Self-esteem of adolescent girls as related to weight

The Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale was administered to 550 14- and 16-yr.-old (+/- 6 mo.) girls. Self-esteem scores were categorized by weight and weight by height. Scores on the Quetelet Index for obesity were correlated with self-esteem scores. Mean self-esteem of the low- and middle-weight by height group was significantly higher than the mean of the high-weight by height group. In analyzing weight alone, the self-esteem of the middle-weight group was significantly higher than the self-esteem of the high-weight group. The correlation of the obesity index and self-esteem indicated that as weight increased self-esteem decreased.     

Conditioned taste aversions support drug discrimination learning at low dosages of morphine.

The present experiment shows that a conditioned taste aversion procedure can support discrimination learning at dosages of morphine comparable to those required to produce motivational effects. Sprague-Dawley rats were injected with 4.0 mg/kg morphine sulfate prior to a saccharin-lithium chloride pairing, and physiological saline prior to a saccharin-saline pairing. The rats avoided the saccharin solution following the administration of morphine and consumed significantly more saccharin following saline administration after four discrimination cycles. After this initial discrimination the subjects were trained with progressively lower doses of morphine. Discrimination learning was apparent at doses of 2.0, 1.5, 1.0, 0.75 and 0.5 mg/kg. Animals initially trained with 1.0 mg/kg morphine also learned the discrimination but required 10 training cycles. After this initial discrimination the subjects were trained with progressively lower dosages of morphine and showed a discrimination at a dosage of 0.5 mg/kg.     

Effects of a Communication Skills Training Programme on the Cognitions of Careers Guidance Students

Traditionally, communication skills training has focused principally on overt behaviours that are clearly identifiable. In recent years there has been an increasing awareness that cognitive processes can have considerable influence on behaviour. An attempt was made to establish whether changes in cognitions occurred as a result of a behaviourally-based communication skills training programme in which there had been no explicit attempt to bring about such cognitive changes. More specifically, the study examined whether such a programme resulted in changes in aspects of the personal construct space of students on a Diploma in Careers Guidance course. The results offered some support for the hypothesis that the programme produced changes in the students' personal construct space.     

A flavor paired with lithium chloride blocks the formation of a pentobarbital-lithium chloride association

Thirsty rats were used in order to determine whether a vinegar solution, which had been paired with an injection of lithium chloride, could block the formation of an association between a pentobarbital- and a lithium chloride-induced state. During phase 1 the rats in the blocking group had a 2.0% vinegar solution paired with an injection of 240 mg/kg of lithium chloride, during phase 2 these rats were reexposed to the vinegar prior to each injection of 20 mg/kg of pentobarbital and 240 mg/kg of lithium chloride, and during phase 3 these rats were given access to a novel 0.75% saccharin solution and were injected with pentobarbital after saccharin removal. Animals with this history did not form an association between the pentobarbital- and lithium chloride-induced states during phase 2 as evidenced by their refusal to consume the saccharin solution over repeated pairings of saccharin with pentobarbital during phase 3. Control groups that received forward pairings of pentobarbital and lithium chloride, in the absence of a previously conditioned vinegar solution during phase 2, formed an association between pentobarbital and lithium chloride. These findings indicate that drug states and flavors can interfere with each others' capacity to predict the occurrence of lithium chloride.     

Cerebral laterality and depression: differences in perceptual asymmetry among diagnostic subtypes

Examined the influence of diagnostic subtype of depression on perceptual asymmetry for dichotic listening and visual tachistoscopic tasks. A total of 65 unmedicated patients with major depressive disorders and 30 normal controls were tested on a verbal and nonverbal task in each modality. Patients diagnosed according to the DSM-III with melancholia had abnormal perceptual asymmetry for dichotic nonsense syllable and complex tone tasks. In contrast, patients having a nonmelancholic "atypical depression" (reactivity of mood with preserved pleasure capacity and associated features) did not differ from normal controls on these tasks, but had an increased incidence of left handedness. Bipolar depression (history of hypomania) differed from unipolar depression in showing abnormal perceptual asymmetry for a tachistoscopic dot enumeration task. Alterations of perceptual asymmetry in melancholia and bipolar depression were consistent with hypothesized right hemisphere dysfunction.     

ASSESSMENT OF STIMULUS PREFERENCE AND REINFORCER VALUE WITH PROFOUNDLY RETARDED INDIVIDUALS

We evaluated a procedure for identifying potential reinforcers with profoundly retarded individuals. In Experiment 1, six persons were repeatedly exposed to 16 stimuli, and approach behaviors to each stimulus were used to identify preferred and nonpreferred stimuli. In Experiment 2, we examined the reinforcing properties of preferred and nonpreferred stimuli by delivering them contingently on the occurrence of arbitrarily selected responses. Results revealed that the preferred stimulus conditions typically produced higher rates of responding than did either the baseline or the nonpreferred stimulus conditions, suggesting that the procedure can be used to assess reinforcer value for individuals with limited behavioral repertoires.     

School psychology in Australia

The status of school psychology in Australia is reviewed. Information is presented on the education system, the role of the school psychologist, historical development, special problems, contributions, and future trends in Australian school psychology.     

Resolving discrepant results of the Wheatstone Experiment

Summary Soon after Wheatstone published his results obtained with the twelve earliest stereograms. Brewster disputed the result obtained with one of them. This stereogram consisted of a thick vertical line presented to one eye and a thin vertical and thick inclined line to the other. Wheatstone reported seeing depth with this figure but Brewster did not. We conducted three experiments to explore the possible reason for the disagreement. Experiment 1 indicated that the stereogram produces a variety of perceptions including the depth as reported by Wheatstone and the rivalry as reported by Brewster. Experiment 2 showed that Brewster's procedure of keeping the eyes fixed while viewing the stereogram reduces the proportion of subjects reporting depth. In Experiment 3, the top half and the bottom half of the stereogram were presented in different trials. The top of the stereogram that contains no conflicting cues produced reliable depth, but the bottom that does, did not. It is concluded that the difference in the procedures they used and the nature of the stimulus were responsible for the conflicting results.