Previous Social Experience Research Articles

Social networks that matter: Explaining the social participation of university students

Young people’s social participation has numerous benefits, and universities can play an important role in promoting it. The aim of this study is to broaden our understanding of the impact of social relationships on the development of social participation among university students. We also aimed to determine to what extent previous social participation experiences may modulate said impact. A total of 827 undergraduate students completed a questionnaire assessing their previous experience with social participation, the likelihood of their engaging in social participation in the future and the composition of their social networks, distinguishing between contacts on the basis of the type of relationship and its context (on or off campus). Although a clear relationship was found between social networks and previous experience with social participation, the association with the likelihood of engaging in social participation in the future was weaker and more complex. Previous experience was not found to modulate this association, and relationships with friends seem to be the most important factor in predicting future participation. The differences between civic and political participation are analysed, along with the practical implications of the results in light of, among other things, the potential role played by social norms.

“Just Did The Best That I Could Do”: CPS Social Workers’ Perceptions of Self-Efficacy in Legal Aspects

Child protective services (CPS) social workers assess safety and risk needs during abuse and neglect investigations to determine if legal interventions are needed. However, only 60% of abuse and neglect cases have safety and risk assessed during the investigatory process in North Carolina. This study aimed to explore the perceptions of self-efficacy among rural North Carolina CPS social workers in child abuse and neglect investigations. Understanding CPS social workers’ perceptions of self-efficacy and factors that may influence their self-efficacy is vital to improving job satisfaction, retention, and the legal and investigative processes relating to child abuse and neglect. A purposive sampling approach was used to recruit nine CPS social workers in rural counties in North Carolina. Through a process of open, axial, and selective coding, we conclude that a CPS social worker’s self-efficacy is impacted by factors relating to leadership and legal teams, longevity, previous social work experience, and paperwork and caseload demands.

Sex Differences in Sociability for Drosophilamelanogaster with Altered Gut Microbiomes.

In Drosophila melanogaster the gut microbiome has been shown to influence multiple behaviors, including aggressive social behavior. Here, we investigate the effect of the Drosophila microbiome on pro-social behavior. We predicted that reducing the microbiome would lead to a decrease in pro-social behavior in adult flies. After altering the flies' microbiomes, we observed that virgin male flies with reduced microbiomes were significantly less social than virgin male control flies (t=3.09, p=0.006). We did not observe this difference in virgin female flies (t=0.344, p=0.73), or mated flies of either sex (males: t=0.456, p=0.66; females: t=0.271, p=0.79). Our results suggest that the role of the Drosophila microbiome in pro-social behavior is dependent on both sex and previous social experience.

Comparing Methods for Quantifying and Analyzing Drosophila Aggression.

Here, we highlight three different assays that are used to study Drosophila aggression. The advantages and disadvantages of each assay are discussed, as examining different aspects of aggressive behavior presents distinct challenges to researchers. This is because aggression is not a singular behavioral unit. Rather, aggression is the result of interactions between individuals; and, as such, the initiation and frequency of these interactions are impacted by the assay parameters including the method of loading the flies into the observation chamber, the size of the chamber, and the animals' previous social experience. Thus, determining which assay to use depends on the overall question that is the subject of investigation.

Effect of group size and regrouping on physiological stress and behavior of dairy calves

Mixing or regrouping of calves from different pens is a common animal management practice on the farm, which frequently occurs after weaning and has a negative effect on calve welfare. Social integration before regrouping may relieve stresses, but more evidences are needed to verify this hypothesis. The present study aimed to investigate acute physiological and behavioral variations of individually- or group-housed calves after being introduced into a mixed group. A total of 132 postnatal calves were randomly divided into groups of 1, 3, 6 and 12 animals (S, G3, G6 and G12; 6 replicates in each group) until 59 days of age. At 60 days of age, every two replicates from different groups (S, G3, G6 and G12) were introduced in a larger pen which containing 44 of the aboved experimental calves. Before and after regrouping, physiological parameters of stress, including heart rate (HR), saliva cortisol (S-CORT), saliva secretory immunoglobulin A (SIgA), interleukin-2 (IL-2), interleukin-6 (IL-6), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) levels, and behavioral responses were recorded. After regrouping, HR and S-CORT increased immediately (P<0.05), and higher (P<0.05) levels of such molecules were found in S calves compared to group-housed calves. levels of SIgA and IL-2 were decreased (P<0.05), and the lowest (P<0.05) IL-2 values were found in S calves compared to group-housed calves. In addition, the introduced calves displayed a distinct behavior, including altered active and rest time, which was associated with negative emotions triggered by the novel surroundings. Allogrooming, play, exploration behaviors and lying time were increased significantly (P < 0.05) in group-housed calves than those of S calves. Conversely, self-grooming, aggressive behaviors, standing and walking time were increased (P<0.05) of S calves than those of in group-housed calves. These findings suggest that individually-housed calves may be more susceptible to stressors arising from regrouping than group-housed calves, which consequently negatively affected behavioral and neuroendocrine responses. Furthermore, moving calves with previous social experience may help mitigate regrouping stress.

Abstract 14955: The Biological Bases of Psychosocial Stress-Associated Cardiovascular Disease: Investigating the Cardioprotective Properties of Central Arginine-Vasopressin

Psychosocial stressors (e.g., anxiety, personality traits, social isolation) are risk factors for cardiovascular events and heart disease. However, there is a lack of knowledge regarding the biological mechanisms that underlie this risk-outcome relationship. To address this knowledge gap, our team uses two non-traditional animal models, the Syrian hamster ( Mesocricetus auratus ) and gray short-tailed opossum ( Monodelphis domestica ). We previously reported that social isolation-induced aggression, a type of psychosocial stress experience, leads to increased neural activation in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) of the midbrain. The VTA contains tyrosine hydroxylase (TH)-producing (putative dopamine, DA) neurons and is innervated by vasopressin (AVP) fibers. DA and AVP play a role in social behavior, and we investigated whether these two systems interact when an individual experiences psychosocial stress-induced aggression. Here we report that social interactions increased Fos, the protein product of the immediate early gene c-fos that serves as a marker of neuronal activation, in non-TH cells in an area of the VTA called the interfascicular nucleus (IF) of male subjects. Previous social experience increased the number of TH-positive cells in the IF but had no effect on the number of AVP-ir fibers. Conversely, levels of aggressive and social dominance behaviors were positively correlated with the number of AVP-ir fibers in the IF, whereas there was no relationship between these behaviors and the number of TH-positive cells. In socially naïve males, AVP microinjected into the VTA inhibited the duration of aggressive behavior. We are currently investigating the impact of our psychosocial stress paradigms on myocardial injury in both males and females. Our results suggest a complex interaction between AVP and DA systems in the brain in psychosocial stress responses. Our long-term goal is to build on these preliminary findings to determine whether AVP in the VTA may reduce psychosocial stress-induced myocardial injury, a first step in exploring heart-brain interactions that may link psychosocial stress with negative cardiovascular disease outcomes.

The social-encoding benefit in face recognition is generalized to other-race faces.

Faces are visual stimuli that convey rich social information. Previous experiments found better recognition for faces that were evaluated based on their social traits than on their perceptual features during encoding. Here, we ask whether this social-encoding benefit in face recognition is also found for categories of faces that we have no previous social experience with, such as other-race faces. To answer this question, we first explored whether social and perceptual evaluations for other-race faces are consistent and valid. We then asked whether social evaluations during encoding improve recognition for other-race faces. Results show that social and perceptual evaluations of own- and other-race faces were valid. We also found high agreement in social and perceptual evaluations across individuals from different races. This indicates that evaluations of other-race faces are not random but meaningful. Furthermore, we found that social evaluations facilitated face recognition regardless of race, demonstrating a social-encoding benefit for both own- and other-race faces. Our findings highlight the role of social information in face recognition and show how it can be used to improve recognition of categories of faces that are hard to recognize due to lack of experience with them.

Prey quantity discrimination and social experience affect foraging decisions of rock lizards

Animals often face situations that require quantity discrimination for decision-making. Differentiating between more and less amounts might be adaptative in different contexts such as in social relationships, navigation, or foraging. However, feeding close to conspecifics might change foraging behavior decisions due to changes in predation risk perception and competition for resources. Here, we tested the quantity judgment abilities of foraging rock lizards (Iberolacerta cyreni) in a spontaneous choice test between 5 and 10 cricket prey. Lizards tested had been previously housed alone or in a group to examine how social experience affected foraging decisions. Our results showed that “grouped” lizards had greater foraging activity than “solitary” lizards. Furthermore, all lizards demonstrated some ability to discriminate between the two amounts of prey. These results reveal the capability of quantity judgments in rock lizards and also that foraging decisions may be modulated by the previous social experience. The presence of food sources differing in quantity, together with the proximity of conspecifics, can strongly affect foraging decisions. Previous studies showed various levels of quantitative abilities on different taxa, but results with reptiles are scarce and inconsistent. On the other hand, previous research showed that grouping may have a notable effect on foraging behavior. Here, we demonstrate that male rock lizards can discriminate between two amounts of prey and that there is an effect of the previous social experience on foraging behavior, as lizards that had been housed alone showed less interactivity with food. These outcomes reveal the existence of quantitative abilities in lizards and the importance of the previous social experience in foraging decisions.

Figuras de cera para una historia moderna. Los maniquíes del Museo de Luján como símbolo de una época en transición (Buenos Aires, primera mitad del siglo XX)

El artículo examina las figuras de cera de tamaño natural, con rasgos fisonómicos y atuendo de otras épocas, que conformaban las “reconstrucciones de escenas objetivas” del Museo Histórico y Colonial de la Provincia de Buenos Aires, inaugurado en Luján en 1923. Proponemos recons­truir el contexto en el cual el Museo las incorporó, analizar la complejidad de estos artefactos como instrumentos museográficos, y determinar el impacto que generaron en el público dentro y fuera de la institución. Consideramos que estos objetos permiten observar al menos tres proble­mas historiográficos de mayor envergadura relacionados con la cultura material: la interacción de los sujetos con artefactos confeccionados para usos y propósitos diversos; los mecanismos me­diante los cuales los objetos mutan o acentúan sus significados primigenios dependiendo de las intenciones de los agentes que los interpelan en contextos específicos; la capacidad de los artefac­tos para recuperar experiencias sociales previas, captando expresiones y manifestaciones colecti­vas intangibles.

Primed to vocalize: Wild-derived male house mice increase vocalization rate and diversity after a previous encounter with a female.

Males in a wide variety of taxa, including insects, birds and mammals, produce vocalizations to attract females. Male house mice emit ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs), especially during courtship and mating, which are surprising complex. It is often suggested that male mice vocalize at higher rates after interacting with a female, but the evidence is mixed depending upon the strain of mice. We conducted a study with wild-derived house mice (Mus musculus musculus) to test whether male courtship vocalizations (i.e., vocalizations emitted in a sexual context) are influenced by a prior direct interaction with a female, and if so, determine how long the effect lasts. We allowed sexually naïve males to directly interact with a female for five minutes (sexual priming), and then we recorded males’vocalizations either 1, 10, 20, or 30 days later when presented with an unfamiliar female (separated by a perforated partition) and female scent. We automatically detected USVs and processed recordings using the Automatic Mouse Ultrasound Detector (A-MUD version 3.2), and we describe our improved version of this tool and tests of its performance. We measured vocalization rate and spectro-temporal features and we manually classified USVs into 15 types to investigate priming effects on vocal repertoire diversity and composition. After sexual priming, males emitted nearly three times as many USVs, they had a larger repertoire diversity, and their vocalizations had different spectro-temporal features (USV length, slope and variability in USV frequency) compared to unprimed controls. Unprimed control males had the most distinctive repertoire composition compared to the primed groups. Most of the effects were found when comparing unprimed to all primed males (treatment models), irrespective of the time since priming. Timepoint models showed that USV length increased 1 day after priming, that repertoire diversity increased 1 and 20 days after priming, and that the variability of USV frequencies was lower 20 and 30 days after priming. Our results show that wild-derived male mice increased the number and diversity of courtship vocalizations if they previously interacted with a female. Thus, the USVs of house mice are not only context-dependent, they depend upon previous social experience and perhaps the contexts of these experiences. The effect of sexual priming on male courtship vocalizations is likely mediated by neuro-endocrine-mechanisms, which may function to advertise males’ sexual arousal and facilitate social recognition.

On the collective efficacy of social media teams

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to investigate the contribution of social media teams to firm social media performance. Although social media teams are tasked with planning, executing and optimizing the social media marketing effort of firms, little systematic research has examined their roles. Drawing on social cognitive theory, the present study develops collective social media efficacy as a key mechanism to explain the contribution of social media teams to firm social media performance.Design/methodology/approachThe study tested a conceptual framework in which social media team members' previous experience, short-term training and online resources use contribute to collective social media efficacy. In turn, collective social media efficacy is hypothesized to enhance firm social media performance. The study employed primary data and PROCESS macro to test its proposed hypotheses.FindingsThe findings revealed that previous social media experience, short-term training and online resources use contributed to firm social media performance by enabling social media teams to build strong collective social media efficacy.Originality/valueThe findings offer novel insights into how firms can optimize their social media marketing effort by systematically managing their social media teams. The findings add to the nascent literature on the organizational influences of social media performance.

Winner and loser effects of juvenile cricket Gryllus bimaculatus

Agonistic encounters of juvenile male crickets were analyzed behaviourally. In a pairing between adult and juvenile male crickets, the juvenile crickets were usually beaten by the adult males of over 3 days after their final moult. Juveniles, by contrast, won significantly more bouts against young adult males 2 days after their final moult. These findings are good indicators to predict which cricket will defeat which opponent. To examine the effect of previous social experience, two juvenile animals were paired first and then juveniles that became subordinate were paired with day 2 adults, while juveniles that became dominant were paired with day 3 adults 5 min after first pairing. Subordinate juveniles were beaten by day 2 adults, while dominant juveniles tended to win against day 3 adults. This is the first time that winner and loser effects have been demonstrated in juvenile crickets. Similar pairings with day 2 or day 3 adult males were performed 2 h after first pairings. Subordinate juveniles were still beaten by day 2 adults, while the winning rate of dominant juveniles against day 3 adults was decreased significantly. These results suggest that the retention time of loser effect lasted more than 2 h while that of the winner effect disappeared within a shorter period.

From Interdisiplinary Interactions Toward Interdisciplinary Knowledge

The article presents a set of arguments on favor of an interdisciplinary approach to any events and transformations of the global SBT-system. Drawing on my previous social experience, the analysis of relevant scientific literature and my own studies on the emergence and development of current pandemics I came to the following conclusions. First, every social or natural action has an interdisciplinary character. Second, the regularities of global SBT-structure development and its feedbacks in relation to global economic and social life are still ill studied. Third, the key moment of any natural and social transformation and the interdisciplinary collaboration are the metabolic processes between qualitatively different essences. Four, the above changes points to the fact that the XX century and further has transformed a scientific thought and knowledge into the planetary phenomena. Five, it’s reflects that under current conditions all are interrelated with all. Six, the interdisciplinary approach to an SBT-system of any scale and mode of development has become absolutely necessary. Seven, the emergence and quick spread the pandemics across the world I call as the global critical situation, and it means that the global SBT-system has become over-integrated.

Youth perspectives on weight-related words used by healthcare professionals: A qualitative study.

Although healthcare professionals often consider body weight a sensitive and difficult topic to discuss with children, a contextualized and comprehensive understanding of youth perspectives on weight-related words used in healthcare has yet to be established. This qualitative study aims to explore perspectives of Dutch children on the terminology healthcare professionals use when discussing weight. Fourteen interviews and one focus group discussion were held with children (age 8-16) who were in care because of their weight. A toolkit with customizable interview techniques was used in order to facilitate reflection and tailor the interview to each respondent. A narrative content analysis was conducted. Respondents attached both clear and subtle differences in meanings to (certain) weight-related words. Their perspectives were not unanimous for any single word. Moreover, at times, respondents framed certain words in positive or negative ways or used a word they disliked to describe themselves. This illustrates that meanings of weight-related words are not fixed but context and situation specific. This study revealed that meanings children assign to weight-related words are shaped by their experiences in the broader social context, especially at school, as well as with (previous) healthcare professionals. It pointed towards the importance of bedside manner, acquaintanceship, and support. Healthcare professionals treating children because of their body weight are advised to invest in a good patient-caregiver relationship, pay attention to children's previous (negative) social weight-related experiences, and reflect critically on their own preconceptions about body weight and the impact these preconceptions might have on their patient-caregiver relationships.

Assertive, trainable and older dogs are perceived as more dominant in multi-dog households

Social dominance is an important and widely used concept, however, different interpretations have led to ambiguity in the scientific literature and in popular science. Even though in ethology dominance is an attribute of dyadic encounters, and not a characteristic of the individual, ‘dominance’ has often been referred to as a personality trait in animals. Since few studies have specifically examined the link between personality traits and dominance status, we investigated this in dogs living in multi-dog households using a questionnaire, which required owners to specify whether the dog had a dominant or submissive status, and comprised items of both the features of the individual (i.e. personality traits) and previous social experience (interactions with group members and strangers). Four distinct personality factors emerged from 23 behavioural items by principal component analysis, labelled as assertiveness, trainability, intraspecific aggression and independence. Binomial logistic regression was used to examine how the demographic information of the dogs and the personality factors predicted the owner’s estimate of the dog’ status as dominant or submissive. The personality factor assertiveness accounted for 34% of the variance in dominance status, trainability 5% and dog age contributed 4%. Dogs perceived as dominant scored more highly on the factors assertiveness and trainability, which can help explain why ‘dominance’ has often been suggested to be a personality trait, rather than a dyad-specific social status according to different traditions in behavioural research. Similar to the ‘social dominance’ trait in humans, owner ascribed dominance showed a quadratic trajectory in cross-sectional mean change across the lifespan, increasing during adulthood and then maintaining high levels until old age. Overall, our study proposes a multifactorial background of dominance relationships in pet dogs, suggesting that not only previous experience of social interactions between individuals but also age and personality traits influence owner perceived dominance status in multi-dog households.

The problem of staff assistance at the medical schools in the USA

The article outlines the differences between academic positions in American medical schools. It has been proved that there are many differences in the hierarchical and functional system of academic positions in Ukraine and the United States. It has been established that career success is ensured by a large number of scientific publicatons, experience in pedagogical practice and performance of administrative duties. It has been found out that the academic hierarchy of USA medical schools is characterized by variability of diversified in different universities, but rigid within a single educational system, requirements for a higher position, focusing on research. The basic principle of the American educational system is academic freedom, which is also reflected in the hierarchy of academic positions within USA medical schools – the idea of career growth, besides other advantages, involves academic freedom, which is expressed in scientific research, the choice of teaching methods, etc. An important feature of the American educational system is the academic tenure», a permanent position or an contract for an indefinite period, which is concluded between the university and the teacher, usually after passing the probationary period. The system of attestation of academic personnel in the USA proves different approaches in assessing scientific qualifications, but it is obvious that in comparison with the Ukrainian system it is more democratic and short-term, does not require emotional, psychological and physical stress. It has been established that the system of employment in medical schools in the USA is characterized by complete transparency of the requirements and the selection procedure itself, emphasis on the professionalism in scientific research, attention to the candidate’s previous social experience, high level of communicative skills.

Social experience influences ultrasonic vocalization perception in laboratory mice

Mice emit ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) which vary in spectrotemporal parameters (e.g., frequency, amplitude, and duration) in a multitude of social situations. USVs are often assumed to possess speech-like characteristics, although it has not yet been established that mice are using USVs for communication purposes. Previous studies have shown changes in auditory cortex activity in maternal females to pup calls, but it is currently unknown how previous social experience with other mice throughout development affects perception of adult vocalizations. To test the effect of socialization, we used an operant conditioning task to determine if discrimination of USVs was negatively impacted by chronic social isolation compared to mice that were group housed throughout their lifespan. Mice discriminated between twelve USVs of three different categories. Mice that had been socially isolated since weaning showed deficits in discrimination of some USVs. Additionally, socially isolated mice required more training and testing, and more trials to complete the task than socially experienced mice. These results indicate that experiencing USVs during social interactions affects how the mice perceive their vocalizations, suggesting that these vocalizations could have context-specific meaning that is learned through hearing USVs within the appropriate social context.

Born to win or bred to lose: aggressive and submissive behavioural profiles in crickets

Aggression between conspecific males is widespread in the animal kingdom, as is the fact that some individuals are far more aggressive than others. Consistent interindividual differences in behavioural profiles are generally regarded as a hallmark for animal ‘personality’ in both vertebrates and invertebrates, but their proximate causes are poorly understood. While the social experiences of winning and losing are known to lead to heightened and depressed aggressiveness, respectively, and that different fighting experiences can lead to changes in other behaviours, the extent to which interindividual variation in aggression and correlated behaviours are determined alone by fighting experience, environmental factors or inherited predisposition is unclear. In this study, we video tracked individual, virgin adult male crickets, Gryllus bimaculatus, to quantify their general motility, exploratory behaviour and attraction to conspecific males after 48 h of social isolation, and compared this with their performances 24 h later, immediately after a fighting tournament that yielded cohorts of aggressive winners and submissive losers. Although all known behavioural effects of previous social experience in crickets last only a few hours at most, we found significant behavioural differences between the 48 h isolated future winners and losers, i.e. before the fight tournament. However, the experiences of winning and losing led to more pronounced and some additional changes in behaviour. We discuss whether these different behavioural profiles associated with the chances of winning and losing (‘personalities’) could arise from factors other than fighting experience, or possibly from dominance and subjugation experiences gathered under crowded culture conditions before social isolation with cumulative effects that may persist longer than those presently known.

College Completion: A Longitudinal Examination of the Role of Developmental and Specific College Experiences

Using a 17-year longitudinal design, this study examined the role of personal and family factors assessed early in life, and also academic and social experiences assessed in the first year of college, in predicting college completion. We followed a sample of 444 French-speaking Canadian children from middle to upper socioeconomic backgrounds (66% boys and 34% girls; 6 years old at study onset). We assessed social behaviors (i.e., aggressive-disruptive, anxiety-withdrawal, and prosocial behaviors), mothers’ child-rearing practices (i.e., discipline and pleasure), and family resources (i.e., family structure, mothers’ education, and mothers’ age at the birth of the first child) at kindergarten; academic records in elementary and high school; and academic and social integration in college (i.e., adjustment to academic requirements, academic success, participation in social activities, and attachment to the institution). College completion at age 23 years was obtained from national official records. Using logistic regression analysis, we found that previous social behaviors, academic records, and family experiences had greater impact on college completion than did the quality of students’ academic and social integration in college. We propose some avenues to better understand how precollege factors can improve a child's academic trajectory, college aspirations, and chances of success.

Resource and mate availability, and previous social experience modulate mate choice in the copepods Acartia tonsa and Acartia hudsonica

Copepods, the most abundant metazoans in the oceans, exhibit sexual selection through mate choice. Mate choice may depend on resource and mate availability, mate quality, and the ability of an individual to assess potential mates. We measured the relative strength of mate choice for body size in male and female individuals of the copepod species Acartia tonsa and Acartia hudsonica as a function of food availability, encounter time, and previous social experience with the same and opposite sex. Mate choice in A. tonsa females depended on food availability and previous exposure to the opposite sex, whereas exposure to the opposite sex and encounter time affected mate choice in males. For A. hudsonica, previous social experience with the same and opposite sexes and encounter times were important for mate choice in females, and food availability and encounter time affected mate choice in males. The results suggest that mate choice responds to resource and mate availability, as well as social experience, but that the responses are species and sex-specific even within the same genus. Therefore, these copepods appear to have a flexible mate-sampling strategy that allows them to raise or lower their mate preferences in order to balance the benefits and costs associated with finding a desired mate.