Moderated Online Social Therapy: A Model for Reducing Stress in Carers of Young People Diagnosed with Mental Health Disorders.

PubMed

Gleeson, John; Lederman, Reeva; Koval, Peter; Wadley, Greg; Bendall, Sarah; Cotton, Sue; Herrman, Helen; Crisp, Kingsley; Alvarez-Jimenez, Mario

2017-01-01

Family members caring for a young person diagnosed with the onset of mental health problems face heightened stress, depression, and social isolation. Despite evidence for the effectiveness of family based interventions, sustaining access to specialist family interventions is a major challenge. The availability of the Internet provides possibilities to expand and sustain access to evidence-based psychoeducation and personal support for family members. In this paper we describe the therapeutic model and the components of our purpose-built moderated online social therapy (MOST) program for families. We outline the background to its development, beginning with our face-to-face EPISODE II family intervention, which informed our selection of therapeutic content, and the integration of recent developments in positive psychology. Our online interventions for carers integrate online therapy, online social networking, peer and expert support, and online social problem solving which has been designed to reduce stress in carers. The initial version of our application entitled Meridian was shown to be safe, acceptable, and feasible in a feasibility study of carers of youth diagnosed with depression and anxiety. There was a significant reduction in self-reported levels of stress in caregivers and change in stress was significantly correlated with use of the system. We have subsequently launched a cluster RCT for caregivers with a relative diagnosed with first-episode psychosis. Our intervention has the potential to improve access to effective specialist support for families facing the onset of serious mental health problems in their young relative.

The Feasibility of Flipping: An Exploratory Analysis of the Flipped Classroom in a Developing Country

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Griffith, Alana D. D.

2017-01-01

There has been an increased demand on educational institutions to provide students with value for money. The sociology course SOCI3035 Caribbean Social Problems with 111 students was transformed to a fully flipped course replacing several face-to-face lectures, tutorials and assessment with online versions as homework. Face to face lecture time…

Time management in health care social work.

PubMed

Sheridan, M S

1988-01-01

Health care social workers face significant problems in controlling and managing time. Among the causes are increased demands for service, economy measures in health care, and the concurrent responsibility which social workers often have for both ongoing case management and crisis coverage. Individuals and social work departments can increase productivity through streamlining case management, increasing use of available resources, and generating new resources. With planning and preparation, many emergencies can be moved into the expected work flow. The social work profession needs to address time management problems and expectations in a more realistic and systematic way.

Problems of Dual-Career Black Couples: Identification and Implications for Family Interventions.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Thomas, Veronica G.

1990-01-01

Examined problems of 41 dual-career Black couples. Findings indicated that dual-career Black couples experienced a number of problems related to their lifestyle. Found unique problems perceived by dual-career Black families. In addition to problems experienced by White dual-career couples, Blacks also faced racial discrimination, social isolation,…

Coaching Family Caregivers to Become Better Problem Solvers When Caring for Persons with Advanced Cancer.

PubMed

Dionne-Odom, J Nicholas; Lyons, Kathleen D; Akyar, Imatullah; Bakitas, Marie A

2016-01-01

Family caregivers of persons with advanced cancer often take on responsibilities that present daunting and complex problems. Serious problems that go unresolved may be burdensome and result in negative outcomes for caregivers' psychological and physical health and affect the quality of care delivered to the care recipients with cancer, especially at the end of life. Formal problem-solving training approaches have been developed over the past several decades to assist individuals with managing problems faced in daily life. Several of these problem-solving principles and techniques were incorporated into ENABLE (Educate, Nurture, Advise, Before Life End), an "early" palliative care telehealth intervention for individuals diagnosed with advanced cancer and their family caregivers. A hypothetical case resembling the situations of actual caregiver participants in ENABLE that exemplifies the complex problems that caregivers face is presented, followed by presentation of an overview of ENABLE's problem-solving key principles, techniques, and steps in problem-solving support. Though more research is needed to formally test the use of problem-solving support in social work practice, social workers can easily incorporate these techniques into everyday practice.

Empathy and face processing in adults with and without autism spectrum disorder.

PubMed

Rigby, Sarah N; Stoesz, Brenda M; Jakobson, Lorna S

2018-06-01

Many factors contribute to social difficulties in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The goal of the present work was to determine whether atypicalities in how individuals with ASD process static, socially engaging faces persist when nonrigid facial motion cues are present. We also sought to explore the relationships between various face processing abilities and individual differences in autism symptom severity and traits such as empathy. Participants included 16 adults with ASD without intellectual impairment and 16 sex- and age-matched controls. Mean Verbal IQ was comparable across groups [t(30) = 0.70, P = 0.49]. The two groups responded similarly to many of the experimental manipulations; however, relative to controls, participants with ASD responded more slowly to dynamic expressive faces, even when no judgment was required; were less accurate at identity matching with static and dynamic faces; and needed more time to make identity and expression judgments [F(1, 30) ≥ 6.37, P ≤ 0.017, η p 2  ≥ 0.175 in all cases], particularly when the faces were moving [F(1, 30) = 3.40, P = 0.072, η p 2  = 0.104]. In the full sample, as social autistic traits increased and empathic skills declined, participants needed more time to judge static identity, and static or dynamic expressions [0.43 < |r s | < 0.56]. The results suggest that adults with ASD show general impairments in face and motion processing and support the view that an examination of individual variation in particular personality traits and abilities is important for advancing our understanding of face perception. Autism Res 2018, 11: 942-955. © 2018 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Our findings suggest that people with ASD have problems processing expressive faces, especially when seen in motion. It is important to learn who is most at risk for face processing problems, given that in the general population such problems appear to be linked to impaired social skills and empathy. By studying relationships between different abilities and traits, we may be able to find better ways to diagnose and support all people on the autism spectrum. © 2018 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Social Services in American High Schools.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Farrar, Eleanor; Hampel, Robert L.

1987-01-01

School social services may seem highly bureaucratic, with staff members filling narrowly defined roles. In practice, the delivery of social services to high school students faced with pregnancy, alcoholism, divorce, suicide, and other problems is exceedingly informal. Considerable discretion and autonomy are needed to serve students with problems…

Teaching about the Global Environment.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Blackburn, Anne M.

1985-01-01

Social studies educators hold an important key to our future success in the management of "spaceship earth." Students must be made aware of the global environment and the many problems facing it. These problems are discussed. (RM)

Exploring Models for Indigenizing Social Work Education in China

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhanghua, Wang; Liqun, Huang

2013-01-01

The article examines the theories of indigenization and examines the problems facing China's social work education. It shows that the quality of social work education and teaching staff is low. The curriculum emphasizes theory and overlooks practical training. "Using as is," not modifying Western theories, has remained strong. The…

The impact on social relationships of moving from congregated settings to personalized accommodation.

PubMed

McConkey, Roy; Bunting, Brendan; Keogh, Fiona; Garcia Iriarte, Edurne

2017-01-01

A natural experiment contrasted the social relationships of people with intellectual disabilities ( n = 110) before and after they moved from congregated settings to either personalized accommodation or group homes. Contrasts could also be drawn with individuals who had enduring mental health problems ( n = 46) and who experienced similar moves. Face-to-face interviews were conducted in each person's residence on two occasions approximately 24 months apart. Multivariate statistical analyses were used to determine significant effects. Greater proportions of people living in personalized settings scored higher on the five chosen indicators of social relationships than did persons living in grouped accommodation. However, multivariate statistical analyses identified that only one in five persons increased their social relationships as a result of changes in their accommodation, particularly persons with an intellectual disability and high support needs. These findings reinforce the extent of social isolation experienced by people with disabilities and mental health problems that changes in their accommodation only partially counter.

Psychometric Characteristics of the Social Justice Scale's Turkish Form and a Structural Equation Modeling

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cirik, Ilker

2015-01-01

Problem Statement: In order to provide equal educational opportunities for students, teachers should encourage their students to have an effective voice concerning social justice. Studies reveal that teachers face trouble when transferring from the concept of social justice as theory to social justice as practice. A scale which will be developed…

Micro-level social and structural factors act synergistically to increase HIV risk among Nepalese female sex workers.

PubMed

Deuba, Keshab; Anderson, Sarah; Ekström, Anna Mia; Pandey, Satish Raj; Shrestha, Rachana; Karki, Deepak Kumar; Marrone, Gaetano

2016-08-01

Sex workers face stigma, discrimination, and violence across the globe and are almost 14 times more likely to be HIV-infected than other women in low- and middle-income countries. In Asia, condom campaigns at brothels have been effective in some settings, but for preventive interventions to be sustainable, it is important to understand micro-level social and structural factors that influence sexual behaviours of sex workers. This study assessed the syndemic effects of micro-level social and structural factors of unprotected sex and the prevalence of HIV among female sex workers (FSWs) in Nepal. This quantitative study included 610 FSWs who were recruited using two-stage cluster sampling from September to November 2012 in 22 Terai Highway districts of Nepal. Rapid HIV tests and face-to-face interviews were conducted to collect biological and behavioural information. A count of physical (sexual violence and other undesirable events), social (poor social support and condom negotiation skills), and economic (unprotected sex to make more money) factors that operate at the micro-level was calculated to test the additive relationship to unprotected sex. The HIV prevalence was 1%; this is presumably representative, with a large sample of FSWs in Nepal. The prevalence of unprotected sex with clients was high (24%). For each additional adverse physical, social, and economic condition, the probability of non-use of condoms with clients increased substantially: one problem = 12% (p<0.005), two problems = 19% (p<0.001), and three to five problems = 38% (p<0.001). Interactions between two or more adverse conditions linked to physical, social, and economic environments increased the risk of unprotected sex among Nepalese FSWs. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Incorporating social anxiety into a model of college problem drinking: replication and extension.

PubMed

Ham, Lindsay S; Hope, Debra A

2006-09-01

Although research has found an association between social anxiety and alcohol use in noncollege samples, results have been mixed for college samples. College students face many novel social situations in which they may drink to reduce social anxiety. In the current study, the authors tested a model of college problem drinking, incorporating social anxiety and related psychosocial variables among 228 undergraduate volunteers. According to structural equation modeling (SEM) results, social anxiety was unrelated to alcohol use and was negatively related to drinking consequences. Perceived drinking norms mediated the social anxiety-alcohol use relation and was the variable most strongly associated with problem drinking. College students appear to be unique with respect to drinking and social anxiety. Although the notion of social anxiety alone as a risk factor for problem drinking was unsupported, additional research is necessary to determine whether there is a subset of socially anxious students who have high drinking norms and are in need of intervention. ((c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved).

Coexisting social conditions and health problems among clients seeking treatment for illicit drug use in Finland: The HUUTI study

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Background Illicit drug use is an important public health problem. Identifying conditions that coexist with illicit drug use is necessary for planning health services. This study described the prevalence and factors associated with social and health problems among clients seeking treatment for illicit drug use. Methods We carried out cross-sectional analyses of baseline data of 2526 clients who sought treatment for illicit drug use at Helsinki Deaconess Institute between 2001 and 2008. At the clients’ first visit, trained clinicians conducted face-to-face interviews using a structured questionnaire. Logistic regression was used to compute adjusted odds ratios (AORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for factors associated with social and health problems. Results The mean age of the clients was 25 years, 21% (n = 519) were homeless, 54% (n = 1363) were unemployed and 7% (n = 183) had experienced threats of violence. Half of the clients (50%, n = 1258) were self-referred and 31% (n = 788) used opiates as their primary drugs of abuse. Hepatitis C (25%, n = 630) was more prevalent than other infectious diseases and depressive symptoms (59%, n = 1490) were the most prevalent psychological problems. Clients who were self-referred to treatment were most likely than others to report social problems (AOR = 1.86; 95% CI = 1.50–2.30) and psychological problems (AOR = 1.51; 95% CI = 1.23–1.85). Using opiates as primary drugs of abuse was the strongest factor associated with infectious diseases (AOR = 3.89; 95% CI = 1.32–11.46) and for reporting a combination of social and health problems (AOR = 3.24; 95% CI = 1.58–6.65). Conclusion The existence of illicit drug use with other social and health problems could lead to increased utilisation and cost of healthcare services. Coexisting social and health problems may interfere with clients’ treatment response. Our findings support the call for integration of relevant social, medical and mental health support services within drug treatment programmes. PMID:23617549

Rural Schools for Tomorrow. Yearbook.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Butterworth, Julian E., Ed.

This 1945 National Education Association yearbook focuses attention on the post-World War II problems of rural schools and encourages national, state, and local leaders to lay plans for strengthening rural education programs. The articles examine social and economic problems faced by rural Americans, the implications of these problems for rural…

Indicators of Youth Social Capital: The Case for Not Using Adult Indicators in the Measurement of Youth Social Capital

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Billett, Paulina

2012-01-01

Social capital is a difficult concept to define, and the task of defining the social capital of youth is even more complicated. The concept has not only been poorly researched but is also imperfectly understood. This article examines the problems faced in the use of adult indicators in youth social capital research and explores current…

A Promising Practice: Using Facebook as a Communication and Social Networking Tool

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schultz, Susan M.; Jacobs, Gloria; Schultz, Jacob

2013-01-01

Individuals with autism often face barriers to social interaction. Residing in a rural environment can compound these difficulties for individuals diagnosed with autism. Some of the reasons include transportation problems and small social networks, in addition to the characteristics of autism. This article discusses a promising practice for…

Social Treatment of Graduate Students in Kenya: A Case of One University

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Muchemwa, Stella

2016-01-01

There is intensive enrolment of postgraduate students in order to sustain national capacity for university teaching and research. However, this development is no challenge-free for the graduate students face a number of problems which varies from economic to social. This research investigated the social treatment of Graduate Students in one…

Teen Girls' Resistance and the Disappearing Social in "Ghost World."

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Giroux, Henry A.

2002-01-01

Examines "Ghost World," a Hollywood film about youth, friendship, alienation, and survival, critically investigating how popular representations of youth signal a particular crisis of the social through a discourse of privatization, which fails to locate youth and problems they face within the related geographies of the social and political. The…

Facing changes and changing faces in adolescence: A new model for investigating adolescent-specific interactions between pubertal, brain and behavioral development

PubMed Central

Scherf, K. Suzanne; Behrmann, Marlene; Dahl, Ronald E.

2015-01-01

Adolescence is a time of dramatic physical, cognitive, emotional, and social changes as well as a time for the development of many social-emotional problems. These characteristics raise compelling questions about accompanying neural changes that are unique to this period of development. Here, we propose that studying adolescent-specific changes in face processing and its underlying neural circuitry provides an ideal model for addressing these questions. We also use this model to formulate new hypotheses. Specifically, pubertal hormones are likely to increase motivation to master new peer-oriented developmental tasks, which will in turn, instigate the emergence of new social/affective components of face processing. We also predict that pubertal hormones have a fundamental impact on the reorganization of neural circuitry supporting face processing and propose, in particular, that, the functional connectivity, or temporal synchrony, between regions of the face-processing network will change with the emergence of these new components of face processing in adolescence. Finally, we show how this approach will help reveal why adolescence may be a period of vulnerability in brain development and suggest how it could lead to prevention and intervention strategies that facilitate more adaptive functional interactions between regions within the broader social information processing network. PMID:22483070

Coaching Family Caregivers to become Better Problem Solvers when Caring for Persons with Advanced Cancer

PubMed Central

Dionne-Odom, J. Nicholas; Lyons, Kathleen D.; Akyar, Imatullah; Bakitas, Marie

2016-01-01

Family caregivers of persons with advanced cancer often take on responsibilities that present daunting and complex problems. Serious problems that go unresolved may be burdensome and result in negative outcomes for caregivers’ psychological and physical health and affect the quality of care delivered to the care recipients with cancer, especially at the end of life. Formal problem-solving training approaches have been developed over the past several decades to assist individuals with managing problems faced in daily life. Several of these problem-solving principles and techniques were incorporated into ENABLE (Educate, Nurture, Advise, Before Life End), an ‘early’ palliative care telehealth intervention for individuals diagnosed with advanced cancer and their family caregivers. A hypothetical case resembling the situations of actual caregiver participants in ENABLE that exemplifies the complex problems that caregivers face is presented followed by presentation of an overview of ENABLE’s problem-solving key principles, techniques and steps in problem-solving support. Though more research is needed to formally test the use of problem-solving support in social work practice, social workers can easily incorporate these techniques into everyday practice. PMID:27143574

Military-Induced Family Separation: A Stress Reduction Intervention.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Black, William G., Jr.

1993-01-01

Notes that Persian Gulf War focused public attention on the problems military families face in coping with military-induced family separation. Highlights some of the unique stressors faced by active-duty, national guard, and reserve military families. Presents practical guidelines to assist social workers in designing interventions to help these…

Beyond Trivia and Nostalgia: Collaborating in the Construction of a Local History.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shopes, Linda

1984-01-01

To overcome problems of trivia and nostalgia, a problem-centered approach to community oral history projects is proposed. Instead of cataloging details about aspects of past social life, the projects might shape their inquiry as an effort to understand a problem facing the community, a problem with contemporary significance but historical roots.…

Maladaptive social information processing in childhood predicts young men’s atypical amygdala reactivity to threat

PubMed Central

Choe, Daniel Ewon; Shaw, Daniel S.; Forbes, Erika E.

2014-01-01

Background Maladaptive social information processing, such as hostile attributional bias and aggressive response generation, is associated with childhood maladjustment. Although social information processing problems are correlated with heightened physiological responses to social threat, few studies have examined their associations with neural threat circuitry, specifically amygdala activation to social threat. Methods A cohort of 310 boys participated in an ongoing longitudinal study and completed questionnaires and laboratory tasks assessing their social and cognitive characteristics between 10- and 12-years-old. At age 20, 178 of these young men underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging and a social threat task. At age 22, adult criminal arrest records and self-reports of impulsiveness were obtained. Results Path models indicated that maladaptive social information processing at ages 10 and 11 predicted increased left amygdala reactivity to fear faces, an ambiguous threat, at age 20 while accounting for childhood antisocial behavior, empathy, IQ, and socioeconomic status. Exploratory analyses indicated that aggressive response generation—the tendency to respond to threat with reactive aggression—predicted left amygdala reactivity to fear faces and was concurrently associated with empathy, antisocial behavior, and hostile attributional bias, whereas hostile attributional bias correlated with IQ. Although unrelated to social information processing problems, bilateral amygdala reactivity to anger faces at age 20 was unexpectedly predicted by low IQ at age 11. Amygdala activation did not mediate associations between social information processing and number of criminal arrests, but both impulsiveness at age 22 and arrests were correlated with right amygdala reactivity to anger facial expressions at age 20. Conclusions Childhood social information processing and IQ predicted young men’s amygdala response to threat a decade later, which suggests that childhood social-cognitive characteristics are associated with the development of neural threat processing and adult adjustment. PMID:25142952

An islet of social ability in Asperger Syndrome: judging social attributes from faces.

PubMed

White, Sarah; Hill, Elisabeth; Winston, Joel; Frith, Uta

2006-06-01

We asked adults with Asperger Syndrome to judge pictorial stimuli in terms of certain social stereotypes to evaluate to what extent they have access to this type of social knowledge. Sixteen adults with Asperger Syndrome and 24 controls, matched for age and intelligence, were presented with sets of faces, bodies and objects, which had to be rated on a 7-point scale in terms of trustworthiness, attractiveness, social status, and age, or, in the case of objects, price. Despite impaired performance on two important aspects of social cognition (second-order mentalizing and face recognition) the social judgements of the individuals with Asperger Syndrome were just as competent and consistent as those of their matched controls, with only one exception: there was a trend for them to be less able to judge the attractiveness of faces if they were the same sex. We explain this difference in terms of a weakness in mentalizing, specifically the ability to take a different point of view: While all other stereotypic attributions could be made from an egocentric point of view, judging the attractiveness of faces of one's own sex requires taking the perspective of someone of the opposite sex, a challenge for people with mentalizing problems. We conclude that individuals with Asperger Syndrome show preserved aspects of social knowledge, as revealed in the attribution of stereotypes to pictures of people. These findings suggest that there are dissociable subcomponents to social cognition and that not all of these are compromised in Asperger Syndrome.

Measurement and visualization of face-to-face interaction among community-dwelling older adults using wearable sensors.

PubMed

Masumoto, Kouhei; Yaguchi, Takaharu; Matsuda, Hiroshi; Tani, Hideaki; Tozuka, Keisuke; Kondo, Narihiko; Okada, Shuichi

2017-10-01

A number of interventions have been undertaken to develop and promote social networks among community-dwelling older adults. However, it has been difficult to examine the effects of these interventions, because of problems in assessing interactions. The present study was designed to quantitatively measure and visualize face-to-face interactions among elderly participants in an exercise program. We also examined relationships among interactional variables, personality and interest in community involvement, including interactions with the local community. Older adults living in the same community were recruited to participate in an exercise program that consisted of four sessions. We collected data on face-to-face interactions of the participants by using a wearable sensor technology device. Network analysis identified the communication networks of participants in the exercise program, as well as changes in these networks. Additionally, there were significant correlations between the number of people involved in face-to-face interactions and changes in both interest in community involvement and interactions with local community residents, as well as personality traits, including agreeableness. Social networks in the community are essential for solving problems caused by the aging society. We showed the possible applications of face-to-face interactional data for identifying core participants having many interactions, and isolated participants having only a few interactions within the community. Such data would be useful for carrying out efficient interventions for increasing participants' involvement with their community. Geriatr Gerontol Int 2017; 17: 1752-1758. © 2017 Japan Geriatrics Society.

Issues affecting health professionals during and after catastrophic earthquakes in Van-Turkey.

PubMed

Sevimli, Sukran; Karadas, Sevdegul; Dulger, Ahmet Cumhur

2016-02-01

To assess physical and psycho-social problems faced by health professionals, and to analyse the ethical, legal and triage dimensions of disaster medical services. The descriptive study was conducted from November 2011 to March 2012 and comprised health professionals from two hospitals of Van, Turkey A specific questionnaire was designed and interviews were conducted face to face. SPSS 13 was used for statistical analysis. Of the 430 health professionals who had experienced one or more earthquakes and were part of the study, 225(52.3%) were nurses and 205(47.7%) were doctors. There were 224(52%) women and 206(48%) men. Besides, 206(48) were below 31 years of age. Overall, 193(44.9%) participants experienced chaos, 83(19.3%) panic and fear, and 129(30%) despair. Only 20(4.7%) of them lived at home, while others lived in tents, containers, hospitals or cars during the emergency and continued to provide services despite social, economic and psychological problems. Triage was preferred by 339(78.8%) of the respondents. Problems of health professionals were multi-dimensional and addressing them would make service delivery more effective.

A unified coding strategy for processing faces and voices

PubMed Central

Yovel, Galit; Belin, Pascal

2013-01-01

Both faces and voices are rich in socially-relevant information, which humans are remarkably adept at extracting, including a person's identity, age, gender, affective state, personality, etc. Here, we review accumulating evidence from behavioral, neuropsychological, electrophysiological, and neuroimaging studies which suggest that the cognitive and neural processing mechanisms engaged by perceiving faces or voices are highly similar, despite the very different nature of their sensory input. The similarity between the two mechanisms likely facilitates the multi-modal integration of facial and vocal information during everyday social interactions. These findings emphasize a parsimonious principle of cerebral organization, where similar computational problems in different modalities are solved using similar solutions. PMID:23664703

Shift work--problems and its impact on female nurses in Udaipur, Rajasthan India.

PubMed

Rathore, H; Shukla, K; Singh, S; Tiwari, G

2012-01-01

Abstract : There is good evidence that shift work has negative effects on workers health, safety and performance. It is quite appropriate that attention is paid to this very important feature of socio-technical systems, which may adversely affect mental and physical health, social life and safety of shift workers. Research into the impact of shift work on professionals has consistently identified a range of negative outcomes in physical, psychological, and social domains (Akerstedt, 1988; Costa, Lievore, Casaletti, Gaffuri, & Folkard, 1989; Kogi, 2005; Paley & Tepas, 1994). Hospitals, the biggest employer in the health care field, employ more night shift workers than any other industry. It can therefore be inferred that in medical domain high percentage of workforce may be affected by problems related to shift work. Thus the present study will provide knowledge base for the problems faced by the female nurses. The present study was undertaken with an objective of getting an insight into the problems faced by female nurses in shift work. . It was found that the female nurses in India worked on roaster pattern of change in shift every seven days. They did not have a say in the change of duties, it could only be done on mutual grounds. Partners of younger group did not much adjust to their shift pattern this created stress among the nurses.The results showed that the female nurses in both the age groups i.e. 30-45 years and 45-60 years faced many problems related to health and well being, fatigue, social and domestic situations. They could not give much time to their children in particular. Travelling in nights was risky for them. Common problem was the insufficient sleep during night shifts. The nurses had to cater to the needs of the family, children in particular along with the adjustments to be made due to shift work. They had to sometimes do the night duties and attend social functions as a part of their duty. Children and husband in some cases did not cooperate this lead to frustration. When asked as to whether they would could shift job if they get regular one more than 50 % said yes this means that there need to be come training and intervention for the shift workers and their family so that the problems faced and their impact on personal health of the female nurses could be reduced.

How Might Social Education Resist Heterosexism? Facing the Impact of Gender and Sexual Ideology on Citizenship

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bickmore, Kathy

2002-01-01

This paper examines the mutually-reinforcing problems of sexism and heterosexism, and the actions that may be taken by social educators to ameliorate such injustices. Various approaches to anti-heterosexism education are organized in relation to the three dimensions of handling social conflict: intervention procedures (in particular the management…

Image of Social Studies at Google

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ozturk, Cemil; Yigit, Ozlem E.; Karaduman, Hidir

2012-01-01

Social Studies Course is a lecture that ensures the students to recognize their society and the world, to involve into the social life actively towards the solution of the problems they have faced with in this respect. However, the researches indicate that this course is one of the least favorite courses by the students. Although there are various…

Can Social Stories Enhance the Interpersonal Conflict Resolution Skills of Children with LD?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kalyva, Efrosini; Agaliotis, Ioannis

2009-01-01

Since many children with learning disabilities (LD) face interpersonal conflict resolution problems, this study examines the efficacy of social stories in helping them choose more appropriate interpersonal conflict resolution strategies. A social story was recorded and played to the 31 children with LD in the experimental group twice a week for a…

Social Marketing. Views from Inside the Government. 30th Anniversary Seminar Series.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Academy for Educational Development, Inc., New York, NY.

This booklet contains excerpted remarks by government and public health officials concerning social marketing and its use. It is noted that the agencies they represent are among those that are considered pioneers in applying social marketing to some of the toughest problems facing America. Topics concerning government, public health, and the use…

Social Media and Higher Education: The Problem of Anonymous Electronic Threats to the Campus Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reynolds, Cristin Lee; Platt, R. Eric; Malone Schaffer, Lenore; Foster, Holly

2017-01-01

This case is for use in graduate courses pertaining to student affairs and higher education administration. It presents challenges higher education professionals face concerning anonymous social media, and specifically how threats made through anonymous social media platforms such as Yik Yak affect the entire university community. The anonymity of…

Elementary Schools, Teaching, and Social Studies in Texas: Facing the Great Depression

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bellows, M. Elizabeth; Baumi, Michelle; Field, Sherry L.

2013-01-01

Across the United States, the Great Depression was a period of tremendous upheaval. Economic, family, political, and educational institutions shook mightily as the tremors of widespread financial downturn were felt. Public schools faced increasing hardships, which included financial problems such as a weakened tax base due to the non-payment of…

Working together in community care.

PubMed

Statham, D

1994-01-01

Health and social services professionals face major challenges in making the community care reforms work. Not least is the need to improve inter-agency collaboration. Many of the problems facing them are common to both professions, writes Daphne Statham. Instead of accusing the professions of inflexibility and tribalism, employers should support and invest in their professional staff.

A historical forest management conundrum: do social and biophysical mix?

Treesearch

Heidi Bigler-Cole

2005-01-01

Forest managers face an array of prickly, seemingly intractable environmental problems. They have traditionally turned to the biophysical sciences to help gauge potential management effects, weigh alternatives, and set priorities. Over the past several decades, forest managers have watched management plans disintegrate in the face of grassroots-level protests, quarrels...

A serial mediation model of workplace social support on work productivity: the role of self-stigma and job tenure self-efficacy in people with severe mental disorders.

PubMed

Villotti, Patrizia; Corbière, Marc; Dewa, Carolyn S; Fraccaroli, Franco; Sultan-Taïeb, Hélène; Zaniboni, Sara; Lecomte, Tania

2017-09-12

Compared to groups with other disabilities, people with a severe mental illness face the greatest stigma and barriers to employment opportunities. This study contributes to the understanding of the relationship between workplace social support and work productivity in people with severe mental illness working in Social Enterprises by taking into account the mediating role of self-stigma and job tenure self-efficacy. A total of 170 individuals with a severe mental disorder employed in a Social Enterprise filled out questionnaires assessing personal and work-related variables at Phase-1 (baseline) and Phase-2 (6-month follow-up). Process modeling was used to test for serial mediation. In the Social Enterprise workplace, social support yields better perceptions of work productivity through lower levels of internalized stigma and higher confidence in facing job-related problems. When testing serial multiple mediations, the specific indirect effect of high workplace social support on work productivity through both low internalized stigma and high job tenure self-efficacy was significant with a point estimate of 1.01 (95% CI = 0.42, 2.28). Continued work in this area can provide guidance for organizations in the open labor market addressing the challenges posed by the work integration of people with severe mental illness. Implications for Rehabilitation: Work integration of people with severe mental disorders is difficult because of limited access to supportive and nondiscriminatory workplaces. Social enterprise represents an effective model for supporting people with severe mental disorders to integrate the labor market. In the social enterprise workplace, social support yields better perceptions of work productivity through lower levels of internalized stigma and higher confidence in facing job-related problems.

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

PubMed

Krasheninnikova, Anastasia; Schneider, Jutta M

2014-09-01

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

Victimisation through bullying and cyberbullying: Emotional intelligence, severity of victimisation and technology use in different types of victims.

PubMed

Beltrán-Catalán, María; Zych, Izabela; Ortega-Ruiz, Rosario; Llorent, Vicente J

2018-05-01

Bullying and cyberbullying are global public health problems. However, very few studies described prevalence, similarities and differences among face-to-face victims, cybervictims and students who are victimised through both bullying and cyberbullying. This study was conducted to describe these different patterns of victimisation and severity of victimisation, emotional intelligence and technology use in different types of victims. A total number of 2,139 secondary school students from 22 schools, randomly selected from all provinces of Andalusia, Spain, participated in this study. Information about bullying, cyberbullying, social networking sites use and perceived emotional intelligence was collected. Face-to-face victimisation only is the most common type of victimisation followed by mixed victimisation. Cybervictimisation only is rare. Mixed victims score higher in severity of bullying and present higher emotional attention than face-to-face victims. Most victims of cyberbullying are also face-to-face victims. Holistic approach that focuses on different problems at the same time seems to be needed to tackle these behaviours.

Facing changes and changing faces in adolescence: a new model for investigating adolescent-specific interactions between pubertal, brain and behavioral development.

PubMed

Scherf, K Suzanne; Behrmann, Marlene; Dahl, Ronald E

2012-04-01

Adolescence is a time of dramatic physical, cognitive, emotional, and social changes as well as a time for the development of many social-emotional problems. These characteristics raise compelling questions about accompanying neural changes that are unique to this period of development. Here, we propose that studying adolescent-specific changes in face processing and its underlying neural circuitry provides an ideal model for addressing these questions. We also use this model to formulate new hypotheses. Specifically, pubertal hormones are likely to increase motivation to master new peer-oriented developmental tasks, which will in turn, instigate the emergence of new social/affective components of face processing. We also predict that pubertal hormones have a fundamental impact on the re-organization of neural circuitry supporting face processing and propose, in particular, that, the functional connectivity, or temporal synchrony, between regions of the face-processing network will change with the emergence of these new components of face processing in adolescence. Finally, we show how this approach will help reveal why adolescence may be a period of vulnerability in brain development and suggest how it could lead to prevention and intervention strategies that facilitate more adaptive functional interactions between regions within the broader social information processing network. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Crouzon syndrome: a social stigma.

PubMed

Pandey, Neelisha; Pandey, Ramesh Kumar; Singh, Rajeev Kumar; Shah, Naveen Kumar

2012-10-10

Crouzon syndrome is a rare genetic disorder caused due to genetic mutations. It is characterised by partial hearing loss, dry eyes, strabismus and underdevelopment of the upper jaw with facial deformities and malocclusion. These facial deformities greatly affect the social and emotional development of the affected child. The present case report highlights the social problems faced by a child suffering with Crouzon syndrome.

Systematic Monitoring of Young Children's Social-Emotional Competence and Challenging Behaviors

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Classen, Audra; Cheatham, Gregory A.

2015-01-01

Many children in preschool need support developing appropriate social-emotional competencies. Supportive early educators build confidence in young children to express and regulate emotions, develop solutions to problems, interact with peers, and persist when faced with challenges (Denham, 2006; Webster-Stratton & Reid, 2004). This article…

Social Implications of Spina Bifida.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Woodburn, Margaret

Investigated in Southeast Scotland were the social and practical problems faced by the parents of 86 children (ages 18 months to 38 years) with spina bifida, 74 of whom were classified as myelomeningoceles (a more serious condition involving malformation of the spinal cord). Questionnaires and interviews were used to gather information in the…

Positioning and Latinas/os: A Study of Small-Group Interactions in Mathematics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lopez Leiva, Carlos Alfonso

2011-01-01

This study explores social interaction and mathematics performance, especially regarding how bilingual Latino/a students' positioning and participation evolved as they interacted with others in mathematics problem solving. Historically, Latinas/os have faced segregation in different ways that affect the quality of their social interactions…

Sex Education in Bermuda: Curriculum Development and Community Implementation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Butts, June Dobbs

1976-01-01

Deal with one instance in which the Government of Bermuda sought to effect social change. Discusses the author's experiences in introducing a sex education program there as well as the implications of that program's development for five social problems, which Bermuda faces in its struggle to maintain economic survival. (RK)

[Social inequality in home care].

PubMed

Möller, A; Osterfeld, A; Büscher, A

2013-06-01

Social inequality in Germany is discussed primarily with regard to educational or social welfare issues. There is a political consensus that more action should be taken to ensure equality of chances and fulfillment of basic needs for everyone. In long-term care these considerations have not yet taken place and there are hardly any research studies in this field. However, the startling rise of the need for long-term care will definitely require a discussion of social inequality in various care arrangements. To learn more about social inequality in home care, a qualitative approach was used and 16 home care nurses were interviewed. Our study shows that many care recipients face numerous problems they cannot handle on their own, which may even worsen their situation. In addition, the results reveal that facing social inequalities place a burden on nurses and influence their work performance.

Sociocultural aspects of arsenicosis in Bangladesh: community perspective.

PubMed

Ahmad, Sheikh A; Sayed, Muhammad H S; Khan, Manzurul H; Karim, Muhammad N; Haque, Muhammad A; Bhuiyan, Mohammad S A; Rahman, Muhammad S; Faruquee, Mahmud H

2007-10-01

This was a cross-sectional study under taken to explore the socioeconomic perspective of the arsenicosis problem, carried out in arsenic contaminated Upazillas where at least 100 arsenicosis patients had been identified. Two of the Upazillas with significant arsenic mitigation intervention and three of the Upazillas with limited interventions were selected for the study. Seven hundred fifty respondents were included in the study from 25 villages of the 5 Upazillas. Arsenicosis became a serious problem for the affected communities. Majority (71.31%) of respondents obtained their drinking water from tubewells, almost one third (29%) of the respondents still knowingly using arsenic contaminated water. Primary reason identified for this practice was distance of safe water source. Majority (58.6%) of the respondents said to face economic and 17.9% said to face social problem of varied range. Patients of lower income group were particularly more likely to face economic problems (P< .001) as well as social problem (P< .01). About half (50.7%) of the arsenicosis patients faced difficulty whilst receiving treatment, particularly female patients were more likely to face problem than male (P< .05). Several concerns also were surfaced regarding the heath care service provider particularly to the women patients, some of which are: long waiting time for receiving treatment (15%), discrimination in service delivery (10.7%) and inadequate separate facility for female patients (14.3%). Moreover the issues of financial burden raised by the respondents seem to have emerged as significant in terms of health care access. Access to Health service was particularly difficult for poor patients, as they often had to face problems associated with accessing service like, non availability of medicines in the hospitals (50.7%), traveling long distance (26.7%), purchasing medicine in most cases (32.4%) etc. Their dissatisfaction was compounded by negligent behavior of health care staff and nature of treatment provided. Furthermore length of time needed for reversal of symptoms led to loosing faith on efficacy of treatment, which cascades to negligence of patient's part in seeking health care. Women are less likely to get treatment for arsenicosis than men (P< .01). As there appear to be specific difficulties for women particularly for poor women in accessing health care, social and cultural values make it difficult for them to attend to their own health needs and to travel to service providers. Study findings suggest that a significant proportion (79.9%) of arsenicosis patient was found to access alternative health care. This includes; Homeopath, village doctors, Kabiraj and local pharmacists. Respondents in high intervention Upazillas were significantly more likely to get treatment (P< .05), to face fewer problems and to be satisfied with the facility (P< .001). Provision of safe water options, periodic screening of water source for arsenic, availability of trained doctor, regular availability of medicine, doorstep treatment, follow up on severe patients were the suggestions came from community for improvement.

Learning to See the (W)holes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Burns, Barbara A.; Jordan, Thomas M.

2006-01-01

Business managers are faced with complex decisions involving a wide range of issues--technical, social, environmental, and financial--and their interaction. Our education system focuses heavily on presenting structured problems and teaching students to apply a set of tools or methods to solve these problems. Yet the most difficult thing to teach…

Children of Cocaine: Facing the Issues.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fact Find, 1990

1990-01-01

Statistical data illustrate the incidence of babies who have been prenatally exposed to cocaine. The damaging effects of maternal cocaine use on the fetus, infant, and young child are described, including: (1) prenatal strokes, malformed kidneys and limbs, and deformed hearts and lungs; (2) physical problems, social and emotional problems, and…

A Portrait of At-Risk Children.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gore, Tipper

1991-01-01

Social and economic problems facing U.S. children are reviewed, including poverty, hunger and homelessness, gaps in health and mental health services, infant mortality/morbidity, child abuse, drug use, and violence depicted in the mass media. Risk-taking behaviors that are children's responses and suggestions to remedy these problems are…

2014 Native Youth Report

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Executive Office of the President, 2014

2014-01-01

In June 2014, President Obama embarked on his first presidential visit to Indian Country, where he and Mrs. Obama witnessed the tale of two Americas. Standing Rock Reservation, like many others, faces myriad social, economic, and educational problems. Together, those problems are coalescing into a crisis for our most vulnerable population--Native…

Saving Face: Managing Rapport in a Problem-Based Learning Group

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Robinson, Leslie; Harris, Ann; Burton, Rob

2015-01-01

This qualitative study investigated the complex social aspects of communication required for students to participate effectively in Problem-Based Learning and explored how these dynamics are managed. The longitudinal study of a group of first-year undergraduates examined interactions using Rapport Management as a framework to analyse communication…

Brief report.

PubMed

Colnerud, Gunnel

2013-10-01

Most accounts of the ethical problems facing researchers across a broad spectrum of research fields come from ethicists, ethics committees, and specialists committed to the study of ethics in human research. In contrast, this study reports on the ethical questions that researchers, themselves, report facing in their everyday practice. Fifty-five Swedish researchers contributed 109 examples of ethical dilemmas, conflicts, and problems in research. They were all researchers at the postdoctoral level in the fields of medicine, the humanities, education, and the social sciences, who devoted at least 50 percent of their working hours to research. They reported issues they face before, during, and after gathering data. Their range of issues is broader than generally discussed and points to the importance of researchers' ethical sensitivity.

Problem Analysis: The First Step in Prevention Planning. A Prevention 101 Series Publication

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

DeJong, William

2009-01-01

Student alcohol and other drug abuse and violence (AODV) still reign as the most serious social problems faced by U.S. institutions of higher education. To tackle these problems, campus administrators--working in conjunction with partners from the surrounding community--need to put in place an integrated set of strategies that address the mix of…

Maladaptive social information processing in childhood predicts young men's atypical amygdala reactivity to threat.

PubMed

Choe, Daniel Ewon; Shaw, Daniel S; Forbes, Erika E

2015-05-01

Maladaptive social information processing, such as hostile attributional bias and aggressive response generation, is associated with childhood maladjustment. Although social information processing problems are correlated with heightened physiological responses to social threat, few studies have examined their associations with neural threat circuitry, specifically amygdala activation to social threat. A cohort of 310 boys participated in an ongoing longitudinal study and completed questionnaires and laboratory tasks assessing their social and cognitive characteristics the boys were between 10 and 12 years of age. At age 20, 178 of these young men underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging and a social threat task. At age 22, adult criminal arrest records and self-reports of impulsiveness were obtained. Path models indicated that maladaptive social information-processing at ages 10 and 11 predicted increased left amygdala reactivity to fear faces, an ambiguous threat, at age 20 while accounting for childhood antisocial behavior, empathy, IQ, and socioeconomic status. Exploratory analyses indicated that aggressive response generation - the tendency to respond to threat with reactive aggression - predicted left amygdala reactivity to fear faces and was concurrently associated with empathy, antisocial behavior, and hostile attributional bias, whereas hostile attributional bias correlated with IQ. Although unrelated to social information-processing problems, bilateral amygdala reactivity to anger faces at age 20 was unexpectedly predicted by low IQ at age 11. Amygdala activation did not mediate associations between social information processing and number of criminal arrests, but both impulsiveness at age 22 and arrests were correlated with right amygdala reactivity to anger facial expressions at age 20. Childhood social information processing and IQ predicted young men's amygdala response to threat a decade later, which suggests that childhood social-cognitive characteristics are associated with the development of neural threat processing and adult adjustment. © 2014 Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health.

Citizen-Consumers, Social Markets and the Reform of Public Services

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Peters, Michael A.

2004-01-01

In a paper presented in July 2003 to Labour's National Policy Forum, the main policy-making body in the United Kingdom, Liam Byrne, a research associate of the Social Market Foundation, forecast the major problems that will face government in Britain in 2020. As reported in the "Guardian" (9 August 2003): "British national…

Poststroke Depression: Social Workers' Role in Addressing an Underrecognized Psychological Problem for Couples Who Have Experienced Stroke

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McCarthy, Michael J.; Powers, Laurie E.; Lyons, Karen S.

2011-01-01

Depression is the most common psychological challenge faced by many individuals and families following stroke. Fortunately, poststroke depression is treatable, and even preventable, if social work and other rehabilitation practitioners understand the most common risk factors and become familiar with measures for assessing for depression among…

School Counselors and Social Justice Advocacy for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bidell, Markus P.

2011-01-01

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or questioning (LGBTQ) students often face considerable isolation, discrimination, and violence at school, which can exacerbate the acute psychosocial and academic problems they already encounter. The purpose of this article is to introduce gay-straight alliances (GSAs) as a social justice and advocacy approach…

Citizenship Education as a Response to Colombia's Social and Political Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jaramillo, Rosario; Mesa, Jose A.

2009-01-01

In response to the difficult social, economic and political problems that Colombia faces, such as inequality, discrimination, weak civil society--fuelled by illegality and drug trafficking--the Colombian Ministry of Education has embarked on an ambitious citizenship education program, with the hope of strengthening the role of education by…

[Social scenarios in Latin America and the Caribbean].

PubMed

Kliksberg, B

2000-01-01

A wide range of sources have pointed out the magnitude and depth of the social problems that trouble Latin America and the Caribbean and the risks that these problems pose for democracy. Although there are other issues that merit consideration, this article briefly outlines nine key social problems: 1) the increase in poverty, 2) the impact of poverty, 3) unemployment and informal employment, 4) deficiencies in public health, 5) problems in education, 6) the newly poor, 7) the erosion of the family, 8) increasing crime, and 9) the perverse cycle of socioeconomic exclusion. Solving these problems must not be delayed. It is urgent to move to a comprehensive view of development that achieves a different balance between economic and social policies, and that recognizes the indispensable role of these policies in achieving truly sustainable development. At stake are problems that not only concern resources, but also priorities, levels of equity, and the organization of society. Facing up to this poverty and inequity requires an in-depth assessment of these economic policies' social consequences, of the crucial subject of Latin American inequity--the greatest in the world--and of the role of social and public policies.

Family-based therapy for dementia caregivers: clinical observations

PubMed Central

MITRANI, V. B.; CZAJA, S. J.

2008-01-01

Family caregiving for dementia patients is a major social and clinical problem. Family caregivers face major stressful emotional, social and economic burdens, and the negative consequences associated with caregiving are well documented. Given the projected increase in the number of people with dementia, there is a need to identify approaches that will help families manage the challenges of caregiving. Social support from friends and family members has consistently been found to mediate caregiver outcomes, yet many caregivers face problems with isolation and estrangement from family members. In this regard, family-based therapy is a promising intervention for increasing social support for caregivers, and enhancing their quality of life and ability to provide care.This paper will discuss how family-based therapy can be applied as an intervention for family caregivers of dementia patients.The clinical implications of specific interactional patterns will be presented via case examples from an ongoing clinical trial with white American and Cuban American caregivers of dementia patients.The intent is to demonstrate how identification of interactional patterns is a valuable tool for implementing family-based interventions. PMID:18548132

Incorporating social anxiety into a model of college student problematic drinking

PubMed Central

Ham, Lindsay S.; Hope, Debra A.

2009-01-01

College problem drinking and social anxiety are significant public health concerns with highly negative consequences. College students are faced with a variety of novel social situations and situations encouraging alcohol consumption. The current study involved developing a path model of college problem drinking, including social anxiety, in 316 college students referred to an alcohol intervention due to a campus alcohol violation. Contrary to hypotheses, social anxiety generally had an inverse relationship with problem drinking. As expected, perceived drinking norms had important positive, direct effects on drinking variables. However, the results generally did not support the hypotheses regarding the mediating or moderating function of the valuations of expected effects and provided little support for the mediating function of alcohol expectancies in the relations among social anxiety and alcohol variables. Therefore, it seems that the influence of peers may be more important for college students than alcohol expectancies and valuations of alcohol’s effects are. College students appear to be a unique population in respect to social anxiety and problem drinking. The implications of these results for college prevention and intervention programs were discussed. PMID:15561454

Online social integration is associated with reduced mortality risk.

PubMed

Hobbs, William R; Burke, Moira; Christakis, Nicholas A; Fowler, James H

2016-11-15

Social interactions increasingly take place online. Friendships and other offline social ties have been repeatedly associated with human longevity, but online interactions might have different properties. Here, we reference 12 million social media profiles against California Department of Public Health vital records and use longitudinal statistical models to assess whether social media use is associated with longer life. The results show that receiving requests to connect as friends online is associated with reduced mortality but initiating friendships is not. Additionally, online behaviors that indicate face-to-face social activity (like posting photos) are associated with reduced mortality, but online-only behaviors (like sending messages) have a nonlinear relationship, where moderate use is associated with the lowest mortality. These results suggest that online social integration is linked to lower risk for a wide variety of critical health problems. Although this is an associational study, it may be an important step in understanding how, on a global scale, online social networks might be adapted to improve modern populations' social and physical health.

Online social integration is associated with reduced mortality risk

PubMed Central

Hobbs, William R.; Burke, Moira; Christakis, Nicholas A.; Fowler, James H.

2016-01-01

Social interactions increasingly take place online. Friendships and other offline social ties have been repeatedly associated with human longevity, but online interactions might have different properties. Here, we reference 12 million social media profiles against California Department of Public Health vital records and use longitudinal statistical models to assess whether social media use is associated with longer life. The results show that receiving requests to connect as friends online is associated with reduced mortality but initiating friendships is not. Additionally, online behaviors that indicate face-to-face social activity (like posting photos) are associated with reduced mortality, but online-only behaviors (like sending messages) have a nonlinear relationship, where moderate use is associated with the lowest mortality. These results suggest that online social integration is linked to lower risk for a wide variety of critical health problems. Although this is an associational study, it may be an important step in understanding how, on a global scale, online social networks might be adapted to improve modern populations’ social and physical health. PMID:27799553

Patterns of Depressive Symptoms, Drinking Motives, and Sexual Behavior among Substance Abusing Adolescents: Implications for Health Risk

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tubman, Jonathan G.; Wagner, Eric F.; Langer, Lilly M.

2003-01-01

Adolescents with substance use problems were classified into four distinct and meaningful subgroups based on patterns of depressive symptoms and motives for drinking before sex (i.e., avoidance, enhancement and social motives) using cluster analysis. Data were collected in face-to-face interviews from 120 adolescents and young adults (87 men, 33…

Sociology with a Southern Face: Why Are We Sociologists and What Are We Doing about It in the South?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wimberley, Ronald C.

2008-01-01

Sociology with a Southern face characterizes Southern sociologists and Southern social issues. This article asks why we are sociologists and what we are doing about it in the South. I posit that many Southern sociologists share common biographical experiences that provide insights for understanding and solving Southern problems. Longstanding…

[Living in hemodialysis without social insurance: The voices of renal sick people and their families].

PubMed

Mercado-Martínez, Francisco J; Correa-Mauricio, Mauricio E

2015-01-01

To examine the perspectives and practices of renal sick people and their families without social insurance regarding problems faced while on dialysis treatment. A qualitative research was developed in Guadalajara, Mexico. Thirty-seven renal sick people on hemodialysis and 50 relatives participated; all affiliated to Seguro Popular. Information was gathered through individual and group interviews. Directed content analysis was carried out. Renal sick people and their families face multiple difficulties while on hemodialysis treatment; nevertheless, economic ones are perceived as a priority due to treatment expenses, lack of financial resources and non-coverage of kidney disease by Seguro Popular. Multiple actions are combined in a circular searching for help process to face the economic burden. Hemodialysis treatment is an unbearable economic burden for renal sick people and their families without social insurance. Universal access to renal therapies should be implemented urgently.

Quality of Life Among Senior Citizens in Bhutan.

PubMed

Dorji, Nidup; Dunne, Michael P; Seib, Charrlotte; Deb, Sibnath

2017-01-01

This study explored associations between quality of life (QOL), spirituality, social integration, chronic diseases, and lifetime adversity among people aged 60 years and older in Bhutan. Adults aged 60 to 101 years (n = 337) completed face-to-face interviews. The main measure included the World Health Organization QOL questionnaire and Adverse Childhood Experiences International Questionnaire. The social relationships domain of QOL had the highest mean. Frequent back pain, memory decline, depression, mobility impairment, insomnia, and lung diseases were commonly reported and negatively related to QOL. Compared with women, men reported fewer physical and mental health problems and better QOL. Multivariate analysis revealed that cumulative health problems, psychological distress, and social connectedness contributed significantly to overall QOL. The measure of spirituality was negatively associated with QOL, which is not conclusive and suggests the need for more research especially when the influence of spiritualism is highly visible in the everyday lives of Bhutanese people. The significance of these findings is discussed in relation to care for elderly people in Bhutan.

Eco-informatics for decision makers advancing a research agenda

USGS Publications Warehouse

Cushing, J.B.; Wilson, T.; Brandt, L.; Gregg, V.; Spengler, S.; Borning, A.; Delcambre, L.; Bowker, G.; Frame, M.; Fulop, J.; Hert, C.; Hovy, E.; Jones, J.; Landis, E.; Schnase, J.L.; Schweik, C.; Sonntag, W.; ,

2005-01-01

Resource managers often face significant information technology (IT) problems when integrating ecological or environmental information to make decisions. At a workshop sponsored by the NSF and USGS in December 2004, university researchers, natural resource managers, and information managers met to articulate IT problems facing ecology and environmental decision makers. Decision making IT problems were identified in five areas: 1) policy, 2) data presentation, 3) data gaps, 4) tools, and 5) indicators. To alleviate those problems, workshop participants recommended specific informatics research in modeling and simulation, data quality, information integration and ontologies, and social and human aspects. This paper reports the workshop findings, and briefly compares these with research that traditionally falls under the emerging eco-informatics rubric. ?? Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2005.

15 CFR 917.21 - National needs and problems.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... potential of marine organisms to communicate disease to humans. (24) Develop innovations that would promote... American ports in the face of rapid technological and social change. (31) Improve the capability of...

Mental health of residents during Obstetrics and Gynecology training in Thailand.

PubMed

Prasertsiri, K; Suntharasaj, T; Pitanupong, J

2006-03-01

To evaluate mental health of residents during Obstetrics and Gynecology training and identify the factors that affect mental health problems. During January-April 2004, one hundred and sixty Obstetrics and Gynecology residents (62% of 259) had completed a self-administered questionnaire composed of demographic data, workload, self-report of life stressors, and the Thai Mental Health Questionnaire (TMHQ-70). The prevalence of mental health problems was 29% (46/160). Somatization and social function were found in the first and second rank (18.1% and 11.9%), respectively. A resident who was younger than 25 years old, was married, cared for more than 20 patients per 8 hours in the labor room, performed more than 10 academic activities per year, or attended more than 5 examinations per year was at risk to develop social function problems. About one-third of residents training in Obstetrics and Gynecology have faced mental health problems--somatization, social function, depression and anxiety. The significant risk factors associated with social function problems were younger age, marriage and excessive workload

Challenges of International Students' Adjustment to a Higher Education Institution

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Baklashova, Tatiana A.; Kazakov, Andrey V.

2016-01-01

The relevance of this work is determined by the real problems of foreign students' adaptation to the educational environment of Russian high school. International students face certain problems, complicating adaptation to a new lifestyle, to the educational environment of the Russian high school, to a completely new social and cultural…

Strategic Planning for Prevention Professionals on Campus. A Prevention 101 Series Publication

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Langford, Linda; DeJong, William

2008-01-01

The nation's institutions of higher education continue to face serious problems with respect to student alcohol and other drug abuse and violence (AODV). For campus administrators, deciding how to respond effectively means understanding and taking into account both the complexity of these social problems and the individuality of each campus…

Critical Analysis of the Problems of Education in Pakistan: Possible Solutions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ahmad, Iqbal; ur Rehman, Kahil; Ali, Asghar; Khan, Itbar; Khan, Fazal Akber

2014-01-01

Education lays the foundation for political, social and economic development of any country. A viable education system enables the nation to achieve its national goals. Pakistan as a developing country has faced critical problems of education since its inception and therefore, the system of education has failed to deliver according to the…

Projected Issues in the Practice of Educational Administration: The English Context.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Browning, Peter

Current and incipient problems in educational administration in England can be grouped into two areas: those resulting from reorganization and those arising from social and political factors. Many problems faced by educational administrators result from school reorganization that is a result of an increase in the number of comprehensive schools.…

Informing future research priorities into the psychological and social problems faced by cancer survivors: a rapid review and synthesis of the literature.

PubMed

Jarrett, N; Scott, I; Addington-Hall, J; Amir, Z; Brearley, S; Hodges, L; Richardson, A; Sharpe, M; Stamataki, Z; Stark, D; Siller, C; Ziegler, L; Foster, C

2013-10-01

To establish what is known regarding the psychological and social problems faced by adult cancer survivors (people who are living with and beyond a diagnosis of cancer) and identify areas future research should address. A rapid search of published literature reviews held in electronic data bases was under taken. Inclusion and exclusion criteria, and removal of duplicated papers, reduced the initial number of papers from 4051 to 38. Twenty-two review papers were excluded on grounds of quality and 16 review papers were selected for appraisal. The psychological and social problems for cancer survivors are identified as depression, anxiety, distress, fear of recurrence, social support/function, relationships and impact on family, and quality of life. A substantial minority of people surviving cancer experience depression, anxiety, and distress or fear associated with recurrence or follow up. There is some indication that social support is positively associated with better outcomes. Quality of life for survivors of cancer appears generally good for most people, but an important minority experience a reduction in quality of life, especially those with more advanced disease and reduced social and economic resources. The majority of research knowledge is based on women with breast cancer. The longer term implications of cancer survival have not been adequately explored. Focussing well designed research in the identified areas where less is already known about the psychological and social impact of cancer survival is likely to have the greatest impact on the wellbeing of people surviving cancer. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Understanding innovation in social service delivery systems.

PubMed

Moore, S

1994-01-01

Progress in the social services is driven by innovation. It depends on the ability of social work researchers and practitioners to find innovative solutions to the problems they face. Innovation entails the creation, adaptation, and adoption of new approaches to service delivery. The most fundamental type of innovation is the creation of a new service product. However, innovations in the way services are delivered are equally important. This paper provides a model for understanding innovation in social services.

Developing communality: family-centered programs to improve children's health and well-being.

PubMed Central

Schor, E. L.

1995-01-01

Despite decades of enormous investment in research and public programs, the United States continues to face pandemics of preventable health problems such as low birth weight, teenage pregnancy, drug abuse, and interpersonal violence. With some justification, these problems have been blamed on the failings of families. The reasons why families may function poorly in their child-rearing roles have not been coherently or vigorously addressed by our social policies; sometimes these policies have aggravated the problems. This paper provides background to allow a better understanding of families' role in the social determination of children's health, and argues for programs and policies that assist families through the creation of social supports embedded in communities that are characterized by trust and mutual obligation. PMID:10101380

Problems and challenges in social marketing.

PubMed

Bloom, P N; Novelli, W D

1981-01-01

This article reviews the problems that arise when general marketing principles are applied to social programs. Social marketing is conceptualized as the design, implementation, and control of programs seeking to increase the acceptability of a social ideal or practice in a target group. These problems can occur in 8 basic decision-making areas: market analysis, market segmentation, product strategy development, pricing strategy development, channel strategy development, communications strategy development, organizational design and planning, and evaluation. Social marketers find that they have less good secondary data about their consumers, more problems obtaining valid and reliable measures of relevant variables, more difficulty sorting out the relative influence of determinants of consumer behavior, and more problems getting consumer research funded than marketers in the commercial sector. They tend to have less flexibility in shaping their products and more difficulty formulating product concepts. Problems associated with establishing, utilizing, and controlling distribution channels comprise another major difference between social and more conventional forms of marketing. Social marketers also find that their communications options are somewhat limited as a result of problems associated with use of paid advertisements, pressures not to use certain types of appeals in their messages, and the need to communicate large amounts of information in their messages. Moreover, social marketers must function in organizations where marketing activities are poorly understood, underappreciated, and inappropriately located. Finally, they face problems trying to define effectiveness measures or estimating the contribution their program has made toward the achievement of certain objectives. If all these problems are anticipated and handled creatively, social marketing efforts can succeed.

Dogs (Canis familiaris) adjust their social behaviour to the differential role of inanimate interactive agents.

PubMed

Petró, Eszter; Abdai, Judit; Gergely, Anna; Topál, József; Miklósi, Ádám

2016-03-01

Dogs are able to flexibly adjust their social behaviour to situation-specific characteristics of their human partner's behaviour in problem situations. However, dogs do not necessarily detect the specific role played by the human in a particular situation: they may form expectations about their partners' behaviour based on previous experiences with them. Utilising inanimate objects (UMO-unidentified moving object) as interacting agents offers new possibilities for investigating social behaviour, because in this way we can remove or control the influence of previous experience with the partner. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether dogs are able to recognise the different roles of two UMOs and are able to adjust their communicative behaviour towards them. In the learning phase of the experiment, dogs were presented with a two-way food-retrieval problem in which two UMOs, which differed in their physical appearance and abilities, helped the dog obtain a piece of food in their own particular manner. After a short experience with both UMOs, dogs in the test phase faced one of the problems in the presence of both inanimate agents. Overall, dogs displayed similar levels of gazing behaviour towards the UMOs, but in the first test they looked, approached and touched the relevant partner first. This rapid adjustment of social behaviour towards UMOs suggests that dogs may generalise their experiences with humans to unfamiliar agents and are able to select the appropriate partner when facing a problem situation.

The Use of Digital Storytelling to Improve the Effectiveness of Social and Conflict Resolution Skill Training for Elementary Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lipschutz, Betsy D.

2010-01-01

School safety is one of the most important issues facing administrators, teachers, and parents. Several risk factors have been identified as antecedents to aggression including poor social skills, difficulty dealing with anger and frustration, and inadequate problem solving abilities. "No Child Left Behind" requires all schools receiving…

Philosophical Bases of Women in Sport.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Oglesby, Carole A.

The special problems faced by black women in sports and in American society are discussed. Ways of bringing about change in social attitudes and in interaction between the races and the sexes are considered. Special emphasis is placed on the need to develop a sense of worth and an understanding of the basic social structures which breed racial and…

Retirement Trends and Public Policy: The Carrot and the Stick.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Quinn, Joseph F.; Burkhauser, Richard V.

Recent trends toward earlier retirement have exacerbated the financial problems facing the Social Security system and many other public and private pension plans. The massive commitment of public and private funds to Social Security and pension funds is partly responsible for the trend to early retirement. This, in fact, was one of the early goals…

IQ, Non-Cognitive and Social-Emotional Parameters Influencing Education in Speech- and Language-Impaired Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ullrich, Dieter; Ullrich, Katja; Marten, Magret

2017-01-01

Speech-/language-impaired (SL)-children face problems in school and later life. The significance of "non-cognitive, social-emotional skills" (NCSES) in these children is often underestimated. Aim: Present study of affected SL-children was assessed to analyse the influence of NCSES for long-term school education. Methods: Nineteen…

The Hispanic Americans Baseline Alcohol Survey (HABLAS): is the "prevention paradox" applicable to alcohol problems across Hispanic national groups?

PubMed

Caetano, Raul; Mills, Britain A

2011-07-01

The "prevention paradox," a notion that most alcohol-related problems are generated by nonheavy drinkers, has significant relevance to public health policy and prevention efforts. The extent of the paradox has driven debate over the type of balance that should be struck between alcohol policies targeting a select group of high-risk drinkers versus more global approaches that target the population at-large. This paper examines the notion that most alcohol problems among 4 Hispanic national groups in the United States are attributable to moderate drinkers. A general population survey employing a multistage cluster sample design, with face-to-face interviews in respondents' homes was conducted in 5 metropolitan areas of the United States. Study participants included a total of 2,773 current drinkers 18 years and older. Alcohol consumed in the past year (bottom 90% vs. top 10%), binge drinking (binge vs. no binge), and a 4-way grouping defined by volume and binge criteria were used. Alcohol-related harms included 14 social and dependence problems. Drinkers at the bottom 90% of the distribution are responsible for 56 to 73% of all social problems, and for 55 to 73% of all dependence-related problems reported, depending on Hispanic national group. Binge drinkers are responsible for the majority of the social problems (53 to 75%) and dependence-related problems (59 to 73%), also depending on Hispanic national group. Binge drinkers at the bottom 90% of the distribution are responsible for a larger proportion of all social and dependence-related problems reported than those at the top 10% of the volume distribution. Cuban Americans are an exception. The prevention paradox holds when using volume-based risk groupings and disappears when using a binge-drinking risk grouping. Binge drinkers who drink moderately on an average account for more harms than those who drink heavily across all groups, with exception of Cuban Americans. Copyright © 2011 by the Research Society on Alcoholism.

The Hispanic Americans Baseline Alcohol Survey (HABLAS): Is the “prevention paradox” applicable to alcohol problems across Hispanic national groups?

PubMed Central

Caetano, Raul; Mills, Britain A.

2011-01-01

Background The “prevention paradox”, a notion that most alcohol-related problems are generated by non-heavy drinkers, has significant relevance to public health policy and prevention efforts. The extent of the paradox has driven debate over the type of balance that should be struck between alcohol policies targeting a select group of high-risk drinkers versus more global approaches that target the population at-large. This paper examines the notion that most alcohol problems among four Hispanic national groups in the U.S. are attributable to moderate drinkers. Methods A general population survey employing a multistage cluster sample design, with face-to-face interviews in respondents' homes was conducted in five metropolitan areas of the U.S. Study participants included a total of 2,773 current drinkers 18 years and older. Alcohol consumed in the past year (bottom 90% vs. top 10%), binge drinking (binge vs. no binge), and a four-way grouping defined by volume and binge criteria were used. Alcohol-related harms included 14 social and dependence problems. Results Drinkers at the bottom 90% of the distribution are responsible for 56% to 73% of all social problems, and for 55% to 73% of all dependence-related problems reported, depending on Hispanic national group. Binge drinkers are responsible for the majority of the social problems (53% to 75%) and dependence-related problems (59% to 73%), also depending on Hispanic national group. Binge drinkers at the bottom 90% of the distribution are responsible for a larger proportion of all social and dependence-related problems reported than those at the top 10% of the volume distribution. Cuban Americans are an exception. Conclusion The prevention paradox holds when using volume-based risk groupings and disappears when using a binge-drinking risk grouping. Binge drinkers who drink moderately on an average account for more harms than those who drink heavily across all groups, with exception of Cuban Americans. PMID:21410485

African American Women: The Face of HIV/AIDS in Washington, DC

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Amutah, Ndidiamaka N.

2012-01-01

In 2007, the estimated HIV and AIDS case rates among adult and adolescent African-American females in the United States was 60.6 per 100,000, as compared to 3.3 per 100,000 for adult and adolescent white American females. Women living with HIV or AIDS often face complex social problems that may inhibit them from accessing resources and healthcare…

Teaching Kids to Be Smart About Social Media

MedlinePlus

... media can be a hub for things like cyberbullying and questionable activities. Without meaning to, kids can ... to websites Concerns and Consequences Besides problems like cyberbullying and online predators, kids also can face the ...

Facing Off with Unfair Others: Introducing Proxemic Imaging as an Implicit Measure of Approach and Avoidance during Social Interaction

PubMed Central

McCall, Cade; Singer, Tania

2015-01-01

Nonverbal behavior expresses many of the dynamics underlying face-to-face social interactions, implicitly revealing one’s attitudes, emotions, and social motives. Although research has often described nonverbal behavior as approach versus avoidant (i.e., through the study of proxemics), psychological responses to many social contexts are a mix of these two. Fairness violations are an ideal example, eliciting strong avoidance-related responses such as negative attitudes, as well as strong approach-related responses such as anger and retaliation. As such, nonverbal behavior toward unfair others is difficult to predict in discrete approach versus avoidance terms. Here we address this problem using proxemic imaging, a new method which creates frequency images of dyadic space by combining motion capture data of interpersonal distance and gaze to provide an objective but nuanced analysis of social interactions. Participants first played an economic game with fair and unfair players and then encountered them in an unrelated task in a virtual environment. Afterwards, they could monetarily punish the other players. Proxemic images of the interactions demonstrate that, overall, participants kept the fair player closer. However, participants who actively punished the unfair players were more likely to stand directly in front of those players and even to turn their backs on them. Together these patterns illustrate that fairness violations influence nonverbal behavior in ways that further predict differences in more overt behavior (i.e., financial punishment). Moreover, they demonstrate that proxemic imaging can detect subtle combinations of approach and avoidance behavior during face-to-face social interactions. PMID:25675444

How is this child feeling? Preschool-aged children’s ability to recognize emotion in faces and body poses

PubMed Central

Parker, Alison E.; Mathis, Erin T.; Kupersmidt, Janis B.

2016-01-01

The study examined children’s recognition of emotion from faces and body poses, as well as gender differences in these recognition abilities. Preschool-aged children (N = 55) and their parents and teachers participated in the study. Preschool-aged children completed a web-based measure of emotion recognition skills, which included five tasks (three with faces and two with bodies). Parents and teachers reported on children’s aggressive behaviors and social skills. Children’s emotion accuracy on two of the three facial tasks and one of the body tasks was related to teacher reports of social skills. Some of these relations were moderated by child gender. In particular, the relationships between emotion recognition accuracy and reports of children’s behavior were stronger for boys than girls. Identifying preschool-aged children’s strengths and weaknesses in identification of emotion from faces and body poses may be helpful in guiding interventions with children who have problems with social and behavioral functioning that may be due, in part, to emotional knowledge deficits. Further developmental implications of these findings are discussed. PMID:27057129

When health systems are barriers to health care: challenges faced by uninsured Mexican kidney patients.

PubMed

Kierans, Ciara; Padilla-Altamira, Cesar; Garcia-Garcia, Guillermo; Ibarra-Hernandez, Margarita; Mercado, Francisco J

2013-01-01

Chronic Kidney Disease disproportionately affects the poor in Low and Middle Income Countries (LMICs). Mexico exemplifies the difficulties faced in supporting Renal Replacement Therapy (RRT) and providing equitable patient care, despite recent attempts at health reform. The objective of this study is to document the challenges faced by uninsured, poor Mexican families when attempting to access RRT. The article takes an ethnographic approach, using interviewing and observation to generate detailed accounts of the problems that accompany attempts to secure care. The study, based in the state of Jalisco, comprised interviews with patients, their caregivers, health and social care professionals, among others. Observations were carried out in both clinical and social settings. In the absence of organised health information and stable pathways to renal care, patients and their families work extraordinarily hard and at great expense to secure care in a mixed public-private healthcare system. As part of this work, they must navigate challenging health and social care environments, negotiate treatments and costs, resource and finance healthcare and manage a wide range of formal and informal health information. Examining commonalities across pathways to adequate healthcare reveals major failings in the Mexican system. These systemic problems serve to reproduce and deepen health inequalities. A system, in which the costs of renal care are disproportionately borne by those who can least afford them, faces major difficulties around the sustainability and resourcing of RRTs. Attempts to increase access to renal therapies, therefore, need to take into account the complex social and economic demands this places on those who need access most. This paper further shows that ethnographic studies of the concrete ways in which healthcare is accessed in practice provide important insights into the plight of CKD patients and so constitute an important source of evidence in that effort.

The Jinn and the Computer. Consumption and Identity in Arabic Children's Magazines

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Peterson, Mark Allen

2005-01-01

One of the fundamental problems facing middle-class Egyptian parents is the problem of how to ensure that their children are simultaneously modern and Egyptian. Arabic children's magazines offer a window into the processes by which consumption links childhood and modernity in the social imaginations of children and their parents as they construct…

Historical Context, Professional Authority, and Discourses of Risk: Child Guidance and Special Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Richardson, John G.

2002-01-01

Compares the problem of social maladjustment addressed during the child guidance movement in the 1920s-30s with the issue of minority overrepresentation beginning in the 1960s. Both exhibit similarities as discourses of educational risk shaping the conception of problems facing youth and influencing professional intervention. The paper examines…

Psychological Aid to the Children Who Suffered from the Chernobyl Catastrophe.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Garnets, O. N.; And Others

This document considers the problems faced by the children and adolescents who were affected by the 1986 accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the Ukraine. It discusses problems with psycho-physical, social, and spiritual development. It is noted that the Chernobyl children do not form a homogeneous population, but can be divided into…

Aiming Talent Development toward Creative Eminence in the 21st Century

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Olszewski-Kubilius, Paula; Subotnik, Rena F.; Worrell, Frank C.

2016-01-01

Much has been written about the social and scientific problems that face the world in the 21st century, including climate change and economic inequality. In this context, the development of talented individuals who can tackle these problems is most important. In this article, the authors discuss the implications of 21st-century challenges for the…

Writing Across the Curriculum as Applied in an Enrichment Classroom Setting.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mielke, Nedra S.

This document describes a project in which elementary school students explored the problems experienced by early pioneers and compared them to similar problems that will face future space pioneers. Comparing a past way of life to the present and future helps students examine and understand change in the physical, social, and cultural environment,…

Explaining brain size variation: from social to cultural brain.

PubMed

van Schaik, Carel P; Isler, Karin; Burkart, Judith M

2012-05-01

Although the social brain hypothesis has found near-universal acceptance as the best explanation for the evolution of extensive variation in brain size among mammals, it faces two problems. First, it cannot account for grade shifts, where species or complete lineages have a very different brain size than expected based on their social organization. Second, it cannot account for the observation that species with high socio-cognitive abilities also excel in general cognition. These problems may be related. For birds and mammals, we propose to integrate the social brain hypothesis into a broader framework we call cultural intelligence, which stresses the importance of the high costs of brain tissue, general behavioral flexibility and the role of social learning in acquiring cognitive skills. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Critical social theory as a model for the informatics curriculum for nursing.

PubMed

Wainwright, P; Jones, P G

2000-01-01

It is widely acknowledged that the education and training of nurses in information management and technology is problematic. Drawing from recent research this paper presents a theoretical framework within which the nature of the problems faced by nurses in the use of information may be analyzed. This framework, based on the critical social theory of Habermas, also provides a model for the informatics curriculum. The advantages of problem based learning and multi-media web-based technologies for the delivery of learning materials within this area are also discussed.

Social problems and health in urbanization.

PubMed

Talib, R; Agus, M R

1992-01-01

One of the main characteristics of urbanization in Asia is the very rapid increase in population movement from rural to urban centers. This phenomenon has led to changing population structure, its composition and lifestyles in the cities and its fringes. As a consequent of population pressure on urban system and infrastructure, compounded by the nature of the composition of the in-migrant population, the urban concentrates are faced with several social and socio-economic problems. Although there has been a lot of interests among researchers to study the causes and effects or urbanization, there is a vacuum in the area of health implications. Planners and administrators usually give priority to the physical aspects of the urban and urbanities. Social problems and health implications thereof receives very little attention either at the level of administration or research. This paper therefore is a brave attempt to focus and draw some attention to this neglected area by looking at selected social problems and the health consequences.

The services-oriented architecture: ecosystem services as a framework for diagnosing change in social ecological systems

Treesearch

Philip A. Loring; F. Stuart Chapin; S. Craig Gerlach

2008-01-01

Computational thinking (CT) is a way to solve problems and understand complex systems that draws on concepts fundamental to computer science and is well suited to the challenges that face researchers of complex, linked social-ecological systems. This paper explores CT's usefulness to sustainability science through the application of the services-oriented...

Difficulties Faced in Social Club Activities: A Qualitative Study Based on Teacher Opinions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Keçe, Murat

2015-01-01

The purpose of this study is to scrutinize the problems encountered in social club activities based on opinions of club advisors. This study was conducted in line with qualitative research methods using the interview technique to collect data. Therefore, interviews were held with 21 club advisors included in the study group. A category analysis, a…

Social Capital and Youth Transitions: Do Young People's Networks Improve Their Participation in Education and Training? Occasional Paper

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Semo, Ronnie; Karmel, Tom

2011-01-01

In recent times social capital has received considerable attention because it is seen as having the potential to address many of the problems facing modern society, including the poor educational outcomes of considerable numbers of young people. This paper uses data from the Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth (LSAY) to explore the…

Socialization characteristics in patients with psychogenic nonepileptic seizures (PNES).

PubMed

Vaidya-Mathur, Urmi; Myers, Lorna; Laban-Grant, Olgica; Lancman, Marcelo; Lancman, Martin; Jones, Jace

2016-03-01

The purpose of this study was to describe social behaviors and preferences in adults with psychogenic nonepileptic seizures (PNES) including self-reported use of various socialization mediums (face-to-face and indirect communication) as well as perceived social barriers. One hundred forty-one consecutive patients with a diagnosis of PNES that was later confirmed through inpatient video-EEG monitoring were administered a questionnaire on the day of their first outpatient appointment. The questionnaire was designed to assess preferences in socialization practices, frequency of interpersonal contact, use of social media, and perceived barriers to socialization. The survey was developed to gain a better understanding of the socialization behaviors and preferences of our patients for the future development of customized activities in our wellness program. Contrary to prevalent assumptions that patients with PNES tend to be socially isolated, our responders reported that they were in fact quite socially connected (72.2% reported daily communication with friends and family via telephone, 68.54% saw relatives in person weekly, 65.28% saw friends weekly, and 51.2% reported using the computer daily to socialize). Facebook was the preferred online social media. Indoor/solitary activities were most common with 57.44% stating that they watch TV/read/use the computer. The primary barriers to socialization that respondents endorsed were driving prohibition and medication side effects. Respondents expressed the greatest interest in online support groups or educational programs (29.46%), office-based support groups (28.57%), and volunteering (23.21%). Although it has been speculated that social isolation is a significant problem for patients with PNES, considerable participation in social activities was reported. Characteristics of socialization practices may be more nuanced than first believed. When addressing therapeutic interventions with this group of patients in the future, it might be beneficial to offer both distance-based options as well as face-to-face options for treatment and support depending on age and personal preference. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Motivation and learning styles in young children with Down syndrome.

PubMed

Wishart, J

2001-10-01

There are both psychological and biological reasons to expect that certain areas of learning will present young children with Down syndrome with significant problems. Knowledge of the neurological underpinnings of these specific difficulties can often allow compensatory teaching strategies to be put in place, however, and some of these have proved highly effective. The impact of the psychological environment on the progress of development in children with Down syndrome is less well understood. Experience of how others respond to their attempts at understanding the physical and social world and the balance of successes and failures they experience in their early learning are both likely to influence the approach to learning adopted when faced with mastering new skills. Findings from inter-linking studies of cognitive and socio-cognitive development which have explored learning behaviours at different ages and at different developmental stages illustrate how a learning style can sometimes evolve over time in which less than efficient use is made of current levels of cognitive ability. Social ploys are sometimes used to avoid engagement in learning, with the net effect that opportunities to learn new skills are not fully exploited and old skills are sometimes inadequately consolidated. Findings of a misuse of social skills in cognitive contexts do not necessarily provide support for the widely-held view that social understanding is an area of strength in children with Down syndrome and less vulnerable to disruption than cognitive development. Data from a recent study of face-processing abilities suggest that there may in fact be a specific weakness in a fundamental skill normally underpinning the development of social understanding: the ability to recognise differences in emotional expressions. The children with Down syndrome in this study had few problems in correctly identifying individual faces but evidenced difficulties in reliably interpreting the emotional expressions portrayed in these faces. These findings are consistent with the emerging picture of neurological disruption in Down syndrome and with what is known of the neurology underlying this key component in social cognition. As most learning takes place in a social context, the findings have implications for adult-child and child-child learning partnerships and would seem to merit further investigation.

Biometric Challenges for Future Deployments: A Study of the Impact of Geography, Climate, Culture, and Social Conditions on the Effective Collection of Biometrics

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-04-01

to iris or face recognition. In addition, breathing the dust is prevented with something covering the mouth , which will cause problems with face...headgear that “obscures the hair or hairline”. [58] One database of face images has images of people with and without scarves over their mouth . [59... Electronic Systems Magazine. Vol 19, Number 9, September 2004. [58] U.S. Department of State. How to Apply [for a Passport] in Person. [On-line

Understanding the relationship between social anxiety and alcohol use in college students: a meta-analysis.

PubMed

Schry, Amie R; White, Susan W

2013-11-01

Many college students use alcohol, and most of these students experience problems related to their use. Emerging research indicates that socially anxious students face heightened risk of experiencing alcohol-related problems, although the extant research on alcohol use and social anxiety in this population has yielded inconsistent findings. This meta-analysis was conducted to examine the relationship between social anxiety and alcohol variables in college students. A literature search was used to identify studies on college students that included measures of social anxiety and at least one of the alcohol variables of interest. All analyses were conducted using random effects models. We found that social anxiety was negatively correlated with alcohol use variables (e.g., typical quantity and typical frequency), but significantly positively correlated with alcohol-related problems, coping, conformity, and social motives for alcohol use, and positive and negative alcohol outcome expectancies. Several moderators of effect sizes were found to be significant, including methodological factors such as sample ascertainment approach. Given that social anxiety was negatively related to alcohol use but positively related to alcohol-related problems, research is needed to address why individuals high in social anxiety experience more problems as a result of their alcohol use. Avoidance of social situations among socially anxious students should also be taken into account when measuring alcohol use. The primary limitation of this study is the small number of studies available for inclusion in some of the analyses. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Navigating a social world with robot partners: A quantitative cartography of the Uncanny Valley.

PubMed

Mathur, Maya B; Reichling, David B

2016-01-01

Android robots are entering human social life. However, human-robot interactions may be complicated by a hypothetical Uncanny Valley (UV) in which imperfect human-likeness provokes dislike. Previous investigations using unnaturally blended images reported inconsistent UV effects. We demonstrate an UV in subjects' explicit ratings of likability for a large, objectively chosen sample of 80 real-world robot faces and a complementary controlled set of edited faces. An "investment game" showed that the UV penetrated even more deeply to influence subjects' implicit decisions concerning robots' social trustworthiness, and that these fundamental social decisions depend on subtle cues of facial expression that are also used to judge humans. Preliminary evidence suggests category confusion may occur in the UV but does not mediate the likability effect. These findings suggest that while classic elements of human social psychology govern human-robot social interaction, robust UV effects pose a formidable android-specific problem. Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Social factors predictive of social integration for adults with brain injury.

PubMed

Batchos, Elisabeth; Easton, Amanda; Haak, Christopher; Ditchman, Nicole

2018-08-01

Individuals with acquired brain injury (ABI) may not only struggle with physical and cognitive impairments, but may also face challenges reintegrating into the community socially. Research has demonstrated that following ABI, individuals' social networks tend to dwindle, support may decline, and isolation increases. This study examined factors impacting social integration in a community-based sample of 102 individuals with ABI. Potential predictors included emotional support, instrumental support, problem solving confidence, and approach-avoidance style (AAS) of problem solving, while controlling for age, gender, education, and time since injury. Hierarchical regression was used to analyze whether these factors were predictive of social integration. The final model accounted for 33% of the variance in social integration outcomes. Results demonstrated that emotional support was initially a significant predictor; however, when controlling for emotional support the variance in social integration was better accounted for by social problem solving - specifically, AAS. A follow-up mediation analysis indicated that the relationship between social problem solving (specifically, AAS) and social integration was partially mediated by emotional support. This suggests that for individuals with ABI, a tendency to approach rather than avoid social problem solving issues is a significant predictor for social integration both directly and indirectly through its association with emotional social support. Implications for Rehabilitation Both instrumental and emotional social support should be assessed in patients with acquired brain injury (ABI), ensuring that emotional needs are met in addition to the more obvious instrumental needs. Barriers to problem solving for people with ABI may limit optimal social integration; thus, assessment and intervention aimed at increasing AAS are recommended. To enhance the social integration outcomes of people with brain injury, strength-based psychosocial rehabilitation should optimally balance an individual's abilities with areas requiring compensation, focusing on how to approach rather than avoid problems as well as strategies to cultivate emotional social support.

ASSESSING ALTERNATIVE FUTURES FOR AGRICULTURE IN IOWA, U.S.A.

EPA Science Inventory

The contributions of current industrial agricultural practices to environmental degradation and the social problems facing agricultural regions are well known. However, landscape-scale alternatives to current conditions have not been fully explored nor their potential impacts qua...

Wise Choices? The Economics Discourse of a High School Economics and Personal Finance Course

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sober, Tamara Leigh

2017-01-01

Today's high school students will face a host of economic problems such as the demise of the social safety net, mounting college student debt, and costly health care plans, as stated in the rationale for financial literacy provided by the Council for Economic Education's National Standards for Financial Literacy. These problems are compounded by…

Systemic Engagement: Universities as Partners in Systemic Approaches to Community Change

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McNall, Miles A.; Barnes-Najor, Jessica V.; Brown, Robert E.; Doberneck, Diane M.; Fitzgerald, Hiram E.

2015-01-01

The most pressing social problems facing humanity in the 21st century are what systems theorist Russell Ackoff referred to as "messes"--complex dynamic systems of problems that interact and reinforce each other over time. In this article, the authors argue that the lack of progress in managing messes is in part due to the predominance of…

Establishing versus preserving impressions: Predicting success in the multiple audience problem.

PubMed

Nichols, Austin Lee; Cottrell, Catherine A

2015-12-01

People sometimes seek to convey discrepant impressions of themselves to different audiences simultaneously. Research suggests people are generally successful in this "multiple audience problem." Adding to previous research, the current research sought to examine factors that may limit this success by measuring social anxiety and placing participants into situations requiring them to either establish or preserve multiple impressions simultaneously. In general, participants were more successful when preserving previously conveyed impressions than when establishing impressions for the first time. In contrast, social anxiety did not affect multiple audience success. In all, this research offers valuable insight into potential challenges that people face in many social situations. © 2015 International Union of Psychological Science.

Mental health first aid training for Australian medical and nursing students: an evaluation study.

PubMed

Bond, Kathy S; Jorm, Anthony F; Kitchener, Betty A; Reavley, Nicola J

2015-01-01

The role and demands of studying nursing and medicine involve specific stressors that may contribute to an increased risk for mental health problems. Stigma is a barrier to help-seeking for mental health problems in nursing and medical students, making these students vulnerable to negative outcomes including higher failure rates and discontinuation of study. Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) is a potential intervention to increase the likelihood that medical and nursing students will support their peers to seek help for mental health problems. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of a tailored MHFA course for nursing and medical students. Nursing and medical students self-selected into either a face-to-face or online tailored MHFA course. Four hundred and thirty-four nursing and medical students completed pre- and post-course surveys measuring mental health first aid intentions, mental health literacy, confidence in providing help, stigmatising attitudes and satisfaction with the course. The results of the study showed that both the online and face-to-face courses improved the quality of first aid intentions towards a person experiencing depression, and increased mental health literacy and confidence in providing help. The training also decreased stigmatizing attitudes and desire for social distance from a person with depression. Both online and face-to-face tailored MHFA courses have the potential to improve outcomes for students with mental health problems, and may benefit the students in their future professional careers.

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

PubMed

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.

Self-Reports of Child Maltreatment in the U.S.: A Key Social Indicator

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kesner, John E.

2007-01-01

A key social indicator of the well being of a society is the health and welfare of their children. Child maltreatment is a major problem in the U.S. and the world and the reporting of maltreatment has been the subject of much research and debate. However, little is known about self-reports of child maltreatment. Children face many obstacles that…

The Impact of a Student's Lack of Social Skills on Their Academic Skills in High School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Eleby, Calvin, Jr.

2009-01-01

"The major problems facing the world today can be solved only if we improve our understanding of human behavior" (Schlinger, 2005, pg. 48) and how it affects our educational experience in high school. The purpose of this study was to explore and examine to what extent there exists a relationship between social and academic study …

The Capitalistic Function of Education-Directed Social Responsibility Projects in Turkey within the Context of Relationships between the Private Sector and NGOs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bicakci, Ilker C.

2008-01-01

Similar to other underdeveloped countries, the Republic of Turkey is also faced with high levels of poverty and unemployment, and to ameliorate these problems the state has traditionally devoted much of its social welfare efforts towards improving health and education. Certain private sector corporations also recognize that to grow and advance…

A Comparison of Documentary Approaches: Margaret Bourke-White and Erskine Caldwell, Authors of "You Have Seen Their Faces," and Dorothea Lange and Paul S. Taylor, Authors of "An American Exodus."

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hanson, Art

Two books that use documentary photography to examine social problems--"You Have Seen Their Faces," a 1937 study of Southern sharecroppers by Margaret Bourke-White and Erskine Caldwell, and "An American Exodus," a 1939 examination of the migration of farm families by Dorothea Lange and Paul S. Taylor--are compared in this…

Clustering Millions of Faces by Identity.

PubMed

Otto, Charles; Wang, Dayong; Jain, Anil K

2018-02-01

Given a large collection of unlabeled face images, we address the problem of clustering faces into an unknown number of identities. This problem is of interest in social media, law enforcement, and other applications, where the number of faces can be of the order of hundreds of million, while the number of identities (clusters) can range from a few thousand to millions. To address the challenges of run-time complexity and cluster quality, we present an approximate Rank-Order clustering algorithm that performs better than popular clustering algorithms (k-Means and Spectral). Our experiments include clustering up to 123 million face images into over 10 million clusters. Clustering results are analyzed in terms of external (known face labels) and internal (unknown face labels) quality measures, and run-time. Our algorithm achieves an F-measure of 0.87 on the LFW benchmark (13 K faces of 5,749 individuals), which drops to 0.27 on the largest dataset considered (13 K faces in LFW + 123M distractor images). Additionally, we show that frames in the YouTube benchmark can be clustered with an F-measure of 0.71. An internal per-cluster quality measure is developed to rank individual clusters for manual exploration of high quality clusters that are compact and isolated.

The Task and Relational Dimensions of Online Social Support.

PubMed

Beck, Stephenson J; Paskewitz, Emily A; Anderson, Whitney A; Bourdeaux, Renee; Currie-Mueller, Jenna

2017-03-01

Online support groups are attractive to individuals suffering from various types of mental and physical illness due to their accessibility, convenience, and comfort level. Individuals coping with depression, in particular, may seek social support online to avoid the stigma that accompanies face-to-face support groups. We explored how task and relational messages created social support in online depression support groups using Cutrona and Suhr's social support coding scheme and Bales's Interaction Process Analysis coding scheme. A content analysis revealed emotional support as the most common type of social support within the group, although the majority of messages were task rather than relational. Informational support consisted primarily of task messages, whereas network and esteem support were primarily relational messages. Specific types of task and relational messages were associated with different support types. Results indicate task messages dominated online depression support groups, suggesting the individuals who participate in these groups are interested in solving problems but may also experience emotional support when their uncertainty is reduced via task messages.

The Complexity of Developing Properly Trained Education Professionals for African American Children: Exploring an African Indigenous Socialization Process

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shockley, Kmt G.

2011-01-01

African centered educationists view the problems that Black children are facing in schools as a part of the disenfranchisement and disorganization of the Black community at large. In that vein, they do not believe that the problems which Black children are experiencing in America's public (and many private) schools are solvable by taking them out…

Using Autobiographical Digital Storytelling for the Integration of a Foreign Student in the School Environment. A Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fokides, Emmanuel

2016-01-01

Immigrant students face a multitude of problems, among which are poor social adaptation and school integration. On the other hand, although digital narrations are widely used in education, they are rarely used for aiding students or for the resolution of complex problems. This study exploits the potential of digital narrations towards this end, by…

Promoting Proper Education for Sustainability: An Exploratory Study of ICT Enhanced Problem Based Learning in a Developing Country

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Roy, Amit; Kihoza, Patrick; Suhonen, Jarkko; Vesisenaho, Mikko; Tukiaianen, Markku

2014-01-01

One of the goals of education is to create responsible citizens who can adequately understand the problems faced by their societies and who can then act to help solve them. Such behaviour can be fostered through proper education that facilitates expert knowledge about social issues, nurtures the ability to think critically and grows the skills…

Reclaiming an Endangered Species: The Male Responsibility Program.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cross, Michael; Foley, Ron

1993-01-01

Reviews number of social difficulties facing black families (delinquency, addiction, welfare dependence, family dissolution, unwed parents, school failure) and problems specific to black males. Describes activities undertaken by Male Responsibility Program (MRP) of Detroit (Michigan) Urban League, which works to develop culturally specific…

Coping and Sexual Harassment: How Victims Cope across Multiple Settings.

PubMed

Scarduzio, Jennifer A; Sheff, Sarah E; Smith, Mathew

2018-02-01

The ways sexual harassment occurs both online and in face-to-face settings has become more complicated. Sexual harassment that occurs in cyberspace or online sexual harassment adds complexity to the experiences of victims, current research understandings, and the legal dimensions of this phenomenon. Social networking sites (SNS) are a type of social media that offer unique opportunities to users and sometimes the communication that occurs on SNS can cross the line from flirtation into online sexual harassment. Victims of sexual harassment employ communicative strategies such as coping to make sense of their experiences of sexual harassment. The current study qualitatively examined problem-focused, active emotion-focused, and passive emotion-focused coping strategies employed by sexual harassment victims across multiple settings. We conducted 26 in-depth interviews with victims that had experienced sexual harassment across multiple settings (e.g., face-to-face and SNS). The findings present 16 types of coping strategies-five problem-focused, five active emotion-focused, and six passive emotion-focused. The victims used an average of three types of coping strategies during their experiences. Theoretical implications extend research on passive emotion-focused coping strategies by discussing powerlessness and how victims blame other victims. Furthermore, theoretically the findings reveal that coping is a complex, cyclical process and that victims shift among types of coping strategies over the course of their experience. Practical implications are offered for victims and for SNS sites.

Impaired face recognition is associated with social inhibition

PubMed Central

Avery, Suzanne N; VanDerKlok, Ross M; Heckers, Stephan; Blackford, Jennifer U

2016-01-01

Face recognition is fundamental to successful social interaction. Individuals with deficits in face recognition are likely to have social functioning impairments that may lead to heightened risk for social anxiety. A critical component of social interaction is how quickly a face is learned during initial exposure to a new individual. Here, we used a novel Repeated Faces task to assess how quickly memory for faces is established. Face recognition was measured over multiple exposures in 52 young adults ranging from low to high in social inhibition, a core dimension of social anxiety. High social inhibition was associated with a smaller slope of change in recognition memory over repeated face exposure, indicating participants with higher social inhibition showed smaller improvements in recognition memory after seeing faces multiple times. We propose that impaired face learning is an important mechanism underlying social inhibition and may contribute to, or maintain, social anxiety. PMID:26776300

Impaired face recognition is associated with social inhibition.

PubMed

Avery, Suzanne N; VanDerKlok, Ross M; Heckers, Stephan; Blackford, Jennifer U

2016-02-28

Face recognition is fundamental to successful social interaction. Individuals with deficits in face recognition are likely to have social functioning impairments that may lead to heightened risk for social anxiety. A critical component of social interaction is how quickly a face is learned during initial exposure to a new individual. Here, we used a novel Repeated Faces task to assess how quickly memory for faces is established. Face recognition was measured over multiple exposures in 52 young adults ranging from low to high in social inhibition, a core dimension of social anxiety. High social inhibition was associated with a smaller slope of change in recognition memory over repeated face exposure, indicating participants with higher social inhibition showed smaller improvements in recognition memory after seeing faces multiple times. We propose that impaired face learning is an important mechanism underlying social inhibition and may contribute to, or maintain, social anxiety. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

"Please Don't Make Me Ask for Help": Implicit Social Support and Mental Health in Chinese Individuals Living with HIV.

PubMed

Yang, Joyce P; Leu, Janxin; Simoni, Jane M; Chen, Wei Ti; Shiu, Cheng-Shi; Zhao, Hongxin

2015-08-01

China faces a growing HIV epidemic; psychosocial needs of HIV-positive individuals remain largely unaddressed. Research is needed to consider the gap between need for mental healthcare and lack of sufficiently trained professionals, in a culturally acceptable manner. This study assessed explicit and implicit forms of social support and mental health symptoms in 120 HIV-positive Chinese. Explicit social support refers to interactions involving active disclosure and discussion of problems and request for assistance, whereas implicit social support refers to the emotional comfort one obtains from social networks without disclosing problems. We hypothesized and found using multiple linear regression, that after controlling for demographics, only implicit, but not explicit social support positively predicted mental health. Future research is warranted on the effects of utilizing implicit social support to bolster mental health, which has the potential to circumvent the issues of both high stigma and low professional resources in this population.

Psychopathic traits affect the visual exploration of facial expressions.

PubMed

Boll, Sabrina; Gamer, Matthias

2016-05-01

Deficits in emotional reactivity and recognition have been reported in psychopathy. Impaired attention to the eyes along with amygdala malfunctions may underlie these problems. Here, we investigated how different facets of psychopathy modulate the visual exploration of facial expressions by assessing personality traits in a sample of healthy young adults using an eye-tracking based face perception task. Fearless Dominance (the interpersonal-emotional facet of psychopathy) and Coldheartedness scores predicted reduced face exploration consistent with findings on lowered emotional reactivity in psychopathy. Moreover, participants high on the social deviance facet of psychopathy ('Self-Centered Impulsivity') showed a reduced bias to shift attention towards the eyes. Our data suggest that facets of psychopathy modulate face processing in healthy individuals and reveal possible attentional mechanisms which might be responsible for the severe impairments of social perception and behavior observed in psychopathy. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Effectiveness of the Vital Aging program to promote active aging in Mexican older adults.

PubMed

Mendoza-Ruvalcaba, Neyda Ma; Fernández-Ballesteros, Rocío

2016-01-01

Aging is not only a population phenomenon but also an experience and an individual reality. Vital Aging ® is a program that considers active aging as the lifelong adaptation process of maximizing health and independence, physical and cognitive functioning, positive affect regulation and control, and social engagement. Through its different versions and editions, it has demonstrated being an effective program to promote active aging. The aim of this study is to determine the effectiveness of the "face-to-face" and "combined" versions of the program to promote active aging in Mexican older adults trial. Seventy-six older adults aged 60 years and over participated in a quasi-experimental study and were recruited in a senior center to participate in the two experimental conditions: Vital Aging face-to-face (VA-FF) (n=35) and Vital Aging combined (VA-C; multimedia/face-to-face) (n=15), and the remaining 26 adults were assigned to a control group. Pretest and posttest assessments were performed after the theoretical-practical intervention. Mean differences and size effects were calculated for estimating the effect of the program. At the end of the study, participants showed improvements in the active aging outcome measures. Positive effects were observed in the frequency of intellectual, cultural - artistic, and social activities, perceptions of aging, satisfaction with social relationships, and self-efficacy for aging. Additionally, those who participated in VA-FF showed better memory performance, meta-memory, and a trend to report less memory problems, while older persons in VA-C showed a trend to have better life satisfaction. No effects were observed in physical activity, frequency of social relationships, and subjective health. Findings show that the Vital Aging program in face-to-face and combined versions encourages active aging in Mexican older persons. These results are in general similar to those found in editions performed in Spain, revealing its consistency as a cross-cultural practical initiative for promoting active aging.

Urban Indians: Hope and Hopelessness.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fogarty, Mark

1999-01-01

Describes problems faced by Americans Indians and Alaska Natives in U.S. urban centers with large Native populations. Describes social services, health and employment services, job training, and cultural events provided by nonprofit community groups to Native communities in Anchorage, Los Angeles, and New York City. (CDS)

Rural Theory.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gilbert, Jess

To be scientific, rural sociology must have a distinctive conceptual basis; therefore, defining "rural" has long been a major concern of rural sociologists. Recently faced with similar problems, political economists have revitalized the field of urban sociology by looking beyond the city to the social production of spatial forms under…

Mid Career: Time for Depression or Time to Regenerate?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McGrew, John F.

1978-01-01

At midcareer, educators may face problems of stress, physical condition, and frustration. Some California school districts are helping their staff members through this period with programs for professional growth, physical fitness, leaves of absence, part-time teaching, social activities, or early retirement. (SJL)

The Role of the Atmosphere in the Provision of Ecosystem Services

EPA Science Inventory

Solving the environmental problems that we are facing today requires holistic approaches to analysis and decision making that include social and economic aspects. The concept of ecosystem services, defined as the benefits people obtain from ecosystems, is one potential tool to p...

When Health Systems Are Barriers to Health Care: Challenges Faced by Uninsured Mexican Kidney Patients

PubMed Central

Kierans, Ciara; Padilla-Altamira, Cesar; Garcia-Garcia, Guillermo; Ibarra-Hernandez, Margarita; Mercado, Francisco J.

2013-01-01

Background Chronic Kidney Disease disproportionately affects the poor in Low and Middle Income Countries (LMICs). Mexico exemplifies the difficulties faced in supporting Renal Replacement Therapy (RRT) and providing equitable patient care, despite recent attempts at health reform. The objective of this study is to document the challenges faced by uninsured, poor Mexican families when attempting to access RRT. Methods The article takes an ethnographic approach, using interviewing and observation to generate detailed accounts of the problems that accompany attempts to secure care. The study, based in the state of Jalisco, comprised interviews with patients, their caregivers, health and social care professionals, among others. Observations were carried out in both clinical and social settings. Results In the absence of organised health information and stable pathways to renal care, patients and their families work extraordinarily hard and at great expense to secure care in a mixed public-private healthcare system. As part of this work, they must navigate challenging health and social care environments, negotiate treatments and costs, resource and finance healthcare and manage a wide range of formal and informal health information. Conclusions Examining commonalities across pathways to adequate healthcare reveals major failings in the Mexican system. These systemic problems serve to reproduce and deepen health inequalities. A system, in which the costs of renal care are disproportionately borne by those who can least afford them, faces major difficulties around the sustainability and resourcing of RRTs. Attempts to increase access to renal therapies, therefore, need to take into account the complex social and economic demands this places on those who need access most. This paper further shows that ethnographic studies of the concrete ways in which healthcare is accessed in practice provide important insights into the plight of CKD patients and so constitute an important source of evidence in that effort. PMID:23349868

Male-to-Female Transgender Individuals Building Social Support and Capital From Within a Gender-Focused Network

PubMed Central

Pinto, Rogério M.; Melendez, Rita M.; Spector, Anya Y.

2009-01-01

The literature on male-to-female transgender (MTF) individuals lists myriad problems such individuals face in their day-to-day lives, including high rates of HIV/AIDS, addiction to drugs, violence, and lack of health care. These problems are exacerbated for ethnic and racial minority MTFs. Support available from their social networks can help MTFs alleviate these problems. This article explores how minority MTFs, specifically in an urban environment, develop supportive social networks defined by their gender and sexual identities. Using principles of community-based participatory research (CBPR), 20 African American and Latina MTFs were recruited at a community-based health care clinic. Their ages ranged from 18 to 53. Data were coded and analyzed following standard procedure for content analysis. The qualitative interviews revealed that participants formed their gender and sexual identities over time, developed gender-focused social networks based in the clinic from which they receive services, and engaged in social capital building and political action. Implications for using CBPR in research with MTFs are discussed. PMID:20418965

Male-to-Female Transgender Individuals Building Social Support and Capital From Within a Gender-Focused Network.

PubMed

Pinto, Rogério M; Melendez, Rita M; Spector, Anya Y

2008-09-01

The literature on male-to-female transgender (MTF) individuals lists myriad problems such individuals face in their day-to-day lives, including high rates of HIV/AIDS, addiction to drugs, violence, and lack of health care. These problems are exacerbated for ethnic and racial minority MTFs. Support available from their social networks can help MTFs alleviate these problems. This article explores how minority MTFs, specifically in an urban environment, develop supportive social networks defined by their gender and sexual identities. Using principles of community-based participatory research (CBPR), 20 African American and Latina MTFs were recruited at a community-based health care clinic. Their ages ranged from 18 to 53. Data were coded and analyzed following standard procedure for content analysis. The qualitative interviews revealed that participants formed their gender and sexual identities over time, developed gender-focused social networks based in the clinic from which they receive services, and engaged in social capital building and political action. Implications for using CBPR in research with MTFs are discussed.

Basic abnormalities in visual processing affect face processing at an early age in autism spectrum disorder.

PubMed

Vlamings, Petra Hendrika Johanna Maria; Jonkman, Lisa Marthe; van Daalen, Emma; van der Gaag, Rutger Jan; Kemner, Chantal

2010-12-15

A detailed visual processing style has been noted in autism spectrum disorder (ASD); this contributes to problems in face processing and has been directly related to abnormal processing of spatial frequencies (SFs). Little is known about the early development of face processing in ASD and the relation with abnormal SF processing. We investigated whether young ASD children show abnormalities in low spatial frequency (LSF, global) and high spatial frequency (HSF, detailed) processing and explored whether these are crucially involved in the early development of face processing. Three- to 4-year-old children with ASD (n = 22) were compared with developmentally delayed children without ASD (n = 17). Spatial frequency processing was studied by recording visual evoked potentials from visual brain areas while children passively viewed gratings (HSF/LSF). In addition, children watched face stimuli with different expressions, filtered to include only HSF or LSF. Enhanced activity in visual brain areas was found in response to HSF versus LSF information in children with ASD, in contrast to control subjects. Furthermore, facial-expression processing was also primarily driven by detail in ASD. Enhanced visual processing of detailed (HSF) information is present early in ASD and occurs for neutral (gratings), as well as for socially relevant stimuli (facial expressions). These data indicate that there is a general abnormality in visual SF processing in early ASD and are in agreement with suggestions that a fast LSF subcortical face processing route might be affected in ASD. This could suggest that abnormal visual processing is causative in the development of social problems in ASD. Copyright © 2010 Society of Biological Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The role of the bystander in the social architecture of bullying and violence in schools and communities.

PubMed

Twemlow, Stuart W; Fonagy, Peter; Sacco, Frank C

2004-12-01

The bystander is defined as an active and involved participant in the social architecture of school violence, rather than a passive witness. Bullying is redefined from a triadic (bully-victim-bystander) rather than dyadic (bully-victim) perspective. Teachers, including administrators, and students can promote or ameliorate bullying and other forms of violence when in this social role. Cases are used to illustrate this phenomenon, including one in which a teacher is murdered. Data are presented from a study of teachers' perceptions of other teachers who bully students, suggesting that bullying of students by teachers and bullying of teachers by students is a factor in the aggravation of school bullying and violence that needs to be more openly discussed. An intervention in nine elementary schools involving 3,600 students is outlined to illustrate how a focus on reflective mentalizing and awareness of the importance of the helpful bystander role can promote a peaceful school-learning environment for students and teachers. The paper concludes with an outline for research into how communities and schools adopt bystanding roles when faced with complex problems like youth violence, and how they may avoid facing the problems by blaming law enforcement and educators.

Examining problem solving in physics-intensive Ph.D. research

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Leak, Anne E.; Rothwell, Susan L.; Olivera, Javier; Zwickl, Benjamin; Vosburg, Jarrett; Martin, Kelly Norris

2017-12-01

Problem-solving strategies learned by physics undergraduates should prepare them for real-world contexts as they transition from students to professionals. Yet, graduate students in physics-intensive research face problems that go beyond problem sets they experienced as undergraduates and are solved by different strategies than are typically learned in undergraduate coursework. This paper expands the notion of problem solving by characterizing the breadth of problems and problem-solving processes carried out by graduate students in physics-intensive research. We conducted semi-structured interviews with ten graduate students to determine the routine, difficult, and important problems they engage in and problem-solving strategies they found useful in their research. A qualitative typological analysis resulted in the creation of a three-dimensional framework: context, activity, and feature (that made the problem challenging). Problem contexts extended beyond theory and mathematics to include interactions with lab equipment, data, software, and people. Important and difficult contexts blended social and technical skills. Routine problem activities were typically well defined (e.g., troubleshooting), while difficult and important ones were more open ended and had multiple solution paths (e.g., evaluating options). In addition to broadening our understanding of problems faced by graduate students, our findings explore problem-solving strategies (e.g., breaking down problems, evaluating options, using test cases or approximations) and characteristics of successful problem solvers (e.g., initiative, persistence, and motivation). Our research provides evidence of the influence that problems students are exposed to have on the strategies they use and learn. Using this evidence, we have developed a preliminary framework for exploring problems from the solver's perspective. This framework will be examined and refined in future work. Understanding problems graduate students face and the strategies they use has implications for improving how we approach problem solving in undergraduate physics and physics education research.

The “Cocktail Party Problem”: What Is It? How Can It Be Solved? And Why Should Animal Behaviorists Study It?

PubMed Central

Bee, Mark A.; Micheyl, Christophe

2009-01-01

Animals often use acoustic signals to communicate in groups or social aggregations in which multiple individuals signal within a receiver's hearing range. Consequently, receivers face challenges related to acoustic interference and auditory masking that are not unlike the human “cocktail party problem,” which refers to the problem of perceiving speech in noisy social settings. Understanding the sensory solutions to the cocktail party problem has been a goal of research on human hearing and speech communication for several decades. Despite a general interest in acoustic signaling in groups, animal behaviorists have devoted comparatively less attention toward understanding how animals solve problems equivalent to the human cocktail party problem. After illustrating how humans and non-human animals experience and overcome similar perceptual challenges in cocktail-party-like social environments, this article reviews previous psychophysical and physiological studies of humans and non-human animals to describe how the cocktail party problem can be solved. This review also outlines several basic and applied benefits that could result from studies of the cocktail party problem in the context of animal acoustic communication. PMID:18729652

Counseling the Young Adult Lesbian.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Miller, Rhoda

1980-01-01

Focuses on problems faced by young adult lesbians. Suggests counselors should: (1) encourage the counselee to "dump"; (2) guide her in a decision on coming out; (3) explain the legal rights and restrictions; (4) provide ongoing support for those who socialize openly; and (5) publicly promote gay rights. (Author)

Managing Difficult Behaviour in Young Children.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Slee, June

2003-01-01

Managing antisocial behavior is a critical issue facing those who work with young children, as the presence of early socialization problems is the single greatest predictor of adolescent and adult antisocial behavior. This booklet highlights the effectiveness of behavior management strategies that introduce and reinforce positive behaviors, rather…

Homelessness and Its Effects on Children.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hart-Shegos, Ellen

Homelessness influences every facet of children's lives, inhibiting their physical, emotional, cognitive, social, and behavioral development. Homeless women face such obstacles to healthy pregnancies as chemical abuse, chronic health problems, and lack of prenatal care. Homeless infants are more likely to have low birth weights and are at greater…

Interpreting the New Sexual Harassment Guidelines.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hoyman, Michele; Robinson, Ronda

1980-01-01

Discusses sexual harrassment guidelines which legally define the term as sex discrimination. While this is good for those facing harassment, it unrealistically places a socially-based problem on the shoulders of personnel managers. Points out the long-term benefits of a workplace free from harassment and intimidation. (JOW)

Fighting Illiteracy in the Arab World

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hammud, Muwafaq Abu; Jarrar, Amani G.

2017-01-01

Illiteracy in the Arab world is becoming an urgent necessity particularly facing problems of poverty, ignorance, extremism, which impede the required economic, social, political and cultural development processes. Extremism, violence and terrorism, in the Arab world, can only be eliminated by spreading of knowledge, fighting illiteracy. The study…

Resilience in Language Learners and the Relationship to Storytelling

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nguyen, Kate; Stanley, Nile; Stanley, Laurel; Wang, Yonghui

2015-01-01

International students, who study a foreign language abroad, experience more adversities than their domestic peers. The social challenges they face include problems with immigration status, isolation, difficulty speaking a new language, and learning unfamiliar customs. There is limited research focused on the coping strategies of these…

What's New in Elder Abuse Programming? Four Bright Ideas.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wolf, Rosalie S.; Pillemar, Karl

1994-01-01

Presents four "best practice models" that address problems faced by community agencies working with elder abuse cases: multidisciplinary case consultation team; senior advocate volunteer program; victim support group; and master's of social work degree specialization in adult protective services. Sees their relatively low cost, flexibility, and…

Why are the many poor?

PubMed

Townsend, P

1986-01-01

In this article the author restates the same arguments put forward in the first Fabian Tract of 1884 entitled Why Are the Many Poor? Today, mass poverty is still the central problem facing the British nation and all nations. The only long-term remedy is to restrict the power and wealth of the rich, to dismantle the present structures of social privilege, and to build social institutions based on fair allocation of wealth and on social equality. The public debate of one hundred years ago on the connections between poverty and wealth is revived in this article.

A Confidant Support and Problem Solving Model of Divorced Fathers’ Parenting

PubMed Central

DeGarmo, David S.; Forgatch, Marion S.

2011-01-01

This study tested a hypothesized social interaction learning (SIL) model of confidant support and paternal parenting. The latent growth curve analysis employed 230 recently divorced fathers, of which 177 enrolled support confidants, to test confidant support as a predictor of problem solving outcomes and problem solving outcomes as predictors of change in fathers’ parenting. Fathers’ parenting was hypothesized to predict growth in child behavior. Observational measures of support behaviors and problem solving outcomes were obtained from structured discussions of personal and parenting issues faced by the fathers. Findings replicated and extended prior cross-sectional studies with divorced mothers and their confidants. Confidant support predicted better problem solving outcomes, problem solving predicted more effective parenting, and parenting in turn predicted growth in children’s reduced total problem behavior T scores over 18 months. Supporting a homophily perspective, fathers’ antisociality was associated with confidant antisociality but only fathers’ antisociality influenced the support process model. Intervention implications are discussed regarding SIL parent training and social support. PMID:21541814

A confidant support and problem solving model of divorced fathers' parenting.

PubMed

Degarmo, David S; Forgatch, Marion S

2012-03-01

This study tested a hypothesized social interaction learning (SIL) model of confidant support and paternal parenting. The latent growth curve analysis employed 230 recently divorced fathers, of which 177 enrolled support confidants, to test confidant support as a predictor of problem solving outcomes and problem solving outcomes as predictors of change in fathers' parenting. Fathers' parenting was hypothesized to predict growth in child behavior. Observational measures of support behaviors and problem solving outcomes were obtained from structured discussions of personal and parenting issues faced by the fathers. Findings replicated and extended prior cross-sectional studies with divorced mothers and their confidants. Confidant support predicted better problem solving outcomes, problem solving predicted more effective parenting, and parenting in turn predicted growth in children's reduced total problem behavior T scores over 18 months. Supporting a homophily perspective, fathers' antisociality was associated with confidant antisociality but only fathers' antisociality influenced the support process model. Intervention implications are discussed regarding SIL parent training and social support.

Salience network response to changes in emotional expressions of others is heightened during early adolescence: relevance for social functioning.

PubMed

Rosen, Maya L; Sheridan, Margaret A; Sambrook, Kelly A; Dennison, Meg J; Jenness, Jessica L; Askren, Mary K; Meltzoff, Andrew N; McLaughlin, Katie A

2018-05-01

Adolescence is a unique developmental period when the salience of social and emotional information becomes particularly pronounced. Although this increased sensitivity to social and emotional information has frequently been considered with respect to risk behaviors and psychopathology, evidence suggests that increased adolescent sensitivity to social and emotional cues may confer advantages. For example, greater sensitivity to shifts in the emotions of others is likely to promote flexible and adaptive social behavior. In this study, a sample of 54 children and adolescents (age 8-19 years) performed a delayed match-to-sample task for emotional faces while undergoing fMRI scanning. Recruitment of the anterior cingulate and anterior insula when the emotion of the probe face did not match the emotion held in memory followed a quadratic developmental pattern that peaked during early adolescence. These findings indicate meaningful developmental variation in the neural mechanisms underlying sensitivity to changes in the emotional expressions. Across all participants, greater activation of this network for changes in emotional expression was associated with less social anxiety and fewer social problems. These results suggest that the heightened salience of social and emotional information during adolescence may confer important advantages for social behavior, providing sensitivity to others' emotions that facilitates flexible social responding. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Decoding Problem Gamblers' Signals: A Decision Model for Casino Enterprises.

PubMed

Ifrim, Sandra

2015-12-01

The aim of the present study is to offer a validated decision model for casino enterprises. The model enables those users to perform early detection of problem gamblers and fulfill their ethical duty of social cost minimization. To this end, the interpretation of casino customers' nonverbal communication is understood as a signal-processing problem. Indicators of problem gambling recommended by Delfabbro et al. (Identifying problem gamblers in gambling venues: final report, 2007) are combined with Viterbi algorithm into an interdisciplinary model that helps decoding signals emitted by casino customers. Model output consists of a historical path of mental states and cumulated social costs associated with a particular client. Groups of problem and non-problem gamblers were simulated to investigate the model's diagnostic capability and its cost minimization ability. Each group consisted of 26 subjects and was subsequently enlarged to 100 subjects. In approximately 95% of the cases, mental states were correctly decoded for problem gamblers. Statistical analysis using planned contrasts revealed that the model is relatively robust to the suppression of signals performed by casino clientele facing gambling problems as well as to misjudgments made by staff regarding the clients' mental states. Only if the last mentioned source of error occurs in a very pronounced manner, i.e. judgment is extremely faulty, cumulated social costs might be distorted.

Facial transplants: current situation and ethical issues.

PubMed

Petrini, C

2015-01-01

The first transplantation of a face from a cadaver was performed in 2005, since when about thirty have been performed globally. The technique is now beginning to appear in Italy. Face transplants are performed exclusively on persons who have suffered devastating lesions to the face. The ethical problems involved are very considerable, particularly where personal identity is concerned. The case records reveal surprisingly positive outcomes regarding both clinical follow-up and functional recovery, as well as psychological aspects and social integration. Thus, while early documents addressing the ethical issues involved in facial transplants were somewhat cautious or even unfavourable on the subject of this technique, a positive approach is now more prevalent.

Transforming public health through distance learning.

PubMed

Hirano, D; Dillenberg, J

1998-09-01

Public health agencies face old and new problems in the next century: emerging infectious and chronic diseases, health problems related to personal behaviors, a changing demography, and a deteriorating physical and social environment. To meet these challenges, public health agencies should consider the following: the advent of new communications technologies, the need for a strong workforce, and the need for new partnerships. Distance learning can serve as a means to facilitate a strong workforce and new partnerships.

Transsexualism: a medical perspective.

PubMed Central

Armstrong, C N

1980-01-01

Transsexualism, a condition in which from earliest recollection the individual is unshakeably convinced he or she has been endowed with the wrong physical sexual body presents one of the most difficult problems as regards management and treatment in clinical medicine. The aetiology and treatment is discussed and the problems with which the medical practitioner may be faced in advising his transsexual patient which include change in social role and marriage and the difference between sex and gender. PMID:7420376

Effectiveness of the Vital Aging program to promote active aging in Mexican older adults

PubMed Central

Mendoza-Ruvalcaba, Neyda Ma; Fernández-Ballesteros, Rocío

2016-01-01

Introduction Aging is not only a population phenomenon but also an experience and an individual reality. Vital Aging® is a program that considers active aging as the lifelong adaptation process of maximizing health and independence, physical and cognitive functioning, positive affect regulation and control, and social engagement. Through its different versions and editions, it has demonstrated being an effective program to promote active aging. The aim of this study is to determine the effectiveness of the “face-to-face” and “combined” versions of the program to promote active aging in Mexican older adults trial. Methods Seventy-six older adults aged 60 years and over participated in a quasi-experimental study and were recruited in a senior center to participate in the two experimental conditions: Vital Aging face-to-face (VA-FF) (n=35) and Vital Aging combined (VA-C; multimedia/face-to-face) (n=15), and the remaining 26 adults were assigned to a control group. Pretest and posttest assessments were performed after the theoretical–practical intervention. Mean differences and size effects were calculated for estimating the effect of the program. Results At the end of the study, participants showed improvements in the active aging outcome measures. Positive effects were observed in the frequency of intellectual, cultural – artistic, and social activities, perceptions of aging, satisfaction with social relationships, and self-efficacy for aging. Additionally, those who participated in VA-FF showed better memory performance, meta-memory, and a trend to report less memory problems, while older persons in VA-C showed a trend to have better life satisfaction. No effects were observed in physical activity, frequency of social relationships, and subjective health. Conclusion Findings show that the Vital Aging program in face-to-face and combined versions encourages active aging in Mexican older persons. These results are in general similar to those found in editions performed in Spain, revealing its consistency as a cross-cultural practical initiative for promoting active aging. PMID:27881913

Andragogy Between Theory and Practice.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Klapan, Anita

One of the main problems facing andragogy is that its systematic nature is more the result of other theoretical deliberations than those of its own. Until the mid-19th century, andragogy founded its development mainly on prevailing communal, social, economic, political, and cultural conditions in various countries. In the 1950s, andragogy turned…

Serving the Homeless through Recreation Programs. Research Update.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kunstler, Robin

1993-01-01

Literature review examines problems faced by homeless adults and children and discusses how recreation programs can serve them. The recreation and leisure profession can offer to the healthy child development through play and recreation, physical fitness, stress management, socialization, opportunities to learn goal-setting, self-esteem building,…

The Colorado Gambling Boom: An Experiment in Rural Community Development.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stokowski, Patricia A.

1992-01-01

Three small Colorado towns that faced a declining economy as the mining resource ran out used gambling-based tourism as a strategy for community development. Although economic benefits to the towns have far exceeded expectations, negative social, environmental, and political changes, such as crime alcoholism, traffic problems, and conflicts…

India: Training Workers to Meet the Challenges of Life.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fernau, Curt N.

1982-01-01

Discusses the educational program of the Textile Labour Association of Ahmedabad in India, which is designed to cope with the broad cultural, social, and economic problems facing workers and their families. The program focuses upon individual enrichment, cultural participation, and vocational mobility through the improvement of job skills. (JOW)

Affective Strategies at the Secondary Level.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Williamson, Ann Pollard

Affective teaching is particularly important at the secondary level when the student is facing the problems of adolescence (physical change, sex, social development, identity, values, and alienation). One of the most commonly accepted strategies at the secondary level is that of improving self-concept through the study of literature. Since an…

My Teaching Philosophy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mambetaliev, Askarbek

2007-01-01

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union the Ministry of Education of the Kyrgyz Republic has included a few social science disciplines in the list of the Educational State Standards, though the content of these subjects and teaching methodologies are still weak. One of the problems, which I constantly face in Kyrgyzstan when developing a new…

Examining School Counseling Students' Multicultural and Sexual Orientation Competencies through a Cross-Specialization Comparison

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bidell, Markus P.

2012-01-01

Professional school counselors have an opportunity to directly address the educational, emotional, and social problems facing lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning youth. The purpose of this study was to examine the multicultural and sexual orientation counselor competencies of school counseling students through a…

AIDS: Children Too.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lejeune, Genevieve, Ed.

1994-01-01

This journal issue is devoted to the many problems faced by children with Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) who live in both developing and developed countries. Section 1 provides general information on the pandemic, defining AIDS and exploring the social aspects of the disease. It also addresses child health, child mortality, moral and…

The Engineer and the Societal Dilemma: An Interdisciplinary Approach.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Coleman, Robert J.

The University of North Carolina's Electrical Engineering Department developed and delivered a course for undergraduate engineering students. The course integrated technical, social, and ethical perspectives on problems and issues faced in the world of practicing engineers. It achieved this integration by making use of professors in engineering,…

Africa's Expanding Population: Old Problems, New Policies.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goliber, Thomas J.

1989-01-01

Sub-Saharan Africa faces a historic challenge: to achieve economic and social progress while experiencing extraordinary population growth. With an estimated 1989 population of 512 million, the 42 countries of sub-Saharan Africa have the highest birth and death rates of any major world region. Throughout the region, population has outstripped…

A Profile of Reservation Indian High School Girls.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lin, Ruey-Lin

1987-01-01

A comparison of American Indian girls and boys on the reservation with White girls found that Indian girls faced the most difficult problems. They may have distant relationships with their parents, especially their fathers. They may be less social, less trusting and more likely to want to commit suicide. (JHZ)

Education for Achieving a New Societal Paradigm.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hull, Ronald W.

A review of ecological problems facing human society is presented and the relationship of education to social change is considered. Basic environmental limitations which are discussed include population; basic materials such as food, fuels, and water; and environmental tolerance. Ecological hazards which combine with these limitations to result in…

Parenting After Divorce. Papers from a 1980 Conference for Professionals.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Baden, Clifford, Ed.

Seven brief presentations discuss social attitudes toward divorce and the experiences and problems families face after divorce. Introductory remarks indicate (1) the extent to which divorced parents are denied consistent and positive support from legal and counseling institutions, schools and the work-place, and (2) the archaic institutionalized…

Comprehensive Treatment of Runaway Children and Their Parents.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wodarski, John S.; Ammons, Paul W.

This paper reviews the scope of the problem of runaway children and presents treatment approaches currently in use. Several findings on runaway children are discussed: (1) the multiple social and psychological difficulties faced by parents; (2) the high degree of family strain; and (3) the runaways' dissatisfactions with peer and adult…

Future-Centered Teacher Preparation: Putting Theory Into Practice.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Beckner, Weldon E.

In this document the implications of rapid social change and the need for educators to prepare teachers and administrators for future educational innovation are discussed. Suggestions for change in schools of higher education are made in the following areas: (1) Anticipating problems. Educational change will inevitably be faced with criticism, and…

Becoming Better Parents. Fourth Edition.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Balson, Maurice

In response to new problems facing parents and families, this book provides democratic parenting strategies that diverge from traditional autocratic methods and reflect the values of respect, shared responsibility, self-discipline, and social equality. The goal of the book is to create a new tradition in child raising that will help to foster the…

The Challenge of Urbanization. The World's Large Cities.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

United Nations New York, NY. Dept. of Economic and Social Information and Policy Analysis.

This publication concentrates on city problems and special city planning issues in the world's large cities, pinpointing their demographic characteristics, economic structure, available social services, and infrastructures, as well as current issues facing city planners. Profiles of 100 large cities across the world, from Abidjan to Yangon, make…

Learning Lessons from Chicago

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Caref, Carol; Mayle, Kristine

2015-01-01

This article describes how the Chicago schools system has been bedeviled by the social conditions faced by the city's inhabitants, and now by attempts to use privatization and school closures as the "solution" to those problems. The article describes how teachers in the Chicago Teachers' Union combined with community members to challenge…

Emergy Accounting: Past, Present and Future.

EPA Science Inventory

One of the greatest problems facing all of the countries of the world today is how to put a fair value on the contributions that the environment makes to maintain the economic and social well being of their people. This is not an easy task, since fair value can only be determine...

Responding to the New Affirmative Action Climate.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gehring, Donald D., Ed.

1998-01-01

Although the term "affirmative action" may stir debate throughout the nation, almost everyone in higher education would agree that a socially, economically, ethically, spiritually, culturally, and otherwise diverse student body can have a significant impact on the free marketplace of ideas that is higher education. The problem faced is…

Family Support Reaching Out.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goetz, Kathy, Ed.

1995-01-01

The articles in this journal, which is dedicated to the family support field, include such topics as: (1) creating links between family support and early childhood education programs; (2) the challenges facing grandparent caregivers; (3) the problems endemic in social services for infants, toddlers, and their families; (4) the use of the internet…

Co-rumination via cellphone moderates the association of perceived interpersonal stress and psychosocial well-being in emerging adults.

PubMed

Murdock, Karla Klein; Gorman, Sarah; Robbins, Maia

2015-01-01

Adolescents' and emerging adults' social interactions increasingly revolve around cellphone use, but little research has investigated the psychological properties of cellphone interactions. The current study explored co-rumination via cellphone; that is, the use of cellphone functions to excessively communicate about problems or negative feelings. Face-to-face co-rumination and co-rumination via cellphone were examined as potential moderators of the association between perceived interpersonal stress and psychosocial well-being (i.e., positive mental health and social burnout) in a sample of 142 college students. Face-to-face co-rumination was not a moderator. However, co-rumination via cellphone was a significant moderator such that higher levels of perceived interpersonal stress were associated with lower levels of well-being only among college students who reported higher levels of co-rumination via cellphone. Co-rumination via cellphone should be further investigated to elucidate its developmental trajectory and mental health correlates. Copyright © 2014 The Foundation for Professionals in Services for Adolescents. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

[Social trauma: Clinical practice and analysis of subjectivity].

PubMed

Lagos, Mariana; Bekerman, Silvana; Sosa, Noemí

2017-07-01

Clinical and psychosocial assistance demand that we try and understand the complex effect traumatic events have on people and their subjectivity, as well as on our own stance and reference framework. Traumatic situations of social origin affect groups of individuals and the State is to some extent responsible for their genesis and the resolution of their effects. In our professional practice we are faced with problems that concern both the individuals and the relationships they establish. The way highly traumatic events are dealt with is in?uenced by various factors that challenge our therapeutic theories and approaches. The crisis of our time, characterized by uncertainty, violence patterns, intolerance of differences, fracture of social bonds, combined with major technological developments and subjective changes, triggers new and complex ways of connection -even hyperconnectivity- through social media. These vicissitudes of our time confront us with new expressions of discomfort about our own place in the world, deeply affect our identities and reinforce the suffering we experience when faced with the emergency of the devastating power of social trauma. Thus, they become part of our current challenge as professionals.

Self-face recognition in social context.

PubMed

Sugiura, Motoaki; Sassa, Yuko; Jeong, Hyeonjeong; Wakusawa, Keisuke; Horie, Kaoru; Sato, Shigeru; Kawashima, Ryuta

2012-06-01

The concept of "social self" is often described as a representation of the self-reflected in the eyes or minds of others. Although the appearance of one's own face has substantial social significance for humans, neuroimaging studies have failed to link self-face recognition and the likely neural substrate of the social self, the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC). We assumed that the social self is recruited during self-face recognition under a rich social context where multiple other faces are available for comparison of social values. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we examined the modulation of neural responses to the faces of the self and of a close friend in a social context. We identified an enhanced response in the ventral MPFC and right occipitoparietal sulcus in the social context specifically for the self-face. Neural response in the right lateral parietal and inferior temporal cortices, previously claimed as self-face-specific, was unaffected for the self-face but unexpectedly enhanced for the friend's face in the social context. Self-face-specific activation in the pars triangularis of the inferior frontal gyrus, and self-face-specific reduction of activation in the left middle temporal gyrus and the right supramarginal gyrus, replicating a previous finding, were not subject to such modulation. Our results thus demonstrated the recruitment of a social self during self-face recognition in the social context. At least three brain networks for self-face-specific activation may be dissociated by different patterns of response-modulation in the social context, suggesting multiple dynamic self-other representations in the human brain. Copyright © 2011 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Fostering interpersonal trust on social media: physicians' perspectives and experiences.

PubMed

Panahi, Sirous; Watson, Jason; Partridge, Helen

2016-02-01

The problem of developing and sustaining mutual trust is one of the main barriers to knowledge sharing on social media platforms such as blogs, wikis, micro-blogs and social networking websites. While many studies argue that mutual trust is necessary for online communication and knowledge sharing, few have actually explored and demonstrated how physicians can establish and sustain trusted relationships on social media. To identify approaches through which physicians establish interpersonal trust on social media. Twenty-four physicians, who were active users of social media, were interviewed using a semi-structured approach between 2013 and 2014. Snowball sampling was employed for participant recruitment. The data were analysed using a thematic analysis approach. Physicians trust their peers on social media in a slightly different way than in face-to-face communication. The study found that the majority of participants established trust on social media mainly through previous personal interaction, authenticity and relevancy of voice, professional standing, consistency of communication, peer recommendation, and non-anonymous and moderated sites. Healthcare professionals need to approach social media carefully when using it for knowledge sharing, networking and developing trusted relations with like-minded peers. 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/

Experiences of women with breast cancer: exchanging social support over the CHESS computer network.

PubMed

Shaw, B R; McTavish, F; Hawkins, R; Gustafson, D H; Pingree, S

2000-01-01

Using an existential-phenomenological approach, this paper describes how women with breast cancer experience the giving and receiving of social support in a computer-mediated context. Women viewed their experiences with the computer-mediated support group as an additional and unique source of support in facing their illness. Anonymity within the support group fostered equalized participation and allowed women to communicate in ways that would have been more difficult in a face-to-face context. The asynchronous communication was a frustration to some participants, but some indicated that the format allowed for more thoughtful interaction. Motivations for seeking social support appeared to be a dynamic process, with a consistent progression from a position of receiving support to that of giving support. The primary benefits women received from participation in the group were communicating with other people who shared similar problems and helping others, which allowed them to change their focus from a preoccupation with their own sickness to thinking of others. Consistent with past research is the finding that women in this study expressed that social support is a multidimensional phenomenon and that their computer-mediated support group provided abundant emotional support, encouragement, and informational support. Excerpts from the phenomenological interviews are used to review and highlight key theoretical concepts from the research literatures on computer-mediated communication, social support, and the psychosocial needs of women with breast cancer.

A Sophisticated Architecture Is Indeed Necessary for the Implementation of Health in All Policies but not Enough

PubMed Central

Breton, Eric

2016-01-01

In this commentary, I argue that beyond a sophisticated supportive architecture to facilitate implementation of actions on the social determinants of health (SDOH) and health inequities, the Health in All Policies (HiAP) project faces two main barriers: lack of awareness within policy networks on the social determinants of population health, and a tendency of health actors to neglect investing in other sectors’ complex problems. PMID:27285517

Impulsive traits and unplanned suicide attempts predict exaggerated prefrontal response to angry faces in the elderly

PubMed Central

Vanyukov, Polina M.; Szanto, Katalin; Siegle, Greg J.; Hallquist, Michael N.; Reynolds, Charles F.; Aizenstein, Howard J.; Dombrovski, Alexandre Y.

2015-01-01

Objectives Abnormal responses to social stimuli are seen in people vulnerable to suicidal behavior, indicating possible disruptions in the neural circuitry mediating the interpretation of socio-emotional cues. These disruptions have not been empirically related to psychological and cognitive pathways to suicide. In the present study of older suicide attempters, we examined neural responses to emotional faces and their relationship to impulsivity, one of the components of the suicidal diathesis. Methods Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we recorded neuro-hemodynamic responses to angry faces in a carefully-characterized sample of 18 depressed elderly with history of suicide attempts, 13 depressed non-suicidal patients, and 18 healthy individuals, all aged 60+. Impulsivity was assessed with the Social Problem Solving Inventory Impulsivity/Carelessness Style subscale and Barratt Impulsiveness Scale. The Suicide Intent Scale planning subscale was used to describe the degree of planning associated with the most lethal attempt. Results Depression and history of attempted suicide were not associated with neural responses to angry faces, failing to replicate earlier studies. Higher impulsivity, however, predicted exaggerated responses to angry faces in fronto-opercular and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (pcorr < .05). Poorly planned suicide attempts also predicted increased fronto-opercular responses. Results were robust to effects of medication exposure, comorbid anxiety and addiction, severity of depression, burden of physical illness, and possible brain injury from suicide attempts. Conclusions Impulsive traits and history of unplanned suicide attempts partly explain the heterogeneity in neural responses to angry faces in depressed elderly. Displays of social emotion command excessive cortical processing in impulsive suicide attempters. PMID:25529800

Socially Important Faces Are Processed Preferentially to Other Familiar and Unfamiliar Faces in a Priming Task across a Range of Viewpoints

PubMed Central

Keyes, Helen; Zalicks, Catherine

2016-01-01

Using a priming paradigm, we investigate whether socially important faces are processed preferentially compared to other familiar and unfamiliar faces, and whether any such effects are affected by changes in viewpoint. Participants were primed with frontal images of personally familiar, famous or unfamiliar faces, and responded to target images of congruent or incongruent identity, presented in frontal, three quarter or profile views. We report that participants responded significantly faster to socially important faces (a friend’s face) compared to other highly familiar (famous) faces or unfamiliar faces. Crucially, responses to famous and unfamiliar faces did not differ. This suggests that, when presented in the context of a socially important stimulus, socially unimportant familiar faces (famous faces) are treated in a similar manner to unfamiliar faces. This effect was not tied to viewpoint, and priming did not affect socially important face processing differently to other faces. PMID:27219101

Labelling out: the personal account of an ex-alcoholic lesbian feminist.

PubMed

Staddon, Patsy

2005-01-01

In this paper, I look at my past alcohol dependency from a political as well as personal perspective. I consider the problems caused in my life and that of other lesbians by alcohol abuse, outdated treatment methods and self-help organizations such as AA, which misrepresent social factors leading to alcohol abuse. I focus on a series of themes: the personal and political; lesbian bar styles; alternative realities; lesbian problem drinking; problems facing lesbians in treatment and engaging with Alcoholics Anonymous; treatment as it often is and treatment as it should be.

Problems of Face Recognition in Patients with Behavioral Variant Frontotemporal Dementia.

PubMed

Chandra, Sadanandavalli Retnaswami; Patwardhan, Ketaki; Pai, Anupama Ramakanth

2017-01-01

Faces are very special as they are most essential for social cognition in humans. It is partly understood that face processing in its abstractness involves several extra striate areas. One of the most important causes for caregiver suffering in patients with anterior dementia is lack of empathy. This apart from being a behavioral disorder could be also due to failure to categorize the emotions of the people around them. Inlusion criteria: DSM IV for Bv FTD Tested for prosopagnosia - familiar faces, famous face, smiling face, crying face and reflected face using a simple picture card (figure 1). Advanced illness and mixed causes. 46 patients (15 females, 31 males) 24 had defective face recognition. (mean age 51.5),10/15 females (70%) and 14/31males(47. Familiar face recognition defect was found in 6/10 females and 6/14 males. Total- 40%(6/15) females and 19.35%(6/31)males with FTD had familiar face recognition. Famous Face: 9/10 females and 7/14 males. Total- 60% (9/15) females with FTD had famous face recognition defect as against 22.6%(7/31) males with FTD Smiling face defects in 8/10 female and no males. Total- 53.33% (8/15) females. Crying face recognition defect in 3/10 female and 2 /14 males. Total- 20%(3/15) females and 6.5%(2/31) males. Reflected face recognition defect in 4 females. Famous face recognition and positive emotion recognition defect in 80%, only 20% comprehend positive emotions, Face recognition defects are found in only 45% of males and more common in females. Face recognition is more affected in females with FTD There is differential involvement of different aspects of the face recognition could be one of the important factor underlying decline in the emotional and social behavior of these patients. Understanding these pathological processes will give more insight regarding patient behavior.

"You get old. You get invisible": Social isolation and the challenge of communicating with aging women.

PubMed

Walkner, Tammy J; Weare, Andrea M; Tully, Melissa

2017-04-04

Social isolation is a problem facing many older women. Isolation can contribute to poor health as adults age without social support. Increased and tailored communication offers service organizations more opportunities to provide social support to these adults. This research examines perceptions of aging to explore communication behaviors, barriers, and opportunities for improved communication and service provision for aging women. Using data from focus groups and interviews, this study finds that participants from community organizations rely on word of mouth and traditional media to communicate with their aging constituents, despite opportunities to use digital communication and to develop communication plans for this population.

["Are you ok?" Self-rated health of boys and girls with externalising behavior problems].

PubMed

Keller, B U; Teske, I; Szagun, B

2013-06-01

Externalising behavior problems involve a huge developmental risk potential as they can substantially interface with the parallel process of establishing and forming identity in peer groups during adolescence while simultaneously coping with expectations regarding academic achievement and behaviour. Therefore adolescents with externalising behavior constitute a potential target audience for health promotion. The purpose of this paper is to clarify in what kind of social contexts externalising behavior problems are associated with decreased subjective health in adolescence. An analysis of secondary data from the KiGGS study (Robert Koch-Institute, 2009) was undertaken. Calculations of logistic regression models for boys and girls were performed on the basis of preceding stratifications using the indicator subjective health and including relevant social demographic factors. Externalising adolescents face a higher risk of decreased subjective health than inconspicuous adolescents of the same age group, while there is a gender-specific difference (boys OR 2.76; girls OR 1.48). The gender-specific differences in subjective health appraisal found in inconspicuous adolescents cannot be verified in adolescents with externalising behaviour. Related to social demographic predictors a classic social gradient for girls is verified whereas externalising behaviour in boys is predominantly associated from high social class and decreased subjective health. In multivariate procedures a higher odds ratio for decreased subjective health becomes apparent for adolescents who ascend or descend in relation to their education level as well as for adolescents from higher social classes who had to repeat a school year. Adolescents with externalising behavior frequently rate their health situation as being bad. The fact that it is primarily boys with behavior problems and boys who are intergenerational mobile educationwise who exhibit decreased psychosocial well-being, indicates that an increased context related exclusion risk (ostracism) is an essential health risk factor. Micro-groups of adolescents facing risk of being ostracised appear to be an essential target group for prevention and health promotion which so far is not being taken into consideration on the basis of school type related recommendations. © Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.

Population growth, poverty and health.

PubMed

Kibirige, J S

1997-07-01

One of the most popular explanations for the many problems that face Africa is population growth. Africa's population has doubled since 1960. Africa has the highest fertility rate in the world and the rate of population growth is higher than in any other region. At the same time, Africa faces a social and economic situation that is viewed by many as alarming. Among the problems that devastate Africa is that of persistent poor health. Africa has lower life expectancy, higher mortality rates and is affected by more disease and illness conditions than any other region. Focusing on sub-Saharan Africa, this paper examines the relationship between population growth, poverty and poor health. While most analyses have focused on population growth as an original cause of poverty and underdevelopment, this paper argues that while both population growth and poor health play a significant role in exacerbating the problem of poverty, they are themselves primary consequences of poverty rather than its cause.

Health impacts and research ethics in female trafficking.

PubMed

Dhital, S R; Aro, R A; Sapkota, K

2011-04-01

Female trafficking is a social and public health problem, associated with physical and sexual abuse, psychological trauma, injuries from violence, sexually transmitted infections, adverse reproductive outcomes and substance misuse. It faces several challenges ranging from the hidden nature of the problem to ethical and human rights issues. The objectives of this paper are to analyze health impact of trafficking; ethical and research issues and anti-trafficking strategies in the Nepalese context. We collected published and unpublished data assessing the public health, ethical burden and research needs from different sources. Trafficked female involved in sex-industry that face grave situation as depicted and it might a reservoir of sexually transmitted diseases. Ethical issues related to survey of assessing the burden are difficult to carry out. The best ways to prevent and control these problems are to enhance anti- trafficking laws and raise awareness, empower and mobilize females and establish organizational capacity.

Apprehensions and problems after laryngectomy: Patients' perspective.

PubMed

Hirani, Ismail; Siddiqui, Atif Hafeez; Muhammad Khyani, Iqbal Abdul

2015-11-01

To evaluate the apprehensions, social, sexual and financial problems in patients with advanced laryngeal cancer after total laryngectomy and the impact of attending laryngeal club on these problems. The analytical study was conducted at the Dow Medical College and Civil Hospital Karachi from January 1996 to December 2011. Patients with total laryngectomy, operated for advanced laryngeal cancer at various centres of Sindh and Balochistan, attending Laryngeal Club of Pakistan, situated at Civil Hospital Karachi, were included. All the patients were evaluated through a questionnaire covering their apprehensions regarding social, sexual and financial impact on their lives after total laryngectomy. Data was analysed using SPSS 16. Of the 125 patients, 120(96%) were males, and 5(4%) were females; all housewives. The overall mean age was 54.8±0.5 years (range: 31-65 years). Further, 92(74%) participants were worried about financial uncertainty, while 84(67%) had regrets over loss of their voice; patients worried about losing family support and facing social rejection were 23(18%) and 15(12%) respectively. Only 7(5%) patients feared losing sexual relationship with their spouse. All these apprehensions were subdued after attending the Laryngeal Club of Pakistan. Severe financial impact was faced by 55(44%) patients due to loss of job, while 05(4%) had moderate impact due to change of job with lower income and 60(48%) patients had no financial problem. A good 102(82%) participants thought the support from their friends and family was upto their expectations; 98(78%) enjoyed satisfactory sex life although with reduced frequency of 1 to 2 intercourses per month; 21(17%) were having the frequency of 3-10 per month; and 3(2%) had more than 10 per month. Only 16(13%) patients were not involved in sexual relations with their spouses due to various reasons. Majority of laryngectomised patients expressed apprehensions and showed some social problems after laryngectomy, especially in the initial phase which improved either with passage of time or after attending Laryngectomy Club. The main problem was financial constraints; majority had good friends and family support and enjoyed satisfactory sexual relationship with their spouse.

A cognitive and economic decision theory for examining cyber defense strategies.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Bier, Asmeret Brooke

Cyber attacks pose a major threat to modern organizations. Little is known about the social aspects of decision making among organizations that face cyber threats, nor do we have empirically-grounded models of the dynamics of cooperative behavior among vulnerable organizations. The effectiveness of cyber defense can likely be enhanced if information and resources are shared among organizations that face similar threats. Three models were created to begin to understand the cognitive and social aspects of cyber cooperation. The first simulated a cooperative cyber security program between two organizations. The second focused on a cyber security training program in which participantsmore » interact (and potentially cooperate) to solve problems. The third built upon the first two models and simulates cooperation between organizations in an information-sharing program.« less

Swedish austerity: benefits at risk.

PubMed

Carroll, E

1993-01-01

The Swedish welfare state is facing the greatest threat since its inception. Attacks stem from the country's sharp economic downturn since 1989 and the related currency crisis of September 1992. Politicians of the right and left have responded to the economic crisis by initiating cutbacks in social welfare programs and supporting policies that will lead to a massive transfer of income from working people to corporations. The focus on cutting social programs is misplaced. The Swedish economy flourished for decades with the network of social service programs in place; the welfare state cannot be blamed for economic problems that have only recently arisen.

A Sophisticated Architecture Is Indeed Necessary for the Implementation of Health in All Policies but not Enough Comment on "Understanding the Role of Public Administration in Implementing Action on the Social Determinants of Health and Health Inequities".

PubMed

Breton, Eric

2016-02-29

In this commentary, I argue that beyond a sophisticated supportive architecture to facilitate implementation of actions on the social determinants of health (SDOH) and health inequities, the Health in All Policies (HiAP) project faces two main barriers: lack of awareness within policy networks on the social determinants of population health, and a tendency of health actors to neglect investing in other sectors' complex problems. © 2016 by Kerman University of Medical Sciences.

LDCs face another kind of health problem.

PubMed

Kaufman, H

1977-10-06

Early childbearing is increasing worldwide, in both the developed and the developing countries. In 1975, 13 million young women became mothers before their 18th birthday. Such early childbearing causes major health, economic, social, and demographic problems. The disadvantages are felt by the young women, their sexual partners, the babies born to these women, and society in general. Reasons why adolescents are engaging in earlier sexual activity and experiencing more early pregnancies are enumerated. The 1st Interhemispheric Conference on Adolescent Fertility, sponsored by the Agency for International Development and other involved organizations, was held in 1976. The Conference participants made recommendations concerned with the legal, educational, and social aspects of early childbearing. Many youth education programs have been established since the Conference. Research projects have been launched to study the social consequences of adolescent pregnancy. Many more family life education and family planning services must be offered. A significant hindrance to such developments is the reluctance of adults around the world to recognize and deal with the problem.

Introducing the Small Business Management Course.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Saskatchewan NewStart, Inc., Prince Albert.

Canadian Indians face the threat of a loss of their once rich resources of fish, fur, and game as undeveloped lands are filling with tourists and new populations. Public awareness of this social problem has produced governmental loans and grants for business undertaking which require some training of recipients to make productive use of the…

School-Based Health Education Provision for Young People in Northern Ireland

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McAleavy, Gerry; McCrystal, Patrick

2007-01-01

In Northern Ireland, young people exist in a health environment where the experience of social disadvantage is translated into serious risks to health and personal development. The years of political conflict have tended to obscure these health problems, and it is important that the difficulties faced by young people are examined and…

An Assessment of Six School-Based Clinics: Services, Impact and Potential.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kirby, Douglas; And Others

For two decades, school-based clinics have been providing basic health care to medically underserved teenagers and addressing the increasingly complex health and social problems facing young people, particularly unintended pregnancy. Today there are 150 school-based clinics operating in most major cities and many rural areas. In 1984, the Center…

Secondary Education in Romania. Guide to Secondary Education in Europe.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Georgescu, Dakmara-Ana

Secondary education in Romania is characterized by innovations introduced by the communist system and by recent efforts to restructure the system. This book presents a systematic and coherent exposition of the Romanian educational system, and outlines the essential problems the system faces. The book opens with the historical, social, and…

A Winning Combination: An Alcohol, Other Drug, and Traffic Safety Handbook for College Campuses.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Anderson, David, Ed.

This manual addresses the social and legal issues facing college administrators today in dealing with alcohol and other drug problems. It is a guide for colleges and universities to develop individualized alcohol, drug, and traffic safety programs. The first part, entitled "Insights," presents background articles by professionals in higher…

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Students: Perceived Social Support in the High School Environment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Munoz-Plaza, Corrine; Quinn, Sandra Crouse; Rounds, Kathleen A.

2002-01-01

Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth (LGBT) continue to face extreme discrimination within the school environment. Existing literature suggests that LGBT youth are at high risk for a number of health problems, including suicide ideation and attempts, harassment, substance abuse, homelessness, and declining school performance. This…

Is It Not Now?: School Counselors' Training in Tanzania Secondary Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mabula, Nkuba; Edna, Kyaruzi

2015-01-01

Counseling is currently becoming a necessary service for school learners in the developing world, this is due to fact that, the challenges facing learners in their learning process results into both internalizing and externalizing problems which affect student's learning in terms of social, psychology and academic. This paper explores the status…

A Summary of Project Open Horizons, Phase I: Implementation and Data Analysis.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Grantham, Robert J.; Gordon, Myra

Project "Open Horizons," in Buffalo and Niagara Falls, New York, was born out of a recognition that minority adolescents in disadvantaged communities face serious social and personal problems in the area of career development. The originators of the project were seeking an effective methodology for exposing disadvantaged youth to a…

Participatory Action Research with College Students with Disabilities: Photovoice for an Inclusive Campus

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Agarwal, Neelam; Moya, Eva M.; Yasui, Naoko Yura; Seymour, Corene

2015-01-01

College students with disabilities face various barriers to academic and social engagement. The present project was conducted based on principles of participatory action research (PAR) using Photovoice method with six students, gathering images representing such barriers, and developing narratives to describe the problems as well as possible ways…

Situated Leadership: A New Community Leadership Model. CRLRA Discussion Paper Series.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Falk, Ian

Rural areas around the world face problems stemming from the globalization of agricultural and other markets, the resulting competitiveness for existing and shifting markets, loss of population, and consequent decline of economic and social infrastructure. Rural communities need to develop the ability to manage change, and this requires engaging…

Assessing the Impact of Planned Social Change. Occasional Paper Series, #8.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Campbell, Donald T.

Program impact methodology--usually referred to as evaluation research--is described as it is developing in the United States. Several problems face the field of evaluation research. First, those issues grouped as "meta-scientific" include: (1) the distinction between qualitative and quantitative studies; (2) the separation of implementation and…

Education and the Many Faces of the Disadvantaged: Cultural and Historical Perspectives.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brickman, William W., Ed.; Lehrer, Stanley, Ed.

This book examines various types of the disadvantaged in the United States, uncovers reasons for the multifaceted problem of social deprivation, and indicates constructive ways, through education, of helping the disadvantaged. Attention is also focused on the poor and disadvantaged in foreign lands. There are ten parts to the volume: the…

From the Fear of Death to the Fear of "Dissimilar Other": A Research in Elementary School Classrooms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Leondari, A.; Magos, K.; Oikonomou, A.

2014-01-01

Social stereotyping and prejudice constitute pressing societal problems and have many causes. Terror Management Theory offers a compelling and heavily researched account of individuals' reactions towards "dissimilar others" when faced with thoughts of mortality. Building from previous research with adult samples, the present study aimed…

A Brief Survey of English Education of Tibetan Primary School in Ganzi County

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

He, Xiaojun; Lazo, Xia

2015-01-01

The current social backgrounds have made English learning become an important part in every Chinese student's life. Tibetan students begin to study Tibetan, Chinese and English from primary school. However, in many Chinese ethnic-minorities areas like Tibetan areas, English education is facing many problems and challenges, especially the English…

Peace Keepers: Colleges as Teachers of Peace and Conflict Resolution

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smith, David

2010-01-01

Americans increasingly are looking to community colleges to solve some of the most pressing problems facing this country--not necessarily a surprising revelation. Community colleges have long been in the business of making communities stronger and more vibrant, minimizing economic and social inequities, and instilling hope in those who need it…

Vocational and Technical Education in Lebanon: Strategic Issues and Challenges

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Karam, Gebran

2006-01-01

The current status of the Lebanese vocational and technical education (VTE) system is assessed and the strategic issues and challenges facing it are identified. In addition to the economic and social challenges that are common to many developing countries, the Lebanese system suffers from idiosyncratic problems, which may require innovative and…

Early Childhood Special Education for the Hearing Handicapped. Occasional Paper #13.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moores, Donald F.

The author reviews studies and programs in consideration of problems and issues professionals face in the early education of aurally handicapped children. Language handicaps as an obstacle to development of the child's academic, intellectual, and social potential are examined; as is parental need for supportive guidance. Discussed are studies…

Interfutures: Facing the Future, Mastering the Probable and Managing the Unpredictable.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, Paris (France).

This report discusses the findings of the three year Interfutures Project which studied the future development of advanced industrial societies and the relations between these countries and the developing countries. The major emphasis of the project was to analyze economic problems. However, political and social elements were also studied. The…

The Case of the Missing Widow.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Veidemanis, Gladys V.

When a woman is widowed, she automatically becomes a member of a community of isolated women who lack social status, economic power, and visibility in literature and the mass media. Literature by and about widows indicates four major reasons for this situation: there is no general recognition of the distinctive problems widows must face; except in…

Black Otherfathering in the Educational Experiences of Black Males in a Single-Sex Urban High School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brooms, Derrick R.

2017-01-01

Background/Context: A good deal of research has been written about the problems and challenges facing Black male youth in their educational endeavors, ranging from academic performances, aspirations, and outcomes to student-teacher relationships, social experiences, and identity development. Statements calling for more Black male teachers abound…

Restructuring Public Education: Building a Learning Community. The Report of the Education Task Force.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Washington Education Association, Federal Way.

The American educational system faces a critical need for restructuring. Social lag problems created by the transformation from an industrial to an informational society have affected U.S. institutions, especially education. Educators and policymakers must respond to the new economic, demographic, organizational, and educational forces which have…

An Afrocentric program for African American males in the juvenile justice system.

PubMed

Harvey, A R; Coleman, A A

1997-01-01

Though the juvenile justice system provides an array of interventions, culturally relevant programs are necessary to deal with the myriad social problems, including an escalating crime rate, facing high-risk African American adolescent males. This article presents an Afrocentric approach to service delivery for these youths and their families.

Development of Socioscientific Issues-Based Teaching for Preservice Science Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nuangchalerm, Prasart

2009-01-01

Problem statement: In the context of science education reform in Thailand, we need to prepare science teachers who can face science and social issues controversial; teachers can response the question socioscientific issues and let their students to meet the goal of science education. This study investigated the conception leading preservice…

LULAC National Scholarship Fund for Americans of Spanish Origin, 1977.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chavez, Martin, Ed.; And Others

Many of the problems facing Hispanos stem from inadequate representation in the economic, social, and governmental processes of American society. The LULAC National Scholarship Fund for Americans of Spanish Origin (LNSF) was established in 1975 as a means of weakening the poverty cycle which has inhibited full participation by Hispanics in…

The Dynamic Nature of Risk Factors to Substance Use among Adolescents

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Randolph, Karen A.

2004-01-01

Substance use is one of the major social problems facing youth today. The research on risk factors associated with onset and continuation of use is extensive. Typically, reviews of the literature categorize risk factors by environmental domain (i.e., family, peer relations, neighborhoods). This review extends this framework by examining studies…

Hispanic Masculinity: Myth or Psychological Schema Meriting Clinical Consideration.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Casas, J. Manuel; And Others

1994-01-01

Examines machismo (strict adherence to traditional masculine gender identity) in terms of Bem's gender schema theory. Uses the example of a Mexican immigrant family facing social and cultural changes to demonstrate the dynamics of machismo and how it might lead to emotional problems and physical symptoms in Hispanic men and their families.…

Precursors to language: Social cognition and pragmatic inference in primates.

PubMed

Seyfarth, Robert M; Cheney, Dorothy L

2017-02-01

Despite their differences, human language and the vocal communication of nonhuman primates share many features. Both constitute forms of coordinated activity, rely on many shared neural mechanisms, and involve discrete, combinatorial cognition that includes rich pragmatic inference. These common features suggest that during evolution the ancestors of all modern primates faced similar social problems and responded with similar systems of communication and cognition. When language later evolved from this common foundation, many of its distinctive features were already present.

Neonatal face-to-face interactions promote later social behaviour in infant rhesus monkeys

PubMed Central

Dettmer, Amanda M.; Kaburu, Stefano S. K.; Simpson, Elizabeth A.; Paukner, Annika; Sclafani, Valentina; Byers, Kristen L.; Murphy, Ashley M.; Miller, Michelle; Marquez, Neal; Miller, Grace M.; Suomi, Stephen J.; Ferrari, Pier F.

2016-01-01

In primates, including humans, mothers engage in face-to-face interactions with their infants, with frequencies varying both within and across species. However, the impact of this variation in face-to-face interactions on infant social development is unclear. Here we report that infant monkeys (Macaca mulatta) who engaged in more neonatal face-to-face interactions with mothers have increased social interactions at 2 and 5 months. In a controlled experiment, we show that this effect is not due to physical contact alone: monkeys randomly assigned to receive additional neonatal face-to-face interactions (mutual gaze and intermittent lip-smacking) with human caregivers display increased social interest at 2 months, compared with monkeys who received only additional handling. These studies suggest that face-to-face interactions from birth promote young primate social interest and competency. PMID:27300086

Information and Communications Technologies (ICT): Problematic use of Internet, video games, mobile phones, instant messaging and social networks using MULTICAGE-TIC.

PubMed

Pedrero Pérez, Eduardo J; Ruiz Sánchez de León, José María; Rojo Mota, Gloria; Llanero Luque, Marcos; Pedrero Aguilar, Jara; Morales Alonso, Sara; Puerta García, Carmen

2018-01-01

Use/abuse of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) has in recent years become a topic of great interest. Current discussion addresses whether it must be considered addictive behaviour and if it is a problem that primarily affects adolescents and youth. This study aims to understand the problems that affect people of all ages in controlling the use of these ICTs and whether they are related to mental health problems, stress and difficulties in executive control of behaviour. A survey was administered through social networks and email, using the MULTICAGE-ICT, a questionnaire that explores problems in the use of Internet, mobile phones, video games, instant messaging and social networks. Additionally, the Prefrontal Symptom Inventory, General Health Questionnaire and Perceived Stress Scale were administered. The sample was comprised of 1,276 individuals of all ages from different Spanish-speaking countries. The results indicate that about 50% of the sample, regardless of age or other variables, presents significant problems with the use of these technologies, and that these problems are directly related to symptoms of poor prefrontal functioning, stress and mental health problems. The results reveal the need for reconsidering whether we are facing an addictive behaviour or a new problem demanding environmental, psychological, sociological and sociopolitical explanations; therefore, it is necessary to reformulate actions to be implemented to address and refocus our understanding of the problem.

Individual differences in the ability to recognise facial identity are associated with social anxiety.

PubMed

Davis, Joshua M; McKone, Elinor; Dennett, Hugh; O'Connor, Kirsty B; O'Kearney, Richard; Palermo, Romina

2011-01-01

Previous research has been concerned with the relationship between social anxiety and the recognition of face expression but the question of whether there is a relationship between social anxiety and the recognition of face identity has been neglected. Here, we report the first evidence that social anxiety is associated with recognition of face identity, across the population range of individual differences in recognition abilities. Results showed poorer face identity recognition (on the Cambridge Face Memory Test) was correlated with a small but significant increase in social anxiety (Social Interaction Anxiety Scale) but not general anxiety (State-Trait Anxiety Inventory). The correlation was also independent of general visual memory (Cambridge Car Memory Test) and IQ. Theoretically, the correlation could arise because correct identification of people, typically achieved via faces, is important for successful social interactions, extending evidence that individuals with clinical-level deficits in face identity recognition (prosopagnosia) often report social stress due to their inability to recognise others. Equally, the relationship could arise if social anxiety causes reduced exposure or attention to people's faces, and thus to poor development of face recognition mechanisms.

Individual Differences in the Ability to Recognise Facial Identity Are Associated with Social Anxiety

PubMed Central

Davis, Joshua M.; McKone, Elinor; Dennett, Hugh; O'Connor, Kirsty B.; O'Kearney, Richard; Palermo, Romina

2011-01-01

Previous research has been concerned with the relationship between social anxiety and the recognition of face expression but the question of whether there is a relationship between social anxiety and the recognition of face identity has been neglected. Here, we report the first evidence that social anxiety is associated with recognition of face identity, across the population range of individual differences in recognition abilities. Results showed poorer face identity recognition (on the Cambridge Face Memory Test) was correlated with a small but significant increase in social anxiety (Social Interaction Anxiety Scale) but not general anxiety (State-Trait Anxiety Inventory). The correlation was also independent of general visual memory (Cambridge Car Memory Test) and IQ. Theoretically, the correlation could arise because correct identification of people, typically achieved via faces, is important for successful social interactions, extending evidence that individuals with clinical-level deficits in face identity recognition (prosopagnosia) often report social stress due to their inability to recognise others. Equally, the relationship could arise if social anxiety causes reduced exposure or attention to people's faces, and thus to poor development of face recognition mechanisms. PMID:22194916

The effects of social anxiety on emotional face discrimination and its modulation by mouth salience.

PubMed

du Rocher, Andrew R; Pickering, Alan D

2018-05-21

People high in social anxiety experience fear of social situations due to the likelihood of social evaluation. Whereas happy faces are generally processed very quickly, this effect is impaired by high social anxiety. Mouth regions are implicated during emotional face processing, therefore differences in mouth salience might affect how social anxiety relates to emotional face discrimination. We designed an emotional facial expression recognition task to reveal how varying levels of sub-clinical social anxiety (measured by questionnaire) related to the discrimination of happy and fearful faces, and of happy and angry faces. We also categorised the facial expressions by the salience of the mouth region (i.e. high [open mouth] vs. low [closed mouth]). In a sample of 90 participants higher social anxiety (relative to lower social anxiety) was associated with a reduced happy face reaction time advantage. However, this effect was mainly driven by the faces with less salient closed mouths. Our results are consistent with theories of anxiety that incorporate an oversensitive valence evaluation system.

Project PAVE (Personality And Vision Experimentation): role of personal and interpersonal resilience in the perception of emotional facial expression

PubMed Central

Tanzer, Michal; Shahar, Golan; Avidan, Galia

2014-01-01

The aim of the proposed theoretical model is to illuminate personal and interpersonal resilience by drawing from the field of emotional face perception. We suggest that perception/recognition of emotional facial expressions serves as a central link between subjective, self-related processes and the social context. Emotional face perception constitutes a salient social cue underlying interpersonal communication and behavior. Because problems in communication and interpersonal behavior underlie most, if not all, forms of psychopathology, it follows that perception/recognition of emotional facial expressions impacts psychopathology. The ability to accurately interpret one’s facial expression is crucial in subsequently deciding on an appropriate course of action. However, perception in general, and of emotional facial expressions in particular, is highly influenced by individuals’ personality and the self-concept. Herein we briefly outline well-established theories of personal and interpersonal resilience and link them to the neuro-cognitive basis of face perception. We then describe the findings of our ongoing program of research linking two well-established resilience factors, general self-efficacy (GSE) and perceived social support (PSS), with face perception. We conclude by pointing out avenues for future research focusing on possible genetic markers and patterns of brain connectivity associated with the proposed model. Implications of our integrative model to psychotherapy are discussed. PMID:25165439

Alcoholism and dampened temporal limbic activation to emotional faces.

PubMed

Marinkovic, Ksenija; Oscar-Berman, Marlene; Urban, Trinity; O'Reilly, Cara E; Howard, Julie A; Sawyer, Kayle; Harris, Gordon J

2009-11-01

Excessive chronic drinking is accompanied by a broad spectrum of emotional changes ranging from apathy and emotional flatness to deficits in comprehending emotional information, but their neural bases are poorly understood. Emotional abnormalities associated with alcoholism were examined with functional magnetic resonance imaging in abstinent long-term alcoholic men in comparison to healthy demographically matched controls. Participants were presented with emotionally valenced words and photographs of faces during deep (semantic) and shallow (perceptual) encoding tasks followed by recognition. Overall, faces evoked stronger activation than words, with the expected material-specific laterality (left hemisphere for words, and right for faces) and depth of processing effects. However, whereas control participants showed stronger activation in the amygdala and hippocampus when viewing faces with emotional (relative to neutral) expressions, the alcoholics responded in an undifferentiated manner to all facial expressions. In the alcoholic participants, amygdala activity was inversely correlated with an increase in lateral prefrontal activity as a function of their behavioral deficits. Prefrontal modulation of emotional function as a compensation for the blunted amygdala activity during a socially relevant face appraisal task is in agreement with a distributed network engagement during emotional face processing. Deficient activation of amygdala and hippocampus may underlie impaired processing of emotional faces associated with long-term alcoholism and may be a part of the wide array of behavioral problems including disinhibition, concurring with previously documented interpersonal difficulties in this population. Furthermore, the results suggest that alcoholics may rely on prefrontal rather than temporal limbic areas in order to compensate for reduced limbic responsivity and to maintain behavioral adequacy when faced with emotionally or socially challenging situations.

The street school Srikandi as an empowerment model of humane education for the street girls of non halfway house in Surabaya

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Setyowati, RRN; Yani, MT; Imron, A.

2018-01-01

The street children have not had a solid emotional mental, however they must deal into the life of street that harsh, competitive and tend to affect negatively for their personality development. Their where abouts on the street is not motivated by family economic factor only, but it is also influenced by the disharmony of role and function of family rules and social environment influences. The street children empowerment that had been conducted by the halfway house does not run effectively. This research was aimed to identify problems faced by the street girls, to describe the efforts to overcome the problems faced by the street girls, and also developing the empowerment model for the street girls in Surabaya who do not stay in the halfway house. This research used qualitative method. The problems are often experienced by the street girls, for instance violence. Besides, imitative behavior arises as a respond towards behavior that happened to them. The parents also play role in the process of social control. The empowerment model that is designed is the educational empowerment through revitalization of family rules. Moreover, life skills education has to be strengthened to improve the welfare standard of living.

Dental problems and Familismo: social network discussion of oral health issues among adults of Mexican origin living in the Midwest United States.

PubMed

Maupome, G; McConnell, W R; Perry, B L

2016-12-01

To examine the influence of collectivist orientation (often called familismo when applied to the Latino sub-group in the United States) in oral health discussion networks. Through respondent-driven sampling and face-to-face interviews, we identified respondents' (egos) personal social network members (alters). Egos stated whom they talked with about oral health, and how often they discussed dental problems in the preceding 12 months. An urban community of adult Mexican-American immigrants in the Midwest United States. We interviewed 332 egos (90% born in Mexico); egos named an average of 3.9 alters in their networks, 1,299 in total. We applied egocentric network methods to examine the ego, alter, and network variables that characterize health discussion networks. Kin were most often leveraged when dental problems arose; egos relied on individuals whom they perceive to have better knowledge about dental matters. However, reliance on knowledgeable alters decreased among egos with greater behavioral acculturation. This paper developed a network-based conceptualization of familismo. We describe the structure of oral health networks, including kin, fictive kin, peers, and health professionals, and examine how networks and acculturation help shape oral health among these Mexican-Americans. Copyright© 2016 Dennis Barber Ltd

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

PubMed

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.

Social and Cultural Factors Associated with Perinatal Grief in Chhattisgarh, India

PubMed Central

Roberts, Lisa R.; Montgomery, Susanne; Lee, Jerry W.; Anderson, Barbara A.

2017-01-01

Stillbirth is a globally significant public health problem with many medical causes. There are also indirect causal pathways including social and cultural factors which are particularly salient in India's traditional society. The purpose of this study was to explore women's perceptions of stillbirth and to determine how issues of gender and power, social support, coping efforts, and religious beliefs influence perinatal grief outcomes among poor women in rural Chhattisgarh, India. Structured interviews were done face-to-face in 21 randomly selected villages among women of reproductive age (N = 355) who had experienced stillbirth (n = 178) and compared to those who had not (n = 177), in the Christian Hospital, Mungeli catchment area. Perinatal grief was significantly higher among women with a history of stillbirth. Greater perinatal grief was associated with lack of support, maternal agreement with social norms, and younger maternal age. These predictors must be understood in light of an additional finding—distorted sex ratios, which reflect gender discrimination in the context of Indian society. The findings of this study will allow the development of a culturally appropriate health education program which should be designed to increase social support and address social norms, thereby reducing psychological distress to prevent complicated perinatal grief. Perinatal grief is a significant social burden which impacts the health women. PMID:21956647

Social and cultural factors associated with perinatal grief in Chhattisgarh, India.

PubMed

Roberts, Lisa R; Montgomery, Susanne; Lee, Jerry W; Anderson, Barbara A

2012-06-01

Stillbirth is a globally significant public health problem with many medical causes. There are also indirect causal pathways including social and cultural factors which are particularly salient in India's traditional society. The purpose of this study was to explore women's perceptions of stillbirth and to determine how issues of gender and power, social support, coping efforts, and religious beliefs influence perinatal grief outcomes among poor women in rural Chhattisgarh, India. Structured interviews were done face-to-face in 21 randomly selected villages among women of reproductive age (N=355) who had experienced stillbirth (n=178) and compared to those who had not (n=177), in the Christian Hospital, Mungeli catchment area. Perinatal grief was significantly higher among women with a history of stillbirth. Greater perinatal grief was associated with lack of support, maternal agreement with social norms, and younger maternal age. These predictors must be understood in light of an additional finding-distorted sex ratios, which reflect gender discrimination in the context of Indian society. The findings of this study will allow the development of a culturally appropriate health education program which should be designed to increase social support and address social norms, thereby reducing psychological distress to prevent complicated perinatal grief. Perinatal grief is a significant social burden which impacts the health women.

What can the study of first impressions tell us about attitudinal ambivalence and paranoia in schizophrenia?

PubMed

Trémeau, Fabien; Antonius, Daniel; Todorov, Alexander; Rebani, Yasmina; Ferrari, Kelsey; Lee, Sang Han; Calderone, Daniel; Nolan, Karen A; Butler, Pamela; Malaspina, Dolores; Javitt, Daniel C

2016-04-30

Although social cognition deficits have been associated with schizophrenia, social trait judgments - or first impressions - have rarely been studied. These first impressions, formed immediately after looking at a person's face, have significant social consequences. Eighty-one individuals with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder and 62 control subjects rated 30 neutral faces on 10 positive or negative traits: attractive, mean, trustworthy, intelligent, dominant, fun, sociable, aggressive, emotionally stable and weird. Compared to controls, patients gave higher ratings for positive traits as well as for negative traits. Patients also demonstrated more ambivalence in their ratings. Patients who were exhibiting paranoid symptoms assigned higher intensity ratings for positive social traits than non-paranoid patients. Social trait ratings were negatively correlated with everyday problem solving skills in patients. Although patients appeared to form impressions of others in a manner similar to controls, they tended to assign higher scores for both positive and negative traits. This may help explain the social deficits observed in schizophrenia: first impressions of higher degree are harder to correct, and ambivalent attitudes may impair the motivation to interact with others. Consistent with research on paranoia and self-esteem, actively-paranoid patients' positive social traits judgments were of higher intensity than non-paranoid patients'. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Social Determinants and Access to Induced Abortion in Burkina Faso: From Two Case Studies

PubMed Central

Ouédraogo, Ramatou

2014-01-01

Unsafe abortion constitutes a major public health problem in Burkina Faso and concerns mainly young women. The legal restriction and social stigma make abortions most often clandestine and risky for women who decide to terminate a pregnancy. However, the exposure to the risk of unsafe induced abortion is not the same for all the women who faced unwanted pregnancy and decide to have an abortion. Drawn from a qualitative study on the issue of abortion in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso's capital, the contrasting cases of two young women who had abortion allow us to show how the women's personal resources (such as the school level, financial resources, the compliance to social norms, the social network, etc.) may determine the degree of vulnerability of women, the delay to have an abortion, the type of care they are likely to benefit from, and the cost they have to face. This study concludes that the poorest always pay more (cost and consequences), take longer to have an abortion, and have more exposure to the risk of unsafe abortion. PMID:24790605

Inexact Socio-Dynamic Modeling of Groundwater Contamination Management

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vesselinov, V. V.; Zhang, X.

2015-12-01

Groundwater contamination may alter the behaviors of the public such as adaptation to such a contamination event. On the other hand, social behaviors may affect groundwater contamination and associated risk levels such as through changing ingestion amount of groundwater due to the contamination. Decisions should consider not only the contamination itself, but also social attitudes on such contamination events. Such decisions are inherently associated with uncertainty, such as subjective judgement from decision makers and their implicit knowledge on selection of whether to supply water or reduce the amount of supplied water under the scenario of the contamination. A socio-dynamic model based on the theories of information-gap and fuzzy sets is being developed to address the social behaviors facing the groundwater contamination and applied to a synthetic problem designed based on typical groundwater remediation sites where the effects of social behaviors on decisions are investigated and analyzed. Different uncertainties including deep uncertainty and vague/ambiguous uncertainty are effectively and integrally addressed. The results can provide scientifically-defensible decision supports for groundwater management in face of the contamination.

Rural Australian women's legal help seeking for intimate partner violence: women intimate partner violence victim survivors' perceptions of criminal justice support services.

PubMed

Ragusa, Angela T

2013-03-01

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a widespread, ongoing, and complex global social problem, whose victims continue to be largely women. Women often prefer to rely on friends and family for IPV help, yet when informal support is unavailable they remain hesitant to contact formal services, particularly legal support for many reasons. This study applies a sociological lens by framing the IPV and legal help-seeking experiences of rural Australian women gained from 36 in-depth face-to-face interviews as socially contextualized interactions. Findings reveal police and court responses reflect broader social inequalities and rurality exacerbates concerns such as anonymity and lack of service. Cultural differences and power imbalances between survivors and formal support providers are manifested to inform future research seeking to improve survivors' willingness to engage and satisfaction with formal services. Finally, the important role police and the criminal justice system play in de-stigmatizing IPV and legitimating its unacceptability is argued a crucial, yet unrecognized, key to social change.

Impulsive traits and unplanned suicide attempts predict exaggerated prefrontal response to angry faces in the elderly.

PubMed

Vanyukov, Polina M; Szanto, Katalin; Siegle, Greg J; Hallquist, Michael N; Reynolds, Charles F; Aizenstein, Howard J; Dombrovski, Alexandre Y

2015-08-01

Abnormal responses to social stimuli are seen in people vulnerable to suicidal behavior, indicating possible disruptions in the neural circuitry mediating the interpretation of socioemotional cues. These disruptions have not been empirically related to psychological and cognitive pathways to suicide. In the present study of older suicide attempters, we examined neural responses to emotional faces and their relationship to impulsivity, one of the components of the suicidal diathesis. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we recorded neurohemodynamic responses to angry faces in a carefully characterized sample of 18 depressed elderly with history of suicide attempts, 13 depressed nonsuicidal patients, and 18 healthy individuals, all aged 60+. Impulsivity was assessed with the Social Problem Solving Inventory Impulsivity/Carelessness Style subscale and Barratt Impulsiveness Scale. The Suicide Intent Scale planning subscale was used to describe the degree of planning associated with the most lethal attempt. Depression and history of attempted suicide were not associated with neural responses to angry faces, failing to replicate earlier studies. Higher impulsivity, however, predicted exaggerated responses to angry faces in fronto-opercular and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (pcorr <0.05). Poorly planned suicide attempts also predicted increased fronto-opercular responses. Results were robust to effects of medication exposure, comorbid anxiety and addiction, severity of depression, burden of physical illness, and possible brain injury from suicide attempts. Impulsive traits and history of unplanned suicide attempts partly explain the heterogeneity in neural responses to angry faces in depressed elderly. Displays of social emotion command excessive cortical processing in impulsive suicide attempters. Copyright © 2015 American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Coping strategies of Taiwanese children with autism spectrum disorders.

PubMed

Chin, Wei-Chih; Chao, Kuo-Yu; Chang, Hsueh-Ling; Li, Hsin-Mei; Chen, Sue-Hsien

2017-11-01

To explore and describe the coping experiences of children with autism spectrum disorders in Taiwan. Children with autism spectrum disorders are faced with daily social and living challenges, which can cause stress. Chinese culture emphasises discipline and obedience, which may influence coping strategies of children with autism spectrum disorders in Taiwan. This qualitative study employed an exploratory descriptive design. Data were collected from in-depth, face-to-face structured interviews. Interviews explored coping strategies of Taiwanese school-aged children (aged 6-19) with autism spectrum disorders. Children (N = 17) and their caregivers were recruited by purposive sampling. Transcribed interview data were thematically analysed using the procedure of Miles and Huberman. Five themes emerged from the analysis of the data, which described the coping strategies of the children: (1) problem-solving, (2) acting-out, (3) avoidance, (4) seeking help and (5) self-regulation. These themes included multiple coping strategies, which employed the concepts of engagement and disengagement. The children with autism spectrum disorder used many strategies to cope with the stresses resulting from behaviours and symptoms associated with the disorder. Most of the Taiwanese children use both problem-solving and emotional-focused coping strategies. Understanding coping strategies of children with autism spectrum disorder could help caregivers (parents, teachers) and medical professionals develop interventions to reduce these challenges, which could alleviate stress and improve social functioning for these children. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Social status gates social attention in humans.

PubMed

Dalmaso, Mario; Pavan, Giulia; Castelli, Luigi; Galfano, Giovanni

2012-06-23

Humans tend to shift attention in response to the averted gaze of a face they are fixating, a phenomenon known as gaze cuing. In the present paper, we aimed to address whether the social status of the cuing face modulates this phenomenon. Participants were asked to look at the faces of 16 individuals and read fictive curriculum vitae associated with each of them that could describe the person as having a high or low social status. The association between each specific face and either high or low social status was counterbalanced between participants. The same faces were then used as stimuli in a gaze-cuing task. The results showed a greater gaze-cuing effect for high-status faces than for low-status faces, independently of the specific identity of the face. These findings confirm previous evidence regarding the important role of social factors in shaping social attention and show that a modulation of gaze cuing can be observed even when knowledge about social status is acquired through episodic learning.

Reaching out to people struggling with their lives: a discourse analysis of answers from Internet-based services in Norway and Sweden

PubMed Central

Andersen, Anders Johan W; Svensson, Tommy

2012-01-01

The Internet has enlarged the scope of human communication, opening new avenues for connecting with people who are struggling with their lives. This article presents a discourse analysis of 101 responses to 98 questions that were posted on 14 different Internet-based mental health services in Norway and Sweden. We aimed to examine and describe the dominant understandings and favored recommendations in the services’ answers, and we reflected upon the social consequences of those answers. The services generally understood life struggles as an abnormal state of mind, life rhythms, or self-reinforcing loops. Internet-based mental health services primarily counsel service users to seek help, talk to health care professionals face-to-face, and discuss their life struggles openly and honestly. They also urge service users to take better care of themselves and socialize with other people. However, such answers might enhance the individualization of life problems, masking social origin and construction. Consequently, the services are challenged to include social explanations in their answers and strengthen their responsibility to amplify peoples’ messages at a societal level. Potentially, such answers could strengthen democratic structures and put pressure on social equity. PMID:23049282

N²E: Envisioning a process to support transition from nurse to educator.

PubMed

McAllister, Margaret; Oprescu, Florin; Jones, Christian

2014-01-01

Rising health inequities, continuing nursing shortages, and overlooked professional development needs of nurse educators are three important issues facing nursing in Australia. This paper argues for an innovative and proactive strategy that could transform the nurse education workforce into one that is repopulated, reinvigorated and refocused. The problem facing nurse educators, and subsequently affecting nurses' preparation for practice and longevity in the profession, was identified by drawing on findings from the literature, extensive educational experience, and an exploratory study of nurse educators working in universities, colleges and health services. A solution has been devised by drawing together the tenets of critical social theory, transformative learning, communities of practice and social media. Nursing educators, refocused around a social justice agenda, may be the remedy that the Australian Health Care System requires to embark on effective action that can benefit everyone, from the health service staff to our most vulnerable groups in society. This refocusing can be achieved in a structured and strategic process that builds confidence and professional capabilities.

N2E: Envisioning a process to support transition from nurse to educator.

PubMed

McAllister, Margaret; Oprescu, Florin; Jones, Christian

2013-11-21

Abstract Rising health inequities, continuing nursing shortages, and overlooked professional development needs of nurse educators are three important issues facing nursing in Australia. This paper argues for an innovative and proactive strategy that could transform the nurse education workforce into one that is repopulated, reinvigorated and refocused. The problem facing nurse educators, and subsequently affecting nurses' preparation for practice and longevity in the profession, was identified by drawing on findings from the literature, extensive educational experience, and an exploratory study of nurse educators working in universities, colleges and health services. A solution has been devised by drawing together the tenets of critical social theory, transformative learning, communities of practice and social media. Nursing educators, refocused around a social justice agenda, may be the remedy that the Australian Health Care System requires to embark on effective action that can benefit everyone, from the health service staff to our most vulnerable groups in society. This refocusing can be achieved in a structured and strategic process that builds confidence and professional capabilities.

Attentional avoidance of fearful facial expressions following early life stress is associated with impaired social functioning.

PubMed

Humphreys, Kathryn L; Kircanski, Katharina; Colich, Natalie L; Gotlib, Ian H

2016-10-01

Early life stress is associated with poorer social functioning. Attentional biases in response to threat-related cues, linked to both early experience and psychopathology, may explain this association. To date, however, no study has examined attentional biases to fearful facial expressions as a function of early life stress or examined these biases as a potential mediator of the relation between early life stress and social problems. In a sample of 154 children (ages 9-13 years) we examined the associations among interpersonal early life stressors (i.e., birth through age 6 years), attentional biases to emotional facial expressions using a dot-probe task, and social functioning on the Child Behavior Checklist. High levels of early life stress were associated with both greater levels of social problems and an attentional bias away from fearful facial expressions, even after accounting for stressors occurring in later childhood. No biases were found for happy or sad facial expressions as a function of early life stress. Finally, attentional biases to fearful faces mediated the association between early life stress and social problems. Attentional avoidance of fearful facial expressions, evidenced by a bias away from these stimuli, may be a developmental response to early adversity and link the experience of early life stress to poorer social functioning. © 2016 Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health.

Psychosocial outcomes following spinal cord injury in Iran.

PubMed

Khazaeipour, Zahra; Norouzi-Javidan, Abbas; Kaveh, Mahboobeh; Khanzadeh Mehrabani, Fatemeh; Kazazi, Elham; Emami-Razavi, Seyed-Hasan

2014-05-01

Objective/background In patients with spinal cord injury (SCI), SCI causes psychosocial complications that vary based on culture, conditions, and the amenities of each community. Health planners and social services should have full knowledge of these issues in order to plan schedules that address them. In this study, we aimed to understand the psychosocial problems of persons with SCI in Iran and to explore the requirements for minimizing these difficulties. Design This was a descriptive cross-sectional study. Setting Brain and Spinal Cord Injury Research (BASIR) Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Participants One hundred nineteen persons with SCI referred to BASIR clinic to receive outpatient rehabilitation. Methods In this study, trained interviewers administered a questionnaire to the participants. The questionnaire consisted of socio-demographic variables and psychosocial questions about finances, employment, housing, education, and social communication problems. Results Psychosocial problems for persons with SCI are mainly associated with financial hardship due to unemployment and the high cost of living, followed by difficulties with transportation, house modification, education, marriage, social communication, sports, and entertainment. Psychological problems include sadness, depression, irritability/anger, suicidal thoughts, and a lack of self-confidence. The levels of the aforementioned problems differ with respect to sex. Conclusion Persons suffering from SCI can face some serious psychosocial problems that may vary according to sex. For example, transportation difficulties can lead to problems such as unsociability. After recognizing these problems, the next step would be providing services to facilitate a productive lifestyle, enhancing social communication and psychological health, and ultimately creating a higher quality of life.

Internet and social media usage of orthopaedic patients: A questionnaire-based survey.

PubMed

Duymus, Tahir Mutlu; Karadeniz, Hilmi; Çaçan, Mehmet Akif; Kömür, Baran; Demirtaş, Abdullah; Zehir, Sinan; Azboy, İbrahim

2017-02-18

To evaluate social media usage of orthopaedic patients to search for solutions to their health problems. The study data were collected using face-to-face questionnaire with randomly selected 1890 patients aged over 18 years who had been admitted to the orthopaedic clinics in different cities and provinces across Turkey. The questionnaire consists of a total of 16 questions pertaining to internet and social media usage and demographics of patients, patients' choice of institution for treatment, patient complaints on admission, online hospital and physician ratings, communication between the patient and the physician and its effects. It was found that 34.2% ( n = 647) of the participants consulted with an orthopaedist using the internet and 48.7% ( n = 315) of them preferred websites that allow users to ask questions to a physician. Of all question-askers, 48.5% ( n = 314) reported having found the answers helpful. Based on the educational level of the participants, there was a highly significant difference between the rates of asking questions to an orthopaedist using the internet ( P = 0.001). The rate of question-asking was significantly lower in patients with an elementary education than that in those with secondary, high school and undergraduate education ( P = 0.001) The rate of reporting that the answers given was helpful was significantly higher in participants with an undergraduate degree compared to those who were illiterate, those with primary, elementary or high school education ( P = 0.001). It was also found that the usage of the internet for health problems was higher among managers-qualified participants than unemployed-housewives, officers, workers-intermediate staff ( P < 0.05). We concluded that patients have been increasingly using the internet and social media to select a specific physician or to seek solution to their health problems in an effective way. Even though the internet and social media offer beneficial effects for physicians or patients, there is still much obscurity regarding their harms and further studies are warranted for necessary arrangements to be made.

Climb Every Mountain: Graduates Urged To Seek Basic Human Values.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jelinek, James John

College graduates face the contradictory and inconsistent beliefs of a society that seems to be struggling between a desire to either degrade or enhance the dignity of man. Amid all the current mechanical marvels there exists social ills of nightmare proportions. In the turmoil to find solutions to the many problems many have lost sight of the…

The Aspect of "Accessibility" in the Light of European Lifelong Learning Strategies: Adult Education Centres--A Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Papastamatis, Adamantios; Panitsidou, Eugenia

2009-01-01

The problems faced by a postmodern European Union, due to internationalisation of the economy, loss of competitiveness, rise in unemployment and negative demographic outcomes, call for transformations able to promote excellence in knowledge, technology and economic effectiveness, which also promote social cohesion. Thus, investment in human…

Maximizing Human Fotential: A Curriculum Design for Human Development and Interpersonal Relationships, Kindergarten through Adult Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

California State Dept. of Education, Sacramento. Bureau of Homemaking Education.

This publication was prepared to assist schools in developing curriculum to help children solve complex social problems and achieve their highest potential as human beings in a world society. A major objective is to provide students with competencies and skills necessary to cope with the interpersonal relationships and stresses faced by…

Science, Technology and the Quality of Life.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

King, Alexander

In view of the changing relationship between science, technology, and the quality of life, future efforts need to be devoted to the use of new knowledge for social objectives rather than for economics and defense. The mass of problems facing society today, which to some extent are direct side effects of technological growth, appear to have three…

Restored Roots: "Muntu" as a Healing Agent in "Pelo bueno, Pelo malo" by Carmen Montañez

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Edison, Thomas Wayne

2017-01-01

Carmen Montañez's novel "Pelo bueno, pelo malo" acknowledges the struggle that some Caribbean individuals face in accepting their blackness. The novel integrates the union of ancestors with the living, thus reflecting the Bantu concept known as "Muntu". This Puerto Rican novel presents a deep social problem of internalized…

Examining Computer Gaming Addiction in Terms of Different Variables

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kurt, Adile Askim; Dogan, Ezgi; Erdogmus, Yasemin Kahyaoglu; Emiroglu, Bulent Gursel

2018-01-01

The computer gaming addiction is one of the newer concepts that young generations face and can be defined as the excessive and problematic use of computer games leading to social and/or emotional problems. The purpose of this study is to analyse through variables the computer gaming addiction levels of secondary school students. The research was…

Reconsidering Social Science Theories in Natural Resource Management Continuing Professional Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stummann, C. B.; Gamborg, C.

2014-01-01

Over 25 years ago, the "wicked problems" concept was introduced into forestry to describe the increasingly complex work situations faced by many natural resource management (NRM) professionals and at the same time the demand and frequency of public involvement in NRM issues also grew. Research on the impact of these changes for NRM…

Enhancing the Performance of Learning-Disabled Children by Dint of Theatre Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kumar, S. Praveen; Raja, B. William Dharma

2009-01-01

In schools, teachers come across pupils who have diverse abilities and special needs. Some of the learners achieve high and some may lag behind in their learning. They may face learning problems such as difficulties in listening, speaking, thinking, reading, writing, spelling, reasoning, calculating or social skills. It is a great challenge on the…

Fathers of a Certain Age: The Joys and Problems of Middle-aged Fatherhood.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carnoy, Martin; Carnoy, David

In light of the increasing numbers of men becoming fathers during middle age, this book examines the social and economic pressures facing older fathers and the personal adjustments that they and their families must make. Chapter 1 introduces the topic through a narrative recounting a personal experience. Chapter 2, "The Twilight Zone," presents…

Self-Management in Epilepsy Care: Putting Teen and Families in the Center--Part One

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shafer, Patricia Osborne; Dilorio, Colleen

2006-01-01

Epilepsy is one of the most common chronic neurological problems in childhood and adolescence. Unfortunately, it is also one of the most misunderstood conditions. Epilepsy can interfere with the physical, emotional and social functioning of youth of all ages, particularly if seizures are uncontrolled. Teenagers living with epilepsy face unique…

Perspectives of Bilingualism in Second Language Acquisition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Primlyn, A. Linda

2013-01-01

This paper reports on the problems faced by students in the second language classroom. It focuses on their integration of social and cultural aspects in language learning, because every language is an amalgamation of both. The author adds that the learner of a second language finds difficulty in learning the culture of the first language and it…

Issues in Community Research: Asian American Perspectives. Occasional Paper No. 5.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Murata, Alice K., Ed.; Salvador-Burris, Juanita, Ed.

This document comprises a collection of workshop papers addressing the issues of doing research on the complex social and human problems faced in any community from an Asian American perspective. The following topics are discussed: (1) the nature of community research; (2) the pros and cons of pure basic and applied research; (3) the nature and…

An Informal Discussion on Internet Matters. Moral Construction for Children and Young People

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shaoguang, Yang

2006-01-01

The social problems triggered by Internet are legion. Computer games and such high-tech achievements of the Internet that used to be regarded as "angels" are today frequently playing the role of "demons." As the times advance, Internet ethics have become a new challenge facing educational workers. Today, when our country is…

Visions Lost and Dreams Forgotten: Environmental Education, Systems Thinking, and Possible Futures in American Public Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cassell, John A.; Nelson, Thomas

2010-01-01

This article discusses the contributions to this special issue of "Teacher Education Quarterly." At the core of all the contributions is the compellingly urgent realization that humanity is facing, and must deal with, enormous ecological and social problems and challenges. This situation has created an urgent and compelling need centered…

Maintaining Quality Education in the Face of Declining Resources. Briefings in Educational Issues Number 2.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wendel, Frederick C., Ed.

Focusing on the conditions brought about by declining enrollment and resources, this book presents problems and suggests possible ways of dealing with them. Chapter 1 lists social forces that have long-term implications for maintenance of quality education. The second chapter applies the concept "smaller is better" to education. Several planning…

Curriculum for the 70's: Agenda for Invention.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Foshay, Arthur W.

This monograph outlines briefly the problems facing schools today and emphasizes the need to adapt education to changing social forces. It traces the developing role of the school in society since 1900, noting a reversal of roles which is now occurring. Rather than sublimating the needs of the individual to those of society, the school must now…

Experiences of High-Achieving High School Students Who Have Taken Multiple Concurrent Advanced Placement Courses

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Milburn, Kristine M.

2011-01-01

Problem: An increasing number of high-achieving American high school students are enrolling in multiple Advanced Placement (AP) courses. As a result, high schools face a growing need to understand the impact of taking multiple AP courses concurrently on the social-emotional lives of high-achieving students. Procedures: This phenomenological…

Dealing "Competently with the Serious Issues of the Day": How Dewey (and Popper) Failed

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Phillips, D.C.

2012-01-01

In "Reconstruction in Philosophy," John Dewey issued an eloquent call for contemporary philosophy to become more relevant to the pressing problems facing society. Historically, the philosophy of a period had been appropriate to social conditions (indeed, this is why it had developed as a discipline), but despite the vast changes in the…

Risk Resilience and Prevention: Promoting the Well-Being of All Children.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Simeonsson, Rune J., Ed.

This book argues that a paradigmatic change of emphasis is needed from treatment to prevention in order to promote the well being of children and to reverse many of the social problems children face today. Written for an interdisciplinary audience, the book is divided into three sections. The first section provides a framework and overview of…

Wicked Problems Forum: Immigration and Higher Education: From Me to We: Embracing Coperformative Witnessing and Critical Love in the Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Calafell, Bernadette Marie; Chuang, Andy Kai-chun

2018-01-01

Omar Swartz and Ware McGuffey's essay, "Migrating Pedagogy in American Universities: Cultivating Moral Imagination and Social Justice," available in this issue of "Communication Education," offers an overview of the current landscape in higher education and, in particular, the challenges immigrant students face, historically…

Student Perceptions of Asynchronous Multimodal Instructor Feedback: A Multiple Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lenards, Nishele Dyan

2017-01-01

Student dissatisfaction has been a problem in higher education with regard to the provision of assessment-related feedback. Due to the distant nature of online learning, instructors are faced with many challenges in delivering quality feedback because the communication is asynchronous and lacks social cues that are present in a F2F environment.…

Everybody's Children: Child Care as a Public Problem.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gormley, William T., Jr.

In the face of social changes that are increasing the demand for available, affordable, quality child care, it is difficult to continue to think of child care as a purely private issue. This book presents an analysis of the state of American child care. It evaluates child care policies and the national attention given to young children and their…

Planning Together: Positive Classroom Environments. Diversity in the Classroom Series, Number Four.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hindle, Doug

This document, the fourth in a series on diversity in the classroom, supports the belief that challenges faced by teachers working with diverse students can only be met through teacher practices that increase levels of positive teacher-student interaction and that create, in each student, effective social and problem solving skills. Section 1,…

Labor Markets in the Rural South: A Study Based on Four Rural Southern Counties.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Adams, John F.; And Others

Focusing on the factors inhibiting the labor market's adjustment to economic change, the study examined the economic and social problems facing southern rural areas and populations, including Chicanos and migrants. Factors were in the areas of the labor market behavior, income and earnings, poverty, welfare system and welfare reform, manpower…

Viva Colombia/Colombia Viva! A Fantasy Trip for the Five Senses

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

de Ramirez, Lori Langer

2006-01-01

In the author's experience, Colombia is among the most misunderstood Spanish-speaking countries. Most of the news about Columbia involves drug trafficking or guerilla warfare, due to the many social and political problems that face the country. It is rare that the public is informed about the culture and people of this beautiful South American…

A Practitioner Review of the Great Leap in Mainland China's Tertiary VET

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ren, Junqing; Gao, Xuesong; Su, Zhigang

2006-01-01

In this paper, we attempt to give an insider's perspective on mainland China's tertiary vocational education/training (VET) through reflecting upon its recent history, the social and economic conditions for its current growth and survival, and the challenges facing its future. We will take stock of four major problems that have been hindering the…

Facilities Offered by the University of Ibadan (Nigeria) Distance Learning Centre towards Learners' Academic Goal--An Evaluation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Adegbile, J. A.; Oyekanmi, J. O.

2011-01-01

Distance learners in the University of Ibadan, Nigeria unlike other distance learners of different parts of the world are faced with various educational, social and psychological problems associated with the code of distance learning. The facilities offered by the University of Ibadan distance learning centre towards the users' multifarious needs…

Breaching the Walls of Academe: The Purposes, Problems, and Prospects of Military History

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lynn, John A., II

2008-01-01

Military history faces a dire fate. Fewer and fewer colleges and universities today regard the historical study of military institutions and practices a worthy social, and therefore scholarly, charge. John Lynn enters this debate, examining the state of military history, which he defines in terms of three genres: popular, applied, and academic.…

The Impact of Socio-Cultural Factors on Females Passing through Higher Education in Pakistan

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shaukat, Sadia; Pell, Anthony William

2017-01-01

Purpose: Educated females play an important role in the social and economic development of a country. The aim of the study was to assess the problems facing females before entering higher education, and then after education when joining professions. Research Methods: Using a higher education survey questionnaire, data were collected from 2188…

Health Care among the Kumiai Indians of Baja California, Mexico: Structural and Social Barriers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fleuriet, K. Jill

2009-01-01

In this article, the author documents the illness and health care problems facing indigenous communities in Baja California, Mexico, by using ethnographic data from research she conducted from 1999 to 2001 with rural, indigenous Kumiai and with their primary health care providers in urban Ensenada. The author contends that barriers to care are…

Concerns and Education Regarding Issues of Weight Control and Female Athletes: Body Image and Female Athletes.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brylinsky, Jody

An examination of the interaction of social and cultural influences on body image development may yield an explanation for the development of eating disorder behavior, especially in understanding the special problems facing women athletes. There appear to be two major sociocultural factors influencing the development of body image in the…

Teaching Computing in a Multidisciplinary Way in Social Studies Classes in School--A Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

von Wangenheim, Christiane Gresse; Alves, Nathalia Cruz; Rodrigues, Pedro Eurico; Hauck, Jean Carlo

2017-01-01

In order to be well-educated citizens in the 21st century, children need to learn computing in school. However, implementing computing education in schools faces several practical problems, such as lack of computing teachers and time in an already overloaded curriculum. A solution can be a multidisciplinary approach, integrating computing…

Mobilizing Homeless Youth for HIV Prevention: A Social Network Analysis of the Acceptability of a Face-to-Face and Online Social Networking Intervention

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rice, Eric; Tulbert, Eve; Cederbaum, Julie; Adhikari, Anamika Barman; Milburn, Norweeta G.

2012-01-01

The objective of the study is to use social network analysis to examine the acceptability of a youth-led, hybrid face-to-face and online social networking HIV prevention program for homeless youth. Seven peer leaders (PLs) engaged face-to-face homeless youth (F2F) in the creation of digital media projects (e.g. You Tube videos). PL and F2F…

Social Consequences of Nomadic Working: A Case Study in an Organization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Singh, Ramanjit; Wood-Harper, Trevor

This research study identified social challenges that knowledge workers in the Swedish organization TeliaSonera (Telia) face when utilizing wireless technologies to conduct work on the move. Upon collecting the relevant research data, five problem areas were identified: work and life balance, addiction, organizational involvement, nomadic work and control, and individual productivity. Each problem area was examined with the philosophical underpinning of socio-technical design principles. The results confirm that better role boundary management, self-discipline, work negotiation, and e-mail communication skills may be required for the knowledge workers to manage the demands of nomadic working. Similarly, rewarding nomadic work performance, building employee supervisor trust relations, and designing jobs that enhance work and life balance can be imperative.

Recognition of face identity and emotion in expressive specific language impairment.

PubMed

Merkenschlager, A; Amorosa, H; Kiefl, H; Martinius, J

2012-01-01

To study face and emotion recognition in children with mostly expressive specific language impairment (SLI-E). A test movie to study perception and recognition of faces and mimic-gestural expression was applied to 24 children diagnosed as suffering from SLI-E and an age-matched control group of normally developing children. Compared to a normal control group, the SLI-E children scored significantly worse in both the face and expression recognition tasks with a preponderant effect on emotion recognition. The performance of the SLI-E group could not be explained by reduced attention during the test session. We conclude that SLI-E is associated with a deficiency in decoding non-verbal emotional facial and gestural information, which might lead to profound and persistent problems in social interaction and development. Copyright © 2012 S. Karger AG, Basel.

Training for Efficiency: Work, Time and Systems-based Practice in Medical Residency*

PubMed Central

Szymczak, Julia E.; Bosk, Charles L.

2013-01-01

Medical residency is a period of intense socialization with a heavy workload. Previous sociological studies have identified efficiency as a practical skill necessary for success. However, many contextual features of the training environment have undergone dramatic change since these studies were conducted. What are the consequences of these changes for the socialization of residents to time management and the development of a professional identity? Based on observations of and interviews with internal medicine residents at 3 training programs, we find that efficiency is both a social norm and strategy that residents employ to manage a workload for which the demand for work exceeds the supply of time available to accomplish it. We found that residents struggle to be efficient in the face of seemingly intractable “systems” problems. Residents work around these problems, and in doing so develop a tolerance for organizational vulnerabilities. PMID:22863601

Social and attention-to-detail subclusters of autistic traits differentially predict looking at eyes and face identity recognition ability.

PubMed

Davis, Joshua; McKone, Elinor; Zirnsak, Marc; Moore, Tirin; O'Kearney, Richard; Apthorp, Deborah; Palermo, Romina

2017-02-01

This study distinguished between different subclusters of autistic traits in the general population and examined the relationships between these subclusters, looking at the eyes of faces, and the ability to recognize facial identity. Using the Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ) measure in a university-recruited sample, we separate the social aspects of autistic traits (i.e., those related to communication and social interaction; AQ-Social) from the non-social aspects, particularly attention-to-detail (AQ-Attention). We provide the first evidence that these social and non-social aspects are associated differentially with looking at eyes: While AQ-Social showed the commonly assumed tendency towards reduced looking at eyes, AQ-Attention was associated with increased looking at eyes. We also report that higher attention-to-detail (AQ-Attention) was then indirectly related to improved face recognition, mediated by increased number of fixations to the eyes during face learning. Higher levels of socially relevant autistic traits (AQ-Social) trended in the opposite direction towards being related to poorer face recognition (significantly so in females on the Cambridge Face Memory Test). There was no evidence of any mediated relationship between AQ-Social and face recognition via reduced looking at the eyes. These different effects of AQ-Attention and AQ-Social suggest face-processing studies in Autism Spectrum Disorder might similarly benefit from considering symptom subclusters. Additionally, concerning mechanisms of face recognition, our results support the view that more looking at eyes predicts better face memory. © 2016 The British Psychological Society.

Dilemmas in providing resilience-enhancing social services to long-term social assistance clients. A qualitative study of Swedish social workers.

PubMed

Marttila, Anneli; Johansson, Eva; Whitehead, Margaret; Burström, Bo

2012-07-12

Long-term recipients of social assistance face barriers to social and economic inclusion, and have poorer health and more limited opportunities for improving their health than many other groups in the population. During recent decades there have been changes in Swedish social policy, with cutbacks in public benefits and a re-emphasis on means-tested policies. In this context, it is important to investigate the necessary conditions for social workers to offer social assistance and services, as well as the mediating role of social workers between public policies and their clients. Swedish social services aim to promote social inclusion by strengthening the individual's own resources. We investigated the issues that arise when providing social services to long-term social assistance clients within the framework of resilience, which focuses on the processes leading to positive functioning in adverse conditions. Interviews were conducted with 23 social workers in Stockholm and analysed by qualitative content analysis. The main theme to emerge from the interviews concerned the constraints that the social workers faced in providing social services to social assistance clients. The first subtheme focused on dilemmas in the interaction between social workers and clients resulting from the dual role of exercising authority and supporting and building trust with clients. Working conditions of social workers also played a crucial role. The second subtheme addressed the impact of the societal context, such as labour market opportunities and coordination between authorities. Overall, we found that social workers to a great extent tried to find individual solutions to structural problems. To provide resilience-enhancing social services to long-term social assistance clients with varying obstacles and needs requires a constructive working environment, supportive societal structures and inter-sectoral cooperation between different authorities.

Social anhedonia is associated with neural abnormalities during face emotion processing.

PubMed

Germine, Laura T; Garrido, Lucia; Bruce, Lori; Hooker, Christine

2011-10-01

Human beings are social organisms with an intrinsic desire to seek and participate in social interactions. Social anhedonia is a personality trait characterized by a reduced desire for social affiliation and reduced pleasure derived from interpersonal interactions. Abnormally high levels of social anhedonia prospectively predict the development of schizophrenia and contribute to poorer outcomes for schizophrenia patients. Despite the strong association between social anhedonia and schizophrenia, the neural mechanisms that underlie individual differences in social anhedonia have not been studied and are thus poorly understood. Deficits in face emotion recognition are related to poorer social outcomes in schizophrenia, and it has been suggested that face emotion recognition deficits may be a behavioral marker for schizophrenia liability. In the current study, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to see whether there are differences in the brain networks underlying basic face emotion processing in a community sample of individuals low vs. high in social anhedonia. We isolated the neural mechanisms related to face emotion processing by comparing face emotion discrimination with four other baseline conditions (identity discrimination of emotional faces, identity discrimination of neutral faces, object discrimination, and pattern discrimination). Results showed a group (high/low social anhedonia) × condition (emotion discrimination/control condition) interaction in the anterior portion of the rostral medial prefrontal cortex, right superior temporal gyrus, and left somatosensory cortex. As predicted, high (relative to low) social anhedonia participants showed less neural activity in face emotion processing regions during emotion discrimination as compared to each control condition. The findings suggest that social anhedonia is associated with abnormalities in networks responsible for basic processes associated with social cognition, and provide a starting point for understanding the neural basis of social motivation and our drive to seek social affiliation. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Compensatory internet use among individuals higher in social anxiety and its implications for well-being

PubMed Central

Weidman, Aaron C.; Fernandez, Katya C.; Levinson, Cheri A.; Augustine, Adam A; Larsen, Randy J.; Rodebaugh, Thomas L.

2012-01-01

The social compensation hypothesis states that the internet primarily benefits individuals who feel uncomfortable communicating face-to-face. In the current research, we tested whether individuals higher in social anxiety use the internet as a compensatory social medium, and whether such use is associated with greater well-being. In Study 1, individuals higher in social anxiety reported greater feelings of comfort and self-disclosure when socializing online than less socially anxious individuals, but reported less self-disclosure when communicating face-to-face. However, in Study 2, social anxiety was associated with lower quality of life and higher depression most strongly for individuals who communicated frequently online. Our results suggest that, whereas social anxiety may be associated with using the internet as an alternative to face-to-face communication, such a strategy may result in poorer well-being. PMID:22791928

Compensatory internet use among individuals higher in social anxiety and its implications for well-being.

PubMed

Weidman, Aaron C; Fernandez, Katya C; Levinson, Cheri A; Augustine, Adam A; Larsen, Randy J; Rodebaugh, Thomas L

2012-08-01

The social compensation hypothesis states that the internet primarily benefits individuals who feel uncomfortable communicating face-to-face. In the current research, we tested whether individuals higher in social anxiety use the internet as a compensatory social medium, and whether such use is associated with greater well-being. In Study 1, individuals higher in social anxiety reported greater feelings of comfort and self-disclosure when socializing online than less socially anxious individuals, but reported less self-disclosure when communicating face-to-face. However, in Study 2, social anxiety was associated with lower quality of life and higher depression most strongly for individuals who communicated frequently online. Our results suggest that, whereas social anxiety may be associated with using the internet as an alternative to face-to-face communication, such a strategy may result in poorer well-being.

[Social health insurance in China: principal reforms and inequalities].

PubMed

Ferreira, Fabianna Bacil Lourenço

2017-01-01

This article analyzes the social health insurance system in China, its reforms and the principal social inequalities uncovered. Based in the work of a number of authors of reference, it is possible to observe that rural and urban reforms follow the same pattern: large systems that were gradually reduced and then again expanded relatively quickly. Improvements notwithstanding, some of China's historical problems persist, especially the rural-urban gap and regional disparities. The lack of integration of workers that migrate from the country to the city is reproduced in the current Chinese public health system, constituting one of the primary challenges to be faced at present.

Face Patch Resting State Networks Link Face Processing to Social Cognition

PubMed Central

Schwiedrzik, Caspar M.; Zarco, Wilbert; Everling, Stefan; Freiwald, Winrich A.

2015-01-01

Faces transmit a wealth of social information. How this information is exchanged between face-processing centers and brain areas supporting social cognition remains largely unclear. Here we identify these routes using resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging in macaque monkeys. We find that face areas functionally connect to specific regions within frontal, temporal, and parietal cortices, as well as subcortical structures supporting emotive, mnemonic, and cognitive functions. This establishes the existence of an extended face-recognition system in the macaque. Furthermore, the face patch resting state networks and the default mode network in monkeys show a pattern of overlap akin to that between the social brain and the default mode network in humans: this overlap specifically includes the posterior superior temporal sulcus, medial parietal, and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, areas supporting high-level social cognition in humans. Together, these results reveal the embedding of face areas into larger brain networks and suggest that the resting state networks of the face patch system offer a new, easily accessible venue into the functional organization of the social brain and into the evolution of possibly uniquely human social skills. PMID:26348613

Women recovering from social rejection: The effect of the person and the situation on a hormonal mechanism of affiliation.

PubMed

Duffy, Korrina A; Harris, Lasana T; Chartrand, Tanya L; Stanton, Steven J

2017-02-01

Rejection can motivate either affiliation or withdrawal. In order to study how personality and situational variables influence whether women will be motivated to affiliate versus withdraw, we manipulate social feedback (rejection vs. acceptance) and opportunity for face-to-face interaction (blocked vs. face-to-face) and measure the individual difference variables rejection sensitivity and social anxiety. We test how these variables affect endogenous progesterone and cortisol concentrations, which are presumed to signal motivational responses to rejection. We find that three-way interactions involving social feedback, opportunity for face-to-face interactions, and either social anxiety or rejection sensitivity significantly predict progesterone change, but not cortisol change. Both interactions are driven by sharp progesterone decreases for women high in social anxiety/rejection sensitivity who have been rejected and who have no opportunity to reaffiliate in a face-to-face interaction. This progesterone change may be a physiological marker of motivation for social avoidance following rejection for women who cannot reaffiliate and who are particularly socially anxious or sensitive to rejection. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

The Fertility Problem Inventory: measuring perceived infertility-related stress.

PubMed

Newton, C R; Sherrard, W; Glavac, I

1999-07-01

To develop a reliable, valid instrument to evaluate perceived infertility-related stress. Prospective study. University-affiliated teaching hospital. Consecutively referred patients (1,153 women and 1,149 men) seen for infertility treatment. None. Participants' infertility-related stress was assessed by written questionnaire using the Fertility Problem Inventory. Current levels of anxiety, depression, and marital satisfaction also were determined. Women described greater global stress than men and higher specific stress in terms of social concerns, sexual concerns, and need for parenthood. Both men and women facing male infertility reported higher global stress and more social and sexual concerns than men and women experiencing female infertility. Social, sexual, and relationship concerns related to infertility were more effective predictors of depression and marital dissatisfaction than expressed needs for parenthood or attitudes toward child-free living. The Fertility Problem Inventory provides a reliable measure of perceived infertility-related stress and specific information on five separate domains of patient concern. Patterns of infertility-related stress differed depending on gender, fertility history, and infertility diagnosis. Among patients receiving treatment, social, sexual, and relationship concerns appear central to current distress. Counseling interventions that target these domains appear likely to offer maximal therapeutic benefit.

Marketing E-Commerce by Social media using Product Recommendations and user Embedding

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ramalingam, V. V.; Pandian, A.; Masilamani, Kirthiga

2018-04-01

MarketingE-CommercebySodal media is the best way to improve marketing and business widely.The major issues faced with E-commerce and Social media interfacing is cold- start cross-site problem. The cold-start problem occurs at a situation when user is not having the history of purchase records.For the user who does not have a history of purchase records, we have introduced a method of finding the users’ interested product without knowing any of the demographic information of the user. The product is recommended on basesof visits i.e., the item which is most likely to be visited by the users occur in the hit list. This product is rated at the top position for the users to purchase. The e-commerce with social media sites uses the strategy of user embedding and product recommendations. The product recommendations are achieved by incorporating LatentDirichlet Allocation(LDA), Re Ranking and Collaborative Filtering algorithms. The proposed framework can enhance the recommendation system by embedding products and users. This shows the potential of solving cold-start cross-site problem across the e-commerce and social media sites and enhances the marketing strategy.

Alcoholism and Dampened Temporal Limbic Activation to Emotional Faces

PubMed Central

Marinkovic, Ksenija; Oscar-Berman, Marlene; Urban, Trinity; O’Reilly, Cara E.; Howard, Julie A.; Sawyer, Kayle; Harris, Gordon J.

2013-01-01

Background Excessive chronic drinking is accompanied by a broad spectrum of emotional changes ranging from apathy and emotional flatness to deficits in comprehending emotional information, but their neural bases are poorly understood. Methods Emotional abnormalities associated with alcoholism were examined with functional magnetic resonance imaging in abstinent long-term alcoholic men in comparison to healthy demographically matched controls. Participants were presented with emotionally valenced words and photographs of faces during deep (semantic) and shallow (perceptual) encoding tasks followed by recognition. Results Overall, faces evoked stronger activation than words, with the expected material-specific laterality (left hemisphere for words, and right for faces) and depth of processing effects. However, whereas control participants showed stronger activation in the amygdala and hippocampus when viewing faces with emotional (relative to neutral) expressions, the alcoholics responded in an undifferentiated manner to all facial expressions. In the alcoholic participants, amygdala activity was inversely correlated with an increase in lateral prefrontal activity as a function of their behavioral deficits. Prefrontal modulation of emotional function as a compensation for the blunted amygdala activity during a socially relevant face appraisal task is in agreement with a distributed network engagement during emotional face processing. Conclusions Deficient activation of amygdala and hippocampus may underlie impaired processing of emotional faces associated with long-term alcoholism and may be a part of the wide array of behavioral problems including disinhibition, concurring with previously documented interpersonal difficulties in this population. Furthermore, the results suggest that alcoholics may rely on prefrontal rather than temporal limbic areas in order to compensate for reduced limbic responsivity and to maintain behavioral adequacy when faced with emotionally or socially challenging situations. PMID:19673745

"All is well": professionals' documentation of social determinants of health in Swedish Child Health Services health records concerning maltreated children - a mixed method approach.

PubMed

Köhler, Marie; Rosvall, Maria; Emmelin, Maria

2016-08-15

Knowledge about social determinants of health has influenced global health strategies, including early childhood interventions. Some psychosocial circumstances - such as poverty, parental mental health problems, abuse and partner violence - increase the risk of child maltreatment and neglect. Healthcare professionals' awareness of psychosocial issues is of special interest, since they both have the possibility and the obligation to identify vulnerable children. Child Health Services health records of 100 children in Malmö, Sweden, who had been placed in, or were to be placed in family foster care, were compared with health records of a matched comparison group of 100 children who were not placed in care. A mixed-method approach integrating quantitative and qualitative analysis was applied. The documentation about the foster care group was more voluminous than for the comparison group. The content was problem-oriented and dominated by severe parental health and social problems, while the child's own experiences were neglected. The professionals documented interaction with healthcare and social functions, but very few reports to the Social Services were noted. For both groups, notes about social structures were almost absent. Child Health Service professionals facing vulnerable children document parental health issues and interaction with healthcare, but they fail to document living conditions thereby making social structures invisible in the health records. The child perspective is insufficiently integrated in the documentation and serious child protection needs remain unmet, if professionals avoid reporting to Social Services.

Analysing policy delivery in the United Kingdom: the case of street crime and anti-social behaviour.

PubMed

Smith, Martin; Richards, David; Geddes, Andrew; Mathers, Helen

2011-01-01

For all governments, the principle of how and whether policies are implemented as intended is fundamental. The aim of this paper is to examine the difficulties for governments in delivering policy goals when they do not directly control the processes of implementation. This paper examines two case studies – anti-social behaviour and street crime – and demonstrates the difficulties faced by policy-makers in translating policy into practice when the policy problems are complex and implementation involves many actors.

IRB Problems and Solutions in Health Communication Research.

PubMed

King, Carie S Tucker; Bivens, Kristin Marie; Pumroy, Erin; Rauch, Susan; Koerber, Amy

2018-07-01

In this article, we contribute to the current literature on the difficulties that social scientists encounter with IRBs, but with a focus on the distinct challenges that health communication scholars face in dealing with IRBs at their own institutions and elsewhere. Although health communication researchers, like other communication researchers, can expect to face many of the same challenges that their social science colleagues face during the IRB process, the researcher narratives we present in this article suggest that health communication research presents some distinct challenges because the communication interactions that we investigate occur in highly protected, private spaces, including the medical exam room, online patient forums, and electronic health records. To that end, we present a series of examples in which health communication researchers were able to find solutions or workarounds to the challenges they faced in gaining IRB approval for their research. In every case that we present, the researcher had to revise her initial study design to get around the constraints imposed by IRB requirements, and in every case, the researcher reports having experienced points of incommensurability similar to those reported by many other social scientists. In some situations, investigators even express frustration that the IRB's needs and demands superseded those of healthcare professionals and the patients whom they serve. Additionally, in some situations, investigators' understandings of human subjects' protection actually go further to protect patients' privacy and confidentiality than the IRB required. But, in all four cases that we present, the health communication research was ultimately successful.

Overlapping Phenotypes in Autism Spectrum Disorder and Developmental Coordination Disorder: A Cross-Syndrome Comparison of Motor and Social Skills.

PubMed

Sumner, Emma; Leonard, Hayley C; Hill, Elisabeth L

2016-08-01

Motor and social difficulties are often found in children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and with developmental coordination disorder (DCD), to varying degrees. This study investigated the extent of overlap of these problems in children aged 7-10 years who had a diagnosis of either ASD or DCD, compared to typically-developing controls. Children completed motor and face processing assessments. Parents completed questionnaires concerning their child's early motor and current motor and social skills. There was considerable overlap between the ASD and DCD groups on the motor and social assessments, with both groups more impaired than controls. Furthermore, motor skill predicted social functioning for both groups. Future research should consider the relationships between core symptoms and their consequences in other domains.

Face to face versus Facebook: does exposure to social networking web sites augment or attenuate physiological arousal among the socially anxious?

PubMed

Rauch, Shannon M; Strobel, Cara; Bella, Megan; Odachowski, Zachary; Bloom, Christopher

2014-03-01

The present study tested two competing hypotheses about the effect of Facebook exposure on the physiological arousal level of participants who then encountered the stimulus person in a face-to-face situation. Facebook exposure may attenuate later arousal by providing increased comfort and confidence, but it is also possible that Facebook exposure will augment arousal, particularly among the socially anxious. Participants completed a measure of social anxiety and were exposed to a stimulus person via Facebook, face to face, or both. Galvanic skin response was recorded during the exposures to the stimulus person. Results were consistent with the augmentation hypothesis: a prior exposure on Facebook will lead to increased arousal during a face-to-face encounter, particularly for those high in social anxiety.

[Neural basis of self-face recognition: social aspects].

PubMed

Sugiura, Motoaki

2012-07-01

Considering the importance of the face in social survival and evidence from evolutionary psychology of visual self-recognition, it is reasonable that we expect neural mechanisms for higher social-cognitive processes to underlie self-face recognition. A decade of neuroimaging studies so far has, however, not provided an encouraging finding in this respect. Self-face specific activation has typically been reported in the areas for sensory-motor integration in the right lateral cortices. This observation appears to reflect the physical nature of the self-face which representation is developed via the detection of contingency between one's own action and sensory feedback. We have recently revealed that the medial prefrontal cortex, implicated in socially nuanced self-referential process, is activated during self-face recognition under a rich social context where multiple other faces are available for reference. The posterior cingulate cortex has also exhibited this activation modulation, and in the separate experiment showed a response to attractively manipulated self-face suggesting its relevance to positive self-value. Furthermore, the regions in the right lateral cortices typically showing self-face-specific activation have responded also to the face of one's close friend under the rich social context. This observation is potentially explained by the fact that the contingency detection for physical self-recognition also plays a role in physical social interaction, which characterizes the representation of personally familiar people. These findings demonstrate that neuroscientific exploration reveals multiple facets of the relationship between self-face recognition and social-cognitive process, and that technically the manipulation of social context is key to its success.

A Tale of Two Paradigms: The Impact of Psychological Capital and Reinforcing Feedback on Problem Solving and Innovation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Luthans, Fred; Youssef, Carolyn M.; Rawski, Shannon L.

2011-01-01

This study drew from two distinct paradigms: the social cognitively based emerging field of positive organizational behavior or POB and the more established behaviorally based area of organizational behavior modification or OB Mod. The intent was to show that both can contribute to complex challenges facing today's organizations. Using a…

Preventing Underage Alcohol Access: Policy and Enforcement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stewart, Kathryn

2002-01-01

One of the major challenges faced by states and communities is the prevention of underage alcohol access. Underage drinking is widespread and, to a large extent, tolerated by society. It is also implicated in a range of health and social problems that are both tragic and costly. The bad news is clear and all too visible. Underage alcohol use is a…

The Efficacy of a Home-School Intervention for Preschoolers with Challenging Behaviors: A Randomized Controlled Trial of Preschool First Step to Success

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Feil, Edward G.; Frey, Andy; Walker, Hill M.; Small, Jason W.; Seeley, John R.; Golly, Annemieke; Forness, Steven R.

2014-01-01

The field of early intervention is currently faced with the challenge of reducing the prevalence of antisocial behavior in children. Longitudinal outcomes research indicates that increased antisocial behavior and impairments in social competence skills during the preschool years often serve as harbingers of future adjustment problems in a number…

Youth in the New South Africa. Towards Policy Formulation. Main Report of the Co-operative Research Programme: South African Youth.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Van Zyl Slabbert, F., Ed.; And Others

In view of the sweeping political and social changes in South Africa, the Human Sciences Research Council and other agencies established the Co-operative Research Programme: South African Youth, a program to undertake research on the problems, challenges, and opportunities facing South African youth. This report presents the information base of…

The Northern Cheyenne Tribe and Energy Development in Southeastern Montana. Volume I: Social, Cultural, and Economic Investigations.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nordstrom, Jean; And Others

Although there are no easy answers to the economic problems faced by the Northern Cheyenne in Southeast Montana, any economic development plans should stress long-term tribal self-sufficiency, serve community needs, and consider the Cheyenne culture. Differentiation theory is appropriate for understanding the local rural area and the special place…

The Road Less Traveled: How the Developmental Sciences Can Prepare Educators to Improve Student Achievement--Policy Recommendations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Leibbrand, Jane A.; Watson, Bernardine H.

2010-01-01

The most important problem facing public education in the country today is: how can teachers address the needs of all learners? A 2007 report issued by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) says, "aspects of development--neural, cognitive, social, psychological, physical and ethical--have far-reaching effects on…

Effectiveness of Quality of Life Therapy Aimed at Improving Sexual Self-Efficacy and Marital Satisfaction in Addict Couples of Treatment Period

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nooripour, Roghieh; Bass, Christopher K.; Apsche, Jack

2013-01-01

Those who are addicted to substances face increased psychological emotional, social and economic problems which can potentially have negative impacts on marital satisfaction and sexual self-esteem and efficacy. Routine activities are often displaced by the need to satisfy the physiological urges. Within a marital union, this along with other…

Facing Global Sustainability Issues: Teachers' Experiences of Their Own Practices in Environmental and Sustainability Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sund, Louise

2016-01-01

Over the last 20 years, international organisations and national governments have stressed the need for education policies to be (re)oriented towards social change, sustainability and preparing students for life in a global society. This area of pedagogy is not problem free. When policy is turned into practice teachers need to take a number of…

Promises and Pitfalls: Experience in Collaboration between the Canadian Federal Government and the Voluntary Sector

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Good, David A.

2003-01-01

In 1997, the Canadian federal government faced a difficult policy problem. It wanted to make greater use of voluntary sector organizations to deliver government programs and to shape social policy. A first question for government was whom in the voluntary sector to engage. Unlike the United Kingdom, Canada does not have a tradition of national…

Exploring the Curriculum Dimensions of Theories-Based Adult Education--A Sample Course of Southeast Anatolian Region

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ultanir, Y. Gurcan; Ultanir, Emel

2010-01-01

As a result of social change over the past 20 years, there has been an economy-induced population movement in Turkey from eastern locales and rural areas to western regions and city centres. The effects of this domestic migration exemplify the problems of "integration faced by a migrating population". In Turkey the role of Public…

American Indians and Federal Aid. Brookings Studies in Social Economics.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sorkin, Alan L.

"American Indians are the poorest of any nonwhite minority in the United States. Life on the reservation offers them few opportunities: if they move to the city, they face problems of adjustment that can prove insurmountable. What is being done--what more could be done--to help Indians satisfy their needs in a largely alien society? To develop the…

Down and Out in Rural America: The Status of Blacks and Hispanics in the 1980s.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lyson, Thomas A.

Blacks and Hispanics in rural America face opportunities and life circumstances distinctively different from their urban counterparts. Not only are rural conditions generally worse than urban areas in job opportunity, social services, and human capital, but the problem of inequity is also more severe within rural areas than within urban areas.…

An Analysis of Facebook Intensity and Privacy Management Practices of Public School Educators in the United States

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Neely, Laura Sue Perry

2011-01-01

Social networking sites like Facebook continue to gain popularity among all segments of the population (boyd & Ellison, 2007; Madden & Smith, 2010). Public school employees all over the country are finding themselves facing disciplinary action due to participation in this fast growing fad. The problem is that there is a lack of clarity in the…

Preventing School Dropout with Secondary Students: The Implementation of an Individualized Reading Intervention and Dropout Prevention Intervention

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Roberts, Greg; Vaughn, Sharon; Fall, Anna-Mária; Vaughn, Michael

2013-01-01

Students transitioning from middle school to high school face a range of academic and social challenges. Academic content is more diverse and challenging, and its delivery is increasingly text based, requiring competence in literacy and problem-solving skill areas. Students entering 9th grade often struggle to find an appropriate peer group and…

Top-Down Public Health Curricular Change: The Experience of Physical Education Teachers in the United States

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cothran, Donetta J.; McCaughtry, Nate; Kulinna, Pamela Hodges; Martin, Jeffrey

2006-01-01

Schools are frequently seen as the solution to social problems, and recent public health issues such as the near epidemic rates of obesity and diabetes are some of the newest pressures facing schools. This investigation is an exploration of physical education teachers' reactions to one school district's attempts to mandate a public health driven…

Assessing Task Difficulty for Other People: When Deeper Evaluation Means "It's More about Me!"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Krispenz, Ann; Dickhäuser, Oliver; Reinhard, Marc-André

2016-01-01

Empirical studies have revealed that teachers face problems when assessing task difficulty for their students. By drawing on research that focuses on how individuals assess what others know, we argue that these difficulties are a consequence of the imputation of one's own knowledge to others (i.e., social projection). In particular, we tested the…

Culture Counts: Examining the Effectiveness of a Culturally Focused Empowerment Program for At-Risk Black Girls

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Aston, Candice N.

2017-01-01

Traditionally, many of the problems experienced by Black girls were overshadowed by the ongoing crises facing Black Males. Although important, the focus on Blackness and masculinity often implicitly leaves young Black girls on the sidelines and fails to recognize their unique obstacles. Fortunately, there has been a new surge of social concern…

Problems and Prospects of the Development of the Rural School in Russia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gur'ianova, M. P.

2009-01-01

It is well known that to a large extent, it is the young people of today who will determine the intellectual, economic, cultural, and spiritual face of rural Russia in the twenty-first century. Unless young people take part in the modernization of the economy and in its social development, the Russian countryside will not have a future. Among…

Acculturation Difficulties of the Khmer in New York City.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bruno, Ellen

The intent of this paper is to provide a historical and cultural overview of the Khmer refugee movement and to outline problems the refugees face upon resettlement in New York City. The paper begins by describing the land and people of Cambodia, the social structure of Khmer society, the role of Buddhism in that society, Cambodia's recent history,…

Spreading Wings with a Safety Net: The Montcalm Transitional Living Program

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Longhurst, Jim; Jones, Kelley; Hiatt, Patti; Hart, L. Kathryn

2011-01-01

The transition to independence can be a perilous journey for youth who have faced behavioral challenges. Many have not yet developed the social, emotional, and problem-solving skills to meet the challenges of adult life. But this can be a period of growth and accomplishment when youth can form stable connections and develop life skills. This is…

Navigating a Restless Sea: The Continuing Struggle to Achieve a Decent Education for African-American Youngsters in Chicago.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ayers, William; Klonsky, Michael

1994-01-01

The movement to reform the Chicago (Illinois) public schools faces a host of problems in the classroom and a sea of social ills outside the classroom. Without support from the African American community and largely cut off from the reform process, neither significant progress nor progressive change can be made. (SLD)

Comparing Online with Face-to-Face HELPP Intervention in Women Experiencing Intimate Partner Violence.

PubMed

Constantino, Rose E; Braxter, Betty; Ren, Dianxu; Burroughs, Joseph David; Doswell, Willa Marlene; Wu, Linden; Hwang, Juhae Grace; Klem, Mary Lou; Joshi, James B D; Greene, W Brian

2015-06-01

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a public health problem. The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of the HELPP (Health, Education on Safety, and Legal Support and Resources in IPV Participant Preferred) intervention among IPV survivors. A sequential, transformative mixed-methods design was used. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three study groups: Online (ONL), Face-to-Face (FTF), and Waitlist Control (WLC). The HELPP intervention was offered to 32 adult female participants who were 45.2% Asian, 32.3% White, and 22.5% Black. Outcome measures were anxiety, depression, anger, personal, and social support. In total, 64% (n  =  20) of the participants reported having experienced IPV before the age of 18. The anger mean score pre-test to post-test difference was significant for ONL (p < 0.001) and WLC (p  =  0.01). The personal and social support pre-test to post-test mean score differences were significant for ONL (p < 0.001; p < 0.001) and WLC (p  =  0.01; p  =  0.006), respectively. The HELPP intervention (1) decreased anxiety, depression, anger, and (2) increased personal and social support in the ONL group. The HELPP information and intervention was shown to be feasible, acceptable, and effective among IPV survivors compared with participants in the WLC group. The WLC participants displayed (1) increased levels of anxiety, depression, and anger and (2) decreased levels of personal and social support, post-intervention. Further research could be conducted to determine if e-mail alone or e-mail plus mobile devices are more useful modes of delivering interventions.

Implementing psychophysiology in clinical assessments of adolescent social anxiety: use of rater judgments based on graphical representations of psychophysiology.

PubMed

De Los Reyes, Andres; Augenstein, Tara M; Aldao, Amelia; Thomas, Sarah A; Daruwala, Samantha; Kline, Kathryn; Regan, Timothy

2015-01-01

Social stressor tasks induce adolescents' social distress as indexed by low-cost psychophysiological methods. Unknown is how to incorporate these methods within clinical assessments. Having assessors judge graphical depictions of psychophysiological data may facilitate detections of data patterns that may be difficult to identify using judgments about numerical depictions of psychophysiological data. Specifically, the Chernoff Face method involves graphically representing data using features on the human face (eyes, nose, mouth, and face shape). This method capitalizes on humans' abilities to discern subtle variations in facial features. Using adolescent heart rate norms and Chernoff Faces, we illustrated a method for implementing psychophysiology within clinical assessments of adolescent social anxiety. Twenty-two clinic-referred adolescents completed a social anxiety self-report and provided psychophysiological data using wireless heart rate monitors during a social stressor task. We graphically represented participants' psychophysiological data and normative adolescent heart rates. For each participant, two undergraduate coders made comparative judgments between the dimensions (eyes, nose, mouth, and face shape) of two Chernoff Faces. One Chernoff Face represented a participant's heart rate within a context (baseline, speech preparation, or speech-giving). The second Chernoff Face represented normative heart rate data matched to the participant's age. Using Chernoff Faces, coders reliably and accurately identified contextual variation in participants' heart rate responses to social stress. Further, adolescents' self-reported social anxiety symptoms predicted Chernoff Face judgments, and judgments could be differentiated by social stress context. Our findings have important implications for implementing psychophysiology within clinical assessments of adolescent social anxiety.

Coeliac disease: the association between quality of life and social support network participation.

PubMed

Lee, A R; Wolf, R; Contento, I; Verdeli, H; Green, P H R

2016-06-01

There is little information available on the use of social support systems for patients with coeliac disease (CD). We performed a cross-sectional study aiming to examine the association between participation in different types of social support networks and quality of life (QOL) in adults with CD. A survey including a validated CD specific QOL instrument was administered online and in-person to adults with CD who were following a gluten-free diet. Participation in social support networks (type, frequency and duration) were assessed. Among the 2138 participants, overall QOL scores were high, averaging 68.9 out of 100. Significant differences in QOL scores were found for age, length of time since diagnosis and level of education. Most (58%) reported using no social support networks. Of the 42% reporting use of social support networks (online 17.9%, face-to-face 10.8% or both 12.8%), QOL scores were higher for those individuals who used only face-to-face social support compared to only online support (72.6 versus 66.7; P < 0.0001). A longer duration of face-to-face social support use was associated with higher QOL scores (P < 0.0005). By contrast, a longer duration and increased frequency of online social support use was associated with lower QOL scores (P < 0.03). Participation in face-to-face social support networks is associated with greater QOL scores compared to online social support networks. These findings have potential implications for the management of individuals with CD. Emphasis on face-to-face support may improve long-term QOL and patient outcomes. © 2015 The British Dietetic Association Ltd.

Social Cognition in Williams Syndrome: Face Tuning

PubMed Central

Pavlova, Marina A.; Heiz, Julie; Sokolov, Alexander N.; Barisnikov, Koviljka

2016-01-01

Many neurological, neurodevelopmental, neuropsychiatric, and psychosomatic disorders are characterized by impairments in visual social cognition, body language reading, and facial assessment of a social counterpart. Yet a wealth of research indicates that individuals with Williams syndrome exhibit remarkable concern for social stimuli and face fascination. Here individuals with Williams syndrome were presented with a set of Face-n-Food images composed of food ingredients and in different degree resembling a face (slightly bordering on the Giuseppe Arcimboldo style). The primary advantage of these images is that single components do not explicitly trigger face-specific processing, whereas in face images commonly used for investigating face perception (such as photographs or depictions), the mere occurrence of typical cues already implicates face presence. In a spontaneous recognition task, participants were shown a set of images in a predetermined order from the least to most resembling a face. Strikingly, individuals with Williams syndrome exhibited profound deficits in recognition of the Face-n-Food images as a face: they did not report seeing a face on the images, which typically developing controls effortlessly recognized as a face, and gave overall fewer face responses. This suggests atypical face tuning in Williams syndrome. The outcome is discussed in the light of a general pattern of social cognition in Williams syndrome and brain mechanisms underpinning face processing. PMID:27531986

Social Cognition in Williams Syndrome: Face Tuning.

PubMed

Pavlova, Marina A; Heiz, Julie; Sokolov, Alexander N; Barisnikov, Koviljka

2016-01-01

Many neurological, neurodevelopmental, neuropsychiatric, and psychosomatic disorders are characterized by impairments in visual social cognition, body language reading, and facial assessment of a social counterpart. Yet a wealth of research indicates that individuals with Williams syndrome exhibit remarkable concern for social stimuli and face fascination. Here individuals with Williams syndrome were presented with a set of Face-n-Food images composed of food ingredients and in different degree resembling a face (slightly bordering on the Giuseppe Arcimboldo style). The primary advantage of these images is that single components do not explicitly trigger face-specific processing, whereas in face images commonly used for investigating face perception (such as photographs or depictions), the mere occurrence of typical cues already implicates face presence. In a spontaneous recognition task, participants were shown a set of images in a predetermined order from the least to most resembling a face. Strikingly, individuals with Williams syndrome exhibited profound deficits in recognition of the Face-n-Food images as a face: they did not report seeing a face on the images, which typically developing controls effortlessly recognized as a face, and gave overall fewer face responses. This suggests atypical face tuning in Williams syndrome. The outcome is discussed in the light of a general pattern of social cognition in Williams syndrome and brain mechanisms underpinning face processing.

Effectiveness of link prediction for face-to-face behavioral networks.

PubMed

Tsugawa, Sho; Ohsaki, Hiroyuki

2013-01-01

Research on link prediction for social networks has been actively pursued. In link prediction for a given social network obtained from time-windowed observation, new link formation in the network is predicted from the topology of the obtained network. In contrast, recent advances in sensing technology have made it possible to obtain face-to-face behavioral networks, which are social networks representing face-to-face interactions among people. However, the effectiveness of link prediction techniques for face-to-face behavioral networks has not yet been explored in depth. To clarify this point, here we investigate the accuracy of conventional link prediction techniques for networks obtained from the history of face-to-face interactions among participants at an academic conference. Our findings were (1) that conventional link prediction techniques predict new link formation with a precision of 0.30-0.45 and a recall of 0.10-0.20, (2) that prolonged observation of social networks often degrades the prediction accuracy, (3) that the proposed decaying weight method leads to higher prediction accuracy than can be achieved by observing all records of communication and simply using them unmodified, and (4) that the prediction accuracy for face-to-face behavioral networks is relatively high compared to that for non-social networks, but not as high as for other types of social networks.

Toward a Social Psychophysics of Face Communication.

PubMed

Jack, Rachael E; Schyns, Philippe G

2017-01-03

As a highly social species, humans are equipped with a powerful tool for social communication-the face. Although seemingly simple, the human face can elicit multiple social perceptions due to the rich variations of its movements, morphology, and complexion. Consequently, identifying precisely what face information elicits different social perceptions is a complex empirical challenge that has largely remained beyond the reach of traditional methods. In the past decade, the emerging field of social psychophysics has developed new methods to address this challenge, with the potential to transfer psychophysical laws of social perception to the digital economy via avatars and social robots. At this exciting juncture, it is timely to review these new methodological developments. In this article, we introduce and review the foundational methodological developments of social psychophysics, present work done in the past decade that has advanced understanding of the face as a tool for social communication, and discuss the major challenges that lie ahead.

Mutual friends' social support and self-disclosure in face-to-face and instant messenger communication.

PubMed

Trepte, Sabine; Masur, Philipp K; Scharkow, Michael

2018-01-01

In the present study, we investigated long-term effects of self-disclosure on social support in face-to-face and instant messenger (IM) communication between mutual friends. Using a representative sample of 583 German IM users, we explored whether self-disclosure and positive experiences with regard to social support would dynamically interact in the form of a reinforcing spiral across three measurement occasions. If mutual friends self-disclose today, will they receive more social support 6 months later? In turn, will this affect their willingness to self-disclose another 6 months later? We further analyzed spill-over effects from face-to-face to IM communication and vice versa. We found that self-disclosure predicted social support and vice versa in IM communication, but not in face-to-face communication. In light of these results, the impact of IM communication on how individuals maneuver friendships through the interplay between self-disclosure and social support are discussed.

Distributed intelligent urban environment monitoring system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Du, Jinsong; Wang, Wei; Gao, Jie; Cong, Rigang

2018-02-01

The current environmental pollution and destruction have developed into a world-wide major social problem that threatens human survival and development. Environmental monitoring is the prerequisite and basis of environmental governance, but overall, the current environmental monitoring system is facing a series of problems. Based on the electrochemical sensor, this paper designs a small, low-cost, easy to layout urban environmental quality monitoring terminal, and multi-terminal constitutes a distributed network. The system has been small-scale demonstration applications and has confirmed that the system is suitable for large-scale promotion

Poverty and palliative care in the US: issues facing the urban poor.

PubMed

Hughes, Anne

2005-01-01

Poverty is a significant public health and social problem in the US. The urban poor living with life-limiting illnesses are a particularly vulnerable population. The literature related to the experiences of the urban poor at the end of life is sparse. Most relates to the experiences of patients with cancer. The purpose of this literature review is to describe the problem of poverty in the US, to identify challenges in providing palliative care to the urban poor, and lastly, to articulate implications for nursing practice and nursing research.

Facial movements strategically camouflage involuntary social signals of face morphology.

PubMed

Gill, Daniel; Garrod, Oliver G B; Jack, Rachael E; Schyns, Philippe G

2014-05-01

Animals use social camouflage as a tool of deceit to increase the likelihood of survival and reproduction. We tested whether humans can also strategically deploy transient facial movements to camouflage the default social traits conveyed by the phenotypic morphology of their faces. We used the responses of 12 observers to create models of the dynamic facial signals of dominance, trustworthiness, and attractiveness. We applied these dynamic models to facial morphologies differing on perceived dominance, trustworthiness, and attractiveness to create a set of dynamic faces; new observers rated each dynamic face according to the three social traits. We found that specific facial movements camouflage the social appearance of a face by modulating the features of phenotypic morphology. A comparison of these facial expressions with those similarly derived for facial emotions showed that social-trait expressions, rather than being simple one-to-one overgeneralizations of emotional expressions, are a distinct set of signals composed of movements from different emotions. Our generative face models represent novel psychophysical laws for social sciences; these laws predict the perception of social traits on the basis of dynamic face identities.

Who's afraid of the boss: cultural differences in social hierarchies modulate self-face recognition in Chinese and Americans.

PubMed

Liew, Sook-Lei; Ma, Yina; Han, Shihui; Aziz-Zadeh, Lisa

2011-02-16

Human adults typically respond faster to their own face than to the faces of others. However, in Chinese participants, this self-face advantage is lost in the presence of one's supervisor, and they respond faster to their supervisor's face than to their own. While this "boss effect" suggests a strong modulation of self-processing in the presence of influential social superiors, the current study examined whether this effect was true across cultures. Given the wealth of literature on cultural differences between collectivist, interdependent versus individualistic, independent self-construals, we hypothesized that the boss effect might be weaker in independent than interdependent cultures. Twenty European American college students were asked to identify orientations of their own face or their supervisors' face. We found that European Americans, unlike Chinese participants, did not show a "boss effect" and maintained the self-face advantage even in the presence of their supervisor's face. Interestingly, however, their self-face advantage decreased as their ratings of their boss's perceived social status increased, suggesting that self-processing in Americans is influenced more by one's social status than by one's hierarchical position as a social superior. In addition, when their boss's face was presented with a labmate's face, American participants responded faster to the boss's face, indicating that the boss may represent general social dominance rather than a direct negative threat to oneself, in more independent cultures. Altogether, these results demonstrate a strong cultural modulation of self-processing in social contexts and suggest that the very concept of social positions, such as a boss, may hold markedly different meanings to the self across Western and East Asian cultures.

Who's Afraid of the Boss: Cultural Differences in Social Hierarchies Modulate Self-Face Recognition in Chinese and Americans

PubMed Central

Liew, Sook-Lei; Ma, Yina; Han, Shihui; Aziz-Zadeh, Lisa

2011-01-01

Human adults typically respond faster to their own face than to the faces of others. However, in Chinese participants, this self-face advantage is lost in the presence of one's supervisor, and they respond faster to their supervisor's face than to their own. While this “boss effect” suggests a strong modulation of self-processing in the presence of influential social superiors, the current study examined whether this effect was true across cultures. Given the wealth of literature on cultural differences between collectivist, interdependent versus individualistic, independent self-construals, we hypothesized that the boss effect might be weaker in independent than interdependent cultures. Twenty European American college students were asked to identify orientations of their own face or their supervisors' face. We found that European Americans, unlike Chinese participants, did not show a “boss effect” and maintained the self-face advantage even in the presence of their supervisor's face. Interestingly, however, their self-face advantage decreased as their ratings of their boss's perceived social status increased, suggesting that self-processing in Americans is influenced more by one's social status than by one's hierarchical position as a social superior. In addition, when their boss's face was presented with a labmate's face, American participants responded faster to the boss's face, indicating that the boss may represent general social dominance rather than a direct negative threat to oneself, in more independent cultures. Altogether, these results demonstrate a strong cultural modulation of self-processing in social contexts and suggest that the very concept of social positions, such as a boss, may hold markedly different meanings to the self across Western and East Asian cultures. PMID:21359209

Men's mental health: a call to social workers.

PubMed

Shafer, Kevin; Wendt, Douglas

2015-04-01

Substantial attention is paid to the mental health needs of women and children by social work researchers, educators, and practitioners--and with good reason, as these are two vulnerable populations in U.S. society. However, the status of men's mental health; its resulting effect on individuals, families, and communities; and the various challenges associated with it are often overlooked by social workers. The authors document the prevalence of common mental health issues among men in the United States, the unique problems that men face, and help-seeking behaviors. They also discuss how social work is in an exceptional position to help men, and the systemic effects that social work practice with men can have. The authors assert that helping improve men's mental health is critical for social work, particularly given its values recognizing the dignity and worth of all individuals. Their goal is to raise awareness and spark an open dialogue about social work practice with men.

[Health inequality among vulnerable groups in Mexico: older adults, indigenous people, and migrants].

PubMed

Juárez-Ramírez, Clara; Márquez-Serrano, Margarita; Salgado de Snyder, Nelly; Pelcastre-Villafuerte, Blanca Estela; Ruelas-González, María Guadalupe; Reyes-Morales, Hortensia

2014-04-01

Health vulnerability refers to a lack of protection for specific population groups with specific health problems, as well as the disadvantages they face in solving them in comparison with other population groups. This major public health problem has multiple and diverse causes, including a shortage of trained health care personnel and the lack of family, social, economic, and institutional support in obtaining care and minimizing health risks. Health vulnerability is a dynamic condition arising from the confluence of multiple social determinants. This article attempts to describe the health situation of three vulnerable groups in Mexico-older adults, indigenous people, and migrants-and, after defining the needs of each, explore measures that could contribute to the design and implementation of public health policies better tailored to their respective needs.

Communication competence, social support, and depression among college students: a model of facebook and face-to-face support network influence.

PubMed

Wright, Kevin B; Rosenberg, Jenny; Egbert, Nicole; Ploeger, Nicole A; Bernard, Daniel R; King, Shawn

2013-01-01

This study examined the influence of the social networking site Facebook and face-to-face support networks on depression among (N = 361) college students. The authors used the Relational Health Communication Competence Model as a framework for examining the influence of communication competence on social support network satisfaction and depression. Moreover, they examined the influence of interpersonal and social integrative motives as exogenous variables. On the basis of previous work, the authors propose and test a theoretical model using structural equation modeling. The results indicated empirical support for the model, with interpersonal motives predicting increased face-to-face and computer-mediated competence, increased social support satisfaction with face-to-face and Facebook support, and lower depression scores. The implications of the findings for theory, key limitations, and directions for future research are discussed.

Women and the social construction of gender in African development.

PubMed

Kalu, A C

1996-01-01

Because a footnote of Marxism teaches that capitalism must first destroy primitive cultures that lack a dynamic social change mechanism and then rejuvenate them as modern industrialized states, the economic and cultural bases of social relationships in developing countries have been deemed irrelevant. In a similar way, Western feminist paradigms fail to acknowledge epistemological differences from those of African women. This article explores these contradictions and analyzes social change mechanisms within the Igbo culture in Africa that were stunted by colonialism. The first topic considered is the relationship of African literature (using Toni Morrison's "Beloved" as a point of reference) with sustainable African development and African women. The remainder of the article is devoted to an examination of the role of women in light of precolonial and colonial literary traditions. It is noted that continued use of Western feudal and capitalist terms for self-identification alienates Africans from Africa's problems. Traditional African thought assigned women the power to feed the family and to serve as protectors of children and society, and ancestral wisdom directed how societies responded to threats, took charge of their world, and resolved conflict. Problems faced by contemporary African researchers are shown to center on the dilemma faced by those who wish to design a program that analyzes the content of African development and provides contemporary solutions without completely deriving the program completely from contemporary thought. It is, thus, concluded that redefinition of the African development agenda must involve recognition of the essential role of African women as a change agent and a rearticulation of the male role within traditional thought.

Social contact and other-race face processing in the human brain

PubMed Central

Silvert, Laetitia; Hewstone, Miles; Nobre, Anna C.

2008-01-01

The present study investigated the influence social factors upon the neural processing of faces of other races using event-related potentials. A multi-tiered approach was used to identify face-specific stages of processing, to test for effects of race-of-face upon processing at these stages and to evaluate the impact of social contact and individuating experience upon these effects. The results showed that race-of-face has significant effects upon face processing, starting from early perceptual stages of structural encoding, and that social factors may play an important role in mediating these effects. PMID:19015091

SOCIAL CORRELATES OF FEMALE INFERTILITY IN UZBEKISTAN

PubMed Central

JUMAYEV, IZATULLA; HARUN-OR-RASHID, MD.; RUSTAMOV, OYBEK; ZAKIROVA, NODIRA; KASUYA, HIDEKI; SAKAMOTO, JUNICHI

2012-01-01

ABSTRACT The purpose of this matched case-control study was to investigate the social correlates of primary infertility among females aged 35 years or less. The study was conducted in the Clinics of Samarkand Medical Institute, Uzbekistan, among 120 infertile and 120 healthy women matched by age, residential area, and occupation from January to June 2009. Data were collected by face-to-face interviews using a structured questionnaire. Median duration of infertility was 10.0 months (interquartile range = 6.0–13.0). The rate of remarriage was 3.5 times higher among infertile women compared with healthy subjects. Insufficient family income, poor quality of life, life stress, and discontentment with daily routines as well as ‘bad’ relationships with family members (husband, mother- and father-in-law) were significant correlates of female infertility. Infertile women were more likely to underestimate the importance of sexual intimacy, and a negative attitude to sex. Female infertility is associated with various social correlates leading to higher remarriage rates and to further complicating the problem of infertility. Thus, a correction of women’s basic attitudes and their relationships to their surrounding social habitat should be an essential component of any program of infertility management. PMID:23092100

Social correlates of female infertility in Uzbekistan.

PubMed

Jumayev, Izatulla; Harun-Or-Rashid, Md; Rustamov, Oybek; Zakirova, Nodira; Kasuya, Hideki; Sakamoto, Junichi

2012-08-01

The purpose of this matched case-control study was to investigate the social correlates of primary infertility among females aged 35 years or less. The study was conducted in the Clinics of Samarkand Medical Institute, Uzbekistan, among 120 infertile and 120 healthy women matched by age, residential area, and occupation from January to June 2009. Data were collected by face-to-face interviews using a structured questionnaire. Median duration of infertility was 10.0 months (interquartile range = 6.0-13.0). The rate of remarriage was 3.5 times higher among infertile women compared with healthy subjects. Insufficient family income, poor quality of life, life stress, and discontentment with daily routines as well as 'bad' relationships with family members (husband, mother- and father-in-law) were significant correlates of female infertility. Infertile women were more likely to underestimate the importance of sexual intimacy, and a negative attitude to sex. Female infertility is associated with various social correlates leading to higher remarriage rates and to further complicating the problem of infertility. Thus, a correction of women's basic attitudes and their relationships to their surrounding social habitat should be an essential component of any program of infertility management.

[The impact of autism on the life of parents].

PubMed

Sénéchal, Carole; des Rivières-Pigeon, Catherine

2009-01-01

The aim of this paper is to explore the stress and the psychological distress faced by parents of children living with different types of disability. Its main focus is on parents of children with autism. The first part describes the stress factors faced by parents of children with disabilities and the second, the particularities of the stress faced by parents of children with autism. The third part explores other types of stress factors, such as financial problems, marital discord or beak-up, single parenthood and lack of social support. In the forth part, we examine weather the services are well suited to provide for the needs of families, and, in the fifth part, we describe the major role played by intervention in the life of families of children with autism.

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

PubMed Central

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

The Social Consequences of Infertility among Iranian Women: A Qualitative Study

PubMed Central

Hasanpoor-Azghdy, Syedeh Batool; Simbar, Masoumeh; Vedadhir, Abouali

2015-01-01

Background Infertility may prevent couples to achieve the desired social roles and lead to some social and psychological problems. This study aimed to explain the social consequences of infertility in Iranian women seeking treatment. Materials and Methods A qualitative content analysis was conducted based on 32 semi-structured interviews with 25 women affected by primary and secondary infertility with no surviving children. The participants were purposefully selected with maximum variability from a fertility health research center in Tehran, Iran, from January to October 2012. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews and analyzed using the conventional content analysis method. Results Our findings indicate that the consequences of infertility are divided into five main categories: 1. violence including psychological violence and domestic physical violence, 2. marital instability or uncertainty, 3. social isolation including avoiding certain people or certain social events and self-imposed isolation from family and friends, 4. social exclusion and partial deprivation including being disregarded by family members and relatives and reducing social interactions with the infertile woman and 5. social alienation. Conclusion This study reveals that Iranian women with fertility issues seeking treatment face several social problems that could have devastating effects on the quality of their lives. It is, therefore, recommended that, in Iran, infertility is only considered as a biomedical issue of a couple and pay further attention to its sociocultural dimensions and consequences. PMID:25780523

Unmarried women’s ways of facing single motherhood in Sri Lanka – a qualitative interview study

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Background In Sri Lanka, motherhood within marriage is highly valued. Sex out of wedlock is socially unacceptable and can create serious public health problems such as illegal abortions, suicide and infanticide, and single motherhood as a result of premarital sex is considered shameful. The way unmarried women facing single motherhood reflect on and make use of their agency in their social environments characterised by limited social and financial support has consequences for the health and well-being of both themselves and their children. The aim of this study was to explore and describe how unmarried women facing single motherhood in Sri Lanka handle their situation. Methods This qualitative study comprised semi-structured interviews with 28 unmarried pregnant women or single mothers. The data were analysed by qualitative content analysis and the results related to the conceptual framework of social navigation. Results The women facing single motherhood expressed awareness of having trespassed norms of sexuality through self-blame, victimhood and obedience, and by considering or attempting suicide. They demonstrated willingness to take responsibility for becoming pregnant before marriage by giving the child up for adoption, bringing up the child themselves, claiming a father for their child, refraining from marriage in the future, permanently leave their home environment, and taking up employment. Throughout the interviews, the women expressed fear of shame, and striving for familial and societal acceptance and financial survival. Conclusions A social environment highly condemning of unmarried motherhood hindered these women from making strategic choices on how to handle their situation. However, to achieve acceptance and survival, the women tactically navigated norms of femininity, strong family dependence, a limited work market, and different sources of support. Limited access to resources restricted the women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights, including their ability to make acceptable and healthy choices for themselves and their children. PMID:23388103

Autistic trait interactions underlie sex-dependent facial recognition abilities in the normal population.

PubMed

Valla, Jeffrey M; Maendel, Jeffrey W; Ganzel, Barbara L; Barsky, Andrew R; Belmonte, Matthew K

2013-01-01

Autistic face processing difficulties are either uniquely social or due to a piecemeal cognitive "style." Co-morbidity of social deficits and piecemeal cognition in autism makes teasing apart these accounts difficult. These traits vary normally, and are more separable in the general population, suggesting another way to compare accounts. Participants completed the Autism Quotient survey of autistic traits, and one of three face recognition tests: full-face, eyes-only, or mouth-only. Social traits predicted performance in the full-face condition in both sexes. Eyes-only males' performance was predicted by a social × cognitive trait interaction: attention to detail boosted face recognition in males with few social traits, but hindered performance in those reporting many social traits. This suggests social/non-social Autism Spectrum Conditions (ASC) trait interactions at the behavioral level. In the presence of few ASC-like difficulties in social reciprocity, an ASC-like attention to detail may confer advantages on typical males' face recognition skills. On the other hand, when attention to detail co-occurs with difficulties in social reciprocity, a detailed focus may exacerbate such already present social difficulties, as is thought to occur in autism.

Use of a Social Question Answering Application in a Face-to-Face College Biology Class

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Grasso, SandraJean M.

2017-01-01

University students use social media tools not only to connect with friends socially but also to collaborate with classmates. Many universities have embraced academically-focused social media platforms such as social question answering (SQA) applications to make student interactions easier. This study addresses how students in a face-to-face…

Effectiveness of Link Prediction for Face-to-Face Behavioral Networks

PubMed Central

Tsugawa, Sho; Ohsaki, Hiroyuki

2013-01-01

Research on link prediction for social networks has been actively pursued. In link prediction for a given social network obtained from time-windowed observation, new link formation in the network is predicted from the topology of the obtained network. In contrast, recent advances in sensing technology have made it possible to obtain face-to-face behavioral networks, which are social networks representing face-to-face interactions among people. However, the effectiveness of link prediction techniques for face-to-face behavioral networks has not yet been explored in depth. To clarify this point, here we investigate the accuracy of conventional link prediction techniques for networks obtained from the history of face-to-face interactions among participants at an academic conference. Our findings were (1) that conventional link prediction techniques predict new link formation with a precision of 0.30–0.45 and a recall of 0.10–0.20, (2) that prolonged observation of social networks often degrades the prediction accuracy, (3) that the proposed decaying weight method leads to higher prediction accuracy than can be achieved by observing all records of communication and simply using them unmodified, and (4) that the prediction accuracy for face-to-face behavioral networks is relatively high compared to that for non-social networks, but not as high as for other types of social networks. PMID:24339956

New Research Findings Since the 2007 Surgeon General’s Call to Action to Prevent and Reduce Underage Drinking: A Review

PubMed Central

Hingson, Ralph; White, Aaron

2014-01-01

Objective: In 2007, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued The Surgeon General’s Call To Action To Prevent And Reduce Underage Drinking, a publication documenting a problem linked to nearly 5,000 injury deaths annually and poor academic performance, potential cognitive deficits, risky sexual behavior, physical and sexual assaults, and other substance use. This report reviews subsequent underage drinking and related traffic fatality trends and research on determinants, consequences, and prevention interventions. Method: New research reports, meta-analyses, and systematic literature reviews were examined. Results: Since the Call to Action, reductions in underage frequency of drinking, heavy drinking occasions, and alcohol-related traffic deaths that began in the 1980s when the drinking age nationally became 21 have continued. Knowledge regarding determinants and consequences, particularly the effects of early-onset drinking, parental alcohol provision, and cognitive effects, has expanded. Additional studies support associations between the legal drinking age of 21, zero tolerance laws, higher alcohol prices, and reduced drinking and related problems. New research suggests that use/lose laws, social host liability, internal possession laws, graduated licensing, and night driving restrictions reduce traffic deaths involving underage drinking drivers. Additional studies support the positive effects of individually oriented interventions, especially screening and brief motivational interventions, web and face-to-face social norms interventions, college web-based interventions, parental interventions, and multicomponent community interventions. Conclusions: Despite reductions in underage alcohol consumption and related traffic deaths, underage drinking remains an enduring problem. Continued research is warranted in minimally studied areas, such as prospective studies of alcohol and brain development, policy studies of use/lose laws, internal possession laws, social host liability, and parent–family interventions. PMID:24411808

Characteristics of internet addiction/pathological internet use in U.S. university students: a qualitative-method investigation.

PubMed

Li, Wen; O'Brien, Jennifer E; Snyder, Susan M; Howard, Matthew O

2015-01-01

Studies have identified high rates and severe consequences of Internet Addiction/Pathological Internet Use (IA/PIU) in university students. However, most research concerning IA/PIU in U.S. university students has been conducted within a quantitative research paradigm, and frequently fails to contextualize the problem of IA/PIU. To address this gap, we conducted an exploratory qualitative study using the focus group approach and examined 27 U.S. university students who self-identified as intensive Internet users, spent more than 25 hours/week on the Internet for non-school or non-work-related activities and who reported Internet-associated health and/or psychosocial problems. Students completed two IA/PIU measures (Young's Diagnostic Questionnaire and the Compulsive Internet Use Scale) and participated in focus groups exploring the natural history of their Internet use; preferred online activities; emotional, interpersonal, and situational triggers for intensive Internet use; and health and/or psychosocial consequences of their Internet overuse. Students' self-reports of Internet overuse problems were consistent with results of standardized measures. Students first accessed the Internet at an average age of 9 (SD = 2.7), and first had a problem with Internet overuse at an average age of 16 (SD = 4.3). Sadness and depression, boredom, and stress were common triggers of intensive Internet use. Social media use was nearly universal and pervasive in participants' lives. Sleep deprivation, academic under-achievement, failure to exercise and to engage in face-to-face social activities, negative affective states, and decreased ability to concentrate were frequently reported consequences of intensive Internet use/Internet overuse. IA/PIU may be an underappreciated problem among U.S. university students and warrants additional research.

Characteristics of Internet Addiction/Pathological Internet Use in U.S. University Students: A Qualitative-Method Investigation

PubMed Central

Li, Wen; O’Brien, Jennifer E.; Snyder, Susan M.; Howard, Matthew O.

2015-01-01

Studies have identified high rates and severe consequences of Internet Addiction/Pathological Internet Use (IA/PIU) in university students. However, most research concerning IA/PIU in U.S. university students has been conducted within a quantitative research paradigm, and frequently fails to contextualize the problem of IA/PIU. To address this gap, we conducted an exploratory qualitative study using the focus group approach and examined 27 U.S. university students who self-identified as intensive Internet users, spent more than 25 hours/week on the Internet for non-school or non-work-related activities and who reported Internet-associated health and/or psychosocial problems. Students completed two IA/PIU measures (Young’s Diagnostic Questionnaire and the Compulsive Internet Use Scale) and participated in focus groups exploring the natural history of their Internet use; preferred online activities; emotional, interpersonal, and situational triggers for intensive Internet use; and health and/or psychosocial consequences of their Internet overuse. Students’ self-reports of Internet overuse problems were consistent with results of standardized measures. Students first accessed the Internet at an average age of 9 (SD = 2.7), and first had a problem with Internet overuse at an average age of 16 (SD = 4.3). Sadness and depression, boredom, and stress were common triggers of intensive Internet use. Social media use was nearly universal and pervasive in participants’ lives. Sleep deprivation, academic under-achievement, failure to exercise and to engage in face-to-face social activities, negative affective states, and decreased ability to concentrate were frequently reported consequences of intensive Internet use/Internet overuse. IA/PIU may be an underappreciated problem among U.S. university students and warrants additional research. PMID:25647224

Socio-cognitive load and social anxiety in an emotional anti-saccade task

PubMed Central

Butler, Stephen H.; Grealy, Madeleine A.

2018-01-01

The anti-saccade task has been used to measure attentional control related to general anxiety but less so with social anxiety specifically. Previous research has not been conclusive in suggesting that social anxiety may lead to difficulties in inhibiting faces. It is possible that static face paradigms do not convey a sufficient social threat to elicit an inhibitory response in socially anxious individuals. The aim of the current study was twofold. We investigated the effect of social anxiety on performance in an anti-saccade task with neutral or emotional faces preceded either by a social stressor (Experiment 1), or valenced sentence primes designed to increase the social salience of the task (Experiment 2). Our results indicated that latencies were significantly longer for happy than angry faces. Additionally, and surprisingly, high anxious participants made more erroneous anti-saccades to neutral than angry and happy faces, whilst the low anxious groups exhibited a trend in the opposite direction. Results are consistent with a general approach-avoidance response for positive and threatening social information. However increased socio-cognitive load may alter attentional control with high anxious individuals avoiding emotional faces, but finding it more difficult to inhibit ambiguous faces. The effects of social sentence primes on attention appear to be subtle but suggest that the anti-saccade task will only elicit socially relevant responses where the paradigm is more ecologically valid. PMID:29795619

The dynamic still-face effect: do infants decrease bidding over time when parents are not responsive?

PubMed

Ekas, Naomi V; Haltigan, John D; Messinger, Daniel S

2013-06-01

The still-face paradigm (SFP) was designed to assess infant expectations that parents will respond to infant communicative signals. During the still-face (SF) episode, the parent ceases interaction and maintains a neutral expression. Original, qualitative descriptions of infant behavior suggested changes within the SF episode: infants decrease bidding and disengage from their impassive parent. Research has documented changes in mean levels of infant behavior between episodes of the SFP. The hypothesis that infant behavior changes within the SF episode has not been empirically tested. In this study, hierarchical linear modeling indicated that infant gazing at the parent, smiling, and social bidding (smiling while gazing at the parent) decreased with time in the SF episode, while infant cry-face expressions increased. Changes in infant behaviors within the SF episode were associated with infant attachment and infant internalizing problems. The dynamic still-face effect quantifies infant initiation of interaction in the face of parental unresponsiveness and is a potential predictor of individual differences in development. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved

Arguments Against a Configural Processing Account of Familiar Face Recognition.

PubMed

Burton, A Mike; Schweinberger, Stefan R; Jenkins, Rob; Kaufmann, Jürgen M

2015-07-01

Face recognition is a remarkable human ability, which underlies a great deal of people's social behavior. Individuals can recognize family members, friends, and acquaintances over a very large range of conditions, and yet the processes by which they do this remain poorly understood, despite decades of research. Although a detailed understanding remains elusive, face recognition is widely thought to rely on configural processing, specifically an analysis of spatial relations between facial features (so-called second-order configurations). In this article, we challenge this traditional view, raising four problems: (1) configural theories are underspecified; (2) large configural changes leave recognition unharmed; (3) recognition is harmed by nonconfigural changes; and (4) in separate analyses of face shape and face texture, identification tends to be dominated by texture. We review evidence from a variety of sources and suggest that failure to acknowledge the impact of familiarity on facial representations may have led to an overgeneralization of the configural account. We argue instead that second-order configural information is remarkably unimportant for familiar face recognition. © The Author(s) 2015.

Microregulatory patterns of family interactions: cultural pathways to toddlers' self-regulation.

PubMed

Feldman, Ruth; Masalha, Shafiq; Alony, Dalia

2006-12-01

Pathways to children's self-regulation were examined in 2 cultures representing individualistic and collectivistic orientations. Family interactions were observed in 100 Israeli and 62 Palestinian couples and their firstborn child at 5 months and in a problem-solving task at 33 months. Patterns of gaze, affect, proximity, touch, and parental teaching strategies were coded. Child self-regulation was observed at child care locations. Among Israeli families, interactions involved face-to-face exchange, social gaze, object focus, and active touch in infancy and indirect parental assistance to toddlers. Among Palestinian families, interactions consisted of continuous contact, neutral affect, reduced negative emotionality, and concrete assistance. Levels of self-regulation were comparable and were predicted by culture-specific patterns. Social gaze, touch, and indirect teaching were found to predict self-regulation among Israeli toddlers; contact and concrete assistance were predictors among Palestinians. Discussion considers the ways early relational patterns mirror cultural philosophies on the self and differentially support self-regulation at the transition from family to the larger social context. (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved.

[Issues on business of genetic testing in near future].

PubMed

Takada, Fumio

2009-06-01

Since 1990's, a business condition that company sells genetic testing services directly to consumers without through medical facility, so called "direct-to-consumers (DTC) genetic testing", has risen. They provide genetic testing for obesity, disease susceptibility or paternity, etc. There are serious problems in this kind of business. Most of the providers do not make sales with face-to-face selling, and do through internet instead. They do not provide genetic counseling by certified genetic counselor or clinical geneticist. Most DTC genetic testing services for disease susceptibility or predispositions including obesity, lack scientific validity, clinical validity and clinical utility. And also including paternity genetic testing, they all have risks of ethical legal and social issues (ELSI) in genetic discrimination and/or eugenics. The specific problem in Japan is that the healthcare section of the government still has not paid attention and not taken seriously the requirement to deploy safety net.

Examining the relationship between face processing and social interaction behavior in children with and without autism spectrum disorder

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Background Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) show impairment in reciprocal social communication, which includes deficits in social cognition and behavior. Since social cognition and social behavior are considered to be interdependent, it is valuable to examine social processes on multiple levels of analysis. Neuropsychological measures of face processing often reveal deficits in social cognition in ASD including the ability to identify and remember facial information. However, the extent to which neuropsychological measures are associated with or predictive of real-world social behavior is unclear. Methods The study investigated 66 children (ASD 34, typically developing (TD) 32) using neuropsychological measures of face processing (identity, affect, and memory). Children also participated in a peer interaction paradigm, which allowed observation and coding of natural social interaction behaviors during play with peers (e.g., Self-Play, Cooperative Play, Verbal Bout). ANCOVA, regression, and correlation models analyzed between-group differences, the ability of neuropsychological measures to predict social behavior, and the strength of the associations. Results Between-group differences were shown on Memory for Faces Delayed and the peer interaction variables Self-Play and Verbal Bout. Regression models indicated that Memory for Faces Delayed predicted the amount of Self-Play, Equipment use alone, and Cooperative Play with peers on the playground. Autism symptomology only predicted verbal exchange with peers. Conclusions Face memory strongly predicts relevant social engagement patterns in both children with and without ASD. Impairment in facial memory is associated with reduced ‘real-world’ social interaction and more self-play, whereas higher performance in face memory predicts more cooperative play. Results highlight the strong connection between face memory and reciprocal social interaction, suggesting that improvement in one may benefit the other. PMID:25180050

Raising Black Children. Two Leading Psychiatrists Confront the Educational, Social, and Emotional Problems Facing Black Children.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Comer, James P.; Poussaint, Alvin F.

This book responds to nearly 1,000 commonly asked questions concerning a child's development from infancy to adolescence, as it applies to black children. Common parental concerns are discussed from sibling rivalry to setting a curfew, as well as advice for parents and teachers who must foster healthy self-esteem in black children living within a…

Integration of the Brief Behavioral Activation Treatment for Depression (BATD) into a College Orientation Program: Depression and Alcohol Outcomes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reynolds, Elizabeth K.; MacPherson, Laura; Tull, Matthew T.; Baruch, David E.; Lejuez, C. W.

2011-01-01

College freshmen face a variety of academic and social challenges as they adjust to college life that can place them at risk for a number of negative outcomes, including depression and alcohol-related problems. Orientation classes that focus on teaching incoming students how to better cope with college-oriented stress may provide an opportunity to…

Household Food Insecurity: Serious Concerns for Child Development. Social Policy Report. Volume 25, Number 3

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fiese, Barbara H.; Gundersen, Craig; Koester, Brenda; Washington, LaTesha

2011-01-01

In 2009, 14.7% of households were food insecure at some time during the year. In other words, members of those households did not have access at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life. This is arguably the most serious nutrition-related public health problem facing the U.S. today. The serious developmental consequences of food…

Looking at Leadership: Some Neglected Issues

DTIC Science & Technology

1977-10-01

problems. (3) Use of power Using social skills, rewards and punishments to control organizational events. A way to study leaders is to simulate the...conditions managers face. Simulation paradigms allow detailed ex- amination of the complex forces impacting on organizations from without and within...modifying the impacts of other variables. Given this horrendous complexity, it is no surprise that Vaill (in press) has questioned whether it makes much

Future internet architecture and cloud ecosystem: A survey

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wan, Man; Yin, Shiqun

2018-04-01

The Internet has gradually become a social infrastructure, the existing TCP/IP architecture faces many challenges. So future Internet architecture become hot research. This paper introduces two ways of idea about the future research of Internet structure system, probes into the future Internet architecture and the environment of cloud ecosystem. Finally, we focuses the related research, and discuss basic principles and problems of OpenStack.

Using Socialization to Increase Academic Skills in a Pre-School Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Saunders, Ashley N.

2010-01-01

Recent research has shown that students who enter kindergarten with prior academic knowledge are more successful later in their school careers. Yet, pre-school teachers face the problem of limited time in a day to focus on the academic skills of students, as well as work on their basic needs. The goal of this study was to find out if students can…

College Men's Perception of the Risks and Benefits of Intervening against Sexual Assault and the Influence of Social Norms and Masculine Ideology

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Buck, Stephen C.

2013-01-01

Sexual assault is a major problem facing colleges and universities, and prevention efforts have begun to examine how student peers can be encouraged to intervene as active bystanders. This study investigated what male students perceived as the most salient risks and benefits of intervening in a situation involving a hypothetical sexual assault and…

Back to School 1998--National Survey of American Attitudes on Substance Abuse IV: Teens, Teachers and Principals.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Columbia Univ., New York, NY. National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse.

For the fourth straight year, responding to an open-ended question, more 12- to 17-year olds named drugs the most important problem they face than named social pressures, violence, crime, or any other issue. One of a continuing series, this survey of teens, teachers, and principals is an attempt to increase understanding of the causes and effects…

Statistical Mechanics of Temporal and Interacting Networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhao, Kun

In the last ten years important breakthroughs in the understanding of the topology of complexity have been made in the framework of network science. Indeed it has been found that many networks belong to the universality classes called small-world networks or scale-free networks. Moreover it was found that the complex architecture of real world networks strongly affects the critical phenomena defined on these structures. Nevertheless the main focus of the research has been the characterization of single and static networks. Recently, temporal networks and interacting networks have attracted large interest. Indeed many networks are interacting or formed by a multilayer structure. Example of these networks are found in social networks where an individual might be at the same time part of different social networks, in economic and financial networks, in physiology or in infrastructure systems. Moreover, many networks are temporal, i.e. the links appear and disappear on the fast time scale. Examples of these networks are social networks of contacts such as face-to-face interactions or mobile-phone communication, the time-dependent correlations in the brain activity and etc. Understanding the evolution of temporal and multilayer networks and characterizing critical phenomena in these systems is crucial if we want to describe, predict and control the dynamics of complex system. In this thesis, we investigate several statistical mechanics models of temporal and interacting networks, to shed light on the dynamics of this new generation of complex networks. First, we investigate a model of temporal social networks aimed at characterizing human social interactions such as face-to-face interactions and phone-call communication. Indeed thanks to the availability of data on these interactions, we are now in the position to compare the proposed model to the real data finding good agreement. Second, we investigate the entropy of temporal networks and growing networks , to provide a new framework to quantify the information encoded in these networks and to answer a fundamental problem in network science: how complex are temporal and growing networks. Finally, we consider two examples of critical phenomena in interacting networks. In particular, on one side we investigate the percolation of interacting networks by introducing antagonistic interactions. On the other side, we investigate a model of political election based on the percolation of antagonistic networks. The aim of this research is to show how antagonistic interactions change the physics of critical phenomena on interacting networks. We believe that the work presented in these thesis offers the possibility to appreciate the large variability of problems that can be addressed in the new framework of temporal and interacting networks.

Care for women involved with drugs: social representations of nurses.

PubMed

Rodrigues, Andreia Silva; Oliveira, Jeane Freitas de; Suto, Cleuma Sueli Santos; Coutinho, Maria da Penha de Lima; Paiva, Mirian Santos; Souza, Simone Santos

2017-01-01

analyze social representations of nurses related to the care for women involved with drugs. qualitative research founded on the theory of social representations, with 42 nurses from a public maternity ward of Salvador-BA, using identification questionnaire, test of free association of words, and semi-structured interview. We analyzed the structure of social representations and the similarity tree of free evocations, and also analyzed the content of interviews. care for women involved with drugs is represented by a set of words that shows theoretical questions and scientific techniques, but faced with experiences in the training, in the daily work and in ideas and values assigned to the consumption of drugs especially in the gravidic-puerperal period. The social representations of nurses show conflicts between social and cultural aspects around the problem of drugs and the health care provided to women involved with drugs.

An Evaluation of a Social Skills Intervention for Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Intellectual Disabilities preparing for Employment in Ireland: A Pilot Study.

PubMed

Walsh, Edith; Holloway, Jennifer; Lydon, Helena

2018-05-01

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are faced with significant barriers relating to employment opportunities and workplace participation. This study evaluated the effectiveness of the Walker social skills curriculum: the ACCESS program and video modeling to increase social communication skills necessary for workplace inclusion. Participants attended two sessions (i.e., 3 h) per week across a period of 20 weeks. A multiple-probe design was used to demonstrate social skills outcomes across three broad curricular areas (i.e., peer-related, adult-related, and self-related social skills). Pre-and post-intervention standardized assessments were also taken. Results showed significant increases in target social skills and a significant decrease in problem behaviors following intervention. Evidence of maintenance and generalization were also demonstrated. Implications for practice and research are discussed.

Problem solving in the presence of others: how rank and relationship quality impact resource acquisition in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes).

PubMed

Cronin, Katherine A; Pieper, Bridget A; van Leeuwen, Edwin J C; Mundry, Roger; Haun, Daniel B M

2014-01-01

In the wild, chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) are often faced with clumped food resources that they may know how to access but abstain from doing so due to social pressures. To better understand how social settings influence resource acquisition, we tested fifteen semi-wild chimpanzees from two social groups alone and in the presence of others. We investigated how resource acquisition was affected by relative social dominance, whether collaborative problem solving or (active or passive) sharing occurred amongst any of the dyads, and whether these outcomes were related to relationship quality as determined from six months of observational data. Results indicated that chimpanzees obtained fewer rewards when tested in the presence of others compared to when they were tested alone, and this loss tended to be greater when paired with a higher ranked individual. Individuals demonstrated behavioral inhibition; chimpanzees who showed proficient skill when alone often abstained from solving the task when in the presence of others. Finally, individuals with close social relationships spent more time together in the problem solving space, but collaboration and sharing were infrequent and sessions in which collaboration or sharing did occur contained more instances of aggression. Group living provides benefits and imposes costs, and these findings highlight that one cost of group living may be diminishing productive individual behaviors.

Problem Solving in the Presence of Others: How Rank and Relationship Quality Impact Resource Acquisition in Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)

PubMed Central

Cronin, Katherine A.; Pieper, Bridget A.; van Leeuwen, Edwin J. C.; Mundry, Roger; Haun, Daniel B. M.

2014-01-01

In the wild, chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) are often faced with clumped food resources that they may know how to access but abstain from doing so due to social pressures. To better understand how social settings influence resource acquisition, we tested fifteen semi-wild chimpanzees from two social groups alone and in the presence of others. We investigated how resource acquisition was affected by relative social dominance, whether collaborative problem solving or (active or passive) sharing occurred amongst any of the dyads, and whether these outcomes were related to relationship quality as determined from six months of observational data. Results indicated that chimpanzees obtained fewer rewards when tested in the presence of others compared to when they were tested alone, and this loss tended to be greater when paired with a higher ranked individual. Individuals demonstrated behavioral inhibition; chimpanzees who showed proficient skill when alone often abstained from solving the task when in the presence of others. Finally, individuals with close social relationships spent more time together in the problem solving space, but collaboration and sharing were infrequent and sessions in which collaboration or sharing did occur contained more instances of aggression. Group living provides benefits and imposes costs, and these findings highlight that one cost of group living may be diminishing productive individual behaviors. PMID:24695486

Social presence and the composite face effect.

PubMed

Garcia-Marques, Teresa; Fernandes, Alexandre; Fonseca, Ricardo; Prada, Marilia

2015-06-01

A robust finding in social psychology research is that performance is modulated by the social nature of a given context, promoting social inhibition or facilitation effects. In the present experiment, we examined if and how social presence impacts holistic face perception processes by asking participants, in the presence of others and alone, to perform the composite face task. Results suggest that completing the task in the presence of others (i.e., mere co-action) is associated with better performance in face recognition (less bias and higher discrimination between presented and non-presented targets) and with a reduction in the composite face effect. These results make clear that social presence impact on the composite face effect does not occur because presence increases reliance on holistic processing as a "dominant" well-learned response, but instead, because it increases monitoring of the interference produced by automatic response. Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Nonverbal behavior during face-to-face social interaction in schizophrenia: a review.

PubMed

Lavelle, Mary; Healey, Patrick G T; McCabe, Rosemarie

2014-01-01

Patients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia display social cognitive deficits. However, little is known about patients' nonverbal communication during their social encounters with others. This review identified 17 studies investigating nonverbal communication in patients' unscripted face-to-face interactions, addressing a) nonverbal differences between patients and others, b) nonverbal behavior of the patients' partners, c) the association between nonverbal behavior and symptoms, and d) the association between nonverbal behavior and social outcomes. Patients displayed fewer nonverbal behaviors inviting interaction, with negative symptoms exacerbating this pattern. Positive symptoms were associated with heightened nonverbal behavior. Patients' partners changed their own nonverbal behavior in response to the patient. Reduced prosocial behaviors, inviting interaction, were associated with poorer social outcomes. The evidence suggests that patients' nonverbal behavior, during face-to-face interaction, is influenced by patients symptoms and impacts the success of their social interactions.

Contextual modulation of biases in face recognition.

PubMed

Felisberti, Fatima Maria; Pavey, Louisa

2010-09-23

The ability to recognize the faces of potential cooperators and cheaters is fundamental to social exchanges, given that cooperation for mutual benefit is expected. Studies addressing biases in face recognition have so far proved inconclusive, with reports of biases towards faces of cheaters, biases towards faces of cooperators, or no biases at all. This study attempts to uncover possible causes underlying such discrepancies. Four experiments were designed to investigate biases in face recognition during social exchanges when behavioral descriptors (prosocial, antisocial or neutral) embedded in different scenarios were tagged to faces during memorization. Face recognition, measured as accuracy and response latency, was tested with modified yes-no, forced-choice and recall tasks (N = 174). An enhanced recognition of faces tagged with prosocial descriptors was observed when the encoding scenario involved financial transactions and the rules of the social contract were not explicit (experiments 1 and 2). Such bias was eliminated or attenuated by making participants explicitly aware of "cooperative", "cheating" and "neutral/indifferent" behaviors via a pre-test questionnaire and then adding such tags to behavioral descriptors (experiment 3). Further, in a social judgment scenario with descriptors of salient moral behaviors, recognition of antisocial and prosocial faces was similar, but significantly better than neutral faces (experiment 4). The results highlight the relevance of descriptors and scenarios of social exchange in face recognition, when the frequency of prosocial and antisocial individuals in a group is similar. Recognition biases towards prosocial faces emerged when descriptors did not state the rules of a social contract or the moral status of a behavior, and they point to the existence of broad and flexible cognitive abilities finely tuned to minor changes in social context.

Abnormal activation of the social brain during face perception in autism.

PubMed

Hadjikhani, Nouchine; Joseph, Robert M; Snyder, Josh; Tager-Flusberg, Helen

2007-05-01

ASD involves a fundamental impairment in processing social-communicative information from faces. Several recent studies have challenged earlier findings that individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have no activation of the fusiform gyrus (fusiform face area, FFA) when viewing faces. In this study, we examined activation to faces in the broader network of face-processing modules that comprise what is known as the social brain. Using 3T functional resonance imaging, we measured BOLD signal changes in 10 ASD subjects and 7 healthy controls passively viewing nonemotional faces. We replicated our original findings of significant activation of face identity-processing areas (FFA and inferior occipital gyrus, IOG) in ASD. However, in addition, we identified hypoactivation in a more widely distributed network of brain areas involved in face processing [including the right amygdala, inferior frontal cortex (IFC), superior temporal sulcus (STS), and face-related somatosensory and premotor cortex]. In ASD, we found functional correlations between a subgroup of areas in the social brain that belong to the mirror neuron system (IFC, STS) and other face-processing areas. The severity of the social symptoms measured by the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule was correlated with the right IFC cortical thickness and with functional activation in that area. When viewing faces, adults with ASD show atypical patterns of activation in regions forming the broader face-processing network and social brain, outside the core FFA and IOG regions. These patterns suggest that areas belonging to the mirror neuron system are involved in the face-processing disturbances in ASD.

I Like People Who Drink Like Me: Perceived Appeal as a Function of Drinking Status

PubMed Central

Young, Chelsie M.; DiBello, Angelo M.; Steers, Mai-Ly N.; Quist, Michelle C.; Foster, Dawn W.; Bryan, Jennifer L.; Neighbors, Clayton

2015-01-01

Introduction Individuals rate opposite sex faces as more attractive after consuming or being primed with alcohol. However, other traits such as intelligence and likeability have not been examined and might vary as a function of information about one's drinking habits. We expected social drinkers to be rated more positively than heavy drinkers, abstainers, or recovering alcoholics. We further hypothesized that faces with similar drinking habits to participants would be rated as more appealing. Methods Five hundred ninety-four undergraduates viewed 25 opposite sex faces randomly paired with drinking information, and rated each face on perceived appeal. Results Hierarchical linear models revealed that social drinkers were rated as most appealing, as expected. Unexpectedly, recovering alcoholics were rated as the next most appealing, followed by abstainers, then heavy drinkers. The interaction between drinker type and participants’ own drinking predicting ratings indicated that the heavier the participant drinks, the more favorably they rated heavy drinkers compared to other types of drinkers. Thus, as expected, ratings varied as a function of participants’ own drinking; however, ratings did not vary as a function of participants’ alcohol-related problems. Conclusions Findings support hypotheses in that social drinkers were generally perceived as appealing compared to other drinker types, and ratings tended to be influenced by participants’ own drinking. Individuals’ prototypes and norms regarding drinking may influence how they perceive others when others’ drinking habits are known. This might be especially important to consider with heavy drinkers who may seek out others who drink similarly, which could reinforce problematic drinking. PMID:26477014

I like people who drink like me: Perceived appeal as a function of drinking status.

PubMed

Young, Chelsie M; DiBello, Angelo M; Steers, Mai-Ly N; Quist, Michelle C; Foster, Dawn W; Bryan, Jennifer L; Neighbors, Clayton

2016-02-01

Individuals rate opposite sex faces as more attractive after consuming or being primed with alcohol. However, other traits such as intelligence and likeability have not been examined and might vary as a function of information about one's drinking habits. We expected social drinkers to be rated more positively than heavy drinkers, abstainers, or recovering alcoholics. We further hypothesized that faces with similar drinking habits to participants would be rated as more appealing. Five hundred ninety-four undergraduates viewed 25 opposite sex faces randomly paired with drinking information, and rated each face on perceived appeal. Hierarchical linear models revealed that social drinkers were rated as most appealing, as expected. Unexpectedly, recovering alcoholics were rated as the next most appealing, followed by abstainers, then heavy drinkers. The interaction between drinker type and participants' own drinking predicting ratings indicated that the heavier the participant drinks, the more favorably they rated heavy drinkers compared to other types of drinkers. Thus, as expected, ratings varied as a function of participants' own drinking; however, ratings did not vary as a function of participants' alcohol-related problems. Findings support hypotheses in that social drinkers were generally perceived as appealing compared to other drinker types, and ratings tended to be influenced by participants' own drinking. Individuals' prototypes and norms regarding drinking may influence how they perceive others when others' drinking habits are known. This might be especially important to consider with heavy drinkers who may seek out others who drink similarly, which could reinforce problematic drinking. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Social/Electronic Media Use of Children and Adolescents Who Attend the Pediatric Weight Management Programs of the COMPASS Network.

PubMed

Siegel, Robert; Fals, Angela; Mirza, Nazrat; Datto, George; Stratbucker, William; Ievers-Landis, Carolyn E; Christison, Amy; Wang, Yu; Woolford, Susan J

2015-10-01

Obesity is a major healthcare problem in youth and their social/electronic media (SEM) use has been described as a risk factor. Though much is known about the newer technologies youth use to communicate, little is known about what is used by those in weight management programs. The aim of this study was to determine what types of SEM, including sedentary and active video games, youth in weight management programs use and which they prefer for communicating with healthcare providers. This was a multisite study using a 24-question online SurveyMonkey® questionnaire. Youth, 12-17 years old, attending pediatric weight management programs at seven participating centers in the Childhood Obesity Multi Program Analysis and Study System network were eligible. There were 292 responders with a mean age of 14.2 years. Fifty-four percent were female, 36% Caucasian, 35% African American, and 33% were Hispanic. Ninety-four percent had access to a computer, 71% had Internet access, and 63% had smartphones. Whereas 87% had at least one gaming system at home, 50% reported they never played sedentary video games (71% of females vs. 25% males; p < 0.0001) and 63% never played exercise video games during the week. The preferred method of communication with a healthcare provider was face to face (60%), with few indicating a preference for communication by texting (13%), phone (12%), or social media (6%). Face-to-face communication with healthcare providers is the preferred method for youth in pediatric weight management programs. They self-reported video game use less than previously described.

Happy but not so approachable: the social judgments of individuals with generalized social phobia.

PubMed

Campbell, D W; Sareen, J; Stein, M B; Kravetsky, L B; Paulus, M P; Hassard, S T; Reiss, J P

2009-01-01

We examined social approachability judgments in a psychiatric population that frequently experiences interpersonal difficulties and reduced social satisfaction, individuals with generalized social phobia (gSP). Our objective was to broaden the understanding of the social cognitive tendencies of individuals with gSP by systematically investigating their interpretation of positive facial expressions. We hypothesized that approachability ratings would be lower for positive as well as negative emotional faces in the gSP group compared to the healthy comparison group. Each participant evaluated 24 emotional faces presented on a computer screen. Participants first labeled the faces as either happy, disgust, or angry in emotional expression, and then they rated each face's approachability. Analysis of variance and post hoc analyses were used to identify group, emotion, and group by emotion rating differences. Happy face approachability ratings were higher than disgust and anger in both groups. The central finding was that individuals with gSP rated happy faces as less approachable than the healthy participants and that degree of social anxiety was associated with lower approachability ratings within the gSP sample. Explicit approachability judgments of negative faces did not differ as predicted. Consistent with earlier indirect evidence of interpretation biases of positive social emotional information, this study reveals that individuals with gSP demonstrate explicit, subjective social interpretation biases of overtly positive social feedback. The therapeutic relevance of these results is discussed.

Co-rumination and co-problem solving in the daily lives of adolescents with major depressive disorder.

PubMed

Waller, Jennifer M; Silk, Jennifer S; Stone, Lindsey B; Dahl, Ronald E

2014-08-01

This study examines differences in the prevalence and nature of co-rumination during real-world social interactions with peers and parents among adolescents with major depressive disorder (MDD) compared to healthy controls. A total of 60 youth (29 with current MDD and 31 controls without psychopathology) completed a self-report measure of co-rumination and a 3-week ecological momentary assessment (EMA) protocol that measured the nature of face-to-face social interactions with peers and parents after a negative event in the adolescents' daily lives. Specifically, EMA was used to assess rates of problem talk, including both co-rumination and co-problem solving. Group differences in self-report and EMA measures were examined. Adolescents with MDD reported co-ruminating more often than adolescents with no Axis 1 disorders during daily interactions with both parents (Cohen's d = 0.78) and peers (d = 1.14), and also reported more co-rumination via questionnaire (d = 0.58). Adolescents with MDD engaged in co-problem solving with peers less often than did healthy controls (d = 0.78), but no group differences were found for rates of co-problem solving with parents. Results are consistent with previous research linking co-rumination and depression in adolescence and extend these self-report-based findings to assessment in an ecologically valid context. Importantly, the results support that MDD youth tend to co-ruminate more and to problem-solve less with peers in their daily lives compared to healthy youth, and that co-rumination also extends to parental relationships. Interventions focused on decreasing co-rumination with peers and parents and improving problem-solving skills with peers may be helpful for preventing and treating adolescent depression. Copyright © 2014 American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

An Experiment Comparing HBSE Graduate Social Work Classes: Face-to-Face and at a Distance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Woehle, Ralph; Quinn, Andrew

2009-01-01

This article describes a quasi-experimental comparison of two master's level social work classes delivering content on human behavior in the social environment. One class, delivered face-to-face, was largely synchronous. The other class, delivered using distance technologies, was more asynchronous than the first. The authors hypothesized that…

Individual differences in perceiving and recognizing faces-One element of social cognition.

PubMed

Wilhelm, Oliver; Herzmann, Grit; Kunina, Olga; Danthiir, Vanessa; Schacht, Annekathrin; Sommer, Werner

2010-09-01

Recognizing faces swiftly and accurately is of paramount importance to humans as a social species. Individual differences in the ability to perform these tasks may therefore reflect important aspects of social or emotional intelligence. Although functional models of face cognition based on group and single case studies postulate multiple component processes, little is known about the ability structure underlying individual differences in face cognition. In 2 large individual differences experiments (N = 151 and N = 209), a broad variety of face-cognition tasks were tested and the component abilities of face cognition-face perception, face memory, and the speed of face cognition-were identified and then replicated. Experiment 2 also showed that the 3 face-cognition abilities are clearly distinct from immediate and delayed memory, mental speed, general cognitive ability, and object cognition. These results converge with functional and neuroanatomical models of face cognition by demonstrating the difference between face perception and face memory. The results also underline the importance of distinguishing between speed and accuracy of face cognition. Together our results provide a first step toward establishing face-processing abilities as an independent ability reflecting elements of social intelligence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved).

Social cognition and neural substrates of face perception: implications for neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric disorders.

PubMed

Lazar, Steven M; Evans, David W; Myers, Scott M; Moreno-De Luca, Andres; Moore, Gregory J

2014-04-15

Social cognition is an important aspect of social behavior in humans. Social cognitive deficits are associated with neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric disorders. In this study we examine the neural substrates of social cognition and face processing in a group of healthy young adults to examine the neural substrates of social cognition. Fifty-seven undergraduates completed a battery of social cognition tasks and were assessed with electroencephalography (EEG) during a face-perception task. A subset (N=22) were administered a face-perception task during functional magnetic resonance imaging. Variance in the N170 EEG was predicted by social attribution performance and by a quantitative measure of empathy. Neurally, face processing was more bilateral in females than in males. Variance in fMRI voxel count in the face-sensitive fusiform gyrus was predicted by quantitative measures of social behavior, including the Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS) and the Empathizing Quotient. When measured as a quantitative trait, social behaviors in typical and pathological populations share common neural pathways. The results highlight the importance of viewing neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric disorders as spectrum phenomena that may be informed by studies of the normal distribution of relevant traits in the general population. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Experiences of university students living with mental health problems: Interrelations between the self, the social, and the school.

PubMed

Kirsh, Bonnie; Friedland, Judith; Cho, Sunny; Gopalasuntharanathan, Nisha; Orfus, Shauna; Salkovitch, Marni; Snider, Katrina; Webber, Colleen

2015-01-01

A university education is becoming ever-more important in preparing for employment in the knowledge-driven economy. Yet, many university students are not able to complete their degrees because they experience mental health problems during the course of their higher education. Despite the growing numbers of students seeking help, there is limited knowledge about the issues that these students face. The purpose of this study was to understand the range of individual, interpersonal, and environmental factors that affect the lives of university students living with mental health problems. The study was based at a large public university in Canada. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 19 students with self-identified mental health problems. Their narratives were analyzed using grounded theory methods and a model was developed which drew upon social-ecological theory. Findings depict student experiences as a function of the self (individual factors), the social (interpersonal factors) and the school (environmental factors) and their interrelations. Interventions must be designed to address all three of these areas and their interrelations. The model can be used to guide universities in designing interventions; however, a fourth level that incorporates a university policy that values and supports student mental health, should be included.

Psychiatric disorders among people living with HIV/AIDS in IRAN: Prevalence, severity, service utilization and unmet mental health needs.

PubMed

Shadloo, Behrang; Amin-Esmaeili, Masoumeh; Motevalian, Abbas; Mohraz, Minoo; Sedaghat, Abbas; Gouya, Mohammad Mehdi; Rahimi-Movaghar, Afarin

2018-07-01

HIV and psychiatric disorders are closely correlated and are accompanied by some similar risk factors. The aim of this study was to assess psychiatric comorbidity and health service utilization for mental problems among people living with HIV/AIDS in Iran. A total of 250 cases were randomly selected from a large referral center for HIV treatment and care in Tehran, Iran. Psychiatric disorders in the past 12 months including mood, anxiety, and substance use disorders were assessed through face-to-face interview, using a validated Persian translation of the Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI v2.1). Severity of psychiatric disorders, social support, socio-economic status, service utilization and HIV-related indicators were assessed. Participants consisted of 147 men and 103 women. Psychiatric disorders were found in 50.2% (95% confidence interval: 43.8-56.6) of the participants. Major depressive disorder was the most prevalent diagnosis (32.1%), followed by substance use disorders (17.1%). In bivariate analysis, psychiatric disorders were significantly higher among male gender, single and unemployed individuals and those with lower social support. In multivariate regression analysis, only social support was independently associated with psychiatric disorders. Among those with a psychiatric diagnosis, 41.1% had used a health service for mental problems and 53% had received minimally adequate treatment. The findings of the study highlight the importance of mental health services in the treatment of people living with HIV/AIDS. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Media use, face-to-face communication, media multitasking, and social well-being among 8- to 12-year-old girls.

PubMed

Pea, Roy; Nass, Clifford; Meheula, Lyn; Rance, Marcus; Kumar, Aman; Bamford, Holden; Nass, Matthew; Simha, Aneesh; Stillerman, Benjamin; Yang, Steven; Zhou, Michael

2012-03-01

An online survey of 3,461 North American girls ages 8-12 conducted in the summer of 2010 through Discovery Girls magazine examined the relationships between social well-being and young girls' media use--including video, video games, music listening, reading/homework, e-mailing/posting on social media sites, texting/instant messaging, and talking on phones/video chatting--and face-to-face communication. This study introduced both a more granular measure of media multitasking and a new comparative measure of media use versus time spent in face-to-face communication. Regression analyses indicated that negative social well-being was positively associated with levels of uses of media that are centrally about interpersonal interaction (e.g., phone, online communication) as well as uses of media that are not (e.g., video, music, and reading). Video use was particularly strongly associated with negative social well-being indicators. Media multitasking was also associated with negative social indicators. Conversely, face-to-face communication was strongly associated with positive social well-being. Cell phone ownership and having a television or computer in one's room had little direct association with children's socioemotional well-being. We hypothesize possible causes for these relationships, call for research designs to address causality, and outline possible implications of such findings for the social well-being of younger adolescents. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved.

Culturally induced range infilling of eastern redcedar: a problem in ecology, an ecological problem, or both?

USGS Publications Warehouse

Streit Krug, Aubrey; Uden, Daniel R.; Allen, Craig R.; Twidwell, Dirac

2017-01-01

The philosopher John Passmore distinguished between (1) “problems in ecology,” or what we might call problems in scientific understanding of ecological change, and (2) “ecological problems,” or what we might call problems faced by societies due to ecological change. The spread of eastern redcedar (Juniperus virginiana) and conversion of the central and southern Great Plains of North America to juniper woodland might be categorized as a problem in ecology, an ecological problem, or both. Here, we integrate and apply two interdisciplinary approaches to problem-solving—social-ecological systems thinking and ecocriticism—to understand the role of human culture in recognizing, driving, and responding to cedar’s changing geographic distribution. We interpret the spread of cedar as a process of culturally induced range infilling due to the ongoing social-ecological impacts of colonization, analyze poetic literary texts to clarify the concepts that have so far informed different cultural values related to cedar, and explore the usefulness of diverse interdisciplinary collaborations and knowledge for addressing social-ecological challenges like cedar spread in the midst of rapidly unfolding global change. Our examination suggests that it is not only possible, but preferable, to address cedar spread as both a scientific and a social problem. Great Plains landscapes are teetering between grassland and woodland, and contemporary human societies both influence and choose how to cope with transitions between these ecological states. We echo previous studies in suggesting that human cultural values about stability and disturbance, especially cultural concepts of fire, will be primary driving factors in determining future trajectories of change on the Great Plains. Although invasion-based descriptors of cedar spread may be useful in ecological research and management, language based on the value of restraint could provide a common vocabulary for effective cross-disciplinary and interdisciplinary communication about the relationship between culture and cedar, as well as an ethical framework for cross-cultural communication, decision-making, and management.

Dilemmas in providing resilience-enhancing social services to long-term social assistance clients. A qualitative study of Swedish social workers

PubMed Central

2012-01-01

Background Long-term recipients of social assistance face barriers to social and economic inclusion, and have poorer health and more limited opportunities for improving their health than many other groups in the population. During recent decades there have been changes in Swedish social policy, with cutbacks in public benefits and a re-emphasis on means-tested policies. In this context, it is important to investigate the necessary conditions for social workers to offer social assistance and services, as well as the mediating role of social workers between public policies and their clients. Swedish social services aim to promote social inclusion by strengthening the individual´s own resources. We investigated the issues that arise when providing social services to long-term social assistance clients within the framework of resilience, which focuses on the processes leading to positive functioning in adverse conditions. Methods Interviews were conducted with 23 social workers in Stockholm and analysed by qualitative content analysis. Results The main theme to emerge from the interviews concerned the constraints that the social workers faced in providing social services to social assistance clients. The first subtheme focused on dilemmas in the interaction between social workers and clients resulting from the dual role of exercising authority and supporting and building trust with clients. Working conditions of social workers also played a crucial role. The second subtheme addressed the impact of the societal context, such as labour market opportunities and coordination between authorities. Conclusions Overall, we found that social workers to a great extent tried to find individual solutions to structural problems. To provide resilience-enhancing social services to long-term social assistance clients with varying obstacles and needs requires a constructive working environment, supportive societal structures and inter-sectoral cooperation between different authorities. PMID:22789127

Link Worker social prescribing to improve health and well-being for people with long-term conditions: qualitative study of service user perceptions

PubMed Central

Moffatt, Suzanne; Steer, Mel; Lawson, Sarah; Penn, Linda; O’Brien, Nicola

2017-01-01

Objectives To describe the experiences of patients with long-term conditions who are referred to and engage with a Link Worker social prescribing programme and identify the impact of the Link Worker programme on health and well-being. Design Qualitative study using semistructured interviews with thematic analysis of the data. Intervention Link Worker social prescribing programme comprising personalised support to identify meaningful health and wellness goals, ongoing support to achieve agreed objectives and linkage into appropriate community services. Setting Inner-city area in West Newcastle upon Tyne, UK (population n=132 000) ranked 40th most socioeconomically deprived in England, served by 17 general practices. Participants Thirty adults with long-term conditions, 14 female, 16 male aged 40–74 years, mean age 62 years, 24 white British, 1 white Irish, 5 from black and minority ethnic communities. Results Most participants experienced multimorbidity combined with mental health problems, low self-confidence and social isolation. All were adversely affected physically, emotionally and socially by their health problems. The intervention engendered feelings of control and self-confidence, reduced social isolation and had a positive impact on health-related behaviours including weight loss, healthier eating and increased physical activity. Management of long-term conditions and mental health in the face of multimorbidity improved and participants reported greater resilience and more effective problem-solving strategies. Conclusions Findings suggest that tackling complex and long-term health problems requires an extensive holistic approach not possible in routine primary care. This model of social prescribing, which takes into account physical and mental health, and social and economic issues, was successful for patients who engaged with the service. Future research on a larger scale is required to assess when and for whom social prescribing is clinically effective and cost-effective. PMID:28713072

Link Worker social prescribing to improve health and well-being for people with long-term conditions: qualitative study of service user perceptions.

PubMed

Moffatt, Suzanne; Steer, Mel; Lawson, Sarah; Penn, Linda; O'Brien, Nicola

2017-07-16

To describe the experiences of patients with long-term conditions who are referred to and engage with a Link Worker social prescribing programme and identify the impact of the Link Worker programme on health and well-being. Qualitative study using semistructured interviews with thematic analysis of the data. Link Worker social prescribing programme comprising personalised support to identify meaningful health and wellness goals, ongoing support to achieve agreed objectives and linkage into appropriate community services. Inner-city area in West Newcastle upon Tyne, UK (population n=132 000) ranked 40th most socioeconomically deprived in England, served by 17 general practices. Thirty adults with long-term conditions, 14 female, 16 male aged 40-74 years, mean age 62 years, 24 white British, 1 white Irish, 5 from black and minority ethnic communities. Most participants experienced multimorbidity combined with mental health problems, low self-confidence and social isolation. All were adversely affected physically, emotionally and socially by their health problems. The intervention engendered feelings of control and self-confidence, reduced social isolation and had a positive impact on health-related behaviours including weight loss, healthier eating and increased physical activity. Management of long-term conditions and mental health in the face of multimorbidity improved and participants reported greater resilience and more effective problem-solving strategies. Findings suggest that tackling complex and long-term health problems requires an extensive holistic approach not possible in routine primary care. This model of social prescribing, which takes into account physical and mental health, and social and economic issues, was successful for patients who engaged with the service. Future research on a larger scale is required to assess when and for whom social prescribing is clinically effective and cost-effective. © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2017. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.

Internet and social media usage of orthopaedic patients: A questionnaire-based survey

PubMed Central

Duymus, Tahir Mutlu; Karadeniz, Hilmi; Çaçan, Mehmet Akif; Kömür, Baran; Demirtaş, Abdullah; Zehir, Sinan; Azboy, İbrahim

2017-01-01

AIM To evaluate social media usage of orthopaedic patients to search for solutions to their health problems. METHODS The study data were collected using face-to-face questionnaire with randomly selected 1890 patients aged over 18 years who had been admitted to the orthopaedic clinics in different cities and provinces across Turkey. The questionnaire consists of a total of 16 questions pertaining to internet and social media usage and demographics of patients, patients’ choice of institution for treatment, patient complaints on admission, online hospital and physician ratings, communication between the patient and the physician and its effects. RESULTS It was found that 34.2% (n = 647) of the participants consulted with an orthopaedist using the internet and 48.7% (n = 315) of them preferred websites that allow users to ask questions to a physician. Of all question-askers, 48.5% (n = 314) reported having found the answers helpful. Based on the educational level of the participants, there was a highly significant difference between the rates of asking questions to an orthopaedist using the internet (P = 0.001). The rate of question-asking was significantly lower in patients with an elementary education than that in those with secondary, high school and undergraduate education (P = 0.001) The rate of reporting that the answers given was helpful was significantly higher in participants with an undergraduate degree compared to those who were illiterate, those with primary, elementary or high school education (P = 0.001). It was also found that the usage of the internet for health problems was higher among managers-qualified participants than unemployed-housewives, officers, workers-intermediate staff (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION We concluded that patients have been increasingly using the internet and social media to select a specific physician or to seek solution to their health problems in an effective way. Even though the internet and social media offer beneficial effects for physicians or patients, there is still much obscurity regarding their harms and further studies are warranted for necessary arrangements to be made. PMID:28251069

Sexual discrimination in academia. Implications for dental hygiene faculty.

PubMed

Shuman, D; Tolle, S L

1989-02-01

Despite anti-discriminatory legislation, academic women in the 1980s have not achieved equality, and continue to face diverse problems advancing in an academic system based on a patriarchal paradigm. The purpose of this paper is to provide dental hygiene faculty with insight, awareness, and understanding into four major problem areas that influence women's academic success: values and attitudes learned through socialization; blocks to administrative positions; the male locus of decision making; and double standards of performance evaluation. Additionally, examples of solutions to these problems are discussed in three categories: individual, internal to the university, and external to the university; in an effort to better prepare women in dental hygiene education to succeed in academia despite discriminatory practices.

On Being Liked on the Web and in the “Real World”: Consistency in First Impressions across Personal Webpages and Spontaneous Behavior

PubMed Central

Weisbuch, Max; Ivcevic, Zorana; Ambady, Nalini

2009-01-01

With recent growth in the use of personal webpages and online social networking, people are changing the way that they meet and form impressions of each other. The current research examines the correspondence in impressions formed from face-to-face interaction and personal webpages. As expected, people liked by interaction partners were also liked on the basis of their Facebook® pages. Across the two social mediums, social perceivers utilized analogous criteria in forming impressions: interaction partners and webpage viewers liked people who were socially expressive in face-to-face interaction and personal webpages, respectively. Finally, webpage expressivity and webpage self-disclosure were independent constructs, predictive of face-to-face counterparts: nonverbal expressivity and verbal self-disclosure. Implications for the changing landscape of social perception are discussed. PMID:20161314

Using System Dynamic Model and Neural Network Model to Analyse Water Scarcity in Sudan

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Y.; Tang, C.; Xu, L.; Ye, S.

2017-07-01

Many parts of the world are facing the problem of Water Scarcity. Analysing Water Scarcity quantitatively is an important step to solve the problem. Water scarcity in a region is gauged by WSI (water scarcity index), which incorporate water supply and water demand. To get the WSI, Neural Network Model and SDM (System Dynamic Model) that depict how environmental and social factors affect water supply and demand are developed to depict how environmental and social factors affect water supply and demand. The uneven distribution of water resource and water demand across a region leads to an uneven distribution of WSI within this region. To predict WSI for the future, logistic model, Grey Prediction, and statistics are applied in predicting variables. Sudan suffers from severe water scarcity problem with WSI of 1 in 2014, water resource unevenly distributed. According to the result of modified model, after the intervention, Sudan’s water situation will become better.

Social and emotional relevance in face processing: happy faces of future interaction partners enhance the late positive potential

PubMed Central

Bublatzky, Florian; Gerdes, Antje B. M.; White, Andrew J.; Riemer, Martin; Alpers, Georg W.

2014-01-01

Human face perception is modulated by both emotional valence and social relevance, but their interaction has rarely been examined. Event-related brain potentials (ERP) to happy, neutral, and angry facial expressions with different degrees of social relevance were recorded. To implement a social anticipation task, relevance was manipulated by presenting faces of two specific actors as future interaction partners (socially relevant), whereas two other face actors remained non-relevant. In a further control task all stimuli were presented without specific relevance instructions (passive viewing). Face stimuli of four actors (2 women, from the KDEF) were randomly presented for 1s to 26 participants (16 female). Results showed an augmented N170, early posterior negativity (EPN), and late positive potential (LPP) for emotional in contrast to neutral facial expressions. Of particular interest, face processing varied as a function of experimental tasks. Whereas task effects were observed for P1 and EPN regardless of instructed relevance, LPP amplitudes were modulated by emotional facial expression and relevance manipulation. The LPP was specifically enhanced for happy facial expressions of the anticipated future interaction partners. This underscores that social relevance can impact face processing already at an early stage of visual processing. These findings are discussed within the framework of motivated attention and face processing theories. PMID:25076881

Positive deviance: an elegant solution to a complex problem.

PubMed

Lindberg, Curt; Clancy, Thomas R

2010-04-01

As systems evolve over time, their natural tendency is to become increasingly more complex. Studies in the field of complex systems have generated new perspectives on management in social organizations such as hospitals. Much of this research appears as a natural extension of the cross-disciplinary field of systems theory. This is the 13th in a series of articles applying complex systems science to the traditional management concepts of planning, organizing, directing, coordinating, and controlling. This article provides one example of how concepts taken from complex systems theory can be applied to real-world problems facing nurses today.

Research and developing countries: hopes and hypes.

PubMed

Moazam, Farhat

2006-01-01

The paper outlines the universal problem of ensuring ethical practices in human subject research, and focuses on specific difficulties faced in the developing world with particular reference to Pakistan. It discusses the influence of traditional and hierarchical social norms of physician-patient relationships in heightening these problems. Two emerging issues of specific concern in Pakistan are described: an exponential rise in multinational clinical drug trials, and commercial ventures offering unproven stem cell "therapy" for all kinds of diseases. The importance of introducing ethical practices in research within the context of local cultural and socioeconomic realities is highlighted.

Advantages of heterogeneous therapy groups in the psychotherapy of the traumatically abused: treating the problem as well as the person.

PubMed

Nicholas, M; Forrester, A

1999-07-01

The authors combine a social-constructionist perspective with a psychodynamic one in discussing the problem of trauma and its treatment. They argue that effective treatment of traumatic physical, sexual, and psychological abuse must do more than alleviate the pain of the sufferer. Factors that cause and perpetuate abuse must be addressed by the abused person in conjunction with other nontraumatized persons who may have been abusive or passive in the face of abuse. An argument is made for heterogeneous therapy groups as a context for this to occur.

Attention to faces in social context in children with neurofibromatosis type 1.

PubMed

Lewis, Amelia K; Porter, Melanie A; Williams, Tracey A; Bzishvili, Samantha; North, Kathryn N; Payne, Jonathan M

2018-06-05

To examine visual attention to faces within social scenes in children with neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) and typically developing peers. Using eye-tracking technology we investigated the time taken to fixate on a face and the percentage of time spent attending to faces relative to the rest of the screen within social scenes in 24 children with NF1 (17 females, seven males; mean age 10y 4mo [SD 1y 9mo]). Results were compared with those of 24 age-matched typically developing controls (11 females, 13 males; mean age 10y 3mo [SD 2y]). There was no significant between-group differences in time taken to initially fixate on a face (p=0.617); however, children with NF1 spent less time attending to faces within scenes than controls (p=0.048). Decreased attention to faces was associated with elevated autism traits in children with NF1. Children with NF1 spend less time attending to faces than typically developing children when presented in social scenes. Our findings contribute to a growing body of literature suggesting that abnormal face processing is a key aspect of the social-cognitive phenotype of NF1 and appears to be related to autism spectrum disorder traits. Clinicians should consider the impact of reduced attention to faces when designing and implementing treatment programmes for social dysfunction in this population. Children with neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) demonstrated atypical gaze behaviour when attending to faces. NF1 gaze behaviour was characterized by normal initial fixation on faces but shorter face dwell time. Decreased attention to faces was associated with elevated autism traits in the sample with NF1. © 2018 Mac Keith Press.

The Relationship between Class Attitudes towards Peers with a Disability and Peer Acceptance, Friendships and Peer Interactions of Students with a Disability in Regular Secondary Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Petry, Katja

2018-01-01

Students with a disability in inclusive classes often face problems with peer acceptance, friendships and peer interactions. In this paper, the relationship between these difficulties in social participation and the attitudes that typically developing adolescents hold towards peers with a disability at the level of the class was explored. A…

"I Understood the Words but I Didn't Know What They Meant": Japanese Online MBA Students' Experiences of British Assessment Practices

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fenton-O'Creevy, Mark; van Mourik, Carien

2016-01-01

We report on a case study of high Japanese student failure rates in an online MBA programme. Drawing on interviews, and reviews of exam and assignment scripts we frame the problems faced by these students in terms of a "language as social practice" approach and highlight the students' failure to understand the specific language games…

Opportunities to utilize traditional phenological knowledge to support adaptive management of social-ecological systems vulnerable to changes in climate and fire regimes

Treesearch

Christopher A. Armatas; Tyron J. Venn; Brooke B. McBride; Alan E. Watson; Steve J. Carver

2016-01-01

The field of adaptive management has been embraced by researchers and managers in the United States as an approach to improve natural resource stewardship in the face of uncertainty and complex environmental problems. Integrating multiple knowledge sources and feedback mechanisms is an important step in this approach. Our objective is to contribute to the...

Compulsive exercise: links, risks and challenges faced

PubMed Central

Lichtenstein, Mia Beck; Hinze, Cecilie Juul; Emborg, Bolette; Thomsen, Freja; Hemmingsen, Simone Daugaard

2017-01-01

Compulsive exercise is a condition described since 1970s. It is characterized by a craving for physical training, resulting in uncontrollable excessive exercise behavior with harmful consequences, such as injuries and impaired social relations. It has not been accepted as a mental disorder in either International Classification of Diseases or Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. The aim of this literature review was to critically examine the research on links (comorbidity), risks (negative consequences), and challenges faced (problems in a treatment context). This review found that compulsive exercise is associated with eating disorder pathology, perfectionism, neuroticism, narcissism, and obsessive compulsive traits. The most prominent negative consequences were injuries, social impairment, and depression, but more research is needed to uncover the potential dysfunction resulting from compulsive exercise. As the condition is not recognized as a psychiatric disorder, studies on treatment interventions are sparse. Problems with compliance have been reported; therefore, motivational interviewing has been proposed as a treatment approach, in combination with cognitive behavioral therapy. This review summarizes and discusses findings on links/comorbidity, risks/negative consequences, and treatment challenges. We suggest that future studies should pay attention to both prevention and counseling in sports settings, where compulsive exercise appears, as the condition may be associated with harmful consequences. PMID:28435339

Compulsive exercise: links, risks and challenges faced.

PubMed

Lichtenstein, Mia Beck; Hinze, Cecilie Juul; Emborg, Bolette; Thomsen, Freja; Hemmingsen, Simone Daugaard

2017-01-01

Compulsive exercise is a condition described since 1970s. It is characterized by a craving for physical training, resulting in uncontrollable excessive exercise behavior with harmful consequences, such as injuries and impaired social relations. It has not been accepted as a mental disorder in either International Classification of Diseases or Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders . The aim of this literature review was to critically examine the research on links (comorbidity), risks (negative consequences), and challenges faced (problems in a treatment context). This review found that compulsive exercise is associated with eating disorder pathology, perfectionism, neuroticism, narcissism, and obsessive compulsive traits. The most prominent negative consequences were injuries, social impairment, and depression, but more research is needed to uncover the potential dysfunction resulting from compulsive exercise. As the condition is not recognized as a psychiatric disorder, studies on treatment interventions are sparse. Problems with compliance have been reported; therefore, motivational interviewing has been proposed as a treatment approach, in combination with cognitive behavioral therapy. This review summarizes and discusses findings on links/comorbidity, risks/negative consequences, and treatment challenges. We suggest that future studies should pay attention to both prevention and counseling in sports settings, where compulsive exercise appears, as the condition may be associated with harmful consequences.

Effects of school-wide positive behavioral interventions and supports and fidelity of implementation on problem behavior in high schools.

PubMed

Flannery, K B; Fenning, P; Kato, M McGrath; McIntosh, K

2014-06-01

High school is an important time in the educational career of students. It is also a time when adolescents face many behavioral, academic, and social-emotional challenges. Current statistics about the behavioral, academic, and social-emotional challenges faced by adolescents, and the impact on society through incarceration and dropout, have prompted high schools to direct their attention toward keeping students engaged and reducing high-risk behavioral challenges. The purpose of the study was to examine the effects of School-Wide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (SW-PBIS) on the levels of individual student problem behaviors during a 3-year effectiveness trial without random assignment to condition. Participants were 36,653 students in 12 high schools. Eight schools implemented SW-PBIS, and four schools served as comparison schools. Results of a multilevel latent growth model showed statistically significant decreases in student office discipline referrals in SW-PBIS schools, with increases in comparison schools, when controlling for enrollment and percent of students receiving free or reduced price meals. In addition, as fidelity of implementation increased, office discipline referrals significantly decreased. Results are discussed in terms of effectiveness of a SW-PBIS approach in high schools and considerations to enhance fidelity of implementation. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved.

Vocational bias: a potential pitfall in the use of key informant interviews in pediatric community needs assessments.

PubMed

Northrip, Kimberly; Chen, Candice; Marsh, Jennifer

2008-04-29

Key informants are individuals with insight into a community or a problem of interest. Our objective was to evaluate the effect of the employment type of key informants on the outcome of a pediatric needs assessment for an urban community. Twenty-one interviews were conducted during the course of a pediatric community needs assessment. As part of the interview, informants were asked to list the top three problems facing children in their community. We analyzed their answers to determine if informant responses differed by employment type. Key informants were divided into four employment types: health care setting, social service, business, and infrastructure. Responses were coded as being primarily one of three types: medical, social, or resource. Our results showed that those informants who worked in a health care setting listed medical problems more often than those who did not (p < 0.04). Those who worked in social services listed resource problems more often than those who did not (p < 0.05). Those in business and infrastructure positions listed more social problems (p < 0.37). No difference was observed in response type between those who had lived in the community at some point and those who had not. This study lends support to the hypothesis that informants' reporting of community problems is biased by their vocation. Clinicians often focus their needs assessments on health care workers. This study suggests, however, that we need to take into consideration the bias this presents and to seek to interview people with diverse work experiences. By limiting the process to health care workers, clinicians are likely to get a skewed perspective of a community's needs and wants.

Rebuilding self-confidence after cancer: a feasibility study of life-coaching.

PubMed

Wagland, Richard; Fenlon, Deborah; Tarrant, Ruth; Howard-Jones, Gilly; Richardson, Alison

2015-03-01

Cancer survivors often experience decreased self-confidence which impacts negatively on their ability to self-manage the practical, social and emotional problems frequently faced as they emerge from end of treatment. This was a feasibility study of a life-coaching intervention, designed to rebuild confidence of survivors and support transition to life after cancer treatment. A one group pre-test, post-test design was used, recruiting participants from community organisations. Eligibility criteria are as follows: <1 year of completion of primary cancer treatment, aged >18, no metastases, and no mental health problems. Participants received one individualised face-to-face and five telephone coaching sessions over 3 months. Outcome measures are as follows: New General Self-Efficacy Scale, Hope Scale, Personal Well-being Index, Assessment of Survivorship Concerns, Quality of Life in Adult Cancer Survivors, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, Social Difficulties Index, and a goal attainment score. Interviews explored feasibility, acceptability and impact of life-coaching and research design. Nine women and two men were recruited, representing varying cancer diagnoses. All outcome measures were sensitive to change and indicated positive trends post-intervention. Participant interviews indicated the intervention was well received and had a positive impact. Lessons were learnt about study design, recruitment and intervention delivery. Life-coaching has a potential to enable cancer survivors to manage the transition to life beyond cancer and effect change on a range of outcomes. The intervention was feasible to deliver and acceptable to survivors at a time when many struggle to make sense of life. It merits further evaluation through a randomised controlled trial.

Face processing in autism: Reduced integration of cross-feature dynamics.

PubMed

Shah, Punit; Bird, Geoffrey; Cook, Richard

2016-02-01

Characteristic problems with social interaction have prompted considerable interest in the face processing of individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Studies suggest that reduced integration of information from disparate facial regions likely contributes to difficulties recognizing static faces in this population. Recent work also indicates that observers with ASD have problems using patterns of facial motion to judge identity and gender, and may be less able to derive global motion percepts. These findings raise the possibility that feature integration deficits also impact the perception of moving faces. To test this hypothesis, we examined whether observers with ASD exhibit susceptibility to a new dynamic face illusion, thought to index integration of moving facial features. When typical observers view eye-opening and -closing in the presence of asynchronous mouth-opening and -closing, the concurrent mouth movements induce a strong illusory slowing of the eye transitions. However, we find that observers with ASD are not susceptible to this illusion, suggestive of weaker integration of cross-feature dynamics. Nevertheless, observers with ASD and typical controls were equally able to detect the physical differences between comparison eye transitions. Importantly, this confirms that observers with ASD were able to fixate the eye-region, indicating that the striking group difference has a perceptual, not attentional origin. The clarity of the present results contrasts starkly with the modest effect sizes and equivocal findings seen throughout the literature on static face perception in ASD. We speculate that differences in the perception of facial motion may be a more reliable feature of this condition. Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Social Security Is Fair to All Generations: Demystifying the Trust Fund, Solvency, and the Promise to Younger Americans.

PubMed

Buchanan, Neil H

The Social Security system has come under attack for having illegitimately transferred wealth from younger generations to the Baby Boom generation. This attack is unfounded, because it fails to understand how the system was altered in order to force the Baby Boomers to finance their own benefits in retirement. Any challenges that Social Security now faces are not caused by the pay-as-you-go structure of the system but by Baby Boomers' other policy errors, especially the emergence of extreme economic inequality since 1980. Attempting to fix the wrong problem all but guarantees a solution that will make matters worse. Generational justice and distributive justice go hand in hand.

Social appraisal influences recognition of emotions.

PubMed

Mumenthaler, Christian; Sander, David

2012-06-01

The notion of social appraisal emphasizes the importance of a social dimension in appraisal theories of emotion by proposing that the way an individual appraises an event is influenced by the way other individuals appraise and feel about the same event. This study directly tested this proposal by asking participants to recognize dynamic facial expressions of emotion (fear, happiness, or anger in Experiment 1; fear, happiness, anger, or neutral in Experiment 2) in a target face presented at the center of a screen while a contextual face, which appeared simultaneously in the periphery of the screen, expressed an emotion (fear, happiness, anger) or not (neutral) and either looked at the target face or not. We manipulated gaze direction to be able to distinguish between a mere contextual effect (gaze away from both the target face and the participant) and a specific social appraisal effect (gaze toward the target face). Results of both experiments provided evidence for a social appraisal effect in emotion recognition, which differed from the mere effect of contextual information: Whereas facial expressions were identical in both conditions, the direction of the gaze of the contextual face influenced emotion recognition. Social appraisal facilitated the recognition of anger, happiness, and fear when the contextual face expressed the same emotion. This facilitation was stronger than the mere contextual effect. Social appraisal also allowed better recognition of fear when the contextual face expressed anger and better recognition of anger when the contextual face expressed fear. 2012 APA, all rights reserved

Early neural activation during facial affect processing in adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

PubMed

Leung, Rachel C; Pang, Elizabeth W; Cassel, Daniel; Brian, Jessica A; Smith, Mary Lou; Taylor, Margot J

2015-01-01

Impaired social interaction is one of the hallmarks of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Emotional faces are arguably the most critical visual social stimuli and the ability to perceive, recognize, and interpret emotions is central to social interaction and communication, and subsequently healthy social development. However, our understanding of the neural and cognitive mechanisms underlying emotional face processing in adolescents with ASD is limited. We recruited 48 adolescents, 24 with high functioning ASD and 24 typically developing controls. Participants completed an implicit emotional face processing task in the MEG. We examined spatiotemporal differences in neural activation between the groups during implicit angry and happy face processing. While there were no differences in response latencies between groups across emotions, adolescents with ASD had lower accuracy on the implicit emotional face processing task when the trials included angry faces. MEG data showed atypical neural activity in adolescents with ASD during angry and happy face processing, which included atypical activity in the insula, anterior and posterior cingulate and temporal and orbitofrontal regions. Our findings demonstrate differences in neural activity during happy and angry face processing between adolescents with and without ASD. These differences in activation in social cognitive regions may index the difficulties in face processing and in comprehension of social reward and punishment in the ASD group. Thus, our results suggest that atypical neural activation contributes to impaired affect processing, and thus social cognition, in adolescents with ASD.

Social inequalities in the face of scientific and technological development: an antinomy or an historic problem?

PubMed

Delgado, Guilherme Costa

2017-07-01

This paper aims to conduct a conceptual analysis of the relationship between scientific and technical progress and social equality, or the reduction of inequalities. We examine this relationship by drawing on three theoretical perspectives: 1) ethical economics, championed by classical economic thinkers and centered on utilitarian self-interest, 2) Mainstream theories of economic development espousing the endogenous link between labor productivity growth and technical progress, 3) the critique of theories of economic development that emerged in the second half of the twentieth century, including Celso Furtado's critique of the theory of underdevelopment, emphasizing the prevalence of egalitarian tendencies, and ecological economics, which suggest alternative paths to those set by "classical" theories of development. The fundamental antinomy posed by the title of this article, characterized by an intrinsic contradiction between technical progress and social equality, strictly presupposes the ethical economics perspective, dominated by the social relations that constitute the "social order".

Understanding the acceptability of e-mental health--attitudes and expectations towards computerised self-help treatments for mental health problems.

PubMed

Musiat, Peter; Goldstone, Philip; Tarrier, Nicholas

2014-04-11

E-mental health and m-mental health include the use of technology in the prevention, treatment and aftercare of mental health problems. With the economical pressure on mental health services increasing, e-mental health and m-mental health could bridge treatment gaps, reduce waiting times for patients and deliver interventions at lower costs. However, despite the existence of numerous effective interventions, the transition of computerised interventions into care is slow. The aim of the present study was to investigate the acceptability of e-mental health and m-mental health in the general population. An advisory group of service users identified dimensions that potentially influence an individual's decision to engage with a particular treatment for mental health problems. A large sample (N = 490) recruited through email, flyers and social media was asked to rate the acceptability of different treatment options for mental health problems on these domains. Results were analysed using repeated measures MANOVA. Participants rated the perceived helpfulness of an intervention, the ability to motivate users, intervention credibility, and immediate access without waiting time as most important dimensions with regard to engaging with a treatment for mental health problems. Participants expected face-to-face therapy to meet their needs on most of these dimensions. Computerised treatments and smartphone applications for mental health were reported to not meet participants' expectations on most domains. However, these interventions scored higher than face-to-face treatments on domains associated with the convenience of access. Overall, participants reported a very low likelihood of using computerised treatments for mental health in the future. Individuals in this study expressed negative views about computerised self-help intervention and low likelihood of use in the future. To improve the implementation and uptake, policy makers need to improve the public perception of such interventions.

Understanding the acceptability of e-mental health - attitudes and expectations towards computerised self-help treatments for mental health problems

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Background E-mental health and m-mental health include the use of technology in the prevention, treatment and aftercare of mental health problems. With the economical pressure on mental health services increasing, e-mental health and m-mental health could bridge treatment gaps, reduce waiting times for patients and deliver interventions at lower costs. However, despite the existence of numerous effective interventions, the transition of computerised interventions into care is slow. The aim of the present study was to investigate the acceptability of e-mental health and m-mental health in the general population. Methods An advisory group of service users identified dimensions that potentially influence an individual’s decision to engage with a particular treatment for mental health problems. A large sample (N = 490) recruited through email, flyers and social media was asked to rate the acceptability of different treatment options for mental health problems on these domains. Results were analysed using repeated measures MANOVA. Results Participants rated the perceived helpfulness of an intervention, the ability to motivate users, intervention credibility, and immediate access without waiting time as most important dimensions with regard to engaging with a treatment for mental health problems. Participants expected face-to-face therapy to meet their needs on most of these dimensions. Computerised treatments and smartphone applications for mental health were reported to not meet participants’ expectations on most domains. However, these interventions scored higher than face-to-face treatments on domains associated with the convenience of access. Overall, participants reported a very low likelihood of using computerised treatments for mental health in the future. Conclusions Individuals in this study expressed negative views about computerised self-help intervention and low likelihood of use in the future. To improve the implementation and uptake, policy makers need to improve the public perception of such interventions. PMID:24725765

Age-Related Developmental and Individual Differences in the Influence of Social and Non-social Distractors on Cognitive Performance.

PubMed

Tan, Patricia Z; Silk, Jennifer S; Dahl, Ronald E; Kronhaus, Dina; Ladouceur, Cecile D

2018-01-01

This study sought to examine age-related differences in the influences of social (neutral, emotional faces) and non-social/non-emotional (shapes) distractor stimuli in children, adolescents, and adults. To assess the degree to which distractor, or task-irrelevant, stimuli of varying social and emotional salience interfere with cognitive performance, children ( N = 12; 8-12y), adolescents ( N = 17; 13-17y), and adults ( N = 17; 18-52y) completed the Emotional Identification and Dynamic Faces (EIDF) task. This task included three types of dynamically-changing distractors: (1) neutral-social (neutral face changing into another face); (2) emotional-social (face changing from 0% emotional to 100% emotional); and (3) non-social/non-emotional (shapes changing from small to large) to index the influence of task-irrelevant social and emotional information on cognition. Results yielded no age-related differences in accuracy but showed an age-related linear reduction in correct reaction times across distractor conditions. An age-related effect in interference was observed, such that children and adults showed slower response times on correct trials with socially-salient distractors; whereas adolescents exhibited faster responses on trials with distractors that included faces rather than shapes. A secondary study goal was to explore individual differences in cognitive interference. Results suggested that regardless of age, low trait anxiety and high effortful control were associated with interference to angry faces. Implications for developmental differences in affective processing, notably the importance of considering the contexts in which purportedly irrelevant social and emotional information might impair, vs. improve cognitive control, are discussed.

Correlations between impairment, psychological distress, disability, and quality of life in peripheral facial palsy.

PubMed

Díaz-Aristizabal, U; Valdés-Vilches, M; Fernández-Ferreras, T R; Calero-Muñoz, E; Bienzobas-Allué, E; Moracén-Naranjo, T

2017-05-23

This paper analyses the correlations between scores on scales assessing impairment, psychological distress, disability, and quality of life in patients with peripheral facial palsy (PFP). We conducted a retrospective cross-sectional study including 30 patients in whom PFP had not resolved completely. We used tools for assessing impairment (Sunnybrook Facial Grading System [FGS]), psychological distress (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale [HADS]), disability (Facial Disability Index [FDI]), and quality of life (Facial Clinimetric Evaluation [FaCE] scale). We found no correlations between FGS and HADS scores, or between FGS and FDI social function scores. However, we did find a correlation between FGS and FDI physical function scores (r=0.54; P<.01), FDI total score (r=0.4; P<.05), FaCE total scores (ρ=0.66; P<.01), and FaCE social function scores (ρ=0.5; P<.01). We also observed a correlation between HADS Anxiety scores and FDI physical function (r=-0.47; P<.01), FDI social function (r=-0.47; P<.01), FDI total (r=-0.55; P<.01), FaCE total (ρ=-0.49; P<.01), and FaCE social scores (ρ=-0.46; P<.05). Significant correlations were also found between HADS Depression scores and FDI physical function (r=-0.61; P<.01), FDI social function (r=-0.53; P<.01), FDI total (r=-0.66; P<.01), FaCE total (ρ=-0.67; P<.01), and FaCE social scores (ρ=-0.68; P<.01), between FDI physical function scores and FaCE total scores (ρ=0.87; P<.01) and FaCE social function (ρ=0.74; P<.01), between FDI social function and FaCE total (ρ=0.66; P<.01) and FaCE social function scores (ρ=0.72; P<.01), and between FDI total scores and FaCE total (ρ = 0,87; P<.01) and FaCE social function scores (ρ=0.84; P<.01). In our sample, patients with more severe impairment displayed greater physical and global disability and poorer quality of life without significantly higher levels of social disability and psychological distress. Patients with more disability experienced greater psychological distress and had a poorer quality of life. Lastly, patients with more psychological distress also had a poorer quality of life. Copyright © 2017 Sociedad Española de Neurología. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

Reduced Processing of Facial and Postural Cues in Social Anxiety: Insights from Electrophysiology

PubMed Central

Rossignol, Mandy; Fisch, Sophie-Alexandra; Maurage, Pierre; Joassin, Frédéric; Philippot, Pierre

2013-01-01

Social anxiety is characterized by fear of evaluative interpersonal situations. Many studies have investigated the perception of emotional faces in socially anxious individuals and have reported biases in the processing of threatening faces. However, faces are not the only stimuli carrying an interpersonal evaluative load. The present study investigated the processing of emotional body postures in social anxiety. Participants with high and low social anxiety completed an attention-shifting paradigm using neutral, angry and happy faces and postures as cues. We investigated early visual processes through the P100 component, attentional fixation on the P2, structural encoding mirrored by the N170, and attentional orientation towards stimuli to detect with the P100 locked on target occurrence. Results showed a global reduction of P100 and P200 responses to faces and postures in socially anxious participants as compared to non-anxious participants, with a direct correlation between self-reported social anxiety levels and P100 and P200 amplitudes. Structural encoding of cues and target processing were not modulated by social anxiety, but socially anxious participants were slower to detect the targets. These results suggest a reduced processing of social postural and facial cues in social anxiety. PMID:24040403

Preferences for Internet-Based Mental Health Interventions in an Adult Online Sample: Findings From an Online Community Survey

PubMed Central

Calear, Alison L

2017-01-01

Background Despite extensive evidence that Internet interventions are effective in treating mental health problems, uptake of Internet programs is suboptimal. It may be possible to make Internet interventions more accessible and acceptable through better understanding of community preferences for delivery of online programs. Objective This study aimed to assess community preferences for components, duration, frequency, modality, and setting of Internet interventions for mental health problems. Methods A community-based online sample of 438 Australian adults was recruited using social media advertising and administered an online survey on preferences for delivery of Internet interventions, along with scales assessing potential correlates of these preferences. Results Participants reported a preference for briefer sessions, although they recognized a trade-off between duration and frequency of delivery. No clear preference for the modality of delivery emerged, although a clear majority preferred tailored programs. Participants preferred to access programs through a computer rather than a mobile device. Although most participants reported that they would seek help for a mental health problem, more participants had a preference for face-to-face sources only than online programs only. Younger, female, and more educated participants were significantly more likely to prefer Internet delivery. Conclusions Adults in the community have a preference for Internet interventions with short modules that are tailored to individual needs. Individuals who are reluctant to seek face-to-face help may also avoid Internet interventions, suggesting that better implementation of existing Internet programs requires increasing acceptance of Internet interventions and identifying specific subgroups who may be resistant to seeking help. PMID:28666976

Friends with Faces: How Social Networks Can Enhance Face Recognition and Vice Versa

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mavridis, Nikolaos; Kazmi, Wajahat; Toulis, Panos

The "friendship" relation, a social relation among individuals, is one of the primary relations modeled in some of the world's largest online social networking sites, such as "FaceBook." On the other hand, the "co-occurrence" relation, as a relation among faces appearing in pictures, is one that is easily detectable using modern face detection techniques. These two relations, though appearing in different realms (social vs. visual sensory), have a strong correlation: faces that co-occur in photos often belong to individuals who are friends. Using real-world data gathered from "Facebook," which were gathered as part of the "FaceBots" project, the world's first physical face-recognizing and conversing robot that can utilize and publish information on "Facebook" was established. We present here methods as well as results for utilizing this correlation in both directions. Both algorithms for utilizing knowledge of the social context for faster and better face recognition are given, as well as algorithms for estimating the friendship network of a number of individuals given photos containing their faces. The results are quite encouraging. In the primary example, doubling of the recognition accuracy as well as a sixfold improvement in speed is demonstrated. Various improvements, interesting statistics, as well as an empirical investigation leading to predictions of scalability to much bigger data sets are discussed.

Temporal dynamics underlying the modulation of social status on social attention.

PubMed

Dalmaso, Mario; Galfano, Giovanni; Coricelli, Carol; Castelli, Luigi

2014-01-01

Fixating someone suddenly moving the eyes is known to trigger a corresponding shift of attention in the observer. This phenomenon, known as gaze-cueing effect, can be modulated as a function of the social status of the individual depicted in the cueing face. Here, in two experiments, we investigated the temporal dynamics underlying this modulation. To this end, a gaze-cueing paradigm was implemented in which centrally-placed faces depicting high- and low-status individuals suddenly shifted the eyes towards a location either spatially congruent or incongruent with that occupied by a subsequent target stimulus. Social status was manipulated by presenting fictive Curriculum Vitae before the experimental phase. In Experiment 1, in which two temporal intervals (50 ms vs. 900 ms) occurred between the direct-gaze face and the averted-gaze face onsets, a stronger gaze-cueing effect in response to high-status faces than low-status faces was observed, irrespective of the time participants were allowed for extracting social information. In Experiment 2, in which two temporal intervals (200 ms vs. 1000 ms) occurred between the averted-gaze face and target onset, a stronger gaze cueing for high-status faces was observed at the shorter interval only. Taken together, these results suggest that information regarding social status is extracted from faces rapidly (Experiment 1), and that the tendency to selectively attend to the locations gazed by high-status individuals may decay with time (Experiment 2).

Can Universities Develop Advanced Technology and Solve Social Problems?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pérez Ones, Isarelis; Núñez Jover, Jorge

This paper presents case studies on how Cuban universities have increasingly become directly involved with the economic and social development of the country. The paper shows how Cuban universities, from the early 1980s and early 1990s, started reorientation and organization of their scientific research, becoming more directly and intensely involved in the economic and social development of the country. In this way, special reference is made to the case of a research group at the University of Havana: the Laboratory of Synthetic Antigens. This group developed the first synthetic vaccine for human use approved in the world. In the article, public policies involved in this success as well as different obstacles are discussed. These obstacles demonstrate the difficulties and challenges that universities face when carrying out research and innovation activities related to economic and social development.

Face it, don't Facebook it: Impacts of Social Media Addiction on Mindfulness, Coping Strategies and the Consequence on Emotional Exhaustion.

PubMed

Sriwilai, Kanokporn; Charoensukmongkol, Peerayuth

2016-10-01

Addiction to social media has now become a problem that societies are concerned with. The aim of the present study is to investigate the impacts that social media addiction has on mindfulness and choice of coping strategy, as well as to explore the consequences on emotional exhaustion. The survey data were collected from 211 employees in 13 enterprises in Thailand. Results from partial least square structural equation modelling revealed that people who are highly addicted to social media tended to have lower mindfulness and tended to use emotion-focused coping to deal with stress. Lack of mindfulness and the decision to use emotion-coping strategy are also subsequently associated with higher emotional exhaustion. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Unconscious Evaluation of Faces on Social Dimensions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stewart, Lorna H.; Ajina, Sara; Getov, Spas; Bahrami, Bahador; Todorov, Alexander; Rees, Geraint

2012-01-01

It has been proposed that two major axes, dominance and trustworthiness, characterize the social dimensions of face evaluation. Whether evaluation of faces on these social dimensions is restricted to conscious appraisal or happens at a preconscious level is unknown. Here we provide behavioral evidence that such preconscious evaluations exist and…

Income and Social Rank Influence UK Children's Behavioral Problems: A Longitudinal Analysis.

PubMed

Garratt, Elisabeth A; Chandola, Tarani; Purdam, Kingsley; Wood, Alex M

2017-07-01

Children living in low-income households face elevated risks of behavioral problems, but the impact of absolute and relative income to this risk remains unexplored. Using the U.K. Millennium Cohort Study data, longitudinal associations between Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire scores and absolute household income, distance from the regional median and mean income, and regional income rank were examined in 3- to 12-year-olds (n = 16,532). Higher absolute household incomes were associated with lower behavioral problems, while higher income rank was associated with lower behavioral problems only at the highest absolute incomes. Higher absolute household incomes were associated with lower behavioral problems among children in working households, indicating compounding effects of income and socioeconomic advantages. Both absolute and relative incomes therefore appear to influence behavioral problems. © 2016 The Authors. Child Development © 2016 Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.

Extensive internet involvement--addiction or emerging lifestyle?

PubMed

Bergmark, Karin Helmersson; Bergmark, Anders; Findahl, Olle

2011-12-01

In the discussions for the future DSM-5, the Substance-Related Disorders Work Group has been addressing "addiction-like" behavioral disorders such as "Internet addiction" to possibly be considered as potential additions for the diagnostic system. Most research aiming to specify and define the concept of Internet addiction (or: Excessive/Compulsive/Problematic Internet Use--PIU), takes its point of departure in conventional terminology for addiction, based in established DSM indicators. Still, it is obvious that the divide between characteristics of addiction and dimensions of new lifestyles built on technological progress is problematic and far from unambiguous. Some of these research areas are developing from the neurobiological doctrine of addiction as not being tied to specific substances. The concept of "behavioral addictions", based on biological mechanisms such as the reward systems of the brain, has been launched. The problems connected to this development are in this study discussed and reflected with data from a Swedish survey on Internet use (n = 1,147). Most Swedes (85%) do use the Internet to some degree. The prevalence of excessive use parallels other similar countries. Respondents in our study spend (mean value) 9.8 hours per week online at home, only 5 percent spend more than 30 hours per week. There are both positive and negative social effects at hand. Many respondents have more social contacts due to the use of Internet, but there is a decline in face-to-face contacts. About 40% of the respondents indicate some experience of at least one problem related to Internet use, but only 1.8% marked the presence of all problems addressed. Most significant predictors for problem indicators, except for age, relate to "time" and time consuming activities such as gaming, other activities online or computer skills.

Extensive Internet Involvement—Addiction or Emerging Lifestyle?

PubMed Central

Bergmark, Karin Helmersson; Bergmark, Anders; Findahl, Olle

2011-01-01

In the discussions for the future DSM-5, the Substance-Related Disorders Work Group has been addressing “addiction-like” behavioral disorders such as “Internet addiction” to possibly be considered as potential additions for the diagnostic system. Most research aiming to specify and define the concept of Internet addiction (or: Excessive/Compulsive/Problematic Internet Use—PIU), takes its point of departure in conventional terminology for addiction, based in established DSM indicators. Still, it is obvious that the divide between characteristics of addiction and dimensions of new lifestyles built on technological progress is problematic and far from unambiguous. Some of these research areas are developing from the neurobiological doctrine of addiction as not being tied to specific substances. The concept of “behavioral addictions”, based on biological mechanisms such as the reward systems of the brain, has been launched. The problems connected to this development are in this study discussed and reflected with data from a Swedish survey on Internet use (n = 1,147). Most Swedes (85%) do use the Internet to some degree. The prevalence of excessive use parallels other similar countries. Respondents in our study spend (mean value) 9.8 hours per week online at home, only 5 percent spend more than 30 hours per week. There are both positive and negative social effects at hand. Many respondents have more social contacts due to the use of Internet, but there is a decline in face-to-face contacts. About 40% of the respondents indicate some experience of at least one problem related to Internet use, but only 1.8% marked the presence of all problems addressed. Most significant predictors for problem indicators, except for age, relate to “time” and time consuming activities such as gaming, other activities online or computer skills. PMID:22408585

The Two Faces of Social Interaction Reward in Animal Models of Drug Dependence.

PubMed

El Rawas, Rana; Saria, Alois

2016-03-01

Drug dependence is a serious health and social problem. Social factors can modify vulnerability to developing drug dependence, acting as risk factors or protective factors. Whereas stress and peer environment that encourage substance use may increase drug taking, strong attachments between family members and peer environment that do not experience drug use may protect against drug taking and, ultimately, drug dependence. The rewarding effects of drug abuse and social interaction can be evaluated using animal models. In this review we focus on evaluating social interaction reward in the conditioned place preference paradigm. We give an overview of how social interaction, if made available within the drug context, may facilitate, promote and interact with the drug's effects. However, social interaction, if offered alternatively outside the drug context, may have pronounced protective effects against drug abuse and relapse. We also address the importance of the weight difference parameter between the social partners in determining the positive or "agonistic" versus the hostile or "antagonistic" social interaction. We conclude that understanding social interaction reward and its subsequent effects on drug reward is sorely needed for therapeutic interventions against drug dependence.

Experience-dependent changes in the development of face preferences in infant rhesus monkeys.

PubMed

Parr, Lisa A; Murphy, Lauren; Feczko, Eric; Brooks, Jenna; Collantes, Marie; Heitz, Thomas R

2016-12-01

It is well known that early experience shapes the development of visual perception for faces in humans. However, the effect of experience on the development of social attention in non-human primates is unknown. In two studies, we examined the effect of cumulative social experience on developmental changes in attention to the faces of unfamiliar conspecifics or heterospecifics, and mom versus an unfamiliar female. From birth, infant rhesus monkeys preferred to look at conspecific compared to heterospecific faces, but this pattern reversed over time. In contrast, no consistent differences were found for attention to mom's face compared to an unfamiliar female. These results suggest differential roles of social experience in shaping the development of face preferences in infant monkeys. Results have important implications for establishing normative trajectories for the development of face preferences in an animal model of human social behavior. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Parkinson Patients' Initial Trust in Avatars: Theory and Evidence.

PubMed

Javor, Andrija; Ransmayr, Gerhard; Struhal, Walter; Riedl, René

2016-01-01

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disease that affects the motor system and cognitive and behavioral functions. Due to these impairments, PD patients also have problems in using the computer. However, using computers and the Internet could help these patients to overcome social isolation and enhance information search. Specifically, avatars (defined as virtual representations of humans) are increasingly used in online environments to enhance human-computer interaction by simulating face-to-face interaction. Our laboratory experiment investigated how PD patients behave in a trust game played with human and avatar counterparts, and we compared this behavior to the behavior of age, income, education and gender matched healthy controls. The results of our study show that PD patients trust avatar faces significantly more than human faces. Moreover, there was no significant difference between initial trust of PD patients and healthy controls in avatar faces, while PD patients trusted human faces significantly less than healthy controls. Our data suggests that PD patients' interaction with avatars may constitute an effective way of communication in situations in which trust is required (e.g., a physician recommends intake of medication). We discuss the implications of these results for several areas of human-computer interaction and neurological research.

Parkinson Patients’ Initial Trust in Avatars: Theory and Evidence

PubMed Central

Javor, Andrija; Ransmayr, Gerhard; Struhal, Walter; Riedl, René

2016-01-01

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disease that affects the motor system and cognitive and behavioral functions. Due to these impairments, PD patients also have problems in using the computer. However, using computers and the Internet could help these patients to overcome social isolation and enhance information search. Specifically, avatars (defined as virtual representations of humans) are increasingly used in online environments to enhance human-computer interaction by simulating face-to-face interaction. Our laboratory experiment investigated how PD patients behave in a trust game played with human and avatar counterparts, and we compared this behavior to the behavior of age, income, education and gender matched healthy controls. The results of our study show that PD patients trust avatar faces significantly more than human faces. Moreover, there was no significant difference between initial trust of PD patients and healthy controls in avatar faces, while PD patients trusted human faces significantly less than healthy controls. Our data suggests that PD patients’ interaction with avatars may constitute an effective way of communication in situations in which trust is required (e.g., a physician recommends intake of medication). We discuss the implications of these results for several areas of human-computer interaction and neurological research. PMID:27820864

A Conditional Curie-Weiss Model for Stylized Multi-group Binary Choice with Social Interaction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Opoku, Alex Akwasi; Edusei, Kwame Owusu; Ansah, Richard Kwame

2018-04-01

This paper proposes a conditional Curie-Weiss model as a model for decision making in a stylized society made up of binary decision makers that face a particular dichotomous choice between two options. Following Brock and Durlauf (Discrete choice with social interaction I: theory, 1955), we set-up both socio-economic and statistical mechanical models for the choice problem. We point out when both the socio-economic and statistical mechanical models give rise to the same self-consistent equilibrium mean choice level(s). Phase diagram of the associated statistical mechanical model and its socio-economic implications are discussed.

The contribution of a gender perspective to the understanding of migrants' health

PubMed Central

Llácer, Alicia; Zunzunegui, María Victoria; del Amo, Julia; Mazarrasa, Lucía; Bolůmar, Francisco

2007-01-01

In 2005 women represented approximately half of all 190 million international migrants worldwide. This paper addresses the need to integrate a gender perspective into epidemiological studies on migration and health, outlines conceptual gaps and discusses some methodological problems. We mainly consider the international voluntary migrant. Women may emigrate as wives or as workers in a labour market in which they face double segregation, both as migrants and as women. We highlight migrant women's heightened vulnerability to situations of violence, as well as important gaps in our knowledge of the possible differential health effects of factors such as poverty, unemployment, social networks and support, discrimination, health behaviours and use of services. We provide an overview of the problems of characterising migrant populations in the health information systems, and of possible biases in the health effects caused by failure to take the triple dimension of gender, social class and ethnicity into account. PMID:18000117

Barriers to self-care in women of reproductive age with HIV/AIDS in Iran: a qualitative study.

PubMed

Oskouie, Fatemeh; Kashefi, Farzaneh; Rafii, Forough; Gouya, Mohammad Mehdi

2017-01-01

Although increasing attention is paid to HIV/AIDS, patients with HIV still experience several barriers to self-care. These barriers have been previously identified in small quantitative studies on women with HIV, but qualitative studies are required to clarify barriers to self-care. We conducted our study using the grounded theory methodological approach. A total of 28 women with HIV and their family members, were interviewed. The data were analyzed with the Corbin and Strauss method (1998). The key barriers to self-care in women with HIV/AIDS included social stigma, addiction, psychological problems, medication side-effects and financial problems. Women with HIV/AIDS face several barriers to self-care. Therefore, when designing self-care models for these women, social and financial barriers should be identified. Mental health treatment should also be incorporated into such models and patients' access to health care services should be facilitated.

Social acceptance and quality of life of leprosy patient

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Eyanoer, P. C.

2018-03-01

Some of the leprosy patients facing problems in many aspects such as social, economic, cultural and national security. Both the debilitating effects and disfigurements of leprosy, the society tends to stigmatize negatively those suffering from leprosy. The impact of negative stigma on society causes depression and problems in workplace cause difficulty in patient’s daily life. Neuropathic pain disturbs the quality of life of leprosy patients which could become so severe and significant. The neuropathic pain will lower their productivity which later caused difficulties in finding a job. This study was an analytical observational study to identify the correlation between neuropathic pain and quality of life in Leprosy Hospital of Scanning in Medan Belawan. The result showed that there is a correlation between neuropathic pain and disruption of quality of life (p=0.017). In conclusion, the milder the neuropathic pain experienced by persons with leprosy, the less the quality of life will be disturbed.

A comparison of stigma among patients with leprosy in rural Tanzania and urban United States: a role for public health in dermatology.

PubMed

Roosta, Neda; Black, David S; Rea, Thomas H

2013-04-01

  Leprosy is a chronic infection of the skin and peripheral nerves caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium leprae, which causes peripheral insensitivity and disfigurements of the skin, limbs, and digits. Social stigma is a common consequence of leprosy and may differ according to level of physical disfigurement and geographic location. The objective of this study was to assess social stigma encountered by patients with leprosy in clinical settings located in rural Tanzania and urban USA and to compare the social stigma reported in these regions.   A total of 56 respondents were recruited from one leprosy inpatient facility in Shirati, Tanzania (n = 28), and one outpatient clinic in Los Angeles, USA (n = 28). Cross-sectional data were obtained from face-to-face interviews, which were conducted with respondents at each clinic location. Measures of perceived stigma were assessed in family relationship, vocational, social interaction, and interpersonal contexts.   Patients in Tanzania, as compared with those in the USA, reported significantly higher levels of stigma in family relationship and vocational contexts. Tanzanian patients also reported higher levels of stigma in social interaction and self-esteem contexts, but these differences were marginally significant and may reflect the small sample size.   Leprosy-related social stigma is a major problem in regions of both developed and developing countries; however, patients with leprosy in developing countries reported higher levels of stigma in four social contexts. A public health role in dermatology is discussed as an agent of early diagnosis, control, and education in order to reduce social stigma and promote social rehabilitation. © 2013 The International Society of Dermatology.

Face repetition detection and social interest: An ERP study in adults with and without Williams syndrome.

PubMed

Key, Alexandra P; Dykens, Elisabeth M

2016-12-01

The present study examined possible neural mechanisms underlying increased social interest in persons with Williams syndrome (WS). Visual event-related potentials (ERPs) during passive viewing were used to compare incidental memory traces for repeated vs. single presentations of previously unfamiliar social (faces) and nonsocial (houses) images in 26 adults with WS and 26 typical adults. Results indicated that participants with WS developed familiarity with the repeated faces and houses (frontal N400 response), but only typical adults evidenced the parietal old/new effect (previously associated with stimulus recollection) for the repeated faces. There was also no evidence of exceptional salience of social information in WS, as ERP markers of memory for repeated faces vs. houses were not significantly different. Thus, while persons with WS exhibit behavioral evidence of increased social interest, their processing of social information in the absence of specific instructions may be relatively superficial. The ERP evidence of face repetition detection in WS was independent of IQ and the earlier perceptual differentiation of social vs. nonsocial stimuli. Large individual differences in ERPs of participants with WS may provide valuable information for understanding the WS phenotype and have relevance for educational and treatment purposes.

Violence and other stressful life events as triggers of depression and anxiety: what psychosocial resources protect African American mothers?

PubMed

Mitchell, Stephanie J; Ronzio, Cynthia R

2011-11-01

Understanding the risk and protective factors related to maternal mental health problems is important for improving the well-being of mothers and children, particularly in African American populations which may be at greater risk for maternal depression and resulting child behavior problems. This study explored whether three psychosocial resources--emotional resilience, social support, and ethnic identity--serve as protective factors in the face of specific stressful events that may trigger African American mothers' depression and anxiety symptoms. Standard self-report measures of depression, anxiety, negative life events, community violence, abuse, emotional resilience, social support, and ethnic identity were administered to African American mothers (N=209) of 2-18 month-old children. Linear regression models revealed main effects of negative life events and abuse on increased depression and anxiety symptoms, while emotional resilience and social support predicted decreased symptoms. There was also a significant interaction revealing a protective-reactive effect of ethnic identity on the associations of witnessed community violence with depression and anxiety symptoms. It is important for primary care providers to screen African American mothers for negative life events and abuse to identify those at increased risk for maternal depression and anxiety symptoms. Treatment programs should target emotional resilience, enhanced social support, and stronger ethnic group affiliation, which may be most effective at preventing mental health problems among mothers exposed to relative lower levels of community violence.

Spontaneous attention to faces in Asperger syndrome using ecologically valid static stimuli.

PubMed

Hanley, Mary; McPhillips, Martin; Mulhern, Gerry; Riby, Deborah M

2013-11-01

Previous eye tracking research on the allocation of attention to social information by individuals with autism spectrum disorders is equivocal and may be in part a consequence of variation in stimuli used between studies. The current study explored attention allocation to faces, and within faces, by individuals with Asperger syndrome using a range of static stimuli where faces were either viewed in isolation or viewed in the context of a social scene. Results showed that faces were viewed typically by the individuals with Asperger syndrome when presented in isolation, but attention to the eyes was significantly diminished in comparison to age and IQ-matched typical viewers when faces were viewed as part of social scenes. We show that when using static stimuli, there is evidence of atypicality for individuals with Asperger syndrome depending on the extent of social context. Our findings shed light on the previous explanations of gaze behaviour that have emphasised the role of movement in atypicalities of social attention in autism spectrum disorders and highlight the importance of consideration of the realistic portrayal of social information for future studies.

What do we know about the situation of women living with HIV in Europe?

PubMed

Miralles, Celia; Mardarescu, Mariana; Sherr, Lorraine

2013-01-01

At present, women represent approximately one-third of new diagnoses of HIV in Europe - most are infected by heterosexual transmission. Some specific populations of women, such as migrants, sex workers and those who are intravenous drug users, may be at increased risk of HIV infection. Women living with HIV face a range of intersecting situations and challenges distinct from those faced by men. The most familiar of these is pregnancy and motherhood; however, family and social situations will also be different for women compared with men, and can affect how individuals access care and manage their disease. The stigma of HIV can be a particular problem for women in many communities. Improved surveillance of HIV and increased study of the situations facing women living with HIV will help to identify improved strategies to support the care of this patient population.

Recognition of facial, auditory, and bodily emotions in older adults.

PubMed

Ruffman, Ted; Halberstadt, Jamin; Murray, Janice

2009-11-01

Understanding older adults' social functioning difficulties requires insight into their recognition of emotion processing in voices and bodies, not just faces, the focus of most prior research. We examined 60 young and 61 older adults' recognition of basic emotions in facial, vocal, and bodily expressions, and when matching faces and bodies to voices, using 120 emotion items. Older adults were worse than young adults in 17 of 30 comparisons, with consistent difficulties in recognizing both positive (happy) and negative (angry and sad) vocal and bodily expressions. Nearly three quarters of older adults functioned at a level similar to the lowest one fourth of young adults, suggesting that age-related changes are common. In addition, we found that older adults' difficulty in matching emotions was not explained by difficulty on the component sources (i.e., faces or voices on their own), suggesting an additional problem of integration.

Activist engineering: changing engineering practice by deploying praxis.

PubMed

Karwat, Darshan M A; Eagle, Walter E; Wooldridge, Margaret S; Princen, Thomas E

2015-02-01

In this paper, we reflect on current notions of engineering practice by examining some of the motives for engineered solutions to the problem of climate change. We draw on fields such as science and technology studies, the philosophy of technology, and environmental ethics to highlight how dominant notions of apoliticism and ahistoricity are ingrained in contemporary engineering practice. We argue that a solely technological response to climate change does not question the social, political, and cultural tenet of infinite material growth, one of the root causes of climate change. In response to the contemporary engineering practice, we define an activist engineer as someone who not only can provide specific engineered solutions, but who also steps back from their work and tackles the question, What is the real problem and does this problem "require" an engineering intervention? Solving complex problems like climate change requires radical cultural change, and a significant obstacle is educating engineers about how to conceive of and create "authentic alternatives," that is, solutions that differ from the paradigm of "technologically improving" our way out of problems. As a means to realize radically new solutions, we investigate how engineers might (re)deploy the concept of praxis, which raises awareness in engineers of the inherent politics of technological design. Praxis empowers engineers with a more comprehensive understanding of problems, and thus transforms technologies, when appropriate, into more socially just and ecologically sensitive interventions. Most importantly, praxis also raises a radical alternative rarely considered-not "engineering a solution." Activist engineering offers a contrasting method to contemporary engineering practice and leads toward social justice and ecological protection through problem solving by asking not, How will we technologize our way out of the problems we face? but instead, What really needs to be done?

Decoding the representation of learned social roles in the human brain.

PubMed

Eger, Evelyn; Moretti, Laura; Dehaene, Stanislas; Sirigu, Angela

2013-10-01

Humans as social beings are profoundly affected by exclusion. Short experiences with people differing in their degree of prosocial behaviour can induce reliable preferences for including partners, but the neural mechanisms of this learning remain unclear. Here, we asked participants to play a short social interaction game based on "cyber-ball" where one fictive partner included and another excluded the subject, thus defining social roles (includer - "good", excluder - "bad"). We then used multivariate pattern recognition on high-resolution functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data acquired before and after this game to test whether neural responses to the partners' and neutral control faces during a perceptual task reflect their learned social valence. Support vector classification scores revealed a learning-related increase in neural discrimination of social status in anterior insula and anterior cingulate regions, which was mainly driven by includer faces becoming distinguishable from excluder and control faces. Thus, face-evoked responses in anterior insula and anterior cingulate cortex contain fine-grained information shaped by prior social interactions that allow for categorisation of faces according to their learned social status. These lasting traces of social experience in cortical areas important for emotional and social processing could provide a substrate of how social inclusion shapes future behaviour and promotes cooperative interactions between individuals. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Abnormal emotion processing, but intact fairness and intentionality considerations during social decision-making in schizophrenia.

PubMed

de la Asuncion, Javier; Docx, Lise; Sabbe, Bernard; Morrens, Manuel; de Bruijn, Ellen R A

2015-01-01

Schizophrenia is a severe mental disorder that is highly characterized by social cognitive impairments. Most studies investigating these impairments focus on one specific social domain such as emotion recognition. However, in daily life, processing complex social situations relies on the combination of several social cognitive and affective processes simultaneously rather than one process alone. A modified version of the economically based Ultimatum Game was used to measure the interplay between fairness, intentionality, and emotion considerations during social decision-making. In this task, participants accept or reject fair and unfair monetary offers proposed intentionally or unintentionally by either angry, happy, neutral, or sad proposers. Behavioral data was collected from a group of schizophrenia patients (N = 35) and a group of healthy individuals (N = 30). Like healthy participants, schizophrenia patients differentiated between fair and unfair offers by rejecting unfair offers more compared to fair offers. However, overall patients did reject more fair offers, indicating that their construct of fairness operates within different margins. In both groups, intentional unfair offers were rejected more compared to unintentional ones, indicating a normal integration of intentionality considerations in schizophrenia. Importantly, healthy subjects also differentiated between proposers' emotion when rejecting unfair offers (more rejections from proposers depicting angry faces compared to proposers depicting, happy, neutral, or sad faces). Schizophrenia patients' decision behavior on the other hand, was not affected by the proposers' emotions. The current study thus shows that schizophrenia patients have specific problems with processing and integrating emotional information. Importantly, the finding that patients display normal fairness and intentionality considerations emphasizes preservation of central social cognitive processes in schizophrenia.

The Protective Role of Group Identity: Sectarian Antisocial Behavior and Adolescent Emotion Problems

PubMed Central

Merrilees, Christine E.; Taylor, Laura K.; Goeke-Morey, Marcie C.; Shirlow, Peter; Cummings, E. Mark; Cairns, Ed

2013-01-01

The protective role of strength of group identity was examined for youth in a context of protracted political conflict. Participants included 814 adolescents (M age = 13.61, SD = 1.99 at Time 1) participating in a longitudinal study in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Utilizing hierarchical linear modeling, the results show that the effect of exposure to sectarian antisocial behaviors has a stronger effect on youth emotion problems for older adolescents. The results also show that youth with higher strength of group identity reported fewer emotion problems in the face of sectarian antisocial behavior, but that this buffering effect is stronger for Protestants compared to Catholics. Implications are discussed for understanding the role of social identity in post-accord societies. PMID:23682959

Impaired visuocortical discrimination learning of socially conditioned stimuli in social anxiety

PubMed Central

Mühlberger, Andreas; Pauli, Paul; Wieser, Matthias J.

2015-01-01

In search of causative factors of social anxiety disorder (SAD), classical conditioning has been discussed as a potential trigger mechanism for many years. Recent findings suggest that the social relevance of the unconditioned stimulus (US) might play a major role in learning theories of SAD. Thus, this study applied a social conditioning paradigm with disorder-relevant US to examine the electrocortical correlates of affective learning. Twenty-four high socially anxious (HSA) and 23 age- and gender-matched low socially anxious (LSA) subjects were conditioned to 3 different faces flickering at a frequency of 15 Hz which were paired with auditory insults, compliments or neutral comments (US). The face-evoked electrocortical response was measured via steady-state visually evoked potentials and subjective measures of valence and arousal were obtained. Results revealed a significant interaction of social anxiety and conditioning, with LSA showing highest cortical activity to faces paired with insults and lowest activity to faces paired with compliments, while HSA did not differentiate between faces. No group differences were discovered in the affective ratings. The findings indicate a potentially impaired ability of HSA to discriminate between relevant and irrelevant social stimuli, which may constitute a perpetuating factor of SAD. PMID:25338634

"The Poison That Ruined the Nation": Native American Men-Alcohol, Identity, and Traditional Healing.

PubMed

Matamonasa-Bennett, Arieahn

2017-07-01

Alcoholism and destructive drinking patterns are serious social problems in many Native American reservation and urban communities. This qualitative study of men from a single Great Lakes reservation community examined the social, cultural, and psychological aspects of their alcohol problems through their life stories. The men were in various stages of recovery and sobriety, and data collection consisted of open-ended interviews and analysis utilizing principles and techniques from grounded theory and ethnographic content analysis. Alcoholism and other serious social problems facing Native American communities need to be understood in the sociocultural and historical contexts of colonization and historical grief and trauma. This study suggests that for Native American men, there are culturally specific perspectives on alcohol that have important implications for prevention and treatment of alcohol abuse. The participants' narratives provided insight into the ways reconnecting with traditional cultural values (retraditionalization) helped them achieve sobriety. For these men, alcohol was highly symbolic of colonization as well as a protest to it. Alcohol was a means for affirming "Indian" identity and sobriety a means for reaffirming traditional tribal identity. Their narratives suggested the ways in which elements of traditional cultural values and practices facilitate healing in syncretic models and Nativized treatment. Understanding the ways in which specific Native cultural groups perceive their problems with drinking and sobriety can create more culturally congruent, culturally sensitive, and effective treatment approaches and inform future research.

Neural differences in self-perception during illness and after weight-recovery in anorexia nervosa.

PubMed

McAdams, Carrie J; Jeon-Slaughter, Haekyung; Evans, Siobahn; Lohrenz, Terry; Montague, P Read; Krawczyk, Daniel C

2016-11-01

Anorexia nervosa (AN) is a severe mental illness characterized by problems with self-perception. Whole-brain neural activations in healthy women, women with AN and women in long-term weight recovery following AN were compared using two functional magnetic resonance imaging tasks probing different aspects of self-perception. The Social Identity-V2 task involved consideration about oneself and others using socially descriptive adjectives. Both the ill and weight-recovered women with AN engaged medial prefrontal cortex less than healthy women for self-relevant cognitions, a potential biological trait difference. Weight-recovered women also activated the inferior frontal gyri and dorsal anterior cingulate more for direct self-evaluations than for reflected self-evaluations, unlike both other groups, suggesting that recovery may include compensatory neural changes related to social perspectives. The Faces task compared viewing oneself to a stranger. Participants with AN showed elevated activity in the bilateral fusiform gyri for self-images, unlike the weight-recovered and healthy women, suggesting cognitive distortions about physical appearance are a state rather than trait problem in this disease. Because both ill and recovered women showed neural differences related to social self-perception, but only recovered women differed when considering social perspectives, these neurocognitive targets may be particularly important for treatment. © The Author (2016). Published by Oxford University Press.

Optimizing the health impacts of civil legal aid interventions: the public health framework of medical-legal partnerships.

PubMed

Lawton, Ellen; Tyler, Elizabeth Tobin

2013-07-01

Research documents the significance of the social determinants of health - the social and environmental conditions in which people live, work and play. A critical foundation of these social and environmental conditions are laws and regulations, which construct the environments in which individuals and populations live, influencing how and when people face disease. Increasingly, healthcare providers, public health professionals and lawyers concerned with social determinants are joining forces to form Medical-Legal Partnerships (MLPs) which offer a preventive approach to address the complex social, legal and systemic problems that affect the health of vulnerable populations. Now in more than 500 health and legal institutions across the country, including Rhode Island, MLP is a healthcare delivery model that integrates legal assistance as a vital component of healthcare. This article explores the many benefits of the MLP model for improving patient health, transforming medical and legal practice and institutions and generating policy changes that specifically address health disparities and social determinants.

[The Development of Social Innovations in Health Care and the Role of Science and Research].

PubMed

Richter, Stefanie

2017-12-01

In the course of demographic, epidemiological and social changes, various challenges arise concerning the organization of health care and health promotion for the population. Innovative approaches are needed to face these challenges. The focus in the theoretical work is on the analysis of the development of social innovations and on the role of science and research to solve social problems. First of all, the notion of innovation based on technologies will be expanded by social innovations. 2 approaches to promote social innovations are discussed: the systematic discovery and development of solutions in practice as well as the co-productive development in the terms of transdisciplinary research. It will be demonstrated that a cooperative and co-productive research and development process brings new requirements regarding scientific practice so that a discussion about the organisation and general conditions of transdisciplinary research and development in the health (service) research has to be strengthened. © Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.

Analysis of students critical thinking skills in socio-scientific issues of biodiversity subject

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Santika, A. R.; Purwianingsih, W.; Nuraeni, E.

2018-05-01

Critical thinking is a skills the which students should have in order to face 21st century demands. Critical thinking skills can help people in facing their daily problems, especially problems roommates relate to science. This research is aimed to analyze students critical thinking skills in socio-scientific issues of biodiversity subject. The method used in this research was descriptive method. The research subject is first-grade students’ in senior high school. The data collected by interview and open-ended question the which classified based on framework : (1) question at issue, (2) information (3) purpose (4) concepts (5) assumptions, (6) point of view, (7) interpretation and inference, and (8) implication and consequences, then it will be assessed by using rubrics. The result of the data showed students critical thinking skills in socio-scientific issues of biodiversity subject is in low and medium category. Therefore we need a learning activity that is able to develop student’s critical thinking skills, especially regarding issues of social science.

Externalizing Behaviors of Ukrainian Children: The Role of Parenting

PubMed Central

Burlaka, Viktor

2016-01-01

The purpose of this study was to assess the association of positive and negative parenting with child externalizing problems. Quantitative data were collected during face-to-face interviews with 320 parents of children 9–16 years of age (50% males) in 11 communities in Eastern, Southern and Central Ukraine. The study estimated the relationship between parenting practices and child externalizing behaviors, such as aggression, delinquency and attention problems. Results revealed that positive parenting, child monitoring, and avoidance of corporal punishment were associated with fewer child externalizing symptoms. Results also indicated that child male gender and single parenting had significant and positive association with child externalizing behaviors. This study extends international psychosocial knowledge on children and families. These findings can be used to design programs and foster dialogues about the role of family and social environments in the development of externalizing disorder among researchers, representatives of governmental and non-governmental organizations and mass media that work with child abuse prevention in Ukraine. PMID:26907365

Externalizing behaviors of Ukrainian children: The role of parenting.

PubMed

Burlaka, Viktor

2016-04-01

The purpose of this study was to assess the association of positive and negative parenting with child externalizing problems. Quantitative data were collected during face-to-face interviews with 320 parents of children 9-16 years of age (50% males) in 11 communities in Eastern, Southern, and Central Ukraine. The study estimated the relationship between parenting practices and child externalizing behaviors such as aggression, delinquency, and attention problems. Results revealed that positive parenting, child monitoring, and avoidance of corporal punishment were associated with fewer child externalizing symptoms. Results also indicated that child male gender and single parenting had significant and positive association with child externalizing behaviors. This study extends international psychosocial knowledge on children and families. These findings can be used to design programs and foster dialogs about the role of family and social environments in the development of externalizing disorder among researchers, representatives of governmental and nongovernmental organizations, and mass media that work with child abuse prevention in Ukraine. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Computer-Assisted Face Processing Instruction Improves Emotion Recognition, Mentalizing, and Social Skills in Students with ASD

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rice, Linda Marie; Wall, Carla Anne; Fogel, Adam; Shic, Frederick

2015-01-01

This study examined the extent to which a computer-based social skills intervention called "FaceSay"™ was associated with improvements in affect recognition, mentalizing, and social skills of school-aged children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). "FaceSay"™ offers students simulated practice with eye gaze, joint attention,…

Face perception in women with Turner syndrome and its underlying factors.

PubMed

Anaki, David; Zadikov Mor, Tal; Gepstein, Vardit; Hochberg, Ze'ev

2016-09-01

Turner syndrome (TS) is a chromosomal condition that affects development in females. It is characterized by short stature, ovarian failure and other congenital malformations, due to a partial or complete absence of the sex chromosome. Women with TS frequently suffer from various physical and hormonal dysfunctions, along with impairments in visual-spatial processing and social cognition difficulties. Previous research has also shown difficulties in face and emotion perception. In the current study we examined two questions: First, whether women with TS, that are impaired in face perception, also suffer from deficits in face-specific processes. The second question was whether these face impairments in TS are related to visual-spatial perceptual dysfunctions exhibited by TS individuals, or to impaired social cognition skills. Twenty-six women with TS and 26 control participants were tested on various cognitive and psychological tests to assess visual-spatial perception, face and facial expression perception, and social cognition skills. Results show that women with TS were less accurate in face perception and facial expression processing, yet they exhibited normal face-specific processes (configural and holistic processing). They also showed difficulties in spatial perception and social cognition capacities. Additional analyses revealed that their face perception impairments were related to their deficits in visual-spatial processing. Thus, our results do not support the claim that the impairments in face processing observed in TS are related to difficulties in social cognition. Rather, our data point to the possibility that face perception difficulties in TS stem from visual-spatial impairments and may not be specific to faces. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Combined Effects of Gaze and Orientation of Faces on Person Judgments in Social Situations

PubMed Central

Kaisler, Raphaela E.; Leder, Helmut

2017-01-01

In social situations, faces of others can vary simultaneously in gaze and orientation. How these variations affect different kinds of social judgments, such as attractiveness or trustworthiness, is only partly understood. Therefore, we studied how different gaze directions, head angles, but also levels of facial attractiveness affect perceived attractiveness and trustworthiness. We always presented pairs of faces – either two average attractive faces or a highly attractive together with a less attractive face. We also varied gaze and head angles showing faces in three different orientations, front, three-quarter and profile view. In Experiment 1 (N = 62), participants rated averted gaze in three-quarter views as more attractive than in front and profile views, and evaluated faces with direct gaze in front views as most trustworthy. Moreover, faces that were being looked at by another face were seen as more attractive. Independent of the head orientation or gaze direction, highly attractive faces were rated as more attractive and more trustworthy. In Experiment 2 (N = 54), we found that the three-quarter advantage vanished when the second face was blurred during judgments, which demonstrates the importance of the presence of another person-as in a triadic social situation-as well as the importance of their visible gaze. The findings emphasize that social evaluations such as trustworthiness are unaffected by the esthetic advantage of three-quarter views of two average attractive faces, and that the effect of a faces’ attractiveness is more powerful than the more subtle effects of gaze and orientations. PMID:28275364

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

PubMed Central

Hill, LaBarron K.; Williams, DeWayne P.; Thayer, Julian F.

2016-01-01

Human faces automatically attract visual attention and this process appears to be guided by social group memberships. In two experiments, we examined how social groups guide selective attention toward in-group and out-group faces. Black and White participants detected a target letter among letter strings superimposed on faces (Experiment 1). White participants were less accurate on trials with racial out-group (Black) compared to in-group (White) distractor faces. Likewise, Black participants were less accurate on trials with racial out-group (White) compared to in-group (Black) distractor faces. However, this pattern of out-group bias was only evident under high perceptual load—when the task was visually difficult. To examine the malleability of this pattern of racial bias, a separate sample of participants were assigned to mixed-race minimal groups (Experiment 2). Participants assigned to groups were less accurate on trials with their minimal in-group members compared to minimal out-group distractor faces, regardless of race. Again, this pattern of out-group bias was only evident under high perceptual load. Taken together, these results suggest that social identity guides selective attention toward motivationally relevant social groups—shifting from out-group bias in the domain of race to in-group bias in the domain of minimal groups—when perceptual resources are scarce. PMID:27556646

Ecological literacy and beyond: Problem-based learning for future professionals.

PubMed

Lewinsohn, Thomas M; Attayde, José Luiz; Fonseca, Carlos Roberto; Ganade, Gislene; Jorge, Leonardo Ré; Kollmann, Johannes; Overbeck, Gerhard E; Prado, Paulo Inácio; Pillar, Valério D; Popp, Daniela; da Rocha, Pedro L B; Silva, Wesley Rodrigues; Spiekermann, Annette; Weisser, Wolfgang W

2015-03-01

Ecological science contributes to solving a broad range of environmental problems. However, lack of ecological literacy in practice often limits application of this knowledge. In this paper, we highlight a critical but often overlooked demand on ecological literacy: to enable professionals of various careers to apply scientific knowledge when faced with environmental problems. Current university courses on ecology often fail to persuade students that ecological science provides important tools for environmental problem solving. We propose problem-based learning to improve the understanding of ecological science and its usefulness for real-world environmental issues that professionals in careers as diverse as engineering, public health, architecture, social sciences, or management will address. Courses should set clear learning objectives for cognitive skills they expect students to acquire. Thus, professionals in different fields will be enabled to improve environmental decision-making processes and to participate effectively in multidisciplinary work groups charged with tackling environmental issues.

[IMSS in numbers. Consumption of alcohol and psyhoactive substances].

PubMed

2005-01-01

One of the main public health problems in the world are alcohol and drug abuse. Health impact of addictions is clearly evidenced by the increasing numbers of suicides, depression, domestic violence, accidents and injuries. The mental and behavioral problems derived by the abuse of alcohol and psychoactive drugs are under reported. From 1991 to 2003 around 13,000 cases for problems due to alcohol abuse were reported annually in Family Medicine services, nearly 4000 cases in specialized services and an average of 20,000 cases were attended in the emergency areas of the social security system in Mexico (IMSS). The data indicates that this health problems are becoming evident in young populations under 25 years old and the trend is increasing. Professional resources that are specialized in the treatment of such behavioral problems are not sufficient and the institution faces an upcoming health threat that demands prevention programs and a more integrated health care programs.

Finding a face in the crowd: testing the anger superiority effect in Asperger Syndrome.

PubMed

Ashwin, Chris; Wheelwright, Sally; Baron-Cohen, Simon

2006-06-01

Social threat captures attention and is processed rapidly and efficiently, with many lines of research showing involvement of the amygdala. Visual search paradigms looking at social threat have shown angry faces 'pop-out' in a crowd, compared to happy faces. Autism and Asperger Syndrome (AS) are neurodevelopmental conditions characterised by social deficits, abnormal face processing, and amygdala dysfunction. We tested adults with high-functioning autism (HFA) and AS using a facial visual search paradigm with schematic neutral and emotional faces. We found, contrary to predictions, that people with HFA/AS performed similarly to controls in many conditions. However, the effect was reduced in the HFA/AS group when using widely varying crowd sizes and when faces were inverted, suggesting a difference in face-processing style may be evident even with simple schematic faces. We conclude there are intact threat detection mechanisms in AS, under simple and predictable conditions, but that like other face-perception tasks, the visual search of threat faces task reveals atypical face-processing in HFA/AS.

Cancer survivors' self-efficacy to self-manage in the year following primary treatment.

PubMed

Foster, C; Breckons, M; Cotterell, P; Barbosa, D; Calman, L; Corner, J; Fenlon, D; Foster, R; Grimmett, C; Richardson, A; Smith, P W

2015-03-01

Cancer survivors are increasingly expected to manage the consequences of cancer and its treatment for themselves. There is evidence that self-efficacy is important for successful self-management and that this can be enhanced with support. The purpose of this study was to assess self-efficacy to manage problems in the year following primary treatment. This cross-sectional online survey included cancer survivors who had completed their treatment within the past 12 months. Self-efficacy was assessed and variables expected to be associated with self-efficacy were measured using validated scales including quality of life, well-being, illness perceptions, depression and social support. One hundred eighty-two respondents (mean age 50; 81% female) completed the survey. They had been treated for a range of cancers; most commonly breast (45%). Self-efficacy scores varied between individuals and according to the illness-related task to be managed. Respondents were least confident in managing fatigue and most confident in accessing information about their cancer. Individuals most likely to report low self-efficacy were women, those experiencing higher levels of pain and/or depression, lower well-being scores, lower socio-economic status, low levels of social support, or a more negative perception of cancer. Self-efficacy to self-manage problems faced as a consequence of cancer and its treatment can vary widely in the year following treatment. Fatigue may be particularly difficult to manage. Variations in self-efficacy highlight the importance of assessing specific problems faced and people's confidence to manage them in order to tailor appropriate self-management support.

Cocaine Exposure Is Associated with Subtle Compromises of Infants' and Mothers' Social-Emotional Behavior and Dyadic Features of Their Interaction in the Face-to-Face Still-Face Paradigm

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tronick, E. Z.; Messinger, D. S.; Weinberg, M. K.; Lester, B. M.; LaGasse, L.; Seifer, R.; Bauer, C. R.; Shankaran, S.; Bada, H.; Wright, L. L.; Poole, K.; Liu, J.

2005-01-01

Prenatal cocaine and opiate exposure are thought to subtly compromise social and emotional development. The authors observed a large sample of 236 cocaine-exposed and 459 nonexposed infants (49 were opiate exposed and 646 nonexposed) with their mothers in the face-to-face still-face paradigm. Infant and maternal behaviors were microanalytically…

Social anxiety and perception of (un)trustworthiness in smiling faces.

PubMed

Gutiérrez-García, Aida; Calvo, Manuel G

2016-10-30

In social environments the smile can be driven by different motives and convey different emotions. This makes a smiling face ambiguous and amenable to alternative interpretations. We investigated how social anxiety is related to trustworthiness evaluation of morphed dynamic smiling faces depending on changes in the eye expression. Socially anxious and non-anxious participants judged the un/trustworthiness of people with different smiles. Social anxiety was related to reduced trustworthiness of (a) faces with a neutral mouth unfolding to a smile when the eyes were neutral at the beginning or end of the dynamic sequence, and (b) faces with a smiling mouth when happy eyes slightly changed towards neutrality, surprise, fear, sadness, disgust, or anger. In contrast, social anxiety was not related to trustworthiness judgments for non-ambiguous expressions unfolding from neutral (eyes and mouth) to happy (eyes and mouth) or from happy to neutral. Socially anxious individuals are characterized by an interpretation bias towards mistrusting any ambiguous smile due to the presence of non-happy eyes. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Social anxiety under load: the effects of perceptual load in processing emotional faces.

PubMed

Soares, Sandra C; Rocha, Marta; Neiva, Tiago; Rodrigues, Paulo; Silva, Carlos F

2015-01-01

Previous studies in the social anxiety arena have shown an impaired attentional control system, similar to that found in trait anxiety. However, the effect of task demands on social anxiety in socially threatening stimuli, such as angry faces, remains unseen. In the present study, 54 university students scoring high and low in the Social Interaction and Performance Anxiety and Avoidance Scale (SIPAAS) questionnaire, participated in a target letter discrimination task while task-irrelevant face stimuli (angry, disgust, happy, and neutral) were simultaneously presented. The results showed that high (compared to low) socially anxious individuals were more prone to distraction by task-irrelevant stimuli, particularly under high perceptual load conditions. More importantly, for such individuals, the accuracy proportions for angry faces significantly differed between the low and high perceptual load conditions, which is discussed in light of current evolutionary models of social anxiety.

Ethical and social issues facing obstetricians in low-income countries.

PubMed

Ogwuegbu, Chigbu Chibuike; Eze, Onah Hyacinth

2009-06-01

A review of publications on ethical and social issues from low-income countries was done with the aim of highlighting the major ethical and social issues facing obstetricians in these countries. Low-income countries were identified using the World Health Organization income group classification of member nations. Obstetricians in low-income countries face a wide range of special social and ethical issues that reflect the peculiarities of their practice environment characterized by poverty, low education, deep attachment to tradition and culture, low social status of women, and high levels of physician's paternalism.

Online Social Networking and Mental Health

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Abstract During the past decade, online social networking has caused profound changes in the way people communicate and interact. It is unclear, however, whether some of these changes may affect certain normal aspects of human behavior and cause psychiatric disorders. Several studies have indicated that the prolonged use of social networking sites (SNS), such as Facebook, may be related to signs and symptoms of depression. In addition, some authors have indicated that certain SNS activities might be associated with low self-esteem, especially in children and adolescents. Other studies have presented opposite results in terms of positive impact of social networking on self-esteem. The relationship between SNS use and mental problems to this day remains controversial, and research on this issue is faced with numerous challenges. This concise review focuses on the recent findings regarding the suggested connection between SNS and mental health issues such as depressive symptoms, changes in self-esteem, and Internet addiction. PMID:25192305

The One-Child Policy, Elder Care, and LGB Chinese: A Social Policy Explanation for Family Pressure.

PubMed

Hildebrandt, Timothy

2018-01-03

Lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) people in China consistently report family pressure as the greatest challenge they face in their daily lives. This problem has been explained primarily by highlighting sociocultural factors. While such explanations are important to understanding family pressure, they do not easily lead to actionable policy interventions to relieve it. This article suggests a new way of looking at family pressure by positing a social policy explanation. In particular, it reveals how both the one-child policy and elder care reforms have strong heteronormative biases that negatively and disproportionately affect LGB people, and it explores social policy interventions that may help address them. Beyond the China case, the article seeks to open up new avenues for research into how sexuality could be better accounted for in analyses of social policies and considered in broader discussions on defamilization and welfare state reform.

Online social networking and mental health.

PubMed

Pantic, Igor

2014-10-01

During the past decade, online social networking has caused profound changes in the way people communicate and interact. It is unclear, however, whether some of these changes may affect certain normal aspects of human behavior and cause psychiatric disorders. Several studies have indicated that the prolonged use of social networking sites (SNS), such as Facebook, may be related to signs and symptoms of depression. In addition, some authors have indicated that certain SNS activities might be associated with low self-esteem, especially in children and adolescents. Other studies have presented opposite results in terms of positive impact of social networking on self-esteem. The relationship between SNS use and mental problems to this day remains controversial, and research on this issue is faced with numerous challenges. This concise review focuses on the recent findings regarding the suggested connection between SNS and mental health issues such as depressive symptoms, changes in self-esteem, and Internet addiction.

Computer-Assisted Face Processing Instruction Improves Emotion Recognition, Mentalizing, and Social Skills in Students with ASD.

PubMed

Rice, Linda Marie; Wall, Carla Anne; Fogel, Adam; Shic, Frederick

2015-07-01

This study examined the extent to which a computer-based social skills intervention called FaceSay was associated with improvements in affect recognition, mentalizing, and social skills of school-aged children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). FaceSay offers students simulated practice with eye gaze, joint attention, and facial recognition skills. This randomized control trial included school-aged children meeting educational criteria for autism (N = 31). Results demonstrated that participants who received the intervention improved their affect recognition and mentalizing skills, as well as their social skills. These findings suggest that, by targeting face-processing skills, computer-based interventions may produce changes in broader cognitive and social-skills domains in a cost- and time-efficient manner.

Association between Ability Emotional Intelligence and Left Insula during Social Judgment of Facial Emotions.

PubMed

Quarto, Tiziana; Blasi, Giuseppe; Maddalena, Chiara; Viscanti, Giovanna; Lanciano, Tiziana; Soleti, Emanuela; Mangiulli, Ivan; Taurisano, Paolo; Fazio, Leonardo; Bertolino, Alessandro; Curci, Antonietta

2016-01-01

The human ability of identifying, processing and regulating emotions from social stimuli is generally referred as Emotional Intelligence (EI). Within EI, Ability EI identifies a performance measure assessing individual skills at perceiving, using, understanding and managing emotions. Previous models suggest that a brain "somatic marker circuitry" (SMC) sustains emotional sub-processes included in EI. Three primary brain regions are included: the amygdala, the insula and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC). Here, our aim was to investigate the relationship between Ability EI scores and SMC activity during social judgment of emotional faces. Sixty-three healthy subjects completed a test measuring Ability EI and underwent fMRI during a social decision task (i.e. approach or avoid) about emotional faces with different facial expressions. Imaging data revealed that EI scores are associated with left insula activity during social judgment of emotional faces as a function of facial expression. Specifically, higher EI scores are associated with greater left insula activity during social judgment of fearful faces but also with lower activity of this region during social judgment of angry faces. These findings indicate that the association between Ability EI and the SMC activity during social behavior is region- and emotion-specific.

Social Capital Accumulation in Location-Based Mobile Game Playing: A Multiple-Process Approach.

PubMed

Sung, Hei-Tung; Sigerson, Leif; Cheng, Cecilia

2017-08-01

In the summer of 2016, the widespread popularization of the game Pokémon Go brought the public's attention to the possible socialization benefits associated with location-based mobile games (LBMGs), yet no studies to date have investigated this issue. LBMGs deserve greater research attention because this type of game provides a unique gaming experience that encourages players to leave their homes and navigate around their neighborhood. This distinctive feature may promote more face-to-face interactions among LBMG players. Grounded in social capital theories, the present study compared the levels of both bridging and bonding social capital between LBMG and non-LBMG players. More important, we formulated a multiple-process model to explain the hypothesized psychological mechanisms underlying social capital accumulation among LBMG players. Participants were 349 U.S. participants (57 percent men; M age  = 32.40, SD age  = 7.92, age range = 19-66). Results supported the proposed model by revealing that face-to-face interaction was crucial to the accrual of both bridging and bonding social capital among LBMG players, through enhancing their levels of communication frequency and self-disclosure. The present findings have implications for the utilization of LBMG as a potential tool to promote face-to-face interactions and accumulate social capital.

Perceptual and Social Attributes Underlining Age-Related Preferences for Faces

PubMed Central

Kiiski, Hanni S. M.; Cullen, Brendan; Clavin, Sarah L.; Newell, Fiona N.

2016-01-01

Although aesthetic preferences are known to be important in person perception and can play a significant role in everyday social decisions, the effect of the age of the observer on aesthetic preferences for faces of different ages has not yet been fully investigated. In the present study we investigated whether aesthetic preferences change with aging, with an age-related bias in favoring faces from one’s own age group. In addition, we examined the role of age on both the perceptual qualities and the social attributes of faces that may influence these aesthetic judgements. Both younger and older adult observers provided ratings to images of younger, middle-aged and older unfamiliar faces. As well as attractiveness, the rating dimensions included other perceptual (distinctiveness, familiarity) and social (competence, trustworthiness and dominance) factors. The results suggested a consistent aesthetic preference for youthful faces across all ages of the observers but, surprisingly, no evidence for an age-related bias in attractiveness ratings. Older adults tended to provide higher ratings of attractiveness, competence and trustworthiness to the unfamiliar faces, consistent with the positivity effect previously reported. We also tested whether perceptual factors such as face familiarity or distinctiveness affected aesthetic ratings. Only ratings of familiarity, but not distinctiveness, were positively associated with the attractiveness of the faces. Moreover, ratings of familiarity decreased with increasing age of the face. With regard to the social characteristics of the faces, we found that the age of the face negatively correlated with ratings of trustworthiness provided by all observers, but with the competence ratings of older observers only. Interestingly, older adults provided higher ratings of perceived competence and trustworthiness to younger than older faces. However, our results also suggest that higher attractiveness ratings, together with older aged faces, led to more positive evaluations of competence. The results are discussed within the context of an age-related decline in the differentiation of faces in memory. Our findings have important implications for a better understanding of age-related perceptual factors and cognitive determinants of social interactions with unfamiliar others across the adult lifespan. PMID:27630553

The Role of Early Visual Attention in Social Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wagner, Jennifer B.; Luyster, Rhiannon J.; Yim, Jung Yeon; Tager-Flusberg, Helen; Nelson, Charles A.

2013-01-01

Faces convey important information about the social environment, and even very young infants are preferentially attentive to face-like over non-face stimuli. Eye-tracking studies have allowed researchers to examine which features of faces infants find most salient across development, and the present study examined scanning of familiar (i.e.,…

Gaze Aversion during Social Style Interactions in Autism Spectrum Disorder and Williams Syndrome

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Doherty-Sneddon, Gwyneth; Whittle, Lisa; Riby, Deborah M.

2013-01-01

During face-to-face interactions typically developing individuals use gaze aversion (GA), away from their questioner, when thinking. GA is also used when individuals with autism (ASD) and Williams syndrome (WS) are thinking during question-answer interactions. We investigated GA strategies during face-to-face social style interactions with…

Navigating the changing learning landscape: perspective from bioinformatics.ca

PubMed Central

Ouellette, B. F. Francis

2013-01-01

With the advent of YouTube channels in bioinformatics, open platforms for problem solving in bioinformatics, active web forums in computing analyses and online resources for learning to code or use a bioinformatics tool, the more traditional continuing education bioinformatics training programs have had to adapt. Bioinformatics training programs that solely rely on traditional didactic methods are being superseded by these newer resources. Yet such face-to-face instruction is still invaluable in the learning continuum. Bioinformatics.ca, which hosts the Canadian Bioinformatics Workshops, has blended more traditional learning styles with current online and social learning styles. Here we share our growing experiences over the past 12 years and look toward what the future holds for bioinformatics training programs. PMID:23515468

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

PubMed

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.

Preferences for Internet-Based Mental Health Interventions in an Adult Online Sample: Findings From an Online Community Survey.

PubMed

Batterham, Philip J; Calear, Alison L

2017-06-30

Despite extensive evidence that Internet interventions are effective in treating mental health problems, uptake of Internet programs is suboptimal. It may be possible to make Internet interventions more accessible and acceptable through better understanding of community preferences for delivery of online programs. This study aimed to assess community preferences for components, duration, frequency, modality, and setting of Internet interventions for mental health problems. A community-based online sample of 438 Australian adults was recruited using social media advertising and administered an online survey on preferences for delivery of Internet interventions, along with scales assessing potential correlates of these preferences. Participants reported a preference for briefer sessions, although they recognized a trade-off between duration and frequency of delivery. No clear preference for the modality of delivery emerged, although a clear majority preferred tailored programs. Participants preferred to access programs through a computer rather than a mobile device. Although most participants reported that they would seek help for a mental health problem, more participants had a preference for face-to-face sources only than online programs only. Younger, female, and more educated participants were significantly more likely to prefer Internet delivery. Adults in the community have a preference for Internet interventions with short modules that are tailored to individual needs. Individuals who are reluctant to seek face-to-face help may also avoid Internet interventions, suggesting that better implementation of existing Internet programs requires increasing acceptance of Internet interventions and identifying specific subgroups who may be resistant to seeking help. ©Philip J Batterham, Alison L Calear. Originally published in JMIR Mental Health (http://mental.jmir.org), 30.06.2017.

Specific problems in visual cognition of dyslexic readers: Face discrimination deficits predict dyslexia over and above discrimination of scrambled faces and novel objects.

PubMed

Sigurdardottir, Heida Maria; Fridriksdottir, Liv Elisabet; Gudjonsdottir, Sigridur; Kristjánsson, Árni

2018-06-01

Evidence of interdependencies of face and word processing mechanisms suggest possible links between reading problems and abnormal face processing. In two experiments we assessed such high-level visual deficits in people with a history of reading problems. Experiment 1 showed that people who were worse at face matching had greater reading problems. In experiment 2, matched dyslexic and typical readers were tested, and difficulties with face matching were consistently found to predict dyslexia over and above both novel-object matching as well as matching noise patterns that shared low-level visual properties with faces. Furthermore, ADHD measures could not account for face matching problems. We speculate that reading difficulties in dyslexia are partially caused by specific deficits in high-level visual processing, in particular for visual object categories such as faces and words with which people have extensive experience. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Mobilizing homeless youth for HIV prevention: a social network analysis of the acceptability of a face-to-face and online social networking intervention.

PubMed

Rice, Eric; Tulbert, Eve; Cederbaum, Julie; Barman Adhikari, Anamika; Milburn, Norweeta G

2012-04-01

The objective of the study is to use social network analysis to examine the acceptability of a youth-led, hybrid face-to-face and online social networking HIV prevention program for homeless youth.Seven peer leaders (PLs) engaged face-to-face homeless youth (F2F) in the creation of digital media projects (e.g. You Tube videos). PL and F2F recruited online youth (OY) to participate in MySpace and Facebook communities where digital media was disseminated and discussed. The resulting social networks were assessed with respect to size, growth, density, relative centrality of positions and homophily of ties. Seven PL, 53 F2F and 103 OY created two large networks. After the first 50 F2F youth participated, online networks entered a rapid growth phase. OY were among the most central youth in these networks. Younger aged persons and females were disproportionately connected to like youth. The program appears highly acceptable to homeless youth. Social network analysis revealed which PL were the most critical to the program and which types of participants (younger youth and females) may require additional outreach efforts in the future.