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Diligence | Diligence—carefulness and persistent effort or work—is listed as one of the seven capital virtues. It can be indicative of a work ethic, the belief that work is good in itself.
"There is a perennial nobleness, and even sacredness, in work. Were he never so benighted, forgetful of his high calling, there is always hope in a man that actually and earnestly works: in idleness alone there is perpetual despair." —Thomas Carlyle
In students
Bernard et al. define diligence in students as the effort they put towards balanced and holistic development in mental, physical, social, and spiritual dimensions. They find that it correlates with academic performance, especially with younger students, and that the support of parents and educators encourages students to be diligent. Other factors that encourage student diligence include motivation, discipline, concentration, responsibility, and devotedness.
In Buddhism
The last words of the Buddha were, "Strive on with diligence." Diligence is an integral part of all Buddhist teaching, and considered the fourth of the . In Mahayana tradition, diligence is the third and the first said to lead to liberation, and it is said that its practice brings an increase of qualities.
In Christianity
In Christianity, diligence is the effort to do one's part while keeping faith and reliance in God. In other words, diligence and faith are two sides of a mystery. One does not know how, despite one's effort, it all works out; but diligence, when combined with faith, assures spiritual success. Diligence as one of seven virtues describes thoroughness, completeness, and persistence of an action, particularly in matters of faith.
In Islam
In Hinduism
According to Brian Hatcher, the precepts of Hinduism require a person to discover and live a dharmic life, in which they live with right intention with diligence, and with concern for the well-being of others. The Hindus celebrate Diwali, a festival of lights, where Goddess Lakshmi (also called Goddess Sri) is worshipped, who symbolizes thorough preparation, organization, diligence, and honesty. Hindus consider these characteristics essential for success and Shubh Labh (ethical profit).
Due diligence
Due diligence is the amount of diligence required to avoid negligence in professional activities. It commonly arises in major acquisitions where the legal principle of ("let the buyer beware") requires the purchaser to make diligent inquiries about the property or service being sold.
See also
References
External links
Seven virtues
Virtue | 0.762794 | 0.99329 | 0.757676 |
Possibilism (geography) | Possibilism in cultural geography is the theory that the environment sets certain constraints or limitations, but culture is otherwise determined by social conditions.
In cultural ecology, Marshall Sahlins used this concept in order to develop alternative approaches to the environmental determinism dominant at that time in ecological studies. Strabo posited in 64 BC that humans can make things happen by their own intelligence over time. Strabo cautioned against the assumption that nature and actions of humans were determined by the physical environment they inhabited. He observed that humans were the active elements in a human-environmental partnership and partnering.
The controversy between geographical possibilism and determinism might be considered one of (at least) three dominant epistemologic controversies of contemporary geography. The other two controversies are:
1) the reason why economic strategies can revive life on Earth
2) the contention between Mackinder and Kropotkin about what is—or should be—geography".
Possibilism in geography is, thus, considered a distinct approach to geographical knowledge, directly opposed to geographical determinism.
References
External links
University of Washington lecture
Valparaiso University on La Blache
Cultural geography
History of geography | 0.770235 | 0.983682 | 0.757666 |
Exploratory research | Exploratory research is "the preliminary research to clarify the exact nature of the problem to be solved." It is used to ensure additional research is taken into consideration during an experiment as well as determining research priorities, collecting data and honing in on certain subjects which may be difficult to take note of without exploratory research. It can include techniques, such as:
secondary research - such as reviewing available literature and/or data
informal qualitative approaches, such as discussions with consumers, employees, management or competitors
formal qualitative research through in-depth interviews, focus groups, projective methods, case studies or pilot studies
According to Stebbins (2001) "Social Science exploration is a broad-ranging, purposive, systematic prearranged undertaking designed to maximize the discovery of generalizations leading to description and understanding". His influential book argues that exploratory research should not use confirmatory mechanisms like hypotheses. It should be qualitative and rely on inductive research methods like grounded theory introduced by Glaser and Strauss Qualitative exploratory research which use inductive approach do not use priori theorizing or build on previous research. Casula, Rangarajan and Shields (2020) argue that exploratory research should not be limited to inductive approaches. They propose the working hypothesis is a useful framework for deductive exploratory research that should be part of the social scientist's tool bag.
Exploratory research can add quality and insightful information to a study, and is vital to a study. It allows for the researcher to be creative in order to gain the most insight on a subject. Next, an outside audience will be used for this research, so it is a good opportunity for the researcher to know what works or what is not a productive method to use. Third, it allows for a better understanding on what a research team's objectives should be throughout the duration of a project. Having this information in mind will be beneficial to anyone conducting research from outside sources.
Regardless of what field research needs to be done in, exploratory research can be used in a multitude of fields. However, as a result of this it is important to acknowledge how the different fields will impact any research that will be conducted. Comparing and contrasting different techniques, such as secondary research, discussions, or qualitative research through focus groups, surveys or case studies will be useful to observe. Within exploratory research, the Internet allows for research methods that are more interactive in nature. For example:
RSS feeds efficiently supply researchers with up-to-date information
services such as Google Alerts may send major search-engine search results by email to researchers
services such as Google Trends track comprehensive search results over lengthy periods of time
researchers may set up websites to attract worldwide feedback on any subject
When research aims to gain familiarity with a phenomenon or to acquire new insight into it in order to formulate a more precise problem or to develop a hypothesis, exploratory studies (also known as formulative research) come in handy. If the theory happens to be too general or too specific, a hypothesis cannot be formulated. Therefore, a need for an exploratory research may be realized and instituted to gain experience that may help in formulating a relevant hypothesis for more definite investigation.
The results of exploratory research are not usually useful for decision-making by themselves, but they can provide significant insight into a given situation. Although the results of qualitative research can give some indication as to the "why", "how" and "when" something occurs, they cannot reveal "how often" or "how many".
Exploratory research is not typically generalizable to the population at large.
Social exploratory research "seeks to find out how people get along in the setting under question, what meanings they give to their actions, and what issues concern them. The goal is to learn 'what is going on here?' and to investigate social phenomena without explicit expectations." This methodology is also at times referred to as a grounded theory approach to qualitative research or interpretive research, and is an attempt to unearth a theory from the data itself rather than from a predisposed hypothesis.
Earl Babbie identifies three purposes of social-science research: exploratory, descriptive and explanatory.
Exploratory research takes place when problems are in a preliminary stage. Exploratory research is used when the topic or issue is new and when data is difficult to collect. Exploratory research is flexible and can address research questions of all types (what, why, how). Exploratory research is often used to generate formal hypotheses. Shields and Tajalli link exploratory research with the conceptual framework working hypothesis. Skeptics, however, have questioned the usefulness and necessity of exploratory research in situations where prior analysis could be conducted instead.
Applied research
Applied research in administration is often exploratory because there is need for flexibility in approaching the problem. In addition there are often data limitations and a need to make a decision within a short time period. Qualitative research methods such as case study or field research are often used in exploratory research.
There are three types of objectives in a marketing research project:
Exploratory research or formulative research
Descriptive research
Causal research (also referred to as explanatory research)
Exploratory research or formulative research: The objective of exploratory research is to gather preliminary information that will help define problems and suggest hypotheses.
Descriptive research: The objective of descriptive research is to describe the characteristics of various aspects, such as the market potential for a product or the demographics and attitudes of consumers who buy the product.
Causal research: The objective of causal research is to test hypotheses about cause-and-effect relationships.
If the objective is to determine which variable might be causing a certain behavior, i.e. whether there is a cause and effect relationship between variables, causal research must be undertaken. In order to determine causality, it is important to hold the variable that is assumed to cause the change in the other variable(s) constant and then measure the changes in the other variable(s). This type of research is very complex and the researcher can never be completely certain that there are not other factors influencing the causal relationship, especially when dealing with people's attitudes and motivations. There are often much deeper psychological considerations, that even the respondent may not be aware of this is not true.
There are two research methods for exploring the cause and effect relationship between variables:
Experimentation, and
Simulation
References
Bibliography
Russell K. Schutt, Investigating the Social World, 5th ed, Pine Forge Press.
Robert A. Stebbins, Exploratory Research in the Social Sciences. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2001.
Exploratory Research: 3 Reasons to Conduct More of It. (2019, September 16). Retrieved from https://www.gutcheckit.com/blog/3-reasons-conduct-exploratory-research/
Zahl, H. A., & Reilley, E. M. (1958). Exploratory Research. American Institute of Physics, 11(8).
Gellar, L., Druker, S., Osganian, S. K., Gapinski, M. A., LaPelle, N., & Pbert, L. (2012). Exploratory Research to Design a School Nurse-Delivered Intervention to Treat Adolescent Overweight and Obesity. Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, 44(1), 46–54. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jneb.2011.02.00
Social science methodology | 0.768582 | 0.985793 | 0.757663 |
Megatrend | Megatrends are trends that have an effect on a global scale. Some of the current megatrends relate to global threats.
A megatrend strongly influences different spheres of life in many countries and at different levels, covering political, economic, natural environmental, social, and cultural dimensions. A megatrend is different than a shortlived product or consumer trend.
John Naisbitt was a pioneer of future studies. His book “Megatrends: Ten New Directions Transforming Our Lives” was first published in 1982. It focused mainly on the United States but also attempted to present a global outlook. Naisbitt accurately predicted the change from industrialized to information societies.
A growing number of research institutions, international organizations, and think tanks are reflecting on megatrends with the purpose of engaging in dialogue and influence policymaking and investments.
Kuhn & Margellos proposed a framework to identify and prioritize megatrends which focuses on five criteria relating to the relevance of trends. The five key criteria are the following:
Research and, particularly, research coverage of the trend by researchers and analysts from different disciplinary background in different countries and regions.
Level of political attention for the trend in a significant number of countries and regions.
Significant interest from global investors. This acknowledges that investments have great potential to promote trends.
Media coverage of the trend. This refers to traditional media and social media.
Strength of social movements and advocacy actions related to the trend. These factors represent different spheres of societies: scientific and research, state, and government institutions; financial and business sectors; media; and civil society.
Kuhn & Margellos interviewed researchers and experts from more than 30 countries to prioritize megatrends resulting in the following megatrends:
Climate Action and Sustainability
Digitalization
Inequality
Demography
Urbanization and Smart Cities
Health and Nutrition
Green Economy
Sustainable Finance
Multipolar World Order and the Future of Multilateralism
Democracy and Governance Innovations
Civilizational Developments: Diversity, Individualization and Loneliness, Gender Shift, and Identity Politics
Migration.
However, it is important to note that the identification and analysis of megatrends rely on the disciplinary and professional perspectives of researchers and experts, as well as the specific country or region upon which their analysis is focused.
Economic implications
Economically, megatrends can be exploited by enterprises to make profit.
At least 7 megatrends have been identified by multinational investment and professional services companies:
Technological progress, esp. in the internet domain
Demographic change and social change
Rapid global urbanization
Climate change and resource depletion
Emerging markets
The impact of deepfakes and other synthetic media
Microbiomes and synthetic biology
References
Futures studies
Research | 0.773358 | 0.979663 | 0.757631 |
Extracurricular activity | An extracurricular activity (ECA) or extra academic activity (EAA) or cultural activities is an activity, performed by students, that falls outside the realm of the normal curriculum of school, college or university education. Such activities are generally voluntary (as opposed to mandatory), social, philanthropic, and often involve others of the same age. Students and staff direct these activities under faculty sponsorship, although student-led initiatives, such as independent newspapers, are very common. However, sometimes the school principals and teachers also bring in these activities in the school among the students.
Benefits of participation
A group study conducted by surveying school-age students in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health revealed that 70% of adolescents in the USA are involved in some form of extracurricular activities.
Other studies have shown being involved in extracurricular activities reduces the likelihood of dropping out of school, likelihood of committing a criminal offence, and leads to higher educational retainment and success and achievements in school work, not to mention that the greatest advantage of participating in at least one of these activities is the decrease in anti-social behaviors and students growing up to be more successful in communication and relationships.
Involvement in after school clubs and extracurricular activities is beneficial in a variety of ways for the K-12 population. For example, school clubs can offer a place to form relationships and foster learning, and this was demonstrated with multiple groups. Research including students with disabilities involved in extracurricular activities show that they were more likely to have friends than those who were not involved. Similar findings with racial and ethnic minorities and immigrant adolescents showed that minority, first, and second generation adolescents were less likely than their counterparts to have friends and be engaged in relationships, however, extracurricular activities facilitated socialization. Thus, being involved in activities outside of school increases students' chances of creating friendships. Also, extracurricular activities can provide families with a safe environment for their children while they are at work. This gives the parents an opportunity to get all the work time possible and allows the child to participate in educational or athletic activities. Furthermore, extracurricular activities increase positive self-development, regardless of where the activities take place (at school or away from school) Likewise, female adolescents involved in school based extracurricular activities had higher self-esteem than those not involved. The overall findings demonstrate that involvement in activities, whether it be sports, clubs, or school-based programs, have a positive impact on the participant's life.
Importance of diversity
Diversity in clubs and extracurricular activities plays an important role in adolescent lives and futures. Exposure to diverse groups can help promote adolescents to become socially intelligent and responsible adults. However, being immersed in diverse populations is not enough, as it is beneficial only if members engage with one another. More meaningful interactions with a diverse range of peers allows people to acquire traits such as more socially-responsible leadership skills. Furthermore, participating in ethnic clubs allowed minority groups to feel more connected to their cultures and allowed others to gain knowledge and understanding of other cultures. This has two key benefits: minority groups have a safe place to feel a sense of belonging to their cultural roots and background, and people of differing ethnic backgrounds have an opportunity to learn more about other cultures and thus become more culturally competent. Correlational studies showed positive relationships with involvement in ethnic/cultural clubs and intellectual and psychosocial development, multicultural competence, interpersonal skills, and leadership.
Additionally, in school settings, interracial friendships positively impacted the individuals involved and the school culture as a whole. This demonstrates the importance of implementing multiculturalism into school environments, both academically and in extracurricular activities. It is important to continue research on incorporating multiculturalism and ethnic/cultural clubs into schools. Creating a multicultural competent environment for diverse student populations allows them to engage with others, discuss possible biases and stereotypes openly, and form meaningful intergroup relationships. If that is implemented at a young age, it is more likely to carry into adulthood, thus molding a more socially and culturally competent adult.
Extracurricular Management Systems
An Extracurricular Management System (EMS) is a management information system for education establishments to manage extracurricular data and processes.
The primary function of an EMS is to handle administrative tasks associated with the operation of an extracurricular program so that staff can focus on delivering great extracurricular activities and outcomes for students. Automating the basic administration tasks associated with extracurricular management saves educational institutions money and time, while also improving control and visibility. Extracurricular activities form an important part of the student experience, so managing them accurately and efficiently is of paramount importance in achieving positive outcomes for students.
Key responsibilities
Managing the extracurricular calendar
Reporting on student outcomes in extracurricular activities
Managing extracurricular staff
Collecting, reporting and visualising extracurricular data in real-time
Facilitating two-way integration with the Student Information System
Being highly accessible via mobile devices
Communicating personalised extracurricular information to students and parents
An EMS is not responsible for academic or classroom processes, including student class timetables.
Examples
Specific events
United States Academic Decathlon
Model United Nations
UNICEF Club
World Scholar's Cup
Moot court
Model Crime Investigations
Competitions such as the National History Day program & Quiz Bowl
Political science organizations that moot court, or the publication of a law review
Internships and other school sponsored work programs
School journalism
4-H
Generic activities
Topic-specific clubs such as math club, Philanthropy Key Club
Art
Band
Choir
Debate
Drama
English society
Entrepreneurship
Fan clubs
Model United Nations
Moot Court
Orchestra
Reading
Robotics
Student government
Sports
Tutoring
University societies
Yearbook
See also
After-school activity
Co-curricular activity (Singapore)
References
Citations
External links
Using extracurricular activity as an indicator of interpersonal skill: prudent evaluation or recruiting malpractice, Human Resource Management, Rubin, R.S., Bommer, W.H. & Baldwin, T.T. (2002).
Extra Curricular Network Australia (ECNA) promotes Extra curricular programs for tertiary students in Australia.
Extra-Curricular Activities After School Programs for Kids in Houston
International Research Network Extended Education
School terminology | 0.760204 | 0.996609 | 0.757627 |
Social capital | Social capital is "the networks of relationships among people who live and work in a particular society, enabling that society to function effectively". It involves the effective functioning of social groups through interpersonal relationships, a shared sense of identity, a shared understanding, shared norms, shared values, trust, cooperation, and reciprocity. Some have described it as a form of capital that produces public goods for a common purpose, although this does not align with how it has been measured.
Social capital has been used to explain the improved performance of diverse groups, the growth of entrepreneurial firms, superior managerial performance, enhanced supply chain relations, the value derived from strategic alliances, and the evolution of communities.
History
While it has been suggested that the term social capital was in intermittent use from about 1890, before becoming widely used in the late 1990s, the earliest credited use is by Lyda Hanifan in 1916 (see 20th century below).
The debate of community versus modernization of society and individualism has been the most discussed topic among the founders of sociology: such theorists as Tönnies (1887), Durkheim (1893), Simmel (1905), Weber (1946) were convinced that industrialisation and urbanization were transforming social relationships in an irreversible way. They observed a breakdown of traditional bonds and the progressive development of anomie and alienation in society.
18th–19th century
The power of community governance has been stressed by many philosophers from antiquity to the 18th century, from Aristotle to Thomas Aquinas, and Edmund Burke. This vision was strongly criticised at the end of the 18th century, with the development of the idea of Homo Economicus and subsequently with rational choice theory. Such a set of theories became dominant in the last centuries, but many thinkers questioned the complicated relationship between modern society and the importance of old institutions, in particular family and traditional communities.
The concept that underlies social capital has a much longer history; thinkers exploring the relation between associational life and democracy were using similar concepts regularly by the 19th century, drawing on the work of earlier writers such as James Madison (The Federalist Papers) and Alexis de Tocqueville (Democracy in America) to integrate concepts of social cohesion and connectedness into the pluralist tradition in American political science. John Dewey may have made the first direct mainstream use of social capital in The School and Society in 1899, though he did not offer a definition.
In the first half of the 19th century, de Tocqueville had observations about American life that seemed to outline and define social capital. He observed that Americans were prone to meeting at as many gatherings as possible to discuss all possible issues of state, economics, or the world that could be witnessed. The high levels of transparency caused greater participation from the people and thus allowed for democracy to work better.
20th century
L. J. Hanifan's 1916 article regarding local support for rural schools is one of the first occurrences of the term social capital in reference to social cohesion and personal investment in the community. In defining the concept, Hanifan contrasts social capital with material goods by defining it as:I do not refer to real estate, or to personal property or to cold cash, but rather to that in life which tends to make these tangible substances count for most in the daily lives of people, namely, goodwill, fellowship, mutual sympathy and social intercourse among a group of individuals and families who make up a social unit.… If he may come into contact with his neighbour, and they with other neighbours, there will be an accumulation of social capital, which may immediately satisfy his social needs and which may bear a social potentiality sufficient to the substantial improvement of living conditions in the whole community. The community as a whole will benefit by the cooperation of all its parts, while the individual will find in his associations the advantages of the help, the sympathy, and the fellowship of his neighbours.Following the works of Tönnies (1887) and Weber (1946), reflection on social links in modern society continued with interesting contributions in the 1950s and in the 1960s. In particular, mass society theoryas developed by Daniel Bell (1962), Robert Nisbet (1969), Maurice R. Stein (1960), William H. Whyte (1956)proposed themes similar to those of the founders, with a more pessimistic emphasis on the development of society. In the words of Stein (1960:1): "The price for maintaining a society that encourages cultural differentiation and experimentation is unquestionably the acceptance of a certain amount of disorganization on both the individual and social level."
Jane Jacobs used the term early in the 1960s. Although she did not explicitly define the term social capital, her usage referred to the value of networks. Political scientist Robert Salisbury advanced the term as a critical component of interest group formation in his 1969 article "An Exchange Theory of Interest Groups" in the Midwest Journal of Political Science.
Sociologist Pierre Bourdieu used the term in 1972 in his Outline of a Theory of Practice, and clarified the term some years later in contrast to cultural, economic, administrative capital, physical capital, political capital, social capital and symbolic capital. Sociologists James Coleman (1988), as well as Barry Wellman & Scot Wortley (1990), adopted Glenn Loury's 1977 definition in developing and popularising the concept. In the late 1990s, the concept gained popularity, serving as the focus of a World Bank research programme and the subject of several mainstream books, including Robert Putnam's Bowling Alone, and Putnam & Lewis Feldstein's Better Together.
All of these reflections contributed remarkably to the development of the social capital concept in the following decades. The appearance of the modern social capital conceptualization is a new way to look at this debate, keeping together the importance of community to build generalized trust and the same time, the importance of individual free choice, in order to create a more cohesive society. It is for this reason that social capital generated so much interest in the academic and political world.
Definitions and forms
Social capital has multiple definitions, interpretations, and uses. David Halpern argues that the popularity of social capital for policymakers is linked to the concept's duality, coming because "it has a hard nosed economic feel while restating the importance of the social." For researchers, the term is popular partly due to the broad range of outcomes it can explain; the multiplicity of uses for social capital has led to a multiplicity of definitions.
Social capital has been used at various times to explain superior managerial performance, the growth of entrepreneurial firms, improved performance of functionally diverse groups, the value derived from strategic alliances, and enhanced supply-chain relations. "A resource that actors derive from specific social structures and then use to pursue their interests; it is created by changes in the relationship among actors" (Baker 1990, p. 619).
Early attempts to define social capital focused on the degree to which social capital serves as a resource – be it for public good or private benefit. Robert D. Putnam (1993) suggested that social capital would facilitate co-operation and mutually supportive relations in communities and nations and would therefore be a valuable means of combating many of the social disorders inherent in modern societies, for example crime. In contrast, others focus on the private benefits derived from the web of social relationships in which individual actors find themselves. This is reflected in Nan Lin's concept of social capital as "Investment in social relations with expected returns in the marketplace." This may subsume the concepts of some others such as Bourdieu, Flap and Eriksson. Newton (1997) treats social capital as a subjective phenomenon formed by values and attitudes that influence interactions. Nahapiet and Ghoshal (1998), in their examination of the role of social capital in the creation of intellectual capital, suggest that social capital should be considered in terms of three clusters: structural, relational, and cognitive.
Definitional issues
A number of scholars have raised concerns about the imprecision in defining social capital. Portes (2000), for example, notes that the term has become so widely used, including in mainstream media, that "the point is approaching at which social capital comes to be applied to so many events and in so many different contexts as to lose any distinct meaning." The term capital is used by analogy with other forms of economic capital, as social capital is argued to have similar (although less measurable) benefits. However, the analogy may be misleading in that, unlike financial forms of capital, social capital is not depleted by use; instead, it is depleted by non-use (use it or lose it). In this respect, it is similar to the economic concept of human capital.
Robison, Schmid, and Siles (2002) review various definitions of social capital and conclude that many do not satisfy the formal requirements of a definition. They assert that definitions must be of the form A=B, while many explanations of social capital describe what it can be used to achieve, where it resides, how it can be created, or what it can transform. In addition, they argue that many proposed definitions of social capital fail to satisfy the requirements of capital. They propose that social capital be defined as sympathy: the object of another's sympathy has social capital; those who have sympathy for others provide social capital. This proposition appears to follow Adam Smith, Theory of Moral Sentiments to some degree, but Smith's conceptualization of sympathy (particularly in the first two chapters of this work) appear more concerned with the roles of acceptance or congruence – in ethics or virtue – in evaluating an individual's 'propriety of action'.
Social capital is different from the economic theory of social capitalism, which challenges the idea that socialism and capitalism are mutually exclusive.
Forms of capital (Bourdieu)
In The Forms of Capital, Pierre Bourdieu distinguishes between three forms of capital: economic capital, cultural capital and social capital. He defines social capital as "the aggregate of the actual or potential resources which are linked to possession of a durable network of more or less institutionalized relationships of mutual acquaintance and recognition." His treatment of the concept is instrumental, focusing on the advantages to possessors of social capital and the "deliberate construction of sociability for the purpose of creating this resource." Quite contrary to Putnam's positive view of social capital, Bourdieu employs the concept to demonstrate a mechanism for the generational reproduction of inequality. Bourdieu thus points out that the wealthy and powerful use their "old boys network" or other social capital to maintain advantages for themselves, their social class, and their children.
Norms of trust and reciprocity (Sander, Putnam, Coleman)
Thomas Sander defines it as "the collective value of all social networks (who people know), and the inclinations that arise from these networks to do things for each other (norms of reciprocity)." Social capital, in this view, emphasizes "specific benefits that flow from the trust, reciprocity, information, and cooperation associated with social networks." It "creates value for the people who are connected, and for bystanders as well." Meanwhile, negative norms of reciprocity serve as disincentives for detrimental and violent behaviors.
James Coleman defined social capital functionally as "a variety of entities with two elements in common: they all consist of some aspect of social structure, and they facilitate certain actions of actors...within the structure"that is, social capital is anything that facilitates individual or collective action, generated by networks of relationships, reciprocity, trust, and social norms. In Coleman's conception, social capital is a neutral resource that facilitates any manner of action, but whether society is better off as a result depends entirely on the individual uses to which it is put.
According to Robert D. Putnam, social capital refers to "connections among individuals – social networks and the norms of reciprocity and trustworthiness that arise from them." In the view of Putnam and his followers, social capital is a key component to building and maintaining democracy. Putnam says that social capital is declining in the United States. This is seen in lower levels of trust in government and lower levels of civic participation. He also says that television and urban sprawl have had a significant role in making America far less 'connected'. Putnam believes that social capital can be measured by the amount of trust and "reciprocity" in a community or between individuals. Putnam also suggests that a root cause of the decline in social capital is women's entry into the workforce, which could correlate with time restraints that inhibit civic organizational involvement like parent-teacher associations. Technological transformation of leisure (e.g., television) is another cause of declining social capital, as stated by Putnam. This offered a reference point from which several studies assessed social capital measurements by how media is engaged strategically to build social capital.
Civic association (Fukuyama)
In "Social Capital, Civil Society, and Development", political economist Francis Fukuyama defines social capital as generally understood rules that enable people to cooperate such as the norm of reciprocity or religious doctrine like Christianity. Social capital is formed by repeated interactions over time and, he argues, is critical for development and difficult to generate through public policy. The importance of social capital for economic development is that these norms of behavior reduce transaction cost of exchange such as legal contracts and government regulations. Fukuyama suggests that while social capital is beneficial for development, it also imposes cost on non-group members with unintended consequences for general welfare.
Referencing Alexis de Tocqueville in Democracy in America, and what he described as the art of association of the American propensity for civil association, Fukuyama argues social capital is what produces a civil society. While civic engagement is an important part of democracy and development, Fukuyama states that, "one person's civic engagement is another's rent-seeking." Therefore, while social capital can facilitate economic development by reducing transaction cost and increasing productivity, social capital can also distort democracy if civic association enables special interest to gain special favors. However, Fukuyama argues despite the risk of society having too much social capital, it is nonetheless worse to have too little and be unable to organize for public goods and welfare enhancing activity.
Social ties
Carlos García Timón describes that the structural dimensions of social capital relate to an individual ability to make weak and strong ties to others within a system. This dimension focuses on the advantages derived from the configuration of an actor's, either individual or collective, network. The differences between weak and strong ties are explained by Granovetter (1973). Bridging social capital refers to the weak ties that individuals with heterogeneous limited interactions form. Bridging social capital is more likely to provide valuable new information (Moshkovitz and Hayat, 2021). Some others describes the weak and strong ties relationship as bonding and bridging social capital. Bonding social capital refers to strong ties: the intimate relationships people feel close to and trust. The relational dimension focuses on the character of the connection between individuals. This is best characterized through trust of others and their cooperation and the identification an individual has within a network. Hazleton and Kennan (2000) added a third angle, that of communication. Communication is needed to access and use social capital through exchanging information, identifying problems and solutions, and managing conflict.
According to Boisot (1995), and Boland & Tenkasi (1995), meaningful communication requires at least some sharing context between the parties to such exchange. The cognitive dimension focuses on the shared meaning, representations and interpretations that individuals or groups have with one another.
Negative social capital
Whereas some scholars, most prominently Robert D. Putnam, posit that social capital has positive ends, a sizable body of literature finds that social capital can have adverse effects. Research by Sheri Berman and Dylan Riley, as well as economists Shanker Satyanath, Nico Voigtländer, and Hans-Joachim Voth, have linked civic associations to the rise of fascist movements. Pierre Bourdieu's work tends to show how social capital can be used practically to produce or reproduce inequality, demonstrating for instance how people gain access to powerful positions through the direct and indirect employment of social connections.
An example of the complexities of the effects of negative social capital is violence or criminal gang activity that is encouraged through the strengthening of intra-group relationships (bonding social capital). The negative consequences of social capital are more often associated with bonding vis-à-vis bridging.
Without "bridging" social capital, "bonding" groups can become isolated and disenfranchised from the rest of society and, most importantly, from groups with which bridging must occur in order to denote an "increase" in social capital. Bonding social capital is a necessary antecedent for the development of the more powerful form of bridging social capital. Bonding and bridging social capital can work together productively if in balance, or they may work against each other. As social capital bonds and stronger homogeneous groups form, the likelihood of bridging social capital is attenuated. Bonding social capital can also perpetuate sentiments of a certain group, allowing for the bonding of certain individuals together upon a common radical ideal. The strengthening of insular ties can lead to a variety of effects such as ethnic marginalization or social isolation. In extreme cases ethnic cleansing may result if the relationship between different groups is so strongly negative. In mild cases, it isolates certain communities such as suburbs of cities because of the bonding social capital and the fact that people in these communities spend so much time away from places that build bridging social capital.
Accessibility
Edwards and Foley, as editors of a special edition of the American Behavioral Scientist on "Social Capital, Civil Society and Contemporary Democracy", raised two key issues in the study of social capital. First, social capital is not equally available to all, in much the same way that other forms of capital are differently available. Geographic and social isolation limit access to this resource. Second, not all social capital is created equally. The value of a specific source of social capital depends in no small part on the socio-economic position of the source with society.
On top of this, Portes (1998) has identified four negative consequences of social capital:
exclusion of outsiders;
excess claims on group members;
restrictions on individual freedom; and
downward levelling norms.
In political institutions
Social capital (in the institutional Robert Putnam sense) may also lead to bad outcomes if the political institution and democracy in a specific country is not strong enough and is therefore overpowered by the social capital groups. "Civil society and the collapse of the Weimar Republic" suggests that "it was weak political institutionalization rather than a weak civil society that was Germany's main problem during the Wihelmine and Weimar eras." Because the political institutions were so weak people looked to other outlets. "Germans threw themselves into their clubs, voluntary associations, and professional organizations out of frustration with the failures of the national government and political parties, thereby helping to undermine the Weimar Republic and facilitate Hitler's rise to power." In this article about the fall of the Weimar Republic, the author makes the claim that Hitler rose to power so quickly because he was able to mobilize the groups towards one common goal. Even though German society was, at the time, a "joining" society these groups were fragmented and their members did not use the skills they learned in their club associations to better their society, but to encourage their values across all cultures to provide a better society for people. They were very introverted in the Weimar Republic. Hitler was able to capitalize on this by uniting these highly bonded groups under the common cause of bringing Germany to the top of world politics. The former world order had been destroyed during World War I, and Hitler believed that Germany had the right and the will to become a dominant global power.
Additionally, in his essay "A Criticism of Putnam's Theory of Social Capital", Michael Shindler expands upon Berman's argument that Weimar social clubs and similar associations in countries that did not develop democracy, were organized in such a way that they fostered a "we" instead of an "I" mentality among their members, by arguing that groups which possess cultures that stress solidarity over individuality, even ones that are "horizontally" structured and which were also common to pre-Soviet Eastern Europe, will not engender democracy if they are politically aligned with non-democratic ideologies.
In race and ethnicity
Using a network-based conception for characterizing the social capital of collectivities (such as organizations or business clusters), Lester, Maheshwari, and McLain (2013) note that negative social capital may be the cause for disadvantageous differences among minority firms versus majority firms. While studying norms among African-American family firms and Euro-American family firms, Lester et al. noted that negative social capital was created when the owner of the company was pressured to engage in social behavior not conducive to firm profits.
Robert Putnam, in his later work, also suggests that social capital, and the associated growth of public trust are inhibited by immigration and rising racial diversity in communities. Putnam's study regarding the issue argued that in American areas with a lack of homogeneity, some individuals neither participated in bonding nor bridging social capital. In societies where immigration is high (US) or where ethnic heterogeneity is high (Eastern Europe), it was found that citizens lacked in both kinds of social capital and were overall far less trusting of others than members of homogenous communities were found to be. Lack of homogeneity led to people withdrawing from even their closest groups and relationships, creating an atomized society as opposed to a cohesive community. These findings challenge previous beliefs that exposure to diversity strengthens social capital, either through bridging social gaps between ethnicities or strengthening in-group bonds. It is very important for policy makers to monitor the level of perceived socio-economic threat from immigrants because negative attitudes towards immigrants make integration difficult and affect social capital.
Varshney (2001) studied the correlation between the presence of interethnic networks (bridging) versus intra-ethnic ones (bonding) on ethnic violence in India.
He argues that interethnic networks are agents of peace because they build bridges and manage tensions, by noting that if communities are organized only along intra-ethnic lines and the interconnections with other communities are very weak or even nonexistent, then ethnic violence is quite likely.
Three main implications of intercommunal ties explain their worth:
Facilitate communication in the community across ethnic lines
Squelch false rumors
Help the administration carry out its job and in particular peace, security and justice
This is a useful distinction; nevertheless, its implication on social capital can only be accepted if one espouses the functionalist understanding of the latter concept. Indeed, it can be argued that interethnic, as well as intra-ethnic networks can serve various purposes, either increasing or diminishing social capital. In fact, Varshney himself notes that intra-ethnic policing (equivalent to the "self-policing" mechanism proposed by Fearon and Laitin, 1996) may lead to the same result as interethnic engagement.
Social inequality
James Coleman (1988) has indicated that social capital eventually led to the creation of human capital for the future generation. Human capital, a private resource, could be accessed through what the previous generation accumulated through social capital. John Field (2003) suggested that such a process could lead to the very inequality social capital attempts to resolve. While Coleman viewed social capital as a relatively neutral resource, he did not deny the class reproduction that could result from accessing such capital, given that individuals worked toward their own benefit.
Even though Coleman never truly addresses Pierre Bourdieu in his discussion, this coincides with Bourdieu's argument set forth in Reproduction in Education, Society and Culture. Bourdieu and Coleman were fundamentally different at the theoretical level (as Bourdieu believed the actions of individuals were rarely ever conscious, but more so only a result of their habitus being enacted within a particular field, but this realization by both seems to undeniably connect their understanding of the more latent aspects of social capital.
According to Bourdieu, habitus refers to the social context within which a social actor is socialized. Thus, it is the social platform, itself, that equips one with the social reality they become accustomed to. Out of habitus comes field, the manner in which one integrates and displays their habitus. To this end, it is the social exchange and interaction between two or more social actors. To illustrate this, we assume that an individual wishes to better his place in society. He therefore accumulates social capital by involving himself in a social network, adhering to the norms of that group, allowing him to later access the resources (e.g. social relationships) gained over time. If, in the case of education, he uses these resources to better his educational outcomes, thereby enabling him to become socially mobile, he effectively has worked to reiterate and reproduce the stratification of society, as social capital has done little to alleviate the system as a whole. This may be one negative aspect of social capital, but seems to be an inevitable one in and of itself, as are all forms of capital.
Positive consequences of social capital
Compared to Bourdieu, Robert D. Putnam has used the concept in a much more positive light: though he was at first careful to argue that social capital was a neutral term, stating "whether or not [the] shared are praiseworthy is, of course, entirely another matter," his work on American society tends to frame social capital as a producer of "civic engagement" and also a broad societal measure of communal health. He also transforms social capital from a resource possessed by individuals to an attribute of collectives, focusing on norms and trust as producers of social capital to the exclusion of networks.
Mahyar Arefi (2003) identifies consensus-building as a direct positive indicator of social capital. Consensus implies "shared interest" and agreement among various actors and stakeholders to induce collective action. Collective action is thus an indicator of increased social capital.
Subtypes
Bonding, bridging, linking
In Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community (2000), Harvard political scientist Robert D. Putnam writes:Henry Ward Beecher's advice a century ago to 'multiply picnics' is not entirely ridiculous today. We should do this, ironically, not because it will be good for America – though it will be – but because it will be good for us.Putnam speaks of two main components of the concept, the creation of which Putnam credits to Ross Gittell and Avis Vidal:
Bonding social capital: the value assigned to social networks between homogeneous groups of people.
Bridging social capital: the value assigned to social networks between socially heterogeneous groups.
Typical examples are that criminal gangs create bonding social capital, while choirs and bowling clubs (hence the title, as Putnam lamented their decline) create bridging social capital. The distinction is useful in highlighting how social capital may not always be beneficial for society as a whole (though it is always an asset for those individuals and groups involved). Horizontal networks of individual citizens and groups that enhance community productivity and cohesion are said to be positive social capital assets whereas self-serving exclusive gangs and hierarchical patronage systems that operate at cross purposes to societal interests can be thought of as negative social capital burdens on society.
Similar to Putnam, Daniel P. Aldrich describes three mechanisms of social capital:
Bonding capital: the relationships a person has with friends and family, making it also the strongest form of social capital.
Bridging capital: the relationship between friends of friends, making its strength secondary to bonding capital.
Linking capital: the relationship between a person and a government official or other elected leader.
Aldrich also applies the ideas of social capital to the fundamental principles of disaster recovery, and discusses factors that either aid or impede recovery, such as extent of damage, population density, quality of government and aid. In his book Building Resilience: Social Capital in Post-Disaster Recovery, he primarily examines Japanese recovery following the 2011 Fukushima nuclear meltdown.
Social capital development on the internet via social networking websites such as Facebook or Myspace tends to be bridging capital according to one study, though "virtual" social capital is a new area of research.
Consummatory, instrumental
There are two other sub-sources of social capital:
Consummatory capital: a behavior that is made up of actions that fulfill a basis of doing what is inherent.
Examples include value interjection and solidarity.
Instrumental capital: behavior that is taught through ones surroundings over time.
Consummatory capital
Consummatory capital a behavior that is made up of actions that fulfill a basis of doing what is inherent. Two examples of consummatory social capital are value interjection and solidarity.
Value interjection: refers to the behavior of individuals or groups adhering to societal norms by meeting expected obligations, such as following established rules, timely bill payments, and punctuality. Diligent adherence contributes personal advantages like financial stability and improved relationships, as well as broader societal gains, including enhanced market confidence and perceived reliability.
Coleman goes on to say that when people live in this way and benefit from this type of social capital, individuals in the society are able to rest assured that their belongings and family will be safe. This understanding of solidarity may be traced to 19th century socialist thinkers, whose main focus was the urban working class of the Industrial Revolution. They analyzed the reasons these workers supported each other for the benefit of the group and held that this support was an adaptation to the immediate social environment, as opposed to a trait that had been taught to the workers in their youth. As another example, Coleman states that possessing this type of social capital individuals to stand up for what they believe in, and even die for it, in the face of adversity.
While the notion of solidarity as social capital is sometimes attributed to Karl Marx, in particular, the term social capital had a quite different meaning for Marx. All forms of "capital" were, for Marx, possessed only by capitalists and he emphasized the basis of labour in capitalist society, as a class constituted by individuals obliged to sell their labour power, because they lacked sufficient capital, in any sense of the word, to do otherwise. Marx saw "social capital" as a theoretical total amount of capital, purely in the sense of accumulated wealth or property, that existed in a particular society. He thereby contrasted it with specific and discrete "individual capital."
Instrumental capital
Instrumental capital is behavior that is taught through one's surroundings over time. Individuals donating their resources are not seeking direct repayment from the recipient, but motivated by membership in the same social structure. Donors might not see a direct repayment, but, most commonly, they will be held by the society in greater honor.
Portes mentions the donation of a scholarship to a member of the same ethnic group as an example of this. The donor is not giving up resources to be directly repaid by the recipient, but, as stated above, the honor of the community. With this in mind, recipients might not know the benefactor personally, but prospers as a member of the same social group.
Social capital is also linked with religious communities. Religion represents an important aspect of social capital (religious social capital).
Measurement
There is no widely held consensus on how to measure social capital, which has become a debate in itself. While usually one can intuitively sense the level/amount of social capital present in a given relationship (regardless of type or scale), quantitative measuring has proven somewhat complicated, resulting in different metrics for different functions.
Sociologists Carl L. Bankston and Min Zhou have argued that one of the reasons social capital is so difficult to measure is that it is neither an individual-level nor a group-level phenomenon, but one that emerges across levels of analysis as individuals participate in groups. They argue that the metaphor of "capital" may be misleading because, unlike financial capital, which is a resource held by an individual, the benefits of forms of social organization are not held by actors, but are results of the participation of actors in advantageously organized groups.
Name generators
One type of quantitative social capital measure uses name generators to construct social networks and to measure the level of social capital. These networks are constructed by asking participants to name people that they interact with, such as "Name all the people you've discussed important matters with in the past six months." Name generators are often useful to construct core discussion networks of close ties, rather than weaker ties.
Social capital scales
Many studies measure social capital by asking the question: "do you trust the others?" Other researches analyse the participation in voluntary associations or civic activities.
To expand upon the methodological potential of measuring online and offline social bonding, as it relates to social capital, Williams (2006), offers a matrix of social capital measures that distinguishes social bridging as a form of less emotionally-tethered relationships compared to bonding. Bonding and bridging sub-scales are proposed, which have been adopted by over 300 scholarly articles.
Lin, Peng, Kim, Kim & LaRose (2012) offer a noteworthy application of the scale by measuring international residents originating from locations outside of the United States. The study found that social media platforms like Facebook provide an opportunity for increased social capital, but mostly for extroverts. However, less introverted social media users could engage social media and build social capital by connecting with Americans before arriving and then maintaining old relationships from home upon arriving to the states. The ultimate outcome of the study indicates that social capital is measurable and is a concept that may be operationalized to understand strategies for coping with cross-cultural immersion through online engagement.
Cohesion measures
The level of cohesion of a group also affects its social capital and vice versa. However, there is no one quantitative way of determining the level of cohesiveness, but rather a collection of social network models that researchers have used over the decades to operationalize social capital. One of the dominant methods is Ronald Burt's constraint measure, which taps into the role of tie strength and group cohesion. Another network-based model is network transitivity.
Economic measures
Knack and Keefer (1996) measured econometric correlations between confidence and civic cooperation norms, with economic growth in a large group of countries. They found that confidence and civic cooperation have a great impact in economic growth, and that in less polarized societies in terms of inequality and ethnic differences, social capital is bigger.
Narayan and Pritchet (1997) researched the associativity degree and economic performance in rural homes of Tanzania. They observed that even in high poverty indexes, families with higher levels of incomes had more participation in collective organizations. The social capital they accumulated because of this participation had individual benefits for them, and created collective benefits through different routes, for example: their agricultural practices were better than those of the families without participation (they had more information about agrochemicals, fertilizers and seeds); they had more information about the market; they were prepared to take more risks, because being part of a social network made them feel more protected; they had an influence on the improvement of public services, showing a bigger level of participation in schools; they cooperated more in the municipality level.
Group membership-based
In measuring political social capital, it is common to take the sum of society's membership of its groups. Groups with higher membership (such as political parties) contribute more to the amount of capital than groups with lower membership, although many groups with low membership (such as communities) still add up to be significant. While it may seem that this is limited by population, this need not be the case as people join multiple groups. In a study done by Yankee City, a community of 17,000 people was found to have over 22,000 different groups.
How a group relates to the rest of society also affects social capital, but in a different manner. Strong internal ties can in some cases weaken the group's perceived capital in the eyes of the general public, as in cases where the group is geared towards crime, distrust, intolerance, violence or hatred towards others. The Ku Klux Klan is an example of this kind of organizations.
Social behaviour-based
Foschi and Lauriola have presented a measure of sociability as a proxy of social capital. The authors demonstrated that facets of sociability can mediate between general personality traits and measures of civic involvement and political participation, as predictors of social capital, in a holistic model of political behavior.
The World Social Capital Monitor is an instrument for measuring social goods and social capital created by the United Nations Sustainable Development Group in partnership with civil society actors. The project identifies social values such as trust, solidarity, helpfulness, friendliness, hospitality and the willingness to finance public goods with the help of anonymous surveys. The surveys started in 2016.
Integrating history and socio-economic analysis
Beyond Putnam
While influential, some have identified areas of concern or improvement within the work of Robert D. Putnam. This includes:
the lack of awareness of the structural socio-economic conditions of society. For example, the level of income inequality.
the excessive determinism of the historical analysis.
Putnam's social capital index does not consider racial diversity which links to worse outcomes. Nor does Putnam consider ethnic diversity, which often creates barriers to cooperation and democratization.
the conflation of social capital with civil society, the lack of empirical evidence connecting social capital's promotion of economic growth and substantiating the decline of social capital in the United States in the last 35 years, and the assumption that social networks produce win-win relationships.
Social capital motives
Robison and colleagues (2012) measured the relative importance of selfishness and four social capital motives using resource allocation data collected in hypothetical surveys and non-hypothetical experiments.
The selfishness motive assumes that an agent's allocation of a scarce resource is independent of his relationships with others. This motive is sometimes referred to as the selfishness of preference assumption in neoclassical economics.
Social capital motives assume that agents' allocation of a scarce resource may be influenced by their social capital or sympathetic relationships with others which may produce socio-emotional goods that satisfy socio-emotional needs for validation and belonging:
The first social capital motive seeks for validation by acting consistently with the values of one's ideal self.
The second social capital motive seeks to be validated by others by winning their approval.
The third social capital motive seeks to belong. Recognizing that one may not be able to influence the sympathy of others, persons seeking to belong may act to increase their own sympathy for others and the organizations or institutions they represent.
The fourth social capital motive recognizes that our sympathy or social capital for another person will motivate us to act in their interest. In doing so we satisfy our own needs for validation and belonging. Empirical results reject the hypothesis often implied in economics that we are 95% selfish.
Relation with civil society
Various authors give definitions of civil society that refer to voluntary associations and organisations outside the market and state. This definition is very close to that of the third sector, which consists of "private organisations that are formed and sustained by groups of people acting voluntarily and without seeking personal profit to provide benefits for themselves or for others."
According to such authors as Walzer (1992), Alessandrini (2002), Newtown, Stolle & Rochon, Foley & Edwards (1997), and Walters, it is through civil society, or more accurately, the third sector, that individuals are able to establish and maintain relational networks. These voluntary associations also connect people with each other, build trust and reciprocity through informal, loosely structured associations, and consolidate society through altruism without obligation. It is "this range of activities, services and associations produced by... civil society" that constitutes the sources of social capital.
Not only has civil society been documented to produce sources of social capital, according to Lyons' Third Sector (2001), social capital does not appear in any guise under either the factors that enable or those that stimulate the growth of the third sector. Likewise, Onyx (2000) describes how social capital depends on an already functioning community. The idea that creating social capital (i.e., creating networks) will strengthen civil society underlies current Australian social policy aimed at bridging deepening social divisions. The goal is to reintegrate those marginalised from the rewards of the economic system into "the community." However, according to Onyx (2000), while the explicit aim of this policy is inclusion, its effects are exclusionary.
Foley and Edwards (1997) believe that "political systems...are important determinants of both the character of civil society and of the uses to which whatever social capital exists might be put." Alessandrini agrees, saying that, "in Australia in particular, neo-liberalism has been recast as economic rationalism and identified by several theorists and commentators as a danger to society at large because of the use to which they are putting social capital to work."
The resurgence of interest in social capital as a remedy for the cause of today's social problems draws directly on the assumption that these problems lie in the weakening of civil society. However this ignores the arguments of many theorists who believe that social capital leads to exclusion rather than to a stronger civil society. In international development, Ben Fine (2001) and John Harriss (2001) have been heavily critical of the inappropriate adoption of social capital as a supposed panacea (promoting civil society organisations and NGOs, for example, as agents of development) for the inequalities generated by neoliberal economic development. This leads to controversy as to the role of state institutions in the promotion of social capital.
An abundance of social capital is seen as being almost a necessary condition for modern liberal democracy. A low level of social capital leads to an excessively rigid and unresponsive political system and high levels of corruption, in the political system and in the region as a whole. Formal public institutions require social capital in order to function properly, and while it is possible to have too much social capital (resulting in rapid changes and excessive regulation), it is decidedly worse to have too little.
Sample societies
Post-Communist: Kathleen Dowley and Brian Silver published an article entitled "Social Capital, Ethnicity and Support for Democracy in the Post-Communist States", in which they find that in post-communist states, higher levels of social capital did not equate to higher levels of democracy. However, higher levels of social capital led to higher support for democracy.
Third-world: A number of intellectuals in developing countries have argued that the idea of social capital, particularly when connected to certain ideas about civil society, is deeply implicated in contemporary modes of donor and NGO-driven imperialism and that it functions, primarily, to blame the poor for their condition.
Chinese: The concept of social capital in a Chinese social context has been closely linked with the concept of guanxi.
American: One attempt to measure social capital, involving the quantity, quality and strength of an individual social capital, was spearheaded by Corporate Alliance in the English-speaking market segment of the US, and Xentrum through the Latin American Chamber of Commerce in Utah on the Spanish-speaking population of the same country. With the assistance of software applications and web-based relationship-oriented systems such as LinkedIn, these kinds of organizations are expected to provide its members with a way to keep track of the number of their relationships, meetings designed to boost the strength of each relationship using group dynamics, executive retreats and networking events as well as training in how to reach out to higher circles of influential people.
Effects on women's engagement with politics
There are many factors that drive volume towards the ballot box, including education, employment, civil skills, and time. Careful evaluation of these fundamental factors often suggests that women do not vote at similar levels as men. However the gap between women and men voter turnout is diminishing and in some cases women are becoming more prevalent at the ballot box than their male counterparts. Recent research on social capital is now serving as an explanation for this change.
Social capital offers a wealth of resources and networks that facilitate political engagement. Since social capital is readily available no matter the type of community, it is able to override more traditional queues for political engagement; e.g.: education, employment, civil skills, etc.
There are unique ways in which women organize. These differences from men make social capital more personable and impressionable to women audiences thus creating a stronger presence in regards to political engagement. A few examples of these characteristics are:
Women's informal and formal networks tend toward care work that is often considered apolitical.
Women are also more likely to engage in local politics and social movement activities than in traditional forums focused on national politics.
Women are more likely to organize themselves in less hierarchical ways and to focus on creating consensus.
The often informal nature of female social capital allows women to politicize apolitical environments without conforming to masculine standards, thus keeping this activity at a low public profile. These differences are hard to recognize within the discourse of political engagement and may explain why social capital has not been considered as a tool for female political engagement until as of late.
Effects on health
A growing body of research has found that the presence of social capital through social networks and communities has a protective quality on health. Social capital affects health risk behavior in the sense that individuals who are embedded in a network or community rich in support, social trust, information, and norms, have resources that help achieve health goals. For example, a person who is sick with cancer may receive the information, money, or moral support needed to endure treatment and recover. Social capital also encourages social trust and membership. These factors can discourage individuals from engaging in risky health behaviors such as smoking and binge drinking.
Furthermore, neighbourhood social capital may also aid in buffering health inequities amongst children and adolescents. Social capital indicators such as neighbourhood cohesion, social support, and ties providing a bond between members of the same religion, have been found to be associated with better health despite financial or socioeconomic hardship. The function of social capital as a health buffer in circumstances of social disadvantage has also received attention in research on the health of minority ethnic populations. The relationships and networks that are maintained by an ethnic minority population in a geographical area where a high percentage of residents belong to the same ethnic group may lead to better health outcomes than would be expected based on other individual and neighbourhood characteristics. Such effects have been investigated in England, New Zealand, and the United States.
Inversely, a lack of social capital can impair health. For example, results from a survey given to 13- to 18-year-old students in Sweden showed that low social capital and low social trust are associated with higher rates of psychosomatic symptoms, musculoskeletal pain, and depression. Additionally, negative social capital can detract from health. Although there are only a few studies that assess social capital in criminalized populations, there is information that suggests that social capital does have a negative effect in broken communities. Deviant behavior is encouraged by deviant peers via favorable definitions and learning opportunities provided by network-based norms. However, in these same communities, an adjustment of norms (i.e. deviant peers being replaced by positive role models) can pose a positive effect.
Researchers have also investigated the hypothesis that the health benefits of social capital depend on the socioeconomic resources an individual or community has available to them. For example, social capital may boost health only for those with higher levels of education, or more so for those with a higher rather than a lower income. This research is based on Bourdieu's notion that social, economic, and cultural capital are dependent on each other.
Influence of the Internet
Similar to watching the news and keeping abreast of current events, the use of the Internet can relate to an individual's level of social capital. In one study, informational uses of the Internet correlated positively with an individual's production of social capital, and social-recreational uses were negatively correlated (higher levels of these uses correlated with lower levels of social capital). An example supporting the former argument is the contribution of Peter Maranci's blog (Charlie on the Commuter Line) to address the train problems in Massachusetts. He created it after an incident where a lady passed out during a train ride due to the congestion in the train and help was delayed because of the congestion in the train and the inefficiency of the train conductor. His blog exposed the poor conditions of train stations, overcrowding train rides and inefficiency of the train conductor which eventually influenced changes within the transit system.
Another perspective holds that the rapid growth of social networking sites such as Facebook and Myspace suggests that individuals are creating a virtual-network consisting of both bonding and bridging social capital. Unlike face to face interaction, people can instantly connect with others in a targeted fashion by placing specific parameters with Internet use. This means that individuals can selectively connect with others based on ascertained interests, and backgrounds. Facebook is currently the most popular social networking site and touts many advantages to its users including serving as a social lubricant for individuals who otherwise have difficulties forming and maintaining both strong and weak ties with others.
This argument continues, although the preponderance of evidence shows a positive association between social capital and the Internet. Critics of virtual communities believe that the Internet replaces our strong bonds with online "weak-ties" or with socially empty interactions with the technology itself. Others fear that the Internet can create a world of "narcissism of similarity," where sociability is reduced to interactions between those that are similar in terms of ideology, race, or gender. A few articles suggest that technologically based interactions has a negative relationship with social capital by displacing time spent engaging in geographical/ in-person social activities. However, the consensus of research shows that the more time people spend online the more in-person contact they have, thus positively enhancing social capital.
Recent research, conducted in 2006, also shows that Internet users often have wider networks than those who access the Internet irregularly or not at all. When not considering family and work contacts, Internet users actually tend to have contact with a higher number of friends and relatives. This is supported by another study that shows that Internet users and non-Internet users do feel equally close to the same number of people; also the Internet users maintain relationships with 20% more people whom they "feel somewhat close" to.
Other research shows that younger people use the Internet as a supplemental medium for communication, rather than letting the Internet communication replace face-to-face contact. This supports the view that Internet communication does not hinder development of social capital and does not make people feel lonelier than before.
Ellison, Steinfield & Lampe (2007) suggest social capital exercised online is a result of relationships formed offline; whereby, bridging capital is enabled through a "maintenance" of relationships. Among respondents of this study, social capital built exclusively online creates weaker ties. A distinction of social bonding is offered by Ellison et al., 2007, suggesting bonds, or strong ties, are possible through social media, but less likely.
Effects on educational achievement
Catholic schools (Coleman and Hoffer)
Coleman and Hoffer collected quantitative data of 28,000 students in total 1,015 public, Catholic and other private high schools in America from the 7 years' period from 1980 to 1987. It was found from this longitudinal research that social capital in students' families and communities attributed to the much lower dropout rates in Catholic schools compared with the higher rates in public.
Teachman et al. (1996) further develop the family structure indicator suggested by Coleman. They criticise Coleman, who used only the number of parents present in the family, neglected the unseen effect of more discrete dimensions such as stepparents' and different types of single-parent families. They take into account of a detailed counting of family structure, not only with two biological parents or stepparent families, but also with types of single-parent families with each other (mother-only, father-only, never-married, and other). They also contribute to the literature by measuring parent-child interaction by the indicators of how often parents and children discuss school-related activities.
Morgan and Sorensen (1999) directly challenge Coleman for his lacking of an explicit mechanism to explain why Catholic schools students perform better than public school students on standardised tests of achievement. Researching students in Catholic schools and public schools again, they propose two comparable models of social capital effect on mathematic learning. One is on Catholic schools as norm-enforcing schools whereas another is on public schools as horizon-expanding schools. It is found that while social capital can bring about positive effect of maintaining an encompassing functional community in norm-enforcing schools, it also brings about the negative consequence of excessive monitoring. Creativity and exceptional achievement would be repressed as a result. Whereas in horizon expanding school, social closure is found to be negative for student's mathematic achievement. These schools explore a different type of social capital, such as information about opportunities in the extended social networks of parents and other adults. The consequence is that more learning is fostered than norm-enforcing Catholic school students. In sum, Morgan and Sorensen study implies that social capital is contextualised, one kind of social capital may be positive in this setting but is not necessarily still positive in another setting.
Community development
In the setting of education through Kilpatrick, Johns, and Mulford (2010) state that "social capital is a useful lens for analysing lifelong learning and its relationship to community development." Social capital is particularly important in terms of education. Also the importance of education with "schools being designed to create 'functioning community' - forging tighter links between parents and the school" linking that without this interaction, the social capital in this area is disadvantaged and demonstrates that social capital plays a major role in education.
Parental involvement
Putnam (2000) mentions in his book Bowling Alone, "Child development is powerfully shaped by social capital" and continues "presence of social capital has been linked to various positive outcomes, particularly in education." According to his book, these positive outcomes are the result of parents' social capital in a community. In states where there is a high social capital, there is also a high education performance. The similarity of these states is that parents were more associated with their children's education. Teachers have reported that when the parents participate more in their children's education and school life, it lowers levels of misbehavior, such as bringing weapons to school, engaging in physical violence, unauthorized absence, and being generally apathetic about education. Borrowing Coleman's quotation from Putnam's book, Coleman once mentioned we cannot understate "the importance of the embeddedness of young persons in the enclaves of adults most proximate to them, first and most prominent the family and second, a surrounding community of adults."
Without social capital in the area of education, teachers and parents who play a responsibility in a students learning, the significant impacts on their child's academic learning can rely on these factors. With focus on parents contributing to their child's academic progress as well as being influenced by social capital in education. Without the contribution by the parent in their child's education, gives parents less opportunity and participation in the student's life. As Tedin and Weiher (2010) state, "one of the most important factors in promoting student success is the active involvement of parents in a child's education." With parents also involved in activities and meetings the school conducts, the more involved parents are with other parents and the staff members. Thus parent involvement contributes to social capital with becoming more involved in the school community and participating makes the school a sustainable and easy to run community.
Sampson et al. (1999) stress the normative or goal-directed dimension of social capital, claiming that "resources or networks alone (e.g. voluntary associations, friendship ties, organisational density) are neutral---they may or may not be effective mechanism for achieving intended effect."
Difference in male and female
Marjoribanks and Kwok (1998) conducted a survey in Hong Kong secondary schools with 387 fourteen-year-old students with an aim to analyse female and male adolescents differential educational achievement by using social capital as the main analytic tool. In that research, social capital is approved of its different effects upon different genders.
Adaption and ethnic values
In his thesis "New Arrival Students in Hong Kong: Adaptation and School Performance", Hei Hang Hayes Tang (2002) argues that adaptation is a process of activation and accumulation of (cultural and social) capitals. The research findings show that supportive networks is the key determinant differentiating the divergent adaptation pathways. Supportive networks, as a form of social capital, is necessary for activating the cultural capital the newly arrived students possessed. The amount of accumulated capital is also relevant to further advancement in the ongoing adaptation process.
Min Zhou and Carl L. Bankston (1998), in their study of a Vietnamese community in New Orleans, found that preserving traditional ethnic values enable immigrants to integrate socially and to maintain solidarity in an ethnic community. Ethnic solidarity is especially important in the context where immigrants just arrive in the host society. In her article "Social Capital in Chinatown", Zhou examines how the process of adaptation of young Chinese Americans is affected by tangible forms of social relations between the community, immigrant families, and the younger generations. Chinatown serves as the basis of social capital that facilitates the accommodation of immigrant children in the expected directions. Ethnic support provides impetus to academic success. Furthermore, maintenance of literacy in native language also provides a form of social capital that contributes positively to academic achievement. Stanton-Salazar and Dornbusch found that bilingual students were more likely to obtain the necessary forms of institutional support to advance their school performance and their life chances.
In fields of study
Geography
In order to understand social capital as a subject in geography, one must look at it in a sense of space, place, and territory. In its relationship, the tenets of geography relate to the ideas of social capital in the family, community, and in the use of social networks. The biggest advocate for seeing social capital as a geographical subject was American economist and political scientist Robert Putnam. His main argument for classifying social capital as a geographical concept is that the relationships of people is shaped and molded by the areas in which they live.
There are many areas in which social capital can be defined by the theories and practices. In 1984, Anthony Giddens developed a theory in which he relates social structures and the actions that they produce. In his studies, he does not look at the individual participants of these structures, but how the structures and the social connections that stem from them are diffused over space. If this is the case, the continuous change in social structures could bring about a change in social capital, which can cause changes in community atmosphere. If an area is plagued by social organizations whose goals are to revolt against social norms, such as gangs, it can cause a negative social capital for the area causing those who disagreed with these organizations to relocate thus taking their positive social capital to a different space than the negative.
Another area where social capital can be seen as an area of study in geography is through the analysis of participation in volunteerism and its support of different governments. One area to look into with this is through those who participate in social organizations. People that participate are of different races, ages, and economic status. With these in mind, variances of the space in which these different demographics may vary, causing a difference in involvement among areas. Secondly, there are different social programs for different areas based on economic situation. A governmental organization would not place a welfare center in a wealthier neighborhood where it would have very limited support to the community, as it is not needed. Thirdly, social capital can be affected by the participation of individuals of a certain area based on the type of institutions that are placed there. Mohan supports this with the argument of J. Fox in his paper "Decentralization and Rural Development in Mexico", which states "structures of local governance in turn influence the capacity of grassroots communities to influence social investments." With this theory, if the involvement of a government in specific areas raises the involvement of individuals in social organizations and/or communities, this will in turn raise the social capital for that area. Since every area is different, the government takes that into consideration and will provide different areas with different institutions to fit their needs thus there will be different changes in social capital in different areas.
Leisure studies
In the context of leisure studies, social capital is seen as the consequence of investment in and cultivation of social relationships allowing an individual access to resources that would otherwise be unavailable to him or her. The concept of social capital in relation to leisure is grounded in a perspective that emphasizes the interconnectedness rather than the separateness of human activity and human goals. There is a significant connection between leisure and democratic social capital. Specific forms of leisure activity contribute to the development of the social capital central to democracy and democratic citizenship. The more an individual participates in social activities, the more autonomy the individual experiences, which will help her or his individual abilities and skills to develop. The greater the accumulation of social capital a person experiences, may transfer to other leisure activities as well as personal social roles, relationships and in other roles within a social structure.
Social capital, marriage, and romantic relationships
Kislev (2019) shows that following vast changes to the status of marriage in modern society singles present higher social capital. They also derive greater happiness from equal levels of social capital compared with married people. In a later study, Kislev (2020) shows the relation between romantic relationships desire and singleness. He shows that a lower degree of relationship desire has a significant effect on the relative importance of friends. Furthermore, both higher levels of the relative importance of friends and social satisfaction are negatively correlated with relationship desire.
Effects on informal economies
Social capital has been associated with the reduction in access to informal credit in informal economies (especially in developing countries). Mwangi and Ouma (2012) ran a bivariate probit model on financial access national survey data to the impact of social capital on financial inclusion in Kenya. They determined that membership to groups increased one's probability of getting an informal loan by 1.45% and also the more group memberships one held, the more likely they were to access an informal loan.
Similar results were revealed in a cross-sectional study run by Sarker in Bangladesh. Some other authors also note the importance of social capital among female entrepreneurship. Epo (2013) presented the case that social capital and micro loans increase the likelihood of female entrepreneurship in Cameroon. Epo did this by comparing the welfare outcomes of the entrepreneurs who both had access and no access. Other authors, however, disagree about the positive correlation between social capital and microfinance, Kanak and Iiguni argue that formation of social capital is largely dependent on strategies implemented by Microfinance Institutions. Kanak and Iiguni determined this while investigating social capital formation in a rural village in Bangladesh.
See also
Cultural economics
Diplomatic capital
Intellectual capital management
Organization workshop
Organisational capital
Political capital
Reed's law
Relational capital
Soft power
Structural capital
Sexual capital
True cost accounting
References
Further reading
Adler, Paul S., and Seok-Woo Kwon. 2002. "Social Capital: Prospects for a New Concept." Academy of Management Review 27(1)1:17–40. .
Lay summary.
Bourdieu, Pierre. 1983. "Ökonomisches Kapital, kulturelles Kapital, soziales Kapital." pp. 183–198 in Soziale Ungleichheiten, (Soziale Welt, Sonderheft 2), edited by R. Kreckel. Goettingen: Otto Schartz & Co.
Dasgupta, Partha, and Ismail Serageldin, eds. 2000. Social Capital: A Multifaceted Perspective. Washington, DC: World Bank. Google Books.
Edwards, B., and M. W. Foley. 1998. Civil society and social capital beyond Putnam.
Everingham, C. 2001. Reconstituting Community
Lin, Nan. 1999. "Building a Network Theory of Social Capital." Connections 22(1):28–51.
Reprint: Lin, Nan. 2017. "Building a Network Theory of Social Capital." pp. 3–28 in Social Capital, edited by N. Lin, K. Cook, and R. S. Burt. . .
Lin, Jih-Hsuan, Wei Peng, Mijung Kim, Sung Yeun Kim, and Robert LaRose. 2011. "Social networking and adjustments among international students." New Media & Society 14(3):421–440. . .
Putnam, Robert D. 1995. "Bowling alone: Americas's declining social capital." Journal of Democracy 6(1):65–78. .
—— 2006. E Pluribus Unum: Diversity and Community in the Twenty-First Century. Nordic Political Science Association
Durlauf, Steven N., and Lawrence E. Blume, eds. 2008. The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics (2nd ed.)
Dasgupta, Partha. "social capital."
Iannaccone, Laurence R., and Eli Berman. "religion, economics of."
Young, H. Peyton. "social norms"
Moody, James, and Martina Morris, "social networks, economic relevance of"
Mohan, Giles, and John Mohan. 2002. "Placing social capital." Progress in Human Geography 26(2):191–210.
Portes, A. 1998. "Social capital: its origins and applications in modern sociology." Annual Review of Sociology 24:1–24.
Silverman, R. M. 2004. Community-based organizations: The intersection of social capital and local context in contemporary urban society. Detroit: Wayne State University Press.
Williams, D. 2006. "On and Off the 'Net: Scales for Social Capital in an Online Era." Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 11(2):593–628. .
Zhou, Min, and Carl L. Bankston. 1998. Growing Up American: How Vietnamese Children Adapt to Life in the United States. New York: Russell Sage Foundation. .
External links
The World Social Capital Monitor, Survey in 35 languages within the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
Social Capital as the social dimension of the UN SDG, Jos Verbeek of the Worldbank, August 2017
Capital (economics)
Comparative politics
Community building
Community development
Cultural economics
Economic sociology
Social economy
Social influence
Social networks
Sociological terminology
Socioeconomics | 0.760586 | 0.996025 | 0.757562 |
Position paper | A position paper (sometimes position piece for brief items) is an essay that presents an arguable opinion about an issue – typically that of the author or some specified entity. Position papers are published in academia, in politics, in law and other domains. The goal of a position paper is to convince the audience that the opinion presented is valid and worth listening to. Ideas for position papers that one is considering need to be carefully examined when choosing a topic, developing an argument, and organizing the paper.
Position papers range from the simplest format of a letter to the editor, through to the most complex in the form of an academic position paper. Position papers are also used by large organizations to make public the official beliefs and recommendations of the group.
Academia
Position papers in academia enable discussion on emerging topics without the experimentation and original research normally present in an academic paper. Commonly, such a document will substantiate the opinions or positions put forward with evidences from an extensive objective discussion of the topic.
Politics
A position paper lies somewhere on a spectrum between a green paper and a white paper because it affirms opinions and proposes solutions without specifying exactly how they should be implemented.
Position papers can lead to a deep understanding of the views of another person or organization which is why they are commonly used by political campaigns, government organizations, in the diplomatic world, and in efforts to change values (e.g. through public service announcements) and organisational branding. They are used in the government of the European Union. They are an important part of the Model United Nations process.
Law
In international law, the term for a position paper is an aide-mémoire, a memorandum setting forth the minor points of a proposed discussion or disagreement, used especially in undiplomatic communications.
Notes
References
External links
Political communication
Technical communication | 0.765332 | 0.98983 | 0.757548 |
Typology (urban planning and architecture) | Typology is the study and classification of object types. In urban planning and architecture, typology refers to the task of identifying and grouping buildings and urban spaces according to the similarity of their essential characteristics.
Common examples of essential characteristics include intensity of development (from rural to suburban to urban) and building use (church, hospital, school, apartment, house, etc.) Non-essential characteristics are those which, if modified, would not change the building type. Color, for example, would rarely be considered an essential characteristic of building type. Material, however, may or may not be considered essential depending on how integral the material is to the structure (engineering) and construction (assembly) of the building.
Building types may be further divided into subtypes. For example, among religious structures there are churches and mosques, etc.; among churches there are cathedrals and chapels, etc.; among cathedrals there are gothic and romanesque, etc.
In architecture and urban planning discourse, typology is sometimes distinguished from morphology, which is the study and classification of buildings according to their shape or form (gk. morph). When this dichotomy is employed between typology and morphology, the term typology tends to refer to the more limited aspects of buildings or urban sites specifically related to their use. In other words: typology is used-based classification; morphology is form-based classification.
This distinction is particularly relevant in urban planning and design, where some have begun to question the standard model of single-use zoning codes in favor of form-based zoning codes that regulate development not by use (commercial, residential, industrial, etc) but instead by the shape, size, and placement of buildings on their lots.
See also
Pattern language
Architectural theory
Urban studies and planning terminology | 0.778931 | 0.972461 | 0.75748 |
Loevinger's stages of ego development | Loevinger's stages of ego development are proposed by developmental psychologist Jane Loevinger (1918–2008) and conceptualize a theory based on Erik Erikson's psychosocial model and the works of Harry Stack Sullivan (1892–1949) in which "the ego was theorized to mature and evolve through stages across the lifespan as a result of a dynamic interaction between the inner self and the outer environment".
Loevinger's theory contributes to the delineation of ego development, which goes beyond the fragmentation of trait psychology and looks at personality as a meaningful whole.
Development
Loevinger conceived of an ego-development system which closely resembles moral development, but is broader in scope and uses empirical methods of study. She created an objective test of mothers' attitudes to problems in family life, which Loevinger called the Family Problems Scale. Although this first test did not yield the expected results, she noted a strong similarity between authoritarian family ideology and the authoritarian personality concept being developed at UC Berkeley in the early 1960s. Loevinger noticed that the women who were at the extreme ends of the authoritarian scale also tended to be the most immature. These women tended to agree with such statements as "[a] mother should be her daughter's best friend", at the same time endorsing punitive behavior. She also observed that a liberal, non-authoritarian personality was not the opposite of a high authoritarian personality; anomie (a disorganized and detached social style) was the opposite of high authoritarianism, indicating a curvilinear relationship.
Loevinger theorized that this was because the Authoritarian Family Ideology scale measured just authoritarianism, but a broader concept which affected the other constructs she measured. By combining this theoretical framework with Sullivan and Grant's interpersonal-maturity continuum, she created the concept of ego development. Loevinger then developed the Washington University Sentence Completion Test, the primary method of determining ego development on her scale.
Stages
Loevinger describes the ego as a process, rather than a thing; it is the frame of reference (or lens) one uses to construct and interpret one's world. This contains impulse control and character development with interpersonal relations and cognitive preoccupations, including self-concept. Sullivan (1958) proposed four levels of "interpersonal maturity and interpersonal integration": impulsive, conformist, conscientious, and autonomous. Developing from that initial framework, Loevinger completed a developmental model of nine sequential stages, each representing a progressively more-complex way of perceiving oneself in relation to the world. Every stage provides a frame of reference to organize and define experience over an individual's life: "Since each new ego stage or frame of reference builds on the previous one and integrates it, no one can skip a stage ... One has not yet acquired the interpersonal logic."
As the adult ego develops, Loevinger considered the emergence of a sense of self-awareness in which one becomes aware of discrepancies between conventions and one's behavior. For some, development reaches a plateau and does not continue; for others, greater ego integration and differentiation continue. Loevinger proposed eight or nine stages of ego in development, six of which occur in adulthood: conformist, conscientious-conformist, conscientious, individualistic, autonomous, and integrated. She believed that most adults were at the conscientious-conformist level.
Pre-Social (E1)
The baby, which is at the mercy of the world around it (and its own needs), really has no ego to speak of until it begins to differentiate itself from its caregivers and the demands of the outer environment.
Impulsive (E2)
The child "asserts his growing sense of self", and views the world in egocentric terms; "the child is preoccupied with bodily impulses, particularly (age-appropriate) sexual and aggressive ones." Immersed in the moment, they view the world solely in terms of how things affect him or her. Impulses affirm a sense of self, but are "curbed by the environment." When someone meets the child's needs, they are considered "good"; if they do not meet his or her needs, they are considered "bad" (often resulting in impulsive retaliation, such as running away or running home). Discipline is viewed by the child as restraint; rewards and punishments are seen as "nice to me" or "mean to me". The child's "needs and feelings are experienced mostly in bodily modes," and "the child's orientation at this stage is almost exclusively to the present rather than to past or future."
Self-Protective (E3)
The self-protective stage is "the first step towards self-control of impulses. The Self-Protective person has the notion of blame, but he externalizes it to other people or to circumstances." At this level, the child "craves a morally prescribed, rigidly enforced, unchanging order"; if maintained too long, "an older child or adult who remains here may become opportunistic, deceptive, and preoccupied with control ... naive instrumental hedonism". Although a degree of conceptual cohesion has been reached, morality is essentially a matter of anticipating rewards and punishments (with the motto "Don't Get Caught").
Conformist (E4)
"Most children around school age ... progress to the next stage, conformity." Individuals begin to view themselves and others as conforming to socially-approved codes or norms. Loevinger describes this stage as having "the greatest cognitive simplicity. There is a right way and a wrong way and it is the same for everyone ... or broad classes of people". One example of groups conforming at this age is by gender: boys and girls; individuals are invested in belonging to, and obtaining the approval of, groups. Behaviour is judged externally, not by intentions, and this concept of "belonging to the group (family or peers) is most valued." "The child starts to identify his welfare with that of the group"; for the stage "to be consolidated, there must be a strong element of trust." An ability to understand rules of the group appears; a group member's disapproval becomes a sanction, in addition to the fear of punishment. Rules and norms, however, are not yet distinguished. "While the Conformist likes and trusts other people within his own group, he may define that group narrowly and reject any or all outgroups, and stereotypes roles on the principle of social desirability: people are what they ought to be."
Self-Aware (E5)
Loevinger considered the Self-Aware (also known as Conscientious-Conformist) stage the "model for adults in our society," and thought that few passed the stage before at least age twenty-five. The stage has two characteristics; "An increase in self-awareness and the capacity to imagine multiple possibilities in situations ... [was] a stable position in mature life, one marked by the development of 'rudimentary self-awareness and self-criticism. "However, the closeness of the self to norms and expectations reveal[s] the transitional nature of these conceptions, midway between the group stereotypes of the Conformist and the appreciation for individual differences at higher levels." She believed that the level produces a "deepened interest in interpersonal relations."
Conscientious (E6)
At "the conscientious stage ... individuals at this level, and even more often at higher levels, refer spontaneously to psychological development." Internalization of rules is complete by this stage, although "exceptions and contingencies are recognized." Goals and ideals are acknowledged, and there is a new sense of responsibility; guilt is triggered by hurting another, rather than by breaking rules. "The tendency to look at things in a broader social context" is offset by a self seen as apart from the group, but from another's point of view; as a result, "descriptions of people are more realistic ... [with] more complexities." Standards are self-chosen, and are distinguished from manners; people are seen in terms of their motives, not just their actions. A conscientious person "sees life as presenting choices; s/he holds the origin of his own destiny ... aspires to achievement, ad astra per aspera".
Individualistic (E7)
During this stage, persons demonstrate a respect for individuality and interpersonal ties. According to Loevinger, "To proceed beyond the Conscientious Stage, a person must become more tolerant of himself and of others ... out of the recognition of individual differences and of complexities of circumstances". The individualistic ego has a broad-minded tolerance of, and respect for, the autonomy of oneself and others. With a new distancing from role identities, "moralism begins to be replaced by an awareness of inner conflict" and the new stage is "marked by a heightened sense of individuality and a concern for emotional dependence." Subjective experience is opposed to objective reality, inner reality to outward appearance: "vivid and personal versions of ideas presented as cliches at lower levels". A growing concern for psychological causality and development goes hand-in-hand with "greater complexity in conceptions of interpersonal interaction."
Autonomous (E8)
Loevinger described this stage as the "freeing of the person from oppressive demands of conscience in the preceding stage." People at this stage are "synthesizers", able to conceptually integrate ideas. The autonomous person "recognizes the limitations to autonomy, that emotional interdependence is inevitable", and may experience a "confrontation with the limitations of abilities and roles as part of deepening self-acceptance."
"Self-fulfillment becomes a frequent goal, partly supplanting achievement", and there may be a greater "capacity to acknowledge and to cope with inner conflicts" (such as that between needs and duties). "A high toleration for ambiguity ... [and] conceptual complexity" (the capacity to embrace polarity, complexity and multiple facets, and to integrate ideas) and "respect for other people's need for autonomy in clear terms" are other features of the autonomous stage.
Integrated (E9)
According to Loevinger, this stage is rarely attained. At the integrated stage, "learning is understood as unavoidable ... the unattainable is renounced." The ego exhibits wisdom, broad empathy towards oneself and others, and a capacity to be aware of inner conflicts (like the individualistic ego) or to tolerate them (like the autonomous ego) and make peace with them. "Reconciling inner conflicts ... [and the] cherishing of individuality" are key elements of self-actualization, along with a formed identity which includes "reconciliation to one's destiny."
Possible Tenth Stage: Flowing (E10)
As differentiation increases, the model of ego development has found broader acceptance among international researchers. Therefore, a new stage E10 — identified as “Flowing” (i.e., “Fließende”) — has been mentioned in the context of "Ich-Entwicklung" (i.e., “Ego Development”), the German equivalent of Loevinger's stages.
"Need to evaluate things and persons is abandoned. Merging with the world, no more holding, but engaging in the flow of things. Playful alternation between seriousness and triviality, intermingling of different states of consciousness, thinking in time cycles and historical dimensions, full acceptance of differences and people as they are."
Critical response
Susanne Cook-Greuter has refined Loevinger's sentence-completion test instrument and her definitions and distinctions among the stages of ego development, and has explored the relationship between the highest stages and ego transcendence.
According to Drew Westen, Loevinger's model suffers from a lack of clinical grounding, and "like Kohlberg's theory ... it confuses content and structure." Based on the assessment of verbalized material, "the measure focuses so heavily on conscious verbal responses, it does not discriminate intelligent, liberal people with severe ego defects from those who actually are quite integrated."
However, the extent of her research adds weight to her findings. "Loevinger's (1976) model of development is derived entirely from empirical research using her sentence completion test [...] The manuals contain hundreds of actual completions, organized by exemplary categories."
For a long time, Loevinger's research was hardly well known within the German-speaking community. In 2016, Binder published a detailed compilation in Germany on the current state of discussion, which also parallels the stages found by Loevinger with those of Kegan. In the meantime, the system is more frequently cited and used in coaching and organizational development practice and reflection in the German-speaking world, often comparing and combining Loevinger's findings with other approaches to personality development.
See also
Piaget's theory of cognitive development
Erik Erikson
Erikson's stages of psychosocial development
James W. Fowler
Lawrence Kohlberg
Lawrence Kohlberg's stages of moral development
Robert Kegan
Clare W. Graves
Graves's emergent cyclical levels of existence
Don Edward Beck
Spiral Dynamics
Ken Wilber
Integral theory (Ken Wilber)
Pierre Janet
References
Sources
Aging, The Individual, and Society, 8th edition, by Susan M. Hillier and Georgia M. Barrow.
Developmental stage theories | 0.766351 | 0.988388 | 0.757452 |
Civic engagement | Civic engagement or civic participation is any individual or group activity addressing issues of public concern. Civic engagement includes communities working together or individuals working alone in both political and non-political actions to protect public values or make a change in a community. The goal of civic engagement is to address public concerns and promote the quality of the community.
Civic engagement is "a process in which people take collective action to address issues of public concern" and is "instrumental to democracy". Underrepresentation of groups in the government causes issues faced by groups such as minority, low-income, and younger groups to be overlooked or ignored. In turn, issues for higher voting groups are addressed more frequently, causing more bills to be passed to fix these problems.
Forms
Civic engagement can take many forms—from individual volunteerism, community engagement efforts, organizational involvement and government work such as electoral participation. These engagements may include directly addressing a problem through personal work, community based, or work through the institutions of representative democracy. Many individuals feel a sense of personal responsibility to actively engage in their community. "Youth civic engagement" has similar aims to develop the community environment and cultivate relationships, although youth civic engagement emphasizes on empowering youth. A study published by the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning & Engagement at Tufts University categorized civic engagement into three categories: civic, electoral, and political voice. Scholars of youth engagement online have called for a broader interpretation of civic engagement that focuses on the purpose behind current institutions and activities and includes emerging institutions and activities that achieve the same purposes. A journal published by the Journal of Transformative Education suggests the gap in participation forms between different generations. These civic engagement researchers suggest that the reduction of civic life into small sets of explicitly electoral behaviors may be insufficient to describe the full spectrum of public involvement in civic life.
Civic engagement reform arose at the beginning of the 21st century after Robert Putnam's book Bowling Alone brought to light changes in civic participation patterns. Putnam argued that despite rapid increases in higher education opportunities that may foster civic engagement, Americans were dropping out of political and organized community life. A number of studies suggested that while more youth are volunteering, fewer are voting or becoming politically engaged.
Role of volunteerism in transforming governance
The State of the World's Volunteerism Report 2015, the first global review of the power of volunteer voices to help improve the way people are governed, draws on evidence from countries as diverse as Brazil, Kenya, Lebanon and Bangladesh. The United Nations report shows how ordinary people are volunteering their time, energies and skills to improve the way they are governed and engaged at local, national and global levels. Better governance at every level is a pre-requisite for the success of the new set of targets for future international development, the Sustainable Development Goals, which has been agreed upon by the United Nations in September 2015.
At the global level, for instance, a diverse group of 37 online volunteers from across the globe engaged in 4 months of intense collaboration with the United Nations Department of Economic Affairs (UN DESA) to process 386 research surveys carried out across 193 UN Member States for the 2014 UN E-Government Survey. The diversity of nationalities and languages of the online volunteers—more than 65 languages, 15 nationalities, of which half are from developing countries—mirrors the mission of the survey.
Benefits and challenges
Civic engagement, in general, can foster community participation and government involvement, according to ICMA: Leaders at the Core of Better Communities.
The specific benefits of civic engagement are:
Achieving greater buy-in to decisions with fewer backlashes such as lawsuits, special elections, or a council recall.
Engendering trust between citizens and government, which improves public behavior at council meetings.
Attaining successful outcomes on complex issues, which helps elected officials avoid choosing between equally unappealing solutions.
Developing more creative ideas and better solutions.
Implementing ideas, programs, and policies faster and more easily.
Creating involved citizens than demanding customers.
Building a community within a city.
Making jobs easier and more relaxing.
While there are benefits to civic engagement, there are challenges to be considered. These challenges include the various factors the ICMA describes. For example, distrust, role clarification, and time all play a role in challenges of civic engagement:
Civic engagement often takes longer to show results than direct government action. In the long run, public reactions to government policy or legal decisions can lead to faster change than government involvement in lawsuits or ballot initiatives.
For civic engagement to succeed, a layer of transparency and trust between the government and its citizens is needed.
Local civic engagement
Within local communities, there are many opportunities for citizens to participate in civic engagement. Volunteering personal time to community projects is widely believed to support the growth of a community as a whole. Community engagement could be found at food pantries, community clean-up programs, and the like, bolstering efforts for a strong community bond.
Community collaboration
Community collaboration includes democratic spaces where people are open to discussing concerns for particular issues regarding public interest and means to make the changes necessary. These spaces are often resource centers, such as neighborhood associations or school boards where citizens can obtain information regarding the community (upcoming changes, proposed solutions to existing problems, etc.). Colleges and universities are also offering more opportunities and expecting more students to engage in community volunteer work.
According to a case study conducted in a U.S college in September 2014, there are pivotal leadership qualities that contribute to the development of civic engagement. The study mentions 3 main themes: active, adaptive, and resilient leadership, learning for leadership and engagement for the greater good as the main reasons for the success of The Democracy Commitment (TDC) in the college. TDC is a national initiative that intends to help U.S community colleges educate their students for democracy.
Political participation is another key element that is practiced with regularity. Involvement in public council meeting sessions for discussions informs citizens of necessities and changes that need to be made. Casting an informed vote at the local level can change many things that affect day-to-day life.
Online engagement allows citizens to be involved in their local government that they would not have otherwise by allowing them to voice themselves from the comfort of their own homes. Online engagement involves things such as online voting and public discussion forums that give citizens the opportunity to voice their opinions on topics and offer solutions as well as find others with common interests and create the possibility of forming advocacy groups pertaining to particular interests. The use of the internet has allowed people to have access to information easily and has resulted in a better-informed public as well as creating a new sense of community for citizens.
In the role of state government
People who serve state governments learn what the community needs through listening to citizens and thus make nuanced decisions. According to Miriam Porter, "turmoil, suspicion, and reduction of public trust" occur with the lack of communication. Civic engagement has an interrelated relationship within the various entities of the state.Values, knowledge, liberties, skills, ideas, attitudes, and beliefs the population holds are essential to civic engagement in terms of the representation of vast cultural, social, and economic identities.
Civic engagement applied within the state requires local civic engagement. Citizens are the basis of representative democracy. Application of this principle can be found within programs and laws that states have implemented based on a variety of areas concerning that particular state. Health, education, equality, immigration are a few examples of entities that civic engagement can shape within a state.
Application in health
States implement public health programs to better benefit the needs of society. The State Child Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), for example, is the largest public investment in child health care aiding over 12 million uninsured children in the United States. "This statewide health insurance program for low-income children was associated with improved access, utilization, and quality of care, suggesting that SCHIP has the potential to improve health care for low-income American children". States take part in the program and sculpt it to better fit the needs of that state's demographics, making their healthcare and the civic engagement process of individuals that take part in the program as well help reform and fix it as part of the state's identity.
In comparison with other countries
States practicing public involvement and implementing public health programs to better benefit the needs of the society is a concept that is shared by other countries, such as England. A study conducted by Department of Primary Care, University of Liverpool, the Department of Social Medicine, University of Bristol, the Department of Geography and Geology, McMaster Institute of Environment and Health, McMaster University, Avon Health Authority, the School of Journalism, Tom Hopkinson Centre for Media Research, Media and Cultural Studies, Cardiff University, and the Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Centre for Health Economics and Policy Analysis, McMaster University stated that "There are a number of impulses towards public participation in health care decision making including instrumentalist, communitarian, educative and expressive impulses and the desire for increased accountability".
Their research included a critical examination of the degree of involvement by the public in healthcare decision making. It is suggested that "public participation in decision making can promote goals, bind individuals or groups together, impart a sense of competence and responsibility and help express political or civic identity". The action of the citizens aimed at influencing decisions of representatives ultimately affects the state as a whole. Voting is a key component in civic engagement for the voice of the masses to be heard.
Research done by Robert Putnam regarding the differences in social and civic engagement between northern and southern Italy since 1970 suggests that the presence of civic communities promotes political engagement by enhancing interest and education of political activities. According to data from the Civic Culture surveys, "members of associations displayed more political sophistication, social trust, and political participation." Sheri Berman's research done with the Weimar Republic in Germany following World War 1 suggests that civil engagement can be improved by increasing trust between people and political actors.
In foreign countries like Mozambique, Myanmar, Nigeria and Pakistan, where authoritarian governments are strictly in place and citizen engagement is most needed, political engagement is rare. Additionally, "levels of mass participation are confirmed to be significantly lower in autocracies". Many view common citizens engaging with politics as a "third force through which the traditional hierarchy of state and subject can be unseated." However, foreign groups of non-politicians that participate in political engagement can also include potentially disruptive groups such as "the Russian Mafia."
Importance of voter turnout
The goal for state government in elections is to promote civic engagement. Director Regina Lawrence of Annette Strauss Institute for Civic Life states "Politics and all other forms of engagement are really about trying to make your community, your state, and your nation a better place to live." Voter Turnout ensures civic engagement among the state with incentives that promises volunteer organizations, charity, and political involvement with everyone in the community who will have a voice to be heard.
The state can help promote civic engagement by ensuring fair voter and redistricting processes; by building partnerships among government agencies, non-profit organizations, and private citizens; and by maintaining networks of information about volunteer and charitable opportunities.
One of the main factors that determine civic engagement among the people is voter turnout. Voter turnout gauges citizens' level of political involvement, an important component of civic engagement—and a prerequisite for maintaining public accountability.
Example of high voter turnout
The state can help promote civic engagement by ensuring fair voter and redistricting processes; by building partnerships among government agencies, non-profit organizations, and private citizens; and by maintaining networks of information about volunteer and charitable opportunities.
Access to information about government activities, decision-making, solicit and use public input, and encourage public employees to donate and serve.
Example of low voter turnout
Low participation with politics in the state and local government can result in less community involvement such as a lack of funding and leadership directed toward that issue of community involvement.
In marginalized communities
Marginalized is defined as "to put or keep (someone) in a powerless or unimportant position within a society or group" according to Merriam-Webster. In diverse communities it is perceived that awareness and participation according to a study, using three different types of community service for the interaction between diverse individuals and understanding each other's perspective and enhancing relationships within the community. In addition, specifically black youth, there is an underlying gap of early civic education where there is lack of and where it thrives. According to Hope and Jagers, they studied civic engagement among black youth using data acquired from the Youth Culture Survey from the Black Youth Project. The assumption is that black youth who experience racial discrimination are fueled to be aware and participate in politics.
Another study by Chan describes the effect of the association of development and environmental factors among a group of at-risk youth such as African-Americans and Latino participants who come from low-income families that dwell in inner-city neighborhoods. Their research resulted in variations according to their participants as the racial minority youth were motivated and had aspiring goals for their futures due to early participation in civic engagement activities, but there was no sufficient evidence that this type of mindset will follow them into their adulthood. Looking into another oppressed group, Latinos, according to this report in the New York Times, states the number of Hispanics eligible to vote increased to an estimate of 10 million between 2000 and 2012, but there is a lack of taking an active approach toward dealing with the issues such as immigration and causing a stir within the Latino community. The Hispanic demographic is becoming a potential influence of power within political polls. To expand on another group that is oppressed is immigrant parents and their children in Jensen's study their concentration is on Asia and Latin America. In its study. they sampled a small group from a metropolitan area, the difference between both generations varies as the children who were in high school which is 87.5% were stated to be civically engaged. The parents were not civically engaged in issues but developed "bicultural consciousness" such as sending money back to their original country of origin and these participants saw it as their duty in their current state of opportunity to be civically engaged.
Technology
Types
Television use
Social capital has been on the decline for years and Putnam looked into why this is. One of the areas the study covered was television and its effects on social and civic engagements. Shah writes that Putnam found the more TV a person watches, the less they are active in outside activities. This is shown with the rise of TV in the 1960s and the fall of civic engagements. They found that though news and educational programming can actually aide in a citizen's knowledge, but the lack of engaging in outside activities and social events hurts civic engagement in general.
Nowadays, the internet has become the main social media outlet. Xenos and Moy found that the internet does help civic engagement but also give "unjustifiable euphoria, abrupt and equally unjustifiable skepticism, and gradual realization that web-based human interaction really does have unique and politically significant properties". We have all the information we want about and candidate at our fingertips, and the wealth of information is creating a more informed body. But with this comes misinformation and the two collide and do the opposite, creating a public with clashing opinions.
In relation to civic engagement and television use, there has been a push for civic engagement from television providers themselves. On September 22, 2020, WarnerMedia launched a nonpartisan voter engagement resource center, with the hopes of giving more citizens the access to vote and better understanding on how to do so.
E-services
The Knight Foundation outlines four different ways technology can assist in civic engagement. The four different ways include upgrading and providing e-services, making information more transparent, allowing e-democracy, and a service they call co-production. E-services would allow digital technologies to improve the efficiency of urban services within a city. This would allow the services to become more effective as well as give the public a way to get involved. E-democracy and co-production would work by allowing citizens to shape public policy by allowing them to partake in actions through technology. The Knight Foundation claims technology can make information more transparent, allowing the public to access the information and get involved.
Social entrepreneurship
Social entrepreneurship has seen a major increase in activity in recent years. One example can be seen from Eric Gordon and Jessica Philippi, who released a study on their interactive online game for local engagement called Community PlanIt (CPI). The purpose of CPI is to improve civic engagement qualitatively, rather than focusing on increasing the number of citizens getting involved. The study concluded that CPI encourages reflective attitudes and mediates relationships of trust that are needed for functional and continued civic engagement.
Social media
There are handfuls of studies and journals that focus on the impact that social media has on civic engagement. In a study mentioned in a later section on civic engagement around the world, interviewees from Norway "generally use Facebook to invite people to some form of face-to-face meeting at the beginning of a community engagement - and to facilitate the ongoing engagement of participants". Additional research demonstrates the capabilities of Facebook and other social networks in their enablement of civic participation. In Asia, a study was conducted focusing on the impact that the rise of Internet communication had on social capital. This study concluded that, while the Internet's role is to provide citizens with more opportunities to contact each other, it does not play a role in increasing different measures of social capital such as trust. Furthermore, the study concluded that "social capital developed through voluntary participation in social organization has the greatest effectiveness in promoting all sorts of civic engagement".
Defining factors
Efficiency and trust are observed to be the two main logics to effectively improve the effectiveness of the practical application of citizen technology in government projects. Communities can build consensus by reinforcing these two factors, reducing people's antipathy to public officials and social programs without removing legitimate skepticism, and reducing the distance that information barriers create when transmitting data. The confidentiality and security of civic technologies are factors in determining whether online public conversations are supported and popularized by the public.
Local technology has three levels of transformation and dynamic models, from information to participation and empowerment. Web portals, social media platforms, and mobile apps are effective models for reaching a wide range of audiences; Electronic monitoring and management, service efficiency improvement, and business training help ensure increased participation and smooth operation. Open and transparent feedback and data release are factors that encourage future engagement and data accuracy. Completion of this series of information transmission and summary promotes the improvement of the future civic participation model. Future government programs will be citizen-oriented, information-technology-themed, and measured by efficiency and clarity. Besides, citizen audit provides grassroots organizers with a more durable and stable cooperative structure and strategic shift. It is a method to test the effectiveness of policies and get feedback from citizens, and it can effectively point out deficiencies in current policies and systems.
Around the world
Norway
First, there is Norway with a study on "Local Newspapers, Facebook and Local Civic Engagement" by Malene Paulsen Lie. The study aimed to "[investigate] how a selection of the inhabitants of two Norwegian communities make use of the local press and Facebook..." and concluded that "both Facebook and the local press play important roles in civic engagement", illustrating the various mediums that citizens utilize. When looking at the demographics of each medium, this study also saw that the younger demographic strayed from local newspapers and preferred national or international news, while the older demographic prioritized the local newspaper.
Poland
In Poland, social media plays an important role in the level of civic engagement for mayoral elections. A study concluded that "successful engagement in social media accounts is also higher when the mayor operates in an active social media environment".
Australia
In Australia, a study was conducted, recognizing various forms of civic engagement such as "social protest and collective action, and specific organizations dedicated to lobbying and advocacy". The study goes on to say that governments in Australia generally prefer to initiate processes of consultation of their own choosing rather than being perceived to be consulting only in response to pressure and social protest".
South East Asia
In South East Asia, a study was conducted focusing on civic engagement within mental health services, more specifically in low and middle-income countries (LMICs). In these countries, the study concluded that Civic Engagement interventions can be successfully implemented yet Western models should be adapted in order to better fit with local cultures and values. Furthermore, the communities in these LMICs that face armed conflict, natural disasters, or political suppression find community cohesion to be a common outcome of civic engagement initiatives. Focusing on the mental health impact, civic engagement allowed citizens to develop a better understanding of the problems and equip themselves with the necessary skills to meet the needs of their local mental health problems. The study refers to the 2004 Asian Tsunami crisis, where "trusted community volunteers played a key role in the delivery of much needed mental health services".
China
In China, participatory budgeting experiments, an example of civic empowerment including all members of society, promote a degree of transparency and fairness, as a vast majority of the budgeting takes place at local levels and smaller villages (He). In the next decade, China and the NPC plans to implement more participatory budgeting experiments and an increased amount of participation from citizens. However, the empowerment of local People's Congresses will remain constrained by the caution of the central leaders and resistance from local governments. In this same way, the government will remain controlling over citizen empowerment.
Romania
There are countries, like Romania, where the new technologies started to influence civic participation in the last years. New media is becoming a factor in increasing civic mobilization for the new generations. New studies about that, at Center for Civic Participation and Democracy from SNSPA. Center for Civic Participation and Democracy (CPD) is a unit of research, analysis, and evaluation of citizen participation in the democratic process, both at the national and European level. Created at the National School of Political Science and Public Administration, CPD brings together experts in areas such as political science, sociology, administrative sciences, communications, international relations, and European studies, and it objectifies the SNSPA role and status of the school of governance. It is run by Remus Pricopie and Dan Sultanescu.
Role of higher education
It can be argued that a fundamental step in creating a functioning society begins with the civic education of children within the community. According to Diann Cameron Kelly, "When our young children serve their communities through volunteerism, political participation or through vocal activism, they are more likely to emerge...voting and serving all aspects of society". Kelly argues that children should be taught how their community works and who chooses the rules we live by even before they enter school. Other voices maintain that civic education is a lifelong process, even for those who make decisions on behalf of the citizens they serve.
To answer this challenge, the incorporation of service-learning into collegiate course design has gained acceptance as a pedagogy that links curricular content with civic education. In a recent study, students who participated in service learning even one time appear to have made gains in knowledge of and commitment to civic engagement when compared to non-service learners. Campus Compact, a coalition of nearly 1200 college presidents (as of 2013) promotes the development of citizenship skills by creating community partnerships and providing resources to train faculty to integrate civic and community-based learning into the curriculum. Building on the acceptance of service learning and civic engagement in higher education, The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement in Teaching created the Political Engagement Project in 2003 to develop the political knowledge and skills of college-aged students. The American Democracy Project (ADP) was launched in the same year by the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU). The American Democracy Project was joined by the American Democracy Commitment, a partnership of community colleges, to sponsor an annual national conference focused on higher education's role in preparing the next generation of informed, engaged citizens. The American Democracy Project also sponsors campus-based initiatives including voter registration, curriculum revision projects, and special days of action and reflection, such as the MLK Day of Service. In a report entitled, A Crucible Moment: College Learning and Democracy's Future issued in 2012 by the National Task Force on Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement, a joint project of the U.S. Department of Education and the American Association of Colleges and Universities, the authors argue that higher education must serve as an intellectual incubator and socially responsible partner in advancing civic learning and democratic engagement.
The report recommends four basic steps to build civic minded institutions:
Foster a civic ethos across the campus culture.
Make civic literacy a core expectation for all students.
Practice civic inquiry across all fields of study.
Advance civic action through transformative partnerships.
These higher education-based initiatives endeavor to build in college students, a politically engaged identity while enhancing the capacity to evaluate the political landscape and make informed decisions about participation in our democracy. As evidenced by the growth in coalitions, professional development opportunities and civic education research, institutions of higher education and their association partners are committed to help prepare the next generation of citizens to become tomorrow's "Stewards of Place".
Many universities, like the University of Minnesota, have begun to focus on increasing the civic engagement of students and have mandated that educators begin incorporating it into several school activities. Edwin Fogelman, author of Civic Engagement at the University of Minnesota, states that true civic engagement can only be practiced by those living within a Democracy. According to Fogelman, civic engagement is largely shaped by schools. Education institutions have the skills to foster "civic competence, critical thinking, and Public Spirit, which empower citizens to become engaged". Many claim that civic engagement ought to become part of the curriculum and that higher education institutions should provide opportunities to become engaged such as internships, service-learning, and community based activities. Institutions also need to provide outlets where students can have open discussions over concerns and controversial issues.
Some schools, such as Widener University, have made civic engagement a core goal of the university. The university strives to get students involved in the local community to become more aware and civically engaged. (Civic Engagement And Service Learning In A Metropolitan University: Multiple Approaches And Perspectives).
Civic learning
In January 2012, the U.S. Department of Education issued a road map titled Advancing Civic Learning and Engagement in Democracy that offers nine steps to enhancing the Department of Education's commitment to civic learning and engagement in democracy.
These steps include:
Convene and catalyze schools and post-secondary institutions to increase and enhance high-quality civic learning and engagement
Identify additional civic indicators
Identify promising practices in civic learning and democratic engagement—and encourage further research to learn what works
Leverage federal investments and public-private partnerships
Encourage community-based work-study placements
Encourage public service careers among college students and graduates
Support civic learning for a well-rounded K–12 curriculum
Engage historically black colleges and universities and other minority-serving institutions—including Hispanic-serving institutions, Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander–Serving Institutions, and tribal colleges and universities-in a national dialogue to identify best practices.
Highlight and promote student and family participation in education programs and policies at the federal and local levels
Civic learning, however, also has its challenges. From W. Lance Bennett's Young Citizens and New Media, the challenge of civic education and learning is the integration and adaptation to the more contemporary attitude toward politics, which revolves more around the quality of personal life, social recognition, and self esteem.
Youth participation
Youth participation has a critical impact on four aspects: democratic decision-making, community cohesion, equity, and personal development of youth themselves. Domestic and transnational educational cooperation is conducive to sharing and promoting the transmission and popularization of information and may achieve the effect of promoting social advancement and improving the living conditions of citizens and the environment. Public services and programs contribute to the mental development of rebellious and vulnerable youth groups and change government patterns in the future, as they mobilize the participation of the next generation of citizens. These educational programs aim to apply social science and psychology to stimulate the enthusiasm of the youth community to participate in government projects, thereby promoting the sustainable development of society.
The design of such government projects remains neutral and open. It remains controversial whether the government has the right to guide teenagers to accept education of this nature. Experts suggest first identifying topics students value, followed by selecting a topic to discuss concrete actions and short-term goals that can be implemented and concluding with feedback and a summary. Teachers are encouraged to validate students' ideas and avoid bringing personal opinions and political stances into the classrooms.
The general attitude of college students towards online civic responsibility, engagement, learning, and expression is positive. The government may consider the option of strengthening the sense of autonomy of college students in performing their civic duties in reducing the inequalities that currently exist in the K-12 education system. As part of the education system, college students may create accessible participation platforms for vulnerable groups and more through their educational resources or to speak for these groups through community visits and in-depth conversations.
See also
Center for Engaged Democracy
Civic courage
Civic society
Civic virtue
Civics
Civil conscription
Civil society
Common good
Community building
Community development
Democracy Day in various countries
Duty
European Local Democracy Week
Intentional living
International Day of Democracy
Social capital
Social engagement
UK Parliament Week
Youth empowerment
References
Community organizing
Community building | 0.761223 | 0.9949 | 0.757341 |
The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work | The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work is a 1999 book by John Gottman, which details seven principles for couples to improve their marriage and the "Four Horseman" to watch out for, that usually herald the end of a marriage. The book was based on Gottman's research in his Family Research Lab, known as the "Love Lab", where he observed more than 650 couples over 14 years.
Overview
In The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work, Gottman argues that the basis for a happy marriage is a deep friendship with mutual respect and a positive attitude. He also emphasizes the importance of emotional intelligence in couples.
In the course of the book, Gottman details seven principles for couples to follow in order to nurture their friendship and improve their marriage in order to help them endure during challenging times. These principles include: enhancing their "love maps"; nurturing their fondness and admiration; turning toward each other instead of away; letting their spouse influence them; solving their solvable problems; overcoming gridlock; and creating a shared sense of meaning.
Gottman also writes about the "Four Horseman" that are important to minimize and avoid: 1) criticism, 2) defensiveness, 3) contempt, and 4) stonewalling. Of these four, he warns that contempt is the highest predictor for divorce. He defines contempt as a spouse viewing themselves as better than the other spouse. Gottman defines criticism as verbally attacking a spouse's personality or character with criticism vs. a complaint (a healthy form of communication). Defensiveness he defines as victimizing the self to ward off perceived verbal attacks, and it is really a way for the defensive partner to blame the other. Finally, there's stonewalling, which Gottman says is withdrawal from interaction to avoid conflict. It manifests itself in the silent treatment, conveys disapproval of the other, and is an unwillingness to properly communicate during contention.
The seven principles
1. Share Love Maps: This is where all the information learned about our partners gets stored. One example of information gathered and stored is the things that they like and things that they dislike.
2. Nurture Your Fondness & Admiration: This is showing that you care about the other person and focusing on and acknowledging the positives. The basis for this starts in friendship.
3. Turn Towards Each Other Instead of Away: This is doing things together and showing the other person that they are valued. It is taking the time to listen and not telling them you don’t have time.
4. Let Your Partner Influence You: This is sharing the decision making and being willing to both make decisions and respect your partner's decisions.
5. Solve Your Solvable Problems: this is realizing which problems can be solved and solving them using skills for managing conflict, which include: using Softened Startup, Repair and De-escalation, Physiological Self-Soothing, Accepting What You Cannot Change, Accepting Influence, and Compromise.
6. Overcome Gridlock: This is figuring out what is causing a block in your life and taking steps to overcome this block. It does not necessarily mean fixing problems but taking steps to overcome them.
7. Create Shared Meaning: This is creating a life that is shared and meaningful for both of you. “Marriage isn’t about just raising kids, splitting chores, and making love. It can also have a spiritual dimension that has to do with creating an inner life together–a culture rich with symbols and rituals, and an appreciation for your roles and goals that link you, that lead you to understand what it means to be part of the family you have become” (Gottman & Silver, 1999).
Reception
The book was released to generally favorable reviews. It was a New York Times bestseller, and was included in the U.S. Army's Comprehensive Soldier Fitness program. It has been included in numerous publications' lists of best relationship books. A 2001 study noted the book aligned with feminist principles and research stating that shared power is essential for a successful marriage.
Criticism
Psychologist Milton Spett criticized Gottman's lack of scientific rigor in his claims of low relapse from his marital therapy: "Gottman makes these claims without reporting any of the standard techniques of outcome research: no control group, no random assignment to treatments, no blind assessment of outcome." Therapist Robert F. Scuka argued against Gottman's criticism of the effectiveness of active listening based on the Munich Marital Therapy Study, saying, "Gottman cites only certain (one-sided) results from the study."
References
1999 non-fiction books
Self-help books
Books about marriage | 0.761747 | 0.994207 | 0.757334 |
Tavistock Institute | The Tavistock Institute of Human Relations is a British research and consulting organisation, specialising in how people behave in groups and organisations. Staff use social science methods to address research questions and creative, psychoanalytic and systems approaches to work with organisations and individuals. The Institute is a non-profit (UK charity No.209706) that aims to enable learning and change that will benefit people and the planet. There are sister organisations in China and Germany.
It was formally established in September 1947. It publishes a peer-reviewed journal Human Relations with Sage Publications and it hosts the journal Evaluation. The Institute is located in Gee Street in Clerkenwell, London.
Current activities
The Tavistock Institute offers research, consultancy, project evaluation work and professional development programmes, based on unique methodologies drawn from social sciences and applied psychology. Methods include systems psychodynamics, complexity theory, Theory of Change and Social Dreaming. The main method is experiential learning - learning through experience.
The Institute's website describes its work as having a focus on how humans relate to each other and non-human systems, how people grow and learn and effect creativity and change, in groups.
The ways of working include:
providing safe spaces for difficult conversations
working with the unexpected
working with hidden (perhaps unconscious) factors
providing thinking spaces for reflection and learning
support with working across and between boundaries – transitional spaces
alternative perspectives on developing partnerships and collaborations
developing learning organisations
The Leicester Conference, the Institute's flagship group relations conference, held annually since 1957, is a 2 week residential conference, offering experiential learning about leadership, followership, authority and power. One person said: "Far better than conventional training for actually changing and improving leadership ability”. The approach is now used in many other Group Relations conferences and is also adapted for use in organisations and on business training programmes, internationally.
The Institute has a focus on Arts and Organisation including The Deepening Creative Practice learning programme as well as exhibitions, performances, community arts, the Organisational Aesthetics journal and oral history projects.
There are currently three main streams of activity at the Institute:
Research, evaluation and consultancy mostly around organisational development and change;
Professional development and creative practice programmes, online learning courses and executive coaching;
Publishing and knowledge sharing plus community building, especially amongst practitioners of Group Relations work around the world.
Research, evaluation and consultancy
Recent project work includes leadership development programmes in the NHS, work with female innovators in European sustainable fashion via the shemakes collaboration, a 5 year programme of work with women and girls’ projects in England, an evaluation of Barnardo's work with care-experienced young people, including a focus on the voices of the young people, and a study of continuing vocational education for the European Union.
The Institute's clients are individuals, teams, organisations and partnerships of organisations – undertaking work and projects in government, business / industry and the 3rd & 4th sectors at local, national and international level. The list includes organisations and sectors of all shapes and sizes, from grassroots community-based organisations to government agencies. Examples include the European Union, many British government departments, Third Sector and private clients.
In 2023 the Institute's organisation in Europe, Tavistock Institut gGmbH, based in Germany, moved its office to Berlin. The Institute has an arm in China - Tavistock Institute China.
Professional development
The professional development and training work that the Institute offers is based on 75+ years of research and practice. Programmes are led by expert practitioners in the fields of organisation development and group relations.
The Institute is developing online training with the global education platform FutureLearn. The first course with FutureLearn is called Team Working: How to Succeed.
Learning programmes are tailored and delivered in-house or online for organisations eg the NHS.
Sharing knowledge
The academic journal Human Relations is owned by the Tavistock Institute and published by Sage.
Recent books and reports published by authors linked to the Institute include a Systems Psychodynamics trilogy, a book on the Theory of Change and how it can be used to support organisational development and a report on labour shortages in the European Union published by Eurofound.
History of the Tavistock Institute
The early history of the Tavistock Institute overlaps with that of the Tavistock Clinic because many of the staff from the Clinic worked on new, large-scale projects during World War II, and it was as a result of this work that the institute was established.
During the war, staff from the Tavistock Clinic played key roles in British Army psychiatry. Working with colleagues in the Royal Army Medical Corps and the British Army, they were responsible for innovations such as the War Office Selection Boards (WOSBs) and Civil Resettlement Units (CRUs). The group that formed around the WOSBs and CRUs were fascinated by this work with groups and organisations, and sought to continue research in this field after the war. Various influential figures had visited the WOSBs during the war, so there was scope for consultancy work, but the Clinic staff also planned to become a part of the National Health Service when it was established, and they had been warned that such consultancy and research would not be possible under the auspices of the NHS. Because of this, the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations was created in 1947 to carry out work specifically with organisations once the Clinic was incorporated into the NHS. The Rockefeller Foundation awarded a significant grant that facilitated the creation of the institute.
In the early years, income was derived from research grants, contract work, and fees for professional development courses. During the 1950s and 1960s, the institute carried out a number of signature projects in collaboration with major manufacturing companies including Unilever, the Ahmedabad Manufacturing and Calico Printing Co., Shell, Bayer, and Glacier Metals. They also conducted work for the National Coal Board. Particular focuses included management, women in the workplace, and the adoption (or rejection) of new technologies. Projects on the interaction between people and technology later became known as the sociotechnical approach.
The 1950s also saw the institute conducting consumer research and exploring attitudes to things as varied as Bovril, fish fingers, coffee and hair.
In the 1960s and 1970s, there was a notable focus on public health organisations such as hospitals. Studies examined a range of aspects of healthcare, from ward management and operating theatres to the organisation of cleaning staff.
More recently, the institute has conducted work for the European Commission and British government bodies.
Research units
In the institute's early years, there were four main units: Programme Groups A and B within a Committee on Human Resources; Organisation and Social Change and Operations Research Unit; and a Committee on Family and Community Psychiatry.
The Human Resources Centre (HRC) and the Centre for Applied Social Research (CASR) were established in the 1950s, and in 1963 the Institute of Operational Research (IOR) was established in conjunction with the British Operational Research Society. The Centre for Organisational and Operational Research (COOR) was created from a merger of the HRC and the IOR in 1979.
The Self Help Alliance project begun in the 1980s led to further work in evaluation and the creation of a dedicated unit, the Evaluation Development Review Unit (EDRU) in 1990.
Key figures
The institute was founded by a group of key figures from the Tavistock Clinic and British Army psychiatry including Elliott Jaques, Henry Dicks, Leonard Browne, Ronald Hargreaves, John Rawlings Rees, Mary Luff and Wilfred Bion, with Tommy Wilson as chairman. Other well-known people that joined the group shortly after were Isabel Menzies Lyth, J. D. Sutherland, John Bowlby, Eric Trist, Michael Balint and Fred Emery. Although he died before the TIHR was formally established, Kurt Lewin was an important influence on the work of the Tavistock: he was a notable influence on Trist, and contributed an article to the first issue of Human Relations.
Many of the members of the Tavistock Institute went on to play major roles in psychology. John Rawlings Rees became first president of the World Federation for Mental Health. Jock Sutherland became director of the new post-war Tavistock Clinic, when it was incorporated into the newly established British National Health Service in 1946. Ronald Hargreaves became deputy director of the World Health Organization. Tommy Wilson became chairman of the Tavistock Institute. One of the most influential figures to emerge from the institute was the psychoanalyst Isabel Menzies Lyth. Her seminal paper 'A case study in the functioning of social systems as a defence against anxiety' (1959) inspired a whole branch of organisational theory emphasising unconscious forces that shape organizational life. A.K. Rice did considerable work on problems of management, increasing productivity at one factory by 300%. Eric Miller became director of the Group Relation Program in 1969, and in this function he later developed the design of the Nazareth-Conferences.
The Tavistock Institute became known as a major proponent in Britain for psychoanalysis and the psychodynamic theories of Sigmund Freud and his followers. Other names associated with the Tavistock include Melanie Klein, Carl Gustav Jung, J. A. Hadfield, Charles Rycroft, Enid Mumford and R. D. Laing.
Tavistock for the workplace
The techniques used to rehabilitate soldiers were believed by some researchers to be applicable to a more human-centered organisation of work in industry by empowering lower ranking employees. This agenda helped showcase the two sociotechnical scholarship attributes: the close association of technological and social systems and also, the importance of worker involvement.
Focus of conspiracy theorists
The Tavistock Institute has sometimes been associated with conspiracy theories, the most common of which associate it with the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. Two books focusing on this are The Tavistock Institute of Human Relations: Shaping the Moral, Spiritual, Cultural and Political (2006) by John Coleman and Tavistock Institute: Social Engineering the Masses (2015) by Daniel Estulin.
The Rough Guide to Conspiracy Theories notes that the Tavistock Institute has been named by some conspiracy theorists as having a part in "The most extravagant anti-Illuminati conspiracy theory" of John Coleman "known as [the] 'Aquarian Conspiracy'. This totalitarian agenda culminates in the Illuminati 'taking control of education in America with the intent and purpose of utterly and completely destroying it.'" By "'means of rock music and drugs to rebel against the status quo, thus undermining and eventually destroying the family unit'." Todd Van Luling, writing in HuffPost also mentioned this idea "from popular conspiracy theorist Dr John Coleman", saying that "The Tavistock Institute is a publicly known British charity founded in 1947, but conspiracy theorists believe the Institute's real purpose is to similarly engineer the world's culture." The Post looks at Coleman's claim that the popularity of the Beatles was an Illuminati plot to advance the "Aquarian Conspiracy".
References
Further reading
Tavistock Institute website
Trist, Eric L. et al. The Social Engagement of Social Science: A Tavistock Anthology : The Socio-Ecological Perspective (Tavistock Anthology), University of Pennsylvania, May 1997.
Young, Robert M. "The Culture of British Psychoanalysis"
The Tavistock Institute Archive blog
Festival celebrating 70 years: Reimagining Human Relations in our Time
1947 establishments in the United Kingdom
Organizations established in 1947
Psychoanalysis organizations
Psychology research institutes
Systems psychology
History of mental health in the United Kingdom
Research institutes in the United Kingdom
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Pleiotropy | Pleiotropy (from Greek , 'more', and , 'way') occurs when one gene influences two or more seemingly unrelated phenotypic traits. Such a gene that exhibits multiple phenotypic expression is called a pleiotropic gene. Mutation in a pleiotropic gene may have an effect on several traits simultaneously, due to the gene coding for a product used by a myriad of cells or different targets that have the same signaling function.
Pleiotropy can arise from several distinct but potentially overlapping mechanisms, such as gene pleiotropy, developmental pleiotropy, and selectional pleiotropy. Gene pleiotropy occurs when a gene product interacts with multiple other proteins or catalyzes multiple reactions. Developmental pleiotropy occurs when mutations have multiple effects on the resulting phenotype. Selectional pleiotropy occurs when the resulting phenotype has many effects on fitness (depending on factors such as age and gender).
An example of pleiotropy is phenylketonuria, an inherited disorder that affects the level of phenylalanine, an amino acid that can be obtained from food, in the human body. Phenylketonuria causes this amino acid to increase in amount in the body, which can be very dangerous. The disease is caused by a defect in a single gene on chromosome 12 that codes for enzyme phenylalanine hydroxylase, that affects multiple systems, such as the nervous and integumentary system.
Pleiotropic gene action can limit the rate of multivariate evolution when natural selection, sexual selection or artificial selection on one trait favors one allele, while selection on other traits favors a different allele. Some gene evolution is harmful to an organism. Genetic correlations and responses to selection most often exemplify pleiotropy.
History
Pleiotropic traits had been previously recognized in the scientific community but had not been experimented on until Gregor Mendel's 1866 pea plant experiment. Mendel recognized that certain pea plant traits (seed coat color, flower color, and axial spots) seemed to be inherited together; however, their correlation to a single gene has never been proven. The term "pleiotropie" was first coined by Ludwig Plate in his Festschrift, which was published in 1910. He originally defined pleiotropy as occurring when "several characteristics are dependent upon ... [inheritance]; these characteristics will then always appear together and may thus appear correlated". This definition is still used today.
After Plate's definition, Hans Gruneberg was the first to study the mechanisms of pleiotropy. In 1938 Gruneberg published an article dividing pleiotropy into two distinct types: "genuine" and "spurious" pleiotropy. "Genuine" pleiotropy is when two distinct primary products arise from one locus. "Spurious" pleiotropy, on the other hand, is either when one primary product is utilized in different ways or when one primary product initiates a cascade of events with different phenotypic consequences. Gruneberg came to these distinctions after experimenting on rats with skeletal mutations. He recognized that "spurious" pleiotropy was present in the mutation, while "genuine" pleiotropy was not, thus partially invalidating his own original theory. Through subsequent research, it has been established that Gruneberg's definition of "spurious" pleiotropy is what we now identify simply as "pleiotropy".
In 1941 American geneticists George Beadle and Edward Tatum further invalidated Gruneberg's definition of "genuine" pleiotropy, advocating instead for the "one gene-one enzyme" hypothesis that was originally introduced by French biologist Lucien Cuénot in 1903. This hypothesis shifted future research regarding pleiotropy towards how a single gene can produce various phenotypes.
In the mid-1950s Richard Goldschmidt and Ernst Hadorn, through separate individual research, reinforced the faultiness of "genuine" pleiotropy. A few years later, Hadorn partitioned pleiotropy into a "mosaic" model (which states that one locus directly affects two phenotypic traits) and a "relational" model (which is analogous to "spurious" pleiotropy). These terms are no longer in use but have contributed to the current understanding of pleiotropy.
By accepting the one gene-one enzyme hypothesis, scientists instead focused on how uncoupled phenotypic traits can be affected by genetic recombination and mutations, applying it to populations and evolution. This view of pleiotropy, "universal pleiotropy", defined as locus mutations being capable of affecting essentially all traits, was first implied by Ronald Fisher's Geometric Model in 1930. This mathematical model illustrates how evolutionary fitness depends on the independence of phenotypic variation from random changes (that is, mutations). It theorizes that an increasing phenotypic independence corresponds to a decrease in the likelihood that a given mutation will result in an increase in fitness. Expanding on Fisher's work, Sewall Wright provided more evidence in his 1968 book Evolution and the Genetics of Populations: Genetic and Biometric Foundations by using molecular genetics to support the idea of "universal pleiotropy". The concepts of these various studies on evolution have seeded numerous other research projects relating to individual fitness.
In 1957 evolutionary biologist George C. Williams theorized that antagonistic effects will be exhibited during an organism's life cycle if it is closely linked and pleiotropic. Natural selection favors genes that are more beneficial prior to reproduction than after (leading to an increase in reproductive success). Knowing this, Williams argued that if only close linkage was present, then beneficial traits will occur both before and after reproduction due to natural selection. This, however, is not observed in nature, and thus antagonistic pleiotropy contributes to the slow deterioration with age (senescence).
Mechanism
Pleiotropy describes the genetic effect of a single gene on multiple phenotypic traits. The underlying mechanism is genes that code for a product that is either used by various cells or has a cascade-like signaling function that affects various targets.
Polygenic traits
Most genetic traits are polygenic in nature: controlled by many genetic variants, each of small effect. These genetic variants can reside in protein coding or non-coding regions of the genome. In this context pleiotropy refers to the influence that a specific genetic variant, e.g., a single nucleotide polymorphism or SNP, has on two or more distinct traits.
Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and machine learning analysis of large genomic datasets have led to the construction of SNP based polygenic predictors for human traits such as height, bone density, and many disease risks. Similar predictors exist for plant and animal species and are used in agricultural breeding.
One measure of pleiotropy is the fraction of genetic variance that is common between two distinct complex human traits: e.g., height vs bone density, breast cancer vs heart attack risk, or diabetes vs hypothyroidism risk. This has been calculated for hundreds of pairs of traits, with results shown in the Table. In most cases examined the genomic regions controlling each trait are largely disjoint, with only modest overlap.
Thus, at least for complex human traits so far examined, pleiotropy is limited in extent.
Models for the origin
One basic model of pleiotropy's origin describes a single gene locus to the expression of a certain trait. The locus affects the expressed trait only through changing the expression of other loci. Over time, that locus would affect two traits by interacting with a second locus. Directional selection for both traits during the same time period would increase the positive correlation between the traits, while selection on only one trait would decrease the positive correlation between the two traits. Eventually, traits that underwent directional selection simultaneously were linked by a single gene, resulting in pleiotropy.
The "pleiotropy-barrier" model proposes a logistic growth pattern for the increase of pleiotropy over time. This model differentiates between the levels of pleiotropy in evolutionarily younger and older genes subjected to natural selection. It suggests a higher potential for phenotypic innovation in evolutionarily newer genes due to their lower levels of pleiotropy.
Other more complex models compensate for some of the basic model's oversights, such as multiple traits or assumptions about how the loci affect the traits. They also propose the idea that pleiotropy increases the phenotypic variation of both traits since a single mutation on a gene would have twice the effect.
Evolution
Pleiotropy can have an effect on the evolutionary rate of genes and allele frequencies. Traditionally, models of pleiotropy have predicted that evolutionary rate of genes is related negatively with pleiotropyas the number of traits of an organism increases, the evolutionary rates of genes in the organism's population decrease. This relationship has not been clearly found in empirical studies for a long time. However, a study based on human disease genes revealed the evidence of lower evolutionary rate in genes with higher pleiotropy.
In mating, for many animals the signals and receptors of sexual communication may have evolved simultaneously as the expression of a single gene, instead of the result of selection on two independent genes, one that affects the signaling trait and one that affects the receptor trait. In such a case, pleiotropy would facilitate mating and survival. However, pleiotropy can act negatively as well. A study on seed beetles found that intralocus sexual conflict arises when selection for certain alleles of a gene that are beneficial for one sex causes expression of potentially harmful traits by the same gene in the other sex, especially if the gene is located on an autosomal chromosome.
Pleiotropic genes act as an arbitrating force in speciation. William R. Rice and Ellen E. Hostert (1993) conclude that the observed prezygotic isolation in their studies is a product of pleiotropy's balancing role in indirect selection. By imitating the traits of all-infertile hybridized species, they noticed that the fertilization of eggs was prevented in all eight of their separate studies, a likely effect of pleiotropic genes on speciation. Likewise, pleiotropic gene's stabilizing selection allows for the allele frequency to be altered.
Studies on fungal evolutionary genomics have shown pleiotropic traits that simultaneously affect adaptation and reproductive isolation, converting adaptations directly to speciation. A particularly telling case of this effect is host specificity in pathogenic ascomycetes and specifically, in venturia, the fungus responsible for apple scab. These parasitic fungi each adapts to a host, and are only able to mate within a shared host after obtaining resources. Since a single toxin gene or virulence allele can grant the ability to colonize the host, adaptation and reproductive isolation are instantly facilitated, and in turn, pleiotropically causes adaptive speciation. The studies on fungal evolutionary genomics will further elucidate the earliest stages of divergence as a result of gene flow, and provide insight into pleiotropically induced adaptive divergence in other eukaryotes.
Antagonistic pleiotropy
Sometimes, a pleiotropic gene may be both harmful and beneficial to an organism, which is referred to as antagonistic pleiotropy. This may occur when the trait is beneficial for the organism's early life, but not its late life. Such "trade-offs" are possible since natural selection affects traits expressed earlier in life, when most organisms are most fertile, more than traits expressed later in life.
This idea is central to the antagonistic pleiotropy hypothesis, which was first developed by G.C. Williams in 1957. Williams suggested that some genes responsible for increased fitness in the younger, fertile organism contribute to decreased fitness later in life, which may give an evolutionary explanation for senescence. An example is the p53 gene, which suppresses cancer but also suppresses stem cells, which replenish worn-out tissue.
Unfortunately, the process of antagonistic pleiotropy may result in an altered evolutionary path with delayed adaptation, in addition to effectively cutting the overall benefit of any alleles by roughly half. However, antagonistic pleiotropy also lends greater evolutionary "staying power" to genes controlling beneficial traits, since an organism with a mutation to those genes would have a decreased chance of successfully reproducing, as multiple traits would be affected, potentially for the worse.
Sickle cell anemia is a classic example of the mixed benefit given by the staying power of pleiotropic genes, as the mutation to Hb-S provides the fitness benefit of malaria resistance to heterozygotes as sickle cell trait, while homozygotes have significantly lowered life expectancy—what is known as "heterozygote advantage". Since both of these states are linked to the same mutated gene, large populations today are susceptible to sickle cell despite it being a fitness-impairing genetic disorder.
Examples
Albinism
Albinism is the mutation of the TYR gene, also termed tyrosinase. This mutation causes the most common form of albinism. The mutation alters the production of melanin, thereby affecting melanin-related and other dependent traits throughout the organism. Melanin is a substance made by the body that is used to absorb light and provides coloration to the skin. Indications of albinism are the absence of color in an organism's eyes, hair, and skin, due to the lack of melanin. Some forms of albinism are also known to have symptoms that manifest themselves through rapid-eye movement, light sensitivity, and strabismus.
Autism and schizophrenia
Pleiotropy in genes has been linked between certain psychiatric disorders as well. Deletion in the 22q11.2 region of chromosome 22 has been associated with schizophrenia and autism. Schizophrenia and autism are linked to the same gene deletion but manifest very differently from each other. The resulting phenotype depends on the stage of life at which the individual develops the disorder. Childhood manifestation of the gene deletion is typically associated with autism, while adolescent and later expression of the gene deletion often manifests in schizophrenia or other psychotic disorders. Though the disorders are linked by genetics, there is no increased risk found for adult schizophrenia in patients who experienced autism in childhood.
A 2013 study also genetically linked five psychiatric disorders, including schizophrenia and autism. The link was a single nucleotide polymorphism of two genes involved in calcium channel signaling with neurons. One of these genes, CACNA1C, has been found to influence cognition. It has been associated with autism, as well as linked in studies to schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. These particular studies show clustering of these diseases within patients themselves or families. The estimated heritability of schizophrenia is 70% to 90%, therefore the pleiotropy of genes is crucial since it causes an increased risk for certain psychotic disorders and can aid psychiatric diagnosis.
Phenylketonuria (PKU)
A common example of pleiotropy is the human disease phenylketonuria (PKU). This disease causes mental retardation and reduced hair and skin pigmentation, and can be caused by any of a large number of mutations in the single gene on chromosome 12 that codes for the enzyme phenylalanine hydroxylase, which converts the amino acid phenylalanine to tyrosine. Depending on the mutation involved, this conversion is reduced or ceases entirely. Unconverted phenylalanine builds up in the bloodstream and can lead to levels that are toxic to the developing nervous system of newborn and infant children. The most dangerous form of this is called classic PKU, which is common in infants. The baby seems normal at first but actually incurs permanent intellectual disability. This can cause symptoms such as mental retardation, abnormal gait and posture, and delayed growth. Because tyrosine is used by the body to make melanin (a component of the pigment found in the hair and skin), failure to convert normal levels of phenylalanine to tyrosine can lead to fair hair and skin.
The frequency of this disease varies greatly. Specifically, in the United States, PKU is found at a rate of nearly 1 in 10,000 births. Due to newborn screening, doctors are able to detect PKU in a baby sooner. This allows them to start treatment early, preventing the baby from suffering from the severe effects of PKU. PKU is caused by a mutation in the PAH gene, whose role is to instruct the body on how to make phenylalanine hydroxylase. Phenylalanine hydroxylase is what converts the phenylalanine, taken in through diet, into other things that the body can use. The mutation often decreases the effectiveness or rate at which the hydroxylase breaks down the phenylalanine. This is what causes the phenylalanine to build up in the body.
Sickle cell anemia
Sickle cell anemia is a genetic disease that causes deformed red blood cells with a rigid, crescent shape instead of the normal flexible, round shape. It is caused by a change in one nucleotide, a point mutation in the HBB gene. The HBB gene encodes information to make the beta-globin subunit of hemoglobin, which is the protein red blood cells use to carry oxygen throughout the body. Sickle cell anemia occurs when the HBB gene mutation causes both beta-globin subunits of hemoglobin to change into hemoglobinS (HbS).
Sickle cell anemia is a pleiotropic disease because the expression of a single mutated HBB gene produces numerous consequences throughout the body. The mutated hemoglobin forms polymers and clumps together causing the deoxygenated sickle red blood cells to assume the disfigured sickle shape. As a result, the cells are inflexible and cannot easily flow through blood vessels, increasing the risk of blood clots and possibly depriving vital organs of oxygen. Some complications associated with sickle cell anemia include pain, damaged organs, strokes, high blood pressure, and loss of vision. Sickle red blood cells also have a shortened lifespan and die prematurely.
Marfan syndrome
Marfan syndrome (MFS) is an autosomal dominant disorder which affects 1 in 5–10,000 people. MFS arises from a mutation in the FBN1 gene, which encodes for the glycoprotein fibrillin-1, a major constituent of extracellular microfibrils which form connective tissues. Over 1,000 different mutations in FBN1 have been found to result in abnormal function of fibrillin, which consequently relates to connective tissues elongating progressively and weakening. Because these fibers are found in tissues throughout the body, mutations in this gene can have a widespread effect on certain systems, including the skeletal, cardiovascular, and nervous system, as well as the eyes and lungs.
Without medical intervention, prognosis of Marfan syndrome can range from moderate to life-threatening, with 90% of known causes of death in diagnosed patients relating to cardiovascular complications and congestive cardiac failure. Other characteristics of MFS include an increased arm span and decreased upper to lower body ratio.
"Mini-muscle" allele
A gene recently discovered in laboratory house mice, termed "mini-muscle", causes, when mutated, a 50% reduction in hindlimb muscle mass as its primary effect (the phenotypic effect by which it was originally identified). In addition to smaller hindlimb muscle mass, the mutant mice exhibit lower heart rates during physical activity, and a higher endurance. Mini Muscle Mice also exhibit larger kidneys and livers. All of these morphological deviations influence the behavior and metabolism of the mouse. For example, mice with the Mini Muscle mutation were observed to have a higher per-gram aerobic capacity. The mini-muscle allele shows a mendelian recessive behavior. The mutation is a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in an intron of the myosin heavy polypeptide4 gene.
DNA repair proteins
DNA repair pathways that repair damage to cellular DNA use many different proteins. These proteins often have other functions in addition to DNA repair. In humans, defects in some of these multifunctional proteins can cause widely differing clinical phenotypes. As an example, mutations in the XPB gene that encodes the largest subunit of the basal Transcription factor II H have several pleiotropic effects. XPB mutations are known to be deficient in nucleotide excision repair of DNA and in the quite separate process of gene transcription. In humans, XPB mutations can give rise to the cancer-prone disorder xeroderma pigmentosum or the noncancer-prone multisystem disorder trichothiodystrophy. Another example in humans is the ERCC6 gene, which encodes a protein that mediates DNA repair, transcription, and other cellular processes throughout the body. Mutations in ERCC6 are associated with disorders of the eye (retinal dystrophy), heart (cardiac arrhythmias), and immune system (lymphocyte immunodeficiency).
Chickens
Chickens exhibit various traits affected by pleiotropic genes. Some chickens exhibit frizzle feather trait, where their feathers all curl outward and upward rather than lying flat against the body. Frizzle feather was found to stem from a deletion in the genomic region coding for α-Keratin. This gene seems to pleiotropically lead to other abnormalities like increased metabolism, higher food consumption, accelerated heart rate, and delayed sexual maturity.
Domesticated chickens underwent a rapid selection process that led to unrelated phenotypes having high correlations, suggesting pleiotropic, or at least close linkage, effects between comb mass and physiological structures related to reproductive abilities. Both males and females with larger combs have higher bone density and strength, which allows females to deposit more calcium into eggshells. This linkage is further evidenced by the fact that two of the genes, HAO1 and BMP2, affecting medullary bone (the part of the bone that transfers calcium into developing eggshells) are located at the same locus as the gene affecting comb mass. HAO1 and BMP2 also display pleiotropic effects with commonly desired domestic chicken behavior; those chickens who express higher levels of these two genes in bone tissue produce more eggs and display less egg incubation behavior.
See also
cis-regulatory element
Enhancer (genetics)
Epistasis
Genetic correlation
Metabolic network
Metabolic supermice
Polygene
References
External links
Pleiotropy is 100 years old
Evolutionary developmental biology
Genetics concepts | 0.762726 | 0.992904 | 0.757314 |
Production (economics) | Production is the process of combining various inputs, both material (such as metal, wood, glass, or plastics) and immaterial (such as plans, or knowledge) in order to create output. Ideally this output will be a good or service which has value and contributes to the utility of individuals. The area of economics that focuses on production is called production theory, and it is closely related to the consumption(or consumer) theory of economics.
The production process and output directly result from productively utilising the original inputs (or factors of production). Known as primary producer goods or services, land, labour, and capital are deemed the three fundamental factors of production. These primary inputs are not significantly altered in the output process, nor do they become a whole component in the product. Under classical economics, materials and energy are categorised as secondary factors as they are byproducts of land, labour and capital. Delving further, primary factors encompass all of the resourcing involved, such as land, which includes the natural resources above and below the soil. However, there is a difference between human capital and labour. In addition to the common factors of production, in different economic schools of thought, entrepreneurship and technology are sometimes considered evolved factors in production. It is common practice that several forms of controllable inputs are used to achieve the output of a product. The production function assesses the relationship between the inputs and the quantity of output.
Economic welfare is created in a production process, meaning all economic activities that aim directly or indirectly to satisfy human wants and needs. The degree to which the needs are satisfied is often accepted as a measure of economic welfare. In production there are two features which explain increasing economic welfare. The first is improving quality-price-ratio of goods and services and increasing incomes from growing and more efficient market production, and the second is total production which help in increasing GDP.
The most important forms of production are:
market production
public production
household production
In order to understand the origin of economic well-being, we must understand these three production processes. All of them produce commodities which have value and contribute to the well-being of individuals.
The satisfaction of needs originates from the use of the commodities which are produced. The need satisfaction increases when the quality-price-ratio of the commodities improves
and more satisfaction is achieved at less cost. Improving the quality-price-ratio of commodities is to a producer an essential way to improve the competitiveness of products but this kind of gains distributed to customers cannot be measured with production data. Improving product competitiveness often means lower prices and to the producer lower producer income, to be compensated with higher sales volume.
Economic well-being also increases due to income gains from increasing production. Market production is the only production form that creates and distributes incomes to stakeholders. Public production and household production are financed by the incomes generated in market production. Thus market production has a double role: creating well-being and producing goods and services and income creation. Because of this double role, market production is the “primus motor” of economic well-being.
Elements of production economics
The underlying assumption of production is that maximisation of profit is the key objective of the producer. The difference in the value of the production values (the output value) and costs (associated with the factors of production) is the calculated profit. Efficiency, technological, pricing, behavioural, consumption and productivity changes are a few of the critical elements that significantly influence production economics.
Efficiency
Within production, efficiency plays a tremendous role in achieving and maintaining full capacity, rather than producing an inefficient (not optimal) level. Changes in efficiency relate to the positive shift in current inputs, such as technological advancements, relative to the producer's position. Efficiency is calculated by the maximum potential output divided by the actual input. An example of the efficiency calculation is that if the applied inputs have the potential to produce 100 units but are producing 60 units, the efficiency of the output is 0.6, or 60%. Furthermore, economies of scale identify the point at which production efficiency (returns) can be increased, decrease or remain constant.
Technological changes
This element sees the ongoing adaption of technology at the frontier of the production function. Technological change is a significant determinant in advancing economic production results, as noted throughout economic histories, such as the industrial revolution. Therefore, it is critical to continue to monitor its effects on production and promote the development of new technologies.
Behaviour, consumption and productivity
There is a strong correlation between the producer's behaviour and the underlying assumption of production – both assume profit maximising behaviour. Production can be either increased, decreased or remain constant as a result of consumption, amongst various other factors. The relationship between production and consumption is mirror against the economic theory of supply and demand. Accordingly, when production decreases more than factor consumption, this results in reduced productivity. Contrarily, a production increase over consumption is seen as increased productivity.
Pricing
In an economic market, production input and output prices are assumed to be set from external factors as the producer is the price taker. Hence, pricing is an important element in the real-world application of production economics. Should the pricing be too high, the production of the product is simply unviable. There is also a strong link between pricing and consumption, with this influencing the overall production scale.
As a source of economic well-being
In principle there are two main activities in an economy, production and consumption. Similarly, there are two kinds of actors, producers and consumers. Well-being is made possible by efficient production and by the interaction between producers and consumers. In the interaction, consumers can be identified in two roles both of which generate well-being. Consumers can be both customers of the producers and suppliers to the producers. The customers' well-being arises from the commodities they are buying and the suppliers' well-being is related to the income they receive as compensation for the production inputs they have delivered to the producers.
Stakeholders of production
Stakeholders of production are persons, groups or organizations with an interest in a producing company. Economic well-being originates in efficient production and it is distributed through the interaction between the company's stakeholders. The stakeholders of companies are economic actors which have an economic interest in a company. Based on the similarities of their interests, stakeholders can be classified into three groups in order to differentiate their interests and mutual relations. The three groups are as follows:
Customers
The customers of a company are typically consumers, other market producers or producers in the public sector. Each of them has their individual production functions. Due to competition, the price-quality-ratios of commodities tend to improve and this brings the benefits of better productivity to customers. Customers get more for less. In households and the public sector this means that more need satisfaction is achieved at less cost. For this reason, the productivity of customers can increase over time even though their incomes remain unchanged.
Suppliers
The suppliers of companies are typically producers of materials, energy, capital, and services. They all have their individual production functions. The changes in prices or qualities of supplied commodities have an effect on both actors' (company and suppliers) production functions. We come to the conclusion that the production functions of the company and its suppliers are in a state of continuous change.
Producers
Those participating in production, i.e., the labour force, society and owners, are collectively referred to as the producer community or producers. The producer community generates income from developing and growing production.
The well-being gained through commodities stems from the price-quality relations of the commodities. Due to competition and development in the market, the price-quality relations of commodities tend to improve over time. Typically the quality of a commodity goes up and the price goes down over time. This development favourably affects the production functions of customers. Customers get more for less. Consumer customers get more satisfaction at less cost. This type of well-being generation can only partially be calculated from the production data. The situation is presented in this study.
The producer community (labour force, society, and owners) earns income as compensation for the inputs they have delivered to the production. When the production grows and becomes more efficient, the income tends to increase. In production this brings about an increased ability to pay salaries, taxes and profits. The growth of production and improved productivity generate additional income for the producing community. Similarly, the high income level achieved in the community is a result of the high volume of production and its good performance. This type of well-being generation – as mentioned earlier - can be reliably calculated from the production data.
Main processes of a producing company
A producing company can be divided into sub-processes in different ways; yet, the following five are identified as main processes, each with a logic, objectives, theory and key figures of its own. It is important to examine each of them individually, yet, as a part of the whole, in order to be able to measure and understand them. The main processes of a company are as follows:
real process.
income distribution process
production process.
monetary process.
market value process.
Production output is created in the real process, gains of production are distributed in the income distribution process and these two processes constitute the production process. The production process and its sub-processes, the real process and income distribution process occur simultaneously, and only the production process is identifiable and measurable by the traditional accounting practices. The real process and income distribution process can be identified and measured by extra calculation, and this is why they need to be analyzed separately in order to understand the logic of production and its performance.
Real process generates the production output from input, and it can be described by means of the production function. It refers to a series of events in production in which production inputs of different quality and quantity are combined into products of different quality and quantity. Products can be physical goods, immaterial services and most often combinations of both. The characteristics created into the product by the producer imply surplus value to the consumer, and on the basis of the market price this value is shared by the consumer and the producer in the marketplace. This is the mechanism through which surplus value originates to the consumer and the producer likewise. Surplus values to customers cannot be measured from any production data. Instead the surplus value to a producer can be measured. It can be expressed both in terms of nominal and real values. The real surplus value to the producer is an outcome of the real process, real income, and measured proportionally it means productivity.
The concept “real process” in the meaning quantitative structure of production process was introduced in Finnish management accounting in the 1960s. Since then it has been a cornerstone in the Finnish management accounting theory. (Riistama et al. 1971)
Income distribution process of the production refers to a series of events in which the unit prices of constant-quality products and inputs alter causing a change in income distribution among those participating in the exchange. The magnitude of the change in income distribution is directly proportionate to the change in prices of the output and inputs and to their quantities. Productivity gains are distributed, for example, to customers as lower product sales prices or to staff as higher income pay.
The production process consists of the real process and the income distribution process. A result and a criterion of success of the owner is profitability. The profitability of production is the share of the real process result the owner has been able to keep to himself in the income distribution process. Factors describing the production process are the components of profitability, i.e., returns and costs. They differ from the factors of the real process in that the components of profitability are given at nominal prices whereas in the real process the factors are at periodically fixed prices.
Monetary process refers to events related to financing the business. Market value process refers to a series of events in which investors determine the market value of the company in the investment markets.
Production growth and performance
Economic growth may be defined as a production increase of an output of a production process. It is usually expressed as a growth percentage depicting growth of the real production output. The real output is the real value of products produced in a production process and when we subtract the real input from the real output we get the real income. The real output and the real income are generated by the real process of production from the real inputs.
The real process can be described by means of the production function. The production function is a graphical or mathematical expression showing the relationship between the inputs used in production and the output achieved. Both graphical and mathematical expressions are presented and demonstrated. The production function is a simple description of the mechanism of income generation in production process. It consists of two components. These components are a change in production input and a change in productivity.
The figure illustrates an income generation process (exaggerated for clarity). The Value T2 (value at time 2) represents the growth in output from Value T1 (value at time 1). Each time of measurement has its own graph of the production function for that time (the straight lines). The output measured at time 2 is greater than the output measured at time one for both of the components of growth: an increase of inputs and an increase of productivity. The portion of growth caused by the increase in inputs is shown on line 1 and does not change the relation between inputs and outputs. The portion of growth caused by an increase in productivity is shown on line 2 with a steeper slope. So increased productivity represents greater output per unit of input.
The growth of production output does not reveal anything about the performance of the production process. The performance of production measures production's ability to generate income. Because the income from production is generated in the real process, we call it the real income. Similarly, as the production function is an expression of the real process, we could also call it “income generated by the production function”.
The real income generation follows the logic of the production function. Two components can also be distinguished in the income change: the income growth caused by an increase in production input (production volume) and the income growth caused by an increase in productivity. The income growth caused by increased production volume is determined by moving along the production function graph. The income growth corresponding to a shift of the production function is generated by the increase in productivity. The change of real income so signifies a move from the point 1 to the point 2 on the production function (above). When we want to maximize the production performance we have to maximize the income generated by the production function.
The sources of productivity growth and production volume growth are explained as follows. Productivity growth is seen as the key economic indicator of innovation. The successful introduction of new products and new or altered processes, organization structures, systems, and business models generates growth of output that exceeds the growth of inputs. This results in growth in productivity or output per unit of input. Income growth can also take place without innovation through replication of established technologies. With only replication and without innovation, output will increase in proportion to inputs. (Jorgenson et al. 2014, 2) This is the case of income growth through production volume growth.
Jorgenson et al. (2014, 2) give an empiric example. They show that the great preponderance of economic growth in the US since 1947 involves the replication of existing technologies through investment in equipment, structures, and software and expansion of the labor force. Further, they show that innovation accounts for only about twenty percent of US economic growth.
In the case of a single production process (described above) the output is defined as an economic value of products and services produced in the process. When we want to examine an entity of many production processes we have to sum up the value-added created in the single processes. This is done in order to avoid the double accounting of intermediate inputs. Value-added is obtained by subtracting the intermediate inputs from the outputs. The most well-known and used measure of value-added is the GDP (Gross Domestic Product). It is widely used as a measure of the economic growth of nations and industries.
Absolute (total) and average income
The production performance can be measured as an average or an absolute income. Expressing performance both in average (avg.) and absolute (abs.) quantities is helpful for understanding the welfare effects of production. For measurement of the average production performance, we use the known productivity ratio
Real output / Real input.
The absolute income of performance is obtained by subtracting the real input from the real output as follows:
Real income (abs.) = Real output – Real input
The growth of the real income is the increase of the economic value that can be distributed between the production stakeholders. With the aid of the production model we can perform the average and absolute accounting in one calculation. Maximizing production performance requires using the absolute measure, i.e. the real income and its derivatives as a criterion of production performance.
Maximizing productivity also leads to the phenomenon called "jobless growth" This refers to economic growth as a result of productivity growth but without creation of new jobs and new incomes from them. A practical example illustrates the case. When a jobless person obtains a job in market production we may assume it is a low productivity job. As a result, average productivity decreases but the real income per capita increases. Furthermore, the well-being of the society also grows. This example reveals the difficulty to interpret the total productivity change correctly. The combination of volume increase and total productivity decrease leads in this case to the improved performance because we are on the “diminishing returns” area of the production function. If we are on the part of “increasing returns” on the production function, the combination of production volume increase and total productivity increase leads to improved production performance. Unfortunately, we do not know in practice on which part of the production function we are. Therefore, a correct interpretation of a performance change is obtained only by measuring the real income change.
Production function
In the short run, the production function assumes there is at least one fixed factor input. The production function relates the quantity of factor inputs used by a business to the amount of output that result. There are three measure of production and productivity. The first one is total output (total product). It is straightforward to measure how much output is being produced in the manufacturing industries like motor vehicles. In the tertiary industry such as service or knowledge industries, it is harder to measure the outputs since they are less tangible.
The second way of measuring production and efficiency is average output. It measures output per-worker-employed or output-per-unit of capital. The third measures of production and efficiency is the marginal product. It is the change in output from increasing the number of workers used by one person, or by adding one more machine to the production process in the short run.
The law of diminishing marginal returns points out that as more units of a variable input are added to fixed amounts of land and capital, the change in total output would rise firstly and then fall.
The length of time required for all the factor of production to be flexible varies from industry to industry. For example, in the nuclear power industry, it takes many years to commission new nuclear power plant and capacity.
Real-life examples of the firm's short - term production equations may not be quite the same as the smooth production theory of the department. In order to improve efficiency and promote the structural transformation of economic growth, it is most important to establish the industrial development model related to it. At the same time, a shift should be made to models that contain typical characteristics of the industry, such as specific technological changes and significant differences in the likelihood of substitution before and after investment.
Production models
A production model is a numerical description of the production process and is based on the prices and the quantities of inputs and outputs. There are two main approaches to operationalize the concept of production function. We can use mathematical formulae, which are typically used in macroeconomics (in growth accounting) or arithmetical models, which are typically used in microeconomics and management accounting. We do not present the former approach here but refer to the survey “Growth accounting” by Hulten 2009. Also see an extensive discussion of various production models and their estimations in Sickles and Zelenyuk (2019, Chapter 1-2).
We use here arithmetical models because they are like the models of management accounting, illustrative and easily understood and applied in practice. Furthermore, they are integrated to management accounting, which is a practical advantage. A major advantage of the arithmetical model is its capability to depict production function as a part of production process. Consequently, production function can be understood, measured, and examined as a part of production process.
There are different production models according to different interests. Here we use a production income model and a production analysis model in order to demonstrate production function as a phenomenon and a measureable quantity.
Production income model
The scale of success run by a going concern is manifold, and there are no criteria that might be universally applicable to success. Nevertheless, there is one criterion by which we can generalise the rate of success in production. This criterion is the ability to produce surplus value. As a criterion of profitability, surplus value refers to the difference between returns and costs, taking into consideration the costs of equity in addition to the costs included in the profit and loss statement as usual. Surplus value indicates that the output has more value than the sacrifice made for it, in other words, the output value is higher than the value (production costs) of the used inputs. If the surplus value is positive, the owner's profit expectation has been surpassed.
The table presents a surplus value calculation. We call this set of production data a basic example and we use the data through the article in illustrative production models. The basic example is a simplified profitability calculation used for illustration and modelling. Even as reduced, it comprises all phenomena of a real measuring situation and most importantly the change in the output-input mix between two periods. Hence, the basic example works as an illustrative “scale model” of production without any features of a real measuring situation being lost. In practice, there may be hundreds of products and inputs but the logic of measuring does not differ from that presented in the basic example.
In this context, we define the quality requirements for the production data used in productivity accounting. The most important criterion of good measurement is the homogenous quality of the measurement object. If the object is not homogenous, then the measurement result may include changes in both quantity and quality but their respective shares will remain unclear. In productivity accounting this criterion requires that every item of output and input must appear in accounting as being homogenous. In other words, the inputs and the outputs are not allowed to be aggregated in measuring and accounting. If they are aggregated, they are no longer homogenous and hence the measurement results may be biased.
Both the absolute and relative surplus value have been calculated in the example. Absolute value is the difference of the output and input values and the relative value is their relation, respectively. The surplus value calculation in the example is at a nominal price, calculated at the market price of each period.
Production analysis model
A model used here is a typical production analysis model by help of which it is possible to calculate the outcome of the real process, income distribution process and production process. The starting point is a profitability calculation using surplus value as a criterion of profitability. The surplus value calculation is the only valid measure for understanding the connection between profitability and productivity or understanding the connection between real process and production process. A valid measurement of total productivity necessitates considering all production inputs, and the surplus value calculation is the only calculation to conform to the requirement. If we omit an input in productivity or income accounting, this means that the omitted input can be used unlimitedly in production without any cost impact on accounting results.
Accounting and interpreting
The process of calculating is best understood by applying the term ceteris paribus, i.e. "all other things being the same," stating that at a time only the impact of one changing factor be introduced to the phenomenon being examined. Therefore, the calculation can be presented as a process advancing step by step. First, the impacts of the income distribution process are calculated, and then, the impacts of the real process on the profitability of the production.
The first step of the calculation is to separate the impacts of the real process and the income distribution process, respectively, from the change in profitability (285.12 – 266.00 = 19.12). This takes place by simply creating one auxiliary column (4) in which a surplus value calculation is compiled using the quantities of Period 1 and the prices of Period 2. In the resulting profitability calculation, Columns 3 and 4 depict the impact of a change in income distribution process on the profitability and in Columns 4 and 7 the impact of a change in real process on the profitability.
The accounting results are easily interpreted and understood. We see that the real income has increased by 58.12 units from which 41.12 units come from the increase of productivity growth and the rest 17.00 units come from the production volume growth. The total increase of real income (58.12) is distributed to the stakeholders of production, in this case, 39.00 units to the customers and to the suppliers of inputs and the rest 19.12 units to the owners.
Here we can make an important conclusion. Income formation of production is always a balance between income generation and income distribution. The income change created in a real process (i.e. by production function) is always distributed to the stakeholders as economic values within the review period. Accordingly, the changes in real income and income distribution are always equal in terms of economic value.
Based on the accounted changes of productivity and production volume values we can explicitly conclude on which part of the production function the production is. The rules of interpretations are the following:
The production is on the part of “increasing returns” on the production function, when
productivity and production volume increase or
productivity and production volume decrease
The production is on the part of “diminishing returns” on the production function, when
productivity decreases and volume increases or
productivity increases and volume decreases.
In the basic example, the combination of volume growth (+17.00) and productivity growth (+41.12) reports explicitly that the production is on the part of “increasing returns” on the production function (Saari 2006 a, 138–144).
Another production model (Production Model Saari 1989) also gives details of the income distribution (Saari 2011,14). Because the accounting techniques of the two models are different, they give differing, although complementary, analytical information. The accounting results are, however, identical. We do not present the model here in detail but we only use its detailed data on income distribution, when the objective functions are formulated in the next section.
Objective functions
An efficient way to improve the understanding of production performance is to formulate different objective functions according to the objectives of the different interest groups. Formulating the objective function necessitates defining the variable to be maximized (or minimized). After that other variables are considered as constraints or free variables. The most familiar objective function is profit maximization which is also included in this case. Profit maximization is an objective function that stems from the owner's interest and all other variables are constraints in relation to maximizing of profits in the organization.
The procedure for formulating objective functions
The procedure for formulating different objective functions, in terms of the production model, is introduced next. In the income formation from production the following objective functions can be identified:
Maximizing the real income
Maximizing the producer income
Maximizing the owner income.
These cases are illustrated using the numbers from the basic example. The following symbols are used in the presentation:
The equal sign (=) signifies the starting point of the computation or the result of computing and the plus or minus sign (+ / -) signifies a variable that is to be added or subtracted from the function. A producer means here the producer community, i.e. labour force, society and owners.
Objective function formulations can be expressed in a single calculation which concisely illustrates the logic of the income generation, the income distribution and the variables to be maximized.
The calculation resembles an income statement starting with the income generation and ending with the income distribution. The income generation and the distribution are always in balance so that their amounts are equal. In this case, it is 58.12 units. The income which has been generated in the real process is distributed to the stakeholders during the same period. There are three variables that can be maximized. They are the real income, the producer income and the owner income. Producer income and owner income are practical quantities because they are addable quantities and they can be computed quite easily. Real income is normally not an addable quantity and in many cases it is difficult to calculate.
The dual approach for the formulation
Here we have to add that the change of real income can also be computed from the changes in income distribution. We have to identify the unit price changes of outputs and inputs and calculate their profit impacts (i.e. unit price change x quantity). The change of real income is the sum of these profit impacts and the change of owner income. This approach is called the dual approach because the framework is seen in terms of prices instead of quantities (ONS 3, 23).
The dual approach has been recognized in growth accounting for long but its interpretation has remained unclear. The following question has remained unanswered: “Quantity based estimates of the residual are interpreted as a shift in the production function, but what is the interpretation of the price-based growth estimates?” (Hulten 2009, 18). We have demonstrated above that the real income change is achieved by quantitative changes in production and the income distribution change to the stakeholders is its dual. In this case, the duality means that the same accounting result is obtained by accounting the change of the total income generation (real income) and by accounting the change of the total income distribution.
See also
Adaptive strategies
A list of production functions
Assembly line
Johann Heinrich von Thünen
Division of labour
Industrial Revolution
Cost-of-production theory of value
Computer-aided manufacturing
DIRTI 5
Distribution (economics)
Factors of production
Outline of industrial organization
Outline of production
Output (economics)
Price
Prices of production
Pricing strategies
Product (business)
Production function
Production theory basics
Production possibility frontier
Productive and unproductive labour
Productive forces
Productivism
Productivity
Productivity model
Productivity improving technologies (historical)
Microeconomics
Mode of production
Mass production
Second Industrial Revolution
Footnotes
References
Sickles, R., and Zelenyuk, V. (2019). Measurement of Productivity and Efficiency: Theory and Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Further references and external links
Moroney, J. R. (1967) "Cobb-Douglass production functions and returns to scale in US manufacturing industry", Western Economic Journal, vol 6, no 1, December 1967, pp 39–51.
Pearl, D. and Enos, J. (1975) "Engineering production functions and technological progress", The Journal of Industrial Economics, vol 24, September 1975, pp 55–72.
Robinson, J. (1953) "The production function and the theory of capital", Review of Economic Studies, vol XXI, 1953, pp. 81–106
Anwar Shaikh, "Laws of Production and Laws of Algebra: The Humbug Production Function", in The Review of Economics and Statistics, Volume 56(1), February 1974, pp. 115–120. Wayback Machine
Anwar Shaikh, "Laws of Production and Laws of Algebra – Humbug II", in Growth, Profits and Property ed. by Edward J. Nell. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1980. Wayback Machine
Anwar Shaikh, "Nonlinear Dynamics and Pseudo-Production Functions", 2008.
Shephard, R (1970). Theory of cost and production functions, Princeton University Press, Princeton NJ.
Sickles, R., and Zelenyuk, V. (2019). "Measurement of Productivity and Efficiency: Theory and Practice". Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Thompson, A. (1981). Economics of the firm, Theory and practice, 3r d edition, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs.
Elmer G. Wiens: Production Functions – Models of the Cobb-Douglas, C.E.S., Trans-Log, and Diewert Production Functions.
Production economics | 0.760015 | 0.996443 | 0.757312 |
Inspired Education Group | Inspired Education Group is a co-educational, non-denominational, international provider of for profit private schools. It was founded in 2013 by Lebanese-British businessman Nadim Nsouli and is headquartered in London.
It provides education for children aged 1 year up to 18 years, and to date has around 80,000 students globally, across 111 schools in 24 countries.
History
Inspired Education Group was founded in 2013 by Nadim M. Nsouli, a businessman and co-founder of Lyla Nsouli Foundation for Children's Brain Cancer, when his group acquired Reddam House in South Africa. Since 2013, Reddam House has acquired and constructed nine schools in South Africa, along with the Inspired's “flagship school,” Reddam House Berkshire, near Wokingham, England. In 2015 the school grounds in Winnersh were taken over from Bearwood College.
Nsouli, the founder, CEO and Chairman, has worked as a lawyer and as an investment banker, and has led the group since its founding.
The group's strategy has been described as "buy and build", involving the purchase of existing schools, as well as the building of new schools. It has offices in London, Milan, Auckland, Bogotá, Johannesburg, and Dubai.
Schools in other European countries that form part of the Inspired group include St. George's International School, Switzerland, St. John's International School, Belgium, St. Louis School, Italy, and Sotogrande International School, Spain. In the Middle East, the group has acquired British School of Bahrain. Inspired's Latin American schools include Blue Valley School, Costa Rica, Colegio San Mateo, Colombia, and Cambridge College Lima, Peru. By 2017, Inspired operated more than 30 schools, and as of 2018 educated over 35,000 students in 46 schools.
Inspired acquired part of New Zealand's biggest private-education provider ACG Education’s schools division in 2018 from Pacific Equity Partners for approximately 500 million.
In 2020, Inspired was described as "the world's largest premium education provider," with 64 schools spread across five continents. In addition to several investments from firms such as Oakley Capital and TA Associates.
In May 2021, Inspired acquired Wey Education PLC, which had two online education brands, InterHigh and Academy21.
Inspired-owned online schools, InterHigh and King's College Online merged in November 2021, relaunching under the new name King's InterHigh.
In May 2022, Stonepeak, a US private equity company, invested €1bn in exchange for a minority stake in Inspired.
In 2023, Inspired acquired Alpha Plus Group, which included schools such as Wetherby School and Pembridge Hall.
References
External links
Official website
Education companies of the United Kingdom
Education management organizations
Education companies of South Africa | 0.766443 | 0.988083 | 0.75731 |
Positioning theory | Positioning theory is a theory in social psychology that characterizes interactions between individuals. "Position" can be defined as an alterable collection of beliefs of an individual with regards to their rights, duties, and obligations. "Positioning" is the mechanism through which roles are assigned or denied, either to oneself or others. The theory describes malleable roles and storylines that determine the boundaries of future acts and the meanings of what people say and do. The theory expands upon the work of psychologist Lev Vygotsky, especially his theory of zone of proximal development (ZPD). It emphasizes the interdependence of positions, speech and other acts, and storylines that arise from them; a change in any one aspect affects the other two. The theory provides a framework to understand a person's specific behavior by considering social, individual, and moral factors.
There are three orders of positioning based on how positions are assumed: first-, second- and third-order positioning. Positioning can also be classified into various types depending on the specifics of the situation; these include self, other, tacit, intentional, interactive, reflexive, moral, personal, indirect, and malignant positioning. Positioning theory originated in the 1990s from Positioning: the discursive production of selves, which looked to solve a problem that arose "out of a discussion about the problems inherent in the use of the concept of role in developing a social psychology of selfhood". Since its inception, Positioning theory has been developed further with contributions from Bronwyn Davies, Rom Harré, Luk Van Langenhove, and Fathali Moghaddam. The theory has provided a structure for social discourse analysis, and it has been used to study various social situations. Its application has extended into fields such as education, anthropology, communication, and political science.
Overview
Positioning theory provides a framework to comprehend why individuals choose to act with one specific behavior or a narrowed set of behaviors out of the many possible behaviors before them. "Positions" are a collection of specific beliefs that individuals have in context of rights, duties and obligations. They are open to change (compared to "roles" which are fixed) and constitute a basic foundation in helping an individual determine how to behave in a certain way. "Positioning" pertains to the mechanisms by which roles are assigned, appropriated or denied; it also involves the forms in which individuals build themselves and others through discursive activities, such as oral and written expression, usage of language, speech, and other actions based on normative and moral systems. The opportunities for people to act depend on numerous other people. In order to perform tasks, individuals use their own cognitive capabilities as well as the capabilities of others.
Researchers have studied the narratives used by individuals to position themselves and others. These studies specifically look at how positions are assumed by individuals (for themselves and others) based on their interpretation of "rights" (what a person is owed by others) and "duties" (what a person owes to others). The theory involves conventions of speech and action that are changeable, questionable, and short-lived. This is in contrast to role theory, in which roles are relatively fixed and static. The theory can be used to investigate how an individual constructs their story, and therein their sense of self, the social acts (including speech) represented in and through their story, and the positions that they reveal.
Relation to Lev Vygotsky's theories
Rom Harré and Fathali Moghaddam suggest that positioning theory adds to the work of earlier theorists like Lev Vygotsky. Positioning theory is explicitly consistent with Vygotskian approaches to learning and teaching, and is applicable to educational research with its emphasis on individual and social attributes. Vygotsky theorized that positive social support can lead to an individual attaining higher mental functioning. In Vygotsky's zone of proximal development (ZPD), a learner can increase their performance on tasks when given support by adults or when collaborating with their peers. Harré and Moghaddam explain that positioning theory can fill the "gap" in Vygotsky's work by emphasizing the variability of positions that come about in a group that might be supporting that learner.
Positioning theory highlights the individual and knowledge of the participants in the education context. In such contexts, role and position can seem to overlap and many see positioning as another way of explaining someone's role. The constructs are quite different, as a role is static and a position changes depending on the context. Davies and Harré explain this difference with an example of the role of a "mother". There is a general understanding of the role that a mother plays in someone's life, but what is missing is the internalized understanding of "mother" to each individual person that plays that role. That is, each person has a unique lived experience that affects his or her position. One may anticipate becoming a mother, or one may never be in this position. Additionally, the person could have a strong or poor relationship with their own mother. There is a history of narratives out of each lived experience that determine one's position towards the idea of "mother". This can be applied in educational contexts when looking at the difference between the "role" of a teacher as opposed to the "position" of a teacher.
Individual and social attributes
The positioning triangle
A diagram can be used to explain the social significance of positioning acts. All corners of the triangle are intertwined; in other words, if one part of the triangle changes, then the other parts change (e.g., changing the storyline would affect both the position and speech-act). Harré and Luk Van Langenhove explain that what people can do is a function of "the capacities of people to do certain things", "the restrictions imposed upon people to do certain things", and "the intentions that people have to do certain things."
Position
Harré and Moghaddam expand upon the idea that position has both social and individual components. Harré describes "position" as "a cluster of short-term disputable rights, obligations and duties" of a person in various social contexts. These rights, duties and obligations are carried through by the characteristics and personality traits of the individual. Traditions and customs are vital sources in the formation of positions. In sum, a position establishes what an individual is authorized to say or do.
Speech and other acts
Each socially meaningful action, intended movement, or speech should be seen as an act of significance. Jumping is an example of an intended action. An individual may be performing this action to jump over an object, follow a physical education instructor, exercise, or model the movement for another person to copy. This action is only important if it is identified under rules for accepted moral or social behaviors, and given meaning under the context in which it is performed. An appropriate situation (for instance, a class of physical education) and meaningful and relevant actions (for example, an instructor showing how to jump) must come prior to the action performed (jumping by the student). There will also be consequences to the performed action (such as being graded on their ability to jump). While one speech act cannot cause another speech act to take place, it can lead to the development of storylines where new positions and other speech acts occur, and can give meaning and accountability to those other speech acts.
Storyline
As a result of speech and other acts, storylines are developed. These social episodes come about as an individual and those around them contribute to a pattern of narratives. The storylines can be seen as who has or does not have a right or a duty to act, and how they may act. When explaining a story, one's position may result in alluding to themselves as a hero, whereas another individual may have a different storyline that positions the same person as a villain. Hence, a change in the storyline could alter the initial positions of the involved individuals. Whilst individuals are conversing with one another, they can use narratives or storylines to have their actions and words be purposeful and significant to themselves as well as others.
Moral dimension
All social structures can be seen as moral orders that set forward rules for acceptable behavior. Speech acts create and activate moral orders. The capacity of individuals to act independently is derived from possibilities for them to behave against certain moral orders or to establish new moral orders. When an individual performs an action, they develop a personal moral order (e.g., justifying one's own behavior that one would otherwise deem as irresponsible or inappropriate). Personal moral orders can sometimes be seen as stronger than moral orders that are set in place for all people to follow.
Social situations
Positioning theory brings about the analysis of any social situation as it relates to these three notions:
There are many cultural, legal and institutional moral orders that are pre-determined and assign positions to the individuals (actors). These positions bring about powers and rights that are given to these individuals.
There are expanding and emerging storylines that make up a local moral order where the beginning positions can be confirmed or transformed.
There are personal moral orders of the individuals involved that impact what they will do and say, like refuting and accepting pre-determined positions or the positions developed through conversation.
Personhood
Positioning theory focuses on two aspects of personhood:
Embodied self: Singular, continuous and self-identical. It is the unity and continuity of a person's point of view and their actions in various contexts.
Self concept: Beliefs that individuals have about themselves, their moral qualities, their abilities, their fears, and their life. This expands into the sub-concepts of autobiographical self and social self.
A. Autobiographical self: A form of narrative self-understanding. Autobiographical selves can alter from story to story because of differences based on the audience and the situation in which the person is discussing their story.
B. Social self: The qualities and traits that an individual displays when they have interactions with others. A person's social self will vary based on context.
Types of positioning
Orders of positioning
First-order positioning refers to the position an individual assumes, independent of any influence. Second-order positioning refers to changes in first-order positioning from interactions with others in a social environment. In third-order positioning, individuals outside the social environment are influenced by previous social interactions and assume positions based on what they have observed.
Self and other positioning
Self positioning includes how a person positions themselves, while other positioning is how an individual positions others. They are codependent; in order to position oneself, positions of others would need to be defined, and vice versa.
Tacit and intentional positioning
Tacit positioning is involved in everyday interactions, usually of the first order of positioning, and unintentional in nature. It constitutes what has been inherently learnt and internalized over time. Intentional positioning includes positions that are consciously assumed; depending on the end goal of the assumed position, it can be classified into four parts:
Deliberate self positioning: A person assumes a specific position with the intention of portraying something in a particular manner, regardless of its factual accuracy, in order to achieve a specific outcome or strategy.
Forced self positioning: This occurs in response to an external event and is more of an obligatory response compared to a deliberate one. For example, an individual positions themselves in a particular way in response to an annual performance appraisal.
Deliberate positioning of others: In this type of positioning, an individual deliberately positions others to accomplish an underlying goal. Deliberate positioning of others can happen with or without the target individual or individuals present in the social environment. A speaker including their audience in their speech is an example for the former, while gossiping would be an instance of the latter.
Forced positioning of others: This occurs when there are external factors present which require an individual to assume specific positions for others. For instance, a person under oath in a trial is required by law to assume positions of others.
Interactive and reflexive positioning
Interactive positioning is exhibited when a person or a group of people position another person based on their behavior and what they say. Reflexive positioning is the positioning of oneself in response to others. Davies and Harré use an example of an interaction between a student and a principal to illustrate both concepts: when a student is caught wearing a hat in the school, the principal asks the student to take it off, but the student refuses to do so and receives a two-day suspension. The principal engaged in interactive positioning toward the student when he asked the student to remove his hat and positioned him as rebellious. The student demonstrated reflexive positioning when he refused to comply. Davies and Harré suggested that storylines or positions that arise from specific interactions can sometimes carry forward to unrelated storylines in the future (for instance, the student may continue to be positioned as rebellious by the principal in future interactions that are unrelated to the past interaction).
Moral and personal positioning
Moral positioning occurs when one behaves in accordance with the rights, duties, and obligations of their role. These positions may be in the form of professor-student, parent-child, or grocery clerk-customer; a particular role results in an individual acting and responding in a certain way. Personal positioning happens based on one's individual properties and life experiences, and does not conform to a generic or expected role. For instance, a person who has studied the law might represent himself in court even without a law degree.
Indirect positioning
Indirect positioning can be seen as the use of characteristics to position an individual, favorably or unfavorably, with relation to oneself and one's own group desires. An example of this could be positioning oneself as "stupid", which might restrict that person from correcting their cognitive performance (pertaining to specific tasks) beyond a certain level. This could also be positioning someone as "irresponsible", which could result in that individual being excluded by their social group from taking on tasks which would require a certain level of responsibility. Harré and Moghaddam use an example of indirect positioning in regard to a leader of a nation being used to position the overall nation itself (e.g., Europe using the phrase "The Cowboy President" in reference to George W. Bush while also indirectly positioning the United States as an ignorant nation).
Malignant or malevolent positioning
Malignant or malevolent positioning is when the discourse about an individual causes others to portray that person in a negative light and treat them poorly as a result. One may hold a critical view of a person with a disability, for example, while being unaware of this biased perspective.
History
Positioning theory originated from gender studies in the 1980s. Bronwyn Davies, professor of education at the University of Western Sydney, drew from feminist scholars to expand upon subjectivity, storyline, and narrative in positioning theory. Subsequently, Rom Harré, Luk Van Langenhove, and Fathali Moghaddam contributed to development of the theory in its early stages. Harré and Van Langenhove introduced conceptual refinements to the theory, including differences between first- and second-order positions, moral and personal positioning, tacit and intentional positioning, as well as self and other positioning.
The theory has become a framework for social discourse analysis and is used to study various social situations. Although the theory is rooted in social psychology, it has been used in fields like education, anthropology, communication studies, workplace agency, political identity studies, and public relations and strategic communication.
See also
Cultural-historical activity theory
Social constructionism
Social constructivism
References
Behavioral concepts
Interpersonal communication
Social constructionism | 0.784575 | 0.965221 | 0.757288 |
Intellectualism | Intellectualism is the mental perspective that emphasizes the use, development, and exercise of the intellect, and is identified with the life of the mind of the intellectual. In the field of philosophy, the term intellectualism indicates one of two ways of critically thinking about the character of the world: (i) rationalism, which is knowledge derived solely from reason; and (ii) empiricism, which is knowledge derived solely from sense experience. Each intellectual approach attempts to eliminate fallacies that ignore, mistake, or distort evidence about "what ought to be" instead of "what is" the character of the world.
Moreover, hierarchical intellectualism is a theory of intelligence which postulates that the mental capabilities that constitute intelligence occur and are arranged in a hierarchy ranging from the general to the specific, e.g. the I.Q. test.
Ancient moral intellectualism
The Greek philosopher Socrates (c. 470 – 399 BC) said that intellectualism allows that "one will do what is right or [what is] best, just as soon as one truly understands what is right or best"; that virtue is a matter of the intellect, because virtue and Knowledge are related qualities that a person accrues, possesses, and improves by dedication to the use of Reason. Socrates's definition of moral intellectualism is a basis of the philosophy of Stoicism, wherein the consequences of that definition are called "Socratic paradoxes", such as "There is no weakness of will", because a person either knowingly does evil or knowingly seeks to do evil (moral wrong); that anyone who does commit evil or seeks to commit evil does so involuntarily; and that virtue is knowledge, that there are few virtues, but that all virtues are one.
The conceptions of Truth and of Knowledge of contemporary philosophy are unlike Socrates's conceptions of Truth and Knowledge and of ethical conduct, and cannot be equated with modern, post–Cartesian conceptions of knowledge and rational intellectualism. In that vein, by way of detailed study of history, Michel Foucault demonstrated that in Classical Antiquity (800 BC – AD 1000), "knowing the truth" was akin to "spiritual knowledge", which is integral to the principle of "caring for the self".
In effort to become a moral person the care for the self is realised through ascetic exercises meant to ensure that knowledge of truth was learned and integrated to the Self. Therefore, to understand truth meant possessing "intellectual knowledge" that integrated the self to the (universal) truth and to living an authentic life. Achieving that ethical state required continual care for the self, but also meant being someone who embodies truth, and so can readily practice the Classical-era rhetorical device of parrhesia: "to speak candidly, and to ask forgiveness for so speaking"; and, by extension, to practice the moral obligation to speak truth for the common good, even at personal risk.
Medieval theological intellectualism
Medieval theological intellectualism is a doctrine of divine action, wherein the faculty of intellect precedes, and is superior to, the faculty of the will (voluntas intellectum sequitur). As such, Intellectualism is contrasted with voluntarism, which proposes the Will as superior to the intellect, and to the emotions; hence, the stance that "according to intellectualism, choices of the Will result from that which the intellect recognizes as good; the will, itself, is determined. For voluntarism, by contrast, it is the Will which identifies which objects are good, and the Will, itself, is indetermined". From that philosophical perspective and historical context, the Spanish Muslim polymath Averroës (1126–1198) in the 12th century, the English theologian Roger Bacon, the Italian Christian theologian Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274), and the German Christian theologian Meister Eckhart (1260–1327) in the 13th century, are recognised intellectualists.
See also
Anti-intellectualism
Chinese intellectualism
Intellectual
Intellectual movements in Iran
Intelligentsia
Scientia potentia est
References
Academic terminology
Intellectual history
Intelligence
Philosophy of education
Rationalism
Thought | 0.765348 | 0.989458 | 0.757281 |
Social competence | Social competence consists of social, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral skills needed for successful social adaptation. Social competence also reflects having the ability to take another's perspective concerning a situation, learn from past experiences, and apply that learning to the changes in social interactions.
Social competence is the foundation upon which expectations for future interaction with others are built and perceptions of an individual's own behavior are developed. Social competence frequently encompasses social skills, social communication, and interpersonal communication. Competence is directly connected to social behavior, such as social motives, abilities, skills, habits, and knowledge. All of these social factors contribute to the development of a person's behavior.
History
The study of social competence began in the early 20th century with research into how children interact with their peers and function in social situations. In the 1930s, researchers began investigating peer groups and how children's characteristics affected their positions within these peer groups. In the 1950s and 1960s, research established that children's social competence was related to future mental health (such as maladaptive outcomes in adulthood), as well as problems in school settings. Research on social competence expanded greatly from this point on, as increasing amounts of evidence demonstrated the importance of social interactions. Social competence began to be viewed in terms of problem-solving skills and strategies in social situations, and was conceptualized in terms of effective social functioning and information processing. In the 1970s and 1980s, research began focusing on the impact of children's behavior on relationships, which influenced the study of the effectiveness of teaching children social skills that are age, gender, and context-specific.
In an effort to determine the reason for some children's lack of social skills in certain interactions, new well developed social information processing models to explain the dynamics of social interaction. These models focused on factors such as behavior, the way people perceive and evaluate each other, and the processing of social cues. They also examined the selection of social goals, decision-making processes, and the implementation of chosen responses. Studies like these often examined the correlation between social cognition and social competence.
A prominent researcher of social competence in the mid-1980s was Frank Gresham. He identified three sub-domains of social competence: adaptive behavior, social skills, and peer acceptance (peer acceptance is often used to assess social competence). Research during this time often focused on children who were not displaying social skills in an effort to identify and help these children who were potentially at risk of long-term negative outcomes due to poor social interactions. Gresham proposed that these children could have one of four deficits: skill deficits, in which children did not have the knowledge or cognitive abilities to carry out a certain behavior, performance deficits, self-control skill deficits, and self-control performance deficits, in which children had excessive anxiety or impulsivity that prohibited proper execution of the behaviors or skills they knew and understood.
Despite all the developments and changes in the conceptualization of social competence throughout the 20th century, there was still a general lack of agreement about the definition and measurement of social competence during the 1980s. The definitions of the 1980s were less ambiguous than previous definitions, but they often did not acknowledge the age, situation, and skill specificity implicit in the complex construct of social competence.
Approaches and theories
Peer regard/status approaches
These approaches define social competence based on how popular one is with his peers. The more well-liked one is, the more socially competent they are.
Peer group entry, conflict resolution, and maintaining play, are three comprehensive interpersonal goals that are relevant with regard to the assessment and intervention of peer competence.
Social skill approaches
These approaches use behaviors as a guideline. Behaviors that demonstrate social skills are compiled and collectively identified as social competence.
Relationship approaches
According to these approaches, social competence is assessed by the quality of one's relationships and the ability to form relationships. Competence depends on the skills of both members of the relationship; a child may appear more socially competent if interacting with a socially skilled partner. Commentators on some online incel communities have advocated government programs wherein socially awkward men are helped or women are incentivized to go on dates with them.
Functional approaches
The functional approach is context-specific and concerned with the identification of social goals and tasks. This approach also focuses on the outcomes of social behavior and the processes leading to those outcomes. The importance of information-processing models of social skills in these approaches is based on the idea that social competence results from social-cognitive processes.
Models
Early models of social competence stress the role of context and situation specificity in operationalizing the competence construct. These models also allow for the organization and integration of the various component skills, behaviors, and cognitions associated with social competence. Whereas global definitions focus on the "ends" rather than the "means" by which such ends are achieved, a number of models directly attend to the theorized processes underlying competence. These process models are context-specific and seek to identify critical social goals and tasks associated with social competence. Other models focus on the often overlooked distinction between social competence and the indices (i.e., skills and abilities) used to gauge it.
Behavioral–analytic model
Goldfried and D'Zurilla developed a five-step behavioral-analytic model outlining a definition of social competence.
The specific steps proposed in the model include: (1) situational analysis, (2) response enumeration, (3) response evaluation, (4) measure development, and (5) evaluation of the measure.
Situation analysis – a critical situation is defined on the basis of certain criteria, which include:
occurs with some frequency
presents a difficult response decision
results in a range of possible responses in a given population. Situation identification and analysis is accomplished through a variety of methods, including direct observation by self or others, interviews, and surveys.
Response enumeration – a sampling of possible responses to each situation is obtained. Procedures for generating response alternatives include direct observation, role plays, and simulations in video and/or written formats.
Response evaluation – the enumerated responses are judged for effectiveness by "significant others" in the environment. An important element is that a consensus must emerge, or the particular item is removed from future consideration.
In the last two steps (4 and 5), a measure for assessing social competence is developed and evaluated.
Social information-processing model
A social information-processing model is a widely used means for understanding social competence. The social information-processing model focuses more directly on the cognitive processes underlying response selection, enactment, and evaluation. Using a computer metaphor, the reformulated social information-processing model outlines a six-step nonlinear process with various feedback loops linking children's social cognition and behavior. Difficulties arising at any of the steps generally translate into social competence deficits.
The six steps are:
Observation and encoding of relevant stimuli – attending to and encoding non-verbal and verbal social cues, both external and internal.
Interpretation and mental representation of cues – understanding what has happened during the social encounter, as well as the cause and intent underlying the interaction.
Clarification of goals – determining what one's objective is for the interaction and how to put forth an understanding of those goals.
Representation of a situation is developed by accessing long-term memory or construction – the interaction is compared to previous situations stored in long-term memory and the previous outcomes of those interactions.
Response decision/selection
Behavioral enactment and evaluation
Tri-component model
Another way to conceptualize social competence is to consider three underlying subcomponents in a hierarchical framework.
Social Adjustment
Social Performance
Social Skills
The top of the hierarchy includes the most advanced level, social adjustment. Social adjustment is defined as the extent to which an individual achieves society's developmentally appropriate goals. The goals are conceived of as different "statuses" to be achieved by members of a society (e.g., health, legal, academic, or occupational, socioeconomic, social, emotional, familial, and relational statuses). The next level is social performance – or the degree to which an individual's responses to relevant social situations meet socially valid criteria. The lowest level of the hierarchy is social skills, which are defined as specific abilities (i.e., overt behavior, social cognitive skills, and emotional regulation) allowing for competent performance within social tasks. The tri-component model is useful for doctors and researchers looking to change, predict, or elaborate social functioning of children.
The quadripartite model
The essential core elements of competence are theorized to consist of four superordinate sets of skills, abilities, and capacities: (1) cognitive skills and abilities, (2) behavioral skills, (3) emotional competencies, and (4) motivational and expectancy sets.
Cognitive skills and abilities – cultural and social knowledge necessary for effective functioning in society (i.e., academic and occupational skills and abilities, decision-making ability, and the processing of information)
Behavioral skills – knowledge of behavioral responses and the ability to enact them (i.e., negotiation, role- or perspective-taking, assertiveness, conversational skills, and prosocial skills)
Emotional skills – affect regulation and affective capacities for facilitating socially competent responding and forming relationships
Motivational and expectancy sets – an individual's value structure, moral development, and sense of efficacy and control.
The developmental framework
Social competence develops over time, and the mastery of social skills and interpersonal social interactions emerge at various time points on the developmental continuum (infancy to adolescence) and build on previously learned skills and knowledge. Key facets and markers of social competence that are remarkably consistent across the developmental periods (early childhood, middle/late childhood, adolescence) include prosocial skills (i.e., friendly, cooperative, helpful behaviors) and self-control or regulatory skills (i.e., anger management, negotiation skills, problem-solving skills). However, as developmental changes occur in the structure and quality of interactions, as well as in cognitive and language abilities, these changes affect the complexity of skills and behaviors contributing to socially competent responding.
Contributing factors
Temperament
Temperament is a construct that describes a person's biological response to the environment. Issues such as soothability, rhythmicity, sociability, and arousal make up this construct. Most often sociability contributes to the development of social competence.
Mary Rothbart holds the most influential model of temperament due to the two main focuses on regulation and reactivity. Effort control is the main idea behind temperament regulation because the skills it requires are involved in integrating information, planning, and emotion modulation and behavior. Reactivity pertains to the provocation of motor, affective, and sensory response systems.
Attachment
Social experiences rest on the foundation of parent-child relationships and are important in later developing social skills and behaviors. An infant's attachment to a caregiver is important for developing later social skills and behaviors that develop social competence. Attachment helps the infant learn that the world is predictable and trustworthy or, in other instances, capricious and cruel. Ainsworth describes four attachment styles in infancy, including secure, anxious–avoidant, anxious–resistant, and disorganized/disoriented. The foundation of the attachment bond allows the child to venture out from their mother to try new experiences and interactions. Children with secure attachment styles tend to show higher levels of social competence relative to children with insecure attachment, including anxious-avoidant, anxious–resistant, and disorganized/disoriented.
Parenting style
Parents are the primary source of social and emotional development in infancy, early, and middle/late childhood. The socialization practices of parents influence whether their child will develop social competence. Parenting style captures two essential elements of parenting: parental warmth/responsiveness and parental control/demandingness. Parental responsiveness (warmth or supportiveness) refers to "the extent to which parents intentionally foster individuality, self-regulation, and self-assertion by being attuned, supportive, and acquiescent to children's special needs and demands." Parental demandingness (behavioral control) refers to "the claims parents make on children to become integrated into the family whole, by their maturity demands, supervision, disciplinary efforts and willingness to confront the child who disobeys." Categorizing parents according to whether they are high or low on parental demandingness and responsiveness creates a typology of four parenting styles: indulgent/permissive, authoritarian, authoritative, and indifferent/uninvolved. Each parenting styles reflects patterns of parental values, practices, and behaviors and a distinct balance of responsiveness and demandingness.
Parenting style contributes to child well-being in the domains of social competence, academic performance, psychosocial development, and problem behavior. Research based on parent interviews, child reports, and parent observations consistently finds that:
Children and adolescents whose parents are authoritative rate themselves and are rated by objective measures as more socially and instrumentally competent than those whose parents are nonauthoritative.
Children and adolescents whose parents are uninvolved perform most poorly in all domains.
Other factors that contribute to social competence include teacher relationships, peer groups, neighborhood, and community.
Related problem behaviors
An important researcher in the study of social competence, Voeller, states that three clusters of problem behaviors lead to the impairment of social competence. Voeller clusters include: (1) an aggressive and hostile group, (2) a perceptual deficits subgroup, and (3) a group with difficulties in self-regulation.
Children with aggressive and hostile behaviors are those whose acting out behaviors negatively influence their ability to form relationships and sustain interpersonal interactions. Aggressive and hostile children tend to have deficiencies in social information processing and employ inappropriate social problem-solving strategies to social situations. They also tend to search for fewer facts in a social situation and pay more attention to the aggressive social interactions presented in an interaction.
Children with perceptual deficits do not perceive the environment appropriately and interpret interpersonal interactions inaccurately. They also have difficulty reading social cues, facial expressions, and body gestures.
Children with self-regulation deficits tend to have classic difficulties in executive functions.
Assessments
While understanding the components of social competence continues to be empirically validated, the assessment of social competence is not well-studied and continues to develop in procedures. There are a variety of methods for the assessment of social competence and often include one (or more) of the following:
Child–adolescent interview
Observations
Parent report measures
Self-report measures
Sociometric measures (i.e., peer nominations)
Teachers report measures
Interventions
Following the increased awareness of the importance of social competence in childhood, interventions are used to help children with social difficulties. Historically, these efforts did not improve children's peer status or yield long-lasting effects. However, these interventions also did not take into consideration that social competence problems do not occur in isolation, but alongside other problems. Thus, current intervention efforts tend to target social competence both directly and indirectly in different contexts.
Preschool and early-childhood interventions
Early childhood interventions targeting social skills directly improve the peer relations of children. These interventions focus on at-risk groups such as single, adolescent mothers and families of children with early behavior problems. Interventions targeting both children and families have the highest success rates. When children reach preschool age, social competence interventions focus on the preschool context and teach prosocial skills. Such interventions generally entail teaching problem-solving and conflict-management skills, sharing, and improving parenting skills. Interventions improve children's social competence and interactions with peers in the short term and they also reduce long-term risks, such as substance abuse or delinquent behavior.
School-age interventions
Social competence becomes more complicated as children grow older, and most intervention efforts for this age group target individual skills, the family, and the classroom setting. These programs focus on training skills in problem-solving, emotional understanding, cooperation, and self-control. Understanding one's emotions, and the ability to communicate these emotions, is strongly emphasized. The most effective programs give children the opportunity to practice the new skills that they learn. Results of social competence interventions include decreased aggression, improved self-control, and increased conflict resolution skills.
Intervention Program
The social competence intervention program (SCIP) is a pilot program that uses more than one sense at a time throughout the intervention so the person becomes aware of their own thought process. Before running the intervention, it was assumed that some children have perception deficits along with poor social skills. Theater classes were taken to remedy these deficits in children who have learning disabilities and attention deficit disorders. At the conclusion of the study, evidence shows that participating children began to evolve their metacognitive skills such as feelings and behaviors.
See also
Social skills
References
Behaviorism
Group processes | 0.774179 | 0.978156 | 0.757268 |
Outdoor education | Outdoor education is organized learning that takes place in the outdoors, such as during school camping trips. Outdoor education programs sometimes involve residential or journey wilderness-based experiences which engage participants in a variety of adventurous challenges and outdoor activities such as hiking, climbing, canoeing, ropes courses and group games. Outdoor education draws upon the philosophy, theory, and practices of experiential education and environmental education.
Scope
Outdoor education has diverse goals and practices, but is often described as learning about, in, and through the outdoors.
Definitions
Outdoor education can be defined as experiential learning in, for, or about the outdoors. The term "outdoor education", however, is used broadly to refer to a range of organized activities that take place in a variety of ways in predominantly outdoor environments. Common definitions of outdoor education are difficult to achieve because interpretations vary according to culture, philosophy, and local conditions.
Outdoor education is often referred to as synonymous with outdoor learning, outdoor school, forest schools and wilderness education. Outdoor education often uses or draws upon related elements and/or informs related areas, such as teaching students how to pitch tents and cook over a campfire. The hallmark of outdoor education is its focus on the "outdoor" side of this education; whereas adventure education would focus on the adventure side and environmental education would focus on environmental. Expeditionary education involves expeditions into wilderness "where man is but a visitor." All of these activities typically involve experiential education.
Education outside the classroom
"Education outside the classroom" describes school curriculum learning, other than with a class of students sitting in a room with a teacher and books. It encompasses biology field trips and searching for insects in the school garden, as well as indoor activities like observing stock control in a local shop, or visiting a museum. It is a concept currently enjoying a revival because of the recognition of benefits from the more active style. The Education and Skills Committee of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom has reported that it brings history and art to life, develops social skills, and clearly enhances geography and science.,. There are key policies in place for outdoor learning in England, Scotland and Wales.
Despite the evidence supporting an extension of educational camping and outdoor learning for children, there are a number of obstacles in the way. One of these obstacles is risk aversion amongst teachers, parents and others, raising reluctance to such diverse and physical tasks. The journalist Tim Gill has written about parental and institutional risk aversion affecting many activities with children in his book "No Fear". Another obstacle is the perceived high cost of facilitating outdoor learning. Creating an outdoor learning environment needn't cost a great deal, however. The UK Early Years Framework Stage, which outlines best practice in Early Years teaching, asserts that: "Outdoor learning is more effective when adults focus on what children need to be able to do rather than what children need to have. An approach that considers experiences rather than equipment places children at the centre of learning and ensures that individual children's learning and developmental needs are taken account of and met effectively"
Linda Tallent, a UK-based educational consultant who has worked extensively with schools to develop their outdoor spaces into learning environments, agrees. She believes that by focusing on activities and skill development, it is possible to develop an outdoor learning curriculum on a 'shoe string'. She cites a comment by Will Nixon, who reminds readers that 'Using the real world is the way learning has happened for 99.9% of human existence. Only in the last hundred years have we put it into a little box called a classroom.'. Tallent also refers to evidence from a number of studies that the most effective way of learning is through participation, and calls on educators to make a special effort to create opportunities for children to participate in their learning.
Aims
Some typical aims of outdoor education are to:
learn how to overcome adversity;
enhance personal and social development;
develop a deeper relationship with nature;
boost self-confidence when camping with classmates;
raise attainment through better teaching and learning experiences.
Outdoor education spans the three domains of self, others, and the natural world. The relative emphasis of these three domains varies from one program to another. An outdoor education program can, for example, emphasize one (or more) of these aims to:
teach outdoor survival skills
improve problem solving skills
reduce recidivism
enhance teamwork
develop leadership skills
understand natural environments
promote spirituality
provide an active, first-hand learning experience
Outdoor education is often used as a means to create a deeper sense of place for people in a community. Sense of place is manifested through the understanding and connection that one has with the area in which they reside. Sense of place is an important aspect of environmentalism as well as environmental justice because it makes the importance of sustaining a particular ecosystem that much more personal to an individual.
History
Modern outdoor education owes its beginnings to separate initiatives. Organized camping was evident in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century in Europe, the UK, the US, Australia, and New Zealand. The Scouting movement, established in the UK in 1907 by Robert Baden-Powell, employs non-formal education with an emphasis on practical outdoor activities. The first Outward Bound centre at Aberdyfi in Wales was established during the Second World War. The Forest schools of Denmark are examples of European programs with similar aims and objectives.
Key outdoor education pioneers include Kurt Hahn, a German educator who founded schools such as the Schule Schloss Salem in Germany; the United World Colleges movement, the Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme (which emphasizes community service, craftsmanship skills, physical skill, and outdoor expeditions), and the Outward Bound movement.
The second half of the twentieth century saw rapid growth of outdoor education in all sectors (state, voluntary, and commercial) with an ever-widening range of client groups and applications. In this period Outward Bound spread to over 40 countries, including the US in the 1960s. Other US based outdoor education programs include Project Adventure and the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS). Project Adventure focuses on day use of ropes courses. NOLS uses the outdoor setting to train leaders for outdoor programs and for other settings including training every new US astronaut and 10% of the US Naval Academy. The Association for Experiential Education is a professional association for "experiential" educators. The Wilderness Education Association (WEA) is a consortium of college outdoor education programs with a standard curriculum based on an academic model. (See also North America in the Around the World section.)
A history of outdoor education in the UK has been documented by Lyn Cook (1999), and a history of outdoor education in New Zealand has been published in Pip Lynch's Camping in the Curriculum (2007).
Philosophy and theory
Philosophy and theory about outdoor education tends to emphasize the effect of natural environments on human beings, the educative role of stress and challenge, and experiential learning.
One view is that participants are at their "rawest" level when outdoors because they are "stripped" of many of the conveniences of modern life. Participants can become more aware that they are part of a greater ecosystem and are not as bound by social customs and norms. In essence participants can be true to themselves and more able to see others as people regardless of race, class, religion etc. Outdoor education also helps instill the basic elements of teamwork because participants often need to work together and rely on others. For many people a high ropes course or an outdoor activity may stretch their comfort zone and cause them to challenge themselves physically which in turn can lead to challenging oneself mentally.
The roots of modern outdoor education can be found in the philosophical work of:
Comenius
John Dewey
William James
Aldo Leopold
John Locke
John Muir
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Henry David Thoreau
Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi
Foundational work on the philosophy of outdoor education includes work by:
Kurt Hahn
Willi Unsoeld
A wide range of social science and specific outdoor education theories and models have been applied in an effort to better understand outdoor education. Amongst the key theoretical models or concepts are:
Experiential education theories
Group development theories
the Outward Bound Process Model
Stress, optimal arousal, comfort zone, and psychological flow theories
Psychoevolutionary theory and the Biophilia hypothesis
Around the world
Outdoor education occurs, in one form or another, in most if not all countries of the world. However, it can be implemented very differently, depending on the cultural context. Some countries, for example, view outdoor education as synonymous with environmental education, whilst other countries treat outdoor education and environmental education as distinct. Modern forms of outdoor education are most prevalent in the UK, US, Australia, New Zealand, Europe and to some extent Asia and Africa. Many outdoor Education programs were cancelled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 Pandemic.
UK
The English Outdoor Council, an umbrella body, defines outdoor education as a way for students and teachers to be fully engaged in a lesson, all the while embracing the outdoors. The EOC deems outdoor education as "providing depth to the curriculum and makes an important contribution to students' physical, personal and social education.". In the UK, Learning through Landscapes champion the use of School Grounds as a cost effective, easily accessible place of learning and play. Forest School. is also fashionable in the UK, providing a very specialist approach to personal development within the wider context of Outdoor Learning.
Australia and New Zealand
Throughout Australia & New Zealand many school students undertake outdoor / outdoor and environmental education. Aust / NZ have several outdoor education degrees and vocational outdoor recreation programs. Once teachers and outdoor leaders have completed their studies, many have opportunities to work in schools, private organizations or various outdoor education centres in either country. Outdoor Education is mandated as part of the New Zealand Health and Physical Education as one of the 7 key areas of learning. The Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority with support from Outdoor Education Australia has developed curriculum documents to support schools to conduct outdoor education throughout the country primarily through the learning areas of Science, Health and Physical Education and Humanities.
Canada
Environmental education, most notably outdoor education in Canada is seen through outdoor camp and residential programs, school-based programs and commercial travel operations. Outdoor education in Canada is based around "hard" technical skills—often travel and camping skills—and the "soft"—group skills and personal growth qualities—are blended with, one might say, the "green" and "warm" skills of a complementary eco-adventure focus." Adventures are found whether one is partaking in environmental awareness or team-building workshops throughout Canada.
Denmark
Denmark is known as one of the more environmentally conscious countries in the developed world. One of the ways in which this presents itself, is through the forest school system that exists there. Children are taught in the woods using nature and animals to learn about basic environmental education as well as the fundamental elementary education that is required.
Finland
At Finnish schools, the term “outdoor education” represents teaching and learning that takes place outside the classroom with the aim to achieve goals in the National core curriculum for basic education as and in the National core curriculum for upper secondary schools. In the upper secondary schools (students aged 16–18), the theme is “Sustainable
development”. Students are encouraged to pursue a sustainable lifestyle, to take action for sustainable development, and to examine the challenges of SD. Some vocational institutes offer secondary lever degree in Nature and Environmental Studies focusing mainly to tourism and experience industries. Humak University of Applied Sciences offers a bachelor's degree in Adventure and Outdoor Education in its English language programme focusing on the technical skills for the adventure sports and pedagogy, tourism and entrepreneurship. Annually 20 students are taken in to the programme. In addition Humak University of Applied Sciences offers updating education for teachers and persons active in adventure sports in their Open University of Applied Sciences.
France
Alain Kerjean founded in 1986 "Hors Limites-Outward Bound France", adaptation to adults of active pedagogy and introduces in France apprentissage par l'expérience movement. The first Latin country member of this network. Honnor president : SAS Prince Albert of Monaco. In 1994 was founded two bodies : Association Apprendre par l'expérience (youth), and SARL Expérientiel (corporate). From 2008, Alain Kerjean develops Outdoor Education for universities in Romania and advises in France training organizations wishing to design programs based on this pedagogy. His books and articles make available Anglo-Saxon research and publications on the subject to the French public.
Spain
The first major and highly publicized outdoor learning project was Ruta Quetzal. Launched with assistance of king Juan Carlos in 1979, it was heavily focused on exploring cross-Atlantic Hispanidad cultural links and for decades was managed by the adventurer and media celebrity, Miguel de la Quadra-Salcedo. The project is ongoing. There are numerous similar though less ambitious schemes currently operational, e.g. Rumbo al Sur, annual tours in Africa managed by a TV reality-show star Telmo Aldaz de la Quadra-Salcedo.
Research and critical views
There is much anecdotal evidence about benefits of outdoor education experiences; teachers, for example, often speak of the improvement they have in relationships with students following a camping trip. However, hard evidence showing that outdoor education has a demonstrable long-term effect on behaviour or educational achievement is harder to identify; this may be in part because of the difficulty involved in conducting studies which separate out the effects of outdoor education on meaningful outcomes.
A major meta-analysis of 97 empirical studies indicated a positive overall effect of adventure education programs on outcomes such as self-concept, leadership, and communication skills. This study also indicated that there appeared to be ongoing positive effects. The largest empirical study of the effects of outdoor education programs (mostly Outward Bound programs) found small-moderate short-term positive impacts on a diverse range of generic life skills, with the strongest outcomes for longer, expedition-based programs with motivated young adults, and partial long-term retention of these gains.
In "Adventure in a Bun", Chris Loynes has suggested that outdoor education is increasingly an entertainment park consumption experience. In a paper entitled "The Generative Paradigm", Loynes has also called for an increase in "creativity, spontaneity and vitality".
Outdoor education has been found more beneficial to those students who find classroom learning more challenging. Maynard, Waters & Clement (2013) found that, resonating with their previous findings, the teachers in their study reported "that when engaged in child-initiated activity in the outdoor environment, over half of the children who in the classroom were perceived to be 'underachieving' appeared to behave differently" (p. 221). Their work aims to support the notion that the more natural outdoor spaces in which child-initiated activities take place both directly and indirectly diminish the perception of underachievement. This is important because a number of studies have shown that expectations based on perception of students is important for student learning.
This may also be due to a non-academic family background, or a personal psychological trait such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
When German children from forest kindergartens went to primary school, teachers observed a significant improvement in reading, writing, mathematics, social interactions and many other areas. A yearlong study was done where a group of 9th and 12th grade students learned through outdoor education. The focus was on raising the critical thinking skills of the students as a measure of improvement, where critical thinking was defined to be, "the process of purposeful self-regulatory judgment and decision making". The problem solving capabilities included the ability of students to interpret, to analyze, to evaluate, to infer, to explain and to self-regulate. Researchers found that both 9th and 12th graders scored higher than the control groups in critical thinking by a significant amount.
Using the Environment as an Integrating Context for learning (EIC) is the foundation of a substantial report which found benefits in learning outside the classroom on standardized measures of academic achievement in reading, writing, math, science, and social studies; reduced discipline problems; and increased enthusiasm for learning and pride in accomplishments.
Trends
There are several important trends and changing circumstances for outdoor education, including:
Climate change
Nature deficit disorder
Exercise trends and fitness culture
Rationalization (sociology)
Standards-based education reform
See also
Activities
Abseiling
Adventure park
Backpacking
Camping
Canoeing
Geocaching
Kayaking
Nature study
Questing
Rafting
Rock climbing
Ropes course
Sail training
Snowboarding
Orienteering / Wayfinding
Slacklining
Skateboarding
Associations
American Camp Association
Association for Experiential Education
Organizations
Learning through Landscapes - UK based champions of school grounds for outdoor learning and play.
The Duke of Edinburgh's Award – award for personal achievement, including outdoor activities
National Outdoor Leadership School
Boy Scouts of America – youth leadership and outdoors training, "Venturing" co-ed for 14-20
Nature's Classroom – environmental education program in the US
Boston Schoolyard Initiative – elementary school based outdoor environmental education
Outdoor Education Group – educational organization in Australia
Outward Bound – international educational organization
Solid Rock Outdoor Ministries – Christian Outdoor Leadership and Education organization.
John Muir Award (disambiguation)
Forest School
People
Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell: Founder of the Scout Movement and The Scout Association.
Juliette Gordon Low: Founder of the Girl Scouts of the USA
Daniel Carter Beard: Outdoorsman. Founder of the Boy Pioneers. Co-founder of the Boy Scouts of America and the Camp Fire Girls.
Harold C. Bryant: worked on US national parks in education
Edward Urner Goodman: Scoutmaster. Camp Director, Treasure Island Scout Reservation. National Program Director, Boy Scouts of America. Founder, Order of the Arrow.
Bear Grylls / Edward Michael Grylls: Outdoor adventurer; summitted Mt. Everest. Chief Scout of The Scout Association.
Luther Halsey Gulick: Proponent of Playground Education. Co-founder of the Boy Scouts of America and the Camp Fire Girls.
Kurt Hahn / Kurt Matthias Robert Martin Hahn: Experiential educator. Founder of Schule Schloss Salem, Gordonstoun, and United World Colleges system. Founded Outward Bound with Lawrence Durning Holt and Jim Hogan. Originator of the Moray Badge, the forerunner of the County Badge
William Hillcourt: Boy Scout; Scoutmaster; Scouting professional. Authored many books and articles on Scouting, outdoor activities, and Scout skills, including the first Scout Fieldbook and three editions of the Boy Scout Handbook of the BSA. Endeavored to maintain the outdoor orientation of US Boy Scouting.
Clifton F. Hodge: nature study with an evolutionary perspective
James Kielsmeier: Outward Bound instructor. Proponent of experiential education and service learning. Founder of the National Youth Leadership Council and the Center for Experiential Education and Service-Learning (University of Minnesota).
Ernst Killander: Soldier; Boy Scout leader; propagator of orienteering.
Richard Louv: Journalist. Proponent of nature awareness and opponent of what he termed "nature-deficit disorder."
John P. Milton: Conducted life transformation journeys in wilderness areas of Asia, Africa, North America, and South America. Founder of Sacred Passage and The Way of Nature Fellowship.
Joshua Lewis Miner, III: Worked at Gordonstoun; took Kurt Hahn's ideas to the US. Co-founder of Colorado Outward Bound School with Charles Froelicher. Founder of Outward Bound USA. Inspired use of outdoor education in the Peace Corps.
Ohiyesa / Charles Alexander Eastman: North American Indian of the Isáŋyathi tribe of the Dakota nation; physician; author; worked closely with YMCA, Woodcraft Indians, and YMCA Indian Guides; co-founder of the Boy Scouts of America and Camp Fire Girls.
Tony Pammer: Canoeing instructor. Co-founder and CEO of the Outdoor Education Group.
Jerry Pieh: Outward Bound instructor and school principal who pioneered the introduction of Outward Bound methods into the mainstream school system; father of Project Adventure (founded with Mary Ladd Smith, Robert Lentz, Karl Rohnke, Jim Schoel and others), which gave impetus to Adventure-Based Counseling.
Edgar Munroe Robinson: YMCA summer camp director. Set up the fledgling Boy Scouts of America organization.
Ernest Thompson Seton: Founded the Woodcraft Indians and the Woodcraft League. Inspiration and major source of Baden-Powell's Scouting for Boys. Co-founder of the Boy Scouts of America and the Camp Fire Girls. Chief Scout of the Boy Scouts of America.
Topics
Adventure therapy
Adventure travel
Deep ecology
Ecopsychology
Educational progressivism
Environmental psychology
Green exercise
Minimal impact code
Natural environment
Outdoor recreation
Rite of passage
Summer camp
Team building
Wilderness therapy
Forest kindergarten
References
External links
Experiential learning | 0.77042 | 0.982909 | 0.757253 |
Anecdotal evidence | An anecdotal evidence (or anecdata) is a piece of evidence based on descriptions and reports of individual, personal experiences, or observations, collected in a non-systematic manner.
The word anecdotal constitutes a variety of forms of evidence. This word refers to personal experiences, self-reported claims, or eyewitness accounts of others, including those from fictional sources, making it a broad category that can lead to confusion due to its varied interpretations.
Anecdotal evidence can be true or false but is not usually subjected to the methodology of scholarly method, the scientific method, or the rules of legal, historical, academic, or intellectual rigor, meaning that there are little or no safeguards against fabrication or inaccuracy. However, the use of anecdotal reports in advertising or promotion of a product, service, or idea may be considered a testimonial, which is highly regulated in some jurisdictions.
The persuasiveness of anecdotal evidence compared to that of statistical evidence has been a subject of debate; some studies have argued for the presence a generalized tendency to overvalue anecdotal evidence, whereas others have emphasized the types of argument as a prerequisite or rejected the conclusion altogether.
Scientific context
In science, definitions of anecdotal evidence include:
"casual observations or indications rather than rigorous or scientific analysis"
"information passed along by word-of-mouth but not documented scientifically"
"evidence that comes from an individual experience. This may be the experience of a person with an illness or the experience of a practitioner based on one or more patients outside a formal research study."
"the report of an experience by one or more persons that is not objectively documented or an experience or outcome that occurred outside of a controlled environment"
Anecdotal evidence may be considered within the scope of scientific method as some anecdotal evidence can be both empirical and verifiable, e.g. in the use of case studies in medicine. Other anecdotal evidence, however, does not qualify as scientific evidence, because its nature prevents it from being investigated by the scientific method, for instance, in that of folklore or in the case of intentionally fictional anecdotes. Where only one or a few anecdotes are presented, there is a chance that they may be unreliable due to cherry-picked or otherwise non-representative samples of typical cases. Similarly, psychologists have found that due to cognitive bias people are more likely to remember notable or unusual examples rather than typical examples. Thus, even when accurate, anecdotal evidence is not necessarily representative of a typical experience. Accurate determination of whether an anecdote is typical requires statistical evidence. Misuse of anecdotal evidence in the form of argument from anecdote is an informal fallacy and is sometimes referred to as the "person who" fallacy ("I know a person who..."; "I know of a case where..." etc.) which places undue weight on experiences of close peers which may not be typical.
Anecdotal evidence can have varying degrees of formality. For instance, in medicine, published anecdotal evidence by a trained observer (a doctor) is called a case report, and is subjected to formal peer review. Although such evidence is not seen as conclusive, researchers may sometimes regard it as an invitation to more rigorous scientific study of the phenomenon in question. For instance, one study found that 35 of 47 anecdotal reports of drug side-effects were later sustained as "clearly correct."
Anecdotal evidence is considered the least certain type of scientific information. Researchers may use anecdotal evidence for suggesting new hypotheses, but never as validating evidence.
If an anecdote illustrates a desired conclusion rather than a logical conclusion, it is considered a faulty or hasty generalization.
In any case where some factor affects the probability of an outcome, rather than uniquely determining it, selected individual cases prove nothing; e.g. "my grandfather smoked two packs a day until he died at 90" and "my sister never smoked but died of lung cancer". Anecdotes often refer to the exception, rather than the rule: "Anecdotes are useless precisely because they may point to idiosyncratic responses."
In medicine, anecdotal evidence is also subject to placebo effects.
Legal
In the legal sphere, anecdotal evidence, if it passes certain legal requirements and is admitted as testimony, is a common form of evidence used in a court of law. Often this form of anecdotal evidence is the only evidence presented at trial. Scientific evidence in a court of law is called physical evidence, but this is much rarer. Anecdotal evidence, with a few safeguards, represents the bulk of evidence in court.
The legal rigors applied to testimony for it to be considered evidence is that it must be given under oath, that the person is only testifying to their own words and actions, and that someone intentionally lying under oath is subject to perjury. However, these rigors do not make testimony in a court of law equal to scientific evidence as there are far less legal rigors. Testimony about another person's experiences or words is called hearsay and is usually not admissible, though there are certain exceptions. However, any hearsay that is not objected to or thrown out by a judge is considered evidence for a jury. This means that trials contain quite a bit of anecdotal evidence, which is considered as relevant evidence by a jury. Eyewitness testimony (which is a form of anecdotal evidence) is considered the most compelling form of evidence by a jury.
See also
References
Informal fallacies
Philosophy of science
Skepticism
Evidence
Testimony
Inductive fallacies
Pseudoscience
Diversionary tactics
Misuse of statistics
Anecdotes | 0.761611 | 0.994244 | 0.757226 |
Play (activity) | Play is a range of intrinsically motivated activities done for recreational pleasure and enjoyment. Play is commonly associated with children and juvenile-level activities, but may be engaged in at any life stage, and among other higher-functioning animals as well, most notably mammals and birds.
Play is often interpreted as frivolous; yet the player can be intently focused on their objective, particularly when play is structured and goal-oriented, as in a game. Accordingly, play can range from relaxed, free-spirited, spontaneous, and frivolous to planned or even compulsive. Play is not just a pastime activity; it has the potential to serve as an important tool in numerous aspects of daily life for adolescents, adults, and cognitively advanced non-human species (such as primates). Not only does play promote and aid in physical development (such as hand-eye coordination), but it also aids in cognitive development and social skills, and can even act as a stepping stone into the world of integration, which can be a very stressful process. Play is something that most children partake in, but the way play is executed is different between cultures, and the way that children engage with play varies.
Definitions
The seminal text in the field of play studies is the book Homo Ludens first published in 1944 with several subsequent editions, in which Johan Huizinga defines play as follows:
This definition of play as constituting a separate and independent sphere of human activity is sometimes referred to as the "magic circle" notion of play, a phrase also attributed to Huizinga. Many other definitions exist. Jean Piaget stated, "the many theories of play expounded in the past are clear proof that the phenomenon is difficult to understand."
Another definition of play from the twenty-first century comes from the National Playing Fields Association. The definition reads as follows: "play is freely chosen, personally directed, intrinsically motivated behaviour that actively engages the child." This definition focuses more on the child's freedom of choice and personal motivation related to an activity.
Forms
Play can take the form of improvisation, pretense, interaction, performance, mimicry, games, sports, and thrill-seeking (including extreme or dangerous sports like sky-diving, high-speed racing, etc.).
Philosopher Roger Caillois wrote about play in his 1961 book Man, Play and Games.
Free-form play gives children the freedom to decide what they want to play and how it will be played. Both the activity and the rules are subject to change in this form, and children can make any changes to the rules or objectives of the play at any time. Some countries in the twenty-first century have added emphasis of free play into their values for children in early childhood, for example Taiwan and Hungary.
Structured play has clearly defined goals and rules. Such play is called a "game". Other play is unstructured or open-ended. Both types of play promote adaptive behaviors and mental states of happiness.
Sports with defined rules take place within designated play spaces, such as sports fields—in association football for example, players kick a ball in a certain direction and push opponents out of their way as they do so. While appropriate within the sport's play space, these same behaviors might be inappropriate or even illegal outside the playing field.
Other designed play spaces can be playgrounds with dedicated equipment and structures to promote active and social play. Some play spaces go even farther in specialization to bring the play indoors, and charge admission, as seen at Children's Museums, Science Centers, or Family Entertainment Centers. Family Entertainment Centers (or Play Zones) are typically for-profit businesses that facilitate play and entertainment, while Children's Museums and Science Centers are typically non-profit organisations for educational entertainment.
The California-based National Institute for Play describes seven play patterns:
attunement play establishes a connection, such as between newborn and mother
body play an infant explores the ways in which his or her body works and interacts with the world, such as making funny sounds or discovering what happens in a fall
creative play uses imagination to transcend what is known in the current state, to create a higher state. For example, a person might experiment to find a new way to use a musical instrument, thereby taking that form of music to a higher plane; or, as Einstein was known to do, a person might wonder about things which are not yet known and play with unproven ideas as a bridge to the discovery of new knowledge.
imaginative or pretend play a child invents scenarios from his or her imagination and acts within them as a form of play, such as princess or pirate play
object play such as playing with toys, banging pots and pans, handling physical things in ways that use curiosity
social play involves others in activities such as tumbling, making faces, and building connections with another child or group of children
storytelling play play of learning and language that develops intellect, such as a parent reading aloud to a child, or a child retelling the story in his or her own words
Another classification system uses these categories:
challenge play such as solving a Rubik's Cube puzzle
competitive play such as a footrace
construction play such as building with blocks
cooperative play such as playing on a team or making up a new game together
creative play such as making up a new story or drawing a picture
pretend play such as children pretending to be animals or a storybook character
nurturing play such as playing with baby dolls
replica play such as playing with toy versions of food in a play kitchen
Some forms overlap, such as a relay race (cooperative and competitive) or building a blanket fort (construction and creative).
Separate from self-initiated play, play therapy is used as a clinical application of play aimed at treating children who suffer from trauma, emotional issues and other problems.
Children
In young children, play is associated with cognitive development and socialization. Play that promotes learning and recreation often incorporates toys, props, tools, or other playmates. Play can consist of an amusing, pretend, or imaginary activity alone or with another. Some forms of play are rehearsals or trials for later life events, such as "play fighting", pretend social encounters (such as parties with dolls), or flirting. Findings in neuroscience suggest that play promotes flexibility of mind, including adaptive practices such as discovering multiple ways to achieve a desired result, or creative ways to improve or reorganize a given situation.
As children get older, they engage in board games, video games, and computer play, and in this context the word gameplay is used to describe the concept and theory of play and its relationship to rules and game design. In their book, Rules of Play, researchers Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman outline 18 schemas for games, using them to define "play", "interaction", and "design" formally for behaviorists. Similarly, in his book Half-Real: Video Games between Real Rules and Fictional Worlds, game researcher and theorist Jesper Juul explores the relationship between real rules and unreal scenarios in play, such as winning or losing a game in the real world when played together with real-world friends, but doing so by slaying a dragon in the fantasy world presented in the shared video game.
Play is explicitly recognized in Article 31 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations, November 29, 1989), which declares:
Parties recognize the right of the child to rest and leisure, to engage in play and recreational activities appropriate to the age of the child and to participate freely in cultural life and the arts.
Parties shall respect and promote the right of the child to participate fully in cultural and artistic life and shall encourage the provision of appropriate and equal opportunities for cultural, artistic, recreational, and leisure activities.
History of childhood playtime
American historian Howard Chudacoff studied the interplay between parental control of toys and games and children's drive for freedom to play. In the colonial era, toys were makeshift and children taught each other very simple games with little adult supervision. The market economy of the 19th century enabled the modern concept of childhood as a distinct, happy life stage. Factory-made dolls and doll houses delighted young girls. Organized sports filtered down from adults and colleges, and boys learned to play with a bat, a ball, and an impromptu playing field.
With the rise of motor vehicle traffic in the 20th century, teenagers were increasingly organized into club sports supervised and coached by adults, with swimming taught at summer camps and through supervised playgrounds.
Under the American New Deal's Works Progress Administration, thousands of local playgrounds and ball fields opened, promoting softball especially as a sport for all ages and genders. By the 21st century, Chudacoff notes, the old tension between parental controls and a child's individual freedom was being played out in cyberspace.
Cultural differences
The act of play time is a cross-cultural phenomenon that is universally accepted and encouraged by most communities; however, it can differ in the ways that is performed.
Some cultures, such as Euro-American ones, encourage play time in order to stress cognitive benefits and the importance of learning how to care for one's self. Other cultures, such as people of African American or Asian American heritages, stress more group oriented learning and play where kids can learn what they can do with and for others.
Parent interactions at playtime also differ within communities. Parents in the Mayan culture interact with their children in a playful mindset while parents in the United States tend to set aside time to play and teach their children through games and activities. In the Mayan community, children are supported in their playing but also encouraged to play while watching their parents do household work in order to become familiar with how to follow in their footsteps.
All around the world, children use natural materials like stones, water, sand, leaves, fruits, sticks, and a variety of resources to play. In addition, there are groups that have access to crafts, industrialized toys, electronics, and video-games.
In Australia, games and sports are part of play. There, play can be considered as preparation for life and self-expression, like in many other countries.
Groups of children in Efe of the Democratic Republic of Congo can be seen making ‘food’ from dirt or pretending to shoot bows and arrows much like their elders. These activities are similar to other forms of play worldwide. For instance, children can be seen comforting their toy dolls or animals, anything that they have modeled from adults in their communities.
In Brazil, children can be found playing with balls, kites, marbles, pretend houses, or mud kitchens, like in many other countries. In smaller communities they use mud balls, little stones or cashews to replace marbles.
At an indigenous community of Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in Colombia, children's play is highly valued and encouraged by leaders and parents. They interact with the children of different ages and explore together different environments to let the children express themselves as part of the group.
Some children in the Sahara use clay figures as their forms of playful toys. Toys in general are a representation of cultural practices. They usually illustrate characters and objects of a community.
Play time can be a way for children to learn the different ways of their culture. Many communities use play to emulate work. The way in which children mimic work through their play can differ according to the opportunities they have access to, but it is something that tends to be promoted by adults.
Sports
Sport activities are one of the most universal forms of play. Different continents have their own popular/dominant sports. For example, European, South American, and African countries enjoy soccer (also known as ‘football’ in Europe), while North American countries prefer basketball, ice hockey, baseball, or American football. In Asia, sports such as table tennis and badminton are played professionally; however soccer and basketball are played amongst common folks, with cricket popular in South Asia. Events such as The Olympic Games and FIFA World Cup showcase countries competing with each other and are broadcast all over the world.
Sports can be played as a leisure activity or within a competition. According to sociologist Norbert Elias it is an important part of "civilization process". Victory and defeat in sports can influence one's emotions to a point where everything else seems irrelevant. Sport fans can also imagine what it feels like to play for their preferred team. The feelings people experience can be so surreal that it affects their emotions and behavior.
Benefits in youth
Youth sport can provide a positive outcome for youth development. Research shows adolescents are more motivated and engaged in sports than any other activity, and these conditions predict a richer personal and interpersonal development. Anxiety, depression and obesity can stem from lack of activity and social interaction. There is a high correlation between the amount of time that youth spend playing sports and physical (e.g., better general health), psychological (e.g., subjective well-being), academic (e.g., school grades), and social benefits (e.g., making friends). Electronics are a form of playtime, but researchers have found that most electronic play leads to lack of motivation, no social interaction, and can lead to obesity. Play is children using their creativity while developing their imagination, dexterity, and physical, cognitive, and emotional strength. Dramatic play is common in younger children. For youth to benefit from playtime, the following are recommended:
Give children ample, unscheduled time to be creative to reflect and decompress.
Give children "true" toys, such as blocks or dolls for creativity.
Youth should have a group of supportive people around them (teammates, coaches, and parents) with positive relationships.
Youth should possess skill development; such as physical, interpersonal, and knowledge about the sport.
Youth should be able to make their own decisions about their sport participation.
Youth should have experiences that are on par with their needs and developmental level.
Research findings on benefits in youth
By participating regularly in a variety of sports, children can develop and become more proficient at various skills (such as jumping, kicking, running, throwing, etc.) if they focus on skill mastery and development. Young athletes can also develop:
agility and speed
enhanced functioning and health of cardiorespiratory and muscular systems
improved flexibility, mobility, and coordination
increased stamina and strength
increased likelihood of maintaining weight
Regular participation in sport and physical activity is associated with a lower risk of diabetes, heart disease, obesity, and other related diseases. According to research by the Australian Early Childhood Mental Health Initiative, children can be assisted in dealing with and managing stress by developing their sense of optimism when playing sports. Young people also tend to be more nutrition-conscious in their food choices when they participate in sport. Girls involved in sport are less likely to experience teenage pregnancy, begin smoking, or develop breast cancer. Young athletes have shown lower levels of total cholesterol and other favorable profiles in serum lipid parameters associated with cardiovascular disease. Sport provides an arena for young people to be physically active and so reduces the time spent in sedentary pursuits, such as watching TV and playing video games.
Adults
Although adults who engage in high amounts of play may find themselves described as "childish" or "young at heart" by less playful adults, play is an important activity, regardless of age. Creativity and happiness can result from adult play, where the objective can be more than fun alone, as in adult expression of the arts, or curiosity-driven science. Some adult "hobbies" are examples of such creative play. In creative professions, such as design, playfulness can dispel more serious attitudes (such as shame or embarrassment) that impede brainstorming or artistic experimentation in design.
Imaginative play and role play may allow adults to practice useful habits such as learned optimism, which is helpful in managing fear or terrors. Play also offers adults the opportunity to practice concepts that may not have been explicitly or formally taught (e.g. how to manage misinformation or deceit). Thus, even though play is just one of many tools used by effective adults, it remains a necessary one.
Workplace
There has been extensive research on the benefits of play among children, youth, and adolescence. Overlooked are the benefits of play for adults—more specifically, adults who spend a lot of time in the workplace. Many adults in North America are in the workforce and spend half of their waking hours in a workplace environment with little to no time for play. Play in this context refers to leisure-type activities with colleagues during lunch breaks or short breaks throughout the working day. Leisure activities might include physical sport activities, card games, board games, video games, foosball, ping-pong, yoga, and boot-camp sessions.
Playing games may promote a persistent and optimistic motivational style and positive affect. Positive affect enhances people's experiences, enjoyment, and sense of satisfaction, during their engagement with a task. While people are engaged in work, positive affect increases the satisfaction they feel from the work, and this increases their creativity and improves their performance on problem-solving tasks as well as other tasks. The development of a persistent motivational style charged with positive affect may lead to lasting work success.
Work and play are mutually supportive. Employees need to experience the sense of newness, flow, discovery, and liveliness that play provides. This provides the employee with the sense that they are integrated within the organization, and therefore they feel and perform better.
Incorporating play at work results in more productivity, creativity and innovation, higher job satisfaction, greater workplace morale, stronger or new social bonds, improved job performance, and a decrease in staff turnover, absenteeism, and stress. Decreased stress leads to less illness, which results in lower health care costs. Play at work may help employees function and cope when under stress, refresh body and mind, encourage teamwork, trigger creativity, and increase energy while preventing burnout.
Companies that encourage play at work, whether short breaks throughout the day or during lunch breaks, are more successful because this leads to positive emotion among employees. Risk taking, confidence in presenting novel ideas, and embracing unusual and fresh perspectives are associated with play at work. Play can increase self-reported job satisfaction and well-being. Employees experiencing positive emotions are more cooperative, more social, and perform better when faced with complex tasks.
Contests, team-building exercises, fitness programs, mental health breaks, and other social activities make the work environment fun, interactive, and rewarding. Playfighting, i.e. playful fights or fictive disputes, may contribute to organizations and institutions, as in youth care settings. Staff tries to down-key playfight invitations to "treatment" or "learning," but playfighting also offers youth and staff identificatory respite from the institutional regime. Playfighting is a recurrent pattern in the social life of a youth care institution and sits at the core of what inmates and staff have to deal with
Seniors
Older adults represent one of the fastest growing populations around the world. The United Nations predicted an increase of those aged 60 and above from 629 million in 2002 to approximately two billion in 2050 but increased life expectancy does not necessarily translate to a better quality of life. For this reason, research has begun to investigate methods to maintain and/or improve quality of life among older adults.
Similar to the data surrounding children and adults, play and activity are associated with improved health and quality of life among seniors. Additionally, play and activity tend to affect successful aging as well as boost well-being throughout the lifespan. Although children, adults, and seniors all tend to benefit from play, older adults often perform it in unique ways to account for possible issues, such as health restrictions, limited accessibility, and revised priorities. For this reason, elderly people may partake in physical exercise groups, interactive video games, and social forums specifically geared towards their needs and interests. One qualitative research study found older adults often chose to engage in specific games such as dominoes, checkers, and bingo for entertainment. Another study indicated a common pattern in game preferences among older adults: seniors often favor activities that encourage mental and physical fitness, incorporate past interests, have some level of competition, and foster a sense of belonging. Researchers investigating play in older adults are also interested in the benefits of technology and video games as therapeutic tools. These outlets can lower the risk of developing particular diseases, reduce feelings of social isolation and stress, and promote creativity and the maintenance of cognitive skills. As a result, play has been integrated into physiotherapy and occupational therapy interventions for seniors.
The ability to incorporate play into one's routine is important because these activities allow participants to express creativity, improve verbal and non-verbal intelligence, and enhance balance. These benefits may be especially crucial to seniors because cognitive and physical functioning declines with age. However, it might not be aging itself that is associated with the decline in cognitive and physical capabilities, but the higher levels of inactivity in older adults.
Play and activity tend to decline with age which may result in negative outcomes such as social isolation, depression, and mobility issues. American studies found that only 24% of seniors took part in regular physical activity and only 42% use the internet for entertainment purposes. In comparison to other age groups, the elderly are more likely to experience a variety of barriers, such as difficulty with environmental hazards and accessibility issues, that may hinder their abilities to play. Although playing may benefit seniors, it also has the potential to negatively impact their health. For example, those who play may be more susceptible to injury. Investigating these barriers may assist in the creation of useful interventions and/or the development of preventative measures, such as establishing safer recreational areas, that promote play throughout elderly life.
A moderate level of play has numerous positive outcomes in the lives of senior citizens. To support and promote play within the older population, institutions should set up more diverse equipment, improve conditions within recreational areas, and create more video games or online forums that appeal to the needs of seniors.
Other animals
Evolutionary psychologists believe that there must be an important benefit of play, as there are so many other reasons to avoid it; observations have shown it has arisen independently in such varied groups as mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, and invertebrates. Animals are often injured during play, become distracted from predators, and expend valuable energy. In rare cases, play has even been observed between different species that are natural enemies such as a polar bear and a dog. Yet play seems to be a normal activity with animals who occupy the higher strata of their own hierarchy of needs. Animals on the lower strata, e.g. stressed and starving animals, generally do not play. However, in wild Assamese macaques physically active play is performed also during periods of low food availability and even if it is at the expense of growth, which highlights the developmental and evolutionary importance of play.
The social cognitive complexity of numerous species, including dogs, have been explored in experimental studies. In one such study, conducted by Alexandra Horowitz of the University of California, the communication and attention-getting skills of dogs were investigated. In a natural setting, dyadic play behavior was observed; head-direction and posture was specifically noted. When one of the two dogs was facing away or otherwise preoccupied, attention-getting behaviors and signals (nudging, barking, growling, pawing, jumping, etc.) were used by the other dog to communicate the intent and/or desire to continue on with the dyadic play. Stronger or more frequent signaling was used if the attention of the other dog was not captured. These observations tell us that these dogs know how play behavior and signaling can be used to capture attention, communicate intent and desire, and manipulate one another. This characteristic and skill, called the "attention-getting skill" has generally only been seen in humans, but is now being researched and seen in many different species.
Observing play behavior in various species can tell much about the player's environment (including the welfare of the animal), personal needs, social rank (if any), immediate relationships, and eligibility for mating. Play activity, often observed through action and signals, serves as a tool for communication and expression. Through mimicry, chasing, biting, and touching, animals act out in ways that send messages to one another; whether it's an alert, initiation of play, or expressing intent. When play behavior was observed for a study in Tonkean macaques, it was discovered that play signals weren't always used to initiate play; rather, these signals were viewed primarily as methods of communication (sharing information and attention-getting).
One theory—"play as preparation"—was inspired by the observation that play often mimics adult themes of survival. Predators such as lions and bears play by chasing, pouncing, pawing, wrestling, and biting, as they learn to stalk and kill prey. Prey animals such as deer and zebras play by running and leaping as they acquire speed and agility. Hoofed mammals also practice kicking their hind legs to learn to ward off attacks. Indeed, time spent in physical play accelerates motor skill acquisition in wild Assamese macaques. While mimicking adult behavior, attacking actions such as kicking and biting are not completely fulfilled, so playmates do not generally injure each other. In social animals, playing might also help to establish dominance rankings among the young to avoid conflicts as adults.
John Byers, a zoologist at the University of Idaho, discovered that the amount of time spent at play for many mammals (e.g. rats and cats) peaks around puberty, and then drops off. This corresponds to the development of the cerebellum, suggesting that play is not so much about practicing exact behaviors, as much as building general connections in the brain. Sergio Pellis and colleagues at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta, Canada, discovered that play may shape the brain in other ways, too. Young mammals have an overabundance of brain cells in their cerebrum (the outer areas of the brain—part of what distinguishes mammals). There is evidence that play helps the brain clean up this excess of cells, resulting in a more efficient cerebrum at maturity.
Marc Bekoff (a University of Colorado evolutionary biologist) proposes a "flexibility" hypothesis that attempts to incorporate these neurological findings. It argues that play helps animals learn to switch and improvise all behaviors more effectively, to be prepared for the unexpected. There may, however, be other ways to acquire even these benefits of play (the concept of equifinality). The social benefits of play for many animals, for example, could instead be garnered by grooming. Patrick Bateson maintains that equifinality is exactly what play teaches. In accordance with the flexibility hypothesis, play may teach animals to avoid "false endpoints". In other words, they harness the childlike tendency to keep playing with something that works "well enough", eventually allowing them to come up with something that might work better, if only in some situations. This also allows mammals to build up various skills that could come in handy in entirely novel situations.
A study on two species of monkeys Semnopithecus entellus and Macaca mulatta that came into association with each other during food provisioning by pilgrims at the Ambagarh Forest Reserve, near Jaipur, India, shows the interspecific interaction that developed between the juveniles of the two species when opportunity presented itself.
Development and learning
Learning through play has been long recognized as a critical aspect of childhood and child development. Some of the earliest studies of play started in the 1890s with G. Stanley Hall, the father of the child study movement that sparked an interest in the developmental, mental, and behavioral world of babies and children. Play promotes healthy development of parent-child bonds, establishing social, emotional, and cognitive developmental milestones that help them relate to others, manage stress, and learn resiliency.
Modern research in the field of affective neuroscience (the neural mechanisms of emotion) has uncovered important links between role play and neurogenesis in the brain. For example, researcher Roger Caillois used the word ilinx to describe the momentary disruption of perception that comes from forms of physical play that disorient the senses, especially balance.
Play is positively correlated with coping with daily stressors in children. By playing, children regulate their emotions. This is important for adaptive functioning because without regulation, emotions could be overwhelming and stressful.
Evolutionary psychologists have begun to explore the phylogenetic relationship between higher intelligence in humans and its relationship to play, i.e., the relationship of play to the progress of whole evolutionary groups as opposed to the psychological implications of play to a specific individual.
Physical, mental and social
Various forms of play, physical or mental, influence cognitive abilities in individuals. As little as ten minutes of exercise (including physical play), can improve cognitive abilities. An "exergame" is a game that incorporates some physical movement but is not formal exercise. Such games increase one's heart rate to the level of aerobics exercise and result in significant improvements in mental faculties such as math and recall memory.
Playing video games is one of the most common mediums of play for children and adults today. There have been mixed reviews on the effects of video games. One study found "[playing video games] was positively associated with skills strongly related to academic success, such as time management, attention, executive control, memory, and spatial abilities—when playing video game occurs in moderation".
Play can also influence one's social development and social interactions. Much of the research focuses on the influence play has on child social development. There are different forms of play that influence child social development. One study explored the influence of playing styles with mothers versus playing styles with fathers and how it influences child social development. "[I]ntegral to positive development is the child's social competence or, more precisely, the ability to regulate their own emotions and behaviors in the social contexts of early childhood to support the effective accomplishment of relevant developmental tasks."
Social benefits of play have been measured using basic interpersonal values such as getting along with peers. Play with parents reduces anxiety in children. Having play time with parents that involves socially acceptable behaviour makes it easier for children to relate to be more socially adjusted to peers at school or at play. Social development involving child interaction with peers is thus an area of influence for playful interactions with parents and peers.
Anji play
Anji play ( in simplified Chinese, in traditional Chinese) is an educational method based on children's self-directed play in outside spaces, using simple tools made of natural material. The teachers and instructors only observe and document the children's independent play. The method was created by Cheng Xueqin and is organized as two hours of free play during which the children choose the available material they want to use and build structures to play.
While planning, experimenting, building, and using the structures to play, the children have the opportunity to interact with peers, to think critically about what may work, to discuss the plan, and organize the construction work. The process is observed and recorded by the teachers and instructors without intervention, even in instances of possible risk.
Before and after the two hours of play, the children have the opportunity to express their plans and discuss with their peers. After the play, they get the opportunity to draw, write or explain what they did. Then, they watch the videos recorded the same day and explain how they played and comment on each other's creations.
Anji play is also called "true play" and its guiding principles are love, risk, joy, engagement, and reflection. This method of self-initiated and self-directed play is applied at the pre-schools (children from three to six years old) in Anji county, East China.
References
Further reading
External links
American Journal of Play
Encyclopedia: Play Science Scholarpedia
The National Institute for Play
Behavior
Ethology
Learning
Childhood | 0.760412 | 0.995776 | 0.7572 |
Social domain | A social domain refers to communicative contexts which influence and are influenced by the structure of such contexts, whether social, institutional, power-aligned. As defined by Fishman, Cooper and Ma (1971), social domains "are sociolinguistic contexts definable for any given society by three significant dimensions: the location, the participants and the topic". Similarly, Bernard Spolsky defines domains as "[a]ny defined or definable social or political or religious group or community, ranging from family through a sports team or neighborhood or village or workplace or organization or city or nation state or regional alliance".
Social domains are relevant to such fields in the social sciences as anthropology, linguistics, and sociology. Some examples of social domains include the domains of school, family, religion, workplace, and government.
Social domains in scholarly research
Education and schools
Education is an integral social institution which has a major impact on the development and maintenance of language policies around the world. Schools, aside from the family, provide the necessary resources for language socialization of the child which shape the experiences and impact the language competence of the students. The medium of instruction languages are decided based on the goals and needs of the education and governmental systems. So, while children learn different vernacular varieties or dialects at home, schools further influence the development of their linguistic skills and their language ideologies. Specifically, language varieties spoken at home may not have an agreed upon orthography, so schools work to teach the formalized, written form of the language. These actions impact the inclusion, acceptance, and interactions of students. In fact, by using Bucholtz and Hall's theory of intersubjectivity, Shanan Fitts argues that the imperatives of "adequation and distinction", "authentication and denaturalization", and "authorization and illegitimation" interact linguistically in school domains. For adequation and distinction, a student is able to identify and relate to other students through their linguistic similarities or differences, respectively. Meanwhile, authentication and denaturalization allows students to categorize their linguistic, and consequently, cultural identities either as natural or learned. Lastly, authorization and illegitimation are used in school domains through institutional or ideological methods to either support or oppose a specific linguistic practice depending on the goal of the school.
Because of the differences in vernacular or dialects between home and schools, some children may experience a linguistic gap, which is greatly affected by language education policies. Spolsky argues that schools should take this gap into consideration when deciding the medium of instruction and linguistic goals for themselves. Specifically, Spolsky highlights the controversy of incorporating a mother-tongue education in schools, which is an effort of teaching children using the linguistic varieties spoken at home. However, in the contexts of extreme multilingualism mother-tongue education is largely unattainable. There are a variety of methods used by schools to facilitate the transition between home languages, dialects, or vernaculars to the desired school language. One method used typically in the British colonial education system which starts the education by teaching in students' home language, transitions by introducing the official language, and ends by shifting towards total instruction in that official language. Contrastingly, systems like the French and Portuguese colonial models along with the English-Only movement in the United States immediately begin instruction in the official language under the assumption that the students will learn it through immersion. There are a wide range of methods that fall in between the above-mentioned strategies, such as establishing communication in home languages, dialects, or vernaculars and using materials in the official language or also making an effort to maintain proficiency in a home language while transitioning them to the official language. Schools also impact language acquisition policies. If a country has a bilingual or multilingual policy or goal, schools are usually expected to help in the development of the other language(s). This may be done for two reasons: 1) teaching a major international language or a neighboring country's language can help incorporate students effectively and successfully into the globalized world; or 2) the teachings of minority or indigenous language(s) can help elevate them in a country to work towards diversity and inclusion.
Family
When considering the impact of the family on language two considerations should be made. On the one hand, family domains serve as speech communities in which the linguistic variety is different when compared to other domains. On the other hand, family is another crucial social institution in determining language policies.
With respect to the first consideration, it is a common fact that individuals modify the way they speak by changing their vocabulary, pronunciation, and syntax of their speech according to who it is they are talking to and the circumstances and surroundings of their conversation. The family social domain is not the exception. Different factors contribute to what a family domain becomes: socioeconomic class, number of parents in the family, the number of children, etc. Considering that many factors can contribute to this domain, the variation within the domain is determined by the influences of the practices and ideologies that the family has. What contributes to the linguistic repertoires within the family social domains may include the proficiency of a speaker in this language; the context of speaking, for example, making sure that the language used is well understood by everyone who's present; association with positive experiences; and acknowledgement of the effects of using this language.
With respect to language policy, family domain is a major locus of multilingual and monolingual experiences. The decisions of retaining the language or undergoing the language shift are often based in the families and they may not have any official status. For example, a decision of immigrant parents to only speak an L2 language with their child may lead the child being proficient only in that language and never acquiring L1 of his/her parents. Without this domain there would be loss in the way that information is transmitted through language. The three-generation theory argues that without family there is a loss of 'natural intergenerational transmission.' According to the three generation theory, the first generation of an immigrant family may not fully acquire the dominant language of the new location, but the second generation will learn this language and grow up bilingual. Meanwhile, by the third generation the knowledge of the L1 of the first generation will dissipate leading the immigrant family through language shift. To ensure the preservation of the language across generations, Fishman argued 'natural intergenerational transmission' is key.
Religion
Language choice varies among religious affiliations and congregations. Islam and Judaism traditionally provide religious texts in the original languages of Arabic and Hebrew, respectively. Islam has strict standards regarding the required use of Arabic in the religious domain, even if the user's mother tongue is not Arabic. Meanwhile, Judaism accepts translations of the religious text, although Hebrew is still central. These are distinct languages that have specific uses within the domain of religion. Variation of language ideologies within the domain of religion, even within a single religion, is common. Some Christian groups promote translating the Bible into the vernacular, while some Roman Catholics have a history of keeping the Bible in Latin and holding masses in Latin as well. On a micro-scale, a single person might use various languages in practice while praying, singing hymns, reading religious texts, confessing, or attending religious services. Knowing which language to use is dependent on the broader sociocultural expectations as well as the expectations of the religion itself, place of worship one attends, or specific congregation.
Workplace
The workplace is a setting where everyone needs to communicate with each other to get a task done. There are many different types of workplaces. There are different language norms depending on the workplace and the position of the people in conversation. The office workplace is a professional setting where more sophisticated words and different tones of voice are being used. Sometimes there are handbooks with the rules of the office everyone must obey including sections on language. Leaders in the workplace which are generally managers not only put on the linguistic model for their workers but also get to initiate the pathway. The more motivational leaders are the more passionate and effective the workers become. They use motivational language in conversation and meetings to provide an effective environment to work in. They act as enforcers to use speech to connect with everyone. There is also communication used through technology such as emails that are very professional. There are different audiences as well as conversations at work.
Government
As a Social Domain, Governments and their affiliated agencies can generally be defined as businesses or workplaces. Just as businesses are growing ever more diverse in our globalizing world, governments, too, are adapting, expanding, and developing on various social practices to create social domains within their structure that are conducive to an appropriate atmosphere for what they want to accomplish and the presence they wish to portray to their superiors, subordinates, constituents, and possibly even foreign bodies. Some governments and their affiliates may have strict limitations on what is considered appropriate topics of conversation in the workplace while others may be more accepting of more diverse forms and topics of conversation. Governments also tend to have a specific language, or certain languages, which is considered appropriate to speak in the workplace. This can be as rigid as disallowing all non-conforming languages from the workplace or as loose as having a rule of thumb such as certain languages being okay for interpersonal communication, but official documentation being required to be submitted in a specific language.
Similar concepts
Semantic domains
A semantic domain applies to word usage such as choosing to say 'hoagie' instead of 'sandwich', with this choice not necessarily being dependent on one's social domain, but rather contextual relevance. Another example is choosing not to say "It is raining cats and dogs outside" when it is just drizzling. Semantic domains involve using words that have the same meaning and also certain language the speaker is familiar with.
Speech communities
A speech community is a group of people who share the same linguistic ideologies. Speech communities can be more or less inclusive than social domains, for example a group of German-speakers getting coffee together can constitute a speech community as can an entire city.
References
Sociolinguistics | 0.792679 | 0.955223 | 0.757185 |
Demonstration (teaching) | Demonstration involves showing by reason or proof, explaining or making clear by use of examples or experiments. Put more simply, demonstration means 'to clearly show'.
Overview
In teaching through demonstration, students are set up to potentially conceptualize class material more effectively as shown in a study which specifically focuses on chemistry demonstrations presented by teachers. Demonstrations often occur when students have a hard time connecting theories to actual practice or when students are unable to understand application of theories.
Teachers not only demonstrate specific learning concepts within the classroom, they can also participate in demonstration classrooms to help improve their own teaching strategies, which may or may not be demonstrative in nature. Although the literature is limited, studies show that the effects of demonstration classroom teachers includes a change of perspective in relating to students, more reflection in the teachers’ own classroom strategies, and more personal responsibility for student learning.
Demonstration, or clearly showing (a gamut that ranges from mere pointing to more sophisticated strategies such as chemical reactions), can possibly be used in portraying ideas such as defining words. At first, simple observation and communication through pointing to an object, area, or place, like the sun, moon, or a large mountain top, occurs. Then basic definitions of words emerge. These definitions allow humans to communicate, interact, plan, and co-ordinate in ways that help us to build cities, large buildings, technology, gain knowledge and to successfully communicate with computers. Further, basic concepts centered on time, space, and mathematics are first required to demonstrate and teach probable theories that accurately describe universal phenomenon such as nature, planets, species, and the world around us.
The history of phenomenon demonstrating concepts, which lead to specific definitions, goes back to the careful observations of ancient Greek philosophers and natural philosophy. Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle attempted to carefully define words that included natural phenomena and objects. John Longeway notes that in the Middle Ages, the theory of demonstration, which developed the thinking in Aristotle's Posterior Analytics, was considered "the culmination of logic". The modern scientific method often uses demonstrations that carefully describe certain processes and parts of nature in great detail. In science, often one demonstrates how an experiment is done and shows this to others.
People can also communicate values and ideas through demonstrations. This is often done in plays, movies, and film. Pictures without words can show or demonstrate various types of actions and consequences.
When using demonstration, there is a four-step process that will allow the students to have a clear understanding of the topic at hand.
See also
Knowledge by acquaintance
Scientific demonstration
Physics Instructional Resource Association
References
Educational practices | 0.786496 | 0.962712 | 0.757169 |
Fiedler contingency model | The contingency model by business and management psychologist Fred Fiedler is a contingency theory concerned with the effectiveness of a leader in an organization.
Premises
The most common situational theory was developed by Fred Fiedler. Fiedler believed that an individual's leadership style is the result of their experiences throughout the lifespan and is therefore extremely difficult to change. Fiedler argued that one should concentrate on helping people understand their particular leadership style and how to match that style to the particular situation rather than teaching people a particular leadership style. Fiedler developed the least preferred coworker (LPC) scale in order to help one understand one's specific leadership style. According to Fiedler, because leadership behavior is fixed, effectiveness can only be improved by restructuring tasks or changing the amount of power the leader had over organizational factors (such as salary, disciplinary action, and promotions).
Fiedler's model does have some weaknesses. For example, some leaders may be more effective in certain situations than others. The LPC scale can be questioned because the assessment is performed by one individual on another.
The theory holds that the effectiveness of a task group or of an organization depends on two main factors: the personality of the leader and the degree to which the situation gives the leader power, control, and influence over the situation or, conversely, the degree to which the situation confronts the leader with uncertainty.
To Fiedler, stress is a key determinant of leader effectiveness, and a distinction is made between stress related to the leader's superior and stress related to subordinates or the situation itself. In stressful situations, leaders dwell on the stressful relations with others and cannot focus their intellectual abilities on the job. Thus, intelligence is more effective and used more often in stress-free situations. Fiedler concludes that experience impairs performance in low-stress conditions but contributes to performance under high-stress conditions. As with other situational factors, for stressful situations Fiedler recommends altering or engineering the leadership situation to capitalize on the leader's strengths.
Fiedler's situational contingency theory holds that group effectiveness depends on an appropriate match between a leader's style (essentially a trait measure) and the demands of the situation. In other words, effective leadership is contingent on matching leader's style to the right setting. Fiedler considers situational control the extent to which a leader can determine what their group is going to do to be the primary contingency factor in determining the effectiveness of leader behavior.
Fiedler's contingency model is a dynamic model where the personal characteristics and motivation of the leader are said to interact with the current situation that the group faces. Thus, the contingency model marks a shift away from the tendency to attribute leadership effectiveness to personality alone.
Least preferred coworker (LPC)
The leadership style of the leader is thus fixed and measured by what Fiedler calls the least preferred coworker (LPC) scale, an instrument for measuring an individual's leadership orientation. The LPC scale asks a leader to think of all the people with whom they have ever worked and then describe the person with whom they have worked least well, using a series of bipolar scales of 1 to 8, such as the following:
A high LPC score suggests that the leader has a "human relations orientation", while a low LPC score indicates a "task orientation". Fiedler assumes that everybody's least preferred coworker in fact is on average about equally unpleasant, but people who are relationship-motivated tend to describe their least preferred coworkers in a more positive manner, e.g., more pleasant and more efficient. Therefore, they receive higher LPC scores. People who are task-motivated, on the other hand, tend to rate their least preferred coworkers in a more negative manner. Therefore, they receive lower LPC scores. So, the least preferred coworker scale is actually not about the least preferred worker at all; instead, it is about the person who takes the test and that person's motivation type. This is because individuals who rate their least preferred coworker in relatively favorable light on these scales derive satisfaction out of interpersonal relationship, and those who rate the coworker in a relatively unfavorable light get satisfaction out of successful task performance. This method reveals an individual's emotional reaction to people they cannot work with. Critics point out that this is not always an accurate measurement of leadership effectiveness. Fiedler expanded his studies outside of the lab and showed the interrelations between adjustment, group performance, and leadership style in a volunteer medical team under different conditions of stress while working in isolated villages of Central America. The task-oriented leader performed better in situations that were favorable and relatively unfavorable while the relationship-oriented leader only fared better in situations of intermediate favorableness. As the LPC is a personality measure, the score is believed to be quite stable over time and not easily changed. Low LPCs tend to remain low and high LPCs tend to remain high, which shows that the test-reliability of the LPC is strong.
Situational favorability
According to Fiedler, the ability to control the group situation (the second component of the contingency model) is crucial for a leader. This is because only leaders with situational control can be confident that their orders and suggestions will be carried out by their followers. Leaders who are unable to assume control over the group situation cannot be sure that the members they are leading will execute their commands. Because situational control is critical to leadership efficacy, Fiedler broke this factor down into three major components: leader–member relations, task structure, and position power. Moreover, there is no ideal leader. Both low-LPC (task-oriented) and high-LPC (relationship-oriented) leaders can be effective if their leadership orientation fits the situation. The contingency theory allows for predicting the characteristics of the appropriate situations for effectiveness. Three situational components determine the favourableness of situational control:
Leader–Member Relations, referring to the degree of mutual trust, respect, and confidence between the leader and the subordinates. When leader–member relations in the group are poor, the leader has to shift focus away from the group task in order to regulate behavior and conflict within the group.
Task Structure, referring to the extent to which group tasks are clear and structured. When task structure is low (unstructured), group tasks are ambiguous, with no clear solution or correct approach to complete the goal. In contrast, when task structure is high (structured), the group goal is clear, unambiguous and straightforward: members have a clear idea about the how to approach and reach the goal.
Leader Position Power, referring to the power inherent in the leader's position itself.
The basic findings of the Contingency Model are that task-motivated leaders perform generally best in very "favorable" situations, that is, either under conditions in which their power, control, and influence are very high (or, conversely, where uncertainty is very low) or where the situation is unfavorable, where they have low power, control, and influence. Relationship-motivated leaders tend to perform best in situations in which they have moderate power, control, and influence. Both the relationship and the task-motivated leaders perform well under some situations but not under others. It is not accurate to speak of a "good" or a "poor" leader; rather, a leader may perform well in one type of situation but not in another. Outstanding directors of research teams do not necessarily make good production foremen or military leaders, and outstanding battle field commanders, like United States Army General George S. Patton, do not necessarily make good chiefs of staff or good chairmen of volunteer school picnic committees.
When there is a good leader–member relation, a highly structured task, and high leader position power, the situation is considered a "favorable situation." Fiedler found that low-LPC leaders are more effective in extremely favorable or unfavorable situations, whereas high-LPC leaders perform best in situations with intermediate favorability. Leaders in high positions of power have the ability to distribute resources among their members, meaning they can reward and punish their followers. Leaders in low positions of power cannot control resources to the same extent as leaders in high power and so lack the same degree of situational control. For example, the CEO of a business has high position power, because she is able to increase and reduce the salary that her employees receive. On the other hand, an office worker in this same business has low position power, because although they may be the leader on a new business deal, they cannot control the situation by rewarding or disciplining their colleagues with salary changes.
Leader–situation match and mismatch
Since personality is relatively stable though it can be changed, the contingency model suggests that improving effectiveness requires changing the situation to fit the leader. This is called "job engineering" or "job restructuring". The organization or the leader may increase or decrease task structure and position power; also, training and group development may improve leader–member relations. In his 1976 book Improving Leadership Effectiveness: The Leader Match Concept, Fiedler (with Martin Chemers and Linda Mahar) offers a self paced leadership training program designed to help leaders alter the favorableness of the situation, or situational control. The advantage of contingency theory is that it “does not require that people be effective in all situations”. According to Northouse, although one person may be successful in one role, they may not be successful in another based on the environment.
One implication of "job engineering" or "job restructuring" through additional training is that if all leaders are given the same training regardless of their position in the contingency model, it could create a mismatch between the leader and situation. "The right person for a particular job today may be the wrong person in six months or in one or two years." For example, if a company has a workshop for all managers that effectively changed the task structure from low to high, it might seem good for the company at first glance, but it is important to note that leaders who were effective in a low task structure situation could become very ineffective in a situation with a high task structure.
Examples
A company that might be hiring a new manager to take on a leadership position that has poor current leader–member relations and high task structure and authority, the company would be best positioned to fill this role with a high LPC or leader–member relations to improve poor relations. Hiring someone who is more relation-oriented will help rebuild those the poor current leader–member relations.
Task-oriented leadership would be advisable in a natural disaster, like a flood or fire. In an uncertain situation the leader–member relations are usually poor, the task is unstructured, and the position power is weak. The one who emerges as a leader to direct the group's activity usually does not know subordinates personally. The task-oriented leader who gets things accomplished proves to be the most successful. If the leader is considerate (relationship-oriented), they may waste so much time in the disaster that things get out of control and lives are lost.
Blue-collar workers generally want to know exactly what they are supposed to do. Therefore, their work environment is usually highly structured. The leader's position power is strong if management backs their decision. Finally, even though the leader may not be relationship-oriented, leader–member relations may be extremely strong if they can gain promotions and salary increases for subordinates. Under these situations the task-oriented style of leadership is preferred over the (considerate) relationship-oriented style.
The considerate (relationship-oriented) style of leadership can be appropriate in an environment where the situation is moderately favorable or certain, for example, when (1) leader–member relations are good, (2) the task is structured, and (3) position power is either strong or weak. Situations like this exist with research scientists, who do not like superiors to structure the task for them. They prefer to follow their own creative leads in order to solve problems. In a situation like this a considerate style of leadership is preferred over the task-oriented.
The last example of a task-oriented leader is one that is in charge of large products. They have to oversee all of the operations and make decisions on behalf of the entire project. They have many tasks and goals to be set.
Opposing views
Researchers often find that Fiedler's contingency theory falls short on flexibility. They also note that LPC scores can fail to reflect the personality traits they are supposed to reflect.
Fiedler's contingency theory has drawn criticism because it implies that the only alternative for an unalterable mismatch of leader orientation and an unfavorable situation is changing the leader. The model's validity has also been disputed, despite many supportive tests. The contingency model does not take into account the percentage of "intermediate favorability" situations vs. "extremely favorable or unfavorable situations"; hence, it does not give a complete picture of the comparison between low-LPC leaders and high-LPC leaders.
Other criticisms concern the methodology of measuring leadership style through the LPC inventory and the nature of the supporting evidence. Fiedler and his associates have provided decades of research to support and refine the contingency theory.
Cognitive resource theory
Cognitive resource theory (CRT) modifies Fiedler's basic contingency model by adding traits of the leader. CRT tries to identify the conditions under which leaders and group members will use their intellectual resources, skills, and knowledge effectively. While it has been generally assumed that more intelligent and more experienced leaders will perform better than those with less intelligence and experience, this assumption is not supported by Fiedler's research.
See also
References
Further reading
Fiedler, F. E. (1958) Leader Attitudes and Group Effectiveness, Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press.
Fiedler, F. E. (1967) A Theory of Leadership Effectiveness, New York: McGraw-Hill.
Fiedler, F. E. (1971) Leadership, New York: General Learning Press.
Fiedler, F. E. (1981) Leader Attitudes and Group Effectiveness, Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group.
Fiedler, F. E. (1992) Life in a Pretzel-shaped Universe, in A.G. Bedeian (ed.), Management Laureates: A Collection of Autobiographical Essays, Greenwich, CT: JAI Press, vol. 1, 301–34.
Fiedler, F. E. (1997) Directory of the American Psychological Association, Chicago: St James Press, 419.
Fiedler, F. E. and Chemers, M. M. (1974) Leadership and Effective Management, Glenview, IL: Scott, Foresman and Co.
Fiedler, F. E., Garcia, J. E. and Lewis, C. T. (1986) People Management, and Productivity, Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Fiedler, F. E., Gibson, F. W. and Barrett, K. M. (1993) ‘Stress, Babble, and the Utilization of the Leader’s Intellectual Abilities’, Leadership Quarterly 4(2): 189–208.
Fiedler, F. E., Godfrey, E. P. and Hall, D. M. (1959) Boards, Management and Company Success, Danville, IL: Interstate Publishers.
Hooijberg, R. and Choi, J. (1999) "From Austria to the United States and from Evaluating Therapists to Developing Cognitive Resources Theory: An Interview with Fred Fiedler", Leadership Quarterly 10(4): 653–66.
King, B., Streufert, S. and Fiedler, F. E. (1978) Managerial Control and Organizational Democracy, Washington, DC: V. H. Winston and Sons.
Organizational behavior
Leadership | 0.773664 | 0.978642 | 0.75714 |
Moot court | Moot court is a co-curricular activity at many law schools. Participants take part in simulated court or arbitration proceedings, usually involving drafting memorials or memoranda and participating in oral argument. In many countries, the phrase "moot court" may be shortened to simply "moot" or "mooting". Participants are either referred to as "mooters" or, less conventionally, "mooties".
Format and structure
Moot court involves simulated proceedings before an appellate court, arbitral tribunal, or international dispute resolution body. These are different from mock trials that involve simulated jury trials or bench trials. Moot court does not involve actual testimony by witnesses, cross-examination, or the presentation of evidence, but is focused solely on the application of the law to a common set of evidentiary assumptions, facts, and clarifications/corrections to which the competitors are introduced. Though not moots in the traditional sense, alternative dispute resolution competitions focusing on mediation and negotiation have also branded themselves as moot competitions in recent times, as had role-playing competitions in the past such as the Jean-Pictet.
Moot court, like law review and clinical work, is one of the key extracurricular activities in many law schools around the world. Depending on the competition, students may spend a semester researching and writing the written submissions or memorials, and another semester practicing their oral arguments, or may prepare both within the span of a few weeks. Whereas domestic moot court competitions tend to focus on municipal law such as criminal law or contract law, regional and international moot competitions tend to focus on cross-border subjects such as EU Law, public international law (including its subsets environmental law, space law, and aviation law), international human rights law, international humanitarian law, international criminal law, international trade law, international maritime law, international commercial arbitration, and foreign direct investment arbitration. Ancillary issues pertaining to jurisdiction, standing, choice of law, and remedies are also occasionally engaged, especially in arbitration and international law moots.
In most moot court competitions, there are two sides and each side is represented by two speakers or oralists (though the entire team composition may be larger, and the number of speakers may range from one to four) and a third member, sometimes known as of counsel, may be seated with the speakers. Each speaker usually speaks between 10 and 25 minutes, covering one to three main issues. After the main submissions are completed, there will usually be a short round or two of rebuttal and even surrebuttal. Communications between speakers may or may not be prohibited. Throughout the course of the submissions, judges — usually lawyers, academics, or actual judges — may ask questions, though in some competitions questions are reserved to the end of submissions.
In larger competitions, teams have to participate in up to ten rounds (not including any domestic or regional qualifiers); the knockout/elimination stages are usually preceded by a number of preliminary rounds to determine seeding (power seeding is often used). Teams almost always must switch sides (applicant/appellant/claimant on one side, and respondent on the other) throughout a competition, and, depending on the format of the moot, the moot problem usually remains the same throughout. The scores of the written submissions are taken into consideration for most competitions to determine qualification (whether for the competition or for the knockouts) and seeding, and sometimes even up to a particular knockout stage. Participation in moot court are relevant to some law school rankings.
International moot court competitions
International moot competitions are generally targeted at students (including postgraduates) and only allow participants who have not qualified to practice law in any jurisdiction. However, there are a handful of international moot competitions that are targeted at newly qualified lawyers, such as the ECC-SAL Moot, which is a regional moot started in 2012 and is jointly organised by Essex Court Chambers and the Singapore Academy of Law, and the New South Wales Young Lawyers/CIArb competition.
The table below lists some of the more notable international moot competitions for students. Grand slam international moots refer to class-leading moots or those that attract a substantial number of teams, while smaller or less established and region-only competitions are known as internationals and regionals respectively. Some countries also divide competitions into various tiers of prestige for the purpose of awarding points in league tables, with moots such as the Jessup and Vis competitions being considered as belonging to the highest tier. Most international moots only permit one team per institution; competitions that allow more than one team tend to be smaller in scale, and competitions that allow teams to comprise members from more than one institution are rare. Some competitions also limit the number of teams based on geographical location; for instance, for most countries, the Jessup generally only permits one qualifying institution for every ten law schools.
For the 2019/20 international moots season, many competitions such as the Jessup, Frankfurt, and International Criminal Court were cancelled due to COVID-19. Some competitions, however, such as The European Law Moot Court Competition, Price, Vis, and Vis East, hosted the oral rounds via online platforms such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams. With international travel still largely restricted late into 2020, all major competitions adopted the virtual format for 2020/21 as well, with some modifying the rules regarding qualification procedures and methods of presentation (such as standing versus sitting, sharing devices, and speaking time). By the 2022/23 season, however, almost all competitions had reverted to the in-person format.
List of notable moot court competitions
List of notable mediation and negotiation competitions
Domestic moot court competitions
North America
Some moot court organisations accept a small group of people for membership, and those members each participate in a number of national or regional moot court competitions. Other schools accept a larger number of members, and each member is matched with one competition. A few schools conduct moot court entirely intramurally. Moot court competitions are typically sponsored by organisations with interest in one particular area of law, and the moot court problems address an issue in that field. Competitions are often judged by legal practitioners with expertise in the particular area of law, or sometimes by sitting judges.
The basic structure of a moot court competition roughly parallels what would happen in actual appellate practice. Participants will typically receive a problem ahead of time, which includes the facts of the underlying case, and often an opinion from a lower court that is being challenged in the problem. Students must then research and prepare for that case as if they were lawyers or advocates for one or sometimes both of the parties. Depending on the competition, participants will be required to submit written briefs, participate in oral argument, or both. The case or problem is often one of current interest, sometimes mimicking an actual case, and sometimes fabricated to address difficult legal issues.
Notable competitions include Ames Moot Court Competition and The Laskin Moot. A number of moot court competitions focus on specific areas of law. For example, the First Amendment Center annually holds a National First Amendment Moot Court Competition, in which the judges have included numerous United States Circuit Court judges.
While moot court is most commonly associated with law schools in North America, it is also a popular activity at the collegiate and high school levels. In the United States, the American Moot Court Association is the national governing body for undergraduate moot court. At the high school level, the National Association of Moot Court oversees a circuit of regional and national competitions each year.
United Kingdom
Notable competitions in the UK include the English Speaking Union Moot and London Universities Mooting Shield.
In England and Wales, moots typically simulate proceedings in either the Court of Appeal or the Supreme Court. Moot questions generally involve two questions of law that are under dispute and come with a set of facts about the case that have been decided at the first instance trial. Generally the question will surround a subject that is unclear under the present state of the law and for which no direct precedent exists. It is normal practice for the senior counsel to take on the first point and the junior the second; although this may vary depending upon the exact nature, and necessary length, of the arguments. Typically the question will focus on one area of law, such as tort, contract, criminal law or property law.
In Scotland a moot can be set in a variety of fora; in civil law problems it is set most commonly in either the Inner House of the Court of Session or in the House of Lords, although it is not uncommon for a moot to be heard in the Sheriff Court before the Sheriff or Sheriff Principal. Occasionally, an Employment Appeal Tribunal may also be used as a forum for a Scottish civil law moot. If the moot problem concerns Criminal Law, the moot will most likely be heard as though in the Appellate division of the High Court of Justiciary (commonly known as the Court of Criminal Appeal). Junior counsel is more likely to take the first moot point and senior counsel the second (this can however be reversed depending on the problem). The format of the moot is far more adversarial than that of English and Welsh moots. This manifests itself in different ways, most notably with the appellants and respondents facing each other during a moot, rather than, as in England and Wales, facing the judge.
See also
Mock trial
Model United Nations
Mootness, which has a precise meaning in United States law that is quite different from United Kingdom usage
References
External links
The International Moot Court Compendium
Bar and Bench
Informal legal terminology
Legal education | 0.760822 | 0.995127 | 0.757114 |
Kuznets curve | The Kuznets curve expresses a hypothesis advanced by economist Simon Kuznets in the 1950s and 1960s. According to this hypothesis, as an economy develops, market forces first increase and then decrease economic inequality. Although the model is empirically false, the Kuznets curve has appeared to be consistent with experience.
Kuznets ratio and Kuznets curve
The Kuznets ratio is a measurement of the ratio of income going to the highest-earning households (usually defined by the upper 20%) to income going to the lowest-earning households, which is commonly measured by either the lowest 20% or lowest 40% of income. Comparing 20% to 20%, a completely even distribution is expressed as 1; 20% to 40% changes this value to 0.5.
Kuznets curve diagrams show an inverted U curve, although variables along the axes are often mixed and matched, with inequality or the Gini coefficient on the Y axis and economic development, time or per-capita incomes on the X axis.
Explanations
One explanation of such a progression suggests that early in development, investment opportunities for those who have money multiply, while an influx of cheap rural labor to the cities holds down wages. Whereas in mature economies, human capital accrual (an estimate of income that has been achieved but not yet consumed) takes the place of physical capital accrual as the main source of growth; and inequality slows growth by lowering education levels because poorer, disadvantaged people lack finance for their education in imperfect credit-markets.
The Kuznets curve implies that as a nation undergoes industrialization – and especially the mechanization of agriculture – the center of the nation's economy will shift to the cities. As internal migration by farmers looking for better-paying jobs in urban hubs causes a significant rural-urban inequality gap (the owners of firms would be profiting, while laborers from those industries would see their incomes rise at a much slower rate and agricultural workers would possibly see their incomes decrease), rural populations decrease as urban populations increase. Inequality is then expected to decrease when a certain level of average income is reached and the processes of industrialization – democratization and the rise of the welfare state – allow for the benefits from rapid growth, and increase the per-capita income. Kuznets believed that inequality would follow an inverted "U" shape as it rises and then falls again with the increase of income per-capita.
Kuznets had two similar explanations for this historical phenomenon:
workers migrated from agriculture to industry; and
rural workers moved to urban jobs.
In both explanations, inequality will decrease after 50% of the shift force switches over to the higher paying sector.
An explanation of the Kuznets curve is the prevention of social unrest and revolutions by the political elites in favor of democratization with economic and political redistribution.
Evidence
Inequality has risen in most developed countries since the 1960s, so graphs of inequality over time no longer display a Kuznets curve. Piketty has argued that the decline in inequality over the first half of the 20th century was a once-off effect due to the destruction of large concentrations of wealth by war and economic depression.
The Kuznets curve and development economics
Critics of the Kuznets curve theory argue that its U-shape comes not from progression in the development of individual countries, but rather from historical differences between countries. For instance, many of the middle income countries used in Kuznets' data set were in Latin America, a region with historically high levels of inequality. When controlling for this variable, the U-shape of the curve tends to disappear (e.g. Deininger and Squire, 1998). Regarding the empirical evidence, based on large panels of countries or time series approaches, Fields (2001) considers the Kuznets hypothesis refuted.
The East Asian miracle (EAM) has been used to criticize the validity of the Kuznets curve theory. The rapid economic growth of eight East Asian countries—Japan; the Four Asian Tigers South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong; Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia—between 1965 and 1990, was called the East Asian miracle. The EAM defies the Kuznets curve, which insists growth produces inequality, and that inequality is a necessity for overall growth. Manufacturing and export grew quickly and powerfully. Yet, contrary to Kuznets' historical examples, the EAM saw continual increases in life expectancy and decreasing rates of severe poverty. Scholars have sought to understand how the EAM saw the benefits of rapid economic growth distributed broadly among the population. Joseph Stiglitz explains this by the immediate re-investment of initial benefits into land reform (increasing rural productivity, income, and savings), universal education (providing greater equality and what Stiglitz calls an "intellectual infrastructure" for productivity), and industrial policies that distributed income more equally through high and increasing wages and limited the price increases of commodities. These factors increased the average citizen's ability to consume and invest within the economy, further contributing to economic growth. Stiglitz highlights that the high rates of growth provided the resources to promote equality, which acted as a positive-feedback loop to support the high rates of growth.
Cambridge University Lecturer Gabriel Palma recently found no evidence for a 'Kuznets curve' in inequality:
"[T]he statistical evidence for the 'upwards' side of the 'Inverted-U' between inequality and income per capita seems to have vanished, as many low and low-middle income countries now have a distribution of income similar to that of most middle-income countries (other than those of Latin America and Southern Africa). That is, half of Sub-Saharan Africa and many countries in Asian, including India, China and Vietnam, now have an income distribution similar to that found in North Africa, the Caribbean and the second-tier NICs. And this level is also similar to that of half of the first-tier NICs, the Mediterranean EU and the Anglophone OECD (excluding the US). As a result, about 80% of the world population now live in countries with a Gini around 40."
Palma goes on to note that, among middle-income countries, only those in Latin America and Southern Africa live in an inequality league of their own. Instead of a Kuznets curve, he breaks the population into deciles and examines the relationship between their respective incomes and income inequality. Palma then shows that there are two distributional trends taking place in inequality within a country:
"One is 'centrifugal', and takes place at the two tails of the distribution—leading to an increased diversity across countries in the shares appropriated by the top 10 percent and bottom forty percent. The other is 'centripetal', and takes place in the middle—leading to a remarkable uniformity across countries in the share of income going to the half of the population located between deciles 5 to 9."
Therefore, it is the share of the richest 10% of the population that affects the share of the poorest 40% of the population with the middle to upper-middle staying the same across all countries.
In Capital in the Twenty-First Century, Thomas Piketty denies the effectiveness of the Kuznets curve. He points out that in some rich countries, the level of income inequality in the 21st century has exceeded that in the second decades of the 20th century, proposing the explanation that when the rate of return on capital is greater than the rate of economic growth over the long term, the result is the concentration of wealth.
Kuznets's own caveats
In a biography about Simon Kuznets's scientific methods, economist Robert Fogel noted Kuznets's own reservations about the "fragility of the data" which underpinned the hypothesis. Fogel notes that most of Kuznets's paper was devoted to explicating the conflicting factors at play. Fogel emphasized Kuznets's opinion that "even if the data turned out to be valid, they pertained to an extremely limited period of time and to exceptional historical experiences." Fogel noted that despite these "repeated warnings", Kuznets's caveats were overlooked, and the Kuznets curve was "raised to the level of law" by other economists.
Inequality and trade liberalization
Dobson and Ramlogan's research looked to identify the relationship between inequality and trade liberalization. There have been mixed findings with this idea – some developing countries have experienced greater inequality, less inequality, or no difference at all, due to trade liberalization. Because of this, Dobson and Ramlogan suggest that perhaps trade openness can be related to inequality through a Kuznets curve framework. A trade liberalization-versus-inequality graph measures trade openness along the x-axis and inequality along the y-axis. Dobson and Ramlogan determine trade openness by the ratio of exports and imports (the total trade) and the average tariff rate; inequality is determined by gross primary school enrolment rates, the share of agriculture in total output, the rate of inflation, and cumulative privatization. By studying data from several Latin American countries that have implemented trade liberalization policies in the past 30 years, the Kuznets curve seems to apply to the relationship between trade liberalization and inequality (measured by the GINI coefficient). However, many of these nations saw a shift from low-skill labour production to natural resource intensive activities. This shift would not benefit low-skill workers as much. So although their evidence seems to support the Kuznets theory in relation to trade liberalization, Dobson and Ramlogan assert that policies for redistribution must be simultaneously implemented in order to mitigate the initial increase in inequality.
Environmental Kuznets curve
The environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) is a hypothesized relationship between environmental quality and economic development: various indicators of environmental degradation tend to get worse as modern economic growth occurs until average income reaches a certain point over the course of development. The EKC suggests, in sum, that "the solution to pollution is economic growth."
Although subject to continuing debate, there is considerable evidence to support the application of the environmental Kuznets curve for various environmental health indicators, such as water, air pollution and ecological footprint which show the inverted U-shaped curve as per capita income and/or GDP rise. It has been argued that this trend occurs in the level of many of the environmental pollutants, such as sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, lead, DDT, chlorofluorocarbons, sewage, and other chemicals previously released directly into the air or water. For example, between 1970 and 2006, the United States' inflation-adjusted GDP grew by 195%, the number of cars and trucks in the country more than doubled, and the total number of miles driven increased by 178%. However, during that same period certain regulatory changes and technological innovations led to decreases in annual emissions of carbon monoxide from 197 million tons to 89 million, nitrogen oxides emissions from 27 million tons to 19 million, sulfur dioxide emissions from 31 million tons to 15 million, particulate emissions by 80%, and lead emissions by more than 98%.
Deforestation may follow a Kuznets curve (cf. forest transition curve). Among countries with a per capita GDP of at least $4,600, net deforestation has ceased. Yet it has been argued that wealthier countries are able to maintain forests along with high consumption by 'exporting' deforestation, leading to continuing deforestation on a worldwide scale.
Criticisms
However, the EKC model is debatable when applied to other pollutants, some natural resource use, and biodiversity conservation. For example, energy, land and resource use (sometimes called the "ecological footprint") may not fall with rising income. While the ratio of energy per real GDP has fallen, total energy use is still rising in most developed countries as are total emission of many greenhouse gases. Additionally, the status of many key "ecosystem services" provided by ecosystems, such as freshwater provision (Perman, et al., 2003), soil fertility, and fisheries, have continued to decline in developed countries. Proponents of the EKC argue that this varied relationship does not necessarily invalidate the hypothesis, but instead that the applicability of the Kuznets curves to various environmental indicators may differ when considering different ecosystems, economics, regulatory schemes, and technologies.
At least one critic argues that the US is still struggling to attain the income level necessary to prioritize certain environmental pollutants such as carbon emissions, which have yet to follow the EKC. Yandle et al. argue that the EKC has not been found to apply to carbon because most pollutants create localized problems like lead and sulfur, so there are a greater urgency and response to cleaning up such pollutants. As a country develops, the marginal value of cleaning up such pollutants makes a large direct improvement to the quality of citizens' lives. Conversely, reducing carbon dioxide emissions does not have a dramatic impact at a local level, so the impetus to clean them up is only for the altruistic reason of improving the global environment. This becomes a tragedy of the commons where it is most efficient for everyone to pollute and for no one to clean up, and everyone is worse as a result (Hardin, 1968). Thus, even in a country like the US with a high level of income, carbon emissions are not decreasing in accordance with the EKC. However, there seems to be little consensus about whether EKC is formed with regard to CO2 emissions, as CO2 is a global pollutant that has yet to prove its validity within Kuznet's Curve. That said, Yandle et al. also concluded that "policies that stimulate growth (trade liberalization, economic restructuring, and price reform) should be good for the environment".
Other critics point out that researchers also disagree about the shape of the curve when longer-term time scales are evaluated. For example, Millimet and Stengos regard the traditional "inverse U" shape as actually being an "N" shape, indicating that pollution increases as a country develops, decreases once the threshold GDP is reached, and then begins increasing as national income continues to increase. While such findings are still being debated, they could prove to be important because they pose the concerning question of whether pollution actually begins to decline for good when an economic threshold is reached or whether the decrease is only in local pollutants and pollution is simply exported to poorer developing countries. Levinson concludes that the environmental Kuznets curve is insufficient to support a pollution policy regardless of whether it is laissez-faire or interventionist, although the literature has been used this way by the press.
Arrow et al. argue pollution-income progression of agrarian communities (clean) to industrial economies (pollution intensive) to service economies (cleaner) would appear to be false if pollution increases again at the end due to higher levels of income and consumption of the population at large. A difficulty with this model is that it lacks predictive power because it is highly uncertain how the next phase of economic development will be characterized.
Suri and Chapman argue that the EKC is not applicable on a global scale, as a net pollution reduction may not actually occur globally. Wealthy nations have a trend of exporting the activities that create the most pollution, like manufacturing of clothing and furniture, to poorer nations that are still in the process of industrial development (Suri and Chapman, 1998). This could mean that as the world's poor nations develop, they will have nowhere to export their pollution. Thus, this progression of environmental clean-up occurring in conjunction with economic growth cannot be replicated indefinitely because there may be nowhere to export waste and pollution-intensive processes. However, Gene Grossman and Alan B. Krueger, the authors who initially made the correlation between economic growth, environmental clean-up, and the Kuznets curve, conclude that there is "no evidence that environmental quality deteriorates steadily with economic growth."
Stern warns "it is very easy to do bad econometrics", and says "the history of the EKC exemplifies what can go wrong". He finds that "little or no attention has been paid to the statistical properties of the data used such as serial dependence or stochastic trends in time series and few tests of model adequacy have been carried out or presented. However, one of the main purposes of doing econometrics is to test which apparent relationships ... are valid and which are spurious correlations". He states his unequivocal finding: "When we do take such statistics into account and use appropriate techniques we find that the EKC does not exist (Perman and Stern 2003). Instead, we get a more realistic view of the effect of economic growth and technological changes on environmental quality. It seems that most indicators of environmental degradation are monotonically rising in income though the 'income elasticity' is less than one and is not a simple function of income alone. Time-related effects reduce environmental impacts in countries at all levels of income. However, in rapidly growing middle income countries the scale effect, which increases pollution and other degradation, overwhelms the time effect. For example, Armenia, after gaining its independence from the Soviet Union, has become the country with the least income elasticity in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. In wealthy countries, growth is slower, and pollution reduction efforts can overcome the scale effect. This is the origin of the apparent EKC effect".
Kuznets curves for steel and other metals
Steel production has been shown to follow a Kuznets-type curve in the national development cycles of a range of economies, including the United States, Japan, the Republic of Korea and China. This discovery, and the first usage of the term "Kuznets Curve for Steel" and "Metal intensity Kuznets Curve" were by Huw McKay in a 2008 working paper (McKay 2008). This was subsequently developed by McKay (2012). A body of work on "Material Kuznets Curves" focused on non-ferrous metals has also emerged as academic and policy interest in resource intensity increased during the first two decades of the 21st century.
References
Bibliography
Brenner, Y.S., Hartmut Kaelble, and Mark Thomas (1991): Income Distribution in Historical Perspective. Cambridge University Press.
McKay, Huw (2008) ‘Metal intensity in comparative historical perspective: China, North Asia, the United States and the Kuznets curve’, Global Dynamic Systems Centre working papers, no. 6, September.
McKay, Huw (2012) ‘Metal intensity in comparative historical perspective: China, North Asia, the United States ’, chapter 2 in Ligang Song and Haimin Lu (eds) The Chinese Steel Industry’s Transformation: Structural Change, Performance and Demand on Resources, Edward Elgar: Cheltenham UK.
Economic inequality
Economics curves | 0.762277 | 0.993228 | 0.757114 |
Note-taking | Note-taking (sometimes written as notetaking or note taking) is the practice of recording information from different sources and platforms. By taking notes, the writer records the essence of the information, freeing their mind from having to recall everything. Notes are commonly drawn from a transient source, such as an oral discussion at a meeting, or a lecture (notes of a meeting are usually called minutes), in which case the notes may be the only record of the event. Since the advent of writing and literacy, notes traditionally were almost always handwritten (often in notebooks), but the introduction of notetaking software has made digital notetaking possible and widespread. Note-taking is a foundational skill in personal knowledge management.
History
Note-taking has been an important part of human history and scientific development. The Ancient Greeks developed hypomnema, personal records on important subjects. In the Renaissance and early modern period, students learned to take notes in schools, academies and universities, often producing beautiful volumes that served as reference works after they finished their studies. In pre-digital times, people used many kinds of notebooks, including commonplace books, accounting waste books, and marginalia. Philosopher John Locke developed and published a popular indexing system which served as a model for commonplace books and inspired at least ten different published editions of commonplace book templates in Europe and the Americas as well as Bell's Common-Place Book, Form'd Generally upon the Principles Recommended and Practised by Mr Locke (London, 1770).
Cognitive psychology
Note-taking is a central aspect of a complex human behavior related to information management involving a range of underlying mental processes and their interactions with other cognitive functions. The person taking notes must acquire and filter the incoming sources, organize and restructure existing knowledge structures, comprehend and write down their explanation of the information, and ultimately store and integrate the freshly processed material. The result is a knowledge representation, and a memory storage. Studies comparing the performance of students who took handwritten notes to students who typed their notes found that students who took handwritten notes performed better on examinations, hypothetically due to the deeper processing of learned material through selective rephrasing instead of word-for-word transcription which is common when typing notes.
Reasons for note-taking
Note-taking is a good strategy to enhance learning and memory, as it allows the notetaker to be selective and reorganize ideas during a lecture. These notes can be reworded in an easier way that will facilitate the understanding of the content taught in class. Afterward, the notes can be used to help process, recall, and use information that has been rapidly gone through during the lecture.
Taking notes on different words used in lectures fosters vocabulary learning and stimulates autonomous learning of actively engaged individuals.
Systems
Many different formats are used to structure information and make it easier to find and to understand later. The format of the initial record may often be informal and/or unstructured. One common format for such notes is shorthand, which can allow large amounts of information to be put on paper very quickly. Historically, note-taking was an analog process, written in notebooks, or other paper methods like Post-It notes. In the digital age, use of computers, tablet PCs and personal digital assistants (PDAs) is common.
The note taker usually has to work fast, and different note-taking styles and techniques try to make the best use of time. The average rate of speech is 2–3 words per second (which is 120-180 words per minute), but the average handwriting speed as only 0.2–0.3 words per second (which is 12-18 words per minute).
Regardless of the medium, note-taking can be broadly divided into linear and nonlinear methods, which can be combined.
Regardless of the system used, it can be best to focus on writing down the most important information first.
Linear note-taking
Linear note-taking is the process of recording information in the order in which you receive it. Linear notes are typically chronological outlines of a lecture or a text. Linear note taking is a common means of taking notes, however, the potential to just transcribe everything that is being said or on the presentation slide is quite high.
Outlining
Outlining is a common note-taking system. Notes and thoughts are organized in a structured, logical manner, reducing the time needed to edit and review, allowing a lot of information to be digested in a short period of time. For classes that involve many formulas and graphs, like mathematics or chemistry, a system such as Cornell Notes may be better.
Outlines generally proceed down a page, using headings and bullets to structure information. A common system consists of headings that use Roman numerals, letters of the alphabet, and Arabic numerals at different levels. A typical structure would be:
I. First main topic
A. Subtopic
point 1
point 2
point 3
B. Subtopic
point 1
point 2
point 3
II. Second main topic
A. Subtopic
point 1
point 2
point 3
B. Subtopic
point 1
point 2
point 3
However, this sort of structure has limitations in non-digital form since it is difficult to go back and insert more information. Adaptive systems are used for paper-and-pen insertions, such as using the reverse side of the preceding page in a spiral notebook to make insertions. Or one can simply leave large spaces in between items, to enable more material to be inserted. (For information about application software that supports outlining, see :Category:Outliners.)
Computerized note-taking, whether with a word processor, outliner software, or a digital notebook program, allows note-takers to revise easily and add more entries or rows to the outline.
Sentence method
Sentence note-taking is simply writing down each topic as a short, simple sentence. This method works well for fast-paced lesson where a lot of information is being covered. The note-taker records every new thought, fact, or topic on a separate line. All information is recorded but is not organized into major and minor topics. Notes can be numbered or set off with bullets showing where a new thought begins.
Non-linear note-taking
Approaches to non-linear note-taking include clustering, concept mapping, Cornell Notes, idea mapping, instant replays, Ishikawa diagrams, knowledge maps, learning maps, mind mapping, model maps, and the pyramid principle.
Charting
The charting method of note taking, which includes the drawing of tables sometimes called , is useful for subject matter that can be broken into categories, such as similarities, differences, date, event, impact, etc. Students may use charting to identify categories and draw a table prior to a lecture or may review and rewrite notes using the charting method.
Mapping
Mapping uses spatial organization and diagrams to assemble information. Ideas are written in a node–link structure, with lines connecting ideas together. Mind maps are drawn in a tree structure from a central point, purpose, or goal in the center of the page and then branch outward to identify all the ideas connected to that goal. Colors, small graphics, and symbols are often used to help to visualize the information more easily. It is also used for planning and writing essays.
Cornell Notes
The Cornell Notes method of note-taking was developed by Walter Pauk of Cornell University and promoted in his bestselling 1974 book How to Study in College. It is commonly used at universities today. The Cornell method consists of dividing a single page into three sections: a right-hand column for notes, a left-hand column for cues, and a strip at the bottom for a summary. Cues are key words or questions that help evoke key aspects of the topic. Cornell notes may be more effective for understanding concepts or producing readable notes, but studies have found that they had no significant effect on student performance.
SQ3R
SQ3R ("Survey, Question, Read, Recite, Review") is a method of taking notes from written material, though it might be better classified as a method of reading and gaining understanding. The reader skims the written material to produce a list of headings (Survey), which are then converted into questions (Question). The reader then considers the questions while reading to provide motivation for what is being covered (Read). The reader writes notes in sections headed by the questions (Recite), then writes a summary from memory and reviews the notes (Review).
Research shows that students who use the SQ3R strategy retain more information and achieve higher test scores.
An updated version called SQ4R, which adds a "Relate" step before "Review", has been used by some students since the early 1960s.
Guided notes
Sometimes lecturers may provide handouts of guided notes, which provide a "map" of the lecture content with key points or ideas missing. Students then fill in missing items as the lecture progresses. Guided notes may assist students in following lectures and identifying the most important ideas from a lecture. This format provides students with a framework, yet requires active listening (as opposed to providing copies of presentation slides in their entirety), and promotes active engagement during lecture or independent reading. The student ends up with full and accurate notes for use as a study guide.
Research suggests that guided notes improve student recording of critical points in lecture, as well as quiz scores on related content. In addition, an investigation carried out on students with learning problems showed that the use of the guided notes is an effective strategy to improve the performance of these students.
Card file
A card file uses individual notes on index cards (or their digital equivalent) that may be linked to each other through subject headings or other metadata such as numbers and tags.
Electronic note-taking methods
The growing use of laptops in universities and colleges has led to a rise in electronic note-taking. Many students write their notes in word processors or prepare digital hand-written notes using a graphics tablet or tablet computer and styli or digital pens, with the aid of note-taking software. Online applications are receiving growing attention from students who can forward notes using email, or otherwise make use of collaborative features in these applications and can also download the texts as a file on a local computer. It has also become common for lecturers to deliver lectures using these and similar technologies, including electronic whiteboards, especially at institutes of technology.
Online note-taking has created problems for teachers who must balance educational freedom with copyright and intellectual property concerns regarding course content.
Electronic note-taking may be less effective than traditional methods of note-taking. A study done by Pam A. Mueller of Princeton University and Daniel M. Oppenheimer of the University of California, Los Angeles showed that students who take notes digitally retain less information than students who take notes on paper, and the digital note-takers have more difficulty remembering what they've written. Electronic note-taking has created computer-aided distractions in class as multitasking on laptops is very easy to accomplish. However, this research only applies to typing notes on laptops, not writing on tablets.
Professional services
Professional note-takers provide access to information for people who cannot take their own notes, such as some deaf and hearing impaired people. They most frequently work in colleges and universities, but are also used in workplace meetings, appointments, conferences, and training sessions.
See also
:Category:Learning methods
Comparison of note-taking software
List of concept- and mind-mapping software
Florilegium
Forgetting curve
Handwriting recognition
List of graphical methods
Memorandum
Sketchnoting
References
External links
Writing
Educational psychology | 0.76112 | 0.994676 | 0.757068 |
Tribalism | Tribalism is the state of being organized by, or advocating for, tribes or tribal lifestyles. Human evolution has primarily occurred in small hunter-gatherer groups, as opposed to in larger and more recently settled agricultural societies or civilizations. With a negative connotation and in a political context, tribalism can also mean discriminatory behavior or attitudes towards out-groups, based on in-group loyalty.
Definition
The word "tribe" can be defined to mean an extended kin group or clan with a common ancestor, or can also be described as a group who share the common interest of mutual survival and preservation of a common culture. The proverb "birds of a feather flock together" describes homophily, the human tendency to form friendship networks with people of similar occupations, interests, and habits. Some tribes can be located in geographically proximate areas, like villages or bands, and although telecommunications in theory could enable groups of people to form tribe-like communities, digital tribes and social networking websites are not quite tribes in that they do not inherently provide the mutual survival of both the individual members of the tribe and for the tribe itself, as tribes do.
In terms of conformity, the word "tribalism" has been co-opted and stripped of its original meaning, and has been defined as a "subjectivity" or "way of being" social frame in which communities are bound socially beyond immediate birth ties by the dominance of various modalities of face-to-face and object integration. Ontologically, tribalism is oriented around the valences of analogy, genealogy and mythology. That means that customary tribes have their social foundations in some variation of these tribal orientations, while often taking on traditional practices (e.g. Abrahamic religions such as Christianity, Judaism, and Islam), and modern practices, including monetary exchange, mobile communications, and modern education.
Tribalism in a political sense refers to the strong political solidarity typical of post-truth politics.
Social structure
The social structure of a tribe can vary greatly from case to case. The relatively small size of customary tribes results in a social life which usually involve a relatively few significant political or economic distinctions between individuals. As a result, social hierarchy is uncommon, and deep bonds are made between individual members.
A tribe often refers to itself using its own language's word for "people", and refers to other, neighboring tribes with various words to distinguish them as other. For example, the term "Inuit" translates to "people".
Types
Tribalism implies the possession of a strong cultural or ethnic identity that separates one member of a group from the members of another group. Based on strong relations of proximity and kinship, as well as relations based on the mutual survival of both the individual members of the tribe and for the tribe itself, members of a tribe tend to possess a strong feeling of identity. Objectively, for a customary tribal society to form there needs to be ongoing customary organization, inquiry, and exchange. However, intense feelings of common identity can lead people to feel tribally connected.
The distinction between these two definitions of tribalism, objective and subjective, is an important one because while tribal societies have been pushed to the edges of the Western world, tribalism, by the second definition, is arguably undiminished. A few writers have postulated that the human brain is hard-wired towards tribalism, but that claim is usually linked to equating original questions of sociality with tribalism.
Concept evolution
Tribalism has a very adaptive effect in human evolution. Humans are social animals and ill-equipped to live on their own. Tribalism and social bonding help to keep individuals committed to the group, even when personal relations may fray. That keeps individuals from wandering off or joining other groups. It also leads to bullying when a tribal member is unwilling to conform to the politics of the collective.
Some scholars argue that inclusive fitness in humans involves kin selection and kin altruism, in which groups of an extended family with shared genes help others with similar genes, based on their coefficient of relationship (the amount of genes they have in common). Other scholars argue that fictive kinship is common in human organizations, allowing non-kin members to collaborate in groups like fraternities.
Socially, divisions between groups fosters specialized interactions with others, based on association: altruism (positive interactions with unrelated members), kin-selectivity (positive interactions with related members) and violence (negative interactions). Thus, groups with a strong sense of unity and identity can benefit from kin selection behaviour such as common property and shared resources. The tendencies of members to unite against an outside tribe and the ability to act violently and prejudicially against that outside tribe likely boosted the chances of survival in genocidal conflicts.
Modern examples of tribal genocide rarely reflect the defining characteristics of tribes existing prior to the Neolithic Revolution; for example, small population and close-relatedness.
According to a study by Robin Dunbar at the University of Liverpool, social group size is determined by primate brain size. Dunbar's conclusion was that most human brains can really understand only an average of 150 individuals as fully developed, complex people. That is known as Dunbar's number. In contrast, anthropologist H. Russell Bernard and Peter Killworth have done a variety of field studies in the United States that came up with an estimated mean number of ties, 290, roughly double Dunbar's estimate. The Bernard–Killworth median of 231 is lower because of upward straggle in the distribution, but it is still appreciably larger than Dunbar's estimate.
Malcolm Gladwell expanded on this conclusion sociologically in his book, The Tipping Point, where members of one of his types, Connectors, were successful by their larger-than-average number of close friendships and capacity for maintaining them, which tie together otherwise-unconnected social groups. According to such studies, then, "tribalism" is a hard-to-escape fact of human neurology simply because many human brains are not adapted to working with large populations. Once a person's limit for connection is reached, the human brain resorts to some combination of hierarchical schemes, stereotypes and other simplified models to understand so many people.
Negative outcomes
Anthropologists engage in ongoing debate on the phenomenon of warfare among tribes. While fighting typically and certainly occurs among horticultural tribes, an open question remains whether such warfare is a typical feature of hunter-gatherer life or is an anomaly found only in certain circumstances, such as scarce resources (as with the Inuit or Arabs) or only among food-producing societies.
Certain tribes use forms of subsistence such as horticulture and foraging that cannot yield the same number of absolute calories as agriculture. Those subsistance methods thus limit those tribal populations significantly, especially when compared to agricultural populations. Jesse Mathis writes in War Before Civilization that examples exist with low percentage rates of casualties in tribal battle, and some tribal battles were much more lethal as a percentage of population than, for example, the Battle of Gettysburg. He concludes that no evidence consistently indicates that primitive battles are proportionately less lethal than civilized ones.
The realistic conflict theory is a model of intergroup conflict, arguing that in a real or perceived zero-sum system, conflicts arise over shared interests for finite resources. The 1954 Robbers Cave experiment involved researchers putting 12-year-old boys into groups, where they formed their own ingroups, before then developing hostility and negativity towards the other group during simulated conflict over finite resources in a zero-sum game.
Criticism
Various authors, such as Aidan Southall, have attacked the notion of tribe as a tool of colonial ideology, and identified modern tribalism as a product of colonial governance in Africa. The Africa Policy Information Center describes the term, and tribalism in particular as a byword for ethnic strife, as invoking negative stereotypes of Africa as a land of primitive and territorial peoples.
An April, 2021 article published in The Journal of Hospital Medicine titled "Tribalism: The Good, The Bad, and The Future" by Zahir Kanjee and Leslie Bilello of Harvard Medical School was retracted due to protest from readers over the use of the terms tribe and tribalism. The article was then republished with the title "Leadership and Professional Development: Specialty Silos in Medicine" along with an apology from the editor-in-chief. The revised version of the article substituted the terms groups and medical specialties for tribes, and siloed and factional for tribalism.
See also
References
Further reading
External links
James, Paul; et al., Sustainable Communities, Sustainable Development: Other Paths for Papua New Guinea (2012).
Sow, Adama: "Ethnozentrismus als Katalysator bestehender Konflikte in Afrika südlich der Sahara, am Beispiel der Unruhen in Côte d`Ivoire" at: European University Center for Peace Studies, Stadtschleining 2005 .
"The New Tribalism" by University of Oregon president Dave Frohnmayer, condemning a "new tribalism" in the traditional sense of "tribalism", not to be confused with "new tribalism".
Steven Pressfield, [https://web.archive.org/web/20100516030351/http://www.stevenpressfield.com/vblog/ It's the Tribes, Stupid] (five part video series)
Episode 1: "It's the Tribes, Stupid"
Episode 2: "The Citizen Vs. The Tribesman"
Episode 3: "Tribes Are Different From You and Me"
Episode 4: "Fighting a Tribal Enemy"
Episode 5: "How to Win in Afghanistan"
Forms of government
Group processes
Political science theories
Sociological terminology
Tribes | 0.760876 | 0.99497 | 0.757049 |
Seeing Like a State | Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed is a book by James C. Scott critical of a system of beliefs he calls high modernism, that centers on governments' overconfidence in the ability to design and operate society in accordance with purported scientific laws.
The book makes an argument that states seek to force "legibility" on their subjects by homogenizing them and creating standards that simplify pre-existing, natural, diverse social arrangements. Examples include the introduction of family names, censuses, uniform languages, and standard units of measurement. While such innovations aim to facilitate state control and economies of scale, Scott argues that the eradication of local differences and silencing of local expertise can have adverse effects.
The book was first published in March 1998, with a paperback version appearing in February 1999.
Summary
Scott shows how central governments attempt to force legibility on their subjects, and fail to see complex, valuable forms of local social order and knowledge. A main theme of this book, illustrated by his historic examples, is that states operate systems of power toward 'legibility' in order to see their subjects correctly in a top-down, modernist, model that is flawed, problematic, and often ends poorly for subjects. The goal of local legibility by the state is transparency from the top down, from the top of the tower or the center/seat of the government, so the state can effectively operate upon their subjects.
The book uses examples like the introduction of permanent last names in Great Britain, cadastral surveys in France, and standard units of measure across Europe to argue that a reconfiguration of social order is necessary for state scrutiny, and requires the simplification of pre-existing, natural arrangements. While, in earlier times, a field could be measured in the amount of cows it could sustain or the types of plants it could grow, post centralization, its size is measured in hectares. This allows governors who have little to no local knowledge to immediately understand the outline of the area but simultaneously blinds the state to the complex interactions which happen within nature and society. In agriculture and forestry, for example, it led to monoculture, or the sole focus on cultivating a single crop or tree at the cost of all others. While monoculture is easy to measure, manage, and understand, it is also less resilient to ecological crises than polyculture is.
In the case of last names, Scott cites a Welsh man who appeared in court and identified himself with a long string of patronyms: "John, ap Thomas ap William" etc. In his local village, this naming system carried a lot of information, because people could identify him as the son of Thomas and grandson of William, and thus distinguish him from the other Johns, the other children of Thomas, and the other grandchildren of William. Yet it was of less use to the central government, which did not know Thomas or William. The court demanded that John take a permanent last name (in this case, the name of his village). This helped the central government keep track of its subjects, at the cost of a more nuanced yet fuzzy and less legible understanding of local conditions.
Schemes that successfully improve human lives, Scott argues, must take into account local conditions, and that the high-modernist ideologies of the 20th century have prevented this. He highlights collective farms in the Soviet Union, the building of Brasilia, and forced villagization in 1970s Tanzania as examples of failed schemes which were led by top-down bureaucratic efforts and where officials ignored or silenced local expertise.
Scott takes great effort to highlight that he is not necessarily anti-state. At times, the central role played by the state is necessary for programs such as disaster response or vaccinations. The flattening of knowledge which goes hand-in-hand with state centralization can have disastrous consequences when officials see centralised knowledge as the only legitimate information that they should consider, ignoring more specialised but less clearly defined indigenous and local expertise.
Scott explores the concept of "metis," which refers to practical knowledge gained through experience and shaped by individual contexts. He compares this type of knowledge to "epistemic" knowledge, which is more formalized and associated with scientific methods and institutional education. Unlike epistemic knowledge, which is standardized and centralized, metis is adaptable and diverse. It emerges from the accumulated experiences of individuals within specific contexts, resulting in a rich tapestry of localized knowledge systems. This flexibility allows metis to evolve and respond to changing circumstances, making it highly applicable in various practical domains. However, Scott also discusses the challenges that metis faces in contemporary society, particularly in the context of industrialization and state control. He argues that attempts to standardize knowledge and impose universal ideologies often undermine the diverse nature of metis, marginalizing localized knowledge systems in favor of more centralized and standardized forms of knowledge production. Scott also criticizes authoritarian efforts to impose rigid knowledge frameworks, as they overlook the nuanced and context-dependent nature of metis. Instead of recognizing the value of diverse knowledge forms, these authoritarian approaches seek to homogenize and control knowledge production for political or economic purposes. Scott advocates for the preservation and acknowledgment of metis alongside epistemic knowledge. He highlights the importance of embracing the dynamic and diverse nature of practical knowledge derived from experience, emphasizing its relevance in addressing complex challenges and promoting resilience in the face of change.
Scott examines the limitations of high-modernist urban planning and social engineering, contending that these approaches often result in unsustainable outcomes and diminish human autonomy and abilities. Scott contrasts the rigid, centralized designs of high modernism with the adaptable, diverse nature of institutions shaped by practical wisdom, or "metis." Scott criticizes the monocultural, one-dimensional nature of high-modernist projects, suggesting that they fail to account for the complexity and dynamism of real-life systems. Examples from agriculture, urban planning, and economics are used to illustrate how rigid, top-down approaches can lead to environmental degradation, social dislocation, and a loss of human agency. Furthermore, he emphasizes the importance of diversity, flexibility, and adaptability in human institutions, arguing that these qualities enhance resilience and effectiveness. He highlights the role of informal, bottom-up practices in complementing and sometimes subverting formal systems, demonstrating how metis-driven institutions can thrive in complex, ever-changing environments. Scott advocates for institutions that are shaped by the knowledge and experience of their participants, rather than imposed from above. He suggests that such institutions are better equipped to navigate uncertainty, respond to change, and foster the development of individuals with a wide range of skills and capabilities.
Reception
Book reviews
Stanford University political scientist David D. Laitin described it as "a magisterial book." But he said there were flaws in the methodology of the book, saying the book "is a product of undisciplined history. For one, Scott’s evidence is selective and eclectic, with only minimal attempts to weigh disconfirming evidence... It is all too easy to select confirming evidence if the author can choose from the entire historical record and use material from all countries of the world."
John N. Gray, author of False Dawn: The Delusions of Global Capitalism, reviewed the book favorably for the New York Times, concluding: "Today's faith in the free market echoes the faith of earlier generations in high modernist schemes that failed at great human cost. Seeing Like a State does not tell us what it is in late modern societies that predisposes them, against all the evidence of history, to put their trust in such utopias. Sadly, no one knows enough to explain that."
Economist James Bradford DeLong wrote a detailed online review of the book. DeLong acknowledged Scott's adept examination of the pitfalls of centrally planned social-engineering projects, which aligns with the Austrian tradition's critique of central planning. Scott's book, according to DeLong, effectively demonstrates the limitations and failures of attempts to impose high modernist principles from the top down. However, DeLong also suggested that Scott may fail to fully acknowledge his intellectual roots, particularly within the Austrian tradition. DeLong argued that while Scott effectively critiques high modernism, he may avoid explicitly aligning his work with the Austrian perspective due to subconscious fears of being associated with certain political ideologies. DeLong's interpretation of the book was critiqued by Henry Farrell on the Crooked Timber blog, and there was a follow-up exchange including further discussion of the book.
Economist Deepak Lal reviewed the book for the Summer 2000 issue of The Independent Review, concluding: "Although I am in sympathy with Scott’s diagnosis of the development disasters he recounts, I conclude that he has not burrowed deep enough to discover a systematic cause of these failures. (In my view, that cause lies in the continuing attraction of various forms of 'enterprises' in what at heart remains Western Christendom.) Nor is he right in so blithely dismissing the relevance of classical liberalism in finding remedies for the ills he eloquently describes."
Political scientist Ulf Zimmermann reviewed the book for H-Net Online in December 1998, concluding: "It is important to keep in mind, as Scott likewise notes, that many of these projects replaced even worse social orders and at least occasionally introduced somewhat more egalitarian principles, never mind improving public health and such. And, in the end, many of the worst were sufficiently resisted in their absurdity, as he had shown so well in his, Weapons of the Weak and as best demonstrated by the utter collapse of the soviet system. "Metis" alone is not sufficient; we need to find a way to link it felicitously with—to stick with Scott's Aristotelian vocabulary—phronesis and praxis, or, in more ordinary terms, to produce theories more profoundly grounded in actual practice so that the state may see better in implementing policies."
Michael Adas, professor of history at Rutgers University reviewed the book for the Summer 2000 issue of the Journal of Social History.
Russell Hardin, a professor of politics at New York University, reviewed the book for The Good Society in 2001, disagreeing with Scott's diagnosis somewhat. Hardin, who believes in collectiveness (collective actions) concluded: "The failure of collectivization was therefore a failure of incentives, not a failure to rely on local knowledge."
Discussions
The September 2010 issue of Cato Unbound was devoted to discussing the themes of the book. Scott wrote the lead essay. Other participants were Donald Boudreaux, Timothy B. Lee, and J. Bradford DeLong. A number of people, including Henry Farrell and Tyler Cowen, weighed in on the discussion on their own blogs.
See also
Panopticism
Further reading
References
1998 non-fiction books
Books about social history
Modernism | 0.761397 | 0.994239 | 0.757011 |
Ecosophy | Ecosophy or ecophilosophy (a portmanteau of ecological philosophy) is a philosophy of ecological harmony or equilibrium. The term was coined by the French post-structuralist philosopher and psychoanalyst Félix Guattari and the Norwegian father of deep ecology, Arne Næss.
Félix Guattari
Ecosophy also refers to a field of practice introduced by psychoanalyst, poststructuralist philosopher, and political activist Félix Guattari. In part Guattari's use of the term demarcates a necessity for the proponents of social liberation, whose struggles in the 20th century were dominated by the paradigm of social revolution, to embed their arguments within an ecological framework which understands the interconnections of social and environmental spheres.
Guattari holds that traditional environmentalist perspectives obscure the complexity of the relationship between humans and their natural environment through their maintenance of the dualistic separation of human (cultural) and nonhuman (natural) systems; he envisions ecosophy as a new field with a monistic and pluralistic approach to such study. Ecology in the Guattarian sense, then, is a study of complex phenomena, including human subjectivity, the environment, and social relations, all of which are intimately interconnected. Despite this emphasis on interconnection, throughout his individual writings and more famous collaborations with Gilles Deleuze, Guattari has resisted calls for holism, preferring to emphasize heterogeneity and difference, synthesizing assemblages and multiplicities in order to trace rhizomatic structures rather than creating unified and holistic structures.
Guattari's concept of the three interacting and interdependent ecologies of mind, society, and environment stems from the outline of the three ecologies presented in Steps to an Ecology of Mind, a collection of writings by cyberneticist Gregory Bateson.
Næss's definition
Næss defined ecosophy in the following way:
While a professor at the University of Oslo in 1972, Arne Næss, introduced the terms "deep ecology movement" and "ecosophy" into environmental literature. Næss based his article on a talk he gave in Bucharest in 1972 at the Third World Future Research Conference. As Drengson notes in Ecophilosophy, Ecosophy and the Deep Ecology Movement: An Overview, "In his talk, Næss discussed the longer-range background of the ecology movement and its connection with respect for Nature and the inherent worth of other beings." Næss's view of humans as an integral part of a "total-field image" of Nature contrasts with the alternative construction of ecosophy outlined by Guattari.
The term ecological wisdom, synonymous with ecosophy, was introduced by Næss in 1973. The concept has become one of the foundations of the deep ecology movement. All expressions of values by Green Parties list ecological wisdom as a key value—it was one of the original Four Pillars of the Green Party and is often considered the most basic value of these parties. It is also often associated with indigenous religion and cultural practices. In its political context, it is necessarily not as easily defined as ecological health or scientific ecology concepts.
See also
Ecology
Environmental philosophy
Global Greens Charter
Green syndicalism
Silvilization
Simple living
Spiritual ecology
Sustainable living
Yin and yang
Notes
References
Drengson, A. and Y. Inoue, eds. (1995) The Deep Ecology Movement: An Introductory Anthology. Berkeley: North Atlantic Publishers.
Guattari, Félix: »Pour une refondation des pratiques sociales«. In: Le Monde Diplomatique (Oct. 1992): 26-7.
Guattari, Félix: »Remaking Social Practices«. In: Genosko, Gary (Hg.) (1996): The Guattari Reader. Oxford, Blackwell, S. 262-273.
Maybury-Lewis, David. (1992) "On the Importance of Being Tribal: Tribal Wisdom." Millennium: Tribal Wisdom and the Modern World. Binimun Productions Ltd.
Næss, Arne. (1973) The Shallow and the Deep Long-Range Ecology Movement: A Summary". Inquiry, 16:95-100
Drengson A. & B. Devall (2008) (Eds) The Ecology of Wisdom. Writings by Arne Naess. Berkeley: Counterpoint
Levesque, Simon (2016) Two versions of ecosophy: Arne Næss, Félix Guattari, and their connection with semiotics. Sign Systems Studies'' 44(4): 511-541. http://dx.doi.org/10.12697/SSS.2016.44.4.03
External links
Ecophilosophy, Ecosophy and the Deep Ecology Movement: An Overview by Alan Drengson Ecospherics.net. Accessed 2005-08-14.
The Trumpeter, A Journal of Ecosophy.
Ecology
Postmodern theory
Environmental philosophy
Environmentalism
Arne Næss | 0.769713 | 0.983494 | 0.757008 |
Ecocentrism | Ecocentrism (; from Greek: οἶκος oikos, 'house' and κέντρον kentron, 'center') is a term used by environmental philosophers and ecologists to denote a nature-centered, as opposed to human-centered (i.e., anthropocentric), system of values. The justification for ecocentrism usually consists in an ontological belief and subsequent ethical claim. The ontological belief denies that there are any existential divisions between human and non-human nature sufficient to claim that humans are either (a) the sole bearers of intrinsic value or (b) possess greater intrinsic value than non-human nature. Thus the subsequent ethical claim is for an equality of intrinsic value across human and non-human nature, or biospherical egalitarianism.
Origin of term
The ecocentric ethic was conceived by Aldo Leopold and recognizes that all species, including humans, are the product of a long evolutionary process and are inter-related in their life processes. The writings of Aldo Leopold and his idea of the land ethic and good environmental management are a key element to this philosophy.
Ecocentrism focuses on the biotic community as a whole and strives to maintain ecosystem composition and ecological processes. The term also finds expression in the first principle of the deep ecology movement, as formulated by Arne Næss and George Sessions in 1984
which points out that anthropocentrism, which considers humans as the center of the universe and the pinnacle of all creation, is a difficult opponent for ecocentrism.
Background
Environmental thought and the various branches of the environmental movement are often classified into two intellectual camps: those that are considered anthropocentric, or "human-centred," in orientation and those considered biocentric, or "life-centred". This division has been described in other terminology as "shallow" ecology versus "deep" ecology and as "technocentrism" versus "ecocentrism". Ecocentrism can be seen as one stream of thought within environmentalism, the political and ethical movement that seeks to protect and improve the quality of the natural environment through changes to environmentally harmful human activities by adopting environmentally benign forms of political, economic, and social organization and through a reassessment of humanity's relationship with nature. In various ways, environmentalism claims that non-human organisms and the natural environment as a whole deserve consideration when appraising the morality of political, economic, and social policies.
Environmental communication scholars suggest that anthropocentric ways of being and identities are maintained by various modes of cultural disciplinary power such as ridiculing, labelling, and silencing. Accordingly, the transition to more ecocentric ways of being and identities requires not only legal and economic structural change, but also the emergence of ecocultural practices that challenge anthropocentric disciplinary power and lead to the creation of ecocentric cultural norms.
Relationship to other similar philosophies
Anthropocentrism
Ecocentrism is taken by its proponents to constitute a radical challenge to long-standing and deeply rooted anthropocentric attitudes in Western culture, science, and politics. Anthropocentrism is alleged to leave the case for the protection of non-human nature subject to the demands of human utility, and thus never more than contingent on the demands of human welfare. An ecocentric ethic, by contrast, is believed to be necessary in order to develop a non-contingent basis for protecting the natural world. Critics of ecocentrism have argued that it opens the doors to an anti-humanist morality that risks sacrificing human well-being for the sake of an ill-defined 'greater good'. Deep ecologist Arne Naess has identified anthropocentrism as a root cause of the ecological crisis, human overpopulation, and the extinctions of many non-human species. Lupinacci also points to anthropocentrism as a root cause of environmental degradation. Others point to the gradual historical realization that humans are not the centre of all things, that "A few hundred years ago, with some reluctance, Western people admitted that the planets, Sun and stars did not circle around their abode. In short, our thoughts and concepts though irreducibly anthropomorphic need not be anthropocentric."
Industrocentrism
It sees all things on earth as resources to be utilized by humans or to be commodified. This view is the opposite of anthropocentrism and ecocentrism.
Technocentrism
Ecocentrism is also contrasted with technocentrism (meaning values centred on technology) as two opposing perspectives on attitudes towards human technology and its ability to affect, control and even protect the environment. Ecocentrics, including "deep green" ecologists, see themselves as being subject to nature, rather than in control of it. They lack faith in modern technology and the bureaucracy attached to it. Ecocentrics will argue that the natural world should be respected for its processes and products, and that low impact technology and self-reliance is more desirable than technological control of nature.
Technocentrics, including imperialists, have absolute faith in technology and industry and firmly believe that humans have control over nature. Although technocentrics may accept that environmental problems do exist, they do not see them as problems to be solved by a reduction in industry. Indeed, technocentrics see that the way forward for developed and developing countries and the solutions to our environmental problems today lie in scientific and technological advancement.
Biocentrism
The distinction between biocentrism and ecocentrism is ill-defined. Ecocentrism recognizes Earth's interactive living and non-living systems rather than just the Earth's organisms (biocentrism) as central in importance.
The term has been used by those advocating "left biocentrism", combining deep ecology with an "anti-industrial and anti-capitalist" position (David Orton et al.).
See also
Deep ecology
Earth liberation
Ecosophy
Ecocentric embodied energy analysis
Environmentalism
Ecological humanities
Radical environmentalism
Gaia hypothesis
Holocentric
Sentiocentrism
Social ecology (Bookchin)
Technocentrism
References
Further reading
Bosselmann, K. 1999. When Two Worlds Collide: Society and Ecology.
Eckersley, R. 1992. Environmentalism and Political Theory: Toward an Ecocentric Approach. State University of New York Press.
Hettinger, Ned and Throop, Bill 1999. Refocusing Ecocentrism: De-emphasizing Stability and Defending Wilderness. Environmental Ethics 21: 3-21.
External links
The Ecological Citizen
Ecospheric Ethics
Ecocentric Alliance
Concepts in political philosophy
Environmental ethics
Green politics
Political ecology | 0.764651 | 0.989988 | 0.756996 |
Mobile phone use in schools | The use of mobile phones in schools has become a very controversial topic debated by students, parents, teachers and authorities.
People who support the use of mobile phones believe that these phones are useful for safety, allowing children to communicate with their parents and guardians, and teaching children how to deal with new media properly as early as possible. In addition, people suggest that schools should adapt to the current technological landscape where mobile phones allow access to vast amounts of information, rendering the need to memorize facts obsolete, allowing schools to shift their focus from imparting knowledge to emphasizing critical thinking skills and fostering the development of essential personal qualities.
Opponents of students using mobile phones during school believe that mobile phones are the main source of declining mental health among adolescents, hampering social development and enabling cyber bullies.
Different countries across the world have had to respond to the increasing presence of mobile devices in schools and weigh the potential harms and benefits all while maintaining their privacy laws. To prevent distractions caused by mobile phones, many schools have implemented policies that restrict students from using their phones during school hours. The company Yondr, for example, pioneered the concept of phone-free schools with a lockable pouch product that students place their phones in at the start of each school day, allowing them to experience the focus, creativity, and relief that comes from a phone-free learning environment. Some administrators have attempted cell phone jamming to monitor and restrict phone usage, with the goal of reducing distractions and preventing unproductive use. However, these methods of regulation raise concerns about privacy violation and abuse of power, as well as being illegal in certain jurisdictions.
Studies
Pros
An increase in access to technological devices could develop workplace skills such as rapid searching, browsing, assessing quality, and synthesizing large quantities of information. In addition to helping develop 21st century skills, mobile phones may provide access to a wide variety of mobile apps useful to both teachers and students in the classroom.
Surveys from leading tech experts suggest that there will be both positives and negatives associated with allowing mobile phones in the classroom. Specifically 55% of those surveyed agree that there will be learning behavior changes that generally produce positive outcomes such as improved problem solving abilities. While potential issues such as the need for instant gratification were acknowledged, many were optimistic that the negatives could be overcome. Classrooms adapting to the changes in technology was identified as one of the key steps in avoiding negative consequences in the classroom. One researcher at Fast Future, David Saer, stated that the desire for instantaneous content can be seen as a new perspective on timetables rather than a lack of patience.
In 2017, Dr. James Derounian conducted a study involving a hundred participants at the University of Gloucestershire. His study revealed that 45% of students believe that the use of phones in classrooms supports their education. One of the most commonly mentioned ways that phones provided such academic support was digital access to textbooks. The ability to access scholarly material on mobile devices allowed students to engage more deeply with the information presented. Still, Derounian mentioned that there could be "an element of social desirability conveyed in the student views given."
Cons
A 2015 study published in the journal Computers in Human Behavior demonstrated that among undergraduate students total usage of mobile phones, measured in number of minutes per day and not limited to school time, was "a significant and negative predictor of college students' academic performance, objectively measured as cumulative GPA." Moreover, the abundant use of mobile technology among young people largely explains the inadequate use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in both personal and school environments. Consequently, actions have been taken that contribute to more responsible use of this type of technology in students' personal, school, and social lives.
In 2015, Dakota Lawson and Bruce B. Henderson performed a study to examine the relationship between mobile phone use in class and information comprehension. The study involved 120 students from an introductory psychology course, mostly first-year students. The result showed that students who were texting in the class had significantly lower test scores even when the material that was presented was simple: mobile phone use in class impairs students' comprehension and performance. This study was performed after several similar studies in the past and corroborated their results.
Furthermore, researchers Julia Irwin and Natasha Gupta of Macquarie University performed an experiment in 2016 testing the effect of Facebook-related distractions in the classroom. The researchers found that students who were interested in the subject material and the way it was presented were less likely to be distracted by Facebook. However, the students with access to phones still performed poorer than students that were not allowed access to cell phones during the lecture.
A 2017 collective study, published by Applied Cognitive Psychology, indicated that college students retained less knowledge when allowed to use or possess a cell phone during lectures. During the experiment, students who were not allowed access to a cell phone tested better than those who had access to cell phones.
It is argued that, in the classroom, phones can be a constant disruption and may be used inappropriately, such as by cheating on tests, taking inappropriate photographs, and playing mobile games. Phones would also be a distraction, taking away attention that should be going to the teacher. In 2023, the United States surgeon general issued an advisory warning that social media can carry a profound risk of harm to the mental health and well-being of children and adolescents.
Research taken from the National College Health Assessment shows that almost twice as many undergraduate students were diagnosed with anxiety and depression between 2008 and 2018. In his book, The Anxious Generation, Social Psychologist Dr. Jonathan Haidt proposes that a combination of overprotective parents and increased cell phone use are both causes for the increase in mental illness, especially amongst younger generations. His work details how young students are not being properly prepared for the social and emotional dangers of social media and how these relationships are not as fulfilling as real world encounters.
An article by Emma Henderson, a journalist for the United Kingdom (UK) publication The Independent, describes phantom vibrations caused by "learned bodily behavior," where the part of the body to which the phone is closest becomes very sensitive. As a result, even the slightest vibrations can cause a person to believe that the phone has vibrated when, in reality, it has not. These are known as phantom vibrations. Nine out of ten people claimed to have felt these phantom vibrations in their pockets, raising serious concerns about the overuse of cell phones and the resulting dependency that people develop. Therefore, breaking the habit of frequently checking one's phone can not only be beneficial for students but also convey more respect towards the professors and teachers whose lectures are constantly interrupted by cellular distractions.
Regulations by country
Australia
In Australian schools, mobile phones are advised to be used only in case of calls to parents or guardians and that only if the parent or guardian allows the phone to be used to during school activities such as school excursions, camps and extra-curricular activities at school.
Mobile phones with cameras are restricted within school premises while entirely banned within certain sections such as changing rooms, bathrooms, gyms and swimming pools. They are only allowed to film or take photographs of people only with their signed permission or, if the person is under eighteen, to have a parent or guardian to give a sign permission note allowing for these actions. If a student is found with a mobile phone or devices within these areas, they will be confiscated; and, depending on the situation, charges or consequences will be given.
Mobile phones are not allowed to be used for sending harassing or threatening messages. If a student does commit such an act, higher authorities will become involved, including the police since this being a violation of privacy and harassment. Due to bullying, privacy and harassment issues being a major issue in Australia, if a student or teacher does break this law, it may leave them with a criminal record, leaving them at a disadvantage in the future.
Mobile phones are discouraged in terms of their use within the classroom unless they can be appropriately incorporated into the learning environment. Former Premier of New South Wales, Gladys Berejiklian, stated in an ABC news article that the policy was intended to "ensure mobile phones and other smart devices complement students' learning".
Australian educational institutes have been divided on whether phones should be completely banned in classrooms or only allowed for certain amounts of time during school hours. Since 2019, the New South Wales government has banned phones completely from its primary schools. In a public statement justifying the policy, Berejiklian declared that the ban would encourage children to avoid using technology that could "upset them or make them feel uncomfortable". From 2020 onwards, the Victorian Department of Education has similarly barred the use of mobile phones in all public schools, both primary and secondary.
The reason for banning phones is to stop bullying both online and physically and to remove distractions from the classrooms. "Mobile phones, unfortunately, are not only distracting but also causing stress for young children—and we can't have that continue," NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian told Seven's Sunrise. This will be implemented by removing students’ access to phones during the day unless a parent or guardian requests that the student needs to use it. The teacher will always have the phone kept with him somewhere where the student is still able to access it before and after school.
High school restrictions
While mobile phones are already banned in classrooms without teacher permission and banned in primary schools nationwide, mobile phone bans or restrictions in high schools (secondary schools) during lunch and recess breaks and during free time have become a highly controversial issue and laws vary in each state and territory, as well as by school. While proponents of bans and restrictions suggest that it could decrease distractions and cyberbullying (particularly with social media usage) and increase students' academic abilities and social skills, there is no evidence that phone bans decrease cyberbullying or increase listening in class. Phone bans in high schools are generally more likely to be supported by the centre-left Labor Party governments, while the centre-right Liberal/National Coalition is normally opposed to them, and the Coalition is strongly opposed to them in New South Wales.
Phones are currently banned or restricted in public and state primary and secondary schools in every jurisdiction except for the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) and Queensland. However, while Queensland plans to introduce a blanket ban in 2024; the ACT has no formal plans to introduce a blanket ban.
In New South Wales, the issue of phone bans has been perhaps more controversial than in any other state or territory. The New South Wales Coalition (currently in Opposition) is strongly opposed to a blanket, and during the 12 years of Coalition government in New South Wales, the state government repeatedly refused to enforce a blanket ban in high schools (though the state government did introduce a blanket ban in primary schools in 2018). During the 2023 New South Wales state election campaign, the Coalition again refused to enforce a blanket ban on mobile phones in public high schools, instead allowing schools to individually decide, while the Labor Party promised a blanket phone ban in public high schools if elected. Then-Premier Dominic Perrottet and his Cabinet were vocally opposed to a blanket ban on mobile phones in public high schools, with then-Education Minister Sarah Mitchell being perhaps one of the biggest critics of such a ban. The Labor Party won a minority government at the election, and newly-elected Premier Chris Minns and his Cabinet reiterated that a blanket ban on mobile phones in public high schools began at the beginning of Term 4 in 2023, despite a large amount of controversy.
In 2020, Victoria became the first state to enforce a blanket ban, and South Australia and Tasmania soon followed. In New South Wales, a blanket ban will come into place in Term 4 of 2023 while in Queensland a ban will come into place in Term 1 of 2024. In Western Australia and the Northern Territory, rules intended to stop students from using their mobile phones at public high schools are in place, but they involve less restrictive measures than other states and territories, as phones only need to be off and not accessed during the day, though this policy is unclear as it does not specifically outline restrictions for usage on school excursions or other non-classroom activities such as recess and lunch breaks or during drink breaks in extracurricular sport activities, for example.
Canada
Many provinces in the country have enacted some form of use of mobile devices during school hours.
In Alberta, a cell-phone ban took effect in September 2024.
In Ontario, a cell-phone ban was enacted for the 2024-2025 school year.
China
Ever since November 2018, all primary and secondary schools in China's Shandong province have banned the use of mobile phones in classrooms. In February 2021, China announced that children would be banned from using mobile phones in schools unless they have written parental consent.
France
Mobile phones have been prohibited for students from 3 to 15 years of age, since September 2018. In December 2017, the French minister of education Jean-Michel Blanquer issued a directive banning the use of smartphones in schools by children up to the age of 15.
Greece
It is completely allowed by law to use mobile phones by students in school as long as their work is done first. This includes calls, texting, or any kind of camera use. Students must switch off their mobile phones or set to silent mode and keep them in their bags until their work is done and then they can use them when they please.
However, after UNESCO's recommendation to ban the use of mobile devices in educational institutions, regulations governing Greek elementary and middle schools have been strengthened. As a result, students are now prohibited from bringing mobile phones onto campus.
Malaysia
For schools under the Malaysian Ministry of Education, it is a disciplinary offence for students to bring their phones to school as well as to the dormitories of boarding schools. Students are expected to use the school's public phones or borrow a teacher's mobile phone in the case of an emergency. Phones brought to school will be confiscated and the parents of the students who brought the phones will be notified to retrieve the phones. If the student is a first-time offender, a warning will be issued. The student and their parents will also have to sign a letter of undertaking in which the student promises not to bring their phone to school again. If the student is a repeating offender, they will be restricted from using school or dormitory facilities or will be excluded from school programs or activities.
Netherlands
In December 2023, Dutch education minister Robbert Dijkgraaf imposed a ban on mobile phones, iPads and smart devices at secondary schools, which came into effect in January 2024.
New Zealand
In late November 2023, the newly-formed Sixth National Government confirmed that it would ban cellphone use in schools as part of its 100-day plan. The governing National Party said that banning cellphone use during school hours would help improve students' academic performance and outcomes. They also cited citing schools and parents' concern that cellphone use was affecting students' health and social interaction.
The Government's cellphone ban came into effect on 30 April 2024, the first day of the second term of the 2024 school year. Secondary Principals' Association of New Zealand (SPANZ) president and Papatoetoe High School principal Vaughan Couillau confirmed that several schools had voluntarily instituted local cellphone bans during the first term to prepare students for the official nation-wide ban. In addition to classtime, the ban extends to school breaks with the purpose of encouraging socialisation among children and young people. Special exceptions from the cellphone ban include health reasons (eg. monitoring a student's insulin levels), helping students with disabilities or learning support needs (eg. impaired communications), a teacher requiring them for special educational tasks and purposes (eg. class assignments) and a principal deciding that they are needed for personal circumstances (eg. the student is a teenage parent).
Turkmenistan
Since 2020, all secondary schools in Turkmenistan have banned the use of mobile phones during lessons in order to increase the productivity of the educational process. The ban applies not only to school children, but also to teachers: now, during the lessons, they must put their phones on silent mode. Pupils can only use phones outside the school.
United Kingdom
In the UK, a survey showed that there were no mobile phone bans in schools in 2001 but by 2007, 50% of schools had banned mobile phones during the school day. This number increased to 98% by 2012. These bans were implemented by either forbidding students from bringing phones onto school premises or by making students hand their phones in at the beginning of the day. According to a study by the London School of Economics, students' academic performance improved when policies were implemented to ban cell phone usage in schools. This ban not only helped students score higher on exams but also reduced the students' temptation to use cell phones for non-scholarly purposes.
Secondary schools are introducing new, strict laws on mobile phones where students under sixteen years of age will have to put their phones away for the entire day after scientific evidence has demonstrated that students become more sociable, alert and active in the school environment without them. Students place their phones inside a registered locker when they arrive at school and are only allowed to retrieve them once school has finished. With this happening, schools have found a positive impact on the students: more students are active outside, along with greater numbers attending clubs and social events. Nick Gibb told The Times, "I believe very strongly that children should be limiting their own [phone] use at home. Every hour spent online and on a smartphone is an hour less talking to family, and it's an hour less exercise and it's an hour less sleep. And of course, it is a lack of sleep that research is showing can have a damaging effect on a child's mental health."
The schools did note that the positive impact was greater for students under the age of eleven rather than in older students. In fact, it was shown that older students actually suffered from a restricted use of learning platforms on their phones such as educational apps assisting in studying or learning skills. Students that were caught with their mobile phones between the school time period were given punishments such as detention, expulsion or warnings. In doing so, children have been taught to limit the amount of time they spend online and focus more on their school lives along with other social activities. Nevertheless, people in England have argued against this. Patsy Kane has stated, "There's a fantastic range of apps now for revision—and the students are really motivated to use them."
United States
In the past, some United States schools installed mobile phone jammers to prevent cell phones from working on campuses. However, the sale and use of jammers is illegal in the US under the Federal Communications Act of 1934, because jammers cut off 9-1-1 calls and disrupt air navigation if they are used near airports. In 2012, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) became stricter in enforcing the ban on jammers. Mt. Spokane High School in Washington state once installed a jammer to prevent students from calling and text-messaging but removed the device after it decided that it was "probably not legal" under federal law. In 2015, a Florida science teacher received a five-day unpaid suspension for installing a jammer in his classroom.
In 2005, the New York City Department of Education imposed a citywide ban on mobile phones in public schools. However, according to The New York Times, the ban was "inconsistently enforced, with some schools allowing students to carry phones as long as staff members [did] not hear or see them, and other schools—particularly those with metal detectors at the doors—maintaining a strict ban." The ban was unpopular among parents as well because it impeded communication between them and their children. In March 2015, the citywide ban was lifted, with Mayor Bill de Blasio fulfilling a campaign promise. Under the new policy, school principals in consultation with teachers and parents may set rules on use and storage of mobile phones during instructional time and lunch breaks. While the default rule is that phones must remain hidden, principals may also elect to "require students to store phones in backpacks or other designated places, allow the use of phones during lunch, or allow phones to be used for instructional purposes." De Blasio said that the policy shift would allow parents to stay in better touch with their children, especially in case of an emergency. The New York City Schools Chancellor, Carmen Fariña, supported this policy by noting that the change means that students in schools with metal detectors would no longer have to pay outside vendors to store phones for them during the school day.
When asked which type of phone-restriction policy they prefer, students tended to support the side that grants them the opportunity to bring mobile phones onto the school campus, arguing that phones allow them to reach their parents if any problem occurs. In response to the issue of parent-student communication, parents also argue that there is not a replacement for mobile phones and therefore that phones are an essential device for students to have accessible, raising concerns about a child in danger or not feeling safe not being able to contact a parent and receive assistance. Parents also believe that giving a child a phone teaches responsibility. A boarding school in Massachusetts banned the use of smart phones, but not digital cameras and laptops, and handed out light phones for basic call and texting.
Theft of mobile phones is another concern in some schools. In 2012, following an undercover investigation, thirteen juvenile students in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, were arrested and charged with running a cell-phone-theft ring that resulted in the theft of several thousand dollars worth of mobile phones, tablets, and other electronics.
An increasing number of schools are now allowing the use of cell phones as learning tools. However, the collective use of cell phones in schools poses other technological challenges. Some schools reported that allowing all students to use cell phones at the same time slows down school bandwidth speeds, and hence some schools have blocked phones from accessing the school Wi-Fi.
Phone use in schools is not just an issue for students and teachers but also for other employees of educational institutions. According to the Governors Highway Safety Association, while no state bans all mobile phone use for all drivers, twenty states and the District of Columbia prohibit school bus drivers from using mobile phones. School bus drivers have been fired or suspended for using their phones or text-messaging while driving.
In Utah, a bill proposed to ban the use of mobile phones in classrooms, but the bill did not pass.
California passed a bill in September 2024 that requires schools, by 2026, to adopt a policy limiting or banning the use of mobile phones inside of California schools.
In May 2024, Ohio enacted a bill that would limit cell-phone use in schools, but stops short of enforcing an outright ban.
Mobile phone applications for the classroom
Cellphone applications have been created to support the use of phones in school environments. As of February 2018, about 80,000 applications are available for teacher use. A variety of messaging apps provide communication for student-to-student relationships as well as teacher-to-student communication. Some popular apps for both students, teachers, and parents are Remind and ClassDojo. About 72% of top-selling education apps on iOS are for preschoolers and elementary school students. Additionally, there are a wide variety of ways middle and high school students can use mobile phones such as sharing documents, taking pictures, and having easier access to information.
A specific app that teachers can use is called Moodle which is an online course management system that can make content more accessible to students. These apps offer many different services such as language translation, scheduled reminders and messages to parents.
The app Remind is another way for teachers to communicate with parents and school administration. This app not only allows teachers to send out scheduled text messages to parents but also provides a class blog for teachers to share upcoming due dates, tests and quizzes, and other class information.
Another app that allows students to communicate with one another is GroupMe. GroupMe allows students to communicate in a group-chat format through Wi-Fi instead of using cellular data. Even some college-aged students use this app for sharing course information.
Mentimeter is a tool that allows teachers to develop interactive slides which promote engagement from students. While it is not the only tool that performs this function, a study conducted in 2022 showed that it is more digitally accessible than several of its counterparts. The blind participants of this study used several digital tools such as Kahoot in conjunction with various screen readers to identify any issues the tools had; issues were then categorized from minor to severe in terms of usability. In addition to Mentimeter being identified as one of the most digitally accessible, Kahoot and Poll Everywhere were labeled as mostly accessible with some exceptions for specific features.
See also
Mobile learning
Social media in education
References
External links
Cell Phones in American High Schools: A National Survey, Journal of Technology Studies
Huang, G. (2013). Research Issues and Applications of Mobile and Ubiquitous Learning
Schools
School and classroom behaviour | 0.761963 | 0.993469 | 0.756986 |
Computer-assisted language learning | Computer-assisted language learning (CALL), known as computer-aided instruction (CAI) in British English and computer-aided language instruction (CALI) in American English, Levy (1997: p. 1) briefly defines it as "the exploration and study of computer applications in language teaching and learning." CALL embraces a wide range of information and communications technology "applications and approaches to teaching and learning foreign languages, ranging from the traditional drill-and-practice programs that characterized CALL in the 1960s and 1970s to more recent manifestations of CALL, such as those utilized virtual learning environment and Web-based distance learning. It also extends to the use of corpora and concordancers, interactive whiteboards, computer-mediated communication (CMC), language learning in virtual worlds, and mobile-assisted language learning (MALL).
The term CALI (computer-assisted language instruction) was used before CALL, originating as a subset of the broader term CAI (computer-assisted instruction). CALI fell out of favor among language teachers, however, because it seemed to emphasize a teacher-centered instructional approach. Language teachers increasingly favored a student-centered approach focused on learning rather than instruction. CALL began to replace CALI in the early 1980s (Davies & Higgins, 1982: p. 3). and it is now incorporated into the names of the growing number of professional associations worldwide.
An alternative term, technology-enhanced language learning (TELL), also emerged around the early 1990s: e.g. the TELL Consortium project, University of Hull.
The current philosophy of CALL emphasizes student-centered materials that empower learners to work independently. These materials can be structured or unstructured but typically incorporate two key features: interactive and individualized learning. CALL employs tools that assist teachers in facilitating language learning, whether reinforcing classroom lessons or providing additional support to learners.The design of CALL materials typically integrates principles from language pedagogy and methodology, drawing from various learning theories such as behaviourism, cognitive theory, constructivism, and second-language acquisition theories like Stephen Krashen's. monitor hypothesis.
A combination of face-to-face teaching and CALL is usually referred to as blended learning. Blended learning is designed to increase learning potential and is more commonly found than pure CALL (Pegrum 2009: p. 27).
See Davies et al. (2011: Section 1.1, What is CALL?). See also Levy & Hubbard (2005), who raise the question Why call CALL "CALL"?
History
CALL dates back to the 1960s, when it was first introduced on university mainframe computers. The PLATO project, initiated at the University of Illinois in 1960, is an important landmark in the early development of CALL (Marty 1981). The advent of the microcomputer in the late 1970s brought computing within the range of a wider audience, resulting in a boom in the development of CALL programs and a flurry of publications of books on CALL in the early 1980s.
Dozens of CALL programs are currently available on the internet, at prices ranging from free to expensive, and other programs are available only through university language courses.
There have been several attempts to document the history of CALL. Sanders (1995) covers the period from the mid-1960s to the mid-1990s, focusing on CALL in North America. Delcloque (2000) documents the history of CALL worldwide, from its beginnings in the 1960s to the dawning of the new millennium. Davies (2005) takes a look back at CALL's past and attempts to predict where it is going. Hubbard (2009) offers a compilation of 74 key articles and book excerpts, originally published in the years 1988–2007, that give a comprehensive overview of the wide range of leading ideas and research results that have exerted an influence on the development of CALL or that show promise in doing so in the future. A published review of Hubbard's collection can be found in Language Learning & Technology 14, 3 (2010).
Butler-Pascoe (2011) looks at the history of CALL from a different point of view, namely the evolution of CALL in the dual fields of educational technology and second/foreign language acquisition and the paradigm shifts experienced along the way.
See also Davies et al. (2011: Section 2, History of CALL).
Typology and phases
During the 1980s and 1990s, several attempts were made to establish a CALL typology. A wide range of different types of CALL programs was identified by Davies & Higgins (1985), Jones & Fortescue (1987), Hardisty & Windeatt (1989) and Levy (1997: pp. 118ff.). These included gap-filling and Cloze programs, multiple-choice programs, free-format (text-entry) programs, adventures and simulations, action mazes, sentence-reordering programs, exploratory programs—and "total Cloze", a type of program in which the learner has to reconstruct a whole text. Most of these early programs still exist in modernised versions.
Since the 1990s, it has become increasingly difficult to categorise CALL as it now extends to the use of blogs, wikis, social networking, podcasting, Web 2.0 applications, language learning in virtual worlds and interactive whiteboards (Davies et al. 2010: Section 3.7).
Warschauer (1996) and Warschauer & Healey (1998) took a different approach. Rather than focusing on the typology of CALL, they identified three historical phases of CALL, classified according to their underlying pedagogical and methodological approaches:
Behavioristic CALL: conceived in the 1950s and implemented in the 1960s and 1970s.
Communicative CALL: 1970s to 1980s.
Integrative CALL: embracing Multimedia and the Internet: 1990s.
Most CALL programs in Warschauer & Healey's first phase, Behavioristic CALL (1960s to 1970s), consisted of drill-and-practice materials in which the computer presented a stimulus and the learner provided a response. At first, both could be done only through text. The computer would analyse students' input and give feedback, and more sophisticated programs would react to students' mistakes by branching to help screens and remedial activities. While such programs and their underlying pedagogy still exist today, behaviouristic approaches to language learning have been rejected by most language teachers, and the increasing sophistication of computer technology has led CALL to other possibilities.
The second phase described by Warschauer & Healey, Communicative CALL, is based on the communicative approach that became prominent in the late 1970s and 1980s (Underwood 1984). In the communicative approach the focus is on using the language rather than analysis of the language, and grammar is taught implicitly rather than explicitly. It also allows for originality and flexibility in student output of language. The communicative approach coincided with the arrival of the PC, which made computing much more widely available and resulted in a boom in the development of software for language learning. The first CALL software in this phase continued to provide skill practice but not in a drill format—for example: paced reading, text reconstruction and language games—but the computer remained the tutor. In this phase, computers provided context for students to use the language, such as asking for directions to a place, and programs not designed for language learning such as Sim City, Sleuth and Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? were used for language learning. Criticisms of this approach include using the computer in an ad hoc and disconnected manner for more marginal aims rather than the central aims of language teaching.
The third phase of CALL described by Warschauer & Healey, Integrative CALL, starting from the 1990s, tried to address criticisms of the communicative approach by integrating the teaching of language skills into tasks or projects to provide direction and coherence. It also coincided with the development of multimedia technology (providing text, graphics, sound and animation) as well as Computer-mediated communication (CMC). CALL in this period saw a definitive shift from the use of the computer for drill and tutorial purposes (the computer as a finite, authoritative base for a specific task) to a medium for extending education beyond the classroom. Multimedia CALL started with interactive laser videodiscs such as Montevidisco (Schneider & Bennion 1984) and A la rencontre de Philippe (Fuerstenberg 1993), both of which were simulations of situations where the learner played a key role. These programs later were transferred to CD-ROMs, and new role-playing games (RPGs) such as Who is Oscar Lake? made their appearance in a range of different languages.
In a later publication Warschauer changed the name of the first phase of CALL from Behavioristic CALL to Structural CALL and also revised the dates of the three phases (Warschauer 2000):
Structural CALL: 1970s to 1980s.
Communicative CALL: 1980s to 1990s.
Integrative CALL: 2000 onwards.
Bax (2003) took issue with Warschauer & Haley (1998) and Warschauer (2000) and proposed these three phases:
Restricted CALL – mainly behaviouristic: 1960s to 1980s.
Open CALL – i.e. open in terms of feedback given to students, software types and the role of the teacher, and including simulations and games: 1980s to 2003 (i.e. the date of Bax's article).
Integrated CALL – still to be achieved. Bax argued that at the time of writing language teachers were still in the Open CALL phase, as true integration could only be said to have been achieved when CALL had reached a state of "normalisation" – e.g. when using CALL was as normal as using a pen.
See also Bax & Chambers (2006) and Bax (2011), in which the topic of "normalisation" is revisited.
Flashcards
A basic use of CALL is in vocabulary acquisition using flashcards, which requires quite simple programs. Such programs often make use of spaced repetition, a technique whereby the learner is presented with the vocabulary items that need to be committed to memory at increasingly longer intervals until long-term retention is achieved. This has led to the development of a number of applications known as spaced repetition systems (SRS), including the generic Anki or SuperMemo package and programs such as BYKI and phase-6, which have been designed specifically for learners of foreign languages.
Software design and pedagogy
Above all, careful consideration must be given to pedagogy in designing CALL software, but publishers of CALL software tend to follow the latest trend, regardless of its desirability. Moreover, approaches to teaching foreign languages are constantly changing, dating back to grammar-translation, through the direct method, audio-lingualism and a variety of other approaches, to the more recent communicative approach and constructivism (Decoo 2001).
Designing and creating CALL software is an extremely demanding task, calling upon a range of skills. Major CALL development projects are usually managed by a team of people:
A subject specialist (also known as a content provider) – usually a language teacher – who is responsible for providing the content and pedagogical input. More than one subject specialist is required for larger CALL projects.
A programmer who is familiar with the chosen programming language or authoring tool.
A graphic designer, to produce pictures and icons, and to advise on fonts, colour, screen layout, etc.
A professional photographer or, at the very least, a very good amateur photographer. Graphic designers often have a background in photography too.
A sound engineer and a video technician will be required if the package is to contain substantial amounts of sound and video.
An instructional designer. Developing a CALL package is more than just putting a text book into a computer. An instructional designer will probably have a background in cognitive psychology and media technology, and will be able to advise the subject specialists in the team on the appropriate use of the chosen technology (Gimeno & Davies 2010).
CALL inherently supports learner autonomy, the final of the eight conditions that Egbert et al. (2007) cite as "Conditions for Optimal Language Learning Environments". Learner autonomy places the learner firmly in control so that he or she "decides on learning goals" (Egbert et al., 2007, p. 8).
It is all too easy when designing CALL software to take the comfortable route and produce a set of multiple-choice and gap-filling exercises, using a simple authoring tool (Bangs 2011), but CALL is much more than this; Stepp-Greany (2002), for example, describes the creation and management of an environment incorporating a constructivist and whole language philosophy. According to constructivist theory, learners are active participants in tasks in which they "construct" new knowledge derived from their prior experience. Learners also assume responsibility for their learning, and the teacher is a facilitator rather than a purveyor of knowledge. Whole language theory embraces constructivism and postulates that language learning moves from the whole to the part, rather than building sub-skills to lead towards the higher abilities of comprehension, speaking, and writing. It also emphasises that comprehending, speaking, reading, and writing skills are interrelated, reinforcing each other in complex ways. Language acquisition is, therefore, an active process in which the learner focuses on cues and meaning and makes intelligent guesses. Additional demands are placed upon teachers working in a technological environment incorporating constructivist and whole language theories. The development of teachers' professional skills must include new pedagogical as well as technical and management skills. Regarding the issue of teacher facilitation in such an environment, the teacher has a key role to play, but there could be a conflict between the aim to create an atmosphere for learner independence and the teacher's natural feelings of responsibility. In order to avoid learners' negative perceptions, Stepp-Greany points out that it is especially important for the teacher to continue to address their needs, especially those of low-ability learners.
Multimedia
Language teachers have been avid users of technology for a very long time. Gramophone records were among the first technological aids to be used by language teachers in order to present students with recordings of native speakers' voices, and broadcasts from foreign radio stations were used to make recordings on reel-to-reel tape recorders. Other examples of technological aids that have been used in the foreign language classroom include slide projectors, film-strip projectors, film projectors, videocassette recorders and DVD players. In the early 1960s, integrated courses (which were often described as multimedia courses) began to appear. Examples of such courses are Ecouter et Parler (consisting of a coursebook and tape recordings) and Deutsch durch die audiovisuelle Methode (consisting of an illustrated coursebook, tape recordings and a film-strip – based on the Structuro-Global Audio-Visual method).
During the 1970s and 1980s standard microcomputers were incapable of producing sound and they had poor graphics capability. This represented a step backwards for language teachers, who by this time had become accustomed to using a range of different media in the foreign language classroom. The arrival of the multimedia computer in the early 1990s was therefore a major breakthrough as it enabled text, images, sound and video to be combined in one device and the integration of the four basic skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing (Davies 2011: Section 1).
Examples of CALL programs for multimedia computers that were published on CD-ROM and DVD from the mid-1990s onwards are described by Davies (2010: Section 3). CALL programs are still being published on CD-ROM and DVD, but Web-based multimedia CALL has now virtually supplanted these media.
Following the arrival of multimedia CALL, multimedia language centres began to appear in educational institutions. While multimedia facilities offer many opportunities for language learning with the integration of text, images, sound and video, these opportunities have often not been fully utilised. One of the main promises of CALL is the ability to individualise learning but, as with the language labs that were introduced into educational institutions in the 1960s and 1970s, the use of the facilities of multimedia centres has often devolved into rows of students all doing the same drills (Davies 2010: Section 3.1). There is therefore a danger that multimedia centres may go the same way as the language labs. Following a boom period in the 1970s, language labs went rapidly into decline. Davies (1997: p. 28) lays the blame mainly on the failure to train teachers to use language labs, both in terms of operation and in terms of developing new methodologies, but there were other factors such as poor reliability, lack of materials and a lack of good ideas.
Managing a multimedia language centre requires not only staff who have a knowledge of foreign languages and language teaching methodology but also staff with technical know-how and budget management ability, as well as the ability to combine all these into creative ways of taking advantage of what the technology can offer. A centre manager usually needs assistants for technical support, for managing resources and even the tutoring of students. Multimedia centres lend themselves to self-study and potentially self-directed learning, but this is often misunderstood. The simple existence of a multimedia centre does not automatically lead to students learning independently. Significant investment of time is essential for materials development and creating an atmosphere conducive to self-study. Unfortunately, administrators often have the mistaken belief that buying hardware by itself will meet the needs of the centre, allocating 90% of its budget to hardware and virtually ignoring software and staff training needs (Davies et al. 2011: Foreword). Self-access language learning centres or independent learning centres have emerged partially independently and partially in response to these issues. In self-access learning, the focus is on developing learner autonomy through varying degrees of self-directed learning, as opposed to (or as a complement to) classroom learning. In many centres learners access materials and manage their learning independently, but they also have access to staff for help. Many self-access centres are heavy users of technology and an increasing number of them are now offering online self-access learning opportunities. Some centres have developed novel ways of supporting language learning outside the context of the language classroom (also called 'language support') by developing software to monitor students' self-directed learning and by offering online support from teachers. Centre managers and support staff may need to have new roles defined for them to support students' efforts at self-directed learning: v. Mozzon-McPherson & Vismans (2001), who refer to a new job description, namely that of the "language adviser".
Internet
The emergence of the World Wide Web (now known simply as "the Web") in the early 1990s marked a significant change in the use of communications technology for all computer users. Email and other forms of electronic communication had been in existence for many years, but the launch of Mosaic, the first graphical Web browser, in 1993 brought about a radical change in the ways in which we communicate electronically. The launch of the Web in the public arena immediately began to attract the attention of language teachers. Many language teachers were already familiar with the concept of hypertext on stand-alone computers, which made it possible to set up non-sequential structured reading activities for language learners in which they could point to items of text or images on a page displayed on the computer screen and branch to any other pages, e.g. in a so-called "stack" as implemented in the HyperCard program on Apple Mac computers. The Web took this one stage further by creating a worldwide hypertext system that enabled the user to branch to different pages on computers anywhere in the world simply by pointing and clicking at a piece of text or an image. This opened up access to thousands of authentic foreign-language websites to teachers and students that could be used in a variety of ways. A problem that arose, however, was that this could lead to a good deal of time-wasting if Web browsing was used in an unstructured way (Davies 1997: pp. 42–43), and language teachers responded by developing more structured activities and online exercises (Leloup & Ponterio 2003). Davies (2010) lists over 500 websites, where links to online exercises can be found, along with links to online dictionaries and encyclopaedias, concordancers, translation aids and other miscellaneous resources of interest to the language teacher and learner.
The launch of the (free) Hot Potatoes (Holmes & Arneil) authoring tool, which was first demonstrated publicly at the EUROCALL 1998 conference, made it possible for language teachers to create their own online interactive exercises. Other useful tools are produced by the same authors.
In its early days the Web could not compete seriously with multimedia CALL on CD-ROM and DVD. Sound and video quality was often poor, and interaction was slow. But now the Web has caught up. Sound and video are of high quality and interaction has improved tremendously, although this does depend on sufficient bandwidth being available, which is not always the case, especially in remote rural areas and developing countries. One area in which CD-ROMs and DVDs are still superior is in the presentation of listen/respond/playback activities, although such activities on the Web are continually improving.
Since the early 2000s there has been a boom in the development of so-called Web 2.0 applications. Contrary to popular opinion, Web 2.0 is not a new version of the Web, rather it implies a shift in emphasis from Web browsing, which is essentially a one-way process (from the Web to the end-user), to making use of Web applications in the same way as one uses applications on a desktop computer. It also implies more interaction and sharing. Walker, Davies & Hewer (2011: Section 2.1) list the following examples of Web 2.0 applications that language teachers are using:
Image storage and sharing
Social bookmarking
Discussion lists, blogs, wikis, social networking
Chat rooms, MUDs, MOOs and MUVEs (virtual worlds)
Podcasting
Audio tools
Video sharing applications and screen capture tools (referring to both video screen capture tools and screenshot tools)
Animation tools – comic strips, movies, etc.
Mashups
Blog assisted language learning (BALL)
There is no doubt that the Web has proved to be a main focus for language teachers, who are making increasingly imaginative use of its wide range of facilities: see Dudeney (2007) and Thomas (2008). Above all, the use of Web 2.0 tools calls for a careful reexamination of the role of the teacher in the classroom (Richardson 2006).
Corpora and concordancers
Corpora have been used for many years as the basis of linguistic research and also for the compilation of dictionaries and reference works such as the Collins Cobuild series, published by HarperCollins. Tribble & Barlow (2001), Sinclair (2004) and McEnery & Wilson (2011) describe a variety of ways in which corpora can be used in language teaching.
An early reference to the use of electronic concordancers in language teaching can be found in Higgins & Johns (1984: pp. 88–94), and many examples of their practical use in the classroom are described by Lamy & Klarskov Mortensen (2010).
It was Tim Johns (1991), however, who raised the profile of the use of concordancers in the language classroom with his concept of Data-driven learning (DDL). DDL encourages learners to work out their own rules about the meaning of words and their usage by using a concordancer to locate examples in a corpus of authentic texts. It is also possible for the teacher to use a concordancer to find examples of authentic usage to demonstrate a point of grammar or typical collocations, and to generate exercises based on the examples found. Various types of concordancers and where they can be obtained are described by Lamy & Klarskov Mortensen (2011).
Robb (2003) shows how it is possible to use Google as a concordancer, but he also points out a number of drawbacks, for instance there is no control over the educational level, nationality, or other characteristics of the creators of the texts that are found, and the presentation of the examples is not as easy to read as the output of a dedicated concordancer that places the key words (i.e. the search terms) in context.
Virtual worlds
Virtual worlds date back to the adventure games and simulations of the 1970s, for example Colossal Cave Adventure, a text-only simulation in which the user communicated with the computer by typing commands at the keyboard. Language teachers discovered that it was possible to exploit these text-only programs by using them as the basis for discussion. Jones G. (1986) describes an experiment based on the Kingdom simulation, in which learners played roles as members of a council governing an imaginary kingdom. A single computer in the classroom was used to provide the stimulus for discussion, namely simulating events taking place in the kingdom: crop planting time, harvest time, unforeseen catastrophes, etc.
The early adventure games and simulations led on to multi-user variants, which were known as MUDs (Multi-user domains). Like their predecessors, MUDs were text-only, with the difference that they were available to a wider online audience. MUDs then led on to MOOs (Multi-user domains object-oriented), which language teachers were able to exploit for teaching foreign languages and intercultural understanding: see Donaldson & Kötter (1999) and (Shield 2003).
The next major breakthrough in the history of virtual worlds was the graphical user interface. Lucasfilm's Habitat (1986), was one of the first virtual worlds that was graphically based, albeit only in a two-dimensional environment. Each participant was represented by a visual avatar who could interact with other avatars using text chat.
Three-dimensional virtual worlds such as Traveler and Active Worlds, both of which appeared in the 1990s, were the next important development. Traveler included the possibility of audio communication (but not text chat) between avatars who were represented as disembodied heads in a three-dimensional abstract landscape. Svensson (2003) describes the Virtual Wedding Project, in which advanced students of English made use of Active Worlds as an arena for constructivist learning.
The 3D world of Second Life was launched in 2003. Initially perceived as another role-playing game (RPG), it began to attract the interest of language teachers with the launch of the first of the series of SLanguages conferences in 2007. Walker, Davies & Hewer (2011: Section 14.2.1) and Molka-Danielsen & Deutschmann (2010) describe a number of experiments and projects that focus on language learning in Second Life. See also the Wikipedia article Virtual world language learning.
To what extent Second Life and other virtual worlds will become established as important tools for teachers of foreign languages remains to be seen. It has been argued by Dudeney (2010) in his That's Life blog that Second Life is "too demanding and too unreliable for most educators". The subsequent discussion shows that this view is shared by many teachers, but many others completely disagree.
Regardless of the pros and cons of Second Life, language teachers' interest in virtual worlds continues to grow. The joint EUROCALL/CALICO Virtual Worlds Special Interest Group was set up in 2009, and there are now many areas in Second Life that are dedicated to language learning and teaching, for example the commercial area for learners of English, which is managed by Language Lab, and free areas such as the region maintained by the Goethe-Institut and the EduNation Islands. There are also examples of simulations created specifically for language education, such as those produced by the EC-funded NIFLAR and AVALON projects. NIFLAR is implemented both in Second Life and in Opensim.
Human language technologies
Human language technologies (HLT) comprise a number of areas of research and development that focus on the use of technology to facilitate communication in a multilingual information society. Human language technologies are areas of activity in departments of the European Commission that were formerly grouped under the heading language engineering (Gupta & Schulze 2011: Section 1.1).
The parts of HLT that is of greatest interest to the language teacher is natural language processing (NLP), especially parsing, as well as the areas of speech synthesis and speech recognition.
Speech synthesis has improved immeasurably in recent years. It is often used in electronic dictionaries to enable learners to find out how words are pronounced. At word level, speech synthesis is quite effective, the artificial voice often closely resembling a human voice. At phrase level and sentence level, however, there are often problems of intonation, resulting in speech production that sounds unnatural even though it may be intelligible. Speech synthesis as embodied in text to speech (TTS) applications is invaluable as a tool for unsighted or partially sighted people. Gupta & Schulze (2010: Section 4.1) list several examples of speech synthesis applications.
Speech recognition is less advanced than speech synthesis. It has been used in a number of CALL programs, in which it is usually described as automatic speech recognition (ASR). ASR is not easy to implement. Ehsani & Knodt (1998) summarise the core problem as follows:
"Complex cognitive processes account for the human ability to associate acoustic signals with meanings and intentions. For a computer, on the other hand, speech is essentially a series of digital values. However, despite these differences, the core problem of speech recognition is the same for both humans and machines: namely, of finding the best match between a given speech sound and its corresponding word string. Automatic speech recognition technology attempts to simulate and optimize this process computationally."
Programs embodying ASR normally provide a native speaker model that the learner is requested to imitate, but the matching process is not 100% reliable and may result in a learner's perfectly intelligible attempt to pronounce a word or phrase being rejected (Davies 2010: Section 3.4.6 and Section 3.4.7).
Parsing is used in a number of ways in CALL. Gupta & Schulze (2010: Section 5) describe how parsing may be used to analyse sentences, presenting the learner with a tree diagram that labels the constituent parts of speech of a sentence and shows the learner how the sentence is structured.
Parsing is also used in CALL programs to analyse the learner's input and diagnose errors. Davies (2002) writes:
"Discrete error analysis and feedback were a common feature of traditional CALL, and the more sophisticated programs would attempt to analyse the learner's response, pinpoint errors, and branch to help and remedial activities. ... Error analysis in CALL is, however, a matter of controversy. Practitioners who come into CALL via the disciplines of computational linguistics, e.g. Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Human Language Technologies (HLT), tend to be more optimistic about the potential of error analysis by computer than those who come into CALL via language teaching. [...] An alternative approach is the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques to parse the learner's response – so-called intelligent CALL (ICALL) – but there is a gulf between those who favour the use of AI to develop CALL programs (Matthews 1994) and, at the other extreme, those who perceive this approach as a threat to humanity (Last 1989:153)".
Underwood (1989) and Heift & Schulze (2007) present a more positive picture of AI.
Research into speech synthesis, speech recognition and parsing and how these areas of NLP can be used in CALL are the main focus of the NLP Special Interest Group within the EUROCALL professional association and the ICALL Special Interest Group within the CALICO professional association. The EUROCALL NLP SIG also maintains a Ning.
Impact
The question of the impact of CALL in language learning and teaching has been raised at regular intervals ever since computers first appeared in educational institutions (Davies & Hewer 2011: Section 3). Recent large-scale impact studies include the study edited by Fitzpatrick & Davies (2003) and the EACEA (2009) study, both of which were produced for the European Commission.
A distinction needs to be made between the impact and the effectiveness of CALL. Impact may be measured quantitatively and qualitatively in terms of the uptake and use of ICT in teaching foreign languages, issues of availability of hardware and software, budgetary considerations, Internet access, teachers' and learners' attitudes to the use of CALL, changes in the ways in which languages are learnt and taught, and paradigm shifts in teachers' and learners' roles. Effectiveness, on the other hand, usually focuses on assessing to what extent ICT is a more effective way of teaching foreign languages compared to using traditional methods – and this is more problematic as so many variables come into play. Worldwide, the picture of the impact of CALL is extremely varied. Most developed nations work comfortably with the new technologies, but developing nations are often beset with problems of costs and broadband connectivity. Evidence on the effectiveness of CALL – as with the impact of CALL – is extremely varied and many research questions still need to be addressed and answered. Hubbard (2002) presents the results of a CALL research survey that was sent to 120 CALL professionals from around the world asking them to articulate a CALL research question they would like to see answered. Some of the questions have been answered but many more remain open. Leakey (2011) offers an overview of current and past research in CALL and proposes a comprehensive model for evaluating the effectiveness of CALL platforms, programs and pedagogy.
A crucial issue is the extent to which the computer is perceived as taking over the teacher's role. Warschauer (1996: p. 6) perceived the computer as playing an "intelligent" role, and claimed that a computer program "should ideally be able to understand a user's spoken input and evaluate it not just for correctness but also for appropriateness. It should be able to diagnose a student's problems with pronunciation, syntax, or usage and then intelligently decide among a range of options (e.g. repeating, paraphrasing, slowing down, correcting, or directing the student to background explanations)." Jones C. (1986), on the other hand, rejected the idea of the computer being "some kind of inferior teacher-substitute" and proposed a methodology that focused more on what teachers could do with computer programs rather than what computer programs could do on their own: "in other words, treating the computer as they would any other classroom aid". Warschauer's high expectations in 1996 have still not been fulfilled, and currently there is an increasing tendency for teachers to go down the route proposed by Jones, making use of a variety of new tools such as corpora and concordancers, interactive whiteboards and applications for online communication.
Since the advent of the Web there has been an explosion in online learning, but to what extent it is effective is open to criticism. Felix (2003) takes a critical look at popular myths attached to online learning from three perspectives, namely administrators, teachers and students. She concludes: "That costs can be saved in this ambitious enterprise is clearly a myth, as are expectations of saving time or replacing staff with machines."
As for the effectiveness of CALL in promoting the four skills, Felix (2008) claims that there is "enough data in CALL to suggest positive effects on spelling, reading and writing", but more research is needed in order to determine its effectiveness in other areas, especially speaking online. She claims that students' perceptions of CALL are positive, but she qualifies this claim by stating that the technologies need to be stable and well supported, drawing attention to concerns that technical problems may interfere with the learning process. She also points out that older students may not feel comfortable with computers and younger students may not possess the necessary meta-skills for coping effectively in the challenging new environments. Training in computer literacy for both students and teachers is essential, and time constraints may pose additional problems. In order to achieve meaningful results she recommends "time-series analysis in which the same group of students is involved in experimental and control treatment for a certain amount of time and then switched – more than once if possible".
Types of technology training in CALL for language teaching professionals certainly vary. Within second language teacher education programs, namely pre-service course work, we can find "online courses along with face-to-face courses", computer technology incorporated into a more general second language education course, "technology workshops","a series of courses offered throughout the teacher education programs, and even courses specifically designed for a CALL certificate and a CALL graduate degree" The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has identified four levels of courses with only components, namely "web-supplemented, web-dependent, mixed mod and fully online".
There is a rapidly growing interest in resources about the use of technology to deliver CALL. Journals that have issues that "deal with how teacher education programs help prepare language teachers to use technology in their own classrooms" include Language Learning and Technology (2002), Innovations in Language Learning and Teaching (2009) and the TESOL international professional association's publication of technology standards for TESOL includes a chapter on preparation of teacher candidates in technology use, as well as the upgrading of teacher educators to be able to provide such instruction. Both CALICO and EUROCALL have special interest groups for teacher education in CALL.
Professional associations
The following professional associations are dedicated to the promulgation of research, development and practice relating to the use of new technologies in language learning and teaching. Most of them organise conferences and publish journals on CALL.
APACALL: The Asia-Pacific Association for Computer-Assisted Language Learning. APACALL publishes the APACALL Book Series and APACALL Newsletter Series.
AsiaCALL: The Asia Association of Computer Assisted Language Learning, Korea. AsiaCALL publishes the AsiaCALL Online Journal.
Association of University Language Centres (AULC) in the UK and Ireland.
CALICO: Established in 1982. Currently based at Texas State University, USA. CALICO publishes the CALICO Journal.
EUROCALL: Founded by a group of enthusiasts in 1986 and established with the aid of European Commission funding as a formal professional association in 1993. Currently based at the University of Ulster, Northern Ireland. EUROCALL's journal, ReCALL, is published by Cambridge University Press. EUROCALL also publishes the EUROCALL Review.
IALLT: The US-based International Association for Language Learning Technology, originally known as IALL (International Association for Learning Labs). IALLT is a professional organisation dedicated to promoting effective uses of media centres for language teaching, learning, and research. IALLT published the IALLT Journal until 2018. In early 2019, IALLT officially merged the journal into the Foreign Language Technology Magazine (FLTMAG).
IATEFL: The UK-based International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language. IATEFL embraces the Learning Technologies Special Interest Group (LTSIG) and publishes the CALL Review newsletter.
JALTCALL: Japan. The JALT CALL SIG publishes The JALT CALL Journal.
IndiaCALL:The India Association of Computer Assisted Language Learning. IndiaCALL is an affiliate of AsiaCALL, an associate of IATEFL, and an IALLT Regional Group.
LET: The Japan Association for Language Education and Technology (LET), formerly known as the Language Laboratory Association (LLA), and now embraces a wider range of language learning technologies.
PacCALL: The Pacific Association for Computer Assisted Language Learning, promoting CALL in the Pacific, from East to Southeast Asia, Oceania, across to the Americas. Organises the Globalization and Localization in Computer-Assisted Language Learning (GLoCALL) conference jointly with APACALL.
TCLT: Technology and Chinese Language Teaching, an organization of Chinese CALL studies in the United States, with biennial conference and workshops since 2000 and a double blind, peer-reviewed online publication-Journal of Technology and Chinese Language Teaching since 2010 and in-print supplement Series of Technology and Chinese Language Teaching in the U.S. with China Social Sciences Press since 2012.
WorldCALL: A worldwide umbrella association of CALL associations. The first WorldCALL conference was held at the University of Melbourne in 1998. The second WorldCALL conference took place in Banff, Canada, 2003. The third WorldCALL took place in Japan in 2008. The fourth WorldCALL conference took place in Glasgow, Scotland, 2013. The fifth WorldCALL conference took place in Concepción, Chile in 2018.
See also
Anki
Babbel
The Alpheios Project
Community language learning
Duolingo
Intelligent computer-assisted language instruction (ICALI)
Glossary of language teaching terms and ideas
Language acquisition
Language education
Language exchange
Language immersion
Language MOOC
List of language self-study programs
List of flashcard software
Online learning community
Promova
Second-language acquisition
Smigin
SuperMemo
Tandem language learning
Telecollaboration
Virtual exchange
Virtual world language learning
Social Media Language Learning
References
Hong, K. H. (2010) CALL teacher education as an impetus for 12 teachers in integrating technology. ReCALL, 22 (1), 53–69.
Murray, D. E. (2013) A Case for Online English Language Teacher Education. The International Research Foundation for English Language Education. http://www.tirfonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/TIRF_OLTE_One-PageSpread_2013.pdf
Further reading
Chapelle, C.A., & Sauro, S. (Eds.). (2017).The handbook of technology and second language teaching and learning. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
Son, J.-B. (2018). Teacher development in technology-enhanced language teaching. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
External links
Autonomous Technology-Assisted Language Learning (ATALL) Wikibook
Language Software Reviews
Language education
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Social | Social organisms, including human(s), live collectively in interacting populations. This interaction is considered social whether they are aware of it or not, and whether the exchange is voluntary or not.
Etymology
The word "social" derives from the Latin word socii ("allies"). It is particularly derived from the Italian Socii states, historical allies of the Roman Republic (although they rebelled against Rome in the Social War of 91–87 BC).
Social theorists
In the view of Karl Marx, human beings are intrinsically, necessarily and by definition social beings who, beyond being "gregarious creatures", cannot survive and meet their needs other than through social co-operation and association. Their social characteristics are therefore to a large extent an objectively given fact, stamped on them from birth and affirmed by socialization processes; and, according to Marx, in producing and reproducing their material life, people must necessarily enter into relations of production which are "independent of their will".
By contrast, the sociologist Max Weber for example defines human action as "social" if, by virtue of the subjective meanings attached to the action by individuals, it "takes account of the behavior of others, and is thereby oriented in its course".
In socialism
The term "socialism", used from the 1830s onwards in France and the United Kingdom, was directly related to what was called the social question. In essence, early socialists contended that the emergence of competitive market societies did not create "liberty, equality and fraternity" for all citizens, requiring the intervention of politics and social reform to tackle social problems, injustices and grievances (a topic on which Jean-Jacques Rousseau discourses at length in his classic work The Social Contract). Originally the term "socialist" was often used interchangeably with "co-operative", "mutualist", "associationist" and "collectivist" in reference to the organization of economic enterprise socialists advocated, in contrast to the private enterprise and corporate organizational structures inherent to capitalism.
The modern concept of socialism evolved in response to the development of industrial capitalism. The "social" in modern "socialism" came to refer to the specific perspective and understanding socialists had of the development of material, economic forces and determinants of human behavior in society. Specifically, it denoted the perspective that human behavior is largely determined by a person's immediate social environment, that modes of social organization were not supernatural or metaphysical constructs but products of the social system and social environment, which were in turn products of the level of technology/mode of production (the material world), and were therefore constantly changing. Social and economic systems were thus not the product of innate human nature, but of the underlying form of economic organization and level of technology in a given society, implying that human social relations and incentive-structures would also change as social relations and social organization changes in response to improvements in technology and evolving material forces (relations of production). This perspective formed the bulk of the foundation for Karl Marx's materialist conception of history.
Modern uses
In contemporary society, "social" often refers to the redistributive policies of the government which aim to apply resources in the public interest, for example, social security. Policy concerns then include the problems of social exclusion and social cohesion. Here, "social" contrasts with "private" and to the distinction between the public and the private (or privatised) spheres, where ownership relations define access to resources and attention.
The social domain is often also contrasted with that of physical nature, but in sociobiology analogies are drawn between humans and other living species in order to explain social behavior in terms of biological factors.
See also
Social construct
Social cue
Social issues
Social media
Social network
Social networking service
Social neuroscience
Social pension
Social psychology
Social skills
Social studies
Social support
Social undermining
Social work
Sociology
References
External links
Dolwick, JS. 2009. The 'Social' and Beyond: Introducing Actor Network Theory, article examining different meanings of the concept 'social'
Sociological terminology
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Poisonous pedagogy | In sociology and psychology, poisonous pedagogy, also called black pedagogy (from the original German name schwarze Pädagogik), is any traditional child-raising methods which modern pedagogy considers repressive and harmful. It includes behaviours and communication that theorists consider to be manipulative or violent, such as extreme forms of corporal punishment.
Origin and definitions
The concept was first introduced by Katharina Rutschky in her 1977 work Schwarze Pädagogik. Quellen zur Naturgeschichte der bürgerlichen Erziehung. The psychologist Alice Miller used the concept to describe child-raising approaches that, she believed, damage a child's emotional development. Miller claims that this alleged emotional damage promotes adult behavior harmful to individuals. She explains how poisonous pedagogy in the name of "child rearing" leads to dysfunctions and neurosis of all kinds. For instance in her book For Your Own Good she discussed its common impact on three distinct lives: Adolf Hitler, Jürgen Bartsch and Christiane F., whereas in The Body Never Lies, she talks about the impact of childhood trauma and repressed emotions on the human body.
"Poisonous pedagogy" is described by these theorists as what happens when a parent (or teacher, nurse, or other caregiver) believes that a young child's behavior demonstrates that the child is infected with the "seeds of evil", and therefore attempts to weed out the evil, either by emotional manipulation or by brute force. Simple examples include the beating of children as punishment for lying, or mothers who refuse to feed their newborn until a set time, in order to "teach him patience, which will be useful for him in later life".
Poisonous pedagogy, in Katharina Rutschky's definition, aims to inculcate a social superego in the child, to construct a basic defense against drives in the child's psyche, to toughen the child for later life, and to instrumentalize the body parts and senses in favor of socially defined functions. Although not explicitly, "poisonous pedagogy" serves, these theorists allege, as a rationalization of sadism and a defense against the feelings of the parent himself or of the person involved.
For methods, Rutschky claims, "poisonous pedagogy" makes use of initiation rites (for example, internalizing a threat of death), the application of pain (including psychological), the totalitarian supervision of the child (body control, behavior, obedience, prohibition of lying, etc.), taboos against touching, the denial of basic needs, and an extreme desire for order.
Historical background
Ancient cultures
The Roman poets Plautus, Horace, Martial, and Juvenal described corporal punishments in schools. It is also written in the Bible, Proverbs 13:24. "He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes." Corporal punishment was widespread in all of these civilizations.
The expression "Spare the rod and spoil the child" is a satirical parody of a verse from the Bible, Proverbs, 13:24, and was adapted by Samuel Butler in the satirical poem Hudibras.
Germany
In the 18th century common notions of the evil nature of children or of taming bear witness to superstitions and the wish to be able to train human beings like animals.
One German child-raising book in the 18th century said: "These first years have, among other things, the advantage that one can use force and compulsion. With age children forget everything they encountered in their early childhood. Thus if one can take away children's will, they will not remember afterward that they had had a will."
In Germany the parental right to discipline was abolished by a change in the law in 2000. The Federal Minister for Family Affairs from 1994 to 1998 Claudia Nolte had wanted to maintain parents' right to use mild spanking, contrary to the views of Alice Miller in her 1980 book For Your Own Good.
Miller has written: "I understand 'black pedagogy' to be a parenting approach that is directed toward breaking the will of the child, in order to make it an obedient subject, with the aid of open or concealed use of force, manipulation, and repression."
Psychological background
A relevant criterion in defining poisonous pedagogy is if a manipulative approach reveals behavioural issues in the parent such as a blindness to feelings, cruelty, or a tendency toward violence, or if strong negative emotions such as anger or hate are being discharged, emotions against which the juvenile or infant psyche, with its age-based limitations, cannot defend itself.
Miller also came to the conclusion, as a result of her therapeutic work, that she needed to "work on" her own childhood in order to understand her clients better. She takes the view that "poisonous pedagogy" is a behavior that is passed on from generation to generation by being euphemized and sanitized.
Other themes of the controversial author Katharina Rutschky are parenting, feminist criticism, and abuse.
Personalities
Influential advocates of various forms of corporal punishment include John Harvey Kellogg, Moritz Schreber, and others.
Discussion and criticism
Alice Miller defines poisonous pedagogy as all types of behavior that she believes is intended to manipulate children's characters through force or deception. Her focus is not merely on smacking (although she has said that "Every smack is a humiliation" and clearly opposes corporal punishment) but also on various other forms of manipulation, deceit, hypocrisy, and coercion, which she argues are commonly used by parents and teachers against children.
Sociology professor Frank Furedi believes that such declarations are too sweeping and disconnected from reality. Furedi labels many advocates of a total ban on physical punishment as being against all forms of punishing children. He sees the underlying agenda as an anti-parent crusade, and argues that some research on the effects of spanking is far less clear-cut than the claims made on its behalf by what he calls "anti-smacking zealots".
Social psychologist David Smail contends that society bears a large part of the responsibility for individuals' dysfunctional behavior, but as yet has not addressed this in any meaningful way.
Developmental psychologist James W. Prescott, in the 1970s, carried out research into primate child-mother bonding and noted a link between disruption to the child-mother bonding process and the emergence of violence and fear based behaviour in the young primates. He suggests that the same dynamic functions for human beings, through the breakdown of empathy.
In 1975, Prescott outlined a link between violence and disruption of the child-mother bonding process in human societies, drawing on a cross-cultural study of Aboriginal societies and a statistical analysis of those cultures' practices towards the nurturing of the natural child-mother bonding process, and an examination of historical attitudes towards children from Euramerican literature and the historical record.
He concluded that the disrupted child-mother bonding process was an absolute predictor of the emergence of violence, hierarchy, rigid gender roles, a dominatory psychology and violent territorial acquisition. Intervening upon and disrupting natural adolescent sexuality also formed part of the overall picture. This discovery was not expected. Most societies were peaceful, and the incidence of extremely violent societies was low.
Prescott states that the research showed that over time, disruptive practices become the 'norm' and as generations grow and pass on these practices, the society in question begins to demonstrate a clear lack of empathy, and violence is codified. The history of poisonous pedagogy, in his view, is the history of this codification of these non-nurturant practices. It is upon these that current transmitted practice is found.
Recent research into living Aboriginal societies and a review of the historical record of first contact data, and other recorded observations, over the past 400 years have shown that the majority of Aboriginal cultures do not chastise children. The data show that children are treated with much more respect, trust and empathy than was previously believed.
See also
Notes
References
Pedagogical movements and theories
Educational psychology
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Pluralism | Pluralism in general denotes a diversity of views or stands, rather than a single approach or method.
Pluralism or pluralist may refer more specifically to:
Politics and law
Pluralism (political philosophy), the acknowledgement of a diversity of political systems
Pluralism (political theory), belief that there should be diverse and competing centres of power in society
Legal pluralism, the existence of differing legal systems in a population or area
Pluralist democracy, a political system with more than one center of power
Philosophy
Pluralism (philosophy), a doctrine according to which many basic substances make up reality
Pluralist school, a Greek school of pre-Socratic philosophers
Epistemological pluralism or methodological pluralism, the view that some phenomena require multiple methods to account for their nature
Value pluralism, the idea that several values may be equally correct and yet in conflict with each other
Religion
Religious pluralism, the acceptance of all religious paths as equally valid, promoting coexistence
Holding multiple ecclesiastical offices; see "Pluralism" at Benefice
Pluralism Project, a Harvard-affiliated project on religious diversity in the United States
Other uses
Cosmic pluralism, the belief in numerous other worlds beyond the Earth, which may possess the conditions suitable for life
Cultural pluralism, when small groups within a larger society maintain their unique cultural identities
Media pluralism, the representation of different cultural groups and political opinions in the media
Pluralist commonwealth, a systemic model of wealth democratization
Pluralism in economics, a campaign to enrich the academic discipline of economics
See also
Plurality (disambiguation)
Journal of Legal Pluralism, a peer-reviewed academic journal that focuses on legal pluralism
Global Centre for Pluralism, an international centre for research of pluralist societies
Multiculturalism, the existence of multiple cultural traditions within a single country
Postmodernism, a broad movement in the late-20th century that is skeptical toward grand narratives or ideologies | 0.768673 | 0.984738 | 0.756941 |
Design science (methodology) | Design science research (DSR) is a research paradigm focusing on the development and validation of prescriptive knowledge in information science. Herbert Simon distinguished the natural sciences, concerned with explaining how things are, from design sciences which are concerned with how things ought to be, that is, with devising artifacts to attain goals. Design science research methodology (DSRM) refers to the research methodologies associated with this paradigm. It spans the methodologies of several research disciplines, for example information technology, which offers specific guidelines for evaluation and iteration within research projects.
DSR focuses on the development and performance of (designed) artifacts with the explicit intention of improving the functional performance of the artifact. DSRM is typically applied to categories of artifacts including algorithms, human/computer interfaces, design methodologies (including process models) and languages. Its application is most notable in the Engineering and Computer Science disciplines, though is not restricted to these and can be found in many disciplines and fields. DSR, or constructive research, in contrast to explanatory science research, has academic research objectives generally of a more pragmatic nature. Research in these disciplines can be seen as a quest for understanding and improving human performance. Such renowned research institutions as the MIT Media Lab, Stanford University's Center for Design Research, Carnegie Mellon University's Software Engineering Institute, Xerox’s PARC, and Brunel University London’s Organisation and System Design Centre, use the DSR approach.
Design science is a valid research methodology to develop solutions for practical engineering problems. Design science is particularly suitable for wicked problems.
Objectives
The main goal of DSR is to develop knowledge that professionals of the discipline in question can use to design solutions for their field problems. Design sciences focus on the process of making choices on what is possible and useful for the creation of possible futures,
rather than on what is currently existing. This mission can be compared to the one of the ‘explanatory sciences’, like the natural sciences and sociology, which is to develop knowledge to describe, explain and predict. Hevner states that the main purpose of DSR is achieving knowledge and understanding of a problem domain by building and application of a designed artifact.
Evolution and applications
Since the first days of computer science, computer scientists have been doing DSR without naming it. They have developed new architectures for computers, new programming languages, new compilers, new algorithms, new data and file structures, new data models, new database management systems, and so on. Much of the early research was focused on systems development approaches and methods. The dominant research philosophy in many disciplines has focused on developing cumulative, theory-based research results in order to make prescriptions. It seems that this ‘theory-with-practical-implications’ research strategy has not delivered on this aim, which led to search for practical research methods such as DSR.
Characteristics
The design process is a sequence of expert activities that produces an innovative product. The artifact enables the researcher to get a better grasp of the problem; the re-evaluation of the problem improves the quality of the design process and so on. This build-and-evaluate loop is typically iterated a number of times before the final design artifact is generated. In DSR, the focus is on the so-called field-tested and grounded technological rule as a possible product of Mode 2 research with the potential to improve the relevance of academic research in management. Mode 1 knowledge production is purely academic and mono-disciplinary, while Mode 2 is multidisciplinary and aims at solving complex and relevant field problems.
Guidelines in information systems research
Hevner et al. have presented a set of guidelines for DSR within the discipline of Information Systems (IS). DSR requires the creation of an innovative, purposeful artifact for a special problem domain. The artifact must be evaluated in order to ensure its utility for the specified problem. In order to form a novel research contribution, the artifact must either solve a problem that has not yet been solved, or provide a more effective solution. Both the construction and evaluation of the artifact must be done rigorously, and the results of the research presented effectively both to technology-oriented and management-oriented audiences.
Hevner counts 7 guidelines for a DSR:
Design as an artifact: Design-science research must produce a viable artifact in the form of a construct, a model, a method, or an instantiation.
Problem relevance: The objective of design-science research is to develop technology-based solutions to important and relevant business problems.
Design evaluation: The utility, quality, and efficacy of a design artifact must be rigorously demonstrated via well-executed evaluation methods.
Research contributions: Effective design-science research must provide clear and verifiable contributions in the areas of the design artifact, design foundations, and/or design methodologies.
Research rigor: Design-science research relies upon the application of rigorous methods in both the construction and evaluation of the design artifact.
Design as a search process: The search for an effective artifact requires utilizing available means to reach desired ends while satisfying laws in the problem environment.
Communication of research: Design-science research must be presented effectively both to technology-oriented as well as management-oriented audiences.
Transparency in DSR is becoming an emerging concern. DSR strives to be practical and relevant. Yet few researchers have examined the extent to which practitioners can meaningfully utilize theoretical knowledge produced by DSR in solving concrete real-world problems. There is a potential gulf between theoretical propositions and concrete issues faced in practice—a challenge known as design theory indeterminacy. Guidelines for addressing this challenges are provided in Lukyanenko et al. 2020.
The engineering cycle and the design cycle
The engineering cycle is a framework used in Design Science for Information Systems and Software Engineering, proposed by Roel Wieringa.
Artifacts
Artifacts within DSR are perceived to be knowledge containing. This knowledge ranges from the design logic, construction methods and tool to assumptions about the context in which the artifact is intended to function (Gregor, 2002).
The creation and evaluation of artifacts thus forms an important part in the DSR process which was described by Hevner et al., (2004) and supported by March and Storey (2008) as revolving around “build and evaluate”.
DSR artifacts can broadly include: models, methods, constructs, instantiations and design theories (March & Smith, 1995; Gregor 2002; March & Storey, 2008, Gregor and Hevner 2013), social innovations, new or previously unknown properties of technical/social/informational resources (March, Storey, 2008), new explanatory theories, new design and developments models and implementation processes or methods (Ellis & Levy 2010).
A three-cycle view
DSR can be seen as an embodiment of three closely related cycles of activities. The relevance cycle initiates DSR with an application context that not only provides the requirements for the research as inputs but also defines acceptance criteria for the ultimate evaluation of the research results. The rigor cycle provides past knowledge to the research project to ensure its innovation. It is incumbent upon the researchers to thoroughly research and reference the knowledge base in order to guarantee that the designs produced are research contributions and not routine designs based upon the application of well-known processes. The central design cycle iterates between the core activities of building and evaluating the design artifacts and processes of the research.
Ethical issues
DSR in itself implies an ethical change from describing and explaining of the existing world to shaping it. One can question the values of information system research, i.e., whose values and what values dominate it, emphasizing that research may openly or latently serve the interests of particular dominant groups. The interests served may be those of the host organization as perceived by its top management, those of information system users, those of information system professionals or potentially those of other stakeholder groups in society.
Academic Examples of Design Science Research
There are limited references to examples of DSR, but Adams has completed two PhD research topics using Peffers et al.'s DSRP (both associated with digital forensics but from different perspectives):
2013: The Advanced Data Acquisition Model (ADAM): A process model for digital forensic practice
2024: The Advanced Framework for Evaluating Remote Agents (AFERA): A Framework for Digital Forensic Practitioners
See also
Empirical research
Action research
Participant observation
Case study
Design thinking
References
Research examples
Adams, R., Hobbs, V., Mann, G., (2013). The Advanced Data Acquisition Model (ADAM): A process model for digital forensic practice. URL: http://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/id/eprint/14422/2/02Whole.pdf
Further reading
March, S. T., Smith, G. F., (1995). Design and natural science research on information technology. Decision Support Systems, 15(4), pp. 251–266.
March, S. T., Storey, V. C., (2008). Design Science in the Information Systems Discipline: An introduction to the special issue on design science research, MIS Quarterly, Vol. 32(4), pp. 725–730.
Opdenakker, Raymond en Carin Cuijpers (2019),’Effective Virtual Project Teams: A Design Science Approach to Building a Strategic Momentum’, Springer Verlag.
Van Aken, J. E. (2004). Management Research Based on the Paradigm of the Design Sciences: The Quest for Field-Tested and Grounded Technological Rules. Journal of Management Studies, 41(2), 219–246.
Watts S, Shankaranarayanan G., Even A. Data quality assessment in context: A cognitive perspective. Decis Support Syst. 2009;48(1):202-211.
External links
Design Science Research in Information System and Technology community
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Developmentally appropriate practice | Developmentally appropriate practice (DAP) is a perspective within early childhood education whereby a teacher or child caregiver nurtures a child's social/emotional, physical, and cognitive development. It is also described as a philosophy in child education that is based on child development knowledge where professionals base their instruction and care on research, standards, and recognized theory.
Concept
Developmentally appropriate practice (DAP) emphasizes what is known about children and what can be done about individual children as a basis of decision-making when it comes to instruction and care. It recognizes that children's needs and abilities change over time and depend on universal laws governing these to determine the propriety of practice. DAP also holds that children have a natural disposition towards learning; hence, they are capable of constructing their own knowledge through exploration and interaction with others, learning materials, and their environment. For these reasons, early childhood programs look and function differently.
The DAP has three core components: knowledge about development and learning; knowledge about individual children; and, knowledge about the social and cultural contexts where children grow and learn. Particularly, the teacher or provider of care bases all practices and decisions on (1) theories of child development, (2) individually identified strengths and needs of each child uncovered through authentic assessment, and (3) the child's cultural background as defined by his community, family history, and family structure.
DAP is centered around the instructors "intentionality" of their instruction so that students are able to accomplish goals that are "both challenging and achievable for children". In DAP, knowledge of child development is valued because it "permits general predictions" to be made by instructors to influence what instruction should be used to best benefit student learning based on their developmental stage. It influences teacher decisions on which "environment, materials, interaction and activities" should be used in the classroom based on "broad predictions" of children in particular age groups. Knowledge of the individual child is another core consideration of DAP because, through observation, teachers may learn "implications for how to best adapt" instruction based on the specific needs of an individual student. The last core consideration for DAP, is that instructors should also learn more about the social and cultural contexts children grow up in their homes. This is valued so students learn and grow through instruction that is "meaningful, relevant, and respectful for each child and family".
Learning standard
The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) has adopted DAP as part of its attempt to establish standards for best practice in the area of the education of children (from birth to 8 years of age). This was established in a position statement, which some scholars view has contributed to the thinking and discourse about practices in early childhood programs. The statement described DAP as an "empirically based principles of child development and learning".
Updates in 2020 position statement
In the updated 2020 position statement, NAEYC admitted that previous position statements painted social and cultural differences "as deficits and gaps" instead of viewing them as "assets or strengths to be built upon". The revisions made were in hopes to highlight the updated core considerations:
(1) There are "greater variations" within the stages of development, which the previous versions failed to realize the "critical role" social and cultural differences have on student learning and development.
(2) While children need to learn and understand different social and cultural contexts, educators also need to recognize their own "biases—both implicit and explicit" to ensure their teaching does not negatively impact student learning.
Studies have revealed that the use of DAP has led to an increase in children's receptive language, particularly in DAP programs that include higher-literacy environment and developmentally appropriate activities.
Implications for instruction
There are different suggestions for teachers to engage in developmentally appropriate practice depending on students' stage of development.
Infants
Set an environment that prompts exploration and make sure it is safe and stimulating
Meet physical needs of the infant by providing clean and quiet areas
Support infants' families by providing culturally sensitive care
Early childhood
Provide assurance to children who may have difficulties separating from their guardian
Allow children to explore classroom environment
Foster joy for literature in children
Middle childhood
Encourage families and caregivers to be actively involved in activities
Make sure students acquire basic academic skills, such as letter identification and sound correspondence
Allow students to form positive relationships with peers with guidance
Early adolescence
Design a curriculum that will challenge students to incorporate knowledge and skills across multiple content areas
Assign an adult to check the welfare of each student
Critics
DAP is one of a number of practices associated with outcome-based education and other progressive education reform movements. Some critics have argued that some reforms which fully support "developmentally appropriate practices", such as NCTM mathematics and whole language, introduce students to materials and concepts which may be too advanced for young children, or above their reading levels. On the opposite side, some critics claim that DAP approaches use content and concepts considerably below traditional grade levels. Educators in many states implement DAP approaches to meet learning standards that were established by specialized professional associations, including in the content areas of language arts, math, social studies and science. The National Science Education Standards proposes to teach elementary school students how to construct their own experiments, whereas traditionally high school students and even college students were typically taught how to perform pre-designed experiments, but not to construct their own experiments. In the DAP environment, through intentional teaching techniques, as well as by capitalizing on teachable moments, children are engaged in authentic, meaningful learning experiences. Educators do not just teach to the whole group, but use a variety of grouping strategies, including small groups, pairs and 1:1. Individualization becomes a key component in making sure the needs and interests of each child are focused on in a DAP environment. The developmentally appropriate practice is based upon the idea that children learn best from doing. Children learn best when they are actively involved in their environment and build knowledge based on their experiences rather than through passively receiving information. Active learning environments promote hands-on learning experiences and allow children to interact with objects in their environment, as well as their peers and teachers.
References
Science education
Education in the United States
Standards-based education
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School discipline | School discipline relates to actions taken by teachers or school organizations toward students when their behavior disrupts the ongoing educational activity or breaks a rule created by the school. Discipline can guide the children's behavior or set limits to help them learn to take better care of themselves, other people and the world around them.
School systems set rules, and if students break these rules they are subject to discipline. These rules may, for example, define the expected standards of school uniforms, punctuality, social conduct, and work ethic. The term "discipline" is applied to the action that is the consequence of breaking the rules. The aim of discipline is to set limits restricting certain behaviors or attitudes that are seen as harmful or against school policies, educational norms, school traditions, etc. The focus of discipline is shifting, and alternative approaches are emerging due to notably high dropout rates, disproportionate punishment upon minority students, and other educational inequalities.
The purpose of discipline
Discipline is a set of consequences determined by the school district to remedy actions taken by a student that are deemed inappropriate. It is sometimes confused with classroom management, but while discipline is one dimension of classroom management, classroom management is a more general term.
Discipline is typically thought to have a positive influence on both the individual as well as the classroom environment. Utilizing disciplinary actions can be an opportunity for the class to reflect and learn about consequences, instill collective values, and encourage behavior that is acceptable for the classroom. Recognition of the diversity of values within communities can increase understanding and tolerance of different disciplinary techniques. In particular, moderate interventions such as encouraging positive corrections of questionable behavior inside the classroom by clearly showing the boundaries and making it clear that the behavior is unacceptable, as opposed to more severe punishments outside the classroom such as detention, suspension, or expulsion, can promote learning and deter future misbehavior. Learning to "own" one's bad behavior is also thought to contribute to positive growth in social emotional learning.
Theory
School discipline practices are generally informed by theory from psychologists and educators. There are a number of theories to form a comprehensive discipline strategy for an entire school or a particular class.
Positive approach is grounded in teachers' respect for students. This approach instills in students a sense of responsibility by using youth/adult partnerships to develop and share clear rules, provide daily opportunities for success, and administer in-school suspension for noncompliant students. Based on Glasser's reality therapy. Research (e.g., Allen) is generally supportive of the PAD program.
Teacher effectiveness training differentiates between teacher-owned and student-owned problems, and proposes different strategies for dealing with each. Students are taught problem-solving and negotiation techniques. Researchers (e.g., Emmer and Aussiker) find that teachers like the programme and that their behaviour is influenced by it, but effects on student behaviour remain unclear.
Adlerian approaches is an umbrella term for a variety of methods which emphasize understanding the individual's reasons for maladaptive behavior and helping misbehaving students to alter their behavior, whilst at the same time finding ways to get their needs met. Named after psychiatrist Alfred Adler, these approaches have shown some positive effects on self-concept, attitudes, and locus of control, but effects on behavior are inconclusive (Emmer and Aussiker). Not only were the statistics on suspensions and vandalism significant, but also the recorded interview of teachers demonstrates the improvement in student attitude and behaviour, school atmosphere, academic performance, and beyond that, personal and professional growth.
Appropriate school learning theory and educational philosophy is a strategy for preventing violence and promoting order and discipline in schools, put forward by educational philosopher Daniel Greenberg and practiced by the Sudbury Valley School.
Some scholars think students misbehave because of the lack of engagement and stimulation in typical school settings, a rigid definition of acceptable behaviors and a lack of attention and love in a student's personal life. In the United States, scholars have begun to explore alternative explanations for why students are being disciplined, in particular the disproportionate rate of discipline towards African-American and minority students.
Lack of engagement and stimulation – students are curious and constantly searching for meaning and stimulation in the school environment. Classes that are too one-dimensional, that fail to involve students sufficiently, are too challenging or are content intensive (leaving little room for discussion and consideration), will not satisfy students' curiosities or needs for authentic intellectual stimulation.
A rigid definition of acceptable behavior – Most students, particularly older ones, are asked to sit at their desks for too long and listen, read, and take notes. Teachers who fail to offer opportunities for movement and interpersonal engagement are likelier to have to use strictness and rules to maintain law and order.
Lack of attention and love – When students fail to receive the attention that they crave, they are likelier to find other ways to get it, even if it means drawing negative attention to themselves and even negative consequences. The more teachers let their students know how much they care about them and value their work, the likelier they are to respect a teacher's request and conform to their expectation.
Disparities for black students in the United States
Federal level
Background
In the United States, many of the state and federal laws surrounding school discipline originate from zero-tolerance policies for student misconduct practiced by policy-makers from the 1980s and 1990s. With the increasing use of zero-tolerance policies, by 1997 the federal government was funding the use of police officers in schools, resulting in an increased use of discipline in schools across the country and an influx of students entering the juvenile justice system. By 2000, 41 states had laws in place requiring cases involving students who committed criminal violations in school, like drug possession, to be handled by law enforcement and juvenile courts, instead of the schools themselves. During this time, Black students accounted for over one-third of all corporal punishment cases and in-school and out-of-school suspensions, nearly one-third of all expulsions and school-related arrests, and over one-quarter of all referrals to law enforcement; rates around three times higher than that of white students.
Public schools are prohibited from using disciplinary practices as a form of discrimination. The Education Department's Office for Civil Rights is tasked with deciding whether or not to investigate students' reports of disciplinary racial discrimination. Former United States Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos enacted delays and eliminations of student discipline guidance under the United States Education Department. In 2016, the Obama administration required states to address racial disparities in special education under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, but DeVos delayed the implementation of these requirements. In 2014, the United States Department of Justice and the Education Department's Office for Civil Rights issued guidance to reduce racial disparities in suspension and expulsion. In 2019, DeVos defended the Education Department's choice to repeal this guidance.
Student protections
Today, schools across the U.S. suspend, expel, and punish Black students at a higher rate than white students. Despite these rates, there are multiple federal laws against racial discrimination in schools. There are two groups for these laws: disparate treatment and disparate impact.
Disparate treatment laws allow students the right to testify against schools and school districts for intentional racial discrimination. Under the equal protection and due process clauses of the 14th Amendment and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, students who feel they have been intentionally racially discriminated against can testify against their schools or school districts.
Disparate impact laws, including the federal regulations of Title VI and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, allow federal agencies to testify against schools and school districts for policies they have put in place that ultimately result in racial discrimination, regardless of the intent behind the people practicing those policies. Violations of these regulations can cause schools and school districts to lose federal funding.
Mitigation and reform
Positive Behavior Intervention and Supports (PBIS) programs examine disciplinary issues, attempt to reduce the severity of punishment for students, and provide increased support for students who have emotional and behavioral disorders. PBIS programs are supported by the United States Department of Education Office of Special Education Programs Technical Assistance Center and have been used by schools across the United States.
Across U.S. states
General trends
Racial disparities in suspension and expulsion vary across the United States, Atlanta, Georgia, Chicago, Illinois, Houston, Texas; and St. Paul. Minnesota has schools and school districts that, on average, suspend Black students at least six times more than white students. A study by the University of Pennsylvania concluded that Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia schools contribute over half of all suspensions and expulsions of Black students in America. In these thirteen states, Black students make up about 24% of the students in public schools, but 48% of suspension cases and 49% of expulsion cases. Today, 19 states allow the use of corporal punishment in schools, including Arkansas, a state that ranks 13th in the country for highest disciplinary disparity between Black and white students.
In the state of New York, black students are suspended at a rate over four times higher than white students; in New York City, this figure increases, with Black students being suspended at a rate over five times higher than white students. Schools in New York suspend nearly one in five Black male high-schoolers. In California, Black males are suspended more frequently than any other racial or gender group, and Black females are the third most often suspended group. Black students with disabilities in California lose about 44 more days of school instruction due to disciplinary consequences than their white peers with disabilities.
Mitigation and reform
Schools across the country are making efforts to reform their disciplinary systems and practices to reduce racial disparities. A study in North Carolina found that having Black teachers is associated with lowered amounts of exclusionary discipline for Black students, across all age, gender, and income ranges. To reduce its racial disciplinary disparity, Arkansas' state regulations are beginning to request that school districts make an effort to racially diversify their staff. School disciplinary policies in Arkansas are technically decided by state laws and the Arkansas Department of Education, but schools within Arkansas have some decision-making authority, which allowed them the power to suggest the diversification of their staff, as well as other policies that are being put into place to reduce racialized disciplinary disparities, including but not limited to:
Disciplinary punishments permitted for students are required to be written into a school district's policy.
In school districts where corporal punishment is used, the district must establish specific policies for when and how to employ it.
School districts are required to inform students' parents of disciplinary policies and provide written proof of the existence of said policies. These policies are required to be filed with the Arkansas Department of Education and include due process.
All school personnel, including teachers, administrators, volunteers, and all employees are required to undergo student discipline training.
Similarly to Arkansas, schools in Virginia are attempting to improve training for teachers and administrators. In California, multiple school districts have completely eliminated suspensions for Kindergarten through twelfth grade in public schools. The New York State Education Department and the Board of Regents has included out-of-school suspensions in the Every Student Succeeds Act, attempting to hold schools accountable for the suspension rates of different groups of students, this includes Black students' higher suspension rates compared to that of other racial and ethnic groups.
Across school districts
Demographics
Within the United States of America, urban educational institutions service the largest portion of Black students in primary and secondary education. On a larger scale, urban educational institutions with a predominantly Black student body yield higher rates of punitive disciplinary actions in comparison to institutions with a predominantly white student body. Black students attending urban educational institutions are more likely to receive suspension and to be arrested than white students. On a smaller scale, rural school districts with a larger portion of Black students also yield higher rates of punitive disciplinary actions than predominantly white school districts.
County-level
Individual school districts within a state have jurisdiction to implement and enforce education-related policies within their educational institutions. Dependent on a school district's approach to resolving behavioral conflicts, the disparities between rates and intensity of discipline between white and Black students can intensify or lessen. The subjectivity of approach to behavioral policies allows for external factors such as socioeconomic and racial demographic factors to feature into an institution's utilization of disciplinary actions.
Truancy
An example of the varying racial disparities in discipline across U.S. counties and school districts is the different disciplinary approaches to solving truancy, eg. "any intentional, unjustified, unauthorized, or illegal absence from compulsory education". The Los Angeles County District enacted punitive measures to decrease the rate of absenteeism occurring within the district's educational institutions. It piloted the Abolish Chronic Truancy (ACT) program that would discipline absenteeism through penal punishments for both students and their parental guardians. Punishments for parental guardians include legal prosecution with a maximum penalty of a fine up to $2,500 per child and up to a year sentencing. For students, punishments may be prosecution in juvenile court with potential penalties including fines, probation, community service, and mandated attendance of a truancy education program. Socioeconomic factors—lack of transportation, acting as a caregiver for siblings, etc.-- that affect a student's attendance and likelihood of penal punishments disproportionately affects low-income black students.
Another approach that some U.S. school districts have used to reduce truancy is rehabilitating students and accounting for external factors. For example, the office of Alameda County Assistant District Attorney Teresa Drenick within the Alameda County School District has piloted a diversion program to increase attendance. The program addresses students with high absenteeism rates with consistently absent students by providing access to therapy, health services, and resources such as bus passes. The county reports that the program has been "more than 90% successful at getting students back in class", thereby decreasing absenteeism rates.
Students with disabilities
The disparity in punitive disciplinary actions between Black and white students is further widened for Black students with disabilities. National surveys on disparities in school discipline have found higher rates of suspension among Black students with disabilities. From 2014 to 2015, the national average of days lost per 100 enrolled for students with disabilities was 119.0 days for Black students and 43.0 days for white students.
An existent effort to decrease rates of disciplinary actions for Black students with disabilities have examined the effects of same-race teachers within the classroom. For example, from 2014 to 2015, North Carolina had a wider gap in disparities than the national average in which Black students lost 158.3 days per 100 enrolled and white students lost 64.1 days. North Carolina, like many states, has local school districts with a higher percentage of Black staff and teachers than other districts. A study by researchers Constance A. Lindsey and Cassandra M. D. Hart demonstrates that Black females reduced disciplinary rates for Black male students with disabilities by a "2 percentage points to approximately 14 percent" decline. Additionally, students with Black male teachers within the study had a reduced disciplinary rate by "15 to 13 percent". The study suggests that school districts with an increased percentage of Black students may exhibit lower rates of punitive disciplinary actions for Black students with disabilities and have a lessened gap between Black and white students.
Within the classroom
In the United States, African-American students, particularly boys, are disciplined significantly more often and more severely than any other demographic. This disparity is very well documented and contributes substantially to negative life outcomes for affected students. The resulting tendency of minors and young adults from disadvantaged backgrounds to become incarcerated is widely referred to as the "school-to-prison pipeline".
According to data published by the U.S. Department of Education, African-American students are three times more likely to be suspended and expelled than their white peers. Research overwhelmingly suggests that when given an opportunity to choose among several disciplinary options for a relatively minor offense, teachers and school administrators disproportionately choose more severe punishment for African-American students than for white students for the same offense. Even when controlling factors such as family income, African-American boys are more likely to receive out-of-school suspensions than white boys for the same behavior within the same school.
A recent study published by the National Academy of Sciences, using U.S. federal data covering more than 32 million students and around 96,000 schools, showed that "the disciplinary gap between black and white students across five types of disciplinary actions is associated with county-level rates of racial bias." Other high-powered studies have shown "increased racial and gender disproportionality for subjectively defined behaviors in classrooms, and for incidents classified as more severe", and that "Black-White disciplinary gaps . . . emerge as early as in prekindergarten and widen with grade progression." Such disparities in exclusionary forms of discipline have been shown to be mitigated in classrooms run by African-American teachers, with especially strong mitigation of office referrals for subjectively defined behavior such as "willful defiance".
When disparities occur within the classroom they are often covert and passive. This means that instead of outwardly discriminating against a student because of their color teachers discreetly give fewer advantages to students of color. Examples of this could include counselors or teachers influencing students of color to take easier classes or to not attend four-year universities, and teachers not learning the correct way to pronounce student names. This can also include white students being given more chances before serious discipline is enacted, such as suspension or expulsion. According to a study published by the Association for Psychological Science, teachers often recognize second offenses in the classroom as the result of a pattern of wrongdoing when it comes to Black students while white students' offenses are often labeled as isolated incidents.
Black girls
While it has been proven that black boys in the U.S. tend to be disciplined more often and more severely, evidence also suggests that black girls experience more racial bias in their education. A research study conducted by the National Women's Law Center and the Education Trust observed that "Black girls are five times more likely than white girls to be suspended at least once and four times as likely as white girls to be arrested at school." The racial bias is compounded as girls also experience gender bias within the classroom, a phenomenon coined as educational inequality. Based on data published by The National Bureau of Economic Research on the short-term and long-term consequences of teachers' stereotypical biases, it was found that teacher biases have a positive effect on boys' achievements in class but have a negative effect on girls' achievements. This can have long-term consequences for the futures of Black girls as it can prevent them from enrolling in the advanced-level classes that are commonly required for STEM majors in college.
Socioeconomic status
Disciplinary methods also vary based on students' socioeconomic status. While high-income students are often reported to receive mild to moderate consequences (e.g. a teacher reprimand or seat reassignment), low-income students are reported to receive more severe consequences, sometimes delivered in a less-than-professional manner (e.g. being yelled at in front of class, being made to stand in the hallway all day, or having their personal belongings searched).
Some researchers argue that zero-tolerance discipline policies in effect criminalize infractions such as dress-code violations or talking back to a teacher, and that these policies disproportionately target disadvantaged students.
Implications
Due to increased suspension and expulsion rates, black students are losing instructional time by spending more time away from the classroom. Lost instructional time can result in lower retainment levels of educational material, lower graduation rates, and higher drop-out rates. Higher rates of punishment in schools can increase interactions between black students and law enforcement when black students are punished with referrals to law enforcement for disciplinary infractions. Referrals to law enforcement following the report of a student to a law enforcement agency or officer by a school employee can include citations, tickets, court referrals, and in some cases arrests, though not all referrals lead to arrests. These interactions with the law are a precursor for the school-to-prison pipeline, which disproportionately affects black students.
Corporal punishment
Throughout the history of education, the most common means of maintaining discipline in schools was corporal punishment. While a child was in school, a teacher was expected to act as a substitute parent, with many forms of parental discipline or rewards open to them. This often meant that students were commonly chastised with the birch, cane, paddle, strap or yardstick if they did something wrong. Around 69 countries still use school corporal punishment.
Corporal punishment in schools has now disappeared from most Western countries, including all European countries. In the United States, corporal punishment is not used in public schools in 36 states, banned in 33, and permitted in 17, of which only 14 actually have school districts actively administering corporal punishment. Every U.S. state except New Jersey and Iowa permits corporal punishment in private schools, but an increasing number of private schools have abandoned the practice, especially Catholic schools. Thirty-one U.S. states as well as the District of Columbia have banned corporal punishment from public schools, most recently Colorado in 2023. The other 17 states (mostly in the South) continue to allow corporal punishment in public schools. Of the 17 which permit the practice, three – Arizona, North Carolina, Wyoming have no public schools that actually use corporal punishment as of 2023. In North Carolina however, all school districts have banned the practice. Paddling is still used to a significant (though declining) degree in some public schools in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas. Private schools in these and most other states may also use it, though many choose not to do so.
Official corporal punishment, often by caning, remains commonplace in schools in some Asian, African and Caribbean countries.
Most mainstream schools in most other countries retain punishment for misbehavior, but it usually takes non-corporal forms such as detention and suspension.
In China, school corporal punishment was completely banned under the Article 29 of the Compulsory Education Act of the People's Republic of China, but in practice, beating by schoolteachers is still common, especially in rural areas.
In Australia, school corporal punishment has been banned in public schools in all states, but as of 2019, it is still permitted in private schools in Queensland and the Northern Territory.
Non-corporal forms of disciplinary action
Detention
Detention, sometimes referred to as DT, is one of the most common punishments in schools in the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Singapore, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and some other countries. It requires the pupil to report to a designated room (typically after the end of the school day, or during lunch or recess period) to complete extra work (such as writing lines or an essay, or the completion of chores). Detention can be supervised by the teacher setting the detention or through a centralised detention system. Detention may require a pupil to report at a certain time on a non-school day, e.g. "Saturday detention" at some US, UK, and Irish schools (especially for serious offences not quite serious enough for suspension).
In UK schools, after-school detention can be held the same day as it is issued without parental consent, and some schools make a detention room available daily, but many will require a pupil to return to school 1–2 hours after school ends on a specific day, e.g. "Friday Night Detention". Failure to attend detention without a valid excuse can sometimes result in another being added, or a more severe punishment being administered, such as an in school or out of school suspension.
In Germany, detention is less common. In some states like Baden-Württemberg there is detention to rework missed school hours, but in others like Rheinland-Pfalz it is prohibited by law. In schools where some classes are held on Saturdays, pupils may get detention on a Saturday even if it is a non-school day for them.
In China, long-time detention is perhaps less common than in the US, the UK, Ireland, Singapore, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and some other countries. However, short-time detention by the teachers is still common. Teachers may ask the students to do some missed work after school.
In Australia, the school should consider circumstances when giving detentions. For example, in Victoria, it is recommended that no more than half the time for recess is used for detention, that detentions be held at a reasonable time and place, and when students are kept after school, parents should be informed at least the day before detention, and detention should not exceed 45 minutes.
Counseling
Counseling is also provided when students will have to see a school counselor (guidance counselor) for misbehavior. The purpose of counseling is to help the student recognize their mistakes and find positive ways to make changes in the student's life. Counseling can also help the student clarify the school's expectations, as well as understand the consequences of failing to meet those standards.
Suspension
Suspension or temporary exclusion is a mandatory leave assigned to a student as a form of punishment that can last anywhere from one day to a few weeks, during which the student is not allowed to attend regular lessons. In some US, UK, Australian, and Canadian schools, there are two types of suspension: In-school (ISS, internal exclusion, or isolation) and out-of-school (OSS, off-campus suspension, or external exclusion). In-school suspension means that the student comes to school as usual but must report to and stay in a designated room for the entire school day. Out-of-school suspension means that the student is banned from entering the school grounds, or being near their campus while suspended from school. A student who breaches an out-of-school suspension (by attending the school during their suspension) may be arrested for trespassing, and repeated breaches may lead to expulsion and/or possible criminal penalties. Students are also not allowed to attend after-school activities (such as proms, sporting events, etc.) while suspended from school. Some schools even utilize a loss of privilege policy that prohibits students returning from an out-of-school suspension from participating in the above mentioned school sponsored activities for as long as 2 weeks.
Schools are usually required to notify the student's parents/guardians and sometimes social worker if the suspended student is in special education, and explain the reason for and duration of a suspension. Students involved in physical altercations on campus can be suspended from school for a period of 5 days, while students who throw temper tantrums on campus, direct foul language at school staff members, or engage in verbal altercations with fellow students can be suspended for 3 days. Students are often required to continue to learn and complete assignments during their suspension, sometimes receiving no credit for it. This could include a written essay stating that they will not engage again in the behavior that led to the suspension or journal detailing the reason for the student being suspended from school, which they would be required to hand in to a school administrator upon returning to school following their suspension. Sometimes schools will have meetings with the suspended student, the student's parents, a school administrator, and sometimes a social worker in the case of a special education student to discuss and evaluate the matter following an out-of-school suspension. Studies suggest that school suspension is associated with increased risk of subsequent criminal justice system involvement and lower educational attainment.
School suspension can also be associated with psychological distress, and to have a bi-directional link with mental illness. In the United Kingdom, excluded children have been targeted by "county lines" drug traffickers.
Expulsion
Expulsion, dismissal, exclusion, withdrawing, or permanent exclusion terminates the student's education. This is the last resort, when all other methods of discipline have failed. However, in extreme situations, it may also be used for a single offense, such as setting fires on campus, the activation of false alarms, or assault and battery against faculty and staff members, or school administrators, bomb threats, breaking into classrooms and school offices during non school hours, and vandalism of school property. Setting off fireworks and firecrackers on campus can result in expulsion as well. Some education authorities have a nominated school in which all excluded students are collected; this typically has a much higher staffing level than mainstream schools. In some US public schools, expulsions are so serious that they require an appearance before the Board of Education or the court system. In the UK, head teachers may make the decision to exclude, but the student's parents have the right of appeal to the local education authority. It was completely banned for compulsory schools in China. This has proved controversial in cases where the head teacher's decision has been overturned (and his or her authority thereby undermined), and there are proposals to abolish the right of appeal. In the United States, when it comes to student discipline, there is a marked difference in procedure between public and private institutions.
With public schools, the school must provide the student with limited constitutional due process protections as public educational institutions operate as an extension of state governments. Conversely, with private schools, the student can be expelled for any reason – provided that the expulsion was not "arbitrary and capricious." In Virginia, as long as a private school follows the procedures in its student handbook, a court will likely not view its actions as arbitrary and capricious.
Restorative justice
In schools, restorative justice is an offshoot of the model used by some courts and law enforcement; it seeks to repair the harm that has been done by acknowledging the impact on the victim, community, and offender, accepting responsibility for the wrongdoing, and repairing the harm that was caused. Restorative practices can "also include preventive measures designed to build skills and capacity in students as well as adults." Some examples of preventative measures in restorative practices might include teachers and students devising classroom expectations together or setting up community building in the classroom. Restorative justice also focuses on justice as needs and obligations, expands justice as conversations between the offender, victim and school, and recognizes accountability as understanding the impact of actions and repairing the harm. Traditional styles of discipline do not always work well for students across every cultural community. As an alternative to the normative approaches of corporal punishment, detention, counseling, suspension, and expulsion, restorative justice was established to give students a voice in their consequences, as well as an opportunity to make a positive contribution to their community.
Restorative justice typically involves peer-mediation or adult-supervised conversations surrounding a perceived offence. Each student has the ability to contribute to the conversation, the person who has misbehaved has the opportunity not only to give their side of the story but also has a say in their consequence. Consequences defy the traditional methods of punitive punishment and instead give students an opportunity for restoration. Restorative justice focuses on relationship building and the community as a whole over the individual student and their offence, creating a sense that everyone has a part in the community and it is everyone's responsibility to uphold the values of the particular community. This is a method that not only increases an understanding of perceived community values, but is also a method thought to work well in cultures and communities where there is a high value on the community, rather than just on the individual.
In 2012, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights released a report entitled "School Discipline and Disparate Impact," which was somewhat critical of the Department of Education's approach to school discipline.
See also
Footnotes
Sources
External links
School Climate and Discipline, U.S. Department of Education
Tutorial: Guide to School Discipline MATHguide
discipline | 0.761917 | 0.993425 | 0.756908 |
Primary socialization | Primary socialization in sociology is the period early in a person's life during which they initially learn and develop themselves through experiences and interactions. This process starts at home through the family, in which one learns what is or is not accepted in society, social norms, and cultural practices that eventually one is likely to take up. Primary socialization through the family teaches children how to bond, create relationships, and understand important concepts including love, trust, and togetherness. Agents of primary socialization include institutions such as the family, childhood friends, the educational system, and social media. All these agents influence the socialization process of a child that they build on for the rest their life. These agents are limited to people who immediately surround a person such as friends and family—but other agents, such as social media and the educational system have a big influence on people as well. The media is an influential agent of socialization because it can provide vast amounts of knowledge about different cultures and society. It is through these processes that children learn how to behave in public versus at home, and eventually learn how they should behave as people under different circumstances; this is known as secondary socialization. A vast variety of people have contributed to the theory of primary socialization, of those include Sigmund Freud, George Herbert Mead, Charles Cooley, Jean Piaget and Talcott Parsons. However, Parsons' theories are the earliest and most significant contributions to socialization and cognitive development.
Theories
Talcott Parsons
Talcott Parsons believed that the family is one of the most important institutions during primary socialization and that aside from providing basic essentials such as shelter, food and safety, it teaches a child a set of cultural and social standards that guide the child through life as they mature. However, it is just as important that the child be able to internalize these standards and norms rather than just learn them, otherwise they will not be able to successfully participate in their culture or society later on. According to Parsons' theory, primary socialization prepares children for the various roles they take up as adults, and also has a big influence on the child's personality and emotional state of being. If we skip or try not to focus on primary socialization, norms of the society will not be known by the child.
Sigmund Freud
The physician and creator of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, devised a theory of personality development which states that biological instincts and societal influences shape the way a person becomes as an adult. Freud stated that the mind is composed of three components: the id, the superego and the ego. All of these three parts must cohesively work together in balance so that an individual may be able to successfully interact with and be a part of society. If any of these parts of the mind exceeds the others or becomes more dominant, the individual will face social and personal problems. Of the three components, Freud claims that the id forms first; the id makes a person act strictly for their pleasure. A newborn's mind only contains the id since all they ask for are physical desires. The superego develops as an individual moves into childhood and is described as the development of a conscience. The individual becomes aware that there are societal norms to follow and conforms to them. Lastly, the ego develops into late adolescence and adulthood and is the part of the mind that resolves conflicts between the id and the superego. The ego helps a person make rational decisions that comply with the rules of society.
George Herbert Mead
George Herbert Mead created the theory of social behaviorism, which states that the self is created by social experiences. The self is the portion of the being consisting of self-image and self-consciousness. As individuals interact with others, they build up this self. Unlike Freud, Mead believes that the self is not created by biological instincts, but rather solely by societal influences. He also stated that the use of language and exchanging of symbols to convey meaning is what societal experiences are made up of. Furthermore, one must place themselves in the other person's position to be able to understand them; they must take up the other person's role, and only by understanding the other person's role can self-awareness be achieved.
Charles Horton Cooley
Sociologist Charles Horton Cooley developed the theory of the looking-glass self, which is similar to Mead's theory in that it states that our societal interactions form our self-image. Cooley discussed how significant others are people whose opinions are of importance to us, and thus they have strong influences over the way we think about things and ourselves. In this case, a significant other can be any person: a friend, family member, or spouse. The theory of the looking-glass self proposes three steps for the formation of the self. In the first step, an individual thinks about how a significant other perceives them. In the second step, they imagine that a judgement about them is made by the significant other based on the perception they have of the individual. Lastly, in the third step, the individual creates a self-image based on how they believe the significant other sees them.
Jean Piaget
Psychologist Jean Piaget created the theory of cognitive development, which talks about how the mentality of children develops and matures as they grow older and further interact with society. Piaget defined four main periods of development: the sensorimotor period, the pre-operational period, the concrete operational period and the formal operational period. The sensorimotor period takes place from birth to about two years of age and is defined as the stage when infants learn by using their senses and motor skills. In this stage, the main goal is for an infant to learn that an object still exists even when it is not directly in sight; this is known as object permanence. During the pre-operational period, from roughly two to seven years of age, a child is much more capable of conceiving symbolic thought, but is not capable of reasoning yet. Also, children during this period cannot comprehend conservation, which is the ability to understand that different-looking objects can have the same measurable features, such as area, volume, and length. The next period, the concrete operational period, takes place from ages seven to eleven. In this stage, children are able to solve problems or mental operations, only in regards to real events or tangible objects, in their minds. The final stage is the formal operational period, taking place from age eleven through adulthood, and is the period in which individuals learn to solve problems based on hypothetical situations. During this stage, the individual can think logically, symbolically and abstractly.
Means of socialization
The family
Family, the closest set of people to an individual, are the ones that have the greatest impact on the socialization process. Many people, from birth to early adulthood, rely heavily on their family for support, basic necessities such as shelter and food, nurturing, and guidance. Due to this, many of the influences from the family become a part of the growing individual. The family imposes on the child their language, culture, race, religion, and class, and as a result all of these concepts contribute to the child's self. Failure of the family to be continuously present as a strong influence can lead to deviant behaviors later on in life. Various theories of primary socialization state that the degree of bonding during this process and the norms acquired during childhood may lead to deviant behavior and even drug abuse as an adult. Also, the ego levels of the adults surrounding the person during primary socialization, as well their behaviors towards others, affect the primary socialization process of the individual.
Education and peer groups
Educational systems introduce new knowledge to children as well as order and bureaucracy. In school a child learns about other cultures, races and religions different from their own. Education influences individuals to think and act certain ways that pertain to the norms and values of their current society. One example of this is gender roles; from a young age, schools teach children to act in particular manners based on their gender.
A peer group can be identified as a group of individuals who are similar in age and social class. By joining peer groups, children begin to detach from the authority the family has imposed in them, and start making choices of their own. Negative influences from peer groups can also lead to deviant behavior, due to peer pressure. These groups in an individual's life have significant effects on the primary socialization process as they can influence an individual to think or act differently.
Social and mass media
Social and mass media are some of the most influential agents of socialization. Magazines, television, social networks, newspapers, internet, films, and radio are all forms of mass media that entertain and send messages to large audiences. As a result, all of these messages sent out by social media have an effect on the way children see themselves and the world around them. Some examples of influential messages that are constantly seen from mass media include unrealistic or even unhealthy beauty standards, racial and sexual stereotypes, and violence around the world. These messages can all impact how a child creates their self and how they act as individuals in society.
Boundaries
Primary socialization takes place during infancy, childhood and early adolescence, in which an individual builds their basic core identity and personality. During this process a person forms their self-image and self-awareness through social experience. In primary socialization the family has a grand influence on the individual, as well as peer groups, educational institutions, and mass media. Overlapped with this is the process of secondary socialization, which occurs from childhood through adulthood, wherein an individual encounters new groups, and must take up new roles to successfully participate in society. However, this process involves smaller changes than those of primary socialization and is more so associated with teenagers and adults. During secondary socialization an individual begins to partake in smaller groups of larger societies, and as a result must learn to behave appropriately. The behavioral patterns that were created by the socialization agents during primary socialization are put into action in secondary socialization.
See also
Developmental psychology
Hidden curriculum
Institutional theory
Social constructionism
References
Socialization
Sociological terminology | 0.771179 | 0.981456 | 0.756878 |
Mootness | The terms moot, mootness and moot point are used in both English and American law, although with different meanings.
In the legal system of the United States, a matter is "moot" if further legal proceedings with regard to it can have no effect, or events have placed it beyond the reach of the law. Thereby the matter has been deprived of practical significance or rendered purely academic.
The U.S. development of this word stems from the practice of moot courts, in which hypothetical or fictional cases were argued as a part of legal education. These purely academic issues led the U.S. courts to describe cases where developing circumstances made any judgment ineffective as "moot". The terms mootness and moot court should therefore not be confused.
The mootness doctrine can be compared to the ripeness doctrine, another court rule (rather than law), that holds that judges should not rule on cases based entirely on anticipated disputes or hypothetical facts. These rules and similar doctrines, taken together, prevent the federal courts of the United States from issuing advisory opinions, as required by the Case or Controversy Clause of the United States Constitution.
The usage in the British legal system, on the other hand, is that the term "moot" has the meaning of "remains open to debate" or "remains unresolved". The divergence in usage was first observed in the United States and the extent to which the U.S. definition is used in U.S. jurisprudence and public discourse has ensured it is rarely used in a British courtroom. This is partially to avoid ambiguity, but also because the British definition is rarely relevant in practical cases.
U.S. federal courts
In the U.S. federal judicial system, a moot case must be dismissed, there being a constitutional limitation on the jurisdiction
of the federal courts. The reason for this is that Article Three of the United States Constitution limits the jurisdiction of all federal courts to "cases and controversies". Thus, a civil action or appeal in which the court's decision will not affect the rights of the parties is ordinarily beyond the power of the court to decide, provided it does not fall within one of the recognized exceptions.
A textbook example of such a case is the United States Supreme Court case DeFunis v. Odegaard, . The plaintiff was a student who had been denied admission to law school, and had then been provisionally admitted during the pendency of the case. Because the student was slated to graduate within a few months at the time the decision was rendered, and there was no action the law school could take to prevent that, the Court determined that a decision on its part would have no effect on the student's rights. Therefore, the case was dismissed as moot.
However, there is disagreement as to both the source of the standards, and their application in the courts. Some courts and observers opine that cases must be dismissed because this is a constitutional bar, and there is no "case or controversy"; others have rejected the pure constitutional approach and adopted a so-called "prudential" view, where dismissal may depend upon a host of factors, whether the particular person has lost a viable interest in the case, or whether the issue itself survives outside the interests of the particular person, whether the circumstance are likely to recur, etc. In actual practice, the U.S. federal courts have been uneven in their decisions, which has led to the accusation that determinations are ad hoc and 'result-oriented.'
There are four major exceptions to this mootness rule. These are cases of "voluntary cessation" on the part of the defendant; questions that involve secondary or collateral legal consequences; questions that are "capable of repetition, yet evading review"; and questions involving class actions where the named party ceases to represent the class.
Voluntary cessation
Where a defendant is acting wrongfully, but as a tactic to avoid an adverse decision, ceases to engage in such conduct once a litigation has been threatened or commenced, the court will still not deem this correction to moot the case. Obviously, a party could stop acting improperly just long enough for the case to be dismissed and then resume the improper conduct. For example, in Friends of the Earth, Inc. v. Laidlaw Environmental Services, Inc., , the Supreme Court held that an industrial polluter, against whom various deterrent civil penalties were being pursued, could not claim that the case was moot, even though the polluter had ceased polluting and had closed the factory responsible for the pollution. The court noted that so long as the polluter still retained its license to operate such a factory, it could open similar operations elsewhere if not deterred by the penalties sought.
A separate situation occurs when a court dismisses as "moot" a legal challenge to an existing law, in the case where the law being challenged is either amended or repealed through legislation before the court case could be settled. Since the remedy available for a bad law is simply the removal or changing of the law, the court's decision cannot create an outcome different than that which has already occurred. As such, any decision would merely be advisory, in violation of the Case or Controversy clause. While this sometimes casually referred to as voluntary cessation, the differences in available remedy make it distinct from technical voluntary cessation.
A recent instance of this occurred in Moore v. Madigan, where Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan declined to appeal a ruling from the Seventh Circuit striking down Illinois' handgun carry ban to the United States Supreme Court. As Illinois subsequently passed a law legalizing concealed carry with a state-issued license, the appeal would have been moot since the original case or controversy was no longer relevant.
Secondary or collateral legal consequences
"The obvious fact of life is that most criminal convictions do in fact entail adverse collateral legal consequences. The mere possibility that this will be the case is enough to preserve a criminal case from ending ignominiously in the limbo of mootness." Sibron v. New York.
Capable of repetition, yet evading review
A court will allow a case to go forward if it is the type for which persons will frequently be faced with a particular situation, but will likely cease to be in a position where the court can provide a remedy for them in the time that it takes for the justice system to address their situation. The most frequently cited example is the 1973 United States Supreme Court case of Roe v. Wade, , which challenged a Texas law forbidding abortion in most circumstances. The state argued that the case was moot because plaintiff Roe was no longer pregnant by the time the case was heard. As Justice Blackmun wrote in the majority opinion:
The normal 266-day human gestation period is so short that the pregnancy will come to term before the usual appellate process is complete. If that termination makes a case moot, pregnancy litigation seldom will survive much beyond the trial stage, and appellate review will be effectively denied. Our law should not be that rigid.
By contrast, in McCorvey v. Hill, 2004, the case failed to proceed based on being moot, without standing and out of time.
The Court cited Southern Pacific Terminal Co. v. ICC, , which had held that a case was not moot when it presented an issue that was "capable of repetition, yet evading review". Perhaps in response to increasing workloads at all levels of the judiciary, the recent trend in the Supreme Court and other U.S. courts has been to construe this exception rather narrowly.
Many cases fall under the "capable of repetition" doctrine; however, because there is a review process available under most circumstances, the exception to declaring mootness did not apply to such cases. In Memphis Light, Gas & Water Div. v. Craft, 436 U. S. 1, 8–9 (1978), the court noted that claims for damages save cases from mootness.
Class action representatives
Where a class action lawsuit is brought, with one named plaintiff actually representing the interests of many others, the case will not become moot even if the named plaintiff ceases to belong to the class that is seeking a remedy. In Sosna v. Iowa, , the plaintiff represented a class that was challenging an Iowa law that required persons to reside there for a year before seeking a divorce in Iowa's courts. The Supreme Court held that, although the plaintiff successfully divorced in another state, her attorneys could continue to competently advance the interests of other members of the class.
Abuse of mootness doctrine not acceptable
Construction of a project without regulatory compliance cannot be used to moot a court case challenge simply because construction has been completed. Since remedies remain available even long after the project has been completed, the case remains non-moot.
For example, where an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) was challenged, completion of the project construction could not be used to evade regulatory compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) as the 9th Circuit Court explained:
U.S. state courts
The U.S. state courts are not subject to the Article III limitations on their jurisdiction, and some state courts are permitted by their local constitutions and laws to render opinions in moot cases where the establishment of a legal precedent is desirable. They may also establish exceptions to the doctrine. For instance, in some state courts the prosecution can lodge an appeal after a defendant is acquitted: although the appellate court cannot set aside a not-guilty verdict due to double jeopardy, it can issue a ruling as to whether a trial court's ruling on a particular issue during the trial was erroneous. This opinion will then be binding on future cases heard by the courts of that state.
Some U.S. states also accept certified questions from the federal courts or the courts of other states. Under these procedures, state courts can issue opinions, usually for the purpose of clarifying or updating state law, in cases not actually pending in those courts.
Outside the U.S.
Although free from the U.S. Constitutional limitation, Canada has recognized that considerations of judicial economy and comity with the legislative and executive branch may justify a decision to dismiss an allegedly moot case, as deciding hypothetical controversies is tantamount to legislating. Considerations of the effectiveness of advocacy involved in the adversarial system and the possibility of recurrence of an alleged constitutional violation may sway the court. Additionally, the federal and provincial governments can ask for advisory opinions in hypothetical scenarios, termed reference questions, from their respective highest courts.
Moot point
The phrase 'moot point' refers (in American English) to an issue that is irrelevant to a subject being discussed or (in British English) to one that is debatable. Due to the relatively uncommon usage of the word moot, and because "moot" and "mute" are homophones in some pronunciations, this is sometimes erroneously rendered as "mute point".
See also
Mock trial (a simulated trial, typically of fact)
De minimis non curat lex. (The law is not interested in trivia)
References
External links
Civil procedure
Legal doctrines and principles | 0.763528 | 0.991243 | 0.756842 |
Industrial relations | Industrial relations or employment relations is the multidisciplinary academic field that studies the employment relationship; that is, the complex interrelations between employers and employees, labor/trade
unions, employer organizations, and the state.
The newer name, "Employment Relations" is increasingly taking precedence because "industrial relations" is often seen to have relatively narrow connotations. Nevertheless, industrial relations has frequently been concerned with employment relationships in the broadest sense, including "non-industrial" employment relationships. This is sometimes seen as paralleling a trend in the separate but related discipline of human resource management.
While some scholars regard or treat industrial/employment relations as synonymous with employee relations and labour relations, this is controversial, because of the narrower focus of employee/labour relations, i.e. on employees or labour, from the perspective of employers, managers and/or officials. In addition, employee relations is often perceived as dealing only with non-unionized workers, whereas labour relations is seen as dealing with organized labour, i.e unionized workers. Some academics, universities and other institutions regard human resource management as synonymous with one or more of the above disciplines, although this too is controversial.
Overview
Industrial relations examines various employment situations, not just ones with a unionized workforce. However, according to Bruce E. Kaufman, "To a large degree, most scholars regard trade unionism, collective bargaining and labour–management relations, and the national labour policy and labour law within which they are embedded, as the core subjects of the field."
Initiated in the United States at end of the 19th century, it took off as a field in conjunction with the New Deal. However, it is generally regarded as a separate field of study only in English-speaking countries, having no direct equivalent in continental Europe. In recent times, industrial relations has been in decline as a field, in correlation with the decline in importance of trade unions and also with the increasing preference of business schools for the human resource management paradigm.
Industrial relations has three faces: science building, problem solving, and ethical. In the science building phase, industrial relations is part of the social sciences, and it seeks to understand the employment relationship and its institutions through high-quality, rigorous research. In this vein, industrial relations scholarship intersects with scholarship in labour economics, industrial sociology, labour and social history, human resource management, political science, law, and other areas.
Industrial relations scholarship assumes that labour markets are not perfectly competitive and thus, in contrast to mainstream economic theory, employers typically have greater bargaining power than employees. Industrial relations scholarship also assumes that there are at least some inherent conflicts of interest between employers and employees (for example, higher wages versus higher profits) and thus, in contrast to scholarship in human resource management and organizational behaviour, conflict is seen as a natural part of the employment relationship. Industrial relations scholars therefore frequently study the diverse institutional arrangements that characterize and shape the employment relationship—from norms and power structures on the shop floor, to employee voice mechanisms in the workplace, to collective bargaining arrangements at company, regional, or national level, to various levels of public policy and labour law regimes, to varieties of capitalism (such as corporatism, social democracy, and neoliberalism).
When labour markets are seen as imperfect, and when the employment relationship includes conflicts of interest, then one cannot rely on markets or managers to always serve workers' interests, and in extreme cases to prevent worker exploitation. Industrial relations scholars and practitioners, therefore, support institutional interventions to improve the workings of the employment relationship and to protect workers' rights. The nature of these institutional interventions, however, differ between two camps within industrial relations. The pluralist camp sees the employment relationship as a mixture of shared interests and conflicts of interests that are largely limited to the employment relationship. In the workplace, pluralists, therefore, champion grievance procedures, employee voice mechanisms such as works councils and trade unions, collective bargaining, and labour–management partnerships. In the policy arena, pluralists advocate for minimum wage laws, occupational health and safety standards, international labour standards, and other employment and labour laws and public policies. These institutional interventions are all seen as methods for balancing the employment relationship to generate not only economic efficiency but also employee equity and voice. In contrast, the Marxist-inspired critical camp sees employer–employee conflicts of interest as sharply antagonistic and deeply embedded in the socio-political-economic system. From this perspective, the pursuit of a balanced employment relationship gives too much weight to employers' interests, and instead deep-seated structural reforms are needed to change the sharply antagonistic employment relationship that is inherent within capitalism. Militant trade unions are thus frequently supported.
History
Industrial relations has its roots in the Industrial Revolution which created the modern employment relationship by spawning free labour markets and large-scale industrial organizations with thousands of wage workers. As society wrestled with these massive economic and social changes, labour problems arose. Low wages, long working hours, monotonous and dangerous work, and abusive supervisory practices led to high employee turnover, violent strikes, and the threat of social instability. Intellectually, industrial relations was formed at the end of the 19th century as a middle ground between classical economics and Marxism, with Sidney Webb and Beatrice Webb's Industrial Democracy (1897) being a key intellectual work. Industrial relations thus rejected the classical econ.
Institutionally, industrial relations was founded by John R. Commons when he created the first academic industrial relations program at the University of Wisconsin in 1920. Another scholarly pioneer in industrial relations and labour research was Robert F. Hoxie. Early financial support for the field came from John D. Rockefeller Jr. who supported progressive labour–management relations in the aftermath of the bloody strike at a Rockefeller-owned coal mine in Colorado. In Britain, another progressive industrialist, Montague Burton, endowed chairs in industrial relations at the universities of Leeds, Cardiff, and Cambridge in 1929–1930.
Beginning in the early 1930s there was a rapid increase in membership of trade unions in the United States, and with that came frequent and sometimes violent labour–management conflict. During the Second World War these were suppressed by the arbitration powers of the National War Labor Board.
However, as the Second World War drew to a close and in anticipation of a renewal of labour–management conflict after the war, there was a wave of creations of new academic institutes and degree programs that sought to analyse such conflicts and the role of collective bargaining. The most known of these was the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations, founded in 1945. But counting various forms, there were over seventy-five others. These included the Yale Labor and Management Center, directed by E. Wight Bakke, which began in 1945. An influential industrial relations scholar in the 1940s and 1950s was Neil W. Chamberlain at Yale and Columbia universities.
In the 1950s, industrial relations was formalized as a distinct academic discipline with the emergence in the UK of the so-called "Oxford school", including Allan Flanders, Hugh Clegg, and Alan Fox, Lord William McCarthy, Sir George Bain (all of whom taught at Nuffield College, Oxford), as well as Otto Kahn-Freund (Brasenose College, Oxford).
Industrial relations was formed with a strong problem-solving orientation that rejected both the classical economists' laissez-faire solutions to labour problems and the Marxist solution of class revolution. It is this approach that underlies the New Deal legislation in the United States, such as the National Labor Relations Act and the Fair Labor Standards Act.
By the early 21st century, the academic field of industrial relations was often described as being in crisis. In academia, its traditional positions are threatened on one side by the dominance of mainstream economics and organizational behaviour, and on the other by postmodernism.
In policy-making circles, the industrial relations emphasis on institutional intervention is trumped by a neoliberal emphasis on the laissez-faire promotion of free markets. In practice, trade unions are declining and fewer companies have industrial relations functions. The number of academic programs in industrial relations is therefore shrinking, while fields such as human resource management and organizational behaviour grow. The importance of this work, however, is stronger than ever, and the lessons of industrial relations remain vital. The challenge for industrial relations is to re-establish these connections with the broader academic, policy, and business worlds.
Theoretical perspectives
Industrial relations scholars such as Alan Fox have described three major theoretical perspectives or frameworks, that contrast in their understanding and analysis of workplace relations. The three views are generally known as unitarism, pluralism, and the radical or critical school. Each offers a particular perception of workplace relations and will, therefore, interpret such events as workplace conflict, the role of unions and job regulation differently. The perspective of the critical school is sometimes referred to as the conflict model, although this is somewhat ambiguous, as pluralism also tends to see conflict as inherent in workplaces. Radical theories are strongly identified with Marxist theories, although they are not limited to these.
Pluralist perspective
In pluralism, the organization is perceived as being made up of divergent sub-groups, each with its own legitimate interests and loyalties and with their own set of objectives and leaders. In particular, the two predominant sub-groups in the pluralist perspective are the management and trade unions. The pluralist perspective also supports that conflict is inherent in dealing with industrial relations since different sub-groups have different opinions in the day-to-day operations. Consequently, the role of management would lean less towards enforcing and controlling and more toward persuasion and coordination. Trade unions are deemed legitimate representatives of employees, conflict is resolved through collective bargaining and is viewed not necessarily as a bad thing and, if managed, could, in fact, be channeled towards evolution and positive change.
Unitarist perspective
In unitarism, the organization is perceived as an integrated and harmonious whole with the idea of "one happy family" in which management and other members of the staff all share a common purpose by emphasizing mutual co-operation. Furthermore, unitarism has a paternalistic approach: it demands loyalty of all employees and is managerial in its emphasis and application. Consequently, trade unions are deemed unnecessary since the loyalty between employees and organizations are considered mutually exclusive, and there cannot be two sides of industry. Conflict is perceived as the result of poor management.
Radical or critical perspective
This view of industrial relations looks at the nature of the capitalist society, where there is a fundamental division of interest between capital and labour, and sees workplace relations against this background. This perspective sees inequalities of power and economic wealth as having their roots in the nature of the capitalist economic system. Conflict is therefore seen as a natural outcome of capitalism, thus it is inevitable and trade unions are a natural response of workers to their exploitation by capital. Whilst there may be periods of acquiescence, the Marxist view would be that institutions of joint regulation would enhance rather than limit management's position as they presume the continuation of capitalism rather than challenge it.
Labor relations
References
Bibliography
Further reading
Kjellberg, Anders (2022) The Nordic Model of Industrial Relations. Lund: Department of Sociology.
External links
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Phenomenology (psychology) | Phenomenology or phenomenological psychology, a sub-discipline of psychology, is the scientific study of subjective experiences. It is an approach to psychological subject matter that attempts to explain experiences from the point of view of the subject via the analysis of their written or spoken words. The approach has its roots in the phenomenological philosophical work of Edmund Husserl.
History
Early phenomenologists such as Husserl, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Maurice Merleau-Ponty conducted philosophical investigations of consciousness in the early 20th century. Their critiques of psychologism and positivism later influenced at least two main fields of contemporary psychology: the phenomenological psychological approach of the Duquesne School (the descriptive phenomenological method in psychology), including Amedeo Giorgi and Frederick Wertz; and the experimental approaches associated with Francisco Varela, Shaun Gallagher, Evan Thompson, and others (embodied mind thesis). Other names associated with the movement include Jonathan Smith (interpretative phenomenological analysis), Steinar Kvale, and Wolfgang Köhler. But "an even stronger influence on psychopathology came from Heidegger (1963), particularly through Kunz (1931), Blankenburg (1971), Tellenbach (1983), Binswanger (1994), and others." Phenomenological psychologists have also figured prominently in the history of the humanistic psychology movement.
Methodology
Phenomenology is concerned with the rich qualitative description of first-person experiences. This stands in contrast to quantitative approaches which seek to operationalize, abstract and predict behavior. Following Husserl's battle-cry "back to the things themselves", a phenomenological approach seeks to avoid speculation about underlying causes, and instead emphasizes direct descriptions of phenomena, whether by means of introspection or by attentive observation of another person.
Experience
The experiencing subject can be considered to be the person or self, for purposes of convenience. In phenomenological philosophy (and in particular in the work of Husserl, Heidegger, and Merleau-Ponty), "experience" is a considerably more complex concept than it is usually taken to be in everyday use. Instead, experience (or being, or existence itself) is an "in-relation-to" phenomenon, and it is defined by qualities of directedness, embodiment, and worldliness, which are evoked by the term "Being-in-the-World".
The quality or nature of a given experience is often referred to by the term qualia, whose archetypical exemplar is "redness". For example, we might ask, "Is my experience of redness the same as yours?" While it is difficult to answer such a question in any concrete way, the concept of intersubjectivity is often used as a mechanism for understanding how it is that humans are able to empathize with one another's experiences, and indeed to engage in meaningful communication about them. The phenomenological formulation of "Being-in-the-World", where person and world are mutually constitutive, is central here.
The observer, or in some cases the interviewer, achieves this sense of understanding and feeling of relatedness to the subject's experience, through subjective analysis of the experience, and the implied thoughts and emotions that they relay in their words.
Challenges in studying subjectivity
The philosophical psychology prevalent before the end of the 19th century relied heavily on introspection. The speculations concerning the mind based on those observations were criticized by the pioneering advocates of a more scientific and objective approach to psychology, such as William James and the behaviorists Edward Thorndike, Clark Hull, John B. Watson, and B. F. Skinner. However, not everyone agrees that introspection is intrinsically problematic, such as Francisco Varela, who has trained experimental participants in the structured "introspection" of phenomenological reduction.
In the early 1970s, Amedeo Giorgi applied phenomenological theory to his development of the Descriptive Phenomenological Method in Psychology. He sought to overcome certain problems he perceived from his work in psychophysics by approaching subjective phenomena from the traditional hypothetical-deductive framework of the natural sciences. Giorgi hoped to use what he had learned from his natural science background to develop a rigorous qualitative research method. His goal was to ensure that phenomenological research was both reliable and valid and he did this by seeking to make its processes increasingly measurable.
Philosophers have long confronted the problem of "qualia". Few philosophers believe that it is possible to be sure that one person's experience of the "redness" of an object is the same as another person's, even if both persons had effectively identical genetic and experiential histories. In principle, the same difficulty arises in feelings (the subjective experience of emotion), in the experience of effort, and especially in the "meaning" of concepts. As a result, many qualitative psychologists have claimed phenomenological inquiry to be essentially a matter of "meaning-making" and thus a question to be addressed by interpretive approaches.
Applications
Psychotherapy
Carl Rogers's person-centered psychotherapy theory is based directly on the “phenomenal field” personality theory of Combs and Snygg. That theory in turn was grounded in phenomenological thinking. Rogers attempts to put a therapist in closer contact with a person by listening to the person's report of their recent subjective experiences, especially emotions of which the person is not fully aware. For example, in relationships the problem at hand is often not based around what actually happened but, instead, based on the perceptions and feelings of each individual in the relationship. “At the core of phenomenology lies the attempt to describe and understand phenomena such as caring, healing, and wholeness as experienced by individuals who have lived through them".
Recent applications
The study and practice of phenomenology continues to grow and develop today. In 2021 a study on the experiences of individuals who attended a coexistence center (CECO) was conducted using phenomenological interviews to understand the lives of the participants. After the interviews the researchers constructed a comprehensive narrative, putting their understanding of the participants experience into their own words. This process led the researchers to understand that "the CECO is a propitious space for the development of individual and collective potentialities and the valuation of constructive social relationships that facilitate and preserve the inherent tendency of people towards growth, autonomy and psychological maturation."
Another example of phenomenology in recent years is an article published in 2022 which explains how phenomenology can grow into a larger field of study if we recognize how phenomenology has the ability to make the experiences of other people more clear, bridging the gap between subjective and objective reality. It puts forth "a methodological concept of phenomenological elucidation to promote the development of phenomenology as psychology."
Critiques
In 2022 Gerhard Thonhauser published an article which critiques phenomenology in psychology for adoption of Le Bon's crowd psychology, as well as what Thonhauser calls the "disease model of emotion transfer". Thonhauser claims there is little to no evidence of Le Bon's crowd psychology framework, of which phenomenology relies on.
In a 2015 article written for the Partially Examined Life blog, Michael Burgess argues that "...the foundational problem here is that consciousness is not a container for objects; this assertion mostly derives from another: that the world itself seems to be one way but is another, thus in its initial state of “seeming to be” it cannot be itself real (that illusion is metaphysical)."
See also
Alterity
Association of ideas
Associationism
Binding problem
Ideology
Neurophenomenology
Prejudice
Stream of consciousness (psychology)
Vertiginous question
References
External links
Phenomenology
Philosophy of psychology
Psychological schools | 0.765456 | 0.988647 | 0.756766 |
Social relation | A social relation is the fundamental unit of analysis within the social sciences, and describes any voluntary or involuntary interpersonal relationship between two or more conspecifics within and/or between groups. The group can be a language or kinship group, a social institution or organization, an economic class, a nation, or gender. Social relations are derived from human behavioral ecology, and, as an aggregate, form a coherent social structure whose constituent parts are best understood relative to each other and to the social ecosystem as a whole.
History
Early inquiries into the nature of social relations featured in the work of sociologists such as Max Weber in his theory of social action, where social relationships composed of both positive (affiliative) and negative (agonistic) interactions represented opposing effects. Categorizing social interactions enables observational and other social research, such as Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft (lit. 'community and society'), collective consciousness, etc.
Ancient works which include manuals of good practice in social relations include the text of Pseudo-Phocylides, 175–227, Josephus' polemical work Against Apion, 198–210, and the deutero-canonical Jewish Book of Sirach or Ecclesiasticus, .
More recent research on social behaviour has demonstrated that newborn infants tend to instinctually gravitate towards prosocial behaviour. As obligate social apes, humans are born highly altricial, and require an extended period of post-natal development for cultural transmission of social organization, language, and moral frameworks. In linguistic and anthropological frameworks, this is reflected in a culture's kinship terminology, with the default mother-child relation emerging as part of the embryological process.
Forms of relation and interaction
According to Piotr Sztompka, forms of relation and interaction in sociology and anthropology may be described as follows: first and most basic are animal-like behaviors, i.e. various physical movements of the body. Then there are actions—movements with a meaning and purpose. Then there are social behaviors, or social actions, which address (directly or indirectly) other people, which solicit a response from another agent.
Next are social contacts, a pair of social actions, which form the beginning of social interactions. Symbols define social relationships. Without symbols, our social life would be no more sophisticated than that of animals. For example, without symbols, people would have no aunts or uncles, employers or teachers—or even brothers and sisters. In sum, symbolic interactionists analyze how social life depends on the ways people define themselves and others. They study face-to-face interaction, examining how people make sense of life and how they determine their relationships.
See also
Affectional action
Communicative action
Dramaturgical action
Instrumental and value-rational action
Interdependence
Interpersonal relationship
Relations of production
Social isolation
Social movement
Social multiplier effect
Social robot
Symbolic interactionism
Traditional action
Related disciplines
Behavioral ecology
Behavioral sciences
Engaged theory
Social ecology
Social philosophy
Social psychology
References
Bibliography
Azarian, Reza. 2010. "Social Ties: Elements of a Substantive Conceptualisation". Acta Sociologica 53(4):323–38.
Piotr Sztompka, Socjologia, Znak, 2002,
Weber, Max. "The Nature of Social Action". In Weber: Selections in Translation, edited by W. G. Runciman. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1991.
Community building
Interpersonal relationships | 0.760229 | 0.995385 | 0.75672 |
Transactional leadership | Transactional leadership (or transactional management) is a type of leadership style that focuses on the exchange of skills, knowledge, resources, or effort between leaders and their subordinates. This leadership style prioritizes individual interests and extrinsic motivation as means to obtain a desired outcome. It relies on a system of penalties and rewards to achieve short-term goals.
Although James Downton is generally credited with coining the term "transactional leadership", James MacGregor Burns expanded upon the concept in his influential 1978 book Leadership.
Transactional leadership is characterized by two primary factors: contingent rewards and management-by-exception. Contingent reward concerns the rewards that are granted in recognition of effort and good performance. Management-by-exception maintains the status quo, intervening only when subordinates do not meet acceptable performance levels or when corrective action is required to improve performance.
Burns' concept of leadership
Political scholar James MacGregor Burns first developed his typology of leadership in his 1978 book Leadership. He built on the work of German sociologist Max Weber's rational-legal model of authority in the context of organizational theory, conceptualizing leadership as a power-imbalanced social contract between leaders and subordinates, each of whom has specific goals that may be shared or unrelated.
Burns specifically defined and contrasted two dominant types of leadership style: transactional and transformational. He distinguished between the two by explaining that:
Transformational leadership focuses on clear vision, collective benefits and long-term value.
Transactional leadership focuses on short-term goals, bargaining and performance, taking the form of a task-oriented transaction.
Characteristics of transactional leadership
Transactional leadership is understood to possess two primary characteristics:
Contingent rewards. Leaders define expectations and identify appropriate rewards (e.g., bonuses, merits, or recognition). These rewards are given to subordinates on the condition that leadership expectations be met.
Management-by-exception. Leaders take discretionary actions as a response to (in)effective performance. Management-by-exception is exercised within a spectrum of two management subtypes: active management, in which leaders constantly survey subordinates to evaluate performance, anticipate problems, and course-correct before major problems occur; and passive management, wherein a leader assesses performance after the task has been completed and only once the problem is considered sufficiently serious.
The transactional leadership style is highly prevalent in modern society, and across many different contexts. For example, a political leader may wish to ensure voter loyalty; a social media influencer may desire to grow their followers; and a factory foreman may be charged with maintaining worker productivity. In all of these cases, transactional leadership can be thought of as a contractual relationship between a leader — who acts as a negotiator — and subordinates.
All transactions come at a cost. An effective transactional leader is able to identify the individualized needs of his or her subordinates, and will bargain with these needs in order to determine the necessary "price" to achieve a goal. In exchange, subordinates will expect their leader to reward them with appropriate compensation: for example, with tax cuts for voters, interesting content for social media followers, or salaries for factory workers. Transactional leadership depends upon transparency and fairness, but subordinates' well-being is not a primary concern for transactional leaders. Subordinates are paid in the exact terms of the (actual or metaphorical) contract; they "get what [they] deserve — no more, no less."
Transactional leaders prefer to work within the existing structure and the culture of the organization, opting to following precedent rather than implementing change. They emphasize practical and directive action, articulating specific measures of success with subordinates to focus group attention on the extrinsic motivators that are intended to guide their work behavior — as opposed to transformational leaders, who aim for their followers to achieve intrinsic motivation and job fulfillment.
Benefits and shortcomings
Transactional leaders have a fine-tuned understanding of workers' motivations and the effort necessary to reach a desired goal, and clearly communicate the terms of the conditional reward to their subordinates. Transactional leadership can therefore fail if leaders fail to fulfill their end of the exchange. This leadership style works best in a context of specific goals and short-term circumstances.
The benefits of an ideal form of transactional leadership include:
Rewards for individuals who are self-motivated and follow instructions
Rapid achievement of short-term goals/gratifications
Clearly defined rewards and penalties, with an emphasis on productivity
Streamlined structure: ideal for environments where structure and systems need to be reproduced (e.g., high volume manufacturing)
Alignment of ideals in large organizations
Emphasis on transparency and fairness
Disadvantages of transactional leadership include:
Rewards reserved for contributions that produce tangible or quantifiable outcomes
Dependant on short-term, extrinsic motivation
Lack of accommodation for individuals who innovate/demonstrate initiative (creativity is limited or non-existent)
Impersonal work environment
Little to no room for flexibility with goals and objectives
Focus on quantitative output and short-term, baseline performance rather than quality and longevity
Criticism only in the face of flailing performance results; little to no positive feedback
Compared with transformational leadership, transactional leadership seems to be better adapted at predicting specific job needs, while transformational leadership seems to be better for managing organizational behavior.
Maslow's hierarchy of needs
Within the context of Maslow's hierarchy of needs, transactional leadership works at the basic levels of need satisfaction, where transformational leaders focus on the lower levels of the hierarchy. Transactional leaders use an exchange model, with rewards being given for good work or positive outcomes. Conversely, people with this leadership style also can punish poor work or negative outcomes, until the problem is corrected. One way that transactional leadership focuses on lower level needs is by stressing specific task performance. Transactional leaders are effective in getting specific tasks completed by managing each portion individually.
Transactional leaders are concerned with processes rather than forward-thinking ideas. Transactional leaders are generally split into three dimensions: contingent reward, management-by-exception: active, and management-by-exception: passive. The type of leader who focuses on contingent reward, also known as contingent positive reinforcement, give rewards when the set goals are accomplished on-time, ahead of time, or to keep subordinates working at a good pace at different times throughout completion. Contingent rewards are also given when the employee engages in any desired behavior. Often, contingent punishments are handed down on a management-by-exception basis, in which the exception is something going wrong. Within management-by-exception, there are active and passive routes. Management-by-exception: active means that the leader continually monitors each subordinate's performance and takes immediate corrective action when something goes wrong. Management-by-exception: passive leaders do not monitor employee performance and wait for serious issues to come up before taking any corrective actions. In addition to the three dimensions of leadership above, another form of transactional leadership is recognized, the laissez-faire dimension. Laissez-faire leadership indicates a lack of leadership and a complete hands-off approach with employees.
With transactional leadership being applied to the lower-level needs and being more managerial in style, it is a foundation for transformational leadership which applies to higher-level needs.
Multifactor leadership assessment
The multifactor leadership assessment identifies factors in the test taker's leadership style that help identify transactional vs transformational leaders. Individuals who score above 6/12 on contingent reward and management by exception exhibit tendencies to manage using positive and negative reinforcement, transactional management strategies.
Theory Y and Theory X
Douglas McGregor's Theory Y and Theory X can also be compared with these two leadership styles. Theory X can be compared with Transactional Leadership where managers need to rule by fear and consequences. In this style and theory, negative behavior is punished and employees are motivated through incentives.
Theory Y and Transformational Leadership are found to be similar, because the theory and style supports the idea that managers work to encourage their workers. Leaders assume the best of their employees. They believe them to be trusting, respectful, and self-motivated. The leaders help to supply the followers with tool they need to excel.
Examples
Coaches of athletic teams provide one example of transactional leadership. These leaders motivate their followers by promoting the reward of winning the game. They instil such a high level of commitment that their followers are willing to risk pain and injury to obtain the results that the leader is asking for.
Another example of transactional leadership is former US Senator from Wisconsin, Joseph McCarthy, and his ruthless style of accusing people of being Soviet spies during the Cold War. By punishing for deviation from the rules and rewarding followers for bringing him accused communist infiltrators, McCarthy promoted results among followers. This leadership style is especially effective in crisis situations, and another example of this type of leadership was Charles de Gaulle. Through this type of reward and punishment he was able to become the leader of the free French in a crisis situation.
See also
References
Further reading
Leadership | 0.764922 | 0.98926 | 0.756707 |
The Educated Mind | The Educated Mind: How Cognitive Tools Shape Our Understanding is a 1997 book on educational theory by Kieran Egan.
Main arguments
Criticism of previous education theories
Egan argues that much educational theorizing pivots around three basic ideas about the aim of education:
to educate people in content that would give them a "privileged and rational view of reality" (Plato). Here we find the following ideas: reason and knowledge can provide privileged access to the world; knowledge drives the student's mental development; education is an epistemological process.
to realize the right of every individual to pursue his own educational curriculum through self-discovery (Rousseau). Student development drives knowledge and education is a psychological process.
to Socialize the child - to homogenize children and ensure that they can fulfill a useful role in society, according to its values and beliefs.
Egan argues in Chapter One that "these three ideas are mutually incompatible, and this is the primary cause of our long-continuing educational crisis"; the present educational program in much of the West attempts to integrate all three of these incompatible ideas, resulting in a failure to effectively achieve any of the three.
"Cultural recapitulation" theory
Egan argues that knowledge and understanding arise through five kinds of understanding. This development can be explained by "logical and psychological pressures." Egan differentiates his theory from the conceptions of recapitulation common in the late 19th century and early 20th century.
People can learn cognitive tools that are grouped and classified into five kinds of understanding:
Somatic - somatic understanding is the innate understanding of one's physical functions as well as emotions. This understanding persists in the way children "model their overall social structure in play". This understanding comes before language acquisition and the development of language
Mythic - mythic understanding is understanding of "binary opposites" such as Tall/Short or Good/Evil. Tools or methods such as images, metaphor, and story-structure are used in pre-literate sense-making.
Romantic - romantic understanding occurs when the "limits of reality" are discovered. At this stage, there is a desire to explore the limits of reality, an interest in the transcendent qualities of things, and "engagement with knowledge represented as a product of human emotions and intentions" (p. 254)
Philosophic - philosophic understanding is the creation of principles which underlie patterns and limits found in data, and the ordering of knowledge into coherent general schemes.
Ironic - ironic understanding is the "mental flexibility to recognize how inadequately flexible are our minds, and the languages we use, to the world we try to represent in them". This includes the ability to consider alternative philosophic explanations, and is characterized by a Socratic stance in the world.
"Drawing from an extensive study of cultural history and evolutionary history and the field of cognitive psychology and anthropology, Egan gives a detailed account of how these various forms of understanding have been created and distinguished in our cultural history".
Each stage includes a set of "cognitive tools", as Egan calls them, that enrich our understanding of reality. Egan suggests that recapitulating these stages is an alternative to the contradictions between the Platonic, Rousseauian and socialising goals of education.
Egan resists the suggestion that religious understanding could be a further last stage, arguing instead that religious explanations are examples of ironic understanding preserving a richly developed somatic understanding.
Connections with other authors
Egan's main influence comes from the Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky. The idea of applying theory of recapitulation to education came from 19th century philosopher Herbert Spencer, although Egan uses it in a very different way. Egan also uses educational ideas from William Wordsworth and expresses regret that Wordsworth's ideas, because they were expressed in poetry, are rarely considered today.
In popular culture
The same year the essay was published (1997), Italian comedian-satirist Daniele Luttazzi used Egan's ideas for his character Prof. Fontecedro in the popular TV show Mai dire Gol, aired on Italia 1. Fontecedro was satirizing the inadequacies of the Italian school system, and the reforms proposed by Luigi Berlinguer, 1996-2000 Ministry of Education of Italy. Fontecedro's sketches brought Egan's theory to extreme levels with surreal humor. The jokes were later published in the book Cosmico! (1998, Mondadori, ), where the five stages of mind development are also cited at pp. 45–47. In 2023, a review of the book won the blog Astral Codex Ten's annual book review contest.
See also
Merlin Donald
Northrop Frye's The Educated Imagination (1964)
References
previous works on ironic knowledge:
Bogel, Fredric V. "Irony, Inference, and Critical Understanding." Yale Review 69 (1980): 503-19.
Editions
External links
Book dedicated section in Egan official website
Conceptions of Development in Education, Egan's essay that explain the main ideas of the book
From the Imaginative Education Research Group: A brief guide to imaginative education, Some thoughts on "Cognitive tools", Cognitive tools that come along with oral language, Cognitive tools that come along with literacy, Cognitive tools that come along with theoretic thinking
Excerpts from google books
Using entheogens as cognitive tools to foster Somatic and Mythic types of understanding
Reviews
reader2.com
1997 non-fiction books
Books about education
Philosophy books
Books about irony
Pedagogical publications | 0.788363 | 0.959778 | 0.756653 |
Field trip | A field trip or excursion is a journey by a group of associated peers, such as coworkers or school students, to a place away from their normal environment for the purpose of education or leisure, either within their country or abroad.
When arranged by a school administration for students, it is also known as school trip in the United Kingdom, Australia, Kenya, New Zealand and Bangladesh, and school tour in Ireland.
A 2022 study, which used randomized controlled trial data, found that culturally enriching field trips led students to show a greater interest in arts, greater tolerance for people with different views, and boosted their educational outcomes.
Overview
The purpose of the field trip is usually observation for education, non-experimental research or to provide students with experiences outside their everyday activities, such as going camping with teachers and their classmates. The aim of this research is to observe the subject in its natural state and possibly collect samples. It is seen that more-advantaged children may have already experienced cultural institutions outside of school, and field trips provide common ground between more-advantaged and less-advantaged children to share the same cultural experiences.
Field trips often involve three steps: preparation, activities and follow-up activity. Preparation applies to both the students and the teachers. Teachers often take the time to learn about the destination and the subject before the trip. Activities on the field trips often include: lectures, tours, worksheets, videos and demonstrations. Follow-up activities are generally discussions in the classroom once the field trip is completed.
In Western culture people first come across this method during school years when classes are taken on school trips to visit a geological or geographical feature of the landscape, for example. Much of the early research into the natural sciences was of this form. Charles Darwin is an important example of someone who has contributed to science through the use of field trips.
Popular field trip sites include zoos, nature centers, community agencies such as fire stations and hospitals, government agencies, local businesses, amusement parks, science museums and factories. Field trips provide alternative educational opportunities for children and can benefit the community if they include some type of community service. Field trips also let students take a break from their normal routine and experience more hands-on learning. Places like zoos and nature centers often have an interactive display that allows children to touch plants or animals.
Today, culturally enriching field trips are in decline. Museums across the United States report a steep drop in school tours. For example, the Field Museum in Chicago at one time welcomed more than 300,000 students every year. Recently, the number is below 200,000. Between 2002 and 2007, Cincinnati arts organizations saw a 30 percent decrease in student attendance. A survey by the American Association of School Administrators found that more than half of schools eliminated planned field trips in 2010–11.
Site school
A variation on the field trip is the "site-based program" or "site-school" model, where a class temporarily relocates to a non-school location for an entire week to take advantage of the resources on the site. As with a multi-day field trip, appropriate overnight camping or lodging arrangements are often made to accommodate the experience. The approach was first developed at the Calgary Zoo in Alberta, Canada in 1993, and "Zoo School" was inaugurated in 1994. The Calgary Board of Education then approached the Glenbow Museum and Archives to create a "Museum School" in 1995 followed by the Calgary Science Centre (1996), the University of Calgary (1996), Canada Olympic Park (1997), the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary (1998), Calgary City Hall (2000), Cross Conservation Area (2000), the Calgary Stampede (2002), the Calgary Aero-Space Museum (2005), and the Fire Training Academy (2008). One of the newer schools in Calgary is Tinker School and Social Enterprise School as STEM Learning Lab (2018) The model spread across Alberta (with 15 sites in Edmonton alone), throughout Canada and in the United States. Global coordination of the model is through the "Beyond the Classroom Network".
Europe
In Europe, School Trip, a 2002 German-Polish film, describes the German students' trip to Poland during the summer.
School trips in east Asia
In Japan, in addition to the one-day field trip, the school trip, called shūgaku ryokō (, literally "learning journey"), has a history since 1886, and is now part of the middle school and high school curriculum, with all students participating in such a program. The trip is usually longer than several days, such as a week or several weeks long. The typical locations visited within Japan are regions of national or historical significance, such as ancient capitals of Kyoto and Nara, Nagasaki, for its experience with nuclear weapons and historical significance as the sole international port during the country's 17th–19th century isolationist foreign policy (さこく) and Nikkō 日光, popular onsen spa town renowned for its beauty. Travelling abroad is occasionally chosen as an option by some schools.
In other Asian regions/countries such as South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore, the school trip, when arranged, tends to become a voluntary part of the school curriculum. When Japan was selected, the Japanese government waived the entry visa.
See also
School bus
Museum education
Excursion
Grand Tour
Experiential learning
References
Research methods
School terminology
Museum education
Types of travel
Childhood
Field research
High school research
Education by method
Educational environment
Education events
Educational projects | 0.764103 | 0.990232 | 0.756639 |
Media and gender | Gender plays a role in mass media and is represented within media platforms. These platforms are not limited to film, radio, television, advertisement, social media, and video games. Initiatives and resources exist to promote gender equality and reinforce women's empowerment in the media industry and representations. For example, UNESCO, in cooperation with the International Federation of Journalists, elaborated the Gender-sensitive Indicators for Media contributing to gender equality and women's empowerment in all forms of media.
History
Feminist writers, largely gaining prominence in the 1960s during second wave feminism, began examining the relationship between media and the perpetuation of misogyny and sexism, criticizing the Western canon for providing and promoting an exclusively white male world view. Notable feminists include Betty Friedan, Andrea Dworkin, bell hooks, and Stuart Hall.
These feminists typically perceived gender as a social construct, which is not only reflected in artistic work but also perpetuated by it. Until fairly recently, feminists have mainly directed their studies to gender representations in literature. Recently, a new wave of academic studies focused on gender representations in modern society and culture (such as in the film, advertisement, and cultural industries).
Gender disparity in media careers
Numbers of women in media professions such as journalism are growing: as of 2018 in the United States, 41.7% of the newsroom employees were women; the proportion of women journalists in online-only news organizations even reached 47.8%. However, the media is and has been statistically dominated by men, who hold the vast majority of power positions. Few women have been in leading positions; they made up only 28.3% of the television news directors and 30.5% of the managing editors. Today, many news organizations are striving for gender parity on their employees. A large number of international institutions and nonprofit organizations are advocating for gender equality in the media workplace. For instance, in 2018, UNESCO supported 42 media institutions and 16 universities to implement policies and strategies on gender equality. In addition, coherent with the strategy to empower women and girls through policy implementation, 31 institutions, community radio stations, and national broadcasters adopted policies on gender equality in media.
The Bechdel test, coined by cartoonist Alison Bechdel and originally created to evaluate popular fiction's representation of women and subsequently adapted to employment in the media professions, shows that a number of women are employed but do not benefit from an equal voice. For example, women in radio are typically hired to cover topics such as weather and culture.
In the video game industry, about half of the gamers are women; their presence, though, is still limited in the production of games. Those who tried to publicly challenge this situation, such as A. Sarkeesian, have been subjected to harassment. There is concern in cinema about the low number of female directors and the difficulties of older actresses to find roles. Women in film also earn 2.5 times less in annual income when compared to men in the same jobs.
A survey conducted by Stacy Smith of the University of Southern California shows that only 7% of directors, 13% of writers, and 20% of producers in film and television are women. According to The Writers Guild, an estimated 17% of screenplays over the last decade were written by women. However, increasing numbers of women work in the media as journalists or directors. Therefore, they deal with topics tightly related to women's needs and tend to provide a positive role for women. The rise in female labor force participation can be due to a number of factors: Anti-discrimination laws, growing international emphasis on women's rights, greater accessibility to education and job opportunities, a breakdown of conventional gender roles, reduced economic reliance on men, and affordable housing. No longer only consumers of media but also contributors to media, they get more involved in decision-making and agenda of activities. This empowerment of women gives them abilities to promote balance in gender representations and avoid stereotypes. Media becomes a suitable ground for expressions and claims. For instance, the project "Enhancing a gender responsive film sector in the Maghreb-Mashreq region"—funded by the European Union under the Med Film Program—has demonstrated that women empowerment in their career enhances the image of women in the audiovisual landscape.
Representations of women
In a content analysis in 1970, it was suggested that there are four very common stereotypes that women are seen under:
1) A woman's only place is in her home.
2) Women have no ability to make their own decisions or important ones.
3) A man must always protect women as they are dependent on them.
4) Men only see women as housewives and as sexual objects.
Under-representation and misrepresentation
In spite of their monumental achievements, women's representation in media remains drastically low to that of their male counterparts. Women are the focus of only 10% of news stories, comprise just 20% of experts or spokespeople interviewed, and a mere 4% of news stories are deemed to challenge gender stereotypes. Studies show that men are more likely to be quoted than women in the media, and more likely to cover "serious" topics. Women have been seriously marginalized in certain news categories such as politics, law, and business; only about 30% of the news reports about government refer to women, while less than 20% of the financial news includes female sources. Furthermore, news media regularly cites more ordinary opinions from female witnesses or citizens but leaves the majority of insightful statements to men. A central trend in black feminist thinking is challenging media portrayals of black women as mammies, matriarchs, jezebels, welfare mothers, and tragic mulattoes. "These assumptions represent and misrepresent both the ways in which black women perceive themselves (individually and collectively) and the ways in which they are perceived by others," Hudson claims.
According to the report investigation of female characters in popular films across 11 countries, 1 woman for 2.24 men appeared on the screen between 1 January 2010 and 1 May 2013. In 2009, the Screen Actors Guild (US) also found that men continue to make up the majority of roles, especially Supporting Roles, where they contribute around two roles for every female role. In contrast, females hold a slightly larger proportion of lead roles compared to their proportion of supporting roles, but still occupy fewer lead roles than their male counterparts.
The same is true for television programs. In general, from the 1950s to the 1970s, female accounted for 30–35% of the roles in American television programs. This increased in the 1980s, but there were still twice as many roles for men in television. However, these disparities change depending on the type of program: in mid-1970s sitcoms, there were "nearly equal proportions", whereas in action-adventure shows, "only 15 per cent of the leading characters were women." In the 1980s, female characters represented 43% of roles in comedy shows and only 29% in action-adventure programs; however, they had outnumbered male characters two to one in dramas. Since the 1990s, "gender roles on television seemed to become increasingly equal and non-stereotyped ... although the majority of lead characters were still male."
More recently, studies based on computational approaches showed that women speaking time in French TV and radio used to be 25% in 2001 (75% for men) and evolved to 34% in 2018. Women vocal presence was also lower during high audience time-slots.
The Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media is an organization that has been lobbying the industry for years to expand the roles of women in film.
In the 1960s and 1970s, feminists such as Clare Short, Gaye Tuchman, and Angela McRobbie denounced unfair representations of gender in media and especially in magazines.
Sexualization
Noticing the fact that women are more likely to be presented by photos rather than words in digital news, Sen Jia and his colleagues argued that women's appearance probably serves for visual pleasure. Besides, mass media has become a driving force to discrimination based on gender. Images and expectations of gender roles are highlighted through a variety of platforms and sources like the structure of language, activities, media, school settings, historical passages or art pieces, and the workplace. Sexualization of women, in particular, is heavily centralized in mass media. When these platforms hyper sexualize women, portray them in a lack of clothing, or depict women as subordinate to men, a women's self esteem, body image, and emotional well-being may be negatively affected. One of the earliest studies of role portrayal in advertisement was done in 1971 by Courtney and Lockeretz. These researchers discovered four central themes of female stereotypes: first, a woman's place was in the home; second, women didn't make important decisions; third, women were dependent on their male counterparts; and fourth, women were perceived as sexual objects. Two other follow up studies done by Wagner and Banos, and Belkaoui and Belkaoui reached similar outcomes. The final two points highlight the angle that women are viewed in regards to their sexuality and bodies. For centuries, dating back to when women would pose for paintings or sculptures, the concept that a woman's nature lied within the ground of subordination and submission has been reinforced by media.
The Western ideal of female beauty is that of the fit, young, and thin woman, and the media spreads this ideal through movies, TV shows, fashion shows, advertisements, magazines and newspapers, music videos, and children's cartoons. For women to be considered attractive, they have to conform to images in advertisements, television, and music portraying the ideal woman as tall, white, thin, with a 'tubular' body and blonde hair.
Studies show that typical female roles fall into cultural stereotypes of women and are often sexualized with minimal clothing and sexualized roles. For example, a 2010 content analysis of video games found that "41% of female characters wore revealing clothing and an equal number were partially or totally nude," whereas the male characters were not. In media platforms such as television and video games, women tend to be underrepresented. In video games, women are often depicted as characters in need of assistance or in positions that are either submissive or helpful. More than 80% of female characters in video game magazines are objectified, under dressed, or observed with charm; more than a fifth fall into all three categories. However, sexualization is not the only stereotypical way in which women are represented in the media.
In advertisement, celebrity endorsement of products are thought to be especially effective if the celebrity is a physically attractive woman, as the attractiveness is thought to transfer to the brand's image and studies have shown that audiences respond better to female endorsements. The idea of sexualization is to give something a sexual role. In the media sexualization gets advertised by companies that are trying to promote something or someone. They don't always promote the equality in gender when they are advertised though it may seem like they do. The sexualization in advertisements may matter to some people but others it may not. "Women showed lower product attractiveness and purchase intentions toward products presented with sexualized female models than with neutral ads, whereas men were unaffected by ads' sexualization." Studies have shown that men are less likely to buy something based on the sexualization of the advertisement. The women on the other hand based their purchases off of how the ad was presented whether it was showing sexualization or not showing it at all. Some men would purchase products based on the sexualization and how the product was presented with women in it. "Especially men with higher hostile sexism showed more purchase intentions after viewing female sexualized ads than neutral ads." Whereas women would not buy those products due to negative emotions toward the products that advertise the sexualization. It definitely has an impact on the way that women view each other after seeing the ads.
"The ideal female beauty is the fit, young, and thin women that is seen in the media and on tv. Media effects research has confirmed that sexualizing media exposure can negatively affect preteens' body image and sexual development. While there is a link between sexualizing content and adverse outcomes such as self-objectification and body dissatisfaction, an interest in sexual media content is a normal part of healthy sexual development during the preteen years." As young women watch these shows and movies, they start to worry more about their body image than anything. Some will go as far as even starving themselves to get the right image as the women they see on tv." To what extent do sexual content, appearance-related content, sexual objectification, and objectification occur in Flemish preteens' favorite TV shows? And how are these different types of content related to gender roles? Seeking to address these questions, this article reports on a quantitative content analysis of 24 episodes from five TV shows popular among Flemish preteens."
Objectification of women in the media is transmitted verbally and nonverbally, as well as directly and indirectly. Objectification is not only visual, but can also be expressed subtly by commenting on women's appearance in a humorous way, making jokes and gags, and using double meanings. To advocate against the objectification of women in the media, some programs are implementing projects on this issue. For instance, some trainings and handbooks are being developed by International organizations and nonprofit organizations for media professionals to improve the gender-sensitivity of media representations.
Some shows focused entirely on successful professional women and their "quests for sex, pleasure and romantic love", such as Ally McBeal (1997–2002) and Sex and the City (1998–2004). Even if the main character in Ally McBeal was portrayed as desperate to find a husband, the show had other non-stereotypical female characters and "sided with the women". Sex and the City had assertive female protagonists, especially in matters of sex, and did not punish them for wanting pleasure, knowing how to get it, and being determined to do so, which can be seen especially in the case of Samantha Jones, played by Kim Cattrall. Another female icon from the 1990s is Buffy Summers, the title character on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, who was portrayed as powerful, heroic, confident, and assertive, characteristics that were generally ascribed to male characters.
In her 1973 article "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema", feminist film critic Laura Mulvey coined the term male gaze to describe the way that women in film serve as projections of male fantasies.
Domestication
Women are often portrayed in traditional roles in advertisements and television. Television shows have often portrayed marriage, parenthood, and domesticity as more important to women than men. From the mid-1940s to the 1960s, women (predominantly white, middle-class women) were portrayed mostly as housewives who had seemingly "perfect" lives: their houses were always impeccably clean, their children were always healthy, and they were always beautiful and organized. TV didn't portray the reality that by 1960, "40 per cent of women worked outside the home ... [and that] divorce rates spiked twice after World War II". According to a study from 1975 conducted by Jean McNeil, in 74 per cent of the cases studied, women's interactions were "concerned with romance or family problems", whereas men's interactions were concerned with these matters in only 18 per cent of the cases. Furthermore, female characters often didn't have jobs, especially if they were wives and mothers, and were not the dominant characters or decision-makers. The boss is usually a man. Men are portrayed as more assertive or aggressive, adventurous, active, and victorious, while women are shown as passive, weak, ineffectual, victimized, supportive, and laughable. Studies in the 1970s concluded that for domestic product advertisements on television, female demonstrators often used the product as a housewife or mother while the man described the product.
On television, women more frequently play the role of the housekeeper and men more frequently play the roles of professionals. As a reflection of the real world, same stories have happened in the news media. Women are overrepresented as students and homemakers while underrepresented in most other occupations. Even for professional women, their feminine attributes are emphasized in news coverage relating them to topics including age, appearance, and family-career balance. Sports news tended to focus on female athletes' look and personal lives instead of their capabilities and career development. Hanne Vandenberghe, a researcher at KU Leuven, found very similar patterns in news reporting outstanding women in government agencies and the technology industry.
In another study, Souha R. Ezzedeen found that career-driven female characters in film were negatively represented as having conniving personalities, being isolated, and being unable to balance work and family. While 40+ male roles are on the rise in both theatrical and television productions, female 40+ roles represent only 28% of female roles. Actors such as Harrison Ford and Clint Eastwood continue to undertake major roles as ageless heroes, whereas the normative structure for older women is that their aging is part of the plot (for example in Mamma Mia! (2008) and Sex and the City (2010)). This is typically seen in relation to female roles relying on sexualization, and the superficial (apparent) effects of aging on their body are presented as something to be hidden. They continue to be defined mainly by their appearance. In gossip culture, the older female body is represented in largely negative terms unless it has been modified "correctly" by cosmetic surgery. Aging female celebrities have become one of the mainstays of gossip magazines and blogs, which endorse a culture of consumption in which cosmetic technologies and procedures are not questioned but in which female celebrities who have used them are either figured as glamorous for getting it right or as monstrous for going too far. Another consequence of portraying aging women in the media, is that in most TV shows, actresses who are playing characters in their 40s and 50s tend to have younger appearing body types. This has led to critiques that these representations are first and foremost framed in terms of how well older actresses are managing their aging bodies. Midlife women have grown accustomed to seeing their age group portrayed in a seemingly unrealistic way, and this had led to an increase of eating disorders and negative body image among this group.
In one court case in 2011, English television actress Miriam O'Reilly successfully sued the BBC for age discrimination after being dropped from a show. It was claimed that she had been told to be careful about her wrinkles and to consider Botox and dyeing her hair.
The commercial potential of older consumers is becoming more significant (an increased 'active lifespan', the baby boom generation entering retirement, retirement ages that are raising). A multiplication of images of successful aging are explicitly tied to consumerism by the anti-ageing industry and older female celebrities advertising their products. Examples abound: Sharon Stone for Christian Dior, Catherine Zeta-Jones for Elizabeth Arden, Diane Keaton and Julianna Margulies for L'Oreal, Christy Turlington for Maybelline, Ellen DeGeneres for CoverGirl, etc. These advertisements are paradoxical in that they allow older celebrities to remain visible while encouraging an ageist and sexist culture in which women are valued for their appearance. Baby boomers are an increasingly important audience group for the cinema industry, resulting in more and new kinds of stories with older protagonists. Romantic comedies in which women protagonists take on the romantic heroine role provide one of the few spaces in popular culture showing appealing representations of older women, such as I Could Never Be Your Woman (2007), Last Chance Harvey (2008), and It's Complicated (2009). They are part of a phenomenon called the "Girling" of older women, where the protagonists and celebrities are portrayed as being just as excited and entitled to be going out on dates as younger women.
Abuse
Heterosexual romantic relationships in media, particularly in film, often romanticize intimate partner violence wherein the woman is the victim. Film like Once Were Warriors (1994) is an example of film in which abusive behavior, such as manipulation, coercion, threats, control and domination, isolation, excessive jealousy, and physical violence, are all exhibited by the male romantic lead. A 2016 study on women's interpretations of abusive behavior found that many women see the sort of abusive behaviors shown in popular films as romantic or desirable. In Netflix's popular hit show, "You," the male main character justifies and romanticizes stalking, emotional manipulation, and even murder as his way of protecting his one true love. This conflation of abuse and romance is widely attributed to the prevalence of abusive tropes in popular media.
Female characters as plot devices for male characters
Referred Pain
In media featuring a male protagonist, women's pain, suffering, or even death are often used as plot devices to further the male protagonist's narrative arc. This is known as the "referred pain" plot device. It involves a situation wherein a woman undergoes a traumatic event, often (but not always) of a sexual nature, but her pain is referred to a male character. This male character's grief and anger due to the trauma experienced by the female character are explored in depth. The female character's emotional or physical response is only addressed briefly or cursorily. This trope is featured in such films as Mission: Impossible 2 (2000), Moulin Rouge (2001), as well as in the Shakespeare play Titus Andronicus and books like Oroonoko.
Disposable Woman
The Disposable Woman trope refers to a trope in which a woman is included in a story for the sole purpose of dying, thus putting the male protagonist through emotional development or inspiring him to embark on a revenge quest. The woman who dies in these situations is referred to as "disposable" because she does not serve a purpose beyond her death. The disposable woman trope in present in many films, including Braveheart (1995), The Matrix Revolutions (2003), The Bourne Supremacy (2004), The Dark Knight (2008), The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014), Deadpool 2 (2018), and Avengers: Infinity War (2018).
The Manic Pixie Dream Girl
The term "Manic Pixie Dream Girl" was coined in 2007 by film critic Nathan Rabin to describe a female character who exists solely "to teach broodingly soulful young men to embrace life and its infinite mysteries and adventures." The Manic Pixie Dream Girl improves the life of the male protagonist and makes him a happier and better person, but she has no apparent character arc or complex story; she is simply a plot device. A list of notable instances of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope can be found on the article for Manic Pixie Dream Girl.
Damsel in Distress
Damsel in distress serves as a character in trouble who needs the assistance of a male character to get over her problems. In the "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs", after being fatally poisoned by her step mother, Snow White's seven dwarf friends mourn her death, "until a handsome prince restores her to life with a kiss." Many of Disney's fairy tale movies, portray the princesses as damsels in distress, whilst enhancing their male protagonists' masculinity, as they rescue these princesses. They are further cleaved to the stereotype of only yearning to find their true love. Similarly with the story of "The Sleeping Beauty" where a beautiful princess cursed to sleep, can only be woken up by her true love's kiss. Even though the story gets its name from the princess, she is helpless and needs a "sword-wielding prince, bursting with testosterone, who chops his way through the forest" to kiss and wake her up from her sleep.
The Item Girl
Mostly popular in Bollywood cinema, the Item girl is "the sexist representation of women subjected to the male gaze." The 1970s introduced Item numbers to Bollywood, which is still prevalent today. Actresses who dance to item numbers usually make guest appearances, and aren't crucial to the story. An item girl dances her way "trying to get through the main lead's heart with their piercing eyes and body movements, trying to hypnotize everyone watching them."
Actress Helen's dance to 'Mehbooba' and 'Ae Mera Dil' in 'Sholay' is an example of an item number.
Actress Malaika Arora rose to fame with her performance in Chaiyya Chaiyya in 1998, Anarkali Disco Chali in 2012, and her performance in Munni Badnam in 2010.
Actress Mallika Sherawat in Jalebi Bai in 2011 was considered an iconic sex symbol in Bollywood.
Nora Fatehi is the recent face for the Bollywood Item Numbers, appearing in many Bollywood movies as the item girl. Some of her numbers include, Dilbar in 2018, O Saki Saki in 2019, Garmi in 2020, Kusu Kusu in 2021.
These women are portrayed as desirable, dancing among a crowd of men at a party, while the male protagonists and antagonists lust over and dances with them. In the song "Aao Raja" in Gabbar is back with Akshay Kumar and Chitrangada Singh, the item number helps enable the protagonist to continue their plot and seek revenge against the lustfully distracted antagonist.
The representation of an item girl reiterates the cultural image of women as ornamental objects whose principal role is to look good and please men and the male gaze.
Women leads as secondary characters
Bollywood has made many women empowerment movies that fail to portray strong female characters as the main leads and protagonists, and instead provide a male protagonist with a motivation to resolve and fix the issues, when he sees the female characters struggle with such issues. Many of Bollywood's 'feminist' or 'women empowerment' movies assert the Male Savior trope, pushing females to serve as secondary characters, in movies addressing 'their' issues.
The 2007 movie, "Chak De India" features a bickering women's hockey team, that is led by coach Shah Rukh Khan, to rebuild their chemistry and win the World Championship–something they weren't capable of until his entry.
The 2018 movie "Padman" with Akshay Kumar is about a man who takes it upon himself to build a machine to create low cost sanitary pads, and distribute it among poor and underprivileged women throughout India at low prices. This movie addresses period poverty, and the high prices of female sanitary products. The male protagonist's motivation is his wife, who refuses to buy the expensive pads, and instead wears unsanitary clothes during her menstrual cycle. In many Bollywood movies, women's issues serve as plot points for male characters to be built around.
The Devoted Wife
The "devoted wife" is the trope where a wife is dedicated to her husband, ignoring his poor behavior, absence and infidelity. She stays in the marriage with her cheating and rebellious husband, as her loyalty serves as a redemption arc for the male protagonist. This is a trope that is mostly popular among Bollywood movies, affirming to the societal expectation that divorce is unacceptable as "family is above the individual" and that women must be accepting of their husbands, even in their worst flaws and continue to stay in oppressive marriages.
In the 1997 film Raja Ki Aayegi Baarat, a woman is forced to marry her rapist, and the abuse continues on after the marriage. She serves as the devoted wife, turning a blind eye to her husband's abuse, while raising a voice against abuse by her husband's family. This movie portrays this trope the best, reinforcing the negative narrative on divorce.
Harassment in the media industry
Harassment within the media industry is something that has been taking place since the beginning of its time. We see this harassment take place in ways such as verbal or physical abuse. The harassment creates toxic work environments that ultimately impact the well-being of its victims. Harassment can be seen in all outlets of the media industry. From newsrooms to film sets, journalists, actors, directors, and other professionals often face harassment, discrimination, and abuse of power.
One of the main ways we see harassment in the media industry is through the imbalance of power dynamics. Power dynamics come into play within companies when there are individuals in higher positions, holding greater responsibility and influence over others. Power imbalance becomes harmful when the higher up individual imposes unfavorable conditions on a weaker party. Most of the time this is seen when a man holds more power over his female employees. This can manifest in many different ways, including sexual harassment and/or sexual assault.
In recent years, many women in the media industry have spoken out about the harassment that they have faced in the industry. These women are repeatedly victims of sexism, exploitation, and abuse. Famous women such as Gwyneth Paltrow, Meghan Markle, Taylor Swift and many others have spoke out about how they have been victims in this toxic environment. It is also important to recognize the intersectionality of gender, understanding that women of color, LGBTQ+ individuals, and other marginalized groups face unique challenges and forms of discrimination. The nature of gender-based harassment in the industry reflects broader societal power dynamics, where women are often marginalized and their voices silenced.
There have been many men in power, from a range of industries like film, music, sports, fashion, etc. that have been accused of predatory, abusive behavior. The #MeToo movement played a big role in bringing awareness to these issues in the media industry and even played a significant role in taking some of these abusers down.
Representations of men
Men are proportionally represented by media more often compared to women, and these portrayals often draw on sexist stereotypes. Male characters in film and television are typically more tough, aggressive, domineering, etc. than the average man they are meant to represent.
Media often plays a role in the acceptance of negative values as the perceived norm for men and masculinity.
Masculinity is a set of ideas related to the behavior and appearance of men and boys. Some argue that most societies socialize men and boys to assume that they are superior, leader, aggressive and entitled. According to the hegemonic masculinity model of gender studies, men who demonstrate power, strength, bravery, fearlessness, virility, competitiveness etc.. can assert their (supposed) superiority over women and consolidate their general position of dominance over them (physically, intellectually, and sexually).
Media representations of sports and athletes contribute to the construction of a dominant model of masculinity centered on strength and an ambivalent relationship to violence, encouraging boys and men to take risks and to be aggressive.
The UNESCO's section for Media Development and Society advocates for gender equality in sports media. "Sports coverage is hugely powerful in shaping norms and stereotypes about gender. Media has the ability to challenge these norms, promoting a balanced coverage of men's and women's sports and a fair portrayal of sportspeople – irrespective of gender". The campaign "Her Moments Matter" highlighted the fact that biased media representations of sports athletes have repercussions on women's self-confidence and the perception they have of themselves.
Advertisements often use male actors when promoting alcoholic beverages, banking services, or credit cards. When men are acting on a television commercial, they are usually performing activities such as playing sports, driving around girls, repairing cars, drinking, relaxing, and having fun.
Film historian Miriam Hansen argues the way female gaze came to film during the flapper films of the 1920s, specifically citing the famous Italian-American actor Rudolph Valentino as having been used on the screen to draw in a female audience as an embodiment of male beauty.
Following the banning of an advertisement where a wife asks pest exterminators to dispose of pests with one being her husband, CEO Fiona Jolly of the Advertising Standards Authority in Australia said in an interview that it was common for men in advertising to be portrayed as dithery and less capable compared to their partners. Gender stereotyping in British advertisements have been banned since 2017.
A study published in 2021 found that of the top-rated US sitcoms from 1980 to 2017, newer sitcoms portrayed fathers as increasingly foolish, and less likely to demonstrate parenting roles. The study found that 18% of scenes in the 1980s depicted fathers as having incompetent parenting, compared to 56% in the 2010s. This is despite an increase of fathers spending an average of 2.5 hours per week in 1965 to seven hours per week in 2011 on childcare.
Alcoholism
Magazines and sports broadcasts’ images of masculinity are heavily influenced by the alcohol industry (Wenner 1991). Messner and Montex de Oca found that the alcohol ads don’t just pitch the product, they use images to create a scenario in which it seems that the men in the ads are living a “desirable lifestyle”. It was around the mid-1970”s that women and families began to disappear from alcohol ads. This started to push the narrative that drinking was no longer a family social activity and instead was an activity tied to men and masculinity. The 1970s and 80s were full of upsets for America, the loss of the Vietnam War, the Stonewall Riots (1969), 1972 gas crisis, the collapse of Fordism, and many more. It was then that beer ads received a new face. The ads started to push alcohol as the solution to dealing with these things and pushed the narrative of men using alcohol to cover their emotions and solve/forget their problems (Kimmel 1987). The message wasn’t straightforward, it instead casually forced an association between heavy alcohol consumption and a stress-free life.
Representations of transgender and non-binary characters
In 1985, a U.S. non-governmental media monitoring organization called GLAAD was founded by Vito Russo, Jewelle Gomez, and Lauren Hinds with the support of other LGBT people in the media to combat media discrimination. The name "GLAAD" had been an acronym for "Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation", but is also known for its inclusivity of bisexual and transgender people.
While sexually diverse representations of people (including transgender and non-binary people) have been growing steadily in recent years, many fictionalized media representations of trans and non-binary characters are created or produced by cisgender writers. Many of these portrayals attempt to adhere to a narrative that requires a trans character to desire to present as "passable" in order to legitimize or validate their experience as "authentic". Emphasizing the notion of passing perpetuates internalized gender expectations, resulting in a growing pressure to conform to the male gaze and what is acceptable and "passable" media representations, especially in the transfeminine community. This reinforcement of sex and gender norms is also apparent in many representations of transgender men in various media sources from magazine covers to movies and television series to social media. Each of these binarized views of gender implies that to be transgender means to transition from one end of the gender binary to the other, leaving little room for ambiguity when it comes to gender non-conformity and non-binary representations.
There is also an essentialist aspect of the narrative of desired binary-passing as a form of authenticity in that it provides an exceedingly narrow example of the many varied lived experiences of transgender individuals. In concentrating on this singular type of narrative, there is potential for media representations of gender non-conforming people who do not fit neatly into either binary category of male or female to be inadequate. In light of this, there are increasingly more depictions of non-binary, genderfluid, and genderless characters in mainstream television shows like Syd (played by Sheridan Pierce) in One Day at a Time, Crowley (played by David Tennant) in Good Omens, and Janet (played by D'Arcy Carden) in The Good Place, among a growing number of others.
Many mainstream representations of transgender and non-binary people or characters have been portrayed by cisgender actors, such as Hilary Swank's portrayal of Brandon Teena in Boys Don't Cry (1999) and Eddie Redmayne's portrayal of Lili Elbe in The Danish Girl (2015), leading to some controversy surrounding the ethics of who should be acting the parts of trans and non-binary characters. There has also been some concern raised regarding the sensationalization or "trendiness" of transgender roles as having the potential to be exploited. Despite this, however, there are efforts being made to ensure that trans and non-binary actors are the ones being chosen to play trans and non-binary characters. Some notable examples of this are Laverne Cox's portrayal of Sophia Burset who is a trans woman in Orange is the New Black, Asia Kate Dillon playing Taylor Mason who is non-binary in Billions, and Sara Ramírez who identifies as bisexual and non-binary and portrays the bisexual, non-binary character of Kat Sandoval in Madam Secretary.
While still marginal in numbers, there is also progress being made toward some more mainstream development of television shows created by trans and non-binary writers, such as Transparent by Joey Soloway. There are many more grassroots level efforts to produce positive transgender and non-binary representation, such as crowdfunded projects like Jen Richards' and Laura Zak's online web series Her Story.
Gender expectations
Gender expectations are stereotypes about how men and women should behave in a society. Social expectations develop the minds of youth as it guides them to society's ideals of socialization, social morals and values, and gender roles.
Media
The media can be a source of gender expectations as it stereotypes individuals and groups based on specific genders and sexual preferences. Men are often portrayed as adventurous, dominant, muscular, intelligent, and sexually aggressive, while women tend to be portrayed as young, beautiful, emotionally passive, dependent, and sometimes unintelligent.
In Western media, women are expected to value youth, sexuality, and beauty, while men are taught to value dominance and power. A 2020 study of children's television found that television programs aimed at younger boys tend to promote stereotypically masculine behavior, and that male characters in such programs are more likely to reflect such norms and lack onscreen parents.
Music
In the documentary film Gaga: Five Foot Two, American singer Lady Gaga states that industry creates expectations for female artists to illustrate to the world. As she explains, "the methodology that I used to get out of that category was when they wanted me to be sexy or they wanted me to be pop; I always put some absurd spin on it that made me feel like I was still in control." Taylor Swift has shared similar comments in her documentary Miss Americana, in which many women musicians in this industry battle with the media scrutiny and toxic media culture in their daily lives, as they must be perceived as perfect and beautiful at all times.
Video games
Gender expectations are highly incorporated into the character's gender in video games, where the male gaze is dominant.
Female characters are frequently portrayed as a damsel in distress, which objectifies them and relegates the narrative role to a male protagonist. For example, Princess Peach appears in fourteen of the main Super Mario series and is kidnapped in all but one of them, to be rescued by Mario, though she plays a more central role in spinoff media. Where female characters have a major role in the narrative, they tend to be highly sexualized.
Social media and mental health
In today's society, mental health issues have become directly intertwined with the use of social media. As technology continues to advance, the more access we have to different social media platforms. Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and X (formerly Twitter) are all forms of social media that allow for the user to share their lives and opinions while connecting with other users. While there are many studies that show advantages and disadvantages to social media, the statistics that link mental health issues to social media are vast.
According to "GWI 2021; We Are Social 2021", In 2021, 4.3 billion people—more than half of the world population—had a social media account, and the average user spent around two and a half hours per day on social media platforms. The rise in mental health issues is heavily linked to the increase in social media usage since the early/mid-2000s. The World Health Organization reports that in 2019, 970 million people globally were living with a mental disorder, with anxiety and depression the most common.
There are many factors of social media that negatively contribute to a person's mental health and well-being. Users often compare their appearances, and lives to others on social media. This leads to feelings of jealousy, envy, and low self-esteem. Many users also experience cyberbullying. Social media gives users the opportunity to "hide" behind their screens, making it easier to harass and bully. Another common issue that has been studied is the amount of time consumed on technology, especially social media. Regarding US statistics, California State University reports an estimated 10% or 33.19 million Americans are addicted to social media. This addiction can impact productivity, relationships and sleep, which ultimately impacts the person's mental health.
Studies have also revealed a notable gender disparity in the impacts of social media on mental well-being. Females tend to experience these mental health issues more than males. The majority of social media influencers in today's society are females and the majority of their following are young girls. The pressure that is put on both the influencers and the followers to fit a certain standard and persona results in feelings of anxiety and low self-esteem. Studies have shown that women are more likely to engage in social comparisons on social media, leading to feelings of inadequacy when measuring themselves against unattainable beauty standards perpetuated by images posted online. This can result in issues with body image and potentially eating disorders. Cyber bullying and harassment related to a woman's body is often seen on social media influencer posts.
The relationship between social media and mental health is a complex topic that continues to be studied.
Effects on youth
Stereotypes
The media is generally regarded as playing an important role in defining prevailing social norms concerning sexual harassment, especially television, which is "widely accessible and intentionally appealing and engaging, [making] massive use of stereotypical messages that the majority of the people can easily understand". Media affects behaviors and is "of prime importance for adolescents' general ideas of romance, sex, and relationships". Thus, media has important social consequences, among which is greater acceptance of stereotypical attitudes.
In the U.S., for example, exposure to TV has been associated with "more stereotypical sexual attitudes [like the idea that men are sex-driven and the notion that women are sexual objects] and evaluation styles". Also popular is the idea that appearance or sexiness is essential for men and women. Additionally, pop music and music videos have been shown to increase stereotypical gender schemas, and promote the ideas that gender relationships are adversarial and that appearance is fundamental.
The stereotyped portrayals of men and women have been argued to be valued and internalized by younger viewers, especially during puberty and the construction of their sexual identity.
Advertising
Gender norms are created and emphasized even at an early age through the use of visual cues which has been proven to greatly affect a child's interpretation of gender. Studies using "the gender content in an ad – characters, products, settings, role portrayals, peripheral cues (colors, language, voice-over)" have proven that a higher degree of gender flexibility has a positive correlation with children's attitudes when viewing advertisements with gender content which conveys the significance of the effects of media in advertising towards youth.
In the 1940s, companies began differentiating their marketing based on gender to broaden their sales and create a completely separate line of products that would be purposed for solely either a boy or a girl. These products fostered intellectual development; however, with the new gendered division of toys came the reinforcement of masculine and feminine ideals as well as a clear pink and blue colored divide. "Girl" products such as dolls and makeup foster a passive attitude and put emphasis on striving for beauty while "boy" products such as action figures and cars foster a more aggressive and active characterization. A significance behind toys is the initiation of the learning of new skills and even the initiation of curiosities behind professions. As manufacturers begin to shift towards creating a more inclusive environment and creating non-gendered products, the emergence of more gender neutral toys, dolls, and colors that puts more emphasis on personal interests instead of gender ideals is on the rise.
Television
Gender-related content has been portrayed in stereotypical ways in advertising, commercials on multiple platforms, and in Television shows.
Writer Christina Bacchilega in her book Postmodern Fairy Tales stated "Snow White" is a patriarchal frame that takes "two women's beauty as the measure of their (self)worth, and thus defines their relationship as a rivalry." In response, academic Abigail Gurvich, in "Gender Roles as Taught by Fairy Tales", states that "Snow White" could teach children that "their only worth is their appearance, and that a less attractive woman is a rival who will want to hurt them; the story enforced the ideas in the girls of the time that the only things that mattered were appearance and innocence. These are two traits that led to Snow White getting her happy ending." Fairytales continue to teach children about norms that could be harmful concerning values and self-image.
Film genres
At a young age, both girls and boys tend to direct their interests towards different film categories. Boys tend to prefer action movies, while girls tend to prefer films that contain a female protagonist.
Body image
In a 1997 Psychology Today survey, "of 3,452 women who responded... 23% indicated that movie or television celebrities influenced their body image when they were young, and 22% endorsed the influence of fashion magazine models". Some women undergoing cosmetic surgeries request specific body parts from celebrities (such as Kim Kardashian's eyes and jawline).
Body dissatisfaction and disordered eating behaviors have increased in the UK, Australia, and the US due to a "perceived environmental pressure to conform to a culturally-defined body and beauty ideal" which is promoted mainly by the media. This ideal of unrealistic and artificial female beauty is "impossible for the majority of females to achieve".
Factors involved in the composition of self-image include the emotional, physical, and reasoning aspects of a person, and these aspects affect one another.
One contributor to negative body image is the promotion of the "thin ideal" in media like commercials and magazines. From seeing images of women with extremely thin bodies, some people have an increase of negative emotions, and these individuals tend to take actions like dieting to help relieve the undesirable feelings about their body image. This act of dieting could lead to dangerous behaviors such as eating disorders if the negative perceptions about one's body image does not improve. Considering that an average North American will watch about 35,000 commercials a year, it is to be expected that commercials presenting images of skinny and gorgeous women will have a bigger impact on increasing negative body image than ads in magazines.
Although media's effect on body image has been historically primarily researched for the female gender, there have been increasingly more studies on males. The masculine ideal of a "lean, muscular mesomorphic body type" represents a minuscule portion of the population that is drastically different from the average which results in increased body dissatisfaction (Agliata & Tantleff-Dunn, 2004) and low self confidence in physical attractiveness and muscle satisfaction (Hargreaves & Tiggemann, 2009). The reason for this causal relationship can be attributed towards Social Comparison Theory (Festinger, 1954) where individuals value themselves based on their performance in comparison to environmental others and Cultivation Theory (Gerbner 1969) which internalizes exposure towards the ideals presented in media.
For the LGBT population, there has been minimal research due to cisgender studies being the primary targets; however, studies have shown that LGBT youth are more likely to exhibit high body image issues than cisgender and heterosexual individuals, given that the timeline for eating disorders and body image dissatisfaction is initiated during adolescence which has a large correlation with the development of sexual orientation. Although the media causes a higher negative impact towards the LGBT population, media has also been proven to be less likely to feature gay individuals due to the "marketer's dilemma" in which companies do not want to diminish the straight consumer base.
Social media
Throughout the world, feminine and masculine ideals are construed through both the social and cultural environment. The emergence of social media creates a consumer motivation towards rapid growth in entertainment, socializing, information sharing, self-expression, and status representation resulting in both negative and positive effects.
In the chapter "Gender" from How the World Changed Social Media, the negative effects found through all nine field sites of their study foster the enforcement of gender stereotypes. For example, Southeast Turkey consists of a predominantly Muslim community in which modesty and purity are the values for women, so this population omits featuring life that does not adhere to those ideals; because social media is particularly prone to analysis, both male and females present gender segregated and conforming posts on their pages. Similarly, in rural China, it is customary for women to delete their social medias after marriage or create a portrait of traditional family and romantic values for both men and women. In Italy, the content of men's pages consist of masculine content: "politics, news, powerful motorcycles and sports" while women place emphasis on feminine content: "roles as wives and mothers". In almost every region, this chapter conveys a feminine ideal of family values and physical aesthetic while the masculine ideal is more individualized and material; however, it has also created new opportunity for the expansion of communication, female access to novel career paths, and access to the external world in the same examined regions.
There was a 115% increase in the number of cosmetic surgeries between 2000 and 2018, possibly because social media distorts how teenagers see themselves, and many surgeons report that looking better in selfies on social media posts is an incentive for patients.
Social media has been used to promote political stances, such as in the referendum to appeal Ireland's eighth amendment. In this case, gender issues were brought to the forefront of social media as a way to transgress politics and push traditionally private female issues into the public. With feminist grassroots organizations, such as Together for Yes, using social media as their primary tool to communicate about abortion laws, the referendum result is viewed as victory for feminist tweeters and a positive outcome of using gender effectively on social media.
Effects in adulthood
Sexualization and Objectification
The objectification of women, both sexually and non-sexually, is prevalent in various media forms such as advertising, television, movies, music videos, video games, and magazines. Sexual objectification, in particular, has received extensive attention in literature, with studies indicating its commonality and negative effects on well-being. This type of representation often portrays women as mere objects of desire, contributing to the perpetuation of sexism and the acceptance of rape myths (Rudman and Mescher 2012). Exposure to sexualized media content has been consistently linked to body dissatisfaction, distorted attitudes about eating, and support for sexist beliefs and behaviors (Frederick et al, 2022).
While research has primarily focused on women, there is evidence suggesting that men are also affected by objectification, albeit through different pathways. Men may experience pressures related to body image from media representations, leading to issues such as body surveillance and dissatisfaction. Additionally, there are specificities related to sexual orientation, with LGBTQ+ individuals facing unique challenges regarding media objectification.
Studies show that the objectification and sexualization of women can also affect the cognitive processes of the people who come in contact with it. “Aubrey and Taylor (2009) reported that undergraduate men exposed to magazine images of sexualized women expressed less confidence in their own romantic capabilities than did men without this exposure”. Schooler (2015) found that when viewing sexually objectified pictures of women, the part of the brain that is activated is not the one that recognizes humans but instead is the part that recognizes objects; supporting this, Bernard, et al 2015, found that objectified women’s body parts were better recognized than the body as a whole, consistent with object recognition.
Responses and movements for change
Feminist response
In the 1970s, TV critics, academics, and women started to point out the way TV shows portrayed female characters. TV Guide magazine called out the industry for "refusing to rise above characterizations of women as pretty, skinny, dopey, hapless housewives or housewife wannabes", and a poll conducted by Redbook magazine in 1972 showed that "75 per cent of 120,000 women agreed that 'the media degrades women by portraying them as mindless dolls'". In that sense, The Mary Tyler Moore Show was a television breakthrough because it introduced the first female character whose central relationships were not her husband or boyfriend or her family, but her friends and coworkers. The main character was a sort of stand-in for the "new American female" who put her job before romance and preferred to be alone than with the wrong men, but still had to do stereotypically female office work (like typing and getting coffee) and didn't speak up to her boss and other male coworkers.
Germaine Greer, Australian-born author of The Female Eunuch (1970), offered a systematic deconstruction of ideas such as womanhood and femininity, arguing that women are forced to assume submissive roles in society to fulfill male fantasies of what being a woman entails. Greer wrote that women were perceived as mere consumers benefiting from the purchasing power of their husband. Women become targets for marketing, she said, and their image is used in advertising to sell products. American socialist writer and feminist, Sharon Smith wrote on the first issue of Women and Film that women's roles in film "almost always [revolve] around her physical attraction and the mating games she plays with the male characters" in contrast to men's roles, which according to the author are more varied. In 1973 Marjorie Rosen, an important contributor to feminist film theory, argued that "the Cinema Woman is a Popcorn Venus, a delectable but insubstantial hybrid of cultural distortions". In 1978 Gaye Tuchman wrote of the concept of symbolic annihilation, blaming the media for imposing a negative vision of active women and making an apologia for housewives.
From media representations, feminists paved the way for debates and discussions about gender within the social and political spheres. In 1986, the British MP Clare Short proposed a bill to ban newspapers from printing Page 3 photographs of topless models.
In the early 2000s, feminist critics began analyzing film in terms of the Bechdel test. This feminist assessment of cinema was named after Alison Bechdel, feminist cartoonist and creator of the long-running comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For. This test determines the level of gender equality present in a film by assessing whether a work of fiction features at least two named women who talk to each other about something other than a man.
International organization and response from nonprofit organizations
UN Women
UN Women is the UN organization dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women. To increase women's leadership, to end violence against women and to engage women in all aspects of peace and security processes, it's important to give women the right place in media landscape, and their representations must be fair and equal. UN Women supports media monitoring studies on how women are depicted in the media. For instance, the organization engage media professionals by raising awareness of gender equality and violence against women, including through special workshops and tool-kits, to encourage gender-sensitive reporting."
UNESCO
In line with UNESCO's Global Priority Gender, "UNESCO is contributing to achieving full gender equality in the media by 2030". To reach this goal, the Organization developed the Gender-sensitive Indicators for Media (GSIM) to measure gender awareness and portrayal within media organizations (e.g. working conditions), but particularly in editorial content. The Organization has been promoting their application by governments, media organizations, journalists unions and associations, journalism schools and the like. They set the basis for gender equality in media operations and editorial content. In addition, each year, UNESCO organizes a campaign named "Women Make the News"; in 2018 the theme was Gender Equality and Sports Media as "Sports coverage is hugely powerful in shaping norms and stereotypes about gender. Media has the ability to challenge these norms, promoting a balanced coverage of men's and women's sports and a fair portrayal of sportspeople irrespective of gender."
The #MeToo Movement
The #Metoo movement gained traction in 2017 on all social media platforms as a way for people to share their stories of sexual assault, sexual harassment and rape. The phrase "Me too" was started by activist Tarana Burke in 2006. Alyssa Milano brought the phrase back in 2017 because she wanted to show society the extent of the issues with sexual harassment. On October 15, 2017 she tweeted “If you’ve been sexually harassed or assaulted write ‘me too’ as a reply to this tweet.” As a result of this, the #MeToo campaign soon spread across 85 countries with 1.7 million tweets. This movement displayed the thousands of people that have been victims of some form of sexual harassment. "Me too" gives victims the space to share their experiences and show them that they are not alone. The media has played a crucial role in amplifying the message by providing a platform for survivors to share their stories, have open conversations and raise awareness all over the world.
The MeToo movement is responsible for some key milestones in recent years. It has empowered people to break their silence on traumatic events, it has helped reduce stigma around sexual harassment, and it has taken down many people of power. The MeToo movement has helped change the way we talk about consent and equality. Because of the MeToo movement and its traction on the media, society is able to have a more open conversation about these topics. There are now many support groups and resources for people who may have been victims of sexual harassment, sexual assault and/or rape culture.
Nonprofit organizations
Some nonprofit organizations specialize in topics related to gender and media. These include:
The Geena Davis Institute
International Women's Media Foundation
Womens Media Center
Women’s Media Group (WMG)
Other organizations
Other organizations include:
Alliance for Women in Media (AWM)
HeForShe
See also
Ageing studies
Bisexual literature
Exploitation of women in mass media
Femininity in advertising
Gender representation in video games
Himbo
Language and gender
Portrayal of women in comics
References
Further reading
PDF. Introduction to a special issue of Gender and Language focusing on the media
Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media
Gender and entertainment
Sexism
Mass media issues
Social constructionism | 0.76594 | 0.987839 | 0.756626 |
Persuasive technology | Persuasive technology is broadly defined as technology that is designed to change attitudes or behaviors of the users through persuasion and social influence, but not necessarily through coercion. Such technologies are regularly used in sales, diplomacy, politics, religion, military training, public health, and management, and may potentially be used in any area of human-human or human-computer interaction. Most self-identified persuasive technology research focuses on interactive, computational technologies, including desktop computers, Internet services, video games, and mobile devices, but this incorporates and builds on the results, theories, and methods of experimental psychology, rhetoric, and human-computer interaction. The design of persuasive technologies can be seen as a particular case of design with intent.
Taxonomies
Functional triad
Persuasive technologies can be categorized by their functional roles. B. J. Fogg proposes the functional triad as a classification of three "basic ways that people view or respond to computing technologies": persuasive technologies can function as tools, media, or social actors – or as more than one at once.
As tools, technologies can increase people's ability to perform a target behavior by making it easier or restructuring it. For example, an installation wizard can influence task completion – including completing tasks not planned by users (such as installation of additional software).
As media, interactive technologies can use both interactivity and narrative to create persuasive experiences that support rehearsing a behavior, empathizing, or exploring causal relationships. For example, simulations and games instantiate rules and procedures that express a point of view and can shape behavior and persuade; these use procedural rhetoric.
Technologies can also function as social actors. This "opens the door for computers to apply ... social influence". Interactive technologies can cue social responses, e.g., through their use of language, assumption of established social roles, or physical presence. For example, computers can use embodied conversational agents as part of their interface. Or a helpful or disclosive computer can cause users to mindlessly reciprocate. Fogg notes that "users seem to respond to computers as social actors when computer technologies adopt animate characteristics (physical features, emotions, voice communication), play animate roles (coach, pet, assistant, opponent), or follow social rules or dynamics (greetings, apologies, turn taking)."
Direct interaction v. mediation
Persuasive technologies can also be categorized by whether they change attitude and behaviors through direct interaction or through a mediating role: do they persuade, for example, through human-computer interaction (HCI) or computer-mediated communication (CMC)? The examples already mentioned are the former, but there are many of the latter. Communication technologies can persuade or amplify the persuasion of others by transforming the social interaction, providing shared feedback on interaction, or restructuring communication processes.
Persuasion design
Persuasion design is the design of messages by analyzing and evaluating their content, using established psychological research theories and methods. Andrew Chak argues that the most persuasive web sites focus on making users feel comfortable about making decisions and helping them act on those decisions. During the clinical encounter, clinical decision support tools (CDST) are widely applied to improve patients' satisfaction towards medical decision-making shared with the physicians. The comfort that a user feels is generally registered subconsciously.
Persuasion by social motivators
Previous research has also utilized on social motivators like competition for persuasion. By connecting a user with other users, his/her coworkers, friends and families, a persuasive application can apply social motivators on the user to promote behavior changes. Social media such as Facebook, Twitter also facilitate the development of such systems. It has been demonstrated that social impact can result in greater behavior changes than the case where the user is isolated.
Persuasive strategies
Halko and Kientz made an extensive search in the literature for persuasive strategies and methods used in the field of psychology to modify health-related behaviors. Their search concluded that there are eight main types of persuasive strategies, which can be grouped into the following four categories, where each category has two complementary approaches.
Instruction style
Authoritative
This persuades the technology user through an authoritative agent, for example, a strict personal trainer who instructs the user to perform the task that will meet their goal.
Non-authoritative
This persuades the user through a neutral agent, for example, a friend who encourages the user to meet their goals. Another example of instruction style is customer reviews; a mix of positive and negative reviews together give a neutral perspective on a product or service.
Social feedback
Cooperative
This persuades the user through the notion of cooperating and teamwork, such as allowing the user to team up with friends to complete their goals.
Competitive
This persuades the user through the notion of competing. For example, users can play against friends or peers and be motivated to achieve their goal by winning the competition.
Motivation type
Extrinsic
This persuades the user through external motivators, for example, winning a trophy as a reward for completing a task.
Intrinsic
This persuades the user through internal motivators, such as the good feeling a user would have for being healthy or for achieving a goal.
It is worth noting that intrinsic motivators can be subject to the overjustification effect, which states if intrinsic motivators are associated with a reward and you remove the reward then the intrinsic motivation tends to diminish. This is because depending on how the reward is seen, it can become linked to extrinsic motivations instead of intrinsic motivations. Badges, prizes, and other award systems will increase intrinsic motivation if they are seen as reflecting competence and merit.
In 1973, Lepper et al. conducted a foundational study that underscored the overjustification effect. Their team brought magic markers to a preschool and created three test groups of children who were intrinsically motivated. The first group were informed that if they used markers they could receive a “Good Player Award.” The second group was not incentivized to use the magic markers with a reward, but were given a reward after playing. The third group was given no expectations about awards and received no awards. A week later, all students played with the markers without a reward. The students receiving the "good player" award originally showed half as much interest as when they began the study. Later, other psychologists repeated this experiment only to conclude that rewards create short-term motivation, but undermine intrinsic motivation.
Reinforcement type
Negative reinforcement
This persuades the user by removing an unpleasant stimulus. For example, a brown and dying nature scene might turn green and healthy as the user practises more healthy behaviors.
Positive reinforcement
This persuades the user by adding a positive stimulus. For example, adding flowers, butterflies, and other nice-looking elements to an empty nature scene as a user practises more healthy behaviors.
Logical Fallacies
More recently, Lieto and Vernero have also shown that arguments reducible to logical fallacies are a class of widely adopted persuasive techniques in both web and mobile technologies. These techniques have also shown their efficacy in large-scale studies about persuasive news recommendations as well as in the field of human-robot interaction. A 2021 report by the RAND Corporation shows how the use of logical fallacies is one of the rhetorical strategies used by the Russia and its agents to influence the online discourse and spread subversive information in Europe.
Reciprocal equality
One feature that distinguishes persuasion technology from familiar forms of persuasion is that the individual being persuaded often cannot respond in kind. This is a lack of reciprocal equality. For example, when a conversational agent persuades a user using social influence strategies, the user cannot also use similar strategies on the agent.
Health behavior change
While persuasive technologies are found in many domains, considerable recent attention has focused on behavior change in health domains. Digital health coaching is the utilization of computers as persuasive technology to augment the personal care delivered to patients, and is used in numerous medical settings.
Numerous scientific studies show that online health behaviour change interventions can influence users' behaviours. Moreover, the most effective interventions are modelled on health coaching, where users are asked to set goals, educated about the consequences of their behaviour, then encouraged to track their progress toward their goals. Sophisticated systems even adapt to users who relapse by helping them get back on the bandwagon.
Maintaining behavior change long term is one of the challenges of behavior change interventions. For instance, as reported, for chronic illness treatment regimens non-adherence rate can be as high as 50% to 80%. Common strategies that have been shown by previous research to increase long-term adherence to treatment include extended care, skills training, social support, treatment tailoring, self-monitoring, and multicomponent stages. However, even though these strategies have been demonstrated to be effective, there are also existing barriers to implementation of such programs: limited time, resources, as well as patient factors such as embarrassment of disclosing their health habits.
To make behavior change strategies more effective, researchers also have been adapting well-known and empirically tested behavior change theories into such practice. The most prominent behavior change theories that have been implemented in various health-related behavior change research has been self-determination theory, theory of planned behavior, social cognitive theory, transtheoretical model, and social ecological model. Each behavior change theory analyses behavior change in different ways and consider different factors to be more or less important. Research has suggested that interventions based on behavior change theories tend to yield better result than interventions that do not employ such theories. The effectiveness of them vary: social cognitive theory proposed by Bandura, which incorporates the well-known construct of self-efficacy, has been the most widely used method in behavior change interventions as well as the most effective in maintaining long-term behavior change.
Even though the healthcare discipline has produced a plethora of empirical behavior change research, other scientific disciplines are also adapting such theories to induce behavior change. For instance, behavior change theories have also been used in sustainability, such as saving electricity, and lifestyle, such as helping people drinking more water. These research has shown that these theories, already effectively proven useful in healthcare, is equally powerful in other fields to promote behavior change.
Interestingly, there have been some studies that showed unique insights and that behavior change is a complex chain of events: a study by Chudzynski et al. showed that reinforcement schedule has little effect on maintaining behavior change. A point made in a study by Wemyss et al. is that even though people who have maintained behavior change for short term might revert to baseline, their perception of their behavior change could be different: they still believe they maintained the behavior change even if they factually have not. Therefore, it is possible self-report measures would not always be the most effective way of evaluating the effectiveness of the intervention.
Promote sustainable lifestyles
Previous work has also shown that people are receptive to change their behaviors for sustainable lifestyles. This result has encouraged researchers to develop persuasive technologies to promote for example, green travels, less waste, etc.
One common technique is to facilitate people's awareness of benefits for performing eco-friendly behaviors. For example, a review of over twenty studies exploring the effects of feedback on electricity consumption in the home showed that the feedback on the electricity consumption pattern can typically result in a 5–12% saving. Besides the environmental benefits such as savings, health benefit, cost are also often used to promote eco-friendly behaviors.
Research challenges
Despite the promising results of existing persuasive technologies, there are three main challenges that remain present.
Technical challenges
Persuasive technologies developed relies on self-report or automated systems that monitor human behavior using sensors and pattern recognition algorithms. Several studies in the medical field have noted that self-report is subject to bias, recall errors and low adherence rates. The physical world and human behavior are both highly complex and ambiguous. Utilizing sensors and machine learning algorithms to monitor and predict human behavior remains a challenging problem, especially that most of the persuasive technologies require just-in-time intervention.
Difficulty in studying behavior change
In general, understanding behavioral changes require long-term studies as multiple internal and external factors can influence these changes (such as personality type, age, income, willingness to change and more). For that, it becomes difficult to understand and measure the effect of persuasive technologies.
Furthermore, meta-analyses of the effectiveness of persuasive technologies have shown that the behavior change evidence collected so far is at least controversial, since it is rarely obtained by Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs), the “gold standard” in causal inference analysis. In particular, due to relevant practical challenges to perform strict RCTs, most of the above-mentioned empirical trials on lifestyles rely on voluntary, self-selected participants. If such participants were systematically adopting the desired behaviors already before entering the trial, then self-selection biases would occur. Presence of such biases would weaken the behavior change effects found in the trials. Analyses aimed at identifying the presence and extent of self-selection biases in persuasive technology trials are not widespread yet. A study by Cellina et al. on an app-based behavior change trial in the mobility field found evidence of no self-selection biases. However, further evidence needs to be collected in different contexts and under different persuasive technologies in order to generalize (or confute) their findings.
Ethical challenges
The question of manipulating feelings and desires through persuasive technology remains an open ethical debate. User-centered design guidelines should be developed encouraging ethically and morally responsible designs, and provide a reasonable balance between the pros and cons of persuasive technologies.
In addition to encouraging ethically and morally responsible designs, Fogg believes education, such as through the journal articles he writes, is a panacea for concerns about the ethical challenges of persuasive computers. Fogg notes two fundamental distinctions regarding the importance of education in engaging with ethics and technology: "First, increased knowledge about persuasive computers allows people more opportunity to adopt such technologies to enhance their own lives, if they choose. Second, knowledge about persuasive computers helps people recognize when technologies are using tactics to persuade them."
Another ethical challenge for persuasive technology designers is the risk of triggering persuasive backfires, where the technology triggers the bad behavior that it was designed to reduce.
See also
Other subjects which have some overlap or features in common with persuasive technology include:
Advertising
Artificial intelligence
Brainwashing
Captology
Coercion
Collaboration tools (including wikis)
Design for behaviour change
Personal coaching
Personal grooming
Propaganda
Psychology
Rhetoric and oratory skills
Technological rationality
T3: Trends, Tips & Tools for Everyday Living
References
Sources
External links
Human communication
Human–computer interaction
Persuasion | 0.779753 | 0.970299 | 0.756594 |
Reflective learning | Reflective learning is a form of education in which the student reflects upon their learning experiences. A theory about reflective learning cites it as an intentional and complex process that recognizes the role of social context and experience. The goals of the process are the clarification and the creation of meaning in terms of self, which then lead to a changed conceptual perspective.
Development
Reflective learning is a development of the concept of experiential learning as propounded by John Dewey, who wrote Experience and Education in 1938. Later theorists include David Kolb, David Boud ("reflection in learning"), and Donald Schön. In a professional context, this is known as reflective practice, wherein the use of the reflective process allows one to understand experiences differently and take action accordingly.
References
Experiential learning
Learning methods
Learning theory (education) | 0.792814 | 0.954282 | 0.756568 |
Ambivalence | Ambivalence is a state of having simultaneous conflicting reactions, beliefs, or feelings towards some object. Stated another way, ambivalence is the experience of having an attitude towards someone or something that contains both positively and negatively valenced components. The term also refers to situations where "mixed feelings" of a more general sort are experienced, or where a person experiences uncertainty or indecisiveness.
Although attitudes tend to guide attitude-relevant behavior, those held with ambivalence tend to do so to a lesser extent. The less certain an individual is in their attitude, the more impressionable it becomes, hence making future actions less predictable and/or less decisive. Ambivalent attitudes are also more susceptible to transient information (e.g., mood), which can result in a more malleable evaluation. However, since ambivalent people think more about attitude-relevant information, they also tend to be more persuaded by (compelling) attitude-relevant information than less-ambivalent people.
Explicit ambivalence may or may not be experienced as psychologically unpleasant when the positive and negative aspects of a subject are both present in a person's mind at the same time. Psychologically uncomfortable ambivalence, also known as cognitive dissonance, can lead to avoidance, procrastination, or to deliberate attempts to resolve the ambivalence. People experience the greatest discomfort from their ambivalence at the time when the situation requires a decision to be made. People are aware of their ambivalence to varying degrees, so the effects of an ambivalent state vary across individuals and situations. For this reason, researchers have considered two forms of ambivalence, only one of which is subjectively experienced as a state of conflict.
Types of attitudinal ambivalence
Felt ambivalence
The psychological literature has distinguished between several different forms of ambivalence. One, often called subjective ambivalence or felt ambivalence, represents the psychological experience of conflict (affective manifestation), mixed feelings, mixed reactions (cognitive manifestation), and indecision (behavioral manifestation) in the evaluation of some object. Ambivalence is not always acknowledged by the individual experiencing it. Although, when the individual becomes aware to a varying degree, discomfort is felt, which is elicited by the conflicting attitudes about a particular stimulus.
Subjective ambivalence is generally assessed using direct self-report measures regarding one's experience of conflict about the topic of interest. Because subjective ambivalence is a secondary judgment of a primary evaluation (i.e., I'm conflicted of my positive attitude towards the president), it is considered to be metacognitive. The point of these measures is to find out how much a person experiences ambivalence in a particular evaluation. Their report may be provided in a number of ways.
Priester and Petty, for example, utilized a rating system where they had subjects rate the level of conflict they were experiencing on a scale from 0 (as in the subject experienced "no conflict at all") to 10 (as in the subject experienced "maximum conflict"). However, people do not like to experience the negative emotions associated with ambivalence and therefore may not acknowledge, or report, their level of conflict as accurately as possible. This makes the measure of felt ambivalence a bit less reliable than a researcher may desire.
Potential ambivalence
Another measure of ambivalence that has been developed is called objective ambivalence or potential ambivalence, which represents the simultaneous acknowledgement of both positive and negative evaluations regarding a particular stimulus. Objective ambivalence is an indirect measure of attitude conflict that allows individuals to answer questions based on more accessible aspects of their attitude and is therefore generally viewed as an advantageous means of measurement. This indirect measure does not assume that the individual has complete knowledge and/or awareness of their attitudinal conflict and helps to eliminate confounding factors that may be affecting their attitudes.
Objective ambivalence is generally assessed using a method first developed by Kaplan, in which a standard bipolar attitude scale (e.g., extremely negative to extremely positive) is split into two separate scales, each independently assessing the magnitude of one valence (e.g., not at all negative to extremely negative). If a person endorses both positive and negative reactions towards the same object, then at least some objective ambivalence is present.
Kaplan initially defined ambivalence as total affect (the sum of positive and negative reactions) minus polarity (the absolute difference of positive and negative reactions). For example, if objective ambivalence towards exercising was assessed using two separate 6-point scales, and a person indicated that his or her evaluation was slightly negative (e.g., 2 on a 6-point scale) and extremely positive (e.g., 6 on a 6-point scale), this person's ambivalence would be quantified by 2 times the lesser of these two evaluations (i.e., 4 in this example).
Kaplan's measure yields the formula:
Here, S represents the smaller rating or reaction (called "conflicting" reaction in the seminal paper by Priester and Petty), and L represents the larger rating or dominant reaction.
However, Kaplan's measure has largely been replaced in practice by one proposed by Thompson et al. Thompson' s formula fulfills the three necessary conditions for any scale measuring ambivalence as suggested by Breckler.
The three conditions are as follows:
If the larger value is maintained, while the smaller rating increases, ambivalence will increase.
If the smaller value is maintained, while the larger rating increases, ambivalence will decrease.
If both the larger and smaller values are the same, ambivalence will increase when both ratings increase (as the difference between the two will increase) or decrease as the values decrease.
Thompson et al. refined Kaplan's formula to incorporate Breckler's components:
Predictors of felt ambivalence
Research has shown only a moderate correlation between felt and potential ambivalence, although, both measures are useful depending on what is being asked. Potential ambivalence is often utilized by ambivalence researchers to gather more information about diversity of attitudes across contexts. Each individual experiences the after-effects of unpleasant feelings in a different way, whether or not associated with ambivalence awareness.
There are two primary moderators that link felt and potential ambivalence: simultaneous accessibility and preference for consistency.
Simultaneous accessibility is when potential ambivalence depends on how quickly and uniformly conflicting evaluations come to mind. Positive and negative knowledge regarding beliefs about an attitude object are concurrently known, but not always accessible. Only when the connection of the evaluations are applicable and coinciding to awareness, does potential ambivalence result in felt ambivalence.
Preference for consistency uses incentives to combine incoming stimuli with current variables in order to respond to approaching impulses. In other words, people often review past behaviors when making new decisions; if preference for consistency is high, they are more likely to ignore new information and are thus bias to past behaviors.
Dimensions of attitudinal assessment as applied to ambivalence
One-dimensional perspective
Traditionally, attitudes were considered one-dimensional—from positive to negative—but given the rise of research findings, this perspective has lost much of its value. Ambivalence studies were a primary reason that attitudinal assessments demanded a new design. Because the basic assumption of an ambivalent attitude is that it is paradoxical, a one-dimensional perspective is likely to portray faulty information. For instance, a numerical rating of zero can be produced both by someone with a love-hate relationship toward an object, and someone who is completely indifferent about that object. There is a significant difference in the behaviors and experiences of those possessing strong conflicting attitudes, compared to those who are simply neutral. This perspective is unsuitable for examining ambivalence and based on current research does not appear to accurately reflect how attitudes function and are experienced.
Two-dimensional perspective
The two-dimensional perspective separately rates positive and negative attitudes toward an attitudinal object. The relative magnitude of positive and negative rankings are recognized by this model, providing a distinction between ambivalence and indifference. By comparing the magnitude of attitudes, the two-dimensional perspective also allows for an approximation of the degree of ambivalence; similarity in the magnitude of an individual's positive and negative attitude towards an object indicating ambivalence, and the strength of these attitudes reveals its degree. The two-dimensional view can report everything the one-dimensional perspective can, but it has the added ability to account for ambivalence. Though this model of attitude is clearly more useful for understanding and potentially assessing ambivalence than a one dimensional model it still suffers numerous paradoxes which are difficult to argue away without acknowledging that there is more contributing to one's attitudes and their stability than perceptions regarding the object alone. These issues prompt the recent emergence of multidimensional models.
Multidimensional perspective
The Multidimensional model for attitude deviates from the linear perspectives previously mentioned. Conceptually the multidimensional model can be thought of as a network of attitudinal hubs which form a web of contributions contributing to one's attitude about a particular object. Thus ones attitude toward an object is a product of the attitudes one holds for all related objects which are activated consciously or unconsciously when considering the object in question, and is not simply an attribution regarding the object alone in a vacuum. Ambivalence occurs when there are near equal weight of contributions of both positive and negative sources according to this perspective. Note in this view the ambivalent attitude is not tied directly to the object but rather the near equivalence of positive and negative contributing attitudes.
This model is very useful for understanding why attitude towards an object can fluctuate often within a relatively short span. If this model is accurate than a change in the degree of activation of particular objects related to the attitudinal object in question will alter the degree to which they contribute their attitudinal influence towards one's current attitude regarding the object in question. This allows for variance in attitude towards an object without requiring any permanent change in one's beliefs regarding neither the object nor the objects related to it. According to this model one's attitude towards eating a high calorie dessert food would likely become more positive during times when an individual is hungry, as the centers associated with the satiation property of food are now more active and contributing more influence to the attitude regarding consuming the dessert. The other contributing attitudes do not need to have been suppressed (though they can be) for the temporary change in attitude all that is required, is an increase in the output of one contributor.
Continued or repeated activation of the same related objects to a given attitudinal object will likely be reinforced and over time lend more stability to the attitude, and are likely to diminish the activation of those objects not strongly activated; however, the contributing objects are themselves also subject to changes in attitudes regarding them, so no final resolution of stability will necessarily occur. In addition if the same conflicting attitudinal contributors are continuing to "fire together" they will both be reinforced and thus may not contribute towards the resolution of ambivalence.
Meta-cognitive model
Not all attitude objects are linked to both positive and negative relations. This model is built on the idea that meta-cognition has to do with "knowing about knowing." The process works if someone has the knowledge about cognition and is also able to control their thoughts. An evaluation creates initial thoughts that are then analyzed by a secondary thought which may vary in strength toward an assessment. Once an evaluation is obtained, the strength of the validity affects how the interpretation is perceived. If a successful univalent attitude is achieved, final evaluations are labelled as either true or false based on varying degrees of confidence.
Consistency theories and ambivalence
Overview
Cognitive consistency theories were established on the premise that individuals prefer dependable and coherent cognition. Inconsistency in one's thoughts, feelings, emotions, values, beliefs, attitudes, or behaviors causes tension. In the past, consistency theorists focused primarily on the instinctive drive to reduce this psychological discomfort and return to a simple, balanced state. Unlike classical approaches, however, theories of attitudinal ambivalence are more concerned with the perceived paradoxical state itself.
Balance theory
Fritz Heider established the first approach in the growing family of consistency theories; balance theory seeks to understand one's thoughts regarding their personal relationship with others and with the environment. Triadic relationships are used to evaluate the structure and quality of attitudes within a given arrangement.
Social ties, for example, can be analyzed in terms of an individual's perception of the relationships between his or her self (p), another person (o), and the topic (e.g., issue, belief, value, object) of focus (x). According to Heider, a balanced triangle is accomplished when all three links are positive, or two are negative and one is positive (since a positive number is still achieved).
The overall assumption of balance theory is rooted in the philosophy that unbalanced states have a tendency to wreak havoc. Satisfying relationships require balance, otherwise, it is not uncommon to experience consequences like stress, tension, or ambivalence.
Evaluative-cognitive consistency theory
Evaluative-cognitive consistency theory refers to a condition in which one holds opposing attitudes towards an object that are not of equal magnitude; the focus is the overall difference in evaluations, with no regard to magnitude.
"Ambivalence is a function of the amount of conflict within an attitude, whereas evaluative-cognitive consistency is a function of the magnitude of the difference between evaluations."
In a set of dimension scores, for example, positive 5 and negative 5 have the same degree of consistency as does the set of positive 9 and negative 1. Yet, the degree of ambivalence in each set is vastly different. This distinction is important when examining the implications and effects of ambivalence, since seemingly similar ratings are in fact quite different.
The two-dimensional perspective of attitudinal assessment can distinguish between ambivalence and evaluative-cognitive consistency. As ratings increase, both ambivalence and evaluative-cognitive consistency have a tendency to be less stable and less effective at predicting behavior.
Past studies have linked ambivalent mental states to slower response times (due to low accessibility) and mild attitudes, although theories of evaluative-cognitive consistency have yet to report such findings.
Cognitive dissonance theory
The feeling of discomfort that results from inconsistent cognition is a powerful determinant of human behavior. The emergence of research on intellectual tension dates back to the mid-20th century, and has been a hot topic in social psychology ever since. In 1957, Leon Festinger was the first to investigate the phenomenon, thereupon coining the theory of cognitive dissonance. Festinger and other early psychologists held the notion that cognitive dissonance was the result of any two conflicting thoughts or opinions. Currently, however, research has proven that not all cognitive inconsistencies are equally upsetting, for it is not necessarily the dissonance itself that causes strife, rather, it is the individuals construct of the given contention.
Dissonance, then, is characterized as a discrepancy between an attitude held by an individual and the actual behavior that is practiced by that individual, whereas ambivalence is seen as having a disparity within the attitude itself. Though unique, the ambivalent state, still, is closely connected to dissonance theory, being its most common product.
Individuals seek to satisfy a stable and positive self-image. For this reason, the greatest tension is encountered when there is an incongruity between who one thinks they are and their actual behavior. Such threats to self-esteem evoke motivation to rid oneself of the distress. According to present research, there are three widely accepted methods to reduce cognitive dissonance:
Justify the behavior by changing the dissonant cognition
Justify the behavior by adding new cognitions
Change the behavior to meet the dissonant cognition
Motivation and information processing
As noted above, the desire to maintain one's preconceived notions can have vast implications. Studies have shown it is not uncommon for people to distort reality while attempting reduce ambivalence. The manner by which one chooses to replace unwanted thoughts is mostly an unconscious process, yet several factors influence the ability and likelihood of doing so.
Heuristic-systematic model
Information processing for ambivalent attitudes is less efficient and takes longer than processing of attitudes that are relatively univalent. The information is less accessible, so it takes longer for a person to integrate multiple viewpoints regarding an attitude object into one cohesive opinion or judgement. The lack of accessibility here does serve to reduce a biased thought process. Yet, since it takes a greater amount of effort to resolve two conflicting attitudes, if one desires to form a conclusion, a more extensive thought process is necessary.
Antecedents of ambivalence
Behavioral indicators
Researchers have sought to understand the relationship between objective and subjective ambivalence. Thompson and his colleagues argue that people with positive and negative evaluations which are of similar magnitude (e.g., +4 and -3) should experience more ambivalence than people whose evaluations are of dissimilar magnitude (e.g., +4 and -1). Similarly, they argue that even with relatively similar positive and negative evaluations, people whose evaluations are more extreme (e.g., +6 and -5) should experience more ambivalence than people whose evaluations are less extreme (e.g., +2 and -1).
The Griffin formula, also known as the similarity-intensity model:
Here, P and N are the magnitude of positive and negative reactions, respectively.
Some research has stated that as the relative contribution of dominant reactions decreases, the magnitude of conflicting reactions increases. Other studies have found that objective ambivalence predicts subjective ambivalence to a greater extent when both the positive and negative reactions are accessible, or when a decision about the attitude object is imminent. Still, more evidence has demonstrated that objective ambivalence is not the only precursor to subjective ambivalence. For example, interpersonal ambivalence, the presence of attitudes which are in conflict with those of important others, independently predicts subjective ambivalence, as does the mere anticipation of information which may conflict with one's preexisting attitude.
Both personal and circumstantial aspects must be considered in order to accurately assess relationship sustainability between subjective and objective ambivalence.
Individual differences
Individual characteristics are essential in deciding the most beneficial coping strategies. Research has shown that certain personality traits may impact an individual's likelihood of experiencing ambivalence. There are certain personality traits that are not as relevant to ambivalence, such as the need for closure. Other components may alter these traits that may contribute toward ambivalence, such as tolerance to ambiguity. Particularly, those possessing the need for cognition, or the inclination to evaluate the discrepancies between positive and negative emotions, are less likely to experience ambivalence. In other words, the desire to resolve issues, which requires a great deal of cognitive resources, fosters cognitive strength and thus the ability to overcome ambivalence.
Ambivalent attitudes that demonstrate weakness are accessed slower than strong attitudes. This leads to a conflict called response competition; the process of slowing down responses because of the difficulty to choose between positive and negative beliefs and feelings. Bottom-up processing shows how greater cognitive effort entwined with combined beliefs results in non congruent information. Once individuals are confronted several choices, they are then followed by uncertain outcomes. Thus concluding that slower response times may be due to systematic processing.
Individuals with a greater concern for invalidity experience a heightened amount of ambivalence, presumably because they are concerned with making wrongful judgments, and as a result, efforts to adjust attitude become inhibited. Response to ambivalence, then, is affected by an individual's need for consistency; hence, the higher the need for consistency, the more adverse the reaction will be to maintaining two contradictory attitudes simultaneously, whereas someone with a reduced need for consistency will experience less mental frustration Those seeking to rectify inconsistencies and resolve conflict are able to reject ambivalence better than most.
Additionally, some individuals have a more pronounced fear of invalidity than others. When this fear is experienced to a stronger degree, these individuals will not want to acknowledge the ambivalence as it is especially uncomfortable. Since the ambiguity is not being resolved, it will persist within the person. Gebauer, Maio, and Pakizeh discuss the possibility that many perfectionists, despite the seemingly positive qualities exerted, are at risk of neglecting internal inconsistencies. Consequently, it is not unlikely for those individuals to confront a plethora of unexplained, ambivalent feelings.
Goal conflicts
Ambivalence will emerge when two (or more) goals valued by an individual are in conflict regarding the same attitudinal object. The individual becomes ambivalent about the object to which they both reference, not as much when regarding the individual goals themselves.
Many decisions as common as food consumption or selection can invoke some degree of ambivalence
every day. An action can seem to have pleasant outcomes, but it can simultaneously cause issues as well. Emotions or attitudes that are ambivalent may spark both quick and far-off consequences that are inconsistent. A chronic dieter, for example, may experience ambivalence between the goals of eating enjoyment and weight control. Each of these goals independently are viewed as positive, but when conjoined in regards to actually eating more food, the resulting conflict prompts ambivalence. The object of eating enjoyment and the object of losing weight are both regarded with positive attitude, but these two goals are incongruent with each other and are both activated when considering eating.
The goal driven ambivalence that produces several forms of behavior modification may have profound implications on the behaviors and outcomes. Some examples are overcoming addiction, procrastination, health maintenance, and many others. Much of the focus of previous work has been concentrated on pain avoidance and pleasure seeking (focus on the ambivalent object itself), and not enough to the "pleasure" goal objectives related to and driving the conflict. Under certain circumstances, people who are exposed to unpleasant experiences are motivated to decrease unpleasant feelings toward ambivalence. One way to accomplish such a task is by acquiring new knowledge that can result in more immediate conclusions about the attitude object, or result in an adjustment in the individuals attitudes regarding the contributing goals which prompted the conflict.
Ambivalent attitudes that demonstrate weakness are accessed slower than strong attitudes and are thought to have less of an influence on behavior. This leads to a conflict called response competition; the process of slowing down responses because of the difficulty to choose between positive and negative beliefs and feelings. Bottom-up processing shows how greater cognitive effort entwined with combined beliefs results in incongruent information. Once individuals are confronted several choices, they are then followed by uncertain outcomes. Thus concluding that slower response times may be due to systematic processing.
Value conflicts
Ambivalence is often the result of conflict arising from personal or social values. Different cultures, and the individuals within them, have different values surrounding race, ethnicity, nationality, class, religion or beliefs, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, and health status. Social constructs and perceived norms and values within a given society create contradictory feelings for many individuals. If opposing values are activated by the same object they are likely to clash upon encounter.
Conflicted value items do not need to come from the same category, but to be considered a contributor of ambivalence, discordance must occur.
The attitudinal object of women in the workplace could, for example, be affected by religious or political values. The contributing value systems are both held in positive regard but are opposed to each other in reference to the attitudinal ambivalent item. The amount of ambivalence experienced corresponds to the positive regard of each value contributing to the conflict. In other words, weakly held conflicting values should not generate as much ambivalence as strongly held values.
Affective-cognitive ambivalence
Affective ambivalence (A+/A-) refers to disparity between feelings, whereas cognitive ambivalence (C+/C-) focuses on the disagreement between beliefs. Together, the notion of affective-cognitive ambivalence (A+/C-) or (A-/C+) embodies the commonly known conundrum of "the heart vs. mind conflict."
When each state is in balance, the influence on attitude is equal (A+/C+). Yet, there is compelling evidence that affect tends to overpower cognition (A+/C-).
That is to say, the degree of ambivalence construed at any given moment can alter the mechanisms by which one views the world. When ambivalent cognitive states become psychologically agonizing, motivation rises to eliminate distress. Under those circumstances, people generally pay more attention to information that is relevant to their ambivalent state, in particular when it is perceived as having the potential to reduce discomfort.
Consequences of ambivalence as a dimension of attitude strength
Attitude stability
Ambivalence is often conceptualized as a negative predictor of attitude strength. That is, as an attitude becomes more ambivalent, its strength decreases. Strong attitudes are those that are stable over time, resistant to change, and predict behavior and information processing.
Studies have found that ambivalent attitudes are less stable over time, less resistant to change, and less predictive of behavior.
Ambivalent attitudes are subject to change based on the concepts, feelings, or objects that are salient at the time. Since an ambivalent attitude is one in which positive and negative feelings are held simultaneously, the strength of either may wax or wane depending on what context the individual finds themselves in; different aspects of an attitude may be activated across situations.
Attitude pliability
Ambivalent attitudes are known to be susceptible to persuasion. Since there is less certainty associated with an ambivalent attitude, both facts and trivial information are assessed, assimilated, and determinant of one's attitude. Accordingly, this may bias or persuade an individual's attitude. Strong attitudes, on the other hand, are less likely to be manipulated because they are essentially "anchored in knowledge structures".
Armitage and Conner conducted a study regarding attitudes toward eating a low-fat diet. Attitudes of a high ambivalence group and a low ambivalence group were recorded two times within five months. Following an attitude change intervention the high ambivalence group demonstrated a significant positive change in attitude toward the diet (compared to a control group) whereas the low ambivalence group demonstrated very little change if any.
In situations that highlight one dimension over the other, individuals who are high in ambivalence are more likely to embrace the clear-cut better aspect of the attitude object.
Ambivalence in clinical psychology
Bleuler's tripartite scheme
The concept of ambivalence was introduced into psychiatric parlance by Eugen Bleuler, who used it in print for the first time in his 1910 article Vortrag über Ambivalenz. Bleuler distinguished three main types of ambivalence: volitional, intellectual, and emotional. Volitional ambivalence refers to an inability to decide on an action—what Montaigne called "a spirit justly balanced betweene two equal desires". The concept (if not Bleuler's term) had a long prehistory, reaching back through Buridan's ass, starving between two equally attractive bales of hay in the Middle Ages, to Aristotle. Intellectual ambivalence—the sceptical belief that "There is no reason but hath a contrary to it" —also follows a long tradition reaching back through Montaigne to Sextus Empiricus and Pyrrho. (Freud considered Bleuler's stress on intellectual ambivalence particularly appropriate given his own ambivalence towards Freud's intellectual constructs, alternatively praising and criticizing them). Emotional ambivalence involved opposing affective attitudes towards the same object, as with the man who both loved and hated his wife.
While mainly dealing with ambivalence in relation to the psychological splitting of schizophrenia, Bleuler also noted how "in the dreams of healthy persons, affective as well as intellectual ambivalence is a common phenomenon".
Freudian usage
Freud was swift to pick up Bleuler's concept of ambivalence, applying it to areas he had previously dealt with in terms of ambiguous language, or the persistent co-existence of love and hatred aimed at the same person. Freud also extended the scope of Bleuler's term to cover the co-existence of active and passive trends in the same instinctual impulse—what Freud called "pairs of contrary component instincts" such as looking and being looked at.
Karl Abraham explored the presence of ambivalence in mourning—something he thought to be a universal phenomenon. Others in psychoanalysis have traced the roots of contradictory impulses (usually love and hate) to very early stages of psychosexual development.
Defences against feeling both of the two contradictory emotions include psychological repression, isolation and displacement. Thus, for example, an analytic patient's love for his father might be quite consciously experienced and openly expressed—while his "hate" for the same object might be heavily repressed and only indirectly expressed, and thus only revealed in analysis. A drug addict may feel ambivalently about their drug of choice; they are aware of their drug use as a negative-impact agent in their lives (socially, financially, physically, etc.) while simultaneously seeking and using the drug because of the positive-impact results they receive from the drug's usage (the "high"). (More recent discourse of addiction as a mental health concern and chemically-induced/encoded imperative, rather than as a behavioral choice, complicates the notion of ambivalence as it relates to addiction.)
Another relevant distinction is that whereas the psychoanalytic notion of "ambivalence" sees it as engendered by all neurotic conflict, a person's everyday "mixed feelings" may easily be based on a quite realistic assessment of the imperfect nature of the thing being considered.
Ambivalence in philosophy
Philosophers such as Hili Razinsky consider how ambivalence relates to other aspects of the human experience, such as personhood, action, and judgement, and what it means that strict ambivalence is possible.
See also
References
Further reading
Karen Pinker, Alchemical Mercury: A Theory of Ambivalence (2009)
External links
Emotions
Philosophy of life | 0.760012 | 0.995451 | 0.756555 |
Folksonomy | Folksonomy is a classification system in which end users apply public tags to online items, typically to make those items easier for themselves or others to find later. Over time, this can give rise to a classification system based on those tags and how often they are applied or searched for, in contrast to a taxonomic classification designed by the owners of the content and specified when it is published. This practice is also known as collaborative tagging, social classification, social indexing, and social tagging. Folksonomy was originally "the result of personal free tagging of information [...] for one's own retrieval", but online sharing and interaction expanded it into collaborative forms. Social tagging is the application of tags in an open online environment where the tags of other users are available to others. Collaborative tagging (also known as group tagging) is tagging performed by a group of users. This type of folksonomy is commonly used in cooperative and collaborative projects such as research, content repositories, and social bookmarking.
The term was coined by Thomas Vander Wal in 2004 as a portmanteau of folk and taxonomy. Folksonomies became popular as part of social software applications such as social bookmarking and photograph annotation that enable users to collectively classify and find information via shared tags. Some websites include tag clouds as a way to visualize tags in a folksonomy.
Folksonomies can be used for K–12 education, business, and higher education. More specifically, folksonomies may be implemented for social bookmarking, teacher resource repositories, e-learning systems, collaborative learning, collaborative research, professional development and teaching. Wikipedia is also a prime example of folksonomy.
Benefits and disadvantages
Folksonomies are a trade-off between traditional centralized classification and no classification at all, and have several advantages:
Tagging is easy to understand and do, even without training and previous knowledge in classification or indexing
The vocabulary in a folksonomy directly reflects the user's vocabulary
Folksonomies are flexible, in the sense that the user can add or remove tags
Tags consist of both popular content and long-tail content, enabling users to browse and discover new content even in narrow topics
Tags reflect the user's conceptual model without cultural, social, or political bias
Enable the creation of communities, in the sense that users who apply the same tag have a common interest
Folksonomies are multi-dimensional, in the sense that users can assign any number and combination of tags to express a concept
There are several disadvantages with the use of tags and folksonomies as well, and some of the advantages can lead to problems. For example, the simplicity in tagging can result in poorly applied tags. Further, while controlled vocabularies are exclusionary by nature, tags are often ambiguous and overly personalized. Users apply tags to documents in many different ways and tagging systems also often lack mechanisms for handling synonyms, acronyms and homonyms, and they also often lack mechanisms for handling spelling variations such as misspellings, singular/plural form, conjugated and compound words. Some tagging systems do not support tags consisting of multiple words, resulting in tags like "viewfrommywindow". Sometimes users choose specialized tags or tags without meaning to others.
Elements and types
A folksonomy emerges when users tag content or information, such as web pages, photos, videos, podcasts, tweets, scientific papers and others. Strohmaier et al. elaborate the concept: the term "tagging" refers to a "voluntary activity of users who are annotating resources with term-so-called 'tags' – freely chosen from an unbounded and uncontrolled vocabulary". Others explain tags as an unstructured textual label or keywords, and that they appear as a simple form of metadata.
Folksonomies consist of three basic entities: users, tags, and resources. Users create tags to mark resources such as: web pages, photos, videos, and podcasts. These tags are used to manage, categorize and summarize online content. This collaborative tagging system also uses these tags as a way to index information, facilitate searches and navigate resources. Folksonomy also includes a set of URLs that are used to identify resources that have been referred to by users of different websites. These systems also include category schemes that have the ability to organize tags at different levels of granularity.
Vander Wal identifies two types of folksonomy: broad and narrow. A broad folksonomy arises when multiple users can apply the same tag to an item, providing information about which tags are the most popular. A narrow folksonomy occurs when users, typically fewer in number and often including the item's creator, tag an item with tags that can each be applied only once. While both broad and narrow folksonomies enable the searchability of content by adding an associated word or phrase to an object, a broad folksonomy allows for sorting based on the popularity of each tag, as well as the tracking of emerging trends in tag usage and developing vocabularies.
An example of a broad folksonomy is del.icio.us, a website where users can tag any online resource they find relevant with their own personal tags. The photo-sharing website Flickr is an oft-cited example of a narrow folksonomy.
Folksonomy versus taxonomy
'Taxonomy' refers to a hierarchical categorization in which relatively well-defined classes are nested under broader categories. A folksonomy establishes categories (each tag is a category) without stipulating or necessarily deriving a hierarchical structure of parent-child relations among different tags. (Work has been done on techniques for deriving at least loose hierarchies from clusters of tags.)
Supporters of folksonomies claim that they are often preferable to taxonomies because folksonomies democratize the way information is organized, they are more useful to users because they reflect current ways of thinking about domains, and they express more information about domains. Critics claim that folksonomies are messy and thus harder to use, and can reflect transient trends that may misrepresent what is known about a field.
An empirical analysis of the complex dynamics of tagging systems, published in 2007, has shown that consensus around stable distributions and shared vocabularies does emerge, even in the absence of a central controlled vocabulary. For content to be searchable, it should be categorized and grouped. While this was believed to require commonly agreed on sets of content describing tags (much like keywords of a journal article), some research has found that in large folksonomies common structures also emerge on the level of categorizations.
Accordingly, it is possible to devise mathematical models of collaborative tagging that allow for translating from personal tag vocabularies (personomies) to the vocabulary shared by most users.
Folksonomy is unrelated to folk taxonomy, a cultural practice that has been widely documented in anthropological and folkloristic work. Folk taxonomies are culturally supplied, intergenerationally transmitted, and relatively stable classification systems that people in a given culture use to make sense of the entire world around them (not just the Internet).
The study of the structuring or classification of folksonomy is termed folksontology. This branch of ontology deals with the intersection between highly structured taxonomies or hierarchies and loosely structured folksonomy, asking what best features can be taken by both for a system of classification. The strength of flat-tagging schemes is their ability to relate one item to others like it. Folksonomy allows large disparate groups of users to collaboratively label massive, dynamic information systems. The strength of taxonomies are their browsability: users can easily start from more generalized knowledge and target their queries towards more specific and detailed knowledge. Folksonomy looks to categorize tags and thus create browsable spaces of information that are easy to maintain and expand.
Social tagging for knowledge acquisition
Social tagging for knowledge acquisition is the specific use of tagging for finding and re-finding specific content for an individual or group. Social tagging systems differ from traditional taxonomies in that they are community-based systems lacking the traditional hierarchy of taxonomies. Rather than a top-down approach, social tagging relies on users to create the folksonomy from the bottom up.
Common uses of social tagging for knowledge acquisition include personal development for individual use and collaborative projects. Social tagging is used for knowledge acquisition in secondary, post-secondary, and graduate education as well as personal and business research. The benefits of finding/re-finding source information are applicable to a wide spectrum of users. Tagged resources are located through search queries rather than searching through a more traditional file folder system. The social aspect of tagging also allows users to take advantage of metadata from thousands of other users.
Users choose individual tags for stored resources. These tags reflect personal associations, categories, and concepts. All of which are individual representations based on meaning and relevance to that individual. The tags, or keywords, are designated by users. Consequently, tags represent a user's associations corresponding to the resource. Commonly tagged resources include videos, photos, articles, websites, and email. Tags are beneficial for a couple of reasons. First, they help to structure and organize large amounts of digital resources in a manner that makes them easily accessible when users attempt to locate the resource at a later time. The second aspect is social in nature, that is to say that users may search for new resources and content based on the tags of other users. Even the act of browsing through common tags may lead to further resources for knowledge acquisition.
Tags that occur more frequently with specific resources are said to be more strongly connected. Furthermore, tags may be connected to each other. This may be seen in the frequency in which they co-occur. The more often they co-occur, the stronger the connection. Tag clouds are often utilized to visualize connectivity between resources and tags. Font size increases as the strength of association increases.
Tags show interconnections of concepts that were formerly unknown to a user. Therefore, a user's current cognitive constructs may be modified or augmented by the metadata information found in aggregated social tags. This process promotes knowledge acquisition through cognitive irritation and equilibration. This theoretical framework is known as the co-evolution model of individual and collective knowledge.
The co-evolution model focuses on cognitive conflict in which a learner's prior knowledge and the information received from the environment are dissimilar to some degree. When this incongruence occurs, the learner must work through a process cognitive equilibration in order to make personal cognitive constructs and outside information congruent. According to the coevolution model, this may require the learner to modify existing constructs or simply add to them. The additional cognitive effort promotes information processing which in turn allows individual learning to occur.
Examples
Archive of Our Own: fan fiction archive
BibSonomy: social bookmarking and publication-sharing system
del.icio.us: public tagging service
Diigo: social bookmarking website
Flickr: shared photos
Instagram: online photo-sharing and social networking service
Many libraries' online catalogs
Last.fm: music listening community and algorithmic radio stations
Mendeley: social reference management software
MusicBrainz: online music metadata database
OpenStreetMap: map database
Pinterest: photo sharing and saving website
Steam: video game store
StumbleUpon: content discovery engine
Twitter hashtags
Tumblr tags
The World Wide Web Consortium's Annotea project with user-generated tags in 2002.
WordPress: blogging tool and Content Management System
See also
Autotagging
Blogosphere
Collective intelligence
Enterprise bookmarking
Faceted classification
Hierarchical clustering
Semantic annotation
Semantic similarity
Thesaurus
Weak ontology
Wiki
References
External links
Folksonomies as a tool for professional scientific databases
"The Three Orders": 2005 explanation of tagging and folksonomies (Archived version)
Vanderwal's definition of folksonomy
Vanderwal's take on Wikipedia's definition of folksonomy
Classroom Collaboration Using Social Bookmarking Service Diigo
Collective intelligence
Knowledge representation
Metadata
Semantic Web
Social bookmarking
Taxonomy
Web 2.0 neologisms
Sociology of knowledge
Information architecture
Crowdsourcing | 0.76484 | 0.989162 | 0.756551 |
Signal | Signal refers to both the process and the result of transmission of data over some media accomplished by embedding some variation. Signals are important in multiple subject fields including signal processing, information theory and biology.
In signal processing, a signal is a function that conveys information about a phenomenon. Any quantity that can vary over space or time can be used as a signal to share messages between observers. The IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing includes audio, video, speech, image, sonar, and radar as examples of signals. A signal may also be defined as observable change in a quantity over space or time (a time series), even if it does not carry information.
In nature, signals can be actions done by an organism to alert other organisms, ranging from the release of plant chemicals to warn nearby plants of a predator, to sounds or motions made by animals to alert other animals of food. Signaling occurs in all organisms even at cellular levels, with cell signaling. Signaling theory, in evolutionary biology, proposes that a substantial driver for evolution is the ability of animals to communicate with each other by developing ways of signaling. In human engineering, signals are typically provided by a sensor, and often the original form of a signal is converted to another form of energy using a transducer. For example, a microphone converts an acoustic signal to a voltage waveform, and a speaker does the reverse.
Another important property of a signal is its entropy or information content. Information theory serves as the formal study of signals and their content. The information of a signal is often accompanied by noise, which primarily refers to unwanted modifications of signals, but is often extended to include unwanted signals conflicting with desired signals (crosstalk). The reduction of noise is covered in part under the heading of signal integrity. The separation of desired signals from background noise is the field of signal recovery, one branch of which is estimation theory, a probabilistic approach to suppressing random disturbances.
Engineering disciplines such as electrical engineering have advanced the design, study, and implementation of systems involving transmission, storage, and manipulation of information. In the latter half of the 20th century, electrical engineering itself separated into several disciplines: electronic engineering and computer engineering developed to specialize in the design and analysis of systems that manipulate physical signals, while design engineering developed to address the functional design of signals in user–machine interfaces.
Definitions
Definitions specific to sub-fields are common:
In electronics and telecommunications, signal refers to any time-varying voltage, current, or electromagnetic wave that carries information.
In signal processing, signals are analog and digital representations of analog physical quantities.
In information theory, a signal is a codified message, that is, the sequence of states in a communication channel that encodes a message.
In a communication system, a transmitter encodes a message to create a signal, which is carried to a receiver by the communication channel. For example, the words "Mary had a little lamb" might be the message spoken into a telephone. The telephone transmitter converts the sounds into an electrical signal. The signal is transmitted to the receiving telephone by wires; at the receiver it is reconverted into sounds.
In telephone networks, signaling, for example common-channel signaling, refers to phone number and other digital control information rather than the actual voice signal.
Classification
Signals can be categorized in various ways. The most common distinction is between discrete and continuous spaces that the functions are defined over, for example, discrete and continuous-time domains. Discrete-time signals are often referred to as time series in other fields. Continuous-time signals are often referred to as continuous signals.
A second important distinction is between discrete-valued and continuous-valued. Particularly in digital signal processing, a digital signal may be defined as a sequence of discrete values, typically associated with an underlying continuous-valued physical process. In digital electronics, digital signals are the continuous-time waveform signals in a digital system, representing a bit-stream.
Signals may also be categorized by their spatial distributions as either point source signals (PSSs) or distributed source signals (DSSs).
In Signals and Systems, signals can be classified according to many criteria, mainly: according to the different feature of values, classified into analog signals and digital signals; according to the determinacy of signals, classified into deterministic signals and random signals; according to the strength of signals, classified into energy signals and power signals.
Analog and digital signals
Two main types of signals encountered in practice are analog and digital. The figure shows a digital signal that results from approximating an analog signal by its values at particular time instants. Digital signals are quantized, while analog signals are continuous.
Analog signal
An analog signal is any continuous signal for which the time-varying feature of the signal is a representation of some other time varying quantity, i.e., analogous to another time varying signal. For example, in an analog audio signal, the instantaneous voltage of the signal varies continuously with the sound pressure. It differs from a digital signal, in which the continuous quantity is a representation of a sequence of discrete values which can only take on one of a finite number of values.
The term analog signal usually refers to electrical signals; however, analog signals may use other mediums such as mechanical, pneumatic or hydraulic. An analog signal uses some property of the medium to convey the signal's information. For example, an aneroid barometer uses rotary position as the signal to convey pressure information. In an electrical signal, the voltage, current, or frequency of the signal may be varied to represent the information.
Any information may be conveyed by an analog signal; often such a signal is a measured response to changes in physical phenomena, such as sound, light, temperature, position, or pressure. The physical variable is converted to an analog signal by a transducer. For example, in sound recording, fluctuations in air pressure (that is to say, sound) strike the diaphragm of a microphone which induces corresponding electrical fluctuations. The voltage or the current is said to be an analog of the sound.
Digital signal
A digital signal is a signal that is constructed from a discrete set of waveforms of a physical quantity so as to represent a sequence of discrete values. A logic signal is a digital signal with only two possible values, and describes an arbitrary bit stream. Other types of digital signals can represent three-valued logic or higher valued logics.
Alternatively, a digital signal may be considered to be the sequence of codes represented by such a physical quantity. The physical quantity may be a variable electric current or voltage, the intensity, phase or polarization of an optical or other electromagnetic field, acoustic pressure, the magnetization of a magnetic storage media, etc. Digital signals are present in all digital electronics, notably computing equipment and data transmission.
With digital signals, system noise, provided it is not too great, will not affect system operation whereas noise always degrades the operation of analog signals to some degree.
Digital signals often arise via sampling of analog signals, for example, a continually fluctuating voltage on a line that can be digitized by an analog-to-digital converter circuit, wherein the circuit will read the voltage level on the line, say, every 50 microseconds and represent each reading with a fixed number of bits. The resulting stream of numbers is stored as digital data on a discrete-time and quantized-amplitude signal. Computers and other digital devices are restricted to discrete time.
Energy and power
According to the strengths of signals, practical signals can be classified into two categories: energy signals and power signals.
Energy signals: Those signals' energy are equal to a finite positive value, but their average powers are 0;
Power signals: Those signals' average power are equal to a finite positive value, but their energy are infinite.
Deterministic and random
Deterministic signals are those whose values at any time are predictable and can be calculated by a mathematical equation.
Random signals are signals that take on random values at any given time instant and must be modeled stochastically.
Even and odd
An even signal satisfies the condition
or equivalently if the following equation holds for all and in the domain of :
An odd signal satisfies the condition
or equivalently if the following equation holds for all and in the domain of :
Periodic
A signal is said to be periodic if it satisfies the condition:
or
Where:
= fundamental time period,
= fundamental frequency.
The same can be applied to . A periodic signal will repeat for every period.
Time discretization
Signals can be classified as continuous or discrete time. In the mathematical abstraction, the domain of a continuous-time signal is the set of real numbers (or some interval thereof), whereas the domain of a discrete-time (DT) signal is the set of integers (or other subsets of real numbers). What these integers represent depends on the nature of the signal; most often it is time.
A continuous-time signal is any function which is defined at every time t in an interval, most commonly an infinite interval. A simple source for a discrete-time signal is the sampling of a continuous signal, approximating the signal by a sequence of its values at particular time instants.
Amplitude quantization
If a signal is to be represented as a sequence of digital data, it is impossible to maintain exact precision – each number in the sequence must have a finite number of digits. As a result, the values of such a signal must be quantized into a finite set for practical representation. Quantization is the process of converting a continuous analog audio signal to a digital signal with discrete numerical values of integers.
Examples of signals
Naturally occurring signals can be converted to electronic signals by various sensors. Examples include:
Motion. The motion of an object can be considered to be a signal and can be monitored by various sensors to provide electrical signals. For example, radar can provide an electromagnetic signal for following aircraft motion. A motion signal is one-dimensional (time), and the range is generally three-dimensional. Position is thus a 3-vector signal; position and orientation of a rigid body is a 6-vector signal. Orientation signals can be generated using a gyroscope.
Sound. Since a sound is a vibration of a medium (such as air), a sound signal associates a pressure value to every value of time and possibly three space coordinates indicating the direction of travel. A sound signal is converted to an electrical signal by a microphone, generating a voltage signal as an analog of the sound signal. Sound signals can be sampled at a discrete set of time points; for example, compact discs (CDs) contain discrete signals representing sound, recorded at 44,100 Hz; since CDs are recorded in stereo, each sample contains data for a left and right channel, which may be considered to be a 2-vector signal. The CD encoding is converted to an electrical signal by reading the information with a laser, converting the sound signal to an optical signal.
Images. A picture or image consists of a brightness or color signal, a function of a two-dimensional location. The object's appearance is presented as emitted or reflected light, an electromagnetic signal. It can be converted to voltage or current waveforms using devices such as the charge-coupled device. A 2D image can have a continuous spatial domain, as in a traditional photograph or painting; or the image can be discretized in space, as in a digital image. Color images are typically represented as a combination of monochrome images in three primary colors.
Videos. A video signal is a sequence of images. A point in a video is identified by its two-dimensional position in the image and by the time at which it occurs, so a video signal has a three-dimensional domain. Analog video has one continuous domain dimension (across a scan line) and two discrete dimensions (frame and line).
Biological membrane potentials. The value of the signal is an electric potential (voltage). The domain is more difficult to establish. Some cells or organelles have the same membrane potential throughout; neurons generally have different potentials at different points. These signals have very low energies, but are enough to make nervous systems work; they can be measured in aggregate by electrophysiology techniques.
The output of a thermocouple, which conveys temperature information.
The output of a pH meter which conveys acidity information.
Signal processing
Signal processing is the manipulation of signals. A common example is signal transmission between different locations. The embodiment of a signal in electrical form is made by a transducer that converts the signal from its original form to a waveform expressed as a current or a voltage, or electromagnetic radiation, for example, an optical signal or radio transmission. Once expressed as an electronic signal, the signal is available for further processing by electrical devices such as electronic amplifiers and filters, and can be transmitted to a remote location by a transmitter and received using radio receivers.
Signals and systems
In electrical engineering (EE) programs, signals are covered in a class and field of study known as signals and systems. Depending on the school, undergraduate EE students generally take the class as juniors or seniors, normally depending on the number and level of previous linear algebra and differential equation classes they have taken.
The field studies input and output signals, and the mathematical representations between them known as systems, in four domains: time, frequency, s and z. Since signals and systems are both studied in these four domains, there are 8 major divisions of study. As an example, when working with continuous-time signals (t), one might transform from the time domain to a frequency or s domain; or from discrete time (n) to frequency or z domains. Systems also can be transformed between these domains like signals, with continuous to s and discrete to z.
Signals and systems is a subset of the field of mathematical modeling. It involves circuit analysis and design via mathematical modeling and some numerical methods, and was updated several decades ago with dynamical systems tools including differential equations, and recently, Lagrangians. Students are expected to understand the modeling tools as well as the mathematics, physics, circuit analysis, and transformations between the 8 domains.
Because mechanical engineering (ME) topics like friction, dampening etc. have very close analogies in signal science (inductance, resistance, voltage, etc.), many of the tools originally used in ME transformations (Laplace and Fourier transforms, Lagrangians, sampling theory, probability, difference equations, etc.) have now been applied to signals, circuits, systems and their components, analysis and design in EE. Dynamical systems that involve noise, filtering and other random or chaotic attractors and repellers have now placed stochastic sciences and statistics between the more deterministic discrete and continuous functions in the field. (Deterministic as used here means signals that are completely determined as functions of time).
EE taxonomists are still not decided where signals and systems falls within the whole field of signal processing vs. circuit analysis and mathematical modeling, but the common link of the topics that are covered in the course of study has brightened boundaries with dozens of books, journals, etc. called "Signals and Systems", and used as text and test prep for the EE, as well as, recently, computer engineering exams.
Gallery
See also
Current loop – a signaling system in widespread use for process control
Signal-to-noise ratio
Notes
References
Further reading
Engineering concepts
Digital signal processing
Signal processing
Telecommunication theory | 0.760374 | 0.99496 | 0.756542 |
Relevance | Relevance is the concept of one topic being connected to another topic in a way that makes it useful to consider the second topic when considering the first. The concept of relevance is studied in many different fields, including cognitive sciences, logic, and library and information science. Most fundamentally, however, it is studied in epistemology (the theory of knowledge). Different theories of knowledge have different implications for what is considered relevant and these fundamental views have implications for all other fields as well.
Definition
"Something (A) is relevant to a task (T) if it increases the likelihood of accomplishing the goal (G), which is implied by T." (Hjørland & Sejer Christensen, 2002).
A thing might be relevant, a document or a piece of information may be relevant. The basic understanding of relevance does not depend on whether we speak of "things" or "information". For example, the Gandhian principles are of great relevance in today's world.
Epistemology
If you believe that schizophrenia is caused by bad communication between mother and child, then family interaction studies become relevant. If, on the other hand, you subscribe to a genetic theory of relevance then the study of genes becomes relevant. If you subscribe to the epistemology of empiricism, then only intersubjectively controlled observations are relevant. If, on the other hand, you subscribe to feminist epistemology, then the sex of the observer becomes relevant.
Epistemology is not just one domain among others. Epistemological views are always at play in any domain. Those views determine or influence what is regarded relevant.
Logic
In formal reasoning, relevance has proved an important but elusive concept. It is important because the solution of any problem requires the prior identification of the relevant elements from which a solution can be constructed. It is elusive, because the meaning of relevance appears to be difficult or impossible to capture within conventional logical systems. The obvious suggestion that q is relevant to p if q is implied by p breaks down because under standard definitions of material implication, a false proposition implies all other propositions. However though 'iron is a metal' may be implied by 'cats lay eggs' it doesn't seem to be relevant to it the way in which 'cats are mammals' and 'mammals give birth to living young' are relevant to each other. If one states "I love ice cream," and another person responds "I have a friend named Brad Cook," then these statements are not relevant. However, if one states "I love ice cream," and another person responds "I have a friend named Brad Cook who also likes ice cream," this statement now becomes relevant because it relates to the first person's idea.
Another proposal defines relevance or, more accurately, irrelevance information-theoretically. It is easiest to state in terms of variables, which might reflect the values of measurable hypotheses or observation statements. The conditional entropy of an observation variable e conditioned on a variable h characterizing alternative hypotheses provides a measure of the irrelevance of the observation variable e to the set of competing hypotheses characterized by h. It is useful combined with measures of the information content of the variable e in terms of its entropy. One can then subtract the content of e that is irrelevant to h (given by its conditional entropy conditioned on h) from the total information content of e (given by its entropy) to calculate the amount of information the variable e contains about the set of hypotheses characterized by h. Relevance (via the concept of irrelevance) and information content then characterize the observation variable and can be used to measure its sensitivity and specificity (respectively) as a test for alternative hypotheses.
More recently a number of theorists have sought to account for relevance in terms of "possible world logics" in intensional logic. Roughly, the idea is that necessary truths are true in all possible worlds, contradictions (logical falsehoods) are true in no possible worlds, and contingent propositions can be ordered in terms of the number of possible worlds in which they are true. Relevance is argued to depend upon the "remoteness relationship" between an actual world in which relevance is being evaluated and the set of possible worlds within which it is true.
Application
Cognitive science and pragmatics
In 1986, Dan Sperber and Deirdre Wilson drew attention to the central importance of relevance decisions in reasoning and communication. They proposed an account of the process of inferring relevant information from any given utterance. To do this work, they used what they called the "Principle of Relevance": namely, the position that any utterance addressed to someone automatically conveys the presumption of its own optimal relevance. The central idea of Sperber and Wilson's theory is that all utterances are encountered in some context, and the correct interpretation of a particular utterance is the one that allows most new implications to be made in that context on the basis of the least amount of information necessary to convey it. For Sperber and Wilson, relevance is conceived as relative or subjective, as it depends upon the state of knowledge of a hearer when they encounter an utterance.
Sperber and Wilson stress that this theory is not intended to account for every intuitive application of the English word "relevance". Relevance, as a technical term, is restricted to relationships between utterances and interpretations, and so the theory cannot account for intuitions such as the one that relevance relationships obtain in problems involving physical objects. If a plumber needs to fix a leaky faucet, for example, some objects and tools are relevant (e.g. a wrench) and others are not (e.g. a waffle iron). And, moreover, the latter seems to be irrelevant in a manner which does not depend upon the plumber's knowledge, or the utterances used to describe the problem.
A theory of relevance that seems to be more readily applicable to such instances of physical problem solving has been suggested by Gorayska and Lindsay in a series of articles published during the 1990s. The key feature of their theory is the idea that relevance is goal-dependent. An item (e.g., an utterance or object) is relevant to a goal if and only if it can be an essential element of some plan capable of achieving the desired goal. This theory embraces both propositional reasoning and the problem-solving activities of people such as plumbers, and defines relevance in such a way that what is relevant is determined by the real world (because what plans will work is a matter of empirical fact) rather than the state of knowledge or belief of a particular problem solver.
Economics
The economist John Maynard Keynes saw the importance of defining relevance to the problem of calculating risk in economic decision-making. He suggested that the relevance of a piece of evidence, such as a true proposition, should be defined in terms of the changes it produces of estimations of the probability of future events. Specifically, Keynes proposed that new evidence is irrelevant to a proposition , given old evidence , if and only if , otherwise, the proposition is relevant.
There are technical problems with this definition, for example, the relevance of a piece of evidence can be sensitive to the order in which other pieces of evidence are received.
Law
The meaning of "relevance" in U.S. law is reflected in Rule 401 of the Federal Rules of Evidence. That rule defines relevance as "having any tendency to make the existence of any fact that is of consequence to the determinations of the action more probable or less probable than it would be without the evidence." In other words, if a fact were to have no bearing on the truth or falsity of a conclusion, it would be legally irrelevant.
Library and information science
This field has considered when documents (or document representations) retrieved from databases are relevant or non-relevant. Given a conception of relevance, two measures have been applied: Precision and recall:
Recall = a : (a + c) X 100%, where
a = number of retrieved, relevant documents,
c = number of non-retrieved, relevant documents (sometimes termed "silence").
Recall is thus an expression of how exhaustive a search for documents is.
Precision = a : (a + b) X 100%, where
a = number of retrieved, relevant documents,
b = number of retrieved, non-relevant documents (often termed "noise").
Precision is thus a measure of the amount of noise in document-retrieval.
Relevance itself has in the literature often been based on what is termed "the system's view" and "the user's view". Hjørland (2010) criticize these two views and defends a "subject knowledge view of relevance".
Politics
During the 1960s, relevance became a fashionable buzzword, meaning roughly 'relevance to social concerns', such as racial equality, poverty, social justice, world hunger, world economic development, and so on. The implication was that some subjects, e.g., the study of medieval poetry and the practice of corporate law, were not worthwhile because they did not address pressing social issues.
See also
Source criticism
Description
Distraction
Information-action ratio
Information overload
Intention
Intuitionistic logic
Kripke semantics
Relevance theory
References
Gorayska B. & R. O. Lindsay (1993). The Roots of Relevance. Journal of Pragmatics 19, 301–323. Los Alamitos: IEEE Computer Society Press.
Hjørland, Birger (2010). The foundation of the concept of relevance. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 61(2), 217–237.
Keynes, J. M. (1921). Treatise on Probability. London: MacMillan
Lindsay, R. & Gorayska, B. (2002) Relevance, Goals and Cognitive Technology. International Journal of Cognitive Technology, 1, (2), 187–232
Sperber, D. & D. Wilson (1986/1995) Relevance: Communication and Cognition. 2nd edition. Oxford: Blackwell.
Sperber, D. & D. Wilson (1987). Précis of Relevance: Communication and Cognition. Behavioral and Brain Science, 10, 697–754.
Sperber, D. & D. Wilson (2004). Relevance Theory. In Horn, L.R. & Ward, G. (eds.) 2004 The Handbook of Pragmatics. Oxford: Blackwell, 607–632. http://www.dan.sperber.fr/?p=93
Zhang, X, H. (1993). A Goal-Based Relevance Model and its Application to Intelligent Systems. Ph.D. Thesis, Oxford Brookes University, Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, October, 1993.
External links
Malcolm Gladwell – Blink – full show: TVOntario interview regarding "snap judgements" and Blink
Information science
Library science terminology
Pragmatics
Logic
Descriptive technique | 0.767265 | 0.986005 | 0.756527 |
Media richness theory | Media richness theory (MRT), sometimes referred to as information richness theory, is a framework used to describe a communication medium's ability to reproduce the information sent over it. It was introduced by Richard L. Daft and Robert H. Lengel in 1986 as an extension of information processing theory. MRT is used to rank and evaluate the richness of certain communication media, such as phone calls, video conferencing, and email. For example, a phone call cannot reproduce visual social cues such as gestures which makes it a less rich communication media than video conferencing, which affords the transmission of gestures and body language. Based on contingency theory and information processing theory, MRT theorizes that richer, personal communication media are generally more effective for communicating equivocal issues in contrast with leaner, less rich media.
Background
Media richness theory was introduced in 1986 by Richard L. Daft and Robert H. Lengel. Leaning on information processing theory for its theoretical foundation, MRT was originally developed to describe and evaluate communication media within organizations. In presenting media richness theory, Daft and Lengel sought to help organizations cope with communication challenges, such as unclear or confusing messages, or conflicting interpretations of messages.
Other communication scholars have tested the theory in order to improve it, and more recently Media Richness Theory has been retroactively adapted to include new media communication media, such as video telephony, online conferencing, and online coursework. Although media richness theory relates to media use, rather than media choice, empirical studies of the theory have often studied what medium a manager would choose to communicate over, and not the effects of media use (media-adequacy).
Since its introduction, media richness theory has been applied to contexts outside of organizational and business communication (See "Application" section).
Theory
Information richness is defined by Daft and Lengel as "the ability of information to change understanding within a time interval".
Media richness theory states that all communication media vary in their ability to enable users to communicate and to change understanding. The degree of this ability is known as a medium's "richness." MRT places all communication media on a continuous scale based on their ability to adequately communicate a complex message. Media that can efficiently overcome different frames of reference and clarify ambiguous issues are considered to be richer whereas communications media that require more time to convey understanding are deemed less rich.
A primary driver in selecting a communication medium for a particular message is to reduce the equivocality, or possible misinterpretations, of a message. If a message is equivocal, it is unclear and thus more difficult for the receiver to decode. The more equivocal a message, the more cues and data needed to interpret it correctly. For example, a simple message intended to arrange a meeting time and place could be communicated in a short email, but a more detailed message about a person's work performance and expectations would be better communicated through face-to-face interaction.
The theory includes a framework with axes going from low to high equivocality and low to high uncertainty. Low equivocality and low uncertainty represents a clear, well-defined situation; high equivocality and high uncertainty indicates ambiguous events that need clarification by managers. Daft and Lengel also stress that message clarity may be compromised when multiple departments are communicating with each other, as departments may be trained in different skill sets or have conflicting communication norms.
Determining media richness
In their 1988 article regarding media richness theory, Daft and Lengel state, "The more learning that can be pumped through a medium, the richer the medium." Media richness is a function of characteristics including the following:
Ability to handle multiple information cues simultaneously
Ability to facilitate rapid feedback
Ability to establish a personal focus
Ability to utilize natural language
Selecting an appropriate medium
Media richness theory predicts that managers will choose the mode of communication based on aligning the equivocality of the message to the richness of the medium. In other words, communication channels will be selected based on how communicative they are. However, often other factors, such as the resources available to the communicator, come into play. Daft and Lengel's prediction assumes that managers are most concentrated on task efficiency (that is, achieving the communicative goal as efficiently as possible) and does not take into consideration other factors, such as relationship growth and maintenance. Subsequent researchers have pointed out that attitudes towards a medium may not accurately predict a person's likelihood of using that medium over others, as media usage is not always voluntary. If an organization's norms and resources support one medium, it may be difficult for a manager to choose another form to communicate his or her message.
Social presence refers to the degree to which a medium permits communicators to experience others as being psychologically present or the degree to which a medium is perceived to convey the actual presence of the communicating participants. Tasks that involve interpersonal skills, such as resolving disagreements or negotiation, demand high social presence, whereas tasks such as exchanging routine information require less social presence. Therefore, face-to-face media like group meetings are more appropriate for performing tasks that require high social presence; media such as email and written letters are more appropriate for tasks that require low social presence.
Another model that is related to media richness theory as an alternative, particularly in selecting an appropriate medium, is the social influence model. How we perceive media, in this case to decide where a medium falls on the richness scale, depends on "perceptions of media characteristics that are socially created," reflecting social forces and social norms at play in the current environment and the context that determines the needed use. Each organization is different in the goal that is trying to be reached and the missions that are trying to be completed. Thus, with different organizational cultures and environments, the way each organization perceives a medium is different and as a result, the way each organization uses media and deems media as more or less rich will vary.
Communicators also consider how personal a message is when determining the appropriate media for communication. In general, richer media are more personal as they include nonverbal and verbal cues, body language, inflection, and gestures that signal a person's reaction to a message. Rich media can promote a closer relationship between a manager and subordinate. The sentiment of the message may also have an influence on the medium chosen. Managers may want to communicate negative messages in person or via a richer media, even if the equivocality of the message is not high, in order to facilitate better relationships with subordinates. On the other hand, sending a negative message over a leaner medium would weaken the immediate blame on the message sender and prevent them from observing the reaction of the receiver.
As current business models change, allowing more employees to work outside the office, organizations must rethink the reliance on face-to-face communication. Furthermore, the fear of more lean channels must be rid of. In this current context, managers must decide through trial and errors which medium is best used for various situations, namely an employee that works from the office vs. an employee that works outside the office. Business is being conducted on a global scale. In order to save money and cut back on travel time, organizations must adopt new media in order to stay up-to-date with business functions in the modern times.
Concurrency
In April 1993, Valacich et al. suggested that in light of new media, concurrency be included as an additional characteristic to determine a medium's richness. They define environmental concurrency to represent "the communication capacity of the environment to support distinct communication episodes, without detracting from any other episodes that may be occurring simultaneously between the same or different individuals." Furthermore, they explain that while this idea of concurrency could be applied to the media described in Daft and Lengel's original theories, new media provide a greater opportunity for concurrency than ever before.
Applications
Industries
Organizational and business communications
Media richness theory was originally conceived in an organizational communication setting to better understand interaction within companies. MRT is used to determine the "best" medium for an individual or organization to communicate a message. For example, organizations may find that important decisions need to be discussed in face-to-face interactions; using email would not be an adequate channel.
From an organizational perspective, high level personnel may require verbal media to help solve many of their problems. Entry-level positions with clear, unambiguous tasks may be fulfilled with written media forms. From an individual perspective, though, people prefer oral communication because the abundant communicative cues afford more accurate and efficient interpretation of the message.
An information-processing perspective of organizations also highlights the important role of communication. This perspective suggests that organizations gather information from their environment, process this information, and then act on it. As environmental complexity, turbulence, and information load increase, organizational communication increases. The organization's effectiveness in processing information becomes paramount when the business environment is complex and wrought with rapid change.
Today, companies use technologies such as video conferencing, which enable participants to see each other even when in separate locations. This technology affords organizations the opportunity to have richer communication than via traditional conference calls which only provide audio cues to the participants involved.
Media sensitivity and job performance
Daft and Lengel also assert that not all executives or managers in organizations demonstrate the same skill in making effective media choices for communications. High performing executives or managers tend to be more "sensitive" to richness requirements in media selection than low performing managers. In other words, competent executives select rich media for non-routine messages and lean media for routine messages.
From the consensus and satisfaction perspectives, groups with a communication medium which is too lean for their task seem to experience more difficulties than groups with a communication medium which is too rich for their task. Additionally, face-to-face groups achieved higher consensus change, higher decision satisfaction and higher decision scheme satisfaction than dispersed groups.
Job seeking and recruitment
In a job recruitment context, face-to-face interactions with company representatives, such as at career fairs, should be perceived by applicants as rich media. Career fairs allow instant feedback in the form of questions and answers and permit multiple cues including verbal messages and body gestures and can be tailored to each job seeker's interests and questions.
In comparison, static messages like reading information on a company's website or browsing an electronic bulletin board can be defined as leaner media since they are not customized to the individual needs of job seekers; they are asynchronous in their feedback and, since they are primarily text-based, there are no opportunities for verbal inflections or body gestures. This interaction between job seekers and potential employers affects how candidates process information about the organization. The interactions a candidate has with a potential employer via lean and rich media shape a job seeker's beliefs. Some employers have started using more vivid tools to answer questions about job recruitment such as videos, animations and virtual agents. Counterintuitively, elements which are more interactive like the US Army's virtual agent, Sgt. Starr, have been shown to hinder information transfer for ambiguous or complex messages such as a company's value or mission.
Virtual teams and teleworking
Many organizations are distributed globally with employees on a single team located in many different time zones. In order to facilitate productive cooperation and team dynamics, organizations benefit from considering the technology tools that are provided for coworking and communication. Workman, Kahnweiler, and Bommer (2003) found that an ideal teleworking design would feature a variety of types of media, ranging from lean to rich, in which workers can choose the media that is most suitable for their working style and the task at hand. Further, different jobs may require different types of media. Jobs that are more concrete and structured like planning, administration or operations may be sustainable with lean media options while software design and development which inherently has much more uncertainty and negotiation is best supported by richer media channels.
A 2009 study exploring the dynamics of virtual teams showed that the use of richer media in virtual work environments decreased perceived social loafing, or the feeling that a group member's individual contributions are not noticed or valued.
Corporate social responsibility
The concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR), which originally gained prominence in the 1960s, describes a company's self-regulation in the compliance of the ethical and moral standards. Public companies often describe their CSR efforts as an aspect of marketing campaigns in order to appeal to customers. Sat and Selemat (2014) found that customers were more affected by such messages when they were communicated through rich channels instead of lean ones.
Media
While media richness theory's application to new media has been contested (see "Criticism"), it is still used heuristically as a basis for studies examining new media.
Websites and hypertext
Websites can vary in their richness. In a study examining representations of the former Yugoslavia on the World Wide Web, Jackson and Purcell proposed that hypertext plays a role in determining the richness of individual websites. They developed a framework of criteria in which the use of hypertext on a website can be evaluated in terms of media richness characteristics as set forth by Daft and Lengel in their original theoretical literature. Furthermore, in their 2004 article, Simon and Peppas examined product websites' richness in terms of multimedia use. They classified "rich media sites" as those that included text, pictures, sounds and video clips, while the "lean media sites" contained only text. In their study, they created four sites (two rich and two lean) to describe two products (one simple, one complex). They found that most users, regardless of the complexity of the product, preferred the websites that provided richer media.
Rich media on websites also has the potential to stimulate action in the physical world. Lu, Kim, Dou and Kumar (2014) demonstrated that websites with 3D views of a fitness center were more successful in creating a student's intention to visit the gym than a website with static 2D images.
Instant messaging and texting
Media richness theory implies that a sender should select a medium of appropriate richness to communicate the desired message or fulfill a specific task. Senders that use less-rich communication media must consider the limitations of that medium in the dimensions of feedback, multiple cues, message tailoring, and emotions. Take for example the relative difficulty of determining whether a modern text message is serious or sarcastic in tone. The leanness of the text prevents the transmission of tone and facial expression which would otherwise be useful in detecting the sarcasm. However, results from a study conducted by Anandarajan et al. on Generation Y's use of instant messaging conclude that "the more users recognize IM as a rich communication medium, the more likely they believe this medium is useful for socialization." Though Generation Y users consider texting to be a rich medium, there is additional evidence that shows that easily accessible and non-intrusive media (i.e., texting, Twitter) were more likely to be used for sharing positive than negative events, and intrusive and rich media (i.e., phone calling) were more likely to be used for sharing negative than positive events. Additionally, in order to better understand teenagers' use of MSN (later called Microsoft Messenger service), Sheer examined the effect of both media richness and communication control. Among other findings, Sheer's study demonstrated that "rich features, such as webcam and MSN Spaces seemingly facilitated the increase of acquaintances, new friends, opposite-sex friends, and, thus, the total number of friends."
E-mail
In recent years, as the general population has become more e-mail savvy, the lines have blurred somewhat between face-to-face and e-mail communication. E-mail is now thought of as a verbal tool, with its capacity to enable immediate feedback, leverage natural language, and embed emotion via acronyms and emoticons.
However, there is a downside of e-mail: volume overload. Emails often have large unnecessary quantities of information which is non-job essential and/or spam. Filtering through this junk does require additional time. The time required to manage email can cause an information overload. With excess email, people may feel that they will miss information due to the sheer volume on content they receive. Some individuals may find this volume to be a barrier to swift responses to emails.
Email do have the capacity to transmit more informational content than other channels such as voicemail. Perception of email as a rich platform varies among users though. This perception contributes to how the individual will use the channel. For some, the choice of content will differ. They may include images or videos if they recognize email as a rich channel whereas others may only leverage text. This perception also affects choice of linguistic features. Those that see email as similar to an oral channel will type differently than those who see email as a written channel.
Parents favor using email to communicate in cases that involve their child's academic status. When communicating to teachers, parents favored a more asynchronous form of messaging, to clearly state their concerns about their children. This, in turn, creates a clear communication channel between the teacher and parent.
Email and Virtual Teamwork
When virtual teams were tasked in completing projects, many directed their attention towards email, even though it ranks lower in richness. Emails, although low in richness, provide the rehearsability and reprocessability (ability to read over messages before sending and read over to facilitate better understanding) than other mediums higher in richness may not.
Video conferencing
Video conference software has been used not only for virtual teams in large companies, but also for classrooms and casual conversations. Software or Video Conferencing Systems (VCS) such as Skype and Google Hangouts allow for more visual cues than just audio conversations. Research suggests that VCS is somewhere between the telephone and face-to-face meetings in terms of media richness. Even though video conferencing does not have the same richness as face-to-face conversations, a study regarding video conferencing has said that richer content-presentation types were positively correlated with higher concentration levels but showed mixed results when correlated with perceived usefulness.
Facebook
The social media platform, Facebook, has been found to be even richer than email. Facebook business pages offer such features as immediate feedback from customers, linkage to additional webpages, customization to customers/potential customers, as well as a language variety. Businesses have been able to use this platform to successfully connect with their customers but at a cost of quality and access potentially decreasing.
Other applications
Relational communication
Kashian and Walther (2018) find that asynchronous communication is a better medium for reducing conflict between people who have generally positive opinions/attributions of their partners than does the face-to-face medium. The authors credit relational intimacy and attending positive attributions made by the partners as a potential reason for overcoming asynchronous communication's alleged shortcomings as espoused by the media synchronicity theory, which “[contends] that synchronous media are best for convergent conflict communication” (2018, p. 7, citing Dennis et al., 2008). The authors conclude, “asynchronous CMC is a beneficial medium for online conflict among satisfied couples” (2018, p. 19).
In another study, Koutamanis et al. (2013) suggest that adolescents’ engagement through instant messaging may actually serve to improve their respective abilities to enter into in-person relationships in the real world. The authors focus on textual communication via electronic means. Although the written word is generally considered to be one of the leanest forms of communication regardless of how it is delivered according to the media richness theory, this study illustrates how texting may enhance adolescents’ ability to later succeed with face-to-face interactions that come after a certain amount of interaction through textual correspondence.
In a 2016 article, Lisiecka et al. point out that, although it has been generally accepted that “media other than face-to-face are considered an obstacle rather than an equally effective means of information transfer” (2016, p. 13), their results suggest that computer-mediated communication “has become similarly natural and intuitive as face-to-face contacts” (2016, p. 13).
Tong and Walther (2015) argue that unlike predictions attributed to early computer-mediated communication theories like the media richness (Daft & Lengel, 1986) and media naturalness (Kock, 2004) theories, nonverbal communication may not be “essential to the behavioral transfer and perceptual interpretation of expectancies” (2015, p. 204). And further suggest that face-to-face communication may negatively skew people's interactions if the participants’ first impressions are influenced by biases that are responsive to visual cues.
Deception
Deception, in the context of communication theory, occurs when the sender knowingly conveys a false message to the receiver. According to Buller and Burgoon, "deception occurs when communicators control the information contained in their messages to convey a meaning that departs from the truth as they know it." This idea is central to the Interpersonal deception theory. Additional research has analyzed the relationship between media richness and the communication of deceptive messages. Richer media, especially those that transmit non-verbal cues such tone of voice, facial expression or gestures, show lesser incidences of deceptive messages than lean media. By leveraging a richer media, interlocutors develop stronger affective bonds which mitigates the likelihood that one speaker will try to deceive another. When honesty is not considered the best policy, learner media, such as e-mail, allows for a stronger possibility of deception.
Distance education and e-books
In evaluating students' satisfaction with distance courses, Sheppherd and Martz concluded that a course's use of media rich technology affected how students evaluated the quality of the course. Courses that utilized tools such as "discussion forums, document sharing areas, and web casting" were viewed more favorably. Lai and Chang in 2011 used media richness as a variable in their study examining user attitudes towards e-books, stating that the potential for rich media content like embedded hyperlinks and other multimedia additions, offered users a different reading experience than a printed book. Further research by Lan and Sie (2010), that within the category of text based communication channels, there are significant differences that should shape an instructor's choice of technology. They studied the use of SMS, email and RSS and found that SMS is suitable for fast delivery, email affords greater content richness and RSS is the ideal format for content presentation on front-end mobile devices.
E-books and e-learning are becoming recurrent tools in the academic landscape. One of the key characteristics of e-learning is its capability to integrate different media, such as text, picture, audio, animation and video to create multimedia instructional material. Media selection in e-learning can be a critical issue because of the increased costs of developing non-textual e-learning materials. Learners can benefit from the use of richer media in courses that contain equivocal and complex content; however, learners achieve no significant benefit in either learner score or learner satisfaction from the use of richer media in courses containing low equivocal (numeric) content.
Nursing
The transition from analog to digital record keeping in medical care has been at the forefront of medical innovation.. Castro, Favela, and Gracia-Pena studied the effects of different media (face to face, telephone and videoconferencing) on nursing consultations in emergency calls. They found that while there were no efficacy differences between media, richer media did facilitate faster consultations and resolutions. Videoconferencing may result in less eye contact than if the nurse was face to face with the patient.
Finding physicians and healthcare providers
Despite interpersonal communication being a key ingredient in medical encounters, and physician communication being one of the most important qualities patients indicate in their selection of a new doctor, healthcare organizations do not do a very good job helping their prospective patients understand how a new doctor would communicate with them in future encounters through their online biographies - most only providing "lean" biographies of text, and very few providing "richer" video introductions. Video introductions provide the opportunity to help patients actually see how a physician might interact within a consultation. Perrault and Silk tested what effects richer video introductions of doctors might have on patients when they are in this decision-making phase. They uncovered that when participants were exposed to a richer video introduction of the physician that uncertainty was reduced to a greater extent than when they were only exposed a lean, text-based biography. Participants were also more likely to choose to want to visit the doctor who provided the richer video introduction over the leaner text biography.
Civic engagement
Media used online also has been successfully proven to stimulate civic engagement. Leveraging the Internet to facilitate public deliberation has been proven to be a successful and cost-effective way to engage large volumes of citizens. Studies have shown that mixed modality media (both rich and lean) can be useful in citizen education and engagement. Through the creation of new social networks and various online platforms, media allows for many more opportunities of "greater visibility and community building potential of cultural citizenship's previous 'ephemeral' practices." The explosion of creativity on the internet can be linked to formal institutions such as government and education in order to allow for a broader participation base, leading to stronger engagement of citizens and gaining access to a wider range of insight and knowledge.
Gender and Media Richness Theory
Studies have been conducted to determine which medias allow different genders to become more productive in the workplace. In Gender Differences in the Effects of Media Richness the researchers found that women tend to work better with nonverbal communication than men. In general, nonverbal cues and communication is more easily broken down by women, due to their ability to be expressive more frequently than men.
Researchers found that men are more likely to appreciate task-oriented projects where women prefer social-oriented activities. Men are found to be able to make quicker decisions while women facilitate conversations deeply in order to fully understand what is being talked about.
Criticism
Scope of the theory
Media richness theory has been criticized by what many researchers saw as its deterministic nature. Markus argues that social pressures can influence media use much more strongly than richness, and in ways that are inconsistent with MRT's key tenets. It has also been noted that media richness theory should not assume that the feelings towards using a richer media in a situation are completely opposite to using a leaner media. In fact, media choice is complex and in general even if a rich media is considered to be the "best" to communicate a message, a leaner media may still be able to communicate the message. In addition, for some tasks, the type of media used will make no difference to the accuracy of the communicated message.
In selecting a medium for message transmission, an individual will also consider his or her comfort with the possible options. If an individual is uncomfortable or unfamiliar with using an email system to distribute a message, and view learning to send an email as more time-consuming and inefficient than simply having a group meeting, he or she may choose a richer medium instead of a more efficient medium. This behavior outcome, through irrational, is certainly a reflection upon the previously established experience.
Cultural and social limitations
Ngwenyama and Lee show that cultural and social background influence media choice by individuals in ways that are incompatible with predictions based on media richness theory; their paper received the Paper of the Year Award in the journal MIS Quarterly. Ngwenyama and Lee are not alone in their critiques regarding the limitations of media richness theory, particularly in regards to cultural and individual characteristics. Research by Ook Lee demonstrated that in a Confucian virtual work environment where showing respect is essential, a communication channel's ability to convey cultural protocol is more important than the richness of the channel. In 2009, Gerritsen's study concluded that in business contexts, culture does play a role in determining the receiver's preference of medium, perhaps in terms of the specific culture's threshold for uncertainty avoidance.
Additionally, Dennis, Kinney, and Hung found that in terms of the actual performance of equivocal tasks, the richness of a medium has the most notable effect on teams composed entirely of females. On the other hand, "matching richness to task equivocality did not improve decision quality, time, consensus, or communication satisfaction for all-male or mixed-gender teams." Individually speaking, Barkhi demonstrated that communication mode and cognitive style can play a role in media preference and selection, suggesting that even in situations with identical messages and intentions, the "best" media selection can vary from person to person.
Application to new media
Additionally, because media richness theory was developed before widespread use of the internet, which also introduced media like email, chat rooms, instant messaging, smartphone, and more, some have questioned its ability to accurately predict what new media users may choose. Several studies have been conducted that examine media choice when given options considered to be "new media", such as voice mail and email. Blau, Weiser, and Eshet-Alkalai study the differences and similarities of perceived and actual outcomes for students who take the same class either online or in traditional classroom settings. The authors conclude that face-to-face classroom settings are not superior to online classrooms. Further, they also suggest that a “high level of medium naturalness might hinder the understanding of a very complicated type of knowledge”, which is the opposite of what the media richness theory predicts. El-Shinnaway and Markus hypothesized that, based on media richness theory, individuals would choose to communicate messages over the more rich medium of voice mail than via email, but found that even when sending more equivocal messages, the leaner medium of email was used. Also, it has been indicated that given the expanded capabilities of new media, media richness theory's unidimensional approach to categorizing different communication media in no longer sufficient to capture all the dimensions in which media types can vary.
Related theories
Media naturalness
Several new theories have been developed based on Daft and Lengel's original framework. Kock (2004) argues that human non-lexical communication methods and apparatus, such as facial expressions, gestures, and body language, have evolved for millions of years, and as such, must be important to the naturalness of communication between people. Media Naturalness Theory hypothesizes that because face-to-face communication is the most "natural" method of communication, we should want our other communication methods to resemble face-to-face communication as closely as possible. While media richness theory places media on a scale that range from low to high in richness and places face-to-face communication at the top of the scale, Media Naturalness Theory thinks of face-to-face communication as the middle in a scale, and states that the further away one gets from face-to-face (either more or less rich), the more cognitive processing is required to comprehend a message.
Media compensation
The 2011 media compensation theory by Hantula, Kock, D'Arcy, and DeRosa refines Kock's media naturalness theory. The authors explain that the media compensation theory has been developed to specifically address two paradoxes:
Virtual communication, work, collaboration, and teams are largely successful (sometimes even more so than face-to-face equivalents) which conflicts with Kock's media naturalness theory; and,
"The human species evolved in small groups using communications modalities in constrained areas, yet use electronic communication media to allow large groups to work together effectively across time and space” (Hantula et al., 2011, p. 358).
The authors grapple with how humans “who have not changed much in many millennia” (Hantula et al., 2011, p. 358) are able to successfully embrace and employ lean media, such as texting, considering their assumption that human evolution has progressed down a path toward, and adeptness for, face-to-face communication, and conclude that elements of the media naturalness theory can coexist with Carlson and Zmud's channel expansion theory.
Media synchronicity
To help explain media richness and its application to new media, media synchronicity theory was proposed. Media richness is also related to adaptive structuration theory and social information processing theory, in which instead of focusing on object physical attributions of the media, shift towards social construction of the media. Media synchronicity theory, however, is a theory of communication performance that does not investigate why people choose which media to use. Synchronicity describes the ability of a medium to create the sense that all participants are concurrently engaged in the communication event. Media with high degrees of synchronicity, such as face-to-face meetings, offer participants the opportunity to communicate in real time, immediately observe the reactions and responses of others, and easily determine whether co-participants are fully engaged in the conversation.
Media synchronicity theory states that every communication interaction is composed of two processes: conveyance and convergence. The processes are necessary for completing tasks. Conveyance is about the transmission of new information, while convergence is about reaching an agreement. For tasks that require convergence, media with high degrees of synchronicity, such as face-to-face meetings and video conferences, offer participants the opportunity to communicate at the same time, and develop interpersonal reactions to reach an agreement through discussion. For tasks that require conveyance, media with low degrees of synchronicity such as e-mail and SMS texts allows participants to receive information regardless of geographical dispersion and time zone and have more time to process new information without the necessity to debate with others.
Media synchronicity theory also states that each medium has a set of abilities.These abilities include: transmission velocity, parallelism, symbol sets, rehearsability, and reaccessability. The transmission velocity of a message refers to how quickly the recipient receives it from the sender; parallelism refers to the number of messages that can be conveyed at the same time; symbol sets are the number of ways that recipients can interpret the message, such as verbal and visual cues; rehearsability is the extent to which the sender can revise and edit messages before sending out, and reprocessibility is the degree to which recipients can retrieve and re-interpret messages. According to the theory, choosing a medium with capabilities that match information transmission and processing requirements can make communication more effective.
Applications
The applications of media synchronicity theory include negotiations, virtual team collaborations, and communication during disasters. During negotiations, if both communicators are familiar with each other and know about the subprocesses to complete tasks, then the need for synchronicity will be lower. Negotiations can be more effective if the group has discussed the requirement through media with low synchronicity before synchronous meetings, as the group can remove uncertainties before reaching convergence. The reheasability of the media also has a positive impact on satisfaction. Positive messages transmitted through asynchronous text-based electronically mediated negotiations (TBEM) yields higher negotiator satisfaction than face-to-face negotiations (FTF). Virtual collaborations are considered to be activities that require convergence, and groups with 3D space that provide rooms for synchronous discussion have higher task performances than groups using text-based chat. However, if a mobile-enabling discussion is also provided during the collaborations, its high parallelism and reprocessibility can improve user experience and task performance. During natural disasters, the purpose of risk communication is to educate people about the situation, so conveyance processes are required. A medium with relatively low synchronicity is preferred. Crisis communication, on the other hand, has the purpose of sharing individuals' understandings which requires convergence. A medium with relatively high synchronicity is preferred. A single social platform can have different sets of capabilities depending on features, and people can manipulate symbol sets such as hashtags and the number of words in a post, to maximize the effectiveness of communication. Synchronous channels are helpful for urgent situations especially in more vulnerable areas, while asynchronous channels are useful for governments and utility service providers in their attempts to amplify their crisis management messages and expand the reach of information related to evacuation and recovery.
Channel expansion
Channel expansion theory was proposed by Carlson and Zmud (1999) to explain the inconsistencies found in several empirical studies. In these studies, the results showed that managers would employ "leaner" media for tasks of high equivocality. Channel expansion theory suggested that individual's media choice has a lot to do with individual's experience with the medium itself, with the communicator and also with the topic. Thus it is possible that an individual's experience with using a certain lean medium, will prompt that individual to use it for equivocal tasks. For example, a study by Kahai, Carroll, and Jestice (2007) showed that participants' familiarity with instant messaging led them to perceive the medium as richer than the virtual world known as Second Life. Participants' lack of experience with the objectively richer virtual world may have affected their perception when compared to the more familiar medium of instant messaging.
However, the theory does not suggest that knowledge-building experiences will necessarily equalize differences in richness, whether objective or perceptually-based, across different media. Put in another way, knowledge-building experiences may be positively related to perceptions of the richness of email, but this does not necessarily mean that email will be viewed as richer than another medium, such as face-to-face interaction
See also
Communication theory
Emotions in virtual communication
Hyperpersonal model
Multicommunicating
Social identity model of deindividuation effects (SIDE)
Telecommuting
Theories of technology
References
Further reading
Daft, R.L. & Lengel, R.H. (1984). Information richness: a new approach to managerial behavior and organizational design. In: Cummings, L.L. & Staw, B.M. (Eds.), Research in organizational behavior 6, (191-233). Homewood, IL: JAI Press.
Daft, R.L., Lengel, R.H., & Trevino, L.K. (1987). Message equivocality, media selection, and manager performance: Implications for information systems. MIS Quarterly, September, 355–366.
Mass media technology | 0.76881 | 0.983933 | 0.756458 |
Eurythmy | Eurythmy is an expressive movement art originated by Rudolf Steiner in conjunction with his wife, Marie, in the early 20th century. Primarily a performance art, it is also used in education, especially in Waldorf schools, and – as part of anthroposophic medicine – for claimed therapeutic purposes.
The word eurythmy stems from Greek roots meaning beautiful or harmonious rhythm. (“Eu” meaning “well”).
History
Eurythmy was conceived in 1911 when a widow brought her young daughter, Lory Smits, who was interested in movement and dance, to Rudolf Steiner. Due to the recent loss of her father, it was necessary for the girl to find a career. Steiner's advice was sought; he suggested that the girl begin working on a new art of movement. As preparation for this, she began to study human anatomy, to explore the human step, to contemplate the movement implicit in Greek sculpture and dance, and to find movements that would express spoken sentences using the sounds of speech. Soon a number of other young people became interested in this form of expressive movement.
During these years, Steiner was writing a new drama each year for performance at the Anthroposophical Society's summer gatherings; beginning in 1912, he began to incorporate the new art of movement into these dramas. When the Society decided to build an artistic center in Dornach, Switzerland (this later became known as the Goetheanum) a small stage group began work and offered weekly performances of the developing art. Marie Steiner-von Sivers, Steiner's wife, who was a trained actress and speech artist, was given responsibility for training and directing this ensemble. This first eurythmy ensemble went on tour in 1919, performing across Switzerland, the Netherlands and Germany.
Steiner saw eurythmy as a unique expression of the anthroposophical impulse:
According to Steiner: "In eurythmy we present in the form and movement of the human organism a direct external proof of a man's share in the life of the supersensible world. When people do eurythmy they are linked directly with the supersensible world. Whenever art is formed from a truly artistic conviction it bears witness to the connection of the human being with the supersensible world." (Dornach, 12 September 1920).
In 1924, Steiner gave two intensive workshops on different aspects of eurythmy; transcripts of his talks during these workshops are published as Eurythmy as Visible Speech and Eurythmy as Visible Singing.
Eurythmy ensembles in Stuttgart, Germany and at the Goetheanum soon became established parts of the cultural life of Europe. The Goetheanum ensemble was recognized with a gold medal at the Paris Expo of 1937/8. The Stuttgart training and ensemble, led by Else Klink, had to close in the Nazi period but reopened shortly after the close of World War II. There are now training centers and artistic ensembles in many countries.
Etymology
The word eurythmy stems from Greek roots meaning beautiful or harmonious rhythm. The term was used by Ancient Greek and Roman architects to refer to the harmonious proportions of a design or building; The English word eurythmy was used from the 17th to 19th century to refer not only to harmonious architectural proportions, but also to "rhythmical order or movement" and "a graceful proportion and carriage of the body".
Movement repertoire
The gestures in the eurythmist's movement repertoire relate to the sounds and rhythms of speech, to the tones and rhythms of music and to "soul experiences", such as joy and sorrow. Once these fundamental repertoire elements are learned, they can be composed into free artistic expressions. The eurythmist also cultivates a feeling for the qualities of straight lines and curves, the directions of movement in space (forward, backward, up, down, left, right), contraction and expansion, and color. The element of color is also emphasized both through the costuming, usually given characteristic colors for a piece or part and formed of long, loose fabrics that accentuate the movements rather than the bodily form, and through the lighting, which saturates the space and changes with the moods of the piece.
Eurythmy's aim is to bring the artists' expressive movement and both the performers' and audience's feeling experience into harmony with a piece's content; eurythmy is thus sometimes called "visible music" or "visible speech", expressions that originate with its founder, Rudolf Steiner, who described eurythmy as an "art of the soul".
Most eurythmy today is performed to classical (concert) music or texts such as poetry or stories. Silent pieces are also sometimes performed.
Eurythmy with music
When performing eurythmy with music (also called tone eurythmy), the three major elements of music, melody, harmony and rhythm, are all expressed. The melody is primarily conveyed through expressing its rise and fall; the specific pitches; and the intervallic qualities present. Harmony is expressed through movement between tension and release, as expressions of dissonance and consonance, and between the more inwardly directed minor mood and the outwardly directed major mood. Rhythm is chiefly conveyed through livelier and more contoured movements for quick notes, slower, dreamier movements for longer notes; in addition, longer tones move into the more passive (listening) back space, quicker tones into the more active front space.
Breaths or pauses are expressed through a larger or smaller movement in space, giving new impulse to what follows. Beat is conveyed through greater emphasis of downbeats, or those beats upon which stress is normally placed. Beat is generally treated as a subsidiary element. Eurythmy has only occasionally been done to popular music, in which beat plays a large role.
The timbre of individual instruments is brought into the quality both of the tonal gestures and of the whole movement of the eurythmist. Usually there will be a different eurythmist or group of eurythmists expressing each instrument, for example in chamber or symphonic music.
A piece's choreography usually expresses elements such as the major or minor key, the shape of the melody line, the interplay between voices or instruments and the relative dominance of one or another voice or instrument. Thus, musicians can often follow even the finest details of their part in the movements of the eurythmists on stage. Particular musical forms (e.g. the sonata) can have special characteristic choreographic expressions.
Eurythmy with spoken texts
Eurythmy is often performed with spoken texts such as poetry, stories or plays. Speech eurythmy includes such elements as the sounds of speech, rhythms, poetic meters, grammar and mood. In speech eurythmy, all the sounds of language have characteristic gestural qualities: the sound of an 'A' is open due to the position of the articulators during the vowel. A 'k' sounds sharper due to the manner of articulation of the consonant, that it is a plosive. Note that it is the audible sounds themselves, not the letters of the written language, that are expressed.
Eurythmy as a performing art
There are notable eurythmy ensembles in Dornach, Switzerland; Stuttgart, Germany; The Hague, Netherlands; London, Järna, Sweden, and Chestnut Ridge, New York (near New York City). All of these groups both perform locally and tour internationally. Many smaller performing groups also exist (see list). High schools that have their own performing ensembles include the San Francisco Waldorf High School ensemble.
Pedagogical eurythmy
When the first Waldorf School was founded in 1919, eurythmy was included in the curriculum. It was quickly recognized as a successful complement to gymnastics in the school's movement program and is now taught in most Waldorf schools, as well as in many non-Waldorf pre-school centers, kindergartens and schools. It is taught to all ages from pre-schools through high school and into college. Its purpose is to awaken and strengthen the expressive capacities of children through movement, stimulating the child to bring imagination, ideation and conceptualization to the point where they can manifest these as "vital, moving forms" in physical space. It is also thought to improve balance, coordination, concentration, rhythm, and form an awareness of patterns.
Eurythmy pedagogical exercises begin with the straight line and curve and proceed through successively more complicated geometric figures and choreographed forms, developing a child's coordination and concentration. An extensive set of special exercises has also been developed for pedagogical purposes. These include metamorphosing geometric patterns and dynamic movement sequences, such as the Harmonious Eight and the Curve of Cassini.
Rods or balls are sometimes used in exercises to develop precision in movement, to expand the experience of space, develop precise balance, and to objectify the movement experience. The rods are usually approximately the length of an arm; the balls are of a size to fit comfortably in one hand. Both are generally made of copper, a material receptive to warmth.
Though there are some independent post-graduate trainings for pedagogical eurythmy, this aspect is frequently included in courses focusing on artistic work.
Therapeutic eurythmy
Eurythmy is a component of anthroposophic medicine, a system of alternative medicine which has been criticised as unscientific, pseudoscientific and as "pure quackery".
According to the precepts of anthroposophic medicine, a human has four aspects which need to be treated: spirit, soul, life and matter. Eurythmy is one of the practices said to act on the "life" aspect, and is claimed to effect an "improvement of health related life functions". A person receiving eurythmy therapy moves under the guidance of a eurythmy therapist, who will have been trained two years beyond the four-year fundamental course in eurythmy. The movements may be adapted to the condition of the person being treated; for example, they may be done while either sitting or even lying down. Therapeutic eurythmy is claimed to bring about a "re-integration of body, soul, and spirit."
A 2008 review in BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine said that eurythmy was a "potentially relevant add-on" to a therapeutic program, but though the studies reviewed reported improvement in symptoms, limitations in the underlying data and in the review methods means these conclusions "warrant cautious interpretation".
In popular culture
It has been mistakenly suggested that the British pop group Eurythmics derived its name from Steiner's Eurythmy. However, singer Annie Lennox never had a Steiner education, and the claim was corrected in a Guardian article in 2012. Lennox actually studied Dalcroze Eurhythmics at Aberdeen High School for Girls. She recalled in an interview in 2014, "When I was a kid at school, there was a very adorable, mildly eccentric dance teacher who taught a form of music through movement that was called eurhythmics". Eurhythmics, with its English spelling, is an approach to music education developed by the Swiss composer Emile Jaques-Dalcroze. While training as a classical musician at the Royal Academy of Music, London, Lennox attended the Dalcroze UK Spring Course of 1974. The band, Eurythmics, with its French spelling, was formed with collaborator Dave Stewart in the early 1980s. In 2023, Lennox became the Patron of Dalcroze UK, a charitable organisation that promotes Dalcroze Eurhythmics.
See also
American Eurythmy School
References
Bibliography
Kirchner-Bockholt and Wood, Fundamental Principles of Curative Eurythmy ,
Poplawski, Thomas, Eurythmy: Rhythm, Dance and Soul,
Siegloch, Magdalene, How the New Art of Eurythmy Began,
Spock, Marjorie, Eurythmy,
Steiner, Rudolf, Eurythmy as Visible Speech,
Steiner, Rudolf, Eurythmy as Visible Singing
Steiner, Rudolf, An Introduction to Eurythmy: Talks Given Before Sixteen Eurythmy Performances ,
External links
Eurythmy Association of North America
Performance of Gubaidulina's Seven Last Words
Anthroposophy
Pedagogy
Mind–body interventions
Dance education
Dance and health | 0.762364 | 0.99224 | 0.756448 |
Internalization (sociology) | In sociology and other social sciences, internalization (or internalisation) means an individual's acceptance of a set of norms and values (established by others) through socialisation.
Discussion
John Finley Scott described internalization as a metaphor in which something (i.e. an idea, concept, action) moves from outside the mind or personality to a place inside of it. The structure and the happenings of society shapes one's inner self and it can also be reversed.
The process of internalization starts with learning what the norms are, and then the individual goes through a process of understanding why they are of value or why they make sense, until finally they accept the norm as their own viewpoint. Internalised norms are said to be part of an individual's personality and may be exhibited by one's moral actions. However, there can also be a distinction between internal commitment to a norm and what one exhibits externally. George Mead illustrates, through the constructs of mind and self, the manner in which an individual's internalizations are affected by external norms.
One thing that may affect what an individual internalises are role models. Role models often speed up the process of socialisation and encourage internalization: if someone an individual respects is seen to endorse a particular set of norms, the individual is more likely to be prepared to accept, and so internalise, those norms. This is called the process of identification. Internalization helps one define who they are and create their own identity and values within a society that has already created a norm set of values and practices for them.
To internalise is defined by the Oxford American Dictionary as to "make (attitudes or behavior) part of one's nature by learning or unconscious assimilation: people learn gender stereotypes and internalize them." Through internalization individuals accept a set of norms and values that are established by other individuals, groups, or society as a whole.
In psychology, internalization is the outcome of a conscious mind reasoning about a specific subject; the subject is internalized, and the consideration of the subject is internal. Internalization of ideals might take place following religious conversion, or in the process of, more generally, moral conversion. Internalization is directly associated with learning within an organism (or business) and recalling what has been learned.
In psychology and sociology, internalization involves the integration of attitudes, values, standards and the opinions of others into one's own identity or sense of self. In psychoanalytic theory, internalization is a process involving the formation of the super ego. Many theorists believe that the internalized values of behavior implemented during early socialization are key factors in predicting a child's future moral character. The self-determination theory proposes a motivational continuum from the extrinsic to intrinsic motivation and autonomous self-regulation. Some research suggests a child's moral self starts to develop around age three. These early years of socialization may be the underpinnings of moral development in later childhood. Proponents of this theory suggest that children whose view of self is "good and moral" tend to have a developmental trajectory toward pro-social behavior and few signs of anti-social behavior.
In one child developmental study, researchers examined two key dimensions of early conscience – internalization of rules of conduct and empathic affects to others – as factors that may predict future social, adaptive and competent behavior. Data was collected from a longitudinal study of children, from two parent families, at age 25, 38, 52, 67 and 80 months. Children's internalization of each parent's rules and empathy toward each parent's simulated distress were observed at 25, 38 and 52 months. Parents and teachers rated their adaptive, competent, pro-social behavior and anti-social behavior at 80 months. The researchers found that first, both the history of the child's early internalization of parental rules and the history of their empathy predicted the children's competent and adaptive functioning at 80 months, as rated by parents and teachers. Second, children with stronger histories of internalization of parental rules from 25 to 52 months perceived themselves as more moral at 67 months. Third, the children that showed stronger internalization from 25 to 52 months came to see themselves as more moral and "good". These self-perceptions, in turn, predicted the way parents and teachers would rate their competent and adaptive functioning at 80 months.
Lev Vygotsky, a pioneer of psychological studies, introduced the idea of internalization in his extensive studies of child development research. Vygotsky provides an alternate definition for internalization, the internal reconstruction of an external operation. He explains three stages of internalization:
An operation that initially represents an external activity is reconstructed and begins to occur internally.
An interpersonal process is transformed into an intrapersonal one.
The transformation of an interpersonal process into an intrapersonal one is the result of a long series of developmental events.
See also
Externalization (psychology)
Introjection
Cultural homogenization
Social influence
References
Conformity
Sociological terminology | 0.770444 | 0.981819 | 0.756436 |
Digital media in education | Digital media in education refers to an individual's ability to access, analyze, evaluate, and create media content and communication in various forms. This includes the use of multiple digital softwares, devices, and platforms as tools for learning. The integration of digital media in education has been increased over time, rivaling books as a primary means of communication and gradually transforming traditional educational practices.
History
20th century
Technological advances, including the invention of the Internet in the late 20th century, introduced the possibility of incorporating technology into education. In the early 1900s, the overhead projector was used as an educational tool, along with on-air classes available via radio. The first use of computers in classrooms occurred in 1950, when a flight simulation program was used to train pilots at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. However, access to computers remained extremely limited. In 1964, researchers John Kemeny and Thomas Kurtz developed a new computer language called BASIC, which was easier to learn and popularized time-sharing, enabling multiple students to use a computer simultaneously. By the 1980s, schools began to show more interest in computers as companies released mass-market devices to the public. Networking further facilitated the connection of computers into a single communication system, which was both more efficient and cost-effective than previous stand-alone machines, prompting widespread adoption in schools.
By 1999, 99% of public school teachers in the United States reported access to at least one computer in their schools, and 84% had access to a computer in their classroom. The invention of the World Wide Web in 1992 simplified internet navigation and sparked further interest in educational settings. Computers were initially integrated into school curricula for tasks such as word processing, spreadsheet creation, and data organization. By the late 1990s, the Internet became a research tool, functioning as a vast library resource.
The World Wide Web also led to the development of learning management systems, which allowed educators to create online teaching environments for content storage, student activities, discussions, and assignments. Advances in digital compression and high-speed Internet made video creation and distribution more affordable, contributing to the rise of systems designed for recording lectures. These systems were often incorporated into learning management platforms, supporting the growth of fully online courses.
21st century
By 2002, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology began offering recorded lectures to the public, marking a significant step toward accessible online education. The creation of YouTube in 2005 further revolutionized educational content distribution. Many educators started uploading lectures and instructional videos, with platforms like Khan Academy, which began posting on YouTube in 2006, helping to establish the site as a valuable educational tool. In 2007, Apple launched iTunesU, another platform for sharing educational resources and videos. Meanwhile, learning management systems gained popularity, with Blackboard and Canvas becoming two of the most widely used platforms after Canvas's release in 2008. That same year saw the introduction of the first Massive Open Online Course (MOOC), which offered webinars and expert posts accessible to anyone.
As technology evolved, traditional projectors were gradually replaced by interactive whiteboards, which enabled teachers to integrate digital tools more effectively in their classrooms. By 2009, 97% of U.S. classrooms had at least one computer, and 93% had Internet access.
The COVID-19 pandemic, which forced schools across the world to close, significantly impacted education with schools shifting to distance education. Students attended classes remotely using devices such as laptops, phones, and tablets, utilizing digital platforms as tools for creating at-home learning environments.
Some schools faced challenges in adapting assessments and exams to the new learning environment. In a study by Eddie M. Mulenga and José M. Marbán on Zambian students during the pandemic, students struggled to adapt to online learning in subjects like mathematics, as they were unprepared for the unfamiliar digital platforms. Similar issues were observed among students in Romania, where the transition to virtual learning presented significant obstacles in engagement and adaptation.
References
Digital media
Educational technology | 0.772223 | 0.979557 | 0.756436 |
Viewpoints | Viewpoints is a movement-based pedagogical and artistic practice that provides a framework for creating and analyzing performance by exploring spatial relationships, shape, time, emotion, movement mechanics, and the materiality of the actor's body. Rooted in the domains of postmodern theatre and dance composition, the Viewpoints operate as a medium for thinking about and acting upon movement, gesture, and the creative use of space.
Background
The Six Viewpoints was originally developed in the 1970s by master theater artist and educator Mary Overlie, later conceptualised in her book Standing in Space: The Six Viewpoints Theory & Practice (2016). Overlie's Viewpoints and practice are seen to contribute greatly to the postmodern movement in theatre, dance, and choreography, grounded in its opposition against modernism's emphasis on hierarchical structure in performance creation, fixed meaning, and linear narratives.
A key principle of the Viewpoints practice is horizontalism, a distinct focus on a non-hierarchical organisation of the performance elements, meaning shared engagement with elements like space, body, text, time, shape, and emotion. The practice subsequently constitutes a shared agency of creation amongst performers and creators in working through the individual body and its surrounding material environment as part of a collective ensemble. The Viewpoints thus encourages the performer to incorporate their own bodily impulses and personal experiences in the act of creation.
The Six Viewpoints theory was adapted by directors Anne Bogart and Tina Landau, ultimately resulting in the delineation of nine "physical" and five "vocal" Viewpoints. Bogart and Overlie were on the faculty of the Experimental Theatre Wing at NYU Tisch School of the Arts in the late 1970s and early 1980s, during which Bogart was influenced by Overlie's innovations. Overlie's Six Viewpoints are considered to be a methodology to examine, analyze, and create performance in non-hierarchised and deconstructed way, whilst Bogart's Viewpoints are considered practical in creating staging with actors.
Overlie's Viewpoints
Introduction and Overview
The Six Viewpoints is a philosophical and practical approach to articulate a post-modern perspective on performance. The practice involves deconstructing the physical stage and physical performance into its six Materials of composition: Space, Shape, Time, Emotion, Movement and Story. These six elements have existed historically within a rigid hierarchy which gives prevalence to story and emotion in theatre, and shape and movement in dance. The Six Viewpoints releases the Materials from this fixed construct into a fluid non-hierarchical environment for re-examination. The act of deconstructing performance into its Six Materials invites the performer, director, and artist to engage with the individual materials "allowing these elements to take the lead in a creative dialogue".
For Overlie, this shift in attention re-defines art and the role of the artist from a "creator/originator" mindset to what she called the "observer/participant," which centers on "witnessing, and interacting, ... working under the supposition that structure could be discerned rather than imposed". Overlie observed this redefinition of the artist's endeavor to correspond with the artistic shift from modernism to post-modernism.
The theory and practice of the Six Viewpoints are organized in two parts: The Materials and The Bridge.
The Materials (SSTEMS)
When working with the materials, the artist is instructed to turn off the impulse to control or own the material, and is challenged to work very specifically with each material as an independent entity. Overlie recommends the artist to gather as much "useless" data as they can and to take time to explore.The seed of the entire work of The Six Viewpoints is found in the simple act of standing in space. From this perspective the artist is invited to read and be educated by the lexicon of daily experience. The information of space, the experience of time, the familiarity of shapes, the qualities and rules of kinetics in movement, the ways of logic, how stories are formed, the states of being and emotional exchanges that constitute the process of communication between living creatures ... Working directly with these materials the artist begins to learn of performance through the essential languages as an independent intelligence (Overlie).The Six Materials of composition, referred to with the acronym SSTEMS, are:
S (Space)
Space contains blocking, placement of furniture, placement of the walls, doors and windows, angle of gaze, distance of projection, and spatial alignment of the actors to the proscenium, to the audience and to each other.
S (Shape)
Shape contains geometry, costumes, gestures, and the shape of the actors' bodies and of all the objects onstage.
T (Time)
Time contains duration, rhythm, punctuation, pattern, impulse, repetition, legato, pizzicato, lyrical.
E (Emotion)
Emotion contains presence, anger, laughter, pensiveness, empathy, alienation, romance, pity, fear, anticipation, etc.
M (Movement)
Movement contains falling, walking, running, breath, suspension, contraction, impact.
S (Story)
Story contains logic, order and progression of information, memory, projection, conclusion, allusions, truth, lies, associations, influences, power, weakness, reification, un-reification, constructions and deconstruction.
The Bridge
The Bridge is a sequence of nine laboratories that function as philosophical and pedagogical frameworks in which to engage with the Materials. The Bridge presents the origins of the Viewpoints' approach to art and introduces into practice the philosophical concepts that are used to disintegrate and then reintegrate performance.
The nine laboratories of The Bridge are:
News of a Difference: Noticing Difference in Increasing Levels of Subtlety
Deconstruction: Investigating Theater by Separating the Components of its Structure
The Horizontal: Non-hierarchical Composition
Post-modernism: The Philosophical Foundation
Reification: A Reflection on Creativity, Communication, and Language
The Piano: The Interface between Artist and Audience
The Matrix: The Ingredients are in the Cauldron
Doing the Unnecessary: The SSTEMS Dissolve
The Original Anarchist: A New and a Very Old Idea
As a practice at large, The Six Viewpoints "is dedicated to reading the stage as a force of Nature".
Bogart's and Landau's Viewpoints
In their book, The Viewpoints Book: A Practical Guide to Viewpoints and Composition (2005), Anne Bogart and Tina Landau identify the primary Viewpoints as those relating to Time - which are Tempo, Duration, Kinesthetic Response, and Repetition - and those relating to Space - which are Shape, Gesture, Architecture, Spatial Relationship and Topography. In addition, Bogart and Landau have added the Vocal Viewpoints which include Pitch, Volume, and Timbre.
In the book, the authors outline the basics of the Viewpoints training they both espouse, as well as specific methods for applying their expanded practice to both rehearsals and production. For Bogart and Landau, the Viewpoints represent not only a physical technique but also a philosophical, spiritual, and aesthetic approach to many aspects of their work. Bogart references her work with the SITI company, and Landau with the Steppenwolf Theater Company.
Bogart's Viewpoints, a re-conceptualisation of Overlie's Viewpoints, are:
Architecture: The physical environment, the space, and whatever belongs to it or constitutes it, including permanent and non-permanent features.
Spatial Relationship: Distance between objects on stage; one body in relation to another, to a group, or to the architecture.
Topography: The movement over landscape, floor pattern, design and colours.
Shape: The contour or outline of bodies in space; the shape of the body by itself, in relation to other bodies, or in relation to architecture; lines, curves, angles, arches all stationary or in motion.
Gesture: a) Behavioral gesture: realistic gesture belonging to the physical world as we observe it every day. b) Expressive gesture: abstract or symbolic gesture expressing an inner state or emotion; it is not intended as a public or "realistic" gesture.
Tempo: How quickly or slowly something happens on stage.
Duration: How long an event occurs over time; how long a person or a group maintains a particular movement, tempo, gesture, etc. before it changes.
Kinesthetic Response: A spontaneous reaction to a motion that occurs outside of oneself. An instinctive response to an external stimulus (realistic/non-realistic).
Repetition: a) Internal Repetition: repeating a movement done with one's own body, and b) External Repetition: repeating a movement occurring outside one's body.
Lineage and Influence on Viewpoints
It is possible to trace several historical influences on Mary Overlie's Six Viewpoints, and subsequently on Anne Bogart's and Tina Landau's Viewpoints. There is a family resemblance between the non-hierarchical nature of the nine Viewpoints and the spiral or scaffolded nature of the Dalcroze Subjects in Dalcroze Eurhythmics. This practice was disseminated in New York City's dance and theatre scenes by Elsa Findlay in the early- to mid-twentieth century. Elsa Findlay was a graduate of Emile Jaques-Dalcroze's Hellerau Institute in Germany prior to the First World War. Martha Graham studied with Findlay, and Overlie acknowledges the impact of her own studies with Graham. Overlie also studied with José Limón who was a student of Doris Humphrey. Humphrey was another pupil of Elsa Findlay who made significant contributions to dance-theatre and established Plastique Animee in the USA. Additionally, Suzanne Bing's Musique Corporelle contains a series of nine musical elements for actor training that bear a strong family resemblance to the nine Viewpoints.
Works cited
Further reading
Bartow, Arthur. 2006. The Training of the American Actor. New York: Theatre Communications Group.
Bogart, Anne. 2001. A Director Prepares: Seven Essays on Art and Theatre. London: Routledge. .
Bogart, Anne & Landau, Tina. 2004. The Viewpoints Book: A Practical Guide to Viewpoints and Composition. New York: Theatre Communications Group.
Bogart, Anne. 2007. And Then, You Act: Making Art in an Unpredictable World. London: Routledge. .
Overlie, Mary. 2016. Standing in Space: The Six Viewpoints Theory & Practice. Billings: Fallon Press.
Improvisational theatre
Acting techniques | 0.76792 | 0.985031 | 0.756426 |
Community-based participatory research | Community-based participatory research (CBPR) is an equitable approach to research in which researchers, organizations, and community members collaborate on all aspects of a research project. CBPR empowers all stakeholders to offer their expertise and partake in the decision-making process. CBPR projects aim to increase the body of knowledge and the public's awareness of a given phenomenon and apply that knowledge to create social and political interventions that will benefit the community. CBPR projects range in their approaches to community engagement. Some practitioners are less inclusive of community members in the decision-making processes, whereas others empower community members to direct of the goals of the project.
History
The historical roots of CBPR trace back to the development of participatory action research by Kurt Lewin and Orlando Fals Borda, and the popular education movement in Latin America associated with Paulo Freire.
Principles
CBPR offers nine guiding principles. These principles include: 1) acknowledging communities as "unities of identity", 2) building on existing community strengths and resources, 3) facilitating partnerships that are equitable, collaborative, empowering, and address social inequalities, 4) committing to co-learning and capacity building, 5) balancing knowledge generation and intervention to ensure mutual benefits for partners, 6) focusing on local issues of public concern, 7) utilizing a cyclical and repeatable process, 8) delivering results and knowledge to all partners, and 9) establishing sustainable, long-term partnerships with communities. Partnerships may use these principles to inform their studies, but are not required to adhere to them entirely. Instead, each partnership should discuss and decide on their own guiding principles to best reflect their collective vision.
Process
CBPR is an iterative process, incorporating research, reflection, and action in a cyclical process. A CBPR project starts with the community, which participates fully in every aspect of the research process. "Community" is often self-defined, but common definitions of community include a geographic community, a community of individuals with a common problem, or a community of individuals with a common interest or goal. CBPR encourages collaboration between "experts" and communities, provided that the researchers are committed to sharing leadership and producing outcomes that are usable to the community that they intend to collaborate with. Equitable partnerships require sharing power, resources, knowledge, results, and credit. Mapping the groups that make up a community can reveal power relationships and create opportunities for relationship building. Ideally, stakeholders should be from different positions of the community so that changes are implemented at all different levels. The policies and policymakers connected to the community problem should be identified. The next stages of CBPR include identifying the problem, research design, conducting research, interpreting the results, and determining how the results should be used for action.
CBPR interventions can take many forms, including media or other educational campaigns, subsidized medical testing and healthcare programs, establishing quality standards for healthcare services as well as bonuses for healthcare providers who refer patients to CBPR-related services. Some projects involve training for young people to learn how to educate and advocate for change in their communities.
Environmental justice
Community-based participatory research plays a meaningful role in the environmental justice movement. CBPR is a collaborative effort between researchers, academics, and environmental justice (EJ) communities. In the United States, EJ communities are characterized by residents who are people of color, low-income, non-native English speakers (linguistic isolation), or foreign born. Due to their intersecting racial, national, and class identities, EJ communities have little control capacity and are the targets of negative externalities by polluting corporations. CBPR takes a procedural justice approach to EJ issues, addressing the structural causes of environmental injustices and illuminating the power structures at play. CBPR often takes the form of empirical research, in which EJ community members observe environmental or health hazards in their communities and form hypotheses about the origins of these hazards. By bettering communities' understandings of the problems they face, CBPR supports environmental literacy and knowledge justice. Community-based research is more likely to trigger public action and engagement with environmental issues than traditional research. Bottom up community-based research in which community members oversee each phase of the research project is more likely to inspire structural reforms that are responsive to the needs of EJ communities.
Research
It is important to understand that CBPR research focuses on the relationships within the partnership and the overall goals, as opposed to strict research methods. Scholarship in the area of CBPR is vast and spells out various approaches which consider multiple theoretical and methodological approaches. The content areas include health, ethnic studies, bullying, environmental justice, and indigenous communities.
There is a lot of scholarship exploring how to teach students about CBPR or community based research (CBR). Some have taken what could be called a critical approach to this by emphasizing the “institutional power inequalities” in community based organization-university relationship building. There are successes and failures in using CBPR approaches in teaching, which practitioners can consider. Others have argued that community based work can provide several learning benefits, with pros and cons to the various approaches. Scholars continue to problematize approaches that can engage instructors and students in imagining ways to work with communities.
Research challenges
Scholarship has explored the potential barriers to collecting community-based participatory research data. The CBPR approach is in line with the body of sociological work that advocates for "protagonist driven ethnography". The approach provides for and demands that researchers collaborate with communities throughout the research process. However, challenges can surface given the power relationship between researcher and communities. The CBPR approach proposes that researchers be mindful of this possibility. The researcher can expect to spend a lot of time navigating and building the researcher-community relationship. Additionally, through CBPR, researchers enable communities to hold them accountable to addressing ethical concerns inherent to collecting information from what are often marginalized communities. Sociologists have entered the discussion from the point of view of the ethnographer or participant observer, where some have argued against "exoticizing the ghetto" or "cowboy ethnography". These works could be read as a check on the scholar centered work that can emerge when collecting ethnographic or participant observation data. The perception of researchers is something to weigh when considering this approach or other forms of field work. One researcher stated that "Researchers are like mosquitoes; they suck your blood and leave.” Through this lens, a focus on a CBPR project at the exclusion of the community could harm the goals of co-learning and shared goal accomplishment.
Applications
Applications of community-based participatory research are more common in medicine than other areas of research. Prevention, management, and awareness building about diabetes, HIV/AIDS, asthma, cancer, mental health, obesity, and HPV vaccination have been explored by CBPR studies. Because of its community-based, humanistic approach and public outreach potential, CBPR studies are commonly used with marginalized groups, such ethnic minorities and autistic people.
Resources
There are a number of institutions that provide funding and other resources for CBPR studies. Organizations and institutions support CBPR by focusing on youth, and social justice. Networks of researchers, professionals, and activists collaborate on CBPR projects.
References
Community organizing
Research
Citizen science models | 0.771408 | 0.980508 | 0.756372 |
Workplace democracy | Workplace democracy is the application of democracy in various forms to the workplace, such as voting systems, debates, democratic structuring, due process, adversarial process, and systems of appeal. It can be implemented in a variety of ways, depending on the size, culture, and other variables of an organization.
Theory
Economic argument
From as early as the 1920s, scholars have been exploring the idea of increasing employee participation and involvement. They sought to learn whether including employees in organizational decision-making would lead to increased effectiveness and productivity within the organization. According to Lewin, individuals who are involved in decision-making also have increased openness to change. Different participative techniques can have either a stronger impact on morale than productivity, while others have the reverse effect. Success of the employee-owned and operated Mondragon suggests economic benefits from workplace democracy.
Citizenship argument
Workplace democracy may encourage public participation in a government's political process. Skills developed from democracy in the workplace can transfer to improved citizenship and result in a better functioning democracy. Workers in a democratic environment may also develop a greater concern for the common good, which also transfers to fundamental citizenship.
Ethical justification
Philosopher Robert Dahl claims that, "If democracy is justified in governing the state, it must also be justified in governing economic enterprises." Some political scientists have questioned whether the state-firm analogy is the most appropriate way to justify workplace democratization.
Employee power and representation
Workers working for democratic leaders report positive results such as group member satisfaction, friendliness, group mindedness, 'we' statements, worker motivation, creativity, and dedication to decisions made within an organization.
When workplace democracy is used the effect typically is raised employee potential, employee representation, higher autonomy, and equal power within an organization (Rolfsen, 2011).
Political association
Workplace democracy theory closely follows political democracy, especially in larger workplaces. Democratic workplace organization is often associated with trade unions, anarchist, and socialist (especially libertarian socialist) movements. Most unions have democratic structures at least for selecting the leader, and sometimes these are seen as providing the only democratic aspects to the workplace. Not every workplace that lacks a union lacks democracy, and not every workplace that has a union necessarily has a democratic way to resolve disputes.
Historically, some unions have been more committed to workplace democracy than others. The Industrial Workers of the World pioneered the archetypal workplace democracy model, the Wobbly Shop, in which recallable delegates were elected by workers, and other norms of grassroots democracy were applied. This is still used in some organizations, notably Semco and in the software industry.
Spanish anarchists, Mohandas Gandhi's Swadeshi movement, and farm and retail co-operative movements, all made contributions to the theory and practice of workplace democracy and often carried that into the political arena as a "more participatory democracy." The Green parties worldwide have adopted workplace democracy as a central platform, and also often mimic workplace democracy norms such as gender equity, co-leadership, deliberative democracy applied to any major decision, and leaders who don't do policy. The democratic socialist parties have supported the notion of workplace democracy and democratically controlled institutions.
The best known and most studied example of a successfully democratic national labor union in the United States are the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America, known throughout the labor movement as the UE. An independent trade Union, the UE was built from the bottom-up, and takes pride in its motto that "The Members Run This Union!"
The Menshevik led Democratic Republic of Georgia experimented with workplace democracy by promoting cooperatives in the economy. These cooperatives were ended when Georgia was annexed into the Soviet Union.
In Sweden, the Swedish Social Democratic Party made laws and reforms from 1950-70 to establish more democratic workplaces.
Salvador Allende championed a large number of such experiments in Chile when he became president of Chile in 1970.
Current approaches
Limits on management
Many organizations began to realize by the 1960s that tight control by too few people was encouraging groupthink, increasing turnover in staff and a loss of morale among qualified people helpless to appeal what they saw as misguided, uninformed, or poorly thought-out decisions. Often employees who publicly criticize such poor decision making of their higher management are penalized or even fired from their jobs on some pretext or other. The comic strip Dilbert has become popular satirizing this type of oblivious management, iconically represented by the Pointy-haired Boss, a nameless and clueless social climber. The Dilbert principle has been accepted as fact by some.
Much management philosophy has focused on trying to limit manager power, differentiate leadership versus management, and so on. Henry Mintzberg, Peter Drucker and Donella Meadows were three very notable theorists addressing these concerns in the 1980s. Mintzberg and Drucker studied how executives spent their time, Meadows how change and leverage to resist it existed at all levels in all kinds of organizations.
Adhocracy, functional leadership models and reengineering were all attempts to detect and remove administrative incompetence. Business process and quality management methods in general remove managerial flexibility that is often perceived as masking managerial mistakes, but also preventing transparency and facilitating fraud, as in the case of Enron. Had managers been more accountable to employees, it is argued, owners and employees would not have been defrauded.
Equity model
In the equity model, employees own voting shares of their company, most commonly through an employee stock ownership plan. The equity model of workplace democracy exists when bottom-up practices, such as participatory management, are combined with the top-down influence provided by their voting rights.
Codetermination
German law specifically mandates democratic worker participation in the oversight of workplaces with 2000 or more employees. Similar laws exist in Denmark for businesses with more than 20 workers and France for businesses with more than 5000 workers.
Staff and Worker Representative Congresses
In China, a form of workplace democracy is mandated by law for state-owned enterprises and permitted in non-state-owned collectives and companies. This is done through Staff and Worker Representative Congresses (SWRCs), composed of workers directly elected by all workers in the workplace to represent them. As of the 1980s and 1990s, SWRCs were, in theory, broadly similar to continental European and Japanese workers' workplace councils in terms of rights and powers and consensus building, as opposed to the Anglo-American model "adversarial model" relating management and workers. Findings from interviews in 1997 suggested that in practice, SWRCs did have some real power, including some cases of dismissing managers.
Examples of companies organized by workplace democracy
Mondragon
Mondragon Cooperative Corporation is a large worker cooperative based in Spain, legally considered to be corporation. The Marxian economist Richard D. Wolff describes it as "a stunningly successful alternative to the capitalist organization of production".
Marland Mold
Marland Mold was a company started in 1946 in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, by Severino Marchetto and Paul Ferland. The company at first, designed and built steel molds for plastic products throughout the 1950s and 60s. In 1969 the owners sold the company to VCA which was later bought by The Ethyl Corporation. The Marland Mold employees voted to join the International Union of Electrical Workers, because of a dispute that took place over health insurance. The plant's manager started to pay less attention and put less time into the Pittsfield plant so the profits declined. The plant was put up for sale in 1992. The employees ended up buying out the plant, even though they weren't fans of employee ownership before, they needed to save their jobs. There immediately was a burst in production and they were able to produce molds that normally took the 3,000 hours to make in 2,200 hours. They had financial stake in the company now which gave them new motivation for the company's success. The other two ideas that were key components to their success was the education of all members about their new roles, and building an ownership culture within the organization. In 1995, they had officially bought all ownership stock and buyout lenders and the company was completely employee owned. Through all of this employees were also able to gain a broader perspective on the company, like being able to understand others views of different conflicts in the workplace. In 2007, Marland Mold celebrated their 15th anniversary of employee ownership.
In 2010, Marland Mold were acquired by Curtil. In 2017, the Pittsfield plant was shut.
Semco
In the 1980s, Brazilian businessman Ricardo Semler, converted his family firm, a light manufacturing concern called Semco, and transformed it into a strictly democratic establishment where managers were interviewed and then elected by workers. All managerial decisions were subject to democratic review, debate and vote, with the full participation of all workers. This radical approach to management got him and the company a great deal of attention. Semler argued that handing the company over to the workers was the only way to free time for himself to go build up the customer, government and other relationships required to make the company grow. By giving up the fight to hold any control of internals, Semler was able to focus on marketing, positioning, and offer his advice (as a paid, elected spokesman, though his position as major shareholder was not so negotiable) as if he were, effectively, an outside management consultant hired by the company. Decentralization of management functions, he claimed, gave him a combination of insider information and outsider credibility, plus the legitimacy of truly speaking for his workers in the same sense as an elected political leader.
Other companies
Brukman
Egged (formerly)
Evergreen Cooperatives
FaSinPat
Flaskô (Portuguese Wikipedia)
Hotel Bauen
Indian Coffee House
LIP
Pascual Boing
Sri Lanka Transport Board (formerly)
Suma Wholefoods
Tandanor shipyard
The Meriden Motorcycle Co-operative
W. L. Gore and Associates
Zapatista coffee cooperatives
Research on workplace democracy
Public opinion
A 2023 study in the United States found that the people surveyed generally support workplace democracy, even in survey experiments where respondents are exposed to question framings that emphasize the costs of workplace democracy.
Management science studies
There are many management science papers on the application of democratic structuring to the workplace, and its benefits.
Benefits are often contrasted to simple command hierarchy arrangements in which "the boss" can hire anyone and fire anyone, and takes absolute and total responsibility for their own well-being and also all that occurs "under" them. The command hierarchy is a preferred management style followed in many companies for its simplicity, speed and low process overheads.
London Business School chief, Nigel Nicholson, in his 1998 Harvard Business Review paper: "How Hardwired is Human Behavior?" suggested that human nature was just as likely to cause problems in the workplace as in larger social and political settings, and that similar methods were required to deal with stressful situations and difficult problems. He held up the workplace democracy model advanced by Ricardo Semler as the "only" one that actually took cognizance of human foibles.
Effects on productivity
A meta-analysis of 43 studies on worker participation found there was no negative correlation between workplace democracy and higher efficiency and productivity. A report looking at research on democratic workplaces in the USA, Europe and Latin America found workplace democracy had staff working 'better and smarter' with production organized more efficiently. They were also able to organize more efficiently on a larger scale and in more capital-intensive industries than hierarchical workplaces. A 1987 study of democratic workplaces in Italy, the UK and France found that workplace democracy has a positive relationship with productivity and that democratic firms do not get less productive as they get larger. A report on democratic workplaces in the USA found that they can increase worker incomes by 70-80%, that they can grow 2% faster a year than other businesses and have 9-19% greater levels of productivity, 45% lower turnover rates and are 30% less likely to fail in the first few years of operation. A 1995 study of workplace democracy in the timber industry in the Northwest United States found that productivity increased by 6 to 14% with workplace democracy. A 2006 meta-study on workplace democracy found that it can 'equal or exceed the productivity of conventional enterprises when employee involvement is combined with ownership' and 'enrich local social capital.' Another 2006 study reviewing existing evidence found that contrary to the popular idea that worker participation would decrease productivity, it actually increases it. A 1985 study in France that the typical increase to productivity from workplace democracy was about 5%. Another 2022 study using data from France found workplace democracy increases economic performance in knowledge-heavy sectors.
However, a 1986 study of plywood companies in the USA found democratic workplaces lost productivity due to them hiring more workers who were not given equal democratic rights compared to original workers. Another study looking at evidence of construction companies in the 1980s indicated that democratic workplaces had equal or lower productivity compared to other workplaces.
Effects on business longevity
According to an analysis, businesses with democratic workplaces in British Columbia, Alberta, and Quebec in the 2000s were almost half as likely as businesses with hierarchical workplaces to fail in ten years. According to an analysis of all businesses in Uruguay between 1997 - 2009, businesses with democratic workplaces have a 29% smaller chance of closure than other firms. In Italy, businesses with democratic workplaces that have been created by workers buying a business when it's facing a closure or put up to sale have a 3 year survival rate of 87%, compared to 48% of all Italian businesses. In 2005, 1% of German businesses failed but the statistic for businesses with democratic workplaces was less than 0.1%. A 2012 study of Spanish and French businesses with democratic workplaces found that they “have been more resilient than conventional enterprises during the economic crisis." In France, the three year survival rate of businesses with democratic workplaces is 80%-90%, compared to the 66% overall survival rate for all businesses. During the 2008 economic crisis, the number of workers in businesses with democratic workplaces in France increased by 4.2%, while employment in other businesses decreased by 0.7%.
Effects on workers
A 2018 study from South Korea found that workers had higher motivation in democratic workplaces. A 2014 study from Italy found that democratic workplaces were the only kind of workplace which increased trust between workers. A 2013 study from the United States found that democratic workplaces in the healthcare industry had significantly higher levels of job satisfaction. A 2011 study in France found that democratic workplaces “had a positive effect on workers’ job satisfaction.” A 2019 meta-study indicates that “the impact [of democratic workplaces] on the happiness workers is generally positive”. A 1995 study from the United States indicates that “employees who embrace an increased influence and participation in workplace decisions also reported greater job satisfaction”. A 2008 study found mixed results for "spillover" effects on workers, where working in a democratic workplace doesn't increase the odds of voting but slightly increases the odds of community engagement. A 1986 study of plywood companies in the USA found that democratic workplaces tended to over-report accidents whilst conventional capitalist ones would under-report them. Contrary to theoretical expectations of democratic workplaces, they were not safer for workers than conventional capitalist workplaces.
See also
Aristocracy of labour
Cooperative
Deliberative democracy
Libertarian socialism
Popular assembly
Socialism
Syndicalism
The Lucas Plan
Theory X and Theory Y
Worker cooperative
Workers' control
Workers' self-management
References
External links
Quotes and other writings on workplace democracy (Chomsky, Wheatley, et al.)
Articles by David Ellerman on workplace democracy
Workplace Democracy and Democratic Ownership—Richard Wolff & Gar Alperovitz at Left Forum, 2013.
Organizational behavior
Anti-capitalism
Socialism
Workplace
Democracy
Cooperatives
Types of democracy
Democratic socialism | 0.765238 | 0.988391 | 0.756354 |
Social cognitive theory | Social cognitive theory (SCT), used in psychology, education, and communication, holds that portions of an individual's knowledge acquisition can be directly related to observing others within the context of social interactions, experiences, and outside media influences. This theory was advanced by Albert Bandura as an extension of his social learning theory. The theory states that when people observe a model performing a behavior and the consequences of that behavior, they remember the sequence of events and use this information to guide subsequent behaviors. Observing a model can also prompt the viewer to engage in behavior they already learned. Depending on whether people are rewarded or punished for their behavior and the outcome of the behavior, the observer may choose to replicate behavior modeled. Media provides models for a vast array of people in many different environmental settings.
History
The foundations of social cognitive theory come from Edwin B. Holt and Harold Chapman Brown's 1931 work Animal Drive and the Learning Process, an essay toward radical empiricism. This book theorizes that all animal action is based on fulfilling the psychological needs of "feeling, emotion, and desire." The most notable component of this theory is that a person cannot learn to how to imitate until they are imitated.
In 1941, Neal E. Miller and John Dollard presented their book with a revision of Holt's social learning and imitation theory. They argued four factors contribute to learning: drives, cues, responses, and rewards. One driver is social motivation, which includes imitativeness, the process of matching an act to an appropriate cue of where and when to perform the act. A behavior is imitated depending on whether the model receives positive or negative response consequences. Miller and Dollard argued that if one were motivated to learn a particular behavior, then that particular behavior would be learned through clear observations. By imitating these observed actions the individual observer would solidify that learned action and would be rewarded with positive reinforcement, a positive consequence to certain behavior.
According to Albert Bandura, the widely researched topics of behaviorism up until then had certain discrepancies. He was inspired by the work done by Miller and Dollard to explore this further. Bandura, along with his students and colleagues conducted a study, known as the Bobo doll experiment, in 1961 and 1963 to find out why and when children display aggressive behaviors. These studies demonstrated the value of modeling for acquiring novel behaviors. These studies helped Bandura publish his seminal article and book in 1977 that expanded on the idea on how behavior is acquired, and thus further explored Miller and Dollard's research. In Bandura's 1977 article, he claimed that Social Learning Theory shows a direct correlation between a person's perceived self-efficacy and behavioral change. Self-efficacy comes from four sources: "performance accomplishments, vicarious experience, verbal persuasion, and physiological states".
In 1986, Bandura published his second book, Social Foundations of Thought and Action: A Social Cognitive Theory which introduced the triadic causation model. He called the new theory social cognitive theory. Bandura changed the name to emphasize the major role cognition plays in encoding and performing behaviors. In this book, Bandura argued that human behavior is caused by personal, behavioral, and environmental influences.
In 2001, Bandura brought SCT to mass communication in his journal article that stated the theory could be used to analyze how "symbolic communication influences human thought, affect and action". The theory shows how new behavior diffuses through society through psychosocial factors governing the acquisition and adoption of the behavior.
In 2011, Bandura published a book chapter The Social and Policy Impact of Social Cognitive Theory to extend SCT's application in health promotion and urgent global issues, which provides insight into addressing global problems through a macro social lens, aiming at improving equality of individuals' lives under the umbrellas of SCT.
In 2016, Bandura published his final book, Moral disengagement : How people do harm and live with themselves. In this book he used SCT to look at how people disengaged themselves from the harm they do. By using causes people see as worthy, they justify harmful actions.
SCT has been applied across different fields of study including psychology, education, mass communications, and healthcare.
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought challenges to many people in relations to global health and has prompted a reexamination of human behavior and social responses through social cognitive theory. The pandemic has changed numerous different facets of society, including the way people behave. Research applying social cognition theories may assist in explaining variance in these behaviors and inform the development of efficacious behavior change interventions to promote adherence.
Current status
Social Cognitive Theory originated in psychology, but based on an unofficial November 2013 Google Scholar search, only 2 percent of articles published on SCT are in the pure psychology field. About 20 percent of articles are from Education and 16 percent from Business. The majority of publications using SCT, 56 percent, come from the field of Applied Health Psychology. The majority of current research in Health Psychology focuses on testing SCT in behavioral change campaigns as opposed to expanding on the theory. Campaign topics include: increasing fruit and vegetable intake, increasing physical activity, HIV education, and breastfeeding.
Born in 1925, Bandura spent his life influencing the world with expansions of SCT. His recent work, published May 2011, focuses on how SCT impacts areas of both health and population in relation to climate change. He proposes that these problems could be solved through television serial dramas that show models similar to viewers performing the desired behavior. On health, Bandura writes that currently there is little incentive for doctors to write prescriptions for healthy behavior, but he believes the cost of fixing health problems start to outweigh the benefits of being healthy. Bandura argues that we are on the cusp of moving from a disease model (focusing on people with problems) to a health model (focusing on people being healthy) and SCT is the theory that should be used to further a healthy society. Specifically on Population, Bandura states that population growth is a global crisis because of its correlation with depletion and degradation of our planet's resources. Bandura argues that SCT should be used to increase birth control use, reduce gender inequality through education, and to model environmental conservation to improve the state of the planet.
Overview
Social cognitive theory, developed by Albert Bandura, is a learning theory based on the assumption that the environment one grows up in contributes to behavior, and the individual person (and therefore cognition) is just as important. People learn by observing others, with the environment, behavior, and cognition acting as primary factors that influence development in a reciprocal triadic relationship. Each behavior witnessed can change a person's way of thinking (cognition). Similarly, the environment one is raised in may influence later behaviors. For example, a caregiver's mindset (also cognition) determines the environment in which their children are raised.
The core concepts of this theory are explained by Bandura through a schematization of triadic reciprocal causation. According to this model, learning occurs through direct exposure and observational learning. People are not only products of their environment but they also have the power to produce their own environment. So there is an interplay between behavior, environment, and personal. The schema shows how the reproduction of an observed behavior is influenced by getting the learner to believe in his or her personal abilities to correctly complete a behavior.
Behavioral: The response an individual receives after they perform a behavior (i.e. Provide chances for the learner to experience successful learning as a result of performing the behavior correctly).
Environmental: Aspects of the environment or setting that influence the individual's ability to successfully complete a behavior (i.e. Make environmental conditions conducive for improved self-efficacy by providing appropriate support and materials).
Personal: an individual's internal factors that influence their behavior, such as their beliefs, attitudes, and self-efficacy
Theoretical foundations
Human agency
Social cognitive theory is proposed in an agentic perspective, which suggests that, instead of being just shaped by environments or inner forces, individuals are self-developing, self-regulating, self-reflecting and proactive. Specifically, human agency operates within three modes:
Individual Agency: A person’s own influence on the environment;
Proxy Agency: Another person’s effort on securing the individual’s interests;
Collective Agency: A group of people work together to achieve the common benefits.
Human agency has four core properties:
Intentionality: Individuals’ active decision on engaging in certain activities;
Forethought: Individuals’ ability to anticipate the outcome of certain actions;
Self-reactiveness: Individuals’ ability to construct and regulate appropriate behaviors;
Self-reflectiveness: Individuals’ ability to reflect and evaluate the soundness of their cognitions and behaviors.
Human capability
Evolving over time, human beings are featured with advanced neural systems, which enable individuals to acquire knowledge and skills by both direct and symbolic terms. Four primary capabilities are addressed as important foundations of social cognitive theory: symbolizing capability, self-regulation capability, self-reflective capability, and vicarious capability.
Symbolizing Capability: Symbols such as language, images, and sounds are used to convey meaning and create shared understanding among people. Symbolizing capability helps people to comprehend and interpret the messages conveyed. People are affected not only by direct experience but also indirect events. Instead of merely learning through laborious trial-and-error process, human beings are able to symbolically perceive events conveyed in messages, construct possible solutions, and evaluate the anticipated outcomes. Symbols are used as a means of communication with others. In essence, symbolizing capabilities facilitate learning and behavior modeling based on observations made in the environment, which can then be used to guide one's own behavior.
Self-regulation Capability: This capability is used to evaluate the information and messages conveyed, and decides which messages to accept or reject. Individuals can regulate their own intentions and behaviors by themselves. Self-regulation lies on both negative and positive feedback systems, in which discrepancy reduction and discrepancy production are involved. That is, individuals proactively motivate and guide their actions by setting challenging goals and then making effort to fulfill them. In doing so, individuals gain skills, resources, self-efficacy and beyond.
Self-reflective Capability: This capability allows people to reflect on their own thoughts, feelings, and behaviors in response to the messages they receive through mass communication. It enables people to evaluate these against their internal standards and goals, and to identify areas where they need to improve. By verifying the adequacy and soundness of their thoughts through enactive, various, social, or logical manner, individuals can generate new ideas, adjust their thoughts, and take actions accordingly.
Vicarious Capability: This capability allows people to learn from the experiences of others. This capability enables people to acquire new knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors without having to experience the consequences of those actions themselves. Vicarious capability is of great value to human beings’ cognitive development in nowadays, in which most of our information encountered in our lives derives from the mass media than trial-and-error processes.
Theoretical components
Behavioral Factors
Behavioral factors, in the context of this theory, highlight the significance of real-life demonstrations and interactions in shaping an individual's understanding and adaptation of social behaviors. Observing others' actions, their consequences, and the feedback they receive influences one's cognitive processes, self-regulation, and ultimately, their behavior. Social Cognitive Theory underscores the dynamic interplay between individual behavior and the surrounding social context, underscoring the power of behavioral facts in fostering personal and societal change.
Modeling & Observational Learning
Social cognitive theory revolves around the process of knowledge acquisition or learning directly correlated to the observation of models. The models can be those of an interpersonal imitation or media sources. Effective modeling teaches general rules and strategies for dealing with different situations. Observational Learning emphasizes that individuals can learn by observing and witnessing behaviors demonstrated by others, a process commonly known as "modeling." When individuals witness a successful demonstration of a behavior, they are more likely to reproduce and execute that behavior successfully themselves
According to SCT, thoughts, behaviors, and surroundings are interdependent, rather than one causing the other. It suggests that humans have the ability to develop and transform themselves. At the same time SCT also says humans have potential and this potential relies on our brain's unique abilities. These abilities include creating symbols, communicating with symbols, planning ahead, self evaluation, and awareness of ones own thoughts and feelings.
To illustrate that people learn from watching others, Albert Bandura and his colleagues constructed a series of experiments using a Bobo doll. In the first experiment, children were exposed to either an aggressive or non-aggressive model of either the same sex or opposite sex as the child. There was also a control group. The aggressive models played with the Bobo doll in an aggressive manner, while the non-aggressive models played with other toys. They found that children who were exposed to the aggressive models performed more aggressive actions toward the Bobo doll afterward, and that boys were more likely to do so than girls.
Following that study, Albert Bandura tested whether the same was true for models presented through media by constructing an experiment he called Bobo Doll Behavior: A Study of Aggression. In this experiment Bandura exposed a group of children to a video featuring violent and aggressive actions. After the video he then placed the children in a room with a Bobo doll to see how they behaved with it. Through this experiment, Bandura discovered that children who had watched the violent video subjected the dolls to more aggressive and violent behavior, while children not exposed to the video did not. This experiment displays the social cognitive theory because it depicts how people reenact behaviors they see in the media. In this case, the children in this experiment reenacted the model of violence they directly learned from the video.
Observational learning is governed by four subfunctions: attentional processes, cognitive representational processes, behavioral production processes, and motivational processes.
Observations should include:
Attention Processes Observers selectively give attention to specific social behavior depending on accessibility, relevance, complexity, functional value of the behavior or some observer's personal attributes such as cognitive capability, value preference, preconceptions.
Cognitive Representational Processes Observe a behavior and subsequent consequences, then convert that observation to a symbol that can be accessed for future reenactments of the behavior. Note: When a positive behavior is shown a positive reinforcement should follow, this parallel is similar for negative behavior.
Behavioral Production Processes refers to the symbolic representation of the original behavior being translated into action through reproduction of the observed behavior in seemingly appropriate contexts. During reproduction of the behavior, a person receives feedback from others and can adjust their representation for future references.
Motivational Process reenacts a behavior depending on responses and consequences the observer receives when reenacting that behavior.
Modeling is not just about copying behavior, but also about learning new rules through observation. This higher level of learning can be achieved through abstract modeling, where observers extract rules governing specific behaviors and use them to generate new instances of behavior. For instance, if a teacher glares at one student who is talking out of turn, other students may suppress this behavior to avoid a similar reaction. Teachers model both material objectives and underlying curriculum of virtuous living. Teachers should also be dedicated to the building of high self-efficacy levels in their students by recognizing their accomplishments.
Outcome expectancies & Reinforcements
To learn a particular behavior, people must understand what the potential outcome is if they repeat that behavior. The observer does not expect the actual rewards or punishments incurred by the model, but anticipates similar outcomes when imitating the behavior (called outcome expectancies), which is why modeling impacts cognition and behavior. Reinforcements encompass both internal and external responses to an individual's behavior, influencing the probability of either sustaining or ceasing the behavior. These reinforcements may originate from within the individual or the external environment and can take the form of either positive or negative outcomes. Within the Social Cognitive Theory framework, this construct is particularly integral to understanding the reciprocal interplay between behavior and the environment.
These expectancies are heavily influenced by the environment that the observer grows up in; for example, the expected consequences for a DUI in the United States of America are a fine, with possible jail time, whereas the same charge in another country might lead to the infliction of the death penalty.
For example, in the case of a student, the instructions the teacher provides help students see what outcome a particular behavior leads to. It is the duty of the teacher to teach a student that when a behavior is successfully learned, the outcomes are meaningful and valuable to the students.
Self-efficacy
Social cognitive theory posits that learning most likely occurs if there is a close identification between the observer and the model and if the observer also has a great self-efficacy. Self-efficacy is a term used to describe a person's belief in their ability to achieve their goals and produce desired outcomes through their own actions. Self-efficacy beliefs function as an important set of proximal determinants of human motivation, affect, and action—which operate on action through motivational, cognitive, and affective intervening processes.
According to Bandura, self-efficacy is "the belief in one's capabilities to organize and execute the courses of action required to manage prospective situations". Bandura and other researchers have found an individual's self-efficacy plays a major role in how goals, tasks, and challenges are approached. Individuals with high self-efficacy are more likely to believe they can master challenging problems and they can recover quickly from setbacks and disappointments. Individuals with low self-efficacy tend to be less confident and don't believe they can perform well, which leads them to avoid challenging tasks. Therefore, self-efficacy plays a central role in behavior performance. Observers who have high level of self-efficacy are more likely to adopt observational learning behaviors.
There are several ways to develop a strong sense of self-efficacy, including mastering challenges, social modeling, improving physical and emotional stated, and verbal persuasion. Building a resilient sense of self-efficacy requires overcoming obstacles and learning from mistakes. Self-efficacy beliefs can impact cognitive, motivational, emotional, and decision-making processes, and they play a significant role in individual and collective success.
Self-efficacy can be developed or increased by:
Mastery experience, which is a process that helps an individual achieve simple tasks that lead to more complex objectives.
Social modeling provides an identifiable model that shows the processes that accomplish a behavior.
Improving physical and emotional states refers to ensuring a person is rested and relaxed prior to attempting a new behavior. The less relaxed, the less patient, the more likely they won't attain the goal behavior.
Verbal persuasion is providing encouragement for a person to complete a task or achieve a certain behavior.
For example, students become more effortful, active, pay attention, highly motivated and better learners when they perceive that they have mastered a particular task. It is the duty of the teacher to allow student to perceive in their efficacy by providing feedback to understand their level of proficiency. Teachers should ensure that the students have the knowledge and strategies they need to complete the tasks.
Self-efficacy has also been used to predict behavior in various health related situations such as weight loss, quitting smoking, and recovery from heart attack. In relation to exercise science, self-efficacy has produced some of the most consistent results revealing an increase in participation in exercise.
Identification
Identification allows the observer to feel a one-to-one similarity with the model, and can thus lead to a higher chance of the observer following through with the modeled action. People are more likely to follow behaviors modeled by someone with whom they can identify. The more commonalities or emotional attachments perceived between the observer and the model, the more likely the observer learns and reenacts the modeled behavior.
Applications
Mass communication
Using social cognitive theory can help understand how media can influence peoples thoughts and actions. The scope of reach of media is so wide that it provides virtually unlimited opportunity to reach human cognition.
Media contents studies
Social cognitive theory is often applied as a theoretical framework of studies pertained to media representation regarding race, gender, age and beyond. Social cognitive theory suggested heavily repeated images presented in mass media can be potentially processed and encoded by the viewers (Bandura, 2011). Media content analytic studies examine the substratum of media messages that viewers are exposed to, which could provide an opportunity to uncover the social values attached to these media representations. Although media contents studies cannot directly test the cognitive process, findings can offer an avenue to predict potential media effects from modeling certain contents, which provides evidence and guidelines for designing subsequent empirical work.
Media effects studies
Social cognitive theory is pervasively employed in studies examining attitude or behavior changes triggered by the mass media. As Bandura suggested, people can learn how to perform behaviors through media modeling. SCT has been widely applied in media studies pertained to sports, health, education and beyond. For instance, Hardin and Greer in 2009 examined the gender-typing of sports within the theoretical framework of social cognitive theory, suggesting that sports media consumption and gender-role socialization significantly related with gender perception of sports in American college students.
In health communication, social cognitive theory has been applied in research related to smoking cessation, HIV prevention, safe sex behaviors, and so on. For example, Martino, Collins, Kanouse, Elliott, and Berry in 2005 examined the relationship between the exposure to television’s sexual content and adolescents’ sexual behavior through the lens of social cognitive theory, confirming the significant relationship between the two variables among white and African American groups; however, no significant correlation was found between the two variables in the ethnic group of Hispanics, indicating that peer norm could possibly serve as a mediator of the two examined variables.
Gender Norms
Gender norms have been looked at across mass media from the social cognitive perspective. Utilizing the triadic causation model, researchers have looked at societal expectations, and how these binary expectation impact gender roles. Within these studies, they cite mass media as a method for implementing gender norms on society.
In 1997 Harrison and Cantor utilized SCT in order to look at how images of thinness and ideal body shapes effected women in the Fiji Islands. Historically, Fiji women admired being large but in 1995 television shows like Beverly Hills, 90210, and Melrose Place were introduced to the island. In the sample collected by Harrison and Cantor they found that 50 percent of women who watched these programs viewed themselves as "too big or fat".
Social Media
The ability to personalize ones own social media has been a popular conversation among researchers. Across different studies researchers there is a perceived benefit or outcome expectation. Across social media, studies have looked at a number of topics including: health communication messaging, motivations of social media users, excessive use of social media, and social media discontinuance.
Media Violence
Many social cognitive studies have explored the impact of violence in the media on human behavior. In SCT's infancy, violence is what Bandura focused his study around as many fictional characters in TV used violence to solve problems and address conflict. SCT has characterized four effects as a result of viewing violence in media: teaching of aggressive behaviors, weakened restraints on aggression, desensitization and habituation on human cruelty, and violence has the power to reshape viewers reality.
Bandura's research has also suggested that behavior is influenced by the consequences of that behavior, such as rewards or punishments. The Bobo Doll experiment played a significant role in the development of social cognitive theory because it profoundly shaped the development of SCT. In terms of media effects, Bandura found that television violence is often portrayed in a glamorous way, making it more likely to be imitated. So, when approaching media violence with the SCT perspective that people, especially children, imitate what they see in media. Longitudinal studies such as the one conducted by Roswell Huesmann utilized SCT in order to look at repeated exposure of media violence over a long period of time. This study concluded that repeated early exposure to television violence may suggest higher levels of aggression and antisocial behavior later in life.
Public health
Physical Activity
Albert Bandura defines perceived self-efficacy as "people's beliefs about their capabilities to produce designated levels of performance that exercise influence over events that affect their lives." Self-efficacy is just one of six constructs that SCT is based on; the other five include reciprocal determinism, behavioral capability, observational learning, reinforcements, and expectations. A lack of physical activity has been shown to contribute to heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and cancer even in individuals without any other risk factors. Social cognitive theory can be helpful in identifying motivating factors that lead to increased physical activity across age and gender. A study by Yael Netz and Shulamith Raviv in 2004 found positive correlations between high levels of self-efficacy when compared to physical activity. These findings suggest the best motivational method to increase the rate of physical activity is one that first increases perceived self-efficacy. As applied to public health campaigns, the first symptom to address is low levels of perceived self-efficacy rather than low levels of physical activity, since addressing the former may rectify the latter.
A different study conducted in 2015 observed similar results. The goal of this study was to identify if SCT could be used to “…improve physical activity (PA) interventions by identifying which variables to target to maximize intervention impact.” By following 204 overweight men over the course of a three-month weight loss program, researchers applied a longitudinal, latent variable structural equation model to test SCT-related constructs including self-efficacy, outcome expectations, intention and social support as they apply toward self-reported changes in physical activity level. Researchers found self-efficacy as the most important indicator for physical activity, while noting a non-zero effect of intention on increased physical activity. As such, weight loss programs focused on increasing the physical activity levels of participants should aim to increase participant self-efficacy in order to achieve desirable results.
Physical activity levels, on average, decline during one’s life – particularly during adolescence. SCT can be used to explain the most prevalent contributing factors to this marked decrease in physical activity among adolescents and then develop appropriate intervention methods to best change this phenomenon. One study in particular addresses this subject through the SCT framework. Researchers mailed questionnaires to a random sample of 937 undergraduate students in the U.S. to measure the influence of personal, behavioral, and environmental factors on exercise behavior change. For both men and women, increased self-efficacy was the most important predictor in signifying positive changes to exercise behavior and physical activity.
SCT can be applied to public health campaigns in an attempt to foster a more healthy public through exercise; as it relates, multiple studies find self-efficacy as the most important variable in predicting high- or low-levels of physical activity.
Child rearing studies have also looked at the link between television viewing habits of children and the impact that parents have. In 2012 Zimmerman et al. conducted a pilot trial to help tackle the obesity problem in children. In their clinical trial, they implemented SCT's theoretical foundations of self-efficacy, outcome expectation, and volitional control. These were used in order to create behavior changes in the parents. The SCT's implication of outcome expectations proved to be very valuable in changing television viewing habits.
AIDS
Miller's 2005 study found that choosing the proper gender, age, and ethnicity for models ensured the success of an AIDS campaign to inner city teenagers. This occurred because participants could identify with a recognizable peer, have a greater sense of self-efficacy, and then imitate the actions to learn the proper preventions and actions.
Breastfeeding
A study by Azza Ahmed in 2009 looked to see if there would be an increase in breastfeeding by mothers of preterm infants when exposed to a breastfeeding educational program guided by SCT. Sixty mothers were randomly assigned to either participate in the program or they were given routine care. The program consisted of SCT strategies that touched on all three SCT determinants: personal – showing models performing breastfeeding correctly to improve self-efficacy, behavioral –weekly check-ins for three months reinforced participants' skills, environmental – mothers were given an observational checklist to make sure they successfully completed the behavior. The author found that mothers exposed to the program showed significant improvement in their breastfeeding skills, were more likely to exclusively breastfeed, and had fewer problems then the mothers who were not exposed to the educational program.
Family Planning
Television has been looked at as a methodology to provide social change. For example, in global television, in order to generate interests in family planning T.V. raises the status of women who are mothers. This act of modeling is to aid in boosting population and avoid decreasing birthrates.
Morality
Social cognitive theory emphasizes a large difference between an individual's ability to be morally competent and morally performing. Moral competence involves having the ability to perform a moral behavior, whereas moral performance indicates actually following one's idea of moral behavior in a specific situation. Moral competencies include:
What an individual is capable of
What an individual knows
What an individual's skills are
An individual's awareness of moral rules and regulations
An individual's cognitive ability to construct behaviors
As far as an individual's development is concerned, moral competence is the growth of cognitive-sensory processes; simply put, being aware of what is considered right and wrong. By comparison, moral performance is influenced by the possible rewards and incentives to act a certain way. For example, a person's moral competence might tell them that stealing is wrong and frowned upon by society; however, if the reward for stealing is a substantial sum, their moral performance might indicate a different line of thought. Therein lies the core of social cognitive theory.
For the most part, social cognitive theory remains the same for various cultures. Since the concepts of moral behavior did not vary much between cultures (as crimes like murder, theft, and unwarranted violence are illegal in virtually every society), there is not much room for people to have different views on what is morally right or wrong. The main reason that social cognitive theory applies to all nations is because it does not say what is moral and immoral; it simply states that we can acknowledge these two concepts. Our actions in real-life scenarios are based on whether we believe the action is moral and whether the reward for violating our morals is significant enough, and nothing else.
Limitations
Modeling and mass media
In series TV programming, according to social cognitive theory, the awarded behaviors of liked characters are supposed to be followed by viewers, while punished behaviors are supposed to be avoided by media consumers. However, in most cases, protagonists in TV shows are less likely to experience the long-term suffering and negative consequences caused by their risky behaviors, which could potentially undermine the punishments conveyed by the media, leading to a modeling of the risky behaviors. Nabi and Clark found that individuals who had not previously experienced one night stand sex showed increased expectation of doing so after exposure to media portrayals of this behavior.
See also
Social cognition
References
Further reading
Bandura, Albert (1976). Social Learning Theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Bandura, Albert (1985). Social Foundations of Thought and Action. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Berg, Insoo Kim; Miller, Scott D. (1992). Working with the Problem Drinker: A Solution-focused Approach (pp. 733–735). New York: Norton.
Pajares, Frank; Prestin, Abby; Chen, Jason; Nabi, L. Robin. "Social Cognitive Theory and Media Effects". In Nabi, Robin L.; Oliver, Mary Beth, The SAGE Handbook of Media Processes and Effects. Los Angeles: SAGE, 2009. 283-297.
Bandura, Albert (2001). Social Cognitive Theory: An Agentic Perspective. Annual Review of Psychology.
External links
"Albert Bandura Bobo Doll Experiment: Modelling of Aggression." YouTube
"Albert Bandura speaking at Everett M. Rogers Award Colloquium 2007" YouTube, (1h33)
Social learning theory
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Forest school (learning style) | Forest school is an outdoor education delivery model in which students visit natural spaces to learn personal, social and technical skills. It has been defined as "an inspirational process that offers children, young people and adults regular opportunities to achieve and develop confidence through hands-on learning in a woodland environment". Forest school is both a pedagogy and a physical entity, with the use often being interchanged. The plural "schools" is often used when referring to a number of groups or sessions.
Forest school uses the woods and forests as a means to build independence and self-esteem in children and young adults. Topics are cross-curriculum (broad in subject) including the natural environment, for example the role of trees in society, the complex ecosystem supported by a wilderness, and recognition of specific plants and animals. However, the personal skills are considered highly valuable, such as teamwork and problem solving. The woodland environment may be used to learn about more abstract concepts such as mathematics and communication. Forest school provision is also called nature schools.
Activities and scope
In the UK Model, schedules within forest schools vary, but one approach is to take students to woodlands once a week, with an initial six-week observation and assessment period, where a baseline is produced for each child in terms of areas of their holistic development, with particular emphasis on their social and emotional aspects of learning (SEAL). Once the baseline assessment has been produced the Forest School Leader/Practitioner will then continue with the long-term programme over the course of the learning period in order to support the child in their development and learning. The practitioner will provide opportunities for each child to develop in areas that have been identified as requiring interventions or support of any kind The duration and frequency of visits influences the degree of outcome; more time spent in forest school brings greater benefits. Visits should ideally continue throughout the year, allowing children to experience all weathers and the changing seasons.
Forest schools are for all students, of any age, often "led by the learner's interests" (learner-initiated learning) by comparison to other outdoor education which "starts with an issue agenda or problem for the learner to investigate". The main goals of forest school in primary age children includes encouraging curiosity and exploration with all of the senses, empowering children in the natural environment, and encouraging spatial awareness and motor development. Forest schools usually provide a higher adult to child ratio than some learning styles, in order to ensure children are supported sufficiently in a higher risk environment.
Beyond primary-school-age children, forest school is frequently used to further develop social skills and explore creative learning and focuses on developing firm foundations for continued personal and education development. In particular it has been used as an alternative curriculum provision to support continued mainstream education involvement, or as a temporary/transitional approach back into school.
Consistent with attention restoration theory, children taking part in forest school have been described as more relaxed. Relationships between the children and each other, with adults, and with the environment, are important. Incorporating simple meditation practises, such as sit spots, helps children develop mindfulness in the natural setting.
Forest school is part of the broader area of outdoor education. Outside the school curriculum, this extends to summer holiday camps, Scouting, Outward Bound projects and many other activities. Before children reach school age, forest kindergartens provide a similar service.
Forest school is currently taking place in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, USA, Malaysia, Switzerland, Spain, Israel, Ireland, Germany and United Kingdom.
Supporting exceptional children
The combination of freedom and responsibility has been particularly beneficial to children who lack confidence or whose behaviour is challenging. With high adult to child ratios, children can safely experience activities that are often prohibited, such as climbing trees or lighting fires. Children have the freedom to explore the area within the forest, this helps the child to learn to manage their own safety and move around comfortably. The programme allows children to grow in confidence and independence and extend their abilities.
Some children do not perform well in classrooms. They are encouraged to develop their innate curiosity and develop the motivation to learn. They may come from a non-academic family background, may have a short attention span, or may just not be comfortable with the organisation of a teacher standing in front of a group of pupils. Boys in general, prefer to be outside, and learn better in this way.
In a major study in the US, students with behavioural problems in "Environment as an Integrating Context for Learning" (EIC) programmes caused fewer discipline problems than their traditionally educated peers. Similarly, Forest schools have been found to help children with additional support needs, including Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and autistic children.
History
Sweden and Denmark
In the 1950s the idea was created in Denmark and shortly thereafter in Sweden. In Denmark it became an embedded part of the curriculum for pre-school children (under seven years) stemming from their småbørnspædagogik, or 'Early childhood education'. Children attending Forest kindergartens were in most cases arriving at school with strong social skills, the ability to work in groups effectively, high self-esteem, and confidence in their own capabilities.
In 1957, a Swedish man, Goesta Frohm, created the "Skogsmulle" concept to promote learning about nature, water, mountains and pollution. With an increasing focus on measurable outcomes, forest schools have gained acceptance as an educational method in their own right. In Denmark, nature schools as well as forest kindergartens are popular with both school teachers and children.
The biophilia hypothesis argues that a love of nature is instinctive. The term nature deficit disorder, coined by Richard Louv in his 2005 book Last Child in the Woods, recognises the erosion of this by the urbanisation of human society. Attention restoration theory and related psychological work has proven health benefits in reduced stress, improved concentration and improved medical outcomes from surgery. Scandinavian countries, rich in woodland, have maintained the human link more closely. Forest schools practice is based on up-to date pedagogy and andragogy.
United Kingdom
This ethos was introduced to the UK during the 1990s from Denmark. The growth of forest school has been unprecedented throughout the UK developing into a separate and distinct model called the UK Model. Bridgwater College in Somerset was the pioneer of the forest school concept in the UK in 1994 after a group of nursery nurses travelled to Denmark to observe the Danish/Nordic Model of Forest Kindergartens for a few days.
Various government and NGO agencies propose the use of woodland as part of the school educational curriculum; for example the Forest Education Initiative and the Forestry Commission. By 2006, there were approximately 140 forest schools in Britain.
The governmental agencies have in some cases been set targets for the use of their resources for education or health benefits, or are focused on the educational outcomes and see forestry as a step towards them.
Many businesses and non-profit organizations facilitate forest school long term programmes. In Wales, training and strategic oversight is provided by Forest Schools Wales and government agencies such as the Forestry Commission who have supported research and the development of practical experience for forest school practitioners. In England, support has been provided by the Forest Education Network (which has replaced the Forest Education Initiative) to those initiating forest school provision. Such provision is provided within schools using their own trained staff or by external independent forest school providers.
Many organisations now offer training courses designed for the UK to enable practitioners to deliver forest school in their own settings and ensure children and teachers work within rich natural experiences. The OCN Level 3 training course is most widely recognised within the UK.
Developing from the Institute of Outdoor Learning's (IOL) Forest School Special Interest Group, in June 2012 The Forest School Association was established as an independent UK body.
In Northern Ireland, the Northern Ireland Forest School's Association runs after school Nature Ranger clubs, teacher training and other forest school activities.
Canada
Inspired by international developments, the first Canadian forest school was created by Marlene Power in 2007. It was named Carp Ridge Preschool and was located near Ottawa. In 2012, Power founded and became the executive director of Forest School Canada, an educational initiative of the Child and Nature Alliance of Canada. Forest School Canada is focused on being a "network for support, education, and accreditation for concepts associated with the FS movement in Canada."
The movement has spread into Canada's provinces and is primary associated with private schools. However, there is emerging support from public schools such as the Nature Kindergarten pilot which is a partnership between the Sooke District School Board and the University of Victoria's Centre for Early Childhood Research and Policy, Royal Roads University, and Camosun College's Early Learning and Care Program.
Terminology
Attempts have been made to copyright and trademark generic terms related to forest school. There is no known protection of the term "forest school" or "forest schools".
See also
Forest kindergarten
Outdoor education
Sudbury Schools – another school framework (PreK-12) providing access to unlimited time outdoors
References
External links
Forest School Association UK
Forest School Wales
Forestry Commission Scotland
Northern Ireland Forest School Association
Outdoor education
Alternative education
School types
Education in the United Kingdom
Education in England
Education in Wisconsin
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Seminar | A seminar is a form of academic instruction, either at an academic institution or offered by a commercial or professional organization. It has the function of bringing together small groups for recurring meetings, focusing each time on some particular subject, in which everyone present is requested to participate. This is often accomplished through an ongoing Socratic dialogue with a seminar leader or instructor, or through a more formal presentation of research. It is essentially a place where assigned readings are discussed, questions can be raised and debates can be conducted.
Etymology
The word seminar was borrowed from German (in which is it capitalized as ), and is ultimately derived from the Latin word , meaning 'seed plot' (an old-fashioned term for 'seedbed'). Its root word is (Latin for 'seed').
Overview
The term seminar is also used to describe a research talk, often given by a visiting researcher and primarily attended by academics, research staff, and postgraduate students. Seminars often occur in regular series, but each seminar is typically given by a different speaker, on a topic of that speaker's choosing. Such seminars are not usually a part of a course of study and are therefore not usually associated with any assessment or credit.
In some European universities, a seminar may be a large lecture course, especially when conducted by a renowned thinker (regardless of the size of the audience or the scope of student participation in discussion). Some non-English speaking countries in Europe use the word seminar (e.g. German Seminar, Slovenian seminar, Polish seminarium) to refer to a university class that includes a term paper or project, as opposed to a lecture class (e.g. German Vorlesung, Slovenian predavanje, Polish wykład). This does not correspond to the English use of the term. In some academic institutions, typically in scientific fields, the term "preceptorial" is used interchangeably with "seminar".
In North Indian universities, the term "seminar" refers to a course of intense study relating to the student's major. Seminars typically have significantly fewer students per professor than normal courses, and are generally more specific in topic of study. Seminars can revolve around term papers, exams, presentations, and several other assignments. Seminars are almost always required for university graduation. Normally, participants must not be beginners in the field under discussion at US and Canadian universities. Seminar classes are generally reserved for upper-class students, although at UK and Australian universities seminars are often used for all years. The idea behind the seminar system is to familiarize students more extensively with the methodology of their chosen subject and also to allow them to interact with examples of the practical problems that always occur during research work.
Seminar rooms
"Seminar room" is often used as a name for a generic group study or work space at a library. Some seminar rooms are more tailored to a specific topic or field, literally a space designed for a seminar course or individualized self-study to occur.
See also
Academic conference
French mathematical seminars
Plenary session
Poster session
Senior seminar, aka Capstone course or final year course
Symposium (academic)
Webinar (a seminar attended through the Internet)
Jesus Seminar, a group of 50 biblical criticism scholars and 100 laymen
References
Academic terminology | 0.760792 | 0.994085 | 0.756292 |
Cultural sensitivity | Cultural sensitivity, also referred to as cross-cultural sensitivity or cultural awareness, is the knowledge, awareness, and acceptance of other cultures and others' cultural identities. It is related to cultural competence (the skills needed for effective communication with people of other cultures, which includes cross-cultural competence), and is sometimes regarded as the precursor to the achievement of cultural competence, but is a more commonly used term. On the individual level, cultural sensitivity is a state of mind regarding interactions with those different from oneself. Cultural sensitivity enables travelers, workers, and others to successfully navigate interactions with a culture other than their own.
Cultural diversity includes demographic factors (such as race, gender, and age) as well as values and cultural norms. Cultural sensitivity counters ethnocentrism, and involves intercultural communication, among relative skills. Most countries' populations include minority groups comprising indigenous peoples, subcultures, and immigrants who approach life from a different perspective and mindset than that of the dominant culture. Workplaces, educational institutions, media, and organizations of all types are becoming more mindful of being culturally sensitive to all stakeholders and the population at large. Increasingly, training of cultural sensitivity is being incorporated into workplaces and students' curricula at all levels. The training is usually aimed at the dominant culture, but in multicultural societies may also be taught to migrants to teach them about other minority groups. The concept is also taught to expatriates working in other countries to ingratiate them into other customs and traditions.
Definitions and aims
There are a variety of definitions surrounding cultural sensitivity. All of these definitions revolve around the idea that it is the knowledge, awareness, and acceptance of other cultures. It includes "the willingness, ability and sensitivity required to understand people with different backgrounds", and the acceptance of diversity. Crucially, it "refers to being aware that cultural differences and similarities between people exist without assigning them a value." Definitions also include the skill set acquired by this learning. Cultural awareness is having the knowledge of the existence of multiple different cultures with different attitudes and worldviews, while cultural sensitivity means the acceptance of those differences and accepting that one's own culture is not superior.
In 2008, cultural sensitivity was found to be a widely used term in a literature search of global databases, both popular and scholarly. Based on this literature, cultural sensitivity is defined as "employing one's knowledge, consideration, understanding, [and] respect, and tailoring [it] after realizing awareness of self and others, and encountering a diverse group or individual".
There are many different types of cultural diversity in any society, including factors such as marginalized or socially excluded groups; ethnicity; sexual orientation; disability; values and cultural norms. Cultural sensitivity is relevant to all of these.
Support of cultural sensitivity is based on ideological or practical considerations. Former Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, advocated cultural sensitivity as an essential value in the modern world:
Factors for cultural awareness
Certain factors that affect cultural sensitivity include religion, ethnicity, race, national origin, language, or gender. Others areas to look at include age, education, socio-economic status, sexual orientation, and mental/physical challenges.
Cultural competence
Awareness and understanding of other cultures is a key factor of cultural sensitivity. Cultural Competence relies on the ability of both parties involved to have a pleasant and successful interaction. The term "cultural competence" is often used to describe those skills acquired to embody cultural sensitivity, particularly in the workplace. Cultural sensitivity requires flexibility. Louise Rasmussen and Winston Sieck led studies consisting of members of the U.S. Military that identified 12 Core Aspects (consisting of four subgroups) of successful cross-cultural interactions. These aspects rely on the subjects of the study being able to remain diplomatic and learn from intercultural interactions.
The 12 Core Aspects Include:
A diplomatic stance
Maintaining a Mission Orientation
Understanding Self in Social Context
Managing Attitude Towards Culture
Cultural Learning
Self-Directed Learning of Cultures
Developing Reliable Information Sources
Learning New Cultures Efficiently
Cultural Reasoning
Coping with Cultural Surprises
Developing Cultural Explanations of Behavior
Cultural Perspective Taking
Intercultural Interaction
Intercultural Communication Planning
Disciplined Self Presentation
Reflection and Feedback
In the dominant culture
Cultural awareness and sensitivity help to overcome inherent ethnocentrism by learning about other cultures and how various modes and expectations may differ between those cultures. These differences range from ethical, religious, and social attitudes to body language and other nonverbal communication. Cultural sensitivity is just one dimension of cultural competence, and has an impact on ethnocentrism and other factors related to culture. The results of developing cultural sensitivity are considered positive: communication is improved, leading to more effective interaction between the people concerned, and improved outcome or interventions for the client or customer.
The concept is taught in many workplaces, as it is an essential skill for managing and building teams in a multicultural society. Intercultural communication has been cited as one of the two biggest challenges within the workplace, along with internal communications (mission statement, meetings, etc.).
In healthcare
Cultural sensitivity training in health care providers can improve the satisfaction and health outcomes of patients from different minority groups. Because standard measures for diagnosis and prognosis relate to established norms, cultural sensitivity is essential. A person's norms are defined by their culture, and these may differ significantly from the treating medical professional. Language barriers, beliefs, and trust are just a few of the factors to consider when treating patients of other cultural groups. Understanding cultural beliefs regarding health and care can give healthcare professionals a better idea of how to proceed with providing care.
It is important to understand the concept behind the buzzword in the healthcare setting, as cultural sensitivity can increase nurses' appreciation of and communication with other professionals as well as patients. Part of providing culturally sensitive care is to develop cultural competence as an ongoing process. Nurses and employers should be committed to educating themselves about different patients' beliefs, values, and perspectives.
In therapy
In a study on narrative theory in therapy, Cynthia C. Morris concluded that culture in made up of the collected stories of a group of people. In the practice of therapy, understanding a patient's point of view is vital to the clinician. Cultural Sensitivity allows for a clinician to get a more well-rounded understanding of where the client is coming from, why they may think about things in a certain way, or their approach to thought in general. Culturally Sensitive Therapy approaches psychotherapy by emphasizing how the clinician understands the client's race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, religion and any other aspects that relate to culture and identity. Culturally sensitive therapists will help their patients feel more seen and understood, while those without cultural sensitivity may turn away patients from the practice of therapy altogether.
Working and travelling abroad
On the individual level, cultural sensitivity allows travelers and expatriate workers to successfully navigate a different culture with which they are interacting. It can increase the security of travelers because it helps them understand interactions from the perspective of the native culture. One individual's understanding of another's culture can increase respect for the other individual, allowing for more effective communication and interactions. For managers as well as employees, cultural sensitivity is increasingly more vital in business or government jobs.
This cross-cultural sensitivity can lead to both competitiveness and success when working with or within organizations located in a different country. These benefits highlight the consideration of how two societies and cultures operate, particularly with respect to how they are similar and different from each other. Being able to determine these in terms of thoughts, behavior beliefs, and expressions among others makes it possible to solve problems meaningfully and act in a manner that is acceptable to all stakeholders.
Lacking awareness of foreign cultures can also have adverse consequences. These can be as severe as reaching the point of legal action. Similarly, certain etiquettes in one country can be considered violations of business codes in another.
Tourism
Tourism is a major opportunity to experience and interact with other cultures. It is therefore one of the most vital times to be culturally sensitive. There are major faux pas to be aware of regarding the locals. Ensuring awareness of table manners, common phrases, local dress, etiquette at holy sites, and other immersions into the culture are great ways to be sensitive to the destination and engage with it.
Tourism to areas with Indigenous people requires more awareness and cultural sensitivity. Many of these areas have been colonized and turned into tourist attractions that put on display the culture that is being erased. These kinds of attractions lead to stereotyping that negatively impacts the culture rather than exposing others to it. These displays can often turn the culture into an exotic aesthetic that leads to inauthentic portrayals of the culture and furthers stereotypes. This cultural insensitivity happens when cultural practices and products are sold by another cultural group without consent. Due to this, culturally sensitive tourism is an up and coming industry that aims to engage with a culture rather than exoticized.
Models
Bennett scale
Milton Bennett was the first to create a model or framework designed to help comprehension of various stages of intercultural sensitivity. This became known as the Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity (DMIS), otherwise referred to as the Bennett scale. This scale has been adapting and developing since 1986 and is included in The International Encyclopedia of Intercultural Communication (2017).
Bennett developed the framework of the model to show the intercultural sensitivity a person may experience. Intercultural sensitivity is defined as an individual's ability to develop emotion towards understanding and appreciating cultural differences that promotes appropriate and effective behavior in intercultural communication"
According to Bennett, “As one’s perceptual organization of cultural difference becomes more complex, one’s experience of culture becomes more sophisticated and the potential for exercising competence in intercultural relations increases." By recognizing how cultural difference is being experienced, predictions about the effectiveness of intercultural communication can be made.
Bennett describes a continuum, which moves from ethnocentrism to "ethnorelativism". The model includes six stages of experiencing difference.
The six stages explained in the model include:
Denial - when people fail to recognize distinctions among cultures or consider them to be irrelevant
Defense - people perceive other cultures in a competitive way, or in an us-against-them way
Minimization - people assume that their distinct cultural worldview is shared by others, or when they perceive their culture's values as fundamental or universal human values that apply to everyone.
Acceptance - recognize that different beliefs and values are shaped by culture,
Adaptation - when people are able to adopt the perspective of another culture,
Integration - someone's identity or sense of self evolves to incorporate the values, beliefs, perspectives, and behaviors of other cultures.
Community Tool Box
The Community Tool Box was developed by the University of Kansas' Center for Community Health and Development, a designated World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Community Health and Development. The Centre's idea of "Building Culturally Competent Organizations," is a guide for diversity and inclusion training in the workplace. The Tool Box refers to three levels leading up to the fourth, the end goal:
cultural knowledge
cultural awareness
cultural sensitivity
cultural competence
Each step builds on the previous one, with the final one, cultural competence, being the stage where the organization has effectively enabled better outcomes in a multicultural workforce.
Competence training
Training to achieve cultural competence or cultural sensitivity is undertaken in schools, workplaces, in healthcare settings
See also
Cross-cultural communication
Cultural assimilation
Cultural behavior
Cultural diversity
Cultural identity
Cultural intelligence
Cultural pluralism
Cultural relativism
Intercultural learning
Intercultural therapy
Multiculturalism
Social identity
References
Further reading
Cultural Sensitivity: A Concept Analysis
Intercultural Sensitivity and Conflict Management Styles in Cross-Cultural Organizational Situations
Cross-cultural competency tools
Cross-cultural studies
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Practice theory | Practice theory (or praxeology, theory of social practices) is a body of social theory within anthropology and sociology that explains society and culture as the result of structure and individual agency. Practice theory emerged in the late 20th century and was first outlined in the work of the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu.
Practice theory developed in reaction to the Structuralist school of thought, developed by social scientists including Claude Lévi-Strauss, who saw human behavior and organization systems as products of innate universal structures that reflect the mental structures of humans. Structuralist theory asserted that these structures governed all human societies.
Practice theory is also built on the concept of agency. For practice theorists, the individual agent is an active participant in the formation and reproduction of their social world.
History
In 1972, French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu published Esquisse d'une théorie de la pratique (published in English as Outline of a Theory of Practice in 1977), which emerged from his ethnographic field work in French-occupied Algeria among the Kabyle at the outbreak of the Algerian War of Independence. The original goal of this work was to understand Algerian culture and its internal rules and laws in an effort to understand the conflict. Bourdieu later rejected the idea that culture and social life can be reduced to the acting-out of rules and the primacy of social structures over the individual. Instead, Bourdieu argues, culture and society are better understood as the product of dynamic interactions between social actors and structure. Anthony Giddens and Michel de Certeau were also foundational to the theory in the late 1970's and 1980's.
Premise
Practices are conceptualized as "what people do," or an individual's performance carried out in everyday life. Bourdieu's theory of practice sets up a relationship between structure and the habitus and practice of the individual agent, dealing with the "relationship between the objective structures and the cognitive and motivating structures which they produce and which tend to reproduce them". What is perceived and experienced as culture is the result of dynamic interaction of internal and external structures, individual performance (practice), and strategy (strategy is based on existing structures, but it exists from the actions of individuals seeking to pursue their own interests). Bourdieu describes structure as the "products of historical practices and are constantly reproduced and transformed by historical practices whose productive principle is itself the product of the structures which it consequently tends to reproduce." According to practice theory, social actors are not just shaped by their social world, they shape it as well. Since Bourdieu's formulation, practice theory has been expanded by sociologists, anthropologists, international relation scholars, and feminist scholars, among others.
habitus
Along with practices, habitus is a key concept in practice theory. Bourdieu defined habitus as "a structuring structure, which organizes practices and the perception of practices" (1984: 170). First proposed by philosopher Marcel Mauss, Bourdieu uses the term habitus to refer to patterns of thought and behavior which are deeply internalized structures. Habitus is composed of social conventions, rules, values, etc., that guide our everyday practices. These mental structures are representations of the external social structures people are interact with on a daily basis. They inform our practice and give meaning to the world and are what drives us to behave in accordance with social and cultural conventions. Habitus is also influenced by external individual forces, such as confronting a new social norm, or a new way of doing things. Like structure, habitus is also the product of historical events.
The embodied component of the habitus is the hexis. It is manifested as an individual's gait, gesture, postures, accent etc. A closely related notion to Bourdieu's habitus is Michel Foucault's concept of 'discipline'. Like habitus, discipline 'is structure and power that have been impressed on the body forming permanent dispositions'. In contrast to Bourdieu, though, Foucault laid particular emphasis on the violence through which modern regimes (e.g. prisons and asylums) are used as a form of social control.
doxa
Another important concept to practice theory are doxa, which are the internalized societal or field-specific presuppositions that 'go without saying' and are not up for negotiation. The doxa is a constructed vision of reality so naturalized that it appears to be the only vision of reality. It is the learned, fundamental, deep-founded, unconscious beliefs and values that are taken as self-evident universals and inform an agent's actions and thoughts within a particular field. An example is the belief that a year must have 365 days or that days must be 24 hours long. The field represents a structured social space with its own rules, schemes of domination, legitimate opinions. Bourdieu uses the concept of field instead of analyzing societies solely in terms of classes. For example, fields in modern societies include arts, education, politics, law and economy. Cultural capital is also part of practice theory and is directly related to strategy. It is the intangible assets that enable actors to mobilize cultural authority/power as part of strategy e.g., e.g., competencies, education, intellect, style of speech, dress, social networks,. This is important in terms of an individual's strategy. A later addition to practice theory is structuration, coined by Anthony Giddens.
In anthropology and sociology
Cultural anthropologist Sherry Ortner defines practice theory as "a theory of history. It is a theory of how social beings, with their diverse motives and their diverse intentions, make and transform in which they live." Ortner developed what she terms "cultural schemas" to explain society's structural contradictions and agency. Her engagement with practice theory focuses on how agents "react to, cope with, or actively appropriate" external structures. These responses of agents are bound or enabled by the cultural schemas which are often rooted in the contradictions of society's structure and habitus of the agent. Agents create broader social narratives practices unique to their specific culture from multiple schemas. The many available to agents schemas woven to a social narrative help to "give society its distinctiveness and coherence" Ortner's agent is "loosely structured", their practice is constituted of how they respond to the schemas.
British sociologist Anthony Giddens extended practice theory with his concept of structuration. Structuration is based on his previous work on the Duality of Structure, the idea that the agency of social actors and structure are inseparable and co-create one another. Agency, according to Giddens, is neither free will or the intentionality of actions, but the capacity of the agent to act. The agency of individuals is constrained and enabled by structure. In turn, structure is created, transformed, and reproduced through the actions of agents. These reinforcing and transformative capacities of agents are Giddens identified two forms of consciousness that inform the knowledgeable agent's actions: practical consciousness and discursive consciousness.
Influenced
Gender theory
Judith Butler's work on gender and sex is based on performance and practice theory. In Gender Trouble (1990) and "Performative Acts and Gender Constitution" (1988), Butler advances their concept of gender performativity. They argue that all gender and sexual identities are constructs. These identities are not real or innately natural and they do not express any inner reality. Instead, gender and sexuality are constituted by performance, meaning the everyday repetition of acts that reaffirm these identities. The individual performs gender and then that identity is validated by society.
Communities of practice and learning as practice
Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger draw from practice theory to conceptualize communities of practice as a place of learning. Roddick and Stahl summarize communities of practice as involving "embodied action and continuously renewed relations between understanding and experience, more and less skilled practitioners, and the objects and communities with which practitioners interact."
Communities of practice center the relationship of the agent, the activity engaged in, and community, which are co-created and relational to one another. Learning and apprenticeship within practice communities are processes that place individual experience and everyday practice in active discourse with the broader context of their society. According to Wenger and Lave, learning is "situated" through practice of novices and expert practitioners. More recent approaches extend the scope to issues such as agency, material, and interaction.
Other Theories of Practice
Schatzki's Theory of Practice
In the 1990's, Theodore Schatzki developed an alternative theory of practice in Social Practices (1996) and The Site of the Social (2002). His basic premise is that people do what makes sense for them to do and derives from the work of Martin Heidegger and Ludwig Wittgenstein. Practices make up people's 'horizon of intelligibility.' Schatzki defines practices as 'open-ended spatial-temporal manifolds of actions' (Schatzki, 2005, p. 471) and also as 'sets of hierarchically organized doings/sayings, tasks and projects'. Such practices consist of four main elements: (1) practical understanding – "knowing how to X, knowing how to identify X-ings, and knowing how to prompt as well as respond to X-ings" (idem, p. 77); (2) rules – "explicit formulations, principles, precepts, and instructions that enjoin, direct or remonstrate people to perform specific actions" (idem, p. 79); (3) teleo-affective structure – "a range of normativized and hierarchically ordered ends, projects and tasks, to varying degrees allied with normativized emotions and even mood" (idem, p. 80); and (4) general understanding.
Other important theorists
William Hanks
Sherry Ortner
Marshall Sahlins
Andreas Reckwitz
Jean Lave
Davide Nicolini
Elizabeth Shove
Silvia Gherardi
Michel Foucault
Bruno Latour
Michel Callon
References
Bibliography
Archer, Margaret S. (2003). Structure, agency and the internal conversation. Cambridge University Press.
Bourdieu, Pierre [1972] 1977. Outline of a Theory of Practice. Trans. Richard Nice. Cambridge University Press.
Bourdieu, Pierre ( 1990). The Logic of Practice. Trans. Richard Nice. Polity Press.
Calhoun, Craig, Edward LiPuma, and Moishe Postone (1993). Bourdieu: critical perspectives. University of Chicago Press.
de Certeau, Michel (1984). "Foucault and Bourdieu". In The practice of everyday life. Trans. Rendall S. F.University of California Press.
Gherardi, S. (2014). How to Conduct a Practice-Based Study: Problems and Methods. Edward Elgar Pub.
Gherardi, S. (2006). Organizational Knowledge: The Texture of Workplace Learning. Wiley.Giddens, Anthony (1979). Central problems in social theory: Action, structure, and contradiction in social analysis. University of California Press.
Giddens, Anthony (1984). The Constitution Of Society: Outline Of A Theory Of Structuration. Polity Press.
Moore, Jerry D.(2000). Visions of culture: An introduction to anthropological theories and theorists. Rowman Altamira.
Morris, Rosalind C. (1995). "All made up: Performance theory and the new anthropology of sex and gender". Annual review of anthropology. 24 (1): 567–592.
Nicolini, Davide. Practice theory, work, and organization: An introduction. OUP Oxford, 2012
Roddick, Andrew P.; Stahl, Anne B. "Introduction: Knowledge in Motion".(2016). Knowledge in motion : constellations of learning across time and place. Ed.Andrew Roddick and Anne P. Stahl. Tucson: The University of Arizona Press.
Turner, Stephen (1994). The Social Theory of Practices: Tradition, Tacit Knowledge, and Presuppositions. University of Chicago Press.
Sociological terminology | 0.765501 | 0.987925 | 0.756258 |
Social dominance theory | Social dominance theory (SDT) is a social psychological theory of intergroup relations that examines the caste-like features of group-based social hierarchies, and how these hierarchies remain stable and perpetuate themselves. According to the theory, group-based inequalities are maintained through three primary mechanisms: institutional discrimination, aggregated individual discrimination, and behavioral asymmetry. The theory proposes that widely shared cultural ideologies (“legitimizing myths”) provide the moral and intellectual justification for these intergroup behaviors by serving to make privilege normal. For data collection and validation of predictions, the social dominance orientation (SDO) scale was composed to measure acceptance of and desire for group-based social hierarchy, which was assessed through two factors: support for group-based dominance and generalized opposition to equality, regardless of the ingroup's position in the power structure.
The theory was initially proposed in 1992 by social psychology researchers Jim Sidanius, Erik Devereux, and Felicia Pratto. It observes that human social groups consist of distinctly different group-based social hierarchies in societies that are capable of producing economic surpluses. These hierarchies have a trimorphic (three-form) structure, a description which was simplified from the four-part biosocial structure identified by van den Berghe (1978). The hierarchies are based on: age (i.e., adults have more power and higher status than children), gender (i.e., men have more power and higher status than women), and arbitrary-set, which are group-based hierarchies that are culturally defined and do not necessarily exist in all societies. Such arbitrariness can select on ethnicity (e.g., in the US, Bosnia, Asia, Rwanda), class, cast, religion (Sunni versus Shia Islam), nationality, species or any other socially constructed category. Social hierarchy is not only seen as a universal human feature – SDT argues there is substantial evidence it is shared, including the theorized trimorphic structure – among apes and other primates.
Group hierarchy
Social dominance theory (SDT) argues that all human societies form group-based hierarchies. A social hierarchy is where some individuals receive greater prestige, power or wealth than others. A group-based hierarchy is distinct from an individual-based hierarchy in that the former is based on a socially constructed group such as race, ethnicity, religion, social class and freedoms, linguistic group, etc. while the latter is based on inherited, athletic or leadership ability, high intelligence, artistic abilities, etc.
A primary assumption in social dominance theory (SDT) is that racism, sexism, nationalism, and classism are all manifestations of the same human disposition to form group-based social hierarchies. The social tiers described by multiple intersectional theories of stratification become organized into hierarchies due to forces that SDT believes are best explained in evolutionary psychology to offer high survival value. Human social hierarchies are seen to consist of a hegemonic group at the top and negative reference groups at the bottom. More powerful social roles are increasingly likely to be occupied by a hegemonic group member (for example, an older white male). Males are more dominant than females, and they possess more political power and occupy higher status positions illustrating the iron law of androcracy. As a role gets more powerful, Putnam’s law of increasing disproportion becomes applicable and the probability the role is occupied by a hegemonic group member increases.
SDT adds new theoretical elements attempting a comprehensive synthesis of explanations of the three mechanisms of group hierarchy oppression that are regulated by legitimizing myths:
Aggregated individual discrimination (ordinary discrimination)
Aggregated institutional discrimination (by governmental and business institutions)
State terrorism (e.g., police violence, death squads)
Behavioural asymmetry
Deference–systematic outgroup favouritism (minorities favour members of dominant group)
asymmetric ingroup bias (as status increases, in-group favoritism decreases)
self-handicapping (self-categorization as an inferior becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy)
ideological asymmetry (as status increases, so do beliefs legitimizing and/or enhancing the current social hierarchy)
Although the nature of these hierarchical differences and inequality differs across cultures and societies, significant commonalities have been verified empirically using the social dominance orientation (SDO) scale. In multiple studies across countries, the SDO scale has been shown to correlate robustly with a variety of group prejudices (including sexism, sexual orientation prejudice, racism, nationalism) and with hierarchy-enhancing policies.
Legitimizing myths theory
SDT believes that decisions and behaviors of individuals and groups can be better understood by examining the “myths” that guide and motivate them. Legitimizing myths are consensually held values, attitudes, beliefs, stereotypes, conspiracy theories, and cultural ideologies. Examples include the inalienable rights of man, divine right of kings, the protestant work ethic, and national myths. In current society, such legitimizing myths or narratives are communicated through platforms like social media, television shows, and films, and are investigated using a variety of methods including content analysis, semiotics, discourse analysis, and psychoanalysis. The granularity of narrative extends from broad ideologies at the highest level to middle level personal myths (positive thinking of oneself as a successful smart dominant, or submissive inferior), reaching the lowest level of behavioral scripts or schemas for particular dominant-submissive social situations. Categories of myth include:
paternalistic myths (the dominant hegemony serves society, looks after incapable minorities)
reciprocal myths (suggestions that dominants and outgroups are actually equal)
sacred myths (karma or divine right of kings as a religion-approved mandate to dominate others)
For regulation of the three mechanisms of group hierarchy oppression, there are two functional types of legitimizing myths: hierarchy-enhancing and hierarchy-attenuating myths. Hierarchy-enhancing ideologies (e.g., racism or meritocracy) contribute to greater levels of group-based inequality. Felicia Pratto presented meritocracy as an example of a legitimizing myth, and how the myth of meritocracy produces only an illusion of fairness. Hierarchy-attenuating ideologies such as protected rights, universalism, egalitarianism, feminism, and multiculturalism contribute to greater levels of group-based equality. People endorse these different forms of ideologies based in part on their psychological orientation to accept or reject unequal group relations as measured by the SDO scale. People who score higher on the SDO scale tend to endorse hierarchy-enhancing ideologies, and people who score lower tend to endorse hierarchy-attenuating ideologies. Finally, SDT proposes that the relative counterbalance of hierarchy-enhancing and -attenuating social forces stabilizes group-based inequality.
Interactions with authoritarian personality theory
Authoritarian personality theory has an empirical scale known as the RWA measure, which strongly predicts a substantially similar set of group level sociopolitical behaviors such as prejudice and ethnocentrism that the SDO scale predicts, despite the scales being largely independent of each other. Research by Bob Altemeyer and others has shown the two scales have different patterns of correlation with characteristics at the individual level and other social phenomena. For example, high-SDO individuals are not particularly religious, but high-RWAs usually are; high-SDOs do not claim to be benevolent but high RWAs usually do. Altemeyer theorizes that both are authoritarian personality measures, with SDO measuring dominant authorial personalities, and RWA measuring the submissive type. Other researchers believe that the debate between intergroup relation theories has moved past which theory can subsume all others or better explain all forms discrimination. Instead, the debate has moved to pluralist explanation, where researchers need to determine which theory or combination of theories is appropriate under which conditions.
The relationship between the two theories has been explored by Altemeyer and other researchers such as John Duckitt, who have exploited the greater coverage possible by employing RWA and SDO scales in tandem. Duckitt proposes a model in which RWA and SDO influences ingroup and outgroup attitudes in two different dimensions: RWA measures the threats to norms and values, so high RWA scores reliably predicts negative views towards drug dealers and rock stars, while high SDO scores do not. The model theorizes that high SDO individuals react to pecking order competition with groups seen as socially subordinate (unemployment beneficiaries, housewives, handicapped), and view them negatively, whereas RWA does not show any correlation. Duckitt's research observed that RWA and SDO measures can become more correlated with age, and suggests the hypothesis that the perspectives were acquired independently during socialization and over time become more consistent as they interact with each other. Unaffectionate socialization is hypothesized to cause tough-minded attitudes of high-SDO individuals. Duckitt believes this competitive response dimension in believes the world operates on a survival of the fittest scheme is backed by multiple studies. He predicts that the high correlation between the views of the world as dangerous and competitive emerge from parenting styles tending to covariance along the dimensions of punitiveness and lack of affection.
The model also suggests that these views mutually reinforce each other. Duckitt examined the complexities of the interaction between RWA, SDO, and a variety of specific ideological/prejudicial beliefs and behavior. For instance:
SDO beliefs are activated by competition and intergroup inequalities in status and power
RWA is a stronger predictor of prejudice when the outgroup is threatening
When group status is unstable, SDO is associated with higher ingroup bias than when group status is stable
Outgroup liking is best predicted by similarity to the ingroup, while outgroup respect is predicted by status and technological advancement
Duckitt also argued that this model may explain anti-authoritarian-libertarian and egalitarian-altruistic ideologies.
Other researchers view RWA and SDO as distinct. People high on the RWA scale are easily frightened and value security, but are not necessarily callous, cruel, and confident as those that score high on the SDO scale. Altemeyer has conducted multiple studies, which suggest that the SDO measure is more predictive of racist orientation than the RWA measure, and that while results from the two scales correlate closely for some countries (Belgium and Germany), his research and McFarland and Adelson's show they correlate very little for others (USA and Canada).
Gender and dominance
Because patriarchal societies are dominated by males over females, SDT predicts that everything else being equal, males tend to have a higher SDO score. This “invariance hypothesis” predicts that males will tend to function as hierarchy enforcers; that is, they are more likely to carry out acts of discrimination, such as the systematic terror by police officers, and the extreme example of death squads and concentration camps. The hypothesis is supported by a demonstrated correlation between SDO scores and preference for occupations such as criminal prosecutors and police officers, as opposed to hierarchy-attenuating professions (social workers, human rights advocates, or health care workers). SDT also predicts that males who carry out violent acts have been predisposed out of a conditioning called prepared learning.
Elite theory influences – Marx and others
SDT was influenced by the elite theories of Karl Marx, Gaetano Mosca, Robert Michels, and Vilfredo Pareto, all of whom argue that societies are ruled by a small elite who rationalize their power through some system of justifying narratives and ideologies. Marx described the oppressive hierarchy of hegemonic groups dominating negative reference groups; in his examples the bourgeoisie (owning class) dominate the proletariat (working class) by controlling capital (the means of production) and not paying workers enough. However, Marx thought that the working class would eventually comprehend the solution to this oppression and destroy the bourgeoisie in a proletarian revolution. Friedrich Engels viewed ideology and social discourse as employed to keep dominants and subgroups in line, referring to this as "false consciousness", whose political rationalist cure results when masses can evaluate the facts of their situation. SDT believes that social constructions employing ideology and social narratives may be used as effective justifications regardless of whether they are epistemologically true or false, or whether they legitimize inequality or equality. From the Marxian economic determinist perspective, race, ethnic, and gender conflict are sociological epiphenomena derivable from the primary economic class conflict. Unlike Marxian sociologists, SDT along with Mosca, Michels, and Pareto together reject reductionism solely to economic causes, and are skeptical of the hoped for class revolution. Pareto's analysis was that “victory” in the class struggle would only usher in a new set of socially dominant elites. Departing from elite theory's near exclusive focus on social structures manipulated by rational actors, SDT follows Pareto's new direction towards examining collective psychological forces, asserting that human behavior is not primarily driven by either reason or logic.
Criticisms
John C. Turner and Katherine J. Reynolds from the Australian National University published in the British Journal of Social Psychology a commentary on SDT, which outlined six fundamental criticisms based on internal inconsistencies: arguing against the evolutionary basis of the social dominance drive, questioning the origins of social conflict (hardwired versus social structure), questioning the meaning and role of the SDO construct, a falsification of behavioral asymmetry, the idea of an alternative to understanding attitudes to power including ideological asymmetry and collective self-interest, and a reductionism and philosophical idealism of SDT. The commentary argues that social identity theory (SIT) has better explanatory power than SDT, and made the case that SDT has been falsified by two studies: Schmitt, Branscombe, and Kappen (2003) and Wilson and Liu (2003).
Wilson and Liu suggested intergroup attitudes follow social structure and cultural beliefs, theories, and ideologies developed to make sense of group's place in the social structure and the nature of their relationships with other groups; from this view, SDO is a product rather than a cause of social life. They questioned the invariance hypothesis, and cited their own test relating "strength of gender identification" as a moderator of "gender‐social dominance orientation relationship", reporting that group identification was associated with increased dominance orientation in males but decreased dominance orientation in females. Pratto, Sidanius and Levin denied that any claim was made that SDO measures are independent of social identity context, and that methodologically, “it would obviously make no sense to compare the SDO levels of female members of death squads to those of male social workers, or, less dramatically, to compare the SDO levels of men identifying with female gender roles to those of women identifying with male gender roles”. The hypothesized evolutionary predispositions of one gender towards SDO was not intended by the SDT authors to imply that nothing can be done about gender inequality or domination patterns, and that the theory provides unique approaches for attenuating those predispositions and their social manifestations.
Lui and Wilson (2003), conducted research to examine the role of gender in comparison to levels of social dominance orientation. The study conducted two tests looking at the relationship between gender-social dominate orientation and if it's moderated by strength of gender group identification and found, "strength of gender identification was found to moderate the gender‐SDO relationship, such that increasing group identification was associated with increasing SDO scores for males, and decreasing SDO for females." Therefore this study raised questions about gender as group membership and if it's a different status compared to other group memberships, possibly undermining the theoretical basis of SDT.
See also
Collective narcissism
Common ingroup identity
Cultural hegemony
Elite theory
Habitus (sociology)
Political psychology
Power (social and political)
Social constructionism
Social psychology
System justification theory
Citations
Bibliography
Books
Articles
Political psychology
Psychological theories
Social psychology concepts
Moral psychology | 0.76662 | 0.986466 | 0.756244 |
Positive behavior support | Positive behavior support (PBS) uses tools from applied behaviour analysis and values of normalisation and social role valorisation theory to improve quality of life, usually in schools. PBS uses functional analysis to understand what maintains an individual's challenging behavior and how to support the individual to get these needs met in more appropriate way, instead of using 'challenging behaviours'. People's inappropriate behaviors are difficult to change because they are functional; they serve a purpose for them. These behaviors may be supported by reinforcement in the environment. People may inadvertently reinforce undesired behaviors by providing objects and/or attention because of the behavior.
The positive behavior support process involves identifying goals, then undertaking functional behavior assessment (FBA). FBAs clearly describe behaviors, identify the contexts (events, times, and situation) that predict when behavior will and will not occur, and consequences that maintain the behavior. The FBA includes a hypothesis about the behavior and data for a baseline. This informs the support plan design, implementation and monitoring of the plan.
Positive behavior support is increasingly being recognized as a strategy that is feasible, desirable, and effective. For example, teachers and parents need strategies they are able and willing to use and that affect the child's ability to participate in community and school activities.
By changing stimulus and reinforcement in the environment and teaching the person to strengthen deficit skill areas, their behavior changes. In schools, this can allow students to be included in the general education setting.
Three areas of deficit skills addressed by PBS are communication skills, social skills, and self-management skills. Re-directive therapy as positive behavior support is especially effective in the parent–child relationship. Where other treatment plans have failed, re-directive therapy allows for a positive interaction between parents and children. Positive behavior support is successful in the school setting because it is primarily a teaching method.
In U.S. schools
Schools are required to conduct functional behavioral assessment (FBA) and use positive behavior support with students who are identified as disabled and are at risk for expulsion, alternative school placement, or more than 10 days of suspension. Even though FBA is required under limited circumstances it is good professional practice to use a problem-solving approach to managing problem behaviors in the school setting.
The use of positive behavior interventions and supports (PBIS) in schools is widespread in part because it is a professional skill in early special education programs (as opposed to Rogerian counseling). The program offers a primary, secondary, and tertiary level of intervention. A basic tenet of the PBIS approach includes identifying students in one of three categories – primary, secondary, or tertiary Interventions are specifically developed for each of these levels with the goal of reducing the risk for academic or social failure. The interventions become more focused and complex at each level.
Primary prevention strategies focus on interventions used on a school-wide basis for all students. PBS use for other than a designated population group has neither been approved by the professions or the public-at-large. This level of prevention is considered "primary" because all students are exposed in the same way, and at the same level, to the intervention. Approximately 80–85% of students who are not at risk for behavior problems respond in a positive manner to this prevention level. Primary prevention strategies include, but are not limited to, using effective teaching practices and curricula, explicitly teaching behavior that is acceptable within the school environment, focusing on ecological arrangement and systems within the school, consistent use of precorrection procedures, using active supervision of common areas, and creating reinforcement systems that are used on a school-wide basis.
Secondary prevention strategies involve around 10–15% of the school population who do not respond to the primary prevention strategies and are at risk for academic failure or behavior problems but are not in need of individual support. Interventions at the secondary level often are delivered in small groups to maximize time and effort and should be developed with the unique needs of the students within the group. Examples of these interventions include social support such as social skills training (e.g., explicit instruction in skill-deficit areas, friendship clubs, check in/check out, role playing) or academic support. Additionally, secondary programs could include behavioral support approaches (e.g., simple Functional Behavioral Assessments [FBA], precorrection, self-management training).
Even with the heightened support within secondary level interventions, some students (1–7%) will need the additional assistance at the tertiary level.Tertiary prevention programs focus on students who display persistent patterns of disciplinary problems. Tertiary-level programs are also called intensive or individualized interventions and are the most comprehensive and complex. The interventions within this level are strength-based in that the complexity and intensity of the intervention plans directly reflect the complexity and intensity of the behaviors. Students within the tertiary level continue involvement in primary and secondary intervention programs and receive additional support as well. These supports could include use of full FBA, de-escalation training for the student, heightened use of natural supports (e.g., family members, friends of the student), and development of a Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP).
Although comprehensive services are important for all students, a critical aspect of the three-tiered model is the identification of students at one of the three levels. One method of identifying students in need of interventions is to analyze office disciplinary referrals (ODR) taken at the school. ODRs may be a means of both identifying students' risk level for antisocial behavior and school failure. Researchers have advocated analyzing this naturally occurring data source as a relatively cheap, effective, and ongoing measurement device for PBS programs.
ODRs have also been shown to be effective in determining where students fall within a three-leveled model, developing professional development as well as helping coordinate school efforts with other community agencies, predicting school failure in older grades as well as delinquency, indicating types of behavior resulting in referrals, and determination of the effectiveness of precorrection techniques. Analyzing discipline referral data can also help school personnel identify where to improve ecological arrangements within a school and to recognize how to increase active supervision in common areas. A limitation of only using ODRs to measure behavior problems is that they have been found to be ineffective at measuring internalizing behavior problems such as anxiety, depression, and withdrawal.
Functional behavior assessment
Functional Behavior Assessment (FBA) emerged from applied behavior analysis, and just like its parent, targets "getting 'stuck' in repetitive movements" (i.e., healthy stimming) as a "problem behavior". It is the cornerstone of a Positive Behavior Support plan. The assessment seeks to describe the behavior and environmental factors and setting events that predict the behavior in order to guide the development of effective support plans. Assessment lays the foundation of PBS. The assessment includes:
a description of the problem behavior and its general setting of occurrence
identification of events, times and situations that predict problem behavior
identification of consequences that maintain behavior
identification of the motivating function of behavior
collection of direct observational data
identification of alternative behavior that could replace the person's problem behavior (i.e., what a typical child or adult does). Often this is measured through direct observation or standardized behavioral assessment instruments.
The results of the assessment help in developing the individualized behavior support plan. This outlines procedures for teaching alternatives to the behavior problems, and redesign of the environment to make the problem behavior irrelevant, inefficient, and ineffective.
Behavior chain analysis is another avenue of functional behavior assessment, which is growing in popularity. In behavior chain analysis, one looks at the progressive changes of behavior as they lead to problem behavior and then attempts to disrupt this sequence. Whereas FBA is concerned mostly with setting-antecedent-behavior-consequence relations, the behavior chain analysis looks at the progression of behavior. For example, a child may fidget at first, then begin to tease others, then start to throw things, and finally hit another student.
Behavioral strategies available
There are many different behavioral strategies that PBS can use to encourage individuals to change their behavior. Some of these strategies are delivered through the consultation process to teachers. The strong part of functional behavior assessment is that it allows interventions to directly address the function (purpose) of a problem behavior. For example, a child who acts out for attention could receive attention for alternative behavior (contingency management) or the teacher could make an effort to increase the amount of attention throughout the day (satiation). Changes in setting events or antecedents are often preferred by PBS because contingency management often takes more effort. Another tactic especially when dealing with disruptive behavior is to use information from a behavior chain analysis to disrupt the behavioral problem early in the sequence to prevent disruption. Some of the most commonly used approaches are:
Modifying the environment or routine, using the three term contingency, particularly antecedents (such as curriculum), behavior, and/or consequences
Providing an alternative to the undesired behavior (not the same as a reward; it should be an alternative that is readily available to the person. The thought behind this is that the person may, over time, learn to more independently seek out appropriate options rather than the undesired behavior(s)).
Tactical ignoring of the behavior (also called extinction)
Distracting the child
Positive reinforcement for an appropriate behavior
Changing expectations and demands placed upon the child
Teaching the child new skills and behaviors
Graded extinction and cognitive behavioral therapies (CBTs) such as desensitization
Provide sensory based breaks to promote an optimal level of arousal and calming for increased use the replacement/alternative behavior
Changing how people around the child react
Time-out (child)
Medication
Behavior management program
The main keys to developing a behavior management program include:
Identifying the specific behaviors to address
Establishing the goal for change and the steps required to achieve it
Procedures for recognizing and monitoring changed behavior
Choosing the appropriate behavioral strategies that will be most effective.
Through the use of effective behavior management at a school-wide level, PBS programs offer an effective method to reduce school crime and violence. To prevent the most severe forms of problem behaviors, normal social behavior in these programs should be actively taught.
Consequential management/contingency management
Consequential management is a positive response to challenging behavior. It serves to give the person informed choice and an opportunity to learn. Consequences must be clearly related to the challenging behavior. For example, if a glass of water was thrown and the glass smashed, the consequence (restitution) would be for the person to clean up the mess and replace the glass. These sorts of consequences are consistent with normal social reinforcement contingencies.
Providing choices is very important and staff can set limits by giving alternatives that are related to a behavior they are seeking. It is important that the alternative is stated in a positive way and that words are used which convey that the person has a choice. For example:
Coercive approach – "If you don't cut that out you'll have to leave the room."
Positive approach – "You can watch TV quietly or leave the room."
Implementation on a school-wide level
School-Wide Positive Behavior Support (SW-PBS) consists of a broad range of systematic and individualized strategies for achieving important social and learning outcomes while preventing problem behavior with all students.
A measurable goal for a school may be to reduce the level of violence, but a main goal might be to create a healthy, respectful, and safe learning, and teaching, environment. PBS on a school-wide level is a system that can be used to create the "perfect" school, or at the very least a better school, particularly because before implementation it is necessary to develop a vision for what the school environment should look like in the future.
According to Horner et al. (2004), once a school decides to implement PBS, the following characteristics require addressing:
define 3 to 5 school-wide expectations for appropriate behavior;
actively teach the school-wide behavioral expectations to all students;
monitor and acknowledge students for engaging in behavioral expectations;
correct problem behaviors using a consistently administered continuum of behavioral consequences
gather and use information about student behavior to evaluate and guide decision making;
obtain leadership of school-wide practices from an administrator committed to providing adequate support and resources; and
procure district-level support.
Proponents state that such a program is able to create a positive atmosphere and culture in almost any school, but the support, resources, and consistency in using the program over time must be present.
See also
Applied behavior analysis
Behavior management
Behavior modification
Behavioral engineering
Child time-out
Contingency management
Positive education
Professional practice of behavior analysis
Reinforcement
Systematic desensitization
Tootling
Alternatives to special education approaches (special populations):
Family support
Group home
Inclusion (education)
Normalization
Social role valorization
Supported housing
Supported living
References
External links
Virtuoso Education Consulting LLC – Professional Development Training on PBS
Association for Positive Behavior Support
The US Dept. of Education Technical Assistance Center on Positive Behavior Support
Florida's Positive Behavior Support Project
The PBIS Compendium
The Irish Association for Behavioural Support
The Callan Institute '"Training & Consultancy Services in PBS, Dublin, Ireland "'
Training and consultancy services,
The Behavior Analyst Online
Utah's Academic, Behavior, and Coaching Initiative
Learning Together Ltd. Positive Behaviour Support
Social Role Valorization consulting group
National PBS
Behavior modification
Industrial and organizational psychology
Life coaching
Personal development
Behaviorism | 0.770071 | 0.98202 | 0.756225 |
Role | A role (also rôle or social role) is a set of connected behaviors, rights, obligations, beliefs, and norms as conceptualized by people in a social situation. It is an expected or free or continuously changing behavior and may have a given individual social status or social position. It is vital to both functionalist and interactionist understandings of society. Social role theory posits the following about social behavior:
The division of labour in society takes the form of the interaction among heterogeneous specialized positions, we call roles.
Social roles included appropriate and permitted forms of behavior and actions that recur in a group, guided by social norms, which are commonly known and hence determine the expectations for appropriate behavior in these roles, which further explains the position of a person in the society.
Roles are occupied by individuals, who are called actors.
When individuals approve of a social role (i.e., they consider the role legitimate and constructive), they will incur costs to conform to role norms, and will also incur costs to punish those who violate role norms.
Changed conditions can render a social role outdated or illegitimate, in which case social pressures are likely to lead to role change.
The anticipation of rewards and punishments, as well as the satisfaction of behaving pro-socially, account for why agents conform to role requirements.
The notion of the role can be and is examined in the social sciences, specifically economics, sociology and organizational theory.
Definition
Stanley Wasserman and Katherine Faust cautioned that "there is considerable disagreement among social scientists about the definitions of the related concepts of social position, social status, and social role." They note that while many scholars differentiate those terms, they can define those terms in a way that clashes with the definitions of another scholar; for example they state that "[Ralph] Linton uses the term 'status' in a way that is identical to our use of the term 'position'".
Determinants and characteristics
Roles may be achieved or ascribed or they can be accidental in different situations. An achieved role is a position that a person assumes voluntarily which reflects personal skills, abilities, and effort. An ascribed role is a position assigned to individuals or groups without regard for merit but because of certain traits beyond their control, and is usually forced upon a person.
Roles can be semi-permanent ("doctor", "mother", "child"), or they can be transitory. A well-known example is the sick role as formulated by Talcott Parsons in the late 1940s. In the transitory "sick role", a person is exempted from their usual roles, but is expected to conform to transitory behavioral standards, such as following doctors' orders and trying to recover.
For many roles, individuals must meet certain conditions, biological or sociological. For instance, a boy cannot ordinarily take the biological role of mother. Other roles require training or experience. For instance, in many cultures doctors must be educated and certified before practicing medicine.
Role development can be influenced by a number of additional factors, including social, genetic predisposition, cultural or situational.
Societal influence: The structure of society often forms individuals into certain roles based on the social situations they choose to experience. Parents enrolling their children in certain programs at a young age increases the chance that the child will follow that role.
Genetic predisposition: People take on roles that come naturally to them. Those with athletic ability generally take on roles of athletes. Those with mental genius often take on roles devoted to education and knowledge. This does not mean that people must choose only one path, each individual can reprise multiple roles (i.e. Evelyn can be the point guard on the basketball team and the editor of her school newspaper).
Cultural influence: Different cultures place different values on certain roles based on their lifestyle. For instance, soccer players are regarded higher in European countries than in the United States, where soccer is less popular.
Situational influence: Roles can be created or altered based on the situation a person is put in outside their own influence. An example of this is students blaming failure on situational factors like "the test wasn't fair" and this effects their role as a student.
Roles are also frequently interconnected in a role set, that complement of role-relationships in which persons are involved by virtue of occupying a particular social status. For example, a high school football player carries the roles of student, athlete, classmate, etc. Another example of a role is "an individual in the role of a parent is expected to care for their child and protect them from harm".
Role theory
Role theory is the sociological study of role development, concerned with explaining what forces cause people to develop the expectations of their own and others' behaviors. According to sociologist Bruce Biddle (1986), the five major models of role theory include:
Functional Role Theory, which examines role development as shared social norms for a given social position. These social positions may include leadership.
Symbolic Interactionist Role Theory, which examines role development as the outcome of individual interpretation of responses to behavior,
Structural Role Theory, which emphasises the influence of society rather than the individual in roles and utilizes mathematical models,
Organizational Role Theory, which examines role development in organizations, and
Cognitive Role Theory, which is summarized by Flynn and Lemay as "the relationship between expectations and behaviors"
Role in functionalist and consensus theory
The functionalist approach to role theory, which is largely borrowed from anthropology, sees a "role" as the set of expectations that society places on an individual. By unspoken consensus, certain behaviors are deemed "appropriate" and others "inappropriate". For example, an appropriate doctor dresses fairly conservatively, asks a series of personal questions about one's health, touches one in ways that would normally be forbidden, writes prescriptions, and shows more concern for the personal wellbeing of his or her clients than is expected of, say, an electrician or a shopkeeper.
"Role" is what the doctor does (or, at least, is expected to do) while status is what the doctor is; in other words, "status" is the position an actor occupies, while "role" is the expected behavior attached to that position. Roles are not limited to occupational status, of course, nor does the fact that one is cast in the role of "doctor" during working hours prevent one from taking on other roles at other times: spouse, friend, parent, and so on.
Role in interactionist or social action theory
In interactionist social theory, the concept of role is crucial. The interactionist definition of "role" pre-dates the functionalist one. A role, in this conception, is not fixed or prescribed but something that is constantly negotiated between individuals in a tentative, creative way. Philosopher George Herbert Mead explored roles in his seminal 1934 work, Mind, self and society. Mead's main interest was the way in which children learn how to become a part of society by imaginative role-taking, observing and mimicking others. This is always done in an interactive way: it's not meaningful to think of a role for one person alone, only for that person as an individual who is both co-operating and competing with others. Adults behave similarly: taking roles from those that they see around them, adapting them in creative ways, and (by the process of social interaction) testing them and either confirming them or modifying them. This can be most easily seen in encounters where there is considerable ambiguity, but is nevertheless something that is part of all social interactions: each individual actively tries to "define the situation" (understand their role within it); choose a role that is advantageous or appealing; play that role; and persuade others to support the role.
Social norms theory
Social norms theory states that much of people's behavior is influenced by their perception of how other members of their social group behave. When individuals are in a state of deindividuation, they see themselves only in terms of group identity, and their behavior is likely to be guided by group norms alone. But while group norms have a powerful effect on behavior, they can only guide behavior when they are activated by obvious reminders or by subtle cues. People adhere to social norms through enforcement, internalization, the sharing of norms by other group members, and frequent activation. Norms can be enforced through punishment or reward. Individuals are rewarded for living up to their roles (i.e. students getting an "A" on their exam) or punished for not completing the duties of their role (i.e. a salesperson is fired for not selling enough product).
Social norm theory has been applied as an environmental approach, with an aim of influencing individuals by manipulating their social and cultural environments. It has been widely applied using social marketing techniques. Normative messages are designed for delivery using various media and promotional strategies in order to effectively reach a target population. Social norms theory has also been successfully applied through strategies such as curriculum infusion, creating press coverage, policy development, and small group inventions.
The theory of planned behavior
People display reactance by fighting against threats to their freedom of action when they find norms inappropriate. Attitudes and norms typically work together to influence behavior (directly or indirectly). The theory of planned behavior intentions are a function of three factors: attitudes about the behavior, social norms relevant to the behavior, and perceptions of control over the behavior. When attitudes and norms disagree, their influence on behaviour will depend on their relative accessibility.
Team role theory
As described in Working in Groups by Engleberg and Wynn, team role theory is when "members assume roles that are compatible with their personal characteristics and skills". Meredith Belbin, a psychologist, first explored the concept of team-role theory in the 1970s when he and his research team went about observing teams and wanted to find out what made teams work and what did not. According to Belbin and his research team "the research revealed that the difference between success and failure for a team was not dependent on factors such as intellect, but more on behavior". They began to identify separate clusters of behaviors and found that behavior was more influential on a team than anything else. These separate clusters of behaviors are known as the "Team Roles". The nine "team roles" are as follows: coordinator/chairperson, shaper, innovator, resource investigator, monitor/evaluator, implementer, teamworker, completer/finisher, and specialist.
Role conflict
There are situations where the prescribed sets of behavior that characterise roles may lead to cognitive dissonance in individuals. Role conflict is a special form of social conflict that takes place when one is forced to take on two different and incompatible roles at the same time. An example of role conflict is a father, who is a baseball coach, that is torn between his role as a father by wanting to let his son be the pitcher and his role as a coach who should let the more experienced pitcher play.
Role confusion
Role confusion occurs in a situation where an individual has trouble determining which role he or she should play, but where the roles are not necessarily incompatible. For example, if a college student attending a social function encounters his teacher as a fellow guest, he will have to determine whether to relate to the teacher as a student or a peer.
Role enhancement
Role enhancement or role enrichment refers to a situation in which roles which are held by a person are compatible and moreover enacting one role has beneficial spillover effects on the enactment of the other role. An example of role enhancement is a nurse who assists a patient in improving relationships by "clarifying and supplementing specific role behaviors". Some evidence indicates that role conflict and role enhancement can occur simultaneously, and further evidence suggests that mental health correlates with low role conflict and high role enhancement. Also certain personality traits, in particular traits linked to perceiving and seeking greater levels of support, are associated with lower inter-role conflict and increase inter-role enrichment.
Role strain
Role strain is "the incompatibility among roles corresponding to a single status". An example of role strain is "a student who is torn between the obligations of school, their parents, and their job". This is role strain because the status of being a student comes with multiple responsibilities that make it difficult to handle all at the same time.
Gender roles
Gender roles are "sets of behavioral norms assumed to accompany one's status as male or female". Gender roles are "one of the most popular strains of thought to evolve from role theory" because it can be applied to one's status as a male or female in everyday life. It has been argued that gender "constitutes as a master status" because the status of gender holds a power in society. An example of gender role is baby boys being associated with the color blue and baby girls being associated with the color pink. As people get older, women are traditionally assigned the role of being a stay at home mother and men are assigned the role of being the breadwinner of the family.
See also
Character mask
Conflict theory
Gender role
Label (sociology)
Sick role
Purpose in life
Role-playing
Role engulfment
Role model
Role suction
Social position
Social status
Master status
Achieved status
Ascribed status
Stereotypes
Transactional analysis
The Fundamentals of Social Roles
References
Bibliography
Chandler, Daniel. "Television an Gender Roles"
Goldhagen, Daniel Jonah. Hitler's Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust. Vintage Books, New York. 1996.
Main Frame: Strategies for Generating Social Norms News. 2002.
The Twisted Dream. Time Life, Alexandria, Virginia. 1990.
External links
Sociological terminology
Role theory
Identity (social science) | 0.764181 | 0.989541 | 0.756189 |
Identity crisis | In psychology, identity crisis is a stage theory of identity development which involves the resolution of a conflict over eight stages of life. The term was coined by German psychologist Erik Erikson.
The stage of psychosocial development in which identity crisis may occur is called identity cohesion vs. role confusion. During this stage, adolescents are faced with physical growth, sexual maturity, and integrating ideas of themselves and about what others think of them. They therefore form their self-image and endure the task of resolving the crisis of their ego identity. Successful resolution of the crisis depends on one's progress through previous developmental stages, centering on issues such as trust, autonomy, and initiative.
Erikson's interest in identity began in childhood. Born Ashkenazi Jewish, he felt that he was an outsider. His later studies of cultural life among the Yurok of northern California and the Sioux of South Dakota helped formalize his ideas about identity development and identity crisis. Erikson described those going through an identity crisis as exhibiting confusion.
Concept
Adolescents may withdraw from normal life, not taking action or acting as they usually would at work, in their marriage or at school, or be unable to make defining choices about the future. They may even turn to negative activities, such as crime or drugs since from their point of view having a negative identity could be more acceptable than none at all. On the other side of the spectrum, those who emerge from the adolescent stage of personality development with a strong sense of identity are well equipped to face adulthood with confidence and certainty.
Erikson studied eight stages that made up his theory. To him, ego identity is a key concept to understanding what identity is, and it plays a large role in the conscious mind that includes fantasies, feelings, memories, perceptions, self-awareness, sensations, and thoughts; Each contributing a sense to self that is developed through social interaction. He felt that peers have a strong impact on the development of ego identity during adolescence. He believed that association with negative groups such as cults or fanatics can actually "redistrict" the developing ego during this fragile time.
The basic strength that Erikson argued should be developed during adolescence is fidelity, which only emerges from a cohesive ego identity. Fidelity encompasses sincerity, genuineness and a sense of duty in relationships with other people. Erikson defined the crisis as an argument between identity and confusion. Confusion lies between the younger generation, teenagers, and during adolescence he states that they "need to develop a sense of self and personal identity". If they do not develop this sense, they will be insecure and lose themselves, lacking confidence and certainty in adult life.
He described identity as "a subjective sense as well as an observable quality of personal sameness and continuity, paired with some belief in the sameness and continuity of some shared world image. As a quality of unself-conscious living, this can be gloriously obvious in a young person who has found himself as he has found his commonality. In him we see emerge a unique unification of what is irreversibly given—that is, body type and temperament, giftedness and vulnerability, infantile models and acquired ideals—with the open choices provided in available roles, occupational possibilities, values offered, mentors met, friendships made, and first sexual encounters."
Marcian theory
James Marcia's research on identity statuses of adolescents also applies to Erikson's framework of identity crises in adolescents.
Identity foreclosure is an identity status which Marcia claimed is an identity developed by an individual without much choice. "The foreclosure status is when a commitment is made without exploring alternatives. Often these commitments are based on parental ideas and beliefs that are accepted without question". Identity foreclosure can contribute to identity crises in adolescents when the "security blanket" of their assumed identity is removed. These "foreclosed individuals often go into crisis, not knowing what to do without being able to rely on the norms, rules, and situations to which they have been accustomed". An example of this would be a son of a farmer who learns that his father is selling the farm, and whose identity as an heir to a farm and the lifestyle and identity of a farmer has been disrupted by that news.
Identity diffusion is a Marcian identity status that can lead to identity crises in adolescents. Identity diffusion can be described as "the apathetic state that represents the relative lack of both exploration and commitment". Identity diffusion can overlap with diagnoses such as schizophrenia and depression, and can best be described as a lack of identity structure. An example of an identity crisis emerging from this status is an adolescent who becomes reclusive after his identity as a star athlete is destroyed by a serious injury.
Identity moratorium is the status that Marcia theorizes lasts the longest in individuals, is the most volatile, and can be best described as "the active exploration of alternatives". Individuals experiencing identity moratorium can be very open-minded and thoughtful but also in crisis over their identity. An example of this would be a college student who lacks conviction in their future after changing majors multiple times but still cannot seem to find their passion.
Identity achievement is the resolution to many identity crises. Identity achievement occurs when the adolescent has explored and committed to important aspects of their identity.
See also
Erikson's stages of psychosocial development
Existential crisis
References
Bibliography
Further reading
Examining Our Sense of Identity and Who We Are
Teenagers, Identity Crises and Procrastination
Psychological adjustment
Psychological concepts | 0.760011 | 0.994932 | 0.75616 |
Tinbergen's four questions | Tinbergen's four questions, named after 20th century biologist Nikolaas Tinbergen, are complementary categories of explanations for animal behaviour. These are also commonly referred to as levels of analysis. It suggests that an integrative understanding of behaviour must include ultimate (evolutionary) explanations, in particular:
behavioural adaptive functions
phylogenetic history; and the proximate explanations
underlying physiological mechanisms
ontogenetic/developmental history.
Four categories of questions and explanations
When asked about the purpose of sight in humans and animals, even elementary-school children can answer that animals have vision to help them find food and avoid danger (function/adaptation). Biologists have three additional explanations: sight is caused by a particular series of evolutionary steps (phylogeny), the mechanics of the eye (mechanism/causation), and even the process of an individual's development (ontogeny). This schema constitutes a basic framework of the overlapping behavioural fields of ethology, behavioural ecology, comparative psychology, sociobiology, evolutionary psychology, and anthropology. Julian Huxley identified the first three questions. Niko Tinbergen gave only the fourth question, as Huxley's questions failed to distinguish between survival value and evolutionary history; Tinbergen's fourth question helped resolve this problem.
Evolutionary (ultimate) explanations
First question: Function (adaptation)
Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection is the only scientific explanation for why an animal's behaviour is usually well adapted for survival and reproduction in its environment. However, claiming that a particular mechanism is well suited to the present environment is different from claiming that this mechanism was selected for in the past due to its history of being adaptive.
The literature conceptualizes the relationship between function and evolution in two ways. On the one hand, function and evolution are often presented as separate and distinct explanations of behaviour. On the other hand, the common definition of adaptation is a central concept in evolution: a trait that was functional to the reproductive success of the organism and that is thus now present due to being selected for; that is, function and evolution are inseparable. However, a trait can have a current function that is adaptive without being an adaptation in this sense, if for instance the environment has changed. Imagine an environment in which having a small body suddenly conferred benefit on an organism when previously body size had had no effect on survival. A small body's function in the environment would then be adaptive, but it would not become an adaptation until enough generations had passed in which small bodies were advantageous to reproduction for small bodies to be selected for. Given this, it is best to understand that presently functional traits might not all have been produced by natural selection. The term "function" is preferable to "adaptation", because adaptation is often construed as implying that it was selected for due to past function. This corresponds to Aristotle's final cause.
Second question: Phylogeny (evolution)
Evolution captures both the history of an organism via its phylogeny, and the history of natural selection working on function to produce adaptations. There are several reasons why natural selection may fail to achieve optimal design (Mayr 2001:140–143; Buss et al. 1998). One entails random processes such as mutation and environmental events acting on small populations. Another entails the constraints resulting from early evolutionary development. Each organism harbors traits, both anatomical and behavioural, of previous phylogenetic stages, since many traits are retained as species evolve.
Reconstructing the phylogeny of a species often makes it possible to understand the "uniqueness" of recent characteristics: Earlier phylogenetic stages and (pre-) conditions which persist often also determine the form of more modern characteristics. For instance, the vertebrate eye (including the human eye) has a blind spot, whereas octopus eyes do not. In those two lineages, the eye was originally constructed one way or the other. Once the vertebrate eye was constructed, there were no intermediate forms that were both adaptive and would have enabled it to evolve without a blind spot.
It corresponds to Aristotle's formal cause.
Proximate explanations
Third question: Mechanism (causation)
Some prominent classes of Proximate causal mechanisms include:
The brain: For example, Broca's area, a small section of the human brain, has a critical role in linguistic capability.
Hormones: Chemicals used to communicate among cells of an individual organism. Testosterone, for instance, stimulates aggressive behaviour in a number of species.
Pheromones: Chemicals used to communicate among members of the same species. Some species (e.g., dogs and some moths) use pheromones to attract mates.
In examining living organisms, biologists are confronted with diverse levels of complexity (e.g. chemical, physiological, psychological, social). They therefore investigate causal and functional relations within and between these levels. A biochemist might examine, for instance, the influence of social and ecological conditions on the release of certain neurotransmitters and hormones, and the effects of such releases on behaviour, e.g. stress during birth has a tocolytic (contraction-suppressing) effect.
However, awareness of neurotransmitters and the structure of neurons is not by itself enough to understand higher levels of neuroanatomic structure or behaviour: "The whole is more than the sum of its parts." All levels must be considered as being equally important: cf. transdisciplinarity, Nicolai Hartmann's "Laws about the Levels of Complexity."
It corresponds to Aristotle's efficient cause.
Fourth question: Ontogeny (development)
Ontogeny is the process of development of an individual organism from the zygote through the embryo to the adult form.
In the latter half of the twentieth century, social scientists debated whether human behaviour was the product of nature (genes) or nurture (environment in the developmental period, including culture).
An example of interaction (as distinct from the sum of the components) involves familiarity from childhood. In a number of species, individuals prefer to associate with familiar individuals but prefer to mate with unfamiliar ones (Alcock 2001:85–89, Incest taboo, Incest). By inference, genes affecting living together interact with the environment differently from genes affecting mating behaviour. A simple example of interaction involves plants: Some plants grow toward the light (phototropism) and some away from gravity (gravitropism).
Many forms of developmental learning have a critical period, for instance, for imprinting among geese and language acquisition among humans. In such cases, genes determine the timing of the environmental impact.
A related concept is labeled "biased learning" (Alcock 2001:101–103) and "prepared learning" (Wilson, 1998:86–87). For instance, after eating food that subsequently made them sick, rats are predisposed to associate that food with smell, not sound (Alcock 2001:101–103). Many primate species learn to fear snakes with little experience (Wilson, 1998:86–87).
See developmental biology and developmental psychology.
It corresponds to Aristotle's material cause.
Causal relationships
The figure shows the causal relationships among the categories of explanations. The left-hand side represents the evolutionary explanations at the species level; the right-hand side represents the proximate explanations at the individual level. In the middle are those processes' end products—genes (i.e., genome) and behaviour, both of which can be analyzed at both levels.
Evolution, which is determined by both function and phylogeny, results in the genes of a population. The genes of an individual interact with its developmental environment, resulting in mechanisms, such as a nervous system. A mechanism (which is also an end-product in its own right) interacts with the individual's immediate environment, resulting in its behaviour.
Here we return to the population level. Over many generations, the success of the species' behaviour in its ancestral environment—or more technically, the environment of evolutionary adaptedness (EEA) may result in evolution as measured by a change in its genes.
In sum, there are two processes—one at the population level and one at the individual level—which are influenced by environments in three time periods.
Examples
Vision
Four ways of explaining visual perception:
Function: To find food and avoid danger.
Phylogeny: The vertebrate eye initially developed with a blind spot, but the lack of adaptive intermediate forms prevented the loss of the blind spot.
Mechanism: The lens of the eye focuses light on the retina.
Development: Neurons need the stimulation of light to wire the eye to the brain (Moore, 2001:98–99).
Westermarck effect
Four ways of explaining the Westermarck effect, the lack of sexual interest in one's siblings (Wilson, 1998:189–196):
Function: To discourage inbreeding, which decreases the number of viable offspring.
Phylogeny: Found in a number of mammalian species, suggesting initial evolution tens of millions of years ago.
Mechanism: Little is known about the neuromechanism.
Ontogeny: Results from familiarity with another individual early in life, especially in the first 30 months for humans. The effect is manifested in nonrelatives raised together, for instance, in kibbutzs.
Romantic love
Four ways of explaining romantic love have been used to provide a comprehensive biological definition (Bode & Kushnick, 2021):
Function: Mate choice, courtship, sex, pair-bonding.
Phylogeny: Evolved by co-opting mother-infant bonding mechanisms sometime in the recent evolutionary history of humans.
Mechanisms: Social, psychological mate choice, genetic, neurobiological, and endocrinological mechanisms cause romantic love.
Ontogeny: Romantic love can first manifest in childhood, manifests with all its characteristics following puberty, but can manifest across the lifespan.
Sleep
Sleep has been described using Tinbergen's four questions as a framework (Bode & Kuula, 2021):
Function: Energy restoration, metabolic regulation, thermoregulation, boosting immune system, detoxification, brain maturation, circuit reorganization, synaptic optimization, avoiding danger.
Phylogeny: Sleep exists in invertebrates, lower vertebrates, and higher vertebrates. NREM and REM sleep exist in eutheria, marsupialiformes, and also evolved in birds.
Mechanisms: Mechanisms regulate wakefulness, sleep onset, and sleep. Specific mechanisms involve neurotransmitters, genes, neural structures, and the circadian rhythm.
Ontogeny: Sleep manifests differently in babies, infants, children, adolescents, adults, and older adults. Differences include the stages of sleep, sleep duration, and sex differences.
Use of the four-question schema as "periodic table"
Konrad Lorenz, Julian Huxley and Niko Tinbergen were familiar with both conceptual categories (i.e. the central questions of biological research: 1. - 4. and the levels of inquiry: a. - g.), the tabulation was made by Gerhard Medicus. The tabulated schema is used as the central organizing device in many animal behaviour, ethology, behavioural ecology and evolutionary psychology textbooks (e.g., Alcock, 2001). One advantage of this organizational system, what might be called the "periodic table of life sciences," is that it highlights gaps in knowledge, analogous to the role played by the periodic table of elements in the early years of chemistry.
This "biopsychosocial" framework clarifies and classifies the associations between the various levels of the natural and social sciences, and it helps to integrate the social and natural sciences into a "tree of knowledge" (see also Nicolai Hartmann's "Laws about the Levels of Complexity"). Especially for the social sciences, this model helps to provide an integrative, foundational model for interdisciplinary collaboration, teaching and research (see The Four Central Questions of Biological Research Using Ethology as an Example – PDF).
References
Sources
Alcock, John (2001) Animal Behaviour: An Evolutionary Approach, Sinauer, 7th edition. .
Buss, David M., Martie G. Haselton, Todd K. Shackelford, et al. (1998) "Adaptations, Exaptations, and Spandrels," American Psychologist, 53:533–548. http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/comm/haselton/webdocs/spandrels.html
Buss, David M. (2004) Evolutionary Psychology: The New Science of the Mind, Pearson Education, 2nd edition. .
Cartwright, John (2000) Evolution and Human Behaviour, MIT Press, .
Krebs, John R., Davies N.B. (1993) An Introduction to Behavioural Ecology, Blackwell Publishing, .
Lorenz, Konrad (1937) Biologische Fragestellungen in der Tierpsychologie (I.e. Biological Questions in Animal Psychology). Zeitschrift für Tierpsychologie, 1: 24–32.
Mayr, Ernst (2001) What Evolution Is, Basic Books. .
Gerhard Medicus (2017, chapter 1). Being Human – Bridging the Gap between the Sciences of Body and Mind, Berlin VWB
Medicus, Gerhard (2017) Being Human – Bridging the Gap between the Sciences of Body and Mind. Berlin: VWB 2015,
Nesse, Randolph M (2013) "Tinbergen's Four Questions, Organized," Trends in Ecology and Evolution, 28:681-682.
Moore, David S. (2001) The Dependent Gene: The Fallacy of 'Nature vs. Nurture''', Henry Holt. .
Pinker, Steven (1994) The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language, Harper Perennial. .
Tinbergen, Niko (1963) "On Aims and Methods of Ethology," Zeitschrift für Tierpsychologie, 20: 410–433.
Wilson, Edward O. (1998) Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge'', Vintage Books. .
External links
Diagrams
The Four Areas of Biology pdf
The Four Areas and Levels of Inquiry pdf
Tinbergen's four questions within the "Fundamental Theory of Human Sciences" ppt
Tinbergen's Four Questions, organized pdf
Derivative works
On aims and methods of cognitive ethology (pdf) by Jamieson and Bekoff.
Behavioral ecology
Ethology
Evolutionary psychology
Sociobiology | 0.769292 | 0.982909 | 0.756144 |
Conflict escalation | Conflict escalation is the process by which conflicts grow in severity or scale over time. That may refer to conflicts between individuals or groups in interpersonal relationships, or it may refer to the escalation of hostilities in a political or military context. In systems theory, the process of conflict escalation is modeled by positive feedback. Conflict escalation can be modeled with game theory. In contrast, de-escalation are approaches which lead to a decrease or end of a conflict.
While the word escalation was used as early as in 1938, it was popularized during the Cold War by two important books: On Escalation (Herman Kahn, 1965) and Escalation and the Nuclear Option (Bernard Brodie, 1966). In those contexts, it especially referred to war between two major states with weapons of mass destruction during the Cold War.
Conflict escalation has a tactical role in military conflict and is often formalized with explicit rules of engagement. Highly-successful military tactics exploit a particular form of conflict escalation such as by controlling an opponent's reaction time, which allows the tactician to pursue or trap his opponent. Both Napoleon Bonaparte and Heinz Guderian advocated that approach. Sun Tzu elaborated it in a more abstract form and maintained that military strategy was about minimizing escalation and diplomacy was about eliminating it.
Continuum of force
The United States Marine Corps' "Continuum of Force" (found in MCRP 3-02B) documents the stages of conflict escalation in combat for a typical subject:
Level 1: Compliant (cooperative)
The subject responds to and obeys verbal commands. He refrains from close combat.
Level 2: Resistant (passive)
The subject resists verbal commands but complies to commands immediately upon contact controls. He refrains from close combat.
Level 3: Resistant (active)
Initially, the subject physically resists commands, but he can be made to comply by compliance techniques, including come-along holds, soft-handed stunning blows, and techniques inducing pain by joint manipulation and pressure points.
Level 4: Assaultive (bodily harm)
The unarmed subject physically attacks his opponent. He can be controlled by certain defensive tactics, including blocks, strikes, kicks, enhanced pain compliance procedures, impact weapon blocks, and blows.
Level 5: Assaultive (lethal force)
The subject has a weapon and will likely kill or injure someone unless he is controlled. That is possible only by lethal force, which possibly requires firearms or weapons. This could also include the subject physically overpowering someone and choking them out, which will cause injury or death if sustained for a long period of time.
International relations
Conflict escalation forecasts have been increasing in reliability. Asymmetric warfare can in some situations lead to persistent conflict escalation. A Fait accompli can result in rewards for short periods of conflict escalation. Appeasement can in some situations lead to conflict escalation. Overconfidence in escalation control can potentially lead to further conflict escalation including nuclear escalation.
See also
Conflict continuum
Friedrich Glasl's model of conflict escalation
Escalation of commitment
Stability–instability paradox
References
Conflict (process) | 0.763338 | 0.990556 | 0.756129 |
Bioecological model | The bioecological model of development is the mature and final revision of Urie Bronfenbrenner's ecological system theory. The primary focus of ecological systems theory is on the systemic examination of contextual variability in development processes. It focuses on the world outside the developing person and how they were affected by it. After publication of The Ecology of Human Development, Bronfenbrenner's first comprehensive statement of ecological systems theory, additional refinements were added to the theory. Whereas earlier statements of ecological systems theory focused on characteristics of the environment, the goal of the bioecological model was to explicate how characteristics of the developing person influenced the environments to which the person was exposed and how they were affected by the environment. The bioecological model is strongly influenced by Bronfenbrenner's collaborations with Stephen Ceci. Whereas much of Bronfenbrenner's work had focused on social development and the influence of social environments on development, Ceci's work focuses on memory and intelligence. The bioecological model reflects Ceci's work on contextual variability in intelligence and cognition and Bronfenbrenner's interest in developmentally instigative characteristics - how people help to create their own environments.
Evolution of Bronfenbrenner's theory
Bronfenbrenner's initial investigations into contextual variability in developmental processes can be seen in the 1950s in the analysis of differences in methods of parental discipline as a function of historical time and social class. It was further developed in his work on the differential effects of parental discipline on boys and girls in the 1960s and of convergence of socialization processes in the US and USSR in the 1970s. These works were expressed in the experimental variations built in the development and implementation of the HeadStart program. informally discussed new ideas concerning Ecological Systems Theory throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s during lectures and presentations to the psychological community. Bronfenbrenner published a major statement of ecological systems theory in American Psychologist, articulated it in a series of propositions and hypotheses in his most cited book, The Ecology of Human Development and further developing it in The Bioecological Model of Human Development and later writings.
Bronfenbrenner's early thinking was strongly influenced by other developmentalists and social psychologists who studied developmental processes as contextually bound and dependent on the meaning of experience as defined by the developing person. One strong influence was Lev Vygotsky, a Russian psychologist who emphasized recognized that learning always occurs and cannot be separated from a social context. A second influence was Kurt Lewin, a German forerunner of ecological systems models who focused on a person's psychological activities that occur within a kind of psychological field, including all the events in the past, present, and future that shape and affect an individual. The centrality of the person's interpretation of their environment and phenomenological nature was built on the work of Thomas & Thomas: “(i)f men define situations as real they are real in their consequences”.
Bronfenbrenner was also influenced by his colleague, Stephen J. Ceci, with whom he co-authored the article “Nature-nurture reconceptualized in developmental perspective: A bioecological theory” in 1994. Ceci is a developmental psychologist who redefined modern developmental psychology's approach to intellectual development. He focused on predicting a pattern of associations among ecological, genetic, and cognitive variables as a function of proximal processes. Together, Bronfenbrenner and Ceci published the beginnings of the bioecological model and made it an accessible framework to use in understanding developmental processes.
History
The history of bioecological systems theory is divided into two periods. The first period resulted in the publication of Bronfenbrenner's theory of ecological systems theory, titled The Ecology of Human Development, in 1979. Bronfenbrenner described the second period as a time of criticism and evaluation of his original work.
The development of ecological systems theory arose because Bronfenbrenner noted a lack of focus on the role of context in terms of development. He argued the environment in which children operate is important because development may be shaped by their interactions with the specific environment. He urged his colleagues to study development in terms of ecological contexts, that is the normal environments of children (schools, homes, daycares). Researchers heeded his advice and a great deal of research flourished in the early 1980s that focused on context.
However, where prior research was ignoring context, Bronfenbrenner felt current research focused too much on context and ignored development. In his justification for a new theory, Bronfenbrenner wrote he was not pleased with the direction of research in the mid 1980s and that he felt there were other realms of development that were overlooked.
In comparison to the original theory, bioecological systems theory adds more emphasis to the person in the context of development. Additionally, Bronfenbrenner chose to leave out key features of the ecological systems theory (e.g., ecological validity and ecological experiments) during his development of bioecological systems theory. As a whole, Bronfenbrenner's new theory continued to go through a series of transformations as he continuously analyzed different factors in human development. Critical components of bioecological systems theory did not emerge all at once. Instead, his ideas evolved and adapted to the research and ideas of the times. For example, the role of proximal processes, which is now recognized as a key feature of bioecological systems theory, did not emerge until the 1990s. This theory went through a series of transformations and elaborations until 2005 when Bronfenbrenner died.
Process–Person–Context–Time
Bronfenbrenner further developed the model by adding the chronosystem, which refers to how the person and environments change over time. He also placed a greater emphasis on processes and the role of the biological person. The Process–Person–Context–Time Model (PPCT) has since become the bedrock of the bioecological model. PPCT includes four concepts. The interactions between the concepts form the basis for the theory.
1. Process – Bronfenbrenner viewed proximal processes as the primary mechanism for development, featuring them in two central propositions of the bioecological model.
Proposition 1: [H]uman development takes place through processes of progressively more complex reciprocal interaction between an active, evolving biopsychological human organism and the persons, objects, and symbols in its immediate external environment. To be effective, the interaction must occur on a fairly regular basis over extended periods of time. Such enduring forms of interaction in the immediate environment are referred to as proximal processes.
Proximal processes are the development processes of systematic interaction between person and environment. Bronfenbrenner identifies group and solitary activities such as playing with other children or reading as mechanisms through which children come to understand their world and formulate ideas about their place within it. However, processes function differently depending on the person and the context.
Proposition 2: The form, power, content, and direction of the proximal processes effecting development vary systematically as a joint function of the characteristics of the developing person; of the environment—both immediate and more remote—in which the processes are taking place; the nature of the developmental outcomes under consideration; and the social continuities and changes occurring over time through the life course and the historical period during which the person has lived.
2. Person – Bronfenbrenner acknowledged the role that personal characteristics of individuals play in social interactions. He identified three personal characteristics that can significantly influence proximal processes across the lifespan. Demand characteristics such as age, gender or physical appearance set processes in motion, acting as “personal stimulus” characteristics. Resource characteristics are not as immediately recognizable and include mental and emotional resources such as past experiences, intelligence, and skills as well as material resources such as access to housing, education, and responsive caregivers. Force characteristics are related to variations in motivation, persistence and temperament. Bronfenbrenner notes that even when children have equivalent access to resources, their developmental courses may differ as a function of characteristics such as drive to succeed and persistence in the face of hardship. In doing this, Bronfenbrenner provides a rationale for how environments (i.e., the systems mentioned above under “The Original Model: Ecological Systems Theory”) influence personal characteristics, yet also suggests personal characteristics can change environments.
3. Context – Context involves five interconnected systems, which are based on Bronfenbrenner’s original model, ecological systems theory. The microsystem describes environments such as home or school in which children spend significant time interacting. Mesosystems are interrelations between microsystems. The exosystem describes events that have important indirect influence on development (e.g., a parent consistently working late). The macrosystem is a feature of any group (culture, subculture) that share values and belief systems. The chronosystem describes historical circumstances that affect contexts at all other levels.
4. Time – Time has a prominent place in this developmental model. It is constituted at three levels: micro, meso, and macro. Micro-time refers to what is happening during specific episodes of proximal processes. Meso-time refers to the extent to which the processes occur in the person’s environment, such as over the course of days, weeks or years. Macro-time (or the chronosystem) focuses on the shifting expectancies in wider culture. This functions both within and across generations and affects proximal processes across the lifespan.
Thus, the bioecological model highlights the importance of understanding a person's development within environmental systems. It further explains that both the person and the environment affect one another bidirectionally. Although even Bronfenbrenner himself critiqued the falsifiability of the model, the bioecological model has real world applications for developmental research, practice, and policies (as demonstrated below).
Research implications
In addition to adding to the theoretical understanding of human development, the bioecological model lends itself to changes in the conceptualization of the research endeavor. In some of his earliest comments on the state of developmental research, Bronfenbrenner lamented that developmental research concerned itself with studying “strange behavior of children in strange situations for the briefest possible period of time”. He proposed, rather, that developmental science should take as its goal a study of children in context in order to best determine which processes are naturally “developmentally generative” (promote development) and which are naturally “developmentally disruptive” (prevent development).
Bronfenbrenner set up a contrast to the traditional “confirmatory” approach to hypothesis testing (in which research is done to “confirm” that a hypothesis is correct or incorrect) when specifying the types of research needed to support the bioecological model of development. In Bronfenbrenner's view, the dynamic nature of the model calls for “primarily generative” research designs that explore interactions between proximal processes (see Proposition 1) and the developing person, environment, time, and developmental outcome (Proposition 2). Bronfenbrenner called this type of research the “discovery mode” of developmental science.
To best capture such dynamic processes, developmental research designs would ideally be longitudinal (over time), rather than cross-sectional (a single point in time), and conducted in children's natural environments, rather than a laboratory. Such designs would thus occur in schools, homes, day-care centers, and other environments in which proximal processes are most likely to occur. The bioecological model also proposes that the most scientifically rich studies would include more than one distinct but theoretically related proximal process in the same design. Indeed, studies that claim to be based upon bioecological theory should include elements of process, person, context, and time, and should include explicit explanation and acknowledgement if one of the elements is lacking. Based on the interactions of proposed elements of the PPCT model, appropriate statistical analyses of PPCT data would likely include explorations of mediation and moderation effects, as well as multilevel modeling of data to account for the nesting of different components of the model. Moreover, research that includes both genetic and environmental components would capture even more of the bioecological model's elements.
Ecological techno-subsystem
The ecological systems theory emerged before the advent of Internet revolution and the developmental influence of then available technology (e.g., television) was conceptually situated in the child's microsystem. Johnson and Puplampu, for instance, proposed in 2008 the ecological techno-subsystem, a dimension of the microsystem. This microsystem comprises both child interaction with living (e.g., peers, parents, teachers) and non-living (e.g., hardware, gadgets) elements of communication, information, and recreation technologies in immediate or direct environments. Johnson published a validation study in 2010.
Neo-ecological Theory
Whereas the theory of the techno-subsystem merely highlights the influence that digital technologies have on the development of an individual within the microsystem, Navarro and Tudge argue that the virtual world be given its own consideration throughout the Bioecological model. They suggest two key modifications as a way to incorporate Bonfenbrenner's theory into our technologized world:
The microsystem should be delineated to include distinct forms in which an individual lives: physical microsystem and virtual microsystem.
The role of the macrosystem, specifically the cultural influence of digital technology, should be emphasized in understanding human development.
See also
Ecological systems theory
Diathesis-stress model
References
Genetics
Developmental psychology
Systems psychology | 0.769147 | 0.983013 | 0.756081 |
Verstehen | Verstehen (, ), in the context of German philosophy and social sciences in general, has been used since the late 19th century – in English as in German – with the particular sense of the "interpretive or participatory" examination of social phenomena. The term is closely associated with the work of the German sociologist Max Weber, whose antipositivism established an alternative to prior sociological positivism and economic determinism, rooted in the analysis of social action. In anthropology, Verstehen has come to mean a systematic interpretive process in which an outside observer of a culture attempts to relate to it and understand others.
Verstehen is now seen as a concept and a method central to a rejection of positivist social science (although Weber appeared to think that the two could be united). Verstehen refers to understanding the meaning of action from the actor's point of view. It is entering into the shoes of the other, and adopting this research stance requires treating the actor as a subject, rather than an object of your observations. It also implies that unlike objects in the natural world human actors are not simply the product of the pulls and pushes of external forces. Individuals are seen to create the world by organizing their own understanding of it and giving it meaning. To do research on actors without taking into account the meanings they attribute to their actions or environment is to treat them like objects.
Meaning
Interpretive sociology is the study of society that concentrates on the meanings people associate to their social world. Interpretive sociology strives to show that reality is constructed by people themselves in their daily lives.
Verstehen roughly translates to "meaningful understanding" or "putting yourself in the shoes of others to see things from their perspective." Interpretive sociology differs from positivist sociology in three ways:
It deals with the meaning attached to action, unlike positivist sociology which focuses on behavior;
It sees reality as being constructed by people, unlike positivist sociology which sees an objective reality "out there;" and
It relies on qualitative data, unlike positivist sociology which tends to make use of quantitative data.
Dilthey and hermeneutics
Verstehen was introduced into philosophy and the human sciences by the German historist philosopher Johann Gustav Droysen. Droysen first made a distinction between nature and history in terms of the categories of space and time. The method of the natural sciences is explanation, while that of history is understanding.
The concept of Verstehen was later used by the German philosopher Wilhelm Dilthey to describe the first-person participatory perspective that agents have on their individual experience as well as their culture, history, and society. In this sense, it is developed in the context of the theory and practice of interpretation (as understood in the context of hermeneutics) and contrasted with the external objectivating third-person perspective of explanation in which human agency, subjectivity, and its products are analyzed as effects of impersonal natural forces in the natural sciences and social structures in sociology.
Twentieth-century philosophers such as Martin Heidegger and Hans-Georg Gadamer were critical of what they considered to be the romantic and subjective character of Verstehen in Dilthey, although both Dilthey and the early Heidegger were interested in the "facticity" and "life-context" of understanding, and sought to universalize it as the way humans exist through language on the basis of ontology. Verstehen also played a role in Edmund Husserl and Alfred Schutz's analysis of the "lifeworld." Jürgen Habermas and Karl-Otto Apel further transformed the concept of Verstehen, reformulating it on the basis of a transcendental-pragmatic philosophy of language and the theory of communicative action.
Weber and the social sciences
Max Weber and Georg Simmel introduced interpretive understanding into sociology, where it has come to mean a systematic interpretive process in which an outside observer of a culture (such as an anthropologist or sociologist) relates to an indigenous people or sub-cultural group on their own terms and from their own point of view, rather than interpreting them in terms of the observer's own culture. Verstehen can mean either a kind of empathic or participatory understanding of social phenomena. In anthropological terms this is sometimes described as cultural relativism, especially by those that have a tendency to argue toward universal ideals. In sociology it is an aspect of the comparative-historical approach, where the context of a society like twelfth century "France" can be potentially better understood by the sociologist than it could have been by people living in a village in Burgundy. It relates to how people in life give meaning to the social world around them and how the social scientist accesses and evaluates this "first-person perspective." This concept has been both expanded and criticized by later social scientists. Proponents laud this concept as the only means by which researchers from one culture can examine and explain behaviors in another. While the exercise of Verstehen has been more popular among social scientists in Europe, such as Habermas, Verstehen was introduced into the practice of sociology in the United States by Talcott Parsons, an American sociologist influenced by Max Weber. Parsons used his structural functionalism to incorporate this concept into his 1937 work, The Structure of Social Action.
Weber had more specific beliefs than Marx where he put value to understanding and meaning of key elements—not just with intuition or sympathy with the individual but also the product of "systematic and rigorous research". The goal is to identify human actions and interpreting them as observable events leading us to believe that it not only provides for a good explanation for individual actions but also for group interactions. The meaning attached needs to include constraints and limitations and analyze the motivation for action. Weber believed that this gives the sociologist an advantage over a natural scientist because "We can accomplish something which is never attainable in the natural sciences, namely the subjective understanding of the action of the component individuals."
Criticism
Critics of the social scientific concept of Verstehen such as Mikhail Bakhtin and Dean MacCannell counter that it is simply impossible for a person born of one culture to ever completely understand another culture, and that it is arrogant and conceited to attempt to interpret the significance of one culture's symbols through the terms of another (supposedly superior) culture. Just as in physical science all knowledge is asymptotic to the full explanation, a high degree of cross-cultural understanding is very valuable. The opposite of Verstehen would seem to be ignorance of all but that which is immediately observable, meaning that we would not be able to understand any time and place but our own. A certain level of interpretive understanding is necessary for our own cultural setting, however, and it can easily be argued that even the full participant in a culture does not fully understand it in every regard.
Critics also believe that it is the sociologist's job to not just observe people and what people do but also share in their world of meaning and come to appreciate why they act as they do. Subjective thoughts and feelings regarded as bias in the sciences is an important aspect to be controlled for while doing sociological research.
See also
Antinaturalism (sociology)
Emic and etic
Humanistic sociology
Humanistic coefficient
Nomothetic and idiographic
Reflexivity (social theory)
References
External links
Philosophy of social science
Phenomenology
Hermeneutics
German philosophy
Critical theory
German words and phrases
Max Weber
Social concepts
1850s neologisms
Wilhelm Dilthey | 0.765363 | 0.987864 | 0.756075 |
Science studies | Science studies is an interdisciplinary research area that seeks to situate scientific expertise in broad social, historical, and philosophical contexts. It uses various methods to analyze the production, representation and reception of scientific knowledge and its epistemic and semiotic role.
Similarly to cultural studies, science studies are defined by the subject of their research and encompass a large range of different theoretical and methodological perspectives and practices. The interdisciplinary approach may include and borrow methods from the humanities, natural and formal sciences, from scientometrics to ethnomethodology or cognitive science.
Science studies have a certain importance for evaluation and science policy. Overlapping with the field of science, technology and society, practitioners study the relationship between science and technology, and the interaction of expert and lay knowledge in the public realm.
Scope
The field started with a tendency toward navel-gazing: it was extremely self-conscious in its genesis and applications. From early concerns with scientific discourse, practitioners soon started to deal with the relation of scientific expertise to politics and lay people. Practical examples include bioethics, bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), pollution, global warming, biomedical sciences, physical sciences, natural hazard predictions, the (alleged) impact of the Chernobyl disaster in the UK, generation and review of science policy and risk governance and its historical and geographic contexts. While staying a discipline with multiple metanarratives, the fundamental concern is about the role of the perceived expert in providing governments and local authorities with information from which they can make decisions.
The approach poses various important questions about what makes an expert and how experts and their authority are to be distinguished from the lay population and interacts with the values and policy making process in liberal democratic societies.
Practitioners examine the forces within and through which scientists investigate specific phenomena such as
technological milieus, epistemic instruments and cultures and laboratory life (compare Karin Knorr-Cetina, Bruno Latour, Hans-Jörg Rheinberger)
science and technology (e.g. Wiebe Bijker, Trevor Pinch, Thomas P. Hughes)
science, technology and society (e.g. Peter Weingart, Ulrike Felt, Helga Nowotny and Reiner Grundmann)
language and rhetoric of science (e.g. Charles Bazerman, Alan G. Gross, Greg Myers)
aesthetics of science and visual culture in science (u.a. Peter Geimer), the role of aesthetic criteria in scientific practice (compare mathematical beauty) and the relation between emotion, cognition and rationality in the development of science.
semiotic studies of creative processes, as in the discovery, conceptualization, and realization of new ideas. or the interaction and management of different forms of knowledge in cooperative research.
large-scale research and research institutions, e.g. particle colliders (Sharon Traweek)
research ethics, science policy, and the role of the university.
History of the field
In 1935, in a celebrated paper, the Polish sociologist couple Maria Ossowska and Stanisław Ossowski proposed the founding of a "science of science" to study the scientific enterprise, its practitioners, and the factors influencing their work. Earlier, in 1923, the Polish sociologist Florian Znaniecki had made a similar proposal.
Fifty years before Znaniecki, in 1873, Aleksander Głowacki, better known in Poland by his pen name "Bolesław Prus", had delivered a public lecture – later published as a booklet – On Discoveries and Inventions, in which he said:
It is striking that, while early 20th-century sociologist proponents of a discipline to study science and its practitioners wrote in general theoretical terms, Prus had already half a century earlier described, with many specific examples, the scope and methods of such a discipline.
Thomas Kuhn's Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962) increased interest both in the history of science and in science's philosophical underpinnings. Kuhn posited that the history of science was less a linear succession of discoveries than a succession of paradigms within the philosophy of science. Paradigms are broader, socio-intellectual constructs that determine which types of truth claims are permissible.
Science studies seeks to identify key dichotomies – such as those between science and technology, nature and culture, theory and experiment, and science and fine art – leading to the differentiation of scientific fields and practices.
The sociology of scientific knowledge arose at the University of Edinburgh, where David Bloor and his colleagues developed what has been termed "the strong programme". It proposed that both "true" and "false" scientific theories should be treated the same way. Both are informed by social factors such as cultural context and self-interest.
Human knowledge, abiding as it does within human cognition, is ineluctably influenced by social factors.
It proved difficult, however, to address natural-science topics with sociological methods, as was abundantly evidenced by the US science wars. Use of a deconstructive approach (as in relation to works on arts or religion) to the natural sciences risked endangering not only the "hard facts" of the natural sciences, but the objectivity and positivist tradition of sociology itself. The view on scientific knowledge production as a (at least partial) social construct was not easily accepted. Latour and others identified a dichotomy crucial for modernity, the division between nature (things, objects) as being transcendent, allowing to detect them, and society (the subject, the state) as immanent as being artificial, constructed. The dichotomy allowed for mass production of things (technical-natural hybrids) and large-scale global issues that endangered the distinction as such. E.g. We Have Never Been Modern asks to reconnect the social and natural worlds, returning to the pre-modern use of "thing"—addressing objects as hybrids made and scrutinized by the public interaction of people, things, and concepts.
Science studies scholars such as Trevor Pinch and Steve Woolgar started already in the 1980s to involve "technology", and called their field "science, technology and society". This "turn to technology" brought science studies into communication with academics in science, technology, and society programs.
More recently, a novel approach known as mapping controversies has been gaining momentum among science studies practitioners, and was introduced as a course for students in engineering, and architecture schools. In 2002 Harry Collins and Robert Evans asked for a third wave of science studies (a pun on The Third Wave), namely studies of expertise and experience answering to recent tendencies to dissolve the boundary between experts and the public.
Application to natural and man-made hazards
Sheepfarming after Chernobyl
A showcase of the rather complex problems of scientific information and its interaction with lay persons is Brian Wynne's study of Sheepfarming in Cumbria after the Chernobyl disaster. He elaborated on the responses of sheep farmers in Cumbria, who had been subjected to administrative restrictions because of radioactive contamination, allegedly caused by the nuclear accident at Chernobyl in 1986. The sheep farmers suffered economic losses, and their resistance against the imposed regulation was being deemed irrational and inadequate. It turned out that the source of radioactivity was actually the Sellafield nuclear reprocessing complex; thus, the experts who were responsible for the duration of the restrictions were completely mistaken. The example led to attempts to better involve local knowledge and lay-persons' experience and to assess its often highly geographically and historically defined background.
Science studies on volcanology
Donovan et al. (2012) used social studies of volcanology to investigate the generation of knowledge and expert advice on various active volcanoes. It contains a survey of volcanologists carried out during 2008 and 2009 and interviews with scientists in the UK, Montserrat, Italy and Iceland during fieldwork seasons. Donovan et al. (2012) asked the experts about the felt purpose of volcanology and what they considered the most important eruptions in historical time. The survey tries to identify eruptions that had an influence on volcanology as a science and to assess the role of scientists in policymaking.
A main focus was on the impact of the Montserrat eruption 1997. The eruption, a classical example of the black swan theory directly killed (only) 19 persons. However the outbreak had major impacts on the local society and destroyed important infrastructure, as the island's airport. About 7,000 people, or two-thirds of the population, left Montserrat; 4,000 to the United Kingdom.
The Montserrat case put immense pressure on volcanologists, as their expertise suddenly became the primary driver of various public policy approaches. The science studies approach provided valuable insights in that situation. There were various miscommunications among scientists. Matching scientific uncertainty (typical of volcanic unrest) and the request for a single unified voice for political advice was a challenge. The Montserrat Volcanologists began to use statistical elicitation models to estimate the probabilities of particular events, a rather subjective method, but allowing to synthesizing consensus and experience-based expertise step by step. It involved as well local knowledge and experience.
Volcanology as a science currently faces a shift of its epistemological foundations of volcanology. The science started to involve more research into risk assessment and risk management. It requires new, integrated methodologies for knowledge collection that transcend scientific disciplinary boundaries but combine qualitative and quantitative outcomes in a structured whole.
Experts and democracy
Science has become a major force in Western democratic societies, which depend on innovation and technology (compare Risk society) to address its risks. Beliefs about science can be very different from those of the scientists themselves, for reasons of e.g. moral values, epistemology or political motivations.The designation of expertise as authoritative in the interaction with lay people and decision makers of all kind is nevertheless challenged in contemporary risk societies, as suggested by scholars who follow Ulrich Beck's theorisation. The role of expertise in contemporary democracies is an important theme for debate among science studies scholars. Some argue for a more widely distributed, pluralist understanding of expertise (Sheila Jasanoff and Brian Wynne, for example), while others argue for a more nuanced understanding of the idea of expertise and its social functions (Collins and Evans, for example).
See also
Logology (study of science)
Merton thesis
Public awareness of science
Science and technology studies
Science and technology studies in India
Social construction of technology
Sociology of scientific knowledge
Sokal affair
References
Bibliography
Science studies, general
Bauchspies, W., Jennifer Croissant and Sal Restivo: Science, Technology, and Society: A Sociological Perspective (Oxford: Blackwell, 2005).
Biagioli, Mario, ed. The Science Studies Reader (New York: Routledge, 1999).
Bloor, David; Barnes, Barry & Henry, John, Scientific knowledge: a sociological analysis (Chicago: University Press, 1996).
Gross, Alan. Starring the Text: The Place of Rhetoric in Science Studies. Carbondale: SIU Press, 2006.
Fuller, Steve, The Philosophy of Science and Technology Studies (New York: Routledge, 2006).
Hess, David J. Science Studies: An Advanced Introduction (New York: NYU Press, 1997).
Jasanoff, Sheila, ed. Handbook of science and technology studies (Thousand Oaks, Calif.: SAGE Publications, 1995).
Latour, Bruno, "The Last Critique," Harper's Magazine (April 2004): 15–20.
Latour, Bruno. Science in Action. Cambridge. 1987.
Latour, Bruno, "Do You Believe in Reality: News from the Trenches of the Science Wars," in Pandora's Hope (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1999)
Vinck, Dominique. The Sociology of Scientific Work. The Fundamental Relationship between Science and Society (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2010).
Wyer, Mary; Donna Cookmeyer; Mary Barbercheck, eds. Women, Science and Technology: A Reader in Feminist Science Studies, Routledge 200
Haraway, Donna J. "Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective," in Simians, Cyborgs, and Women: the Reinvention of Nature (New York: Routledge, 1991), 183–201. Originally published in Feminist Studies, Vol. 14, No. 3 (Autumn, 1988), pp. 575–599. (available online)
Foucault, Michel, "Truth and Power," in Power/Knowledge (New York: Pantheon Books, 1997), 109–133.
Porter, Theodore M. Trust in Numbers: The Pursuit of Objectivity in Science and Public Life (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995).
Restivo, Sal: "Science, Society, and Values: Toward a Sociology of Objectivity" (Lehigh PA: Lehigh University Press, 1994).
Medicine and biology
Media, culture, society and technology
Hancock, Jeff. Deception and design: the impact of communication technology on lying behavior
Lessig, Lawrence. Free Culture. Penguin USA, 2004.
MacKenzie, Donald. The Social Shaping of Technology Open University Press: 2nd ed. 1999.
Mitchell, William J. Rethinking Media Change Thorburn and Jennings eds. Cambridge, Massachusetts : MIT Press, 2003.
Postman, Neil. Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business. Penguin USA, 1985.
Rheingold, Howard. Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution. Cambridge: Mass., Perseus Publishing. 2002.
External links
Sociology of Science, an introductory article by Joseph Ben-David & Teresa A. Sullivan, Annual Review of Sociology, 1975
The Incommensurability of Scientific and Poetic Knowledge
University of Washington Science Studies Network
Historiography of science
Philosophy of science
Pedagogy
Science and technology studies | 0.774428 | 0.9763 | 0.756074 |
GRASP (object-oriented design) | General Responsibility Assignment Software Patterns (or Principles), abbreviated GRASP, is a set of "nine fundamental principles in object design and responsibility assignment" first published by Craig Larman in his 1997 book Applying UML and Patterns.
The different patterns and principles used in GRASP are controller, creator, indirection, information expert, low coupling, high cohesion, polymorphism, protected variations, and pure fabrication. All these patterns solve some software problems common to many software development projects. These techniques have not been invented to create new ways of working, but to better document and standardize old, tried-and-tested programming principles in object-oriented design.
Larman states that "the critical design tool for software development is a mind well educated in design principles. It is not UML or any other technology." Thus, the GRASP principles are really a mental toolset, a learning aid to help in the design of object-oriented software.
Patterns
In object-oriented design, a pattern is a named description of a problem and solution that can be applied in new contexts; ideally, a pattern advises us on how to apply its solution in varying circumstances and considers the forces and trade-offs. Many patterns, given a specific category of problem, guide the assignment of responsibilities to objects.
Information expert
Problem: What is a basic principle by which to assign responsibilities to objects?
Solution: Assign responsibility to the class that has the information needed to fulfill it.
Information expert (also expert or the expert principle) is a principle used to determine where to delegate responsibilities such as methods, computed fields, and so on.
Using the principle of information expert, a general approach to assigning responsibilities is to look at a given responsibility, determine the information needed to fulfill it, and then determine where that information is stored.
This will lead to placing the responsibility on the class with the most information required to fulfill it.
Related Pattern or Principle: Low Coupling, High Cohesion
Creator
The creation of objects is one of the most common activities in an object-oriented system. Which class is responsible for creating objects is a fundamental property of the relationship between objects of particular classes.
Problem: Who creates object A?
Solution: In general, Assign class B the responsibility to create object A if one, or preferably more, of the following apply:
Instances of B contain or compositely aggregate instances of A
Instances of B record instances of A
Instances of B closely use instances of A
Instances of B have the initializing information for instances of A and pass it on creation.
Related Pattern or Principle: Low Coupling, Factory pattern
Controller
The controller pattern assigns the responsibility of dealing with system events to a non-UI class that represents the overall system or a use case scenario. A controller object is a non-user interface object responsible for receiving or handling a system event.
Problem: Who should be responsible for handling an input system event?
Solution: A use case controller should be used to deal with all system events of a use case, and may be used for more than one use case. For instance, for the use cases Create User and Delete User, one can have a single class called UserController, instead of two separate use case controllers. Alternatively a facade controller would be used; this applies when the object with responsibility for handling the event represents the overall system or a root object.
The controller is defined as the first object beyond the UI layer that receives and coordinates ("controls") a system operation. The controller should delegate the work that needs to be done to other objects; it coordinates or controls the activity. It should not do much work itself. The GRASP Controller can be thought of as being a part of the application/service layer (assuming that the application has made an explicit distinction between the application/service layer and the domain layer) in an object-oriented system with common layers in an information system logical architecture.
Related Pattern or Principle: Command, Facade, Layers, Pure Fabrication
Indirection
The indirection pattern supports low coupling and reuses potential between two elements by assigning the responsibility of mediation between them to an intermediate object. An example of this is the introduction of a controller component for mediation between data (model) and its representation (view) in the model-view-controller pattern. This ensures that coupling between them remains low.
Problem: Where to assign responsibility, to avoid direct coupling between two (or more) things? How to de-couple objects so that low coupling is supported and reuse potential remains higher?
Solution: Assign the responsibility to an intermediate object to mediate between other components or services so that they are not directly coupled.
The intermediary creates an indirection between the other components.
Low coupling
Coupling is a measure of how strongly one element is connected to, has knowledge of, or relies on other elements. Low coupling is an evaluative pattern that dictates how to assign responsibilities for the following benefits:
lower dependency between the classes,
change in one class having a lower impact on other classes,
higher reuse potential.
High cohesion
High cohesion is an evaluative pattern that attempts to keep objects appropriately focused, manageable and understandable. High cohesion is generally used in support of low coupling. High cohesion means that the responsibilities of a given set of elements are strongly related and highly focused on a rather specific topic. Breaking programs into classes and subsystems, if correctly done, is an example of activities that increase the cohesive properties of named classes and subsystems. Alternatively, low cohesion is a situation in which a set of elements, of e.g., a subsystem, has too many unrelated responsibilities. Subsystems with low cohesion between their constituent elements often suffer from being hard to comprehend, reuse, maintain and change as a whole.
Polymorphism
According to the polymorphism principle, responsibility for defining the variation of behaviors based on type is assigned to the type for which this variation happens. This is achieved using polymorphic operations. The user of the type should use polymorphic operations instead of explicit branching based on type.
Problem: How to handle alternatives based on type? How to create pluggable software components?
Solution: When related alternatives or behaviors vary by type (class), assign responsibility for the behavior—using polymorphic operations—to the types for which the behavior varies. (Polymorphism has several related meanings. In this context, it means "giving the same name to services in different objects".)
Protected variations
The protected variations pattern protects elements from the variations on other elements (objects, systems, subsystems) by wrapping the focus of instability with an interface and using polymorphism to create various implementations of this interface.
Problem: How to design objects, subsystems, and systems so that the variations or instability in these elements do not have an undesirable impact on other elements?
Solution: Identify points of predicted variation or instability; assign responsibilities to create a stable interface around them.
Pure fabrication
A pure fabrication is a class that does not represent a concept in the problem domain, specially made up to achieve low coupling, high cohesion, and the reuse potential thereof derived (when a solution presented by the information expert pattern does not). This kind of class is called a "service" in domain-driven design.
Related Patterns and Principles
• Low Coupling.
• High Cohesion.
See also
Anemic domain model
Design pattern (computer science)
Design Patterns (book)
SOLID (object-oriented design)
References
Software design
Programming principles | 0.761037 | 0.993477 | 0.756073 |
Umwelt | An umwelt (plural: umwelten; from the German Umwelt meaning "environment" or "surroundings") is the specific way organisms of a particular species experience the world, which is dependant on what their sensory organs and perceptual systems can detect and interpret.
In the semiotic theories of Jakob von Uexküll and Thomas Sebeok, it is considered to be the "biological foundations that lie at the very center of the study of both communication and signification in the human [and non-human] animal". The term is usually translated as "self-centered world". Uexküll theorised that organisms can have different umwelten, even though they share the same environment. The term umwelt, together with companion terms Umgebung (an Umwelt as seen by another observer) and Innenwelt (the mapping of the self to the world of objects), have special relevance for cognitive philosophers, roboticists and cyberneticians because they offer a potential solution to the conundrum of the infinite regress of the Cartesian Theater.
Discussion
Each functional component of an umwelt has a meaning that represents the organism's model of the world. These functional components correspond approximately to perceptual features, as described by Anne Treisman. It is also the semiotic world of the organism, including all the meaningful aspects of the world for any particular organism. It can be water, food, shelter, potential threats or points of reference for navigation. An organism creates and reshapes its own umwelt when it interacts with the world. This is termed a 'functional circle'. The umwelt theory states that the mind and the world are inseparable because it is the mind that interprets the world for the organism. Because of the individuality and uniqueness of the history of every single organism, the umwelten of different organisms differ. When two umwelten interact, this creates a semiosphere.
As a term, umwelt also unites all the semiotic processes of an organism into a whole. Internally, an organism is the sum of its parts operating in functional circles and, to survive, all the parts must work cooperatively. This is termed the "collective umwelt" which models the organism as a centralised system from the cellular level upward. This requires the semiosis of any one part to be continuously connected to any other semiosis operating within the same organism. If anything disrupts this process, the organism will not operate efficiently.
Uexküll's writings show a specific interest in the various worlds that he believed to exist ('conceptually') from the point of view of the umwelt of different creatures such as ticks, sea urchins, amoebae, jellyfish, and sea worms.
The biosemiotic turn in Jakob von Uexküll's analysis occurs in his discussion of the animal's relationship with its environment. The umwelt is for him an environment-world which is, according to Agamben, "constituted by a more or less broad series of elements [called] 'carriers of significance' or 'marks' which are the only things that interest the animal". Agamben goes on to paraphrase Uexküll's example of the tick, saying:
"...this eyeless animal finds the way to her watchpoint [at the top of a tall blade of grass] with the help of only its skin’s general sensitivity to light. The approach of her prey becomes apparent to this blind and deaf bandit only through her sense of smell. The odor of butyric acid, which emanates from the sebaceous follicles of all mammals, works on the tick as a signal that causes her to abandon her post (on top of the blade of grass/bush) and fall blindly downward toward her prey. If she is fortunate enough to fall on something warm (which she perceives by means of an organ sensible to a precise temperature) then she has attained her prey, the warm-blooded animal, and thereafter needs only the help of her sense of touch to find the least hairy spot possible and embed herself up to her head in the cutaneous tissue of her prey. She can now slowly suck up a stream of warm blood."
Thus, for the tick, the umwelt is reduced to only three (biosemiotic) carriers of significance: (1) the odor of butyric acid, which emanates from the sebaceous follicles of all mammals; (2) the temperature of 37°C (corresponding to the blood of all mammals); and (3) the hairy topography of mammals.
Critics
Uexküll's application of the notion of "umwelt" to the human person has been contested. In "Welt und Umwelt" and "Die Wahrheit der Dinge", the philosopher and sociologist Josef Pieper argued that reason allows the human person to live in "Welt" (world) while plants and animals do indeed live in an Umwelt—a notion he traces back far beyond Uexküll to Plato, Aristotle, and Thomas Aquinas.
See also
References
Further reading
Naming Nature by Carol Kaesuk Yoon
View from the Oak by Herbert and Judith Kohl The New Press | https://thenewpress.com/books/view-from-oak
Inside of a Dog: What Dogs See, Smell, and Know by Alexandra Horowitz Scribner | https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Inside-of-a-Dog/Alexandra-Horowitz/9781416583431
An Immense World by Ed Yong Penguin books Vintage | https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/440513/an-immense-world-by-yong-ed/9781847926081
External links
Umwelt by John Deely
Umwelt and Phenomenology
Umwelt and semiosphere by Kalevi Kull
Pragmatism and Umwelt-theory by Alexei Sharov
TDE-R - A Subjective Biocomputer by Charles Dyer
Semiotics
Neuroethology concepts
Existential therapy | 0.761838 | 0.992415 | 0.75606 |
Simone and Malcolm Collins | Simone Haruko Collins (née Smith; born 1987) and Malcolm James Collins (born 1986) are a married couple known primarily for their views and advocacy related to pronatalism, a stance encouraging higher birth rates and expressing concerns about demographic decline and its implications on society and the economy.
Career
Simone and Malcolm Collins previously worked in venture capital and technology sectors. Simone previously served as the managing director for Dialog, a secretive invite-only social club co-founded by investor Peter Thiel. Malcolm previously worked as a venture capitalist at TheVentures in South Korea. The Collinses are currently the managing directors of the corporate wholesale travel agency Travelmax.
The couple has written five books in their Pragmatist Guide series. Their book The Pragmatist's Guide to Governance: From high school cliques to boards, family offices, and nations: A guide to optimizing governance models was briefly on the Wall Street Journal Bestseller List in 2023.
Pronatalism advocacy
The Collinses are prominent figures within the pronatalist movement, which advocates for higher birth rates as a means to address demographic and economic challenges. They are the founders of Pronatalist.org, a non-profit initiative aimed at promoting and supporting high birth rates. In 2023, they were speakers at The Natal Conference in Austin, Texas.
The Collinses fear that low fertility rates, especially among people they view as high-achieving, could lead to a decline in innovation and societal progress as well as the extinction of cultures, economic breakdown, and the collapse of civilization. They are part of a network of tech elites, including figures like Elon Musk, who publicly express concerns about demographic trends leading to population collapse. The Collinses are vocal supporters of using advanced reproductive technologies, including in vitro fertilisation and genetic screening, to promote higher birth rates among economically and intellectually productive populations. They have been featured in discussions about their use of preimplantation genetic testing to select embryos.
Concerns have been raised about the potential societal impacts of their views, with some suggesting that their approach could exacerbate social inequalities and promote divisive ideologies. The Collinses have also been labelled (by Arwa Mahdawi) as "hipster eugenicists" due to their advocacy for selecting embryos based on perceived desirable traits, such as high IQ; they are said to find the moniker rather amusing, but strongly disavow any form of racism and "scoffed at the idea that they were eugenicists".
Political views and involvement
Simone is running as a Republican for the 150th District in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives elections in 2024.
The Collinses do not support transgender health care for youth, but express acceptance for people whom Simone described as "legit trans" as opposed to those who fall into the "trans cult." Simone opposes allowing transgender students to use bathrooms corresponding to their gender identity and to play on sports teams matching their gender identity.
Personal lives
Malcolm is the great-grandson of Carr Collins Sr., founder of the Fidelity Union Life Insurance Company, and grandson of James M. Collins, a Dallas, Texas businessman and politician. In 1997, Malcolm's parents undertook a contentious divorce and custody dispute; the proceedings were characterized by one judge as "extensive, bitter and long-lasting". During the divorce, Malcolm was ordered to live at a private boarding school funded by a family trust. The divorce was finalized in 2001. It was discovered in 2021, upon the death of James Collins's wife Dorothy Dann Collins Torbert, that some $29 million had been embezzled from the family trust fund by Barbara Chalmers, the family bookkeeper. Reflecting on his childhood, Malcolm noted that he has "no beef with my parents. My childhood was hard, but my adulthood has been easy. Can I say a parent did a bad job if I’m happy with my life today? I don’t think so."
Simone was born in Japan as a self-described "mistake baby" and the only child to a failed polyamorous marriage. At some point in her life, Simone experienced eating disorders that gave her fertility issues.
Marriage and children
The Collinses married after Malcolm proposed on Reddit in 2013.
The Collinses have stated that they plan to have seven to thirteen children total. As of 2024, they have four children. The Collinses refuse to give their daughters traditionally feminine names, because they believe social research shows that women with feminine names are taken less seriously. Beginning with their third child, the Collinses have used preimplantation genetic testing during in vitro fertilisation to select embryos with a desirable genetic makeup. The Collinses claim that every decision they make is backed by data. The Collinses also employ corporal punishment in disciplining their children, which is based on Simone's personal observation of lions and tigers during a safari trip.
Religious beliefs
The Collinses have stated they are atheists, but also promulgate a theology they call "Techno-Puritanism". They base Techno-Puritanism on the book The Martyrdom Of Man by William Winwood Reade as well as the Bible; they consider both of these works divinely inspired scripture.
References
1986 births
1987 births
Living people
21st-century American people
Married couples
Natalists
American atheists | 0.761346 | 0.993024 | 0.756035 |
Pluralism (political theory) | Classical pluralism is the view that politics and decision-making are located mostly in the framework of government but that many non-governmental groups use their resources to exert influence. The central question for classical pluralism is how power and influence are distributed in a political process. Groups of individuals try to maximize their interests. Lines of conflict are multiple and shifting as power is a continuous bargaining process between competing groups. There may be inequalities but they tend to be distributed and evened out by the various forms and distributions of resources throughout a population. Any change under this view will be slow and incremental, as groups have different interests and may act as "veto groups" to destroy legislation. The existence of diverse and competing interests is the basis for a democratic equilibrium, and is crucial for the obtaining of goals by individuals.
A polyarchy—a situation of open competition for electoral support within a significant part of the adult population—ensures competition of group interests and relative equality. Pluralists stress civil rights, such as freedom of expression and organization, and an electoral system with at least two parties. On the other hand, since the participants in this process constitute only a tiny fraction of the populace, the public acts mainly as bystanders. This is not necessarily undesirable for two reasons: (1) it may be representative of a population content with the political happenings, or (2) political issues require continuous and expert attention, which the average citizen may not have.
Important theorists of pluralism include Robert A. Dahl (who wrote the seminal pluralist work, Who Governs?), David Truman, and Seymour Martin Lipset. The Anti-Pluralism Index in V-Party Dataset is modeled as a lack of commitment to the democratic process, disrespect for fundamental minority rights, demonization of opponents, and acceptance of political violence.
Pluralist conception of power
The list of possible sources of power is virtually endless: legal authority, money, prestige, skill, knowledge, charisma, legitimacy, free time, and experience. Pluralists also stress the differences between potential and actual power as it stands. Actual power means the ability to compel someone to do something and is the view of power as a causation. Dahl describes power as a "realistic relationship, such as A's capacity for acting in such a manner as to control B's responses".
Potential power refers to the possibility of turning resources into actual power. Cash, one of many resources, is only a stack of bills until it is put to work. Malcolm X, for example, was certainly not a rich person growing up, but received money from many groups after his prison term and used other resources such as his forceful personality and organizational skills. He had a greater impact on American politics than most wealthy people. A particular resource like money cannot automatically be equated with power because the resource can be used skillfully or clumsily, fully or partially, or not at all.
Pluralists believe that social heterogeneity prevents any single group from gaining dominance. In their view, politics is essentially a matter of aggregating preferences. This means that coalitions are inherently unstable (Polsby, 1980), hence competition is easily preserved. In Dahl's view, because "political heterogeneity follows socioeconomic heterogeneity", social differentiation increasingly disperses power. In this case, Hamed Kazemzadeh (Canadian Pluralist and Human rights activist) argues that organizational membership socializes individuals to democratic norms, increases participation and moderates the politics of society so that bargaining and negotiation are possible.
The pluralist approach to the study of power, states that nothing categorical about power can be assumed in any community. The question then is not who runs a community, but if any group in fact does. To determine this, pluralists study specific outcomes. The reason for this is that they believe human behavior is governed in large part by inertia. That said, actual involvement in overt activity is a more valid marker of leadership than simply a reputation. Pluralists also believe that there is no one particular issue or point in time at which any group must assert itself to stay true to its own expressed values, but rather that there are a variety of issues and points at which this is possible. There are also costs involved in taking action at all not only losing, but the expenditure of time and effort. While a structuralist may argue that power distributions have a rather permanent nature, this rationale says that power may in fact be tied to issues, which vary widely in duration. Also, instead of focusing on actors within a system, the emphasis is on the leadership roles itself. By studying these, it can be determined to what extent there is a power structure present in a society.
Three of the major tenets of the pluralist school are (1) resources and hence potential power are widely scattered throughout society; (2) at least some resources are available to nearly everyone; and (3) at any time the amount of potential power exceeds the amount of actual power.
Finally, and perhaps most important, no one is all-powerful unless proven so through empirical observation. An individual or group that is influential in one realm may be weak in another. Large military contractors certainly throw their weight around on defense matters, but how much sway do they have on agricultural or health policies? A measure of power, therefore, is its scope, or the range of areas where it is successfully applied as observed by a researcher. Pluralists believe that with few exceptions power holders usually have a relatively limited scope of influence. Pluralism does leave room for an elitist situation- Should group A continuously exert power over multiple groups. For a pluralist to accept this notion, it must be empirically observed and not assumed so by definition.
For all these reasons power cannot be taken for granted. One has to observe it empirically in order to know who really governs. The best way to do this, pluralists believe, is to examine a wide range of specific decisions, noting who took which side and who ultimately won and lost. Only by keeping score on a variety of controversies can one begin to identify actual power holders. Pluralism was associated with behavioralism.
A contradiction to pluralist power is often cited from the origin of one's power. Although certain groups may share power, people within those groups set agendas, decide issues, and take on leadership roles through their own qualities. Some theorists argue that these qualities cannot be transferred, thus creating a system where elitism still exists. What this theory fails to take into account is the prospect of overcoming these qualities by garnering support from other groups. By aggregating power with other organizations, interest groups can over-power these non-transferable qualities. In this sense, political pluralism still applies to these aspects.
Elite pluralism
Elite pluralists agree with classical pluralists that there is "plurality" of power; however, this plurality is not "pure" when the supposedly democratic equilibrium maintains or increases inequities (social, economic or political) due to elites holding greatly disproportionate societal power in forms aforementioned, or by systemic distortions of the political process itself, perpetuated by, for example, regulatory or cultural capture. Thus, with elite pluralism, it has been said that representative democracy is flawed, and tends to deteriorate towards particracy or oligarchy, by the iron law of oligarchy, for example.<ref>Zur Soziologie des Parteiwesens in der modernen Demokratie. Untersuchungen über die oligarchischen Tendenzen des Gruppenlebens (1911, 1925; 1970). Translated as Sociologia del partito politico nella democrazia moderna : studi sulle tendenze oligarchiche degli aggregati politici, from the German original by Dr. Alfredo Polledro, revised and expanded (1912). Translated, from the Italian, by Eden and Cedar Paul as Political Parties: A Sociological Study of the Oligarchical Tendencies of Modern Democracy'" (Hearst's International Library Co., 1915; Free Press, 1949; Dover Publications, 1959); republished with an introduction by Seymour Martin Lipset (Crowell-Collier, 1962; Transaction Publishers, 1999, ); translated in French by S. Jankélévitch, Les partis politiques. Essai sur les tendances oligarchiques des démocraties, Brussels, Editions de l'Université de Bruxelles, 2009</ref>
Neo-pluralism
While Pluralism as a political theory of the state and policy formation gained its most traction during the 1950s and 1960s in America, some scholars argued that the theory was too simplistic (see Connolly (1969) The Challenge to Pluralist Theory) leading to the formulation of neo-pluralism. Views differed about the division of power in democratic society. Although neo-pluralism sees multiple pressure groups competing over political influence, the political agenda is biased towards corporate power. Neo-pluralism no longer sees the state as an umpire mediating and adjudicating between the demands of different interest groups, but as a relatively autonomous actor (with different departments) that forges and looks after its own (sectional) interests. Constitutional rules, which in pluralism are embedded in a supportive political culture, should be seen in the context of a diverse, and not necessarily supportive, political culture and a system of radically uneven economic sources. This diverse culture exists because of an uneven distribution of socioeconomic power. This creates possibilities for some groups while limiting others in their political options.
In the international realm, order is distorted by powerful multinational interests and dominant states, while in classical pluralism emphasis is put on stability by a framework of pluralist rules and free market society.
Charles Lindblom
Charles E. Lindblom, who is seen as positing a strong neo-pluralist argument, still attributed primacy to the competition between interest groups in the policy process but recognized the disproportionate influence business interests have in the policy process.
Corporatism
Classical pluralism was criticized as it did not seem to apply to Westminster-style democracies or the European context. This led to the development of corporatist theories. Corporatism is the idea that a few select interest groups are actually (often formally) involved in the policy formulation process, to the exclusion of the myriad other 'interest groups'. For example, trade unions and major sectoral business associations are often consulted about (if not the drivers of) specific policies.
These policies often concern tripartite relations between workers, employers and the state, with a coordinating role for the latter. The state constructs a framework in which it can address the political and economic issues with these organized and centralized groups. In this view, parliament and party politics lose influence in the policy forming process.
In foreign policy
From the political aspect, 'pluralism' has a huge effect on the process and decision-making in formulating policy. In international security, during the policymaking process, different parties may have a chance to take part in decision making. The one who has more power, the more opportunity that it gains and the higher possibility to get what it wants. According to M. Frances (1991), "decision making appears to be a maze of influence and power."
Democratization
The V-Party Dataset demonstrates higher autocratization for high anti-pluralism.
See also
Agonism
Decision-making
Distributism
Foreign policy
Elite theory
International relations
Legitimation crisis
Marxism
New institutionalism
Salad bowl (cultural idea)
Notes
References
Ankerl Guy(2000) Coexisting Contemporary Civilizations. Geneva: INUPress.
Socialstudieshelp.com, Pluralism. Accessed 13 February 2007.
Elmer Eric Schattschneider (1960) The Semi-Sovereign People. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
Gad Barzilai (2003) Communities and Law: Politics and Cultures of Legal Identities. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Polsby, Nelson W. (1960) How to Study Community Power: The Pluralist Alternative. The Journal of Politics, (22)3, 474–484
William E. Connolly: The Ethos of Pluralization''. University of Minnesota Press, 1995.
C. Alden (2011). Foreign policy analysis. London: University of London.
H. Kazemzadeh (2020). Democratic platform in Social Pluralism. Internal Journal of ACPCS, Winter No.10 pp. 237–253.
M. Frances Klein (1991). The Politics of Curriculum Decision-Making: Issues in Centralizing the Curriculum. New York: SUNY Press.
Comparative politics
Political science theories
Power sharing
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fi:Pluralismi (yhteiskuntatieteet) | 0.760615 | 0.993975 | 0.756033 |
Instructional theory | An instructional theory is "a theory that offers explicit guidance on how to better help people learn and develop." It provides insights about what is likely to happen and why with respect to different kinds of teaching and learning activities while helping indicate approaches for their evaluation. Instructional designers focus on how to best structure material and instructional behavior to facilitate learning.
Development
Originating in the United States in the late 1970s, instructional theory is influenced by three basic theories in educational thought: behaviorism, the theory that helps us understand how people conform to predetermined standards; cognitivism, the theory that learning occurs through mental associations; and constructivism, the theory explores the value of human activity as a critical function of gaining knowledge. Instructional theory is heavily influenced by the 1956 work of Benjamin Bloom, a University of Chicago professor, and the results of his Taxonomy of Education Objectives—one of the first modern codifications of the learning process. One of the first instructional theorists was Robert M. Gagne, who in 1965 published Conditions of Learning for the Florida State University's Department of Educational Research.
Definition
Instructional theory is different than learning theory. A learning theory describes how learning takes place, and an instructional theory prescribes how to better help people learn. Learning theories often inform instructional theory, and three general theoretical stances take part in this influence: behaviorism (learning as response acquisition), cognitivism (learning as knowledge acquisition), and constructivism (learning as knowledge construction). Instructional theory helps us create conditions that increases the probability of learning. Its goal is understanding the instructional system and to improve the process of instruction.
Overview
Instructional theories identify what instruction or teaching should be like. It outlines strategies that an educator may adopt to achieve the learning objectives. Instructional theories are adapted based on the educational content and more importantly the learning style of the students. They are used as teaching guidelines/tools by teachers/trainers to facilitate learning. Instructional theories encompass different instructional methods, models and strategies.
David Merrill's First Principles of Instruction discusses universal methods of instruction, situational methods and core ideas of the post-industrial paradigm of instruction.
Universal Methods of Instruction:
Task-Centered Principle - instruction should use a progression of increasingly complex whole tasks.
Demonstration Principle - instruction should guide learners through a skill and engage peer discussion/demonstration.
Application Principle - instruction should provide intrinsic or corrective feedback and engage peer-collaboration.
Activation Principle - instruction should build upon prior knowledge and encourage learners to acquire a structure for organizing new knowledge.
Integration Principle - instruction should engage learners in peer-critiques and synthesizing newly acquired knowledge.
Situational Methods:
based on different approaches to instruction
Role play
Synectics
Mastery learning
Direct instruction
Discussion
Conflict resolution
Peer learning
Experiential learning
Problem-based learning
Simulation-based learning
based on different learning outcomes:
Knowledge
Comprehension
Application
Analysis
Synthesis
Evaluation
Affective development
Integrated learning
Core ideas for the Post-industrial Paradigm of Instruction:
Learner centered vs. teacher centered instruction – with respect to the focus, instruction can be based on the capability and style of the learner or the teacher.
Learning by doing vs. teacher presenting – Students often learn more by doing rather than simply listening to instructions given by the teacher.
Attainment based vs. time based progress – The instruction can either be based on the focus on the mastery of the concept or the time spent on learning the concept.
Customized vs. standardized instruction – The instruction can be different for different learners or the instruction can be given in general to the entire classroom
Criterion referenced vs. norm referenced instruction – Instruction related to different types of evaluations.
Collaborative vs. individual instruction – Instruction can be for a team of students or individual students.
Enjoyable vs. unpleasant instructions – Instructions can create a pleasant learning experience or a negative one (often to enforce discipline). Teachers must take care to ensure positive experiences.
Four tasks of Instructional theory:
Knowledge selection
Knowledge sequence
Interaction management
Setting of interaction environment
Critiques
Paulo Freire's work appears to critique instructional approaches that adhere to the knowledge acquisition stance, and his work Pedagogy of the Oppressed has had a broad influence over a generation of American educators with his critique of various "banking" models of education and analysis of the teacher-student relationship.
Freire explains, "Narration (with the teacher as narrator) leads the students to memorize mechanically the narrated content. Worse yet, it turns them into "containers", into "receptacles" to be "filled" by the teacher. The more completely she fills the receptacles, the better a teacher she is. The more meekly the receptacles permit themselves to be filled, the better students they are." In this way he explains educator creates an act of depositing knowledge in a student. The student thus becomes a repository of knowledge. Freire explains that this system that diminishes creativity and knowledge suffers. Knowledge, according to Freire, comes about only through the learner by inquiry and pursuing the subjects in the world and through interpersonal interaction.
Freire further states, "In the banking concept of education, knowledge is a gift bestowed by those who consider themselves knowledgeable upon those whom they consider to know nothing. Projecting an absolute ignorance onto others, a characteristic of the ideology of oppression, negates education and knowledge as processes of inquiry. The teacher presents himself to his students as their necessary opposite; by considering their ignorance absolute, he justifies his own existence. The students, alienated like the slave in the Hegelian dialectic, accept their ignorance as justifying the teacher's existence—but, unlike the slave, they never discover that they educate the teacher."
Freire then offered an alternative stance and wrote, "The raison d'etre of libertarian education, on the other hand, lies in its drive towards reconciliation. Education must begin with the solution of the teacher-student contradiction, by reconciling the poles of the contradiction so that both are simultaneously teachers and students."
In the article, "A process for the critical analysis of instructional theory", the authors use an ontology-building process to review and analyze concepts across different instructional theories. Here are their findings:
Concepts exist in theoretical writing that theorists do not address directly.
These tacit concepts, which supply the ontological categories, enable a more detailed comparison of theories beyond specific terminologies.
Divergences between theories can be concealed behind common terms used by different theorists.
A false sense of understanding often arises from a cursory, uncritical reading of the theories.
Discontinuities and gaps are revealed within the theoretical literature when the tacit concepts are elicited.
See also
(the use of electronic educational technology is also called e-learning)
was developed during WWII and is still in use around the world
References
Linking Premise to Practice: An Instructional Theory-Strategy Model Approach By: Bowden, Randall. Journal of College Teaching & Learning, v5 n3 p69-76 Mar 2008
Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed. .
Pedagogy
Education theory | 0.788874 | 0.958365 | 0.756029 |
Longue durée | The longue durée (; ) is the French Annales School approach to the study of history. It gives priority to long-term historical structures over what François Simiand called histoire événementielle ("evental history", the short-term time-scale that is the domain of the chronicler and the journalist). It concentrates instead on all-but-permanent or slowly evolving structures, and replaces elite biographies with the broader syntheses of prosopography. The crux of the idea is to examine extended periods of time and draw conclusions from historical trends and patterns.
Approach
The longue durée is part of a tripartite system that includes short-term événements and medium-term conjunctures (periods of decades or centuries when more profound cultural changes such as the industrial revolution can take place).
The approach, which incorporates social scientific methods such as the recently evolved field of economic history into general history, was pioneered by Marc Bloch and Lucien Febvre in the Interwar period. The approach was carried on by Fernand Braudel, who published his views after becoming the editor of Annales in 1956. In the second part of the century, Braudel took stock of the current status of social studies in crisis, foundering under the weight of their own successes, in an article in 1958, "Histoire et sciences sociales: La longue durée". Among the works which Braudel remarked on as examples of the longue durée was Alphonse Dupront's study of the long-standing idea in Western Europe of a crusade, which extended across diverse European societies far beyond the last days of the actual crusades, and among spheres of thought with a long life he noted Aristotelian science. In the longue durée of economic history, beyond, or beneath, the cycles and structural crises, lie "old attitudes of thought and action, resistant frameworks dying hard, at times against all logic." Braudel also stressed the importance of slow-changing geographic factors, like the constraints placed by the natural environment upon human production and communication. In the first volume of The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II, for example, he described the tension between mountain dwellers and plain dwellers, with their different cultures and economic models, as a basic feature of Mediterranean history over thousands of years.
The history of the longue durée that informs Braudel's two masterworks therefore offers a contrast to the archives-directed history that arose at the end of the 19th century, and a return to the broader views of the earlier generation of Jules Michelet, Leopold von Ranke, Jacob Burckhardt or Numa Denis Fustel de Coulanges.
Averil Cameron, in examining the Mediterranean world in late antiquity concluded that "consideration of the longue durée is more helpful than the appeal to immediate causal factors." Sergio Villalobos also expressly took the long view in his Historia del pueblo chileno.
Jean-François Bayart extended the concept to Africa. The systems of inequality and domination inherent in pre-colonial African societies have their own historical dynamics. Consequently, postcolonial national constructions cannot be understood from the sole point of view of their relations with the Western powers and their position in the world economy, Bayart argued. African states must therefore be analyzed in their historicity, which implies analyzing the power relations within contemporary African societies - in particular the role played by the dominant class in its societies, so as to update all the parameters that influence the present and the future of these States, he posited.
See also
Cliodynamics
Macrohistory
World-systems theory
David Nirenberg § Anti-Judaism: The Western Tradition
Notes
Sources and further reading
Fernand Braudel and Sarah Matthews, On History, The University of Chicago Press, 1982,
Robert D. Putnam with Robert Leonardi and Raffaella Y. Nanetti, Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy, Princeton University Press, 1993,
Debating the long durée, a special section in Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales – English Edition, ISSN: 2398-5682 (Print), 2268–3763 (Online)
Theories of history | 0.762353 | 0.991676 | 0.756006 |
Americanization | Americanization or Americanisation (see spelling differences) is the influence of the American culture and economy on other countries outside the United States, including their media, cuisine, business practices, popular culture, technology and political techniques. Some observers have described Americanization as synonymous with progress and innovation.
The cinema of the United States has dominated most of the world's medias markets since the 1910s, and is the chief medium by which the international community sees American fashions, customs, scenery, and way of life. The top 50 highest-grossing films of all time were all made either entirely or partially in the United States or were financed by U.S. production companies, even with limited or no artistic involvement. The top 50 constituents set and filmed entirely in the United Kingdom, like some of the Harry Potter franchise, or with deliberately and quintessentially British source material, like the Lord of the Rings series, count as American productions for solely financial reasons. This coopting of the works of other nations and cultures into "American" works (and the hegemonic ability to do as such) forms part of many critical definitions of Americanization.
United States–based commercial enterprises operating internationally are also associated with Americanization. Notably, the Coca-Cola Company was previously the top global company by revenue, giving rise to the term "Coca-Cola diplomacy" for anything emblematic of U.S. soft power. U.S.-based fast food franchises such as McDonald's, Subway, Starbucks, Burger King, Pizza Hut, KFC and Domino's Pizza, among others, have numerous outlets around the world. Of the top ten global brands (2017) by revenue, seven are based in the United States: Apple Inc., Google, Microsoft, Coca-Cola, Amazon, Facebook, and IBM.
During the Cold War, Americanization was the primary soft power method chosen to counter the more hard power-orientated polar process of Sovietization around the world. Education, schools, and particularly universities became the main target for Americanization. Resistance to Americanization within the university community restrained its effectiveness, though it was still much more successful than Sovietization. Americanization has become more prevalent since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, which left America as the world's sole superpower (the full soft power of China as a potential competing influence has yet to manifest within Occidental pop culture). Americanization found yet another gear with the advent of widespread high-speed Internet use in the mid-2000s (notably heavily censored in China).
Criticism of Americanization has included opposition to U.S. investments in Europe during the 1960s, which subsided by the 1970s. A new dimension of anti-Americanism is fear of the pervasiveness of American Internet technology.
Definitions
Like many concepts in social sciences, the term has been called ambiguous, however, a rough consensus on its meaning exists. Harm G. Schröter who focused on the economic dimension of the process, defined it as "an adapted transfer of values, behaviours, institutions, technologies, patterns of organization, symbols and norms from the [United States] to the economic life of other states". Mel van Elteren defined this in a negative way, as "a process in which economic, technological, political, social, cultural and/or socio–psychological influences emanating from America or Americans impinge on values, norms, belief systems, mentalities, habits, rules, technologies, practices, institutions and behaviors of non-Americans".
Media and popular culture
Hollywood, the American film and television industry, has since the 1910s dominated most of the world's media markets. It is the chief medium by which people across the globe see American fashions, customs, scenery, and way of life. The major film studios of the United States are the primary source of the most commercially successful and most ticket selling movies in the world. The top 50 highest-grossing films of all time were all made entirely or partially in the United States.
In general, the U.S. government plays only a facilitating role in the dissemination of films, television, books, journals etc. However, after the occupation of the former Axis countries during World War II, the U.S. government played a major role in restructuring the media in those countries to eliminate totalitarianism and to promote democracy against fascism and Nazism. For example, in Germany, the American occupation headquarters, Office of Military Government (OMGUS), began its own newspaper based in Munich in 1945. was edited by German and Jewish émigrés who had fled to the United States before the war. Its mission was to destroy Nazi cultural remnants and encourage democracy by exposing Germans to the ways American culture operated. There was great detail on sports, politics, business, Hollywood, fashions, and international affairs.
Despite the restrictions placed by communist authorities, Americanization would continue to spread out over the Iron Curtain even before the collapse of the Soviet Union and accelerated afterwards. The first McDonald's in Soviet Russia had a grand opening on Moscow's Pushkin Square on 31 January 1990 with approximately 38,000 customers waiting in hours long lines, breaking company records at the time. By 1997, there were 21 locations of the Russian chain.
The importation of Little Golden Books (Petits Livres d'Or) to France under the publisher Cocorico after World War II is discussed as a subtle way of implementing cultural productions that "presented the economic principles of American liberalism in a favorable light" in a study by Cécile Boulaire.
Foreign versions of American television programs are rebroadcast around the world, many of them through American broadcasters and their subsidiaries (such as HBO Asia, CNBC Europe and CNN International). Many of the distributors broadcast American programming on their television channels. In 2006, a survey of 20 countries by Radio Times found seven American shows in the ten most watched: CSI: Miami, Lost, Desperate Housewives, The Simpsons, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Without a Trace, and The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius.
American films have been historically extremely popular around the world and often dominate cinemas as a result of a high demand of U.S. product exported to consumers to clear away the outlook of World War II. The top 50 highest-grossing films of all time were all made entirely or partially in the United States. Often, part of the negotiating in free trade agreements between the U.S. and other nations involves screen quotas. One such case is Mexico, which abolished screen quotas after the establishment of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with the U.S. and Canada.
Many American musicians, such as Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson, are popular worldwide and have sold over 500 million albums each. Michael Jackson's album Thriller, at 100 million sales, is the best-selling album of all time internationally.
By the study of vocabulary and spelling of English words in books and tweets, American English is more common in communities of the European Union than British English. This trend is more apparent in the events after World War II and the end of the Soviet Union.
Business and brands
Many of the world's largest companies, such as Alphabet (Google), Amazon, AT&T, Apple, Coca-Cola, Disney, General Motors, McDonald's, Nike, Meta, Microsoft, Pepsi, and Walmart, were founded and are headquartered in the United States. Of the world's 500 largest companies, 124 are headquartered in the U.S. Coca-Cola, which previously held the top spot, is often viewed as a symbol of Americanization, giving rise to the term "Coca-Cola diplomacy" for anything emblematic of U.S. soft power. The American fast food industry, the world's first and largest, is also often viewed as being a symbol of U.S. marketing dominance. Companies such as McDonald's, Burger King, Pizza Hut, Kentucky Fried Chicken, and Domino's Pizza, among others, have numerous outlets around the world.
Many of the world's biggest computer companies are also U.S.-based, such as Microsoft, Apple, Intel, HP Inc., Dell, and IBM, and much of the software bought worldwide is created by U.S.-based companies. Carayannis and Campbell note, "The [United States] occupies, also in global terms, a very strong position in the software sector."
Even as far back as 1900, some observers saw "Americanization" as synonymous with progress and innovation. In Germany during the 1920s, the American efficiency movement was called "rationalization" and was a powerful social and economic force. In part, it looked explicitly at American models, especially Fordism. "Rationalization" meant higher productivity and greater efficiency and promised that science would bring prosperity. More generally, it promised a new level of modernity and was applied to economic production and consumption as well as public administration. Various versions of rationalization were promoted by industrialists and social democrats, by engineers and architects, by educators and academics, by middle-class feminists and social workers, by government officials and politicians of many parties. As ideology and practice, rationalization challenged and transformed not only machines, factories, and vast business enterprises but also the lives of middle-class and working-class Germans.
Department stores threatened the more local businesses, with low prices and chain-managed stores. The small businesses were determined and fought back to protect their source of income from the U.S. market.
During the Cold War, Americanization was the method to counter the processes of Sovietization around the world. Education, schools, and particularly universities became the main target for Americanization. However, resistance to Americanization of the university community restrained it, although it was still much more successful than Sovietization.
Visibility
From 1950 to 1965, American investments in Europe soared by 800% to $13.9 billion, and in the European Economic Community they rose ten times to $6.25 billion. Europe's share of American investments increased from 15% to 28%. The investments were of very high visibility and generated much talk of Americanization. Even so, American investments in Europe represented only 50% of the total European investment and American-owned companies in the European Economic Community employ only 2 or 3% of the total labor force. The basic reason for U.S. investments is no longer lower production costs, faster economic growth, or higher profits in Europe but the desire to maintain a competitive position based largely on American technological superiority. Opposition to U.S. investments was originally confined to France but later spread to other European countries. Public opinion began to resent American advertising and business methods, personnel policies, and the use of the English language by American companies. Criticism was also directed toward the international currency system which was blamed for inflationary tendencies as a result of the dominant position of the U.S. dollar. However, by the 1970s, European investments in the U.S. had increased even more rapidly than vice versa, and Geir Lundestad finds there was less talk of the Americans buying Europe.
Recent trends
Americanization has become more prevalent since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Until the late 1980s, the communist press could be counted on to be especially critical of the United States. To some extent, Russia continued that role under Vladimir Putin, and there are similar tendencies in China. Putin in 2013 published an opinion piece in The New York Times that attacked the American tendency to see itself as an exceptional indispensable nation. "It is extremely dangerous," Putin warned, "to encourage people to see themselves as exceptional, whatever the motivation."
A new dimension of anti-Americanism is fear of the pervasiveness of American Internet technology. Americanization has arrived through widespread high-speed Internet and smartphone technology since 2008, with a large fraction of the new apps and hardware being designed in Silicon Valley. In Europe, there is growing concern about excess Americanization through Google, Facebook, Twitter, the iPhone, and Uber, among many other American Internet-based corporations. European governments have increasingly expressed concern about privacy issues, as well as antitrust and taxation issues regarding the new American giants. There is a fear that they are significantly evading taxes and posting information that may violate European privacy laws. The Wall Street Journal in 2015 reported "deep concerns in Europe's highest policy circles about the power of U.S. technology companies."
Historiography
The Americanization of the Navajo at Canyon de Chelly was carried out by the Bureau of Indian Affairs in the late 1800s.
In 1902 the British journalist William Stead used this term in the title of his book, The Americanization of the World, in which he discussed the growing popularity of the "American ideas".
Berghahn (2010) analyzes the debate on the usefulness of the concepts of 'Americanization' and 'Westernization'. He reviews the recent research on the European–American relationship during the Cold War that has dealt with the cultural influence of the United States upon Europe. He then discusses the relevant work on this subject in the fields of economic and business history. Overall, the article tries to show that those who have applied the concept of 'Americanization' to their research on cultural or economic history have been well aware of the complexities of trans-Atlantic relations in this period, whether they were viewed as a two-way exchange or as a process of circulation.
Criticism
Some critics believe that the result of the rivalry between Sinicization and Americanization may lead to the emergence of a third power or turn one of the two into the actor with the most bargaining power. In the midst of this competition, the interests and rights of local businesses may be violated. Others such as Francis Fukuyama argue that the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 prompted a unipolar global capitalist reality that meant the "end of history". Some see this as a flawed view, mired in US exceptionalism. John Fousek said "the triumphalism embedded in Francis Fukuyama's view that the end of the Cold War marked the end of history, constitutes a new, historically contingent variation on the ideology that framed conflict in the beginning". Instead Americanisation, in the eyes of Mary Nolan, is not an all consuming force and what emerged during 1990 was "a multipolar global order". Therefore, the actual impact the U.S. and Americanisation has on the globe is hotly debated and runs deep into modern political policymaking. The traditional exceptional image of U.S. complete hegemonic power can be "quite dangerous" because it prompted American intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan, which just like in Vietnam, proved to show the limitations of American power across the globe.
See also
References
Further reading
Abdulrahim, Masoud A., Ali A. J. Al-Kandari, and Mohammed Hasanen, “The Influence of American Television Programs on University Students in Kuwait: A Synthesis,” European Journal of American Culture 28 (no. 1, 2009), 57–74.
Andrew Anglophone (Ed.), "Californication and Cultural Imperialism: Baywatch and the Creation of World Culture", 1997, Point Sur: Malibu University Press, .
Campbell, Neil, Jude Davies and George McKay, eds. Issues in Americanisation and Culture. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2004.
DeBres, Karen. "A Cultural Geography of McDonald's UK," Journal of Cultural Geography, 2005
Fehrenbach, Heide, and Uta G. Poiger. "Americanization Reconsidered," in idem, eds., Transactions, Transgressions, Transformations: American Culture in Western Europe and Japan (2000)
Glancy, Mark. Hollywood and the Americanization of Britain, from the 1920s to the present (I.B. Tauris, 2013), 340 pages,
Glancy, Mark. "Temporary American citizens? British audiences, Hollywood films and the threat of Americanization in the 1920s." Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television (2006) 26#4 pp. 461–84.
Gräser, Marcus Model America, EGO - European History Online, Mainz: Institute of European History, 2011, retrieved: March 8, 2021.
Haines, Gerald K. The Americanization of Brazil: A Study of U.S.Cold War Diplomacy in the Third World, 1945–54, Scholarly Resources, 1993
Hendershot, Robert M. Family Spats: Perception, Illusion, and Sentimentality in the Anglo-American Special Relationship (2008)
Hilger, Susanne: The Americanisation of the European Economy after 1880, European History Online, Mainz: Institute of European History, 2012, retrieved: June 6, 2012.
Kroes, Rob. "American empire and cultural imperialism: A view from the receiving end." Diplomatic History 23.3 (1999): 463-477 online.
Martn, Lawrence. Pledge of Allegiance: The Americanization of Canada in the Mulroney Years, Mcclelland & Stewart Ltd, 1993,
Malchow, H.L. Special Relations: The Americanization of Britain? (Stanford University Press; 2011) 400 pages; explores American influence on the culture and counterculture of metropolitan London from the 1950s to the 1970s, from "Swinging London" to black, feminist, and gay liberation. excerpt and text search
Moffett, Samuel E. The Americanization of Canada (1907) full text online
Nolan, Mary. Visions of Modernity: American Business and the Modernization of Germany (1995)
Nolan, Mary. "Housework Made Easy: the Taylorized Housewife in Weimar Germany's Rationalized Economy," Feminist Studies. Volume: 16. Issue: 3. pp. 549+
Pells, Richard. Not like Us: How Europeans Have Loved, Hated and Transformed American Culture since World War II (1997) online
Reynolds, David. Rich relations: the American occupation of Britain, 1942-1945 (1995)
Rydell, Robert W., Rob Kroes: Buffalo Bill in Bologna. The Americanization of the World, 1869–1922, University of Chicago Press, 2005,
Willett, Ralph. The Americanization of Germany, 1945–1949 (1989)
Zenklusen, Stefan: A Look Back at a Quarter Century of Globalization - Verifying the Thesis of Anglo-Americanization, Göttingen 2020,
Historiography
Berghahn, Volker R. "The debate on 'Americanization' among economic and cultural historians," Cold War History, Feb 2010, 10#1, pp. 107–30
Kuisel, Richard F. "The End of Americanization? or Reinventing a Research Field for Historians of Europe" Journal of Modern History 92#3 (Sept 2020) pp 602–634 online.
Cultural assimilation
Culture of the United States
Western culture | 0.760548 | 0.993995 | 0.755981 |
Universalization | Universalization is an incipient concept describing the next phase of human development, marking the transition from trans-national to interplanetary relations and much more aggressive exploitation of opportunities that lie beyond the confines of Earth. As both a process and an end state, universalization implies an increasingly pervasive, abiding and singular human focus not only on global issues per se but on social, technological, economic and cultural challenges and opportunities extending into our solar system, our galaxy, and well beyond, where cooperation supersedes conflict negotiation. Its origins are associated with the incipient expansion of social, economic, and political relationships that have emerged in the wake of globalization and that increasingly define the planet, its place within the broader universe and the sustainability of humanity and our diversity.
Overview
The concept was inspired by Kwame Anthony Appiah's work on cosmopolitanism, and particularly his emphasis on the need to develop a transcendent, collaborative model of human interaction that looks beyond the limited confines of current human relationships. Underlying principles and activities associated with universalization have also been discussed in a number of works dealing with prospective human exploitation of natural resources in space.
Evidence of the transition from globalisation to the century of "universalization" is provided by the exponential growth in outer space activity across all sectors of human endeavour, including exploration (global investments by national governments and consortia of $65 billion annually), governance (the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, the International Association for Space Safety), commerce (aerospace industries such as Boeing, Teledyne, MDA), resource exploitation (Moon Express), Tourism (Virgin Galactic, XCOR), communications (satellites, probes, inter-planetary internet), education (the International Space University, Singularity University, International Institute of Space Commerce), research (observatories at Hawaii, Chile, the Square Kilometer Array, the Hubble Space Telescope, and settlement (Mars One).
Another reading of "universalization" has been suggested by Gregory Paul Meyjes. Questioning the various processes (economic, political, cultural) by which globalization or globalisation has favored expeditious Anglo-cultural dominance at the expense of a more broadly-based, gradually-emerging world civilization, Meyjes argues for cultural policies that support "ecological" relations between local ethnocultural traditions, to protect cultural specificity in the short term and thus to allow as great a variety of groups as possible to voluntarily and organically contribute to the global whole. Meyjes thus proposes universalization as a process of (largely) unfettered yet non-threatening exchange (such as with the aid of an International Auxiliary Language) between and among the world's state-level and sub-state-level groups and "nations" – i.e. a participatory transnational process that informs the gradual emergence of an optimally-inclusive world civilization.
References
Psychotherapy
Emotional issues | 0.786194 | 0.96153 | 0.75595 |
Theoretical ecology | Theoretical ecology is the scientific discipline devoted to the study of ecological systems using theoretical methods such as simple conceptual models, mathematical models, computational simulations, and advanced data analysis. Effective models improve understanding of the natural world by revealing how the dynamics of species populations are often based on fundamental biological conditions and processes. Further, the field aims to unify a diverse range of empirical observations by assuming that common, mechanistic processes generate observable phenomena across species and ecological environments. Based on biologically realistic assumptions, theoretical ecologists are able to uncover novel, non-intuitive insights about natural processes. Theoretical results are often verified by empirical and observational studies, revealing the power of theoretical methods in both predicting and understanding the noisy, diverse biological world.
The field is broad and includes foundations in applied mathematics, computer science, biology, statistical physics, genetics, chemistry, evolution, and conservation biology. Theoretical ecology aims to explain a diverse range of phenomena in the life sciences, such as population growth and dynamics, fisheries, competition, evolutionary theory, epidemiology, animal behavior and group dynamics, food webs, ecosystems, spatial ecology, and the effects of climate change.
Theoretical ecology has further benefited from the advent of fast computing power, allowing the analysis and visualization of large-scale computational simulations of ecological phenomena. Importantly, these modern tools provide quantitative predictions about the effects of human induced environmental change on a diverse variety of ecological phenomena, such as: species invasions, climate change, the effect of fishing and hunting on food network stability, and the global carbon cycle.
Modelling approaches
As in most other sciences, mathematical models form the foundation of modern ecological theory.
Phenomenological models: distill the functional and distributional shapes from observed patterns in the data, or researchers decide on functions and distribution that are flexible enough to match the patterns they or others (field or experimental ecologists) have found in the field or through experimentation.
Mechanistic models: model the underlying processes directly, with functions and distributions that are based on theoretical reasoning about ecological processes of interest.
Ecological models can be deterministic or stochastic.
Deterministic models always evolve in the same way from a given starting point. They represent the average, expected behavior of a system, but lack random variation. Many system dynamics models are deterministic.
Stochastic models allow for the direct modeling of the random perturbations that underlie real world ecological systems. Markov chain models are stochastic.
Species can be modelled in continuous or discrete time.
Continuous time is modelled using differential equations.
Discrete time is modelled using difference equations. These model ecological processes that can be described as occurring over discrete time steps. Matrix algebra is often used to investigate the evolution of age-structured or stage-structured populations. The Leslie matrix, for example, mathematically represents the discrete time change of an age structured population.
Models are often used to describe real ecological reproduction processes of single or multiple species.
These can be modelled using stochastic branching processes. Examples are the dynamics of interacting populations (predation competition and mutualism), which, depending on the species of interest, may best be modeled over either continuous or discrete time. Other examples of such models may be found in the field of mathematical epidemiology where the dynamic relationships that are to be modeled are host–pathogen interactions.
Bifurcation theory is used to illustrate how small changes in parameter values can give rise to dramatically different long run outcomes, a mathematical fact that may be used to explain drastic ecological differences that come about in qualitatively very similar systems. Logistic maps are polynomial mappings, and are often cited as providing archetypal examples of how chaotic behaviour can arise from very simple non-linear dynamical equations. The maps were popularized in a seminal 1976 paper by the theoretical ecologist Robert May. The difference equation is intended to capture the two effects of reproduction and starvation.
In 1930, R.A. Fisher published his classic The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection, which introduced the idea that frequency-dependent fitness brings a strategic aspect to evolution, where the payoffs to a particular organism, arising from the interplay of all of the relevant organisms, are the number of this organism' s viable offspring. In 1961, Richard Lewontin applied game theory to evolutionary biology in his Evolution and the Theory of Games,
followed closely by John Maynard Smith, who in his seminal 1972 paper, “Game Theory and the Evolution of Fighting", defined the concept of the evolutionarily stable strategy.
Because ecological systems are typically nonlinear, they often cannot be solved analytically and in order to obtain sensible results, nonlinear, stochastic and computational techniques must be used. One class of computational models that is becoming increasingly popular are the agent-based models. These models can simulate the actions and interactions of multiple, heterogeneous, organisms where more traditional, analytical techniques are inadequate. Applied theoretical ecology yields results which are used in the real world. For example, optimal harvesting theory draws on optimization techniques developed in economics, computer science and operations research, and is widely used in fisheries.
Population ecology
Population ecology is a sub-field of ecology that deals with the dynamics of species populations and how these populations interact with the environment. It is the study of how the population sizes of species living together in groups change over time and space, and was one of the first aspects of ecology to be studied and modelled mathematically.
Exponential growth
The most basic way of modeling population dynamics is to assume that the rate of growth of a population depends only upon the population size at that time and the per capita growth rate of the organism. In other words, if the number of individuals in a population at a time t, is N(t), then the rate of population growth is given by:
where r is the per capita growth rate, or the intrinsic growth rate of the organism. It can also be described as r = b-d, where b and d are the per capita time-invariant birth and death rates, respectively. This first order linear differential equation can be solved to yield the solution
,
a trajectory known as Malthusian growth, after Thomas Malthus, who first described its dynamics in 1798. A population experiencing Malthusian growth follows an exponential curve, where N(0) is the initial population size. The population grows when r > 0, and declines when r < 0. The model is most applicable in cases where a few organisms have begun a colony and are rapidly growing without any limitations or restrictions impeding their growth (e.g. bacteria inoculated in rich media).
Logistic growth
The exponential growth model makes a number of assumptions, many of which often do not hold. For example, many factors affect the intrinsic growth rate and is often not time-invariant. A simple modification of the exponential growth is to assume that the intrinsic growth rate varies with population size. This is reasonable: the larger the population size, the fewer resources available, which can result in a lower birth rate and higher death rate. Hence, we can replace the time-invariant r with r’(t) = (b –a*N(t)) – (d + c*N(t)), where a and c are constants that modulate birth and death rates in a population dependent manner (e.g. intraspecific competition). Both a and c will depend on other environmental factors which, we can for now, assume to be constant in this approximated model. The differential equation is now:
This can be rewritten as:
where r = b-d and K = (b-d)/(a+c).
The biological significance of K becomes apparent when stabilities of the equilibria of the system are considered. The constant K is the carrying capacity of the population. The equilibria of the system are N = 0 and N = K. If the system is linearized, it can be seen that N = 0 is an unstable equilibrium while K is a stable equilibrium.
Structured population growth
Another assumption of the exponential growth model is that all individuals within a population are identical and have the same probabilities of surviving and of reproducing. This is not a valid assumption for species with complex life histories. The exponential growth model can be modified to account for this, by tracking the number of individuals in different age classes (e.g. one-, two-, and three-year-olds) or different stage classes (juveniles, sub-adults, and adults) separately, and allowing individuals in each group to have their own survival and reproduction rates.
The general form of this model is
where Nt is a vector of the number of individuals in each class at time t and L is a matrix that contains the survival probability and fecundity for each class. The matrix L is referred to as the Leslie matrix for age-structured models, and as the Lefkovitch matrix for stage-structured models.
If parameter values in L are estimated from demographic data on a specific population, a structured model can then be used to predict whether this population is expected to grow or decline in the long-term, and what the expected age distribution within the population will be. This has been done for a number of species including loggerhead sea turtles and right whales.
Community ecology
An ecological community is a group of trophically similar, sympatric species that actually or potentially compete in a local area for the same or similar resources. Interactions between these species form the first steps in analyzing more complex dynamics of ecosystems. These interactions shape the distribution and dynamics of species. Of these interactions, predation is one of the most widespread population activities.
Taken in its most general sense, predation comprises predator–prey, host–pathogen, and host–parasitoid interactions.
Predator–prey interaction
Predator–prey interactions exhibit natural oscillations in the populations of both predator and the prey. In 1925, the American mathematician Alfred J. Lotka developed simple equations for predator–prey interactions in his book on biomathematics. The following year, the Italian mathematician Vito Volterra, made a statistical analysis of fish catches in the Adriatic and independently developed the same equations. It is one of the earliest and most recognised ecological models, known as the Lotka-Volterra model:
where N is the prey and P is the predator population sizes, r is the rate for prey growth, taken to be exponential in the absence of any predators, α is the prey mortality rate for per-capita predation (also called ‘attack rate’), c is the efficiency of conversion from prey to predator, and d is the exponential death rate for predators in the absence of any prey.
Volterra originally used the model to explain fluctuations in fish and shark populations after fishing was curtailed during the First World War. However, the equations have subsequently been applied more generally. Other examples of these models include the Lotka-Volterra model of the snowshoe hare and Canadian lynx in North America, any infectious disease modeling such as the recent outbreak of SARS
and biological control of California red scale by the introduction of its parasitoid, Aphytis melinus
.
A credible, simple alternative to the Lotka-Volterra predator–prey model and their common prey dependent generalizations is the ratio dependent or Arditi-Ginzburg model. The two are the extremes of the spectrum of predator interference models. According to the authors of the alternative view, the data show that true interactions in nature are so far from the Lotka–Volterra extreme on the interference spectrum that the model can simply be discounted as wrong. They are much closer to the ratio-dependent extreme, so if a simple model is needed one can use the Arditi–Ginzburg model as the first approximation.
Host–pathogen interaction
The second interaction, that of host and pathogen, differs from predator–prey interactions in that pathogens are much smaller, have much faster generation times, and require a host to reproduce. Therefore, only the host population is tracked in host–pathogen models. Compartmental models that categorize host population into groups such as susceptible, infected, and recovered (SIR) are commonly used.
Host–parasitoid interaction
The third interaction, that of host and parasitoid, can be analyzed by the Nicholson–Bailey model, which differs from Lotka-Volterra and SIR models in that it is discrete in time. This model, like that of Lotka-Volterra, tracks both populations explicitly. Typically, in its general form, it states:
where f(Nt, Pt) describes the probability of infection (typically, Poisson distribution), λ is the per-capita growth rate of hosts in the absence of parasitoids, and c is the conversion efficiency, as in the Lotka-Volterra model.
Competition and mutualism
In studies of the populations of two species, the Lotka-Volterra system of equations has been extensively used to describe dynamics of behavior between two species, N1 and N2. Examples include relations between D. discoiderum and E. coli,
as well as theoretical analysis of the behavior of the system.
The r coefficients give a “base” growth rate to each species, while K coefficients correspond to the carrying capacity. What can really change the dynamics of a system, however are the α terms. These describe the nature of the relationship between the two species. When α12 is negative, it means that N2 has a negative effect on N1, by competing with it, preying on it, or any number of other possibilities. When α12 is positive, however, it means that N2 has a positive effect on N1, through some kind of mutualistic interaction between the two.
When both α12 and α21 are negative, the relationship is described as competitive. In this case, each species detracts from the other, potentially over competition for scarce resources.
When both α12 and α21 are positive, the relationship becomes one of mutualism. In this case, each species provides a benefit to the other, such that the presence of one aids the population growth of the other.
See Competitive Lotka–Volterra equations for further extensions of this model.
Neutral theory
Unified neutral theory is a hypothesis proposed by Stephen P. Hubbell in 2001. The hypothesis aims to explain the diversity and relative abundance of species in ecological communities, although like other neutral theories in ecology, Hubbell's hypothesis assumes that the differences between members of an ecological community of trophically similar species are "neutral," or irrelevant to their success. Neutrality means that at a given trophic level in a food web, species are equivalent in birth rates, death rates, dispersal rates and speciation rates, when measured on a per-capita basis. This implies that biodiversity arises at random, as each species follows a random walk. This can be considered a null hypothesis to niche theory. The hypothesis has sparked controversy, and some authors consider it a more complex version of other null models that fit the data better.
Under unified neutral theory, complex ecological interactions are permitted among individuals of an ecological community (such as competition and cooperation), providing all individuals obey the same rules. Asymmetric phenomena such as parasitism and predation are ruled out by the terms of reference; but cooperative strategies such as swarming, and negative interaction such as competing for limited food or light are allowed, so long as all individuals behave the same way. The theory makes predictions that have implications for the management of biodiversity, especially the management of rare species. It predicts the existence of a fundamental biodiversity constant, conventionally written θ, that appears to govern species richness on a wide variety of spatial and temporal scales.
Hubbell built on earlier neutral concepts, including MacArthur & Wilson's theory of island biogeography and Gould's concepts of symmetry and null models.
Spatial ecology
Biogeography
Biogeography is the study of the distribution of species in space and time. It aims to reveal where organisms live, at what abundance, and why they are (or are not) found in a certain geographical area.
Biogeography is most keenly observed on islands, which has led to the development of the subdiscipline of island biogeography. These habitats are often a more manageable areas of study because they are more condensed than larger ecosystems on the mainland. In 1967, Robert MacArthur and E.O. Wilson published The Theory of Island Biogeography. This showed that the species richness in an area could be predicted in terms of factors such as habitat area, immigration rate and extinction rate. The theory is considered one of the fundamentals of ecological theory. The application of island biogeography theory to habitat fragments spurred the development of the fields of conservation biology and landscape ecology.
r/K-selection theory
A population ecology concept is r/K selection theory, one of the first predictive models in ecology used to explain life-history evolution. The premise behind the r/K selection model is that natural selection pressures change according to population density. For example, when an island is first colonized, density of individuals is low. The initial increase in population size is not limited by competition, leaving an abundance of available resources for rapid population growth. These early phases of population growth experience density-independent forces of natural selection, which is called r-selection. As the population becomes more crowded, it approaches the island's carrying capacity, thus forcing individuals to compete more heavily for fewer available resources. Under crowded conditions, the population experiences density-dependent forces of natural selection, called K-selection.
Niche theory
Metapopulations
Spatial analysis of ecological systems often reveals that assumptions that are valid for spatially homogenous populations – and indeed, intuitive – may no longer be valid when migratory subpopulations moving from one patch to another are considered. In a simple one-species formulation, a subpopulation may occupy a patch, move from one patch to another empty patch, or die out leaving an empty patch behind. In such a case, the proportion of occupied patches may be represented as
where m is the rate of colonization, and e is the rate of extinction. In this model, if e < m, the steady state value of p is 1 – (e/m) while in the other case, all the patches will eventually be left empty. This model may be made more complex by addition of another species in several different ways, including but not limited to game theoretic approaches, predator–prey interactions, etc. We will consider here an extension of the previous one-species system for simplicity. Let us denote the proportion of patches occupied by the first population as p1, and that by the second as p2. Then,
In this case, if e is too high, p1 and p2 will be zero at steady state. However, when the rate of extinction is moderate, p1 and p2 can stably coexist. The steady state value of p2 is given by
(p*1 may be inferred by symmetry).
If e is zero, the dynamics of the system favor the species that is better at colonizing (i.e. has the higher m value). This leads to a very important result in theoretical ecology known as the Intermediate Disturbance Hypothesis, where the biodiversity (the number of species that coexist in the population) is maximized when the disturbance (of which e is a proxy here) is not too high or too low, but at intermediate levels.
The form of the differential equations used in this simplistic modelling approach can be modified. For example:
Colonization may be dependent on p linearly (m*(1-p)) as opposed to the non-linear m*p*(1-p) regime described above. This mode of replication of a species is called the “rain of propagules”, where there is an abundance of new individuals entering the population at every generation. In such a scenario, the steady state where the population is zero is usually unstable.
Extinction may depend non-linearly on p (e*p*(1-p)) as opposed to the linear (e*p) regime described above. This is referred to as the “rescue effect” and it is again harder to drive a population extinct under this regime.
The model can also be extended to combinations of the four possible linear or non-linear dependencies of colonization and extinction on p are described in more detail in.
Ecosystem ecology
Introducing new elements, whether biotic or abiotic, into ecosystems can be disruptive. In some cases, it leads to ecological collapse, trophic cascades and the death of many species within the ecosystem. The abstract notion of ecological health attempts to measure the robustness and recovery capacity for an ecosystem; i.e. how far the ecosystem is away from its steady state. Often, however, ecosystems rebound from a disruptive agent. The difference between collapse or rebound depends on the toxicity of the introduced element and the resiliency of the original ecosystem.
If ecosystems are governed primarily by stochastic processes, through which its subsequent state would be determined by both predictable and random actions, they may be more resilient to sudden change than each species individually. In the absence of a balance of nature, the species composition of ecosystems would undergo shifts that would depend on the nature of the change, but entire ecological collapse would probably be infrequent events. In 1997, Robert Ulanowicz used information theory tools to describe the structure of ecosystems, emphasizing mutual information (correlations) in studied systems. Drawing on this methodology and prior observations of complex ecosystems, Ulanowicz depicts approaches to determining the stress levels on ecosystems and predicting system reactions to defined types of alteration in their settings (such as increased or reduced energy flow), and eutrophication.
Ecopath is a free ecosystem modelling software suite, initially developed by NOAA, and widely used in fisheries management as a tool for modelling and visualising the complex relationships that exist in real world marine ecosystems.
Food webs
Food webs provide a framework within which a complex network of predator–prey interactions can be organised. A food web model is a network of food chains. Each food chain starts with a primary producer or autotroph, an organism, such as a plant, which is able to manufacture its own food. Next in the chain is an organism that feeds on the primary producer, and the chain continues in this way as a string of successive predators. The organisms in each chain are grouped into trophic levels, based on how many links they are removed from the primary producers. The length of the chain, or trophic level, is a measure of the number of species encountered as energy or nutrients move from plants to top predators. Food energy flows from one organism to the next and to the next and so on, with some energy being lost at each level. At a given trophic level there may be one species or a group of species with the same predators and prey.
In 1927, Charles Elton published an influential synthesis on the use of food webs, which resulted in them becoming a central concept in ecology. In 1966, interest in food webs increased after Robert Paine's experimental and descriptive study of intertidal shores, suggesting that food web complexity was key to maintaining species diversity and ecological stability. Many theoretical ecologists, including Sir Robert May and Stuart Pimm, were prompted by this discovery and others to examine the mathematical properties of food webs. According to their analyses, complex food webs should be less stable than simple food webs. The apparent paradox between the complexity of food webs observed in nature and the mathematical fragility of food web models is currently an area of intensive study and debate. The paradox may be due partially to conceptual differences between persistence of a food web and equilibrial stability of a food web.
Systems ecology
Systems ecology can be seen as an application of general systems theory to ecology. It takes a holistic and interdisciplinary approach to the study of ecological systems, and particularly ecosystems. Systems ecology is especially concerned with the way the functioning of ecosystems can be influenced by human interventions. Like other fields in theoretical ecology, it uses and extends concepts from thermodynamics and develops other macroscopic descriptions of complex systems. It also takes account of the energy flows through the different trophic levels in the ecological networks. Systems ecology also considers the external influence of ecological economics, which usually is not otherwise considered in ecosystem ecology. For the most part, systems ecology is a subfield of ecosystem ecology.
Ecophysiology
This is the study of how "the environment, both physical and biological, interacts with the physiology of an organism. It includes the effects of climate and nutrients on physiological processes in both plants and animals, and has a particular focus on how physiological processes scale with organism size".
Behavioral ecology
Swarm behaviour
Swarm behaviour is a collective behaviour exhibited by animals of similar size which aggregate together, perhaps milling about the same spot or perhaps migrating in some direction. Swarm behaviour is commonly exhibited by insects, but it also occurs in the flocking of birds, the schooling of fish and the herd behaviour of quadrupeds. It is a complex emergent behaviour that occurs when individual agents follow simple behavioral rules.
Recently, a number of mathematical models have been discovered which explain many aspects of the emergent behaviour. Swarm algorithms follow a Lagrangian approach or an Eulerian approach. The Eulerian approach views the swarm as a field, working with the density of the swarm and deriving mean field properties. It is a hydrodynamic approach, and can be useful for modelling the overall dynamics of large swarms.<ref>Toner J and Tu Y (1995) "Long-range order in a two-dimensional xy model: how birds fly together" Physical Revue Letters, '75 (23)(1995), 4326–4329.</ref> However, most models work with the Lagrangian approach, which is an agent-based model following the individual agents (points or particles) that make up the swarm. Individual particle models can follow information on heading and spacing that is lost in the Eulerian approach. Examples include ant colony optimization, self-propelled particles and particle swarm optimization.
On cellular levels, individual organisms also demonstrated swarm behavior. Decentralized systems are where individuals act based on their own decisions without overarching guidance. Studies have shown that individual Trichoplax adhaerens behave like self-propelled particles (SPPs) and collectively display phase transition from ordered movement to disordered movements. Previously, it was thought that the surface-to-volume ratio was what limited the animal size in the evolutionary game. Considering the collective behaviour of the individuals, it was suggested that order is another limiting factor. Central nervous systems were indicated to be vital for large multicellular animals in the evolutionary pathway.
Synchronization Photinus carolinus firefly will synchronize their shining frequencies in a collective setting. Individually, there are no apparent patterns for the flashing. In a group setting, periodicity emerges in the shining pattern. The coexistence of the synchronization and asynchronization in the flashings in the system composed of multiple fireflies could be characterized by the chimera states. Synchronization could spontaneously occur. The agent-based model has been useful in describing this unique phenomenon. The flashings of individual fireflies could be viewed as oscillators and the global coupling models were similar to the ones used in condensed matter physics.
Evolutionary ecology
The British biologist Alfred Russel Wallace is best known for independently proposing a theory of evolution due to natural selection that prompted Charles Darwin to publish his own theory. In his famous 1858 paper, Wallace proposed natural selection as a kind of feedback mechanism which keeps species and varieties adapted to their environment.
The action of this principle is exactly like that of the centrifugal governor of the steam engine, which checks and corrects any irregularities almost before they become evident; and in like manner no unbalanced deficiency in the animal kingdom can ever reach any conspicuous magnitude, because it would make itself felt at the very first step, by rendering existence difficult and extinction almost sure soon to follow.
The cybernetician and anthropologist Gregory Bateson observed in the 1970s that, though writing it only as an example, Wallace had "probably said the most powerful thing that’d been said in the 19th Century". Subsequently, the connection between natural selection and systems theory has become an area of active research.
Other theories
In contrast to previous ecological theories which considered floods to be catastrophic events, the river flood pulse concept argues that the annual flood pulse is the most important aspect and the most biologically productive feature of a river's ecosystem.Benke, A. C., Chaubey, I., Ward, G. M., & Dunn, E. L. (2000). Flood Pulse Dynamics of an Unregulated River Floodplain in the Southeastern U.S. Coastal Plain. Ecology, 2730-2741.
History
Theoretical ecology draws on pioneering work done by G. Evelyn Hutchinson and his students. Brothers H.T. Odum and E.P. Odum are generally recognised as the founders of modern theoretical ecology. Robert MacArthur brought theory to community ecology. Daniel Simberloff was the student of E.O. Wilson, with whom MacArthur collaborated on The Theory of Island Biogeography, a seminal work in the development of theoretical ecology.
Simberloff added statistical rigour to experimental ecology and was a key figure in the SLOSS debate, about whether it is preferable to protect a single large or several small reserves. This resulted in the supporters of Jared Diamond's community assembly rules defending their ideas through Neutral Model Analysis. Simberloff also played a key role in the (still ongoing) debate on the utility of corridors for connecting isolated reserves.
Stephen P. Hubbell and Michael Rosenzweig combined theoretical and practical elements into works that extended MacArthur and Wilson's Island Biogeography Theory - Hubbell with his Unified Neutral Theory of Biodiversity and Biogeography and Rosenzweig with his Species Diversity in Space and Time.
Theoretical and mathematical ecologists
A tentative distinction can be made between mathematical ecologists, ecologists who apply mathematics to ecological problems, and mathematicians who develop the mathematics itself that arises out of ecological problems.
Some notable theoretical ecologists can be found in these categories:
:Category:Mathematical ecologists
:Category:Theoretical biologists
Journals
The American Naturalist Journal of Mathematical Biology Journal of Theoretical Biology Theoretical Ecology Theoretical Population Biology Ecological ModellingSee also
Butterfly effect
Complex system biology
Ecological systems theory
Ecosystem model
Integrodifference equation – widely used to model the dispersal and growth of populations
Limiting similarity
Mathematical biology
Population dynamics
Population modeling
Quantitative ecology
Taylor's law
Theoretical biology
References
Further reading
The classic text is Theoretical Ecology: Principles and Applications, by Angela McLean and Robert May. The 2007 edition is published by the Oxford University Press. .
Bolker BM (2008) Ecological Models and Data in R Princeton University Press. .
Case TJ (2000) An illustrated guide to theoretical ecology Oxford University Press. .
Caswell H (2000) Matrix Population Models: Construction, Analysis, and Interpretation'', Sinauer, 2nd Ed. .
Edelstein-Keshet L (2005) Mathematical Models in Biology Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. .
Gotelli NJ (2008) A Primer of Ecology Sinauer Associates, 4th Ed. .
Gotelli NJ & A Ellison (2005) A Primer Of Ecological Statistics Sinauer Associates Publishers. .
Hastings A (1996) Population Biology: Concepts and Models Springer. .
Hilborn R & M Clark (1997) The Ecological Detective: Confronting Models with Data Princeton University Press.
Kokko H (2007) Modelling for field biologists and other interesting people Cambridge University Press. .
Kot M (2001) Elements of Mathematical Ecology Cambridge University Press. .
Murray JD (2002) Mathematical Biology, Volume 1 Springer, 3rd Ed. .
Murray JD (2003) Mathematical Biology, Volume 2 Springer, 3rd Ed. .
Pastor J (2008) Mathematical Ecology of Populations and Ecosystems Wiley-Blackwell. .
Roughgarden J (1998) Primer of Ecological Theory Prentice Hall. .
Ulanowicz R (1997) Ecology: The Ascendant Perspective Columbia University Press.
Ecology | 0.779428 | 0.969862 | 0.755938 |
Staying with the Trouble | Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene is a 2016 book by Donna Haraway, published by Duke University Press. In a thesis statement, Haraway writes: "Staying with the trouble means making oddkin; that is, we require each other in unexpected collaborations and combinations, in hot compost piles. We become - with each other or not at all." Both the imagery of the compost pile and the concept of oddkin are repeated motifs throughout the work.
By emphasizing connectedness, Staying with the Trouble can be thought of as a continuation of major themes from "A Cyborg Manifesto" and The Companion Species Manifesto. Haraway's book can also be thought of as a critique of the Anthropocene as a way of making sense of the present, de-emphasizing human exceptionalism in favor of multispecism.
Structure
Staying with the Trouble is broken into eight chapters, the majority of which are revisions of previous work dating from as early as 2012.
One: Playing String Figures with Companion Species
Written in honor of G. Evelyn Hutchinson, Haraway's PhD Advisor, and Beatriz da Costa.
Two: Tentacular Thinking: Anthropocene, Capitalocene, Chthulucene
Three: Sympoiesis: Symbiogenesis and the Lively Arts of Staying with the Trouble
Four: Making Kin: Anthropocene, Capitalocene, Plantationcene, Chthulucene
Five: Awash in Urine: DES and Premarin in Multispecies Response-ability
Six: Sowing Worlds: A Seed Bag for Terraforming with Earth Others
Seven: A Curious Practice
Eight: The Camille Stories: Children of Compost
References
Works by Donna Haraway
Science and technology studies works
Books in philosophy of technology | 0.769548 | 0.982291 | 0.755921 |
Contextual inquiry | Contextual inquiry (CI) is a user-centered design (UCD) research method, part of the contextual design methodology. A contextual inquiry interview is usually structured as an approximately two-hour, one-on-one interaction in which the researcher watches the user in the course of the user's normal activities and discusses those activities with the user.
Description
Contextual inquiry defines four principles to guide the interaction:
Context—Interviews are conducted in the user's actual workplace. The researcher watches users do their own work tasks and discusses any artifacts they generate or use with them. In addition, the researcher gathers detailed re-tellings of specific past events when they are relevant to the project focus.
Partnership—User and researcher collaborate to understand the user's work. The interview alternates between observing the user as he or she works and discussing what the user did and why.
Interpretation—The researcher shares interpretations and insights with the user during the interview. The user may expand or correct the researcher's understanding.
Focus—The researcher steers the interaction towards topics which are relevant to the team's scope.
If specific tasks are important, the user may be asked to perform those tasks.
A contextual interview generally has three phases, which may not be formally separated in the interview itself:
The introduction—The researcher introduces him or herself and may request permission to record and start recording. The researcher promises confidentiality to the user, solicits a high-level overview of the user's work, and consults with the user on the specific tasks the user will work on during the interview.
The body of the interview—The researcher observes the work and discusses the observations with the user. The researcher takes notes, usually handwritten, of everything that happens.
The wrap-up—The researcher summarizes what was gleaned from the interview, offering the user a chance to give final corrections and clarifications.
Before a contextual inquiry, user visits must be set up. The users selected must be doing work of interest currently, must be able to have the researcher come into their workplace (wherever it is), and should represent a wide range of different types of users. A contextual inquiry may gather data from as few as 4 users (for a single, small task) to 30 or more.
Following a contextual inquiry field interview, the method defines interpretation sessions as a way to analyze the data. In an interpretation session, 3-8 team members gather to hear the researcher re-tell the story of the interview in order. As the interview is re-told, the team add individual insights and facts as notes. They also may capture representations of the user's activities as work models (defined in the Contextual design methodology). The notes may be organized using an affinity diagram. Many teams use the contextual data to generate in-depth personas.
Contextual inquiries may be conducted to understand the needs of a market and to scope the opportunities. They may be conducted to understand the work of specific roles or tasks, to learn the responsibilities and structure of the role. Or they may be narrowly focused on specific tasks, to learn the details necessary to support that task.
Advantages
Contextual inquiry offers the following advantages over other customer research methods:
The open-ended nature of the interaction makes it possible to reveal tacit knowledge, knowledge about their own work process that users themselves are not consciously aware of. Tacit knowledge has traditionally been very hard for researchers to uncover.
The information produced by contextual inquiry is highly reliable. Surveys and questionnaires assume the questions they include are important. Traditional usability tests assume the tasks the user is asked to perform are relevant. Contextual inquiries focus on the work users need to accomplish, done their way—so it is always relevant to the user. And because it's their own work, the users are more committed to it than they would be to a sample task.
The information produced by contextual inquiry is highly detailed. Marketing methods such as surveys produce high-level information but not the detailed work practice data needed to design products. It is very difficult to get this level of detail any other way.
Contextual inquiry is a very flexible technique. Contextual inquiries have been conducted in homes, offices, hospital OPDs, operating theaters, automobiles, factory floors, construction sites, maintenance tunnels, and chip fabrication labs, among many other places.
Limitations
Contextual inquiry has the following limitations:
Contextual inquiry is resource-intensive. It requires travel to the informant's site, a few hours with each user, and then a few more hours to interpret the results of the interview.
History of the method
Contextual inquiry was first referenced as a "phenomenological research method" in a paper by Whiteside, Bennet, and Holtzblatt in 1988, which lays out much of the justification for using qualitative research methods in design. It was first fully described as a method in its own right by Wixon, Holtzblatt, and Knox in 1990, where comparisons with other research methods are offered. It is most fully described by Holtzblatt and Beyer in 1995.
Contextual inquiry was extended to the full contextual design methodology by Beyer and Holtzblatt between 1988 and 1992. Contextual design was briefly described by them for Communications of the ACM in 1995, and was fully described in Contextual Design in 1997.
Work models as a way of capturing representations of user work during interpretation sessions were first briefly described by Beyer and Holtzblatt in 1993 and then more fully in 1995.
See also
Design research
Ethnography
Scenario
References
Further reading
S. Jones, Learning DECwrite in the Workplace; Using Contextual Inquiry to Articulate Learning. Internal Digital Report: DEC-TR 677, December 1989.
An early use of CI to analyze the use of a software product.
L. Cohen, Quality Function Deployment: How to Make QFD Work for You. Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Reading, Massachusetts, 1995.
Discusses the use of CI in Quality Function Deployment
D. Wixon and J. Ramey (Eds.), Field Methods Case Book for Product Design. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., NY, NY, 1996.
This book describes the experience of several different practitioners using field methods. Several people who have used Contextual Inquiry and Contextual Design have written chapters describing their experiences. This is a good resource for anyone wanting to adopt customer-centered methods in their own organization. It includes a chapter by Holtzblatt and Beyer describing the whole Contextual Design process.
Nardi, B. Context and Consciousness : Activity Theory and Human-Computer Interaction. Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press, Cambridge, MA, USA ©1995
External links
Contextual inquiry at UsabilityNet
Contextual Interviews at Usability.gov
Getting Started with Contextual Techniques
Human–computer interaction
Inquiry | 0.786741 | 0.960779 | 0.755884 |
Ethnomethodology | Ethnomethodology is the study of how social order is produced in and through processes of social interaction. It generally seeks to provide an alternative to mainstream sociological approaches. In its most radical form, it poses a challenge to the social sciences as a whole. Its early investigations led to the founding of conversation analysis, which has found its own place as an accepted discipline within the academy. According to Psathas, it is possible to distinguish five major approaches within the ethnomethodological family of disciplines (see ).
Ethnomethodology is a fundamentally descriptive discipline which does not engage in the explanation or evaluation of the particular social order undertaken as a topic of study., "to discover the things that persons in particular situations do, the methods they use, to create the patterned orderliness of social life". However, applications have been found within many applied disciplines, such as software design and management studies.
Definition
The term's meaning can be broken down into its three constituent parts: ethno – method – ology, for the purpose of explanation. Using an appropriate Southern California example: ethno refers to a particular socio-cultural group (for example, a particular, local community of surfers); method refers to the methods and practices this particular group employs in its everyday activities (for example, related to surfing); and ology refers to the systematic description of these methods and practices. The focus of the investigation used in our example is the social order of surfing, the ethnomethodological interest is in the "how" (the methods and practices) of the production and maintenance of this social order. In essence ethnomethodology attempts to create classifications of the social actions of individuals within groups through drawing on the experience of the groups directly, without imposing on the setting the opinions of the researcher with regards to social order, as is the case with other forms of sociological investigation.
Origin and scope
The approach was originally developed by Harold Garfinkel, who attributed its origin to his work investigating the conduct of jury members in 1954. His interest was in describing the common sense methods through which members of a jury produce themselves in a jury room as a jury. Thus, their methods for: establishing matters of fact; developing evidence chains; determining the reliability of witness testimony; establishing the organization of speakers in the jury room itself; and determining the guilt or innocence of defendants, etc. are all topics of interest. Such methods serve to constitute the social order of being a juror for the members of the jury, as well as for researchers and other interested parties, in that specific social setting.
This interest developed out of Garfinkel's critique of Talcott Parsons' attempt to derive a general theory of society. This critique originated in his reading of Alfred Schutz, though Garfinkel ultimately revised many of Schutz's ideas. Garfinkel also drew on his study of the principles and practices of financial accounting; the classic sociological theory and methods of Durkheim and Weber; and the traditional sociological concern with the Hobbesian "problem of order".
For the ethnomethodologist, participants produce the order of social settings through their shared sense making practices. Thus, there is an essential natural reflexivity between the activity of making sense of a social setting and the ongoing production of that setting; the two are in effect identical. Furthermore, these practices (or methods) are witnessably enacted, making them available for study. This opens up a broad and multi-faceted area of inquiry. John Heritage writes: "In its open-ended reference to [the study of] any kind of sense-making procedure, the term represents a signpost to a domain of uncharted dimensions rather than a staking out of a clearly delineated territory."
Theory and methods
Ethnomethodology has often perplexed commentators, due to its radical approach to questions of theory and method. With regard to theory, Garfinkel has consistently advocated an attitude of ethnomethodological indifference, a principled agnosticism with regard to social theory which insists that the shared understandings of members of a social setting under study take precedence over any concepts which a social theorist might bring to the analysis from outside that setting. This can be perplexing to traditional social scientists, trained in the need for social theory. A multiplicity of theoretical references by Anne Rawls, in her introduction to Ethnomethodology's Program, might be interpreted to suggest a softening of this position towards the end of Garfinkel's life. However, the position is consistent with ethnomethodology's understanding of the significance of "member's methods", and with certain lines of philosophical thought regarding the philosophy of science (Polanyi 1958; Kuhn 1970; Feyerabend 1975), and the study of the actual practices of scientific procedure. It also has a strong correspondence with the later philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein, especially as applied to social studies by Peter Winch.
References are also made in Garfinkel's work to Husserl (Transcendental Phenomenology), Gurwitsch (Gestalt Theory), and, most frequently, of course, to the works of the social phenomenologist Alfred Schutz (Phenomenology of the Natural Attitude), among others. On the other hand, the authors and theoretical references cited by Garfinkel do not constitute a rigorous theoretical basis for ethnomethodology. Ethnomethodology is not Durkheimian, although it shares some of the interests of Durkheim; it is not phenomenology, although it borrows from Husserl and Schutz's studies of the lifeworld (Lebenswelt); it is not a form of Gestalt theory, although it describes social orders as having Gestalt-like properties; and, it is not Wittgensteinian, although it makes use of Wittgenstein's understanding of rule-use, etc. Instead, these borrowings are only fragmentary references to theoretical works from which ethnomethodology has appropriated theoretical ideas for the expressed purposes of doing ethnomethodological investigations.
Similarly, ethnomethodology advocates no formal methods of enquiry, insisting that the research method be dictated by the nature of the phenomenon that is being studied. Ethnomethodologists have conducted their studies in a variety of ways, and the point of these investigations is "to discover the things that persons in particular situations do, the methods they use, to create the patterned orderliness of social life". Michael Lynch has noted that: "Leading figures in the field have repeatedly emphasised that there is no obligatory set of methods [employed by ethnomethodologists], and no prohibition against using any research procedure whatsoever, if it is adequate to the particular phenomena under study".
Some leading policies, methods and definitions
The fundamental assumption of ethnomethodological studies As characterised by Anne Rawls, speaking for Garfinkel: "If one assumes, as Garfinkel does, that the meaningful, patterned, and orderly character of everyday life is something that people must work to achieve, then one must also assume that they have some methods for doing so". That is, "...members of society must have some shared methods that they use to mutually construct the meaningful orderliness of social situations."
Ethnomethodology is an empirical enterprise Rawls states: "Ethnomethodology is a thoroughly empirical enterprise devoted to the discovery of social order and intelligibility [sense making] as witnessable collective achievements." "The keystone of the [ethnomethodological] argument is that local [social] orders exist; that these orders are witnessable in the scenes in which they are produced; and that the possibility of [their] intelligibility is based on the actual existence and detailed enactment of these orders." Ethnomethodology is not, however, conventionally empiricist. Its empirical nature is specified in the weak form of the unique adequacy requirement.
The unique adequacy requirement of methods (weak form) is that the researcher should have a 'vulgar competence' in the research setting. That is, they should be able to function as an ordinary member of that setting.
The unique adequacy requirement of methods (strong form) is identical to the requirement for ethnomethodological indifference.
Ethnomethodological indifference This is the policy of deliberate agnosticism, or indifference, towards the dictates, prejudices, methods and practices of sociological analysis as traditionally conceived (examples: theories of "deviance", analysis of behavior as rule governed, role theory, institutional (de)formations, theories of social stratification, etc.). Dictates and prejudices which serve to pre-structure traditional social scientific investigations independently of the subject matter taken as a topic of study, or the investigatory setting being subjected to scrutiny. The policy of ethnomethodological indifference is specifically not to be conceived of as indifference to the problem of social order taken as a group (member's) concern.
First time through This is the practice of attempting to describe any social activity, regardless of its routine or mundane appearance, as if it were happening for the very first time. This is in an effort to expose how the observer of the activity assembles, or constitutes, the activity for the purposes of formulating any particular description. The point of such an exercise is to make available and underline the complexities of sociological analysis and description, particularly the indexical and reflexive properties of the actors', or observer's, own descriptions of what is taking place in any given situation. Such an activity will also reveal the observer's inescapable reliance on the hermeneutic circle as the defining "methodology" of social understanding for both lay persons and social scientists.
Breaching experiment A method for revealing, or exposing, the common work that is performed by members of particular social groups in maintaining a clearly recognisable and shared social order. For example, driving the wrong way down a busy one-way street can reveal myriads of useful insights into the patterned social practices, and moral order, of the community of road users. The point of such an exercisea person pretending to be a stranger or boarder in their own householdis to demonstrate that gaining insight into the work involved in maintaining any given social order can often best be revealed by breaching that social order and observing the results of that breachespecially those activities related to the reassembly of that social order, and the normalisation of that social setting.
Sacks' gloss A question about an aspect of the social order that recommends, as a method of answering it, that the researcher should seek out members of society who, in their daily lives, are responsible for the maintenance of that aspect of the social order. This is in opposition to the idea that such questions are best answered by a sociologist. Sacks' original question concerned objects in public places and how it was possible to see that such objects did or did not belong to somebody. He found his answer in the activities of police officers who had to decide whether cars were abandoned.
Durkheim's aphorism Durkheim famously recommended: "our basic principle, that of the objectivity of social facts". This is usually taken to mean that we should assume the objectivity of social facts as a principle of study (thus providing the basis of sociology as a science). Garfinkel's alternative reading of Durkheim is that we should treat the objectivity of social facts as an achievement of society's members, and make the achievement process itself the focus of study. An ethnomethodological respecification of Durkheim's statement via a "misreading" (see below) of his quote appears above. There is also a textual link/rationale provided in the literature. Both links involve a leap of faith on the part of the reader; that is, we don't believe that one method for this interpretation is necessarily better than the other, or that one form of justification for such an interpretation outweighs its competitor.
Accounts Accounts are the ways members signify, describe or explain the properties of a specific social situation. They can consist of both verbal and non-verbal objectifications. They are always both indexical to the situation in which they occur (see below), and, simultaneously reflexivethey serve to constitute that situation. An account can consist of something as simple as a wink of the eye, a material object evidencing a state of affairs (documents, etc.), or something as complex as a story detailing the boundaries of the universe.
Indexicality The concept of indexicality is a key core concept for ethnomethodology. Garfinkel states that it was derived from the concept of indexical expressions appearing in ordinary language philosophy (1967), wherein a statement is considered to be indexical insofar as it is dependent for its sense upon the context in which it is embedded (Bar-Hillel 1954:359–379). The phenomenon is acknowledged in various forms of analytical philosophy, and sociological theory and methods, but is considered to be both limited in scope and remedied through specification operationalisation. In ethnomethodology, the phenomenon is universalised to all forms of language and behavior, and is deemed to be beyond remedy for the purposes of establishing a scientific description and explanation of social behavior. The consequence of the degree of contextual dependence for a "segment" of talk or behavior can range from the problem of establishing a "working consensus" regarding the description of a phrase, concept or behavior, to the end-game of social scientific description itself. Note that any serious development of the concept must eventually assume a theory of meaning as its foundation (see Gurwitsch 1985). Without such a foundational underpinning, both the traditional social scientist and the ethnomethodologist are relegated to merely telling stories around the campfire (Brooks 1974).
Misreading (a text) Misreading a text, or fragments of a text, does not denote making an erroneous reading of a text in whole or in part. As Garfinkel states, it means to denote an "alternate reading" of a text or fragment of a text. As such, the original and its misreading do not "translate point to point" but, "instead, they go together". No criteria are offered for the translation of an original text and its misreadingthe outcome of such translations are in Garfinkel's term: "incommensurable." The misreading of texts or fragments of texts is a standard feature of ethnomethodology's way of doing theory, especially in regards to topics in phenomenology.
Reflexivity Despite the fact that many sociologists use "reflexivity" as a synonym for "self-reflection," the way the term is used in ethnomethodology is different: it is meant "to describe the acausal and non-mentalistic determination of meaningful action-in-context". See also: Reflexivity (social theory).
Documentary method of interpretation The documentary method is the method of understanding utilised by everyone engaged in trying to make sense of their social world—this includes the ethnomethodologist. Garfinkel recovered the concept from the work of Karl Mannheim and repeatedly demonstrates the use of the method in the case studies appearing in his central text, Studies in Ethnomethodology. Mannheim defined the term as a search for an identical homologous pattern of meaning underlying a variety of totally different realisations of that meaning. Garfinkel states that the documentary method of interpretation consists of treating an actual appearance as the "document of", "as pointing to", as "standing on behalf of", a presupposed underlying pattern. These "documents" serve to constitute the underlying pattern, but are themselves interpreted on the basis of what is already known about that underlying pattern. This seeming paradox is quite familiar to hermeneuticians who understand this phenomenon as a version of the hermeneutic circle. This phenomenon is also subject to analysis from the perspective of Gestalt theory (part/whole relationships), and the phenomenological theory of perception.
Social orders Theoretically speaking, the object of ethnomethodological research is social order taken as a group member's concern. Methodologically, social order is made available for description in any specific social setting as an accounting of specific social orders: the sensible coherencies of accounts that order a specific social setting for the participants relative to a specific social project to be realised in that setting. Social orders themselves are made available for both participants and researchers through phenomena of order: the actual accounting of the partial (adumbrated) appearances of these sensibly coherent social orders. These appearances (parts, adumbrates) of social orders are embodied in specific accounts, and employed in a particular social setting by the members of the particular group of individuals party to that setting. Specific social orders have the same formal properties as identified by A. Gurwitsch in his discussion of the constituent features of perceptual noema, and, by extension, the same relationships of meaning described in his account of Gestalt Contextures (see Gurwitsch 1964:228–279). As such, it is little wonder that Garfinkel states: "you can't do anything unless you do read his texts".
Ethnomethodology's field of investigation For ethnomethodology the topic of study is the social practices of real people in real settings, and the methods by which these people produce and maintain a shared sense of social order.
Differences with sociology
Since ethnomethodology has become anathema to certain sociologists, and since those practicing it like to perceive their own efforts as constituting a radical break from prior sociologies, there has been little attempt to link ethnomethodology to these prior sociologies. However, whilst ethnomethodology is distinct from sociological methods, it does not seek to compete with it, or provide remedies for any of its practices. The ethnomethodological approach differs as much from the sociological approach as sociology does from psychology even though both speak of social action. This does not mean that ethnomethodology does not use traditional sociological forms as a sounding board for its own programmatic development, or to establish benchmarks for the differences between traditional sociological forms of study and ethnomethodology as it only means that ethnomethodology was not established in order to: repair, criticize, undermine, or poke fun at traditional sociological forms. In essence the distinctive difference between sociological approaches and ethnomethodology is that the latter adopts a commonsense attitude towards knowledge.
In contrast to traditional sociological forms of inquiry, it is a hallmark of the ethnomethodological perspective that it does not make theoretical or methodological appeals to: outside assumptions regarding the structure of an actor or actors' characterisation of social reality; refer to the subjective states of an individual or groups of individuals; attribute conceptual projections such as, "value states", "sentiments", "goal orientations", "mini-max economic theories of behavior", etc., to any actor or group of actors; or posit a specific "normative order" as a transcendental feature of social scenes, etc.
For the ethnomethodologist, the methodic realisation of social scenes takes place within the actual setting under scrutiny, and is structured by the participants in that setting through the reflexive accounting of that setting's features. The job of the ethnomethodologist is to describe the methodic character of these activities, not account for them in a way that transcends that which is made available in and through the actual accounting practices of the individual's party to those settings.
The differences can therefore be summed up as follows:
While traditional sociology usually offers an analysis of society which takes the facticity (factual character, objectivity) of the social order for granted, ethnomethodology is concerned with the procedures (practices, methods) by which that social order is produced, and shared.
While traditional sociology usually provides descriptions of social settings which compete with the actual descriptions offered by the individuals who are party to those settings, ethnomethodology seeks to describe the procedures (practices, methods) these individuals use in their actual descriptions of those settings.
Varieties
According to George Psathas, five types of ethnomethodological study can be identified (Psathas 1995:139–155). These may be characterised as:
The organisation of practical actions and practical reasoning. Including the earliest studies, such as those in Garfinkel's seminal Studies in Ethnomethodology.
The organisation of talk-in-interaction. More recently known as conversation analysis, Harvey Sacks established this approach in collaboration with his colleagues Emanuel Schegloff and Gail Jefferson.
Talk-in-interaction within institutional or organisational settings. While early studies focused on talk abstracted from the context in which it was produced (usually using tape recordings of telephone conversations) this approach seeks to identify interactional structures that are specific to particular settings.
The study of work. 'Work' is used here to refer to any social activity. The analytic interest is in how that work is accomplished within the setting in which it is performed.
The haecceity of work. Just what makes an activity what it is? e.g. what makes a test a test, a competition a competition, or a definition a definition?
Further discussion of the varieties and diversity of ethnomethodological investigations can be found in Maynard & Clayman's work.
Relationship with conversation analysis
The relationship between ethnomethodology and conversation analysis has been contentious at times, given their overlapping interests, the close collaboration between their founders and the subsequent divergence of interest among many practitioners. In as much as the study of social orders is "inexorably intertwined" with the constitutive features of talk about those social orders, ethnomethodology is committed to an interest in both conversational talk, and the role this talk plays in the constitution of that order. Talk is seen as indexical and embedded in a specific social order. It is also naturally reflexive to and constitutive of that order. Anne Rawls pointed out: "Many, in fact most, of those who have developed a serious interest in ethnomethodology have also used conversation analysis, developed by Sacks, Schegloff, and Jefferson, as one of their research tools."
On the other hand, where the study of conversational talk is divorced from its situated context—that is, when it takes on the character of a purely technical method and "formal analytic" enterprise in its own right—it is not a form of ethnomethodology. The "danger" of misunderstanding here, as Rawls notes, is that conversation analysis can become just another formal analytic enterprise, like any other formal method which brings an analytical toolbox of preconceptions, formal definitions, and operational procedures to the situation/setting under study. When such analytical concepts are generated from within one setting and conceptually applied (generalised) to another, the (re)application represents a violation of the strong form of the unique adequacy requirement of methods.
Links with phenomenology
Even though ethnomethodology has been characterised as having a "phenomenological sensibility", and reliable commentators have acknowledged that "there is a strong influence of phenomenology on ethnomethodology" (Maynard and Kardash 2007:1484), some orthodox adherents to the disciplinethose who follow the teachings of Garfinkeldo not explicitly represent it as a form of phenomenology.
Garfinkel speaks of phenomenological texts and findings as being "appropriated" for the purposes of exploring topics in the study of social order. Even though ethnomethodology is not a form of phenomenology, the reading and understanding of phenomenological texts, and developing the capability of seeing phenomenologically is essential to the praxis of ethnomethodological studies. As Garfinkel states in regard to the work of the phenomenologist Aron Gurwitsch, especially his Field of Consciousness (1964: ethnomethodology's phenomenological urtext): "you can't do anything unless you do read his texts".
References
Notes
Bibliography
Bar-Hillel, Y. (1954) 'Indexical expressions', Mind 63 (251):359–379.
Feyerabend, Paul (1975) Against Method, London, New Left Books.
Garfinkel, H. (1967) Studies in Ethnomethodology, Prentice-Hall.
Garfinkel, H. and Liberman, K. (2007) 'Introduction: the lebenswelt origins of the sciences', Human Studies, 30, 1, pp3–7.
Gurwitsch, Aron (1964) The Field of Consciousness, Duquesne University Press.
Hammersley, Martyn (2018) The Radicalism of Ethnomethodology, Manchester, Manchester University Press.
Kuhn, Thomas (1970) The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Chicago, Chicago University Press.
Liberman, Ken (2014). More Studies in Ethnomethodology", SUNY Press,
Lynch, Michael & Wes Sharrock. (2003). Harold Garfinkel, 4 Volumes, Sage, 2003. Sage "Masters" series. Compendium of theoretical papers, ethnomethodological studies, and discussions.
Lynch, Michael & Wes Sharrock. (2011). Ethnomethodology, 4 Volumes, Sage, 2011. Sage "Research" series. Compendium of theoretical papers, ethnomethodological studies, and discussions.
Maynard, Douglas and Kardash, Teddy (2007) 'Ethnomethodology'. pp. 1483–1486 in G. Ritzer (ed.) Encyclopedia of Sociology. Boston: Blackwell.
Psathas, George. (1995). "Talk and Social Structure", and, "Studies of Work", Human Studies 18: 139–155. Typology of ethnomethodological studies of social practices.
vom Lehn, Dirk. (2014). Harold Garfinkel: The Creation and Development of Ethnomethodology'', Left Coast Press. .
External links
Ethno/CA News A primary source for ethnomethodology and conversation analysis information and resources.
AIEMCA.net The Australian Institute for Conversation Analysis and Ethnomethodology.
Sociological theories
Science and technology studies
Methods in sociology | 0.765147 | 0.987883 | 0.755876 |
Internet activism | Internet activism involves the use of electronic-communication technologies such as social media, e-mail, and podcasts for various forms of activism to enable faster and more effective communication by citizen movements, the delivery of particular information to large and specific audiences, as well as coordination. Internet technologies are used by activists for cause-related fundraising, community building, lobbying, and organizing. A digital-activism campaign is "an
organized public effort, making collective claims on a target authority, in which civic initiators or supporters use digital media." Research has started to address specifically how activist/advocacy groups in the U.S. and in Canada use social media to achieve digital-activism objectives.
Types
Within online activism Sandor Vegh distinguished three principal categories: active/reactive, organization/mobilization, and awareness/advocacy based. Active/reactive refers to either being proactive in efforts to bring about change or reacting to issues after they happen. Organization/mobilization refers to gathering people and information together for online or offline activism. Awareness/advocacy refers to sharing information to make others aware of an issue or advocating for issues and campaigns. There are other ways of classifying Internet activism, such as by the degree of reliance on the Internet versus offline mobilization. Thus, Internet sleuthing or hacking could be viewed as purely online forms of activism, whereas the Occupy Wall Street movement was mainly conducted offline, and only partially online.
Development processes
Exploring the dynamics of online activism for expressing resistance to a powerful organization, a study developed a critical mass approach to online activism. The results were integrated in a four-year longitudinal process model that explains how online activism started, generated societal outcomes, and changed over time. The model suggests that online activism helped organize collective actions and amplify the conditions for revolutionary movements to form. Yet, it provoked elites' reactions such as Internet filtering and surveillance, which do not only promote self-censorship and generate digital divide, but contribute to the ultimate decline of activism over time. The process model suggests a complex interplay among stakeholders' interests, opportunities for activism, costs, and outcomes that are neither foreseen nor entirely predictable. The authors challenge universal access to the Internet as a convenient and cost-free forum for practicing social activism by organizational stakeholders (customers, employees, outside parties). In fact, the technology enablers of social activism also enable its filtering and repression, and thus, more extreme states of information asymmetry may result in which powerful elites preserve their status and impose a greater digital divide.
In one study, a discussion of a developmental model of political mobilization is discussed. By citizens joining groups and creating discussion, they are beginning their first stage of involvement. Progressively, it is hoped that they will begin signing petitions online and graduating to offline contact as long as the organization provides the citizen with escalating steps of involvement (Vitak et al., 2011).
The issue of the mass media's centrality has been highly contested, with some people arguing that it promoted the voices of marginalized groups while others believe it sends forth the messages of the majority alone, leaving minority groups to have their voices robbed.
Examples of early activism
One early instance of online activism was opposition to the release of Lotus Marketplace. On April 10, 1990, Lotus announced a direct-mail marketing database product that was to contain name, address, demographic, and spending habit information on 120 million individual U.S. citizens. While much of the same data was already available elsewhere, privacy advocates worried about the availability of this data collected within one easily searchable database. Furthermore, the data would be distributed on CD-ROM and could not be changed until a new edition was released.
In response, a mass e-mail and E-bulletin-board campaign was started, which included information on contacting Lotus and form letters. Larry Seiler, a New England–based computer professional, posted a message that was widely reposted on newsgroups and via e-mail: "It will contain a LOT of personal information about YOU, which anyone in the country can access by just buying the discs. It seems to me (and to a lot of other people, too) that this will be a little too much like big brother, and it seems like a good idea to get out while there is still time." Over 30,000 people contacted Lotus and asked for their names to be removed from the database. On January 23, 1991, Lotus announced that it had cancelled MarketPlace.
In 1998 Dr. Daniel Mengara, a Gabonese scholar and activist living New Jersey, created a website called Bongo Doit Partir (Bongo Must Go) to encourage a revolution against the regime of Omar Bongo in Gabon. In July 2003, Amnesty International reported the arrest of five Gabonese known to be members of Bongo Doit Partir. The members were detained for three months.
Another well-known example of early Internet activism took place in 1998, when the Mexican rebel group EZLN used decentralized communications, such as cell phones, to network with developed world activists and help create the anti-globalization group Peoples Global Action (PGA) to protest the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva. The PGA continued to call for "global days of action" and rally support of other anti-globalization groups in this way.
Later, a worldwide network of Internet activist sites, under the umbrella name of Indymedia, was created to provide coverage of the 1999 Seattle WTO protests. Dorothy Kidd quotes Sheri Herndon in a July 2001 telephone interview about the role of the Internet in the anti-WTO protests: "The timing was right, there was a space, the platform was created, the Internet was being used, we could bypass the corporate media, we were using open publishing, we were using multimedia platforms. So those hadn't been available, and then there was the beginning of the anti-globalization movement in the United States."
Kony 2012, a short film released on March 5, 2012, was intended to promote the charity's "Stop Kony" movement to Ugandan militant Joseph Kony globally known the hopes of having him arrested by the campaign's scheduled expiration at the end of 2012 The film spread virally. A poll suggested that more than half of young adult Americans heard about Kony 2012 in the days following the video's release. It was included among the top international events of 2012 by PBS and called the most viral video ever by TIME.
Uses
Internet activism has had the effect of causing increased collective action among people, as found by Postmes and Brunsting (2002), who discovered a tendency among internet users to rely on internalized group memberships and social identities in order to achieve social involvement online.
The Internet is "tailor-made for a populist, insurgent movement," says Joe Trippi, who managed the Howard Dean campaign. In his campaign memoir, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, Trippi notes that:
[The Internet's] roots in the open-source ARPAnet, its hacker culture, and its decentralized, scattered architecture make it difficult for big, establishment candidates, companies and media to gain control of it. And the establishment loathes what it can't control. This independence is by design, and the Internet community values above almost anything the distance it has from the slow, homogeneous stream of American commerce and culture. Progressive candidates and companies with forward-looking vision have an advantage on the Internet, too. Television is, by its nature, a nostalgic medium. Look at Ronald Reagan's campaign ads in the 1980sthey were masterpieces of nostalgia promising a return to America's past glory and prosperity. The Internet, on the other hand, is a forward-thinking and forward-moving medium, embracing change and pushing the envelope of technology and communication.
Spreading information
The Internet is a key resource for independent activists, particularly those whose message may run counter to the mainstream. Listservs like Freedom News Group or BurmaNet assist in spreading news that would otherwise be inaccessible in these countries. Internet activists also organize petitions to be sent to the government as well as interest groups and organizations to protest or argue for change. Many non-profits and charities use these methods, emailing petitions to those on their email list and asking people to pass them on. The Internet also enables organizations such as NGOs to communicate with individuals in an inexpensive and timely manner. Indeed, many non-profit and advocacy organizations rely on the internet to launch campaigns with socially conscious messages to maintain a constant stream of revenue.
Hashtag activism
Hashtag activism is the use of hashtags for fighting or supporting a cause through the usage of social media outlets. The term "hashtag activism" first started circulating within journalism in 2011. Since then, its use has been associated with movements such as #MeToo, #BlackLivesMatter, #SayHerName, and many more.
One example of the powerful rise of hashtag activism can be seen in the black feminist movement's use of hashtags to convey their cause. The famous hashtag "IamJada" was an internet backlash to the mocking "#Jadapose" that went viral, ensuing after sixteen-year-old girl Jada Smith was photographed following her gang rape In this instance, a hashtag was employed to convey a powerful anti-rape message.
Yet another instance of where this type of activism was utilized for the matter of feminism and women's right, occurred in China in relation to the outbreak of COVID-19. While the rule of the country put efforts into trying to hide and downplay the start of what would develop into the pandemic, pressured hospitals were in need of supplies in form of menstrual protection and related products. Supplies which they, despite the fact that the vast majority of the medical workers is made up of females, were not given access to. Amongst others, hashtags such as #RefusePeriodShame, circulated in protest to the ongoing situation and the Wuhan hospital authorities, who were considered responsible for it. Soon to follow on the same thread, one of the VTubers of the Chinese Communist Youth Party League (CYL), known as Jiangshanjiao, an avatar displayed as a youthful female, gave rise to #JiangshanjiaoDoYouGetYourPeriod. The hashtag initially sparked from a post on Weibo where a user sarcastically wrote that exact question, to point out the absurdness in the societal denial of women's biological functions and needs. #JiangshanjiaoDoYouGetYourPeriod, while, like the previous hashtag mentioned, being censored and taken down by the government, had time to spread and catch a lot more attention than what #RefusePeriodShame did, and up until 15 March 2020, it accumulated over 89,200,000 views.
Other notable instances in which marginalized groups have used hashtags as organizing tools for social justice include responses to racial violence and police profiling, as in the case of #BlackLivesMatter and #JusticeForTrayvon, along with misogyny and gendered violence, such as #MeToo and #YesAllWomen.
Black Lives Matter
One of the most prominent uses of hashtag activism is #BlackLivesMatter, a social justice movement that first began after George Zimmerman was acquitted for the shooting and killing of Trayvon Martin, an African American teenage boy. The movement started as a hashtag and now it has been at the forefront of the fight against police brutality and racial profiling across the world.
After the killing of Martin on February 26, 2012, several people wanted justice. The hashtag started to grow in popularity, with a Change.org petition calling for an investigation and prosecution of George Zimmerman. Social media users, including many celebrities retweeted, shared, and created new petitions, eventually raising over 2.1 million signatures combined by March 26, 2012. By April 11, 2012, Zimmerman was charged with the second-degree murder of Trayvon Martin.
After George Zimmerman was acquitted on July 13, 2013, a "letter to Black folks" was posted to Facebook by Alicia Garza. Garza ended her letter with the statement "Black lives matter", which her friend turned into a hashtag below. From here, #BlackLivesMatter or simply "BLM" became the movement against police brutality and killings of unarmed African Americans, as well as hate crimes and racially motivated crimes.
#BlackLivesMatter's impact does not end online. The formation of Black Lives Matter allowed for activists across the United States to organize in-person protests and rallies together, no matter where they may be located. U.S. politicians—such as Ilhan Omar and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez—have endorsed Black Lives Matter, aligning themselves with a push for racial justice.
The most recent display of how the Black Lives Matter movement has been used as a platform for offline activism is the 2020 BLM protests that occurred after 17-year old Darnella Frazier live-streamed on Facebook the murder of George Floyd by then-police officer Derek Chauvin. Protests took place in all 50 states, as well as in many countries around the world.
March For Our Lives
After the Parkland high school shooting on February 14, 2018, #MarchForOurLives was born. Students came together to create this hashtag to fight for gun control in the U.S. This hashtag turned into an entire movement of over 800 protests across the United States with the main protest taking place in Washington, D.C. There was an estimated 200,000 people in attendance at the Washington, D.C. protest, alone.
TikTok
TikTok's platform has been increasingly used for raising up social issues through creative short videos, especially after an allegedly make-up tutorial turned into a call to action on China's treatment of Muslim Uighurs. The tutorial was banned for 50 minutes on November 26, 2019. Eric Han, the heads of TikTok's US content-moderation team, claimed the banning was due to a “human moderation error”. The Chinese owners declared the app does not remove content based on sensitivities to China.
TikTok also partnered up with UN Women in a campaign fighting women violence in India which kicked off on November 25, 2019. The campaign can be found under the hashtag #KaunsiBadiBaatHai and features short videos with positive and negative examples of men interacting with women.
In July 2020, the TikTok platform played a major role in the #FreeBritney movement surrounding Britney Spears and her conservatorship dispute. Though such activism led to a significant increase in public awareness of the case, it was criticized for spreading misinformation regarding the conservatorship alongside a number of conspiracy theories of varying accuracy.
Use in political campaigns
2004 Presidential Campaign
When discussing the 2004 U.S. presidential election candidates, Carol Darr, director of the Institute for Politics, Democracy & the Internet at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., said of the candidates which benefited from use of the Internet to attract supporters: "They are all charismatic, outspoken mavericks and insurgents. Given that the Internet is interactive and requires an affirmative action on the part of the users, as opposed to a passive response from TV users, it is not surprising that the candidate has to be someone people want to touch and interact with."
A more decentralized approach to campaigning arose, in contrast to a top-down, message-focused approach usually conducted in the mainstream. "The mantra has always been, 'Keep your message consistent. Keep your message consistent,'" said John Hlinko, who has participated in Internet campaigns for MoveOn.org and the electoral primary campaign of Wesley Clark. "That was all well and good in the past. Now it's a recipe for disaster. You can choose to have a Stalinist structure that's really doctrinaire and that's really opposed to grassroots. Or you can say, 'Go forth. Do what you're going to do.' As long as we're running in the same direction, it's much better to give some freedom."
2008 Presidential Campaign
Two-thirds of Internet users under the age of 30 have an SNS, and during the 2008 election, half of them used an SNS site for candidate information (Hirzalla, 2010). MoveOn.org endorsed then-Senator Barack Obama in 2008, and used this endorsement as an opportunity to encourage grassroots advertising. MoveOn hosted a competition that requested submissions from ordinary citizens with the criteria the digital ads were positive towards Obama. The contest drew 1,000 entries of 30-second ads for Obama that streamed on YouTube. This endorsement by a grassroots organization, and the ensuing contest, is an example of agenda setting that scholars have been studying ever since social media and digital content began influencing presidential politics.
Studies delving into the 2008 presidential campaign examined inequality online of various ideologies deriving from various socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds. Scholars concluded the 2008 race, and the influence of online politicking, did not see an empowerment of new voices. The idea that digital literacy become a concept taught in school, with educators incorporating blogging, commenting, and creating content as part of their curriculum, has been bandied about among social and political scientists in an effort to turn online enthusiasm from young people into demonstrable results at the ballot box.
2016 Presidential Campaign
The 2016 presidential election changed the digital landscape again. Digital media scholars note that the hopes of developing digital literacy post 2008 turned into a fomenting distrust of traditional news media. People of all ages and political inclinations gravitated towards social media sources that acted as echo chambers, and online personalities and organizations were held in higher esteem than traditional news sources.
Non-traditional activism
The Internet has become the catalyst for protests such as Occupy Wall Street and the Arab Spring as those involved have increasingly relied on social media to organize and stay connected.
In Myanmar, online news paper Freedom News Group has leaked some government corruption and fuel to protests.
In 2017, the Sleeping Giants cyberactivist group, among others, launched a boycott campaign against controversial, conservative webpage Breitbart News, getting more than 2,000 organizations to remove it from ad buys.
Corporate activism
Corporations are also using Internet activist techniques to increase support for their causes. According to Christopher Palmeri with BusinessWeek Online, companies launch sites with the intent to positively influence their own public image, to provide negative pressure on competitors, to influence opinion within select groups, and to push for policy changes.
The clothing manufacturer, American Apparel is an example: The company hosts a website called Legalize LA that advocates immigration reform via blog, online advertising, links to news stories and educational materials. Protest groups have responded by posting YouTube videos and establishing a boycott website.
Corporate methods of information dissemination is labelled "astroturfing", as opposed to "grassroots activism", due to the funding for such movements being largely private. More recent examples include the right-wing FreedomWorks.org which organized the "Taxpayer March on Washington" on September 12, 2009, and the Coalition to Protect Patients' Rights, which opposes universal health care in the U.S.
Religious activism
Cybersectarianism is a new organizational form which involves: "highly dispersed small groups of practitioners that may remain largely anonymous within the larger social context and operate in relative secrecy, while still linked remotely to a larger network of believers who share a set of practices and texts, and often a common devotion to a particular leader. Overseas supporters provide funding and support; domestic practitioners distribute tracts, participate in acts of resistance, and share information on the internal situation with outsiders. Collectively, members and practitioners of such sects construct viable virtual communities of faith, exchanging personal testimonies and engaging in collective study via email, on-line chat rooms and web-based message boards."
Political activism
Online extremism
The Internet is widely accessible by everyone. Thus, it has, since its beginning, increasingly become a place where various opinions are expressed, and not seldom are those opinions ones from some very far end of the spectrum. Extremists of different sorts have come to heavily rely on the Internet to the point where it is no longer just a means amongst others to achieve a certain objective, but more often than not, it is where the main part of a movement takes place. Activities such as the conveyance of perceivably extreme, bureaucratic ideas, or even the outlining of strategic acts of violence or destruction, are ones nowadays likely to occur online. In other words, this type of "online extremism" could, though difficult to precisely define, be described as the subcategory of Internet activism that is brought forward by, or connected with, individuals or groups that possess what are generally viewed to be extreme opinions.
White Nationalism
In 1998, former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke wrote on his website, “I believe that the internet will begin a chain reaction of racial enlightenment that will shake the world by the speed of its intellectual conquest.” White nationalists quickly saw the potential of the Internet as a platform to effectively disseminate their message to a mass audience.
This exploitation of technological innovations is not a novel concept for this group. In the early 20th century, with the emergence of film technology, the KKK created their own film companies and produced films like The Toll of Justice (1923) to spread their message. Then, a century later, with the rise of digital technologies, the KKK adapted to the changing media landscape to become a digital movement. They not only adapted to the digital age, but also found vulnerabilities through which they could most quickly and efficiently insert their ideologies. Examples of this included strategic domain names and hidden propaganda content.
Today, white nationalists' efforts to push their principles on the Web combined with tech companies' belief in the Internet as "raceless" motivate white nationalists to continue to exploit algorithms and influence digital spaces such as Twitter. As algorithms work in a self-reinforcing manner, they worsen the psychological effects of confirmation bias. They provide search results that confirm one's beliefs and biases and, further, connect one to communities of like-minded people. This works in favor of white nationalists; for example, search engines' autocomplete features suggest racist notions, and make White supremacist sites readily accessible to users.
Environmental activism
One of the earliest books on activism was Don Rittner's Ecolinking: Everyone's Guide to Online Environmental Information, published by Peachpit Press in 1992. Rittner, an environmental activist from upstate New York, spent more than 20 years researching and saving the Albany Pine Barrens. He was a beta tester for America Online and ran their Environmental Forum for the company from 1988 to when it launched in 1990. He took his early environmental knowledge and computer savvy and wrote what was called the bible of the online environmental community. It showed new Net users how to get online, find environmental information, connect to environmentalists around the world, and how to use those resources to save the planet.
In August 2018, a movement of environmental activism was initiated in Sweden, by now widely known climate activist Greta Thunberg. It all started with Greta, 15 years of age at the time and influenced by the creation of #MarchForOurLives, giving her opinion on the ongoing climate change, by displaying a large sign in front of the Swedish Riksdag (parliament) in protest. This act would start the "School Strike for Climate" (SSC) (Swedish: Skolstrejk för klimatet), a movement that would eventually spread, largely through attention in media, across the globe and develop into something that came to be internationally named "Fridays for Future" (FFF). Through having children miss classes on Fridays to participate in the strike, it has from the moment it started until today, reached and affected leading governments of the world by raising environmental awareness.
In 2020 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, the National Trust began the #BlossomWatch campaign, which encouraged people to share the first signs of Spring with one another, in particular images of blossom.
Sexual assault activism
Activism against sexual assault is often led on the internet, where individuals may feel comfortable talking about uncomfortable topics. One such movements is the #NotGuilty movement. This movement began in April 2015 when Ione Wells, an Oxford University student shared a "letter to her attacker" in her college paper. The letter described how she was sexually assaulted and how she chose to respond and build from that point in her life. At the end of the letter she urged readers to send a letter back describing their own sexual assault experience with the hashtag #notguilty. She received so many letters from locals that she decided to create a website called "notGuiltyCampaign.co.uk". This caused global attention and inspired many to share their stories.
The Me Too movement is a similar movement that started in Hollywood. Initially, the activist Tarana Burke created the phrase back in 2006 to "empower women through empathy", but first over a decade later, the actress Alyssa Milano gave birth to the usage of the saying that would lead to the eventual spread of it, after using it in a post on Twitter, in which she acknowledged several accusations of sexual assault against film producer Harvey Weinstein. It would from there on not be long until it stretched and attached on various online platforms, and in no more than a day after Milano's tweet, the #MeToo hashtag had been reused over 500,000 times on that same media, as well as 4.7 million times on Facebook. The phrase was first used to demonstrate the amount of sexual assault that happens to young actresses and actors in Hollywood, and it was largely due to the early involvement of several well known individuals from the entertainment industry, who used the hashtag in their own posts, that the movement achieved the spread that it did. It soon expanded to apply to all forms of sexual assault, especially in the work place, and with time it also came to move from concerning mainly white heterosexual women, to eventually being used by both men and women with different sexualities and ethnicity.
These movements were intended to create an outlet for men and women to share their experiences with those with similar views without blame or guilt. They brought widespread attention to sexual assault and caused much controversy about changes that should be made accordingly. Criticism around movements such as these centers on concerns about whether or not participants are being dishonest for their own gain or are misinterpreting acts of kindness. However, the same Me Too movement, which also reached Egypt showed the adverse side of the activism where witness detention in one of the high-profile rape cases highlighted the prioritisation of traditional social morality by the government over women's rights in the country.
Hacktivism
Denial-of-Service attacks, the taking over and vandalizing of a website, uploading Trojan horses, and sending out e-mail bombs (mass e-mailings) are also examples of Internet activism. While the concept is difficult to exactly pinpoint, the phrase "hacktivism" summarizes the act of somehow utilizing hacking capabilities as a means to achieve some type of political goal, and the expression is occasionally also referred to as a variation of "cyberterrorism". The varieties of different routes groups of hacktivists choose to approach the organization, website or forum that they are taking on, can be categorized into different tactics. Some examples of those tactics or strategies are "DDoS attacks", "Doxing", and "Webdefacement", all of which are slightly different ways of reaching an often similar end goal. For additional understanding and explanation, as well as for more specific examples of these types of subversive actions, see hacktivism.
Impact on everyday political discussions
According to some observers, the Internet may have considerable potential to reach and engage opinion leaders who influence the thinking and behavior of others. According to the Institute for Politics, Democracy & the Internet, what they call "Online Political Citizens" (OPCs) are "seven times more likely than average citizens to serve as opinion leaders among their friends, relatives and colleagues… Normally, 10% of Americans qualify as Influentials. Our study found that 69% of Online Political Citizens are Influentials."
Information communication technologies
Information communication technologies (ICTs) make communication and information readily available and efficient. There are millions of Facebook accounts, Twitter users and websites, and one can educate oneself on nearly any subject. While this is for the most part a positive thing, it can also be dangerous. For example, people can read up on the latest news events relatively easily and quickly; however, there is danger in the fact that apathy or fatigue can quickly arise when people are inundated with so many messages, or that the loudest voice on a subject can often be the most extreme one, distorting public perception on the issue.
These social networks which occupy ICTs are simply modern forms of political instruments which pre-date the technological era. People can now go to online forums or Twitter instead of town hall meetings. People can essentially mobilize worldwide through the Internet. Women can create transnational alliances and lobby for rights within their respective countries; they can give each other tips and share up-to-date information. This information becomes "hyper textual", available in downloadable formats with easy access for all. The UN organizations also use "hyper textual" formats. They can post information about upcoming summits, they can post newsletters on what occurred at these meetings, and links to videos can be shared; all of this information can be downloaded at the click of a button. The UN and many other actors are presenting this information in an attempt to get a certain message out in the cyber sphere and consequently steer public perception on an issue.
With all this information so readily available, there is a rising trend of "slacktivism" or "clicktivism". While it is positive that information can be distributed so quickly and efficiently all around the world, there is negativity in the fact that people often take this information for granted, or quickly forget about it once they have seen it flash across our computer screens. Viral campaigns are great for sparking initial interest and conversation, but they are not as effective in the long term—people begin to think that clicking "like" on something is enough of a contribution, or that posting information about a current hot topic on their Facebook page or Twitter feed means that they have made a difference.
Fundraising capability
The Internet has also made it easier for small donors to play a meaningful role in financing political campaigns. Previously, small-donor fundraising was prohibitively expensive, as costs of printing and postage ate up most of the money raised. Groups like MoveOn, however, have found that they can raise large amounts of money from small donors at minimal cost, with credit card transaction fees constituting their biggest expense. "For the first time, you have a door into the political process that isn't marked 'big money,' " says Darr. "That changes everything."
The Internet also allows ordinary people to contribute materially to Humanitarian relief projects designed to intervene in situations of global disaster or tragedy, as in the case of the "Hope for Haiti Now" telethon event, which was launched three days after the 2010 Haiti Earthquake. The telethon and its broadcast became an effective vehicle to present a plea for support and to collect contributions quickly, facilitating a relationship between entertainment and humanitarian fundraising that has developed in response to historical and economic market conditions.
Ethics
With internet technology vastly changing existing and introducing new mechanisms by which to attain, share and employ information, internet activism raises ethical issues for consideration. Proponents contend internet activism serves as an outlet for social progress but only if personal and professional ethics are employed. Supporters of online activism claim new information and communications technologies help increase the political power of activist groups that would otherwise have less resources. Proponents along this line of thinking claim the most effective use of online activism is its use in conjunction with more traditional or historical activism activities. Conversely, critics worry about facts and beliefs becoming indistinct in online campaigns and about "sectors of online activism [being] more self-interested than socially interested." These critics warn against the manipulation commonplace to online activism for private or personal interests such as exploiting charities for monetary gain, influencing voters in the political arena and inflating self-importance or effectiveness. In this sense, the ethical implication is that activism becomes descriptive rather than transformative of society. One of these reviewers suggests seven pitfalls to beware of in internet activism: "self-promotion at the expense of the movement... unsolicited bulk email... Hacktivism... violating copyright... nagging... violating privacy... and being scary." Many of the ethical criticisms against the prevalence of online activism are further discussed in the criticisms section of this article.
Criticism
Demographic issues
Critics argue that Internet activism faces the same challenges as other aspects of the digital divide, particularly the global digital divide. Some say it gives disproportionate representation to those with greater access or technological ability. Groups that may be disadvantaged by the move to activist activity online are those that have limited access to technologies, or lack the technological literacy to engage meaningfully online; these include ethnic and racial minorities, those of lower socioeconomic status, those with lower levels of education, and the elderly. Issues like racism and sexism are issues that internet activists reportedly deal with.
A study looked at the impact of Social Networking Sites (SNS) on various demographics and their political activity. Not surprisingly college students used SNS for political activity the most but this was followed by a more unlikely group, those that had not completed high school. In addition the probability for non-White citizens to consume political information was shown to be higher than that of Whites. These two outcomes go in the face of normal predictors of political activity. Despite these surprising findings older generations, men and whites showed the highest levels of political mobilization. Acts of political mobilization, such as fundraising, volunteering, protesting require the most continued interest, resources and knowledge (Nam, 2010).
Polarization
One concern raised by University of California, Santa Cruz professor Barbara Epstein, is that the Internet "allows people who agree with each other to talk to each other and gives them the impression of being part of a much larger network than is necessarily the case." She warns that the impersonal nature of communication by computer may actually undermine the human contact that always has been crucial to social movements.
On the other hand, Scott Duke Harris of the San Jose Mercury News noted that "the Internet connects [all sides of issues, not just] an ideologically broad anti-war constituency, from the leftists of ANSWER to the pressed-for-time 'soccer moms' who might prefer MoveOn, and conservative activists as well."
Slacktivism
Activist Ralph Nader has stated that "the Internet doesn't do a very good job of motivating action", citing that the United States Congress, corporations and the Pentagon do not necessarily "fear the civic use of the Internet." Ethan Zuckerman talks about slacktivism, claiming that the Internet has devalued certain currencies of activism. Citizens may "like" an activist group on Facebook, visit a website, or comment on a blog, but fail to engage in political activism beyond the Internet, such as volunteering or canvassing. This critique has been criticized as Western-centric, however, because it discounts the impact this can have in authoritarian or repressive contexts. Journalist Courtney C. Radsch argued that even this low level of engagement was an important form of activism for Arab youth because it is a form of free speech, and can spark mainstream media coverage. University of North Carolina professor Zeynep Tufekci has argued that the need to put in significant organizing time in the pre-Internet era is what gave street protests their strength. Max Halupka, of the Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, likens slacktivism to "an impulsive and non-committal online political response."
Scholars are divided about whether the Internet will increase or decrease political participation, including slacktivism. Those who suggest political participation will increase believe the Internet can be used to recruit and communicate with more users, and offers lower-costs modes of participation for those who lack the time or motivation to engage otherwise. Those concerned that the Internet will decrease activism argue that the Internet occupies free time that can no longer be spent getting involved in activist groups, or that Internet activism will replace more substantial, effortful forms of in-person activism. The Pew Research Center has found that platforms create distraction resulting in consumers and online activists believe they are making a difference while their sharing their post is only furthering the echo chamber of media. The Pew Research Center has also found that about 79% of adults believe that "slacktivism" distracts consumers from issues that are truly important and that the majority of adults found that social media resulted in some of form of negative result.
Journalist and writer Malcolm Gladwell argues that activism through social media and the internet cannot be successful because they promote a 'lazy' way of activism that doesn't require people to put in meaningful effort. For example 'liking' a protest related post on social media, people feel like they have contributed to a cause, which makes them less likely to take more costly, and some would argue more effective, action like joining a protest.
With cases such as the Black Lives Matter and #MeToo movements, it shows how internet activism can become more than slacktivism. Scholars have found that internet activist communities and offline activist communities work closely together, rather than being two separate entities. With internet activism, activists can organize without the constraints of physical location. The Pew Research Center has found that eight-in-ten Americans have been proven effecting in spreading information and awareness for varying public issues.
Whether this is due to physical, mental, or financial constraints, internet activism may be the most accessible and comfortable for disabled people. If able to attend a physical protest, the inaccessibility of public spaces is often too large of a roadblock to participation.
Performative activism
Similar to slacktivism, performative activism refers to the action of acting as if one is an advocate or activistoften on social mediafor personal gain. This term is used as a negative term towards those who seem to be untruthful or exaggerating their activism work. Performative activism became frequently used after the 2020 BLM protests, this term started to become widely used as many took to social media to participate in the Black Lives Matter movement. The intentions of a lot of new activists and allies were questioned. On June 2, 2021, the social media platform, Instagram, was flooded with millions of the same image. These images were black squares under the hashtag, #BlackoutTuesday. The purpose of this online protest was to amplify Black voices on social media. However, many criticized this protest, arguing that the protest had the opposite effect as the squares flooded the important #BlackLivesMatter hashtag. People started to accuse those who participated in Blackout Tuesday, but did not do anything else in regards to the Black Lives Matter movement, of being performative activists.
State repression
In Net Delusion, author Evgeny Morozov argues against cyberutopianism. He describes how the Internet is successfully used against activists and for the sake of state repression. China presents a good example of this. Internet censorship in China has often been used as a way to achieve political stability of the Chinese Communist Party. The most well known example of internet censorship in China is the Covid-19 virus when China suppressed any information regarding the virus. Information was able to get out though because of Dr. Li Wenliang, but was considered to be falsified.
See also
Internet vigilantism
Online social movement
User revolt
Notes
References
Further reading
Eric J.S. Townsend, E-Activism Connects Protest Groups. Web Makes It Easy To Organize Rallies Quickly, But Sheer Volume Of E-Mail Can Hinder Cause, Hartford Courant, December 4, 2002.
Steven F. Hick and John G. McNutt, Advocacy, Activism, and the Internet: Community Organization and Social Policy, Lyceum Books, 2002. .
Garance Franke-Ruta, "Virtual Politics," The American Prospect, Volume 14, Issue 9, October 1, 2003.
Ghobadi, S., Clegg, S. 2014, 'these days will never be forgotten': Critical Mass Approach to Online Activism, Information and Organization, Vol 25 Issue 1, pp 2–71
Joss Hands, "@ is for Activism: Dissent Resistance and Rebellion in a Digital Culture", Pluto Press, 2011.
Amy Harmon, "Politics of the Web: Meet, Greet, Segregate, Meet Again," New York Times, January 25, 2004.
Mark Surman & Katherine Reilly, "Appropriating the Internet for Global Activism," Yes Magazine, Spring 2004.
Carlos Watson, "The Rise of the Online Citizen," CNN.com, March 17, 2004, suggests that blogs may be "Democrats' answer to talk radio," citing a study by George Washington University showing that "online political citizens" outnumber Republicans almost 2 to 1 (49% to 27%).
Matt Stoller, "When Mainstream Political Kibitzing Comes Online," The Blogging of the President 2004, April 4, 2004.
Joe Trippi, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised: Democracy, the Internet, and the Overthrow of Everything (Regan Books, 2004), .
John Emerson, "An Introduction to Activism on the Internet," January 2005.
Michael Dartnell, Insurgency Online: Web Activism and Global Conflict University of Toronto Press, 2006.
Molly Beutz Land, Networked Activism, Harvard Human Rights Journal / Vol. 22, 2009, p. 205–244. (PDF, 225 kb)
Richard Kahn and Douglas Kellner, New Media and Internet Activism: From the 'Battle of Seattle' to Blogging, New Media & Society / Vol 6; 2004, Pages 87–95. (PDF)
Xu Ling, Network actions - new media and political confrontation in the Internet age (Chinese Edition) (Huazhong Normal University Press (December 1, 2011)), .
Politics and technology
Technology in society
Activism by type
Internet activism | 0.765417 | 0.987505 | 0.755852 |
Cultural practice | Cultural practice is the manifestation of a culture or sub-culture, especially in regard to the traditional and customary practices of a particular ethnic or other cultural groups.
The term is gaining in importance due to the increased controversy over "rights of cultural practice", which are protected in many jurisdictions for indigenous peoples and sometimes ethnic minorities. It is also a major component of the field of cultural studies, and is a primary focus of international works such as the United Nations declaration of the rights of indigenous Peoples.
Cultural practice is also a subject of discussion in questions of cultural survival. If an ethnic group retains its formal ethnic identity but loses its core cultural practices or the knowledge, resources, or ability to continue them, questions arise as to whether the culture is able to actually survive at all. International bodies such as the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues continually work on these issues, which are increasingly at the forefront of globalization questions.
Examples
Medical treatment practices
Forms of artistic expression
Dietary preferences and culinary practices
Cultural institutions (see also cultural institutions studies)
Natural resource management
Housing and construction
Childcare practices
Governance, leadership, conflict resolution
Power relationships
International cultural practices
"Everyday life" practices (including household relationships)
Qualifications
The real question of what qualifies as a legitimate cultural practice is the subject of much legal and ethnic community debate. The question arises in controversial subject areas such as genital mutilation, indigenous hunting and gathering practices, and the question of licensing of traditional medical practitioners.
Many traditional cultures acknowledge members outside of their ethnicity as cultural practitioners, but only under special circumstances. Generally, the knowledge or title must be passed in a traditional way, such as family knowledge shared through adoption, or through a master of that practice choosing a particular student who shows qualities desired for that practice, and teaching that student in a hands-on manner, in which they are able to absorb the core values and belief systems of the culture. The degree to which these non-ethnic practitioners are able to exercise "customary and traditional" rights, and the degree to which their practice is acknowledged as valid, is often a subject of considerable debate among indigenous and other ethnic communities, and sometimes with the legal systems under which these communities function. The difference between bona fide non-native cultural practitioners and cultural piracy, or cultural appropriation, is a major issue within the study of globalization and modernization.
Evolution of culture
The evolution of traditional cultures is a subject of much discussion in legal, scholarly, and community forums. It is generally accepted that all cultures are to some degree in a continual state of sociocultural evolution. However, major questions surround the legitimacy of newly evolved cultural expressions, especially when these are influenced by modernization or by the influence of other cultures.
Also, there is significant debate surrounding the source of evolution: for example, an indigenous community may accept the use of store-bought materials in the creation of traditional arts, but may reject requirements to apply for a permit for certain gathering purposes; the central difference being that one is an internal cultural evolution, while the other is externally driven by the society or legal body that surrounds the culture.
References
Cultural studies
Cultural geography
Anthropology | 0.764345 | 0.988823 | 0.755802 |
Antipositivism | In social science, antipositivism (also interpretivism, negativism or antinaturalism) is a theoretical stance which proposes that the social realm cannot be studied with the methods of investigation utilized within the natural sciences, and that investigation of the social realm requires a different epistemology. Fundamental to that antipositivist epistemology is the belief that the concepts and language researchers use in their research shape their perceptions of the social world they are investigating and seeking to define.
Interpretivism (anti-positivism) developed among researchers dissatisfied with post-positivism, the theories of which they considered too general and ill-suited to reflect the nuance and variability found in human interaction. Because the values and beliefs of researchers cannot fully be removed from their inquiry, interpretivists believe research on human beings by human beings cannot yield objective results. Thus, rather than seeking an objective perspective, interpretivists look for meaning in the subjective experiences of individuals engaging in social interaction. Many interpretivist researchers immerse themselves in the social context they are studying, seeking to understand and formulate theories about a community or group of individuals by observing them from the inside. Interpretivism is an inductive practice influenced by philosophical frameworks such as hermeneutics, phenomenology, and symbolic interactionism. Interpretive methods are used in many fields of the social sciences, including human geography, sociology, political science, cultural anthropology, among others.
History
Beginning with Giambattista Vico, in the early eighteenth century, and later with Montesquieu, the study of natural history and human history were separate fields of intellectual enquiry. Natural history is not under human control, whereas human history is a human creation. As such, antipositivism is informed by an epistemological distinction between the natural world and the social realm. The natural world can only be understood by its external characteristics, whereas the social realm can be understood externally and internally, and thus can be known.
In the early nineteenth century, intellectuals, led by the Hegelians, questioned the prospect of empirical social analysis. Karl Marx died before the establishment of formal social science, but nonetheless rejected the sociological positivism of Auguste Comte—despite his attempt to establish a historical materialist science of society.
The enhanced positivism of Émile Durkheim served as foundation of modern academic sociology and social research, yet retained many mechanical elements of its predecessor. Hermeneuticians such as Wilhelm Dilthey theorized in detail on the distinction between natural and social science ('Geisteswissenschaft'), whilst neo-Kantian philosophers such as Heinrich Rickert maintained that the social realm, with its abstract meanings and symbolisms, is inconsistent with scientific methods of analysis. Edmund Husserl, meanwhile, negated positivism through the rubric of phenomenology.
At the turn of the twentieth century, the first wave of German sociologists formally introduced verstehende (interpretive) sociological antipositivism, proposing research should concentrate on human cultural norms, values, symbols, and social processes viewed from a resolutely subjective perspective. As an antipositivist, however, one seeks relationships that are not as "ahistorical, invariant, or generalizable" as those pursued by natural scientists.
The interaction between theory (or constructed concepts) and data is always fundamental in social science and this subjection distinguishes it from physical science. Durkheim himself noted the importance of constructing concepts in the abstract (e.g. "collective consciousness" and "social anomie") in order to form workable categories for experimentation. Both Weber and Georg Simmel pioneered the verstehen (or 'interpretative') approach toward social science; a systematic process in which an outside observer attempts to relate to a particular cultural group, or indigenous people, on their own terms and from their own point of view.
Through the work of Simmel in particular, sociology acquired a possible character beyond positivist data-collection or grand, deterministic systems of structural law. Relatively isolated from the sociological academy throughout his lifetime, Simmel presented idiosyncratic analyses of modernity more reminiscent of the phenomenological and existential writers than of Comte or Durkheim, paying particular concern to the forms of, and possibilities for, social individuality. His sociology engaged in a neo-Kantian critique of the limits of human perception.
Antipositivism thus holds there is no methodological unity of the sciences: the three goals of positivism – description, control, and prediction – are incomplete, since they lack any understanding. Science aims at understanding causality so control can be exerted. If this succeeded in sociology, those with knowledge would be able to control the ignorant and this could lead to social engineering.
This perspective has led to controversy over how one can draw the line between subjective and objective research, much less draw an artificial line between environment and human organization (see environmental sociology), and influenced the study of hermeneutics. The base concepts of antipositivism have expanded beyond the scope of social science, in fact, phenomenology has the same basic principles at its core. Simply put, positivists see sociology as a science, while anti-positivists do not.
Frankfurt School
The antipositivist tradition continued in the establishment of critical theory, particularly the work associated with the Frankfurt School of social research. Antipositivism would be further facilitated by rejections of 'scientism'; or science as ideology. Jürgen Habermas argues, in his On the Logic of the Social Sciences (1967), that "the positivist thesis of unified science, which assimilates all the sciences to a natural-scientific model, fails because of the intimate relationship between the social sciences and history, and the fact that they are based on a situation-specific understanding of meaning that can be explicated only hermeneutically ... access to a symbolically prestructured reality cannot be gained by observation alone."
The sociologist Zygmunt Bauman argued that "our innate tendency to express moral concern and identify with the Other's wants is stifled in modernity by positivistic science and dogmatic bureaucracy. If the Other does not 'fit in' to modernity's approved classifications, it is liable to be extinguished."
See also
Critical theory
Grounded theory
Holism
Humanistic sociology
Methodological dualism
Philosophy of social science
Poststructuralism
Social action
Symbolic interactionism
References
Philosophy of science
Sociological theories
History of sociology
Philosophy of social science
Politics of science
Symbolic interactionism | 0.762469 | 0.991156 | 0.755726 |
Rhizomatic learning | Rhizomatic learning is a variety of pedagogical practices informed by the work of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari. Explored initially as an application of post-structural thought to education, it has more recently been identified as methodology for net-enabled education. In contrast to goal-directed and hierarchical theories of learning, it posits that learning is most effective when it allows participants to react to evolving circumstances, preserving lines of flight that allow a fluid and continually evolving redefinition of the task at hand. In such a structure, "the community is the curriculum", subverting traditional notions of instructional design where objectives pre-exist student involvement.
Rhizome
Rhizomatic learning takes its name from the rhizome, a type of plant which Deleuze and Guattari believed provided an interesting contrast with rooted plants. In her work Deleuze, Education, and Becoming, Inna Semetsky summarizes the pertinent differences of the rhizome:The underground sprout of a rhizome does not have a traditional root. There is a stem there, the oldest part of which dies off while simultaneously rejuvenating itself at the tip. The rhizome’s renewal of itself proceeds autopoietically: the new relations generated via rhizomatic connections are not copies, but each and every time a new map, a cartography. A rhizome does not consist of units, but of dimensions and directions. For Deleuze and Guattari the rhizome formed a model for an epistemological alternative to Western rationalism.
History as a critical pedagogy
Connections have been made between the rhizomatic method and John Dewey's work at least since Richard Rorty remarked that Dewey was "waiting at the end of the road which ... Foucault and Deleuze are currently traveling." Dewey himself remarked early in his career on the contrast between the organic and non-hierarchical nature of learning outside and inside the classroom. According to Dewey, learning in agrarian culture was structured conversationally, driven by student interest, and featured many links but little hierarchy: "There are certain points of interest and value to him in the conversation carried on: statements are made, inquiries arise, topics are discussed, and the child continually learns."
In the 1990s feminist scholars such as Mary Leach and Megan Boler began examining the application of Deleuzean thought to feminist pedagogy, particularly in the teaching of history and literature. Other critical pedagogy theorists soon engaged with the concept. Roy Kaustuv described the rhizoid structure of curriculum, and its potential to free students from the linearity associated with much educational structure. Juha Suoranta and Tere Vadén, writing in 2007 about the pedagogical implications of "wikiworld" note:The division between a hierarchical tree-like democracy or organization and that of the rhizomeian democracy or organization not only has political implications in the ideas of "leaderless revolution" and networked dissidence but also educational implications in how to organize curricula ... In this situation, teaching cannot be easily seen as an authoritarian activity but more like "subversive activity" (Postman & Weingartner, 1971) in which teachers, along with their students, compare information from various sources, negotiate their knowledge and experiences together, and interpret the world."
Application to net-enabled learning
In addition to its association with critical pedagogy, rhizomatic learning has seen a resurgence of interest based on its connection to emergent online learning practices such as MOOCs.
Criticism
Educational researcher Terry Anderson has criticized the way in which advocates of rhizomatic learning seem to attack the idea of formal education as a whole.
George Siemens, one of the inventors of massive open online courses, has questioned the usefulness of the rhizomatic metaphor when compared to traditional network analysis:I don’t see rhizomes as possessing a similar capacity (to networks) to generate insight into learning, innovation, and complexity ... Rhizomes then, are effective for describing the structure and form of knowledge and learning ... [h]owever, beyond the value of describing the form of curriculum as decentralized, adaptive, and organic, I'm unsure what rhizomes contribute to knowledge and learning.
References
Pedagogy | 0.781819 | 0.966621 | 0.755722 |
Social choice theory | Social choice theory is a branch of welfare economics that analyzes methods of combining individual opinions, beliefs, or preferences to reach a collective decision or create measures of social well-being. It contrasts with political science in that it is a normative field that studies how societies should make decisions, whereas political science is descriptive (observing how societies do make decisions). Social choice incorporates insights from economics, mathematics, philosophy, political science, and game theory to find the best ways to combine individual preferences into a coherent whole, called a social welfare function.
Because of its strong connections to political philosophy and voting, social choice is sometimes also called voting theory. Real-world examples include enacting laws under a constitution or voting, where individual preferences over candidates are collected to elect a person that best represents the group's preferences. The field is closely related to mechanism design, which can be thought of as modelling social choice with self-interested and potentially dishonest citizens; it thus involves the application of game theory.
Social choice differs from decision theory in that the latter is concerned with how individuals, rather than societies, can make rational decisions.
History
The earliest work on social choice theory comes from the writings of the Marquis de Condorcet, who formulated several key results including his jury theorem and his example showing the impossibility of majority rule. His work was prefigured by Ramon Llull's 1299 manuscript Ars Electionis (The Art of Elections), which discussed many of the same concepts, but was lost in the Late Middle Ages and only rediscovered in the early 21st century.
Kenneth Arrow's book Social Choice and Individual Values is often recognized as inaugurating the modern era of social choice theory. Later work has also considered approaches to legal compensation, fair division, variable populations, partial strategy-proofing of social-choice mechanisms, natural resources, capabilities and functionings approaches, and measures of welfare.
Key results
Arrow's impossibility theorem
Arrow's impossibility theorem is a key result showing that social choice functions based only on ordinal comparisons, rather than cardinal utility, will behave incoherently (unless they are dictatorial). Such systems violate independence of irrelevant alternatives, i.e. they suffer from spoiler effects the system can behave erratically in response to changes in the quality or popularity of one of the options.
Condorcet cycles
Condorcet's example demonstrates that democracy cannot be thought of as being the same as simple majority rule or majoritarianism; otherwise, it will be self-contradictory when three or more options are available. Majority rule can create cycles that violate the transitive property: Attempting to use majority rule as a social choice function creates situations where we have A better than B and B better than C, but C is also better than A.
This contrasts with May's theorem, which shows that simple majority is the optimal voting mechanism when there are only two outcomes, and only ordinal preferences are allowed.
Harsanyi's theorem
Harsanyi's utilitarian theorem shows that if individuals have preferences that are well-behaved under uncertainty (i.e. coherent), the only coherent and Pareto efficient social choice function is the utilitarian rule. This lends some support to the viewpoint expressed of John Stuart Mill, who identified democracy with the ideal of maximizing the common good (or utility) of society as a whole, under an equal consideration of interests.
Manipulation theorems
Gibbard's theorem provides limitations on the ability of any voting rule to elicit honest preferences from voters, showing that no voting rule is strategyproof (i.e. does not depend on other voters' preferences) for elections with 3 or more outcomes.
The Gibbard–Satterthwaite theorem proves a stronger result for ranked-choice voting systems, showing that no such voting rule can be sincere (i.e. free of reversed preferences).
Median voter theorem
Mechanism design
The field of mechanism design, a subset of social choice theory, deals with the identification of rules that preserve while incentivizing agents to honestly reveal their preferences. One particularly important result is the revelation principle, which is almost a reversal of Gibbard's theorem: for any given social choice function, there exists a mechanism that obtains the same results but incentivizes participants to be completely honest.
Because mechanism design places stronger assumptions on the behavior of voters or , it is sometimes possible to design mechanisms for social choice that accomplish "impossible" tasks. For example, by allowing agents to compensate each other for losses with transfers, the Vickrey–Clarke–Groves (VCG) mechanism can achieve the "impossible" according to Gibbard's theorem: the mechanism ensures honest behavior from participants, while still achieving a Pareto efficient outcome. As a result, the VCG mechanism can be considered a "better" way to make decisions than voting (though only so long as monetary transfers are possible).
Others
If the domain of preferences is restricted to those that include a majority-strength Condorcet winner, then selecting that winner is the unique resolvable, neutral, anonymous, and non-manipulable voting rule.
Interpersonal utility comparison
Social choice theory is the study of theoretical and practical methods to aggregate or combine individual preferences into a collective social welfare function. The field generally assumes that individuals have preferences, and it follows that they can be modeled using utility functions, by the VNM theorem. But much of the research in the field assumes that those utility functions are internal to humans, lack a meaningful unit of measure and cannot be compared across different individuals. Whether this type of interpersonal utility comparison is possible or not significantly alters the available mathematical structures for social welfare functions and social choice theory.
In one perspective, following Jeremy Bentham, utilitarians have argued that preferences and utility functions of individuals are interpersonally comparable and may therefore be added together to arrive at a measure of aggregate utility. Utilitarian ethics call for maximizing this aggregate.
In contrast many twentieth century economists, following Lionel Robbins, questioned whether such measures of utility could be measured, or even considered meaningful. Following arguments similar to those espoused by behaviorists in psychology, Robbins argued concepts of utility were unscientific and unfalsifiable. Consider for instance the law of diminishing marginal utility, according to which utility of an added quantity of a good decreases with the amount of the good that is already in possession of the individual. It has been used to defend transfers of wealth from the "rich" to the "poor" on the premise that the former do not derive as much utility as the latter from an extra unit of income. Robbins argued that this notion is beyond positive science; that is, one cannot measure changes in the utility of someone else, nor is it required by positive theory.
Apologists for the interpersonal comparison of utility have argued that Robbins claimed too much. John Harsanyi agreed that perfect comparisons of mental states are not practically possible, but people can still make some comparisons thanks to their similar backgrounds, cultural experiences, and psychologies. Amartya Sen argues that even if interpersonal comparisons of utility are imperfect, we can still say that (despite being positive for Nero) the Great Fire of Rome had a negative overall value. Harsanyi and Sen thus argue that at least partial comparability of utility is possible, and social choice theory should proceed under that assumption.
Relationship to public choice theory
Despite the similar names, "public choice" and "social choice" are two distinct fields that are only weakly related. Public choice deals with the modeling of political systems as they actually exist in the real world, and is primarily limited to positive economics (predicting how politicians and other stakeholders will act). It is therefore often thought of as the application of microeconomic models to political science, in order to predict the behavior of political actors. By contrast, social choice has a much more normative bent, and deals with the abstract study of decision procedures and their properties.
The Journal of Economic Literature classification codes place Social Choice under Microeconomics at JEL D71 (with Clubs, Committees, and Associations) whereas Public Choice falls under JEL D72 (Economic Models of Political Processes: Rent-Seeking, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior).
Empirical research
Since Arrow, social choice theory has been characterized by being predominantly mathematical and theoretical, but some research has aimed at estimating the frequency of various voting paradoxes, such as the Condorcet paradox. A summary of 37 individual studies, covering a total of 265 real-world elections, large and small, found 25 instances of a Condorcet paradox for a total likelihood of 9.4%. While examples of the paradox seem to occur often in small settings like parliaments, very few examples have been found in larger groups (electorates), although some have been identified. However, the frequency of such paradoxes depends heavily on the number of options and other factors.
Rules
Let be a set of possible 'states of the world' or 'alternatives'. Society wishes to choose a single state from . For example, in a single-winner election, may represent the set of candidates; in a resource allocation setting, may represent all possible allocations.
Let be a finite set, representing a collection of individuals. For each , let be a utility function, describing the amount of happiness an individual i derives from each possible state.
A social choice rule is a mechanism which uses the data to select some element(s) from which are 'best' for society. The question of what 'best' means is a common question in social choice theory. The following rules are most common:
Utilitarian rule – sometimes called the max-sum rule or Benthamite welfare – aims to maximize the sum of utilities.
Egalitarian rule – sometimes called the max-min rule or Rawlsian welfare – aims to maximize the smallest utility.
Social choice functions
A social choice function, sometimes called a voting system in the context of politics, is a rule that takes an individual's complete and transitive preferences over a set of outcomes and returns a single chosen outcome (or a set of tied outcomes). We can think of this subset as the winners of an election, and compare different social choice functions based on which axioms or mathematical properties they fulfill.
Arrow's impossibility theorem is what often comes to mind when one thinks about impossibility theorems in voting. There are several famous theorems concerning social choice functions. The Gibbard–Satterthwaite theorem implies that the only rule satisfying non-imposition (every alternative can be chosen) and strategyproofness when there are more than two candidates is the dictatorship mechanism. That is, a voter may be able to cast a ballot that misrepresents their preferences to obtain a result that is more favorable to them under their sincere preferences. May's theorem shows that when there are only two candidates and only rankings of options are available, the simple majority vote is the unique neutral, anonymous, and positively-responsive voting rule.
See also
Arrow's impossibility theorem
Compensation principle
Computational social choice
Condorcet paradox
Extended sympathy
Game theory
Group decision-making
Justice (economics)
Liberal paradox
Mechanism design
Nakamura number
Rational choice theory
Rule according to higher law
Voting system
Notes
References
Arrow, Kenneth J. (1951, 2nd ed., 1963). Social Choice and Individual Values, New York: Wiley.
_, (1972). "General Economic Equilibrium: Purpose, Analytic Techniques, Collective Choice", Nobel Prize Lecture, Link to text, with Section 8 on the theory and background.
_, (1983). Collected Papers, v. 1, Social Choice and Justice, Oxford: Blackwell
Arrow, Kenneth J., Amartya K. Sen, and Kotaro Suzumura, eds. (1997). Social Choice Re-Examined, 2 vol., London: Palgrave Macmillan &
_, eds. (2002). Handbook of Social Choice and Welfare, v. 1. Chapter-preview links.
_, ed. (2011). Handbook of Social Choice and Welfare, v. 2, Amsterdam: Elsevier. Chapter-preview links.
Bossert, Walter and John A. Weymark (2008). "Social Choice (New Developments)," The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd Edition, London: Palgrave Macmillan Abstract.
Dryzek, John S. and Christian List (2003). "Social Choice Theory and Deliberative Democracy: A Reconciliation," British Journal of Political Science, 33(1), pp. 1–28, https://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/4092266?uid=3739936&uid=2&uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=21102056001967, 2002 PDF link.
Feldman, Allan M. and Roberto Serrano (2006). Welfare Economics and Social Choice Theory, 2nd ed., New York: Springer , Arrow-searchable chapter previews.
Fleurbaey, Marc (1996). Théories économiques de la justice, Paris: Economica.
Harsanyi, John C. (1987). "Interpersonal Utility Comparisons," The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics, v. 2, London: Palgrave, pp. 955–58.
Robbins, Lionel (1935). An Essay on the Nature and Significance of Economic Science, 2nd ed., London: Macmillan, ch. VI
, (1938). "Interpersonal Comparisons of Utility: A Comment," Economic Journal, 43(4), 635–41.
Sen, Amartya K. (1970 [1984]). Collective Choice and Social Welfare, New York: Elsevier Description.
_, (1998). "The Possibility of Social Choice", Nobel Prize Lecture .
_, (1987). "Social Choice," The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics, v. 4, London: Palgrave, pp. 382–93.
_, (2008). "Social Choice,". The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd Edition, London: Palgrave Abstract.
. A comprehensive reference from a computational perspective; see Chapter 9. Downloadable free online.
Suzumura, Kotaro (1983). Rational Choice, Collective Decisions, and Social Welfare, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
External links
Social Choice Bibliography by J. S. Kelly
Electowiki, a wiki covering many subjects of social choice and voting theory
Metaethics
Political science
Public economics
Applied mathematics
Collective intelligence
Political philosophy
Mathematical economics
Law and economics
Administrative theory | 0.760819 | 0.993261 | 0.755692 |
The three Rs | The three Rs are three basic skills taught in schools: reading, writing and arithmetic (the "R's", pronounced in the English alphabet "ARs", refer to "Reading, wRiting (where the W is unnecessary), and ARithmetic"). The phrase appears to have been coined at the beginning of the 19th century.
The term has also been used to name other triples (see Other uses).
Origin and meaning
The skills themselves are alluded to in St. Augustine's Confessions: 'learning to read, and write, and do arithmetic'.
The phrase is sometimes attributed to a speech given by Sir William Curtis circa 1807: this is disputed. An extended modern version of the three Rs consists of the "functional skills of literacy, numeracy and ICT".
The educationalist Louis P. Bénézet preferred "to read", "to reason", "to recite", adding, "by reciting I did not mean giving back, verbatim, the words of the teacher or of the textbook. I meant speaking the English language."
Other uses
More recent meanings of "the three Rs" are:
In the subject of CNC code generation by Edgecam Workflow: Rapid, Reliable, and Repeatable
In the subject of sustainability: Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle
In the subject of American politics and the New Deal: Relief, Recovery, and Reform
In animal welfare principles in research (see The Three Rs for animals). The Three Rs principle stands for Reduction, Refinement, and Replacement. It promotes the use of alternative methods whenever possible, reducing the number of animals used, refining the experimental techniques to minimize harm, and replacing animals with non-animal models when feasible
(See also 3R disambiguation)
See also
Standards based education reform
Traditional education
Trivium (education)
Notes
Education reform
Latin words and phrases | 0.761907 | 0.991817 | 0.755672 |
TESCREAL | TESCREAL is an acronym neologism proposed by computer scientist Timnit Gebru and philosopher Émile P. Torres that stands for "transhumanism, extropianism, singularitarianism, cosmism, rationalism, effective altruism, and longtermism". Gebru and Torres argue that these ideologies should be treated as an "interconnected and overlapping" group with shared origins. They say this is a movement that allows its proponents to use the threat of human extinction to justify expensive or detrimental projects. They consider it pervasive in social and academic circles in Silicon Valley centered around artificial intelligence. As such, the acronym is sometimes used to criticize a perceived belief system associated with Big Tech.
Origin
Gebru and Torres coined "TESCREAL" in 2023, first using it in a draft of a paper titled "The TESCREAL bundle: Eugenics and the promise of utopia through artificial general intelligence". First Monday published the paper in April 2024, though Torres and Gebru popularized the term elsewhere before the paper's publication. According to Gebru and Torres, transhumanism, extropianism, singularitarianism, (modern) cosmism, rationalism, effective altruism, and longtermism are a "bundle" of "interconnected and overlapping ideologies" that emerged from 20th-century eugenics, with shared progenitors. They use the term "TESCREAList" to refer to people who subscribe to, or appear to endorse, most or all of the ideologies captured in the acronym.
Analysis
According to critics of these philosophies, TESCREAL describes overlapping movements endorsed by prominent people in the tech industry to provide intellectual backing to pursue and prioritize projects including artificial general intelligence (AGI), life extension, and space colonization. Science fiction author Charles Stross, using the example of space colonization, argued that the ideologies allow billionaires to pursue massive personal projects driven by a right-wing interpretation of science fiction by arguing that not to pursue such projects poses an existential risk to society. Gebru and Torres write that, using the threat of extinction, TESCREALists can justify "attempts to build unscoped systems which are inherently unsafe". Media scholar Ethan Zuckerman argues that by only considering goals that are valuable to the TESCREAL movement, futuristic projects with more immediate drawbacks, such as racial inequity, algorithmic bias, and environmental degradation, can be justified. Speaking at Radio New Zealand, politics writer Danyl McLauchlan said that many of these philosophies may have started off with good intentions but might have been pushed "to a point of ridiculousness."
Philosopher Yogi Hale Hendlin has argued that by both ignoring the human causes of societal problems and over-engineering solutions, TESCREALists ignore the context in which many problems arise. Camille Sojit Pejcha wrote in Document Journal that TESCREAL is a tool for tech elites to concentrate power. In The Washington Spectator, Dave Troy called TESCREAL an "ends justifies the means" movement that is antithetical to "democratic, inclusive, fair, patient, and just governance". Gil Duran wrote that "TESCREAL", "authoritarian technocracy", and "techno-optimism" were phrases used in early 2024 to describe a new ideology emerging in the tech industry.
Gebru, Torres, and others have likened TESCREAL to a secular religion due to its parallels to Christian theology and eschatology. Writers in Current Affairs compared these philosophies and the ensuing techno-optimism to "any other monomaniacal faith... in which doubters are seen as enemies and beliefs are accepted without evidence". They argue pursuing TESCREAL would prevent an actual equitable shared future.
Artificial General Intelligence (AGI)
Much of the discourse about existential risk from AGI occurs among supporters of the TESCREAL ideologies. TESCREALists are either considered "AI accelerationists", who consider AI the only way to pursue a utopian future where problems are solved, or "AI doomers", who consider AI likely to be unaligned to human survival and likely to cause human extinction. Despite the risk, many doomers consider the development of AGI inevitable and argue that only by developing and aligning AGI first can existential risk be averted.
Gebru has likened the conflict between accelerationists and doomers to a "secular religion selling AGI enabled utopia and apocalypse". Torres and Gebru argue that both groups use hypothetical AI-driven apocalypses and utopian futures to justify unlimited research, development, and deregulation of technology. By considering only far-reaching future consequences, creating hype for unproven technology, and fear-mongering, Torres and Gebru allege TESCREALists distract from the impacts of technology that may adversely affect society, disproportionately harm minorities through algorithmic bias, and have a detrimental impact on the environment.
Pharmaceuticals
Neşe Devenot has used the TESCREAL acronym to refer to "global financial and tech elites" who promote new uses of psychedelic drugs as mental health treatments, not because they want to help people, but so that they can make money on the sale of these pharmaceuticals as part of a plan to increase inequality.
Claimed bias against minorities
Gebru and Torres claim that TESCREAL ideologies directly originate from 20th-century eugenics and that the bundle of ideologies advocates a second wave of new eugenics. Others have similarly argued that the TESCREAL ideologies developed from earlier philosophies that were used to justify mass murder and genocide. Some prominent figures who have contributed to TESCREAL ideologies have been alleged to be racist and sexist. McLauchlan has said that, while "some people in these groups want to genetically engineer superintelligent humans, or replace the entire species with a superior form of intelligence" others "like the effective altruists, for example, most of them are just in it to help very poor people ... they are kind of shocked ... that they've been lumped into this malevolent ... eugenics conspiracy".
Criticism and debate
Writing in Asterisk, a magazine related to effective altruism, Ozy Brennan criticized Gebru's and Torres's grouping of different philosophies as if they were a "monolithic" movement. Brennan argues Torres has misunderstood these different philosophies, and has taken philosophical thought experiments out of context. James Pethokoukis, of the American Enterprise Institute, disagrees with criticizing proponents of TESCREAL. He argues that the tech billionaires criticized in a Scientific American article for allegedly espousing TESCREAL have significantly advanced society. McLauchlan has noted that critics of the TESCREAL bundle have objected to what they see as disparate and sometimes conflicting ideologies being grouped together, but opines that TESCREAL is a good way to describe and consolidate many of the "grand bizarre ideologies in Silicon Valley". Eli Sennesh and James Hughes, publishing in the blog for the transhumanist Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies, have argued that TESCREAL is a left-wing conspiracy theory that unnecessarily groups disparate philosophies together without understanding the mutually exclusive tenets in each.
According to Torres, "If advanced technologies continue to be developed at the current rate, a global-scale catastrophe is almost certainly a matter of when rather than if." Torres believes that "perhaps the only way to actually attain a state of 'existential security' is to slow down or completely halt further technological innovation", and criticized the longtermist view that technology, although dangerous, is essential for human civilization to achieve its full potential. Brennan contends that Torres's proposal to slow or halt technological development represents a more extreme position than TESCREAL ideologies, preventing many improvements in quality of life, healthcare, and poverty reduction that technological progress enables.
Alleged TESCREALists
Venture capitalist Marc Andreessen has self-identified as a TESCREAList. He published the "Techno-Optimist Manifesto" in October 2023, which Jag Bhalla and Nathan J. Robinson have called a "perfect example" of the TESCREAL ideologies. In the document, he argues that more advanced artificial intelligence could save countless future potential lives, and that those working to slow or prevent its development should be condemned as murderers.
Elon Musk has been described as sympathetic to some TESCREAL ideologies. In August 2022, Musk tweeted that William MacAskill's longtermist book What We Owe the Future was a "close match for my philosophy". Some writers believe Musk's Neuralink pursues TESCREAList goals. Some AI experts have complained about the focus of Musk's XAI company on existential risk, arguing that it and other AI companies have ties to TESCREAL movements. Dave Troy believes Musk's natalist views originate from TESCREAL ideals.
It has also been suggested that Peter Thiel is sympathetic to TESCREAL ideas. Benjamin Svetkey wrote in The Hollywood Reporter that Thiel and other Silicon Valley CEOs who support the Donald Trump 2024 presidential campaign are pushing for policies that would shut down "regulators whose outdated restrictions on things like human experimentation are slowing down progress toward a technotopian paradise".
Sam Altman and much of the OpenAI board has been described as supporting TESCREAL movements, especially in the context of his attempted firing in 2023. Gebru and Torres have urged Altman not to pursue TESCREAL ideals. Lorraine Redaud writing in Charlie Hebdo described Sam Altman and multiple other Silicon Valley executives as supporting TESCREAL ideals.
Self-identified transhumanists Nick Bostrom and Eliezer Yudkowsky, both influential in discussions of existential risk from AI, have also been described as leaders of the TESCREAL movement. Redaud said Bostrom supported some ideals "in line with the TESCREALists movement".
Sam Bankman-Fried, former CEO of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange, was a prominent and self-identified member of the effective altruist community. According to The Guardian, since FTX's collapse, administrators of the bankruptcy estate have been trying to recoup about $5 million that they allege was transferred to a nonprofit to help secure the purchase of a historic hotel that has been repurposed for conferences and workshops associated with longtermism, rationalism, and effective altruism. The property hosted liberal eugenicists and other speakers the Guardian said had racist and misogynistic histories.
Longtermist and effective altruist William MacAskill, who frequently collaborated with Bankman-Fried to coordinate philanthropic initiatives, has been described as a TESCREAList.
See also
Effective accelerationism
Utilitarianism
The Californian Ideology
References
2023 neologisms
Acronyms
Effective altruism
Ethical theories
Ethics of science and technology
Eugenics
Existential risk from artificial general intelligence
Extropianism
Futures studies
Ideologies
Philosophy of artificial intelligence
Philosophy of technology
Rationalism
Singularitarianism
Subcultures
Transhumanism
Political neologisms
Natalism | 0.762094 | 0.991544 | 0.755649 |
Psycholinguistics | Psycholinguistics or psychology of language is the study of the interrelation between linguistic factors and psychological aspects. The discipline is mainly concerned with the mechanisms by which language is processed and represented in the mind and brain; that is, the psychological and neurobiological factors that enable humans to acquire, use, comprehend, and produce language.
Psycholinguistics is concerned with the cognitive faculties and processes that are necessary to produce the grammatical constructions of language. It is also concerned with the perception of these constructions by a listener.
Initial forays into psycholinguistics were in the philosophical and educational fields, mainly due to their location in departments other than applied sciences (e.g., cohesive data on how the human brain functioned). Modern research makes use of biology, neuroscience, cognitive science, linguistics, and information science to study how the mind-brain processes language, and less so the known processes of social sciences, human development, communication theories, and infant development, among others.
There are several subdisciplines with non-invasive techniques for studying the neurological workings of the brain. For example, neurolinguistics has become a field in its own right, and developmental psycholinguistics, as a branch of psycholinguistics, concerns itself with a child's ability to learn language.
Areas of study
Psycholinguistics is an interdisciplinary field that consists of researchers from a variety of different backgrounds, including psychology, cognitive science, linguistics, speech and language pathology, and discourse analysis. Psycholinguists study how people acquire and use language, according to the following main ways:
language acquisition: how do children acquire language?
language comprehension: how do people comprehend language?
language production: how do people produce language?
second language acquisition: how do people who already know one language acquire another one?
A researcher interested in language comprehension may study word recognition during reading, to examine the processes involved in the extraction of orthographic, morphological, phonological, and semantic information from patterns in printed text. A researcher interested in language production might study how words are prepared to be spoken starting from the conceptual or semantic level (this concerns connotation, and possibly can be examined through the conceptual framework concerned with the semantic differential). Developmental psycholinguists study infants' and children's ability to learn and process language.
Psycholinguistics further divide their studies according to the different components that make up human language.
Linguistics-related areas include:
Phonetics and phonology are the study of speech sounds. Within psycholinguistics, research focuses on how the brain processes and understands these sounds.
Morphology is the study of word structures, especially between related words (such as dog and dogs) and the formation of words based on rules (such as plural formation).
Syntax is the study of how words are combined to form sentences.
Semantics deals with the meaning of words and sentences. Where syntax is concerned with the formal structure of sentences, semantics deals with the actual meaning of sentences.
Pragmatics is concerned with the role of context in the interpretation of meaning.
Linguistic relativity is a principle suggesting that the structure of a language influences its speakers' worldview or cognition, and thus individuals' languages determine or shape their perceptions of the world.
History
In seeking to understand the properties of language acquisition, psycholinguistics has roots in debates regarding innate versus acquired behaviors (both in biology and psychology). For some time, the concept of an innate trait was something that was not recognized in studying the psychology of the individual. However, with the redefinition of innateness as time progressed, behaviors considered innate could once again be analyzed as behaviors that interacted with the psychological aspect of an individual. After the diminished popularity of the behaviorist model, ethology reemerged as a leading train of thought within psychology, allowing the subject of language, an innate human behavior, to be examined once more within the scope of psychology.
Origin of "psycholinguistics"
The theoretical framework for psycholinguistics began to be developed before the end of the 19th century as the "Psychology of Language". The work of Edward Thorndike and Frederic Bartlett laid the foundations of what would come to be known as the science of psycholinguistics. In 1936 Jacob Kantor, a prominent psychologist at the time, used the term "psycholinguistic" as a description within his book An Objective Psychology of Grammar.
However, the term "psycholinguistics" only came into widespread usage in 1946 when Kantor's student Nicholas Pronko published an article entitled "Psycholinguistics: A Review". Pronko's desire was to unify myriad related theoretical approaches under a single name. Psycholinguistics was used for the first time to talk about an interdisciplinary science "that could be coherent", as well as being the title of Psycholinguistics: A Survey of Theory and Research Problems, a 1954 book by Charles E. Osgood and Thomas A. Sebeok.
Theories
Language acquisition
Though there is still much debate, there are two primary theories on childhood language acquisition:
the behaviorist perspective, whereby all language must be learned by the child; and
the innatist perspective, which believes that the abstract system of language cannot be learned, but that humans possess an innate language faculty or access to what has been called "universal grammar".
The innatist perspective began in 1959 with Noam Chomsky's highly critical review of B.F. Skinner's Verbal Behavior (1957). This review helped start what has been called the cognitive revolution in psychology. Chomsky posited that humans possess a special, innate ability for language, and that complex syntactic features, such as recursion, are "hard-wired" in the brain. These abilities are thought to be beyond the grasp of even the most intelligent and social non-humans. When Chomsky asserted that children acquiring a language have a vast search space to explore among all possible human grammars, there was no evidence that children received sufficient input to learn all the rules of their language. Hence, there must be some other innate mechanism that endows humans with the ability to learn language. According to the "innateness hypothesis", such a language faculty is what defines human language and makes that faculty different from even the most sophisticated forms of animal communication.
The field of linguistics and psycholinguistics has since been defined by pro-and-con reactions to Chomsky. The view in favor of Chomsky still holds that the human ability to use language (specifically the ability to use recursion) is qualitatively different from any sort of animal ability.
The view that language must be learned was especially popular before 1960 and is well represented by the mentalistic theories of Jean Piaget and the empiricist Rudolf Carnap. Likewise, the behaviorist school of psychology puts forth the point of view that language is a behavior shaped by conditioned response; hence it is learned. The view that language can be learned has had a recent resurgence inspired by emergentism. This view challenges the "innate" view as scientifically unfalsifiable; that is to say, it cannot be tested. With the increase in computer technology since the 1980s, researchers have been able to simulate language acquisition using neural network models.
Language comprehension
The structures and uses of language are related to the formation of ontological insights. Some see this system as "structured cooperation between language-users" who use conceptual and semantic difference in order to exchange meaning and knowledge, as well as give meaning to language, thereby examining and describing "semantic processes bound by a 'stopping' constraint which are not cases of ordinary deferring." Deferring is normally done for a reason, and a rational person is always disposed to defer if there is good reason.
The theory of the "semantic differential" supposes universal distinctions, such as:
Typicality: that included scales such as "regular–rare", "typical–exclusive";
Reality: "imaginary–real", "evident–fantastic", "abstract–concrete";
Complexity: "complex–simple", "unlimited–limited", "mysterious–usual";
Improvement or Organization: "regular–spasmodic", "constant–changeable", "organized–disorganized", "precise–indefinite";
Stimulation: "interesting–boring", "trivial–new".
Reading
One question in the realm of language comprehension is how people understand sentences as they read (i.e., sentence processing). Experimental research has spawned several theories about the architecture and mechanisms of sentence comprehension. These theories are typically concerned with the types of information, contained in the sentence, that the reader can use to build meaning, and at what point in reading does that information becomes available to the reader. Issues such as "modular" versus "interactive" processing have been theoretical divides in the field.
A modular view of sentence processing assumes that the stages involved in reading a sentence function independently as separate modules. These modules have limited interaction with one another. For example, one influential theory of sentence processing, the "garden-path theory", states that syntactic analysis takes place first. Under this theory, as the reader is reading a sentence, he or she creates the simplest structure possible, to minimize effort and cognitive load. This is done without any input from semantic analysis or context-dependent information. Hence, in the sentence "The evidence examined by the lawyer turned out to be unreliable", by the time the reader gets to the word "examined" he or she has committed to a reading of the sentence in which the evidence is examining something because it is the simplest parsing. This commitment is made even though it results in an implausible situation: evidence cannot examine something. Under this "syntax first" theory, semantic information is processed at a later stage. It is only later that the reader will recognize that he or she needs to revise the initial parsing into one in which "the evidence" is being examined. In this example, readers typically recognize their mistake by the time they reach "by the lawyer" and must go back and reevaluate the sentence. This reanalysis is costly and contributes to slower reading times.
In contrast to the modular view, an interactive theory of sentence processing, such as a constraint-based lexical approach assumes that all available information contained within a sentence can be processed at any time. Under an interactive view, the semantics of a sentence (such as plausibility) can come into play early on to help determine the structure of a sentence. Hence, in the sentence above, the reader would be able to make use of plausibility information in order to assume that "the evidence" is being examined instead of doing the examining. There are data to support both modular and interactive views; which view is correct is debatable.
When reading, saccades can cause the mind to skip over words because it does not see them as important to the sentence, and the mind completely omits it from the sentence or supplies the wrong word in its stead. This can be seen in "Paris in thethe Spring". This is a common psychological test, where the mind will often skip the second "the", especially when there is a line break in between the two.
Language production
Language production refers to how people produce language, either in written or spoken form, in a way that conveys meanings comprehensible to others. One of the most effective ways to explain the way people represent meanings using rule-governed languages is by observing and analyzing instances of speech errors, which include speech disfluencies like false starts, repetition, reformulation and constant pauses in between words or sentences, as well as slips of the tongue, like-blendings, substitutions, exchanges (e.g. Spoonerism), and various pronunciation errors.
These speech errors have significant implications for understanding how language is produced, in that they reflect that:
Speech is not planned in advance: speech errors such as substitution and exchanges show that one does not plan their entire sentence before they speak. Rather, their language faculty is constantly tapped during the speech production process. This is accounted for by the limitation of working memory. In particular, errors involving exchanges imply that one plans one's sentence ahead but only with regard to its significant ideas (e.g. the words that constitute the core meaning) and only to a certain extent.
Lexicon is organized semantically and phonologically: substitution and pronunciation errors show that lexicon is organized not only by its meaning, but also its form.
Morphologically complex words are assembled: errors involving blending within a word reflect that there seems to be a rule governing the construction of words in production (and also likely in mental lexicon). In other words, speakers generate the morphologically complex words by merging morphemes rather than retrieving them as chunks.
It is useful to differentiate between three separate phases of language production:
conceptualization: "determining what to say";
formulation: "translating the intention to say something into linguistic form";
execution: "the detailed articulatory planning and articulation itself".
Psycholinguistic research has largely concerned itself with the study of formulation because the conceptualization phase remains largely elusive and mysterious.
Methodologies
Behavioral tasks
Many of the experiments conducted in psycholinguistics, especially early on, are behavioral in nature. In these types of studies, subjects are presented with linguistic stimuli and asked to respond. For example, they may be asked to make a judgment about a word (lexical decision), reproduce the stimulus, or say a visually presented word aloud. Reaction times to respond to the stimuli (usually on the order of milliseconds) and proportion of correct responses are the most often employed measures of performance in behavioral tasks. Such experiments often take advantage of priming effects, whereby a "priming" word or phrase appearing in the experiment can speed up the lexical decision for a related "target" word later.
As an example of how behavioral methods can be used in psycholinguistics research, Fischler (1977) investigated word encoding, using a lexical-decision task. He asked participants to make decisions about whether two strings of letters were English words. Sometimes the strings would be actual English words requiring a "yes" response, and other times they would be non-words requiring a "no" response. A subset of the licit words were related semantically (e.g., cat–dog) while others were unrelated (e.g., bread–stem). Fischler found that related word pairs were responded to faster, compared to unrelated word pairs, which suggests that semantic relatedness can facilitate word encoding.
Eye-movements
Recently, eye tracking has been used to study online language processing. Beginning with Rayner (1978), the importance of understanding eye-movements during reading was established. Later, Tanenhaus et al. (1995) used a visual-world paradigm to study the cognitive processes related to spoken language. Assuming that eye movements are closely linked to the current focus of attention, language processing can be studied by monitoring eye movements while a subject is listening to spoken language.
Language production errors
The analysis of systematic errors in speech, as well as the writing and typing of language, can provide evidence of the process that has generated it. Errors of speech, in particular, grant insight into how the mind produces language while a speaker is mid-utterance. Speech errors tend to occur in the lexical, morpheme, and phoneme encoding steps of language production, as seen by the ways errors can manifest themselves.
The types of speech errors, with some examples, include:
Substitutions (phoneme and lexical) — replacing a sound with an unrelated sound, or a word with its antonym, saying such as "verbal outfit" instead of "verbal output", or "He rode his bike tomorrow" instead of "...yesterday", respectively;
Blends — mixing two synonyms and saying "my stummy hurts" in place of either "stomach" or "tummy";
Exchanges (phoneme [aka spoonerisms] and morpheme) — swapping two onset sounds or two root words, and saying "You hissed my mystery lectures" instead of "You missed my history lectures", or "They're Turking talkish" instead of "They're talking Turkish", respectively;
Morpheme shifts — moving a function morpheme such as "-ly" or "-ed" to a different word and saying "easy enoughly" instead of "easily enough",
Perseveration — incorrectly starting a word with a sound that was a part of the previous utterance, such as saying "John gave the goy a ball" instead of "John gave the boy a ball";
Anticipation — replacing a sound with one that belongs later in the utterance, such as saying "She drank a cot cup of tea" instead of "She drank a hot cup of tea".
Speech errors will usually occur in the stages that involve lexical, morpheme, or phoneme encoding, and usually not in the first step of semantic encoding. This can be attributed to a speaker still conjuring the idea of what to say; and unless he changes his mind, can not be mistaken for what he wanted to say.
Neuroimaging
Until the recent advent of non-invasive medical techniques, brain surgery was the preferred way for language researchers to discover how language affects the brain. For example, severing the corpus callosum (the bundle of nerves that connects the two hemispheres of the brain) was at one time a treatment for some forms of epilepsy. Researchers could then study the ways in which the comprehension and production of language were affected by such drastic surgery. When an illness made brain surgery necessary, language researchers had an opportunity to pursue their research.
Newer, non-invasive techniques now include brain imaging by positron emission tomography (PET); functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI); event-related potentials (ERPs) in electroencephalography (EEG) and magnetoencephalography (MEG); and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). Brain imaging techniques vary in their spatial and temporal resolutions (fMRI has a resolution of a few thousand neurons per pixel, and ERP has millisecond accuracy). Each methodology has advantages and disadvantages for the study of psycholinguistics.
Computational modeling
Computational modelling, such as the DRC model of reading and word recognition proposed by Max Coltheart and colleagues, is another methodology, which refers to the practice of setting up cognitive models in the form of executable computer programs. Such programs are useful because they require theorists to be explicit in their hypotheses and because they can be used to generate accurate predictions for theoretical models that are so complex that discursive analysis is unreliable. Other examples of computational modelling are McClelland and Elman's TRACE model of speech perception and Franklin Chang's Dual-Path model of sentence production.
Areas for further research
Psycholinguistics is concerned with the nature of the processes that the brain undergoes in order to comprehend and produce language. For example, the cohort model seeks to describe how words are retrieved from the mental lexicon when an individual hears or sees linguistic input. Using new non-invasive imaging techniques, recent research seeks to shed light on the areas of the brain involved in language processing.
Another unanswered question in psycholinguistics is whether the human ability to use syntax originates from innate mental structures or social interaction, and whether or not some animals can be taught the syntax of human language.
Two other major subfields of psycholinguistics investigate first language acquisition, the process by which infants acquire language, and second language acquisition. It is much more difficult for adults to acquire second languages than it is for infants to learn their first language (infants are able to learn more than one native language easily). Thus, sensitive periods may exist during which language can be learned readily. A great deal of research in psycholinguistics focuses on how this ability develops and diminishes over time. It also seems to be the case that the more languages one knows, the easier it is to learn more.
The field of aphasiology deals with language deficits that arise because of brain damage. Studies in aphasiology can offer both advances in therapy for individuals suffering from aphasia and further insight into how the brain processes language.
See also
Animal language
Communication
Determiner phrase
Educational psychology
Interpersonal communication
Linguistic relativity
Psychological nativism
Reconstructive memory
References
Further reading
A short list of books that deal with psycholinguistics, written in language accessible to the non-expert, includes:
External links
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1930s neologisms | 0.760366 | 0.993754 | 0.755617 |
Show and tell | Show and tell (sometimes called show and share or sharing time) is the practice of showing something to an audience and describing it to them, usually a toy or other children's-oriented item. In the United Kingdom, North America, New Zealand and Australia, it is a common classroom activity in early elementary school. In a typical session of show and tell, a child will bring an item from home and will explain to the class why they chose that particular item, where they got it, and other relevant information.
The exact origins of show and tell are unknown, but it was written about as early as 1954 in the journal Childhood Education. Show and tell is used to develop storytelling ability, bridge school and home, forge connections and bonds between students, help teachers to gain a better understanding of their students, and enhance student's communication skills, including around feelings. It can also be used to build public speaking skills such as voice projection and poise. Variants of show and tell have been used to teach vocabulary. Although often thought of as an activity for younger children, teachers have described successfully bringing it into classrooms of students in middle and even secondary grades. The name has also been used to describe other educational practices, such as a way for students to demonstrate mathematical thinking.
The teacher's role in show and tell can vary. The teacher may suggest a theme for the objects, such as particular vocabulary words. During the presentation of the object, some teachers do minimal guidance, while other teachers take a more active role in preparing students for the activity, helping students give a successful share, and in guiding questions and comments from other students. A 1994 paper found more involved teaching can lead to better psychological gains for students than a more passive approach.
A 2014 study found over 50 picture books about show and tell.
Show and tell has been criticized for the amount of time it takes, monotony, and for penalizing shy students.
See also
Idiom
Circle time
References
Early childhood education
Education in North America
Public speaking
Communication skills training | 0.766976 | 0.985031 | 0.755495 |
Diversity (politics) | Diversity within groups is a key concept in sociology and political science that refers to the degree of difference along socially significant identifying features among the members of a purposefully defined group, such as any group differences in racial or ethnic classifications, age, gender, religion, philosophy, politics, culture, language, physical abilities, socioeconomic background, sexual orientation, gender identity, intelligence, physical health, mental health, genetic attributes, personality, behavior, or attractiveness.
When measuring human diversity, a diversity index exemplifies the likelihood that two randomly selected residents have different ethnicities. If all residents are of the same ethnic group it is zero by definition. If half are from one group and half from another, it is 50. The diversity index does not take into account the willingness of individuals to cooperate with those of other ethnicities.
International human rights
The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities affirms to "respect difference and acceptance of persons with disabilities as human diversity and humanity" for protection of human rights of persons with disabilities.
Ideology
Political creeds which support the idea that diversity is valuable and desirable hold that recognizing and promoting these diverse cultures may aid communication between people of different backgrounds and lifestyles, leading to greater knowledge, understanding, and peaceful coexistence. For example, "Respect for Diversity" is one of the six principles of the Global Greens Charter, a manifesto subscribed to by green parties from all over the world. In contrast to diversity, some political creeds promote cultural assimilation as the process to lead to these ends.
Types of diversity
Cultural diversity
Functional diversity
Gender diversity
Gerodiversity
Neurodiversity
Sexual diversity
In Education
This use of diversity in this sense also extends to American academy, where in an attempt to create a "diverse student body" typically supports the recruitment of students from historically excluded populations, such as students of African American or Latino background as well as women in such historically underrepresented fields as the sciences.
In workplace
Corporations make commitments to diversity in their personnel both for reasons of brand halo and competitive advantage, but progress is slow.
Gender in Politics
Historically, women have been underrepresented in politics compared to men. Women's rights movements, such as feminism, have addressed the marginalization of women in politics. Despite traditional doubts concerning female leadership, women have governed for at least a year in about one in four countries since 1960.
United Kingdom
Among the 61 Prime Ministers of the U.K. (Kingdom of Great Britain until 1801) there have been 3 women: Margaret Thatcher (1979–1990), Theresa May (2016–2019), Liz Truss (2022).
United States
There has been an increase in women taking on leadership roles in both the public and private sectors of many countries, including the United States. However, there is still a "political gap" between men and women. Women are less likely than similarly situated men to consider running for office; less likely to run for office; less like to believe they are qualified to seek office; less likely to receive encouragement to run for office; and more likely to perceive a competitive, biased electoral environment.
White House Executive Offices
Administrations since Franklin Roosevelt's have placed aides and units charged with specific outreach to interests and constituencies in the "West Wing". However, specific positions and units devoted to women did not appear in the White House Offices until the late 1960s under John F. Kennedy's administration. Kennedy appointed Esther Peterson to be assistant secretary of labor and direct the department’s Women’s Bureau. Peterson worked to pass the Equal Pay Act of 1963 and was one of many to urge Kennedy to create the President’s Commission on the Status of Women. After Kennedy’s assassination, Johnson named her to an additional post for consumer affairs. Johnson’s administration's efforts to boost the representation of women revolved around highlighting consumer issues.
President Richard Nixon did not appoint a woman assistant to the President’s Task Force on Women’s Rights and Responsibilities, Nixon appointed Anne Armstrong to the most senior WHO position: counselor to the president with cabinet rank. However, she was overwhelmed along with her small staff of two people and did not get to focus on representing women. Her work didn’t particularly concern women’s rights, however, scholars agree that she was an important step for the White House to have female representation in the offices, she “brought a new perspective to White House deliberations ensuring that names of women were included as candidates for vacant positions”. Armstrong was one of the first women to have direct access to the president as a White House staffer.
President Bill Clinton sought to build support among women more generally, especially following the 1990s healthcare debacle and the election of 1994, which the Democratic Party faced substantial losses. In 1995, the administration created the White House Office for Women’s Initiatives and Outreach (OWIO). This was created to “better serve President Clinton’s constituents”. OWIO hosted many events and roundtable discussions and linked with many external organizations. The author states that these actions are symbolic representations. It was initially successful at connecting with women’s groups and providing their findings to the President. However, in 1996, OWIO’s activities substantially declined with the 1996 election and staff changes.
Mayors in the US
Local governments in the United States certainly have experienced an upsurge in female participation in politics. The graph depicts the increase in female participation in mayoral elections from 1950 to 2005 (see below). The graph utilizes a regression discontinuity design to mitigate the potential influence of city characteristics on the candidacy of women. The findings reveal that the gender of the mayor has no discernible effect on various policy outcomes, such as the scale of local government, the allocation of municipal resources, or crime rates. These conclusions hold true both in the short term and over extended periods. Despite this lack of policy divergence, female mayors exhibit heightened political efficacy, indicated by a notable increase in their incumbent advantage compared to male counterparts. Electing a female mayor didn't have a big impact on whether other women could win elections later on. Having a female mayor did not make it easier for other women to get elected as mayors or in local congressional races.
Latin America
Associations between women and integrity appear in Latin America where 32.6 percent of citizens in 2012 said that men are more corrupt as politicians while just 4 percent said women are more corrupt. Explanations for this “pro-women” stereotype relate to women’s historical status as outsiders as well as their traditional identities as mothers.
Michelle Bachelet's 2006 election marked the beginning of a string of presidenta victories in Latin America. She set records for presidential popularity in Chile during her first term, and won reelection in one of the most lopsided contests in the country’s history. However, a scandal (Caso Caval) erupted in February 2015, where her daughter-in-law and son, Sebastián Dávalos, were accused of tax fraud. Dávalos was the Social-Cultural Director, a position traditionally reserved for first ladies. He resigned ten days later.
Although Bachelet was never directly involved in the scandal, her approval ratings fell from 42 percent in the last quarter of 2014 to 36 percent in the first quarter of 2015 (the period immediately after Caso Caval erupted), 31 percent in the second quarter, and 27 percent in the third quarter. These numbers never fully bounced back, hitting 38 percent by February 2018.
Race in politics
United Kingdom
Rishi Sunak (since 2022) is the first non-white Prime Minister of the U.K.
United States
In American politics, white men have often been represented more compared to people of color. There has only been one black president, Barack Obama. All of the other 44 U.S. presidents have been white men. In other sections of U.S. politics, the number of people of color represented has gradually increased each year since the 20th century.
Ethnicity in politics
Soviet Union
Korenizatsiia in 1920s and early 1930s Soviet Union promoted diversity by increasing the representation of non-Russian ethnic groups.
See also
Affirmative action
Discrimination
Diversity, equity, and inclusion
Diversity training
Ethnopluralism
Heterodox Academy (viewpoint diversity in academy)
Identity politics
Individual and group rights
Linguistic diversity index
Multiculturalism
Racial segregation
Workplace diversity
References
Sources
External links
Linguistic controversies
Affirmative action
Identity politics | 0.763804 | 0.989071 | 0.755457 |
Determination | Determination is a positive emotional feeling that promotes persevering towards a difficult goal in spite of obstacles. Determination occurs prior to goal attainment and serves to motivate behavior that will help achieve one's goal.
Empirical research suggests that people consider determination to be an emotion; in other words, determination is not just a cognitive state, but an affective state. In the psychology literature, researchers study determination under other terms, including challenge and anticipatory enthusiasm; this may explain one reason for the relative lack of research on determination compared to other positive emotions.
In the field of psychology, emotion research focuses on negative emotions and the behaviors they prompt. However, positive psychology delves into determination as a positive emotion driving people toward action, leading to significant results like persistence and success.
Etymology
The word determination comes from the Latin word , meaning "limit" or "determination, end result". It is derived from the verb , meaning "confine; designate," with the abstract noun suffix -. The meaning shifted from "end result, decision" to its present meaning.
Major theories
Self-determination theory
Self-determination theory (SDT) is a theory of motivation and dedication towards an ambition. It focuses on the interplay between personalities and experiences in social contexts that results in motivations of both autonomous and controlled types. An example of autonomous motivation would be doing something because of intrinsic motivation, or because there is an internal desire to accomplish something. An example of controlled motivation would be doing something because there is outside pressure to accomplish a goal.
Social environments seem to have a profound effect on both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and self-regulation. Self-determination theory proposes that social and cultural factors influence a person's sense of volition and initiative in regards to
goals, performance, and well-being. High levels of determination and volition are supported by conditions that foster autonomy (e.g., a person has multiple options), competence (e.g., positive feedback) and relatedness (e.g., stable connection to the group a person is working within).
Bio-psychosocial model
Emotions researchers search for physiological patterns associated with particular positive emotions. However, the blending of emotions makes drawing such distinctions difficult. In relation to challenge and determination, psychologists focus on physiological activation in relation to the individual's intended actions (what he/she is determined to do) rather than how the individual subjectively feels.
Researchers associate effort (action tendency) with challenge and determination. So a challenged/determined individual should experience physiological arousal that reflects effort. By focusing on the sympathetic nervous system, researchers can measure systolic blood pressure (SBP) as a proxy for increased effort. People who are introduced to a challenging task experience an increase in SBP when they become determined to complete that task. This is coupled with lowered total peripheral resistance (while the heart is pumping faster, the vasculature is relaxed). This demonstrates an important difference between the physiological reaction of a person motivated by challenge and one motivated by threat or fear.
There seems to be a specific physiological pattern associated with determination. The identification of this pattern is valuable as it can be used in research aimed at eliciting and studying the antecedents and consequences of this common positive emotion.
Appraisal theory
Appraisal theory posits that determination is evoked by three cognitive motivation-appraisal components—evaluations of how the environment and situational circumstances interact with aspects of the individual to create meaning and influence emotional experience:
motivational relevancewhether a situation is relevant to a person's commitments and goals
motivational incongruencewhether a situation is incongruent with a person's commitments and goals
high problem-focused coping potentialwhether a situation is one that a person can deal with by using active coping strategies such as planning and problem-solving
These appraisal components combine to evoke experiences of determination that then motivate one to persevere and strive towards mastery. Appraisal theory proposes that determination is associated with effortful optimism, referring to the belief that a situation can be improved upon with enough effort from the person.
Empirical findings
Emotional experience
Research showed that electrical brain stimulation to the anterior midcingulate cortex elicits a response that mirrors the emotional experience of determination. In this study of two epileptic seizure patients, they reported feeling determined to overcome an approaching challenge; this emotion was reported to feel pleasant. Following electrical stimulation, participants exhibited elevated cardiovascular activity and reported a warm feeling in their upper chest and neck. This work supports the idea that determination is a positive emotion that prepares an individual to overcome obstacles.
Another study compared determination and pride to see how these two positive emotions differentially influenced perseverance in the context of a mathematical problem-solving task. Using a directed imagery task in which participants listened to and imagined a particular scenario, each emotion was differentially induced in participants. The results suggested that determination enhanced task engagement and perseverance, with participants in the determination group spending significantly more time on the most difficult problem in the task. In contrast, pride decreased task engagement and perseverance relative to a neutral condition, with participants in the pride group spending significantly less time on the most difficult problem in the task. This research further supports the notion that determination motivates perseverance, perhaps more so than other positive emotions that have been theorized to be associated with perseverance.
Emotional expression
Experiences of determination are linked to a recognizable facial expression that involves frowning of the eyebrows, an expression that is perceptually similar to anger. This eyebrow frown is associated with the perception of goal obstacles, supporting the notion that determination is associated with the action tendency of preparing to overcome difficult obstacles in goal pursuit.
Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation
Internal motivation is an internal drive, curiosity, or desire to learn that is within human beings. It drives people to learn new things or to put things into action. Intrinsic motivation is often evident when people desire to try new things or find ways to overcome challenges. Intrinsic motivation is often what drives a person to start something, but extrinsic motivation is often what helps people to accomplish their goals. Extrinsic motivation is the external drive that motivates action. It can include things like going to work daily to pay one's bills, or obeying the law to stay out of trouble. This type of motivation is not driven by one's own desires but instead by outside sources.
Applications
Classroom, workplace, and family environment
Determination is believed to be shaped by the emotion of challenge and societal expectations. Environments like education, work, and family that promote encouragement play a role in fostering determination. When individuals have access to resources and supportive peers who believe in their capabilities, they tend to experience heightened determination, leading to improved performance and well-being.
Research shows that students enrolled in learning environments in which teachers incorporate strategies meant to meet students' motivational needs (e.g., encouragement aimed at intrinsic rewards, using student-directed forms of discipline) are more likely to become responsible learners who display a determination to succeed.
William Zinsser studied the pressures faced by college students at Yale, such as the need to develop time management and study skills appropriate for college and university work, the desire for good grades, the desire to meet parents' expectations, and the need to find employment in a competitive job market after graduation.
Health and well-being
Studies have linked challenge and determination to increases in physical health and mental well-being. Some specific positive outcomes include illness resistance, increased survival rates, and decreased levels of depression. A person experiences positive personal growth when that person can to proactively cope with a difficult situation. In such a case, a person can acknowledge a demanding situation, take action, and maintain high coping potential. They can acknowledge the benefits of a difficult experience and display a willingness to put forth an effort and achieve specific personal goals.
Interpersonal relationships
In interpersonal interactions, adopting challenge appraisals is crucial for effectively managing conflicts. For example, young children facing bullying often seek support and report the incidents. When a bullied child employs a challenge appraisal, they view bullying as a chance to rely on others and find positive solutions. This approach maintains their autonomy, as they act independently to involve others. Challenge and determination facilitate goal achievement and increased confidence and decreased evaluation apprehension. Therefore, determined individuals who use challenge appraisals feel capable of handling tough situations while being open to seeking assistance when necessary.
See also
References
Leadership
Personality
Positive psychology
Virtue | 0.766485 | 0.985598 | 0.755446 |
Social media and identity | Social media can have both positive and negative impacts on a user's identity. Psychology and Communication scholars study the relationship between social media and identity in order to understand individual behavior, psychological impact, and social patterns. Communication within political or social groups online can result in practice application of those identities or adoption of them as a whole. Young people, defined as emerging adults in or entering college, especially shape their identities through social media.
Young adults
At the stage where a young adult becomes an emerging adult, individuals are especially influenced by social media. Psychologists study methods of self-presentation to determine how a user's patterns and media participation affects their own identity. Young adults, through media literacies, can also find their identity as a part of a social group, such as feminists. These studies are connected to building frameworks for educators on teaching media literacies. Due to their fluency in media literacy, young people often contribute to these larger social identities through their networks, and unique style of communication when sharing information.
Young Individuals have been found to be affected by what they take in on Social Media. Psychologists believe that at a time when young adults are coming into adolescence, they are more likely to be influenced by what they see on sites like Instagram or Twitter. More so directed towards the times of Identity Formation, as these individuals are impressionable and still creating their identity. With the advance of social media, most young adults will widely share, with varying degrees of accuracy, honesty, and openness, information that in the past would have been private or reserved for select individuals. Key questions include whether they accurately portray their identities online and whether the use of social media might impact young adults’ identity development. Media Imagery, in particular, is said to be a major influence on the minds of young men and women. Studies have shown that it is even more relevant when it comes to the issue of body image. Social Media, in part, has been created to host a safe haven for those who do not claim a solid identity in the material world, giving them a chance for exploration of other identities in the virtual concept. Psychologists and Scholars have noted that while past identities are not easy to escape from; the Internet is more permanent.
Social media is an essential part of the social lives of young adults. They rely on it to maintain relationships, create new relationships, and stay up to date with the world around them. Adolescents find social media to be extremely helpful when changing environments, like moving off to university for example. Social media provides students, especially first year students, the opportunity to create the identity they want the world to see. However, it has been seen that these students create online personas that may not reflect their true selves bringing up the issues of impression management. Social media provides young adults with the opportunity to present themselves as something other than their authentic self.
Media literacy
The definition of media literacy has evolved over time to encompass a range of experiences that can occur in social media or other digital spaces. The definition of media literacy is also broad and wide ranging in its context.
Currently, media literacy includes being able to understand, apply, and share digital images and messages. Educators teach media literacy skills because of the vulnerable relationship that young adults can have with social media. Some examples of media literacy practices, particularly on Twitter, include using hashtags, live tweeting, and sharing information. Overall, the goal of media literacy within social media is to keep young adults aware of potentially violent, graphic, or dangerous content that they may come across on the internet, and how to handle it with responsibility and safety in mind.
In order to be considered media-literate, a person must be able to take in media from online and social platforms and have the correct competencies and context to be able to organize the information. In order to be considered media-literate, the digital information must be given to the user in a way that it can be put into the correct perspective and analyzed, deducted and synthesized. Teenagers and young adults can be vulnerable to specific content online outside of their age-range. Media literacy campaigns and education research shows that targeting those who fall into this age category would be the best way to understand and target their needs as young online users.
There are multiple individual studies investigating social media identity relating to media literacy online, however there is a need for much more conclusive information that analyzes multiple studies at a time. Social media literacy is still considered an under-researched topic. Many scholars in media literacy research emphasize the impact of training young adults to consume media in a safe way is the major solution for furthering internet education in children and young adults. The more information the young adults are given on media literacy, the better prepared they are to enter the digital world confidently.
One scientific model that has been proposed, known as The Social Media Literacy (SMILE) model. This framework hypothesizes that at the core of this model is helping young adults truly know the meaning and display the actions of media literacy online. SMILE is also meant to inspire more research on the subject of media literacy as it relates to social media effects and young adult leaning abilities. The model was applied through the lens of a social media positivity bias among adolescents and puts forth five different assumptions about social media and media literacy;
Social media literacy as a moderator (what is seen on social media)
Social media literacy as a predictor (what is seen for specific individuals on social media)
Media literacy within social media is a reciprocal process
The development of social media literacy depends on a conditional process of variables affecting other variables
Media literacy within social media is a differential learning process, and who teaches it is highly affective of the outcome
This model also stresses that human beings learn media literacy (and social media literacy) naturally as they go through life. Research suggests that having young adults taught media literacy from an educator may make them less interested (and therefore less careful) of threats on social media.
Self Presentation
People create images of themselves to present to the public, a process called self presentation. Depending on the demographic, presenting oneself as authentic can result in identity clarity. Methods of self presentation can also be influenced by geography. The framework for this relationship between a user's location and their social media presentation is called the spatial self. Users depict their spatial self in order to include their physical space as a part of their self presentation to an audience.
In a 2018 research paper, it shares that patients of plastic surgeons have gone in and asked for specific snapchat "filter" features. This led to a theory of Snapchat Dysmorphia. Since the introduction to snapchat in 2011, more and more people each year are going into doctor offices and asking for smoother skin, bigger eyes, and fuller lips. It is creating a disconnect from who they are and who they want to be.
Social comparison theory is the idea that people are likely to compare themselves to people who are similar to them. Influencers have impacted this idea, we often watch people on the internet that we feel we can relate too. Within this theory there is 2 subcategories; Upward and downward comparison. Upward comparison is the idea that someone compares themselves to someone they feel is better than they are. Downward is the opposite, they compare themselves to someone they feel is worse off.
Cultivation theory is the more often people are going to be exposed to images of society's ideal body, the less they are going to realize the images are unrealistic
Self Schema Theory is the idea women use three points to determine how they view themself
Socially ideal: ideal ways women are represented in media
Objective body: how we view our own self
Internalized ideal body: Internalizing media and how much they want to achieve it
Pescott (2020) study found that the use of Snapchat filters in preteens has a great impact on how they present themselves online. Boys found filters to be more fun and used for entertainment, whereas girls used filters more as a beauty enhancer. This becomes dangerous for preteens who are not aware of when a filter is being used when consuming content from friends, influencers, or celebrities. The same study found that the use of filters can have a large impact on preteens’ identity formation as they begin to compare themselves with others.
Influences on Body Image
In comparison to traditional forms of media, where individuals could only act as consumers of media, social media networking sites provide a more engaging opportunity where users can produce their own content, as well as interact with other users and content creators. As these sites have become increasingly popular, researchers have turned their focus to the discussion of the various impacts social media has on users. One of the main focuses researchers have studied is the effects on body image. This is especially seen in adolescents and young adults who engage in social media.
It has been suggested that in the early adolescent years, when perceptions about self and identity are being formed, individuals may be influenced by the media to feel certain ways about their bodies based on the ideal body types expressed and perpetuated in the media, which may increase body surveillance behaviors and, consequently, experiencing feelings of body shame. Salomon & Brown (2019), measured self-objectification behaviors on social media, body surveillance behaviors, feelings of body shame, and levels of self-monitoring to examine whether or not young adolescents engaging in higher amounts of self-objectification behaviors on social media also experienced higher levels of body shame.
Self-objectification behaviors result from internalizing objectification from others, and may, for example, take the form of taking frequent photos of oneself and valuing how others view their appearance. Body surveillance behaviors indicate a preoccupation with how the appearance of one’s body will be perceived by others and can be measured by behaviors such as constant evaluation and monitoring of one’s body. Body shame refers to a negative emotional experience resulting from feeling as if one failed to meet society’s body ideals. Self-monitoring refers to how much individuals do or do not change their behavior in response to feedback and cues received from peers. In the study, it was found that individuals who reported engaging in self-objectified social media use exhibited more body surveillance behaviors, which led to increased experience in feelings of body shame.
Some studies have demonstrated that body image is not influenced by how much time is spent on social media, but is influenced by the way an individual engages with the site. For instance, Meier and Gray (2014), measured Facebook usage among young women and found that those who more frequently viewed posts of images and videos were more likely to experience negative thoughts about their own body image and internalize the thin ideal. However, it is seen that Facebook did not influence body image itself. More interacting on Facebook, in regards to posting, commenting and viewing, causes women, specifically high school females to have greater weight dissatisfaction, drive for thinness, thin-ideal internalization and self objectification. Having more of an opportunity to compare yourself to other people on social media can cause people to feel like they should look that way. Facebook posts more than 10 million photos an hour, so having many examples of an idealistic body-type tempts viewers to compare their bodies to their own.
In response to self-portraits on social media, friends and followers can indicate affirmation and acceptance, and creators can receive validation, through feedback such as likes and comments. According to the findings of Bukowski, Dixon, and Weeks (2019), the more value that an individual placed on the feedback received on a self-portrait that they’ve shared, the more they experience body dissatisfaction and a desire to become thinner, but only if they also engage in body-surveillance.
Studies have shown that users can also experience feelings of body dissatisfaction when consuming rather than creating content. In a study conducted by Fardouly, et al. (2015), the implications of Facebook usage on young women’s mood, level of body dissatisfaction, and desires to change aspects of their body or facial features were examined. The results of the study indicated that in addition to Facebook usage being associated with a more negative mood, it was associated with an increasing desire to change facial related features in women who were more likely to make comparisons between elements of their and others appearance.
Platform Affordances
The different platform affordances of social media sites can both enable and constrain the options users have for presenting themselves. Initially coined by Gibson (1966), Affordances, broadly, can be defined as “describing what material artifacts such as media technologies allow people to do”. This can therefore be applied to how users of social media construct identity, through the ways in which social media sites provide users with opportunities for self-presentation.
For example, Instagram requires users to create a profile when they register an account. In this, they require a username, profile photo, biography and more recently, the option to present the users chosen pronoun. However, none of these identifiable aspects need to be factual, and unlike Facebook, which requires users to register with their legal name, Instagram users can use pseudonyms or made-up usernames and profile pictures. This gives them the ability to construct whichever identity they choose to present.
Media Reactions Within Companies
Frank J Lexa and David Fessell managed to test and review a hypothetical question given to a group of MD’s from various universities. The question asks if a key radiologist posted a media post that involved a racial epithet and a younger colleague brought this to your attention, what would you do? Response replies varied, but almost all had one common theme/connection that connected to points made by Darren L Linvell in discussing the dangers of social media. Linvell made a point to bring up how digital civility is key in producing healthy online dynamics and connections. The respondents within Frank J Lexas and David Fessells test, answered by saying how immediate communication would take place to set the basics of the situation down. This focuses on creating civility through proper communication. Another connection seen is that in case of media controversies, training and policy making methods would take place such as sensitivity training. Other policies would take place depending on what specific policies a certain workplace may have. So, within work settings, it is seen to be important to first make sure an establishment has already implemented policy making methods for various cases, and also create an employee board that is able to demonstrate and carry out digital civility.
Increased Policymaking
The creation of social media has brought along with it various ways for people all around the world to communicate. This media has created a system for all kinds of peoples to connect, create new and improved identities, improve relationships, share information, and be able to reach out into a world of new opportunities. This same media has also given way for young adolescents to access their way into a world of mental health issues, negative self image, racial hostility, cyberbullying, sexual harassment, stalking, and even suicide.
As social media continues to fall into the hands of younger children, it is necessary to implement policy making strategies in order to decrease the rate of harm towards adolescents who are more susceptible and fall victim to the dangers that are presented with social media use so it is necessary to implement. 13 year old girls are given access to view methods on how to consume under 300 calories a day through Tik Tok, but youth within the U.S. has been having access to these various kinds of platforms for some while now. Adolescents consuming unhealthy media leads to mental health issues revolving around depression, eating disorders, and sometimes even leading to suicide. Due to this, a research program by the name The Strategic Training Initiative for the Prevention of Eating Disorders (STRIPED) has begun to study the dangerous and harmful effects of social media platforms and how we are able to regulate social media's presentation of harmful content. It has been found that $11 billion revenue has been made from users ages 0-17 through advertisement methods which is why companies continue to display harmful content to youth.
Policymaking may be a way to regulate social media platforms, but certain legal obstacles make it difficult to provide regulation. First, The First Amendment protects the rights of social media platforms since social media is just a computer code, individuals attempting to regulate media speech, are at risk of violating this law. As for Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA), online services are provided with protection and are not responsible for the speech produced by the 3rd party individuals who are using the platform. Due to this, new laws created for social media safety have to be careful not to overrun and violate the currently standing laws such as the First Amendment. So, it is important to require companies to have algorithm risk audits which are approaches that review media processing systems through testing media outputs or documentations in order to protect the wellbeing of the youth and diminish the risk of danger.
Darren L Linvell discusses the “dark side” of social media which is the dangers that are brought along to students within and beyond a college campus. Social media use within students in the college age range use social media as a way to be able to display themselves. Some students choose to display their authentic selves, while others choose to create a different persona to present to surrounding peers. But, social media does come with its dangers such as cyberbullying, racial hostility, aggression, stalking, et. When students present whichever persona they display publicly online, they are at risk of falling victim to cyberbullying. Cyberbullying produces a larger number of bystanders than physical bullying as it is seen as less serious and that the victim brought on the situation to themselves. But, both cyberbullying and physical bullying have the same unfortunate outcomes such as mental health impacts and even suicide. The importance of the idea of teaching social media literacy to students to increase levels of safety within social media through education. Students may not always care to engage in this method, so it is more recommended to focus on the process and communication that occurs in order to give the result of certain information when engaging with information given. Another main focus is also the concept of digital civility as it requires creating healthy relationships through building mutual understanding with each other by learning to communicate properly. Rather than focusing on teaching students all aspects of social media literacy/safety, the light focuses on human communication skills because students are more likely to be engaged and educated more from this method to develop higher social media literacy.
Since it is difficult to implement legal policymaking actions against media dangers, the APA has released recommendations which discuss various methods that families may try to improve social media safety. Recommendations vary from stating that adolescents should be educated in social media literacy which is done through the SMILE method. But looking back at points made by Darren L Linvell, this method may make students less interested in being educated on it which results in unsafe media consumption behavior. Other recommendations discuss that setting limitations may decrease intake of harmful content which leads to adolescents engaging in eating disorder behavior, negative self image, and violence. Another goal of limitation is to aid adolescents in keeping up a healthy sleep schedule and physical activity engagement. But, recommendations may not work for every family, which is why some releases as well as clinicians state that rules should be made based on an individual's intellectual stage/knowledge. This connects to the importance of keeping up a healthy family dynamic, which is why parents should aim to understand their children's weaknesses and strengths within knowledge on social media use. Parents need to understand their children and have trust in them that they will use social media safely. Families can discuss together what limitations may be implemented within media use and that way adolescents will not feel unmotivated to use media in a harmful way as they are able to have a say within media rules and not feel limited by external influences (adults, policies, etc.) This connects to another advisory stated by the APA which discusses that parents should collaborate with teens in order to get them on board to use social media more safely. It is important for adults to support teens' personal interests rather than keeping them limited from it as that may lead to harmful/dangerous behavior that is not in the teens best interest.
Overall, it is seen that unsafe and sometimes even safe media use, can bring upon negative outcomes such as dangers and various threats that young adolescents have to deal with. Various law making policies are attempting to be made, but current laws create an obstruction in that path which make it difficult to create laws to fight media dangers. Due to this, families and adolescents have to take matters into their own hands to protect themselves from media harm. Fortunately, various sources such as the APA give helpful and effective recommendations to help protect themselves. It is important to address privacy and awareness matters when dealing with media use. Social media is a platform that gives access to endless opportunities and possibilities, but in order to keep this progression up, it is necessary to create effective legal policies as well as understand basic media literacy and digital civility.
References
Social media
Social impact
Identity (social science) | 0.771336 | 0.979391 | 0.755439 |
Educational anthropology | Educational anthropology, or the anthropology of education, is a sub-field of socio-cultural anthropology that focuses on the role that culture has in education, as well as how social processes and cultural relations are shaped by educational settings. To do so, educational anthropologists focus on education and multiculturalism, educational pluralism, culturally relevant pedagogy and native methods of learning and socializing. Educational anthropologists are also interested in the education of marginal and peripheral communities within large nation states. Overall, educational anthropology tends to be considered as an applied field, as the focus of educational anthropology is on improving teaching learning process within classroom settings.
Educational anthropology is largely associated with the pioneering work of Margaret Mead and later, George Spindler, Solon Kimball, Dell Hymes, and Jean Lave. The formative years of educational anthropology (1925-1954) were defined by ethnography in classrooms that maintained views of the researcher as a detached observer and grew out of research on Native American personality, education, and administration. During the 1970s, educational anthropology became more consolidated as a field of study particularly due to the influence of professors at Teachers College, Columbia University. The focus of educational anthropology is broadly situated around the many forms of education, although an anthropological approach to education tends to focus on the cultural aspects of education, encompassing both informal and formal education.
Theories and methods
As education involves understandings of who we are, the field is centrally concerned with cultural transmission. Cultural transmission involves the transfer of a sense of identity, both individual and collective, between generations, sometimes via enculturation and sometimes through acculturation. Accordingly, educational anthropology has become increasingly focused on ethnic identity and cultural change and transformation.
Ethnography remains the primary mode of anthropological fieldwork within anthropological studies of education. Educational studies themselves have historically been critiqued for relying too heavily on statistical data and other empirical findings to make wide-sweeping claims; however, early educational anthropologists advocated for the importance of participant observation as an ethnographic method in order to contextualize schooling practices. In the 1970s, three foci of anthropological ethnographies of education were articulated as follows: (1) the relationship between schools and their sociocultural contexts; (2) processes and practices of teaching and learning; and (3) the relationships between students, between teachers, and between teachers and students.
Although a wide variety of anthropological theorizations around pedagogy and educational praxis persist, there are three frameworks that are central to understanding educational anthropology as a field. The first is the cultural deficit framework, which posits that students have internal deficiencies limiting their educational achievement that stem from their culture, linguistic background, family, and personal traits, among many other factors. This model of thinking places responsibility upon individuals, rather than educational institutions themselves, for student success. The second overarching theoretical framework is that of the cultural difference theory. This lens argues that students from different cultures approach and understand education differently based on their upbringing and cultural beliefs, values, and traditions. The final theoretical framework that is central to the field is cultural ecological theory. This approach, credited to John Ogbu, considers the broad impacts of culture, the sociocultural settings of educational institutions, and the historical ramifications of inequity in order to fully contextualize each student's encounter with schooling. Ogbu's work was centered around minority education, thinking about the internal and external reasons behind student "success" in ways that were cross-cultural and refused deficit ideologies.
Questions of minority education have dominated educational anthropological thinking in the 21st century, particularly in relationship to multilingual students. As a result, educational anthropology has increasingly grappled with ideas of culturally relevant pedagogies (CRP), culturally responsive pedagogies, and culturally sustaining pedagogies (CSP). These conversations around pedagogies that are empowering and highlight the cultural and linguistic capital of students are ongoing.
History of educational anthropology
Education anthropology is typically considered to have originated in the mid-1920s, with field consolidation occurring in the 1950s and 1960s and spurring the theoretical shifts that define the field into the 21st century. The history of the field is intertwined with the history of Teachers College, Columbia University. In 1896, Franz Boas established the department of anthropology at Columbia; it was only two years later, in 1898, that Teachers College was founded. Although it was not until 1935 that a course entitled "Anthropology and Education" was offered, some students trained in both programs, including Elsie Clews Parsons. In 1947, Margaret Mead began a formal relationship with Teachers College from the department of anthropology at Columbia. This mirrored the change to the overall field, in which Anthropology and Education (and the corresponding Council on Anthropology and Education) were formed by Margaret Mead, Solon Kimball, and Conrad Arensberg at Columbia, as well as George Spindler and colleagues at Stanford.
For educational anthropology in the United Kingdom, the 1930s saw social anthropology that ethnographically considered educational forms of the Tallensi and Tikopia people, done by Meyer Fortes and Raymond Firth. However, there was limited crossover between American cultural anthropologists and British social anthropologists studying educational forms and functions until World War II, which fundamentally altered the geographic and theoretical scope of American cultural anthropology.
In 1954, George Spindler convened the first Educational Anthropology Conference at Stanford, which was supremely influential in moving educational anthropology out of its formative years and into the field consolidation that defined the 1960s. As such, Education and Anthropology (1955), edited by George Spindler, is upheld as one of the earliest texts that argued for and illustrated the distinct presence of educational anthropology as a subfield of cultural anthropology. This edited work is a report of the 1954 conference and includes papers including "Anthropology and Education: An Overview" (George Spindler), "The Method of Natural History and Education Research" (Solon Kimball), and "Discrepancies in the Teaching of American Culture" (Dorothy Lee).
Into the 1960s, educational anthropology encountered two key Marxist critiques of education. One was a structural Marxist critique of capitalist schooling and school socialization as a means of producing obedient workers; the other was the rise of Paulo Freire's liberation theology and transformational praxis. Although Freire's work was taken up in force by scholars such as Henry Giroux and Peter McLaren, many educational anthropologists did not engage closely with the Marxist critique of class formation in the 1970s, choosing instead to address deficit ideologies of non-hegemonic cultural and linguistic practices within schools.
Into the 1980s, anthropological theorizations of culture shifted to emphasize the role of practice and performance within culture, including the work of Sherry Ortner (1984) and George Marcus and Michael Fischer (1986). These coincided with the rise of European Sociology of Education, a theoretical turn that references the emerging incorporation of Bourdieu and Gramsci. This turn influenced how educational anthropologists thought about education in terms of cultural production and class culture.
The 1990s witnessed a surge of educational anthropology that thought about the role educational institutions take in promoting social justice and began to take activist, engaged stances in regards to their work. This has led to educational ethnographies that take on participatory action research and other collaborative methodologies to address the reification of inequity within schooling. In tandem with this, more research has looked into minority education and multilingual education, shifting into considerations of culturally sustaining, relevant, and responsive pedagogies. These pedagogical considerations persist into the present day.
Council on Anthropology and Education (CAE)
The Council on Anthropology and Education is the section of the American Anthropological Association (AAA) that is dedicated to the study of schooling within their sociocultural contexts. Founded in 1968, the CAE presents their mission as necessarily responsive to oppression and social injustice in ways that bring together educators, anthropologists, and interdisciplinary scholars to fight for equitable educational systems. Their peer-reviewed journal is Anthropology & Education Quarterly (AEQ), which is one of the 15 journals the AAA makes available through AnthroSource. There are 15 interest groups within CAE:
Ethnography of Schools and Communities
Multilingualism, (Multi)Literacies and Language in Schools and Communities
Anthropology of Post-Secondary Education
Cultural Learning and Transmission
African Americans, African Diaspora and Education
Latin@s/x and Education
Indigenous Education
Asians, Pacific Islanders, and Asian Americans in Education
Gender and Sexuality in Schools and Society
International Issues, (Im)migration, Transnationalism and Citizenship in Educational Contexts
Disability Studies in Education
Privatization, Markets, and (Post-)Neoliberalism in Educational Contexts
Anthropology of Environmental and Science Education
Ethnography of Educational Policies and Systems
Adult Teaching and Learning Communities, Workplaces and Schools
Additionally, 7 annual awards are offered each year by CAE:
George and Louise Spindler Award
Concha Delgado Gaitán CAE Presidential Fellows Award
Douglas Foley Early Career Award
CAE Outstanding Book Award
Frederick Erikson Outstanding Dissertation Award
Shirley Brice Health Travel Award
CAE Studies in Educational Ethnography Travel Award
Journals
Some of the main journals in the field include:
Anthropology & Education Quarterly
Education & Culture
Ethnography and Education Journal
Pedagogy, Culture, and Society
References
Anthropology
Comparative education | 0.785457 | 0.961773 | 0.755431 |
Subsets and Splits