scholarly journals Examining the Social Context of Alcohol Drinking in Young Adults with Smartphone Sensing

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
Lakmal Meegahapola ◽  
Florian Labhart ◽  
Thanh-Trung Phan ◽  
Daniel Gatica-Perez
Keyword(s):  
Young Adults ◽  
Social Context ◽  
Alcohol Consumption ◽  
Drinking Behavior ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Sensor Data ◽  
Smartphone Sensing ◽  
Sensing Data ◽  
The Social ◽  
Self Reports

According to prior work, the type of relationship between a person consuming alcohol and others in the surrounding (friends, family, spouse, etc.), and the number of those people (alone, with one person, with a group) are related to many aspects of alcohol consumption, such as the drinking amount, location, motives, and mood. Even though the social context is recognized as an important aspect that influences the drinking behavior of young adults in alcohol research, relatively little work has been conducted in smartphone sensing research on this topic. In this study, we analyze the weekend nightlife drinking behavior of 241 young adults in a European country, using a dataset consisting of self-reports and passive smartphone sensing data over a period of three months. Using multiple statistical analyses, we show that features from modalities such as accelerometer, location, application usage, bluetooth, and proximity could be informative about different social contexts of drinking. We define and evaluate seven social context inference tasks using smartphone sensing data, obtaining accuracies of the range 75%-86% in four two-class and three three-class inferences. Further, we discuss the possibility of identifying the sex composition of a group of friends using smartphone sensor data with accuracies over 70%. The results are encouraging towards supporting future interventions on alcohol consumption that incorporate users' social context more meaningfully and reducing the need for user self-reports when creating drink logs for self-tracking tools and public health studies.

The Transmission of Energy-Saving Behaviors in the Family: A Multilevel Approach to the Assessment of Aggregated and Single Energy-Saving Actions of Parents and Adolescents

2018 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
pp. 275-304 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hannah Wallis ◽  
Christian Klöckner
Keyword(s):  
Social Context ◽  
Path Analysis ◽  
Energy Saving ◽  
Present Article ◽  
Parental Behavior ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Multilevel Approach ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Family ◽  
Self Reports

The present article examines the transmission of energy-saving behaviors in the family on two levels. We investigated the extent to which energy-saving performance differed between adolescents in relation to parental behavior on an aggregated level but also across single behaviors within adolescents. Furthermore, we investigated whether social context (e.g., private areas in a household) interfered with one of the basic mechanisms assumed for this transmission (observation). Correlations between 13 self-reported single energy-saving behaviors from 264 adolescents and their respective parents ( N = 554) were analyzed by combining a path analysis with a multilevel approach. There were strong significant correlations between parents’ and adolescents’ energy-saving behaviors, mediated by adolescents’ perceptions of their parents’ behavior. The congruence between parents’ self-reports and adolescents’ perceptions was lower in private contexts than in shared social contexts in the household. This indicates that differentiated investigations with single behaviors and a focus on the social context (e.g., observability) are needed in transmission research.

Drinking Contexts, Alcohol Beliefs, and Patterns of Alcohol Consumption: Evidence for a Comprehensive Model of Problem Drinking

1995 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 783-798 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lori Holyfield ◽  
Lori J. Ducharme ◽  
Jack K. Martin
Keyword(s):  
Alcohol Consumption ◽  
Problem Drinking ◽  
Drinking Behavior ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Comprehensive Model ◽  
Drinking Patterns ◽  
Regression Analyses ◽  
Explanatory Variables ◽  
The Social ◽  
National Probability Sample

The social contexts in which individuals drink and the expected outcomes of that drinking (i.e., individual beliefs about the effects of drinking beverage alcohol) have recently been found to represent conceptually distinct models of alcohol consumption patterns. This paper examines the relationships between contexts, beliefs, and a variety of problem drinking patterns, and reestimates these relationships in a large national probability sample of 2,100 adults (U.S. National Alcohol Survey [National 7], Alcohol Research Group 1984: Berkeley, Calif). Regression analyses indicate that the interrelationship of drinking contexts and drinking beliefs, and their impact on drinking behavior, is more complex than previously described. Consistent with earlier research, when simple frequency of drinking is the focus, social contexts for drinking emerge as the more important independent influences. When several indicators of maladaptive drinking are considered, however, beliefs regarding the effects of drinking, particularly beliefs regarding drinking as a means to modify affect, are found to be more influential. Logic is developed for a comprehensive model of the sources of problem drinking that incorporates both classes of explanatory variables.

scholarly journals Individual behavioural traits not social context affects learning about novel objects in archerfish

2021 ◽  
Vol 75 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nick A. R. Jones ◽  
Helen C. Spence-Jones ◽  
Mike Webster ◽  
Luke Rendell
Keyword(s):  
Social Context ◽  
Social Environment ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Behavioural Phenotype ◽  
Social Species ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Animals ◽  
Novel Objects ◽  
The Individual

Abstract Learning can enable rapid behavioural responses to changing conditions but can depend on the social context and behavioural phenotype of the individual. Learning rates have been linked to consistent individual differences in behavioural traits, especially in situations which require engaging with novelty, but the social environment can also play an important role. The presence of others can modulate the effects of individual behavioural traits and afford access to social information that can reduce the need for ‘risky’ asocial learning. Most studies of social effects on learning are focused on more social species; however, such factors can be important even for less-social animals, including non-grouping or facultatively social species which may still derive benefit from social conditions. Using archerfish, Toxotes chatareus, which exhibit high levels of intra-specific competition and do not show a strong preference for grouping, we explored the effect of social contexts on learning. Individually housed fish were assayed in an ‘open-field’ test and then trained to criterion in a task where fish learnt to shoot a novel cue for a food reward—with a conspecific neighbour visible either during training, outside of training or never (full, partial or no visible presence). Time to learn to shoot the novel cue differed across individuals but not across social context. This suggests that social context does not have a strong effect on learning in this non-obligatory social species; instead, it further highlights the importance that inter-individual variation in behavioural traits can have on learning. Significance statement Some individuals learn faster than others. Many factors can affect an animal’s learning rate—for example, its behavioural phenotype may make it more or less likely to engage with novel objects. The social environment can play a big role too—affecting learning directly and modifying the effects of an individual’s traits. Effects of social context on learning mostly come from highly social species, but recent research has focused on less-social animals. Archerfish display high intra-specific competition, and our study suggests that social context has no strong effect on their learning to shoot novel objects for rewards. Our results may have some relevance for social enrichment and welfare of this increasingly studied species, suggesting there are no negative effects of short- to medium-term isolation of this species—at least with regards to behavioural performance and learning tasks.

scholarly journals Changes in Alcohol Consumption during the COVID-19 Pandemic—Small Change in Total Consumption, but Increase in Proportion of Heavy Drinkers

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (8) ◽  
pp. 4231
Author(s):  
Ingeborg Rossow ◽  
Elin K. Bye ◽  
Inger Synnøve Moan ◽  
Carolin Kilian ◽  
Jørgen G. Bramness
Keyword(s):  
Alcohol Consumption ◽  
Drinking Behavior ◽  
Web Surveys ◽  
Total Consumption ◽  
Consumption Level ◽  
Self Reports ◽  
Heavy Drinkers ◽  
Total Alcohol ◽  
Small Change

Little is known about possible changes in alcohol consumption distribution during the COVID-19 pandemic. We estimated how individual changes in alcohol consumption during the pandemic translated into changes in: (i) mean consumption; (ii) dispersion of consumption distribution; and (iii) prevalence of heavy drinkers. We employed data from two independent web-surveys of Norwegian adults collected between April and July 2020 and limited to those reporting past year alcohol consumption (N1 = 15,267, N2 = 1195). Self-reports of changes in drinking behavior were quantified, assuming change being relative to baseline consumption level. During the pandemic, we found a small increase (Survey 1) or no change (Survey 2) in estimated mean alcohol consumption (which parallels to total consumption). However, in both surveys, the dispersion of the distribution increased significantly (p < 0.001). For most respondents, an average modest decline in consumption was found. However, the small fraction with the highest baseline consumption increased their consumption substantially, and in effect, the proportion of heavy drinkers increased markedly (p < 0.001). In conclusion, quantifications of reported changes in alcohol consumption during the pandemic suggest that the upper 5 to 10% of the drinkers increased their consumption and hence the prevalence of heavy drinkers increased, despite little or no change in total alcohol consumption.

A Qualitative Study on Friends and the Social Context of Sexual Victimization: Implications for Campus-Based Interventions

2020 ◽  
pp. 107780122095427
Author(s):  
Jessica A. Blayney ◽  
Tiffany Jenzer ◽  
Jennifer P. Read ◽  
Jennifer Livingston ◽  
Maria Testa ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Context ◽  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Sexual Victimization ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Social Consequences ◽  
Potential Danger ◽  
The Social ◽  
Barriers To Implementation ◽  
College Drinkers

Sexual victimization (SV) risk can begin in social contexts, ones where friends are present, though it is unclear how friends might be integrated into SV prevention. Using focus groups, female college drinkers described (a) the role of friends in preventing SV, (b) the strategies friends use to reduce vulnerability, and (c) the barriers to implementation. Friends-based strategies (keeping tabs on one another, using signals to convey potential danger, interrupting escalating situations, taking responsibility for friends, relying on male friends) and barriers (intoxication, preoccupation, situation ambiguity, social consequences) were discussed. Interventions can draw on these strategies, but must address the critical barriers.

Profiling “User Bases” of Online Social Contexts

2020 ◽  
pp. 113-126
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Social Context ◽  
Social Norms ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Current User ◽  
Social Spaces ◽  
The Social ◽  
Common Practices

One aspect of profiling to enhance teaching and learning involves the various contexts in which learners will engage, such as particular social media ecosystems and their attendant microcultures (the social norms and common practices in these spaces), particularly if learners will be engaging with individuals outside of the formal classroom. Understanding the larger online social context helps define the affordances and constraints of what can be effectively taught and learned. This involves profiling the current user base of the online social spaces where the learners will be engaging and interacting and co-creating knowledge.

scholarly journals Prosocial Influence and Opportunistic Conformity in Adolescents and Young Adults

2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (12) ◽  
pp. 1585-1601 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriele Chierchia ◽  
Blanca Piera Pi-Sunyer ◽  
Sarah-Jayne Blakemore
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Social Context ◽  
Social Influence ◽  
Social Decision ◽  
Charitable Donations ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Decision Making ◽  
Age Range ◽  
Value Of Money

Adolescence is associated with heightened social influence, especially from peers. This can lead to detrimental decision-making in domains such as risky behavior but may also raise opportunities for prosocial behavior. We used an incentivized charitable-donations task to investigate how people revise decisions after learning about the donations of others and how this is affected by age ( N = 220; age range = 11–35 years). Our results showed that the probability of social influence decreased with age within this age range. In addition, whereas previous research has suggested that adults are more likely to conform to the behavior of selfish others than to the behavior of prosocial others, here we observed no evidence of such an asymmetry in midadolescents. We discuss possible interpretations of these findings in relation to the social context of the task, the perceived value of money, and social decision-making across development.

scholarly journals Dialog Structure Through the Lens of Gender, Gender Environment, and Power

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 21-55
Author(s):  
Vinodkumar Prabhakaran ◽  
Owen Rambow
Keyword(s):  
Social Context ◽  
Human Behavior ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Gender Information ◽  
The Social ◽  
Computer Scientists ◽  
Automatic Methods ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Textual Content

Understanding how the social context of an interaction affects our dialog behavior is of great interest to social scientists who study human behavior, as well as to computer scientists who build automatic methods to infer those social contexts. In this paper, we study the interaction of power, gender, and dialog behavior in organizational interactions. In order to perform this study, we first construct the Gender Identified Enron Corpus of emails, in which we semi-automatically assign the gender of around 23,000 individuals who authored around 97,000 email messages in the Enron corpus. This corpus, which is made freely available, is orders of magnitude larger than previously existing gender identified corpora in the email domain. Next, we use this corpus to perform a largescale data-oriented study of the interplay of gender and manifestations of power. We argue that, in addition to one’s own gender, the “gender environment” of an interaction, i.e., the gender makeup of one’s interlocutors, also affects the way power is manifested in dialog. We focus especially on manifestations of power in the dialog structure — both, in a shallow sense that disregards the textual content of messages (e.g., how often do the participants contribute, how often do they get replies etc.), as well as the structure that is expressed within the textual content (e.g., who issues requests and how are they made, whose requests get responses etc.). We find that both gender and gender environment affect the ways power is manifested in dialog, resulting in patterns that reveal the underlying factors. Finally, we show the utility of gender information in the problem of automatically predicting the direction of power between pairs of participants in email interactions.

scholarly journals Conversational Pragmatics: Memory Reporting Strategies in Different Social Contexts

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beatriz Martín-Luengo ◽  
Karlos Luna ◽  
Yury Shtyrov
Keyword(s):  
Social Context ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
General Knowledge ◽  
Incentive Structure ◽  
Amount Of Information ◽  
Incentive Structures ◽  
The Social ◽  
Underlying Processes ◽  
Different Levels

Conversational pragmatics studies, among others, factors that affect the information we share with others. Previous research showed that when participants are unsure about the correctness of an answer, they report fewer answers. This behavior strongly depends on the incentive structure of the social context where the question-response exchange takes place. In this research we studied how the different incentive structure of several types of social contexts affects conversational pragmatics and the amount of information we are willing to share. In addition, we also studied how different levels of knowledge may affect memory reporting in different social contexts. Participants answered easy, intermediate, and difficult general knowledge questions and decided whether they would report or withhold their selected answer in different social contexts: formal vs. informal, and constrained (a context that promotes providing only responses we are certain about) vs. loose (with an incentive structure that maximizes providing any type of answer). Overall, our results confirmed that social contexts are associated with a different incentive structure which affect memory reporting strategies, and that the effect of social contexts depended on the difficulty of the questions. Our results highlight the relevance of studying the different incentive structures of social contexts to understand the underlying processes of conversational pragmatics, and stress the importance of considering metamemory theories of memory reporting.

The Social Context

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lasana T. Harris
Keyword(s):  
Social Cognition ◽  
Social Context ◽  
Social Behavior ◽  
Sudden Death ◽  
Thought Experiment ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Social Psychological ◽  
The Social

The seventh chapter argues for the importance of the social context in continuing to influence whether social cognition is engaged or not, and describes a version of the delayed sudden death virus outbreak thought experiment without the death and virus components, set in modern society. This chapter then reviews classical social psychological studies that illustrate the power of the social context in shaping social cognition and resulting behaviour. It describes different types of social contexts, and explores the role of consistency motives in guiding human behaviour. Finally, it makes an appeal for a spectrum metaphor for social behavior, rather than alternative metaphors that categorise the phenomenon too narrowly.

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