Extinction after aversive conditioning: An associative or nonassociative process?

A series of three eyelid-conditioning experiments with rabbits examined the traditional extinction procedure in which the CS is presented in the absence of US presentations. The first study employed a savings test to demonstrate that the rate of reacquisition is faster after a conventional extinction procedure than after a procedure in which the CS and US have been unpaired. The second experiment indicated that this readiness to respond in reacquisition was related to a carry-over effect from the initial acquisition trials. The third study demonstrated that acquisition and reacquisition are similar when the US is maintained in extinction but not when it is omitted. These results imply that procedures which retain the US during extinction are more effective than the conventional CS-alone extinction procedure in eliminating or inhibiting the associative connection between the CS and the US.     

Changes in sex-role attitudes and self-actualization of adult women following a consciousness-raising group

Changes in sex-role attitudes and self-actualization of adult women in a community college were examined following a consciousness-raising group. Participants viewed their own role and that of their ideal woman as more extrafamilial, became more inner-directed, and maintained a consistently positive attitude toward other women.     

The use of mental health professional consultants to police hostage negotiation teams

Three hundred law enforcement agencies in the United States that employ a negotiator in hostage incidents responded to a survey regarding the use of mental health professionals as consultants to the negotiation team. Thirty-nine percent of the agencies with a negotiator use a mental health professional consultant to the negotiation team. Police agencies that use a mental health professional as a consultant on negotiation techniques reported more hostage incidents ending by negotiated surrender and fewer hostage incidents ending by tactical team assault and arrest of the perpetrator. Also, police agencies that use a mental health professional as a consultant on the assessment of the perpetrator reported fewer hostage incidents resulting in the serious injury or death of a hostage. Although these results are only correlational, they raise the possibility that the use of mental health professionals as consultants to police hostage negotiation teams may decrease the risk of hostage injury and death.     

Graphics in psychology: Pictures,data, and especially concepts

Over the last 50 years, psychologists have included numerous graphics in their journals and textbooks. The textbooks have contained mostly pictures, whereas the journals have contained mostly data graphs. Surprisingly, conceptual graphs (such as a network chart of the relations among types of memory) have been very infrequent. There are two main reasons for this absence of conceptual graphs: a lack of awareness of the important role that they have played in the history of our discipline, and a lack of knowledge about how to make them. Four types of conceptual graphs are presented here: mathematical graphs (e.g., Fechner’s law), geometric models (e.g., Henning’s smell prism), networks (e.g., Atkinson and Shiffrin’s STM-LTM model), and EulerVenn graphs (e.g., Shiffrin and Schneider’s model of control and automatic processes). Suggestions are offered forheuristics that can be used to facilitate the perception of conceptual relations in these graphs. It is argued that appropriate conceptual graphs can help researchers and theorists communicate the “big picture” relevant to their ideas, can help educators more effectively communicate with students, and may help clinical psychologists communicate their ideas to clients better.     

Attitudes and adolescent nonmarital childbearing: evidence from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth

The 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) provided data for the analysis of the impact of self-esteem, locus of control, attitudes towards women's family roles, work, and school on the probability of a nonmarital birth. The study avoided methodological problems of prior studies by using a national data base with attitude measured before nonmarital childbearing occurs. No prior studies included these 5 factors. Previous research on attitudes and nonmarital childbearing is summarized. Theoretical models imply that self-esteem, high educational goals, and an internal locus of control are associated with a lower likelihood of a nonmarital birth. The conceptual model for this study is described. It does not include how attitudes develop or estimate the linkage between family background variables and attitudes. A reduced from approach was used and controls were included for 6 family background and personal variables. The sample of 1184 girls was restricted to those aged 14 or 15 years in 1979 who were never married or had a child. 16.9% of the sample had a nonmarital child by 19 years. Measurement of explanatory variables is indicated as the Rosenberg Self Esteem Scale and the Rotter scale for internal-external locus of control. A 7-item scale measured women's roles, an 8-item scale measured attitudes toward school, and 3 items assessed views on the importance of improving one's employment prospects. Background control variables were race/ethnicity, mother's education, presence of welfare income, family income, family structure, and religiosity. The standard logistics technique was used to estimate the logarithm of the odds of having a nonmarital birth as a linear function of both attitude and family background variables. Models were estimated both with and without the educational expectation variable. The results appear to indicate that self-esteem and attitudes toward school are associated with nonmarital childbearing, as predicted by theory. Locus of control does not systematically affect the likelihood of nonmarital childbearing, nor do family and gender roles and attitudes toward work. Educational expectations are not associated, but may act as an intervening variable.     

What are the relationship experiences of in which one member identifies as transgender? A systematic review and meta-ethnography

Transgender individuals and their partners may face unique challenges that other couples do not. These unique challenges merit investigation, understanding and consideration by systemic practitioners in order to provide a culturally attuned service for transgender clients. A systematic review of the literature into the experiences of couples in which one member is transgender identified 22 qualitative papers. A translation and synthesis of constructs from these papers utilising a meta-ethnographic approach generated a number of third order constructs organised into nine overarching themes. These themes included experiences of stigma and discrimination, issues of power, privilege, visibility and identity, and experiences of dissonance and dysphoria that required adjustments and negotiations on the personal and relationship levels. Implications for practice and avenues for future research are discussed.     

Exposure to Major Stressors May Reduce Dysfunctional Cognition About Them1

Exposure to a given stressor may enhance future resistance to that specific event as well as to stressful events more generally. One mechanism may be that prior exposure decreases dysfunctional beliefs about the specific event or to events in general (i. e., general dysfunctional attitudes). The research described here examined whether exposure to divorce was related to fewer divorce‐specific and general dysfunctional attitudes. Divorced participants reported fewer divorce‐specific dysfunctional attitudes than did happily married participants or married participants considering divorce. Similarly, adult children of divorced parents had fewer divorce‐specific dysfunctional attitudes than did adult children of happily married parents. A different pattern was observed for general dysfunctional attitudes.