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Results for “Cultural Evolution”

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At least 613 records · Page 34Linked to original sources
PubMed1985

Violence and youth.

Violence is looked at from ethological, biological and anthropological points of view. The family is examined to determine the roots of violence. Various prospective studies are reviewed to assess the role of temperament, social, familial and economic factors facilitating the development of antisocial and violent behaviour in the youth. There is also a look at the violence committed by groups, nations or governments in the name of God, flag or a just cause. The role that mental health professionals could play in preventing the development of violent behaviour is discussed.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2006

Alexander Leighton and the evolutionary perspective.

A comparison of the theoretical approach of Alexander H. Leighton with that of current work in evolutionary psychology and psychiatry reveals key similarities. For both, a core human nature/psychology is assumed to underlie human behavior. Individuals may vary with regard to the salience of components of that core, which in any event are differentially expressed in response to varying cultural/environmental factors. As with many of today's evolutionists, Leighton's research involved natural settings combined with the collection of rigorously analyzed quantitative data. Evolutionary psychiatrists would benefit greatly from studying Leighton's work, particularly in connection with the hypothesis that psychopathology is a product of our departure from the environments in which we evolved.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed2002

Long-term experimental evolution in Escherichia coli. X. Quantifying the fundamental and realized niche.

BACKGROUND: Twelve populations of the bacterium, Escherichia coli, adapted to a simple, glucose-limited, laboratory environment over 10,000 generations. As a consequence, these populations tended to lose functionality on alternative resources. I examined whether these populations in turn became inferior competitors in four alternative environments. These experiments are among the first to quantify and compare dimensions of the fundamental and realized niches. RESULTS: Three clones were isolated from each of the twelve populations after 10,000 generations of evolution. Direct competition between these clones and the ancestor in the selective environment revealed average fitness improvements of approximately 50%. When grown in the wells of Biolog plates, however, evolved clones grew 25% worse on average than the ancestor on a variety of different carbon sources. Next, I competed each evolved population versus the ancestor in four foreign environments (10-fold higher and lower glucose concentration, added bile salts, and dilute LB media). Surprisingly, nearly all populations were more fit than the ancestor in each foreign environment, though the margin of improvement was least in the most different environment. Most populations also evolved increased sensitivity to novobiocin. CONCLUSIONS: Reduced functionality on numerous carbon sources suggested that the fundamental niche of twelve E. coli populations had narrowed after adapting to a specific laboratory environment. However, in spite of these results, the same populations were competitively superior in four novel environments. These findings suggest that adaptation to certain dimensions of the environment may compensate for other functional losses and apparently enhance the realized niche.

Adaptation, Physiological↗
PubMed1986

Inter-generational conflict and psychiatric symptoms.

Secondary school pupils and their parents were investigated using the scaled version of the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28) and by a questionnaire designed to study attitudes involved in inter-generational conflict in psychiatric patients. Parent-pupil and inter-parental conflict in answers to the attitude questionnaires were taken as measures of intergenerational and intra-generational conflicts respectively. The former significantly exceeded the latter. Parent-student conflict was higher when the students involved were females, Kuwaiti, or had less educated fathers. The tendency of the number of reported GHQ symptoms to be higher in members of families with higher inter-generational conflict did not reach statistical significance. There is an apparent discrepancy between this finding and the prominence of inter-generational conflict in clinical material.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2006

A bias for social information in human cultural transmission.

Evolutionary theories concerning the origins of human intelligence suggest that cultural transmission might be biased toward social over non-social information. This was tested by passing social and non-social information along multiple chains of participants. Experiment 1 found that gossip, defined as information about intense third-party social relationships, was transmitted with significantly greater accuracy and in significantly greater quantity than equivalent non-social information concerning individual behaviour or the physical environment. Experiment 2 replicated this finding controlling for narrative coherence, and additionally found that information concerning everyday non-gossip social interactions was transmitted just as well as the intense gossip interactions. It was therefore concluded that human cultural transmission is biased toward information concerning social interactions over equivalent non-social information.

Adult↗
PubMed2000

The meme metaphor.

Explore the source record for details and available documents.

Cultural Evolution↗
PubMed2003

We-intentionality: an essential element in understanding human culture?

Culture is a powerful cause of human behavior, yet there have been few attempts to synthesize the biological and social sciences in order to provide an explanation of culture and hence to lay the foundations for a comprehensive human science. This essay explores one possible way of doing this by outlining the likely psychological mechanisms that give rise to the unique human capacity for creating social reality. The core assumption is that "we-intentionality," which is key to understanding social constructions, can and must be linked to specific evolved psychological traits, and hence placed within a neuroscience perspective.

Behavior↗
PubMed2006

Why psychiatric conditions are special: an evolutionary and cross-cultural perspective.

In non-Western and premodern societies, approaches to sickness involved moral considerations laden with existential and spiritual implications. Healers and physicians had access to this aspect of their patient's lives, were expected to use it constructively, and often did so. The contemporary biomedical theory of disease no longer assigns to illness such metaphysical connotations. While general physicians are permitted - perhaps even advised - to avoid involvement in morally laden dialogues tied to illness and the self, such dilemmas are more prominent and qualitatively different in psychiatry, as psychiatric conditions often entail changes in self-conception, psychological disaffection, unacceptable behavior, and untoward personal reactions to social circumstances. Manifestations of psychiatric conditions can overwhelm an individual's control in areas of cognition, emotion, autonomy, social responsibility, behavior, and body functions - exactly those matters that "modern" individualistic minds are supposed to master. Consequently, psychiatric conditions challenge basic presuppositions of the modern, secular credo about personhood, disease, and behavior. They comprise a species of human problems ontologically distinct from the conditions handled by other medical disciplines.

Cross-Cultural Comparison↗
PubMed2004

Violence: innate or acquired? A survey and some opinions.

Freud's psychoanalysis and Lorenz's ethology consider human aggressiveness to be innate. According to recent archaeological excavations and evolutionary studies, human groups in the Upper Paleolithic and Early Neolithic were peaceful and cooperative. This culture was replaced ten thousand years ago by a predatory hierarchical structure, which is here viewed as a cultural variant.

Anthropology, Physical↗
PubMed1997

Spatial representation in face drawing and block design by nine groups from hunter-gatherers to literates.

A rank-order correlation was performed for nine cultural groups ranging from preliterate hunter-gatherers to literate medium-city dwellers. Two spatial tests of intrapattern spatial relations were used, the Draw-A-Person-With-Fade-In-Front test and the Kohs Block Design, a test of constructive praxia. In contrast to traditional "Western" evaluations, credit was given for the preservation of the essential intrapattern shapes even when exact spatial relations among these shapes was incorrect. Such "errors" were labelled "neolithic face" patterns and "nonrandom errors," respectively. Analysis suggested that the neglected intrapattern (in contrast to interobject) spatial relational skills emerge with literacy but is not yet actualized in preliterates whose survival requires quick fight or flight response upon prompt, albeit gross, assessment of salient shapes of prey or predators (human or animals). The positive Spearman rank-order correlation of absent or low literacy skills with the percent of "neolithic face" drawings was .95 and with the "nonrandom" block designs .67. Suggestions were developed for assessing certain unusual "ecological" present situations or certain brain dysfunctions.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1994

A drive to play: evolution and psychotherapeutic theory.

Freud's thinking was influenced by evolutionary ideas. He built his theory about the instincts of sexuality and aggression. A third phylogenetically given propensity for behaviour, that of attachment, has been added to traditional theory following the work of Bowlby. We propose that the origins of certain psychiatric disturbances, most notably cluster B personality disorders, are to be found not in those drives which are ancient in evolutionary terms but through a disruption of that which has been most recently evolved, and which involves symbolization. It is manifest developmentally as symbolic play. A case report illustrates the hypothesis.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

The social implications of questionable cancer therapies.

Questionable or "unorthodox" treatments are not selected in a vacuum; their degree of popularity and the particular types used are functions of their social and cultural context. The liquid preparations that were popular earlier in this century reflected fascination with bottled medicinals, consistent with the growing era of pharmaceutical medicine. Today's questionable remedies are similarly consistent with their social and cultural context. "Metabolic" therapies emphasizing diet, self care, vitamins, and internal cleansing, along with "immune-enhancing" regimens, represent today's reigning "alternatives." Such approaches reflect underlying social trends and values, such as belief in assuming personal responsibility for one's health, the importance of self care and physical fitness, patients' rights movements, dietary emphases encouraged by conventional and alternative medicine alike, the holistic medicine movement, and general disaffection with organized medicine. Just as questionable therapies are born of the values and beliefs of their culture, so these treatments and their use affect the social environment in which they exist. The relationship is reciprocal and cyclic, with social trends encouraging particular forms of questionable regimens and these regimens, in turn, reinforcing prevailing social beliefs. Public beliefs about cancer were reflected in responses to our studies of unorthodox cancer therapies and of psychosocial correlates of survival. Responses revealed widely held values and beliefs about cancer, cancer treatment, and medicine generally. These themes are described.

Cultural Evolution↗
PubMed1999

Preparing culturally competent practitioners.

Preparing culturally competent practitioners is critical, and evaluating the effect of experiences intended to move students toward cultural competence is important. This research study explored the relationship among short-term international nursing clinical immersion experiences, cultural self-efficacy, and cultural competence. A triangulated research design was used to explore the relationship among the variables with 200 senior undergraduate and graduate nursing students from a university in New England. Quantitative analysis found statistically significant differences in the achievement of cultural self-efficacy for the participants who completed the international clinical experiences versus those who remained in the United States. Qualitative analysis, used to further explain the quantitative results, found that the differences were related to international students' ability to overcome their ethnocentrism, experience a transformative perspective about being culturally aware and sensitive, as well as understand and integrate the patients' cultural practices and beliefs into the students' Western health care practices. It became apparent that something other than cultural self-efficacy had occurred for participants in the international immersion experiences. The students believed they had entered the arena of cultural competence. Short-term clinical cultural immersion experiences have relevance for assisting faculty to move nursing students toward an understanding and achievement of cultural competence in ways currently not possible with nonimmersion community cultural experiences.

Adult↗