USING COMPLEX AUDITORY—VISUAL SAMPLES TO PRODUCE EMERGENT RELATIONS IN CHILDREN WITH AUTISM

Six participants with autism learned conditional relations between complex auditory‐visual sample stimuli (dictated words and pictures) and simple visual comparisons (printed words) using matching‐to‐sample training procedures. Pre‐ and posttests examined potential stimulus control by each element of the complex sample when presented individually and emergence of additional conditional relations and oral labeling. Tests revealed class‐consistent performance for all participants following training.     

Relations of familiarity with reasoning strategies in conspiracy beliefs

The prevalence and resilience of conspiracy beliefs suggest that such beliefs may derive in part from general information-processing mechanisms. Two predictions were tested: conspiracy beliefs would increase as familiarity with the conspiracy increased, and conspiracy beliefs would rest in part on the perception of the alleged conspirators' motive. Participants read condensed versions of four real-life conspiracy theories of varying familiarity, rated their belief in the conspiracies, and explained their ratings. Although belief was not associated with familiarity, participants used different justifications for their beliefs about familiar and unfamiliar conspiracies, relying prominently on motive when the conspiracy was unfamiliar. Preliminary data suggested that participants' beliefs in conspiracies may have been equally strong when they reasoned only in terms of motive as when they reasoned in terms of documented evidence. An additional finding suggested also that beliefs in conspiracies may increase as affiliation with the victim of the alleged conspiracy increases.     

Some Costs of American Corporate Capitalism: A Psychological Exploration of Value and Goal Conflicts

Evolutionary psychology has been proposed as a metatheoretical framework for psychology. We argue that evolutionary psychology should be expanded if it is to offer new insights regarding the major issues in psychology. Evolutionary developmental biology can provide valuable new insights into issues such as the domain-specificity of the human mind, the nature–nurture debate, stages in development, and the origin of individual differences. Evolutionary developmental biology provides evidence for the hypotheses that domain-general and domain-specific abilities co-occur, that nature and nurture interact in a dynamic and nonadditive way, that stages occur in development, and that individual differences are the result of pleiotropic effects during development.     

The Effect of Fatigue on Learning and Performance of a Gross Motor Task

40 college males were sequentially assigned to 1 of 2 groups to examine the effects of induced physical fatigue upon the performance and learning of a gross motor task, the stabilometer. All Ss were given 32 practice trials over 3 practice sessions, with 48 hr. rest interpolated between sessions. Trials 1 and 2 were performed under control conditions (no fatigue) for both groups. The Experimental Group was then required to perform under conditions of physical fatigue during Trials 3-26. Trials 27-32 (Session 3) were performed under control conditions. The condition of fatigue was achieved on Trials 3-26 by having Ss pedal a bicycle ergometer until a heart rate of 180 beats/min was attained prior to each trial. The Control Group cancelled vowels. The results indicated that physical fatigue was detrimental to the performance and learning of the Experimental Group.     

Associations Between the Repressive Adaptive Style and Self-Reported Hope in Mexican American and Euro-American Children

The investigators factor-analyzed abstract art preferences and correlated art factors with traits on the Guilford-Zimmerman Temperament Survey. Factors were derived from preference ratings on the “Abstract Art Test” developed by Knapp and Green in a previous study. Two of the three multiple loading factors were “non-geometric” or expressionistic; one was “geometric,” rationalistic. Only 2 of the 30 correlations with the GZTS scales were significant at the .10 level, and these could have been due to chance. There is support for dichotomizing abstract art types into “geometric” and “non-geometric” but little support for the role of temperament in aesthetic preference.     

Latent self-oriented and socially prescribed perfectionism: Tests of factorial,convergent, and discriminant validity using self- and informant reports

Using latent variables for self-oriented perfectionism (i.e., demanding perfection of oneself) and socially prescribed perfectionism (i.e., perceiving others are demanding perfection of oneself) has advantages. However, few studies have specifically examined the psychometric properties of these latent variables. The present study addresses this shortcoming by testing the factorial, convergent, and discriminant validity of self-oriented and socially prescribed perfectionism latent variables using self- and informant reports. It was hypothesized that (a) the factor structure of the self-oriented and socially prescribed perfectionism latent variables would be supported, (b) self- and informant reports would moderately converge, and (c) the self-oriented and socially prescribed perfectionism latent variables would be discriminable. A sample of 242 undergraduate women and 378 informants (218 mothers, 160 fathers) was recruited. Undergraduate women completed self-reports, and mothers and fathers completed informant reports. Results were consistent with hypotheses, thereby supporting (a) the factorial validity of the self-oriented and socially prescribed latent variables using self- and informant reports, (b) the convergent validity of the self-oriented and socially prescribed latent variables via moderately to strongly correlated self- and informant reports, and (c) the discriminant validity of the self-oriented and socially prescribed perfectionism latent variables. Findings suggest research using these latent variables is warranted.     

Engagement and termination in marital and familial therapy: Special ethical issues

Abstract

This article features an examination of the unique features affecting ethical treatment decisions in the engagement and termination phases of marital and familial therapy.