This volume provides a cutting-edge exposition to research on the self. Sixteen authoritative overviews highlight the role of the self around four themes. The first theme is Brain and Cognition, which includes a social neuroscience perspective on the self, implicit self-cognition, the structure of the self and autobiographical memory. The next theme is Motivation, in which chapters include social comparison, self-regulation, narcissism, and modesty. The third theme is Self-esteem and Emotions, covered by chapters on the measurement of self-esteem, terror management theory, sociometer theory, and self-conscious emotions. The final theme concerns the Interpersonal, Intergroup and Cultural Context, containing chapters on intimate relationships, social exclusion, the collective self, and culture. Throughout the volume, the exposition is both scholarly and accessible. It also offers critical assessments along with thoughtful discussions of challenges and problems ahead, as well as the generation of novel hypotheses. As such, the book aspires to influence the research agenda for several years to come. The Self will serve as an essential reference volume for active researchers in the field, while also being appropriate for use as a textbook in advanced courses on the self.
Discrete-trials teaching, or DTT, is a very important teaching technique developed by behavior analysts. The DTT Manual has taught numerous groups of individuals to conduct DTT with children with autism in as quickly as 6 hours. The manual is the product of the joint work of Dr. Daniela Fazzio, PhD, BCBA-D and Dr. Garry L. Martin, PhD, Distinguished Professor of Psychology. The manual addresses an area of much need in the field of autism treatment; effective and efficient training for parents and professionals. It was written with them in mind and it has been empirically tested several times, with several university students, paraprofessionals, and parents. It will be easy to navigate for individuals with a high school diploma, regardless of any prior experience in psychology or special education.
This edited book brings together developmental psychologists who focus on cog development, autobiographical memory, social cognition, & the psychology of self. Intended for graduate level courses & as a professional reference for scholars & researchers
This authoritative handbook reviews the state of the science of self-knowledge, a key emerging area in psychology. Leading investigators describe innovative theory and research that is shedding new light on how—and how accurately—people perceive their own traits, thoughts, feelings, behavior, and relationships. Coverage encompasses the behavioral, mental, biological, and social structures that underlie self-knowledge; approaches to studying self-beliefs in specific domains; and the motives and biases that influence accuracy. The volume explores the personal and societal benefits of self-knowledge and also considers possible ways to enhance it.
The first and foremost concrete fact which every one will affirm to belong to his inner experience is the fact that consciousness of some sort goes on. I -William James, 1893 We are witnessing today a mounting interest among behavioral and biological scientists in problems long recognized as central to our understanding of human nature, yet until recently considered out of the bounds of scientific psychology and physiology. Sometimes thrown into the heading of "altered states of consciousness," this growing research bears directly upon such time-honored questions as the nature of conscious experience, the mind-body relationship, and volition. If one broadly views this research as encompassing the two interrelated areas of consciousness and self-regulation, one can find many relevant contemporary examples of creative and experimentally sophisticated approaches, including research on the regulation of perception and sensory experience, attention, imagery and thinking, emotion and pain; hypnosis and meditation; biofeedback and volun tary control; hemispheric asymmetry and specialization of brain func tion; drug-induced subjective states; and biological rhythms. Because the material is spread over many different kinds of publications and disciplines, it is difficult for anyone person to keep fully abreast of the significant advances. The overall aim of the new Plenum Series in Consciousness and Self-Regulation: Advances in Research is to provide a scholarly forum for discussing integration of these diverse areas by presenting some of the best current research and theory.
The brain is the organ of decision making, and evolved to maximize the outcomes desirable for the survival and reproduction of the species. Compared to the sensory and motor functions of the brain, however, the process of decision making is less accessible to direct experimental manipulations and hence requires more careful theoretical analyses. Indeed, the principle of optimality and frequent departures of human behaviors from those predicted for optimal rational decision makers have long been studied experimentally as well as theoretically. However, it is only recently that neurobiological studies of decision making started exploiting the framework previously developed in economics and psychology systematically. This cross-disciplinary research program, known as neuroeconomics, has already been enormously successful. Increasingly, neuroscientists benefit from the studies of utility theory, game theory, prospect theory, and reinforcement learning theory, and contribute to the refinement of such theories by providing more relevant empirical data. This Research Topic will showcase the recent advances in neuroeconomics that combine economic and behavioral analyses in neurobiological studies of value-based decision making.
Human behavior and decision making is subject to social and motivational influences such as emotions, norms and self/other regarding preferences. The identification of the neural and psychological mechanisms underlying these factors is a central issue in psychology, behavioral economics and social neuroscience, with important clinical, social, and even political implications. However, despite a continuously growing interest from the scientific community, the processes underlying these factors, as well as their ontogenetic and phylogenetic development, have so far remained elusive. In this Research Topic we collect articles that provide challenging insights and stimulate a fruitful controversy on the question of “what determines social behavior”. Indeed, over the last decades, research has shown that introducing a social context to otherwise abstract tasks has diverse effects on social behavior. On the one hand, it may induce individuals to act irrationally, for instance to refuse money, but on the other hand it improves individuals’ reasoning, in that formerly difficult abstract problems can be easily solved. These lines of research led to distinct (although not necessarily mutually exclusive) models for socially-driven behavioral changes. For instance, a popular theoretical framework interprets human behavior as a result of a conflict between cognition and emotion, with the cognitive system promoting self-interested choices, and the emotional system (triggered by the social context) operating against them. Other theories favor social norms and deontic heuristics in biasing human reasoning and encouraging choices that are sometimes in conflict with one’s interest. Few studies attempted to disentangle between these (as well as other) models. As a consequence, although insightful results arise from specific domains/tasks, a comprehensive theoretical framework is still missing. Furthermore, studies employing neuroimaging techniques have begun to shed some light on the neural substrates involved in social behavior, implicating consistently (although not exclusively) portions of the limbic system, the insular and the prefrontal cortex. In this context, a challenge for present research lies not only in further mapping the brain structures implicated in social behavior, or in describing in detail the functional interaction between these structures, but in showing how the implicated networks relate to different theoretical models. This is Research Topic hosted by members of the Swiss National Center of Competence in Research “Affective Sciences – Emotions in Individual Behaviour and Social Processes”. We collected contributions from the international community which extended the current knowledge about the psychological and neural structures underlying social behavior and decision making. In particular, we encouraged submissions from investigators arising from different domains (psychology, behavioral economics, affective sciences, etc.) implementing different techniques (behavior, electrophysiology, neuroimaging, brain stimulations) on different populations (neurotypical adults, children, brain damaged or psychiatric patients, etc.). Animal studies are also included, as the data reported are of high comparative value. Finally, we also welcomed submissions of meta-analytical articles, mini-reviews and perspective papers which offer provocative and insightful interpretations of the recent literature in the field.
Self-Controlled Case Series Studies: A Modelling Guide with R provides the first comprehensive account of the self-controlled case series (SCCS) method, a statistical technique for investigating associations between outcome events and time-varying exposures. The method only requires information from individuals who have experienced the event of interest, and automatically controls for multiplicative time-invariant confounders, even when these are unmeasured or unknown. It is increasingly being used in epidemiology, most frequently to study the safety of vaccines and pharmaceutical drugs. Key features of the book include: A thorough yet accessible description of the SCCS method, with mathematical details provided in separate starred sections. Comprehensive discussion of assumptions and how they may be verified. A detailed account of different SCCS models, extensions of the SCCS method, and the design of SCCS studies. Extensive practical illustrations and worked examples from epidemiology. Full computer code from the associated R package SCCS, which includes all the data sets used in the book. The book is aimed at a broad range of readers, including epidemiologists and medical statisticians who wish to use the SCCS method, and also researchers with an interest in statistical methodology. The three authors have been closely involved with the inception, development, popularisation and programming of the SCCS method.
It is common for a doctor or healthcare professional to see an individual with a chronic health condition only a few times a year for a brief office appointment. Yet, the individual has to live with the health condition 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. So, who really is in charge of managing the health condition? The individual has to "micro-manage" their condition, while healthcare professionals can provide advice on treatment approaches or the "macro-management" of the chronic health condition. Promoting Self-Management of Chronic Health Conditions covers a range of topics related to self-management-theories and practice, interventions that have been scientifically tested, and information that individuals with specific conditions should know (or be taught by healthcare professionals). Data suggest that currently a majority of individuals in the U.S. has a chronic health condition, and as society ages and healthcare continues to improve individuals' life-spans, more people will experience a chronic health condition. Health systems need to shift from an acute care model of treatment to a chronic care treatment model, in view of this trend. The expanding need for the development and scientific analysis of formal self-management programs accompany this increase in chronic health conditions. This book serves the critical purpose of helping to increase understanding of self-management and how healthcare providers can empower individuals with chronic health conditions to self-manage.
