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This chapter examines human sleep patterns and habits throughout history and across cultures. Starting with ancient history, and moving through middle ages, the age of enlightenment, and the modern era, we examine historical evidence of typical sleep schedules during each period along with sleep arrangements and beddings. The chapter then discusses how sleep patterns and environments have changed with the industrial revolution in the 19th centuries, followed by the technological advancements in the 20th and 21st centuries and their impact on sleep duration and quality, leading to an epidemic of sleep deprivation and poor sleep quality in the United States. The second part of the chapter focuses on cultural variations in sleep habits and environments, including typical sleeping arrangements, bedroom sharing, sleep schedules, napping, and sleep rituals in different cultures around the world.

Paleopathological and paleo-oncological research aims to unveil the long-time trajectory and the natural history of neoplasms, as well as how these conditions impacted human past societies. This area of research also scrutinizes how the interplay between environmental, biological, and sociocultural processes influenced the development of neoplasms across distinct spatial and geographic frames. In this chapter we explore the expression of cancer in our past, by examining the most direct sources of its evidence, the human skeletal remains and mummified bodies. An overview of the achievements, contributions, and limits of the paleo-oncological research is also presented. We argue that the study of the past has the potential to inform about the present and the future.

Social inequalities encompass various aspects of social hierarchy and exclusion. Studies of inequalities point to the following trends: * Socioeconomic inequalities of income and wealth have been increasing in post-communist societies and Anglo-American democracies. The key trend in these societies is towards growing ranks of “corporate-rich” representing a “new wealth”. * Sociopolitical inequalities seem to change in two opposed directions: one trend is towards democratization, the other is towards the concentration of power in the hands of non-elective elites. There has been also a trend towards the increasing American hegemony. * In the sociocultural sphere, inequalities seem to narrow down, and this egalitarian trend is clearly linked to declining gender gaps, increasing education and the spreading egalitarian popular culture.

Wildlife exploitation has nutritional, medicinal, luxury, sociocultural, and financial significance for human societies. Yet, it also risks undesired outcomes for conservation, animal welfare, and public health. Although it is prohibited in urban markets, the wildlife trade in Peru is poorly monitored, and practiced openly. To identify those species most likely to be affected, we investigated the trade in live wild animals and their derivatives at the Belen Market, and additional smaller open-air markets, which together make Iquitos the largest and most important wildlife trade hubs in the Peruvian Amazon. Specifically, we asked what wild animals or animal products were most profitable, what were they used for, and which wild animals were perceived by vendors to have increased most in rarity. Vendors provided 44 local animal names, from which we inferred an estimated 205 species. Nine per cent (n = 19) of these inferred species are categorised on the IUCN Red List as threatened; 35% (n = 71) are categorised as declining. We found that wild meat/food was the most frequently stated purpose of sale of wildlife, followed by pets, spiritual/belief-based use, traditional medicine, and decorative use. The most commonly cited most profitable wildlife derivatives were ‘lowland paca’, ‘yellow footed tortoise’, and ‘collared peccary’. A significant positive correlation was found between the most profitable species and those that are becoming increasingly rare. Further research focused on the actual impacts on wildlife, the socio-economic importance of this trade, the societal pressures driving consumer demand, and the risks to public health is warranted.

Aim Various individual, relational, and sociocultural variables have been identified as determinants of sexual responding, but these have rarely been investigated in non-Western cultures that are characterized by sexual conservatism. We aimed to explore the role of socioeconomic status and religion, sexual double standards, erotophobia-erotophilia, sexual dysfunctional beliefs, and relationship satisfaction to explain sexual function and satisfaction in Ecuador. Method 599 participants (431 women and 159 men) completed an online survey. Main Outcomes Measures The Female sexual function was predicted by sexual satisfaction, relationship satisfaction, sexual dysfunctional beliefs, and sexual double standards, while the male sexual function was predicted solely by sexual satisfaction. Additionally, female sexual satisfaction was predicted by sexual function, relationship satisfaction, and sexual dysfunctional beliefs, while male sexual satisfaction was predicted by sexual function and relationship satisfaction. Results Female Sexual Function Index, International Index of Erectile Function, Brief Sexual Opinion Survey, Sexual Double Standards Scale, Sexual Dysfunctional Beliefs Questionnaire, New Sexual Satisfaction Scale, and Couple Satisfaction Index. Conclusion This study provided novel information on the determinants of sexual function and satisfaction within a culture in which conservative religious beliefs still prevail. Results should be interpreted with caution given the unequal distribution of men and women, social desirability and volunteer biases, and the specific COVID-19 pandemic context during which the survey took place. Markers of sexual conservatism were inversely related to sexual function and satisfaction, mainly in women, and may, therefore, be important targets of treatment. Female sexuality seemed more context-dependent than male sexuality, although enhancing the general climate of the relationship may benefit feeling sexually satisfied in both men and women.

Despite adolescents' prolific use of social media, relationships between social media and body satisfaction and well-being are not yet well understood, especially among boys. This study tested a sociocultural model of body image within the context of social media among adolescent boys and girls. Specifically, this study examined whether appearance-ideal internalization and social appearance comparisons mediated relationships between social media engagement (intensity and appearance-focused use) and body satisfaction and subjective well-being. Australian adolescents between 11 and 17 years (N = 1,579, Mage = 13.45 years, SD = 1.15; 55.4 % boys) completed an online survey. Structural equational modelling indicated that only higher appearance-focused social media use was directly associated with lower body satisfaction and well-being. Generally, higher appearance-ideal internalization and comparisons mediated the relationships between higher social media engagement and lower body satisfaction and well-being. Multi-group analyses indicated these relationships were equivalent across gender. Findings supported the proposed model among boys and girls and extend existing theoretical knowledge to encompass male body image and well-being. Interventions which target internalization and comparisons in the context of social media are likely to be valuable in improving body satisfaction and subjective well-being in co-educational settings.

Coronavirus is wreaking havoc in several ways, including health, economy, education, and other sociocultural activities. The global psychosocial impact especially due to the virus-related restrictions has also been enormous leading to psychological distress among many people. This chapter reviews the extent to which coronavirus lockdown and restrictions have affected the life of the people of Ghana. Ghanaians generally have a strong communal life which transcends their sociocultural background. The sociocultural impact of the coronavirus restrictions therefore was pronounced on the people because a lot of their economic activities were negatively affected since such activities thrive best on a strong sociocultural base. The health belief of the people related to tackling the menace of the coronavirus pandemic indicates that some of the people do not perceive the coronavirus as a major threat and therefore may not strictly follow the protocols. This attitude may hamper the effort being made to control the spread of the virus. Public stigmatization is also significantly high among a section of the population making it difficult for people who suspect that they have the coronavirus to seek healthcare. Extensive public education and behavior change approaches have been recommended to help inculcate positive attitudes toward bringing the coronavirus under control.

Ocean sciences comprise a vast array of disciplines ranging from physics to socio-economics. The various approaches compete with each other for visibility, rather than cooperate and join forces. Communication beyond the science journals tends to focus on charismatic species and habitats (the ohhh tactics, aimed at provoking wonder) that does not result in the full perception (the ahhh strategy) of the role of ocean sciences for our well-being. Furthermore, natural sciences fail to establish the logical primacy of natural laws over social and economic laws, even though society and the economy cannot exist without the rest of the environment. Sustainability is universally recognized as a stringent priority, but it gives prevalence to economic and social values, relegating natural phenomena to a secondary role: natural assets are evaluated with measures of economics (in monetary terms) giving primacy to economic laws over ecological laws. The solution to these problems resides in the cultural evolution of that part of the scientific community that recognizes the necessity of evolving from reductionistic tactics to a holistic strategy, with a timely integration of ocean sciences and technologies and of their collaboration with social and economic sciences.

Soil is the foundational brown infrastructure of urbanized landscapes that supports diverse social-ecological goals. However, many aspects of urbanization degrade soils in ways that reduce a landscape’s abilities to provide ecosystem services. How can urban soils be improved to provide more and better ecosystem services and thus improve the well-being of urban residents? A holistic approach to urban soil restoration seeks to improve urban soils using integrated socioecological and landscape-scale approaches that embrace diverse outcomes including novel ecosystems and many sociocultural goals. To achieve successful urban soil restoration, research has shown that methods such as decompaction, organic matter addition, manufacturing soils (e.g., for green roofs and street trees), and managing biodiversity can improve the quality of urban soils and their ecosystem services. Because urban soils exist in cultural landscapes, successfully restoring them requires considering many sociocultural variables that impact their histories and the motivations and limitations for restoring them. The future of urban soil restoration will be enhanced by transdisciplinary research and practices, in which restorationists collaborate with diverse stakeholders in urban planning, and education efforts that emphasize the value of urban soils for social-ecological sustainability.

Promoting and supporting Indigenous health includes ensuring health services reflect local concepts of health. There is, therefore, a need to better understand context-specific Indigenous understandings of health in order to design culturally appropriate health services. To this end, this study characterized two Shawi communities' understandings of what it means to be healthy. Using a community-based participatory research approach, 40 semi-structured interviews and a series of informal interviews were conducted and analysed thematically, using a constant comparative method. The Shawi definition of health extended beyond individual physical welfare and focused on emotional, collective, and environmental wellbeing. The primary factors underlying Shawi perceptions of health and wellbeing included providing for the family, ensuring the welfare of others, maintaining positive social relationships, preserving traditional values and practices, and living harmoniously with the natural environment. Conversely, Shawi classified illnesses according to their cause or treatment. These included illnesses caused by sorcery, those caused by spirits of the forest, and 'new diseases,' that first appeared in the communities when they were contacted by the Western civilization, for which no traditional remedies existed. Consequently, according to Shawi, sociocultural, environmental, and climatic changes are posing imminent health threats. This study highlights the differences between biomedical and Indigenous Shawi health understandings, and therefore emphasizes the importance of acknowledging and embracing Shawi culture and beliefs within the formal healthcare system.

Inspiration is an epistemic-motivational episode in which an individual is awoken to what is valuable and imbued with the spirit to express this understanding. In this article, I tell the story of my research program on inspiration. I begin by describing the origin of my research program as a corrective to the emphasis on personal agency in the motivation literature. I then review work on foundational issues of conceptualization, typology, methodology, and construct validation. Next I review research on the role of inspiration in the creative process. Inspiration is a response to, not a source of, creative ideas. Its function is to motivate transmission (e.g., actualization) of an idea in the form of a tangible product. Inventors prone to inspiration receive more patents, and inspired writers are more creative, productive, and efficient. Next I situate inspiration within a broader cultural-evolutionary context. Inspiration is infectious, such that inspired writers inspire their readers. Processes of transmission and contagion suggest that the core significance of inspiration lies in its procultural function. Inspiration, I argue, is a genetically evolved adaptation that catalyzes and guides cultural evolution by compelling selective retention of cultural wisdom in the form of cultural artifacts (e.g., scripture, poetry, inventions, actualized selves), thereby making the species more adaptable to local and changing environments. Finally, I discuss benefits to well-being. Inspiration marks moments of peak functioning that integrate the hedonic well-being of the primitive creature, the eudaimonic well-being of the social creature, and the self-transcendent well-being of the cultural creature.

In the Mediterranean basin, climate models predict future scenarios characterized by more frequently uncertain hydrological services. European policies increasingly promote new models of water management based on river basins as socioecological systems and participatory strategies to ensure better inclusiveness and representativeness of all local actors. Practice has demonstrated the value of stakeholder engagement for achieving more productive and beneficial outcomes of decision-making in landscape management and conservation policies. However, sometimes participatory processes do not lead to effective results. One reason could be related to different understandings of concepts. There is, in fact, still limited research assessing whether the concepts or technical terms used in those processes are understood in the same way by the participants. Therefore, our study aims to explore the mental constructs of stakeholders through a combination of semi-structured interviews and hand-made drawings, using the concept of the river basin as a study concept. We found differences in the relationships between stakeholders’ ways of drawing and describing the river basin starting from its mental constructs. The results also showed that the way stakeholders construct ideas and views related to the landscape influenced some factors that stakeholders used to express them, such as the drawing shape, drawing length, emotions and associated values used in the descriptions. Likewise, mental constructs were influenced by stakeholders’ profiles and their working position. This study highlights that a better understanding of stakeholders' perceptions and their understandings could be essential if we are to achieve more effective and inclusive participatory processes in complex and dynamic socioecological contexts Open Access funding provided thanks to the CRUE-CSIC agreement with Elsevier

Caregivers and caregiving needs are growing and diversifying in the United States (US). However, the health system is not prepared to accommodate this diversity. Interventions and supports often are not adequately tailored to meet the cultural needs of older adults and their caregiving teams. The limited interventions available and tested with racial/ethnic minority populations often fail to capture and report culturally tailored perspectives. The purpose of this chapter is to describe how culture influences caregiving. Cultural domains such as norms, values, and cultural meaning are discussed and case examples from the African American, Hispanic/Latino, and immigrant communities are presented to demonstrate how these cultural domains interact with the sociocultural environment to impact care. Examples of culturally tailored programs in the US are given to demonstrate how such strategies can benefit families. Although cultural tailoring of interventions is necessary and recommended, culture itself is dynamic and varied, which makes it impossible to identify all the unique characteristics of a specific culture. The practice of cultural humility and fluidity is offered as an approach to facilitate cultural understanding and awareness in everyday care experiences.

Congratulating others is an essential aspect of human social interaction and a speech act that is realised differently in languages. This study aims to investigate the pragmalinguistic realisations of the speech act of congratulating in Kabyle and Jordanian Arabic (JA) by comparing the strategies that Kabyle-speaking and JA-speaking students employ when offering congratulations. The data are analysed with reference to social status, gender and cultural background of the participants. A Discourse Completion Test (DCT) which included four situations of different social statuses is used to collect data from 30 JA-speaking students (15 males and 15 females) at the University of Jordan and 30 Kabyle-speaking students (15 males and 15 females) from three different universities in Algeria region of Kabylie. Elwood's (2004) framework is adopted in the classification of strategies. A mixed-method approach is applied in the analysis with the frequency of strategies being quantitatively analysed and the semantic formulas vis-a-vis status are qualitatively analysed. The results show that there are slight differences in the use of congratulating strategies between the two groups of participants, and these are discussed in terms of sociopragmatic and sociocultural dimensions of variational pragmatics.

Research–practice partnerships (RPPs) have been embraced as a way to increase the relevance of educational research for practice. RPPs typically focus on existing problems of practice and require researchers and practitioners to collaborate. However, RPPs are likely to operate differently across cultural contexts, and little is known about the contextually situated strategies researchers and practitioners in partnerships use to address problems in practice. This case study draws on data from a Norwegian RPP to outline one such strategy, participatory dialogue (PD). We locate PD in sociocultural theory as an instance of boundary crossing. PD is shown to be a culturally embedded multipronged tool for practitioners, readily usable for numerous purposes. However, leveraging situated strategies such as PD does not replace other strategies in RPPs; instead, situated strategies complement, enable, and enhance efforts to solve problems and build trust. We discuss the implications of leveraging situated strategies such as PD and its implications for RPPs.

This study explores how three English learners, also referred as L2 learners, improve in science literacy in an invention-based learning (IBL) project. IBL, a project-based learning invention, asks students to respond to problems by inventing. Through the lens of sociocultural theory, our multiple case studies examined how middle school L2 learners demonstrate scientific concepts and science literacy by inventing a lunchbox that keeps food cool. We collected participant interviews, observations, and field notes, and we analyzed these inductively. We also analyzed participants’ writing samples based on Garcia, Chiappetta and Fillman's science-literacy framework. Students demonstrated comprehension of scientific concepts and processes, ability to use scientific thinking skills, and capability to apply knowledge to real-life experiences. As a result, although L2 learners experienced some struggles during the writing process, students’ language skills and conceptual learning developed. In addition, students perceived writing as an essential skill for learning science.

What are the psychological effects of the coronavirus pandemic? Greenfield's Theory of Social Change, Cultural Evolution, and Human Development predicts that when survival concerns augment, and one's social world narrows toward the family household. life shifts towards activities, values, relationships, and parenting expectations typical of small-scale rural subsistence environments with low life expectancy. Specific predictions were that, during the pandemic, respondents would report intensified survival concerns (e.g., thinking about one's own mortality); increased subsistence activities (e.g., growing food); augmented subsistence values (e.g., conserving resources); more interdependent family relationships (e.g., members helping each other obtain food); and parents expecting children to contribute more to family maintenance (e.g., by cooking for the family). All hypotheses were confirmed with a large-scale survey in California (N = 1,137) administered after about a month of stay-at-home orders during the coronavirus pandemic; results replicated in Rhode Island (N = 955). We posited that an experience of increased survival concerns and number of days spent observing stay-at-home orders would predict these shifts. A structural equation model confirmed this hypothesis., Graphical abstract Image, graphical abstract

As one of the few legal psychoactive substances in most parts of the world and one that is also consumed for socialization and cultural and religious rituals, alcohol has historically been the most popular psychoactive substance in the world. There are, however, considerable individual and country variations in the consumption of alcohol. This chapter reviews the most recent report by the World Health Organization (WHO) based on survey data collected from 173 WHO member states concerning alcohol consumption, harm related to alcohol consumption, and policy responses to reduce the harmful effects of alcohol consumption. This chapter also examines some of the sociocultural factors that could explain the variations in alcohol consumption within country and between countries, including gender and age, the law and religion, economic wealth of individuals and society, and the culture surrounding alcohol consumption.

Segmentation studies are crucial for planning sustainability strategies, and tourists' perceptions of destinations offer important segmentation criteria. The aim of this study is to understand and describe the tourist segments with similar levels of perceived destination sustainability and trustworthiness. Perceived sustainability and perceived trustworthiness are based on tourists’ perceptions of the impacts of tourism development and policies of destinations and are measured as multidimensional constructs. Based on a sample of 438 tourists from Chile and Ecuador aged over 17 years, a metaheuristic (genetic algorithm) is employed to select the most useful variables for segmentation using a machine learning process. The results reveal three tourist segments: Extremely optimistic (Segment 3), Optimistic (Segment 2) and Moderately optimistic (Segment 1). These segments differ considerably in terms of the impacts of the dimensions of destination sustainability (environmental, sociocultural, and economic) and trustworthiness (ability, benevolence, and integrity). However, they do not differ in terms of most sociodemographic characteristics. As segmentation criteria, perceived sustainability and trustworthiness can help when analyzing the effectiveness of sustainability strategies and actions by the public and private institutions at tourist destinations. This research was funded by a grant from the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and University (RTI 2018-099467-B-I00) and Research Support Plan, Facultad de Economía y Negocios, Universidad de Chile (Res. Ex. 270.19; July 07, 2019).

Highlights • Solo dining patterns among Chinese diners in Macao are investigated. • A mixed-methods study involves 18 interviews and a survey of 493 diners. • Diners’ socio-cultural backgrounds and regional characteristics shape solo dining. • Dining time, menus, restaurant layout, and personal interactions are key considerations., Given the emergence of solo dining resulting from the changing family structure and increasingly individualised lifestyle in contemporary Chinese society, this study investigates solo dining in the setting of Chinese restaurants in Macao, including the solo dining motivations, behavioural characteristics, and experiences, taking into considerations the underlying social and cultural factors. Adopting a sequential exploratory mixed-method design, 18 interviews were conducted, followed by a survey with 493 local diners. Findings show that freedom of choice and satisfying hunger are the main motivations for solo dining, and some solo-friendly attributes, food-related attributes, and restaurant characteristics are considered as important elements. Solo dining is perceived positively, partly because its perceptions and experiences are shaped by the diners’ socio-cultural backgrounds and unique regional characteristics, in which solo dining is considered relatively common in Macao as opposed to extant literature that has suggested an essentialised assumption about Chinese group-oriented dining preference. Sociocultural insights and managerial implications are provided in catering to the growing solo diner market.

Morality encompasses a set of norms that originate from the group's consensus and cultural evolution. Accordingly, the mere presence of another person is very well capable of shaping moral judgment and decision-making in a way that benefits group coherence. Here, we measured justice sensitivity (JSI), implicit moral attitudes (mIAT), and neural activity during mental simulation of interpersonal morally-laden behaviors (helping and harming) when participants were either alone or when they thought a confederate was present. Both JSI and mIAT, as well as various brain networks, were modulated and, further, synchronized by the presence of a confederate. Participants with lower scores on the mIAT and JSI enhanced their moral attitudes when they were in the presence of a confederate. This change was driven by increased signal in the amygdala and anterior insula when the low mIAT participants mentally simulated harming another person, but was effected by decreased activity in the dorsomedial- and dorsolateral-prefrontal cortex in the high JSI participants. The presence of another significantly impacts moral attitudes as well as neural correlates underlying moral behavior. Together, the results support the view that both individual dispositions and social influence shape and synchronize people's moral computations, and fits with the theoretical perspective that morality has evolved to promote group fitness.

Background Although progress has been made in developed countries to increase the representation of women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), women in African countries lag behind. Stark gender disparities exist in STEM in Africa due to economic, environmental, sociocultural, and personal factors. Here, we describe the African Research Academies for Women (ARA-W) summer undergraduate research programme that seeks to reverse the under-representation of women in STEM through fellowship opportunities with mentored training at reputable academic and research institutions. Methods Applicants are selected through a competitive application process on the basis of academic performance, STEM experience, their personal statement, and career potential. Fellows are paired with established leaders in their fields who provide rigorous mentoring for 8 weeks. Fellows submit weekly progress reports, complete a community service project, and participate in a final presentation. Findings Since 2014, 65 fellows have completed projects on topics including the transmission dynamics of malaria, in-vitro procedures for evaluating cytotoxicity and use of high-performance liquid chromatography, palliative-care training for caregivers of cancer patients, and converting plastic wastes into biodiesel. Mean age of participants was 20 years and 76%, 11%, and 14% studied science, technology, and engineering, respectively. All fellows attended universities in Ghana at the time of participation. Interpretation Securing funding to cover the full costs of the programme is a challenge. ARA-W is a volunteer-led organisation, which significantly reduces overhead costs. However, because there is no paid full-time staff, we must be mindful of coordinating responsibilities around teammates' schedules. We plan to increase enrolment by 20 fellows every year, and finalise the development of MentorSpace, an online professional mentorship pairing platform to connect individuals affiliated with ARA-W. Through ARA-W's MentorSpace, fellows can connect with an expanded network both within and outside their fields. New fellows will connect with our alumni network, using their knowledge and experience to open doors for future scholars. We have begun to collaborate with academic institutions in Nigeria to allow our model to be translated across Africa. Funding Individuals and organisations donate to ARA-W to support our mission.

Background In recent years, a number of initiatives aimed at promoting healthy lifestyles in health-friendly environments have been implemented. The purpose of this review is to synthesize initiatives conducted in Canada and documented in publications for the period 1995–2015 in order to gain a better understanding of their objectives and impacts. Methods A systematic review of Canadian initiatives published over the past 20 years was conducted from multiple databases (i.e., Scopus, SPORTDiscus, PubMed, Academic search complete, Reseausante.com , Cairn, and Erudit). In total, 264 publications were identified and retained for the final analysis based on 5 criteria: (1) publication between 1995 and 2015, (2) online availability, (3) research conducted in Canada, (4) main topic related to environments favorable to healthy lifestyles (EFHL), and (5) publication in French or English. Results A sharp increase in the number of studies on EFHL was observed between 2010 and 2015 (57%). Two major lifestyle components—physical activity and nutrition—and 2 environmental aspects—neighborhood and built environment—were the elements most frequently examined regarding adults (48%), young people (34%), and seniors (9%), using quantitative (60%) and qualitative (18%) methods. Furthermore, the analysis reveals a greater focus on the municipal (53%) than the national or provincial levels (31%). Conclusion This work is a first map of Canadian studies related to EFHL. It clarifies the definition of EFHL and classifies its components. As well, it documents the issues raised, the research methods employed, and the role of stakeholders, while outlining a new research agenda that includes dimensions of EFHL formerly neglected by researchers, namely, political and sociocultural spheres of action.

In this chapter, we outline a program of research that has sought to understand how sociopolitical and religious systems overlap in their satiation of psychological needs and suggest that this overlap helps one explain a range of sociocultural phenomenon regarding the complex relationship between these systems. Compensatory control theory (CCT) posits that people have a psychological need to see the world as orderly and nonrandom, and when a sense of personal control cannot satiate this need, people will turn to external systems of control and order, such as secular institutions (e.g., government) and religious institutions and beliefs (e.g., organized religion and belief in a controlling god). We summarize work showing that both the secular and the religious can be turned to in order to maintain a view of an orderly, nonrandom world. Due to this overlap, they are also substitutable, such that relying on one renders the other less necessary. Finally, symbolic (or literal) alignments between secular and religious systems can be incidentally or strategically leveraged to further maintain confidence in these systems to satiate concerns about disorder, randomness. We relate these findings to the broader literature on religious and political beliefs and ideology and use a CCT lens to explain a range of sociocultural phenomenon.

A large body of research has emerged to suggest that the self-conscious emotion of pride is a universal and evolved part of human nature, which functions to help individuals navigate their social hierarchies, motivating them to engage in behaviors that allow them to attain and maintain social rank, and communicating to others which group members are deserving of rank attainment and should be targets of social learning. Studies also suggest that there are two distinct facets of pride: authentic and hubristic, associated with distinct forms of self-favorability—self-esteem and narcissism, respectively. Furthermore, each pride facet may function to facilitate the attainment of a distinct form of social rank: prestige versus dominance. We review findings supporting this account, as well as evidence for the prestige and dominance model of social rank, and for a novel account of pride as the critical affective mechanism underlying cumulative cultural evolution.

From leaking storage facilities and transportation accidents to inadequate disposal of industrial and mining wastes, communities throughout the world have been exposed to a variety of xenobiotic contaminants. This chapter examines the contaminated community phenomenon by situating it within social science scholarship on hazards and disasters. Within this context, a contaminated community represents a type of “technological hazard/disaster” with sociocultural and psychosocial effects substantially different from what we have come to expect from natural hazards and disasters. Love Canal, a neighborhood in Niagara Falls, New York, that garnered national attention beginning in the late 1970s because of exposure to hazardous wastes, provides a historical case study of a contaminated community and ensuing disaster. A brief overview of the Love Canal disaster is followed by a discussion of what makes Love Canal and other contaminated communities particularly onerous compared to natural disasters. We conclude by observing new forms of contamination events and linking contaminated community issues with environmental justice issues.

Understanding domestic homicide within immigrant communities requires a framework of cultural humility that accounts for the diverse lived experiences, migration journeys, and sociocultural and economic backgrounds of the individuals, families, and communities. The risk of domestic violence and homicide in immigrant communities is amplified due to the systemic and structural barriers encountered postmigration. Through an analysis of three cases of domestic homicide, this chapter contextualizes risk factors within immigrant populations’ experiences, examines multifaceted risk factors that exist within these contexts, and identifies missed opportunities, lessons learned, and directions for future research. This analysis provides a valuable foundation for developing promising strategies for preventing domestic homicide in immigrant communities.

Understanding human development and functioning requires that the dimension of development, or time, be added to the three biopsychosocial dimensions. It is across time that the biological, psychological, and sociocultural influences on development interact. Therefore, the developmental perspective is essential to the scientific understanding of human psychology and the practice of behavioral health care. This chapter notes the key features of a developmental framework and discusses infant attachment as a prototypical example of a highly important developmental process. Important risk and protective factors are also reviewed. The nature of health, well-being, and flourishing is also examined and research that begins to unravel the nature of human well-being is briefly reviewed.

The behavioral and related sciences have made tremendous progress in understanding the nature of human psychology. We now have scientific explanations for a large and steadily growing number of psychological processes. Although much still remains to be discovered about the human mind and brain, we know a great deal more about many aspects of human development, personality, psychopathology, and behavior change. As a result, health service psychology can now be practiced on the basis of a unified, scientific understanding of human psychology. This represents a true milestone for the field that will have many positive implications for practice, education, and research. It will also allow the field to integrate much more effectively into health care and public health as well as help address the many challenges associated with sociocultural and technological developments. Participating in these developments presents many exciting opportunities for the field as the future fast approaches.

For three decades, motivation researchers have used the construct of engagement as a holistic lens for understanding how children interact with learning activities, highlighting that each child has a unique engagement profile comprised of behavioral, emotional/affective, cognitive, and social dimensions. As researchers continue to piece together the multifaceted nature of engagement, a pressing need has emerged for a synthetic, coherent review of the extant literature on engagement that clarifies its conceptualization, identifies its key facilitators and consequences, and delineates its functions. Using a developmental-contextual approach, this chapter presents an integrative theoretical perspective on engagement, emphasizing that engagement is the product of dynamic developmental and relational processes involving transactions across multiple ecologies. The integrative model of engagement offers a nuanced and comprehensive perspective on the multiple pathways—psychological, cognitive, and sociocultural—underlying the development of youth's engagement. The conceptualization and study of engagement as a multidimensional construct produced by an ongoing interaction between the individual and the environment informs the identification of the particular personal, contextual, and sociocultural factors that foster or undermine engagement, while increasing understanding of the psychosocial mechanisms through which the learning environment influences engagement.

Adolescence is a time of great physical and cognitive change. During this period of development, adolescents learn to make health and lifestyle choices, maneuvering a number of biological and sociocultural transitions. These lifestyle choices become the habits and routines of adulthood and thus have consequences throughout the life course. Therefore, adolescence is a critical period for addressing health behaviors. Schools have a critical role in facilitating healthy transitions to adulthood. This chapter provides an overview of the biological and psychosocial milestones of adolescent development, situating this developmental process within the context of schools and emerging digital technologies.

Memes, or units of culture (ideas, processes, products), are tools for solving problems and are thus a kind of technology. The domain of Memetics as a science of cultural evolution was in a Kuhnian pre-paradigm state from 1976 until 2016 when the hard domain problems of the structure, unit, and criterion in Memetics were resolved. This article summarizes that new scientific theoretical model of bioculture, including the Creative Practice Theory stage model of creativity; the discovery of the holon/parton structure of the meme, the unit of culture; and some related empirical investigations in the study of cultural evolution and creativity.

Eating behaviors and other lifestyle habits have a major role to play in optimizing the health (and obesity control) of women. Wider sociocultural influences of income, gender, employment, ethnicity, marital status, as well as parenting will have lifelong influences on eating behaviors alongside the efforts of the food industry to promote consumption. Individual-level influences, including many psychosocial factors, will impact on immediate health behaviors, and intervention programs need to embrace factors such as access, perceived control, and social support as well as educational initiatives to help women achieve healthy lifestyles.

This chapter proposes studying coastal and marine social-ecological environments at different scales on different levels. This is exemplified by a case study from Indonesia. The Indonesian case shows paradigmatically how perceived or felt global climate and environmental changes produce economic, social, and cultural dimensions of change. Scales are the space, time, or governance-related dimensions. Levels are located at different positions on a scale and include the global level as well as the local to regional level comparative case studies. Social-ecological sustainability problems are caused by drivers from multiple levels of the Earth's system. A coastal and marine typology is developed on the basis of the case study to understand and compare the ecological, sociocultural, and economic aspects of coastal and marine systems. More case examples need to be added in order to eventually serve as a management or governance tool to facilitate sustainable coastal and ocean management.

Sustainable waste management practices have become challenging due to our consumption behavior and changing socioeconomic conditions. Waste management is a multidimensional problem that requires technology, economics, and sociocultural and political activities to go hand in hand. This chapter attempts to summarize the key influential aspects in waste management practices, including the interaction of the abovementioned factors. Furthermore, the chapter provides some brief data on global waste generation followed by an update on advanced waste management technologies available today. The interaction between the different factors is highlighted. Finally, case studies comparing waste management activities in three different countries is presented.

In this paper we investigate the sociocultural dimensions of lexical borrowing by focusing on the diachronic use of a socially charged English loanword—le coming out—in Tetu, a popular gay lifestyle magazine that was published in French from 1995 to 2015. We created a comprehensive corpus of tokens of the borrowing from twenty-one issues (one per year) of the magazine. Our discourse analysis of these tokens shows not only a change in the loanword's form (le come-out eventually transforms into le coming out); it also illustrates a striking change in the contexts of its use. Whereas the term initially references the coming out of notable Anglo-American public figures, over time it is used increasingly to refer to French public figures and then to “ordinary” French people meant to reflect the magazine's readers. We argue that the magazine does not just feature this (and other) anglicisms in editorial content, but that it also models how such terms should be used by the community of readers that it addresses. Ultimately, our study reveals how a mass-mediated artifact such as Tetu works to establish and solidify the link between semiotic forms such as lexical borrowings and the social types of which (imagined) communities are comprised.

Special educational eligibility evaluations are focused on identifying students who have a disability that adversely impacts their access to general education. Sociocultural factors (such as race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, parent education) confer disproportionality in access to special education and within specific eligibility categories. Although these challenges likely impact students across all eligibility categories specified by federal law, this review focuses on two eligibility classifications that are differentially impacted by sociocultural influences: Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Serious Emotional Disability (SED). Understanding these influences may help guide efforts to remediate disparities in special education service provision.

Racial/ethnic disparities in socioeconomic status (SES) persist in the United States. These disparities perpetuate the intergenerational transmission of inequality. Although families of color vary significantly in socioeconomic standing and evidence suggests the links between SES and child development may differ by race/ethnicity, we know relatively little about how race and SES interact to shape children's social contexts and developmental outcomes. This chapter draws theoretical insights from sociocultural perspectives on development and intersectionality theory to understand how and why family life and child development may play out in complex ways at the nexus of race and SES.

Karma is believed to be a source of supernatural justice through which actions lead to morally congruent outcomes, within and across lifetimes. It is a central tenet of many world religions and appears in the social evaluations expressed by religious and non-religious individuals across diverse cultural contexts. Despite its prevalence, research directly investigating belief in karma is currently underrepresented in psychological studies of religion, morality, and justice. In this chapter, we situate karma within existing theories of religious cognition and justice beliefs, while highlighting how it is related to, but distinct from, belief in moralizing gods, beliefs about justice that lack religious or supernatural connotations, and magical thinking. We first describe two prominent explanations for the cross-cultural prevalence of supernatural justice beliefs: These beliefs arise as the by-products of other, more general cognitive mechanisms, and these beliefs are supported by core motivations for sense-making, meaning maintenance, and psychological control. We then consider how questions left unresolved by these cognitive and motivational perspectives, regarding the cross-cultural variability in explicit supernatural justice beliefs, can be explained through a cultural evolutionary perspective on religious cognition. Finally, we describe how these supernatural justice beliefs affect causal judgments and elicit norm-adherence and prosociality among believers.

This chapter presents a universal neuropsychological model of spiritual transcendence. Our model suggests that the right hemisphere/parietal lobe processes a “sense of self.” When this sense of self is inhibited (through injury, technological intervention, or behavioral practices), individuals can experience a decreased sense of self and an increased sense of universal connectedness, which can lead to spiritual transcendence. To support this model, we provide evidence that the emotional experience of universal connectedness associated with spiritual transcendence is related to certain neurochemicals (i.e., oxytocin and dopamine). We finish with thoughts on how sociocultural and religious factors can influence the self-related processing of spiritually transcendent experiences.

Memory is socially constructed. The types of information that children pay attention to and remember, as well as how children organize and recall their memories can differ as a function of sociocultural background. This chapter presents an overview of cultural variations on children's memory and cognition. We draw attention to the necessity of conducting controlled experiments to examine cultural differences in the specific processes involved in episodic memory (e.g., encoding, retention, discrimination skills). We highlight potential challenges (e.g., language, measurement equivalence) that researchers need to overcome to conduct valid cross-cultural research. In light of cultural transformations in recent decades, we outline promising avenues for future research as well as the applications of this research to important issues for forensics and immigrants and asylum-seekers.

The chapter gives an overview of economic, sociocultural and aesthetic background of transmedia. Based on the analysis of scholarly literature as well as on concrete examples, it aims to produce a workable definition of transmedia from the point of view of bibliographic information organisation. It also seeks to identify key concepts and relationships pertaining to transmedia practices, thereby providing a domain analysis that will constitute the basis for bibliographic modelling. A special attention is paid to relationships between transmedia and immersive practices and technologies such as live action role-playing, alternative reality games, augmented reality or virtual reality. The chapter also explores relationships between transmedia and overlapping concepts such as entertainment franchising, total work of art, multimedia, intermediality or intertextuality. It argues that transmedia represents a specific form of transfictionality, i.e. interconnectedness of distinct works at the conceptual level via narrative sequences, characters, settings and other elements that make up a fictional world.

In this chapter we outline ethical issues raised by the application of public health approaches to the field of mental health. We first set out some of the basics of public health ethics that are particularly relevant to mental health, with special attention to the ongoing debate over the traditional presumption of non-infringement, increased recognition of the social determinants of health, and the concept of prevention. Then we turn to the moral particularities of mental health, focussing on questions concerning coercion and treatment pressure, personal identity and sociocultural factors (including stigma), and unresolved conceptual and methodological issues in psychiatry that complicate its extension into the domain of public health.

Indigenous communities of Baja California like the Pa Ipai and Koal base their traditions on oral processes, including chants and narratives. Some of these indigenous communities are reaching the brink of extinction. Our research focuses on the semiotic dimensions related to the transformation of cultural landscapes. Of particular interest is the elucidation of meaning and representations associated with astronomical knowledge and worldviews. An important goal is to identify the names of mountains, canyons, and rivers, along with the sacred stories linked to local geo-forms. With these goals in mind an international team of researchers with community participation put together a pilot project for the development of a Cybercartographic Atlas of the Pa Ipai people. Through the Nunaliit Framework, we intend to explore and communicate the traditional knowledge and meanings embedded in the linguistic and sociocultural landscapes in northern Baja California.

The different levels of media access in otherwise very similar villages in rural Nicaragua provided a natural laboratory to explore the effect of television (TV) access on men's preferences for female body size and shape. In study 1 we compared the female body ideals of men from three discrete villages who experienced different levels of TV but otherwise inhabited a similar ecological and sociocultural environment. 3D modelling software enabled participants to create their ideal female body with more precision than simply choosing a figure from a limited range of 2D images. In study 2 we further explored local men's perceptions of female physical attractiveness and attitudes towards television using focus group discussions. Results from study 1 showed that men in the high TV villages preferred significantly slimmer bodies compared to those in the low TV village. Regression analyses showed TV access to be a significant predictor of ideal body size and upper body shape, but not of ideal lower body shape. The central theme to emerge from study 2 was the importance of the relationship between lower body shape, movement and sex, in the men's judgments of female attractiveness: the curvaceous body was perceived by the men to be a reliable cue to potential sexual promise, rather than valued simply for its visual aesthetic. Overall, findings suggest that TV access is linked to rural Nicaraguan men's perceptions of ideal female body weight and breast size, but preferences for a curvaceous lower body shape may be driven primarily by judgments of female sexual promise.

Background Community interventions are often created by researchers, non-profit organisations, or other community outsiders and launched in communities with minimal input from the community members themselves. In addition, these are often blanket interventions, or generic programming offered across varied communities that do not take into account the unique needs of each community. The PREventing Maternal And Neonatal Death (PREMAND) project in rural northern Ghana hypothesised that the root causes of maternal and neonatal deaths and near-misses would vary based on each community's unique geographic, social, and cultural factors, and that interventions to address these issues should be driven by the community members and tailored to their specific needs. Methods PREMAND is a three-phase project beginning with sociocultural audits of near-misses and verbal and social autopsies of deaths of mothers and babies in four districts in Ghana. Semi-structured qualitative interviews about each event are also conducted and transcribed. Data are then mapped to demonstrate where clusters of events are located and to determine which five communities are experiencing the highest numbers of deaths and near-deaths. Lastly, data and maps generated by PREMAND are presented to community leaders and elders through large community meetings. Communities are provided with small seed grants (US$2000) to generate their own solutions based on the data presented and their own experiences as experts on their own communities. Findings The community intervention stage is still underway, but preliminary results indicate that all five identified communities have planned unique interventions, and two of the communities have completed their interventions. One community plumbed water to a local health facility where deliveries occur, and another purchased and retrofitted a motor ambulance for emergency transport. All of the communities have committed to putting forth their own funds so that they can undertake bigger projects than seed money will allow. Interpretation Preliminary results from the community intervention phase demonstrate that, when provided with basic information about the problem and a small amount of resources to develop their own solutions, community members are motivated to enact change, develop unique solutions specific to their own needs, and even contribute their own time and funds to improve their communities. Funding USAID Ghana.

All creative activity brings about change, since it results in the production of something that did not previously exist. The act of creation is itself influenced by changes that have been previously brought about by others, including previous acts of creation. As with any human behavior, creativity has both biological and cultural aspects and is therefore influenced by biological as well as cultural evolution. However, biological evolution operates slowly and over a much longer timescale than cultural evolution, and change occurring within a human lifetime must be driven by cultural and social, rather than biological processes. In order to examine changes at this timescale, we therefore assume a fixed biological substrate and examine how creativity occurs in a social and cultural context. We argue that a fuller understanding of artistic creativity arises from setting this phenomenon in a wider context that encompasses creativity in both the arts and the sciences. We analyze creativity using the BVSR model developed by Simonton and conclude that creativity is driven by similar mechanisms in both domains. We propose that the arts and the sciences are not qualitatively different intellectual domains but should be conceptualized as activities situated at different regions of a continuum of human endeavor. This suggests that it would be fruitful for both scientists and artists to devote more attention to learning from the achievements of those who generate creative ideas at different points on this continuum.

This chapter explains how I came to write the book. I recount personal experiences that stimulated my interest in social ecology over the course of my career and describe the major purpose of the book: to offer a new conception of social ecology that builds on and extends earlier analyses of social and human ecology. Social ecology is presented as an analytic framework organized around certain core principles (i.e., multidimensional structure of environments ; systems thinking ; multiscale contextual analysis of people–environment relationships ; transdisciplinary and translational research ) that can be used to understand and manage health, social, and environmental problems. Whereas previous conceptions of social ecology examine the joint influence of natural , built , and sociocultural environments on behavior and well-being, I introduce a fourth environmental realm, the cybersphere , which is intertwined with our natural, built, and sociocultural surroundings. I also describe how the book is organized: Chapters 1–3 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 address historical, conceptual, and methodological foundations of social ecology as a multidisciplinary field. Chapter 4 examines the rise of the Internet and its pervasive influence on human–environment interactions and global sustainability. Chapters 5–8 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 apply core principles of social ecology to the analysis of contemporary health, social, and environmental problems. Chapter 9 considers strategies for educating the next generation of social ecologists. Chapter 10 recaps major themes covered in the book and explores emerging directions of social ecological research and community practice.

This chapter traces the emergence of bioecology during the 1800s to the subsequent development of an ecological perspective in several realms of behavioral, social, environmental, and public health research. Diverse “schools” of ecological thought are described and compared, including The Chicago School and Sociocultural School of human ecology ; ecological psychology ; the ecology of human development ; social ecological analyses of public health ; and more recent applications of social ecological theorizing to the study of society–nature relationships and global sustainability . These diverse strands of ecological research offer the foundations for establishing a more integrative transdisciplinary approach to social ecology as outlined in later chapters.

In this chapter, theories of institutions can be classified into two broad approaches: institutions-as-rules and institutions-as-equilibria. According to the first approach, institutions are conceived as rules that guide the actions of individuals engaged in social interactions. On the other hand, the second approach views institutions as behavioral patterns. In order to have a complete picture of institutions, we need to take both approaches into consideration. The main purpose is to develop a general framework within which it is possible to analyze the coevolution of individuals’ mental models and institutions. In Hayek’s theory of cultural evolution, societies have developed through a process in which individuals choose the rules that form the social order. New rules undergo some kind of decentralized selection process, as a consequence of which some spread through the population.