A pilot study of the effects of expressive writing on psychological and behavioral adjustment in patients enrolled in a Phase II trial of vaccine therapy for metastatic renal cell carcinoma.

Forty-two patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma who were participating in a Phase II clinical trial were randomly assigned to an expressive writing (EW) or neutral writing (NW) group. Patients in the EW group wrote about their cancer, and patients in the NW group wrote about health behaviors. No statistically significant group differences were found in symptoms of distress, perceived stress, or mood disturbance, except for the Vigor subscale of the Profile of Mood States. However, patients in the EW group reported significantly less sleep disturbance, better sleep quality and sleep duration, and less daytime dysfunction compared with patients in the NW group. The results suggest that EW may have sleep-related health benefits in terminally ill cancer patients.     

An Examination of the Validity and Incremental Value of Needed‐at‐Entry Ratings for a Customer Service Job

We examined needed‐at‐entry ratings of knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics (KSAOs) provided by job experts (N= 285) during a job analysis for a customer service manager position. To serve as an external referent, a group of industrial and organisational psychologists (N= 31) rated the perceived trainability of each KSAO. Analyses revealed only limited support for the validity of inferences drawn from job experts' needed‐at‐entry ratings. Consistent with our hypotheses, less validity evidence was found for ratings of the more person‐oriented and abstract “AO” attributes than for the more job‐oriented and concrete “KS” attributes. In general, job experts tended to rate attributes as needed‐at‐entry that psychologists thought could be developed on the job. We also found that failing to collect needed‐at‐entry ratings, and relying on only the more common importance‐to‐the‐job ratings, would have resulted in a rather different set of critical KSAOs identified for assessment during the selection process.     

The equivalence of regression models using difference scores and models using separate scores for each informant: implications for the study of informant discrepancies

Research on informant discrepancies has increasingly utilized difference scores. This article demonstrates the statistical equivalence of regression models using difference scores (raw or standardized) and regression models using separate scores for each informant to show that interpretations should be consistent with both models. First, regression equations were used to demonstrate that difference score models are equivalent to models using separate scores for each informant. Second, a hypothesis-driven empirical example (218 mother-child dyads, mean age = 11.5 years, 49% female participants, 49% White, 47% African American) was used to provide an illustration of the equivalence of the 2 models. Implications of the equivalence of models using difference scores and models using separate scores for each informant are discussed in terms of the growing prevalence of an interpretation in the literature of difference score analyses that is inconsistent with results from equivalent separate informant analyses. Differences in the separate predictive ability of informants should be acknowledged as an alternative interpretation of the difference score regression coefficient.     

An Ecological Understanding of Kinship Foster Care in the United States

We review empirical studies on kinship foster care in the United States. We conceptualize kinship foster care within the context of Urie Bronfenbrenner’s (1994) most recent ecological systems theory. Because there are multiple levels of influences on the developmental outcomes of children placed in kinship foster home, understanding the interrelations between the individual (child) and his or her surrounding environments (e.g., biological families, social-support network) is important. We argue that Bronfenbrenner’s most recent ecological systems theory is an appropriate theoretical framework for policy and practice implications in addressing complex issues surrounding kinship foster care system in the United States. This review integrates the empirical findings collectively on the factors associated with kinship foster care within and between five systems levels of the ecological systems theory: micro- (caregiver-child relationship, attachment, and kinship family environment), meso- (biological families), exo- (social-support network outside the family), macro- (race/ethnicity and policies), and chrono- (welfare reform) systems levels. Theories that are relevant to the ecological factors (e.g., attachment theory) are also discussed. Finally, we draw policy and practice implications from the ecological systems analysis.     

Discrimination of dynamic change and constancy over time by pigeons

The detection of change over time is critical to the serial integration of reality. Three pigeons, in a same/different go/no-go discrimination, were rewarded for pecking at changing stimuli that oscillated back and forth in brightness over a specific range and not at constant, unchanging stimuli randomly selected from the same range. Experiment 1 tested their capacity to detect increasingly slower rates of change against a constant control. The results indicated that pigeons retrospectively integrate past experience over approximately 20–30 s. Experiment 2 tested combinations of brightness ranges and rates to examine the possible roles of perception and memory in this discrimination. Overall, the results indicate that pigeons can detect continuous changes in brightness over different temporal durations, and several lines of evidence suggest that a combination of perception and memory mechanisms are involved. Implications for the pigeons’experience of the recent past are considered.     

Role of amygdala-prefrontal cortex circuitry in regulating the expression of contextual fear memory

The basolateral amygdala (BLA) and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) are inter-connected regions involved in fear memory expression. The reciprocal nature of projections between these areas differs along the rostrocaudal extent of BLA. This study investigated the role of functional interactions between BLA and the prelimbic (PL) subregion of mPFC in mediating contextual fear memory. Freezing served as the measure of conditioned fear. Experiments 1–3 examined the effects of left, right or bilateral infusion of bupivacaine into anterior BLA (aBLA), posterior BLA (pBLA) or PL on fear memory expression. Reversible inactivation of left, right or bilateral aBLA impaired fear memory expression. Bilateral inactivation of pBLA or PL also disrupted the expression of fear memory, although left or right inactivation alone had no significant effects in either region. Experiment 4 examined the effects of functionally disconnecting pBLA and PL on contextual fear memory by infusing bupivacaine unilaterally into pBLA and PL in the ipsilateral or contralateral hemisphere. Fear memory expression was impaired by asymmetric inactivation of pBLA and PL; however, a similar effect was also observed with symmetric inactivation of these regions. Bupivacaine infusion did not affect behavior in the open field, likely ruling out non-specific effects of inactivation on innate fear and locomotor activity. These results demonstrate different roles for rostral and caudal BLA in mediating the expression of contextual fear memory. They also raise the possibility that pBLA–PL circuitry is involved in subserving fear memory expression via complex processing mechanisms, although further research is needed to confirm this preliminary finding.     

Pseudo-appeals to conscience

Conclusion Pseudo-appeals to conscience stress that the dictates of conscience are always either morally obligatory or at least not morally wrong. These appeals are untenable. They result in an indefensible moral relativism. They should be abandoned.Thanks are due to the National Endowment for the Humanities for financial support; my conclusions do not necessarily represent the view of the Endowment. For incisive criticisms of early drafts I am indebted to Richard M. Hare, Geoffrey Marshall, Tibor Machan, and Conrad Brunk. For stimulating discussions on these topics my thanks go to all of the above and to Brenda Cohen, Ruth Marcus, William Earle, Basil Mitchell, Bernard Dauenhauer, and Charles Daniels. Most of all, however, my thanks go to Harry Henig for invaluable inspiration in this area.