Are Resource Fluctuations Anticipated in Resource Allocation Tasks?

Resource-allocation behavior has recently received increasing attention in the decision-theory literature partially because individuals and societies are facing hard decisions about the allocation of constrained resources. We observed in two previous studies that resource allocators do not plan for probable losses in loss situations, but instead react to losses after they occur. In this paper, we determine if a similar failure to anticipate changes in resources occurs in a gain situation. The data suggest that subjects do not allocate their resources in anticipation of probable gains or losses, thus considerably increasing the generality of our previous findings.     

The sources of developmental differences in children's incidental processing during discrimination trials

Crane and Ross reported that second graders learned more than sixth graders about attributes made relevant after solution of a discrimination task. Here two experiments are reported that enlighten the sources of this developmental difference. Both make use of an experimental technique whereby children verbalize their hypotheses during solution of a discrimination problem. The results indicate that ten-year-olds do not learn about incidental attributes that they tested while irrelevant in the pre-solution period, but that five-year-olds and seven-year-olds do. Children of all three ages process incidental information about attributes that they did not sample pre-solution. With some qualification, the incidentally processed information is retained throughout a five-minute delay interval. The results bear on developmental trends in the distribution of attention and on theoretical accounts of incidental learning in discrimination tasks.     

Special perspective: An immodest proposal: should treating mental health professionals be barred from testifying about their patients?

Notwithstanding ethical rules that address therapeutic and forensic role conflicts for psychologists and psychiatrists, overzealous patient advocacy by therapists, tightened reimbursement for therapy, and a growth market for forensic psychology and psychiatry, have led many therapists to appear willingly as forensic experts on behalf of their patients. Existing ethical rules, as well as other proposed approaches to address this problem, assume that it can be resolved by modest changes in existing practice that permit therapists to testify as long as their testimony avoids psycholegal opinions. This essay questions whether these modest changes can adequately address this problem and advances consideration of a more radical proposal to address this problem, prohibiting therapists from testifying about their patients. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Compensation for pain,suffering, and other psychological injuries: The of Daubert on employment discrimination claims

The Daubert standard for admitting expert testimony places increased emphasis on the scientific basis for professional opinions. This article identifies factors mental health professionals should consider to meet that standard and Federal Rule of Evidence 702 when evaluating claims of psychological injuries as authorized by the Civil Rights Act of 1991, in cases of sexual harassment, retaliation, and other forms of employment discrimination. First, the contribution experts can make by presenting a framework to assess and understand the nature, duration, intensity and severity of emotional injuries is outlined. Specialized knowledge helpful in assessing these claims is reviewed in light of the scientific literature on stressors, anxiety disorders, somatoform disorders, depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, and ways in which related symptoms manifest regarding events in the workplace or following loss of employment. Second, the role of qualified experts to facilitate determinations of causation is discussed, highlighting factors that bear on preexisting harm, intervening injurious events, the exclusion of alternate sources of mental distress, emotional harm and humiliation, and mitigation of damages.     

Aversive and compensatory classical conditioning with diazepam as conditional stimulus

The purpose of the first experiment was to investigate whether diazepam could acquire anxiogenic properties by signalling an aversive event. Rats were trained in an operant chamber in the pentylenetetrazol (PTZ) model of anxiety. Thereafter the animals were divided into groups that received classical diazepam conditioning (Group 1), and conditioning of diazepam + tone (Group 2). In the test phase diazepam was injected prior to placement in the operant chamber. Group 2 selected the PTZ-appropriate lever more often than the other groups, indicating that the tone induced anxiety, and diazepam did not. Tones and shock may therefore be more easily associated than diazepam and shock. The second experiment investigated this. Rats were trained the same way as in the first experiment. Thereafter the experimental group received injections of a small dose of diazepam prior to a second injection of a large dose of diazepam. The hypothesis was that a compensatory anxiogenic conditional response to diazepam's anxiolytic effect should be elicited by the small dose. There were no differences between the groups in lever selection, indicating that a compensatory anxiogenic response was not elicited.     

Gambling behavior and gambling problems in Norway 2007

In Norway, legalized gambling is pervasive, easily accessible and socially accepted, particularly the participation in national lotteries. We conducted a stratified probability sample study during January–March 2007 (age group 16–74 years, N  = 3,482, response rate 36.1%) to assess gambling behavior and prevalence of problematic gambling by the NORC Diagnostic Screen (NODS). Overall, 67.9% of the study population had been engaged in past-year gambling and 0.7% were past-year problematic gamblers (NODS score 3+). Male gender, low educational level, single marital status, and being born in a non-Western country were variables positively associated with problematic gambling. Past-year problematic gamblers indicated the slot machine (34.6%) and Internet gambling (26.9%) as the most important games, while most non-problematic gamblers pointed out the lotteries (62.3%) as the most important game. The prevalence of self-reported sleeping disorders, depression and other psychological impairments was significantly higher among problematic gamblers. Gambling problems affect people's lives in multiple ways.     

Same-sex harassment: implications of the Oncale decision for forensic evaluation of plaintiffs

The US Supreme Court recently rendered an opinion in Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services, Inc. (1998), holding that same-sex sexual harassment of a male by another male provides a basis for a title VII hostile work environment claim. Social scientists have recently begun to research same-sex sexual harassment. The data indicate that men are the predominant targets of intra-gender sexual harassment, and that patterns of same-sex harassment differ from those of inter-gender harassment. The clinical research on male victims of sexual abuse suggests that symptom pictures for same-sex victims may differ from models based upon women's experience of hostile work environments. Implications for social science research and clinical practice are discussed. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.