Iraq: The Social Context of IEDs

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

McFate, Montgomery

2005-01-01

.... However, IEDs are a product of human ingenuity and human social organization. If we understand the social context in which they are invented, built, and used we will have an additional avenue for defeating them. As U.S...

College drinking problems and social anxiety: The importance of drinking context.

Science.gov (United States)

Terlecki, Meredith A; Ecker, Anthony H; Buckner, Julia D

2014-06-01

Social anxiety more than quadruples the risk of developing an alcohol use disorder, yet it is inconsistently linked to heavy alcohol use. Elucidation of the relation between social anxiety and alcohol use is an important next step in treating and preventing risky drinking. College students routinely face potentially anxiety-provoking social situations (e.g., meeting new people) and socially anxious undergraduates are especially vulnerable to alcohol-related impairment. Drinking to cope with social anxiety is thought to reinforce alcohol use, yet research on coping-motivated drinking among socially anxious students has yielded inconsistent findings. Further, undergraduate drinking varies by drinking context, yet the role of context in drinking behaviors among socially anxious individuals remains unclear. The current study sought to examine the relationship of social anxiety and drinking quantity in specific drinking contexts among undergraduates (N = 611). We also evaluated whether relevant drinking contexts mediated the relationship between social anxiety and alcohol-related problems. Clinically elevated social anxiety was related to heavier consumption in negative emotion (e.g., feeling sad or angry) and personal/intimate (e.g., before sexual intercourse) contexts, but not social/convivial contexts (e.g., parties, bars). Quantity of alcohol consumed in negative emotion and personal/intimate contexts mediated the relationship between social anxiety and drinking problem severity. Drinking in personal/intimate contexts demonstrated a unique mediational role. Findings suggest that heavy drinking in particular contexts (especially personal/intimate and negative emotion) may play an important role in drinking problems among socially anxious individuals.

Shared perceptions: morality is embedded in social contexts.

Science.gov (United States)

Carnes, Nate C; Lickel, Brian; Janoff-Bulman, Ronnie

2015-03-01

Morality helps make social life possible, but social life is embedded in many social contexts. Research on morality has generally neglected this and instead has emphasized people's general beliefs. We therefore investigated the extent to which different moral principles are perceived as embedded in social contexts. We conducted two studies investigating how diverse social contexts influence beliefs about the operative moral principles in distinct group types. Study 1 examined these perceptions using a within-subjects design, whereas Study 2 utilized a between-subjects design. We found a high degree of consensus among raters concerning the operative moral principles in groups, and each group type was characterized by a qualitatively distinct pattern of applicable moral principles. Political orientation, a focus of past research on morality, had a small influence on beliefs about operative moral principles. The implications of these findings for our understanding of morality and its functional role in groups are discussed. © 2015 by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.

Therapeutic Theory and Social Context: A Social Constructionist Perspective.

Science.gov (United States)

Lynch, Gordon

1997-01-01

Explores the foundation of therapeutic theory from the perspective of social constructionism. Proposes a theoretical description of the interaction between an individual and the social context in the formation of therapeutic theory. Then explores this description in relation to the early life and subsequent therapeutic theory of Carl Rogers. (RJM)

Behavioural plasticity of social trematodes depends upon social context

OpenAIRE

Kamiya, T.; Poulin, R.

2013-01-01

Members of some social insects adjust their behaviours depending upon social context. Such plasticity allows colonies to sustain efficiency of the whole without the cost of additional production of individuals or delayed responses to perturbations. Using the recently discovered social clonal stage of trematode parasites, we investigated whether members of the reproductive caste adjust their defensive behaviour according to the local availability of non-reproductive defensive specialists, and ...

Preliminary Context Analysis of Community Informatics Social ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Preliminary context analysis is always part of the feasibility study phase in the development of information system for Community Development (CD) purposes. In this paper, a context model and a preliminary context analysis are presented for Social Network Web Application (SNWA) for CD in the Niger Delta region of ...

Neural Mechanisms of Encoding Social and Non-Social Context Information in Autism Spectrum Disorder

Science.gov (United States)

Greimel, Ellen; Nehrkorn, Barbara; Fink, Gereon R.; Kukolja, Juraj; Kohls, Gregor; Muller, Kristin; Piefke, Martina; Kamp-Becker, Inge; Remschmidt, Helmut; Herpertz-Dahlmann, Beate; Konrad, Kerstin; Schulte-Ruther, Martin

2012-01-01

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often fail to attach context to their memories and are specifically impaired in processing social aspects of contextual information. The aim of the present study was to investigate the modulatory influence of social vs. non-social context on neural mechanisms during encoding in ASD. Using…

Social innovation in the context of corporate social responsibility

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

María de Fátima León

2012-10-01

Full Text Available Faced with a reality characterized by unsolved social and environmental problems, it is common to observe the behavior of firms in terms of its contribution in the resolution or treatment of these problems. Many of these initiatives are examples of social innovations offering new products, processes and relationships in terms of benefiting the most disadvantaged groups in areas such as safety, health, education, environment, among others. In this sense, this documentary research examines the role of social innovation in the context of corporate social responsibility, through a review of theoretical topic of innovation, social innovation and corporate social responsibility. Also, through the filter of what can be considered social innovation, raises some examples of Venezuelan companies with socially responsible approaches moving toward maturity in a socially ethical enterprise.

Social Context in Usability Evaluations: Concepts, Processes and Products

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jensen, Janne Jul

social context is considered important, only little research has been done to identify how it influences usability evaluations. In this thesis I explore how social context affects the process and product of a usability evaluation and explain the findings in terms of the theory of behaviour settings...... leader) and non-operatives (members, spectators, neutrals and potentials) from the theory of behaviour settings to usability evaluations generates an understanding and create an awareness of the level of power possessed by each of the participants in the social context. 2. On the operative level...... and a field experiment. Findings from these activities are presented in five published paper contributions. I furthermore introduce the theory of behaviour settings as a tool to help characterise the key concepts of social context which, together with an understanding of usability evaluations, provide...

The social context of controlled drug use amongst young people in a slum area in Makassar, Indonesia.

Science.gov (United States)

Nasir, Sudirman; Rosenthal, Doreen; Moore, Timothy

2011-11-01

There are few studies exploring the social context of controlled drug use amongst young people in Indonesia. This qualitative study examines the experience of young people in a slum area (lorong) in Makassar, eastern Indonesia, who use drugs but are not drug dependent and who employ various forms of self regulation to control their use. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight controlled drug users. The study found that whilst controlled drug users lived in a drug risk environment, they were not deeply embedded in the street culture, risk-taking practises and drug scene within their locality. Their employment, albeit in the informal economy and in low-paid jobs, facilitated their perspective that the status of rewa (a local construct of masculinity) and gaul (being sociable and up-to-date) could and should be accomplished through conventional means such as jobs and halal (legitimate) income. Their employment generated both direct benefit (legitimate income) and indirect benefit, including meaningful activities, structured time, positive identity and wider social networks (bridging social capital). This enabled them to have a stake in mainstream society and provided an incentive to control drug use. All factors which are protective against escalation into problematic drug use. The study showed the importance of sociological concepts of direct and indirect benefits of employment and of social capital in understanding the social context of controlled drug use amongst young people in the lorong. Additionally, drug policy should be more cognizant of the social vulnerability in the lorong and of the need to increase access to employment amongst young people in order to potentially decrease the likelihood of problematic drug use. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Towards Context-Aware Search and Analysis on Social Media Data

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Derczynski, Leon; Yang, Bin; Jensen, Christian S.

2013-01-01

Social media has changed the way we communicate. Social media data capture our social interactions and utterances in machine readable format. Searching and analysing massive and frequently updated social media data brings significant and diverse rewards across many different application domains......, from politics and business to social science and epidemiology. A notable proportion of social media data comes with explicit or implicit spatial annotations, and almost all social media data has temporal metadata. We view social media data as a constant stream of data points, each containing text...... with spatial and temporal contexts. We identify challenges relevant to each context, which we intend to subject to context aware querying and analysis, specifically including longitudinal analyses on social media archives, spatial keyword search, local intent search, and spatio-temporal intent search. Finally...

Navigating Online Selves: Social, Cultural, and Material Contexts of Social Media Use by Diasporic Gay Men

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alexander Dhoest

2016-09-01

Full Text Available Social media not only create new opportunities but also pose new challenges for the ways people navigate their online selves. As noted by boyd, social media are characterized by unique dynamics such as collapsed contexts, implying that one’s distinct offline social worlds meet online. This creates particular challenges for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ people, at least those who find it crucial to maintain distinct contexts in which they disclose or conceal their gender and/or sexual selves. However, the existing scholarship on social media use by LGBTQs is predominantly anchored in English-language Western contexts and tends to lose sight of the cultural specificities of Internet use. Therefore, in this article, we build on the scholarship to further investigate the role of context for disclosing or concealing gender and/or sexual selves online. More specifically, we ask, “How do social, cultural, and material contexts affect the ways LGBTQs navigate their selves on social media?” To investigate this question, we analyze in-depth face-to-face interviews with gay men who themselves, or whose parents, migrated to Belgium. Because their migration background forces them to negotiate different social, cultural, and material contexts, our focus on diasporic gay men helps to bring out the issue of context in social media use.

Community-based Men's Sheds: promoting male health, wellbeing and social inclusion in an international context.

Science.gov (United States)

Cordier, Reinie; Wilson, Nathan J

2014-09-01

Males experience greater mortality and morbidity than females in most Western countries. The Australian and Irish National Male Health Policies aim to develop a framework to address this gendered health disparity. Men's Sheds have a distinct community development philosophy and are thus identified in both policies as an ideal location to address social isolation and positively impact the health and wellbeing of males who attend. The aim of this international cross-sectional survey was to gather information about Men's Sheds, the people who attend Men's Sheds, the activities at Men's Sheds, and the social and health dimensions of Men's Sheds. Results demonstrate that Men's Sheds are contributing a dual health and social role for a range of male subgroups. In particular, Men's Sheds have an outward social focus, supporting the social and mental health needs of men; health promotion and health literacy are key features of Men's Sheds. Men's Sheds have an important role to play in addressing the gendered health disparity that males face. They serve as an exemplar to health promotion professionals of a community development context where the aims of male health policy can be actualized as one part of a wider suite of global initiatives to reduce the gendered health disparity. © The Author (2013). Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

College student heavy drinking in social contexts versus alone.

Science.gov (United States)

Christiansen, Matthew; Vik, Peter W; Jarchow, Amy

2002-01-01

Heavy drinking is common among college students and typically occurs in social contexts. Heavy drinking when alone, however, is less common. The present study hypothesized that students who drink heavily when alone (HD-Alone) would differ from college students who only drink heavily in social contexts (Social HD). Forty-nine HD-Alone students (at least one heavy-drinking episode when alone), 213 Social HDs, and 63 non-heavy drinkers (Non-HDs) were compared on alcohol-related consequences, drinking milestones, alcohol-outcome expectancies, and symptoms of depression. HD-Alone students reported more negative drinking consequences, earlier onset of regular drinking, more alcohol expectancies, less self-efficacy and motivation to reduce drinking, and higher depression scores than Social HDs and Non-HDs. Findings imply individual differences among heavy-drinking college students according to their drinking context.

Migration of cells in a social context

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Vedel, Søren; Tay, Savas; Johnston, Darius M

2013-01-01

In multicellular organisms and complex ecosystems, cells migrate in a social context. Whereas this is essential for the basic processes of life, the influence of neighboring cells on the individual remains poorly understood. Previous work on isolated cells has observed a stereotypical migratory...... behavior characterized by short-time directional persistence with long-time random movement. We discovered a much richer dynamic in the social context, with significant variations in directionality, displacement, and speed, which are all modulated by local cell density. We developed a mathematical model...

How Context Influences Our Perception of Emotional Faces

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Calbi, Marta; Heimann, Katrin; Barratt, Daniel

2017-01-01

corresponding to one of the so called ‘basic emotions.’ However, our real experience during social interactions is different: facial expressions of emotion are mostly perceived in a wider context, constituted by body language, the surrounding environment, and our beliefs and expectations. Already in the early...... twentieth century, the Russian filmmaker Lev Kuleshov argued that such context, established by intermediate shots of strong emotional content, could significantly change our interpretation of facial expressions in film. Prior experiments have shown behavioral effects pointing in this direction, but have...

Considering the context: social factors in responses to drugs in humans.

Science.gov (United States)

de Wit, Harriet; Sayette, Michael

2018-04-01

Drugs are typically used in social settings. Here, we consider two factors that may contribute to this observation: (i) the presence of other people may enhance the positive mood effects of a drug, and conversely, (ii) drugs may enhance the value of social stimuli. We review evidence from controlled laboratory studies with human volunteers, which investigated either of these interactions between social factors and responses to drugs. We examine the bidirectional effects of social stimuli and single doses of alcohol, stimulants, opioids, and cannabis. All four classes of drugs interact with social contexts, but the nature of these interactions varies across drugs, and depends on whether the context is positive or negative. Alcohol and stimulant drugs enhance the attractiveness of social stimuli and the desire to socialize, and social contexts, in turn, enhance these drugs' effects. In contrast, opioids and cannabis have subtler effects on social interactions and their effects are less influenced by the presence of others. Overall, there is stronger evidence that drugs enhance positive social contexts than that they dampen the negativity of unpleasant social settings. Controlled research is needed to understand the interactions between drugs of abuse and social contexts, to model and understand the determinants of drug use outside the laboratory.

Migration of Cells in a Social Context

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Vedel, Søren; Tay, Savas; Johnston, Darius M.

2013-01-01

In multicellular organisms and complex ecosystems, cells migrate in a social context. While this is essential for the basic processes of life such as embryonic development, wound healing and unregulated migration furthermore is implicated in diseases such as cancer, the influence of neighboring...... cells on the individual remains poorly understood. Previous work on isolated cells has revealed a stereotypical migratory behavior, however many aspects of the migration characteristics of cells in populations remained unknown exactly because of this lack of characterization of neighbour-cell influence....... We quantified1 the migration of thousands of individual cells in their population context using time-lapse microscopy, microfluidic cell culture and automated image analysis, and discovered a much richer dynamics in the social context, with significant variations in directionality, displacement...

How children arrange social communities across contexts

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Højholt, Charlotte

and contributing to different activities of their life. Following children in their everyday life across contexts has highlighted a theme about how children ‘arrange’ their social communities and their personal participation in varying and shifting activities. In this way the paper will emphasize the active......The purpose of the CHACDOC section is among other things to create a forum for uniting developmental psychology and childhood research. This raises the question: How can studies of children anchored in historical time and settings contribute to discussions of what development is about...... different life contexts, contradictory demands and social conflicts. One point in the paper will be to illustrate that they are doing this together. Children’s developmental contexts are societal and historical structured and in the same time the children themselves are involved in organising, negotiating...

Context shapes social judgments of positive emotion suppression and expression.

Science.gov (United States)

Kalokerinos, Elise K; Greenaway, Katharine H; Casey, James P

2017-02-01

It is generally considered socially undesirable to suppress the expression of positive emotion. However, previous research has not considered the role that social context plays in governing appropriate emotion regulation. We investigated a context in which it may be more appropriate to suppress than express positive emotion, hypothesizing that positive emotion expressions would be considered inappropriate when the valence of the expressed emotion (i.e., positive) did not match the valence of the context (i.e., negative). Six experiments (N = 1,621) supported this hypothesis: when there was a positive emotion-context mismatch, participants rated targets who suppressed positive emotion as more appropriate, and evaluated them more positively than targets who expressed positive emotion. This effect occurred even when participants were explicitly made aware that suppressing targets were experiencing mismatched emotion for the context (e.g., feeling positive in a negative context), suggesting that appropriate emotional expression is key to these effects. These studies are among the first to provide empirical evidence that social costs to suppression are not inevitable, but instead are dependent on context. Expressive suppression can be a socially useful emotion regulation strategy in situations that call for it. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Understanding and accounting for relational context is critical for social neuroscience.

Science.gov (United States)

Clark-Polner, Elizabeth; Clark, Margaret S

2014-01-01

Scientists have increasingly turned to the brain and to neuroscience more generally to further an understanding of social and emotional judgments and behavior. Yet, many neuroscientists (certainly not all) do not consider the role of relational context. Moreover, most have not examined the impact of relational context in a manner that takes advantage of conceptual and empirical advances in relationship science. Here we emphasize that: (1) all social behavior takes place, by definition, within the context of a relationship (even if that relationship is a new one with a stranger), and (2) relational context shapes not only social thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, but also some seemingly non-social thoughts, feelings, and behaviors in profound ways. We define relational context and suggest that accounting for it in the design and interpretation of neuroscience research is essential to the development of a coherent, generalizable neuroscience of social behavior. We make our case in two ways: (a) we describe some existing neuroscience research in three substantive areas (perceiving and reacting to others' emotions, providing help, and receiving help) that already has documented the powerful impact of relational context. (b) We describe some other neuroscience research from these same areas that has not taken relational context into account. Then, using findings from social and personality psychology, we make a case that different results almost certainly would have been found had the research been conducted in a different relational context. We neither attempt to review all evidence that relational context shapes neuroscience findings nor to put forward a theoretical analysis of all the ways relational context ought to shape neuroscience findings. Our goal is simply to urge greater and more systematic consideration of relational context in neuroscientific research.

Social recognition is context dependent in single male prairie voles

Science.gov (United States)

Zheng, Da-Jiang; Foley, Lauren; Rehman, Asad; Ophir, Alexander G.

2013-01-01

Single males might benefit from knowing the identity of neighbouring males when establishing and defending boundaries. Similarly, males should discriminate between individual females if this leads to more reproductive opportunities. Contextual social cues may alter the value of learning identity. Knowing the identity of competitors that intrude into an animal’s territory may be more salient than knowing the identity of individuals on whose territory an animal is trespassing. Hence, social and environmental context could affect social recognition in many ways. Here we test social recognition of socially monogamous single male prairie voles, Microtus ochrogaster. In experiment 1 we tested recognition of male or female conspecifics and found that males discriminated between different males but not between different females. In experiment 2 we asked whether recognition of males is influenced when males are tested in their own cage (familiar), in a clean cage (neutral) or in the home cage of another male (unfamiliar). Although focal males discriminated between male conspecifics in all three contexts, individual variation in recognition was lower when males were tested in their home cage (in the presence of familiar social cues) compared to when the context lacked social cues (neutral). Experiment 1 indicates that selective pressures may have operated to enhance male territorial behaviour and indiscriminate mate selection. Experiment 2 suggests that the presence of a conspecific cue heightens social recognition and that home-field advantages might extend to social cognition. Taken together, our results indicate social recognition depends on the social and possibly territorial context. PMID:24273328

Modified social ecological model: a tool to guide the assessment of the risks and risk contexts of HIV epidemics.

Science.gov (United States)

Baral, Stefan; Logie, Carmen H; Grosso, Ashley; Wirtz, Andrea L; Beyrer, Chris

2013-05-17

Social and structural factors are now well accepted as determinants of HIV vulnerabilities. These factors are representative of social, economic, organizational and political inequities. Associated with an improved understanding of multiple levels of HIV risk has been the recognition of the need to implement multi-level HIV prevention strategies. Prevention sciences research and programming aiming to decrease HIV incidence requires epidemiologic studies to collect data on multiple levels of risk to inform combination HIV prevention packages. Proximal individual-level risks, such as sharing injection devices and unprotected penile-vaginal or penile-anal sex, are necessary in mediating HIV acquisition and transmission. However, higher order social and structural-level risks can facilitate or reduce HIV transmission on population levels. Data characterizing these risks is often far more actionable than characterizing individual-level risks. We propose a modified social ecological model (MSEM) to help visualize multi-level domains of HIV infection risks and guide the development of epidemiologic HIV studies. Such a model may inform research in epidemiology and prevention sciences, particularly for key populations including men who have sex with men (MSM), people who inject drugs (PID), and sex workers. The MSEM builds on existing frameworks by examining multi-level risk contexts for HIV infection and situating individual HIV infection risks within wider network, community, and public policy contexts as well as epidemic stage. The utility of the MSEM is demonstrated with case studies of HIV risk among PID and MSM. The MSEM is a flexible model for guiding epidemiologic studies among key populations at risk for HIV in diverse sociocultural contexts. Successful HIV prevention strategies for key populations require effective integration of evidence-based biomedical, behavioral, and structural interventions. While the focus of epidemiologic studies has traditionally been on

Social Context of Drinking and Alcohol Problems among College Students

Science.gov (United States)

Beck, Kenneth H.; Arria, Amelia M.; Caldeira, Kimberly M.; Vincent, Kathryn B.; O'Grady, Kevin E.; Wish, Eric D.

2008-01-01

Objective: To examine how social contexts of drinking are related to alcohol use disorders, other alcohol-related problems, and depression among college students. Methods: Logistic regression models controlling for drinking frequency measured the association between social context and problems, among 728 current drinkers. Results: Drinking for…

An Appreciation of Social Context: One Legacy of Gerald Salancik.

Science.gov (United States)

Weick, Karl E.

1996-01-01

Evaluates Gerald Salancik's work, tracing salient themes and focusing on his constant attention to the social context of individual and organizational motivation and action. Shows the centrality of social context in his studies on priming effects, commitment, power, resource dependence, justification, decision making, and other topics. He excelled…

Assessing and changing organizational social contexts for effective mental health services.

Science.gov (United States)

Glisson, Charles; Williams, Nathaniel J

2015-03-18

Culture and climate are critical dimensions of a mental health service organization's social context that affect the quality and outcomes of the services it provides and the implementation of innovations such as evidence-based treatments (EBTs). We describe a measure of culture and climate labeled Organizational Social Context (OSC), which has been associated with innovation, service quality, and outcomes in national samples and randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of mental health and social service organizations. The article also describes an empirically supported organizational intervention model labeled Availability, Responsiveness, and Continuity (ARC), which has improved organizational social context, innovation, and effectiveness in five RCTs. Finally, the article outlines a research agenda for developing more efficient and scalable organizational strategies to improve mental health services by identifying the mechanisms that link organizational interventions and social context to individual-level service provider intentions and behaviors associated with innovation and effectiveness.

Social Worker Identity: A Profession in Context.

Science.gov (United States)

Forenza, Brad; Eckert, Caitlin

2018-01-01

Social work is a broad field encompassing micro, mezzo, and macro areas of practice. Consequently, the field lacks a unifying professional identity due to the expansiveness of the profession. Professional identity is conceptualized as an extension of social identity, vis-à-vis the embodiment of three qualities: connectedness, expansiveness, and effectiveness. This study used 12 in-depth, individual interviews with practicing social workers to explore these qualities. Findings from interviews reveal six primary themes and 21 subthemes pertaining to social worker identity. Themes and subthemes are organized according to three broad families (social work in context, professional trajectories, and external influences). Implications for policy, practice, and future research are presented. © 2017 National Association of Social Workers.

Understanding and taking relational context into account is critical for social neuroscience

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Elizabeth eClark-Polner

2014-03-01

Full Text Available Scientists have increasingly turned to the brain and to neuroscience more generally to further an understanding of social and emotional judgments and behavior. Yet, many neuroscientists (certainly not all do not consider the role of relational context. Moreover, most have not examined the impact of relational context in a manner that takes advantage of conceptual and empirical advances in relationship science. Here we emphasize that: (1 all social behavior takes place, by definition, within the context of a relationship (even if that relationship is a new one with a stranger, and (2 relational context shapes not only social thoughts, feelings and behaviors, but also some seemingly non-social thoughts, feelings and behaviors in profound ways. We define relational context and suggest that accounting for it in the design and interpretation of neuroscience research is essential to the development of a coherent, generalizable neuroscience of social behavior. We make our case in two ways: a We describe some existing neuroscience research in three substantive areas (perceiving and reacting to others’ emotions, providing help and receiving help that already has documented the powerful impact of relational context. b We describe some other neuroscience research from these same areas that has not taken relational context into account. Then, using findings from social and personality psychology, we make a case that different results almost certainly would have been found had the research been conducted in a different relational context. We neither attempt to review all evidence that relational context shapes neuroscience findings nor to put forward a theoretical analysis of all the ways relational context ought to shape neuroscience findings. Our goal is simply to urge greater and more systematic consideration of relational context in neuroscientific research.

Ubiquitous Supervisory System Based on Social Contexts Using Ontology

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Satoru Izumi

2009-01-01

Full Text Available As described in this paper, we propose a supervisory system that considers actual situations and social aspects of users in a ubiquitous computing environment. To realize gentle and safe supervision while providing efficient supervisory services, the system must recognize the situations of a watched person, such as the person's physical condition. To achieve this, we have proposed a ubiquitous supervisory system "uEyes", which introduces Social Context Awareness: a distinguishing feature for supervision. Using this feature, the system can combine environmental information acquired from sensors in the real world and common-sense knowledge related to human activities in daily life. As described in this paper, we specifically examine design of Social Context Awareness using ontology technologies. Based on this advanced feature, a live video streaming system is configured autonomously depending on the users' circumstances in runtime. We implemented a uEyes prototype for supervising elderly people and performed some experiments based on several scenarios. Based on those experimental results, we confirmed that the social contexts are handled effectively to support the supervision.

Social and Cultural Contexts of Alcohol Use

Science.gov (United States)

Sudhinaraset, May; Wigglesworth, Christina; Takeuchi, David T.

2016-01-01

Alcohol use and misuse account for 3.3 million deaths every year, or 6 percent of all deaths worldwide. The harmful effects of alcohol misuse are far reaching and range from individual health risks, morbidity, and mortality to consequences for family, friends, and the larger society. This article reviews a few of the cultural and social influences on alcohol use and places individual alcohol use within the contexts and environments where people live and interact. It includes a discussion of macrolevel factors, such as advertising and marketing, immigration and discrimination factors, and how neighborhoods, families, and peers influence alcohol use. Specifically, the article describes how social and cultural contexts influence alcohol use/misuse and then explores future directions for alcohol research. PMID:27159810

Context counts! Social anxiety modulates the processing of fearful faces in the context of chemosensory anxiety signals

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dirk eAdolph

2013-06-01

Full Text Available During emotion perception, context is an important source of information. Whether contextual cues from modalities other than vision or audition influence the perception of social emotional information has not been investigated.Thus, the present study aimed at testing emotion perception and regulation in response to fearful facial expressions presented in the context of chemosensory stimuli derived from sweat of anxious individuals. In groups of high (HSA and low socially anxious (LSA participants we recorded the startle reflex (Experiment I, and analysed event-related potentials (ERPs; Experiment II while they viewed anxious facial expressions in the context of chemosensory anxiety signals and chemosensory control stimuli. Results revealed that N1/P1 and N170 amplitudes were larger while Late Positive Potential (LPP activity was smaller for facial expressions presented in the context of the anxiety and the chemosensory control stimulus as compared to facial expressions without a chemosensory context. Furthermore, HSA participants were highly sensitive to the contextual anxiety signals. They showed enhanced motivated attention allocation (LPP, Study II, as well as larger startle responses towards faces in the context of chemosensory anxiety signals than did LSA participants (Study I. Chemosensory context had no effect on emotion regulation, and both LSA and HSA participants showed effective emotion regulation (Study I and II. In conclusion, both anxiety and chemosensory sport context stimuli enhanced early attention allocation and structural encoding, but diminished motivated attention allocation to the facial expressions. The current results show that visual and chemosensory information is integrated on virtually all levels of stimulus processing and that socially anxious individuals might be especially sensitive to chemosensory contextual social information.

Social Context of First Birth Timing in a Rapidly Changing Rural Setting

Science.gov (United States)

Ghimire, Dirgha J.

2016-01-01

This article examines the influence of social context on the rate of first birth. Drawing on socialization models, I develop a theoretical framework to explain how different aspects of social context (i.e., neighbors), may affect the rate of first birth. Neighbors, who in the study setting comprise individuals’ immediate social context, have an important influence on the rate of first birth. To test my hypotheses, I leverage a setting, measures and analytical techniques designed to study the impact of macro-level social contexts on micro-level individual behavior. The results show that neighbors’ age at first birth, travel to the capital city and media exposure tend to reduce the first birth rate, while neighbors’ non-family work experience increases first birth rate. These effects are independent of neighborhood characteristics and are robust against several key variations in model specifications. PMID:27886737

serious games in a social context

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Eliëns, A.P.W.; Fernandez-Leva, A.J.

2012-01-01

This paper reports about a newly developed course on serious gaming, with as a special focus behavioral change in a social or societal context. The purpose of this paper is to share our insights and references so that educational institutes may find inspiration to develop courses in serious gaming

Sex-specific modulation of juvenile social play behavior by vasopressin and oxytocin depends on social context

Science.gov (United States)

Bredewold, Remco; Smith, Caroline J. W.; Dumais, Kelly M.; Veenema, Alexa H.

2014-01-01

We recently demonstrated that vasopressin (AVP) in the lateral septum modulates social play behavior differently in male and female juvenile rats. However, the extent to which different social contexts (i.e., exposure to an unfamiliar play partner in different environments) affect the regulation of social play remains largely unknown. Given that AVP and the closely related neuropeptide oxytocin (OXT) modulate social behavior as well as anxiety-like behavior, we hypothesized that these neuropeptides may regulate social play behavior differently in novel (novel cage) as opposed to familiar (home cage) social environments. Administration of the specific AVP V1a receptor (V1aR) antagonist (CH2)5Tyr(Me2)AVP into the lateral septum enhanced home cage social play behavior in males but reduced it in females, confirming our previous findings. These effects were context-specific because V1aR blockade did not alter novel cage social play behavior in either sex. Furthermore, social play in females was reduced by AVP in the novel cage and by OXT in the home cage. Additionally, females administered the specific OXT receptor antagonist desGly-NH2,d(CH2)5−[Tyr(Me)2,Thr4]OVT showed less social play in the novel as compared to the home cage. AVP enhanced anxiety-related behavior in males (tested on the elevated plus-maze), but failed to do so in females, suggesting that exogenous AVP alters social play and anxiety-related behavior via distinct and sex-specific mechanisms. Moreover, none of the other drug treatments that altered social play had an effect on anxiety, suggesting that these drug-induced behavioral alterations are relatively specific to social behavior. Overall, we showed that AVP and OXT systems in the lateral septum modulate social play in juvenile rats in neuropeptide-, sex- and social context-specific ways. These findings underscore the importance of considering not only sex, but also social context, in how AVP and OXT modulate social behavior. PMID:24982623

Sex-specific modulation of juvenile social play behavior by vasopressin and oxytocin depends on social context

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Remco eBredewold

2014-06-01

Full Text Available We recently demonstrated that vasopressin (AVP in the lateral septum modulates social play behavior differently in male and female juvenile rats. However, the extent to which different social contexts (i.e., exposure to an unfamiliar play partner in different environments affect the regulation of social play remains largely unknown. Given that AVP and the closely related neuropeptide oxytocin (OXT modulate social behavior as well as anxiety-like behavior, we hypothesized that these neuropeptides may regulate social play behavior differently in novel (novel cage as opposed to familiar (home cage social environments. Administration of the specific AVP V1a receptor (V1aR antagonist (CH25Tyr(Me2AVP into the lateral septum enhanced home cage social play behavior in males but reduced it in females, confirming our previous findings. These effects were context-specific because V1aR blockade did not alter novel cage social play behavior in either sex. Furthermore, social play in females was reduced by AVP in the novel cage and by OXT in the home cage. Additionally, females administered the specific OXT receptor antagonist desGly-NH2,d(CH25-[Tyr(Me2,Thr4]OVT showed less social play in the novel as compared to the home cage. AVP enhanced anxiety-related behavior in males (tested on the elevated plus-maze, but failed to do so in females, suggesting that exogenous AVP alters social play and anxiety-related behavior via distinct and sex-specific mechanisms. Moreover, none of the other drug treatments that altered social play had an effect on anxiety, suggesting that these drug-induced behavioral alterations are relatively specific to social behavior. Overall, we showed that AVP and OXT systems in the lateral septum modulate social play in juvenile rats in neuropeptide-, sex- and social context-specific ways. These findings underscore the importance of considering not only sex, but also social context, in how AVP and OXT modulate social behavior.

Broader context for social, economic, and cultural components

Science.gov (United States)

Patricia L. Winter; Jonathan W. Long; Frank K. Lake; Susan. Charnley

2014-01-01

This chapter sets the context for the following sociocultural sections of the synthesis by providing information on the broader social, cultural, and economic patterns in the Sierra Nevada and southern Cascade Range. Demographic influences surrounding population change, including those accounted for through amenity migration, are examined. Social and cultural concerns...

A longitudinal study of childhood social behaviour : Inter-informant agreement, inter-context agreement, and social preference linkages

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kuppens, Sofie; Grietens, Hans; Onghena, Patrick; Michiels, Daisy

2009-01-01

This study examined inter-informant agreement, inter-context agreement, and social preference linkages for social behaviour subtypes. On two occasions, data was collected on 600 children (8-10 years old) via mother, father, teacher, and peer reports. Informant reports converged within each context

Neurocircuits underlying cognition-emotion interaction in a social decision making context.

Science.gov (United States)

Ho, S Shaun; Gonzalez, Richard D; Abelson, James L; Liberzon, Israel

2012-11-01

Decision making (DM) in the context of others often entails complex cognition-emotion interaction. While the literature suggests that the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), striatum, and amygdala are involved in valuation-based DM and hippocampus in context processing, how these neural mechanisms subserve the integration of cognitive and emotional values in a social context remains unclear. In this study we addressed this gap by systematically manipulating cognition-emotion interaction in a social DM context, when the participants played a card game with a hypothetical opponent in a behavioral study (n=73) and a functional magnetic-resonance-imaging study (n=16). We observed that payoff-based behavioral choices were influenced by emotional values carried by face pictures and identified neurocircuits involved in cognitive valuation, emotional valuation, and concurrent cognition-emotion value integration. Specifically, while the vmPFC, amygdala, and ventral striatum were all involved in both cognitive and emotional domains of valuation, these regions played dissociable roles in social DM. The payoff-dependent responses in vmPFC and amygdala, but not ventral striatum, were moderated by the social context. Furthermore, the vmPFC, but not amygdala, not only encoded the opponent's gains as if self's losses, but also represented a "final common currency" during valuation-based decisions. The extent to which emotional input influenced choices was associated with the functional connectivity between the value-signaling amygdala and value integrating vmPFC, and also with the functional connectivity between the context-setting hippocampus and value-signaling amygdala and ventral striatum. These results identify brain pathways through which emotion shapes subjective values in a social DM context. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Social Context Disambiguates the Interpretation of Laughter.

Science.gov (United States)

Curran, William; McKeown, Gary J; Rychlowska, Magdalena; André, Elisabeth; Wagner, Johannes; Lingenfelser, Florian

2017-01-01

Despite being a pan-cultural phenomenon, laughter is arguably the least understood behaviour deployed in social interaction. As well as being a response to humour, it has other important functions including promoting social affiliation, developing cooperation and regulating competitive behaviours. This multi-functional feature of laughter marks it as an adaptive behaviour central to facilitating social cohesion. However, it is not clear how laughter achieves this social cohesion. We consider two approaches to understanding how laughter facilitates social cohesion - the 'representational' approach and the 'affect-induction' approach. The representational approach suggests that laughter conveys information about the expresser's emotional state, and the listener decodes this information to gain knowledge about the laugher's felt state. The affect-induction approach views laughter as a tool to influence the affective state of listeners. We describe a modified version of the affect-induction approach, in which laughter is combined with additional factors - including social context, verbal information, other social signals and knowledge of the listener's emotional state - to influence an interaction partner. This view asserts that laughter by itself is ambiguous: the same laughter may induce positive or negative affect in a listener, with the outcome determined by the combination of these additional factors. Here we describe two experiments exploring which of these approaches accurately describes laughter. Participants judged the genuineness of audio-video recordings of social interactions containing laughter. Unknown to the participants the recordings contained either the original laughter or replacement laughter from a different part of the interaction. When replacement laughter was matched for intensity, genuineness judgements were similar to judgements of the original unmodified recordings. When replacement laughter was not matched for intensity, genuineness

Supporting Opportunities for Context-Aware Social Matching: An Experience Sampling Study

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mayer, Julia; Barkhuus, Louise; Hiltz, Starr Roxanne

2016-01-01

Mobile social matching systems aim to bring people together in the physical world by recommending people nearby to each other. Going beyond simple similarity and proximity matching mechanisms, we explore a proposed framework of relational, social and personal context as predictors of match...... opportunities to map out the design space of opportunistic social matching systems. We contribute insights gained from a study combining Experience Sampling Method (ESM) with 85 students of a U.S. university and interviews with 15 of these participants. A generalized linear mixed model analysis (n=1704) showed...... that personal context (mood and busyness) as well as sociability of others nearby are the strongest predictors of contextual match interest. Participant interviews suggest operationalizing relational context using social network rarity and discoverable rarity, and incorporating skill level and learning...

Navigating middle grades: role of social contexts in middle grade school climate.

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Ha Yeon; Schwartz, Kate; Cappella, Elise; Seidman, Edward

2014-09-01

During early adolescence, most public school students undergo school transitions, and many students experience declines in academic performance and social-emotional well-being. Theories and empirical research have highlighted the importance of supportive school environments in promoting positive youth development during this period of transition. Despite this, little is known about the proximal social and developmental contexts of the range of middle grade public schools US students attend. Using a cross-sectional dataset from the eighth grade wave of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Cohort 1998-1999, the current study examines the middle grade school social context from the perspectives of administrators and teachers in public schools with typical grade configurations (k-8 schools, middle schools, and junior high schools) and how it relates to students' perceptions of school climate. We find that administrators and teachers in k-8 schools perceive a more positive school social context, controlling for school structural and demographic characteristics. This school social context, in turn, is associated with students' perceptions of their schools' social and academic climate. Implications for educational policy and practice are discussed.

Understanding social context on TB cases

Science.gov (United States)

Ariyanto, Y.; Wati, D. M.

2017-01-01

Tuberculosis (TB) nowadays still becomes one of the world’s deadliest communicable disease. More than half were in South-East Asia and Western Pacific Regions, including Indonesia. As developing country, Indonesia remains classic problems in overcoming TB, that is discontinuation on treatment. Most of discontinuation on treatment among TB patients are affected by diagnostic delay that caused by patient delay. These phenomena occur in many areas, rural to suburb, coastal to plantation, and so on, and they are related with social context among community that could be social capital for each community to deal with TB. Jember as one of county in East Java is known as plantation area. It also has a high prevalence of TB. This study focused on understanding about social context among community, especially on plantation area. This cross-sectional study involved in three districts of Jember, those are Tanggul, Pakusari, and Kalisat. The data were obtained directly from the TB patients, local community, and Primary Health Care (PHC) where the patients recorded. Spatial analysis and social network analysis (SNA) were applied to obtain health seeking behavior pattern among the TB patients coincide the community. Most of TB patients had already chosen health professionals to lead the treatment, although some of them remained to choose self-medication. Meanwhile, SNA showed that religious leader was considered as main part of countermeasures of TB. But they didn’t ever become central figures. So it can be concluded that there are other parts among community who can contribute due to combatting on TB.

The impact of social context on self-management in women living with HIV.

Science.gov (United States)

Webel, Allison R; Cuca, Yvette; Okonsky, Jennifer G; Asher, Alice K; Kaihura, Alphoncina; Salata, Robert A

2013-06-01

HIV self-management is central to the health of people living with HIV and is comprised of the daily tasks individuals employ to manage their illness. Women living with HIV are confronted with social context vulnerabilities that impede their ability to conduct HIV self-management behaviors, including demanding social roles, poverty, homelessness, decreased social capital, and limited access to health care. We examined the relationship between these vulnerabilities and HIV self-management in a cross-sectional secondary analysis of 260 women living with HIV from two U.S. sites. All social context variables were assessed using validated self-report scales. HIV Self-Management was assessed using the HIV Self-Management Scale that measures daily health practices, HIV social support, and the chronic nature of HIV. Data were analyzed using appropriate descriptive statistics and multivariable regression. Mean age was 46 years and 65% of participants were African-American. Results indicated that social context variables, particularly social capital, significantly predicted all domains of HIV self-management including daily health practices (F = 5.40, adjusted R(2) = 0.27, p traditional social roles of mother and employee on the daily health practices and the chronic nature of HIV domains of HIV self-management. Our data support the idea that women's social context influences their HIV self-management behavior. While social context has been previously identified as important, our data provide new evidence on which aspects of social context might be important targets of self-management interventions for women living with HIV. Working to improve social capital and to incorporate social roles into the daily health practices of women living with HIV may improve the health of this population. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The social library in three contexts

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Delica, Kristian Nagel; Elbeshausen, Hans

2016-01-01

Across different national contexts public libraries have dealt, in diverse yet comparable ways, with the multiple challenges stemming from globalization, migration, marginalization and technological developments. This article argues, by way of dissecting three cases of library planning programmes...... which focused on centring libraries in their neighbourhoods, that we in recent decades witness the contours of a social library. Discussing experiences from initiatives in the UK, Canada and Denmark we, notwithstanding significant national differences, highlight common features – that libraries bring...... together already existing, but hitherto isolated institutional knowledge and competencies. We conclude by proposing a tentative typology of ‘the social library’....

Language as Context Modulates Social Judgments

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Shan Gao; Zhao Gao; Ting Gou

2017-01-01

Social judgments are usually made in the context of complex information including verbal cues. Here we investigated the impact of verbal statements on social judgments by biasing male and female neutral faces with descriptives of differentially-valenced behaviour (criticizing or praising) targeting others or objects. Results showed significant main effects of valence and target, such that critical individuals were rated lower in likeability than praising ones and those targeting others relative to objects were valued less. In particular, those who criticized others were the most unlikeable. Among critical individuals, men were less likeable than women. Similarly, men became less valued while targeting others. Overall these findings suggest that the negative impact of critical attributes may trigger avoidance in social interaction while the positive impact of praise may trigger approach.

Towards a "fourth generation" of approaches to HIV/AIDS management: creating contexts for effective community mobilisation.

Science.gov (United States)

Campbell, Catherine; Cornish, Flora

2010-01-01

Many biomedical and behavioural HIV/AIDS programmes aimed at prevention, care and treatment have disappointing outcomes because of a lack of effective community mobilisation. But community mobilisation is notoriously difficult to bring about. We present a conceptual framework that maps out those dimensions of social context that are likely to support or undermine community mobilisation efforts, proposing that attention should be given to three dimensions of social context: the material, symbolic and relational. This paper has four parts. We begin by outlining why community mobilisation is regarded as a core dimension of effective HIV/AIDS management: it increases the "reach" and sustainability of programmes; it is a vital component of the wider "task shifting" agenda given the scarcity of health professionals in many HIV/AIDS-vulnerable contexts. Most importantly it facilitates those social psychological processes that we argue are vital preconditions for effective prevention, care and treatment. Secondly we map out three generations of approaches to behaviour change within the HIV/AIDS field: HIV-awareness, peer education and community mobilisation. We critically evaluate each approach's underlying assumptions about the drivers of behaviour change, to frame our understandings of the pathways between mobilisation and health, drawing on the concepts of social capital, dialogue and empowerment. Thirdly we refer to two well-documented case studies of community mobilisation in India and South Africa to illustrate our claim that community mobilisation is unlikely to succeed in the absence of supportive material, symbolic and relational contexts. Fourthly we provide a brief overview of how the papers in this special issue help us flesh out our conceptualisation of the "health enabling social environment". We conclude by arguing for the urgent need for a 'fourth generation' of approaches in the theory and practice of HIV/AIDS management, one which pays far greater

Organisational socialization in the context of career path changes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. R. LUCA

2016-11-01

Full Text Available The paper presents the main theoretical issues of the organisational socialization: theoretical models as well as instruments used in the field research. The research in the field of organisational socialization is important mainly in the context of changes in career paths in recent times, the output of the socialization process being related to work performance, job satisfaction and organizational involvement.

An integrated model of social environment and social context for pediatric rehabilitation.

Science.gov (United States)

Batorowicz, Beata; King, Gillian; Mishra, Lipi; Missiuna, Cheryl

2016-01-01

This article considers the conceptualization and operationalization of "social environment" and "social context" with implications for research and practice with children and youth with impairments. We first discuss social environment and social context as constructs important for understanding interaction between external environmental qualities and the individual's experience. The article considers existing conceptualizations within psychological and sociological bodies of literature, research using these concepts, current developmental theories and issues in the understanding of environment and participation within rehabilitation science. We then describe a model that integrates a person-focused perspective with an environment-focused perspective and that outlines the mechanisms through which children/youth and social environment interact and transact. Finally, we consider the implications of the proposed model for research and clinical practice. This conceptual model directs researchers and practitioners toward interventions that will address the mechanisms of child-environment interaction and that will build capacity within both children and their social environments, including families, peers groups and communities. Health is created and lived by people within the settings of their everyday life; where they learn, work, play, and love [p.2]. Understanding how social environment and personal factors interact over time to affect the development of children/youth can influence the design of services for children and youth with impairments. The model described integrates the individual-focused and environment-focused perspectives and outlines the mechanisms of the ongoing reciprocal interaction between children/youth and their social environments: provision of opportunities, resources and supports and contextual processes of choice, active engagement and collaboration. Addressing these mechanisms could contribute to creating healthier environments in which all

Cancer Survivors' Social Context in the Return to Work Process: Narrative Accounts of Social Support and Social Comparison Information.

Science.gov (United States)

Armaou, M; Schumacher, L; Grunfeld, E A

2017-10-04

Purpose Returning to work is a process that is intertwined with the social aspects of one's life, which can influence the way in which that person manages their return to work and also determines the support available to them. This study aimed to explore cancer patients' perceptions of the role of their social context in relation to returning to work following treatment. Methods Twenty-three patients who had received a diagnosis of either urological, breast, gynaecological, or bowel cancer participated in semi-structured interviews examining general perceptions of cancer, work values and perceptions of the potential impact of their cancer diagnosis and treatment on work. Interviews were analysed using the iterative process of Framework Analysis. Results Two superordinate themes emerged as influential in the return to work process: Social support as a facilitator of return to work (e.g. co-workers' support and support outside of the workplace) and Social comparison as an appraisal of readiness to return to work (e.g. comparisons with other cancer patients, colleagues, and employees in other organisations or professions). Conclusions Two functions of the social context of returning to work after cancer were apparent in the participants' narrative: the importance of social support as a facilitator of returning to work and the utilisation of social comparison information in order to appraise one's readiness to return to work. The role of social context in returning to work has largely been absent from the research literature to date. The findings of this study suggest that social support and social comparison mechanisms may have a significant impact on an individual's successful return to the workplace.

Permissiveness toward divorce : The influence of divorce experiences in three social contexts

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Sieben, I.J.P.; Verbakel, C.M.C.

2013-01-01

In this study, we assess whether divorce experiences in three social contexts shape individual’s permissiveness toward divorce. Using European Values Study data from 44 countries, we find that—net of personal divorce experience—parental divorce before the age of 18 (socialization context); parental

Permissiveness toward divorce: The influence of divorce experiences in three social contexts

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Sieben, I.J.P.; Verbakel, C.M.C.

2013-01-01

In this study, we assess whether divorce experiences in three social contexts shape individual’s permissiveness toward divorce. Using European Values Study data from 44 countries, we find that—net of personal divorce experience—parental divorce before the age of 18 (socialization context); parental

"Transformation Tuesday": Temporal context and post valence influence the provision of social support on social media.

Science.gov (United States)

Vogel, Erin A; Rose, Jason P; Crane, Chantal

2018-01-01

Social network sites (SNSs) such as Facebook have become integral in the development and maintenance of interpersonal relationships. Users of SNSs seek social support and validation, often using posts that illustrate how they have changed over time. The purpose of the present research is to examine how the valence and temporal context of an SNS post affect the likelihood of other users providing social support. Participants viewed hypothetical SNS posts and reported their intentions to provide social support to the users. Results revealed that participants were more likely to provide social support for posts that were positive and included temporal context (i.e., depicted improvement over time; Study 1). Furthermore, this research suggests that visual representations of change over time are needed to elicit social support (Study 2). Results are discussed in terms of their practical implications for SNS users and theoretical implications for the literature on social support and social media.

Social contexts of drinking and subsequent alcohol use disorder among college students

Science.gov (United States)

Beck, Kenneth H.; Caldeira, Kimberly M.; Vincent, Kathryn B.; Arria, Amelia M.

2012-01-01

Background Previous research has suggested important contextual factors that can differentiate problem and non-problem drinkers. Objectives To evaluate the strength of the prospective association between social contexts of drinking and subsequent alcohol use disorder and drunk driving 2 to 3 years later. Methods The sample consisted of 652 individuals who were originally recruited at college entry, had complete data on at least one social context subscale, met minimum criteria for Year 1 drinking, and had non-missing data on at least one of the outcome variables in Years 3 and/or 4. Social contexts of drinking were assessed in Year 1 using previously-validated scales measuring six different situational and motivational contexts in which alcohol is consumed. DSM-IV criteria for alcohol abuse and dependence and drunk driving were assessed annually. Results Holding constant gender, race/ethnicity, and baseline drinking frequency, the frequency of drinking in a context of social facilitation, sex-seeking, or in a motor vehicle during Year 1 was significantly related to a greater likelihood of alcohol abuse, alcohol dependence, and drunk driving in Years 3 and/or 4. Drinking in a context of emotional pain was related to alcohol dependence and drunk driving but not to alcohol abuse. Conclusions The Social Context of Drinking Scales have utility for identifying students who are at risk for developing alcohol-related problems. Scientific Significance: Identifying college students who might develop alcohol dependence requires an assessment of both situational and motivational factors that influence drinking, especially drinking in a motor vehicle. PMID:22746152

Exploiting Social Context for Anticipatory Analysis of Human Movement

Science.gov (United States)

2012-10-01

Formation Using a Social Network of Web Services: A Preliminary Investigation,” Procedia Computer Science , vol. 5, pp. 466–471, Jan. 2011. [Online...steering and obstacle behavior are incorporated into the tracking and goal prediction system. Task 4: Learning through Social Context. Deliverable...answering predictive questions about the behavior of a large social system. We developed a method for generating agent activity profiles from

Party Members in Context. Social networks and local branches as context for party membership

OpenAIRE

Paulis, Emilien

2018-01-01

In this doctoral dissertation, I put party members and activists back in context. I stress theimportance of two contextual dimensions, often overlooked in the scientific literature. On theone hand, I put forward social network explanations of party membership and activism,emphasizing the importance of social interactions, relations and structures, which were scarcelyexplored as potential triggers. Like other forms of participation, party membership haspredominantly been portrayed through indi...

Social Context Disambiguates the Interpretation of Laughter

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

William Curran

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Despite being a pan-cultural phenomenon, laughter is arguably the least understood behaviour deployed in social interaction. As well as being a response to humour, it has other important functions including promoting social affiliation, developing cooperation and regulating competitive behaviours. This multi-functional feature of laughter marks it as an adaptive behaviour central to facilitating social cohesion. However, it is not clear how laughter achieves this social cohesion. We consider two approaches to understanding how laughter facilitates social cohesion – the ‘representational’ approach and the ‘affect-induction’ approach. The representational approach suggests that laughter conveys information about the expresser’s emotional state, and the listener decodes this information to gain knowledge about the laugher’s felt state. The affect-induction approach views laughter as a tool to influence the affective state of listeners. We describe a modified version of the affect-induction approach, in which laughter is combined with additional factors – including social context, verbal information, other social signals and knowledge of the listener’s emotional state – to influence an interaction partner. This view asserts that laughter by itself is ambiguous: the same laughter may induce positive or negative affect in a listener, with the outcome determined by the combination of these additional factors. Here we describe two experiments exploring which of these approaches accurately describes laughter. Participants judged the genuineness of audio–video recordings of social interactions containing laughter. Unknown to the participants the recordings contained either the original laughter or replacement laughter from a different part of the interaction. When replacement laughter was matched for intensity, genuineness judgements were similar to judgements of the original unmodified recordings. When replacement laughter was not

Social Entrepreneurship in South Africa: Context, Relevance and Extent

Science.gov (United States)

Visser, Kobus

2011-01-01

In its broadest context, "social entrepreneurship" refers to individuals and organizations that engage in entrepreneurial activities with social objectives. Whereas this concept and its constituent elements are well-researched and acknowledged in industrialized countries (such as the USA and UK) (Thompson, Alvy and Lees, 2000, p 328) and…

Systemic Planning: Dealing with Complexity by a Wider Approach to Planning

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Leleur, Steen

2005-01-01

and methodology that can be helpful for planning under circumstances characterised by complexity and uncertainty. It is argued that compared to conventional, planning – referred to as systematic planning - there is a need for a wider, more systemic approach to planning that is better suited to current real......On the basis of a new book Systemic Planning this paper addresses systems thinking and complexity in a context of planning. Specifically, renewal of planning thinking on this background is set out as so-called systemic planning (SP). The principal concern of SP is to provide principles...

Self- and Social Regulation in Learning Contexts: An Integrative Perspective

Science.gov (United States)

Volet, Simone; Vauras, Marja; Salonen, Pekka

2009-01-01

This article outlines the rationale for an integrative perspective of self- and social regulation in learning contexts. The role of regulatory mechanisms in self- and social regulation models is examined, leading to the view that in real time collaborative learning, individuals and social entities should be conceptualized as self-regulating and…

Social support and social interaction ties on internet addiction: integrating online and offline contexts.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Edward Shih-Tse; Wang, Michael Chih-Hung

2013-11-01

This study explores the relationship between social support and social interaction ties on Internet addiction by integrating both online and offline social encounters. A total of 1,642 members of online social communities participated in this research, for which structural equation modeling was used for analysis. The findings show that social support is positively associated with social interaction ties in both online and offline contexts. In addition, online social support and online social interaction ties are positively associated with Internet addiction, whereas offline social support and social interaction ties on Internet addiction are negatively associated. This finding has important implications not only for understanding the cause of Internet addiction but also for understanding the diminishing Internet addiction due to social support and social interaction ties.

Facial emotion processing in pediatric social anxiety disorder: Relevance of situational context.

Science.gov (United States)

Schwab, Daniela; Schienle, Anne

2017-08-01

Social anxiety disorder (SAD) typically begins in childhood. Previous research has demonstrated that adult patients respond with elevated late positivity (LP) to negative facial expressions. In the present study on pediatric SAD, we investigated responses to negative facial expressions and the role of social context information. Fifteen children with SAD and 15 non-anxious controls were first presented with images of negative facial expressions with masked backgrounds. Following this, the complete images which included context information, were shown. The negative expressions were either a result of an emotion-relevant (e.g., social exclusion) or emotion-irrelevant elicitor (e.g., weight lifting). Relative to controls, the clinical group showed elevated parietal LP during face processing with and without context information. Both groups differed in their frontal LP depending on the type of context. In SAD patients, frontal LP was lower in emotion-relevant than emotion-irrelevant contexts. We conclude that SAD patients direct more automatic attention towards negative facial expressions (parietal effect) and are less capable in integrating affective context information (frontal effect). Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Social vocalizations of big brown bats vary with behavioral context.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marie A Gadziola

Full Text Available Bats are among the most gregarious and vocal mammals, with some species demonstrating a diverse repertoire of syllables under a variety of behavioral contexts. Despite extensive characterization of big brown bat (Eptesicus fuscus biosonar signals, there have been no detailed studies of adult social vocalizations. We recorded and analyzed social vocalizations and associated behaviors of captive big brown bats under four behavioral contexts: low aggression, medium aggression, high aggression, and appeasement. Even limited to these contexts, big brown bats possess a rich repertoire of social vocalizations, with 18 distinct syllable types automatically classified using a spectrogram cross-correlation procedure. For each behavioral context, we describe vocalizations in terms of syllable acoustics, temporal emission patterns, and typical syllable sequences. Emotion-related acoustic cues are evident within the call structure by context-specific syllable types or variations in the temporal emission pattern. We designed a paradigm that could evoke aggressive vocalizations while monitoring heart rate as an objective measure of internal physiological state. Changes in the magnitude and duration of elevated heart rate scaled to the level of evoked aggression, confirming the behavioral state classifications assessed by vocalizations and behavioral displays. These results reveal a complex acoustic communication system among big brown bats in which acoustic cues and call structure signal the emotional state of a caller.

Synthetic Biology R&D Risks: Social-Institutional Contexts Matter!

Science.gov (United States)

Wolfe, Amy K; Campa, Maria Fernanda; Bergmann, Rachael A; Stelling, Savannah C; Bjornstad, David J; Shumpert, Barry L

2016-05-01

Factors that shape actual research practices - 'social and institutional context' - typically are missing from considerations of synthetic biology R&D-related risk and containment. We argue that analyzing context is essential in identifying circumstances that create, amplify, or diminish risk, and in revealing new opportunities for avoiding or managing those risks. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Social Constructionism in the Context of Organization Development

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Celiane Camargo-Borges

2013-05-01

Full Text Available The world faces rapid changes that call for new epistemologies and methodologies that can generate innovative forms of “being” and “doing” within organizations. This article investigates conceptual and practical resources from the social constructionist perspective that can be useful in realizing the transformation of organizations. Initially, a global context of the world in change is described, explaining the consequences for organizations; then social constructionism is introduced as a postmodern epistemology and offered as a potential approach to the organizational development field in supporting research and intervention. Some perspectives for action and knowledge production are offered in the context of an organization. Finally, some resources with examples will be articulated; these new frameworks for action can be effective for organizations coping in times of change.

A Critical Assessment of Evidence-Based Policy and Practice in Social Work.

Science.gov (United States)

Diaz, Clive; Drewery, Sian

2016-01-01

In this article the authors consider how effective social work has been in terms of evidence-based policies and practice. They consider the role that "evidence" plays in policy making both in the wider context and, in particular, in relation to social work. The authors argue that there are numerous voices in the policy-making process and evidence only plays a minor role in terms of policy development and practice in social work.

Methods and Contexts in the Study of Muslim Minorities

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Research on Islam and Muslim minorities in Europe has generally been focused on the active representatives of these groups, in the form of research on the development of movements and organizations, their legal and political status, activities and relations with the wider political contexts both ...... in the fields of race relations and migration have increasingly mobilized ‘Muslims’ and ‘Islam’ as a common denominator. Initially, among social scientists the motivation seems often to have been the necessity of refining larger unmanageable ethnic groupings....

Social Network Culture Needs the Lens of Critical Trust Research

OpenAIRE

Dwyer , Natasha; Marsh , Stephen

2015-01-01

Part 2: Full Papers; International audience; Trust is essential to the success of the social networks that are aggregating and applying masses of information about us. In this position paper, we argue that a critical approach to exploring trust and social networks is required; this entails genuinely working in the interests of users and acknowledging the power relations and wider social context of this form of technology that is impacting more and more of our everyday life. Without a critical...

Research in the real world: Social context and its effects.

Science.gov (United States)

Levine, Adeline G; Levine, Murray

2014-03-01

Although scientists are supposedly concerned only with the pursuit of scientific truth, it was recognized early on that they have personal and professional agendas and are subject to human fallibilities. Openness allowing the scientific community to oversee each member's work depends a great deal upon publication of scientific work. Research reports are cultural artifacts shaped by social forces. In most instances of theoretically oriented work, the roles making up the social context, the researchers, funding agencies, journal editors, publishers, critics, and consumers of research all tend to be scientists sharing common interests and assumptions. There are many actors in addition to scientists in the social context of evaluative research. The actors-sometimes called stakeholders-include people whose lives may change, politicians, government agencies, private foundations, businesspersons, taxpayers, the mass media, and advocates. These actors have varied interests in the research enterprise, are embedded in varied reference groups, and bring different assumptions and values to the task. Their interactions shape the research product at every step. In this genre of research, the contexts are diverse. To illustrate the generality of the influence of social context, the authors draw on three diverse examples spanning a century: the Love Canal industrial disaster of the late 1970s, the ultimately failed attempt in the early 1900s to transplant the Gary, Indiana, progressive school system to New York City (NYC); and some recent studies of charter school students' academic performance.

Nationalism and social welfare in the post-Soviet context.

Science.gov (United States)

Chandler, Andrea

2011-01-01

This paper offers hypotheses on the role that state social welfare measures can play in reflecting nationalism and in aggravating interethnic tensions. Social welfare is often overlooked in theoretical literature on nationalism, because of the widespread assumption that the welfare state promotes social cohesion. However, social welfare systems may face contradictions between the goal of promoting universal access to all citizens on the one hand, and social pressures to recognize particular groups in distinct ways on the other. Examples from the post-Soviet context (particularly Russia) are offered to illustrate the ways in which social welfare issues may be perceived as having ethnic connotations.

A complementary marriage of perspectives: understanding organizational social context using mixed methods.

Science.gov (United States)

Beidas, Rinad S; Wolk, Courtney L Benjamin; Walsh, Lucia M; Evans, Arthur C; Hurford, Matthew O; Barg, Frances K

2014-11-23

Organizational factors impact the delivery of mental health services in community settings. Mixed-methods analytic approaches have been recommended, though little research within implementation science has explicitly compared inductive and deductive perspectives to understand their relative value in understanding the same constructs. The purpose of our study is to use two different paradigmatic approaches to deepen our understanding of organizational social context. We accomplish this by using a mixed-methods approach in an investigation of organizational social context in community mental health clinics. Nineteen agencies, representing 23 sites, participated. Enrolled participants included 130 therapists, 36 supervisors, and 22 executive administrators. Quantitative data was obtained via the Organizational Social Context (OSC) measure. Qualitative data, comprised of direct observation with spot sampling generated from agency visits, was coded using content analysis and grounded theory. The present study examined elements of organizational social context that would have been missed if only quantitative data had been obtained and utilized mixed methods to investigate if stratifying observations based on quantitative ratings from the OSC resulted in the emergence of differential themes. Four of the six OSC constructs were commonly observed in field observations (i.e., proficiency, rigidity, functionality, stress), while the remaining two constructs were not frequently observed (i.e., resistance, engagement). Constructs emerged related to organizational social context that may have been missed if only quantitative measurement was employed, including those around the physical environment, commentary about evidence-based practice initiatives, leadership, cultural diversity, distrust, and affect. Stratifying agencies by "best," "average," and "worst" organizational social context impacted interpretation for three constructs (affect, stress, and leadership). Results

The effect of social context on the use of visual information

OpenAIRE

Streuber, Stephan; Knoblich, Gunther; Sebanz, Natalie; Buelthoff, Heinrich H.; de la Rosa, Stephan

2011-01-01

Social context modulates action kinematics. Less is known about whether social context also affects the use of task relevant visual information. We tested this hypothesis by examining whether the instruction to play table tennis competitively or cooperatively affected the kind of visual cues necessary for successful table tennis performance. In two experiments, participants played table tennis in a dark room with only the ball, net, and table visible. Visual information about both players' ac...

Corporate Social Responsibility in the Context of Labor Relations in SMEs

OpenAIRE

Villegas González, Yalenis del Valle

2017-01-01

The present research article was developed with the purpose of describing Corporate Social Responsibility in the context of Labor Relations and its context to generate attitudinal changes and transformations in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) that have an impact on the transformation of business processes, for production and productivity, contributing to social welfare and the environment, having an impact on the quality of individual life. This research is justified as an emerging vision...

Perception in a social context: attention for response-functional means

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Faber, T.W.; Jonas, K.J.

2013-01-01

Research on automatic behavior has shown how social category priming can activate unique responses toward such categories. Recently, the importance of the context in which social category members are perceived has been demonstrated for the response selection process. While response selection has

Brief report: Do children with autism gather information from social contexts to aid their word learning?

Science.gov (United States)

Jing, Wei; Fang, Junming

2014-06-01

Typically developing (TD) infants could capitalize on social eye gaze and social contexts to aid word learning. Although children with autism disorder (AD) are known to exhibit atypicality in word learning via social eye gaze, their ability to utilize social contexts for word learning is not well understood. We investigated whether verbal AD children exhibit word learning ability via social contextual cues by late childhood. We found that AD children, unlike TD controls, failed to infer the speaker’s referential intention through information gathered from the social context. This suggests that TD children can learn words in diverse social pragmatic contexts in as early as toddlerhood whereas AD children are still unable to do so by late childhood.

Social Learning Theory and Behavioral Therapy: Considering Human Behaviors within the Social and Cultural Context of Individuals and Families.

Science.gov (United States)

McCullough Chavis, Annie

2011-01-01

This article examines theoretical thoughts of social learning theory and behavioral therapy and their influences on human behavior within a social and cultural context. The article utilizes two case illustrations with applications for consumers. It points out the abundance of research studies concerning the effectiveness of social learning theory, and the paucity of research studies regarding effectiveness and evidence-based practices with diverse groups. Providing a social and cultural context in working with diverse groups with reference to social learning theory adds to the literature for more cultural considerations in adapting the theory to women, African Americans, and diverse groups.

Emotion Regulation and Depressive Symptoms: Close Relationships as Social Context and Influence

Science.gov (United States)

Marroquín, Brett; Nolen-Hoeksema, Susan

2015-01-01

Depression is associated with social dysfunction and maladaptive social environments, but mechanisms through which social relationships affect depressive psychopathology are unclear. We hypothesized that emotion regulation (ER) is such a mechanism, with outcomes of individuals’ ER efforts sensitive to the social context, and individuals’ ER strategy repertoire and use sensitive to social influence. In Study 1, a longitudinal study of community adults (N = 1,319), associations of individuals’ ER strategies with depressive symptoms depended on social connectedness and romantic relationship status (social context hypothesis). Moreover, associations of social connectedness and relationship status with symptoms were accounted for by maladaptive ER concurrently and, for social connectedness, prospectively over 1 year (social influence hypothesis). Study 2a, using a national sample (N = 772), replicated and extended these findings with a broader array of ER strategies, and ruled out alternative explanations regarding social skills and psychological wellbeing. Among participants in romantic relationships (Study 2b; N = 558), intimacy and trust buffered associations of maladaptive ER strategies with symptoms (context), and maladaptive and adaptive ER mediated links between relationship variables and symptoms (influence). Findings suggest that close relationships—and variation in underlying relational processes within relationships— influence the ER strategies people use, and also affect whether individuals’ own ER repertoires contribute to depression when deployed. Results elucidate core social mechanisms of ER in terms of both basic processes and depressive psychopathology, suggest ER is a channel through which social factors affect internal functioning and mental health, and inform relationship pathways for clinical intervention. PMID:26479366

Why we move: Social mobility behaviors of non-disabled and disabled children across childcare contexts

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Samuel W Logan

2016-09-01

Full Text Available Background: Social mobility is defined as the co-occurrence of self-directed locomotion and direct peer interaction. Social mobility is a product of dynamic child-environment interactions and thus likely to vary across contexts (e.g., classroom, gymnasium and playground. Purpose: The purpose of the present study was to examine differences in children’s social mobility (1 across contexts by age, and (2 between non-disabled and disabled children. Method: Participants (n = 55 non-disabled and 3 disabled children; Mage = 3.1 years, SD = 1.4 were video-recorded within a university-based early learning center. Children were recorded for 20 minutes in each context: classroom, gymnasium, and playground. A 15-second momentary time sampling method was used to code social mobility, the simultaneous occurrence of self-directed locomotion and direct peer interaction. This variable was calculated as percent time within each context. Results: A planned Friedman’s rank ANOVA (n = 55, stratified by age, indicated that older children (3-5 years old differed across contexts in their social mobility (χ2 (2 ~ 7.3 – 10.5, p < 0.025, whereas younger children (1-2 years old were similar across contexts. Social mobility was significantly lower in the classroom compared to the playground and gymnasium (with no difference between the latter contexts for older children. Visual analysis confirmed that disabled children (n = 3 engaged in substantially less time in social mobility (average 0% - 1%, compared to non-disabled, age-similar peers (2-3 year olds average 1% -12% across all contexts. Conclusion: A substantial gap exists between non-disabled and disabled children for social mobility. There is an increase in magnitude and variability of social mobility around age 3 that suggests the gap between non-disabled and disabled children will continue to widen.

Public Services 2.0: The Impact of Social Computing on Public Services

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Huijboom, Noor; Broek, Tijs Van Den; Frissen, Valerie; Kool, Linda; Kotterink, Bas; Nielsen, Morten Meyerhoff; Millard, Jeremy

2009-01-01

The report gives an overview of the main trends of Social Computing, in the wider context of an evolving public sector, and in relation to relevant government trends and normative policy visions within and across EU Member States on future public services. It then provides an exhaustive literature

Impact of an individualist vs. collectivist context on the social valorization of internal explanations.

Science.gov (United States)

Testé, Benoît

2012-01-01

The theory of the norm of internality emphasizes the role of Western individualism in the normativity of internal explanations. The present study examines the link between the social value accorded to targets expressing internal vs. external explanations and individualist vs. collectivist contexts. Sixty-three male and female French management sciences students evaluated two targets (internal vs. external) in a simulated recruitment situation. The job vacancy was partially manipulated to create individualist vs. collectivist contexts. Participants were asked to state whether or not they would recruit the targets and to describe the targets on traits relating to social utility (market value) and social desirability (likeability). As expected, the results showed that the effect of the targets' internality on recruitment judgments and perceived social utility was stronger in the individualist context than in the collectivist context. However, the analysis also revealed that the participant's gender moderated the impact of the context on the evaluation of the targets. The results showed that the context strongly affected the men's judgments, whereas it had no effect on the women's judgments.

How Context Influences Our Perception of Emotional Faces

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Calbi, Marta; Heimann, Katrin; Barratt, Daniel

2017-01-01

Facial expressions are of major importance in understanding the mental and emotional states of others. So far, most studies on the perception and comprehension of emotions have used isolated facial expressions as stimuli; for example, photographs of actors displaying facial expressions...... corresponding to one of the so called ‘basic emotions.’ However, our real experience during social interactions is different: facial expressions of emotion are mostly perceived in a wider context, constituted by body language, the surrounding environment, and our beliefs and expectations. Already in the early...... twentieth century, the Russian filmmaker Lev Kuleshov argued that such context, established by intermediate shots of strong emotional content, could significantly change our interpretation of facial expressions in film. Prior experiments have shown behavioral effects pointing in this direction, but have...

Encountering energy strategies and plans with the social context of household practice

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Quitzau, Maj-Britt; Nyborg, Sophie; Røpke, Inge

Encountering energy strategies and plans with the social context of household practices Governments and utility companies have developed a great deal of strategies and plans on how to cope with energy saving in households, since this represents a major issue for climate change remediation. Many...... in households, and provides important clues about the potentiality to anchor energy strategies and plans in the social context of local households....

The effects of types of social networks, perceived social support, and loneliness on the health of older people: accounting for the social context.

Science.gov (United States)

Stephens, Christine; Alpass, Fiona; Towers, Andy; Stevenson, Brendan

2011-09-01

To use an ecological model of ageing (Berkman, Glass, Brissette, & Seeman, 2000) which includes upstream social context factors and downstream social support factors to examine the effects of social networks on health. Postal survey responses from a representative population sample of New Zealanders aged 55 to 70 years (N = 6,662). Correlations and multiple regression analyses provided support for a model in which social context contributes to social network type, which affects perceived social support and loneliness, and consequent mental and physical health. Ethnicity was related to social networks and health but this was largely accounted for by other contextual variables measuring socioeconomic status. Gender and age were also significant variables in the model. Social network type is a useful way to assess social integration within this model of cascading effects. More detailed information could be gained through the development of our network assessment instruments for older people.

Problematisation reconfiguration contexts of social control in the cultural landscape of today

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

O. I. Zubarieva

2016-08-01

First, social control is considered outside of the connotation with the processes of socialization, since the latter loses its significance as a mechanism of reproduction of an actor’s social norms, values, behavior patterns, roles, attitudes, customs, cultural tradition, collective assumptions and beliefs, and the like. «Norm» as reference marker conceptualization of social control in classical sociology in the context of contemporary sociological theorizing do not appear, because the situation of postmodernism blurs the binary contradiction of the norm-pathology. However, social control as a sociological object of reflection in the context of the relevant cultural code finds theoretical understanding through the prism of analysis of the characteristics of the visual turning, virtual reality, chaos, consumption and other markers of the postmodern society.

Social class culture cycles: how three gateway contexts shape selves and fuel inequality.

Science.gov (United States)

Stephens, Nicole M; Markus, Hazel Rose; Phillips, L Taylor

2014-01-01

America's unprecedented levels of inequality have far-reaching negative consequences for society as a whole. Although differential access to resources contributes to inequality, the current review illuminates how ongoing participation in different social class contexts also gives rise to culture-specific selves and patterns of thinking, feeling, and acting. We integrate a growing body of interdisciplinary research to reveal how social class culture cycles operate over the course of the lifespan and through critical gateway contexts, including homes, schools, and workplaces. We first document how each of these contexts socializes social class cultural differences. Then, we demonstrate how these gateway institutions, which could provide access to upward social mobility, are structured according to middle-class ways of being a self and thus can fuel and perpetuate inequality. We conclude with a discussion of intervention opportunities that can reduce inequality by taking into account the contextual responsiveness of the self.

Building Community: The Neighborhood Context of Social Organization

Science.gov (United States)

Swaroop, Sapna; Morenoff, Jeffrey D.

2006-01-01

This study explores how neighborhood context influences participation in local social organization through a multilevel-spatial analysis of residents in Chicago neighborhoods. We construct a typology of community participation based on two dimensions: instrumental vs. expressive motivations for participation and formal vs. informal modes of…

A review of ecosystem service benefits from wild bees across social contexts.

Science.gov (United States)

Matias, Denise Margaret S; Leventon, Julia; Rau, Anna-Lena; Borgemeister, Christian; von Wehrden, Henrik

2017-05-01

In order to understand the role of wild bees in both social and ecological systems, we conducted a quantitative and qualitative review of publications dealing with wild bees and the benefits they provide in social contexts. We classified publications according to several attributes such as services and benefits derived from wild bees, types of bee-human interactions, recipients of direct benefits, social contexts where wild bees are found, and sources of changes to the bee-human system. We found that most of the services and benefits from wild bees are related to food, medicine, and pollination. We also found that wild bees directly provide benefits to communities to a greater extent than individuals. In the social contexts where they are found, wild bees occupy a central role. Several drivers of change affect bee-human systems, ranging from environmental to political drivers. These are the areas where we recommend making interventions for conserving the bee-human system.

Analyzing Social Media Relationships in Context with Discussion Graphs

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kiciman, Emre; Choudhury, Munmun De; Counts, Scott

2013-01-01

We present discussion graphs, a hyper-graph-based representation of social media discussions that captures both the structural features of the relationships among entities as well as the context of the discussions from which they were derived. Building on previous analyses of social media network...... and pseudo-cliques, when applied to the analysis of textual social media content. We apply our framework across several domains captured in Twitter, including the mining of peoples' statements about their locations and activities and discussions of the U.S. 2012 elections....

Links Between Contexts and Middle to Late Childhood Social-Emotional Development.

Science.gov (United States)

Duong, Jeffrey; Bradshaw, Catherine P

2017-12-01

Guided by the social-emotional learning (SEL) framework, we studied developmental trajectory patterns of five key competency outcomes spanning middle through late childhood: altruism, empathy, self-efficacy, aggression, and hyperactivity. We then assessed their links to middle childhood home, parental, and community contexts. Data from the Institute of Education Sciences' Social and Character Development Program, which comprised nearly 2,400 elementary school students who were followed from Grades 3 through 5, were analyzed using growth mixture modeling. Three trajectory groups emerged for each outcome, which were linked to childhood contexts. Positive parenting was associated with a lower likelihood of following a negative empathy trajectory among children. Neighborhood intergenerational closure promoted a stable self-efficacy trajectory. Residing in a high-risk community was linked to increasing normative beliefs about aggression. These findings suggest an important role of contexts in influencing childhood social-emotional development in the later elementary school years. © Society for Community Research and Action 2017.

Social, Behavioral and Economic Research in the Federal Context

Science.gov (United States)

2009-01-01

programs do not meaningfully address the problem of wage discrepancy along gender lines. II. Federal Context In the D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance...students’ transition to higher education and/or the workplace . More recently, the Early Childhood Lon- gitudinal Studies have provided invaluable...sciences. Some of the topics cov- ered by recent annual ISSP modules include work ori- entation, religion, social inequality , the environment, social

Social Entrepreneurship In The Context Of Romania’S European Integration

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bibu Aurelian

2008-04-01

Full Text Available The social sector or social economy is still in the developing stage and the concept of social entrepreneurship is just in the emergence phase in Romania. There is still a lot to do in this field, in order to create sustainability among the actors of the social economy or social sector. The paper will attempt to emphasize the differences between entrepreneurship in NGO’s and social entrepreneurship and clarify the two terms in relationship with the Romanian social sector. It will discuss what needs to be taken into consideration for the future development of this sector in Romania, in the context of EU membership.

Multiple social contexts in qualitative bereavement research

Science.gov (United States)

Moss, Miriam S.; Moss, Sidney

2012-01-01

Little research focuses on the ways that bereaved family members react to and make meaning of their experience of the death of an elderly father and husband. In a qualitative, ethnographic study of 34 bereaved families we examined how family members respond to two inter-related social contexts: 1. Social-cultural values and attitudes such as attitudes toward grieving for old persons, and 2. The inter-personal dyadic relationship between interviewer and interviewee. An underlying theme of uncertainty pervades the study participants’ views of what is normal and expected in their own process of bereavement. Implications for future bereavement research are suggested. PMID:22939542

H12: Examination of safety assessment aims, procedures and results from a wider perspective

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Neall, F.B; Smith, P.A.

2004-04-01

Safety assessment (SA) are a familiar tool for the evaluation of disposal concepts for radioactive waste. There is, however, often confusion in the wider community about the aims, methods and results used in SA. This report aims to present the H12 SA in a way that makes the assessment process clearer and the implications of the results more meaningful both to workers within the SA field and to a wider technical audience. The reasonableness of the assessment results, the quality of the models and databases and redundancy within the natural and engineered barrier system have been considered. A number of recent and somewhat older SAs that address a range of different waste types, host rocks and disposal concepts have been considered, and comparisons made to H12. A further aim is to put both doses and timescales in a more meaningful context. It has been necessary to: consider ways of demonstrating the meaningfulness of calculations that give results for many thousands of years in the future; provide a framework timescale as a context for SA results over long times; demonstrate the smallness of the risk associated with the doses by comparison with other radiological and non-radiological risks. The perception of risk, which is a critical issue for public acceptance of radioactive waste disposal and must be considered when seeking to present safety assessment results 'in perspective' to a wider audience, is also discussed. It is concluded that H12 is comparable in many ways to assessments carried out internationally. Some assumptions are somewhat arbitrary reflecting the generic stage of the Japanese programme, and are likely to become better founded in future exercises. Nevertheless, H12 provides a clear and well-founded message that it is feasible to site and construct a safe repository from HLW in Japan. (author)

Location and social context does matter when conducting consumer studies!

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, Barbara Vad; Kraggerud, Hilde; Bruun Brockhoff, Per

2015-01-01

an adequate level of research conducted in realistic eating contexts. In the aim to study how location and social context affected consumers’ feeling of food satisfaction and physical well-being a study was set up with, combined yoghurt with muesli products in two settings; a) in a sensory lab facility (n...... of food satisfaction. Test products were two variants of yoghurt (differing in protein content) and two variants of muesli (a berry and a nut variant) eaten as combined products. An effect of location context (lab- vs. natural context) was found for immediate post intake rating of hunger, fullness...

Narratives of neoliberalism: ‘clinical labour’ in context

Science.gov (United States)

Parry, Bronwyn

2015-01-01

Cross-border reproductive care has been thrust under the international spotlight by a series of recent scandals. These have prompted calls to develop more robust means of assessing the exploitative potential of such practices and the need for overarching and normative forms of national and international regulation. Allied theorisations of the emergence of forms of clinical labour have cast the outsourcing of reproductive services such as gamete donation and gestational surrogacy as artefacts of a wider neoliberalisation of service provision. These accounts share with many other narratives of neoliberalism a number of key assertions that relate to the presumed organisation of labour relations within this paradigm. This article critically engages with four assumptions implicit in these accounts: that clinical labourers constitute a largely homogeneous underclass of workers; that reproductive labour has been contractualised in ways that disembed it from wider social and communal relations; that contractualisation can provide protection for clinical labour lessening the need for formal regulatory oversight; and that the transnationalisation of reproductive service labour is largely unidirectional and characterised by a dynamic of provision in which ‘the rest’ services ‘the West’. Drawing on the first findings of a large-scale ethnographic research project into assisted reproduction in India I provide evidence to refute these assertions. In so doing the article demonstrates that while the outsourcing and contractualisation of reproductive labour may be embedded in a wider neoliberal paradigm these practices cannot be understood nor their impacts be fully assessed in isolation from their social and cultural contexts. PMID:26052118

Thizzin'-Ecstasy use contexts and emergent social meanings.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Juliet P; Battle, Robynn S; Soller, Brian; Brandes, Naomi

2011-01-01

The drug "Ecstasy" has been most commonly associated with raves, or electronic music dance events, and attributed with sexual disinhibition. In an ethnographic investigation of drug use among second-generation Southeast Asian youth in Northern California (2003), respondents described little use of or interest in using Ecstasy; yet in a second study, Ecstasy was the fourth most commonly-used substance. This paper investigates the social contexts for this change in use patterns. Respondents were second-generation Southeast Asian youths and young adults between the ages of 15 and 26 who were currently or recently drug-involved. We compared qualitative data from the two studies and found emerging patterns of meaning and context related to the observed change in use patterns. Ecstasy use among co-resident African American youth within the context of the local "hyphy" hip-hop music subculture had influenced Southeast Asian youths' uptake of the drug, known as "thizz." Respondents referred to the effects of the drug as "thizzin'," described as energizing, disinhibiting, numbing, and emotion enhancing. Reported consequences of "thizzin'" included violence and aggression as well as fun, while sexual disinhibition was rarely mentioned. The meanings assigned to drugs, including the effects ascribed to them, may be relative to the social contexts within which users are exposed to and consume drugs. The findings indicate the susceptibility of youths to local trends in drug use, particularly associated with popular cultural movements and music. Second-generation youths may be particularly susceptible relative to the conditions of their immigration and processes of identity formation unique to them.

Social Context Effects on Decision-Making: A Neurobiological Approach

NARCIS (Netherlands)

M. Stallen (Mirre)

2013-01-01

textabstractThis thesis explores how social context influences the neurobiological processes underlying decision-making. To this end, this research takes an interdisciplinary approach, combining methods and insights from Psychology, Marketing, Economics, and Neuroscience. In particular, behavioural

Narratives of neoliberalism: 'clinical labour' in context.

Science.gov (United States)

Parry, Bronwyn

2015-06-01

Cross-border reproductive care has been thrust under the international spotlight by a series of recent scandals. These have prompted calls to develop more robust means of assessing the exploitative potential of such practices and the need for overarching and normative forms of national and international regulation. Allied theorisations of the emergence of forms of clinical labour have cast the outsourcing of reproductive services such as gamete donation and gestational surrogacy as artefacts of a wider neoliberalisation of service provision. These accounts share with many other narratives of neoliberalism a number of key assertions that relate to the presumed organisation of labour relations within this paradigm. This article critically engages with four assumptions implicit in these accounts: that clinical labourers constitute a largely homogeneous underclass of workers; that reproductive labour has been contractualised in ways that disembed it from wider social and communal relations; that contractualisation can provide protection for clinical labour lessening the need for formal regulatory oversight; and that the transnationalisation of reproductive service labour is largely unidirectional and characterised by a dynamic of provision in which 'the rest' services 'the West'. Drawing on the first findings of a large-scale ethnographic research project into assisted reproduction in India I provide evidence to refute these assertions. In so doing the article demonstrates that while the outsourcing and contractualisation of reproductive labour may be embedded in a wider neoliberal paradigm these practices cannot be understood nor their impacts be fully assessed in isolation from their social and cultural contexts. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.

Adolescent Use of Mobile Phones: A Social Context

Science.gov (United States)

F, J.; Pullen, Darren; Swabey, Karen

2014-01-01

During adolescence (e.g. ages 13-15) communication and connectedness with peers is an essential part of adolescents' self-formation; mobiles phones are a conduit that maintains both communication and connectedness among adolescents whereby social interactions and connectedness are not limited by place, context or time. To study mobile phone usage…

Social Information Processing, Experiences of Aggression in Social Contexts, and Aggressive Behavior in Adolescents

OpenAIRE

Lösel, Friedrich; Bliesener, Thomas; Bender, Doris

2013-01-01

This study examines social information processing and experiences of aggression in social contexts as predictors of different forms of aggressive behavior. A sample of 102 boys (aggressive, average, competent, and victimized students) was investigated with a prospective design in Grade 7/8 and again in Grade 9/10. Results show an aggressive-impulsive response repertoire strongly predicted self-reported and teacher-reported physical aggression, verbal aggression, violent offenses, general aggr...

The Neural Responses to Social Cooperation in Gain and Loss Context.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Peng Sun

Full Text Available Cooperation is pervasive and constitutes the core behavioral principle of human social life. Previous studies have revealed that mutual cooperation was reliably correlated with two reward-related brain regions, the ventral striatum and the orbitofrontal cortex. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI, this study sought to investigate how the loss and gain contexts modulated the neural responses to mutual cooperation. Twenty-five female participants were scanned when they played a series of one-shot prisoner's dilemma games in the loss and gain contexts. Specifically, participants and partners independently chose to either cooperate with each other or not, and each was awarded or deprived of (in the gain context or the loss context, respectively a sum of money which depended upon the interaction of their choices. Behavioral results indicated that participants cooperated in nearly half of the experiment trials and reported higher level of positive emotions for mutual cooperation in both contexts, but they cooperated more in the gain than in the loss context. At the neural level, stronger activities in the orbitofrontal cortex were observed for mutual cooperation compared with the other three outcomes in both contexts, while stronger activation in ventral striatum associated with mutual cooperation was observed in the gain context only. Together, our data indicated that, even in the one-shot interaction under loss context, participants still exhibited preference for cooperation and the rewarding experience from a mutually cooperative social interaction activated the ventral striatum and the orbitofrontal cortex, but the loss context weakened the association between the ventral striatum activation and mutual cooperation.

Social Support at a Sufi Lodge in Punjab, Parkistan

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rehman, Uzma; Lund-Thomsen, Peter

2014-01-01

In this article, we analyze the various types of social support – informational, instrumenmental, and emotional/psychological help – that are provided at a Sufi lodge in southern Punjab, Pakistan. We argue that the lodge has become an important factor in securing the well-being of individuals...... and families in a context where the state has largely failed in terms of providing social services for its citizens. We conclude that future research in this area could delve deeper into the question of whether, and if so how, such institutions may be a source of social support on a wider basis in Pakistan...

Capitalizing on Web 2.0 in the Social Studies Context

Science.gov (United States)

Holcomb, Lori B.; Beal, Candy M.

2010-01-01

This paper focuses primarily on the integration of Web 2.0 technologies into social studies education. It documents how various Web 2.0 tools can be utilized in the social studies context to support and enhance teaching and learning. For the purposes of focusing on one specific topic, global connections at the middle school level will be the…

Socialization of emotions and emotion regulation in cultural context

OpenAIRE

Trommsdorff, Gisela; Heikamp, Tobias

2013-01-01

In this chapter, universal and culture-specific aspects of socialization of emotion regulation are discussed. Emotions and emotion regu lation are socialized and develop in cultural contexts. Cultural views on self·other relations are the basis for the chi ld's agentie self and emotion regu lation affecting the socio-emotional adjustment in the respective culture. Cultural models of self-other relations are transmitted through socia lization processes such as parenting beliefs and practices, ...

Complex active travel bout motivations: Gender, place, and social context associations.

Science.gov (United States)

Brown, Barbara B; Smith, Ken R

2017-09-01

Active travel bouts are healthy, but bout-specific motives, social, and physical contexts have been poorly characterized. Adults (n= 421 in 2012, 436 in 2013) described their moderate activity bouts over the past week, aided by accelerometry/GPS data integration. Participants viewed maps indicating date, time, and starting and ending locations of their past week moderate-to-vigorous active travel bouts of 3 or more minutes. These prompts helped participants recall their social and physical contexts and motives for the bouts. Three bout motivations were modeled: leisure, transportation, and their "T-L" difference scores (transportation minus leisure scores). Blends of leisure and transportation motives characterized most bouts, even though most studies do not allow participants to endorse multiple motives for their active travel. Bouts were often neighborhood-based. Leisure motives were related to pleasant place perceptions, homes, and exercise places; workplaces were associated with stronger transportation and T-L bout motives. Women's bout motives were more closely associated with place than men's. Our novel method of individual bout assessment can illuminate the social-ecological contexts and experiences of everyday healthy bouts of activity.

UrbanWeb: a Platform for Mobile Context-aware Social Computing

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Frank Allan; Grønbæk, Kaj

2010-01-01

UrbanWeb is a novel Web-based context-aware hypermedia plat- form. It provides essential mechanisms for mobile social comput- ing applications: the framework implements context as an exten- sion to Web 2.0 tagging and provides developers with an easy to use platform for mobile context......-aware applications. Services can be statically or dynamically defined in the user’s context, data can be pre-cached for data intensive mobile applications, and shared state supports synchronization between running applications such as games. The paper discusses how UrbanWeb acquires cues about the user’s context...... from sensors in mobile phones, ranging from GPS data, to 2D barcodes, and manual entry of context in- formation, as well as how to utilize this context in applications. The experiences show that the UrbanWeb platform efficiently supports a rich variety of urban computing applications in differ- ent...

Social context, social abstention, and problem recognition correlated with adult female urinary incontinence

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lam, Gitte Wrist; Foldspang, Anders; Elving, Lisbeth Bach

1992-01-01

indicated the workplace and 66% the home as principal sites of UI occurrence. Thirty-one percent had experienced UI in specific situations such as during anxiety, sexual intercourse, or sleep. Nineteen percent had abstained from social activities, 17% from non-intimate social activity and 6% from sexual...... with episodes of UI occurring at home and in specific situations such as during anxiety and sleep. The experience of UI during sexual intercourse was related to all types of abstention. The perception of UI as a social or hygienic problem depended on the duration since first UI episode as well as social context...... and abstention. The everyday life consequences of UI are widespread and may cause serious relational problems for the individual. Stress UI manifests itself as a somatic condition leading to abstention from sport and other non-intimate social activities. Urge UI and the role of the experience of UI during sexual...

Gender and the social context of smoking behaviour.

Science.gov (United States)

Dedobbeleer, Nicole; Béland, François; Contandriopoulos, André-Pierre; Adrian, Manuella

2004-01-01

This paper examines the relative effect of both individual and societal factors that impinge directly on smoking behaviour of women and men. The societal factors are cigarettes price, tobacco control legislation, newspaper coverage of tobacco issues, overall economic factors, and social milieu characteristics. Three Canadian provinces are studied, from 1978 to 1995. A repeated cross-section design is used. Data are derived from national surveys and official documents. Results show that smoking occurs in social contexts within which the price of cigarettes appears to have a significant negative impact on the prevalence of smoking and the quantity of cigarettes smoked by men, but no effect on either the prevalence of smoking or the amount smoked by women. More comprehensive and restrictive no-smoking legislation and legislation on youth access to tobacco influence negatively the prevalence of smoking both for men and women. However, these laws do not have the same effects on the number of cigarettes smoked by women and men. Newspaper articles on the other hand, negatively influence smoking prevalence for women and men. As differences are observed in the responsiveness of men and women to tobacco control policies, policymakers and practitioners need to keep in mind that tobacco control policies have to be tailored to the broader context of the lives of women and men. Future work needs also to be done to clarify the interrelationships between social influences on smoking such as price, laws and media, and the relationships between these and intrapersonal and interpersonal factors, as well as other social and cultural factors.

Evolution and the Human Population. Science In a Social CONtext.

Science.gov (United States)

Solomon, Joan

Science In a Social CONtext is a series of eight books based on the project SISCON-in-Schools. The books provide a new course in science and society for general studies at sixth-form level. The course has been specially designed to make scientific problems accessible to the non-scientist, as well as to explain the social aspects of science to the…

Prosody production networks are modulated by sensory cues and social context.

Science.gov (United States)

Klasen, Martin; von Marschall, Clara; Isman, Güldehen; Zvyagintsev, Mikhail; Gur, Ruben C; Mathiak, Klaus

2018-03-05

The neurobiology of emotional prosody production is not well investigated. In particular, the effects of cues and social context are not known. The present study sought to differentiate cued from free emotion generation and the effect of social feedback from a human listener. Online speech filtering enabled fMRI during prosodic communication in 30 participants. Emotional vocalizations were a) free, b) auditorily cued, c) visually cued, or d) with interactive feedback. In addition to distributed language networks, cued emotions increased activity in auditory and - in case of visual stimuli - visual cortex. Responses were larger in pSTG at the right hemisphere and the ventral striatum when participants were listened to and received feedback from the experimenter. Sensory, language, and reward networks contributed to prosody production and were modulated by cues and social context. The right pSTG is a central hub for communication in social interactions - in particular for interpersonal evaluation of vocal emotions.

Decision-making in social contexts in youth with ADHD

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ma, I.; Lambregts-Rommelse, N.N.J.; Buitelaar, J.K.; Cillessen, A.H.N.; Scheres, A.P.J.

2017-01-01

This study examined reward-related decision-making in children and adolescents with ADHD in a social context, using economic games. We furthermore examined the role of individual differences in reward-related decision-making, specifically, the roles of reward sensitivity and prosocial skills.

Collaborative Research in Contexts of Inequality: The Role of Social Reflexivity

Science.gov (United States)

Leibowitz, Brenda; Bozalek, Vivienne; Farmer, Jean; Garraway, James; Herman, Nicoline; Jawitz, Jeff; McMillan, Wendy; Mistri, Gita; Ndebele, Clever; Nkonki, Vuyisile; Quinn, Lynn; van Schalkwyk, Susan; Vorster, Jo-Anne; Winberg, Chris

2017-01-01

This article reports on the role and value of social reflexivity in collaborative research in contexts of extreme inequality. Social reflexivity mediates the enablements and constraints generated by the internal and external contextual conditions impinging on the research collaboration. It fosters the ability of participants in a collaborative…

Social capital in an outdoor recreation context.

Science.gov (United States)

Mann, Marilynne; Leahy, Jessica

2010-02-01

This study examined social capital development in three all-terrain vehicles (ATV) clubs in Maine using an adapted version of Lin's (2001) social capital theory model. The structural components of social capital identified included collective assets and individual assets in the form of normative behavior and trust relationships. Also identified were counter-norms for individual ATV riders identified as having divergent norms from club members. The second component of social capital is access to and mobilization of network contacts and resources. Access networks in the context of the ATV clubs studied were identified as community and landowner relations while mobilization of resources was existent in club membership attempts toward self-governance and efforts of the statewide "umbrella" organization. Instrumental outcomes benefit society and expressive outcomes benefit the individual. Both types of returns are present in the data suggesting that ATV clubs are creating social capital. This is important information to clubs who desire to market themselves, improve their reputations, and enhance their volunteer association. It is of further interest to state governments who fund clubs through trail grants as proof that a return on investment is being realized. Theoretical and applied implications for these and other types of recreation-based volunteer associations (e.g., clubs, friends groups, advocacy groups) are presented.

Social Capital in an Outdoor Recreation Context

Science.gov (United States)

Mann, Marilynne; Leahy, Jessica

2010-02-01

This study examined social capital development in three all-terrain vehicles (ATV) clubs in Maine using an adapted version of Lin’s (2001) social capital theory model. The structural components of social capital identified included collective assets and individual assets in the form of normative behavior and trust relationships. Also identified were counter-norms for individual ATV riders identified as having divergent norms from club members. The second component of social capital is access to and mobilization of network contacts and resources. Access networks in the context of the ATV clubs studied were identified as community and landowner relations while mobilization of resources was existent in club membership attempts toward self-governance and efforts of the statewide “umbrella” organization. Instrumental outcomes benefit society and expressive outcomes benefit the individual. Both types of returns are present in the data suggesting that ATV clubs are creating social capital. This is important information to clubs who desire to market themselves, improve their reputations, and enhance their volunteer association. It is of further interest to state governments who fund clubs through trail grants as proof that a return on investment is being realized. Theoretical and applied implications for these and other types of recreation-based volunteer associations (e.g., clubs, friends groups, advocacy groups) are presented.

Implementing and sustaining dietary change in the context of social relationships.

Science.gov (United States)

Rydén, Petra J; Sydner, Ylva Mattsson

2011-09-01

Changing to healthier dietary habits is quite difficult to implement and even more difficult to sustain. As the majority of people have some or all their meals with others, it is likely that their social relationships influence the dietary change process and its sustainability. Thus, the aim of this research was to explore and describe experiences of dietary change and its sustainability in the context of an individual's social relationships. Semi-structured interviews were conducted individually with fourteen individuals who had previously been participants in a 3-month dietary intervention study using a Mediterranean diet. Thematic analysis was used on verbatim transcripts of the interviews. Social relationships were the main barrier to sustainability - in particular social relationships within the household where various coping strategies were needed on an everyday basis. Social relationships outside the household were also difficult to manage as dietary change challenged existing traditions and norms of what to eat. The changer was thereby forced to risk social disapproval or to deviate from the diet. Social relationships within and outside the household complicated the accomplishment of healthy dietary changes. Hence, it is important to acknowledge the social context of the changer when dietary change is to be implemented. © 2011 The Authors. Scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences © 2011 Nordic College of Caring Science.

Social representations of consumption of drugs in a university context, Medellin, Colombia, 2000

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Silvia Henao H

2012-04-01

Full Text Available Objective: To identify and characterize the social representationsof drug use in a university context. Methodology: aframework was built by collecting the contributions of symbolicinteractionism, interpretive ethnography, and textualanalysis. Data collection was performed through 27 semistructuredinterviews and 7 focus groups. Likewise, the ReadingParadigm, proposed by a cultural hermeneutics of anthropologicalnature, was used as an analysis technique. Resultsand discussion: we observed social representations such asdrug use as a socializing element facilitating social relationsand as an element that gives meaning to life by putting thesubject in a context where he or she is accepted. Conclusion:certain socially constructed forms of knowledge appear in thesignifiers of drugs. They generate, through the functions of socialrepresentations, satisfiers that make it possible, throughcommunication, to construct languages that shape the identitywithin the group and favor adaptation to the social environmentof the university.

LGBTQ+ Young Adults on the Street and on Campus: Identity as a Product of Social Context.

Science.gov (United States)

Schmitz, Rachel M; Tyler, Kimberly A

2018-01-01

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, and other sexual and gender minority (LGBTQ+) young adults face unique identity-related experiences based on their immersion in distinctive social contexts. The predominant framework of performing separate analyses on samples of LGBTQ+ young people by their primary social status obfuscates more holistic understandings of the role of social context. Using 46 in-depth interviews with LGBTQ+ college students and LGBTQ+ homeless young adults, we ask: How are LGBTQ+ young adults' capacities for "doing" their gender and sexual identities shaped by their distinctive social contexts? In developing their identities, both groups of LGBTQ+ young adults navigated their social environments to seek out resources and support. Most college students described their educational contexts as conducive to helping them develop their identities, or "undo" rigid norms of gender and sexuality. Homeless young adults' social environments, meanwhile, imposed complex barriers to self-expression that reinforced more normative expectations of "doing" gender and sexual identities.

Young Consumers’ Brand Communications Literacy in a Social Networking Site Context

OpenAIRE

Lawlor, Margaret-Anne; Dunne, Aine; Rowley, Jennifer

2016-01-01

Purpose - Whilst substantial scholarly attention has been given to children’s understanding of advertising in the context of traditional advertising channels, there is a gap in the literature with regard to children’s commercial awareness in the context of online social networking sites (SNS). This paper seeks to explore the nature and extent of advertising literacy amongst young consumers in the context of their use of SNS, namely Facebook and Bebo. Design/methodology/approach - A three-s...

Which wider social roles? : An analysis of social roles ascribed to voluntary sports clubs

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Waardenburg, M.

2016-01-01

It has long been established that voluntary sports clubs (VSCs) are ascribed a prominent social role by governments. Several scholars highlight the ascribed social values in sport policy to voluntary sports clubs and their possible implications for these voluntary organizations. Most of these

Emotional valence and context of social influences on drug abuse-related behavior in animal models of social stress and prosocial interaction.

Science.gov (United States)

Neisewander, J L; Peartree, N A; Pentkowski, N S

2012-11-01

Social factors are important determinants of drug dependence and relapse. We reviewed pre-clinical literature examining the role of social experiences from early life through the development of drug dependence and relapse, emphasizing two aspects of these experiences: (1) whether the social interaction is appetitive or aversive and (2) whether the social interaction occurs within or outside of the drug-taking context. The models reviewed include neonatal care, isolation, social defeat, chronic subordination, and prosocial interactions. We review results from these models in regard to effects on self-administration and conditioned place preference established with alcohol, psychostimulants, and opiates. We suggest that in general, when the interactions occur outside of the drug-taking context, prosocial interactions are protective against drug abuse-related behaviors, whereas social stressors facilitate these behaviors. By contrast, positive or negative social interactions occurring within the drug-taking context may interact with other risk factors to enhance or inhibit these behaviors. Despite differences in the nature and complexity of human social behavior compared to other species, the evolving animal literature provides useful models for understanding social influences on drug abuse-related behavior that will allow for research on the behavioral and biological mechanisms involved. The models have contributed to understanding social influences on initiation and maintenance of drug use, but more research is needed to understand social influences on drug relapse.

TOURISM RURAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE EUROPEAN CONTEXT: OVERVIEW

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

G. Rajović

2017-02-01

Full Text Available The European territory is characterized by a strong presence of rural areas. Approximately 52% of the European territory is classified as predominantly rural. In this context, Rural Tourism is one of the key opportunities in terms of potential growth for rural areas, in the wider context of the Sustainable Management and Promotion of Territory activities (Fagioli et al, 2014. In the last two decades, in many European Union member countries, rural tourism is considered as a strategy for the future, which can contribute to economic and social development of local communities, of less favored regions alike, in order to create jobs and reduce migration. At the same time, rural tourism has the advantage that it acts for the purpose of opening new investment prospects. Thus, it must be regarded as an economic activity that contributes to regional development and, consequently, to the overall economic growth

The social costs and benefits of anger as a function of gender and relationship context

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Fischer, A.H.; Evers, C.

2011-01-01

On the basis of Social Role Theory and a social functional view of emotions, we argue that gender differences in anger experiences and expression are related to men’s and women’s relationship context. We hypothesized that women in traditional relationship contexts would express their anger less

Explicit instructions increase cognitive costs of deception in predictable social context

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marcel eFalkiewicz

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Convincing participants to deceive remains one of the biggest and most important challenges of laboratory-based deception research. The simplest and most prevalent method involves explicitly instructing participants to lie or tell the truth before presenting each task item. The usual finding of such experiments is increased cognitive load associated with deceptive responses, explained by necessity to inhibit default and automatic honest responses. However, explicit instructions are usually coupled with the absence of social context in the experimental task. Context plays a key role in social cognition by activating prior knowledge, which facilitates behaviors consistent with the latter. We hypothesized that in the presence of social context, both honest and deceptive responses can be produced on the basis of prior knowledge, without reliance on truth and without additional cognitive load during deceptive responses. In order to test the hypothesis, we have developed Speed-Dating Task (SDT, which is based on a real-life social event. In SDT, participants respond both honestly and deceptively to questions in order to appear similar to each of the dates. The dates are predictable and represent well-known categories (i.e. atheist or conservative. In one condition participants rely on explicit instructions preceding each question (external cue. In the second condition no explicit instructions are present, so the participants need to adapt based on prior knowledge about the category the dates belong to (internal cue. With internal cues, reaction times are similar for both honest and deceptive responses. However, in the presence of external cues, reaction times are longer for deceptive than honest responses, suggesting that deceptive responses are associated with increased cognitive load. Compared to internal cues, deception costs were higher when external cues were present. However, the effect was limited to the first part of the experiment, only

Obstacles to local-level AIDS competence in rural Zimbabwe: putting HIV prevention in context.

Science.gov (United States)

Nhamo, Mercy; Campbell, Catherine; Gregson, Simon

2010-01-01

We explore the wider social context of an HIV-prevention programme in rural Zimbabwe. We make no comment on the programme itself, rather seeking to examine the wider community dynamics into which it was inserted, to highlight how pre-existing social dynamics may have influenced community "readiness" to derive optimal benefit from the intervention. Using the concept of "the AIDS competent community", we analysed 44 interviews and 11 focus groups with local people. Despite high levels of HIV/AIDS-related knowledge, there were several ways gender, poverty and low literacy may have undermined its perceived relevance to peoples' lives. Lack of opportunities for dialogue in the social milieu beyond the intervention may have limited opportunities for translating factual AIDS knowledge into action plans, or sharing hidden individual experiences of HIV/AIDS-affected family members or friends, given stigma and denial. The initiative of women and young people to respond effectively to AIDS was limited in a context dominated by adult males. People spoke of HIV/AIDS in a passive and fatalistic way, expecting outsiders to solve the problem. This tendency was exacerbated given the community's previous experiences of HIV/AIDS-related NGOs, which had often regarded local people as unpaid volunteer labour rather than building their capacity to make significant decisions and play leadership roles in health programmes. Despite obstacles, however, there were many potential community strengths and resources. There were high levels of HIV/AIDS-related knowledge. Public denial of HIV/AIDS masked huge reservoirs of private support and kindness to AIDS-affected family and friends. There were many strong community organisations and clubs, potentially forming the springboard for more empowered community responses to HIV/AIDS. HIV/AIDS programmers should pay greater attention to community readiness for interventions, especially around: (1) identifying and anticipating pre-existing obstacles to

Decision-making in social contexts in youth with ADHD.

Science.gov (United States)

Ma, Ili; Lambregts-Rommelse, Nanda N J; Buitelaar, Jan K; Cillessen, Antonius H N; Scheres, Anouk P J

2017-03-01

This study examined reward-related decision-making in children and adolescents with ADHD in a social context, using economic games. We furthermore examined the role of individual differences in reward-related decision-making, specifically, the roles of reward sensitivity and prosocial skills. Children and adolescents (9-17 years) with ADHD-combined subtype (n = 29; 20 boys) and healthy controls (n = 38; 20 boys) completed the ultimatum game and dictator game as measures of reward-related decision-making in social contexts. Prosocial skills were measured with the Interpersonal Reactivity Index. The ADHD group had a larger discrepancy between ultimatum game and dictator game offers than controls, indicating strategic rather than fairness driven decisions. This finding was supported by self-reports showing fewer individuals with ADHD than controls who considered fairness as motive for the decisions. Perspective taking or empathic concern did not differ between groups and was not significantly associated with offers. In conclusion, the results suggest that rather than a failure to understand the perspective of others, children and adolescents with ADHD were less motivated by fairness than controls in simple social situations. Results encourage the use of economic games in ADHD research.

The Social Construction of "Struggle": Influences of School Literacy Contexts, Curriculum, and Relationships

Science.gov (United States)

Triplett, Cheri F.

2007-01-01

In this study, social constructionism provided a theoretical framework for investigating how students' struggles with reading are socially constructed in school literacy contexts, curriculum, and relationships. The study also sought to discover how "struggling reader" is a socially constructed subjectivity or identity that begins in the early…

Perceptions of Popularity-Related Behaviors in the Cyber Context: Relations to Cyber Social Behaviors

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Michelle F. Wright

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Despite acknowledging that adolescents are active users of electronic technology, little is known about their perceptions concerning how such technologies might be used to promote their social standing among their peer group and whether these perceptions relate to their cyber social behaviors (i.e., cyber aggression perpetration, cyber prosocial behavior. To address this gap in the literature, the present study included 857 seventh graders (M age: 12.19; 50.8% female from a large Midwestern city in the United States. They completed questionnaires on face-to-face social behaviors, cyber social behaviors, perceived popularity, social preference, and their perceptions of characteristics and activities related to the cyber context which might be used to promote popularity. Findings revealed four activities and characteristics used to improve adolescents’ social standing in the peer group, including antisocial behaviors, sociability, prosocial behaviors, and technology access. Using antisocial behaviors in the cyber context to promote popularity was related to cyber aggression perpetration, while controlling for gender, social preference, and perceived popularity. On the other hand, sociability and prosocial behaviors in the cyber context used to improve popularity as well as technology access were associated with cyber prosocial behavior. A call for additional research is made.

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

Science.gov (United States)

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.

Bilateral neurotoxic amygdala lesions in rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta): Consistent pattern of behavior across different social contexts

Science.gov (United States)

Machado, Christopher J.; Emery, Nathan J.; Capitanio, John P.; Mason, William A.; Mendoza, Sally P.; Amaral, David G.

2010-01-01

Although the amygdala has been repeatedly implicated in normal primate social behavior, great variability exists in the specific social and nonsocial behavioral changes observed after bilateral amygdala lesions in nonhuman primates. One plausible explanation pertains to differences in social context. To investigate this idea, we measured the social behavior of amygdala-lesioned and unoperated rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) in two contexts. Animals interacted in four-member social groups over 32 test days. These animals were previously assessed in pairs (Emery et al., 2001), and were, therefore, familiar with each other at the beginning of this study. Across the two contexts, amygdala lesions produced a highly consistent pattern of social behavior. Operated animals engaged in more affiliative social interactions with control group partners than did control animals. In the course of their interactions, amygdala-lesioned animals also displayed an earlier decrease in nervous and fearful personality qualities than controls. The increased exploration and sexual behavior recorded for amygdala-lesioned animals in pairs was not found in the four-member groups. We conclude that the amygdala contributes to social inhibition and this function transcends various social contexts. PMID:18410164

Global contexts, social capital, and acculturative stress: experiences of Indian immigrant men in New York City.

Science.gov (United States)

Bhattacharya, Gauri

2011-08-01

Immigrants depend on within-group social networks for social support during the acculturation process. Within-group social networks are linked to higher mutual concern and reciprocity, lower acculturative stress, and lower depression among immigrants Studies are limited, however, about immigrants' social support in the contexts of global connectedness and transnational connectivity. Grounded in social capital approach and immigrant health framework, this qualitative, community-based study examined the social networks of immigrant men from India to New York City. Drawing upon the participants' narratives, the author illustrates the ways that social capital influences social networking and acculturative stress in post-immigration sociocultural contexts along with its implications for community-based interventions.

Social risks in the context of individual life paths of contemporary teenagers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Khlomov K.D.

2016-06-01

Full Text Available This article is devoted to the teenagers issues in the context of social life in Russia in 2010-s. It deals with a range of social risks such as: difficulties with self-identity, aggressive behaviour, bullying and drugs. It attempts to summarize the existing practical experience and the results of modern studies of adolescence, those problem areas that now exist, according to the author, in society and, in particular, in the educational environment from the point of view of the psycho-pedagogical tasks in the context of the study of individual life paths.

Role of social workers in a context of crisis: adaptation opportunities to change

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Marta García-Domingo

2017-06-01

Full Text Available The current situation of socioeconomic crisis shows a scenario characterized by the increase of inequality, as well as situations of vulnerability and social exclusion. In addition to the growth in social needs and problems, there is a shortage of resources to support individuals and families. This produces an important change in the philosophy and functioning of social services system, being interventions increasingly marked by control and sanction. Social Work, as a discipline integrated into a process of constant transformation and adaptation, deals with a series of challenges in the current context of crisis. It conditions, and even determines, the role to be performed by Social Workers. From semi-structured interviews and participant observation, we analyze the perception of experts of that role in three key European contexts: Nordic countries (represented by Sweden and Finland, Central Europe (represented by Germany y Mediterranean countries (represented by Spain. Through discourse analysis, we identify both responsibilities and suggestions for improving social intervention. Based on this, we conclude a dual role reflected in the speeches of the social actors involved: proactive and supportive.

Causal learning is collaborative: Examining explanation and exploration in social contexts.

Science.gov (United States)

Legare, Cristine H; Sobel, David M; Callanan, Maureen

2017-10-01

Causal learning in childhood is a dynamic and collaborative process of explanation and exploration within complex physical and social environments. Understanding how children learn causal knowledge requires examining how they update beliefs about the world given novel information and studying the processes by which children learn in collaboration with caregivers, educators, and peers. The objective of this article is to review evidence for how children learn causal knowledge by explaining and exploring in collaboration with others. We review three examples of causal learning in social contexts, which elucidate how interaction with others influences causal learning. First, we consider children's explanation-seeking behaviors in the form of "why" questions. Second, we examine parents' elaboration of meaning about causal relations. Finally, we consider parents' interactive styles with children during free play, which constrains how children explore. We propose that the best way to understand children's causal learning in social context is to combine results from laboratory and natural interactive informal learning environments.

Social contexts and personal relationships : The effect of meeting opportunities on similarity for relationships of different strength

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Mollenhorst, Gerald; Völker, Beate; Flap, Henk

2008-01-01

This paper examines the effect of social contexts on similarity in personal relationships. We argue that the effect of social contexts is larger for weaker, and smaller for stronger relationships. Using data from The Survey of the Social Networks of the Dutch (collected in 1999/2000, n = 1007), we

The social and gender context of HIV disclosure in sub-Saharan Africa

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This paper reviews the legal and policy context of HIV disclosure in sub-Saharan Africa, as well as what is known about rates, consequences and social context of disclosure, with special attention to gender issues and the role of health services. Persistent rates of nondisclosure by those diagnosed with HIV raise difficult ...

Babyfacedness, sex of face stimulus, and social context in face perception and person evaluation.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Yu-Kang

2013-06-01

This research investigated whether the well-documented babyface stereotypical effects are moderated by sex of face stimuli and social context. 'Medical doctor' and 'political candidate' were selected as two social contexts which differ at the private/public level. An experiment was conducted with 245 adults (M age = 38.5 yr., SD = 8.6, range = 23 to 64). Babyface effects were stronger for the babyfaced female in the political context, but greater for the babyfaced male in the doctor-patient context. Babyfacedness could be a disadvantage to men in political contexts if political sophistication is judged by their facial characteristics. The results of overall impressions are similar to the patterns of the likeability rating. Individual differences (political sophistication and health consciousness) account for little variance in inference-making or impression formation. Implications of the current findings are discussed, as are directions for future research.

Chemistry teaching in different social contexts

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bruno Ferreira dos Santos

2017-12-01

Full Text Available This article presents the development of a research program on the teaching of chemistry guided by a theoretical framework of the Sociology of Education, and discusses its main results. Under a comparative analysis perspective, the pedagogical practices of teachers of chemistry teachers who teach in schools of different social contexts were been characterized by a set of indicators related to the rules of pedagogical discourse and were associated to the macrossocial issues of power and control, according to the theory by Basil Bernstein. The article presents the most relevant results obtained, highlighting the characteristics less favorable to the acquisition of scientific knowledge and skills, and which often constitute the practices observed in the schools where study the most needy students of the social spectrum. On the other hand, some results also show that, by altering some of these characteristics, teachers can increase student’s performance. These results have implications for the education of chemistry teachers and for public policies. The final part discusses the further unfolding and new directions for future research related to this program.

Pregnant Teenager Involvement in Sexual Activity and the Social Context

OpenAIRE

Sant'Anna, Maria José Carvalho; Catunda, Júlia Kerr; Carvalho, Kepler Alencar Mendes; Coates, Veronica; Omar, Hatim A.

2006-01-01

Pregnancy during adolescence represents a challenge to society as a whole. Its incidence is increasing and brings about social and medical consequences to both the teen mothers and their children. The purpose of this study was to evaluate pregnant teenager involvement in sexual activity and the social context. The group studied comprised 152 pregnant teenagers attending the Department of Pediatrics, Santa Casa de Sao Paulo (SCSP) General Hospital. All information was analyzed. The age at firs...

THE ASPECTS OF PROVISION OF SOCIAL SERVICES CONSIDERING THE SOCIAL EXCLUSION DIMENSIONS IN THE CONTEXT OF RATIONAL CHOICE THEORY

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Janina Cizikiene

2018-03-01

Full Text Available The article analyses the aspects of provision of social services, reducing social exclusion, in the view of rational choice theory. This approach was selected due to the fact that provision of social services often leads to discussions explaining the appropriate and rational choice of assistance for the socially excluded members of society. The authors discuss the key aspects of provision of social services, considering the dimensions and factors of social exclusion in the context of rational choice theory.

Vygotsky's Crisis: Argument, context, relevance.

Science.gov (United States)

Hyman, Ludmila

2012-06-01

Vygotsky's The Historical Significance of the Crisis in Psychology (1926-1927) is an important text in the history and philosophy of psychology that has only become available to scholars in 1982 in Russian, and in 1997 in English. The goal of this paper is to introduce Vygotsky's conception of psychology to a wider audience. I argue that Vygotsky's argument about the "crisis" in psychology and its resolution can be fully understood only in the context of his social and political thinking. Vygotsky shared the enthusiasm, widespread among Russian leftist intelligentsia in the 1920s, that Soviet society had launched an unprecedented social experiment: The socialist revolution opened the way for establishing social conditions that would let the individual flourish. For Vygotsky, this meant that "a new man" of the future would become "the first and only species in biology that would create itself." He envisioned psychology as a science that would serve this humanist teleology. I propose that The Crisis is relevant today insofar as it helps us define a fundamental problem: How can we systematically account for the development of knowledge in psychology? I evaluate how Vygotsky addresses this problem as a historian of the crisis. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Convoys of Social Relations in Cross-National Context.

Science.gov (United States)

Ajrouch, Kristine J; Fuller, Heather R; Akiyama, Hiroko; Antonucci, Toni C

2018-05-08

This study examines national variations in social networks among older adults across 4 countries in diverse regions of the world: Japan, Lebanon, Mexico, and the United States. The aim is to provide insights into universal as well as unique attributes of social networks in later life. The analyses examine convoy characteristics among adults aged 50+ in metropolitan areas of Japan (N = 557), Lebanon (N = 284), Mexico (N = 556), and the United States (N = 583). Data were collected using the hierarchical mapping technique on representative samples in each locale. Multilevel models were conducted by nation to examine whether convoy characteristics vary by age and closeness. Network size and geographic proximity were dimensions of social networks sensitive to national context. By contrast, how age and feelings of closeness varied with contact frequency and the presence of children in networks revealed universal patterns. Furthermore, feelings of closeness varied by age with regard to size and contact frequency in Lebanon, proximity in Japan, and composition in Mexico. Identifying universal and unique characteristics of social networks in later life provide a preliminary empirical basis upon which to advance a global perspective on convoys of social relations and how they inform policies that can facilitate health and well-being among middle-aged and older people around the world.

The School Food Plan and the Social Context of Food in Schools

Science.gov (United States)

Hart, Caroline Sarojini

2016-01-01

This paper explores the social context of food practices in primary schools in England based on research conducted in 2013-2014 as part of the Sheffield School Food Project. Drawing on the capability approach, and social quality theory, the theoretical framework informed a research methodology enabling exploration of ways in which food practices…

A strategy for the survival and enrichment of NAA in a wider context

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Byrne, A.R.

2001-01-01

A review of the current trends in NAA, its applications and the use of research reactors for NAA is given. A case is made for a more versatile, interdisciplinary approach towards NAA, operating in the context of a larger national or regional nuclear analytical center where other nuclear and non-nuclear analyses can be combined. (author)

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.

Parents’ motives for home education: The influence of methodological design and social context

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Thomas Spiegler

2010-10-01

Full Text Available Parents’ motives for home education are one of the most researched topics within home education research. The focus of this article is on the question of the degree to which the results regarding these motives are influenced and shaped by the applied methods and the social context. The empirical basis is a meta-analysis of twelve research examples from the last two decades. It is concluded that the diversity within the results can partly be traced back to fundamental differences in the methodological design, to the absence of detailed theoretical modelling and remarkable differences of the survey instruments and that the role of the social environment and the process of the construction of motives in a certain social context deserve more attention.

A Social Practice Theory of Learning and Becoming across Contexts and Time

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Penuel, William R.; DiGiacomo, Daniela K.; Van Horne, Katie; Kirshner, Ben

2016-01-01

This paper presents a social practice theory of learning and becoming across contexts and time. Our perspective is rooted in the Danish tradition of critical psychology (Dreier, 1997; Mørck & Huniche, 2006; Nissen, 2005), and we use social practice theory to interpret the pathway of one adolescent whom we followed as part of a longitudinal…

The Role of Agent and Social Context in Judgments of Freedom of Speech and Religion.

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Helwig, Charles C

1997-06-01

This study examined children's, adolescents', and college students' judgments of the rights of child and adult agents to freedom of speech and religion in 3 social contexts: the general level of society, the school, and the family. Two hundred forty participants, evenly divided into 5 grade levels (mean ages 6,6, 8,5,10,6,12,4, and 22,7) made judgments of the legitimacy of authority prohibition, rule evaluation, generalizability, and rule violation for all freedom/social context/agent combinations. Concepts of freedom of speech and religion were found to emerge in the early elementary school years, and endorsements of freedoms were increasingly affected by social context and agent with age. College students were less likely than any other age group to affirm children's freedom of religion in the family context. Considerations of the mental competence and maturity of agents and the potential for harm to ensue from acting on freedoms played an important part in the decisions of older, but not younger, participants.

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

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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.

Social context and perceived agency affects empathy for pain: an event-related fMRI investigation.

Science.gov (United States)

Akitsuki, Yuko; Decety, Jean

2009-08-15

Studying of the impact of social context on the perception of pain in others is important for understanding the role of intentionality in interpersonal sensitivity, empathy, and implicit moral reasoning. Here we used an event-related fMRI with pain and social context (i.e., the number of individuals in the stimuli) as the two factors to investigate how different social contexts and resulting perceived agency modulate the neural response to the perception of pain in others. Twenty-six healthy participants were scanned while presented with short dynamic visual stimuli depicting painful situations accidentally caused by or intentionally caused by another individual. The main effect of perception of pain was associated with signal increase in the aMCC, insula, somatosensory cortex, SMA and PAG. Importantly, perceiving the presence of another individual led to specific hemodynamic increase in regions involved in representing social interaction and emotion regulation including the temporoparietal junction, medial prefrontal cortex, inferior frontal gyrus, and orbitofrontal cortex. Furthermore, the functional connectivity pattern between the left amygdala and other brain areas was modulated by the perceived agency. Our study demonstrates that the social context in which pain occurs modulate the brain response to other's pain. This modulation may reflect successful adaptation to potential danger present in a social interaction. Our results contribute to a better understanding of the neural mechanisms underpinning implicit moral reasoning that concern actions that can harm other people.

Investigating Measures of Social Context on 2 Population-Based Health Surveys, Hawaii, 2010-2012.

Science.gov (United States)

Pobutsky, Ann M; Baker, Kathleen Kromer; Reyes-Salvail, Florentina

2015-12-17

Measures from the Social Context Module of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System were used on 2 population-based health surveys in Hawaii to explicate the role of the nonmedical and social determinants of health; these measures were also compared with conventional socioeconomic status (SES) variables. Results showed that the self-reported SES vulnerabilities of food and housing insecurity are both linked to demographic factors and physical and mental health status and significant when controlling for the conventional measures of SES. The social context module indicators should be increasingly used so results can inform appropriate interventions for vulnerable populations.

Age and Social Context Modulate the Effect of Anxiety on Risk-taking in Pediatric Samples.

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Rosen, Dana; Patel, Nilam; Pavletic, Nevia; Grillon, Christian; Pine, Daniel S; Ernst, Monique

2016-08-01

Although risk-taking has been studied from a developmental perspective, no study has examined how anxiety, age, risk-valence and social context interact to modulate decision-making in youths. This study probes this question using a risk-taking task, the Stunt Task, in clinically anxious children (n = 17, 10 F, age = 8.3-12.1 years), healthy children (n = 13, 4 F, age = 9.3-12.2 years), clinically anxious adolescents (n = 18, 6 F, age = 12.3-17.7 years), and healthy adolescents (n =14, 10 F, age = 12.5-17.3 years). Social context was manipulated: in one condition, participants were led to believe that a group of peers were observing and judging their performance (peer-judge), while, in the other condition, they were led to believe that peers were not observing them (control). Only anxious children showed an influence of social context on their risk-taking behavior. Specifically, anxious children bet significantly less and had slower reaction times (RT) during the peer-judge than control condition. However, across social conditions, risk-valence modulated RT differently in function of age and diagnosis. Anxious children were slower on the positive-valence risky trial, whereas anxious adolescents were slower on the negative-valence risky trials relative to their respective healthy peers. In conclusion, clinically anxious children were the only group that was sensitive (risk-averse) to the effect of a negative peer-judge context. The negative peer-judge context did not affect risky decision-making in adolescents, whether they were anxious or healthy. Future work using a stronger aversive social context might be more effective at influencing risky behavior in this age group.

A Wider Look at Visual Discomfort

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

L O'Hare

2012-07-01

Full Text Available Visual discomfort is the adverse effects reported by some on viewing certain stimuli, such as stripes and certain filtered noise patterns. Stimuli that deviate from natural image statistics might be encoded inefficiently, which could cause discomfort (Juricevic, Land, Wilkins and Webster, 2010, Perception, 39(7, 884–899, possibly through excessive cortical responses (Wilkins, 1995, Visual Stress, Oxford, Oxford University Press. A less efficient visual system might exacerbate the effects of difficult stimuli. Extreme examples are seen in epilepsy and migraines (Wilkins, Bonnanni, Prociatti, Guerrini, 2004, Epilepsia, 45, 1–7; Aurora and Wilkinson, 2007, Cephalalgia, 27(12, 1422–1435. However, similar stimuli are also seen as uncomfortable by non-clinical populations, eg, striped patterns (Wilkins et al, 1984, Brain, 107(4. We propose that oversensitivity of clinical populations may represent extreme examples of visual discomfort in the general population. To study the prevalence and impact of visual discomfort in a wider context than typically studied, an Internet-based survey was conducted, including standardised questionnaires measuring visual discomfort susceptibility (Conlon, Lovegrove, Chekaluk and Pattison, 1999, Visual Cognition, 6(6, 637–663; Evans and Stevenson, 2008, Ophthal Physiol Opt 28(4 295–309 and judgments of visual stimuli, such as striped patterns (Wilkins et al, 1984 and filtered noise patterns (Fernandez and Wilkins, 2008, Perception, 37(7 1098–1013. Results show few individuals reporting high visual discomfort, contrary to other researchers (eg, Conlon et al, 1999.

Tasting the Forbidden Fruit: The Social Context of Debut Sexual ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Tasting the Forbidden Fruit: The Social Context of Debut Sexual Encounters Among Young Persons in a Rural Nigerian Community. ... Alternatively, you can download the PDF file directly to your computer, from where it can be opened using a PDF reader. To download the PDF, click the Download link above.

Transformative Pedagogy in Context: being and becoming

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Patrick Farren

2016-11-01

Full Text Available This paper examines an original construct, ‘‘transformative pedagogy’’, in the context of post-primary teacher education in Ireland. The construct is examined from philosophical and psychological perspectives, and key distinctions are drawn between it and other pedagogies. Links are made, where appropriate, to research findings from a recent study carried out by the author in cooperation with teacher-educators and student-teachers in the context of pre-service teacher education at the National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland. In addition, the paper refers to examples that illustrate some of the benefits that can be derived from school-society links. ‘‘Transformative pedagogy’’ creates conditions that support teacher and pupils (participants in developing their identity as whole persons who have a relationship based on interdependence. In essence, ‘‘transformative pedagogy’’ is about creating conditions that support participants in developing capacity as ‘‘beings-in-relation’’ as well as ‘‘beings-in-becoming’’. Key perspectives are used to frame the discussion: 1 identity, 2 beliefs and attitudes, 3 knowledge, 4 moral-ethical values, 5 socio-affective factors, 6 social interaction and collaboration, 7 critical reflection, 8 school and wider society. ‘‘Transformative pedagogy’’ is underpinned by moral-ethical values that support participants as ‘‘beings-in-relation’’ who are also ‘‘beings-in-becoming’’. Participants develop consciousness that is a prerequisite for constructing their own meanings as part of critiquing and shaping the world. The process implies committed action, informed by moral-ethical values, that is geared towards personal as well as social transformations. The construct suggests a need for a more integrated and trans-curricular approach to teaching and learning than has traditionally been the case in Ireland, and an approach that brings school life and wider

Bringing patients' social context into the examination room: an investigation of the discussion of social influence during contraceptive counseling.

Science.gov (United States)

Levy, Kira; Minnis, Alexandra M; Lahiff, Maureen; Schmittdiel, Julie; Dehlendorf, Christine

2015-01-01

Although social networks are an increasingly recognized influence on contraceptive use, little is known about if and how social influences are discussed during women's contraceptive counseling visits. We performed a mixed-methods analysis of audio recordings of contraceptive counseling visits. We examined predictors of discussion of social influence arising in a contraceptive counseling visit and analyzed the content and process of social influence discussions. Social influences were mentioned in 42% of the 342 visits included in the sample, with these discussions most commonly initiated by patients. Younger patients were more likely to have social influence mentioned than older patients. The content of social influence focused on side effects and adverse events, with the sources of influence being predominantly patients' friends and the media, with little input from partners. Providers were more likely to engage around the content of the social influence than the social influence itself. The frequency with which social influence was mentioned in these visits supports the importance of women's social context on their contraceptive decision making. However, the fact that patients initiated the discussion in the majority of cases suggests that providers may not recognize the relevance of these influences or may not be comfortable engaging with them. Increasing providers' ability to elicit and engage patients about their social context with regard to contraception could enhance providers' ability to understand women's contraceptive preferences and provide appropriate counseling to address their specific concerns or questions. Copyright © 2015 Jacobs Institute of Women's Health. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The social context of severe child malnutrition: a qualitative household case study from a rural area of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Science.gov (United States)

Kismul, Hallgeir; Hatløy, Anne; Andersen, Peter; Mapatano, Mala; Van den Broeck, Jan; Moland, Karen Marie

2015-05-19

The magnitude of child malnutrition including severe child malnutrition is especially high in the rural areas of the Democratic Republic of Congo (the DRC). The aim of this qualitative study is to describe the social context of malnutrition in a rural part of the DRC and explore how some households succeed in ensuring that their children are well-nourished while others do not. This study is based on participant observation, key informant interviews, group discussions and in-depth interviews with four households with malnourished children and four with well-nourished children. We apply social field theory to link individual child nutritional outcomes to processes at local level and to the wider socio-economic environment. We identified four social fields that have implications for food security and child nutritional outcomes: 1) household size and composition which determined vulnerability to child malnutrition, 2) inter-household cooperation in the form of 'gbisa work party' which buffered scarcity of labour in peak seasons and facilitated capital accumulation, 3) the village associated with usufruct rights to land, and 4) the local NGO providing access to agricultural support, clean drinking water and health care. Households that participated in inter-household cooperation were able to improve food and nutrition security. Children living in households with high pressure on productive members were at danger of food insecurity and malnutrition. Nutrition interventions need to involve local institutions for inter-household cooperation and address the problem of social inequalities in service provision. They should have special focus on households with few resources in the form of land, labour and capital.

The relevance of the social context for media coverage of victims

OpenAIRE

Pavićević Olivera; Bulatović Aleksandra

2017-01-01

Media coverage of human suffering caused by trauma, illness, poverty and disasters worldwide takes up a significant part of media coverage and affects the identity of all actors, both active and passive. Media presentation shapes our thinking and reasoning at the group level, and has far reached impact. The social context of media reporting on victims is shaped by the capacity of the social system to recognize, acknowledge, strengthen and protect the victim...

Introducing the notion of social context of collective trauma to ESTSS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dean Ajduković

2013-06-01

Full Text Available Living amidst war and mass suffering while grasping the opportunity for professional growth, intertwined into my life perspective. Along the years, ESTSS provided a backdrop for my contacts with mental health colleagues from whom I learned, and among whom many became my friends. These rich experiences guided me towards promoting awareness within ESTSS of the importance of social context in which healing of traumatized populations is expected to progress. Each incident of organized violence leaves behind new scores of traumatized individuals and family members, among whom many will need support that may stretch their resources beyond reasonable limits. We need to acknowledge the hindering effects of living in such a social context and that many people that we meet as professionals may carry the burden of unresolved trauma, which should not go by unattended.

Taking the Lead : Gender, Social Context and Preference to Lead

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hong, A.P.C.I.; Schaafsma, J.; van der Wijst, P.J.

2014-01-01

Previous research has demonstrated that women tend to emerge as leaders less often than men. In the present study, we examined to what extent women's and men's preference to lead is influenced by social context. It was hypothesized that women have a less strong preference to lead than men in a

Context modulates attention to social scenes in toddlers with autism

Science.gov (United States)

Chawarska, Katarzyna; Macari, Suzanne; Shic, Frederick

2013-01-01

Background In typical development, the unfolding of social and communicative skills hinges upon the ability to allocate and sustain attention towards people, a skill present moments after birth. Deficits in social attention have been well documented in autism, though the underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. Methods In order to parse the factors that are responsible for limited social attention in toddlers with autism, we manipulated the context in which a person appeared in their visual field with regard to the presence of salient social (child-directed speech and eye contact) and nonsocial (distractor toys) cues for attention. Participants included 13- to 25-month-old toddlers with autism (AUT; n=54), developmental delay (DD; n=22), and typical development (TD; n=48). Their visual responses were recorded with an eye-tracker. Results In conditions devoid of eye contact and speech, the distribution of attention between key features of the social scene in toddlers with autism was comparable to that in DD and TD controls. However, when explicit dyadic cues were introduced, toddlers with autism showed decreased attention to the entire scene and, when they looked at the scene, they spent less time looking at the speaker’s face and monitoring her lip movements than the control groups. In toddlers with autism, decreased time spent exploring the entire scene was associated with increased symptom severity and lower nonverbal functioning; atypical language profiles were associated with decreased monitoring of the speaker’s face and her mouth. Conclusions While in certain contexts toddlers with autism attend to people and objects in a typical manner, they show decreased attentional response to dyadic cues for attention. Given that mechanisms supporting responsivity to dyadic cues are present shortly after birth and are highly consequential for development of social cognition and communication, these findings have important implications for the understanding of the

Social context modulates cognitive markers in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.

Science.gov (United States)

Santamaría-García, Hernando; Soriano-Mas, Carles; Burgaleta, Miguel; Ayneto, Alba; Alonso, Pino; Menchón, José M; Cardoner, Narcis; Sebastián-Gallés, Nuria

2017-08-03

Error monitoring, cognitive control and motor inhibition control are proposed as cognitive alterations disrupted in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). OCD has also been associated with an increased sensitivity to social evaluations. The effect of a social simulation over electrophysiological indices of cognitive alterations in OCD was examined. A case-control cross-sectional study measuring event-related potentials (ERP) for error monitoring (Error-Related Negativity), cognitive control (N2) and motor control (LRP) was conducted. We analyzed twenty OCD patients and twenty control participants. ERP were recorded during a social game consisting of a visual discrimination task, which was performed in the presence of a simulated superior or an inferior player. Significant social effects (different ERP amplitudes in Superior vs. Inferior player conditions) were found for OCD patients, but not for controls, in all ERP components. Performing the task against a simulated inferior player reduced abnormal ERP responses in OCD to levels observed in controls. The hierarchy-induced ERP effects were accompanied effects over reaction times in OCD patients. Social context modulates signatures of abnormal cognitive functioning in OCD, therefore experiencing a social superiority position impacts over cognitive processes in OCD such as error monitoring mechanisms. These results open the door for the research of new therapeutic choices.

The Context of Social Capital: A Comparison of Rural and Urban Entrepreneurs in Uganda

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rooks, Gerrit; Klyver, K.; Sserwanga, Arthur

2016-01-01

Classical network theory states that social networks are a form of capital because they provide access to resources. In this article, we propose that network effects differ between collectivistic and individualistic contexts. In a collectivistic context, resource sharing will be "value based...

TB-CA: A hybrid method based on trust and context-aware for recommender system in social networks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fateme Keikha

2015-05-01

Full Text Available Recommender systems help users faced with the problem of information overflow and provide personalized recommendations. Social networks are used for providing variety of business or social activities, or sometimes a combination of both. In this paper, by considering social network of users and according to users’ context and items, a new method is introduced that is based on trust and context aware for recommender systems in social networks. The purpose of this paper is to create a recommender system which increases precision of predicted ratings for all users especially for cold start users. In the proposed method, walking on web of trust is done by neighbor users for finding rating of similar items and users’ preference is gotten of items’ context. The results show that suitable recommendation with user’s context is provided by using this method. Also, this system can increase precision of predicted rating for all users and cold starts too and however, do not decrease the rating’s coverage.

The Role of Social Context in Gifted and Talented Education.

Science.gov (United States)

Fetterman, David

1999-01-01

The dichotomy between individualism and conformity, the myth that gifted children will make it on their own, and the fallacy of equating equal opportunity with equal potential, ability, and results has fostered a climate in which simplistic thinking, ambivalence, and neglect is prevalent. Awareness of this larger social context can allow for new…

The Social Context of the Chinese Food System: An Ethnographic Study of the Beijing Seafood Market

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Michael Fabinyi

2016-03-01

Full Text Available China’s role in the global food system has expanded immensely in recent years. In the seafood sector, it is now the largest consumer of seafood products in the world, making the Chinese market highly significant for global fisheries. Drawing on ethnographic- and interview-based research in the largest seafood market in Beijing, this paper analyzes the social context of Chinese consumption and trade. We broadly conceive of this social context as encompassing a range of social norms and practices that include culturally and historically generated consumer preferences, and distinctive forms of governance and business practice. We find that the social context of China is a key driver of patterns of consumption and trade, and provides challenges and opportunities to improve governance for environmental sustainability. We highlight the need for greater policy and academic attention to these characteristics of seafood consumption and trade within China.

Re-conceiving building design quality: A review of building users in their social context.

Science.gov (United States)

Watson, Kelly J; Evans, James; Karvonen, Andrew; Whitley, Tim

2016-05-01

Considerable overlap exists between post-occupancy research evaluating building design quality and the concept of 'social value', popularised by its recent application to issues of the public realm. To outline this potential research agenda, the paper reviews design quality research on buildings in relation to users and their social context where the term 'social context' refers to building user group dynamics, a combination of organisational cultures, management strategies, and social norms and practices. The review is conducted across five key building types, namely housing, workplaces, healthcare, education, and the retail/service sector. Research commonalities and gaps are identified in order to build a more comprehensive picture of the design quality literature and its handling of users in their social context. The key findings concerning each building type are presented visually. It is concluded that the design quality field comprises a patchwork of relatively isolated studies of various building types, with significant potential for theoretical and empirical development through interdisciplinary collaboration. Users tend to be conceived as anonymous and autonomous individuals with little analysis of user identity or interaction. Further, the contextual impact of user group dynamics on the relationship between building design and building user is rarely addressed in the literature. Producing a more nuanced understanding of users in situ is proposed as an important area for future design quality research.

Quality Indicators for Family Support Services and Their Relationship to Organizational Social Context

Science.gov (United States)

Olin, S. Serene; Williams, Nate; Pollock, Michele; Armusewicz, Kelsey; Kutash, Krista; Glisson, Charles; Hoagwood, Kimberly E.

2013-01-01

Quality measurement is an important component of healthcare reform. The relationship of quality indicators (QIs) for parent-delivered family support services to organizational social contexts known to improve quality is unexamined. This study employs data collected from 21 child mental health programs that deliver team-based family support services. Performance on two levels of QIs —those targeting the program and staff -- were significantly associated with organizational social context profiles and dimensions. High quality program policies are associated with positive organizational cultures and engaging climates. Inappropriate staff practices are associated with resistant cultures. Implications for organizational strategies to improve service quality are discussed. PMID:23709286

Contributions of acculturation, enculturation, discrimination, and personality traits to social anxiety among Chinese immigrants: A context-specific assessment.

Science.gov (United States)

Fang, Ke; Friedlander, Myrna; Pieterse, Alex L

2016-01-01

Based on the diathesis-stress model of anxiety, this study examined the contributions of cultural processes, perceived racial discrimination, and personality traits to social anxiety among Chinese immigrants. Further guided by the theory of intergroup anxiety, this study also adopted a context-specific approach to distinguish between participants' experience of social anxiety when interacting with European Americans versus with other Chinese in the United States. This quantitative and ex post facto study used a convenience sample of 140 first-generation Chinese immigrants. Participants were recruited through e-mails from different university and community groups across the United States. The sample includes 55 men and 82 women (3 did not specify) with an average age of 36 years old. Results showed that more social anxiety was reported in the European American context than in the Chinese ethnic context. The full models accounted for almost half the variance in anxiety in each context. Although personality accounted for the most variance, the cultural variables and discrimination contributed 14% of the unique variance in the European American context. Notably, low acculturation, high neuroticism, and low extraversion were unique contributors to social anxiety with European Americans, whereas in the Chinese ethnic context only low extraversion was a unique contributor; more discrimination was uniquely significant in both contexts. The findings suggest a need to contextualize the research and clinical assessment of social anxiety, and have implications for culturally sensitive counseling with immigrants. (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

How different contexts of social capital are associated with self-rated health among Lithuanian high-school students

Science.gov (United States)

Novak, Dario; Emeljanovas, Arunas; Mieziene, Brigita; Štefan, Lovro; Kawachi, Ichiro

2018-01-01

ABSTRACT Background. Adolescents’ self-rated health is related to a number of sociodemographic and socio-economic factors, health-related behaviors, and their social environment. The impact of the latter is still not well explored. An adolescent’s social environment is represented by the social capital, i.e. social resources that they can access. The relationships between various contexts of social capital (family, neighborhood, peers, and school) and self-rated health among adolescents are still unclear. Objective. This study aims to examine the relationships between various social capital contexts and self-rated health in Lithuanian adolescents. Methods. The current cross-sectional study includes a nationally representative sample of 1863 adolescents (51.4% were girls) aged 14–18 years. The indicators of self-rated health as well as indicators of social capital in family, neighborhood, and school contexts were assessed. The results of the relationships between self-rated health and contexts of social capital were calculated controlling for the following covariates: physical activity, psychological distress, gender, body mass index, and family socioeconomic status. Results. Results indicate that there are significant relationships between good self-rated health and a higher level of family support, neighborhood trust, and vertical school trust. In the final logistic regression model, while controlling for all covariates, a higher level of family support and neighborhood trust remain significant predictors of good self-rated health. Conclusions. Family support and neighborhood trust are important correlates of self-rated health in adolescents. PMID:29871556

How different contexts of social capital are associated with self-rated health among Lithuanian high-school students.

Science.gov (United States)

Novak, Dario; Emeljanovas, Arunas; Mieziene, Brigita; Štefan, Lovro; Kawachi, Ichiro

2018-01-01

Adolescents' self-rated health is related to a number of sociodemographic and socio-economic factors, health-related behaviors, and their social environment. The impact of the latter is still not well explored. An adolescent's social environment is represented by the social capital, i.e. social resources that they can access. The relationships between various contexts of social capital (family, neighborhood, peers, and school) and self-rated health among adolescents are still unclear. This study aims to examine the relationships between various social capital contexts and self-rated health in Lithuanian adolescents. The current cross-sectional study includes a nationally representative sample of 1863 adolescents (51.4% were girls) aged 14-18 years. The indicators of self-rated health as well as indicators of social capital in family, neighborhood, and school contexts were assessed. The results of the relationships between self-rated health and contexts of social capital were calculated controlling for the following covariates: physical activity, psychological distress, gender, body mass index, and family socioeconomic status. Results indicate that there are significant relationships between good self-rated health and a higher level of family support, neighborhood trust, and vertical school trust. In the final logistic regression model, while controlling for all covariates, a higher level of family support and neighborhood trust remain significant predictors of good self-rated health. Family support and neighborhood trust are important correlates of self-rated health in adolescents.

Strengthening Social Capital Through Residential Environment Development for Older Chinese in a Canadian Context.

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Luo, Hai

2016-01-01

Among Canada's visible-minority population 65 years of age or older, nearly four out of ten are Chinese. However, little research has been devoted to the examination of the role of the housing environment in building social capital for older Chinese despite the increase in this population and related social issues. The purpose of this paper is to examine Chinese elders' experience of social capital and how it is affected by their residential environment in a Canadian context. In this qualitative study, forty-three Chinese elders in a Canadian context were interviewed with a focus group approach. Findings indicate that the environments in which these older adults lived either hindered or assisted them in building or increasing their social capital. A culturally and linguistically homogeneous residential environment does not necessarily provide positive support to older Chinese for their acquisition of social capital. Adversities in the environment, such as maltreatment or lack of support from their immediate micro environment (family), tended to motivate older adults to improve their social capital for problem-solving. The study offers implications from research findings to social work practice and concludes with an analysis of limitations.

Socialization in the Context of Risk and Psychopathology: Maternal Emotion Socialization in Children of Incarcerated Mothers.

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Zeman, Janice; Dallaire, Danielle; Borowski, Sarah

2016-02-01

Children of incarcerated mothers are at increased risk for psychological, social, and emotional maladaptation. This research investigates whether perceived maternal socialization of sadness and anger may moderate these outcomes in a sample of 154 children (53.9% boys, 61.7% Black, M age = 9.38, range: 6 - 12), their 118 mothers (64.1% Black), and 118 caregivers (74.8% female, 61.9% grandparents, 63.2% Black). Using mother, caregiver, and child report, seven maternal socialization strategies were assessed in their interaction with incarceration-specific risk experiences predicting children's adjustment. For sadness socialization, the results indicated that among children reporting maternal emotion-focused responses, incarceration-specific risk predicted increases in psychological problems, depressive symptoms, increased emotional lability, and poorer emotion regulation. For children who perceived a problem-focused response, incarceration-specific risk did not predict outcomes. There were no significant interactions with incarceration-specific risk and perceived maternal anger socialization strategies. These results indicate a critical need to examine how socialization processes may operate differently for children raised in atypical socializing contexts.

The context of social capital : a comparison of rural and urban entrepreneurs in Uganda

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Rooks, G.; Klyver, K.; Sserwanga, A.

2016-01-01

Classical network theory states that social networks are a form of capital because they provide access to resources. In this article, we propose that network effects differ between collectivistic and individualistic contexts. In a collectivistic context, resource sharing will be “value based.” It is

Family policies in the context of low fertility and social structure

OpenAIRE

Thomas Fent; Belinda Aparicio Diaz; Alexia Fürnkranz-Prskawetz

2013-01-01

In this paper we investigate the effectiveness of family policies in the context of the structure of a society. We use an agent-based model to analyse the impact of policies on individual fertility decisions and on fertility at the aggregate level. The crucial features of our model are the interactions between family policies and social structure, the agents´ heterogeneity and the structure and influence of the social network. This modelling framework allows us to disentangle the direct effec...

Measuring Entrepreneurial Orientation in the Social Context

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Rafał Kusa

2016-09-01

Full Text Available Objective: The objective of this paper is to identify differences between measurement of organisational entrepreneurship in for-profit and non-profit context and to propose the measures aligned to non-profit organisations. The main research question is whether the scales designed to measure entrepreneurial orientation can be used in non-profit organisations and under which conditions. Research Design & Methods: Research methodology is based on review of research tools and measurement scales related to organisational entrepreneurship and comparison of for-profit and non-profit organisations, as well as their characteristics in the context of entrepreneurial orientation. Findings: Entrepreneurial orientation can be measured in non-profit organisations using existing scales that have been designed for business organisations, however they have to be modified, mostly in the dimension of competitive aggressiveness and autonomy. Additionally, the scale should be enriched with items related to cooperation with other organisations. Implications & Recommendations: It is necessary to develop methods and tools that enable the measurement of entrepreneurial orientation in non-profit organisation as well as comparative research on entrepreneurial orientation in for-profit and non-profit organisations. Contribution & Value Added: The originality of this work lies in studying some aspects of entrepreneurial orientation, that apply to the social context. Some suggestions were formulated relating to the utilisation of entrepreneurial orientation scales (originally designed for business enterprises in non-profit organisations.

Context-Aware Location Recommendation Using Geotagged Photos in Social Media

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Haosheng Huang

2016-10-01

Full Text Available Recently, the increasing availability of digital cameras and the rapid advances in social media have led to the accumulation of a large number of geotagged photos, which may reflect people’s travel experiences in different cities and can be used to generate location recommendations for tourists. Research on this aspect mainly focused on providing personalized recommendations matching a tourist’s travel preferences, while ignoring the context of the visit (e.g., weather, season and time of the day that potentially influences his/her travel behavior. This article explores context-aware methods to provide location recommendations matching a tourist’s travel preferences and visiting context. Specifically, we apply clustering methods to detect touristic locations and extract travel histories from geotagged photos on Flickr. We then propose a novel context similarity measure to quantify the similarity between any two contexts and develop three context-aware collaborative filtering methods, i.e., contextual pre-filtering, post-filtering and modeling. With these methods, location recommendations like “in similar contexts, other tourists similar to you often visited …” can be provided to the current user. Results of the evaluation with a publicly-available Flickr photo collection show that these methods are able to provide a tourist with location recommendations matching his/her travel preferences and visiting context. More importantly, compared to other state-of-the-art methods, the proposed methods, which employ the introduced context similarity measure, can provide tourists with significantly better recommendations. While Flickr data have been used in this study, these context-aware collaborative filtering (CaCF methods can also be extended for other kinds of travel histories, such as GPS trajectories and Foursquare check-ins, to provide context-aware recommendations.

Aggression and anxiety: social context and neurobiological links

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Inga D Neumann

2010-03-01

Full Text Available Psychopathologies such as anxiety- and depression-related disorders are often characterized by impaired social behaviours including excessive aggression and violence. Excessive aggression and violence likely develop as a consequence of generally disturbed emotional regulation, such as abnormally high or low levels of anxiety. This suggests an overlap between brain circuitries and neurochemical systems regulating aggression and anxiety. In this review, we will discuss different forms of male aggression, rodent models of excessive aggression, and neurobiological mechanisms underlying male aggression in the context of anxiety. We will summarize our attempts to establish an animal model of high and abnormal aggression using rats selected for high (HAB versus low (LAB anxiety-related behaviour. Briefly, male LAB rats and, to a lesser extent, male HAB rats show high and abnormal forms of aggression compared with non-selected (NAB rats, making them a suitable animal model for studying excessive aggression in the context of extremes in innate anxiety. In addition, we will discuss differences in the activity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, brain arginine vasopressin, and the serotonin systems, among others, which contribute to the distinct behavioural phenotypes related to aggression and anxiety. Further investigation of the neurobiological systems in animals with distinct anxiety phenotypes might provide valuable information about the link between excessive aggression and disturbed emotional regulation, which is essential for understanding the social and emotional deficits that are characteristic of many human psychiatric disorders.

Cultural Socialization Across Contexts: Family-Peer Congruence and Adolescent Well-Being.

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Wang, Yijie; Benner, Aprile D

2016-03-01

Racial/ethnic minority youth live at the intersection of diverse cultures, yet little is known about cultural socialization outside families or how cultural socialization in multiple settings conjointly influences adolescent well-being. In a sample of 236 8th graders (51 % female; 89 % Latinos, 11 % African Americans), we examined adolescents' perceptions of family and peer cultural socialization toward the heritage culture and the mainstream American culture. A variable-centered approach demonstrated that the socioemotional and academic benefits of family cultural socialization were most evident when peer cultural socialization was congruently high. Although family and peer cultural contexts are often assumed to be drastically different, we identified similar proportions of adolescents experiencing congruently high, congruently low, and incongruent cultural socialization from families and peers using a person-centered approach. Although the incongruent group received relatively high levels of cultural socialization in one setting, their well-being was similar to the congruently low group. The findings highlight the importance of considering cultural socialization across multiple developmental settings in understanding racial/ethnic minority youth's well-being.

Effect of oxytocin receptor blockade on appetite for sugar is modified by social context.

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Olszewski, Pawel K; Allen, Kerry; Levine, Allen S

2015-03-01

Research on oxytocin (OT) has yielded two seemingly unrelated sets of discoveries: OT has prosocial effects, and it elicits termination of feeding, especially of food rich in carbohydrates. Here we investigated whether OT's involvement in food intake is affected by the social context in mice, with particular focus on the role of dominance. We used two approaches: injections and gene expression analysis. We housed two males per cage and determined a dominant one. Then we injected a blood-brain barrier penetrant OT receptor antagonist L-368,899 in either dominant or subordinate animals and gave them 10-min access to a sucrose solution in the apparatus in which social exposure was modified and it ranged from none to unrestricted contact. L-368,899 increased the amount of consumed sugar in dominant mice regardless of whether these animals had access to sucrose in the non-social or social contexts (olfactory-derived or partial social exposure). The antagonist also increased the proportion of time that dominant mice spent drinking the sweet solution in the paradigm in which both mice had to share a single source of sucrose. L-368,899-treated subordinate mice consumed more sucrose solution than saline controls only when the environment in which sugar was presented was devoid of social cues related to the dominant animal. Finally, we investigated whether hypothalamic OT gene expression differs between dominant and subordinate mice consuming sugar and found OT mRNA levels to be higher in dominant mice. We conclude that social context and dominance affect OT's effect on appetite for sucrose. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Social mechanisms and social causation

OpenAIRE

Friedel Weinert

2014-01-01

The aim of this paper is to examine the notion of social mechanisms by comparison with the notions of evolutionary and physical mechanisms. It is argued that social mechanisms are based on trends, and not lawlike regularities, so that social mechanisms are different from mechanisms in the natural sciences. Taking as an example of social causation the abolition of the slave trade, this paper argues that social mechanisms should be incorporated in Weber’s wider ...

Emotion regulation strategy selection in daily life: The role of social context and goals

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Lee, Ihno A.; John, Oliver P.; Gross, James J.

2016-01-01

Recent studies have begun to document the diversity of ways people regulate their emotions. However, one unanswered question is why people regulate their emotions as they do in everyday life. In the present research, we examined how social context and goals influence strategy selection in daily high points and low points. As expected, suppression was particularly tied to social features of context: it was used more when others were present, especially non-close partners, and when people had instrumental goals, especially more interpersonal ones (e.g., avoid conflict). Distraction and reappraisal were used more when regulating for hedonic reasons (e.g., to feel better), but these strategies were also linked to certain instrumental goals (e.g., getting work done). When contra-hedonic regulation occurred, it primarily took the form of dampening positive emotion during high points. Suppression was more likely to be used for contra-hedonic regulation, whereas reappraisal and distraction were used more for pro-hedonic regulation. Overall, these findings highlight the social nature of emotion regulation and underscore the importance of examining regulation in both positive and negative contexts. PMID:28652647

Emotion regulation strategy selection in daily life: The role of social context and goals.

Science.gov (United States)

English, Tammy; Lee, Ihno A; John, Oliver P; Gross, James J

2017-04-01

Recent studies have begun to document the diversity of ways people regulate their emotions. However, one unanswered question is why people regulate their emotions as they do in everyday life. In the present research, we examined how social context and goals influence strategy selection in daily high points and low points. As expected, suppression was particularly tied to social features of context: it was used more when others were present, especially non-close partners, and when people had instrumental goals, especially more interpersonal ones (e.g., avoid conflict). Distraction and reappraisal were used more when regulating for hedonic reasons (e.g., to feel better), but these strategies were also linked to certain instrumental goals (e.g., getting work done). When contra-hedonic regulation occurred, it primarily took the form of dampening positive emotion during high points. Suppression was more likely to be used for contra-hedonic regulation, whereas reappraisal and distraction were used more for pro-hedonic regulation. Overall, these findings highlight the social nature of emotion regulation and underscore the importance of examining regulation in both positive and negative contexts.

Social responsibility: a double corporative strategy?

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Raquel da Silva Pereira

2007-12-01

Full Text Available This study, eminently theoretical and based on specific literature review, presents a brief historical approach on the corporative social responsibility, besides offering an updated view of the main norms, existing certifications and awardings in the area, searching, in a wider context, to understand both the original strategical meaning of these actions and this new clipping of observation and analysis, which points to a new niche market, with the trading of products and services that aim to support the companies in the socio-environmental issues. Would this new market assumed the corporative strategy condition?

Rule learning in autism: the role of reward type and social context.

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Jones, E J H; Webb, S J; Estes, A; Dawson, G

2013-01-01

Learning abstract rules is central to social and cognitive development. Across two experiments, we used Delayed Non-Matching to Sample tasks to characterize the longitudinal development and nature of rule-learning impairments in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Results showed that children with ASD consistently experienced more difficulty learning an abstract rule from a discrete physical reward than children with DD. Rule learning was facilitated by the provision of more concrete reinforcement, suggesting an underlying difficulty in forming conceptual connections. Learning abstract rules about social stimuli remained challenging through late childhood, indicating the importance of testing executive functions in both social and non-social contexts.

Applying social theory to understand health-related behaviours.

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Holman, Daniel; Borgstrom, Erica

2016-06-01

Health-related behaviours are a concern for contemporary health policy and practice given their association with a range of illness outcomes. Many of the policies and interventions aimed at changing health-related behaviours assume that people are more or less free to choose their behaviour and how they experience health. Within sociology and anthropology, these behaviours are viewed not as acts of choice but as actions and practices situated within a larger sociocultural context. In this paper, we outline three theoretical perspectives useful in understanding behaviours that may influence one's health in this wider context: theories of social practice, social networks and interactionism. We argue that by better understanding how health-related behaviours are performed in people's everyday lives, more suitable interventions and clinical management can be developed. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/

Community Social Organization: A Conceptual Linchpin in Examining Families in the Context of Communities

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Mancini, Jay A.; Bowen, Gary L.; Martin, James A.

2005-01-01

The concept of social organization provides an important framework for understanding families in the context of communities and focuses our attention on norms, networks, and associated processes that typify community life. We discuss the significance of community for understanding family outcomes, discuss challenges in defining community context,…

Reporting the characteristics of the policy context for population-level alcohol interventions: a proposed 'Transparent Reporting of Alcohol Intervention ContExts' (TRAICE) checklist.

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Holmes, John; Meier, Petra S; Booth, Andrew; Brennan, Alan

2014-11-01

Effectiveness of alcohol policy interventions varies across times and places. The circumstances under which effective polices can be successfully transferred between contexts are typically unexplored with little attention given to developing reporting requirements that would facilitate systematic investigation. Using purposive sampling and expert elicitation methods, we identified context-related factors impacting on the effectiveness of population-level alcohol policies. We then drew on previous characterisations of alcohol policy contexts and methodological-reporting checklists to design a new checklist for reporting contextual information in evaluation studies. Six context factor domains were identified: (i) baseline alcohol consumption, norms and harm rates; (ii) baseline affordability and availability; (iii) social, microeconomic and demographic contexts; (iv) macroeconomic context; (v) market context; and (vi) wider policy, political and media context. The checklist specifies information, typically available in national or international reports, to be reported in each domain. The checklist can facilitate evidence synthesis by providing: (i) a mechanism for systematic and more consistent reporting of contextual data for meta-regression and realist evaluations; (ii) information for policy-makers on differences between their context and contexts of evaluations; and (iii) an evidence base for adjusting prospective policy simulation models to account for policy context. Our proposed checklist provides a tool for gaining better understanding of the influence of policy context on intervention effectiveness. Further work is required to rationalise and aggregate checklists across interventions types to make such checklists practical for use by journals and to improve reporting of important qualitative contextual data. © 2014 The Authors. Drug and Alcohol Review published by Wiley Publishing Asia Pty Ltd on behalf of Australasian Professional Society on Alcohol and

Making the Invisible Visible: modelling social learning in a knowledge management context

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Henry Linger

2001-11-01

Full Text Available The articulation of Knowledge Management as an organisational strategy has occurred in the context of a radical shift towards an information based economy. The most significant aspect for organisations operating in the information economy is their ability to utilise the volumes of information that are now readily available without the constraint of media, geography or time. A critical factor for organisations is the speed at which they are able to productively process such information to enable the organisation to react rapidly to changes in their operating environments. In this context organisation needs to produce and re-produce knowledge. The shift from information to knowledge is an acknowledgment of the significant role of the human actor in the process of transforming information into effective organisational outcomes. Social learning represents important processes that contribute to actors’ ability to understand information, create knowledge from that information and share what they know. Social learning is therefore intrinsic to knowledge management. In this paper we present a knowledge management architecture that supports a learning organisation. This architecture accommodates social learning and processes by which knowledge is internalised and externalised by individuals, work groups and the organisation as a whole. The architecture incorporates a model social learning based on the results of ethnographic studies and a model of learning derived from knowledge management case studies. The architecture is not domain specific but can be applied to activity that can be characterised as knowledge work in an organisational context. As such the architecture can play a variety of roles; as a conceptual framework, as a diagnostic tool to identify breakdown and as a design tool for organisational change.

News, social capital and health in the context of Katrina.

Science.gov (United States)

Beaudoin, Christopher E

2007-05-01

This study assesses the public health functions played by news information and social capital in the context of Hurricane Katrina. In-depth interviews were conducted with 57 hurricane shelter residents between 4 and 6 weeks after the hurricane. Depression was more common for participants who relied more on news information than for other participants after the hurricane (adjusted odds ratio [AOR], 5.49; 95% CI, 1.29 to 23.35; p=.021). Depression was more common for participants with relatively low levels of pre-hurricane positive social interactions (AOR, .16; 95% CI, .02 to 1.83; p=.046) and post-hurricane positive social interactions (AOR, .02; 95% CI, .00 to .74; p=.033) and high levels of post-hurricane negative social interactions (AOR, 17.05; 95% CI, .92 to 315.64; p=.047). Illness and injury were more common for participants who had relied more on news information than for other participants after the hurricane (AOR, 1.13; 95% CI, 1.02 to 2.77; p=.046).

The role of Social Media on Sales strategy : A Conceptual Explication in a High-context Culture

OpenAIRE

Ukpabi, Dandison; Karjaluoto, Heikki; Ikaba, Victoria; Wali, Kemkamma; Kpunee, Henry

2017-01-01

People’s behaviours are shaped by their cultural values as much as it also influences the definition of friendship building and sustenance. Low-context cultures as marked with independent lifestyle, loosed family units and communication patterns are often characterized by fewer words. On the other hand, high-context cultures are markedly different. These cultures are characterized with high closed family units, high level of social cohesion and social identity. To achieve ...

Waqf as a Tool for Rendering Social Welfare Services in the Social Entrepreneurship Context

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Md. Mahmudul Alam

2018-01-01

Full Text Available The concept of Islamic entrepreneurship centers on ensuring community well-being as the priority, which is one of the important objectives (Maqasid of the Islamic Shari’ah. Historically, waqf played a significant role in the Islamic economic system, particularly in rendering exemplary welfare services in the areas of healthcare, education, social welfare, environmental, and other community-based programs. However, only a few success stories in recent history have institutionally utilized the properties of waqf under proper management to achieve its substantial objectives. This study uses the literature review as basis to analyze the reasons behind the successful utilization of waqf as an effective tool to ensure social welfare services in the past, as well as how this model can be replicated by considering current contexts. This study will assist Islamic valuecentric entrepreneurs, regulatory authorities, investors, and researchers to gain an overall insight into the potentials of waqf as a tool for rendering commendable social welfare services.

The experience of initiating injection drug use and its social context: a qualitative systematic review and thematic synthesis.

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Guise, Andy; Horyniak, Danielle; Melo, Jason; McNeil, Ryan; Werb, Dan

2017-12-01

Understanding the experience of initiating injection drug use and its social contexts is crucial to inform efforts to prevent transitions into this mode of drug consumption and support harm reduction. We reviewed and synthesized existing qualitative scientific literature systematically to identify the socio-structural contexts for, and experiences of, the initiation of injection drug use. We searched six databases (Medline, Embase, PsychINFO, CINAHL, IBSS and SSCI) systematically, along with a manual search, including key journals and subject experts. Peer-reviewed studies were included if they qualitatively explored experiences of or socio-structural contexts for injection drug use initiation. A thematic synthesis approach was used to identify descriptive and analytical themes throughout studies. From 1731 initial results, 41 studies reporting data from 1996 participants were included. We developed eight descriptive themes and two analytical (higher-order) themes. The first analytical theme focused on injecting initiation resulting from a social process enabled and constrained by socio-structural factors: social networks and individual interactions, socialization into drug-using identities and choices enabled and constrained by social context all combine to produce processes of injection initiation. The second analytical theme addressed pathways that explore varying meanings attached to injection initiation and how they link to social context: seeking pleasure, responses to increasing tolerance to drugs, securing belonging and identity and coping with pain and trauma. Qualitative research shows that injection drug use initiation has varying and distinct meanings for individuals involved and is a dynamic process shaped by social and structural factors. Interventions should therefore respond to the socio-structural influences on injecting drug use initiation by seeking to modify the contexts for initiation, rather than solely prioritizing the reduction of individual

Meet the Authors of "Social Context View of Sociology" by Marty Zusman, David Knox and Tracie Gardner:

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Marty E. Zusman

2008-01-01

Full Text Available The Social Context View of Sociology by Marty E. Zusman, David Knox, and Tracie Gardner (2009 is an introductory sociology textbook published by Carolina University Press (ISBN 978-1-59460-572-7. The purpose of writing The Social Context View of Sociology was to provide a unique perspective of the social world. More importantly, to avoid what we consider the sometimes confusing introduction of the discipline (by standard textbooks into diverse frameworks, we presented a basic typology.

Value Creation in the Context of Sustainable Corporate Social Responsibility

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Šmida, Ľubomír; Sakál, Peter

2014-12-01

Under the influence of the new rules of the economy and the society, companies are achieving a notional line of a necessary change in the approach to creating new value, wealth. Implementation of changes in the system of wealth creation requires a review of existing assumptions of unlimited growth of the global economy and wealth creation in the environment accepting economic interests, society and the environment as a holistic unit. The main purpose of this paper is the clarification of a new requirements for business, presentation of the questionnaire survey Sustainable Corporate Social Responsibility and inform on value creation in the context of Sustainable Corporate Social Responsibility.

Value Creation in the Context of Sustainable Corporate Social Responsibility

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Šmida Ľubomír

2014-12-01

Full Text Available Under the influence of the new rules of the economy and the society, companies are achieving a notional line of a necessary change in the approach to creating new value, wealth. Implementation of changes in the system of wealth creation requires a review of existing assumptions of unlimited growth of the global economy and wealth creation in the environment accepting economic interests, society and the environment as a holistic unit. The main purpose of this paper is the clarification of a new requirements for business, presentation of the questionnaire survey Sustainable Corporate Social Responsibility and inform on value creation in the context of Sustainable Corporate Social Responsibility.

Social workers’ construction of “family” in Cuban context: Ideas for a debate

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Angela Isabel Peña Farias

2015-12-01

Full Text Available This paper presents preliminary research about the process of the construction of concepts in social work. In this case, it is referred to as a social worker’s construction of “family” as a concept and as a field of practice in a current Cuban context. Based on an exploratory and qualitative research design, the paper presents an analysis that also opens to the discussion about social work with families in Cuba. The findings shows that Cuban social workers think of family as a group with cohabitation and affinity, which is more important than consanguinity, as a dimension for family definitions. They also point at structures of family, special bonds in family network and the social internal and external functions of family in their definitions. Among these functions, the transmission of cultural values, as well as the emotional support and shelter for members, seems relevant.Regarding family as a field of practice, they all share the criteria that is necessary for practice to develop a contextual analysis of each situation that goes from macro-contextual aspects to the micro-reality of family. The importance of structural matters and their impact on family functions is also a common idea, which is nucleated around a multigenerational reality of Cuban families and evaluated as a positive or negative impact depending on the case in question.They consider social work with families, and social work in general, to be in a critical situation in relation to losing professionalization and social recognition. The reasons explaining these ideas have to do with the instability of social work institutionalization and the recent retraction of social services. These variations have obeyed the changes in a Cuban context that affects the entire welfare system and social work’s position in it.

Social Monitoring Matters for Deterring Social Deviance in Stable but Not Mobile Socio-Ecological Contexts.

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Su, Jenny C; Chiu, Chi-Yue; Lin, Wei-Fang; Oishi, Shigehiro

2016-01-01

Previous research suggests that reputational concerns can incentivize cooperation and deter socially deviant behavior. The current research showed that social monitoring of information that has the potential to damage one's reputation has differential effects on deviant behavior in social-ecological environments that vary in level of mobility. Study 1 showed that residentially stable cities that employed more journalists-who can be regarded as social monitoring agents in a community-tended to have lower rates of violent crime than residentially stable cities that employed fewer journalists; by contrast, in residentially mobile cities, violent crime rates did not vary as a function of the number of journalists employed. In Study 2, we found that individual differences in perceptions of relational mobility moderated the effects of social monitoring on cheating in a die-under-cup game. Specifically, social monitoring cues reduced the likelihood of cheating but only among participants who perceived their immediate social environment to be low in relational mobility. The same results were replicated in Study 3, an experiment in which participants' perception of relational mobility was manipulated before completing an online maze game that allowed them to earn extra cash. In the low mobility condition, the percentage of participants who continued working on the mazes after reaching the time limit decreased as a function of social monitoring; however, this pattern was not observed in the high mobility condition. Together, our findings suggest that socioecological context matters for understanding effective mechanisms of social control.

Moral Judgments and Emotions: Adolescents' Evaluations in Intergroup Social Exclusion Contexts

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Cooley, Shelby; Elenbaas, Laura; Killen, Melanie

2012-01-01

This article examines children's moral judgments and emotional evaluations in the context of social exclusion. As they age, children and adolescents face increasingly complex situations in which group membership and allegiance are in opposition with morally relevant decisions, such as the exclusion of an individual from a group. While adolescents…

Social Capital in Promoting the Psychosocial Adjustment of Chinese Migrant Children: Interaction across Contexts

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Wu, Qiaobing; Palinkas, Lawrence A.; He, Xuesong

2011-01-01

Drawing upon a sample of 772 migrant children and their parents in Shanghai, China, this study investigated how the interactions of social capital embedded in a range of social contexts (i.e., family, school, peer, and community) influenced the psychosocial adjustment of Chinese migrant children. Results of multiple-group structural equation…

Social contexts modulate neural responses in the processing of others' pain: An event-related potential study.

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Cui, Fang; Zhu, Xiangru; Luo, Yuejia

2017-08-01

Two hypotheses have been proposed regarding the response that is triggered by observing others' pain: the "empathizing hypothesis" and the "threat value of pain hypothesis." The former suggests that observing others' pain triggers an empathic response. The latter suggests that it activates the threat-detection system. In the present study, participants were instructed to observe pictures that showed an anonymous hand or foot in a painful or non-painful situation in a threatening or friendly social context. Event-related potentials were recorded when the participants passively observed these pictures in different contexts. We observed an interaction between context and picture in the early automatic N1 component, in which the painful pictures elicited a larger amplitude than the non-painful pictures only in the threatening context and not in the friendly context. We also observed an interaction between context and picture in the late P3 component, in which the painful pictures elicited a larger amplitude than the non-painful pictures only in the friendly context and not in the threatening context. These results indicate that specific social contexts can modulate the neural responses to observing others' pain. The "empathic hypothesis" and "threat value of pain hypothesis" are not mutually exclusive and do not contradict each other but rather work in different temporal stages.

Parenting in the Shadow of Ferguson: Racial Socialization Practices in Context

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Threlfall, Jennifer M.

2018-01-01

Black parents have long faced the task of explaining the meaning of race to their children and preparing them for racist experiences. This qualitative study examines racial socialization practices in the context of a specific racialized event: the shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed Black teenager in Ferguson, Missouri. Data were gathered from…

Usability perspective on social media sites' adoption in the B2B context

OpenAIRE

Lacka, Ewelina; Chong, Alain

2016-01-01

While social media sites have been successfully adopted and used in the B2C context, they are perceived to be irrelevant in B2B marketing. This is due to marketers' perception of poor usability of these sites in the B2B sector. This study investigates the usability of social media sites when adopted for B2B marketing purposes in the one of world's largest social media market: China. Specifically, by extending the Technology Acceptance Model with Nielsen's Model of Attributes of System Accepta...

Place Existing Online Business Communication Classes into the International Context: Social Presence from Potential Learners' Perspectives

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Wang, Junhua; Wang, Hua

2012-01-01

Recent scholarship on global online courses points to the need to examine the issue of social context in an online global learning environment. To explore global learners' cultural perspectives on the social climate of an online class, we first review the social presence theory--which can be used to examine the social climate in an online…

(Context comprehension in digital social media

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Alana Kercia Barros Demétrio

2016-10-01

Full Text Available In this article, we address the reading issue from the point of view of complexity. Understanding, according to Beaugrande (1997, that the text is a communicative event whose configuration involves elements of different nature, including the participants of interaction, we think that traditional approaches to reading, even those which are focused on interaction, do not satisfactorily bolster comprehension of this phenomenon. In order to analyze how aspects that characterize reading as a complex activity show at (context comprehension in digital social media, we leaned on the articles by Pellanda (2005 and by Franco (2011 and we were supported by the autopoietic theory by Maturana and Varela (1995, as well as by the concepts of emergency and incorporation by Hanks (2008. Through the analysis of two examples of interaction conveyed in virtual environment, we observed that reading triggers readers’ autopoiesis as living systems.

Social network: evaluation of the support or containment contexts of lesbian mothers

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Firley Poliana da Silva Lúcio

Full Text Available ABSTRACT Objective: To evaluate the social network of lesbian mothers, from the social contexts of support or restraint. Method: Descriptive, exploratory study, of qualitative approach, based on the theoretical reference of Social Network, with eight lesbian mothers selected through Snowball technique, using semi-structured interview. Data analysis was performed with IRAMUTEQ software, through Similarity Analysis. Results: The social network is configured as: 1 Emotional distance and non-acceptance of motherhood by the family members - primary network elements; 2 Interference in the socio-cultural medium for the effectiveness of the mother-child bond - secondary network elements. Final considerations: Social network is grounded on trivialized and negative conceptions that highlight prejudice and disrespect. The discussion of this theme contributes to a greater visibility of those new family arrangements as well as to reduce stigmas e prejudices that pervade the social network components of these women.

Domain-specific rationality in human choices: violations of utility axioms and social contexts.

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Wang, X T

1996-07-01

This study presents a domain-specific view of human decision rationality. It explores social and ecological domain-specific psychological mechanisms underlying choice biases and violations of utility axioms. Results from both the USA and China revealed a social group domain-specific choice pattern. The irrational preference reversal in a hypothetical life-death decision problem (a classical example of framing effects) was eliminated by providing a small group or family context in which most subjects favored a risky choice option regardless of the positive/negative framing of choice outcomes. The risk preference data also indicate that the subjective scope of small group domain is larger for Chinese subjects, suggesting that human choice mechanisms are sensitive to culturally specific features of group living. A further experiment provided evidence that perceived fairness might be one major factor regulating the choice preferences found in small group (kith-and-kin) contexts. Finally, the violation of the stochastic dominance axiom of the rational theory of choice was predicted and tested. The violations were found only when the "life-death" problem was presented in small group contexts; the strongest violation was found in a family context. These results suggest that human decisions and choices are regulated by domain-specific choice mechanisms designed to solve evolutionary recurrent and adaptively important problems.

[Pursuing the ethics of integrity in a business context].

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Manicardi, Luciano

2015-04-01

Having placed the phenomenon of corruption in the wider context of the current cultural and anthropological crisis and after recalling the ancient roots of the phenomenon, the author proposes an itinerary in six stages that is a sort of a minimal ethics in view of affirming and rooting ethical behaviors and prevent corruption in a business context. The six stages are: professionalism, respect, loyalty, honesty, responsibility, integrity. If corruption is a phenomenon of personal (cor-ruptum) and collective (cum-rumpere) breaking and disruption, which gives birth to duplicity, hidden and not transparent behaviors, integrity, on the contrary, is the attitude of fullness and consistency that manifests and produces the healthy character of the individual and the group. The author discerns in the corruption of the word a basic destructuring element of relational networks and also of relations internal to a business organization. He emphasizes the urgency of the recovery of an ethics of the word that alone enables the creation or reconstitution of trust, which is the necessary foundation for the good performance and livability of interpersonal, social, and corporate relations.

The infancy of particle accelerators life and work of Rolf Widerøe

CERN Document Server

1994-01-01

The following autobiographical account of Rolf Wideröe's life and work is based on manuscripts and letters written by hirnself, most ofthem especially for this report. Data from audio and video recordings with his illustrations and from my notes taken during aseries ofmeetings between the two ofus were also included. Rolf Wideröe gave me access to many of his publications and to other documents from which I have extracted further information. I have compiled, edited and, where necessary, put the texts in chronological order. These were then corrected and supplemented by Rolf Wideröe during the course of several readings. The English translation was also checked by Wideröe and we were able to add some improvements and corrections. This account there­ fore stands as an authorised biography and is written in the first person. Mrs. Wideröe's accurate memory was of great assistance. The emphasis has been on RolfWideröe's life story and the first developments which led to modem particle accelerators. Techni�...

The social context of the Book of Job

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Leon A Roper

2005-10-01

Full Text Available Although much has been written about the Book of Job, no consensus exists among scholars with regard to issues such as the dating and origins of this book. In this article the controversies surrounding the social context of the book of Job are discussed. This is followed by an attempt to reconstruct a possible socio-theological context for this book. In doing this, special attention will be given to the writer� s possible relationship with the mainstream theological tradition of his day. This will be done by considering the possible aim of the �implied� author in constructing the book as well as the ways in which he has gone about achieving this aim. It is concluded that the implied author aimed to critically comment on the way in which the orthodox wisdom teachers of his time had clung to the traditional dogma of divine retribution. In doing this, this author seems to have employed various indirect techniques such as the use of a dramatic narrative to convey his message.

The influence of the context on facial expressions perception: a behavioral study on the Kuleshov effect

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Calbi, Marta; Heimann, Katrin; Barratt, Daniel

2017-01-01

Facial expressions are of major importance to understanding the emotions, intentions, and mental states of others. Strikingly, so far most studies on the perception and comprehension of emotions have used isolated facial expressions as stimuli; for example, photographs of actors displaying facial...... expressions belonging to one of the so called ‘basic emotions’. However, our real experience during social interactions is different: facial expressions of emotion are mostly perceived in a wider context, constituted by body language, the surrounding environment, and our beliefs and expectations. Already...... in the early twentieth century, the Russian filmmaker Lev Kuleshov argued that such context could significantly change our interpretation of facial expressions. Prior experiments have shown behavioral effects pointing in this direction, but have only used static images portraying some basic emotions. In our...

Intercultural Interactions in a Military Context

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Georgieva Valentina

2017-09-01

Full Text Available The article focuses on the impact of various factors on the process of communication between military specialists and with the local civilians during peace support operations. The importance of religion, national and ethnic identities, military subculture, social status, and personal characteristics for achieving success or failure in interactions is underlined. Some differences between civil culture and military culture are disclosed and the need for cultural knowledge of the military members is stressed. The study is based on presenting and analysing situations of current intercultural interactions in Afghanistan, which deal with various problems that could be encountered by servicemen on a daily basis, i.e. body language differences, expression of friendly, unfriendly or indifferent attitude, typical reactions to gestures, common everyday topics for informal chats. Although the cultural interactions take place in present-day Afghanistan, the conclusions and suggestions are applicable to a much wider context of interacting between people with different cultural background.

How do health behaviour interventions take account of social context? A literature trend and co-citation analysis.

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Holman, Daniel; Lynch, Rebecca; Reeves, Aaron

2017-03-01

In recent years, health behaviour interventions have received a great deal of attention in both research and policy as a means of encouraging people to lead healthier lives. The emphasis of such interventions has varied over time, in terms of level of intervention (e.g. individual vs community) and drawing on different disciplinary perspectives. Recently, a number of critiques have focused on how health behaviour interventions sometimes sideline issues of social context, framing health as a matter of individual choice and, by implication, a personal responsibility. Part of this criticism is that health behaviour interventions often do not draw on alternative social science understandings of the structured and contextual aspects of behaviour and health. Yet to our knowledge, no study has attempted to empirically assess the extent to which, and in what ways, the health behaviour intervention field has paid attention to social context. In this article, we undertake this task using bibliometric techniques in order to map out the health behaviour intervention field. We find that the number of health behaviour interventions has grown rapidly in recent years, especially since around 2006, and that references to social science disciplines and concepts that foreground issues of social context are rare and, relatively speaking, constitute less of the field post 2006. More quantifiable concepts are used most, and those more close to the complexities of social context are mentioned least. The document co-citation analysis suggests that pre 2006, documents referring to social context were relatively diffuse in the network of key citations, but post 2006 this influence had largely diminished. The journal co-citation analysis shows less disciplinary overlap post 2006. At present, health behaviour interventions are continuing to focus on individualised approaches drawn from behavioural psychology and behavioural economics. Our findings lend empirical support to a number of recent

Social Contexts of Substance Use among U.S. High School Seniors: A Multi-Cohort National Study

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McCabe, Sean Esteban; West, Brady T.; Veliz, Philip; Frank, Kenneth A.; Boyd, Carol J.

2015-01-01

Purpose To determine the social contexts associated with past-year substance use (multiple substances, alcohol, marijuana, and nonmedical use of prescription opioids, stimulants and tranquilizers) among U.S. high school seniors. Methods A secondary analysis of nationally representative survey data from ten cohorts (2002-2011) of the Monitoring the Future study, including 24,809 high school seniors. Results The social contexts associated with past-year substance use varied considerably based on which substance was used. The most prevalent location for alcohol, marijuana, and polydrug use was at a party while nonmedical use of prescription stimulants, tranquilizers and opioids was most likely to occur at home. Most types of substance use occurred in the presence of other people with the exception of nonmedical use of prescription stimulants that was a more solitary behavior. Conclusions These exploratory findings indicate that prevention efforts may need to account for differences in social contexts between types of substances used. PMID:25156895

Managing Innovation Through Social Media in B2B SME-Context

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Lutz, Salla; Madsen, Svend Ole; Brink, Tove

2015-01-01

This paper shed light on how social media application can enhance innovation management in SME B2B context. Our study employs a qualitative case study approach with four B2B SMEs for in-depth research in the period from October 2013 to October 2014. The B2B SME managers aim for open business mode...

Temporal and social contexts of heroin-using populations. An illustration of the snowball sampling technique.

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Kaplan, C D; Korf, D; Sterk, C

1987-09-01

Snowball sampling is a method that has been used in the social sciences to study sensitive topics, rare traits, personal networks, and social relationships. The method involves the selection of samples utilizing "insider" knowledge and referral chains among subjects who possess common traits that are of research interest. It is especially useful in generating samples for which clinical sampling frames may be difficult to obtain or are biased in some way. In this paper, snowball samples of heroin users in two Dutch cities have been analyzed for the purpose of providing descriptions and limited inferences about the temporal and social contexts of their lifestyles. Two distinct heroin-using populations have been discovered who are distinguished by their life cycle stage. Significant contextual explanations have been found involving the passage from adolescent peer group to criminal occupation, the functioning of network "knots" and "outcroppings," and the frequency of social contact. It is suggested that the snowball sampling method may have utility in studying the temporal and social contexts of other populations of clinical interest.

The effect of affective context on visuocortical processing of neutral faces in social anxiety - An ERP study

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Matthias J Wieser

2015-11-01

Full Text Available It has been demonstrated that verbal context information alters the neural processing of ambiguous faces such as faces with no apparent facial expression. In social anxiety, neutral faces may be implicitly threatening for socially anxious individuals due to their ambiguous nature, but even more so if these neutral faces are put in self-referential negative contexts. Therefore, we measured event-related brain potentials (ERPs in response to neutral faces which were preceded by affective verbal information (negative, neutral, positive. Participants with low social anxiety (LSA; n = 23 and high social anxiety (HSA; n = 21 were asked to watch and rate valence and arousal of the respective faces while continuous EEG was recorded. ERP analysis revealed that HSA showed elevated P100 amplitudes in response to faces, but reduced structural encoding of faces as indexed by reduced N170 amplitudes. In general, affective context led to an enhanced early posterior negativity (EPN for negative compared to neutral facial expressions. Moreover, HSA compared to LSA showed enhanced late positive potentials (LPP to negatively contextualized faces, whereas in LSA this effect was found for faces in positive contexts. Also, HSA rated faces in negative contexts as more negative compared to LSA. These results point at enhanced vigilance for neutral faces regardless of context in HSA, while structural encoding seems to be diminished (avoidance. Interestingly, later components of sustained processing (LPP indicate that LSA show enhanced visuocortical processing for faces in positive contexts (happy bias, whereas this seems to be the case for negatively contextualized faces in HSA (threat bias. Finally, our results add further new evidence that top-down information in interaction with individual anxiety levels can influence early-stage aspects of visual perception.

Baffles Promote Wider, Thinner Silicon Ribbons

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Seidensticker, Raymond G.; Mchugh, James P.; Hundal, Rolv; Sprecace, Richard P.

1989-01-01

Set of baffles just below exit duct of silicon-ribbon-growing furnace reduces thermal stresses in ribbons so wider ribbons grown. Productivity of furnace increased. Diverts plume of hot gas from ribbon and allows cooler gas from top of furnace to flow around. Also shields ribbon from thermal radiation from hot growth assembly. Ribbon cooled to lower temperature before reaching cooler exit duct, avoiding abrupt drop in temperature as entering duct.

Hate Crime Victims in Serbia: A Case Study of Context and Social Perceptions

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Jelena Jokanovic

2018-06-01

Full Text Available This article provides an overview of the Republic of Serbia’s legal framework that incorporates strong guarantees for protection from discrimination, national minorities’ rights, and prosecution of (ethnic hate crimes, but also describes a social context loaded with strong prejudices. To illustrate the above, I present a case study of two similar incidents of alleged hate crimes reported in a local Serbian newspaper. In both cases, the victims were young men belonging to ethnic minorities. In 2015, within a period of two months, a Serb was attacked in the Croatian capital, Zagreb, and an Albanian-speaking man in the Serbian town, Novi Sad. The articles attracted online comments, 205 and 134 respectively, mostly from readers from Serbia. These comments elicited what are likely to be honest responses because of the relative anonymity provided to authors. By analyzing commentaries on these newspaper items, this article compares social responses to hate crime cases where victims belonged to different ethnic groups and where the incidents occurred in different geographic and social contexts.

Cultural Context In Process Of Mining Data From Social Media – Recommendations Based On Literature Review

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Joanna Michalak

2017-05-01

Full Text Available Social media is nothing else than a modern communication channel that carry a lot of advantages, such as their reach or range. Social media has such a big power of its reach that a single post, tweet, or "broad" start to matter globally. With globalization, we have seen an increase in usage of social media everywhere. This means that communication is being conducted across the borders or different countries, continents or even cultures. It is an desirable effect, however the social media user across the world differs in respect to their culture and data shows that significant differences exist in a way people in the world social media. However, in order to be well prepared to dig in social media, the question should be post whether the cultural context affects the activity of users. If so, it is appropriate to prepare data filters to include some specific criteria. In first part authors apply the Cross - Industry Standard Process for Data Mining (CRISP-DM in social media data to specify the process of data analysis. Second part focuses on recommendations about cultural context in mining social media.

Why Context Matters: Social Inclusion and Multilingualism in an Austrian School Setting

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Ulrike Jessner

2017-12-01

Full Text Available This article draws attention to language choice and language use of Austrian bi- and multilingual school children. We explore some implications of their linguistic practices with regard to social inclusion in an Austrian educational school setting. Pursuing a Dynamic Systems and Complexity Theory approach, we hypothesise that before language users actually use a language within a certain context, they have to evaluate the respective communicative situation by taking multiple contextual factors into consideration, meaning language users choose to use, or not to use, a language based on the socio-contextual information at hand. We consider these contextual factors to be most relevant as they provide the basis on which speakers can actually make use of a certain language within a given context. By drawing on examples of empirical data obtained through a language background survey, we examine some of the complex and dynamic interactions of contextual parameters influencing language choice and language use in the formal educational setting of classroom instruction. Based on the results of this study, we display a selection of the dynamic and complex interactions of pupils’ language use in one specific context as well as their language preferences and how these relate to social inclusion.

Women's responses to intimate partner violence in Rwanda: Rethinking agency in constrained social contexts.

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Mannell, Jenevieve; Jackson, Sharon; Umutoni, Aline

2016-01-01

This paper explores instances of agency in women's responses to intimate partner violence (IPV) in Rwanda. The literature on women's responses to IPV conceptualises agency primarily as an individual's capacity to take action by reporting violence or leaving a relationship, obscuring other ways women may respond to violence in contexts where reporting or leaving are unlikely. We aim to replace this narrow conceptualisation of agency with a social constructivist focus on the meanings women attribute to possible IPV responses. We draw on data from a study of IPV in Rwanda, which includes semi-structured interviews with women experiencing violence and four focus group discussions with women community members (n = 39). Our findings highlight sociocultural, economic, political-legal and historical constraints that shape women's actions in this context. In relation to these constraints, women describe four possible responses to IPV: reporting the violence; seeking emotional support; 'fighting back' against violence; or remaining silent. While reporting and leaving violent relationships are identified, women also discuss the social constraints that make these actions extremely difficult. In designing effective strategies, we conclude that public health strategies need to consider women's understandings of their own actions, particularly in social contexts where certain actions may be constrained.

One for all: workplace social context and drinking among railway workers in Ukraine.

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Murphy, Adrianna; Roberts, Bayard; McGowan, Catherine; Kizilova, Kseniya; Kizilov, Alexiy; Rhodes, Tim; McKee, Martin

2015-01-01

Alcohol consumption is a leading cause of mortality and morbidity in countries of the former Soviet Union, but little is known about its social determinants. Recent research has suggested that workplace contexts may play a role. Using qualitative methods, we investigate the relationship between workplace social contexts and drinking in Ukraine. We conducted 24 individual semi-structured interviews and two focus group discussions in Lviv and Kharkiv, Ukraine, with male railway employees aged 18+ years. Data were analysed using a thematic analysis approach. Men in our sample expressed strong feelings of interdependence and trust towards their co-workers which we defined as 'social solidarity'. Drinking with co-workers was often seen as obligatory and an integral part of co-worker social occasions. Engagement in sport or family obligations seemed to act as a deterrent to drinking among some workers. A strong sense of solidarity exists between railway co-workers in Ukraine, perhaps a remnant of the Soviet era when individuals relied on informal networks for support. Alcohol may be used as a means of expressing this solidarity. Our findings point to factors, namely engagement in sports and family, which may offer opportunities for interventions to reduce alcohol consumption among workers in Ukraine.

Aging, culture, and memory for socially meaningful item-context associations: an East-West cross-cultural comparison study.

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Yang, Lixia; Li, Juan; Spaniol, Julia; Hasher, Lynn; Wilkinson, Andrea J; Yu, Jing; Niu, Yanan

2013-01-01

Research suggests that people in Eastern interdependent cultures process information more holistically and attend more to contextual information than do people in Western independent cultures. The current study examined the effects of culture and age on memory for socially meaningful item-context associations in 71 Canadians of Western European descent (35 young and 36 older) and 72 native Chinese citizens (36 young and 36 older). All participants completed two blocks of context memory tasks. During encoding, participants rated pictures of familiar objects. In one block, objects were rated either for their meaningfulness in the independent living context or their typicality in daily life. In the other block, objects were rated for their meaningfulness in the context of fostering relationships with others or for their typicality in daily life. The encoding in each block was followed by a recognition test in which participants identified pictures and their associated contexts. The results showed that Chinese outperformed Canadians in context memory, though both culture groups showed similar age-related deficits in item and context memory. The results suggest that Chinese are at an advantage in memory for socially meaningful item-context associations, an advantage that continues from young adulthood into old age.

The importance of socio-economic context for social marketing models for improving reproductive health: Evidence from 555 years of program experience

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Rahaim Stephen

2005-01-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Over the past two decades, social marketing programs have become an important element of the national family planning and HIV prevention strategy in several developing countries. As yet, there has not been any comprehensive empirical assessment to determine which of several social marketing models is most effective for a given socio-economic context. Such an assessment is urgently needed to inform the design of future social marketing programs, and to avoid that programs are designed using an ineffective model. Methods This study addresses this issue using a database of annual statistics about reproductive health oriented social marketing programs in over 70 countries. In total, the database covers 555 years of program experience with social marketing programs that distribute and promote the use of oral contraceptives and condoms. Specifically, our analysis assesses to what extent the model used by different reproductive health social marketing programs has varied across different socio-economic contexts. We then use random effects regression to test in which socio-economic context each of the models is most successful at increasing use of socially marketed oral contraceptives and condoms. Results The results show that there has been a tendency to design reproductive health social marketing program with a management structure that matches the local context. However, the evidence also shows that this has not always been the case. While socio-economic context clearly influences the effectiveness of some of the social marketing models, program maturity and the size of the target population appear equally important. Conclusions To maximize the effectiveness of future social marketing programs, it is essential that more effort is devoted to ensuring that such programs are designed using the model or approach that is most suitable for the local context.

The importance of socio-economic context for social marketing models for improving reproductive health: evidence from 555 years of program experience.

Science.gov (United States)

Meekers, Dominique; Rahaim, Stephen

2005-01-27

Over the past two decades, social marketing programs have become an important element of the national family planning and HIV prevention strategy in several developing countries. As yet, there has not been any comprehensive empirical assessment to determine which of several social marketing models is most effective for a given socio-economic context. Such an assessment is urgently needed to inform the design of future social marketing programs, and to avoid that programs are designed using an ineffective model. This study addresses this issue using a database of annual statistics about reproductive health oriented social marketing programs in over 70 countries. In total, the database covers 555 years of program experience with social marketing programs that distribute and promote the use of oral contraceptives and condoms. Specifically, our analysis assesses to what extent the model used by different reproductive health social marketing programs has varied across different socio-economic contexts. We then use random effects regression to test in which socio-economic context each of the models is most successful at increasing use of socially marketed oral contraceptives and condoms. The results show that there has been a tendency to design reproductive health social marketing program with a management structure that matches the local context. However, the evidence also shows that this has not always been the case. While socio-economic context clearly influences the effectiveness of some of the social marketing models, program maturity and the size of the target population appear equally important. To maximize the effectiveness of future social marketing programs, it is essential that more effort is devoted to ensuring that such programs are designed using the model or approach that is most suitable for the local context.

Civic Mathematics Fundamentals in the Context of Social Issues

CERN Document Server

Vatter, Terry

1996-01-01

What has math got to do with my life? If you've ever heard that protest from your students, this book can provide the answer. Presenting mathematics in the context of social issues makes it relevant and helps students learn how to apply math skills appropriately. Four sections-race and gender, poverty and wealth, the environment, and teen issues-have lessons based on themes such as estimating, probability, negative numbers, and multiplying decimals. Discussion questions, library research activities and guides, and reproducible homework assignments reinforce learning. With its concrete approach

Entrepreneurs in transitional Serbia - the context of management and socially accepted type of private enterprise

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Trifunović Vesna

2015-01-01

Full Text Available The process of post-socialist transformation in Serbia included, among other things, a boost of selfemployed entrepreneurship looking to place themselves within a society. This phenomenon occurred within the complex conditions that included the past socialist heritage and egalitarian ideology, representing thus a potential a priori negative social attitudes towards private enterprise and entrepreneurs, as well as specific overall transition path that can be divided into two distinct and disparate stages. This particular context has influenced the complexity of the problem of entrepreneurship in this society. Therefore, this paper will firstly focus on the context and conditions of entrepreneurial business from the perspective of the very entrepreneurs; additionally, the paper will try to discern the socially accepted types of entrepreneurs, favoring the assumption that this type of economy, in principle, has been accepted, i.e., there is no social resistance. The discussion is based on analysis of newspaper articles that provide detailed written accounts, while the context of entrepreneurial business in transitional Serbia is based on data provided by the Union of Employers of Serbia, the Agency of Business Registers and reports of the National Agency for Regional Development of the Republic of Serbia.

Which Societies Provide a Strong Religious Socialization Context? Explanations Beyond the Effects of National Religiosity

OpenAIRE

Müller, Tim; De Graaf, Nan Dirk; Schmidt, Peter

2014-01-01

Religious socialization occurs within the immediate family as well as in the broader social context. Previous research has shown that parents religiosity matters less for the transmission of religious beliefs in devout than in secular nations, implying smaller costs of religious socialization. In this article we test which other societal factors affect the transmission of religious beliefs: anti-religious policies in formerly socialist countries, economic development, and income inequality. O...

The effects of context processing on social cognition impairments in adults with Asperger’s syndrome

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Sandra eBaez

2014-09-01

Full Text Available Social cognition –the basis of all communicative and otherwise interpersonal relationships– is embedded in specific contextual circumstances which shape intrinsic meanings. This domain is compromised in the autism spectrum disorders, including Asperger’s syndrome (AS (DSM-V. However, the few available reports of social cognition skills in adults with AS have largely neglected the effects of contextual factors. Moreover, previous studies on this population have also failed to simultaneously (a assess multiple social cognition domains, (b examine executive functions, (c follow strict sample selection criteria, and (d acknowledge the cognitive heterogeneity typical of the disorder. The study presently reviewed (Baez et al., 2012 addressed all these aspects in order to establish the basis of social cognition deficits in adult AS patients. Specifically, we assessed the performance of AS adults in multiple social cognition tasks with different context-processing requirements. The results suggest that social cognition deficits in AS imply a reduced ability to implicitly encode and integrate contextual cues needed to access social meaning. Nevertheless, the patients’ performance was normal when explicit social information was presented or when the situation could be navigated with abstract rules. Here, we review the results of our study and other relevant data, and discuss their implications for the diagnosis and treatment of AS and other neuropsychiatric conditions (e.g., schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, frontotemporal dementia. Finally, we analyze previous results in the light of a current neurocognitive model of social-context processing.

The Theory of Social Control and the Social Psychology of Dissatisfaction: Inhibition, regression and isolation in a cultural context

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Orsolya Selymes, PhD Candidate

2011-06-01

Full Text Available The Theory of Social Control (TSC is grounded in satisfaction and happiness research. The study investigated the reasons behind relatively low levels of civil and personal satisfaction, subjective social well-being and experienced happiness in the post-communist Hungarian social context. The basic social process uncovered in the research is self-situating, which involves a continuous assessment of social control, which occurs on three psychological dimensions: activity, fairness and connectedness, operated via social flow. The culturally salient outcome of self-situating in Hungary is self-victimizing, meaning a subjective loss of control on all three dimensions. Some of the most important emotional-motivational consequences of self-victimizing are inhibition, regression and isolation, which contribute to various socio-cultural phenomenon such as distrust, bystander strategies, pessimism or anomie across a number of social situations. Based on the emerging theory, the concept of subjective social control is introduced and an expanded three-dimensional model of civil satisfaction, comfort and contribution, along with psychological and cultural implications, are discussed.Key words: social control, self-situating, self-victimizing, activity, fairness, connectedness, inhibition, fury, isolation

Two Polarities of Attention in Social Contexts: From Attending-to-Others to Attending-to-Self.

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Kuang, Shenbing

2016-01-01

Social attention is one special form of attention that involves the allocation of limited processing resources in a social context. Previous studies on social attention often regard how attention is directed toward socially relevant stimuli such as faces and gaze directions of other individuals. In contrast to attending-to-others, a different line of researches has shown that self-related information such as own face and name automatically captures attention and is preferentially processed comparing to other-related information. These contrasting behavioral effects between attending-to-others and attending-to-self prompt me to consider a synthetic viewpoint for understanding social attention. I propose that social attention operates at two polarizing states: In one extreme, individual tends to attend to the self and prioritize self-related information over others', and, in the other extreme, attention is allocated to other individuals to infer their intentions and desires. Attending-to-self and attending-to-others mark the two ends of an otherwise continuum spectrum of social attention. For a given behavioral context, the mechanisms underlying these two polarities will interact and compete with each other in order to determine a saliency map of social attention that guides our behaviors. An imbalanced competition between these two behavioral and cognitive processes will cause cognitive disorders and neurological symptoms such as autism spectrum disorders and Williams syndrome. I have reviewed both behavioral and neural evidence that support the notion of polarized social attention, and have suggested several testable predictions to corroborate this integrative theory for understanding social attention.

Understanding social disparities in hypertension prevalence, awareness, treatment, and control: the role of neighborhood context.

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Morenoff, Jeffrey D; House, James S; Hansen, Ben B; Williams, David R; Kaplan, George A; Hunte, Haslyn E

2007-11-01

The spatial segregation of the US population by socioeconomic position and especially race/ethnicity suggests that the social contexts or "neighborhoods" in which people live may substantially contribute to social disparities in hypertension. The Chicago Community Adult Health Study did face-to-face interviews, including direct measurement of blood pressure, with a representative probability sample of adults in Chicago. These data were used to estimate socioeconomic and racial-ethnic disparities in the prevalence, awareness, treatment, and control of hypertension, and to analyze how these disparities are related to the areas in which people live. Hypertension was significantly negatively associated with neighborhood affluence/gentrification, and adjustments for context eliminated the highly significant disparity between blacks/African-Americans and whites, and reduced the significant educational disparity by 10-15% to borderline statistical significance. Awareness of hypertension was significantly higher in more disadvantaged neighborhoods and in places with higher concentrations of blacks (and lower concentrations of Hispanics and immigrants). Adjustment for context completely eliminated blacks' greater awareness, but slightly accentuated the lesser awareness of Hispanics and the greater levels of awareness among the less educated. There was no consistent evidence of either social disparities in or contextual associations with treatment of hypertension, given awareness. Among those on medication, blacks were only 40-50% as likely as whites to have their hypertension controlled, but context played little or no role in either the level of or disparities in control of hypertension. In sum, residential contexts potentially play a large role in accounting for racial/ethnic and, to a lesser degree, socioeconomic disparities in hypertension prevalence and, in a different way, awareness, but not in treatment or control of diagnosed hypertension.

Aging, Culture, and Memory for Socially Meaningful Item-Context Associations: An East-West Cross-Cultural Comparison Study

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Yang, Lixia; Li, Juan; Spaniol, Julia; Hasher, Lynn; Wilkinson, Andrea J.; Yu, Jing; Niu, Yanan

2013-01-01

Research suggests that people in Eastern interdependent cultures process information more holistically and attend more to contextual information than do people in Western independent cultures. The current study examined the effects of culture and age on memory for socially meaningful item-context associations in 71 Canadians of Western European descent (35 young and 36 older) and 72 native Chinese citizens (36 young and 36 older). All participants completed two blocks of context memory tasks. During encoding, participants rated pictures of familiar objects. In one block, objects were rated either for their meaningfulness in the independent living context or their typicality in daily life. In the other block, objects were rated for their meaningfulness in the context of fostering relationships with others or for their typicality in daily life. The encoding in each block was followed by a recognition test in which participants identified pictures and their associated contexts. The results showed that Chinese outperformed Canadians in context memory, though both culture groups showed similar age-related deficits in item and context memory. The results suggest that Chinese are at an advantage in memory for socially meaningful item-context associations, an advantage that continues from young adulthood into old age. PMID:23593288

Aging, culture, and memory for socially meaningful item-context associations: an East-West cross-cultural comparison study.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lixia Yang

Full Text Available Research suggests that people in Eastern interdependent cultures process information more holistically and attend more to contextual information than do people in Western independent cultures. The current study examined the effects of culture and age on memory for socially meaningful item-context associations in 71 Canadians of Western European descent (35 young and 36 older and 72 native Chinese citizens (36 young and 36 older. All participants completed two blocks of context memory tasks. During encoding, participants rated pictures of familiar objects. In one block, objects were rated either for their meaningfulness in the independent living context or their typicality in daily life. In the other block, objects were rated for their meaningfulness in the context of fostering relationships with others or for their typicality in daily life. The encoding in each block was followed by a recognition test in which participants identified pictures and their associated contexts. The results showed that Chinese outperformed Canadians in context memory, though both culture groups showed similar age-related deficits in item and context memory. The results suggest that Chinese are at an advantage in memory for socially meaningful item-context associations, an advantage that continues from young adulthood into old age.

Between Trauma and Perpetration: Psychoanalytical and Social Psychological Perspectives on Difficult Histories in the Israeli Context

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Goldberg, Tsafrir

2017-01-01

This study explores the applicability of psychoanalytic trauma-centered perspectives and social psychological intergroup comparison perspectives to difficult histories of the Israeli context. The study describes 2 test cases of difficult histories in the Jewish-Israeli context at the levels of curriculum policy, teachers, and learners. The first…

Children's Weekend Activities in Four Countries: Context for Personal and Social Development

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Ozdogru, Asil Ali

2010-01-01

Out-of-school time constitutes a major context of social and emotional development for children across cultures. Because it is not constrained by school attendance, weekend time allows cultural and gender differences in time usage to emerge. In this study, children's weekend activities, choice, and some of the related emotional outcomes were…

Social and Cultural Contexts of Chinese Learners: Teaching Strategies for American Educators

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Thakkar, Darshan

2011-01-01

This article seeks to evaluate the social and cultural context of education among Chinese learners in order to identify ways through which American educators can best serve such students. It is intended that such efforts will create multiple pathways to knowledge for Chinese learners by accommodating their varying learning needs. Several common…

Ethnic Diversity and Social Trust: The Role of Exposure in the Micro-Context

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Dinesen, Peter Thisted; Sønderskov, Kim Mannemar

In this paper we argue that residential exposure to ethnic diversity reduces social trust. Previous within-country analyses of the relationship between contextual ethnic diversity and trust have been conducted at higher levels of aggregation, concealing substantial variation in actual exposure...... to ethnic diversity. In contrast, we analyze how ethnic diversity of the immediate micro-context – where interethnic exposure is inevitable – affects trust. We do this using Danish survey data linked with register-based data, which enables us to obtain precise measures of the ethnic diversity of each...... individual’s residential surroundings. We focus on contextual diversity within a radius of 80 meters of a given individual, but compare the effect in the micro-context to the impact of diversity in more aggregate contexts. The results show that ethnic diversity in the micro-context affects trust negatively...

Development Contexts, Psychological Distress, Social Self- Esteem and School Violence from a Gender Perspective in Mexican Adolescents

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María Elena Villarreal-González

2011-07-01

Full Text Available The aim of this study was to analyze the relationships between three development contexts -family, school and community-, and school violence, examining psychological distress and social selfesteem from a gender perspective in Mexican adolescents. To test these relationships, 1,285 Mexican students between 12 and 18 years of age in secondary (n = 634 and high school (n = 651 were recruited. To analyze these relationships, Structural Equation Modeling With EQS was used. Results showed that familial context is directly related to school violence, and that school and community context is indirectly related to school violence through social self-esteem and psychological distress. Finally, results and their possible implications regarding gender are discussed.

Cooperative context is a determinant of the social influence on outcome evaluation: An electrophysiological study.

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Kimura, Kenta; Katayama, Jun'ichi

2016-02-01

The present study examined whether or not a cooperative context is a determinant of the social influence on the evaluation of two action outcomes: a monetary outcome and a conflict of opinion with other group members. In the present study, three-person groups were randomly assigned to be either a cooperative or individual group and asked to perform a gambling task. The monetary outcomes in the cooperative group were interrelated among group members, whereas those in the individual group did not influence each other. The present results showed that monetary outcomes elicited feedback-related negativity (FRN) and a conflict of opinion with other group members elicited FRN-like negativity, which reflect an evaluation of the motivational significance of action outcomes. The FRN elicited by monetary outcomes was reduced when participants shared decisions with other group members only in the cooperative group, indicating that the cooperative context reduced the motivational significance of monetary outcomes through the diffusion of responsibility. The FRN-like negativity elicited by a conflict of opinion showed a different pattern between the cooperative and individual groups, indicating that the cooperative context can influence the evaluation of a conflict of opinion, possibly via the modulation of group cohesiveness or conflict processing. The present results suggest that a cooperative context, rather than the social setting, is a determinant of the social influence on outcome evaluation. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Motivations for Prescription Drug Misuse among Young Adults: Considering Social and Developmental Contexts.

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LeClair, Amy; Kelly, Brian C; Pawson, Mark; Wells, Brooke E; Parsons, Jeffrey T

As part of a larger study on prescription drug misuse among young adults active in urban nightlife scenes, we examined participants' motivations for misuse. Prescription painkillers, stimulants and sedatives were the primary substances of interest. Participants were recruited from nightlife venues in New York using time-space sampling. Subjects completed a mixed-methods assessment at project research offices. The data presented here are from a subsample of 70 qualitative interviews conducted during the baseline assessment. We identified experimentation and a "work hard, play hard" ethos as key motivations for misusing prescription drugs and argue that these motivations are specific, though not necessarily unique, to the participants' social location as young adults. These findings highlight the role of life stage and social context in the misuse of prescription drugs. Future studies of prescription drug misuse should pay attention to the larger social contexts in which users are embedded and, therefore, make decisions about how and why to misuse. Moving beyond the very broad concepts of "recreation" and "self-medication" presently established in the research, policies targeting young adults may want to tailor intervention efforts based on motivations.

The social context of the aeronautical education experience of African-American civilian, commercial, and military pilots

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Walker, Taurean Mashawn

The purpose of this research is to explore the social context (the nature and cultural environment) of the aeronautical training experience of African-American civilian, commercial, and military pilots. This research highlights the challenges African-American pilots are exposed to in addition to drawing parallels between the social context and the obstacles they are subjected to along the way. This study is valuable for stakeholders, African-American pilot aspirants, aviation corporations, Federal Aviation Administration, flight schools - in the aviation industry in understanding ways to initiate a paradigm shift and increase awareness about representation and participation of African-American aviation professionals. The qualitative approach was selected to gather a better understanding of the sociological hurdles black aviators face while going through the journey of becoming a pilot. Hardiman (2010) states, "While quantitative research is valuable, qualitative research provides the researcher the ability to view real world situations as they naturally unfold" ( p. 25). According to OBAP (2014), less than 2% of pilots in the United States are African-American. The experiences shared by the participants can provide helpful insight of possible policy implications for the aeronautical industry. There were three research questions in the study: 1) What factors hindered pilot training? 2) What were the resilience factors experienced during pilot training? 3) What were the defining features of the social context surrounding pilot training? Semi-structured, face-to-face interviews were conducted of six professional pilots. A qualitative data analysis was conducted to illustrate the context of the social challenges during the course of pilot training. Three themes were revealed: 1) access, 2) perception of inferiority, and 3) support. Implications of the significance of providing social networks to expose African-Americans to aviation were discussed. Additional means of

High school dropouts: interactions between social context, self-perceptions, school engagement, and student dropout.

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Fall, Anna-Mária; Roberts, Greg

2012-08-01

Research suggests that contextual, self-system, and school engagement variables influence dropping out from school. However, it is not clear how different types of contextual and self-system variables interact to affect students' engagement or contribute to decisions to dropout from high school. The self-system model of motivational development represents a promising theory for understanding this complex phenomenon. The self-system model acknowledges the interactive and iterative roles of social context, self-perceptions, school engagement, and academic achievement as antecedents to the decision to dropout of school. We analyzed data from the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002-2004 in the context of the self-system model, finding that perception of social context (teacher support and parent support) predicts students' self-perceptions (perception of control and identification with school), which in turn predict students' academic and behavioral engagement, and academic achievement. Further, students' academic and behavioral engagement and achievement in 10th grade were associated with decreased likelihood of dropping out of school in 12th grade. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

High school dropouts: Interactions between social context, self-perceptions, school engagement, and student dropout☆

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Fall, Anna-Mária; Roberts, Greg

2012-01-01

Research suggests that contextual, self-system, and school engagement variables influence dropping out from school. However, it is not clear how different types of contextual and self-system variables interact to affect students’ engagement or contribute to decisions to dropout from high school. The self-system model of motivational development represents a promising theory for understanding this complex phenomenon. The self-system model acknowledges the interactive and iterative roles of social context, self-perceptions, school engagement, and academic achievement as antecedents to the decision to dropout of school. We analyzed data from the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002–2004 in the context of the self-system model, finding that perception of social context (teacher support and parent support) predicts students’ self-perceptions (perception of control and identification with school), which in turn predict students’ academic and behavioral engagement, and academic achievement. Further, students’ academic and behavioral engagement and achievement in 10th grade were associated with decreased likelihood of dropping out of school in 12th grade. PMID:22153483

Here, There and Everywhere: Emotion and Mental State Talk in Different Social Contexts Predicts Empathic Helping in Toddlers

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Jesse eDrummond

2014-04-01

Full Text Available A growing body of literature suggests that parents socialize early-emerging prosocial behavior across varied contexts and in subtle yet powerful ways. We focus on discourse about emotions and mental states as one potential socialization mechanism given its conceptual relevance to prosocial behavior and its known positive relations with emotion understanding and social-cognitive development, as well as parents’ frequent use of such discourse beginning in infancy. Specifically, we ask how parents’ emotion and mental state talk with their toddlers relates to toddlers’ helping and how these associations vary by context. Children aged 18- to 30-months (n=38 interacted with a parent during book reading and joint play with toys, two everyday contexts that afford parental discussion of emotions and mental states. Children also participated in instrumental and empathic helping tasks. Results revealed that although parents discuss mental states with their children in both contexts, the nature of their talk differs: during book reading parents labeled emotions and mental states significantly more often than during joint play, especially simple affect words (e.g. happy, sad and explanations or elaborations of emotions; whereas they used more desire talk and mental state words (e.g. think, know in joint play. Parents’ emotion and mental state discourse related to children’s empathic, emotion-based helping behavior; however, it did not relate to instrumental, action-based helping. Moreover, relations between parent talk and empathic helping varied by context: children who helped more quickly had parents who labeled emotion and mental states more often during joint play and who elicited this talk more often during book reading. As emotion and mental state talk both varies between contexts and exhibits context-specific associations with empathic prosocial behavior early in development, we conclude that such discourse may be a key form of socialization

Here, there and everywhere: emotion and mental state talk in different social contexts predicts empathic helping in toddlers.

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Drummond, Jesse; Paul, Elena F; Waugh, Whitney E; Hammond, Stuart I; Brownell, Celia A

2014-01-01

A growing body of literature suggests that parents socialize early-emerging prosocial behavior across varied contexts and in subtle yet powerful ways. We focus on discourse about emotions and mental states as one potential socialization mechanism given its conceptual relevance to prosocial behavior and its known positive relations with emotion understanding and social-cognitive development, as well as parents' frequent use of such discourse beginning in infancy. Specifically, we ask how parents' emotion and mental state talk (EMST) with their toddlers relates to toddlers' helping and how these associations vary by context. Children aged 18- to 30-months (n = 38) interacted with a parent during book reading and joint play with toys, two everyday contexts that afford parental discussion of emotions and mental states. Children also participated in instrumental and empathic helping tasks. Results revealed that although parents discuss mental states with their children in both contexts, the nature of their talk differs: during book reading parents labeled emotions and mental states significantly more often than during joint play, especially simple affect words (e.g., happy, sad) and explanations or elaborations of emotions; whereas they used more desire talk and mental state words (e.g., think, know) in joint play. Parents' emotion and mental state discourse related to children's empathic, emotion-based helping behavior; however, it did not relate to instrumental, action-based helping. Moreover, relations between parent talk and empathic helping varied by context: children who helped more quickly had parents who labeled emotion and mental states more often during joint play and who elicited this talk more often during book reading. As EMST both varies between contexts and exhibits context-specific associations with empathic prosocial behavior early in development, we conclude that such discourse may be a key form of socialization in emerging prosociality.

What is Social Learning?

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Mark S. Reed

2010-12-01

between individual and wider social learning. Many unsubstantiated claims for social learning exist, and there is frequently confusion between the concept itself and its potential outcomes. This lack of conceptual clarity has limited our capacity to assess whether social learning has occurred, and if so, what kind of learning has taken place, to what extent, between whom, when, and how. This response attempts to provide greater clarity on the conceptual basis for social learning. We argue that to be considered social learning, a process must: (1 demonstrate that a change in understanding has taken place in the individuals involved; (2 demonstrate that this change goes beyond the individual and becomes situated within wider social units or communities of practice; and (3 occur through social interactions and processes between actors within a social network. A clearer picture of what we mean by social learning could enhance our ability to critically evaluate outcomes and better understand the processes through which social learning occurs. In this way, it may be possible to better facilitate the desired outcomes of social learning processes.

Examination of race disparities in physical inactivity among adults of similar social context.

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Wilson-Frederick, Shondelle M; Thorpe, Roland J; Bell, Caryn N; Bleich, Sara N; Ford, Jean G; LaVeist, Thomas A

2014-01-01

The objective of the study was to determine whether race disparities in physical inactivity are present among urban low-income Blacks and Whites living in similar social context. This analysis included Black and White respondents ( > or = 18 years) from the Exploring Health Disparities in Integrated Communities-Southwest Baltimore (EHDIC-SWB; N=1350) Study and the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS; N = 67790). Respondents who reported no levels of moderate or vigorous physical activity, during leisure time, over a usual week were considered physically inactive. After controlling for confounders, Blacks had higher adjusted odds of physical inactivity compared to Whites in the national sample (odds ratio [OR] = 1.40; 95% confidence interval [CI] =1.30-1.51). In EHDIC-SWB, Blacks and Whites had a similar odds of physical inactivity (OR = 1.09; 95% CI .86-1.40). Social context contributes to our understanding of racial disparities in physical inactivity.

Voice hearing within the context of hearers' social worlds: an interpretative phenomenological analysis.

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Mawson, Amy; Berry, Katherine; Murray, Craig; Hayward, Mark

2011-09-01

Research has found relational qualities of power and intimacy to exist within hearer-voice interactions. The present study aimed to provide a deeper understanding of the interpersonal context of voice hearing by exploring participants' relationships with their voices and other people in their lives. This research was designed in consultation with service users and employed a qualitative, phenomenological, and idiographic design using semi-structured interviews. Ten participants, recruited via mental health services, and who reported hearing voices in the previous week, completed the interviews. These were transcribed verbatim and analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Five themes resulted from the analysis. Theme 1: 'person and voice' demonstrated that participants' voices often reflected the identity, but not always the quality of social acquaintances. Theme 2: 'voices changing and confirming relationship with the self' explored the impact of voice hearing in producing an inferior sense-of-self in comparison to others. Theme 3: 'a battle for control' centred on issues of control and a dilemma of independence within voice relationships. Theme 4: 'friendships facilitating the ability to cope' and theme 5: 'voices creating distance in social relationships' explored experiences of social relationships within the context of voice hearing, and highlighted the impact of social isolation for voice hearers. The study demonstrated the potential role of qualitative research in developing theories of voice hearing. It extended previous research by highlighting the interface between voices and the social world of the hearer, including reciprocal influences of social relationships on voices and coping. Improving voice hearers' sense-of-self may be a key factor in reducing the distress caused by voices. ©2010 The British Psychological Society.

Adolescents' Emotions and Reasoning in Contexts of Moral Conflict and Social Exclusion

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Malti, Tina; Ongley, Sophia F.; Dys, Sebastian P.; Colasante, Tyler

2012-01-01

This article explores how adolescents feel and think about contexts of moral conflict and social exclusion. We asked twelve-year-old adolescents how they would feel about intentionally harming another peer, omitting a prosocial duty, and excluding another peer. We then asked them to explain the reasoning behind their feelings and report on levels…

Corporate Social Responsibility in the context of International Financial Institutions

OpenAIRE

Gajdosova, Katarina

2015-01-01

The term Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is becoming more and more often spelled out in various contexts of the academic and corporate life. The concept of CSR is rather broad and the term CSR could be defined in various ways, as there has been no unified definition established so far. Yet the word ‘corporate’ in the term could indicate that CSR is exclusive matter of private companies. However, as demonstrated in this paper, the non-corporate institutions, in particular the Internation...

Measuring Social Relations in New Classroom Spaces: Development and Validation of the Social Context and Learning Environments (SCALE) Survey

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Walker, J. D.; Baepler, Paul

2017-01-01

This study addresses the need for reliable and valid information concerning how innovative classrooms on college and university campuses affect teaching and learning. The Social Context and Learning Environments (SCALE) survey was developed though a three-stage process involving approximately 1300 college students. Exploratory and confirmatory…

[Micro and Macro Social Work Practice in the Context of Tuberculosis].

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Moya, Eva M; Chavez-Baray, Silvia M; Martínez, Omar

2017-07-01

The study of tuberculosis (TB) in the U.S.-Mexico border involves the consideration of three key components, which are complex and interrelated: the difficulty tracking and providing appropriate TB care due to the epidemiological and pathological characteristics of TB; the border itself is a geographical and epidemiological area that interweaves two nations, two cultures, two health systems and different laws; and the need for prevention and treatment approaches to TB that involve comprehensive clinical care and prevention while also taking into consideration stigma, social context and knowledge. This manuscript describes the work of ten studies conducted in Mexico and in the U.S.-Mexico border region from 2006 to 2013. It also provides an understanding of the social and public health implications of TB, the environment and communities, as well as the identification and application of advocacy and social mobilization practices. The work presented provides an understanding of different interventions related to adherence, stigma reduction, person-centered approaches, and effective micro and macro practices in social work.

Disease Prevention in the Age of Convergence - the Need for a Wider, Long Ranging and Collaborative Vision

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Susan L. Prescott

2014-01-01

Full Text Available It is time to bring our imagination, creativity and passion to the fore in solving the global challenges of our age. Our global health crisis and the pandemic of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs is clearly rooted in complex modern societal and environmental changes, many of which have effects on developing immune and metabolic responses. It is intimately related to wider environmental challenges. And it is unsurprising that many NCDs share similar risk factors and that many are associated with a rising predisposition for inflammation. Allergy is one of the earliest signs of environmental impact on these biological pathways, and may also offer an early barometer to assess the effects of early interventions. There is dawning awareness of how changing microbial diversity, nutritional patterns, sedentary indoor behaviours and modern pollutants adversely affect early metabolic and immune development, but still much to understand the complexity of these interactions. Even when we do harness the science and technology, these will not provide solutions unless we also address the wider social, cultural and economic determinants of health - addressing the interconnections between human health and the health of our environment. Now more than ever, we need a wider vision and a greater sense of collective responsibility. We need long-range approaches that aim for life long benefits of a ‘healthier start to life’, and stronger cross-sectoral collaborations to prevent disease. We need to give both our hearts and our minds to solving these global issues.

Social constructionism and relational practices as a paradigm for organisational psychology in the South African context

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Dirk J. Geldenhuys

2015-08-01

Full Text Available Orientation: This article is about introducing social constructionism and relational practices as a paradigm perspective to organisational psychology, especially as these are applied in organisation development. Research purpose: The aim of this study was to investigate the relevance of social constructionism and relational practices as a paradigm perspective for studying and practising organisational psychology in the South African context. Motivation for the study: The relevance of the paradigm perspective that is currently used in studying and practising organisational psychology in South Africa seems to be biased towards an individual perspective of human behaviour that is incongruent with the African context, which asks for an Afro-centric approach with the emphasis on human relationships. It was argued that social constructionism and relational practices could provide a relevant perspective that can help to transform workplace relationships in the South African context. Research approach, design and method: This study was based on a non-empirical, theoretical research design. Articles written in English and published between 2002 and 2013 using specific keywords relating to social constructionism and organisational psychology were retrieved. This was supplemented by other relevant electronic and hardcopy resources. The main findings are reported and discussed and recommendations made. Main findings: Although the literature on social constructionism and relational practices is limited in organisational psychology, it does provide an additional perspective, not only on the mainstream theory, but also as a practice in organisation development for transforming workplace relationships in the South African context. Practical/managerial implications: Organisational psychology should be cautious about the possibility of constructing a monologue at the expense of introducing new perspectives on behaviour in the workplace. Organisational

Competência social e autismo: o papel do contexto da brincadeira com pares Social competence and autism: the role of the context of play with peers

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Cláudia Sanini

2013-03-01

Full Text Available Observa-se o esforço dos pesquisadores em delinear e avaliar intervenções para facilitar o desenvolvimento da interação social em crianças com autismo e seus pares, em situações de inclusão escolar. Entre os resultados controversos dos estudos estão os que se referem ao papel do contexto das brincadeiras, isto é, se livre ou dirigida, na promoção da competência social dessas crianças. O objetivo deste estudo foi revisar criticamente a literatura sobre o tema, buscando-se evidências sobre que tipo de contexto de brincadeira tende a promover as interações entre pares, examinando-se as questões metodológicas que cercam esse debate. A conclusão foi de que ambos os contextos promovem o desenvolvimento da competência social, mas o livre tende a ser mais duradouro e espontâneo.There is a substantial effort of researchers in designing and assessing interventions aiming to promote the social interaction between children with autism and their peers, in the context of inclusion. Among the results that are controversial are the issues related to the role of the play context (free or directed in the promotion of children's social competence. The aim of this study was to critically review the literature about this topic by searching evidences about what sort of play context tend to promote peer interaction and by examining the methodological issues that surround this debate. The conclusion is that both contexts promote the development of social competence, but the free one tends to be more permanent and spontaneous.

Video game play and anxiety during late adolescence: The moderating effects of gender and social context.

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Ohannessian, Christine McCauley

2018-01-15

Few studies have examined factors that moderate the relationship between playing video games and adolescent psychological adjustment. Therefore, the primary goal of this study was to examine the relationship between playing video games and anxiety symptomatology in a sample of 441 11th and 12th grade students, while considering both gender and the social context (whether they played alone or with others). Participants (66% non-Hispanic White) were administered a survey (including measures of technology use and anxiety symptomatology) in school at baseline and one year later. Both gender and the social context moderated the relationship between playing video games and anxiety symptomatology. Boys who played video games the most had the lowest levels of anxiety, whereas girls who played video games the most had the highest levels of anxiety. This relationship was exacerbated in the context of playing with others. Although the study has a number of strengths including the longitudinal design and the diverse sample, the study relied on self-report data. In addition, the sample was limited to adolescents residing in the Mid-Atlantic United States. Therefore, caution should be taken in regard to generalizing the results. Findings from this study underscore the need to consider both gender and the social context when examining the relationship between playing video games and adolescent psychological adjustment. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Family Caregivers’ Social Representations of Death in a Palliative Care Context

OpenAIRE

Sabrina Lessard; Bernard-Simon Leclerc; Suzanne Mongeau

2016-01-01

The objective of this study was to consider the social representations of death of family caregivers in a palliative care context. The authors focused on the analysis of 23 interviews with family caregivers who cared for a terminally ill person at home and/or in a specialized palliative care unit, in Québec, Canada. The finding showed that family caregivers had different images that specifically represented death: (a) ...

Understanding the Context of Learning in an Online Social Network for Health Professionals' Informal Learning.

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Li, Xin; Gray, Kathleen; Verspoor, Karin; Barnett, Stephen

2017-01-01

Online social networks (OSN) enable health professionals to learn informally, for example by sharing medical knowledge, or discussing practice management challenges and clinical issues. Understanding the learning context in OSN is necessary to get a complete picture of the learning process, in order to better support this type of learning. This study proposes critical contextual factors for understanding the learning context in OSN for health professionals, and demonstrates how these contextual factors can be used to analyse the learning context in a designated online learning environment for health professionals.

Social Comparison in Coping With Occupational Uncertainty: Self-Improvement, Self-Enhancement, and the Regional Context.

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Pavlova, Maria K; Lechner, Clemens M; Silbereisen, Rainer K

2018-04-01

Taking into account the regional context, we investigated whether social comparison in coping with occupational uncertainty served self-improvement (i.e., adaptive coping) or self-enhancement (i.e., subjective well-being). Respondents were 620 German adults aged 16 to 43, 59% female, who participated in three yearly follow-ups of a larger survey. The number of observations was 1,309 for contemporaneous and 1,079 for longitudinal analyses. Participants reported on perceived occupational uncertainty (e.g., risk of losing a job and difficulties with career planning), strategies for coping with it, and whether, and in which direction, they made social comparisons in coping with occupational uncertainty. Making social comparisons (vs. not) was associated with higher goal engagement and lower goal disengagement. Upward (as opposed to downward) comparison prospectively predicted higher goal engagement. Under high regional unemployment, upward comparison prospectively predicted lower goal disengagement, whereas making social comparisons was contemporaneously associated with higher subjective well-being. Higher regional unemployment rates predicted more frequent comparison, whereas comparison direction was predicted only by situational variables, especially personal control over the outcomes. When operationalized as a conscious mental action and put in the context of coping with occupational uncertainty, social comparison serves primarily self-improvement. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

The Social Context of Depression Symptomology in Sexual Minority Male Youth: Determinants of Depression in a Sample of Grindr Users.

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Gibbs, Jeremy J; Rice, Eric

2016-01-01

The purpose of this study was to understand which social context factors most influence depression symptomology among sexual minority male youth (SMMY). In 2011, 195 SMMY who use Grindr were recruited to complete an online survey in Los Angeles, California. Items focused on social context variables and depression symptomology. Hierarchical multiple regressions were conducted using an ecological framework. The best fitting model accounted for 29.5% of the variance in depression. Experiences of homophobia, gay community connection, presence of an objecting network member, and emotional support were found to be significant predictors. Past experiences of homophobia continuing to affect youth indicates the need for intervention to reduction of homophobia in youths' social contexts. Interventions that teach youth skills to manage objecting viewpoints or help youth to reorganize their social networks may help to reduce the impact of an objecting network alter.

Implementation of Context Aware e-Health Environments Based on Social Sensor Networks

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Erik Aguirre

2016-03-01

Full Text Available In this work, context aware scenarios applied to e-Health and m-Health in the framework of typical households (urban and rural by means of deploying Social Sensors will be described. Interaction with end-users and social/medical staff is achieved using a multi-signal input/output device, capable of sensing and transmitting environmental, biomedical or activity signals and information with the aid of a combined Bluetooth and Mobile system platform. The devices, which play the role of Social Sensors, are implemented and tested in order to guarantee adequate service levels in terms of multiple signal processing tasks as well as robustness in relation with the use wireless transceivers and channel variability. Initial tests within a Living Lab environment have been performed in order to validate overall system operation. The results obtained show good acceptance of the proposed system both by end users as well as by medical and social staff, increasing interaction, reducing overall response time and social inclusion levels, with a compact and moderate cost solution that can readily be largely deployed.

Use of Social Media in Different Contexts of Information Seeking: Effects of Sex and Problemsolving Style

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Kim, Kyung­-Sun; Sin, Sei­-Ching Joanna

2015-01-01

Introduction: Social media are increasingly popular and emerging as important information sources. The study investigates how users' sex and problem-solving style affect their use and evaluation of social media in two contexts. Method: A Web survey including the problem solving inventory (problem solving inventory) was used to collect data. Over…

Male mice song syntax depends on social contexts and influences female preferences

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jonathan eChabout

2015-04-01

Full Text Available In 2005 Holy & Guo advanced the idea that male mice produce ultrasonic vocalizations (USV with some features similar to courtship songs of songbirds. Since then, studies showed that male mice emit USV songs in different contexts (sexual and other and possess a multisyllabic repertoire. Debate still exists for and against plasticity in their vocalizations. But the use of a multisyllabic repertoire can increase potential flexibility and information, in how elements are organized and recombined, namely syntax. In many bird species, modulating song syntax has ethological relevance for sexual behavior and mate preferences. In this study we exposed adult male mice to different social contexts and developed a new approach of analyzing their USVs based on songbird syntax analysis. We found that male mice modify their syntax, including specific sequences, length of sequence, repertoire composition, and spectral features, according to stimulus and social context. Males emit longer and simpler syllables and sequences when singing to females, but more complex syllables and sequences in response to fresh female urine. Playback experiments show that the females prefer the complex songs over the simpler ones. We propose the complex songs are to lure females in, whereas the directed simpler sequences are used for direct courtship. These results suggest that although mice have a much more limited ability of song modification, they could still be used as animal models for understanding some vocal communication features that songbirds are used for.

Peer Interaction and Social Network Analysis of Online Communities with the Support of Awareness of Different Contexts

Science.gov (United States)

Lin, Jian-Wei; Mai, Li-Jung; Lai, Yung-Cheng

2015-01-01

Although several studies related to social-context awareness (SA) and knowledge-context awareness (KA) argued that each (SA or KA) can individually enhance peer interaction in an online learning community, other studies reached opposite conclusions. These conflicting findings likely stem from different experimental settings. Most importantly, few…

The problem of social exclusion diminishing in the context of European parliament recommendations

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Arvydas

2015-12-01

Full Text Available European Parliament is one of the most significant EU institutions which are responsible for the tasks of social dimension‘s aims declaration and implementation. One of the most actual tasks, solved by European Parliament, is social security measures fitness to real minimal subsistence level and social inequality and exclusion diminishing in the member states. Strengthening of social dimension and lessening of social exclusion can also suffer from economic difficulties, which appeared in the member states after 2008–2009 economic crisis – when there is still no breaking with the crisis past and the new downfall is still possible. In the article the impact of crisis for social exclusion diminishing is analyzed in the context of European Parliament recommendations. Social security measures had only limited impact for stabilization in the member states, however, the author argues and the European Parliament documents prove, that social security measures are not the burden, but the reserve for development in the member states. In this case, European Parliament together with International Labour Organization, according the author, are the most socially exposed organizations in the world. In the end of the article there is suggested the significant social reintegration indicator for the measurement of social security‘s efficiency and effectiveness.

Communicating space weather to policymakers and the wider public

Science.gov (United States)

Ferreira, Bárbara

2014-05-01

As a natural hazard, space weather has the potential to affect space- and ground-based technological systems and cause harm to human health. As such, it is important to properly communicate this topic to policymakers and the general public alike, informing them (without being unnecessarily alarmist) about the potential impact of space-weather phenomena and how these can be monitored and mitigated. On the other hand, space weather is related to interesting phenomena on the Sun such as coronal-mass ejections, and incorporates one of the most beautiful displays in the Earth and its nearby space environment: aurora. These exciting and fascinating aspects of space weather should be cultivated when communicating this topic to the wider public, particularly to younger audiences. Researchers have a key role to play in communicating space weather to both policymakers and the wider public. Space scientists should have an active role in informing policy decisions on space-weather monitoring and forecasting, for example. And they can exercise their communication skills by talking about space weather to school children and the public in general. This presentation will focus on ways to communicate space weather to wider audiences, particularly policymakers. It will also address the role researchers can play in this activity to help bridge the gap between the space science community and the public.

The social nature of benevolent sexism and the antisocial nature of hostile sexism: Is benevolent sexism more likely to manifest in public contexts and hostile sexism in private contexts?

Science.gov (United States)

Chisango, Tadios; Mayekiso, Thokozile; Thomae, Manuela

2015-10-01

Previous research converges on demonstrating that benevolent sexism (BS) is socially approved, whereas hostile sexism (HS) is socially disapproved. We postulated that a sample of married women would be likely to report that their husbands express hostile sexist attitudes and engage in related actions towards them more in private than public contexts, where they lie concealed from public censure. By contrast, the women would report that their husbands would be likely to express benevolent sexist attitudes and engage in related actions more in public than private contexts, where they are reinforced not only by their target (i.e. wife), but also by significant others and the society at large. We tested these hypotheses with a sample of Black, heterosexually married Zimbabwean women (n = 109, mean age = 31.83). Results supported our hypotheses: the women reported hostile sexist attitudes and actions to be more likely to occur in private than public contexts; on the other hand, they reported benevolent sexist attitudes and actions to be more likely in public than private contexts. We conclude that differences in social approval of BS and HS account for these results. © 2014 International Union of Psychological Science.

Patterns of non-verbal social interactions within intensive mathematics intervention contexts

Science.gov (United States)

Thomas, Jonathan Norris; Harkness, Shelly Sheats

2016-06-01

This study examined the non-verbal patterns of interaction within an intensive mathematics intervention context. Specifically, the authors draw on social constructivist worldview to examine a teacher's use of gesture in this setting. The teacher conducted a series of longitudinal teaching experiments with a small number of young, school-age children in the context of early arithmetic development. From these experiments, the authors gathered extensive video records of teaching practice and, from an inductive analysis of these records, identified three distinct patterns of teacher gesture: behavior eliciting, behavior suggesting, and behavior replicating. Awareness of their potential to influence students via gesture may prompt teachers to more closely attend to their own interactions with mathematical tools and take these teacher interactions into consideration when forming interpretations of students' cognition.

“Living Adolescence in Family” parenting program: Adaptation and implementation in social and school contexts

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Elisa Rodríguez-Gutiérreza

2016-07-01

Full Text Available Adolescence is a developmental period that implies a series of rapid changes that might complicate the role of parents. This study evaluates changes in parental monitoring and the strategies to solve family conflicts reported by parents who participated in the "Living Adolescence in Family" program in local social services and school centers. In addition, the study analyses the moderating role of family and facilitator variables that may affect the final results. The participants were 697 parents attending the social services (438 in the intervention group and 259 in the control group and 1283 parents from school centers (880 in the intervention group and 403 in the control group. The results showed that families from local social services decreased the amount of control and improved monitoring in education and leisure spheres as well as self-disclosure whereas the families coming from school centers improved supervision in leisure and in self-disclosure. In addition, both groups of families improved their strategies for solving family conflicts, increasing the use of integrative strategies and decreasing the use of dominant strategies. There were differences across contexts: the results of the program in the social services context differed according to the participant and professional profiles whereas program results were more homogeneous in the school context. In sum, the program appears to be an efficient work tool, both for the professionals who work with at-risk families with adolescents and for the teachers who make use of the program for families with children at risk of early school dropout.

A pilot examination of social context and everyday physical activity among adults receiving Community Mental Health Services.

Science.gov (United States)

McCormick, B P; Frey, G C; Lee, C-T; Gajic, T; Stamatovic-Gajic, B; Maksimovic, M

2009-03-01

Community mental health center (CMHC) clients include a variety of people with moderate to severe mental illnesses who also report a number of physical health problems. Physical activity (PA) has been identified as one intervention to improve health among this population; however, little is known about the role of social context in PA. The purpose of this study was to examine the role of social context in everyday PA among CMHC clients. Data were collected from CMHC clients in two cultures using accelerometery and experience sampling methods. Data were analyzed using hierarchical linear modeling. Independence in housing nor culture was significantly associated with levels of PA. Being alone was significantly negatively related to PA level. Social isolation appears to be negatively related to PA at the level of everyday life. Physical activity interventions with this population should consider including social components as a part of PA.

Effectiveness of Social Skills Training on Social Adjustment of Elderly People

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Zahra Taghinezhad

2017-10-01

Conclusion According to the results of this study, it can be said that holding social skills instruction social work group on social adjustment method is effective among the elderly. The wider use of this type of intervention by specialists in the field of aging can affect well-being and mental health of this group. 

Realtime Interaction Analysis of Social Interplay in a Multimodal Musical-Sonic Interaction Context

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Anne-Marie

2010-01-01

This paper presents an approach to the analysis of social interplay among users in a multimodal interaction and musical performance situation. The approach consists of a combined method of realtime sensor data analysis for the description and interpretation of player gestures and video micro......-analysis methods used to describe the interaction situation and the context in which the social interplay takes place. This combined method is used in an iterative process, where the design of interactive games with musical-sonic feedback is improved according to newly discovered understandings and interpretations...

Wider Professional Experiences: The Value of Pre-Service Teachers Learning in Wider Contexts

Science.gov (United States)

Salter, Peta; Hill, Angela; Navin, Fiona; Knight, Cecily

2013-01-01

Within teacher education, professional standards across Australian jurisdictions consistently note the importance of developing the ability to "engage professionally" with a community (QCT, 2009; AITSL, 2012). Paralleling this however, are calls for more "classroom" time (Australian Government, 2012). This paper explores…

Developmental Pathways for Social Understanding: Linking Social Cognition to Social Contexts

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Kimberly eBrink

2015-05-01

Full Text Available Contemporary research, often with looking-time tasks, reveals that infants possess foundational understandings of their social worlds. However, few studies have examined how these early social cognitions relate to the child’s social interactions and behavior in early development. Does an early understanding of the social world relate to how an infant interacts with his or her parents? Do early social interactions along with social-cognitive understandings in infancy predict later preschool social competencies? In the current paper, we propose a theory in which children’s later social behaviors and their understanding of the social world depend on the integration of early social understanding and experiences in infancy. We review several of our studies, as well as other research, that directly examine the pathways between these competencies to support a hypothesized network of relations between social-cognitive development and social-interactive behaviors in the development from infancy to childhood. In total, these findings reveal differences in infant social competences that both track the developmental trajectory of infants’ understanding of people over the first years of life and provide external validation for the large body of social-cognitive findings emerging from laboratory looking-time paradigms.

The social life of well-being assessments

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Houmøller, Kathrin

verbalization among practitioners and thus a move towards shared understandings of what it means to fare well. Ideally, this should lead to timely pedagogical interventions to improve the lives of children who are not perceived to be thriving. In this manner, the tool addresses larger concerns around the role...... that simply ‘is’. This involves a focus on well-being as it is experienced, shaped, practiced, and recognized in everyday practices, always already embedded within wider contexts of institutional settings, social relationships and political agendas. In the discussion of perceptions and practices of well......-being, the paper will draw on the analytical concept of social technology (Jöhncke, Svendsen and Whyte, 2004) to explore the well-being assessment tool as not simply a solution to the problem of working pedagogically and systematically with well-being but also as a tool that activates particular perspectives...

Teachers' Perspectives and Experiences of the Contexts of Social Inclusion within Elementary School Classrooms in Canada and China

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Dyson, Lily

2014-01-01

This study examined the contexts of social inclusion within elementary school classrooms in Canada and China. Based on interviews, classroom teachers in two metropolitan cities in Canada and China reported their perspectives and experiences with regard to: (a) the state of social inclusion in general; (b) places where social inclusion took place…

Personality-dependent differences in problem-solving performance in a social context reflect foraging strategies

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Zandberg, Lies; Quinn, John L.; Naguib, Marc; van Oers, Kees

2017-01-01

Abstract Individuals develop innovative behaviours to solve foraging challenges in the face of changing environmental conditions. Little is known about how individuals differ in their tendency to solve problems and in their subsequent use of this solving behaviour in social contexts. Here we

Personality-dependent differences in problem-solving performance in a social context reflect foraging strategies

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Zandberg, Lies; Quinn, John L.; Naguib, Marc; Oers, Van Kees

2016-01-01

Individuals develop innovative behaviours to solve foraging challenges in the face of changing environmental conditions. Little is known about how individuals differ in their tendency to solve problems and in their subsequent use of this solving behaviour in social contexts. Here we investigated

A complementary marriage of perspectives: understanding organizational social context using mixed methods

OpenAIRE

Beidas, Rinad S; Wolk, Courtney L Benjamin; Walsh, Lucia M; Evans, Arthur C; Hurford, Matthew O; Barg, Frances K

2014-01-01

Background Organizational factors impact the delivery of mental health services in community settings. Mixed-methods analytic approaches have been recommended, though little research within implementation science has explicitly compared inductive and deductive perspectives to understand their relative value in understanding the same constructs. The purpose of our study is to use two different paradigmatic approaches to deepen our understanding of organizational social context. We accomplish t...

Ecological psychology and social psychology: it is Holt, or nothing!

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Charles, Eric P

2011-03-01

What is the greatest contribution that ecological psychologists can offer social psychology? Ideally, ecological psychologists could explain how people directly perceive the unique properties of their social partners. But social partners are distinguished from mundane objects because they possess mental traits, and tradition tells us that minds cannot be seen. When considering the ideal possibility, we reject that doctrine and posit minds as perceivable. For ecological psychology, this entails asserting that minds are the types of things able to structure ambient energy. Contemporary research and theory suggests distinctly ecological ways of attacking this problem, but the problem is not new. Almost 100 years ago, Holt argued for the visibility of minds. Thus when considering these ideas, ecological psychologists face a choice that is at once about their future and their past. Extending ecological psychology's first principles into the social realm, we come to the point where we must either accept or reject Holt's arguments, and the wider context they bring. In doing so, we accept or reject our ability to study the uniquely social.

A trouble shared is a trouble halved: social context and status affect pain in mouse dyads.

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Laura Gioiosa

Full Text Available In mice behavioral response to pain is modulated by social status. Recently, social context also has been shown to affect pain sensitivity. In our study, we aimed to investigate the effects of interaction between status and social context in dyads of outbred CD-1 male mice in which the dominance/submission relationship was stable. Mice were assessed for pain response in a formalin (1% concentration test either alone (individually tested-IT, or in pairs of dominant and subordinate mice. In the latter condition, they could be either both injected (BI or only one injected (OI with formalin. We observed a remarkable influence of social context on behavioral response to painful stimuli regardless of the social status of the mice. In the absence of differences between OI and IT conditions, BI mice exhibited half as much Paw-licking behavior than OI group. As expected, subordinates were hypoalgesic in response to the early phase of the formalin effects compared to dominants. Clear cut-differences in coping strategies of dominants and subordinates appeared. The former were more active, whereas the latter were more passive. Finally, analysis of behavior of the non-injected subjects (the observers in the OI dyads revealed that dominant observers were more often involved in Self-grooming behavior upon observation of their subordinate partner in pain. This was not the case for subordinate mice observing the pain response of their dominant partner. In contrast, subordinate observers Stared at the dominant significantly more frequently compared to observer dominants in other dyads. The observation of a cagemate in pain significantly affected the observer's behavior. Additionally, the quality of observer's response was also modulated by the dominance/submission relationship.

Friendship Context Matters: Examining the Domain Specificity of Alcohol and Depression Socialization Among Adolescents

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Giletta, M.; Scholte, R.H.J.; Prinstein, M.J.; Engels, R.C.M.E.; Rabaglietti, E.; Burk, W.J.

2012-01-01

Driven by existing socialization theories, this study describes specific friendship contexts in which peer influence of alcohol misuse and depressive symptoms occurs. In the fall and spring of the school year, surveys were administered to 704 Italian adolescents (53 % male, M (age) = 15.53) enrolled

Status of the petroleum pollution in the Wider Caribbean Sea

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Botello, Alfonso V; Villanueva F, Susana [Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Mexico City (Mexico). Inst. de Ciencias del Mar y Limnologia

1996-07-01

In 1976, the IOC-UNESCO and UNEP convened a meeting in Port of Spain to analyze the marine pollution problems in the region and noted that petroleum pollution was of region-wide concern and recommended to initiate a research and monitoring program to determine the severity of the problem and monitor its effects. Actually, the Wider Caribbean is potentially one of the largest oil producing areas in the world. Major production sites include Louisiana and Texas; USA; the Bay of Campeche, Mexico; Lake Maracaibo, Venezuela; and the Gulf of Paria, Trinidad; all which are classified as production accident high-risk zones. Main sources of petroleum pollution in the Wider Caribbean are: production, exploitation, transportation, urban and municipal discharges, refining and chemical wastes, normal loading operations and accidental spills. About 5 million of barrels are transported daily in the Caribbean, thus generating an intense tanker traffic. It has been estimated that oil discharges from tank washings within the Wider Caribbean could be as high as 7 millions barrels/year. The results of the CARIPOL Regional Programme conducted between 1980-1987 pointed out that a significant levels of petroleum pollution exists throughout the Wider Caribbean and include serious tar contamination of windward exposed beaches, high levels of floating tar within the major currents system and very high levels of dissolved/dispersed hydrocarbons in surface waters. Major effects of this petroleum pollution include: high tar level on many beaches that either prevent recreational use or require very expensive clean-up operations, distress and death to marine life and responses in the enzyme systems of marine organisms that have been correlated with declines in reproductive success. Finally the presence of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in tissues of important economic species have been reported with its potential carcinogenic effects. (author)

Status of the petroleum pollution in the Wider Caribbean Sea

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Botello, Alfonso V.; Villanueva F, Susana

1996-01-01

In 1976, the IOC-UNESCO and UNEP convened a meeting in Port of Spain to analyze the marine pollution problems in the region and noted that petroleum pollution was of region-wide concern and recommended to initiate a research and monitoring program to determine the severity of the problem and monitor its effects. Actually, the Wider Caribbean is potentially one of the largest oil producing areas in the world. Major production sites include Louisiana and Texas; USA; the Bay of Campeche, Mexico; Lake Maracaibo, Venezuela; and the Gulf of Paria, Trinidad; all which are classified as production accident high-risk zones. Main sources of petroleum pollution in the Wider Caribbean are: production, exploitation, transportation, urban and municipal discharges, refining and chemical wastes, normal loading operations and accidental spills. About 5 million of barrels are transported daily in the Caribbean, thus generating an intense tanker traffic. It has been estimated that oil discharges from tank washings within the Wider Caribbean could be as high as 7 millions barrels/year. The results of the CARIPOL Regional Programme conducted between 1980-1987 pointed out that a significant levels of petroleum pollution exists throughout the Wider Caribbean and include serious tar contamination of windward exposed beaches, high levels of floating tar within the major currents system and very high levels of dissolved/dispersed hydrocarbons in surface waters. Major effects of this petroleum pollution include: high tar level on many beaches that either prevent recreational use or require very expensive clean-up operations, distress and death to marine life and responses in the enzyme systems of marine organisms that have been correlated with declines in reproductive success. Finally the presence of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in tissues of important economic species have been reported with its potential carcinogenic effects. (author)

Social context of HIV risk behaviours among male-to-female transgenders of colour.

Science.gov (United States)

Nemoto, T; Operario, D; Keatley, J; Villegas, D

2004-08-01

To explore the social context of drug use and sexual behaviours that put male-to-female (MTF) transgenders at risk for HIV, focus groups were conducted consisting of African American, Latina and Asian and Pacific Islander MTF transgenders (N = 48) who reside or work in San Francisco, California. Participants were likely to report having unprotected sex with primary partners to signify love and emotional connection, as well as to receive gender validation from their partners. In contrast, viewing sex work with customers as a business encouraged intentious to use condoms. Safer sex intentions with customers were frequently undermined by urgent financial needs, which stemmed from transphobia, employment discrimination and costly procedures associated with gender transition. Participants reported using drugs as a way to cope with or escape life stresses associated with relationships, sex work, transphobia and financial hardship. Interventions with at-risk MTF transgenders should address the interpersonal and social context of unsafe sex and drug use, particularly the unique roles of relationship issues with male partners, stigma, discrimination and community norms regarding sex work and drug use.

A Matter of Politics: The Effects of the Political Context on Social Work in Norway and Bolivia

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Svein Tuastad

2017-04-01

Full Text Available To which extent do dysfunctional political systems lead to everyday challenges for social workers? Moreover, how do social workers benefit from working in well-ordered democracies?  The purpose of this paper is to gain insights into how the interplay between the political context and social work actually operates. Our main question is: How do accountability and state capacity levels affect daily social work? This interplay frequently becomes associated with levels of democracy and redistribution. We also draw attention to how social workers’ are dependent on the capacity of the state to implement policies. We compare social work and the political and legal contexts in two widely different polities – Norway and Bolivia. Our primary findings indicate that the effects of generally unfavourable political conditions permeate the possibilities for effective social work in previously unforeseen ways. Coordination problems, clientelism and political rivalry lead to everyday challenges on the ground, as many problems seem to reflect the overall institutional system and political culture. In well-ordered political systems, these problems are hardly an issue. In our concluding discussion, we address how the nature of the institutional system and political culture apparently might call for a differentiated approach towards reform strategies. For instance, progressive politicians, citizens and social workers advocating a policy transfer could face severe hindrances in polities, thus comprising weak state capacities.

Neural substrates of framing effects in social contexts: A meta-analytical approach.

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Wang, X T; Rao, Li-Lin; Zheng, Hongming

2017-06-01

We hypothesize that framing effects (risk-averse in the positive frame and risk-seeking in the negative frame) are likely to occur when ambiguous social contexts result in ambiguous or ambivalent risk preferences, leading the decision-maker to search for more subtle cues, such as verbal framing. In a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, we examined framing effects in both unambiguous homogeneous group and more ambiguous heterogeneous group contexts. We began by conducting a meta-analysis and identified three regions of interest: the right inferior frontal gyrus, the left anterior cingulate (ACC)/ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), and the left amygdala. Our own fMRI data were collected while the participants made choices between a sure option and a gamble framed in terms of the number of lives to either save or die. The framing effect was evident in a heterogeneous context with a mixture of kin and strangers, but disappeared in a homogeneous group of either all kin-members or all strangers. The fMRI results revealed a greater activation in the right middle/inferior frontal gyrus under the negative than the positive framing, and less ACC/vmPFC deactivation under positive framing in the heterogamous/ambiguous context. The activation of the amygdala was correlated with greater risk-seeking preference in homogeneous kinship contexts.

Social Context, Stress, Neuropsychiatric Disorders, and the Vasopressin 1b Receptor

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Heather K. Caldwell

2017-10-01

Full Text Available The arginine vasopressin 1b receptor (Avpr1b is involved in the modulation of a variety of behaviors and is an important part of the mammalian hormonal stress axis. The Avpr1b is prominent in hippocampal CA2 pyramidal cells and in the anterior pituitary corticotrophs. Decades of research on this receptor has demonstrated its importance to the modulation of social recognition memory, social forms of aggression, and modulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, particularly under conditions of acute stress. Further, work in humans suggests that the Avpr1b may play a role in human neuropsychiatric disorders and its modulation may have therapeutic potential. This paper reviews what is known about the role of the Avpr1b in the context of social behaviors, the stress axis, and human neuropsychiatric disorders. Further, possible mechanisms for how Avpr1b activation within the hippocampus vs. Avpr1b activation within anterior pituitary may interact with one another to affect behavioral output are proposed.

Assessing the wider environmental value of remediating land contamination

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bardos, R.P.; Kearney, T.E.; Nathanail, C.P.; Weenk, A.; Martin, I.D.

2000-01-01

The aim of this paper is to consider qualitative and quantitative approaches for assessing the wider environmental value of remediating land contamination. In terms of the environmental element of sustainable development, a remediation project's overall environmental performance is the sum of the

Strengthening Coastal Pollution Management in the Wider Caribbean Region

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Lavieren, van H.; Metcalfe, C.D.; Drouillard, K.; Sale, P.; Gold-Bouchot, G.; Reid, R.; Vermeulen, L.C.

2011-01-01

Control of aquatic pollution is critical for improving coastal zone management and for the conservation of fisheries resources. Countries in the Wider Caribbean Region (WCR) generally lack monitoring capacity and do not have reliable information on the levels and distribution of pollutants,

Does Social Context Matter? Income Inequality, Racialized Identity, and Health Among Canada's Aboriginal Peoples Using a Multilevel Approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Spence, Nicholas D

2016-03-01

Debates surrounding the importance of social context versus individual level processes have a long history in public health. Aboriginal peoples in Canada are very diverse, and the reserve communities in which they reside are complex mixes of various cultural and socioeconomic circumstances. The social forces of these communities are believed to affect health, in addition to individual level determinants, but no large scale work has ever probed their relative effects. One aspect of social context, relative deprivation, as indicated by income inequality, has greatly influenced the social determinants of health landscape. An investigation of relative deprivation in Canada's Aboriginal population has never been conducted. This paper proposes a new model of Aboriginal health, using a multidisciplinary theoretical approach that is multilevel. This study explored the self-rated health of respondents using two levels of determinants, contextual and individual. Data were from the 2001 Aboriginal Peoples Survey. There were 18,890 Registered First Nations (subgroup of Aboriginal peoples) on reserve nested within 134 communities. The model was assessed using a hierarchical generalized linear model. There was no significant variation at the contextual level. Subsequently, a sequential logistic regression analysis was run. With the sole exception culture, demographics, lifestyle factors, formal health services, and social support were significant in explaining self-rated health. The non-significant effect of social context, and by extension relative deprivation, as indicated by income inequality, is noteworthy, and the primary role of individual level processes, including the material conditions, social support, and lifestyle behaviors, on health outcomes is illustrated. It is proposed that social structure is best conceptualized as a dynamic determinant of health inequality and more multilevel theoretical models of Aboriginal health should be developed and tested.

Social acceleration and the network effect: a defence of social 'science fiction' and network determinism.

Science.gov (United States)

Hassan, Robert

2010-06-01

This essay is a response to Judy Wajcman's essay 'Life in the fast lane? Towards a sociology of technology and time' (2008: 59-77). In that article Wajcman argued that recent developments in the sociology of temporal change had been marked by a tendency in social theory towards a form of 'science fiction'--a sociological theorizing, she maintains, that bears no real relation to actual, empirically provable developments in the field and should therefore be viewed as not contributing to 'a richer analysis of the relationship between technology and time' (2008: 61). This reply argues that as Wajcman suggests in her essay, there is indeed an 'urgent need for increased dialogue to connect social theory with detailed empirical studies' (2008: 59) but that the most fruitful way to proceed would not be through a constraining of 'science fiction' social theorizing but, rather, through its expansion--and more, that 'science fiction' should take the lead in the process. This essay suggests that the connection between social theory and empirical studies would be strengthened by a wider understanding of the function of knowledge and research in the context of what is termed 'true originality' and 'routine originality'. The former is the domain of social theory and the latter resides within traditional sociological disciplines. It is argued that both need each other to advance our understanding of society, especially in the context of the fast-changing processes of technological development. The example of 'technological determinism' is discussed as illustrative of how 'routine originality' can harden into dogma without the application of 'true originality' to continually question (sometimes through ideas that may appear to border on 'science fiction') comfortable assumptions that may have become 'routine' and shorn of their initial 'originality'.

Look Who’s Talking NOW! Parentese Speech, Social Context, and Language Development Across Time

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Nairán Ramírez-Esparza

2017-06-01

Full Text Available In previous studies, we found that the social interactions infants experience in their everyday lives at 11- and 14-months of age affect language ability at 24 months of age. These studies investigated relationships between the speech style (i.e., parentese speech vs. standard speech and social context [i.e., one-on-one (1:1 vs. group] of language input in infancy and later speech development (i.e., at 24 months of age, controlling for socioeconomic status (SES. Results showed that the amount of exposure to parentese speech-1:1 in infancy was related to productive vocabulary at 24 months. The general goal of the present study was to investigate changes in (1 the pattern of social interactions between caregivers and their children from infancy to childhood and (2 relationships among speech style, social context, and language learning across time. Our study sample consisted of 30 participants from the previously published infant studies, evaluated at 33 months of age. Social interactions were assessed at home using digital first-person perspective recordings of the auditory environment. We found that caregivers use less parentese speech-1:1, and more standard speech-1:1, as their children get older. Furthermore, we found that the effects of parentese speech-1:1 in infancy on later language development at 24 months persist at 33 months of age. Finally, we found that exposure to standard speech-1:1 in childhood was the only social interaction that related to concurrent word production/use. Mediation analyses showed that standard speech-1:1 in childhood fully mediated the effects of parentese speech-1:1 in infancy on language development in childhood, controlling for SES. This study demonstrates that engaging in one-on-one interactions in infancy and later in life has important implications for language development.

Social pathologies in the context of crisis of the modern family

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Małgorzata Słomczyńska

2014-12-01

Full Text Available The problems of the modern family threaten its stability and aid the occurrence of the crisis. The pedagogical environment such as a family in the context of the crisis and accompanying social pathology is no longer the source of safety and pattern of social norms. Dysfunctional family is not able to fulfil its fundamental functions, therefore, it requires identifying the problem and appropriate support adjusted to its needs. This working paper tries to define functions of the modern Polish family as a basic pedagogical environment testifying that it is a source of experience, cultural patterns and social norms. The paper presents factors which disorganize and weaken its functions and destabilize family ties. The crisis of the family is shown as a result of appearing pathologic determinants. It points out that the family which is affected by pathology experiences the crisis of traditional values. The result of this is lack of favorable conditions for development of children. Reproducing deviant behaviours by children in the family enviroment causes not only the threat of lack of social adjustment, but also it may determinate generational dysfunctionality as a result of relaid norms and system of values. The aim of this working papter is to point out social pathologies accompanying the crisis of the modern Polish family. Identifying broadly defined violence and alcoholism as factors threatening its stability. Defining the magnitude of the problem by analyzing selected family pathology research. The presentation of the system of preventative actions, forms of help, remedial models and social support which aim at countering the social exclusion of families in crisis.

Palliative social media.

Science.gov (United States)

Taubert, Mark; Watts, Gareth; Boland, Jason; Radbruch, Lukas

2014-03-01

The uses of social media have become ubiquitous in contemporary society at an astonishingly fast-paced rate. The internet and in particular platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are now part of most people's vocabulary and are starting to replace many face-to-face interactions. The online world, in particular, is alive with discussions, comments and anecdotes about the topics of illness, disease, hospitals, death and dying. The topic of death and dying had in the not too distant past been seen as taboo, but willingness and need to talk openly about it appears to be on the increase. In parallel to this, many public awareness campaigns are highlighting society's need to be more prepared for dying and death. This will have a significant impact on the way terminally ill patients and their families approach the last years, months and weeks of their lives and how they might expect palliative health and social care professionals working with them through these difficult periods to interact with them. We pay particular attention to the areas of digital posterity creation and memorialisation within the wider holistic context of end-of-life care.

Associations between meal complexity and social context in four Nordic countries

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kahma, Nina; Mäkelä, Johanna; Niva, Mari

2014-01-01

main meals, lunch and dinner. The analysis builds on the concept of eating system, examining the effect sociability has on meal complexity. In the end we ask whether complexity can better be explained by social context, or if it, rather, results from social differentiation. The data (N=8248) are drawn......Contemporary eating is often portrayed by images of snacking, solitary grazing, disintegration of sociability, demise of family meals, and increasingly irregular eating patterns –what Claude Fischler has famously described as gastroanomy. Inspired by the concept of eating system, this article...... from the Food in Nordic Everyday Life survey conducted in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden in 2012. The Finns and Swedes typically had two hot meals a day, whereas the Danes and Norwegians only had one. Moreover, the differences in the complexity were the greatest in hot dinners, the Danes...

Social capital and young adolescents' perceived health in different sociocultural settings.

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Drukker, Marjan; Buka, Stephen L; Kaplan, Charles; McKenzie, Kwame; Van Os, Jim

2005-07-01

We conducted a cross-national study to examine the association between neighbourhood socioeconomic deprivation, social capital and child health in two countries and multiple ethnic groups. For our analysis we used data from (1) the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN), USA and (2) the Maastricht Quality of Life study (MQoL), the Netherlands. Both the PHDCN and the MQoL collected data on objective neighbourhood socioeconomic deprivation, subjective neighbourhood social capital (i.e. informal social control, ISC, social cohesion and trust, SC&T), and children's perceived health. For the present analyses, 11- and 12-year olds were selected. Multilevel analyses were conducted using both neighbourhood level and individual-level data. Lower socioeconomic deprivation scores and higher levels of ISC as well as SC&T were associated with higher levels of children's perceived health, in both Maastricht and the Chicago Hispanic subsample, but not in the Chicago non-Hispanic samples. The results suggest that associations between the wider social environment and health outcomes vary across different populations and cross-national contexts.

FROM THE CLASSICS TO THE SOCIALS: AN ANALYSIS OF THE MAIN CONTRACTUAL PRINCIPLES IN THE LIGHT OF THE HISTORICAL-SOCIAL CONTEXT

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Delma Pìres Pinto

2018-03-01

Full Text Available The contract underwent several changes from Roman law to the current civil law. These transformations are felt in the study of contractual theory, especially of principles, which reflect the influence of the social-historical context on the legal design of the institute. The present article aims to make a study of the main contractual principles of the present civil law, from the historical-social moment of its emergence and from a dynamic perspective, contemplating the reflexes of the social-historical changes in these principles. To do so, it starts with the contract as a source of obligations in Roman law, passing through the so-called classic contract, the rise of contractual freedom, until arriving at the current contractual model, in which the so-called social principles emerge and coexist together.

About social and cultural aspects of human nature in the context of philosophical anthropology

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S. K. Kostiuchkov

2015-02-01

Full Text Available In the paper the approaches to socio­cultural understanding of human nature in the context of philosophical anthropology, analyzes the essence of human nature contradictions inherent in the contradiction between biological and social components; author focuses attention on the concept of «identity» in the context of philosophical anthropology and characterization of the status of human life; put forward a reasoned statement that outlook, as the level of philosophical understanding of the world, combining both biological and social components of human nature. It is emphasized that universal principle transistorychnym public attitudes towards human life is the recognition of its absolute value in different dimensions ­ religious, philosophical, scientific. The author notes that religious, especially biblical doctrine emphasizes the value of human life that flows from dignity of man, created in God’s image, a rational being who comes to Earth as, in a sense, a representative of God. The article stresses the urgency of a new philosophical paradigm as an important ideological guideline that requires perceive and understand the biological basis of man is not as indispensable, but neutral background of social life, but as a basis upon which and through which a person is transformed into a cultural and civilized being.

Social Learning Theory: its application in the context of nurse education.

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Bahn, D

2001-02-01

Cognitive theories are fundamental to enable problem solving and the ability to understand and apply principles in a variety of situations. This article looks at Social Learning Theory, critically analysing its principles, which are based on observational learning and modelling, and considering its value and application in the context of nurse education. It also considers the component processes that will determine the outcome of observed behaviour, other than reinforcement, as identified by Bandura, namely: attention, retention, motor reproduction, and motivation. Copyright 2001 Harcourt Publishers Ltd.

Between information seeking and sharing – use of social media in a young learner context

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Hyldegård, Jette Seiden

2013-01-01

-generated content: Which activities are associated with social media as information sources? What are the motivations and constraints for using social media as information sources? The presentation is based on a systematic review of a selected number of core LIS journals in addition to results from recent research......This presentation addresses information seeking behavior among young learners and ,in particular, their use of social media in an educational context. The focus is on young learners’ use of social media as information sources in the intersection between information seeking and sharing of user...... associated with social media as information sources and the implications for information literacy. Many web tutorials have been developed with the aim of guiding students’ information seeking, research and writing behavior, hence providing a platform for building information literacy (IL) knowledge...

When do we communicate stereotypes? Influence of the social context on the linguistic expectancy bias

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wigboldus, DHJ; Spears, R; Semin, GR

The linguistic expectancy bias (LEB) refers to the tendency to describe expectancy consistent information at a higher level of linguistic abstraction than expectancy inconsistent information. Two experiments examined the influence of the social communicative context on the production of this

Beyond our origin: adding social context to an explanation of sex differences in emotion expression

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Fischer, A.H.

2009-01-01

Vigil's socio-relational framework of sex differences in emotional expressiveness emphasizes general sex differences in emotional responding, but largely ignores the social context in which emotions are expressed. There is much empirical evidence showing that sex differences in emotion displays are

Validating a Culturally-Sensitive Social Competence Training Programme for Adolescents with ASD in a Chinese Context: An Initial Investigation

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Chan, Raymond Won Shing; Leung, Cecilia Nga Wing; Ng, Denise Ching Yiu; Yau, Sania Sau Wai

2018-01-01

Previous studies on social skills training on ASD were done almost exclusively in the West with children as the main subjects. Demonstrations of the applicability of social interventions in different cultures and age groups are warranted. The current study outlined the development and preliminary evaluation of a CBT-context-based social competence…

Prediction-error in the context of real social relationships modulates reward system activity

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Joshua ePoore

2012-08-01

Full Text Available The human reward system is sensitive to both social (e.g., validation and non-social rewards (e.g., money and is likely integral for relationship development and reputation building. However, data is sparse on the question of whether implicit social reward processing meaningfully contributes to explicit social representations such as trust and attachment security in pre-existing relationships. This event-related fMRI experiment examined reward system prediction-error activity in response to a potent social reward—social validation—and this activity’s relation to both attachment security and trust in the context of real romantic relationships. During the experiment, participants’ expectations for their romantic partners’ positive regard of them were confirmed (validated or violated, in either positive or negative directions. Primary analyses were conducted using predefined regions of interest, the locations of which were taken from previously published research. Results indicate that activity for mid-brain and striatal reward system regions of interest was modulated by social reward expectation violation in ways consistent with prior research on reward prediction-error. Additionally, activity in the striatum during viewing of disconfirmatory information was associated with both increases in post-scan reports of attachment anxiety and decreases in post-scan trust, a finding that follows directly from representational models of attachment and trust.

Prediction-error in the context of real social relationships modulates reward system activity.

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Poore, Joshua C; Pfeifer, Jennifer H; Berkman, Elliot T; Inagaki, Tristen K; Welborn, Benjamin L; Lieberman, Matthew D

2012-01-01

The human reward system is sensitive to both social (e.g., validation) and non-social rewards (e.g., money) and is likely integral for relationship development and reputation building. However, data is sparse on the question of whether implicit social reward processing meaningfully contributes to explicit social representations such as trust and attachment security in pre-existing relationships. This event-related fMRI experiment examined reward system prediction-error activity in response to a potent social reward-social validation-and this activity's relation to both attachment security and trust in the context of real romantic relationships. During the experiment, participants' expectations for their romantic partners' positive regard of them were confirmed (validated) or violated, in either positive or negative directions. Primary analyses were conducted using predefined regions of interest, the locations of which were taken from previously published research. Results indicate that activity for mid-brain and striatal reward system regions of interest was modulated by social reward expectation violation in ways consistent with prior research on reward prediction-error. Additionally, activity in the striatum during viewing of disconfirmatory information was associated with both increases in post-scan reports of attachment anxiety and decreases in post-scan trust, a finding that follows directly from representational models of attachment and trust.

Within-culture variations of uniqueness: towards an integrative approach based on social status, gender, life contexts, and interpersonal comparison.

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Causse, Elsa; Félonneau, Marie-Line

2014-01-01

Research on uniqueness is widely focused on cross-cultural comparisons and tends to postulate a certain form of within-culture homogeneity. Taking the opposite course of this classic posture, we aimed at testing an integrative approach enabling the study of within-culture variations of uniqueness. This approach considered different sources of variation: social status, gender, life contexts, and interpersonal comparison. Four hundred seventy-nine participants completed a measure based on descriptions of "self" and "other." Results showed important variations of uniqueness. An interaction between social status and life contexts revealed the expression of uniqueness in the low-status group. This study highlights the complexity of uniqueness that appears to be related to both cultural ideology and social hierarchy.

The relevance of social contexts and social action in reducing substance use and victimization among women participating in an HIV prevention intervention in Cape Town, South Africa

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Reed E

2013-06-01

Full Text Available Elizabeth Reed,1 Andrea N Emanuel,2 Bronwyn Myers,3,4 Kim Johnson,3 Wendee M Wechsberg2,5–7 1George Washington University School of Public Health, Department of Prevention and Community Health, Washington, DC, USA; 2RTI International, Research Triangle Park, NC, USA; 3Alcohol and Drug Abuse Research Unit, Medical Research Council, Cape Town, South Africa; 4Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa; 5Gillings Global School of Public Health, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA; 6Psychology in the Public Interest, North Carolina State University, NC, USA; 7Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University School of Medicine, NC, USA Objectives: To examine qualitatively how women's social context and community mobilization (eg, mobilizing women to take social action and engaging their community in social change influence substance use abstinence and victimization among women participating in a human immunodeficiency virus (HIV intervention in Cape Town, South Africa. Methods: Thirty women who had participated in a randomized controlled trial of a group-delivered intervention to address substance use, gender-based violence, and associated risk for HIV (The Women's Health CoOp were selected to participate in semi-structured interviews about their perceived impact of the intervention on their substance use and exposure to victimization. The Women's CoOp intervention involved creating a new positive social environment for women within a group setting that also fostered women's social action (eg, educating peers or family members in the community. Interviews were analyzed using content analysis and coded to examine women's descriptions of social contexts and social action, and the influence of these on women's substance use abstinence and exposure to victimization. Results: Social support (eg, via program staff and other participants and social action (eg, engaging others in the

A Critical Examination of Geoengineering: Economic and Technological Rationality in Social Context

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Ryan Gunderson

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Geoengineering—specifically stratospheric aerosol injection—is not only risky, but supports powerful economic interests, protects an inherently ecologically harmful social formation, relegates the fundamental social-structural changes needed to address climate change, and is rooted in a vision of a nature as a set of passive resources that can be fully controlled in line with the demands of capital. The case for geoengineering is incomprehensible without analyzing the social context that gave birth to it: capitalism’s inability to overcome a contradiction between the need to accumulate capital, on the one hand, and the need to maintain a stable climate system on the other. Substantial emissions reductions, unlike geoengineering, are costly, rely more on social-structural than technical changes, and are at odds with the current social order. Because of this, geoengineering will increasingly be considered a core response to climate change. In light of Herbert Marcuse’s critical theory, the promotion of geoengineering as a market-friendly and high-tech strategy is shown to reflect a society that cannot set substantive aims through reason and transforms what should be considered means (technology and economic production into ends themselves. Such a condition echoes the first-generation Frankfurt School’s central thesis: instrumental rationality remains irrational.

Social Change Education: Context Matters

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Choules, Kathryn

2007-01-01

Social change educators challenge social, economic, and political injustices that exist locally and globally. Their students may be people marginalized by these injustices or conversely, people who benefit from unjust systems. Much of the current social change pedagogy derives from the foundational work of Paulo Freire, developed in Brazil in…

Seeing the forest for the trees: hybridity and social-ecological symbols, rituals and resilience in postdisaster contexts

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Keith G. Tidball

2014-12-01

Full Text Available The role of community-based natural resources management in the form of "greening" after large scale system shocks and surprises is argued to provide multiple benefits via engagement with living elements of social-ecological systems and subsequent enhanced resilience at multiple scales. The importance of so-called social-ecological symbols, especially the potent hybrid symbols of trees and their handling after a disaster is interrogated. The paper explores the notion of hybridity, and applies it to the hybrid symbol of the tree in postdisaster contexts. The paper briefly highlights three U.S. cases documenting the symbolic roles of trees in a context of significant shock to a social-ecological system: the terrorist attacks on New York City in 2001, the devastating hurricane that struck New Orleans in 2005, and the sudden tornadoes that wreaked havoc upon the small Midwestern city of Joplin, Missouri in 2011.

Context-dependent social evaluation in 4.5-month-old human infants: the role of domain-general versus domain-specific processes in the development of social evaluation.

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Hamlin, J K

2014-01-01

The ability to distinguish friends from foes allows humans to engage in mutually beneficial cooperative acts while avoiding the costs associated with cooperating with the wrong individuals. One way to do so effectively is to observe how unknown individuals behave toward third parties, and to selectively cooperate with those who help others while avoiding those who harm others. Recent research suggests that a preference for prosocial over antisocial individuals emerges by the time that infants are 3 months of age, and by 8 months, but not before, infants evaluate others' actions in context: they prefer those who harm, rather than help, individuals who have previously harmed others. Currently there are at least two reasons for younger infants' failure to show context-dependent social evaluations. First, this failure may reflect fundamental change in infants' social evaluation system over the first year of life, in which infants first prefer helpers in any situation and only later evaluate prosocial and antisocial actors in context. On the other hand, it is possible that this developmental change actually reflects domain-general limitations of younger infants, such as limited memory and processing capacities. To distinguish between these possibilities, 4.5-month-olds in the current studies were habituated, rather than familiarized as in previous work, to one individual helping and another harming a third party, greatly increasing infants' exposure to the characters' actions. Following habituation, 4.5-month-olds displayed context-dependent social preferences, selectively reaching for helpers of prosocial and hinderers of antisocial others. Such results suggest that younger infants' failure to display global social evaluation in previous work reflected domain-general rather than domain-specific limitations.

Context-dependent social evaluation in 4.5-month-old human infants: The role of domain-general versus domain-specific processes in the development of social evaluation

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J Kiley eHamlin

2014-06-01

Full Text Available The ability to distinguish friends from foes allows humans to engage in mutually beneficial cooperative acts while avoiding the costs associated with cooperating with the wrong individuals. One way to do so effectively is to observe how unknown individuals behave toward third parties, and to selectively cooperate with those who help others while avoiding those who harm others. Recent research suggests that a preference for prosocial over antisocial individuals emerges by the time that infants are 3 months of age, and by 8 months, but not before, infants evaluate others’ actions in context: they prefer those who harm, rather than help, individuals who have previously harmed others. Currently there are at least two reasons for younger infants’ failure to show context-dependent social evaluations. First, this failure may reflect fundamental change in infants’ social evaluation system over the first year of life, in which infants first prefer helpers in any situation and only later evaluate prosocial and antisocial actors in context. On the other hand, it is possible that this developmental change actually reflects domain-general limitations of younger infants, such as limited memory and processing capacities. To distinguish between these possibilities, 4.5-month-olds in the current studies were habituated, rather than familiarized as in previous work, to one individual helping and another harming a third party, greatly increasing infants’ exposure to the characters’ actions. Following habituation, 4.5-month-olds displayed context-dependent social preferences, selectively reaching for helpers of prosocial and hinderers of antisocial others. Such results suggest that younger infants’ failure to display global social evaluation in previous work reflected domain-general rather than domain-specific limitations.

Learning to Live Together: A Challenge for Schools Located in Contexts of Social Vulnerability

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Grau, Roser; García-Raga, Laura

2017-01-01

Currently, there are many educational centres that demonstrate the need to promote initiatives to improve coexistence at school at the international level, especially in those located in contexts of social vulnerability. A socio-educational programme has been developed, applied and evaluated at a Singular Education Action Centre (Centro de Acción…

Physical and Social Contexts of Physical Activity Behaviors of Fifth and Seventh Grade Youth

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Saunders, Ruth P.; Dowda, Marsha; Mciver, Kerry; McDonald, Samantha M.; Pate, Russell R.

2018-01-01

Background: The purpose of this study was to characterize the temporal, social, and physical contexts for physical activities commonly reported in a diverse cohort of 753 boys and girls from fifth to seventh grade. Methods: Data were obtained from a multilevel longitudinal study, the Transitions and Activity Changes in Kids. The Physical Activity…

Victimization, gender, nonconformity and contexts. The importance of gender and gender nonconformity on same-sex attracted Dutch youth's perceived experiences of victimization across social contexts

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van Lisdonk, J.; van Bergen, D.D.; Hospers, H.; Keuzenkamp, S.

2015-01-01

In this survey study, the impact of gender and gender nonconformity on Dutch same-sex-attracted youth's perceived experiences of same-sex sexuality-related victimization was systematically compared across social contexts. Participants were between ages 16 and 18 and enrolled in secondary education

Challenges to the Learning Organization in the Context of Generational Diversity and Social Networks

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Kaminska, Renata; Borzillo, Stefano

2018-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to gain a better understanding of the challenges to the emergence of a learning organization (LO) posed by a context of generational diversity and an enterprise social networking system (ESNS). Design/methodology/approach: This study uses a qualitative methodology based on an analysis of 20 semi-structured…

Lack of Ecological and Life History Context Can Create the Illusion of Social Interactions in Dictyostelium discoideum.

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Martínez-García, Ricardo; Tarnita, Corina E

2016-12-01

Studies of social microbes often focus on one fitness component (reproductive success within the social complex), with little information about or attention to other stages of the life cycle or the ecological context. This can lead to paradoxical results. The life cycle of the social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum includes a multicellular stage in which not necessarily clonal amoebae aggregate upon starvation to form a possibly chimeric (genetically heterogeneous) fruiting body made of dead stalk cells and spores. The lab-measured reproductive skew in the spores of chimeras indicates strong social antagonism that should result in low genotypic diversity, which is inconsistent with observations from nature. Two studies have suggested that this inconsistency stems from the one-dimensional assessment of fitness (spore production) and that the solution lies in tradeoffs between multiple life-history traits, e.g.: spore size versus viability; and spore-formation (via aggregation) versus staying vegetative (as non-aggregated cells). We develop an ecologically-grounded, socially-neutral model (i.e. no social interactions between genotypes) for the life cycle of social amoebae in which we theoretically explore multiple non-social life-history traits, tradeoffs and tradeoff-implementing mechanisms. We find that spore production comes at the expense of time to complete aggregation, and, depending on the experimental setup, spore size and viability. Furthermore, experimental results regarding apparent social interactions within chimeric mixes can be qualitatively recapitulated under this neutral hypothesis, without needing to invoke social interactions. This allows for simple potential resolutions to the previously paradoxical results. We conclude that the complexities of life histories, including social behavior and multicellularity, can only be understood in the appropriate multidimensional ecological context, when considering all stages of the life cycle.

Understanding the health of lorry drivers in context: A critical discourse analysis.

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Caddick, Nick; Varela-Mato, Veronica; Nimmo, Myra A; Clemes, Stacey; Yates, Tom; King, James A

2017-01-01

This article moves beyond previous attempts to understand health problems in the lives of professional lorry drivers by placing the study of drivers' health in a wider social and cultural context. A combination of methods including focus groups, interviews and observations were used to collect data from a group of 24 lorry drivers working at a large transport company in the United Kingdom. Employing a critical discourse analysis, we identified the dominant discourses and subject positions shaping the formation of drivers' health and lifestyle choices. This analysis was systematically combined with an exploration of the gendered ways in which an almost exclusively male workforce talked about health. Findings revealed that drivers were constituted within a neoliberal economic discourse, which is reflective of the broader social structure, and which partly restricted drivers' opportunities for healthy living. Concurrently, drivers adopted the subject position of 'average man' as a way of defending their personal and masculine status in regards to health and to justify jettisoning approaches to healthy living that were deemed too extreme or irrational in the face of the constraints of their working lives. Suggestions for driver health promotion include refocusing on the social and cultural - rather than individual - underpinnings of driver health issues and a move away from moralistic approaches to health promotion.

Context Modulates Congruency Effects in Selective Attention to Social Cues

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Andrea Ravagli

2018-06-01

Full Text Available Head and gaze directions are used during social interactions as essential cues to infer where someone attends. When head and gaze are oriented toward opposite directions, we need to extract socially meaningful information despite stimulus conflict. Recently, a cognitive and neural mechanism for filtering-out conflicting stimuli has been identified while performing non-social attention tasks. This mechanism is engaged proactively when conflict is anticipated in a high proportion of trials and reactively when conflict occurs infrequently. Here, we investigated whether a similar mechanism is at play for limiting distraction from conflicting social cues during gaze or head direction discrimination tasks in contexts with different probabilities of conflict. Results showed that, for the gaze direction task only (Experiment 1, inverse efficiency (IE scores for distractor-absent trials (i.e., faces with averted gaze and centrally oriented head were larger (indicating worse performance when these trials were intermixed with congruent/incongruent distractor-present trials (i.e., faces with averted gaze and tilted head in the same/opposite direction relative to when the same distractor-absent trials were shown in isolation. Moreover, on distractor-present trials, IE scores for congruent (vs. incongruent head-gaze pairs in blocks with rare conflict were larger than in blocks with frequent conflict, suggesting that adaptation to conflict was more efficient than adaptation to infrequent events. However, when the task required discrimination of head orientation while ignoring gaze direction, performance was not impacted by both block-level and current trial congruency (Experiment 2, unless the cognitive load of the task was increased by adding a concurrent task (Experiment 3. Overall, our study demonstrates that during attention to social cues proactive cognitive control mechanisms are modulated by the expectation of conflicting stimulus information at both

Prospective Associations Between Friendship Adjustment and Social Strategies: Friendship as a Context for Building Social Skills

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Glick, Gary C.; Rose, Amanda J.

2012-01-01

The proposal that friendships provide a context for the development of social skills is widely accepted. Yet little research exists to support these claims. In the present study, children and adolescents (N = 912) were presented with vignettes in which their friend encountered a social stressor and they could help the friend and vignettes in which they encountered a stressor and could seek help from the friend. Social strategies in response to these vignettes were assessed in the fall and spring of the school year. Notably, different indicators of friendship adjustment had unique effects on youths’ strategies in response to helping tasks. Whereas having more friends predicted decreases in avoidant or hostile strategies, having high-quality friendships predicted emotionally-engaged strategies that involved talking about the problem. Moreover, whereas having more friends predicted increases in relatively disengaged strategies, like distraction and acting like the problem never happened, having high-quality predicted decreases in these strategies. The present study also tested whether youths’ strategies in fall predicted changes in friendship adjustment by the spring. Only strategies which may be seen as major friendship transgressions (i.e., avoiding or blaming the friend when the friend encounters a problem) predicted changes in friendship over time. Collectively, these results provide important new information on the interplay between social competencies and friendship experiences and suggest that friendships may provide a critical venue for the development of important relationship skills. PMID:21443336

Prospective associations between friendship adjustment and social strategies: friendship as a context for building social skills.

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Glick, Gary C; Rose, Amanda J

2011-07-01

The proposal that friendships provide a context for the development of social skills is widely accepted. Yet little research exists to support this claim. In the present study, children and adolescents (N = 912) were presented with vignettes in which a friend encountered a social stressor and they could help the friend and vignettes in which they encountered a stressor and could seek help from the friend. Social strategies in response to these vignettes were assessed in the fall and spring of the school year. Different indicators of friendship adjustment had unique effects on youths' strategies in response to helping tasks. Whereas having more friends predicted decreases in avoidant or hostile strategies, having high-quality friendships predicted emotionally engaged strategies that involved talking about the problem. Moreover, whereas having more friends predicted increases in relatively disengaged strategies, like distraction and acting like the problem never happened, having high-quality friendships predicted decreases in these strategies. The present study also tested whether youths' strategies in the fall predicted changes in friendship adjustment by the spring. Only strategies which may be seen as major friendship transgressions (i.e., avoiding or blaming the friend when the friend encounters a problem) predicted changes in friendship over time. Collectively, these results provide important new information on the interplay between social competencies and friendship experiences and suggest that friendships may provide a critical venue for the development of important relationship skills. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved

Wider Opportunities for Women Nontraditional Work Programs: A Guide.

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Wider Opportunities for Women, Inc., Washington, DC.

Since 1970, Wider Opportunities for Women (WOW), in Washington, D.C., has conducted programs to train and place disadvantaged women in nontraditional jobs. The results have been record-breaking: high placement rates, high job retention rates, good starting salaries, and upward mobility for women who seemed doomed to a life of poverty and…

Bring in the social context: towards an integrated approach to health promotion and prevention.

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Thorlindsson, Thorolfur

2011-03-01

In this paper I take up the quest for an integrated approach to health promotion and prevention that incorporates the social context. I suggest that an integrated theory of public health has to rethink the individual society relationships and move beyond the dominance of socialization theory and individual level analysis. A theoretical analysis of key issues in an integrated theory of public health. I maintain that we must shift the attention away from the individual to the social organization and the embeddedness of the social actor in the ongoing social networks and relationships; we must pay attention to the definition of levels of analysis and the relationships between them; we must emphasize the social mechanisms that influence people in social relationships and networks and connect various levels; we must reconsider some of the epistemological and methodological ideas that have been taken for granted and pay attention to issues of emergence and reductionism and the use of multiple methods. I conclude by suggesting that if public health is to move forward and develop better theories, and more efficient ways of prevention and health promotion, it needs to move beyond reductionist models of social behaviour and develop a transdisciplinary approach that integrates various elements from different disciplines and different levels of analysis.

Is Cooperative Memory Special? The Role of Costly Errors, Context, and Social Network Size When Remembering Cooperative Actions

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Tim Winke

2017-10-01

Full Text Available Theoretical studies of cooperative behavior have focused on decision strategies, such as tit-for-tat, that depend on remembering a partner’s last choices. Yet, an empirical study by Stevens et al. (2011 demonstrated that human memory may not meet the requirements that needed to use these strategies. When asked to recall the previous behavior of simulated partners in a cooperative memory task, participants performed poorly, making errors in 10–24% of the trials. However, we do not know the extent to which this task taps specialized cognition for cooperation. It may be possible to engage participants in more cooperative, strategic thinking, which may improve memory. On the other hand, compared with other situations, a cooperative context may already engage improved memory via cheater detection mechanisms. This study investigated the specificity of memory in cooperative contexts by varying (1 the costs of errors in memory by making forgetting defection more costly and (2 whether the recall situation is framed as a cooperative or neutral context. Also, we investigated whether variation in participants’ social network size could account for individual differences observed in memory accuracy. We found that neither including differential costs for misremembering defection nor removing the cooperative context influenced memory accuracy for cooperation. Combined, these results suggest that memory accuracy is robust to differences in the cooperative context: Adding more strategic components does not help accuracy, and removing cooperative components does not hurt accuracy. Social network size, however, did correlate with memory accuracy: People with larger networks remembered the events better. These findings suggest that cooperative memory does not seem to be special compared with other forms of memory, which aligns with previous work demonstrating the domain generality of memory. However, the demands of interacting in a large social network may

Eye-tracking reveals a slowdown of social context processing during intention attribution in patients with schizophrenia.

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Roux, Paul; Brunet-Gouet, Eric; Passerieux, Christine; Ramus, Franck

2016-03-01

Schizophrenia is associated with poor theory of mind (ToM), particularly in the attribution of intentions to others. It is also associated with abnormal gaze behaviours and contextual processing. This study investigated to what extent impaired ToM in patients with schizophrenia is related to abnormal processing of social context. We evaluated ToM using a nonverbal intention attribution task based on comic strips depicting social/nonsocial and contextual/noncontextual events while eye movements were recorded. Eye-tracking was used to assess processing time dedicated to visual cues contained in regions of interest identified in a pilot study. We measured cognitive contextual control on a separate task. We tested 29 patients with schizophrenia and 29 controls. Compared with controls, patients were slower in intention attribution but not in physical reasoning. They looked longer than controls at contextual cues displayed in the first 2 context pictures of the comic strips, and this difference was greater for intention attribution than for physical reasoning. We found no group difference in time spent looking at noncontextual cues. Patients' impairment in contextual control did not explain their increased reaction time and gaze duration on contextual cues during intention attribution. Difficulty may not have been equivalent between intention attribution and physical reasoning conditions. Overall, schizophrenia was characterized by a delay in intention attribution related to a slowdown of social context processing that was not explained by worse executive contextual control.

Brownfields to green fields: Realising wider benefits from practical contaminant phytomanagement strategies.

Science.gov (United States)

Cundy, A B; Bardos, R P; Puschenreiter, M; Mench, M; Bert, V; Friesl-Hanl, W; Müller, I; Li, X N; Weyens, N; Witters, N; Vangronsveld, J

2016-12-15

Gentle remediation options (GROs) are risk management strategies or technologies involving plant (phyto-), fungi (myco-), and/or bacteria-based methods that result in a net gain (or at least no gross reduction) in soil function as well as effective risk management. GRO strategies can be customised along contaminant linkages, and can generate a range of wider economic, environmental and societal benefits in contaminated land management (and in brownfields management more widely). The application of GROs as practical on-site remedial solutions is still limited however, particularly in Europe and at trace element (typically metal and metalloid) contaminated sites. This paper discusses challenges to the practical adoption of GROs in contaminated land management, and outlines the decision support tools and best practice guidance developed in the European Commission FP7-funded GREENLAND project aimed at overcoming these challenges. The GREENLAND guidance promotes a refocus from phytoremediation to wider GROs- or phyto-management based approaches which place realisation of wider benefits at the core of site design, and where gentle remediation technologies can be applied as part of integrated, mixed, site risk management solutions or as part of "holding strategies" for vacant sites. The combination of GROs with renewables, both in terms of biomass generation but also with green technologies such as wind and solar power, can provide a range of economic and other benefits and can potentially support the return of low-level contaminated sites to productive usage, while combining GROs with urban design and landscape architecture, and integrating GRO strategies with sustainable urban drainage systems and community gardens/parkland (particularly for health and leisure benefits), has large potential for triggering GRO application and in realising wider benefits in urban and suburban systems. Quantifying these wider benefits and value (above standard economic returns) will be

Transformation of Adolescent Peer Relations in the Social Media Context: Part 1-A Theoretical Framework and Application to Dyadic Peer Relationships.

Science.gov (United States)

Nesi, Jacqueline; Choukas-Bradley, Sophia; Prinstein, Mitchell J

2018-04-07

Investigators have long recognized that adolescents' peer experiences provide a crucial context for the acquisition of developmental competencies, as well as potential risks for a range of adjustment difficulties. However, recent years have seen an exponential increase in adolescents' adoption of social media tools, fundamentally reshaping the landscape of adolescent peer interactions. Although research has begun to examine social media use among adolescents, researchers have lacked a unifying framework for understanding the impact of social media on adolescents' peer experiences. This paper represents Part 1 of a two-part theoretical review, in which we offer a transformation framework to integrate interdisciplinary social media scholarship and guide future work on social media use and peer relations from a theory-driven perspective. We draw on prior conceptualizations of social media as a distinct interpersonal context and apply this understanding to adolescents' peer experiences, outlining features of social media with particular relevance to adolescent peer relations. We argue that social media transforms adolescent peer relationships in five key ways: by changing the frequency or immediacy of experiences, amplifying experiences and demands, altering the qualitative nature of interactions, facilitating new opportunities for compensatory behaviors, and creating entirely novel behaviors. We offer an illustration of the transformation framework applied to adolescents' dyadic friendship processes (i.e., experiences typically occurring between two individuals), reviewing existing evidence and offering theoretical implications. Overall, the transformation framework represents a departure from the prevailing approaches of prior peer relations work and a new model for understanding peer relations in the social media context.

The emergence of a “City of Cages” in Lima : neighbourhood appropriation in the context of rising insecurities

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jörg Plöger

2007-06-01

Full Text Available Lima, like other Latin American metropolises, has experienced profound changes in the context of broader transformation processes since the 1990s. Gated residential developments have emerged as one characteristic feature of the new spatial order. The Peruvian capital shows some unique features however. “Typical” gated communities are relatively seldom. Subsequently enclosed neighbourhoods are the dominant type of residential enclave and the main focus of this article. They have now spread across most parts of the metropolitan area and crosscut socio-economic lines. Security-related interventions such as the installation of street gates or the employment of security guards are implemented subsequently. Further characteristics are the high degree of informality and the dominant role of the residents in local place building. This article analyses different aspects of the fortification process in Lima, such as its dimension, factors shaping the spatial outcome, the interaction with other security-providing bodies and the importance of residential organisation. It will be argued that their emergence must be understood in the context of wider transformation processes related to the recession of the 1980s and structural adjustment of the 1990s. The majority of the population is confronted with a wide range of insecurities. These are most directly expressed through a perceived or real increase in crime and anti-social behaviour. The state, on the other hand, seems to be unable to provide sufficient services. In the realm of security provision this is manifested in the proliferation of additional actors. As a consequence of the “protection gap”, the residents of many areas in Lima have reacted by continuously appropriating, controlling and fortifying their neighbourhoods. This exertion of localised spatial control can be interpreted as an attempt to re-establish stable “comfort zones” as opposed to wider urban social divisions.

Here, there and everywhere: emotion and mental state talk in different social contexts predicts empathic helping in toddlers

OpenAIRE

Drummond, Jesse; Paul, Elena F.; Waugh, Whitney E.; Hammond, Stuart I.; Brownell, Celia A.

2014-01-01

A growing body of literature suggests that parents socialize early-emerging prosocial behavior across varied contexts and in subtle yet powerful ways. We focus on discourse about emotions and mental states as one potential socialization mechanism given its conceptual relevance to prosocial behavior and its known positive relations with emotion understanding and social-cognitive development, as well as parents’ frequent use of such discourse beginning in infancy. Specifically, we ask how paren...

The relevance of the social context for media coverage of victims

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pavićević Olivera

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Media coverage of human suffering caused by trauma, illness, poverty and disasters worldwide takes up a significant part of media coverage and affects the identity of all actors, both active and passive. Media presentation shapes our thinking and reasoning at the group level, and has far reached impact. The social context of media reporting on victims is shaped by the capacity of the social system to recognize, acknowledge, strengthen and protect the victim. As an aspect of this capacity, media coverage of victims is indicator of victimization visibility. This paper discusses nature of media reporting as a phenomenon appearing in various forms as per given sources of victimization, and the ethical aspects of media presentation of victims. The aim of the paper is to contribute to the critical analysis of the media coverage of victims, by reconsidering an increased visibility of victims and their suffering, which is generated by media reporting, and whose dominant characteristic is presenting victims in the interpretative and performing manner.

THE SOCIAL CONTEXT OF KENTISH RAISING: ISSUES IN OLD ENGLISH SOCIOLINGUISTICS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Graeme Trousdale

2005-06-01

Full Text Available This article considers issues in Old English sociolinguistics, in relation to specific changes affecting the low front vowels in ninth-century Kentish, as manifest in spelling variation in charters of the time. This change is referred to as Kentish Raising (Hogg 1988. It is suggested that variationist sociolinguistics is not an appropriate framework within which to explain Kentish Raising, since the nature of the data is such that a variationist approach is untenable. A reconstruction of the social, political and cultural situation in ninth-century Kent is provided, which examines Mercian influence in the period, and suggests that a Mercian-driven change from above (Second Fronting cannot be the source of Kentish Raising. Finally, it is proposed that recent work in genetic anthropology, which seeks to discover more about the nature and extent of the continental migrations, may be useful in understanding the social context in which the varieties of Old English existed and developed.

Socialization and gendered biographical agency in a multicultural migration context : the life history of a young Moroccan woman in Germany

OpenAIRE

Al-Rebholz, Anil

2014-01-01

"In light of the challenges of globalization, hybridization of cultures, and transnational migration movements worldwide, some central deficits of socialization theory have been identified. As a response to these challenges, the necessity of developing 'biographical socialization research' and a 'subject-oriented socialization theory' are underlined. In this paper, the notion of 'biographical agency', embedded in the social and temporal context of biographies, is proposed to overcome shortcom...

Social Commerce – E-Commerce in Social Media Context

OpenAIRE

Linda Sau-ling LAI

2010-01-01

This paper aims to address the new trend of social commerce as electronic commerce leverages Web 2.0 technologies and online social media. The infusions of new technologies on the World Wide Web connect users in their homes and workplaces, thus transforming social formations and business transactions. An in-depth study of the growth and success of a social commerce site, Facebook was conducted. The investigation is finalized with a triad relational model which reflects so...

Three experimental approaches to measure the social context dependence of prejudice communication and discriminatory behavior.

Science.gov (United States)

Beyer, Heiko; Liebe, Ulf

2015-01-01

Empirical research on discrimination is faced with crucial problems stemming from the specific character of its object of study. In democratic societies the communication of prejudices and other forms of discriminatory behavior is considered socially undesirable and depends on situational factors such as whether a situation is considered private or whether a discriminatory consensus can be assumed. Regular surveys thus can only offer a blurred picture of the phenomenon. But also survey experiments intended to decrease the social desirability bias (SDB) so far failed in systematically implementing situational variables. This paper introduces three experimental approaches to improve the study of discrimination and other topics of social (un-)desirability. First, we argue in favor of cognitive context framing in surveys in order to operationalize the salience of situational norms. Second, factorial surveys offer a way to take situational contexts and substitute behavior into account. And third, choice experiments - a rather new method in sociology - offer a more valid method of measuring behavioral characteristics compared to simple items in surveys. All three approaches - which may be combined - are easy to implement in large-scale surveys. Results of empirical studies demonstrate the fruitfulness of each of these approaches. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Social impacts of community renewable energy projects: findings from a woodfuel case study

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rogers, Jennifer C.; Simmons, Eunice A.; Convery, Ian; Weatherall, Andrew

2012-01-01

There is much current interest in the potential of community-based renewable energy projects to contribute to transition towards low carbon energy systems. As well as displacing fossil fuel consumption by increasing renewable energy generation, projects are expected to have a range of social impacts which may result in additional positive sustainability outcomes. These include potential to increase: acceptance of renewable energy developments; awareness of renewable and sustainable energy technologies and issues; uptake of low carbon technologies; and sustainable/pro-environmental behaviours. To date however, there has been little investigation of whether and how these impacts occur. This paper presents results from qualitative research investigating the social impacts of a community woodfuel project as experienced by project participants and other local stakeholders. Findings show projects can raise awareness of renewable energy technologies and increase uptake of renewables. Overall the case study project successfully changed the local social context for development of woodfuel heating, reducing risk for all involved in the future development of this sector, particularly in the immediate locality. There was some evidence of increased engagement with wider sustainability issues but this was limited to direct participants, suggesting local projects need to be supported by wider systemic change to maximise impacts. - Highlights: ► We assessed the social impacts of a community woodfuel project. ► The project increased awareness and uptake of woodfuel heating. ► Impacts were achieved as a result of the locally-specific approach. ► Local projects can seed cultural change promoting transition to a low carbon society.

Social Symbolic Work in Context

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Brincker, Benedikte

‘the good organisation’ may offer a supportive organisational framework for social symbolic work, thus promoting regional development in peripheral and poorly developed regions. Exploring what qualifies as a ‘good organisation’, the paper identifies three key elements: management, motivation......This paper reports on a research project that explores social symbolic work. The social symbolic work in question seeks to introduce education in entrepreneurship into the school curriculum in a remote part of Greenland – in order to contribute to regional development. The paper investigates how...

The socio-cultural context of the transmission of HIV in Thailand.

Science.gov (United States)

Ford, N; Koetsawang, S

1991-01-01

At a global level there are considerable differences between regions in the levels of prevalence, and rate of transmission, of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). Furthermore there are differences between regions in the social and demographic characteristics of HIV carriers/AIDS sufferers (e.g. heterosexuals, homosexuals, injecting drug users, infants). It is notable that Asia has generally lagged behind other regions in the spread of HIV. However recently Thailand has acknowledged rapidly increasing levels of infection. This paper is structured in terms of three broad sections. (1) An outline of some basic epidemiological principles concerning the transmission of HIV which help account for the regional variations in prevalence; (2) a description of the emerging awareness of HIV as a public health problem within Thailand; (3) a review of the social characteristics of HIV carriers in Thailand, interpreted by reference to the wider social context, chiefly in terms of; the commercial sex industry/sexual lifestyles, international tourism, and injecting drug dependency. Reference is also made to impressions of the personal response of individuals learning of their HIV seropositive status. A brief comment compares the sexual culture and sex industry in Thailand to that of other South East Asian countries (most notably the Philippines). The paper highlights the importance of considering the particular social and historical factors which shape and sustain the transmission of HIV within a particular country.

Assessing the Organizational Social Context (OSC) of Child Welfare Systems: Implications for Research and Practice

Science.gov (United States)

Glisson, Charles; Green, Philip; Williams, Nathaniel J.

2012-01-01

Objective: The study: (1) provides the first assessment of the a "priori" measurement model and psychometric properties of the Organizational Social Context (OSC) measurement system in a US nationwide probability sample of child welfare systems; (2) illustrates the use of the OSC in constructing norm-based organizational culture and climate…

Reconfiguring the social and solidarity economy in a Danish/Nordic welfare context

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hulgård, Lars; Andersen, Linda Lundgaard

2018-01-01

-ture but are important examples of pluralism in a Danish welfare context (Andersen, 2015). Roskilde Festival and Skovgård Hotel share a number of features that place them as interesting agents of solidarity economy. They both display a differentiated activity portfolio of business; public and civil character......When looking at definitions and understandings of the social and solidarity economy, one issue stands out as particularly significant. The issue of how it links to organizational (micro and meso level dimensions) and societal specificities. Whereas social enterprise also in the EMES ideal typical...... version (Borzaga & Defourny, 2001) is only indirectly linked to a Polanyian framework (Gardin, 2006), the notion of solidarity economy can hardly be understood at an elaborate level without reference to the Polanyian framework of plurality. Accordingly, in this paper we will first highlight the difference...

Sexual Conflict and Gender Gap Effects: Associations between Social Context and Sex on Rated Attractiveness and Economic Status.

Science.gov (United States)

Gouda-Vossos, Amany; Dixson, Barnaby J; Brooks, Robert C

2016-01-01

Human mate choice research often concerns sex differences in the importance of traits such as physical attractiveness and social status. A growing number of studies indicate that cues to social context, including other people who appear in stimulus photographs, can alter that individual's attractiveness. Fewer studies, however, consider judgements of traits other than physical attractiveness, such as wealth. Here we manipulate the presence/absence of other people in photographs of target models, and test the effects on judgments of both attractiveness and earnings (a proxy for status). Participants (N = 2044) rated either male or female models for either physical attractiveness or social/economic status when presented alone, with same sex others or with opposite sex others. We collectively refer to this manipulation as 'social context'. Male and female models received similar responses for physical attractiveness, but social context affected ratings of status differently for women and men. Males presented alongside other men received the highest status ratings while females presented alone were given the highest status ratings. Further, the status of females presented alongside a male was constrained by the rated status of that male. Our results suggests that high status may not directly lead to high attractiveness in men, but that status is more readily attributed to men than to women. This divide in status between the sexes is very clear when men and women are presented together, possibly reflecting one underlying mechanism of the modern day gender gap and sexist attitudes to women's economic participation. This adds complexity to our understanding of the relationship between attractiveness, status, and sex in the light of parental investment theory, sexual conflict and economic theory.

You never compare alone: How social consensus and comparative context affect self-evaluation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Grabowski Adam

2014-06-01

Full Text Available Three studies address the role of social consensus on evaluative standards in different comparative contexts. Previous research has documented that self-categorisation at the individual or group level changes social comparison effects in terms of assimilation and contrast. With regard to self-ratings of physical attractiveness, the present studies show that people who focus on group membership can benefit from including outstanding others in their reference group, whereas people who focus on their individual attributes run the risk of self-devaluation. It is argued that high consensus strengthens the association between evaluative standards and group membership and renders the inclusion of outstanding others more likely. Study 3 shows that the need to protect self-esteem moderates the influence of perceived consensus. Stressing the individual self led participants who received negative feedback to exclude outstanding others when consensus was low. Stressing the social self, however, led participants to include outstanding others when consensus was high.

Flexibility and Attractors in Context: Family Emotion Socialization Patterns and Children's Emotion Regulation in Late Childhood

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Lunkenheimer, E.S.; Hollenstein, T.P.; Wang, J.; Shields, A.M.

2012-01-01

Familial emotion socialization practices relate to children's emotion regulation (ER) skills in late childhood, however, we have more to learn about how the context and structure of these interactions relates to individual differences in children's ER. The present study examined flexibility and

Evaluating the use of Social Impact Assessment in the context of agricultural development projects in Iran

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ahmadvand, Mostafa; Karami, Ezatollah; Zamani, Gholam Hossein; Vanclay, Frank

2009-01-01

The utilisation of Social Impact Assessment (SIA) in Iran is analysed in terms of its policy context and its application in practice. Five case studies where SIA was employed in conjunction with Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA) for agricultural development projects are evaluated. In addition, the performance of the policy context is assessed. This research revealed that there are legal and institutional constraints to the effective functioning of SIA in Iran, and that there are deficiencies in the operating guidelines. There were serious problems associated with the way SIA was undertaken in all five case studies. Recommendations to improve the policy framework for the conduct of SIA are made. The recommendations advocate for a higher profile of SIA within legislation, for social issues to have greater emphasis in official guidelines for the conduct of EIA and SIA, and for a range of measures to increase the professionalism of SIA practice.

Mental Retardation; Its Social Context and Social Consequences.

Science.gov (United States)

Farber, Bernard

Concerned with mental retardation as a social product, the following topics are discussed: mental retardation as a social phenomenon, the concept of the retarded as surplus population, labeling and incompetence in relation to life chances, mental retardation as deviance and as incompetence, and findings on the prevalence of retardation in the…

Social networks as the context for understanding employment services utilization among homeless youth.

Science.gov (United States)

Barman-Adhikari, Anamika; Rice, Eric

2014-08-01

Little is known about the factors associated with use of employment services among homeless youth. Social network characteristics have been known to be influential in motivating people's decision to seek services. Traditional theoretical frameworks applied to studies of service use emphasize individual factors over social contexts and interactions. Using key social network, social capital, and social influence theories, this paper developed an integrated theoretical framework that capture the social network processes that act as barriers or facilitators of use of employment services by homeless youth, and understand empirically, the salience of each of these constructs in influencing the use of employment services among homeless youth. We used the "Event based-approach" strategy to recruit a sample of 136 homeless youth at one drop-in agency serving homeless youth in Los Angeles, California in 2008. The participants were queried regarding their individual and network characteristics. Data were entered into NetDraw 2.090 and the spring embedder routine was used to generate the network visualizations. Logistic regression was used to assess the influence of the network characteristics on use of employment services. The study findings suggest that social capital is more significant in understanding why homeless youth use employment services, relative to network structure and network influence. In particular, bonding and bridging social capital were found to have differential effects on use of employment services among this population. The results from this study provide specific directions for interventions aimed to increase use of employment services among homeless youth. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The role of proximal social contexts: Assessing stigma-by-association effects on leader appraisals.

Science.gov (United States)

Hernandez, Morela; Avery, Derek R; Tonidandel, Scott; Hebl, Mikki R; Smith, Alexis N; McKay, Patrick F

2016-01-01

Prior research suggests that segregation in the U.S. workplace is on the rise (Hellerstein, Neumark, & McInerney, 2008); as such, leaders are more likely to lead groups of followers composed primarily of their own race (Elliot & Smith, 2001; Smith & Elliott, 2002). Drawing from theory on stigma-by-association, the authors posit that such segregated proximal social contexts (i.e., the leader's group of followers) can have detrimental effects on leader appraisals. Specifically, they argue that leaders of mostly Black follower groups experience stigmatization based on race stereotypic beliefs, which affects how they are viewed in the eyes of observers. The results of a large field study show performance evaluations generally tend to be lower when the proportion of Black followers is higher. Moreover, 3 experiments demonstrate that the impact of proximal social contexts extends to other outcomes (i.e., perceptions of market value and competency) but appears limited to those who are less internally and externally motivated to control their prejudice. Taken together, these findings explain how workplace segregation systematically can create a particular disadvantage for Black leaders. (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Situation-based social anxiety enhances the neural processing of faces: evidence from an intergroup context

Science.gov (United States)

Ofan, Renana H.; Rubin, Nava

2014-01-01

Social anxiety is the intense fear of negative evaluation by others, and it emerges uniquely from a social situation. Given its social origin, we asked whether an anxiety-inducing social situation could enhance the processing of faces linked to the situational threat. While past research has focused on how individual differences in social anxiety relate to face processing, we tested the effect of manipulated social anxiety in the context of anxiety about appearing racially prejudiced in front of a peer. Visual processing of faces was indexed by the N170 component of the event-related potential. Participants viewed faces of Black and White males, along with nonfaces, either in private or while being monitored by the experimenter for signs of prejudice in a ‘public’ condition. Results revealed a difference in the N170 response to Black and Whites faces that emerged only in the public condition and only among participants high in dispositional social anxiety. These results provide new evidence that anxiety arising from the social situation modulates the earliest stages of face processing in a way that is specific to a social threat, and they shed new light on how anxiety effects on perception may contribute to the regulation of intergroup responses. PMID:23709354

Substantive and procedural contexts of engineering design

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Zwart, S.D.; Kroes, P.A.; Hyldgaard, C.; Newberry, B.; Meganck, M.; Didier, C.

2015-01-01

Kroes and Van de Poel (Problematizing the notion of social context of technology. In S. H. Christensen, B. Delahousse, & M. Meganck (Eds.), Engineering in context (pp. 61–74). Aarhus: Academica, 2009) maintain that distinguishing between technology and its social (intentional) context is impossible,

Social Data Analysis Tool

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hussain, Abid; Vatrapu, Ravi; Hardt, Daniel

2014-01-01

, analyze and visualize patterns of web activity. This volume profiles the latest techniques being employed by social scientists to collect and interpret data from some of the most popular social media applications, the political parties' own online activist spaces, and the wider system of hyperlinks...... and analyze web data in the process of investigating substantive questions....

Ontological insecurity and subjective feelings of unsafety: Analysing socially constructed fears in Italy.

Science.gov (United States)

Valente, Riccardo; Valera Pertegas, Sergi

2018-03-01

Perception of insecurity arises as a complex social phenomenon affected by factors that go beyond actual crime rates. Previous contributions to the field of fear of crime studies have shown, for instance, that the perception of social and physical disorder may generate insecurity among residents even in contexts where crime is comparatively low. Meanwhile, sociological approaches have led to a conceptualization of insecurity as an umbrella sentiment grounded in a wider feeling of unease. Building further on this assumption, data gathered in a large-scale survey in Italy (n = 15,428) were analysed by implementing exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis with the objective of assessing the validity of a model of "ontological insecurity". The results of our analysis support a conceptualization of insecurity where socially constructed anxieties (due to health and financial precariousness), as well as ethnic, sexual and religious-based stigmatization, play a prominent role in determining an individual's feeling of insecurity. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The effects of social pressure and emotional expression on the cone of gaze in patients with social anxiety disorder.

Science.gov (United States)

Harbort, Johannes; Spiegel, Julia; Witthöft, Michael; Hecht, Heiko

2017-06-01

Patients with social anxiety disorder suffer from pronounced fears in social situations. As gaze perception is crucial in these situations, we examined which factors influence the range of gaze directions where mutual gaze is experienced (the cone of gaze). The social stimulus was modified by changing the number of people (heads) present and the emotional expression of their faces. Participants completed a psychophysical task, in which they had to adjust the eyes of a virtual head to gaze at the edge of the range where mutual eye-contact was experienced. The number of heads affected the width of the gaze cone: the more heads, the wider the gaze cone. The emotional expression of the virtual head had no consistent effect on the width of the gaze cone, it did however affect the emotional state of the participants. Angry expressions produced the highest arousal values. Highest valence emerged from happy faces, lowest valence from angry faces. These results suggest that the widening of the gaze cone in social anxiety disorder is not primarily mediated by their altered emotional reactivity. Implications for gaze assessment and gaze training in therapeutic contexts are discussed. Due to interindividual variability, enlarged gaze cones are not necessarily indicative of social anxiety disorder, they merely constitute a correlate at the group level. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Framing the relationship between people and nature in the context of European conservation.

Science.gov (United States)

Linnell, John D C; Kaczensky, Petra; Wotschikowsky, Ulrich; Lescureux, Nicolas; Boitani, Luigi

2015-08-01

A key controversy in conservation is the framing of the relationship between people and nature. The extent to which the realms of nature and human culture are viewed as separate (dualistic view) or integrated is often discussed in the social sciences. To explore how this relationship is represented in the practice of conservation in Europe, we considered examples of cultural landscapes, wildlife (red deer, reindeer, horses), and protected area management. We found little support, for a dualistic worldview, where people and nature are regarded as separate in the traditional practice of conservation in Europe. The borders between nature and culture, wild and domestic, public land and private land, and between protected areas and the wider landscape were blurred and dynamic. The institutionalized (in practice and legislation) view is of an interactive mutualistic system in which humans and nature share the whole landscape. However, more dualistic ideals, such as wilderness and rewilding that are challenging established practices are expanding. In the context of modern day Europe, wilderness conservation and rewilding are not valid for the whole landscape, although it is possible to integrate some areas of low-intervention management into a wider matrix. A precondition for success is to recognize and plan for a plurality of values concerning the most valid approaches to conservation and to plan for this plurality at the landscape scale. © 2015 Society for Conservation Biology.

Context and Individual Characteristics Modulate the Association between Oxytocin Receptor Gene Polymorphism and Social Behavior in Border Collies

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Borbála Turcsán

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Recent studies suggest that the relationship between endogenous oxytocin and social affiliative behavior can be critically moderated by contextual and individual factors in humans. While oxytocin has been shown to influence human-directed affiliative behaviors in dogs, no study investigated yet how such factors moderate these effects. Our study aimed to investigate whether the context and the dogs’ individual characteristics moderate the associations between the social affiliative (greeting behavior and four single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs of the oxytocin receptor (OXTR gene. We recorded the greeting behavior in three contexts: (1 when the dog first met an unfamiliar experimenter, (2 during a separation from the owner, and (3 after the experimenter approached the dog in a threatening manner. In the latter two contexts (during separation and after threatening, we categorized the dogs into stressed and non-stressed groups based on their behavior in the preceding situations. In line with previous studies, we found that polymorphisms in the OXTR gene are related to the greeting behavior of dogs. However, we also showed that the analyzed SNPs were associated with greeting in different contexts and in different individuals, suggesting that the four SNPs might be related to different functions of the oxytocin system. The -213A/G was associated with greeting only when the dog had no prior negative experience with the experimenter. The rs8679682 was found in association with greeting in all three contexts but these associations were significant only in non-stressed dogs. The -94T/C was associated with greeting only when the dog was stressed and had an interaction with the sex of the dog. The -74C/G SNP was associated with greeting only when the dog was stressed during separation and also had a sex interaction. Taken together, our results suggest that, similarly to humans, the effects of oxytocin on the dogs’ social behavior are not universal

Knowledge Worker Mobility in Context

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Wright, Mike; Tartari, Valentina; Huang, Kenneth G.

2018-01-01

on advancing our understanding of KWM in context, pushing the boundaries of theory and methods by developing a framework focusing on five main contextual dimensions: organizational context and roles, geographical and spatial context, social context and teams, institutional and cultural norms, and temporal...

Why should I care? Engaging students in conceptual understanding using global context to develop social attitudes.

Science.gov (United States)

Forder, S. E.; Welstead, C.; Pritchard, M.

2014-12-01

A glance through the Harvard Business Review reveals many suggestions and research pieces reviewing sales and marketing techniques. Most educators will be familiar with the notion that making accurate first impressions and being responsive, whilst maintaining pace is critical to engaging an audience. There are lessons to be learnt from industry that can significantly impact upon our teaching. Eisenkraft, in his address to the NSTA, proposed four essential questions. This presentation explores one of those questions: 'Why should I care?', and discusses why this question is crucial for engaging students by giving a clear purpose for developing their scientific understanding. Additionally, this presentation explores how The ISF Academy has adapted the NGSS, using the 14 Grand Engineering Challenges and the IB MYP, to provide current, authentic global contexts, in order to give credibility to the concepts, understandings and skills being learnt. The provision of global contexts across units and within lessons supports a platform for students to have the freedom to explore their own sense of social responsibility. The Science Department believes that planning lessons with tasks that elaborate on the student's new conceptualisations, has helped to transfer the student's new understanding into social behavior beyond the classroom. Furthermore, extension tasks have been used to transfer conceptual understanding between different global contexts.

The role of neurocognition and social context in predicting community functioning among formerly homeless seriously mentally ill persons.

Science.gov (United States)

Schutt, Russell K; Seidman, Larry J; Caplan, Brina; Martsinkiv, Anna; Goldfinger, Stephen M

2007-11-01

To test the influence of neurocognitive functioning on community functioning among formerly homeless persons with serious mental illness and to determine whether that influence varies with social context, independent of individual characteristics. In metropolitan Boston, 112 persons in Department of Mental Health shelters were administered a neuropsychological test battery and other measures and then randomly assigned to empowerment-oriented group homes or independent apartments, as part of a longitudinal study of the effects of housing on multiple outcomes. Subjects' case managers completed Rosen's 5-dimensional Life Skills Inventory at 3, 6, 12, and 18 months and subjects reported on their social contacts at baseline, 6, 12, and 18 months. Subject characteristics are controlled in the analysis. Three dimensions of neurocognitive functioning--executive function, verbal declarative memory, and vigilance--each predicted community functioning. Better executive function predicted improved self-care and less turbulent behavior among persons living alone, better memory predicted more positive social contacts for those living in a group home, and higher levels of vigilance predicted improved communication in both housing types. Neurocognition predicts community functioning among homeless persons with severe mental illness, but in a way that varies with the social context in which community functioning occurs.

The social context of hormone and silicone injection among Puerto Rican transwomen.

Science.gov (United States)

Padilla, Mark B; Rodríguez-Madera, Sheilla; Ramos Pibernus, Alixida G; Varas-Díaz, Nelson; Neilands, Torsten B

2018-05-01

This paper draws on ethnographic, qualitative and survey data with transwomen in Puerto Rico to examine the social and political-economic context of lay injection with hormone and silicone - common practices within this community. We describe specific practices of hormone and silicone injection, the actors that govern them, the market for the sale and distribution of syringes and the networks of lay specialists who provide services to a population that is neglected by and largely excluded from biomedical settings. Our data derive from ethnographic observations, sociodemographic questionnaires, surveys and semi-structured interviews conducted with a diverse group of transwomen in metropolitan San Juan, Puerto Rico. Our analysis focuses on four overlapping social domains or processes that shape the practices of lay silicone and hormone injection among transwomen: (1) the circulation of gender transitioning technologies within local and global markets; (2) the tension between the social exclusion of transwomen and their resilient sub-cultural responses; (3) the cultural meanings that shape transwomen's attitudes about injection; and (4) the perceived consequences of injection. We conclude with a discussion of the kinds of intervention and policy changes that would respond to the factors that most endanger transwomen's health.

Religious practices in cross-cultural contexts: Indonesian male science students' adjustment in Taiwan.

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Chen, Yung-Lung; Liu, Mi-Chi; Tsai, Tsu-Wei; Chen, Yueh-Hua

2015-07-01

Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, little is known about how Muslims, as a minority group, cope with the challenges associated with engaging their religious practices in a predominantly non-Islamic context. This study aims to investigate how international Muslim science students dealt with the difficulties they faced in their religious practices in a foreign context, and specifically in their research laboratories and in the wider Taiwanese society with its pluralistic spiritual beliefs. Fourteen male Muslim graduate students from Indonesia were recruited to participate in a qualitative interview. In terms of conventional content analysis, their adjustment issues were related to their religious issues, including gender roles both inside and outside of the laboratory, inconvenient practices relating to prayer needs, and eating halal foods and having to face social discrimination off campus. Two types of major adaptation strategies were identified for dealing with such struggles, including religious coping through their Islamic beliefs and bicultural connections. Their major concerns about religious practices (e.g., praying 5 times per day) were resolved by communicating their needs directly with their laboratory classmates and advisors; however, they navigated the gender boundaries in the laboratory both subtly and inwardly through their Islamic beliefs. The practical implications regarding counseling and education are discussed both in a local and a global context. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

An Analysis of the Global Code of Ethics for Tourism in the Context of Corporate Social Responsibility

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Buzar Stipe

2015-12-01

Full Text Available The author analyzes the Global Code of Ethics for Tourism in the context of corporate social responsibility and the need for discussing this topic in ethical codes within the business and tourism sector. The text first offers an overview of the fundamental ethical concepts in business ethics and corporate social responsibility and briefly conceptualizes the relationship between these two fields. At the end, the author analyzes the content of the Global Code of Ethics for Tourism with emphasis on the elements pertaining to corporate social responsibility, after which he offers a critical opinion about the contribution of the aforemntioned code.

Relations between social-perceptual ability in multi- and unisensory contexts, autonomic reactivity, and social functioning in individuals with Williams syndrome.

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Järvinen, Anna; Ng, Rowena; Crivelli, Davide; Arnold, Andrew J; Woo-VonHoogenstyn, Nicholas; Bellugi, Ursula

2015-07-01

Compromised social-perceptual ability has been proposed to contribute to social dysfunction in neurodevelopmental disorders. While such impairments have been identified in Williams syndrome (WS), little is known about emotion processing in auditory and multisensory contexts. Employing a multidimensional approach, individuals with WS and typical development (TD) were tested for emotion identification across fearful, happy, and angry multisensory and unisensory face and voice stimuli. Autonomic responses were monitored in response to unimodal emotion. The WS group was administered an inventory of social functioning. Behaviorally, individuals with WS relative to TD demonstrated impaired processing of unimodal vocalizations and emotionally incongruent audiovisual compounds, reflecting a generalized deficit in social-auditory processing in WS. The TD group outperformed their counterparts with WS in identifying negative (fearful and angry) emotion, with similar between-group performance with happy stimuli. Mirroring this pattern, electrodermal activity (EDA) responses to the emotional content of the stimuli indicated that whereas those with WS showed the highest arousal to happy, and lowest arousal to fearful stimuli, the TD participants demonstrated the contrasting pattern. In WS, more normal social functioning was related to higher autonomic arousal to facial expressions. Implications for underlying neural architecture and emotional functions are discussed. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Measures of social segregation in the context of Warsaw, Berlin and Paris metropolitan areas

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Grzegorczyk Anna

2015-09-01

Full Text Available Social segregation is a subject common in contemporary studies of metropolitan areas. Until recently, studies of segregation focused on the distribution of ethnic groups, immigrants, and the poor. Today, they also cover additional indicators such as demographic properties, education, and affiliation with social and professional categories, which can also serve to determine the causes of the segregation (including the self-segregation of the rich. This article aims to point out the measures of segregation that present the segregation levels in the most complete manner, along with their application in the context of three European metropolitan areas: Warsaw, Berlin, and Paris. The first part of the article is a review of the existing approaches to segregation measures, followed by the selection of research method, presentation of the analysis’ results, and evaluation of the applied methods; presenting the opportunities and limitations in research of the social segregation phenomenon.

Understanding and effectively addressing breast cancer in African American women: Unpacking the social context.

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Williams, David R; Mohammed, Selina A; Shields, Alexandra E

2016-07-15

Black women have a higher incidence of breast cancer before the age of 40 years, more severe disease at all ages, and an elevated mortality risk in comparison with white women. There is limited understanding of the contribution of social factors to these patterns. Elucidating the role of the social determinants of health in breast cancer disparities requires greater attention to how risk factors for breast cancer unfold over the lifecourse and to the complex ways in which socioeconomic status and racism shape exposure to psychosocial, physical, chemical, and other individual and community-level assaults that increase the risk of breast cancer. Research that takes seriously the social context in which black women live is also needed to maximize the opportunities to prevent breast cancer in this underserved group. Cancer 2016;122:2138-49. © 2016 American Cancer Society. © 2016 American Cancer Society.

Relationships among mental health status, social context, and demographic characteristics in Taiwanese aboriginal adolescents: a structural equation model.

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Yen, Cheng-Fang; Hsu, Chia-Chuang; Liu, Shu-Chun; Huang, Chi-Fen; Ko, Chih-Hung; Yen, Ju-Yu; Cheng, Chung-Ping

2006-10-01

The purposes of this study were to examine the relationships among mental health status, demographic characteristics, and social contexts, including family conflict and support, connectedness to school, and affiliation with peers who exhibit delinquent behavior and who use substances, among Taiwanese aboriginal adolescents. A total of 251 aboriginal junior high school students in an isolated mountainous area of southern Taiwan were recruited, and the relationships among mental health status, demographic characteristics, and social contexts among them were examined using a structural equation model (SEM). The SEM revealed that family conflict and support had direct influences on mental health status and connectedness to school. Family conflict had a direct relationship with affiliation with peers who use substances, and family conflict and support were both indirectly linked with affiliation with peers who exhibit delinquent behavior and who used substances; these were mediated by a poor mental health status. Female and older age were directly linked with a poor mental health status and were indirectly linked with a greater number of peers who exhibit delinquent behavior and who use substances via the poor mental health status. Disruptive parenting was directly linked with affiliation with peers who use substances. The authors suggest that those who devise strategies to improve aboriginal adolescents' mental health and discourage substance use should take these relationships among mental health, demographic characteristics, and social contexts into account.

ContextProvider: Context awareness for medical monitoring applications.

Science.gov (United States)

Mitchell, Michael; Meyers, Christopher; Wang, An-I Andy; Tyson, Gary

2011-01-01

Smartphones are sensor-rich and Internet-enabled. With their on-board sensors, web services, social media, and external biosensors, smartphones can provide contextual information about the device, user, and environment, thereby enabling the creation of rich, biologically driven applications. We introduce ContextProvider, a framework that offers a unified, query-able interface to contextual data on the device. Unlike other context-based frameworks, ContextProvider offers interactive user feedback, self-adaptive sensor polling, and minimal reliance on third-party infrastructure. ContextProvider also allows for rapid development of new context and bio-aware applications. Evaluation of ContextProvider shows the incorporation of an additional monitoring sensor into the framework with fewer than 100 lines of Java code. With adaptive sensor monitoring, power consumption per sensor can be reduced down to 1% overhead. Finally, through the use of context, accuracy of data interpretation can be improved by up to 80%.

The role of social and economic context, and local knowledge for post-disaster reconstruction of high-mountain hazards: a case study from the Peruvian Andes

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Dulce Burga, María; Vicuña, Luis; Jurt, Christine; Huggel, Christian

2015-04-01

Following the occurrence of an extreme event, specific and immediate actions are oriented to relieve basic needs and guarantee the subsistence of daily life. One of the priorities is focused on the reconstruction and relocation to areas away from possible hazard. However, on a long-term perspective, new contexts, concerns and priorities among the affected as well as the immigrated population foster new risk perceptions, which in many cases may include the returning or settlement in areas exposed to hazards. In Santa Teresa (Cusco, Peru), risk has been part of its history. In 1998, two very large debris flows from deglaciated areas, in January and February respectively, destroyed the old city located by the riverside of the Sacsara river; including the loss of lives, housing, loss of infrastructure and roads, electricity and water cuts, among other important losses. Today, the new city is located on a terrace above the river reach; and their current inhabitants, mainly migrants from different cities of the region of Cusco, have a different perspective of this experience. On the contrary, many of the inhabitants who experienced these events have returned to the risk areas where they lost everything, or they have settled in disaster prone areas. There is a set of factors, such as local knowledge (regarding space, economy, etc.) and new social contexts (such as the rise of tourism in risk areas, for example) that are implicit in the current narratives regarding hazard and risk. This work purposes the following questions: how does the social and economic context, as well as local knowledge influence risk perceptions? Are there any differences concerning risk perceptions between groups who decided to live in disaster prone areas and groups who are less exposed to risk? And which are the strategies within the groups regarding risk, considering how this concept is understood among them? In order to analyze these questions, this work is based on a case study in the

Institutional Advertising in the Context of Social Representation Theory: The Case of Coca Cola

OpenAIRE

MURAT ÇOLPA, Zeynep

2018-01-01

Social representation emergesto provide needs of individuals understanding world. Production of socialrepresentations only can be provided by individuals and groups interact eachother that is generally used in the field of communication. In this respect,this study attempts to analyze the instituional advertising in the context ofsocial representation theory. In this study institutionaladvertising of Coca Cola which is a well-known beverage company is inspectedand evaluated. Three sample of Co...

An Analysis of the Global Code of Ethics for Tourism in the Context of Corporate Social Responsibility

OpenAIRE

Buzar Stipe

2015-01-01

The author analyzes the Global Code of Ethics for Tourism in the context of corporate social responsibility and the need for discussing this topic in ethical codes within the business and tourism sector. The text first offers an overview of the fundamental ethical concepts in business ethics and corporate social responsibility and briefly conceptualizes the relationship between these two fields. At the end, the author analyzes the content of the Global Code of Ethics for Tourism with emphasis...

Generation X Leaders from London, New York and Toronto: Conceptions of Social Identity and the Influence of City-Based Context

Science.gov (United States)

Edge, Karen; Descours, Katherine; Oxley, Laura

2017-01-01

Inspired by scholarly calls to focus more intently on the influence of context on leaders' construction and negotiation of identity, this paper draws on evidence from our Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) project in London, New York City and Toronto. Throughout the paper, we strive to illuminate how the city-based context influences how…

Social Identity, Social Ties and Social Capital: A Study in Gaming Context

Science.gov (United States)

Jiang, Hao

2012-01-01

This work will focus on how different social relationships, namely shared identity and personal tie, will impact cooperative behavior, a form of social capital. I designed and conducted an economic game study to show that shared identity and personal ties work differently on cooperation among people and resource flow in social groups. Many factors…

Storytelling to access social context and advance health equity research.

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Banks, JoAnne

2012-11-01

Increased understanding of individual and social determinants of health is crucial to moving toward health equity. This essay examines storytelling as a vehicle for advancing health equity research. Contemplative examination of storytelling as a research strategy. An overview of story theory is provided. This is followed by an examination of storytelling as a tool for increasing understanding about the contexts in which people negotiate health, strengthening participation of communities in addressing health issues, and building bridges between researchers and target populations. Storytelling can be a powerful tool for advancing health equity research. However, its effective use requires a renegotiation of relationships between researchers and target communities, as well as setting aside routine time to attend storytelling events and read a variety of stories. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Contributions of social context to blood pressure: findings from a multilevel analysis of social capital and systolic blood pressure.

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Hamano, Tsuyoshi; Fujisawa, Yoshikazu; Yamasaki, Masayuki; Ito, Katsuhisa; Nabika, Toru; Shiwaku, Kuninori

2011-06-01

In recent years, few studies have quantified the effect of residential context on blood pressure. Although these studies have emphasized the importance of socioeconomic influences such as education or poverty levels, the association between the features of social structure such as social capital and blood pressure remain unclear. Therefore, we investigated whether social capital was associated with systolic blood pressure after controlling for individual potential confounders. We analyzed data from the Shimane Study conducted from 2006 to 2008 in rural mountainous regions of Japan. After excluding the missing data and data of participants taking hypertension medication, we conducted a multilevel analysis of the data for 335 individuals nested within 30 postcode sectors. Systolic blood pressure increased with increasing age and body mass index. We also found that a higher systolic blood pressure was observed among smokers and those taking medication for diabetes. Regarding the contextual effects of social capital, systolic blood pressure increased with an increasing proportion of lack of fairness, after adjustment for individual confounders. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to investigate the association between social capital and systolic blood pressure by using a multilevel methodological framework. Surprisingly, we found that lack of fairness had a strong effect on systolic blood pressure. However, we could not find any significant associations between other items of social capital and systolic blood pressure. Further studies are needed to clarify the mechanism by which lack of fairness may have an effect on systolic blood pressure.

The Changing Context of Interpersonal Communication in Political Campaigns.

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O'Keefe, Garrett J.

Critiques and studies have found the traditional two-step flow model of social influence inadequate to describe and explain relationships between interpersonal and mass communications during political campaigns. A study was undertaken to incorporate a wider range of variables pertinent to both kinds of political communication behaviors to redefine…

Teaching about Refugees: Developing Culturally Responsive Educators in Contexts of Politicised Transnationalism

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Gagné, Antoinette; Schmidt, Clea; Markus, Paula

2017-01-01

This article addresses issues of teaching about refugees in initial teacher education and professional development for practicing teachers. We respond to the who, what, where, when, why and how of teaching about refugees and developing culturally responsive pedagogy in contexts of politicised transnationalism, where the wider politics around…

Personality-dependent differences in problem-solving performance in a social context reflect foraging strategies.

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Zandberg, Lies; Quinn, John L; Naguib, Marc; van Oers, Kees

2017-01-01

Individuals develop innovative behaviours to solve foraging challenges in the face of changing environmental conditions. Little is known about how individuals differ in their tendency to solve problems and in their subsequent use of this solving behaviour in social contexts. Here we investigated whether individual variation in problem-solving performance could be explained by differences in the likelihood of solving the task, or if they reflect differences in foraging strategy. We tested this by studying the use of a novel foraging skill in groups of great tits (Parus major), consisting of three naive individuals with different personality, and one knowledgeable tutor. We presented them with multiple, identical foraging devices over eight trials. Though birds of different personality type did not differ in solving latency; fast and slow explorers showed a steeper increase over time in their solving rate, compared to intermediate explorers. Despite equal solving potential, personality influenced the subsequent use of the skill, as well as the pay-off received from solving. Thus, variation in the tendency to solve the task reflected differences in foraging strategy among individuals linked to their personality. These results emphasize the importance of considering the social context to fully understand the implications of learning novel skills. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

An Ethnographic Study of the Social Context of Migrant Health in the United States

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Holmes, Seth M

2006-01-01

Background Migrant workers in the United States have extremely poor health. This paper aims to identify ways in which the social context of migrant farm workers affects their health and health care. Methods and Findings This qualitative study employs participant observation and interviews on farms and in clinics throughout 15 months of migration with a group of indigenous Triqui Mexicans in the western US and Mexico. Study participants include more than 130 farm workers and 30 clinicians. Data are analyzed utilizing grounded theory, accompanied by theories of structural violence, symbolic violence, and the clinical gaze. The study reveals that farm working and housing conditions are organized according to ethnicity and citizenship. This hierarchy determines health disparities, with undocumented indigenous Mexicans having the worst health. Yet, each group is understood to deserve its place in the hierarchy, migrant farm workers often being blamed for their own sicknesses. Conclusions Structural racism and anti-immigrant practices determine the poor working conditions, living conditions, and health of migrant workers. Subtle racism serves to reduce awareness of this social context for all involved, including clinicians. The paper concludes with strategies toward improving migrant health in four areas: health disparities research, clinical interactions with migrant laborers, medical education, and policy making. PMID:17076567

An ethnographic study of the social context of migrant health in the United States.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Seth M Holmes

2006-10-01

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Migrant workers in the United States have extremely poor health. This paper aims to identify ways in which the social context of migrant farm workers affects their health and health care. METHODS AND FINDINGS: This qualitative study employs participant observation and interviews on farms and in clinics throughout 15 months of migration with a group of indigenous Triqui Mexicans in the western US and Mexico. Study participants include more than 130 farm workers and 30 clinicians. Data are analyzed utilizing grounded theory, accompanied by theories of structural violence, symbolic violence, and the clinical gaze. The study reveals that farm working and housing conditions are organized according to ethnicity and citizenship. This hierarchy determines health disparities, with undocumented indigenous Mexicans having the worst health. Yet, each group is understood to deserve its place in the hierarchy, migrant farm workers often being blamed for their own sicknesses. CONCLUSIONS: Structural racism and anti-immigrant practices determine the poor working conditions, living conditions, and health of migrant workers. Subtle racism serves to reduce awareness of this social context for all involved, including clinicians. The paper concludes with strategies toward improving migrant health in four areas: health disparities research, clinical interactions with migrant laborers, medical education, and policy making.

Habitat quality mediates personality through differences in social context.

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Belgrad, Benjamin A; Griffen, Blaine D

2017-06-01

Assessing the stability of animal personalities has become a major goal of behavioral ecologists. Most personality studies have utilized solitary individuals, but little is known on the extent that individuals retain their personality across ecologically relevant group settings. We conducted a field survey which determined that mud crabs, Panopeus herbstii, remain scattered as isolated individuals on degraded oyster reefs while high quality reefs can sustain high crab densities (>10 m -2 ). We examined the impact of these differences in social context on personality by quantifying the boldness of the same individual crabs when in isolation and in natural cohorts. Crabs were also exposed to either a treatment of predator cues or a control of no cue throughout the experiment to assess the strength of this behavioral reaction norm. Crabs were significantly bolder when in groups than as solitary individuals with predator cue treatments exhibiting severally reduced crab activity levels in comparison to corresponding treatments with no predator cues. Behavioral plasticity depended on the individual and was strongest in the presence of predator cues. While bold crabs largely maintained their personality in isolation and group settings, shy crabs would become substantially bolder when among conspecifics. These results imply that the shifts in crab boldness were a response to changes in perceived predation risk, and provide a mechanism for explaining variation in behavioral plasticity. Such findings suggest that habitat degradation may produce subpopulations with different behavioral patterns because of differing social interactions between individual animals.

Social challenges when implementing information systems in everyday work in a nursing context.

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Nilsson, Lina; Eriksén, Sara; Borg, Christel

2014-09-01

Implementation of information systems in healthcare has become a lengthy process where healthcare staff (eg, nurses) are expected to put information into systems without getting the overall picture of the potential usefulness for their own work. The aim of this study was to explore social challenges when implementing information systems in everyday work in a nursing context. Moreover, this study aimed at putting perceived social challenges in a theoretical framework to address them more constructively when implementing information systems in healthcare. Influenced by institutional ethnography, the findings are based on interviews, observations, and written reflections. Power (changing the existing hierarchy, alienation), professional identity (calling on hold, expert becomes novice, changed routines), and encounter (ignorant introductions, preconceived notions) were categories (subcategories) presented in the findings. Social Cognitive Theory, Diffusion of Innovations, organizational culture, and dramaturgical analysis are proposed to set up a theoretical framework. If social challenges are not considered and addressed in the implementation process, it will be affected by nurses' solidarity to existing power structures and their own professional identity. Thus, implementation of information systems affects more aspects in the organization than might have been intended. These aspects need to be taken in to account in the implementation process.

Research Microcultures as Socialization Contexts for Underrepresented Science Students.

Science.gov (United States)

Thoman, Dustin B; Muragishi, Gregg A; Smith, Jessi L

2017-06-01

How much does scientific research potentially help people? We tested whether prosocial-affordance beliefs (PABs) about science spread among group members and contribute to individual students' motivation for science. We tested this question within the context of research experience for undergraduates working in faculty-led laboratories, focusing on students who belong to underrepresented minority (URM) groups. Longitudinal survey data were collected from 522 research assistants in 41 labs at six institutions. We used multilevel modeling, and results supported a socialization effect for URM students: The aggregate PABs of their lab mates predicted the students' own initial PABs, as well as their subsequent experiences of interest and their motivation to pursue a career in science, even after controlling for individual-level PABs. Results demonstrate that research labs serve as microcultures of information about the science norms and values that influence motivation. URM students are particularly sensitive to this information. Efforts to broaden participation should be informed by an understanding of the group processes that convey such prosocial values.

Behavioural profile of drug users attending public drug-treatment centres in Sicily: the role of social context

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Francesco Vitale

2007-12-01

Full Text Available

Objective: Investigations of injecting drug users (IDUs have suggested that the social context may influence high-risk behaviours in this population. The aim of this study was to describe knowledge, attitudes and behaviours of IDUs attending public drug-treatment centres in our area.

Study design and methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted between July 2002 and February 2004, enrolling 607 drug users attending four public drug-treatment centres in the Palermo area. Two of them were located inside the urban area, whereas the other two were in rural districts near the city. All participants answered an anonymous questionnaire concerning social and demographic characteristic and potential high-risk behaviours.

Results: IDUs living in urban context have a higher educational level, higher number of sexual partners, as well as a lower prevalence of exchanging sex for drugs. Conversely, IDUs living in suburban/rural context are less likely to share syringes and more likely to have used light drugs in the past. Suburban/rural IDUs drink more alcohol but smoke less cigarettes/day, although both groups are strong smokers.

Conclusions: The results suggest that public drug-treatment centres should take in consideration the adoption of specific programs targeting specific groups, in line with the profile and needs of the subjects in each context in order to promote approaches leading to risk reduction.

Differentiating Emotions Across Contexts: Comparing Adults with and without Social Anxiety Disorder Using Random, Social Interaction, and Daily Experience Sampling

Science.gov (United States)

Kashdan, Todd B.; Farmer, Antonina S.

2014-01-01

The ability to recognize and label emotional experiences has been associated with well-being and adaptive functioning. This skill is particularly important in social situations, as emotions provide information about the state of relationships and help guide interpersonal decisions, such as whether to disclose personal information. Given the interpersonal difficulties linked to social anxiety disorder (SAD), deficient negative emotion differentiation may contribute to impairment in this population. We hypothesized that people with SAD would exhibit less negative emotion differentiation in daily life, and these differences would translate to impairment in social functioning. We recruited 43 people diagnosed with generalized SAD and 43 healthy adults to describe the emotions they experienced over 14 days. Participants received palmtop computers for responding to random prompts and describing naturalistic social interactions; to complete end-of-day diary entries, they used a secure online website. We calculated intraclass correlation coefficients to capture the degree of differentiation of negative and positive emotions for each context (random moments, face-to-face social interactions, and end-of-day reflections). Compared to healthy controls, the SAD group exhibited less negative (but not positive) emotion differentiation during random prompts, social interactions, and (at trend level) end-of-day assessments. These differences could not be explained by emotion intensity or variability over the 14 days, or to comorbid depression or anxiety disorders. Our findings suggest that people with generalized SAD have deficits in clarifying specific negative emotions felt at a given point of time. These deficits may contribute to difficulties with effective emotion regulation and healthy social relationship functioning. PMID:24512246

Differentiating emotions across contexts: comparing adults with and without social anxiety disorder using random, social interaction, and daily experience sampling.

Science.gov (United States)

Kashdan, Todd B; Farmer, Antonina S

2014-06-01

The ability to recognize and label emotional experiences has been associated with well-being and adaptive functioning. This skill is particularly important in social situations, as emotions provide information about the state of relationships and help guide interpersonal decisions, such as whether to disclose personal information. Given the interpersonal difficulties linked to social anxiety disorder (SAD), deficient negative emotion differentiation may contribute to impairment in this population. We hypothesized that people with SAD would exhibit less negative emotion differentiation in daily life, and these differences would translate to impairment in social functioning. We recruited 43 people diagnosed with generalized SAD and 43 healthy adults to describe the emotions they experienced over 14 days. Participants received palmtop computers for responding to random prompts and describing naturalistic social interactions; to complete end-of-day diary entries, they used a secure online website. We calculated intraclass correlation coefficients to capture the degree of differentiation of negative and positive emotions for each context (random moments, face-to-face social interactions, and end-of-day reflections). Compared to healthy controls, the SAD group exhibited less negative (but not positive) emotion differentiation during random prompts, social interactions, and (at trend level) end-of-day assessments. These differences could not be explained by emotion intensity or variability over the 14 days, or to comorbid depression or anxiety disorders. Our findings suggest that people with generalized SAD have deficits in clarifying specific negative emotions felt at a given point of time. These deficits may contribute to difficulties with effective emotion regulation and healthy social relationship functioning.

Location Criteria Relevant for Sustainability of Social Housing Model

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Petković-Grozdanović Nataša

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Social housing models, which had began to develop during the last century, for their only objective had a need to overcome the housing problems of socially vulnerable categories. However, numerous studies have shown that these social categories, because of their low social status, are highly susceptible to various psychological and sociological problems. On the other hand a low level of quality, which was common for social housing dwellings, has further aggravated these problems by initiating trouble behaviours among tenants, affecting social exclusion and segregation. Contemporary social housing models are therefore conceptualized in a way to provide a positive psycho-sociological impact on their tenants. Therefore the planning approach in social housing should be such to: support important functions in daily life routines; promote tolerance and cooperation; influence on a sense of social order and belonging; affect the socialization of the tenant and their integration into the wider community; and improve social cohesion. Analysis of the influential location parameters of immediate and wider social housing environment strive to define the ones relevant to the life quality of social housing tenants and therefore influence on the sustainability of social housing model.

Social capital : A review from an ethics perspective

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ayios, A.; Jeurissen, R.J.M.; Manning, P.; Spence, L.J.

2014-01-01

Social capital has as its key element the value of social relationships to generate positive outcomes, both for the key parties involved and for wider society. Some authors have noted that social capital nevertheless has a dark side. There is a moral element to such a conceptualisation, yet there is

Assessing socio-technical mindsets: Public deliberations on carbon capture and storage in the context of energy sources and climate change

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Einsiedel, Edna F.; Boyd, Amanda D.; Medlock, Jennifer; Ashworth, Peta

2013-01-01

The adaptation and transition to new configurations of energy systems brought on by challenges of climate change, energy security, and sustainability have encouraged more integrative approaches that bring together the social and technical dimensions of technology. The perspectives of energy systems and climate change play an important role in the development and implementation of emerging energy technologies and attendant policies on greenhouse gas reduction. This research examines citizens’ views on climate change and a number of energy systems, with a specific focus on the use of carbon capture and storage (CCS) as a technology to address greenhouse gas emissions. An all-day workshop with 82 local participants was held in the city of Calgary in Alberta, Canada to explore the views of climate change, energy and CCS. Participants were provided the opportunity to ask experts questions and discuss in small groups their views of climate change policy and energy systems. Results demonstrate that participants’ assessments of energy systems are influenced by social–political–institutional–economic contexts such as trust in industry and government, perception of parties benefiting from the technology, and tradeoffs between energy systems. We discuss our findings in the context of understanding social learning processes as part of socio-technical systems change. - Highlight: ► Energy systems are judged in the context of wider socio-technical system dimensions. ► Skepticism about climate change may affect support for CCS. ► Concerns about CCS include: CO 2 leaks, accuracy of monitoring and costs.

Effect of social odor context on the emission of isolation-induced ultrasonic vocalizations in the BTBR T+tf/J mouse model for autism

Science.gov (United States)

Wöhr, Markus

2015-01-01

An important diagnostic criterion for social communication deficits in autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are difficulties in adjusting behavior to suit different social contexts. While the BTBR T+tf/J (BTBR) inbred strain of mice is one of the most commonly used mouse models for ASD, little is known about whether BTBR mice display deficits in detecting changes in social context and their ability to adjust to them. Here, it was tested therefore whether the emission of isolation-induced ultrasonic vocalizations (USV) in BTBR mouse pups is affected by the social odor context, in comparison to the standard control strain with high sociability, C57BL/6J (B6). It is known that the presence of odors from mothers and littermates leads to a calming of the isolated mouse pup, and hence to a reduction in isolation-induced USV emission. In accordance with their behavioral phenotypes with relevance to all diagnostic core symptoms of ASD, it was predicted that BTBR mouse pups would not display a calming response when tested under soiled bedding conditions with home cage bedding material containing maternal odors, and that similar isolation-induced USV emission rates would be seen in BTBR mice tested under clean and soiled bedding conditions. Unexpectedly, however, the present findings show that BTBR mouse pups display such a calming response and emit fewer isolation-induced USV when tested under soiled as compared to clean bedding conditions, similar to B6 mouse pups. Yet, in contrast to B6 mouse pups, which emitted isolation-induced USV with shorter call durations and lower levels of frequency modulation under soiled bedding conditions, social odor context had no effect on acoustic call features in BTBR mouse pups. This indicates that the BTBR mouse model for ASD does not display deficits in detecting changes in social context, but has a limited ability and/or reduced motivation to adjust to them. PMID:25852455

Business model innovation in SME context

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Madsen, Svend Ole; Brink, Tove

2014-01-01

The purpose of this article is to reveal how small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) can enable sustainable business model innovation (BMI) in the offshore wind turbine industry. A longitudinal empirical research on 10 SMEs within the wind turbine industry provides data for the findings....... The findings reveal interesting opportunities for BMI both within the SMEs, the SME network and in wider industrial context to increase awareness on business opportunities to act and hereby increase sustainable value. However, also boundaries occur for BMI, which can be difficult to crisscross. It is revealed...

The Migration, Mental Stress, and Tobacco use of Internal Migrants in China: The Moderating Effect of the Social Context of the Host Society.

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Xie, Shenghua

2017-11-10

Previous studies on the relationship between mental stress and the tobacco use of internal migrants have not fully considered the social context of the host society. This study aims to examine how mental stress influences cigarette smoking in internal migrants in China by considering the social context of the host society. We used the RUMiC data that were collected in 15 cities distributed throughout 9 provinces of China. A total of 8,446 and 5,426 migrant workers were interviewed in 2008 and 2009, respectively. We selected individuals based on the criteria of age, salary, and hukou status. A total of 8,880 observations are valid for this study. This research used the logistic regression method to test the association between mental stress and the tobacco use of internal migrants. The results show that mental stress is not necessarily associated with the tobacco use of internal migrants. However, the effects of mental stress on tobacco use are moderated by the social context of the host society. This article calls for more attention to be paid to the moderate effect of social context in the host society on the association between mental stress and cigarette smoking of internal migrants. Moreover, this article underscores the importance of factors related to local societies in making and enacting tobacco control policies for migrants in developing countries.

Historical measures of social context in life course studies: retrospective linkage of addresses to decennial censuses

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Whitsel Eric A

2004-11-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background There is evidence of a contribution of early life socioeconomic exposures to the risk of chronic diseases in adulthood. However, extant studies investigating the impact of the neighborhood social environment on health tend to characterize only the current social environment. This in part may be due to complexities involved in obtaining and geocoding historical addresses. The Life Course Socioeconomic Status, Social Context, and Cardiovascular Disease Study collected information on childhood (1930–1950 and early adulthood (1960–1980 place of residence from 12,681 black and white middle-aged and older men and women from four U.S. communities to link participants with census-based socioeconomic indicators over the life course. Results Most (99% participants were linked to 1930–50 county level socioeconomic census data (the smallest level of aggregation universally available during this time period corresponding to childhood place of residence. Linkage did not vary by race, gender, birth cohort, or level of educational attainment. A commercial geocoding vendor processed participants' self-reported street addresses for ages 30, 40, and 50. For 1970 and 1980 censuses, spatial coordinates were overlaid onto shape files containing census tract boundaries; for 1960 no shape files existed and comparability files were used. Several methods were tested for accuracy and to increase linkage. Successful linkage to historical census tracts varied by census (66% for 1960, 76% for 1970, 85% for 1980. This compares to linkage rates of 94% for current addresses provided by participants over the course of the ARIC examinations. Conclusion There are complexities and limitations in characterizing the past social context. However, our results suggest that it is feasible to characterize the earlier social environment with known levels of measurement error and that such an approach should be considered in future studies.

Pre-school social abilities: Construction and validation of a scale for children in contexts of poverty

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Ana Betina Lacunza

2009-06-01

Full Text Available Social abilities are an essential part of human activity since they have a bearing on self-con­fidence, adoption of roles, self-regulation of behavior and academic performance, among other aspects. This study presents the process of construction and validation of a scale of social abilities for pre-school children. The scale was administered to 318 parents of 3 to 5 years old children of low socio-economic status who attend Primary Health Care Centers in San Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina. Considering the evolutionary and contextual charac­teristics relative to the process of acquisition of social abilities, a different protocol for every age group was designed. The result was a scale with confidence and validity characteristics. The validation of these instruments is helpful for evaluating children in poverty contexts since they enable us to distinguish social resources that allow children’s adaptation.

Brazilian Social Psychology in the international context: a commentary A Psicologia Social brasileira no cenário internacional: um comentário

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Joaquim Pires Valentim

2013-03-01

Full Text Available The present paper is a commentary on the talks given by Torres and Álvaro and by Krüger regarding Brazilian Social Psychology in the international context. Starting with a brief contrast with the situation in Portugal, this commentary next approaches, in a synthetic way, questions that cut across social psychology in the international setting, namely, those related with the recurrent dichotomy individual/collective, the great advances in social neuroscience, the study of minorities, the scarcity of psychosocial research about colonialism, and lastly, contemporary issues of science and educational policy.Faz-se aqui um comentário às intervenções de Torres e Álvaro e de Krüger sobre a Psicologia Social brasileira no cenário internacional. Começando por estabelecer um breve contraste com a situação em Portugal, de seguida este comentário aborda, de forma sintética, questões transversais à psicologia social no cenário internacional, designadamente as que se relacionam com a recorrente dicotomia individual/coletivo, os enormes avanços na neurociência social, o estudo das minorias, a escassez de estudos psicossociais sobre o colonialismo e, por último, questões contemporâneas de política científica e de ensino.

Does it pay to have a network contact? Social network ties, workplace racial context, and pay outcomes.

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Kmec, Julie A; Trimble, Lindsey B

2009-06-01

This article investigates how social network use to find work affects pay. Analyses using the Multi-City Study of Urban Inequality consider the extent to which a network contact's influence level affects a job applicant's pay, whether this effect differs for white, black, and Latino contacts, and how workplace racial context moderates this relationship. Three main findings emerge. First, having an influential contact--one with hiring authority--compared to having no contact yields higher pay. Second, white and minority contact influence on pay differs: among minority contacts, being an outsider (i.e., someone not employed by the firm to which the applicant applies) is associated with higher pay, but being an employee of the firm--an insider--is not. Third, regardless of workplace racial context, black and Latino contacts' influence is most beneficial when their race/ethnicity is not known to the hiring agent. We offer a new interpretation of the mixed findings with regard to the relationship between social network use and pay.

The effect of public social context on self-control: depletion for neuroticism and restoration for impression management.

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Uziel, Liad; Baumeister, Roy F

2012-03-01

The present study explores the role of personality in moderating the effect of public social context on self-control. The authors predicted that in public settings neuroticism would be associated with ego-depletion effects and individual differences in impression management (IM) would be associated with restoration effects. Three experiments supported the hypothesis. In Study 1 neuroticism was associated with impaired self-control and IM was associated with enhanced self-control following an initial phase of working on a simple task in public (vs. in private). Study 2 replicated and extended these results to other domains of self-control. Study 3 explored whether public social context can cancel out early depletion effects. In this study, depleted participants engaged in a task that required self-control either alone or in public. As expected, the public settings were associated with restored self-control resources mostly among high IM individuals. Implications for self-control, neuroticism, and IM are discussed.

Meeting the health and social care needs of pregnant asylum seekers; midwifery students' perspectives: part 3; "the pregnant woman within the global context"; an inclusive model for midwifery education to address the needs of asylum seeking women in the UK.

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Haith-Cooper, Melanie; Bradshaw, Gwendolen

2013-09-01