Essays
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An Imaging Gene by Environment Interaction (IG×E) Approach to Understanding Youth Antisocial Behavior - Waller, Rebecca
An examination of the complex interplay of genes, environmental experience, and the brain is critical to understanding psychopathology, violence, and aggression. This essay reviews the gene–environment (G×E) interaction and imaging genetics literature relating to the development of youth antisocial behavior (AB). A model is proposed that bridges these approaches within an imaging gene×environment (IG×E) interaction framework. The potential application of an IG×E framework to youth AB is outlined and ongoing research challenges are discussed. -
Biology and Culture - Hobson, Robert Peter
How are we to think of the developmental relations between individual and social dimensions of human psychology? On the one hand, an individual's mental development depends on social engagement and socially constructed symbolic systems and institutions. On the other hand, the very existence of a social system depends on the biologically provided constitution of the individuals who make up its members. I shall consider these matters at the interface between the behavioral and social sciences through the perspective of developmental psychopathology, and, in particular, the study of autism. -
Causation, Theory, and Policy in the Social Sciences - Stafford, Mark C.
Despite 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. -
Enabling Improvements: Combining Intervention and Implementation Research - Schober, Barbara
Transferring evidence‐based intervention programs effectively into practice and into the wider field of public policy often fails, even if the logic of evidence‐based approaches has become highly important in recent years. As a consequence, the field of implementation research has emerged, implementation frameworks have been developed, and implementation studies have been conducted. However, even if intervention research and implementation research have both achieved mentionable progress in the past, they are rather unrelated, and different traditions and research groups are involved. This might be one of the key reasons why there are still many problems in transferring evidence‐based programs into widespread community. In order to enable improvement in this field, in this essay, we argue for a systematic integration of intervention and implementation research as a promising emerging approach. Therefore, we recommend a six‐step procedure requiring researchers to design and develop intervention programs using a field‐oriented and participative approach from the beginning on. In particular, the perspective of policymakers has to be included as well as the wider context of values, rewarding systems, and basic attitudes in science. -
Genetic and Environmental Approaches to Political Science - Fazekas, Zoltán
Over the past decade, a growing interest in the possibility that biological factors, including genes, might contribute to individual differences in political and social behaviors has emerged. Behavioral genetic techniques have provided a variety of approaches to quantify the effects of genetic and nongenetic inheritance. However, until quite recently, these methods were largely unknown to political scientists. In this essay, we review the general approaches to modeling genetic and social influences on differences in complex human social traits. In so doing, we focus on the “genetics of politics,” including attitudes, ideologies, voting, and partisanship. The emergence of this research reflects a paradigm shift in the study of social traits necessitating the inclusion of biological influences, and recognizing the interdependence of genetic, social, and environmental factors in the development of political behaviors over the life course. -
Genetics and Social Behavior - Harpending, Henry
We focus on the effects of gene differences on social and behavioral differences among individuals and among larger groups of individuals. Many specific genetic markers are known that influence aspects of personality and behavior. The focus on single genes and groups of genes is giving way to quantitative genetics, the statistical study of transmission of characteristics viewed as the outcome of the effects of very large numbers of genes. While traditional social science largely ignores the effects of genetically transmitted influences, the subject persists and grows in importance. Classical quantitative genetic methods may give much insight into human behavioral diversity and they provide the “right” way to measure and assess variation in rates of threshold traits. We discuss examples, trends, and possibilities for the incorporation of genetic data and models in the social and behavioral sciences without advocating major changes in practice. -
Genetics and the Life Course - Charney, Evan
A life‐course perspective is committed to the proposition that from conception to death, all human outcomes are the result of a continual interaction between the individual and all of the environments that he or she inhabits at any given point in time. Early development is a critical period, a window of time during the life course when a given exposure can have a critical or permanent influence on later outcomes. But the impact of exposures upon outcomes does not end at any specific point in time, inasmuch as life is a continuing interactive and adaptive process. We now know that what applies to human beings also applies to their genomes. The “outcome” of any gene at any given point in time (whether or not it is used to transcribe a particular protein, what form of that protein, and how much) is a product of the interaction between the gene and the multiple environments of which it is a part, which include the epigenome, the cell, the biological human, and the assorted environments he or she occupies (e.g., geographical, socioeconomic, ethnic, etc.). Early life experiences can permanently “reprogram” the epigenome and gene transcription with life‐long behavioral consequences. At the same time, the epigenome as well as the genome continue to be environmentally responsive throughout the life course. -
Homuncular Flexibility: The Human Ability to Inhabit Nonhuman Avatars - Won, Andrea Stevenson
This essay seeks to explicate an unorthodox idea that spans psychology, neuroscience, psychology, philosophy, and computer science called homuncular flexibility (HF). HF posits that the homunculus—the part of the cortex that maps movement and sensing of body parts—is capable of adapting to novel bodies, in particular bodies that have extra appendages or appendages capable of atypical movements. Evidence demonstrates neural plasticity in nature; for example, amputees experience cortical shifting such that their face receives extra attention in the brain after a limb is amputated. However, experiments such as the rubber hand illusion, in which people respond to rubber hands placed near their arms as if they were their actual hands, demonstrated that a person's sense of their body can be adjusted to include external objects. The recent advent of virtual reality technology, which can track physical human motions and display them on avatars, allows for the wholly new human experience of inhabiting distinctly nonhuman bodies. HF is a paradigm in which physical motions are transformed by remapping degrees of freedom from tracked movements onto an avatar. For example, if a human being were to inhabit an avatar of a lobster, controlling two of the eight lobster arms would be simply be a function of tracking the two physical arms and directly mapping those movements onto the avatar's first two arms. However, in order to control the remaining six arms, degrees of freedom that are orthogonal to the movements of the first two arms need to be measured and remapped. In this essay, we discuss advancements in neuroscience, psychology, and computer science that relate to HF. We review some preliminary studies that demonstrate how humans accommodate novel bodies. Finally, we discuss theoretical implications and practical applications relating to HF. -
Social Epigenetics: Incorporating Epigenetic Effects as Social Cause and Consequence - Anderton, Douglas L.
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. -
Telomeres - Adler, Nancy
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. -
The Development of Expertise in Scientific Research - Feldon, David F.
Scientific research is a fundamental mechanism for both advancing human knowledge about the natural world and facilitating technological innovations that fuel economic development. As such, understanding and optimizing the pathways to expertise and professional success in this endeavor is vital to ensure sustained intellectual and financial benefits of scientific research. This essay summarizes the research on the development of expertise in the sciences from the psychology of science and research on graduate education. Examining new research trends that present an emerging picture of a specific trajectory for the development of research skills and frame the development of scientific research skills as direct outcomes of specific training practices, new directions for research that bridge the cognitive and socialization lenses are identified. -
The Diffusion of Scientific Innovations: Arguments for an Integrated Approach - Herfeld, Catherine
Although the diffusion of scientific innovations has been studied for a long time and in various disciplines, little work has been done to integrate findings into a larger framework. In this essay, we offer an integrated approach to studying how scientific innovations spread within and across preexisting and newly emerging research fields. Drawing on ‘sociology of science,’ ‘philosophy of science,’ and ‘history of science,’ we develop a framework that captures how scientific innovations are modified in the process of their adoption. This framework allows to specify conditions under which scientific innovations diffuse and to characterize the process of diffusion. We argue that the time is ripe for such an integrated view and suggest future lines of research for developing it further. -
The Emerging Field of Social and Behavioral Epigenetics - Mulligan, Connie J.
Social and behavioral epigenetics is the study of psychosocial factors that impact biology through an epigenetic mechanism. Epigenetic modifications influence the activity of genes without altering the underlying DNA sequence. DNA methylation is one type of epigenetic modification that has been widely studied and found to associate with a broad range of psychosocial stressors. This essay reviews the landmark studies and current innovations. An evolutionary context for epigenetic changes induced by psychosocial stress, and the possible heritability of such changes, is also presented. The involvement of social and behavioral scientists in this emerging field is essential to ensure that the nuances of the psychosocial environment are well understood and accurately modeled. -
The Evidence‐Based Practice Movement - Gondolf, Edward W.
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 Role of Data in Research and Policy - Anderson, Barbara A.
Data are essential for scientific research and policy planning. However, there needs to be attention to data quality and to the estimates and models based on those data. In addition, data need to be freely available for researchers to test new ideas and validate the work of others through replication, while respondents who provide data need to be protected. Three issues concerning data are addressed: (i) availability and accuracy of data for new research and reanalysis while protecting human subjects, (ii) problems with the estimation of indicators based on flawed or nongeneralizable data, and (iii) the use of data to develop models for projecting the future, the assumptions on which those models are based, and the assessment of the accuracy of past projections. In each of these areas, increased attention is necessary on how data are used, interpreted, and made available to the scholarly and policy community. -
Translational Sociology - Wethington, Elaine
Translational sociology is an emerging style of sociology that applies sociological theory to addressing real‐world problems using established scientific methods. Translational sociology is distinguished by working in collaboration with other disciplines and professions, including policymakers, consumers, and other community stakeholders in multidisciplinary teams. It is a method intended to increase the value of sociological scholarship by creating equitable problem‐solving groups between sociologists and practitioners and policymakers. A key characteristic of translational sociology is that it develops strategies to address and resolve social problems through evidence‐based interventions. This essay describes the emergence of translational sociology as a concept with a focus on my collaborative experience in the definition, practice, implementation, and evaluation of federally funded translational research in community and clinical settings.