Influence Of Structure Research Articles

Intergroup Differences in a Social Custom of Wild Chimpanzees: The Grooming Hand-Clasp of the Mahale Mountains

Intergroup Differences in a Social Custom of Wild Chimpanzees: The Grooming Hand-Clasp of the Mahale Mountains

Information seeking in social context: structural influences and receipt of information benefits

Research in the information processing, situated learning and social network traditions has consistently demonstrated the importance of social networks for acquiring information. However, we know little about how organizational relationships established by a relative position in a formal structure or social relationships established by interpersonal processes influence who is sought out for various kinds of information. Prior research suggests that people often receive some combination of five benefits when seeking information from other people: (1) solutions; (2) meta-knowledge (pointers to databases or people); (3) problem reformulation; (4) validation of plans or solutions; and (5) legitimation from contact with a respected person. This research builds on that work by assessing the influence of organizational and social structures (such as similarity of job function, hierarchy, task interdependence, physical proximity, influence, trust, friendship and gender) on receipt of these benefits from other people in a physically distributed organization. Task interdependence is the strongest and most consistent predictor of information seeking. However, social relations also affect the receipt of informational benefits, especially as they become more representational and affective. Implications are suggested for the study of social capital, computer-mediated communication and organizational learning.

Reciprocity in Ranked Relationships: Does Social Structure Influence Social Reasoning?

Many economic and evolutionary theories have modeled cooperation as the evolutionary outcome of decisions made by autonomous, self-interested agents operating in a social vacuum. In this paper we consider the implications for cooperative interactions when prior social structures and corresponding social norms exist. In particular we investigate the influence of social rank/status on perceptions of fairness and tolerance of cheating. We review evidence from a series of experiments employing the Wason selection task (a test of conditional reasoning) and the ledger task (a decision making task) suggesting that people cued to adopt a perspective of high social rank are more tolerant of cheating and simultaneously believe that they have been more fairly treated (even when cheated) than people cued to adopt a perspective of low social rank. However, the evidence also suggests interesting cross-cultural differences in perceptions of fairness and tolerance of cheating in ranked relationships.

The Pnar of Jaintia hills: A biodemographic profile

Demography is an important aspect of bio-anthropological investigations. Its primary concern is with the size, composition and distribution of populations and such other aspects like fertility, mortality, sex-ratio, admixture rate etc. These aspects also help in studying changes in the gene frequencies and its implications. Thus, utilising bio-demography, it is possible to identify change of variation, if any, in the studied population groups. Mukherjee (1984) opines "Human societies change at unequal rates. The change in social structure influence biological change in terms of micro-evolution by regulating the breeding structure and marraige system". There is an increasing awareness especially in India of the importance of population

Sibling competition and the evolution of growth rates in birds

Variation among bird species in growth rates is traditionally attributed to differences in energy availability and developmental mode. However, the extent and form of competition among siblings for limited food resources may also be an important determinant. Kin-selection-based models of intrabrood competition suggest that nestling growth rates should be highest in those species in which siblings are likely to be less genetically related to one another (half-sibs rather than full-sibs). We test this novel prediction using the frequency of multiple paternity as an index of average sib relatedness within broods. As predicted, we find a significant positive association between the rate of multiple paternity within broods and nestling growth rates. Furthermore, this holds true when we control for the effects of variation in other factors that may be associated with variation in growth rate, such as body size, brood size, mating system and the form of parental care. We suggest, therefore, that variation in growth rate among bird species is not simply dependent on proximate ecological and developmental factors but is also strongly influenced by interactions, over an evolutionary time-scale, among kin.

Analysis of the influence of social structure on a measles epidemic

This paper studies a 1989 measles epidemic on the Texas Tech campus. The infection is modeled in a population with a social contact structure. In the model, students are assigned to classes, dormitory complexes, dormitory rooms, and social groups in the dining halls. A single infected individual is introduced, and the resulting infection path is described as a random graph.

Young People, Social Problems and Australian Youth Studies

ABSTRACT Several major theoretical issues which have emerged in Australian youth studies in recent years are identified. Broad conceptual developments in youth studies are discussed, and an overview of the main analytical issues associated with doing youth research in the Australian context is provided. More specifically, the ways in which assumptions relating to youth agency and social structure influence how youth issues are constructed are examined. This is illustrated through a discussion of how Australian researchers have dealt with issues such as youth homelessness, youth unemployment, and youth marginalization.

Effects of Social Structure and Prey Dynamics on Extinction Risk in Gray Wolves

Extinction models based on diffusion theory generally fail to incorporate two important aspects of population biology—social structure and prey dynamics. We include these aspects in an individual‐based extinction model for small, isolated populations of the gray wolf (Canis lupus). Our model predicts mean times to extinction significantly longer than those predicted by more general (diffusion) models. According to our model, an isolated population of 50 wolves has a 95% chance of surviving just 9 years and only a 30% chance of surviving beyond 100 years. Reflecting the influence of social structure, a wolf population initially comprising 50 individuals is expected to persist only a few years longer, on average (71 years), than is a population initially comprising just a single reproductive pair (62 years). In contrast, substantially greater average prey abundance leads to dramatically longer expected persistence times. Autocorrelated prey dynamics result in a more complex distribution of extinction times than predicted by many extinction models. We contend that demographic stochasticity may pose the greatest threat to small, isolated wolf populations, although environmental stochasticity and genetic effects may compound this threat. Our work highlights the importance of considering social structure and resource dynamics in the development of population viability analyses.

Spatial Variations, Contextual and Social Structural Influences on Voting for the ALP at the 1996 Federal Election: Conclusions from Multilevel Analyses

Multilevel modelling of individual survey data from the 1996 Australian Election Study and aggregate contextual Census data is used to investigate the extent of spatial variations in voting at the 1996 election, and to examine potential explanations for the variations. The size of the variations was about the same as at the 1993 election, and was again mainly at the divisional rather than the state level. However, unlike in 1993, only a small amount of the variations could be explained by differences in the individual sociodemographic compositions of the areas, suggesting that local influences were more important in 1996 than 1993. The most significant change in the effect of the individual-level variables between the two elections was that the influence of being personally unemployed completely changed direction (working against the ALP in 1996, whereas it had favoured it in 1993), although the estimated strengths of several others also changed. I suggest that the concentration of the 1993 election on the 'Fightback' package might be the main cause of many of these differences. The nature of the main contextual influences is similar to those at the 1993 election, involving an urban-rural effect, a local economic effect and an ethnic effect, confirming that these are more than short-term factors. However, there also remain somewhat larger unexplained local influences than in 1993. Detailed investigation of the ethnic contextual effect suggests the presence of a specifically anti-Asian influence.

Emigration mechanisms in feral house mice - a laboratory investigation of the influence of social structure, population density, and aggression

Emigration in small mammals may be strongly related to social factors, but direct observations of emigrants are rare. Feral house mice (Mus domesticus) were studied using a population cage system that allowed continuous observation of individually marked animals. Mice that left their natal cage and took up residence in cages that could only be reached by crossing a water barrier were defined as emigrants. Six pairs of house mice with their litters were placed in the system, and data on aggressive interactions, body weight, reproduction, mortality and emigration were collected daily. Both sexes emigrated, but males did so twice as often as females. Population density was not correlated with the frequency of aggression, and had no effect on the weight of emigrating individuals. Male emigrants suffered more aggression before emigration than their non-emigrant brothers of the same age; they were aggressively driven out by other males, predominantly by the father. Female emigration depended on the female’s chances of reproduction. The probability of a female reproducing decreased with increasing birth order. Females born in a late litter, who therefore had only a low chance of reproduction, dispersed earlier than those of early litters. Resident males were reproductively suppressed. Male offspring had two different strategies for attaining top rank. They could develop rapidly and reach sexual maturity early on, but face competition with the father, risking being forced to emigrate. Alternatively, they could develop slowly, stay within their family and wait for a chance to take over the dominant position. It is concluded that emigration in male and female feral house mice is caused by intrasexual competition.

Grounded Theory and Nursing Knowledge

Grounded theory (GT) is a research approach with origins in the interpretive tradition of symbolic interactionism. Its influence on knowledge generation in nursing began in the 1960s and expanded over the next two decades. By the 1980s, published GT research by nurses had increased greatly in scope and direction. The focus of these studies included adaptations to illness, infertility, nurse adaptations and interventions, and status passages of vulnerable persons and groups. Within the nursing culture, use of GT has been influenced by variations in meanings ascribed to GT, changes in interpretive research practices, and environmental circumstances affecting nurse investigators. The identified theories point to the salient influences of social structure and environment on human health and well-being.

Health consequences of social‐role careers for women: a life‐course perspective

This study aimed to demonstrate the importance of early adulthood social-role participation in determining the health of women over the life course. It used Australian Family Project data from a nationally representative proportional stratified sample of 1-in-1000 women aged between 20 and 59 years in 1986-87 (n = 1678); and data from a follow-up survey conducted in 1990 using project participants who were living in Sydney at the time of the baseline (n = 291). Social-role participation was measured over each participant's life using retrospective histories of employment, marital status and parental status. Validity and reliability tests supported the use of these histories. Health was measured by retrospective accounts of serious chronic disease onset and indicators of self-rated health. After considering a broad range of confounders, early adulthood social-role careers were found to vary significantly in their risk of serious chronic disease and levels of self-rated health. These findings suggest that the influence of society's social structures on health for women goes beyond causes related to conventional socioeconomic differentials or arbitrary periods of social-role participation. The nature of the associations are complex and dynamic, involving both the mixture and timing of social events and transitions. This conclusion supports a life-course approach in which social careers are perceived as cumulative, providing women with lessons, liabilities and resources that influence the way they age and meet the realities of life.

Co-operation as a Conditional Strategy among Peers: Influence of Social Ecology and Kin Relations

The goal of this study is to analyse sources of variation, residing within the individual or within the relationship, in the ability to balance co-operative and competitive behaviours in a dyadic context. The ability to balance these two tendencies can be considered fundamental to successful adaptation within a social unit because co-operation may be essential in raising offspring, competing with other groups or in generating resources, whereas egoistic behaviour may protect the individual from exploitation or otherwise enhance reproductive success. Research is reviewed on the influence of social structures and relationships on co-operation in peer groups, and the origin and developmental significance of individual differences in co-operative abilities. Finally, a research programme investigating the conjunction of kin and peer relations is described, emphasising the role of affective synchrony, behavioural contingency, and reciprocity in shaping and sustaining co-operative behaviour as a conditional strategy.

Some Contributions from the Social System to Gender Inequalities in Heart Disease

Epidemiological understanding is incomplete if social system influences on statistical rates are not appropriately recognized. To the traditional epidemiological triumvirate of agent, host, and environment, a fourth influence must now be added--contributions from the social system (like government reimbursement policies, organizational priorities, and the variable behavior of providers). This paper has two sections: the first builds a progressively more complex model (from simple reification, through environmental and personal attributes, to social system influences) to depict the relative contribution of diverse influences to the social production of "facts." The second section considers how social system influences affect health statistics--most emphasis is given to the contribution of health provider behavior (using the widely accepted gender inequality in heart disease as an example). Data from a wide range of studies (employing seven different research methods) are consistent with an underlying thesis--that the gender difference in heart disease is as much a function of how providers and the system respond as it is of the biophysiology of patients and how they react to events. The incorporation of system influences permits the development of an epidemiological imagination, or the ability to link intimate health experiences with more remote social-structural influences.

Social and Psychological Bases of Homogamy for Common Psychiatric Disorders

Sociologists and psychologists have long been interested in the origins of assortative mating for social and psychological characteristics. Sociologists have focused on the influence of social structure on the choice of a marital partner. Geographic propinquity, race, age, and social class have all been shown to affect the relative attractiveness of potential partners and to constrain the field of eligibles from which persons select partners (e.g., Burgess & Wallin, 1943; Hollingshead, 1950). In contrast, psychologists have focused on attraction based on psychological characteristics such as personality (e.g., Buss, 1984; Pond, Ryle, & Hamilton, 1963) and psychiatric disorders (e.g., Dunner, Fleiss, Addonizio, & Fieve, 1976; Gershon, Dunner, Sturt, & Goodwin, 1973; Gregory, 1959; Jacob & Bremer, 1986; Kreitman, 1962; Merikangas, 1982; Nielsen, 1964). These two literatures have developed independently with little communication occurring between them. This article evaluates the contribution of social experiences to homogamy for anxiety disorders, major depression, and alcohol or drug dependence. Early studies of homogamy for psychiatric disorders acknowledged the potential influence of social factors like shared life experiences but provided little empirical evidence with which to confirm or disconfirm that influence (e.g., Gregory, 1959; Kreitman, 1962). More recent studies have moved away from social explanations to propose explanations that rely almost exclusively on theories of interpersonal attraction (e.g., Dunner et al., 1976; Merikangas, 1982). Given clear evidence that social and psychological experiences are related (e.g., House, 1981), analyses of psychiatric homogamy would benefit from an explicit consideration of social experiences. I estimate the level of homogamy within and across these disorders, and evaluate five prevailing explanations for the observed homogamy: primary assortative mating, secondary assortative mating, similarity due to shared experiences, increasing similarity through interaction, and responses to the stress of a partner's disorder. To varying degrees, these alternatives link social and psychological experiences as they influence psychiatric similarity between spouses. PREVIOUS RESEARCH Homogamy appears to be the rule for depressive disorders, alcoholism, and phobic disorders, as it is for major social characteristics (see Merikangas, 1982, for a review). Despite decades of relevant research, however, even that basic conclusion can be questioned. Almost all existing studies of psychiatric homogamy used clinical samples, which means that estimated levels of homogamy may not generalize to the untreated population. Levels of homogamy may be higher in clinical samples than in community samples if psychiatrically ill spouses facilitate each other's entry into treatment (Gregory, 1959; Kreitman, 1968). Alternatively, levels of homogamy may be lower in clinical samples if members of homogamous couples recover more quickly, perhaps because their shared experiences create mutual empathy and support (McLeod, 1994). Regardless of which type of bias occurs, if treatment seeking and recovery are influenced by the presence of a psychiatrically ill spouse, levels of homogamy from clinical samples may be inaccurate. Thus, the first goal of this analysis is to estimate the level of homogamy for common psychiatric disorders in a community sample of married couples. Assuming that homogamy exists for psychiatric disorders, the question that follows concerns the origin of that homogamy. Two main classes of explanations have been proposed: assortative mating and experiences subsequent to the marriage. Within each broad class of explanation, several variants exist. Assortative mating explanations focus on nonrandom selection of marital partners. Two types of assortative mating may occur. The first, primary assortative mating, is defined as nonrandom selection of marital partners based on the trait of interest. …

Social Marketing: Are We Fiddling While Rome Burns?

This article follows in the recent tradition of calls for marketers to become more engaged in social marketing. Given that public health represents the core of social marketing's domain, it is suggested that any entry into social marketing ought to begin with a review of the public health marketing literature. Such an analysis reveals that much of the work done to date has involved macroexperiments aimed at changing the individual's health‐related behaviors. This approach is linked to a more conservative structural–functional tradition. It is argued that there is a need for a more radical approach in social marketing that emphasizes efforts to change the negative or constraining social structural influences on individual behavior, particularly those that originate as a function of marketing activities. This approach is tied to the more radical critical theory paradigm. Those with interests in microexperimental design are urged to become engaged in such an endeavor.

Correlates of crime in Taiwan

Taiwan is known for rapid economic growth, but in 1988, the government ended 40 years of martial law, resulting in greater political and social freedoms. This paper explores the influence of economic, social, and political structures on crime in the Republic of China on Taiwan. A time series analysis examines the structural correlates of crime in Taiwan from 1964 to 1990. Both total crime and burglary/larceny rates are regressed on seven independent variables derived from various theoretical perspectives. The results support Hagan's power-control and Christie's crime-industry perspectives for total crime, while measures assessing lack of economic means and the economic deprivation were significant for burglary/larceny.

Design of the advanced light source elliptical wiggler

The elliptical wiggler is a circularly polarized light source capable of providing very broad spectral coverage and a high degree of circular polarization. The main features of an elliptical wiggler can be understood through analogy to bending magnet radiation. However, some aspects, such as the end structure's influence on the degree of circular polarization, require more elaborate methods to characterize. We present an algorithm based on the stationary-phase method, which allows calculation of radiation properties from an arbitrary electron trajectory, so a non-sinusoidal magnetic field's influence on the radiation performance can be taken into account. We show general radiation properties of an elliptical wiggler and discuss factors affecting the radiation produced. Practical issues encountered during the conceptual design of an elliptical wiggler at the Advanced Light Source are addressed.

On Human Egalitarianism: An Evolutionary Product of Machiavellian Status Escalation?

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Mass Reaction to Regime Change in Eastern Europe: Polarization or Leaders and Laggards?

Regime changes occur at two levels, the macro and the micro. In Eastern Europe there has been holistic change at the regime level, but at the micro level individuals can differ in their reactions, some favouring the new and some preferring the old regime, thus creating aggregates of supporters and opponents of the new regime. Combining reactions to the old and new regimes results in a typology of democrats, reactionaries, sceptics and the compliant. Nationwide surveys in Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland and Romania show that democrats overall are a bare majority of the respondents. If current divisions persist, then East Europeans will be politically polarized. Statistical tests of the influence of social structure and economic attitudes upon individual responses to regime change emphasize the importance of sociotropic economic assessments. But the data also show that most who do not currently support the pluralist regime expect to do so in the foreseeable future; they are laggards rather than anti-democrats. Moreover, the level of future support is so high that it is likely to be proof against fluctuations in the economic conditions of the new regimes.