Russell D. Gray, Simon J. Greenhill, and Robert M. Ross Department of Psychology University of Auckland Auckland, New Zealand [email protected] Abstract Current debates about “Darwinizing culture” have typically focused on the validity of memetics. In this article we argue that meme-like inheritance is not a necessary requirement for descent with modification. We suggest that an alternativ...

In this paper, issues of girls and their gaming preferences are explored through observations of computer games sessions at an all-girl state school. What emerged is that preferences are alterable, and site specific. Gaming selections relate to the attributes of particular games – but they also depend on a player’s recognition of these attributes and the pleasures they entail. Players accumulat...

Abstract: With a view to interdisciplinary dialogue(s) between queer theory and disability studies, this article discusses the work of Bob Flanagan and his partner Sheree Rose. Specifically, it focuses on their queer S/M practices as a strategy of negotiating disability/pain, but also as a practice redefining notions of (disabled) embodiment. It also discusses Flanagan and Rose’s queer/crip pol...

social research Vol 77 : No 2 : Summer 2010 659 the evolutionary imperatives of survival and procreation, and their associated rewards, are driving life as most animals know it. Perhaps uniquely, humans are able to consciously experience these pleasures and even contemplate the elusive prospect of happiness. The advanced human ability to consciously predict and anticipate the outcome of choices...

Sexual behavior is critical to species survival, yet comparatively little is known about the neural mechanisms in the human brain. Here we systematically review the existing human brain imaging literature on sexual behavior and show that the functional neuroanatomy of sexual behavior is comparable to that involved in processing other rewarding stimuli. Sexual behavior clearly follows the establ...

OBJECTIVE People with type 2 diabetes often report pressure to abstain from many of life's pleasures. We tried to reconstruct these patients' sense of pressure to better understand how people with diabetes make sense of, and integrate, these feelings into their life. DESIGN, SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS A secondary analysis of narrative interviews with 14 patients with type 2 diabetes who are par...

Discovery Medicine, Volume 9, number 49, Pages 579-587, June 2010 Abstract: Over fifty years ago the discovery that rats would work to electrically stimulate their brains suggested the intriguing possibility that bliss could be achieved through the use of ‘pleasure electrodes’ implanted deep within the brain. Subsequent research has failed to bring about this brave new world of boundless pleasu...