Social Competition Research Articles

Multiple integrated social stress induces depressive-like behavioral and neural adaptations in female C57BL/6J mice

Despite women representing most of those affected by major depression, preclinical studies have focused almost exclusively on male subjects, partially due to a lack of ideal animal paradigms. As the persistent need regarding the sex balance of neuroscience research and female-specific pathology of mental disorders surges, the establishment of natural etiology-based and systematically validated animal paradigms for depression with female subjects becomes an urgent scientific problem. This study aims to establish, characterize, and validate a “Multiple Integrated Social Stress (MISS)” model of depression in female C57BL/6J mice by manipulating and integrating daily social stressors that females are experiencing. Female C57BL/6J mice randomly experienced social competition failure in tube test, modified vicarious social defeat stress, unescapable overcrowding stress followed by social isolation on each day, for ten consecutive days. Compared with their controls, female MISS mice exhibited a relatively decreased preference for social interaction and sucrose, along with increased immobility in the tail suspension test, which could last for at least one month. These MISS mice also exhibited increased levels of blood serum corticosterone, interleukin-6 L and 1β. In the pharmacological experiment, MISS-induced dysfunctions in social interaction, sucrose preference, and tail suspension tests were amended by systematically administrating a single dose of sub-anesthetic ketamine, a rapid-onset antidepressant. Compared with controls, MISS females exhibited decreased c-Fos activation in their anterior cingulate cortex, prefrontal cortex, nucleus accumbens and some other depression-related brain regions. Furthermore, 24 h after the last exposure to the paradigm, MISS mice demonstrated a decreased center zone time in the open field test and decreased open arm time in the elevated plus-maze test, indicating anxiety-like behavioral phenotypes. Interestingly, MISS mice developed an excessive nesting ability, suggesting a likely behavioral phenotype of obsessive-compulsive disorder. These data showed that the MISS paradigm was sufficient to generate pathological profiles in female mice to mimic core symptoms, serum biochemistry and neural adaptations of depression in clinical patients. The present study offers a multiple integrated natural etiology-based animal model tool for studying female stress susceptibility.

Distinct prefrontal projection activity and transcriptional state conversely orchestrate social competition and hierarchy

Social animals compete for limited resources, resulting in a social hierarchy. Although different neuronal subpopulations in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), which has been mechanistically implicated in social dominance behavior, encode distinct social competition behaviors, their identities and associated molecular underpinnings have not yet been identified. In this study, we found that mPFC neurons projecting to the nucleus accumbens (mPFC-NAc) encode social winning behavior, whereas mPFC neurons projecting to the ventral tegmental area (mPFC-VTA) encode social losing behavior. High-throughput single-cell transcriptomic analysis and projection-specific genetic manipulation revealed that the expression level of POU domain, class 3, transcription factor 1 (Pou3f1) in mPFC-VTA neurons controls social hierarchy. Optogenetic activation of mPFC-VTA neurons increases Pou3f1 expression and lowers social rank. Together, these data demonstrate that discrete activity and gene expression in separate mPFC projections oppositely orchestrate social competition and hierarchy.

INVOLUTION GAME WITH SPECIALIZATION STRATEGY

Involution now refers to the phenomenon that competitors in the same field make more efforts to struggle for limited resources but get lower individual “profit effort ratio”. In this work, we investigate the evolution of the involution game when competitors in the same field can adopt not only the strategy of making more efforts but also a specialization strategy which allows competitors to devote all their efforts to part of the competitive field. Based on the existing model, we construct the involution game with the specialization strategy and simulate the evolution of it on a square lattice under different social resource, allocation parameter (characterizing the intensity of social competition), effort and other conditions. In addition, we also conduct a theoretical analysis to further understand the underlying mechanism of our model and to avoid illusive results caused by the model settings. Our main results show that, when the total effort of the specialization strategy and the ordinary strategy is equal, the group composed of all the agents has a certain probability to choose the ordinary strategy if the allocation parameter is very large (that is to say, the intensity of competition is very weak), otherwise the group will choose the specialization strategy; when the total effort of the two strategies is not equal, the proportion of the specialization strategy adoption is related to the social resource, the effort and the allocation parameter. To some extent, our study can explain why division of labor appears in human society and provide suggestions for individuals on competition strategy selection and governments on competition policy development.

The relationship between social responsibility fulfilment and industry competitiveness: Empirical evidence from construction industry in China.

Social responsibility fulfilment is an important part of the operation management (OM) and competitiveness of the construction industry (CIC). This study investigates the mechanisms through which social responsibility fulfilment in the construction industry affects industry competitiveness and the mediating role of industry operations management. From the intra-organizational stakeholder perspective, social responsibility fulfilment (SR) is divided into two dimensions: shareholder-dimensional (SH) and employee-dimensional social responsibility fulfilment (EM). By analysing a panel of the construction industry in 12 provinces of China from 2015 to 2020, an inverted U-shaped relationship between social responsibility fulfilment and construction industry competitiveness and between shareholder-dimensional social responsibility fulfilment and construction industry competitiveness was found, while a U-shaped relationship between employee-dimensional social responsibility fulfilment and construction industry competitiveness was found. Furthermore, social responsibility fulfilment and shareholder-dimensional social responsibility fulfilment had significant effects on operation management. Additionally, the study concludes that operation management is positively related to construction industry competitiveness and plays a partially mediating role between social responsibility fulfilment and construction industry competitiveness. The findings enrich the theoretical basis of the relationship between social responsibility fulfilment and competitiveness and demonstrates important management significance for the construction industry in managing its social responsibility behaviour and improving industry competitiveness, thus promoting high-quality development of the construction industry.

Design And Implementation of Smart Pet House Temperature Monitoring System Based on STM32 Single-Chip Microcomputer

With the development of social economy and the acceleration of urbanization as well as the increasingly heavier burden of social competition, keeping pets has become an important pastime for more and more families which result in the improvement of the market of pet caring. In order to take better care of pets more efficiently, in this paper, the author designs a smart pet house temperature monitoring system based on STM32 single chip microcomputer with the interaction to the upper computer. The intelligent pet house temperature monitoring system chooses STM32F102C6T6 single chip microcomputer controller as the controlling core and designs several circuits to achieve each required function. The overall designed system realizes the function of pet house temperature measurement with displaying on the LED connected to the single chip and data transmission to PCs with real-time plotting through the MATLAB. Experimental results show that the temperature monitoring system can timely measure the temperature in the pet house, and prove the feasibility of the design. Consequently, the designed system quality can be guaranteed to a great extent.

Research on the Impact of China's "Double Reduction" Policy on the Self-discipline of Primary School Students' Extracurricular Learning

With the intensification of social development and educational competition, the extracurricular learning pressure on Chinese primary school students continues to increase, and excessive after-school homework and extracurricular tutoring classes make the learning burden of students increasingly heavy. To improve this situation, the Chinese government has introduced a "double reduction" policy, which aims to reduce the burden of homework and extracurricular training for primary school students, so that they can have more time and energy to participate in other activities that are beneficial to physical and mental development. The introduction of this policy has undoubtedly brought new possibilities for the extracurricular learning methods of Chinese primary school students and also posed new challenges to their learning self-discipline. Therefore, it is of great theoretical and practical significance to study the impact of the "double reduction" policy on the self-discipline of primary school students' extracurricular learning.Based on the background of the double reduction policy, this article analyzes the impact it has on the self-discipline of extracurricular learning of primary school students, to achieve the ultimate goal of this study. Through in-depth interviews with parents and teachers, this study understands their cognition and feelings about the "double reduction" policy and explores the impact of the policy on their daily study and life. In general, through an in-depth discussion of the impact of the "double reduction" policy on the self-discipline of primary school students' extracurricular learning, this study hopes to provide valuable references and suggestions for the management and guidance of primary school students' extracurricular learning.

Affected Mexico human papillomavirus vaccine: a proposal for collective health care

The objective of this article is to analyze the process of formation of Afectadas México Vacuna Virus del Papiloma Humano, a group of mothers organized from the health affectations of their daughters attributed to the immunization against this virus, as a space of collective care. The qualitative research, with in-depth interviews and an analysis from the sociocultural perspective of emotions and crossed by gender, has focused on reflecting on the causes that have led these mothers, as primary caregivers in the process of care and attention to the health of the affected daughters, to build alternative spaces of visibility, mutual support, dialogue and collective denunciation, taking as main tool the use of social networks and digitality, as these are the most used means of mass contact at present, with projection to different social spheres. From this study it has been concluded that the competent contexts to the health-disease-care process are not alien to social responses that take shape in organizations of denunciation, rejection and protest, even from a non-physical and conventional mobilization. The post-vaccine effect has served to make it clear that health is also a matter of social and political competition, in which emotions are the binding element that strengthens the union. The experience with the loss of the daughters' health links the expressions of feeling in action, interaction and politicization of women from their own material and ideological resources.

Social roles and competitiveness: My willingness to compete depends on who I am (supposed to be)

Women frequently react less favorably to competition than men. In this paper, we investigate the effects of social roles on willingness to compete (WTC). Subjects compete in two-person teams. In the treatment, one team member is randomly assigned the role of “breadwinner/manager”, and the other person is randomly assigned as the “supporter/assistant”. The only difference between the roles is the labels. In the baseline, subjects compete without any role assignment. We find women's WTC increases by 41% (44%) when they are assigned as breadwinners (managers) compared to women in the baseline. Men have lower WTC when they are assigned as supporters or assistants. There is no gender gap in WTC in treatment groups. Social norms of competitiveness for each role are elicited, and are suggested as the main driver of changes in WTC by the role assignment. We also examine other potential mechanisms through which social roles affect WTC.

The Effects of Childhood Trauma and Social Support on Individual Depression and Anxiety

As the social competition becomes more and more intensifies, anxiety and depression are very prevalence in recent society and even develop into illness. Also, families can have both positive and negative effects on children, which can affect their mental health throughout their lives. Thus, childhood trauma can be a vital factor of anxiety and depression. This paper analyzes how childhood trauma affects anxiety and depression and how social environment alleviates these emotions. Research had found that childhood trauma indirectly affects anxiety and depression. Different negative attitudes towards children will lead to different emotional dysfunctions and even brain changes in children. Moreover, the mental health of the following generation may also be impacted by a generation that experienced childhood trauma, creating a vicious cycle. There are also some ways to improve this negative emotion. When people encounter difficulties, they can relieve anxiety and depression by finding effective social support and using positive coping styles. This paper can be referred to the field of psychology counseling in order to give effective suggestions to consult. Future research could focus more on the preventing and factors of anxiety and depression.

Digital infrastructure, ultra-fast broadband, and citizenship in the Gigatown competition in the South Island, Aotearoa New Zealand

ABSTRACT Gigatown (2013–2014) was a joint initiative between the telecommunications company Chorus and the New Zealand government to award a town ‘The fastest internet in the Southern Hemisphere’ through a social media competition. Gigatown involved the production, by participating towns, of social media content that demonstrated the economic and other benefits of ultra-fast broadband and gigabit connectivity. This paper argues that the competition’s logics are biopolitical in the valorization of citizenship as tied to social media and information and communications technologies (ICT) proficiency. Focusing on the South Island city of Dunedin, and drawing on the conceptual framework of somatechnics for understanding the embodied relationship between governance and technology, I show how the competition somatechnically positions residents as consumer-citizens whose social media proficiency and digital labour facilitate their participation in policy planning and development. In order to meet infrastructural planning priorities for the penetration of ultra-fast broadband into business and consumer domains, the competition incited and relied on residents’ civic love and volunteer labour for their city’s future. Such labour is ‘spaced-off’ as de-materialized and de-territorialized, construed as something done for fun in spare time, which left some participants experiencing burnout in their somatechnical embodiment of active digital citizenship.

How social structure shapes female competition throughout her lifetime

Many studies find a consistent gender gap in competitiveness where men are more likely to compete than women given the same level of ability. Using data from experiments with women ages 12 through 90 in matrilocal and patrilocal communities in rural Malawi, we show that this gender gap does not exist uniformly for all women nor across their whole lifetime. We first replicate three main findings from the gender and competition literature: (i) women are less likely to compete on average; and the gender gap differs by (ii) culture and by (iii) age. In a new finding, we show that the gender gap changes in a theoretically-predicted manner with motherhood status. We argue that these results, when combined, point to an overarching theory of gender and competition–one that is driven by environmental constraints that vary with age, fertility, and social structure.

APPLICATION OF QUALITATIVE METHODS TO STUDY THE TRAUMATIC EXPERIENCE OF MARIUPOL STUDENT VOLUNTEERS DURING THE WAR

The article analyzes the experience of using qualitative methods of collecting sociological information to preserve, systematize and disseminate the experience of student youth of the city of Mariupol, who during the war and occupation of the city took an active social position and provided social assistance and support to civilian residents of the city, engaged in volunteer activities. The purpose of the study was to consider the possibilities of applying qualitative methods of sociological research during the study of socially significant practices of social work and volunteering in complex extreme situations (on the example of the traumatic experience of Mariupol student volunteers during the war). The peculiarities of the analysis of electronic diaries submitted by the authors for participation in the social competition as a means of obtaining high-quality sociological information are considered. The article is based on materials from e-diaries submitted for participation in the «Volunteer Heart of Mariupol» competition. The purpose of the Competition is to collect and preserve the stories of volunteer students who lived and studied in the city of Mariupol before the war, now have been forced to move to another city of Ukraine or abroad, and continue to selflessly help others, carry out volunteer initiatives and bring the Victory of Ukraine closer. The competition was held in January 2023 among Mariupol students. Volunteering is considered as a type of socially significant activity, a means of personal response to being in an extreme situation, which, above all, helped student youth to overcome stress and start looking for internal stability, stability in an extreme situation through helping others. The model of students' behavior after leaving the zone of active hostilities and evacuation, related to the activation of volunteer activities, was also considered.

Gradual Loss of Social Group Support during Competition Activates Anterior TPJ and Insula but Deactivates Default Mode Network.

Group forming behaviors are common in many species to overcome environmental challenges. In humans, bonding, trust, group norms, and a shared past increase consolidation of social groups. Being a part of a social group increases resilience to mental stress; conversely, its loss increases vulnerability to depression. However, our knowledge on how social group support affects brain functions is limited. This study observed that default mode network (DMN) activity reduced with the loss of social group support from real-life friends in a challenging social competition. The loss of support induced anterior temporoparietal activity followed by anterior insula and the dorsal attentional network activity. Being a part of a social group and having support provides an environment for high cognitive functioning of the DMN, while the loss of group support acts as a threat signal and activates the anterior temporoparietal junction (TPJ) and insula regions of salience and attentional networks for individual survival.

Kang Youwei and Italy in the beginning of the 20th century: comprehension of the politics of the west by the traditional confucian thinker

The article deals with the theoretical treatises written by Kang Youwei (1858 — 1927) in exile and devoted to the understanding of Western social and political reality from the standpoint of a bearer of traditional Chinese culture and Neo-Confucian philosophy. First of all, these are “Travelogue to Italy” (Yidali youji, 1904) and “Impartial Words on Republicanism” (Gonghe pingyi, 1918). Kang Yuwei’s thinking is characterized by attention to the Confucian binary opposition si — gong (private — general), which he transferred to both civilizational development and international politics. In other words, the Western path of development, which consist national imperialist states based on economic, social and foreign policy competition and individualism (“private”), was opposed to the monolithic ancient China, whose society and politics are based on the principles of “community” and unity. Kang Youwei perceived the political reality of Western countries from the standpoint of traditional Chinese historiography, which was intended to serve as a base of positive and negative precedents for use by the ruler in the name of the common good and the harmonization of society. In Kang Youwei’s system of historical views, modern Italy and Germany were very important for illustrating the principle of consolidation of political entities and the merging of small and weak states into large empires. Methodologically, this was formalized as the assignment of Germany, Italy and China to the same ontological category (tong lei).

Хэл хүний бүтээл, соёл мөн

Multilingual education is one of the main factors of human competitiveness when economic, social and cultural competition among people increases in today's Globalized World where many nations coexist. It is extremely important for us Mongolians, who have a large territory but a small population and with powerful neighbors, to get an education in the world's major languages. Therefore, the author of this paper aimed to show the importance of optimally teaching Mongolian children from an early age the second and third languages, which are one of the main factors of the competitiveness of nations in the global environment.

The positive influence of labor education on college students’ psychological anxiety

BackgroundWith the increasingly fierce social competition, the psychological anxiety of college students has become increasingly prominent. Labor education in the new era, as a comprehensive activity, can play an intervention role in the treatment of psychological anxiety of college students through actual labor experience and social support.Subjects and MethodsA total of 300 college students with psychological anxiety were selected and divided into a control group and an experimental group. The control group maintained normal study and life. The experimental group participated in a labor education course with a total duration of 8 weeks, and added emotional management skills training in the process of labor education. The Hamilton Depression Scale and the well-being Scale were used to test the student status before and after the course.ResultsThe results showed that after the completion of the course, the score of Hamilton depression scale in the experimental group decreased significantly (P < 0.05), from 18.3±4.2 before the course to 12.7±3.1 after the course; In the control group, the Hamilton Depression Scale score decreased from 24.3±4.4 to 21.6±3.8. The happiness scale score of the experimental group was significantly improved (P < 0.05), from 28.6±5.1 before the course to 36.2±6.3 after the course.ConclusionsIt shows that labor education in the new era has a positive effect on college students’ psychological anxiety, and can be applied to the treatment of college students’ psychological anxiety.

Alleviation effect of ideological and political education on psychological obstacles of college students

BackgroundThe increasing pressure of social competition has gradually increased the pressure on the college student community. The psychological problems of college students have become increasingly prominent, even becoming an important factor affecting campus stability in some universities. Although traditional treatment methods are effective in alleviating psychological disorders in college students, long-term treatment has developed drug resistance or reduced treatment effectiveness. Therefore, the study aims to alleviate the psychological barriers of college students by introducing ideological and political education from the perspective of educational psychology.Subjects and MethodsA total of 52 college students with psychological disorders were selected as the research subjects and randomly divided into H and I groups. Group H adopted traditional treatment methods, while Group I introduced ideological and political education on this basis. The experiment lasted for one year, and after the experiment, independent t-tests were conducted on the samples using SPSS 20.0 and data analysis was conducted on the samples.ResultsAfter the experiment, the somatization score of Group I was 1.30 ± 0.45 points, the interpersonal sensitivity score was 1.56 ± 0.51 points, the paranoid score was 1.44 ± 0.48 points, the mental parallelism score was 1.49 ± 0.61 points, and the terror score was 1.40 ± 0.35 points, all lower than those of Group H and before the experiment.ConclusionsFrom the perspective of educational psychology, ideological and political education can effectively alleviate psychological barriers for college students.

Social network sites and competition: a tale of YouTube, 2005–2015

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to document and analyze the success story of YouTube as a social network site in a competitive market, offering important academic and managerial implications.Design/methodology/approachHistorical methods were used for investigation. This study applies the Resource-Advantage theory to identify key events in the history of YouTube from archival documents and evaluates and synthesizes the evidence to recount the channel’s evolution.FindingsYouTube faced challenges from competitors across various industries since its launch. It has used its global user base and technological skills to develop innovative market offerings for users, contributors and marketers. YouTube built long-term relationships with stakeholders, continuously adapted to external changes and initiated internal alignments to compete in multiple industries. Over time, despite several changes in the competitive landscape, YouTube has grown into a successful media firm, competing across traditional broadcasting, gaming, live TV streaming and SNS industries. It is an exciting tale in the history of social networking.Originality/valueThis study significantly contributes to the marketing history of social network sites and platform-specific scholarship by applying the Resource-Advantage theory to document the evolution of YouTube.

Neither Eastern nor Western: Patterns of independence and interdependence in Mediterranean societies.

Social science research has highlighted "honor" as a central value driving social behavior in Mediterranean societies, which requires individuals to develop and protect a sense of their personal self-worth and their social reputation, through assertiveness, competitiveness, and retaliation in the face of threats. We predicted that members of Mediterranean societies may exhibit a distinctive combination of independent and interdependent social orientation, self-construal, and cognitive style, compared to more commonly studied East Asian and Anglo-Western cultural groups. We compared participants from eight Mediterranean societies (Spain, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Cyprus [Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot communities], Lebanon, Egypt) to participants from East Asian (Korea, Japan) and Anglo-Western (the United Kingdom, the United States) societies, using six implicit social orientation indicators, an eight-dimensional self-construal scale, and four cognitive style indicators. Compared with both East Asian and Anglo-Western samples, samples from Mediterranean societies distinctively emphasized several forms of independence (relative intensity of disengaging [vs. engaging] emotions, happiness based on disengaging [vs. engaging] emotions, dispositional [vs. situational] attribution style, self-construal as different from others, self-directed, self-reliant, self-expressive, and consistent) and interdependence (closeness to in-group [vs. out-group] members, self-construal as connected and committed to close others). Our findings extend previous insights into patterns of cultural orientation beyond commonly examined East-West comparisons to an understudied world region. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Pressure From Within: Gay-Community Stress and Body Dissatisfaction Among Sexual-Minority Men

Although intraminority gay-community stress has been theorized to affect sexual-minority men’s body dissatisfaction, this association has not been evaluated quantitatively. Using two samples of sexual-minority men—one sample recruited from a population-based study of U.S. adults ( N = 424; age: M = 54.29 years) and the other a sample meeting diagnostic criteria for depressive, anxiety, or trauma-/stressor-related disorders ( N = 251; age: M = 26.52 years)—in this study, we investigated associations between gay-community stress and body dissatisfaction. In both samples, gay-community stress was significantly associated with sexual-minority men’s greater body dissatisfaction in models that controlled for demographic and minority-stress variables. In terms of specific domains of gay-community stress, perceptions of the gay community’s focus on sex, social status, and social competition were significant correlates of greater body dissatisfaction. Future research can determine the impact of routinely addressing gay-community stress in body image and eating-disorder treatments for this population.