Activity: Structure,Genesis, and Units of Analysis

One of the most remarkable events in Soviet psychology in the second half of the '70s was the discussion of the problem of the relationship between communication and activity [8,13,18,19,21,23]. We considered the following approach to the problem, which we here present in its most general form, the most constructive: Communication and activity are undoubtedly interrelated; but communication (in contrast to perception, memory, etc.) is not usefully regarded as simply one type of activity as it is analyzed in terms of Leont'ev's paradigm activity—action—operation, motive—goal—condition. This approach to the problem is useful primarily for advancing the theory of activity: it points sharply to the very essential point, insufficiently developed in the theory of activity, that analysis of social environments and the mechanisms of human activity is both collective and individual.     

Psychological Research on the Pathology of Activity and Its Significance for the Psychology of Personality

In his book Being and consciousness [Bytiye i soznaniye] S. L. Rubinshteyn explained that "an external influence has a particular mental effect only by being refracted through the subject's mental state, through a system of thoughts and feelings formed within him" (45, p. 226). To apply this to particular research on pathology it is necessary to pass from studying disorders of specific functions to studying changes in various forms of the patient's activity, in whose structure are included changes in personality sets and motives.     

Spatiotemporal Distribution of Black Bear-Human Conflicts in Colorado,USA

Abstract: Management and conservation of large carnivores increasingly includes conflicts with humans. Consequently, a greater understanding of spatiotemporal trends of conflicts is needed to efficiently allocate resources and apply targeted management. Therefore, we examined spatial and temporal distribution of American black bear (Ursus americanus; hereafter, bear)-human conflicts in Colorado, USA, related to 3 conflict types (agriculture operations, human development, and road kills). We used the Getis-Ord G_i* spatial clustering statistic to describe location and assess magnitude of bear-human conflicts in Colorado during 1986–2003 and investigated temporal trends of bear-human conflicts by type. Bear-human conflicts showed distinct spatial clustering by type, and areas of high clustering overlapped conflict types. Clustering for agriculture operations conflicts had the largest overall G_i* value and overlapped counties with high sheep production. Both human development and road-kill conflict clusters were high in areas of high-quality oak (Quercus spp.)—shrub habitat in the central and southern portions of Colorado's Front Range region and near the city of Durango in southwestern Colorado. Bear-human conflicts varied by year and type but overall increased during the 18 years. Summed across years, most conflicts were related to agriculture (32%), followed by road kills (27%) and human development (24%). The greatest proportion of agriculture operations-related conflicts (76%), human development-related conflicts (36%), and road kills (47%) occurred in 1988, 1999, and 2003, respectively. Considering that bear-human conflicts in Colorado increased over time and will likely continue to increase, we suggest wildlife managers improve data collection by obtaining detailed location data, categorizing conflict types uniformly, and applying conflict regulations consistently to strengthen inference of similar analyses. We also suggest that managers target efforts to mitigate damage by focusing on areas with high clustering of conflicts.     

Consecuencias de los conflictos armados en la salud mental de niños y adolescentes: revisión de revisiones de la literatura

Introduction:

Armed conflicts affect the mental health of children and adolescents. Their outcomes in these populations have been documented identifying vulnerability and significant biopsychosocial damage as the most common factors.

Objective:

To identify and synthesize the mental health consequences of armed conflicts in children and adolescents.

Materials and methods:

We carried out a comprehensive and systematic search of reviews published until July 2019 in the MEDLINE (Ovid), EMBASE, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, and LILACS databases, as well as in additional sources. The information was retrieved and analyzed narratively by describing the characteristics and objectives of the studies and the mental health consequences of armed conflicts in three periods of time: pre-armed conflict, during the armed conflict, and post-conflict.

Results.

Out of 587 potentially relevant studies, we finally selected 72. In the pre-armed conflict period, we described in detail the psychological experiences and the anticipatory somatic symptoms. During the conflict, we identified regressive, behavioral, and cognitive symptoms such as enuresis, fear, sadness, aggression, hyperactivity, and inattention, among others. Direct mental health consequences such as adjustment disorders, depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress were also identified. Finally, in the post-conflict period, we referred to the transmission of mental health consequences and resilience processes. On the other hand, we reviewed in depth the potential consequences of armed conflicts on biopsychosocial development, morality, identity, culture, education, and society.

Conclusion.

The development of mental health consequences due to the exposure to armed conflicts in these populations is a complex process that depends on the stage of the exposure, the length of the conflict, and contextual factors.     

Activity: Structure,Genesis, and Unit of Analysis

One of the most notable phenomena in Soviet psychology since the late '70s has been discussion of the relationship between communication and activity [8,13,18,19,21,23]. I consider the following formulation of the problem, given here in its most general form, the most constructive: communication and activity are indubitably interrelated, but communication (in contrast to perception, memory, etc.) cannot, in any constructive way, be regarded as a type of activity and analyzed within the framework of Leont 'ev's paradigm (activity—action—operation; motive—goal—condition). This formulation of the problem is useful primarily in terms of the further progress of the theory of activity: it quite incisively focuses on one essential point that has been inadequately dealt with in the theory of activity, namely, an analysis of the social means and mechanisms of human activity, both collective and individual.     

The Problem of Generalization in the Works of L. S. Vygotsky

An aspect of Vygotsky's psychological theory which is still meaningful as a genuine scientific problem today is the treatment he gave to the structure, function, and formation of generalization as a special means of reflecting reality in human consciousness. Many of the central propositions of the theory — concerning such questions as the role of symbols in the establishment of higher mental functions, the hierarchical structure of consciousness, and the connection between instruction and development — were refined, concentrated, and cast in a new light by the concept of generalization which Lev Semyonovich worked on so intensively in the last years of his life. The problem of generalization is the knot that ties together the fundamental strands of the whole conception. By carefully untying it one can avoid misunderstandings in evaluating some of Vygotsky's propositions, and, even more important, one can then correctly understand his fundamental ideas, which he clearly formulated but was not able to develop fully. The significance of these ideas is such that they belong in the arsenal of modern psychology to resolve burning theoretical and practical problems of the day.     

Sexual selection modulates genetic conflicts and patterns of genomic imprinting

Recent years have seen a surge of interest in linking the theories of kin selection and sexual selection. In particular, there is a growing appreciation that kin selection, arising through demographic factors such as sex‐biased dispersal, may modulate sexual conflicts, including in the context of male–female arms races characterized by coevolutionary cycles. However, evolutionary conflicts of interest need not only occur between individuals, but may also occur within individuals, and sex‐specific demography is known to foment such intragenomic conflict in relation to social behavior. Whether and how this logic holds in the context of sexual conflict—and, in particular, in relation to coevolutionary cycles—remains obscure. We develop a kin‐selection model to investigate the interests of different genes involved in sexual and intragenomic conflict, and we show that consideration of these conflicting interests yields novel predictions concerning parent‐of‐origin specific patterns of gene expression and the detrimental effects of different classes of mutation and epimutation at loci underpinning sexually selected phenotypes.     

Aggregative cycles evolve as a solution to conflicts in social investment

Multicellular organization is particularly vulnerable to conflicts between different cell types when the body forms from initially isolated cells, as in aggregative multicellular microbes. Like other functions of the multicellular phase, coordinated collective movement can be undermined by conflicts between cells that spend energy in fuelling motion and ‘cheaters’ that get carried along. The evolutionary stability of collective behaviours against such conflicts is typically addressed in populations that undergo extrinsically imposed phases of aggregation and dispersal. Here, via a shift in perspective, we propose that aggregative multicellular cycles may have emerged as a way to temporally compartmentalize social conflicts. Through an eco-evolutionary mathematical model that accounts for individual and collective strategies of resource acquisition, we address regimes where different motility types coexist. Particularly interesting is the oscillatory regime that, similarly to life cycles of aggregative multicellular organisms, alternates on the timescale of several cell generations phases of prevalent solitary living and starvation-triggered aggregation. Crucially, such self-organized oscillations emerge as a result of evolution of cell traits associated to conflict escalation within multicellular aggregates.     

Birth order,conscientiousness, and openness to experience: Tests of the family-niche model of personality using a within-family methodology

We investigated differences between firstborn and secondborn siblings on major dimensions of personality, in the context of the proposal of Sulloway [Sulloway, F. J. (1996). Born to rebel: Birth order, family dynamics and creative lies. New York: Pantheon] that personality is influenced by the specialized niches siblings adopt in the quest for access to parental resources. Using a within-family methodology, we tested two predictions from Sulloway's model: that firstborns are more achieving and conscientious than secondborns and that secondborns are more rebellious and open to new experiences than firstborns. To test an alternative prenatal hypomasculinization theory proposed by Beer and Horn [Beer, J. M., & Horn, J. M. (2000). The influence of rearing order on personality development within two adoption cohorts. Journal of Personality, 68, 769–819], we also examined the size of birth-order effects in sister–sister versus brother–brother pairs. The hypothesized effects of birth order on personality were found in both Study 1 (n=161 sibling pairs) and Study 2 (n=174 sibling pairs) and provided support for Sulloway's family-niche model. No support was found for Beer and Horn's hypomasculinization model.     

Personality,Relationship Conflict,and Teamwork-Related Mental Models

This study seeks to explore whether neuroticism, agreeableness, and conscientiousness moderate the influence of relationship conflict experienced in groups on changes in group members'' evaluative cognitions related to teamwork quality (teamwork-related mental models). Data from 216 students, nested in 48 groups were analyzed using a multilevel modeling approach. Our results show that the experience of relationship conflict leads to a negative shift from the pre-task to the post-task teamwork-related mental models. Moreover, the results indicate that conscientiousness buffered the negative association between relationship conflict and the change in teamwork-related mental models. Our results did not support the hypothesized moderating effect of agreeableness and show that the detrimental effect of relationship conflict on the shift in teamwork-related mental models is accentuated for group members scoring low rather than high on neuroticism. These findings open new research venues for exploring the association between personality, coping styles and change in teamwork-related mental models.     

Fuzzy Cognitive Maps of Social-Ecological Complexity: Applying Mental Modeler to the Bonneville Salt Flats

Although often limited in terms of extent or accuracy, mental models—i.e., explanations of the surrounding world and how things work within it—provide confidence and frameworks to navigate life's uncertainties. Unfortunately, differing and yet similar mental models held collectively by groups can lead to problematic behavior, misunderstandings, and conflict on large scales. Such challenges are likely familiar to natural resource managers who, in the course of their work, must consider issues that are neither simple nor exclusively ecological or social in nature. Building mental models of various groups’ understanding of a complex natural resource may help managers address the impacts of resource-related behaviors but can be a difficult task when collecting modeling data from large and diverse user groups. Using a sequential, exploratory approach, our study addresses the utility of surrogate mental modeling to explore (a) mental models held by key players from six stakeholder groups associated with Utah's Bonneville Salt Flats (US), and (b) whether these key players were confident that their personal subjective models represented their own group's thinking about Bonneville. We sought to illuminate and compare stakeholder groups’ mental models of subjectively important social and ecological concepts related to Bonneville through the use of fuzzy cognitive maps (FCMs; i.e., semi-quantitative representations of mental models) constructed in Mental Modeler. Analysis revealed differences among groups’ FCMs and levels of perceived complexity, as well as areas of agreement regarding the strength, direction, and character of certain social-ecological relationships. Intersections and divergences in stakeholder mental models may provide logical starting points for communal knowledge-building that can perhaps lessen tension among groups attributable to conceptual misunderstandings of resource-specific complexity.     

The Structure of the Individual Mental Lexicon from the Standpoint of L. S. Vygotsky's Ideas

Research on the structure of an individual's mental lexicon has shown that, among the set of concepts belonging to a single semantic field, there is typically one particular concept that stands out. The processes of storage, identification, and retrieval of this concept are faster and more successful than they are for the others. For example, in the vertical hierarchy of the concept fruit—apple—antonovka [McIntosh to give a familiar U. S. example—Trans.], apple plays this type of lead role and also occupies the most prominent position in the horizontal series apple—pear—plum—cherries—orange. Concepts with such characteristics are referred to as basic, source, or primary concepts. What is the reason for their special status?     

Human collective aggression: A behavioral ecology perspective

Moller (1967/68) proposes that the presence of a large number of adolescents and young adults in a population is a precursor of violent conflicts. But acts of collective aggression are typically perpetrated by males, particularly young males between 15 and 30 years of age. This marked sex difference in the degree of participation is found in all human societies, and it has persisted since the beginning of recorded history. Sexually dimorphic behaviors are invariably found in the context of reproduction, and we discuss male coalitional aggression as a reproductive fitness-enhancing social behavior. This type of social behavior may not increase the welfare of an entire population but it is likely to promote the fitness of the coalition participants. This study argues that the age composition of the male population should be regarded as the critical ecological/demographic factor affecting a population's tendency toward peace or violent conflicts. Our analyses of interstate and intrastate episodes of collective aggression since the 1960s indicate the existence of a consistent correlation between the ratio of males 15 to 29 years of age per 100 males 30 years of age and older, and the level of coalitional aggression as measured by the number of reported conflict related deaths.     

Income deprivation and mental well-being: The role of non-cognitive skills

We show that the positive relation between income deprivation and mental health is affected by an individual's non-cognitive skills. Income deprivation is operationalized as the Yitzhaki index, i.e., as a function of the sum of income differences between an individual and others in her reference group who are more affluent. Non-cognitive skills are extracted from a Locus of Control questionnaire and the Big Five Inventory, a self-report measurement of an individual in regard to five aspects of personality: conscientiousness, neuroticism, extraversion, agreeableness and open-mindedness. The results, based on the 2002–2010 waves of the German Socio-Economic Panel dataset (SOEP), show that deprivation is negative and significantly related with mental health. However, neurotic individuals are more deprivation-sensitive than are others. Compared to the mean effect, a one standard deviation rise in neuroticism is associated with a deprivation effect that is 36.6% and 51.9% larger among men and women, respectively. Although to a lesser extent, extraverted men and conscientious women are also found to be more deprivation-sensitive than are others, the corresponding figures being 31.1% and 45.9%, respectively. These findings suggest that personality differences should be taken into account in the design of policies, practices and initiatives aimed at alleviating the well-being costs of income deprivation.     

The Psychology of the Self-Actualizing Personality in the Work of Abraham Maslow

The second and third quarters of this century saw the appearance of a number of different concepts of personality in foreign psychology. Most of these were spawned by pathopsychology as a result of attempts to understand the personality of the neurotic and as a practical offshoot of psychotherapy. Although these theories were generalizations based on studies of the psychopathological personality, they began to be propagated by their creators as general theories of personality. Material gathered from the investigation of mental patients was used as the foundation for what are now standard personality tests — the Rorschach test and the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) — used chiefly to discover neurotic tendencies in the individual. An extremely exaggerated evaluation of the significance of the pathopsychological method has been the hallmark of personality theory in foreign psychology. Yet the neurotic and, even more so, the pathological personality are qualitatively, not quantitatively, distinct from the personality of a normal human being. We must therefore concur with Maslow, who shows how the "study of mutilated, sickly, immature and unhealthy subjects will also give rise to a mutilated psychology and philosophy" (9, p. 234).     

某军校新生人格特征分析及建议

目的:调查某军校大一新生的人格特征及心理健康状况,为开展军校学员心理健康教育提供科学依据。方法:采用卡特尔16种个性因素测验(16PF)对1224名大一学员进行测试。结果:除乐群性和世故性外,在剩余14个因素上,新学员的结果与全国成年人常模均存在显著差异;其中,来自城市的学员与农村学员在乐群性、兴奋性、敢为性、敏感性、怀疑性、幻想性和世故性因子有显著差异;独生子女与非独生子女在兴奋性、怀疑性、实验性和独立性上,表现出显著差异。结论:该校大一学员整体心理健康状况良好,但在恃强性、兴奋性、敢为性、幻想性因子得分偏高,应进行系统教育和调控;同时,也要注重城市学员与农村学员、独生子女与非独生子女之间的心理差距,因材施教,共同提高。     

Rook,But Not Jackdaw,Post‐Conflict Third‐Party Affiliation Reduces Aggression for Aggressors

Post‐conflict (PC) affiliation refers to positive social interactions that occur after fights. Although this behavior has been widely studied, its functions are rarely tested. We examine a potential function of PC third‐party affiliation (affiliation between former opponents and bystanders) in rooks and jackdaws by investigating the hypothesis that conflicts lead to further aggression and that PC third‐party affiliation increases to reduce such aggression. The results show that PC affiliation reduces PC aggression for rook aggressors who were less likely to receive aggression after conflicts when they were affiliating with another vs. when they were alone. The opposite result was found for victims of both species who received more aggression after conflicts, and this aggression was not reduced by the act of affiliating. Finally, for jackdaw aggressors, the amount of aggression received after conflicts was not influenced by whether the individual was affiliating or alone, indicating that PC third‐party affiliation may serve a function that we did not examine. These findings highlight the importance of investigating functional differences in PC affiliative behavior according to the role played in the conflict.     

The application of evolutionary models to the study of decisions made by children during object possession conflicts

The theoretical evolutionary models of animal conflict developed by Maynard Smith were adapted for an empirical study of decisions made by preschool children during conflicts over object possession. The focus of analysis was the probability of resistance to the opponent's attempts to gain or maintain possession of an object. Factors predicted to affect the decision to resist were (1) the interactants' overall tendencies to (a) win object conflicts, (b) extend the duration of conflicts, and (c) be aggressive, and (2) contextual factors such as (a) currently having or not having possession of the contested object, (b) distance of the object from each interactant, and (c) degree of completion of the opponent's attempt at gaining possession. In accordance with evolutionary theory, children were predicted to make decisions that maximized the probability of obtaining a benefit and minimized the probability of incurring a cost. Results indicated that for both conflict initiators and defenders current possession significantly increased the probability of resistance. For defenders, with or without current possession, an increase in the aggressiveness of the decider relative to his opponent was associated with increased resistance. For defenders with possession, an increased degree of completion of the opponent's possession attempt resulted in a decreased probability of resistance. For initiators without current possession, an increase in their own conflict winning percentage was associated with increased resistance. These results were in general agreement with predictions. In contradiction to prediction, defenders were observed to resist more often against more aggressive opponents. The degree to which evolutionary theory is supported by these results, and the limitations of the methods of inference utilized, are discussed.     

Fear Conditioning Induced by Interpersonal Conflicts in Healthy Individuals

Psychophysiological markers have been focused to investigate the psychopathology of psychiatric disorders and personality subtypes. In order to understand neurobiological mechanisms underlying these conditions, fear-conditioning model has been widely used. However, simple aversive stimuli are too simplistic to understand mechanisms because most patients with psychiatric disorders are affected by social stressors. The objective of this study was to test the feasibility of a newly-designed conditioning experiment using a stimulus to cause interpersonal conflicts and examine associations between personality traits and response to that stimulus. Twenty-nine healthy individuals underwent the fear conditioning and extinction experiments in response to three types of stimuli: a simple aversive sound, disgusting pictures, and pictures of an actors’ face with unpleasant verbal messages that were designed to cause interpersonal conflicts. Conditioned response was quantified by the skin conductance response (SCR). Correlations between the SCR changes, and personality traits measured by the Zanarini Rating Scale for Borderline Personality Disorder (ZAN-BPD) and Revised NEO Personality Inventory were explored. The interpersonal conflict stimulus resulted in successful conditioning, which was subsequently extinguished, in a similar manner as the other two stimuli. Moreover, a greater degree of conditioned response to the interpersonal conflict stimulus correlated with a higher ZAN-BPD total score. Fear conditioning and extinction can be successfully achieved, using interpersonal conflicts as a stimulus. Given that conditioned fear caused by the interpersonal conflicts is likely associated with borderline personality traits, this paradigm could contribute to further understanding of underlying mechanisms of interpersonal fear implicated in borderline personality disorder.     

Genomic imprinting and the units of adaptation

Two guiding principles identify which biological entities are able to evolve adaptations. Williams'' principle holds that, in order for an entity to evolve adaptations, there must be selection between such entities. Maynard Smith''s principle holds that, in order for an entity to evolve adaptations, selection within such entities must be absent or negligible. However, although the kinship theory of genomic imprinting suggests that parent-of-origin-specific gene expression evolves as a consequence of natural selection acting between—rather than within—individuals, it evades adaptive interpretation at the individual level and is instead viewed as an outcome of an intragenomic conflict of interest between an individual''s genes. Here, I formalize the idea that natural selection drives intragenomic conflicts of interest between genes originating from different parents. Specifically, I establish mathematical links between the dynamics of natural selection and the idea of the gene as an intentional, inclusive-fitness-maximizing agent, and I clarify the role that information about parent of origin plays in mediating conflicts of interest between genes residing in the same genome. These results highlight that the suppression of divisive information may be as important as the suppression of lower levels of selection in maintaining the integrity of units of adaptation.