scholarly journals Twin Research in the Post-Genomic Era: Dissecting the Pathophysiological Effects of Adversity and the Social Environment

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (9) ◽  
pp. 3142 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan D. Turner ◽  
Conchita D’Ambrosio ◽  
Claus Vögele ◽  
Martin Diewald
Keyword(s):  
Social Environment ◽  
Study Design ◽  
Twin Study ◽  
Controlled Trial ◽  
Twin Studies ◽  
Twin Design ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Randomised Controlled

The role of twins in research is evolving as we move further into the post-genomic era. With the re-definition of what a gene is, it is becoming clear that biological family members who share a specific genetic variant may well not have a similar risk for future disease. This has somewhat invalidated the prior rationale for twin studies. Case co-twin study designs, however, are slowly emerging as the ideal tool to identify both environmentally induced epigenetic marks and epigenetic disease-associated processes. Here, we propose that twin lives are not as identical as commonly assumed and that the case co-twin study design can be used to investigate the effects of the adult social environment. We present the elements in the (social) environment that are likely to affect the epigenome and measures in which twins may diverge. Using data from the German TwinLife registry, we confirm divergence in both the events that occur and the salience for the individual start as early as age 11. Case co-twin studies allow for the exploitation of these divergences, permitting the investigation of the role of not only the adult social environment, but also the salience of an event or environment for the individual, in determining lifelong health trajectories. In cases like social adversity where it is clearly not possible to perform a randomised-controlled trial, we propose that the case co-twin study design is the most rigorous manner with which to investigate epigenetic mechanisms encoding environmental exposure. The role of the case co-twin design will continue to evolve, as we argue that it will permit causal inference from observational data.

The wider social system

2021 ◽  
pp. 238-281
Author(s):  
Robbie Duschinsky ◽  
Sarah Foster
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Social Environment ◽  
Social System ◽  
Public Mental Health ◽  
Epistemic Trust ◽  
School Based ◽  
System P ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Individual

Critics have alleged that in attempting to adapt to the individual-centric environment of contemporary health provision, mentalization-based therapy itself has been complicit with the atomization of society. Conversations with his colleague Peter Fuggle and Dickon Bevington at the Anna Freud Centre have also had a profound role in highlighting to Fonagy the importance of the wider social system around the individual. Pursuing these questions, this chapter begins by examining the growing attention to the social environment shown by Fonagy and colleagues, and especially their exploration of the role of friends and friendships for mentalization and epistemic trust. It will then examine the reflections and research by Fonagy and collaborators on public mental health. The researchers’ hopes regarding school-based prevention will be given particular attention, and the chapter will also show how this work has shaped Fonagy’s efforts as a policy influencer. Finally, the chapter will appraise the considerations offered by Fonagy and colleagues of the role of culture, in particular the issue of whether attention to cultural processes should be regarded as mentalizing, non-mentalizing or as not mentalizing, and whether organizations and societies can themselves be said to institutionalize cultures of mentalizing or non-mentalizing.

Health Promotion for Older Americans in the 21st Century

2000 ◽  
Vol 14 (6) ◽  
pp. 371-379 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meredith Minkler ◽  
Helen Schauffler ◽  
Kristen Clements-Nolle
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Health Promotion ◽  
Social Environment ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Physical Environment ◽  
Behavioral Risk ◽  
Older Americans ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Individual

Objectives. To provide a broad overview of the role of the individual, the physical environment, and the social environment on health and functioning in older adults (65 and older), and to highlight interventions and recommendations for action on each of these levels. Data Sources. Published studies and government reports on health and functioning in older Americans and on the individual, social, and physical environmental contributors to health were identified through journal and government documents review and computer library searches of medical and social science data bases for 1980–1999. Study Selection. Preference was given to published studies and government reports that focused specifically on behavioral and environmental contributors and barriers to health promotion in Americans 65 and older and/or that highlighted creative interventions with relevance to this population. Both review articles and presentations of original research were included, with the latter selected based on soundness of design and execution and/or creativity of intervention described. Data Extraction. Studies were examined and their findings organized under three major headings: (1) behavioral risk factors and risk reduction, including current government standards for prevention and screening; (2) the role of the physical environment; and (3) the role of the social environment in relation to health promotion of older adults. Data Synthesis. Although most attention has been paid to the role of behavioral factors in health promotion for older adults, a substantial body of evidence suggests that physical and social environmental factors also play a key role. Similarly, interventions that promote individual behavioral risk reduction and interventions targeting the broader social or physical environment all may contribute to health in the later years. Conclusions. With the rapid aging of America's population, increased attention must be focused on health promotion for those who are or will soon be older adults. Promising intervention strategies addressing the individual, the physical environment, and the social environment should be identified and tested, and their potential for replication explored, as we work toward a more comprehensive approach to improving the health of older Americans in the 21st century.

scholarly journals role and status of drama in spiritual and material culture

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (S2) ◽  
pp. 487-500
Author(s):  
Mengrui Qi
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Social Environment ◽  
Personal Experience ◽  
Social Phenomenon ◽  
Social Formation ◽  
Full Development ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Way

The relevance of the work is determined by the fact that the full development of society is possible only on the condition that dramatic changes occur in it. The basis for changes in any society is both culture and the motives that flow into culture in order to realise the factors of social formation as much as possible. We believe that culture and its development are possible if there are phenomena in society when an individual rethinks each aspect of his being. Consequently, the role of drama not only as an artistic device in literature, but also as a social phenomenon, has its own direction and significance for a number of projects for the development of both the individual and the social environment as a whole. The novelty of the study is the assertion that each aspect of the implementation of the drama forms, first of all, a response phenomenon that fully manifests itself both in the course of personal experience and in the formation of individual forms of material culture. The authors of the article show the way to form attitude to spiritual and material cultures on the basis of personal dramatic experience.

scholarly journals The Role Of Valwes In Forming The Identity of Migrants

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (SPE3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Aliyeva Kamila ◽  
Jabbarov Rashid ◽  
Irana Mammadli ◽  
Aliyeva Turana
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Social Environment ◽  
Psychological Safety ◽  
Adaptation Strategy ◽  
Marginal Adaptation ◽  
Behavior Strategy ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
The Individual

The results of our study showed that the lower the level of national identity, the greater the opportunity for migrants to choose a marginal adaptation strategy. This behavior strategy leads to dissatisfaction, social and psychological safety of the migrant. Having lost the values of their culture, the migrant loses an adequate standard “image of the world”, which underlies the adaptation of the individual to the social environment.

Value-driven issues throughout the development of sociological theory

2020 ◽  
pp. 147-160
Author(s):  
Gulbarshyn Chepurko ◽  
Valerii Pylypenko
Keyword(s):  
Social Interactions ◽  
Social System ◽  
Sociological Theory ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Social Sphere ◽  
Technological Advances ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Different Levels

The paper examines and compares how the major sociological theories treat axiological issues. Value-driven topics are analysed in view of their relevance to society in times of crisis, when both societal life and the very structure of society undergo dramatic change. Nowadays, social scientists around the world are also witnessing such a change due to the emergence of alternative schools of sociological thought (non-classical, interpretive, postmodern, etc.) and, subsequently, the necessity to revise the paradigms that have been existed in sociology so far. Since the above-mentioned approaches are often used to address value-related issues, building a solid theoretical framework for these studies takes on considerable significance. Furthermore, the paradigm revision has been prompted by technological advances changing all areas of people’s lives, especially social interactions. The global human community, integral in nature, is being formed, and production of human values now matters more than production of things; hence the “expansion” of value-focused perspectives in contemporary sociology. The authors give special attention to collectivities which are higher-order units of the social system. These units are described as well-organised action systems where each individual performs his/her specific role. Just as the role of an individual is distinct from that of the collectivity (because the individual and the collectivity are different as units), so too a distinction is drawn between the value and the norm — because they represent different levels of social relationships. Values are the main connecting element between the society’s cultural system and the social sphere while norms, for the most part, belong to the social system. Values serve primarily to maintain the pattern according to which the society is functioning at a given time; norms are essential to social integration. Apart from being the means of regulating social processes and relationships, norms embody the “principles” that can be applied beyond a particular social system. The authors underline that it is important for Ukrainian sociology to keep abreast of the latest developments in the field of axiology and make good use of those ideas because this is a prerequisite for its successful integration into the global sociological community.

A market-based rationale for the privacy paradox

2021 ◽  
pp. 016344372110158
Author(s):  
Opeyemi Akanbi
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Market Structures ◽  
Media Companies ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Privacy Paradox ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Privacy Risks ◽  
Social Collective

Moving beyond the current focus on the individual as the unit of analysis in the privacy paradox, this article examines the misalignment between privacy attitudes and online behaviors at the level of society as a collective. I draw on Facebook’s market performance to show how despite concerns about privacy, market structures drive user, advertiser and investor behaviors to continue to reward corporate owners of social media platforms. In this market-oriented analysis, I introduce the metaphor of elasticity to capture the responsiveness of demand for social media to the data (price) charged by social media companies. Overall, this article positions social media as inelastic, relative to privacy costs; highlights the role of the social collective in the privacy crises; and ultimately underscores the need for structural interventions in addressing privacy risks.

scholarly journals Society as Cause and Cure: The Norms of Transgender Social Medicine

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ketil Slagstad
Keyword(s):  
Social Medicine ◽  
Social Aspects ◽  
Political Role ◽  
Therapeutic Regime ◽  
Trans People ◽  
The Social ◽  
In Trans ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Oral History Interviews

AbstractThis article analyzes how trans health was negotiated on the margins of psychiatry from the late 1970s and early 1980s. In this period, a new model of medical transition was established for trans people in Norway. Psychiatrists and other medical doctors as well as psychologists and social workers with a special interest and training in social medicine created a new diagnostic and therapeutic regime in which the social aspects of transitioning took center stage. The article situates this regime in a long Norwegian tradition of social medicine, including the important political role of social medicine in the creation of the postwar welfare state and its scope of addressing and changing the societal structures involved in disease. By using archival material, medical records and oral history interviews with former patients and health professionals, I demonstrate how social aspects not only underpinned diagnostic evaluations but were an integral component of the entire therapeutic regime. Sex reassignment became an integrative way of imagining and practicing psychiatry as social medicine. The article specifically unpacks the social element of these diagnostic and therapeutic approaches in trans medicine. Because the locus of intervention and treatment remained the individual, an approach with subversive potential ended up reproducing the norms that caused illness in the first place: “the social” became a conformist tool to help the patient integrate, adjust to and transform the pathology-producing forces of society.

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