Social Individual Behavior Research Articles

Social order: Using the sequential structure of social interaction to discriminate abnormal social behavior in the rat

Social interactions form the basis of a broad range of functions related to survival and mating. The complexity of social behaviors and the flexibility required for normal social interactions make social behavior particularly susceptible to disruption. The consequences of developmental insults in the social domain and the associated neurobiological factors are commonly studied in rodents. Though methods for investigating social interactions in the laboratory are diverse, animals are typically placed together in an apparatus for a brief period (under 30min) and allowed to interact freely while behavior is recorded for subsequent analysis. A standard approach to the analysis of social behavior involves quantification of the frequency and duration of individual social behaviors. This approach provides information about the allocation of time to particular behaviors within a session, which is typically sufficient for detection of robust alterations in behavior. Virtually all social species, however, display complex sequences of social behavior that are not captured in the quantification of individual behaviors. Sequences of behavior may provide more sensitive indicators of disruptions in social behavior. Sophisticated analysis systems for quantification of behavior sequences have been available for many years; however, the required training and time to complete these analyses represent significant barriers to high-throughput assessments. We present a simple approach to the quantification of behavioral sequences that requires minimal additional analytical steps after individual behaviors are coded. We implement this approach to identify altered social behavior in rats exposed to alcohol during prenatal development, and show that the frequency of several pairwise sequences of behavior discriminate controls from ethanol-exposed rats when the frequency of individual behaviors involved in those sequences does not. Thus, the approach described here may be useful in detecting subtle deficits in the social domain and identifying neural circuits involved in the organization of social behavior.

儿童选择性信任的发展及影响因素

信任是合作行为的基石，影响着个体社会性的决策行为，对人际关系和个体发展起到关键作用。迄今对成人信任的研究已经非常深入，但是对于儿童的信任行为研究还缺乏一定的系统性和发展性。本综述旨在整合现阶段3~12岁儿童的信任发展的研究，主要从可信性特质，可信性特质与环境的交互作用以及面孔可信性等因素对信任行为的影响进行探讨。以往研究结果一致发现儿童随着年龄的增长而更加具有社会化的信任行为。本综述试图从儿童社会认识论的角度分析儿童信任行为的发展过程。未来应关注儿童的信任判断的特点，深入探讨儿童信任行为的作用机制及干预措施，并加强本土化研究。 Trust as a basis of mutual cooperative relationships is essential to daily routine and impacts individual social decision-making behavior, relationship commitment and personality development. Past research on this topic has focused more on the trust behavior about adults. However, it is not adequate about the systematics and dynamics about children trust behavior. This review aims to integrate the research about 3 - 12 years old children so far, and explores the affective factors involved the trustworthiness traits, trust-related scenarios and strangers’ facial characters. In short, previous research consistently suggested that the children’s ability of trust judgment was improved with age and this review analyzed the development process about children’s trust judgment from the perspective of children’s social epistemology. This review attempts to analyze the development of child trust behavior from the perspective of child social epistemology. Future studies should focus on the traits of children trust judgment, explore the mechanism of trust behavior underlying the different affective factors and intervention strategies, and further increase local studies on trust behavior.

Learner-centered Teaching and Learner Autonomy

The paper focuses on some issues of contention concerning the widely commented shift from a teacher-centered to a learner-centered approach in ELT. It is based on the premise of building learner autonomy [Holec, 1981] that is expected to result in enhancing learners⿿ motivation. However, practical observations show that the attempts to introduce the learner autonomy principle in Bulgarian education is only partly successful. This raises the question: ⿿Why is it so?⿿ The author suggests that a possible explanation may lie in the specifics of the Bulgarian national culture that does not comply with the methodological concept of learner autonomy. This leads to a more general question: ⿿Are all cultures equally suited to allow the implementation of teaching and learning methods based on autonomy?⿿ The issue is critically discussed by analyzing the Bulgarian national culture along the cultural dimensions in Hofstede's Theory of organizations and cultures. [Hofstede, 2010] where culture is considered to be a kind of software of the mind that determines every individual's social behavior. The author analyzes the concept of autonomy along the lines of the Bulgarian cultural specifics that influence the relations between the teacher and the student as an archetypal social pair. In conclusion it is suggested that particular national cultures can either facilitate or seriously handicap the implementation of learner autonomy in the respective education system.

Normative Type of Personality and Mental Matrix of Social Behavior in Russian Society

Objectives: In modern Russia there is a necessity to articulate, within a framework of national development, the “responses” to the “challenges” of globalization. Methods: New opportunities for studying normative personality in Russia are suggested by conceptual thinking focused on the comprehensive perception of social reality and on “grasping” senses in the most difficult cases of its comprehension. Mental matrix of “political man” in Russian society is verified through the results of modern sociological reviews of the population, particularly, through the answers of those respondents who abide by the conservative model of social behavior. Findings: Interdisciplinary scientific investigations provide a comprehensive idea about the normative type of personality in Russia making use of the concept of “political man” (“homo politicus”). Specific features of “political man” as a normative type of personality are represented by the fact that in his mental matrix such basic values as state, power, order, authority, “following the crowd”, justice represent the modalities which precondition the specifics of social behavior in Russian society. Within the mental program that stipulates peculiar features of social behavior of individuals in the community it is possible to distinguish cognitive, axiological and connotative structures of reflexive and diversifying and of non-reflexive and stable nature. Applications/Improvements: The study reconstructs the comprehensive image of normative personality in Russia and analyzes the specifics of its mental matrix. This would facilitate understanding social behavior and help developing control mechanisms.

Alteridad y oportunidad: discurso y migración

Objetivos: el presente artículo argumenta en favor de una conceptualización heteroglósica del fenómeno migratorio. Con apoyo en resultados de un estudio discursivo con migrantes peruanas en Lima, Perú, elabora una metodología de análisis que se interesa tanto por la sujeción de los migrantes como por su subjetivación individual y colectiva por medio de la migración en un mundo globalizado.Materiales y método: se basa en el establecimiento del diálogo con los migrantes, es decir, en la legitimación de sus voces como participantes en la construcción social de la migración como fenómeno social. Con base en el concepto del discurso y su análisis crítico, elabora los recursos simbólicos diversos e híbridos a los que recurren los migrantes al construir la realidad social de la que forman parte.Resultados: al abrirse a la diferencia cultural del otro migrante mediante la metodología propuesta, se logra entender la realidad social que construyen los migrantes en, con y por la migración. El encuentro con la diversidad de sus voces demuestra las oportunidades que residen en la alteridad. Sus voces permiten no solamente acercarse conceptualmente al fenómeno social de la migración, sino que también dan una idea de las posibilidades de agencia individual y colectiva social en un mundo posmoderno globalizado.Conclusiones: el encuentro con las voces de los migrantes, tal como lo permite el análisis del discurso propuesto, puede promover la conciencia de las condiciones de existencia en el mundo moderno y sensibilizar en miras a la discursividad de la realidad social en general.

The sociability score: App-based social profiling from a healthcare perspective

As the smartphone becomes an integral part of our lives, its value as a rich data source reaches an increasing potential. Several previous studies have used smartphone-derived data to discover relationships between user characteristics and different types of smartphone use. However, none tried to use smartphone data to capture an individual's social behavior into one profile, aimed at providing additional information for the diagnostic evaluation of social deficits. This study presents a novel way of combining different modalities of smartphone data for the creation of sociability profiles using a scoring mechanism that allows for easy addition and removal of data sources. Following installation of the smartphone application, data is being sampled in the background to allow for the assessment of spontaneous smartphone use. Sociability scores were based on the integration of social communication and social exploration scores derived from smartphone use and environmental data sampling (e.g., GPS and external Bluetooth signals). Finally, we have applied our Sociability model to create social profiles of ten test subjects as a baseline for future studies. This pilot study provided insight in the usability of the individual sociability scores for future smartphone application to provide longitudinal objective measures of normal and atypical human social behavioral profiles in their natural environment.

Patterns to explore cognitive preferences and potential collective intelligence empathy for processing knowledge in virtual settings

Organizations continue building virtual working teams (Teleworkers) to become more dynamic as part of their strategic innovation, with great benefits to individuals, business and society. However, during such transformations it is important to note that effective knowledge communication is particularly difficult in distributed environments as well as in non-interactive settings, because the interlocutors cannot use gestures or mimicry and have to adapt their expressions without receiving any feedback, which may affect the creation of tacit knowledge. Collective Intelligence appears to be an encouraging alternative for creating knowledge. However, in this scenario it faces an important goal to be achieved, as the degree of ability of two or more individuals increases with the need to overcome barriers through the aggregation of separately processed information, whereby all actors follow similar conditions to participate in the collective. Geographically distributed organizations have the great challenge of managing people’s knowledge, not only to keep operations running, but also to promote innovation within the organization in the creation of new knowledge. The management of knowledge from Collective Intelligence represents a big difference from traditional methods of information allocation, since managing Collective Intelligence poses new requirements. For instance, semantic analysis has to merge information, coming both from the content itself and the social/individual context, and in addition, the social dynamics that emerge online have to be taken into account. This study analyses how knowledge-based organizations working with decentralized staff may need to consider the cognitive styles and social behaviors of individuals participating in their programs to effectively manage knowledge in virtual settings. It also proposes assessment taxonomies to analyze online comportments at the levels of the individual and community, in order to successfully identify characteristics to help evaluate higher effectiveness of communication. We aim at modeling measurement patterns to identify effective ways of interaction of individuals, taking into consideration their cognitive and social behaviors.

Peer Contexts in Schools: Avenues Toward Behavioral Health in Early Adolescence

Peer contexts play an important role in the behavioral health of early adolescents in schools. Behavioral health involves the observable academic and social behaviors that relate to and influence youths' subsequent health and development. Setting-level research on peer networks and social norms indicates these aspects of peer contexts vary by peer group, classroom, and school and dynamically relate to individual students' academic and social behaviors. Yet, although peer contexts are both influential and potentially malleable, little research examines the effects of school and classroom interventions on the development and maintenance of positive and productive peer contexts in schools. The current article identifies school structures and classroom processes theorized to directly or indirectly shift peer networks and social norms—and thereby increase the behavioral health of early adolescents in schools. We discuss the need for more rigorous and relevant research to better understand the role of schools and classrooms in strengthening these peer contexts and promoting behavioral health in early adolescence.

Impact of Media on Social Behavior of Individuals Living in Karachi

Today the world is known as a global village where information is easily accessible. Media plays a vital role in providing information, education and entertainment to the population. Media updates people about the current situations through their news channels which are providing the most up to date news within no time through live evidences and substantiations. Several studies have proved the impact of media directly on the acute stress response to collective trauma. Media coverage of collective traumas may trigger sociological distress in individuals outside the directly affected community. Objective: To determine the effect of media on Social behavior of the population of Karachi Methodology: It’s a cross sectional questionnaire based study conducted in different areas of Karachi during, November 2014 to Feb 2015. The questionnaire includes demographic information, the type of media used for obtaining information and the impact of news on the social life of individuals. Results: Among the participants 46.6% were males and 53.4% were females. Television is the type of media that was used by most (442) of the population. Results showed that 31.9% showed no effect on their social life whereas 24.4% avoided the place/public transport for a few days, 18.6% didn’t go out at night, 17.3 avoided travelling alone and 7.8% of participants were afraid to go out. Conclusion: Television is the source of information for most people, beside the exaggeration in telecasting the news people continues their work. Their social life is not affected anymore which causes them to become immune to the environment they are facing.

Acupuncture at Jing-well point combined with educational training for the treatment of children with severe mental retardation

ObjectiveTo observe clinical efficacy of acupuncture at Jing-well point combined with educational training for the treatment of children with severe mental retardation. MethodsSixty children with severe mental retardation were randomly divided into jing-well point acupuncture plus simple special education and language training group (group A) and simple special education and language training group (group B) with 30 child patients in each group according to registration order. All the patients were treated once every other day, 10 times as a course of treatment. There were 20 days of interval between each course of treatment. Curative effect was analyzed after 3 courses of treatment. Gesell Developmental Scale test was conducted for all children before and after treatment. Development quotient at the functional area of social adaptability, large motor, fine motor, language skill and social behavior of individuals was recorded and compared between groups and before and after treatment to evaluate the curative effect. ResultsSocial adaptability and fine motor of children were improved in the group B after treatment. And in the group A, social adaptability, fine motor, language skill and social behavior of individuals were improved after treatment. Meanwhile, the group A was superior to the group B in curative effect of overall social adaptability and language skill (both P<0.05). The overall response rate in group B was 23.3% (7/30) and in group A was 46.6% (14/30, P<0.05). ConclusionAcupuncture at jing-well point combined with educational training can effectively improve the intelligence level of children with severe mental retardation and its curative effect is better than that of simply education and training.

The Effects of Tryptophan on Everyday Interpersonal Encounters and Social Cognitions in Individuals with a Family History of Depression.

Background:Individuals with a family history of depression show subtle abnormalities in the processing of social stimuli. This could negatively affect their interpersonal functioning and contribute to their depression risk. Repeated administration of the serotonin precursor tryptophan has previously been shown to increase agreeable behavior and reduce quarrelsome behavior in irritable people, who are also considered at risk for depression.Methods:To examine the effects of tryptophan on social functioning in individuals with a family history of depression, 40 men and women with at least one first-degree relative with depression received tryptophan (1g three times a day) and placebo for 14 days each in a double-blind crossover design and recorded their social behavior and mood during everyday interpersonal encounters. Participants also provided daily ratings of their positive and negative cognitions concerning their social functioning.Results:Tryptophan improved mood. Unexpectedly, tryptophan increased quarrelsome behavior and reduced agreeable behavior, specifically during interactions at home. The behavioral effects of tryptophan were not moderated by mood or by the interaction partner. Negative social cognitions were lower when tryptophan was given second and lower during placebo when placebo was given second.Conclusion:Overall, tryptophan may not alter social behavior in individuals with a family history of depression as it does in irritable people. However, the behavioral effects of tryptophan at home might be seen as a way for individuals with a family history of depression to achieve more control. Over time, this may positively influence the way they feel and think about themselves in a social context.

Exploring the implications of social change for human development: perspectives, issues and future directions.

Researchers have investigated the implications of social change for human development from different perspectives. The studies published in this special section were conducted within Greenfield's theoretical framework (2009). The findings concerning links between specific sociodemographic features (e.g., commercial activities, schooling) and individual cognition and social behaviour are particularly interesting because they tap the underlying forces that drive human development. To further understand the issues in these studies and in the field, a pluralist-constructive perspective is discussed, which emphasises the integration of diverse values and practices in both Western and non-Western societies and its effects on the development of sophisticated competencies in individual adaptation to the changing global community. In addition, several issues are highlighted and some suggestions are provided for future explorations in this field.

PROTECTION OF CHILDREN RIGHTS AGAINST DETRIMENTAL EFFECT OF PUBLIC INFORMATION: CONTENT ANALYSIS OF MAGAZINES FOR CHILDREN

The article interprets qualitative and quantitative research data disclosing the detrimental effect of public information in the context of children rights’ protection. The empirical research is based on Social Acquisition Theory, presents the main statement – an individual learns social behaviour through observation. This theory especially emphasises the impact of environment, behaviour and personality’s factors and their general effect. It is dislosed that magazines for children play an important role in the process of child’s becoming a member of society and perceiving the surrounding reality. Referring to Social Constructivism Theory, media creates social meanings and presents them to the people who are creating their own social reality considering or not the symbolic media constructions. Therefore, media performs the function of social reality construction. The results of empirical research have revealed that negative public information is presented in the magazines for children: violent, erotic, detrimental to health and other negative information. The majority of information is erotic or contains obscene words, curses, gestures. KEYWORDS: childhood education, children rights, public information, qualitative, quantitative research methods. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/ 10.15181/atee.v1i0.680

Technologically sensed social exposure related to slow-wave sleep in healthy adults.

The aim of this study is to understand the relationship between automatically captured social exposure and detailed sleep parameters of healthy young adults. This study was conducted in a real-world setting in a graduate-student housing community at a US university. Social exposure was measured using Bluetooth proximity sensing technology in mobile devices. Sleep was monitored in a naturalistic setting using a headband sleep monitoring device over a period of 2weeks. The analysis included a total of 11 subjects (6 males and 5 females) aged 24-35 (149 subject nights). Slow-wave sleep showed a significant positive correlation (Spearman's rho = 0.51, p < 0.0001) with social exposure, whereas light non-REM (N1 + N2) sleep and wake time were found to be negatively correlated (rho = -0.25, p < 0.01; rho = -0.21, p < 0.01, respectively). The correlation of median slow-wave sleep with median social exposure per subject showed a strong positive significance (rho = 0.88, p < 0.001). On average, within subjects, following day's social exposure was higher when (slow-wave NREM + REM) percentage was high (Wilcoxon sign-ranked test, p < 0.05). Subjects with higher social exposure spent more time in slow-wave sleep. Following day's social exposure was found to be positively affected by previous night's (slow-wave NREM + REM) percentage. This suggests that sleep affects following day's social exposure and not vice versa. Capturing an individual's dynamic social behavior and sleep from their natural environment can provide novel insights into these relationships.

The utility of zebrafish to study the mechanisms by which ethanol affects social behavior and anxiety during early brain development

Exposure to moderate levels of ethanol during brain development has a number of effects on social behavior but the molecular mechanisms that mediate this are not well understood. Gaining a better understanding of these factors may help to develop therapeutic interventions in the future. Zebrafish offer a potentially useful model in this regard. Here, we introduce a zebrafish model of moderate prenatal ethanol exposure. Embryos were exposed to 20mM ethanol for seven days (48hpf-9dpf) and tested as adults for individual social behavior and shoaling. We also tested their basal anxiety with the novel tank diving test. We found that the ethanol-exposed fish displayed reductions in social approach and shoaling, and an increase in anxiety in the novel tank test. These behavioral differences corresponded to differences in hrt1aa, slc6a4 and oxtr expression. Namely, acute ethanol caused a spike in oxtr and ht1aa mRNA expression, which was followed by down-regulation at 7dpf, and an up-regulation in slc6a4 at 72hpf. This study confirms the utility of zebrafish as a model system for studying the molecular basis of developmental ethanol exposure. Furthermore, it proposes a putative developmental mechanism characterized by ethanol-induced OT inhibition leading to suppression of 5-HT and up-regulation of 5-HT1A, which leads, in turn, to possible homeostatic up-regulation of 5-HTT at 72hpf and subsequent imbalance of the 5-HT system.

Strong personalities, not social niches, drive individual differences in social behaviours in sticklebacks

Understanding the mechanisms responsible for consistent individual differences in behaviour is a recent challenge for behavioural ecology. Although theory is rapidly developing in this area, there are few empirical tests. There are at least two hypotheses to explain why individuals behave differently from one another in a dynamic social environment. The social niche specialization hypothesis proposes that repeated social interactions generate consistent individual differences in social behaviour. The behavioural type hypothesis proposes that an individual's social behaviour reflects its behavioural type. We tested these two hypotheses by manipulating the opportunity for repeated social interactions in groups of three spine stickleback, Gasterosteus aculeatus, and by measuring the behavioural types of the same individuals in three contexts: when in a novel environment, when presented with an opportunity to associate with conspecifics and when confronted by an intruder. We found no evidence that repeated social interactions increased between-individual variation in social foraging behaviour. Instead, individuals' social foraging behaviour was related to their behavioural type, specifically their shoaling behaviour. In addition, the behavioural types of the members of a group strongly influenced a group's average foraging behaviour. Together, these results do not support the hypothesis that social dynamics within groups generates individual differences in behaviour. Instead, they suggest the reverse: individual differences in behaviour drive group-level dynamics.

接纳、认知重评、表达抑制三种情绪调节策略的研究述评

情绪调节策略——认知重评、表达抑制近年来获得许多研究者的关注。随着接纳与承诺疗法的兴起，近几年接纳被视为一种情绪调节策略已得到许多研究者的认可。许多研究证实接纳、认知重评、表达抑制三种情绪调节策略对个体的情绪情感、认知、社会行为具有不同的影响，进一步认识不同情绪调节策略与情绪情感、认知、社会行为的关系、形成有效的情绪调节策略、提高教学和学习效率、促进个体的健康发展具有重要意义。本文对情绪调节的定义、情绪调节策略和接纳、认知重评、表达抑制三种情绪调节策略的实证研究进行了述评，并提出了展望，希望能为将来的研究提供一定的借鉴指导意义。 Nowadays many researchers paid more attentions to cognitive reappraisal, expression suppression in emotion regulation strategies. With the rise of acceptance and commitment therapy, acceptance has been accepted as an emotion regulation strategy by many researchers. Many studies have confirmed that acceptance, cognitive reappraisal and expression suppression have different effects on emotion, cognition, social behavior of individuals. To form effective emotion regulation strategies to improve teaching and learning efficiency, it is important to further understand how different emotion regulation strategies affect emotion, cognition and social behavior. In this paper, we comment the definition of emotion regulation, emotional regulation strategies, empirical research about acceptance, cognitive reappraisal and expression suppression, and finally we made a prospect, hoping that it can provide a guidance for future research.

Governance Beyond Government

Our methods of governance are shifting. We increasingly rely on an interconnected web of public, private, and nonprofit actors working across organizational, institutional, and sectoral boundaries to deliver public services. Our understanding of these new practices, however, is reliant on models of individual rationality and social behavior developed for hierarchical organizational forms. I argue that collectivist models of decentralized, self-organizing social forms may advance our understanding of modern governance practices and balance tensions in three areas: perspectives on organizations (structure or process), between individual liberty and collective responsibility, and whether increasing freedom or control over individuals enhances organizational efficiencies.

Autistic Traits Modulate Mimicry of Social but not Nonsocial Rewards

Autism Spectrum Conditions (ASC) are associated with diminished responsiveness to social stimuli, and especially to social rewards such as smiles. Atypical responsiveness to social rewards, which reinforce socially appropriate behavior in children, can potentially lead to a cascade of deficits in social behavior. Individuals with ASC often show diminished spontaneous mimicry of social stimuli in a natural setting. In the general population, mimicry is modulated both by the reward value and the sociality of the stimulus (i.e., whether the stimulus is perceived to belong to a conspecific or an inanimate object). Since empathy and autistic traits are distributed continuously in the general population, this study aimed to test if and how these traits modulated automatic mimicry of rewarded social and nonsocial stimuli. High and low rewards were associated with human and robot hands using a conditioned learning paradigm. Thirty-six participants from the general population then completed a mimicry task involving performing a prespecified hand movement which was either compatible or incompatible with a hand movement presented to the participant. High autistic traits (measured using the Autism Spectrum Quotient, AQ) predicted lesser mimicry of high-reward than low-reward conditioned human hands, whereas trait empathy showed an opposite pattern of correlations. No such relations were observed for high-reward vs. low-reward conditioned robot hands. These results demonstrate how autistic traits and empathy modulate the effects of reward on mimicry of social compared to nonsocial stimuli. This evidence suggests a potential role for the reward system in underlying the atypical social behavior in individuals with ASC, who constitute the extreme end of the spectrum of autistic traits.

Hindu-Christian Conflict in India: Globalization, Conversion, and the Coterminal Castes and Tribes

While Hindu-Muslim violence in India has received a great deal of scholarly attention, Hindu-Christian violence has not. This article seeks to contribute to the analysis of Hindu-Christian violence, and to elucidate the curious alliance, in that violence, of largely upper-caste, anti-minority Hindu nationalists with lower-status groups, by analyzing both with reference to the varied processes of globalization. The article begins with a short review of the history of anti-Christian rhetoric in India, and then discusses and critiques a number of inadequately unicausal explanations of communal violence before arguing, with reference to the work of Mark Taylor, that only theories linking local and even individual social behaviors to larger, global processes like globalization can adequately honor the truly “webby” nature of the social world.