Jan 24 2009
Looking Closer – 8
Any idea what this is? A hint: They can be an issue for aging metrosexuals. Answer below the fold.
Archive for January, 2009
Jan 24 2009
Controls Could Bring Clarity to Parenting
Why do some children bully others, whether their bullying be physical or verbal? Good question. It deserves study.
The title to this ScienceDaily post from last August, The School Bully: Does It Run In The Family? made me think I was going to learn that the tendency to bully was partly genetic and that is how it could “run in the family.”
But this is what I found -
Sweeney reviewed research out of England, Germany, Norway, Japan, South Africa and the United States, which she reports lagged behind the European countries in examining the phenomenon of bullying prior to this decade. The majority of the research that she examined involved children between the ages of nine and 16.
Sweeney says her review of the literature found that children raised by authoritarian parents – parents who are demanding, directive and unresponsive – are the most prone to act out bullying behavior.
On the other hand, there were parallels showing that children raised by nurturing, warm, responsive parents were less likely to bully.
The above seems to suggest that bullying is taught or fostered by families. Parents, really.
The author explained -
“Children who experience hostility, abuse, physical discipline and other aggressive behaviors by their parents are more likely to model that behavior in their peer relationships,” she writes. “Children learn from their parents how to behave and interact with others,” Sweeney says.
I wonder, however, if one could also conclude that children who experience hostility from their parents are more likely to have inherited from their parents genes that make hostile behavior more likely. Of course, both genes and learning are probably involved. But a study that doesn’t control for one (by looking at whether adopted children show the same pattern, perhaps) can’t confidently conclude that the other is largely responsible.
What causes bullying? Until other variables are adequately controlled for, we can’t clearly conclude that parenting style deserves all the blame.
Jan 23 2009
Movement without Eyes Nor Ears
How does a starfish navigate? Inquiring minds want to know. By sense of touch? The above was photographed in the Bahamas in roughly 15 feet of water.
This blurb from Wikipedia is somewhat educational:
Sea stars do not rely on a jointed, movable skeleton for support and locomotion (although they are protected by their skeleton), but instead possess a hydraulic water vascular system that aids in locomotion. The water vascular system has many projections called tube feet on the ventral face of the sea star’s arms which function in locomotion and aid with feeding. Sea stars usually hunt for shelled animals such as oysters and clams. They have two stomachs. One stomach is used for digestion, and the other stomach can be extended outward to engulf and digest prey. This feature allows the sea star to hunt prey that is much larger than its mouth would otherwise allow.
But how do they navigate?
Aha!
On the end of each arm or ray there is a microscopic eye which allows the sea star to see, although it only allows it to see light and dark, which is useful to see movement.
Thanks Wikipedia! I guess I should amend my title to “Without Obvious Eyes.”
Jan 23 2009
A Genuinely Powerful Deity
“A threat display is a sort of bluff. Sometimes things will escalate to true violence.”
- Christopher Boehm (10)In that day the Egyptians will be like women. They will shudder with fear at the uplifted hand that the LORD Almighty raises against them. And the land of Judah will bring terror to the Egyptians; everyone to whom Judah is mentioned will be terrified, because of what the LORD Almighty is planning against them. (Isaiah 19:16-17)
Although impressively intelligent, human beings are primates. Their behavior and the stories they tell reflect an ancient, animal nature. A large part of that nature is an interest in attaining and protecting one’s status, one’s position in a hierarchy. Today human alphas tend to merely hint of negative consequences for non-compliance. But that is not nor has not always been the case.
Threat behavior frequently reflects the emotion of anger on the part of the greater, fear on the part of the lesser. In research on “social status conferral,” Larissa Tiedens noted,
“Anger expressions get others to do as the expressor wants and create the impression that expressor is dominant and strong.” (11)
Her research, by the way, was conducted not on chimpanzees, but on human beings.
Jan 23 2009
The Nature of Personality
Twin studies and longitudinal research suggest that personality attributes are strongly influenced by an individual’s genetic make-up. Among groups of just about any type of animal, including birds, you will find individuals that are more risk-averse (inhibited/shy), others less.
Recent research on macaques illustrates how genes can influence personality.
A genetic variation involving the brain chemical serotonin has been found to shape the social behavior of rhesus macaque monkeys, which could provide researchers with a new model for studying autism, social anxiety and schizophrenia. Humans and macaques are the only members of the primate family to have this particular genetic trait.
Here’s the science part. The strength of a study, of course, is in the details.
Platt’s research group at Duke studied behavior and social anxiety in two groups of monkeys with variations in the serotonin transporter gene, crucial to regulating emotion. Based on earlier observations in humans, the scientists knew that humans carry two versions of the gene, long and short. Some people have two long versions (L/L), but the people with one of each (S/L) are known to experience a higher incidence of social anxiety and other behaviors.
And the kicker -
In a series of experiments, the S version of the gene in monkeys was found to influence their risk-taking when faced with particular social stimuli.
In a sense, serotonin is the testosterone of neurotransmitters. Of the hormones, testosterone gets all the talk, particularly the pseudo-scientific speculation. The study of neurotransmitters is even “younger” than that of hormones. And serotonin has been getting a lion’s share of the attention. However, as with testosterone, there is likely a good reason for that. While their importance, and the immediacy of their influences, can be overstated, they are hugely important, naturally-occuring chemicals. And millions of people now take level-boosting drugs.
Jan 22 2009
RP) Primate Females and Status
The only quibble that I have with Hrdy’s views is that she describes female primates as strongly dominance oriented. This may be true for many monkey species–such as baboons and macaques–in which females do [?] for definitive hierarchies, but it does not apply to our closest relatives, the apes.
- Frans de Waal (67)
At Gombe, although there is a good deal of aggressive interaction among the females, they cannot be ranked in a clear-cut dominance hierarchy.
- Jane Goodall (68)
In my developmental psychology class we cover types of aggression that boys and girls engage in. While boys tend to engage in overtly aggressive acts – pushing another kid; knocking another boy’s books to the floor – girls frequently revert to what as been labeled “relational aggression.” They say and do things to disrupt the relationships and/or to make it more difficult for a girl to establish and maintain relationships.
While male aggression is easy to spot and categorize — chimpanzee or human — female aggression is more subtle. The reasons are manifold, but what it means is that females are nontheless very much concerned with status. The difference is that they tend to focus on the dimension of alliances. Friends are of utmost importance when you desire a coalition to help you attain and protect resources.
Jan 22 2009
A Hard Frost
Above is a full-grown ponderosa pine, dwarfed by the rockface of a mountain ridgeline in New Mexico.
Here in Florida we are experiencing quite a cold spell. For two nights in a row we had a “hard frost.” Why are frosts such as these not called “deep” or “intense?” I wonder about the origin of that word pair.
One of the results of the cold temps is that the bird bath outside my window froze solid. It hardened.
Unfortunately, one of the consequences of a biting frost is that it damages the leaves of more delicate plants. The water in their cells freezes, causing irreparable damage. And die-back. Fortunately, it’s nothing a warm-weather growth spurt can’t overcome. For most plants. A few non-natives may have to be replaced. Maybe next time we’ll choose hardier plants.
There’s that word again: hard.
Jan 22 2009
Teachers on Teaching
The latest Carnival of Education has been posted at Teacher in a Strange Land.
I haven’t read all the posts, but I hope to get around to at least taking a glimpse at each and every. I want to know what teachers are thinking. In terms of the future of our country, they (we) may be as important as politicians. Maybe more. So we shouldn’t ignore the work they do, be it good or not-so-good.
Jan 22 2009
Where’s MY X-Ray Vision?
As I boy I wanted x-ray vision. As did many boys, as evidenced by the advertisements for special x-ray glasses found in magazines like Boys Life. Roughly the same time I developed my first real crush on a girl, one of my friends ordered a pair of the glasses. I dreamed of looking at the object of my longing with the glasses. But I hoped my friend wouldn’t. You can guess how this anecdote ends: the glasses failed to do anything but obscure our vision.
Decades later I would read that the glasses weren’t even necessary.
While animals with forward-facing eyes lose the ability to see what’s behind them, they gain X-ray vision, according to Mark Changizi, assistant professor of cognitive science at Rensselaer, who says eyes facing the same direction have been selected for maximizing our ability to see in leafy environments like forests.
But why couldn’t and can’t my x-ray vision see past the fig-leaf of clothing covering the Eves of the world? At least the news release title put the term in half-quotes – Eyes Evolved For ‘X-Ray Vision’: Forward-facing Eyes Allow Animals To ‘See Through’ Clutter In The World.
When is a special/advanced type of depth perception actually x-ray vision? When we want to make it sound more exciting. Then again, maybe I’m missing something.
