Chronic stress leaves novelty-seeking behavior intact while impairing spatial recognition memory in the Y-maze

This experiment examined whether chronic stress disrupts novelty-seeking behavior under conditions that impair spatial memory. Rats were restrained for 6 h per day for 21 days, then tested in either a traditional spatial recognition Y-maze that requires extra-maze spatial cues to navigate or a version with salient intra-maze cues in addition to the extra-maze spatial cues. As previously shown, chronic restraint stress impaired performance on the spatial version of the Y-maze. However, chronically stressed rats performed well in the intra-maze cue version. The results indicate that the deficits in Y-maze performance following chronic stress are not attributed to neophobia, but likely reflect neurochemical and/or neurobiological changes underlying spatial memory ability.     

When worlds collide: The romantic relationship experiences of bisexual-identifying Asian American men

Relationships, their processes, and outcomes are shaped by sociocultural norms and practices. The specialty of counseling psychology emphasizes the importance of a holistic understanding of the social context of lived experience as it affects health and well-being. We used a queer paradigm and an intersectional approach to inquire about the romantic relationship experiences of 15 bisexual-identifying Asian American men (BIAAM) who were at least 23 years old. In-depth interviews were transcribed and analyzed using a constructivist grounded theory approach. A recursive process of coding resulted in findings that focused on the influence of gender and bisexual stigma on romantic relationship experiences. Relationship experiences were constructed in the context of White hegemonic masculinity norms requiring the performance of dominance and emotional restriction. Experiences of bisexual stigma included fears of rejection from gay and Asian communities that shaped the choice of partners and disclosure and concealment decisions. BIAAM create and maintain their romantic relationships in a social context that challenges them to straddle socially constructed binaries and hierarchies for performing gender, sexuality, and race. We discuss the implications of the findings for culturally competent and effective intervention.     

Thanking in the times of the plague: The role of holistic thinking in meaning-making and gratitude

Two studies examined the role of holistic thinking in meaning-making and gratitude during the COVID-19 pandemic. Correlational and mediational evidence showed that participants with high holistic thinking tended to construct more meaning from the pandemic and feel grateful, compared to participants with low holistic thinking (Study 1). Experimental manipulation of holistic thinking elicited behavioral choice for books on life meaning, which predicted gratitude (Study 2). These results cannot be explained by individual differences in the perception of threat (Study 1) or distress (Studies 1–2) associated with the pandemic. They cannot be explained by demographic factors such as age or gender, or cultural constructs such as ethnicity, educational level, or religiosity (Studies 1–2). These findings push understanding forward. They strengthen interdisciplinary links, fusing positive psychology with the social cognition of thinking styles. We discuss promising directions for future research with cross-cultural implications.     

Primary and Secondary Control Over Age-Related Changes in Physical Appearance

Beliefs about appearance-related changes due to aging were used to test the effects of perceived control and secondary control (acceptance) in a sample of 412 young, early-middle-age, and late-middle-age college-educated adults. Mean difference in aging-related appearance control and hypotheses regarding the adaptiveness of primary and secondary control were examined. Primary control over aging-related appearance was lower in older adults and secondary control was higher. In addition, the results indicated support for the Primacy/Back-Up Model that primary perceived control is important at all levels of actual control. Those with stronger beliefs in their primary control were less distressed. Secondary control served a back-up function in that it was related to less distress only for those who had medium or lower beliefs in primary control. The implications of these findings, that primary control may be advantageous even in low-control circumstances, are discussed.     

Naming and categorical knowledge in Alzheimer''s disease: The process of semantic memory deterioration

Semantic memory deterioration in Alzheimer's disease (AD) has been theorized to proceed from a loss of object attribute knowledge to a loss of category knowledge. The theory is based on the belief that naming is a computational process requiring object attribute knowledge. It is strengthened by reports that AD patients misname by giving category information and perform poorer on tests of attribute than category knowledge. The purpose of this study was to test the theory's validity by administering naming and category knowledge tasks to AD and normal elderly control subjects. Results revealed a theoretically unexpected outcome, that is, naming became easier relative to the recall and recognition of category information.     

Reward dominance and passive avoidance learning in adolescent psychopaths

This study tests predictions that adolescent psychopaths are hyperresponsive to rewards (Quay, 1988) and deficient in passive avoidance learning (Newman & Kosson, 1986). Forty male adolescent juvenile offenders were divided into psychopaths and nonpsychopaths using cluster analysis. Subjects were administered a passive avoidance learning task which required learning when to respond to cards associated with either reward or punishment. Results showed a greater responsivity to reward in psychopaths, with no group differences in passive avoidance errors. Results lend support to the view that psychopaths tend to focus on the prospect of reward under conditions of mixed incentives and, when sufficiently motivated, are capable of improved performance. Together with findings of recent psychophysiological studies, these results suggest that adolescent psychopaths may have latent abilities which could have treatment implications.The authors are greatly indebted to the boys and staff of the testing institution for their kind cooperation in this study. Thanks are also due to Dr. Rand Wilcox for statistical consultation and Cheryl Eurton and Marni Ayers for assistance in data coding.     

Use of techniques promoting students' self-determination: Effects on students' analytic problem-solving skills

Based on self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985, 1987, 1991), we assessed the effect of controlling strategies and restricted choice options on students' performance on analytic reason problems. Subjects in the controlling-directives condition were told by their teacher that a given strategy was the way students should solve a set of analytical problems. Although subjects in the noncontrolling-directives condition were taught the same strategy, they were encouraged to use any strategy they chose to solve the identical problems. The results indicated, as predicted, that subjects in the controlling-directives condition performed significantly worse than subjects in the noncontrolling-directives condition on a subsequent set of analytic reasoning problems, when tested by an experimenter who was unaware of a subject's condition. Interestingly, subjects in the controlling-directives condition regarded the teacher as qualitatively more competent than noncontrolling-directives subjects, in spite of their poorer performance. Furthermore, feelings about the task, mood differences, or perceptions of performance as a function of condition did not account for these findings. The data are discussed as they relate to the theoretical and practical import of the deleterious use of controlling techniques in a number of contexts, as well as adults' erroneous beliefs about controlling strategies.This study was funded in part from a grant from the Spencer Foundation and an NIMH grant to the first author.     

Sibling attachment: The development of a new infant-based measure (SPPIR)

This paper describes a new infant-based measure for assessing infant attachment to a sibling during a modified strange situation procedure. Research has demonstrated that young siblings often form a special relationship and that they prefer to interact with one another rather than with an unfamiliar peer. Also it has been shown that older siblings can respond appropriately to the distress of an infant. Research on relationships has moved from frequency counts of discrete behaviours towards more global measures of the ways in which behaviour is organized. These have tended to focus upon the older child as caregiver or the influence of the mother-child relationship on child-child interaction during the strange situation. The main findings of previous studies are presented. This paper describes a new method for measuring sibling attachment. Advantages of the new scoring system over previous procedures are that it utilizes ethological attachment theory, it is infant-based, it allows for a variety of infant reactions to reunion with the older sibling, and it focuses on overall patterns of behaviour rather than tallies of frequences.