bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Repeated Cross‐Sections in Survey Data
Authors: Brady Henry E. , Johnston Richard
Published: May 2015

Examples of repeated cross‐sections (RCS) include daily tracking polls of political opinions during campaigns, monthly Current Population Surveys of unemployment, yearly national health interview surveys, and quadrennial election studies of presidential voting. Each iteration is a distinct sample, as opposed to panels in which the same people are interviewed two or more times. By asking the same questions on repeated survey samples from the same population, RCS studies allow us to track trends and to establish causal inferences. One analytic challenge is to maintain both the representativeness and the comparability of samples as fieldwork methods or sources change. The longer the span covered by an RCS, the likelier it is that the universe will change. For an RCS spanning decades, populations can change in fundamental ways. The universe of content also changes, as issues of one period are redefined or even rendered irrelevant in another. Extracting trends from RCS data typically requires smoothing to separate signal from noise, especially where samples or subsamples are small, but this can lead to bias due to excessive smoothing or to mistaking noise for signal because of sampling variability when there is not enough smoothing. By deploying time the RCS design enables certain kinds of causal inference, but many alternative micro‐processes are observationally equivalent, and so the RCS benefits from being combined with the panel design.
Human Residence Patterns
Authors: Walker Robert S.
Published: May 2015

This essay addresses the significance and evidence surrounding the debate about how hunter‐gatherers and other humans organize their residential groups. In most species of mammals, either males or female remain in their natal group (the philopatric sex) while the other sex disperses at maturity (the dispersing sex). Sex‐biased philopatry and dispersal has many downstream effects on all aspects of social bonds and organization. Recent genetic data and detailed cross‐cultural ethnographic information suggest that human societies are quite variable and flexible in nature with males and females likely to either stay or disperse from natal families. Brothers and sisters commonly coreside in the same community and form life‐long bonds in a system quite unlike that of our primate relatives. This multilocal human residence pattern of flexible residence combined with marriage exchange systems create complex meta‐group social structures with kin‐based coalitions that extend across multiple residential groups. Human kinship and social networks that encompass multiple communities led to the emergence of large alliances at scales unparalleled by other species.
Resource Limitations in Visual Cognition
Authors: Liverence Brandon M. , Franconeri Steven L.
Published: May 2015

Visual attention and visual working memory are two of the core resources that support visual perception. Foundational research has demonstrated that these resources are highly limited, but an active debate concerns exactly how they are limited. While many classic studies suggested that these resources are fundamentally discrete, with fixed capacity of 3–4 objects maximum, a number of recent studies have argued that these resources are fundamentally continuous, with no fixed upper‐bound to the number of objects that can be attended or remembered. This entry reviews the state of this debate, and shows how convergence between these (often separate) areas of research is a major emerging trend in the field of visual cognition.
Retrieval‐Based Learning: Research at the Interface between Cognitive Science and Education
Authors: Nunes Ludmila D. , Karpicke Jeffrey D.
Published: May 2015

This essay reviews research on retrieval‐based learning, which refers to the general finding that practicing active retrieval enhances long‐term, meaningful learning. The idea that retrieval promotes learning has existed for centuries, and the first experiments demonstrating retrieval practice effects were carried out near the beginning of experimental research on learning and memory. Interest in retrieval practice was sporadic during the past century, but the topic has received intense interest in recent years as part of a broader movement to integrate research from cognitive science with educational practice. The essay provides a selective review of foundational research and contemporary work that has been aimed at deepening our theoretical knowledge about retrieval practice and integrating retrieval‐based learning within educational activities and settings.
Returns to Education in Different Labor Market Contexts
Authors: SchöEmann Klaus , Becker Rolf
Published: May 2015

Labor market contexts shape the returns to education to a great deal. Beyond the known positive effects of higher education to yield higher returns to education, there is ample evidence that supports the view that labor market institutions shape the returns as well as cohort and period effects. Additional returns to education consist in faster career progression and less frequent early retirement for higher educated employees. Part of the positive returns is the close link of higher education and continuous participation in further education and training, which tends to widen the differences between high investors in education and persons with few qualifications. Occupational and industry sector contexts largely shape such differential learning and work trajectories. Temporary high demand for specific professions such as engineers, medical doctors, or care personnel create cycles of exceptionally high returns to special fields of education, but as soon as the wider economic, demographic, or institutional factors vanish, returns shrink again. Context specific skill mismatches allow above average returns for some professions, whereas they can make fields of education also obsolete. Nonmonetary returns to education such as increases in happiness, subjective well‐being, job security, or health have gained more attention in recent work. Differential returns due to labor market contexts encourage labor market agents to switch between contexts to increase returns. Job mobility, further training, and migration appear to be common strategies to ensure above average monetary and nonmonetary returns to education.
Bullying, Aggression, and Human Development
Authors: Ehrenreich Samuel E. , Underwood Marion K.
Published: May 2015

Children who are the victim of peer harassment are at increased risk for psychological maladjustment. Electronic forms of harassment via text messaging, the Internet, and social networking sites, often termedcyberbullying, have become increasingly common during the past several years. This essay presents current research that describes the predictors and outcomes of cyberbullying. Two features of electronic communication—permanence and anonymity—that present unique challenges when trying to understand and assess cyberbullying are discussed, and finally, recommendations are made for how to best examine how traditional forms of bullying and cyberbullying may be related to each other.
Rumination
Authors: Watkins Edward R.
Published: May 2015

Rumination is repetitive thinking about personal and self‐related concerns. Such rumination focused on symptoms and feelings has been implicated in the onset and maintenance of depression, through both experimental and longitudinal prospective studies, consistent with the Response Styles Theory. Rumination is also conceptualized within a control theory perspective, as an instrumental response to unresolved personal goals. Rumination acts to exacerbate existing mood states and elaborate preexisting cognition—in this way, it can act as a vulnerability factor for psychopathology. However, there is emerging cutting edge evidence that rumination can also have adaptive consequences, when it either focuses on positive information or involves a processing mode that is more concrete, focused on the specific details and mechanics of situations. Rumination is also being proposed as a strong candidate for a transdiagnostic process that contributes to multiple emotional disorders. New approaches to the treatment of rumination have recently been developed with preliminary encouraging data, although further large‐scale trials are required. Key issues for research into rumination going forward include more detailed unpacking of the underlying cognitive and attentional mechanisms determining individual differences in rumination and examining the contribution of rumination across physical and mental health.
Search and Learning in Markets
Authors: Kircher Philipp
Published: May 2015

Search is a process of learning and discovery. Consumers search for goods that fit their requirements and budgets, and workers search for jobs commensurate to their skills. Learning can vary by domain—whether a person learns about herself, about the other market participants, about the fit between both, or about the conditions in the larger economic environment; and it can span several domains at the same time. While the search process has traditionally been modeled as a black box where it simply takes time to locate the desired opportunity, recent work and future research will break up this process to be more explicit about the source of the problem. This has been missing partly because it is easier to model environments where everyone and everything is identical. Once it is acknowledged that people, firms and goods are different, that they learn over time about their type, and that the differences interact in important ways, new avenues for research open up. While much of existing work has focused on quantity (i.e., number of jobs found), future work is likely to focus more on the quality (i.e., how valuable is this job to society). This essay discusses which elements might shape the research in this area, and highlights the new lessons that are likely to emerge from this work.
Setting One's Mind on Action: Planning Out Goal Striving in Advance
Authors: Gollwitzer Peter M.
Published: May 2015

Ineffective goal striving may be overcome using a simple self‐regulation strategy: preparing goal striving in advance by forming implementation intentions (i.e., making if‐then plans). This strategy helps to cope with the classic challenges to goal striving: getting started, staying on track, not overextending oneself, and disengaging from faulty means. Interestingly, these beneficial effects are observed no matter whether hindrances from within (e.g., ego depletion) or outside (e.g., social influence) the person are to be dealt with. In this essay, the processes on which the beneficial effects of implementation intentions are based will be discussed by pointing to relevant research using cognitive task paradigms and assessing brain data. Moreover, recent findings are reported demonstrating that implementation intentions can be used to curb reflexive cognitive, affective, and behavioral responses that interfere with a person's focal goal pursuit. In closing this essay, a behavior change intervention (i.e., mental contrasting with implementation intentions) is introduced that establishes the prerequisites for implementation intention effects to occur, and research areas in psychology are pointed to that could benefit from conducting implementation intention research.
The Sexual Division of Labor
Authors: Bird Rebecca Bliege , Codding Brian F.
Published: May 2015

Many evolutionary arguments fossilize a human division of labor as one of man the hunter, and woman the gatherer, with differences in labor arising out of the effectiveness of efficiency. We suggest here that arguments based solely on the efficiency of labor specialization among heterosexual married pairs over‐generalize divisions of labor that are, in reality, much more diverse. Divisions of labor can be based on age, as well as on gender, and are not limited solely to monogamous marital pairs. Divisions of gender take the form more generally not of meat and vegetables, but of the acquisition of high and low variance foods. Some differences in labor may be the result of conflicting interests, others emerging from common goals, and still others from the power of patriarchy. Differences in labor patterns may not be designed solely, or even primarily, to provision children, but may also be shaped by the social goals of both sexes.
Shadow Education
Authors: Byun Soo‐Yong , Baker David P.
Published: May 2015

Over the past few decades shadow education has expanded worldwide and become a multi‐billion dollar global service‐industry offering many different and costly tutoring services from after‐school classes to a host of on‐line options. While much remains to be explored as to why this transformation is occurring, the worldwide expansion of shadow education is now a substantial topic in the sociology of education. This essay briefly describes the foundational research on shadow education; outlines the cutting‐edge research on shadow education effects; and discusses key issues for future research. This essay concludes that shadow education becomes more normative to the point of being a partner institution to formal education itself and as an educational phenomenon it will continue to be a topic of study and policy analysis.
Social Change and Entry to Adulthood
Authors: Mortimer Jeylan T.
Published: May 2015

The effects of social change on the transition to adulthood are manifest in large‐scale societal and institutional changes, alterations in relationships and networks, and shifts in individual psychological orientations and behaviors. This essay reviews key foundational work that has established the framework for our understanding of social change and the transition to adulthood, highlighting Mannheim and Elder's theoretical contributions and early empirical studies of age norms, status attainment, and the timing and sequencing of adult role markers. It then describes major ongoing programs of research on the movement from school to work, pathways of transition, familial financial and residential support of transitioning children, and both adult roles and character traits as sources of adult identity. Finally, in view of ongoing societal trends, it calls for future studies of inequality and its implications for the diverging destinies of youth that depend on their social class origin, race, and gender; shifts in the bases of youth age‐related and other identities; the consequences of social media for transitional dynamics; and the implications of transitional patterns for young adult health, cross‐national comparative studies, and youth responses to climate change.
Emerging Trends: Social Classification
Authors: Pontikes Elizabeth G.
Published: May 2015

Social classification influences how people interpret their surroundings. Classification helps organize people's knowledge and guide how they reason about new objects. Although people perceive classification as reflecting an objective, natural reality, to a large extent, it is constructed through contested social processes. Foundational research on classification focused on this social construction, on how actors conform to social categories, and on the penalties that accrue to actors who do not conform. Recent research has built on and questioned these foundations. Whether categorical boundaries are strong or weak affects how consequential categorization is; in some situations, there are rewards to categorical nonconformity, and for any classification there are multiple audiences with different perspectives on what social categories mean and how they confer value. This entry concludes by suggesting promising new directions for future research in social classification.
Social Epigenetics: Incorporating Epigenetic Effects as Social Cause and Consequence
Authors: Anderton Douglas L. , Arcaro Kathleen F.
Published: May 2015

Epigenetics is a field of study that invites an interdisciplinary interaction of the social and biological sciences. This collaboration has, in fact, led to a blossoming research community over the past two decades, which is using new data, methods, and conceptual frameworks to address a host of old and emergent research questions. A recent (2014) search of PubMed found over a thousand articles on social, behavioral, and cognitive epigenetics. If one includes epidemiological epigenetic studies that incorporate either social causes or consequences in their research, the number expands nearly threefold. Yet, social epigenetics is a still nascent field, marginalized and misunderstood in social science. In this essay, we attempt to review basic epigenetic concepts and the way in which epigenetics has, and can be, of use to social and behavioral scientists in addressing some of the most fundamental sorts of questions their disciplines raise.
Social Relationships and Health in Older Adulthood
Authors: Robles Theodore F. , Menkin Josephine A.
Published: May 2015

Older adults make up a larger proportion of the population and are living longer than in any time in previous history, which has important implications for their social relationships. This essay reviews key theory and research on changes in social networks over the lifespan, the benefits (and costs) of social relationships for physical health, and the health impact of loss of social relationships during older age. Methodological innovations are shedding new light on the specific biological mechanisms that explain how high and low quality social relationships can impact health, and we review these innovations in different contexts: marriage and loneliness. While social networks generally decrease in size across the lifespan, there is considerable potential for expanding social networks and forming new relationships in later life. However, the research literature on forming new friendships and intimate relationships in older adults is quite limited. Thus, this essay concludes by describing key issues and methodological challenges involved in studying new relationship formation in older adults.
Sociological Theory After the End of Nature
Authors: Brulle Robert J.
Published: May 2015

Anthropogenic climate change poses a fundamental challenge to the cultural beliefs and social structure of global social order. However, the social sciences treat the natural world as a passive backdrop in which the human project unfolds, and focus primarily on the relation between social facts. In a world where human activities are being manifestly impacted by a continuously shifting climate, it is no longer adequate to only look to human social interactions to gain an understanding of how social order is constituted and changed. This realization has led a number of scholars across the range of social sciences to identify a need to move beyond anthropocentric social sciences. This essay provides an overview of the major efforts to create a social science that integrates social and natural facts within the field of sociology. Three areas of foundational research in this area are discussed, including the reinterpretation of sociological classics, the development of constructed society/nature hybrids, and the creation of linked society–natural systems models. Examples of empirical research demonstrating these approaches are then provided. The essay concludes with a survey of ongoing sociological theory projects on this topic.
Sociology of Entrepreneurship
Authors: Ruef Martin
Published: May 2015

Since the 1970s, we have witnessed a growing body of scholarship that investigates the social context, processes, and consequences of entrepreneurship. Despite—or, perhaps, because of—the conceptual vagueness around the definition of the entrepreneur, this topic has attracted attention from a wide range of interdisciplinary scholars and has been applied to a variety of entrepreneurial activities among businesses, nonprofits, social movements, and public sector initiatives. This review begins with three views of entrepreneurs that are rooted in classical scholarship, conceptualizing them as innovators, autonomy seekers, and organizers. It then analyzes the mechanisms that link these views to entrepreneurial outcomes at different levels of analysis. Scholarship on social networks examines how the structure of relations may transmit new ideas, encourage freedom from interpersonal constraint, and produce social support for organizing. Research on career structures considers how past organizational contexts tend to augment or decrease entrepreneurial propensities. Studies of organizational populations and regions address when the ecology of those contexts allows entrepreneurs to carve out a new niche, despite competition from incumbents. The review concludes with suggestions for improving research methodology and the representativeness of social contexts in the study of entrepreneurship.
Spatial Attention
Authors: Cave Kyle R.
Published: May 2015

Visual perception requires selective filtering. The process of selecting a portion of the visual input according to its location is described as spatial attention. Spatial attention has been measured with a wide variety of experimental techniques, including spatial cuing, spatial probes, distractor interference, ERP, and SSVEP. The results show that spatial attention sometimes takes the form of a gradient, with strong facilitation of processing within a central region and less facilitation and perhaps even inhibition in the surround. The positioning of the attentional gradient is controlled in part by a bottom‐up system that directs attention to locations that differ from surrounding locations in basic features. There is also top‐down direction of attention, which favors locations with features matching a defined target. A variety of different experiments have demonstrated that attention can be allocated to a particular location in the visual field, but another set of experiments show that attention can be allocated to a visual object, and that attention that is directed to one part of an object can spread to other parts of the same object. It is difficult to determine whether spatial attention and object‐based attention are controlled by the same system or by separate systems. Determining the boundaries between different attentional systems should become easier with the use of ERP data to provide precise timing information about attentional processes, and fMRI to localize the brain regions controlling attention and to measure attentional modulation of perceptual processing activity.
Stability and Change in Corporate Governance
Authors: Davis Gerald F. , Chu Johan S. G.
Published: May 2015

Corporate governance describes the process that allocates power and resources within organizations and the societal institutions that shape how they look, how they make decisions, and how the proceeds from their activities are divided. Research and theory traditionally focused on the institutions that overcome the separation of ownership and control created by dispersed shareholdings. Critics noted that this problem was distinctively American, and that corporate governance is shaped by history, culture, and power. We describe several domains for productive future research that is comparative, historical, and attentive to power dynamics.
States and Nationalism
Authors: Herzfeld Michael
Published: May 2015

Nationalism, especially in the form that links national identity and statehood, is in its present form a relatively recent but highly successful and pervasive invention. Grounded in metaphors of shared blood and collective inheritance (including the idea of national culture as patrimony or heritage), it still displays unexpected staying power despite concern over its negative history as “ethnonationalism” and as the translation of superficially benign ideologies into doctrines of violent exclusion and genocide. Modern nation‐states, also unexpectedly, often encapsulate segmentary models of collective identity; nationalism may appear in everyday (“banal”) activities, the less respectable of which—as intimate zones of sociability—it may seek to hide behind official images of cultural and genetic homogeneity. Current research focuses on the practices that link idealized national identity to their realization and subversion in social and bodily experience and performance.
Stereotype Content
Authors: Capestany Beatrice H. , Harris Lasana T.
Published: May 2015

Scholars have recently proposed a model that describes and systematically categorizes the content of stereotypes. This

stereotype content model

posits that groups are stereotyped along the dimensions of trait warmth (i.e., likeability and friendliness) and competence (Fiske, Xu, Cuddy, & Glick, 1999). Groups will typically be stereotyped into one of four clusters—low warmth and high competence, high warmth and low competence, high warmth and high competence, and lastly low warmth and low competence. The combination of positively and negatively valenced clusters creates ambivalent or mixed stereotype content that produces paternalistic (high warmth, low competence) or envious (low warmth, high competence) forms of prejudice. The model has generated interesting new results and insights about the nature of stereotypes and their impact on behaviors, including dehumanization.
Stereotype Threat
Authors: Schmader Toni , Hall William M.
Published: May 2015

Research has documented that subtle reminders of negative stereotypes can reduce performance for those who are targeted by them. This phenomenon has been labeled stereotype threat and was originally proposed as a novel explanation for racial and gender gaps in certain types of intellectual performance. Two decades of research on stereotype threat has expanded to explain performance differences for a number of different groups across a variety of domains. The most recent research on stereotype threat has both mapped out the sequence of cognitive and affective mechanisms that underlie the phenomena and tested the effectiveness of various interventions that allow people to perform up to their potential. Future work is needed to examine possible cultural variation in stereotype threat, study the dynamic processes of how the phenomenon unfolds over time, and move to inform public policies in workplaces and schools.
Stratification and the Welfare State
Authors: Moller Stephanie , Misra Joya
Published: May 2015

The welfare state is one of the most important predictors of inequality cross‐nationally, and research in this area is profuse. An expanding line of welfare state and stratification research focuses on the role of welfare states in addressing the needs created by increasing inequality, which has been generated by changing economic structures in the late twentieth and early twenty‐first centuries. This essay discusses the welfare state in light of changing economic structures and politics to explain why some countries have attenuated the rise in inequality, while others (notably the United States) have not. It concludes with suggestions for further research.
Structural Equation Modeling and Latent Variable Approaches
Authors: Liu Alex
Published: May 2015

Structural equation modeling and latent variable approach (SEM) is experiencing rapid development with wide application as a result of using big data and modern computing technologies. This essay first gives an introduction of SEM, and then summarizes the foundational research in developing better fit indices and in developing more efficient computing algorithms. Also, we review two most important cutting‐edge researches in using SEM for causal analysis and in managing workflows of SEM. For the future SEM research, we have discussed issues of big data, new applications, equivalent models, and hybrid modeling.
Telomeres
Authors: Adler Nancy , O'Donovan Aoife
Published: May 2015

Telomeres cap the ends of chromosomes in the cell and their length provides a marker of cellular aging. As people age, their telomeres generally shorten, a process that is accelerated by exposure to chronic stress as well as by health behaviors such as smoking, lack of exercise, and poor diet. Individuals who are lower on the social hierarchy have shorter telomeres on average, providing evidence of the health‐damaging effects of social disadvantage.
Temporal Identity Integration as a Core Developmental Process
Authors: Syed Moin , Mitchell Lauren L.
Published: May 2015

The construct of identity has captivated scholars across the social sciences, humanities, and the arts. For good reason, too, as the question
who am I?
cuts to the core of human experience. Following Erikson's theorizing, developmental psychologists have stressed the importance of an identity that is extended through time. A healthy identity is defined, in part, by individuals' ability to reconcile and integrate their past experiences, current concerns, and future prospects, a phenomenon we label
temporal identity integration
. In this chapter, we review the foundational theoretical and empirical work pertaining to temporal identity integration, drawing on developmental, social, and personality psychology perspectives. We then review some of the most exciting empirical findings across these areas, and provide suggestions for future directions on the topic.
Terror Management Theory
Authors: Ayars Alisabeth , Lifshin Uri , Greenberg Jeff
Published: May 2015

Terror management theory (TMT), based on the works of Ernest Becker, asserts that the fear of death contributes to many aspects of human thought and behavior. According to TMT, people use self‐esteem and cultural worldviews to buffer awareness of death. In this short review paper we review fundamental research in TMT, including the findings that after being reminded of death people bolster their cultural worldviews and strive for self‐esteem. Cutting‐edge research in TMT, including research on intergroup conflict, psychological disorders, religious beliefs, and brain imaging, is discussed. Finally, we review key issues in TMT research going forward.
The Emerging Psychology of Social Class
Authors: Kraus Michael W.
Published: May 2015

The objective material conditions of our lives shape social perceptions and relationships in fundamental ways. In this essay, I survey research examining the influence of one's social class position in society on basic psychological processes—including conceptions of the self and relationships with others. Insights from this research indicate that relatively lower class individuals are characterized bycontextualizedselves—selves that are more intertwined with the social environment and other individuals—whereas relatively upper class individuals are characterized bysolipsisticselves—selves that are independent from the environment, and instead linked with internal goals, wishes, and motivations. Understanding these class‐based differences in the social self—evidenced in social behavior, cognition, and emotion profiles—has the potential to inform interventions that reduce societal problems related to constrained social class mobility and rising economic inequality.
The Evidence‐Based Practice Movement
Authors: Gondolf Edward W.
Published: May 2015

The evidence‐based practice movement, particularly in the criminal justice field, has meant an increasingly influential role for social science research. Experimental program evaluations, considered to be the “gold standard,” are helping to assess the effectiveness and efficiency of interventions amid the need to cut costs. However, there continues to be questions about the implementation and conception of experimental designs in the “real‐world,” and to be resistance to such program evaluations from many practitioners. Several remedies have emerged including statistical modeling, multiple methods, and consensus panels to promote broader dialogue regarding program effectiveness. The ideal maybe to return evidence‐based practice to more of a collaborative process rather than a bottom‐line verdict.
The Future of Employment, Wages, and Technological Change
Authors: Handel Michael J.
Published: May 2015

The United States and other advanced economies enjoyed a remarkable period of sustained growth and broadly‐shared prosperity from the late 1940s to the early 1970s. After a series of crises from the mid‐1970s to mid‐1980s the character of jobs and the structure of earnings changed markedly but the causes continue to be debated. Most workers' inflation‐adjusted wages have stagnated since the early 1980s, employment security has fallen, and inequality has grown. One set of explanations emphasizes structural and institutional forces, such as employment shifts from manufacturing to services, deunionization, import competition, declining value of the minimum wage, macroeconomic shocks, and changing wage norms. Others stress the interplay of the supply of and demand for human capital, citing rising returns to education and skills, which they attribute to the spread of computer technology. The debate has significant implications for understanding the likely course of future labor market trends.
The Intrinsic Dynamics of Development
Authors: van Geert Paul , van Dijk Marijn
Published: May 2015

In this essay, we discuss an emergent developmental science. It provides an approach to development that redefines its theoretical and methodological basis in the general theory of complex dynamic systems. Its methodological research choices are in line with a focus on actual developmental processes, as they occur in individual cases, such as individual children, families, or relationships. Intraindividual variability based on frequent short‐term as well as long‐term measurements provides an important source of information. Theoretically, we advocate a model of a network of dynamically interacting components, generating a wide variety of developmental trajectories, in line with the idiosyncratic nature of developmental systems.
The Roots of Moral Reasoning and Behavior in Infants
Authors: Kiley Hamlin J. , Steckler Conor M.
Published: May 2015

Recent findings suggest that toddlers and infants engage in prosocial behaviors and evaluate potential social partners based on their morally relevant social acts. Together, this evidence suggests that some foundational aspects of human morality may stem from universal and unlearned features of the human mind. That is, despite the clear role of learning processes in much of moral development, basic motivations to cooperate with and help others, as well as an ability to judge third parties based on their prosocial and antisocial acts, may underlie and constrain those processes. Here, we review the current state of the literature on these topics and point to important remaining issues and future directions.
The New Political Economy of Colonialism
Authors: Pepinsky Thomas B.
Published: May 2015

The new political economy of colonialism is an interdisciplinary field that unites economists, political scientists, and sociologists interested in the nature and contemporary legacies of colonialism. It is distinctive in its reliance of quantitative data, its close attention to causal identification, and its focus on deriving novel theoretical insights using standard tools in positive political economy. This essay traces the development of the new political economy of colonialism over the past 20 years and identifies exciting new contributions in this rapidly developing and interdisciplinary field.
The Psychological Impacts of Cyberlife Engagement
Authors: Kwan Virginia S. Y. , Bodford Jessica E.
Published: May 2015

This essay synthesizes scientific research across two decades on the influence of cyberlife engagement on cognitive processes, mental and physical health, and interpersonal interactions, highlighting the increasingly pervasive presence of digital innovation in society. New possibilities afforded by the integration of technology in commerce, relationships, therapy, and education are discussed, as are prevalent topics of interest within cyberpsychological research. We present an analysis of the positivity with which information and communication technology is portrayed in scientific literature since its emergence in society and discuss important future directions of study as technology's presence and influence continue to grow on an exponential scale. Last, we present current voids in cyberpsychological research, focusing particularly on the question of digital culture, or the impact of cyberlife engagement on global cultures as both geographical and custom‐based barriers are traversed with increasing ease.
The Public Nature of Private Property
Authors: Becher Debbie
Published: May 2015

American legal academics describe private property as a set of private rights. However, liberal ideas of private control poorly describe legal practices, and thus the bundle of rights is a misleading metaphor for private property. Indeed, social theorists have long understood that property is not the ownership of a thing or a set of individual rights, but a set of social agreements about what ownership entails. In the late twentieth and early twenty‐first century, constituents have expected governments to protect the value in their properties, not just their control over the resources. Property rules involve government intimately not only in creating value but also in determining who deserves which valuable resources.
The State and Development
Authors: Cohn Samuel
Published: May 2015

The state and development is a critical issue in speaking to contemporary debates about whether prosperity is best served by small or large government. The definition of foundational versus cutting‐edge research differs depending on whether the discipline is economics or sociology. There was an early agreement that government should be big for “big pushes” or “modernization.” Economics turned antistatist as a reaction to Soviet planned economies and to corruption in general. This led to a neoliberal attempt to create growth by shrinking state programs—an initiative that failed very badly. New work in economics emphasizes flexible approaches as to what states should do, promotes states building education, infrastructure and encouraging technology transfer, and puts great weight on institutional quality. Sociology emphasized the state as a protector of poor nations from the predations of international trade and multinational corporations. Emphasis was placed on hard bargaining by states in the Global South and in developmentalist states such as those in East Asia, which administratively allocate public investment monies to overcome inefficiencies. New work suggests that more modest programs emphasizing simple public goods can be effective. Emerging work also questions traditional specifications of the adverse effects of international trade leading to a different set of suggested remedies. Future directions need to focus on palliative development—strategies of state development that build the multiplier effect rather than base industries. Methodologically, within nation studies that residualize employment from market factors offer ways to identify new government programs that are effective.
The Underrepresentation of Women in Elective Office
Authors: Anzia Sarah F.
Published: May 2015

Despite the inroads women have made in American politics in recent decades, women still hold far fewer elective offices than men. This raises the question of why women fall short in this important mode of political engagement. Early research on this question emphasized the obstacles created by gender socialization, women's underrepresentation in the professions most likely to produce candidates, and women's family and household responsibilities. Scholars have also found that some voters use gender stereotypes in evaluating candidates. Importantly, however, the average female candidate wins the same percentage of the vote as the average male candidate, and that fact has become the basis for the widespread belief that voters arenotsystematically biased against female candidates—that the cause of women's underrepresentation must lie elsewhere. Cutting‐edge political science research has found that women are less likely than men to even consider running for office, that recruiters prefer to recruit male candidates over female candidates, and that primary races that feature female candidates attract larger numbers of challengers than all‐male primary races. But other cutting‐edge work suggests that the widely accepted conclusion that voters harbor no bias against female candidates is likely incorrect. Future research will likely reevaluate this conclusion using new approaches and methods and will also delve deeper into the question of why women are less politically ambitious than men. These lines of inquiry will likely borrow insights from psychology, sociology, and economics, as well as the political science literature on race.
The Use of Geophysical Survey in Archaeology
Authors: Horsley Timothy J.
Published: May 2015

This essay aims to introduce readers to geophysical methods that are currently employed to help archaeologists study the past. Geophysical techniques exploit differences between the physical properties of buried remains and the natural soil to allow their detection and characterization without—or in advance of—digging. When successfully applied, they have the potential to dramatically enhance archaeological investigations by providing a map of buried remains that can (i) help to assess an area for its archaeological potential; (ii) guide subsequent excavation; or (iii) be used as a tool to define and test research questions in their own right. Given the relatively rapid and noninvasive nature of these methods, it is possible to examine entire sites and landscapes, in some instances detecting features as small as individual post holes. While these techniques are routinely integrated into archaeological investigations in some parts of the world, their potential in many areas is only starting to be realized. It is expected that we will see continued growth in the number of surveys being conducted, as well as in the sizes of areas encompassed and in the range of their archaeological application.

This essay will briefly introduce the major geophysical techniques and types of buried features that may be detected. Recent developments in various aspects of the discipline are then summarized, before discussing ways in which the results may be applied more broadly in future archaeological and anthropological investigations.
The Welfare State in Comparative Perspective
Authors: Quadagno Jill , Fisher‐Shalem Orit , Pederson JoEllen
Published: May 2015

The modern welfare state, which was created in the long economic expansion of the post‐World War II era, funded benefits that provided income security across the life course. In the 1970s, the era of welfare state expansion slowed due to rising deficits and fiscal strains associated with population aging. In recent decades benefit reductions have become commonplace. Theories designed to explain the formation of welfare state include the logic of industrialism, power resource theory, and the theory of welfare state regimes. Feminist critics challenged theorists to consider how welfare benefits influence gender inequality within regime types. In recent years, research has focused on three key issues. The first is to identify variations in welfare state attitudes across nations and among individuals within nations. The second is to consider the causes and consequences of activation policies that focus less on direct cash transfers and more on a combination of incentives and punishments to encourage work effort. Finally, the third is to expand the definition of the welfare state to include the private provision of goods and services as well as education.
Theorizing the Death of Cities
Authors: Eisinger Peter
Published: May 2015

Although ancient cities often followed a trajectory of birth, prosperity, decline, and death, modern cities have more commonly exhibited a high degree of resilience. Yet some contemporary cities—notably some of the old industrial cities of the American Midwest—seem on an inexorable course toward death. Our understanding of urban dying and death, however, lacks theoretical elaboration. This essay suggests that an assessment of a city's morbidity can be accomplished by examining the condition of a city's three principal vital urban functions: its governance capacity, its economic stewardship, and its cultural production and preservation. By assessing these we can make a judgment about the course of urban dying, though urban death—the endstate—still eludes theoretical understanding.
Theory of Mind
Authors: Wellman Henry
Published: May 2015

Humans are a social species. We not only live socially, but also think socially, accumulating myriad thoughts and knowledge about our social world. A hallmark of this human social cognition is an everyday theory of mind––our ordinary human understanding that persons (self and others) have internal mental states––desires, beliefs, feelings, hopes—that crucially shape their actions and lives. I review classic and current knowledge on the nature and importance of theory of mind. Theory of mind is achieved and changes over human development; so, I emphasize that we must understand its development. Fortunately, development of this everyday theory of mind is an intriguing story in its own right, and a great portion of the research on theory of mind is developmental research with typical and atypical infants and children.
Theory of Mind and Behavior
Authors: Brandone Amanda C.
Published: May 2015

The capacity to understand and reason about the unobservable mental states (e.g., thoughts, desires, and beliefs) of oneself and others, known astheory of mind(ToM), is central to human social cognition. Multidisciplinary interest in ToM stems from its potentially unique human nature, the role it plays in our ability to engage in complex social interactions, and its impairment in psychiatric and developmental disorders, such as autism. Through more than 30 years of research, we have learned a great deal about how and when children come to reason about others in terms of their mental states. This essay reviews foundational research on the development of ToM reasoning during childhood; outlines cutting‐edge findings on the infant origins and neural correlates of ToM; and finally discusses key issues for future research, including reconciling infant competence with evidence of protracted conceptual development in early childhood, expanding our neuroscientific understanding of ToM and its development, and shedding light on the use and individual variability of ToM in everyday life. Pursuing these goals will address important theoretical questions and provide critical new insight into the origins, development, neural basis, and social and behavioral consequences of ToM.
Transnational Work Careers
Authors: Verwiebe Roland
Published: May 2015

This essay deals with transnational work careers, an issue that is relatively new in social‐scientific research and is discussed here in particular against the background of recent migration and management research. Both disciplines consider the emergence of transnational work careers in connection with economic globalization. In terms of methodology, most of the studies that are relevant to this issue are based on qualitatively oriented analyses and deal empirically with a variety of regions and nations (e.g., China, India, the United States, Canada, Germany, and Scandinavia).