Positive Social Responses Research Articles

Theory of Mind and Reactions to Emotional Responses in Children with Visual Impairments: A Comparison with Sighted Children

Introduction: Theory of Mind (ToM) is a social cognitive process that provides the basis for positive social responses in personal interactions. Possessing ToM makes it possible to recognize and understand other people’s thoughts, beliefs, and emotions. Due to the relationship between ToM and understanding emotions, the purpose of this study was to compare the reactions to emotional responses (happy and sad) of children with low vision, children with severe visual impairments, and sighted children with the ToM processes. The research's purpose was to investigate the relationships between the children's ToM scores and their responses to emotional expressionsMethod: The study consisted of 20 children with low vision (x = 58.45, sd = 1.74), 19 children with severe visual impairments (x = 60.36, sd = 1.84), and 20 sighted children (x̄ = 60.35, ss = 1.58) who were between the ages of 48 and 72 months and did not have additional disabilities or developmental delays. Participants were initially assessed with the ToM, First Order False Belief, Unexpected Location, and Unexpected Content tasks. In the second stage, the researcher played with each child for about 20 minutes to assess the participants' reactions to emotional responses. The researchers created emotional social scenarios implemented within a play dyad through which the researcher would display happy and sad feelings. Children’s reactions to emotional responses were coded and analyzed.Findings: The study findings showed that children with severe visual impairments received lower scores on the ToM tasks than children with low vision and sighted children. Additionally, results indicated that children with low vision and severe visual impairments displayed increased ignorance toward the researcher’s emotional expressions compared to sighted children. The current study found that children with severe visual impairments and sighted children’s ToM scores were related to their reactions to emotional responses.Discussion: Findings from the current study suggest that children with severe visual impairments may display emotional reaction difficulties while participating in various emotional and social situations. Based on the study results, suggestions for future research and early intervention practices were provided.

Self-Disclosure and Post-traumatic Growth in Korean Adults: A Multiple Mediating Model of Deliberate Rumination, Positive Social Responses, and Meaning of Life.

BackgroundTo explore how self-disclosure leads to post-traumatic growth (PTG) in adults who have experienced traumatic events, this study identified the relationship between self-disclosure and post-traumatic growth in Korean adults. We examined a parallel multiple mediating model for this relationship.MethodsParticipants were 318 Korean male and female adult participants aged 20 years or older who had experienced trauma. We measured deliberate rumination, positive social responses, and the meaning of life as mediating variables.ResultsThe results revealed that the study variables positively correlated with PTG. Self-disclosure was positively correlated with deliberate rumination, positive social responses, and meaning of life. In the multiple mediating model, deliberate rumination, positive social responses, and meaning of life mediated the relationship between self-disclosure and PTG.ConclusionSelf-disclosure, deliberate rumination, positive social responses, and meaning of life play an important role in the growth of adults who have experienced traumatic events. The findings of this study should provide valuable information for future research and for mental health professionals who want to promote the PTG of their clients.

Comparative Analysis of Social Responses Between Mothers with Preterm and Term Babies in Teaching Hospital, Ile – Ife, Osun State

Social response is the ability of a person to adjust to a new environment or circumstances with the goal of becoming a better person. Parenthood is often seen as a happy, gratifying, and fulfilling experience. Due to various reasons, babies’ gestational age inclusive, mothers may exhibit diverse social responses. This can affect maternal bonding, immediate child’s care and future development of the child, the family and society at large. This study therefore was conducted to comparatively analyze the social responses of mothers with preterm and term babies. The study adopted a quantitative descriptive non-experimental comparative survey design. A sample size of 98 and 102 mothers with preterm babies in neonatal and term babies in postnatal wards respectively in Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital Complex, Ile-Ife, Osun State were selected using a purposive sampling technique. A self-designed questionnaire with Cronbach’s alpha consistency scores ranging from 0.78 – 0.88 was used for data collection. Data were analyzed with Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 21 using both descriptive and inferential statistics at 0.05 level of significance. Result showed that both group of mothers had higher positive social responses, mothers of term babies exhibited a slightly higher positive social response (84.3%) compared to mothers of preterm babies (76.5%). There was a significant difference between the social responses of mothers with preterm and term babies. However, the social response mean difference (0.078) was not statistically significant (p= .168). In conclusion, this study shows that women who experience a preterm birth express increased negative social responses compared to mothers with term babies. It was recommended that health care providers especially nurses must be adequately skilled with the ability to detect, and intervene promptly and appropriately in prevention and management of negative social responses in newly delivered mothers.

The Impacts of Ugly Agricultural Produce on the Price of Normal Ones and the Social Welfare : The Case of Apple and Carrot

Recently major food retailers and the government promote the demand of ugly vegetables and fruits, which gains positive social responses as recognized to contribute to the reduction of food waste and to increase farm income. However it becomes an important issue in that cheap ugly produce may simply replace the normal ones and adversely affect the prices. This study analyzes if this is the case. The results show that the increased consumption of ugly produce lowers the price of normal ones and the producer surplus, while the consumers are better off. But, the social welfare shrinks as a whole and the government should pay more attention when to adopt policies to promote the ugly agricultural produce.

Healing and Rebalancing in the Aftermath of Colonial Violence: An Indigenous-Informed, Response-Based Approach

What is understood as “healing” is often culturally and socially embedded. One’s culture helps to define what it means to be well or unwell, and what it means to heal or recover. Sometimes, one’s culture sits in contrast to the mainstream, western scientific approach to health, often seen as the freedom from illness. A Métis worldview is holistic in itself, and it incorporates notions and practices of well-being that go beyond just being “illness or problem free”. Wellbeing is often directly linked to our relationship with the food that sustains us, to the various animal and plant worlds, to the elements, and to being in “right relationship” to the world and others. Dr. Catherine Richardson Kinewesquao presents an approach to healing which she refers to as transformative, energetic and spiritual. She draws from Cree teachings related to “mamatowisowin”, the life force inherent in all beings and the act of calling forth this energy into the healing process. This life force is connected to dignity, justice and care. Metaphorically, it can be talked about as being released or made available when an individual opens to discussing/facing fears and sorrows, distressing events and losses, and to finding a way to integrate them into their whole being. It is a form of energy transmutation, of becoming more emotionally fluid and liberated from the negativity of what is “acting upon them”. When energy is unblocked or released, particularly in the presence of a compassionate listener, the person may then have more energy for their chosen life projects. By using a response-based approach in the aftermath of violence and degradation, and by contextualizing events through exploratory conversations, one may transform stress into productive energy to fuel life, growth and action. Kinewesquao articulates the use of cultural processes for stress management and working with the natural world to enhance well-being. Ultimately, she makes a case that “positive social responses” (e.g., love, care, compassionate listening, support and cultural rituals) to one’s suffering can be some of the best healing medicines.

Teaching (Cooperative) Business: The “Bluefield Experiment” and the Future of Black Business Schools

Teaching (Cooperative) Business: The “Bluefield Experiment” and the Future of Black Business Schools

Poetic licence to write resistance: women resisting intimate partner violence through poetry

The poetry therapy programme discussed describes work alongside members of a rural women’s support group addressing intimate partner violence. This approach contributes to social work theory/practice by expanding understandings of how women resist violence and affirms a tenet of Response-Based Practice: ‘alongside each history of violence there runs a parallel history of prudent, determined, and often creative resistance’ (Wade, 1997: 23). This approach to creative group-based work supports ‘positive social responses’ to women resisting intimate partner violence, expanding the ways in which social workers can respond to survivors of violence (Richardson and Wade, 2009: 209). Subtle and safer responses to violence are undervalued by dominant therapeutic practices. Response-Based Practice maintains that violence is resisted on a spectrum and that less noticeable forms of resistance are well reasoned and maintain dignity. This article describes how combining poetry therapy with Response-Based Practice can disrupt notions of resistance as solely outwardly expressed and large-action-oriented.

LIFE MATTERS: ACKNOWLEDGING VICTIM RESISTANCE AND THE POWER OF SOCIAL RESPONSES

Welcome to this special edition of the International Journal of Child, Youth and Family Studies . We are delighted to bring you this edition, which focuses on exploring interpersonal violence in its broader context. The situational and sociopolitical context of interpersonal violence includes an understanding of the importance of positive social responses for the victim. The term “social responses” refers to the things family, friends, and professionals do during and after disclosure: these responses can strengthen or undermine the well-being of the person who has experienced violence. These articles are based on certain assumptions about interpersonal violence. One important assumption is that victims — people who are targeted by violence — are not to blame. Victims of violence resist mistreatment, try to preserve their dignity, and enact responses that maximize their safety and the safety of others, even when there is very little room to maneuver. These articles were adapted from presentations at the Responses to Interpersonal Violence conference held at the University of Montreal in May 2016. This conference was accompanied by a meeting of the International Responses to Interpersonal Violence Network, headed by Margareta Hyden from the University of Linkoping in Sweden.

Effects of oxytocin administration on receiving help.

Receiving help can be a "mixed blessing." Despite the many psychosocial benefits it can carry, it sometimes has negative psychological consequences, such as loss in self-esteem or enhanced guilt. It is, therefore, important to understand the factors that modify responses to receiving help from others. We explored the role of the hormone oxytocin (OT) on affective and social responses to receiving help, given the putative role of OT in social bonding and attunement. To this end, we manipulated whether help was received from a same-sex interaction partner (confederate) versus a control condition, crossed with a double-blind administration of intranasal OT (vs. placebo), and examined subjective and observer-rated participant responses to help. We observed significant interactions between OT and the help manipulation. In the placebo condition, receiving help from the interaction partner compared with the control condition had negative consequences, such that participants reported greater negative affect and came to view themselves and their interaction partners more negatively after interacting together on several tasks. What is important, however, is that OT administration buffered against these negative subjective responses to receiving help. Further, outside observers rated participants who received OT administration as expressing greater happiness and gratitude in response to help, relative to those who received placebo. In sum, in the context of receiving help from a stranger, oxytocin administration fostered more positive affective and social responses. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Donald Trump’s “Political Incorrectness”: Neoliberalism as Frontstage Racism on Social Media

President Donald Trump’s popularized “political incorrectness” has become a signifier allowing for backstage, or overt, racist sentiments to become steadily normalized as logical in the public frontstage of political discourse and social media. This normalization is possible under the guise of neoliberal truth telling. In the current context of neoliberalism, touting postracial “colorblindness” and achieved equalities, there is subsequent Trump-backed whitelash against “political correctness,” or an acknowledgement of inequality, in US public discourse. Highly racialized public issues such as immigration and relations between the US and Mexico lead to conversations in which “politically incorrect” white-centric racialized language is used, which has roots in the narratives of neoliberal postracialism and white superiority. Thematic analyses of popular media examples of Trump’s anti-political correctness (PC) rhetoric alongside qualitatively gathered positive social media responses to his “incorrectness” on Twitter exemplify how neoliberal “postracial” ideology can be used inversely to solidify feelings of white superiority and overt racist beliefs.The continued normalization of Trump’s version of “politically incorrect” ideology and language both on and offline can lead to increased racial violence and the continued creation of neoliberal policy with racially disparate impacts.

Creating Supportive Environments for Children Who have had Exposure to Traumatic Events

The prevalence of trauma among young children and its impact on educational outcomes is gaining attention. It is probable that the needs of children who have experienced or been exposed to trauma have long gone unmet due to identification challenges and a lack of knowledge concerning best practices. For this study, qualitative interviews were conducted to gather perspectives of 14 community-based service providers who worked with children and families regarding trauma-related concerns. Each shared his or her perspectives on knowledge and skills early childhood education teachers need to support children who have experienced traumatic events and partner with their families. Research questions were: What should early childhood teachers know about (1) trauma experiences among young children; (2) the emotional and behavioral patterns of children who have experienced traumatic events; and (3) supporting the social and emotional well-being of children in the classroom setting, including partnering with families, who have experienced or been exposed to traumatic events? Participants indicated that teachers might not readily connect children’s behaviors and emotions to trauma. However, teachers can use approaches and strategies (e.g., being attuned and supporting positive social and emotional and communicative responses) that promote social and emotional well-being for children who experience trauma. Participants also noted that teachers can resist re-traumatization by making adaptations to social, physical, and temporal aspects of the classroom environment. Findings indicate that trauma-informed care might be viable in early childhood classroom settings. Implications for research are discussed.

Leveraging environmental flows to reform water management policy: Lessons learned from the 2014 Colorado River Delta pulse flow

Minute 319, a binational agreement between the United States and México, authorized environmental flows into the Colorado River Delta, including a high-profile pulse flow delivered in March through May 2014. Reforming water management policy to secure future delivery of environmental flows to the delta hinges on demonstrating the feasibility of delivering environmental water and documenting positive ecological responses of the delta’s severely degraded riparian habitat. The design of the flow’s hydrograph, the novel utilization of irrigation infrastructure, the preparation and subsequent maintenance of selected restoration sites, and interdisciplinary monitoring at multiple scales combined to show that ecological restoration is possible, even with extremely small water volumes compared to historical flows. The overwhelmingly positive social responses to the flow are likely as pivotal to future flows as are the biophysical responses. The pulse flow’s unique binational character demanded exceptional collaboration and communication involving local, state, and federal government agencies; water managers; water users; scientists; and non-governmental organizations. The success of such a politically, operationally, and scientifically complex endeavor in the severely over-allocated Colorado River Basin bodes well for the future of environmental flows in its delta and in other water-stressed settings, worldwide.

Oxytocin biases men but not women to restore social connections with individuals who socially exclude them

We normally react to individuals who exclude us socially by either avoiding them or increasing our attempts to interact with them. The neuropeptide oxytocin can promote social bonds and reduce social conflict and we therefore investigated whether it facilitates more positive social responses towards individuals who exclude or include us. In a double-blind, placebo-controlled, between-subject design 77 healthy Chinese male and female participants received intranasal oxytocin (40 IU) or placebo before playing a modified virtual ball-tossing game with three fictitious partners who either showed exclusion, inclusion or neutral behavioral interactions with them. Results showed that both male and female subjects threw the ball more often to individuals who excluded rather than included them, although oxytocin did not alter this or awareness/feelings of exclusion or inclusion. However, when subjects returned a week later males, but not females, in the oxytocin group exhibited an increased liking for, and preference for playing again with, players who had previously excluded them. This oxytocin effect was positively associated with independent traits. Our findings suggest that in a collectivist culture oxytocin may promote the desire of males, but not females, with a stronger independent orientation to rebuild social connections with individuals who have previously excluded them.

Connecting Socially Isolated Older Rural Adults with Older Volunteers through Expressive Arts.

Employing a participatory arts-based research approach, we examined an innovative program from rural Ontario, Canada, designed to address social isolation among older people. Older socially isolated adults were matched to trained volunteers, where in dyads, the eight pairs created expressive art in their home setting over the course of 10 home visits. With thematic and narrative inquiry, we analysed the experiences and perceptions of the program leader, older participants, and older volunteers via their artistic creations, weekly logs, evaluations, and field notes. The findings reveal a successful intervention that positively influenced the well-being of older adult participants and older volunteers, especially in regards to relationships, personal development, and creating meaning as well as extending the intervention's impact beyond the program's duration. We also discuss opportunities for similar programs to inform policy and enable positive community-based health and social service responses to rural social isolation.

Naltrexone alters the processing of social and emotional stimuli in healthy adults

ABSTRACTEndogenous opioids have complex social effects that may depend on specific receptor actions and vary depending on the “stage” of social behavior (e.g., seeking vs. responding to social stimuli). We tested the effects of a nonspecific opioid antagonist, naltrexone (NTX), on social processing in humans. NTX is used to treat alcohol and opiate dependence, and may affect both mu and kappa-opioid systems. We assessed attention (“seeking”), and subjective and psychophysiological responses (“responding”) to positive and negative social stimuli. Based on literature suggesting mu-opioid blockade impairs positive social responses, we hypothesized that NTX would decrease responses to positive social stimuli. We also tested responses to negative stimuli, which might be either increased by NTX’s mu-opioid effects or decreased by its kappa-opioid effects. Thirty-four healthy volunteers received placebo, 25 mg, or 50 mg NTX across three sessions under double-blind conditions. At each session, participants completed measures of attention, identification, and emotional responses for emotional faces and scenes. NTX increased attention to emotional expressions, slowed identification of sadness and fear, and decreased ratings of arousal for social and nonsocial emotional scenes. These findings are more consistent with anxiolytic kappa-antagonist than mu-blocking effects, suggesting effects on kappa receptors may contribute to the clinical effects of NTX.

English

Increasing serotonin decreases quarrelsome behaviours and enhances agreeable behaviours in humans. Antidepressants, even those whose primary action is not on serotonin, seem to increase serotonin function. We suggest that antidepressants act in part by effects on social behaviour, which leads to a gradual improvement in mood. We review the evidence supporting the idea that antidepressants may be moving behaviour from quarrelsome to agreeable. The more positive social responses of interaction partners would initiate a cycle of more positive social behaviour, and this iterative process would result in a clinically significant improvement in mood.

Earliest floral grave lining from 13,700–11,700-y-old Natufian burials at Raqefet Cave, Mt. Carmel, Israel

Flowering plants possess mechanisms that stimulate positive emotional and social responses in humans. It is difficult to establish when people started to use flowers in public and ceremonial events because of the scarcity of relevant evidence in the archaeological record. We report on uniquely preserved 13,700-11,700-y-old grave linings made of flowers, suggesting that such use began much earlier than previously thought. The only potentially older instance is the questionable use of flowers in the Shanidar IV Neanderthal grave. The earliest cemeteries (ca. 15,000-11,500 y ago) in the Levant are known from Natufian sites in northern Israel, where dozens of burials reflect a wide range of inhumation practices. The newly discovered flower linings were found in four Natufian graves at the burial site of Raqefet Cave, Mt. Carmel, Israel. Large identified plant impressions in the graves include stems of sage and other Lamiaceae (Labiatae; mint family) or Scrophulariaceae (figwort family) species; accompanied by a plethora of phytoliths, they provide the earliest direct evidence now known for such preparation and decoration of graves. Some of the plant species attest to spring burials with a strong emphasis on colorful and aromatic flowers. Cave floor chiseling to accommodate the desired grave location and depth is also evident at the site. Thus, grave preparation was a sophisticated planned process, embedded with social and spiritual meanings reflecting a complex preagricultural society undergoing profound changes at the end of the Pleistocene.

MATCHING IN AN UNDISTURBED NATURAL HUMAN ENVIRONMENT

Data from the Oregon Youth Study, consisting of the verbal behavior of 210 adolescent boys determined to be at risk for delinquency (targets) and 210 of their friends (peers), were analyzed for their conformance to the complete family of matching theory equations in light of recent findings from the basic science, and using recently developed analytic techniques. Equations of the classic and modern theories of matching were fitted as ensembles to rates and time allocations of the boys' rule-break and normative talk obtained from conversations between pairs of boys. The verbal behavior of each boy in a conversation was presumed to be reinforced by positive social responses from the other boy. Consistent with recent findings from the basic science, the boys' verbal behavior was accurately described by the modern but not the classic theory of matching. These findings also add support to the assertion that basic principles and processes that are known to govern behavior in laboratory experiments also govern human social behavior in undisturbed natural environments.

BIAS AND UNDERMATCHING IN DELINQUENT BOYS' VERBAL BEHAVIOR AS A FUNCTION OF THEIR LEVEL OF DEVIANCE

Eighty-one 13- to 14-year-old boys at risk for delinquency (target boys) engaged in brief dyadic conversations with their peer friends. The target boys' verbal behavior was coded into two mutually exclusive content categories, rule-break talk and normative talk. Positive social responses from peer boys for each category of talk were also recorded, and were presumed to reinforce the target boys' verbal behavior. A measure of child deviance was available for each target boy. The generalized matching law was fitted to the target boys' response and time allocation data and provided an excellent description of their verbal behavior, with an expected degree of undermatching and strong bias in favor of normative talk. When the boys' data were separated into groups of increasing child deviance, the matching law continued to provide an excellent description of the boys' verbal behavior regardless of their level of deviance, but undermatching became more severe and bias favoring normative talk became less strong as child deviance increased. Based on a selectionist theory of adaptive behavior dynamics from the basic science, it was suggested that the increasing degree of undermatching might be due to a decline in the reinforcing value of positive social responses with increasing child deviance. It was also suggested that the trend in the bias parameters might be due to different histories of reinforcement and punishment of rule-break and normative behavior for boys characterized by different levels of child deviance.

Predictors of intention to quit smoking in Hong Kong secondary school children

Behavioral theories suggest that a past quit attempt influences psycho-social determinants to predict smokers' intention to quit, although no study has tested the hypothesis among youth smokers. A sample of 1561 Chinese secondary students, who were current smokers, were collected in a cross-sectional school-based survey in Hong Kong. For the 943 students with past quit attempts, those with lower daily cigarette consumption; who perceived smoking would not elicit positive social responses from others; who had one parent/teacher who prohibited them to smoke; who were aware of the health hazards of smoking and being male smokers, were more likely to have an intention to quit smoking. For the 618 students without a past quit attempt, those who did not perceive any benefit from smoking; who had parents and teachers to prohibit them to smoke and who received social support to quit, were more likely to have an intention to quit smoking. Strengthening the prohibition of smoking and providing social support may help initiate the intention to quit among youth smokers without a past quit attempt, while de-normalizing social images of smoking, providing information about the health hazards of smoking and relieving nicotine addiction may sustain quitting intentions among youth smokers with past quit attempts.