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PubMedDate not supplied

[Evolution of social representations about health among women from Madrid, 1993-2000].

BACKGROUND: In 1993, initial research was conducted among the women in Madrid. In 2000, a second research was conducted for the purpose of analyzing the possible evolution of the social representations related to health among women and, if necessary, to therefore reorient the health programs set forth in 1993 in terms of the results of the research. The aim was therefore to analyze the possible advancement of the opinions stated, of the health-related social representations which each one of the five types encountered in 1993 might express throughout the 1993-2000 period. METHODS: The qualitative research conducted in 2000 was based on the holding of 10 discussion groups defined according to the women's "typologies" which had been set out in the 1993 research. The types in question were characterized in terms of different sociodemographic variables and of the role which they had stated as most important in 1993. The analysis of the stated opinions was put into graphic and topological form in order to display the aforementioned trend in the social representations. RESULT: This research revealed some major changes having taken place throughout the 1993-2000 period, the predominant stated opinion-related perspective had evolved out of the "housewife" role to the "working woman" role in 2000, the predominant social representations stressed a dimension more nearing a persona balance in 2000, in which the role of women themselves, outside the bounds of their families, is of major importance. The scope of their concerns also evolved to a concern related to the stress involved in being a working woman plus a housewife. CONCLUSIONS: This study made it possible to reach conclusions of a methodological type related to the ability of the qualitative methodology to make comparative, time-based studies and to conclusions of a more pragmatic type which afforded the possibility of changing the orientation of certain health programs aimed at women along a line more closely in keeping with their true concerns.

Adult↗
PubMed2005

The evolutionary origin and elaboration of sociality in the aculeate Hymenoptera: maternal effects, sib-social effects, and heterochrony.

We discuss the evolutionary origin and elaboration of sociality using an indirect genetic effects perspective. Indirect genetic effects models simultaneously consider zygotic genes, genes expressed in social partners (especially mothers and siblings), and the interactions between them. Incorporation of these diverse genetic effects should lead to more realistic models of social evolution. We first review haplodiploidy as a factor that promotes the evolution of eusociality. Social insect biologists have doubted the importance of relatedness asymmetry caused by haplodiploidy and focused on other predisposing factors such as maternal care. However; indirect effects theory shows that maternal care evolves more readily in haplodiploids, especially with inbreeding and despite multiple mating. Because extended maternal care is believed to be a precondition for the evolution of eusociality, the evolutionary bias towards maternal care in haplodiploids may result in a further bias towards eusociality in these groups. Next, we compare kin selection and parental manipulation and then briefly review additional hypotheses for the evolutionary origin of eusociality. We present a verbal model for the evolutionary origin and elaboration of sib-social care from maternal care based on the modification of the timing of expression of maternal care behaviors. Specifically, heterochrony genes cause maternal care behaviors to be expressed prereproductively towards siblings instead of postreproductively towards offspring. Our review demonstrates that both maternal effect genes (expressed in a parental manipulation manner) and direct effect zygotic genes (expressed in an offspring control manner) are likely involved in the evolution of eusociality. We conclude by describing theoretical and empirical advances with indirect genetic effects and sociogenomics, and we provide specific quantitative genetic and genomic predictions from our heterochrony model for the evolutionary origin and elaboration of eusociality.

Animals↗
PubMed1990

Evolution of social services for children with emotional disorders.

In this article, the authors examine the evolution of America's varied and often conflicting responses to the needs of its children--more specifically, the historical responses to dependent, neglected, and emotionally disordered children. The authors discuss America's historical ambivalence about whether to institutionalize children or keep them with their families, the relationship between social work professionals and clients, and the lessons that can be learned and applied to current practice. The analysis suggests that social work challenge some of the assumptions upon which prior service and advocacy efforts have been based. The magnitude of the current service system problems warrants a family-centered advocacy stance aimed at improving community-based services. This approach could free social workers to operationalize key values of the profession.

Affective Symptoms↗
PubMed1995

[From the transformation of age groups to the evolution of social relationships].

"In Western societies, change in family behaviour patterns, increased life expectancy, transformations in the socioeconomic environment and in culture have effected important modifications in the 'age pyramid', the significance of which has fed the debate between experts who have recorded them and who have anticipated their foreseeable consequences. These consequences are examined here in the light of some of their effects on social ties, inside the family and on the community level: the recomposition of the deviations between generations, the appearance of a pre-adult stage, the growth of concomitant responsibilities in relation to ascendants and descendants within family networks, potential concurrent intergenerational conflicts, and the aging of the social fabric [at] the community level. These phenomena in full evolution are a particular incentive to reinforcing the dialogue between demography and sociology." (SUMMARY IN ENG AND SPA)

Age Distribution↗
PubMed2001

Maternal effect genes and the evolution of sociality in haplo-diploid organisms.

Maternal care and female-biased sex ratios are considered by many to be essential prerequisites for the evolution of eusocial behaviors among the hymenoptera. Using population genetic models, I investigate the evolution of genes that have positive maternal effects but negative, direct effects on offspring fitness. I find that, under many conditions, such genes evolve more easily in haplo-diploids than in diplo-diploids. In fact, the conditions are less restrictive than those of kin selection theory, which postulate genes with negative direct effects but positive sib-social effects. For example, the conditions permitting the evolution of maternal effect genes are not affected if females mate multiply, whereas multiple mating reduces the efficacy of kin selection by reducing genetic relatedness within colonies. Inbreeding also differentially facilitates evolution of maternal effect genes in haplo-diploids relative to diplo-diploids, although it does not differentially affect the evolution of sib-altruism genes. Furthermore, when the direct, deleterious pleiotropic effect is restricted to sons, a maternal effect gene can evolve when the beneficial maternal effect is less than half (with inbreeding, much less) of the deleterious effect on sons. For kin selection, however, the sib-social benefits must always exceed the direct costs because genetic relatedness is always less than or equal to 1.0. The results suggest that haplo-diploidy facilitates (1) the evolution of maternal care, and (2) the evolution of maternal effect genes with antagonistic pleiotropic effects on sons. The latter effect may help explain the tendency toward female-biased sex ratios in haplo-diploids, especially those with inbreeding. I conclude that haplo-diploidy not only facilitates the evolution of sister-sister altruism by kin selection but also facilitates the evolution of maternal care and female-biased sex ratios, two prerequisites for eusociality.

Alleles↗
PubMed1967

Foundress associations in polistine wasps: dominance hierarchies and the evolution of social behavior.

Interactions among female paper wasps of newly founded colonies suggest that dominance relations assign social (reproductive) roles to siblings in a way advantageous to both dominants and subordinates. In various social animals dominance relations may have been an important prerequisite for the evolution of a division of labor between reproductive and nonreproductive (or less reproductive) adults.

Animals↗
PubMed1994

Evolution of social organization: a reappraisal for primates by using phylogenetic methods.

For many animal taxa, the extent to which phylogeny can account for the form of species' social systems has seldom been investigated formally. A quantitative phylogenetic analysis of social systems in the order Primates reveals that social organization may be strongly conserved in some lineages, even in the face of considerable ecological variability. This result has important implications for efforts to understand the evolution of animal societies and for attempts to reconstruct the social organization of early humans.

Animals↗
PubMed1997

Determinants of primate social organization: comparative evidence and new insights from Malagasy lemurs.

The aim of this review is to summarize newly available information on lemur social systems, to contrast it with the social organization of other primates and to relate it to existing models of primate social evolution. Because of their evolutionary history, the primates of Madagascar constitute a natural experiment in social evolution. During millions of years of isolation, they converged with other primates only in the most fundamental way in the evolution of solitary, pair-living and group-living species, but deviate in several respects within these basic categories of social organization. Solitary lemurs remain poorly studied, but their social organization appears to be broadly similar to that of other solitary primates, even though the unexpected lack of sexual dimorphism may indicate that similar types of social organization can give rise to different mating systems. The determinants of a solitary lifestyle remain elusive. Pair-living lemurs show striking convergences with other monogamous primates in several behavioural traits, but also deviate in that the majority of species are at least partly nocturnal and do not exhibit direct paternal care of dependent young. Group-living lemurs have not evolved single-male groups, male-bonded and multi-level societies, and polyandrous groups may also be lacking. Female philopatry is common, but female bonds are generally weakly developed and eviction of females from natal groups is not unusual. Group-living lemurs also differ from anthropoids in that their groups have even adult sex ratios, smaller average size and may split up on a seasonal basis. Feeding competition, predation risk and reproductive competition can not fully explain these unusual aspects of lemur social organization. It has therefore been suggested that the social consequences of the risk of infanticide and of recent changes in activity may be ultimately responsible for these idiosyncracies of group-living lemurs, an explanation largely supported by the available evidence. Thus, social factors and fundamental life-history traits, in addition to ecological factors, contribute importantly to variation in social systems among lemurs, and possibly other primates. However, neither the diversity of lemur social systems, nor the evolutionary forces and mechanisms operating in these and other primates are yet fully understood.

Animals↗
PubMed1982

Play in evolution, culture, and individual adaptation: implications for therapy.

In this paper human play is examined from the perspective of its role in evolution. A model of social evolution is proposed to extend the model of biological evolution and to demonstrate the central role of play in the social-evolutionary process. Since in evolution play is a mechanism for its process, it demands species members who are playful. Thus, man is a player by virtue of species membership and the evolutionary pathway of the species. The implications of this deep-seated characteristic of playfulness are discussed in terms of human development. Finally, a set of principles is derived from the evolutionary-developmental characteristics of play. Application of these principles in clinical practice is demonstrated and discussed.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Epigenesis and the evolution of social systems.

The remaining problems of biology, which include the nature of the molecular regulation of development, the relation between micro- and macroevolution, the mind/body association, and the linkage between genetic and cultural evolution, all appear to be most readily soluble by attention to the epigenesis of individual organisms. Societies offer special advantages in the analysis of epigenesis. The constituent parts, consisting of the whole member organisms, can be observed more directly than cells and organelles. In the case of social insects, the components can be separated and reassembled as "pseudomutant" colonies, which can then be compared with the normal forms of the very same colonies studied on alternate days. Using this technique, for example, I have analyzed the optimization of some aspects of the division of labor in leaf-cutting ants and identified net energetic yield as the apparent aspect of foraging that has been maximized in the division of labor. A comparable approach can be applied in the study of human genetic and cultural evolution. The choices made by individuals during socialization, which in many categories of cognition and behavior display innate bias, can be translated with appropriate techniques into statistical descriptions of cultural diversity. Natural selection acting on behavior within particular cultures alters the frequencies of the genes underlying the developmental processes of cognition and behavior. The result is postulated to be a "co-evolutionary circuit" that links genetic and cultural evolution in an inseverable manner.

Animals↗
PubMed2001

Evolution and social anxiety. The role of attraction, social competition, and social hierarchies.

If human social anxiety is not predominately about the fear of physical injury or attack, as it is in other animals, then, to understand human social anxiety (i.e., fear of evaluation), it is necessary to consider why certain types of relationships are so important. Why do humans need to court the good feelings of others and fear not doing so? And why, when people wish to appear attractive to others (e.g., to make friends, date a desired sexual partner, or give a good presentation), do some people become so overwhelmed with anxiety that they behave submissively and fearfully (which can be seen as unattractive) or are avoidant? This article has suggested that humans have evolved to compete for attractiveness to make good impressions because these are related to eliciting important social resources and investments from others. These, in turn, have been linked to inclusive fitness and have physiological regulating effects. Being allocated a low social rank or ostracized carries many negative consequences for controlling social resources and physiological regulation. Social anxiety, like shame, can be adaptive to the extent that it helps people to "stay on track" with what is socially acceptable and what is not and could result in social sanction and exclusion. However, dysfunctional social anxiety is the result of activation of basic defensive mechanisms (and modules for) for threat detection and response (e.g., inhibition, eye-gaze avoidance, flight, or submission) that can be recruited rapidly for dealing with immediate threats, override conscious wishes, and interfere with being seen as a "useful associate." Second, this article has suggested that socially anxious people are highly attuned to the competitive dynamics of trying to elicit approval and investment from others but that they perceive themselves to start from an inferior (i.e., low-rank) position and, because of this, activate submissive defensives when attempting to present themselves as confident, able, and attractive to others. These submissive defenses (which evolved to inhibit animals in low-rank positions from making claims on resources or up-rank bids) interfere with confident performance, leading to a failure cycle. While psychological therapies may target specific modules, cognitions, and behaviors (e.g., damage limitation behaviors, eyes gaze avoidance, theory of mind beliefs) that underpin social anxiety, drugs may work by having a more generalized effect on the threat-safety balance such that there is a different "weighting" given to various social threats and opportunities. If social anxiety (and disorders associated with it) are increasing in the modern age, one reason may be invigorated competition for social prestige, attractiveness, and resources.

Animals↗
PubMed1989

Darwinian evolution of social behavior: implications for group psychotherapy.

Medicine typically looks to biology for guidance in examining complexity. Application of biological principles to social processes has not been easy. Still, we need not abandon biology in the study of complex social phenomena. Biologists have come to view the study of proximate form and function (revealed by disciplines such as anatomy, psychology and physiology) versus the study of how the form and function ultimately "got to be" (revealed by disciplines such as ethology and sociobiology) as distinct and complementary levels of understanding (Lorenz 1981; Mayr 1982). Though we cannot undertake in this paper explication of the value of understanding the ultimate, as well as the proximate, in studying biological phenomena, interested readers will find a comprehensive discussion in Mayr. The evolutionary principles structuring social interactions are becoming understood and hold promise as a biologically valid system for organizing and guiding the study of complex social behaviors (Essock-Vitale and Fairbanks 1979; Kofoed and MacMillan 1987). Psychological processes have evolved in varying complexities as mechanisms to enable and guide social behavior, increasing the probability that such behavior will be adaptive in a wide variety of circumstances (Trivers 1971). Dynamic and social psychologies describe the proximate internal and interactive intricacies that have resulted from this process but cannot help us understand the goals evolution has "naturally designed" (Thompson 1986) these mechanisms to achieve. The hypothesized drives or instincts underlying most psychological models, often derived from a simplistic understanding of evolutionary theory, are usually simply taken for granted in the development of these models.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Biological Evolution↗