What is Apple-Psych?

Apple Psych, a system of software subroutines written in Apple Pascal and 6502 assembly language, was designed to run real-time psychological experiments on the Apple II, II+, and IIe microcomputers. This paper describes the minimum system requirements necessary to run Apple-Psych, the capabilities of the basic system, and the advantages and disadvantages of using Apple-Psych. Because the utility of a system to a researcher is often linked to its flexibility and expandability, this paper includes a brief discussion of hardware expansions already supported by the Apple Psych software and hardware expansions that would require additional software support.     

RESPONSE REDUCTION THROUGH THE SUPERIMPOSITION OF CONTINUOUS REINFORCEMENT: A SYSTEMATIC REPLICATION

Prior clinical research suggests that superimposition and subsequent removal of a schedule of continuous reinforcement (CRF) may be a viable rate-decreasing procedure in that an extinction-like condition is arranged. The arrangement of similar conditions in the laboratory, however, resulted in the quick recovery of baseline rates. Lever-pressing patterns of eight male rats maintained by different schedules of variable-ratio and variable-interval food reinforcement were examined in an A-B-A experimental design of CRF food superimposition and removal. Responding was substantially reduced during the superimposition of CRF. Upon removal of the superimposed schedule, responding quickly approached presuperimposition baseline rates.     

It may be lonely at the top but it's less stressful: psychological burnout in public schools

This investigation compared levels of psychological burnout and its antecedents and consequences among teachers, department heads, and principals from a single school board. The data showed that increased stress and burnout were associated with decreased administrative responsibilities. Possible explanations for these findings are provided.     

A comparison of alcohol drinkers at a state and private university

The purpose of this study was to compare the drinking behaviors of college students at a large state university to the drinking behaviors of their counterparts at a smaller church university.Questionnaires were administered to a total sample of 764—434 students represented the state university, while 330 students represented the church university. Statistical analysis of the data revealed significant differences at the .05 alpha level between the two groups of drinkers. However, many similarities between the two groups did exist. Two of the three null hypotheses were supported by the data. Only in one category did the drinkers at the church school respond notably higher than the state school drinkers. Considerably more church school drinkers admitted to drinking primarily when in a lonely or sad mood than the state school drinkers. Drinkers at the church school felt a need to hide or be alone when drinking and did not use alcohol to socialize as often as their state school counterparts.     

Beliefs and fears underlying type A behavior: correlates of time urgency and hostility

Price (1980, 1983) has proposed that Type A behavior allows individuals to cope with fears and anxieties engendered by beliefs about their environment they develop through socialization. The present investigation tested her cognitive social learning model of Type A behavior by developing measures of beliefs and fears and validating them against Type A measures. Data was provided by 137 male and female university students of administration who completed questionnaires. Three beliefs and four fears were assessed along with four aspects of Type A behavior. Measures of beliefs and fears were moderately correlated with measures of time urgency and hostility, particularly among women. Younger men and women reported stronger beliefs and fears.     

The Behavioral Approach System (BAS) Model of Vulnerability to Bipolar Disorder: Evidence of a Continuum in BAS Sensitivity across Adolescence

Behavioral Approach System (BAS) sensitivity has been implicated in the development of a variety of different psychiatric disorders. Prominent among these in the empirical literature are bipolar spectrum disorders (BSDs). Given that adolescence represents a critical developmental stage of risk for the onset of BSDs, it is important to clarify the latent structure of BAS sensitivity in this period of development. A statistical approach especially well-suited for delineating the latent structure of BAS sensitivity is taxometric analysis, which is designed to evaluate whether the latent structure of a construct is taxonic (i.e., categorical) or dimensional (i.e., continuous) in nature. The current study applied three mathematically non-redundant taxometric procedures (i.e., MAMBAC, MAXEIG, and L-Mode) to a large community sample of adolescents (n = 12,494) who completed two separate measures of BAS sensitivity: the BIS/BAS Scales Carver and White (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67, 319–333. 1994) and the Sensitivity to Reward and Sensitivity to Punishment Questionnaire (Torrubia et al. Personality and Individual Differences, 31, 837–862. 2001). Given the significant developmental changes in reward sensitivity that occur across adolescence, the current investigation aimed to provide a fine-grained evaluation of the data by performing taxometric analyses at an age-by-age level (14–19 years; n for each age ≥ 883). Results derived from taxometric procedures, across all ages tested, were highly consistent, providing strong evidence that BAS sensitivity is best conceptualized as dimensional in nature. Thus, the findings suggest that BAS-related vulnerability to BSDs exists along a continuum of severity, with no natural cut-point qualitatively differentiating high- and low-risk adolescents. Clinical and research implications for the assessment of BSD-related vulnerability are discussed.