evaluation among socially anxious individuals. Behavioral data revealed that individuals with social anxiety disorder (SAD showed more negative expectancy of peer acceptance both in the experiment and in daily life than did the healthy control (HC participants. Regarding ERP results, we found a overally larger P2 for positive social feedback and also a group main effect, such that the P2 was smaller in SAD group. SAD participants demonstrated a larger FRN to positive feedback than to negative feedback. In addition, SAD participants showed a more positive △FRN (△FRN = negative - positive. Furthermore, acceptance expectancy in daily life correlated negatively with △FRN amplitude, while the Interaction Anxiousness Scale (IAS score correlated positively with the △FRN amplitude. Finally, the acceptance expectancy in daily life fully mediated the relationship between the IAS and △FRN. These results indicated that both groups could differentiate between positive and negative social feedback in the early stage of social feedback processing (reflected on the P2. However, the SAD group exhibited a larger FRN to positive social feedback than to negative social feedback, demonstrating their dysfunction in the late stage of social feedback processing. In our opinion, such dysfunction is due to their greater negative social feedback expectancy.

Social influence on risk perception during adolescence.

Science.gov (United States)

Knoll, Lisa J; Magis-Weinberg, Lucía; Speekenbrink, Maarten; Blakemore, Sarah-Jayne

2015-05-01

Adolescence is a period of life in which peer relationships become increasingly important. Adolescents have a greater likelihood of taking risks when they are with peers rather than alone. In this study, we investigated the development of social influence on risk perception from late childhood through adulthood. Five hundred and sixty-three participants rated the riskiness of everyday situations and were then informed about the ratings of a social-influence group (teenagers or adults) before rating each situation again. All age groups showed a significant social-influence effect, changing their risk ratings in the direction of the provided ratings; this social-influence effect decreased with age. Most age groups adjusted their ratings more to conform to the ratings of the adult social-influence group than to the ratings of the teenager social-influence group. Only young adolescents were more strongly influenced by the teenager social-influence group than they were by the adult social-influence group, which suggests that to early adolescents, the opinions of other teenagers about risk matter more than the opinions of adults. © The Author(s) 2015.

Direct fitness benefits and kinship of social foraging groups in an Old World tropical babbler

Science.gov (United States)

Kaiser, Sara A.; Martin, Thomas E.; Oteyza, Juan C.; Armstad, Connor E.; Fleischer, Robert C.

2018-01-01

Molecular studies have revealed that social groups composed mainly of nonrelatives may be widespread in group-living vertebrates, but the benefits favoring such sociality are not well understood. In the Old World, birds often form conspecific foraging groups that are maintained year-round and offspring usually disperse to other social groups. We tested the hypothesis that nonbreeding group members are largely unrelated and gain direct fitness benefits through breeding opportunities (males) and brood parasitism (females) in the tropical gray-throated babbler, Stachyris nigriceps, in Malaysian Borneo. Babblers foraged in social groups containing one or more breeding pairs (median = 8 group members of equal sex ratio), but group members rarely assisted with breeding (9% of 67 breeding pairs had a third helper; exhibiting facultative cooperative breeding). Although 20% of 266 group member dyads were first-order relatives of one or both members of the breeding pairs, 80% were unrelated. Male group members gained direct fitness benefits through extrapair and extra-group paternity (25% of 73 offspring), which was independent of their relatedness to the breeding pair and increased with decreasing group size. In contrast, females did not gain direct fitness benefits through brood parasitism. The low levels of relatedness and helping in social groups suggest that most group members do not gain indirect fitness benefits by helping to raise unrelated offspring. These findings highlight the importance of examining benefits of sociality for unrelated individuals that largely do not help and broaden the direct fitness benefits of group foraging beyond assumed survival benefits.

Mapping Plant Functional Groups in Subalpine Grassland of the Greater Caucasus

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anja Magiera

2018-02-01

Full Text Available Plant functional groups—in our case grass, herbs, and legumes—and their spatial distribution can provide information on key ecosystem functions such as species richness, nitrogen fixation, and erosion control. Knowledge about the spatial distribution of plant functional groups provides valuable information for grassland management. This study described and mapped the distribution of grass, herb, and legume coverage of the subalpine grassland in the high-mountain Kazbegi region, Greater Caucasus, Georgia. To test the applicability of new sensors, we compared the predictive power of simulated hyperspectral canopy reflectance, simulated multispectral reflectance, simulated vegetation indices, and topographic variables for modeling plant functional groups. The tested grassland showed characteristic differences in species richness; in grass, herb, and legume coverage; and in connected structural properties such as yield. Grass (Hordeum brevisubulatum was dominant in biomass-rich hay meadows. Herb-rich grassland featured the highest species richness and evenness, whereas legume-rich grassland was accompanied by a high coverage of open soil and showed dominance of a single species, Astragalus captiosus. The best model fits were achieved with a combination of reflectance, vegetation indices, and topographic variables as predictors. Random forest models for grass, herb, and legume coverage explained 36%, 25%, and 37% of the respective variance, and their root mean square errors varied between 12–15%. Hyperspectral and multispectral reflectance as predictors resulted in similar models. Because multispectral data are more easily available and often have a higher spatial resolution, we suggest using multispectral parameters enhanced by vegetation indices and topographic parameters for modeling grass, herb, and legume coverage. However, overall model fits were merely moderate, and further testing, including stronger gradients and the addition of

Student attitudes towards socially acceptable and unacceptable group working practices.

Science.gov (United States)

Underwood, Jean D M

2003-08-01

While there is much support for co-operative learning among learning theorists, not all learners exhibit the same enthusiasm for groupwork. A number of factors such as sex, group size and ability mix, subject domain, task type and organization have been shown to influence the effectiveness of co-operative and collaborative learning. This study established learners' attitudes to various shared working scenarios. In this mixed design, 140 post-graduate teacher trainees were asked to imagine their responses to seven groupwork scenarios presented as a series of short vignettes. The vignettes varied on the degree of co-operation required; the sex of the prospective co-worker(s) including single and mixed-sex groups; type of assessment, including no assessment at all; and on academically acceptable and unacceptable 'shared' working practices. Anticipated attitudinal and behavioural responses of the students were assessed by questionnaire. On the whole, students were cautiously willing to be involved in groupwork. There were caveats, however. Factors such as the characteristics of the group members, the level and type of assessment procedures in operation, and individual differences, including sex and self-reported social deviance, also governed their responses. There was very limited agreement to be involved in socially undesirable collaborative group activities at a personal level or to condone such activities by others. Those students who showed a tendency towards mild anti-social behaviour were more willing to take direct punitive action against non-contributors than their peers. Female students were more willing to invoke the help of the tutor than their male counterparts, but only if the anti-social behaviour impacted on them personally.

The ties that bind: Group membership shapes the neural correlates of in-group favoritism.

Science.gov (United States)

Telzer, Eva H; Ichien, Nicolas; Qu, Yang

2015-07-15

Across species, including non-human primates, rodents, and humans, prosocial behavior, the act of helping others, is preferentially provided to members of one's own group. Whereas a particularly ubiquitous example of this is kinship, whereby humans and animals expend greater resources and take more risks for their own kin, in-group prosocial behavior has been demonstrated among diverse shared social groups, including race and culture. In the current study, we made group membership salient by recruiting Chinese and American participants to engage in a prosocial decision-making task during fMRI with an American and Chinese confederate. We found across all participants that donations to the in-group relative to out-group was associated with increased activation in the ventral striatum. Moreover, participants with a greater sense of group identity and Chinese participants relative to American participants, showed heightened activation in self-control (VLPFC, ACC) and mentalizing (TPJ, DMPFC) regions when contributing to the out-group relative to in-group. Our findings provide novel evidence about the neural mechanisms involved in intergroup prosocial behavior. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Leaders are more attractive: birds with bigger yellow breast patches are followed by more group-mates in foraging groups.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zoltán Tóth

Full Text Available Social network theory provides a perfect tool to better understand the population-level consequences of how individuals interact and make their decisions; however, this approach is generally overlooked among evolutionary biologists interested in social relationships. Here, we used social network analysis to examine the patterns of leader-follower interactions in relation to individual characteristics in foraging groups of free-living rock sparrows (Petronia petronia. We found that yellow feather ornamentation, a carotenoid-based trait, was the best predictor of leadership: birds with bigger ornaments exerted greater influence in the foraging groups and were followed by more group-mates than less elaborate individuals. An individual's tendency for eliciting followings was not influenced by sex, condition or the level of parental investment. None of the above individual characteristics had significant effect on the tendency of individuals to follow others. Our results indicate that a sexually selected trait can also play a significant role in group coordination and social organization of a species.

Evidence for the social role theory of stereotype content: observations of groups' roles shape stereotypes.

Science.gov (United States)

Koenig, Anne M; Eagly, Alice H

2014-09-01

In applying social role theory to account for the content of a wide range of stereotypes, this research tests the proposition that observations of groups' roles determine stereotype content (Eagly & Wood, 2012). In a novel test of how stereotypes can develop from observations, preliminary research collected participants' beliefs about the occupational roles (e.g., lawyer, teacher, fast food worker, chief executive officer, store clerk, manager) in which members of social groups (e.g., Black women, Hispanics, White men, the rich, senior citizens, high school dropouts) are overrepresented relative to their numbers in the general population. These beliefs about groups' typical occupational roles proved to be generally accurate when evaluated in relation to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Then, correlational studies predicted participants' stereotypes of social groups from the attributes ascribed to group members' typical occupational roles (Studies 1a, 1b, and 1c), the behaviors associated with those roles (Study 2), and the occupational interest profile of the roles (Study 3). As predicted by social role theory, beliefs about the attributes of groups' typical roles were strongly related to group stereotypes on both communion and agency/competence. In addition, an experimental study (Study 4) demonstrated that when social groups were described with changes to their typical social roles in the future, their projected stereotypes were more influenced by these future roles than by their current group stereotypes, thus supporting social role theory's predictions about stereotype change. Discussion considers the implications of these findings for stereotype change and the relation of social role theory to other theories of stereotype content. 2014 APA, all rights reserved

Social capital, social relationships and adults with acquired visual impairment: a nigerian perspective.

Science.gov (United States)

Bassey, Emmanuel; Ellison, Caroline; Walker, Ruth

2018-01-31

This study investigates the social capital implications of vision loss among working-age adults in Nigeria. The study explores the challenges of acquiring and maintaining social relationships post-vision loss, and investigates the extent to which visual rehabilitation services support social goals. A qualitative study using a phenomenological approach was undertaken. Eight adults (18-59 years) were recruited from disability service organizations in Nigeria. Telephone interviews were recorded and transcribed, and thematic content analysis was used to analyze the data gathered in this study. Three broad themes were developed from participants' accounts of their experiences: (1) changes to relationships with friends and others; (2) finding strength in family relationships; and (3) rehabilitation and the confidence to interact. The findings indicate that the relationship between participants and their family members improved post vision impairment, enhancing bonding social capital. However, participants experienced reduced bridging and linking social capital due to diminished or broken relationships with managers, coworkers, friends, and others in the community. As social connectedness and relationships are highly valued in Nigeria's diverse society, we suggest that adults with visual impairment would significantly benefit from visual rehabilitation services placing greater emphasis on addressing the social goals of participants. Implications for Rehabilitation Visual impairment in working-age adults can strengthen family relationships (homogenous groups), creating bonding capital that is associated with access to important resources including emotional and moral support, and some financial and material resources. Visual impairment can negatively impact relationships with managers, coworkers, and others in the community (heterogeneous groups), resulting in diminished bridging and linking capital. Visual impairment can reduce access to resources such as an income

Conserving the Greater Sage-grouse: A social-ecological systems case study from the California-Nevada region

Science.gov (United States)

Duvall, Alison L; Metcalf, Alexander L.; Coates, Peter S.

2016-01-01

The Endangered Species Act (ESA) continues to serve as one of the most powerful and contested federal legislative mandates for conservation. In the midst of heated debates, researchers, policy makers, and conservation practitioners champion the importance of cooperative conservation and social-ecological systems approaches, which forge partnerships at multiple levels and scales to address complex ecosystem challenges. However, few real-world examples exist to demonstrate how multifaceted collaborations among stakeholders who share a common goal of conserving at-risk species may be nested within a systems framework to achieve social and ecological goals. Here, we present a case study of Greater Sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) conservation efforts in the “Bi-State” region of California and Nevada, United States. Using key-informant interviews, we explored dimensions and drivers of this landscape-scale conservation effort. Three themes emerged from the interviews, including 1) ESA action was transformed into opportunity for system-wide conservation; 2) a diverse, locally based partnership anchored collaboration and engagement across multiple levels and scales; and 3) best-available science combined with local knowledge led to “certainty of effectiveness and implementation”—the criteria used by the US Fish and Wildlife Service to evaluate conservation efforts when making listing decisions. Ultimately, collaborative conservation through multistakeholder engagement at various levels and scales led to proactive planning and implementation of conservation measures and precluded the need for an ESA listing of the Bi-State population of Greater Sage-grouse. This article presents a potent example of how a systems approach integrating policy, management, and learning can be used to successfully overcome the conflict-laden and “wicked” challenges that surround at-risk species conservation.

Stress axis regulation during social ascension in a group-living cichlid fish.

Science.gov (United States)

Culbert, Brett M; Gilmour, Kathleen M; Balshine, Sigal

2018-06-19

Animals living in groups often form social hierarchies, with characteristic behaviours and physiologies associated with rank. However, when social opportunities arise and a subordinate ascends into a dominant position, quick adjustments are necessary to secure this position. Such periods of social transition are typically associated with elevated glucocorticoid production, but the precise regulation of the stress axis during these occasions is not well understood. Using the group-living cichlid, Neolamprologus pulcher, the effects of social ascension on the stress axis were assessed. Ascenders rapidly filled experimentally created vacancies, adopting a dominant behavioural phenotype within 72 h-elevating aggression, activity, and workload, while receiving high rates of affiliative behaviours from their group members. Despite assuming behavioural dominance within their groups, ascenders displayed higher cortisol levels than dominants three days post-ascension. Additionally, compared to subordinates, ascenders had increased transcript abundance of steroidogenic acute regulatory protein (star) and cytochrome p450 side-chain cleavage enzyme (p450scc) in the head kidney, indicating activation of the stress axis. Cortisol levels were lowest in ascenders that displayed low rates of aggression, potentially reflecting the reestablishment of social stability in these groups. Increased transcript abundance of both glucocorticoid receptors (gr1 and gr2) in the brain's preoptic area (POA) of ascenders compared to dominants suggested an enhanced capacity for cortisol regulation via negative feedback. Our results reveal a regulatory cascade of behavioural and physiological interactions and highlight the importance of investigating the underlying mechanisms regulating the stress axis. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Social and occupational factors associated with psychological wellbeing among occupational groups affected by disaster: a systematic review.

Science.gov (United States)

Brooks, Samantha K; Dunn, Rebecca; Amlôt, Richard; Rubin, G James; Greenberg, Neil

2017-08-01

The psychological impact of disasters has been well-documented; less attention has been paid to factors affecting the wellbeing of those exposed to disasters as occupational groups. To conduct a systematic literature review identifying social and occupational factors affecting the wellbeing of disaster-exposed employees; to use these factors to identify recommendations for potential interventions. Four electronic literature databases were searched; reference lists of relevant papers were hand-searched. A total of 18 005 papers were found, 571 full texts were read and 36 included in the review. The psychological impact of disasters on employees was associated with pre-disaster factors (experience/training; income; life events/health; job satisfaction), peri-disaster factors (exposure; peri-traumatic experiences; perceptions of safety; injury), social factors (organisational support; social support generally) and post-disaster factors (impact on life). It is important to build a resilient workforce outside of a crisis. Pre-disaster training in recognising signs of distress, understanding vulnerability factors such as those described above, which may put certain employees at greater risk of distress and how to support colleagues may be useful. Further research into the effectiveness of post-disaster interventions is needed.

Community stress and social and technological change: a framework for interpreting the behavior of social movements and community action groups

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Perry, R.W.; Schuller, C.R.; Lindell, M.K.; Greene, M.R.; Walsh, J.T.; Earle, T.

1980-06-01

The purpose of this report is to provide a comprehensive examination of existing research on community organizations and community political systems. These findings will be integrated into a framework for understanding the variety of social and political responses which may be manifest in small communities facing the prospect of hosting a major nuclear facility. The principal focus is on the formation and behavior of social groups in communities, particularly politically oriented social movements or community action groups. This analysis is set on the context of a community experiencing social stress. Most of the discussion which follows is based on an extrapolation from the large body of reseach literature on the topics in sociology, political science, and psychology. Chapter I examines the community political systems which are the arena in which local action groups will operate. Chapter II focuses on the internal conditions necessary for the formation and maintenance of community action groups. Chapter III reviews the research literature on the social environment of organizations in communities and the external conditions which are necessary to maintain organizations over time. Chapter IV develops a logic whereby the community consensus model can be adopted to particular social movement organizations and community actions groups. Chapter V examines changes in aspects of the environment which can be a function of the operation of movement organizations, and changes in the structure and tactics of movement organizations which appear to be a response to the environment.

Ravens notice dominance reversals among conspecifics within and outside their social group.

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Massen, Jorg J M; Pašukonis, Andrius; Schmidt, Judith; Bugnyar, Thomas

2014-04-22

A core feature of social intelligence is the understanding of third-party relations, which has been experimentally demonstrated in primates. Whether other social animals also have this capacity, and whether they can use this capacity flexibly to, for example, also assess the relations of neighbouring conspecifics, remains unknown. Here we show that ravens react differently to playbacks of dominance interactions that either confirm or violate the current rank hierarchy of members in their own social group and of ravens in a neighbouring group. Therefore, ravens understand third-party relations and may deduce those not only via physical interactions but also by observation.

Identidad social de un grupo de altos ingresos económicos. Social identity of a group of high income

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gabriela Dujarric Bermúdez

2015-12-01

Full Text Available La investigación indaga la existencia de una relación entre los ingresos económicos y la identidad, para lo cual se trabajó con un grupo de altos ingresos de la provincia de La Habana. Desde el Enfoque de Identidades Sociales se intenta comprender la configuración subjetiva de este grupo, así como su proyección ante la situación actual del país. Utilizamos un enfoque mixto, procesando la información a partir del Statistical Packetfor Social Sciencies (SPSS y el análisis de contenido. Los resultados obtenidos evidencian que los ingresos modelan una identidad social y constituyen un referente sobre cómo se está moviendo la subjetividad de este grupo social, así como de su proyección ante la situación actual del país. The research investigates the existence of a relationship between economic income and social identity, for which we worked with a group of high incomes in the province of Havana. From the Social Identity Perspective we try to understand the subjectivity of this group and its projection to the current situation. We worked with a mixed methodology and processed the information using the Statistical Packet for Social Sciencies (SPSS and the content analysis. The results show that incomes shape an identity and give some hints about the movement ofthis group social subjectivity, in this period of reforms.

Can the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale - self-report version be used to differentiate clinical and non-clinical SAD groups among Brazilians?

Science.gov (United States)

Santos, Larissa F; Loureiro, Sonia R; Crippa, José A S; Osório, Flávia L

2015-01-01

The Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS) was the first evaluation instrument developed for screening for the signs and symptoms of Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) and is currently still the most used worldwide. The aim of this study is to evaluate the ability of the LSAS - self-report version (LSAS-SR) to discriminate different Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) clinical groups. The sample was composed of Brazilians university students, allocated into three different groups, i.e., cases (C=118), non-cases (NC=95) and subclinical cases (SC=39). To achieve the aim, calculations of the ROC Curve and ANOVA were performed. The results found were excellent regardless of the technique used, highlighting the discriminatory capacity of the LSAS-SR. The score equal to or greater than 32 is suggested as a cutoff score for the Brazilian population, since this presented balance between the standards evaluated and the ability to differentiate both clinical and subclinical SAD cases from non-cases. Despite the specific sample used in this study being composed only of university students, the use of the LSAS-SR can be indicated, in the Brazilian setting, for SAD screening in both clinical and research contexts.

Representation of Social History Factors Across Age Groups: A Topic Analysis of Free-Text Social Documentation.

Science.gov (United States)

Lindemann, Elizabeth A; Chen, Elizabeth S; Wang, Yan; Skube, Steven J; Melton, Genevieve B

2017-01-01

As individuals age, there is potential for dramatic changes in the social and behavioral determinants that affect health status and outcomes. The importance of these determinants has been increasingly recognized in clinical decision-making. We sought to characterize how social and behavioral health determinants vary in different demographic groups using a previously established schema of 28 social history types through both manual analysis and automated topic analysis of social documentation in the electronic health record across the population of an entire integrated healthcare system. Our manual analysis generated 8,335 annotations over 1,400 documents, representing 24 (86%) social history types. In contrast, automated topic analysis generated 22 (79%) social history types. A comparative evaluation demonstrated both similarities and differences in coverage between the manual and topic analyses. Our findings validate the widespread nature of social and behavioral determinants that affect health status over populations of individuals over their lifespan.

Using focus groups and social marketing to strengthen promotion of group prenatal care.

Science.gov (United States)

Vonderheid, Susan C; Carrie, S Klima; Norr, Kathleen F; Grady, Mary Alice; Westdahl, Claire M

2013-01-01

Centering Pregnancy, an innovative group model of prenatal care, shows promise to reduce persistent adverse maternal-infant outcomes and contain costs. Because this innovation requires systemwide change, clinics reported needing support enrolling women into groups and obtaining organizational buy-in. This study used the 3-step social marketing communication strategy to help clinic staff identify key customers and customer-specific barriers to adopting or supporting Centering Pregnancy. They developed targeted information to reduce barriers and built skills in communicating with different customers through role-playing. Findings provide practical information for others to use this communication strategy to improve implementation of Centering Pregnancy.

Social Reform Groups and the Legal System: Enforcement Problems. Discussion Paper No. 209-74.

Science.gov (United States)

Handler, Joel F.

During the last two decades, there has been a great increase in the use of litigation by social reform groups. This activity has been stimulated by the hospitality of the courts to the demands of social reform groups and the availability of subsidized young, activist lawyers. The paper examines the uses of the legal system by social reform groups…

Actions speak louder than words in socially foraging human groups.

Science.gov (United States)

Sumner, Seirian; King, Andrew J

2011-11-01

SOCIAL FORAGING IN HUMANS HAS A DEEP EVOLUTIONARY HISTORY: early hominids searched for dispersed food sources in a patchy, uncertain environment. A fundamental assumption is that social foragers benefit by exchanging information about food sources, in order to make collective decisions based on pooled information. We conducted the first experimental test of this assumption, and showed that, as predicted, communication significantly enhanced group performance. A further, unexpected result was that physical communication through gesturing, rather than verbal communication, appeared to play a crucial role in the early stages of group interaction, facilitating consensus decision making by groups.  The importance of gestures in human interactions may therefore be underestimated, and this has important implications for modern human societies, where communications are becoming increasingly dominated by virtual modes of communication that preclude the use of gestures. 

Social networks for improving healthy weight loss behaviors for overweight and obese adults: A randomized clinical trial of the social pounds off digitally (Social POD) mobile app.

Science.gov (United States)

Hales, Sarah; Turner-McGrievy, Gabrielle M; Wilcox, Sara; Fahim, Arjang; Davis, Rachel E; Huhns, Michael; Valafar, Homayoun

2016-10-01

To test the efficacy of a weight loss mobile app based on recommender systems and developed by experts in health promotion and computer science to target social support and self-monitoring of diet, physical activity (PA), and weight (Social POD app), compared to a commercially available diet and PA tracking app (standard). Overweight adults [N=51] were recruited and randomly assigned to either the experimental group [n=26; theory-based podcasts (TBP)+Social POD app] or the comparison group (n=25; TBP+standard app). The Social POD app issued notifications to encourage users to self-monitor and send theory-based messages to support users who had not self-monitored in the previous 48h. Independent samples t-test were used to examine group differences in kilograms lost and change in BMI. Analysis of covariance was used to analyze secondary outcomes while controlling for baseline values. Participant attrition was 12% (n=3 experimental and n=3 comparison). Experimental group participants lost significantly more weight (-5.3kg, CI: -7.5, -3.0) than comparison group (-2.23kg, CI: -3.6, -1.0; d=0.8, r=0.4, p=0.02) and had a greater reduction in BMI (p=0.02). While there were significant differences in positive outcome expectations between groups (p=0.04) other secondary outcomes (e.g., caloric intake and social support) were not significant. Use of the Social POD app resulted in significantly greater weight loss than use of a commercially available tracking app. This mobile health intervention has the potential to be widely disseminated to reduce the risk of chronic disease associated with overweight and obesity. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd.

Reported parental characteristics of agoraphobics and social phobics.

Science.gov (United States)

Parker, G

1979-12-01

The clinical impression that phobic patients perceive their parents as being uncaring and overprotective was investigated in a controlled study of eighty-one phobic patients. Those assigned to a social phobic group scored both parents as less caring and as overprotected, while those assigned to an agoraphobic group differed from controls only in reporting less maternal care. Intensity of phobic symptoms in the pooled sample was examined in a separate analysis. Higher agoraphobic scores were associated with less maternal care and less maternal overprotection, while higher social phobic scores were associated with greater maternal care and greater maternal overprotection.

Social learning of fear and safety is determined by the demonstrator's racial group.

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Golkar, Armita; Castro, Vasco; Olsson, Andreas

2015-01-01

Social learning offers an efficient route through which humans and other animals learn about potential dangers in the environment. Such learning inherently relies on the transmission of social information and should imply selectivity in what to learn from whom. Here, we conducted two observational learning experiments to assess how humans learn about danger and safety from members ('demonstrators') of an other social group than their own. We show that both fear and safety learning from a racial in-group demonstrator was more potent than learning from a racial out-group demonstrator. © 2015 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved.

An Examination of Social Anxiety, Social Skills, Social Adjustment, and Self-Construal in Chinese and American Students at an American University

OpenAIRE

Ingman, Kathleen A.

1999-01-01

Research has shown that international students studying in the United States report significantly lower levels of social adjustment than American students. Cultural differences may contribute to this problem; however, social relationships between international students and American students lead to greater adjustment for the former group. In spite of this finding, many international students fail to develop significant interpersonal relationships with American students. In this study, self...

EEG reveals an early influence of social conformity on visual processing in group pressure situations.

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Trautmann-Lengsfeld, Sina Alexa; Herrmann, Christoph Siegfried

2013-01-01

Humans are social beings and often have to perceive and perform within groups. In conflict situations, this puts them under pressure to either adhere to the group opinion or to risk controversy with the group. Psychological experiments have demonstrated that study participants adapt to erroneous group opinions in visual perception tasks, which they can easily solve correctly when performing on their own. Until this point, however, it is unclear whether this phenomenon of social conformity influences early stages of perception that might not even reach awareness or later stages of conscious decision-making. Using electroencephalography, this study has revealed that social conformity to the wrong group opinion resulted in a decrease of the posterior-lateral P1 in line with a decrease of the later centro-parietal P3. These results suggest that group pressure situations impact early unconscious visual perceptual processing, which results in a later diminished stimulus discrimination and an adaptation even to the wrong group opinion. These findings might have important implications for understanding social behavior in group settings and are discussed within the framework of social influence on eyewitness testimony.

Neural sensitivity to social deviance predicts attentive processing of peer-group judgment.

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Schnuerch, Robert; Trautmann-Lengsfeld, Sina Alexa; Bertram, Mario; Gibbons, Henning

2014-01-01

The detection of one's deviance from social norms is an essential mechanism of individual adjustment to group behavior and, thus, for the perpetuation of norms within groups. It has been suggested that error signals in mediofrontal cortex provide the neural basis of such deviance detection, which contributes to later adjustment to the norm. In the present study, we used event-related potentials (ERPs) to demonstrate that, across participants, the strength of mediofrontal brain correlates of the detection of deviance from a peer group's norms was negatively related to attentive processing of the same group's judgments in a later task. We propose that an individual's perception of social deviance might bias basic cognitive processing during further interaction with the group. Strongly perceiving disagreement with a group could cause an individual to avoid or inhibit this group's judgments.

Social support and negative and positive outcomes of experienced traumatic events in a group of male emergency service workers.

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Ogińska-Bulik, Nina

2015-01-01

The paper investigates the relationship between perceived social support in the workplace and both negative (post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms) and positive outcomes (post-traumatic growth) of experienced traumatic events in a group of male emergency service workers. Data of 116 workers representing emergency services (37.1% firefighters, 37.1%, police officers and 30% medical rescue workers) who have experienced a traumatic event in their worksite were analyzed. The range of age of the participants was 21-57 years (M=35.27; SD=8.13). Polish versions of the Impact of Event Scale--Revised and the Post-traumatic Growth Inventory were used to assess the negative and positive outcomes of the experienced event. A perceived social support scale was measured by the scale What support you can count on. The data obtained from the study revealed the negative dependence of social support from supervisors with PTSD symptoms and positive--social support from co-workers with post-traumatic growth. Moreover the results of the study indicate the positive relationship between negative and positive outcomes of experienced traumatic events in the workplace. Perceived social support plays a more important role in gaining benefits from trauma than preventing negative outcomes of the experienced traumatic event. Support from co-workers, compared to support from supervisors, has greater importance.

Forming identities in residential care for children: Manoeuvring between social work and peer groups

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Stokholm, Anja

2009-01-01

in the pedagogical work. This article challenges the implicit understanding that social work is the primary source of identity transformation and that peer group interaction is mainly an obstacle to overcome. On the contrary, this article argues that learning about the social dynamics of the children's group...... is a precondition for understanding how social work influences individual children. © The Author(s), 2009....

Supporting Family Carers Through Telephone-Mediated Group Programs: Opportunities For Gerontological Social Workers.

Science.gov (United States)

Shanley, Chris

2008-01-01

Telephone-mediated group programs are an important but under-utilized medium for reaching frail or disabled older persons' family carers who are in need of support. The primary purpose and style of group programs can range across a broad spectrum–encompassing educational, supportive and therapeutic types. Gerontological social workers are the members of the multidisciplinary care team whose training, experience and supervision makes them most suitable for facilitating this broad range of group types. Drawing on the experience of training a number of group facilitators, this article provides suggestions for social workers contemplating the use of telephone-mediated groups and highlights groupwork skills peculiar to conducting group programs via the telephone.

Social Groups, Sport and Political Engagement in New Zealand

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Donovan, T.; Bowler, S.; Hanneman, R.; Karp, J.A.

2004-01-01

Many prominent social theorists contend that memberships in voluntary associations make major contributions to making citizens more engaged with democracy. Although substantial attention has been directed at the potential role of sports groups, previous studies using survey data have not found

Social Exclusion Based on Group Membership is a Form of Prejudice.

Science.gov (United States)

Cooley, Shelby; Elenbaas, Laura; Killen, Melanie

Children around the world are affected by bias, prejudice, and discrimination. In this chapter, we argue that intergroup social exclusion-exclusion of peers on the basis of group membership-is a form of prejudice. As such, research efforts should be directed at uncovering the negative intergroup attitudes that sustain these behaviors, and encouraging the development of children's capacity to resist biases in favor of inclusion and just treatment of others. In order to interpret what is known about intergroup social exclusion in childhood, as well as identify compelling issues for current investigation, we introduce our integrative social reasoning developmental model, which emphasizes how children weigh moral and social concerns in everyday peer contexts. This chapter emphasizes three areas of research that have contributed to understanding social inclusion and exclusion decisions in childhood which include the roles of: (1) intergroup contact and friendship, (2) peer group norms, and (3) messages from parents and teachers. While providing a background on the state of research to date, this chapter also pinpoints recent work, shedding new light on the complex interplay of moral reasoning and intergroup attitudes in children's inclusion and exclusion decisions. © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Understanding Groups in Outdoor Adventure Education through Social Network Analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Jostad, Jeremy; Sibthorp, Jim; Paisley, Karen

2013-01-01

Relationships are a critical component to the experience of an outdoor adventure education (OAE) program, therefore, more fruitful ways of investigating groups is needed. Social network analysis (SNA) is an effective tool to study the relationship structure of small groups. This paper provides an explanation of SNA and shows how it was used by the…

THE SOCIALIZATION OF ELDERS IN COEXISTENCE GROUPS AS A POSSIBILITY OF A HEALTHY AGING

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maria Izabel da Silva

2009-01-01

Full Text Available The aim of this article is to identify elements from the participation of oldiers in coexistence groups, based in the professional exercise of the social worker. It comes of a interdisciplinary investigation carried out with senior groups in Florianopolis/SC, that results evinced the point of the coexistence group in their lifes as to the process of socialization and prevention of social isolation, contributing, in such a way, to the democratic process under construction, as well as the amplification and consolidation of the citizenship and human rights.

Social Identity Mapping: A procedure for visual representation and assessment of subjective multiple group memberships.

Science.gov (United States)

Cruwys, Tegan; Steffens, Niklas K; Haslam, S Alexander; Haslam, Catherine; Jetten, Jolanda; Dingle, Genevieve A

2016-12-01

In this research, we introduce Social Identity Mapping (SIM) as a method for visually representing and assessing a person's subjective network of group memberships. To provide evidence of its utility, we report validating data from three studies (two longitudinal), involving student, community, and clinical samples, together comprising over 400 participants. Results indicate that SIM is easy to use, internally consistent, with good convergent and discriminant validity. Each study also illustrates the ways that SIM can be used to address a range of novel research questions. Study 1 shows that multiple positive group memberships are a particularly powerful predictor of well-being. Study 2 shows that social support is primarily given and received within social groups and that only in-group support is beneficial for well-being. Study 3 shows that improved mental health following a social group intervention is attributable to an increase in group compatibility. In this way, the studies demonstrate the capacity for SIM to make a contribution both to the development of social-psychological theory and to its practical application. © 2016 The British Psychological Society.

Social learning and the development of individual and group behaviour in mammal societies.

Science.gov (United States)

Thornton, Alex; Clutton-Brock, Tim

2011-04-12

As in human societies, social learning may play an important role in shaping individual and group characteristics in other mammals. Here, we review research on non-primate mammals, concentrating on work at our long-term meerkat study site, where longitudinal data and field experiments have generated important insights into the role of social learning under natural conditions. Meerkats live under high predation pressure and occupy a difficult foraging niche. Accordingly, pups make extensive use of social information in learning to avoid predation and obtain food. Where individual learning is costly or opportunities are lacking, as in the acquisition of prey-handling skills, adults play an active role in promoting learning through teaching. Social learning can also cause information to spread through groups, but our data suggest that this does not necessarily result in homogeneous, group-wide traditions. Moreover, traditions are commonly eroded by individual learning. We suggest that traditions will only persist where there are high costs of deviating from the group norm or where skill development requires extensive time and effort. Persistent traditions could, theoretically, modify selection pressures and influence genetic evolution. Further empirical studies of social learning in natural populations are now urgently needed to substantiate theoretical claims.

Social grooming network in captive chimpanzees: does the wild or captive origin of group members affect sociality?

Science.gov (United States)

Levé, Marine; Sueur, Cédric; Petit, Odile; Matsuzawa, Tetsuro; Hirata, Satoshi

2016-01-01

Many chimpanzees throughout the world are housed in captivity, and there is an increasing effort to recreate social groups by mixing individuals with captive origins with those with wild origins. Captive origins may entail restricted rearing conditions during early infant life, including, for example, no maternal rearing and a limited social life. Early rearing conditions have been linked with differences in tool-use behavior between captive- and wild-born chimpanzees. If physical cognition can be impaired by non-natural rearing, what might be the consequences for social capacities? This study describes the results of network analysis based on grooming interactions in chimpanzees with wild and captive origins living in the Kumamoto Sanctuary in Kumamoto, Japan. Grooming is a complex social activity occupying up to 25% of chimpanzees' waking hours and plays a role in the emergence and maintenance of social relationships. We assessed whether the social centralities and roles of chimpanzees might be affected by their origin (captive vs wild). We found that captive- and wild-origin chimpanzees did not differ in their grooming behavior, but that theoretical removal of individuals from the network had differing impacts depending on the origin of the individual. Contrary to findings that non-natural early rearing has long-term effects on physical cognition, living in social groups seems to compensate for the negative effects of non-natural early rearing. Social network analysis (SNA) and, in particular, theoretical removal analysis, were able to highlight differences between individuals that would have been impossible to show using classical methods. The social environment of captive animals is important to their well-being, and we are only beginning to understand how SNA might help to enhance animal welfare.

Roosevelt elk density and social segregation: Foraging behavior and females avoiding larger groups of males

Science.gov (United States)

Weckerly, F.; McFarland, K.; Ricca, M.; Meyer, K.

2004-01-01

Intersexual social segregation at small spatial scales is prevalent in ruminants that are sexually dimorphic in body size. Explaining social segregation, however, from hypotheses of how intersexual size differences affects the foraging process of males and females has had mixed results. We studied whether body size influences on forage behavior, intersexual social incompatibility or both might influence social segregation in a population of Roosevelt elk (Cervus elaphus roosevelt) that declined 40% over 5 y. Most males and females in the population occurred in the same forage patches, meadows, but occupied different parts of meadows and most groups were overwhelming comprised of one sex. The extent of segregation varied slightly with changing elk density. Cropping rate, our surrogate of forage ingestion, of males in mixed-sex groups differed from males in male-only groups at high, but not low, elk density. In a prior study of intersexual social interactions it was shown that females avoided groups containing ???6 males. Therefore, we predicted that females should avoid parts of meadows where groups of males ???6 were prevalent. Across the 5 y of study this prediction held because ???5% of all females were found in parts of meadows where median aggregation sizes of males were ???6. Social segregation was coupled to body size influences on forage ingestion at high density and social incompatibility was coupled to social segregation regardless of elk density.

Power and Vision: Group-Process Models Evolving from Social-Change Movements.

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Morrow, Susan L.; Hawxhurst, Donna M.

1988-01-01

Explores evolution of group process in social change movements, including the evolution of the new left, the cooperative movement,and the women's liberation movement. Proposes a group-process model that encourages people to share power and live their visions. (Author/NB)

Smells familiar: group-joining decisions of predatory mites are mediated by olfactory cues of social familiarity.

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Muleta, Muluken G; Schausberger, Peter

2013-09-01

Group-living animals frequently have to trade off the costs and benefits of leaving an established group and joining another group. Owing to their high fitness relevance, group-joining decisions are commonly nonrandom and may be based on traits of both individual members and the group such as life stage, body size, social status and group density or size, respectively. Many group-living animals are able to recognize and to associate preferentially with familiar individuals, i.e. those encountered before. Hence, after dispersing from established groups, animals commonly have to decide whether to join a new familiar or unfamiliar group. Using binary choice situations we assessed the effects of social familiarity on group-joining behaviour of the plant-inhabiting predatory mite Phytoseiulus persimilis . Group living in P. persimilis is brought about by the patchy distribution of its spider mite prey and mutual conspecific attraction. In the first experiment, gravid predator females given a choice between spider mite patches occupied by unfamiliar and familiar groups of females strongly preferred to join familiar groups and to deposit their eggs in these patches. Preference for socially familiar groups was robust across biases of spider mite prey densities between choice options. The second experiment revealed that the predatory mite females can smell social familiarity from a distance. Females subjected to odour choice situations in artificial cages were more strongly attracted to the odour of familiar than unfamiliar groups. We argue that P. persimilis females preferentially join socially familiar groups because a familiar social environment relaxes competition and optimizes foraging and reproduction.

Smells familiar: group-joining decisions of predatory mites are mediated by olfactory cues of social familiarity☆

Science.gov (United States)

Muleta, Muluken G.; Schausberger, Peter

2013-01-01

Group-living animals frequently have to trade off the costs and benefits of leaving an established group and joining another group. Owing to their high fitness relevance, group-joining decisions are commonly nonrandom and may be based on traits of both individual members and the group such as life stage, body size, social status and group density or size, respectively. Many group-living animals are able to recognize and to associate preferentially with familiar individuals, i.e. those encountered before. Hence, after dispersing from established groups, animals commonly have to decide whether to join a new familiar or unfamiliar group. Using binary choice situations we assessed the effects of social familiarity on group-joining behaviour of the plant-inhabiting predatory mite Phytoseiulus persimilis. Group living in P. persimilis is brought about by the patchy distribution of its spider mite prey and mutual conspecific attraction. In the first experiment, gravid predator females given a choice between spider mite patches occupied by unfamiliar and familiar groups of females strongly preferred to join familiar groups and to deposit their eggs in these patches. Preference for socially familiar groups was robust across biases of spider mite prey densities between choice options. The second experiment revealed that the predatory mite females can smell social familiarity from a distance. Females subjected to odour choice situations in artificial cages were more strongly attracted to the odour of familiar than unfamiliar groups. We argue that P. persimilis females preferentially join socially familiar groups because a familiar social environment relaxes competition and optimizes foraging and reproduction. PMID:24027341

Survival after pathogen exposure in group-living insects: don't forget the stress of social isolation!

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Kohlmeier, P; Holländer, K; Meunier, J

2016-09-01

A major cost of group-living is its inherent risk of pathogen infection. To limit this risk, many group-living animals have developed the capability to prophylactically boost their immune system in the presence of group members and/or to mount collective defences against pathogens. These two phenomena, called density-dependent prophylaxis and social immunity, respectively, are often used to explain why, in group-living species, individuals survive better in groups than in isolation. However, this survival difference may also reflect an alternative and often overlooked process: a cost of social isolation on individuals' capability to fight against infections. Here, we disentangled the effects of density-dependent prophylaxis, social immunity and stress of social isolation on the survival after pathogen exposure in group-living adults of the European earwig Forficula auricularia. By manipulating the presence of group members both before and after pathogen exposure, we demonstrated that the cost of being isolated after infection, but not the benefits of social immunity or density-dependent prophylaxis, explained the survival of females. Specifically, females kept constantly in groups or constantly isolated had higher survival rates than females that were first in groups and then isolated after infection. Our results also showed that this cost of social isolation was absent in males and that social isolation did not reduce the survival of noninfected individuals. Overall, this study gives a new perspective on the role of pathogens in social evolution, as it suggests that an apparently nonadaptive, personal immune process may promote the maintenance of group-living under pathogenic environments. © 2016 European Society For Evolutionary Biology. Journal of Evolutionary Biology © 2016 European Society For Evolutionary Biology.

Autocracy bias in informal groups under need for closure.

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Pierro, Antonio; Mannetti, Lucia; De Grada, Eraldo; Livi, Stefano; Kruglanski, Arie W

2003-03-01

Two experiments investigated the tendency of groups with members under high (vs. low) need for cognitive closure to develop an autocratic leadership structure in which some members dominate the discussion, constitute the "hubs" of communication, and influence the group more than other members. The first experiment found that high (vs. low) need for closure groups, as assessed via dispositional measure of the need for closure, manifested greater asymmetry of conversational floor control, such that members with autocratic interactional style were more conversationally dominant and influential than less autocratic members. The second experiment manipulated the need for closure via time pressure and utilized a social network analysis. Consistent with expectation, groups under time pressure (vs. no pressure) showed a greater asymmetry of participation, of centrality, and of prestige among the group members, such that the more focal members were perceived to exert the greater influence over the groups' decisions.

Social vulnerabilities and health conditions of arrestees in the Greater Paris area, France, in 2013: a multicentre cross-sectional study.

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Verdier, Emilie; Denis, Céline; Bourokba, Nacer; Chauvin, Pierre; Chariot, Patrick

2018-05-01

The aim of this study was to describe the health and social conditions of arrestees, as compared to the general population. We studied a sample of 600 adult arrestees in three locations in the Greater Paris area, prospectively included (February-May 2013). A descriptive analysis has been performed, then prevalence was estimated using an indirect standardisation according to age, based on data from a population-based, representative survey in the same area. Arrestees had a median age of 31 years; 92% were males. As compared to the general population, arrestees had a lower level of education (8.6 vs. 7.6%, p analysis of male arrestees and males from the general population showed that the former had worse social and health conditions. These results argue for widespread medical interventions on all arrestees. Medical examination during detention could act as a gateway to health care and social support.

Adaptive Radiation in Socially Advanced Stem-Group Ants from the Cretaceous.

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Barden, Phillip; Grimaldi, David A

2016-02-22

Across terrestrial ecosystems, modern ants are ubiquitous. As many as 94 out of every 100 individual arthropods in rainforests are ants, and they constitute up to 15% of animal biomass in the Amazon. Moreover, ants are pervasive agents of natural selection as over 10,000 arthropod species are specialized inquilines or myrmecomorphs living among ants or defending themselves through mimicry. Such impact is traditionally explained by sociality: ants are the first major group of ground-dwelling predatory insects to become eusocial, increasing efficiency of tasks and establishing competitive superiority over solitary species. A wealth of specimens from rich deposits of 99 million-year-old Burmese amber resolves ambiguity regarding sociality and diversity in the earliest ants. The stem-group genus Gerontoformica maintained distinct reproductive castes including morphotypes unknown in solitary aculeate (stinging) wasps, providing insight into early behavior. We present rare aggregations of workers, indicating group recruitment as well as an instance of interspecific combat; such aggression is a social feature of modern ants. Two species and an unusual new genus are described, further expanding the remarkable diversity of early ants. Stem-group ants are recovered as a paraphyletic assemblage at the base of modern lineages varying greatly in size, form, and mouthpart structure, interpreted here as an adaptive radiation. Though Cretaceous stem-group ants were eusocial and adaptively diverse, we hypothesize that their extinction resulted from the rise of competitively superior crown-group taxa that today form massive colonies, consistent with Wilson and Hölldobler's concept of "dynastic succession." Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Psicoterapia psicodinâmica em grupo para fobia social generalizada Psychodynamic group treatment for generalized social phobia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Daniela Zippin Knijnik

2004-06-01

Full Text Available OBJETIVOS: O objetivo deste estudo é verificar a efetividade do tratamento psicodinâmico em grupo de pacientes com fobia social generalizada. MÉTODOS: 30 pacientes foram incluídos em um estudo randomizado, simples-cego, comparando Terapia Psicodinâmica de Grupo (TPG com um Grupo de Controle Placebo com Credibilidade (CPC. A TPG foi conduzida em 12 sessões de terapia de orientação psicodinâmica em grupo. Os pacientes do grupo controle receberam um pacote de aulas-discussões e tratamento de apoio por 12 semanas, que foi comparado à TPG. Todos os participantes preencheram a Escala de Liebowitz para Ansiedade Social (LSAS, a Escala Hamilton de Ansiedade (HAM-A e a Escala de Impressão Clínica Global (CGI, na entrevista inicial e na 12ª semana de tratamento. Os dados foram analisados com uma ANOVA de medidas repetidas. Pacientes em vigência de tratamento farmacológico ou psicoterápico foram excluídos. RESULTADOS: Ambos os grupos apresentaram melhora na maioria das medidas. Na LSAS, os pacientes da TPG obtiveram melhora superior aos do grupo controle, ao cabo de 12 semanas (F1,28=4.84, p=0.036. Nas medidas basais dos sujeitos que completaram o estudo, não houve diferença entre os grupos em variáveis demográficas e de desfecho. CONCLUSÃO: Neste estudo, a TPG foi superior ao tratamento placebo com credibilidade no tratamento da fobia social generalizada, em um ensaio clínico randomizado, simples-cego, de 12 semanas.OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study is to assess the effectiveness of psychodynamic group therapy in patients with generalized social phobia. METHODS: Thirty patients were included in a randomized single-blind clinical trial comparing psychodynamic group treatment (PGT with a credible placebo control group (CPC. PGT was carried out within a 12-session psychodynamically-oriented group psychotherapy. Control patients received a treatment package of lecture-discussion and support group for 12 weeks which was compared to PGT

The structure of social exchange in self-help support groups: development of a measure.

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Brown, Louis D; Tang, Xiaohui; Hollman, Ruth L

2014-03-01

Self-help support groups are indigenous community resources designed to help people manage a variety of personal challenges, from alcohol abuse to xeroderma pigmentosum. The social exchanges that occur during group meetings are central to understanding how people benefit from participation. This paper examines the different types of social exchange behaviors that occur during meetings, using two studies to develop empirically distinct scales that reliably measure theoretically important types of exchange. Resource theory informed the initial measurement development efforts. Exploratory factor analyses from the first study led to revisions in the factor structure of the social exchange scales. The revised measure captured the exchange of emotional support, experiential information, humor, unwanted behaviors, and exchanges outside meetings. Confirmatory factor analyses from a follow-up study with a different sample of self-help support groups provided good model fit, suggesting the revised structure accurately represented the data. Further, the scales demonstrated good convergent and discriminant validity with related constructs. Future research can use the scales to identify aspects of social exchange that are most important in improving health outcomes among self-help support group participants. Groups can use the scales in practice to celebrate strengths and address weaknesses in their social exchange dynamics.

The ties that bind: genetic relatedness predicts the fission and fusion of social groups in wild African elephants.

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Archie, Elizabeth A; Moss, Cynthia J; Alberts, Susan C

2006-03-07

Many social animals live in stable groups. In contrast, African savannah elephants (Loxodonta africana) live in unusually fluid, fission-fusion societies. That is, 'core' social groups are composed of predictable sets of individuals; however, over the course of hours or days, these groups may temporarily divide and reunite, or they may fuse with other social groups to form much larger social units. Here, we test the hypothesis that genetic relatedness predicts patterns of group fission and fusion among wild, female African elephants. Our study of a single Kenyan population spans 236 individuals in 45 core social groups, genotyped at 11 microsatellite and one mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) locus. We found that genetic relatedness predicted group fission; adult females remained with their first order maternal relatives when core groups fissioned temporarily. Relatedness also predicted temporary fusion between social groups; core groups were more likely to fuse with each other when the oldest females in each group were genetic relatives. Groups that shared mtDNA haplotypes were also significantly more likely to fuse than groups that did not share mtDNA. Our results suggest that associations between core social groups persist for decades after the original maternal kin have died. We discuss these results in the context of kin selection and its possible role in the evolution of elephant sociality.

Social Anhedonia and Schizotypy in a Community Sample: The Maryland Longitudinal Study of Schizotypy

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Blanchard, Jack J.; Collins, Lindsay M.; Aghevli, Minu; Leung, Winnie W.; Cohen, Alex S.

2011-01-01

Social anhedonia has been employed in psychometric high-risk studies to identify putative schizotypes. To date, this research has focused almost exclusively on college samples. The current study sought to examine the validity of social anhedonia as an indicator of risk for schizophrenia-spectrum disorders within a community sample. Furthermore, we evaluated the role of other individual difference variables in accounting for variable clinical severity within the social anhedonia group including trait affectivity, social support, and family environment. Following the mailed questionnaire screening of 2434 eighteen-year olds, laboratory assessments were conducted with individuals identified as being high in social anhedonia (n = 86) and a comparison sample (n = 89). Compared with the control group, individuals in the social anhedonia group were found to have higher rates of mood disorders, elevated schizophrenia-spectrum personality disorder characteristics, greater negative symptom characteristics, and lower global functioning. Individuals within the social anhedonia group also reported greater trait negative affectivity, lower positive affectivity, less social support, and more family conflict. Low social support and problematic family environment were found to be related to elevations in spectrum personality disorder characteristics and poorer functioning within the social anhedonia group. These cross-sectional findings from a community sample provide further support for social anhedonia as a possible indicator of schizotypy. PMID:19850669

"I Don't Know What Fun Is": Examining the Intersection of Social Capital, Social Networks, and Social Recovery.

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Boeri, Miriam; Gardner, Megan; Gerken, Erin; Ross, Melissa; Wheeler, Jack

The purpose of this paper is to understand how people with problematic drug use access positive social capital. Social capital is defined as relations that provide valuable resources to individuals through participation in social networks. People with low socioeconomic status remain at a disadvantage for acquiring positive social capital, a component of recovery capital. The concept of social recovery emphasises the relational processes of recovery. In-depth life history data were collected from 29 individuals who used heroin, cocaine, crack, or methamphetamine for at least five years, have less than a high school education, and unstable employment and housing. Qualitative data were coded for social networks accessed throughout the life course, distinguished by bonding, bridging and linking social capital. Social networks included drug treatment programs; non-drug-using family and friends; religious/spiritual groups; workplace networks, and social clubs/activities. Bonding and/or bridging social capital were acquired through treatment, family and friends, religious/spiritual groups, workplaces, and social clubs. Linking social capital was not acquired through any social networks available, and many barriers to accessing mainstream social networks were found. This is a small study conducted in the US. A greater focus on social recovery is needed to achieve sustained recovery for individuals lacking access to and engagement in mainstream social networks. Social recovery is proposed as an analytical tool as well as for developing prevention, intervention, and treatment strategies.

From the mouths of social media users: A focus group study exploring the social casino gaming–online gambling link

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Kim, Hyoun S.; Wohl, Michael J. A.; Gupta, Rina; Derevensky, Jeffrey

2016-01-01

Background and aims The potential link between social casino gaming and online gambling has raised considerable concerns among clinicians, researchers and policy makers. Unfortunately, however, there is a paucity of research examining this potential link, especially among young adults. This represents a significant gap given young adults are frequently exposed to and are players of social casino games. Methods To better understand the potential link between social casino games and online gambling, we conducted three focus groups (N = 30) at two large Canadian Universities with college students who were avid social media users (who are regularly exposed to social casino games). Results Many participants spontaneously mentioned that social casino games were a great opportunity to build gambling skills before playing for real money. Importantly, some participants expressed a belief that there is a direct progression from social casino gaming to online gambling. Conversely, others believed the transition to online gambling depended on a person’s personality, rather than mere exposure to social casino games. While many young adults in our focus groups felt immune to the effects of social casino games, there was a general consensus that social casino games may facilitate the transition to online gambling among younger teenagers (i.e., 12–14 yr olds), due to the ease of accessibility and early exposure. Discussion The results of the present research point to the need for more study on the effects of social casino gambling as well as a discussion concerning regulation of social casino games in order to minimize their potential risks. PMID:28092197

From the mouths of social media users: A focus group study exploring the social casino gaming-online gambling link.

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Hyoun S; Wohl, Michael J A; Gupta, Rina; Derevensky, Jeffrey

2016-03-01

Background and aims The potential link between social casino gaming and online gambling has raised considerable concerns among clinicians, researchers and policy makers. Unfortunately, however, there is a paucity of research examining this potential link, especially among young adults. This represents a significant gap given young adults are frequently exposed to and are players of social casino games. Methods To better understand the potential link between social casino games and online gambling, we conducted three focus groups (N = 30) at two large Canadian Universities with college students who were avid social media users (who are regularly exposed to social casino games). Results Many participants spontaneously mentioned that social casino games were a great opportunity to build gambling skills before playing for real money. Importantly, some participants expressed a belief that there is a direct progression from social casino gaming to online gambling. Conversely, others believed the transition to online gambling depended on a person's personality, rather than mere exposure to social casino games. While many young adults in our focus groups felt immune to the effects of social casino games, there was a general consensus that social casino games may facilitate the transition to online gambling among younger teenagers (i.e., 12-14 yr olds), due to the ease of accessibility and early exposure. Discussion The results of the present research point to the need for more study on the effects of social casino gambling as well as a discussion concerning regulation of social casino games in order to minimize their potential risks.

Sport psychology group consultation using social networking web sites.

Science.gov (United States)

Dietrich, Frederick; Shipherd, Amber M; Gershgoren, Lael; Filho, Edson Medeiros; Basevitch, Itay

2012-08-01

A social networking Web site, Facebook, was used to deliver long-term sport psychology consultation services to student-athletes (i.e., soccer players) in 30- to 60-min weekly sessions. Additional short-term team building, group cohesion, communication, anger management, injury rehabilitation, mental toughness, commitment, and leadership workshops were provided. Cohesion and overall relationships between both the student-athletes and the sport psychology consultants benefited from this process. Social networking Web sites offer a practical way of providing sport psychology consulting services that does not require use of major resources. (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved.

Constructing Social Networks from Unstructured Group Dialog in Virtual Worlds

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Shah, Fahad; Sukthankar, Gita

Virtual worlds and massively multi-player online games are rich sources of information about large-scale teams and groups, offering the tantalizing possibility of harvesting data about group formation, social networks, and network evolution. However these environments lack many of the cues that facilitate natural language processing in other conversational settings and different types of social media. Public chat data often features players who speak simultaneously, use jargon and emoticons, and only erratically adhere to conversational norms. In this paper, we present techniques for inferring the existence of social links from unstructured conversational data collected from groups of participants in the Second Life virtual world. We present an algorithm for addressing this problem, Shallow Semantic Temporal Overlap (SSTO), that combines temporal and language information to create directional links between participants, and a second approach that relies on temporal overlap alone to create undirected links between participants. Relying on temporal overlap is noisy, resulting in a low precision and networks with many extraneous links. In this paper, we demonstrate that we can ameliorate this problem by using network modularity optimization to perform community detection in the noisy networks and severing cross-community links. Although using the content of the communications still results in the best performance, community detection is effective as a noise reduction technique for eliminating the extra links created by temporal overlap alone.

The DISC (Diabetes in Social Context) Study-evaluation of a culturally sensitive social network intervention for diabetic patients in lower socioeconomic groups: a study protocol.

Science.gov (United States)

Vissenberg, Charlotte; Nierkens, Vera; Uitewaal, Paul J M; Geraci, Diana; Middelkoop, Barend J C; Nijpels, Giel; Stronks, Karien

2012-03-19

Compared to those in higher socioeconomic groups, diabetic patients in lower socioeconomic groups have less favourable metabolic control and experience more diabetes-related complications. They encounter specific barriers that hinder optimal diabetes self-management, including a lack of social support and other psychosocial mechanisms in their immediate social environments. Powerful Together with Diabetes is a culturally sensitive social network intervention specifically targeted to ethnic Dutch, Moroccan, Turkish, and Surinamese diabetic patients in lower socioeconomic groups. For ten months, patients will participate in peer support groups in which they will share experiences, support each other in maintaining healthy lifestyles, and learn skills to resist social pressure. At the same time, their significant others will also receive an intervention, aimed at maximizing support for and minimizing the negative social influences on diabetes self-management. This study aims to test the effectiveness of Powerful Together with Diabetes. We will use a quasi-experimental design with an intervention group (Group 1) and two comparison groups (Groups 2 and 3), N = 128 in each group. Group 1 will receive Powerful Together with Diabetes. Group 2 will receive Know your Sugar, a six-week group intervention that does not focus on the participants' social environments. Group 3 receives standard care only. Participants in Groups 1 and 2 will be interviewed and physically examined at baseline, 3, 10, and 16 months. We will compare their haemoglobin A1C levels with the haemoglobin A1C levels of Group 3. Main outcome measures are haemoglobin A1C, diabetes-related quality of life, diabetes self-management, health-related, and intermediate outcome measures. We will conduct a process evaluation and a qualitative study to gain more insights into the intervention fidelity, feasibility, and changes in the psychosocial mechanism in the participants' immediate social environments. With this

[Social skills training groups for children and adolescents with Asperger syndrome: A review].

Science.gov (United States)

Andanson, J; Pourre, F; Maffre, T; Raynaud, J-P

2011-05-01

First described in 1944 by Hans Asperger, Asperger syndrome (AS) is now considered in international diagnostic classifications as one of the pervasive developmental disorders (PDD) or autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The main symptoms of AS are severe impairment in social interaction and communication, and restricted interests, without significant delay in cognitive and language development. Its prevalence is not clearly established but might be around 0.26 per 1000. Symptoms of high-functioning autism (HFA), which is not an official diagnostic category, are quite similar. Children and adolescents with AS or HFA mostly have a social skills deficit, in connection with a lack of understanding concerning the rules governing social interactions. This deficit often leads to social isolation and peer rejection, which can alter their quality of life. Their lack of social skills can also have effects on success at school or work, integration among peers and mental health. According to recent guidelines of the French national authority for health (Haute autorité de santé, HAS) about the special needs of persons with PDD, professionals have to develop evidence-based interventions, emphasizing social interactions and participation, as described by the international classification of functioning, disability and health (ICF): social and professional participation as well as participation in leisure activities, clubs and societies, etc. To explore the studies that give evidence of the value of these social skills training groups, to review the methods and programs worked out in these groups, and to highlight the best general operating principles to be adopted and combined. Systematic searches of electronic databases, journals, and reference lists identified 12 studies published since 1984, involving social competence group interventions, led by psychotherapists who were trained in cognitive behavioral therapies (CBT), for children and adolescents from 6 to 18years old with a

Significance of grooming behavior in two polygynous groups of western black crested gibbons: Implications for understanding social relationships among immigrant and resident group members.

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Guan, Zhen-Hua; Huang, Bei; Ning, Wen-He; Ni, Qing-Yong; Sun, Guo-Zheng; Jiang, Xue-Long

2013-12-01

In primates, grooming is considered among the most common behaviors for maintaining social bonds; however, to date, few studies have examined grooming behavior in gibbon species in detail. We used both a 5-min interval scan method and social network analysis to study grooming in two groups of polygynous western black-crested gibbon (Nomascus concolor) in Wuliang Mountain, Central Yunnan, China. Individuals in both groups spent little time in social grooming (1.45% and 1.97% of active time). We compared the two groups' grooming networks and found that the group that maintained a more stable social unit had a more complex grooming network while the group with new immigrants had a grooming network characterized by fewer grooming pairs. Females in both groups played important roles in the grooming network. A newly immigrant female spent the most time grooming others and chose the resident adult female as her main adult grooming partner. Other females from both groups chose the adult male as their primary grooming partner (except their offspring). A sub-adult male who had resided in his natal group for 2 years after maturing into an adult also groomed more and was at the center of the network. This male finally replaced the breeding male in his group 3 years after our data collection period ended. We hypothesize that the immigrant female and the resident young adult male engaged in more extensive grooming interactions as a behavioral strategy to gain tolerance from long-term residents. Our results suggest that female gibbons in polygynous groups actively cooperate in maintaining social relationships rather than co-exist through tolerance or avoidance. Our observations indicate that grooming networks in crested gibbons reflect individual dynamics and partly support the social cohesion hypothesis for primate grooming. In this regard, we suggest that changes in gibbon grooming networks can be used to predict social change. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Educational offer of family compensation cash, towards greater social responsibility

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maritza Cristancho García

2015-12-01

Full Text Available This document is an overview of the educational offer generated by the family compensation funds and their contribution to the commitment of social tissue formation according to the territorial challenges, considering some characteristics of the institutions of family subsidy system. The process is stated from the review of the "White Paper of the family subsidy system" (ILO, 2014; the undergraduate thesis from the Faculty of Political Science of Del Rosario University "Analysis of the evolution of the figure of the family compensation funds in Colombia as managers of social security for the period between 1954 and 2009, Case Study Cafam "(Cortés, 2011; the document developed by Externado University entitled "The institutions of the family subsidy system as operators of social policy" (Carrasco and Farné, 2010; the document developed by Asocajas in conjuction with Corporación para el desarrollo de la seguridad social “Perspectives of family subsidy system” (Asocajas y Codess, 2014; and finally, considering the development of an analysis of the information provided by Asocajas, and the information taken from the different web pages of the 43 institutions of the family subsidy system that were analyzed.

Exclusion as a Criterion for Selecting Socially Vulnerable Population Groups

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Aleksandra Anatol’evna Shabunova

2016-05-01

Full Text Available The article considers theoretical aspects of a scientific research “The Mechanisms for Overcoming Mental Barriers of Inclusion of Socially Vulnerable Categories of the Population for the Purpose of Intensifying Modernization in the Regional Community” (RSF grant No. 16-18-00078. The authors analyze the essence of the category of “socially vulnerable groups” from the legal, economic and sociological perspectives. The paper shows that the economic approach that uses the criterion “the level of income and accumulated assets” when defining vulnerable population groups prevails in public administration practice. The legal field of the category based on the economic approach is defined by the concept of “the poor and socially unprotected categories of citizens”. With the help of the analysis of theoretical and methodological aspects of this issue, the authors show that these criteria are a necessary but not sufficient condition for classifying the population as being socially vulnerable. Foreign literature associates the phenomenon of vulnerability with the concept of risks, with the possibility of households responding to them and with the likelihood of losing the well-being (poverty theory; research areas related to the means of subsistence, etc.. The asset-based approaches relate vulnerability to the poverty that arises due to lack of access to tangible and intangible assets. Sociological theories presented by the concept of social exclusion pay much attention to the breakdown of social ties as a source of vulnerability. The essence of social exclusion consists in the inability of people to participate in important aspects of social life (in politics, labor markets, education and healthcare, cultural life, etc. though they have all the rights to do so. The difference between the concepts of exclusion and poverty is manifested in the displacement of emphasis from income inequality to limited access to rights. Social exclusion is

Interpersonal and social rhythm group therapy for patients with bipolar disorder

NARCIS (Netherlands)

C.G. Bouwkamp (Christian); M.E. de Kruiff (Marije); T.M. van Troost (Thea); M.L. Snippe (Martine); M.B.J. Blom (Marc); R.F.P. de Winter (Remco F.); P.M.J. Haffmans (P.M. Judith)

2013-01-01

textabstractThis article describes Interpersonal and Social Rhythm Therapy (IPSRT) adapted for use in a group setting for patients with bipolar disorder. In a preliminary efficacy study, we studied the pre-post group treatment effect on affective symptoms. One-year pre-post findings in the IPSRT

[Effects of group psychological counseling on self-confidence and social adaptation of burn patients].

Science.gov (United States)

Dang, Rui; Wang, Yishen; Li, Na; He, Ting; Shi, Mengna; Liang, Yanyan; Zhu, Chan; Zhou, Yongbo; Qi, Zongshi; Hu, Dahai

2014-12-01

To explore the effects of group psychological counseling on the self-confidence and social adaptation of burn patients during the course of rehabilitation. Sixty-four burn patients conforming to the inclusion criteria and hospitalized from January 2012 to January 2014 in Xijing Hospital were divided into trial group and control group according to the method of rehabilitation, with 32 cases in each group. Patients in the two groups were given ordinary rehabilitation training for 8 weeks, and the patients in trial group were given a course of group psychological counseling in addition. The Rosenberg's Self-Esteem Scale was used to evaluate the changes in self-confidence levels, and the number of patients with inferiority complex, normal feeling, self-confidence, and over self-confidence were counted before and after treatment. The Abbreviated Burn-Specific Health Scale was used to evaluate physical function, psychological function, social relationship, health condition, and general condition before and after treatment to evaluate the social adaptation of patients. Data were processed with t test, chi-square test, Mann-Whitney U test, and Wilcoxon test. (1) After treatment, the self-confidence levels of patients in trial group were significantly higher than those in control group (Z = -2.573, P 0.05). (2) After treatment, the scores of psychological function, social relationship, health condition, and general condition were (87 ± 3), (47.8 ± 3.6), (49 ± 3), and (239 ± 10) points in trial group, which were significantly higher than those in control group [(79 ± 4), (38.3 ± 5.6), (46 ± 4), and (231 ± 9) points, with t values respectively -8.635, -8.125, -3.352, -3.609, P values below 0.01]. After treatment, the scores of physical function, psychological function, social relationship, health condition, and general condition in trial group were significantly higher than those before treatment (with t values from -33.282 to -19.515, P values below 0.05). The scores

The Efficacy of Group Play Therapy on the Social Skills of Pre-School Hearing-Impaired Children

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Gita Movallali

2015-04-01

Full Text Available Objective: The purpose of the present study was to investigate of the efficacy of group play therapy on the social skills of pre-school hearing-impaired children. Materials & Methods: The present research was a semi-experimental study with pre-test, post-test design and control group. The participants were 30 male hearing-impaired children from pre-schools centers in Varamin and Gharchak provinces using an available method. Subjects were randomly divided into experimental and control groups, each group consisting of 15 children. The experimental group received 12 sessions of group play therapy and the control group did not. The instruments were done using the Raven coloure progressive matrices test and social skills rating scale. The data were recorded and statistically analyzed using MANCOVA. Results: The results of MANCOVA showed that group play therapy had a significant effect on the social skills of hearing-impaired children (P<0.001. The results also revealed that group play therapy had a positive and significant effect on all subscales of social skills in these children: cooperation, self-assertiveness and self-control (P<0.001. Conclusion: Group play therapy can improve the social skills of hearing-impaired children. It is recommended that planning play therapy for hearing-impaired children receives serious attention .

Has Group Work Education Lost Its Social Group Work Essence? A Content Analysis of MSW Course Syllabi in Search of Mutual Aid and Group Conflict Content

Science.gov (United States)

Sweifach, Jay Stephen

2015-01-01

This article presents the results of a content analysis of MSW group work course syllabi in an effort to better understand the extent to which mutual aid and group conflict, two important dimensions of social group work, are included and featured as prominent elements in MSW-level group work instruction.

Metaphors and the Pejorative Framing of Marginalized Groups: Implications for Social Work Education

Science.gov (United States)

O'Brien, Gerald V.

2009-01-01

Although the importance of metaphors is described in the social work literature, few articles or books in the profession have considered the role of metaphors in social policy, especially in providing a negative frame within which marginalized groups can be considered. This negative framing naturally supports aversive social policies designed to…

Social structure in a family group of Guanaco (Lama guanicoe, Ungulate): is female hierarchy based on 'prior attributes' or 'social dynamics'?

Science.gov (United States)

Correa, Loreto A; Zapata, Beatriz; Samaniego, Horacio; Soto-Gamboa, Mauricio

2013-09-01

Social life involves costs and benefits mostly associated with how individuals interact with each other. The formation of hierarchies inside social groups has evolved as a common strategy to avoid high costs stemming from social interactions. Hierarchical relationships seem to be associated with different features such as body size, body condition and/or age, which determine dominance ability ('prior attributes' hypothesis). In contrast, the 'social dynamic' hypothesis suggests that an initial social context is a determinant in the formation of the hierarchy, more so than specific individual attributes. Hierarchical rank places individuals in higher positions, which presumably increases resource accessibility to their benefit, including opportunities for reproduction. We evaluate the maintenance of hierarchy in a family group of guanacos (Lama guanicoe) and evaluate the possible mechanisms involved in the stability of these interactions and their consequences. We estimate the linearity of social hierarchy and their dynamics. We find evidence of the formation of a highly linear hierarchy among females with males positioned at the bottom of the hierarchy. This hierarchy is not affected by physical characteristics or age, suggesting that it is established only through intra-group interactions. Rank is not related with calves' weight gain either; however, subordinated females, with lower rank, exhibit higher rates of allosuckling. We found no evidence of hierarchical structure in calves suggesting that hierarchical relationship in guanacos could be established during the formation of the family group. Hence, our results suggest that hierarchical dynamics could be related more to social dynamics than to prior attributes. We finally discuss the importance of hierarchies established by dominance and their role in minimizing social costs of interactions. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Social media as social capital of LGB individuals in Hong Kong: its relations with group membership, stigma, and mental well-being.

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Chong, Eddie S K; Zhang, Yin; Mak, Winnie W S; Pang, Ingrid H Y

2015-03-01

Social media are found to facilitate social information exchange among lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals who are subjected to social stigma. This study tested the protective role of LGB-tailored social media uses and gratifications in promoting LGB group membership, which we hypothesized to reduce LGB stigma and enhance mental health among LGB individuals in Hong Kong. Based on a sample of 233 Chinese LGB individuals in Hong Kong, structural equation modeling showed evidence for our hypotheses, χ(df=62)(2)= 88.20, GFI = 0.95, CFI = 0.98, NNFI = 0.98, SRMR = 0.07, RMSEA = 0.04. Community surveillance, identity expression, and emotional support on social media may promote mental health by instilling a sense of group membership and reducing stigma. Social media may build camaraderie and bolster resilience among LGB individuals that may otherwise be difficult in conservative regions.

Effects of group size and expectancy of reward on social loafing ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

... years (mean age = 14.53). Results indicated that performance was significantly poorer in the group condition than in the alone condition (p. <05); and reward significantly attenuated social loafing effect in the group condition (p. <05). These observations were discussed in relation to the prevailing challenge in team work.

Tratamento cognitivo-comportamental de grupo na fobia social: resultados de 12 semanas Cognitive-behavioral group treatment in social phobia: 12-week outcome

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Gustavo J. Fonseca D'El Rey

2008-01-01

Full Text Available CONTEXTO: A fobia social é um dos transtornos mentais mais prevalentes na população geral. A terapia cognitivo-comportamental é o modelo não-farmacológico mais estudado nesse transtorno de ansiedade. OBJETIVOS: Este estudo teve como objetivo verificar a efetividade da terapia cognitivo-comportamental de grupo em pacientes com fobia social generalizada. MÉTODOS: Trinta e um pacientes com diagnóstico de fobia social generalizada foram randomicamente distribuídos em dois grupos: um de terapia cognitivo-comportamental de grupo - TCCG (n = 15 e um grupo-controle na Lista de Espera - LE (n = 16. Os pacientes preencheram quatro escalas de avaliação (Inventário de Fobia Social, Escala de Medo de Avaliação Negativa, Inventário de Ansiedade Beck e Escala de Impressão Clínica Global na semana 1 de tratamento e na semana 12. RESULTADOS: Em todas as medidas de avaliações, ao final de 12 semanas, os pacientes que receberam TCCG apresentaram melhoras superiores aos da LE. CONCLUSÕES: Neste ensaio clínico randomizado, simples-cego, a terapia cognitivo-comportamental de grupo foi superior à Lista de Espera no tratamento da fobia social generalizada.BACKGROUND: Social phobia is a widespread mental disorder in the general population. Cognitive-behavioral therapy is the most thoroughly studied nonpharmacologic approach in this anxiety disorder. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study is to assess the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral group therapy in patients with generalized social phobia. METHODS: Thirty one patients with diagnosis of generalized social phobia were randomly allocated in two groups. One group of cognitive-behavioral group therapy - CBGT (n = 15 and one Waiting List control group - WL (n = 16. The patients completed four rating scales (Social Phobia Inventory, Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale, Beck Anxiety Inventory and Clinical Global Impression Scale in the weeks 1 and 12. RESULTS: In all rating scales in the week 12 of

Merging Micro and Macro Intervention: Social Work Practice with Groups in the Community

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Knight, Carolyn; Gitterman, Alex

2018-01-01

Clinical or micro intervention predominates in social work education and practice. The prevailing assumption in social work practice and education is that one engages in either micro or macro intervention. In this article, we describe how these interventions may be merged into an integrated whole through social work practice with groups. The…

Dominance relationships among siamang males living in multimale groups.

Science.gov (United States)

Morino, Luca

2016-03-01

Intense intolerance among males is considered to be an important mechanism maintaining the uni-male organization traditionally attributed to socially monogamous gibbons. Long-term field work, however, has revealed the existence of stable, socially polyandrous groups in at least two populations, raising questions about the mechanism that allows two adult males to co-reside in the same group. I collected 21 months of behavioral data on 7 two-male groups of wild siamangs (Symphalangus syndactylus) in southern Sumatra (Indonesia) to test the hypothesis that dominance relationships regulate the interactions of adult male siamangs and ultimately facilitate multi-male social groups. A dominant male could clearly be identified in each dyad, based on a consistent direction of agonistic interactions, displacements and the maintenance of an advantageous position in the canopy. Males identified as dominant enjoyed greater social access to the resident female and monopolized copulations. These results suggest that gibbons possess the psycho-social flexibility to regulate intra-sexual aggression and live in multi-male social units under certain social conditions. I discuss the effects that relatedness between males and female choice have in determining this grouping pattern, and the role of male intolerance in the maintenance of primate mating systems. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

The effects of alcohol expectancy priming on group bonding.

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Moltisanti, Allison J; Below, Maureen C; Brandon, Karen O; Goldman, Mark S

2013-12-01

According to alcohol expectancy theory, drinking-related information is stored in memory and, when cue activated, influences alcohol-related behavior. Priming of alcohol cues and expectancies has been shown to elicit both drinking and nonconsumptive behavior associated with alcohol consumption, such as willingness to meet with a stranger and aggression. These social influence effects have been shown to be moderated by individual differences in alcohol expectancies. In the present study, we tested whether an alcohol prime would facilitate social group bonding even in the absence of consumption, and whether such group bonding would be moderated by individually held social expectancies. One hundred twenty undergraduates (75% female) completed an alcohol expectancy measure prior to participation. Participants were primed with either alcohol or neutral beverage words and completed a collaborative group activity followed by questionnaires measuring perceived group cohesion. Several interactions were found between condition and expectancy reflecting that those in the alcohol prime condition with higher social alcohol expectancies reported greater cohesion on task-related, but not emotion-related, group measures. These findings underscore the complexity of the impact of expectancy and social behavior on drinking: the priming of alcohol expectancies may activate aspects of pro-social behavior, which may influence drinking, which in turn may feedback to positively reinforce social expectancies.

Interventions to improve social determinants of health among elderly ethnic minority groups: a review

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Pool, Michelle S.; Agyemang, Charles O.; Smalbrugge, Martin

2017-01-01

Like the European general population, ethnic minorities are aging. In this group, important social determinants of health (social participation, social isolation and loneliness) that lead to negative health outcomes frequently occur. Interventions targeting these determinants may decrease negative

The DISC (Diabetes in Social Context Study-evaluation of a culturally sensitive social network intervention for diabetic patients in lower socioeconomic groups: a study protocol

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Vissenberg Charlotte

2012-03-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Compared to those in higher socioeconomic groups, diabetic patients in lower socioeconomic groups have less favourable metabolic control and experience more diabetes-related complications. They encounter specific barriers that hinder optimal diabetes self-management, including a lack of social support and other psychosocial mechanisms in their immediate social environments. Powerful Together with Diabetes is a culturally sensitive social network intervention specifically targeted to ethnic Dutch, Moroccan, Turkish, and Surinamese diabetic patients in lower socioeconomic groups. For ten months, patients will participate in peer support groups in which they will share experiences, support each other in maintaining healthy lifestyles, and learn skills to resist social pressure. At the same time, their significant others will also receive an intervention, aimed at maximizing support for and minimizing the negative social influences on diabetes self-management. This study aims to test the effectiveness of Powerful Together with Diabetes. Methods/Design We will use a quasi-experimental design with an intervention group (Group 1 and two comparison groups (Groups 2 and 3, N = 128 in each group. Group 1 will receive Powerful Together with Diabetes. Group 2 will receive Know your Sugar, a six-week group intervention that does not focus on the participants' social environments. Group 3 receives standard care only. Participants in Groups 1 and 2 will be interviewed and physically examined at baseline, 3, 10, and 16 months. We will compare their haemoglobin A1C levels with the haemoglobin A1C levels of Group 3. Main outcome measures are haemoglobin A1C, diabetes-related quality of life, diabetes self-management, health-related, and intermediate outcome measures. We will conduct a process evaluation and a qualitative study to gain more insights into the intervention fidelity, feasibility, and changes in the psychosocial mechanism in the

Social representations about criminals and crimes in various professional groups of young people

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Yakushenko A.V.

2014-12-01

Full Text Available Describes a study whose purpose was to study the peculiarities of social representations of crime and criminals in different groups of students. The sample included 88 people aged 18 to 27 years, divided into four groups, depending on the subject of professionalization - psychologists, lawyers, journalists, representatives of technical professions. The study is based on the ideas of the theory of social representations proposed S.Moskovisi. The main method of study was a survey in a variant form, including an associative technique, the technique of "incomplete sentences", as well as open and closed questions. Associations were analyzed using analysis of prototypical proposed P.Verzhesom. The results obtained by Method "offers Incomplete" were to machine-using content analysis. Testable hypothesis regarding the specifics of professional social representations in various student groups received polnouyu or partial empirical support.

Evaluation of Public E-Services and Information Technology Accessibility in Different Social Groups

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Ramutė Naujikienė

2012-12-01

Full Text Available The purpose of this study is to develop an approach based on the social quality evaluation square model for evaluation of information technology usage in different social groups. Componential view to the accessibility of e-services including IT means providing the possibility to research the influences of different life conditions to usage of the public e-services. The task of this empirical study is directed towards revealing the differences of e-inclusion and e-services accessibility for social groups of citizens of Lithuania, and to compare this accessibility data with other EU countries.Design/methodology/approach—the approach is based on the square model of social quality evaluation of information technology usage in different social groups. The social division square model includes an assessment of quality according to the evaluation of socioeconomic security, social inclusion, social cohesion, and empowerment. Empowerment can be defined as consisting of individual or collective decisions to act on one’s own life.Findings—the results are demonstrated by the accessibility of public e-services data, which are evaluated by the quality of social group development according to IT applications. The hypothesis was confirmed that the e-government activities can be realized by properly selecting and installing technologies, and using technology facilities. E-services influence the capabilities of state officials to apply modern technology and increase the availability of e-services for social groups. Results consist of individual or collective decisions to act on one’s own life, to implementation of effective information technologies in the e-government activities and using of e-services. An important indicator is the implementation of e-services in the activity of citizens. It is submitted as the index of e-participation in dealing with the activities of citizens and the possibilities of authorities directly related with providing services

Evaluation of Public E-Services and Information Technology Accessibility in Different Social Groups

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Ramutė Naujikienė

2013-02-01

Full Text Available The purpose of this study is to develop an approach based on the social quality evaluation square model for evaluation of information technology usage in different social groups. Componential view to the accessibility of e-services including IT means providing the possibility to research the influences of different life conditions to usage of the public e-services. The task of this empirical study is directed towards revealing the differences of e-inclusion and e-services accessibility for social groups of citizens of Lithuania, and to compare this accessibility data with other EU countries. Design/methodology/approach—the approach is based on the square model of social quality evaluation of information technology usage in different social groups. The social division square model includes an assessment of quality according to the evaluation of socioeconomic security, social inclusion, social cohesion, and empowerment. Empowerment can be defined as consisting of individual or collective decisions to act on one’s own life. Findings—the results are demonstrated by the accessibility of public e-services data, which are evaluated by the quality of social group development according to IT applications. The hypothesis was confirmed that the e-government activities can be realized by properly selecting and installing technologies, and using technology facilities. E-services influence the capabilities of state officials to apply modern technology and increase the availability of e-services for social groups. Results consist of individual or collective decisions to act on one’s own life, to implementation of effective information technologies in the e-government activities and using of e-services. An important indicator is the implementation of e-services in the activity of citizens. It is submitted as the index of e-participation in dealing with the activities of citizens and the possibilities of authorities directly related with providing

Social and psychological determinants of participation in internet-based cancer support groups

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Høybye, Mette Terp; Dalton, Susanne Oksbjerg; Christensen, Jane

2010-01-01

PURPOSE: In this study, we identified the social and psychological characteristics of Danish cancer patients that determine use of the internet for support. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We invited 230 cancer patients taking part in a public rehabilitation program to participate in an internet module...... observed no difference between the two groups in quality of life or psychological well-being, while coping to some extent seemed related to participation in internet support groups. CONCLUSION: This study adds to the discussion on social inequality in internet use by cancer patients, showing that patients...... comprising training in the retrieval of cancer-related information from the internet and self-support groups. Persons who were motivated to join the internet groups (N = 100; 47%) were compared with persons who chose not to participate (N = 111) on the basis of self-reported baseline questionnaire data...

Social organization and space use of a wild mandrill (Mandrillus sphinx) group.

Science.gov (United States)

Brockmeyer, Timo; Kappeler, Peter M; Willaume, Eric; Benoit, Laure; Mboumba, Sylvère; Charpentier, Marie J E

2015-10-01

Mandrills (Mandrillus sphinx) are enigmatic Old World primates whose social organization and ecology remain poorly known. Previous studies indicated, for example, that groups are composed of only adult females and their young or that several units composed of one adult male and several females make up larger permanent social units. Here, we present the first data on group composition and male ranging patterns from the only habituated wild mandrill group and examine how home range size and daily path length varied with environmental and demographic factors over a 15-month period. Our study site is located in southern Gabon where we followed the group on a daily basis, collecting data on presence, ranging, behavior, and parasite load of its individual members. Throughout the study, the group was made up of about 120 individuals, including several non-natal and natal adult and sub-adult males. One-male units were never observed. The mandrills traveled an estimated 0.44-6.50 km/day in a home range area of 866.7 ha. Exploratory analyses revealed that precipitation, the number of adult males present, and the richness of protozoan parasites were all positively correlated with daily path length. These results clarify the social system of mandrills and provide first insights into the factors that shape their ranging patterns. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Multiple Social Identities Enhance Health Post-Retirement Because They Are a Basis for Giving Social Support

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Niklas K Steffens

2016-10-01

Full Text Available We examine the extent to which multiple social identities are associated with enhanced health and well-being in retirement because they provide a basis for giving and receiving social support. Results from a cross-sectional study show that retirees (N = 171 who had multiple social identities following (but not prior to retirement report being (a more satisfied with retirement, (b in better health, and (c more satisfied with life in general. Furthermore, mediation analyses revealed an indirect path from multiple social identities to greater satisfaction with retirement and better health through greater provision, but not receipt, of social support to others. These findings are the first to point to the value of multiple group membership post-retirement as a basis for increased opportunities to give meaningful support to others. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications for the management of multiple identities in the process of significant life transitions such as retirement.

Health of women: associations among life events, social support, and personality for selected patient groups.

Science.gov (United States)

Norlander, T; Dahlin, A; Archer, T

2000-02-01

This study examined the effects of life events, social support, personality traits, and siblings' birth-order on the health of women. 199 middle-class participants were included. 95 women, randomly assigned from four different patient groups, were compared with a control group of 96 randomly selected women without any special health problems. They completed a questionnaire which included questions regarding family background, health, different life events, social support, and signs of disease and a projective test, the Sivik Psychosomatism Test. Analysis indicated that report of negative life events was associated with more physical symptoms than positive life events and that the patient groups reported more negative life events and less social support than the control group.

From Social Exclusion to Supported Inclusion: Adults with Intellectual Disability Discuss Their Lived Experiences of a Structured Social Group

Science.gov (United States)

Wilson, Nathan J.; Jaques, Hayden; Johnson, Amanda; Brotherton, Michelle L.

2017-01-01

Background: People with intellectual disability often have few friends and experience social exclusion. Recognising this gap, supported social groups with the aim of inclusion and interdependence were created by a supported employment provider. Methods: Interviews were undertaken with 10 adults with intellectual disability exploring their lived…

“I Don’t Know What Fun Is”: Examining the Intersection of Social Capital, Social Networks, and Social Recovery

Science.gov (United States)

Boeri, Miriam; Gardner, Megan; Gerken, Erin; Ross, Melissa; Wheeler, Jack

2016-01-01

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to understand how people with problematic drug use access positive social capital. Social capital is defined as relations that provide valuable resources to individuals through participation in social networks. People with low socioeconomic status remain at a disadvantage for acquiring positive social capital, a component of recovery capital. The concept of social recovery emphasises the relational processes of recovery. Design/methodology/approach In-depth life history data were collected from 29 individuals who used heroin, cocaine, crack, or methamphetamine for at least five years, have less than a high school education, and unstable employment and housing. Qualitative data were coded for social networks accessed throughout the life course, distinguished by bonding, bridging and linking social capital. Findings Social networks included drug treatment programs; non-drug-using family and friends; religious/spiritual groups; workplace networks, and social clubs/activities. Bonding and/or bridging social capital were acquired through treatment, family and friends, religious/spiritual groups, workplaces, and social clubs. Linking social capital was not acquired through any social networks available, and many barriers to accessing mainstream social networks were found. Limitations This is a small study conducted in the US. Social implications A greater focus on social recovery is needed to achieve sustained recovery for individuals lacking access to and engagement in mainstream social networks. Practical implications Social recovery is proposed as an analytical tool as well as for developing prevention, intervention, and treatment strategies. PMID:27668008

Rural Livelihoods, Climate Change and Micro-Level Adaptive Capacity in the Greater Mekong Subregion

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jiao, Xi

The Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) is one of the fastest developing regions in the world, experiencing significant economic, environmental and social transformations. There is an increasing demand for policy relevant and decision support information at micro level. This PhD research contributes...... and Laos, two of the poorest countries in the GMS. Structured household surveys and participatory focus group discussions were the primary data collection methods. The findings provide new, additional and much needed quantitative information in the region, and several policy implications for rural...

Interculturalism and Physical Cultural Diversity in the Greater Toronto Area

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Yuka Nakamura

2017-06-01

Full Text Available The Greater Toronto Area (GTA is one of the most multicultural communities in the world. Frequently, this description is based on ethnic, linguistic, and culinary diversity. Physical cultural diversity, such as different sports, martial arts, forms of dance, exercise systems, and other physical games and activities, remains ignored and understudied. Based on a living database of the GTA’s physical cultural diversity, this study identifies the trajectories of the lifecycle of activities that have been introduced into the GTA’s physical culture by immigrants. These pathways differ based on whether the activity is offered in a separate setting, where individuals may be participating with other immigrants of the same ethnocultural group, or mixed settings, where people are participating with people from outside of their ethnocultural group. We argue that the diversity and the lifecycle trajectories of physical cultural forms in the GTA serve as evidence of interculturalism and the contribution by immigrants to the social and cultural life of Canada.

The Ingush’s cultural memory and social identity as a representative of repressed ethnic group

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Tatyana G. Stefanenko

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Background. The authors of the paper enquire how the continuity and maintenance of social identity is carried out from generation to generation. Particular attention is drawn to the memory of the traumatic past of the group, such as repression and deportation, as they contradict the widespread view of social identity as a tool for achieving positive individual self-esteem based on a positive image of the group. The paper assumes that cultural memory being a link between the past, the present and the future of the social group ensures the continuity of social identity. Identity that includes the comprehension and experience of the negative past of the group is also considered. Objective. The objective of this study is to justify the role of cultural memory as the basis of identification with the group and an empirical test of the relationship between the two constructs. Design. A written questionnaire was offered to 296 people aged between 17 and 70 (M = 26.22, SD = 10.0 who identified themselves as Ingush. The respondents answered questions about their social identity (ethnic, civil and religious, assessed their experiences related to the deportation fact, and substantively argued the need to preserve the cultural memory of the deportation. Conclusion. The data obtained show that the extent of identity within the group is positively correlated with the extent of the deportation experience, although these experiences are by no means positive (anger, insult, humiliation, heart pain, etc., and also with the frequency of recalling the fact of deportation and desire to learn more about this event. The obtained results confirm the suggested assumption about the role of cultural memory and allow to develop further research on clarifying the relationship between cultural memory and social identity, assessing the impact of such additional factors as group emotions, psychological well-being, etc.

Effects of online group exercises for older adults on physical, psychological and social wellbeing: a randomized pilot trial

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Marcos Baez

2017-04-01

Full Text Available Background Intervention programs to promote physical activity in older adults, either in group or home settings, have shown equivalent health outcomes but different results when considering adherence. Group-based interventions seem to achieve higher participation in the long-term. However, there are many factors that can make of group exercises a challenging setting for older adults. A major one, due to the heterogeneity of this particular population, is the difference in the level of skills. In this paper we report on the physical, psychological and social wellbeing outcomes of a technology-based intervention that enable online group exercises in older adults with different levels of skills. Methods A total of 37 older adults between 65 and 87 years old followed a personalized exercise program based on the OTAGO program for fall prevention, for a period of eight weeks. Participants could join online group exercises using a tablet-based application. Participants were assigned either to the Control group, representing the traditional individual home-based training program, or the Social group, representing the online group exercising. Pre- and post- measurements were taken to analyze the physical, psychological and social wellbeing outcomes. Results After the eight-weeks training program there were improvements in both the Social and Control groups in terms of physical outcomes, given the high level of adherence of both groups. Considering the baseline measures, however, the results suggest that while in the Control group fitter individuals tended to adhere more to the training, this was not the case for the Social group, where the initial level had no effect on adherence. For psychological outcomes there were improvements on both groups, regardless of the application used. There was no significant difference between groups in social wellbeing outcomes, both groups seeing a decrease in loneliness despite the presence of social features in the

Effects of online group exercises for older adults on physical, psychological and social wellbeing: a randomized pilot trial.

Science.gov (United States)

Baez, Marcos; Khaghani Far, Iman; Ibarra, Francisco; Ferron, Michela; Didino, Daniele; Casati, Fabio

2017-01-01

Intervention programs to promote physical activity in older adults, either in group or home settings, have shown equivalent health outcomes but different results when considering adherence. Group-based interventions seem to achieve higher participation in the long-term. However, there are many factors that can make of group exercises a challenging setting for older adults. A major one, due to the heterogeneity of this particular population, is the difference in the level of skills. In this paper we report on the physical, psychological and social wellbeing outcomes of a technology-based intervention that enable online group exercises in older adults with different levels of skills. A total of 37 older adults between 65 and 87 years old followed a personalized exercise program based on the OTAGO program for fall prevention, for a period of eight weeks. Participants could join online group exercises using a tablet-based application. Participants were assigned either to the Control group, representing the traditional individual home-based training program, or the Social group, representing the online group exercising. Pre- and post- measurements were taken to analyze the physical, psychological and social wellbeing outcomes. After the eight-weeks training program there were improvements in both the Social and Control groups in terms of physical outcomes, given the high level of adherence of both groups. Considering the baseline measures, however, the results suggest that while in the Control group fitter individuals tended to adhere more to the training, this was not the case for the Social group, where the initial level had no effect on adherence. For psychological outcomes there were improvements on both groups, regardless of the application used. There was no significant difference between groups in social wellbeing outcomes, both groups seeing a decrease in loneliness despite the presence of social features in the Social group. However, online social interactions

The effect of device number and role assignment on social group dynamics in location-based learning

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Christensen, Bianca Clavio; Giakalis, Alexandros Panagiotis; Jørgensen, Nicolai Melgaard

2016-01-01

The behavior of being disengaged in group work is commonly defined as social loafing. This disengagement can be reduced by various factors, such as group members having individual accountability in the form of unique tasks. This paper examines social loafing in a collaborative mobile game in groups...... of three users. The game promotes individual accountability in role differentiation on a shared tablet, and these roles are compared to a condition without roles. Another condition tested if a shared tablet would reduce social loafing, compared to individual tablets for each group member. The game...... was tested on 41 students from 7th to 8th grade. Using a tablet each showed significantly more instances of social loafing compared to sharing one. The results show no significant difference for role assignment....

Talking the talk, walking the walk: examining the effect of neighbourhood walkability and social connectedness on physical activity.

Science.gov (United States)

Kaczynski, Andrew T; Glover, Troy D

2012-08-01

Few studies have considered the joint effects of social and physical environments on physical activity (PA). The primary purpose of this study was to examine the compounding effects of neighbourhood walkability and social connectedness on PA. Data were collected from adults (n = 380) in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. Perceptions of neighbourhood social connectedness and walkability were measured via survey. Minutes of neighbourhood PA for recreation and transportation were captured with a detailed 7-day log booklet. Four groups were created (e.g. high walkability/low social connectedness) and two factorial ANOVAs examined group differences in minutes of recreational and transport-related PA. There were significant differences across the four walkability/social connectedness groups for both recreational (F = 11.36, P walkability and social connectedness displayed the greatest levels of both recreational (130.6 min) and transport-related PA (24.5 min). The high walkability/low social connectedness group had greater transport-related PA than the two low walkability groups, while the high social connectedness/low walkability group had greater recreational PA than the two low social connectedness groups. These findings underscore the relationship between physical and social dimensions of urban form and their association with health behaviours. PA promotion efforts should take into account both physical (e.g. land-use planning) and social (e.g. walking group) environments.

Which Peers Matter : How Social Ties Affect Peer-group Effects

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Poldin, O.; Valeeva, D.; Yudkevich, M.

We study how the achievements of university students are influenced by the characteristics and achievements of peers in individuals’ social networks. Defining peer group in terms of friendship and study partner ties enables us to apply a network regression model and thereby disentangle the influence

Still lonely: Social adjustment of youth with and without social anxiety disorder following cognitive behavioral therapy.

Science.gov (United States)

Suveg, Cynthia; Kingery, Julie Newman; Davis, Molly; Jones, Anna; Whitehead, Monica; Jacob, Marni L

2017-12-01

Social experiences are an integral part of normative development for youth and social functioning difficulties are related to poor outcomes. Youth with anxiety disorders, and particularly social anxiety disorder, experience difficulties across many aspects of social functioning that may place them at risk for maladjustment. The goal of this paper was to compare social experiences of youth across anxiety diagnoses and examine whether treatment is helpful in improving social functioning. Ninety-two children (age 7-12 years; 58% male; 87.0% White) with a primary diagnosis of generalized anxiety disorder, separation anxiety disorder, and/or social anxiety disorder participated in cognitive behavioral therapy. At both pre- and post-treatment, children with social anxiety disorder self-reported greater loneliness than youth without social anxiety disorder, though levels of peer victimization and receipt of prosocial behavior were similar across groups. Parents reported greater social problems for youth with social anxiety disorder compared to those without social anxiety disorder. All youth experienced improved social functioning following treatment per child- and parent-reports. The results call for an increased focus on the social experiences of youth with anxiety disorders, and particularly loneliness, for children with social anxiety disorder. The results document ways that evidenced-based practice can improve social functioning for youth with anxiety disorders. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Social networking in online support groups for health: how online social networking benefits patients.

Science.gov (United States)

Chung, Jae Eun

2014-01-01

An increasing number of online support groups (OSGs) have embraced the features of social networking. So far, little is known about how patients use and benefit from these features. By implementing the uses-and-gratifications framework, the author conducted an online survey with current users of OSGs to examine associations among motivation, use of specific features of OSG, and support outcomes. Findings suggest that OSG users make selective use of varied features depending on their needs, and that perceptions of receiving emotional and informational support are associated more with the use of some features than others. For example, those with strong motivation for social interaction use diverse features of OSG and make one-to-one connections with other users by friending. In contrast, those with strong motivation for information seeking limit their use primarily to discussion boards. Results also show that online social networking features, such as friending and sharing of personal stories on blogs, are helpful in satisfying the need for emotional support. The present study sheds light on online social networking features in the context of health-related OSGs and provides practical lessons on how to improve the capacity of OSGs to serve the needs of their users.

Social anhedonia and schizotypy in a community sample: the Maryland longitudinal study of schizotypy.

Science.gov (United States)

Blanchard, Jack J; Collins, Lindsay M; Aghevli, Minu; Leung, Winnie W; Cohen, Alex S

2011-05-01

Social anhedonia has been employed in psychometric high-risk studies to identify putative schizotypes. To date, this research has focused almost exclusively on college samples. The current study sought to examine the validity of social anhedonia as an indicator of risk for schizophrenia-spectrum disorders within a community sample. Furthermore, we evaluated the role of other individual difference variables in accounting for variable clinical severity within the social anhedonia group including trait affectivity, social support, and family environment. Following the mailed questionnaire screening of 2434 eighteen-year olds, laboratory assessments were conducted with individuals identified as being high in social anhedonia (n=86) and a comparison sample (n=89). Compared with the control group, individuals in the social anhedonia group were found to have higher rates of mood disorders, elevated schizophrenia-spectrum personality disorder characteristics, greater negative symptom characteristics, and lower global functioning. Individuals within the social anhedonia group also reported greater trait negative affectivity, lower positive affectivity, less social support, and more family conflict. Low social support and problematic family environment were found to be related to elevations in spectrum personality disorder characteristics and poorer functioning within the social anhedonia group. These cross-sectional findings from a community sample provide further support for social anhedonia as a possible indicator of schizotypy. © The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center. All rights reserved.

Social structure of a semi-free ranging group of mandrills (Mandrillus sphinx: a social network analysis.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Céline Bret

Full Text Available The difficulty involved in following mandrills in the wild means that very little is known about social structure in this species. Most studies initially considered mandrill groups to be an aggregation of one-male/multifemale units, with males occupying central positions in a structure similar to those observed in the majority of baboon species. However, a recent study hypothesized that mandrills form stable groups with only two or three permanent males, and that females occupy more central positions than males within these groups. We used social network analysis methods to examine how a semi-free ranging group of 19 mandrills is structured. We recorded all dyads of individuals that were in contact as a measure of association. The betweenness and the eigenvector centrality for each individual were calculated and correlated to kinship, age and dominance. Finally, we performed a resilience analysis by simulating the removal of individuals displaying the highest betweenness and eigenvector centrality values. We found that related dyads were more frequently associated than unrelated dyads. Moreover, our results showed that the cumulative distribution of individual betweenness and eigenvector centrality followed a power function, which is characteristic of scale-free networks. This property showed that some group members, mostly females, occupied a highly central position. Finally, the resilience analysis showed that the removal of the two most central females split the network into small subgroups and increased the network diameter. Critically, this study confirms that females appear to occupy more central positions than males in mandrill groups. Consequently, these females appear to be crucial for group cohesion and probably play a pivotal role in this species.

Social structure of a semi-free ranging group of mandrills (Mandrillus sphinx): a social network analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Bret, Céline; Sueur, Cédric; Ngoubangoye, Barthélémy; Verrier, Delphine; Deneubourg, Jean-Louis; Petit, Odile

2013-01-01

The difficulty involved in following mandrills in the wild means that very little is known about social structure in this species. Most studies initially considered mandrill groups to be an aggregation of one-male/multifemale units, with males occupying central positions in a structure similar to those observed in the majority of baboon species. However, a recent study hypothesized that mandrills form stable groups with only two or three permanent males, and that females occupy more central positions than males within these groups. We used social network analysis methods to examine how a semi-free ranging group of 19 mandrills is structured. We recorded all dyads of individuals that were in contact as a measure of association. The betweenness and the eigenvector centrality for each individual were calculated and correlated to kinship, age and dominance. Finally, we performed a resilience analysis by simulating the removal of individuals displaying the highest betweenness and eigenvector centrality values. We found that related dyads were more frequently associated than unrelated dyads. Moreover, our results showed that the cumulative distribution of individual betweenness and eigenvector centrality followed a power function, which is characteristic of scale-free networks. This property showed that some group members, mostly females, occupied a highly central position. Finally, the resilience analysis showed that the removal of the two most central females split the network into small subgroups and increased the network diameter. Critically, this study confirms that females appear to occupy more central positions than males in mandrill groups. Consequently, these females appear to be crucial for group cohesion and probably play a pivotal role in this species.

[Effects of Group Cognitive Behavioral Therapy on Social Anxiety Disorders].

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Yu-Chen; Meng, Ya-Jing; Yuan, Min-Lan; Zhu, Hong-Ru; Ren, Zheng-Jia; Qiu, Chang-Jian; Zhang, Wei

2017-11-01

To evaluate the effect of group cognitive behavioral therapy (GCBT) on social anxiety disorders (SAD). A total of 50 patients with SAD were recruited in this study. A survey containing the Liebowitz social anxiety scale (LSAS),the automatic thoughts questionnaire (ATQ),the fear of negative evaluation questionnaire (FNE),the social support rating scale (SSRS),the tridimensional personality questionnaire (TPQ),and the egna minnen barndoms uppfostran (EMBU) was administered before and (one week) after the GCBT,including in the 50 healthy controls. About 21 patients completed the eight-week GCBT (once a week,2 h a session). Follow-up surveys were conducted on 40 patients (22 patients treated with GCBT and 18 untreated) over a 1-5 year period. Significant differences were found between the SAD patients and healthy controls in thinking mode,personality characteristics,social support,parental rearing styles,and social anxiety symptoms. Significant decrease in social anxiety symptom ( t =4.06, P =0.000) , negative automatic thoughts ( t =4.58, P =0.000) and fear for rejection ( t =3.85, P =0.000) were observed after the GCBT therapy. Such improvement was positively correlated with subjective social support ( r =0.361, P =0.022) ,and negatively correlated with rejection of father ( r =-0.431, P =0.005) . There was also statistical difference between the patients with and without the GCBT therapy ( P =0.033) . GCBT treatment can relieve SAD symptoms by changing the negative cognitive of SAD patients. Social support and rejection of father affects the prognosis of SAD.

Evolution of opinions on social networks in the presence of competing committed groups.

Science.gov (United States)

Xie, Jierui; Emenheiser, Jeffrey; Kirby, Matthew; Sreenivasan, Sameet; Szymanski, Boleslaw K; Korniss, Gyorgy

2012-01-01

Public opinion is often affected by the presence of committed groups of individuals dedicated to competing points of view. Using a model of pairwise social influence, we study how the presence of such groups within social networks affects the outcome and the speed of evolution of the overall opinion on the network. Earlier work indicated that a single committed group within a dense social network can cause the entire network to quickly adopt the group's opinion (in times scaling logarithmically with the network size), so long as the committed group constitutes more than about 10% of the population (with the findings being qualitatively similar for sparse networks as well). Here we study the more general case of opinion evolution when two groups committed to distinct, competing opinions A and B, and constituting fractions pA and pB of the total population respectively, are present in the network. We show for stylized social networks (including Erdös-Rényi random graphs and Barabási-Albert scale-free networks) that the phase diagram of this system in parameter space (pA,pB) consists of two regions, one where two stable steady-states coexist, and the remaining where only a single stable steady-state exists. These two regions are separated by two fold-bifurcation (spinodal) lines which meet tangentially and terminate at a cusp (critical point). We provide further insights to the phase diagram and to the nature of the underlying phase transitions by investigating the model on infinite (mean-field limit), finite complete graphs and finite sparse networks. For the latter case, we also derive the scaling exponent associated with the exponential growth of switching times as a function of the distance from the critical point.

Summary of presentation for research on social structure, agreement, and conflict in groups in extreme and isolated environments

Science.gov (United States)

1990-01-01

Despite a vast amount of research, little is known concerning the effect of group structure, and individuals' understanding of that structure, on conflict in Antarctic groups. The overall objective of the research discussed is to determine the interrelationships of group structure, social cognition, and group function and conflict in isolated and extreme environments. In the two decades following WWII, a large body of research focused on the physiological, psychological, and social psychological factors affecting the functioning of individuals and groups in a variety of extreme and isolated environments in both the Arctic and Antarctic. There are two primary reasons for further research of this type. First, Antarctic polar stations are considered to be natural laboratories for the social and behavioral sciences and provide an opportunity to address certain theoretical and empirical questions concerned with agreement and conflict in social groups in general and group behavior in extreme, isolated environments in particular. Recent advances in the analysis of social networks and intracultural variation have improved the methods and have shifted the theoretical questions. The research is motivated by three classes of questions: (1) What are the characteristics of the social relations among individuals working and living together in extreme and isolated environments?; (2) What do individuals understand about their group, how does that understanding develop, and how is it socially distributed?; and (3) What is the relationship between that understanding and the functioning of the social group? Answers to these questions are important if we are to advance our knowledge of how individuals and groups adapt to extreme environments. Second, although Antarctic winter-over candidates may be evaluated as qualified on the basis of individual characteristics, they may fail to adapt because of certain characteristics of the social group. Consequently, the ability of winter-over-groups

The Effect of Solution-Focused Brief Group Counseling upon the Perceived Social Competences of Teenagers

Science.gov (United States)

Ates, Bünyamin

2016-01-01

In this study, the effect of solution-focused brief group counseling upon the perceived social competences of teenagers was investigated. The study group included 24 volunteer students who took lower scores rather than the ones obtained from perceived social competence scale pre-test measurements out of 227 students studying at a high school in…

Precincts and Prospects in the Use of Focus Groups in Social and Behavioral Science Research

Science.gov (United States)

Sagoe, Dominic

2012-01-01

Over the past few years, the focus group method has assumed a very important role as a method for collecting qualitative data in social and behavioural science research. This article elucidates theoretical and practical problems and prospects associated with the use of focus groups as a qualitative research method in social and behavioural science…

Socialization of Physical and Social Aggression in Early Adolescents' Peer Groups: High-Status Peers, Individual Status, and Gender

Science.gov (United States)

Shi, Bing; Xie, Hongling

2012-01-01

The influence of high-status peers on a target individual's physical and manipulative social aggression in peer groups was examined in a diverse sample of seventh-grade students. A total of 245 individual members belonging to 65 groups were included in analyses. Aggression was assessed by peer and victim nominations in the fall and spring…

Socially Anxious Smokers Experience Greater Negative Affect and Withdrawal during Self-Quit Attempts

OpenAIRE

Buckner, Julia D.; Langdon, Kirsten J.; Jeffries, Emily R.; Zvolensky, Michael J.

2016-01-01

Despite evidence of a strong and consistent relation between smoking and elevated social anxiety, strikingly little empirical work has identified mechanisms underlying the smoking-social anxiety link. Persons with elevated social anxiety may rely on smoking to cope with more severe nicotine withdrawal and post-quit negative mood states; yet, no known studies have investigated the relation of social anxiety to withdrawal severity. The current study examined the relation of social anxiety to po...

A model parent group for enhancing aggressive children's social competence in Taiwan.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Ming-Hui

2009-07-01

This paper presents a semi-structured psychoeducational model of group work for parents of aggressive children based on concepts of co-parenting and bidirectionality. The group was developed for enhancing five Taiwanese aggressive children's social competence by promoting positive interactions within family. Topics covered in the group included identifying parenting styles, forming parental alliances, fostering parent-child mutual initiations/mutual compliances, establishing parent-child co-regulation, and responding to aggressive children's negative emotions. Pre- and post-group comparisons suggested the effectiveness of the group model.

Minister wants age balance to play greater role in redundancy selection

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Grünell, M.

2004-01-01

In May 2004, the Dutch Minister of Social Affairs proposed changes to the statutory rules on selection for redundancy, with less emphasis on the last in, first out seniority-based principle and a greater focus on distributing the redundancies between employees of different ages. The social partners

A contextual approach to social skills assessment in the peer group: who is the best judge?

Science.gov (United States)

Kwon, Kyongboon; Kim, Elizabeth Moorman; Sheridan, Susan M

2012-09-01

Using a contextual approach to social skills assessment in the peer group, this study examined the criterion-related validity of contextually relevant social skills and the incremental validity of peers and teachers as judges of children's social skills. Study participants included 342 (180 male and 162 female) students and their classroom teachers (N = 22) from rural communities. As expected, contextually relevant social skills were significantly related to a variety of social status indicators (i.e., likability, peer- and teacher-assessed popularity, reciprocated friendships, clique centrality) and positive school functioning (i.e., school liking and academic competence). Peer-assessed social skills, not teacher-assessed social skills, demonstrated consistent incremental validity in predicting various indicators of social status outcomes; peer- and teacher-assessed social skills alike showed incremental validity in predicting positive school functioning. The relation between contextually relevant social skills and study outcomes did not vary by child gender. Findings are discussed in terms of the significance of peers in the assessment of children's social skills in the peer group as well as the usefulness of a contextual approach to social skills assessment.

Aperiodic dynamics in a deterministic adaptive network model of attitude formation in social groups

Science.gov (United States)

Ward, Jonathan A.; Grindrod, Peter

2014-07-01

Adaptive network models, in which node states and network topology coevolve, arise naturally in models of social dynamics that incorporate homophily and social influence. Homophily relates the similarity between pairs of nodes' states to their network coupling strength, whilst social influence causes coupled nodes' states to convergence. In this paper we propose a deterministic adaptive network model of attitude formation in social groups that includes these effects, and in which the attitudinal dynamics are represented by an activato-inhibitor process. We illustrate that consensus, corresponding to all nodes adopting the same attitudinal state and being fully connected, may destabilise via Turing instability, giving rise to aperiodic dynamics with sensitive dependence on initial conditions. These aperiodic dynamics correspond to the formation and dissolution of sub-groups that adopt contrasting attitudes. We discuss our findings in the context of cultural polarisation phenomena. Social influence. This reflects the fact that people tend to modify their behaviour and attitudes in response to the opinions of others [22-26]. We model social influence via diffusion: agents adjust their state according to a weighted sum (dictated by the evolving network) of the differences between their state and the states of their neighbours. Homophily. This relates the similarity of individuals' states to their frequency and strength of interaction [27]. Thus in our model, homophily drives the evolution of the weighted ‘social' network. A precise formulation of our model is given in Section 2. Social influence and homophily underpin models of social dynamics [21], which cover a wide range of sociological phenomena, including the diffusion of innovations [28-32], complex contagions [33-36], collective action [37-39], opinion dynamics [19,20,40,10,11,13,15,41,16], the emergence of social norms [42-44], group stability [45], social differentiation [46] and, of particular relevance

Health Social Networks as Online Life Support Groups for Patients With Cardiovascular Diseases

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Medina, Edhelmira Lima; Loques, Orlando Filho; Mesquita, Cláudio Tinoco

2013-01-01

The number of patients who use the internet in search for information that might improve their health conditions has increased. Among them, those looking for virtual environments to share experiences, doubts, opinions, and emotions, and to foster relationships aimed at giving and getting support stand out. Therefore, there is an increasing need to assess how those environments can affect the patients' health. This study was aimed at identifying scientific studies on the proliferation and impact of virtual communities, known as health social networks or online support groups, directed to cardiovascular diseases, which might be useful to patients with certain conditions, providing them with information and emotional support. A systematic review of the literature was conducted with articles published from 2007 to 2012, related to cardiovascular diseases and collected from the following databases: PubMed; Association for Computing Machinery(ACM); and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). Four articles meeting the inclusion criteria were selected. The results were interesting and relevant from the health viewpoint, identifying therapeutic benefits, such as provision of emotional support, greater compliance to treatment, and information sharing on diseases and on life experiences

Health Social Networks as Online Life Support Groups for Patients With Cardiovascular Diseases

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Medina, Edhelmira Lima, E-mail: edhyly@ic.uff.br; Loques, Orlando Filho [Instituto de Computação - Universidade Federal Fluminense, Niterói, RJ (Brazil); Mesquita, Cláudio Tinoco [Hospital Universitário Antônio Pedro - Universidade Federal Fluminense, Niterói, RJ (Brazil)

2013-08-15

The number of patients who use the internet in search for information that might improve their health conditions has increased. Among them, those looking for virtual environments to share experiences, doubts, opinions, and emotions, and to foster relationships aimed at giving and getting support stand out. Therefore, there is an increasing need to assess how those environments can affect the patients' health. This study was aimed at identifying scientific studies on the proliferation and impact of virtual communities, known as health social networks or online support groups, directed to cardiovascular diseases, which might be useful to patients with certain conditions, providing them with information and emotional support. A systematic review of the literature was conducted with articles published from 2007 to 2012, related to cardiovascular diseases and collected from the following databases: PubMed; Association for Computing Machinery(ACM); and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). Four articles meeting the inclusion criteria were selected. The results were interesting and relevant from the health viewpoint, identifying therapeutic benefits, such as provision of emotional support, greater compliance to treatment, and information sharing on diseases and on life experiences.

Staff working in hospital units with greater social capital experience less work-home conflict: Secondary analysis of a cross-sectional study.

Science.gov (United States)

Nitzsche, Anika; Kuntz, Ludwig; Miedaner, Felix

2017-10-01

When the interplay between work and private life does not function correctly (work-home conflict), this constitutes a well-known risk factor for poorer health, increased absenteeism and lower work performance. Information about influencing factors of work-home conflict is therefore indispensable in order to avoid it. In this study, we analyse whether a good working atmosphere that fosters mutual trust, support and a 'sense of unity' (organizational social capital) can reduce an employee's conflict between work and private life. This study investigates the link between organizational social capital and work-home conflict in health professionals. This issue was investigated using a cross-sectional study conducted in 2013. Data from questionnaires completed by physicians and nurses (n=1733) were linked with structural data from 66 neonatal intensive care units in Germany. Using multi-level analyses, we investigated associations between organizational social capital at the ward level and work-home conflict at the level of individual employees, taking into account additional structural and individual characteristics. Employees on wards with greater social capital reported significantly less work-home conflict. Our results support the hypothesis that organizational social capital is an important collective resource. As such, more attention should be given to establishing a good working atmosphere that fosters mutual trust, support and a 'sense of unity', and this should be encouraged in a targeted fashion. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

An examination of psychopathology and daily impairment in adolescents with social anxiety disorder.

Science.gov (United States)

Mesa, Franklin; Beidel, Deborah C; Bunnell, Brian E

2014-01-01

Although social anxiety disorder (SAD) is most often diagnosed during adolescence, few investigations have examined the clinical presentation and daily functional impairment of this disorder exclusively in adolescents. Prior studies have demonstrated that some clinical features of SAD in adolescents are unique relative to younger children with the condition. Furthermore, quality of sleep, a robust predictor of anxiety problems and daily stress, has not been examined in socially anxious adolescents. In this investigation, social behavior and sleep were closely examined in adolescents with SAD (n = 16) and normal control adolescents (NC; n = 14). Participants completed a self-report measure and an actigraphy assessment of sleep. Social functioning was assessed via a brief speech and a social interaction task, during which heart rate and skin conductance were measured. Additionally, participants completed a daily social activity journal for 1 week. No differences were observed in objective or subjective quality of sleep. Adolescents with SAD reported greater distress during the analogue social tasks relative to NC adolescents. During the speech task, adolescents with SAD exhibited a trend toward greater speech latency and spoke significantly less than NC adolescents. Additionally, SAD participants manifested greater skin conductance during the speech task. During the social interaction, adolescents with SAD required significantly more confederate prompts to stimulate interaction. Finally, adolescents with SAD reported more frequent anxiety-provoking situations in their daily lives, including answering questions in class, assertive communication, and interacting with a group. The findings suggest that, although adolescents with SAD may not exhibit daily impaired sleep, the group does experience specific behavioral and physiological difficulties in social contexts regularly. Social skills training may be a critical component in therapeutic approaches for this group.

Social Networks, Ethnicity, and Entrepreneurship

OpenAIRE

Kerr, William R.; Mandorff, Martin

2016-01-01

We study the relationship between ethnicity, occupational choice, and entrepreneurship. Immigrant groups in the United States cluster in specific business sectors. For example, the concentration of Korean self-employment in dry cleaners is 34 times greater than other immigrant groups, and Gujarati-speaking Indians are similarly 108 times more concentrated in managing motels. We develop a model of social interactions where non-work relationships facilitate the acquisition of sector-specific sk...

Perceptions of the activity, the social climate, and the self during group exercise classes regulate intrinsic satisfaction.

Science.gov (United States)

Maher, Jaclyn P; Gottschall, Jinger S; Conroy, David E

2015-01-01

Engaging in regular physical activity is a challenging task for many adults. Intrinsic satisfaction with exercise classes is thought to promote adherence to physical activity. This study examined the characteristics of exercise classes that impact within-person changes in intrinsic satisfaction over the course of an extended group exercise program. A 30-week physical activity trial was conducted with assessments at the end of each class. Community-living adults (n = 29) were instructed to complete at least six group exercise classes each week and, following each exercise class, complete a questionnaire asking about the characteristics of the class and the participant's evaluation of the class. Intrinsic satisfaction was high, on average, but varied as much within-person from class-to-class as it did between exercisers. Participants reported the greatest intrinsic satisfaction when classes placed greater emphasis on exercisers' involvement with the group task, feelings of competence, and encouragement from the instructor. For the most part, exercise classes that were more intense than usual were perceived by exercisers as less intrinsically satisfying. Some overall characteristics of the exercise classes were also associated with intrinsic satisfaction. The social and motivational characteristics of group exercise classes contribute to exercisers' intrinsic satisfaction with classes and attention to those dynamics, as well as the intensity of the exercise, may improve adherence for exercise regimens.

Compatriots in Ukraine as a reference group of modern Ukrainian migrants in the USA: consequences for social mobility

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

N. V. Vashrova

2017-07-01

In some cases, the former social-ethnic identification was weakened or completely lost, while in others it was reinforced or even arose for the first time. A relationship has been found between the type of identification with the reference groups, as well as the way of their use, on the one hand, and the degree of social adaptation of migrants, on the other. As a result, several trends have been identified. First, the situation of dynamic social progress due to the reliance on identification associated with the reference groups in Ukraine at the stage of initial adaptation. Second, the tendency towards disintegration with American society and narrowing the chances of social mobility, due to the closure of the social-cultural patterns of Ukrainian society in the later stages of social adaptation. Third, the situation of simultaneous social advancement and maintaining close ties with reference groups in Ukraine due to acquiring a social status, confirmed by active participation in civil initiatives in Ukraine or Ukrainian-American projects. Fourth, the expansion of social opportunities for migrants, due to the integration of Ukrainian reference groups into a system of new ones, connected with American society.

Which Peers Matter: How Social Ties Affect Peer-Group Effects

Science.gov (United States)

Poldin, Oleg; Valeeva, Diliara; Yudkevich, Maria

2016-01-01

We study how the achievements of university students are influenced by the characteristics and achievements of peers in individuals' social networks. Defining peer group in terms of friendship and study partner ties enables us to apply a network regression model and thereby disentangle the influence of peers' performance from that of peers'…

The role of social risk in an early preventative care programme for infants born very preterm: a randomized controlled trial.

Science.gov (United States)

Spittle, Alicia J; Treyvaud, Karli; Lee, Katherine J; Anderson, Peter J; Doyle, Lex W

2018-01-01

To examine the differential effects of an early intervention programme for infants born preterm on neurodevelopment and parental mental health according to family social risk. One hundred and twenty infants born earlier than 30 weeks' gestation were randomized to early intervention (n=61) or control groups (n=59). Cognitive, language, and motor outcomes were assessed by blinded assessors at 2 years, 4 years, and 8 years, and primary caregivers completed questionnaires on their anxiety and depression. Outcomes at each time point were compared between groups using linear regression with an interaction term for social risk (higher/lower). There was evidence of interactions between intervention group and social risk for cognition at 2 years and 4 years, motor function at 4 years, and language at 8 years, with a greater intervention effect in children from higher social risk environments. In contrast, the impact of early intervention on parental depressive symptoms was greater for parents of lower social risk than for those of higher social risk. Effects of early intervention on outcomes for children born preterm and their caregivers varied according to family social risk. Family social risk should be considered when implementing early intervention programmes for children born preterm and their families. Intervention is associated with better early cognitive functioning for children in higher social risk families. Positive effects of intervention for the high risk group were not sustained at school-age. Intervention has a greater effect on primary caregiver mental health in the lower social risk group compared with higher social risk. © 2017 Mac Keith Press.

Persistent social isolation reflects identity and social context but not maternal effects or early environment.

Science.gov (United States)

Brent, L J N; Ruiz-Lambides, A; Platt, M L

2017-12-19

Individuals who are well integrated into society have greater access to resources and tend to live longer. Why some individuals are socially isolated and others are not is therefore puzzling from an evolutionary perspective. Answering this question requires establishing the mix of intrinsic and contextual factors that contribute to social isolation. Using social network data spanning up to half of the median adult lifespan in a gregarious primate, we found that some measures of social isolation were modestly repeatable within individuals, consistent with a trait. By contrast, social isolation was not explained by the identity of an animal's mother or the group into which it was born. Nevertheless, age, sex and social status each played a role, as did kin dynamics and familiarity. Females with fewer close relatives were more isolated, and the more time males spent in a new group the less isolated they became, independent of their social status. These results show that social isolation results from a combination of intrinsic and environmental factors. From an evolutionary perspective, these findings suggest that social isolation could be adaptive in some contexts and partly maintained by selection.

Child-Centered Group Play Therapy: Impact on Social-Emotional Assets of Kindergarten Children

Science.gov (United States)

Cheng, Yi-Ju; Ray, Dee C.

2016-01-01

The current study explored the effects of child-centered group play therapy (CCGPT) on social-emotional assets of kindergarten children and the therapeutic aspect of group sizes in CCGPT outcome. A total of 43 participants were randomly assigned to either the intervention or waitlist control groups. We used Parent and Teacher forms of Social…

Changes in intolerance of uncertainty during cognitive behavior group therapy for social phobia.

Science.gov (United States)

Mahoney, Alison E J; McEvoy, Peter M

2012-06-01

Recent research suggests that intolerance of uncertainty (IU), most commonly associated with generalized anxiety disorder, also contributes to symptoms of social phobia. This study examines the relationship between IU and social anxiety symptoms across treatment. Changes in IU, social anxiety symptoms, and depression symptoms were examined following cognitive behavior group therapy (CBGT) for social phobia (N=32). CBGT led to significant improvements in symptoms of social anxiety and depression, as well as reductions in IU. Reductions in IU were associated with reductions in social anxiety but were unrelated to improvements in depression symptoms. Reductions in IU were predictive of post-treatment social phobia symptoms after controlling for pre-treatment social phobia symptoms and changes in depression symptoms following treatment. The relationship between IU and social anxiety requires further examination within experimental and longitudinal designs, and needs to take into account additional constructs that are thought to maintain social phobia. Current findings suggest that the enhancing tolerance of uncertainty may play a role in the optimal management of social phobia. Theoretical and clinical implications are discussed. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Can We Use Facebook Groups to Establish Social Presence in Online Courses?

Science.gov (United States)

Izmirli, Serkan

2017-01-01

In this research, the potential of Facebook groups used in an online course in order to establish social presence was examined. Qualitative research methodology was used in this study. The participants of the study were 12 senior undergraduate students taking the School Experience course online over a period of 12 weeks. A Facebook group where…

Contribuições da poética social à pesquisa em psicoterapia de grupo Contributions of social poesis to group psychotherapy research

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Carla Guanaes

2008-08-01

Full Text Available Esse artigo tem por objetivo apresentar algumas contribuições do construcionismo social e da poética social ao entendimento da psicoterapia de grupo e de sua investigação científica. O construcionismo social se define como uma forma alternativa de inteligibilidade em ciência, que privilegia a compreensão do modo como as pessoas constroem sentidos sobre o mundo e sobre si mesmas em suas práticas discursivas. Coerente com essa perspectiva, a poética social caracteriza uma prática de pesquisa útil à investigação dos processos conversacionais, enfatizando a centralidade do pesquisador na construção de sentidos sobre seu objeto de estudo. Nesse artigo, buscamos demonstrar como estas perspectivas podem sustentar uma prática sistemática de pesquisa sobre a psicoterapia de grupo. Para tanto, apresenta os passos metodológicos desenvolvidos em um estudo acerca de um grupo em saúde mental, demonstrando como esses permitiram compreender o processo conversacional por meio do qual o próprio grupo se constituiu como um recurso terapêutico.The objective of this article is to describe some contributions of social constructionism and social poesis in the description of group psychotherapy and its scientific investigation. Social constructionism is an alternative form of intelligibility in science, which focuses on the comprehension of the way people make sense of the world and of themselves in their discursive practices. Concurrent with this perspective, social poesis can be described as a research practice that is useful in investigating the conversational processes, emphasizing the centrality of the researcher in the construction of meanings about its object of study. In this article, we aim to describe how these perspectives can sustain a systematic research practice of group psychotherapy. Thus, we describe some methodological steps developed in a study about a group in a mental health setting, showing how they helped us to comprehend

Social Determinants of Physical Self-Rated Health among Asian Americans; Comparison of Six Ethnic Groups

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Shervin Assari

2018-04-01

Full Text Available Background: A growing literature has revealed ethnic group differences in determinants and meanings of their self-rated health (SRH. Aim: To explore ethnic variations in the effects of socioeconomic determinants on poor physical SRH of Asians in the United States. Methods: Data came from the National Asian American Survey (NAAS, 2008, with 4977 non-U.S. born Asian Americans, including Asian Indian (n = 1150, Chinese (n = 1350, Filipino (n = 603, Japanese (n = 541, Korean (n = 614, and Vietnamese (n = 719 Americans. Demographic factors (age and gender, socioeconomic status (SES; education, employment, income, and marital status, and physical SRH were measured. Ethnic-specific logistic regressions were applied for data analysis where physical SRH was the outcome and demographic and social determinants were predictors. Results: According to logistic regressions, no social determinant was consistently associated with physical SRH across all ethnic groups. Being married was associated with better physical SRH in Asian Indians and worse SRH in the Filipino group. Education was associated with better SRH in Asian Indian, Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese Americans. High income was associated with better SRH in Chinese, Filipino, and Vietnamese Americans. Employment was associated with better SRH in Filipino Americans. Conclusion: Social determinants of physical SRH vary across ethnic groups of Asian Americans. Different ethnic groups are differently vulnerable to various social determinants of health. Application of single item SRH measures may be a source of bias in studies of health with ethnically diverse populations. Policy makers should be aware that the same change in social determinants may not result in similar change in the health of ethnic groups.

Social Transmission of False Memory in Small Groups and Large Networks.

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Maswood, Raeya; Rajaram, Suparna

2018-05-21

Sharing information and memories is a key feature of social interactions, making social contexts important for developing and transmitting accurate memories and also false memories. False memory transmission can have wide-ranging effects, including shaping personal memories of individuals as well as collective memories of a network of people. This paper reviews a collection of key findings and explanations in cognitive research on the transmission of false memories in small groups. It also reviews the emerging experimental work on larger networks and collective false memories. Given the reconstructive nature of memory, the abundance of misinformation in everyday life, and the variety of social structures in which people interact, an understanding of transmission of false memories has both scientific and societal implications. © 2018 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

An Evaluation of a Behaviorally Based Social Skills Group for Individuals Diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

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Leaf, Justin B; Leaf, Jeremy A; Milne, Christine; Taubman, Mitchell; Oppenheim-Leaf, Misty; Torres, Norma; Townley-Cochran, Donna; Leaf, Ronald; McEachin, John; Yoder, Paul

2017-02-01

In this study we evaluated a social skills group which employed a progressive applied behavior analysis model for individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. A randomized control trial was utilized; eight participants were randomly assigned to a treatment group and seven participants were randomly assigned to a waitlist control group. The social skills group consisted of 32, 2 h sessions. Teachers implemented a variety of behaviorally based procedures. A blind evaluator measured participants' behavior immediately prior to intervention, immediately following intervention, and during 16 and 32-week maintenance probes. Results of the study demonstrated that participants made significant improvements with their social behavior (p < .001) following intervention, and the results were maintained up to 32 weeks after intervention had concluded.

The Social Profiles of Occupational Therapy Students’ Educational Groups

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Tore Bonsaksen

2015-07-01

Full Text Available Background: Today’s occupational therapy models emphasize that a person’s choice of, satisfaction with, and performance in occupations are markedly influenced by the context. For students undergoing a group-based study module, the group is an important context factor. Until recently, there has been a lack of instruments available for the assessment of functioning and participation at the group level. This mixed methods pilot study aimed to examine occupational therapy students’ perceptions of their group’s level of functioning and course of development during one study module. Methods: The students’ perceptions of their group’s functioning were assessed in two ways: by examining their scores on the Social Profile (SP, a new instrument, and by examining their qualitative descriptions of the groups and how the groups developed over time. The sample consisted of four occupational therapy students. Results: Two students perceived their group functioning as stable over time. One student’s scores indicated an increase in group functioning over time, whereas one student’s showed a decrease. The interview statements showed varying degrees of connectedness with the SP items. Conclusions: Descriptions of stability and change corresponded very well with the students’ SP trajectories, indicating content validity of the assessment as a whole.

Let's Face(book) It: Analyzing Interactions in Social Network Groups for Chemistry Learning

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Rap, Shelley; Blonder, Ron

2016-01-01

We examined how social network (SN) groups contribute to the learning of chemistry. The main goal was to determine whether chemistry learning could occur in the group discourse. The emphasis was on groups of students in the 11th and 12th grades who learn chemistry in preparation for their final external examination. A total of 1118 discourse…

Social comparison framing in health news and its effect on perceptions of group risk.

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Bigman, Cabral A

2014-01-01

News about health disparities often compares health risks faced by different demographic groups. Does this social comparison produce a contrast effect? It was hypothesized that when two racial groups are compared, people would perceive the relatively more at-risk group to be more, and the less at-risk group to be less, at-risk than if the same risk information was presented without the comparative reference group. Three experiments with Black and White respondents tested effects of intergroup social comparison framing (SCF) on perceptions of risk for sexually transmitted infections and skin cancer. SCF (including one White and two Black disparity frames) did not raise respondents' perceived risk regarding the more at-risk racial group, but consistently lowered respondents' risk ratings for the less at-risk racial group. The finding that the same statistic was perceived differently in comparative and noncomparative contexts underscores the importance of considering effects of communication about disparities.

Rescuing exclusion from the poverty debate : Group disparities and social transformation in India

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A. de Haan (Arjan)

2011-01-01

textabstractThis paper discusses the conceptualisation of group deprivation - particularly of Dalits and Adivasis - in recent poverty analyses in India. While the poverty debate highlights the severe inequalities that groups based on social identity are exposed to, it pays insufficient attention to

Social Loafing on Group Projects: Structural Antecedents and Effect on Student Satisfaction

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Aggarwal, Praveen; O'Brien, Connie L.

2008-01-01

To respond to the expectations of the industry and business school accreditation bodies, marketing faculty have been making extensive use of group projects in their curricula. A common problem with the use of student groups, however, is that of social loafing. In this study, we identify some easy-to-implement project set-up factors and examine…

Caregiver issues and AIDS orphans: perspectives from a social worker focus group.

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Paige, C Y; Johnson, M S

1997-10-01

This study examines social workers' perceptions of the needs of families coping with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). This research investigates the problems of family caregivers of children orphaned by human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-related death of their parents. A qualitative semistructured interview format was used in a focus group of 18 social workers. Four questions were designed to assess family needs and resources, as well as to evaluate the social workers' perspectives of governmental policies affecting these families. A list of four problems and two recommendations for change evolved from the focus group. Inadequate finances to house and care for the children was the primary cause for distress in these families. The major governmental policy that hindered the social workers' ability to assist families pertained to the low financial entitlement for caregivers who are related to the orphaned child. It was noted that unrelated caregivers receive substantially more money for the care of these children than family caregivers receive. Recommendations were made to change this policy and to develop guardianship laws that facilitate families' abilities to provide care to AIDS orphans. Family caregivers of AIDS orphans are bombarded with great demands and limited resources. This analysis of their situation from the social workers' perspective is a positive step toward the improvement of support services for these families. Further research should include individual qualitative interviews assessing the needs of the caregivers and AIDS orphans.

Positive is usually good, negative is not always bad: The effects of group affect on social integration and task performance.

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Knight, Andrew P; Eisenkraft, Noah

2015-07-01

Grounded in a social functional perspective, this article examines the conditions under which group affect influences group functioning. Using meta-analysis, the authors leverage heterogeneity across 39 independent studies of 2,799 groups to understand how contextual factors-group affect source (exogenous or endogenous to the group) and group life span (one-shot or ongoing)-moderate the influence of shared feelings on social integration and task performance. As predicted, results indicate that group positive affect has consistent positive effects on social integration and task performance regardless of contextual idiosyncrasies. The effects of group negative affect, on the other hand, are context-dependent. Shared negative feelings promote social integration and task performance when stemming from an exogenous source or experienced in a 1-shot group, but undermine social integration and task performance when stemming from an endogenous source or experienced in an ongoing group. The authors discuss implications of their findings and highlight directions for future theory and research on group affect. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

The primary case is not enough: Variation among individuals, groups and social networks modify bacterial transmission dynamics.

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Keiser, Carl N; Pinter-Wollman, Noa; Ziemba, Michael J; Kothamasu, Krishna S; Pruitt, Jonathan N

2018-03-01

The traits of the primary case of an infectious disease outbreak, and the circumstances for their aetiology, potentially influence the trajectory of transmission dynamics. However, these dynamics likely also depend on the traits of the individuals with whom the primary case interacts. We used the social spider Stegodyphus dumicola to test how the traits of the primary case, group phenotypic composition and group size interact to facilitate the transmission of a GFP-labelled cuticular bacterium. We also compared bacterial transmission across experimentally generated "daisy-chain" vs. "star" networks of social interactions. Finally, we compared social network structure across groups of different sizes. Groups of 10 spiders experienced more bacterial transmission events compared to groups of 30 spiders, regardless of groups' behavioural composition. Groups containing only one bold spider experienced the lowest levels of bacterial transmission regardless of group size. We found no evidence for the traits of the primary case influencing any transmission dynamics. In a second experiment, bacteria were transmitted to more individuals in experimentally induced star networks than in daisy-chains, on which transmission never exceeded three steps. In both experimental network types, transmission success depended jointly on the behavioural traits of the interacting individuals; however, the behavioural traits of the primary case were only important for transmission on star networks. Larger social groups exhibited lower interaction density (i.e. had a low ratio of observed to possible connections) and were more modular, i.e. they had more connections between nodes within a subgroup and fewer connections across subgroups. Thus, larger groups may restrict transmission by forming fewer interactions and by isolating subgroups that interacted with the primary case. These findings suggest that accounting for the traits of single exposed hosts has less power in predicting transmission

The comparative effects of group prenatal care on psychosocial outcomes.

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Heberlein, Emily C; Picklesimer, Amy H; Billings, Deborah L; Covington-Kolb, Sarah; Farber, Naomi; Frongillo, Edward A

2016-04-01

To compare the psychosocial outcomes of the CenteringPregnancy (CP) model of group prenatal care to individual prenatal care, we conducted a prospective cohort study of women who chose CP group (N = 124) or individual prenatal care (N = 124). Study participants completed the first survey at study recruitment (mean gestational age 12.5 weeks), with 89% completing the second survey (mean gestational age 32.7 weeks) and 84% completing the third survey (6 weeks' postpartum). Multiple linear regression models compared changes by prenatal care model in pregnancy-specific distress, prenatal planning-preparation and avoidance coping, perceived stress, affect and depressive symptoms, pregnancy-related empowerment, and postpartum maternal-infant attachment and maternal functioning. Using intention-to-treat models, group prenatal care participants demonstrated a 3.2 point greater increase (p prenatal planning-preparation coping strategies. While group participants did not demonstrate significantly greater positive outcomes in other measures, women who were at greater psychosocial risk benefitted from participation in group prenatal care. Among women reporting inadequate social support in early pregnancy, group participants demonstrated a 2.9 point greater decrease (p = 0.03) in pregnancy-specific distress in late pregnancy and 5.6 point higher mean maternal functioning scores postpartum (p = 0.03). Among women with high pregnancy-specific distress in early pregnancy, group participants had an 8.3 point greater increase (p prenatal planning-preparation coping strategies in late pregnancy and a 4.9 point greater decrease (p = 0.02) in postpartum depressive symptom scores. This study provides further evidence that group prenatal care positively impacts the psychosocial well-being of women with greater stress or lower personal coping resources. Large randomized studies are needed to establish conclusively the biological and psychosocial benefits of group

Gender Identity in Autism: Sex Differences in Social Affiliation with Gender Groups.

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Cooper, Kate; Smith, Laura G E; Russell, Ailsa J

2018-04-28

High rates of gender variance have been reported in autistic people, with higher variance in autistic females than males. The social component of gender identity may be affected, with autistic females experiencing lower identification with and feeling less positively about their gender groups than controls. We measured gender identification, gender self-esteem, and aspects of gender expression (masculinity and femininity) in autistic natal males and females, and controls (N = 486). We found that autistic people had lower gender identification and gender self-esteem than controls, and autistic natal females had lower gender identification than autistic natal males and natal female controls. In conclusion, autistic people, particularly natal females, had lower social identification with and more negative feelings about a gender group.

Socio-economic considerations of cleaning Greater Vancouver's air

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2005-08-01

Socio-economic considerations of better air quality on the Greater Vancouver population and economy were discussed. The purpose of the study was to provide socio-economic information to staff and stakeholders of the Greater Vancouver Regional District (GVRD) who are participating in an Air Quality Management Plan (AQMP) development process and the Sustainable Region Initiative (SRI) process. The study incorporated the following methodologies: identification and review of Canadian, American, and European quantitative socio-economic, cost-benefit, cost effectiveness, competitiveness and health analyses of changes in air quality and measures to improve air quality; interviews with industry representatives in Greater Vancouver on competitiveness impacts of air quality changes and ways to improve air quality; and a qualitative analysis and discussion of secondary quantitative information that identifies and evaluates socio-economic impacts arising from changes in Greater Vancouver air quality. The study concluded that for the Greater Vancouver area, the qualitative analysis of an improvement in Greater Vancouver air quality shows positive socio-economic outcomes, as high positive economic efficiency impacts are expected along with good social quality of life impacts. 149 refs., 30 tabs., 6 appendices

The effect of group play therapy on social-emotional skills in pre-school children.

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Chinekesh, Ahdieh; Kamalian, Mehrnoush; Eltemasi, Masoumeh; Chinekesh, Shirin; Alavi, Manijeh

2013-12-24

Childhood is important and critical period in human life. The foundation of ego is shaped in childhood. Play therapy is one of the successful strategies to help children with inner conflicts problems. This method of psychotherapy is base on the normal learning processes of children, provides solutions to relieve feelings of stress, and expands self-expression. Group play therapy can enhance the self-awareness, self- regulation, social communication, empathy and adoptability in children. Present study investigated the effects of play therapy on relational and emotional skills of pre-school children. For this purpose, the total numbers of 372 pre-school children were randomly selected, and divided into two equal groups (case and control). In next step, the BUSSE-SR methodology was used for evaluation and comparison of self-awareness, self-regulation, social interaction, empathy, adoptability, and control groups. Pre-test were performed for both groups and case group was involved in-group play therapy. According to the results of post-test, correlation of variables between case-control groups was examined by multivariate analysis of covariance. Frequency of boys and girls in our sample were 51.3 and 48.7 percent, respectively. The mean age of children was 5.1±0.6 year. According to the results of present study, play therapy significantly enhanced the social-emotional skills (Pplay therapy can be used in pre-school centers to help children learn problem-solving skills and communicate with others.

Group cohesion and social support of the nurses in a special unit and a general unit in Korea.

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Ko, Yu Kyung

2011-07-01

To identify the degree of group cohesion and social support of nurses in special and general units in hospitals in Korea, and to compare group cohesion and social support between the two groups. The level of commitment nurses have to their organizations has been shown to correlate with work group cohesion and social support. The participants were 1751 nurses who were working in Korean hospitals. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire and were analysed using SAS. The statistical methods included: descriptive statistics, t-test, anova and Pearson's correlation coefficients. Group cohesion of nurses on special wards was significantly higher than for nurses on general wards. No significant difference was found between types of units in terms of social support. The degree of group cohesion was significantly different in terms of the respondents' clinical experience, position, religion, job satisfaction, number of supportive superiors and number of supportive peers. A statistically significant correlation was found between group cohesion scores and degree of social support. Hospital management can accomplish their goals more effectively through knowledge of the level of group cohesion, superior support and peer support for nursing staff in accordance with unit specialty. © 2011 The Author. Journal compilation © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Head rubbing and licking reinforce social bonds in a group of captive African lions, Panthera leo.

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Matoba, Tomoyuki; Kutsukake, Nobuyuki; Hasegawa, Toshikazu

2013-01-01

Many social animals have a species-specific repertoire of affiliative behaviours that characterise individualised relationships within a group. To date, however, quantitative studies on intragroup affiliative behaviours in social carnivores have been limited. Here, we investigated the social functions of the two most commonly observed affiliative behaviours in captive African lions (Panthera leo): head rubbing and licking. We conducted behavioural observations on a captive group of lions composed of 7 males and 14 females, and tested hypotheses regarding three social functions: tension reduction, social bonding, and social status expression. Disproportionately frequent male-male and female-to-male head rubbing was observed, while more than 95% of all licking interactions occurred in female-female dyads. In accordance with the social bond hypothesis, and in disagreement with the social status expression hypothesis, both head rubbing and licking interactions were reciprocal. After controlling for spatial association, the dyadic frequency of head rubbing was negatively correlated with age difference while licking was positively correlated with relatedness. Group reunion after daily separation did not affect the frequencies of the affiliative behaviours, which was in disagreement with the predictions from the tension reduction hypothesis. These results support the social bond hypothesis for the functions of head rubbing and licking. Different patterns of affiliative behaviour between the sexes may reflect differences in the relationship quality in each sex or the differential predisposition to licking due to its original function in offspring care.

Head rubbing and licking reinforce social bonds in a group of captive African lions, Panthera leo.

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Tomoyuki Matoba

Full Text Available Many social animals have a species-specific repertoire of affiliative behaviours that characterise individualised relationships within a group. To date, however, quantitative studies on intragroup affiliative behaviours in social carnivores have been limited. Here, we investigated the social functions of the two most commonly observed affiliative behaviours in captive African lions (Panthera leo: head rubbing and licking. We conducted behavioural observations on a captive group of lions composed of 7 males and 14 females, and tested hypotheses regarding three social functions: tension reduction, social bonding, and social status expression. Disproportionately frequent male-male and female-to-male head rubbing was observed, while more than 95% of all licking interactions occurred in female-female dyads. In accordance with the social bond hypothesis, and in disagreement with the social status expression hypothesis, both head rubbing and licking interactions were reciprocal. After controlling for spatial association, the dyadic frequency of head rubbing was negatively correlated with age difference while licking was positively correlated with relatedness. Group reunion after daily separation did not affect the frequencies of the affiliative behaviours, which was in disagreement with the predictions from the tension reduction hypothesis. These results support the social bond hypothesis for the functions of head rubbing and licking. Different patterns of affiliative behaviour between the sexes may reflect differences in the relationship quality in each sex or the differential predisposition to licking due to its original function in offspring care.

A Life-Cycle Model of Human Social Groups Produces a U-Shaped Distribution in Group Size.

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Gul Deniz Salali

Full Text Available One of the central puzzles in the study of sociocultural evolution is how and why transitions from small-scale human groups to large-scale, hierarchically more complex ones occurred. Here we develop a spatially explicit agent-based model as a first step towards understanding the ecological dynamics of small and large-scale human groups. By analogy with the interactions between single-celled and multicellular organisms, we build a theory of group lifecycles as an emergent property of single cell demographic and expansion behaviours. We find that once the transition from small-scale to large-scale groups occurs, a few large-scale groups continue expanding while small-scale groups gradually become scarcer, and large-scale groups become larger in size and fewer in number over time. Demographic and expansion behaviours of groups are largely influenced by the distribution and availability of resources. Our results conform to a pattern of human political change in which religions and nation states come to be represented by a few large units and many smaller ones. Future enhancements of the model should include decision-making rules and probabilities of fragmentation for large-scale societies. We suggest that the synthesis of population ecology and social evolution will generate increasingly plausible models of human group dynamics.

Impact of Supported Housing on Social Relationships Among Homeless Veterans.

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O'Connell, Maria J; Kasprow, Wesley J; Rosenheck, Robert A

2017-02-01

This study examined social network structure and function among a sample of 460 homeless veterans who participated in an experimental trial of the Housing and Urban Development-Veterans Affairs Supported Housing (HUD-VASH) program. Participants were randomly assigned to HUD-VASH (housing subsidies and case management), case management only, or standard care. Mixed-model longitudinal analysis was used to compare treatment groups on social network outcomes over 18 months. Veterans in HUD-VASH reported significantly greater increases in social support than veterans in the two other groups, as well as greater frequency of contacts, availability of tangible and emotional support, and satisfaction with nonkin relationships over time. These gains largely involved relationships with providers and other veterans encountered in treatment. Supported housing may play a pivotal role in fostering constructive new relationships with persons associated with service programs but may have a more limited impact on natural support networks.