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PubMed2004

Demystifying social cognition: a Hebbian perspective.

For humans and monkeys, understanding the actions of others is central to survival. Here we review the physiological properties of three cortical areas involved in this capacity: the STS, PF and F5. Based on the anatomical connections of these areas, and the Hebbian learning rule, we propose a simple but powerful account of how the monkey brain can learn to understand the actions of others by associating them with self-produced actions, at the same time discriminating its own actions from those of others. As this system appears also to exist in man, this network model can provide a framework for understanding human social perception.

Animals↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Perceptions of body size and obesity: a selected review of the literature.

In this article, the literature on body image and related obesity perceptions is discussed. Research findings which span a 20 year period are summarized. Initially, Cheryl Rittenbaugh's concept of obesity as 'a culture bound syndrome' serves as a rationale for understanding sociocultural dimensions of body size perceptions. In this regard, the premise that perceptions of obesity and overweight have cultural determinants is substantiated in the reviewed literature. Societal preferences for body build and size and attitudes about weight are examined as a framework for understanding the impact that social perceptions have on individuals who are either overweight or obese. As a result of negative attitudes toward fatness, stigmatization of overweight people has been consistently documented. In related studies, investigators have centered on self-perceptions of obese and overweight individuals. According to the data, the existence of body image disturbance among extremely overweight individuals is a common phenomenon. However, evidence is also presented that suggests that normal weight individuals (especially women) may also have difficulty in accurately assessing their body size. The final focus of this paper is the relationship between body image and weight change behavior. As indicated in the discussion, this area of research has received the least amount of attention in the literature, and the present findings are contradictory. The paper concludes with recommendations for future research directions.

Body Image↗
PubMed2004

Getting a cue: the need to belong and enhanced sensitivity to social cues.

To successfully establish and maintain social relationships, individuals need to be sensitive to the thoughts and feelings of others. In the current studies, the authors predicted that individuals who are especially concerned with social connectedness--individuals high in the need to belong--would be particularly attentive to and accurate in decoding social cues. In Study 1, individual differences in the need to belong were found to be positively related to accuracy in identifying vocal tone and facial emotion. Study 2 examined attention to vocal tone and accuracy in a more complex social sensitivity task (an empathic accuracy task). Replicating the results of Study 1, need to belong scores predicted both attention to vocal tone and empathic accuracy. Study 3 provided evidence that the enhanced performance shown by those high in the need to belong is specific to social perception skills rather than to cognitive problem solving more generally.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1991

Construct validity of two heterosocial perception skill measures for assessing rape proclivity.

Rape-supportive attitudes and self-reported rape proclivity (using a measure by Malamuth, Haber, & Feshbach, 1980) were negatively correlated with decoding accuracy of women's negative cues (measured by the TRAC-D; McDonel, McFall, Schlundt, & Levenson, 1985) in an unselected sample of male college students. Better decoders of negative female cues on the TRAC-D, as well as subjects expressing fewer rape-supportive beliefs and less rape proclivity, were more conservative in their estimates of a man's justification in continuing to make sexual advances in the face of a woman's negative cues on the Heterosocial Perception Survey (HPS; McDonel, 1986). Ability to decode men's interpersonal cues was not correlated with responses on the HPS or rape attitude and proclivity measures, suggesting that specific rather than global decoding deficits were useful predictors of rape correlates. These results support the construct validity of the two social perception measures, the TRAC-D, and the HPS, as measures of rape proclivity.

Adult↗
PubMed1979

The doctor's white coat. The image of the physician in modern America.

The social perception of the physician has changed during the past century. This is reflected in the changing use of a symbol of the profession, the white coat. This dress originated in operating rooms, scientific laboratories, and modern hospitals, each of which contributed to the social understanding of what it means to be a healer. Adding the cultural significance of "whiteness" reveals a broad spectrum of meaning surrounding the healing encounter whose most important aspects are the authority and supernatural powers of scientific physicians and the protection of patients. A major force aiding in the adoption of this symbol was the shift in sick care from home to hospital, where it served to legitimate otherwise socially taboo behavior. Recent changes in how scientific medicine is publicly viewed have eroded these established meanings. The resulting tensions affect individual patient-physician encounters and interactions between the profession and society as a whole.

Clothing↗
PubMed1977

Interpersonal perception in addict families.

A technique called the "Interperception Matrix" was devised to investigate interpersonal perception in eight families in which addicted offspring maintained close parental ties. The addict families were compared with eight matched control families. Several differences were found between the two types of families. In addict families: (a) addicts, their fathers, and their mothers all held the addicts in low regard; (b) addicts were described as very different from their parents; (c) parents and addicts disagreed more in their perception of the addicts; (d) there was a consensus that the addicts' major flaws were passivity and dependence; and (e) the addicts' mothers described themselves as less agreeable and more passive. Addict families and control families were similar in their descriptions of an ideal for the offspring and in generally favorable descriptions of both parents. These results extend and partially validate clinical observations that social perception in addict families serves to perpetuate opiate addiction by undermining addicts' self-esteem. These data, in conjunction with new understandings emerging from the addiction literature, support an approach to addiction therapy based on reframing family perception.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1998

Spontaneous trait transference: communicators taken on the qualities they describe in others.

Spontaneous trait transference occurs when communicators are perceived as possessing the very traits they describe in others. Study 1 confirmed that communicators become associated with the trait implications of their descriptions of others and that such associations persist over time. Study 2 demonstrated that these associations influence specific trait impressions of communicators. Study 3 suggested that spontaneous trait transference reflects simple associative processes that occur even when there are no logical bases for making inferences. Finally, Study 4 used more naturalistic stimuli and provided additional evidence that the phenomenon reflects mindless associations rather than logical attributions. Together these studies demonstrate that spontaneous trait transference is a reliable phenomenon that plays a previously unrecognized role in social perception and interaction.

Analysis of Variance↗
PubMed2004

Sense-making in the wake of September 11th: a network analysis of lay understandings.

The objective of this research was to document and explore British university students' immediate understanding of the events of September 11th. A network analysis of lay causal perceptions procedure was employed to capture the social perceptions and sense-making of respondents at a time when they and the world struggled to impose meaning and coherence on the events. The study also examined the possible effects of 'belief in a just world' and 'right-wing authoritarianism' on the pattern of perceived causes. The results suggest that most participants perceive cultural and religious differences, the history of conflict in the Middle East, unfairness and prejudice as being the distal causes of the individual agent's emotions and actions. There is also some evidence that right-wing authoritarianism and belief in a just world have an interactive effect on the strength of the perceived link between some of these causes.

Adult↗
PubMed2006

Social attribution processes and comorbid psychiatric symptoms in children with Asperger syndrome.

The factors that place children with Asperger syndrome at risk for comorbid psychiatric symptoms, such as anxiety and depression, remain poorly understood. We investigated the possibility that the children's emotional and behavioral difficulties are associated with social information and attribution processing. Participants were children with either Asperger syndrome (n = 31) or typical development (n = 33).To assess social information and attribution processing, children responded to hypothetical social vignettes. They also completed self-report measures of social difficulties and psychological functioning. Their parents provided information on social competence and clinical presentation. Children with Asperger syndrome showed poor psychosocial adjustment, which was related to their social information and attribution processing patterns. Cognitive and social-cognitive abilities were associated with aspects of social information processing tendencies, but not with emotional and behavioral difficulties. Results suggest that the comorbid symptoms of children with Asperger syndrome may be associated with their social perception, understanding, and experience.

Affect↗
PubMed1998

Voluntary health insurance in Bwamanda, Democratic Republic of Congo. An exploration of its meanings to the community.

An insurance scheme covering hospital care in the rural district of Bwamanda in the North-west of the Democratic Republic of Congo, which locally is called the mutuelle, was conceived and developed in 1986 on the initiative of Belgian doctors working in the district under the arrangements for bilateral Belgian aid. After more than 10 years of operation the Bwamanda scheme has achieved a high rate of coverage, contributed to a significant improvement in access to hospital-based in-patient care, and constitutes a stable source of revenue for the operation of the hospital. We present an investigation conducted through focus groups in 1996 of the population's social perceptions of this risk-sharing scheme to identify ways to improve it. The findings pertain to the reasons for people to subscribe to the scheme; to the perception of its redistribution effects; to people's frustrations and questions; and finally to the relationships between the insurance scheme and traditional mutual aid arrangements. The difference between a hospital insurance scheme (a logic of contract) and the traditional systems of mutual aid (a logic of alliance) is highlighted, and the impact of the hospital insurance scheme on social inequalities is discussed. The implications of this study on the management of the Bwamanda health insurance scheme are reviewed, and this study may be useful to health managers working in similar contexts.

Democratic Republic of the Congo↗
PubMed1981

A dissection of intimacy: a study of "bipolar posturing ' in Japanese social interaction- amaeru and amayakasu, indulgence and deference.

This paper inquires into a "peculiar' form of Japanese intimacy - one that is manifested in a distinctive pattern of social interaction and which in turn is believed to be a retention of a mode of interaction between parent and child. This pattern is comprised of two complementary postures that prescribe, respectively, an individual to indulge himself in love (amaeru) or to defer in love (amayakasu). By "stepping in and out' of these bipolar postures, the Japanese individual is given the opportunity for self-assertion (the aggressive pole) on the one hand, and of altruistic self-withdrawal (the passive pole) on the other. This pattern of interchangeable posture is subsequently inferred to extend beyond intimacy and into formal interactions via tanomu ("ritualized indulgence') and enryo ("exaggerated deference'). This study concludes with the suggestion that since amae is demonstrated to be an empirical presence influencing Japanese basic social perception and behavior, its bipolar posturing might be employed as a distinctive variable in clarifying some paradoxical aspects of Japanese culture and people.

Cultural Characteristics↗
PubMed2002

The Prozac boom and its placebogenic counterpart -- a culturally fashioned phenomenon.

BACKGROUND: The placebo effect describes the mind-body process of altering the body's physiological state as well as the brain's neurological state. Catalyzed by the mind's believing in a certain drug, ritual, and/or treatment, it generally refers to the phenomenon of an ill individual recovering to health. Subsequent to the Prozac boom (fluoxetine), which occurred during the 1980s and 90s in the United States, a new form of placebogenic phenomena was defined: 'cosmetic psychopharmacology', whereby the healthy individual is transformed to fit better in his/her cultural medium (defined by one's values and beliefs). In order to discover how cultural metaphors (e.g. media-generated symbolism, social ideals) influence psychopharmacological treatment, this report investigates the following questions: Is the Prozac Boom culturally fashioned? Is cosmetic psychopharmacology culturally fashioned? Are cosmetic psychopharmacology and its ability to better the individual (relative to American ideals) a placebogenic phenomenon? MATERIAL/METHODS: The data and speculation for the present report was obtained via a cultural and critical review. RESULTS: It would appear that (1) the Prozac Boom and subsequently its by product, cosmetic psychopharmacology, are culturally fashioned; (2) cosmetic psychopharmacology is considered to result from one's belief in a drug and thus is placebo-influenced. CONCLUSIONS: Media-generated symbolism, which represents and reciprocally fashions the ideals and values of that society, influence the social perceptions of a drug's effectiveness and the quality of a particular treatment. In the clinical setting, the influential role of these preconceived notions about a certain treatment and/or drug need to be further considered and studied.

Depressive Disorder↗
PubMed1984

When alcoholics are not anonymous: socioperceptual effects of labeling and drinking pattern.

The influence of the label "alcoholic" on observers' social perceptions and behavioral intentions about peers who consume alcohol normatively or excessively was examined. College students (40 men and 40 women) listened to a tape-recorder bogus interview in which a male interviewee reported either a normative or an excessive drinking pattern after having or ot having been labeled an alcoholic by the experimenter. Subjects then rated their reactions to the interviewee on several dimensions. Relative to the normative drinker, the excessive drinker was more likely to be judged by both sexes as deviant, an alcoholic, not in control of his drinking, poorly adjusted, psychologically ineffective, unlikely to improve, in need of professional help and responsible for this behavior, and was more strongly rejected as a potential friend and co-worker. The label of "alcoholic" negatively affected nearly all these perceptions at each level of alcohol use but without perceptual distortion of the interviewees' amount of consumption. The implications for the contribution of interpersonal stigma to alcohol-related problems are discussed.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Predicting change in physical activity, dietary restraint, and physique anxiety in adolescent girls: examining covariance in physical self-perceptions.

OBJECTIVES: To examine: i) the mean changes in adolescent females' body mass index (BMI), global self-esteem, physical self-perceptions, social physique anxiety, physical activity, and dietary restraint; ii) the stability of measuring self-perceptions, BMI, self-esteem, physique anxiety, activity, and dietary restraint; and iii) the relationships among changes in these variables over 12 months. METHODS: 631 female adolescents (15-16 years old) involved in a two-year study of self-report measures completed validated questionnaires in high school classroom settings. RESULTS: There were small but significant group increases in BMI and social physique anxiety and significant decreases in sport, conditioning, and strength physical self-perceptions and physical activity. Stability analysis indicates moderate to strong stability for all variables. Change analyses indicated that BMI, due to its high stability, is a poor predictor of change in all variables. Stronger significant correlations were noted between change in body appearance self-perceptions and change in social physique anxiety (r=-0.54) and dietary restraint (r=-0.27). There was also a significant relationship between change in physical activity and the physical self-perceptions, although conditioning was the only significant (p<0.05) predictor of change in physical activity (beta=0.340). INTERPRETATION: Physical self-perceptions are a stronger predictor of change in physical activity, dietary restraint, and social physique anxiety compared to BMI. This demonstrates the importance of physical self-perceptions when investigating health-related behaviours associated with dieting and physical activity. The decline in physical activity and increase in BMI is an ongoing concern, as is the link between body appearance self-perceptions and dietary restraint and social physique anxiety.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1979

Aesthetic surgery: how it affects the way patients are perceived by others.

Writings on the psychological effects of aesthetic surgery have evidenced a subtle but important difference of opinion. One viewpoint emphasizes the intrapsychic significance of surgery, while another places great weight on the surgical patient's social feedback from peers. This research was designed to determine whether aesthetic surgery, by altering a patient's appearance, can change the social perceptions and dispositions of those who encounter the patient. A controlled experiment was carried out in which subjects viewed preoperative or postoperative photographs and made a variety of judgments of those pictured. The individuals in the postoperative pictures were judged to have more desirable personalities, to be better potential marriage partners, and to have happier lives than the same individuals photographed before surgery. Since all the impressions were from photographs, actual personality was not a factor in this study. The greatly improved social reception given the individuals in the postoperative pictures is explained by the surgical improvement in their appearance. Thus, the surgeon's work should be viewed as altering not only the patient, but also the patient's social world.

Esthetics↗
PubMed1987

In search of the false-uniqueness phenomenon: fear and estimates of social consensus.

An examination of the social perception literature yields little evidence for the false-uniqueness phenomenon (Valins & Nisbett, 1972), the perception that one's attributes are more unique than is the case. In contrast, the tendency for individuals to project their own characteristics onto other people and assume that more people are like themselves is a robust phenomenon. One reason researchers may not have found false uniqueness is that they have not looked at the accuracy of consensus estimates. A close look at the results of Tabachnik, Crocker, and Alloy (1983) and Sanders and Mullen (1983), who did assess accuracy, suggests that people possessing undesirable attributes over-estimate consensus, whereas people holding desirable attributes underestimate consensus. The latter pattern is a form of false uniqueness. In this study we looked at the accuracy of social consensus estimates in the context of psychological fears. A sample of subjects filled out an abbreviated version of a fear survey and made estimates of consensus. The results showed that both high- and low-fear respondents overestimated the incidence of high fear among their peers, but high-fear subjects were more inaccurate in their estimates. A false-uniqueness effect was found on the part of low-fear subjects, as they tended to underestimate the incidence of low fear among their peers. These findings are consistent with a motivational interpretation that emphasizes the individual's need to justify or normalize stigmatized behavior and to bolster perceived self-competence.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1990

Social judgment processes in hyperactive boys: effects of methylphenidate and comparisons with normal peers.

Although there is consensus that ADHD children have serious social problems, there is little understanding of the mechanisms underlying or accompanying such problems. To examine the possibility of atypical or faulty social reasoning, we presented ADHD and normal boys with a social perception task that entailed evaluating the behaviors of unknown peers. ADHD "judges" participated under both methylphenidate and placebo conditions, and on each occasion they evaluated an unfamiliar ADHD "target" in each medication state. In contrast to placebo, methylphenidate appeared to dampen overall response rates in ADHD judges, but there was no effect on sensitivity to medication-related differences. Regardless of their own medication state, ADHD judges identified more undesirable behaviors in peers on placebo than in those taking methylphenidate. Judges with the most serious behavior problems tended to identify the greatest number of negative behaviors in peers, especially when both judge and target were unmedicated. There were no effects of target medication status on detections of positive behaviors and few differences in detection patterns of ADHD versus normal judges. Discussion focused on the need to distinguish general regulatory from specific social-cognitive processes.

Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity↗
PubMed2005

Biased evaluations of in-group and out-group spectator behavior at sporting events: the importance of team identification and threats to social identity.

Previous researchers have demonstrated that sport fans often exhibit in-group bias by reporting more positive evaluations of fellow in-group fans than of rival out-group fans. The authors designed the present investigation to extend previous research by replicating past efforts in a field setting and to advance our understanding of the impact of social identity threat. The present authors hypothesized that, in addition to the base-level in-group bias effect, the bias effect would be most pronounced in situations involving a threat to one's social identity. The authors believed that fans of a losing team and fans of a home team would experience threats to their identity and, consequently, exhibit particularly high levels of in-group favoritism. Further, because past researchers had shown that one's level of group identification plays a vital role in social perception, the present authors predicted an interaction in which the greatest amount of bias would be exhibited by highly identified fans rooting for a home team that had lost. Data gathered from spectators (N = 148) at 2 North American college basketball games confirmed the authors' expectations, with the exception that the supporters of the winning team reported higher levels of bias. The authors discussed the factors underlying the unexpected game outcome effect and the use of in-group bias as a coping strategy.

Adaptation, Psychological↗