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PubMed2006

Conditioning properties of social subordination in rats: behavioral and biochemical correlates of anxiety.

To develop a socially based model of anxiety, the contextual fear conditioning properties of social defeat were examined in rats. Social threat consisted of exposing intruders to aggressive residents in resident home cage, separated by a partition. During 3 daily encounters, intruders were either defeated or threatened by residents, providing the defeated-threatened (DT) and threatened-threatened (TT) groups respectively. On Day 4, both DT and TT animals were subjected to a social threat only. Additional animals received a 4-day exposure to a novel empty cage (EC group). Further DT, TT, and EC rats were confronted to a different context on Day 4. DT rats exhibited a robust and context-specific anxiety-like response, characterized by significant behavioral and biochemical alterations. DT rats showed increased risk assessment and decreased exploration compared to TT and EC rats that in turn were not different towards each other. DT and TT rats exhibited increased ACTH levels, while only DT rats showed enhanced corticosterone and decreased testosterone levels compared to EC. These differences were context-specific since they were absent confronting animals to a different context and since they were not long lasting. Overall, these data demonstrate the induction of an anxiety-like state in rats through a context conditioning process based upon social factors. The social basis of this paradigm offers good face validity with anxiety disorders, which in humans are mainly related to social factors and associated with HPA axis deregulations. The present procedure may provide a useful experimental model to further investigate the neurobiological mechanisms underlying anxiety-related disorders.

Adrenocorticotropic Hormone↗
PubMed2005

Routine post-weaning handling of rats prevents isolation rearing-induced deficit in prepulse inhibition.

Rats reared under isolation conditions from weaning present a number of behavioral changes compared to animals reared under social conditions (group housing). These changes include deficits in prepulse inhibition (PPI) of the startle reflex to a loud sound. PPI refers to the reduction of the magnitude of the startle reflex when a relatively weak stimulus (the prepulse) precedes by an appropriate time interval the intense startle-elicing stimulus (the pulse). PPI is useful for studying sensorimotor integration. The present study evaluated the effect of handling on the impairment of PPI induced by isolation-rearing. Male Wistar rats (N = 11-15/group) were housed in groups (5 per cage and handled three times a week) or isolated (housed individually) since weaning (21 days) for 10 weeks when they reach approximately 150 g. The isolated rats were divided into "minimally handled" animals (handled once a week for cleaning purposes only) or "handled" animals (handled three times a week). This handling consisted of grasping the rat by the tail and moving it to a clean cage (approximately 5 s). A statistically significant reduction (52%) in the PPI test was found only in the isolated group with minimal handling while no difference was seen between grouped animals and isolated handled animals. These results indicate that isolation rearing causes disruption in the PPI at adult age, which serves as an index of attention deficit. This change in the sensory processing of information induced by post-weaning isolation can be prevented by handling during the development of the animal.

Animals↗
PubMed1991

[Epidemiologic features of the risk factors for arterial hypertension in social and living conditions and its relation to the labor pattern in female workers at a large industrial enterprise].

A relationship was examined between the blood pressures and the social and living conditions in 2026 female workers at a ship-repairing plant. The persons having a primary or incomplete secondary education and those periodically working at night were demonstrated to constitute an elevated blood pressure risk groups. The regression analysis indicated that the blood pressure values were significantly affected by the following variables: education, extra or overtime work, average income per household, and living conditions. The influence of social and living factors on the systolic blood pressure was 9.4% of the total number of impacts. This parameter accounted for 7.9% for diastolic blood pressure. The examination of the relationship of blood pressure to the labour pattern in the female workers demonstrated a significant increase in the mean systolic and diastolic pressures and in the incidence of systolic and diastolic arterial hypertensions in manual workers. The social and living conditions and the labour pattern can exert a substantial action on the blood pressure values in females, so they may be regarded as risk factors for arterial hypertension and borne in mind in implementing therapeutical and prophylactic measures to control arterial hypertension at the industrial enterprises.

Adult↗
PubMed2001

Self-report measures among transplant candidates: the impact of evaluative situations.

Experiment 1 was a between-subjects design comparing transplant candidates completing self-report measures under an evaluative versus an anonymous research condition. A cardiac disease group and a healthy community group served as controls. Transplant candidates in the anonymous research condition reported significantly more depression, anxiety, and negative affectivity as compared with transplant candidates in the evaluative condition and community controls. In contrast, the evaluative transplant group (a) did not differ from the community controls on any of the self-report measures, and (b) reported significantly less depression than cardiac disease controls. Experiment 2 was a within-subjects design with transplant candidates completing self-report measures under both an evaluative and an anonymous research condition. Significantly greater anxiety was reported under the anonymous research condition. Social desirability was significantly related to change in self-reported anxiety and depression across conditions, but was unrelated to change in endorsement of personality characteristics.

Affect↗
PubMed1978

Effects of social incentives on task performance in the elderly.

The performance of 60 elderly volunteers (mean age = 74.5 years) on two cancellation tasks was examined under one of three experimental conditions: social praise, social reproof, or no comment. When compared with the no-comment group, subjects in the reproof condition showed response increments over baseline performance (p less than .05). Praise, when compared with no comment, failed to reach statistical significance. Results are interpreted in terms of the possible negative reinforcement, challenge, or informational properties of reproof. The clear implications from these data are that social incentives may well facilitate behavioral change in the aged and that there is a need for further examination of the effects of this variable.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1995

Why do women report 'sick building symptoms' more often than men?

The prevalence of general, mucosal and skin symptoms compatible with the 'Sick Building Syndrome' (SBS) was studied in Swedish office workers. The marked excess in symptom prevalence among females, 12% SBS cases as compared to 4% among males, was analysed with respect to differences in biological or acquired risks and different illness and reporting (interview) behaviour among males and females. The distribution of risk indicators for symptoms was recorded in a questionnaire to 4943 employees. The skin symptom questions were validated in a clinical examination. Most risk indicators, such as paper work and psychosocial work load, had an unfavourable distribution for females. In the multivariate analysis however, female sex remained the most prominent risk indicator almost unaffected by the addition of other factors. Neither did effect modification contribute to the excess prevalence among females. The results from the clinical examination indicate that the excess symptom prevalence among females is real and not a reporting artefact. As the factors studied did not explain the excess symptom prevalence among females, the sex differential observed can be a reflection of a general excess of psychosomatic symptoms among women. Although inequalities in social conditions did not substantially explain the sex differential in symptom reporting, the importance of life situation and social roles should be further explored. As the studied variables are surrogates for actual measurements, another important issue is whether sex differences in working conditions, entailing different hierarchical positions in the office, have consequences for indoor air quality factors that are important for the symptoms. The study strongly underlines the importance of taking the sex distribution into account when surveying risk indicators for SBS symptoms.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

Health and social inequity in Norway.

Social inequalities related to health is described with reference to health services, children's health, and common health indicators for the adult population. On all descriptive dimensions it turns out that members of certain social groups are more ill-fated with regard to health and health services than are members of other groups. These results are discussed with reference to the relationship between social conditions and health, and with regard to the questions about what forms of knowledge on this relationship is needed in order to plan efforts to change the existing conditions. Important points that are made suggest that it is more important to focus upon vulnerable groups than on social classes or socio-economic groups, and that most of the material available on the relationship between health indicators and social variables is too abstract for use in planning of effective health policies, that at the same time aim at improved health conditions in the population and more equity with regard to distribution of the health burdens.

Cross-Cultural Comparison↗
PubMed2001

Adolescent parenthood: a costly mistake or a search for love?

Family life is changing worldwide and an increasing number of women are choosing single parenthood. Adolescents who become pregnant and early childbearers do not always become pregnant unintentionally; some actively plan pregnancy while others are ambivalent mainly about the timing. This paper reports on a study using an ethnographic approach that explored the mothering experiences of five sole-supporting Australian teenage mothers who had a child over six months of age. It focuses on the story of one of them, a young woman who gave birth at 16 and set up home for herself and her son. Early childbearing is often a response to adverse social conditions such as poverty or homelessness and is not uncommonly chosen by teenage girls from socially deprived backgrounds. Educational and employment opportunities may be limited, whilst motherhood may provide a purpose in life when few other options are possible. Young women who make this choice need comprehensive services to support them in the parenting role, including appropriate health care, welfare and housing benefits, and support in dealing with parenting, a role which they may greatly desire but are not automatically well prepared for.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2005

Early experience and postembryonic maturation of body patterns in cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis).

This study investigates effects of the environment on the maturation of body patterns in cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis). Cuttlefish were reared either individually on a uniform background, which the authors have termed uniform-solitary conditions (Group A), or grouped on variegated backgrounds, which the authors have termed varied-social conditions (Group B). At Days 1, 15, 30, and 60, juveniles were placed individually in perceptually different testing conditions, either on small, variegated stones or on a uniform pale gray background. During development in both testing conditions, juveniles from Group B concealed themselves differently from those from Group A. Thus, it appears that the response to the background is subject to individual experience. Some hypotheses are discussed relating to the effect of early experience on the maturation of body patterns.

Animals↗
PubMed1980

Attitudes towards psycho-social factors in medicine: an appraisal of the ATSIM scale.

As the importance of psycho-social factors in medicine is increasingly stressed, it is believed that attitudes towards psycho-social issues in medicine should be taken into account in the selection of medical students. The first step of a longitudinal study concerning the impact of medical studies on the students of a French-Canadian University gave us the opportunity to appraise the adequacy of Parlow & Rothman's (1974) ATSIM scale, a measure of attitudes towards psycho-social issues in medicine. We found the following correlations: (1) High scores on the ATSIM scale were negatively correlated with a relatively closed value system (high scores for dogmatism), (2) openness towards psycho-social factors in medicine and empathy were positively correlated, (3) There was a stronger correlation between the ATSIM scale and acceptance of absortion for social conditions than between acceptance of abortion for physical risks and this scale (this shows the social orientation of the ATSIM scale), and (4) hight scorers on the ATSIM scale seem to be more 'sensitive, forthright and expedient' than low scorers. Our results suggest that Parlow & Rothman's (1974) ATSIM scale might be a useful tool in the selection of medical students and further research is needed.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗
PubMed1981

Consummation: a concept for gerontologic theory.

Many human experiences are "consummatory" in that their meaning is clarified by the perspective of their final stages. Old age invites consummatory assessments of the major stages, relationships and events in our past lives. This affects gerontology in two ways. First, the consummatory quality of aging should be measured by life-satisfaction indexes. Neglect of consummation in life-satisfaction indexes can lead to bias in testing theories of aging. Second, achieving favorable consummations in old age is one form of human fulfillment. Since external conditions can affect consummations either favorably or unfavorably, there is a public duty to create social conditions that promote favorable consummations.

Aged↗
PubMed1986

[Future perspectives in diagnosis and therapy--contribution of behavior therapy].

Behavioural therapists increasingly take in account and apply scientific results and therapeutical methods of other branches of psychology. This has enlarged therapeutical possibilities. On the other hand the traditional techniques of behavioural therapy have found their way into many other schools of psychotherapy. Behavioural therapy and it's therapeutical efficacy has an impact on other schools of psychology and participates to a considerable degree in evaluation of therapeutical processes. In this procedure behavioural therapy undergoes a process leading to new ways out of the ordinary boundries of the traditional school of behavioural therapy. The behavioural therapy together with every other psychotherapeutic school reflects the social process and cannot be seen independently of changing social conditions.

Behavior Therapy↗
PubMed1976

[Psychohygienic problems of development in early childhood (author's transl)].

For a "social environmental protection" as one of the most urgent problems in infantile psychohygiene, the following conclusions should be taken into consideration: 1. In particular during the first years of life the development of the child is, within certain limits, sensitive to influences from the environment and therefore it can be fostered or disturbed from the outside. Congenital, prenatal, perinatal and postnatal injuries to the brain and sensory organs must be given great attention psychohygienically. 2. The social influences exercised on the child by persons of his environment, their availability, their emotional relationships and the development of a durable link predominate psychohygienically. In addition, the material security of young families and their type of accommodation (e.g. granting of loans to help set up a home) must be considered. 3. The possibilities of exercising a positive educational influence on a mentally and psychically sound development of the child as a person and member of society are greatest at the beginning of life and diminish during childhood. The effectiveness of negative educational and social interference factors is also subject to this rule from which again the necessity of adopting psychohygienic measures for the young child is derived. 4. The phenomenon of increasingly imbalanced behaviour of older children and juveniles which cause concern today, are as a rule symptoms of a chiefly environmentally determined disturbance upsetting the personality, which often originates in early childhood. Psychohygienic measures must be concentrated on this. 5. The inadequate care of young children accounting for one third of the population, a phenomenon which can be read in the statistical records and which has risen sharply during the last few years, makes it possible to forecast a further increase in developmental and behavioral disturbances of both an intellectual and psychological nature as well as in infantile and juvenile criminality in the coming years to an at present unimaginable extent. 6. In contrast to general opinion, the situation calls for an urgent fundamental revaluation of the importance of intrafamiliar social conditions of development and of the parental educational work on the small child, which to date, have been underestimated and neglected. At the same time many of the presently overrated extrafamiliar institutions of education and training for the older child need to be relativised. 7. The advances in developmental biology which allow us to realize the basic dependence of the future social fate of the individual - and thus the extent of disturbed social relationships in society - on the intrafamily conditions must become a political issue, if psychohygiene as ameans to prevent avoidable disturbances is to be taken seriously. Thus the securement of adequate intrafamily conditions with respect to development and upbringing, in particular of the young child, must head the list of social political priorities, also in times when money is in short supply. 8...

Child Behavior Disorders↗
PubMed1993

Social skills interventions for children.

Children who exhibit social skills deficits experience short-term, and often long-term, negative consequences. Reasons for such deficits, which have treatment utility, are reviewed and a number of procedures for treating children's social skills deficits are examined. In this article, these procedures are categorized into one of three broad and somewhat overlapping treatment approaches: operant conditioning, social learning, or cognitive-behavioral procedures. Descriptions of specific treatment procedures are provided, along with an examination of the effectiveness data, to support the various approaches to enhancing children's social behavior. The research literature provides strong support for the use of operant and social learning techniques, particularly with preschool and elementary school children.

Behavior Therapy↗
PubMed2004

Poverty and violence, frustration and inventiveness: hospital ward life in Bangladesh.

An ethnographic exploration was done in an orthopaedic ward of a government teaching hospital in Bangladesh to understand the nature of hospital culture in the context of Bangladeshi society at large. Life and work in the ward result in a culture that is simultaneously created by its inhabitants and the conditions in which they are situated. The study shows that biomedicine is a product of particular social conditions and that the hospital reflects features of its society. Behind the injuries and broken limbs in the ward are stories of violence, crime, and intolerance occurring in a society where masses of people fight over limited resources. In the ward people interact in an extremely hierarchical manner. The patients, who are mainly from poor economic backgrounds, remain at the bottom of the hierarchy. Doctors and other staff members are often professionally frustrated. Strikes related to hospital staff's various professional demands hamper the regular flow of work in the ward. Family members are engaged in nursing and provide various kinds of support to their hospitalized relatives. Patients give small bribes to ward boys and cleaners to obtain their day-to-day necessities. Patients joke with each other and mock senior doctors. Thus, they neutralize their powerlessness and drive away the monotony of their stay. Doctors develop 'indigenous' solutions to orthopaedic problems. Instead of using high-tech devices, they employ instruments made of bamboo, bricks, and razor blades. This study shows how medical practice takes shape in an understaffed, under-resourced and poorly financed hospital operating in a low-income country.

Anthropology, Cultural↗
PubMed1984

Turning the table on advice programs for parents: Using placemats to enhance family interaction at restaurants.

There are many opportunities in a family's daily routine to enrich the interactions among its members. One such opportunity arises at family restaurants. Surveys of restaurant personnel and customers suggested the possibility of enriching family interactions by redesigning indigenous materials such as table placemats. Accordingly, we developed Table-Talk placemats that provided conversational topics and illustrated games in which the entire family could participate. After some testing of these placemats in a preschool, a field experiment was conducted with families dining in restaurants. Table-Talk placements occasioned more social and educational dialogue among family members than either traditional-placemat or no-material conditions. Social validation ratings provided by mental health counselors and the parents suggested that Table-Talk placemats occasioned healthy and enjoyable interactions among family members.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2005

Correlates of cognitive impairment and depressive symptoms among older adults in Korea and Japan.

BACKGROUND: Cognitive impairment and depressive symptoms impose a heavy burden on the care of the elderly in Japan and Korea, two of the fastest aging nations in Asia. The purpose of this study was to examine and compare factors associated with cognitive impairment and depressive symptoms among older persons in the two countries. METHODS: In 2002, representative samples of community-dwelling people aged 65 and older were selected among residents in Anyang, Korea and Yoita, Japan. Mini-Mental State Examination and Geriatric Depression Scale were used to assess the elderly's mental status. Sociodemographics, physical function, chronic conditions, social support, and health behaviors were examined to identify significant associations. RESULTS: The prevalence of cognitive impairment in older adults was 17.0% in Anyang and 14.6% in Yoita. The rates for depressive symptoms were 15.2% and 19.8%, respectively. Overall, functional capacity was the universal factor significantly associated with mental conditions. Self-rated health and social support were also found to be independently associated with depressive symptoms in the study subjects. Differences in the patterns of association by community, however, were notable for other characteristics. For example, in factors associated with cognitive impairment, sociodemographic factors such as age, gender, and education were significant among Koreans, whereas socio-behavioral factors such as obesity, social support and hospitalization experience were found to be significant for older Japanese residents. CONCLUSIONS: Similarities in the patterns of association indicate the need for joint explorations into the role these factors play in affecting the mental health of older persons. Socioeconomic and regional differentials, however, may account for the disparity in the associations observed, suggesting the importance of developing mental health programs sensitive to the older individual's culture.

Aged↗
PubMed2006

[Handicap and quality of life evaluation in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis].

The impact of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and consequent disability on everyday life can be assessed with generic or specific and/or functional quality of life scales. Generic scales SF36, SIP (Sickness Impact Profiles) and SIP/ALS 19, SEIQoL have been validated for the assessment of quality of life in SLA. A specific scale has also been worked out and validated in this disease, the ALSAQ-40 scale. The ALSFRS (ALS Functional Rating Scale) is a tool validated to evaluate the patient's functional capacities. However, the patient's quality of life felt does not depend only on the disease course but also the patient's previous psychological profile, the environmental, social conditions and spiritual aspirations. The absence of a cognitive deficit makes the patient particularly lucid about the progressive degradation of health status. Evaluation must be carried out with individually for each patient, taking into account the social and familial environments, to appreciate real living conditions, and the impact of this degenerative disease.

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis↗