Social Group Behavior Research Articles

A research paradigm to investigate the effect of manipulation on social behavior in groups

A research paradigm to investigate the effect of manipulation on social behavior in groups

Sociopharmacology of d-amphetamine in Macaca arctoides

This study was designed to assess the effects of acute d-amphetamine pretreatment on the social behavior of a heterosexual group of adult M. arctoides. The dominance status had been previously determined by use of daily group food competition tests. Prior to some sessions amphetamine was administered to a single group member; whereas on other occasions all subjects were drug treated. The effects of both the individual and concurrent pretreatments were compared to those produced by saline. Furthermore, the effects of individual treatment were compared to those following concurrent dosing. The behavior of the group was monitored for one hour after a fifteen minute pretreatment time. Although generally qualitatively similar, the effects of concurrent and individual treatment were in many instances quantitatively different. d-Amphetamine increased vocalization, self-grooming, playing (low doses), social grooming (low doses), and aggression (low doses). At higher doses most forms of social interaction (playing, social grooming) were greatly decreased. Presenting behavior was increased by all doses under both treatment conditions. Mounting was increased to a much lesser extent and only after concurrent dosing. The increased presenting and mounting may be a result of sexual stimulation or perhaps more likely, an indication of increased submissive behavior directed toward more dominant animals.

TAT-derived affiliation scores and social behavior in therapy groups.

60 hospitalized psychiatric patients were given a TAT which was scored for need affiliation ( nAff). These patients also participated in group psychotherapy. The behavioral observations made in the group sessions were scored for affiliative behaviors. The correlations between nAff and social behavior in the first three sessions of eight sessions of therapy were not significant. For the last three sessions, however, there was a positive and significant correlation for men and a significant but curvilinear relationship for the women. Among the latter, extreme nAff scorers showed the least affiliation, median, scorers the most gregariousness. These results support earlier findings which indicate a more direct correspondence of TAT-thought and action for men and more complex relationships for women.

Les Dimensions Interpersonnelles du Comportement Social Une Comparaison de Deux Collectivites Francophones

[Interpersonal Dimensions of Social Behavior: A Cross-Cultural Comparison Between Two French Speaking Communities] This study aims to explore the interpersonal dimensions underlying social behavior in small groups. The specific questions raised concern the nature of the frame of reference used by two French speaking communities. In order to assess the functional characteristics of interpersonal altitudes, Osgood's semantic differential was applied to 300 subjects distributed in 15 Belgian and 16 French-Canadian groups. In addition The Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Orientations (FIRO-B) was applied to the same subjects. It was found that in the Belgian sample evaluation was the prevalent factor, whereas in the French-Canadian sample dominance and activity, two dynamic dimensions were most important. Furthermore the correlations between the semantic factors and the interpersonal needs in both samples indicate the existence of a bi-dimensional model as proposed by Foa rather than a threedimensional model as advanced by Schutz to account for interpersonal behavior. The study is presented in the light of the controversy between Faucheux and Triandis regarding cross-cultural research. The conclusions underline some recent contributions and the need for further socially relevant research in this domain.

Endogamy and Mesalliance, the Marriage Patterns of the Nobility of the Election of Bayeux, 1430-1669

Since the end of the Second World War there has been an explosion of historical studies of early modern French society. Among the many aspects of society which have been investigated, none has been more interesting or productive than the study of marriage. On one level, the study of marriage involves the history of the most basic and pervasive social unit of the early modern period, the nuclear family. On another level, the reconstruction of the collective marriage behavior of social groups reveals a great deal about the relative rigidity or flexibility of old regime social structure. Knowledge of the extent to which endogamy-the tendency of social groups to raise caste-like boundaries between themselves by restricting their marriages to their own group-was practiced is particularly important in assessing the nature of the relationships between the principal status groups of French society. The marriage patterns of French peasants, townspeople and merchant elites, venal officeholders and magistrates, and the highest nobility have been extensively analyzed.1 But the marriage patterns

Social context as a structuring mechanism in captive groups of squirrel monkeys (Saimiri sciureus)

Various classes of individuals were removed from three captive groups of squirrel monkeys and effects measured on the frequencies of nonagonistic interactions of the remaining individuals. Results indicated that there are regularities in the effects of certain classes of dyadic relationships on others which may be considered species-typical structuring mechanisms ofSaimiri social groups and which account for in consistencies which have appeared between experimentally identified social preferences of adults of this species and their actual behavior in social groups. A tentative process model ofSaimiri social structure and its seasonally changing character is presented and implications of this kind of analytical model for studies of evolution and adaptation are briefly discussed.

A Qualitative Look at Feedback Control Theory as a Style of Describing Behavior

The present paper reviews several ways feedback control theory has been used to describe tracking behavior and several qualitative experimental techniques. These techniques require only ordinal-level measurement and may aid any researcher investigating behavior whose temporal patterning is critical and which involves fairly continuous changes over time. One possible application in the area of stuttering behavior is presented in detail to show how these techniques can provide useful insights and hypotheses. Other suggested areas of application include the behavior of human social groups, motivational behavior, and emotional behavior.

Religious Participation of the Porteño Merchants: 1778-1810

A Social History of colonial Latin America should endeavor to trace the patterns of behavior of the various social groups within the society. Group behavior can be viewed from a number of different perspectives. Among the more important variables are political behavior, economic behavior, social behavior and religious behavior. Religious participation and involvement is one of the more interesting of these variables, especially in Latin America, where the Catholic Church has traditionally been a social institution powerfully affecting all others. The Church and the upper social groups have often functioned in a symbiotic relationship one to another, with the Church providing a measure of social prestige and temporal power in exchange for economic and/or political support. This essay, based on a study of 178 wholesale merchants, seeks to interpret the relationships established between the Church and the economically and socially powerful merchant group in late eighteenth century Buenos Aires. At the same time, the essay attempts to illustrate that in studying the religious participation of a specific social group, the role of religion as an indicator of social prestige and power becomes dramatically apparent.

Religious Participation of the Porteño Merchants: 1778-1810

A Social History of colonial Latin America should endeavor to trace the patterns of behavior of the various social groups within the society. Group behavior can be viewed from a number of different perspectives. Among the more important variables are political behavior, economic behavior, social behavior and religious behavior. Religious participation and involvement is one of the more interesting of these variables, especially in Latin America, where the Catholic Church has traditionally been a social institution powerfully affecting all others. The Church and the upper social groups have often functioned in a symbiotic relationship one to another, with the Church providing a measure of social prestige and temporal power in exchange for economic and/or political support. This essay, based on a study of 178 wholesale merchants, seeks to interpret the relationships established between the Church and the economically and socially powerful merchant group in late eighteenth century Buenos Aires. At the same time, the essay attempts to illustrate that in studying the religious participation of a specific social group, the role of religion as an indicator of social prestige and power becomes dramatically apparent.

Social behavior in stump-tailed macaques (Macaca speciosa) after lesions of the dorsolateral frontal cortex

This experiment observed the effects of dorsolateral frontal cortex ablations on quantified social interactions of stump-tail macaques within the context of the social behavior of a larger group. A caged group of 11 stump-tail macaques, six females and five males, was observed for 100 hours pre-operatively. Post-operatively, five operates and five sham operates matched for sex, age, and rank were observed for 110 hours. Aggression increased following surgery. The female operates ranked No. 3 and No. 5 were seen to fall to the bottom of the dominance hierarchy two months after surgery. The fall in dominance as measured by displacement behavior was found to permeate several behavioral categories including presenting, threatening, and aggression. The female operates appeared to fall in inverse relationship to their ranks. The male operates showed minimal disruptions after surgery. The length of the time between surgery and the outbreak of violence might represent the length of time required for subordinates to notice and confirm the behaviors resulting from attentional defects in the high-ranking female operates.

Technical requirements for the recording of significant social signals in squirrel monkey groups

The technical requirements are described for recording important data on social behavior in monkey groups. Visually discernible signals are recorded by means of motion pictures. The acoustical signals emitted by the animals are transmitted and recorded individually for each monkey. The locomotion of the animals is acquired by means of ultrasonic position location. Both the transmission of the acoustical signals and the data of the direction finding are performed by a mutual telemetric system. The apparatuses are synchronized to enable a time coordination of the individually acquired data for evaluation.

THE STATISTICAL DESCRIPTION OF POLARIZATION PHENOMENA IN SOCIETY†

Statistical models based on probability laws, and originally used for the description of the dynamic development of an ensemble of interacting spins, are reformulated in order to study the structure of social groups of individuals mutually influencing each other with respect to their decision behaviour. After a description of the general features of these models, and relating them to the polarization phenomena in society, a quantitative model is developed which can be compared with the decision behaviour of social groups.

Factors of interpersonal behavior and judgment in social groups.

This study explored dimensions which are used to describe persons within closely-knit social groups. Ss in the group were similar in socio-economic status and used two independent dimensions in describing one another: another's positive and negative reinforcing quality. The sociometric questionnaire which yielded these two factors is a potentially useful device for characterizing an individual within any social organization according to a four-fold classification: positively and negatively reinforcing to others, positively but not negatively reinforcing to others, negatively but not positively reinforcing, and neither positively nor negatively reinforcing. Correlations among the sociometric measures, personality measures, and sex showed that males were less affiliative and were judged as more negatively reinforcing than females.

The schizophrenia gene and social evolution.

The evolutionary persistence of the schizophrenia genes is discussed from the viewpoint that some beneficial attribute must be associated with the heterozygous or recessive condition to compensate for the dysgenic effects of the fully expressed disease in the homozygous schizophrenic patient. Previous hypotheses suggesting that superior creativity or greater resistance to physiological shock or stress are familial accompaniments of schizophrenia are briefly reviewed and rejected. An argument for an alternative hypothesis is offered which places the pro-survival characteristics of schizophrenia in the area of social relations and group behavior.

A Practice of Social Medicine

SOCIAL MEDICINE may be regarded as a practice of medicine concerned with health and disease as a function of group living. It is interested in the health of people in relation to their behaviour in social groups and as such is concerned with care of the individual patient as a member of a family and of other significant groups in his daily life. It is also concerned with the health of these groups as such and with that of the whole community as a community. Concern with the health needs of larger communities and territorial groups such as cities, regions and nations is also an important area of social medicine in which the public health physician is involved. Special interest groups have been the focus of attention of yet other practitioners of social medicine. Children at school, university students and occupational groups are among the more important of these groups for whom special health services, oriented to their specific needs, have been developed. Less formal groupings are now receiving increasing attention by those concerned with community health services, such as the family, in which the relationships between the members have intimate and enduring qualities. Other significant informal groups, in which face-to-face relationships are characteristic, are friendship groups, play groups of children and the neighbourhood community, in rural village or urban neighbourhood.

Social theory and minority group behaviour

Social theory and minority group behaviour

Contribution to the mathematical theory of human relations: VI. Periodic fluctuations in the behavior of social groups

A case of interaction between two groups of “active” and one group of “passive” individuals, in which the efforts of the influencing active groups decrease with increasing total success in the past, is studied. In that case the numbers of passive individuals, exhibiting respectively the two opposite behaviors, fluctuate periodically, with a positive damping.

The Sociologist and Social Action

WHAT has been the trend in the sociological field in the United States during the past thirty years regarding social problems and social action? Analysis of the content of a few of our sociological journals shows a decreasing proportion of space given to such matters as social service and charity work, race relations, penology, social legislation, labor and the economic order, civil liberties, government, and church activities. The American journal of Sociology, for instance, for the year I937-38, had i i articles out of 46 in these fields, roughly 23 percent. Thirty years ago in I907-08, The American Journal of Sociology had I7 out of 34 articles, or exactly So percent. In the American Sociological Review for 1937, there were only i i out of a total of 62 articles in this field. No article in either The American Journal of Sociology for I937-38 or the American Sociological Review recommended any specific social action. In The American Journal of Sociology thirty years previously, however, several articles urged specific types of action. Based on this and other evidence, sociology has been becoming more theoretical, more scientific, and less preoccupied in the field of social action than formerly. Most sociologists would doubtless agree that they should do research in the field of social phenomena. They would further agree that the field is complex, that predictability is difficult, and that quantitative methods cannot always be used with exactitude. On the other hand, we are coming more and more to the realization that, in spite of the complexity, there are certain patterns, sequences, and order in the behavior of a social group. Within limits, predictions can be made even about group response to certain stimuli and, increasingly, quantitative tabulations are being used. We are not agreed, however, as to the extent to which a sociologist should apply the sociological data which he secures through research to the field of social action. Some may say that such action behavior belongs to the social engineer rather than to the scientific sociologist. It is perhaps not always easy to agree as to where social action begins and teaching ends. For example, William G. Summer of Yale believed from his investigations into social phenomena that a high tariff was injurious to the group and should not be adopted. In doing this, he not only got into difficulty at Yale which almost cost him his position but he had certainly entered the field of social action. Investigation seems to indicate that a scientific sociologist, no matter how much he may desire to confine himself to research and teaching, finds it difficult to isolate the sociologist, as a scientist, from the sociologist who is

The Family Budget as a Tool for Sociological Analysis

This study discusses the use of budgetary analyses by the rural sociologists for the purpose of grasping and understanding some of the chief effects of urbanization or ruralization upon the behavior of social groups. Studies of budgetary behavior have been carried on with profit for more than two hundred and fifty years, yet much is still to be done. The works of Engel and LePlay suggest that an understanding of many effects of urbanization upon social behavior may be grasped through the use of budgetary analyses. Studies made by the Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station suggest that the organization of the rural budget is primarily about their land and real property. On the other hand, urbanization increases the organization of the budget about the individualand adds to the number of choices and decisions that must be made. Further, a summary of some characteristics of living or budgetary behavior indicates that the value of such studies is increased by the use of intercorrelations of many fields of behavior. This means that the sociologist have an opportunity and an obligation in making such studies. Some principles or social laws not ordinarily given in such studies are suggested. The footnotes include a bibliography of the more important studies and a reference to the chief articles on methodology in this field.