Babies and bathwaters: attachment, neuroscience, evolution and the left

Soundings ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 73 (73) ◽  
pp. 111-128
Author(s):  
Graham Music
Keyword(s):  
Attachment Theory ◽  
Developmental Psychology ◽  
Huge Amount ◽  
Far Right ◽  
Interpersonal Neurobiology ◽  
Selfish Genes ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Orders ◽  
Crucial Part ◽  
The Brain

This article challenges thinkers and activists on the left who are over-suspicious of ideas heralding from disciplines such as interpersonal neurobiology, attachment theory, developmental psychology, and perhaps especially, evolutionary theory. Although scepticism is frequently warranted, especially as such discourses are often co-opted for neoliberal or far right ends, there is much in all of them that melds well with critiques of hegemonic social orders, providing potential fuel for those working for social change. Much work, for example that of Amy Cuddy, can be interpreted both conservatively and progressively. Work from within an attachment theory paradigm can play a crucial part in the battle of ideas: it has a huge amount to teach about how to create a more humane and egalitarian world, and in countering neoliberal beliefs that humans are innately primarily aggressive, competitive or selfish, or have selfish genes. The days are now over when the biological, psychological and the social need to be pitted against each other. Rather, they now have to be seen as mutually constituted. The brain is a social organ, embedded, embodied, enactive and extended, in large part a reflection of the social conditions in which it grows.

scholarly journals Perceiving actions before they happen: psychological dimensions scaffold neural action prediction

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark A Thornton ◽  
Diana I Tamir
Keyword(s):  
Magnetic Resonance Imaging ◽  
Functional Neuroimaging ◽  
Social World ◽  
Action Space ◽  
Action Prediction ◽  
Functional Magnetic Resonance ◽  
Resonance Imaging ◽  
The Social ◽  
Psychological Dimensions ◽  
The Brain

Abstract The social world buzzes with action. People constantly walk, talk, eat, work, play, snooze and so on. To interact with others successfully, we need to both understand their current actions and predict their future actions. Here we used functional neuroimaging to test the hypothesis that people do both at the same time: when the brain perceives an action, it simultaneously encodes likely future actions. Specifically, we hypothesized that the brain represents perceived actions using a map that encodes which actions will occur next: the six-dimensional Abstraction, Creation, Tradition, Food(-relevance), Animacy and Spiritualism Taxonomy (ACT-FAST) action space. Within this space, the closer two actions are, the more likely they are to precede or follow each other. To test this hypothesis, participants watched a video featuring naturalistic sequences of actions while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanning. We first use a decoding model to demonstrate that the brain uses ACT-FAST to represent current actions. We then successfully predicted as-yet unseen actions, up to three actions into the future, based on their proximity to the current action’s coordinates in ACT-FAST space. This finding suggests that the brain represents actions using a six-dimensional action space that gives people an automatic glimpse of future actions.

scholarly journals Anti-migrant Islamophobia in Europe. Social roots, mechanisms and actors

2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (53) ◽  
pp. 25-40
Author(s):  
Fabio Perocco
Keyword(s):  
Mass Media ◽  
Internal Structure ◽  
Social Inequalities ◽  
Social Origins ◽  
Far Right ◽  
Social Actors ◽  
Muslim Immigrants ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Mass Media

Abstract During the last two decades of rising anti-migrant racism in Europe, Islamophobia has proven to be the highest, most acute, and widely spread form of racism. The article shows how anti-migrant Islamophobia is a structural phenomenon in European societies and how its internal structure has specific social roots and mechanisms of functioning. Such an articulate and interdependent set of key themes, policies, practices, discourses, and social actors it is intended to inferiorise and marginalise Muslim immigrants while legitimising and reproducing social inequalities affecting the majority of them. The article examines the social origins of anti-migrant Islamophobia and the modes and mechanisms through which it naturalises inequalities; it focuses on the main social actors involved in its production, specifically on the role of some collective subjects as anti-Muslim organizations and movements, far-right parties, best-selling authors, and the mass-media.

scholarly journals Seven Computations of the Social Brain

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tanaz Molapour ◽  
Cindy C Hagan ◽  
Brian Silston ◽  
Haiyan Wu ◽  
Maxwell Ramstead ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Interactions ◽  
Social World ◽  
Social Brain ◽  
Verbal Cues ◽  
True Nature ◽  
Multiple Modalities ◽  
The Social ◽  
Processing Demands ◽  
Social Signaling ◽  
The Brain

ABSTRACT The social environment presents the human brain with the most complex of information processing demands. The computations that the brain must perform occur in parallel, combine social and nonsocial cues, produce verbal and non-verbal signals, and involve multiple cognitive systems; including memory, attention, emotion, learning. This occurs dynamically and at timescales ranging from milliseconds to years. Here, we propose that during social interactions, seven core operations interact to underwrite coherent social functioning; these operations accumulate evidence efficiently – from multiple modalities – when inferring what to do next. We deconstruct the social brain and outline the key components entailed for successful human social interaction. These include (1) social perception; (2) social inferences, such as mentalizing; (3) social learning; (4) social signaling through verbal and non-verbal cues; (5) social drives (e.g., how to increase one’s status); (6) determining the social identity of agents, including oneself; and (7) minimizing uncertainty within the current social context by integrating sensory signals and inferences. We argue that while it is important to examine these distinct aspects of social inference, to understand the true nature of the human social brain, we must also explain how the brain integrates information from the social world.

Security and the social mind: attachment and therapeutic communities

2015 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 12-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gwen Adshead
Keyword(s):  
Attachment Theory ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Insecure Attachment ◽  
Therapeutic Communities ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Mind ◽  
Basic Features ◽  
Practical Implications ◽  
Attachment Process

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe some of the basic features of attachment theory, and explore how they relate to the development of the “social mind” and the work of therapeutic communities (TC). Design/methodology/approach – The author describes the essentials of attachment theory in humans; and the development of both secure and insecure states of mind. The author will set out how insecure attachment systems are associated with deficits in mentalising processes which are fundamental to the activity of the social mind. Findings – The author suggests how attachment to a TC can promote mentalising processes. The author draws on the work of other speakers in the conclusions about how to “grow” secure minds and societies. Research limitations/implications – This paper is a brief over view only and does not address attachment process to TC in any depth. Practical implications – Attachment theory could help both service users and therapists who work in TCs understand some of the difficulties people have in engaging at the start. Attachment theory also gives a guide to what a “good enough” experience in a TC might look like. Originality/value – There is little existing discussion of the application of attachment theory to TCs.

Developmental Perspectives on Parenting

2021 ◽  
pp. 25-49
Author(s):  
Rochelle F. Hentges ◽  
Meredith J. Martin
Keyword(s):  
Child Development ◽  
Life Span ◽  
Attachment Theory ◽  
Reproductive Strategies ◽  
Life History Theory ◽  
Developmental Psychology ◽  
Psychological Needs ◽  
Middle Level ◽  
Secure Base ◽  
Parenting Influences

This chapter discusses two leading middle-level theories within evolutionary psychology, which attempt to explain both how and why parenting influences child development across the life span. First, it presents an overview of one of the most influential evolutionary theories in developmental psychology: John Bowlby’s attachment theory. Attachment theory revolutionized the way people understand the nature of the parent–child bond, framing the parent as not just a provider of physical needs but also as a secure base for emotional and psychological needs. These early-life bonds between the caregiver and infant are further proposed to form the basis for relationship attachments across the life span. Next, the chapter addresses how competing strategies toward resource allocation can influence individual differences in parental investment and sensitivity. According to life history theory, differences in the caregiving environment, in turn, promote the formation of distinct reproductive strategies, resulting in behavioral, social, and physiological differences across child development.

scholarly journals The Neural Representational Space of Social Memory

Open Mind ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah L. Dziura ◽  
James C. Thompson
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Incidental Learning ◽  
Multivariate Pattern Analysis ◽  
Temporoparietal Junction ◽  
Representational Space ◽  
Analysis Technique ◽  
The Social ◽  
Multivariate Pattern ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Brain

Social functioning involves learning about the social networks in which we live and interact; knowing not just our friends, but also who is friends with our friends. This study utilized an incidental learning paradigm and representational similarity analysis (RSA), a functional MRI multivariate pattern analysis technique, to examine the relationship between learning social networks and the brain’s response to the faces within the networks. We found that accuracy of learning face pair relationships through observation is correlated with neural similarity patterns to those pairs in the left temporoparietal junction (TPJ), the left fusiform gyrus, and the subcallosal ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), all areas previously implicated in social cognition. This model was also significant in portions of the cerebellum and thalamus. These results show that the similarity of neural patterns represent how accurately we understand the closeness of any two faces within a network. Our findings indicate that these areas of the brain not only process knowledge and understanding of others, but also support learning relations between individuals in groups.

scholarly journals Perspectives from affective science on understanding the nature of emotion

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 239821281881262 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elaine Fox
Keyword(s):  
Social World ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
Scientific Study ◽  
Affective Neuroscience ◽  
Fundamental Nature ◽  
Scientific Consensus ◽  
Affective Science ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Brain

Emotions are at the heart of how we understand the human mind and of our relationships within the social world. Yet, there is still no scientific consensus on the fundamental nature of emotion. A central quest within the discipline of affective science is to develop an in-depth understanding of emotions, moods, and feelings and how they are embodied within the brain (affective neuroscience). This article provides a brief overview of the scientific study of emotion with a particular emphasis on psychological and neuroscientific perspectives. Following a selective snapshot of past and present research in this field, some current challenges and controversies in affective science are highlighted.

scholarly journals Conceptual Usage of Systems Dynamics in Patients Rehabilitation Management

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 23
Author(s):  
Tudor Irimiaș ◽  
Giuseppe Carbone ◽  
Adrian Pîslă
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Moral Values ◽  
Systems Dynamics ◽  
Rehabilitation Management ◽  
Major Research ◽  
Conceptual Approach ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
The Brain

The essence of social sciences is well encompassed in Green’s (2006) quote “People were created to be loved. Things were created to be used. The reason why the world is in chaos is because things are being loved and people are being used. ” For this reason, social sciences are important, as major research paradigm on how and why individuals interrelate. The aim of the actual research is to look for a conceptual approach activity, as part of a larger project focused on individual rehabilitation. The brain is trained to react to the stimulus and command a behavior. The premise, for the considered approach, is understanding the social sciences as revealing the individuals interests for self conscience, well being and moral values and drawing the line to it’s importance for governments authorities, policymakers or NGO’s.

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