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PubMed2001

Susceptibility of youth to tobacco: a social ecological framework for prevention.

For most smokers, tobacco dependence begins in childhood or adolescence. This review summarizes the state of social science with respect to the prevention of tobacco use. Social ecology is introduced as a theoretical framework useful for organizing prevention approaches. In recent years, the field has shifted from approaches directed at individuals, towards appreciation of additional, more comprehensive social and environmental influences on initiation. These range from intra-individual factors (including physiological responses to nicotine and the psychology of use) to individual, interpersonal, organizational, community, and population factors affecting access and demand. This review highlights prevention approaches that address social and societal influences, from school programs that attempt to change susceptibility of individual youth to tobacco, to community projects, media campaigns, restrictive policies, and tobacco pricing. The most promising approaches are those designed with input based on extensive formative research including studies with youth, directed at multiple levels of the social ecology, and sustained over time with significant resources and ongoing, multi-sector inputs.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2003

Cooperation, psychological game theory, and limitations of rationality in social interaction.

Rational choice theory enjoys unprecedented popularity and influence in the behavioral and social sciences, but it generates intractable problems when applied to socially interactive decisions. In individual decisions, instrumental rationality is defined in terms of expected utility maximization. This becomes problematic in interactive decisions, when individuals have only partial control over the outcomes, because expected utility maximization is undefined in the absence of assumptions about how the other participants will behave. Game theory therefore incorporates not only rationality but also common knowledge assumptions, enabling players to anticipate their co-players' strategies. Under these assumptions, disparate anomalies emerge. Instrumental rationality, conventionally interpreted, fails to explain intuitively obvious features of human interaction, yields predictions starkly at variance with experimental findings, and breaks down completely in certain cases. In particular, focal point selection in pure coordination games is inexplicable, though it is easily achieved in practice; the intuitively compelling payoff-dominance principle lacks rational justification; rationality in social dilemmas is self-defeating; a key solution concept for cooperative coalition games is frequently inapplicable; and rational choice in certain sequential games generates contradictions. In experiments, human players behave more cooperatively and receive higher payoffs than strict rationality would permit. Orthodox conceptions of rationality are evidently internally deficient and inadequate for explaining human interaction. Psychological game theory, based on nonstandard assumptions, is required to solve these problems, and some suggestions along these lines have already been put forward.

Choice Behavior↗

PubMed1989

Human health: from theory to practice.

Full development of personality under socialism is ensured by the further improvement of the socialist system and the rising cultural and material levels of the Soviet people. The author demonstrates that a new, integrated approach should be taken to the problem of human health in Soviet sociopolitical strategy: the concept of human health should embrace philosophical aspects together with findings of the natural and social sciences. The author looks at the wide range of social, philosophical, and methodological issues which should be taken into account in order to remove the obstacles from the road towards purposeful control of human and social health.

Bioethics↗

PubMedDate not supplied

[Reproductive health and risk as perceived by low-income Brazilian men].

Studies in the field of reproductive health discuss existing gaps in traditional research models, which neglect not only social and cultural aspects but also ethical and philosophical ones. Such aspects cut cross over the definition of essential themes for reproductive health research, like sexuality, reproduction, and gender. The search for connections between the two disciplines (Social Science and Public Health) relates to how people and social groups limit and deal with the risks they face. In this study, we analyze the perception of risk in reproductive health among a group of low-income men from Rio de Janeiro. The group was interviewed during a study on male contraception. The objective was to identify the situations and contexts from which the problem (and the contents ascribed to it) emerge. One can conclude from the interviews that there is a risk hierarchy which is modified according to cultural values and relational, institutional, and social contexts.

Brazil↗

PubMed1995

"Freedom's just another word": aboriginal youth and mental health.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study was to review the available material on Aboriginal youth mental health, exploring certain contemporary issues. METHOD: The review covers the psychiatric and social science literature, focusing on the recent period of major social change. RESULTS: The available material is severely limited, particular deficiencies being normal child development, the impact of social change and its consequences for the construction of Aboriginal identity. CONCLUSION: There is a need for more work in this area and for psychiatric engagement at a political level.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1998

[Resources in medical research].

The biennial national statistical surveys of research and development expenditure, based on OECD guidelines, contribute to the knowledge base for Norwegian research policy. This article outlines the resources for research and development in the medical sciences, with emphasis on the higher education sector. This sector, which includes university hospitals, performs about 75% of medical research in Norway (medical research in industry not included) while the remaining 25% is performed in research institutes in the institute sector. In 1995, current expenditure for medical research amounted to 1,240 million Norwegian kroner, 930 million in the higher education sector and 310 million in the institute sector. From 1993 to 1995, there was a small increase in real terms in resources for medical research in universities and colleges paid for over institutional budgets, while there was no growth in externally funded research. Over the 25-year period 1970-1995, the growth in expenditures for medical research was higher than for the natural sciences, but lower than for the humanities and the social sciences. Comparisons between the Nordic countries show that investments in medical research in Norway is much lower than in Denmark or Sweden.

Norway↗

PubMed1991

The search for useful methodologies in occupational science.

Debate currently exists on the soundness of various research methodologies in the social sciences. In the present paper, this question is addressed in relation to the emerging discipline of occupational science. First, the discipline of occupational science is defined. Next, two competing methodologies--Paradigm 1, Positivistic, and Paradigm 2, Naturalistic--are contrasted. The criteria of genuineness and trustworthiness are proposed as crucial for the evaluation of the soundness of available research methodologies for the extension of occupational science. Next, exemplars of research methodologies that meet these criteria are described. In the conclusion, the role that nonscientific ways of knowing, such as art and literature, may play in the understanding of human occupation is discussed.

Health Services Research↗

PubMed2002

She said, "some patient needs get dropped due to more pressing issues".

The engagement of the social sciences by pastoral care and education will not turn chaplains or supervisors into social scientists. Ministry is not a higher calling than science; nor will chaplains be co-oped into doing ministry by the numbers. Scientific research in pastoral care and teaching could focus on these broad areas, but administrators face multiple pressures and will not easily be convinced by rational argument. As religion and science dare to engage a meaningful dialogue; a deeper, transcendent reality will unfold.

Health Care Reform↗

PubMed2002

Individual differences versus social dynamics in the formation of animal dominance hierarchies.

Linear hierarchies, the classical pecking-order structures, are formed readily in both nature and the laboratory in a great range of species including humans. However, the probability of getting linear structures by chance alone is quite low. In this paper we investigate the two hypotheses that are proposed most often to explain linear hierarchies: they are predetermined by differences in the attributes of animals, or they are produced by the dynamics of social interaction, i.e., they are self-organizing. We evaluate these hypotheses using cichlid fish as model animals, and although differences in attributes play a significant part, we find that social interaction is necessary for high proportions of groups with linear hierarchies. Our results suggest that dominance hierarchy formation is a much richer and more complex phenomenon than previously thought, and we explore the implications of these results for evolutionary biology, the social sciences, and the use of animal models in understanding human social organization.

Animals↗

PubMed1987

Temporal and social contexts of heroin-using populations. An illustration of the snowball sampling technique.

Snowball sampling is a method that has been used in the social sciences to study sensitive topics, rare traits, personal networks, and social relationships. The method involves the selection of samples utilizing "insider" knowledge and referral chains among subjects who possess common traits that are of research interest. It is especially useful in generating samples for which clinical sampling frames may be difficult to obtain or are biased in some way. In this paper, snowball samples of heroin users in two Dutch cities have been analyzed for the purpose of providing descriptions and limited inferences about the temporal and social contexts of their lifestyles. Two distinct heroin-using populations have been discovered who are distinguished by their life cycle stage. Significant contextual explanations have been found involving the passage from adolescent peer group to criminal occupation, the functioning of network "knots" and "outcroppings," and the frequency of social contact. It is suggested that the snowball sampling method may have utility in studying the temporal and social contexts of other populations of clinical interest.

Activities of Daily Living↗

PubMed2006

Patient involvement in setting research agendas.

Patient groups already support funding of trials and patient recruitment for colitis research. Patient and public engagement in setting research agendas for health research more generally is growing, particularly about the effects of treatment. Patient priorities for colitis research span a wide range of interests. Opportunities exist to build on strategic alliances between patient groups, clinicians and researchers for more open debate about what research should be done and how. Traditionally, patients and their families have two roles in health research: as research subjects, providing data at the request of researchers, and as fundraisers, supporting research and researchers. These roles are readily apparent in the area of research into inflammatory bowel disease, including colitis, and Crohn's disease, on both sides of the Atlantic. Growing evidence, however, suggests that health research agendas do not always reflect patients' priorities. Welfare et al. (this issue) add to the evidence by eliciting patients' priorities for colitis research. Methods for bridging patients' views and research agendas range from social science to deliberative public debate. In the first of these, social researchers, such as Welfare et al. (this issue), elicit and interpret patients' views and compare these with current research agendas. In the second, patients are supported and encouraged to engage in debates about research, whereby they bring their own interpretations and influence to the health research community. Organized colitis patient groups, with their current interests and alliances with research, are well placed to build on the work of Welfare et al., in partnership with researchers with the aim of planning research that meets the full range of their needs.

Colitis, Ulcerative↗

PubMed2001

Outcomes research in respiratory care.

Outcomes research seeks to understand the end results of particular health care interventions. End results include effects that people experience and care about, such as change in ability to function. The modern outcomes movement in the United States had its beginnings in the early 1980s, with an official start when Congress created the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research in 1989. Today known as the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, this agency supports outcomes research that is designed to answer 4 questions: (1) What works? (2) What doesn't? (3) When in the course of illness does it work or not? and (4) At what cost? Outcomes research provides the data for evidence-based medicine. Both activities work together in a continuous quality improvement cycle under the general heading of disease management. Outcomes research includes such things as epidemiology studies, clinical trials (designed as effectiveness studies), quality of life surveys, and cost analyses. Outcomes research is distinguished from traditional clinical research more by its focus than its methods. For example, outcomes research is population-centered rather than disease-centered, deals more with processes of care than drugs and devices, and relies less on the "hard sciences" such as physics and biochemistry and more on the social sciences such as economics, behavioral sciences, and epidemiology. Appropriate outcomes measures may be classified as (A) clinical, such as physiologic measures and mortality; (B) economic, such as direct and indirect costs of care; or (C) humanistic, such as quality of life and patient satisfaction with care. Respiratory therapists need to be familiar with outcomes research issues in order to be educated consumers of (and to participate in) future studies.

Humans↗

PubMed1981

[Research in the Master's Degree program in Social Medicine].

The authors report on research as part of the master's degree in social medicine at the Metropolitan Autonomous University, Xochimilco campus, Mexico. They discuss research within the curriculum design, instructional research, teaching staff and research, and research as a source of knowledge. They explain that in order to establish guidelines for research it is necessary to consider the health-disease process and medical practice within the economic and social framework and therefore subject to analysis by the social sciences. Finally, they summarize ongoing research in the fields of social epidemiology, medical practice and planning, and human resources.

Curriculum↗

PubMed1995

An "if this, then that" formulation of decisions related to social role valorization as a better way of interpreting it to people.

Social Role Valorization is interpreted as a high-order empirical social science theory that informs people about the relation between the social roles that people hold and what happens to them as a result and how to valorize (improve or defend) the social roles of people at risk of social devaluation. Because Social Role Valorization is not a "religion," people must go to higher belief systems to determine whether and why other humans should be valued or devalued, whether the social valuation of others should be promoted, and which presumably effective means to this end are morally defensible or even imperative. Whether a pursuit of social valuation in certain cases has unacceptable implications can be in the domain of either "religion" or practical trade-offs.

Adult↗

PubMed2002

10 years after rio-concepts on the contribution of chemistry to a sustainable development.

The principles of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), held in June 1992 in Rio de Janeiro, and Agenda 21, the comprehensive plan of action for the 21st century, adopted 10 years ago by more than 170 governments, address the pressing problems of today and also aim at preparing the world for the challenges of this century. The conservation and management of resources for development are the main focus of interest, to which the sciences will have to make a considerable contribution. Natural, economic, and social sciences will have to be integrated in order to achieve this aim. In their future programs, the associations of the chemical industries in Europe, Japan, and the USA have explicitly accepted their obligation to foster a sustainable development. In this review we investigate innovations in chemistry exemplarily for such a development with regard to their ecological, economical, and social dimensions from an integrated and interdisciplinary perspective. Since base chemicals are produced in large quantities and important product lines are synthesized from them, their resource-saving production is especially important for a sustainable development. This concept has been shown, amongst others, by the example of the syntheses of propylene oxide and adipic acid. In the long run, renewable resources that are catalytically processed could replace fossil raw materials. Separation methods existing today must be improved considerably to lower material and energy consumption. Chemistry might become the pioneer of an innovative energy technique. The design of chemical products should make possible a sustainable processing and recycling and should prevent their bio-accumulation. Methods and criteria to assess their contribution to a sustainable development are necessary. The time taken to introduce the new more sustainable processes and products has to be diminished by linking their development with operational innovation management and with efficient environmental-political control procedures.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2006

[The importance of biographical approaches in nursing science].

Critical life events (e. g. disease, loss of be loved one) biographically represent important turning points, which concerned people have to cope and deal with. While biographical research, which is established in the human and social sciences, has been dealing for a long time with typical features, such as on the type of a disease-dependent burden and coping processes, biographical oriented research approaches in nursing science are in their early stages. The article at hand has its goal in discussing the connectivity, particularly the social-interpretative biographical research in nursing science and their relevance for the development of supporting concepts regarding nursing; with the intention to rehabilitate the sufferer as the author of his own life story.

Activities of Daily Living↗

PubMed2004

Social and behavioural science education in UK medical schools: current practice and future directions.

INTRODUCTION: The increasing importance accorded the social and behavioural sciences in medical education presents opportunities for developing new and innovative forms of teaching and learning in this field. Yet social and behavioural scientists often feel isolated and marginalized. This research was designed to build a network of such practitioners to share and compare current practice, and to develop better models and resources. METHODS: Questionnaire survey and workshop discussions describe current practice among social and behavioural scientists in UK medical education, and identify current and future issues. RESULTS: Most UK medical curricula feature a significant social and behavioural science component, often in multidisciplinary contexts. Questions of core content, and how this relates to desired learning outcomes, particularly in the attitudinal sphere, remain unresolved. Identity problems result from differing perspectives of medics and social and behavioural scientists, staffing constraints, assessment regimes, and relationships with external examiners. DISCUSSION: This project identified barriers and opportunities for providing adequate training in the social and behavioural sciences in medical schools. Some of the barriers are common to higher education generally. Through our network, a database of core cases and assessments can be developed that would be available to all for teaching purposes. CONCLUSION: Social and behavioural scientists involved in medical education show commonality and difference in the extent and scope of their input. While they have made great progress, there remains much to achieve.

Behavioral Sciences↗

PubMed1996

Disciplinary Differences in Self-Regulated Learning in College Students

The personal attributes of self-regulated learning are often described in terms of knowledge base, adaptive motivational beliefs, and appropriate use of cognitive and metacognitive strategies for learning. These attributes are usually assumed to apply across all disciplines and contexts, but there has been little research that has examined the disciplinary differences in these personal attributes of self-regulated learning. The present study examined college students' knowledge, motivation, and self-regulatory learning strategies in humanities, social science, and natural science college courses. The sample included 380 college students from three different institutions. Students were given a measure of their course knowledge and a self-report measure of their motivational beliefs and use of self-regulatory strategies at the beginning and end of the semester. Three levels of achievement were created from final course grade and ANOVA's were used to examine the differences in knowledge, motivation, and self-regulation by achievement level and discipline. The results suggest that the components of knowledge, motivation, and self-regulation do distinguish high from low achievers in social and natural science courses, but not in the humanities courses. Results are discussed in terms of the generalizability of our models of self-regulated learning across disciplines and implications for measuring self-regulated learning in different disciplines.

Journal Article↗