The impact of social presence on team performance in social networking platforms

Next to the extensive use of social networking platforms (SNPs) for communication and relationship building with friends and relatives, SNPs are also increasingly used for enhancing collaboration at work. SNP usage at the workplace is fundamentally different and it is unclear how SNPs can improve collaboration as well as in what way their designs should be modified and adapted to collaboration settings. This research identifies specific SNP functions that enhance social presence as particularly beneficial for collaboration. Consequently, two designs of SNPs, one with high social presence and one with low social presence, are outlined and its impacts on collaboration are discussed. A framework is constructed that illustrates how social presence in SNPs can improve team performance through enhancing transactive memory within teams (intra-group collaboration) and relational capital across teams (inter-group collaboration). In addition, it is outlined how this framework could be evaluated in an experimental setting of teams working on a complex group task.

Opportunistic and systematic screening for chlamydia: a study of consultations by young adults in general practice

BACKGROUND: Opportunistic screening for genital chlamydia infection is being introduced in England, but evidence for the effectiveness of this approach is lacking. There are insufficient data about young peoples' use of primary care services to determine the potential coverage of opportunistic screening in comparison with a systematic population-based approach. AIM: To estimate use of primary care services by young men and women; to compare potential coverage of opportunistic chlamydia screening with a systematic postal approach. DESIGN OF STUDY: Population based cross-sectional study. SETTING: Twenty-seven general practices around Bristol and Birmingham. METHOD: A random sample of patients aged 16-24 years were posted a chlamydia screening pack. We collected details of face-to-face consultations from general practice records. Survival and person-time methods were used to estimate the cumulative probability of attending general practice in 1 year and the coverage achieved by opportunistic and systematic postal chlamydia screening. RESULTS: Of 12 973 eligible patients, an estimated 60.4% (95% confidence interval [CI] = 58.3 to 62.5%) of men and 75.3% (73.7 to 76.9%) of women aged 16-24 years attended their practice at least once in a 1-year period. During this period, an estimated 21.3% of patients would not attend their general practice but would be reached by postal screening, 9.2% would not receive a postal invitation but would attend their practice, and 11.8% would be missed by both methods. CONCLUSIONS: Opportunistic and population-based approaches to chlamydia screening would both fail to contact a substantial minority of the target group, if used alone. A pragmatic approach combining both strategies might achieve higher coverage.

The coevolution of cooperation and dispersal in social groups and its implications for the emergence of multicellularity

Background Recent work on the complexity of life highlights the roles played by evolutionary forces at different levels of individuality. One of the central puzzles in explaining transitions in individuality for entities ranging from complex cells, to multicellular organisms and societies, is how different autonomous units relinquish control over their functions to others in the group. In addition to the necessity of reducing conflict over effecting specialized tasks, differentiating groups must control the exploitation of the commons, or else be out-competed by more fit groups. Results We propose that two forms of conflict – access to resources within groups and representation in germ line – may be resolved in tandem through individual and group-level selective effects. Specifically, we employ an optimization model to show the conditions under which different within-group social behaviors (cooperators producing a public good or cheaters exploiting the public good) may be selected to disperse, thereby not affecting the commons and functioning as germ line. We find that partial or complete dispersal specialization of cheaters is a general outcome. The propensity for cheaters to disperse is highest with intermediate benefit:cost ratios of cooperative acts and with high relatedness. An examination of a range of real biological systems tends to support our theory, although additional study is required to provide robust tests. Conclusion We suggest that trait linkage between dispersal and cheating should be operative regardless of whether groups ever achieve higher levels of individuality, because individual selection will always tend to increase exploitation, and stronger group structure will tend to increase overall cooperation through kin selected benefits. Cheater specialization as dispersers offers simultaneous solutions to the evolution of cooperation in social groups and the origin of specialization of germ and soma in multicellular organisms.

Gaze perception in social anxiety and social anxiety disorder

Clinical observations suggest abnormal gaze perception to be an important indicator of social anxiety disorder (SAD). Experimental research has yet paid relatively little attention to the study of gaze perception in SAD. In this article we first discuss gaze perception in healthy human beings before reviewing self-referential and threat-related biases of gaze perception in clinical and non-clinical socially anxious samples. Relative to controls, socially anxious individuals exhibit an enhanced self-directed perception of gaze directions and demonstrate a pronounced fear of direct eye contact, though findings are less consistent regarding the avoidance of mutual gaze in SAD. Prospects for future research and clinical implications are discussed.

Prevalence and Clinical Significance of DSM-5-Attenuated Psychosis Syndrome in Adolescents and Young Adults in the General Population: The Bern Epidemiological At-Risk (BEAR) Study

Objective: Section III of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5) lists attenuated psychosis syndrome as a condition for further study. One important question is its prevalence and clinical significance in the general population. Method: Analyses involved 1229 participants (age 16-40 years) from the general population of Canton Bern, Switzerland, enrolled from June 2011 to July 2012. "Symptom," "onset/worsening," "frequency," and "distress/disability" criteria of attenuated psychosis syndrome were assessed using the structured interview for psychosis-risk syndromes. Furthermore, help-seeking, psychosocial functioning, and current nonpsychotic axis I disorders were surveyed. Well-trained psychologists performed assessments using the computer-assisted telephone interviewing technique. Results: The symptom criterion was met by 12.9% of participants, onset/worsening by 1.1%, frequency by 3.8%, and distress/disability by 7.0%. Symptom, frequency, and distress/disability were met by 3.2%. Excluding trait-like attenuated psychotic symptoms (APS) decreased the prevalence to 2.6%, while adding onset/worsening reduced it to 0.3%. APS were associated with functional impairments, current mental disorders, and help-seeking although they were not a reason for help-seeking. These associations were weaker for attenuated psychosis syndrome. Conclusions: At the population level, only 0.3% met current attenuated psychosis syndrome criteria. Particularly, the onset/worsening criterion, originally included to increase the likelihood of progression to psychosis, lowered its prevalence. Because progression is not required for a self-contained syndrome, a revision of the restrictive onset criterion is proposed to avoid the exclusion of 2.3% of persons who experience and are distressed by APS from mental health care. Secondary analyses suggest that a revised syndrome would also possess higher clinical significance than the current syndrome.