A MEMETIC/PARTICIPATORY APPROACH FOR CHANGING SOCIAL BEHAVIORS AND PROMOTING ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP IN JALISCO, MEXICO

This dissertation addressed the issue of sustainable development at the level of individual behaviors. Environmental perceptions were obtained from people living around the biosphere reserve Chamela-Cuixmala in Jalisco, Mexico. Several environmental issues were identified by the people, such as garbage and grey water on the streets, burning plastics, and the lack of usage of recreational areas. All these issues could be addressed with a change in behavior by the villagers. Familiarization activities were conducted to gain people's trust in order to conduct a community forum. These activities included giving talks to school children and organizing workshops. Four different methodologies were generated using memetics and participation to test which would ameliorate those environmental issues identified by the people through a change in behavior. The methodologies were 1) Memes; 2) Participation and Memes; 3) Participation; 4) Neither Participation nor Memes. A meme is an idea expressed within a linguistic structure or architecture that provides it with self-disseminating and self-protecting characteristics within and among the minds of individuals congruent with their values, beliefs and filters. Four villages were chosen as the treatments, and one as the control, for a total of five experimental villages. A different behavior was addressed in each treatment village (garbage, grey-water, burning plastics, recreation.) A nonequivalent control-group design was established. A pretest was conducted in all five villages; the methodologies were tested in the four treatment villages; a posttest was conducted on the five villages. The pretest and posttest consisted in measuring sensory specific indicators which are manifestations of behavior that can either be seen, smelled, touched, heard or tasted. Statistically significant differences in behavior from the control were found for two of the methodologies 1) Memes (p=0.0403) and 2) Participation and Memes (p=0.0064). For the methodologies of 3) Participation alone and 4) Neither, the differences were not significant (p=0.8827, p=0.5627 respectively). When using memes, people's behavior improved when compared to the control. Participation alone did not generate a significant difference. Participation aided in the generation of the memes. Memetics is a tool that can be used to establish a linkage between human behavior and ecological health.

Cortisol Reactivity and Observed Parenting among Mothers of Children with and without ADHD

Parenting is a robust predictor of developmental outcomes among children with ADHD. Early parenting predicts the persistence and course of ADHD and comorbid problems above and beyond risk associated with shared genetic effects. Yet, on average, mothers of children with ADHD are less positive and more negative in their parent-child interactions compared to mothers of non-disordered children. Little is known about psychobiological markers which may be associated with individual variations in maternal parenting in families of children with ADHD. Neurobiological models of parenting suggest that maternal cortisol levels following a stressor may be positively associated with hostile and intrusive parenting; however, to date no studies have examined maternal cortisol reactivity and parenting in school-age, or clinical samples of, children. Mothers’ regulation of physiological stress responses may be particularly important for families of children with ADHD, as parenting a child with chronically challenging behaviors represents a persistent environmental stressor. The current study sought to extend the existing literature by providing an empirical examination of the relationship between maternal cortisol reactivity following two laboratory stressors and parenting among mothers of children with and without ADHD. It was hypothesized that child ADHD group would moderate the relationship between cortisol reactivity and self-reported and observed parenting. Greater total cortisol output and greater increase in cortisol during the TSST were associated with decreased positive parenting and increased negative and directive parenting, with the exception of parental involvement, which was associated with increased cortisol output during the TSST. Conversely, cortisol output during the PCI was associated with increased positive parenting, increased parental involvement, and decreased negative parenting. In contrast to the TSST, a greater decrease in cortisol during the PCI indicated more positive parenting and parental involvement. These associations were specific to mothers of children with ADHD, with the exception of maternal directiveness, which was specific to comparison mothers. Findings add to our understanding of physiological processes associated with maternal parenting and contribute to an integrative biological, psychological, and cognitive process model of parenting in families of children with ADHD.