Developmental issues in psychotherapy research

Research on psychosocial interventions with children requires attention to developmental principles such as age-specific competence, maturational shifts, increasing cone of relevant contacts, and socioeconomic context of biological stages. Research strategies that include such variables should lead to ecologically sound investigations and the correct selection of outcome variables. A consideration of the specificity of treatment and controlled design alone are not sufficient to guide the study of the psychological treatment of developing organisms and persons.     

A hermeneutics of the natural sciences? The debate updated

The initial obstacle to the development of a hermeneutics of the natural sciences has been the inadequate translation, and thus misunderstanding, of the basic terms of Heidegger's ontological analysis ofthe protopractical human situation and its progressive technicization. Pragmatism's parallel analyses of the problem situation of scientists has promoted a more idiomatically English vocabulary. But 1) Gadamer's exclusion of domains and disciplines working with technical methods from his universal hermeneutics continues to be influential, this in spite of the genesis of his project in Helmholtz's insights into the process of scientific discovery. 2) Markus thus depicts a distinctly different style of production, transmission, and reception of the technological texts of natural science. 3) Rouse's 1987 extension of pragmatic hermeneutics into the incipient politics of knowledge/power relations in laboratory science presents the usual frightening prospects connected with laboratory experimentation impacting on disciplinary social institutions. 4) Rouse's 1996 analysis of scientific practices in local narrative situations eschews the banner of hermeneutics and instead proposes to examine scientific-technological work by way of interdisciplinary cultural studies, once the traditional loci of hermeneutic methodology. 5) A hermeneutic phenomenology of the natural sciences thus finds itself fundamentally challenged with respect to its rightful topics and roles in the analysis of increasingly technicized disciplines and domains.     

Neocortex and feeding behavior in the rat.

Consummatory behavior and weight-regulation capacity were measured in 12 normal rats and in 43 rats that survived complete (C), sequential unilateral (U), anterolateral (A), or posterior (P) neocortical ablations. Groups C and A displayed aphagia and adipsia followed by a sequence of recovery stages gualitatively identical to, but shorter than, recovery typically seen following lateral hypothalamic lesions. After recovery, Group C displayed long-term effects of finickiness and pradial drinking. These effects as well as a measure of recovery of body-weight-regulation capacity were significantly intercorrelated with lesion size, and body-weight set point remained significantly lower than normal. Group U was relatively unaffected by the first unilateral ablation and showed, relative the second ablation but displayed the long-term effects. Group P, though significantly affected by the lesion, did not display the pattern or intensity of effects described for the other bilaterally ablated groups.     

The impact of spouse monitoring on target behavior and recorder satisfaction

The objectives of this study were (a) to determine the impact of a spouse monitoring procedure on the target's (husband's) behavior and the recorder (wife's) view of the marriage and (b) to assess the relationship between the target's positive behaviors and the recorder's marital satisfaction rating. In one condition, husbands were informed that their behavior was being observed, whereas in a comparison group, husbands were kept unaware of the observation procedure. In both conditions, wives kept daily recordings of (a) positive behaviors emitted by their husbands and (b) perceptions of their marital relationships. No differences were found in rates of husbands' behavior or in wives' perceptions of their marriages as a function of the awareness manipulation. Analyses examining the relationship between spouse behavior and daily satisfaction ratings indicated a statistically reliable association, although the majority of variance in satisfaction ratings was attributable to unique subject variables.This article is based on a thesis submitted by the first author to the Department of Psychology of the University of Pittsburgh. The described research was supported in part by a Faculty Research Grant from the University of Pittsburgh awarded to the second author.     

Illusory contours: On the efficacy of their need for expression

When an illusory-figure pattern is presented against a physical lightness gradient, the illusory figure’s lightness relative to the surround is often the reverse of the usual effect, a fact that suggests that, rather than the figure’s depending upon illusory lightness, real lightness differences can be utilized in its expression. A second demonstration suggests that the apparent strength of the lightness effect may be greater where there is relatively less physical expression of the contour. Again, the establishment of the contour seems to involve more than merely “capturing” illusory lightness.     

Autonomic and behavioral effects of dextroamphetamine and placebo in normal and hyperactive prepubertal boys

The hypothesis is tested that the response to dextroamphetamine in terms of activity, attention, impulsivity, and autonomic activity is similar in normal (N) and hyperactive (H) children. Fourteen N and 15 H boys had skin conductance (SC), heart rate (HR), and finger temperature (ST) recorded during rest, presentation of eight 75- dB tones, and a reaction time (RT) procedure on three occasions: off drug (Day 1) and after ingestion (double-blind) of placebo and of .5 mg/kg dextroamphetamine. Both N and H groups showed drug effects, compared to placebo, of reduced motor activity and impulsivity, improved attention (RT), increased HR and HR slowing during RT foreperiods, and decreased ST. Both groups also had decreases in SC responsivity but in different parts of the test. Placebo compared to Day 1 produced increased activity and autonomic arousal but no change in RT. Stimulant drugs thus have similar behavioral and autonomic effects in both N and H boys, but the beneficial effects on behavior do not depend critically on increases in arousal.     

Idiosyncratic exceptions to the probability-matching decision-rule in visual discrimination

Human “Yes-No” signal-detection performance was tested under a modified perceptual-defense procedure. A majority of Ss tended to match the relative frequency with which they gave affirmative responses to the relative frequency at which signals were presented. These Ss thereby replicated the “probability-matching” behavior found in previous signal-detection and discrimination studies. However, in marked contrast to those previous results, another large set of Ss showed a tendency toward preponderant use of one of the two responses (typically, of “No”) rather than toward probability-matching. The evidence failed to suggest that the latter effect was related to a lesser ability to make the requisite sensory discrimination or to response inhibition induced by taboo stimuli.