Trivium & Quadrivium

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The quadrivium (plural: quadrivia) is the four subjects, or arts, taught after teaching the trivium. The word is Latin, meaning four ways, and its use for the four subjects has been attributed to Boethius or Cassiodorus in the 6th century. Together, the trivium and the quadrivium comprised the seven liberal arts (based on thinking skills), as distinguished from the practical arts (such as medicine and architecture).

Etymologically, the Latin word trivium means “the place where three roads meet” (tri + via); hence, the subjects of the trivium are the foundation for the quadrivium, the upper division of the medieval education in the liberal arts, which comprised arithmetic (number), geometry (number in space), music (number in time), and astronomy (number in space and time). Educationally, the trivium and the quadrivium imparted to the student the seven liberal arts of classical antiquity.^[1]

Grammar teaches the mechanics of language to the student. This is the step where the student “comes to terms,” defining the objects and information perceived by the five senses. Hence, the Law of Identity: a tree is a tree, and not a cat.

Logic (also dialectic) is the “mechanics” of thought and of analysis, the process of identifying fallacious arguments and statements and so systematically removing contradictions, thereby producing factual knowledge that can be trusted.

Rhetoric is the application of language in order to instruct and to persuade the listener and the reader. It is the knowledge (grammar) now understood (logic) and being transmitted outwards as wisdom (rhetoric).

One can utilise a computer analogy to conceptually explain the Trivium. Per analogiam, input (via input channels such as the senses/sensors, or any other form of information transmission ) refers to grammar, processing to logic (thought & analysis), and output to rhetoric (written words & spoken language).

Sister Miriam Joseph, in The Trivium: The Liberal Arts of Logic, Grammar, and Rhetoric (2002), described the trivium as follows:

Grammar is the art of inventing symbols and combining them to express thought; logic is the art of thinking; and rhetoric is the art of communicating thought from one mind to another, the adaptation of language to circumstance.

. . .

Grammar is concerned with the thing as-it-is-symbolized. Logic is concerned with the thing as-it-is-known. Rhetoric is concerned with the thing as-it-is-communicated.^[4]

John Ayto wrote in the Dictionary of Word Origins (1990) that study of the trivium (grammar, logic, and rhetoric) was requisite preparation for study of the quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy). For the medieval student, the trivium was the curricular beginning of the acquisition of the seven liberal arts; as such, it was the principal undergraduate course of study. The word trivial arose from the contrast between the simpler trivium and the more difficult quadrivium.^[5]

Quadrivium

The quadrivium consisted of arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy. These followed the preparatory work of the trivium, consisting of grammar, logic, and rhetoric. In turn, the quadrivium was considered preparatory work for the study of philosophy (sometimes called the “liberal art par excellence”)[5] and theology.

These four studies compose the secondary part of the curriculum outlined by Plato in The Republic and are described in the seventh book of that work (in the order Arithmetic, Geometry, Astronomy, Music). ^[4] The quadrivium is implicit in early Pythagorean writings and in the De nuptiis of Martianus Capella, although the term quadrivium was not used until Boethius, early in the sixth century.^[6] As Proclus wrote:

The Pythagoreans considered all mathematical science to be divided into four parts: one half they marked off as concerned with quantity, the other half with magnitude; and each of these they posited as twofold. A quantity can be considered in regard to its character by itself or in its relation to another quantity, magnitudes as either stationary or in motion. Arithmetic, then, studies quantities as such, music the relations between quantities, geometry magnitude at rest, spherics [astronomy] magnitude inherently moving.^[7]

Medieval usage

At many medieval universities, this would have been the course leading to the degree of Master of Arts (after the BA). After the MA, the student could enter for bachelor’s degrees of the higher faculties (Theology, Medicine or Law). To this day, some of the postgraduate degree courses lead to the degree of Bachelor (the B.Phil and B.Litt. degrees are examples in the field of philosophy).

The study was eclectic, approaching the philosophical objectives sought by considering it from each aspect of the quadrivium within the general structure demonstrated by Proclus (AD 412–485), namely arithmetic and music on the one hand^[8] and geometry and cosmology on the other.^[9]

The subject of music within the quadrivium was originally the classical subject of harmonics, in particular the study of the proportions between the musical intervals created by the division of a monochord. A relationship to music as actually practised was not part of this study, but the framework of classical harmonics would substantially influence the content and structure of music theory as practised in both European and Islamic cultures.

Modern usage

In modern applications of the liberal arts as curriculum in colleges or universities, the quadrivium may be considered to be the study of number and its relationship to space or time: arithmetic was pure number, geometry was number in space, music was number in time, and astronomy was number in space and time. Morris Kline classified the four elements of the quadrivium as pure (arithmetic), stationary (geometry), moving (astronomy), and applied (music) number.^[10]

This schema is sometimes referred to as “classical education”, but it is more accurately a development of the 12th- and 13th-century Renaissance with recovered classical elements, rather than an organic growth from the educational systems of antiquity. The term continues to be used by the Classical education movement and at the independent Oundle School, in the United Kingdom.^[11]

Further References

Bugliarello, G.. (2003). A new trivium and quadrivium. Bulletin of Science, Technology and Society

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1177/0270467603251296
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“Today’s conflicts between the views that the humanities hold of science and engineering and the views science and engineering hold of the humanities weaken the very core of our culture. their cause is lack of integration in today’s education among subjects that hark back to the medieval trivium and quadrivium. a new trivium is needed to provide every educated person with a basic understanding of the endeavors and instruments that help us address our world and shape a new morality – the humanities, in the noblest sense of the word, to civilize, science to understand nature, and engineering, broadly defined, to encompass the kindred activities that modify nature. integration of these endeavors is urgent. it involves, in turn, an intimate interaction (the ‘biosoma’) of biological organisms, society, and machines – a new quadrivium. no domain can any longer be considered and learned in isolation.”

Etzkowitz, H., Ranga, M., & Dzisah, J.. (2012). Whither the university? The Novum Trivium and the transition from industrial to knowledge society. Social Science Information

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1177/0539018412437099
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“Beyond the bologna process key objective of achieving a common structure of the european tertiary educational format is the fundamental issue of the changing content of higher education. the highly specialized curricula of the industrial society no longer fully meet the needs of an emerging knowledge society that requires citizens with entrepreneurial and inter-cultural capabilities to innovate and respond to change in an increasingly inter-connected world. in this article we propose an innovative approach to undergraduate education called the novum trivium, comprised of (i) academic specialization, (ii) innovation and entrepreneurship, and (iii) a language and culture in addition to one’s own, as a new higher-education paradigm for the knowledge society. this vision of undergraduate education aims to contribute to the realization of the bologna process objective of better integrating education, research and innovation. the novum trivium brings together three diverse, yet complementary, educational skill sets, in a modern version of the tripos degree introduced by cambridge university in the 17th century as an honours degree in mathematics that eventually became a format that encompassed three closely related disciplines such as politics, philosophy and economics. the novum trivium is also inspired by the medieval trivium of grammar, rhetoric and dialectics (logic), the essential elements of education for all.”

Bordieu’s Habitus & Hexis

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The term habitus (/ˈhæbɪtəs/) refers to ingrained habits, skills, and psychological/behavioral dispositions. It is the way that individuals perceive the social world around them and react to it. These dispositions are usually shared by people with similar backgrounds (such as social class, religion, nationality, ethnicity, education, profession etc.). The habitus is acquired through imitation (mimesis) and is the reality that individuals are socialized, which includes their individual experience and opportunities. Thus, the habitus represents the way group culture and personal history shape the body and the mind, and as a result, shape present social actions of an individual.

Pierre Bourdieu suggested that the habitus consists of both the hexis (the tendency to hold and use one’s body in a certain way, such as posture and accent) and more abstract mental habits, schemes of perception, classification, appreciation, feeling, and action. These schemes are not mere habits: Bourdieu suggested they allow individuals to find new solutions to new situations without calculated deliberation, based on their gut feelings and intuitions, which Bourdieu believed were collective and socially shaped. These attitudes, mannerisms, tastes, moral intuitions and habits have influence on the individual’s life chances, so the habitus not only is structured by an individual’s objective past position in the social structure but also structures the individual’s future life path. Pierre Bourdieu argued that the reproduction of the social structure results from the habitus of individuals (Bourdieu, 1987).

References

Reay, D.. (2004). “It’s all becoming a habitus”: Beyond the habitual use of habitus in educational research. British Journal of Sociology of Education

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1080/0142569042000236934
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“The concept of habitus lies at the heart of bourdieu’s theoretical framework. it is a complex concept that takes many shapes and forms in bourdieu’s own writing, even more so in the wider sociological work of other academics. in the ®rst part of this paper i develop an understanding of habitus, based on bourdieu’s many writings on the concept, that recognizes both its permeability and its ability to capture continuity and change. i also map its relationship to bourdieu’s other concepts, in particular ®eld and cultural capital. in the second part of the paper i examine attempts to operationalize habitus in empirical research in education. i critique the contemporary fashion of overlaying research analyses with bourdieu’s concepts, including habitus, rather than making the concepts work in the context of the data and the research settings. in the ®nal part of the paper i draw on a range of research examples that utilize habitus as a research tool to illustrate how habitus can be made to work in educational research.”

Lyons, A. P., Bourdieu, P., & Nice, R.. (1980). Outline of a Theory of Practice. ASA Review of Books

Plain numerical DOI: 10.2307/532672
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“Outline of a theory of practice is recognized as a major theoretical text on the foundations of anthropology and sociology. pierre bourdieu, a distinguished french anthropologist, develops a theory of practice which is simultaneously a critique of the methods and postures of social science and a general account of how human action should be understood. with his central concept of the habitus, the principle which negotiates between objective structures and practices, bourdieu is able to transcend the dichotomies which have shaped theoretical thinking about the social world. the author draws on his fieldwork in kabylia (algeria) to illustrate his theoretical propositions. with detailed study of matrimonial strategies and the role of rite and myth, he analyses the dialectical process of the ‘incorporation of structures’ and the objectification of habitus, whereby social formations tend to reproduce themselves. a rigorous consistent materialist approach lays the foundations for a theory of symbolic capital and, through analysis of the different modes of domination, a theory of symbolic power.”

Bourdieu, P.. (1969). Structures, Habitus, Practices. In The Logic of Practice

Plain numerical DOI: 10.2307/2804264
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Lizardo, O.. (2004). The cognitive origins of Bourdieu’s Habitus. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-5914.2004.00255.x
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“This paper aims to balance the conceptual reception of bourdieu’s sociology in the united states through a conceptual re-examination of the concept of habitus. i retrace the intellectual lineage of the habitus idea, showing it to have roots in claude levi-strauss structural anthropology and in the developmental psychology of jean piaget, especially the latter’s generalization of the idea of operations from mathematics to the study of practical, bodily-mediated cognition. one important payoff of this exercise is that the common misinterpretation of the habitus as an objectivist and reductionist element in bourdieu’s thought is dispelled. the habitus is shown to be instead a useful and flexible way to conceptualize agency and the ability to transform social structure. thus ultimately one of bourdieu’s major contributions to social theory consists of his development of a new radical form of cognitive sociology, along with an innovative variety of multilevel sociological explanation in which the interplay of different structural orders is highlighted.”

Jason D. Edgerton, & Roberts, L. W.. (2014). Habitus. In Encyclopedia of Quality of Life and Well-Being Research

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1007/978-94-007-0753-5_1519
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“Definition the relationship (correlation) between separate scales or subscales. description the value between +1 and −1 that represents the correlation between two scales is the interscale correlation. in quality of life literature, interscale correlations are used frequently (aaronson et al., 1993; borghede & sullivan, 1996; fekkes et al., 2000; hearn & higginson, 1997). a researcher may choose to determine the interscale correlation in situations in which she/he has multiple scales and wants to investigate the relationship between the variables that those scales are measuring. depending on the nature of the research, a high or low interscale correlation could be sought after. in the case of a validity study, a researcher may want to examine how similar a newly created scale is to another scale that is deemed to be a ‘gold standard.’ finding that the researcher’s scale has a high correlation with the other scale would lend itself to evidence of”

Wacquant, L.. (2007). Esclarecer o Habitus. Educação & Linguagem

Plain numerical DOI: 10.15603/2176-1043/el.v10n16p63-71 M4 – Citavi
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“Tomando como referência a obra do sociólogo pierre bourdieu, o presente artigo traz uma reconstituição da gênese da noção de habitus presente nos trabalhos do autor e, em uma perspectiva de síntese, procura documentar algumas de suas principais propriedades teóricas. traça, igualmente, um pequeno retrato dos principais horizontes de mobilização sociológica de que a noção tem sido alvo, destacando que a noção de habitus, para bourdieu, é um modo estenográfico de designar uma postura de investigação adequada à observação metódica da constituição social de agentes em quadros institucionais diversos.”

Crossley, N.. (2013). Habit and Habitus. Body and Society

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1177/1357034X12472543
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“This article compares the concept of habitus, as formulated in the work of mauss and bourdieu, with the concept of habit, as formulated in the work of merleau-ponty and dewey. the rationale for this, on one level, is to seek to clarify these concepts and any distinction that there may be between them – though the article notes the wide variety of uses of both concepts and suggests that these negate the possibility of any definitive definitions or contrasts. more centrally, however, the purpose of the comparison is to draw out a number of important issues and debates which, it is argued, further work must address if the concepts of habit and habitus are to continue to prove useful and illuminating in social science.”

Silva, E. B.. (2016). Habitus: Beyond sociology. Sociological Review

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1111/1467-954X.12345
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“This paper presents a contribution of a set of interrelated innovative thinking to revitalize the sociological understanding of the notion of the habitus. it discusses contributions by sociologists exploring the sources of bourdieu’s inspiration from psychology and psychoanalysis to the development of the concept, and brings in new thinking inspired by authors and frameworks that branch out of sociology to bring into sociology fresher thinking. three areas of concern about habitus are focused on: firstly, the objectivism and subjectivism dichotomy; secondly, the plasticity or rigidity of the concept; and thirdly, the implications of intangibles attached to the notion. the paper introduces a special section including five articles on theoretical and empirical explorations bringing exciting perspectives to creative and critical sociology.”

Gaddis, S. M.. (2013). The influence of habitus in the relationship between cultural capital and academic achievement. Social Science Research

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1016/j.ssresearch.2012.08.002
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“Scholars routinely use cultural capital theory in an effort to explain class differences in academic success but often overlook the key concept of habitus. rich, longstanding debates within the literature suggest the need for a closer examination of the individual effects of cultural capital and habitus. drawing upon the writings of pierre bourdieu, i use a longitudinal dataset to examine the effects of multiple operationalizations of cultural capital on academic achievement and the mediating effects of habitus. using first difference models to control for time-invariant unobserved characteristics, i find that typical operationalizations of cultural capital (i.e. high-arts participation and reading habits) have positive effects on gpa that are completely mediated through habitus. these results stress the importance of habitus in the relationship between cultural capital and academic achievement for disadvantaged youth. © 2012 elsevier inc.”

Thomas, L.. (2002). Student retention in higher education: The role of institutional habitus. Journal of Education Policy

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1080/02680930210140257
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“This paper examines some of the issues surrounding student retention in higher education. it is based on the case study of a modern university in england that has good performance indicators of both widening participation (i.e. increasing the diversity of the student intake) and student retention. the two-fold nature of this success is significant, as it has been asserted that greater diversity will necessarily lead to an increase in student withdrawal. furthermore, changes to student funding in the uk put greater financial pressures and stress on students, especially those from low-income groups. nevertheless, many students cope with poverty, high levels of debt and significant burdens of paid work to successfully complete their courses of study. drawing on the work of r eay et al. (2001), this paper adopts and explores the terinstitutional habitus’, and attempts to provide a conceptual and empirical understand-ing of the ways in which the values and practices of a higher education institution impact on student retention.”

Mutch, A.. (2003). Communities of practice and habitus: A critique. Organization Studies

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1177/0170840603024003909
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Bordieu, P., & Bourdieu, P.. (1968). Outline of a Sociological Theory of Art Perception. International Social Science Journal

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1590/S0103-20702013000100001
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Bourdieu, P.. (1986). Habitus, code et codification. Actes de La Recherche En Sciences Sociales

Plain numerical DOI: 10.3406/arss.1986.2335
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“S’il est de la vocation même de la sociologie de rappeler que, selon le mot de montesquieu, on ne transforme pas la société par décret, il reste que la conscience des conditions sociales de l’efficacité des actes juridiques ne doit pas conduire à ignorer ou à nier ce qui fait l’efficacité propre de la règle, du règlement et de la loi. la juste réaction contre le juridisme, qui conduit à restituer leur place, dans l’explication des pratiques, aux dispositions constitutives de l’habitus, n’implique nullement que l’on mette entre parenthèses l’effet propre de la règle explicitement énoncée, surtout lorsque, comme la règle juridique, elle est associée à des sanctions. et inversement, s’il n’est pas douteux que le droit exerce une efficacité spécifique, imputable notamment au travail de codification, de mise en forme et en formule, de neutralisation et de systématisation, que réalisent, selon les lois propres de leur univers, les professionnels du travail symbolique, il reste que cette efficacité, qui se définit par opposition à l’inapplication pure et simple ou à l’application fondée sur la contrainte pure, s’exerce dans la mesure et dans la mesure seulement où le droit est socialement reconnu, et rencontre un accord, même tacite et partiel, parce qu’il répond, au moins en apparence, à des besoins et des intérêts réels.”

Hanks, W. F.. (2005). PIERRE BOURDIEU AND THE PRACTICES OF LANGUAGE. Annual Review of Anthropology

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1146/annurev.anthro.33.070203.143907
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“This paper synthesizes research on linguistic practice and critically examines the legacy of pierre bourdieu from the perspective of linguistic anthropology. bourdieu wrote widely about language and linguistics, but his most far reaching engagement with the topic is in his use of linguistic reasoning to elaborate broader sociological concepts including habitus, field, standardization, legitimacy, censorship, and symbolic power. the paper examines and relates habitus and field in detail, tracing the former to the work of erwin panofsky and the latter to structuralist discourse semantics. the principles of relative autonomy, boundedness, homology, and embedding apply to fields and their linkage to habitus. authority, censorship, and euphemism are traced to the field, and symbolic power is related to misrecognition. and last, this chapter relates recent work in linguistic anthropology to practice and indicates lines for future research.”

Bourdieu, P.. (2000). Making the Economic Habitus: Algerian Workers Revisited. Ethnography

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1177/14661380022230624
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“During the war of national liberation algeria offered a quasi-laboratory situation for analysing the mismatch between the economic dispositions fashioned in a precapitalist economy, embedded in relations of group honour, and the rationalized economic cosmos imposed by colonization. ethnographic observation of this mismatch revealed that, far from being axiomatic, the most elementary economic behaviours (working for a wage, saving, credit, birth control, etc.) have definite economic and social conditions of possibility which both economic theory and the `new economic sociology’ ignore. acquiring the spirit of calculation required by the modern economy entails a veritable conversion via the apostasy of the embodied beliefs that underpin exchange in traditional kabyle society. the `folk economics’ of a cook from algiers allows us to grasp the practical economic sense guiding the emerging algerian working class at the dawn of the country’s independence.”

King, A.. (2000). Thinking with Bourdieu against Bourdieu: A “practical” critique of the habitus. Sociological Theory

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1111/0735-2751.00109
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“There are two strands in bourdieu’s sociological writings. on the one hand, bourdieu argues for a theoretical position one might term his ‘practical theory’ which emphasizes virtuosic interactions between individuals. on the other hand, and most frequently, bourdieu appeals to the concept of the habitus according to which society consists of objective structures and determined-and isolated-individuals. although bourdieu believes that the habitus is compatible with his practical theory and overcomes the impasse of objectivism and subjectivism in social theory, neither claim is the case; the habitus is incompatible with his practical theory, and it retreats quickly into objectivism. however, bourdieu’s practical theory does offer a way out of the impasse of objectivism and subjectivism by focussing on the intersubjective interactions between individuals.”

Crossley, N.. (2001). The phenomenological habitus and its construction. Theory and Society

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1023/A:1011070710987
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“This article focuses on the phenomenological habitus and its construction. the concepts ‘habit’ and ‘habitus,’ having almost disappeared from the sociological lexicon during the earlier part of the post-war period, are currently enjoying renewed interest in the social sciences. this is due, in large part, to the work of the sociologist pierre bourdieu. his work draws out the significance and relevance of the concept of habit for sociological purposes and in doing so makes a very appealing case for a habit or disposition based theory of agency. this is not intended as a phenomenological critique of bourdieu, a call to replace his conception of habit with a phenomenological one nor a call for a full scale ‘marriage’ of phenomenology with bourdieu’s sociology. bourdieu formulates his concept of the habitus in the context of a critical engagement with structuralism and ‘social physics,’ on the one hand, and ‘social phenomenology’ on the other. against social physics and structuralism, he argues for a notion of competent and active agency.”

Sewell, W. H.. (1992). A Theory of Structure: Duality, Agency, and Transformation. American Journal of Sociology

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1086/229967
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“‘Structure’ is one of the most important, elusive, and undertheo- rized concepts in the social sciences. setting out from a critique and reformulation of anthony giddens’s notion of the duality of structure and pierre bourdieu’s notion of habitus, this article at- tempts to develop a theory of structure that restores human agency to social actors, builds the possibility of change into the concept of structure, and overcomes the divide between semiotic and material- ist visions of structure. ‘structure’”

Nash, R.. (1990). Bourdieu on Education and Social and Cultural Reproduction. British Journal of Sociology of Education

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1080/0142569900110405
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“Bourdieu’s work has attracted considerable interest and, not withstanding criticism of his style and obscure theoretical formulations, has introduced some powerful concepts into social theory. this paper examines bourdieu’s contribution to the sociology of education and especially his account of socially differentiated educational attainment. particular attention is given to issues of structure, agency and habitus, the cultural autonomy of the school, arbitrary and necessary school cultures, and the distinction between primary and secondary effects on educational differences. some specific criticisms, for example elster’s charge of a double account of domination, are also addressed. bourdieu’s concentration on habitus as the most significant generator of practice is held to be a theory of socialisation and the paper examines the nature of the explanation of social practice provided by such theories. the argument concludes with a plea for critical tolerance with respect to bourdieu’s work but with a suggestion that his account of socially differentiated educational attainment in terms of habitus is finally inadequate.”

Solom Aschs studies of conformity

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References

Asch, S. E.. (1956). Studies of independence and conformity: I. A minority of one against a unanimous majority.. Psychological Monographs: General and Applied

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1037/h0093718
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“The investigations described in this series are concerned with the conditions of independence and lack of independence in the face of group pressure. the abstract temper of present-day theory and investigation in this region rests to a considerable degree on a neglect of the cognitive and emotional experiences that are part of the individual’s psychological field. the understanding of social influences will require the study of a wide range of conditions and of the interrelated operations of different psychological functions. a group of seven to nine individuals was gathered in a classroom to take part in what appeared to be a simple experiment in visual discrimination. the subjects were all male, white college students, ranging in age from 17 to 25; the mean age was 20. for certain purposes a large number of critical subjects was required for the present experiment. the present report is based on a total of 123 subjects. the task consisted of the comparison of a standard line with three other lines, one of which was equal in length to the standard. we investigated some of the conditions responsible for independence and lack of independence in the face of arbitrary group pressure. to this end we produced a disagreement between a group and one individual member about a clear and simple issue of fact. the interview, which followed the experimental session, provided qualitative evidence concerning the effects produced by the majority, the particular properties of the experimental situation and their relation to more usual social contradictions were described. (psycinfo database record (c) 2012 apa, all rights reserved)”

Baron, R. S., Vandello, J. A., & Brunsman, B.. (1996). The Forgotten Variable in Conformity Research: Impact of Task Importance on Social Influence. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1037/0022-3514.71.5.915
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“Two studies examined how incentives for accuracy (task importance) affected the social influence of inaccurate confederates in a modified asch situation (s. e. asch, 1951). not unexpectedly, when task difficulty was low, incentives for accuracy reduced the social impact of (inaccurate) confederates (study 1). however, when task difficulty was increased, the reverse was true, with individuals conforming more to an inaccurate confederate norm when incentives for accuracy were high (studies 1 and 2). the results are discussed in terms of possible mediating mechanisms and also in terms of their historical and pragmatic implications.”

Kundu, P., & Cummins, D. D.. (2013). Morality and conformity: The Asch paradigm applied to moral decisions. Social Influence

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1080/15534510.2012.727767
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“Morality has long been considered an inherent quality, an internal moral compass that is unswayed by the actions of those around us. the solomon asch paradigm was employed to gauge whether moral decision making is subject to conformity under social pressure as other types of decision making have been shown to be. participants made decisions about moral dilemmas either alone or in a group of confederates posing as peers. on a majority of trials confederates rendered decisions that were contrary to judgments typically elicited by the dilemmas. the results showed a pronounced effect of conformity: compared to the control condition, permissible actions were deemed less permissible when confederates found them objectionable, and impermissible actions were judged more permissible if confederates judged them so.”

Walker, M. B., & Andrade, M. G.. (1996). Conformity in the asch task as a function of age. Journal of Social Psychology

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1080/00224545.1996.9714014
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“The social conformity paradigm of asch (1956) was replicated to investigate the relationship between age and conformist behavior. one hundred ten australian school children and adolescents between 3 and 17 years of age participated in the study. each participant was placed in the position of being a minority of 1 against a wrong but unanimous majority of 3. the results indicate that conformity decreases with age in perceptually unambiguous tasks. conflicting evidence from earlier studies can be attributed to task ambiguity in those studies.”

Cinnirella, M., & Green, B.. (2007). Does “cyber-conformity” vary cross-culturally? Exploring the effect of culture and communication medium on social conformity. Computers in Human Behavior

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1016/j.chb.2006.02.009
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“Previous research has established that individuals from collectivistic cultures tend to conform more than their counterparts from individualistic cultures do [bond, r., & smith, p.b. (1996). culture and conformity: a meta-analysis of studies using asch’s (1952b, 1956) line judgment task. psychological bulletin 119(1) 111-137]. however, there is presently a dearth of research exploring the degree to which this kind of cross-cultural difference is also present in computer-mediated communication (cmc) contexts where group members are never met face-to-face (f-t-f). a normative social influence paradigm of line-length judgment (based on asch [asch, s.e., (1955). opinions and social pressure. scientific american 193(5) 31-35]) was employed to investigate the effects of communication medium (f-t-f against cmc) and culture (participants from individualistic cultures against those from collectivist cultures). a communication type × culture interaction was found, in which the expected cultural differences were demonstrated only in the face-to-face conditions, being absent in computer-mediated conditions. © 2006 elsevier ltd. all rights reserved.”

Mccuuoh, I.. (2013). Social Conformity in Networks. Connections

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1021/ja0318380
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“The article focuses on a study in which the effect of centrality in social networks is determined. it states that in a social network centrality has effect on a conformity named asch-type conformity. it mentions that respect social network data and friendship affinity data was collected for two different groups of actors. it informs that central actors are not interested in conforming whereas peripheral actors willing to conform which was expected in asch-type conformity.”

Gerard, H. B., Wilhelmy, R. A., & Conolley, E. S.. (1968). Conformity and group size.. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1037/h0025325
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“Asch (1951) found a curvilinear relationship between majority size and conformity such that conformity increased with increases in group size up to a majority of 3 and then leveled off. it was hypothesized here that this effect was due to a perceived contingency of the choices of the others and that if perceived contingency were eliminated, conformity would be a linear function of group size. the procedure in 1 treatment was designed to induce perceived contingency in the others’ choices, that is, that they were following the leader, whereas in the other treatment an attempt was made to induce the perception that the others were responding independently of one another. the data indicate a linear trend under both perceived contingency and perceived independence.”

Rosenberg, L.. (1961). Group size, prior experience, and conformity. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1037/h0047007
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“An effort was made to validate the findings of 2 previous workers regarding the effect of the size of a group (asch, 1952) and prior experience (mausner, 1953, 1954, 1957) upon conformity in the judgment of the length of lines. the results of asch and mausner were reproduced; there is a curvilinear relationship between size of a group (from 2 to 5) and influence on s to conform to what he believes are the estimates of the lines made by others. prior experience in making judgments of the lines was also found to influence the accuracy of judgment. (psycinfo database record (c) 2012 apa, all rights reserved)”

Prefrontal top-down regulation

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Neural top–down control of physiology concerns the direct regulation by the brain of emotional and physiological functions. Cellular functions include the immune system’s production of T-lymphocytes and antibodies, and nonimmune related homeostatic functions such as liver gluconeogenesis, sodium reabsorption, osmoregulation, and brown adipose tissue nonshivering thermogenesis.More at Wikipedia

Chiesa, A., Serretti, A., & Jakobsen, J. C.. (2013). Mindfulness: Top-down or bottom-up emotion regulation strategy?. Clinical Psychology Review

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1016/j.cpr.2012.10.006
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“The beneficial clinical effects of mindfulness practices are receiving increasing support from empirical studies. however, the functional neural mechanisms underlying these benefits have not been thoroughly investigated. some authors suggest that mindfulness should be described as a ‘top-down’ emotion regulation strategy, while others suggest that mindfulness should be described as a ‘bottom-up’ emotion regulation strategy. current discrepancies might derive from the many different descriptions and applications of mindfulness. the present review aims to discuss current descriptions of mindfulness and the relationship existing between mindfulness practice and most commonly investigated emotion regulation strategies. recent results from functional neuro-imaging studies investigating mindfulness training within the context of emotion regulation are presented. we suggest that mindfulness training is associated with ‘top-down’ emotion regulation in short-term practitioners and with ‘bottom-up’ emotion regulation in long-term practitioners. limitations of current evidence and suggestions for future research on this topic are discussed. © 2012 elsevier ltd.”

McRae, K., Misra, S., Prasad, A. K., Pereira, S. C., & Gross, J. J.. (2012). Bottom-up and top-down emotion generation: Implications for emotion regulation. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsq103
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“Emotion regulation plays a crucial role in adaptive functioning and mounting evidence suggests that some emotion regulation strategies are often more effective than others. however, little attention has been paid to the different ways emotions can be generated: from the ‘bottom-up’ (in response to inherently emotional perceptual properties of the stimulus) or ‘top-down’ (in response to cognitive evaluations). based on a process priming principle, we hypothesized that mode of emotion generation would interact with subsequent emotion regulation. specifically, we predicted that top-down emotions would be more successfully regulated by a top-down regulation strategy than bottom-up emotions. to test this hypothesis, we induced bottom-up and top-down emotions, and asked participants to decrease the negative impact of these emotions using cognitive reappraisal. we observed the predicted interaction between generation and regulation in two measures of emotional responding. as measured by self-reported affect, cognitive reappraisal was more successful on top-down generated emotions than bottom-up generated emotions. neurally, reappraisal of bottom-up generated emotions resulted in a paradoxical increase of amygdala activity. this interaction between mode of emotion generation and subsequent regulation should be taken into account when comparing of the efficacy of different types of emotion regulation, as well as when reappraisal is used to treat different types of clinical disorders.”

Terhune, D. B., Cleeremans, A., Raz, A., & Lynn, S. J.. (2017). Hypnosis and top-down regulation of consciousness. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2017.02.002
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“Hypnosis is a unique form of top-down regulation in which verbal suggestions are capable of eliciting pronounced changes in a multitude of psychological phenomena. hypnotic suggestion has been widely used both as a technique for studying basic science questions regarding human consciousness but also as a method for targeting a range of symptoms within a therapeutic context. here we provide a synthesis of current knowledge regarding the characteristics and neurocognitive mechanisms of hypnosis. we review evidence from cognitive neuroscience, experimental psychopathology, and clinical psychology regarding the utility of hypnosis as an experimental method for modulating consciousness, as a model for studying healthy and pathological cognition, and as a therapeutic vehicle. we also highlight the relations between hypnosis and other psychological phenomena, including the broader domain of suggestion and suggestibility, and conclude by identifying the most salient challenges confronting the nascent cognitive neuroscience of hypnosis and outlining future directions for research on hypnosis and suggestion.”

Zelazo, P. D., & Carlson, S. M.. (2012). Hot and Cool Executive Function in Childhood and Adolescence: Development and Plasticity. Child Development Perspectives

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1111/j.1750-8606.2012.00246.x
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“Executive function (ef), which refers to the more deliberate, top-down neurocognitive processes involved in self-regulation, develops most rapidly during the preschool years, together with the growth of neural networks involving prefrontal cortex but continues to develop well into adulthood. both ef and the neural systems supporting ef vary as a function of motivational significance, and this article discusses the distinction between the top-down processes that operate in motivationally and emotionally significant situations (‘hot ef’) and the top-down processes that operate is more affectively neutral contexts (‘cool ef’). emerging evidence indicates that both hot and cool ef are surprisingly malleable, with implications for intervention and prevention.”

Johnstone, T., van Reekum, C. M., Urry, H. L., Kalin, N. H., & Davidson, R. J.. (2007). Failure to Regulate: Counterproductive Recruitment of Top-Down Prefrontal-Subcortical Circuitry in Major Depression. Journal of Neuroscience

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2063-07.2007
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“Although depressed mood is a normal occurrence in response to adversity in all individuals, what distinguishes those who are vulnerable to major depressive disorder (mdd) is their inability to effectively regulate negative mood when it arises. investigating the neural underpinnings of adaptive emotion regulation and the extent to which such processes are compromised in mdd may be helpful in understanding the pathophysiology of depression. we report results from a functional magnetic resonance imaging study demonstrating left-lateralized activation in the prefrontal cortex (pfc) when downregulating negative affect in nondepressed individuals, whereas depressed individuals showed bilateral pfc activation. furthermore, during an effortful affective reappraisal task, nondepressed individuals showed an inverse relationship between activation in left ventrolateral pfc and the amygdala that is mediated by the ventromedial pfc (vmpfc). no such relationship was found for depressed individuals, who instead show a positive association between vmpfc and amygdala. pupil dilation data suggest that those depressed patients who expend more effort to reappraise negative stimuli are characterized by accentuated activation in the amygdala, insula, and thalamus, whereas nondepressed individuals exhibit the opposite pattern. these findings indicate that a key feature underlying the pathophysiology of major depression is the counterproductive engagement of right prefrontal cortex and the lack of engagement of left lateral-ventromedial prefrontal circuitry important for the downregulation of amygdala responses to negative stimuli.”

Heatherton, T. F., & Wagner, D. D.. (2011). Cognitive neuroscience of self-regulation failure. Trends in Cognitive Sciences

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2010.12.005
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“Self-regulatory failure is a core feature of many social and mental health problems. self-regulation can be undermined by failures to transcend overwhelming temptations, negative moods and resource depletion, and when minor lapses in self-control snowball into self-regulatory collapse. cognitive neuroscience research suggests that successful self-regulation is dependent on top-down control from the prefrontal cortex over subcortical regions involved in reward and emotion. we highlight recent neuroimaging research on self-regulatory failure, the findings of which support a balance model of self-regulation whereby self-regulatory failure occurs whenever the balance is tipped in favor of subcortical areas, either due to particularly strong impulses or when prefrontal function itself is impaired. such a model is consistent with recent findings in the cognitive neuroscience of addictive behavior, emotion regulation and decision-making. © 2010 elsevier ltd.”

Holzman, J. B., & Bridgett, D. J.. (2017). Heart rate variability indices as bio-markers of top-down self-regulatory mechanisms: A meta-analytic review. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2016.12.032
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“Theoretical perspectives posit that heart-rate variability (hrv) reflects self-regulatory capacity and therefore can be employed as a bio-marker of top-down self-regulation (the ability to regulate behavioral, cognitive, and emotional processes). however, existing findings of relations between self-regulation and hrv indices are mixed. to clarify the nature of such relations, we conducted a meta-analysis of 123 studies (n = 14,347) reporting relations between hrv indices and aspects of top-down self-regulation (e.g., executive functioning, emotion regulation, effortful control). a significant, albeit small, effect was observed (r = 0.09) such that greater hrv was related to better top-down self-regulation. differences in relations were negligible across aspects of self-regulation, self-regulation measurement methods, hrv computational techniques, at-risk compared with healthy samples, and the context of hrv measurement. stronger relations were observed in older relative to younger samples and in published compared to unpublished studies. these findings generally support the notion that hrv indices can tentatively be employed as bio-markers of top-down self-regulation. conceptual and theoretical implications, and critical gaps in current knowledge to be addressed by future work, are discussed.”

Kerr, C. E., Sacchet, M. D., Lazar, S. W., Moore, C. I., & Jones, S. R.. (2013). Mindfulness starts with the body: somatosensory attention and top-down modulation of cortical alpha rhythms in mindfulness meditation. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience

Plain numerical DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2013.00012
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“Using a common set of mindfulness exercises, mindfulness based stress reduction (mbsr) and mindfulness based cognitive therapy (mbct) have been shown to reduce distress in chronic pain and decrease risk of depression relapse. these standardized mindfulness (st-mindfulness) practices predominantly require attending to breath and body sensations. here, we offer a novel view of st-mindfulness’s somatic focus as a form of training for optimizing attentional modulation of 7-14 hz alpha rhythms that play a key role in filtering inputs to primary sensory neocortex and organizing the flow of sensory information in the brain. in support of the framework, we describe our previous finding that st-mindfulness enhanced attentional regulation of alpha in primary somatosensory cortex (si). the framework allows us to make several predictions. in chronic pain, we predict somatic attention in st-mindfulness ‘de-biases’ alpha in si, freeing up pain-focused attentional resources. in depression relapse, we predict st-mindfulness’s somatic attention competes with internally focused rumination, as internally focused cognitive processes (including working memory) rely on alpha filtering of sensory input. our computational model predicts st-mindfulness enhances top-down modulation of alpha by facilitating precise alterations in timing and efficacy of si thalamocortical inputs. we conclude by considering how the framework aligns with buddhist teachings that mindfulness starts with ‘mindfulness of the body.’ translating this theory into neurophysiology, we hypothesize that with its somatic focus, mindfulness’ top-down alpha rhythm modulation in si enhances gain control which, in turn, sensitizes practitioners to better detect and regulate when the mind wanders from its somatic focus. this enhanced regulation of somatic mind-wandering may be an important early stage of mindfulness training that leads to enhanced cognitive regulation and metacognition.”

Wagner, D. D., Altman, M., Boswell, R. G., Kelley, W. M., & Heatherton, T. F.. (2013). Self-Regulatory Depletion Enhances Neural Responses to Rewards and Impairs Top-Down Control. Psychological Science

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1177/0956797613492985
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“To be successful at self-regulation, individuals must be able to resist impulses and desires. the strength model of self-regulation suggests that when self-regulatory capacity is depleted, self-control deficits result from a failure to engage top-down control mechanisms. using functional neuroimaging, we examined changes in brain activity in response to viewing desirable foods among 31 chronic dieters, half of whom completed a task known to result in self-regulatory depletion. compared with nondepleted dieters, depleted dieters exhibited greater food-cue-related activity in the orbitofrontal cortex, a brain area associated with coding the reward value and liking aspects of desirable foods; they also showed decreased functional connectivity between this area and the inferior frontal gyrus, a region commonly implicated in self-control. these findings suggest that self-regulatory depletion provokes self-control failure by reducing connectivity between brain regions that are involved in cognitive control and those that represent rewards, thereby decreasing the capacity to resist temptations.”

Phillips, A. G., Vacca, G., & Ahn, S.. (2008). A top-down perspective on dopamine, motivation and memory. Pharmacology Biochemistry and Behavior

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1016/j.pbb.2007.10.014
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“Dopamine (da) activity, in the form of increased neural firing or enhanced release of transmitter from nerve terminals and varicosities, is linked to a number of important psychological processes including: movement; hedonic reactions to positive reward; provision of an error detection signal during the acquisition of new learning; response to novel stimuli; provision of reinforcement signals essential for acquisition of new action patterns; and incentive motivation. this review focuses primarily on our research linking dynamic changes in da efflux on the timescale of minutes, with incentive motivation, as revealed by brain dialysis experiments in behaving animals. recent experiments on sensory-specific satiety and successive positive and negative contrast are discussed along with the distinction between preparatory behaviors that precede contact with biologically significant stimuli and subsequent consummatory behaviors. the relationship between da efflux in the medial prefrontal cortex (mpfc) and foraging for food based on working memory is also discussed in support of the conjecture that da may serve as a link between motivation and memory functions. evidence in support of ‘top-down’ regulation of dopaminergic activity in the mesocorticolimbic da pathways is reviewed briefly to introduce a mechanism by which activation of ascending da projections in this manner might optimize dopaminergic modulation of executive function within regions such as the mpfc. collectively, these processes could ensure coordination between cognitive processes that assess current opportunities and the motivational systems that select and engage patterns of approach behavior that bring organisms into contact with the essentials for survival. © 2007 elsevier inc. all rights reserved.”

Tiesinga, P., Fellous, J. M., & Sejnowski, T. J.. (2008). Regulation of spike timing in visual cortical circuits. Nature Reviews Neuroscience

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1038/nrn2315
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“A train of action potentials (a spike train) can carry information in both the average firing rate and the pattern of spikes in the train. but can such a spike-pattern code be supported by cortical circuits? neurons in vitro produce a spike pattern in response to the injection of a fluctuating current. however, cortical neurons in vivo are modulated by local oscillatory neuronal activity and by top-down inputs. in a cortical circuit, precise spike patterns thus reflect the interaction between internally generated activity and sensory information encoded by input spike trains. we review the evidence for precise and reliable spike timing in the cortex and discuss its computational role.”

Executive functions

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Self-control

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Self-control, an aspect of inhibitory control, is the ability to regulate one’s emotions, thoughts, and behavior in the face of temptations and impulses. As an executive function, self-control is a cognitive process that is necessary for regulating one’s behavior in order to achieve specific goals.

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Baumeister, R. F., Vohs, K. D., & Tice, D. M.. (2007). The strength model of self-control. Current Directions in Psychological Science

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8721.2007.00534.x
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“Self-control is a central function of the self and an important key to success in life. the exertion of self-control appears to depend on a limited resource. just as a muscle gets tired from exertion, acts of self-control cause short-termimpairments (ego depletion) in subsequent self-control, even on unrelated tasks. research has supported the strength model in the domains of eating, drinking, spending, sexuality, intelligent thought, making choices, and interpersonal behavior. motivational or framing factors can temporarily block the deleterious effects of being in a state of ego depletion. blood glucose is an important component of the energy.”

Ajzen, I.. (2002). Perceived behavioral control, self-efficacy, locus of control, and the theory of planned behavior. Journal of Applied Social Psychology

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1111/j.1559-1816.2002.tb00236.x
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“Responses of neurons in inferior temporal cortex during memory-guided visual search. j. neurophysiol. 80: 2918-2940, 1998. a typical scene will contain many different objects, few of which are relevant to behavior at any given moment. thus attentional mechanisms are needed to select relevant objects for visual processing and control over behavior. we examined this role of attention in the inferior temporal cortex of macaque monkeys, using a visual search paradigm. while the monkey maintained fixation, a cue stimulus was presented at the center of gaze, followed by a blank delay period. after the delay, an array of two to five choice stimuli was presented extrafoveally, and the monkey was rewarded for detecting a target stimulus matching the cue. the behavioral response was a saccadic eye movement to the target in one version of the task and a lever release in another. the array was composed of one ‘good’ stimulus (effective in driving the cell when presented alone) and one or more ‘poor’ stimuli (ineffective in driving the cell when presented alone). most cells showed higher delay activity after a good stimulus used as the cue than after a poor stimulus. the baseline activity of cells was also higher preceding a good cue, if the animal expected it to occur. this activity may depend on a top-down bias in favor of cells coding the relevant stimulus. when the choice array was presented, most cells showed suppressive interactions between the stimuli as well as strong attention effects. when the choice array was presented in the contralateral visual field, most cells initially responded the same, regardless of which stimulus was the target. however, within 150-200 ms of array onset, responses were determined by the target stimulus. if the target was the good stimulus, the response to the array became equal to the response to the good stimulus presented alone. if the target was a poor stimulus, the response approached the response to that stimulus presented alone. thus the influence of the nontarget stimulus was eliminated. these effects occurred well in advance of the behavioral response. when the array was positioned with stimuli on opposite sides of the vertical meridian, the contralateral stimulus appeared to dominate the response, and this dominant effect could not be overcome by attention. overall, the results support a ‘biased competition’ model of attention, according to which 1) objects in the visual field compete for representation in the cortex, an…”

Muraven, M.. (2010). Building self-control strength: Practicing self-control leads to improved self-control performance. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1016/j.jesp.2009.12.011
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“Self-control performance may be improved by the regular practice of small acts of self-control. ninety-two adults’ self-control capacity was assessed using the stop signal paradigm before they started practicing self-control and again at the end of 2 weeks. participants who practiced self-control by cutting back on sweets or squeezing a handgrip exhibited significant improvement in stop signal performance relative to those who practiced tasks that did not require self-control. participants who did not practice self-control believed that the tasks should improved self-control, engaged in tasks that were effortful and made self-control salient, but did not actually require self-control. supplemental analyses suggested that only practicing self-control built self-control capacity; the improved outcomes cannot be explained by self-fulfilling prophecies, increased self-efficacy or awareness of self-control. the results may have implications for understanding the development of self-control in both children and adults, as well as clinical implications for treating disorders that involve low self-control. ?? 2009 elsevier inc. all rights reserved.”

Muraven, M., Shmueli, D., & Burkley, E.. (2006). Conserving self-control strength. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1037/0022-3514.91.3.524
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“Individuals may be motivated to limit their use of self-control resources, especially when they have depleted some of that resource. expecting to need self-control strength in the future should heighten the motivation to conserve strength. in 4 experiments, it was found that depleted participants who anticipated exerting self-control in the future performed more poorly in an intervening test of self-control than participants who were not depleted, and more poorly than those who did not expect to exert self-control in the future. conversely, those who conserved strength performed better on tasks that they conserved the strength for as compared with those who did not conserve. the underlying economic or conservation of resource model sheds some light on the operation of self-control strength.”

Muraven, M., & Baumeister, R. F.. (2000). Self-Regulation and Depletion of Limited Resources: Does Self-Control Resemble a Muscle?. Psychological Bulletin

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1037/0033-2909.126.2.247
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“The authors review evidence that self-control may consume a limited resource. exerting self-control may consume self-control strength, reducing the amount of strength available for subsequent self-control efforts. coping with stress, regulating negative affect, and resisting temptations require self-control, and after such self-control efforts, subsequent attempts at self-control are more likely to fail. continuous self-control efforts, such as vigilance, also degrade over time. these decrements in self-control are probably not due to negative moods or learned helplessness produced by the initial self-control attempt. these decrements appear to be specific to behaviors that involve self-control; behaviors that do not require self-control neither consume nor require self-control strength. it is concluded that the executive component of the self–in particular, inhibition–relies on a limited, consumable resource.”

McCullough, M. E., & Willoughby, B. L. B.. (2009). Religion, self-regulation, and self-control: Associations, explanations, and implications.. Psychological Bulletin

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1037/a0014213
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“Many of the links of religiousness with health, well-being, and social behavior may be due to religion’s influences on self-control or self-regulation. using carver and scheier’s (1998) theory of self-regulation as a framework for organizing the empirical research, the authors review evidence relevant to 6 propositions: (a) that religion can promote self-control; (b) that religion influences how goals are selected, pursued, and organized; (c) that religion facilitates self-monitoring; (d) that religion fosters the development of self-regulatory strength; (e) that religion prescribes and fosters proficiency in a suite of self-regulatory behaviors; and (f) that some of religion’s influences on health, well-being, and social behavior may result from religion’s influences on self-control and self-regulation. the authors conclude with suggestions for future research.”

Denson, T. F., DeWall, C. N., & Finkel, E. J.. (2012). Self-control and aggression. Current Directions in Psychological Science

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1177/0963721411429451
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“Psychological science has largely neglected the role of self-control in studying aggression. fortunately, the past half decade has witnessed a surge of research on this long-neglected topic, including two self-control-informed integrative theories of aggression. robust experimental evidence demonstrates that self-control failures frequently predict aggression and, conversely, that bolstering self-control decreases aggression. research on rumination also suggests that maladaptive anger regulation decreases self-control and, consequently, increases aggression. advances from social-affective and cognitive neuroscience suggest that the neural mechanisms involved in emotion regulation and cognitive control mediate the relationship between deficient self-control and aggression.”

Ariely, D., & Wertenbroch, K.. (2002). Procrastination, deadlines, and performance: Self-control by precommitment. Psychological Science

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1111/1467-9280.00441
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“Procrastination is all too familiar to most people. people delay writing up their research (so we hear!), repeatedly declare they will start their diets tomorrow, or postpone until next week doing odd jobs around the house. yet people also sometimes attempt to control their procrastination by setting deadlines for themselves. in this article, we pose three questions: (a) are people willing to self-impose meaningful (i.e., costly) deadlines to overcome procrastination? (b) are self-imposed deadlines effective in improving task performance? (c) when self-imposing deadlines, do people set them optimally, for maximum performance enhancement? a set of studies examined these issues experimentally, showing that the answer is ‘yes’ to the first two questions, and ‘no’ to the third. people have self-control problems, they recognize them, and they try to control them by self-imposing costly deadlines. these deadlines help people control procrastination, hit they are not as effective as some externally imposed deadlines in improving task performance.”

Velliste, M., Perel, S., Spalding, M. C., Whitford, A. S., & Schwartz, A. B.. (2008). Cortical control of a prosthetic arm for self-feeding. Nature

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1038/nature06996
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Duckworth, A. L.. (2011). The significance of self-control. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1019725108
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“Self-control is among the most widely studied constructs in the social sciences. for instance, more than 3% of peer-reviewed psychology articles in the past year were referenced by the key word ‘self-control’ or closely related terms. the report by moffitt et al. (1) in pnas substantially advances this growing literature by demonstrating robust predictive associations between childhood self-control and a wide range of consequential life outcomes in a large, nationally representative sample of new zealanders.”

Moffitt, T. E., Arseneault, L., Belsky, D., Dickson, N., Hancox, R. J., Harrington, H., … Caspi, A.. (2011). A gradient of childhood self-control predicts health, wealth, and public safety. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1010076108
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“Policy-makers are considering large-scale programs aimed at self-control to improve citizens’ health and wealth and reduce crime. experimental and economic studies suggest such programs could reap benefits. yet, is self-control important for the health, wealth, and public safety of the population? following a cohort of 1,000 children from birth to the age of 32 y, we show that childhood self-control predicts physical health, substance dependence, personal finances, and criminal offending outcomes, following a gradient of self-control. effects of children’s self-control could be disentangled from their intelligence and social class as well as from mistakes they made as adolescents. in another cohort of 500 sibling-pairs, the sibling with lower self-control had poorer outcomes, despite shared family background. interventions addressing self-control might reduce a panoply of societal costs, save taxpayers money, and promote prosperity.”

Duckworth, A. L., Gendler, T. S., & Gross, J. J.. (2016). Situational Strategies for Self-Control. Perspectives on Psychological Science

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1177/1745691615623247
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“Exercising self-control is often difficult, whether declining a drink in order to drive home safely, passing on the chocolate cake to stay on a diet, or ignoring text messages to finish reading an important paper. but enacting self-control is not always difficult, particularly when it takes the form of proactively choosing or changing situations in ways that weaken undesirable impulses or potentiate desirable ones. examples of situational self-control include the partygoer who chooses a seat far from where drinks are being poured, the dieter who asks the waiter not to bring around the dessert cart, and the student who goes to the library without a cell phone. using the process model of self-control, we argue that the full range of self-control strategies can be organized by considering the timeline of the developing tempting impulse. because impulses tend to grow stronger over time, situational self-control strategies–which can nip a tempting impulse in the bud–may be especially effective in preventing undesirable action. ironically, we may underappreciate situational self-control for the same reason it is so effective–namely, that by manipulating our circumstances to advantage, we are often able to minimize the in-the-moment experience of intrapsychic struggle typically associated with exercising self-control.”

Muraven, M., Tice, D. M., & Baumeister, R. F.. (1998). Self-Control as Limited Resource: Regulatory Depletion Patterns. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1037/0022-3514.74.3.774
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“If self-regulation conforms to an energy or strength model, then self-control should be impaired by prior exertion. in study 1, trying to regulate one’s emotional response to an upsetting movie was followed by a decrease in physical stamina. in study 2, suppressing forbidden thoughts led to a subsequent tendency to give up quickly on unsolvable anagrams. in study 3, suppressing thoughts impaired subsequent efforts to control the expression of amusement and enjoyment. in study 4, autobiographical accounts of successful versus failed emotional control linked prior regulatory demands and fatigue to self-regulatory failure. a strength model of self-regulation fits the data better than activation, priming, skill, or constant capacity models of self-regulation.”

Barker, J. R.. (1993). Tightening the Iron Cage: Concertive Control in Self-Managing Teams. Administrative Science Quarterly

Plain numerical DOI: 10.2307/2393374
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“In this paper, i provide an ethnographic account of how annorganization’s control system evolved in response to a managerial changenfrom hierarchical, bureaucratic control to concertive control in thenform of self-managing teams. the study investigates how thenorganization’s members developed a system of value-based normative rulesnthat controlled their actions more powerfully and completely than thenformer system. i describe the organization and its members and provide andetailed account of the dynamics that emerged as concertive controlnbecame manifest through the members’ interactions. this account depictsnhow concertive control evolved from the value consensus of the company’snteam workers to a system of normative rules that became increasinglynrationalized. contrary to some proponents of such systems, concertivencontrol did not free these workers from weber’s iron cage of rationalncontrol. instead, the concertive system, as it became manifest in thisncase, appeared to draw the iron cage tighter and to constrain thenorganization’s members more powerfully.”

Gailliot, M. T., Baumeister, R. F., Dewall, C. N., Maner, J. K., Plant, E. A., Tice, D. M., … Schmeichel, B. J.. (2007). Self-control relies on glucose as a limited energy source: Willpower is more than a metaphor. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1037/0022-3514.92.2.325
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“The present work suggests that self-control relies on glucose as a limited energy source. laboratory tests of self-control (i.e., the stroop task, thought suppression, emotion regulation, attention control) and of social behaviors (i.e., helping behavior, coping with thoughts of death, stifling prejudice during an interracial interaction) showed that (a) acts of self-control reduced blood glucose levels, (b) low levels of blood glucose after an initial self-control task predicted poor performance on a subsequent self-control task, and (c) initial acts of self-control impaired performance on subsequent self-control tasks, but consuming a glucose drink eliminated these impairments. self-control requires a certain amount of glucose to operate unimpaired. a single act of self-control causes glucose to drop below optimal levels, thereby impairing subsequent attempts at self-control.”

Duckworth, A. L., & Steinberg, L.. (2015). Unpacking self-control. Child Development Perspectives

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1111/cdep.12107
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“Self-controlled behavior refers to actions aligned with valued, longer-term goals in the face of conflicting impulses to seek immediate gratification. in this article, we argue that the psychological processes that contribute to self-controlled behavior can be grouped into two functionally distinct categories: volitional processes facilitate self-controlled behavior and include executive functions as well as learned metacognitive strategies like planning, attention deployment, and psychological distancing. in contrast, impulsigenic processes undermine self-controlled behavior and include reward sensitivity, sensation seeking, and domain-specific cravings. a disproportionate amount of research has addressed the former at the expense of understanding individual and developmental differences in the latter. this imbalance is now being rectified. distinguishing between self-controlled behavior and its antecedent psychological processes helps illuminate normative developmental changes in self-control and points to directions for measurement and intervention.”

Casey, B. J., & Caudle, K.. (2013). The Teenage Brain: Self Control. Current Directions in Psychological Science

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1177/0963721413480170
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“Adolescence refers to the transition from childhood to adulthood that begins with the onset of puberty and ends with successful independence from the parent. a paradox for human adolescence is why, during a time when the individual is probably faster, stronger, of higher reasoning capacity, and more resistant to disease, there is such an increase in mortality relative to childhood. this is due not to disease but, rather, to preventable forms of death (accidental fatalities, suicide, and homicide) associated with adolescents putting themselves in harm’s way, in part because of diminished self-control–the ability to suppress inappropriate emotions, desires, and actions. this article highlights how self-control varies as a function of age, context, and the individual and delineates its neurobiological basis.”

Friese, M., Messner, C., & Schaffner, Y.. (2012). Mindfulness meditation counteracts self-control depletion. Consciousness and Cognition

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2012.01.008
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“Mindfulness meditation describes a set of different mental techniques to train attention and awareness. trait mindfulness and extended mindfulness interventions can benefit self-control. the present study investigated the short-term consequences of mindfulness meditation under conditions of limited self-control resources. specifically, we hypothesized that a brief period of mindfulness meditation would counteract the deleterious effect that the exertion of self-control has on subsequent self-control performance. participants who had been depleted of self-control resources by an emotion suppression task showed decrements in self-control performance as compared to participants who had not suppressed emotions. however, participants who had meditated after emotion suppression performed equally well on the subsequent self-control task as participants who had not exerted self-control previously. this finding suggests that a brief period of mindfulness meditation may serve as a quick and efficient strategy to foster self-control under conditions of low resources. © 2012 elsevier inc.”

de Ridder, D. T. D., Lensvelt-Mulders, G., Finkenauer, C., Stok, F. M., & Baumeister, R. F.. (2012). Taking stock of self-control: A meta-analysis of how trait self-control relates to a wide range of behaviors. Personality and Social Psychology Review

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1177/1088868311418749
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“Given assertions of the theoretical, empirical, and practical importance of self-control, this meta-analytic study sought to review evidence concerning the relationship between dispositional self-control and behavior. the authors provide a brief overview over prominent theories of self-control, identifying implicit assumptions surrounding the effects of self-control that warrant empirical testing. they report the results of a meta-analysis of 102 studies (total n = 32,648) investigating the behavioral effects of self-control using the self-control scale, the barratt impulsiveness scale, and the low self-control scale. a small to medium positive effect of self-control on behavior was found for the three scales. only the self-control scale allowed for a fine-grained analysis of conceptual moderators of the self-control behavior relation. specifically, self-control (measured by the self-control scale) related similarly to the performance of desired behaviors and the inhibition of undesired behaviors, but its effects varied dramatically across life domains (e.g., achievement, adjustment). in addition, the associations between self-control and behavior were significantly stronger for automatic (as compared to controlled) behavior and for imagined (as compared to actual) behavior.”

Ostracism

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Ostracism (Greek: ὀστρακισμός, ostrakismos) was a procedure under the Athenian democracy in which any citizen could be expelled from the city-state of Athens for ten years. While some instances clearly expressed popular anger at the citizen, ostracism was often used preemptively. It was used as a way of neutralizing someone thought to be a threat to the state or potential tyrant. It has been called an “honourable exile” by scholar P. J. Rhodes.^[1] The word “ostracism” continues to be used for various cases of social shunning.

Whitehead, D.. (2003). Ostracism. The Classical Review

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1093/cr/53.2.400
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“In this review, i examine the social psychological research on os- tracism, social exclusion, and rejection. being ignored, excluded, and/or rejected signals a threat for which reflexive detection in the form of pain and distress is adaptive for survival. brief ostracism episodes result in sadness and anger and threaten fundamental needs. individuals then act to fortify or replenish their thwarted need or needs. behavioral consequences appear to be split into two gen- eral categories: attempts to fortify relational needs (belonging, self- esteem, shared understanding, and trust), which lead generally to prosocial thoughts and behaviors, or attempts to fortify efficacy/ existence needs of control and recognition that may be dealt with most efficiently through antisocial thoughts and behaviors. avail- able research on chronic exposure to ostracism appears to deplete coping resources, resulting in depression and helplessness.”

Williams, K. D., & Nida, S. A.. (2011). Ostracism: Consequences and coping. Current Directions in Psychological Science

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1177/0963721411402480
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“Ostracism means being ignored and excluded by one or more others. despite the absence of verbal derogation and physical assault, ostracism is painful: it threatens psychological needs (belonging, self-esteem, control, and meaningful existence); and it unleashes a variety of physiological, affective, cognitive, and behavioral responses. here we review the empirical literature on ostracism within the framework of the temporal need-threat model.”

Robinson, S. L., O’Reilly, J., & Wang, W.. (2013). Invisible at Work: An Integrated Model of Workplace Ostracism. Journal of Management

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1177/0149206312466141
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“This article offers a review, integration, and extension of the literature relevant to ostracism in organizations. we first seek to add conceptual clarity to ostracism, by reviewing existing definitions and developing a cohesive one, identifying the key features of workplace ostracism, and distinguishing it from existing organizational constructs. next, we develop a broad model of ostracism in organizations. this model serves to integrate the relevant findings related to ostracism in organizations and to extend our theorizing about it. we take a decidedly organizational focus, proposing organizationally relevant factors that may cause different types of ostracism, moderate the experience of ostracism at work, and moderate the reactions of targets. we hope this article will provide a good foundation for organizational scholars interested in studying ostracism by providing a framework of prior literature and directions for future study.”

Zadro, L., Williams, K. D., & Richardson, R.. (2004). How low can you go? Ostracism by a computer is sufficient to lower self-reported levels of belonging, control, self-esteem, and meaningful existence. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1016/j.jesp.2003.11.006
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“Previous research has demonstrated self-reports of lower levels of four fundamental needs as a result of short periods of face-to-face ostracism, as well as short periods of internet ostracism (cyberball), even when the ostracizing others are unseen, unknown, and not-to-be met. in an attempt to reduce the ostracism experience to a level that would no longer be aversive, we (in study 1) convinced participants that they were playing cyberball against a computer, yet still found comparable negative impact compared to when the participants thought they were being ostracized by real others. in study 2, we took this a step further, and additionally manipulated whether the participants were told the computer or humans were scripted (or told) what to do in the game. once again, even after removing all remnants of sinister attributions, ostracism was similarly aversive. we interpret these results as strong evidence for a very primitive and automatic adaptive sensitivity to even the slightest hint of social exclusion. © 2004 elsevier inc.all rights reserved.”

Williams, K. D.. (2009). Chapter 6 Ostracism. A Temporal Need-Threat Model. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1016/S0065-2601(08)00406-1
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“The phenomenon of ostracism has received considerable empirical attention in the last 15 years, in part because of a revitalized interest in the importance of belonging for human social behavior. i present a temporal model that describes and predicts processes and responses at three stages of reactions to ostracism: (a) reflexive, (b) reflective, and (c) resignation. the reflexive pain response triggers threats to four fundamental needs and directs the individual’s attention to reflect on the meaning and importance of the ostracism episode, leading to coping responses that serve to fortify the threatened need(s). persistent exposure to ostracism over time depletes the resources necessary to motivate the individual to fortify threatened needs, thus leading eventually to resignation, alienation, helplessness, and depression. i conclude with a call for more research, especially on the effects of ostracism on groups, and on possible buffering mechanisms that reduce the long-term negative consequences of ostracism. © 2009 elsevier inc. all rights reserved.”

Sebastian, C., Viding, E., Williams, K. D., & Blakemore, S. J.. (2010). Social brain development and the affective consequences of ostracism in adolescence. Brain and Cognition

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1016/j.bandc.2009.06.008
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“Recent structural and functional imaging studies have provided evidence for continued development of brain regions involved in social cognition during adolescence. in this paper, we review this rapidly expanding area of neuroscience and describe models of neurocognitive development that have emerged recently. one implication of these models is that neural development underlies commonly observed adolescent phenomena such as susceptibility to peer influence and sensitivity to peer rejection. experimental behavioural evidence of rejection sensitivity in adolescence is currently sparse. here, we describe a study that directly compared the affective consequences of an experimental ostracism manipulation (cyberball) in female adolescents and adults. the ostracism condition led to significantly greater affective consequences in the adolescents compared with adults. this suggests that the ability to regulate distress resulting from ostracism continues to develop between adolescence and adulthood. the results are discussed in the context of models of neurocognitive development. © 2009 elsevier inc. all rights reserved.”

Ferris, D. L., Brown, D. J., Berry, J. W., & Lian, H.. (2008). The Development and Validation of the Workplace Ostracism Scale. Journal of Applied Psychology

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1037/a0012743
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“This article outlines the development of a 10-item measure of workplace ostracism. using 6 samples (including multisource and multiwave data), the authors developed a reliable scale with a unidimensional factor structure that replicated across 4 separate samples. the scale possessed both convergent and discriminant validity, and criterion-related validity was demonstrated through the scale’s relation with basic needs, well-being, job attitudes, job performance, and withdrawal. overall, the present study suggests that the workplace ostracism scale is a reliable and valid measure and that the workplace ostracism construct has important implications for both individuals and organizations.”

Williams, K. D., Cheung, C. K. T., & Choi, W.. (2000). Cyberostracism: Effects of being ignored over the internet. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1037/0022-3514.79.5.748
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“Ostracism is such a widely used and powerful tactic that the authors tested whether people would be affected by it even under remote and artificial circumstances. in study 1, 1,486 participants from 62 countries accessed the authors’ on-line experiment on the internet. they were asked to use mental visualization while playing a virtual tossing game with two others (who were actually computer generated and controlled). despite the minimal nature of their experience, the more participants were ostracized, the more they reported feeling bad, having less control, and losing a sense of belonging. in study 2, ostracized participants were more likely to conform on a subsequent task. the results are discussed in terms of supporting k. d. williams’s (1997) need threat theory of ostracism.”

Zadro, L., Boland, C., & Richardson, R.. (2006). How long does it last? The persistence of the effects of ostracism in the socially anxious. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1016/j.jesp.2005.10.007
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“Previous research has demonstrated that ostracism (to be excluded and ignored) leads to detrimental effects on four human needs (belonging, control, self-esteem, and meaningful existence; williams, 2001). these detrimental effects, however, may be more pronounced, or more prolonged, in particular individuals (see williams & zadro, 2001). in the present study, we examined the persistence of the detrimental effects of ostracism in high and low socially anxious participants. the results show that being ostracized affected both groups at the immediate test, and that the high socially anxious participants recovered their primary needs more slowly. the results also show that being ostracized affects personality/attractiveness ratings of sources of ostracism, and increases the likelihood of interpreting ambiguous situations in a threatening manner. overall, the study illustrates that a comprehensive understanding of ostracism, and the effects of moderating factors such as social anxiety, requires assessing the effects across time rather than only focusing on immediate reactions. © 2005 elsevier inc. all rights reserved.”

Hartgerink, C. H. J., Van Beest, I., Wicherts, J. M., & Williams, K. D.. (2015). The ordinal effects of ostracism: A meta-analysis of 120 cyberball studies. PLoS ONE

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0127002
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“We examined 120 cyberball studies (n = 11,869) to determine the effect size of ostracism and conditions under which the effect may be reversed, eliminated, or small. our analyses showed that (1) the average ostracism effect is large (d > |1.4|) and (2) generalizes across structural aspects (number of players, ostracism duration, number of tosses, type of needs scale), sampling aspects (gender, age, country), and types of dependent measure (interpersonal, intrapersonal, fundamental needs). further, we test williams’s (2009) proposition that the immediate impact of ostracism is resistant to moderation, but that moderation is more likely to be observed in delayed measures. our findings suggest that (3) both first and last measures are susceptible to moderation and (4) time passed since being ostracized does not predict effect sizes of the last measure. thus, support for this proposition is tenuous and we suggest modifications to the temporal need-threat model of ostracism.”

Wesselmann, E. D., Bagg, D., & Williams, K. D.. (2009). “I Feel Your Pain”: The effects of observing ostracism on the ostracism detection system. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1016/j.jesp.2009.08.003
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“Ostracism-being ignored and excluded-is a painful experience with negative psychological consequences. social psychologists (kerr & levine, 2008; spoor & williams, 2007) argue humans have an evolved system for automatically detecting cues of ostracism and exclusion. detection elicits pain and threats to fundamental needs. we hypothesize simply observing ostracism will cause negative affect and need threat in the observer. participants observed a three-player cyberball game; a target player was included or ostracized, and participants were either instructed to take the perspective of this player or given no such instructions. participants observing ostracism reported negative affect and need threat. our results indicate that ostracism detection is even more powerful than previously suggested, because vicariously, we feel the pain of others’ ostracism as our own. © 2009 elsevier inc. all rights reserved.”

Warburton, W. A., Williams, K. D., & Cairns, D. R.. (2006). When ostracism leads to aggression: The moderating effects of control deprivation. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1016/j.jesp.2005.03.005
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“We hypothesized that increasing or decreasing levels of control in an ostracized individual could moderate aggressive responding to ostracism. participants were either ostracized or included in a spontaneous game of toss, and then exposed to a series of blasts of aversive noise, the onsets over which they had either control or no control. aggression was defined as the amount of hot sauce participants allocated to a stranger, knowing the stranger did not like hot foods, but would have to consume the entire sample. ostracized participants without control allocated more than four times as much sauce as any other group; ostracized participants who experienced restored control were no more aggressive than either of the groups who were included. aggressive responding to ostracism may depend on the degree to which control needs are threatened in the target, and is discussed in terms of williams’s (2001) needs threat model of ostracism. © 2005 elsevier inc. all rights reserved.”

Wolf, W., Levordashka, A., Ruff, J. R., Kraaijeveld, S., Lueckmann, J. M., & Williams, K. D.. (2015). Ostracism Online: A social media ostracism paradigm. Behavior Research Methods

Plain numerical DOI: 10.3758/s13428-014-0475-x
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“We describe ostracism online, a novel, social media-based ostracism paradigm designed to (1) keep social interaction experimentally controlled, (2) provide researchers with the flexibility to manipulate the properties of the social situation to fit their research purposes, (3) be suitable for online data collection, (4) be convenient for studying subsequent within-group behavior, and (5) be ecologically valid. after collecting data online, we compared the ostracism online paradigm with the cyberball paradigm (williams & jarvis behavior research methods, 38, 174-180, 2006) on need-threat and mood questionnaire scores (van beest & williams journal of personality and social psychology 91, 918-928, 2006). we also examined whether ostracized targets of either paradigm would be more likely to conform to their group members than if they had been included. using a bayesian analysis of variance to examine the individual effects of the different paradigms and to compare these effects across paradigms, we found analogous effects on need-threat and mood. perhaps because we examined conformity to the ostracizers (rather than neutral sources), neither paradigm showed effects of ostracism on conformity. we conclude that ostracism online is a cost-effective, easy to use, and ecologically valid research tool for studying the psychological and behavioral effects of ostracism.”

Hawkley, L. C., Williams, K. D., & Cacioppo, J. T.. (2011). Responses to ostracism across adulthood. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsq045
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“Ostracism is ubiquitous across the lifespan. from social exclusion on the playground, to romantic rejection, to workplace expulsion, to social disregard for the aged, ostracism threatens a fundamental human need to belong that reflexively elicits social pain and sadness. older adults may be particularly vulnerable to ostracism because of loss of network members and meaningful societal roles. on the other hand, socioemotional selectivity theory suggests that older adults may be less impacted by ostracism because of an age-related positivity bias. we examined these hypotheses in two independent studies, and tested mechanisms that may account for age differences in the affective experience of ostracism. a study of 18- to 86-year-old participants in the time-sharing experiments for the social sciences program showed an age-related decrease in the impact of ostracism on needs satisfaction and negative affectivity. a study of 53- to 71-year-old participants in the chicago health, aging, and social relations study (chasrs) showed that ostracism diminished positive affectivity in younger (<60 years) but not older adults. age group differences in response to ostracism were consistent with the positivity bias hypothesis, were partly explained by age differences in the impact of physical pain, but were not explained by autonomic nervous system activity, computer experience, or intimate social loss or stressful life experiences.”

Carter-Sowell, A. R., Chen, Z., & Williams, K. D.. (2008). Ostracism increases social susceptibility. Social Influence

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1080/15534510802204868
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“Ostracism, the act of ignoring and excluding, is a universally applied tactic of social control. individuals who detect ostracism often change their behaviors to be readmitted into the group, even if it means becoming excessively socially susceptible to influence. we tested whether ostracized individuals are more socially susceptible to a subsequent influence attempt. in this study, 65 undergraduates were randomly assigned to a 2 (inclusion or ostracism)?3 (compliance tactic: foot?in?the door, target request only, door?in?the?face) between?participants design. the participants played cyberball and were either included or ostracized, and then they were approached with a request to donate money. despite no differences between the three tactics, ostracism increased compliance across all request types. our discussion focuses on the implications for ostracism?induced social susceptibility. this material is based on work supported by the national science foundation under grant no. 0519209 awarded to the third author. we would like to thank janice kelly for her comments, and jessica bartman, katherine lang, patrick o’brien, vista ritchie, and kirsten zeiser for their excellent acting skills as confederates. ostracism, the act of ignoring and excluding, is a universally applied tactic of social control. individuals who detect ostracism often change their behaviors to be readmitted into the group, even if it means becoming excessively socially susceptible to influence. we tested whether ostracized individuals are more socially susceptible to a subsequent influence attempt. in this study, 65 undergraduates were randomly assigned to a 2 (inclusion or ostracism)?3 (compliance tactic: foot?in?the door, target request only, door?in?the?face) between?participants design. the participants played cyberball and were either included or ostracized, and then they were approached with a request to donate money. despite no differences between the three tactics, ostracism increased compliance across all request types. our discussion focuses on the implications for ostracism?induced social susceptibility. this material is based on work supported by the national science foundation under grant no.0519209 awarded to the third author. we would like to thank janice kelly for her comments, and jessica bartman, katherine lang, patrick o’brien, vista ritchie, and kirsten zeiser for their excellent acting skills as confederates.”

Nezlek, J. B., Wesselmann, E. D., Wheeler, L., & Williams, K. D.. (2012). Ostracism in everyday life. Group Dynamics

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1037/a0028029
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“Ostracism is a negative interpersonal experience that has been studied primarily in laboratory settings in which people have been ostracized by strangers and the motives for being ostracized have been ambiguous. this study extended this research by investigating ostracism as it occurs in daily life, focusing on people’s reflective reactions to being ostracized in their daily lives and on the nature of the ostracism they experience. for 2 weeks, 40 participants (adults residing in the community) described what happened each time they felt ostracized using a diary method modeled after the rochester interaction record (rir; wheeler & nezlek, 1977). the questions in the diary were based on williams’s (2007) need-threat model of ostracism. most ostracism episodes were from persons of equal status, and participants reported lower levels of belonging, control, self-esteem, and meaningful existence after being ostracized. participants’ needs were threatened more when friends or close others had ostracized them than when they had been ostracized by acquaintance and strangers, and they reacted more negatively to punitive, defensive, and oblivious ostracism as opposed to role based or ambiguous ostracism. this research suggests that the reflective effects of ostracism can vary as a function of who ostracizes someone and why people feel they have been ostracized.”

Balliet, D., & Ferris, D. L.. (2013). Ostracism and prosocial behavior: A social dilemma perspective. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1016/j.obhdp.2012.04.004
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“Prior research has yielded mixed findings regarding the relation of ostracism to prosocial behavior, with studies indicating ostracism leads people to become less prosocial, more prosocial, or that prosocial behavior is unaffected by workplace ostracism. by conceptualizing prosocial behavior at work as a social dilemma, we hypothesized that whether or not individuals reduce prosocial behaviors following ostracism can be understood by how individuals manage the conflict between the immediate temptation to treat others poorly and the long-term benefits of not giving into such temptations. across three studies – a scenario (study 1), experimental (study 2), and field study on employed adults (study 3) – we find support for the hypothesis that individuals who are less (versus more) oriented towards future outcomes engage in less prosocial behaviors with others who have ostracized them during prior interactions. we discuss both the practical and theoretical implications of these findings. © 2012 elsevier inc.”

Goodwin, S. A., Williams, K. D., & Carter-Sowell, A. R.. (2010). The psychological sting of stigma: The costs of attributing ostracism to racism. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1016/j.jesp.2010.02.002
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“Laboratory-based research with university students demonstrates that ostracism is reflexively painful, depletes fundamental needs, and is highly resistant to variations in situational context or individual differences. employing a representative sample of 614 us white and african american adults, we sought to (1) demonstrate the utility of using cyberball on a broader non-college sample, and examine (2) whether attributing ostracism to racial prejudice mediates recovery. participants in an internet version of cyberball were either included or ostracized by two other players (both white or both black), and reported their level of distress before and after making attributions for treatment during the game. overall, reflexive needs were threatened by ostracism, but more so for blacks. whites attributed ostracism to racism when the other players were black. blacks attributed ostracism to racism when the other players were white or black. within a few minutes, participants reported feeling less distress, but attributing ostracism to racial prejudice impeded their recovery. © 2010 elsevier inc.”

Williams, K. D., & Sommer, K. L.. (1997). Social ostracism by coworkers: Does rejection lead to loafing or compensation?. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1177/0146167297237003
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“A new theoretical model and research paradigm are introduced to investigate the phenomenon of social ostracism-being ignored by others who are in one’s presence. the authors examined the effects of social ostracism on individuals’ subsequent contributions to a group task. social loafing optically occurs on collective tasks. however; to regain their sense of belonging to the group, the authors expected ostracized individuals to socially compensate-to work harder collectively than coactively. participants were asked to generate as many uses as they could for an object, either coactively or collectively with two others who had either ostracized or included them in an earlier ball-tossing exchange. ostracized females socially compensated, whereas nonostracized females neither loafed nor compensated. ostracized and nonostracized males socially loafed. based on these data and the accompanying attributional and nonverbal analyses, the authors surmised that males and females interpret and respond to social ostracism differently.”

Chomsky & Herman propaganda model

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The propaganda model is a conceptual model in political economy advanced by Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky to explain how propaganda and systemic biases function in corporate mass media. The model seeks to explain how populations are manipulated and how consent for economic, social, and political policies is “manufactured” in the public mind due to this propaganda. The theory posits that the way in which corporate media is structured (e.g. through advertising, concentration of media ownership, government sourcing) creates an inherent conflict of interest that acts as propaganda for undemocratic forces.

https://archive.org/download/manufacturing_consent/Noam_Chomsky-Manufacturing_Consent_512kb.mp4

The book begins with the following quotation by John Milton:

They who have put out the people’s eyes, reproach them of their blindness.
~ John Milton

First presented in their 1988 book Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media, the propaganda model views private media as businesses interested in the sale of a product—readers and audiences—to other businesses (advertisers) rather than that of quality news to the public. Describing the media’s “societal purpose”, Chomsky writes, “… the study of institutions and how they function must be scrupulously ignored, apart from fringe elements or a relatively obscure scholarly literature”.^[1] The theory postulates five general classes of “filters” that determine the type of news that is presented in news media. These five classes are: Ownership of the medium, Medium’s funding sources, Sourcing, Flak, and Anti-communism or “fear ideology”.

The first three are generally regarded by the authors as being the most important. In versions published after the 9/11 attacks on the United States in 2001, Chomsky and Herman updated the fifth prong to instead refer to the “War on Terror” and “counter-terrorism”, although they state that it operates in much the same manner.

Although the model was based mainly on the characterization of United States media, Chomsky and Herman believe the theory is equally applicable to any country that shares the basic economic structure and organizing principles that the model postulates as the cause of media biases.

Further References

Herman, E. S.. (2000). The Propaganda Model: a retrospective. Journalism Studies

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1080/146167000361195
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“In manufacturing consent: the political economy of the mass media, noam chomsky and i put forward a ‘propaganda model’ as a framework for analysing and understanding how the mainstream u.s. media work and why they perform as they do (herman and chomsky 1988). we had long been impressed with the regularity with which the media operate on the basis of a set of ideological prem-ises, depend heavily and uncritically on elite information sources, and participate in propaganda campaigns helpful to elite interests. in trying to explain why they do this we looked to structural factors as the only possible root of the systematic patterns of behavior and performance. because the propaganda model challenges basic premises and suggests that the media serve antidemocratic ends, it is commonly excluded from mainstream de-bates on media bias. such debates typically include conservatives, who criticize the media for excessive liberalism and an adversarial stance toward government and business, and centrists and liberals, who deny the charge of adversarialism and contend that the media behave fairly and responsibly. the exclusion of the propaganda model perspective is noteworthy, for one reason, because that per-spective is consistent with long standing and widely held elite views that ‘the masses are notoriously short-sighted’ (bailey 1948: 13) and are ‘often poor judges of their own interests’ (lasswell 1933: 527), so that ‘our statesmen must deceive them’ (bailey 1948: 13); and they ‘can be managed only by a specialized class whose personal interests reach beyond the locality’ (walter lippmann 1921: 310). in lippmann’s view, the ‘manufacture of consent’ by an elite class had already be-come ‘a self-conscious art and a regular organ of popular government’ by the 1920s (lippman 1921: 248). clearly the manufacture of consent by a ‘specialized class’ that can override the short-sighted perspectives of the masses must entail media control by that class. political scientist thomas ferguson contends that the major media, ’controlled by large profit-maximizing investors do not encourage the dissemination of news and”

Herman, Edward S., & Chomsky, N.. (2002). A Propaganda Model. Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of The Mass Media

Plain numerical DOI: 10.2307/2074220
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“THIS book centers in what we call a ‘propaga:n’da model,’ an analytical framework that attempts to explain the performance of the u.s. media in terms of the basic institutional structures and relationships within which they operate. it is our view that, among their other functions, the media serve, and propagandize on behalf of, the powerful societal interests that control and finance them. the representatives of these interests have important agendas and principles that they want to advance, and they are well positioned to shape and constrain media policy. this is normally not accomplished by crude intervention, but by the selection of right-thinking personnel and by the editors’ and working journalists’ internalization of priorities and definitions of newsworthiness that conform to the institution’s policy.”

Chomsky, N.. (2002). An Exchange on Manufacturing Consent. I Can

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Herman, E.. (1996). The Propaganda Model Revisited. Monthly Review

Plain numerical DOI: 10.14452/MR-069-08-2018-01_4
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“The writer discusses the ‘propaganda model’ put forward by he and noam chomsky (1988) as a framework for analyzing and understanding how the mainstream american media work and why they perform as they do. he describes the model, addresses some of the criticisms that have been leveled against it, and discusses how it holds up almost a decade after its publication. in addition, he outlines some examples of how the model can help explain the nature of media coverage of important political topics in the 1990s. he points out that he and chomsky never claimed that the model explains everything or that it reveals media omnipotence and complete effectiveness in manufacturing consent. he states that it should be viewed as a model of media behavior and performance, not media effects. he suggests that the model remains a very workable framework for analyzing and understanding the mainstream media and that it often surpasses expectations of media subservience to government propaganda.”

Klaehn, J.. (2002). A critical review and assessment of Herman and Chomsky’s “propaganda model”. European Journal of Communication

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1177/0267323102017002691
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“Mass media play an especially important role in democratic societies. they are presupposed to act as intermediary vehicles that reflect public opinion, respond to public concerns and make the electorate cognizant of state policies, important events and viewpoints. the fundamental principles of democracy depend upon the notion of a reasonably informed electorate. the ‘propaganda model’ of media operations laid out and applied by edward herman and noam chomsky in manufacturing consent: the political economy of the mass media postulates that elite media interlock with other institutional sectors in ownership, management and social circles, effectively circumscribing their ability to remain analytically detached from other dominant institutional sectors. the model argues that the net result of this is self-censorship without any significant coercion. media, according to this framework, do not have to be controlled nor does their behaviour have to be patterned, as it is assumed that they are integral actors in class warfare, fully integrated into the institutional framework of society, and act in unison with other ideological sectors, i.e. the academy, to establish, enforce, reinforce and ‘police’ corporate hegemony. it is not a surprise, then, given the interrelations of the state and corporate capitalism and the ‘ideological network’, that the propaganda model has been dismissed as a ‘conspiracy theory’ and condemned for its ‘overly deterministic’ view of media behaviour. it is generally excluded from scholarly debates on patterns of media behaviour. this article provides a critical assessment and review of herman and chomsky’s propaganda model and seeks to encourage scholarly debate regarding the relationship between corporate power and ideology. highly descriptive in nature, the article is concerned with the question of whether media can be seen to play a hegemonic role in society oriented towards legitimization, political accommodation and ideological management.”

Herman, E.. (2000). The Propaganda Model. Journalism Studies

Plain numerical DOI: 10.4135/9781412972024.n2025
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“First presented in their 1988 book manufacturing consent: the political economy of the mass media, the propaganda model views private media as businesses interested in the sale of a product—readers and audiences—to other businesses (advertisers) rather than that of quality news to the public. describing the media’s ‘societal purpose’, chomsky writes, ‘… the study of institutions and how they function must be scrupulously ignored, apart from fringe elements or a relatively obscure scholarly literature’.[1] the theory postulates five general classes of ‘filters’ that determine the type of news that is presented in news media. these five classes are: ownership of the medium, medium’s funding sources, sourcing, flak, anti- communism and fear ideology. the first three are generally regarded by the authors as being the most important. in versions published after the 9/11 attacks on the united states in 2001, chomsky and herman updated the fifth prong to instead refer to the ‘war on terror’ and ‘counter-terrorism’, although they state that it operates in much the same manner. although the model was based mainly on the characterization of united states media, chomsky and herman believe the theory is equally applicable to any country that shares the basic economic structure and organizing principles which the model postulates as the cause of media biases.[2] contents”

Fleming, P., & Oswick, C.. (2014). Educating consent? A conversation with Noam Chomsky on the university and business school education. Organization

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1177/1350508413514748
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“In what follows, we present a conversation with professor noam chomsky on the topic of whether the business school might be a site for progressive political change. the conversation covers a number of key issues related to pedagogy, corporate social responsibility and working conditions in the contemporary business school. we hope the conversion will contribute to the ongoing discussion about the role of the business school in neoliberal societies.”

Entman, R. M.. (1990). News as propaganda. Journal of Communication

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1111/j.1460-2466.1990.tb02256.x
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Klaehn, J.. (2002). Corporate hegemony: A Critical Assessment of the Globe and Mail’s News Coverage of Near-Genocide in Occupied East Timor 1975–80. Gazette

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1177/174804850206400401
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“The study asks whether the news coverage accorded the near-genocide in east timor by the globe and mail (g&m) followed the predictions of the ‘propaganda model’ (pm) of media operations laid out and applied by edward s. herman and noam chomsky in manufacturing consent: the political economy of the mass media. the research asks whether the g&m’s news coverage of the near-genocide in east timor and of canada’s ‘aiding and abetting’ of ‘war crimes’ and ‘crimes against humanity’ in occupied east timor was hegemonic or ideologically serviceable given canada’s (geo)political-economic interests in indonesia throughout the invasion and occupation periods. did the news coverage provide a political and historical benchmark by which to inform the canadian public (or not) and influence (or not) canadian government policy on indonesia and east timor?”

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