Repression of emotionally tagged memories: the architecture of less complex emotions

We asked subjects to recall memories of events that evoked feelings of anger, sadness, fear, and embarrassment. These memories evoked patterns of dominant and nondominant emotions. The dominant emotions evoked by the recalled events were no less intense for repressors than nonrepressors, but repressors' patterns of nondominant emotions were less intense than those of nonrepressors. The data suggested that for repressors the associative network of negative emotional memories may be more discrete and less complex than that for nonrepressors. This finding was consistent with recent research indicating that negative emotional memories are less accessible for repressors than for nonrepressors. The pattern of multivariate effects suggests that this repressive memorial architecture may serve the motive of isolating fear-associated memories.     

Some types of conditioned inhibitors carry collateral excitatory associations

Two experiments using summation tests in conditioned suppression with rats examined whether conditioned inhibitors generated by five different conditioning procedures have an associative structure which includes collateral excitatory associations. The existence of collateral conditioned excitation was inferred from an increase in the amount of manifest conditioned inhibition after a conditioned inhibitory stimulus (CS-) extinction treatment. The five CS-s evaluated were differential, explicitly unpaired, conditional, backward, and trace. With abbreviated conditioning (Experiment 1), the differential and explicitly unpaired CS-s exhibited conditioned inhibitory properties; the conditional, backward, and trace CS-s did not. Repeated extinction presentations of the CS- in the absence of the unconditioned stimulus unmasked conditioned inhibition to the conditional, backward, and trace CS-s revealing moderate degrees of conditioned inhibition for all five CS-s. After more extensive conditioning (Experiment 2), the explicitly unpaired and conditional CS-s were strongly inhibitory and the differential and trace CS-s were moderately inhibitory. The backward CS- was not inhibitory. Repeated presentations of the CS- in extinction unmasked conditioned inhibition to trace and backward CS-s. All five CS-s were now nearly equally inhibitory. That the measured inhibitory power of backward, trace, and conditional (after few trials) CS-s can be modulated by a CS- extinction treatment suggests that they have similar associative structures and carry, in addition to inhibitory associations, collateral excitatory associations that mask the expression of conditioned inhibition.     

A model for repeat paired comparison preference tests

A model is proposed that describes subject behavior on repeat paired comparison preference tests. The model extends prior work in this area in that it explicitly allows for abstentions and permits the derivation of individual true scores for discrimination ability as well as conditional estimates of proportionate preference. With these results, the properties of a paired comparison test can be thoroughly explored. An empirical example is presented, and test design issues are considered. In particular, repeat paired comparison preference tests are shown to be inherently less efficient discrimination tests than are pick 1 of 2 tests.     

The inclination of modern jurists to associate lawyers with doctors: Plato's response inGorgias 464–465

From the turn of the century, jurists have tended to associate lawyers with doctors as professionals and tried to ground this association in an analogy between law and medicine. Paradoxically, such comparisons suggest that American law and medicine are not analogous, while an analogy proposed by Plato illumines more fundamental respects in which law and medicine might be truly analogous.     

The additivity of loudness across critical bands: A conjoint measurement approach

Five subjects were required in each trial to compare directly two sounds and to indicate which sound was louder. Each of the 64 sounds employed consisted of a combination of one of eight intensity levels of a 2-kHz tone and one of eight intensities of a 5-kHz tone. If, as Fletcher and Munson (1933) argued, loudness is additive for tone combinations in which the frequencies are widely separated, then subjects’ judgments should reflect the summed loudnesses of the 2- and 5-kHz tones in a two-tone combination. Judgments of individual subjects were shown to satisfy the conditions for an additive structure, and individual loudness scales were constructed. These loudness scales varied from subject to subject. Since this paired comparison procedure minimized response biases, the results suggest substantial individual differences in the sensory representation of sound intensity. The relations among sensory scales derived from other structured sensory judgments, such as binaural loudness, are discussed.     

Life stress and psychopathology: Progress on research begun with Barbara Snell Dohrenwend

This is a progress report on some of the research that was planned and begun with Barbara Dohrenwend before she died in 1982. The main focus is on two of the studies. One was conducted in New York City; the other is still underway in Israel. The New York study is a retrospective case/control study of social and psychological factors that may put people at risk for developing schizophrenic episodes and episodes of major depression. The Israel research consists of epidemiological, case/control, and family studies of these two disorders together with other types of psychopathology that are inversely related to social class. Preliminary findings from both studies are reported, and their implications for primary prevention are discussed.     

Sensory control of maternal aggression in Rattus norvegicus

Female rats become aggressive toward adult conspecifics during lactation. This change in social affect is dependent on the presence of the offspring, because maternal aggression disappears when the pups are removed. It was found that a similar decline occurs when the litter is placed in a glass flask while remaining in the home cage. In contrast, maternal aggression persists following placement of the pups in a nylon mesh bag. The pups did not vocalize while being in the mesh bags, so it appears that olfactory cues from the offspring constitute a critical element in the maintenance of maternal aggression in the rat. It has been suggested that the odor not only of the pups but also of the intruder may contribute to eliciting aggressive behavior in lactating rodents. In line with this proposal, it was found that mother rats spend about one third of the time preceding the first attack sniffing the body of the intruder. In contrast to findings in mice, housing of the prospective intruder behind a double wire mesh partition in the lactating female's home cage failed to reduce her aggressiveness toward him. Rats, then, may require more intimate contact with an individual than do mice for the aggression-reducing effect of familiarization to be observed.     

Computer-assisted psychotherapy

By making careful selections and arrangements from the numerous items of information that arise in dynamic psychotherapy and filing them in a microcomputer, this information can be made more readily available to the therapist. Its greater availability can facilitate developing understanding of the patient, making specific and timely insightful interventions, and supporting other aspects of the therapy.     

Social networks and adult social identities: Profiles and correlates of support and rejection

The growth of interest in social networks has underscored the need for integrative analyses of network dimensions. A three-pronged strategy to achieve this objective was pursued in a study of 261 married women nurses. First, network variables related to important adult social identities were differentiated. Factor analyses revealed four network interaction factors: work support, work rejection, general support, and general rejection. An additional factor analysis differentiated work associates from nonwork network members. Second, cluster analysis of these factor scores identified five different network profiles. The profiles differed in the importance of the woman's work to her nonwork ties as well as the frequency and pattern of different positive and negative interactions. Third, individuals with these contrasting network profiles differed on levels of life satisfaction and psychological symptomatology. The discussion emphasizes social network differences within the broader context of the ecology of human development.