Studies in social network analysis consider the behavior of a group to be equivalent to the “sum” of individual behaviors. However, a group has to be considered as a complex system where emerging phenomena can appear. In this paper, a formalism is proposed to resolve this problematic by modeling groups in social networks using pretopology as a generalization of the graph theory. We also give an...

Four studies examined children's (ages 3-10, Total N=235) naïve theories of social groups, in particular, their expectations about how group memberships constrain social interactions. After introduction to novel groups of people, preschoolers (ages 3-5) reliably expected agents from one group to harm members of the other group (rather than members of their own) but expected agents to help membe...

Four studies examined children’s (ages 3–10, Total N = 235) naı̈ve theories of social groups, in particular, their expectations about how group memberships constrain social interactions. After introduction to novel groups of people, preschoolers (ages 3–5) reliably expected agents from one group to harm members of the other group (rather than members of their own) but expected agents to help mem...

This study focuses on modern representations of race on the Internet. As race continues to be used as a meaningful category for understanding the social world, Internet-based displays of racial membership reflect the ongoing significance of race. Concurrent with Facebook’s growth in popularity has been the development in ways that racial identity has been expressed online. While Facebook has be...

Social media provides numerous opportunities for small businesses to promote their products and services, build brand communities and reach diverse market niches. An important factor in seizing these opportunities is developing trust and creating reputation among consumers. This qualitative study examines how a group of Australian small business managers utilize social media websites to connect...

This study examines the gender-differentiated effects of Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs) on households in Zimbabwe during 1991. Interviews and focus groups were conducted among 120 randomly selected households in Kambuzuma, a densely populated suburb of Harare with mostly Black residents with a considerable range in income. Interviews were conducted in mid-1991 and reinterviews were con...

Social anxiety is a psychological disorder which has devastative and pernicious effects on interpersonal relationships and one's psychological flexibility. The aim of this research was to determine the effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy on interpersonal problems and psychological flexibility in female high school students with social anxiety disorder. With a semi-experimental de...

We present a study of information flow that takes into account the observation that an item relevant to one person is more likely to be of interest to individuals in the same social circle than those outside of it. This is due to the fact that the similarity of node attributes in social networks decreases as a function of the graph distance. An epidemic model on a scale-free network with this p...

We present a pilot study and two main studies that address the nature of stereotypes of social groups in Norway within the framework of the Stereotype Content Model (SCM). The first study focused on stereotypes of a wide range of groups across categories such as gender, age, religious conviction, socioeconomic and health status. The second study focused on stereotypes of immigrant groups. Parti...