Is Fifty Really the New Thirty? The Stigma of Age as a Form of Strain and its Role in Drug and Alcohol Abuse and Dependence by Women

Aging bodies stigmatize women. The effects of stigma, health issues, goal disappointment, and a combination of age and minority group status, overwhelm older women’s coping strategies, leading to maladaptive behaviors. General strain theory posits a relationship between negative stimuli and deviant behavior. Advancing age and age-related stigma reflect this strain. This study explores the relationship between strain and substance abuse or dependence, comparing subsamples of middle age (35- to 49-year-old women) and older middle age (50- to 64-year-old) women. Data suggest that minority age status coupled with acute or mental health issues increase substance abuse or dependence by older women.     

Scaling reward value with demand curves versus preference tests

In Experiment 1, six capuchins lifted a weight during a 10-min session to receive a food piece. Across conditions, the weight was increased across six different amounts for three different food types. The number of food pieces obtained as a function of the weight lifted was fitted by a demand equation that is hypothesized to quantify food value. For most subjects, this analysis showed that the three food types differed little in value. In Experiment 2, these monkeys were given pairwise choices among these food types. In 13 of 18 comparisons, preferences at least equaled a 3-to-1 ratio; in seven comparisons, preference was absolute. There was no relation between values based on degree of preference versus values based on the demand equation. When choices in the present report were compared to similar data with these subjects from another study, between-study lability in preference emerged. This outcome contrasts with the finding in demand analysis that test–retest reliability is high. We attribute the unreliability and extreme assignment of value based on preference tests to high substitutability between foods. We suggest use of demand analysis instead of preference tests for studies that compare the values of different foods. A better strategy might be to avoid manipulating value by using different foods. Where possible, value should be manipulated by varying amounts of a single food type because, over an appropriate range, more food is consistently more valuable than less. Such an approach would be immune to problems in between-food substitutability.     

Prompting reflection and learning in career construction counseling

Adopting the overall framework provided for an international inquiry into career counseling interventions, this article reports on a qualitative study into the efficacy of a relatively new approach to practice in England. Using career construction interviews as the counseling intervention, research involving two adult participants was undertaken. Interpersonal process recall (IPR) was used to explicate the perceptions and understandings of both the participants and the counselor in the process. Outcome analysis framed the approach used to making sense of the data collected. Two contrasting responses were immediately evident from participants in the counseling intervention: one positive and one negative. The use of the IPR process enabled an understanding of the value of a structured process of reflection.     

Citations of Murray Sidman's work in JEAB: Evidence of a long and large contribution

We examined citations of Murray Sidman's publications in the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior from the journal's inception in 1958 through May 2020. On average, he was cited 35.6 times per year. The rate of citation did not change substantially across time and the cumulative citation count was 2,212. His 10 publications cited most often deal with behavior-analytic research methods, stimulus equivalence, and unsignaled free-operant (or Sidman) avoidance. Our data provide clear evidence of the breadth and depth of Sidman's influence on the experimental analysis of behavior across 7 decades. His contributions were both exceptional and praiseworthy and his legacy will long endure.     

Single-case experimental designs: Characteristics,changes, and challenges

Tactics of Scientific Research (Sidman, 1960) provides a visionary treatise on single-case designs, their scientific underpinnings, and their critical role in understanding behavior. Since the foundational base was provided, single-case designs have proliferated especially in areas of application where they have been used to evaluate interventions with an extraordinary range of clients, settings, and target foci. This article highlights core features of single-case experimental designs, how key and ancillary features of the designs have evolved, the special strengths of the designs, and challenges that have impeded their integration in many areas where their contributions are sorely needed. The article ends by placing the methodological approach in the context of other research traditions. In this way, the discussion moves from the specific designs toward foundations and philosophy of science issues in keeping with the strengths of the person and book we are honoring.     

Hans Reichenbach,radio philosopher: a preliminary report

Synthese - This essay looks at some of the key aspects of Hans Reichenbach’s career as a radio engineer, broadcaster, and producer. It argues that some of the themes of Reichenbach’s...     

Geopolitical Forecasting Skill in Strategic Intelligence

Extending research by the authors on intelligence forecasting, the forecasting skill of 3622 geopolitical forecasts extracted from strategic intelligence reports was examined. The codable subset of forecasts (N = 2013) was expressed with verbal probabilities (e.g., likely) and translated to numeric probability equivalents. This subset showed very good calibration and discrimination, but also underconfidence. There was no support for the hypothesis that forecasting skill was good mainly because of the general ease of forecasting topics. First, forecasting skill was as good among authoritative key judgments as in the general set. Second, forecasts that were assigned high degrees of certainty, indicative of ease, (p ≤ 0.05 or p ≥ 0.95) did not discriminate as well as less certain forecasts (0.05 < p < 0.95), and these subsets did not differ in calibration. Sensitivity and benchmarking tests further revealed that if the 1609 uncodable forecasts were all assigned forecast probabilities of .5 (i.e., if all followed a “cautious ignorance” rule), skill characteristics would still show a large effect size improvement over a variety of guesswork strategies. The findings support a cautiously optimistic assessment of forecasting skill in strategic intelligence and indicate that such skill is not primarily attributable to the selection of easy forecasting topics. However, the large proportion of uncodable cases suggests that intelligence forecasts could be improved by avoiding imprecise language that affects not only the codability but also, in all likelihood, the interpretability and indicative value of forecasts for intelligence consumers. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Temporal Synechism: A Peircean Philosophy of Time

Axiomathes - Charles Sanders Peirce is best known as the founder of pragmatism, but the name that he preferred for his overall system of thought was “synechism” because the principle of...