PROBLEMS OF FUNCTIONAL CONDITIONALITY OF THE OBJECTIVE NATURE OF SOCIAL DEVIATIONS

Problem setting. Human actions and deeds that tend to deviate from institutionalized expectations are becoming less predictable, contrary to existing cultural and moral norms, social rules and responsibilities in a given society, and can be seen as a potential threat to the social order. That is why the need to analyze the problem of the nature of mass deviations is relevant. Recent research and publications analysis. The results of scientific investigations of deviant behavior as a social phenomenon have found theoretical justification in the numerous works of sociologists, conflictologists, philosophers, culturologists, psychologists, jurists: I. Bakum, K. Bartol, G. Becker, R. Blackborn, T. Garasimov, J. D. Downs, P. Rock and Y. McLaughlin, I. Zhdanova, T. Zelinskaya, M. Inderbitsin, K. A. Bates, R. R. Heine, N. Kivenko, Z. Kisil, R.-V.Kisil, J. Kleiberg, L. Kozer, L. Kotlyarova, A. Crossman, C. Lombroso, E. Manuilov, Y. Kalinovsky, N. Martyniuk, V. Mendelevich, T. Parsons, B. Tkach, K. Horne, E. Erickson and many others. Paper objective ‑ disclosure of the functional conditionality of the objective nature of deviation as a social phenomenon inherent in any society. Paper main body. A methodological distinction between deviance as a system of certain individual and social anti-values has been made. The methodological basis of this distinction was the comparative analysis of nonconformist (“fundamental deviation”) and aberrant (“appropriate deviation”) behavior proposed by R. Merton. It is shown how the morphogenesis of aberrant behavior forms the mechanism of transition of individual anti-values into social ones. Initially, aberrations remain in the private sphere and have no social consequences, but over time, deviations spread, especially when most people see that violators thrive and become a “role model” (according to R. Merton), and the deviation becomes regular. The next step ‑ common in society aberrant behavior seeks to weaken or even destroy the legitimacy of institutional norms in force in the system, resulting in the institutionalization of deviations. This is due, firstly, to the regular nature of aberrations, secondly, the transition of deviations from the private to the public, thirdly, the well-established “social mechanics” of deviations and, finally, the rarity of penalties for aberrant behavior or its symbolic sanctions. As a result, three variants of institutionalized deviations are formed: “normative erosion”, which is associated with the slow liberalization of certain norms; "Resistance to norms", when new norms are introduced by order “from above”; “Substitution of norms”, when the current norms are not refuted, but common deviations seem to become legal due to the scale and duration of their application. Regardless of which option is implemented, it is through aberrations that the transition of individual anti-values into social ones is completed. The objective nature of social deviations has a functional conditionality. First, society's desire for development requires a change in the usual ways of acting, which, in turn, involve deviations from social norms. The destruction of the standards of action proposed by the norms, due to mass repetitive deviations, performs a signal function of the obsolescence of those existing norms and values that inhibit social progress. Secondly, the increase in the number of interactions and, consequently, social roles that are simultaneously performed by a socially active person in the development of society, leads to the fact that within the system of social norms governing social interactions, contradictions arise when compliance with one rule effective need to violate another. Therefore, there are forced deviations. Based on this, a classification of deviant behavior is proposed, where the criterion for typology is the rationality / irrationality of the choice of actions: unconscious (is the result of mental disorders that lead to violations of human adaptation to social norms, when deviations from officially established or actually existing standards in society have no rational explanation) and conscious, which is divided intovoluntary (is a form of disorganization of human social behavior, which on the basis of their own rational moral choice consciously demonstrates inconsistencies with expectations and/or requirements of society) and forced (is a kind of behavior influence of objective external factors, characterized by the inevitability of violation of one rule in favor of another due to the presence of logical contradictions in the system of norms governing a certain type of social relations). Conclusions of the research. Violation by the individual of the internalization process of social experience can lead to impoverishment of the role repertoire, its deformation, entry into the antisocial plane and, as a consequence, the emergence of various manifestations of personality antisocialization, its desocialization, and subsequent social maladaptation. At the same time, the transfer of emphasis in the value orientations of people from spiritual priorities to material ones intensifies the emergence of zones with a high level of social entropy in the social space. Social entropy provokes the spread of aberrant behavior - actions associated with a conscious hidden violation of social norms by the individual, when he is clearly aware of the asociality of their actions, creating a system of individual anti-values. Unlike nonconformist (“fundamental deviation”), which usually initiates normative innovation, aberrant behavior (“appropriate deviation”) produces normative deviations. The lack of choice in the dilemma “to violate - not to violate the norm” leads to forced deviations, the analysis of the possible consequences of which requires further study.

Children as Mischievous Spirits: Legitimizing Violence and Filicide in Contemporary Africa

The belief that certain humans are spiritual entities and the belief that some people are spiritually possessed can be found across histories and cultures. While these individuals are not always viewed in the negative or treated inhumanely, cases abound whereby degrading and inhumane treatments are meted out to some of them. In the African continent, certain groups of people, particularly children are linked to certain mischievous spirits due to their unusual appearance, aberrant behavior, disability, chronic illness, psychopathology or exceptional ability. Some are also suspected and consequently mistreated due to events surrounding their birth. Such children are known by different names in different parts of Africa. In this article, three groups of children (ogbanje, abiku and spirit children) considered as partly spirits and one group (child witch) considered as spiritually possessed, were explored. Each of these groups was described based on the traditional lore of the particular society where they are so labeled. The abuses, neglect and in some cases homicide against the children connected to the belief, were critically discussed. The article explored how the children are abused, neglected or killed due to the genuine belief that they pose a spiritual threat to their parents or carers and in some cases, the entire community. However, the article also provided insights into how such belief also serves as justification for parents with children present with any of the aforementioned characteristics to eliminate such a child through filicide for altruistic purposes. The article also explored how some parents and guardians exploit the belief to eliminate children seen as a burden. The cases of adult relatives who exploit the belief to eliminate orphans in their care for the purposes of inheriting properties belonging to the orphans’ parents were also explored. Recommendations were made on how to address these social problems.

A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Immunoglobulin G Abnormalities and the Therapeutic Use of Intravenous Immunoglobulins (IVIG) in Autism Spectrum Disorder

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder affecting approximately 2% of children in the United States. Growing evidence suggests that immune dysregulation is associated with ASD. One immunomodulatory treatment that has been studied in ASD is intravenous immunoglobulins (IVIG). This systematic review and meta-analysis examined the studies which assessed immunoglobulin G (IgG) concentrations and the therapeutic use of IVIG for individuals with ASD. Twelve studies that examined IgG levels suggested abnormalities in total IgG and IgG 4 subclass concentrations, with concentrations in these IgGs related to aberrant behavior and social impairments, respectively. Meta-analysis supported possible subsets of children with ASD with low total IgG and elevated IgG 4 subclass but also found significant variability among studies. A total of 27 publications reported treating individuals with ASD using IVIG, including four prospective, controlled studies (one was a double-blind, placebo-controlled study); six prospective, uncontrolled studies; 2 retrospective, controlled studies; and 15 retrospective, uncontrolled studies. In some studies, clinical improvements were observed in communication, irritability, hyperactivity, cognition, attention, social interaction, eye contact, echolalia, speech, response to commands, drowsiness, decreased activity and in some cases, the complete resolution of ASD symptoms. Several studies reported some loss of these improvements when IVIG was stopped. Meta-analysis combining the aberrant behavior checklist outcome from two studies demonstrated that IVIG treatment was significantly associated with improvements in total aberrant behavior and irritability (with large effect sizes), and hyperactivity and social withdrawal (with medium effect sizes). Several studies reported improvements in pro-inflammatory cytokines (including TNF-alpha). Six studies reported improvements in seizures with IVIG (including patients with refractory seizures), with one study reporting a worsening of seizures when IVIG was stopped. Other studies demonstrated improvements in recurrent infections, appetite, weight gain, neuropathy, dysautonomia, and gastrointestinal symptoms. Adverse events were generally limited but included headaches, vomiting, worsening behaviors, anxiety, fever, nausea, fatigue, and rash. Many studies were limited by the lack of standardized objective outcome measures. IVIG is a promising and potentially effective treatment for symptoms in individuals with ASD; further research is needed to provide solid evidence of efficacy and determine the subset of children with ASD who may best respond to this treatment as well as to investigate biomarkers which might help identify responsive candidates.

Structure and Ontology in Nonlocal Readings of Adjectives

In certain uses, adjectives appear to make the semantic contribution normally associated with adverbs. These readings are often thought to be a peripheral phenomenon, restricted to one corner of the grammar and just a handful of lexical items. I’ll argue that it’s actually considerably more general than is often recognized, and that it admits two fundamentally different modes of explanation: in terms of the syntactic machinery that undergirds these structures and in terms of the ontology of the objects manipulated by its semantics. Both modes of explanation have been suggested for some of the puzzles in this domain, and I’ll argue both are necessary. With respect to adjectives including average and occasional, the key insight is that their lexical semantics is fundamentally about kinds. But to arrive at a more general theory of adverbial readings, it is also necessary to further articulate the compositional semantics. In this spirit, I’ll argue that these adjectives actually have the semantic type of quantificational determiners like every. If this way of thinking about adverbial readings is on the right track, it instantiates a means by which these two distinct modes of explanation—and the distinct aspects of cognition they may ultimately be associated with—both play a crucial role in bringing about the apparently aberrant behavior of this class of adjectives.