Organized medicine is a uniquely powerful political force in Canada, with physician colleges and associations exerting extensive influence over healthcare provision. Their influence has contributed to what social scientists describe as medical dominance, or the exceptional power of the medical profession within the healthcare system and wider society. However, Canadian medical organizations do not consistently defend this dominance; rather, they have occasionally lent support to policy changes that, on their face, would appear incompatible with traditional conceptions of medical power and authority. Typically, these instances are explained as a simple matter of strategic retreat: medicine conceding defeat on a particular issue in an effort to save face or conserve resources, without any change in underlying beliefs. This dissertation questions that assumption, asking if at times organized medicine’s support for threats to medical dominance is instead a function of more fundamental shifts in core policy beliefs. Through a series of interviews exploring how organized medicine responded to the re-emergence of midwifery and expansions of pharmacy scope in four provinces (Alberta, Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia), the analysis determines that, while medicine only supported expanded pharmacy scope out of strategic retreat, there are signs of more substantive shifts in belief with respect to midwifery. This suggests that the relationship between organized medicine and traditional medical dominance is more flexible and dynamic than has been assumed.

Thesis (M.Cur. (Community Health Nursing))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2008.

Bipolar disorder is an extremely devastating illness, and increasingly robust evidence indicates that it emerges during adolescence. Also during adolescence, peer relationships, particularly close friendships and romantic relationships, become a central mechanism for social maturation and emotional development. The consequences of mania on the development of peer relationships have received little attention. Thus, the purpose of the current study was to examine the association between mania and close peer relationship quality in a community sample of adolescents. Two types of close peer relationships, close friendships and romantic relationships, were evaluated. In addition, the current study examined two potential mediators of the association between mania and close relationship quality, social skills and social dominance. Due to the substantial overlap between symptoms of mania and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), and the documented peer relationship difficulties experienced by youth with ADHD, symptoms of ADHD were controlled in study analyses. Participants were 571 adolescents (57% female; 19% 10th grade, 30% 11th grade, 51% 12th grade; 66% Hispanic, 17% White, 7% African-American and Caribbean American, 4% Asian, and 6% mixed or other ethnicity) from 2 public high schools in the Southeastern United States. Adolescents completed self-report questionnaires during school. The Hypomanic Personality Scale (HPS) was used to assess adolescents' risk for mania. Adolescents reported on their social skills (empathy, cooperation, and assertion) using the Social Skills Rating System (SSRS). The Social Dominance Scale (SDS) was used to assess adolescents' tendency to be overly intrusive or dominant in social situations. The Conners-Wells' Adolescent Self-Report Scale (CASS) was used to assess adolescents' self-reported symptoms of ADHD. Parent-report was obtained for 50 adolescents by phone interview. Parent-reported symptoms of mania, social skills, and symptoms of ADHD were assessed. Four hypotheses guided study analyses. First, it was expected that greater levels of mania would be associated with fewer positive qualities and more negative qualities in a close friendship and romantic relationship. Second, it was hypothesized that more symptoms of mania would be associated with poorer social skills and greater levels of social dominance. Third, social skills and social dominance were expected to mediate the association between mania and close relationshp quality. Fourth, it was expected that the hypothesized relationships between mania, social skills, social dominance, and close relationship quality would remain significant after controlling for the association between mania and symptoms of ADHD. Gender was examined as a moderator in the main study analyses. Ethnicity and age were used as control variables. Data analyses were conducted using structural equation modeling with Mplus. Gender was found to be a moderator, and so all study analyses were examined separately for boys and girls. All adolescents reported having at least one close friend. Fifty-four percent (n = 307) of adolescents reported having a romantic partner. Analyses examining qualities of adolescents' romantic relationships were conducted using only those adolescents who reported having a romantic partner. In terms of the first hypothesis, for boys, higher levels of mania were directly associated with more positive qualities in a close friendship, and were also indirectly associated with more positive qualities in both a close friendship and romantic relationship. For girls, higher levels of mania were indirectly associated with more positive qualities in a close friendship, fewer negative qualities in both a close friendship and romantic relationship, and also more negative qualities in both a close friendship and romantic relationship. In terms of the second hypothesis, higher levels of mania were associated with greater empathy for both boys and girls. Higher levels of mania were also associated with more social dominance for both boys and girls. In terms of the third hypothesis, for boys, empathy mediated the association between mania and more positive qualities in a close friendship and romantic relationship. For girls, empathy mediated the association between mania and more positive qualities in a close friendship, and also mediated the association between mania and fewer negative qualities in a close friendship and romantic relationship. For girls, assertion also mediated the association between mania and fewer negative qualities in a close friendship. Finally, for girls, social dominance mediated the association between mania and more negative qualities in both a close friendship and romantic relationship. With regard to the fourth hypothesis, despite significant associations with some study variables, the associations described above remained significant with symptoms of ADHD entered as a control variable in the models. Findings suggest that empathy is an important strength associated with risk for mania in both boys and girls. Through empathy, close friendship and romantic relationship quality was positively associated with risk for mania in boys and girls. Social dominance was also strongly associated with risk for mania in both boys and girls, indicating that social dominance might be one way to differentiate emerging mania from other disorders, such as ADHD, in adolescents. Social dominance, however, was only associated with relationship quality for girls, and specifically, was associated with more negative qualities in both close friendships and romantic relationships. This may be one area, therefore, that girls at-risk for mania might be able to target in order to improve peer relationships. Future research might examine these associations longitudinally in order to determine causality. Additionally, studying close peer relationship quality in adolescents diagnosed with bipolar disorder would be of interest in future research.

One strategy for conserving biodiversity is to select large-area preserves that complement each other so the maximum number of species is conserved. Estimates of biodiversity and complementarity are needed for optimum selection of preserves. Comparisons are made in part by defining and mapping vegetation associations under the assumption that candidate areas with no associations in common likely have high complementarity. Conversely, areas with many associations in common have low complementarity. Vegetation associations are often distinguished on the basis of the dominant plant species. Associations with markedly different dominants (e.g., evergreen and deciduous trees) are expected to indicate high complementarity. In this study I evaluated the complementarity of an evergreen forest and a deciduous forest. I also evaluated a dichotomy of subsoil texture. I compared 6 groups of species: (1) woody plants (Dicotyledonae), (2) birds (Aves), (3) small mammals (Mammalia) plus herptiles (Amphibia) and (Reptilia), (4) beetles(Coleoptera), (5) ants (Formicidae) plus velvet ants (Mutillidae), and (6) spiders (Araneae). I made the comparisons using canonical correspondence analysis (CCA), redundancy analysis (RDA), logistic regression, and 3 indices of biodiversity. In this study the species of dominant tree was more strongly associated with the distribution of species than was soil texture. Dominant tree and soil texture used together greatly improved the association with the distribution of species. The association defined by the dominant evergreen tree was not different than the association defined by the dominant deciduous tree, based on the criteria that an association is defined as having a Jaccard similarity index between 0.25 and 0.5. Similarities >0.5, as in this case, are too similar to be an association and are termed a subassociation. Evergreen forests and deciduous forests do not necessarily have high complementarity. Different dominant plant species do not necessarily define different associations. Dominant plant species are not necessarily useful in defining associations or higher-level classifications.

Sex determination occurs early in development for most animals, at which time sex is fixed for life. Many teleost fishes, however, exhibit remarkable sexual plasticity throughout their life history, ranging from multiple morphs within a sex to functional adult sex reversal. To understand the development and evolution of adult sex reversal, I examined behavioral, endocrine, and genetic contributions to the regulation of functional sex in adult animals, using the bluebanded goby (Lythrypnus dalli) as an experimental model. This species was found to be equally capable of sexual transitions from female to male (protogyny) as from male to female (protandry). Throughout adult life, sexual phenotype is determined by social status, an emergent property of agonistic behavioral interactions that follows a relatively simple social convention: if dominant become or remain male, or if subordinate, become or remain female. The translation of social status into a change in sexual phenotype in the protogynous direction requires a rapid drop in circulating estrogens and an increase in the gonadal expression of a testis differentiating gene dmrt1. Steroid hormones do not play a significant role in modulating status, but the androgen 11-ketotestosterone does positively correlate with the expression of paternal behavior. Taken together, these findings suggest an evolutionary mechanism in sexually plastic species that has linked the conserved molecular cascades of sexual differentiation to a novel signal that varies over life history, social status, thereby allowing for lifelong phenotypic plasticity.

For various reasons, certain races tend to play particular sports. Sports with low costs of participation (e.g., basketball and football) have higher percentages of minority participants relative to sports with high costs of participation (e.g., golf). In addition to the cost of participation being a deterrent, stereotypes can also play a role into who plays various sports. Certain races tend to feel most competent in a particular sport (e.g., African Americans in basketball). This study focuses on the degree to which stereotypes contribute to the under representative rates of minorities in golf, compared to their overrepresented White counterparts. Data were collected from 217 students at a large US public university. A pilot test was used to develop a scale depicting the "general golfer." In the primary study, participants used a 7-point scale to rate the degree to which the "general golfer," Whites, Asians, Hispanics, and African Americans exhibited these characteristics. Examples of these characteristics include "refined", "etiquette", and "skillfulness." The scale items were all reliable. The correlation between the general golfer and Whites was the strongest (r = .50), followed by Asians (r = .36), Hispanics (r = .29), and African Americans (r = .23). The correlation between the general golfer and Whites was significantly stronger than correlations between the general golfer and African Americans, Hispanics, and Asians, t's > 2.3, p's < .05. In addition, Whites were viewed as more appropriate for golf relative to racial minorities. Stereotypes can influence which races people view as appropriate and not appropriate for golf. These stereotypes can in turn impact participation, or lack thereof, of certain races in golf. If certain racial groups are not considered appropriate for a sport in which mental strength, etiquette, and persistence are valued, this could also impact access to jobs in which these characteristics are also valued. In addition, these stereotypes can potentially lead to self-limiting behavior by the negatively affected races.

No description available.

Les conditions environnementales rudes des hautes montagnes ont favorisé l'évolution des groupes de marmottes alpines (Marmota marmota) vers un mode de reproduction coopératif. Dans ce contexte, l'environnement social est un facteur important de l'écologie de ce Sciuridé. Les groupes familiaux territoriaux comptent un unique couple reproducteur, un nombre variable d'adultes subalternes et des jeunes de cohortes subséquentes. Le succès reproducteur d'un individu repose donc sur sa capacité à atteindre et à maintenir le statut de reproducteur. Les individus peuvent manipuler leur environnement social par le biais de leurs interactions et de leurs associations avec les autres individus du groupe. Le rôle social qu'ils peuvent jouer varie en fonction de caractéristiques individuelles et de leur groupe. De plus, leurs initiatives sociales peuvent servir des intérêts personnels aussi bien que de fournir un bénéfice à certains ou à tous les membres du groupe. L'objectif de ce projet de maîtrise est d'étudier le rôle individuel dans les comportements sociaux chez la marmotte alpine. Il se divise en deux objectifs : 1) mesurer l'importance relative des effets des caractéristiques propres à chaque individu (sexe, âge, statut de dominance) et des caractéristiques du groupe (nombre de subalternes, de jeunes d'un an et de juvéniles, rapport des sexes dans les individus matures et nombre de groupes voisins) sur les mesures individuelles (degré) de réseaux sociaux basées sur quatre types d'interactions (agonistiques, toilettages, jeux et reconnaissance), le degré d'association entre les individus et la fréquence de marquage de territoire; 2) déterminer le niveau de participation des individus dans les tâches sociales coopératives (interactions affiliatives avec les jeunes et défense du territoire). Les individus peuvent jouer plusieurs rôles sociaux (ex. défense du territoire, inhibition de la reproduction et expulsion des subalternes, développement moteur des jeunes, améliorer la cohésion sociale), et l'influence relative des variables individuelles et reliées à la composition des groupes varient en fonction de ces rôles. De ces rôles sociaux, deux classes de comportements confèrent des avantages à d'autres membres du groupe : les interactions affiliatives avec les jeunes (jeu et toilettage) et la défense de territoire (interactions agonistiques intergroupes et marquage de territoire). Les individus diffèrent de façon constante dans leurs efforts de coopération sociale, mais ne se spécialisent pas dans l'une ou dans l'autre des classes de comportements. Les différences de degré d'implication des individus dans les rôles sociaux pourrait résulter des options d'histoire de vie qui s'offrent aux individus subalternes dans les groupes à reproduction coopérative soit : 1) rester dans son groupe d'origine et assister les individus dominants ou 2) se disperser et tenter de se reproduire dans un autre groupe. ______________________________________________________________________________ MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : Reproduction coopérative, interactions sociales, dominance, coopérative sociale, spécialisation, rôle social, Marmota marmota.

L'humour intrigue les philosophes depuis des siècles. Les questions existentielles riment très bien avec toute la liberté et l'inventivité intellectuelle propre aux différentes façons de provoquer le rire. Curieusement, il ne s'agit pas d'un sujet de prédilection pour les politologues même si l'humour, par les nombreux référents sociaux qui l'alimentent, peut être un outil de domination ou d'émancipation. Mais à l'heure où le rire devient une marchandise et un bien de consommation au même titre qu'un produit en conserve, certaines personnes jugent que l'humour a perdu toute substance politique. Nous serions désormais pris dans ce que Gilles Lipovetsky nomme la « société humoristique ». Devant ces propos qui annoncent la désubstantialisation définitive du rire, il est urgent de penser comment et en quels endroits l'humour peut encore avoir une valeur politique. Deux types d'humour, entre autres, nous permettent cette sortie : l'humour policier et l'humour anarchisant. Le premier accompagne les schèmes de la domination systémique, intergroupale et interpersonnelle. Il a pour principale fonction de maintenir les hiérarchies et de figer les identités des groupes dominés. Le deuxième est directement lié à l'émancipation. Il marque un refus des classifications sociales imposées par le sens commun et permet de se libérer momentanément des mains de l'oppression. Si l'humour policier prend très au sérieux le maintien des inégalités, l'humour anarchisant en fait de même avec la liberté et l'égalité. ______________________________________________________________________________ MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : Humour, rire, domination, émancipation, anarchisme, féminisme, antiféminisme, police, subversion.

This study identified factors and variables of informal leadership in small groups with different gender composition (Men, women and mixed groups) and goal orientation (competition and cooperation). Behavioral dominance patterns (Information Sheet, pencil, decision sheet) and number of verbal interventions were compared to the main informal leadership factors identified in the groups. There were 24 participants (12 men and 12 women). Among the main variables and factors identified, there were some that had a higher possibility to appear than other. There was no significant difference of the factors and variables between women and men. Communication variables were more likely to be present in groups with the goal of cooperation as for the goal of competition. Guidance variables were more likely to be present in women groups than in men groups and mixed groups. There was a significant correlation between the factor’s Communication, Character and Guidance with the number of interventions and behavioral dominance patterns.