Social Relations Research Articles

Opinions of Individuals Exposed to Earthquake Regarding Their Psychological Rigidity

This is a qualitative study conducted to evaluate the thoughts of individuals who were exposed to the earthquake that took place on 06.02.2023, centered in Kahramanmaraş, regarding their psychological rigidity. A phenomenological approach was adopted in the study. 14 participants were included in the study. Data were collected by audio recording with a semi-structured interview form. Content analysis technique was used to analyze the data. As a result of the analysis, it was determined that individuals exposed to the earthquake avoided the emotions of joy, happiness, love, sadness, anger and fear. It was determined that thoughts are suppressed and thoughts about the loss of family members are avoided. However, there are also participants who do not have avoidant thoughts or behaviors. Individuals exposed to earthquake reported situations such as fear of loss, nightmares, anxiety, hopelessness, rumination, powerlessness, failure, fear of punishment, burnout, embarrassment, claustrophobia, crying spells, eating problems, increase in alcohol/cigarette use, sleep problems, social isolation, excessive cleaning, staying away from entertainment, and disruption of social relations. In this study, after the trauma experienced, some individuals stated that they became aware of the value of life, created new options, had positive changes in social relations, and change in the perception of self. Considering the results, it is evaluated that practices aimed at increasing psychological flexibility will reduce the negative effects of traumatic experiences and increase psychological resilience in individuals.

EXPLORING USER-PRODUCT INTERACTION IN CAR MODIFICATION PRACTICES

This study delves into the dynamic interaction between the creative activity of car modification and the qualitative aspects of modified car ownership and usage. The study aims to explore experiences and meaning generated in and through the material reproduction of cars. Employing a grounded theory approach, the research investigates car modification communities in Istanbul, Turkey. The findings are structured into two main sections: The Driver, which focuses on car owners' experiences derived from in-depth qualitative interviews, and The Car, which explores the material aspects of cars through the analysis of modifications. The study revealed that car modification transcends mere material reproduction. Rather, it unveils a complex interplay where cars are shaped by their owners, while simultaneously shaping their owners in diverse ways. By altering the materiality of their cars, individuals not only forge material relationships but also cultivate new amalgamations of sensual and social relations and experiences. Through altering the materiality of their cars, car owners tailor the experience of driving and give a concrete form to their social and personal identities.

Personal AI, deception, and the problem of emotional bubbles

AbstractPersonal AI is a new type of AI companion, distinct from the prevailing forms of AI companionship. Instead of playing a narrow and well-defined social role, like friend, lover, caretaker, or colleague, with a set of pre-determined responses and behaviors, Personal AI is engineered to tailor itself to the user, including learning to mirror the user’s unique emotional language and attitudes. This paper identifies two issues with Personal AI. First, like other AI companions, it is deceptive about the presence of their emotions, which undermines the moral value of companionship. Second, Personal AI leads to a distinctly new form of deception concerning the origins of its emotions. Its emotional attitudes appear to belong to it, when in fact they are only reflections of the user. This results in what I dub “emotional bubbles”—the false impression that personal emotions are externally validated—which have at least two troubling implications. First, emotional bubbles prevent us from encountering emotional attitudes that differ from our own, which is likely to cripple emotional growth and the ability to form diverse social and emotional relationships. Second, if we assume, as some philosophers claim, that shared emotions are constitutive of shared values, it follows that Personal AI subverts joint moral deliberation. Users believe their personal values are externally validated, when they are only validated by themselves. Because of the absence of technovirtues able to handle this problem, I suggest that we proceed very cautiously with the development and marketing of Personal AI.

Sex differences in the impact of social relationships on individual vocal signatures in grey mouse lemurs (Microcebus murinus).

Vocalizations coordinate social interactions between conspecifics by conveying information concerning the individual or group identity of the sender. Social accommodation is a form of vocal learning where social affinity is signalled by converging or diverging vocalizations with those of conspecifics. To investigate whether social accommodation is linked to the social lifestyle of the sender, we investigated sex-specific differences in social accommodation in a dispersed living primate, the grey mouse lemur (Microcebus murinus), where females form stable sleeping groups whereas males live solitarily. We used 482 trill calls of 36 individuals from our captive breeding colony to compare acoustic dissimilarity between individuals with genetic relatedness, social contact time and body weight. Our results showed that female trills become more similar the more time females spend with each other, independent of genetic relationship, suggesting vocal convergence. In contrast, male trills were affected more by genetic than social factors. However, focusing only on socialized males, increasing time as cage partners caused greater divergence in males' trills. Thus, grey mouse lemurs show the capacity for social accommodation, with females converging their trills to signal social closeness to sleeping group partners, whereas males do not adapt or diverge their trills to signal individual distinctiveness. This article is part of the theme issue 'The power of sound: unravelling how acoustic communication shapes group dynamics'.

Benefits but not the dual functions of submissive signals differ between two Malagasy primates.

Many animals use formalized signals to communicate dominance relationships. In some primates, such as macaques, the function of such signals varies with dominance style. Despotic species produce unidirectional submission signals that have a dual function: in conflict contexts, they signal a willingness to withdraw, whereas in peaceful contexts, they indicate the agreement to subordination. More despotic species produce these calls to a lesser extent than less despotic species. Here, we investigated whether the use of unidirectional submission signals is also related to dominance style in two lemur species and whether signalling subordination stabilizes social relationships at the group level. Ring-tailed lemurs (Lemur catta) exhibit a more despotic dominance hierarchy than Verreaux's sifakas (Propithecus verreauxi). We observed social interactions in 75 dyads of Verreaux's sifakas and 118 dyads of ring-tailed lemurs. Both species used unidirectional submissive calls that have a dual function, potentially suggesting convergent evolution of the function of these signals in independent primate lineages. However, signalling subordination did not stabilize social relationships at the group level in both species. Additionally, subordination occurred more frequently in dyads of the more despotic ring-tailed lemurs than in Verreaux's sifakas, indicating opposite patterns to macaques in the coevolution of social traits with dominance style. This article is part of the theme issue 'The power of sound: unravelling how acoustic communication shapes group dynamics'.

The power of sound: unravelling how acoustic communication shapes group dynamics.

Acoustic signalling is a key mode of communication owing to its instantaneousness and rapid turnover, its saliency and flexibility and its ability to function strategically in both short- and long-range contexts. Acoustic communication is closely intertwined with both collective behaviour and social network structure, as it can facilitate the coordination of collective decisions and behaviour, and play an important role in establishing, maintaining and modifying social relationships. These research topics have each been studied separately and represent three well-established research areas. Yet, despite the close connection of acoustic communication with collective behaviour and social networks in natural systems, only few studies have focused on their interaction. The aim of this theme issue is therefore to build a foundation for understanding how acoustic communication is linked to collective behaviour, on the one hand, and social network structure on the other, in non-human animals. Through the building of such a foundation, our hope is that new questions in new avenues of research will arise. Understanding the links between acoustic communication and social behaviour seems crucial for gaining a comprehensive understanding of sociality and social evolution. This article is part of the theme issue 'The power of sound: unravelling how acoustic communication shapes group dynamics'.

Tren Budaya Kontemporer: Interaksi Antara Islam dan Fenomena K-Pop di Kalangan Remaja SMAN 5 Kota Tangerang Selatan

In the context of cultural globalization, the views of Muslims in Indonesia on the influx of foreign cultures, especially K-Pop from South Korea, is an interesting topic to discuss. With respect to K-Pop, the interaction between Islam and the K-Pop phenomenon has become a modern cultural trend that is interesting to study in an era of increasingly connected cultural globalization, while still considering the existence and importance of existing local cultures. Both phenomena have a significant influence on the identity, lifestyle and worldview of today's youth. It is through this study that we can investigate how adolescents at SMAN 5 South Tangerang City who are Muslims respond to and interact with the K-Pop phenomenon, including how K-Pop culture affects their perceptions of social relationships, self-identity, and religious values. The focus of this study is to discuss how the phenomenon of the interaction dynamics between Islam and K-Pop culture among teenagers at SMAN 5 South Tangerang City, including the factors that influence their preference for K-Pop content, how they act on content that contradicts religious values, and how the Islamic community at the school handles the challenges and opportunities that arise from this interaction. The purpose of this study is to provide better information on how Muslim teenagers in schools cope with the challenges and opportunities that arise from these interactions. The rise of this culture, known as the “Korean Wave”, has been growing from the early 2000s to the present. Most people view K-Pop as a cultural threat that will weaken the local values found in Indonesia and undermine the quality of the existing culture. In the end, K-Pop spread because its fans came from all walks of life. It is also spreading not only because of the pop culture factor, but because of the movies, fashion, lifestyle, and culinary that are increasingly favored by Indonesians, especially Muslim teenagers. As a result, ordinary people are noticing the increasing threat of foreign K-Pop culture entering Indonesia.

The distinctiveness of relational equality

In recent years, a distinction between two concepts of equality has been much discussed: “distributive” equality involves people having equal amounts of a good such as welfare or resources, and “social” or “relational” equality involves the absence of (certain kinds of) social hierarchy and the presence of (certain kinds of) equal social relations. This contrast is commonly thought to have important implications for our understanding of the relationship between equality and justice. But the nature and significance of the distinction is far from clear. I examine several accounts of this issue and argue none are entirely satisfactory. In turn, I offer an alternative proposal. Relational equality, on my account, involves a concern with each person having an equal “civic status.” I characterize this concern and show it has distinctive and normatively significant positional and temporal aspects.

Феномен социокультурных эффектов юридического образования (на примере исследования эффект-изменения и эффекта информационного взаимодействия образовательной среды)

Attention to the problem of studying the socio-cultural effects of legal education as a phenomenon that contributes to the formation of a law student’s personality is due to modern processes of transformation of social relations (a change in the attitude towards the spiritual and moral foundations and cultural and historical heritage of Russian society at the state level). The aim of the article is to identify and characterize the socio-cultural effects of legal education on the basis of the analysis of the specifics and capabilities of a law school in changing conditions. The article comprehensively studies the problem of socio-cultural adaptation of the younger generation in the conditions of higher education in law. The role of legal education in the socialization of a student’s personality provokes scientific interest. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the fact that it attempts to define the socio-cultural value of legal education as an effect of change and as an effect of informational interaction in the educational environment. As a result of the study, the specifics of socio-cultural aspects of legal education, a number of effects of socio-cultural interaction, such as effects of change, were identified; positive and negative effects of socio-cultural interaction in the educational information space were defined; in addition, basic manifestations of the socialization of a student’s personality were identified.

The Ethics of Decentralized Clinical Trials and Informed Consent: Taking Technologies' Soft Impacts into Account.

Decentralized clinical trials (DCTs) have the potential to advance the conduct of clinical trials, but raise several ethical issues, including obtaining valid informed consent. The debate on the ethical issues resulting from digitalization is predominantly focused on direct risks relating to for example data protection, safety, and data quality. We submit however, that a broader view on ethical aspects of DCTs is needed to touch upon the new challenges that come with the DCT practice. Digitalization has impacts that go beyond its direct purposes, by shaping behaviors, experiences, social relations, and values. We examine four elements of the informed consent procedure that are affected by DCTs, while taking these soft impacts of technologies into account: (i) informing participants and testing understanding, (ii) freedoms in relation to responsibilities and burdens, (iii) trust in participant-researcher relations, and (iv) impacts on the concept of privacy. Our analysis reveals that a broad view is key for optimal conduct of DCTs. In addition, it provides insight into the ethical impacts of DCTs on informed consent. Technologies such as DCTs potentially have profound impacts which are not immediately addressed by the existing regulatory frameworks, but nonetheless important to recognize. These findings can guide future practices of DCTs to foster the important values of clinical research in this novel approach for conducting clinical trials.

Race, Ethnicity and Nationality in Sociology

Abstract It aims to understand what makes people similar to others, different from some, and unique to themselves. However, there is room for research in personality to more thoughtfully consider culture, race, and ethnicity in order to better understand individual differences in people’s patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving. High impact personality journals rarely include such factors into the interpretation of results, and cross-cultural and ethnic minority publications are limited within the discipline. non-exhaustive overview of how culture, race, and ethnicity are examined in relation to personality, showing that: (1) social structures continue to be neglected in the research, (2) we can learn from research being conducted in neighboring areas, and (3) valuable work is already being done within personality psychology. We offer recommendations that emphasize community based participatory research methods, combined etic-emic approaches, and contextualizing research findings to improve the consideration of culture, race, and ethnicity in personality research. It is argued that the connection between race and ethnic categories is more fundamental, and yet the connection between fighting racism and ethnic pluralism is more problematic than this position implies. Ethnicity and racism are different but connected discourses for articulating collectivity and belongingness, and serve diverse political projects which include those of class and nation building. Their understanding as concrete social relations however, requires attending to gender and class processes and the state., and national identities are salient uniting but also stratifying forces in people’s lives and across societies. and attitudes toward immigration and political trust among different racial and ethnic groups. how and why social inequalities are structured and sustained between different groups in education, work, health, and resource distribution, among other realms of life. as well as Reflecting on the idea of “Race” and the normative significance of race relations is an essential part of the enterprise of political philosophy. The principal goal is to think systematically about whether, and if so how, race should figure in our evaluation of institutional arrangements and power relations, in our treatment of each other within civil society, and in our self-conceptions and group affiliations. This article discusses the idea of race, racism, racial discrimination and social justice, responding to racial injustice, and racial identity and community. The Institute of Development Studies (IDS) has also made important contributions to this literature and its application to development studies. First, theoretical effort is required to unpack how ethnicity intersects with other forms of identity. Second, as demonstrated by IDS' contributions, further research is required on the impacts of ethnicity upon development and vice versa. the argument that philosophy is limited and cannot carry out a constructive task that goes beyond that of other disciplines of learning; and whether a metaphysics of race and ethnicity in particular is a descriptive or prescriptive enterprise. Finally, he considers an effective set of conditions for race, ethnicity, and nationality.

Sex based differences in depression, anxiety, and quality of life and predictors of quality of life among South Asian individuals with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: A Bayesian analysis

BackgroundCOPD can affect both men and women leading to deteriorating impact on general well-being, personal, and family life and decreased quality of life. Anxiety, depression, and self-care behaviours can affect the quality of life of individuals with COPD. There is a dearth of sex-based comparative analyses of anxiety, depression, quality of life, and predictors of quality of life among South Asian individuals with COPD. PurposeTo identify the sex-based differences in depression, anxiety, and quality of life and the predictors of quality of life among South Asian individuals with COPD. MethodsA cross-sectional survey of 294 men and 114 women with COPD was conducted in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Hospital Anxiety and Depression scale, World Health Organization Quality of Life-brief version, Self-Care of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Inventory, the Self-Care Self-Efficacy in COPD Scale were used for data collection. Bayesian independent sample t-test was used to compare mean differences in depression, anxiety, and quality of life among men and women. Two regression models were examined to determine if age, years of living with COPD, anxiety, depression, self-care self-efficacy, self-care monitoring, management, and maintenance were predictors of quality of life among men and women. FindingsBayesian analysis showed anecdotal evidence that women had higher levels of depression, but lower levels of anxiety compared to men. Anecdotal evidence indicated that the physical quality of life of men was better than women, but strong evidence that their social relationship and environmental quality of life was better than women. Years of living with COPD, anxiety, depression, self-care self-efficacy, self-care management, self-care monitoring, and self-care maintenance were stronger predictors of women's quality of life. Anxiety and depression only predicted men's psychological quality of life, but predicted women's psychological, social relationships, and environmental quality of life. ConclusionsThe findings contribute to literature highlighting sex-based differences in anxiety, depression, and quality of life among South Asian men and women with COPD. Men generally reported higher levels of quality of life than women across all domains. Women's social relationships and environmental quality of life were greatly impacted by anxiety and depression. Quality of life interventions for women should be targeted at improving their social relationships and environmental satisfaction and addressing anxiety and depression.

Completion of irregular emotion sequence based on users' social relationships and historical emotions

The use of multivariate time series is often impeded by the discontinuity of key missing features. In social networks, the absence of individual sentiment attributes presents challenges to sentiment-driven applications, such as sentiment prediction. Traditional missing value imputation fails in this field as it overlooks the interplay between missing and observed features. This paper introduces a novel deep learn-ing model that captures and assimilates the evolving features of users and their neighbors for effective sentiment completion. Experimental evidence shows that our model outperforms five other methods in performance and efficiency.

Civicness, social relations and environmental behaviour: a new kaleidoscope of social capital in Italy

ABSTRACT Despite longstanding debate, research on social capital in Italy is waning. This article resumes the topic through new methodological and theoretical advances. We shed new light on the subject by combining classical social capital dimensions (civicness, social relations) with environmental attitudes. By applying an original clustering technique to individual-level data, we show that certain regions of the Mezzogiorno depart from the traditional North-South divide in social capital. The findings challenge the conventional regional cleavage by demonstrating greater pro-environment behaviours in certain Southern regions, providing fresh perspectives for sustainable development.

Pupils’ right to inclusion in an urban Finnish lower secondary school: a Bernsteinian analysis of pupils’ social relations

Finnish schools are famous for their egalitarian principles, but they face challenges related to pupils’ equal opportunities and, more broadly, democratic schooling. In this article, we examine the lived consequences of a growing challenge, school segregation, using Basil Bernstein’s concepts of inclusion and classification. Our analysis is based on ethnographic data produced in a lower secondary school located in a relatively disadvantaged residential area in the metropolitan area of Helsinki, Finland. First, we explore how the classification of pupils from different social class and ethnic backgrounds is present in the school. Second, we analyse how the strength of this classification affects pupils’ right to inclusion. We conclude that weak boundaries between pupils, and thus weak classification, construct an inclusive school community. However, the different categories—social class, ethnicity or other—intersect, and the strength of their classification varies, which in turn affects pupils’ peer relations and feelings of belonging.

Digital visions: the experience of self and others in the age of the digital revolution

The digital technological revolution shifted the balance of world perceptual experience, increasing exposure to digital content, introducing a new quality to our perceptual experiences. Embodied cognition offers an ideal vantage point to study how digital technologies impact on selves and their social relations for at least two reasons: first, because of the bodily performative character of the relations and interactions these new media evoke; second, because similar brain-body mechanisms ground our relations with both the physical world and its digital mediations. A closer look is taken at the possible effects of digitization on social communication, on politics, as well as on the constitution of the self and its world relations, especially in the context of the ever-increasing amount of time spent online, with a focus on digital natives. As we explore the complexities of the digital age, it is imperative to critically examine the role of digital technologies in shaping social life and political discourse. By understanding the interplay between content, emotional context, delivery methods, and shareability within digital media landscapes, we can develop strategies to mitigate the negative effects of misinformation and promote informed decision-making in our increasingly digital world.

The Social Impact of COVID-19 on Migrants in Urban Africa

This paper explores the social impacts of COVID-19 on migrants living in three major African cities: Accra, Johannesburg, and Nairobi. Given the importance of social support networks to mobile populations, particularly in areas with limited access to essential services, understanding how the pandemic disrupted social relations underscores the broader health and economic impacts of COVID-19 on migrant communities. Using a large scale 2021 survey of nine migrant neighborhoods located across three African mega-cities, we comparatively analyze migrant social interactions during the first year of the pandemic. We find that while migrant social interactions decreased in Accra and Nairobi, living in Johannesburg was significantly associated with unchanged or increased social interactions in the first year of the pandemic. We situate these findings with municipal and country-level variation of COVID-19 policy responses within each city. In particular, we illuminate how the severity of the pandemic and response in South Africa may have catalyzed opportunities for migrants to increase social engagements within their everyday lives. By understanding how compound challenges impacted migrant life, this paper contributes to the emerging area of comparative studies on the effects of COVID-19 on migrant populations, and urban populations within the Global South more broadly.

Variability of games in the process of human development

The article focuses on the stages of gaming culture development from instinctively contemplative and copycat to socialization and conscious education through games. Special attention is given to the intergenerational transformation and gradual transition of game information from natural instincts to meaningful practical use of the game and expansion of game activities. The influence of the social environment on the development of game activities is revealed. The goal of the research is the historical analysis of the development of game activity, as the basis of regulation of cultural relations, in the process of human development. The scientific novelty consists in clarifying the historical stages of the game development, which is an internal necessity of the existence of a living organism, with the preservation of quality and a change in its social qualitative state. Conclusions. For millions of years a man, maintaining his biological basis, has transformed games from an instinct into a social phenomenon. In ancient times the game by its very nature was the imitation (observation of animal behaviour, natural phenomena) with elements of motional experience. In the process of industrial activity, with the change of social relations a man socialized the game, which became a necessary means of education and hardening of the body. With the change of social relations the role of a game, as the principle of spiritual, mental, intellectual and physical development of a man, gradually increased. Thanks to the subject endowed with thinking, who constantly replenished his life experience, the game became more meaningful and necessary. It acquired a potential opportunity to adapt to any climatic and geographical conditions. With each stage of human development the essence of the game as a social phenomenon was formed in a new way.

Social relationships and their impact on health-related quality of life in a long-term breast cancer survivor cohort.

Health-related quality of life (HRQOL) has become increasingly important for breast cancer survivors, but clinically relevant declines often persist for many years after treatment. This study aimed to investigate whether social relationships can mitigate or prevent this decline in HRQOL. Data were used from the German population-based Mamma Carcinoma Risk Factor Investigation (MARIE) cohort of 2022 breast cancer cases with follow-up information for more than 15 years after diagnosis. Correlations between social integration, social support, and global health status (GHS) as an overall measure of HRQOL were analyzed, and linear regression analysis was performed with structural equation modeling. The majority of participants reported high levels of social integration and social support and moderate levels of GHS. Social integration 5 years after diagnosis was associated with GHS 5 years after diagnosis (β=1.12; 95% CI,0.25-1.99), but no longitudinal effects were found. Social support 5 years after diagnosis was associated with better GHS 5 years (β=0.42; 95% CI,0.36-0.48) and 10 years after diagnosis (β=0.12; 95% CI,0.02-0.22), whereas social support 10 years after diagnosis was associated with GHS 10 years (β=0.29; 95% CI,0.20-0.39) and 15 years after diagnosis (β=0.10; 95% CI,0.01-0.21). These results confirm that social relationships positively influence HRQOL in long-term breast cancer survivors and that their association should receive more attention clinically and beyond routine care.

Exploring the Influence of Emotional Competence on Humor Styles and Personality Traits

This research aims to uncover the complexities of the dynamics that regulate human behavior and connection with others by investigating the relationships between humor styles, emotional competence, and personality factors. Using a wide range of literature review and empirical research, this study examines how individuals' humor styles, defined by their tendency to affiliate, self-enhance, be aggressive, or dislike themselves, interact with emotional competence and personality characteristics. As a transdisciplinary construct, humor provides various psychological functions and shapes people's emotional experiences and social relationships. The affiliative style, which uses humor to strengthen social ties and relieve tension, has been linked to increased emotional intelligence and extraversion. Conversely, aggressive humor, which includes sarcasm and derision, is associated with weaker emotional competence and greater degrees of neuroticism. Emotional competence, which provides for emotional awareness, management, and expression, is critical in balancing the impacts of various humor styles on psychological well-being and interpersonal interactions. Individuals with greater emotional competence prefer to use adaptive humor styles, which promote good emotions and social cohesiveness. In contrast, individuals with lower emotional competence may use maladaptive methods, such as self-defeating humor, as a coping strategy. Furthermore, psychological qualities like extraversion, neuroticism, and openness to experience influence people's humor preferences and usage habits. Extraverts, for example, are likelier to engage in affiliative humor, whereas neurotic persons may use self-defeating humor as a defense strategy. This study adds to a better understanding of human behavior by illuminating the interaction between humor styles, emotional competence, and personality factors. It also gives insights into how to promote psychological well-being and efficient interpersonal communication.”