Kea cooperate better with sharing affiliates

Controlled studies that focus on intraspecific cooperation tasks have revealed striking similarities, but also differences, in abilities across taxa as diverse as primates, fish, and birds. Such comparisons may provide insight into the specific socio-ecological selection pressures that led to the evolution of cooperation. Unfortunately, however, compared to primates data on birds remain relatively scarce. We tested a New Zealand psittaciform, the kea, in a dyadic cooperation task using the loose-string design. During trials our subjects were in separate compartments, but obtained a common reward that could be divided multiple ways, allowing the examination of reward division effects. Ten individuals were tested twice in 44 combinations of partners. Dyads with a high affiliation score attempted to cooperate more often and were also more often successful in doing so. Furthermore, dyads that shared rewards more equally seemed to be more likely to attempt cooperation in the next trial. Like other bird and some monkey species, but unlike, for example, chimpanzees, kea did not spontaneously show understanding of either the role of the partner or the mechanism behind the cooperation task. This may point to true disparities between species, but may also be due to differences in task design and/or the amount of exposure to similar tasks and individual skills of the subjects.     

Introduction to the Special Section: Toward Implementing Physiological Measures in Clinical Assessments of Adult Mental Health

This article serves as the introduction to the Special Section called “Toward Implementing Physiological Measures in Clinical Assessments of Adult Mental Health.” As such, it provides an overview of the importance of integrating assessments of physiological and subjective processes in mental health assessments and discusses the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) initiative. In addition, it summarizes the findings from the four empirical studies published in the Special Section. Collectively, these studies sought to illustrate how physiological assessments can be incorporated in mental health assessments conducted in applied research and clinic settings. In all, we hope that this Special Section will inspire the type of interdisciplinary research spanning basic and applied work that will be critical to advancing the RDoC initiative.     

Sex differences in the assignment of responsibility for an accident

Two experiments examined the proposition that females assign less responsibility than males to a perpetrator in a feminine occupation and males assign less responsibility than females to a perpetrator in a masculine occupation. The results from Experiment 1 indicated that females assigned less responsibility than males to a perpetrator in a feminine occupation, whereas males and females assigned equal responsibility to a perpetrator in a masculine occupation. These results did not generalize to measures of causality, foreseeability, intent, or justification. Therefore, they suggest that responsibility may have been assigned on the basis of reliability of the perpetrator's behavior and that a measure of reliability may be more appropriate than a measure of responsibility. The results from Experiment 2 supported the contention. Females judged the behavior of a perpetrator in a feminine occupation to be more reliable than did males, and males judged the behavior of a perpetrator in a masculine occupation to be more reliable than did females.     

Procuring Sexual Services: Evidencing Masculinity Diversity and Difference Through Sex Work Research

Masculinities theorising has promoted a traditional view of maleness, conceptualising it as being dominant, successful and non-emotional; that is hegemonic masculinity. Contemporary work on men and their behaviour, recognising need and emotions, has been classified as subordinate to hegemonic masculinity. We examine the procurement of sexual services by a cohort of heterosexual men in New South Wales, Australia arguing that our findings support contemporary masculinity writings. Our analysis suggests that men seek and obtain intimacy and emotional experiences through procurement of sex, while at the same time reflecting some hegemonic masculine characteristics. We conclude by arguing that research with men who procure sexual services provides new insights into masculinities theorising recognising difference and diversity in what it is to be a man in the twenty-first century.     

Traits and Roles in Gender Stereotypes: A Comparison between Moroccan and Spanish Native Samples

This study examines gender role attitudes and attitudes toward “man” and “woman” in two native samples from Spain and Morocco. The samples were made up of 400 participants, 200 in each country, containing the same number of men and women and selected with a similar procedure. We expected differences based on the independent variables of nationality, gender and educational level. The Spanish sample, female and student participants were predicted to present more egalitarian gender role attitudes and more positive attitudes toward “woman” than participants in the Moroccan sample, male and non-student participants. Overall MANOVAs were used to show the differences in gender role attitudes and attitudes toward “man” and “woman”. Results confirmed the role of the nationality variable in the expected way. The Spanish sample showed a more egalitarian view and more favorable attitudes toward “woman” than the Moroccan one. Educational level and gender showed significant effects on the Moroccan sample but only partially. Moroccan student females and non-student males presented a more egalitarian view than non-student females and student males respectively.     

Multi-Informant Assessments of Adolescent Social Anxiety: Adding Clarity by Leveraging Reports from Unfamiliar Peer Confederates

Adolescent social anxiety (SA) assessments often include adolescent and parent reports, and low reporting correspondence results in uncertainties in clinical decision-making. Adolescents display SA within non-home contexts such as peer interactions. Yet, current methods for collecting peer reports raise confidentiality concerns, though adolescent SA assessments nonetheless would benefit from context-specific reports relevant to adolescent SA (i.e., interactions with unfamiliar peers). In a sample of 89 adolescents (30 Evaluation-Seeking; 59 Community Control), we collected SA reports from adolescents and their parents, and SA reports from unfamiliar peer confederates who interacted with adolescents during 20-minute mock social interactions. Adolescents and parents completed reports on trait measures of adolescent SA and related concerns (e.g., depressive symptoms), and adolescents completed self-reports of state arousal within mock social interactions. Adolescents’ SA reports correlated with reports on parallel measures from parents in the .30s and with peer confederates in the .40s to .50s, whereas reports from parent-confederate dyads correlated in the .07 to .22 range. Adolescent, parent, and peer confederate SA reports related to reports on trait measures of adolescent SA and depressive symptoms, and distinguished Evaluation-Seeking from Community Control Adolescents. Confederates’ SA reports incrementally predicted adolescents’ self-reported SA over and above parent reports, and vice versa, with combined Rs ranging from .51 to .60. These combined Rs approximate typical correspondence levels between informants who observe adolescents in the same context (e.g., mother-father). Adolescent and peer confederate (but not parent) SA reports predicted adolescents’ state arousal in social interactions. These findings have implications for clarifying patterns of reporting correspondence in clinical assessments of adolescent SA.     

Gender and age differences in emotion regulation strategies and their relationship to depressive symptoms

We examined differences between men and women, and between young, middle and older age adults in emotion regulation strategies (rumination, suppression, reappraisal, problem-solving, acceptance, social support) and the relationships between these strategies and depressive symptoms. Women were more likely than men to report using several different emotion regulation strategies, and these gender differences were significant even after statistically controlling for gender differences in depressive symptoms. Use of most strategies decreased with age, with two exceptions: (1) use of suppression increased with age for women but not for men and (2) use of acceptance did not decrease with age for women. Use of maladaptive strategies was associated with more depressive symptoms in all age groups and both genders, yet, the use of adaptive strategies generally was not related to lower levels depressive symptoms across groups.