Temporal specificity of extinction in autoshaping

Three experiments investigated the effects of varying the conditioned stimulus (CS) duration between training and extinction. Ring doves (Streptopelia risoria) were autoshaped on a fixed CS-unconditioned stimulus (US) interval and extinguished with CS presentations that were longer, shorter, or the same as the training duration. During a subsequent test session, the training CS duration was reintroduced. Results suggest that the cessation of responding during an extinction session is controlled by generalization of excitation between the training and extinction CSs and by the number of nonreinforced CS presentations. Transfer of extinction to the training CS is controlled by the similarity between the extinction and training CSs. Extinction learning is temporally specific.     

The vanished pregnant body in psychoanalytic female developmental theory

The author contends that the pregnant body-the premier icon of the mature female body-has vanished from our psychoanalytic theory of female development. Until we are able to restore this missing entity on a par with the phallus, the developmental theory for both sexes remains fixated in phallocentricism. The author traces some of the evidence for this claim in a brief overview of the literature, a study of the relevant aspects of the case of Little Hans, and a look at the history of medical teaching, in particular illustrations from the first dissections of female bodies in the sixteenth century, which demonstrate a view of the female body as essentially male. A puzzle remains about the marked tendencies that both males and females had, and still have, to distort the female body image. The author offers a clinical example, and the suggestion that the plasticity of the female form in all its developmental phases may underlie the paradoxical requirement that stable mental representations be established upon an elusive set of shifting images.     

“Castration Anxiety” Revisited: Especially “Female Castration Anxiety”

ABSTRACT

I find the term castration anxiety a still relevant and important key body fearful fantasy in males, especially expressing fear of the father; as is female castration anxiety an equivalent key fear of the ablation of the sexual and reproductive organs of females, especially by the avenging mother. Freud’s and his followers’ version of the female anxiety, however, has repetitively been shown to be askew since the 1930s, yet it keeps appearing again, as if still worthy of serious argument. To demonstrate its utter blindness to an emotional or imaginative appreciation of female body reproductive functioning, a detailed critique is offered of the once classic paper, “The Body as Phallus” by Bertram Lewin (1933). I recommend that a straightforward sense of female castration is helpful in exploring female body anxieties as a more defined bodily referent than can be encompassed by separation anxieties that are currently more popular.     

Pavlovian contingencies and temporal information

The effects of altering the contingency between the conditioned stimulus (CS) and the unconditioned stimulus (US) on the acquisition of autoshaped responding was investigated by changing the frequency of unsignaled USs during the intertrial interval. The addition of the unsignaled USs had an effect on acquisition speed comparable with that of massing trials. The effects of these manipulations can be understood in terms of their effect on the amount of information (number of bits) that the average CS conveys to the subject about the timing of the next US. The number of reinforced CSs prior to acquisition is inversely related to the information content of the CS.     

RELATIONSHIP QUALITY AND DOMESTIC VIOLENCE IN WOMEN'S SAME-SEX RELATIONSHIPS: THE ROLE OF MINORITY STRESS

Despite a large body of literature addressing relationship quality and domestic violence in women's same-sex relationships, few studies have empirically examined how stress specific to living as a lesbian or bisexual woman might correlate with these relationship variables. Degree of outness, internalized homophobia, lifetime and recent experiences of discrimination, butch/femme identity, relationship quality, and lifetime and recent experiences of domestic violence were assessed in a sample of 272 predominantly European American lesbian and bisexual women. Lesbian and bisexual women were found to be comparable on most relationship variables. In bivariate analyses, minority stress variables (internalized homophobia and discrimination) were associated with lower relationship quality and both domestic violence perpetration and victimization. Outness and butch/femme identity were largely unrelated to relationship variables. Path analysis revealed that relationship quality fully mediated the relationship between internalized homophobia and recent domestic violence.     

Money, Housework, Sex, and Conflict: Same-Sex Couples in Civil Unions, Those Not in Civil Unions, and Heterosexual Married Siblings

In this study we examined the division of finances, the division of household tasks, relationship maintenance behaviors, sexual activity, monogamy, and conflict among same-sex couples who had had civil unions in Vermont, same-sex couples who had not had civil unions recruited from their friendship circles, and married heterosexual couples recruited from among their siblings. Married heterosexuals had a more traditional, gendered division of finances, household tasks, and relationship maintenance behaviors, even though the heterosexuals were all siblings or in-laws of lesbians or gay men. Sexual orientation was a stronger predictor of the division of household tasks than was income difference within couples. Lesbians reported less frequent sexual activity than married heterosexual women, and gay men were less monogamous than married heterosexual men. Gay men in civil unions differed on a few variables from gay men not in civil unions, but there were no differences among lesbians.     

Three-year follow-up of same-sex couples who had civil unions in Vermont, same-sex couples not in civil unions, and heterosexual married couples

This study was a 3-year follow-up of 65 male and 138 female same-sex couples who had civil unions in Vermont during the 1st year of that legislation. These couples were compared with 23 male and 61 female same-sex couples in their friendship circles who did not have civil unions and with 55 heterosexual married couples (1 member of each was a sibling to a member of a civil union couple). Despite the legalized nature of their relationships, civil union couples did not differ on any measure from same-sex couples who were not in civil unions. However, same-sex couples not in civil unions were more likely to have ended their relationships than same-sex civil union or heterosexual married couples. Compared with heterosexual married participants, both types of same-sex couples reported greater relationship quality, compatibility, and intimacy and lower levels of conflict. Longitudinal predictors of relationship quality at Time 2 included less conflict, greater level of outness, and a shorter relationship length for men in same-sex relationships and included less conflict and more frequent sex for women in same-sex relationships at Time 1.     

Microcomputers in psychology laboratory courses

The implementation of a microcomputer-based laboratory curriculum is described and analyzed in terms of general guidelines for introducing computer-based instruction. Procedures are suggested for analyzing need, choosing a system, and implementing the project. Pedagogical considerations arising from the use of computer technology are also discussed.