Search Results

Bird Brains, Social Contact, and Song

Jay Schulkin

in Reflections on the Musical Mind: An Evolutionary Perspective

This chapter examines the evolution of bird brain, social contact, and birdsong. Communicative capabilities are widespread, whether in song or through other forms of intimate social contact. One ... More

This chapter examines the evolution of bird brain, social contact, and birdsong. Communicative capabilities are widespread, whether in song or through other forms of intimate social contact. One mechanism for this is the regulation of information molecules in the brain such as vasopressin and oxytocin. The chapter first provides an overview of information molecules before connecting these processes to song in frogs, crickets, and birds. It then considers neurogenesis and how information molecules work in the human brain, focusing on some core biology underlying animal song and social contact. It shows that steroid hormones facilitate neuropeptide expression in many species, which underlies song tied to the regulation of the internal milieu, territorial expression, reproduction, and a much wider range of social behaviors.Less

Development, Music, and Social Contact

Jay Schulkin

in Reflections on the Musical Mind: An Evolutionary Perspective

This chapter examines normal neonatal orientation to sounds as well as developmental disorders that affect musical sensibility, including Williams syndrome, a form of hypersocial expression coupled ... More

This chapter examines normal neonatal orientation to sounds as well as developmental disorders that affect musical sensibility, including Williams syndrome, a form of hypersocial expression coupled with a liking for music. It first explains how a sense of music begins very early in infancy, noting that the discrimination of pitch and other perceptual capabilities are expressed within the first year of life, events believed to be fundamentally linked to social capabilities. It is the social world, gaining a foothold in the life of others, which makes this knowledge essential. Rhythmic engagement also begins in infancy, generating movement. This musical expression is linked to affective needs and diverse forms of social contact. The chapter proceeds by discussing hypersocial and hyposocial behaviors among individuals with Williams syndrome, along with the evolution of social behavior that underlies musical expression. Finally, it considers epigenetic events and lifelong learning changes in relation to music.Less

Music and Well-Being

Jay Schulkin

in Reflections on the Musical Mind: An Evolutionary Perspective

This conclusion considers the effects of music on well-being. Music evolved in the context of social contact and meaning. Music allows us to reach out to others and expand our human experience toward ... More

This conclusion considers the effects of music on well-being. Music evolved in the context of social contact and meaning. Music allows us to reach out to others and expand our human experience toward and with others. This process began with song and was expanded through instruments and dance. Music serves, among other things, to facilitate social cooperative and coordinated behaviors—the induction of “social harmonies.” Musical sensibility is a panoply of emotions that are inextricably linked to our cognitive, motor, and premotor resources and are expressed in everything we do, most especially in music. This conclusion also explains how music and language enhance each other with regard to cephalic function and behavioral adaptation, noting that both are essentially rooted in social contact.Less

Music and the Brain: An Evolutionary Context

Jay Schulkin

in Reflections on the Musical Mind: An Evolutionary Perspective

This chapter examines how music fits into the evolution of human cognitive capabilities and how the auditory system, larynx, motor systems, and cephalic expansion underlie musical expression as well ... More

This chapter examines how music fits into the evolution of human cognitive capabilities and how the auditory system, larynx, motor systems, and cephalic expansion underlie musical expression as well as the evolution of social contact. The specific adaptation for decoding facial responses, and the more general aptitudes such as applying numerical capabilities to diverse problems, pervade a biological understanding of cognitive adaptation. Cognitive systems are distributed across neural systems that traverse the brain stem to the forebrain. The chapter first provides an overview of some of the core features of problem solving and human expression before discussing the concepts of time and calculations that are embedded in our cognitive capabilities. It also explores the importance of hearing and vocal expression for music and concludes by suggesting that the roots of music may be in the inherent shared features of our social brain.Less

Contacts, Commerce, and the Dynamics of New Visual Patterns

Peter S. Wells

in How Ancient Europeans Saw the World: Vision, Patterns, and the Shaping of the Mind in Prehistoric Times

This chapter discusses the extent to which communities in temperate Europe became increasingly integrated into the larger world of the Mediterranean basin and beyond, and how the process of ... More

This chapter discusses the extent to which communities in temperate Europe became increasingly integrated into the larger world of the Mediterranean basin and beyond, and how the process of integration worked. Major changes in the visual structure and patterning of objects took place in the context of major changes in the relationship between societies in temperate Europe and societies in the Mediterranean basin, in Asia, and in Africa. The changes emerged internally, from within the societies of temperate Europe. They were in no sense “caused by” outside societies, nor by trade relations with outside societies. The changes in the visual character of fifth-century-BC objects resulted principally from the expanded dissemination of ideas, embodied in new objects, styles, motifs, and designs. The changes in the second century BC resulted mainly from the expansion of commerce—of trade in goods.Less

When Will We Meet Again? Regularities of Social Connectivity and Their Reflections in Memory and Decision Making

Thorsten Pachur, Lael J. Schooler, and Jeffrey R. Stevens

in Simple Heuristics in a Social World

Do we move through our social world in lawful ways? And how to describe the regularities that underlie the frequency with which we encounter the different members of our social networks? Based on ... More

Do we move through our social world in lawful ways? And how to describe the regularities that underlie the frequency with which we encounter the different members of our social networks? Based on records of daily social contact, this chapter shows that the probability of contact with another person follows three lawful regularities. Specifically, the probability of future contact is lawfully related to the frequency of past contact, the recency of the last contact and how the past contacts have been distributed over time. The dynamics between the probability of future contact and these aspects of past contact thus seem to follow general regularities that have also been found for word occurrence and document access. Moreover, the distribution of contact probability across the different network members is highly skewed, with frequent contact restricted to only very few individuals. The chapter discusses the possible implications of these regularities for the emergence of cooperation and point out that in an environment in which contact probability to most network members is very low, prominent cooperation heuristics such as tit-for-tat are unlikely to emerge. Moreover, the chapter discusses how memory might assist in assessing the probability of future contact. Specifically, the chapter shows that one plausible mechanism, based on memory activation, will lead to predictable errors in the estimations.Less

Music and Dance

Jay Schulkin

in Reflections on the Musical Mind: An Evolutionary Perspective

This chapter explores the relationship between music and dance. The human condition is linked to music and dance, and the range of human emotional expression is fundamental in this regard. Susanne ... More

This chapter explores the relationship between music and dance. The human condition is linked to music and dance, and the range of human emotional expression is fundamental in this regard. Susanne Langer, a professor of philosophy at Connecticut College, understood that movement and dance are at the heart of music, and that music is at the heart of movement. The chapter first considers the internal clock and cognitive physiology that regulate our sense of movement before discussing the theme of art embedded in experience, with music and dance as fundamental components of that experience. It then examines how music is expanded and tied to meaning, stories, and living experience. It also describes the concept of musement and concludes by suggesting that music and dance co-evolved in contexts of adaptation, human meaning, and social contact; within this is a mixture of what Leonard Meyer called “an aesthetics of stability.”Less

Social capital and health in the Swedish welfare state

Mikael Rostila

in Health inequalities and welfare resources: Continuity and change in Sweden

This chapter deals with the mysterious and obscure concept of ‘social capital’. It discusses how this popular, but somewhat mysterious concept has been understood in the research literature. It ... More

This chapter deals with the mysterious and obscure concept of ‘social capital’. It discusses how this popular, but somewhat mysterious concept has been understood in the research literature. It demonstrates how the distribution of the preconditions for social capital, such as informal and formal social contacts, differ between various groups in Sweden and how this, in turn, influences health. It notes that welfare state institutions have been seen as important for the emergence of social capital and for the development of trust and solidarity in society. It also discusses the role of the welfare state in maintaining, creating, or perhaps even destroying the preconditions for social capital in a society.Less

The Power of Social Comparison

Meghan Condon and Amber Wichowsky

in The Economic Other: Inequality in the American Political Imagination

The final chapter situates social comparison as an important power resource and asks whether the politics of social comparison can be altered to break the reinforcing cycle of inequality and ... More

The final chapter situates social comparison as an important power resource and asks whether the politics of social comparison can be altered to break the reinforcing cycle of inequality and political will. The authors theorize that political communication that encourages upward comparison, messages of solidarity, and long-term social contact and integration between people from different classes can disrupt the reinforcing cycle.Less

An Embedded Exchange: Between Real and Virtual Space

Dariusz Wójcik

in The Global Stock Market: Issuers, Investors, and Intermediaries in an Uneven World

Chapter 6 switches the focus of the book to stock exchanges, providing a detailed empirical account of the geographical nature of their activities. The analysis focuses on the case study of the ... More

Chapter 6 switches the focus of the book to stock exchanges, providing a detailed empirical account of the geographical nature of their activities. The analysis focuses on the case study of the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE) in Poland, representing one of the most dynamic and successful stock markets in the world in the last decade. The empirical sections investigate the relationships of the WSE with exchange members, issuers, and investors, showing that technology complements rather than substitutes the value of physical proximity, as many stock exchange activities rely on close social contacts. It is argued that the success of the WSE lies in its embeddedness in the Polish economy and long-term developmental perspective. The chapter also suggests that while the international consolidation of exchanges is likely to continue, financial centres and exchanges remain crucially important for each other.Less

In Defense of More Permeable Prisons

Richard L. Lippke

in Rethinking Imprisonment

This chapter discusses the case for providing prison inmates with access to the outside social world. It argues that the case for state facilitation of prisoner social contact with outsiders is ... More

This chapter discusses the case for providing prison inmates with access to the outside social world. It argues that the case for state facilitation of prisoner social contact with outsiders is strong in its own right, given the obstacles imprisonment puts in the path of such contact and the benefits of providing it. But the case for it is strengthened further by acknowledgment of the legitimate interests outsiders have in maintaining satisfactory relationships with their imprisoned friends and loved ones.Less

Social participation and social support

Lisa Wilson, Eldin Fahmy, and Nick Bailey

in Poverty and Social Exclusion in the UK: Vol. 2: The Dimensions of Disadvantage

Townsend argued that poverty is a key barrier to social participation as it limits people’s ability to participate in social activities and to maintain social relationships or networks. The results ... More

Townsend argued that poverty is a key barrier to social participation as it limits people’s ability to participate in social activities and to maintain social relationships or networks. The results in this chapter support this argument finding that poverty acts as a barrier to social contact, particularly with friends; that it constrains participation in a range of social activities, and; that it shapes perceptions of support and satisfaction with relationships. People experiencing social and material deprivation have less social contact than they would like, and attribute this to cost or affordability problems, although other factors such as health or caring responsibilities can play a role too. That said, the importance of contact with family in particular emerges clearly in this analysis. For those groups where there are likely to be additional needs for support as a result of poverty, caring roles or health problems, contact with family tends to be significantly higher - likely reflecting the importance of family as both the central source of financial resources and of practical and emotional support. Households in these groups who lack access to such family networks may face particular disadvantages. All in all, the study finds that people experiencing poverty are often in effect excluded from widely accepted norms of social participation in the UK today. Less

Coming Out, Entertainment Television, and the Youth Revolt

Jeremiah J. Garretson

in The Path to Gay Rights: How Activism and Coming Out Changed Public Opinion

This chapter begins by describing the dramatic increase in direct contact of the American public with LGBTQ people documented using polling data. Trends in depictions of LGBTQ people on television ... More

This chapter begins by describing the dramatic increase in direct contact of the American public with LGBTQ people documented using polling data. Trends in depictions of LGBTQ people on television and film are outlined, which mirror the expansion of direct contact with LGBTQs. These two factors---direct contact and meditated contact---are processed in similar ways psychologically according to affective liberalization. Both are predicted to be more effective at attitude change among younger people. The theory is then empirically tested using four different expansive cross-time public opinion datasets. All four analyses of the data-sets come to same conclusion, contact with LGBTQs (mediated and interpersonal) explains all the distinctive features of attitude change---its large magnitude, its timing, its broadness across specific gay rights issues, and its concentration among the millennial generation.Less

Varieties of Altruism

Kitcher Philip

in Preludes to Pragmatism: Toward a Reconstruction of Philosophy

This chapter begins with an attempt to specify the many forms of psychological altruism, with sufficient precision to enable social theory to move beyond the fiction that human beings belong to the ... More

This chapter begins with an attempt to specify the many forms of psychological altruism, with sufficient precision to enable social theory to move beyond the fiction that human beings belong to the species Homo economicus. It then considers two problems, descending from Smith and Rousseau, respectively. Smith recognized, correctly, that human beings sometimes sympathize with one another, but in the masterpiece for which he is best known, left any such dispositions out of account in his analyses: according to its most famous sentence, “It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest.” Effectively, Smith separated human life into two spheres, one in which sympathetic dispositions are engaged and one in which they are suppressed. The chapter explores why our altruistic propensities are overridden in the commercial sphere, considers the potential difficulties of this split in our lives, and investigates the possibility of a system of economic transactions among incompletely altruistic agents. The second problem focuses on Rousseau's version of the social contract. It suggests that some apparently puzzling features of what Rousseau has in mind can be better understood if we conceive the parties to the contract as limited altruists who hope to buttress and expand their altruistic tendencies.Less

The Finnish Developmental State and its Growth Regime

Markus Jäntti and Juhana Vartiainen

in Development Success: Historical Accounts from More Advanced Countries

This chapter reviews Finland's growth strategy in the postwar decades. Finland was able to initiate an impressive mobilization of resources during this period, reflected mostly in a high rate of ... More

This chapter reviews Finland's growth strategy in the postwar decades. Finland was able to initiate an impressive mobilization of resources during this period, reflected mostly in a high rate of capital accumulation for manufacturing industries. This was achieved by an unorthodox combination of dirigiste means and a basic commitment to upholding the market economy. The state acted as a net saver, and credit was rationed to productive investment outlays. This policy package may have been boosted by the country's precarious international position during the cold war, so that an economic failure would have been very risky indeed. We argue also that incomes policies and welfare reforms were important in sustaining the necessary political compromise that underpinned the Finnish development state.Less

From the Bigot in Our Midst to Good People with Hidden Biases: The Scientific Study of Prejudice

Linda C. McClain

in Who's the Bigot?: Learning from Conflicts over Marriage and Civil Rights Law

This chapter examines two significant stages in the scientific study of prejudice and intergroup relations as a resource for understanding bigotry. It illustrates the first, the post–World War II ... More

This chapter examines two significant stages in the scientific study of prejudice and intergroup relations as a resource for understanding bigotry. It illustrates the first, the post–World War II period, with Gordon W. Allport’s foundational The Nature of Prejudice (1954). The chapter explores the tension in Allport’s work between viewing the bigot as a distinct personality type and viewing prejudice and stereotypes as the outgrowth of ordinary cognitive processes. It analyzes other relevant features of Allport: the social contact hypothesis; the argument that “stateways” (antidiscrimination law) could change “folkways” by enlisting conscience to fight prejudice; and religion’s role in fostering but also condemning bigotry. The chapter explains how social scientists measured prejudice through people’s attitudes toward intermarriage. The second stage the chapter evaluates is study of implicit (or hidden) bias and unconscious cognition (“the bigot in your brain”). Such study maintains that people can recognize and fight those biases.Less

Early Retirement, Mental Health, and Social Networks

Axel Börsch-Supan and Morten Schuth

in Discoveries in the Economics of Aging

This paper explores the interrelationships between early retirement, mental health—especially cognition—and the size and composition of social networks among older people. While early retirement ... More

This paper explores the interrelationships between early retirement, mental health—especially cognition—and the size and composition of social networks among older people. While early retirement enables more leisure and relieves stressful job conditions, it also accelerates cognitive decline. We argue in this paper that part of this accelerated cognitive ageing occurs because social networks shrink especially after early retirement. Social contacts are a side effect of employment that keeps workers mentally agile. Social contacts, especially with friends, however, decline gradually after retirement, with an acceleration effect when retirement was early. The paper therefore puts some shade on the popular notion that early retirement is bliss.Less

Birthdays, Basketball, and Breaking Bread: Negotiating with Class in Contemporary Black America

in Harlemworld: Doing Race and Class in Contemporary Black America

This chapter discusses that many Harlemites have social relationships that extend across class lines and concerns class-stratified relationships among family members and friends to examine just how ... More

This chapter discusses that many Harlemites have social relationships that extend across class lines and concerns class-stratified relationships among family members and friends to examine just how class differences can inform and reshape important social contacts, sometimes ending friendships and straining familial ties, other times providing alternative spaces for mutually beneficial relationships to thrive despite class differences. If friendships are difficult to hold onto amid class differences, familial ties can be just as hard. Some people live fairly close to relatives of different classes or status positions and purposefully avoid them. Maybe the person who has achieved a bit of socioeconomic success does not want to feel the guilt of that success juxtaposed against other people's failure. Class-stratified interactions do not necessarily have to be substantive to be important and formative. Sometimes a fleeting moment or a brief encounter with a stranger or a series of short interactions with acquaintances can have tremendous significance in terms of how people think about class. Role models may be important, but that is not the only way class differences affect people's lives.Less

Communication, Differentiation and the Evolution of World Society

Boris Holzer

in What in the World?: Understanding Global Social Change

This chapter uses a systems theory perspective to examine how the globalization processes of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries affected social contacts, societal groups, and social change. It ... More

This chapter uses a systems theory perspective to examine how the globalization processes of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries affected social contacts, societal groups, and social change. It looks at developments and changes that took place in the nineteenth century that point to both continuities and ruptures with earlier epochs and their further consolidation and elaboration throughout the twentieth century. It also discusses a sociological perspective on a 'long twentieth century' and discernible transformations of the social world, which provided the foundation for a global modernity and popularized the aspiration towards it. The chapter implies an interest in fundamental sociological concepts, namely communication, differentiation, and evolution. It investigates the integral part of a long-term transformation that is developed by fundamental or societal revolution.Less