Schizophrenia and other types of psychosis incur suffering, high health care costs and loss of human potential, due to the combination of early onset and poor response to treatment. Our ability to ...prevent or cure psychosis depends on knowledge of causal mechanisms. Molecular genetic studies show that thousands of common and rare variants contribute to the genetic risk for psychosis. Epidemiological studies have identified many environmental factors associated with increased risk of psychosis. However, no single genetic or environmental factor is sufficient to cause psychosis on its own. The risk of developing psychosis increases with the accumulation of many genetic risk variants and exposures to multiple adverse environmental factors. Additionally, the impact of environmental exposures likely depends on genetic factors, through gene-environment interactions. Only a few specific gene-environment combinations that lead to increased risk of psychosis have been identified to date. An example of replicable gene-environment interaction is a common polymorphism in the AKT1 gene that makes its carriers sensitive to developing psychosis with regular cannabis use. A synthesis of results from twin studies, molecular genetics, and epidemiological research outlines the many genetic and environmental factors contributing to psychosis. The interplay between these factors needs to be considered to draw a complete picture of etiology. To reach a more complete explanation of psychosis that can inform preventive strategies, future research should focus on longitudinal assessments of multiple environmental exposures within large, genotyped cohorts beginning early in life.
The sociogenomics revolution is upon us, we are told. Whether revolutionary or not, sociogenomics is poised to flourish given the ease of incorporating polygenic scores (or PGSs) as "genetic ...propensities" for complex traits into social science research. Pointing to evidence of ubiquitous heritability and the accessibility of genetic data, scholars have argued that social scientists not only have an opportunity but a duty to add PGSs to social science research. Social science research that ignores genetics is, some proponents argue, at best partial and likely scientifically flawed, misleading, and wasteful. Here, I challenge arguments about the value of genetics for social science and with it the claimed necessity of incorporating PGSs into social science models as measures of genetic influences. In so doing, I discuss the impracticability of distinguishing genetic influences from environmental influences because of non-causal gene-environment correlations, especially population stratification, familial confounding, and downward causation. I explain how environmental effects masquerade as genetic influences in PGSs, which undermines their raison d'être as measures of genetic propensity, especially for complex socially contingent behaviors that are the subject of sociogenomics. Additionally, I draw attention to the partial, unknown biology, while highlighting the persistence of an implicit, unavoidable reductionist genes versus environments approach. Leaving sociopolitical and ethical concerns aside, I argue that the potential scientific rewards of adding PGSs to social science are few and greatly overstated and the scientific costs, which include obscuring structural disadvantages and cultural influences, outweigh these meager benefits for most social science applications.
Why is humanity destroying its wellbeing and its habitat, Earth? The suggestion here is that the dominant culture has unnested itself from humanity’s millions-year-old adaptive heritages, impairing ...evolved capacities and human potential in a feedback loop of greater disconnection and destruction. Humanity’s heritage is to be nested horizontally, respectful of deep history and future generations, nested developmentally with evolved ways of raising children to foster thriving, and nested vertically, consciously participating in Earth-cosmos dynamism. Nestedness fosters capacities that are often missing in westernized peoples: ecological relational consciousness and knowhow, which were central to human adaptation. The dominant culture undermines their development. Mainstream western scholarship has accepted the slippage in baselines, collaborated with industrialized-capitalism culture and its intentional divorce from Nature’s ways, and is now caught and caged in the limitations of its models and metaphors. Enmeshed in the dominant culture, modernist psychology largely ignores species-normal child raising, human nature and capacities found all over the world among nomadic foraging societies and other traditional societies. In order to reverse the dominant culture’s destruction of planetary integrity, biological and cultural diversity, psychology must transform itself to help reestablish evolved practices and support deep nestedness, thereby helping restore human and Earth wellbeing.
Inflammation, Self-Regulation, and Health Shields, Grant S.; Moons, Wesley G.; Slavich, George M.
Perspectives on psychological science,
07/2017, Letnik:
12, Številka:
4
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Self-regulation is a fundamental human process that refers to multiple complex methods by which individuals pursue goals in the face of distractions. Whereas superior self-regulation predicts better ...academic achievement, relationship quality, financial and career success, and lifespan health, poor self-regulation increases a person’s risk for negative outcomes in each of these domains and can ultimately presage early mortality. Given its centrality to understanding the human condition, a large body of research has examined cognitive, emotional, and behavioral aspects of selfregulation. In contrast, relatively little attention has been paid to specific biologic processes that may underlie selfregulation. We address this latter issue in the present review by examining the growing body of research showing that components of the immune system involved in inflammation can alter neural, cognitive, and motivational processes that lead to impaired self-regulation and poor health. Based on these findings, we propose an integrated, multilevel model that describes how inflammation may cause widespread biobehavioral alterations that promote self-regulatory failure. This immunologic model of self-regulatory failure has implications for understanding how biological and behavioral factors interact to influence self-regulation. The model also suggests new ways of reducing disease risk and enhancing human potential by targeting inflammatory processes that affect self-regulation.
What we may expect from work Schmidt, Christian
Journal of classical sociology : JCS,
08/2023, Letnik:
23, Številka:
3
Journal Article
Recenzirano
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In his critique of contemporary working conditions, Axel Honneth rejects Marx’s concept of alienation for three main reasons: (1) The concept is allegedly tied to industrial labor as the standard ...model of work. (2) The ideal of unalienated labor seems to be too demanding in its aspiration to the full development of all human potential. (3) The level of analysis is so fundamental that the critique loses the “ends in view,” that is, the feasible almerioation of actual working conditions. I argue that these three challenges can be met by a more charitable reading of Marx. Moreover, alienation helps us to identify structural reasons for the failure of approaches to improve working conditions in recent decades and provides analytical tools for the current crises of democracy.
The study aims to empirically demonstrate and conceptually interpret the manifestations of an emerging approach to the issues of human capital, its measurement and development on the international ...academic, expert, and corporate agenda. We document a gradual shift from a focus on individual skills, their measurement and development, to an approach that considers the complexity of human capital and emphasizes holistic individual activity and the proactive role of the individual in his/her human development and in transforming the corporate environment.The authors show that the formation of this novel approach can be associated with new trends in socio-economic development, including the growing share of non-routine jobs, the transformation of work formats and broader processes of de-structuration, which require a proactive role of the individual in the maintenance and development of social structures, including business organizations. The study has shown that the formation of this new approach occurs gradually and simultaneously at the global level on the academic, expert, and corporate agendas, but with varying degrees of intensity and with different focuses. At the same time, it is the corporate agenda that can be regarded as a frontier. This study is based on a content analysis of academic publications, expert reports of international organizations and think tanks, as well as public reports and documents of the world’s leading innovative companies. The research employs the Big Data intelligence system iFORA.
The healthcare system plays an undisputed role in the issues of human potential reproduction and is an integral part of ensuring national security. A key and important factor for ensuring sustainable ...development of the country and its future is investment in the health of citizens. The purpose of the study is to explore the healthcare system as one of the most important spheres, which is one of the primary components of public life. The methodological basis of the study consists of an analysis of statistical indicators of morbidity in Russia from 2020 to 2023, as well as an analysis of the total number of medical workers over the past two years. This allowed to identify the main problems in the healthcare system that can be addressed through the national project “Healthcare”. The implementation of the national project “Healthcare” in Russia will significantly improve the healthcare system in the future, increase access and quality of medical care for citizens, and reduce the level of morbidity and mortality from various diseases. This is an important step towards creating a healthy nation and developing the country as a whole.
Various approaches to investigating the sources of inequality in education are discussed in the paper. It is noted that data on the representation of students from families with various parental ...status at levels of education do not give a full picture of what is happening. Full-fledged interpretation requires to turn to a much larger amount of information, primarily because an influence of the family and the environment during the period of primary socialization is of decisive importance for the formation of chances in the educational sphere. The social experience of the family, the models of social behavior based on it, the developed cultural patterns, strategies, and tactics are important. At the same time, the orientations towards education are not fixed once and for all; they can be transformed if the general situation changes (for example, economic) or a directed influence is made (for example, pedagogical). The formed orientations are, as it were, a starting position and later sets the direction and speed of possible reflection on certain influences. The pandemic and the resulting intensification of distance learning have sharply increased the importance of motivation and other students’ qualities, formed during the period of primary socialization: they are critical for academic success. The accompanying growth of inequality in education has actualized the search for its sources to find means to overcome or at least reduce it. Equalization of opportunities for young people from all social groups is especially important for the growth of human potential.
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