Competitive Social Environment Research Articles

Analysis of the Phenomenon of Involution among Young People

"Involution" among young people refers to the continuous efforts of the young generation in pursuit of better grades, career development, and quality of life in today's competitive social environment. This phenomenon reflects the problems of the current education system because the school evaluation system focuses too much on scores and rankings. It is also associated with a highly competitive job market. As the economy slows down, young people are facing increasing pressure to find a job. There is also the phenomenon of "involution" in pursuing a better quality of life. With the popularity of social media and the advent of the information age, many young people measure their happiness by comparing themselves with others in terms of material conditions and travel experiences. This comparison mentality encourages them to constantly exert pressure on the outside world and chase the so-called "success" standard. In this context, this paper studies the characteristics, causes, and problems of the phenomenon of involution among young people in China. According to analysis, it is concluded that the phenomenon of "involution" exhibits evident utilitarian characteristics and can weaken team collaboration. It is mainly caused by parental expectations, societal norms and values, and the education system. The "involution" phenomenon leads to excessive competition and an unbalanced distribution of resources. In addition, it also hurts the education system and brings negative impacts on the workplace.

Research on the application of big data mining technology based on neural network

In the development of social construction, all walks of life have the application of data mining technology, with the continuous development of science and technology, data mining technology can not only use the hidden law to solve the problem of time, but also can grasp more valuable data in the increasingly competitive social environment. Originally, after understanding the application research status of big data mining technology, based on the application of big data mining technology with neural network as the core, empirical analysis was carried out with Guanhealth big data intelligent analysis system as an example, in order to verify the unique value of data mining technology.

Prosocial behavior in competitive fish: the case of the archerfish

Humans are social creatures, demonstrate prosocial behaviors, and are sensitive to the actions and consequent payoff of others. This social sensitivity has also been found in many other species, though not in all. Research has suggested that prosocial tendencies are more pronounced in naturally cooperative species whose social structure requires a high level of interdependence and allomaternal care. The present study challenges this assumption by demonstrating, in a laboratory setting, that archerfish, competitive by nature, preferred targets rewarding both themselves and their tankmates, but only when the payoff was equal. With no tankmate on the other side of the partition, they exhibited no obvious preference. Finding evidence for prosocial behavior and negative responses to unequal distribution of reward to the advantage of the other fish suggests that in a competitive social environment, being prosocial may be the most adaptive strategy for personal survival, even if it benefits others as well.

Cities in Competition: Is There a Link between Entrepreneurship and Development?

Cities operate in a competitive social environment requiring local authorities to adopt marketing strategies with significant economic ratings. City marketing that is related to the meaning of a city’s name encourages activities in the city or region. The present study adopted a quantitative survey on a sample of 152 employees in companies to explore how important marketing is perceived for a city’s development. The research was done in Trikala, a city in Greece. The key conclusion was that the more critical the participants consider the interventions in the city’s natural environment, the more they believe that the city can benefit from corporate sponsorships. Subsequently, it appeared that the more they support the interventions in the structured environment of the city, the less they consider that corporate sponsorships can benefit it. It was explained that structured interventions usually involve very high investments that require funding from the central government, as sponsorships are not enough. The most substantial positive relationship was found between the importance of interventions in employment, entrepreneurship and tourism, and the importance of business sponsorships.

"The Hunger Games" on and off Campus: An Educational Sociological Analysis of the Documentary Please Vote for Me

This paper takes the three students who participated in the monitor election in the documentary Please Vote for Me and their families as the analysis object, starting from the family of origin, parent-child relationship, school education and so on to explore the causes of vicious competition behind the campus election and the ways to deal with the problem jointly. When the power comes to the underage children for the first time, how the children fight for it in a virtuous and fair manner has become a thorny educational issue which has been neglected for a long time. When parents who have been reformed by society teach their children "campaign experience" in person, the children's campaign in school has become a "hunger game" for adults behind the scenes. Ignoring the educational significance of the campus election process and focusing only on the election results will lead to children's wrong understanding of the original meaning of competition, which will sow the butterfly effect of malignant influence for them to enter the society later. The utilitarianism caused by the highly competitive social environment has created parents anxious about education, and the small class campaign documented in this documentary is an externalized presentation of social and educational issues. The optimization of the social environment, the change of parents' values and the follow-up of school education is a trilogy to improve the character of the next generation.

The evolutionary drivers of primate scleral coloration

The drivers of divergent scleral morphologies in primates are currently unclear, though white sclerae are often assumed to underlie human hyper-cooperative behaviours. Humans are unusual in possessing depigmented sclerae whereas many other extant primates, including the closely-related chimpanzee, possess dark scleral pigment. Here, we use phylogenetic generalized least squares (PGLS) analyses with previously generated species-level scores of proactive prosociality, social tolerance (both n = 15 primate species), and conspecific lethal aggression (n = 108 primate species) to provide the first quantitative, comparative test of three existing hypotheses. The ‘self-domestication’ and ‘cooperative eye’ explanations predict white sclerae to be associated with cooperative, rather than competitive, environments. The ‘gaze camouflage’ hypothesis predicts that dark scleral pigment functions as gaze direction camouflage in competitive social environments. Notably, the experimental evidence that non-human primates draw social information from conspecific eye movements is unclear, with the latter two hypotheses having recently been challenged. Here, we show that white sclerae in primates are associated with increased cooperative behaviours whereas dark sclerae are associated with reduced cooperative behaviours and increased conspecific lethal violence. These results are consistent with all three hypotheses of scleral evolution, suggesting that primate scleral morphologies evolve in relation to variation in social environment.

School Principals' Informal Criteria in Assessing Their Teachers: A Comparative Study

Teacher appraisal is a necessary tool to manage staff, hire new candidates, and develop senior members. Principals use formal quantitative tools that reflect the competitive social environments in which schools operate. This study explores school principals' informal attitudes regarding the personal and professional traits they believe teachers should have or not have. Following Yariv's (2009) study we compare heads in four countries – Botswana, Romania, India, and Israel. Within a non-random convenience sampling, we held a short telephone interview (or written questionnaire) with 132 elementary and high school principals. The two most preferred traits in the entire sample were high motivation and accountability. As it turns out, school principals are less impressed by traits like professionalism or honesty. The two least preferred traits are the poorly motivated teachers and those who lack professional values and conduct. Phi and Cramer’s V test indicated a significant association between nationality and the traits of effective and ineffective teachers. The discussion analyzes the hierarchy of considerations principals maintain and the central role of the common characteristics of principalship upon national and cultural influences.

Переживание социального исключения: разработка и апробация опросника

<p>Objective. The aim of the study is to develop and test a scale that would measure the volume and intensity of social exclusion experience in interpersonal relationships in a dyad and a small group.Background. In modern highly competitive social environments, interpersonal interactions include a significant number of practices of social exclusion. However, to date, there is no domestic scale that would measure the individual (reflected) experience and its intensity.Study design. The study was carried out using a socio-psychological survey.Participants. In total, 468 people took part in the study: at the first stage — 116 people (average age 23,5), at the second stage — 352 people (average age 21,45).Measurements. The survey scale “Experiencing social exclusion (ESE)” was developed and validated, consisting of three subscales: “Experiencing school bullying”, “Experiencing rejection in a dyad”, “Experiencing exclusion from status figures”.Results. Consistent and retest reliability and validity of the method have been proven. The main types of interactions in which a person gets the experience of social exclusion, the volume and intensity of his experience have been determined.Conclusions. The scale can be used both for research and for applied purposes.</p>

Modelling the Impact of Tourism on Mental Health of Chinese Residents: An Empirical Study

In the highly competitive social environment, people are facing psychological problems of anxiety, tension, and depression. This paper mainly examines the impact of tourism on negative emotions. This article uses the 2016 cross‐sectional data of the Chinese Family Panel Studies (CFPS) to observe the relationship between household tourism expenditures and the emotions of family members. We used the Probit model and instrumental variables and selected two types of negative emotions as indicators to measure the mental health to establish a model together with economic indicators such as family tourism expenditure and other economic activity expenditures. The empirical results show that families spending on tourism have low probability of negative emotions or mental problems (P < 0.01). There are positive effects between family tourism activities and members' mental health. It can be seen that tourism is an effective way to alleviate national mental health problems.

Adult sex ratio and male body condition affect alternative reproductive tactics in a spider

AbstractBiases in adult sex ratios can alter the intensity of sexual selection by enhancing competition for mates. Under intense competition males increase their investment in behaviors to outcompete rivals (e.g., fighting). Yet, given that in male-biased environments mating opportunities are rare males may alternatively reduce costly courtship and/or adopt alternative reproductive tactics (ARTs). Males of the spider Pisaura mirabilis adopt different mating tactics, offering females genuine nuptial gifts (prey), nutritionally worthless gifts (prey leftovers), or no gifts. To test whether behavioral shifts between gift tactics are triggered by changes in the competitive environment, we established replicate spider populations under natural conditions at varying adult sex ratios (male-biased, female-biased and equal) and sampled gift tactics repeatedly over time. We additionally explored how male individual traits, such as body size and condition, affect the expression of ARTs. In male-biased populations males produced more gifts but of low quality, suggesting competition to trigger increased mating effort to ensure mate acquisition and fertilizations, but through a worthless gift tactic. Production of gifts and of genuine gifts was favored by high body condition, pointing to energetic limitations as being central for male reproductive capacity. We hence highlight two co-existing mechanisms at play to explain ARTs in this system, the competitive social environment where expression of gift tactics is based on optimal-decision making to overcome competition, and a conditional strategy linked to the individual’s energetic state.

Silent Competition among Students: How Schadenfreude and Social Envy Influence Rating-based Achievement Motivation

Schadenfreude and social envy have attracted human interest for thousands of years. However, little is know about how they influence achievement motivation in a hierarchical and competitive social environment. To overcome this problem, inspired by Mayer and Salovey’s (1997) emotional intelligence theory, the author develops rivals' anticipated emotions (RAE) and models how the sense of being envied and become the schadenfreude target influence the motivation to avoid the decrease of or to increase current competitive position. The study follows Higgin's (1997) self-regulatory framework in students' context. In the schadenfreude scenario, as part of self-protection, the study proposes that the sense of being a schadenfreude target, represented by rivals' anticipated joyfulness (RAJ), influences students' motivation to avoid the decrease of current competitive position (prevention focus), especially for those who occupy upper and medium positions. Rivals' anticipated distress (RAD) that represents the sense of being envied stimulates students' motivation to increase competitive position (promotion focus), especially for those who occupy the lower and medium position. When working together, the RAJ and RAD stimulate promotion and avoidance motivations simultaneously, especially among mediocre students. Future researchers can widen their investigation into intergroup schadenfreude and social envy research domains.

Anorexia nervosa: A literature review

Introduction: Anorexia nervosa is a food intake disorder characterized by acute weight loss that it could cause severe psychosomatic problems. Purpose: To present the data and information as well as the treatment related to Anorexia nervosa. Materials and methods: The study material consisted of reviewed articles on the topic found in Greek and globally accepted electronic databases, Pubmed, Scopus, Medline, Google Scholar, regarding the effects of Anorexia nervosa on health and its treatment. Results: Initial symptoms of Anorexia nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa may be characterised by body-related negative interpretation bias, distorted body image and pronounced body dissatisfaction. Anorexic patients refuse to eat with their family or in public places. They lose weight by drastically reducing their total food intake, with a disproportionate reduction in the amount of meals containing carbohydrates and fats. The term Anorexia is unfortunate, because a decrease in appetite does not occur. Patients are constantly hungry and they are constantly thinking about food, but they refuse it. An indication of their way of thinking is that they often collect recipes or prepare complex meals for others. Conclusions: Anorexia nervosa is a disease that connects the physical with the mental dimension of health. A person's disharmonious relationship with oneself, which may have its roots in a dysfunctional family context or in a demanding and competitive social environment, finds the way to be manifested through the individual's reflection on food.

Social and competitive threat as situational factors moderating relationships between moral judgments and different components of authoritarian ideology

This paper presents research on the complexity of moral judgments underlying two components of authoritarian ideology: right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) and social dominance orientation (SDO). Based on previous research, it was expected that people who were high on moral intuitions of Ingroup/loyalty and Authority/respect (Ethics of Community) should be high on RWA, whereas people who were high on moral intuitions of Care/harm and Fairness/reciprocity (Ethics of Autonomy) should be low on SDO. In more detailed hypotheses it was assumed that such general relationships would be moderated by situational factors - threat to social order and competitive threat, respectively. Two experimental studies were conducted: the first with manipulation of the threat to social order, and the second with manipulation of the competitive threat (N = 180 and 150, respectively). Both studies showed that Ethics of Community predicted clear increase in RWA, while the Ethics of Autonomy predicted considerable decrease in SDO. However positive relationships between Ingroup/loyalty and RWA as well as between Authority/respect and RWA were strongly reinforced by threat to social order, whereas the negative relationships between Care/harm and SDO as well as between Fairness/reciprocity and SDO diminished under situationally induced aggressive ‘Darwinian’ competition. The Ethics of Community appears as a moral basis for development of right-wing authoritarianism, and this relationship is especially strong when the social order is perceived as threatened. On the other hand, the Ethics of Autonomy can be seen as a moral basis for inhibition of social dominance orientation, but it loses the moral relevance in strongly competitive social environment.

Does the response of D. melanogaster males to intrasexual competitors influence sexual isolation?

AbstractThe evolutionary consequences of phenotypic plasticity are debated. For example, reproductive barriers between incipient species can depend on the social environment, but most evidence for this comes from studies focusing on the effects of experiencing heterospecific individuals of the opposite sex. In Drosophila melanogaster, males are well known to invest strategically in ejaculate components and show different courtship behavior when reared in the presence of male competitors. It is unknown whether such plasticity in response to same-sex social experience influences sexual isolation, so we tested this using African and cosmopolitan lines, which show partial sexual isolation. Males were housed in social isolation, with homopopulation, or with heteropopulation male partners. We then measured their mating success, latency, and duration, their paternity share, and female remating success. Isolated males copulated for a shorter duration than males housed with any male partners. However, we found no difference in any measure between homopopulation or heteropopulation treatments. Our findings suggest that the male intrasexual competitive social environment does not strongly influence sexual isolation in D. melanogaster, and that plastic effects on reproductive isolation may be influenced more strongly by the experience of social isolation than by the composition of individuals within different social environments.

Social Environment and Individual Differences in Feeding Behavior Are Associated with Risk of Endometritis in Dairy Cows.

Simple SummaryThe aim of this study was to determine how individual differences in behavior affect disease risk in Holstein dairy cows housed in two different social environments: (1) a predictable and non-competitive social environment and (2) an unpredictable and competitive social environment. Individual differences in feed intake and feeding behavior before calving were associated with cytological endometritis post-calving; however, the direction and magnitude of these effects were dependent on the social environment. These results provide the first evidence that individual differences in feeding behavior affect cytological endometritis risk differently depending on the social environment.Our aim was to determine whether individual differences in feeding and social behavior in different social environments affect health outcomes in dairy cows. We used eight groups of four animals per treatment assigned to either a ‘predictable’ or an ‘unpredictable’ and competitive social environment. Predictable cows were given free access to six feed bins with no change in feed delivery times; whereas, the unpredictable cows were required to share one feed bin with one resident cow and morning feed was delayed 0, 1, 2, or 3 h every other day. On alternate days, the unpredictable cows were also re-assigned to a new bin and a new resident partner. Low daily dry matter intake (DMI) was a risk factor for cytological endometritis in predictable cows (odds ratio (OR) (95% confidence interval): 0.17 (0.02, 0.53)), but low daily DMI was protective for unpredictable cows (OR: 1.93 (1.09, 4.14)). Although low rate of DMI (kg/min) was a risk factor for cytological endometritis for predictable cows (OR: 4.2 × 10−101 (8.6 × 10−206, 4.8 × 10−30)) it was unrelated to disease for unpredictable cows. There were no associations between feed bin visits or percentage of non-nutritive visits with the likelihood of cytological endometritis. This is the first evidence that individual differences in feeding behavior influence cytological endometritis risk in dairy cows, but the direction and magnitude of these effects is dependent on the social environment.

From Traditional to Transnational: The Chung Family History as a Case Example

A harmonious family of three generations living under one roof is often an assumed image of a Chinese traditional family. In reality, few Chinese families resemble this image. My article uses the Chung family history to illustrate how a family in rural Guangdong, South China, experienced a fast social ascent or descent in one generation. Its history reveals many aspects of Chinese family tradition, such as filial piety, equal inheritance system among sons, or education as an important family agenda. The rise and fall of this family also helps us understand the competitive social environment of Guangdong that sent hundreds of thousand immigrants overseas in the mid-nineteenth and early twentieth century. When some members of the Chung family migrated overseas, other members followed. The Chung lineage, similar to numerous Cantonese immigrant families in America, became transnational in culture.

Exposure to a competitive social environment activates an epigenetic mechanism that limits pheomelanin synthesis in zebra finches.

Competitive environments promote high testosterone levels, produce oxidative stress and, consequently, impair cellular homeostasis. The regulation of genes involved in the synthesis of the pigment pheomelanin in melanocytes seems to help to maintain homeostasis against environmental oxidative stress. Here, we experimentally increased social interactions in some zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata) males by keeping them in groups of six birds during feather growth, while others were kept alone, to test if melanocytes show epigenetic lability under a competitive social environment. As these changes may depend on the oxidative status, we administrated buthionine sulfoximine (BSO) to decrease the antioxidant capacity of some birds. The competitive environment downregulated a gene involved in pheomelanin synthesis (Slc7a11) by changing the level of DNA methylation in feather melanocytes. In other genes involved in pheomelanin synthesis (Slc45a2, MC1R and AGRP), DNA methylation was also affected, but no changes in expression were detected. Exposure to the competitive environment did not affect systemic oxidative stress and damage, indicating that a protective epigenetic mechanism that changes the expression of Slc7a11 may have been activated. However, no changes to the pigmentation phenotype of birds were found, probably due to the short duration or low intensity of the competitive environment. BSO treatment did not affect the epigenetic mechanism, suggesting that the antioxidant capacity of birds was high enough to deal with the competitive environment. An epigenetic mechanism limiting pheomelanin synthesis therefore becomes activated under exposure to a competitive environment in male zebra finches, which may help to avoid damage caused by competitive interactions.

Communal breeding affects offspring behaviours associated with a competitive social environment

Communal breeding is characterised by shared care of offspring produced by more than one female, and can affect the behavioural development of young. The decision to care communally can vary according to local conditions, and has been hypothesised to occur more frequently when social competition is intense. However, it is unknown whether communal rearing of young influences adult behaviours likely to be adaptive under competitive conditions. Here, using a controlled experimental approach, we investigate effects of communal rearing on competitive and exploratory behaviours of adult male house mice. In tests of competitive scent marking, only communally-reared subjects discriminated between related and unrelated rivals, depositing more scent marks in close proximity to unrelated males. Communally-reared subjects also displayed higher exploratory tendencies, with an increased probability of crossing a water barrier, while not exhibiting higher activity levels in an open field test. Since exploration tendencies and discrimination between kin and non-kin are likely to be advantageous when dispersing from the natal territory or in a high density population, our findings suggest that communal rearing prepares male house mice for a competitive social environment. Our results add to growing evidence that the early social environment influences development of important behavioural competences to cope with social challenges later in life.

From the Streets: Public and Private Space in an Early Maya City

Modern life in cities involves perpetual tensions between private and public spaces evoking the question whether such tensions existed when cities first emerged. This paper investigates such tensions at the lowland Maya site of Nixtun-Ch’ich’ in Peten, Guatemala. The city developed along with other such settlements in the Maya region, sometime between 2800 and 2500 years ago. This anomalous site has the earliest known rectangular urban grid in the Americas. Such grids have not been found in other preColumbian Maya settlements. Gridded urban space requires the invention of public space, streets, and the grid. Even with these three characteristics present, they require social mechanisms (city planning and the means to implement the plan) capable of “rationalizing” city space. They also necessitate the power to regulate public spaces if the grid is to exist over long periods of time. The gridded streets of Nixtun-Ch’ich’ seem to be the most public of all spaces at the site. Nevertheless, a longue duree examination of the site reveals that private space gradually extended into and decreased the size of public space. These transformations tend to suggest a shift from a more cooperative to a more competitive social environment, which may correlate with elaborated social differentiation and segmentation.

Exposure to an unpredictable and competitive social environment affects behavior and health of transition dairy cows

Social factors are important determinants of disease in humans and and laboratory animals, but less research has been done using farm animals. The objective of this study was to determine if an unpredictable and competitive social environment affects behavior and health during the transition period when dairy cows are at high risk of disease. Five weeks before calving, 64 cows were assigned to a predictable and noncompetitive social environment (predictable) or an unpredictable and competitive social environment (unpredictable) using 8 groups of 4 animals per treatment. Each group consisted of 3 multiparous and 1 primiparous cow. At first enrollment (baseline; 5 wk before calving), all groups had access to 4 electronic feed bins. At 4 wk before calving, cows in the predictable groups were given access to 6 feed bins, and cows in the unpredictable groups were moved into a new pen with 4 resident cows each trained to consume feed from one bin. Each cow in the unpredictable group was then provided access to only 1 of the 4 feed bins which they shared with 1 resident cow (resulting in 2 cows/bin), creating a competitive feeding environment. To create an unpredictable environment, access to morning feed was delayed 0, 1, 2, or 3 h every other day. On alternate days, the cows in unpredictable groups were assigned to feed from a new feed bin (and thus had to compete with a new resident partner). Feeding and social behavior were collected electronically from the feed bins. Blood was sampled at baseline (wk -5), wk -2, wk -1, and wk +1 relative to calving to measure inflammatory (haptoglobin and tumor necrosis factor-α) and metabolic (nonesterified fatty acids, β-hydroxybutyrate, calcium, and glucose) biomarkers. Uterine cytology was performed 3 to 5 wk after calving to diagnose cytological endometritis. Data were analyzed using mixed models including baseline data as a covariate, week as a repeated measure, treatment as a main effect, and a treatment by week interaction. The probability of cytological endometritis at the group level was analyzed using Mann-Whitney U tests. Parity was included in separate models to determine any parity × treatment interactions. Cows from both treatments consumed the same amount of feed, but cows in the unpredictable group spent less time feeding and had a higher rate of feed intake. Cows in the unpredictable groups also visited the feed bins less often, consumed more feed during each visit, and were involved in more social replacements at the feed bin compared with predictable groups. Cows in the unpredictable groups had higher serum concentrations of nonesterified fatty acids and tumor necrosis factor-α, but lower β-hydroxybutyrate compared with predictable groups. Multiparous cows in unpredictable groups were more likely to be diagnosed with cytological endometritis after calving compared with cows in the predictable groups, but primiparous cows in unpredictable groups showed a tendency for the opposite response. These results suggest that an unpredictable and competitive social environment before calving causes changes in feeding and social behavior, some physiological indicators of metabolism and inflammation, and increases the risk of uterine disease in multiparous cows after calving.