Exogenous testosterone and social experience each enhance the development of aggressive behavior in Cyprinodon variegatus

The combined effects of testosterone and social experience from the time of hatching on development of aggressive behaviors in Cyprinodon variegatus were investigated. Social experience was defined as a rearing condition allowing visual, tactile, chemosensory, and auditory contact with zero, three, or 15 additional conspecifics. Behaviors were videotaped once weekly from 3 weeks to 4 months post-hatching, using the focal animal method, and an ethogram was constructed. At 3 months post-hatching, half the fish were injected once with testosterone propionate (2 μg/g b. w., i. p., vehicle-Ringer's solution) and the other half were injected with Ringer's isotonic saline solution. Testosteronetreated subjects showed significantly greater frequencies and durations of behaviors that may be related to aggression than did saline controls. Two weeks after the treatments, a round-robin tournament was conducted between testosterone- and saline-treated fish from each rearing condition. Testosterone-treated fish won significantly more encounters than did saline-treated subjects over all rearing conditions. Furthermore, significantly more aggressive acts were displayed by fish raised in the groups of 16 and the groups of four than did the Isolates. Although the number of aggressive acts exhibited by the group of 16 was greater than the group of four, the difference was not statistically significant.     

Home correlates of aggression in preschool

Is aggressive behaviour in preschool more closely related to individual characteristics of the child as assessed at home, to aspects of mother-child interaction, or to the motherchild relationship? The issue was studied in three replications. Aggression in preschool was related to temperamental characteristics in girls but not boys, and to Self-esteem. There were very few significant correlations between aspects of mother-child interaction and hostility in preschool, but hostility with peers was related to the absence of positive or presence of mildly negative interactions with the sibling. Aggression in preschool was related to an aspect of the mother-child relationship; least aggression was shown by those childred whose mothers used warmth and control more or less “in balance” (authortative Mothers). Such children also differed in other aspects of the mother-child relationship, and these provided some explanation of those children who appeared to be exceptions to the “balance” hypethesis. © 1993 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

How provoking! what makes men and women angry?

This study looked at differences in anger-provoking behaviors and in verbal insults as a function of the gender of the aggressor and the target of the provocation. Responses of 416 college students revealed that males were more likely to consider a female exhibiting physical aggression or a male hurting another person as anger-provoking, whereas females were more likely to mention condescending or insensitive behaviors from either sex, verbal aggression from a female, and physical aggression from a male. Physical aggression and hurting another provoked more anger when they came from a male, whereas dishonesty from a female evoked more anger. Females also felt that insensitive and condescending behaviors were worse when they came from a male. Most of the verbal insults were sexual in nature, with few sex of subject differences. However, it was considered worse for women to be called promiscuous; for men to be called sexually inadequate, worthless, or cowardly; for women to call men an obscene name; and for people to be called homosexual by a same sex speaker. These results are consistent both with previous research and with traditional gender role beliefs suggesting that women are more upset by condescending behaviors and that women's promiscuity, as well as men's aggression toward women, hurting another, sexual inadequacy, and cowardice, are viewed particularly negatively. © 1993 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Conversations on clinical supervision: benefits perceived by school counsellors

This Australian study describes the benefits of clinical supervision as perceived by school guidance officers who work in a large education authority. The participants were a random sample of guidance officers and senior guidance officers who agreed to participate in focus group interviews conducted via teleconference calls. The benefits of and reasons for clinical supervision graphically described by the participants raise questions about the cost of inadequate supervision to the individual counsellors themselves and to the profession as a whole. The findings become even more important when considered in light of the world of work of the 21st century.     

Catholics and the Christian Right: A View from Four States

Christian Right Organizations in the 1990s have tried to avoid the pitfalls for the religious particularism that undermined the earlier efforts of such groups as Moral Majority to build long lasting political coalitions. For many Christian Right leaders, conservative Catholics appear to be a particularly appealing group to reach for membership recruitment and political coalition-building. Yet such leading groups as the Christian Coalition have largely experienced disappointment with such efforts.
This essay presents data that offer reasons why conservative Catholics might be willing to form political coalitions with activists of the Christian Right but remain reluctant to join Christian Right organizations. The findings are based on a large survey of Republican party state convention delegates in four states. The data show that Catholic delegates hold very conservative issue positions in line with Christian Right organizations, and have positive feelings toward Christian Right leaders and organizations. Yet Catholic delegates hold somewhat distinctive positions among Republicans on certain issues, and therefore remain reluctant to join the Christian Coalition and other such groups.     

Correlates and Characteristics of Boredom Proneness and Boredom1

This study investigated the relationships between boredom proneness, mood monitoring, mood labeling, and tendency to experience flow; and explored some qualitative, phenomenological aspects of boredom. College students (N= 170) responded to an anonymous questionnaire containing the Boredom Proneness Scale (Farmer & Sundberg, 1986), the Mood Awareness Scale (Swinkels & Giuliano, 1995), a measure of flow proneness, and questions about the experience of boredom. As predicted, Boredom Proneness was positively correlated with mood monitoring, negatively correlated with mood labeling, and negatively correlated with flow. Respondents provided interesting information about their perceptions of boredom, its causes, and their strategies for coping with and planning for boring situations. A majority of participants described positive aspects of boredom, and 10% volunteered that they were never bored.     

Couples Therapy for Drug Abusing Women in an Inpatient Setting: A Pilot Study

This article describes a pilot study to examine the usefulness of adding a couples therapy component to inpatient drug and alcohol treatment for women. The treatment model was modified from a 12-week integrative systems model that has been empirically supported in outpatient treatment settings. A team of student-therapists received intensive training and supervision in the modified version. This article discusses the ability of chemical dependency counselors to implement this model, includes pre and post treatment comparisons, and qualitative findings regarding the efficacy of the project. The treatment model promises to be usable, safe, and practical in inpatient settings, and merits a more thoroughgoing clinical trial.     

Concealability beliefs facilitate navigating intergroup contexts

Living in a diverse world requires the ability to navigate intergroup contexts. However, interacting with outgroup members can cause anxiety that leads to lower-quality interactions and avoidance of future contact. One reason people experience this anxiety is the concern that others will judge them on the basis of an identity. These concerns may be reduced among people who believe the identity is unperceivable by others. The belief that one's identity is concealable may therefore reduce intergroup anxiety and ease people's experiences in intergroup contexts. The present work tests this proposition in two studies and finds that individual differences in concealability beliefs are negatively associated with intergroup anxiety and positively associated with the propensity to initiate intergroup contact and with the quantity and quality of people's cross-group friendships. Materials, data, and code for both studies and a pre-registration for Study 2 are available online ( https://osf.io/4cjhg/ ).     

Spouses' responses to the dietary nonadherence of their partners managing diabetes

The association between patients' dietary nonadherence and spouses' involvement in patients' diabetes diet was examined, with spouses' anxiety about nonadherence considered as a mediator of this association. Daily diary data from 128 older adult patients with type 2 diabetes and their spouses were analyzed using multilevel models. Results revealed that on days when patients reported less adherence to their diabetes diet than usual, spouses reported greater anxiety about patients' diabetes management, which, in turn, was related to greater spousal persuasion and pressure the same day. The association between patients' nonadherence and diet‐related support on the same day was not mediated, however, through spouses' anxiety. The findings contribute to an understanding of spouses' responses to patients' nonadherence to their diabetes regimen.     

Sex differences in cognitive performance and style across domains in mosquitofish (Gambusia affinis)

Animal Cognition - Given that the sexes often differ in their ecological and sexual selection pressures, sex differences in cognitive properties are likely. While research on sexually dimorphic...