Video games have become a new platform for social interaction. I review the sociality of video games and the relationship between virtual- and real-world behaviors. I review and address the pros and cons of methods of measuring social behavior. Finally, I present two studies drawn from internet populations. In Study 1 (N = 250), I develop a scale, The Sociality in Multiplayer Online Games Scale (SMOG), which measures the frequency of social gaming behaviors in team-based, multiplayer online games. I hypothesized these to align on dominance and affiliation dimensions of social interaction (Kiesler, 1982). In Study 2 (N = 104), I conduct a confirmatory factor analysis, which supports a two-factor structure—Destructive and Constructive social behavior, resulting in the SMOG-6. I examine construct validity using measures of dominance and affiliation. Controlling for age, gender, and frequency of game-play, both factors predict dominance. SMOG-Destructive negatively, and SMOG-Constructive positively, predicted affiliation.

This study investigated a resident community of Atlantic spotted dolphins (Stenella frontalis) on Little Bahama Bank (LBB) in the Bahamas utilizing a noninvasive molecular approach. Genetic template material was collected and extracted from fecal material of S. frontalis. Fine-scale population structure was found within LBB according to mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and microsatellites (Fst = 0.25317, P < 0.0001 and Fst = 0.04491, P < 0.0001, respectively). Three main social clusters (North, Central, South/Roam) exist on LBB and all clusters were found to be genetically distinct according to microsatellite analyses. Mitochondrial haplotypes revealed North and South/Roam were not differentiated, but Central was different from both. When separated by sex, males were less genetically structured than females. Males showed no evidence of structure according to Ost or Rst. / Females of all clusters were differentiated according to microsatellites whereas mtDNA revealed the same pattern in females as was seen for the total population. The structuring patterns of the sexes clearly indicate a pattern of male dispersal and female philopatry for the LBB population. Genetic investigation of mating revealed patterns in the mating system of S. frontalis on LBB. Genotypes of females and offspring were analyzed and revealed that more than two males were required to explain the progeny arrays, indicating promiscuous mating among females. In addition, paternity assessment assigned seven males as fathers to ten of 29 mother-calf pairs. A pattern of reproductive skew according to age was revealed because reproductively successful males were in the oldest age class at the estimated time of conception of the calves. / Patterns in social cluster mating revealed that males from the Central cluster sired offspring with females from both the Central and North clusters, while Roaming males sired offspring with South and Central females indicating that males mate within their social cluster or with females from the next closest cluster. The study has important implications for cetacean research, specifically delphinids. Fine-scale population structure and mating patterns of male and female S. frontalis were revealed through noninvasive methodology presenting a valuable genetic framework with which to support ongoing investigations of life history, behavior, communication and social structure. / by Michelle Lynn Green. / Vita. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2008. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, FL : 2008 Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Research has shown interpersonal relationships to influence experiences of inpatient psychiatric services. This study explored staff and service-users’ talk about relating, and consequences of available/limited social actions. A Foucauldian discourse analysis was used to analyse transcripts from semi-structured interviews and focus groups with current inpatient staff members and service-users with prior experience of being a psychiatric inpatient. Two focus groups (service-users n=10; staff n=6) and five interviews (service-users n=2; staff n=3) were held, with participants responding to questions regarding the discursive object of ‘experiences of relating on inpatient wards’. A dominant ‘medical-technical-legal discourse’ was seen, with two counter-discourses of ‘ordinary humane relating’, and ‘person-centred’. A ‘civil rights’ discourse was drawn on by service-users in the tensions between discourses. The study concluded that the medical-technical-legal discourse perpetuates notions of mental illness as impenetrable to relating. Fearing of causing harm and staff positions of legal accountability generates mistrust, obstructing relating. Ordinary humane relating was vital for service-users in regaining a sense of self. Through ordinary humane relating, a therapeutic relationship could develop, as constructed through a person-centred discourse.

The aim of this study was to explore the experiences of adolescent females on the autism spectrum. During adolescence, the quality of friendships and social expectations implicitly change, challenging those on the spectrum. The study aimed to understand how girls cope in social situations in the context of having socio-communication difficulties and at a developmental stage where demands to use these skills increases. Semi-structured interviews were designed and piloted before ten participants with a diagnosis of any autism spectrum condition (ASC) were recruited. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was used to explore emerging themes within each interview. Themes were cross-referenced between interviews to identify phenomena within the sample. It was found that participants experienced peer rejection as a result of their ASC-related difficulties. Most participants were motivated to build friendships and had developed sophisticated strategies of masking and imitation in order to fit in with peers. The impact of using such strategies was often highly detrimental to the mental health of participants. Findings also included the catalysing effect of transitioning between primary and secondary schools on the participants' mental health and subsequent seeking of professional support. The limitations and clinical implications are explored and suggestions for future research are presented.

Aliteracy defines those who can read adequately but who choose not to read for their own interest and pleasure. Adolescent aliteracy is an international issue (OECD, 2000, 2010a). Dissonance between what schools and students consider as ‘engaging reading’ is widening (Ivey & Broadhuss, 2001; Wilheilm & Smith, 2002). Recent evidence of poor literature knowledge amongst teachers and pre-service teachers (Cremin, Mottram, Bearne, & Goodwin, 2008; Nathanson, Pruslow, & Levit, 2008) highlights the need for pragmatic ways to empower adolescent students to address aliteracy for themselves. The aim of this thesis was to explore the conceptual basis for adolescent aliteracy in the 11-13 year old age groups alongside pedagogy to support currently aliterate adolescents. A mixed methods approach used 8 sets of data to explore reading preferences, reading motivations and self-selection behaviours in a mixed and stratifed sample of currently aliterate students over 6 months. The tools were: a reading preference survey, a Title Recognition Test (Cunningham & Stanovich, 1991), the Motivations for Reading Questionnaire, (Wigfield, Guthrie, & McGough, 1996), library observations, student and teacher interviews, library borrowing records and summative reading scores. Data analysis included thematic analysis, multiple regressions, Chi squared, Wilcoxon signed-ranked tests and Spearman’s correlations. Media based titles, magazines and SMS texting were cited as the most popular reading choices. Avid, poor and currently aliterate adolescent readers had significantly distinct motivational and cognitive reading profiles. Exploratory results with a stratified sample of currently aliterate students suggest that taught self-selection strategies significantly increased motivation to read for challenge and for curiosity and decreased motivation to read for reasons of compliance. Amongst currently aliterate adolescents, results suggest significant interaction between reading identity, reading challenge, reading stamina and reading interest.

The synthetic estrogen 17α-ethinylestradiol (EE2) is an endocrine disrupting chemical (EDC) of concern due to its persistent nature and widespread presence in the aquatic environment. In mammals, effects of developmental EDC exposure on reproduction and behavior not only persist to adulthood after discontinued exposure, but are also inherited by several consecutive unexposed generations. The results presented in this thesis demonstrate that non-reproductive behavior in fish is highly sensitive to the influence of EE2 during development and the effects do not appear to be restored after a long recovery period in clean water. We have shown that exposure to low doses of EE2 during development results in increased anxiety in two fish species (zebrafish and guppy) and their offspring. We have also demonstrated that the effects of EE2 on anxiety are apparent in both sexes and are transgenerationally transmitted to two consecutive generations of unexposed offspring in the guppy. In order to investigate the possible biological mechanisms of the observed persistent effects on non-reproductive behavior, we also performed an RNA sequencing analysis of the whole-brain transcriptome in developmentally exposed zebrafish after remediation in clean water until adulthood. Differential expression of 33 genes in males and 62 genes in females were observed as a result of EE2 exposure, with only one gene affected in both sexes. Functional analysis revealed cholesterol biosynthesis and circadian rhythm to be the top two affected pathways in males and females, respectively. Both pathways have previously been implicated in anxiety behavior and represent possible candidates connecting the transcriptome alterations to the observed behavioral phenotype. The study represents an initial survey of the fish brain transcriptome by means of RNA sequencing after long-term recovery from developmental exposure to an estrogenic compound.

Thesis (PhD (Botany and Zoology))--University of Stellenbosch, 2007. / Improved anti-predator protection has been postulated to be the primary advantage of sociality in the family Herpestidae. Therefore, the yellow mongoose, Cynictis penicillata, is considered an anomaly in the family because it may den socially with conspecifics, cooperating in the rearing of young and territory defence, but inevitably forages alone. I studied the communicative and anti-predator behaviour of a population of yellow mongooses which exhibited a lower degree of sociality than populations studied elsewhere. The yellow mongoose’s flexible social nature was evident in its vocal repertoire. Although its vocal repertoire was smaller and less context-specific than those of social mongooses, it had a large proportion (over 50%) of affiliative vocalizations, suggesting that individuals show a higher degree of cooperation than strictly solitary species. During predator encounters yellow mongooses used a simple urgency-based alarm call repertoire, indicating high and low urgency threat with two separate call types. The social environment strongly affected the alarm communication of yellow mongooses – vocal alarms were displayed almost exclusively by individuals in a group, whereas the visual alarm (a raised tail) was displayed by solitary individuals, when predators were outside the range from which they were potentially dangerous. This was a clear demonstration of the ‘audience effect’ – a phenomenon whereby animals adjust their communicative signals depending on the audience that is present. Until this study, the audience effect has only been demonstrated in obligate social species. The yellow mongoose’s social flexibility was further reflected in its territorial scent marking behaviour. In contrast to high density populations, where subordinate individuals contribute significantly to territory defence and scent marking, only the dominant male marked and defended territory borders in this low density population. Dominant males appeared to overmark the small number of cheek marks that females deposited, especially during the breeding season, which suggests that cheek marks were used in mate guarding. The yellow mongoose showed less flexibility in responses to conspecifics while foraging: the presence of group members appeared to make foragers more nervous, as individuals increased vigilance and decreased foraging success when group members were nearby. This could not be attributed to foraging competition, which happened very rarely. Yellow mongooses relied on a form of vigilance that allowed them to continue foraging while remaining alert, which contrasted with meerkats, Suricata suricatta, that had to interrupt foraging in order to be vigilant. The foraging patterns of yellow mongooses and meerkats differed markedly, and both species appeared to be inflexible in these patterns. I have proposed, therefore, that rigid vigilance patterns of vigilance are the reason why yellow mongooses forage alone, despite showing other cooperative tendencies. This study highlights that the selective forces acting on group living and group foraging are very different, and that the group-size effect – which postulates that individual vigilance declines as group size increases – may not be applicable to species adapted to solitary foraging.

Title: Has youth participation in organized extracurricular activities and future expectation relevance for antisocial behavior?   Zetterberg, E. (2015). Has youth participation in organized extracurricular activities and future expectation relevance for antisocial behavior? Bachelor thesis in Public Health science. Department of work- and public health science. The academy of health and working life. University of Gävle, Sweden. Adolescent drug use is a threat to public health. Therefore it is important to identify how different factors interact in order to develop successful preventive interventions against youth drug use. The purpose of this study is to investigate the association of participation in organized extracurricular activity, future expectation and drug use. Method: The study is cross-section designed and based on the data material from the last survey, Life and Health Young in 2013 in Uppsala County. The study included 1648 high school students residing in the municipalities of Uppsala, Enköping and Älvkarleby (response rate of 60 %). The data were analyzed by bivariate and multivariate methods. Results: The results indicate that there is an association between participation in organized sports-related extracurricular activity, future expectation and drug use. Young people who have a positive expectation about their future have used less drugs (16%) compared with adolescents who have a negative future expectation (27%). Positive future expectation was also strongly associated with participation in organized sports-related extracurricular activity (both p&lt; 0.001). Conclusions: Being involved in organized extracurricular activity appears to be a determinant of a positive future expectation as well as a positive future expectation seems to be a determining factor for decreased drug use among adolescents. / Ungdomars narkotikaanvändning är ett hot mot folkhälsan. Därför är det viktigt att kartlägga hur olika faktorer samvarierar för att kunna utveckla framgångsrika preventiva insatser mot ungdomars narkotikaanvändning. Syftet med den här studien är att undersöka associationen mellan deltagande i organiserad fritidsaktivitet, framtidstro och narkotikaanvändning. Metod: Studien är av tvärsnittsdesign och bygger på datamaterial från den senaste enkätundersökningen Liv och Hälsa Ung 2013 i Uppsala län. I studien ingick 1648 gymnasieungdomar bosatta i kommunerna Uppsala, Enköping och Älvkarleby (svarsfrekvens på 60 procent). Datamaterialet har analyserats med bivariata och multivariata metoder. Resultat: Resultatet indikerar att det finns en association mellan deltagande i organiserad idrottsrelaterad fritidsaktivitet, framtidstro och narkotikaanvändning. Ungdomar som har en positiv framtidstro har i mindre utsträckning använt narkotika (16%) jämfört med ungdomar som har en negativ framtidstro (27%). Positiv framtidstro var även starkt associerat med deltagande i organiserad idrottsrelaterad fritidsaktivitet (båda p&lt;0.001). Slutsats: Att delta i organiserad fritidsaktivitet tycks vara en bestämningsfaktor för positiv framtidstro liksom att positiv framtidstro tycks vara en bestämningsfaktor för minskad narkotikaanvändning bland ungdomar.

While a major benefit of female-male associations in gorillas is protection from infanticidal males, a silverback is also responsible for providing overall group stability and protection from predation and other environmental or interspecific risks and disturbances. A silverback’s reproductive success will be a function of his group’s survival, his females’ reproductive rates and the survival of his progeny. Here, I evaluate the western lowland silverback’s role as the protective leader of his group and provide the first detailed behavioural study of silverback-group dynamics for western lowland gorillas from a holistic perspective; in both forested and bai environments, from nest-to-nest. Behavioural data were collected from one single-male habituated western lowland gorilla group, over 12-months starting January 2007 at the Bai Hokou Primate Habituation Camp, Central African Republic. Data collection - instantaneous scans, continuous written records of all auditory signals, nesting data, and ad libitum notes on interunit interactions - focused on the silverback and those individuals in his immediate proximity. Analyses were conducted over 258 morning or afternoon sessions, on 3,252 silverback behaviour scans (plus 1,053 additional smell scans), 22,343 auditory signals and 166 nest sites. Evidence from neighbours to the silverback, group spread, progression, ranging, nesting, human directed aggression and silverback chemosignalling analyses suggest that silverback-group dynamics have developed complex, strategic spatial and social strategies to cope with perceived risk in rainforest environments, which respond to differing habitats, and differing intensities of interunit interactions and interspecific disturbance. I also show that the release of pungent extreme and high level silverback odours may function as both acute and chronic indicators of arousal designed to intimidate extragroup rival males and attract adult females by expressing dominance, strength, and health. Higher level silverback odours may also provide cues for group members to increase vigilance in risky situations, whereas low level smells may function as a baseline identification marker and provide both self and intragroup reassurance. Western lowland silverback-group relationships appear to be centred on providing a strong protective – rather than socially interactive - and stabilizing role to ensure group cohesion and safety, which ultimately increases the likelihood of male reproductive success.

In recent years, autonomous driving has become an increasingly practical technology. With state-of-the-art computer and sensor engineering, autonomous vehicles may be produced and widely used for travel and logistics in the near future. They have great potential to reduce traffic accidents, improve transportation efficiency, and release people from driving tasks while commuting. Researchers have built autonomous vehicles that can drive on public roads and handle normal surrounding traffic and obstacles. However, in situations like lane changing and merging, the autonomous vehicle faces the challenge of performing smooth interaction with human-driven vehicles. To do this, autonomous vehicle intelligence still needs to be improved so that it can better understand and react to other human drivers on the road. In this thesis, we argue for the importance of implementing ”socially cooperative driving”, which is an integral part of everyday human driving, in autonomous vehicles. An intention-integrated Prediction- and Cost function-Based algorithm (iPCB) framework is proposed to enable an autonomous vehicles to perform cooperative social behaviors. We also propose a behavioral planning framework to enable the socially cooperative behaviors with the iPCB algorithm. The new architecture is implemented in an autonomous vehicle and can coordinate the existing Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) and Lane Centering interface to perform socially cooperative behaviors. The algorithm has been tested in over 500 entrance ramp and lane change scenarios on public roads in multiple cities in the US and over 10; 000 in simulated case and statistical testing. Results show that the proposed algorithm and framework for autonomous vehicle improves the performance of autonomous lane change and entrance ramp handling. Compared with rule-based algorithms that were previously developed on an autonomous vehicle for these scenarios, over 95% of potentially unsafe situations are avoided.