The Interactional Context of Problem-, Emotion-, and Relationship-Focused Coping: The Role of the Big Five Personality Factors

ABSTRACT This study examined the role that personality and situational factors play in three forms of coping responses: problem-, emotion- and relationship-focused. Coping responses were strongly associated with whether the situation involved a primarily agentic (work) or communal (interpersonal) stressor. Among communal stressors, the involvement of close versus distant others was also associated with coping responses. Situational factors were linked most strongly with the use of problem-focused (planful problem solving) and relationship-focused (empathic responding) modes of coping. Dimensions of personality derived from the five-factor model (Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness to Experience, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness) had important associations with coping responses. Coping responses were best predicted by models that included both the additive and multiplicative effects of person and situation factors. Taken together, the findings suggest that a model of coping that considers both agentic and communal dimensions of stressful situations, includes interpersonal dimensions of coping, and considers personality and situation factors in tandem is needed to increase the predictive utility of current models.     

Responding in the squirrel monkey under second-order schedules of shock delivery

Lever-pressing responses were maintained in the squirrel monkey when the only consequence of responding was the delivery of a response-produced electric shock, or alternatively, a brief visual stimulus that was occasionally followed by an electric shock. When shock was produced by the first response occurring after 8 min (8-min fixed-interval schedule), a period of no responding at the beginning of the interval was followed by a gradual increase in response rate during the interval. Similar rates and patterns of responding were maintained when a 1-sec visual stimulus was produced by the first response occurring after 8 min and shock delivery followed the brief stimulus. Subsequently, patterns of positively accelerated responding were engendered during individual fixed-interval components when the first response occurring after 4 min produced a 1-sec visual stimulus and shock delivery followed the second, and later the fourth, presentation of the 1-sec stimulus. When the duration of the brief stimulus was varied over a 100-fold range from 0.1 to 10.0 sec (1) mean response rates decreased monotonically as stimulus duration increased, and (2) patterns of positively accelerated responding were least variable and response rates during the initial part of each 4-min interval were lowest at a stimulus duration of 1 sec.     

An interresponse-time analysis of responding maintained by schedules of response-produced electric shock

The present study investigated ratio contingencies to evaluate factors that may determine the maintenance of responding when electric shock is the consequent event. Initially, squirrel monkeys (Saimiri sciureus) were exposed to a continuous-avoidance schedule to initiate bar pressing. Subsequently, a multiple random-interval variable-ratio yoked schedule of response-produced shock was used to maintain and to compare interval and ratio performance. A microcomputer recorded and stored the number of responses and interresponse times occurring between successive shock presentations during a given random-interval component, and these numbers determined the ratio requirements during the subsequent ratio component. Responding was maintained for more than 80 sessions in two of three monkeys under the multiple schedule with the ratio yoked to the interval component. Responding during the ratio component persisted in only one monkey, however, when the components were no longer yoked. An analysis of the interresponse times immediately preceding shock under the multiple yoked schedule revealed that the terminal interresponse times were longer under the interval schedule than under the ratio contingency. The interresponse-time analysis indicated that differential interresponse-time relationships may be major determinants of the maintenance of behavior controlled by schedules of electric-shock presentation.     

A microcomputer-based plotter system for the TRS-80 and HP 7225

A software package, MICROPLOT, was developed to run on a TRS-80 Model I microcomputer in conjunction with the Hewlett-Packard (HP) 7226 or similiar HP plotter. Capabilities include XY plotting of up to 10 data sets and curve plotting of an nth-degree polynomial. The package operates under the NEWDOS 80 Version 2.0 disk operating system but, with appropriate modification, can be run under any operating system that has dynamic program line merge and delete functions in BASIC. This report describes the structure of the system, hardware configuration, plotting capabilities, and applications in the behavioral laboratory.     

A pilot study of effects of cardiopulmonary resuscitation training on participants' self-concepts

The administration of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) was taught to a group of 12 adults. The Tennessee Self-concept Scale Form-C and the Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Orientation-Behavior Scale (FIRO-B) were administered before and after their training. A control group of 12 was administered both scales twice with one day between administrations. Analysis indicated both groups showed significant differences between the pre- and posttest administrations on expressed affection on the FIRO-B. However, participants in a brief CPR course did not score significantly differently from a control group on these measures, as expected.     

Clients' perceptions of how reorientation therapy and self-help can promote changes in sexual orientation

Presented is a summary of 882 homosexual people's responses to 5 open-ended questions about sexual reorientation therapy. Of the 882 participants, 726 reported that they had received reorientation therapy from a professional therapist or a pastoral counselor. As a group, 779 (89.7%) of the participants viewed themselves as "more homosexual than heterosexual," "almost exclusively homosexual," or "exclusively homosexual" in their orientation before receiving reorientation therapy or making self-help efforts to change. The majority reported they believed sexual reorientation therapy and various forms of self-help were helpful to them, psychologically, spiritually, and sexually.     

Exploring Compatibilities Between Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and 12-Step Treatment for Substance Abuse

Behavioral science research has appeared to conflict with the 12-step treatment approach, which is the prevalent practice in the treatment of addictions in the United States. Compatibilities between 12-step and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, a contextual behavioral treatment, are explored with the aim of reducing this friction and better serving consumers.     

The perfect murder: A philosophical whodunit

In his Reasons and Persons, Derek Parfit argues from the possibility of cases of fission and/or fusion of persons that one must reject identity as what matters for personal survival. Instead Parfit concludes that what matters is “psychological connectedness and/or continuity with the right kind of cause,” or what he calls an R-relation. In this paper, I argue that, if one accepts Parfit’s conclusion, one must accept that R-relations are what matter for moral responsibility as well. Unfortunately, it seems that accepting that the R-relation is what matters for both survival and moral responsibility leads to a contradiction. My goal, however, is not merely to point out a problem in Parfit’s account. Instead, I believe that once we understand the basic intuitions which lead to this contradiction, it is clear that there is no fully satisfactory way to account for what matters with respect to survival and moral responsibility.     

A Validation of the Inventory of Callous-Unemotional Traits in a Community Sample of Young Adult Males

Callous-unemotional (CU) traits have been shown to delineate a subgroup of individuals at high risk for exhibiting severe and persistent criminal behavior. The Inventory of Callous-Unemotional Traits (ICU; Frick 2004) was recently developed as a comprehensive rating scale designed to measure multiple facets of CU traits. However, validation of this measure has been limited to youth in adolescence and emerging adulthood (age range?=12–20), leaving questions about the utility of this measure in early adulthood unanswered. The current study evaluated the factor structure of the ICU within a racially diverse and well characterized community sample of adult males (n?=?425) using exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). While results found the best fitting model to be the three-bifactor structure that has been previously reported in adolescent samples, the fit indices were only marginally acceptable and suggest the need for scale refinement. Total and subscales scores demonstrated significant and distinct associations with relevant external criteria (e.g., delinquency, psychopathy, psychopathology, psychosocial functioning). Implications and directions for future research are discussed.