An important recent trend in health promotion and disease prevention has been the increasing number and scope of communitybased interventions. These programs are aimed at entire populations, which are usually geographically defined, and they attempt to change health behavior and disease risk through mass media campaigns, activation of existing community organizations, or changes in the physical...

This paper explores theories underlying the design and development of organizational information systems (IS). It summarizes and compares two very different perspectives on IS design and development: design as the (individual) solution of organizational "problems" and design as the (joint) construction of sociocultural artifacts. The different paradigms of operation engendered by these perspect...

One of the earliest and most influential papers applying Darwinian theory to human cultural evolution was Donald T. Campbell’s paper “Variation and Selective Retention in Sociocultural Systems.” Campbell’s programmatic essay appeared as a chapter in a book entitled Social Change in Developing Areas (Barringer et al., 1965). It sketched a very ambitious project to apply Darwinian principles to t...

Piaget has su!ered a great deal of criticism that his theory of psychological development neglects the social nature of human development. Much of this criticism has come from researchers following a Vygotskian approach and comparing Piaget's approach unfavorably with that of Vygotsky. Smith (1995) refers us to Piaget's collected articles on sociology (Piaget, 1995) to argue convincingly that i...

appearing a new field of psychiatry called social psychiatry and its applied field , community psychiatry , the attentions have been drawn toward socio- cultural factors in determining different pathologies and even some theories have been stated. psychiatric symptoms are considered as deviation from social norms and being mental patient is viewed as a social role. severe mental disorders are e...

The overarching goal of the present study was to trace the development of mirror self-recognition (MSR), as an index of toddlers' sense of themselves and others as autonomous intentional agents, in different sociocultural environments. A total of 276 toddlers participated in the present study. Toddlers were either 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, or 21 months old at their first assessment and completed week...

The sociocultural approach to writing strategy use emphasizes the importance of context and the mediating resources that learners can use to enhance the quality of their performance in writing (Lei, 2008). Accordingly, the present study explored the sociocultural strategy use of a convenient sample of 105 BA level students of English Language and Literature who had passed essay-writing courses ...

This study, conducted in five rural districts in Afghanistan, used qualitative methods to explore traditional practices of women, families and communities related to maternal and newborn care, and sociocultural and health system issues that create access barriers. The traditional practices discussed include delayed bathing of mothers and delayed breastfeeding of infants, seclusion of women afte...

The influence of students' sociocultural background on academic achievement is a well established fact. Research also points out that sociocultural background is related to students' cognitive abilities and these have an effect on their academic achievement. However, the mediator role of cognitive abilities on the relationship between sociocultural background and academic achievement is less we...

Cafri, Yamamiya, Brannick, and Thompson (this issue) reported results from a meta-analysis of relations between three sociocultural factors and body image dissatisfaction. Comparison of the effect sizes reveals that internalization of a thin ideal and perceived pressures have significantly stronger relations to body image dissatisfaction than does awareness of a thin ideal. The authors tested f...