Goal

Human flourishing requires conditions that allow those who have lost their way – and who never had a chance– to engage with community constructively and creatively. Increasing what Max Weber called the life chances of the vulnerable has become more important as inequality of wealth and opportunity loom large worldwide. While individual therapeutic communities have sought to provide pathways from addiction, homelessness, imprisonment, refugee status and other chronic conditions that reduce human agency, this initiative seeks to learn more systematically which aspects of such communities work and why. Instead of treating a return to community as a reward for fixing oneself, community is understood as a pathway for positive change.
Integrating four core properties of human agency (characterized by psychologist Albert Bandura): intentionality, forethought, self-reactiveness, and self-reflection, increases the chances for individuals to become strategic producers of their life circumstances rather than products of them. Although the cortical area of the human brain has more neurons than any other species, our neural networks do not come pre-assembled. Interactive life experiences at any age provide the structure for neural connections that lead to optimal decision-making capacity, suggesting that pathways for individual flourishing are optimized through developing positive bonds with others.

Opportunity

Neuroscience research has shown promise regarding the importance of species connection and enriched environments in optimal developmental outcomes. Early psychiatric treatments such as the Quaker's 19th century Asylum for the relief of persons deprived of the use of their reason emphasized healing characteristics of positive environmental and social engagement. Even so, systematic evaluations of programs that create communities to foster constructive reengagement have been slow to emerge. The extension of today's cutting-edge approaches in disparate disciplines to field/clinical settings can provide evidence-based and cross-cultural evaluation of the most impactful communities and environments that promote optimal outcomes for those in need.

Roadblocks

Collaborative efforts across disciplines representing diverse academic and applied social programs are necessary for an extensive evaluation and search for common features of impactful social environments. These studies require crossing academic, social, and cultural boundaries; consequently, frequent contact among the project stakeholders is critical for the level of trust and rigorous research that will produce the highest impact. Partnering with tight-knit therapeutic communities, such as Alcoholics Anonymous, will require extensive trust-building and rigorous protection of participant privacy and well-being. This project will ideally include programs considered successful in numerous countries, making the logistics challenging but ultimately more relevant across cultures.

Breakthroughs Needed

Identifying the common features and "active ingredients" of diverse human communities that promote flourishing will first require a multi-disciplinary team of scholars to identify a range of challenges to human flourishing, as well as the subsequent identification of existing communities with the most encouraging approaches to these challenges. This should be an international membership and effort. Next, the team will need to identify a set of multi-modal and culturally sensitive outcomes--both qualitative and quantitative, individual and collective--that characterize human flourishing. Such measures should cross levels of analysis from brain functioning to cultural thriving. This step will also require scholars to identify candidate factors of facets of human communities that might be associated with such outcomes as well as methods to assess them in diverse communities and organizations. Data will need to be collected from a range of therapeutic communities, and powerful qualitative and statistical analyses will be needed to identify which facets, features, or processes of communities are most critical to promoting flourishing. Finally, knowledge from this worldwide effort will need to be translated into methods for instantiating these crucial factors into a wide range of programs.

Key Indicators of Success

Shifts in perceptions about human brain plasticity and the observation that it is never too late to provide appropriate nurturing to enhance efficacy and agency will signify project success. During the first phase, critical markers of developmental trajectory toward self-efficacy findings related to a pilot program assessing effective human field settings will begin in order to restructure perceptions about incorporating isolation and impoverished environments for vulnerable populations. Findings can be further validated with specific preclinical animal models to understand more about the influential roles of the putative variables through controlled observations. Implementation and education endeavors follow in the final years.

Additional Information

An abundance of evidence confirms the importance of appropriate engagement for the development of human agency; for example, children separated from the nurturing care of parents and raised in impoverished environments suffer significant mental health challenges and compromised self-efficacy. Further, research points to the importance of social and physical engagement for optimal neural development in preclinical animal models. Ironically, even with compelling scientific evidence, our most vulnerable individuals continue to be relegated to impoverished, sterile institutions such as prisons, immigration detention facilities, and barren psychiatric wards.
Contemporary methodological approaches including fMRI scans, genetic screening, endocrine and microbiome assays, and behavioral monitoring applications are a few approaches that can be employed to explore neurobehavioral markers of successful shifts in human agency toward personal efficacy via the employment of engaging and supportive environments.
Considering that progress toward increased human agency offers a way of framing many disparate programs that offer belonging and support; our proposed theme will elucidate the critical contributions of appropriate social engagement in the optimal development of human neural functions. Fortunately, noninvasive technological advances are currently available to investigate human neurobiological characteristics underlying positive and adaptive functions. For example, neural activation patterns and morphological characteristics can be obtained from brain scans; hormone, microbiome and immunological factors can be assessed via easily obtainable samples such as saliva, urine and blood; and micro- and macro- responses and behaviors ranging from cardiovascular responses to facial expressions can be monitored via cellphone apps and digital programs. These contemporary methodologies allow researchers to systematically investigate the effectiveness of innovative programs such as the 4-C Drug Court in Dallas, Texas, or Alcoholics Anonymous to understand more about impactful factors that increase the likelihood of individuals shifting to a heightened sense of agency and accountability.
Interdisciplinary team committed to investigating the proposed theme:
Dr. Read Montague (Virginia Tech University), Computational Neuroscientist - supervise fMRI scans of participants before and after the program intervention to determine neurobiological correlates of the intermediate shifts toward healthy emergence of optimal agency. (https://psyarxiv.com/qn6zj/)
Dr. Patricia Churchland (University of California, San Diego), Neurophilosopher – guide project themes in alignment with the philosophical dialogues related to the neuroarchitecture of social structure and decision-based values. https://patriciachurchland.com/books/
Judge Robert Francis, supervising Judge for the 4C Drug Court in Dallas, TX.
Dr. Laura Knouse, (University of Richmond), Clinical Psychologist - contribute to behavioral monitoring and outcome assessments. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2628311/
Dr. Richard Hunter (University of Boston, Massachusetts), Neurogeneticist - monitor changes in mobile genome elements related to epigenetic responses that accompany mental and behavioral changes in project participants. https://www.futuremedicine.com/doi/abs/10.2217/epi.15.107
Dr. Martha Merritt and Dr. Craig Kocher (Dean of International Studies and University Chaplain, respectively, at the University of Richmond) - facilitate international connections and dialogues with broader academic and related communities to move project from research to real-world applications.
Dr. Kelly Lambert (University of Richmond), Behavioral Neuroscientist – coordinate diverse aspects of the project, including endocrine measures in program participants, and neuroplasticity work with preclinical models targeted to enhance understanding about emerging neurobiological mechanisms. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31356835/