Function Of Social Context Research Articles

Electrophysiological signatures of inequity-dependent reward encoding in the human OFC

Social decision making requires the integration of reward valuation and social cognition systems, both dependent on the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC). How these two OFC functions interact is largely unknown. We recorded intracranial activity from the OFC of ten patients making choices in a social context where reward inequity with a social counterpart varied and could be either advantageous or disadvantageous. We find that OFC high-frequency activity (HFA; 70-150Hz) encodes self-reward, consistent with previous reports. We also observe encoding of the social counterpart's reward, as well as the type of inequity being experienced. Additionally, we find evidence of inequity-dependent reward encoding: depending on the type of inequity, electrodes rapidly and reversibly switch between different reward-encoding profiles. These results provide direct evidence for encoding of self- and other rewards in the human OFC and highlight the dynamic nature of encoding in the OFC as a function of social context.

Timing of Violence Exposure and Girls' Temperament Stability From Childhood to Adolescence.

Individual differences in temperament (e.g., negative emotionality) are robust early predictors of emotional and behavioral health. Although temperament is often conceptualized as relatively stable across the lifespan, evidence suggests that it may change over time as a function of social context. Extant studies have been limited by cross-sectional or short-term longitudinal designs that have precluded tests of stability as well as factors that may influence stability across developmental periods. In addition, few studies have tested the impact of social contexts that are common for children living in urban and under-resourced environments, such as exposure to community violence. In the present study we hypothesized that levels of negative emotionality, activity, and shyness would decrease across development from childhood to mid-adolescence as a function of early exposure to violence in the Pittsburgh Girls Study, a community study of girls enriched for families living in low-resourced neighborhoods. Temperament was assessed by parent- and teacher-report on the Emotionality Activity Sociability Shyness Temperament Survey in childhood (5-8-years-old), early-adolescence (11-years-old), and mid-adolescence (15-years-old). Violence exposure (e.g., victim of or witness to violent crime, exposure to domestic violence) was assessed annually via child and parent report. Results showed that on average, combined caregiver and teacher reports of negative emotionality and activity level exhibited small but significant reductions from childhood to adolescence, whereas shyness remained stable. Violence exposure in early adolescence predicted increases in negative emotionality and shyness by mid-adolescence. Violence exposure was not associated with stability of activity level. Our findings suggest that exposure to violence, particularly in early adolescence, amplifies individual differences in shyness and negative emotionality, underlying an important pathway of risk for developmental psychopathology.

Executive Functions in Social Context: Implications for Conceptualizing, Measuring, and Supporting Developmental Trajectories.

Success in life is linked to executive functions, a collection of cognitive processes that support goal-directed behaviors. Executive functions is an umbrella term related to cognitive control, self-control, and more. Variations in executive functioning predict concurrent success in schooling, relationships, and behavior, as well as important life outcomes years later. Such findings may suggest that certain individuals are destined for good executive functioning and success. However, environmental influences on executive function and development have long been recognized. Recent research in this tradition demonstrates the power of social contextual influences on children's engagement of executive functions. Such findings suggest new interpretations of why individuals differ in executive functioning and associated life outcomes, including across cultures and socioeconomic statuses. These findings raise fundamental questions about how best to conceptualize, measure, and support executive functioning across diverse contexts. Future research addressing real-world dynamics and computational mechanisms will elucidate how executive functioning emerges in the world.

A Neurobehavioral Mechanism Linking Behaviorally Inhibited Temperament and Later Adolescent Social Anxiety

Behavioral inhibition (BI) is a temperament identified in early childhood that is a risk factor for later social anxiety. However, mechanisms underlying the development of social anxiety remain unclear. To better understand the emergence of social anxiety, longitudinal studies investigating changes at behavioral neural levels are needed. BI was assessed in the laboratory at 2 and 3 years of age (N= 268). Children returned at 12 years, and an electroencephalogram was recorded while children performed a flanker task under 2 conditions: once while believing they were being observed by peers and once while not being observed. This methodology isolated changes in error monitoring (error-related negativity) and behavior (post-error reaction time slowing) as a function of social context. At 12 years, current social anxiety symptoms and lifetime diagnoses of social anxiety were obtained. Childhood BI prospectively predicted social-specific error-related negativity increases and social anxiety symptoms in adolescence; these symptoms directly related to clinical diagnoses. Serial mediation analysis showed that social error-related negativity changes explained relations between BI and social anxiety symptoms (n= 107) and diagnosis (n= 92), but only insofar as social context also led to increased post-error reaction time slowing (a measure of error preoccupation); this model was not significantly related to generalized anxiety. Results extend prior work on socially induced changes in error monitoring and error preoccupation. These measures could index a neurobehavioral mechanism linking BI to adolescent social anxiety symptoms and diagnosis. This mechanism could relate more strongly to social than to generalized anxiety in the peri-adolescent period.

Doublesex alters aggressiveness as a function of social context and sex in the polyphenic beetle Onthophagus taurus

Despite sharing nearly the same genome, individuals within the same species can vary drastically in both morphology and behaviour as a function of developmental stage, sex or developmental plasticity. Thus, regulatory processes must exist that enable the stage-, sex- or environment-specific expression of traits and their integration during ontogeny, yet exactly how trait complexes are co-regulated and integrated is poorly understood. In this study, we explore the developmental genetic basis of the regulation and integration of environment-dependent sexual dimorphism in behaviour and morphology in the horn-polyphenic dung beetle Onthophagus taurus through the experimental manipulation of the transcription factor doublesex (dsx). The gene dsx plays a profound role in the developmental regulation of morphological differences between sexes as well as alternative male morphs by inhibiting horn formation in females but enabling nutrition-responsive horn growth in males. Specifically, we investigated whether experimental downregulation of dsx expression affects male and female aggressive and courtship behaviours in two social contexts: interactions between individuals of the same sex and interactions between males and females. We find that dsx downregulation significantly alters aggressiveness in both males and females, yet does so differently for both sexes as a function of social context: dsxRNAi males exhibited elevated aggression towards males but showed reduced aggression towards females, whereas dsxRNAi females became more aggressive towards males, while their aggressiveness towards other females was unaffected. Moreover, we document unexpectedly high levels of female aggression independent of dsx treatment in both wild-type and control-injected individuals. Lastly, we found no effects of dsxRNAi on courtship and mating behaviours. We discuss the role of dsx in the regulation of sex-specific and plastic behaviours, the unexpectedly high levels of aggression of hornless dsxRNAi males in relation to the well-established description of the hornless sneaker phenotype and the potential ecological function of high female aggression.

OFFENSIVE LANGUAGES IN BAD BOYS 2

This research focuses on the forms of offensive language and the functions in social context found in Bad Boys 2 movie. The writer applied some methods, such as data source, data collection, and data analysis. The data source of this research was Bad Boys 2 movie’s script. The movie is chosen because there are many expressions consisting of offensive language. The library research technique was used in collecting the data by quoting the sentences that support the topic of discussion. In analyzing the data, the writer applied the offensive language theory proposed by Timothy Jay (1992) in his book entitled Cursing in America and the theory of speech function proposed by Janet Holmes (1992) in his book entitled An Introduction to Sociolinguistics as the main theory. The analysis in this paper was also supported by other references which are related to this topic. The result of this research shows that there are only eight forms found in the data source. They are cursing, profanity, taboo, obscenity, vulgarity, slang, epithets, insult and slur.

Commentary on Salvatore et al. (2017): Dyadic research can clarify non-shared environmental influences on alcohol use disorder and divorce.

Commentary on Salvatore et al. (2017): Dyadic research can clarify non-shared environmental influences on alcohol use disorder and divorce.

Preclinical laboratory assessments of predictors of social rank in female cynomolgus monkeys.

Physiological and behavioral differences between dominant and subordinate monkeys have been useful in preclinical models investigating numerous disease states. In captivity, it has been inferred that subordinate monkeys live in a context of chronic social stress and may be at risk for a variety of dysfunctions; however, the factors that influence eventual rank are not entirely known. The goal of the present study was to first evaluate several phenotypic characteristics as potential trait markers for eventual social rank and then to determine the consequences of social hierarchy on these measures (i.e., state markers). Baseline estradiol, progesterone, cortisol and testosterone concentrations were obtained from 16 pair-housed female cynomolgus monkeys before and after introduction into new social groups (n = 4/group). Furthermore, effects of the initial week of social rank establishment on outcome measures of cognitive performance and homecage activity were examined. Baseline body weight and mean serum estradiol concentrations were the only statistically significant predictors of eventual rank, with future subordinate monkeys weighing less and having higher estradiol concentrations. During initial hierarchy establishment, future subordinate monkeys had increased morning and afternoon cortisol concentrations, increased locomotor activity and impaired cognitive performance on a working memory task. After 3 months of social housing, subordinate monkeys had blunted circulating estradiol and progesterone concentrations. These findings demonstrate differential effects on gonadal hormones and cortisol as a function of social context in normally cycling female monkeys. Furthermore, disruptions in cognitive performance were associated with subordinate status, suggesting strong face validity of this model to the study of factors related to the etiology and treatment of human diseases associated with chronic stress. Am. J. Primatol. 78:402-417, 2016. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Altered Gesture and Speech Production in ASD Detract from In-Person Communicative Quality.

This study disentangled the influences of language and social processing on communication in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) by examining whether gesture and speech production differs as a function of social context. The results indicate that, unlike other adolescents, adolescents with ASD did not increase their coherency and engagement in the presence of a visible listener, and that greater coherency and engagement were related to lesser social and communicative impairments. Additionally, the results indicated that adolescents with ASD produced sparser speech and fewer gestures conveying supplementary information, and that both of these effects increased in the presence of a visible listener. Together, these findings suggest that interpersonal communication deficits in ASD are driven more strongly by social processing than language processing.

At Their Best When No One Is Watching: Decision Context Moderates the Effect of Envy on the Tendency Toward Self-Improvement

Consumer behavior often varies as a function of social context (public vs. private). This occurs in part because decisions that are made in public (vs. private) reflect self-presentational concerns, due to the fact that they have the potential to confer reputational costs and/or benefits. However, no research to date has examined if this widely acknowledged phenomenon might be affected by consumers’ emotions at the time of the decision. The current article addresses this by examining if incidental envy moderates the effect of social context on subsequent, unrelated self-bolstering behaviors. Across three studies, we find that although public (vs. private) social contexts generally promote self-bolstering behaviors (e.g., effort exertion, conspicuous consumption and charitable giving), this effect is attenuated among consumers who experience incidental envy prior to the decision task. We suggest that this pattern of results occurs because the potential reputational costs of self-bolstering behavior are more salient to those experiencing incidental envy, and discuss this process explanation. We conclude with a discussion of the practical and theoretical implications of this work.

Acute exposure to 17α-ethinylestradiol disrupts audience effects on male–male interactions in Siamese fighting fish, Betta splendens

Endocrine disrupting chemicals can have profound effects on the behavior of aquatic organisms residing in polluted waters. Males are especially sensitive to the effects of estrogen mimics and both courtship and aggression may be dramatically reduced by chemical exposure. Population-level impacts may occur if these chemicals decrease the ability of males to obtain mates or defend territories. Exposure might also have far-reaching impacts by interfering with information transfer within a network of individuals. For example, males exposed to an endocrine disruptor may be less sensitive to the presence of an audience. Male Siamese fighting fish were used to examine how short-term exposure to 17α-ethinylestradiol (EE2) alters audience effects on male-male interactions. Males either received a nominal dose of EE2 or remained unexposed and then interacted with an opponent in one of three treatments (female, male, or no audience). EE2 altered audience effects in this study. Opponent-directed gill flaring was lower when a female audience was present compared to when there was a male or no audience in both EE2 and control males. The number of opponent-directed tail beats did not differ as a function of audience type in EE2 males. In contrast, unexposed males increased opponent-directed tail beats when a female audience is present. Therefore, EE2 reduces the ability of males to communicate with multiple individuals simultaneously. If this is the case, endocrine disruptor exposure may alter population structure as selection should favor individuals that are able to readily adjust their signaling behavior as a function of social context.

The impact of social context on mimicry

Facial mimicry, the tendency to imitate other's facial expressions, has frequently been described as a reflex-like mechanism that function independent of the relationship between expresser and observer. However, there is also evidence suggesting that it is a social cue regulating social interactions and that consequently mimicry varies as a function of social context and the type of emotion expression shown. Two studies were conducted to the assess impact of social group membership and type of expression on facial mimicry. Results suggest that the level of facial mimicry varies as a function of group membership. Moreover, mimicry levels were influenced by the kind of emotion displayed by the expresser. Although participants mimicked happiness displays regardless of the expresser's group membership, negative emotions were either not mimicked or only when shown by an ingroup member.

Physiological Insights Into the Social-Context-Dependent Changes in the Rhythm of the Song Motor Program

Precisely timed behaviors are central to the survival of almost all organisms. Song is an example of a learned behavior under exquisite temporal control. Song tempo in zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata) is systematically modified depending on social context. When male zebra finches sing to females (directed), it is produced with a faster motor pattern compared with when they sing in isolation (undirected). We measured heart rate and air sac pressure during directed and undirected singing to quantify motivation levels and respiratory timing. Heart rate was significantly higher when male birds sang to females and was negatively correlated with song duration. The change in song tempo between directed and undirected song was accounted for by varying the duration of vocal expiratory events, whereas the duration of silent inspirations was unchanged. Song duration increased with repeated singing during directed song bouts, which was caused by a uniform increase in the duration of both expirations and inspirations. These results illustrate the importance of motivational state in regulating song tempo and demonstrate that multiple timing oscillators are necessary to control the rhythm of song. At least two different neural oscillators are required to control context-dependent changes in song tempo. One oscillator controlling expiratory duration varies as function of social context and another controlling inspiratory duration is fixed. In contrast, the song tempo change affecting expiratory and inspiratory duration within a directed bout of song could be achieved by slowing the output of a single oscillator.

Social context modulates behavioural and brain immediate early gene responses to sound in male songbird

Although it is well known that brain sensory information processing is a highly modulated phenomenon, how this brain function is shaped by experience and social context remains a question to explore. In this paper, we present the first attempt to investigate this problem using a songbird acoustic communication paradigm. Social context is well known to influence acoustic communicating behaviours in birds. The present paper investigates whether brain processing of auditory inputs can be modulated by this 'audience effect'. Given that call-based communication is known to be highly context-dependent, we focused on the response of male zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata) to female calls. We tested to see if the current social context surrounding the hearing bird can modify a sound-induced immediate early gene (IEG) activation in the specific region of the caudomedial nidopallium (NCM), a songbird brain analogous to the superficial layers of the mammalian primary auditory cortex. Our results show that the expression of the sound-induced immediate early gene ZENK in the NCM is considerably enhanced when the hearing bird is in the presence of conspecifics, compared to when he is alone. This context-dependent increase of a sound-induced immediate early gene expression can be correlated with the differential behavioural response of males to the playback of the same acoustic stimulus as a function of social context.

The social context of cognitive development

The Social Foundations of Cognitive Development. Introduction. Processes of Change: The How of Cognitive Development. The Sociocultural Context of Cognitive Development. The Development of Specific Higher Mental Functions in Social Context. Acquring Knowledge: Intersubjectivity, Joint Attention, and Social Referencing. Remembering: The Social Construction of the Past. Solving and Learning to Solve Problems in Social Context. Constructing the Future: Planning in Social Context. Conclusions and Future Directions.

Emotional Experience as a Function of Social Context: The Role of the Other

Inconsistencies in previous findings concerning the relationship between emotion and social context are likely to reflect the multi-dimensionality of the sociality construct. In the present study we focused on the role of the other person by manipulating two aspects of this role: co-experience of the event and expression of emotion. We predicted that another's co-experience and expression would affect emotional responses and that the direction of these effects would depend upon the manipulated emotion and how the role of the other person is appraised. Participants read vignettes eliciting four different emotions: happiness, sadness, anxiety, and anger. As well as an alone condition, there were four conditions in which a friend was present, either co-experiencing the event or merely observing it, and either expressing emotions consistent with the event or not showing any emotion. There were significant effects of co-experience in the case of anger situations, and of expression in the case of happiness and sadness situations. Social appraisal also appeared to influence emotional response. We discuss different processes that might be responsible for these results.

Affilation as an Intervening Variable: Covariation in Measures of Affiliation in a Reproductive and a Nonreporductive Group of Rhesus Macaques (Macaca mulatta)

Affiliation is often used as an intervening variable in behavioral studies of nonhuman primates. Variables used to measure affiliation should be strongly correlated if it is a valid intervening variable. Social context also should not strongly influence relationships between variables used to measure affiliation. Few studies have, however, reported either the correlations between variables used to assess affiliation or the influence of social context on relationships between the variables. Correlations between affiliative variables were therefore calculated on data from two groups of rhesus {Macaca mulatta)and influences of social context on these correlations were assessed. Affiliation was measured with 7 variables. Two methods were used to investigate the influence of social context: Analyses were made of interactions between several age/sex categories of individuals. Comparisons were made between an experimental group and a matched control group. There were higher rates of sexual behavior in the experimental group. The mature males in the experimental group were vasectomized so females did not conceive. In this group females had repeated nonpregnant estrous cycles. Males were intact in the control group. In this group the mature females conceived and were pregnant during data collection. The variables were significantly correlated across all social contexts. Affiliation may therefore be a useful intervening variable. The magnitude of the correlations between variables did vary considerably across social contexts. Sometimes the sign of the correlations between measures changed as a function of social context. Analyses of individual variables and their interrelationships may therefore be necessary for detailed understanding of the meaning of affiliative interactions in nonhuman primates.

Rank differences in the production of vocalizations by wild chimpanzees as a function of social context.

Rank differences in the production of vocalizations by wild, semihabituated, unprovisioned chimpanzees were investigated during a 10-month study in the Kibale Forest, Uganda. Vocalization rates were calculated from data collected during 230 hours of focal-animal sampling on adult females, adult males, and subadult males. Rates were calculated according to whether individuals were alone, with adult females only, or in mixed parties, and the results were compared with published data collected at the Gombe provisioning area. Adult females and low-ranking adult and sub-adult males were generally quiet except when they were in mixed parties, whereas high-ranking males vocalized in all social contexts. These results were in partial contrast to data collected at Gombe, which indicated that vocal production was similar across all age and sex classes. Vocal production at Gombe did, however, resemble that from mixed parties at Kibale, suggesting that the provisioning area at Gombe was comparable to a natural socioecological context occurring at large fruiting trees. It is suggested that low-ranking chimpanzees refrain from loud vocalizing when they are alone or with females only in order to avoid attracting feeding competition and/or potentially aggressive males. These individuals may vocalize when they are associating with high-ranking males in order to advertise the presence of large parties and to deter other individuals from joining them. The use of loud, interparty calls by high-ranking males, when alone or with others, is consistent with the greater sociality of adult male chimpanzees. Loud calling might be advantageous for adult males in attracting mates or allies. © 1993 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Girls' dating behavior as a function of social context and maturation.

Girls' dating behavior as a function of social context and maturation.

Girls' dating behavior as a function of social context and maturation.

Girls' dating behavior as a function of social context and maturation.