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Biomedical subjects

L R Caporael

Publications and source records attributed to L R Caporael.

6 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2001

Evolutionary psychology: toward a unifying theory and a hybrid science.

Although evolutionary psychology is typically associated with "selfish gene theory," numerous other approaches to the study of mind and behavior provide a wealth of concepts for theorizing about psychology, culture, and development. These include general evolutionary approaches and theories focused on sociality, dual inheritance, multilevel selection, and developmental systems. Most evolutionary accounts use the same methods as Darwin-the "fit among facts"-to use natural selection as an explanation for behavior. Scientific standards for constraining and evaluating such accounts, research into the mutual influence of science and society on the understanding of evolution, and computational technologies for modeling species-typical processes are important considerations. Coevolutionary theories and developmental systems theories may eventually give rise to unification in a broad and general sense. Such a unification would be interdisciplinary and problem centered rather than discipline centered.

Biological Evolution↗
PubMed1997

The evolution of truly social cognition: the core configurations model.

This article introduces a vocabulary suitable for evolutionary analyses in the human cognitive, social, and behavioral sciences. The vocabulary carves a middle way between advocates and critics of evolutionary perspectives by substituting the concept of repeated assembly for nature-nurture dualism. A model of core configurations-based on human morphology and ecology in human evolutionary history-is presented, and I argue that these configurations of face-to-face groups are the selective context for uniquely human mental systems. Hence, human cognition is "truly social,"" specialized for group living. The relevance of the core configuration model is illustrated with respect to two areas of interest to social psychologists: the self and social identity, and distributed cognition and shared reality. A final section illustrates the integrative power of the core configuration model with a brief comparison of the social and cognitive tasks faced by scientists and foragers.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1991

Altruism: docility or group identification?

The last sentence of the fourth paragraph of the letter from Albert B. Sabin that appeared in the 8 March issue (p. 1161) was incorrectly printed. It should have read, "It is well known that polio and other enteroviruses can multiply in the intestinal tract in the presence of antibodies in the blood."

Altruism↗
PubMed1983

Secondary baby talk: judgments by institutionalized elderly and their caregivers.

Elderly care receivers and their caregivers judged vocal nonverbal messages prepared from audiotapes of caregivers interacting with their co-workers and elderly nursing home residents. This study investigated the relationship between these judgments and, respectively, the functional ability of the aged judges and the expectations of the elderly held by the caregivers. The stimulus tape judged consisted of three types of messages: caregivers' speech to care receivers in baby talk, caregivers' speech to care receivers not in baby talk, and speech to other caregivers assumed to be in normal adult speech. For the elderly judges, lower functional ability scores were found to be associated with a greater liking for baby talk speech as compared to other speech, but no relationships were found for their judgments of "soothing" or "irritating." For caregivers, expectancy was associated with their predictions of elderly residents' liking for baby talk speech and caregivers' endorsements that adult speech would not be effective for interacting with care receivers. The pattern of results suggests that variations in caregiver expectancy may operate through a common social stereotype of the elderly.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMed1981

The paralanguage of caregiving: baby talk to the institutionalized aged.

A field study was conducted at a nursing home to (a) obtain descriptive information on the speech environment of the institutionalized elderly and (b) provide speech samples with which to conduct judgment studies on the paralinguistic features of caregiver communication. Three kinds of speech were differentiated: baby talk, speech to the elderly that was not in baby talk, and speech between caregivers, which was assumed to be normal adult speech. Over 22% of the sentences were reliably categorized as baby talk speech. Caregivers' ratings of the characteristics of the care receivers did not predict the amount of baby talk that was directed toward individual care receivers. In Judgment Study 1, content-filtered baby talk was identified as speech to children regardless of the actual status, adult or child, of the target. In Judgment Study 2, content-filtered speech samples were rated on four dimensions: comfort, pleasantness, irritation, and arousal. Baby talk was rated positive, adult speech received intermediate ratings, and non-baby-talk was rated negative. The findings suggest that baby talk is a speech register conveying affection, and it is proposed that non-baby-talk to the elderly is an "institutional" register denoting and promoting dependency.

Aged↗