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Community Information Expositions; Issue-Oriented Displays and Popular Understanding of Social Problems.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
During its 1972 annual meeting in Washington, D.C., the American Association for the Advancement of Science sponsored a community information exposition, titled Capital City Readout, on the role of science and technology in local social problems. The exposition sought to explore various ways to exchange information about problems and policy issues…
Vonier, Thomas V.; Scribner, Richard A.
Dispositions, scripts, or motivated correction? Understanding ideological differences in explanations for social problems.
Research has consistently found that liberals and conservatives generate different attributions for the causes of social problems and respond differently to people who have internal-controllable causes for needing help. Five studies using a variety of methods (the "college bowl" paradigm, the attitude-attribution paradigm, 2 surveys with nationally representative samples, and an experiment that assessed attributional judgments under varying levels of cognitive load) explored whether these differences could be explained by (a) underlying dispositional differences in the tendency to see the causes of behavior as personally or situationally located, (b) ideological scripts, or (c) differences in the motivation to correct personal attributions. Results were most consistent with the motivated correction explanation. The findings shed further light on the cognitive strategies and motivational priorities of liberals and conservatives. PMID:12150241
Skitka, Linda J; Mullen, Elizabeth; Griffin, Thomas; Hutchinson, Susan; Chamberlin, Brian
Understanding social motor coordination.
Recently there has been much interest in social coordination of motor movements, or as it is referred to by some researchers, joint action. This paper reviews the cognitive perspective's common coding/mirror neuron theory of joint action, describes some of its limitations and then presents the behavioral dynamics perspective as an alternative way of understanding social motor coordination. In particular, behavioral dynamics' ability to explain the temporal coordination of interacting individuals is detailed. Two experiments are then described that demonstrate how dynamical processes of synchronization are apparent in the coordination underlying everyday joint actions such as martial art exercises, hand-clapping games, and conversations. The import of this evidence is that emergent dynamic patterns such as synchronization are the behavioral order that any neural substrate supporting joint action (e.g., mirror systems) would have to sustain. PMID:20817320
Schmidt, R C; Fitzpatrick, Paula; Caron, Robert; Mergeche, Joanna
Social problems in oncology
PubMed Central
A study was undertaken to describe, evaluate and categorise the social problems experienced by cancer patients. Ninety-six adult cancer patients at all stages of disease participated in either a telephone focus group discussion, a face to face focus group or an individual interview which were tape recorded and transcribed. Six experts analysed the transcripts. A total of 32 social problems were identified categorized under eight headings plus four single items. The categories were: problems with (1) managing in the home, (2) health and welfare services, (3) finances, (4) employment, (5) legal matters, (6) relationships, (7) sexuality and body image and (8) recreation. Problems with relationships and communication were the most frequently reported with financial, employment, body image and domestic problems also being widely endorsed. Female groups, younger patient groups and groups where the aim of treatment was palliative reported more social problems than other groups. Social problems are common and important to cancer patients. The social problems identified in this study will contribute to an item pool generated for developing a Social Problems Inventory that may be included in patient centred assessment as part of routine oncology practice. British Journal of Cancer (2002) 87, 1099–1104. doi:10.1038/sj.bjc.6600642 www.bjcancer.com © 2002 Cancer Research UK
Wright, E P; Kiely, M A; Lynch, P; Cull, A; Selby, P J
Social Problems: Sociology 231
NSDL National Science Digital Library
This online syllabi and course readings offer good examples of the manner in which the Internet can enrich university courses. Dr. Frank Elwell's fall 1997 course on social problems explored the links between technological development, population growth, environmental degradation, social change and disorganization, social inequality, deviance and crime. Both the course outline and syllabus feature links to essays by Elwell, study guides, and previous exams.
Elwell, Frank W.
Understanding the problem
Microsoft Academic Search
Dear KV, I've done a one-day intro class and read a book on Javabut never had to write any serious code in it. As an admin,however, I've been up close and personal with a number of Javaserver projects, which seem to share a number of problems: * Performance--about 10 times slower than C. * Complexity--programs seem very large and obtuse.
George Neville-neil
Understanding Columbia's Reentry Problems
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Soon after the Space Shuttle Columbia accident occurred last year, a group of CFD analysts from NASA centers and private industry was organized to help determine the cause of the accident. This group was under the direction of the Applied Aeroscience and CFD Branch of the Aeroscience and Flight Mechanics Division at the Johnson Space Center. For external flow simulations, noncommercia2 CFD codes that specialize in hypersonic or high Mach number flows were used. These tools were used to determine heating rates, pressures, and temperatures for a large number of vehicle damage scenarios. Lockheed Martin Space Operations was called upon to provide CFD support in the area of internal flows within the shuttle wing cavity, and for these simulations, FLUENT 6.1 was chosen. Two large-scale, simplified models were m to understand the flow patterns once a breach of the internal wing cavity was initiated. The results were primarily used to visualize flow patterns within the wing cavity. The first CFD model included the entire lee wing without the wheel well cavity. The purpose of the first model, which did not include the reinforced carbon-carbon (RCC) cavity along the wing leading edge, was to visualize the flow field within the wing cavity immediately after the leading edge spar breach, This model assumed that the flow coming into the wing cavity was normal to the spar. It included all of the primary vents that allow for flow between the main cavities of the wing. A six-inch diameter hole was modeled in the spar at the approximate location where the spar breach was judged to have occurred, which was between RCC panels 8 and 9. The results of the modeling showed that at this location, the high temperature, high velocity gas stream entering the wing cavity impinged on the outboard wheel well cavity. Instrumentation in the Shuttle wheel well cavity registered abnormal temperatures during reentry, so the FLUENT results helped support the conclusion of the accident investigation team that the spar breach was in the RCC panel 8-9 area, and that the initial spar breach was likely entering the wing cavity normal to the spar. This model also showed that the flow entering the wing cavity tended to swirl within the cavity just outboard of the wheel well, and did not initially penetrate further into the rear cavities of the wing. The second CFD model was a 2-D simulation of the left wing cavity and the RCC cavity. It was used to visualize the flow through the RCC breach, through the wing spar breach, and into the wing cavity directly outboard of the wheel well. The purpose of this model was to verify whether or not it was possible for the flow to come into the wing cavity normal to the leading edge spar. The results from this 2-D model showed that the internal structure behind the RCC panels probably deflected the flow entering the RCC cavity so that it impinged normal to the spar. As in the 3-D model, this deflected flow stream was Found to impinge on the wheel well outer wall. This model again supported the conclusions regarding the location of the spar breach and how the flow behaved inside the wing cavity.
Paul, Thomas
Soon after the Space Shuttle Columbia accident occurred last year, a group of CFD analysts from NASA centers and private industry was organized to help determine the cause of the accident. This group was under the direction of the Applied Aeroscience and CFD Branch of the Aeroscience and Flight Mechanics Division at the Johnson Space Center. For external flow simulations, noncommercial CFD codes that specialize in hypersonic or high Mach number flows were used. These tools were used to determine heating rates, pressures, and temperatures for a large number of vehicle damage scenarios. Lockheed Martin Space Operations was called upon to provide CFD support in the area of internal flows within the shuttle wing cavity, and or these simulations, FLUENT 6.1 was chosen. Two large-scale, simplified models were run to understand the flow patterns once a breach of the internal wing cavity was initiated. The results were primarily used to visualize flow patterns within the wing cavity. The first CFD model included the entire left wing without the wheel. well cavity. The purpose of the first model, which did not include the reinforced carbon-carbon (RCC) cavity along the wing leading edge, was to visualize the flow field within the wing cavity immediately after the leading edge spar breach, This model assumed that the flow coming into the wing cavity was nom1 to the spar. It included all o f the primary vents that allow for flow between the main cavities of the wing. A six-inch diameter hole was modeled in the spar at the approximate location where the spar breach was judged to have occurred, which was between RCC panels 8 and 9. The results of the modeling showed that at this location, the high temperature, high velocity gas stream entering the wing cavity impinged on the outboard wheel well cavity. Instrumentation in the Shuttle wheel well cavity registered abnormal temperatures during reentry, so the FLUENT results helped support the conclusion of the accident investigation team that the spar breach was in the RCC panel 8-9 area, and that the initial spar breach was likely entering the wing cavity normal to the spar. This model also showed that the flow entering the wing cavity tended to swirl within the cavity just outboard of the wheel well, and did not initially penetrate further into the rear cavities of the wing. The second CFD model was a 2-D simulation of the left wing cavity and the RCC cavity. It was used to visualize the flow through the RCC breach, through the wing spar breach, and into the wing cavity directly outboard of the wheel well. The purpose of this model was to verify whether or not it was possible for the flow to come into the wing cavity normal to the leading edge spar. The results from this 2-D model showed that the internal structure behind the RCC panels probably deflected the flow entering the RCC cavity so that it impinged normal to the spar. As in the 3-D model, this deflected flow stream was found to impinge on the wheel well outer wall. This model again supported the conclusions regarding the location of the spar breach and how the flow behaved inside the wing cavity.
Paul, Thomas H.
Understanding and Treating Social Phobia
Social phobia, a relatively obscure disorder, is receiving increased attention due to evidence suggesting that it is more prevalent and debilitative than once thought. The purpose of this article is to help counselors better understand the nature of and treatments for this disorder. Effective behavioral and pharmacological approaches are reviewed,…
Curtis, Russell C.; Kimball, Amy; Stroup, Erin L.
Increasing Public Understanding of Social Security.
National Technical Information Service (NTIS)
Contents: The Role of the Advisory Board; Findings: SSA's Obligation to Communicate with the Public; Public Understanding of Social Security: What the Public Thinks; Recommendations: What SSA Should Do To Increase Public Understanding of Social Security; ...
Understanding Social and Legal Justice Issues for Aboriginal Women within the Context of an Indigenous Australian Studies Classroom: A Problem-Based Learning Approach
Problem-based learning (PBL) is a pedagogical approach in which students encounter a problem and systematically set about finding ways to understand the problem through dialogue and research. PBL is an active process where students take responsibility for their learning by asking their own questions about the problem and in this paper we explore…
Mackinlay, Elizabeth; Thatcher, Kristy; Seldon, Camille
Depression and Social Problem Solving
Twenty depressed patients with major depressive disorder, 20 nondepressed matched control subjects, and 17 patients with anxiety disorders were compared in different measures of social problem solving. Problem solving was assessed with the Means–Ends Problem-Solving Test (Study 1), the solution of personal problems, and a problem-solving questionnaire (Study 2). Results showed that, as predicted, depressed subjects suffered from a deficit
Elisabeth M. Marx; J. Mark G. Williams; Gordon C. Claridge
Children's Understanding of Social Anxiety
Second-, fourth-, and seventh-grade children evaluated story characters who were either highly or less motivated to impress an audience and had either high or low expectations of being able to accomplish their self-presentational goals. As predicted according to a self-presentation model of social anxiety, both factors were related to judgments of the character's social anxiety, especially for the older children.
Bruce W. Darby; Barry R. Schlenker
Structural Understanding in Problem Solving.
A common instructional objective in domains of math and science is the capability to use formulas and arithmetic procedures to solve problems. Although students are explicitly taught the relevant formulas and principals, are shown worked-out examples, and...
M. Riley
Problem Solving and Conceptual Understanding
This paper, presented at the 2001 Physics Education Research Conference, presents a framework for thinking about knowledge and its organization that can account for known expert-novice differences in knowledge storage and problem solving behavior. The author argues that interpreting any relationship between the ability to answer qualitative and quantitative questions requires a model of cognition, and that PER should seek to develop assessments that monitor component aspects of developing expertise.
Gerace, William J.
Understanding social support burden among family caregivers.
Despite the abundance of research on social support, both as a variable in larger studies and as a central focus of examination, there is little consensus about the relationship between social support and health outcomes. Current social support measures typically account only for frequency and size of network, and a paucity of research exists that has explained social support burden, defined as the burden associated with accessing and receiving support from others. We analyzed audio-recorded discussions by hospice family caregivers about their caregiving problems and potential solutions to examine social relationships within networks and identify the processes that influence social support seeking and receiving. Using qualitative thematic analysis, we found that caregivers providing hospice care experience social support burden resulting from perceived relational barriers between friends and family, the inclination to remain in control, recognition of the loss of the patient as a source of social support and guidance in decision making, family dynamics, and decreased availability of emotional support. Social support researchers should consider how the quality of communication and relationships within social networks impacts the provision and subsequent outcomes of social support in varying contexts. Findings from this study suggest that hospice social support resources should be tailored to the caregiver's support needs and include assessment on the type of support to be offered. PMID:24345081
Wittenberg-Lyles, Elaine; Washington, Karla; Demiris, George; Oliver, Debra Parker; Shaunfield, Sara
Understanding Word Problems. Math in Action. Workbook.
This workbook was designed as an easy-to-read, slower-paced text for students who have learning, reading, and language problems. As one of five workbooks to aid low achievers in problem solving, it focuses on understanding what is known and unknown in mathematical problems and how to decide which operations to use to solve problems. Word usage and…
Friedland, Mary; Roderman, Winifred Ho
The Facilitation of Social-Emotional Understanding and Social Interaction in High-Functioning Children with Autism: Intervention Outcomes
This study evaluated the effectiveness of a 7-month cognitive behavioral intervention for the facilitation of the social-emotional understanding and social interaction of 15 high-functioning children (8 to 17 years old) with autism. Intervention focused on teaching interpersonal problem solving, affective knowledge, and social interaction. Preintervention and postintervention measures included observations of social interaction, measures of problem solving and of emotion
Nirit Bauminger
Understanding mobility in a social petri dish
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Despite the recent availability of large data sets on human movements, a full understanding of the rules governing motion within social systems is still missing, due to incomplete information on the socio-economic factors and to often limited spatio-temporal resolutions. Here we study an entire society of individuals, the players of an online-game, with complete information on their movements in a network-shaped universe and on their social and economic interactions. Such a ``socio-economic laboratory'' allows to unveil the intricate interplay of spatial constraints, social and economic factors, and patterns of mobility. We find that the motion of individuals is not only constrained by physical distances, but also strongly shaped by the presence of socio-economic areas. These regions can be recovered perfectly by community detection methods solely based on the measured human dynamics. Moreover, we uncover that long-term memory in the time-order of visited locations is the essential ingredient for modeling the trajectories.
Szell, Michael; Sinatra, Roberta; Petri, Giovanni; Thurner, Stefan; Latora, Vito
Understanding mobility in a social petri dish.
Despite the recent availability of large data sets on human movements, a full understanding of the rules governing motion within social systems is still missing, due to incomplete information on the socio-economic factors and to often limited spatio-temporal resolutions. Here we study an entire society of individuals, the players of an online-game, with complete information on their movements in a network-shaped universe and on their social and economic interactions. Such a "socio-economic laboratory" allows to unveil the intricate interplay of spatial constraints, social and economic factors, and patterns of mobility. We find that the motion of individuals is not only constrained by physical distances, but also strongly shaped by the presence of socio-economic areas. These regions can be recovered perfectly by community detection methods solely based on the measured human dynamics. Moreover, we uncover that long-term memory in the time-order of visited locations is the essential ingredient for modeling the trajectories. PMID:22708055
[Obesity, personal and social problem].
Obesity is risk-factor for the most common nowdays diseases, as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, hypertension, some carcinomas, degenerative diseases of weight bearing joints (spine, hips, knees), and present a huge medical and social problem, as well. It causes not only somatic but mental problems as well, especially in females and younger persons. Some of them undergo risky weight reducing methods, surgical procedures, etc, to reduce their body weight and to release mentally stressing body deformities. Aim of the work is to quantify negative impaction of obesity on functionality of the knee, the key joint in everyday body activities (rising, standing, walking, and climbing). Study has analyzed 22 randomly chosen patients (5 male, 17 female) with strong degenerative alteration of the knee (osteoarthritis), who were treated on the Department for orthopedic and traumatology, Clinical center Sarajevo during 2005 and 2006. Average age was 63.6 +/- 10.6 (54-76) years, with Body Mass Index (level of obesity) 31.1 +/- 3.5 (27-38) points, and average duration of symptoms 9.1 +/- 7.4 (1-25) years. The knee functionality was assessed by Knee Society Knee Score (KSKS). Completely healthy knee has 200 points--50 points for pain free knee, 25 points for stabile knee, and forfull extension-flexion arch, both, 50 points for normal walking and stairs climbing, both. Average value of KSKS was 118.1 +/- 35.0 points. As it was expected, there were strong significant correlation between KSKS and age (r = -0.50, p = 0.015). The duration of disability correlated with KSKS (r = -0.5, p = 0.02), and level of pain (r = 0.60, p=0.00). The obesity has significantly increased level of pain in the knee (r = -0.44, p = 0.04), all patients were obese persons. Persons with reduced functional abilities avoid body activity, it causes increasing of obesity, and one makes other worse. Concerning on incidence of described problem and its impaction on society in general, it is necessary to make every effort in prevention and treatment of obesity, as important risk factor and consequence of reduced functional abilities and risk factor of most common nowadays diseases. PMID:18232277
Biscevi?, Azra; Biscevi?, Mirza; Smrke, Dragica; Redzi?, Amira; Ziga, Jusuf
Mentalising and social problem solving in adults with Asperger's syndrome
Introduction It is well established that autistic spectrum disorder is linked to difficulties with mentalising, but the ways in which this affects everyday behaviour is less well understood. This study explored the nature and extent of difficulties in everyday social functioning in adults with Asperger's syndrome (AS), since increased understanding can enhance the development of more effective intervention strategies. Methods Individuals with AS (n = 21) were compared with healthy control participants (n = 21) on three tests of social cognition: the Mentalistic Interpretation task, which assesses interpretation of sarcasm and actions; the Social Problem Fluency task, which assesses ability to generate problem solutions; and the Social Problem Resolution task, which assesses judgement in selecting problem solutions. Results Comprehension of both sarcastic remarks and actions was impaired in those with AS on the mentalistic interpretation task. Participants with AS showed difficulties in identifying the awkward elements of everyday social scenarios, and they were also impaired in generating problem solutions but not in judging alternative solutions on the social problem fluency and resolution tasks. Conclusions These tasks potentially provide a means of profiling strengths and weaknesses in social processing, which in turn has implications for informing clinical evaluation and training.
Channon, Shelley; Crawford, Sarah; Orlowska, Danuta; Parikh, Nimmi; Thoma, Patrizia
Space age management for social problems
Attempts to apply space age management to social problems were plagued with difficulties. Recent experience in the State of Delaware and in New York City, however, indicate new possibilities. Project management as practiced in NASA was applied with promising results in programs dealing with housing and social services. Such applications are feasible, according to recent research, because project management utilizes social and behavioral approaches, as well as advanced management tools, such as PERT, to achieve results.
Levine, A. L.
Understanding the Problem. Problem Solving and Communication Activity Series. The Math Forum: Problems of the Week
Different techniques for understanding a problem can lead to ideas for never-used-before solutions. Good problem-solvers use a problem-solving strategy and may come back to it frequently while they are working on the problem to refine their strategy, see if they can find better solutions, or find other questions. Writing is an integral part of…
Math Forum @ Drexel, 2009
Understanding the Social Navigation User Experience
A social navigation system collects data from its users--its community--about what they are doing, their opinions, and their decisions, aggregates this data, and provides the aggregated data--community data--back to individuals so that they can use it to guide behavior and decisions. Social navigation systems empower users with the ability to…
Goecks, Jeremy
Economic Sociology and the Social Problem of Energy Inefficiency
The rebirth of economic sociology in the last decades of the 20th century was largely about intellectual identity formation and developing theoretical foundations. The authors argue that economic sociology is poised to make a contribution to the understanding and solution of social problems. They use the example of energy inefficiency in the commercial buildings industry to suggest that economic sociology
Nicole Woolsey Biggart; Loren Lutzenhiser
Understanding the Social Effects of Policy Reform.
Contents: The social dimensions of policy reform: Concepts, data, analysis; Analyzing the mesoeconomic effects of structural adjustment; Priority analysis; The poverty profile; Employment and earnings; Migration responses to adjustment; Analyzing human re...
L. Demery M. Ferroni C. Grootaert J. Wong-Valle
Understanding Undergraduates' Problem-Solving Processes †
Fostering effective problem-solving skills is one of the most longstanding and widely agreed upon goals of biology education. Nevertheless, undergraduate biology educators have yet to leverage many major findings about problem-solving processes from the educational and cognitive science research literatures. This article highlights key facets of problem-solving processes and introduces methodologies that may be used to reveal how undergraduate students perceive and represent biological problems. Overall, successful problem-solving entails a keen sensitivity to problem contexts, disciplined internal representation or modeling of the problem, and the principled management and deployment of cognitive resources. Context recognition tasks, problem representation practice, and cognitive resource management receive remarkably little emphasis in the biology curriculum, despite their central roles in problem-solving success.
Nehm, Ross H.
Social Information Processing and Emotional Understanding in Children with LD
The present study aimed to comprehensively examine social cognition processes in children with and without learning disabilities (LD), focusing on social information processing (SIP) and complex emotional understanding capabilities such as understanding complex, mixed, and hidden emotions. Participants were 50 children with LD (age range 9.4-12.7;…
Bauminger, Nirit; Edelsztein, Hany Schorr; Morash, Janice
Problem Behaviors of Homeless Youth: A Social Capital Perspective
Homeless youth are one of the most marginalized groups in our society. Many researchers identify much higher levels of various problem behaviors among these youth compared to their non-homeless peers. The current study examined the utility of social capital in predicting problem behaviors among homeless youth. Overall, the theoretically derived social capital variable significantly predicted substance use frequency, sexual risk behavior, depression, delinquent behavior as well as number of days homeless. Thus, social capital was useful in understanding and predicting the current life situation among these youth and may be worthy of further study. Findings suggest that meaningful change should utilize interventions that go beyond the individual and are geared towards modifying the social context of individuals' lives.
Bantchevska, Denitza; Bartle-Haring, Suzanne; Dashora, Pushpanjali; Glebova, Tatiana; Slesnick, Natasha
Expert Mining for Solving Social Harmony Problems
Social harmony problems are being existed in social system, which is an open giant complex system. For solving such kind of problems the Meta-synthesis system approach proposed by Qian XS et al will be applied. In this approach the data, information, knowledge, model, experience and wisdom should be integrated and synthesized. Data mining, text mining and web mining are good techniques for using data, information and knowledge. Model mining, psychology mining and expert mining are new techniques for mining the idea, opinions, experiences and wisdom. In this paper we will introduce the expert mining, which is based on mining the experiences, knowledge and wisdom directly from experts, managers and leaders.
Gu, Jifa; Song, Wuqi; Zhu, Zhengxiang; Liu, Yijun
Understanding the transmission access and wheeling problem
SciTech Connect
Institutional and regulatory changes in the uses of the nation's bulk power transmission systems that fail to recognize the technical complexity of the systems and the planning and operating problems involved can be disruptive of system reliability and of economic incentive needed for new facilities and technology. This article reviews basic technical and economic considerations connected with the transmission access problem. 2 figures.
Casazza, J.A.
Understanding the Problems of Learning Mathematics.
A model is being developed to categorize problems in teaching and learning mathematics. Categories include problems due to language difficulties, lack of prerequisite knowledge, and those related to the affective domain. This paper calls on individuals to share teaching and learning episodes; those submitted will then be compiled and categorized.…
Semilla-Dube, Lilia
Black Males and Social Problems: Prevention through Afrocentric Socialization.
Discusses the inadequacy of two positions used to explain the high rates of social problems among Blacks: genetic inferiority and the culture of poverty. Offers an alternative perspective based on the effects of racism and patterns of racial oppression. Asserts that Black institutions must foster an Afrocentric world view among Black males. (MW)
Oliver, William
Social Robotics and the person problem
Like computers before them, social robots can be used as a fundamental research tool. Indeed, they can help us to turn our attention from putative inner modules to thinking about the flow and emergence of human intellectual powers. In so doing, much can be gained from seeking solutions to MacDorman's person problem: how can human bodies - and perhaps robot
Stephen J. Cowley
The link prediction problem for social networks
Given a snapshot of a social network, can we infer which new interactions among its members are likely to occur in the near future? We formalize this question as the link prediction problem, and develop approaches to link prediction based on measures the \\
David Liben-Nowell; Jon M. Kleinberg
The Social Fraternity System; Its Increasing Problems
The evidence on social fraternities on two campuses suggests two major problems confronting the system. The first is that of cultural implosiveness or socioeconomic inbreeding. The second involves the heavy emphasis placed upon personality factors in the rushing and pledging processes. (Author)
Prichard, Keith W.; Buxton, Thomas H.
Reading and Understanding Written Math Problems
This article by Brenda Krick-Morales identifies the difficulties that English Language Learners (ELLs) have with math word problems. The author identifies teaching strategies to help improve comprehension in the lower grades and in the upper grades. This article is related to "Math Instruction for English Language Learners" by Kristina Robertson, which is cataloged separately in this database.
Krick-Morales, Brenda
Overcoming Obstacles To Understanding and Solving Word Problems in Mathematics.
Investigates the effects of problem re-wording, language format, students' grade level, and academic achievement on understanding and solving word problems among Filipino-English bilingual students. Reveals that better understanding and solution performance occurred when problems were (1) re-worded, (2) in the students' first language, and (3) for…
Bernardo, Allan B. I.
Division by a Fraction: Assessing Understanding through Problem Writing
This article shares an assessment tool that uses student-written word problems to provide meaningful information regarding the depth of mathematical understanding. Students' word problems representing 6 [division] 1/2 were classified using the scoring categories described in the NAEP. By categorizing the problems, students' levels of understanding…
Barlow, Angela T.; Drake, Jill Mizell
Understanding the Social Relationship Between Humans and Virtual Humans
Our review surveys a range of human-human relationship models and research that might provide insights to understanding the social relationship between humans and virtual humans. This involves investigating several social constructs (expectations, communication, trust, etc.) that are identified as key variables that influence the relationship between people and how these variables should be implemented in the design for an effective
Sung Park; Richard Catrambone
Friendship estimation model for social robots to understand human relationships
This work reports the friendship estimation model we designed for social robots that understand human social relationships. Our interactive robot autonomously interacts with humans with its human-like body properties, and as a result, induces the humans' friendly group behavior upon direct interaction. Based on these features, as well as inspired by a survey in psychology research on friendship, we propose
Takayuki Kanda; Hiroshi Ishiguro
Developmental Patterns in the Understanding of Social and Physical Transitivity.
Two studies examined developmental patterns in understanding physical and social transitivity in 6- to 11-year olds. Findings revealed no significant correlations between social judgments and judgments concerning length. Results suggested that children possess two distinct strategies for making transitive judgments that correspond to the logical…
Markovits, Henry; Dumas, Claude
Understanding Behavioral and Emotional Problems in Girls
Historically, girls have evoked images of sweetness and light, purity and beauty. In this fairytale land of youth, girls are\\u000a angels and princesses, characterized by positive adjustment and certainly not by behavioral or emotional problems. However,\\u000a as Mae West observed, in reality female children and adolescents are much more complex, with both positive and negative aspects\\u000a to their development and
Debora J. Bell; Sharon L. Foster; Eric J. Mash
Further Development in Social Reasoning Revealed in Discourse Irony Understanding
This study describes the development of social reasoning in school-age children. An irony task is used to assess 5-, 7-, and 9-year-olds' (N = 72) and adults' (N = 24) recursive understanding of others' minds. Guttman scale analysis demonstrates that in order to understand a speaker's communicative intention, a child needs to recognize the…
Filippova, Eva; Astington, Janet Wilde
Social problems and health in urbanization.
One of the main characteristics of urbanization in Asia is the very rapid increase in population movement from rural to urban centers. This phenomenon has led to changing population structure, its composition and lifestyles in the cities and its fringes. As a consequent of population pressure on urban system and infrastructure, compounded by the nature of the composition of the in-migrant population, the urban concentrates are faced with several social and socio-economic problems. Although there has been a lot of interests among researchers to study the causes and effects or urbanization, there is a vacuum in the area of health implications. Planners and administrators usually give priority to the physical aspects of the urban and urbanities. Social problems and health implications thereof receives very little attention either at the level of administration or research. This paper therefore is a brave attempt to focus and draw some attention to this neglected area by looking at selected social problems and the health consequences. PMID:1342763
Talib, R; Agus, M R
Statistical learning as a basis for social understanding in children.
Many authors have argued that infants understand goals, intentions, and beliefs. We posit that infants' success on such tasks might instead reveal an understanding of behaviour, that infants' proficient statistical learning abilities might enable such insights, and that maternal talk scaffolds children's learning about the social world as well. We also consider which skills and insights are likely to be innate, and why it is difficult to say exactly when children understand mental states as opposed to behaviours. PMID:22429035
Ruffman, Ted; Taumoepeau, Mele; Perkins, Chris
Social Studies Student Teachers' Levels of Understanding Sociology Concepts within Social Studies Curriculum
This study aims at investigating social studies student teachers' levels of understanding sociology concepts within social studies curriculum. Study group of the research consists of 266 teacher candidates attending the Department of Social Studies, Faculty of Education, Kastamonu University during 2012 to 2013 education year. A semi-structured…
Karatekin, Kadir
Social dominance orientation and opinions about what is America's most serious social problem.
This study tested whether a measure of Social Dominance Orientation was associated with opinions about America's most serious social problem. 150 undergraduates enrolled in social problems classes responded to the 14-item scale and to an open-ended question, "In your opinion, what is the most serious social problem in our country today?". Analysis shows that mean scale scores differed significantly across social problem responses. Correspondence analysis, plotting association between scale scores and social problem responses, was interpreted as support for social dominance theory. Higher scale scores were associated with problems of crime and negative values and lower scores with problems of education and racism. PMID:16279314
Harrod, Wendy J
Assessing Students' Levels of Understanding Multiplication through Problem Writing
When the word problems of forty-five sixth-grade students were examined, multiple levels of understanding and misunderstanding multiplication were exposed. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate the potential of problem writing as a technique for assessing the depths of students' mathematical understandings. Discussions include sample…
Drake, Jill Mizell; Barlow, Angela T.
The Risk of Social Interaction Problems among Adolescents with ADHD.
Highlights social-behavior patterns linked to peer relation problems in preadolescent children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Provides a review of evidence suggesting continuation of social problems into adolescence, including two studies' findings of the increased risk for social interaction problems in adolescents with…
Dumas, Mark Cameron
Understanding the influences of social integration in enterprise systems use
Purpose – The purpose of this article is to aid in the understanding of the influence of social integration (SI) in enterprise information systems (EIS) use. Design\\/methodology\\/approach – An in-depth case study was carried out, where 40 interviews were collected along with eight informal conversations, five observations, and secondary data from a company with ten years of experience in the
Say Yen Teoh; Shan L. Pan
Social Workers' and Counselors' Understanding of Lesbian Needs
An exploratory survey was conducted in 1994 to assess mental health providers' experience with lesbian clients and understanding of lesbians. Probability samples of 250 licensed clinical social workers and 250 licensed professional counselors were randomly generated from Virginia licensure lists. A total of 183 out of 224 respondents were active practitioners and were included in the analysis. Ninety-seven percent of
Caitlin C. Ryan; Judith B. Bradford; Julie A. Honnold
Social Problem Solving, Conduct Problems, and Callous-Unemotional Traits in Children
This study examined the association between social problem solving, conduct problems (CP), and callous-unemotional (CU) traits in elementary age children. Participants were 53 children (40 boys and 13 girls) aged 7-12 years. Social problem solving was evaluated using the Social Problem Solving Test-Revised, which requires children to produce…
Waschbusch, Daniel A.; Walsh, Trudi M.; Andrade, Brendan F.; King, Sara; Carrey, Normand J.
Links between Empathy, Social Behavior, and Social Understanding in Early Childhood
The purpose of the current investigation was to examine both social behaviors (i.e., aggression, shyness-withdrawal, and prosocial tendencies) and social understanding (i.e., attitudes and responses to such behaviors in hypothetical peers) of empathic and low empathic children. Participants were 136 children in kindergarten and grade one. Parents…
Findlay, Leanne C.; Girardi, Alberta; Coplan, Robert J.
Embeddedness and empathy: how the social network shapes adolescents' social understanding.
Based on theories of social-cognitive development, the present study investigated the yet unknown social structure that underlies the concept of empathy in adolescence. A total of 3.159 seventh graders (13.67 years, 56% girls) from 166 school classes participated by providing information on empathy, related psychosocial factors, and friendship patterns. Social network analyses were used to measure a comprehensive representation of adolescents' social environment by covering individual, group, class, and school characteristics. Multilevel models revealed that individual characteristics as well as contextual factors predict adolescents' level of empathy. Findings indicate that empathy is mirrored in the social structure of adolescents supporting the hypothesis that social demands, which continuously grow with the amount of embeddedness, shape their social understanding. PMID:22681757
Wölfer, Ralf; Cortina, Kai S; Baumert, Jürgen
Toward understanding how early-life social experiences alter oxytocin- and vasopressin-regulated social behaviors.
The early-life social environment has profound effects on brain development and subsequent expression of social behavior. Oxytocin and vasopressin are expressed and released in the brain and are important regulators of social behavior. Accordingly, the early social environment may alter social behaviors via changes in the oxytocin and/or vasopressin systems. To test this hypothesis, and to gain mechanistic insights, rodent models mimicking either a deprived (e.g. maternal separation) or enriched (e.g. neonatal handling) early social environment have been utilized. Findings indeed show that differences in the quality of the early social environment are associated with brain region-specific alterations in oxytocin and vasopressin expression and oxytocin receptor and vasopressin 1a receptor binding. Early social environment-induced changes in oxytocin and vasopressin systems were associated with changes in several forms of social behavior, including maternal care, aggression, play-fighting, and social recognition. First studies provide evidence for a causal link between altered vasopressin responsiveness and impairments in social recognition in rats exposed to maternal separation and a role for epigenetic mechanisms to explain persistent increases in vasopressin expression in mice exposed to maternal separation. Overall, initial findings suggest that oxytocin and vasopressin systems may mediate early social environment-induced alterations in social behavior. Additional comprehensive studies will be necessary to advance our understanding to what extent changes in oxytocin and vasopressin underlie early social environment-induced alterations in social behavior. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled Oxytocin, Vasopressin, and Social Behavior. PMID:22197269
Veenema, Alexa H
Characteristics of Problem Representation Indicative of Understanding in Mathematics Problem Solving.
This study investigated the problem representations formed by college students while solving mathematics problems. Problem representation characteristics indicative of understanding were identified by analyzing audio-tapes and written work of sixteen subjects, ages 16 to 24, who solved mathematics problems using the think-aloud technique. These…
Yackel, Erna; Wheatley, Grayson H.
MDPOP: faithful distributed implementation of efficient social choice problems
In the efficient social choice problem, the goal is to assign values, subject to side constraints, to a set of variables to maximize the total utility across a population of agents, where each agent has private information about its utility function. In this paper we model the social choice problem as a distributed constraint optimization problem (DCOP), in which each
Adrian Petcu; Boi Faltings; David C. Parkes
Rethinking conformity and imitation: divergence, convergence, and social understanding
Social and developmental psychologists have stressed the pervasiveness and strength of humans' tendencies to conform and to imitate, and social anthropologists have argued that these tendencies are crucial to the formation of cultures. Research from four domains is reviewed and elaborated to show that divergence is also pervasive and potent, and it is interwoven with convergence in a complex set of dynamics that is often unnoticed or minimized. First, classic research in social conformity is reinterpreted in terms of truth, trust, and social solidarity, revealing that dissent is its most salient feature. Second, recent studies of children's use of testimony to guide action reveal a surprisingly sophisticated balance of trust and prudence, and a concern for truth and charity. Third, new experiments indicate that people diverge from others even under conditions where conformity seems assured. Fourth, current studies of imitation provide strong evidence that children are both selective and faithful in who, what, and why they follow others. All of the evidence reviewed points toward children and adults as being engaged, embodied partners with others, motivated to learn and understand the world, others, and themselves in ways that go beyond goals and rules, prediction and control. Even young children act as if they are in a dialogical relationship with others and the world, rather than acting as if they are solo explorers or blind followers. Overall, the evidence supports the hypothesis that social understanding cannot be reduced to convergence or divergence, but includes ongoing activities that seek greater comprehensiveness and complexity in the ability to act and interact effectively, appropriately, and with integrity.
Hodges, Bert H.
Social Problem Solving Ability Predicts Mental Health Among Undergraduate Students
Background: The main objective of this study was predicting student's mental health using social problem solving- ability. Methods: In this correlational. descriptive study, 369 (208 female and 161 male) from, Mazandaran University of Medical Science were selected through stratified random sampling method. In order to collect the data, the social problem solving inventory-revised and general health questionnaire were used. Data were analyzed through SPSS-19, Pearson's correlation, t test, and stepwise regression analysis. Results: Data analysis showed significant relationship between social problem solving ability and mental health (P < 0.01). Social problem solving ability was significantly associated with the somatic symptoms, anxiety and insomnia, social dysfunction and severe depression (P < 0.01). Conclusions: The results of our study demonstrated that there is a significant correlation between social problem solving ability and mental health.
Ranjbar, Mansour; Bayani, Ali Asghar; Bayani, Ali
Links between empathy, social behavior, and social understanding in early childhood
The purpose of the current investigation was to examine both social behaviors (i.e., aggression, shyness-withdrawal, and prosocial tendencies) and social understanding (i.e., attitudes and responses to such behaviors in hypothetical peers) of empathic and low-empathic children. Participants were 136 children in kindergarten and grade one. Parents completed ratings of child empathy, shyness, aggression, and prosocial tendencies. Children were presented with
Leanne C. Findlay; Alberta Girardi; Robert J. Coplan
Neural Foundations For Understanding Social And Mechanical Concepts
Motivated by neuropsychological investigations of category-specific impairments, many functional brain imaging studies have found distinct patterns of neural activity associated with different object categories. However, the extent to which these category-related activation patterns reflect differences in conceptual representation remains controversial. To investigate this issue, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to record changes in neural activity while subjects interpreted animated vignettes composed of simple geometric shapes in motion. Vignettes interpreted as conveying social interactions elicited a distinct and distributed pattern of neural activity, relative to vignettes interpreted as mechanical actions. This neural system included regions in posterior temporal cortex associated with identifying human faces and other biological objects. In contrast, vignettes interpreted as conveying mechanical actions resulted in activity in posterior temporal lobe sites associated with identifying manipulable objects such as tools. Moreover, social, but not mechanical, interpretations elicited activity in regions implicated in the perception and modulation of emotion (right amygdala and ventromedial prefrontal cortex). Perceiving and understanding social and mechanical concepts depends, in part, on activity in distinct neural networks. Within the social domain, the network includes regions involved in processing and storing information about the form and motion of biological objects, and in perceiving, expressing, and regulating affective responses.
Martin, Alex; Weisberg, Jill
Analysis of Online Social Networks to Understand Information Sharing Behaviors Through Social Cognitive Theory
Analyzing the contents of online social networks is an effective process for monitoring and understanding peoples behaviors. Since the nature of conversation and information propagation is similar to traditional conversation and learning, one of the popular socio-cognitive methods, social cognitive theory was applied to online social networks to. Two major news topics about colon cancer were chosen to monitor traffic of Twitter messages. The activity of leaders on the issue (i.e., news companies or people will prior Twitter activity on topics related to colon cancer) was monitored. In addition, the activity of followers , people who never discussed the topics before, but replied to the discussions was also monitored. Topics that produce tangible benefits such as positive outcomes from appropriate preventive actions received dramatically more attention and online social media traffic. Such characteristics can be explained with social cognitive theory and thus present opportunities for effective health campaigns.
Ramanathan, Arvind [ORNL] [ORNL; Yoon, Hong-Jun [ORNL] [ORNL; Tourassi, Georgia [ORNL] [ORNL
Social Emotional Optimization Algorithm for Nonlinear Constrained Optimization Problems
Nonlinear programming problem is one important branch in operational research, and has been successfully applied to various real-life problems. In this paper, a new approach called Social emotional optimization algorithm (SEOA) is used to solve this problem which is a new swarm intelligent technique by simulating the human behavior guided by emotion. Simulation results show that the social emotional optimization algorithm proposed in this paper is effective and efficiency for the nonlinear constrained programming problems.
Xu, Yuechun; Cui, Zhihua; Zeng, Jianchao
Social Problem Solving and Aggression: The Role of Depression
The purpose of the present study was to examine direct and indirect relations among social problem-solving, depression, and aggression, as well as the mediating role of depression in the link between social problem-solving and aggression among Turkish youth. Data for the present study were collected from 413 adolescents. The participants' age…
Ozdemir, Yalcin; Kuzucu, Yasar; Koruklu, Nermin
Social Work and Religious Diversity: Problems and Possibilities
After exploring reasons why social workers need to engage in a kind of dialogue with their clients' religious beliefs and values, this article offers "virtues" that are required for such a dialogue. It then takes up problems that religious convictions can create both for the client and for the social worker. To deal with the problems, the article concludes with
Paul F. Knitter
Do Social Relationships Protect Victimized Children against Internalizing Problems?
We investigated whether social relationships protect children against the effects of victimization on internalizing problems. We used data from the Zurich Project on the Social Development of Children and Youths. Victimization at age 8 years was associated with internalizing problems at age 9 years. Victims who had siblings, warm parents, and a…
Averdijk, Margit; Eisner, Manuel; Ribeaud, Denis
Problem Solving and Community Activity Series: Understanding the Problem with Wooden Legs
This document for teachers provides four activities to develop students' ability to understand and interpret problems. These strategies help students deepen their focus and improve their problem-solving skills. The document includes both Problem Solving goals and Communication goals, as well as sample activities and specific examples related to the Wooden Legs Problem of the Week from the Math Forum. A copy of the complete problem, the scenario (with the question removed) and student handouts for applying the problem-solving strategies are also provided.
Ray, Max; Weimar, Stephen; Regis, Troy P.
Understanding Coreference in a System for Solving Physics Word Problems.
In this thesis, a computer program (BEATRIX) is presented which takes as input an English statement of a physics problem and a figure associated with it, understands the two kinds of input in combination, and produces a data structure containing a model of the physical objects described and the relationships between them. BEATRIX provides a mouse-based graphic interface with which the user sketches a picture and enters English sentences; meanwhile, BEATRIX creates a neutral internal representation of the picture similar to the which might be produced as the output of a vision system. It then parses the text and the picture representation, resolves the references between objects common to the two data sources, and produces a unified model of the problem world. The correctness and completeness of this model has been validated by applying it as input to a physics problem-solving program currently under development. Two descriptions of a world are said to be coreferent when they contain references to overlapping sets of objects. Resolving coreferences to produce a correct world model is a common task in scientific and industrial problem-solving: because English is typically not a good language for expressing spatial relationships, people in these fields frequently use diagrams to supplement textual descriptions. Elementary physics problems from college-level textbooks provide a useful and convenient domain for exploring the mechanisms of coreference. Because flexible, opportunistic control is necessary in order to recognize coreference and to act upon it, the understanding module of BEATRIX uses a blackboard control structure. The blackboard knowledge sources serve to identify physical objects in the picture, parse the English text, and resolve coreferences between the two. We believed that BEATRIX demonstrates a control structure and collection of knowledge that successfully implements understanding of text and picture by computer. We also believe that this organization can be applied successfully to similar understanding tasks in domains other than physics problem -solving, where data such as the output from vision systems and speech understanders can be used in place of text and pictures.
Bulko, William Charles
Children's Understanding of Approximate Addition Depends on Problem Format
Recent studies suggest that five-year-old children can add and compare large numerical quantities through approximate representations of number. However, the nature of this understanding and its susceptibility to influence from canonical, learned mathematics remain unclear. The present study examined whether children's early competence depends on the canonical problem format (i.e., arithmetic operations presented on the left-hand side of space). Children
M. Claire Keultjes; Nicole M. McNeil
Understanding Individual Problem-Solving Style: A Key to Learning and Applying Creative Problem Solving
More than five decades of research and development have focused on making the Creative Problem Solving process and tools accessible across a wide range of ages and contexts. Recent evidence indicates that when individuals, in both school and corporate settings, understand their own style of problem solving, they are able to learn and apply process…
Treffinger, Donald J.; Selby, Edwin C.; Isaksen, Scott G.
Understanding individual problem-solving style: A key to learning and applying creative problem solving
More than five decades of research and development have focused on making the Creative Problem Solving process and tools accessible across a wide range of ages and contexts. Recent evidence indicates that when individuals, in both school and corporate settings, understand their own style of problem solving, they are able to learn and apply process tools more effectively, and when
Donald J. Treffinger; Edwin C. Selby; Scott G. Isaksen
Teacher Practices with Toddlers during Social Problem Solving Opportunities
This article explores how teachers can foster an environment that facilitates social problem solving when toddlers experience conflict, emotional dysregulation, and aggression. This article examines differences in child development and self-regulation outcomes when teachers engage in problem solving "for" toddlers and problem solving "with"…
Gloeckler, Lissy; Cassell, Jennifer
Understanding and Predicting Human Behavior for Social Communities
Over the last years, with the rapid advance in technology, it is becoming increasingly feasible for people to take advantage of the devices and services in the surrounding environment to remain "connected" and continuously enjoy the activity they are engaged in, be it sports, entertainment, or work. Such a ubiquitous computing environment will allow everyone permanent access to the Internet anytime, anywhere and anyhow [1]. Nevertheless, despite the evolution of services, social aspects remain in the roots of every human behavior and activities. Great examples of such phenomena are online social networks, which engage users in a way never seen before in the online world. At the same time, being aware and communicating context is a key part of human interaction and is a particularly powerful concept when applied to a community of users where services can be made more personalized and useful. Altogether, harvesting context to reason and learn about user behavior will further enhance the future multimedia vision where services can be composed and customized according to user context. Moreover, it will help us to understand users in a better way.
Simoes, Jose; Magedanz, Thomas
Social-Emotional Problems in Preschool-Aged Children
Objectives To estimate the prevalence of positive screens for social-emotional problems among preschool-aged children in a low-income clinical population and to explore the family context and receptivity to referrals to help guide development of interventions. Design Observational, cross-sectional study. Setting Two urban primary care clinics. Participants A total of 254 parents of 3- and 4-year-old children at 2 urban primary care clinics. Main Outcome Measures Score on a standardized screen for social-emotional problems (Ages and Stages Questionnaire: Social-Emotional) and answers to additional survey questions about child care arrangements, parental depressive symptoms, and attitudes toward preschool and behavioral health referrals. Results Twenty-four percent (95% CI, 16.5%-31.5%) of children screened positive for social-emotional problems. Among those screening positive, 45% had a parent with depressive symptoms, and 27% had no nonparental child care. Among parents of children who screened positive for social-emotional problems, 79% reported they would welcome or would not mind a referral to a counselor or psychologist; only 16% reported a prior referral. Conclusions In a clinical sample, 1 in 4 low-income preschool-aged children screened positive for social-emotional problems, and most parents were amenable to referrals to preschool or early childhood mental health. This represents an opportunity for improvement in primary prevention and early intervention for social-emotional problems.
Brown, Courtney M.; Copeland, Kristen A.; Sucharew, Heidi; Kahn, Robert S.
Social Studies and the Problem of Evil.
Explores the issue of whether evil exists in the world and the best ways to confront it. Claims that the ubiquitousness of evil places a responsibility on social studies educators to address it in the classroom. Offers six suggestions for teaching students about the existence and implications of evil. (CMK)
Parsons, Jim
Social inequalities in mortality: a problem of cognitive function?
by adding in metabolic syndrome variables, fibrinogen, and height, we got the percentaged explained up to 60%.4 In the quest to understand the causes of health inequalities, this finding, of 40% explained, leads to two types of further question: why are there social inequalities in behaviours and risk factors, and what else could account for the social differences in mortality.
Michael Marmot; Mika Kivimaki
Social Security Disability: Growing Funding and Administrative Problems.
The Social Security Administration's (SSA's) Disability Insurance (DI) Program faces growing financial and administrative problems. The DI Trust Fund is projected to be exhausted by 1997, and recent delays by State Disability Determination Services (DDSs)...
J. F. Delfico
The Social Studies Curriculum: Purposes, Problems, and Possibilities.
This book presents a substantive overview of the issues in curriculum development and implementation faced by social studies educators. The book offers contemporary perspectives on some of the most enduring problems facing the social studies. The collection of essays provides readers with a systematic investigation of a broad range of issues of…
Ross, E. Wayne, Ed.
Social Problems of Drug Use and Drug Policies.
The social and legal policies that control or prevent the use of mind-altering drugs are the main cause of the social problems arising from their use. The existing policies are ineffective; the wrong drugs receive the most attention and laws are directed at the wrong phase of the cycle of promotion, distribution and use. The following reforms are…
Fort, Joel
Perfectionism, social problem-solving ability, and psychological distress
The present research examined the relation between dimensions of perfectionism and self-appraised problem-solving behaviors and attitudes. Specifically, in two separate studies, we tested the hypothesis that socially prescribed perfectionism (i.e., the perception that others demand perfection from the self) is associated with poorer social problem-solving ability. In addition, measures of psychological adjustment were included in Study 2 so that we
Gordon L. Flett; Paul L. Hewitt; Kirk R. Blankstein; Melanie Solnik; Michelle Van Brunschot
Marijuana-Related Problems and Social Anxiety: The Role of Marijuana Behaviors in Social Situations
Individuals with elevated social anxiety appear particularly vulnerable to marijuana-related problems. In fact, individuals with social anxiety may be more likely to experience marijuana-related impairment than individuals with other types of anxiety. It is therefore important to determine whether constructs particularly relevant to socially anxious individuals play a role in the expression of marijuana-related problems in this vulnerable population. Given
Julia D. Buckner; Richard G. Heimberg; Russell A. Matthews; Jose Silgado
Understanding Crowd-Powered Search Groups: A Social Network Perspective
Background Crowd-powered search is a new form of search and problem solving scheme that involves collaboration among a potentially large number of voluntary Web users. Human flesh search (HFS), a particular form of crowd-powered search originated in China, has seen tremendous growth since its inception in 2001. HFS presents a valuable test-bed for scientists to validate existing and new theories in social computing, sociology, behavioral sciences, and so forth. Methodology In this research, we construct an aggregated HFS group, consisting of the participants and their relationships in a comprehensive set of identified HFS episodes. We study the topological properties and the evolution of the aggregated network and different sub-groups in the network. We also identify the key HFS participants according to a variety of measures. Conclusions We found that, as compared with other online social networks, HFS participant network shares the power-law degree distribution and small-world property, but with a looser and more distributed organizational structure, leading to the diversity, decentralization, and independence of HFS participants. In addition, the HFS group has been becoming increasingly decentralized. The comparisons of different HFS sub-groups reveal that HFS participants collaborated more often when they conducted the searches in local platforms or the searches requiring a certain level of professional knowledge background. On the contrary, HFS participants did not collaborate much when they performed the search task in national platforms or the searches with general topics that did not require specific information and learning. We also observed that the key HFS information contributors, carriers, and transmitters came from different groups of HFS participants.
Zhang, Qingpeng; Wang, Fei-Yue; Zeng, Daniel; Wang, Tao
Social Networking Sites: An Adjunctive Treatment Modality for Psychological Problems
Background: Social networking is seen as a way to enhance social support and feeling of well-being. The present work explores the potentials of social networking sites as an adjunctive treatment modality for initiating treatment contact as well as for managing psychological problems. Materials and Methods: Interview schedule, Facebook intensity questionnaire were administered on 28 subjects with a combination of 18 males and 10 females. They were taken from the in-patient and out-patient psychiatry setting of the hospital. Results: Facebook was the most popular sites and used to seek emotional support on the basis of the frequent updates of emotional content that users put in their profile; reconciliations, escape from the problems or to manage the loneliness; getting information about illness and its treatment and interaction with experts and also manifested as problematic use. Conclusions: It has implications for developing social networking based adjunctive treatment modality for psychological problems.
Menon, Indu S.; Sharma, Manoj Kumar; Chandra, Prabha S.; Thennarasu, K.
Recognizing Physical Disability as a Social Problem.
Physical disability is an enormous psychosocio-economic-medical problem that affects over 24 million Americans. Public policy endorses a multi-disciplinary approach in analyzing this issue. Legislation has broadened the meaning of physical disability to include persons with mental and emotional disorders. Some of the costs associated with physical…
Blake, Charles
Understanding Social Media Use as Alienation: A Review and Critique
The opportunities social media provide for agential expressions of subjectivity and experiential learning, relative to social media's role in reproducing digital-era capitalism, are the subject of keen debate. There is now a burgeoning academic literature which suggests that social media users are, to a greater or lesser degree, alienated by…
Reveley, James
Psycho-Social Problems and Causes: Indexes of Change.
Examines the rate and direction of change in Canada's social problems by developing indexes for major problem areas. These measures show a period of relative stability in the 1950s and early 60s then worrisome inflation accompanied by out-of-control financial costs. Identifies crucial life stages where help is required. (JAC)
Nevison, Myrne B.
Understanding how social networking influences perceived satisfaction with conference experiences
USGS Publications Warehouse
Social networking is a key benefit derived from participation in conferences that bind the ties of a professional community. Building social networks can lead to satisfactory experiences while furthering participants' long- and short-term career goals. Although investigations of social networking can lend insight into how to effectively engage individuals and groups within a professional cohort, this area has been largely overlooked in past research. The present study investigates the relationship between social networking and satisfaction with the 10th Biennial Conference of Research on the Colorado Plateau using structural equation modelling. Results partially support the hypothesis that three dimensions of social networking – interpersonal connections, social cohesion, and secondary associations – positively contribute to the performance of various conference attributes identified in two focus group sessions. The theoretical and applied contributions of this paper shed light on the social systems formed within professional communities and resource allocation among service providers.
van Riper, Carena J.; van Riper, Charles, III; Kyle, Gerard T.; Lee, Martha, E.
Interpersonal variation in understanding robots as social actors
In this paper, I investigate interpersonal variation in verbal HRI with respect to the computers-as-social-actors hypothesis. The analysis of a corpus of verbal human-robot interactions shows that only a subgroup of the users treat the robot as a social actor. Thus, taking interpersonal variation into account reveals that not all users transfer social behaviors from human interactions into HRI. This
Kerstin Fischer
Understanding Wicked Problems: A Key to Advancing Environmental Health Promotion
Complex environmental health problems—like air and water pollution, hazardous waste sites, and lead poisoning—are in reality a constellation of linked problems embedded in the fabric of the communities in which they occur. These kinds of complex problems have been characterized by some as "wicked problems" wherein stakeholders may have conflicting interpretations of the problem and the science behind it, as
Marshall W. Kreuter; Christopher De Rosa; Elizabeth H. Howze; Grant T. Baldwin
Social Welfare Problems of the Navajo Nation; A Perceptual Study of Social Welfare Needs.
The purposes of this study were, first, to identify the ways Navajos have historically met their needs, pointing out ways in which American society has dealt with their social welfare problems, and second, to determine to what extent present day social welfare services have met these needs. The study population consisted of 112 Navajo workers from…
Roanhorse, Evelyn Sharl
Collaborative Problem Solving in Five-Year-Old Children: Evidence of Social Facilitation and Social Loafing
Children's problem solving while working by themselves or with a partner was investigated to explore whether young children are susceptible to social facilitation and social loafing. Five-year-olds were asked to complete easy or hard puzzles, either alone or with a partner. Half of the children were given instructions indicating that their…
Arterberry, Martha E.; Cain, Kathleen M.; Chopko, Stephanie A.
Understanding Social Work in the History of Ideas
Objectives: The purpose of this article is to present a theoretical frame of reference for the study and assessment of social work from the perspective of a history of ideas. Method: The study employed an analysis of primary and secondary historical sources. Results: Social work as a practice and research field is embedded in the genesis of modern…
Soydan, Haluk
Rhizomes for Understanding the Production of Social Science
This article is about the social processes which produce social science knowledge. It is based on a discourse analysis of DELOS, a European research project into organizational learning in clusters of SMEs (Small to Medium Enterprises). The substantive focus is on the researchers' core theoretical object: the "cluster of SMEs." This construct remained a highly contested artifact which, for complex
Gustavo Seijo
Understanding Green Purchase Behavior: College Students and Socialization Agents
Taking the perspective of consumer socialization theory, this study examined the influences of different socialization agents on consumers' purchases of green products. A total of 224 surveys were distributed to students enrolled in a business-related course at a major university in the northeastern United States. The objectives were twofold. The…
Yan, Ruoh-Nan; Xu, Huimin
Changing Times: Understanding Social Workers' Motivation To Be Field Instructors.
This article reports on social workers' motivations to become field instructors. The findings from qualitative interviews indicate that current organizational culture has a powerful influence on social workers' motivations to volunteer to become field instructors. The implications of this shift are discussed in relation to rejuvenating the…
Globerman, Judith; Bogo, Marion
Understanding and Accommodating Online Social Communities: A Common Sense Approach
Online social networks such as Facebook have changed the context and definitions of socialization. Focusing on teacher use, this article considers the size and impact of these forums and the importance many young professionals feel toward them. Themed as a common sense approach, the author uses anecdotal points and discussions with…
Lennon, Sean M.
Effect of Explicit Problem Solving Instructions on the Problem Solving Performance and Conceptual Understanding of Introductory College Physics
Two sections of introductory non-calculus general physics lecture courses, with a total enrolment of 120 students, were used to investigate the impact of explicit problem solving instruction on students' problem solving ability and conceptual understanding. The comparison group was instructed in textbook style problem solving strategy. Students' conceptual understanding was assessed by adminstering the Force Concept Inventory (FCI) at the begening and end of the semester. Required written rationale for multiple choice questions and responses to multistep problems were analyzed to further assess conceptual understanding and problem solving skills of the students in the two groups. A significant difference was noted in both understanding and problem solving performance.
Numan, Muhammad; Sobolewski, Stanley
Does neighborhood social capital buffer the effects of maternal depression on adolescent behavior problems?
Neighborhood characteristics have been shown to impact child well-being. However, it remains unclear how these factors combine with family characteristics to influence child development. The current study helps develop that understanding by investigating how neighborhoods directly impact child and adolescent behavior problems as well as moderate the influence of family characteristics on behavior. Using multilevel linear models, we examined the relationship among neighborhood conditions (poverty and social capital) and maternal depression on child and adolescent behavior problems. The sample included 741 children, age 5–11, and 564 adolescents, age 12–17. Outcomes were internalizing (e.g. anxious/depressed) and externalizing (e.g. aggressive/hyperactive) behavior problems. Neighborhood poverty and maternal depression were both positively associated with behavior problems for children and adolescents. However, while neighborhood social capital was not directly associated with behavior problems, the interaction of social capital and maternal depression was significantly related to behavior problems for adolescents. This interaction showed that living in neighborhoods with higher levels of social capital attenuated the relationship between maternal depression and adolescent behavior problems and confirmed the expectation that raising healthy well-adjusted children depends not only on the family, but also the context in which the family lives. PMID:24659390
Delany-Brumsey, Ayesha; Mays, Vickie M; Cochran, Susan D
Social understanding through direct perception? Yes, by interacting.
This paper comments on Gallagher's recently published direct perception proposal about social cognition [Gallagher, S. (2008a). Direct perception in the intersubjective context. Consciousness and Cognition, 17(2), 535-543]. I show that direct perception is in danger of being appropriated by the very cognitivist accounts criticised by Gallagher (theory theory and simulation theory). Then I argue that the experiential directness of perception in social situations can be understood only in the context of the role of the interaction process in social cognition. I elaborate on the role of social interaction with a discussion of participatory sense-making to show that direct perception, rather than being a perception enriched by mainly individual capacities, can be best understood as an interactional phenomenon. PMID:19091603
De Jaegher, Hanne
Social problem solving and autobiographical memory in posttraumatic stress disorder
This study investigated the relationship between overgeneral autobiographical memory and social problem solving in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Civilian trauma survivors with and without PTSD (N=41) provided autobiographical memories of events in response to positive and negative cue words. Participants also completed the means–end problem-solving (MEPS) procedure. PTSD participants reported more overgeneral memories, regardless of cue valence, than non-PTSD participants.
Kylie Sutherland; Richard A. Bryant
Social capital in Japanese-Western alliances: understanding cultural effects
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explain the culture-driven role and effects of social capital in Japanese-Western alliances. The authors move beyond narrow conceptualizations of relationship bonding (i.e. positive socio-psychological aspects such as trust and commitment) to explore the broader role of social capital (e.g. in destructive act recovery processes) in such alliances. Design\\/methodology\\/approach – The conceptual
Stephanie Slater; Matthew J. Robson
Developing Social Interaction and Understanding in Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Groupwork Intervention
Background: Difficulties with social interaction and understanding lie at the heart of the communication disorder that characterises the autism spectrum. This study sought to improve social communication for individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) by means of a groupwork intervention focusing on social and emotional perspective-taking,…
MacKay, Tommy; Knott, Fiona; Dunlop, Aline-Wendy
Understanding University Reform in Japan through the Prism of the Social Sciences
This article looks at current university reforms in Japan through two slightly different social science prisms: how social science methodologies and theories can help us understand those reforms better and how social science teaching in universities will be affected by the current reform processes. (Contains 3 tables and 7 notes.)
Goodman, Roger
Social goals: relationship to adolescent adjustment and to social problem solving.
Examined the relations between adolescent boys' social goals of dominance, revenge, avoidance, and affiliation and (1) self-reported negative adolescent outcomes; (2) subjective sense of self-esteem; and (3) externalizing, internalizing, and prosocial behaviors, as rated by peers and teachers. Results indicated that social goal values were related to diverse aspects of self-, teacher-, and peer-reported social and behavioral functioning, with a consistent association found between a range of delinquent, substance-using, and behavioral difficulties, and endorsement of high goal values for dominance and revenge and low goal values for affiliation. Results also indicated that teacher-identified aggressive boys differed from nonaggressive boys in the value they placed on social goals, with aggressive boys placing a higher value on goals of dominance and revenge, and lower value on goals for affiliation. Finally social goal choice had a clear relation to the social problem-solving differences of aggressive and nonaggressive boys. PMID:8491928
Lochman, J E; Wayland, K K; White, K J
The Social Psychology of Potential Problems in Family Vacation Travel
Social psychological thinking and the data of an exploratory study are used to illuminate potential problems in family vacation travel. Vacation travel is seen as providing both the opportunity for revitalization and creative change and the opportunity for serious interpersonal difficulties. (Author)
Rosenblatt, Paul C.; Russell, Martha G.
Fatherless America: Confronting Our Most Urgent Social Problem.
The United States is rapidly becoming a fatherless society. Fatherlessness is the leading cause of declining child well-being, providing the impetus behind social problems such as crime, domestic violence, and adolescent pregnancy. Challenging the basic assumptions of opinion leaders in academia and in the media, this book debunks the prevailing…
Blankenhorn, David
Environmental Problems and the Social Sciences: What Should We Teach?
Environmental issues that can be explored in social science courses include problems with potential to cause serious or irreversible change to an ecosystem or biosphere. Areas for discussion include: environmental attitudes, values, and behaviors; the environmental movement; risk perceptions; and the political economy of the environment and…
Cylke, F. Kurt, Jr.
Interpersonal Competence Configurations, Behavior Problems, and Social Adjustment in Preadolescence
This study examines interpersonal competence configurations in relation to students' concurrent behavior problems and social risks for later adjustment difficulties. Participants are 648 (345 girls, 303 boys) fourth-grade students (65% White, 6.9% African American, 19.5% Hispanic, 4.6% Asian, and 4.0% Other) from the suburbs of a major Midwestern…
Farmer, Thomas W.; Estell, David B.; Hall, Cristin M.; Pearl, Ruth; Van Acker, Richard; Rodkin, Philip C.
ClinicalTrials.gov: helping us understand the problem | accrualnet.cancer.gov
They say you need to understand the problem before you can find a solution. ClinicalTrials.gov, a registry and results database, is a valuable resource for understanding the problem of insufficient clinical trial accrual.
Developmental and Social Influences on Young Girls' Early Problem Behavior
A developing body of research suggests that there are few sex differences in the rate and severity of problem behavior in early childhood, but clear sex differences emerge at about 4 years of age. The authors explore 2 hypotheses to further the understanding of emerging sex differences in problem behavior across the first 5 years of life. The first posits
Kate Keenan; Daniel Shaw
Toward a Dynamic Conceptualization of Social Ties and Context: Implications for Understanding Immigrant and Latino Health
Researchers have posited that social ties and social support may contribute to better-than-expected health outcomes among Mexican immigrants vis-ŕ-vis their US-born counterparts. However, in our review of studies examining social ties and health by immigration-related variables among this group, we found little support for this hypothesis. To better understand the social factors that contribute to the health of Mexicans in the United States, we conducted a qualitative analysis of social relationships and social context among first- and second-generation Mexican women. Our results highlight the interplay between immigration processes and social ties, draw attention to the importance of identity support and transnational social relationships, and suggest ways to reconceptualize the relationship between social contexts, social ties, and immigrant and Latino health.
Schulz, Amy J.
Understanding wicked problems: a key to advancing environmental health promotion.
Complex environmental health problems--like air and water pollution, hazardous waste sites, and lead poisoning--are in reality a constellation of linked problems embedded in the fabric of the communities in which they occur. These kinds of complex problems have been characterized by some as "wicked problems" wherein stakeholders may have conflicting interpretations of the problem and the science behind it, as well as different values, goals, and life experiences. Accordingly, policy makers, public health professionals, and other stakeholders who grapple with these problems cannot expect to effectively resolve them by relying solely on expert-driven approaches to problem solving. Rather, they need to acknowledge that wicked environmental health problems are most likely to yield to (1) the application of effective community health promotion skills, (2) a sustained commitment to sound toxicological and epidemiological science, (3) the application of systems thinking, and (4) transparent communication among all stakeholders. PMID:15296628
Kreuter, Marshall W; De Rosa, Christopher; Howze, Elizabeth H; Baldwin, Grant T
Understanding Classrooms through Social Network Analysis: A Primer for Social Network Analysis in Education Research
Social interactions between students are a major and underexplored part of undergraduate education. Understanding how learning relationships form in undergraduate classrooms, as well as the impacts these relationships have on learning outcomes, can inform educators in unique ways and improve educational reform. Social network analysis (SNA) provides the necessary tool kit for investigating questions involving relational data. We introduce basic concepts in SNA, along with methods for data collection, data processing, and data analysis, using a previously collected example study on an undergraduate biology classroom as a tutorial. We conduct descriptive analyses of the structure of the network of costudying relationships. We explore generative processes that create observed study networks between students and also test for an association between network position and success on exams. We also cover practical issues, such as the unique aspects of human subjects review for network studies. Our aims are to convince readers that using SNA in classroom environments allows rich and informative analyses to take place and to provide some initial tools for doing so, in the process inspiring future educational studies incorporating relational data.
Wiggins, Benjamin L.; Goodreau, Steven M.
Adolescent Understanding of Compromise in Political and Social Arenas.
Explored understanding opposing views and realistic compromise for 12 political and legal situations in 72 adolescents, ages 14 to 19. Demonstrated progression in understanding of the issues. Generally, more significant changes occurred at ages 18 to 19, while responses of middle group (16 to 17) were closer to those of youngest age group (14 to…
Furth, Hans; McConville, Kathleen
Understanding Groups in Outdoor Adventure Education through Social Network Analysis
Relationships are a critical component to the experience of an outdoor adventure education (OAE) program, therefore, more fruitful ways of investigating groups is needed. Social network analysis (SNA) is an effective tool to study the relationship structure of small groups. This paper provides an explanation of SNA and shows how it was used by the…
Jostad, Jeremy; Sibthorp, Jim; Paisley, Karen
Increasing Understanding of Public Problems and Policies, 1995.
This document contains abstracts and the complete texts of 19 papers that were presented at a conference held to improve the policy education efforts of extension workers responsible for public affairs programs. The following papers are included: "Microwave Society and Crock-Pot Government" (Bill Graves); "Citizen Participation, Social Capital and…
Halbrook, Steve A., Ed.; Merry, Carroll E., Ed.
Social Environmental Influences on the Development and Resolution of Alcohol Problems
This article summarizes the proceedings of a symposium presented at the 2005 Annual Meeting of the Research Society on Alcoholism, Santa Barbara, California, June 25–30. The overall goal of the symposium was to consider the broad impact of the social environment on the development of and successful or unsuccessful resolution of drinking problems. The presentations addressed multiple social environmental influences including: the influence of children on parents (Dr. Zucker), the influence of peers and parents on adolescents (Dr. Molina), the influence of family members on adult drinking (Dr. McCrady), the influence of adult peers/friends (Dr. Kaskutas), and the influence of the occupational environment (Dr. Ames). Dr. Longabaugh, the symposium discussant, addressed models for understanding the relationships between social influences and drinking problems.
McCrady, Barbara S.; Zucker, Robert A.; Molina, Brooke S. G.; Ammon, Lyndsay; Ames, Genevieve M.; Longabaugh, Richard
Understanding and Teaching Problem-Solving in Physics
Describes a systematic study of skills for solving problems in basic physics. Also discusses how detailed observations of individuals were used to formulate models for problem-solving processes in mechanics and applications for teaching basic college physics or engineering courses.
Larkin, Jill H.; Reif, Frederick
Developing Shift Problems to Foster Geometrical Proof and Understanding
Meaningful learning of formal mathematics in regular classrooms remains a problem in mathematics education. Research shows that instructional approaches in which students work collaboratively on tasks that are tailored to problem solving and reflection can improve students' learning in experimental classrooms. However, these sequences involve…
Palha, Sonia; Dekker, Rijkje; Gravemeijer, Koeno; van Hout-Wolters, Bernadette
Understanding Social Complexity Within the Wildland-Urban Interface: A New Species of Human Habitation?
The lack of knowledge regarding social diversity in the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) or an in-depth understanding of the ways people living there interact to address common problems is concerning, perhaps even dangerous, given that community action is necessary for successful wildland fire preparedness and natural resource management activities. In this article, we lay out the knowledge and preliminary case study evidence needed to begin systematically documenting the differing levels and types of adaptive capacity WUI communities have for addressing collective problems such as wildland fire hazard. In order to achieve this end, we draw from two theoretical perspectives encompassing humans' interactions with their environment, including (1) Kenneth Wilkinson's interactional approach to community, (2) and certain elements of place literature. We also present case study research on wildfire protection planning in two drastically different California communities to illustrate how social diversity influences adaptive capacity to deal with hazards such as wildland fire. These perspectives promote an image of the WUI not as a monolithic entity but a complex mosaic of communities with different needs and existing capacities for wildland fire and natural resource management.
Paveglio, Travis B.; Jakes, Pamela J.; Carroll, Matthew S.; Williams, Daniel R.
Understanding social complexity within the wildland-urban interface: a new species of human habitation?
The lack of knowledge regarding social diversity in the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) or an in-depth understanding of the ways people living there interact to address common problems is concerning, perhaps even dangerous, given that community action is necessary for successful wildland fire preparedness and natural resource management activities. In this article, we lay out the knowledge and preliminary case study evidence needed to begin systematically documenting the differing levels and types of adaptive capacity WUI communities have for addressing collective problems such as wildland fire hazard. In order to achieve this end, we draw from two theoretical perspectives encompassing humans' interactions with their environment, including (1) Kenneth Wilkinson's interactional approach to community, (2) and certain elements of place literature. We also present case study research on wildfire protection planning in two drastically different California communities to illustrate how social diversity influences adaptive capacity to deal with hazards such as wildland fire. These perspectives promote an image of the WUI not as a monolithic entity but a complex mosaic of communities with different needs and existing capacities for wildland fire and natural resource management. PMID:19238478
Paveglio, Travis B; Jakes, Pamela J; Carroll, Matthew S; Williams, Daniel R
Children's Interpretive Understanding, Moral Judgments, and Emotion Attributions: Relations to Social Behaviour
The study investigated interpretive understanding, moral judgments, and emotion attributions in relation to social behaviour in a sample of 59 5-year-old, 123 7-year-old, and 130 9-year-old children. Interpretive understanding was assessed by two tasks measuring children's understanding of ambiguous situations. Moral judgments and emotion…
Malti, Tina; Gasser, Luciano; Gutzwiller-Helfenfinger, Eveline
Key Indicators of the Transition from Social to Problem Gambling
At the International Gambling Conference: Policy, Practice and Research in 2004 (Clarke, eCommunity-International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, 3:29–40, 2005), a paper was presented which proposed key indicators of the transition from social to problem gambling and to recovery, based on a review of literature on factors leading to substance abuse. They included availability of gambling activities, lack of
Dave Clarke; Samson Tse; Max Abbott; Sonia Townsend; Pefi Kingi; Wiremu Manaia
Understanding loneliness during adolescence: developmental changes that increase the risk of perceived social isolation.
Loneliness is typically defined in terms of feeling states. In this review, we take a somewhat different approach, describing loneliness in terms of perceived social isolation. Vulnerabilities to perceived social isolation differ across the lifespan. Unique properties of adolescence are identified that carry special risk for perceived social isolation. These include (but are not limited to) developmental changes in companions, developmental changes in autonomy and individuation, identity exploration, cognitive maturation, developmental changes in social perspective taking, and physical maturation. Scholars are encouraged to consider loneliness through the lens of perceived social isolation so as to better understand how the experience of physical isolation varies across adolescence. PMID:23866959
Laursen, Brett; Hartl, Amy C
Understanding the Problems of Transition into Higher Education
Abstract This paper reports on a study which compares the teaching of business and business related subjects in one English university and a number of associated tertiary (post-16) colleges. The research was carried out to explore similarities and differences in the teaching and learning environments in these two sectors in order to gain a better understanding of why some students
Helen Crabtree; Carole Roberts; Christine Tyler
Social Goals, Social Status, and Problem Behavior among Low-Achieving and High-Achieving Adolescents from Rural Schools
The current research examines how social goals and perceptions of what is needed for social status at school relate to school misbehavior and substance use among rural adolescents (N = 683). Results indicate that social goals and perceptions of social status have differential links to problem behaviors depending upon adolescents' achievement.…
Ludden, Alison Bryant
Action Research: Helping Student Teachers Understand and Solve Classroom Problems.
The progress of a group of student teachers who used action research techniques in their student teaching experience was studied. Action research is designed to yield practical results that are immediately applicable to a specific situation or problem. Action research strategies were used by student teachers to identify and find effective ways of…
Lind, Karen K.
Ego Function and Dysfunction: A Guide to Understanding Discipline Problems.
In this discussion of Fritz Redl's model of ego dysfunction in disturbed children, tasks the mature ego must accomplish are described, such as frustration tolerance, temptation resistance, realism about rules and routines, and exposure to competitive challenges. The model's educational applications involve assessment of discipline problems,…
Henley, Martin
Does Understanding Relational Terminology Mediate Effects of Intervention on Compare Word Problems?
The purpose of this study was to assess whether understanding relational terminology (i.e., more, less, and fewer) mediates the effects of intervention on compare word problems. Second-grade classrooms (n = 31) were randomly assigned to 3 conditions: researcher-designed word-problem intervention, researcher-designed calculation intervention, or business-as-usual (teacher-designed) control. Students in word-problem intervention classrooms received instruction on the compare problem type, which included a focus on understanding relational terminology within compare word problems. Analyses, which accounted for variance associated with classroom clustering, indicated that (a) compared to the calculation intervention and business-as-usual conditions, word-problem intervention significantly increased performance on all three subtypes of compare problems and on understanding relational terminology; and (b) the intervention effect was fully mediated by students' understanding of relational terminology for 1 subtype of compare problems and partially mediated by students' understanding of relational terminology for the other 2 subtypes.
Schumacher, Robin F.; Fuchs, Lynn S.
SOCIAL PROBLEMS & SOCIAL WELFARE POLICY ANALYSIS (Mental Health and Chemical Dependency Concentration)
identification, selection, implementation, and evaluation. The course will include advanced content on process, problems, and programs specific to the concentration areas in the MSSW program. By the end of the semester, students should be able to apply their knowledge of the social policy process to selected policy issues related to their area of concentration. Course Objectives Upon completion of this
Diana DiNitto
Gambling as a Social Problem: On the Social Conditions of Gambling in Canada
Since the 1980s, Canadian legalized gambling has undergone a massive growth, resulting in numerous social problems such as crime, political corruption, and, most importantly, pathological gambling. When it comes to theorizing gambling in Canada, pathological gambling has been the centre of the attention for two related reasons: (1) the increasing…
Barmaki, Reza
Social Realism and the Problem of the Problem of Knowledge in the Sociology of Education
This paper examines from a Social Realist perspective a set of issues in the sociology of education regarding the problem of knowledge. It focuses upon the issue of relativism associated with the constructionist approach that since the time of the New Sociology of Education in the 1970s has constituted in different forms the dominant perspective…
Moore, Rob
The Problem is People, Social Studies: 6425.07.
Population education is the focus of this quinmester curriculum guide for secondary students. By examining and comparing past population theories of Malthus and Marx with present theories students will better understand the present situation, cultural attitudes toward the problems, and the ecological consequences of overpopulation. Objectives are…
Ratchford, Frank
Promoting Cultural Understanding: The Case of the Saudi Arabian Social Studies Curriculum.
A study investigated the role of the Saudi Arabian social studies curriculum in helping Saudi students to understand other cultures. Analysis of the content of social studies textbooks revealed that they cover a wide range of cultural information related to countries from around the world. Saudi students start their cultural education in grade 5…
Alaklobi, Fahad
Broad social motives, alcohol use, and related problems: Mechanisms of risk from high school through college.
Broad social motives (not specific to alcohol use) have been established as an important predictor of alcohol use and problems among college students, but we have little understanding of the mechanisms through which such motives operate. Thus, the current study examined broad social motives prior to college entry as a predictor of college drinking/problems and sought to identify potential mechanisms through which they are associated with increased risk. Participants comprised a sample of 2245 incoming college students (59.9% women) transitioning from high school through the college years. The first web-based survey was completed during the summer prior to matriculation with participants reporting on their behavior during the spring of high school senior year. Additional surveys were administered each academic semester through the fall of the fourth year. High school social motives were examined as a predictor of changes in alcohol use/problems from high school through the senior year, with changes in descriptive norms, personal drinking values, and alcohol expectancies from high school to sophomore year examined as possible mediators of these relations. Descriptive norms, personal drinking values, and alcohol expectancies were robust mediators of broad social motives for both alcohol use and problems. Although there were a few differences by race/ethnicity in the alcohol use model, the mechanisms through which broad social motives operated were largely invariant across groups. These findings shed light on important mechanisms that can be targeted in prevention programs, particularly those that target groups who are likely to be high in broad social motives (e.g., fraternity/sorority members). PMID:21126828
Corbin, William R; Iwamoto, Derek K; Fromme, Kim
Using Social Marketing to Understand the Family Dinner with Working Mothers
The family dinner is a valued tradition that affords opportunities for social interaction and attachment, as well as sharing events of the day, role modeling, connectedness, and problem solving. Guided by the social-marketing framework, this study explored factors associated with the frequency of the family dinner among working mothers with children ages 8–11 years. A qualitative design was used, employing
Mary P. Martinasek; Rita D. DeBate; Ashley G. Walvoord; Stephanie T. Melton; David Himmelgreen; Tammy D. Allen; Robert J. McDermott
Adaptation of Social Problem Solving for Children Questionnaire in 6 Age Groups and its Relationships with Preschool Behavior Problems
Social Problem Solving for Child Scale is frequently used to determine behavioral problems of children with their own word and to identify ways of conflict encountered in daily life, and interpersonal relationships in abroad. The primary purpose of this study was to adapt the Wally Child Social Problem-Solving Detective Game Test. In order to…
Dereli-Iman, Esra
Understanding Knowledge Sharing between IT Professionals--An Integration of Social Cognitive and Social Exchange Theory
The research includes various constructs based on social exchange theory and social cognitive theory. This study mainly explored the relationships among organisational justice, trust, commitment and knowledge-sharing cognition and verified their mediating effects through two variables of trust and commitment. A survey utilising a questionnaire was…
Tsai, Ming-Tien; Cheng, Nai-Chang
Embeddedness and Empathy: How the Social Network Shapes Adolescents' Social Understanding
Based on theories of social-cognitive development, the present study investigated the yet unknown social structure that underlies the concept of empathy in adolescence. A total of 3.159 seventh graders (13.67 years, 56% girls) from 166 school classes participated by providing information on empathy, related psychosocial factors, and friendship…
Wolfer, Ralf; Cortina, Kai S.; Baumert, Jurgen
Screening for Social and Environmental Problems in a VA Primary Care Setting.
Assesses the social and environmental problems of 132 patients seen in a primary care clinic at a university-affiliated Veterans Affairs (VA) medical center. Prevalent social problems included financial difficulties, personal stress, family problems, legal concerns, and employment concerns. Findings suggest a clear need for social work…
Loveland, Cynthia A.; And Others
Social Problem Solving as a Predictor of Well-Being in Adolescents and Young Adults
Social problem solving is the cognitive-affective-behavioral process by which people attempt to resolve real-life problems in a social environment, and is of key importance in the management of emotions and well-being. This paper reviews a series of studies on social problem solving conducted by the authors. First, we developed and validated the…
Siu, Andrew M. H.; Shek, Daniel T. L.
Children's Understanding of Quantitative Concepts in Selected Third Grade Social Studies Textbooks
Describes student difficulties with understanding quantitative concepts as presented in selected third grade social studies textbooks. Test results of student accuracy in understanding of quantitative concepts are presented and discussed, and teaching methods for quantitative reinforcement are provided. (Author/DB)
Rushdoony, Haig A.; Sanders, Mary Ann
Teachers' understandings and enactments of social and environmental justice issues in the classroom: What's
How do five new teachers understand and enact counter-hegemonic pedagogies in their own classes? This study developed from this question. The question arose as I taught critical environmental education, a counter-hegemonic pedagogy, to preservice science teachers. I encouraged the exploration of social and environmental injustices and how they function to reproduce dominant economic agendas. To understand how five teachers, in
Alison J. Sammel
Problems in understanding the organization, structure and function of chromosomes
Despite intensive investigation of mammalian chromosomes, we are still largely ignorant of the basic rules that govern their organization, structure, and functions. This situation results from the current limitations in available technologies to elucidate the structures of such complex biological systems. Whereas the powerful techniques of molecular biology have successfully addressed at high resolution functional problems at the level of nucleic acid sequences, many lower resolution questions concerning the architecture of the cell nucleus, long range order in chromosomes, and higher order chromatin structures remain largely unanswered. Techniques are now emerging that should help to remedy this situation. The use of confocal microscopy with molecular probes will tell us at the level of the light microscope a great deal about the organization of the nucleus and how it changes in different cell types; advanced light sources have the potential to image hydrated biological systems down to 10 nm, and scanning electron tunneling and atomic force microscopies have demonstrated their ability to image molecules though their ability to usefully image biomolecules such as DNA remains to be demonstrated. 32 refs., 6 figs.
Bradbury, E.M. (Lawrence Livermore National Lab., CA (USA) California Univ., Davis, CA (USA))
Social Understanding and Social Lives: From Toddlerhood through to the Transition to School. Essays in Developmental Psychology
Over the past thirty years, researchers have documented a remarkable growth in children's social understanding between toddlerhood and the early school years. However, it is still unclear why some children's awareness of others' thoughts and feelings lags so far behind that of their peers. Based on research that spans an extended developmental…
Hughes, Claire
Social networks as the context for understanding employment services utilization among homeless youth.
Little is known about the factors associated with use of employment services among homeless youth. Social network characteristics have been known to be influential in motivating people's decision to seek services. Traditional theoretical frameworks applied to studies of service use emphasize individual factors over social contexts and interactions. Using key social network, social capital, and social influence theories, this paper developed an integrated theoretical framework that capture the social network processes that act as barriers or facilitators of use of employment services by homeless youth, and understand empirically, the salience of each of these constructs in influencing the use of employment services among homeless youth. We used the "Event based-approach" strategy to recruit a sample of 136 homeless youth at one drop-in agency serving homeless youth in Los Angeles, California in 2008. The participants were queried regarding their individual and network characteristics. Data were entered into NetDraw 2.090 and the spring embedder routine was used to generate the network visualizations. Logistic regression was used to assess the influence of the network characteristics on use of employment services. The study findings suggest that social capital is more significant in understanding why homeless youth use employment services, relative to network structure and network influence. In particular, bonding and bridging social capital were found to have differential effects on use of employment services among this population. The results from this study provide specific directions for interventions aimed to increase use of employment services among homeless youth. PMID:24780279
Barman-Adhikari, Anamika; Rice, Eric
The Role of Conceptual Understanding in Solving Word Problems: Two-Step Problems.
This work studies the difficulties children have solving two-step word problems of a given structure (e.g., 7 lollypops/2 chocolate bars X 6 chocolate bars). Thirty-six children between the ages of 9 and 14 years were individually observed solving problems of the above type. Other tasks, repetition of the problem and model recognition, were used…
Quintero, Ana Helvia
Understanding rural life - assessing the social dimensions when encouraging land-use changes in rural areas
Meshed with the bio-physical and economic dimensions of rural land-use is a social dimension. Understanding the social and economic dimension of rural communities is critical if agencies are to develop effective policies and programs to improve natural resource outcomes. In this paper, we draw on research of the Boorowa community, located in the south-west slopes of New South Wales, to
Digby Race; Robert J. Farquharson; Jim Birckhead; Don Vernon; Andrew D. Bathgate
Association of sexual problems with social, psychological, and physical problems in men and women: a cross sectional population survey
STUDY OBJECTIVE: To investigate the association of sexual problems with social, physical, and psychological problems. DESIGN: An anonymous postal questionnaire survey. SETTING: Four general practices in England. PARTICIPANTS: 789 men and 979 women responding to a questionnaire sent to a stratified random sample of the adult general population (n = 4000). MAIN RESULTS: Strong physical, social, and psychological associations were
K. M. Dunn; P. R. Croft; G. I. Hackett
Constructive Criticism and Social Lies: A Developmental Sequence for Understanding Honesty and Kindness in Social Interactions
To provide an assessment of the dynamics of development of complex sociomoral concepts, a 10-step scale for assessing development of understanding relations between honesty and kindness was administered under multiple assessment conditions to 113 youths who were 9–20 years old. The sequence proved to be both scalable and reliable, even while level of understanding varied greatly as a function of
Susie D. Lamborn; Kurt W. Fischer; Sandra Pipp
Benefits of Practicing 4 = 2 + 2: Nontraditional Problem Formats Facilitate Children's Understanding of Mathematical Equivalence
This study examined whether practice with arithmetic problems presented in a nontraditional problem format improves understanding of mathematical equivalence. Children (M age = 8;0; N = 90) were randomly assigned to practice addition in one of three conditions: (a) traditional, in which problems were presented in the traditional "operations on…
McNeil, Nicole M.; Fyfe, Emily R.; Petersen, Lori A.; Dunwiddie, April E.; Brletic-Shipley, Heather
Teaching Algorithmic Problem Solving or Conceptual Understanding: Role of Developmental Level, Mental Capacity, and Cognitive Style.
It has been shown previously that many students solve chemistry problems using only algorithmic strategies and do not understand the chemical concepts on which the problems are based. It is plausible to suggest that if the information is presented in differing formats the cognitive demand of a problem changes. The main objective of this study…
Niaz, Mansoor; Robinson, William R.
Understanding change in recycling and littering behavior across a school social network.
Understanding how communities change requires examining how individuals' beliefs and behaviors are shaped by those around them. This paper investigates behavior change across a large social network following a recycling intervention in a New Zealand high school community. We used a mixed methods design, combining focus group data with social network analysis from two waves of a questionnaire that measured friendship networks; recycling and littering behaviors; perceived behavioral norms; and teacher, friend, and parent encouragement for these behaviors. Recycling behavior increased significantly over the course of our study. Supporting the importance of social networks in this context, both littering and recycling behavior showed clear social clustering. Further, the degree of change in an individuals' littering and recycling behavior across time was predicted by friends' prior behavior. Focus group data provided insight into students' perceptions of social interactions and how these contributed to littering and recycling behavior. PMID:24327210
Long, Jennifer; Harré, Niki; Atkinson, Quentin D
The prairie vole: an emerging model organism for understanding the social brain
Unlike most mammalian species, the prairie vole is highly affiliative, forms enduring social bonds between mates, and displays biparental behavior. Over two decades of research in this species has enhanced our understanding of the neurobiological basis not only of monogamy, social attachment and nurturing behaviors, but also other aspects of social cognition. Because social cognitive deficits are hallmarks of many psychiatric disorders, discoveries made in prairie voles may direct novel treatment strategies for disorders such as autism spectrum disorder and schizophrenia. With the ongoing development of molecular, genetic and genomic tools for this species, prairie voles will likely maintain their current trajectory becoming an unprecedented model organism for basic and translational research focusing on the biology of the social brain.
McGraw, Lisa A.; Young, Larry J.
Parsing Protection and Risk for Problem Behavior Versus Pro-social Behavior Among US and Chinese Adolescents.
This study investigates the different roles played by protective factors and risk factors-and by particular protective and risk factors-when the concern is with accounting for adolescent problem behavior than when the concern is with accounting for adolescent pro-social behavior. The protective and risk factor literature on adolescent problem behavior reveals considerable conceptual and operational ambiguity; an aim of the present study was to advance understanding in this domain of inquiry by providing a systematic conceptualization of protection and risk and of their measurement. Within the systematic framework of Problem Behavior Theory, four protective and four risk factors are assessed in a cross-national study of both problem behavior and pro-social behavior involving large adolescent samples in China (N = 1,368) and the US (N = 1,087), in grades 9, 10, and 11; females 56 %, US; 50 %, China. The findings reveal quite different roles for protection and risk, and for particular protective and risk factors, when the outcome criterion is problem behavior than when it is pro-social behavior. The protective factor, Controls Protection, which engages rule and regulations and sanctions in the adolescent's ecology, emerges as most important in influencing problem behavior, but it plays a relatively minor role in relationship to pro-social behavior. By contrast, Models Protection, the presence of pro-social models in the adolescent's ecology, and Support Protection, the presence of interest and care in that same ecology, have no significant relationship to problem behavior variation, but they are both the major predictors of variation in pro-social behavior. The findings are robust across the samples from the two very diverse societies. These results suggest that greater attention be given to protection in problem behavior research and that a more nuanced perspective is needed about the roles that particular protective and risk factors play in reducing problem behavior and in promoting pro-social behavior. PMID:24797283
Jessor, Richard; Turbin, Mark S
[Development of the Bandama Valley. Sanitary and social problems].
As with all water resources development projects in countries with hot climate, the man-made lake of Kossou in Ivory Coast presents social and sanitary problems. Although the resettlement and the economic recuperation of the inhabitants are well on the way, the health hazards and especially that of the generalization of schistosomiasis calls for an urgent solution. Though well planed in advance, the creation of this man-made lake, illustrates the necessity at the very beginning of a project that will distrub all the ecology of a region, to establish the total disadvantages and health hazards incurved by the people who live there. To the cost of a project should be added that of measures that would contribute to the reduction of these risks before it is too late. PMID:189949
Picot, H
The Relationship Between Social Skills Deficits and Psychosocial ProblemsA Test of a Vulnerability Model
This study sought to determine whether social skills deficits are a vulnerability factor in the development of psychosocial problems. In the first month of a semester, 227 students completed a laboratory interaction, measures of various components of social skills, and measures of the following psychosocial problems: depression, loneliness, social anxiety, substance use, and poor academic performance. Three to 4 months
Effects of Emotion and Goal Value on Social Problem-Solving.
This paper reports on a study of situational influences of affect and goal value on social problem-solving in middle childhood. It was expected that the adequacy of any particular social problem-solving process would be reduced by increases in goal intensity. On the basis of prior testing, two social goals of high value and two of low value were…
den Bak, Irene; Rose-Krasnor, Linda
Understanding resilience in armed conflict: Social resources and mental health of children in Burundi.
Little is known about the role of cognitive social capital among war-affected youth in low- and middle-income countries. We examined the longitudinal association between cognitive social capital and mental health (depression and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms), functioning, and received social support of children in Burundi. Data were obtained from face-to-face interviews with 176 children over three measurement occasions over the span of 4-months. Cognitive social capital measured the degree to which children believed their community was trustworthy and cohesive. Mental health measures included the Depression Self-Rating Scale (DSRS) (Birleson, 1981), the Child Posttraumatic Symptom Scale (Foa et al., 2001), and a locally constructed scale of functional impairment. Children reported received social support by listing whether they received different types of social support from self-selected key individuals. Cross-lagged path analytic modeling evaluated relationships between cognitive social capital, symptoms and received support separately over baseline (T1), 6-week follow-up (T2), and 4-month follow-up (T3). Each concept was treated and analyzed as a continuous score using manifest indicators. Significant associations between study variables were unidirectional. Cognitive social capital was associated with decreased depression between T1 and T2 (B = -.22, p < .001) and T2 and T3 (? = -.25, p < .001), and with functional impairment between T1 and T2 (? = -.15, p = .005) and T2 and T3 (? = -.14, p = .005); no association was found for PTSD symptoms at either time point. Cognitive social capital was associated with increased social support between T1 and T2 (? = .16, p = .002) and T2 and T3 (? = .16, p = .002). In this longitudinal study, cognitive social capital was related to a declining trajectory of children's mental health problems and increases in social support. Interventions that improve community relations in war-affected communities may alter the trajectories of resource loss and gain with conflict-affected children. PMID:24922609
Hall, Brian J; Tol, Wietse A; Jordans, Mark J D; Bass, Judith; de Jong, Joop T V M
Problem-Based Learning in Social Work: A Study of Student Learning Outcomes
This study evaluated the effects of problem-based learning (PBL) in social work education. The participants were 132 second-year social work students who took the core courses of Social Work Theory and Practice and Skills Laboratory in the PBL mode. A 40-item scale was used to measure the students' perceptions of their social work knowledge,…
Wong, Donna Kam Pun; Lam, Debbie Oi Bing
Incorporating Social Anxiety Into a Model of College Problem Drinking: Replication and Extension
Although research has found an association between social anxiety and alcohol use in noncollege samples, results have been mixed for college samples. College students face many novel social situations in which they may drink to reduce social anxiety. In the current study, the authors tested a model of college problem drinking, incorporating social anxiety and related psychosocial variables among 228
Lindsay S. Ham; Debra A. Hope
Complex problems require complex solutions: the utility of social quality theory for addressing the Social Determinants of Health
Background In order to improve the health of the most vulnerable groups in society, the WHO Commission on Social Determinants of Health (CSDH) called for multi-sectoral action, which requires research and policy on the multiple and inter-linking factors shaping health outcomes. Most conceptual tools available to researchers tend to focus on singular and specific social determinants of health (SDH) (e.g. social capital, empowerment, social inclusion). However, a new and innovative conceptual framework, known as social quality theory, facilitates a more complex and complete understanding of the SDH, with its focus on four domains: social cohesion, social inclusion, social empowerment and socioeconomic security, all within the same conceptual framework. This paper provides both an overview of social quality theory in addition to findings from a national survey of social quality in Australia, as a means of demonstrating the operationalisation of the theory. Methods Data were collected using a national random postal survey of 1044 respondents in September, 2009. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was conducted. Results Statistical analysis revealed that people on lower incomes (less than $45000) experience worse social quality across all of the four domains: lower socio-economic security, lower levels of membership of organisations (lower social cohesion), higher levels of discrimination and less political action (lower social inclusion) and lower social empowerment. The findings were mixed in terms of age, with people over 65 years experiencing lower socio-economic security, but having higher levels of social cohesion, experiencing lower levels of discrimination (higher social inclusion) and engaging in more political action (higher social empowerment). In terms of gender, women had higher social cohesion than men, although also experienced more discrimination (lower social inclusion). Conclusions Applying social quality theory allows researchers and policy makers to measure and respond to the multiple sources of oppression and advantage experienced by certain population groups, and to monitor the effectiveness of interventions over time.
Complex emotions, complex problems: understanding the experiences of perinatal depression among new mothers in urban Indonesia.
In this article, we explore how Javanese women identify and speak of symptoms of depression in late pregnancy and early postpartum and describe their subjective accounts of mood disorders. The study, conducted in the East Java region of Indonesia in 2000, involved in-depth interviews with a subgroup of women (N = 41) who scored above the cutoff score of 12/13 on the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) during pregnancy, at six weeks postpartum, or on both occasions. This sample was taken from a larger cohort study (N cohort = 488) researching the sociocultural factors that contribute to women's emotional well-being in early motherhood. The women used a variety of Indonesian and Javanese terms to explain their emotional states during pregnancy and in early postpartum, some of which coincided with the feelings described on the EPDS and others of which did not. Women attributed their mood variations to multiple causes including: premarital pregnancy, chronic illness in the family, marital problems, lack of support from partners or family networks, their husband's unemployment, and insufficient family income due to giving up their own paid work. We argue for the importance of understanding the context of childbearing in order to interpret the meaning of depression within complex social, cultural, and economic contexts. PMID:17205386
Andajani-Sutjahjo, Sari; Manderson, Lenore; Astbury, Jill
Myelodysplasia. Problems of long-term survival and social function.
Problems of ninety-eight patients with myelodysplasia, ages 13 to 72, were reviewed. They were grouped as follows: Those having thoracic and high lumbar level (L(2) upward arrow) lesions and confined to wheel chairs, those with intermediate paralysis (L(3-5) nerve roots) as walking with aids and those with less paralysis (S(1) downward arrow) as fully ambulatory. Fifty-two percent of the L(2) upward arrow and only 15 percent of of the less severely paralyzed patients were retarded below an IQ level 70 (P<0.01). Thirty-six patients (62 percent) were fully and 26 partially, but appropriately, self-sufficient. Thirty-six patients were found in some form of dependent care. Two of the 71 more paralyzed patients (L(3-5) and L(2) upward arrow) and five of the 28 S(1) downward arrow patients were "naturally continent" but reported stress incontinence of urine. Thirteen of 23 female and five of 28 male patients between ages 16 and 72 years reported sexual activity and accounted for 17 normal offspring. All 23 retarded patients were in some form of custodial care. Dependency among the normal intellect patients could be attributed to neglect of physically deforming complications and emotional disorders, primarily low self-esteem centering around social and sexual identity problems associated with excrement soiling. PMID:807042
Shurtleff, D B; Hayden, P W; Chapman, W H; Broy, A B; Hill, M L
Does understanding relational terminology mediate effects of intervention on compare word problems?
The purpose of this study was to assess whether understanding relational terminology (i.e., more, less, and fewer) mediates the effects of intervention on compare word problems. Second-grade classrooms (N=31) were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: researcher-designed word-problem intervention, researcher-designed calculation intervention, or business-as-usual (teacher-designed) control. Students in word-problem intervention classrooms received instruction on the compare problem type, which included a focus on understanding relational terminology within compare word problems. Analyses, which accounted for variance associated with classroom clustering, indicated that (a) compared with the calculation intervention and business-as-usual conditions, word-problem intervention significantly increased performance on all three subtypes of compare problems and on understanding relational terminology, and (b) the intervention effect was fully mediated by students' understanding of relational terminology for one subtype of compare problems and partially mediated by students' understanding of relational terminology for the other two subtypes. PMID:22221461
Schumacher, Robin F; Fuchs, Lynn S
Understanding The Decision Context: DPSIR, Decision Landscape, And Social Network Analysis
EPA Science Inventory
Establishing the decision context for a management problem is the critical first step for effective decision analysis. Understanding the decision context allow stakeholders and decision-makers to integrate the societal, environmental, and economic considerations that must be con...
The Social Tunnel Versus the Python: A New Way to Understand the Impact of Baby Booms and Baby Busts on a Society.
Maintains that the "python analogy," often used to help students understand the negative societal impact of unusually small or large age cohorts, is better replaced by the social tunnel analogy, which is diagramed and illustrated with reference to the educational problems experienced in the United States as a result of the World War II baby boom.…
McFalls, Joseph A.; And Others
Associations between Social Understanding, Sibling Relationship Quality, and Siblings' Conflict Strategies and Outcomes
Sibling relationship quality and social understanding (second-order false belief, conflict interpretation, and narrative conflict perspective references) were examined as unique and interactive correlates of sibling conflict behavior in 62 dyads (older M age = 8.39 years and younger M age = 6.06 years). High-quality relationships were associated…
Recchia, Holly E.; Howe, Nina
Theory of Mind "Emotion", Developmental Characteristics and Social Understanding in Children and Adolescents with Intellectual Disabilities
Patterns of development of ToM-emotion abilities in intellectually disabled (ID) children and typically developing (TD) children matched on their developmental age were investigated. The links between cognition, language, social understanding and ToM-emotion abilities were examined. EDEI-R (Perron-Borelli, M. (1996). "Echelles Differentielles…
Thirion-Marissiaux, Anne-Francoise; Nader-Grosbois, Nathalie
Peer group cultures and social identity: an integrated approach to understanding masculinities1
Sociological research investigating boys' masculinity performances has commonly recognised the importance of peer group cultures in identity construction. Whilst such work has undoubtedly offered important and useful frameworks for interpreting and understanding boys' behaviour in schools, the article argues that social psychological theories of intergroup relations also proffer important insights. Drawing upon interview and survey data, the article focuses on
Nigel Sherriff
Theory of Mind "Beliefs", Developmental Characteristics and Social Understanding in Children and Adolescents with Intellectual Disabilities
Patterns of development of ToM belief abilities in intellectually disabled (ID) children and typically developing (TD) children matched on their developmental age were investigated. The links between cognition, language, social understanding and ToM belief abilities were examined. EDEI-R [Perron-Borelli M. (1996). "Echelles Differentielles…
Associations among False-Belief Understanding, Executive Function, and Social Competence: A Longitudinal Analysis
A growing number of studies demonstrate associations among false-belief understanding (FBU), executive function (EF), and social competence. This study extends previous studies by exploring longitudinal associations among FBU and its correlates within a low-income sample of preschoolers attending Head Start. Sixty-eight children (time 1 mean age =…
Razza, Rachel A.; Blair, Clancy
A Phenomenological Study: Understanding the Management of Social Categorization Diversity Issues Associated with College Athletic Teams
This qualitative phenomenological research study explored the social categorization diversity management experiences of NCAA Division I, II and III athletic coaches. The research study used a combination of questionnaire, observation and coaching interviews to obtain an understanding of the skills, tools and techniques that these coaches used to…
Dickelman, Eric
Conceptual Understandings as Transition Points: Making Sense of a Complex Social World
Teaching for conceptual understanding has been heralded as an effective approach within many curriculum frameworks internationally in an age of rapid and constant change around what counts as "knowledge". Drawing from research and experience within the social studies curriculum, this paper reflects on some of the largely unstated and unexplored…
Milligan, Andrea; Wood, Bronwyn
Social and Economic Benefits of Improved Adult Literacy: Towards a Better Understanding: Support Document
This document was produced by the authors based on their research for the report, "Social and Economic Benefits of Improved Adult Literacy: Towards a Better Understanding," and is an added resource for further information. The original document is a feasibility study which explores the frameworks and methodologies available for determining and…
Hartley, Robyn; Horne, Jackie
Predictors of Children's Prosocial Lie-Telling: Motivation, Socialization Variables, and Moral Understanding
Children tell prosocial lies for self- and other-oriented reasons. However, it is unclear how motivational and socialization factors affect their lying. Furthermore, it is unclear whether children's moral understanding and evaluations of prosocial lie scenarios (including perceptions of vignette characters' feelings) predict their actual prosocial…
Popliger, Mina; Talwar, Victoria; Crossman, Angela
Socializing Infants toward a Cultural Understanding of Expressing Negative Affect: A Bakhtinian Informed Discursive Psychology Approach
This article addresses the socialization of emotion expression in infancy. It argues that in order to adequately understand emotion development we need to consider the appraisal of emotion expression through caregivers in mundane, everyday interactions. Drawing on sociocultural and Bakhtinian theorizing, it claims that caregivers' appraisals of…
Demuth, Carolin
Do Social and Cognitive Deficits Curtail Musical Understanding? Evidence from Autism and Down Syndrome
Children with autism experience difficulties in understanding social affective cues, and it has been suggested that such deficits will generalize to music. In order to investigate this proposal, typically developing individuals and children with autism and Down syndrome were compared on tasks measuring perception of affective and movement states…
Heaton, Pamela; Allen, Rory; Williams, Kerry; Cummins, Omar; Happe, Francesca
Towards an Understanding of the Social Issues in Information Technology: concerning computers, intelligence and education
Information technology has numerous social and political implications. This paper is primarily concerned with beginning to outline some of the more important issues for teacher educators. An understanding of these implications is required before we, as teacher educators or as teachers in schools, can begin to address the issues in our work around information technology in colleges or in the
Brian Matthews
Students' Understandings of Religious Identities and Relations: Issues of Social Cohesion and Citizenship
The focus in this article is on issues of social cohesion and citizenship as they relate to students' understandings of religion and religious identity. The article draws on data gathered from a study conducted at a highly diverse English comprehensive school and is set amid broader anxieties about religion, community disharmony and national…
Keddie, Amanda
Mental Health, School Problems, and Social Networks: Modeling Urban Adolescent Substance Use
This study tested a mediation model of the relationship with school problems, social network quality, and substance use with a primary care sample of 301 urban adolescents. It was theorized that social network quality (level of risk or protection in network) would mediate the effects of school problems, accounting for internalizing problems and…
Mason, Michael J.
Understanding neighbourhoods, communities and environments: new approaches for social work research
This article discusses some new ways in which social work research can explore the interaction between neighbourhoods and child and adult wellbeing. The authors note that social work practices are often criticised for taking an individualistic approach and paying too little attention to the service user's environment. The article uses examples of research projects from Chile, the United States of America and Wales, to discuss the use of spatially oriented research methods for understanding neighbourhood factors. Quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods approaches that are particularly appropriate for investigating social work relevant topics are discussed in turn, including quantitative and qualitative uses for geographical information systems (GIS), hierarchical linear modelling (HLM) for analysing spatially clustered data and qualitative mobile interviews. The article continues with a discussion of the strengths and limitations of using spatially orientated research designs in social work research settings and concludes optimistically with suggestions for future directions in this area.
Holland, Sally; Burgess, Stephen; Grogan-Kaylor, Andy; Delva, Jorge
Weighted Key Player Problem for Social Network Analysis.
Social network analysis is a tool set whose uses range from measuring the impact of marketing campaigns to disrupting clandestine terrorist organizations. Social network analysis tools are primarily focused on the structure of relationships between actors...
R. M. McGuire
A Complete Understanding of Disorientation Problems in Web-Based Learning
Disorientation problems influence student learning. To address this issue, this study uses an integrative approach to investigate the causes and consequences of disorientation problems so that a complete understanding can be obtained. Unlike previous empirical studies, which use statistical techniques, this study attempts to expose unexpected…
Shih, Yu-Cheng; Huang, Pei-Ren; Hsu, Yung-Chi; Chen, Sherry Y.
Promoting College Students' Problem Understanding Using Schema-Emphasizing Worked Examples
Statistics learners often bypass the critical step of understanding a problem before executing solutions. Worked-out examples that identify problem information (e.g., data type, number of groups, purpose of analysis) key to determining a solution (e.g., "t" test, chi-square, correlation) can address this concern. The authors examined the…
Yan, Jie; Lavigne, Nancy C.
The purpose of this study was to assess whether understanding relational terminology (i.e., "more, less," and "fewer") mediates the effects of intervention on compare word problems. Second-grade classrooms (N = 31) were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: researcher-designed word-problem intervention, researcher-designed calculation…
Students' Understanding and Application of the Area under the Curve Concept in Physics Problems
This study investigates how students understand and apply the area under the curve concept and the integral-area relation in solving introductory physics problems. We interviewed 20 students in the first semester and 15 students from the same cohort in the second semester of a calculus-based physics course sequence on several problems involving…
Nguyen, Dong-Hai; Rebello, N. Sanjay
Defixation as an Intervention PerspectiveUnderstanding Wicked Problems at the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs
This case study presents reflections on a research intervention conducted at the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The subject was the practice of administration. Its objective became to understand its "wicked problems" and to create action principles. It was an analytical research effort as well as a learning intervention. Wicked problems are those that have a large impact on an
Annemieke Stoppelenburg; Hans Vermaak
CAMPUS: a generic framework for Computer Assisted Mathematical Problem Understanding and Solving
This work presents an open-source Computer Assisted Mathematical Problem Understanding and Solving (CAMPUS) framework which offers an environment that allows the student to develop problem solving strategies in complex situations. The tool imposes no restrictions to the resolution process of the learner, but avoids him\\/her taking obviously wrong solution steps. In this paper we will present the tool as well
Gilbert BUSANA
Anchoring Adolescents' Understanding of Math Concepts in Rich Problem-Solving Environments.
This paper describes how eighth-grade students in a remedial math class were able to match the problem solving performance of comparison students in a pre-algebra class. It discusses the use of video-based anchored instruction linked to applied problems to develop students' understanding and skills. (Contains references.) (DB)
Bottge, Brian A.; Heinrichs, Mary; Chan, Shih-Yi; Serlin, Ronald C.
Posing Problems to Develop Conceptual Understanding: Two Teachers Make Sense of Division of Fractions
The way in which two teachers, Elizabeth and Carolyn, posed problems to develop their own conceptual understanding of division of fractions in terms that would also be meaningful for their students is described. Carolyn and Elizabeth's approach is to pose several problems of various degrees of difficulty and complexity for each aspect of the…
Flores, Alfinio; Turner, Erin E.; Bachman, Renee C.
Economic Action and Social Structure: The Problem of Embeddedness
How behavior and institutions are affected by social relations is one of the classic questions of social theory. This paper concerns the extent to which economic action is embedded in structures of social relations, in modern industrial society. Although the usual neoclas- sical accounts provide an \\
Mark Granovetter
Graduate Social Work Students' Attitudes Toward Research: Problems and Prospects
This study examines the attitudes of graduate social work students toward research in the contexts of academic study, professional social work practice, and students' personal lives. The authors collected quantitative and qualitative data from MSW students (n?=?102) at a major Canadian school of social work. Findings suggest that MSW students appreciate the value of research for their professional and personal
Marina Morgenshtern; Nancy Freymond; Samuel Agyapong; Clare Greeson
Medical and social problems among women headed families in Baghdad
Background: Women-headed families tend to be the most marginalized and poverty prone in any given community. One in 10 Iraqi households is headed by woman according to International Organization for Migration, though their assessments suggest that this ratio rises to 1 in 8 in displaced families. Objective: To draw attention to the exposure and vulnerability of women headed families to key medical and social problems. Methods: This cross – sectional study was conducted from March through February 2011. Eleven non-governmental organizations (NGOs) were chosen to be the pool of data collection, in addition to 50 primary, intermediate, and secondary schools for girls. The actual participants were 720 with a response rate of (97%). Women headed families participated in the study were distributed in different areas of Baghdad and the districts around. Results: Hypertension is the leading disease (20%) followed by arthritis (9.6%), heart disease (7.6%), and diabetes mellitus (5.2%), the least was tuberculosis (0.1%). On the other hand, the number of sons and daughters with chronic disease was 159 (6.4%). Respiratory system disease is at the top of the list at a rate of (20.6 per 1000) while the gastrointestinal disease is at the bottom at a rate of (1.6 per 1000). 7.8% of the studied household-heading women were exposed to violence that was either verbal (75%) or physical (25%), the source was the woman's parents (42.9%), husband's family (34%), neighbors (8.9%), and others (14.3%). The percentage of problematic sons (17.9%) who show different types of behavior, (30.2%) of them not obeying their mothers, (21%) hit their brothers, (9.3%) insulting the mother, (2.3%) have problems with neighbors.
Lafta, Riyadh K; Hayawi, Ali H; Khudhairi, Jamal M
Medical and social problems among women headed families in Baghdad.
Background: Women-headed families tend to be the most marginalized and poverty prone in any given community. One in 10 Iraqi households is headed by woman according to International Organization for Migration, though their assessments suggest that this ratio rises to 1 in 8 in displaced families. Objective: To draw attention to the exposure and vulnerability of women headed families to key medical and social problems. Methods: This cross - sectional study was conducted from March through February 2011. Eleven non-governmental organizations (NGOs) were chosen to be the pool of data collection, in addition to 50 primary, intermediate, and secondary schools for girls. The actual participants were 720 with a response rate of (97%). Women headed families participated in the study were distributed in different areas of Baghdad and the districts around. Results: Hypertension is the leading disease (20%) followed by arthritis (9.6%), heart disease (7.6%), and diabetes mellitus (5.2%), the least was tuberculosis (0.1%). On the other hand, the number of sons and daughters with chronic disease was 159 (6.4%). Respiratory system disease is at the top of the list at a rate of (20.6 per 1000) while the gastrointestinal disease is at the bottom at a rate of (1.6 per 1000). 7.8% of the studied household-heading women were exposed to violence that was either verbal (75%) or physical (25%), the source was the woman's parents (42.9%), husband's family (34%), neighbors (8.9%), and others (14.3%). The percentage of problematic sons (17.9%) who show different types of behavior, (30.2%) of them not obeying their mothers, (21%) hit their brothers, (9.3%) insulting the mother, (2.3%) have problems with neighbors. PMID:25003041
Understanding ethnic differences in mental health service use for adolescents' internalizing problems: the role of emotional problem identification.
Although immigrant adolescents are at least at equal risk of developing internalizing problems as their non-immigrant peers, immigrant adolescents are less likely to use mental health care. The present study is the first to examine ethnic differences in problem identification to find explanations for this disparity in mental health service use. Specifically, the extent to which emotional problem identification mediates the relationship between immigrant status and mental health service use for internalizing problems in three immigrant populations in the Netherlands (i.e., Surinamese, Turkish, and Moroccan) was investigated. A two-phase design was used to include adolescents at risk for internalizing problems. Data were used from the second phase, in which 349 parents and adolescents participated (95 native Dutch, 85 Surinamese, 87 Turkish, and 82 Moroccan). Results indicated that mental health service use for internalizing problems is far lower among immigrant adolescents than among native Dutch adolescents, although differences between immigrant groups were also substantive. A lack of emotional problem identification was identified as an essential mediator in the relationship between immigrant status and mental health service use. Since the results suggest the low levels of problem identification in our immigrant samples may serve an explanatory role in the relationship between immigrant status and mental health service use, future research should aim at understanding these ethnic differences in problem identification. PMID:23400427
Verhulp, Esmée E; Stevens, Gonneke W J M; van de Schoot, Rens; Vollebergh, Wilma A M
Relationships between Social Skills, Behavioral Problems, and School Readiness for Head Start Children
This study followed 515 4-year-olds from Head Start entry to exit to investigate their social and behavioral skills and the impact of these skills on school readiness outcomes. Results indicated that, on average, social skills improved across the preschool year, while behavior problems remained relatively stable. Social skills and behavior…
Bracken, Stacey Storch; Fischel, Janet
Examination of a Social Problem-Solving Intervention to Treat Selective Mutism
The authors examined the use of a social problem-solving intervention to treat selective mutism with 2 sisters in an elementary school setting. Both girls were taught to answer teacher questions in front of their classroom peers during regular classroom instruction. Each girl received individualized instruction from a therapist and was taught to discriminate salient social cues, select an appropriate social
Mark OReilly; Deirdre McNally; Jeff Sigafoos; Giulio E. Lancioni; Vanessa Green; Chaturi Edrisinha; Wendy Machalicek; Audrey Sorrells; Russell Lang; Robert Didden
The Center on Race and Social Problems at the University of Pittsburgh
In 2002, the School of Social Work at the University of Pittsburgh established the Center on Race and Social Problems (CRSP). CRSP, which is the first race research center to be housed in a school of social work, has six foci: economic disparities; educational disparities; interracial group relations; mental health; youth, families, and elderly;…
Davis, Larry E.; Bangs, Ralph L.
Social Skills Group Therapy For Children With Emotional And Behavioral Problems
The topic of this research was the utilization of social skills group therapy with children with poor social skills and emotional and behavioral problems. The literature explains that group therapy has many benefits to clients that are not available in individual work with clients. Social skills group therapy is theorized to be helpful for children with mental health disorders, especially
Lilith Chunn
Effect of explicit problem solving instruction on high school students' problem-solving performance and conceptual understanding of physics
In this study a two-sample, pre/posttest, quasi-experimental design was used to investigate the effect of explicit problem-solving instruction on high school students' conceptual understanding of physics. Eight physics classes, with a total of 145 students, were randomly assigned to either a treatment or comparison group. The four treatment classes were taught how to use an explicit problem-solving strategy, while the four comparison classes were taught how to use a textbook problem-solving strategy. Students' problem-solving performance and conceptual understanding were assessed both before and after instruction. The results indicated that the explicit strategy improved the quality and completeness of students' physics representations more than the textbook strategy, but there was no difference between the two strategies on match of equations with representations, organization, or mathematical execution. In terms of conceptual understanding, there was no overall difference between the two groups; however, there was a significant interaction between the sex of the students and group. The explicit strategy appeared to benefit female students, while the textbook strategy appeared to benefit male students. The implications of these results for physics instruction are discussed.
Huffman, Douglas
Silos and Social Identity: The Social Identity Approach as a Framework for Understanding and Overcoming Divisions in Health Care
Context One of health care's foremost challenges is the achievement of integration and collaboration among the groups providing care. Yet this fundamentally group-related issue is typically discussed in terms of interpersonal relations or operational issues, not group processes. Methods We conducted a systematic search for literature offering a group-based analysis and examined it through the lens of the social identity approach (SIA). Founded in the insight that group memberships form an important part of the self-concept, the SIA encompasses five dimensions: social identity, social structure, identity content, strength of identification, and context. Findings Our search yielded 348 reports, 114 of which cited social identity. However, SIA-citing reports varied in both compatibility with the SIA's metatheoretical paradigm and applied relevance to health care; conversely, some non-SIA-citers offered SIA-congruent analyses. We analyzed the various combinations and interpretations of the five SIA dimensions, identifying ten major conceptual currents. Examining these in the light of the SIA yielded a cohesive, multifaceted picture of (inter)group relations in health care. Conclusions The SIA offers a coherent framework for integrating a diverse, far-flung literature on health care groups. Further research should take advantage of the full depth and complexity of the approach, remain sensitive to the unique features of the health care context, and devote particular attention to identity mobilization and context change as key drivers of system transformation. Our article concludes with a set of "guiding questions" to help health care leaders recognize the group dimension of organizational problems, identify mechanisms for change, and move forward by working with and through social identities, not against them.
Kreindler, Sara A; Dowd, Damien A; Dana Star, Noah; Gottschalk, Tania
Exploring the Relationship between Self-Awareness and Student Commitment and Understanding of Culturally Responsive Social Work Practice
This study explores the relationship between self-awareness and social work students' commitment and understanding of culturally responsive social work practice. Data consisted of assigned papers (N = 23), submitted by graduate social work students, which asked them to describe their ethnic/racial background and ancestors' process of assimilation,…
Bender, Kimberly; Negi, Nalini; Fowler, Dawnovise N.
Developmental pathways of language and social communication problems in 9-11 year olds: Unpicking the heterogeneity.
This paper addressed relations between language, social communication and behaviour, and their trajectories, in a sample of 9-11-year-olds (n=91) who had been referred to clinical services with concerns about language as pre-schoolers. Children were first assessed at 2˝-4 years, and again 18 months later. Results revealed increasing differentiation of profiles across time. By 9-11 years, 11% of the sample had social communication deficits, 27% language impairment, 20% both, and 42% neither. The size of group differences on key language and social communication measures was striking (2-3 standard deviations). Social communication deficits included autistic mannerisms and were associated with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties (SEBDs); in contrast, language impairment was associated with hyperactivity only. Children with both language and social communication problems had the most severe difficulties on all measures. These distinct school-age profiles emerged gradually. Investigation of developmental trajectories revealed that the three impaired groups did not differ significantly on language or SEBD measures when the children were first seen. Only low performance on the Early Sociocognitive Battery, a new measure of social responsiveness, joint attention and symbolic understanding, differentiated the children with and without social communication problems at 9-11 years. These findings suggest that some children who first present with language delay or difficulties have undetected Autism Spectrum Disorders which may or may not be accompanied by language impairment in the longer term. This new evidence of developmental trajectories starting in the preschool years throws further light on the nature of social communication and language problems in school-age children, relations between language impairment and SEBDs, and on the nature of early language development. PMID:25005063
Roy, P; Chiat, S
Complex Problem Solving: Identity Matching Based on Social Contextual Information
Complex problems like drug crimes often involve a large number of variables interacting with each other. A complex problem may be solved by breaking it into parts (i.e., sub-problems), which can be tackled more easily. The identity matching problem, for example, is a part of the problem of drug and other types of crimes. It is often encountered during crime
Jennifer Jie Xu; G. Alan Wang; Jiexun Li; Michael Chau
Complex Problem Solving: Identity Matching Based on Social
Jennifer Xu; Jiexun Li; Michael Chau
Social Psychology, Social Science, and Economics: Twentieth Century Progress and Problems, Twenty-First Century Prospects
Stimulated by social scientists' and especially social psychologists' contributions during World War II, as well as by America's post-war economic and population growth, the period from 1945 to 1970 was widely viewed as a "Golden Age" for American social science. Interdisciplinary social psychology arguably was in the vanguard of these…
House, James S.
Social Problems as a Mediator of the Link between Reactive Aggression and Withdrawn/Depressed Symptoms
The current study examined whether social problems accounted for the relation between reactive aggression and withdrawn/depressed symptoms in a sample of 147 children (54.4% male) ranging from 5 to 13 years of age (M = 8.22 years) who attended a community based after-school program. Findings suggested that indeed social problems mediated the link…
Fite, Paula J.; Rathert, Jamie L.; Stoppelbein, Laura; Greening, Leilani
The Role of Emotion Regulation in the Social Problems of Boys With Developmental Delays
Parents and teachers reported that 6- to 8-year-old boys with developmental delays were less able to regulate their emotions than nondelayed boys matched on chronological age. Compared to nondelayed boys, boys with developmental delays had more social problems, which persisted and increased over a 3-year period. Children's ability to regulate their emotions explained significant variance in their social problems after
Beverly J. Wilson; Siobhan Fernandes-Richards; Cyrena Aarskog; Teresa Osborn; Darla Capetillo
The Effect of Communication Skills and Interpersonal Problem Solving Skills on Social Self-Efficacy
The purpose of this study was to examine communication skills, interpersonal problem solving skills, and social self-efficacy perception of adolescents and the predictive role of communication skills and interpersonal problem solving skills on social self-efficacy. This study is a quantitative and relational study aimed at examining the…
Erozkan, Atilgan
Poor social skills are a vulnerability factor in the development of psychosocial problems
This 2-wave panel study sought to test a social skills deficit vulnerability model of psychoso- cial problems. According to this model, poor social skills are thought to make people vulner- able to psychosocial problems pursuant to the experience of stressful life events. This model was tested in a sample of 118 students who were moving at least 200 miles away
Chris Segrin; J Flora
Analogies to Terror: The Construction of Social Problems in Israel During the Intifada Al Aqsa
Studies of the construction of social problems suggest that claims makers only relate to the issue that they are trying to place on the national agenda. However, an analysis of the Israeli public discourse about a number of social problems during the Intifada Al Aqsa indicates that this is not the case. The external threat served as an inferential structure
Gerald Cromer
Social Problem-Solving and Mild Intellectual Disabilities: Relations with Externalizing Behavior and Therapeutic Context
Relations among externalizing behavior, therapeutic context (community care vs. residential care), and social problem-solving by children with mild intellectual disabilities or borderline intelligence were examined. Participants were 186 children (12 to 14 years of age) who responded to a video-based social problem-solving task. Of these, 130…
van Nieuwenhuijzen, Maroesjka; de Castro, Bram Orobio; Wijnroks, Lex; Vermeer, Adri; Matthys, Walter
Addict Life Stories: An Exploration of the Methodological Grounds for the Study of Social Problems.
Explores the use of sociological life histories to study social problems such as drug addiction. The factors influencing the fluctuating popularity of this research technique within the social sciences are examined. The impact of the researcher's direct exposure to the interviewee's problems on research results is discussed. (AM)
Kaplan, Charles D.
Age Moderates the Relationship Between Social Support and Psychosocial Problems
Social support is commonly assumed to protect people from the experience of psychological distress and to enhance well-being. However, past research shows that the effectiveness of social support from family members and friends varies over the life span. Both the stage model of life satisfaction and compensatory processes associated with aging provide accounts for why this may be the case.
Chris Segrin
Social stress, normative constraints and alcohol problems in American States
Robert Bales' theory explains rates of alcoholism in populations by the combination of socially induced stress and tension together with a normative system that promotes the use of alcohol for releasing that tension. This paper provides the first systematic test of that theory by combining the variables of social stress and normative approval of alcohol within the same research design.
Arnold S. Linsky; John P. Colby; Murray A. Straus
Scaffolded problem-solving, learning approaches and understanding of concepts in an introductory college physics class
This study was an exploration of students' use of scaffolded problems as part of their homework in an introductory calculus-based physics class. The study included consideration of the possible relationship of students' meaningful and rote learning approaches. The sample was comprised of 48 students who had completed all study instruments. Of this number, 23 did homework assignments that included scaffolded problems that had been divided into multiple steps that simplify, highlight, and organize the knowledge associated with the problem solving process. The other 25 students did non-scaffolded homework assignments. The Mechanics Baseline Test, given at the beginning of the study, measured students' prior knowledge of physics concepts. The Learning Approach Questionnaire, also given at the beginning of the study, measured students' meaningful and rote approaches to learning. Student responses to 6 qualitative physics problems and their selection of concepts associated with 4 quantitative physics problems was a gauge of their understanding of physics concepts. These 10 problems were distributed between 2 classroom examinations given during the study. At the end of the study 4 students who had done scaffolded homework problems and 4 students who had done non-scaffolded homework problems participated in think aloud protocols. They verbalized their thoughts as they attempted to solve 2 physics problems. Characterizations of individual problem solving approaches emerged from the think aloud protocols. An analysis of statistical data showed that students who did scaffolded problems attained significantly greater understanding of physics concepts than students who did non-scaffolded assignments. There were no significant differences by learning approaches, and no significant interactions. This indicates that scaffolded homework problems may benefit students regardless of learning orientation. Think aloud protocols revealed patterns of difference between students who had done scaffolded homework problems and students who had done non-scaffolded homework problems. These included a greater tendency among scaffolded students to include declarative knowledge and to perform problem checks. It also included a greater tendency among non-scaffolded students to rely on the textbook as a reference during problem representation. Overall, students who had done scaffolded problems appeared to solve problems in a manner closer to that seen in expert problem solvers. Additionally, they showed evidence of problem solving habits, for instance checking, that might have a long term benefit.
Haack, Constance
Relations of social problem solving with interpersonal competence in Japanese students.
To clarify the relations of the dimensions of social problem solving with those of interpersonal competence in a sample of 234 Japanese college students, Japanese versions of the Social Problem-solving Inventory-Revised and the Social Skill Scale were administered. Pearson correlations between the two sets of variables were low, but higher within each set of subscales. Cronbach's alpha was low for four subscales assessing interpersonal competence. PMID:22420125
Sumi, Katsunori
Exploring the Relationships of Women's Sexual Assault Disclosure, Social Reactions, and Problem Drinking
The goal of this exploratory study was to examine correlates of sexual assault disclosure and social reactions in female victims with and without drinking problems. An ethnically diverse sample of sexual assault survivors was recruited from college, community, and mental health agencies. Ethnic minority women were less likely to disclose assault, and women with a greater number of traumatic life events disclosed assault more often. Although there were no differences in disclosure likelihood by drinking status; of those disclosing, problem drinkers told more support sources and received more negative and positive social reactions than nonproblem drinkers. Correlates of receiving negative social reactions were similar for normal and problem drinkers; however, negative social reactions to assault disclosure were related to more problem drinking for women with less frequent social interaction. Implications for future research and possible support interventions with problem-drinking victims are provided.
Ullman, Sarah E.; Starzynski, Laura L.; Long, Susan M.; Mason, Gillian E.; Long, LaDonna M.
Is conceptual understanding compromised by a problem-solving emphasis in an introductory physics course?
Developing competency in problem solving and enhancing conceptual understanding are primary objectives in introductory physics, and many techniques and tools are available to help instructors achieve them. Pedagogically, we use an easy-to-implement intervention, the ACCESS protocol, to develop and assess problem-solving skills in our SCALE-UP classroom environment for algebra-based physics. Based on our research and teaching experience, an important question has emerged: while primarily targeting improvements in problem-solving and cognitive development, is it necessary that conceptual understanding be compromised? To address this question, we gathered and analyzed information about student abilities, backgrounds, and instructional preferences. We report on our progress and give insights into matching the instructional tools to student profiles in order to achieve optimal learning in group-based active learning. The ultimate goal of our work is to integrate individual student learning needs into a pedagogy that moves students closer to expert-like status in problem solving.
Ridenour, J.; Feldman, G.; Teodorescu, R.; Medsker, L.; Benmouna, N.
Preschool teachers' ratings of behavioral problems: observational, sociometric, and social-cognitive correlates.
Behar and Stringfield (1974) have suggested that the Preschool Behavior Questionnaire (PBQ) is a reliable index of young children's social competence. However, there are few extant data in which teacher ratings of children on the PBQ have been correlated with independent assessments of social competence. In this study PBQ ratings of 123 preschoolers were correlated with observations of in-class social and cognitive play behaviors, sociometric status, and social problem-solving skills. Analyses indicated that children rated highly on the PBQ's Anxious-Fearful, Hostile-Aggressive, and Hyperactive-Distractible factors (a) displayed less mature and more aggressive in-class behaviors, (b) were less popular among their peers, and (c) were more likely to suggest negative affect strategies on the social problem-solving measure. Thus, the PBQ appears to be a useful instrument for identifying children with social problems. PMID:6619438
Rubin, K H; Clark, M L
Understanding India, globalisation and health care systems: a mapping of research in the social sciences
National and transnational health care systems are rapidly evolving with current processes of globalisation. What is the contribution of the social sciences to an understanding of this field? A structured scoping exercise was conducted to identify relevant literature using the lens of India – a 'rising power' with a rapidly expanding healthcare economy. A five step search and analysis method was employed in order to capture as wide a range of material as possible. Documents published in English that met criteria for a social science contribution were included for review. Via electronic bibliographic databases, websites and hand searches conducted in India, 113 relevant articles, books and reports were identified. These were classified according to topic area, publication date, disciplinary perspective, genre, and theoretical and methodological approaches. Topic areas were identified initially through an inductive approach, then rationalised into seven broad themes. Transnational consumption of health services; the transnational healthcare workforce; the production, consumption and trade in specific health-related commodities, and transnational diffusion of ideas and knowledge have all received attention from social scientists in work related to India. Other themes with smaller volumes of work include new global health governance issues and structures; transnational delivery of health services and the transnational movement of capital. Thirteen disciplines were found represented in our review, with social policy being a clear leader, followed by economics and management studies. Overall this survey of India-related work suggests a young and expanding literature, although hampered by inadequacies in global comparative data, and by difficulties in accessing commercially sensitive information. The field would benefit from further cross-fertilisation between disciplines and greater application of explanatory theory. Literatures around stem cell research and health related commodities provide some excellent examples of illuminating social science. Future research agendas on health systems issues need to include innovative empirical work that captures the dynamics of transnational processes and that links macro-level change to fine-grained observations of social life.
Understanding India, globalisation and health care systems: a mapping of research in the social sciences.
National and transnational health care systems are rapidly evolving with current processes of globalisation. What is the contribution of the social sciences to an understanding of this field? A structured scoping exercise was conducted to identify relevant literature using the lens of India - a 'rising power' with a rapidly expanding healthcare economy. A five step search and analysis method was employed in order to capture as wide a range of material as possible. Documents published in English that met criteria for a social science contribution were included for review. Via electronic bibliographic databases, websites and hand searches conducted in India, 113 relevant articles, books and reports were identified. These were classified according to topic area, publication date, disciplinary perspective, genre, and theoretical and methodological approaches. Topic areas were identified initially through an inductive approach, then rationalised into seven broad themes. Transnational consumption of health services; the transnational healthcare workforce; the production, consumption and trade in specific health-related commodities, and transnational diffusion of ideas and knowledge have all received attention from social scientists in work related to India. Other themes with smaller volumes of work include new global health governance issues and structures; transnational delivery of health services and the transnational movement of capital. Thirteen disciplines were found represented in our review, with social policy being a clear leader, followed by economics and management studies. Overall this survey of India-related work suggests a young and expanding literature, although hampered by inadequacies in global comparative data, and by difficulties in accessing commercially sensitive information. The field would benefit from further cross-fertilisation between disciplines and greater application of explanatory theory. Literatures around stem cell research and health related commodities provide some excellent examples of illuminating social science. Future research agendas on health systems issues need to include innovative empirical work that captures the dynamics of transnational processes and that links macro-level change to fine-grained observations of social life. PMID:22963264
Bisht, Ramila; Pitchforth, Emma; Murray, Susan F
Social skill in third and sixth grade children: A moderator of lifetime stressful life events and behavior problems?
We investigated relationships among stressful lifetime life events, social skill, and behavior problems in children. Participants were 159 third graders, 138 sixth graders, and their mothers. Mothers reported on their children's life events, social skill, and behavior problems. Children self-reported on their social skill and behavior problems. Increased numbers of stressful life events significantly predicted increased behavior problems in third
Lyn A. Vinnick; Marilyn T. Erickson
Building a Meaning Bridge: Therapeutic Progress from Problem Formulation to Understanding
Qualitative analyses of 2 clients' psychotherapies (client centered and process-experiential) investigated the developmental progression from formulating a problem to achieving an understanding of it. The results elaborated one segment in the 8-stage Assimilation of Problematic Experiences Sequence (APES), through which problematic parts of a…
Brinegar, Meredith Glick; Salvi, Lisa M.; Stiles, William B.; Greenberg, Leslie S.
Acquiring an understanding of design: evidence from children's insight problem solving
The human ability to make tools and use them to solve problems may not be zoologically unique, but it is certainly extraordinary. Yet little is known about the conceptual machinery that makes humans so competent at making and using tools. Do adults and children have concepts specialized for understanding human-made artifacts? If so, are these concepts deployed in attempts to
Margaret Anne Defeyter; Tim P. German
Supporting Holistic Understanding of Geographical Problems: Fieldwork and G-Portal
Fieldwork remains the mainstay in the study of geography and in the analysis of the environmental processes. However, an in-depth understanding of the environmental and geographical processes requires extensive as well as intensive fieldwork that involves time and substantial effort, both of which may pose a problem within a given curriculum time.…
Chatterjea, Kalyani; Chang, Chew-Hung; Lim, Ee-Peng; Zhang, Jun; Theng, Yin-Leng; Go, Dion Hoe-Lian
Influences of Problem Format and SES on Preschoolers' Understanding of Approximate Addition
Recent studies suggest that 5-year-olds can add and compare large numerical quantities through approximate representations of number. However, the nature of this understanding and its susceptibility to environmental influences remain unclear. We examined whether children's early competence depends on the canonical problem format (i.e., arithmetic…
McNeil, Nicole M.; Fuhs, Mary Wagner; Keultjes, M. Claire; Gibson, Matthew H.
Developing school psychologists as agents of social justice: A qualitative analysis of student understanding across three years.
This study employed a cohort-sequential design with four cohorts over 3years to investigate school psychology graduate trainees' (n=37) understanding of social justice. Using consensual qualitative research methods, participants' perspectives on social justice writ large, social justice as it applies to school psychology, and effective aspects of social justice training in their graduate training program were collected through semi-structured focus group interviews. Field-based training though service-learning in diverse communities provided trainees with exposure to experiences that were viewed as instrumental in their understanding of social justice in general and as it applies to school psychology. Trainees described aspects of the training program that were viewed as conducive to educating school psychologists as agents of social justice. Based on findings from the study, a descriptive model of school psychology training for social justice is proposed. PMID:24930823
Moy, Gregory E; Briggs, Alissa; Shriberg, David; Furrey, Katie Jackson; Smith, Portia; Tompkins, Nicole
Shyness and Social Phobia: A Social Work Perspective on a Problem in Living.
Social phobia can be conceptualized from a social work perspective as an extreme shyness that can be overcome with cognitive learning and behavioral rehearsal. This article reviews the biopsychosocial causes of social phobia and presents a summary of cognitive and behavioral interventions with empirically demonstrated effectiveness. (Author)
Walsh, Joseph
Social Orientation: Problem Behavior and Motivations toward Interpersonal Problem Solving among High Risk Adolescents.
Examined a model of problematic adolescent behavior that expands current theories of social skill deficits in delinquent behavior to consider social skills and orientation toward the use of adaptive skills. Results from a sample of 113 male and female adolescents suggest that the usefulness of social skills theories of adolescent behavior can be…
Kuperminc, Gabriel P.; Allen, Joseph P.
Social Orientation: Problem Behavior and Motivations Toward Interpersonal Problem Solving Among High Risk Adolescents
A model of problematic adolescent behavior that expands current theories of social skill deficits in delinquent behavior to consider both social skills and orientation toward the use of adaptive skills was examined in an ethnically and socioeconomically diverse sample of 113 male and female adolescents. Adolescents were selected on the basis of moderate to serious risk for difficulties in social
Gabriel P. Kuperminc; Joseph P. Allen
Understanding the Social Networks That Form within the Context of an Obesity Prevention Intervention
Background. Antiobesity interventions have generally failed. Research now suggests that interventions must be informed by an understanding of the social environment. Objective. To examine if new social networks form between families participating in a group-level pediatric obesity prevention trial. Methods. Latino parent-preschool child dyads (N = 79) completed the 3-month trial. The intervention met weekly in consistent groups to practice healthy lifestyles. The control met monthly in inconsistent groups to learn about school readiness. UCINET and SIENA were used to examine network dynamics. Results. Children's mean age was 4.2 years (SD = 0.9), and 44% were overweight/obese (BMI ? 85th percentile). Parents were predominantly mothers (97%), with a mean age of 31.4 years (SD = 5.4), and 81% were overweight/obese (BMI ? 25). Over the study, a new social network evolved among participating families. Parents selectively formed friendship ties based on child BMI z-score, (t = 2.08; P < .05). This reveals the tendency for mothers to form new friendships with mothers whose children have similar body types. Discussion. Participating in a group-level intervention resulted in new social network formation. New ties were greatest with mothers who had children of similar body types. This finding might contribute to the known inability of parents to recognize child overweight.
Gesell, Sabina B.; Bess, Kimberly D.; Barkin, Shari L.
The problem of instincts and its relation to social psychology
Whenever the study of a scientific problem is vigorously pursued, misunderstandings of various sorts almost inevitably appear. The problem of instincts, displaying as it does, a veritable babel of misconstructions, is no exception to the general rule. Apparently such opposing interpretations arise because of the different cultural backgrounds of writers and their specific interests in the problem studied. Because the
J. R. Kantor
College Students' Intuitive Understanding and Problem-Solving of Energy and Momentum
This study addresses students' intuitive understanding of energy and momentum and their problem solving ability. The subjects of this research were students who had experiences with conservation of energy and momentum. Nine undergraduate students completed event-based Interviews with three related events which composed of Event I: Simple collisions, Event II: Newton's cradle and Event III: Gauss gun. Their intuitive understanding was explored through three well-defined items involving Event I and II. The interviews revealed that most students explained the two events by utilizing their intuitive understanding rather than scientific conceptions. Then problem-solving thinking was identified through ill-defined problems involving Event III. From the Gauss gun setting, students were asked to explain how Gauss gun works, how to build the highest power Gauss gun and interpret the graph of mass and distance of steel ball after collisions. Research findings showed that students who have fairly good command of basic knowledge, tended to use of problem solving strategies as expected. For example, a student who understood the perfectly transferring energy and momentum of the equal mass of balls, was able to identify the possible factors for design more effective Gauss gun reasonably. However, most of the students were unable to use suitable vocabulary in providing reasons and explanations for certain problem-solving procedures. Thus, lacking basic knowledge can impede problem-solving thinking. It is hope that these findings will serve as a reference for educators in improving the learning and teaching of energy and momentum in general and problem solving instruction in particular.
Chittasirinuwat, Onchira; Kruatong, Tussatrin; Paosawatyanyong, Boonchoat
The Relationship of Self-Understanding in Childhood to Social Class, Community Type, and Teacher-Rated Intellectual and Social Competence.
Investigates the relationship of children's self-understanding to social class, community type (modern or traditional), and teachers' ratings for 73 12 year olds in Reykjavik (Iceland) and 21 12 year olds in traditional villages in Iceland. Children in higher social classes offer more psychological descriptions. The inadvisability of generalizing…
Hart, Daniel; Edelstein, Wolfgang
Organisational Problem Based Learning and Social Communities for SMEs
This paper highlights reasons for SMEs low uptake of training and argues that current offerings are not suitable for their needs. It highlights the need to leverage the benefits of work based learning through the use of technology. Social media and web 2.0 has significantly changed the way people learn and access knowledge. The body of knowledge…
O'Brien, Emma; Hamburg, Ileana
This paper presents an application of social network theory to the analysis of asymmetric attack events in the current Iraq conflicts. Specifically, the degrees of centrality and closeness centrality are studied with respect to event locations (cities), claims by insurgent groups, and event occurrences. Data for analysis was obtained during the month of August 4-6, 2006. Although the sample size
Kaize Adams; Celestine Ntuen
Stillbirth--a neglected priority: understanding its social meaning in Pakistan.
Despite being ranked 3rd among the countries having highest burden of stillbirths, it remains a neglected priority in Pakistan. We review the evidence regarding social and biomedical understanding of stillbirths by both communities and healthcare providers. The terminology used to define stillbirth worldwide remains inconsistent. Not only do the health professionals mis-classify and under-report stillbirths, but also the parents and families are unclear about the difference between miscarriage, stillbirth and early neonatal deaths. Stillbirths occur more in poor families and are not recognised by tradition and religion as a loss comparable to a newborn who was born alive. There is need to understand perspective of communities and healthcare providers to identify prevention and management strategies along with providing support for coping with the implications of stillbirths. Future government policies on stillbirths must be informed by the influence of culture on the attitudes, beliefs and practices of the communities and the healthcare providers. PMID:24864610
Hamid, Saima; Malik, Asmat Ullah; Richard, Fabienne
Brief report: difficulty in understanding social acting (but not false beliefs) mediates the link between autistic traits and ingroup relationships.
Why do individuals with more autistic traits experience social difficulties? Here we examined the hypothesis that these difficulties stem in part from a challenge in understanding social acting, the prosocial pretense that adults routinely produce to maintain positive relationships with their ingroup. In Study 1, we developed a self-administered test of social-acting understanding: participants read stories in which a character engaged in social acting and rated the appropriateness of the character's response. Adults who scored 26 or higher on the Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ) questionnaire gave significantly lower ratings than comparison participants (AQ < 26). Study 2 found that difficulty in understanding social acting, but not false beliefs, mediated the link between autistic traits and perceived ingroup relationships. PMID:23334807
Yang, Daniel Y-J; Baillargeon, Renée
Social support for parents of deaf children: moving toward contextualized understanding.
In light of claims that social support needs to be defined within specific context, we conducted a metasynthesis to identify ways that social support has been studied and contextualized in research focused on hearing parents of children with hearing loss. A literature search of published articles was conducted to identify research studies related to support and hearing parents of children with hearing loss. Our search yielded 108 items from Psycinfo and 154 items from Web of Science; 26 studies met our inclusion criteria. Our analyses involved summary and integration of information regarding research methods, guiding theoretical frameworks, and findings in relation to diverse support contexts. We found that it is the multidimensionality of social support and its specific functions, individually and in combination, that are particularly relevant in informing family-centered service provision. Further understanding of the multidimensional and dynamic nature of support could occur through investigation of diverse functions of support within and across ecological contexts. Findings from this study contributed to a descriptive framework that can be used to explore the multidimensionality of support; facilitate use of methods that assess specific support functions; and also inform the development of interventions that are responsive and match the needs of parents. PMID:24212123
Poon, Brenda T; Zaidman-Zait, Anat
Parenting Practices and Adolescent Internalizing and Externalizing Problems: Moderating Effects of Socially Demanding Kin Relations
Association of socially demanding kin relations, mother's emotional support, behavioral control/monitoring, family organization and psychological control with adolescent's internalizing and externalizing problems were assessed in 200 economically disadvantaged, African American mothers and adolescents. Demanding kin relations and mother's…
Taylor, Ronald D.; Lopez, Elizabeth I.; Budescu, Mia; McGill, Rebecca Kang
Schooling and Traditional Collaborative Social Organization of Problem Solving by Mayan Mothers and Children
Traditional indigenous social organization in the Americas has been characterized as involving horizontal multiparty engagements, in contrast with schooling, which often relies on hierarchy and division of labor. This study examined whether the social organization of problem solving of Guatemalan Mayan indigenous mothers and children varied with the mothers' extent of experience with school. We observed 47 mothers as they
Pablo Chavajay; Barbara Rogoff
Predicting Depression, Social Phobia, and Violence in Early Adulthood from Childhood Behavior Problems
Objective: This study examined childhood behavior problems at ages 10 and 11 years as predictors of young adult depression, social phobia, and violence at age 21 years. Method: Data were collected as part of the Seattle Social Development Project, a longitudinal study of 808 elementary school students from high-crime neighborhoods of Seattle.…
Mason, W. Alex; Kosterman, Rick; Hawkins, J. David; Herrenkohl, Todd I.; Lengua, Liliana J.; McCauley, Elizabeth
Problems of Integrating Academic Disciplines in the Study of War, Violence, and Social Change.
The problems mankind faces are of such overwhelming importance that it is easy to see why we are interested in integrating the academic disciplines to study war, violence, and social change. Could not the behavioral sciences, properly mobilized, enable us to reduce the probabilities of war and violence, and make social change more tolerable?…
Milburn, Thomas
The Relationship between Training Availability and Social Workers' Ability to Treat Problem Drinkers
An explanatory cross sectional investigation was employed to assess how well master's level social work (MSW) programs in the State of New York prepare students for practice with problem drinkers. Five hundred and fifty questionnaires were mailed to members of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW). A non-probability sample, consisting…
Richardson, Marchette A.
Primary Health Care Physicians' Treatment of Psychosocial Problems: Implications for Social Work.
Explores extent to which physicians in Israel serve as gatekeepers for treatment of psychosocial problems and have contact with social workers. Gatekeeping variables included large caseloads, specializing in family medicine, practicing in a rural location, and being under age 55. Social work contact variables were affiliation with the largest…
Gross, Revital; And Others
Academic and Social Integration and Study Progress in Problem Based Learning
The present study explores the effects of problem-based learning (PBL) on social and academic integration and study progress. Three hundred and five first-year students from three different psychology curricula completed a questionnaire on social and academic integration. Effects of a full-fledged PBL environment were compared to (1) effects of a…
Severiens, Sabine E.; Schmidt, Henk G.
Identification of Social-Emotional Problems among Young Children in Foster Care
Background: Little is known about how best to implement behavioral screening recommendations in practice, especially for children in foster care, who are at risk for having social-emotional problems. Two validated screening tools are recommended for use with young children: the Ages and Stages Questionnaire: Social Emotional (ASQ-SE) identifies…
Jee, Sandra H.; Conn, Anne-Marie; Szilagyi, Peter G.; Blumkin, Aaron; Baldwin, Constance D.; Szilagyi, Moira A.
Teaching Intellectually Challenging Social Studies in the Middle School: Problems and Possibilities
Are middle schoolers capable of discussing the war in Iraq in meaningful ways? Can seventh graders develop informed ideas about presidential candidates' positions on health care? Should young adolescents discuss controversial public issues, interpret primary sources, and analyze social problems? Thoughtful social studies educators disagree. While…
Conklin, Hilary G.
Relations Between Social Self-Perceptions, Time Use, and Prosocial or Problem Behaviors During Adolescence
This study investigated the relations between social self-perceptions, time use, and later involvement in prosocial or problem behaviors during early, middle, and later adolescence. The authors used an idiographic approach to identify four different patterns of social self-perceptions (confident, anxious, unconcerned, desperate) and then examined…
Jacobs, Janis E.; Vernon, Margaret K.; Eccles, Jacquelynne S.
Social Information Processing in Preschool Children: Relations to Sociodemographic Risk and Problem Behavior
Using a multicomponent, process-oriented approach, the links between social information processing during the preschool years and (a) sociodemographic risk and (b) behavior problems in preschool were examined in a community sample of 196 children. Findings provided support for our initial hypotheses that aspects of social information processing in…
Ziv, Yair; Sorongon, Alberto
Improving Student Social Skills through the Use of Cooperative Learning, Problem Solving, and Direct Instruction.
The report describes a program to improve students social skills and level of responsibility. The targeted eighth and ninth grade students are located in two communities in northwestern Illinois. The problem of students exhibiting a lack of social skills and responsibility had been documented by student discipline referrals, anecdotal records,…
Brandt, Meredith; Christensen, Robb
Social Support among Offenders with Substance Abuse Problems: Overlooked and Underused?
The author examined correlates of social support among 101 offenders in corrections-based treatment programs. Respondents perceived high levels of support despite numerous interpersonal problems. Social support was significantly associated with visits, letters, arrests, and days in treatment. The author describes strategies for implementing…
Lemieux, Catherine M.
Problem gambling in poker: money, rationality and control in a skill-based social game
The article explores problem gambling in poker. The distinctions between chance and skill and between bank games and social games are applied to demonstrate how poker is structurally different from most other gambling games. Bank games are organised around a central actor such as the house, the casino or the bookmaker. In social games, players compete against each other on
Ole Bjerg
Understanding the Assessment of Psychotropic Drug Harms in Clinical Trials to Improve Social Workers' Role in Medication Monitoring
The purpose of this integrative review is to facilitate social work practitioners' understanding of how psychotropic drug harms are assessed in clinical trials and to make specific suggestions for social workers' increased involvement in detecting drug harms in their clients. The authors undertook a comprehensive review of interdisciplinary…
Hughes, Shannon; Cohen, David
Understanding Student Learning in Context: Relationships between University Students' Social Identity, Approaches to Learning, and Academic Performance
This research focuses on understanding how socio-psychological dimensions such as student social identity and student perceptions of their learning community affect learning at university. To do this, it integrates ideas from phenomenographic research into student learning with ideas from research on social identity. In two studies (N = 110, and N…
Bliuc, Ana-Maria; Ellis, Robert A.; Goodyear, Peter; Hendres, Daniela Muntele
Using Social Policy Research for Reducing Social Problems: An Empirical Analysis of Structure and Functions
Investigating three samples of social policy research in The Netherlands, the authors analyzed the conditions and functions influencing utilization (impact). Interorganizational context, intergroup relations, and role interaction were found to relate to utilization. The impact of social policy research upon organizational decisions is cognitive, communicative, and diagnostic. The cognitive function correlates negatively with publishing for scholarly audiences. Of the communicative
Mark Van de Vall; Cheryl Bolas
"Kracking" the Missing Data Problem: Applying Krackhardt's Cognitive Social Structures to School-Based Social Networks
Social network analysis can enrich school-based research on children's peer relationships. Unfortunately, accurate network analysis requires near-complete data on all students and is underutilized in school-based research because of low rates of parental consent. This article advocates Krackhardt's cognitive social structures (CSS) as a solution…
Neal, Jennifer Watling
A model of problematic adolescent behavior that expands current theories of social skill deficits in delinquent behavior to consider both social skills and orientation toward the use of adaptive skills was examined in an ethnically and socioeco- nomically diverse sample of 113 male and female adolescents. Adolescents were selected on the basis of moderate to serious risk for difficulties in
Social Uptake of Scientific Understanding of Seismic Hazard in Sumatra and Cascadia
The importance of science within hazard mitigation cannot be underestimated. Robust mitigation polices rely strongly on a sound understanding of the science underlying potential natural disasters and the transference of that knowledge from the scientific community to the general public via governments and policy makers. We aim to investigate how and why the public's knowledge, perceptions, response, adjustments and values towards science have changed throughout two decades of research conducted in areas along and adjacent to the Sumatran and Cascadia subduction zones. We will focus on two countries subject to the same potential hazard, but which encompass starkly contrasting political, economic, social and environmental settings. The transfer of scientific knowledge into the public/ social arena is a complex process, the success of which is reflected in a community's ability to withstand large scale devastating events. Although no one could have foreseen the magnitude of the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami, the social devastation generated underscored the stark absence of mitigation measures in the nations most heavily affected. It furthermore emphasized the need for the design and implementation of disaster preparedness measures. Survey of existing literature has already established timelines for major events and public policy changes in the case study areas. Clear evidence exists of the link between scientific knowledge and its subsequent translation into public policy, particularly in the Cascadia context. The initiation of the National Tsunami Hazard Mitigation Program following the Cape Mendocino earthquake in 1992 embodies this link. Despite a series of environmental disasters with recorded widespread fatalities dating back to the mid 1900s and a heightened impetus for scientific research into tsunami/ earthquake hazard following the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami, the translation of science into the public realm is not widely obvious in the Sumatran context. This research aims to further investigate how the enhanced understanding of earthquake and tsunami hazards is being used to direct hazard mitigation strategies and enables direct comparison with the scientific and public policy developments in Cascadia.
Shannon, R.; McCloskey, J.; Guyer, C.; McDowell, S.; Steacy, S.
The Biofuels Revolution: Understanding the Social, Cultural and Economic Impacts of Biofuels Development on Rural Communities
The aim of this research was an in-depth analysis of the impacts of biofuels industry and ethanol plants on six rural communities in the Midwestern states of Kansas and Iowa. The goal was to provide a better understanding of the social, cultural, and economic implications of biofuels development, and to contribute to more informed policy development regarding bioenergy.Specific project objectives were: 1. To understand how the growth of biofuel production has affected and will affect Midwestern farmers and rural communities in terms of economic, demographic, and socio-cultural impacts; 2. To determine how state agencies, groundwater management districts, local governments and policy makers evaluate or manage bioenergy development in relation to competing demands for economic growth, diminishing water resources, and social considerations; 3. To determine the factors that influence the water management practices of agricultural producers in Kansas and Iowa (e.g. geographic setting, water management institutions, competing water-use demands as well as producersâ?? attitudes, beliefs, and values) and how these influences relate to bioenergy feedstock production and biofuel processing; 4. To determine the relative importance of social-cultural, environmental and/or economic factors in the promotion of biofuels development and expansion in rural communities; The research objectives were met through the completion of six detailed case studies of rural communities that are current or planned locations for ethanol biorefineries. Of the six case studies, two will be conducted on rural communities in Iowa and four will be conducted on rural communities in Kansas. A â??multi-methodâ?ť or â??mixed methodâ?ť research methodology was employed for each case study.
Dr. Theresa L. Selfa; Dr. Richard Goe; Dr. Laszlo Kulcsar; Dr. Gerad Middendorf; Dr. Carmen Bain
Neuropsychological Status and Social Problem Solving in Children With Congenital or Acquired Brain Dysfunction
Objective: To describe the associations between neuropsychological variables and social problem-solving skills in children with congenital versus acquired brain dysfunction. Participants: Twenty-two children and adolescents with cerebral palsy or myelomeningocele (developmental condition, or DC) and 22 with history of traumatic brain injury (TBI), ages 7–12 years, IQ > 70. Measures: Social Problem-Solving Measure (SPSM), Video Cues and Consequences (VCC), and
Seth Warschausky; Angela Giacoletti Argento; Edward Hurvitz; Michelle Berg
Suicidal ideation among adolescent school children, involvement in bully-victim problems, and perceived social support.
Relationships among suicidal ideation, involvement in bully-victim problems at school, and perceived social support were investigated with samples of adolescent students (N = 1103 and N = 845) attending secondary school in South Australia. Results obtained from self-reports and peer nomination procedures to identify bullies and victims indicated that involvement in bully-victim problems at school, especially for students with relatively little social support, was significantly related to degree of suicidal ideation. PMID:10407965
Rigby, K; Slee, P
Assessing Social Problems and Issues in Desegregated Schools: Black Students Retrospective Reports of High School Social Environments.
This paper describes methodologies and instruments for assessing interpersonal relationships and problems in desegregated schools. Two studies are described in which students entering predominantly black colleges were asked to report retrospectively concerning their (desegregated) high schools' social environments. The studies employed two…
Nelsen, Edward A.
Friend me or you'll strain us: understanding negative events that occur over social networking sites.
Social networking sites (SNSs) provide the ideal infrastructure for the maintenance of existing relationships and the development of new contacts. Although these Web-based technologies supplement offline relationships, several of their characteristics have the potential to provoke negative experiences. The interpersonal strain and other relational problems stemming from negative events have recently gained notoriety. This investigation examines personal accounts of users who have experienced these negative events, which are described as any encounter or behavior exercised by others that instigates interpersonal strain, on SNSs to understand better the nature of this phenomenon. Using a mixed-methods approach, open coding of open-ended responses revealed 10 negative event types that surface during participation on SNSs. Quantitative coding was then used to identify a cut-off point for the most frequently experienced negative events. The findings reveal that the three most commonly experienced negative event types include ignoring or denying friend requests, deleting public messages or identification tags, and identifying ranking disparities on Top Friends applications. The practical, theoretical, and negative social implications of participation on SNSs are discussed. PMID:21413880
Tokunaga, Robert S
Theory in social work—some reflections on understanding and explaining interventionsTeori i socialt arbete—nĺgra reflektioner om att förstĺ och förklara interventioner
This article reflects on theory in social work. With a starting point in the contemporary discussion of evidence-based social work, we raise questions about the role of theory. To understand empirical data, we need theory. The arena of social work is an open field for many academic disciplines, and theories used for understanding social work are mostly imported from general
Eva Johnsson; Kerstin Svensson
Family Day Care Educators: An Exploration of Their Understanding and Experiences Promoting Children's Social and Emotional Wellbeing
This study aimed to explore family day care (FDC) educators' knowledge of child social and emotional wellbeing and mental health problems, the strategies used to promote children's wellbeing, and barriers and opportunities for promoting children's social and emotional wellbeing. Thirteen FDC educators participated in individual semi-structured…
Davis, Elise; Priest, Naomi; Davies, Belinda; Smyth, Lisa; Waters, Elizabeth; Herrman, Helen; Sims, Margaret; Harrison, Linda; Cook, Kay; Marshall, Bernie; Williamson, Lara
Understanding the Scope of Social Justice in Teacher Education: The Incidence of "Social Justice" in Accreditation Documents
"Social justice" is a commonly used term in teacher education and in educational research, but little is known about the frequency with which schools of education explicitly articulate social justice as a component of teacher education. This study documented the incidence of the term "social justice" in 520 conceptual frameworks written by teacher…
Clayton, Christine D.; Howell, Penny; Kapustka, Katherine M.; Thomas, Shelley; Vanderhaar, Judi E.
Current Domestic Problems, Social Studies: 6416.18.
Secondary students learn to deal objectively with domestic issues and problems in this quinmester elective course. Emphasis is upon providing students with an opportunity for indepth study in critical thinking on current controversial issues, using activity units as a principal teaching technique. The objectives are for students to identify and…
Moore, John A.
From Bayes to Tarantola: New insights to understand uncertainty in inverse problems
Anyone working on inverse problems is aware of their ill-posed character. In the case of inverse problems, this concept (ill-posed) proposed by J. Hadamard in 1902, admits revision since it is somehow related to their ill-conditioning and the use of local optimization methods to find their solution. A more general and interesting approach regarding risk analysis and epistemological decision making would consist in analyzing the existence of families of equivalent model parameters that are compatible with the prior information and predict the observed data within the same error bounds. Otherwise said, the ill-posed character of discrete inverse problems (ill-conditioning) originates that their solution is uncertain. Traditionally nonlinear inverse problems in discrete form have been solved via local optimization methods with regularization, but linear analysis techniques failed to account for the uncertainty in the solution that it is adopted. As a result of this fact uncertainty analysis in nonlinear inverse problems has been approached in a probabilistic framework (Bayesian approach), but these methods are hindered by the curse of dimensionality and by the high computational cost needed to solve the corresponding forward problems. Global optimization techniques are very attractive, but most of the times are heuristic and have the same limitations than Monte Carlo methods. New research is needed to provide uncertainty estimates, especially in the case of high dimensional nonlinear inverse problems with very costly forward problems. After the discredit of deterministic methods and some initial years of Bayesian fever, now the pendulum seems to return back, because practitioners are aware that the uncertainty analysis in high dimensional nonlinear inverse problems cannot (and should not be) solved via random sampling methodologies. The main reason is that the uncertainty "space" of nonlinear inverse problems has a mathematical structure that is embedded in the forward physics and also in the observed data. Thus, problems with structure should be approached via linear algebra and optimization techniques. This paper provides new insights to understand uncertainty from a deterministic point of view, which is a necessary step to design more efficient methods to sample the uncertainty region(s) of equivalent solutions.
Fernández-Martínez, J. L.; Fernández-Muńiz, Z.; Pallero, J. L. G.; Pedruelo-González, L. M.
Longitudinal associations between depressive problems, academic performance, and social functioning in adolescent boys and girls.
Depressive problems and academic performance, social well-being, and social problems in adolescents are strongly associated. However, longitudinal and bidirectional relations between the two remain unclear, as well as the role of gender. Consequently, this study focuses on the relation between depressive problems and three types of functioning in adolescents while testing gender differences. Depressive problems and functioning of 2,230 children were measured with structured questionnaires. The measurements took place biennially over 3 waves, from late childhood into adolescence (age range = 10-18 years). To examine the longitudinal relation between depression and functioning, path analyses with cross-lagged effects were conducted with structural equation modeling. Multigroup analyses were used to test for gender differences, which were only observed for academic performance. Other findings indicated substantial stability in depressive problems and functioning over time and within-wave correlations between depression and the 3 types of functioning. Poor social well-being was predicted by depressive problems but not the other way around. The relation between depressive and social problems was bidirectional, that is, they predicted each other. Finally, depressive problems and academic performance were bidirectionally related as well but only in girls. PMID:23566082
Verboom, Charlotte E; Sijtsema, Jelle J; Verhulst, Frank C; Penninx, Brenda W J H; Ormel, Johan
Adjective Check List Correlates of Social Conflict Problems in College Students
Assesses ability of Adjective Check List (ACL) to distinguish between clients of a college mental health facility who admitted to social alienation as a primary or secondary problem and clients who denied the importance of this problem- Scores on scales measuring affiliation and heterosexuality and an affiliation minus succorance" index differed…
Heilbrun, Alfred B., Jr.
Emotion Knowledge, Social Competence, and Behavior Problems in Childhood and Adolescence: A Meta-Analytic Review
The present meta-analytic review examined the magnitude of the relation between discrete emotion knowledge and three of its most commonly studied correlates in childhood and adolescence: social competence, internalizing problems, and externalizing problems. Emotion knowledge demonstrated small to medium-sized relations with each correlate.…
Trentacosta, Christopher J.; Fine, Sarah E.
Collective Socialization and Child Conduct Problems: A Multilevel Analysis with an African American Sample
This article uses hierarchical linear modeling with a sample of African American children and their primary caregivers to examine the association between various community factors and child conduct problems. The analysis revealed a rather strong inverse association between level of collective socialization and conduct problems. This relationship…
Simons, Leslie Gordon; Simons, Ronald L.; Conger, Rand D.; Brody, Gene H.
Social and educational risk factors for child mental health problems in Karachi, Pakistan
There are limited studies examining risk factors associated with child mental health problems in developing countries. To explore the association between social and educational factors and child mental health problems among primary school age children in Karachi, children aged 5–11 years were randomly selected from 27 mainstream schools in Karachi. The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire and a socio-demographic checklist were
Sajida Abdul Hassan; Panos Vostanis; John Bankart
Counsel Exceptional Students with Personal-Social Problems. Module L-10 of Category L--Serving Students with Special/Exceptional Needs. Professional Teacher Education Module Series.
This learning module, one in a series of 127 performance-based teacher education learning packages focusing upon specific professional competencies of vocational teachers, deals with counseling exceptional students with personal and social problems. Addressed in the individual learning experiences are the following topics: understanding the…
Lust, Nancy L.
Social and Economic Problems Among Cuban and Haitian Entrant Groups in Dade County, Florida: Trends and Indications. Phase 1: Entrant Interviews, Phase 2: Key Persons/Agency Interviews.
This report presents the results of a study that assessed the social and economic problems of recently arrived Cubans and Haitians in Dade County, Fla. An understanding of the concerns faced by the county should give a sense of direction to government age...
Assessing the social impact of direct-to-consumer genetic testing: understanding sociotechnical architectures.
To properly understand the social impact of direct-to-consumer genetic testing, we must consider the "sociotechnical architectures" of these technologies--how developers design and assemble the human and technical components of individual testing systems to perform specific functions. In particular, the way testing systems perform their main functions--providing access to testing, analyzing genetic material, and conveying test results--influence the technology's utility and the distribution of expertise in the medical system. I illustrate this concept by comparing two systems that offer single-nucleotide polymorphism analysis, a relatively new type of genetic testing. I conclude by exploring how policy officials and other decision makers might intervene in the development of sociotechnical architectures to maximize the benefits of genomic technologies. PMID:20601894
Parthasarathy, Shobita
Students' understanding and application of the area under the curve concept in physics problems
This study investigates how students understand and apply the area under the curve concept and the integral-area relation in solving introductory physics problems. We interviewed 20 students in the first semester and 15 students from the same cohort in the second semester of a calculus-based physics course sequence on several problems involving the area under the curve concept. We found that only a few students could recognize that the concept of area under the curve was applicable in physics problems. Even when students could invoke the area under the curve concept, they did not necessarily understand the relationship between the process of accumulation and the area under a curve, so they failed to apply it to novel situations. We also found that when presented with several graphs, students had difficulty in selecting the graph such that the area under the graph corresponded to a given integral, although all of them could state that âthe integral equaled the area under the curve.â The findings in this study are consistent with those in previous mathematics education research and research in physics education on studentsâ use of the area under the curve.
Nguyen, Dong-Hai; Rebello, N. S.
Community engagement as conflict prevention: Understanding the social license to operate
This thesis examines community engagement as a form of conflict prevention in order to obtain the social license to operate (SLO) in Alberta's oil and gas industry. It does this by answering the question: what are the key elements of the Social License to Operate and how can these elements be applied to community engagement/consultation in a way that prevents conflicts in Alberta's oil and gas industry? The underlying assumption of this thesis is that building good relationships and working collaboratively functions as a form of conflict prevention and that this in turn leads to the SLO. This thesis outlines the key features of both successful community engagement and of the SLO, to provide a guideline for what is needed to obtain the SLO. Data was collected from semi-structured interviews and through a literature review. The data analysis concluded that there are direct parallels between the key elements of effective community engagement and the key elements of the SLO as identified in the interviews. These parallels are: knowing the community, addressing community needs, corporate social responsibility, relationship building, follow through and evidence for what has been done, executive buy-in, excellent communication, and open dialogue, all within a process which is principled (there is trust, understanding, transparency and respect), inclusive, dynamic, flexible, ongoing, and long-term. Moreover, the key elements of effective community engagement and of the SLO identified in the interviews also overlapped with those found in the literature review, with only one exception. The literature review explicitly named early involvement as a key element of both effective community engagement and the SLO, whereas the interview participants only explicitly indicated it as a key factor of community engagement and implied it to be a key element of the SLO.
Knih, Dejana
How does money memorize social interactions? Understanding time-homogeneity in monetary systems
Understanding how money shapes and memorizes our social interactions is central to modern life. There are many schools of thought on as to how monetary systems contribute to crises or boom/bust cycles and how monetary policy can try to avert them. We find that statistical physics gives a refreshing perspective [1-3]. We analyze how credit mechanisms introduce non-locality and time-heterogeneity to the monetary memory. Motivated by an analogy to particle physics, locality and time-homogeneity can be imposed to monetary systems. As a result, a full reserve banking system [4] is complemented with a bi-currency system of non-bank assets (``money'') and bank assets (``antimoney''). Payment can either be made by passing on money or by receiving antimoney. As a result, a free floating exchange rate between non-bank assets and bank assets is established. Interestingly, this monetary memory allows for credit creation by the simultaneous transfer of money and antimoney at a negotiated exchange rate. We analyze this novel mechanism of liquidity transfer in a model of random social interactions, yielding analytical results for all relevant distributions and the price of liquidity under the conditions of a fully transparent credit market.[4pt] [1] European Physical Journal B 17, 723729 (2000).[0pt] [2] Reviews of Modern Physics 81, 1703 (2009).[0pt] [3] Physica A 321, 605--618 (2003).[0pt] [4] Ryan-Collins, Greenham, Werner, Jackson, Where Does Money Come From? positivemoney.org.uk.
Braun, Dieter; Schmitt, Matthias; Schacker, Andreas
Cultural neuroscience of the self: understanding the social grounding of the brain
Cultural neuroscience is an interdisciplinary field of research that investigates interrelations among culture, mind and the brain. Drawing on both the growing body of scientific evidence on cultural variation in psychological processes and the recent development of social and cognitive neuroscience, this emerging field of research aspires to understand how culture as an amalgam of values, meanings, conventions, and artifacts that constitute daily social realities might interact with the mind and its underlying brain pathways of each individual member of the culture. In this article, following a brief review of studies that demonstrate the surprising degree to which brain processes are malleably shaped by cultural tools and practices, the authors discuss cultural variation in brain processes involved in self-representations, cognition, emotion and motivation. They then propose (i) that primary values of culture such as independence and interdependence are reflected in the compositions of cultural tasks (i.e. daily routines designed to accomplish the cultural values) and further (ii) that active and sustained engagement in these tasks yields culturally patterned neural activities of the brain, thereby laying the ground for the embodied construction of the self and identity. Implications for research on culture and the brain are discussed.
Park, Jiyoung
Perceived problems for self and others: self-protection by social downgrading throughout adulthood.
In this study the authors investigated social downgrading as reflected in the difference between perceptions about the self and about "most people my age." A large cross-national probability sample of adults at different age levels throughout adulthood provided ratings of perceived problems expected for the self and for "most other people my age" with regard to 12 domains of life (e.g., health, marriage, and job). Results showed that with regard to all domains, younger, middle-aged, and older adults believed other people's problems to be more serious than their own problems in these domains. Social downgrading was particularly pronounced for those domains for which a given participant experienced problems himself or herself. This self-protection tendency under threat was particularly pronounced in the older adults. The function and adaptive values for social downgrading across adulthood and old age are discussed. PMID:9416630
Heckhausen, J; Brim, O G
Using social marketing to understand the family dinner with working mothers.
The family dinner is a valued tradition that affords opportunities for social interaction and attachment, as well as sharing events of the day, role modeling, connectedness, and problem solving. Guided by the social-marketing framework, this study explored factors associated with the frequency of the family dinner among working mothers with children ages 8-11 years. A qualitative design was used, employing focus groups and Atlas-ti software for thematic analysis. Lack of time, cost, and exhaustion/lack of energy emerged as barriers. Working mothers indicated that a youth-based organization operating as a community partner could increase the frequency of the family dinner by helping with homework completion during after-school care, thereby providing mothers with the time necessary to prepare dinner. This research identified both community partners and working mothers as valued resources for prevention strategies. Interventions developed to increase family dinner frequency should emphasize the perceived value while decreasing the costs/barriers. PMID:21888572
Martinasek, Mary P; DeBate, Rita D; Walvoord, Ashley G; Melton, Stephanie T; Himmelgreen, David; Allen, Tammy D; McDermott, Robert J
MMORPG Escapism Predicts Decreased Well-Being: Examination of Gaming Time, Game Realism Beliefs, and Online Social Support for Offline Problems.
Abstract Massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) escapists are individuals who indulge in the MMORPG environment to avoid real world problems. Though a relationship between escapism and deteriorated well-being has been established, little is known about particular pathways that mediate this relationship. In the current study, we examined this topic by testing an integrative model of MMORPG escapism, which includes game realism beliefs, gaming time, offline social support, and online social support for offline problems. MMORPG players (N=1,056) completed measures of escapist motivation, game realism beliefs, social support, well-being, and reported gaming time. The tested structural equation model had a good fit to the data. We found that individuals with escapist motivation endorsed stronger game realism beliefs and spent more time playing MMORPGs, which, in turn, increased online support but decreased offline social support. Well-being was favorably affected by both online and offline social support, although offline social support had a stronger effect. The higher availability of online social support for offline problems did not compensate for the lower availability of offline support among MMORPG escapists. Understanding the psychological factors related to depletion of social resources in MMORPG players can help optimize MMORPGs as leisure activities. PMID:24605951
Kaczmarek, Lukasz D; Dr??kowski, Dariusz
Understanding the social and economic contexts surrounding women engaged in street-level prostitution.
Prostitution involves the exchange of sexual services for economic compensation. Due to the sexual promiscuity surrounding prostitution, women involved in prostitution constitute a high-risk group for contracting and transmitting STDs, including HIV. Prostitution is not only a public health concern, but also an economic one. Cities throughout the United States spent an average of $7.5 to $16 million per year enforcing prostitution laws and addressing negative outcomes associated with prostitution. Thus, women involved in prostitution are a cause for concern from both public health and economic perspectives. However, little is known about why women remain in this type of behavior given the risks prostitution presents, and even less is known about how to intervene and interrupt the complex cycle of prostitution. Thus, the purpose of this study was to understand what factors contribute to a woman's decision to remain in prostitution. A series of interviews were conducted with 12 women engaged in street-level prostitution. Results of the study revealed that drug use not only spurs entry into prostitution, but also contributes to the tenure of prostitution. Further, social support and economic stability are plausible reasons for women remaining in prostitution. These findings lead us to recommendations for policy and program development. Women involved in prostitution are a highly marginalized population, rarely recognized as individuals with life histories. Understanding why women remain in prostitution is important, because until these determinants are known, intervention programs designed to interrupt the cycle, and ultimately prevent prostitution, cannot be formulated. PMID:21142598
Murphy, Lyn Stankiewicz
Memory Functioning and Negative Symptoms as Differential Predictors of Social Problem Solving Skills in Schizophrenia
Background Neurocognition in general, and memory functioning in particular, as well as symptoms have all been shown to be related to social problem solving (SPS) in schizophrenia. However, few studies have directly compared the relative contribution of neurocognition vs. psychiatric symptoms to the components of SPS. Method Sixty outpatients (aged 21 – 65) who met DSM-IV criteria for schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder were administered a broad battery of memory tests and assessed for severity of positive and negative symptoms as part of a baseline assessment of a study of psychiatric rehabilitation. Multiple regression analyses were used to examine the contribution of memory functioning vs. symptoms on receiving, processing, and sending skill areas of social problem solving ability. Results An index of verbal learning was the strongest predictor of processing skills whereas negative symptoms were the strongest predictor of sending skills. Positive symptoms were not related to any of the three skill areas of social problem solving. Conclusions Memory functioning and psychiatric symptoms differentially predict selected areas of social problem solving ability in persons with schizophrenia. Consistent with other reports, positive symptoms were not related to social problem solving. Consideration of both neurocognition and negative symptoms may be important to the development of rehabilitation interventions in this area of functioning.
Ventura, Joseph; Tom, Shelley R.; Jetton, Chris; Kern, Robert S.
Problem Solving in Social Interactions on the Internet: Rumor as Social Cognition
Rumor discourse has been conceptualized as an attempt to reduce anxiety and uncertainty via a process of social sensemaking. Fourteen rumors transmitted on various Internet discussion groups were observed and content analyzed over the life of each rumor. With this (previously unavailable) more ecologically robust methodology, the intertwined…
Bordia, Prashant; DiFonzo, Nicholas
Is self-generated thought a means of social problem solving?
Appropriate social problem solving constitutes a critical skill for individuals and may rely on processes important for self-generated thought (SGT). The aim of the current study was to investigate the link between SGT and social problem solving. Using the Means-End Problem Solving task (MEPS), we assessed participants' abilities to resolve daily social problems in terms of overall efficiency and number of relevant means they provided to reach the given solution. Participants also performed a non-demanding choice reaction time task (CRT) and a moderately-demanding working memory task (WM) as a context in which to measure their SGT (assessed via thought sampling). We found that although overall SGT was associated with lower MEPS efficiency, it was also associated with higher relevant means, perhaps because both depend on the capacity to generate cognition that is independent from the hear and now. The specific content of SGT did not differentially predict individual differences in social problem solving, suggesting that the relationship may depend on SGT regardless of its content. In addition, we also found that performance at the WM but not the CRT was linked to overall better MEPS performance, suggesting that individuals good at social processing are also distinguished by their capacity to constrain attention to an external task. Our results provide novel evidence that the capacity for SGT is implicated in the process by which solutions to social problems are generated, although optimal problem solving may be achieved by individuals who display a suitable balance between SGT and cognition derived from perceptual input.
Ruby, Florence J. M.; Smallwood, Jonathan; Sackur, Jerome; Singer, Tania
Appropriate social problem solving constitutes a critical skill for individuals and may rely on processes important for self-generated thought (SGT). The aim of the current study was to investigate the link between SGT and social problem solving. Using the Means-End Problem Solving task (MEPS), we assessed participants' abilities to resolve daily social problems in terms of overall efficiency and number of relevant means they provided to reach the given solution. Participants also performed a non-demanding choice reaction time task (CRT) and a moderately-demanding working memory task (WM) as a context in which to measure their SGT (assessed via thought sampling). We found that although overall SGT was associated with lower MEPS efficiency, it was also associated with higher relevant means, perhaps because both depend on the capacity to generate cognition that is independent from the hear and now. The specific content of SGT did not differentially predict individual differences in social problem solving, suggesting that the relationship may depend on SGT regardless of its content. In addition, we also found that performance at the WM but not the CRT was linked to overall better MEPS performance, suggesting that individuals good at social processing are also distinguished by their capacity to constrain attention to an external task. Our results provide novel evidence that the capacity for SGT is implicated in the process by which solutions to social problems are generated, although optimal problem solving may be achieved by individuals who display a suitable balance between SGT and cognition derived from perceptual input. PMID:24391621
Ruby, Florence J M; Smallwood, Jonathan; Sackur, Jerome; Singer, Tania
Preschool behavioral and social-cognitive problems as predictors of (Pre)adolescent disruptive behavior.
This article describes preschool social understanding and difficult behaviors (hot temper, disobedience, bossiness and bullying) as predictors of oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) and aggressive conduct disorder (ACD) in a Dutch population sample of (pre)adolescents (N = 1943), measured at age 10-12 and at age 13-15. ODD and ACD were assessed by the Child Behavior Checklist and the Youth Self-Report, preschool behavior was evaluated by the parental questionnaire [Symbol: see text]How was your child as a preschooler? (age 4-5)'. Adjusted for each other, all difficult preschool behaviors except bullying were associated with adolescent ODD, while only bullying significantly predicted adolescent ACD. Furthermore, the results suggest a qualitative difference between ODD and ACD in terms of the social component of the disorders: poor preschool social understanding was associated with the development of ACD but not of ODD; and poor social understanding interacted with difficult preschool behaviors to predict later ACD but not ODD. The associations did not differ between boys and girls, and were roughly similar for preadolescent (age 10-12) and early adolescent (age 13-15) outcomes. The finding that poor social understanding was implicated in the development of ACD but not in the development of ODD may help to demarcate the individuality of each disorder and offer leads for (differential) treatment strategies. PMID:17476586
Emond, Alice; Ormel, Johan; Veenstra, René; Oldehinkel, Albertine J
A New Framework to Understand Social Class in Counseling: The Social Class Worldview Model and Modern Classism Theory
Because social class and classism remain elusive constructs in psychology, this 2-part article first lays the foundation for the Social Class Worldview Model and then the Modern Classism Theory. A case example is used for illustration. The authors also provide counseling applications and recommendations for future research.
Liu, William Ming; Soleck, Geoffrey; Hopps, Joshua; Dunston, Kwesi; Pickett, Theodore, Jr.
New territory: Problems of adjusting to the first year of a social science PhD
Since 1982 there have been considerable structural changes in the funding and organisation of the social science PhD, yet what knowledge there is concerning the actual PhD process is scant. In an attempt to remedy this state of affairs, this paper examines in some depth the problems which first year social science PhD students encounter when adapting to their new
John Hockey
Social Skills and Behavior Problems in Children with Disabilities with and without Siblings
This study examined social skills and behavior of children with disabilities (CWD) and the impact of siblings on these behaviors. Eighty-five CWD diagnosed with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder only (ADHD-o), Learning Disability or Learning Problems (LD\\/LP), ADHD and LD combined (ADHD\\/LD) or Spina Bifida (SB) and their siblings were evaluated using standardized social skills and behavior rating scales. The ADHD-o group
Jill J. Fussell; Michelle M. Macias; Conway F. Saylor
Partner violence and survivors' chronic health problems: informing social work practice.
Although most social work professionals may expect that women who experience partner violence will sustain acute physical injuries, social workers may be less knowledgeable about the chronic health problems with which violence survivors often struggle. To inform social work practice, we reviewed and synthesized the recently published research on health outcomes associated with partner violence victimization. We focused our review efforts on chronic physical and mental health conditions that social workers are likely to see in their practices. Using rigorous selection criteria, we selected 28 articles for review from over 3500 found in our search.The review showed that although women who experience partner violence are likely to seek health services, they have poor overall physical and mental health, and their health needs are not addressed sufficiently by current health and human service systems.We offer social work practice, policy, and research recommendations to encourage comprehensive services that promote women's health and safety. PMID:19205255
Macy, Rebecca J; Ferron, Joelle; Crosby, Carmen
Towards Better Human Robot Interaction: Understand Human Computer Interaction in Social Gaming Using a Video-Enhanced Diary Method
This paper presents findings from a descriptive research on social gaming. A video-enhanced diary method was used to understand the user experience in social gaming. From this experiment, we found that natural human behavior and gamer's decision making process can be elicited and speculated during human computer interaction. These are new information that we should consider as they can help us build better human computer interfaces and human robotic interfaces in future.
See, Swee Lan; Tan, Mitchell; Looi, Qin En
[Child labour: a social problem that we are committed to].
Child labor is a complex problem that violates the fundamental rights of children and affects their psychophysical development. Child labor affects 215 million children in the world and 115 million perform activities defined as the "worst forms of child labor". Most child labor is in agriculture (60%), where the majority are unpaid family workers, compared to 26% in services and 7% in industry. Argentina has adopted the abolitionist position, promoting prevention and eradication within an inclusive public policy aimed to all children can exercise their rights. The Sociedad Argentina de Pediatría endorses this approach and proposes a course of action: the health team training, and dissemination of the risks of child labor and occupational teenager safety standards. As pediatricians we must be involved in defending children rights, and be able to detect any situation of child labor, and protect the health of children and adolescents. The joint interaction with family, community and other sectors of society will strengthen the network needed to implement child labor eradication policies. PMID:22859332
Cutri, Adrián; Hammermüller, Erica; Zubieta, Ana; Müller Opet, Beatriz; Miguelez, Lilia
Upper Elementary School Children's Understanding and Solution of a Quantitative Problem inside and outside the Mathematics Class
We confronted 151, 5th and 6th elementary grade pupils with a quantitative problem in a mathematics or religion class, to examine the influence of the context on pupils' understanding and solution of such problems inside and outside the mathematics class. Pupils were first asked to solve a problem about fair sharing either during a mathematics or…
Dewolf, Tinne; Van Dooren, Wim; Verschaffel, Lieven
Applicability of the Social Development Model to Urban Ethnic Minority Youth: Examining the Relationship between External Constraints, Family Socialization, and Problem Behaviors
The development of preventive interventions targeting adolescent problem behaviors requires a thorough understanding of risk and protective factors for such behaviors. However, few studies examine whether different cultural and ethnic groups share these factors. This study is an attempt to fill a gap in research by examining similarities and differences in risk factors across racial and ethnic groups. The social development model has shown promise in organizing predictors of problem behaviors. This article investigates whether a version of that model can be generalized to youth in different racial and ethnic groups (N = 2,055, age range from 11 to 15), including African American (n = 478), Asian Pacific Islander (API) American (n = 491), multiracial (n = 442), and European American (n = 644) youth. The results demonstrate that common risk factors can be applied to adolescents, regardless of their race and ethnicity. The findings also demonstrate that there are racial and ethnic differences in the magnitudes of relationships among factors that affect problem behaviors. Further study is warranted to develop a better understanding of these differential magnitudes.
Choi, Yoonsun; Harachi, Tracy W.; Gillmore, Mary Rogers; Catalano, Richard F.
The role of social understanding and empathic disposition in young children's responsiveness to distress in parents and peers
The second year of life marks the beginning of empathic responsiveness to others' distress, a hallmark of human interaction. We examined the role of social understanding (self-other understanding and emotion understanding) and empathic disposition in individual differences in 12- to 24-month olds' responses to mothers' and an unfamiliar infant peer's distress (N = 71). Results reveal associations between empathic responsiveness to distressed mother and crying infant peer, suggesting that individual differences in prosocial motivation may exist right from the outset, when the ability to generate an empathic, prosocial response first emerges. We further found that above and beyond such dispositional characteristics (and age), children with more advanced social understanding were more empathically responsive to a peer's distress. However, responses to mothers' distress were explained by children's empathic disposition only, and not by their social understanding. Thus, as early as the second year of life some children are dispositionally more inclined to empathy regardless of who is in distress, whether mother or peer. At the same time, emotion understanding and self-other understanding appear to be especially important for explaining individual differences in young children's empathic responsiveness to a peer's distress.
Nichols, Sara R.; Svetlova, Margarita; Brownell, Celia A.
Cross-Field Differences in Creative Problem-Solving Skills: A Comparison of Health, Biological, and Social Sciences
In this study, 258 doctoral students working in the health, biological, and social sciences were asked to solve a series of field-relevant problems calling for creative thought. Proposed solutions to these problems were scored with respect to critical creative thinking skills such as problem definition, conceptual combination, and idea generation. Results indicated that health, biological, and social scientists differed with
Michael D. Mumford; Alison L. Antes; Jared J. Caughron; Shane Connelly; Cheryl Beeler
Understanding Social Media Culture and its Ethical Challenges for Art Therapists
This article discusses ethics in the context of the participatory culture of social media as it relates to art therapy. The authors present the view that social media formats are important venues for expression that contribute to interpersonal connections and social learning via the active participation of their members. To make informed ethical…
Belkofer, Christopher M.; McNutt, Jill V.
Preschool Behavioral and Social-Cognitive Problems as Predictors of (Pre)Adolescent Disruptive Behavior
This article describes preschool social understanding and difficult behaviors (hot temper, disobedience, bossiness and bullying) as predictors of oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) and aggressive conduct disorder (ACD) in a Dutch population sample of (pre)adolescents (N = 1943), measured at age 10-12 and at age 13-15. ODD and ACD were assessed by…
Emond, Alice; Ormel, Johan; Veenstra, Rene; Oldehinkel, Albertine J.
Understanding the Different Types of Social Support Offered by Audience to A-List Diary-Like and Informative Bloggers
Abstract Blogs offer audiences a forum through which they can exchange ideas and provide feedback about the everyday lives and experiences of the bloggers. Such interactions and communication between audiences and bloggers could be regarded as a kind of social support. The present study aims to identify and compare the types of social support offered by audiences to continuous popular diary-like and informative bloggers, and to explore the possible benefits that bloggers may obtain from such social support. Content analysis was used to analyze the 485 and 390 comments provided by the audiences to the A-list diary-like and informative blog posts, respectively. Results reveal that validation, compliment, and encouragement are the most common types of social support given by audiences to A-list bloggers. Chi-square test results show that the audiences offer more encouragement-type of social support to diary-like bloggers and more complimentary and informational social support to informative bloggers. Such types of social support may enhance A-list bloggers' self-esteem, boost their confidence, promote their self-understanding, and help them obtain the benefits of social validation, which in turn encourage bloggers to commit continuous self-disclosure.
Wang, Li-Ling; Xu, Yi-Ting
Psychometric Evaluation of the Social Problem-Solving Inventory-Revised among Overweight or Obese Adults
Problem solving is a key component of weight loss programs. The Social Problem Solving Inventory-Revised (SPSI-R) has not been evaluated in weight loss studies. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the psychometrics of the SPSI-R. Cronbach's a (0.95 for total score; 0.67-0.92 for subscales) confirmed internal consistency reliability. The…
Wang, Jing; Matthews, Judith T.; Sereika, Susan M.; Chasens, Eileen R.; Ewing, Linda J.; Burke, Lora E.
Gold deposits in metamorphic belts: Overview of current understanding, outstanding problems, future research, and exploration significance
Metamorphic belts are complex regions where accretion or collision has added to, or thickened, continental crust. Gold-rich deposits can be formed at all stages of orogen evolution, so that evolving metamorphic belts contain diverse gold deposit types that may be juxtaposed or overprint each other. This partly explains the high level of controversy on the origin of some deposit types, particularly those formed or overprinted/remobilized during the major compressional orogeny that shaped the final geometry of the hosting metamorphic belts. These include gold-dominated orogenic and intrusion-related deposits, but also particularly controversial gold deposits with atypical metal associations. There are a number of outstanding problems for all types of gold deposits in metamorphc belts. These include the following: (1) definitive classifications, (2) unequivocal recognition of fluid and metal sources, (3) understanding of fluid migration and focusing at all scales, (4) resolution of the precise role of granitoid magmatism, (5) precise gold-depositional mechanisms, particularly those producing high gold grades, and (6) understanding of the release of CO2-rich fluids from subducting slabs and subcreted oceanic crust and granitoid magmas at different crustal levels. Research needs to be better coordinated and more integrated, such that detailed fluid-inclusion, trace-element, and isotopic studies of both gold deposits and potential source rocks, using cutting-edge technology, are embedded in a firm geological framework at terrane to deposit scales. Ultimately, four-dimensional models need to be developed, involving high-quality, three-dimensional geological data combined with integrated chemical and fluid-flow modeling, to understand the total history of the hydrothermal systems involved. Such research, particularly that which can predict superior targets visible in data sets available to exploration companies before discovery, has obvious spin-offs for global- to deposit-scale targeting of deposits with superior size and grade in the covered terranes that will be the exploration focus of the twenty-first century.
Groves, D. I.; Goldfarb, R. J.; Robert, F.; Hart, C. J. R.
Student Reasoning about Ill-Structured Social Problems in a Multimedia-Supported Learning Environment.
This paper summarizes findings from a case study exploring high school students' responses to a technology-supported, problem-centered U.S. history unit. A team of teacher educators and secondary school social studies teachers conceptualized "Decision Point!" (DP), an integrated set of multimedia content resources and investigatory tools for…
Saye, John W.; Brush, Thomas
Interim Milestone Cycle 1 Evaluation Progress Report. Social Conflict and Negotiative Problem Solving.
This progress report contains a summary of an evaluation of the Cycle I field trial of the Social Conflict and Negotiative Problem Solving instructional system, which was developed by the Improving Teaching Competencies Program of the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory. The evaluation was done to document the field trial workshop, collect…
Milczarek, Gary
Suicidal Ideation among Adolescent School Children, Involvement in Bully-Victim Problems, and Perceived Social Support.
Results of self-reports and peer nomination procedures to identify bullies and victims indicated that involvement in bully-victim problems at school, especially for students with relatively little social support, was significantly related to degree of suicidal ideation. (Author/JDM)
Rigby, Ken; Slee, Phillip
Schooling and Traditional Collaborative Social Organization of Problem Solving by Mayan Mothers and Children.
Examined whether the social organization of problem solving of Guatemalan Mayan indigenous mothers and children varied with the mothers' school experience. Found that mothers with little schooling were involved more in horizontal, multiparty engagements while solving a puzzle with three children, whereas mothers with extensive schooling were…
Chavajay, Pablo; Rogoff, Barbara
The theoretical framing of a social problem: Some conceptual notes on satanic cults
This paper describes, documents and interprets the contemporary movement to legitimate satanic cults as a social problem in America. The movement draws support from productions by mass media, police experts, counselors and support organizations. Literature is also presented that debunks the movement. In addition to an analysis, this paper offers theoretical interpretations of the movement, attempting to place it within
Craig J. Forsyth; Marion D. Olivier
Social Problem Solving through Science: An Approach to Critical, Place-Based, Science Teaching and Learning
The Social Problem Solving through Science (SPSS) project engaged middle school-aged youth in the study of local environmental challenges with implications for human health and well-being, both globally and locally. Students considered environmental risk factors in a series of structured activities to develop background knowledge on environmental…
Buxton, Cory A.
Abolishing and Establishing Operation Analyses of Social Attention as Positive Reinforcement for Problem Behavior
Three participants whose problem behavior was maintained by contingent attention were exposed to 45-min presessions in which attention was withheld, provided on a fixed-time (FT) 15-s schedule, or provided on an FT 120-s schedule. Following each presession, participants were then tested in a 15-min session similar to the social attention condition…
McGinnis, Molly A.; Houchins-Juarez, Nealetta; McDaniel, Jill L.; Kennedy, Craig H.
Developmental Trajectories of Chinese Children's Relational and Physical Aggression: Associations with Social-Psychological Adjustment Problems
The purpose of this short-term longitudinal study was to examine Chinese children's trajectories of physical and relational aggression and their association with social-psychological adjustment problems (i.e., depressive symptoms and delinquency) and gender. Fourth and fifth grade children in Taiwan (n = 739, age 9-11) were followed across 1 year.…
Kawabata, Yoshito; Tseng, Wan-Ling; Murray-Close, Dianna; Crick, Nicki R.
Cultural Variation in the Social Organization of Problem Solving Among African American and European American Siblings
This study examined the social organization of a problem-solving task among 15 African American and 15 European American sibling pairs. The 30 sibling pairs between the ages of 6 and 12 were video recorded constructing a marble track together during a home visit. African American siblings were observed to collaborate more often than European American siblings who were more likely
Daniel Budak; Pablo Chavajay
Serving America's Underserved Youth: Reflections on Sport and Recreation in an Emerging Social Problems Industry
Urban communities have recently had a significant growth in the number of public and privately sponsored initiatives that endorse and promote providing sport and recreation activities for underserved youth as a means to alleviate urban distress. This paper draws from the authors' experiences of and their reflections on this emerging "social problems industry," in which programs are addressing crime prevention,
Robert Pitter; David L. Andrews
The authors examined the use of a social problem-solving intervention to treat selective mutism with 2 sisters in an elementary school setting. Both girls were taught to answer teacher questions in front of their classroom peers during regular classroom instruction. Each girl received individualized instruction from a therapist and was taught to…
O'Reilly, Mark; McNally, Deirdre; Sigafoos, Jeff; Lancioni, Giulio E.; Green, Vanessa; Edrisinha, Chaturi; Machalicek, Wendy; Sorrells, Audrey; Lang, Russell; Didden, Robert
A Path Analysis of Social Problem-Solving as a Predictor of White Racial Identity
This study examined (a) whether a developmental model or a model in which all subscales' measurement errors are correlated best explains the relationships among White racial identity (WRI) statuses, and (b) social problem-solving (SPS) skills as a predictor of WRI. Path analysis was conducted with a sample of 255 White undergraduate students from…
Carr, Amanda G.; Caskie, Grace I. L.
Using cultural algorithms to solve optimization problems with a social fabric approach
Cultural Algorithms employ a basic set of knowledge sources, each related to knowledge observed in various animal species. These knowledge sources are then combined to direct the decisions of the individual agents in solving optimization problems using an influence function family based upon a Social Fabric metaphor. While many successful real-world applications of Cultural Algorithms have been produced, we are
Mostafa Z Ali
The relationship of parenting beliefs and behaviors to child and adolescent social skills and problem behaviors
The relationship between parenting beliefs and behaviors and children's and adolescent's social skills and problem behaviors is a topic that has not been fully explored by researchers. Many researchers focus on parenting beliefs when examining the relationship between parenting factors and childhood outcomes. Research suggests that examining both parenting beliefs and behaviors is important. Additionally, much parenting research focuses on
Laura Silverman Liebling
Methodological Considerations in Evaluating School-Based Programs to Promote Social Competence and Reduce Problem Behavior
Interventions that aim to promote social competence, reduce problem behavior, and improve school climate are common at all levels of schooling. This whole-school focus, coupled with researchers' concerns about contamination or spillover effects in evaluations that randomly assign classrooms or students to conditions, as well as advances in…
Massetti, Greta M.; Crean, Hugh; Johnson, Deborah; DuBois, David; Ji, Peter
Parental Interpersonal Sensitivity and Youth Social Problems: A Mediational Role for Child Emotion Dysregulation
We examined the relations between parental interpersonal sensitivity and youth social problems and explored the mediational role of child emotion dysregulation. Mothers (N = 42; M age = 39.38) and fathers (N = 41; M age = 39.38) of youth aged 7-12 (N = 42; M age = 9.12) completed measures of their own interpersonal sensitivity and reported on…
Suveg, Cynthia; Jacob, Marni L.; Payne, Mary
Family Business or Social Problem? The Cost of Unreported Domestic Violence
Social interest in problems such as domestic violence is typically motivated by concerns regarding equity, rather than efficiency. However, we document that taking steps to reduce domestic violence by reporting it yields substantial benefits to external parties. Specifically, we find that although children exposed to as-yet-unreported domestic…
Carrell, Scott E.; Hoekstra, Mark
Binge Drinking and College Students: An Investigation of Social Problem-Solving Abilities
We examined social problem-solving skills and binge drinking among 286 undergraduate men (N = 90) and women (N = 196). The sample consisted of primarily first-year students (39%), sophomores (27%), juniors (21%), and seniors (13%), with an average age of 20. The makeup of the sample was predominantly Caucasian. Men were more likely than women to…
Dreer, Laura E.; Ronan, George F.; Ronan, Donna W.; Dush, David M.; Elliott, Timothy R.
Temperament and Social Problem Solving Competence in Preschool: Influences on Academic Skills in Early Elementary School
The goals of the current study were to examine whether children's social problem solving (SPS) skills are a mechanism through which temperament influences later academic achievement and whether sex moderates these associations. The participants included 1117 children enrolled in the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of…
Walker, Olga L.; Henderson, Heather A.
The goal of this exploratory study was to examine correlates of sexual assault disclosure and social reactions in female victims with and without drinking problems. An ethnically diverse sample of sexual assault survivors was recruited from college, community, and mental health agencies. Ethnic minority women were less likely to disclose assault,…
Scaffolding Teachers Integrate Social Media into a Problem-Based Learning Approach?
At Aalborg University (AAU) we are known to work with problem-based learning (PBL) in a particular way designated "The Aalborg PBL model." In PBL the focus is on participant control, knowledge sharing, collaboration among participants, which makes it interesting to consider the integration of social media in the learning that takes place. In this…
Buus, Lillian
Academic, Personal and Social Problems of Afghan and Iranian Students in the United States.
Questionnaires or interviews were completed by 120 Afghan and 125 Iranian students enrolled in American universities, concerning their academic, personal, and social problems. Data were analyzed according to nationality, sex, age, marital status, major, duration of stay in U.S., financial sponsorship, and undergraduate v graduate student status.…
Payind, Mohammad Alam
This study examined social skills and behavior of children with disabilities (CWD) and the impact of siblings on these behaviors. Eighty-five CWD diagnosed with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder only (ADHD-o), Learning Disability or Learning Problems (LD/LP), ADHD and LD combined (ADHD/LD) or Spina Bifida (SB) and their siblings were…
Fussell, Jill J.; Macias, Michelle M.; Saylor, Conway F.
Developing Social Capital: A Role for Music Education and Community Music in Fostering Civic Engagement and Intercultural Understanding
This article posits that musicking can uniquely foster the development of social capital, which leads to civic engagement and intercultural understanding. I review pertinent literature and build a case that music educators and community musicians have a unique role to play in its development. I also reveal a weakness in the theoretical framework…
Jones, Patrick M.
Understanding key factors in social enterprise development of the BOP: a systems approach applied to case studies in the Philippines
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive perspective on social enterprise development, leading to enhanced understanding of the bottom of the pyramid (BOP) marketplace. Design\\/methodology\\/approach – General systems theory is applied to case studies drawn from the Philippines, enabling the authors delineate system actors and their interrelationships, system objectives and strategies, key success factors and
Christine Nielsen; Patricia M. Samia
Living with ASD: How Do Children and Their Parents Assess Their Difficulties with Social Interaction and Understanding?
Social interaction and understanding in autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) are key areas of concern to practitioners and researchers alike. However, there is a relative lack of information about the skills and competencies of children and young people with ASD who access ordinary community facilities including mainstream education. In particular,…
Knott, Fiona; Dunlop, Aline-Wendy; Mackay, Tommy
From 'human being' to 'social subject': "unfreezing" ergonomics and the implications for understanding and intervening health-disease process.
Ergonomics has been successful in increasing productivity and comfort in the work arena. It has also contributed to reducing occupational accidents. Despite this, ergonomics is frequently limited to understanding the health-disease process related to human-technology interactions, as this process is more complex than what can be understood from an ergonomic evaluation. Recognising this limit, this work ontologically and epistemologically contrasts the notions of 'human being' and 'social subject', and concludes that the study object of ergonomics, or human-technology interaction, greatly depends on social aspects that nowadays are not tackled explicitly: route (history), project, structure, agency, motivations and power. It also analyses how participatory ergonomics tacitly includes many of these aspects, including some implications that the change of notion, from 'human being' to 'social subject', brings to the understanding of the health-disease process and the reduction of associated risks during human activities. PMID:22317190
Morales, Karen Lange; García-Acosta, Gabriel
Toward a social capital based framework for understanding the water-health nexus.
In recent years, there has been considerable interest in social capital theory in both research and policy arenas. Social capital has been associated with many aspects of improvements in health, environment and development. This paper assesses the theoretical support for a social capital based analysis of environment and health issues with a focus on the water-health nexus in low and middle income countries. We review conceptualisation of social capital by Pierre Bourdieu in relation to his concepts of "fields" and "habitus" as well as other conceptualisations of social capital by James Coleman and Robert Putnam. We integrate these authors' ideas with ecosocial analysis of social and geographical patterns of access to safe water, adequate sanitation and hygiene and the resulting health impacts. Further, we develop a conceptual framework for linking social capital and health through the water-health nexus. The framework focuses on the role of social capital in improving water-related knowledge, attitudes and practices as well as facilitating collective action towards improving access to water and sanitation. The proposed framework will facilitate critical engagement with the pathways through which social processes and interactions influence health within the context of access to water, sanitation and hygiene in low and middle income countries. PMID:24657901
Bisung, Elijah; Elliott, Susan J
Empirically Understanding Can Make Problems Go Away: The Case of the Chinese Room
The many authors debating whether computers can understand often fail to clarify what understanding is, and no agreement exists on this important issue. In his Chinese room argument, Searle (1980) claims that computers running formal programs can never understand. I discuss Searle's claim based on a definition of understanding that is empirical,…
Overskeid, Geir
The Social Competence of Latino Kindergartners and Growth in Mathematical Understanding
We know that social competence contributes to young children's adaptation to, and cognitive learning within, classroom settings. Yet initial evidence is mixed on the social competencies that Latino children bring to kindergarten and the extent to which these skills advance cognitive growth. Building from ecocultural and developmental-risk theory,…
Galindo, Claudia; Fuller, Bruce
Comparison of Social Variables for Understanding Physical Activity in Adolescent Girls
Objective : To evaluate social support and theory of planned behavior (TPB) constructs in explaining physical activity in adolescent girls. Methods : One thousand seven hundred ninety-seven 8 th -grade girls completed a survey measuring social provisions, family support, TPB constructs, moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA), and team sport…
Saunders, Ruth P.; Motl, Robert W.; Dowda, Marsha; Dishman, Rod K.; Pate, Russell R.
Understanding and Changing Older Adults' Perceptions and Learning of Social Media
An exploratory study was conducted to answer the following questions: What are older adults' perceptions of social media? What educational strategies can facilitate their learning of social media? A thematic map was developed to illustrate changing perceptions from the initial unanimous, strong negative to the more positive but cautious, and to…
Xie, Bo; Watkins, Ivan; Golbeck, Jen; Huang, Man
Understanding How Social and Emotional Skill Deficits Contribute to School Failure
A growing number of children are entering kindergarten without the skills that enable them to be successful in an academic setting. However, it is not children's cognitive skills that concern educators; it is their social and emotional skill deficits that are most troublesome. This article discusses how family and community risk factors can inhibit social and emotional development (i.e., skills
Kathryn S. Whitted
Evaluating Equity: A Framework for Understanding Action and Inaction on Social Justice Issues
This article relies on a case study of a policy evaluation to illustrate how issues of social justice arise for action or inaction in a political environment. The article uses the case study to show that social justice issue formation is shaped by the personal beliefs of the actors, the prevailing political culture, the evolutionary path of the…
Opfer, V. Darleen
How Does Understanding by Design Influence Student Achievement in Eighth Grade Social Studies?
In an age where more people place emphasis on global competition, it only seems right to have students meet achievement in all subjects equally. However, that is not the case with the content area of social studies. In recent years, many people have been alarmed at social studies test scores as measured by student achievement. It is the goal of…
Noble, Charhonda L.
Big thoughts in small brains? Dogs as am odel for understanding human social cognition
In this review we argued that dogs can provide a good model for both the evolution of human social-cognitive abilities and studying the underlying neural and genetic structures of these behavioural features. The key diˇerence between the present and other approaches for modelling human social evolution lies in the assumption that there is a large overlap between the human and
J o?
An Algorithm for Critical Nodes Problem in Social Networks Based on Owen Value
Discovering critical nodes in social networks has many important applications. For finding out the critical nodes and considering the widespread community structure in social networks, we obtain each node's marginal contribution by Owen value. And then we can give a method for the solution of the critical node problem. We validate the feasibility and effectiveness of our method on two synthetic datasets and six real datasets. At the same time, the result obtained by using our method to analyze the terrorist network is in line with the actual situation.
Wang, Xue-Guang
Adolescent peer relationships and behavior problems predict young adults' communication on social networking websites.
This study examined online communication on social networking web pages in a longitudinal sample of 92 youths (39 male, 53 female). Participants' social and behavioral adjustment was assessed when they were ages 13-14 years and again at ages 20-22 years. At ages 20-22 years, participants' social networking website use and indicators of friendship quality on their web pages were coded by observers. Results suggested that youths who had been better adjusted at ages 13-14 years were more likely to be using social networking web pages at ages 20-22 years, after statistically controlling for age, gender, ethnicity, and parental income. Overall, youths' patterns of peer relationships, friendship quality, and behavioral adjustment at ages 13-14 years and at ages 20-22 years predicted similar qualities of interaction and problem behavior on their social networking websites at ages 20-22 years. Findings are consistent with developmental theory asserting that youths display cross-situational continuity in their social behaviors and suggest that the conceptualization of continuity may be extended into the online domain. PMID:20053005
Mikami, Amori Yee; Szwedo, David E; Allen, Joseph P; Evans, Meredyth A; Hare, Amanda L
A synoptic summary approach to better understanding groundwater contamination problems and evaluating long-term environmental consequences
A summary approach has been developed within groundwater hydrology to communicate with a broad audience and more completely evaluate the long-term impacts of subsurface contamination problems. This synoptic approach both highlights the dominant features occurring in subsurface contamination problems and emphasizes the information required to determine the long-term environmental impacts. The special merit of a summary approach is in providing a better understanding of subsurface contamination problems to adjoining technical disciplines, public decision makers, and private citizens. 14 refs.
Nelson, R.W.
Developing Understanding Through Confronting Varying Views: The Case of Solving Qualitative Physics Problems
Explores high school students' collaborative efforts in solving qualitative physics problems and investigates how and whether confronting students with varying views improves problem solving skills. (Contains 22 references.)
Tao, Ping-Kee
Research on Mathematics and Science Education: From Beliefs to Cognition from Problem Solving to Understanding
This book contains selected research papers presented at seminars held in Finland throughout the year 2000 by members of the Finnish Association for Research in Mathematics and Science Education (FARMSE) and students at the Finnish Graduate School of Mathematics, Physics, and Chemistry Education. Papers include: "The Finnish Graduate School of Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry Education" (Maija Ahte and Virpi Vatanen); "A Hidden Regulating Factor in Mathematics Classrooms: Mathematics-Related Beliefs" (Erkki Pehkonen); "Primary School Teachers' Mathematics Beliefs, Teaching Practices and Use of Textbooks" (Paivi Perkkila); "Mathematics for Primary School Teachers" (Silja Pesonen); "The Metalevel of Cognition-Emotion Interaction" (Markku S. Hannula); "Problem Solving in Chemistry and Science Education" (Georgios Tsaparlis); "Physics Education Research: Inseparable Contents and Methods--The Part Played by Critical Details" (Laurence Viennot); "The Force Concept Inventory in Diagnosing the Conceptual Understanding of Newtonian Mechanics in Finnish Upper Secondary Schools" (Johanna Jauhiainen, Ismo T. Koponen, and Jari Lavonen); "An Evaluation of Interactive Teaching Methods in Mechanics: Using the Force Concept Inventory To Monitor Student Learning" (Antti Savinainen).Most papers contain references.
Social Support Networks: An Effective Means for Coping with the Unique Problems of Rural and Remote Communities.
Intervention aimed at the development of social support networks provides a means for preventing some of the physical, emotional, and social problems of both long-term and transient rural residents. Individuals living in rural and remote communities face several contextual problems, including distance, personal and professional isolation, unique…
Fuchs, Don M.
The Use of Social Marketing to Influence the Development of Problem Gambling in the UK: Implications for Public Health
In this paper the authors present and debate the theoretical case for the use of social marketing to help reduce problem gambling in the public health context of the UK. Is triangulated between the key theories and principles of social marketing, the key literature and its theoretical application to the debate about reducing problem gambling in…
Powell, Jane E.; Tapp, Alan J.
Executive Function as a Mediator in the Link between Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Social Problems
Background: Cognitive processes and mechanisms underlying the strong link between attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and social problems remain unclear. Limited knowledge also exists regarding a subgroup of youth with ADHD who do not have social problems. This study investigated the extent to which executive function (EF) mediated the…
Tseng, Wan-Ling; Gau, Susan Shur-Fen
Some Cognitive Characteristics of Night-Sky Watchers: Correlations between Social Problem-Solving, Need for Cognition, and Noctcaelador
This study explored the relationship between night-sky watching and self-reported cognitive variables: need for cognition and social problem-solving. University students (N = 140) completed the Noctcaelador Inventory, the Need for Cognition Scale, and the Social Problem Solving Inventory. The results indicated that an interest in the night-sky was…
Kelly, William E.
Mothers' and Fathers' Responsive Problem Solving with Early Adolescents: Do Gender, Shyness, and Social Acceptance Make a Difference?
We assessed the extent to which youths' (n = 231) shyness and social acceptance in preadolescence were associated with parents' responsive problem solving 1 year later after controlling for initial levels of parents' problem solving. Teachers (n = 176) completed assessments of youths' shyness and social acceptance, and parents (n = 231 married…
Miller, Scott R.; Brody, Gene H.; Murry, Velma M.
Clinical Validity of a Brief Measure of Early Childhood Social-Emotional/Behavioral Problems
Objective?To address a pressing need for measures of clinically significant social–emotional/behavioral problems in young children by examining several validity indicators for a brief parent-report questionnaire.?Methods?An ethnically and economically diverse sample of 213 referred and nonreferred 2- and 3-year-olds was studied. The validity of the Brief Infant–Toddler Social–Emotional Assessment (BITSEA) Problem Index and Internalizing and Externalizing scales was evaluated relative to a "gold standard" diagnostic interview, as well as the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL).?Results?The validity of the BITSEA Problem Index relative to Diagnosis (sensitivity = 72.7%–80.8%, specificity = 70.0%–83.3%) and clinical-range CBCL scores (sensitivity = 80.0%–96.2%, specificity = 75.0%–89.9%) was supported in the full sample and within minority/nonminority groups. Additional results supported the validity of the BITSEA Internalizing and Externalizing scales.?Conclusions?Documented validity suggests that the BITSEA may be a valuable tool to aid screening, identification, and assessment efforts targeting early-emergent social–emotional/behavioral problems. Practical implications and generalizability are discussed.
Carter, Alice S.; McCarthy, Kimberly; Augustyn, Marilyn; Caronna, Elizabeth; Clark, Roseanne
Coping and social problem solving correlates of asthma control and quality of life.
In a sample of adults with asthma receiving care and medication in an outpatient pulmonary clinic, this study tested for statistical associations between social problem-solving styles, asthma control, and asthma-related quality of life. These variables were measured cross sectionally as a first step toward more systematic application of social problem-solving frameworks in asthma self-management training. Recruitment occurred during pulmonology clinic service hours. Forty-four adults with physician-confirmed diagnosis of asthma provided data including age, gender, height, weight, race, income, and comorbid conditions. The Asthma Control Questionnaire, the Mini Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire (Short Form), and peak expiratory force measures offered multiple views of asthma health at the time of the study. Maladaptive coping (impulsive and careless problem-solving styles) based on transactional stress models of health were assessed with the Social Problem-Solving Inventory-Revised: Short Form. Controlling for variance associated with gender, age, and income, individuals reporting higher impulsive-careless scores exhibited significantly lower scores on asthma control (? = 0.70, p = 0.001, confidence interval (CI) [0.37-1.04]) and lower asthma-related quality of life (? = 0.79, p = 0.017, CI [0.15-1.42]). These findings suggest that specific maladaptive problem-solving styles may uniquely contribute to asthma health burdens. Because problem-solving coping strategies are both measureable and teachable, behavioral interventions aimed at facilitating adaptive coping and problem solving could positively affect patient's asthma management and quality of life. PMID:24431407
McCormick, Sean P; Nezu, Christine M; Nezu, Arthur M; Sherman, Michael; Davey, Adam; Collins, Bradley N
Social Problem Solving as a Mediator of the Link Between Stress and Psychological Well-being in Middle-Adulthood
This study had two major objectives: (1) to examine the relationship between stress, social problem solving, and psychological\\u000a well-being (PWB) in a sample of middle-aged adults (M 46.3 years) and (2) to examine the role of social problem solving as a potential mediator of the link between stress and\\u000a PWB in this group. Correlational analyses indicated that both stress and social
Edward C. Chang; Thomas J. D'Zurilla; Lawrence J. Sanna
Using Students' Representations Constructed during Problem Solving to Infer Conceptual Understanding
The differences in the types of representations constructed during successful and unsuccessful problem-solving episodes were investigated within the context of graduate students working on problems that involve concepts from 2D-NMR. Success at problem solving was established by having the participants solve five problems relating to material just…
Domin, Daniel; Bodner, George
Understanding and Changing Older Adults' Perceptions and Learning of Social Media.
An exploratory study was conducted to answer the following questions: What are older adults' perceptions of social media? What educational strategies can facilitate their learning of social media? A thematic map was developed to illustrate changing perceptions from the initial unanimous, strong negative to the more positive but cautious and to the eventual willingness to actually contribute content. Privacy was the primary concern and key perceptual barrier to adoption. Effective educational strategies were developed to overcome privacy concerns, including: 1) introducing the concepts before introducing the functions; 2) responding to privacy concerns; and 3) making social media personally relevant. PMID:22639483
Sleeping Together: Using Social Interactions to Understand the Role of Sleep in Plasticity
Social experience alters the expression of genes related to synaptic function and plasticity, induces elaborations in the morphology of neural structures throughout the brain (Volkmar and Greenough, 1972; Greenough et al., 1978; Technau, 2007), improves cognitive and behavioral performance (Pham et al., 1999a; Toscano et al., 2006) and alters subsequent sleep (Ganguly-Fitzgerald et al.,2006). In this review, we discuss the plastic mechanisms that are induced in response to social experience and how social enrichment can provide insight into the biological functions of sleep.
Donlea, Jeffrey M.; Shaw, Paul J.
Examination of a social problem-solving intervention to treat selective mutism.
The authors examined the use of a social problem-solving intervention to treat selective mutism with 2 sisters in an elementary school setting. Both girls were taught to answer teacher questions in front of their classroom peers during regular classroom instruction. Each girl received individualized instruction from a therapist and was taught to discriminate salient social cues, select an appropriate social response, perform the response, and evaluate her performance. The girls generalized the skills to their respective regular classrooms and maintained the skills for up to 3 months after the removal of the intervention. Experimental control was demonstrated using a multiple baseline design across participants. Limitations of this study and issues for future research are discussed. PMID:18285505
O'Reilly, Mark; McNally, Deirdre; Sigafoos, Jeff; Lancioni, Giulio E; Green, Vanessa; Edrisinha, Chaturi; Machalicek, Wendy; Sorrells, Audrey; Lang, Russell; Didden, Robert
Understanding discrepancies in parent-child reporting of emotional and behavioural problems: Effects of relational and socio-demographic factors
Background Discrepancies between parents and children in their assessment of children's mental health affect the evaluation of need for services and must be taken seriously. This article presents the differences between parents' and children's reports of the children's symptoms and social impairment, based on the results of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). The interrelationship between relational aspects and socio-demographic factors with patterns of disagreement are explored. Methods Differences in the prevalence and means of SDQ symptom and impact scores were obtained from 8,154 primary school children, aged between 10 and 13 years, and their parents. Agreement between matched pairs was measured using Pearson's and Spearman's rho correlations. Socio-demographic variables, communication patterns and parental engagement were analysed as possible correlates of informant discrepancies using bivariate and multivariate logistic regression models. Results In general, although children reported more symptoms, they reported less impact of perceived difficulties than parents. The parents were more consistent in their evaluation of symptoms and impact than were the children. Exploration of highly discrepant subgroups showed that, when children reported the most symptoms and impact, qualitative aspects of the parent-child relationship and family structure seemed to be more powerful predictors of disagreement than were gender of the child and socio-demographic variables. When parents reported the most symptoms and impact, low parental educational level, low income and male gender of the child played an additional role. Conclusions Our findings underline the importance of paying attention to child reports of emotional-behavioural difficulties, particularly when parents do not identify these problems. Considerations on what meaning parent-child discrepancy might have in the context of the parent-child relationship or the family's psychosocial status should be integrated in the overall understanding of the child's situation and subsequent recommendations.
A problem-oriented approach to understanding adaptation: lessons learnt from Alpine Shire, Victoria Australia.
Climate change is gaining attention as a significant strategic issue for localities that rely on their business sectors for economic viability. For businesses in the tourism sector, considerable research effort has sought to characterise the vulnerability to the likely impacts of future climate change through scenarios or 'end-point' approaches (Kelly & Adger, 2000). Whilst useful, there are few demonstrable case studies that complement such work with a 'start-point' approach that seeks to explore contextual vulnerability (O'Brien et al., 2007). This broader approach is inclusive of climate change as a process operating within a biophysical system and allows recognition of the complex interactions that occur in the coupled human-environmental system. A problem-oriented and interdisciplinary approach was employed at Alpine Shire, in northeast Victoria Australia, to explore the concept of contextual vulnerability and adaptability to stressors that include, but are not limited to climatic change. Using a policy sciences approach, the objective was to identify factors that influence existing vulnerabilities and that might consequently act as barriers to effective adaptation for the Shire's business community involved in the tourism sector. Analyses of results suggest that many threats, including the effects climate change, compete for the resources, strategy and direction of local tourism management bodies. Further analysis of conditioning factors revealed that many complex and interacting factors define the vulnerability and adaptive capacity of the Shire's tourism sector to the challenges of global change, which collectively have more immediate implications for policy and planning than long-term future climate change scenarios. An approximation of the common interest, i.e. enhancing capacity in business acumen amongst tourism operators, would facilitate adaptability and sustainability through the enhancement of social capital in this business community. Kelly, P. M., & Adger, W. N. (2000). Theory and practice in assessing vulnerability to climatic change and facilitating adaptation. Climatic Change, 47, 325-352. O'Brien, K., Eriksen, S., Nygaard, L. P., & Schjolden, A. (2007). Why different interpretations of vulnerability matter in climate change discourses. Climate Policy, 7, 73-88.
Roman, Carolina
Base Rates of Social Skills Acquisition\\/Performance Deficits, Strengths, and Problem Behaviors: An Analysis of the Social Skills Improvement System—Rating Scales
Base rate information is important in clinical assessment because one cannot know how unusual or typical a phenomenon is without first knowing its base rate in the population. This study empirically determined the base rates of social skills acquisition and performance deficits, social skills strengths, and problem behaviors using a nationally representative sample of children and adolescent ages 3–18 years.
Frank M. Gresham; Stephen N. Elliott; Ryan J. Kettler
The Children's Evaluation of Everyday Social Encounters Questionnaire: Comprehensive Assessment of Children's Social Information Processing and Its Relation to Internalizing Problems
Two studies describe the development of a comprehensive, vignette-based measure of social information processing (SIP) particularly relevant for children with internalizing problems. Study 1 (N = 219 3rd-6th graders) describes the creation of the Children's Evaluation of Everyday Social Encounters Questionnaire (ChEESE-Q) and evidence for its…
Bell, Debora J.; Luebbe, Aaron M.; Swenson, Lance P.; Allwood, Maureen A.
"Get up off that Thing": African American Middle School Students Respond to Literature to Develop a Framework for Understanding Social Action
The use of children's literature in urban social studies classrooms to facilitate students' engagement in literate behaviors and simultaneously develop a framework for understanding social action is an under-researched area. This paper discusses the use of literature for children and young adults in an urban middle school language arts and social…
Tyson, Cynthia A.
Social workers and general practitioners--some problems of working together
Generally, relations between general practitioners and social workers are poor. Differences in approach, role perception, working situations and the organisation and staffing of the two professions may create difficulties. Conflicts of statutory roles, authority and accountability, record keeping, and confidentiality all produce problems. Finally unrecognised attitudes may also interfere with good co-operation. We hope to stimulate vigorous discussion of these important issues by members of both professions.
Ratoff, L.; Rose, Anne; Smith, Carole
Group therapy with adolescents who have learning disabilities and social\\/emotional problems
This paper presents group therapy with adolescents who have learning disabilities and social\\/emotional problems. First, the\\u000a paper reviews the literature on psychosocial development and interventions offered to these adolescents. There is agreement\\u000a in the literature that group therapy is beneficial for adolescents. Learning disabled adolescents meet the criteria for receiving\\u000a this intervention. Despite this, review of the literature suggests that
Faye Mishna; Janice Kaiman; Sandra Little; Elizabeth Tarshis
An Ecological View of School Satisfaction in Adolescence: Linkages Between Social Support and Behavior Problems
This study investigated the relationships among school satisfaction, social support, and problem behaviors in adolescents.\\u000a Modest associations were found between school satisfaction and the demographic variables of gender, race, age, and grade level.\\u000a Support from teachers, parents, and classmates contributed unique variance to ratings of school satisfaction; with teacher\\u000a support contributing the most unique variance. School satisfaction mediated the relationship
Adrienne L. DeSantis King; Scott Huebner; Shannon M. Suldo; Robert F. Valois
Development of conduct problems and peer rejection in preschool children: A social systems analysis
The development of impulsive-aggressive problem behavior and peer rejection was examined in sixty 4- to 5-year-old boys from low-income family backgrounds. Children's sociometric status and behavioral adjustment were assessed longitudinally at the beginning and end of the preschool year, and related to measures of peer interaction at three different points in time. Boys identified as socially rejected and aggressive in
Sheryl L. Olson
Social competence and emotional\\/behavioural problems in children of psychiatric inpatients
The social competence and emotional\\/behavioural problems among 80 5–16-year-old children of 46 inpatients with various psychiatric\\u000a disorders were assessed by the parents using a Swedish version of the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL). The ratings of these\\u000a children were compared to a normative sample of school children, but also whether type of psychiatric disorder among the parents\\u000a was related to psychosocial
B. Larsson; L. Knutsson-Medin; C. Sundelin; A. C. Trost von Werder
Recognizing cesarean delivery on maternal request as a social problem: utilizing the public arenas model.
Nearly one in three babies in the United States are now born surgically. While many causes for this surge in cesareans have been suggested, the phenomenon of cesarean delivery on maternal request (CDMR) has been the subject of the most controversy. Utilizing Hilgartner and Bosk's public arenas model, this article examines the ways in which CDMR has been framed and a collective definition of the problem established. Recognizing CDMR as a social problem is the first step to creating policies to ensure that the health and safety of mothers and babies are protected. PMID:22005526
Yamamoto, Sherry L
The free boundary problem describing information diffusion in online social networks
In this paper we consider a free boundary problem for a reaction-diffusion logistic equation with a time-dependent growth rate. Such a problem arises in the modeling of information diffusion in online social networks, with the free boundary representing the spreading front of news among users. We present several sharp thresholds for information diffusion that either lasts forever or suspends in finite time. In the former case, we give the asymptotic spreading speed which is determined by a corresponding elliptic equation.
Lei, Chengxia; Lin, Zhigui; Wang, Haiyan
Using a Self-as-Model Video Combined With Social Stories™ to Help a Child With Asperger Syndrome Understand Emotions
Using an AB design With generalization, this study sought to determine the effectiveness of presenting videotaped emotions and Social Stories™ to teach a 9-year-old child With Asperger syndrome to recognize and understand emotions in himself and to generalize them to other situations in his home. Data collected in the child's home shoWed an improvement betWeen baseline and intervention in the
Susana Bernad-Ripoll
Developing Understanding through Confronting Varying Views: The Case of Solving Qualitative Physics Problems.
Explores high school students' collaborative efforts in solving qualitative physics problems and investigates how and whether confronting students with varying views improves problem solving skills. (Contains 22 references.) (DDR)
Design as a social activity characterized by information exchange, compromise and negotiation frames much of our understanding of the design process. At the heart of this social activity is the development of a shared understanding of the design problem. The design stakeholders jointly form a shared understanding through a proces s of defining the problem, exploring the space of solutions
Andrew Hill; Shuang Song; Andy Dong; Alice Agogino
Mothers' and Fathers' Responsive Problem Solving with Early Adolescents: Do Gender, Shyness, and Social Acceptance Make a Difference?
We assessed the extent to which youths' (n = 231) shyness and social acceptance in preadolescence were associated with parents' responsive problem solving 1 year later\\u000a after controlling for initial levels of parents' problem solving. Teachers (n = 176) completed assessments of youths' shyness and social acceptance, and parents (n = 231 married pairs) completed assessments of their responsive problem solving with the child. For shy daughters,
Scott R. Miller; Gene H. Brody; Velma M. Murry
CHEMEX; Understanding and Solving Problems in Chemistry. A Computer-Assisted Instruction Program for General Chemistry.
A brief overview of CHEMEX--a problem-solving, tutorial style computer-assisted instructional course--is provided and sample problems are offered. In CHEMEX, students receive problems in advance and attempt to solve them before moving through the computer program, which assists them in overcoming difficulties and serves as a review mechanism.…
Lower, Stephen K.
Intelligent Learning Environment for Understanding Basic Operations of Arithmetic by Problem Posing
Several researchers have indicated that to pose arithmetical word problems is an important way to learn arithmetic. However, learning by problem posing is not popular in the lecture of classroom because it is hard for a teacher to do it. For example, even to judge whether each problem is correct or not, a teacher has to examine each problem. In this paper, we describe an Intelligent Learning Environment which realizes the learning by problem posing. In the learning by problem posing, a learner poses problems through the interface provided by the ILE. The ILE has a function to diagnose the problems posed by the learner. By using the results of the diagnosis, the ILE helps the learner to correct wrong problems, or leads her/him in the next step of problem posing. We evaluated the ILE in an elementary school. The subjects were 4th grade students. We also report the results of the evaluation. In the ILE, the interface was implemented in Java, and the diagnosis module was implemented in Prolog. So it can be used on World Wide Web. The current environment deals with simple arithmetical word problems solved by an addition or a subtraction.
Nakano, Akira; Hirashima, Tsukasa; Takeuchi, Akira
The social competence and behavioral problem substrate of new- and recent-onset childhood epilepsy.
This study examined patterns of syndrome-specific problems in behavior and competence in children with new- or recent-onset epilepsy compared with healthy controls. Research participants consisted of 205 children aged 8-18, including youth with recent-onset epilepsy (n=125, 64 localization-related epilepsy [LRE] and 61 idiopathic generalized epilepsy [IGE]) and healthy first-degree cousin controls (n=80). Parents completed the Child Behavior Checklist for children aged 6-18 (CBCL/6-18) from the Achenbach System of Empirically Based Assessment (ASEBA). Dependent variables included Total Competence, Total Problems, Total Internalizing, Total Externalizing, and Other Problems scales. Comparisons of children with LRE and IGE with healthy controls were examined followed by comparisons of healthy controls with those having specific epilepsy syndromes of LRE (BECTS, Frontal/Temporal Lobe, and Focal NOS) and IGE (Absence, Juvenile Myoclonic, and IGE NOS). Children with LRE and/or IGE differed significantly (p<0.05) from healthy controls, but did not differ from each other, across measures of behavior (Total Problems, Total Internalizing, Total Externalizing, and Other Problems including Thought and Attention Problems) or competence (Total Competence including School and Social). Similarly, children with specific syndromes of LRE and IGE differed significantly (p<0.05) from controls across measures of behavior (Total Problems, Total Internalizing, and Other Problems including Attention Problems) and competence (Total Competence including School). Only on the Thought Problems scale were there syndrome differences. In conclusion, children with recent-onset epilepsy present with significant behavioral problems and lower competence compared with controls, with little syndrome specificity whether defined broadly (LRE and IGE) or narrowly (specific syndromes of LRE and IGE). PMID:24374977
Almane, Dace; Jones, Jana E; Jackson, Daren C; Seidenberg, Michael; Hermann, Bruce P
Maternal depressive symptoms: Associations with adolescents' internalizing and externalizing problems and social competence.
Abstract Background: The negative effect of maternal depressive symptoms on child wellbeing has been quite extensively studied. There is, however, debate as to whether it is the timing, the recurrence or the chronicity of maternal depressive symptoms that puts the child's wellbeing at risk. Aims: This study explores the associations between the timing, recurrence and the patterns of maternal depressive symptoms and adolescent psychosocial functioning. Methods: One hundred and ninety-one mothers and 192 adolescents were followed up from the mother's pregnancy to the child's adolescence. Maternal depressive symptoms were screened with the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale prenatally, postnatally, in early and middle childhood, and at adolescence. The adolescents' outcomes were screened using Child Behavior Checklists and Youth Self Reports. Results: The results indicate that the initial exposure to maternal depressive symptoms at pregnancy is associated with more externalizing problems in adolescence, 2 months postnatally with more internalizing problems, in early childhood with poorer social competence and concurrently with more externalizing problems. Combined analyses indicate that recurrent maternal depressive symptoms best explain adolescents' internalizing problems and the chronic pattern of maternal depressive symptoms externalizing problems. The chronic and intermittent patterns of maternal depressive symptoms best explained adolescents' poorer social competence. Conclusions: Recurrent or chronic maternal depressive symptoms rather than the timing predict adolescents' psychosocial problems better. The timing, however, may explain the different kinds of problems in adolescence depending on the developmental task at the time of the exposure. The findings should be noted when treating both mothers and children in psychiatric clinics and other health services. PMID:24070429
Korhonen, Marie; Luoma, Ilona; Salmelin, Raili; Tamminen, Tuula
Integrating Social Science, Environmental Science, and Engineering to Understand Vulnerability and Resilience to Environmental Hazards in the Bengal Delta
In populated delta environments, it is impossible to separate human and natural systems. Human activities change the landscape by altering the dynamics of water and sediment and in return, humans themselves are affected by the natural and anthropogenic changes to the landscape. Such interactions can also have significant impacts on the ecology and natural resources of a delta system, affecting local and regional food supply, livelihoods, and economies, particularly in developing nations. Successful adaptation to environmental change in a strongly coupled human-natural system, such as the Bengal delta, requires understanding how the physical environment and the changing social, political, and economic conditions of people's lives interact. Research on human-delta interactions has largely focused on macro-scale effects from major dams, water diversions, and catchment-scale land use; but at the smaller scale of households and communities, decisions, actions, and outcomes may occur abruptly and have significant local impacts (positive or negative). Southwest Bangladesh experiences profound environmental problems at the local human-landscape interface, including groundwater salinity, soil fertility, conflicting land-use practices, management of engineering structures, and declining land-surface elevations. The impacts of climate-induced sea-level rise, especially with respect to population migration, receive great attention and concern, but neither sea level rise nor migration occurs against a background of static physical or human environments. For example, changing land use (e.g., building embankments, which affect drainage, sediment transport, and the evolution of tidal channels; and the transformation of rice fields to shrimp aquaculture, which affects soil chemistry, labor markets, river ecology, and possibly the integrity of embankments) can significantly change the impact that sea level rise will have on flood hazards and the resulting effect on people living on the delta. Assessing the impacts of climate change and other environmental stresses on delta populations and designing effective responses will require understanding interactions between the physical and human environments at multiple scales. As part of a multidisciplinary research project drawing on sedimentology, hydrology, remote-sensing, engineering, political science, sociology, psychology, and anthropology we are studying the interactions of human and natural systems in coastal Bangladesh to understand conditions that contribute to vulnerability and resilience at both the household and the community level. Building on Elinor Ostrom's socioecological systems approach, we have developed a theoretical framework for studying vulnerability and resilience when coupled human-natural systems are subject to significant changes and exogenous forcings. We will report on this framework using examples of successful and unsuccessful interventions to manage or mitigate exposure to environmental hazards, and we will also report on progress toward using our framework to identify and understand factors that contribute to the success or failure of such projects.
Gilligan, J. M.; Ackerly, B.; Goodbred, S. L.
The impact of social desirability biases on self-report among college student and problem gamblers.
The impacts of two types of social desirability bias, self-deceptive enhancement (SDE) and impression management (IM), were examined on self-reports of gambling problems, measured by the South Oaks Gambling Screen (SOGS), and recent gambling behavior, as measured by the Timeline Followback (TLFB) method, in a sample of college students (N = 191), and a sample of treatment-seeking problem gamblers (N = 49). Consistent with our expectations, IM was negatively associated with SOGS scores in both samples. IM was most highly correlated with SOGS scores among treatment-seeking participants (r = -.44, p < .01). Substantial numbers of participants in both samples had high enough IM scores as to call into question the validity of their self-report gambling data, according to published interpretive guidelines. With respect to SDE, we had predicted that it would be positively related to gambling behaviors and gambling-related problems, but found that SDE was inversely related to SOGS scores in both samples. Very little evidence was found for social desirability effects on TLFB scores. Thus, preliminary evidence was obtained that self-report data on gambling problems, but not on gambling behavior (frequency of gambling and amount of time and money spent), may be susceptible to the effects of impression management in both college students and treatment-seeking gamblers. PMID:18369710
Kuentzel, Jeffrey G; Henderson, Melinda J; Melville, Cam L
Experiments are the key to understanding socially acquired knowledge in cetaceans
We agree with Rendell and Whitehead that cetaceans acquire knowledge from caretakers and peers, and that a clear understanding of this process can provide insight into the evolution of mammalian cognition. The passive observational methods they advocate, however, are inadequate for determining what cetaceans know. Only by experimentally investigating the cognition of cetaceans can we hope to understand what they
Eduardo Mercado; Caroline M. DeLongb
Understanding Frame-of-Reference Training Success: A Social Learning Theory Perspective
Employing the social learning theory (SLT) perspective on training, we analysed the effects of alternative frame-of-reference (FOR) training protocols on various criteria of training effectiveness. Undergraduate participants (N = 65) were randomly assigned to one of four FOR training conditions and a control condition. Training effectiveness was…
Sulsky, Lorne M.; Kline, Theresa J. B.
Understanding the Role of the 'Self' in the Social Priming of Mimicry
People have a tendency to unconsciously mimic other's actions. This mimicry has been regarded as a prosocial response which increases social affiliation. Previous research on social priming of mimicry demonstrated an assimilative relationship between mimicry and prosociality of the primed construct: prosocial primes elicit stronger mimicry whereas antisocial primes decrease mimicry. The present research extends these findings by showing that assimilative and contrasting prime-to-behavior effect can both happen on mimicry. Specifically, experiment 1 showed a robust contrast priming effect where priming antisocial behaviors induces stronger mimicry than priming prosocial behaviors. In experiment 2, we manipulated the self-relatedness of the pro/antisocial primes and further revealed that prosocial primes increase mimicry only when the social primes are self-related whereas antisocial primes increase mimicry only when the social primes are self-unrelated. In experiment 3, we used a novel cartoon movie paradigm to prime pro/antisocial behaviors and manipulated the perspective-taking when participants were watching these movies. Again, we found that prosocial primes increase mimicry only when participants took a first-person point of view whereas antisocial primes increase mimicry only when participants took a third-person point of view, which replicated the findings in experiment 2. We suggest that these three studies can be best explained by the active-self theory, which claims that the direction of prime-to-behavior effects depends on how primes are processed in relation to the 'self'.
Wang, Yin; Hamilton, Antonia F de C
Understanding the role of the 'self' in the social priming of mimicry.
People have a tendency to unconsciously mimic other's actions. This mimicry has been regarded as a prosocial response which increases social affiliation. Previous research on social priming of mimicry demonstrated an assimilative relationship between mimicry and prosociality of the primed construct: prosocial primes elicit stronger mimicry whereas antisocial primes decrease mimicry. The present research extends these findings by showing that assimilative and contrasting prime-to-behavior effect can both happen on mimicry. Specifically, experiment 1 showed a robust contrast priming effect where priming antisocial behaviors induces stronger mimicry than priming prosocial behaviors. In experiment 2, we manipulated the self-relatedness of the pro/antisocial primes and further revealed that prosocial primes increase mimicry only when the social primes are self-related whereas antisocial primes increase mimicry only when the social primes are self-unrelated. In experiment 3, we used a novel cartoon movie paradigm to prime pro/antisocial behaviors and manipulated the perspective-taking when participants were watching these movies. Again, we found that prosocial primes increase mimicry only when participants took a first-person point of view whereas antisocial primes increase mimicry only when participants took a third-person point of view, which replicated the findings in experiment 2. We suggest that these three studies can be best explained by the active-self theory, which claims that the direction of prime-to-behavior effects depends on how primes are processed in relation to the 'self'. PMID:23565208
Understanding Collaboration Between Social Workers and Physicians: Application of a Typology
This article builds on prior analyses of data collected from a qualitative study of 50 pairs of social worker-physician collabora- tors in. This article presents the elements of a typology of collaborators from both professions developed from those analyses. The typology was also applied to the entire sample and each respondent characterized ac- cording to type (traditional, transitional or transformational).
Julie S. Abramson; Terry Mizrahi
Understanding Infants' and Children's Social Learning about Foods: Previous Research and New Prospects
Developmental psychologists have devoted significant attention to investigating how children learn from others' actions, emotions, and testimony. Yet most of this research has examined children's socially guided learning about artifacts. The present article focuses on a domain that has received limited attention from those interested in the…
Shutts, Kristin; Kinzler, Katherine D.; DeJesus, Jasmine M.
Understanding Social Positioning in the Context of Learning and Participation Experienced by Adult Transitional Residents
There are two dimensions of positioning: self-identity (reflexive) and, events and interaction between people (discursive). Positioning may become socially restrictive when disruptive discursive episodes have a negative impact on individual self-identity. An interpretive biographical study of 11 participants in a transitional residency (temporary…
Young, E. Beverly
Trial Registration: Understanding and Preventing Reporting Bias in Social Work Research
Randomized controlled trials are considered the gold standard for evaluating social work interventions. However, published reports can systematically overestimate intervention effects when researchers selectively report large and significant findings. Publication bias and other types of reporting biases can be minimized through prospective trial…
Harrison, Bronwyn A.; Mayo-Wilson, Evan
Understanding the Role of Interaction from Linguistic, Affective, and Social Perspectives
This study was conducted to broaden the scope of studies on interaction. It examined the role of interaction in terms of linguistic, affective, and social aspects. A questionnaire was administered and intensive interviews conducted to reveal the reality of communication between Chinese ESL students and Canadian native English speakers and how…
Xu, Guang
Understanding Implementation and Effectiveness of "Strong Start K-2" on Social-Emotional Behavior
"Strong Start K-2" is a social-emotional learning curriculum, designed for use with children in kindergarten through grade 2. The objectives of this study were twofold. First, authors aimed to evaluate the feasibility and quality of "Strong Start" implementation. Additionally authors examined the effect of "Strong Start" on first grade students'…
Whitcomb, Sara A.; Merrell, Kenneth W.
A growing number of children are entering kindergarten without the skills that enable them to be successful in an academic setting. However, it is not children's cognitive skills that concern educators; it is their social and emotional skill deficits that are most troublesome. This article discusses how family and community risk factors can…
Whitted, Kathryn S.
Understanding Solitude: Young Children's Attitudes and Responses toward Hypothetical Socially Withdrawn Peers
The goal of the present study was to explore young children's attitudes and responses to different forms of social withdrawal by eliciting responses to hypothetical vignettes. Participants included 137 children (49 boys, 88 girls) in kindergarten and grade 1 classes (M[subscript age] = 75.94 months, SD = 9.03) in Ottawa, Canada. Parents rated…
Coplan, Robert J.; Girardi, Alberta; Findlay, Leanne C.; Frohlick, Sherri L.
Understanding the Learning of Values Using a Domains-of-Socialization Framework
The narratives that emerging adults wrote about a time when they learned an important moral, value or lesson were explored in order to determine the characteristics of events that lead to internalized values as well as to compare the way different kinds of moral values are socialized. Lessons resulting from misbehavior were reported most…
Vinik, Julia; Johnston, Megan; Grusec, Joan E.; Farrell, Renee
Pubertal development of the understanding of social emotions: Implications for education
Recent developmental cognitive neuroscience research has supported the notion that puberty and adolescence are periods of profound socio-emotional development. The current study was designed to investigate whether the onset of puberty marks an increase in the awareness of complex, or "mixed," emotions. Eighty-three female participants (aged 9–16 years) were divided into three groups according to a self-report measure of puberty stage (early-, mid- and post-puberty). Participants were presented with emotional scenarios, and used four linear scales to rate their emotional response to each scenario. Scenarios were designed to evoke social emotions (embarrassment or guilt) or basic emotions (anger or fear), where social emotions are defined as those which require the representation of others' mental states. We measured the relative complexity or "mixedness" of emotional responses, that is, the degree to which participants reported feeling more than one emotion for a given scenario. We found that mixed emotion reporting increased between early- and post-puberty for social emotion scenarios, and showed no relationship with age, whereas there was no change in mixed emotion reporting for basic emotion scenarios across age or puberty groups. This suggests that the awareness of mixed emotions develops during the course of puberty, and that this development is specific to social emotions. Results are discussed in the context of brain development across puberty and adolescence, with speculation regarding the potential implications for education.
Burnett, Stephanie; Thompson, Stephanie; Bird, Geoffrey; Blakemore, Sarah-Jayne
Understanding Academic Performance of International Students: The Role of Ethnicity, Academic and Social Integration
More than 3 million students study outside their home country, primarily at a Western university. A common belief among educators is that international students are insufficiently adjusted to higher education in their host country, both academically and socially. Furthermore, several groups of international students experience considerable amounts…
Rienties, Bart; Beausaert, Simon; Grohnert, Therese; Niemantsverdriet, Susan; Kommers, Piet
Understanding the Social Exclusion and Stalled Welfare of Citizens with Learning Disabilities
Despite the UK's recent history of promoting the social inclusion and equality of men and women with learning disabilities they remain a significantly disadvantaged group. Compared with their non-disabled peers they are more likely to be unemployed, less likely to own their own homes and are at a significantly greater risk of physical and mental…
Redley, Marcus
Online Community and User-Generated Content: Understanding the Role of Social Networks
Models of user generated content (UGC) creation such as Facebook, MySpace, and YouTube are facing robust growth accelerated by the adoption of Web 2.0 technologies and standards. These business models offer a fascinating avenue for exploring the role of social influence online. This dissertation is motivated by the success of YouTube, which is…
Oh, Jeong Ha
Understanding Latina and Latino College Choice: A Social Capital and Chain Migration Analysis
Through interviews and focus groups with 106 high school juniors and seniors, this research examined the college choice process for Latina and Latino students in the greater Los Angeles basin. Using chain migration theory within a social capital framework, the results indicated that as primarily first-generation college students, the students in…
Perez, Patricia A.; McDonough, Patricia M.
Social Power and Influence: Understanding Its Relevance in Early Childhood Consultation
The purpose of this article is to introduce and describe a model of social power and influence developed by Erchul and Raven (1997). This model describes the decision-making process a consultant would engage in to choose, implement, evaluate as well as the use of strategies that they might use to influence another person to act in a particular…
Spino, Margie A.; Dinnebeil, Laurie A.; McInerney, William F.
Transcending the Limitations of the Social Sciences: Insight, Understanding, and the Humanities in Educational Administration.
Considers the role of the humanities in the study and practice of educational administration, offering significant insights into the human condition and the philosophical and moral aspects of education. Discusses the limitations of the subject-object dualism underpinning traditional social science. Explains how Slipperjack's "Honor the Sun,"…
Ryan, James
Understanding Parent-Child Social Informant Discrepancy in Youth with High Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorders
We investigated discrepancies between parent- and self-reported social functioning among youth with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Three distinct samples showed discrepancies indicating that parents viewed their children as performing one standard deviation below a standardization mean, while youth viewed themselves as comparably-skilled…
Lerner, Matthew D.; Calhoun, Casey D.; Mikami, Amori Yee; De Los Reyes, Andres
Politics, media and youth: understanding political socialization via video production in secondary schools
Research on the lack of civic and political engagement on the part of today's youth has relied on traditional, often quantitative, measures of political knowledge that may miss important elements of the process. Using an ethnographic approach with a group of inner?city high school students, our study reveals a richer construction of students' awareness of political issues, or political socialization
Kate Dunsmore; Taso G. Lagos
Using Social Network Analysis to Understand Sense of Community in an Online Learning Environment
This study uses social network analysis (SNA) in an innovative way to describe interaction and explain how interaction influences sense of community of students in online learning environments. The findings reveal differences on sense of community between two similarly structured online courses, and show unique interaction patterns for students in…
Shen, Demei; Nuankhieo, Piyanan; Huang, Xinxin; Amelung, Christopher; Laffey, James
The Awkward Moments Test: A Naturalistic Measure of Social Understanding in Autism.
Fourteen adults with high-functioning autism, 2 with Asperger syndrome, and 10 controls matched for intellectual ability and reading competence were shown excerpts of films showing characters in social situations. Adults with autism and Asperger syndrome were most impaired in their ability to answer questions about the films requiring mind-reading…
Heavey, Lisa; Phillips, Wendy; Baron-Cohen, Simon; Rutter, Michael
Understanding Rape Survivors' Decisions Not to Seek Help from Formal Social Systems
Few rape survivors seek help from formal social systems after their assault. The purpose of this study was to examine factors that prevent survivors from seeking help from the legal, medical, and mental health systems and rape crisis centers. In this study, 29 female rape survivors who did not seek any postassault formal help were interviewed…
Patterson, Debra; Greeson, Megan; Campbell, Rebecca
Socioscientific Issues: A Path Towards Advanced Scientific Literacy and Improved Conceptual Understanding of Socially Controversial Scientific Theories
This thesis investigates the use of socioscientific issues (SSI) in the high school science classroom as an introduction to argumentation and socioscientific reasoning, with the goal of improving students' scientific literacy (SL). Current research is reviewed that supports the likelihood of students developing a greater conceptual understanding of scientific theories as well as a deeper understanding of the nature of science (NOS), through participation in informal and formal forms of argumentation in the context of SSI. Significant gains in such understanding may improve a student's ability to recognize the rigor, legitimacy, and veracity of scientific claims and better discern science from pseudoscience. Furthermore, students that participate in significant SSI instruction by negotiating a range of science-related social issues can make significant gains in content knowledge and develop the life-long skills of argumentation and evidence-based reasoning, goals not possible in traditional lecture-based science instruction. SSI-based instruction may therefore help students become responsible citizens. This synthesis also suggests that that the improvements in science literacy and NOS understanding that develop from sustained engagement in SSI-based instruction will better prepare students to examine and scrutinize socially controversial scientific theories (i.e., evolution, global warming, and the Big Bang).
Pinzino, Dean William
A Comparison of the Effectiveness of Problem Solving Training and of Cognitive-Emotional Rehabilitation on Neurocognition, Social Cognition and Social Functioning in People with Schizophrenia
Objective: Social cognition and Problem Solving (PS) impairments are common characteristics in patients with schizophrenia. Experimental neuropsychological findings support the hypothesis that schizophrenia is characterized by a broad range of heterogeneous cognitive impairments. Since that time Problem Solving Training has been employed as a core strategy in a wide variety of therapeutic settings. Renewed interest in cognitive functioning, including social Problem Solving skills and social cognition in schizophrenia, has led us to reconsider the potential value of metacognitive strategy as a rehabilitation strategy. Methods: The present study reports the results obtained by 24 persons with schizophrenia who were randomly assigned to one of two training session groups: Cognitive-Emotional Rehabilitation (REC) vs Problem Solving Training (PST). Both treatments were administered to small groups composed of subjects suffering from schizophrenic disorders over a 12 months period: primary measures of clinical, social outcomes and secondary measures of cognitive and Problem Solving functions were conducted at 0, and 12 months. Results: Results showed that both training methods were found to be effective in psychopathological measures and in social functioning. On cognitive function improvements were specific to the rehabilitative approach. PST are mainly improved capacities for planning and memory, while the REC improved measures such as social cognition Theory of mind and emotion recognition. Conclusion: The results confirmed that it is no necessary to divide the rehabilitation training in treatments directed to specific domains. The conceptualization and applicability of PST and REC its implications for persons with schizophrenia, and future studies in this research area have also been discussed.
Veltro, Franco; Mazza, Monica; Vendittelli, Nicola; Alberti, Mirella; Casacchia, Massimo; Roncone, Rita
Towards a differentiated understanding of active travel behaviour: using social theory to explore everyday commuting.
Fostering physical activity is an established public health priority for the primary prevention of a variety of chronic diseases. One promising population approach is to seek to embed physical activity in everyday lives by promoting walking and cycling to and from work ('active commuting') as an alternative to driving. Predominantly quantitative epidemiological studies have investigated travel behaviours, their determinants and how they may be changed towards more active choices. This study aimed to depart from narrow behavioural approaches to travel and investigate the social context of commuting with qualitative social research methods. Within a social practice theory framework, we explored how people describe their commuting experiences and make commuting decisions, and how travel behaviour is embedded in and shaped by commuters' complex social worlds. Forty-nine semi-structured interviews and eighteen photo-elicitation interviews with accompanying field notes were conducted with a subset of the Commuting and Health in Cambridge study cohort, based in the UK. The findings are discussed in terms of three particularly pertinent facets of the commuting experience. Firstly, choice and decisions are shaped by the constantly changing and fluid nature of commuters' social worlds. Secondly, participants express ambiguities in relation to their reasoning, ambitions and identities as commuters. Finally, commuting needs to be understood as an embodied and emotional practice. With this in mind, we suggest that everyday decision-making in commuting requires the tactical negotiation of these complexities. This study can help to explain the limitations of more quantitative and static models and frameworks in predicting travel behaviour and identify future research directions. PMID:22486840
Guell, C; Panter, J; Jones, N R; Ogilvie, D
Economic and Political Solutions to Social Problems: The Case of Second-hand Smoke in Enclosed Public Places
This article utilises a case study of the problem of second-hand smoke in enclosed public places to examine economic and political solutions to social problems. The responses of economic actors to this problem are examined via review of a number of pre-existing case studies of private arrangements in bars and restaurants prior to the introduction of smoking bans. The responses
John Meadowcroft
Treating Conduct Problems and Strengthening Social and Emotional Competence in Young Children: The Dina Dinosaur Treatment Program.
This article describes the Dina Dinosaur Social, Emotional and Problem Solving Child Training Program for young children with conduct problems. The program emphasizes training children in skills such as emotional literacy, empathy or perspective taking, friendship and communication skills, anger management, interpersonal problem solving, and…
Webster-Stratton, Carolyn; Reid, M. Jamila
Social Inequalities and Gender Differences in the Experience of Alcohol-Related Problems
Aims: To examine the influence of country-level characteristics and individual socio-economic status (SES) on individual alcohol-related consequences. Methods: Data from 42,655 men and women collected by cross-sectional surveys in 25 countries of the Gender, Alcohol and Culture: An International Study study were used. The individual SES was measured by the highest attained educational level. Alcohol-related consequences were defined as the self-report of at least one internal or one external consequence in the last year. The relationship between individuals' education and alcohol-related consequences was examined by meta-analysis. In a second step, the individual level data and country data were combined in multilevel models. As country-level indicators, we used the purchasing power parity of the gross national income (GNI), the Gini coefficient and the Gender Gap Index. Results: Lower educated men and women were more likely to report consequences than higher educated men and women even after controlling for drinking patterns. For men, this relation was significant for both internal and external problems. For women, it was only significant for external problems. The GNI was significantly associated with reporting external consequences for men such that in lower income countries men were more likely to report social problems. Conclusion: The fact that problems accrue more quickly for lower educated persons even if they drink in the same manner can be linked to the social or environmental dimension surrounding problems. That is, those of fewer resources are less protected from the experience of a problem or the impact of a stressful life event.
Grittner, Ulrike; Kuntsche, Sandra; Graham, Kathryn; Bloomfield, Kim
Using Cognitive Mapping to Understand Problems Experienced by Family Caregivers of Persons with Severe Physical Disabilities
Individuals who provide ongoing care for family members who have a chronic disease or disability are likely to encounter a wide array of problems that can compromise their own health and their ability to function effectively in a caregiving role. Structured focus group meetings were conducted to elicit a comprehensive list of the problems that caregivers experienced during their first
Richard M. Shewchuk; Patricia A. Rivera; Timothy R. Elliott; Alice M. Adams
Understanding the Impact of Assessment on Students in Problem-Based Learning
This article explores assessment in the context of problem-based learning (PBL) at three different levels. Firstly, it examines the position of assessment in the current system of higher education and, secondly, it examines students' experiences of assessment in problem-based programmes. The article draws on research into PBL that explored staff…
Savin-Baden, Maggi
Understanding the Impact of (Fiscal and Monetary) Policy: Using the Send-A-Problem Technique
Students in an introductory macroeconomics course practice applying their knowledge of monetary and fiscal policy to specific economic scenarios. During multiple rounds of problem solving facilitated by this send-a-problem, students identify how policy changes can be used in reaction to specific economic conditions or events. They also evaluate such policy changes in terms of resultant impacts on equilibrium conditions.
Mcgoldrick, Km
The Effects of Students' Cognitive Styles on Conceptual Understandings and Problem-Solving Skills in Introductory Mechanics
The purpose of this study was to determine if there are relationships among freshmen students' Field depended or field independent (FD/FI) cognitive style, conceptual understandings, and problem solving skills in mechanics. The sample consisted of 213 freshmen (female = 111, male = 102; age range 17-21) who were enrolled in an introductory physics…
Ates, Salih; Cataloglu, Erdat
Understanding L2 Speaking Problems: Implications for ESL Curriculum Development in a Teacher Training Institution in Hong Kong
This paper reports the result of a study that aimed to identify the problems with oral English skills of ESL (English as a second language) students at a tertiary teacher training institution in Hong Kong. The study, by way of semi-structured interview, addresses the gap in our understanding of the difficulties ESL students encountered in their…
Gan, Zhengdong
Studentsâ understanding of dot product as a projection in no-context, work and electric flux problems
In this article we investigate studentsâ understanding of dot product as a projection. In the first part, we compare studentsâ performance in three isomorphic multiple-choice problems: no-context, work and electric flux. We administered one of the three problems to 422 students who were in the process of completing required introductory physics courses. In the second part, we analyze the studentsâ ability to connect the physical concepts with the dot productâs formal representation. We carried out interviews with 14 students, in which they were asked to solve the same three isomorphic problems. Following the tests, we found a difference that was statistically significant: both physical context problems helped students select the projection interpretation option. However, the percentages of students that selected this option remained very low in the three problems. Moreover, during the interviews we noticed that students had serious difficulties in developing a coherent conceptual framework between the physical concepts and the dot productâs formal representation.
Zavala, Genaro; Barniol, Pablo
Understanding social resilience to climate variability in primary enterprises and industries
Resource-dependent industries are particularly vulnerable to climate change, and their ability to adapt will be as critical to society as to the natural systems upon which they rely. More than ever, resource-users will need to anticipate, and prepare for, climate-related changes, and institutions will need to be particularly supportive, if resource industries and the extended social systems dependent on them
N. A. Marshall
Living systems theory as a paradigm for organizational behavior: understanding humans, organizations, and social processes.
Living systems theories have been used to model human, organization, and communication processes. This paper attempts to describe these models and to highlight the isomorphisms among the models. Particular emphasis is given to self-regulating properties of humans as a subsystem of social systems. Attention is given to the advantages of generalizing across levels and phenomena and integrating the middle-range theories that dominate the field of organizational behavior. Three broad recommendations for future research are discussed. PMID:8856949
Vancouver, J B
Understanding multiple thresholds of coupled social–ecological systems exposed to natural hazards as external shocks
Societies and ecosystems worldwide are increasingly subjected to hazards of natural and anthropogenic origins. Increasing\\u000a the resilience and reducing the vulnerability of social–ecological systems (SES) so that they can withstand these shocks is\\u000a crucial. External shocks (e.g. cyclones, earthquakes, tsunamis, floods) can induce an SES to move from one regime to another\\u000a (or one stability domain to another), the latter
Fabrice G. RenaudJorn; Jörn Birkmann; Marion Damm; Gilberto C. Gallopín
Understanding the Role of Emotion in Psychosis: Social Anxiety Disorder in First-Episode Psychosis
\\u000a Affective disturbances are highly prevalent in non-affective psychosis and exert significant impact upon its course and outcome.\\u000a Low mood and associated suicidality, anxiety symptoms, withdrawal and isolation have been consistently observed throughout\\u000a the course of psychosis, during the prodromal phase and following symptomatic recovery. Social anxiety disorder in particular\\u000a is among the most prevailing disturbances manifest in people with psychosis.
Maria Michail; Max Birchwood
A Framework for Understanding Corporate Social Responsibility Programs as a Continuum: An Exploratory Study
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs are increasingly popular corporate marketing strategies. This paper argues\\u000a that CSR programs can fall along a continuum between two endpoints: Institutionalized programs and Promotional programs. This\\u000a classification is based on an exploratory study examining the variance of four responses from the consumer stakeholder group\\u000a toward these two categories of CSR. Institutionalized CSR programs are argued
Julie Pirsch; Shruti Gupta; Stacy Landreth Grau
Holistic Mathematics Instruction: Interactive Problem Solving and Real Life Situations Help Learners Understand Math Concepts.
Holistic math focuses on problem solving with numbers and concepts. Whole math activities for adults include shopping for groceries, eating in restaurants, buying gas, taking medicine, measuring a room, estimating servings, and compiling a family cookbook. (SK)
Archambeault, Betty
Maternal Depression and Comorbidity: Predicting Early Parenting, Attachment Security, and Toddler Social-Emotional Problems and Competencies
ObjectiveTo examine relations between maternal depression (in pure and comorbid forms) and mother–infant interactions, infant attachment, and toddler social-emotional problems and competencies. A second objective was to explore sex differences.
Examining Developmental Differences in the Social-Emotional Problems among Frequent Bullies, Victims, and Bully/Victims
Bullying poses a threat to children's social-emotional functioning and their perceptions of school climate, yet few studies have examined different types of social-emotional and behavior problems presented by children involved in bullying, as a bully, victim, or bully/victim across multiple school levels. The current study used data from 24,345…
O'Brennan, Lindsey M.; Bradshaw, Catherine P.; Sawyer, Anne L.
Social Competency Training Goes to School: Pupil Involvement in the Classroom through Problem-Solving with People.
The need for a "systems" approach to school-based social competency training has been highlighted by a national commission and the U.S. Department of Education. The Pupil Involvement/Problem-Solving with People (PI/PSP) curriculum has adapted numerous, well-researched social compentency training models targeted for elementary classroom use.…
Hallarman, Prudence R.; And Others
Social Skills and Problem Behaviours in School Aged Children with High-Functioning Autism and Asperger's Disorder
The social skills and problem behaviours of children with high-functioning autism and Asperger's Disorder were compared using parent and teacher reports on the Social Skills Rating System. The participants were 20 children with high-functioning autism, 19 children with Asperger's Disorder, and 17 typically developing children, matched on…
Macintosh, Kathleen; Dissanayake, Cheryl
Social Goals and Conflict Strategies of Individuals with Mild to Moderate Intellectual Disabilities Who Present Problems of Aggression
Background: A few recent studies have adopted a social cognitive perspective to explore how individuals with intellectual disabilities (IDs), who present problems of aggression, view their social world. The focus has mainly been on participants' perceptions of others' behaviour within conflict situations. The present exploratory study aims to…
Pert, C.; Jahoda, A.
Social meanings and understandings in patient-nurse interaction in the community practice setting: a grounded theory study
Background The patient-nurse relationship is a traditional concern of healthcare research. However, patient-nurse interaction is under examined from a social perspective. Current research focuses mostly on specific contexts of care delivery and experience related to medical condition or illness, or to nurses' speciality. Consequentially, this paper is about the social meanings and understandings at play within situated patient-nurse interaction in the community practice setting in a transforming healthcare service. Methods Grounded theory methodology was used and the research process was characterised by principles of theoretical sensitivity and constant comparative analysis. The field of study was four health centres in the community. The participants were patients and nurses representative of those attending or working in the health centres and meeting there by scheduled appointment. Data collection methods were observations, informal interviews and semi-structured interviews. Results Key properties of 'Being a good patient, being a good nurse', 'Institutional experiences' and 'Expectations about healthcare' were associated with the construction of a category entitled 'Experience'. Those key properties captured that in an evolving healthcare environment individuals continually re-constructed their reality of being a patient or nurse as they endeavoured to perform appropriately; articulation of past and present healthcare experiences was important in that process. Modus operandi in role as patient was influenced by past experiences in healthcare and by those in non-healthcare institutions in terms of engagement and involvement (or not) in interaction. Patients' expectations about interaction in healthcare included some uncertainly as they strived to make sense of the changing roles and expertise of nurses and, differentiating between the roles and expertise of nurses and doctors. Conclusions The importance of social meanings and understandings in patient-nurse interaction is not fully apparent to nurses, but important in the patient experience. Seeking understanding from a social perspective makes a contribution to enhancing knowledge about patient-nurse interaction with subsequent impact on practice, in particular the development of the patient-nurse relationship. The implications are that the meanings and understandings patients and nurses generate from experiences beyond and within their situated interaction are pivotal to the development of their relationship in the transforming community healthcare environment.
Emotion, Understanding, and Social Skills among Boys at Risk of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
There is growing interest in the role of emotional competence in middle school children's adjustment and functioning, yet many populations remain underresearched. Few studies have explored the emotional competence, especially emotion understanding, of children with, or at risk of, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and even fewer…
Kats-Gold, Inna; Priel, Beatriz
The material features of multiple representations and their cognitive and social affordances for science understanding
This article reviews experimental and naturalistic studies conducted by our research group to examine the role of multiple representations in understanding science. It examines the differences between expert chemists and chemistry students in their representational skills and in their use of representations in science laboratories. It describes the way scientists use the material features of multiple representations to support their
Robert Kozma
SocialWork Practice Innovations: Helping Clients Understand, Explore, and Develop Their Friendships
This article demonstrates the importance of helping clients understand, explore,anddevelopfriendshipsinsocialworkpractice.Thenatureoffriendshipsis explored. A cross-disciplinary analysis of the literature concerning friendships and their relationship to human health and functioning is discussed. Case examples illustrating the importance of friendships and examples of the conscious use of friendshipsasatargetofinterventionareprovided.
Rich Furman; Kathryn Collins; Janet Swanson
A cognitive and social framework for shared understanding in cooperative hypermedia authoring
Creating shared knowledge structures using cooperative hypermedia is a joint activity. The knowledge structures created should fit into the real world environment and reflect the common ground reached and evolved in the cooperation process of the knowledge workers. In order to facilitate the development of shared understanding among knowledge workers, Herbert Clark's theory on language use and Jean Piaget's cognitive
Weigang Wang; Jessica Rubart
Coexisting social conditions and health problems among clients seeking treatment for illicit drug use in Finland: The HUUTI study
Background Illicit drug use is an important public health problem. Identifying conditions that coexist with illicit drug use is necessary for planning health services. This study described the prevalence and factors associated with social and health problems among clients seeking treatment for illicit drug use. Methods We carried out cross-sectional analyses of baseline data of 2526 clients who sought treatment for illicit drug use at Helsinki Deaconess Institute between 2001 and 2008. At the clients' first visit, trained clinicians conducted face-to-face interviews using a structured questionnaire. Logistic regression was used to compute adjusted odds ratios (AORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for factors associated with social and health problems. Results The mean age of the clients was 25 years, 21% (n?=?519) were homeless, 54% (n?=?1363) were unemployed and 7% (n?=?183) had experienced threats of violence. Half of the clients (50%, n?=?1258) were self-referred and 31% (n?=?788) used opiates as their primary drugs of abuse. Hepatitis C (25%, n?=?630) was more prevalent than other infectious diseases and depressive symptoms (59%, n?=?1490) were the most prevalent psychological problems. Clients who were self-referred to treatment were most likely than others to report social problems (AOR?=?1.86; 95% CI?=?1.50–2.30) and psychological problems (AOR?=?1.51; 95% CI?=?1.23–1.85). Using opiates as primary drugs of abuse was the strongest factor associated with infectious diseases (AOR?=?3.89; 95% CI?=?1.32–11.46) and for reporting a combination of social and health problems (AOR?=?3.24; 95% CI?=?1.58–6.65). Conclusion The existence of illicit drug use with other social and health problems could lead to increased utilisation and cost of healthcare services. Coexisting social and health problems may interfere with clients' treatment response. Our findings support the call for integration of relevant social, medical and mental health support services within drug treatment programmes.
Temperament and Social Problem Solving Competence in Preschool: Influences on Academic Skills in Early Elementary School.
The goals of the current study were to examine whether children's social problem solving (SPS) skills are a mechanism through which temperament influences later academic achievement and whether sex moderates these associations. Participants included 1,117 children enrolled in the NICHD Early Child Care Study. During preschool, mothers and childcare providers rated children's temperamental shyness and inhibitory control, and SPS was assessed using a hypothetical-reflective measure during a laboratory visit. During kindergarten and first grade, teacher-report of math and language skills was collected. Results indicated that high ratings of inhibitory control in preschool, but not shyness, predicted better kindergarten and first grade academic skills. Furthermore, children's SPS competence mediated the relations between both shyness and inhibitory control on later academic skills. The child's sex did not moderate these associations. Results suggest that preventative efforts targeting early SPS skills may buffer against later academic adjustment problems among temperamentally extreme children. PMID:23355765
Walker, Olga L; Henderson, Heather A
How Trauma and Attachment Can Impact Neurodevelopment: Informing Our Understanding and Treatment of Sexual Behaviour Problems
Over the last several years there has been a notable increase in neurological and neurodevelopmental research, with a keen interest in applying this research to our understanding of everyday human learning and behaviour. One aspect of this research has examined how the experience of trauma in childhood can affect neurodevelopment with implications…
Creeden, Kevin
How trauma and attachment can impact neurodevelopment: Informing our understanding and treatment of sexual behaviour problems
Over the last several years there has been a notable increase in neurological and neurodevelopmental research, with a keen interest in applying this research to our understanding of everyday human learning and behaviour. One aspect of this research has examined how the experience of trauma in childhood can affect neurodevelopment with implications for later emotional and behavioural functioning. Given that
Kevin Creeden
Two studies describe the development of a comprehensive, vignette-based measure of social information processing (SIP) particularly relevant for children with internalizing problems. Study 1 (N = 219 3rd–6th graders) describes the creation of the Children's Evaluation of Everyday Social Encounters Questionnaire (ChEESE-Q) and evidence for its reliability and validity, including internal structure and relation of SIP variables to depressive and anxious symptoms.
Debora J. Bell; Aaron M. Luebbe; Lance P. Swenson; Maureen A. Allwood
Understanding Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Youth Mental Health Services: Do Disparities Vary by Problem Type?
The authors examined racial/ethnic disparities in mental health service use based on problem type (internalizing/externalizing). A diverse sample of youth in contact with public sectors of care and their families provided reports of youth's symptoms and functional impairment during an initial interview. Specialty and school-based mental health…
Gudino, Omar G.; Lau, Anna S.; Yeh, May; McCabe, Kristen M.; Hough, Richard L.
The Role of Task Analysis in Understanding Problem-Solving Behavior.
Describes the beginning of a study of the cognitive processes required for applying financial accounting knowledge to specific problem solving situations. Task analysis is used to describe the cognitive components of accounting, and algorithms for the tasks are appended. Eighteen references are listed. (Author/CHC)
Stephens, Ray G.; And Others
A Simple Assignment that Enhances Students' Ability to Solve Organic Chemistry Synthesis Problems and Understand Mechanisms
Organic chemistry students typically struggle with the retrosynthetic approach to solving synthesis problems because most textbooks present the chemistry grouped by "reactions of the functional group". In contrast, the retrosynthetic approach requires the student to envision "reactions that yield the functional group". A second challenge is the…
Teixeira, Jennifer; Holman, R. W.
The New Workforce Generation: Understanding the Problems Facing Parental Involvement in Jordanian Kindergartens
This study aimed to investigate the problems facing parental involvement in Jordanian kindergartens from the parents' perspectives. A 36-item questionnaire that addressed five domains was designed by the researchers and distributed among the study participants. The study sample consisted of 297 parents of kindergarten children from various…
Ihmeideh, Fathi; Khasawneh, Samer; Mahfouz, Safi; Khawaldeh, Moustafa
Understanding the Effects of Databases as Cognitive Tools in a Problem-Based Multimedia Learning Environment
The purpose of this study is to examine the potential of using computer databases as cognitive tools to share learners' cognitive load and facilitate learning in a multimedia problem-based learning (PBL) environment designed for sixth graders. Two research questions were: (a) can the computer database tool share sixth-graders' cognitive load? and…
Li, Rui; Liu, Min
The Role of Multiple Representations in the Understanding of Ideal Gas Problems
This study examined the representational competence of students as they solved problems dealing with the temperature-pressure relationship for ideal gases. Seven students enrolled in a first-semester general chemistry course and two advanced undergraduate science majors participated in the study. The written work and transcripts from videotaped…
Madden, Sean P.; Jones, Loretta L.; Rahm, Jrene
Between Tradition and Modernization: Understanding the Problem of Female Bedouin Dropouts
This study discusses the problem of Bedouin girls dropping out from the public school system in the Negev region of Israel. Data show that this phenomenon results from a conflict between the modern Israeli institutes' perception of modernity (which promote coeducation) and the Bedouin traditions that remain the cultural ethos of the girls'…
Abu-Rabia-Queder, Sarab
Children's Understanding of Globes as a Model of the Earth: A Problem of Contextualizing
Visual representations play an important role in science teaching. The way in which visual representations may help children to acquire scientific concepts is a crucial test in the debate between constructivist and socio-cultural oriented researchers. In this paper, the question is addressed as a problem of how to contextualize conceptions and…
Ehrlen, Karin
The authoritative metaphor and social change: Surgeon General C. Everett Koop's Direct Mailer, "Understanding AIDS".
In 1988, Surgeon General C. Everett Koop published "Understanding AIDS," the nation's first and only direct mailing sent to every private home in the country. His appeals therein were driven by what we label authoritative metaphors. Communicated by and/or attributed to persons of authority, authoritative metaphors capitalize on the symbolic force of sanctioned power by appealing to the ethos of office. In "Understanding AIDS," we find that Koop drew from his positions as a surgeon and a general, respectively, to equate AIDS with an unprecedented plague and an unprecedented war. He created new authoritative metaphors out of the vestiges of familiar metaphors related to disease and public health and thereby portrayed AIDS as a recognizable but decisively unique dilemma requiring distinct preventative behaviors. PMID:22928780
Jensen, Robin E; King, Abigail Selzer
Robust impact of social anxiety in relation to coping motives and expectancies, barriers to quitting, and cessation-related problems.
Although social anxiety is related to smoking and nicotine dependence, few researchers have sought to identify factors that contribute to these relations. The current study examined whether social anxiety was associated with cognitive vulnerability factors related to smoking: perceived barriers for quitting, cessation-related problems, negative-affect-reduction-outcome expectancies, and negative-affect-reduction motives. Further, we tested whether social anxiety was robustly related to these factors after controlling for cigarettes smoked per day, gender, alcohol-use frequency, lifetime cannabis-use status, panic attack frequency, anxiety sensitivity, and negative affectivity. The sample consisted of 580 (38.6% female) treatment-seeking smokers. Social anxiety was associated with perceived barriers for quitting, cessation-related problems, negative-affect-reduction-outcome expectancies, and negative-affect-reduction motives. After controlling for covariates, social anxiety was robustly related to perceived barriers for quitting, cessation-related problems, and negative-affect-reduction-outcome expectancies. Social anxiety was robustly related to negative-affect-reduction motives among men, but not women. Results indicate that social anxiety is robustly related to cognitive vulnerability factors associated with poorer cessation outcomes, suggesting that social anxiety may be an important therapeutic target during smoking cessation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved). PMID:24978348
Buckner, Julia D; Zvolensky, Michael J; Jeffries, Emily R; Schmidt, Norman B
Syndemics, sex and the city: understanding sexually transmitted diseases in social and cultural context.
This paper employs syndemics theory to explain high rates of sexually transmitted disease among inner city African American and Puerto Rican heterosexual young adults in Hartford, CT, USA. Syndemic theory helps to elucidate the tendency for multiple co-terminus and interacting epidemics to develop under conditions of health and social disparity. Based on enhanced focus group and in-depth interview data, the paper argues that respondents employed a cultural logic of risk assessment which put them at high risk for STD infection. This cultural logic was shaped by their experiences of growing up in the inner city which included: coming of age in an impoverished family, living in a broken home, experiencing domestic violence, limited expectations of the future, limited exposure to positive role models, lack of expectation of the dependency of others, and fear of intimacy. PMID:16782250
Singer, Merrill C; Erickson, Pamela I; Badiane, Louise; Diaz, Rosemary; Ortiz, Dugeidy; Abraham, Traci; Nicolaysen, Anna Marie
Understanding barriers to hepatitis C virus care and stigmatization from a social perspective.
A large body of literature emphasizes the relationship between stigma and adverse health outcomes and health access measures. For people living with hepatitis C virus (HCV), stigma is a defining feature given the association of HCV with the socially demonized practice of injection drug use. However, there is little literature that specifically examines stigma as a barrier to HCV care and treatment. This review argues that the relationship between the person living with HCV and their health worker can work to ameliorate the effects of stigma. We draw on an emerging literature that examines the positive association between a patient's "trust" in their health worker and outcomes such as increased healthcare utilization and reduced risk behaviors. We investigate a growing body of health services research that acknowledges the importance of stigma and demonstrates ways to build positive, enabling relationships between patient, health worker, and health setting. PMID:23884066
Treloar, Carla; Rance, Jake; Backmund, Markus
Preschool children's social understanding: a pilot study of goals and strategies during conflict situations.
This pilot study tested a new enactive measure of social information-processing skills and investigated whether preschool children's goals were related to their strategies during hypothetical conflict situations. Children (13 boys, 12 girls) ages 3 to 6 years (three 3-yr.-olds, three 4-yr.-olds, 11 5-yr.-olds, and eight 6-yr.-olds) engaged in a puppet interview of six hypothetical situations. Significant correlations were found between goals and strategies of the adapted version of Chung and Asher's Children's Conflict Resolution Measure, suggesting that preschool children who endorsed friendship goals tended to select more prosocial strategies (.41). Children who endorsed more retaliation goals tended to select more hostile strategies (.67) but fewer prosocial strategies (-.41), and children who endorsed more avoidance goals tended to select more adult-seeking strategies (.45). PMID:18175497
Kazura, Kerry; Flanders, Rachel
Contrasting lives, contrasting views? Understandings of health inequalities from children in differing social circumstances.
Children's differing socio-economic, cultural and familial circumstances and experiences are part of the pathways implicated in health and illness in adulthood. However, in the existing, mainly survey based, work children's own voices tend to be absent and adult-defined data about health and illness accumulated. Little is known about the social and cultural processes, in children's very different childhoods, which underpin and ultimately constitute these epidemiological findings. This paper reports findings from a qualitative study examining the socio-economic and cultural contexts of children's lifestyles and the production of inequalities in health, carried out in a large Scottish city. Two rounds of semi-structured interviews, using a range of child-friendly techniques (photographs, drawings, vignettes), were carried out with 35 girls and boys aged 9-12 years living in two contrasting but contiguous areas, one relatively advantaged and one relatively disadvantaged. Thirty of their parents were also interviewed and community profiling and observational work undertaken. Children and parents described often starkly contrasting lives and opportunities, regularly involving material differences. However, children appeared to locate inequalities as much in relationships and social life as in material concerns; in this their direct experiences of relationships and unfairness were central to their making sense of inequality and its impact on health. Although children from both areas highlighted several different inequalities, including those related to material resources, they also spoke of the importance of control over their life world; of care and love particularly from parents; of friendship and acceptance by their peer group. Many children challenged straightforward causal explanations for future ill-health, privileging some explanations, such as psychological or lifestyle factors. The accounts of children from both areas displayed considerable resilience to and downplaying of the effects of both relationship and material inequalities; also showing how familial and personal challenges, such as bullying, divorce, learning difficulties, cut across structurally based differences. PMID:12821010
Backett-Milburn, Kathryn; Cunningham-Burley, Sarah; Davis, John
Eight Problems for the Mirror Neuron Theory of Action Understanding in Monkeys and Humans
The discovery of mirror neurons in macaque frontal cortex has sparked a resurgence of interest in motor/embodied theories of cognition. This critical review examines the evidence in support of one of these theories, namely that the mirror neurons provide the basis of action understanding. It is argued that there is no evidence from monkey data that directly tests this theory, and evidence from humans makes a strong case against the position.
Hickok, Gregory
Differential susceptibility effects: the interaction of negative emotionality and sibling relationship quality on childhood internalizing problems and social skills.
Whereas socialization influences in early childhood have been linked to children's emerging internalizing problems and prosocial behavior, relatively few studies have examined how NE might moderate such associations in both advantageous and maladaptive ways. Furthermore, more research is needed to evaluate the impact of sibling relationships as an influential socialization influence on these child outcomes. In the current study we examined how NE might differentially moderate the associations between quality of relationships with siblings and both internalizing problems and social skills at school entry. NE moderated the effects of positive and destructive sibling relationship quality on child internalizing problems. Specifically, for boys high on NE, more positive sibling relationship quality predicted fewer internalizing problems, but more destructive sibling conflict predicted more internalizing problems. NE also moderated the effects of destructive sibling conflict on child social skills. For boys high on NE, destructive sibling conflict predicted fewer social skills. Boys high on NE appear to show greater susceptibility to the effects of sibling socialization on child outcomes, relative to boys low on NE. The implications of these interactions are discussed with respect to differential susceptibility theory. PMID:22366882
Morgan, Judith K; Shaw, Daniel S; Olino, Thomas M
Acceptability of participatory social network analysis for problem-solving in Australian Aboriginal health service partnerships
Background While participatory social network analysis can help health service partnerships to solve problems, little is known about its acceptability in cross-cultural settings. We conducted two case studies of chronic illness service partnerships in 2007 and 2008 to determine whether participatory research incorporating social network analysis is acceptable for problem-solving in Australian Aboriginal health service delivery. Methods Local research groups comprising 13–19 partnership staff, policy officers and community members were established at each of two sites to guide the research and to reflect and act on the findings. Network and work practice surveys were conducted with 42 staff, and the results were fed back to the research groups. At the end of the project, 19 informants at the two sites were interviewed, and the researchers conducted critical reflection. The effectiveness and acceptability of the participatory social network method were determined quantitatively and qualitatively. Results Participants in both local research groups considered that the network survey had accurately described the links between workers related to the exchange of clinical and cultural information, team care relationships, involvement in service management and planning and involvement in policy development. This revealed the function of the teams and the roles of workers in each partnership. Aboriginal workers had a high number of direct links in the exchange of cultural information, illustrating their role as the cultural resource, whereas they had fewer direct links with other network members on clinical information exchange and team care. The problem of their current and future roles was discussed inside and outside the local research groups. According to the interview informants the participatory network analysis had opened the way for problem-solving by "putting issues on the table". While there were confronting and ethically challenging aspects, these informants considered that with flexibility of data collection to account for the preferences of Aboriginal members, then the method was appropriate in cross-cultural contexts for the difficult discussions that are needed to improve partnerships. Conclusion Critical reflection showed that the preconditions for difficult discussions are, first, that partners have the capacity to engage in such discussions, second, that partners assess whether the effort required for these discussions is balanced by the benefits they gain from the partnership, and, third, that "boundary spanning" staff can facilitate commitment to partnership goals.
Understanding the sleep problems of people with dementia and their family caregivers.
Sleep disturbances are common with dementia and can adversely affect waking function. However, the perspectives of people with dementia and their family caregivers concerning their sleep are under-researched. We conducted three focus groups with 12 community-dwelling pairs (a person with dementia and their family caregiver). Discussions addressed sleep disturbances, coping strategies, and beliefs and attitudes surrounding sleep. Thematic analysis indicated that dementia-related sleep disturbances were common, including confused awakenings and dementia-related behaviors at night, changes to sleep timing, and nightmares. Common issues for caregivers included being woken at night, having problems getting back to sleep, trips to the bathroom, and daytime sleepiness. Participants often normalized their sleeping problems and had developed a number of coping strategies. These findings highlight the impact that sleep disturbances can have on people living with dementia. Their experiences and beliefs need to be considered for developing effective interventions to improve sleep, waking function, and wellbeing. PMID:24339061
Gibson, Rosemary H; Gander, Philippa H; Jones, Linda M
Applying Social Network Analysis to Understand the Knowledge Sharing Behaviour of Practitioners in a Clinical Online Discussion Forum
Background Knowledge Translation (KT) plays a vital role in the modern health care community, facilitating the incorporation of new evidence into practice. Web 2.0 tools provide a useful mechanism for establishing an online KT environment in which health practitioners share their practice-related knowledge and experiences with an online community of practice. We have implemented a Web 2.0 based KT environment—an online discussion forum—for pediatric pain practitioners across seven different hospitals in Thailand. The online discussion forum enabled the pediatric pain practitioners to share and translate their experiential knowledge to help improve the management of pediatric pain in hospitals. Objective The goal of this research is to investigate the knowledge sharing dynamics of a community of practice through an online discussion forum. We evaluated the communication patterns of the community members using statistical and social network analysis methods in order to better understand how the online community engages to share experiential knowledge. Methods Statistical analyses and visualizations provide a broad overview of the communication patterns within the discussion forum. Social network analysis provides the tools to delve deeper into the social network, identifying the most active members of the community, reporting the overall health of the social network, isolating the potential core members of the social network, and exploring the inter-group relationships that exist across institutions and professions. Results The statistical analyses revealed a network dominated by a single institution and a single profession, and found a varied relationship between reading and posting content to the discussion forum. The social network analysis discovered a healthy network with strong communication patterns, while identifying which users are at the center of the community in terms of facilitating communication. The group-level analysis suggests that there is strong interprofessional and interregional communication, but a dearth of non-nurse participants has been identified as a shortcoming. Conclusions The results of the analysis suggest that the discussion forum is active and healthy, and that, though few, the interprofessional and interinstitutional ties are strong.
Abidi, Syed Sibte Raza
The Relation between Observational Measures of Social Problem Solving and Familial Antisocial Behavior: Genetic and Environmental Influences.
Examined the association between social problem-solving deficits and adolescent antisocial behavior within the family context, and estimated genetic and environmental effects as part of the Nonshared Environment in Adolescent Development project. Found genetic influence for antisocial behavior but not for problem solving. (Author/KB)
Spotts, Erica L.; Neiderhiser, Jenae M.; Hetherington, E. Mavis; Reiss, David
Player Preferences and Social Harm: An Analysis of the Relationships between Player Characteristics, Gambling Modes, and Problem Gambling
To explore the structure of gambling participation and its association with problem gambling, we draw upon Caillois's distinction between games based on competition (i.e. "agon") and those based on chance (i.e. "alea"). The idea that "alea" and "agon" are socially patterned and associated with differing levels of problem gambling, as measured by…
Young, Martin; Stevens, Matthew
Understanding the Global Problem of Drug Addiction is a Challenge for IDARS Scientists
IDARS is an acronym for the International Drug Abuse Research Society. Apart from our scientific and educational purposes, we communicate information to the general and scientific community about substance abuse and addiction science and treatment potential. Members of IDARS are research scientists and clinicians from around the world, with scheduled meetings across the globe. IDARS is developing a vibrant and exciting international mechanism not only for scientific interactions in the domain of addiction between countries but also ultimately as a resource for informing public policy across nations. Nonetheless, a lot more research needs to be done to better understand the neurobiological basis of drug addiction – A challenge for IDARS scientists.
Ali, S.F; Onaivi, E.S; Dodd, P.R; Cadet, J.L; Schenk, S; Kuhar, M.J; Koob, G.F
Social Meets Molecular: Combining Phylogenetic and Latent Class Analyses to Understand HIV-1 Transmission in Switzerland.
Switzerland has a complex human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) epidemic involving several populations. We examined transmission of HIV type 1 (HIV-1) in a national cohort study. Latent class analysis was used to identify socioeconomic and behavioral groups among 6,027 patients enrolled in the Swiss HIV Cohort Study between 2000 and 2011. Phylogenetic analysis of sequence data, available for 4,013 patients, was used to identify transmission clusters. Concordance between sociobehavioral groups and transmission clusters was assessed in correlation and multiple correspondence analyses. A total of 2,696 patients were infected with subtype B, 203 with subtype C, 196 with subtype A, and 733 with recombinant subtypes (mainly CRF02_AG and CRF01_AE). Latent class analysis identified 8 patient groups. Most transmission clusters of subtype B were shared between groups of gay men (groups 1-3) or between the heterosexual groups "heterosexual people of lower socioeconomic position" (group 4) and "injection drug users" (group 8). Clusters linking homosexual and heterosexual groups were associated with "older heterosexual and gay people on welfare" (group 5). "Migrant women in heterosexual partnerships" (group 6) and "heterosexual migrants on welfare" (group 7) shared non-B clusters with groups 4 and 5. Combining approaches from social and molecular epidemiology can provide insights into HIV-1 transmission and inform the design of prevention strategies. PMID:24821749
Avila, Dorita; Keiser, Olivia; Egger, Matthias; Kouyos, Roger; Böni, Jürg; Yerly, Sabine; Klimkait, Thomas; Vernazza, Pietro L; Aubert, Vincent; Rauch, Andri; Bonhoeffer, Sebastian; Günthard, Huldrych F; Stadler, Tanja; Spycher, Ben D
Breadth and depth involvement: Understanding Internet gambling involvement and its relationship to gambling problems.
[Correction Notice: An Erratum for this article was reported in Vol 28(2) of Psychology of Addictive Behaviors (see record 2014-12580-001). The article incorrectly stated under the Procedures heading on page 3 that "The Cambridge Health Alliance Institutional Review Board approved our application to conduct the Web-based BBGS survey and secondary data analyses of the bwin.party subscriber database." The authors alerted the journal that this project would have been exempt from IRB review and under this circumstance the IRB would not have issued any formal approval. Consequently, the published statement is inaccurate.] The "involvement effect" refers to the finding that controlling for gambling involvement often reduces or eliminates frequently observed game-specific associations with problem gambling. In other words, broader patterns of gambling behavior, particularly the number of types of games played over a defined period, contribute more to problem gambling than playing specific games (e.g., lottery, casino, Internet gambling). This study extends this burgeoning area of inquiry in three primary ways. First, it tests independently and simultaneously the predictive power of two gambling patterns: breadth involvement (i.e., the number of games an individual plays) and depth involvement (i.e., the number of days an individual plays). Second, it includes the first involvement analyses of actual betting activity records that are associated with clinical screening information. Third, it evaluates and compares the linearity of breadth and depth effects. We conducted analyses of the actual gambling activity of 1,440 subscribers to the bwin.party gambling service who completed an online gambling disorder screen. In all, 11 of the 16 games we examined had a significant univariate association with a positive screen for gambling disorder. However, after controlling for breadth involvement, only Live Action Internet sports betting retained a significant relationship with potential gambling-related problems. Depth involvement, though significantly related to potential problems, did not impact game-based gambling disorder associations as much as breadth involvement. Finally, breadth effects appeared steeply linear, with a slight quadratic component manifesting beyond four games played, but depth effects appeared to have a strong linear component and a slight cubic component. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved). PMID:23915365
LaPlante, Debi A; Nelson, Sarah E; Gray, Heather M
Applying an ESSENCE Framework to Understanding Adult Autism Spectrum Disorder and ADHD: Retrospective Parent Reports of Childhood Problems
Diagnoses of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are increasingly being made in adulthood. However, assessments can fail to address the diverse range of problems that patients have experienced. The current study applied an early symptomatic syndromes eliciting neurodevelopmental clinical examinations (ESSENCE) framework to explore retrospectively reported childhood developmental and behavioral problems. It examined if adult ASD and ADHD patients would show problems outside those reflected in the respective diagnostic criteria, and also if these patient groups would show more extensive childhood problems than other psychiatric patients. Parents of adults with ADHD (n = 130), ASD (n = 57), coexisting ADHD and ASD (n = 38), and other psychiatric disorders (n = 56) reported on a range of childhood problems. Descriptions of the ADHD, ASD, and ADHD+ASD groups reflected greater impairment than descriptions for patients with other psychiatric disorders in most problem areas. Although differences were observed between ADHD and ASD patients in the core diagnostic areas, these syndromes also shared a number of childhood difficulties. The ESSENCE approach can assist in understanding the symptom history of adult ADHD and ASD patients and can be helpful to distinguish their childhood experiences from other psychiatric patients' experiences.
Plenty, Stephanie; Heurlin, Dag; Arlinde, Christina
Applying an ESSENCE framework to understanding adult autism spectrum disorder and ADHD: retrospective parent reports of childhood problems.
Diagnoses of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are increasingly being made in adulthood. However, assessments can fail to address the diverse range of problems that patients have experienced. The current study applied an early symptomatic syndromes eliciting neurodevelopmental clinical examinations (ESSENCE) framework to explore retrospectively reported childhood developmental and behavioral problems. It examined if adult ASD and ADHD patients would show problems outside those reflected in the respective diagnostic criteria, and also if these patient groups would show more extensive childhood problems than other psychiatric patients. Parents of adults with ADHD (n = 130), ASD (n = 57), coexisting ADHD and ASD (n = 38), and other psychiatric disorders (n = 56) reported on a range of childhood problems. Descriptions of the ADHD, ASD, and ADHD+ASD groups reflected greater impairment than descriptions for patients with other psychiatric disorders in most problem areas. Although differences were observed between ADHD and ASD patients in the core diagnostic areas, these syndromes also shared a number of childhood difficulties. The ESSENCE approach can assist in understanding the symptom history of adult ADHD and ASD patients and can be helpful to distinguish their childhood experiences from other psychiatric patients' experiences. PMID:23633937
Plenty, Stephanie; Heurlin, Dag; Arlinde, Christina; Bejerot, Susanne
An objective method for the assessment of psychological and social problems among epileptics.
Numerous investigators have identified psychological and social problems among epileptics and in many instances, these appear to be more debilitating than the seizures themselves. However, assessment of these problems has most frequently been done by subjective means and when objective tests have been used, they were almost always developed for and standardized on populations other than epileptics. The development of the Washington Psychosocial Seizure Inventory (WPSI) is presented in this paper. After pilot work, 127 adult epileptics were evaluated for psychosocial problems and they completed the 132-item Inventory. Professional assessment of difficulties was made with respect to family background, emotional adjustment, interpersonal adjustment, vocational adjustment, financial status, adjustment to seizures, and medical management. Finally, an assessment of overall psychosocial functioning was made. Through an item-by-item correlation technique, scales were empirically developed for each of these areas and a profile was produced which gives both the absolute and the relative extents of difficulties for each patient with respect to each area. Potential applications for the WPSI are presented. PMID:7358037
Dodrill, C B; Batzel, L W; Queisser, H R; Temkin, N R
A fundamental problem in our understanding of low-mass galaxy evolution
Recent studies have found a dramatic difference between the observed number density evolution of low-mass galaxies and that predicted by semi-analytic models. Whilst models accurately reproduce the z = 0 number density, they require that the evolution occurs rapidly at early times, which is incompatible with the strong late evolution found in observational results. We report here the same discrepancy in two state-of-the-art cosmological hydrodynamical simulations, which is evidence that the problem is fundamental. We search for the underlying cause of this problem using two complementary methods. First, we consider a narrow range in stellar mass of log (Mstar/(h-2 M?)) = 9-9.5 and look for evidence of a different history of today's low-mass galaxies in models and observations. We find that the exclusion of satellite galaxies from the analysis brings the median ages and star formation rates of galaxies into reasonable agreement. However, the models yield too few young, strongly star-forming galaxies. Secondly, we construct a toy model to link the observed evolution of specific star formation rates with the evolution of the galaxy stellar mass function. We infer from this model that a key problem in both semi-analytic and hydrodynamical models is the presence of a positive instead of a negative correlation between specific star formation rate and stellar mass. A similar positive correlation is found between the specific dark matter halo accretion rate and the halo mass, indicating that model galaxies are growing in a way that follows the growth of their host haloes too closely. It therefore appears necessary to find a mechanism that decouples the growth of low-mass galaxies, which occurs primarily at late times, from the growth of their host haloes, which occurs primarily at early times. We argue that the current form of star formation-driven feedback implemented in most galaxy formation models is unlikely to achieve this goal, owing to its fundamental dependence on host halo mass and time.
Weinmann, Simone M.; Pasquali, Anna; Oppenheimer, Benjamin D.; Finlator, Kristian; Mendel, J. Trevor; Crain, Robert A.; Macciň, Andrea V.
The Assessment of Alexithymia in Medical Settings: Implications for Understanding and Treating Health Problems
The construct of alexithymia encompasses the characteristics of difficulty identifying feelings, difficulty describing feelings, externally oriented thinking, and a limited imaginal capacity. These characteristics are thought to reflect deficits in the cognitive processing and regulation of emotions and to contribute to the onset or maintenance of several medical and psychiatric disorders. This article reviews recent methods for assessing alexithymia and examines how assessing alexithymia can inform clinical practice. Alexithymia is associated with heightened physiological arousal, the tendency to notice and report physical symptoms, and unhealthy compulsive behaviors. Alexithymic patients may respond poorly to psychological treatments, although perhaps not to cognitive-behavioral techniques, and it is unclear whether alexithymia can be improved through treatment. Interpretive problems regarding alexithymia include its overlap with other traits, whether it is secondary to illness or trauma, the possibility of subtypes, and low correlations among multiple measures. Nonetheless, we encourage the assessment of alexithymia in applied settings.
Lumley, Mark A.; Neely, Lynn C.; Burger, Amanda J.
The people problems of NEPA: Social impact assessment and the role of public involvement
This Chapter of the book The Scientific Challenges of NEPA'' discusses the people problems of NEPA and social impact assessment and the role of public involvement in NEPA. When Congress passed the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) in 1969, there was little guidance on the preparation of environmental impact statements (EIS) and the role of the public in the NEPA process. Excepting the statutory language of NEPA, which referred to impacts on the human environment, nowhere was this more evident than with respect to people. Questions such as what impacts on people should be assessed, how impacts on people should be assessed, and how people, including but not limited to those persons potentially impacted, should be involved in the assessment itself as well as NEPA's associated administrative processes, were simply not addressed.
Carnes, S.A.
This Chapter of the book `` The Scientific Challenges of NEPA`` discusses the people problems of NEPA and social impact assessment and the role of public involvement in NEPA. When Congress passed the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) in 1969, there was little guidance on the preparation of environmental impact statements (EIS) and the role o