			Home About us Contact

Social Interest (social + interest)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Humanities and Social Sciences	45%
Life Sciences	18%

Selected Abstracts

Social interest and the development of cortical face specialization: What autism teaches us about face processing

DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOBIOLOGY, Issue 3 2002
David J. Grelotti
Abstract Investigations of face processing in persons with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) inform upon theories of the development of "normal" face processing, and the story that emerges challenges some models of the nature and origin of cortical face specialization. Individuals with an ASD possess deficits in face processing and a lack of a fusiform face area (FFA). Evidence from studies of ASD can be conceptualized best using an expertise framework of face processing rather than models that postulate a face module in the fusiform gyrus. Because persons with an ASD have reduced social interest, they may fail to develop cortical face specialization. Face specialization may develop in normal individuals because they are socially motivated to regard the face, and such motivation promotes expertise for faces. The amygdala is likely the key node in the system that marks objects as emotionally salient and could be crucial to the development of cortical face specialization. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Dev Psychobiol 40: 213,225, 2002. DOI 10.1002/dev.10028 [source]

Quantifying Plant Population Persistence in Human-Dominated Landscapes

CONSERVATION BIOLOGY, Issue 4 2008
DAWN M. LAWSON
Base de Datos de la Diversidad Natural de California; conservación de plantas; crecimiento de la población; especies en peligro; paisajes urbanos Abstract:,We assessed population performance of rare plants across a gradient from rural to urban landscapes and evaluated 2 hypotheses central to strategic conservation planning: (1) population performance declines with increasing human dominance and (2) small populations perform poorly relative to larger ones. Assessing these hypotheses is critical to strategic conservation planning. The current conservation paradigm adheres to the well-established ecology theory that small isolated populations, particularly those in human-dominated landscapes, are the least likely to succeed over the long term. Consequently, conservation planning has strongly favored large, remote targets for protection. This shift in conservation toward ecosystem-based programs and protection of populations within large, remote systems has been at the expense of protection of the rarest of the rare species, the dominant paradigm for conservation driven by the endangered species act. Yet, avoiding conservation of small populations appears to be based more on theoretical understanding and expert opinion than empiricism. We used Natural Heritage data from California in an assessment of population performance of rare plants across a landscape with an urban-rural gradient. Population performance did not decrease in urban settings or for populations that were initially small. Our results are consistent with a pattern of few species extinctions within these landscapes over the past several decades. We conclude that these populations within compromised landscapes can contribute to overall biodiversity conservation. We further argue that conservation planning for biodiversity preservation should allocate relatively more resources to protecting urban-associated plant taxa because they may provide conservation benefit beyond simply protecting isolated populations; they may be useful in building social interest in conservation. Resumen:,Evaluamos el funcionamiento de la población de plantas raras a lo largo de un gradiente de paisajes rurales a urbanos y evaluamos 2 hipótesis centrales para la planificación estratégica de la conservación: (1) declinaciones en el funcionamiento poblacional con el incremento de la dominancia humana y (2) las poblaciones pequeñas funcionan pobremente en relación con las grandes. La evaluación de estas hipótesis es crítica para la planificación estratégica de la conservación. El paradigma actual de la conservación se adhiere a la teoría ecológica bien establecida que propone que las poblaciones pequeñas aisladas, particularmente en paisajes dominados por humanos, tienen menor probabilidad de sobrevivir a largo plazo. Consecuentemente, la planificación de la conservación ha favorecido objetivos grandes y remotos. Este cambio hacia programas de conservación basados en ecosistemas y la protección de poblaciones en sistemas extensos y remotos ha sido a costa de la protección de las especies más raras entre las raras, el paradigma dominante en la conservación conducida por el acta de especies en peligro. No obstante, la evasión de la conservación de poblaciones pequeñas parece estar basada más en entendimiento teórico y en la opinión de expertos que en el empirismo. Utilizamos datos del Patrimonio Natural de California en una evaluación del funcionamiento de plantas raras en un paisaje con un gradiente urbano a rural. El funcionamiento de la población no decreció en sitios urbanos o en poblaciones que eran pequeñas inicialmente. Nuestros resultados son consistentes con un patrón de extinción de especies en estos paisajes en las últimas décadas. Concluimos que estas poblaciones en paisajes comprometidos pueden contribuir a la conservación de la biodiversidad en general. También argumentamos que la planificación de la conservación para la preservación de la biodiversidad debería asignar más recursos para la protección de taxa de plantas asociadas a ambientes urbanos porque pueden proporcionar beneficios de conservación más allá de simplemente proteger poblaciones aisladas; pueden ser útiles para construir el interés social por la conservación. [source]

Social interest and the development of cortical face specialization: What autism teaches us about face processing

Oxytocin and estrogen receptor , and , knockout mice provide discriminably different odor cues in behavioral assays

GENES, BRAIN AND BEHAVIOR, Issue 4 2004
M. Kavaliers
Social behavior involves both the recognition and production of social cues. Mice with selective deletion (knockout) of either the gene for oxytocin (OT) or genes for the estrogen receptor (ER) -, or -, display impaired social recognition. In this study we demonstrate that these gene knockout mice also provide discriminably different social stimuli in behavioral assays. In an odor choice test, which is a measure of social interest and discrimination, outbred female Swiss-Webster mice discriminated the urine odors of male knockouts (KO: OTKO, ,ERKO, ,ERKO) from the odors of their wildtype littermates (WT: OTWT, ,ERWT, ,ERWT). Females showed marked initial choices of the urine odors of OTWT and ,ERWT males over those of OTKO and ,ERKO males, and ,ERKO males over ,ERWT males. The odors of OTKO and ,ERKO males also induced aversive, analgesic responses, with the odors of WTs having no significant effects. Odors of both the ,ERWT and ,ERKO males induced aversive, analgesic responses, with the odors of the WT inducing significantly greater analgesia. The odors of restraint stressed WT and KO males also elicited analgesia with, again, females displaying significantly greater responses to the odors of stressed OTKO and ,ERKO males than their WTs, and significantly lower analgesia to the odors of stressed ,ERKO than ,ERWT males. These findings show that the KO mice are discriminated from their WTs on the basis of odor and that the various KOs differ in the relative attractiveness/aversiveness of their odors. Therefore, in behavioral assays one causal route by which gene inactivation alters the social behavior of knockout mice may be mediated through the partners' modified responses to their odors. [source]

Reaching consensus in multiagent decision making

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS, Issue 3 2010
Antonio Maturo
A group decision making procedure, when developed in a dynamic context, grows from both an evolving knowledge base and the changes in the positions of the components, or experts, of the group. Agreement and compromise go with and drive the steps of the procedure. Let us consider the case that a committee of experts is constituted to take decisions about a subject of social interest. Usually the job ends if a majority of the members of the committee have not too different opinions about the last state of the decision. We intend to clarify the meaning of the statement "have not too different opinions," to define a structure for the concept of consensus. We assume that an external chairman, with complete information about the state of all the components of group, urges or invites decision makers to reach a consensus. The judgements of the experts are represented, in this framework, by points in a metric space, and the consensus is obtained by a dynamical construction of a maximal winning coalition contained in a ball with a fixed and suitably small diameter. This also allows us to deal with the concept of consensus in terms of algorithm. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source]

Community feeling and social interest: Adlerian parallels, synergy and differences with the field of community psychology

JOURNAL OF COMMUNITY & APPLIED SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 2 2008
Russell A. King
Abstract The field of community psychology has generally elided the insights of depth psychology and the traditions of Freud, Adler and Jung. Implicitly rejecting the notion of the unconscious, community psychology favours conscious, pragmatic agency. Whereas depth psychology is commonly associated with treatment modalities, community psychology argues that psychotherapy is ultimately unnecessary when prevention strategies are adequately deployed. In the critical and community psychology literature psychotherapy is often derided as both ,individualistic' and inefficient. Adlerian psychology, which espouses a method of psychotherapy, nevertheless holds key points of synergy with community psychology. To distinguish the school from psychoanalysis Alfred Adler named his approach ,Individual Psychology', which could obscure its' social orientation. Like community psychologists, Adlerians similarly argue for a sense of cohesive community as crucial to mental health. They have also adopted an ecological holism as core epistemology, and argue for reducing the necessity of psychotherapy by working in tandem on community-based prevention strategies. The authors consider the rationale for community psychology's distance from the depth psychologies whilst arguing that the unconscious could, if engaged with analytically, provide the discourse with radical new insights. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Leadership training for managers: An Adlerian approach

JOURNAL OF LEADERSHIP STUDIES, Issue 1 2007
Amy Preiss
Adlerian theory,a social model of human behavior,provides an effective framework to improve managerial practices and enhance organizational leadership. Developed by Alfred Adler (1870,1937), founder of the influential school of individual psychology, Adlerian theory promotes principles of social interest, democracy, and encouragement. These principles may guide leaders in building collaborative, productive workforces through participative management, coaching, and employee engagement. Experiential training exercises that integrate Adlerian principles can help managers expand their interpersonal competencies and increase leadership effectiveness. [source]

Innovative Governance and Development in the New Ireland: Social Partnership and the Integrated Approach

GOVERNANCE, Issue 1 2004
J. D. House
Since the mid-1980s, the economy of the Republic of Ireland has displayed a remarkable turnaround. Its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has grown at a faster rate than any developed country in the world. The government's deficit has been cut severely and the debt-to-GDP ration sharply reduced. Average incomes have risen significantly, and the unemployment rate reduced dramatically. This article documents these changes. Its main purpose, however, is to provide a plausible explanation for the "Irish miracle." While many factors have been important,support for the Economic Union's regional development programs, a favorable tax structure, locational and language advantages for attracting multinational corporations, strong education and training programs,these factors in themselves do not explain the emergence of the "Celtic tiger." They were in place before the mid-1980s when Ireland was suffering from a fiscal, economic, and political crisis. Instead, the article argues, it was the creative and innovative response of Irish leaders in government, industry, and labor movement and community organizations to the crisis, and the subsequent institutionalization of this response in a new form of governance, that has been the catalyst for the Irish success story. Based on the thorough background research of the Economic and Social Research Council, a farsighted group of leaders developed a strategic plan in 1987 that provided a blueprint for constructive economic and social change. This was then formally instituted for wage restraint on the part of labor in return for income tax and social supposed provisions by government. Irish social Partnership is modeled to some extent on Northern European corporatism. The article reviews corporatism as an early form of innovative governance, using classical corporatism in Sweden and competitive corporatism in the Netherlands to illustrate how this approach has evolved over the years. Dutch economic success in recent years is due in part to its new form of corporatism that has helped it become globally competitive. It is argued, however, that Irish social partnership goes beyond continental corporatism in several important ways. It is more inclusive, covering a large array of social interests; it is more strategic, with a well-articulated integrated approach to social and economic development that is self-corrective and articulated in a new national agreement every three years; and it is more firmly institutionalized in both government and nongovernment agencies in the country. Social partnership and the integrated approach have become part of the culture of the new Ireland. This innovative form of governance underlies the Irish turnaround and augurs well for the future. It can also serve as a model, with appropriate modification tailor-made to each case, for other jurisdictions hoping to emulate Ireland's success. [source]

The politics of case management and social work

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SOCIAL WELFARE, Issue 2 2000
Malcolm Payne
A case study analysing the introduction of case management into British social services supports the argument that social work is constructed through political processes. In such processes, the interaction among the interests of stakeholders within service innovations influences the construction of the role of social work. Case management was introduced to Britain, but developed in three different forms: social care entrepreneurship, brokerage and multiprofessional case management, including assertive outreach. The forms adopted were affected by the political interaction of stakeholders rather than the professional possibilities offered by case management itself. Evidence for the politics of case management is drawn from analysis of professional literature, the texts of official documents and empirical research outcomes. The introduction of case management led to a debate about how the nature of social work was affected by the innovation. Three alternative views were that social work was improved, or attacked by case management, or made a valid contribution to case management as a different form of practice. It is proposed that to understand the impact of a service innovation on social work, four factors must be considered: the character of the innovation itself; the economic, political and social contexts in which it is introduced; the political and social interests of the stakeholders themselves; and the political and social processes that take place during the introduction of the innovation. [source]

The Societal Consequences of Market Reform in Peru

LATIN AMERICAN POLITICS AND SOCIETY, Issue 1 2006
Moisés Arce
ABSTRACT This article analyzes how market reform policies already in place affect social interests, and the feedback effects of those interests on reform processes. The variety of societal responses includes the creation of new societal organizations, reflecting the variable content and asymmetrical distribution of costs and benefits of the policies implemented. Because of this variety even in Peru, where the disorganizing effects of neoliberal reform appear to be strongest, it would seem that the societal impact of economic reform elsewhere in Latin America would also warrant more careful examination. [source]

Burden and coping strategies in mothers of patients with schizophrenia in Japan

PSYCHIATRY AND CLINICAL NEUROSCIENCES, Issue 3 2008
Setsuko Hanzawa phd
Aim:, The present study was conducted to identify factors contributing to burden of care in 57 mothers caring for patients with schizophrenia. Methods:, Members of the Federation of Families of People with Mental Illness in Nagasaki Prefecture were evaluated using well-validated scales to evaluate burden of care (eight-item short version of the Japanese version of the Zarit Caregiver Burden Interview), general health status (General Health Questionnaire 12-item version), difficulty in life, coping strategies, emotional support, and understanding of mental illness and disorders. Results:, Burden of care was significantly associated with general health status and difficulty in life. Conclusion:, On multiple regression it was found that ,social interests' and ,resignation', both of which are the subscales of coping strategies, exerted significant and independent effects with respect to burden of care. [source]