bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Adaptation for Culture
Authors: Church Jill M. 
Published: May 2015

AbstractThe evolutionary study of human behavior has expanded into a broad spectrum of theories and models seeking to explain how genetic evolution enables the development of human culture, how cultural evolution influences biological and psychological evolution, and investigating the ways these processes interact. While natural selection and other genetic mechanisms determined the human ability to create culture, cultural practices can also affect the human genome. Researchers in a variety of social science disciplines are also investigating the root causes of behavioral traits in order to more effectively guide future adaptation to the current global environment. This essay briefly outlines the foundational research on the development of sociobiological disciplines and outlines the application of evolutionary research to current social problems from adapting to climate change and other environmental stressors to altering maladaptive behaviors such as bullying or obesity. It also proposes key issues for future research, highlighting the need for rigorous empirical study and using interdisciplinary teams to create a more robust understanding of the influence culture has on our genes, and vice versa. Collaborative research by a multidisciplinary team of geneticists, behavioral psychologists, anthropologists, and biologists would provide a robust theoretical framework with multiple avenues for study to understand why and how behavioral traits exist. This knowledge can then be used to establish more effective policies to improve health and safety.
Aggression and Victimization
Authors: Bauman Sheri , Taylor Aryn 
Published: May 2015

AbstractThis essay details the historical progression of theories attempting to explain human aggression and victimization across the lifespan. Different theoretical lenses allowed for a comprehensive examination of the nuances between aggression and victimization, as supported by landmark experimental research studies conducted in the social and behavioral sciences. In addition, the neurobiology of aggression was discussed as an area of future research where professionals from multiple fields could collaborate in order to better understand the intersection of biology and the environment and how it impacts the development of individuals.Human history is replete with chronicles of wars and interpersonal aggression. Much of the news we read describe aggressive actions toward individuals or groups of people, within and between political and religious factions, and among countries around the globe. In this essay, we provide an overview of what we know about this ubiquitous human behavior.First, we define important terms.Aggressionrefers to deliberate acts that inflict harm;victimizationis the experience of receiving unwanted aggressive acts.Physicalaggression (use of physical force toward another, such as hitting and kicking) is a form ofdirect aggression, as isverbalaggression (name‐calling, malicious teasing). More recently,relational(indirect) aggression (Crick, 1995) has been identified as a distinct form of aggression in which the target's social relationships or status are attacked (e.g., social exclusion, rumor spreading). There is debate about whethercyber‐aggression is a separate form of aggression or a method for delivery of aggressive actions (see Bauman, Cross, & Walker, 2013, for discussion of this issue). Aggression can also be categorized by the motive behind the action:proactiveaggression includeshostileaggression, in which the desire to harm the target drives the behavior, andinstrumentalaggression, which refers to acts calculated to bring valued resources to the aggressor, whereasreactiveaggression is provoked by an actual or anticipated aggressive attack and is enacted in self‐defense or retaliation (Hartup, 2005). Researchers sometimes distinguish betweentraitaggression, which is a characteristic of a person across time and settings such that the person is more prone to commit acts of aggression than others, andstateaggression, which refers to a momentary experience of aggression in a particular situation or context.
Aging and the Life Course
Authors: O'Rand Angela M. 
Published: May 2015

AbstractThis essay reviews major elements of aging and life course research, its foundations, frontiers, and research challenges. This research examines how human lives are organized and manifested across the life span in different environments. The first foundation of life course research is the historical observation of the institutionalization of the life course; that is, how it became standardized in industrialized contexts through the operation of work, family and state institutions and how it is increasingly destandardized in the new global economy. The second foundation is the examination of the life course as a process that is manifold and cumulative: manifold because it consists of intertwining roles and events over time and cumulative because it consists of sequentially contingent transitions and path‐dependent processes. The third foundation is the recognition of the formative and enduring impact of exposures to severe life conditions or major sustained macro events such as wars or disasters. The stress process is the fourth foundation that addresses how stresses over the life course shape its trajectory. Finally, cognition and emotion over the life span serve as a foundation for the major psychological experience of aging. Three frontiers of life course research are highlighted: the individualization of the life course and the devolution of risk; cumulative advantage and cumulative disadvantage as major processes of life course inequalities; and biological processes and the life course. The essay ends with consideration of life course data and methods and the challenges of interdisciplinary research.
Emerging Trends: Asset Pricing
Authors: Campbell John Y. 
Published: May 2015

AbstractThe modern field of asset pricing is organized around the concept of the stochastic discount factor. This essay uses this framework to discuss the literature on predictability of asset returns in the short and long run, the influence of irrational investor expectations on asset prices, and the cross‐section of stock returns. Future progress will require microeconomic data on investor actions and ideally survey evidence on their risk preferences and beliefs.
Atheism, Agnosticism, and Irreligion
Authors: Smith Buster G. , Baker Joseph O. 
Published: May 2015

AbstractResearch on the topics of atheism, agnosticism, and irreligion has been limited during much of the last century. We explain the reasons for a lack of research in this field and discuss the recent interest in this topic. The most recent wave of research has been concentrated during the past decade and tends to look at the dual issues of who composes the religiously unaffiliated and why they choose this self‐identification. Recent research has begun to take a much wider and deeper view on the subject. This includes research on particular segments of the population such as atheists, as well as understanding how the religiously unaffiliated are viewed by the broader culture. We conclude by describing important directions for future research. In particular, there is a need to break out the separate forms of irreligion and use creative new methodologies to find and study this significant portion of the population.
Authenticity: Attribution, Value, and Meaning
Authors: Carroll Glenn R. 
Published: May 2015

AbstractConsumers and scholars show increasing interest in authenticity in products, services, performances, and places. As typically used, authenticity is an attribution that is socially constructed and appears in many domains of social life. The interest in authenticity presumes that its attribution conveys value and emerging evidence agrees. Authenticity, however, carries some very different meanings, including those about classification, morality, craftsmanship, and idiosyncrasy. Parsing these various interpretations requires attention to cultural and historical context.
Born This Way: Thinking Sociologically about Essentialism
Authors: Schilt Kristen 
Published: May 2015

Abstract“Born this way” has become a rallying cry for many LGBTQ people, and a succinct slogan for the political logic behind mainstream US‐based gay and lesbian equality activism in the late 2000s. This short phrase—“born this way”—invokes the idea that sexual orientation is an innate, essential part of a person that cannot be changed or acted upon by others. Following this logic, homosexual people and their relationships must be incorporated as a valid part of the social fabric and be afforded the same state‐based rights and benefits as heterosexual people and their relationships. Such an understanding of homosexuality as an innate essence stands in contrast to much sociological theorizing that situates sexual identity categories—as with all identity categories—as social constructs that emerge and shift across particular political, historical, and geographical contexts. In this essay, I argue that sociologists need to find ways to think empirically about this essentialist logic. I pose the question, what cultural work does “born this way” logic perform in everyday interactions around social difference, and how does it shape popular, academic, and legislative ideas about such differences? I offer a comparative analysis of the use of essentialism as an explanatory framework for social difference in four cases—race, gender, sexual orientation, and weight. I unpack the ways in which invoking “born this way” as a frame or strategy can be usedbothto discount the possibility of social interventions into inequality and to make a claim that inequality can only be alleviated through social interventions. Within this analysis, I further explore how social constructionist critiques of biological determinism are taken up or dismissed. I end with ideas for an empirical agenda that highlights the variations in social reactions to different identity‐based claims of biological essentialism and illustrates the importance of using an intersectional lens when examining the social outcomes of such logic.
Bringing the Study of Street Gangs Back into the Mainstream
Authors: Short James F. , Hughes Lorine A. 
Published: May 2015

AbstractCriminology's evolution, from early roots in sociology through claims of autonomy and specialization within the field, has become more global in its reach. Study of street gangs, once imbedded in sociology, has become a specialized field within criminology and more closely identified with law enforcement and control. The immediacy of control concerns had the effect of virtually removing gangs as a focus of the basic social and behavioral sciences, an effect exacerbated by law enforcement's primary focus on individual gang members, thus obscuring the importance of historical, organizational, and group contexts and processes that are associated with gangs and their behavior. Historical research, network and group process analyses, and studies of genocide and human rights violations suggest that the study of gangs by mainstream social and behavioral sciences is important to these sciences as well as for better understanding of gangs. Examples from recent studies, including our research agenda, are provided as a basis for optimism in this regard.
Can Public Policy Influence Private Innovation?
Authors: Bessen James 
Published: May 2015

AbstractPrivate innovation appears to have played a major if not dominant role in the growth of output per capita since the Industrial Revolution. Yet economic theory indicates that the level of investment in private innovation will generally be less than is socially optimal unless public policies such as patents encourage additional investment. Therefore, public innovation policy would seem to be critical to economic growth. Surprisingly, a large body of research fails to find unambiguously positive effects of patents on innovation and economic growth, even though patents have been used for hundreds of years. While some industries in some nations clearly benefit from patents, many other industries do not and patents might actually discourage innovation in some industries. Economic theory has provided valuable insights, yet real‐world policy apparently needs to reflect a richer set of behavior and a more complex legal environment. New research is developing a more nuanced understanding including research on alternative means of providing rewards to innovators, research on the costs of litigation and disputes arising from the failure of patents to provide clear boundaries, research on cumulative innovation and strategic uses of large blocks of patents, and research on the extension of patent coverage to new technologies and to developing nations. In addition, major new sources of data permit much more extensive empirical research.
Capital Punishment
Authors: Lynch Mona 
Published: May 2015

AbstractThis essay reviews foundational and cutting‐edge social science research on capital punishment. It first describes policy‐relevant work on the death penalty as legal punishment, and then provides a brief overview of the more recent contributions on capital punishment and social theory. The scope of relevant scholarship is limited to more empirically based social science scholarship on the American death penalty. Specifically, relative to the longstanding, foundational research on capital punishment, it addresses in order, the research on the deterrent effect of the death penalty; racial inequality in the administration of capital punishment capital case processing and jury decision‐making; and the role of public opinion in the death penalty. It then discusses the more recently developed body of research that addresses the culture of capital punishment; and capital punishment and state governance. Finally, it lays out several potential lines for new research, including contextualizing death penalty within a broader punishment framework.
Causation, Theory, and Policy in the Social Sciences
Authors: Stafford Mark C. , Mears Daniel P. 
Published: May 2015

AbstractDespite a penchant for constructing and testing causal theories, social scientists frequently avoid explicit discussion of causal issues. Illustrating with criminological literature, we argue that attention to particular causal issues will improve theory and theory testing and provide a more systematic basis for identifying policy applications. Our argument centers on a discussion of: (i) causal versus spurious effects, (ii) independent versus shared causes, (iii) reversible versus irreversible causes, including symmetric versus asymmetric causes, (iv) basic versus superficial causes, and (v) causal heterogeneity among different populations, units of comparisons, including spatial units, and types of behavior. We further suggest how researchers and policymakers can benefit from consideration of causal issues.
Changing Family Patterns
Authors: Gerson Kathleen , Torres Stacy 
Published: May 2015

AbstractAll societies have families, but their form varies greatly across time and space. The history of the family is thus one of changing family forms, which result from the interplay of shifting social and economic conditions, diverse and contested ideals, and the attempts of ordinary people to build their lives amid the constraints of their particular time and place. Because the family is a site of our most intimate experiences, the study of families tends to prompt heated theoretical and empirical debate. From the early anthropological charting of kinship systems to current analyses of proliferating family forms, studying the family has been a contested terrain. If the 1950s produced a short‐lived consensus on the “ideal nuclear family,” the current context of rapid family change poses a series of puzzles and paradoxes. What is a family, and why has its definition become so controversial? What are the emerging contours of adult commitment, and what is the future of marriage? How is family life linked to institutions outside the home, and how are the boundaries between public and private spheres blurring? What role does family life play in the structuring of social inequality? In addition, what are the prospects for creating social policies that meet the needs of diverse family forms? These questions draw our attention to the dislocations and contradictions of family change, but they also point to new opportunities to build more just and humane family forms. The challenge will be to find common ground for addressing the needs of diverse families and realigning both public and private institutions to better fit the circumstances of family life in the twenty‐first century.
Civic Engagement
Authors: Levine Peter 
Published: May 2015

Abstract

Civic engagement is usually measured as a set of concrete activities, from voting to protesting, that individuals undertake in order to sustain or improve their communities. Higher rates of civic engagement generally correlate with desirable social outcomes. Education and socioeconomic status predict whether individuals participate, but programs that recruit and organize disadvantaged people are effective at boosting their civic engagement. Although it is valuable to know the causes and consequences of these behaviors, the ideal of civic engagement is intrinsically normative, connected to basic debates about what constitutes a
good
society and a
meaningful
human life. In the future, civic engagement research should not only be an empirical investigation into concrete behaviors but also a reorientation of research throughout the liberal arts to serve civic ends. That will require more fruitful combinations of empirical, normative, and strategic thinking.
Clarifying the Nature and Structure of Personality Disorder
Authors: Suzuki Takakuni , SAMUEL DOUGLAS B. 
Published: May 2015

Abstract
Past research has suggested that personality disorders (PDs) are best conceptualized as a maladaptive extreme variants of the same traits that define general personality. Such a dimensional approach to PD classification has officially been included in the latest version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM‐5) as an alternative diagnostic model for PD. The current essay provides an overview of the rationale for the dimensional approach to PDs and highlights compelling directions for future research.
Constitutionalism
Authors: Whittington Keith E. 
Published: May 2015

AbstractConstitutionalism is the practice of regulating politics with a constitution. The means by which constitutions attempt to regulate politics are various, ranging from the design of political structures to the judicial enforcement of constitutional law. These constitutional features have given rise to robust literatures approaching the subject from both normative and empirical perspectives. Normative debates have focused on the purpose, content, methods, and authority of constitutionalism. Empirical investigations have taken into account both the development of particular constitutional institutions and practices within particular polities and broader questions of constitutional design
Cultural Neuroscience: Connecting Culture, Brain, and Genes
Authors: Kitayama Shinobu , Huff Sarah 
Published: May 2015

Abstract
Cultural neuroscience emerged during the past decade at the intersection of cultural psychology, several subfields of human neuroscience, genetics, and epigenetics. In the present essay, we define the field, provide a selective review of its empirical accomplishment, and discuss its future directions. Cultural neuroscience conceptualizes the human mind as biologically prepared and grounded and, at the same time, as socially and culturally shaped and completed. This young field initially started as an effort to expand preceding behavioral work in cultural psychology with novel brain imaging methods. Increasingly, however, the field is poised to address the interplay between biology, environment, and behavior, as shown in our review of recent empirical work on (i) culture and the self, (ii) culture and genes, and (iii) multicultural identity. The future of the field hinges on several key initiatives including the use of brain stimulation methods, expansion of its database to cultures other than North America and Asia, and a more comprehensive analysis of gene–culture coevolution. In conclusion, we observe that further investigation of culture, brain, and genes may lead to an important insight that to study cultural diversity is no less to affirm the unity of humans as a common biological species.
Culture and Cognition
Authors: Cerulo Karen A. 
Published: May 2015

AbstractCulture and cognition is a rapidly growing subfield within sociology. Scholars working in this area address how aspects of both social structure and culture impact the ways in which social actors think. From the literature, one learns about specific processes and styles that individuals adopt when engaged in thought, cognitive patterns that characterize certain groups or communities, and thought styles that emerge in specific situations and social contexts. New works pay special attention to the links between mind, body, and sociocultural context. In this essay, I define the general focus of the field, review its intellectual roots, discuss recent turns in its literature, and identify issues for future research.
Emerging Trends in Culture and Concepts
Authors: Ojalehto Bethany , Medin Douglas 
Published: May 2015

Abstract
The relation between culture and concepts has long been a fascinating topic for layperson and scientist alike. But often this topic has generated more heat than light—strong claims have been paired with weak evidence, and anecdotes have been more common than empirical data. More recently, however, interdisciplinary research programs have begun to demonstrate that interest in the relation between culture and concepts is not misplaced. In this essay, we review prior, emerging, and potential future trends in culture and concepts research. Changing conceptions of culture are in turn affecting how culture is studied as well as our understanding of concepts.
First, we discuss current challenges in cultural research stemming from the fact that cognitive science studies have largely been done by Western researchers attempting to extend observations with Western college students to the world at large. Next, we highlight cultural research on semantic spaces, agency, and causality and note intriguing parallels in their development. These bodies of work refine previous views of concepts as stable units of thought by focusing on how concepts acquire (shifting sets of) meanings within contextual and epistemological systems.
Culture and Globalization
Authors: Wherry Frederick F. 
Published: May 2015

AbstractHow should we define culture and globalization? How does each affect the other? And what are our shortcomings in understanding the heterogeneous outcomes for cultural production and expression in a globalizing world? This essay begins with foundational understandings among sociologists, political economists, and anthropologists regarding the facets of globalization and the way that it is shaped by and in turn shapes local cultures. The essay turns to the widely varied, disjointed attempts to explain the phenomenon and then offers suggestions for advancing studies of culture in the context of globalization.