“It is only extra information…”: Social representation and value preferences of gay men in Hungary

Nowadays the grounds for existence of homosexual identities can be questioned: in an increasing number of societies we can witness that homosexuality loses its identity constructing capacity. In these places homosexuality is not a focal point of social attention any longer, and while same-sex attraction can remain an important factor in organising one’s individual life, it will not hinder the social integration of individuals. Thus if homosexuality still has a strong identity constructing capacity in a society, it can suggest that the given society is dominated by exclusive monolithic homosexual and heterosexual identity patterns which can threaten the successful social integration of people. The presupposition of my research is that the salience of homosexual identities—attributed by outgroups, and internalised by ingroup members— is a social symptom. The (potentially unifying) concept and the practical realisation of homosexual identity can be seen as the product of social stigmatisation and discrimination: the greater the proportion of signs of rejecting individual difference, the more widespread personal and group identities are organised by and around these differences. This type of stigmatisation can be interpreted in general as a social symptom reflecting the rejection of the right to be different. This paper presents findings of empirical research conducted between 1998 and 2000 in Hungary on the social representation and the value preferences of Hungarian men identifying themselves as gays.1 In the first part of the paper I will present quantitative research findings on the specific value preferences of Hungarian gay men that could be interpreted as indicators of the existence of homosexual identities. In the second part I will present qualitative findings focusing on the connection between social representation of homosexuality and the development of threatened identities

Corruption as a Deviant Social Attitude

Corruption is a specific field of cooperation between social sectors. Corruption is a deviant behaviour, which can be traced back to several causes: the nature of economic and social regime as well as cultural aspects. The aim of corruption is to obtain advantages. The private advantages, however, are usually accompanied by significant social disadvantages. Corrupt behaviour often becomes a social norm. This paper analyses corruption as a deviant social attitude. Examining the countries of the Central Eastern European region, it states that they are moderately infected with corruption, which requires a national strategy against corruption and the establishment of institutional conditions for the implementation of the strategy. The paper underlines that corruption should be addressed not only within a national framework, it is also necessary to build up close co-operation among countries belonging to the same socio-economic system.integrity, norm, bribery, State Audit Office, public funds

Degree Variance and Emotional Strategies Catalyze Cooperation in Dynamic Signed Networks

We study the problem of the emergence of cooperation in dynamic signed networks where agent strategies coevolve with relational signs and network topology. Running simulations based on an agent-based model, we compare results obtained in a regular lattice initialization with those obtained on a comparable random network initialization. We show that the increased degree heterogeneity at the outset enlarges the parametric conditions in which cooperation survives in the long run. Furthermore, we show how the presence of sign-dependent emotional strategies catalyze the evolution of cooperation with both network topology initializations.Comment: 16 Pages, Proceeding of the European Conference on Modelling and Simumatio

The cooperative competitive citizen

Each human group and each society is a complex system of cooperative and competitive relationships. These two relations are intertwined, however, it is not indifferent in what way and to what extent. The present research has aimed at revealing the requirements of cooperative competition which is a competitive process with a high degree of cooperation among the competing parties. The Critical Incident Technique was applied. This procedure is based on the direct observation of human behaviour and was elaborated in order to examine complex interpersonal phenomena and to provide ecological validity. Altogether 483 critical incidents were described by teachers and university students of education. They were instructed to recall competitive relationships that have certain characteristics (e.g. high degree of cooperation among the parties vs no cooperation among the parties; high degree of trust among the parties vs high degree of distrust among the parties, etc.) After the free description of the incident, the participants had to characterize the competitive event along different dimensions on a Likert-scale, for instance intense/not intense competition; rules kept or violated. Applying principal component analysis, four different scales were constructed: the Cooperation Scale (i.e. the relationship among the competitors, cooperation, trust and communication), the Motivation Scale (i.e. motivation, the importance of the goal, development and learning), the Fairness Scale (i.e. rule keeping, no aggression and no manipulation) and the Enjoyment Scale (i.e. enjoyment and positive stress). The correlation analysis of the interrelations among the scales and individual variables has indicated that the high degree of cooperation among the competitors was positively related to fairness, the clarity of rules of competition, enjoyment and motivation. Less cooperation among the competitors was related to higher level stress and more intensive competition among them. If competitive processes are characterized by high degree of cooperation, i.e. they are cooperative competitions that have no detrimental but only beneficial effects, then they combine the constructive aspects of both cooperation and competition

Signed Networks, Triadic Interactions and the Evolution of Cooperation

We outline a model to study the evolution of cooperation in a population of agents playing the prisoner's dilemma in signed networks. We highlight that if only dyadic interactions are taken into account, cooperation never evolves. However, when triadic considerations are introduced, a window of opportunity for emergence of cooperation as a stable behaviour emerges.Comment: In Proceedings Wivace 2013, arXiv:1309.712

Do all inhibitions act alike? A study of go/no-go and stop-signal paradigms

Response inhibition is frequently measured by the Go/no-go and Stop-signal tasks. These two are often used indiscriminately under the assumption that both measure similar inhibitory control abilities. However, accumulating evidence show differences in both tasks' modulations, raising the question of whether they tap into equivalent cognitive mechanisms. In the current study, a comparison of the performance in both tasks took place under the influence of negative stimuli, following the assumption that ''controlled inhibition'', as measured by Stop-signal, but not ''automatic inhibition'', as measured by Go/no-go, will be affected. 54 young adults performed a task in which negative pictures, neutral pictures or no-pictures preceded go trials, no-go trials, and stop-trials. While the exposure to negative pictures impaired performance on go trials and improved the inhibitory capacity in Stop-signal task, the inhibitory performance in Go/no-go task was generally unaffected. The results support the conceptualization of different mechanisms operated by both tasks, thus emphasizing the necessity to thoroughly fathom both inhibitory processes and identify their corresponding cognitive measures. Implications regarding the usage of cognitive tasks for strengthening inhibitory capacity among individuals struggling with inhibitory impairments are discussed

Changes of Weight and in-Kernel Content Values of Maize Hybrids (Occitan, Colomba, DK-471) as a Result of Damaging dy European Corn Borer. Kukorica hibridek (Occitan, Colomba, DK-471) súly- és beltartalmi érték változása a kukoricamoly (Ostrinia nubilalis Hbn.) károsítása következtében.

ÖSSZEFOGLALÁS Vizsgálatunkat 2001-ben két tábla három különböző hibriddel elvetett állományában vizsgáltuk véletlenszerű mintaterek kijelölésével. Első felmérésünket egy 120 ha-os COLOMBA és OCCITAN, míg a második vizsgálatunkat egy 50 ha-os DK-471-es hibrid vegetációjában végeztük. Értékelésünk az egészséges és a károsított növények által nevelt csövek közötti súly-, fehérje, zsír és keményítő tartalom különbségeket célozta meg. A hibridek a kukoricamoly károsítására egyértelmű csosúly-vesztéssel válaszoltak. A COLOMBA zsírtartalmának, míg az OCCITÁN keményítőtartalmának csökkenése szignifikánsan összefüggött a kukoricamoly károsításával. Az eredmények azt mutatták, hogy a fehérje, zsír és keményítő anyagcseréje, beépülése is igazolhatóan zavart szenvedett. Megállapítottuk, hogy lárvaszám növekedése és a hibrid szem- csutka aránya között szoros, szignifikáns kapcsolat van. A lárvakárosítás helye illetve a lárvaszám nagymértékben meghatározza a DK-471-es kukorica hibrid csöveinek súlyát és a szemekbe beépülő alapvető tápanyagok (nyersfehérje, nyerszsír, keményítő) mennyiségét. ABSTRACT The research was conducted in the year 2001 on two fields sown with three different maize hybrids and was based on randomly chosen sample plots. The first survey was carried out on the field sown with hybrids COLOMBA and OCCITAN (total area 120 ha), the second survey was performed on 50 ha of hybrid DK-471. The assessment was focused primarily on the difference between the cobs developed by healthy and damaged maize plants with regards to their weight and the content of protein, fat and starch in the maize kernel. The hybrids unambiguously reacted to infestation by the European Corn Borer by cob weight reduction. The decrease of kernel fat content in the case of COLOMBA and that of the starch content in the case of OCCITAN displayed significant dependence on the degree of infestation by the European Corn Borer. The results of the survey verifiably showed that in both cases either metabolism, or incorporation of protein, fat and starch had experienced disorder. A close link has been ascertained between the growth of larvae population and the kernel-cob rate of the examined hybrids. The distribution and number of larvae significantly affected the weight of maize cobs of hybrid DK-471 and the quantity of the basic nutrient components (raw protein, fat and starch) incorporated in the kernel