The emotion–valuation constellation: Multiple emotions are governed by a common grammar of social valuation

Social emotions are hypothesized to be adaptations designed by selection to solve adaptive problems pertaining to social valuation—the disposition to attend to, associate with, and aid a target individual based on her probable contributions to the fitness of the valuer. To steer between effectiveness and economy, social emotions need to activate in precise proportion to the local evaluations of the various acts and characteristics that dictate the social value of self and others. Supporting this hypothesis, experiments conducted in the United States and India indicate that five different social emotions all track a common set of valuations. The extent to which people value each of 25 positive characteristics in others predicts the intensities of: pride (if you had those characteristics), anger (if someone failed to acknowledge that you have those characteristics), gratitude (if someone convinced others that you have those characteristics), guilt (if you harmed someone who has those characteristics), and sadness (if someone died who had those characteristics). The five emotions track local valuations (mean r = +.72) and even foreign valuations (mean r = +.70). In addition, cultural differences in emotion are patterned: They follow cultural differences in valuation. These findings suggest that multiple social emotions are governed (in part) by a common architecture of social valuation, that the valuation architecture operates with a substantial degree of universality in its content, and that a unified theoretical framework may explain cross-cultural invariances and cultural differences in emotion.     

‘Culture shock’: Black students account for their distinctiveness at an elite college

Previous research on black students attending predominantly white colleges has emphasized race-based differences with white students while downplaying differences in social class. This research indicates that class-based differences are an important component of many black students’ discomfort at ‘Northern College’, a school that has traditionally served wealthy white students. Drawing on interviews and participant observation done on campus, I apply cultural capital theory to explain how differences in class-specific cultural styles make campus life difficult for non-affluent blacks and discuss the implications of the findings for future research on black college experiences.     

The Cultural Construction of Social Support in Brazil: Associations with Health Outcomes

The association of social support and healthoutcomes has received considerable attention inrecent years, but the cultural dimension of socialsupport has not been extensively investigated. Inthis paper, using data collected in a Braziliancity, we present results indicating that thoseindividuals whose reported access to social supportmore closely approximates an ideal cultural model ofaccess to social support have lower blood pressureand report fewer depressive symptoms and lowerlevels of perceived stress. The cultural model ofsocial support is derived using a combination ofparticipant observation, semi-structured interviews,and the systematic ethnographic technique ofcultural consensus modelling. These results arethen used to develop a measure of an individualsapproximation to that model of social support in asurvey of four diverse neighborhoods in the city(n = 250). We call this approximation to the idealcultural model of social support culturalconsonance in social support. The association ofhealth outcomes with cultural consonance in socialsupport is independent of individual differences inthe reporting of social support, and of standardcovariates. In the case of blood pressure andperceived stress, it is independent of diet, andother socioeconomic and psychosocial variables. Theassociation with depressive symptoms is notindependent of other psychosocial variables. Theimplications of these results are discussed withrespect to research on cultural dimensions of thedistribution of disease.     

Accommodation and Resistance: Latinas Struggle for Their Children's Education

Accommodation and resistance are not dichotomous phenomena but, rather, interwoven strategies for immigrants trying to survive in a cultural environment different from their own. Both strategies are responses to conflict, especially in the education of children. This article examines these conflicts among two generations of Latinas, and the ways in which they capitalized on their funds of knowledge to resolve conflicts. The issues involve not only differences in cultural practices and beliefs but also how these are shaped by participants' social positions and the institutional forces that threaten their beliefs.     

Greek and Egyptian dreams in two Ptolemaic archives: Individual and cultural layers of meaning.

A cultural comparison is made of dreams in the archives of an Egyptian (Hor) and a Greek (Ptolemaios) in second-century BCE Egypt. The content of the dreams is discussed with reference to actual events in the lives of the dreamers as known from their archives and to ancient Greek and Egyptian dream books. The possible social phenomena which might account for differences and similarities between the dreams are discussed. It is found that the dreams in Hor's archive generally reveal a stronger cultural layer with a deep immersion in a specifically Egyptian environment. In contrast, those in Ptolemaios' archive generally have a stronger individual layer and are more concerned with personal struggles reflecting social and economic factors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Biocultural linkages--cultural consensus, cultural consonance, and human biological research

Cultural consensus analysis tests for shared models of behavior in various cultural dimensions. Cultural consonance is used to assess the degree to which individuals behave in a way that is consistent with these cultural models. Results are presented from two studies using cultural consensus and consonance analysis (CCCA) on health risk in an African American population and on diet in a mixed sample from West Alabama. In the African American case study, cultural consonance in lifestyle and social support are demonstrated to have a significant effect on blood pressure. In the diet study, significant differences in cultural consonance on the health dimension of diet between groups espousing different dietary preferences were demonstrated in spite of all groups sharing the same model of healthy foods. These studies are used to argue that more sophisticated measures of culture in human biological research are readily available and accessible for most studies.     

National identity and social inclusion

In terms of our national identity, who we are and are judged to be in a particular context depends on how well our claims are regarded by those around us. Being considered not ‘one of us’ means being an outsider whether one wants to be or not. National identity may lead ultimately to social inclusion or exclusion. Using mainly 2005 survey data, this paper explores cultural markers such as ethnicity, birthplace, residence, accent and ancestry regarding claims to be ‘Scottish’. It shows that being born in Scotland enables people to make claims and to have them accepted. Claims to be Scottish by a white and a non-white person on the basis of various markers are received in much the same way. The cultural markers which people use to judge claims represent the raw materials of identity differences with the potential to become the basis of social exclusion under appropriate conditions.     

The effect of environmental factors on the rates of cultural developments

Progress in social and cultural life is initiated by a small group of individuals, who do not follow the socially accepted habits, patterns of behavior, or ideas. Such individuals may be conveniently called nonconformists. The rate of cultural progress depends largely on their number. This number is partly determined by purely biological factors, which result in a certain fraction of individuals being born with the necessary predisposition. Partly, it is determined by the circumstance that the progeny of nonconformists is reared and educated in nonconformist behavior. This latter process requires the possibility for the existing nonconformists to gather together and to form semi-closed social groups. This, in turn, depends to a large extent on the rate of urbanization of the population, which is affected by various environmental factors. Mathematical expressions are developed which show how these different environmental factors affect the growth of the number of nonconformists, and thus affect the rate of cultural changes. Some very general comparisons with known facts indicate the possibility of future applications of the theory. The principal result of the study is the fact that social groups with identical biological characteristics may show a great difference in cultural development due to differences in environment.     

基于不同游客视角的百花山自然保护区生态系统服务社会价值评估

自然保护区的生态系统服务（Ecosystem Service,ES）的社会文化价值,是支持自然保护区多元化发展、践行生态文明建设的重要路径。以北京市百花山自然保护区为例,结合社会调查数据和地理空间数据,在对生态旅游者和一般游客有效分类的基础上,使用SolVES模型、相关性分析和社会网络分析等方法探索二者对研究区ES社会文化价值的认同差异、空间差异、作用关系差异及影响因素差异。研究发现：（1）生态旅游者对ES社会价值的价值认同比一般游客高,特别体现在学习、生物多样性、精神和生命可持续价值这4种价值类型上;（2）百花草甸是两类游客ES社会价值分布的热点区域,生态旅游者感知的美学、学习、生物多样性、精神和生命可持续价值的高值区的分布范围较一般游客更广,一般游客感知的娱乐和康体健身价值的高值区的分布范围较生态旅游者更广;（3）两类游客均认为不同ES社会价值类型间为协同关系,其中学习价值对生态旅游者而言是最具影响力的社会价值类型,生物多样性、精神、生命可持续和未来价值对一般游客而言是最具影响力的社会价值类型;（4）对旅游设施的满意度显著影响两类游客对关键价值类型的评估,但影响方式不同。此外对环境教育的满意度和是否知道百花山是国家级自然保护区分别是影响生态旅游者和一般游客对关键价值类型评估的社会要素,NDVI和ELEV分别是影响生态旅游者和一般游客对关键价值类型评估的空间要素。建议在自然保护区生态旅游的规划建设中,需要考虑不同游客对ES社会价值的感知差异,积极探索协同ES社会价值的供给,支持自然保护区自然资源管理和生态旅游规划。     

Developmental Stage Age Groups and African Population Structure: The Kusasi of the West African Savanna

African population structures based on censuses exhibit a distinctive pattern of distortion. It is often assumed that the cause for this distortion is systematic biases in age estimates by census enumerators and respondents influenced by perceptions of social and biological development. African developmental stage age groups are the cultural codification of such perceptions. I describe developmental stage age groups among the Kusasi of Bawku District in northeast Ghana, and analyze their age and sex structure for a sample of 1,132 individuals from the village of Zorse. I show that differences between men and women reflect differences in biological and social development, and that cultural concepts of developmental stages could influence age estimates to produce the pattern of distortions typical of those found in African population structures based on censuses. This is supported by a comparison of Bawku District population structure based on the Ghana census and an ethnographic sample census in Zorse which eliminated most age estimate biases.     

Individual consistency and flexibility in human social information use

Copying others appears to be a cost-effective way of obtaining adaptive information, particularly when flexibly employed. However, adult humans differ considerably in their propensity to use information from others, even when this ‘social information’ is beneficial, raising the possibility that stable individual differences constrain flexibility in social information use. We used two dissimilar decision-making computer games to investigate whether individuals flexibly adjusted their use of social information to current conditions or whether they valued social information similarly in both games. Participants also completed established personality questionnaires. We found that participants demonstrated considerable flexibility, adjusting social information use to current conditions. In particular, individuals employed a ‘copy-when-uncertain’ social learning strategy, supporting a core, but untested, assumption of influential theoretical models of cultural transmission. Moreover, participants adjusted the amount invested in their decision based on the perceived reliability of personally gathered information combined with the available social information. However, despite this strategic flexibility, participants also exhibited consistent individual differences in their propensities to use and value social information. Moreover, individuals who favoured social information self-reported as more collectivist than others. We discuss the implications of our results for social information use and cultural transmission.     

Analytical Dimensions in the Comparison of Social Organizations

The paper focuses on differences in the way social situations are defined in different cultures and societies. It develops and illustrates some dimensions for comparing social systems in this respect, viz: their inventory of statuses, the repertoires of persons, and the cultural ways in which occasions are distinguished. Some contrasting types of society are compared on these dimensions; and the problem is raised as to the epistemological character of such types, and the importance of the variable of scale. The dual nature of social organization as an organization both of people and of tasks is emphasized.     

Innovation in the collective brain

Innovation is often assumed to be the work of a talented few, whose products are passed on to the masses. Here, we argue that innovations are instead an emergent property of our species'' cultural learning abilities, applied within our societies and social networks. Our societies and social networks act as collective brains. We outline how many human brains, which evolved primarily for the acquisition of culture, together beget a collective brain. Within these collective brains, the three main sources of innovation are serendipity, recombination and incremental improvement. We argue that rates of innovation are heavily influenced by (i) sociality, (ii) transmission fidelity, and (iii) cultural variance. We discuss some of the forces that affect these factors. These factors can also shape each other. For example, we provide preliminary evidence that transmission efficiency is affected by sociality—languages with more speakers are more efficient. We argue that collective brains can make each of their constituent cultural brains more innovative. This perspective sheds light on traits, such as IQ, that have been implicated in innovation. A collective brain perspective can help us understand otherwise puzzling findings in the IQ literature, including group differences, heritability differences and the dramatic increase in IQ test scores over time.     

Culture,dental professionals and oral health values in multicultural societies: measuring cultural factors in geriatric oral health research and education

Culture has significant impacts upon professional practice and patient health behaviours, especially in multicultural societies. This paper introduces the concept of culture and examines how it may be of importance to dental health professionals. Using the Dental Impact Profile and other dental social science measures, dental researchers and students can be engaged in studying cultural values and characteristics as a way of dealing with cultural differences.     

Multilevel Societies of Female Sperm Whales (Physeter macrocephalus) in the Atlantic and Pacific: Why Are They So Different?

We can examine the evolution of multilevel societies using comparative studies. Intraspecific comparisons are valuable because confounding factors are reduced. Female sperm whales live in multilevel societies. However, studies at several locations have found substantial and consistent differences in social structure between the eastern Pacific and North Atlantic Oceans, even though nuclear DNA shows no significant differentiation between the populations. In the Pacific, female sperm whales live in nearly permanent social units that typically contain about 11 females and immatures of multiple unrelated matrilines. These units form temporary groups with other units for periods of days, apparently exclusively with other units from the same cultural clan. Clans contain thousands of females, are not distinct in nuclear DNA, but are sympatric and have distinctive culturally determined vocalizations and movement patterns. In the North Atlantic social units rarely group with other units, and there is no evidence for sympatric cultural clans. Possible drivers of these contrasts include oceanographic differences, predation, the effects of whaling, and culture. We suggest that protection against predation by killer whales is the primary reason for grouping in the Pacific, and as killer whales do not seem such a threat in the Atlantic, social units there rarely form groups, and have not evolved the clans that primarily function to structure interunit interactions. This analysis highlighted several factors that may influence the evolution of multilevel societies, ranging from the attributes of resources, to predation, anthropogenic effects, culture, and even the cultures of other species.     

Cultural Variations on Gender: Latin American Marianismo/Machismo in Australia

This paper concerns cultural and social ideas and practices on gender differences among Latin American immigrants in Australia. It explores the ways in which immigrants' notions of gender relations expressed as marianismo/machismo generated in their societies of origin, influence the social gender relationships among the settlers in Australia. The argument is that marianismo/machismo are ideological constructs which reinforce woman's oppression and at the same time help to perpetuate social relations of inequality between men and women.     

The Mental Representation of Social Connections: Generalizability Extended to Beijing Adults

Social connections are essential for the survival of a social species like humans. People differ in the degree to which they are sensitive to perceived deficits in their social connections, but evidence suggests that they nevertheless construe the nature of their social connections similarly. This construal can be thought of as a mental representation of a multi-faceted social experience. A three-dimensional mental representation has been identified with the UCLA Loneliness Scale and consists of Intimate, Relational, and Collective Connectedness reflecting beliefs about one''s individual, dyadic, and collective (group) social value, respectively. Moreover, this mental representation has been replicated with other scales and validated across age, gender, and racial/ethnic lines in U.S. samples. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the extent to which this three-dimensional representation applies to people whose social lives are experienced in a collectivistic rather than individualistic culture. To that end, we used confirmatory factor analyses to assess the fit of the three-dimensional mental structure to data collected from Chinese people living in China. Two hundred sixty-seven young adults (16–25 yrs) and 250 older adults (50–65 yrs) in Beijing completed the revised UCLA Loneliness Scale and demographic and social activity questionnaires. Results revealed adequate fit of the structure to data from young and older Chinese adults. Moreover, the structure exhibited equivalent fit in young and older Chinese adults despite changes in the Chinese culture that exposed these two generations to different cultural experiences. Social activity variables that discriminated among the three dimensions in the Chinese samples corresponded well with variables that discriminated among the three dimensions in the U.S.-based samples, indicating cultural commonalities in the factors predicting dimensions of people''s representations of their social connections. Equivalence of the three-dimensional structure is relevant for an understanding of cultural differences in the sources of loneliness and social connectedness.     

Comparing the biological and cultural inheritance of personality and social attitudes in the Virginia 30,000 study of twins and their relatives.

Measures of four dimensions of personality (Psychoticism, Extraversion, Neuroticism, and Lie scores) and six aspects of social attitudes (to sex, taxation, militarism, politics, religion and a general conservatism scale) were obtained by mailed questionnaire from 29,691 US subjects including adult twins (n = 14,761) their parents (n = 2360), their spouses (n = 4391), siblings (n = 3184) and adult children (n = 4800). After correction for the average effects of age, sex and source of sample, familial correlations were computed for 80 distinct biological and social relationships. The data allow for the estimation of the additive and non-additive effects of genes, assortative mating, vertical cultural inheritance and other non-parental effects of the shared environment on differences in personality and social attitudes. The interaction of genetic and environmental effects with sex may also be analyzed. Model-fitting analyses show that personality and social attitude measures differ markedly in major features of family resemblance. Additive and dominant genetic effects contribute to differences in both personality and attitudes, but the effects of the family environment, including vertical cultural transmission from parent to child, are much more marked for social attitudes than for personality. There is substantial assortative mating for social attitudes and almost none for personality. The causes of family resemblance depend significantly on sex for almost every variable studied. These findings clarify and extend the more tentative findings derived from previous twin, family and adoption studies.     

The "Other" Story of Model Minorities: Korean American High School Dropouts in an Urban Context

This article analyzes how socioeconomic backgrounds, social capital, and school resources affect Korean American youths' educational attainment and aspirations. In the context of limited social and economic support, students delineate differences within coethnic communities along class lines and adopt an oppositional cultural frame of reference to endure and resist institutional barriers. This study demonstrates the significance of distinguishing socioeconomic differences within Korean American communities and for whom the enclaves may be more beneficial.     

智力水平还是文化表现?——尼安德特人与现代人文化精致程度差异研究述评

尼安德特人和解剖学意义上的现代人在文化精致程度上的区别已经争论了很长时间,考古学者希望能得出一个确定的答案,两个假设应运而生:智力水平(尼人不能发展出精致的文化)与文化表现(尼人不需要发展出精致程度较高的文化)。古人类与考古材料显示智力水平假设有缺陷:尼人的基因进入了现代人的基因库中,而且他们有能力学习现代人的技术,在"过渡工业"的材料中可以找到相关证据;与此同时,至今还未找到关系到智力水平的大脑结构证据证明尼人智力水平不如现代人。检验文化表现假设的前提是尼人与早期现代人在智力水平上没有差异,却呈现出不同的社会网络和社会组织。本文在讨论尼人与现代人人口与社会交流的基础上,认为现代人复杂的社会组织切割了尼人的生活环境,同时火山爆发引起了资源短缺,最终导致了尼人在欧洲灭绝。