Neuropsychological analysis of some dynamic aspects of the sexual drive in men and women

IN PREVIOUS WORKS the author has proposed the conception of an affect-behavioral system as the neuropsychological basis of fundamental emotions and drives. It consists of ten subsystems (SS) integrated with relations of reciprocal induction and facilitation. The SSs are: (1) SS of flight, (2) SS of aggression, (3) SS of socially channeled attack, (4) SS of mutual aid, (5) SS of autoaggression, (6) SS of food taking, (7) SS of inhibition of food taking, (8) SS of vomiting, (9) SS of sexual contacts, and (10) SS of inhibition of sexual contacts. To the activity of the different SSs correspond fundamental emotions and drives. Thus, to the activity of the SS of flight corresponds fear; to the activity of the SS of aggression, socially uncultivated anger; to the activity of the SS of sexual contacts, sexual drive; and so forth. In the paper, appropriate observations are analyzed. They reveal that the activity of the SSs of flight and vomiting can inhibit reciprocally the sexual drive; whereas, the activity of the SSs of socially channeled attack, of mutual help, and of aggression can facilitate it. The activity of the SS of autoaggression is two-sided: According to the personality structure and the situation, it can inhibit or facilitate the sexual drive.     

On the relations between distinct aspects of psychological distance: An ecological basis of construal-level theory

Construal-level theory's basic assumption of a positive relationship between psychological distance and abstractness of mental representations presupposes a unitary distance construct. Although prior research testifies to convergent influences of temporal, spatial, social and reality (probability) distance, there is no direct evidence for the integration function of all four major distance aspects assessed within the same study with reference to the same target objects. Does high (low) distance in any aspect imply high (low) distance in all other aspects, or are discounting effects (e.g., high temporal distance rendering high personal distance obsolete) sometimes apparent in negative correlations? In pursuing this question, we obtained strong and regular positive correlations between all four distance aspects, across judges and judgment targets, regardless of whether freely construed future episodes or really experienced past episodes were judged. Existing ecological correlations seem to account for the positive relationship between time, space, probability and temporal distance.     

Focusing and restricting: two aspects of motivational selectivity in adulthood

Using a short-term longitudinal design, the authors investigated implications of 2 facets of motivational selectivity--restricting (to few goals) and focusing (on central and similar goals)--for goal-pursuit investment. Participants were 20-69 years old (Time 1, N = 177; Time 2, N = 160). Results show that motivational selectivity in terms of focusing (but not in terms of restricting) is associated with an enhanced involvement in goal pursuit (assessed 3 months later), irrespective of age. Structural equation models demonstrated that this association is completely mediated by the degree of mutual facilitation among goals. Furthermore, motivational selectivity increases from middle to older adulthood. This contributes to the maintenance of high goal involvement into later adulthood, despite aging-related increases in resource limitations.     

Being close and being social: peer ratings of distinct aspects of young adult social competence

The present study had three main objectives: (1) to develop and validate scales of young adult social competence in two domains, close relationships and social groups, using peer ratings of California Q-sort (Block, 1974; Kremen & Block, 2002) items; (2) to test the hypothesis that social competence is associated with young adult well-being and ego development; (3) to test the hypothesis that close relationship competence aligns more closely than social group competence with young adult functioning. Psychometric data on peer ratings of social competence are presented. For 133 young adults, peer ratings of social competence were correlated in expected directions with indices of functioning (e.g., self-worth, education, psychological distress, criminal behavior, and ego development). Associations were generally stronger for competence in close relationships than in social groups.     

On marching to two different drummers: perceptual aspects of the difficulties

People have remarkable difficulty generating two responses that must follow different temporal sequences, unless the temporal patterns are simply related (e.g., periods in 2:1, 3:1 relation). For example, it is hard to tap to two conflicting rhythms presented concurrently (i.e., a polyrhythm) using the right and left hands (Klapp, 1979), or to tap while articulating a conflicting speech utterance (Klapp, 1981). The present experiments indicate that difficulties in processing conflicting rhythms occur even when people must (a) merely monitor the stimuli and indicate the termination of one rhythmic sequence or (b) tap with a single hand. Responding to polyrhythms is thus difficult even without multiple limb coordination. Furthermore, the difficulty of two-handed tapping to polyrhythms that involve two different tones was found to decrease as the pitch difference between the tones was decreased. This result indicates that the difficulty of rhythmic coordination can be perceptually manipulated in a striking fashion. Polyrhythmic performance thus provides an excellent opportunity for examining possible interactions of perceptual and motor organizations.     

Cholinergic dependence of taste memory formation: evidence of two distinct processes

Learning the aversive or positive consequences associated with novel taste solutions has a strong significance for an animal's survival. A lack of recognition of a taste's consequences could prevent ingestion of potential edibles or encounter death. We used conditioned taste aversion (CTA) and attenuation of neophobia (AN) to study aversive and safe taste memory formation. To determine if muscarinic receptors in the insular cortex participate differentially in both tasks, we infused the muscarinic antagonists scopolamine at distinct times before or after the presentation of a strong concentration of saccharin, followed by either an i.p. injection of a malaise-inducing agent or no injection. Our results showed that blockade of muscarinic receptors before taste presentation disrupts both learning tasks. However, the same treatment after the taste prevents AN but not CTA. These results clearly demonstrate that cortical cholinergic activity participates in the acquisition of both safe and aversive memory formation, and that cortical muscarinic receptors seem to be necessary for safe but not for aversive taste memory consolidation. These results suggest that the taste memory trace is processed in the insular cortex simultaneously by at least two independent mechanisms, and that their interaction would determine the degree of aversion or preference learned to a novel taste.     

Increasingly informed consent: discussing distinct aspects of psychotherapy at different points in time

Psychologists are ethically obligated to obtain informed consent to psychotherapy "as early as is feasible" (American Psychological Association, 2002, p.1072). However, the range of topics to be addressed includes both information that may be immediately and uniformly applicable to most clients via policy or rule, as well as information that is not immediately presentable because it varies widely across clients or emerges over time. In this study, licensed psychologists were surveyed regarding the earliest feasible point at which they could provide information regarding specific aspects of psychotherapy. Results indicate that, although psychologists believe that they are capable of presenting some information, such as payment and confidentiality policies, at the outset, they believe that a discussion of more substantive issues, such as psychotherapy duration, goals, orientation, and activities, can take place only after some therapy has transpired. Implications are discussed regarding the process and event models of informed consent.     

Relationship between two aspects of perfectionism and obsessive-compulsive symptoms

In this study was investigated the relationship between two aspects of perfectionism (Concern over Mistakes and Personal Standards) and obsessive-compulsive symptoms. College students (57 men and 193 women: M age = 19.5 yr., SD = 1.9) majoring in psychology were from introductory psychology classes and a psychological assessment practice class. They completed the Padua Inventory, which assesses obsessive-compulsive symptoms, and the subscales of Concern over Mistakes and Personal Standards of the Frost Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale, which assess the tendency to be concerned about making mistakes and the tendency to set excessively high standards, respectively. Multiple regression analysis indicated that only the Concern over Mistakes scores predicted significantly all Padua Inventory subscale scores. Perhaps only being concerned over making mistakes may be associated with obsessive-compulsive symptoms. The tendency to set high standards was not strongly correlated with obsessive-compulsive symptoms. Further, the relationship between setting high standards and having obsessive-compulsive symptoms reported in previous studies may be spurious. Further work is required to untangle these associations.     

The effect of discordant sensory information in graphic production: two distinct subject groups

The present study investigated the underlying processes used to cope with discordant sensory information induced in a mirror-drawing task. Two experiments were carried out in which adults copied simple geometrical figures made up of either horizontal and vertical segments or oblique segments meeting at a right angle in both a normal and a mirror condition. Experiment 1 identified individual differences in relation to preferred graphic movement directions; some subjects preserved the visual directions that occurred in normal drawing by reversing the direction of drawing movements (perceived-direction group), while others preserved normal drawing directions that produced reversed visual directions (performed-direction group). Experiment 2 was performed to elucidate whether these two distinct behaviors resulted from different strategies used to cope with visuo-proprioceptive discordances. The main results showed that preference for the perceived directions led to longer pauses, slower movement velocity, greater movement dysfluency, and greater spatial orientation accuracy. By contrast, longer reaction time and greater angular accuracy characterized performance in the performed-direction group. These results were interpreted as indicating that two distinct information-processing strategies can be used when resolving sensory discordance in graphic production.     

Relationship between age and aspects of depression: consistency and reliability across two longitudinal studies

In this study, the authors examined cross-sectional and longitudinal age and gender differences in each of the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale's 4 subscales of depressive symptomatology. Two independent studies (Sample 1 = 2,076; Sample 2 = 943) were used for purposes of establishing stability of findings. Results indicate a reasonable degree of stability among adults under 70 years of age. However, there were significant age-related increases in somatic symptoms and lack of well-being after approximately 70 years of age, whereas symptoms related to depressed affect and interpersonal problems remained stable. Notably, depressive affect symptoms remained stable given significant age-related somatic changes. The addition of comorbid physical illness to the analysis did not reduce the association between age and depressive symptoms, indicating that part of the association was not substantially accounted for by physical health.     

Dynamic aspects of stimulus-response correspondence: evidence for two mechanisms involved in the Simon effect

It has been recently proposed that the time course of the Simon effect may vary across tasks, which might reflect different types of stimulus-response (S-R) transmissions (E. Wascher, U. Schatz, T. Kuder, & R. Verleger, 2001). The authors tested this notion in 4 experiments by comparing Simon effects evoked by horizontal and vertical S-R arrangements. The temporal properties of the effect, as well as lateralized readiness potential-difference waves, indicated a fast and transient influence of the horizontal, but a slow and sustained influence of the vertical spatial stimulus feature on performance. Additional evidence for this temporal dissociation was obtained in experiments that induced a shortening or lengthening of the mean response time. Thus, the data strongly indicate that there are 2 temporally dissociable mechanisms involved in generating the Simon effect for horizontal and vertical S-R relations.