Search

In this paper we provide evidence that social sanctions represent a very strong deterrent of property crime. We present a formal model relating crime and social sanction to social interaction density. Consistently with our theoretical framework and the literature on network closure and social interactions, we resort to demographic and geomorphological information to develop an exogenous and reliable measure for the density of social interactions based on town dimension and isolation. We estimate a spatial panel model by means of a GMM procedure and we find that areas with denser social interactions display significantly and substantially lower rates of property crime. Resumen. En este artículo aportamos pruebas de que las sanciones sociales constituyen un elemento disuasorio muy poderoso para el crimen contra la propiedad. Presentamos un modelo formal que relaciona el crimen y la sanción social con la densidad de interacción social. De manera consecuente con nuestro marco teórico y la literatura sobre exclusión de redes e interacciones sociales, acudimos a información demográfica y geomorfológica para desarrollar una medida exógena y fiable de la densidad de las interacciones sociales, basada en el tamaño y aislamiento de la ciudad. Estimamos un modelo de panel espacial por medio de un procedimiento de método generalizado de momentos (MGM) y hallamos que las áreas con interacciones sociales más densas muestran significativa y substancialmente tasas menores en crímenes contra la propiedad. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the fact that humans have a deep motivation to pursue and maintain close relationships, little research has examined social relationships from a motivational perspective. In the current paper, we argue that any model of close relationships must simultaneously account for people's tendencies to both approach incentives and avoid threats in close relationships. To that end, we review research stemming from social and relationship model of motivation on both the antecedents and the consequences of approach and avoidance goal pursuit in the context of close relationships. We conclude with recommendations for future research in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerous projects are considered complex because of the number of stakeholders, the diversity of skills, and the uncertainty involved, requiring accurate information retrieval and management of the social interactions between different participants leading to efficient knowledge sharing. This paper reports the findings of an empirical study on knowledge sharing barriers and research and development (R&D) activities that occur in the context of complex project management. The study presents issues, difficulties, and practices acknowledged by project managers related to knowledge sharing and R&D (focused on activities that involve cooperation and collaboration). Particularly, we point out the following major knowledge sharing barriers: codification process, inadequate information technology, lack of initiative and strategy by the workers, and lack of time and resources. We also explained the following practices and issues regarding the collaborative R&D activities: information exchange and retrieval, communication barriers, interdependence of knowledge and skills, and different technical terminologies. We intend to contribute to the understanding of the work carried out in the context of complex projects to improve the management practices and the information technology platforms to support them. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an effort to inform empowerment theory and research, this paper provides a structural conception of power. First, we examine the essential features present in three dominant conceptions of power in community psychology: social power, psychopolitical power, and relational power. Next, commonalities in the key features of power identified by these conceptions are explored and pared down to yield a more parsimonious conception of power that is grounded only in the structural pattern of relationships through which resources are exchanged. Drawing on social exchange theory, we offer a method for measuring this streamlined, structural conception of power that allows for its more precise examination. Finally, we discuss the implications of a structural conception and measurement of power for targeting and facilitating empowering processes and evaluating empowered outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Virtual worlds, as electronic environments where individuals can interact in a realistic manner in form of avatars, are increasingly used by gamers, consumers and employees. Therefore, they provide opportunities for reinventing business processes. Especially, effective knowledge management (KM) requires the use of appropriate information and communication technology (ICT) as well as social interaction. Emerging virtual worlds enable new ways to support knowledge and knowing processes because these virtual environments consider social aspects that are necessary for knowledge creating and knowledge sharing processes. Thus, collaboration in virtual worlds resembles real-life activities. In this paper, we shed light on the use of Second Life (SL) as a KM platform in a real-life setting. To explore the potential and current usage of virtual worlds for knowledge and knowing activities, we conducted a qualitative study at IBM. We interviewed IBM employees belonging to a special workgroup called 'Web 2.0/virtual worlds' in order to gain experience in generating and exchanging knowledge by virtually collaborating and interacting. Our results show that virtual worlds - if they are able to overcome problems like platform stability, user interface or security issues - bear the potential to serve as a KM platform. They facilitate global and simultaneous interaction, create a common context for collaboration, combine different tools for communication and enhance knowledge and knowing processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For well over a century, sociologists have directed considerable attention to understanding and explaining the processes that produce social solidarity - the feeling of interpersonal connectedness that binds members of society together. Despite the centrality of solidarity to sociological thought, many sociologists remain unaware of the biosocial processes and mechanisms that create and sustain it. We espouse a biosociological viewpoint, which illuminates solidarity as a complex and fascinating interplay between biological and social elements. In this paper we discuss three important advances within the field of neuroscience that point to exciting new avenues of research for sociologists: (i) the discovery of mirror neurons, (ii) developments in the understanding of brain plasticity, and (iii) increased appreciation of the role of non-conscious processes in social interaction. Additionally, we discuss ongoing basic and applied research to demonstrate how sociologists can capitalize on recent scientific developments to advance their own research agendas. VIDEO ABSTRACT - [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Companies spend millions of dollars researching consumers, consumer attitudes to brands, and consumer uses of products. Yet the irony is that consumers are now doing this research themselves and posting their material to video-sharing sites such as YouTube. In this paper we argue that the BASIC IDS framework (Cohen, ) for dimensional qualitative research can be used to deconstruct consumer-generated videos to yield valuable insights into the paradoxes of consumer-service interactions. One category of service that has gained huge media attention of late, and yet is poorly understood, is the phenomenon of online social networks. Using three consumer-generated ads about the social networking site Facebook, we explore the paradoxes of consumer-service interaction, namely consumers' ambivalent attitudes to the service, how the consumer uses and is used by the service, how the service both facilitates behavior and changes behavior, and how the service mediates social interactions yet drives social actors. Finally, we locate the findings in terms of the wider context of Gen Y and the digital revolution, specify limitations, and cite implications and avenues for future research. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: People with acquired progressive dysarthria typically experience increased problems with intelligibility in everyday conversation as their disease progresses. Such problems are likely to impact on both the person with dysarthria and those with whom they interact. If this is the case then we may ask questions not just about the nature of these problems but how it is that such problems are dealt with by participants when they occur. Aims: To investigate ways through which problems resulting from dysarthria in everyday conversation are resolved by participants. Further, to examine some of the features of repair resolution, particularly where understanding of self-repair attempts themselves prove difficult. Methods & Procedures: Video data of natural conversation from two dyads were selected for this paper. One dyad features a 58 year-old man with multiple sclerosis and moderate intelligibility problems, the other a 79 year-old woman with motor neurone disease with mild to moderate intelligibility problems. Both elected to be recorded in conversation with their spouses. The dyads were video-recorded at home with no researcher present. Using the methods of Conversation Analysis (CA) a collection of sequences was identified and transcribed. The sequences were analysed with reference to how the participants resolve problems in the understanding of dysarthric speech. Outcomes & Results: It is shown how some problems resulting from dysarthria in conversation can be resolved relatively quickly, particularly where a specific element of a prior turn is highlighted by the recipient as problematic. In other instances, the recipient's understanding problem may be more global. These result in longer repair sequences in which problematic elements are addressed individually. Such a resolution method is ultimately successful but may also be characterised by additional understanding problems. These findings draw attention to an important distinction between intelligibility and understandability. Conclusions & Implications: It is concluded that problems resulting from dysarthria in conversation can require extensive repair work involving both parties. This has implications for the assessment of dysarthria in everyday conversation and also the promotion of intervention strategies that encompass the activities of both participants when dealing with dysarthria in interaction. These findings may be usefully employed in informing both direct clinical work and through training those who work with this client group and their significant others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Social integration of people with intellectual disability (ID) moving into regular neighbourhoods tends to be studied and evaluated without detailed knowledge about the social psychological aspects of everyday interaction between neighbours with and without ID. The goal of the present paper is to show how the authors' social psychological research programme may contribute to this field of inquiry. Methods The different ways in which societies respond to features and behaviours that may be perceived as deviant are theoretically analysed. Results of empirical studies are reported to clarify how social responses to people with ID are special in terms of perceptions, emotions and interaction desires of people with and without ID during a pre-contact and contact phase. Results On the basis of the theoretical analysis, it is concluded that regular neighbouring in modern Western society often takes the form of benevolent tolerance, rather than stigmatisation and prejudice. However, empirical studies reveal that, prior to getting people with ID as new neighbours, prospective neighbours without ID experience a specific pattern of emotions that are associated with specific desires (e.g. with respect to information supply or a caring relationship). These anticipatory reactions are dependent on the expected size of the group moving in and on the severity of ID. Furthermore, while actually engaging in neighbouring, neighbours with and without ID appear to have experiences related to behaviour of residents, staff and features of housing facilities that are perceived as (in)congruent with regular neighbouring. Conclusions It is concluded that interpersonal relationships between neighbours with and without ID should not be simplified in terms of attitudes that would be primarily prejudiced/stigmatising versus entirely accepting. Rather, our studies paint a more complex picture of sometimes ambivalent thoughts, feelings and interaction needs that all should be taken into account to make social integration a success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Does more support in childcare increase the mother's desire to have a second child? An answer to this question was sought in Italy, a country characterised by very low fertility. The paper explores the existence of effects on individual decisions at different levels, in the hypotheses that fertility preferences are not only related to women's individual traits, but also affected by the interactions with the surrounding social network and by the opportunity/constraints of the context of residence. Data from the ISTAT Survey on Births completed in 2005 were used to study the impact of different childcare arrangements on expected fertility of women who had a child between 18 to 21 months prior to their interviews ( N = 5145). A multilevel strategy of analysis was adopted to assess the existence of a contextual effect beyond the observed individual effects. Working women in the sample have the same fertility intentions as non-working women, but these expectations are conditioned by several factors. A higher paternal commitment in childbirth, childcare and household chores is positively associated to the intention of a second child; help from the informal family network shows a significant positive effect on women's childbearing intentions. Finally, and although the empirical analysis here performed does not provide clear evidence of autonomous contextual effects, it is argued that individual behaviours are connected to the context in which they belong and researchers' efforts should be directed towards its correct specification, transcending the standard geographical focus of social contextualisation. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2010, scholars of language and culture developed broader and more dynamic ways to understand traditional approaches in the anthropological study of language, reframed our analyses of communicative events, created new ways to understand the co-construction of languages and social organizations from the family to the nation-state, and forged activist partnerships with the communities we worked with on issues including social justice, language revitalization, and education. In this review article, I reflect on 2010 work in journals, books, and conference papers within the field of linguistic anthropology and in associated disciplines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we seek to shed new light on the social process of public opinion formation. Drawing on previous contributions in cognition studies and political science, we propose and analyze a model in which heterogeneous agents (citizens) collectively learn and modify their opinions about a specific policy issue. The assumption of nonrationality on the part of agents gives core values, enduring general needs, social interaction, and the combination of the citizens´ intuition and occasional deliberate reasoning a key role in the dynamics of public opinion formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides an argument for the advantage of a preference for identity-consistent behaviour from an evolutionary point of view. Within a stylized model of social interaction, it is shown that the development of cooperative social norms is greatly facilitated if the agents possess a preference for identity-consistent behaviour. As compliance with cooperative norms (in the long run) has a positive effect on the agents' pay-offs, it is argued that such a preference is evolutionarily advantageous. Notably, the argument, which assumes that agents always act in accordance with their preferences, also accounts for the cost of those features that are crucial for the selection process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Philosophical discussions of apologies have focused on apologizing for wrong actions. Such a focus overlooks an important dimension of moral failures, namely, failures of character. However, when one attempts to revise the standard account of apology to make room for failures of character, two objections emerge. The first is rooted in the psychology of shame. The second stems from the purported social function of apologies. This paper responds to these objections and, in so doing, sheds further light both on why we apologize (when we are in the wrong) and on why we accept apologies (when others are). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Managers are more and more interested in social networking sites because they provide opportunities for strengthening relationships with customers as well as site content and service. Using social networking sites effectively, however, depends on understanding both the psychological attributes and social interactions of participants. This paper addresses these topics by presenting the results of a two-study inquiry into the importance of two personality traits (consumer innovativeness and expressiveness) to active and passive use of social networks among Italian consumers. In Study 1 ( = 753) it was found that innovativeness is positively related to active and passive use. Study 2 ( = 277) revealed that self-identity expressiveness and social identity expressiveness positively influence only active use. These results suggest that managers need to distinguish between, and differentially encourage, joining and browsing such sites on the one hand and actively contributing to them on the other. Managers can also enhance the impact of their social networking sites by taking into account social and self-identity expressiveness to increase affiliation and market share and by encouraging consumers to use these sites actively. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has long been recognised that the interaction between monetary and fiscal policy may be an important determinant of the outcomes of both policies. To provide some insights into how this interaction and macroeconomic outcomes can be improved, a symposium was held at the 2010 Australian Conference of Economists. This piece summarises the discussion, with the full papers by Michal Franta, Jan Libich and Petr Stehlík; Don Brash; Carl Walsh; Jacopo Cimadomo; Stephen Kirchner; and Eric Leeper and Todd Walker appearing later in this issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a number of areas of research concerning community sustainability, there is an emerging appreciation of the spatial component of social processes. One foremost spatial issue in community research involves variations in the level of scale of a number of social concepts including social capital. An appreciation of this issue highlights conceptual and empirical overlaps across research in community sustainability. Moreover, it provides an opportunity to contribute to urban and regional planning in meaningful ways through the development of existing place-based methodologies which are capable of defining spatial scales of relevance to policy and research. This paper seeks to provide a level of methodological integration so that research can incorporate spatial variation in analyses of social capital and other concepts relevant to community sustainability. First, the importance of the spatial dimension of social capital and the methodological limitations of existing approaches is highlighted. Next, a number of methodologies for generating spatial data are noted as a basis for presenting a mapping method capable of capturing the individual-level spatial variation in social capital. Finally, a data analysis approach is presented so that spatial data can be incorporated in place-based analyses of social capital and community dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores nurses' experiences as members of primary care organisations set up to develop and commission health services for local communities. Nurses, alongside GPs and other health professionals, were given a place on the governing bodies (boards) of Local Health Groups - a move widely welcomed by the nursing profession as long overdue recognition of the important contribution nurses and nursing could bring to the policy arena. Nurse board members faced a number of challenges in their attempts to contribute to and influence local health policy. This ethnographic study (which involved non-participant observation of 33 board meetings and interviews with 29 board members including nurses) suggests that medical authority and control, and hierarchical power relations between doctors and nurses on the board, were seen by nurses as significant obstacles to their participation in this new policy arena. In response to their perceived lack of power and subordinate status, nurses employed a number of strategies to negotiate their participation as board members - these included 'getting it right', 'achieving the right balance', 'self-presentation' and 'unassertiveness'. These strategies reflected and reproduced gendered identities and relations of power and raise important questions regarding the influence of nurses and nursing within policy making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A growing interest in the geographies of schooling has led to an exploration of a variety of school spaces. An increasing number of secondary schools offer internal fixed-term exclusions so that temporary removal from school is not seen as ‘time off’ for students. This particular strategy has led to the creation of a new type of space in schools. Drawing upon research undertaken in a London secondary school, this paper explores the geography of these new secluded spaces. We highlight that the configuration of physical space in Seclusion Units and the regulation of spatial practices create highly controlled and segregated spaces of punishment. We explore the powerful transformative effects of these spaces to change students' behaviour, social interaction and attitudes to learning. However, rather than simply creating docile subjects, we recognise that domination is never complete and we explore the extent and the limit of student resistance to the discipline and control of the Seclusion Unit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose. The purpose of the present paper is to identify the cognitive processes associated with the construction of a false address, and explore how this can be used to identify and trace those who give a false address to police. It is hypothesized that most people find it difficult to spontaneously fabricate an entire false address. As a consequence they provide identifiable clues as to the real address being concealed. Methods. A quasi-experimental research design was employed where 142 students were first asked to generate a false address and second to analyse it to ascertain how random they considered it to be. Results. Participants, overwhelmingly, stated that the false addresses generated contained elements of truth which could be used to identify their real place of residence. Although most participants appeared capable of generating bona fide false postcodes, comparison with an official UK postcode list identified over 60% did not actually exist. Conclusion. People generally rely on pre-existing address knowledge as opposed to random generation, with the latter appearing more cognitively effortful. As such, they often unwittingly provide clues to the real address being concealed, therefore, affording increased possibilities in identifying them as liars at point of contact and in tracing them after the fact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explored the impact of vacation travel on the ‘self’ using a questionnaire survey and interviews. Vacation travel emerged as a form of learning about the self, a journey of self-discovery rather than self-recovery. Travel impacts are predominantly self-centered, producing changes that provide opportunities for personal growth. Experiences leading to these changes are mainly influenced by interactions with the ‘other’. Importantly, no significant association was found between personality type and being impacted, and no difference was found between a pleasurable and a miserable experience and being impacted. Both findings offer a contribution to knowledge and a platform for further research. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An extensive body of literature indicates the growing influence of virtual communities not only on social interaction, spending free time and working, but also on the interaction of companies with their customers to exchange information on products and to develop innovative ideas. However, engaging in virtual communities poses certain challenges to companies which more often than not results in failure to establish a successful collaboration with customers. This leads to the following questions: What are virtual communities and how can companies establish successful interaction? Why and how can interaction with a community lead to an improvement of the innovation process? This article develops a comprehensive concept of the collaboration between companies and virtual communities called community–company interaction quality (CCIQ). Based on insights from academic literature, this paper reviews factors influencing the quality of community–company interaction, suggesting an integrative framework. After developing a working definition for virtual communities in innovation, a summary of findings regarding interaction quality in context of human–technology interaction and behaviour related to innovation is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes two experiments investigating the impact of group relations on personal space. In Study I, participants (N = 39) in minimal groups were told that they would be interacting with another person. In line with expectations, personal space (as measured by the distance between chairs) was significantly less in the intragroup context than in the intergroup and interpersonal contexts. This finding was replicated in Study 2 (N = 80) using an improved experimental design. These results are discussed in terms of developing a self-categorization account of personal space and crowding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how speakers’ understandings of the conduct of social relationships mediate changing and socially distinctive syncretic language practices in a Northern Thai community. Although a shift away from vernacular (Kam Muang) speech styles to Standard Thai was emblematically tied to young and urban speakers in nostalgic discourses, syncretic speech styles and metalinguistic discourses also reflected local and socially positioned understandings of institutional roles and social relationships. I argue that scholars of language change and shift should foreground the mediating role of social relationships in speakers’ uses and understandings of their communicative repertoires across multiple timescales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on product stewardship on waste of electronics products in the U.S. The author presents the industry-managed, a multimaterial stewardship approach to packaging and printed paper, in Canada including Ontario, Quebec, and Manitoba. He suggests that the "blue box" stewardship approach can serve jurisdiction that can enhance the economic efficiency on recycling systems while attaining a better environment outcome.

This paper discusses the results of a study of the role of the computer in scaffolding pupils' interaction and its effects on the disabled (D) pupils' participation and inclusion in the context of socio-cultural theories and the ideals of inclusive education. The study investigated the interactions of pairs of D and non-disabled (ND) pupils working together on computer-based tasks, in mainstream primary schools in Cyprus. Twenty dyads of pupils (each comprising a D child and an ND peer) were observed and videotaped while working together at the computer. Data analyses were based on the collaborative nature of events for the non-verbal interaction and the functional–structural approaches for verbal interaction. Through application of video analyses, seven central aspects of interaction were identified: helping behaviours, motivation, self-confidence, peer-acceptance, affection, positive and negative socio-emotional status, and the input of the computer. Results of the study showed that the computer was a mediational scaffolding agent of the other six areas of the participants' interaction as it: (1) was an important interactional agent in initiating and terminating a conversation, (2) facilitated interaction and participation, as an intellectual and physical tool, (3) promoted different styles of interaction (not always positive ones) through the various input and output devices, by differentiating participation. Hence, the computer emerged as the third party in the collaborative activity which provided various opportunities and motivations for interaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews publications on developmental trajectories of disruptive behaviour (DB) problems (aggression, opposition-defiance, rule breaking, and stealing-vandalism) over the past decade. Prior to these studies two theoretical models had strongly influenced research on DB: social learning and disease onset. According to these developmental perspectives, children learn DB from their environment and onset of the disease is triggered by accumulated exposition to disruptive models in the environment, including the media. Most of the evidence came from studies of school age children and adolescents. Longitudinal studies tracing developmental trajectories of DB from early childhood onwards suggest an inversed developmental process. DB are universal during early childhood. With age, children learn socially acceptable behaviours from interactions with their environment. A ‘disease’ status is given to children who fail to learn the socially acceptable behaviours. The mechanisms that lead to deficits in using socially accepted behaviours are strongly intergenerational, based on complex genetic and environmental contributions, including epigenetic mechanisms. Prevention of these deficits requires early, intensive and long-term support to parents and child. Newly discovered epigenetic mechanisms suggest that intensive perinatal interventions will have impacts on numerous aspects of physical and mental health, including DB. This review also concludes that: a) subtypes of disruptive behaviours should not be aggregated because they have different developmental trajectories and require specific corrective interventions; b) the overt–covert and destructive–nondestructive dimensions appear the most useful to create DB subtypes; c) overt DB onset before covert DB because the latter require more brain maturation; d) DB subtype taxonomies are more useful for clinicians than developmental taxonomies because the latter are post mortem diagnoses and clinicians’ retrospective information is unreliable; e) we need large-scale collaborative preventive experimental interventions starting during early pregnancy to advance knowledge on causes and prevention of DB problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I contest the view of the group as a source of bias and irrationality, especially prevalent within social psychology. I argue that this negative evaluation often arises by applying inappropriate standards, relating to the wrong level of analysis (often the individual level). Second, the image of the group as bad and biasing is often overstated. For example, the evidence suggests that intergroup discrimination, rather than being universal or generic, is often constrained, proportionate and reflects functional and rational strategies for managing threats and opportunities at the group level. Third, although the recent upsurge of interest in group emotions could be seen to reinforce the dualism between rationality and emotion, the contemporary functional approach argues for group emotions as augmenting rather than contradicting rationality. However, we should be wary (and weary) of narrow economic and individualist notions of rationality; group identity may offer the opportunity to redefine rationality in more collective and prosocial ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents one case of the particularities of power. Drawing upon interviews with UK-based elites, I unpack the general with the specific through discussing how I experienced power as a relational effect of social interaction. Within the parameters of a collaborative research project, this involved the challenge of gaining access to and interviewing elites as means to explore the role of a flagship shopping mall as part of a wider urban regeneration agenda. I conclude with some recommendations on how to negotiate the unequal power relations between elites and researchers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a chronic and pervasive developmental disorder that is not restricted to the childhood years. Methods: This paper reviews non-pharmacological interventions that are available at present for preschoolers, school-age children, adolescents and adults. Results: The most appropriate intervention for preschoolers is parent training. For school-age children with moderate impairments there is some evidence to suggest that group parent training programmes and classroom behavioural interventions may suffice as a first-line treatment. For school-age children with severe impairments, interventions are more appropriate when combined with stimulant medication (i.e., integrated treatment packages are likely to be more successful than ‘standalone’ treatments). Multimodal interventions seem to be best suited for middle school/adolescent children, which most likely reflects that these interventions usually integrate home and school treatment strategies and often include an element of social skills training. Stimulant medication is generally the first line of treatment for adults but CBT has also been found to be effective at addressing the complex needs of this population. Conclusion: Current research has largely ignored that ADHD is a developmental disorder that spans the preschool to adult years. Most studies focus on young school-age children and outside of this age group there is a dearth of controlled trials that provide conclusive evidence. As children mature the mode and agent of intervention will shift to reflect the developmental needs and circumstances of the individual. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social distinction or status is an important motivation of human behaviour. This paper provides a selective survey of recent advances in the economic analysis of the origins and consequences of social status concerns. First, a selection of empirical research from a variety of scientific disciplines is discussed to underpin the further theoretical analysis. I then consider the origins and determinants of tastes for status, discuss the endogenous derivation of such preferences for relative standing and assess the different formalizations of these preferences. Subsequently, the consequences of preferences for status are studied for a variety of problems and settings. The last section discusses a number of implications of status concerns for normative economics and public policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context The health professional education community is struggling with a number of issues regarding the place and value of research in the field, including: the role of theory-building versus applied research; the relative value of generalisable versus contextually rich, localised solutions, and the relative value of local versus multi-institutional research. In part, these debates are limited by the fact that the health professional education community has become deeply entrenched in the notion of the physical sciences as presenting a model for ‘ideal’ research. The resulting emphasis on an ‘imperative of proof’ in our dominant research approaches has translated poorly to the domain of education, with a resulting denigration of the domain as ‘soft’ and ‘unscientific’ and a devaluing of knowledge acquired to date. Similarly, our adoption of the physical sciences’‘imperative of generalisable simplicity’ has created difficulties for our ability to represent well the complexity of the social interactions that shape education and learning at a local level. Methods Using references to the scientific paradigms associated with the physical sciences, this paper will reconsider the place of our current goals for education research in the production and evolution of knowledge within our community, and will explore the implications for enhancing the value of research in health professional education. Conclusions Reorienting education research from its alignment with the imperative of proof to one with an imperative of understanding, and from the imperative of simplicity to an imperative of representing complexity well may enable a shift in research focus away from a problematic search for proofs of simple generalisable solutions to our collective problems, towards the generation of rich understandings of the complex environments in which our collective problems are uniquely embedded. Medical Education 2010: 44: 31–39 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we review past empirical research studies on the use of three-dimensional immersive virtual worlds in education settings such as K-12 and higher education. Three questions guided our review: (1) How are virtual worlds (eg, Active Worlds, Second Life) used by students and teachers? (2) What types of research methods have been applied? (3) What research topics have been conducted on virtual worlds in teaching and learning, as well as their related findings? Overall, we found that virtual worlds may be utilised for the following uses: (1) communication spaces, (2) simulation of space (spatial), and (3) experiential spaces (‘acting’ on the world). Most of the studies reviewed were descriptive and conducted in polytechnic and university settings, and past virtual world research had been most frequently carried out in the media arts and health and environment disciplines. Three main research topics were found: participants' affective domain, learning outcomes and social interaction. We conclude by summarising some major findings and discussing three limitations of previous empirical studies. Several recommendations for future research related to virtual worlds in education settings are also provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Personal connections, also called guanxi in Chinese culture, are embedded within a network of interdependent social exchanges, providing access to resources, information and supports, therefore facilitating performance. Building guanxi networks means building social networks. Project teams are commonly used as fundamental units in organizations, partly in order to generate more creative ideas, and so this paper evaluates how project teams use their guanxi networks within and outside of their teams and across boundaries to stimulate their creative performance. Fifty-four product development project teams with 293 members from high-tech Taiwanese firms participated in this study. Findings suggested that, in a guanxi culture such as Taiwan's, in order to facilitate a project team's creative performance, the most important task is to develop a more cohesive social unit before the team extends its external networks, since Chinese culture regards people first as members of groups, and secondly as individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the impact of socio-structural variables (i.e. perceptions of permeability, stability and legitimacy of intergroup relations) on the extent to which professional women perceive a women's network as a collective strategy for status enhancement. A survey among network members (n=166) suggests that the extent to which women support and consider a network to benefit women as a collective is dependent on perceptions of whether individual mobility is possible (permeability of group boundaries) and beliefs that organizational conditions will improve for women in the future (stability of conditions for women). Specifically, the network is less likely to be perceived as a collective vehicle for change when individual advancement is possible (because intergroup boundaries are perceived as permeable) and status improvement in the future is unlikely. However, regardless of beliefs about the future, when female participants perceive that many barriers to individual advancement exist (due to the impermeability of intergroup boundaries), the network is considered in more collective terms presumably because the only way to challenge the status quo is through a collective effort. The practical implications for organizations that wish to or have established a women's network are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A virtual world is a computer-simulated three-dimensional environment. They are increasingly being used for social and commercial interaction, in addition to their original use for game playing. This paper studies negative behaviour, or ‘griefing’, inside one virtual world through a series of observations and focus groups with users. Data were collected to identify griefing behaviours and their impact, examine why griefing happens and who the likely targets and perpetrators are, and suggest strategies for coping with it. Findings show that griefing behaviour is common. It is defined as unacceptable, persistent behaviour and is typically targeted at inexperienced residents by those with more knowledge of the virtual world. Community and individual coping strategies are identified and discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents and tests an integrative model of voluntary learning behavior. Drawing on social exchange theory, we argue that individuals are more likely to pursue learning activities when they identify with their employing organization and have a high quality leader–member exchange (LMX) relationship with their supervisor. We further argue that organizational identification is enhanced by both distributive and procedural fairness, whereas LMX quality is enhanced by interpersonal and informational fairness. Moreover, we contend that effective learning behavior improves job performance. The model was tested with a sample of 398 employees from a large automobile dealership. Results supported most predictions. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper challenges traditional explorations of online communities that have relied upon assumptions of trust and social cohesion. In the analysis presented here, conflict becomes more than just dysfunctional communication and provides an alternative set of unifying principles and rationales for understanding social interaction and identity shape shifting within an online community. A model is advanced that describes the systematic techniques of hostility and aggression in technologically enabled communities that take the form of contemporary tribalism. It is argued that this tribe-like conflict embodies important rituals essential for maintaining and defining the contradictory social roles sometimes found in online environments. This research offers a critical interpretive perspective that focuses on the link between identity shape shifting behaviours and the power relations within an online financial community. The analysis reveals how conflict between positions of power can help to align the values and ideals of an online community. With this study we seek to motivate a re-examination of the design and governance of online communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unconditional respect for persons is an orientation that rests on the assumption that all people have intrinsic worth and deserve respect simply by their being human. This paper reports three cross-sectional studies concerning unconditional respect in intergroup relations in three very different contexts. In all three studies, unconditional respect was positively related to positive action tendencies, and negatively related to negative action tendencies, toward other groups. Regression analyses showed that respect was a significant predictor of negative action tendencies even when attitude to the other group, social dominance orientation, empathy, and the quality and quantity of intergroup contact were statistically controlled. Moderation analyses showed that respect was particularly important under conditions of high threat. The implications of unconditional respect for intergroup relations are discussed. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cultural safety is a relatively new concept that has emerged in the New Zealand nursing context and is being taken up in various ways in Canadian health care discourses. Our research team has been exploring the relevance of cultural safety in the Canadian context, most recently in relation to a knowledge-translation study conducted with nurses practising in a large tertiary hospital. We were drawn to using cultural safety because we conceptualized it as being compatible with critical theoretical perspectives that foster a focus on power imbalances and inequitable social relationships in health care; the interrelated problems of culturalism and racialization; and a commitment to social justice as central to the social mandate of nursing. Engaging in this knowledge-translation study has provided new perspectives on the complexities, ambiguities and tensions that need to be considered when using the concept of cultural safety to draw attention to racialization, culturalism, and health and health care inequities. The philosophic analysis discussed in this paper represents an epistemological grounding for the concept of cultural safety that links directly to particular moral ends with social justice implications. Although cultural safety is a concept that we have firmly positioned within the paradigm of critical inquiry, ambiguities associated with the notions of 'culture', 'safety', and 'cultural safety' need to be anticipated and addressed if they are to be effectively used to draw attention to critical social justice issues in practice settings. Using cultural safety in practice settings to draw attention to and prompt critical reflection on politicized knowledge, therefore, brings an added layer of complexity. To address these complexities, we propose that what may be required to effectively use cultural safety in the knowledge-translation process is a 'social justice curriculum for practice' that would foster a philosophical stance of critical inquiry at both the individual and institutional levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores Bourdieu's account of a relational social space, and his relative neglect of social interaction within this framework. Bourdieu includes social capital as one of the key relational elements of his social space, but says much less about it than economic or cultural capital, and levels of social capital are rarely measured in his work. Bourdieu is reluctant to focus on the content of social networks as part of his rejection of substantialist thinking. The neglect of substantive networks creates problems for Bourdieu's framework, because many of Bourdieu's core concepts rest upon assumptions about their interactional properties (in particular, the prevalence of homophilous differential association) which are left unexamined. It is argued here that Bourdieu's neglect of the substance of social networks is related to the criticisms that Bourdieu's framework often encounters, and that this neglect bears re-examination, since it is helpful to think of the ways in which differentiated social networks contribute to the development of habitus, help form fields, and so constitute the intersubjective social relations within which sociality, and practice more generally, occur. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we attempt to identify which peer collaboration characteristics may be accountable for conceptual change through interaction. We focus on different socio-cognitive aspects of the peer dialog and relate these with learning gains on the dyadic as well as the individual level. The scientific topic that was used for this study concerns natural selection, a topic for which students’ intuitive conceptions have been shown to be particularly robust. Learning tasks were designed according to the socio-cognitive conflict instructional paradigm. After receiving a short instructional intervention on natural selection, paired students were asked to collaboratively construct explanations for certain evolutionary phenomena while engaging in dialectical argumentation. Two quantitative coding schemes were developed, each with a different granularity. The first assessed discrete dialog moves that pertained to dialectical argumentation and to consensual explanation development. The second scheme characterized the dialog as a whole on a number of socio-cognitive dimensions. Results from analyses on the dyadic as well as the individual level revealed that the engagement in dialectical argumentation predicted conceptual learning gains, whereas consensual explanation development did not. These findings open up new venues for research on the mechanisms of learning in and from peer collaboration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mobile phone use is a prevalent behaviour amongst youth; however, there is little research to determine psychological influences on mobile phone use. This paper reports the results of a qualitative exploration into social psychological factors relating to young people's mobile phone use. Focus groups were conducted with 32 participants, aged between 16 and 24 years. Three major themes, connectedness, belonging and social identity, were explored in relation to young people's mobile phone use. Easy contact with others when using a mobile phone facilitated connectedness between people. A need to remain connected emerged in participants' descriptions of their mobile phone use. Consequently, data were analysed for factors underpinning people's desire to be connected. It emerged that mobile phones were used to enhance feelings of belonging amongst youth. Additionally, group norms influenced mobile phone behaviour indicating that social identity processes are related to mobile phone use. Results in the study provide a foundation upon which to investigate further the relationship between mobile phone use and psychological factors impacting young people's social development. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Participation in community groups is argued to be an important way to create health-promoting social capital. However, relatively little attention has been paid to the ways in which gender affects the health promotion potential of participation. This paper reports on a qualitative study of women's experiences of participation in a diverse range of community groups, and considers how such involvement can potentially have a negative impact upon mental well-being. In-depth interviews were conducted with 30 women in Adelaide, South Australia. Women's accounts of their group involvement reflected that their identities as mothers were particularly important in shaping their participation. Some women reported difficulties in combining group involvement with their family responsibilities. Stress attached to negotiating social interaction within groups was also raised as an issue. It was found that participation can reinforce gender inequality and potentially have severe negative consequences for mental health, issues that need to be considered alongside the potential health benefits. The findings are considered in light of Bourdieu's critical conceptualization of social capital. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to open the ‘black box’ of knowledge spillovers by testing the extent to which social interactions between firms in a region positively contribute to firm performance. Specifically, we examine the Marshall-Jacobs controversy, a debate over whether these spillovers occur across firms operating in similar or dissimilar fields. Our empirical examination of the debate relies on a dataset that is constructed from three sources: firm-level data of 1,881 high-tech firms in all 40 Dutch regions, regional economic data and network data constructed from the membership registrations of all business associations in a sample of 11 regions. The results show that the total amount of regional network activity has no effect on individual firm performance; however, participation in local business networks does support firm employment growth. With regards to the Marshall-Jacobs controversy, the results show that having local links to other high-tech firms is conducive to a firm's employment growth, while links to other types of firms provided no such lift. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research explores how discourse marker oh works with constructed dialogue (quoted speech), identifying a use of oh not discussed in previous research in which it can serve to signal speaker stance towards quoted material. While both discourse markers and constructed dialogue have been widely discussed as identity resources in the discourse analytic and interactional-sociolinguistic tradition, there has been little work considering how these linguistic features may work together. In this paper, I address this gap by illustrating how Bakhtin's (1984) notions of uni-directional and vari-directional double voicing articulate with information display and evaluation functions of oh identified by Schiffrin (1987) , suggesting that oh (when occurring as a preface to constructed dialogue), works both to display and evaluate quoted material for the purposes of identity construction in interaction. Such uses of this discourse marker provide illustration of how footing works together with related concepts of evaluation, positioning, and alignment as part of a process of stancetaking in interaction ( Du Bois 2007 ). Examples are taken from ethnographic interviews collected as part of a larger study of the linguistic style of a community of improv performers in Washington, D.C. focusing primarily on examples contributed by one speaker, Josh. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Humans are experts in cooperating with each other when trying to accomplish tasks they cannot achieve alone. Recent studies of joint action have shown that when performing tasks together people strongly rely on the neurocognitive mechanisms that they also use when performing actions individually, that is, they predict the consequences of their co-actor’s behavior through internal action simulation. Context-sensitive action monitoring and action selection processes, however, are relatively underrated but crucial ingredients of joint action. In the present paper, we try to correct the somewhat simplified view on joint action by reviewing recent studies of joint action simulation, monitoring, and selection while emphasizing the intricate interrelationships between these processes. We complement our review by defining the contours of a neurologically plausible computational framework of joint action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-throughput experimental techniques are generating large data collections with the aim of identifying novel entities involved in fundamental cellular processes as well as drawing a systematic picture of the relationships between individual components. Determining the accuracy of the resulting data and the selection of a subset of targets for more careful characterizations often requires relying on information provided by manually annotated data repositories. These repositories are incomplete and cover only a small fraction of the knowledge contained in the literature. We propose in this paper the use of text-mining technologies to extract, organize, and present information relevant for a particular biological topic. The aims of the resulting approach are (1) to enable topic-centric biological literature navigation, (2) to assist in the construction of manually revised data repositories, (3) to provide prioritization of biological entities for experimental studies, and (4) to enable human interpretation of large-scale experiments by providing direct links of bio-entities to relevant descriptions in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper develops and tests two temporal models of the relationships among adolescents' ethnic identity exploration, ethnic identity affirmation and belonging, and attitudes toward their racial/ethnic ingroup and outgroups. Structural equation models for Euro-Americans, Asian Americans, and Latinos revealed that all hypothesized relationships were positive and significant. The model in which ethnic identity exploration (at Time 1) predicts ethnic identity affirmation and belonging (at Time 2) was superior to the alternative model in which the relationship between them was reversed (i.e., affirmation and belonging at Time 1 predicts exploration at Time 2). Results (1) support the importance of exploration as a basis for establishing a secure attachment to one's ethnic identity, which, in turn, has positive implications for attitudes toward one's own group and other groups and (2) suggest that maintenance of ethnic identity is compatible with positive attitudes toward ethnic outgroups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brain processes and social processes are not as separated as many of our Social Psychology and Neuroscience departments. This paper discusses the potential contribution of social neuroscience to the development of a multi-level, dynamic, and context-sensitive approach to prejudice. Specifically, the authors review research on event related potentials during social bias, stereotypes, and social attitudes measurements, showing that electrophysiological methods are powerful tools for analyzing the temporal fine-dynamics of psychological processes involved in implicit and explicit prejudice. Meta-theoretical implications are drawn regarding the social psychological modeling of social attitudes, and for the integration of social neuroscience into a multi-level account of cultural behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]